BB&N Bulletin Spring 2013

Spring 2013

Inside this issue:

20

bulletin

Seeking a Cure for Fragile X: Katie Clapp ’78 and James Vershbow ’79

24 Ellen Goodman ’59:

The Conversation Project

BB&N’s Far-Flung Alums First NBA, Now UFC...

Mark Fischer ’78 shepherds American sports into Asia (See page 12 for more BB&N stories from abroad)

Alumni/ae Events Calendar Ap ril April 11 New York City Reception and Tribute to Beth Jacobson The Muse Hotel 6 pm

May 10-12 Strawberry Night & Reunion Weekend Friday, May 10 Upper School Campus 11:15 am – 6 pm Alumni/ae are invited to participate in a range of Upper School activities including a casual lunch with faculty and students, classroom visits, play rehearsal, and Petropoulos Art Exhibit Reception.

Saturday, May 11 Bird and Flower Walk Mount Auburn Cemetery 9:30 am Strawberry Night/ Reunion Dinners Nicholas Athletic Center 5:30 pm Reception with current and former faculty and Beth Jacobson, retiring Director of Alumni/ae Programs, dinner, dancing, and fun.

Sunday, May 12 20th Annual BB&N at the Museum of Fine Arts Day 11 am – 3 pm

For more information about these events, please contact the Alumni/ae Programs Office at alumni_affairs@bbns.org or 617-800-2788.

Jun e Saturday, June 1 Patrick’s Pals Basketball Tournament XVII (see page 20) Jack Etter Gymnasium Nicholas Athletic Center 7:30 – 11:30 am For the complete schedule, please see www.patrickspals3on3.org

Spring 2013

May 4 BB&N Circus Lower School 11 am – 3 pm

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May

Around Campus 2

Haskins Receives CASE’s Highest Honor, BB&N Daycare Facility On the Way, Upper School Debate Team Takes Off, Winter Sports, and more

Features 12

BB&N’s Far-Flung Alumni/ae

Four alumni/ae profiles and a peek into BB&N’s global presence

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Katie Clapp ’78 and James Vershbow ’79 Seeking a cure for Fragile X

24

Ellen Goodman ’59

Helping end-of-life decisions through The Conversation Project

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From the Archives

28

Buckingham 1954 revisited

Former Faculty Profile: Ham Clark

Advancing Our Mission 30

Ben Wiegand ’20 Saves for Financial Aid, Buckingham ’62 Sets Reunion Record

Alumni/ae News & Notes 42 BB&N in San Francisco 49 Alumni/ae Pub Night

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Milestones

Director of Communications Joe Clifford, Editor Associate Director of Communications Andrew Fletcher, Senior Editor Communications Assistant Bridget Malachowski, Editor Contributing Writers Alex Ablon Morgan Baker ’76 Betsy Canaday Joe Clifford Joelinda Coichy ’07 Peter DeMarco Andrew Fletcher Beth Jacobson Sharon Krauss Rachel Loughran Bridget Malachowski Janet Rosen Roger Stacey Katie Small Annie Traub Kim Ablon Whitney ’91 Contributing Editors Sherwood C. Haskins Jr. Janet Rosen Alumni/ae News & Notes Beth Jacobson Andrea Martinez Tracy Rosette

Board of Trustees, 2012-2013 Officers Bracebridge Young, Jr., Chair Shelly Nemirovsky, Vice Chair Charles A. Brizius, Vice Chair Eric Slifka ’83, Vice Chair/Secretary David Randolph Peeler, Treasurer Thom Greenlaw, Assistant Treasurer J. Stuart Ablon ’88 Deborah Ancona Beth Myers Azano ’95 Joseph Chung Janine Cozier Thomas Dingman Diala Ezzeddine Jason P. Hafler ’00 James P. Honan Andre John ’83 Cory Little Philip H. Loughlin Louise Makrauer Joel C. Monell James F. Mooney III Jeffrey Moore Erica Gervais Pappendick Janet M. Storella ’74 Frederica C. Turner ’91 David Williams ’78 Head of School Rebecca T. Upham Front Cover:

Design & Production Nanci Booth Float Creative www.floatcreative.net 781-582-1076

Mark Fischer ’78, executive vice president and managing director of UFC Asia, with his family and former NBA superstar Yao Ming in 2006.

Photography Andrew Fletcher Elaine Forbush ’13 Beth Jacobson Sharon Krauss Bridget Malachowski Eric Nordberg ’88 Vaughn Winchell

Correspondence may be sent to: Office of Alumni/ae Affairs (bb&n_bulletin@bbns.org or 617-800-2721) or the Office of Communications (communications@bbns.org or 617-800-2403), 80 Gerry’s Landing Road Cambridge, MA 02138-5512

: FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT

:

www.bbns.org

BB&N

AROUND CAMPUS

Haskins Receives CASE’s Top Honor Assistant Head of School for External Affairs Woodie Haskins has been honored with the highest recognition bestowed upon independent school advancement professionals by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).

Haskins was announced as the recipient of the Robert Bell Crow Award, which recognizes independent school advancement professionals for their distinguished service to the profession, their school(s), and CASE. The award is named in honor of Robert Bell Crow, a former development director at Deerfield Academy.

Haskins received the award at a ceremony during the CASE/NAIS annual conference in Washington, DC, on January 14th. Several of his BB&N colleagues, including Head of School Rebecca T. Upham, plus his wife, Andrea Mattisen-Haskins P’84, ’93, ’97, and his son, Ronn Bronzetti, were in attendance.

Woodie poses on the conference dais with his son, Ronn Bronzetti, and his wife, Andrea Mattisen Haskins P’84, ’93, ’97.

The organization hailed Haskins’ long list of accomplishments during his 30-year career in education, the last 18 of which have been at BB&N. These accomplishments include raising more than $100 million overall and leading two successful capital campaigns at BB&N, overseeing a fivefold increase in annual giving at BB&N (from $499,000 to more than $2.5 million last year), directing significant increases in the annual fund and planned giving programs at Phillips Exeter Academy, and leading his boys to a 61-16-2 record as head hockey coach at his alma mater, Kimball Union Academy, from 1979 to 1982.

In addition to his work for the three schools, Haskins has served as a mentor for many educational fundraisers and is a strong supporter of the CASE-NAIS Independent Schools conference, author of numerous pieces for CASE publications, and recipient of the Crystal Apple Award for Teaching Excellence.

“Certainly, the amount of money that Woodie has raised during his 18 years at BB&N is an incredible achievement,” says Head of School Rebecca T. Upham, “but it would be shortsighted to consider his impact on this school in terms of fundraising totals alone. His deep, thoughtful regard for BB&N’s mission, and for the BB&N community, is widely known, and his leadership and commitment have made a positive impact on every single student, family, teacher, and colleague who has been part of this school for the past two decades.”

Congratulations, Woodie, and BB&N thanks you!

BB&N Assistant Head of School for External Affairs Woodie Haskins takes to the podium to accept the Robert Bell Crow Award at the CASE/NAIS conference in Washington, DC. 2

Talk of the Town: Upper Schoolers Stride into Debate Scene with a Flourish

by Sharon Krauss

A feisty group of Upper School students has swiftly talked its way into the upper echelons of the highly competitive debate scene of New England independent schools. Winning 83 percent of their rounds in their third competition as novices, at Choate Rosemary Hall, BB&N amassed the best record of the 17 schools there, though league rules do not permit a novice team to take the official top-school prize. But the students know they won the day. And just as importantly, their competitors have realized this rookie team is an unexpected force to be reckoned with.

“Nobody knew where we were from or who BB&N was,” says Zach Boughner ’15, breaking into a grin. “Well, they know us now.”

Just how this little cast of unknowns has managed to talk down several long-time Goliaths, though, is neither a miracle nor a fluke.

With motivated students, recent clamoring for a debate club, and a well-established league to tap into, the stage was set; all that was missing was a coach. Enter Sam Prouty.

Newly arrived this year from The Hotchkiss School, English teacher Sam Prouty brings with him many years of experience as both a debater and a coach.

Although BB&N has fielded a team sporadically in the past, it hasn’t recently, which surprises Prouty. “We have the kinds of dynamic, motivated, bright kids who like performing and testing themselves,” he says.

Still, he figured he’d be lucky to start with an interested five or six debaters; instead, he’s got a gung-ho two dozen, who regularly ask to practice three or four times a week.

“I like that we actually learn how to debate and that we can really see people get better,” says Christina Stellwagen ’15. “It’s also just fun. I get to argue, which I love, and no one gets mad!”

The real-life benefits of debate appeal to Sarah Dahl ’15. “You learn how to think on your feet, which helps you argue well with your parents, siblings, friends,” she says with a smile. “You become confident in your abilities to reason intelligently and to be articulate.”

“The skills they acquire,” says Prouty, “are what we use in everyday life—quick thinking, listening closely, negotiating, responding immediately. My favorite part is that it’s all off the cuff. It’s the intellectual version of improvisational comedy.”

Michael Goldfine ’16 notes, “You have to convince yourself that you believe something even if you don’t. Today I had to believe that we should not have the internet in schools.

For a short period of time, you believe it. I like that debate combines logic and acting.

It’s exciting—like a sport.”

The admission price for this exhilaration is paid in protocol and decorum. Students

willingly trade their Sunday sweatshirts and pajama pants for jackets and ties, skirts, and heels. They speak in such stilted phrases as “Point of privilege, Mr. Speaker,” play roles labeled Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition, and afterward shake hands and chat congenially with their opponents. But under all those formal trappings, they’ve been hooked by the barebones rush of adrenaline and the confidence gained from those highvoltage exchanges.

Their plucky attitude undoubtedly enabled the young debaters to win awards for secondplace novice team, second-place novice pair, and second-place individual speaker, Molly Murphy ’15. “There are some perennial big hitters in this little world,” says Prouty, “and to hear BB&N’s name among those other winners, that was awesome.”

After three novice debates, the students’ first at-bats at the advanced level proved challenging in a mid-February meet hosted by St. Sebastian’s School. Still, BB&N placed a highly respectable fourth out of 13 schools.

And now that they’ve made their mark in four meets, the debaters are eager for more.

“We’ve fostered a really supportive environment,” says Amanda Lifford ’15, “and we have an amazing coach, the skills, the resources, and definitely the motivation—so I think we’re ready for takeoff!”

Who could argue with confidence like that?

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x2x [ 1 ] From left: Nick Langen ’15, Jeremy Lewin ’15, Michael Goldfine ’16, Andrew Schneider ’14, Sarah Dahl ’15, Molly Murphy ’15, Amanda Lifford ’15, and Zach Boughner ’15 prepare for a competition in mid-February. [ 2 ] From left: Molly Murphy, Sam Prouty, and Sarah Dahl are shown at a late-February practice. Molly and Sarah won second-place novice team in BB&N’s third outing.

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BB&N

AROUND CAMPUS

Supporting Teachers as Parents: The Family Cooperative Daycare Set to Open Mid-August challenges that faculty parents face, BB&N through its Office of External Affairs was able to raise $750,000 in support of the project.

The Cooperative will be located at 46 Belmont Street, in the lower level of the building that houses the BB&N business and external affairs staff. The space is being renovated this spring to create a spectacular learning environment for young children; construction on the center began in mid-March so that it can open to children in mid-August.

Mornings had been tough the past two years for Lower School reading specialist Anne Mackay and her husband Drew, a teacher at the Shady Hill School in Cambridge. Getting their son Jasper to daycare and then getting themselves to work on time was a daily struggle.

“The commute was rough,” says Mackay. “I used to battle traffic from Natick to Brighton where the daycare was, and then back across town to Cambridge for the 7:45 a.m. start of the school day. There was often some friendly bickering over who had to do the daycare drop-off on a given day,” she acknowledges with a laugh.

The BB&N teachers who serve on the Cooperative’s board of directors wrote a thank-you letter to the community in February: “For many teachers the costs of childcare are insurmountable. Often, wonderful teachers fall victim to these ever-rising costs; we are forced to leave the classroom because we cannot afford quality care for our children. The Family Cooperative at BB&N addresses this challenge, providing quality care at a convenient location for teachers and staff on all three campuses. The BB&N community has shown incredible support for its faculty and staff by working together for more than four years to make this dream a reality. Thank you!”

Starting mid-August this year, all of that will thankfully change for Mackay with the opening of BB&N’s new Family Cooperative, a facility that will provide daycare for the children of teachers and staff while they are busy “opening the minds” of BB&N students across all three campuses.

Originally the brainchild of Lower School science teacher Caitlin Drechsler, the Family Cooperative has been a long time in the making. Drawing off word-of-mouth interest, Drechsler had conducted a faculty survey on the level of interest for the idea and then took the resounding results to the Board of Trustees as part of a proposal.

Five years later, that hard work is paying off.

Although BB&N faculty will have priority in admitting their children to the Cooperative, teachers from other schools will also be invited to enroll their children for the rest of 30 total spots open to infants, toddlers, and preschool-aged children.

“We looked at a lot of different options,” Mackay says. “Bringing in an existing daycare provider to help run a facility on campus was the first thought…but the cost was prohibitive and we would have been beholden to their policies, curriculum, hiring, and general philosophy.

The cooperative approach allows us to be more involved in all of those essential elements, and saves substantial cost because as a teacherpopulated daycare, we don’t need to leave it open during the summer.”

If you’re interested in helping to raise additional funds for the Cooperative, please join in for the Family Cooperative’s first annual Family Fun Run at the BB&N Upper School on Saturday, May 18.

Separate runs will be held for children eight years old or younger, along with a longer run for all ages. All registration fees and donations will support the Family Cooperative. Please visit thefamilycooperative.weebly.com for more information.

Demonstrating the School’s stout commitment to easing the TOY SHED

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Thank those who taught you to think Mr. Leith matches your effort with his own dedication to truly teach you. This feeling of reciprocity makes you want to work harder for him. He has a wicked sense of humor and a thoughtful perspective on life. When I look back 20 years later, his classes stand out from my entire educational journey as my favorites.

—Frederica Turner ’91, P’25, Trustee, Class Agent

What you learned at BB&N is yours for years.

We invite you to make your Annual Fund gift in honor or memory of a BB&N community member, past or present, who has made a difference in your life.

Your support helps ensure that the School can continue to engage teachers whose lessons are lifelong; to stimulate students alike in curiosity but distinct in background; and to offer arts and athletics programs for children of all ages to experiment, excel and experience the camaraderie that is BB&N.

Thank You

To say , please: visit www.BBNS.ORG/DONATE or call 617-800-2737

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BB&N

AROUND CAMPUS 7th and 8th Graders Team Up for Midsummer Night’s Collaboration

by Betsy Canaday

Creativity and collaboration highlight the study of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the Middle School. Anyone who has spent time in a middle school classroom knows that students this age need to move around physically; they need to interact with each other; and they need to find something funny or ironic in everything. It would be difficult to think of a play (or any literature) better suited to the middle school imagination than A Midsummer Night’s Dream with its themes of magic, fleeting love, tyrannical grownups, and great aspirations bungled by clowns.

Although Shakespearean drama is new to most middle schoolers, this challenge is not an impediment to enjoying the play. Rather, its unfamiliarity becomes the catalyst for collaborative exploration.

Students are out of their seats working together, hashing out what this line or that line or this character or that one adds to the scene.

Together the students, with sideline direction from teachers and each other, bring the unfamiliar language to deliciously crazy life, culminating in “Shakespeare Day,” during which students, in costumes of their own design, perform their fully memorized scenes for their classmates and faculty.

For years, only the eighth grade studied A Midsummer Night’s Dream at BB&N. During the last two years, however, a seventh grade class and an eighth grade class studied the play with each other. Eighth grade English teacher Rachel Jamison and seventh grade drama teacher Christa Crewdson have teamed up to teach the play together to the mixed grade group. For eight weeks, both seventh and eighth grade classes had two teachers, sometimes meeting separately, and sometimes together. Jamison worked with both levels to ensure they were confident with the language, and Crewdson used acting exercises and techniques to coach the students to bring the text to life on stage. The result is a creative mix of close analytical reading and superb acting; each method of teaching the play, as literary text and theatrical script, enriched the other. x1x

“Both 7’s and 8’s really got to know each other on a whole new level,” says Crewdson. “They had a ball hanging out together.” Jamison adds, “It’s important for Shakespeare to be fun and for kids to have the opportunity to step outside themselves a bit. They became more focused on supporting each other. This project broke up old patterns of relating and created new bonds between them.”

In addition to the seventh and eighth grade collaboration, this year a professional actor specializing in Shakespeare, Johnny Lee Davenport, worked with the entire eighth grade to give students tools to deepen their understanding of the play. Davenport, a veteran professional actor who is close to achieving his goal to be the first African American to perform Shakespeare’s entire canon in professional productions, came to the Middle School three times during its study of the play. During the first two visits he introduced elements of the musicality of the language and other acting techniques to help students imagine the action in the play more fully. During the third visit, Davenport met with each class individually. Through hands-on acting workshops and one-to-one coaching, he inspired students to see and bring to life the depth, physicality, and humor of their characters.

Throughout their study of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, students working on a scene became a team creating the humor of the play.

They grew aware of the irony that their outrageous efforts to figure out their characters and scenes often mirrored those of the Rude Mechanicals as they worked out their own scenes in the play within the play. Sometimes the results were hilarious. Cassandra, an eighth grader, remembers the funniest moment during a rehearsal when her classmate Harry had to try on the costume of the donkey head in order to play Bottom. “He looked so creepy and funny! The whole class laughed hysterically when they saw him!”

This is the way to experience the play: have fun, and crack your classmates up. x2x

PICTURED: x 1 x Shakespearean actor Johnny Lee Davenport brought an exuberant passion to his classroom work with BB&N eighth graders on A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Here, he helps Shannon Griffin, Liv Manganella, and Maia Noyes rehearse a scene in which Puck casts a spell on Bottom. x 2 x David Nazemi portrays Moonshine and Nicky Daglio plays Nick Bottom playing Pyramus in the eighth graders’ on-stage rendition of A Midsummer Night Dream’s famous play within the play.

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Upper School Theater Excels with Production of Pipe Dream Upper School actors once again impressed the audience in this spring’s production of Pipe Dream. Although the musical is one of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s lesser known productions, the students ensured that the audience members were humming the tunes from the musical numbers for days to come.

Set in Monterey, California, in a shabby area called Cannery Row, Pipe Dream tells the story of a romance between Doc, a marine biologist played by Nate McLeod ’13, and Suzy, a girl new to the area played by Eva Murray ’13.

Although the two originally deny their attraction to each other, their friends scheme to help them eventually realize they belong together. The inhabitants of Cannery Row may be outcasts and down on their luck, but they are ultimately looking for happiness just like everyone else.

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PICTURED: x 1 x Jake Kuhn ’13, Andrew Shifren ’13, and their buddies perform A Lopsided Bus. x 2 x Eva Murray ’13 and Nate McLeod ’13 perform a duet. x 3 x Andrew Shifren ’13 and the ladies perform a dance number.

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Upper School Arts Bash Energizes Campus It began in the Commons with guest musicians, The Hot Tamale Brass Band, leading a parade to the gym, where jazz, xvocal, 2 x dance, and orchestra performances sizzled. And it finished on the second floor of Renaissance Hall with “street art” events, more performances, and an array of festivities. It was the annual Arts Bash! Sample a smattering of the hijinks below.

PICTURED: x 1 x Elaine Dai ’13 stunned the crowd with her dance performance. x 2 x Catherine Hanss ’13 and Michaela Wozniak ’13 enjoyed posing in the Instagram mural. x 3 x Laura Ancona ’14 and Rachel Strodel ’14 couldn’t help smiling during the Arts Bash. x 4 x Margery Tong ’13 tickles the canvas with a caricature of Melanie Passaretti ’14. x2x

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BB&N

AROUND CAMPUS

BB&N Winter Sports BB&N athletes completed one of the School’s most successful winter sports seasons in recent memory. See below for some of the varsity team highlights.

Co-Ed Fencing

Boys Basketball (Record: 12-13)

• Fenced to a thrilling first-place finish in the Massachusetts State Championship, defeating reigning champion Concord Carlisle, 107-106.

• Highlights included a buzzer-beating victory over Middlesex and a thrilling overtime win against St. Paul’s.

• The girls’ team took first place at the State Championship in the three-weapon team event.

• Christine Yao ’14 completed her second consecutive undefeated season in the woman’s foil event, placing first at the Championship as well.

• Darrith Phan ’15 placed first in the men’s saber event at the Championship, and Violet Michel ’16 placed first in the women’s saber event.

Cup Winners: Lily Ma ’13, Bunnard Phan ’14

• Closed the season with a scintillating double-overtime victory against powerhouse Lawrence Academy.

• Was awarded the ISL Team Sportsmanship Award as voted by other coaches in the league.

All League: Nick Tarantino ’14 Honorable Mention: Koby Antwi ’15, Will Harris ’15 Cup Winner: Ramsey Khabbaz ’13

Wrestling

Boys Hockey (Record: 16-8-3)

• This wet-behind-the-ears squad welcomed an infusion of young talent which will serve the program well in years to come.

• Began their season with a bang, defeating perennial New England powerhouse St. Paul’s.

• Sid Sabharwal ’13 was a Graves-Kelsey Tournament champion for the second consecutive year.

• Won the St. George’s Holiday Tournament and fought to a tie in the finals of the BB&N Holiday Showcase against Dexter, a team which lost only one game all year.

• Damon Levin ’16 and Sasha Frank ’16 were finalists in the tournament as well.

• Finished only one point out of first place overall in the ISL Eberhart standings.

All League: Sid Sabharwal ’13 Honorable Mention: Christian Lehner ’14, Tyler Sutherland ’14 Cup Winners: Fred Randall ’13, Sid Sabharwal ’13

All League: Jordy Abrams ’13, Connor Hegarty ’13, Bobby Mullins ’14 Honorable Mention: Joe Czarnota ’13, Brendon Kerrigan ’13, Cam O’Neill ’14, Brian Rowland ’13 Cup Winner: Connor Hegarty ’13

Girls Hockey (Record: 15-10-1)

Girls Basketball (Record: 16-9) • Won the Williston Northampton Holiday Tournament with victories over Brooks and Holliston.

• Finished the year by winning five of their last six games, and qualifying for the Class A New England Prep School Tournament for the first time in ten years.

• Doubled their win total from last year.

• Qualified for the New England Tournament for the first time in 17 years.

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Sophomore goaltender Katie Burt recorded a phenomenal season, facing 386 shots and allowing only 39 goals in 26 games. She was awarded Co-ISL MVP honors for her efforts.

All League: Katie Burt ’15, Bradley Fusco ’15 Honorable Mention: Briana Casey ’13, Victoria Moore ’13 Cup Winner: Briana Casey ’13

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All League: Courtney Erickson ’14, Lydia Zaleski ’14 Honorable Mention: Annie Barrett ’16, Maeve McNamara ’15 Cup Winner: Leah Rice ’13

PICTURED: x 1 x Fred Randall ’13 in the midst of a takedown. x 2 x Connor Hegarty ’13 starts the puck up ice. x 3 x Katie Burt ’15 was dominant in net all season. x 4 x Koby Antwi ’15 dekes an opponent with a behind-the-back dribble. x 5 x Allie Cook ’14 threads a pass through traffic along the baseline. x 6 x Violet Michel ’16, right, lunges during a match.

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Alumni/ae Spotlight on the Arts Film • Video • Theater • Photography • Books • Ceramics • Music • Design • Sculpture • Drawing • Painting • Architecture

Emily Parkinson ‘08, Designer x 1 x Emily writes, “As an undergraduate fashion design major at Cornell, I explored many mediums and techniques to develop my interest in creating garments, accessories, costumes, and sculpture. This cross-discipline exploration culminated in my senior collection, ANVIL, which was inspired by wrought-iron pieces, intricately patterned gates, structural iron forms, and the interplay between wrought iron pieces and their environment. This large body of work was a way for me to experiment with a range of techniques from laser cutting leather to hand-painting and embellishing textiles, and bring the strengths of each process together to create a cohesive and rich collection. Since graduating in May 2012, I have continued to expand my range of technical expertise, and am currently working on a line of jewelry that combines traditional metal working techniques, laser cutting technology, and hand embroidery. emilyparkinson.com

Virginia Pye ‘78, Author x 3 x “I’m happy to report that my debut novel, River of Dust, will be out in May. At BB&N, I wrote short stories with Dan Farber for my Senior Project, and have been writing fiction ever since. This is my sixth novel and the fourth that literary agents have tried to sell.

Sometimes things take longer than you think, especially when you throw children into the mix. But I couldn’t be more pleased and hope you find River of Dust at your bookstore or on your Kindle and enjoy it! I’d love to know what you think.” www.virginiapye.com

Eric Nordberg ‘88, Photographer x 2 x Eric has been photographing BB&N’s events and other documentation needs for many years now. He started his commercial photography business in 1994, shooting a variety of subject matter for print and web advertising and promotion.

Eric’s work has been used in ads spanning all types of media including billboards, kiosks, trade show booths, newspapers, magazines, collateral materials, and the Internet. The robotic dog “Aibo” image was created for a 6’x6’ Boston Globe technology trade show booth.

The basic argument can be described briefly as follows: “This re-examination of the history of U.S. economic growth is built around a novel claim, that productive capacity grew dramatically across the Depression years (1929-1941) and that this advance provided the foundation for the economic and military success of the United States during the Second World War as well as for the golden age (1948-1973) that followed. I take a new look at growth data and conclude that, behind a backdrop of double-digit unemployment, the 1930s actually experienced very high rates of technological and organizational innovation, fueled by the maturing of a privately funded research and development system and the government-funded build-out of the country’s surface road infrastructure.”

Eric writes, “Welcoming projects from small businesses to large corporations, I approach my portrait and still life assignments with a fresh perspective, striving to capture the essence of each client’s message and personality in a unique and clever manner. The face of photography has changed so drastically over the past decade thanks to the digital age, and just about everyone has a camera in one form or another. Now more than ever, it is essential to come up with a creative visual twist in order to effectively compete in such a saturated field. I try to evoke curiosity through a highly conceptual approach to my work. People often ask me, ‘how did you do that?’ in reference to some of my images, and this is what keeps me passionate about photography. It’s not just about getting someone to buy a product or service, but also getting them emotionally engaged in the creative process.”

Eric works in partnership with his wife, Wendy Dabcovich, who offers a full gamut of graphic design services (www.dabcovichdesign.com). Eric is planning to offer video services in the near future as well. Check out Eric’s work at www.nordbergphoto.com 12 10

Alex Field ‘66, Author x 4 x Professor Field, chair of the Economics Department and Michel and Mary Orradre Professor of Economics at Santa Clara University, published A Great Leap Forward in 2012. The book was selected as a Choice 2011 Outstanding Academic Title in the Economics Area and received the Alpha Sigma Nu National Book Award and the Alice Hanson Jones Biennial Book Prize in 2012.

“You can read my book chat with David Leonhardt of the New York Times at the link below.” economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/12/when-hardtimes-led-to-a-boom Peter Beinart ’89, Author x 5 x Israel’s next great crisis may come not with the Palestinians or Iran but with young American Jews. In The Crisis of Zionism, Peter Beinart lays out in chilling detail the looming danger to Israeli democracy and the American Jewish establishment’s refusal to confront it. Beinart concludes with provocative proposals for how the relationship between American Jews and Israel must change, and with an eloquent and moving appeal for American Jews to defend the dream of a democratic Jewish state before it is too late.

“Peter Beinart has written a deeply important book for anyone who cares about Israel, its security, its democracy, and its prospects for a just and lasting peace. Beinart explains the roots of the current

Please send submissions to alumni_affairs@bbns.org or mail to BB&N Alumni/ae Affairs Office, 80 Gerry’s Landing Road, Cambridge, MA 02138

political and religious debates within Israel, raises the tough questions that can’t be avoided, and offers a new way forward to achieve Zionism’s founding ideals, both in Israel and among the diaspora Jews in the United States and elsewhere.”

—President Bill Clinton peter-beinart.com Vytas Baksys ’78, Pianist x 6 x Vytas writes, “At present, I’m involved in a recording project with flutist Linda Bento-Rei, who is trying to put together a CD of music by [Belgium composer] Joseph Jongen.

“2013 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra looks very light... unless there are drastic last-minute program changes. My next subscription weeks won’t be until mid-March. Pops has not asked me for anything yet, and, while I haven’t been contracted yet, I speculate only three weeks at Tanglewood (about 5 or 6 concerts).

“Meanwhile, I’m doing odds and ends; mostly “sight-reading gigs” at Rivers.

“Another recording project with BSO clarinetist Thomas Martin is in slow post-production status; music by Czech composer Viktor Kalibis. When all that is finally finished, there’s a possibility it’ll end up on the Naxos label.

“Most unusual job—just finished a series of piano rehearsals with a BSO violinist who will be performing a Chinese concerto with the New Philharmonia (Ronald Knudsen) at Jordan Hall later this month.”

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“Concord Chamber Music Society released its first CD last year; music by Chris Brubeck, Michael Gandolfi, and Lukas Foss. I’m told it missed getting a Grammy nomination by some narrow margin.

x2x

x5x

x3x

x6x

13 11

Far-Flung Alums: BB&N’s Presence Across the Globe From a small launching pad in Cambridge, BB&N’s global footprint continues to grow in interesting and surprising ways.

The School’s alumni/ae have spread to every continent (excepting Antarctica), embodying Head of School Rebecca T. Upham’s encouragement for graduates to become global cosmopolitans.

Whether bringing dental care to

Natasha Zamecnik ’91 (Mexico ) “Living in the U.S., people often—myself included—become very insulated from global events. When you travel and live abroad you look at things from a different perspective. ”

Central American populations,

Filipe Vasconcellos ’93 (PORTUGAL ) “Go for it and then be tolerant. The world is made of differences and the really fun thing is to look back and be able to say ‘I have been there and done that.’”

shepherding major American sports into China, or consulting on Mexican tax and healthcare reform, the alumni/ae snapshots on the following pages convey a boldness of spirit

Peter Aborn ’63 (COSTA RICA ) “Whenever I start to feel sorry for myself here…I take a trip down to see my friends in the jungle....

There are so many people in this world who don’t have anything. You don’t realize the opportunities that you have.”

and ambition that typifies BB&N. Becca Lee ’93 (CHILE )

12

“Absolutely do it, anywhere that sounds fun. Students: travel now while you don’t have a family or a mortgage. Study a foreign language now, and take it seriously, while you have access to great language teachers (thanks Ms. King!) and your brain is still receptive to new grammars and phonologies.”

a DEPARTURES/ARRIVALS

Maria Khalili ’80 (SWEDEN ) “I work as an interpreter in Sweden where I enjoy my life and my work. Helping people is the most rewarding part of my job.”

Mark Fischer ’78 (China)

Stephanie Uhlmann ’12 (SCOTLAND ) “The pooling of many different cultures allows for such a flow of different traditions and ideas that it really is unimaginable. Living internationally is something most people think they understand, but being surrounded by essentially the world represented through people is not something that can be understood until experienced.”

“Try anything once, even if it’s only once, within your own reason. My philosophy going out to dinner was that I’d eat anything once. And a lot of things, I did only eat once.”

Alec Terrana ’10 (INDIA )

Kristen Ruckstuhl ’88 (KENYA ) “The amazing friendships I have made here have enriched my life.

Working regionally on an HIV/AIDS project is very rewarding, as is the camaraderie and respect I feel from and for my Kenyan colleagues.

Being here has afforded me the opportunity to live in a very different culture, experience totally different joys, frustrations, and ways of doing things.

“Meet as many people as possible.

I think everyone has their own fascinating story to tell, especially if you’re meeting them in a random place in the world.”

Sarah Strasser ’85 (AUSTRALIA ) “Some cultural differences may come up in subtle ways, but can be about pretty significant issues, such as views about education, politics, and the role of the U.S. in the world.

You may find yourself being asked to explain or justify aspects of the U.S. that you may not be so familiar with yourself.”

13

a

G PASS

BOARDIN

NAME:

er

ch s i F k r a M CLASS :

’78

TION:

DESTINA

China

UFC lightweight champion Ben Henderson with his mother, Song, and Mark Fischer

Three months. That was Mark Fischer’s timeline. Fly to Taiwan, eat some exotic food, learn a little Chinese and martial arts, play some basketball, come home. The perfect getaway for an under-employed 24-year-old looking for an adventure.

But in 1984, what seemed like a vacation to Fischer ’78 was something few Americans would ever dream of doing. Before the Internet, or the end of the Cold War, the Far East was far less open to Westerners. Those who tried living there were, in ways, pioneers.

And like with most pioneers, opportunity awaited them.

Fischer, an aspiring journalist who’d been sports editor for the University of Michigan’s student newspaper, was having a tough time breaking into the field. He was making more money working as a bouncer at an Inman Square nightclub.

But in Taipei, his English skills were highly valued. Almost immediately he was offered a full-time job as bureau chief for an established, electronics trade journal.

At 6-foot, 3-inches, Fischer could hold his own in men’s recreational basketball leagues around Boston. In Taiwan, he soared above the competition, walking onto a top semi-pro team that played before 10,000 fans in the city’s biggest arena, nicknamed “The Rice Bowl.”

Those were just a few of the doors he would discover open to him, not just in those first few months, but in what has now become half his life spent living abroad.

Though Fischer’s basketball playing career didn’t last more than two seasons, he eventually joined the overseas front office of the NBA, spearheading the creation of NBA Taiwan in 1997. From there he moved to mainland China, where he “built NBA China’s on-ground operations in Beijing and Shanghai” and was instrumental in establishing NBA China “as its own corporate entity valued at more than $2 billion,” according the NBA’s website.

Then, in 2010, Fischer changed sports, becoming executive vice president and managing director of Ultimate Fighting Championship Asia. As with the NBA, he’s been tasked with growing the sport’s popularity, essentially from square one, through savvy marketing campaigns and television deals in just about every country in the region, from Indonesia to Japan, China to the Philippines.

14

“We probably get an actual viewership of more than 20 million viewers each week in China,” said Fischer, via Skype from Beijing. “Obviously, that’s bigger than the population of many countries, though in China, it’s no great shakes. We still have a lot of work to do, but we’re pretty happy with the progress so far. A couple of years ago that was maybe just one million viewers, if we were lucky.”

Had Fischer returned to the United States after those first three months, his career, very likely, would not have taken the same path. “There are certainly advantages if you’re able to make it here,” he said. “You’re kind of a big fish in a small pond, though ultimately that is a very big pond.”

But talent and hard work have played large roles in his success, too. Fischer spent about a decade honing his marketing skills before landing a dream job with the NBA. His plans for growing the UFC sound like a Harvard Business School case study on international sports marketing.

Nor could Fischer have thrived so many years living so far from home without embracing his surroundings, he said.

“A lot of times people come over and they’re sort of always missing what they might be doing had they not come over,” he said. “Leave that behind. You can’t be everywhere at once. Enjoy where you are and what you’re doing and who you’re with.”

First on that list are his wife, Chantiel, and their children, Isabella, 12, and Jacob, 8, who are with him in Beijing.

Naturally, a little luck also played a role in where he has ended up. Back when Fischer was a struggling freelance writer and nightclub bouncer, he accidentally ran into an old high school friend, George Hodges ’78.

That friend’s advice? Come visit him in Taiwan for a summer.

“He said to me, ‘You gotta come out. It’s a great time. We live like kings,’” Fischer recalled. “I thought, what do I have to lose besides a job working the door at a club?

And that was the beginning of my Far East life.”

a BOARDING PASS NAME:

Natasha Zamecnik CLASS :

’91

DESTINATION:

Mexico

daro in Valle del Bravo Natasha Zamecnik on Lake Avan her husband, Gabriel, (two hours from Mexico City) with and children Clara and Octavio

The move from Washington, D.C., to Mexico City has been a challenge for Natasha Zamecnik ’91 and her family. Rush hour traffic is just terrible, there are periodic water shortages, her children get released from school a full hour earlier than in the United States, and ...

Well, that’s where Zamecnik stops. After all, she doesn’t want to give the wrong impression.

“I never would have expected to be as happy as I am now after leaving D.C.,” she says by phone from Mexico’s capital. “I didn’t know I would find this job. My home life is much better in terms of how much time I get to spend with my family. And I love that I can go to the beach for a little weekend here, or go visit some little town that has interesting stuff. We’re always learning so much about the country.”

Zamecnik’s friends were taken aback when she told them that her husband, Gabriel Goodliffe, had been offered a professorship in Mexico City. Isn’t that place dangerous because of the drug trade, they asked? Won’t you miss the standard of living in the United States? Will you be able to find a good job there?

Zamecnik, who has a master’s degree in international economics from Johns Hopkins University, had been working at the U.S. Treasury before the move, specializing in trade relationships with Middle East countries. It was a prestigious job that she had worked years in finance to attain, and meant a lot to her.

Moving to Mexico without employment was a risk, but she soon landed at the World Bank, an international organization that works to reduce poverty and support development in underserved nations. She now works on tax and healthcare reforms aimed at reducing economic inequality in Latin America.

The job, admittedly, isn’t as intense as her last one. But as a part-time consultant, Zamecnik’s working day is more sane, and she feels greater ownership over what she’s doing.

She, too, was a bit apprehensive. But Zamecnik, who was born in Uruguay (she speaks Spanish) and moved frequently as a child whenever her father, a banking executive, took a new post, was also open-minded.

“At the Treasury I was so used to, ‘You have to have this perfectly written in three hours,’” she said. “Here, my boss would expect it three days later. That means you’re not stressed, and you can take your time to prepare something that’s probably better.”

“When you don’t know a place, you’re always more nervous about it, right?” she asked.

Mexico’s pace is slower in other aspects of life as well. No one rushes to birthday parties or dinner reservations: you get there when you get there. “Here things are much more low key. It’s nice.”

That life south of the border could actually be better than in the United States, though, was indeed a surprise.

In Washington, Zamecnik was a typical working parent: rushing to work, rushing home to feed, bathe and put her kids to bed, then doing it all again the next day. Weekends were for laundry and house cleaning and catching up on everything else that didn’t get done during the work week.

But in Mexico City, she and her husband’s income go much farther, allowing them to hire a full-time nanny to handle the housework and pick up their 6-year-old, Clara, from school. Now when Zamecnik comes home from work, she dives right into playing with her daughter and her 3-year-old son, Octavio, then gets time for herself to read and relax. On Friday nights, while her nanny babysits, she and her husband go to downtown restaurants as good as any back home.

Her family’s safety, certainly a concern before the move, has proven to be a non-issue.

Like any major city, her new home has crime, but Zamecnik has learned that drugrelated violence really takes place in northern Mexico, and not the country’s capital.

Moving away from friends and family back home wasn’t easy, of course. But even there, Zamecnik has found a silver lining.

“In D.C. I was in this constant guilt mode,” she said. “Guilt I wasn’t spending enough time with my kids. Guilt I wasn’t doing a good enough job at where I work. Guilt about not spending enough time with my family or friends. When you live abroad, your priorities get focused, and a lot of those worries go away.”

15

a

BOARDING PASS

NAME:

Peter Aborn CLASS :

’63

DESTINATION:

Costa Rica

ABOVE: Aborn (at right) with long-time friend, Dr. Gary Goldstein, a consultant who continues to be ins trumental in assisting the project.

RIGHT: Aborn at one of his campo de trabajos in Tala manca, Costa Rica, with some of the many childre n he has treated.

The indigenous tribesmen Dr. Peter Aborn ’63 met in the jungles of Costa Rica were poorer than anyone he’d ever seen. They wore discarded clothes, were lucky to earn $20 a week farming, and their villages, scattered miles apart, had little electricity or drinkable running water.

More disturbing, as far as Aborn was concerned, was their diet, which consisted mainly of the fruits they found—so much natural sugar that their teeth decayed 12 times faster than an average person’s.

Instead of pulling rotten molars, which is what other visiting doctors did for expediency, Aborn and his fellow volunteer dentists treated the villagers just like the patients who walked into his regular practice, fixing their gums, addressing nerve problems, teaching them dental hygiene, and restoring their teeth.

“Ninety-five percent of these people don’t have access to a dentist. I’ll send you a picture of a little girl 3 years old who walked approximately six days to get help from us,” Aborn said, by phone from Costa Rica. “When you restore their teeth, all of a sudden, there’s a new expression on their face of self-esteem, and they smile. They can smile again.”

Aborn has led regular, humanitarian dentistry missions into Costa Rica’s Talamanca Reserve for 16 years, fixing literally thousands of smiles over that time.

“They said we’d love for you to come down here, to join the community, to share your knowledge,” Aborn said. “Boy, nobody had ever said that to me.” He moved that year.

The slower pace, great weather, and emphasis Costa Ricans place on relationships, as opposed to money, have well suited Aborn and his wife, though he admits he’ll never get accustomed to the region’s earthquakes. (“The last one was a 7.4. The whole office shook.”)

Re-establishing his private practice near the resort town of Tamarindo, he’s done everything from teach prosthodontics at Costa Rican universities to establish a health tourism program, where patients fly in for dental treatments in conjunction with a typical vacation in the country. But Aborn’s humanitarian work, funded largely with his own money, has been the unique driving force in his new life.

In the mid-1990s Aborn was a successful Manhattan prosthodontist, with a Park Avenue practice a block from Tiffany’s with a view of Central Park. He had a family, a beautiful home, even season tickets to the New York Rangers.

In all, he’s made more than 100 trips into the Talamanca Reserve to assist the people of the Bribri and Cabecar tribes, including an entire year spent living among them between 1996 and 1997. The non-profit relief association Aborn founded in 2005, Project Talamanca—or Proyecto Talamanca in Spanish—not only provides dental care, but also tons of clothing, food, and water, especially after natural disasters such as massive floods.

“Everything was at a point where you would think, ‘Why do you want to change?”’ he said.

In 2009, CNN named him one of its 100 unsung world heroes. Aborn was honored, but will tell you that he gets back as much as he gives.

But his material success wasn’t making him happy. He questioned how much wealth one needed in life, even as those who traveled in his social circle seemed to want more and more—“a need for greed society,” as he put it. Work had taken over his life, too, as he found himself spending 12 hours a day, six-and-a-half days a week, at his practice.

“These people are not looking to forge ahead and step on the next person. They’re just looking to live life,” he said. “They have a very interesting philosophy, which has actually helped me out. They say don’t live in the past. Forget about feelings and emotions, because there’s nothing you can do about them. But if you bring your experiences to the present, it will help you make better decisions.

Including, as it turns out, his own.

Recently remarried, he felt it was time for a seismic change. That’s when Costa Rica entered the picture.

16

Though Aborn spoke no Spanish, and had trouble even locating the Central American country on a map, a friend convinced him to take a trip there to meet with health care providers.

“We call them primitive? They’re way ahead of us.”

a BOARDING PASS NAME:

Alec Terrana CLASS :

’10

DESTINATION:

India, Bhutan, Tibet, & China Terrana (at right) with a snake charmer in Rishikesh, India

The official state oracle of Tibet was a man of great importance, able to channel the spirit of a Buddhist deity as he advised secular leaders on their affairs. Yet, Alec Terrana ’10 couldn’t help but feel sorry for him.

Tiny and thin, the oracle could barely stand under the weight of what seemed like 100 pounds of ceremonial armor. Assistants had to support him just so he could enter the room.

Then, without warning, the oracle jumped up from his throne. Flashing a sword in the air, he danced through the temple, lithe as a ballerina. Terrana could hardly believe his eyes.

“I’d never really taken myself as much of a believer in that type of thing—of the possibility of spirits entering a body,” Terrana said. “But sitting there it was very hard not to believe. He would have people throw pieces of paper at him with questions on them. They would just hit his helmet, and he would answer the questions without having to read them.

When Terrana started college he was an economics major, interning at venture capital firms and hedge funds. He’s now a religious studies major, with plans on returning to Indian monasteries this summer to study the relationship between meditation and the senses.

And to think, a year ago Terrana was “just kind of Googling around” for something to do last summer when he came across Emory University’s student exchange program with Dharamsala’s monastery.

“There were a lot of things going on there that have really defied any rational explanation I’ve tried to come up with.”

The program intrigued him, partly because he’d been dabbling in meditation on his own, but also because he wanted to give India a second try. During Terrana’s junior year at BB&N he participated in a program called “School Year Abroad,” which placed him in Mumbai for a semester. But it wasn’t the experience he’d hoped for. “I left the country with kind of a bad taste in my mouth,” he said.

It was the first time during Terrana’s six-month sojourn to Asia that he had to rethink how he saw the world. For sure, it wouldn’t be the last.

From the moment he saw the state oracle—just 48 hours after he arrived in India last summer— he knew this trip would be far different.

Over the span of six months, Terrana, a junior at Pomona College, meditated with Tibetan monks, slept on trains bound for the fabled Silk Road, watched fireworks explode over Hong Kong Harbor on New Year’s Eve, and, oh yes, met the Dalai Lama, who personally laid a scarf around Terrana’s neck.

In China, where Terrana studied in Beijing for four months, he was humbled by a language that was incredibly difficult to learn. In India, he was stunned by shopkeepers who would “just pack up and leave no matter what time it was” if they thought of something better to do.

His adventures in India, Bhutan, Tibet, and China make for some terrific stories. But unlike a typical college semester abroad, Terrana says his experiences have changed his direction in life.

The Himalyan villagers Terrana met trekking through the countryside were happy with merely a bowl of rice in their hands. So, when Terrana got home, he got rid of his Xbox and other creature comforts. “I realized they really didn’t do anything for me,” he said.

When Terrana lived among monks in Dharamsala, India, the Dalai Lama’s home in exile, he followed much of their way of life, eating a vegetarian diet, avoiding alcohol, and forgoing relationships and even music. Now when he wakes up in his college dorm room, adorned with Buddhist tapestries and prayer flags, he meditates. Once or twice a week, he makes his way to a Chinese monastery near his school for deeper soul searching.

“Their attitude there is very casual and carefree. It was kind of infectious,” he said.

Meeting the Dalai Lama face to face, with just 15 fellow students and a number of monks sharing the room, was also pretty cool.

The scarf His Holiness placed around Terrana’s neck—“I looked up, and he just had the most incredibly heart-warming smile”—now hangs above his bed, a reminder of just how much he’s learned about himself.

And all that is to come.

“My experience has given me a better sense of direction, a better sense of who I am as a person,” Terrana said. “I have a better sense of how many more ‘selves’ I have, if that makes sense.”

17

Global Adventures on Campus You don’t need to live abroad to explore the world as BB&N’s students, faculty, and even Head of School can attest to. Enjoy this sampling of global initiatives undertaken by current BB&Ners.

Middle School Art Teacher Facilitates Youth Conference in Jordan In November, Rachel Nagler traveled to Jordan to help facilitate an Arab youth conference on global media and change. During her two-day stay at the Modern Montessori School in Amman, Jordan, the BB&N Middle School art teacher gained a unique, global perspective on the differences and similarities between the U.S. and the Middle East.

Bulletin: Tell me what this conference was all about.

Nagler: The theme was young minds exploring global media and change. It was a two-day Arab youth conference with four independent middle schools in Jordan. There were 90 students in total—all local Jordanians—in the same age group as our Middle Schoolers. They had to apply to attend the conference which was very interactive, and centered around several key themes: - Youth in the social media - Perceptions of women in the media, especially image and representation of women in Islam - Arab, Christian, and Muslim identity - Global citizenship in terms of “how are you global citizens in a digital age?”

- Freedom of speech Bulletin: How did you get involved in this conference?

Nagler: This past summer I worked at an organization called Seeds of Peace, an international conflict resolution summer camp that brings kids to Maine from conflict regions such as Jordan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India to do conflict resolution work.

One of the facilitators there was running this conference in Jordan and asked me to join her as a lead facilitator.

Bulletin: So take me through a day at this conference…

Nagler: We would start the day with some icebreaker activity, usually an arts activity, where kids would have to get to know each other in different ways.

Then we broke off to do different activities, the thickest of which, academically, was an internet sourcing activity. The kids were broken up into groups, each of which was assigned a topic and then confined to one type of sourcing. For example, one group could only use social media, like Facebook and Twitter, to find out about a current event that related to a specific topic. Another group could only use Western news media sources, another could only use Arab news sources, and the last group could only use reference sources like Wikipedia.

Then they all came together at the end of that session to have a dialogue and debate around their topic. So it was an opportunity to see what holes were presented in each story once you broadened the spectrum of media that covered that story.

Bulletin: Did you notice a big difference between these middle schoolers compared to BB&N middle schoolers?

Nagler: I found them to be overwhelmingly similar, which was a learning experience for me. They are interested in similar music, television, and movies, but I think that what they have is all of that plus their own cultural knowledge and political awareness. But they have a heightened sense of awareness around political issues in a way that I guess my students don’t. I don’t know many kids here at BB&N who aren’t interested in politics, but I’m not sure that all take the opportunity and feel it with the same sort of urgency. It’s not wrapped up in their core sense of identity in the same way.

Bulletin: What were the Jordanian students’ reactions to the conference?

Nagler: For them, what was really exciting was to have some space to talk, to be heard, and to be out of the classroom. I think that in their classrooms, teachers don’t embrace the Socratic method…they don’t have the back and forth and the talking the way we do. I heard students comment more than once on that freedom.

Bulletin: Anything that surprised you?

Nagler: How informed they were politically. Their language skills are excellent…they are fluent in English, and Arabic.

And they could just spout off these incredibly articulate opinions.

Bulletin: What were the big takeaways from the conference for you?

MS art teacher Rachel Nagler displays Jordanian students’ “mini mandalas”—a buddhist art tradition which uses a circle representing unity.

18

Nagler: Personal growth…it was a really great opportunity to help design a curriculum with another facilitator that has nothing to do with my classroom. Being out of my classroom for me is a place where I get to gather some inspiration and bring it back to my students in a different way. I get refreshed by doing other work.

It was also, for me as someone who studies culture (Nagler is in the final year of attaining a master’s degree in intercultural relations from Lesley University) a chance to have hands-on experience outside of a book—having to respond and be immersed in it for even only a week—that’s learning.

Middle Schoolers Foster Relationship with Belize School

1

This March marks the third consecutive year that BB&N Middle School students embarked on an eightday service-learning trip to Belize during spring break. The itinerary is full and varied, including staying at the Belize Zoo, visiting the Xunantunich Mayan Ruins, snorkeling at Tobacco Caye, living in the host village of Maya Center, and working closely with the community on projects for the village school.

The trip originated with Middle School science teachers Kelley Schultheis and Michael Ewins as they brainstormed ideas to create service-learning opportunities for their students outside the country. When their ideas developed into plans, Schultheis and Ewins chose to work with The World Leadership School based in Colorado, an organization that runs trips from U.S.-based schools to other countries.

Although the BB&N group visits a number of fascinating sites throughout Belize, the emphasis and greatest amount of time is devoted to the service learning that takes place within the village community. BB&N is committed to fostering an ongoing relationship with St. Jude’s School, a pre-K through grade eight school in the village of Maya Center. It is there that BB&N students have worked side by side with local villagers to lay the cinder-block foundation for a new library and to complete construction of the new school kitchen. During the school day, BB&N students go into the classrooms to work with the village students directly. Each day BB&N students make connections with the village students as they team up as reading buddies, play math games, and actually teach lessons to younger students. The best interactions, though, are on the soccer field where Americans and Belizeans are peers, playing and laughing enthusiastically, thoroughly engaged in a game all the kids enjoy. For most of the BB&N students, the cross-cultural relationships with their new friends in the village are the most meaningful experiences of the trip.

During the winter months prior to the trip, our students run a variety of fundraisers to benefit St. Jude’s School including raffles and bake sales. One hundred percent of the proceeds of these efforts go directly to the school in order to help improve its facilities.

Head of School Travels to India for G20 Conference

1. Middle Schoolers pose near some Mayan

ruins during their trip to Belize.

2. The most rewarding part of the Belize

trip was getting to know the local kids.

3. Head of School Rebecca T. Upham

(in the bright green vest) in front of

the Taj Mahal during her time at the

G20 education conference in India.

This February Head of School Rebecca T. Upham recently undertook her own international sojourn when she attended the annual G20 education conference at Daly College in Indore, India.

2

Initiated in 2005, the G20 conference gathers together more than 20 heads of leading schools who wish to share a platform to look beyond their own experiences and share the best of what is happening in the world. These sessions are interactive and feature visits from eminent thinkers who share thoughts and also give an exposure to the culture of the host nation.

“This year’s conference focused both on India’s efforts at widespread reform of its educational system and the sharing of ideas and practices within members of the G20 group,” says Upham.

“Not surprisingly, cyber-bullying emerged as a shared concern for schools around the globe and all schools are wrestling with the concept and application of global education.”

Highlights from the conference included numerous esteemed speakers such as Mr. Ashok Thakur, Secretary, Higher Education in the government of India, Ms. Jaya Row, founder and managing trustee of Vedanta Vision, and economist Mr. Montek Singh Ahluwahia, the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission of the Republic of India.

3

19

e 9: ’7 th X ow e n hb l rs e i gi Ve ES nc ra M JA d re F an fe or 8 f ’7 i p ef r ap D u Cl a e C ti g Ka n i ra ak fo M st ue Q

by Kim Ablon Whitney ’91

20

This is a story about two BB&N alums. This is a story about their boys. This is a story about taking sadness, anger, and pain and using them as fuel for change. This is a story about searching for a cure.

Katie Clapp ’78 and Jim Vershbow ’79 knew of each other while students at BB&N. Much later, they found their lives forever linked because of a disease called Fragile X Syndrome. Although Fragile X is the most common inherited cause of mental impairment and the most common cause of autism, it is virtually unknown to many.

Fragile X affects 1 in 4,000 boys and 1 in 6,000-8,000 girls and has symptoms that range in each child, but can include severe learning problems, debilitating sensory issues, and anxiety disorders. While the cause of most forms of autism is unknown and often hotly debated, Fragile X is known to be a mutation of the FMR1 gene, silently for generations in a family before a child is born with the syndrome.

PICTURED: Above: Andy and Katie Clapp ’78 Below: Pam, Patrick, Abigail, and Jim Vershbow ’79

21

“Let’s Fix This” Katie Clapp and her husband, Dr. Michael Tranfaglia, knew something wasn’t typical with their son Andy’s early development.

Katie and Michael were living in North Carolina at the time and took Andy to be seen by the head of Genetics at the University of North Carolina. But awareness of Fragile X was limited even among doctors in 1989 and no official diagnosis was made.

The couple returned home to Newburyport—Katie pregnant with their second child. It was then that they finally found a doctor who suggested testing for Fragile X. The test is, incidentally, a simple blood test. Shortly thereafter, Katie fielded the call from Dr. Murray Feingold with the news that Andy had Fragile X. “It’s the phone call you never forget,” says Katie. “I didn’t think we could handle what we were up against. But what’s your choice?

There’s only one choice.”

their lives. “Jimmy was going to deal with what he and Pam were going through on his own and we had essentially lost communication with him,” explains Pressman. “We had been best friends since ninth grade, we had played sports together, traveled the world together, and been the best men in each other’s weddings.

We weren’t going to accept that we were losing him.”

The three friends managed to get Jim out one night and an impromptu brainstorming session began. “They were trying to break through to me,” recalls Jim. Pressman, Rome, and Savarese desperately wanted to help Jim and Pam, but weren’t sure how.

They proposed raising money for Fragile X centered around a common love—basketball. “It was very sad for us that we couldn’t experience with him the things he was going through, but this way we knew we at least would be communicating with him,” says Pressman. In order to pull off what became the annual Patrick’s Pals three-on-three basketball tournament, the four friends would need to stay in touch on a regular basis. Jim simply could not slip away.

“It’s the phone call you never forget. I didn’t think we could handle what we were up against. But what’s your choice? There’s only one choice.”

Finding a Cure

Often, having a diagnosis feels better than not being able to figure out what’s wrong. But there was such little information available at the time about Fragile X, that Katie and Michael still felt in the dark.

Mike, a psychiatrist, began looking into what was known about the science behind Fragile X. Katie explains, “Michael came home and he said, ‘We know what’s wrong. The gene is shut down and the protein is missing. If we know what’s wrong, we can fix it.”

Katie recalls immediately thinking, “Okay, let’s fix this.”

The first year, FRAXA gave out one grant for $35,000. Today it issues close to two million dollars a year in grants for post-doctoral fellowships and program projects. Instead of five, 200 scientists at universities across the world are working on a cure for Fragile X—in large part because of FRAXA.

Hoop Dreams Patrick Vershbow was ten months old and failing to thrive when Jim and Pam took him to a doctor who recommended testing for Fragile X. They too fielded that life-altering phone call.

Pre-Google, Pam ran to the local library, where she found only one paragraph about Fragile X. As the Vershbows dedicated themselves to learning all they could about Fragile X and supporting son Patrick’s development, Jim began to retreat from all else in life. He withdrew from lifelong friendships with four other men, who were classmates at BB&N. “I was slipping away,” admits Jim. But his friends, Jon Pressman ’79, Bill Rome ’79, and Steve Savarese ’79, weren’t going to let their friend disappear from 22

Katie Clapp’s first step to finding a cure for Fragile X was to find out what research was already being done on the disease.

She attended a conference and learned there were only five researchers in the world working on Fragile X. She and Michael tried to interest biotech companies in taking on Fragile X research, but the profit margin wasn’t there.

Unwilling to give up, Katie sent out a letter to all the attendees of the conference explaining why she and Michael felt Fragile X was treatable. She received a letter back from Kathy May, another mother of a Fragile X child, and together they founded the FRAXA Research Foundation. The two didn’t meet in person for a year, but immediately formed a strong bond that continues today.

FRAXA has been built on the dedication of people like Katie and Mike, and a continuously growing web of supporters. “How do we raise money?” Katie asks. “A lot of it is families affected by Fragile X, like Jim and Pam, doing events. It feels great to be doing something to help find a cure, and often fundraising becomes support, because it connects families living with Fragile X.”

The foundation’s infrastructure is still tiny, in order to push the profit to research. Katie is the only full-time staff member. There are three other part-time staffers, including Michael who reviews grant proposals and co-chairs meetings. FRAXA also runs conferences and provides a listserv to help parents of Fragile X children get the support they need.

Jim reconnected with Katie when he and Pam were searching for more information on Fragile X. At the time, FRAXA was one of the only organizations out there for parents raising children with Fragile X. When the idea for Patrick’s Pals was conceived, directing the profits to FRAXA was a perfect fit.

This year will mark the 17th anniversary of the Patrick’s Pals tournament. For all but the first inaugural year, the tournament has been held at BB&N. Jim served many important roles at BB&N for over twenty years. He started working in the athletic department in 1984 and over the years transitioned from

“We had been best friends since ninth grade, played sports together, traveled the world together, and been the best men in each other’s weddings. We weren’t going to accept that we were losing him.”

4 FRIENDS, THEN AND NOW: Above, at graduation in 1979, from left, Jon Pressman, Steve Savarese, Jim Vershbow, and Bill Rome. Below, from the Patrick’s Pals Tournament in 2010, from left, Pressman, Vershbow, Savarese, and Rome.

coaching basketball to teaching math, advising, and working in the Upper School admission office. He also served as the Director of the BB&N Day Camp for fifteen years, scaling back his work at the Upper School to help care for Patrick.

“We’ve been very fortunate in that BB&N donates everything for the tournament, from the gym to the food,” says Jim. “Our goal is always do as much as possible with as little outlay.”

Patrick’s Pals has grown to a 32-team tournament with winners and consolation brackets. The result is an entire day of endless basketball fun that raises forty thousand dollars for FRAXA and spreads awareness of Fragile X. There is also a silent auction of sports tickets, memorabilia, and special celebrity guests.

At first, Jim’s friends took the lead in terms of organizing the event, but over the years it has become Jim’s baby. Still, though, there are the weekly conference calls and endless fundraising support from Jon, Bill, Steve, and Scott Katz, another close friend who joined the team. “I’m continuously amazed by my friends and how much they do for Patrick’s Pals,” says Jim. “Because of them, people who never would have even known what Fragile X is are learning about it and making donations.” For Jon, Bill, Steve, and Scott, the effort is more than worth it. “There’s a point during every tournament day, after cleaning up, where there’s a feeling of great satisfaction among all of us,” explains Bill. “Because we’ve succeeded doing something for Jim, for Patrick, and for all of us.”

The Future Andy is now twenty-three. He spends part of his day at a work program. During that time, Katie is hard at work at the FRAXA office. She comes home to care for Andy in the afternoons. She describes him as “very sweet and very shy.” Twenty years later,

Katie and Michael are no less committed to finding the cure for Fragile X—for Andy and for those children born with Fragile X every day. She tries to explain what it feels like to live inside Andy’s head. “I liken it to when the radio is turned up really loud and you can’t really think or process because of all the noise,” she says. “But there are drugs that can turn that volume on the radio down.”

FRAXA is currently helping fund trials of what Katie calls a “truly exciting class of drugs that compensate for the job of the missing protein.” The medications have shown incredible promise in fruit flies and mice. The drugs also have the possibility of advancing the treatment of other forms of autism and Alzheimer’s.

Patrick is eighteen and will soon be ineligible for the daily school program he attends. Jim and Pam have now switched roles—Pam works and Jim is the daily caregiver for Patrick and their teenage daughter, Abigail. Patrick loves the Disney Channel, books, Elvis, and computers. Jim reads books to Patrick over and over again, and does Elvis impersonations that make Patrick laugh. “He’s taught me so much. I’d do anything to trade and have gotten those lessons another way,” he explains. “But I’m a better person for Patrick.”

For all they do, both Katie and Jim wish they could be doing more, and have nothing but admiration for each other. “My frustration is still that I’m not doing enough,” says Jim. “We’re just one little part of the puzzle, but what Katie and Mike have done with so little is just amazing.”

Katie knows a cure is out there, but progress is slower than she would like. “Like us, Jimmy is still going strong all these years later,” she says. “We didn’t know it would take this long to cure something. But we’re not giving up.” b 23

W

hen Ellen Goodman’s mother fell ill almost three years ago, Goodman ’59 was completely unprepared for and surprised by all the decisions she had to make on her mother’s behalf as her mother was no longer capable of making these decisions for herself.

Despite the many conversations she and her mother had shared in their life together, they had never talked about how Goodman’s mother wanted to live out the end of her life.

heard accounts of good deaths and bad deaths and noted the difference between the two often came down to whether a parent had expressed his or her wishes and had them respected.

“Everybody had a story,” she says.

Studies prove that people are not living the end of their lives the way they want to.

Seventy percent of people say they want to die at home, but in reality, 70 percent As she started sharing her story with others, die in hospitals or nursing homes. Sixty percent of people say making sure their Goodman realized she wasn’t alone. She

24

(Photo courtesy of The Conversation Project)

by Morgan Baker ’76 families are not burdened by tough decisions is important yet 56 percent have not communicated their end-of-life wishes.

In the fall of 2010, Goodman and Len Fishman, head of Hebrew Senior Life, gathered together a group of clergy, media, and health care providers. They took off their professional hats and shared more stories with the help of the Institute of Healthcare Improvement.

From this The Conversation Project, of which Goodman is co-founder and director, was born.

The goal behind The Conversation Project is to have every citizen’s end-of-life wishes expressed and respected.

Last August, The Conversation Project went live with its website, which Goodman says is a compelling site filled with stories— from the founding members and from visitors to the site. Since then, 70,000 people have visited the site for an average of three-and-a-half minutes each, and 40,000 have downloaded the starter kit.

NEXT PAGE 25

The kit provides talking points and questions to get the conversation started. Goodman says the place to have the conversation is at the kitchen table, not in a doctor’s office. Talk to your children, your parents. Let people know how you want to live the end of your life and ask those you care about how they want to live the end of theirs.

Goodman says the medical system is stuck and in order to change how we look at end-of-life care, we need to go outside of the medical community to change the cultural norm, much the same way the birth process was changed. Doctors didn’t change how women gave birth, women did.

Doctors didn’t bring video cameras into birthing rooms, moms and dads did. If we can change the way we bring life into the world, Goodman says, we can change how people die.

“It’s not always easy. But the starter kit helps, and those who have had these conversations report back that they were some of the richest conversations.”

The Conversation Project website gives step-by-step methods to address end-of-life decisions, and includes many inspirational testimonies.

and guilty and don’t second-guess if they did the right thing by their parents.

“It’s not always easy,” admits Goodman. “But the starter kit helps, and those who have had these conversations report back that they were some of the richest conversations.” Goodman’s own daughter initially didn’t want to talk about these issues, but over lunch one day, they did have the conversation and it went well.

You can use a story to initiate the conversation or write a letter. Goodman says the earlier you have it the better. Once in a crisis, it’s a bad time to learn what someone wants. Figure out what matters to you and share it with your family.

It’s a big task. “Harvard Business School called us one of the 13 audacious ideas for 2012,” says Goodman.

The Conversation Project is now moving into Phase Two of its development, which according to Goodman is reaching into organizations where people work, play, and live, bringing the conversation into places where people congregate.

Goodman is setting out to change the cultural norm.

“There are other new norms in this country. We are at a tipping point. We are much more aware of the need for this. You can establish a new normal,” she says.

Goodman, who won a Pulitzer Prize for her column writing at The Boston Globe, says The Conversation Project is her second act. Rather than reporting on social change, she is making social change.

Currently, it isn’t there and it’s clear it should be.

Parents don’t talk about the end of their lives because they don’t want to alarm their children and children don’t bring the topic up because they don’t want their parents to know they think the parents are going to die. “It’s lonely,” says Goodman.

Having graduated under Miss Vaillant’s watch at Buckingham this isn’t too surprising. Goodman says Miss Vaillant treated the girls seriously and believed in girls’ education and that you should do something in the world. She was classic, strong, and looked the part of a suffrage poster.

Studies show, however, that if the conversation does take place, patients choose less aggressive treatment plans, and the remaining children are less depressed

Goodman urges everyone to go to the website (theconversationproject.org), download the starter kit, send your story to the site, and then pass it forward. a

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GHAM 1954 REVISITED BUCKIN

From The Archives As BB&N continues its revitalization of the School’s archives, careful digging and cataloguing has revealed several treasures, including this Class of 1954 graduation photo.

Class of 1954 graduate Nancy (Hoadley) Fryberger (pictured above at far right) recalls that year as the capstone of her journey as a lifer at the Buckingham School. Still in touch with many members of her class, Fryberger remembers the close-knit, family feel of her Buckingham years.

“The senior class had the use of the Stowe Room at the Sparks Street location as a gathering space, and we had a lot of fun.

Especially with the kitchen being next door—the two very nice women who worked in it treated us so well, often making us treats!”

Fryberger also recalls graduation as one of the few chances the girls had to wear lipstick on campus, a memory which brought to mind some other rules. “Any dress you wore had to be long enough to touch the floor from a kneeling position,” she laughs.

This photo shows the girls lined up in the Lower School gymnasium following a graduation ceremony highlighted by “the singing of Jerusalem, and the presentation of blue-and-gold-ribbon-adorned diplomas signed by Kingman Brewster (chairman of the Buckingham board and future Yale president), and Headmistress Marian Vaillant.”

“One precise memory was Marian Vaillant telling us that, ‘In life a lot of things come in packages, but don’t assume that the contents are as beautiful as the presentation.’”

Photo caption: from left, Anne (Crone) Williams, Margaret (Taylor) Adams, Elizabeth (MacMahon) Jochnick, Mary Wild Roy, Ann Lee (Smith) Bugbee, Cornelia (Dunning) Hollister, Caroline (Densmore) Banks-Hannigan, Sue (Welsh) Reed, Anne Whitelaw, Karen (Thimann) Romer, Margaret (Abbott) Eubank, Jean (Cairnie) Castles, and Nancy (Hoadley) Fryberger.

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BB&N

F O R M E R FAC U LT Y P R O F I L E

“When Israel bombed the convoy in Syria the other day, we paid attention to that. With Hezbollah occupying South Lebanon, living in Beirut is going to be an adventure, and we follow the news with a great deal of interest.” Hamilton Clark, former Assistant Head at BB&N and current Head at The Episcopal Academy, is speaking about the next phase of his career— as Headmaster-elect of The American Community School at Beirut.

“When I left BB&N, (my wife) Ceci and I spent a wonderfully liberating year at the American International School of Zurich. We always expected to stay in Europe, and when I returned to head Sewickley Academy, we somewhat regretted having had only one year abroad and felt that we had missed an opportunity. We eventually took a sabbatical from Sewickley and went to Australia, where we enrolled our kids in school.”

“I told the board chair at Episcopal fifteen months ago that I would make this my last year. I often tell our students that they need to push themselves outside their comfort zone and take new risks, and I think it is time for Ceci and me to follow this advice.”

Recalling his years at BB&N, Clark says, “Peter (Gunness) was a great mentor for me, allowing me to have experience in a whole variety of areas.” Former Head of BB&N Gunness elaborates: “From our first meeting, I could sense Ham’s eagerness to be involved in the larger School issues and to make a difference. He got the big picture. As Director of Admissions, he immediately improved our process, systems, and data collection and broadened our outreach to find and attract the best, most interesting, and diverse student body. He pushed me and others pretty hard to pay more attention to how we presented ourselves to candidates and the world. Without his encouragement, even pressure, I wouldn’t have moved so certainly in creating a multicultural affairs position and hiring Lewis Bryant. Later, as Special Assistant to the Head of School, he was invaluable to me as he shadowed my work, including preparation of the budget and working with Trustees.”

Clark, who must be one of the few school heads in the country able to consult his Bible during an interview, studied religion at Trinity College and considered the seminary. Ultimately, he settled on college admissions because, well, he “had such a good time in college,” he says, sharing his dry humor. Later he took some courses at Episcopal Divinity School. “I see the value of having kids in an environment where they see something beyond themselves,” he says. “Some messages will resonate. In fact, Peter’s suggestion that I introduce BB&N’s first elective in religion foreshadowed my interest in getting to a school like this. We have three chaplains; everyone goes. It’s an important part of our experience here.”

Matthew Whitlock ’82 remembers “Ham Clark as both peer and faculty, advisor and friend—always able to connect with us. Whether before class, pointing out flaws in an art project with a friendly sarcastic nip, at a lunch table with his players from the men’s third ice hockey team, or after school, checking in with us to make sure we were managing our time effectively to allow time to study, Ham was involved, aware, and concerned. While Ham blurred the line between teacher and student, he never compromised his dedication or commitment to us as an advisor. More often than not, Ham would suggest something I didn’t know I needed, without ever letting on that he was in fact being my ‘advisor.’

“One spring break, two friends and I helped Ham and his wife Ceci build an addition to their cottage on Martha’s Vineyard. Ham acted as construction foreman and taskmaster by day and friend and host by night. The experience was significant enough that each of us mentioned the ‘Wild West Chop Wonders’ on our Senior pages. Thirty-four years after I met him, Ham remains an advisor, teacher, and friend.”

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N ew Ad ve nt u re s w ith Ham C lar k

by R og e r F. Sta cey, F a cul ty Em erit us

PICTURED: Left: Ham Clark at Episcopal Academy.

Right: Clark, at BB&N in 1979

Ward Ghory, former BB&N Upper School Director, former Head of the University School of Milwaukee, and newly appointed Head of the Harley School, offers a fellow Head’s appraisal: “Among our group of fifty-plus school Heads, Ham is a respected leader. In his low-key way, he conveys humor, concern, urgency, high standards, and perspective. There had been rumors for a while that ‘Ham was building a new school,’ but it wasn’t until a meeting at Episcopal’s new campus that any of us could appreciate the scale of what Ham had orchestrated.

“His accomplishment made me think of the ancient Romans founding new cities where once fields and farms prevailed. Beyond the scale of fundraising required, beyond the politics of selling an historic campus, beyond the conceptual challenge of defining a vision for a 21st-century campus and designing and constructing not one or two but more like a dozen new buildings, and beyond the practical logistics of wrangling multiple architects responsible for neighboring buildings, what stood out for me was the sheer audacity of uprooting and moving a large, wellestablished, and successful school on the grounds that its enterprise could be accomplished better and more sustainably in a new location.”

“I see myself more as a builder than a maintainer,” Clark says. “I still have a lot I want to get done. I’m not ready to say, `It’s all finished.’ The facilities in Beirut are woeful at the moment. They have a master plan and some big aspirations but not much of a culture of philanthropy. I hope I can play a role with that. The campus is not that attractive but has a lot of potential. It’s right next door to The American University of Beirut—the jewel of the area.”

A chapel talk Clark gave this year during Epiphany recalled the Magi following the star: “ As it is winter and the days are dark and the finish line seems a long way away, I urge you to keep the image of a star in mind. Where do you want to go, what do you want to be known for?

“As I think about these questions and think about my own star; I think first about trying to be a good husband and dad, a good son, a reliable and trustworthy friend and citizen, someone who helps to lift others up. Professionally, I strive to be a good and fair role model, leader, mentor, and motivator for all of you. I think about the incredible opportunity I have had to lead this venerable school….” As he was saying that, his gaze was moving eastward.

Essentially, the Clarks are returning to a path they stepped off more than two decades ago. “I wanted our kids to grow up abroad. If I had young kids, I would not be going to Beirut, but our kids are all in first jobs and there are no grandchildren yet. It’s time to go and have our own adventure.” b 29

Advancing Our Mission

by Rachel Loughran

Ben Wiegand ’20 and Coach Ed Bourget ’96. Ben’s first shutout was recorded on November 25th, 10 saves and 0 goals against.

Ben Saves for the Christopher Kern Scholarship Fund: A Power Play Move by BB&N Hockey Players and Students It is amazing how the actions of a few can inspire many. BB&N fifth grader Ben Wiegand, goalie for the Somerville Squirt B Team, was excited to play goalie during the first period of the Kern Memorial Hockey Game in February 2012, a charity game organized by Ed Bourget ’96 in memory of his late friend and alumnus Christopher Kern ’99. The game raised more than $10,000 for the Christopher Kern ’99 Scholarship Fund at BB&N. One period was not enough for Ben. He wanted to do more to make a difference, especially after receiving a letter from the Upper School student currently being supported by the Kern Fund, sharing with Memorial Game donors and players how much their support to this financial aid fund has made an impact on his life.

So Ben worked on his goalie skills, practicing with both the Somerville Squirts and the Boston Junior Eagles, and after a conversation about community service, brought his idea to his phys ed teacher Ed Bourget. Ben’s mother Beebe says, “Coach Ed advised Ben that when professional teams do charity work they set aside a certain amount for positive plays, so we decided to put the emphasis on the saves Ben made in November. Ben wanted so badly to save each shot on goal that he really ‘stood on his head’ in November.” Ben got his first career shutout and raised more than $600 for the Kern Scholarship Fund.

The Upper School hockey teams heard about Ben Saves for the Christopher Kern Fund and wanted to support Ben’s effort to honor Chris and raise funds for student financial aid. Assistant Athletic Director Kathy Newell approached the varsity players to share who Chris was and how their efforts could help support a priority need on campus. In December, both the boys and girls varsity teams pledged to donate $5 for every goal and $1 for every save made by BB&N players during their upcoming tournament games. The boys team raised $150 and the girls team raised $260.

In January, the junior varsity teams enthusiastically joined the effort. The boys raised $300 and the girls raised $110.

JV Boys Coach Mark Jewett ’03 shares, “Chris passed away just before the start of my junior year, and while I did not know him personally, my brother Andrew ‘01 had played hockey with him for a year. To take such a tragedy and create a wonderful scholarship in the memory of a great person is a great story in itself.”

The Christopher Kern Scholarship Fund, along with other financial aid funds, is an important part of the BB&N Financial Aid program, providing opportunities for 230 students this year. As one student wrote, “I am thankful for your generous donation because this makes every day easier for me by going to a school like BB&N. It provides me the opportunity to become who I want to be in life and succeed beyond my expectations. Your donation has made me realize that you’re always going to need a hand when you least expect, and when you have a chance to give back, do it with no second thoughts.”

Games

6 Saves

93 Goals Against

7

Even though the Somerville Squirt season is winding down, Ben is already thinking about next season and when he’ll hold another Ben Saves for the Christopher Kern Fund. “It was super how my idea just snowballed.” Ben hopes the BB&N teams will join in the effort again.

Save Average

Special thanks to Jim Agabedis ’82, Laurie Baker, Ed Bourget ’96, Terrence Butt ’91, Mark Jewett ’03, Kathy Newell, Casey Turner, the Somerville Squirt Team, and Ben’s coaches Kyle, John, and Joe for supporting Ben Wiegand’s and the team’s efforts.

Goals Against Average

To make a gift to support financial aid or the Kern Scholarship Fund, visit www.bbns.org/donate.

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Ben Saves for the Christopher Kern Fund Stats

0.930 1.167

Buckingham ’62 Hopes to Spur Future Support with 50th Reunion Record As the countdown to this spring’s Reunions picks up pace, with Committees and Class Agents encouraging attendance and generous gifts, the Buckingham Class of 1962 serves as a model of inspiration. Last year, as the Class plotted their 50th Reunion celebration, four members of the Class—Ellen Frost, Roz Gorin, Trina Barnett Grantham, and Pam Hardee Jackson—came together, determined to make their reunion pilgrimage to campus the best ever. In addition to all the activities organized by the Alumni/ae Office, the women crafted other enticements: a private dinner at the Jackson home, an individualized tour of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum by the museum’s director, lunch with the women editors of The Vanguard, afternoon tea at the Sparks Street campus, and brunch at the Gorin home.

With this type of energy driving the Reunion forward, it seemed natural to the Committee that they should establish a new standard for 50th Reunion giving by a Buckingham class. With affection and gratitude, a “challenge” grant was cobbled together that would match all gifts over $100. The goal was to exceed the $13,486 that had been raised by the Class of 1954. Each member of Buckingham 1962 was called, letters were written, a friendly competition sprung up with the men of B&N ’62, and when the smoke cleared, $20,086 had been raised with 74 percent of the class participating. Not bad for a class of 26 stalwart and committed women, who now urge this year’s 50th Reunion classes to match their achievements.

Vanguard editors Carolyn Kwon ’12, Kris Boelitz ’12, Elaine Dai ’11, Alexa Horwitz ’12, and Jennie Kaplan ’12 hosted the Buckingham women from the 50th Reunion Class of 1962: Pam Hardee Jackson, Ellen Frost, Roz Gorin, Louise Bingham Bennett, Trina Barnett Grantham, Kathy Gregg, and Kathy Winslow Herzog.

Alumni/ae Council Member Mark La Camera ’88 Reflects on BB&N, Reunions, and his Brief Football Career Why I love BB&N? I’ll always be grateful for the foundation of critical thinking I gained at BB&N. Lots of schools fill you up with knowledge; BB&N is a place where you learn how to learn, how to be curious, how to question and, ultimately, to resolve. You could never hide at BB&N, in the classroom, on the field, or in the studio. If you were questioned, you had to answer. If you had a position, you had to defend. If you were dressed, you were playing. We always had to step up and give best effort, creating habits that have served me well in life.

Why am I excited to be a Reunion Volunteer?

My ’88 classmates have managed to stay close, maintaining a large network of friendships. Of course, opportunities to get together with those friends are fewer and further between now.

Twenty-five years have passed and we’ve stood in each other’s weddings, seen our families grow, and shared successes and some pain, too. This is that rare and great chance to gather as a group.

In a way, reunions can also be a great way to “meet” your classmates. It’s always interesting talking to people who may have been outside your immediate circle while at BB&N. You often find you have more in common with them than the folks you’ve stayed in touch with.

Mark La Camera ’88 with his son Sam, from 2010

My favorite BB&N memory with a teacher or coach?

I always loved math. That interest guided my post-graduate studies and career choice, and it’s funny now watching my kids go through the same stuff (definitely not as interested). Of course the camaraderie of sports sticks with me. Our class was the first to be coached by Lew Bryant (in the Middle School), a mentor who guided me through a short and very mediocre football career.

Why I hope you’ll join me at Strawberry Night Reunion weekend this year?

No matter your memories of BB&N, it is a part of all of us. The School and its community have grown in so many positive ways over recent decades, all the while maintaining its excellence. It is a place to be proud of; come see.

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6 T hings About BB&N:

[ ONE ] BB&N students have very discerning palates! “I’ve tried to change or improve upon the spaghetti sauce recipe over a dozen times in my time here, but to no avail,” notes Chef Keith Jones. “The students always detect the difference in the sauce and ask for me to go back to the original recipe.”

.. . . . .

..

[ TWO ] What’s the most popular

....

Dining Services [4]

menu item among Chef Jones’ 900 daily diners? For students, it’s chicken fingers—Jones and his staff cook over 400 pounds for an average lunch. For faculty and staff, Garde Manger Chef Rigoberto Henriques’ curry chicken salad with raisins and green apples takes top prize.

[ THREE ] Buried beneath the Upper School courtyard is a “grease trap” the size of a small swimming pool; it collects kitchen run-off, and requires emptying three times a year. [ FOUR ] In a true testament to talent, Chef Jones and his cooks have managed to make tofu a sought-after item in the lunch room. “We marinate it and cook it into something delicious”—no small feat.

.... [ FIVE ] Known as the kitchen’s “Hidden Secret,” Kitchen Utility Attendant Kulvinder Kaur has a talent for making delicious Indian food from scratch. Using her mother’s recipes, Kaur occasionally delights the crew with homemade lunches.

....

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.

[ SIX ] Production Chef Manuel Villar uses over five bottles of hot sauce a week on his own lunches, including one variety made from the infamously scorching ghost pepper. Fear not, none of his personal hot sauces ever make it into the School lunches.

Former Faculty Member and Buckingham Alumna Lee Ginsburg Herbst ’53 and Arthur L. Herbst Support Math Programs with Endowment Gift When Lee Ginsburg Herbst ’53 and her husband Arthur were considering how to direct their philanthropy to support institutions they both cared about, BB&N was clearly near the top of their list.

support an initiative aligned with their interests and careers.

The result was the Lee Ginsburg Herbst and Arthur L. Herbst Mathematics Fund, established during the 2011-12 academic year.

A student at the Buckingham Upper School for grades 10-12, Lee has great appreciation for her Buckingham education. Her ties to the school were further strengthened when she joined the Buckingham Lower School math faculty in 1966 following several years of teaching 5th grade math at Shady Hill. Lee continued to teach math at BB&N through 1976, with a focus on teaching advanced level math at both schools, and prides herself on enhancing students’ enthusiasm for the subject. She also served on the BB&N Board of Trustees for two years during the time of the merger, and co-chaired her 50th Reunion which achieved 100% participation from her classmates.

The purpose of this endowment Fund is to support math faculty at the Lower and Middle Schools who are working with students who show particular promise in mathematics. As stated by the Herbsts in the document establishing the Fund, “Because of our belief in excellence, this Fund will be used by faculty to develop projects and materials to enrich the experience of promising math students.”

BB&N, and particularly our math faculty, are deeply grateful to Lee and Arthur Herbst for their generosity and thoughtfulness in establishing this fund to enhance an important part of the academic curriculum.

Several years ago, Lee and Arthur−a retired physician who practiced at Massachusetts General, Brigham and Women’s, and the University of Chicago Hospital−contacted BB&N about their interest in making a gift to establish a fund to

For more information about gifts to support BB&N’s endowment for academic programs, faculty, financial aid, or other purposes, contact Janet Rosen at 617-800-2729 or jrosen@bbns.org.

Buckingham Browne & Nichols School

Non-Profit Org. US Postage PAID Worcester, MA Permit No. 2

80 Gerry’s Landing Road Cambridge, MA 02138-5512 www.bbns.org

Strawberry Night and Reunion Weekend 2013 May 10 - May 12 Go to www.bbns.org/strawberry for more info or to register!

(Artwork by Pete Gergely ’72)