BB&N Bulletin Fall 2015

Fall/Winter 2015

bulletin Rachel Platten ’99: The “ Fight Song” Star Hits Her Stride

Inside this issue:

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Paddy Spence ’95 Shakes Up the Soda World

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Mark Culliton ’82 Making a Difference with College Bound Dorchester

45 BB&N at The Head of

the Charles Regatta

Advancing Our Ja n uary Mission

Letter From the Head 2 Head of School Rebecca T. Upham: xxxxx

Events Calendar 2016

Community News 4 Fall Sports Snapshots, Homecoming, Crewdson

Fe br u a r y

Thursday, February 11 BB&N in San Francisco

For a complete listing of School events including athletic games, performances, and exhibitions on campus, please visit the events calendar at: www.bbns.org/calendar.

NOTE TO PARENTS OF ALUMNI/AE: If this Bulletin was sent to your daughter or son at your home and they have updated contact information, please send us their new address and email. Thank you!

Please send updates to: alumni_programs@bbns.org or Alumni/ae Programs Buckingham Browne & Nichols School 80 Gerry’s Landing Road Cambridge, MA 02138

Fall 2015

Friday, May 20 – Sunday, May 22 Strawberry Night/Reunion Weekend BB&N Upper School, Gerry’s Landing Road, Cambridge See www.bbns.org/strawberry for more details.

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Tuesday, March 1 BB&N in Washington, D.C.

Saturday, May 7 BB&N Circus Lower School Campus

The “Fight Song” star hits her stride

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Paddy Spence ’95

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Recognized with Endowed Instructorship, New Trustees Named, Lower School Egg Drop, Graphic Artist Visits Middle School, and more

Features 14 Rachel Platten ’99

Monday, February 8 BB&N in Los Angeles

Thursday, April 7 BB&N in New York City

Associate Director of Communications Andrew Fletcher, Senior Editor

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Saturday, January 30 Alumni/ae Winter Games and All-School Spirit Day Nicholas Athletic Center, BB&N Upper School

Ap ri l

Director of Communications Joe Clifford, Editor

Zevia soda CEO takes on soft drink giants

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Mark Culliton ’82

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Former Faculty Profile: Connemara Wadsworth

Opening opportunities for gang members and dropouts with College Bound Dorchester

Advancing Our Mission 30 BB&N Fund Sets the Bar High, Senior Parents

Kick Off the Year, BB&N 1974 Leadership Society Celebration

Alumni/ae News & Notes 35 Alumni/ae News and Notes 40 Golden Alumni/ae Luncheon 52 BB&N at the Head of the Charles 62 Milestones

Communications and Website Coordinator Hadley Kyle, Editor Contributing Writers Morgan Baker ’76 Joe Clifford Peter DeMarco Andrew Fletcher Kelly Greene Molly Jackel Janet Rosen Rebecca T. Upham Contributing Editors Sherwood C. Haskins Jr. Janet Rosen Katie Small Caity Sprague Alumni/ae News & Notes Tracy Rosette Caity Sprague Design & Production Nanci Booth www.nancibooth.com 781-301-1733 Photography/Artwork/Design Raj Das Andrew Fletcher Brian Galford Shane McCauley Eric Nordberg ’88 Shawn Read Caity Sprague Joshua Touster Vaughn Winchell Kevin Winter

Board of Trustees, 2015-2016 Officers Bracebridge Young, Jr., Chair Charles A. Brizius, Vice Chair Shelly Nemirovsky, Vice Chair/Secretary D. Randolph Peeler, Vice Chair/Treasurer Members Leslie Ahlstrand ’08 Jeff Barber James T. Berylson ’00 Joseph Chung Gregory Clark Thomas Dingman Diala Ezzeddine Katie Gayman Mary Beth Gordon Janice Gould Jason P. Hafler ’00 Bob Higgins Jim Honan Karen J. Kalina ’81 Kenneth W. Lang Peter K. Levitt ’84 Erica Gervais Pappendick Clay V. Stites Janet M. Storella ’74 David J. Thompson ’85 Frederica C. Turner ’91 Charlotte Wagner David Williams ’78 Fan Wu ’98 Associate Trustee Agnes Bundy Scanlan Head of School Rebecca T. Upham Front Cover:

Recording artist Rachel Platten ’99 performs onstage during the 2015 Teen Choice Awards at the USC Galen Center on August 16, 2015, in Los Angeles, California. (Photography by Kevin Winter, Getty Images) Correspondence may be sent to: Office of Alumni/ae Programs (alumni_programs@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

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www.bbns.org

A Letter from Head of School Rebecca T. Upham I write this in my 15th Thanksgiving season at BB&N, and I am able to say confidently that not a single day here has ever come and gone in which I have not been presented with manifold, wide-ranging reasons to be grateful. This year is no exception.

I am pleased to be able to update you on a couple of very important initiatives. The first is a project much on the minds of many of us here at school—the renovation of our Middle School facility at 80 Sparks Street. We are very excited to announce that our Middle School students and teachers will move back in to their home on Sparks Street on Wednesday, January 27, which is the break between the fall and spring semesters.

Since construction began in June, each time I visit the worksite I grow all the more astounded by the magnitude of the project.

The average day has seen 50 workers on the job. This is challenging work both architecturally and structurally. At every step of the way, we have been determined to preserve the historic grandeur of the Musgrave house, while at the same time reinventing the facility’s entire midsection and lower level.

(See the beautiful photo at right, taken on August 3rd, which portrays the span of the project.) This reinvention incorporates scores of facility enhancements, including the introduction of a Learning Commons, new student-centered spaces to encourage collaboration, and full handicap accessibility throughout the main building.

What an undertaking it has been… thrilling in its transformative potential and daunting in its creation.

To cite just one example of the complexity, I recall an “aha” revelation I had in August as I watched the construction workers excavating the Musgrave basement. They had to execute this massive task not with brute machine force, but painstakingly by hand. Seeing the little lumps of debris churning slowly but steadily out to the dumpster via a long conveyor belt, it struck me that this was a symbolic snapshot of the exquisite care we were taking to honor 80 Sparks’ treasured history while at the same time giving shape to its cutting-edge future. It has been so exciting to watch.

The renovation project has encountered its fair share of unwelcome surprises: unanticipated environmental conditions (adhesive on the backing of old tiles and foundation walls, plumbing pipes wrapped with asbestos-containing material); a rotten roof; sandy soil conditions beneath the planned elevator shaft; unmarked, buried cisterns; and even our two beloved 2

copper beeches have insisted on spreading their roots in ways that caused us to redesign some foundation walls as well as the decking for the plaza. Every one of these conditions was remediated successfully, but they all had an impact on the schedule. We’re lucky to be working with a construction team (Consigli) that has pulled out all the stops to make up time and keep us as close as possible to our original schedule.

Now, the end result is starting to come into sight, and boy is it going to be a stunner. We cannot wait until January 27 when we open the doors (at the new terrace entry, naturally) and watch the Classes of 2020 and 2021 put their stamp on the debut of 80 Sparks Street’s new era!

-----------------------------------------The second initiative that’s been much on our minds this fall has been the ongoing Financial Aid Summit. The 50 members of this task force, which includes faculty, staff, trustees, parents, and alumni/ae, have met several times already as they engage with this crucial topic. The purpose of the Summit is a big one: to articulate our shared long-term vision for the financial aid program at BB&N. The summit members still have some work ahead of them: a final report, including recommendations, will be delivered in Spring 2016.

I can report at this time, however, that there is one theme which has resounded with particular prominence during every meeting held by the group so far. That is, the issue of access. The question is not so simple as merely who gets to come to BB&N? It’s much more than that. Every conceivable aspect of what makes BB&N a great school, a robust learning environment, is influenced powerfully by the matter of how deeply and broadly students from all socio-economic backgrounds are able to join and contribute to our community. Indeed, summit members have asserted forcefully their belief in the fundamental role that access plays not just in the lives and experiences of all of our students, but also in the life of a great institution. A strong commitment to access becomes a clear manifestation of the values a school stands for, and the important place that the school holds in the community at large.

The shared concern among colleges, universities, and top-tier independent schools such as BB&N, is that we are seeing a national trend in which an education divide is perpetuating a socio-economic divide. Which is to say, the stakes are incredibly high on this topic. Not just for each individual institution, but for society as a whole. Yet, as I often remind myself, we ask our students in all grades to think about big ideas, to grapple with thorny issues. So we, the adults in this community, should expect no less a challenge for ourselves. I very much look forward to the summit members’ report this spring.

-----------------------------------------This week leading up to Thanksgiving is always one of the most poignant of the year here at BB&N. Whether it’s the heartfelt stories shared during assemblies, or the community service our students perform, or the joyful return of our young alumni/ae to the Commons as they reconnect with each other and their former teachers…I know that my heartstrings get tugged pretty often this week.

Thanksgiving, of course, is a holiday centered on families and friends gathering together. But it’s hard this year not to cast these moments of coming together against the larger framework of the events that have been taking place worldwide. The terrorist attacks around the world in recent weeks—in Beirut and Paris and the West Bank and Mali (this list sadly goes on)—have cruelly murdered nearly 200 civilians and injured hundreds more.

of these 2015 attacks. So, what exactly is the impact on our community? Well, on one level, it is true that in each of the days following these recent attacks, our students at the Lower School have played happily during recess, our students at the Middle School have laughed as they shared lunch together, and our students at the Upper School have crammed for tests and have laced up skates and sneakers for ice hockey and basketball practices. And that’s all perfectly natural. By no means does that imply, however, that these uneasy times in which we’re living don’t leave a mark on our children, as well as on us. How do we help our children make sense of the senseless? For that matter, how do we adults make sense of it?

I happened to be in London on the evening that the Paris attacks occurred. Perhaps because I was an ocean away from Cambridge, Mass., I found my thoughts drifting all the more frequently to wondering how our students were processing the tragic news happening overseas. Then, a friend shared a news clip that touched me deeply. It shows a Parisian father and son talking about the role that flowers and candles play on their streets. (Visit www.bbns.org/flowers to view the video clip.)

The young boy and his father in that clip remind me that in times like these, one of the most powerful things we can do is simply to care. Care about each other. Care for each other. Fight hatred with love.

Unlike the Boston Marathon attacks in 2013, we are not aware of any direct connection to the BB&N community among the victims

It’s very clear that we are not alone in wrestling with this topic.

All around the country right now, institutions of educational excellence are wrestling with it. In the higher ed world, to name a recent example, 88 institutions (including Amherst, Bowdoin, Brown, and Harvard, to name just a few) recently formed a coalition to create online tools they hope will reach underserved and underrepresented populations.

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Community News Homecoming Spirit on Full Display Despite a Saturday change of venue due to wet field conditions and the threat of rain, school spirit prevailed at this year’s Homecoming.

After a rousing pep rally the Friday before Homecoming—in which freshmen were welcomed to the Upper School community in the annual Knighting Ceremony—soccer and volleyball squads took to the field and court where they competed hard. On Saturday, BB&N students and alums made the trip to Boston College’s Alumni Stadium to watch the football team trounce rival Belmont Hill 62-34 in an action-packed game.

ATHLETIC RESULTS

Varsity Girls Soccer: BB&N 1, Lexington Christian Academy 0 Varsity Boys Soccer: BB&N 1, St. Sebastian’s School 1

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Varsity Volleyball: BB&N 2, Middlesex School 3 JV Volleyball: BB&N 0, Middlesex School 2 Varsity Football: BB&N 62, Belmont Hill 34

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PICTURED x 1 x Upper School students cheer on the football team. x 2 x JV players, Kitahna Charles ’19, Anna Mackey ’19, and Abigail Ford ’19, get ready for their Volleyball game vs. Middlesex. x 3 x The BB&N Knights prevailed against Belmont Hill in a 62-34 win. x 4 x Mila Camargo ’18 fights for the ball in the Girls Varsity Soccer team’s 1-0 win. x 5 x Student council co-presidents Kate Massie ’16 and Zack Horwitz ’16 welcome freshmen to the community in the annual “knighting” ceremony.

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Community News Lower School Gets Creative at “Egg-cellent” Family Science Saturday Missing breakfast was no problem for any of the 30 Lower School students at this fall’s Family Science Saturday event; the “Egg Drop” challenge featured plenty of scrambled eggs. Students were tasked to build a device that would protect a raw egg when dropped from the second story of the Upper School’s Renaissance Hall. The interactive and educational program provided drama and fun as students raced to build the lightest contraption that could ensure the survival of its precious cargo.

Kate Constan ’22 and Hillary Galle ’22 managed to build the lightest successful device (weighing in at a mere 51 grams), but many others also built an array of imaginative and functional creations. Merit Hodgson ’25 and Zach Berman ’25 constructed a device of just plastic bags, and were thrilled to find their eggs safe and sound on the ground.

GRAPHIC NOVELIST GARETH HINDS VISITS MIDDLE SCHOOL BB&N seventh graders preparing to tackle a self-portrait project received some sage advice this fall when acclaimed graphic novelist and artist Gareth Hinds spent a day at the Middle School.

A former video game designer and comic artist, Hinds reinvented himself years ago as an award-winning illustrator, adapting literary classics such as King Lear and Beowulf into the medium of graphic novels.

During his visit to BB&N, Hinds discussed the essentials of creating a visual story, touching on concepts such as narrative arc, establishing characters, and of course, basic principles of drawing.

The latter proved especially relevant to seventh graders who were embarking on a portrait project in art class, and student discourse with Hinds revealed some seemingly simple but valuable gems to polish as they began their work.

“How do you draw hair so well?” asked one student.

“Good question, hair is really hard,” Hinds instructed. “The best thing to do is to think about it as solid shapes instead of strands…you can add some individual strands later to add detail.”

As Hinds’ effortless lines and shapes on the whiteboard transformed his drawn faces into expressions of fear, laughter, and confusion, students took notes and began work on their own comics. Circulating the room, Hinds offered insightful ways of looking at the students’ work.

Led by Lower School teachers Caitlin Drechsler, RM Pellant, and Carol Fine, (and assisted by Jackson Truesdale ’16 and Gautum Mitra ’17), the event was a huge success. The Family Science Saturday program is a long-standing extracurricular activity that encourages the exploration of science for the entire family.

Top: Emma Maginn ’23 and and Upper School helper Jackson Truesdale ’16 launch an egg to a (hopefully!) safe landing. Bottom: Sam Richards ’28 proudly displays his egg drop contraption.

Upper School Students Pitch Designs for Public Space Revitalization When landscape architect Herb Nolan approached BB&N in 2014 about a redesign of the public space across from the Upper School campus being undertaken by the Lawrence and Lillian Solomon Foundation, he was merely looking to foster good neighborly relations. Little did Nolan realize that his visit would spark the imagination of 13 students in art teachers Laura Tangusso and John Norton’s Design and Architecture class.

As deputy director of the Solomon Foundation, Nolan is overseeing the revitalization of the wetland and park space that borders the Charles River and Greenough Boulevard across from BB&N’s Upper School. Known as “Hell’s Half Acre” in recent decades, the area was infamous for vice, litter, and occasional homeless encampments. Nolan’s goal to revitalize the area into a useable public space struck a chord with Tangusso.

“I had just started teaching Design and Architecture that year and wanted to find a local project that would require students to engage in design thinking about a real space,” says Tangusso. “I met with Herb and we agreed the ‘Hell’s Half Acre’ project would offer students a variety of material to consider.”

Student reaction was excited and engaged as they worked in groups to create scale models of the reimagined park space. And this fall, Nolan visited BB&N again, this time to observe the students’ creations and talk to them about the field of landscape architecture and the “Hell’s Half Acre” project. Nolan was very impressed with what he saw.

“The students’ creative ideas demonstrate various ways for engaging the Charles River and marshland and making these wonderful but neglected natural areas accessible and meaningful to more people,” says Nolan. “I could see that they were attempting to open the site up to the river, but also celebrate the more inward looking quality of the marsh…. We hope to achieve that same balance in our final design.”

In fact, Nolan was so impressed that he decided to display the students’ model renderings at a fall event at the Mount Auburn Club in Watertown, celebrating three recent partnership projects the Solomon Foundation has been involved in along the Charles River.

The student models included intricate walking and bike paths, man-made ponds, gardens, performance spaces, open market options, and wonderful architectural details such as bridges, boardwalks, and even a climbing wall.

“I’m totally impressed with both groups of students, who were initially overwhelmed at the prospect of imagining anything for such a messed up area,” says Tangusso. “Eventually they saw its potential, came up with creative and plausible ideas for how to use it, and constructed some fairly professional looking models of their plans.”

Juniors involved in the project were Mike Bibbey, Genevieve Cohen, Matthew Galvin, Alex Lichtenberger, Jackson Lifford, Carter Liou, Marcus Patalano, Andrew Siff, Matthew Siff, Leah Steinberg, Sophie Wang, and Max Wiegand.

Sparks Street Campus Renovation Takes Shape With the rubble nearly cleared, impressive new structures going up, and gleaming glass panels in place, the Middle School renovation project continues to transform the campus this fall.

Early June

Mid-October

“Remember, a smile actually changes the shape of the eyes, not just the mouth,” he explained to one student diligently drawing.

The visit was a welcome and cogent reminder to everyone that in art, as in life, details make a difference.

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Community News Back row, from left: Peter Levitt ’84, Karen Kalina ’81, and Fan Wu ’98. Front row, from left: Janice Gould, Charlotte Wagner

63 Annual Bivouac Brings Freshmen Together rd

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BB&N ninth graders packed their bags once again this fall and headed north for the School’s 63rd annual Bivouac. The 12-day wilderness immersion helps the freshmen to form bonds and glean lifelong lessons from “nature’s classroom” in the New Hampshire woods.

In addition to ropes courses, latrine digging, orienteering, and shelter building, students learned about sustainable agriculture, how to cook over an open fire, and of course…how to brave the frigid early morning swims in Silver Lake.

PICTURED

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x 1 x Stefania Chung ’19 and Samiha Datta ’19 hard at work. x 2 x Anthony LaMonica ’19 and Will Jarrell ’19 chop wood for the fire. x 3 x Adriana Hrabowych ’19 and Avik Sarkar ’19 share a laugh. x 4 x Luis Mendoza ’19 testing out a tent. x 5 x Klara Kuemmerle ’19 catching a break in a hammock. x 6 x The famous Biv climbing wall towers over the surrounding trees. x 7 x Alexandra Schmalz ’19 and Kitahna Charles ’19 bind an A-frame support beam. x 8 x Anna Nicholas ’19 hard at work building an A-frame.

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New Trustees Named for 2015-2016 BB&N welcomes five new members to the board this year Janice Gould P’16, ’21 • Janice lives in Newton with her family, including Allison ’16 and Katherine ’20.

• She serves as the Parent Representative Trustee in her role as the BB&N Parents’ Association President for 2015-2016.

• Janice has served in many roles for BB&N in her time as a parent: PA Executive Board member since 2011, Executive Treasurer, PA Vice President, Lower School grade rep, Lower School Treasurer, BB&N Fund volunteer, Lower School Circus volunteer, and Admission Tour Guide.

Karen Kalina ’81, P’21 • Karen lives in Boston with her family, including seventh grader Dana Yesson.

• Karen has filled many roles at BB&N: Alumni/ae Council Representative Trustee in her role as the Chair of the BB&N Alumni/ae Council, Alumni/ae Council member since 2014, 2015-2016 Reunion volunteer, and member of BB&N’s Almy Society.

• Karen was the Director of Strategic Development and Operations in the Neurological Clinical Research Institute (NCRI) at Massachusetts General Hospital, and previously served on the board of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce.

Peter Levitt ’84 • Peter lives in Cambridge with his family and serves as a parent liaison for a current BB&N 11th grader whose parents have difficulty with English.

• He is a former BB&N Reunion volunteer and also serves as a member of BB&N’s Financial Aid Summit think tank.

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Peter is currently an attorney acting as the Chief of the Organized Crime and Gang Unit in the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

He previously served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney and with the U.S. Department of Justice.

Charlotte Wagner P’17, ’19 • Charlotte lives in Cambridge with her family, including two BB&N students, Claire ’17 and Alexandra ’19.

• Charlotte has served as a BB&N parent rep chairing the 8th Grade Student Mix Event and serves on the BB&N Financial Aid Summit think tank.

• Her volunteerism includes board and committee work at several local organizations, including Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art, Mt. Auburn Hospital, Partners in Health, Breakthrough Cambridge, and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston.

Fan Wu ’98 • Fan lives in New York City with his wife JoAnna.

• He has had a distinguished career in investment manage ment and is currently a lead analyst with Balyasny Asset Management, a global investment management company.

He has previously worked as a hedge fund analyst with Newbrook Capital Advisors, and held portfolio management positions with Chartwell Investment Partners and S.A.C. Capital Advisors, as well as other firms.

• Fan has served on the Alumni/ae Council and is an Alumni/ae representative to BB&N’s Financial Aid Summit think tank.

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BB&N Fall Athletic Snapshots Student athletes put on a show this fall season. See below for a taste of the action.

x 1 x Ross Harrison ’17 streaks past a defender. x 2 x Delila Keravuori ’18 makes a play on the ball. x 3 x Jay Symonds ’18 dives for the pylon during a drive. x 4 x Nell Fusco ’17 gets the play rolling with a side in. x 5 x Rose Lober ’19 hits her stride during a meet. x 6 x Mason Olmsted ’17 breaks away from the pack. x 7 x Lily Denton ’18, Stephanie McLaughlin ’16, and Katherine Mayer ’16 in action on the court.

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Class Notes Crewdson Recognized with Endowed Instructorship Appointment Head of School Rebecca T. Upham announced in November that Christa Crewdson, Middle School drama teacher, has been named as the latest recipient of BB&N’s endowed Marian W. Vaillant Future Leader Instructorship.

Crewdson, who has been a drama teacher and 8th grade advisor since 2009, is described by her colleagues as a “high-impact community member.” Indeed, her effect on the Middle School program and its students has been nothing short of dramatic.

Christa is widely hailed for her stellar work with the Middle School theater program. She helped revive the annual MS Musical production, working in close collaboration with music teacher Kathi Gellar. Her students’ dramatic productions are known for taking chances and being gutsy. A recent example was the performance of Mother Hicks in 2014, a play whose plot relied heavily on the use of American Sign Language (ASL) by one of the characters.

Upper School Fall Play: Holy Ghosts Upper School students took to the stage this fall for another dramatic performance with their version of Romulus Linney’s play, Holy Ghosts. The production tells the story of one Coleman Shedman, a hard-living individual whose wife, Nancy, has run away with a southern Pentecostal reverend. In an attempt to get his wife back, Coleman and his lawyer visit the church where Nancy’s new intended husband preaches, but things do not proceed quite as planned.

Both funny and moving, the production highlighted the many talents of BB&N’s theater program, acting, crew, and directing.

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Equally bold has been Crewdson’s insistence on motivating her casts to participate in statewide competitions such as the Massachusetts Educational Theater Guild Festival. Over the past few years, BB&N productions have earned two overall gold medals and three silver medals at this festival. More rewarding in Christa’s eyes, though, are what her students learn in the process: “Our kids meet other kids from all over the state. It’s great exposure for them. They also learn independence, as they have to rely on themselves and each other during their performance.”

One of the most transformative impacts Christa has had on the Middle School community springs from her work with improvisational theater for this age group. She arrived at BB&N with an already impressive presence in the local artistic world, having founded and directed three different improv groups (Improv Jones Providence, Improv Jones Boston, and Improv Jones Jr.). Christa introduced that same infectious energy and collaborative spirit to the MS campus with the establishment of “The Players,” an improv group that found perfect synergy with young adolescents’ ability to think quickly on their feet, combined with their zealous, spirited, and sometimes awkward quest to make sense of the world around them and find their own unique voice.

In addition, many of her Middle School students in past years have joined Crewdson’s outside improv groups as well—a testament to her gift for fostering connections among her students and the region’s artistic community.

Christa is also called a “gem of a colleague” by her co-workers. It’s no surprise at all that she chairs the faculty’s all-school “professional enrichment and recreation” committee. In addition, she and husband, Mike, are the parents of a BB&N first grader, Callie.

Brava, Christa, on your appointment as BB&N’s third recipient of the Marian W. Vaillant Future Leader Instructorship!

Former Chair of the Board of Trustees Honored by Boston Business Journal Former BB&N board chair, Laura Hodges Taylor ’74, P’04, ’08, recently received the Corporate Leadership award from Boston Business Journal at the publication’s 2015 Leaders in Diversity event this October. Hodges Taylor, a partner at Goodwin Procter, was one of two recipients of the annual award which recognizes companies and individuals for their work promoting and enhancing diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

Hodges Taylor is a founder and chair of Goodwin’s Women’s Initiative, which focuses on the retention, development, advancement, and leadership of women lawyers. Through her work with the Women’s Initiative, she has been involved in development of the firm’s unconscious bias training, leadership programming, visibility programming, and sponsorship and mentorship for women attorneys. Under her leadership, the Women’s Initiative has grown to include an Executive Committee, a Steering Committee, and seven Local Councils.

In addition to her work on behalf of the firm, Hodges Taylor is also Co-Vice Chair of WILEF, leading the Boston chapter of the Women in Law Empowerment Forum (WILEF), an organization dedicated to enhancing business development, advancement, and leadership opportunities for women lawyers at the country’s largest law firms and corporate departments.

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PICTURED x 1 x Isaac Martin ’18, Tatum Nadherny ’17, Caroline Scheer ’18, and Daniel Kutsovsky ’18 x 2 x Molly McGourty ’16 and Charlie Heveran ’17 x 3 x Thomas Mandile ’17, Nick Piccirillo ’17, and Jacob Leder ’16 x 4 x Phoebe Tsao ’16, Thomas Mandile ’17, Nick Piccirillo ’17, and Jacob Licht ’17, 13

The snowstorm was getting worse, so Rachel Platten and her stage crew pulled their van off the highway and found a motel. It was the end of January, and she was somewhere in Ohio, on tour, playing to crowds of 50 or so on a good night.

Platten, BB&N Class of 1999, had been singing and writing songs professionally for 12 years, playing countless coffee houses, Greenwich Village bars, and smaller music venues across the country.

She’d had some bright moments in her career—a single reached No. 24 on the pop charts in 2011— but at 33, Platten was beginning to think she’d never really make it big.

One thing in her mind was sure, though: she loved singing, and wasn’t about to stop.

By July, “Fight Song” had cracked the top 15 of Billboard magazine’s hottest Adult Contemporary Pop Songs. By August, it had moved into the top 10. Then the top 5.

In late September, Fight Song was No. 1 in the nation, having sold and streamed more than 2 million copies.

Within the span of a few months, Platten had catapulted from singing before quaint, indiehouse crowds, to singing alongside Taylor Swift in front of 50,000 fans at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field as a special guest during the superstar’s tour.

RACHEL PLATTEN ’99:

Has a lot of

Then her phone rang—and everything changed.

It was her manager, Ben Singer. A ma jor radio station in Baltimore had begun playing her newest song—“Fight Song”— and the reaction was so off the charts that national recording studios had taken notice.

left

in her.

When it came time for the song’s chorus that night, the entire crowd joined in.

“This is my fight song, take back my life song, prove I’m alright song,” Platten, Swift, and the stadium sang.

“And I don’t really care if nobody else believes—’cause I’ve still got a lot of fight left in me.”

Platten, interviewed by the Bulletin in September,

BY PETER DEMARCO the week her song reached No. 1, said the changes in her life have been amazing.

Everyone, everywhere seemingly wants to meet her or “He said that I needed to get to Los Angeles within a few hours, because every hear her sing, from the Teen Choice Awards to VH1, from Good Morning America (she’s been a single ma jor record label wanted to meet me,” guest twice) to Boston’s annual MixFest concert.

Platten recalls.

After signing with Columbia Records, she spent the spring and summer touring with headliners She did, and within weeks, “Fight Song” was Andy Grammer, Christina Perri, and Colbie one of the top 100 pop songs in the country.

Caillat. There’s even talk she has a shot at Platten’s YouTube video of the song caught fire; thousands of listeners started streaming the song winning Song of the Year at the Grammy Awards in February. on Spotify and Pandora, and buying it on iTunes; Ford Motor Company began using it in television Meanwhile, Platten’s second single, “Stand By commercials, as did CBS in promos for its new You,” released this fall, was showing signs that series, “Supergirl.”

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But the best part about her newfound fame, the singer said, isn’t the all jet-setting, television appearances, or accolades she’s received.

“It was one of the most beautiful things I’ve been a part of,” Platten says.

Raised in Newton, Platten was already skilled at the piano when she entered BB&N as a freshman in 1995, joining the school’s Chorale ensemble and its a cappella group, Voices of the Knight. Her personality, energy, and super-wide smile “could take over a room,” says Joe Horning, the school’s longtime choral director.

“She also had a beautiful voice,” he adds.

Mark Lindberg, BB&N’s theater director, gave Platten the toughest song to sing in the school’s production of the Sondheim musical “Company.” To no surprise, she nailed it.

“Fight Song’s” lyrics speak to Platten’s personal struggle to succeed in music, which, in the end, came down to Platten believing in herself and her dreams. That message—of persevering—has resonated with listeners across the country, and even the world, who’ve embraced the song as words to live by when facing their own unique struggles.

But neither Horning nor Lindberg could have predicted that Platten would become a famous performer—ground few BB&N alums have trodden. In truth, Platten herself didn’t have such expectations. “I don’t really know if I had the confidence in high school to think I could have a career,” she says.

Search the internet for #MyFightSong, and you’ll find more than 10,000 personal stories and anecdotes about how Platten’s song has become, for some, a call to action against domestic abuse.

It’s propelled others to reach for better jobs, lose weight, win the big game, or simply to stay true to their dreams, regardless of obstacles.

The rest of her story, thanks to dozens of interviews Platten’s given to national magazines and television shows, as well as numerous internet clips, is well chronicled. After graduating BB&N, she attended Trinity College, where she earned a degree in international relations. With thoughts of becoming a diplomat, she moved to Trinidad to intern in a diplomatic office.

“On my website there’s a section called ‘MyFightSong’ with every single hashtag that’s been been posted. I get tears in my eyes when I read them,” Platten says. “I feel like we all have these shells around us. I remember feeling that way at BB&N a little bit—like, I’m mediocre, and everyone else is so brilliant and talented. I think what the hashtag is doing is helping us open up about those feelings, because we all have those feelings. We are all fighting those demons. You’re allowed to say it out loud, then just accept support from friends and family once you admit that vulnerability.”

But her passion for music kept pushing back. Platten interned with a record label, and kept writing and performing songs, dabbling in beatboxing and self-publishing an R&B album. While in Trinidad, she was asked by a friend to play keyboard and sing backup at a concert—a concert that turned out to be in front of 80,000 people during the nation’s Carnival celebration.

One of the first listeners to make “Fight Song” her mantra was a Virginia woman named Christine Luckenbaugh, who heard the tune just weeks after it debuted in June 2014. She’s still the first person who comes to mind when Platten talks about the effect her song has had.

“I had that aha moment of, ‘Oh, this is what I’m supposed to do,’” she recalls.

“Christine had found out that a (brain) tumor that had been in remission for two years had returned, and that she had a few months to live,” said Platten. “So she sent out this e-mail to her friends and family with the song attached. She told them, ‘Look, I don’t have much time left, but I just want you to understand that this is how I feel. I don’t feel sad, and I don’t want you to feel sad. I want to you to feel strong when you listen to this song.’”

Platten was so touched, she flew to Luckenbaugh’s home and surprised her with a private performance, singing “Fight Song” on the stage of her local church, with all of Luckenbaugh’s loved ones lining up 16

behind her as a chorus. It brought tears to the woman’s eyes.

It was life changing.

Platten moved to New York City, honing her singing and guitar skills at whatever gig she could get.

(Lindberg remembers her singing once at a BB&N retirement party.) Like most artists, she scraped together rent money by waitressing—“I was an awful waitress. I got fired,” she says, laughing—as well as shuffling office papers for a magazine, an architecture firm, and temp agencies. Eventually she gained a modest following, started touring, had a few songs played briefly on television shows, and had a minor hit, “1,000 Ships,” which made Billboard’s top 25 Adult Contemporary Pop Songs chart in 2011. It looked as though the song was going to be her big breakthrough, but it didn’t last, and record 1. VISITING HOSPITALS AND SINGING WITH PATIENTS HAS BEEN A HIGHLIGHT FOR PLATTEN. FEATURED HERE IN A STILL SHOT FROM THE TODAY SHOW AND PLATTEN’S INSTAGRAM FEED, PLATTEN SITS WITH A YOUNG CANCER PATIENT AFTER PERFORMING A DUET OF “FIGHT SONG.” 2. PLATTEN’S ALBUM COVER. 17

VOICES OF THE KNIGHT 2

2 1

labels lost interest in backing her.

That disappointment led to her penning “Fight Song,” but even its eventual success was hardly a sure thing.

Though “Fight Song” was played on two national television shows in late 2014, “The Biggest Loser,” and “Pretty Little Liars,” sales were average, and radio stations weren’t playing it. (Radio play, even in the Internet Age, still ma jorly influences the industry, Platten says.) By January, she was back on the road, playing small cities and towns, thinking “Fight Song’s” 15 minutes of fame had passed.

“I had kind of resolved at that point that my career was not going to be what I’d hoped,” she told the Bulletin. “But I had a piece of it. I thought, at least I’m reaching people with these stories like Christine. And I do a lot of charity work—I sing in hospitals for Musicians On Call—so I was getting a lot of fulfillment, even without the fame part. And I understood that maybe I didn’t need the rest of it.

“If all of this ended tomorrow,” Platten says, “and I was still in the van driving to a concert of 50, I’d still be happy.”

Of course, Platten’s new life isn’t ending tomorrow. Her single, “Stand By You,” which also promotes empowerment, has just become the centerpiece of a new, national AdCouncil campaign against bullying, with its own hashtag, #StandByYou, eliciting a new outpouring of personal stories. She’s also putting the finishing touches on her first full-length album with Columbia, due out around the start of year.

All, one could say, because she listened to her own words.

“I just hope I get to stay on this wave, and continue spreading this love and this message of both empowerment and of honesty,” she says. “I hope I can continue to remind people how strong they are.”

1. PLATTEN SINGING AS “AMY” IN THE SPRING 1999 BB&N PRODUCTION OF COMPANY: A MUSICAL COMEDY. 2. PLATTEN ENJOYED HER TIME PERFORMING AS A STUDENT; SEEN HERE IS A GROUP SHOT OF THE 1998 CHORALE.

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READY TO FIGHT It was probably inevitable that Voices of the Knight would perform “Fight Song,” the signature tune of their now-famous alum, Rachel Platten.

Voices of the Knight members plan to perform “Fight Song” at the group’s Winter Choral Concert on January 23. What will they think of while singing it?

“I came into the first rehearsal of the year, and every single one of them knew it,” said Joe Horning, the a cappella group’s director.

“A lot of the songs that we hear from women are usually just about relationships.

I like that the song doesn’t have to do with anything or anyone besides yourself,” said senior Adria Alexander.

But how would Platten, who graduated in 1999, react to present-day BB&N students singing her No. 1 hit? At a recent rehearsal, Horning’s students got to find out.

As a surprise, a laptop was placed in the middle of the room, and all 15 singers were told to huddle around it. The Bulletin’s taped interview with Platten was cued up, and there she was, speaking fondly about her BB&N memories.

“I just remember the first time I heard it, I was with my sister,” said Talia Curhan, also a senior. “We played it like three more times, and by the end we were belting the chorus together. It was really cool because there’s been so much talk of women empowerment these days, and just to hear somebody actually say the words, it does make you feel good inside.”

Would she give her blessing to Voices of the Knight to do its own arrangement of “Fight Song,” she was asked?

Junior Emma Condie said she’ll think of this year’s Bivouac trip where, as an upper class mentor, she watched a group of freshman sing and dance to “Fight Song” with glee.

“Oh my God—of course! That would be the cutest thing,” Platten said. “And if I have time and I’m in Boston, I will definitely come see it!”

“With Bivouac, the freshmen have to go into the woods and basically survive,” she said.

“None of them really know each other that well, so it really brought them together.”

With those words, students’ faces shot up in amazement. There were squeals, awws, some laughter, and exclamations of, “No way!”, “Oh my God!”, and “That’s SO cool!”

It’s the song that gets junior Genny Cohen going in the morning—“I sing it in the shower”—and the song senior Homa Gharagozlou plays to get her pumped up to run.

“Now, we HAVE to do Fight Song!” proclaimed one student.

Senior alto Sarah Nissenbaum is so inspired

by Platten, she’s applying to colleges as a music ma jor.

Platten’s song soared in popularity this summer, in part, because it’s a catchy tune—it was hard to go to a supermarket, the gym, or even watch television without hearing it. Its lyrics also resonate deeply with those facing struggles in their lives; it’s truly an ode to personal empowerment.

“When I found out Rachel came from BB&N, especially knowing it’s not a typical path that BB&N kids go on, for me that was like, ‘Wow. It’s very possible,’” Nissenbaum said.

“If you follow your dreams and you set a plan, it can happen.”

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PADDY SPENCE ’95:

ShakES UP

THE SODA WORLD

BY PETER DEMARCO

When the heaviest hitters in the soft drink business gather in New York City this December to discuss the future of their industry, all eyes will be on BB&N alumnus Paddy Spence.

So, Spence must work for Coca-Cola, right? Pepsi? Um, Dr. Pepper?

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The answer is none of the above. Spence is CEO and co-owner of a specialty diet soda called Zevia, the first to ditch sugar and artificial sweeteners in favor of stevia, a natural sweetener with zero calories that’s made from a plant extract.

Zevia, which can be found at Whole Foods, and in the natural food aisles of some supermarkets, is a very small player in the soda industry—it accounts for well under one percent of all U.S. soda sales. But industry insiders care enormously about what Spence has to say, because Zevia is doing something almost unheard of recently: while national soda sales continue to drop, Zevia’s keep going up.

In 2010, the company produced 15 million cans of soda. This year, production has surpassed 100 million cans.

It’s sold in every state and in Canada, comes in 14 flavors, including cola, ginger root beer, and strawberry, and in some markets, such as California, where the company is based, it costs no more than a Diet Coke.

“You’re not going to do what Paddy has done and not get attention,” says Duane Stanford, editor of Beverage Digest, which invited Spence to speak at the publication’s New York conference, which hundreds will attend. “What Zevia’s done is pretty interesting.”

Spence, who grew up in Cambridge and attended BB&N through eighth grade, allows that his mom always had a 2-liter bottle of Tab in the refrigerator when he was a kid. But he and his family were hardly soft-drink junkies.

In fact, they were well ahead of the current health-food craze, steaming tofu for dinner back in the 1970s, and shopping at the area’s original health food store, Bread & Circus.

Spence carried those lessons about healthy eating into adulthood, and eventually, let them guide his career.

After graduating Harvard Business School in 1992, he spent two decades marketing natural and organic consumer goods, including Kashi cereal when it was in its infancy. (He was its seventh employee.)

He first tasted Zevia five years ago and was so hooked, he bought the company.

“I came across it on the shelves at Whole Foods, and thought, ‘I’m a sample of one, but this would bring me back to soda,’” he says.

The key for him was that Zevia was sweetened with stevia, which Spence and his wife, Jerra, had already been fans of for a decade.

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“I thought I was a healthy guy—I was doing a lot of exercise, running triathlons and stuff. But I woke up one day and I realized I was consuming 250 added grams of sugar a day,” Spence says. “I was getting 1,000 calories of sugar just from the healthy stuff I was buying. I was drinking a couple of Odwalla smoothies and a couple of Cliff Bars and putting unrefined cane crystals in my tea in the morning.

We really went off of sugar cold turkey, and the substitute we started using then was stevia.”

The stevia Spence first consumed hardly resembles the highly-refined version that’s now in Zevia, as well as in many other consumer products. (According to Nielsen research, about half of U.S. households have a stevia item on their shelves.)

The first stevia products—coffee sweeteners and baking sugar substitutes categorized as “dietary supplements”—were about 40 percent refined, and could often cause indigestion, or leave a strange aftertaste. By the time the FDA officially recognized stevia as a food in 2008, the extract that was used was about 80 percent refined, Spence says.

About a year ago, Zevia began using 99 percent refined stevia, completely changing the drink.

“When people say they tried the product and didn’t like it, I ask, ‘When did you try it?’ Because if it’s been more than a year, you probably haven’t tried our product,” Spence says.

Zevia’s ability to change as it grows is perhaps its greatest asset, Spence says. Responding to customer demand, Zevia eliminated all artificial colorings from its drinks this year—even its version of cola is clear to the eye. It also earned a non-GMO verified project seal, meaning it’s about as natural as it gets. (GMO stands for genetically modified organisms.)

Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, the industry’s Big Three soda producers, don’t have such flexibility to adapt their products to change with the times, Spence says.

“The formula for Coca-Cola is locked in a vault somewhere, and it’s been that way for 120 years. The one time they tried to change it, consumers revolted. That’s very different than the way we approach it,” he says.

“It’s an an age-old question for big food and beverage companies. When you start to create better-for-you

versions of existing items, you risk undermining the existing item. If you create an organic Oreo, all of a sudden, what does that say to your customers about regular Oreos?”

Stevia’s emergence as an everyday sweetener, as well as consumer demand for healthier food options, have certainly contributed to Zevia’s success since Spence bought the company. (Its three founders, who started Zevia in Seattle in 2007, are now among its silent partners.) So, too, has his leadership.

“My impression of him has always been that he’s an aggressive leader, an aggressive salesman, that he knows his product inside and out, and is about as passionate about his brand as anyone I’ve ever seen,” says Stanford, of Beverage Digest.

Spence, who has run more than 40 triathlons, and competes in a range of martial arts, agrees that he is someone who loves to be challenged—a drive he specifically credits to his years at BB&N.

SPENCE WITH FORMER LONGTIME BASEBALL COMMISSIONER BUD SELIG

“At BB&N I had an amazing peer group. Being surrounded by kids who were so talented and so motivated and so brilliant was incredible,” he says. “For me, tougher competition makes me perform better. I love waking up every day and thinking, ‘OK, how can we beat Diet Coke?’”

Of course, Zevia has a long way to go to catch Coke, or any of the other major brands. But it continues to forge ahead. The company now has 30 employees, up from five when Spence bought it. In 2014, it became the official ballpark soft drink of the Oakland A’s baseball team, the company’s first major concession deal. Across the country, Zevia cans are slowly but surely gravitating from supermarkets’ health-food aisles, to shelves alongside Diet Pepsi and Mountain Dew in traditional beverage aisles.

That Zevia has found a niche in the ubercompetitive diet soft drink market is, by itself, worthy of praise.

And unlike the past, soda’s future isn’t about quantity, Spence says. It’s about quality.

“The beer (market) was pretty stagnant for decades, then Sam Adams came out, and craft beer is now 11 percent of the category,” he says. “Our aspiration is to be the Sam Adams of soda.” ❖ SPENCE (RIGHT) IN MIDDLE SCHOOL WITH TED CHAVEZ ’85

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Mark Culliton ‘82: Offering a Path to Success for Dorchester‘s Most Disconnected Young Residents — BY PETER DEMARCO —

As Mark Culliton ’82 walks the streets of Dorchester, he points out Ronan Park, where someone was stabbed to death; Norton Street, where a young man was shot leaving a school; and Geneva Avenue, where packs of young men deal drugs and wage turf warfare after dark.

Homes Avenue has a gang, Culliton says. Speedwell Street has a gang.

Wainwright Park has a gang.

“That’s one of the most active crews,” says Culliton, as he passes the park’s basketball court. “But that crew doesn’t do most most of its shooting and disruption there. They go out and take on others.”

Culliton knows all about Dorchester’s gangs, but he’s not a cop, or in law enforcement. Culliton is the chief executive officer of College Bound Dorchester, a nonprofit whose mission, strange as it may first sound, is getting all these gang members to go to college.

Culliton’s theory is simple: it takes a very small number of negative people to ruin what could otherwise be a good neighborhood. Jail or shoot down a gang leader, and another will replace him. But convince three or four leaders of the same gang to go to college, and the gang will begin to dissolve, with the gang members who’ve chosen college telling the rest to join them.

“Changing one of those young people is worth 10 or 20 or who knows how many church-going kids who are quietly going about their business,” Culliton says. “If we can change enough of them within a particular neighborhood, then the culture of that neighborhood will change, and sort of unlock the potential of the rest of the community.”

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CULLITON WITH “BRIDGE TO COLLEGE” STUDENTS IN A COLLEGE BOUND DORCHESTER CLASSROOM

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This fall, 91 young adults from Dorchester—men and women between the ages of 17 and 24 who’d dropped out of school, were jobless, or were members of gangs—were attending classes at Bunker Hill Community College and other local schools, all because of College Bound’s help. (The program helps all disenfranchised youths.) Another 20 have already earned their associate’s degrees; one has earned a 4-year bachelor’s degree, from Brandeis University.

It remains the only program in the country bold enough to target gang members as college material. Until Culliton came along, few dared dream such a thing.

“What Mark did...it was fearless,” says Kamau “Kat” Parker, a College Bound staff member who was one of Culliton’s first hires when he took over the program in 2007. “I remember one director saying that if we got two students into college the first time out, that would be a miracle.

We got 11 in. That was our first cohort.

“I was the only case manager at that time, and now we have about eight or nine case managers. Mark kept pushing the envelope. ‘We gotta do this, we gotta do that. We have to do the work.’ That’s how we got to where we are.”

A trim 51-year-old, with hip glasses and graying hair, Culliton was hardly a gang expert when he came to Dorchester.

The son of a Navy pilot, he spent his early childhood in Calcutta, India, where his father worked for the Ford Foundation after leaving the military. His family later moved to Cambridge, where Culliton attended BB&N’s Upper School for two years before finishing high school at the Cambridge School of Weston.

recruit the best students—that led him to realize how important it was for communities such as Dorchester to send its most troubled young adults to college.

“I go back to this idea that nobody I know who’s raising their kids (in the suburbs) wants them to go get a job.

They want them to go to college, or expect them to go to college,” Culliton says. “Fundamentally, Dorchester’s (youths) are no less capable, no less intelligent, than young people everywhere. So, why wouldn’t we expect college with them?”

Even for gang members, he continues, college is a better financial option. A typical associate’s degree holder earns about $38,000 a year, according to federal statistics, while a typical bachelor’s holder earns nearly $49,000—much more money than the typical gang member makes.

———————

“Beyond that, Culliton says, gang life just isn’t sustainable: you get shot at, thrown in jail, or harassed constantly by police.”

———————

Beyond that, Culliton says, gang life just isn’t sustainable: you get shot at, thrown in jail, or harassed constantly by police. “So, almost everybody wants out, to some extent,” he says.

Though Culliton’s reasoning has proven true, many doubted him when he first came to College Bound eight years ago.

After college, he joined the Peace Corps, helping farmers in Thailand cultivate silkworms and frogs.

Returning to the United States, he earned an M.B.A. from Yale School of Management, and joined the charter-school movement.

Some viewed him as a privileged outsider who didn’t know what he was talking about. Others criticized his decision to rebrand the organization: College Bound was, for decades, known as Dorchester Federated Neighborhood House, a nonprofit that sponsored food pantries, community centers, and the like. (About half of the program’s $6.5 million budget now goes to getting students into college.)

Ironically, it was Culliton’s work on charter schools—which traditionally

Others questioned Culliton’s credibility simply because he was white.

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CULLITON OUTSIDE OF COLLEGE BOUND DORCHESTER. RIGHT: CULLITON ENJOYS A VISIT WITH SOME COLLEGE BOUND DORCHESTER’S EARLY EDUCATION STUDENTS.

The Bowdoin-Geneva section of Dorchester, where College Bound is located, is largely black, as are its gangs.

But Culliton, his constituents soon learned, wasn’t so easily judged.

He was refreshingly honest, using words such as “gang-bangers” and “thugs” when speaking in public about his program. Jobs created for high school graduates were, in his estimation, actually a bad thing, Culliton began telling people, “because once you get a job, you stop going to school.”

To prove his commitment to College Bound, he moved his family to the heart of Dorchester, about a half mile from Ronan Park, and began jogging the same streets where gang members hung out.

Perhaps most surprisingly, Culliton spoke openly about his own criminal history.

Angered by his parents’ divorce when he was a teenager, Culliton did drugs, dealt drugs, and broke into homes to steal. Because he was white, from an upper middle class family, and went to good schools, he got a second chance—“actually,

a second, a third, and a fourth,” he says. It’s why he believes so strongly that gang members and other disenfranchised youths deserve the same.

“Mark’s the kind of person who won’t always say the right things to make everybody feel good—he’ll ruffle a feather,” Parker says. “He has a rebel spirit, and that’s something that people from this kind of community can appreciate.”

———————— ”He has a rebel spirit, and that’s something that people from this kind of community can appreciate.“ ———————— Tina Holland, an ESL teacher and student mentor for College Bound, believes the program would be nowhere without Culliton’s leadership.“Mark sent out an e-mail a few weeks ago, and I’ve been talking about it ever since because it really touched me,” she says. “He (explained) how he had misstepped in a meeting...and how he learned a lesson from that. You have to have

leader who can say, ‘Yes, I have flaws too, but we’re going to do this together and be successful regardless.’

That’s what I teach my students.”

College Bound has far to go to meet its ultimate goals, as it still has not seen a neighborhood completely change, or a gang entirely disband. Last August, a College Bound student was shot as he was leaving class—a stark reminder of how great a challenge the transition is.

At the same time, there is much to praise. College Bound is currently helping nearly 600 adults—gang members and non gang members alike—at various points on their road to college, offering everything from high school-equivalency classes to inmates at South Bay House of Correction, to financial stipends for those attending college, to after-school programs for children of adult students.

Soon, Culliton hopes to expand the program further into Boston, and possibly other troubled cities, such as Lawrence and Lowell. College Bound has begun to draw interest nationally, too, from other communities beset

by gang violence.

As Culliton walks out the door of College Bound’s main school building, he greets a young man standing on the stoop. His name is Paul Burns, and he is 24.

———————— ”What Mark did…it was fearless.“ ———————— “Just got out of probation, due to a couple of letters from ‘The Man’ here,” Burns says, referring to Culliton.

But Culliton will have none of it.

“Due to his great work!” Culliton rebuts. “You’ve been coming here how long now? Over a year? Every day?

Working hard. Working with us, helping us out. Studying.”

Culliton says goodbye, and as he walks to his car, he explains how Burns had been in jail a portion of every year of his life since he was 16. College Bound finally ended that streak.

“Paul isn’t unusual in wanting to do the right thing,” Culliton says. “He’s just got to have adults who believe in him.”❖

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

The World is Her Classro o m : Connemara Wadsworth

By Morgan Baker ’76

Connemara Wadsworth didn’t want to leave BB&N when she retired in 2007 after 22 years of teaching 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grades, but it was the right time. She was newly married to Rick Heym, a retired architect and, she says, “a wonderful man,” and wanted to spend time with him. Teachers don’t have much time between September and June to do things like that.

Sitting in her sunny living room in Newton drinking tea one fall weekend, Wadsworth says, she wouldn’t trade her BB&N experience for anything. She is beyond effusive as she talks about her students, her peers, and the BB&N community, and her passion for education bubbles up out of her.

“Education is absolutely crucial not just in terms of being able to make your way in the world, but as a U.S. citizen, all of us need to have a wider sense of the world and of humanity.

I tried to weave that into what I did at BB&N,” she says.

Wadsworth draws from her own path in life. Her own education started as a seven-year-old in Iraq where her father, an architecture professor, had a Fulbright Grant. “The world has a lot to offer and teach us,” she says. “It’s our responsibility to take an active role in that.” In fact, Wadsworth would experience a total of nine schools in at least four locations before going to college.

Wadsworth was enthralled by the classroom and never wanted any other role than that of a classroom teacher. “I loved the interaction with the kids. No matter what was going on in my life, no matter what was going on in their lives…unless children are damaged they are ready to move forward. To walk into the classroom in the morning and see those faces come in the door; each one was critical and crucial and had something to offer as well as something to learn.”

Wadsworth was motivated by her students’ spontaneous ideas. “If you give kids the opportunity to explore, they will. They will come up with very interesting observations and questions. I would do it again,” she says.

“I adored 3rd grade,” says Wadsworth. “It seemed to be a cusp. It’s the way out of childhood. It’s the first big step. They can read to learn. That’s the power of being with children when you see them open up to the world and the world open up to them. You know that there’s learning going on, and to be a party to that is wonderful.”

Wadsworth not only enjoyed time with her students, she found the interaction with colleagues invaluable. “I miss the camaraderie of my peers and exchange of ideas about teaching and content. BB&N gave me an enormous opportunity to learn at the same time I was developing curriculum. I did massive amounts of reading and educated myself.” In addition, she says the diversity and poetry workshops she took part in were gifts. “They were so wonderful. For me to grow and explore.”

Lower School science teacher Carol Fine writes, “I worked with Connemara for many years at BB&N. She believed deeply in all of her students, and she skillfully created a caring classroom community each year. She was particularly fond of teaching writing and could get even the most reticent students to express themselves beautifully during writer’s workshops. She was very fond of her colleagues, and on occasion would bake delicious scones for us.”

Wadsworth says, “I felt nurtured by the whole community, the students, my peers, and the opportunities the school gave me for professional development.”

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1

2 PICTURED: 1. Connemara Wadsworth, present day 2. Connemara Wadsworth, while at BB&N

“The only sadness I have, and I think this is something I could take some action on, is that I suddenly have no association with the School,” she says. “I used to think I would retire next to a school where I could toddle over to read to the kindergartners.”

There is no school next door, but students ring her bell to be tutored by her every day, which more than makes up for the lack of a neighborhood school. Trained in Orton-Gillingham after leaving BB&N, Wadsworth works with a wide range of students from those who need a little assistance with reading to those who are profoundly dyslexic, as well as those who are interested in writing. After witnessing the life-altering effects a tutor had on a dyslexic student in one of her classes, Wadsworth was motivated to be that change.

When she’s not working with students, she writes poetry. Her chapbook, The Possibility of Scorpions, was published in 2009 about her life in Iraq. She is currently working on a full-length poetry manuscript focused on her experience as a student at Friends World College, a Quaker College whose mission is to create world citizens out of their students. The college, now known as LIU Global, has campuses on different continents and students move around every semester.

Wadsworth’s poems are reactions to her experiences as a student in these different places, such as when she was in Appalachia and the South encouraging people to register to vote and realizing despite thinking she was doing the right thing, she couldn’t necessarily make the difference she wanted to. Or when after spending a year in Denmark, the students moved to Kenya, where she discovered she and her peers were too white for the black population and not white enough for the white population. “We had profound experiences one after the other,” she says.

“Poetry can be a way, when I don’t always know where I’m going, but I have a feeling, an observation, a sense of something, and then if I’m lucky I find it at the end of the writing process,” she says.

When she’s not writing or tutoring, she’s helping out with her grandchildren. She has five among her three kids, Daniel Wagner, Eliza Wagner ’96, and Sarah Wagner ’92. She loves to work in the garden at a family cabin in New Hampshire. As an architect, her husband has saved the cabin from absolute decline, she says. “I love going up there to write.” When they’re in town, they enjoy the theater and symphony.

“I love hearing what students are doing now. Mostly students connect with high school teachers because they’ve come into their own by then,” she says. “But every once in a while I get one who tells me, ‘You taught me to write,’ and I love that.”

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Advancing Our Mission

The BB&N Fund—Participation Matters!

When you contribute to The BB&N Fund, you are participating in a powerful philanthropic tradition: annual giving. Why does your participation count? Each and every gift—at all levels—demonstrates confidence in BB&N, a belief in the School’s mission, and passion for excellence in education. By participating, you encourage others to give and strengthen our community with the knowledge that we all share in the investment in our students and our School.

Since tuition covers only 79 percent of the cost of a BB&N education, the balance must be provided from other sources. The balance comes from income generated by the endowment, and annual gifts to The BB&N Fund from alumni/ae, parents, past parents, grandparents, faculty, staff, and friends. Participation matters!

The BB&N Fund provides the day-to-day support for every aspect of the School. These annual gifts directly sustain the student experience, supporting financial aid, faculty and academic programs, athletics, and cultural and community activities. Not many schools in the Boston area can boast that they offer six foreign languages, wonderfully dedicated and creative teachers (85 percent of whom hold advanced degrees), 63 years of offering a program such as Bivouac, and other long-standing traditions such as Circus, One School One World, Maypole, and the Senior Spring Project.

The BB&N Fund raised a record-breaking $3.09 million last year with the support of our many parent and alumni/ae volunteers. We are looking forward to another terrific year working with our parents, alumni/ae, and grandparents to to help meet this year’s goal of $3.2 million. Thank you to all who continue to demonstrate confidence in BB&N. Your gifts have made a difference!

Class of 2016 Senior Parents’ Gift Committee Ken and Vicky Lang, Co-Chairs Parents of Marin Lang Jocelyn and David Sand, Co-Chairs Parents of Paul Sand Jim Allan and Sue Sunbury Parents of James Allan Jeffrey and Sarah Beir Parents of Rachel Beir Kristen Bowden Mother of Nicko Bernier Mark and Liz Burnett Parents of Julia Burnett Carlos and Ania Camargo Parents of Sasa Camargo Cortes

Class of 2016 Senior Parents’ Gift Raises Funds for Financial Aid The Senior Dinner in September that marked the start of senior year for Class of 2016 students and their parents was also the official launch of BB&N’s traditional Senior Parents’ Gift campaign. A large and enthusiastic committee of parent volunteers, chaired by Ken and Vicky Lang (parents of Marin ’16) and David and Jocelyn Sand (parents of Paul ’16), has been reaching out this fall to senior parents to seek their financial support for a special class gift that will serve as a permanent legacy at BB&N after their children graduate.

This year’s Senior Parents’ Gift will be used to create the Class of 2016 Supplemental Financial Aid Fund, which will support the supplemental portion of BB&N’s financial aid budget. Of the $7.6 million budgeted for financial aid this year, approximately $350,000 will be spent on non-tuition expenses to enable financial aid students to benefit from all that BB&N has to offer. Expenses covered by this growing area of the budget include books, transportation to and from school, tutoring and academic support, computers, local and regional academic field trips, and other miscellaneous needs.

We greatly appreciate the support of senior parents who have already participated and invite others to join them!

Jack and Cheryl Cronin Parents of Aaron Cronin Joe DeSantis and Amy Lipton Parents of Gabe DeSantis Neil Druker and Jodi MacKinnon Parents of Sam Druker Beatrice Firempong Mother of Kofi Yankey John and Janice Gould Parents of Allie Gould Amy Grossman Mother of Max Lyons Drew and Shannon Hayden Parents of Andrew Hayden Michael Horwitz and Kasey Kaufman Parents of Zack Horwitz Wenhua Jiang Mother of J.J. Ma Brian and Susan Kavoogian Parents of Sarah Kavoogian Michael and Monica Lehner Parents of Maddie Lehner Joshua Levy and Rachel Rock Parents of Isaac Levy Mary Loeken Mother of Nathaniel Smith Ofer and Shelly Nemirovsky Parents of Genna Nemirovsky Wei Lucy Qiu Mother of Will Liu David ’78 and Joan Strodel Parents of Daniel Strodel

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Pictured, left: The BB&N Fund fuels smiles like these!

Pictured, above: Tony, Rebekah, and Michael LaCava enjoy a family moment at the Senior Dinner in September.

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Advancing Our Mission

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The 1974 Leadership Society is a loyal and generous circle of alumni/ae, parents, past parents, grandparents, faculty, staff, and friends of the School whose leadership giving and enthusiastic commitment to BB&N set an example, inspire others, and make a significant impact. The name of this Society recognizes the union in 1974 of two Cambridge academic institutions, The Buckingham School and Browne & Nichols, who together brought their traditions of excellence to form Buckingham Browne & Nichols. These thoughtful and generous leadership donors make possible the School’s ability to maintain the standard of excellence that constitutes BB&N.

The 1974 Leadership Society Fall Gathering Celebrates Our Annual Fundraising Success More than 140 members of the 1974 Leadership Society gathered on October 5th at Townsman in Boston to celebrate a very successful fundraising year for the School. Hosted by alumna Kate Barger Jennings ’96, it was a beautiful evening that brought together alumni/ae, current parents, past parents, grandparents, faculty, staff, and friends.

Kate Barger Jennings ‘96 started off the program by describing her journey following graduation from BB&N, sharing that “BB&N was challenging, but it truly prepared me for real life.” Crediting BB&N with instilling in her a deep work ethic, a belief in herself, and a passion for learning, Kate is a James Beard Foundation-nominated chef and with her husband, Matt, co-owns Townsman, which was just listed as one of the Top New Restaurants in America (2015) by Esquire Magazine.

Head of School Rebecca T. Upham, Trustee Bob Higgins P’26, ’26, and Trustee and Alumni/ae Chair of The BB&N Fund Jason Hafler ’00 thanked Society members for their leadership support of BB&N and shared some fundraising highlights of the past school year.

Emphasizing that gifts to the 1974 Leadership Society provided 82 percent of the $3.09 million raised for annual giving last year, Bob Higgins reminded the guests that these funds are critical in helping to offset the actual cost of a BB&N education and sustain excellence across all three campuses. The School is grateful to these donors for their strong philanthropic support.

THE 1974 LEADERSHIP SOCIETY GIFT LEVELS

x 1 x Former Trustees Dick and Pat Light P‘89, ‘91, GP‘24, ‘29 x 2 x Susan and Keith Brown P’27, ‘29, ‘29 x 3 x Ted Pappendick P‘20, ‘22, ‘24, Elizabeth White P‘22, ‘23, Erica Gervais Pappendick P‘20, ‘22, ‘24, Trustee, and Ogden White III P‘22, ‘23 x 4 x Jason Hafler ‘00, Trustee, Jimmy Berylson ‘00, Trustee, Kati Kargman ‘01, Leslie Ahlstrand ‘08, Trustee, and Nick Taylor ‘08 x 5 x Christy Nicholas P’26, ‘28, Karen Fabbri P’21, ‘23 and Peter Nicholas ‘88, P’26, ‘28 x 6 x Carl Long P’26, ‘28, Dave Williams ‘78, Trustee, and Shelly Nemirovsky P’16, ‘17, Trustee x 7 x Hostess Kate Barger Jennings ‘96 and Head of School Rebecca T. Upham

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Renaissance Associates $100,000 and above Cantabrigian Associates $50,000 - $99,999 Comitas Associates $25,000 - $49,999 Litterae Associates $10,000 - $24,999 Honestas Associates $5,000 - $9,999 Founders $2,500 - $4,999

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Young Alumni/ae Leadership Society College Years – $50 5th Reunion – 9th year out - $100 10th Reunion – 14th year out - $250 15th reunion – 19th year out - $500 20 th Reunion – $1,000 32

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6 Things About BB&N:

The Student Newspaper

Deirdre Nansen McCloskey ’60:

[1] The Upper School student newspaper has lived under at least seven nameplates in its time: The Torch, The Spectator (a mix of newspaper and literary journalism), The B&N News, The Crown, Animus Temporum, The Go-Between, and its current iteration, The Vanguard.

[2] In 2009, former editor-in-chief Lindsay Ellis ’11 took investigative journalism to a professional level when she uncovered errors in a Boston Magazine story ranking independent schools. Citing usage of incorrect information for its rating chart, Ellis forced the magazine to publish a correction, bumping BB&N’s rating from 27 to 5.

[3] The Vanguard has proven to be a model of excellence, reaping 11 gold medals and 3 silvers from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association since 2001.

[4] In a tradition begun by Matt Warren ’89, each incoming editor-in-chief is bestowed a bag of special items by the outgoing editor-in-chief. Although the contents of the bag are a secret, one item is publicly known: a stress relief kit. Current editor-in-chief Isabel Ruehl ’16 displays the bag below.

[5] In 1985, under the guidance of then faculty advisor and current English teacher Rob Leith, The Vanguard became the first high school in New England to adopt desktop publishing for layout. Adobe PageMaker software was their tool of choice.

[6] BB&N’s school newspaper boasts numerous alumni/ae who matriculated to acclaim in the journalism world. Peter Beinart ’89 (author and former editor of The New Republic), Lauren Shuker ’02 (Wall Street Journal and The Economist reporter), and the late Stephen Burgard ’66 (editor at the Los Angeles Times, author of two books, and Pulitzer Prize winner) are just a few.

Noted Academic Scholar Supports Academics at BB&N

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he path that Deirdre McCloskey ’60 has taken since Browne & Nichols might well be described as “the road less traveled,” but it is certainly a road that exemplifies the confidence and academic foundation that the School provides its graduates. In a recent interview, Deirdre shares some highlights of her journey: “My father, a professor at Harvard, was worried about the quality of the Wakefield 8th grade and rushed me over to Browne & Nichols just in time to enroll. I loved B&N and flourished, though at first it was quite a shock to actually have to do homework! I thought of myself as a literary type, a bit of a poet, and was editor of The Spectator.

“Not continuing the literary line, I became an economist (Harvard B.A. ‘64, Ph.D. ‘70) and so had to make up for not caring much for math when I was at B&N. I taught economics for 12 years at the University of Chicago, tenured in 1975, but left in 1980 for 19 years at the University of Iowa, this time also in history; and then another 15 years at the University of Illinois at Chicago from which I just retired. In late 1995 I changed gender, creating something of a sensation in a conservative discipline, and in 1999 I wrote a memoir about it all called Crossing.”

A well-known economist, historian, and rhetorician, Deirdre has written 17 books and 400 scholarly pieces on topics ranging from technical economics and statistical theory to transgender advocacy and the ethics of the bourgeois virtues. She readily credits her foundation in economic history to her B&N history teacher John Brisbois, and in literary economics, to her English teacher Hal Melcher.

To augment her support for BB&N’s annual giving program, Deirdre has chosen to include the School in her estate plans through a bequest of a

“Independent schools like BB&N are pioneers of the best teaching and are worthy of our support.” portion of the proceeds from the eventual sale of her Chicago loft apartment. She notes, “BB&N, and especially the much less prosperous little B&N of my memories, deserves substantial support from its alumni/ae if it is to maintain the highest educational standards in the country. Independent schools like BB&N are pioneers of the best teaching and are worthy of our support.”

For more information about The Almy Society and opportunities to include BB&N in your estate plans, contact Janet Rosen at 617-800-2729 or jrosen@bbns.org, or visit bbns.plannedgiving.org.