Brandon Wolf relayed his own story and urged for students to humanize victims past the numbers.
Brandon Wolf crouched down in the bathroom of the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando as a gunman opened fire, killing 49 people including Wolf’s best friends Drew Leinonen and Juan Guerrero. Wolf, a nationally recognized gun violence and LGBTQIA+ civil rights advocate, author of “A Place for Us,” and National Press Secretary for the Human Rights Campaign, presented a talk on gun violence and youth activism in Kemper Auditorium on January 12.
As a part of a collaborative effort by the Dean of Studies Office, the Office of Community and Multicultural Development (CaMD), and the Oliver Wendell Holmes Library (OWHL), Wolf’s talk and advocacy come from his desire to honor the victims’ legacies with action. Wolf began his talk by narrating his story up until the day his life was changed forever, outlining the moments leading up to the point where his life seemed to fall apart.
“I think what I’m trying to describe to you is the word ‘normal.’ I felt normal. I was experiencing the kind of normal that people like us never got to experience. It was a little jarring. It was almost like I had stolen this life from somebody else, and I just had to make sure nobody discovered it. Everything about life was normal,” said Wolf.
Kai Wang ’27, a student attendee of the event, elaborated on his thoughts about Wolf’s powerful introduction, which connected the audience to his personal experiences. Wang described how the introduction served a vital role in understanding victims as individuals with personal connections, not just as “one of the casualties” in a tragic event.
“The main moment that interested me is when he didn’t just kick start his speech with a bunch of statistics, [but instead] chose to instead talk about his friends. When you jump straight into what’s [the statistics, such as], I lost my friend where 36 people were killed. That sort of just makes them numbers, but when you really show exactly how much they meant to you, that makes them actual people. I thought his idea of doing more justice to his friends by explaining exactly how much they meant to him was really something interesting and special about the speech,” said Wang.
One of Wolf’s major points in his speech was the prevalence of gun violence in media and around the world as a factor in desensitizing the weight of the tragedies that occur every day. Student attendee Ashiq Kibria ’26 pointed to his main takeaway being the importance of looking beyond the statistics and recognizing the tragedy of gun violence.
“My main takeaway from this Brandon Wolf talk was how important humanizing gun violence is because he mentioned how often there’s statistics about it. In the news, you hear about gun violence being the number one shooting cause of young teens. I’m thinking about the quote [of] Stalin saying ‘A couple people is a tragedy, but millions is a statistic.’ It makes me realize how often we are [desensitized] to [gun violence] as it’s such an often thing that happens,” said Kibria.
Wolf brought his talk to an end with an affirmation to those sitting in the audience and a call to action. He expressed his hope for the younger generation to imagine and shape a better future while fighting for change.
“The world doesn’t have to look the same when you become the ones in the halls of power. It doesn’t have to look the same tomorrow that it looks today. I think a lot about what gives me hope and inspires me more in this moment, and the answer is each and every one of you. You possess what I think is the greatest tool, the greatest aspect to our fight for a better future, and that is your ability to imagine something better,” said Wolf.
Michael Kawooya ’26, a student who helped facilitate the event, emphasized the importance of addressing gun violence as a critical issue. Kawooya expressed his admiration for Wolf’s work in activism and highlighted the insight he gained from his talk.
“I’ve been really concerned about just what if I attend to go to a mall someday and I don’t get to leave or go to the movies and that’s the last thing I ever see, and I think that fear turned into activism. Getting to see that in action, in someone who is really successful, someone who’s really inspiring, it just helped connect so much,” said Kawooya.
Derek Curtis, Programming and Digital Content Producer and one of the faculty advisors of the event, described how the contents of Wolf’s talk and the call to action were pertinent to Andover. Curtis emphasized that the students at Andover have the potential to initiate change.
“Brandon [Wolf] speaking to young people builds their agency and resiliency. This is another place where you keep building up an idea of what the country could be and what you could achieve together. There are a lot of future leaders [at Andover]. If you change these hearts and minds you have a better chance of making these things happen at the highest possible levels. That speaks directly to Andover’s privilege, power, and prestige. It calls us back together,” said Curtis.
