CavConversations Podcast Features Meaningful Conversations with Impactful Alums
Sometimes, as Atlas Lad ’26 realized, a lesson doesn’t spring from a dry-erase board or a textbook. It comes in the form of stories, and experiences, from those who came before.
This occurred to Lad when he was listening to Catalyze, a podcast that Benny Klein ’20 co-hosts on behalf of the Morehead-Cain merit scholarship program at UNC-Chapel Hill. The series features in-depth conversations with action-oriented alumni. Lad had an epiphany, and a vision, for Durham Academy. “Imagine if we could do this at DA,” Lad said, “where not only students will be able to connect with alumni, but they’ll also be able to learn key life lessons and things that they wouldn’t have otherwise known while transitioning from high school to college and beyond.” He doesn’t have to imagine it anymore: He created it.
Lad’s CavConversations features interviews with DA alumni from a panoply of professions and industries. The full-length video episodes — which were released periodically over the spring — produced a distinct motif. “A main theme from all of the alumni was to do everything you can at DA,” Lad said.
Few alums understand the need for variety in experiences and opportunities more than Cha’Mia Rothwell ’16, Lad’s inaugural guest on CavConversations. The former DA athletics star scored more than 1,000 points for the girls basketball team and won five individual state titles with the track and field team. The 2022 DA Athletic Hall of Fame inductee would go on to set four school records and one Ivy League record as a sprinter and hurdler at Dartmouth College before spending her graduate year of eligibility at Duke University, which eventually landed her a spot at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials for the Tokyo Olympics. Rothwell returned to DA in the spring of 2023 as an assistant coach with the track and field team, and she serves as an assistant coach in sprints and hurdles for the track team at N.C. Central University.
Check out Rothwell and Lad’s wide-ranging conversation below, and explore the entire CavConversations library — including episodes with Ward Horton ’94, Khari Williams ’14 and Dr. Andrew Moon ’02 — at url.da.org/cavconversations.
Audio-only versions of all episodes are also available on Spotify at url.da.org/spotify.