BANCROFT Bulletin Fall/Winter 2011
Conventional Classroom, Meet the Co-op
Bancroft Celebrates Commencement and
Divisional Closing Ceremonies
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beautiful series of ceremonies took place in June as Bancroft marked another important milestone for graduating seniors, eighth graders moving to Upper School, and fifth grade students heading over to the Middle School. At the 110th Bancroft Commencement, student speaker Solon Kelleher, expressed on behalf of his class of 54 “my deep love and affection felt by all—students, faculty, and parents—as we bid farewell to the Class of 2011” who moved on to colleges and universities across the nation this fall.
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2011 SENIOR COLLEGE LIST
View photos of our Lower and Middle School Closings, the 110th Commencement ceremony, and a listing of our Middle School and Upper School Academic Award recipients at: www.bancroftschool.org/2011closings
Assumption College Becker College Bennington College Bentley University (2) Boston College (5) Boston University Bowdoin College Brown University (3) Carnegie Mellon University Case Western Reserve University Champlain College Clark University (2) Colgate University College of the Holy Cross (2) Duke University Emerson College Fairfield University Fordham University High Point University Johns Hopkins University Johnson & Wales University Northeastern University (2) Northwestern University Norwich University Principia College Providence College Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute St. Catherine University - St. Paul The University of Alabama Trinity College (2) Tufts University (4) Tulane University University of Chicago (2) University of Delaware University of Massachusetts, Amherst University of Michigan University of Pennsylvania Worcester Polytechnic Institute Yale University
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Contents
BANCROFT Bulletin |
Fall/Winter 2011
5 News Features Chinese partnership continues… Stephen T. White Chair announced… City of Worcester honors Worcester Partnership…Solar installation expands…and more…
BANCROFT SCHOOL Communications Editor-In-Chief / Director of Marketing and Communications Matthew Barone Design Linda Dagnello
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CO-OP
ADVANTAGES:
e-Communications Manager Julie O’Malley Editorial Assistant Deena S. Madnick Alumni and Development Director of Institutional Advancement Liz Siladi
Energy,
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Administrative Assistants Lydia Barter, Catherine Hanssen
Cover Photo: Sylvia Parol ’10 outside the YWCA in Worcester, MA
Bancroft’s new Senior Cooperative (Co-op) is transforming students’ last semester with project- based learning through eager partner organizations.
the Global Life
Director of Development Laurie Bowater
Bancroft Bulletin is published biannually by Bancroft School, 110 Shore Drive, Worcester, MA 01605-3198. Issues are published fall/winter and spring/summer and mailed to all known alumni of Bancroft School as part of the benefit of their having attended the School. Bancroft Bulletin provides a medium for the exchange of views concerning Bancroft School affairs; news about the School and its alumni; and editorial content that relates to the shared and diverse experiences and interests of Bancroft alumni.
Experience
Passion, and Experience
14 Linguistic Researcher Lives
Associate Director of Alumni Relations Lynn St. Germain
Contributors Russ Campbell, Joan Killough-Miller, Nicita Mehta, Matt Robinson, Mark Taylor
Passion, and
10 Co-op Advantages: Energy,
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Alumna Katrina Daly Thompson ’93 started her linguistic journey in Bancroft’s Latin classes. Today she has a Ph.D in African Languages and Literature and is a Professor at UCLA.
18 2011 Reunion Alumni Reunion celebration
20 Alumni News 16
2010 – 11 Annual Report (insert)
Photos: Russ Campbell
Dear Bancroft Friends, As I write the introduction to this issue of the Bancroft Bulletin, we are actively preparing for our Open House. Soon I will go before an audience of students and parents to articulate the vision of our school, our mission, and how Bancroft differs from other schools. I have done this 12 times in the past (Assistant Head Gary Mathieu took the lead in 2008 during my sabbatical). Our School’s mission is well known, and directs all that we do here. We hold to the centrality of an experience of excellence for each child, as we create a diverse community of lifelong learners, teachers of others, and citizens of the globe. I will speak of the success of our alumni at becoming the people they are, and how so many discovered their passion in life here on our Shore Drive campus. At Bancroft our students are known, cared for, and loved by a community of teachers who embody the same values for which our school stands. Bancroft’s approach to education has, as these pages attest, received much attention, locally, regionally, even internationally. This attention has been the result of the forward momentum that has characterized our mission—it is, in sum, a project that is never completed. This past year has witnessed a number of important changes: the introduction of widespread use of iPads in the first program in our area; the visits of our students and faculty to China to teach Chinese educators, as well as the return visit of 10 students and three chaperones from Number 1 School of Tongji University; the inauguration of the full-scale Senior Cooperative that involves scores of local partner organizations in the Worcester area; solar panels not only on the McDonough Center, but also on the Fletcher Athletic Center. These changes, and so many others, look toward the creation of leaders for our future. Bancroft School is on the move. It is my hope that you will see this sense of urgency and commitment to mission on the pages that follow. It is but a sampling of the energy found here on a daily basis. Yours,
Scott R. Reisinger Headmaster
News
Features
Chinese Partnership Strengthens Bancroft faculty lecture in Shanghai while Number 1 School of Tongji University Sends First Delegation to Worcester
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any miles have been logged in the air and on the ground between our respective institutions. None more so than in the last four months which have seen three official visits between Number 1 School of Tongji University and Bancroft School. In July, 13 members of the Shanghai educational establishment, including teachers and principals, and the Director of the Yangpu District Shanghai Education Department toured Bancroft’s campus and met with faculty, students, parents, and trustees. Shortly following that positive experience Bancroft sent a group of faculty—Matt Glenn, Connie Moore, David Fair, and Jackie Lefebvre—students, and parents for two weeks to experience the Chinese culture and work. The faculty, as in the past, served as visiting teachers at the Yangpu Teacher College leading classes in American Music; American Art; Mathematics; College Counseling; Educational Leadership; and Creativity in American Independent Schools. “Shanghai was another life experience that will live on in my memory forever,” said Moore, who taught classes in art and art history for four days. “In one of my sessions each of the 50 or so Chinese teachers was asked to create a 3-D mask and then to interpret their pieces using English artistic terms. They enjoyed the individuality of the experience very much, and I was thrilled at their engaged enthusiasm.” And for the first time, the Bancroft community played host to ten students and three faculty from Number 1 School in October. Led by Vice Headmaster Jianping Li, the Chinese group arrived on campus after a long journey and received a warm reception with Bancroft host families, faculty, and staff.
Through a translator, Assistant Headmaster Gary Mathieu addressed the entire group by welcoming the Shanghai delegation to “the heart of the Commonwealth.” He continued by saying, “We are grateful for your willingness to meet our families, students, and faculty. As you have been gracious hosts to our School over the last two years we look forward to reciprocating that generosity and building our friendship further.” Mr. Li expressed his excitement about visiting Bancroft School after many months of planning. It was his hope that the Chinese students would learn firsthand how both American education and families operate within our culture. “To observe the similarities and differences of our people is extremely important to me,” said Li. Shanghai students spent a week living with Bancroft families, attending a variety of classes in the Upper School, and touring the area. Excursions were organized to Boston, Harvard University, and WPI’s Robotics Lab. “From its modest beginnings with the casual visit of Shanghai Governor Chen two years ago, our Chinese partnership has blossomed into genuine enrichment opportunities for our community,” said Scott R. Reisinger, Headmaster. As the partnership students from Number 1 School were departing for the long journey back to Shanghai, Bancroft’s Headmaster asked what they would miss most about their experience in the United States. The Chinese students responded overwhelmingly, “we will miss our Bancroft host families most of all.”
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News Features
Stephen T. White Chair in Teaching Excellence Kathleen Young Named First Recipient
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he Stephen T. White Chair for Excellence in Teaching Fund was established in 2008 as a permanent endowed fund to honor teacher Stephen T. White on the occasion of his retirement and to assist Bancroft School in supporting its faculty. The first Stephen T. White Chair is held by Kathleen Young, an 11th year member of the Bancroft Middle School team teaching World Geography. “Kathy is an ideal choice for this honorable recognition,” said Scott R. Reisinger, Headmaster. “Her passionate commitment to global citizenship is matched by her exceptional dedication to our students and her genuine love for what she does as a teacher of seventh grade Geography. Kathy embodies the values of lifelong learning and teaching that defined Steve White’s outstanding career and contribution to Bancroft School.” “I’m deeply touched by this recognition for teaching excellence,” said Young. “I have had the pleasure of working with and being inspired by so many wonderful and committed educators here at Bancroft. I have been
given the freedom to create a flexible curriculum that explores continuously shifting world dynamics that even touch on the sometimescontroversial topics such as cultural conflicts and the roles that religion plays in society. It is an exciting time to be an educator, and I am so grateful to be a part of this wonderful community.” Established through generous donations from James G. Dinan ’77, White’s family, and other donors, the Stephen T. White Chair in Teaching Excellence is awarded to one faculty member every three years in recognition of his/her commitment to the advancement of excellence in life-long learning, teaching, and global citizenship— three values embodied in the 47-year career of Stephen T. White, former English teacher at Bancroft School. The recipient will hold the designation of the Stephen T. White Chair for a three-year term of appointment. Stephen T. White Chair faculty are determined by the Headmaster in consultation with the President of the Board of Trustees, and White or his designee.
Alden Trust Honors Alumna with Grant to Bancroft
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ancroft was very pleased to receive a $150,000 grant in May from the George I. Alden Trust to establish an endowed scholarship fund in honor of Susan B. Woodbury ’61, who retired after more than 18 years as a Trustee of the Alden Trust, the last nine years as Chair, and celebrated her 50th reunion at Bancroft this spring. Headmaster Scott R. Reisinger said, “We are most appreciative to the Trustees of the Alden Trust for their generous philanthropic support of Bancroft over many decades, and for all that they have done to strengthen Bancroft’s ability to fulfill its commitment to excellence in education. We are especially thrilled to be able to establish the Susan B. Woodbury ’61 Fund, a permanently endowed scholarship fund, which will be used to provide financial aid for deserving and qualified students at any grade level. This is a fitting tribute to Sue, and an extraordinary way to further educational opportunity for young people in our community.” The Alden Trust has been one of Bancroft’s most generous benefactors, providing more than $1,500,000 in grants to endowment for financial aid purposes and for renovations to the Fuller Science Center, among other purposes.
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City School Committee Recognizes Bancroft’s Worcester Partnership
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he Worcester Partnership is a longstanding collaboration between Bancroft School and Elm Park Community School. Designed and directed by Bancroft faculty member Charlie Aleksiewicz, the program has enriched the lives of hundreds of children facing cultural and educational challenges. This fall, the City of Worcester formally recognized Bancroft for the success of the partnership. Aleksiewicz accepted the award from School Superintendant Melinda Boone at the School Committee meeting on September 15, 2011. Also in attendance was Elm Park Principal Paula Protor (pictured with Aleksiewicz), who knows firsthand about the program’s impact. “Our students are definitely in need of a wider knowledge of what’s going on beyond our own community, and the Bancroft partnership fulfills that need,” says Proctor. “Charlie’s dedication to the program is extraordinary. He will not give up on our students. Even after they leave Elm Park, he maintains ties and keeps providing opportunities for growth. I’m so impressed with him, and with Bancroft’s support of the program for all these years.” This summer, 84 Elm Park students attended the Worcester Partnership’s summer program, where they were challenged and supported academically in the
mornings, and enjoyed traditional day camp activities and swimming lessons in the afternoons. Saturday sessions and social gatherings during the fall and winter help maintain the mentor relationships and excitement for learning. Aleksiewicz says he’s “happy that the Worcester Partnership at Bancroft School has been recognized for giving back to the City with a special academic enrichment program,” and that the Bancroft community is having a positive effect on a generation of children from the public school system. Learn more about the Worcester Partnership at www.bancroftschool.org
Concussion Safety Program
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s part of Bancroft’s proactive concussion safety initiative, the Athletic Department has been conducting ImPACT testing for all student-athletes. ImPACT is a software program with non-invasive tests designed to assess cognitive functions such as attention span, working memory, problem solving, and reaction time. Professional sports teams use this same kind of testing. Bancroft’s head athletic trainer Wayne Penniman (PT, DPT, ATC, CSCS) has undergone ImPACT training and is overseeing the program. “It’s important that we test our athletes’ normal functioning first, so that we have baseline data for comparison if they later suffer a concussion,” he explains. Sports-related concussions can occur despite proper safety precautions and protective equipment. Fortunately, given adequate rest and time, athletes can typically recover from concussion injuries with no lasting effects.
However, if an athlete returns to play and experiences a second concussion before the brain has fully recovered from the first, the risk of serious brain damage increases significantly. By more precisely assessing the individual’s stage of recovery, ImPACT can help prevent that scenario. Trainers and medical professionals compare the pre- and post-injury test results to chart the athlete’s recovery progress. ImPACT scores can also be helpful in convincing athletes that, although they may feel fine, their brains, may not be ready to get back in the game. “The ImPACT score will be a great addition to our toolbox, but the final decision to return an athlete to play will still be based on several important factors,” Penniman assures. “In addition to the ImPACT results, we follow medical recommendations; use our knowledge of the athlete’s usual strength, coordination, and balance; and respect the parents’ wishes.” Learn more by visiting the ImPACT website at www.impacttest.com.
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News Features
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Solar Project Expansion
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year after making a big impression with local officials at a special ceremony attended by Massachusetts Lt. Governor Timothy Murray, Bancroft School is again expanding its reputation as a leader in sustainability. In November 2011 the School powered up 436 high-efficiency solar panels to the campus bringing our total contribution to the electric system at a remarkable 896 devices producing more than 227,000-kilowatt hours of electricity annually. “We continue to make strides in reducing our carbon footprint like other area organizations including WPI, Clark University, and the City of Worcester itself,” said Scott R. Reisinger, Headmaster. “Savings on energy benefits everyone, but also means more availability to fund programs at the School that positively impact all of our students.” In December 2010, the Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts unveiled the state’s Clean Energy and Climate Change Plan for 2020 that lays out a strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent. Beginning this year, Bancroft has calculated that the complete electric system will reduce our fossil fuel electricity demands by up to 25 percent putting the School in compliance with the plan nine years ahead of schedule. The solar expansion project was made possible by Future Solar Systems, LLC, of Millbury, MA, which
designed the solar electric system, coordinated the installation, secured investors, and provided the comprehensive curriculum for solar, wind, and energy efficiency for faculty to incorporate into the science and math programs. Currently the Lower School is teaching solar energy as part of its science program. “This multi-week curriculum, led by Barbara Chenot, involves a unit on designing windmills, studying solar hot water heaters and houses, and incorporates field work outside of the classroom,” said Brian Kondek, Science Department Chair. “We are reevaluating the entire scope and sequence of the K-12 sciences to incorporate more study of alternative energies that make specific connections to some of the notable work we have accomplished right on our own campus.”
Welcome, New Faculty and Staff
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h E R In te M M Sarah Williams MS English Faculty
Mary Jean (MJ) Jones MS Science Faculty
Julie O’Malley e-Communications Manager
Sarah holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Nebraska, and earned her teaching certification from the College of Saint Mary, in Omaha, NE. Certified in Middle and Secondary Social Studies and Middle School Language Arts, Sarah formerly taught English at the Spirit of Knowledge Charter School in Worcester.
MJ earned her M.S. in Teaching of Physical Sciences and Mathematics from the University of Maine, and a B.A. in Environmental Ethics and a B.S. in Environmental Engineering from Colorado State University. In the past three years, MJ held roles as a teaching assistant, project mentor, student teacher, and graduate assistant, all at the University of Maine.
Julie received her B.A. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and most recently was the Senior Content Writer/ Marketing Specialist at Pongo Resume in Northborough. Her background includes editing, writing, web content, video content, email messaging, and social media.
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Board Member, and Friend, Passes
STUDENT SPOTLIGHT Hallie Kamosky ’19: Loving what she does
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n June 16, 2011 Bancroft School lost a dear friend and valued leader with the passing of Agnes E. Kull, age 73. A 10-year member of the Board of Trustees, and its Treasurer for the past eight years, Agnes Kull was an extraordinary advocate for Bancroft and a committed and caring volunteer who worked diligently on behalf of our School community. A respected businesswoman, advisor, leader, role model, beloved mother and grandmother, Kull was honored by Bancroft and the Alumni Council as the 2010 recipient of the Robert W. Stoddard ’23 Award for Outstanding Community Service. An immigrant to the United States from Lithuania in 1952, she went to school at night to become an accountant while raising her two daughters. At a time when there were few women in the accounting field, she was appointed a Partner at Greenberg, Rosenblatt, Kull & Bitsoli, PC. Her specialty and passion was estate planning. She had recently celebrated her 50th anniversary with the firm and at her death she served as the firm’s Chairman of the Board. Kull also led by example, giving back to her profession and her community. She was a member of the Board of Directors, Executive Committee and Treasurer of the Worcester Regional Research Bureau; Trustee and Treasurer of Music Worcester, Inc., a member of the Board of Directors, Executive Committee and Finance Committee Chairman of the Worcester Art Museum, and Treasurer and Board of Directors for UMASS Memorial Foundation. For all that she did for others, her greatest joy was being close to and involved with her children and grandchildren: daughters Karin Fitch and Tara Roy, and Bancroft “sandboxers� Sabrina Roy ‘12, and Ross Fitch ‘18. Kull was admired for her expertise, perseverance, integrity, and loyalty. With recognition of her dedication to Bancroft School, on September 22, 2011, the Board of Trustees unanimously passed a formal resolution that includes the following statement: Resolved: The Bancroft School Board of Trustees expresses its profound thanks for the life, friendship and example of Agnes E. Kull, and expresses to her children, grandchildren, and colleagues, our profound sympathy at the loss of one of our School’s most ardent supporters. May she rest in peace.
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CO-OP
ADVANTAGES: 10
Energy, Passion, and Experience
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CO-OP NEW GRADUATION REQUIREMENT A FIRST OF ITS KIND IN REGION BY MATT ROBINSON
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pring of senior year at Bancroft often presents itself as a complex transition time, with the seniors preparing themselves for graduation and the reality of leaving a place—and its people—that has meant so much to them. Three years ago, Upper School Head Roy Gillette convened a group of interested faculty to examine the flow and rhythm of the senior year experience in terms of balance, leadership, and impact, among other factors. The group’s attention quickly turned to spring when seniors are completing their AP coursework, exams, and then quickly looking to the future. The product of those conversations became the Bancroft Senior Cooperative (Co-op), a program that is transforming both the final semester of the student experience and the way in which seniors view themselves and their community. One of the members of that exploratory group and eventually its first ‘Co-op’ Coordinator, Mark Taylor, felt that a new type of capstone activity would be a key component of making that transition more meaningful. “We focused our efforts on a fairly simple premise,” he recalls, “that graduating Bancroft seniors were very talented, committed young adults whose energy and inde-
pendence should be harnessed and given new life as they prepared to leave us. More importantly, they needed to go forth and make a significant, and personally meaningful, contribution to the greater Worcester community.” Bancroft quickly shifted its focus to more project-based learning models in line with the types of experiential education expanding on college campuses across the country. “The very nature of this dynamic stage in their educational development as students,” Taylor comments, “demands that conventional classroom settings and curricula be bypassed in favor of the challenge and excitement of completing their capstone Bancroft project off campus.” Together with an advisory committee comprised of faculty, administrators, and board members, he began to shape the new senior project into the Co-op, a hybrid between a traditional work experience internship in which the intern gains valuable professional experiences from the organization and Bancroft’s strong community service program. For the first year of the new program, 36 seniors expressed interest in participating in an optional pilot of the Co-op, an overwhelming sign of interest that ended up
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with ten students piloting outside of her comfort zone at seven sites in order for to witness her Bancroftthe school to learn from based skills shine in the each site partnership. Pilot workplace. She was able to organizations included use her senior spring more Colleges of Worcester productively and is actually Consortium, Princeton continuing to work on her Historical Society, Worcester project while in college. Center for Crafts, Worcester “I am still working on the Polytechnic Institute Co-op in a sense,” Kush (WPI), Worcester Public reasons, explaining that Colin Novick speaks at Co-op celebration in May 2011. Library, Massachusetts she and Rodriguez have Audubon Society, and YWCA. been invited back to present their findings on downtown “The pilot projects went very well,” Taylor recalls, businesses to the Worcester City Council this December.” “and taught us several crucial lessons as we sought to exAs his focus turned to matriculating at Yale in the pand the program.” Taylor and his committee determined fall, Rodriguez admits that at first, he “didn’t see commuthat the work would have to involve clearly defined nity development aligned with my interests,” but to his projects in a wide variety of fields in order to offer multiple surprise the experience with the City Manager gave him opportunities to each student. “We also needed to spend an not only new skills and confidence but also a new passion entire semester matching the students with organizations for city planning. “The Co-op gave me an insider’s look at and preparing them for the Co-op work,” Taylor notes, “so the real world,” he says. “It pushed me out of my comfort they could be poised to thrive in these environments.” zone, and, in doing so, paid off tremendously. We could The full launch of the new program came very quickly get out of the classroom, help the community, and get in the spring of 2011. It was successful not only for the experience in return.” breadth of the experiences but also for the depth of the While Kush acknowledges that the Co-op does “look contributions the students made, as Bancroft ended up nice” on her resume, she stresses that this is not the main partnering with 40 different organizations in the greater reason she participated. “The reason it looks so nice,” Worcester community. On any given day during that she suggests, “is because it does really show those in the month, seniors could be found building rock walls for college atmosphere that I’ve gone beyond the typical exHeifer International in Paxton, reviewing legal briefs for perience range of a high school student, or even someone the Legal Assistance Corporation of Central Massachusetts in college.” The Co-op has helped Kush become more in downtown Worcester, working as a junior docent at the involved both at Case Western and in the surrounding Higgins Armory, analyzing the effect of dialects in a social city. “I’m engaging with community organizations here psychology lab at WPI, or preparing for the Art All-State without much of the process that it usually takes, thanks event at Worcester Art Museum, to name just a few of the to the experience I’ve already gained,” she says. programs that all 54 seniors were required to complete. As much as the students benefited, so too did the Among the 2011 Co-op participants were Donald partner organizations that teamed up with Bancroft Rodrguez and his Co-op partner Maggie Kush, both of School. “It went incredibly well,” says Colin Novick, whom worked with the office of Worcester’s City Manager. executive director of the Greater Worcester Land Trust Their many tasks included going door-to-door and talking when asked about his experience with the Bancroft with residents and business owners in trying to underSenior Cooperative; so well, in fact, that Novick not only stand and analyze economic activity in Worcester. agreed to participate in the program again for 2012 but he “Both Maggie and Donald did a phenomenal job also spoke at the program’s celebration last May. capturing conditions on street/sidewalk activity, describ“We had two high achieving, personally motivated, ing the perceptions of those they encountered, and and deeply committed students join us for a full month of offering potential solutions for items of concern,” says hard work,” he explains. “One focused on the stewardship City Manager Spokesman Tim McGourthy. “The program of conservation lands at Kinneywoods conservation area was a great experience for the City and illustrated the designing a new trail loop through forest, wetland, and depth and talent of Bancroft’s students.” field-stone lined paths while the other focused on preparKush, now a student at Case Western Reserve ing state grant applications for two properties that the University in Cleveland, is currently working in her new Trust had in its sights.” Mid-Western community capturing the benefits of life in From packaging grant applications and creating a Cleveland and communicating them to a greater audistrategic plan to exploring uncharted sections of Trust ence. “I’ve gained so much from the Co-op,” Kush says, properties (and finding a few rare species along the way), listing among the myriad benefits a boost in confidence Bancroft students Andrew Hitzhusen and Caroline Brown and self-esteem having worked directly with influential gained real work experience. Novick applauds the long public officials. Through the Co-op, Kush was able to step list of skills and abilities his Bancroft students were able
to master and employ in their relatively brief time in the As the YWCA is right in her neighborhood, Parol Co-op. “Each project was critical to what the Trust is workfelt a special connection to the campus and the girls ing to achieve,” Novick says. “Each student dove right in, who go there. “I was eager to help make a difference in learned the minutia of every project, and put in more hours my own community,” explains Parol, who received the than required for the program.” Novick echoes Kush’s Katharine F. Erskine Spirit of Leadership award from the sentiments about her personal benefits from participating YWCA and the City of Worcester for her work. “When in the Co-op when he says that Brown and Hitzhusen did I decided that I would be going to college at WPI,” she not do this out of a sense of obligation, but out of what recalls, “I realized that I’d still be very close to the Y, and Novick sees as a newly found love of and enthusiasm for I could help turn this program into a reality.” the projects. “It was inspiring to us on staff to see the sheer Having been mentored herself by the YWCA’s energy and passion they brought to their projects.” Executive Director Linda Cavaioli and Youth Programs Dr. Linda Sagor from UMass Memorial Medical Director Tiffany Lillie, Parol helped assemble a team Center confirms Novick’s observations about the Co-op. of other great women to help her mentor the younger “When Mark Taylor first visited me, I was impressed by women who came to the organization. “We changed his enthusiasm, energy, and commitment to this program. two of our sessions to include a ‘mentor round-robin’,” We decided that I would take on Parol explains, “where particia student with the goal of having pants would get to sit and talk them learn all about the medical to a mentor...in small intimate issues of children in foster care.” In conversations.” The girls Parol 2003, UMass developed a program helped also gave back by helpcalled “FaCES”—Foster Children ing organize the YWCA’s 125th Evaluation Services—to ensure anniversary party and the Taking that children entering foster care, Steps Against Violence walk. often sicker than their peers, re“Overall, the program was a ceive their mandated health visits. great success,” says Parol. “Creat“Our student, Shaina Lo, ing this program has led me to immersed herself in the issues of discover so much about myself.... foster children,” says Sagor. “She I learned so many valuable skills spent a day with social workers at about how to plan my future. A the Department of Children and simple idea can make a differFamilies. She visited foster families ence in the lives of so many in the community. She particiyoung women. Now I feel eager pated in a meeting with doctors to accept more leadership roles in the Fitchburg area who want and take on new challenges.” to start their own FaCES Clinic. Parol’s Co-op work came full Shaina was touched by the stories circle last spring when she led she learned about all the children. her first Young Women’s LeaderWe were delighted to be involved ship group. Bancroft’s Rebecca in this program.” Hawk ’12 was one of the girls from Mark Taylor reflects on his first year as the Students continue to stay conschools throughout Worcester that Co-op Coordinator. nected with the Co-op partners Parol trained. Commenting on long after the official program concludes. Sylvia Parol, Parol’s impact as a leader, Hawk recalls that after only 12 who graduated from Bancroft in 2010, participated in the Sundays together with the other young women, “I could pilot program before its official launch. Now attending be the most honest I’ve ever been with anyone.” Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), Parol selected Taylor remarks, “While the mission of the Co-op prothe local YWCA as her first choice because the project gram might have provided the seniors that rare space and involved mentoring young women in her community. time to be independent, the progress they actually made Parol worked to design a new leadership program for area was due mainly to the skillful, dedicated work of the high school students. “The YWCA had great programseniors themselves combined with the excellent guidance ming for women near college age and middle school,” from our site mentors and their partner organizations. Parol explains, “but they needed a program to bridge the The scope of the projects was incredible, and the group’s gap.” By combining and reorganizing resources the Y collective success—contributing close to 3,000 hours of already had, Parol created a 10-week program that supproject-based service to the surrounding community— ported Worcester’s young women in such diverse areas as was both inspiring and humbling.” financial literacy, career planning, public speaking, and Matt Robinson is an educator and journalist in Boston, MA community service.
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photo by: Alexandra Kelly
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Katrina Daly Thompson ’93
Linguistic Researcher Lives the Global Life By Joan Killough-Miller
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photo by: Alexandra Kelly
anguage is how we tell others who we are. It also shapes us, by telling us how we are defined by the society we live in. Katrina Daly Thompson ’93 is fascinated by the relationship between language, society, and self. In her work as assistant professor of applied linguistics at the University of California at Los Angeles, and African Languages Coordinator of UCLA’s African Studies Center, she uses everything from literature to comic books and rap music as research materials.
Many influences guided her on her journey from literature to language to linguistics, and from Bancroft to the Midwest, and then from Zimbabwe to Zanzibar, where she met her husband. As a little girl, Katrina used to watch her father, a writer, at work. Even before she could read, she liked to play at his typewriter, pretending to write up little stories of her own. In college, she first pursued literature—but found it drew her deeper into the study of language. Her mastery of two African languages—Shona and Swahili—has allowed her to listen for what people are saying—and not saying—when they talk about anything from television to sexuality to ethnic identity. Ironically, Thompson initially thought she was not good at foreign languages. She took Latin at Bancroft because her mother—the practical one—thought it would help with vocabulary and SATs. “Perhaps if I had taken Spanish or French I might have realized earlier that I had the passion and ability to learn a foreign language,” she says. “I feel like my strength was in the conversational use of a language, and, obviously, we weren’t doing a lot of conversation in Latin!” At Grinnell College, where she majored in English, it was a semester abroad in Zimbabwe that turned things around. “I didn’t really know what I was getting into, when I signed up for the program,” she admits. “One of the reasons I chose Zimbabwe was that I thought I could get by with English, because it was a former British colony.” Housed in a rural area, with a family that knew very little English, she found herself in a true language immersion experience. The students would walk a mile to the local elementary school for a morning of lessons in Shona. Then they were sent back to their host families to use what they had learned. If they had studied the past tense, for example, the assignment would be to ask everyone in the household “What did you do today?” “My experience of learning Shona there totally changed my opinion of learning a foreign language and my abilities in that regard,” she says. “The teachers were great, and their style of teaching worked really well for me.” The last few months, she returned to Harare, the capitol, to take literature classes at The University of Zimbabwe “I was really hooked by that,” she said. “I
wanted to read Shona literature in the original—but I didn’t have the language skills yet. I felt like I was only grasping a small portion of it. Although there is a great deal of Zimbabwean literature in English, there is much more that isn’t available in English.” During graduate school at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, Thompson’s career took another turn when the Shona language professor retired just as she was entering the Department of African Languages and Literature. She switched to Swahili, but says she didn’t have the same passion for Swahili as she’d had for Shona, because she’d never been to a Swahili-speaking country. She did not truly connect with the language until she had the opportunity to study in Tanzania. “I spent eight weeks living with a family on the island of Zanzibar. When I was learning about Swahili culture in an abstract way, I didn’t have the love for it that I do now. After years of formal study, that real-world experience in Swahili ignited my passion.” Thompson earned her master’s and Ph.D. in African Languages and Literature at the University of Wisconsin. “The program tended to keep linguistics and literature separate,” she says. “And I was always trying to combine them in some way.” At UCLA, she has found the right fit in the Applied Linguistics Department. What most people think
(Above) A Swahili bride is having henna done before her wedding (current research, Zanzibar, 2011). (l) Thompson sitting with Zanzibari host brother Imrani in July 2009.
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of as linguistics, she explains, is really formal linguistics, dealing with the formal structure of language, up to the level of the sentence. Applied linguistics looks at how languages are used in real-world contexts. “I don’t consider myself a linguist in the traditional sense,” Thompson says. “The faculty in my department are very diverse. Some are trained in psychology, so they look at how the brain creates language and how we learn it. My own work borders on anthropology, looking at how languages are used within a particular society to pass along cultural norms.” Thompson has written on the importance and the pedagogy of teaching less-commonly taught languages. She has translated Shona poetry into English and analyzed the work of Zimbabwean novelist Tsitsi Dangarembga. But in countries with a low literacy rate, literature does
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Arts: Language, Power, Identity—to be published by Indiana University Press in 2012. As an American in Africa, she is often cornered with questions that reveal how our culture is represented in the mass media. “Do all Americans drive limousines?” ”Is all American food processed?” “Is WWF wrestling really fake?” “They’d heard talk that it’s all faked,” Thompson explains, “but they didn’t quite believe it, and they wanted a real American to confirm it.” Her interviews revealed that rather than swallowing “First World” content wholesale, or embracing the state rhetoric that pushed propaganda in the form of locally produced programming, Zimbabweans were applying their own experiences and values to the content. “I found that viewers were making interesting connections to what they saw,” she says. “People there are
“My initial experience in Zimbabwe showed me a disconnect between the written word and everyday life. People there had really rich ways of using language that were not related to written literature. Most people didn’t have access to books, even in Shona.” not tell the whole story. Early on, she realized there was much to be learned from popular culture. “My initial experience in Zimbabwe showed me a disconnect between the written word and everyday life. People there had really rich ways of using language that were not related to written literature. Most people didn’t have access to books, even in Shona.” Television, however, was a big part of their lives. From “Friends,” to American soap operas and action movies, imported broadcasts are eagerly watched, usually without dubbing or subtitles. Thompson became fascinated by how these shows were being perceived and talked about in a country with a radically different culture, where English is the first language of only about one percent of the population. These questions sent her back to Zimbabwe on a Fulbright fellowship in 2000-2001 for fieldwork for her dissertation, “Viewing the Foreign and the Local in Zimbabwe: Film, Television and Shona Viewers.” Her findings expanded into a book on television and film— Zimbabwe’s Cinematic
able to watch things that are very foreign and find things that they can relate to. They could watch and enjoy the programs, but they weren’t just letting everything they saw influence their cultural environment. For example, kissing and bedroom scenes are frowned upon in Zimbabwe’s conservative culture. “I wish they didn’t show that,” one man told her. “I’m embarrassed to watch with my children.” Even comic books perpetuate messages about social order. Tanzanian comics are full of ethnic stereotypes that stigmatize those who do not speak “standard” Swahili. “It's part of a larger ideology,” Thompson explains, “which dates back to the 1960s, when there was a movement to make Swahili the national language and to forge a unified national identity that transcends ethnicity.” We may think of comic strips as just funny—but here they reflect contempt for those whose grammar and accents don’t conform to what’s considered proper. Hip hop may seem an unlikely subject for academic study, but Thompson has published and lectured on
Husband’s (Eddy) nephew Mudi teaches Thompson a few Swahili children’s games, December 2009.
marriage in the United the Tanzanian group States, where they are “X Plastaz” and a now raising her son, popular artist called Coltrane, as a multi“Mr. Ebbo” (real name lingual, multi-cultural Abel Motika), who family. Before the styles himself as “the wedding in Zanzibar, Maasai rapper.” She’s Thompson received interested in how ethnic the traditional Islamic identity is represented premarital instrucdifferently to different tion from women in audiences. She found the community. That that X Plastaz’s interexperience combined national success relies with questions that heavily on the exotic arose while talking appeal of Maasai tribal with women about dress, chanting, and Popobawa, inspired dance—although only new research on how one of their members is gender norms are comactually Maasai. When Newly married couple (Thompson and Mohomed (Eddy) Salum Hija) pictured sharing a glass of milk in municated in Swahili marketing to audiences Zanzibar, Tanzania. culture. outside of Tanzania, Her book on the cinematic arts in Zimbabwe examthey play up their “authentic” African identity. At home, ines the relationship between discourse, government conthey emphasize their global appeal and the sophistication trol, and power. Zimbabwe—formerly Rhodesia—did not that comes from traveling all over the world interacting win independence from British rule until 1980. Thompson with international audiences. looks at historical and political influences on film and television—from early propaganda films produced under Thompson became interested in British colonial rule, to the restrictive Broadcasting strategies used to communicate Services Act of 2001, to censorship of foreign content by the current government. She shows how such restricabout forbidden topics without tions help perpetuate current inequities and maintain the openly defying the restrictions. power of an authoritarian state. Listening to and understanding the discourse that is marginalized by those in power offers hope for democratic change. Her latest research focuses on discourse about gender From the personal to the political, Thompson and sexuality. In Swahili society, which is predominantly poses provocative questions about what is all around us. Muslim, women are not free to talk openly about sexuality. Language is the common thread. She is pleased to see Homosexuality is also taboo. Thompson became interthat over time, schools in the U.S. are shifting away from ested in strategies used to communicate about forbidden grammar-based language study, focusing more on commutopics without openly defying the restrictions. nication, and making study abroad more accessible. “It’s In Tanzania, she learned of an urban legend about hard to learn about another culture, unless you’re experithe Popobawa—a supernatural creature whose name encing it on a day-to-day basis,” she says. “When we can means ‘bat wing’ that, it is said, sexually assaults victims interact with people from other cultures in their country, by night, and encourages them to pass along their stories on their terms, the benefits are tremendous.” to others. Thompson began collecting different versions of the tale, which appear in popular magazines, movies, Joan Killough-Miller is a writer at Worcester Polytechnic and in conversation. She spent the summer of 2009 conInstitute and a Bancroft parent. ducting interviews about what people have heard about Popobawa. She published an analysis of the text of one conversation between women to show how talk about supernatural sexuality was being used to covertly share experiences they would not normally talk about openly. She found that the cultural transgressions allowed during an occult event go beyond the event itself and continued during talk about such events. One of these interviews became very personal in a surprising way. After formally interviewing her apartment manager in Zanzibar, she concluded the exchange in her usual way—by asking “Do you have any questions for me? “Yes,” he replied. “Are you married?” She soon was—to him. In December 2009, she and Mohamed (Eddy) Salum Hija celebrated a traditional Islamic wedding ceremony in Zanzibar, followed by a legal Thompson with her son Coltrane in Zanzibar, Tanzania 2007.
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2011
Reunion 2011 was cause for celebration as over 200 people enjoyed festivities during the May weekend. The main event was Saturday night’s 29th Annual Reunion Dinner and Awards presentation.
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Award Recipients
1 Vickie Powers is congratulated by her family on receiving the Milton P. Higgins ’18 Award for distinguished service to Bancroft. 2 Gary Mathieu (l) and Scott Reisinger (r) present the Esther Forbes (1907) Award to Lucinda Reed Sanders ’71 for outstanding professional achievement. 3 Young Alumni Achievement Award recipient Amol Sharma ’96 and his sister Sheena Sharma ’89 who accepted the award on his behalf.
For more on Reunion 2011 visit the website at: www.bancroftschool.org/reunion11
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Windows on Bancroft 1.
Bancroft Speech Team places well at the Yale Invitational in September.
2. Suzanne Casey ’12 works with a
Bancroft Summer Camp student on swimming skills.
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3. Senior Sam Fujimori won his
fourth straight EIL Cross Country Championship in Boston on November 4.
4. April Lo ’12 conducting research at
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UMass Medical Center’s cancer lab as part of Bancroft’s partnership with the organization.
5. Bancroft girl’s soccer team won
the 2011 EIL Tournament (Pool A) Championship in November.
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6. October 21 was LS Day of Sharing
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where 250 guests convened on campus to spend time in our community.
7. Over the summer of 2011,
13 members of the Shanghai education establishment visited Bancroft School.
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110 Shore Drive Worcester, MA 01605-3198
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