The magazine of
ASHLEY HALL
PERSPECTIVES Winter 2011
Wo r l d l y Compassionate Purposeful
BOARD OF TRUSTEES ASHLEY HALL FOUNDATION 2010-2011 President – Malcolm M. Rhodes Vice President – Philip L. Horn, Jr. Secretary – Elizabeth Barone Luzuriaga ’80 Treasurer – Hugh C. Lane, Jr. MEMBERS-AT-LARGE Mary Gordon Baker ‘77 Miss Ray Moore Coker ‘59 Sheppard H. C. Davis Jr. Ann W. Dibble ‘70 Terry Becker Fisher Brett Hildebrand Elizabeth Rivers Lewine ’54 Elizabeth P. Lindh ‘67 Janet Pearlstine Lipov W. Scott Parker Karen Jenkins Phillips ‘79 Anne Tamsberg Pope Kaycee C. Poston Joseph G. Reves Roy Richards Jr. Harriet Popham McDougal Rigney ‘56 Nella Barkley Schools ’81 TRUSTEES EMERITI Mary Agnes Burnham Hood Martha Rivers Ingram ‘53 Patricia T. Kirkland Hugh C. Lane, Jr. J. Conrad Zimmerman, Jr. HEAD OF SCHOOL Jill Swisher Muti
172 Rutledge Avenue
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Charleston, SC 29403-5821
www. ashleyhall.org
Perspectives
Table of Contents 4
Headlines Jill Muti
6
Betsy Cribb ’11 Worldly
9
Pam Jenkins ’78 A Fulbright to India
11
Sallie Vee Zervos School Nurse
12
Alex Howard ’11 Compassionate
14
Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure
The magazine of Ashley Hall
The Health Issue EDITOR Catherine Newman GRAPHIC DESIGN Julie Frye Design, LLC CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Elizabeth Foster ADMINISTRATIVE TEAM ASSISTANT HEAD OF SCHOOL FOR ACADEMIC AFFAIRS Dr. Nick Bozanic ASSISTANT HEAD OF SCHOOL/ DIRECTOR OF INSTITUTIONAL ADVANCEMENT Cindy Hay Johnson ASSISTANT TO THE HEAD OF SCHOOL Elizabeth Gordon EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT TO THE HEAD OF SCHOOL, Diane Chancey
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3 Life Stages Women’s Health
22
A is for Active H is for Health Healthy Bodies= Healthy Minds
32
Alumnae Information and Class Notes
INTERIM CHIEF FINANCE OFFICER Audrey Tamekazu DIRECTOR, EARLY EDUCATION, Dana Van Hook DIRECTOR, LOWER SCHOOL (GRADES K-4) Amy Woodson DIRECTOR, INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL (GRADES 5-6) Lois Ruggiero DIRECTOR, UPPER SCHOOL (GRADES 7-12) Mary Schweers DIRECTOR OF ADMISSIONS Carolyn Newton DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS Frances Slay
30 Sally Sheppard ’11 Purposeful 32
10 Thing You Can Do Right Now to Lead a Healthier Life
DIRECTOR OF FACILITIES Fred Reinhard DIRECTOR OF FINE ARTS Judith Yarbrough DIRECTOR OF LIBRARY Elayne Reiner DIRECTOR OF TECHNOLOGY John Yarbrough ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF INSTITUTIONAL ADVANCEMENT / DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETING Catherine Newman
A MESSAGE FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL Upon its creation in 1948, the World Health Organization defined health as “A state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” For women, this idea of health may seem unachievable today. The roles women play in this global society and the expectations that accompany those roles have drastically changed, placing complicated additional pressures upon our “whole health.” As innate caregivers we often neglect our own health and wellness, making time for everyone we love at the expense of ourselves. Combine this with the pressures of a career, and a generation of unhealthy women could be born. I feel qualified to speak to this, for I have experienced it myself. Early in my tenure as Ashley Hall’s sixth Head of School there was a time when I allowed my family, my career, and the pressures of a hectic and stressful time to come before making time for my health. I was moving my family, resettling a sophomore in high school, running an international arts and humanties program, and beginning my new job as Head of School. Those first years in Charleston were the most concentrated and challenging times that I had faced and maintaining a healthy balance in my life soon became an afterthought; however, your health can only take a back seat for so long. The interviews with Dr. White and Dr. Schuh speak directly to this point. Their insights reinforce the importance of taking care of yourself to best serve others. Reality hit that
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While they are with us, we can help our students build healthy habits that will
URPOSEFUL
I am human, I am one woman, and the most important commitment I can make to my family and to Ashley Hall is to stay healthy! My story is commonplace. There are millions of women facing the same struggles, and many of them are Ashley Hall women. While they are with us, we can help our students build healthy habits that will sustain them throughout their lives. Physical Education everyday for the EEC and Lower School students, the PAWS program for our 7th-12th Grade students, award winning athletic teams, a wellness program that begins in the EEC, green spaces that promote natural activity, healthy eating practices through home grown foods, an array of fruit and vegetable choices each day, and, with the much anticipated opening of our dining commons in January, a return to family style dining, and the introduction of modeled portions, local agriculture, sustainability, and the concept of slow food to all our students. All these programs combine together to build healthy minds, bodies and souls and give the girls the knowledge, skills, and habits to continue a life of health. But what about our alumnae, the women who are currently facing situations that could well jeopardize their health? Who is helping them? This first issue of a radically redesigned Perspectives magazine focuses on women’s health. Between these covers you will find information on women’s health at every stage in our lives and stories on alumnae, current students and faculty who are making a difference in the lives of women around the world. There is also information on Ashley Hall’s food and dining philosophy, wellness programming, and physical education programs. I hope you enjoy this new Perspectives and will make some time to slow down and read through it, for as Virgil shared with us more than two thousand years ago: “The greatest wealth is health.”
sustain them throughout their lives.
Jill Muti Head of School
Confident | Responsible | Independent
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O R L D LY
BETSY CRIBB ‘11 I n the summer of 2010 Betsy Cribb ‘11 attended the National Coalition of Girls Schools Forum on Service and Leadership. There she met the directors of Girl Up, a new campaign by the United Nations Foundation that connects girls in developing countries with girls from the United Sates and gives American girls the opportunity to channel their energy and compassion to raise awareness and funds for programs that help some of the world’s hardest-to-reach adolescent girls. Discussion turned to career plans for the attendees and Betsy shared her desire to become a journalist. Two months later she received a call from the Director of Girl Up, asking her to join the UN Foundation team as their teen reporter in New York at the Clinton Global Initiative Conference. The conference is made up of an international group of high-ranking officials, CEOs, nonprofit founders, and various celebrities who are dedicated to solving the world’s biggest problems. As the Girl Up representative, Betsy personally discussed challenges faced by girls around the world with a wide variety of change makers including: Ted Turner, the UN Foundation’s founder and Chairman; Dr. Helene Gayle, President and CEO of CARE; Judy McGrath, Chairman and CEO of MTV Networks; Gabriele Zedlmayer, VP of the Office of Global Citizenship and Global Social Innovation at HP; Maria Eitel, CEO of Nike Foundation; Melanne Verveer, U.S. Ambassadorat-Large of Global Women’s Issues; Geraldine Sealy, Articles Editor for Glamour magazine; singer Crystal Bowersox; Dr. Lisa Masterson of The Doctors; Tina Tchen, Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, and many others. Betsy documented her experience through a blog on the Girl Up website and recorded her interviews with audio and video. At the conclusion of her experience Cribb stated, “An experience like mine could really only take place in the developed world, in a country like the United States. And that’s what I want to leave you with: we are so, so blessed to live in a country where women and girls have value, where women and
ES VOdS d]WQSa bVOb eWZZ PS VSO`R ES VOdS bVS ^]eS` b] QVO\US bVS e]`ZR girls are celebrated, supported and encouraged. We, as American girls, are the world’s golden girls. We have equal rights, boundless opportunities, and bright futures. We have fathers and brothers that realize our unlimited potential; we have uncles and guy friends that value us. We have the ability to advocate for our friends in developing countries. We have voices that will be heard. We have the power to change the world. We have the power to Girl Up.� Following the conference Betsy was interviewed by Tabby Biddle for The Huffington Post and wrote a piece for Variety Magazine on the Power of Youth program and Victoria Justice, who is the Girl Up representative. Since returning to Charleston, Betsy has become a dedicated Girl Up ambassador, and her experience changed her Senior Project and ignited her passion for journalism. She is currently taking the Girl Up program to local middle schools to garner support for the initiative. “In developing countries research has shown that 12 years is the pivotal age that will determine a girl’s life path. If we can reach girls by 12, get them in school, and keep them from becoming just a statistic, then we can help
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Worldly | Compassionate | Purposeful
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them live a better life. That is why I want to take this program specifically to middle school girls. I want them to understand that the lives they lead are not the norm and to really realize how lucky they are. If they had been born in, say, Ethiopia or Liberia (two of the countries in which Girl Up is active), they would never have had any identifying papers, such as birth certificates or national ID cards, or any type of documentation that would allow them to find employment. One in seven of them would have been married at 14, pregnant at 15 and less than half of them would have ever gone to school.” She has already visited with Mason Prep and has taken the experience and honed her presentation. She hopes to hold small roundtable discussions with middle school girls at Porter Gaud and Charleston Day and with the Girl Scouts of America. She is also spearheading a “Day in the Life” event for Ashley Hall 7th and 8th Grade students during which they spend part of their day as they would if they had been born in a developing country: carrying water, washing clothes, or simply sitting alone and ostracized because she is menstruating and cannot be around others. But Betsy’s Senior Project is about more than just educating adolescent girls on the realities of their world. It is also about making a difference by raising money to support the Girl Up program. On April 29, the Red Choir, of which Betsy is the Co-President, is holding a concert called “Pop with a Purpose.” They will perform a program of young and upbeat music hoping to attract a wide audience to the performance. Tickets will be sold and donations taken at the door. Of course all the money raised will go to support Girl Up and a girl on the other side of the world. Betsy is changing the world for the better for girls she has never met and likely never will. In fact, her work with Girl Up is changing the world for all of its inhabitants, as these girls whose lives she will touch are the future of the planet.
Today, more than 600 million girls live in the developing world.
The Girl Effect: •
• • • •
•
•
Out of the world’s 130 million out-of-school youth, 70 percent are girls. One girl in seven in developing countries marries before age 15 1/4 to 1/2 of girls in developing countries become mothers before age 18 14 million girls aged 15 to 19 give birth in developing countries each year. Compared with women ages 20 to 24, girls ages 10 to 14 are five times more likely to die from childbirth, and girls 15 to 19 are up to twice as likely, worldwide. 75 percent of 15 to 24 year olds living with HIV in Africa are female
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•
When a girl in the developing world receives seven or more years of education, she marries four years later and has 2.2 fewer children. An extra year of primary school boosts girls’ eventual wages by 10 to 20 percent. An extra year of secondary school: 15 to 25 percent. • Research in developing countries has shown a consistent relationship between better infant and child health and higher levels of schooling among mothers. • When women and girls earn income, they reinvest 90 percent of it into their families, as compared to only 30 to 40 percent for a man. * Information from The Girl Effect Fact Sheet www.thegirleffect.org/question
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URPOSEFUL
PAM JENKINS ‘78 A determination to share with her children a completely different culture led Dr. Pamela Jenkins ’78 to a city in India that changed her life, her view of international healthcare, and her perspectives on the health of the global population. Earning a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship in Medical Sciences in 2008 was how she did it.
Pam and her husband, David Kotz, a Professor of Computer Science and Associate Dean at Dartmouth College, and fellow Fulbright recipient, began their journey with a decision to take their family abroad. They wanted to work and live for a year immersed in a vastly different culture. India was their choice destination and Bangalore, India’s third most populous city and home to many of the most well-recognized colleges and research institutions in India, was a natural fit. With the assistance of Pam’s colleague, Gautham Suresh, a native of Bangalore, Pam connected with faculty at St John’s Medical College who agreed to host her. Pam and her Indian host, Dr. Swarna Rekha, considered Pam’s areas of expertise and which would be most beneficial for the Indian medical community. Their conversation turned to Pam’s work with her colleague, Dr. Paul Batalden, on Quality Improvement (QI) in health care. The goal of Quality Improvement at its core is to do more, and do it better, with existing resources. Clearly an apt
topic for a developing country, and as an added bonus QI appealed to all hospital departments. Thus, Pam’s Fulbright supported a Lectureship on Quality Improvement. “I had the great good fortune of having Dr. Paul Batalden as a mentor early on. He is really the founder of the health care application of QI, and teaches here at Dartmouth. As I worked on the syllabus prior to leaving for Bangalore, he gave me his lecture slides and notes and guided me by email when I was unsure of an answer,” Pam tells us. Once she and her family were settled in Bangalore, her lectureship began. She taught a weekly class over 4 months at St. John’s Medical College and her students were physicians and nurses from many units of the hospital. Each chose to improve some aspect of the work done in their assigned units, with the goals of cementing an understanding of the concepts and immediately enhancing care. Pam states that, “About half of the class made good progress on their projects, and a few finished in the
time frame. Those who completed their project expressed a feeling common among QI practitioners – empowerment! The feeling that they can change anything! For the rest of the students, I remain hopeful. One can never tell when a seed planted will grow.” During her time in Bangalore, Pam learned a great deal from her students and colleagues about Indian health care and its similarities to and differences from the United States’ system. She was allowed to observe care in the Neonatal and Pediatric Intensive Care Units and says, “Some aspects of health care and decision-making were culturally difficult for me, but reflected an Indian understanding of life and fate. It helped me see how decision-making in our US system is also culturally based. In India, patients and families expect to be told what to do or what will be done, much like the last century in US healthcare. It’s a strongly hierarchical system where the doctor is in charge. Most Indians have no insurance. An Indian family may spend their last dollar, go into debt, and
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“PATIENTS NEED TO KNOW WHAT’S IMPORTANT TO THEM, AND THEY NEED TO UNDERSTAND RISKS AND TRADE-OFFS. BEING AN INFORMED PATIENT IN THE US HEALTHCARE SYSTEM IS BECOMING MORE AND MORE CHALLENGING, BUT THE ABILITY TO OWN OUR HEALTH DECISIONS MAKES IT A NECESSITY.”
have no food to eat, in order to pay for treatment for a sick family member. Physicians may counsel mothers of very premature babies to allow the baby to die, because the expense and consequences for the rest of the family are too high. This steely pragmatism fits with an Indian acceptance of fate. Wealthier Indians can, however, expect the same level of care that a US hospital delivers.” Pam also shared her perspectives on inefficiencies within the US and International health care systems. “Some inefficiencies result from the fact that we don’t apply what science already knows. Providers used to think more was always better, but we realize now that in some situations more testing and treatment can actually do harm. Screening tests like the annual breast exam can identify problems, but often identify what eventually turns out to be nothing. Providers are learning to be careful with screening tests, because false positive breast cancer screens are really waste; wasting time, money, worry, and further unneeded testing and treatment. Currently, it is commonly believed that thirty to fifty percent of health care in the US system is waste. It provides no benefit to patients. Waste can
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be found almost anywhere. My experiences in India have really stimulated my interest in global health and I think a similar degree of waste may be found in international health care aid. If we could direct aid efforts better, we should be able to have a much more dramatic impact on global health.” And women are helping to change this equation, Pam says. “As women become more vocal nationally, and we realize that global population health and economic advancement depends on women, diseases that affect women are receiving more attention, both here and abroad. Research on breast cancer, heart disease in women, depression, and osteoporosis have produced real advances in the last twenty years, reflecting a growing understanding of American women’s needs. On the global scale, The Millennium Development Goal to reduce maternal mortality by 75% by 2015 is an example of women’s international influence. That goal was extremely controversial for the international community, and one of the last goals formally adopted by the UN. “An important growing tide in US healthcare is patient centered care: patients need to share in decision-making about their health. That means they need to be well-informed about the issues; in fact, they may need to know much more than they want to know. A vast amount of information, of variable reliability, is at their fingertips, making decisions more confusing. In addition, patients need to know what’s important to them, and they need to understand risks and tradeoffs. Being an informed patient in the US healthcare system is becoming more and more challenging, but the ability to own our health decisions makes it a necessity.” Dr. Pamela Jenkins ’78 received her undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering at Duke University after twelve years at Ashley Hall. She then went to medical school at UNC-Chapel Hill and did her Pediatrics residency at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center from 1992-1995. She spent several years in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit as she worked toward her PhD in Outcomes Research. She received her PhD in 1999 and for ten years has been a Pediatric Hospitalist at Dartmouth–Hitchcock Children’s Hospital. This entire experience has strengthened Pam’s interest in international health, and she is now working on research topics to evaluate and improve the delivery of international healthcare aid.
I
NTELLIGENT
Meet Sallie Vee Zervos ASHLEY HALL SCHOOL NURSE, LOYALTY FUND CHAMPION AND DRAGONBOAT GURU! In 2004, Sallie Vee Zervos joined the Ashley Hall team as School Nurse, a role she was well suited for. Sallie’s career in nursing began in 1987 when she graduated from MUSC with an R.N. and B.S.N. She then worked for Roper Hospital in Labor and Delivery, at MUSC’s Women’s Clinic, and most recently before Ashley Hall at Pepperhill Elementary. The role of school nurse has evolved dramatically in the last decades and the image of the school nurse in a starched white apron, taking temperatures and calling parents, is a thing of the past. Today school nurses participate fully in monitoring, assessing, and improving the overall health and wellness of the student body and all personnel. Sallie Vee has embraced this role with gusto. She and English teacher Chris Hughes designed, planned, built and planted the herb garden found in the Ingram Art Center entryway. The herbs, which are both culinary and medicinal, have been used in a wide variety of ways by the student body, both in science and humanities classes. They are also harvested by the kitchen staff and used for lunchtime recipes. Currently the garden has been planted by the EEC students hoping to grow butternut squash from seeds they germinated in the classroom. Sallie Vee has also been the driving force behind a school-wide effort to get faculty, staff, and students out and active together. In 2009 and 2010 she organized Ashley Hall’s winning Dragonboat teams, who paddled their way to victory while raising awareness and support for cancer survivors.
While treating the occasional bumps and bruises and assessing the sniffles or sore throats that find their way to her door, Sallie Vee has also implemented and manages CPR certification for every school employee, run a weight management program for faculty and staff, acquired and administered free flu shots for all personnel, chaired the 2010-2011 Faculty and Staff drive for the Loyalty Fund, and made time to work closely with teachers in their classrooms to discuss and teach lessons on health. When asked what she would share with students as her secret to a healthy life Sallie Vee said, “Remain active throughout your life, especially as you age! Remember to maintain a healthy diet including fresh fruits and vegetables. And most important, never be afraid to try something new when it comes to exercise, physical fitness, or food!”
Faculty dragonboat team on race day. Confident | Compassionate | Intelligent
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I
n 2008, Ashley Hall senior Alex Howard had a friend who was diagnosed with breast cancer. As her friend suffered through her chemotherapy treatments, Alex was saddened by the limited options for women who lose their hair
as they battle this awful disease. Determined to change this, she signed up for a millinery course with Art Teacher Meyriel Edge, during Ashley Hall’s Winterim that same year. The first hat she designed and crafted during this course she gave to her friend. Little did she know that this experience would shape her last years at Ashley Hall, her career path and college selection, and her passion for making a difference.
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O M PA S S I O N AT E
Shortly after her millinery experience, Alex volunteered for a brief time with a group of local women who call themselves “The Hat Ladies.� This group meets monthly and will on occasion decorate hats for the children who are in MUSC’s Children’s Hospital. As Alex glued glitter and felt pompoms onto baseball hats with the group, it struck her that young women just like her would receive the hats. Young women who, just because they had lost their hair, had not lost their sense of style. A more comfortable and fashionable hat would surely be appreciated by the young women as the girls in the children’s hospital are of all ages, up to 18 years. On her next visit to the hospital Alex brought one of her handcrafted hats and left it in an anonymous gift bag for a patient. Two weeks later a patient approached Alex and thanked her for her gorgeous hat. She told Alex that the first thing she saw as she came to was her father standing there with this beautiful hat just for her, and she would forever cherish it as a reminder of her battle. Needless to say this experience only fanned the flames of Alex’s determination to make life a little better for these girls. She has since started working with MUSC’s volunteer coordinator and gone through training at the Children’s Hopital that allows her to work hand-in-hand with patients to design and make their own unique hat. Recently Alex worked with “Kailyn� a five-year-old who has been in the hospital for seven months. Kailyn had very specific ideas for her hat, she wanted it to be green and gold and very sparkly! “Harper,� a ten-year-old girl who, during Alex’s visit, was extremely ill from her chemotherapy treatments, insisted on a baby blue hat with a turquoise ribbon. And stylish sixteen-yearold “Monica� worked through her nausea to create with a Alex a cream colored hat with a rakish black bow. Each of the girls that Alex has worked with have touched her in a different way. You can see it in her animated face as she talks about being with each girl she visits, especially “Kailyn.� “She is just an amazing kid, so smart and bubbly and sweet. Her parents were there when I arrived. They are very young and were obviously in need of a break, so I sat with Kailyn for several hours, picking out ribbons and felts, teaching her how to sew, and just being with her as I put the final stitches in her hat. I recently had another girl’s parents tell me that my visit was the first time they had seen their daughter smile in weeks.� Some of Alex’s visits are with girls who require more extreme precautionary measures. In fact, Alex unfortunately lost some of her supplies when she learned that the ribbons and fabrics she had brought into the room to offer as options for hat decoration could not be taken back out. As she sees the joy she brings to the lives of these local patients, she hopes to expand her program to more hospitals and more children and to build a foundation to support it. She has made this passion for helping girls, her talent in hat making, and her desire to reach more girls the foundation of her Ashley Hall Senior Project. She is currently exploring the creation of a non-profit enterprise through which she can expand her program. It costs about $35.00 to make one hat, and Alex is looking for funding. For more information on this story, or to support Alex’s work, please contact Alex Howard at howarda11@ashleyhall.org.
Compassionate | Responsible | Creative
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Susan G. Komen
A
shley Hall students, faculty
and staff all donned pink during a non-uniform day to support the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. Carol Wellein, Ashley Hall art teacher and the coordinator of Ashley Hall’s race day team and fundraising effort explained, “The girls use non-uniform days to raise money for specific causes that are important to the student body as a whole. Typically the girls will pay fifty cents to be able to wear their jeans to school that day.
We knew we were going to raise money this way, but it was third grader deRossett Thompson who came up with the idea for the whole school to wear pink and she took it upon herself to get the rest of the students excited about it as well. That single day we raised over $500. This year Ashley Hall was ready to race!”
Race for the Cure
The special efforts of deRossett and Carol paid off as Ashley Hall raised the most money for cancer research of any participating lowcountry school: High School Teams’ Fundraising: 1.
Ashley Hall - $5,119.00
2.
West Ashley High School - $530.00
3.
Porter-Gaud - $414.00
4.
Andrews High School - $385.00
5.
YB Pretty in Pink - $310.00
R
ecently three accomplished Ashley Hall women sat down together to discuss their perspectives on common thread issues faced by women at three very significant life stages.
LIFE STAGES
Their discussion quickly focused on three challenges faced by women at every stage of their lives and the messages they would share to live long, happy, healthy, fulfilled lives.
1.
Create balance in your life;
2.
Understand the realities of your physicality and develop a positive body image;
3.
Make wise and informed decisions.
The following are excerpts from their discussion.
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D
ISCERNING
Dr. Kate Schuh White ’88 graduated from Ashley Hall and earned her BA in English in 1992 from Drew University. She then received her MD from the Medical University of South Carolina in 1998 and completed her four year OB/GYN residency at the University of Texas. Since 2002 she has been at Lowcountry OB/GYN in Mount Pleasant with a specialty in obstetrics. She credits a strong science curriculum at Ashley Hall and a mission trip she took with Saint Phillips Church for leading her to this career field.
Dr. Elaine Conradi Eustis ’84 graduated from Ashley Hall and earned her BS in Biology from the University of South Carolina, Honors College. She then earned her MD from Vanderbilt in 1992 and completed a four year residency in OB/GYN there as well. She stayed on faculty at Vanderbilt for three years while practicing as an OB/GYN. When her third child was born, her family moved to Kentucky, and she focused her practice primarily on gynecology. Most recently she and her family have moved back to Charleston, and she has opened a private practice, Coastal Women’s Wellness, specializing in perimenopausal and menopausal gynecology.
Kelly Wood graduated from the University of Illinois in 1992 with her BA in Mass Communications and a Minor in Pschology. She later received her Masters in Counselor Education from the Citadel. Mrs. Wood began her career working for a teen crisis line, presenting the program information to groups of Upper School students at local schools. Her interaction with the guidance counselors at the schools she visited sparked her interest in the field, and she started counseling at Ashley Hall in 2001. She has since been promoted to Dean of Students and has responsibility for the school’s wellness program. She manages two counselors and the school nurse but still loves to counsel the senior girls who have been meeting with her since they were in third grade. Recently Mrs. Wood, with the help of College Admissions Director, Amanda Murrell, launched Ashley Hall’s PAWS program*. * details about the PAWS program can be found on page 28 Discerning | Independent | Compassionate
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#REATE "ALANCE
IN YOUR LIFE. Mrs. Wood: Pressures on adolescent
girls today are enormous. Whether the pressures are ones they create themselves by desiring to be the very best at everything they do, pressures from parents to achieve academically, socially, or athletically, or pressures from peers, they all take a toll on girls’ mental and physical health. We talk to the girls early and often about finding a balance in their lives between all these demands and all the activities they are involved in. One of the most important lessons girls can learn is not to ignore what brings them joy and to always look for that. Always take advantage of that. They need to be realistic about what they can do and should do. They don’t always have to strive for perfection. Our girls at Ashley Hall are competitive in a good way in that they want to be successful, and that is an important thing to shine a light on. They are so much more than the grades they make! To help our girls live happy, balanced lifestyles, we introduce to them what they need to do achieve that and why it is important. These are life skills they learn now that they will carry through life. If they are not taking care of themselves, eating properly, being physically active, or sleeping well, they cannot be the best they can be in any of their lives’ many and changing roles. Just yesterday I said to a student, “If you are not taking care of yourself you can’t take care of others.” She was unsuccessfully trying to help a friend through an emotional struggle that she wasn’t prepared to handle. These relationships with friends are so intense when they are adolescents; they lean on each other so heavily. It is another huge burden for girls. We have to help them know how to take a break and relax, and
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what that looks like for each girl is different. But once they learn what works for them, it is a skill they will always be able to call on in difficult situations later in their lives. Dr. White: I see a lot of the same
stressors in my practice and the same “type A” women who are very driven, constantly work, work, work, with never a time to just sit back and relax. When women have a lot of stress in their lives, it can inhibit their ability to get pregnant. They need to consider taking time out for themselves to relax as it is proven to increase their likelihood of getting pregnant. But once they are pregnant, the stressors just increase. Many women don’t have the option of quitting work, and some don’t have good support systems for once the baby is born. Dr. Eustis: I remember the small box
on the lengthy intake forms we used to give my OB patients asking who would be there to support them with the baby. I never really thought it was an important question for your doctor to actually handle until I became a mom. Then I realized how vitally important it is for women to have a support system when they have a baby. Dr. White: Having a baby can be a
huge economic burden, and even women with a support system face emotional stress. Spousal abuse statistics are at their highest when a woman is pregnant, tensions go way up, depression can increase during pregnancy, and post partum depression is possible too. Combine all this with sleep deprivation and the stress of being a new mom, and it can be a tough time for many women. At our clinic, and many like it, patient educators, nurses, and counselors are available
to help women deal with this stage in their lives, and I encourage them to take advantage of that. Dr. Eustis: One of the huge issues I see
for women after their child-bearing years is finding that balance again. Basically for ten years their lives have been out of their control, completely at the whim of others, and they are too busy taking care of babies, aging parents, and husbands to take care of themselves. I have women who come in and I ask them, “When was your last pap smear?” and they say, “Hmmm… well, let’s see, my youngest child is twelve, so twelve years ago.” Their last pap smear was during their post partum visit when their last baby was born! They are dealing with older kids and aging parents and are being pulled in one hundred directions. I ask “What are you doing for yourself?” “Nothing!” “What are you doing for exercise?” “Nothing!” “What are you eating?” “Sometimes I forget to eat!” My focus is to get that woman back to the best person she can be, whether it is hormones, her weight, or even her spirituality. And I love it! I love it! Because the Mom in the house is the queen, and if she is not healthy and happy it all falls apart. The whole family, her kids, her husband, her parents, her extended family, hinges on this perimenopausal or menopausal woman feeling good. It really does!
UNDERSTAND THE REALITIES OF YOUR PHYSICALITY AND
$EVELOP A POSITIVE BODY IMAGE Mrs. Wood: Body image is something
we start talking about with the girls very early in second and third grade. We have a fun story about a tadpole that talks about how bodies change over time and that they are meant to change. In fourth grade we start talking about puberty and all the physical changes they should expect. But the message that permeates all we do for all grades is that the girls can only control certain aspects of their physicality, and they need to accept and love the parts of themselves that they can’t control as well. And they should not only accept their own physicality but also other peoples’ as well. We talk about how the images of super-thin glamorous women are not the real world. Those images are everywhere and pervade all they do, so it is important that they can discern the truth, know those photos are retouched and airbrushed, that what they are seeing is not real. We watch a couple of great documentaries on just this topic in the 11th and 12th Grade, America the Beautiful and Killing Us Softly. I encourage anyone with girls this age to take some time to watch them as well and talk about them with your girls. Dr. White: I do see patients who
struggle with eating disorders, and their babies are often growth restricted, but most of the women are really honest about their struggles. We work with them on what their stressors are and how to manage them. We have patients to whom we never tell their weight. They turn backwards on the scale and we record it, telling them only that it is “adequate.”Body image is a really big challenge for pregnant women. They are changing so much every month, and they are usually not happy with where they are and how they feel. They just feel like they have no control. It is common to
feel this way but important to accept that you really do have very little control over those changes. You need to make sure you and the baby are healthy. I see with my own daughter how early those body image conversations start. I overheard her and a friend talking about how great tight jeans looked on them, and these are seven-year-old girls. But like Kelly said, they have been bombarded with these mixed images. We talk about being healthy and being strong when we talk about her body, not how she looks.
I saw an interesting study recently of college students in which researchers were trying to increase their use of sunscreen. The students were much more likely to wear sunscreen when they were told about the wrinkles it would cause than the prevention of skin cancer. Dr. White: I have seen the same type of
thing. In my office we have a graphic of a set of twins, one who smoked and one who didn’t, and the differences in those two women’s skin is sometimes enough to get patients to really consider quitting.
Dr. Eustis: It seems that the three of us
treat women at the stages in their lives when their bodies are changing most rapidly and drastically. I have women who are really worried about their weight gain and the new difficulty they are having losing it. They just feel that same loss of control of their bodies. In their twenties they could drop five pounds in a week, and now they are starving themselves and can’t lose. I do a lot of counseling on this, on how to accept themselves and those changes. An interesting thing that I have noticed is that while women understand the vital importance of smoking cessation, the associated weight gain can inhibit them from trying. Again, it’s about body image over healthy choices.
Dr. Eustis: Quitting smoking is one of
the most important things a woman can do for herself. We all know the chronic health issues it causes, but maybe we do need to talk more about the effect it has on women’s looks if that’s what will motivate them to quit. I can always tell which of my patients is a smoker without even asking. I can even tell how recently they quit. Smoking is a vaso-constrictor and their skin just has an ashen look and they are much more wrinkled. Perhaps this is the one case where women’s obsession with their looks can help save their lives!
Discerning | Independent | Compassionate
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-AKE )NFORMED
DECISIONS Mrs. Wood: Our counseling and
wellness philosophy at Ashley Hall is all based on giving the girls really good, accurate information and hoping they will make the right choices. We help them with study skills, finding balance, eating well, exercise, relationships, and dating safety. We talk to them about drugs and alcohol and the effect they have on the brain and the realities of addictions. We talk to them about college and what to expect when they leave home and the safety of Ashley Hall for the first time. They have all the information they need, and they have been learning and forming life skills and habits that can carry them far, but the education the girls get at Ashley Hall also helps them to learn the importance of questioning and
discernment: learning all they can about a certain question, then deciding for themselves what is best for them.
cervical cancer, osteoporosis prevention, smoking cessation, breast self-exams and all the other ways women can protect and control their own health.
Dr. White: Getting good information
and making smart decisions is critical. There is a lot of information out there about what is a healthy diet, but truly maintaining a healthy diet and getting the right nutrition and exercise are so important to a healthy pregnancy, and those factors are also vital to combat heart disease. Heart disease is the number one killer of women, and when you think about it, we have a whole month for breast cancer awareness but not heart disease. We start cholesterol screening for my patients in their early thirties. We talk to them about STD prevention and
Dr. Eustis: We also talk to women a
great deal about obesity and smoking catching up with them. A lot of women think that breast cancer is what they need to be worried about the most, but the reality is heart disease is more likely what is going to get them. We also look closely at patients’ family histories for breast cancer or osteoporosis and monitor them carefully for those. This helps us also to help steer their lifestyle paths to avoid the diseases for which they have genetic risk. But like Kelly said, women can’t make good decisions for themselves without good information. Did you know that both in adolescence and perimenopause, hormones are a huge factor in quality of life? Some of the issues affected are weight, acne, periods, mood changes, and sleep. It can be a complicated issue, but an important message to all girls and women is they don’t have to live with it. There are safe and effective treatments to restore hormonal balance during these phases of life. In the past, the perception had been it’s “just your hormones” and that women and girls have to suffer through it. And I think this perception arises from the fact that historically women’s health has been a male dominated field, and that the medical field in general is focused on treating disease. The hormonal changes associated with adolescence and menopause are not a disease. They are normal life changes, but the negative impact on quality of life can be significant to the woman and her relationships, and most importantly, can be treated.
20 | The magazine of ASHLEY HALL
B ecause Ashley Hall is an all-girls environment, it creates a comfortable atmosphere for the girls to talk about these things.
Dr. White: I agree. The more informa-
Dr. White: And because the transmis-
tion an adolescent or woman can have the better. Take cervical cancer. Right now it is almost 100% preventable – we know what causes it! If it is caught early, it is treatable, easily treatable, but when not detected for a long time it can become very, very difficult. I think we all agree that the new vaccine for HPV (Human Papilloma Virus) is highly suggested for adolescents. It has certainly been widely used with great results in hundreds of thousands of women with no common side effects or complications. We are ten years out from the initial wide distribution and have seen no problems, just a huge decrease in HPV related disease. The vaccine is currently recommended for women 9-26 years old, but it is important to note that is because that is the age group it was studied in. The FDA follows very strict guidelines and so will only approve it for that group. It is important to know, though, that what we are finding now is even if you have been exposed to HPV in the past, the vaccine is helpful to you. Because HPV is very difficult for your body to develop an immune response to, they have added it to the vaccine in a way that allows your body to create a better immune response so it can help your body fight off that previous exposure better. So even if you have a history of dysplasia, I recommend the vaccine.
sion of the disease does not require actual intercourse I recommend the vaccination between ages nine and eleven. In fact recent studies have shown that the earlier a girl receives the vaccine, the better her immune response. But to get back to the point that Kelly made, I really believe you can’t tell kids too much. You can’t tell them ‘Don’t have sex.” But you can make them understand how different their lives will be if they get pregnant in their teens. They may still be able to attend college and get what they want from their lives, but it will be much, much harder. The most effective teen pregnancy prevention programs are focused around the goals of the girls, and how an early pregnancy will make them so very difficult and sometimes impossible to achieve.
Dr. Eustis: 75% of sexually active
women have been exposed to HPV and that number can go as high as 80% on college campuses. There are no symptoms, and it can be transmitted simply through skin to skin contact. Right now the recommendation is for girls to receive the vaccine before they become sexually active, whatever that age is.
Dr. Eustis: I’m a firm believer in the
more information the better, but not all parents agree with me, which can make things difficult in some cases. I had a thirteen-year-old girl come to see me for her first GYN appointment; she had started her period and knew nothing about her reproductive system. When I asked her mother if I could show her some pictures of the female anatomy and talk to her about the birds and the bees she said no, her daughter wasn’t old enough. And while I leave it up to parents to decide whether to stay in the room with their daughters, I always tell them that I would like a few minutes to talk to the girls alone, and those parents are usually almost relieved and happy to go! Right now the medical recommendation is for a woman to see a gynecologist before she is twenty one or within three years of sexual activity. Obviously we think that is way too late! I recommend taking your daughter to talk to a
gynecologist before she is even considering sexual activity because, like Kate said, you can’t make them not have sex. And while I strongly emphasize the benefits of abstinence in my younger patients, I also believe the more good, accurate information these kids have, the better. Mrs. Wood: I want to touch again on
what Elaine said about parents sometimes being relieved to let the physician talk to their daughter about sex and her body. Because Ashley Hall is an all-girls environment, it creates a comfortable atmosphere for the girls to talk about these things. I remember when I was still working with the fourth and fifth grade girls, they would want to know every day ‘Mrs. Wood, is the puberty talk today?’ They really were looking forward to it and wanted to learn about what was happening to them. In the beginning I thought I wouldn’t be able to do it with a straight face, but I grew to really, really enjoy these conversations with the girls. It is fun and the students are interested and have really great questions. In fact I feel fortunate to be able to talk to the girls about it because they really do want to know, and when you start a conversation like that with the girls early you can talk about anything that might come up down the road. I recommend to parents who are having trouble broaching the subject with their girls to talk to one of our school counselors about the best way to facilitate that conversation.
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AH is for
Active. is for Health.
T
here is no short cut to health, physical or mental. Armed with knowledge we need to transform our consciousness of the connection between the outer world of the body and the inner world of the mind, we can refashion our campus and our curriculum to ensure a healthier and more wholesome new century at Ashley Hall.
Healthy Bodies = Healthy Minds
I t’s Friday afternoon, an hour before the final bell of the school week rings, and the gym is rocking. The sixth, seventh, and eighth grades are tug-of-warring, hurtling rubber balls in one heck of a dodge ball frenzy, or running relays like crazy. It’s loud, and hot. It looks like purple and white mayhem, girls burning off a week’s worth of be-quiet, sit-still steam, and having some fun while they’re at it. But looks can be deceiving. This is not simply a Friday afternoon free-for-all or a mindless continuation of a Purple/White “Sports” playday tradition that stretches back nearly a century. This is Brain Building 101. Physical education has long gotten a bum rap on campuses across the country, both from students who dread “dressing out” and having to compete in sports they’re not good at, and from faculty members pressured to meet academic standards, who believe that school time would be better spent on the 3Rs, which do not include “recreation.” While Ashley Hall has never been among the latter – the school has always placed a premium on “a sound mind in a sound body” philosophy and
boasted a robust athletic program—there’s a fresh energy on campus that reflects an emerging understanding of the critical role that physical health and wellness plays in learning and academic achievement. These changes are evident in Ashley Hall’s gym, courts, and playing fields, and from the surrounding Lowcountry fields and farms to the new Dining Commons. “When you take a hard look at the typical rhythm of daily life on school campuses across the country, it’s fairly ugly,” says Ashley Hall Head of School, Jill Muti. “We have such high expectations of our girls and a rigorous schedule and curriculum, it’s easy for things to get out of balance,” Muti notes. “But it’s particularly important, I believe, especially for a girls’ school, that we model healthy behaviors and prepare students to care for themselves, which means encouraging sound nutrition and lifelong fitness.” When Muti arrived at Ashley Hall seven years ago, one of her first steps toward this goal was adding Physical Education every day for kindergarten through sixth grade. This is just one
Physical health promotes emotional health, which can directly improve academic performance.
24 | The magazine of ASHLEY HALL
initiative of what continues to develop into the school’s fully integrated wellness philosophy. “We want wellness to be front and center in every girl’s mind as they move through the school and beyond,” Muti affirms. Teaching kids at a young age the importance of being physically active and making healthy food choices is imperative. “Unhealthy behaviors are easier to change in children than in adults, and teaching healthy habits is much easier than trying to undo the effects of unhealthy ones later,” says Ashley Hall parent, Aimee Goedecke, MD, a pediatrician with Parkwood Pediatrics, whose passion and professional focus is women’s and adolescent girls’ health. When considering schools for her twelve-year-old daughter Erin, Ashley Hall’s emphasis on physical well-being “definitely influenced my decision,” says this active mom and avid runner. “The fact that Ashley Hall offered Physical Education every day, and a wide range of organized sports opportunities, was very important. I see lots of patients in my practice who will go a whole semester, sometimes a whole year, without PE.” Medical evidence is undeniable, she adds, that physical activity is linked to increased endorphin release, so kids (and adults) who get exercise feel better and often focus better. “We also see that kids who are involved in team sports tend to be more organized and learn to use their study time more efficiently, and often that being part of a team effort can promote positive self-esteem.” It all comes full circle: “physical health promotes emotional health, which can directly improve academic performance,” Dr. Goedecke says.
Ashley Hall’s Physical Education faculty: L to R Gail Bailey, Renee Wilbur, Mary Gastley, Franny Slay, and Maggie Laney.
Not Your Old-School ‘Gym’ Class For a longitudinal perspective on how Physical Education has evolved over the years, look no further than Ashley Hall’s PE faculty. Three of the school’s six PE professionals are the educational equivalent of endurance athletes, having been in the field (literally!) for more than 20 years. Gail Bailey, an Ashley Hall alumna, has taught here for 29 years. “Gail was my teacher,” notes her colleague, Franny Slay, the school’s Athletic Director and head volleyball coach, and a faculty veteran of 26 years. Mary Gastley, the Physical Education department head, has 24 years at Ashley Hall under her belt. Seasoned, yes, but “old school” they are not. “A long time ago, our PE program was game-based, with a ‘roll-the-ball-out’ approach,” says Gail Bailey. “We taught game rules and specific sport skills, let the girls pick teams, then compete. Then in the 90s we shifted to a health and fitness focus, and now the PE program is much more balanced and integrated between the two. We gear the curriculum to all students of all abilities, not just the athletes, and expose students to a variety of different activities and skills, ranging from swimming to dance and yoga to lacrosse. Our goal is that students’ strive for their ‘personal best’ rather than competing with others.” An aquatics center, dance studio, climbing and traversing wall, and new state-of-the-art interactive Playscape expand the offerings of the school’s creative and comprehensive
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A Generation at Risk
Children and Obesity in the United States Overweight and obese children have a high probability of becoming overweight and obese adults. And overweight and obese adults face a multitude of costly and complex health problems, which will, ultimately, most likely shorten their lives. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine (February 2010) found that obese children are more than twice as likely to die from disease
T
he fact that brain and body are linked isn’t exactly news. The ancient Greeks understood
before age 55. You don’t have to ace Mr. Smith’s Algebra II class to realize the numbers are alarming. One-third of all American children and adolescents are overweight,
the connection between a healthy mind and
as defined by the Center for Disease Control (CDC)
healthy body, and educators for hundreds of
Body Mass Index scale. And seventeen percent of
years have known that nutrition and physical
these children are obese. The numbers keep climb-
activity are part of the overall learning equation, connec-
ing. The American Academy of Pediatrics reports
tions that are becoming all-the-more clear with recent
that over the past two decades the numbers of
advances in neuroscience and exercise physiology. What
children who are obese has doubled, while the
is news, however, and indeed a major media drum beat,
number of obese adolescents has tripled.
is that our modern American lifestyle and convenience-
“I’ve definitely seen the impact in my prac-
oriented diets are putting a generation at risk.You can
tice,” says Ashley Hall parent, Aimee Goedecke,
hardly open a newspaper or magazine without finding
MD, a pediatrician with Parkwood Pediatrics,
childhood obesity in the headlines, and for good reason.
whose passion and professional focus is women’s and adolescent girls’ health. “Even our body image mindset has shifted. What looks ‘normal’ in 2010, say a child who’s pudgy, is actually considered clinically ‘overweight.’ There’s really nothing ‘cute’ about being chubby or overweight, and in our sedentary culture, kids are not likely to simply ‘grow out of it,’” she says. Dr. Goedecke cites a laundry list of health concerns for these children, especially if they continue on this trajectory (20% of children who are obese at age four remain so as an adult; a statistic that skyrockets to 80% for those who are obese as adolescents, according to Goedecke). Asthma, sleep apnea, orthopedic and dermatologic conditions, hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, early menarche and fertility issues are among the negative health outcomes. “And the psychological and social health concerns are equally detrimental, if not more so,” she adds. “Heavy children, especially girls, tend to be bullied more and suffer low self-esteem and self confidence, which can be directly correlated with lower academic performance, and higher rates of depression.”
fitness trail
We gear the curriculum to all students of all abilities, not just the athletes, and expose students to a variety of different activities and skills, ranging from swimming to dance and yoga to lacrosse. Our goal is that students’ strive for their ‘personal best’ rather than competing with others. Physical Education curriculum, all taught in a way that encourages and reinforces the importance of lifelong fitness. The school’s brand new Dining Commons includes a roof-top playspace to further maximize outdoor fitness opportunities, and there are hopes of installing a “fitness trail” with various exercise stations around campus. “We’re making creative use of an urban space,” says PE faculty member Renee Wilbur, who has introduced an adventure-based component to the curriculum, using activities such as rock climbing to enhance social/emotional development via physical education. “The traversing wall presents many teachable moments that we use to help students become better problem solvers or more effective
communicators,” notes Wilbur. “Our students love to come to PE here; they’re fired up, ready to roll,” says Maggie Laney, Aquatics Director. And the Ashley Hall faculty and administration is equally fired up by the compelling research outlined in the best-selling book, Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, by John J. Ratey, MD, (Little, Brown and Company, 2008) which makes a definitive case for the connection between movement, muscle, and mind. “We know with certainty that having a normal body mass index and a robust cardiovascular system optimizes your brain,” the author writes. Exercise, he says, is “Miracle-Gro for the brain,” so rather than taking away from academic time, free play at recess, swimming during PE or a team practice after school may be the best study hall there is.
swimming
dance
yoga
team sports Confident | Responsible | Independent
| 27
From PAWS to Plates For 7th through12th grade Panthers who do not have a daily Physical Education requirement, the school’s wellness emphasis is integrated into a Jenkins Hall seminar called PAWS (Personal Awareness and Wellness Seminar). “PAWS was designed to address three main areas: academic management and study skills, the college search process, and general wellness and life skills,” explains Kelly Wood, Dean of Students. Time management/study skills and college prep advising are typical fare for most school guidance counselors, but PAWS’ added dimension of a thorough wellness component (teaching everything from positive body image to basic car care to Zumba) makes it truly innovative. The weekly seminars include lively discussions emphasizing values clarification and self-awareness, helping students understand their personal responsibility for making healthy, positive, and productive life choices. “We invite outside speakers to address a wide range of topics, from the importance of networking to self-defense, and always encourage them to talk about their own personal journeys, so students hear first-hand how others have navigated challenges and what a commitment to wellness looks like,” notes Wood. This past year much of the PAWS focus has been on a topic near and dear to every student: food. Specifically, the students and faculty together have explored the concepts of “slow food,” what “nourishment” really means, and how physical health, environmental sustainability and community responsibility are fundamentally interrelated. “We’ve been using PAWS time to educate students about principles underlying the local/seasonal food movement, and the seed-to-table idea and to lay the groundwork for our move toward family style dining,” explains Wood. Indeed, the return to family style dining at Ashley Hall (which was the tradition back when there were boarding students and Mrs. Pierce ran the kitchen) coincided with the opening of the new Dining Commons, marking both a shift in facility and philosophy. Lunch period is no longer the catch-all time to fit in a club meeting or finish a quiz. “There are often so many different things going on during lunch that eating becomes secondary,” says Wood. “As we’ve introduced the concept of family style dining, we’ve had in-depth discussions about why it’s important
28 | The magazine of ASHLEY HALL
to sit down together, to protect the time we have to nourish our bodies and our relationships, to pay attention to what we eat, where it comes from and the impact on our health and community. These are things the girls will take with them throughout their life.” The move to family style dining with a slow food, local foodbased menu was driven by the Ashley Hall Food Philosophy Task Force and has been strongly endorsed by Mrs. Muti, who’s quick to give a nod to her Italian husband. “When Lorenzo proposed, he told me, ‘I may never be wealthy or necessarily always healthy, but I promise you will always eat well.’ And we have. The Italians revere the time-honored tradition of sitting around a dinner table, enjoying relationships and good food—it offers a sustaining richness in life that I would call a simple joy.” she says. “We built the new Dining Commons because the school had outgrown the capacity of the old one, but we realized that if we’re investing so significantly in providing food for the children on campus, we should take the time to articulate a school philosophy around nutrition and well-being that best fits our Ashley Hall community, and that positions us as a leader and champion of these ideas in the broader community,” Muti continues. “Our new dining facility, family style dining practice and food philosophy give us yet another way that we are outstanding and unique. You won’t find it at any other school in the Southeast.” Whether students are sitting around the lunch table, expanding their palates by trying fresh, local vegetables and broadening their viewpoints by conversing with older or younger girls and faculty they may not know, or whether they’re running around the gym or outdoor playscape, stretching their bodies and confidence by trying challenging, new activities, Ashley Hall girls are getting a leg up on lifelong health habits that will benefit them now in the classroom, and later in college, the corporate board room, or around their own family dinner table. Ashley Hall takes seriously its role as alma mater (“foster mother” in Latin), as Nick Bozanic, Assistant Head of School for Academic Affairs, articulated in the document that outlines the school’s food philosophy. An excerpt from this document, “Sustenance and Sustainability: A Food Philosophy for Ashley Hall,” (available for viewing at www.ashleyhall.org/dining) sums up not only the food philosophy, but the school’s holistic and integrated wellness approach, that encompasses the gym, the classroom, the dining room and beyond: There is no short cut to health, physical or mental. Armed with knowledge we need to transform our consciousness of the connection between the outer world of the body and the inner world of the mind, we can refashion our campus and our curriculum to ensure a healthier and more wholesome new century at Ashley Hall.
W
e realized that if we’re
investing so significantly in providing food for the children on campus, we should take the time to articulate a school philosophy around nutrition and well-being that best fits our Ashley Hall community, and that positions us as a leader and champion of these ideas in the broader community.
Confident | Responsible | Independent
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You are at the mall shopping or visiting with friends or at the office completing your daily tasks and suddenly someone collapses and stops breathing.
Would you know
AOZZg
Less than one-third of out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest victims receive bystander CPR.
30 | The magazine of ASHLEY HALL
P
what to do?
AVS^^O`R º If you graduated from Ashley Hall with the Class of 2011 you would, thanks to one senior whose own lesson in sudden life or death situations changed her life, that of her friends, and all the future graduates of Ashley Hall. Sally Sheppard ’11 took from a near tragedy a lesson that has inspired her to change the lives of others and may somehow, someday save yours! In the summer of 2009 a near fatal jet-ski accident involving two of her friends focused a bright light on the importance of being trained in CPR (Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation) for Sally. As one friend lay unconscious in the water the other was forced to attempt amateur CPR. Ultimately his attempts were successful, but the experience left the group of friends shaken and with a new and keen awareness of how quickly life can be taken away. Realizing that she, or any of her friends, could at any time face a life or death situation, Sally committed herself to preparing herself and others to react. She would get certified in CPR and do what she could to ensure that others were as well. Sally and her two friends developed and presented a proposal to the Red Cross. They asked for support of their plan to seek the addition of CPR certification to graduation requirements for their respective schools. In addition, Sally proposed to take this graduation requirement to the South Carolina State Legislature for consideration in ALL South Carolina schools. The Red Cross approved the friends’ proposal and awarded them a grant to get certified to instruct CPR, First Aid, and AED (Automated External Defibrillators). The grant also provides for the necessary equipment and training manuals the students will need to certify their classmates and sustain the training for future classes. Since January of 2010 the friends have presented the project at several Carolina Lowcountry Clara Barton Society meetings, helping to raise awareness and funding for the Red Cross. They have also seen their project recognized by the Charleston Chamber of Commerce as one of only 10 community service projects the Chamber will support in 2010. Sally has made great strides in achieving her goals since the inception of the project.
URPOSEFUL
Effective bystander CPR, provided immediately after sudden cardiac arrest, can
Z At Ashley Hall she
double or triple a victim’s
developed the proposal chance of survival. as her Senior Project and (The American Heart Association) has petitioned and was granted by the Ashley Hall Administrative Team and Board of Trustees the addition of CPR certification to graduation requirements.
Z She has scheduled the Class of 2011’s CPR certification training to take place during Winterim or Senior Service Week in June.
Z She has developed an initiative to make the selection of new CPR instructors in future junior classes competitive and prestigious, announcing those chosen at Awards Day.
Z She won support from the Red Cross to financially sustain the project, eliminating the required costs for future certifications which would have had to be paid by Ashley Hall or the Junior parents.
Z She is currently working on her proposal for the South Carolina State Legislature and hopes to work with Representative Chip Limehouse to have CPR certification become a requirement for all South Carolina seniors. All of this while handling the pressures of a typical senior year, maintaining a strong GPA, playing on the Varsity Volleyball team, and going through the college selection and application process. Sally knows her friend’s accident and the steps they have taken since will have a lasting change on many lives. “I will never know how many people are affected by this project. I could teach CPR to someone who inspires another person, and then she goes out and teaches it to someone else, and so on, like a domino effect.� A purposeful, determined young woman, Sally Sheppard ’11 is a true inspiration, someone in whom the entire Ashley Hall community can take pride.
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1010Things Things Dr. Catherine Raoul Jones ’83 pursued a healthcare and research career for many years
during which time she began to question the value of always treating patients with allopathic medications and
theory-related therapies and of “dividing people into parts.” She saw patients visit one doctor for their emotional health, another for pain management, another for sleep challenges, another for a stomach ache, another for weight loss, etc. Her experience led her to naturopathic medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, and acupuncture.
you can do RIGHT NOW
Naturopathic medicine, as defined by the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians, is based on the belief that the human body has an innate healing ability and patients are complex, interrelated systems. Naturopathic doctors teach their patients to use diet, exercise, lifestyle changes and natural therapies to enhance their bodies’ ability to ward off and combat disease.
to lead a
They also appreciate the need for and value of allopathic treatments as needed. Traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture have been practiced for thousands of years. This medicine is quite complex but one
healthier life.
of the cornerstones is the idea of bringing the body into energetic balance, which then relieves pain, reduces stress and normalizes body functions. Dr Jones attended Bastyr University in Washington state, where she received her Master’s of Science in Acupuncture and her Doctorate of Naturopathic Medicine.
Catherine Jones ‘83, ND, MS, LAc Owner, Acupuncture and Wellness of Charleston, LLC Her top 10 things women could do right now to live healthier:
1. Pay Attention Women’s lives are so busy, they tend to overlook or ignore environmental cues or their own bodies’ signals. Listen to your body and be aware of your environment. Take time to really understand what you are eating, drinking, inhaling and applying to your skin and don’t be too busy to ask questions.
2. Remove obstacles to cure What seem like obvious and easy fixes are often difficult tradeoffs that women must make to live healthier lives. Is your back always aching at the end of the day? Maybe those heels that make your legs look so good are making your back feel so bad. Can’t sleep at night because the person you share a bed with is a loud snorer? Have a separate bedroom, or even better, help that snorer solve the problem. You may need to record that person snoring. Many people can’t believe that they actually snore as loudly as they do. Sometimes the most obvious and best cures are the most difficult to convince ourselves to do. They are also usually the least expensive and the least invasive.
5. Support good stewards of the earth. And be one too. Take the time to go to your local farmers markets and find out where your food is coming from. Don’t be afraid to ask questions about their farming practices. Are they using genetically modified seeds? What types of pesticides and fertilizers are they using on their crops? Where and how are the animals you are consuming raised? Is that salmon farm-raised and injected with dyes and chemicals or caught wild? Our farmers are responsible for being good stewards of the environment. Fertilizer and pesticide runoff as well as hormone and antibiotic waste from animals are huge challenges for the environment and are only now really being understood. It is important to support those farmers and fishermen who harvest responsibly. It’s likely that the local produce will be better tended to and fresher than produce that has been trucked across the US.
6. Recycle
Ever seen a pool in which the pump has broken and the water has been still for several weeks? Ever entered a closed up room that has had no air flow? You know how stagnant and foul water and air can get when it does not move. The same goes for your body. Humans were not designed to be stagnant beings. Get out and get that blood flowing!
In the early 1990s plastic water bottles exploded on the national market and now Americans buy an estimated 29.8 billion plastic water bottles every year and nearly 8 out of every 10 bottles will end up in a landfill. By just recycling a single plastic bottle you can conserve enough energy to light a 60watt light bulb for up to six hours. A healthier planet will lead to a healthier you. And please don’t forget the animals, birds, fish, dolphins, and whales that have to deal with the mess. It feels great to do the right thing. Remember the part about being stewards of the Earth?
4. Be a food snob, but a courtesy eater
7. Drink filtered water
You are in charge of what you put in your body. During some holidays, friends and families alike may heap your plate with all sorts of foods that is not what you would normally eat. In your home you may be choosing to eat all organic, but you can’t ask everyone you interact with to do the same. Food is a social bond, so take it all in stride. Smaller portions and a gracious attitude go a long way!
Water is the next hot commodity. Where exactly does your water come from? The city reservoir? How is it stored? Transported? What do your pipes look like on the inside? For most of us these are questions we can’t easily answer and that is okay. Today there are inexpensive filters that attach under the sink, on the faucet, or simply sit within a pitcher. For as little as $20.00 you filter out many pollutants. Levels of pollutants
3. Move
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in drinking water are regulated to what are considered “safe” levels. But if you can reduce those levels even more for less than $20.00, why wouldn’t you? You could also get really fancy and buy filter/treatment devices that actually change the water structure and ph as well. Make an extra effort to drink high quality water and avoid drinking out of plastic (especially soft plastic) bottles which leach chemicals into the water.
8. Use an air purifier Much like drinking filtered water, purifying your air is an inexpensive and simple way to safeguard your health. Building materials like paint, carpet, and adhesives all can give off hazardous chemicals. Filtering air removes at least some and often many of those. It also cuts down on allergens and spores. Shared office spaces and tight quarters are the most important places for a filter. And remember #3 about being stagnant? Air filters help to move the air in your space. If you have allergies and night-time congestion, I recommend having a filter in your bedroom as well. Keep it on high with the door closed during the day and on low at night. I recommend HEPA filters.
9. Avoid unhealthy relationships Whether at home or at work, the people we surround ourselves with have an effect on us. As much as you can, surround yourself with people who reinforce you, people you feel comfortable with, people who inspire you, people who are kind. Sarcasm, negativity, and disrespect are not health-promoting. Laughter, cooperation, and respect are. If a spouse or coworker repeatedly makes you feel inadequate, frightened, or trapped, that relationship quickly becomes very toxic to you emotionally and physically. You should limit contact with that person and environment as much as possible or at least make a conscious effort to not internalize the negative energy.
10. Eat real food Mother Nature is good. Wash your fruits and vegetables and then eat them every day! Make wonderful soups, salsas, and salads. Broil up some wild salmon with rosemary and olive oil. Roast some sweet potatoes and beets and go to town. Foods that have not been “fooled around” with are your best bet. Look for “organic,” “no BGH,” “no trans fats,” “hormone free,” “no MSG.” “Natural” and “fresh” are dubious terms. While “processing” can refer to something as simple as washing or chopping, it can also mean that the food has been modified in a way that may decrease the price and increase the shelf-life but also may create problems for your intelligent “gut” and immune system. Remember that about 80% of your immune system is in your digestive tract. Choose minimally processed foods, also known as “whole foods,” for the majority of your diet. It seems difficult at first, but you can easily do it. (And remember that your pets need real food too.)
In 2006 Dr. Jones moved back to Charleston and opened Acupuncture and Wellness of Charleston, LLC. She sees patients six days a week. She works with them to consider and address lifestyle, stressors, diet and nutrition, sleep, exercise, pain, personal and family history and all sorts of health conditions.
Save the date Ashley Hall
Alumnae Weekend
Friday and Saturday April 15-16, 2011
Reunion
for classes 2006 • 2001 • 1996 • 1991 • 1986 • 1981 • 1976 • 1971 • 1966 • 1961 • And all Jubilee Classes
Distinguished Alumnae Awards
Call for Nominations 2011
The Alumnae Association is currently
calling for nominations for the annual Fern Karesh Hurst ’64 Community Volunteer Award, the Crandall Close Bowles ’65 Professional Achievement Award and the Martha Rivers Ingram ’53 Excellence in the Arts Award. These distinguished awards honor three Ashley Hall graduates for their outstanding community volunteer service, professional achievements and excellence in the arts. The awards are presented each year during Ashley Hall’s Alumnae Weekend. If you know an alumna deserving consideration for one of these awards, please send the name of your nominee, her class year, the name of the award for which you would like for her to be considered and a summary of her accomplishments to Margie Davis Barham ’86 at mdbarham@ comcast.net or mail your nominations to Alumnae Awards, Ashley Hall, 172 Rutledge Avenue, Charleston, SC 29403. The deadline for nominations is March 7, 2011. Details of the awards can be found at www.ashleyhall.org/alumnae.
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Class Notes
Ashley Hall alumnae, we want to hear from you! Please send any and all updates, announcements or news notes to fostere@ashleyhall.org.
‘49 Carolyn Powell Shaak continues to teach piano lesssons to 25 private students and 50 students in group classes. She will soon be adding several new music selections to her Moonstone Music Press catalog (www. shaakpianomusic.com). ‘50 Sarah Mahony Ford-Rijswijk is the proud great grandmother of six! ‘53 Martha Rivers Ingram, a longtime champion of the Spoleto Festival USA and the arts in general, has been named recipient of the Eli and Edythe Broad Award for Philanthropy in the Arts by Americans for the Arts. A leading organization for advancing the arts in America, the group presented its annual National Arts Awards last fall in New York City as part of National Arts and Humanities Month. Also honored were celebrated actress Angela Lansbury, recipient of the annual Lifetime Achievement Award; musician and composer Herb Alpert, who received the Outstanding Contributions to the Arts Award; and fashion designers Kate and Laura Mulleavy, winners of the Maria and Bill Bell Young Artist Award. ‘57 Randolph Waring Berretta provided wonderful archival images for the book, The Way It Was In Charleston, which celebrated it’s book
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Alumnae Association Board Back row, left to right, Marion Thomas Gilchrist ‘83, Marshall Ann Thomas Lynch ‘81, Rhett Ramsay Outten ‘82, Rebecca Blackman ‘02, Amy E. McKinney ‘03, Vista Anne Thompson Grayson ‘57, Susan Applegate Herrmann ‘58, Cashion Drolet ’97, Jamye Horres Hurteau ‘91, Anne Hanahan Blessing ‘90, Vitre Ravenel Stephens ‘95. Front row, left to right, Amy E. Jenkins ‘82, Cornelia Jones Graham ‘87, Helen Turner Hill ‘81, Marguerite McLaughlin Bishop ‘49, Barbara A. Rivers ‘75, Margie Davis Barham ‘86, Elaine Conradi Eustis ‘84. Not pictured are Elaine Meyer Bergmann ‘78, Melissa Fuller Brown ‘83, Caroline B. Cutler ‘05, Liles Robson Eanes ‘89, Caroline C. Lesesne ‘83, Elizabeth Felder McDermott ‘84, Anne Miller Moise ‘63, Frannie Baker Reese ‘84, Elizabeth W. Royall ‘05, Therese Trouche Smythe ‘78.
launch in the McBee House at Ashley Hall on December 5, 2010. This book is the work of Laura Witte Waring (Randolph’s grandmother) who grew up at Ashley Hall with her five sisters. In the 1980’s, Thomas R. Waring, Jr. edited his mother’s book and published the above titled version. Today’s publishing team took Tom Waring’s version and included a summary history of the school by Ashley Hall alumna Ileana Strauch ‘01, along with Randolph’s images. This book bridges the history of the Witte/Reeves family with the education of young women today at Ashley Hall.
Christa Clausen Tear and her husband have lived all over the world for the past 51 years and are settled permanently in Savannah, GA. Christa would love to hear from her Class of ‘57 classmates. ‘61 Kay Haselden Chandler is looking forward to seeing lots of Class of ‘61 friends at the April 2011 50th reunion! Sally McCrady Hubbard works as office manager of the Sewanee Summer Music Festival and enjoys singing and hiking in her spare time. She has been married for 36
years to retired architect, Charles Hubbard. She is looking forward to seeing her classmates at the 50th reunion in April. ‘65 Jane Dowling Fender has retired from the active bench but still holds court from time to time. She is enjoying retirement and doing a bit of mediation of family court cases as well as a lot of traveling and visiting grandchildren. She also enjoys her lifelong learning opportunities with USC-Beaufort and Elder Hostel.
Yancey Richardson ’73, owner and curator of Yancey Richardson Gallery, was highlighted in the December 2010/January 2011 issue of More Magazine in an article entitled “The Art of Dressing: Women Live at the Intersection of Creativity and Commerce, Curating, Marketing or Making Art.” Check it out at www.more.com.
‘66 DeeDee Geraty Squires enjoyed working for the U.S. Census office in St. Joe, Missouri from November 2009 to August 2010 as the administrative assistant. She worked on hiring 5000 census workers and administered the census for 43 Missouri counties. ‘67 Annie Bailes Brown is a grandmother again! Mary Dorothy Brown was born in May 2010. ‘68 Shannon Wilson Ravenel reports that she loves being a grandmother! ‘70 Helen Croft Holliday had a great time at her 40th reunion last April and loved being back on the beautiful Ashley Hall campus. ‘71 Barbara Hall Beard is working as a coach at the Buckley School of Public Speaking in Camden, SC. She misses Charleston! Nancy J. Muller recently completed her Ph.D. in Health Services research at Virginia Commonwealth University.
‘72 Christy Holliday Douglas recently visited with classmates, Nancy Coggins Seymour, Sara Pat McKenzie Dyson, May Dowling Peach, Lou Dowling Davis, Menard Hall and Ruthie Barragan Clark and chatted with Anne Seifert Lander, Betsy Stone Richardson and Sally Green. She reports that they are all great! Christy is also writing a book called The South I Knew. Check it out at www.thesouthiknew.com! ‘73 Beth Ogier Barnwell lives in Mount Pleasant with her husband, Billy, and their son, Grayson, an 8th grader at Porter Gaud. Their oldest son, William, is a sophomore at Clemson. Helen Read Bertrand is still practicing pediatric medicine on James Island. Her daughter Gracie is a student at the College of Charleston, and daughter Annie is a student at James Island Charter High School. Vicki Hewitt Causey still works for the Confederate Museum. She has four daughters and has “three down, one to go” in college! Daughter Vicki graduated
from Clemson in 2005. Charlotte graduated from the University of Alabama Honors College in 2008. Ashley graduated from
Auburn University in 2009. Her youngest daughter, Rachel, is currently a student at USC. She reports that football season becomes a “war zone” in her home! Vicki had a great visit with Evelyn Beebe Beaumont ‘74 in Richmond last fall and also visited Cathy Rumble Lively ‘73 at their beautiful home in Nellysford, VA in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Mary deSaussure Cutler lives in Charleston, and has three children. She sells real estate. Mary Helen Trouche Dantzler lives in Mount Pleasant. Her daughter is a sophomore at
On November 29, Margaret Donaldson ’77 and Amy McKinney ’03 were on campus for a Women in Leadership speaker series. Margaret opened Margaret Donaldson Interiors, a Charleston interior design firm, in 1988. Her company’s work ranges from a 19th century plantation to resort condominiums and from an upscale retirement community to a lively orthodontist’s office. Amy joined Margaret Donaldson Interiors after graduating from Furman three years ago with a business and art major. Her own downtown condo was recently featured in the June issue of Better Homes and Gardens. Amy spoke to the upper school girls relating the path that took her from Ashley Hall to her current position with Margaret Donaldson Interiors, by way of Furman University and a study abroad program in Italy. Following that program, Margaret and Amy spoke to a group of alumnae and parents at a brown bag lunch and shared samples of their design work and inspiration.
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Franny Rivers Slay ’80 On Friday, August 27, Coach Slay celebrated a milestone in her 22 year career as Ashley Hall’s Varsity Volleyball coach - her 500th Varsity Volleyball victory!!
Clemson, and her son is a freshman at UVA. Claudia Poulnot de Mayo still lives in Atlanta but travels as often as she can. She has her pilot’s license and really enjoys flying. She even flew in the Air Force Classic last summer. Meta Grimball Frasch is the volunteer sailing director of the Special Olympics of South Carolina (SOSC). She has been chosen to lead Team USA Sailors for the 2011 World Summer Games in Athens, Greece. A seasoned sailor, Meta heads up SOSC Sailing with the help of the Charleston Community Sailing Programs. She will work with World Games sailors and their coaches to lead the group through international competition next summer. Harriet Stimson Gatter lives in Charlotte, NC, where she is running her business,
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Presidential Promotions. She enjoys being close to Charleston and staying connected with her Charleston friends in Charlotte. Renee Greene lives in Southwest Ranches, FL. Both of her children are attending the College of Charleston, so she returns to Charleston often to visit them and her parents. Tina Edwards Mayland reports that she has “rewired” from her corporate career and is now a full-time artist. Her work can be seen at two galleries in Charleston: Spence’s at 57 Broad Street and Charleston Artist Guild Gallery at 160 East Bay Street. Check out her website at www.tinamaylandart.com. Melaina Clement Pate is staying busy with her real estate business. Lee Davis Perry and her husband, Rhett, and their dog,
Brummy, are enjoying life on Lake Murray. Lee is writing another book! Susan Smith Perry will soon be moving from Birmingham to Atlanta. Dale C. Poulnot’s three daughters, Cameron Widman ‘03, Lauren Widman ‘05 and Kathryn Widman ‘06 have all graduated from college. Cameron is living and working in Charleston, Lauren is working in the Dominican Republic, and Kathryn is moving to Germany to work.
Heidi Speissegger is the Business Manager at Charleston Day School. Her daughter, Mary Legare Whaley ‘04 lives in Charleston and works as a graphic designer on Kiawah Island, and her son Seabrook is a senior at Clemson. ‘77 Virginia Stone Crutchley is still enjoying playing tennis! She has a daughter who is married and lives in Singapore and a son who lives in Columbia.
Beth Wier Tal was in town from Israel over Thanksgiving to celebrate her parents’ 60th wedding anniversary.
‘78 Mary Harrigan Carr and her husband, R.W., have two children, a daughter, Grace in 6th grade and a son, Logan, a sophomore at Florida State.
Anne Thornhill Weston reports that she has a “second mid-life crisis” dog and is still loving her work at Heathwood Hall Episcopal School in Columbia as Upper School Head and Provost.
Madge McCrady Hallett and her husband, Jimmy, have two sons. Robert is a junior at Heathwood Hall, and Ben is a sophomore at the University of Alabama. Jimmy is with NBSC.
Virginia Webb Harrison’s son plays football for Clemson as wide receiver! ‘79 Cyndy Thompson Applegate’s company, Brightstar of Charleston, recently received the Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval and Certification for Health Care Staffing. ‘82 Amy E. Jenkins recently joined the Charleston Parks Conservancy as Director of Development. Amy also serves on the Ashley Hall Alumnae Board as the Chair of the National Alumnae Council.
‘83 Lessa Nuckles Whatmough was recently selected as Deputy Chief Counsel in the Office of Chief Counsel, Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in San Antonio, Texas.
‘86 Nancy Rowe Abercrombie is working at Coastal Expeditions, “the best local kayaking outfitter” and enjoyed the outdoors and beautiful fall weather with her children, Jack and Grier. She is looking forward to seeing everyone at the 25th reunion in April!
Laura Doty Adams is the author of a new book, Money Girl’s Smart Moves to Grow Rich, a guidebook full of tips and tricks that explain what you need to know about money without bogging you down with what you don’t need to know. Laura hosts the award-winning Money Girl audio podcast that has been downloaded over 7 million times. Find out more about Money Girl at www.smartmovestogrowrich. com. Lara L. Allison is enjoying as much time as she can with her children, Haley and Luke, while working part-time as a relief veterinarian. Lara is
also starting a part time business, Healing and the Human Animal Bond. Margie Davis Barham is working part-time at Toddler Time at St. Michael’s Church in Charleston and is excited about this year: serving as Vice President of the Alumnae Board, gearing up for the Class of 86’s 25th Reunion, and becoming involved as a parent (a new role for sure!) at Ashley Hall. Margie and John’s older daughter, Ellie, (a first grader) was a little angel in this year’s Christmas Play. Their younger daughter, Sarah, is enjoying the 4’s at the O’Quinn School. Karen Conradi Deschenes lives in Portland, OR, where she owns and runs Mount Scott Animal Clinic. Doesy Rutledge Dickinson and her husband, T.M., have been living in Charlottesville, VA, for 11 years with their sons, Cole (13) and Tee (9). They just celebrated their 17th wedding anniversary. Lizzy Cathcart Grubbs stays busy keeping up with her three boys, David (12), Robert (10), and William (5) and has recently been substitute teaching at Ashley Hall where she loves the “girl time.” Anne Marks Jones and her family have relocated to Williamsburg, VA, and are adjusting well to all things new!
Class of ’87 Doesy Rutledge Dickinson, Margie Davis Barham, Nancy Rowe Abercrombie, Gaillard Rogers Long, Anne Marks Jones and Lizzy Cathcart Grubbs, all members of the Class of 1986, gathered for lunch this summer in Charleston, and made plans to reconnect for their 25th reunion in April 2011.
Gaillard Rogers Long and her husband, Bob, are still living in Houston, TX, and staying busy with their children: Hampton (10), Cameron (9), Whit (9) and Eleanor (4).
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They had a wonderful Christmas holiday with family and friends in Charleston.
She has also has been a Cub Scout Den Leader for the past 3 years.
Lisa Lemly McNamara’s daughter, McKenna, is loving 3rd grade at Ashley Hall and looking forward to a family trip to Dallas, TX for a birthday party, Cowboys game, and trip to the American Girl Doll Store, Dallas style!
‘90 Nancy Wade Currie Lewis and her husband, Geoffrey, have a daughter, Maggie, in first grade and a new baby, Elizabeth, born last spring.
Kimberly O’Quinn participated last fall in the first annual Prince William Cycle Tour which raised money for the town of Yemassee, SC, where her mother is from. She rode 62 miles through historic country roads with barely any traffic...a nice break from LA! Details are posted at www. yemassee-sc.org. Nancy Blair Chaddick Parr is the Reliability Engineering Manager at the Westinghouse Nuclear Fuel Fabrication Facility (45% of SC’s electricity comes from nuclear fuel manufactured at this facility) in Columbia, SC. While her job is very demanding, she is able to work an alternate schedule that allows her to be at home with her boys (ages 10 and 13) in the afternoons. ‘88 Hart Waring Corlett works for the Charleston County Auditor (17 years now!). She has also started a new business as a Silpada Sterling Silver Jewelry Representative in which she is having so much fun! She has met so many amazing women in such a short period of time. She is married to Kelly Corlett, and they celebrated 11 years of marriage last September. Their son, Ross, is a 4th grader at Harborview Elementary.
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‘91 Laura McKinley Spriggs and her husband, Paul, have a twoyear old daughter, Ellie, whom they hope will be an Ashley Hall girl one day! ‘94 Mandy Carson Davis’s youngest child, Merritt, started at Ashley Hall as a first grader this fall. ‘02 Lynn Geronimo Cruz and her husband, Lee, welcomed a daughter, Lana Grace, in April 2010. Lynn is employed by a company that develops nutrition for animals, and Lee is a left fielder for minor league baseball with the Houston Astro’s Association. They reside in St Louis during the “off season.” ‘06 Mary Domenica Geronimo graduated from Saint Louis University with degrees in Marketing and Entrepreneurship. She enjoyed working last summer at the Atlantic Inn on Block Island and loves being Auntie Mary to Lana Grace, sister Lynn Gernonimo Cruz’s ‘06, daughter. Callie S. Osborne graduated from Sewanee in May 2010 with a degree in Art History. She graduated with magna cum laude honors and was inducted into the Phi Beta
Caroline Gordon Perkins ’91, was on campus on October 25 to address to the 7th – 12th grade assembly about her career in the CIA and to speak to Penn Hagood’s Military History class. Caroline graduated from Furman University with a degree in history and holds a Masters Degree in International Studies from the University of Washington’s Jackson School of International Relations with a focus on China and a supplemental degree in Global Trade, Transportation, and Logistics. She has worked as a Foreign Service Officer in the US Embassy in Beijing, China and has also been an intelligence analyst at the CIA. She currently serves as a manager in that area. Caroline related to the students, “As an Ashley Hall high school student, I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life, but I knew that I did not want a boring job.” While she did not know what her future held at that point, she credits three teachers with giving her the advice and guidance that eventually led her to her chosen field. That advice was 1) read everything that you can get your hands on, 2) remember that history repeats itself when you don’t learn from your mistakes, and 3) be able to write well because it will set you apart from your peers in college and professionally. Caroline also gives much credit to her mother, Betsy Gordon, assistant to the Ashley Hall Head of School and long time employee of Ashley Hall. Caroline and her husband, Jonathan (who is also with the CIA), live in Alexandria, Virginia, with their two daughters, Elizabeth (4) and Catherine (2).
Kappa society. She is currently working on applying to medical school. ‘08 Hayley C. Harrell is a junior at the College of Charleston where she plays on the volleyball team. She will be joining her sister, Jamie Harrell ‘10, in Honduras, for their fourth medical mission trip in February. Virginia P. Herbert is a junior at Vassar College where she is majoring in drama with a particular interest in Shakespeare and English Literature. She spent last fall studying at The London Academy of Music and Drama. Marjorie G. Herbert is a junior at Swarthmore College. She is majoring in Linguistics and is fluent in French and German. She spent last summer working on an organic farm near Lyon, France, and will study in Berlin this spring. ‘09 Tory Q. Corless is playing club volleyball and singing with “The Grace Notes”, the oldest and only female a capella group at Georgetown University. She can also be heard as a DJ on WGTB, the Georgetown University radio station. The name of her show is “Yoko’s Redemption and the Psychonaut.” Lily V. Greenberg is playing varsity squash at Colby College where she is an Art History major. She plans to study abroad in London next fall. Jordan E. L. Lowery was inducted into the National
Ashley Phillips ’07, a senior and member of the sailing team at Georgetown University, and her skipper came in first overall in a November regatta against the Naval Academy.
Society of Collegiate Scholars for academic excellence at Clemson University last fall. Louisa E. Phillips is running cross country at Washington & Lee University, where the women’s team won their ODAC conference championship. She is double majoring in Biology and Spanish. Abbie L. Wrenn loves being a student at the The University of South Carolina. She is very active in her sorority, Kappa Delta, and is majoring in Early Childhood Education. ‘10 Caroline M. Andrews is a freshman at Virginia Tech. Last September, she competed at the American Eventing Championships in Georgia and finished 25th in Novice Division with her horse, Absolutely Rugged.
Jamie R. Harrell is a freshman at the College of Charleston where she will compete on the tennis team this spring. She will be joining her sister, Hayley Harrell ‘08, in Honduras for their fourth medical mission trip in February. Olivia B. Hipp is in full swing at Rhodes College loving college life, new friends and professors, and studies. She has pledged Kappa Delta sorority and has just sung Handel’s Israel in Egypt with Rhodes College and Community Choir. Celeste L. Jilich is studying genetics at Clemson University. She sings in the Glee Club, participates in Fellowship of Christian Athletes, has a part-time job calling for the alumni fund, goes to French Club when it doesn’t conflict with her school schedule, and is involved in the Foundation for the International
Medical Relief of Children. She is proud that her Ashley Hall education prepared her so well that she exempted enough science and all foreign language to register as a sophomore this semester. Kathryn M. Pearce has recently finished her first volleyball season playing for the SEC Division 1 University of South Carolina Gamecocks and is a Biology major.
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Birth Announcements
Weddings
‘98 Katy Cohen Decker and her husband, David, recently welcomed a baby girl, Alexandra Claire Decker, into their family.
‘62 Judi Reed Moore married Benjamin Alston Moore, Jr. in October 2009.
‘99 Jennifer Nistad McCooey and her husband, Kevin, proudly announce the birth of their daughter, Erin O’Shea McCooey, on July 21, 2010.
Death Notices ‘39 Nancy Patrick Evans Winston-Salem, NC April 16, 2010 ‘42 Ann Skipper McAden San Antonio, TX August 12, 2010 Virginia W. Mitchell Mount Pleasant March 31, 2010. ‘46 Dottie McAlister Lockwood Charleston, SC November 14, 2010 ‘47 Nan Shriver Hahn Haverford, PA February 19, 2009 Sally Mills Hartsock Charlotte, NC July 6, 2010 ‘53 Nora Alston Flynn Union, SC October 3, 2010 ‘64 Sally Fearnside Tanner Raleigh, NC November 7, 2010
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‘00 Amelia Simonds Waring of Charleston, SC, and William Paul Walker III of Columbia, SC, were married on November 20, 2010, at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in Charleston, SC. A reception followed at Hibernian Society Hall. Amelia received her BA in Art History from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, VA, and her Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina School of Law in Columbia. She recently began working at the South Carolina Supreme Court as a staff attorney in Columbia. The groom received a BA in English Literature from the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and a Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina School of Law in Columbia. He is employed as a law clerk to The Honorable L. Casey Manning, Circuit Court Judge for the Fifth Judicial Circuit, in Columbia. Mary Barnwell Rhett Waring ’02 and Louisa Vanderhorst Waring ‘06, both of Charleston, sisters of the bride, were maids of honor. Bridesmaids included Laura Hall Phillipps ’00 and Anne McLeod Smith ‘99 of Charleston. Eliza Cheves Brockinton ’02 served as a greeter. The couple honeymooned on Anguilla, British West Indies, and reside in Columbia. ‘01 Courtney Leigh Kennedy and David Bryan Taylor, both of Charleston, SC, were married on September 18, 2010, at Middleton Place in Charleston, where a reception followed at the Pavilion. Courtney earned a BS in Nursing from MUSC and an MSN in Anesthesia from the Medical College of Georgia. She is employed by an anesthesia group in the Charleston area. The groom graduated from West Ashley High School and earned a BS in Biology from The Citadel. He is employed as an estimator for Master SheetMetal, Inc. The couple honeymooned on a seven day cruise to the Southern Caribbean and reside in Summerville, SC.
‘02 Patricia Allen Cole and Michael Christopher Ard, both of Charleston, SC, were married on October 16, 2010, in Summerall Chapel, The Citadel in Charleston. A reception followed at The Carolina Yacht Club. Tricia received a BS in Early Childhood Education from Presbyterian College and is employed as a first grade teacher with the Charleston County School District. The groom earned a BA in Political Science from The Citadel and is employed by the S.C. State Ports Authority. Laura Blazak Cole ‘00 was maid of honor. Bride’s attendants included Katherine Eve Anderson ‘03, Ellen Fletcher Cole ‘06, and Tiffin Dowling Lamoreaux ‘01. The couple honeymooned in the Caribbean and reside in Charleston. ‘03 Kendall Monroe Robertson of Charleston, SC and James Carlton Fleming, Jr. of Charlotte, NC, were married on October 16, 2010, at St. Michael’s Church in Charleston. A reception followed at Governor Thomas Bennett House. Kendall earned a Bachelor of Arts from Duke University and is Senior Marketing Manager at Decorati, Inc. a San Francisco design business. The groom earned a Bachelor of Arts and Juris Doctor and Master of Laws degrees from Duke University. He is employed by Parker, Poe, Adams and Bernstein. Shipley Robertson Salewski ’97 was matron of honor. The couple honeymooned in St. Lucia and reside in Charlotte, NC. ‘05 Jessica Ann Kearse of Mt. Pleasant, S.C. and Mark Jackson Mizzell, Jr., of Honea Path, S.C. were married on July 17, 2010, at Saint Andrew’s Church in Mt Pleasant. A reception followed at The I’On Creek Club. Jessica received a B.A. degree in Elementary Education and a Master’s in Reading Education from Clemson University. She teaches in Charleston. The groom received a B.A. degree in Chemistry from Clemson University. He is currently enrolled in the College of Dental Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina. Maid of honor was Christina Kearse ‘10. Bridesmaids included Kathryn Baldwin ‘05 and Christine White ‘05. Flower girls were Isabela Cawley ‘21 and Daniela Cawley ‘22 After honeymooning on Grand Cayman Island, the couple reside in Mt Pleasant.
LOST ALUMNAE • REUNION CLASSES 2011 Please contact Elizabeth Foster at fostere@ashleyhall.org or 843-965.8454 if you can help find any of these alumnae whose reunion will be in April 2011. 1961 Judy Bremer Allen Jane Gray Judi Holsclaw Karen Karl Harriet Kirk Margaret Phillips Cindy Coleman Schuler Lillian Robertson Shinnick
1966 Nancy Borop Nell Childs Mary Parrish Coskey Ellen Kennedy DeLoach Claudia Coleman Dunlap Nancy Evans Kate Jackson Susan Head Marler Sally Addlestone Regenbogen Frances Robb Kate Schlech
Marie Hammersley Thompson Anne Smith Williams 1971 Sara S. B. Allen Susan Caudill Kiki Walsh Eckhouse Joanie Rosen Funk Sallie Lanigan Rita Linn Karen Magill Perrin Harrison Rutter Kathy Stewart Karen Hudson Stricklin Rusty Thomas Watson 1976 Celia Cart Barbara Disney Lucia Crawford Farley Andrea Harvin Maria Tezza Elizabeth Tucker Lynda Wannamaker Emily Jefferies Wiles 1981 Daryl Barksdale Pam Rodriguez Robinson 1986 Robin Altman Cecelia Larsson 1991 Susan Broody 1996 Elizabeth Gaillard Sykes 2001 Dee E. Lieber Kimberly P. Lovell Merrill Oulla Julia L. Price Caroline Russo
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