Reunion

Reunion April 29-May 1, 2022

FROM FRIDAY, APRIL 29, TO SUNDAY, MAY 1, HUNDREDS OF ALUMNAE RETURNED TO CAMPUS TO RECONNECT WITH CLASSMATES, FRIENDS, AND FACULTY

This year’s Reunion Weekend celebrated graduating classes ending in 2 and 7. The festivities began with the Head of School’s Luncheon honoring the Class of 1972, in celebration of their 50th Reunion including the classes of 1947-1971. In the afternoon, alumnae enjoyed self-guided tours of Chanticleer Gardens and an All-Classes Alumnae Cocktail Party. Saturday was a day full of activity that included campus tours, a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Conversation, a State of the School address by Sally Keidel, Reunion Awards, the Annual Alumnae Association business meeting, a luncheon, and tours of Stoneleigh.

There is always a spirited competition for our two giving awards and this year was no exception. The Class of 1972 won both the Loving Cup and the Sophy Dallas Irwin Reunion Award – recognitions given to the Reunion class with the largest dollar total raised and highest percentage of giving participation by Reunion Weekend, respectively. The Class of 1972 had an amazing 69% participation totaling over $70,000. Thank you for your continued generosity, loyalty, and support of Agnes Irwin and a round of applause to all reunioning classes for their fundraising efforts this year. It is this dedication that makes a true difference to students and faculty!

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1. Alumnae from the Class of 2017 kick off Reunion Weekend at the All-Classes Alumnae Cocktail Party 2. Members of the Laurel Society gather for breakfast at AIS on Saturday, April 30 3. Student tour guides show alumnae around campus 4. The Class of 1972, celebrating their 50th Reunion, wins the Loving Cup and the Sophy Dallas Irwin Reunion Giving Awards 5. The Class of 1962 celebrates their 60th Reunion 6. The Class of 1982 at the Reunion Luncheon

Reunion | APRIL 29 – MAY 1, 2022

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1. The Class of 2002 2. The Class of 1997 pose at the home of Josselyn Rimel Delussey ’97 3. The Class of 2012 celebrates 10 years 4. The Class of 2017 gathers at the home of Sydney Cohn ’17 on Saturday night 5. Alumnae from the Class of 1992 reconnect at the Reunion Luncheon 6. The Class of 1987 7. Chiru Murage Weinstein ’12 visits with her former teacher Rita Davis 8. The Class of 1977 9. Alumnae from the Class of 2007 10. Ellen Van Pelt Jordan ’77, Sydney Cruice ’77, Francie Emmons Rogers ’77, C. Kirven Ringe Talone ’76 at the Friday night cocktail party 11. The Class of 1957

APRIL 29 – MAY 1, 2022 | Reunion

Alumnae Awards

Every year, Agnes Irwin recognizes reunioning alumnae who have made exceptional contributions to their communities.

Alie Doolittle ’07 is this year’s recipient of the Heather B. Theirmann ’81 Young Alumna Award, given to an alumna in the 5th, 10th, or 15th year class who has made an outstanding contribution through her community interests or her professional or academic pursuit. She accepted the award remotely. Alie is a Biomedical Engineer certified as an Associate in Project Management and a Professional Scrum Master-I. She matriculated at MIT after graduating from Agnes Irwin. She earned her B.A. in Biological Engineering from Imperial College London where she earned a Master of Science in Biomedical/ Medical Engineering. She is currently earning an Executive MBA at the Quantic School of Business and Technology. Alie’s career has included work as an Associate Scientist at Vir Biotechnology as well as RiboNova. Her work includes exploring the field of regenerative medicine in environments focused on empowering small high performing teams to action and delivering. She is particularly interested in tissue engineering and molecular biology relating to the design of novel technologies and drugs.

Ann Cauffman Snyder ’72

received the Margaretta Anspach Willing Award, given to an alumna who has been outstanding in leadership and civic responsibility or who has made a significant contribution to the arts and sciences. Ann shared, “Agnes Irwin holds a very dear place in my family as my mother, four sisters, three cousins, niece, and my daughter all attended. While so grateful for my education, I also give great appreciation and thanks to the women of the Class of 1972 who made this journey so meaningful.” Ann graduated from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA) in 2003. She has exhibited her work in galleries on the east coast. Ann has done much work with Philadelphia charter schools and co-founded an after school program at Young Scholars Charter School fifteen years ago. Ann and her co-founder Jood Thompson, together with two teachers, created Arete Prep, a program providing academic tutoring and social and cultural enrichment including site visits to museums, hospitals, nature conservancies, construction sites, and businesses. They continued to mentor students as they were accepted to independent schools and colleges. Three Arete alums are also graduates of Agnes Irwin.

Pictured left to right: Ann Cauffman Snyder ’72, Barbara Conrad Cauffman ’40, Barbara Cauffman ’82, Susan Cauffman Butterworth ’76 Ann Laupheimer ’77 received the Alumna Award, presented annually to a graduate who has made a significant contribution of service to the school in a volunteer capacity. Ann had a distinguished career in corporate litigation at Blank Rome after earning her B.A. from Princeton University and a J.D. summa cum laude from University of Pennsylvania Law School. Ann served twelve years on the Board of Trustees, six of those years as Chair. Under her leadership, the school completed the $40 million Dare to Do More Campaign, which enabled the transformation of the campus. The daughter of an alumna and the mother of an alumna, Ann has been called “the consummate ambassador for Agnes Irwin.” Under her Board tenure, the school launched the Center for the Advancement of Girls and created the National Alumnae Advisory Council as a way to engage nonlocal alumnae. With the contribution of the Sonnenfeld Rowing Center, she and her family brought crew training to campus. During the Dare to Do More Campaign, Ann’s motto was “Never Give Up” and she personally solicited many of the major gifts to the school in the campaign that exceeded the school’s previous fundraising campaign tenfold. She is widely known and regarded for her optimism, energy, motivational skill and brilliance.

Jane Newman ’72 is this year’s recipient of the M. Penney Moss Award, presented annually to an individual whose commitment to and efforts in the area of education embody and reflect the passion and spirit which Miss Moss exhibited during her years at Agnes Irwin. After her AIS graduation, Jane earned her B.A. from Yale University summa cum laude. She went on to receive her Master’s as well as her Ph.D. from Princeton University in Comparative Literature with an emphasis in Germanics. She is currently a Professor of Comparative Literature and European Languages and Studies at the University of California, Irvine. In addition to publishing numerous scholarly articles, Jane is currently working on two books – one on the legacy of Erich Auerbach, GermanJewish scholar and critic of literature, and the other is provisionally entitled, After Westphalia: Early Modern Lessons for the Post Modern Age. Previously, she published three books, one of which received Honorable Mention for the Scaglione Prize of the Modern Language Association. Jane was a Guggenheim Fellow, a Humboldt Fellow, and a Senior Fulbright Scholar at the Free University in Berlin. She also held the M. H. Abrams Fellowship at the National Humanities Center. She currently serves as Chair of the Committee for Scholars at Risk.

Edward “Wigs” D. Frank II

ENDOWED FUND FOR TEACHING EXCELLENCE

This May at the retirement celebration for Wigs Frank, Sally Keidel, Head of School, announced the launch of the Edward “Wigs” D. Frank II Endowed Fund for Teaching Excellence. This fund will recognize a long-time faculty member, with a minimum of ten years of teaching service, who has made a transformative impact on The Agnes Irwin School student body, both inside and outside of the classroom. As Wigs Frank illustrated over his thirty-six years of teaching, the recipient’s dedication to the mission of The Agnes Irwin School and its core values will be evident in their teaching, community building, investment in the student body, and drive for excellence.

Attracting and retaining exceptional faculty remains a priority for the School. Mrs. Keidel recalled hearing alumnae talk about their favorite teachers during their years at Agnes Irwin. “They spoke with such vivid memories that elicited genuine emotion — it was an incredible testament to our school community.” Our teachers make an indelible mark on students’ experiences in school and continue to influence their decision-making as professional adults. Our teachers are not only leaders and innovators in the classroom, but their tenure at the school also makes them invaluable colleagues and mentors. Their impact is woven into the fabric of the Agnes Irwin experience.

The school is so grateful to those alumnae and AIS families who have committed support to this fundraising effort. To date, over $200,000 has been raised towards the $250,000 endowment goal, which will allow the school to give a $10,000 award annually to recognize an exceptional teacher. Being able to celebrate our incredible teachers is an honor for the school community and will help build an even stronger faculty.

To learn more about supporting the faculty through the Edward “Wigs” D. Frank II Endowed Fund for Teaching Excellence, please contact Allison Hough ‘01, Associate Director of Development & Director of Campaigns and Major Gifts at ahough@agnesirwin.org or 610.801.1262.

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1. Edward “Wigs” Frank with his wife Susan G. Lea ’76, former Board Chair 2. Courtney H. Leimkuhler ’97, Wigs Frank, Kareema Levetter Gray ’90 3. Cici A. Lozano Torres ’17 and Caroline A. Richardson ’17 4. Emily C. Peters ’03, Laurie Hugill Clark ’03, Abbe L. Wright 03, Madeleine Katz Niemiec ’03, share a huge with Wigs Frank 5. Stephanie Hedges Acerra ’92, Carrie Fanelli Santoro ’92, Wigs Frank, Leslie Y. Park ’92, and Devon Jean Williams ’92 6. Andrew Connally, retired history teacher, catches up with Caroline A. Richardson ’17, Cici A. Lozano Torres ’17, and Sydney J. Cohn ’17 7. Mica J. Wilson ’02 and Wigs Frank

Retirees

ANDREW CONNALLY

MIDDLE AND UPPER SCHOOL HISTORY TEACHER DATES OF SERVICE: 1988-2021

DR. TOM WEISSERT

UPPER SCHOOL MATH TEACHER AND DIRECTOR OF TECHNOLOGY | DATES OF SERVICE: 1996-2022

“Andrew Connally is an outstanding teacher,” Emily Peters ’03 wrote, “full of heart, humor and impeccable standards/expectations all in one. I am a better writer because of him.”

Andrew was also a faculty advisor to Model UN, was instrumental in creating and teaching the African American History course, and led two Civil Rights Movement SSP trips, as well as trips to China and Australia.

Andrew had the utmost respect for his colleagues and students as learners and friends, and in turn, he earned the utmost respect. Wigs Frank, retired Chair of the History Department shared, “Andrew has been an intellectual titan of the AIS faculty. A magnificent teacher who instills in his students a love of History, Andrew expects academic excellence and inspires his students to rise to the challenge. They greatly admire his encyclopedic knowledge of historical fact, his mesmerizing story-telling ability, his insistence on the importance of learning geography, and his fabulous sense of humor. Andrew has always been a most supportive colleague to his fellow teachers who greatly appreciate him. I feel most fortunate to have been able to work with Andrew for over thirty years.”

Spanish teacher, José Sevillano once said: “Our students quote lines from his classes. They sit, mesmerized, and listen to the most intricate and personal details of the lives of emperors and soldiers, queens and maids, kings and peasants, popes and priests. He manages to transport students to the period in question and to live and breathe history. For the rest of us mortals, we must content ourselves – if he sits by our side in the faculty workroom, or at lunch – with words of wisdom that come straight down to us from the voices of Charlemagne, Constantine the Great or Winston Churchill.”

Nolan Isadora Greenwald ’14 calls Mr. Connally one of those rare transformational teachers. “He came to class with a special charisma that made me excited to learn more about, as he would always call it, the epic soap opera that is history. I looked forward to his carefully crafted lectures during which he would reveal the next chapter of whatever historical period we were studying. Taking Mr. Connally’s classes gave me the confidence to enroll in some of the most difficult European History classes early on in college because I felt so prepared and inspired after taking AP European History my senior year at AIS. His passion for history and for life is contagious—he inspired within me not only a love of history but a love of learning that has stayed with me.“

AP Calculus teacher Dr. Tom Weissert came to Agnes Irwin in 1996. His daughter Lizzy, Class of 2009, would join him at AIS one year later. As the original web developer of agnesirwin.org, Tom had an impact on every division at AIS. He started the robotics program in the fall of 2000, and the following spring, an Agnes Irwin robotics team competed for the first time. In 2012, Tom became the Director of Technology. In 2018, he took on his tech role full time and served as advisor in the robotics program. Tom challenged his students to be critical thinkers and problem solvers. Meredith Pollie ’13 says. “When I was a senior, I took BC Calculus. Dr. Weissert encouraged us to ask questions, to talk through calculations out loud in order to figure out the solution.” She continued, “Dr. Weissert recognized my joy in quantitative problem-solving and suggested I study engineering. Having a teacher recommend that I seriously pursue math and science really propelled me to believe in myself.” Alumna Fifi Yeung ’12 shared, “Being part of the robotics team was the highlight of my AIS experience and extremely formative for my career. I loved brainstorming, designing, and building the robot, and then the amazing energy at the competition. Finding a path in engineering can be intimidating. If I had “A magnificent teacher who instills in his students a not had this experience in high school, I doubt I would have even attempted a career in robotics. But several times over I have proven that I do belong, many thanks to the foundation [Dr. love of History, Weissert] provided. I spent three years working on

Andrew expects the Robin project at Amazon (my team of six academic excellence owned all the software which controls the robot and inspires his and how it should move), and I currently work at students to rise to Boston Dynamics on the Stretch project. Thank the challenge.” you for your teaching and mentorship. I’m so grateful I had the opportunity to participate in robotics in high school.” Olivia Heldring ’22 took robotics for years, and shares, “DW is one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. I know he worked with advanced math and robotics for many years but his ability to imagine unique robotic designs has really amazed me and inspired me to think more critically about all the moving parts in my own life. He is a friendly, wonderful mentor and a crucial piece in the robotics lab. I feel so lucky to be a part of DW’s last senior class, and I can’t wait to see how his influence impacts my course of study in the years to come.”