Stenn Speaker Invokes Comedy, Change and Hope

“If you show up, you have power!”

The Parker community heard this message from the 2025 Stenn Family Civics Speaker Brad Jenkins this past week. Jenkins served four years as President Barack Obama’s associate director in The White House Office of Public Engagement, where he initially handled volunteer coordination and eventually worked on other efforts like the drive to increase participation in the new Affordable Care Act, culminating in the Emmy Award-winning “Between Two Ferns” interview between Zach Galifianakis and President Obama. Currently, he is the CEO and founder of Enfranchisement Productions, which assists organizations in reaching communities using such tactics as branding, design, social strategy, video and event production.

Parker was fortunate to welcome Jenkins to campus where, prior to his nighttime talk, he toured the school with sophomore Avi Grossman and junior Owen Zeller. After experiencing the joy and bustle of the 14-grade institution, Jenkins participated in a Morning Ex Q&A discussion with Grossman and Zeller, followed by questions from the audience. Jenkins ended his day at Parker with a sit-down lunch with MOCHA—Men of Color Heritage Affinity group.

Jenkins began his talks with his “Story of Self,” which he first told at his initial volunteer meeting for President Obama’s campaign. Jenkins, who is half Korean and half Black, related how during his first day at basketball camp as a child, he showed up “thinking I was Tupac”; however, his fellow campers, when calling for a pass, “kept yelling at me ‘Chinese boy, Chinese boy.” He shared this story with his father, who encouraged him to go back to camp and “play your heart out,” assuring him that his fellow campers would start to recognize him as “Brad.” Jenkins described this realization of the power of being authentic at the campaign volunteer meeting, causing those in attendance to recognize his potential and charisma, and they encouraged him to switch from his hedge fund job to a completely different path.

Next, Jenkins urged his listeners to simply get involved. When he was a student, his high school had a class called Government And Law Related Experiences, or GALRE, which required students to show up local government functions, such as meetings of the school board meetings or city council. During these meetings, Jenkins came to understand a truth he held dear: “If you show up, you have power!” He encouraged Parker students to show up and not to worry about imposter syndrome because showing up and fighting against apathy is, sometimes, more than half the battle. According to Jenkins, the most important thing is a willingness to share one’s voice and “not be afraid to jump into the conversation.”

Jenkins then shared how organizing Obama’s famous “Between Two Ferns” interview, despite the pushback from more traditional media minds, led him to understand that “being able to laugh at yourself is a superpower.” For example, he explained that, by poking fun at themselves for the website issues that initially stymied the Affordable Care Act, they were able to drive 7 million new users to sign up. This ability to lean into the humanity and honesty of each of us, and our understanding that nothing can be perfect, was later reaffirmed by his next boss at Funny or Die, Will Ferrell. Jenkins said that both Ferrell and Obama were “authentically themselves” and talked about “the power of courage.” He internalized these lessons, which led to his current work helping companies reach audiences through authentic, and often humorous, storytelling.

Jenkins left the audience answering a question on the current polarity of the country’s politics and what he called “the weaponization of division.” In his mind, “Comedy can be that antidote. The whole point of comedy is to find that commonality. It’s not funny if we don’t all agree on the thing, right? So, to find the commonality is something that I think we can all use right now, in this moment when we’re all trying to tear each other down.”

Jenkins’ messages to the Parker community to get involved, find your voice, never forget the humanity of our fellow humans and try to find the “commonality” between us all seems more important now than ever. We hope the community joins the school in thanking Jenkins for sharing this message.

Click here for photos from this visit.