Fall/Winter 2019 Bulletin

bulletin Fall/Winter 2019

Rachael Rollins ’89: Fighting to Make the Justice System Equal for All

Inside this issue:

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Good Works Work: Jerry Friedman ’65

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BB&N Faculty and Students Explore Global Partnerships

26 Faculty Emeritus Profile: Roger Stacey

bulletin Events Calendar Ja nu ar y

Fall/Winter 2019

Letter from the Head

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Rachael Rollins ’89: Fighting to Make the Justice System

Equal

Tuesday, January 14 BB&N in Atlanta

Tuesday, February 4 BB&N in San Francisco

Kindergartners Visit MFA, BB&N Hosts International Debate, and more

Features

Fe br u a r y

Dr. Jennifer Price checks in with some community updates

Community News 4 BB&N Homecoming, Bivouac,

Saturday, January 4 Alumni/ae Ice Hockey Game

Monday, January 20 Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Luncheon

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Suffolk County’s new district attorney is shaking up the system with her progressive stance on law enforcement

Friedman ’65: 18 Jerry Good Works Work

After a multifaceted career, Class of ’65 alum finds true calling helping children learn empathy through art

20 Round Square Members Create

Trans-Atlantic Partnerships

Wednesday, February 5 BB&N in Los Angeles (Eastside)

Thursday, February 6 BB&N in Los Angeles (Westside)

24 Klara Kuemmerle ’19: Boston

A pr i l Monday, April 13 BB&N in Washington, DC Tuesday, April 14 BB&N in New York

May Friday, May 15-Sunday, May 17 Strawberry Night & Reunion Weekend 2020

J une Wednesday, June 17 BB&N in Boston Summer Reception For details and a full calendar of events, visit bbns.org/events Parents of former BB&N students: Please help us stay in touch with your child! Update contact information online at bbns.org/updateinfo, email changes to alumni_programs@bbns.org, or send a note to Alumni/ae Programs, BB&N, 80 Gerry’s Landing Road, Cambridge, MA 02138

Faculty member travels to England to teach creative writing, and six students attend eye-opening Round Square conference in India

Climate Strike Activist

Class of ’19 alumna co-organizes the Boston

chapter of the largest climate protest in history

26 Former Faculty Profile:

Roger Stacey, Faculty Emeritus Advancing Our Mission 28 Philanthropic Support Makes an Impact on

Campuses, Student Project Helps

Reimagine Student Gathering Space, and

Class of 2020 Parents Kick Off Gift Campaign

Alumni/ae News & Notes 32 Alumni/ae News and Notes 38 Golden Alumni/ae Luncheon 48 Head of The Charles Weekend 56 Milestones

Editor in Chief Andrew Fletcher, Associate Director of Communications Editor Joe Clifford, Director of Communications Editor Hadley Kyle, Communications and Website Coordinator Contributing Writers Kim Ablon Whitney ’91 Morgan Baker ’76 Joe Clifford Cecily Craighill Davis Peter DeMarco Andrew Fletcher Sharon Krauss Klara Kuemmerle ’19 Hadley Kyle Rob Leith, Faculty Emeritus Dr. Jennifer Price Janet Rosen Contributing Editors Cecily Craighill Davis Whitney Payton Brunet Janet Rosen Tracy Rosette Brianna Smith ’10 Alumni/ae News & Notes Cecily Craighill Davis Tracy Rosette Brianna Smith ’10 Design & Production Nanci Booth www.nancibooth.com 781-301-1733 Photography/Artwork/Design Joe Clifford Andrew Fletcher Sharon Krauss Diana Levine Amie Margolis Eric Nordberg ’88 Shawn Read Lena Rhie ‘20 Adam Richins Joshua Touster Alice Wang

Board of Trustees, 2019-20 Officers Charles A. Brizius, Chair Erica Gervais Pappendick, Vice Chair/Secretary Jason Hafler ’00, Vice Chair Bob Higgins, Vice Chair/Treasurer Members Leslie Ahlstrand ’08 Jake Anderson-Bialis ’98 Carmen Arce-Bowen Pam Baker Jimmy Berylson ’00 Margaret Boasberg Tim Cohen Alexandra Epee-Bounya Christine Gross-Loh Rachel Kroner Hanselman ’89 Jeff Hawkins Freddie Jacobs Ken Lang Peter Levitt ’84 Marjorie Lichtenberger Bridget Long Tristin Mannion Shep Perkins Leslie Riedel Emma Sagan ’10 Jesse Sarzana ’93 Ilah Shah Becky Velander Fan Wu ’98 Adam Zalisk ’03 Head of School Dr. Jennifer Price 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 Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins ’89 (Photography by Diana Levine— www.dianalevine.com)

: FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT : www.bbns.org

Head of School Dr. Jennifer Price Dear BB&N Community, As I write this letter, Thanksgiving is a week away. While my family starts to prepare for the big Pie Day celebration that we host on campus the day before, I figured there was no better time to share a few reasons why I’m so thankful to be part of this wonderful community.

I am often asked, what is unique about a BB&N education? I would love to share just a few ways I answer this question. Earlier this fall, an overnight nor’easter brought winds so strong that they toppled a beloved willow tree on the Lower School campus.

Thankfully, the only thing injured in its fall was an adjacent picnic table. But then, a very BB&N thing happened. Almost any other school you could think of would hire a work crew the next day to bring an industrial-sized wood chipper, clean up the scene, throw down some mulch, and move on. All nice and pretty, especially with hundreds of Admission Open House visitors scheduled to tour campus just a few days later.

Lower School Director Anthony Reppucci had a different idea.

He and his teachers asked for the downed tree to stay for a while.

They saw not a huge mess to clean up, but rather a wealth of learning opportunities. After all, in the years that it stood proudly, the willow had always been a favorite of the 2nd grade tree study.

(Pictured at right is Natalie Brown ’29, holding her report, the day after the tree fell.) So, for the past month, the fallen willow became a classroom of sorts. Students could observe and even touch a root system right before their eyes, rather than one pictured in a textbook. Visual Arts students combined the willow branches with yarn to weave baskets, and then used power drills in the MakerSpace to mount their artworks onto beautiful, willow-wood bases. And students added to the Morse Building’s Outdoor Classroom by repurposing various well-suited logs.

This is the BB&N Way—the world may be messy, but our teachers and students are always willing and eager to engage with it. I love this sort of joyful curiosity that is always present on our three campuses. It’s the lifeblood of a BB&N education.

Honor and Kindness take many shapes at BB&N. It’s important to note, though, that these are ideals that our community spends the time to truly work on. A great example of this is the Bystander Intervention Training (BIT) that took place at the Middle School on November 18th. The MS team has been running this powerful program for the past four years, in which Duane de Four facilitates interactive workshops for a diverse group of student leaders at the MS campus. These students are taught the skills needed to intervene in situations in which an individual or group is being treated unfairly or unkindly. I often cite the ideal we are working toward at BB&N, in which we all join together to create a space where students are empowered to bring their whole,

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authentic self to school each and every day. I’m proud that our Middle School makes BIT a priority every year: it’s programs such as these that help make inclusion the norm at our school.

These traits of honor, scholarship, and kindness that we nurture at BB&N transcend far beyond students’ interactions with each other on our three campuses. I’m sure each of us, at some point, has heard BB&N and schools like it described as a “bubble”— amazing environments in and of themselves, but closed off to the world outside the borders of campus. As evidence to the contrary, I would simply submit the past two weeks at the Upper School campus. In early November, the Upper School hosted the International Public Speaking Competition, featuring 130 debaters from 44 different schools and 8 countries (a few of them are shown at right). I was impressed watching our students interact so naturally with their fellow debaters from South Korea, Peru, India, South Africa, and the U.K. A week later, I received similar reports from the Model United Nations Club, which traveled to Brown University for a national high school conference, and from the members of GAINS (Girls Advancing in STEM), who attended a hands-on conference in Philadelphia.

I love that our students have so many opportunities to interact with their peers from different countries, backgrounds, and perspectives. The BB&N mission promotes “preparing students for lives of principled engagement in their communities and the world.” We all agree that this doesn’t happen by keeping our students cloistered in an echo chamber. As an example, a member of the Upper School Eco Club approached me earlier this fall to ask about the school’s stance on the Youth Climate Strike that was taking place the next day in Boston. I brought the question to the three campus directors and we all agreed that it was important to support student activism.

We appreciate the stand that their generation is taking on an incredibly meaningful issue critical to the future of our world.

Consequently, we allowed excused absences for students who had parent permission to attend the Climate Strike, a decision for which our families lent great support. Now, did this massive group of students from all over the region solve the climate change crisis in that one day? Well, of course not, but I’ll tell you what: I sure wouldn’t bet against this generation solving it in the years ahead!

Our Board of Trustees and administration have been busy as well working on solutions for BB&N—specifically around the goal of increasing space on our campuses for the purpose of enhancing all aspects of the student experience. In late October, as I’ve already reported to our enrolled families, we purchased a property adjacent to the Upper School at 197 Coolidge Hill.

This property, located directly north of the Nicholas Athletic

Center, had been the home of alumnus Tiron Pechet ’81 and his family. We are extremely grateful for the opportunity he gave us to present an offer prior to the property going to market. The acquisition of this 0.8 acre lot and its 6,250 square-foot home, combined with our purchase of the neighboring 30 Gerry’s Landing property four years ago, increases our Upper School campus footprint by 20 percent.

This degree of contiguous expansion marks an incredibly rare opportunity at our Cambridge location, providing increased flexibility as we plan for the future of BB&N. A second opportunity we are pursuing evolves from our long-term desire for additional athletic fields for our students. We have proposed a partnership with the Town of Watertown that is contingent on BB&N winning the bid for 6-acre lot on Grove Street being sold by Mount Auburn Cemetery. If we are able to acquire the parcel, we would then develop a joint-use agreement allowing BB&N to use the two fields at Filippello Park (a 14-acre Watertown park adjacent to this lot) after school each day.

In return, we would grant the town access to the two fields we would build on the Grove Street lot, when we are not using them. When I presented this partnership proposal at the Watertown Town Council open meeting on November 8th, it was met with widespread enthusiasm from Council members and town residents alike.

By the time this magazine reaches you, it is possible that the Cemetery Board will have announced their decision regarding the winning bidder for their Grove Street lot.

We, of course, are hopeful that they will see our offer as a win-win-win scenario: a needed resource for Watertown residents, a huge improvement for BB&N students, and a commitment to open space that will be most compatible for the neighboring cemetery. If that is not the case, we will continue to pursue other opportunities to secure additional field space.

Thank you all for your ongoing support in our shared commitment to provide the best possible opportunities for our students. I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and holiday season!

Dr. Jennifer Price Head of School

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Community News BB&N Community Celebrates at Homecoming

Bivouac Rolls on in Year 67 Nothing brings a class together like an outdoor adventure, and for the 67th year now, BB&N’s Bivouac program achieved just that. Despite being outside of their comfort zones and enduring a lack of smartphones, the resilient members of the Class of 2023 tackled Bivouac head on, returning to campus with a bevy of memories that will last a lifetime.

BB&N’s Upper School campus came alive the weekend of September 26 during the school’s annual Homecoming celebration. Members from all strata of the BB&N community joined in the festivities which included games, a parent-run picnic, bouncy houses, an airbrush tattoo artist, and much more.

The annual rite of passage sends freshmen into an 11-day wilderness immersion where they form bonds and glean lifelong lessons from “nature’s classroom” in the New Hampshire woods.

The beautifully warm afternoon lent a mid-summer feel to the day as everyone attending enjoyed the community event, one made all the sweeter by a near sweep of victories by the Knight teams.

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PICTURED x 1 x Eva Panayotou ’26 (left) and Rosie Angelone ’26 enjoyed the bouncy houses at Homecoming. x 2 x Micah Gershenson ’25 shows his colors. x 3 x Preeya Patel ’23, Beyoncé Hector ’23,

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and Maya Prenelus ’23 embrace the spirit of the day. x 4 x Sammy Malignaggi ’20 gets fired up as the football team takes the field. x 5 x Left to right: Lucy Foot ’20, Maya Mangiafico ’20, and Anne McKinley ’21 make a grand entrance as they prepare for their game.

Varsity Girls Soccer:

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BB&N 1, St. Paul’s 0 Varsity Football: BB&N 29, Tabor 13 Boys Cross Country:

PICTURED

Beat Milton

x 1 x Angelina Teig ’23, Francesca Valverde ’23, and Emilia Navarro ’23 x 2 x Sandro Benmayor ’23, Chris Kolbas ’23, and Randall Henry ’23 x 3 x Students partake in a bonding activity at Bivouac. x 4 x Ben Surenian ’23, Caleb Hu ’23, and Joseph Curtatone ’23 x 5 x The infamous Bivouac climbing wall looms

Girls Cross Country: Beat Milton

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Varsity Boys Soccer: BB&N 2, Belmont Hill 4

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over Camp Marienfeld.

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Community News 1

Kindergartners Visit MFA for Self-Portrait Study

Ben Goldhaber Named Latest BB&N Faculty Instructorship Recipient

What makes you you? How do you translate that to a canvas? And, what does an art work say about the person creating it? In anticipation of their annual self-portrait project, BB&N kindergartners spent an afternoon in October exploring the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

Congratulations to Lower School Kindergarten teacher Ben Goldhaber, who has been named as the next recipient of the Marian W. Vaillant Future Leader Instructorship.

Students scurried from gallery to gallery drawing copies of art work and partaking in a scavenger hunt for famous portraits, ranging from the abstract, to the classic, and everywhere in between.

“We ask the students to think about specific questions as they take in the art,” says kindergarten teacher Ben Goldhaber. “What materials were used in making this portrait? What is the first word that comes to mind when you look at this picture?

How does this portrait make you feel? Does it remind you of anything?”

Goldhaber notes that these seemingly simple questions really help the students connect to the art on a personal level, and drive home the power of the old adage: “seeing things through a child’s eyes.”

Throughout the fall, the kindergarteners studied shapes, artistic mediums, and techniques to help process their MFA insights into self-portraits of their own. Most exciting of all, come winter the Morse Building hallways will transform into a gallery of colors and energy as the students’ work is exhibited.

Middle School Opens Year with Motto Assembly Cheers filled the Middle School hallways as the seventh grade class and four eighth grade banner recipients were welcomed up the stairs to the Big Room for this year’s Motto Assembly on Wednesday, September 4th. The annual Middle School event serves as the first assembly of the year to welcome the new seventh grade class, and to celebrate BB&N’s motto values: Honor, Scholarship, and Kindness.

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The four banner recipients, chosen last year as students who embody the school’s motto, delivered wise words and advice to their peers at the assembly. “Succeeding at this school is not about having Einstein’s IQ; it’s about caring about your work and others around you,” said Andrea Kluzak ’24 on the importance of kindness.

Darius Sinha ’24 also expressed his belief that “little acts of kindness are what bind us together and make us feel like we all belong to one community.” Adam Murray ’24, who was a new student to BB&N as a seventh grader last year, encouraged his peers to take risks “Succeeding at and branch out: “Be open to try new things. You will be amazed at what you can do and how much fun this school is not you can have.” Valentina Ramierez ’24 added: “Our about having motto is honor, scholarship, and kindness. This is what you should expect from yourself and the other Einstein’s IQ; it’s students.”

In addition to the student speakers, Middle School director Mary Dolbear welcomed students to a new year and Head of School Dr. Jen Price closed out the assembly with an emphatic message to students: “You belong here. You belong here.”

about caring about your work and others around you...”

PICTURED x 1 x Charlotte Karson ’32 and Penelope Williams ’32 were all smiles while exploring portraits at the MFA. x 2 x BB&N Kindergartners sketch their own version of one of the many works at the Museum in anticipation of their self portrait project. x 3 x Darius Sinha ’24 speaks to the idea of “Kindness” at the Middle School Motto Assembly.

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The instructorship was established in 2009 as part of the Opening Minds Campaign to honor the third Headmistress of The Buckingham School, who served the school from 1935 to 1962. The three-year-long honor recognizes the special contributions that promising early and mid-career faculty have made to the School community, their academic accomplishments, and evidence of personal growth.

Ben was chosen as a fitting recipient of the instructorship for diligence and excellence in his craft, and for his daily adherence to the school motto—honor, scholarship, and kindness. Ben joined the BB&N community as a Kindergarten teacher in 2008 and has been a distinguished contributor to the Morse Building curriculum, programs, and faculty since that time. Among comments about Ben shared by his colleagues are the following:

Ben gently guides, coaches, and teaches the students in a compassionate and extraordinary manner, helping them to be their best selves. He is one of the most thoughtful, caring, and gentle souls I know and is revered and loved by families, students, and colleagues.

Ben’s curriculum is innovative, multidisciplinary, and developed in response to the students’ interests.

Ben is a patient, humble, and kind educator. In a field dominated by women, Ben serves as an important role model for all of his kindergarten students. Not only is he knowledgeable of academic curriculum development and design for early elementary school students, he also has demonstrated a sincere commitment to the social and emotional growth of his students. He is a leader in the Morse Building and has a talent for bringing us together to strengthen our sense of community.

For the past few years, Ben has taken on some important leadership roles at the Lower School and is currently the Morse Building Cluster Coordinator. In this role, he leads cluster meetings with the warmth and sincerity that he brings to everything at BB&N. Ben is also the outdoor classroom organizer and caretaker. Each fall, he introduces this wonderful space to our community members.

Mr. G exemplifies the kind of teacher that makes BB&N so special. He goes above and beyond not only for his students, but also for his colleagues. His work with kindergarteners focuses on creating a culture where kindness is not just spoken about, but put into action in authentic and tangible ways.

Previous Marian W. Vaillant Future Leader Instructorship recipients include: • Caitlin Drechsler, Lower School Science, 2009-2011 • Alda Farlow, Upper School English, 2012-2015 • Christa Crewdson, Middle School Drama, 2015-2018

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Community News

PICTURED x 1 x BB&N Sixth Graders take to the street with signs during the Global Climate Strike. x 2 x BB&N Middle Schoolers who could not attend the protest followed the action via live video feed, updating their feelings through passionate tweets. x 3 x Upper School Eco Reps brought their energy to Boston Common to join in the protest.

BB&N Students Join the Cause in Global Climate Strike

BB&N Announces Junior Profile Winners

On Friday, September 20, many BB&N students took to the streets to make their voices heard in the Global Climate Strike. The strike saw an estimated 7.6 million people across 185 countries join in to stage the largest climate protest in history, and BB&N was proud to count its own students among the more than 7,000 people who took part in the Boston-area event.

Four BB&N seniors received top honors in the annual Junior Profile Contest, the final event in the cornerstone English project for all eleventh graders. Deliberating over the summer, a panel of judges— writers and editors outside of BB&N—awarded first prize to Sylvia Murphy ’20, second prize to Eve Fantozzi ’20, and third prize (tie) to Theo Dadagian ’20 and Julian Li ’20.

One hundred fifth and sixth graders, along with ten Lower School teachers, marched into Harvard Square.

“My hope for having the students attending the event was that they would see that many other people are as passionately concerned about this issue as they are,” says science teacher Lauren Rader. “I also hoped that just the experience of being part of something like this might inspire our students to know they are able to take action against or for something they believe in.” As the BB&N students marched to the rally, passing cars honked in support, and the crowd cheered when they arrived. Rader says, “That definitely illustrated what I was hoping for.”

Several students from the Middle School took advantage of the opportunity to leave school early to attend the rally on the Boston Common. For interested students who remained on campus, the Library Learning Commons was turned into an on-site rally. Librarian Christina Pierre, Technology Integration Specialist Wendy Wunder, and Science Teacher Wendy Svatek organized a live streaming of the rally in Boston as well as a discussion of the global nature of the climate issues. They live-tweeted and created posters, as well.

Students felt great passion for the cause as they watched the live video feed of those who rallied around the world. Max Boesch Powers ’24 says he wanted “to stand in solidarity with those who believe that climate change is real.” Lea von Hilgers ’25 agrees. “This is an important issue, and many people need to speak up against it. Something must be done about climate change. We have no Planet B.”

For over 35 years, the Junior Profile project has challenged students to harness their practiced skills in analytical thinking and writing about literature and apply them to a subject beyond the classroom walls. Over the course of six weeks, through several drafts, and with the ongoing feedback of their teachers, they produce an 8-to-10paged New Yorker-style profile of an interesting person at work.

In addition to the professions depicted in the prize-winning profiles, others in this year’s pool of outstanding essays include a sushi chef, a Russian cobbler, a mailroom clerk, a prosthetics fitter, a furrier, a driver’s ed instructor, and a theater costume designer.

Junior Profile winners, clockwise from left: Julian Li ’20, Theo Dadagian ’20, Eve Fantozzi ’20, and Sylvia Murphy ’20

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Ten students from the Upper School, with the help of art teacher Laura Tangusso, made the trip to the rally in Boston. Tangusso was pleased that her students understood the importance of expressing and acting on their concerns. “I hoped that attending the rally would give them hope by taking action about an issue they know is so critically important to their future, and by experiencing the power and affirmation of being with masses of people who feel likewise.”

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Upper School Fall Play Brings the Laughs When audiences sat down for the annual Upper School fall play, many were surprised to see the typical Elizabethan setting of William Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor spun into contemporary times. The play was set in Windsor, Florida, no less, and the amazing costumes and creative set design intentionally evoked certain attributes from the world of reality television.

The result was a production that rang true with the audience and seemed apropos to today’s media-driven culture.

This was the debut production of new Upper School Theater teacher Ross MacDonald, who noted in the Playbill that Shakespeare’s plays are not wed to certain locations, or even centuries, because in the end they are about humanity. The thespians masterfully delivered Shakespeare’s challenging lines and the physical comedy that was necessary to bring out the absurd hilarity of the plot. It was a play full of trickery, jealousy, love, gender roles, and deceit—all very much relevant today. The play also incorporated musicians, which allowed more students to be involved in the production and added another rich layer to the overall performance.

3 PICTURED x 1 x (L to R): Bear Gruzen ’20, Eli Jensen ’21, Andrew Zhao ’21, Catherine Coughlin ’21, Dalia Dainora Cohen ’21, and William Nguyen ’21 x 2 x Sylvia Murphy ’21, Joe Murphy ’20, and Julia Shephard ’22 x 3 x Joe Murphy ’20 as Sir John Falstaff

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Class Notes 1 BB&N Fall Sports Snaphots BB&N athletes completed another excellent season on the fields, trails, and courts this fall.

Congratulations to BB&N Girls Varsity Soccer on winning the school’s first New England Class “A” Championship since 1996.

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New Trustees Named for 2019-2020 Alexandra Epee-Bounya P’17, ’21, ’24 Alexandra and her husband Sam live in Cambridge with children Mehdi ’21 and Nnema ’24. They are also parents of a BB&N alumnus, Menelik ’17. Alexandra has served as co-chair of BB&N’s Multicultural Parent Alliance (MPA) and as co-chair of the Sixth Grade Gift Committee. She has recently served on the Wellness and Athletics Strategic Initiative Working Group. She is a pediatrician and Director of Pediatrics at the Martha Eliot Health Center in Jamaica Plain.

Jeff Hawkins P’21, ’24 Jeff lives in Chestnut Hill with wife Christa, daughter Elise ’21, and son Brooks ’24. He has recently served on BB&N’s Recruit and Retain Faculty/Staff Strategic Initiative Working Group. His governance experience includes past Board Chair of the Boston Public Library Foundation and Trustee Emeritus at The Chestnut Hill School. He is serving his final term as a Trustee at The Dana Hall School. Jeff is the Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer of Bain Capital Credit.

Marj Lichtenberger P’17, ’19, ’21, ’23 Marj and husband Francis live in Somerville and are parents to Maxwell ’19, Jack ’21, Peter ’23, and alumnus Alexander ’17.

Marj has served in multiple BB&N Parents’ Association roles and has been an Admission Volunteer and a member of the Sixth Grade Gift Committee. She served on the Financial Aid Task Force and was a member of the

UKnighted Inclusive Community Strategic Initiative Working Group. Marj is the Assistant Director of Career Services at the Harvard Law School and the Director of International Advising.

Shep Perkins P’27, ’27, ’29 Shep resides in Boston with wife Lisa Mullan Perkins and twins Charley and Amelia ’27, and Sy ’29. He has served as Lower School Chair on The BB&N Fund Executive Committee, a Parents’ Association Grade Rep, and Admission Tour Guide. He most recently served on BB&N’s Interdisciplinary Inquiry/Project Based Learning Strategic Initiative Working Group. Shep is Chief Investment Officer of Equities for Putnam Investments.

Jesse Sarzana ’93, P’23, ’25 Faculty Trustee Jesse will serve on the BB&N Board of Trustees for a three-year term as Faculty Trustee. For nearly 20 years Jesse, an alumnus, has worked at BB&N as a teacher (Middle School Math) and coach (Boys Varsity Soccer). He has served as a Faculty/ Staff volunteer for The BB&N Fund, as a resource for the MS Admission Staff, and on the Head of School Search Committee.

Jesse and wife Autumn are parents of Avery ’25 and Leo ’23.

Riya ’30. She is currently serving on the Parents’ Association Executive Board as the Lower School Vice President and recently served on the B through 12 Curriculum Strategic Initiative Working Group. Ila is the Managing Director of the College of Social Innovation, which works to provide intern placements to young people participating in the Semester in the City program.

Becky Velander, P’19, ’21, ’26 Parents’ Association Representative Becky resides in Chestnut Hill with husband Fredrik and children Cecilia ’19, Charlotte ’21, and Elizabeth ’26. She is President of the BB&N Parents’ Association. She has volunteered extensively on all of BB&N’s campuses, and recently served on the Engaging Parents Strategic Initiative Working Group.

Adam Zalisk ’03 Alumni/ae Council Representative Adam is a BB&N Lifer and Chair of the BB&N Alumni/ae Council. He is a Senior Vice President at Amplify Education Inc., and is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School. Adam was selected in the second cohort of Presidential Leadership Scholars, the program established for development of emerging social sector leaders by Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush.

Ila Shah P’25, ’30, ’30 Ila resides in Belmont with husband Rajeev and children Arjun ’25, and Akshay and

x 1 x Thomas Porell ’22 reels in a reception downfield. x 2 x Jenna

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Hallice ’20 unleashes a shot during a field hockey game. x 3 x Corrine Waters ’22 was all business on the track this season. x 4 x Preeya Patel ’23 lays it all on the line to get to the ball. x 5 x Mehdi Epee-Bounya ’21 tracks down a loose ball in the open field. x 6 x Meredith McDermott ’22, Samantha Suplee ’22, and Victoria Huang ’21 celebrate a goal for the New England Class “A” championship squad.

From left: Becky Velander, Shep Perkins, Marj Lichtenberger, Alexandra Epee-Bounya, Jeff Hawkins, Jesse Sarzana ’93 (Not pictured: Ila Shah and Adam Zalisk ’03) 11

Community News 3

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PICTURED x 1 x BB&N Debate Team Co-captain

Home Team Shines at International Debate Tournament Hosted by BB&N In a massive community undertaking, BB&N welcomed student debaters and their coaches from around the world for the International Independent Schools Public Speaking Competition (IISPSC), held October 31 to November 3 on the Upper School campus.

Spearheaded by Speech and Debate Team Head Coach Sarah Getchell and Assistant Coach Zoe Balaconis, the event was co-hosted by The Hotchkiss School’s Speech and Debate Team Coach David Conti. Together, they organized the four-day tournament comprising nine categories of competition for more than 130 students from 44 schools in 8 countries, including the United Kingdom, South Korea, Peru, and South Africa.

Following the final tabulations, the hometown team of Jack Lichtenberger ’21, Alexi Melki ’21, and Julia Shephard ’22 placed an impressive tenth overall in this world-class field. Additionally, BB&N earned some spectacular individual accolades. With the top three competitors recognized in each category, Jack received the third-place award in Persuasive Speaking, and Julia won third in Impromptu Speaking.

Additionally, based on the average of her scores in three events, Julia was one of the five Americans to qualify for the World Championships, to be held in Shanghai, China, in April. At 14, she is also the youngest to qualify from the IISPSC tournament.

“Our fabulous team of three has been preparing for this tournament since last June,” said Getchell. “In their first international tournament, they represented BB&N well, excelling in both their speech and debate events.” A once-in-a-generation opportunity for the school, hosting the IISPSC, she noted, “has helped cement the BB&N Speech & Debate Team as a major player on the world independent school scene, though our students’ wild success in the past few years has already earned us some great press!”

All students competed in three events of their choosing, from various forms of debate—Parliamentary, Extemporaneous, Cross-X, for example—to such speech events as Interpretive Reading, After-Dinner, and Radio Newscast.

While Julia sees value in all the categories, she says, “Debate, specifically, is really great because it helps you argue from both sides. I think there’s a tendency in the world right now to alienate those whom we don’t agree with and say, ‘Well, you’re inherently evil because we don’t agree.’ But it turns out that there are lots of different ways to look at an issue. I think that’s been really valuable for my understanding of people and why people think what they do.”

Alexi appreciated spending time with others who shared the same goals, who all are trying to improve their skills. “I learned a lot about my Canadian partner’s methods in debate, and I thought that was super useful,” he said. “I’m now adopting that technique.”

A substantial benefit of hosting the Internationals is that dozens of BB&N Debate Team members who did not make the three-person team, as well as some students not even involved in Debate, still got to be involved by playing significant roles as hosts for visiting students, timekeepers, and ballot runners. “This involvement allowed almost all of our younger debaters the invaluable opportunity to see worldclass competitors in events that they’ll compete in in our New England independent school league,” said Getchell. “I can’t wait to see how

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it impacts their performance in and enjoyment of future speech and debate events.”

Contributing to this truly community endeavor, ten BB&N families hosted students; seven Debate Team alumni/ae, current parents, and many faculty and staff served as judges—including Head of School Jennifer Price, who also made welcoming remarks at the Opening Ceremony, at which District Attorney of Suffolk County Rachael Rollins ’89, P’22 delivered the keynote address.

Geoffrey Goose ’20, a vital behind-the-scenes helper, appreciated “getting to meet people from all over the world,” he said. “People from India who traveled 24 hours to get here, people who speak English as a second language and who are competing on a world stage, which is remarkable to me. Everyone’s here to learn and have fun—the fraternal aspect of this is really interesting.”

Balaconis noted that the BB&N students greatly enjoyed having these experiences with newly made friends “who are like live-action pen pals,” she said.

“The real magic is in spending time and learning about each other outside of the rounds. I’ve heard from our kids that hosting has been a fun experience—just to talk with others about what their houses are like and the rules they have. They’re experiencing another culture and also seeing their own from an outsider’s perspective. It’s a cool thing.”

Alexi found a special meaning in the global camaraderie of the tournament. “A lot of people I met have similar cultural backgrounds to me—being Lebanese, I’m part of multiple cultures—and that’s something I could connect with,” he said. “To be on a team where I can show to other schools that BB&N has students from different cultural backgrounds means a lot to me and is a great honor.”

The South African delegation from Bishops Diocesan College in Capetown found their experiences in Cambridge and Boston to be eye opening. “All of us live in a bubble,” said Luke Rissik ’20, “and until we do something like this, we only experience a certain group of people. When you come to something like this, where there’s multinational involvement, you really get to understand what’s

Chongyuan Hong ’20, fourth from left, with competitors from Bermuda, England, India, and Canada x 2 x Jack Lichtenberger ’21, Alexi Melki ’21, and Julia Shephard ’22 at the International Independent Schools Public Speaking Competition hosted by BB&N x 3 x District Attorney of Suffolk County Rachael Rollins ’89, P ’22 delivers the keynote address at the opening ceremonies. (For a story about Rachael Rollins, see page 14.)

beyond the closed gates of your school and what the world is really like.”

Jonathan Mopp ’20 of Bishops noted, “The freedom to walk around the city by ourselves— that’s something we aren’t accustomed to.”

“It’s amazing to see the houses here,” added his teammate Lukas Oelz ’21. “There are no fences around them, which is fairly different from what we have in South Africa, where we unfortunately have to have walls and fences due to circumstances. It’s a very open environment in Boston; I think that’s also what makes it enjoyable.”

With any luck, a few days of enjoying civil discourse in a world without fences will create global ripples as these potential future leaders return home.

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Rachael Rollins ’89 The DA Fighting to Make Our Justice System Equal for All

BY PETER DEMARCO The photo is so large that it practically dominates Rachael Rollins’ office. Ali-Liston, 1965, Lewiston, Maine—The Rematch. It took Ali a little more than a minute to splay Liston onto the canvas, famously yelling at him to get back up just as the photo was snapped.

Liston, of course, never did.

“Ali is just so inspirational, just to have lost so much and come back every time,” says Rollins, Suffolk County’s newest district attorney, BB&N ’89. “He’s such an interesting person, whether you agree with his politics or not.”

The same could be said, pretty much verbatim, for Rollins. She’s inspirational; she’s controversial; and to her core, she’s one heck of a fighter.

An underdog in her first political race, Rollins trounced her opponent in the 2018 election to become Boston’s first female district attorney. Only the second African-American to serve as the city’s top prosecutor, Rollins has become one of the country’s most outspoken opponents of discrimination in our justice system, pushing for widespread and even historic reforms.

“...when you have hard conversations, that’s when movement and change happens.”

Shortly after taking office this year, Rollins issued a memo to her staff instructing them to stop prosecuting, by and large, a list of 15 nonviolent, lesser offenses, including default warrants, minor drug possessions, and shoplifting. She explained her decision by pointing out that such crimes are often committed by those suffering from opioid addiction, homelessness, and mental health issues—people who need rehabilitation and social welfare programs, not jail time, she said.

It was a bold and radical move that quickly made headlines, drawing strong criticism from Boston’s police union and Governor Charlie Baker’s office, and even obliquely from Attorney General William Barr, who blasted “anti-law enforcement DA’s” such as Rollins, who he said are just letting more criminals roam the streets.

Rollins, however, has stood her ground, saying our prisons are overburdened and, with every inmate costing the state $50,000 to $70,000 per year, a drain on public resources. For those too poor to afford bail, she says, being jailed while awaiting trial for a minor offense can be catastrophic—people often lose their jobs, or even custody of their children.

Cutting back on prosecutions, she also maintains, doesn’t mean cutting back on all prosecutions.

“I’m not talking about the people who are trafficking and distributing. I’m not talking about violent people who attacked a corrections officer,” she says. “But I’m going to say loud and proud, if you don’t have a record and you had a (drug) needle and you were charged with possession, I’d rather get you into a rehab program, not in South Bay or Nashua Street (jail), and not give you a record so you can move on with your life.

“I represent the victim,” she says, “the community and the defendant.”

It’s a statement, at least in the past, one might not expect to hear from a prosecutor. But Rollins comes to the job with life experiences that aren’t like most other DA’s.

She’s at times faced discrimination in her professional life, telling stories of walking into courtrooms as head counsel and having bailiffs assume because of her skin color that she was a family member of the defendant.

She is a single mother raising three children—her daughter, Peyton, who is a BB&N sophomore, and two of 14

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her nieces (Victoria, 6, and Meya, 10), to whom she is legal guardian. When Rollins threw her hat into the election, she was just a year removed from beating breast cancer.

One of Rollins’ siblings has battled opioid addiction, while another is currently incarcerated. “We have the same two parents. We were raised in the exact same house,” she says about her siblings. “We can try to figure out why one (child) was this way and the other was that way. But what I can tell you is it gives me insight into the fact that we are not certainly, under my administration, going to look at you at your darkest, worst moment. We’re going to look at the mosaic of who you are.”

Quick-witted and passionate, she speaks with rapid-fire velocity about a host of reforms she’s dived into since taking office, from having social workers talk to juries to make sure they’re emotionally all right after hearing violent crime cases, to hiring more minorities to work in her office to better reflect Boston’s minority population.

She speaks bluntly, as well, about inequities within our justice system, such as how the state’s newly legalized marijuana shops are largely owned by privileged whites, while many minorities sit in jail for having sold weed. Forceful yet charismatic, and occasionally even funny, she doesn’t hold much back: at times a staffer has to remind Rollins of the yellow sticky note on her desk that reads, “Don’t Swear.”

She complies—mostly.

“I want to be the Uber to the taxi industry,” she says. “I want to be the Airbnb to the hotel industry. I want to disrupt the way that we’ve always done things from this seat and think about how we keep people safe differently, because it’s not just putting everyone in jail.”

She is far from alone in clamoring for seismic change. This fall, Rollins sat down with presidential candidate Senator Elizabeth Warren for a televised discussion on MSNBC about discrimination within the justice system. In November, The Washington Post profiled Rollins as a leader among dozens of large-city district attorneys bent on instituting social change through their offices.

She views the opposition she’s faced so far as just part of the process. “I love having hard conversations,” she says, “because when you have hard conversations, that’s when movement and change happens.”

Rollins, 48, is in many ways a product of her parents, who themselves challenged racism in the late 1960s simply by falling in love with each other. Her father is Irish, and her mother is from Barbados, and when they married some friends and families disowned them out of prejudice.

A top athlete in soccer, basketball, and lacrosse, Rollins led a few of her BB&N teams to championships. But it wasn’t trophies that she prized. Hailing from a middle-class family, Rollins was one of just a handful of minority students to attend the Upper School in the late 1980s. But she learned on the playing field that if you worked hard and played hard, you were equal to everyone else.

“When you score your touchdown, nobody cares about what your parents do, whether your cleats are brand new or seven years old, or even if you’re wearing cleats,” she says.

When her lacrosse team at UMass-Amherst was cut from the budget after her freshman year, Rollins and other players threatened a lawsuit to get the program re-instated under Title IX. When they succeeded, Rollins saw the law as a new arena for pursuing equality.

She earned her law degree from Northeastern, and a master’s in law from Georgetown. Her career has included stops with the National Basketball Players Association, the National Football League Players Association, the National Labor Relations Board, and Brockton District Court, where she

The school [BB&N] taught me to think critically, to think outside of the box, that it’s OK to be uncomfortable... served a rotation working as an assistant district attorney under Ralph Martin, Boston’s only other African-American DA. Rollins was also the first person of color to serve as the general counsel of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT), the first woman to be general counsel of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), and spent almost five years serving as a U.S. prosecutor in Boston, handling cases ranging from fraud to employment discrimination, from child abuse to gun trafficking.

BB&N was instrumental in shaping the person she’s become, too.

As district attorney, she believes that cutting back on prosecutions is more than just about giving people second chances. With nearly 1,400 unsolved homicides in Boston, some dating back decades, Rollins believes that her office must build better relationships and greater trust within Suffolk County’s minority community to get more witnesses to come forward.

“The school taught me to think critically, to think outside of the box, that it’s OK to be uncomfortable,” she says. “It also taught me a lot about wealth and privilege, access, and opportunity.”

“If you open the door and your loved one was murdered seven years ago and Boston Police Department has never called you about that, but they want to talk to your son about a trespass

“They said no, I’m not going to love who you’re telling me to love. I’m actually going to love the person who I think I love,” Rollins says. They’ve been married 49 years, she proudly adds.

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that he did two days ago, what is your reaction to that?” she says. “Like, ‘I’m sorry. Are you here about the murder that happened that you haven’t solved yet? Oh, you want to talk to my son because he’s driving without a license.’

“If that were me opening that door,” she says, “I would look at the system and say, ‘You guys don’t care about us.’”

She scarcely misses an opportunity to show constituents that she, for one, does care.

Her public speaking calendar (and Twitter feed) overflows with church appearances, graduation speeches, visits to community galas, charitable fundraisers, talks at public schools, and even stops at the Nashua Street jail to speak with inmates.

Her office has begun holding “Town Hall” meetings in which she and top staffers go into the district to answer residents’ questions about what their jobs entail and what resources they can provide. For this year’s 30th anniversary of the infamous Charles Stuart case, Rollins organized a public panel at Northeastern University to talk about its racial implications both then and now.

Rollins has visited the crime scene of every homicide that’s come under her watch.

“I will never be outworked. Ever,” she promises.

People respond to Rollins because she is just that genuine. At a recent job career day at Dorchester’s Henderson Upper Campus Inclusion School, Rollins drew rounds of applause—mid-speech no less—from an auditorium filled with minority high school students, as if at a campaign rally.

“In this school for example, there are 25 or 26 or 27 or 28 students per teacher,” she said. “When we have you in jail, it’s four prisoners for every one corrections officer. I want those numbers swapped.

“Why are we so invested in us when we think we’ve failed, rather than invest in us when there’s opportunity and hope?” she asked. “Your past does not dictate what your future will be.

And we believe in you guys.”

A small mass of students descended upon her after the speech, asking about interning in her office and advice about becoming a lawyer themselves. “She makes me think that if she can do it, I can do it as well,” said tenth-grader Xyra Mercer.

As Rollins left the auditorium, she pulled out her phone. A body had been discovered in the Charles River. It was time to step back in the ring.

“I think the most important dates in your life are the date you were born, and the day you find out why you were supposed to be here,” Rollins says. “This job is what everything in my life has been culminating to.” c

|1| Rollins talks with BB&N students at the International Debate tournament held at the school this fall, where Rollins was the keynote speaker. |2| Rollins with daughter Peyton ’22 at the Division 2 New England Championships last spring, where as a freshman, Peyton set records in the 100 meter hurdles, 300 meter hurdles, won the long jump, and ran as part of BB&N’s record-setting 4x100 meter relay team.

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Good Works Work: JERRY FRIEDMAN ’65

by Morgan Baker ’76 Jerry Friedman ’65, or J.S. Friedman, author of the children’s book series Maurice’s Valises, and chair of the Good Works Foundation in Boston, believes in being open to change. His life is all about change. It is what led him to retire from commercial photography at 41, to create the Good Works Foundation—whose mission is to teach kindness, caring, and empathy to children—a year ago, and move from the United States to split his time between the Netherlands and Thailand. According to Friedman, evolution is key to how your professional life develops, and how people develop personally.

One thing leads to another, he says. When he was taking care of his mother at the end of her life, Friedman started thinking about older people and it led him to travel the world interviewing folks over the age of 100. That experience culminated in his book

Earth’s Elders: The Wisdom of the World’s Oldest People, in 2005.

Foundation—teaching children worldwide that they are more similar than different, to break down walls of prejudice.

“Thank you, Browne & Nichols,” says Friedman, 72, who was a Lifer. “I got a concrete, grounded set of rules around education. In retrospect, I appreciate what I got there.”

The Foundation is currently two-pronged, but again, Friedman is on the move and soon it will be three-pronged. The initial prong was to donate Maurice’s Valises to organizations who work with children unable to afford the series.

The Good Works Foundation has contributed more than 40,000 books to libraries in Haiti and Ethiopia, as well as to Massachusetts General Hospital, Great Ormand Street Hospital in London, and the Ronald McDonald House New York, among other organizations.

That project, he says, was the springboard to lots of things. “The takeaways of insight and wisdom and caring from these special Supercenternarians were the inspiration for the books and TV.” He was so inspired he created his series of 12 books for young readers (4-40), Maurice’s Valises, about a mouse who goes on many adventures around the world, during which he learns about empathy and compassion.

Friedman wasn’t done, however, and a year ago he developed The Good Works Foundation. Friedman says education makes The second branch of The Good Works Foundation is One Blue Sky, the brainchild the most difference in children’s lives and that is what he is doing with the Good Works of his “right-hand person,” Laura Rodgers, 18

with whom he has worked his whole career. Rodgers, who morphed from paid employee when Friedman was a commercial photographer, to enthusiastic volunteer, says Friedman is more than 100 percent supportive of the projects they work on. Friedman has offered to pay Rodgers repeatedly, but she would rather the money go to more projects.

Also founded in the arts, One Blue Sky links children in different countries together using visual art as a medium to connect them.

It joins small towns in the United States with small towns in other countries, where stereotypically one might not think they have anything in common. But through One Blue Sky, children in these towns recognize that they are more similar than different. The first project, Opening Lines, linked a school in Biddeford, Maine, with a school in Slemani, Iraq. The students got to know each other as pen pals, and then created street murals with the help of Michigan artist Pat Perry.

Friedman even pitched in and helped put the base coat on the wall in Biddeford. The street murals in each town feature a child on the phone with messages and images by all the children reflecting on what they learned.

Tammy Ackerman, director of Engine, an arts not-for-profit in Biddeford, says the students left a mark of their own on the

wall—little bits relevant to their community such as a lobster and a drawing of ice cream. Messages included “Life is better with friends” and “All you need is love.”

“There is a sense of community pride around the mural,” says Ackerman.

Ackerman says Friedman was incredibly generous funding public art in this manner.

“It’s a really, really great project. Art can change lives. It shows how art is a possible vehicle for communication and a possible career. It raises awareness about empathy and understanding.”

Friedman says, “It’s touching to see how through art, kids realized how they are the same. How quickly the nine-year-old kids recognized their commonalities. A nineyear-old is a nine-year-old,” he says. “The kids put Biddeford on the map worldwide.”

“We started out small, but want to do the project on a larger scale,” says Friedman.

“We are going to do the next one with a town in Kentucky and Guadalajara in Mexico. If you can reach children, you can change how they think. I’ve given up on adults.”

One thing just naturally leads to the next thing, says Friedman, and indeed, he is now working on an animated TV series, Treasure

Trekkers, geared to viewers 4-8. “It’s a derivative of Maurice’s Valises,” he says.

The show focuses on three characters who travel the world seeking and securing the world’s greatest treasures. “The TV series is similar to the books in attaching a lesson to an adventure in different cultures. The underlying premise is empathy through entertainment,” he says.

The show will likely air in the fall of 2020.

“I want Good Works to grow, to continue to do these kinds of things, to challenge through art, to bring together, to learn about each other.”

Research, says Friedman, shows art has a huge impact on kids in refugee camps.

It defuses the situation and gives the kids hope.

Just as his professional life has evolved over time, Friedman’s domicile has changed as well. Friedman spends most of his time in a little squid fishing village in Thailand and in a houseboat on an Amsterdam canal; “Living in a houseboat,” he says, “is like living inside a painting by one of the Dutch painters.” When he visits the United States, he stays in Litchfield County in Connecticut. Friedman moved to Amsterdam in 2006. “I felt the U.S. had ethically faded and it was time to leave

the country,” he says. “I don’t regret it for a minute. It also affords me a different perspective of the good and bad of the United States.”

Just as Friedman’s career and life have developed over time, he says people evolve over time, and when returning to BB&N reunions he tries not to pigeonhole classmates for how they were in high school, but to see how they have evolved.

The evolution currently on Friedman’s mind is replicating the work The Good Works Foundation has done in as many places as possible. Right now, he says, it’s operating on a shoestring but it’s simple and effective.

Friedman paid out of his own pocket for the first project. “The work creates the halo effect,” says Friedman. “It makes you feel good.”

Friedman wants to give kids positive experiences early in their life as research shows impactful events, whether positive or negative, can leave lasting effects on the brain, the frontal lobe, to be exact.

“I want to give kids positive experiences they can continue to draw from,” says Friedman.

“I never thought I would work harder than when I was a photographer, but this is so rewarding.” c

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by Sharon Krauss

Round Square Members Create Trans-Atlantic Partnership This summer, Upper School English Department Chair Sharon Krauss traveled to Somerset, England, to co-teach a creative writing workshop to students at the Latymer School with British novelist Tim Clare. The opportunity was borne out of a connection made possible by Round Square, a global membership network of 180 affiliated schools that focuses on experiential learning and character education. The trip proved fruitful in many regards: growing BB&N global initiatives, expanding faculty professional development, and providing Krauss with an experience she won’t soon forget.

After a 2.5-hour train journey southwest from London, then a 40-minute taxi ride on winding roads up the bosky River Exe valley, our group arrived at secluded Northmoor House in the Somerset countryside. The mid19th-century stone manor house, with its unexpected asymmetries, outdated servants’ bells, and creaky-gated gardens, exudes a grandeur that is slightly faded, making even more welcoming the invitation to wander freely on plush lawns and tapestried carpets. Exploring our home for the week, we thought variously of The Secret Garden, Jane Eyre, and more ominously, Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. Rest assured, the only corpses to turn up were small rodents proudly delivered each morning by the resident barn cat, affectionate but murderously eager to please, as we breakfasted at sunny picnic tables and swallow chicks chirped from the eaves.

I had come to this evocative, bucolic setting with 13 students and two teachers from Latymer Upper School in London to co-teach a creative writing workshop with British novelist Tim Clare. Near the end of each Latymer school year in early July, classes disband for Activities Week, when everyone embarks on enriching adventures—hiking in Switzerland, sailing off Scotland, biking in France—all “designed to take students outside their comfort zones in some way as part of a broader educational experience,” explained William Goldsmith, Upper Latymer School’s assistant head/director of teaching and learning and my colleague for the week.

“The writing retreat was less about physical challenges and more about emotional and creative ones. Aside from this main goal, there is also a subsidiary one to detach students from technology and communication with parents and friends, and create, albeit temporarily, a self-contained community who live, work, cook, and play together for the week.” In BB&N parlance, it’s a Bivouaclike experience that all students engage in annually.

The similarities in BB&N’s and Latymer’s programs, goals, and guiding principles made it easy for Will Goldsmith and me to find common ground, but our 20

schools’ memberships in Round Square provided the foundational possibility in the first place. While not directly facilitated by Round Square, my gig was certainly an outgrowth of the organization’s efforts to create a global network and to encourage collaboration among educators. In fact, my experience exemplifies the old “if you teach a man to fish…” adage. In this case, the do-it-yourselfer was Will, whom I met only briefly when he visited BB&N in October 2018 on a Round Square research grant. Will said, “Having the Round Square connection and understanding how much Latymer shares with BB&N gave me the confidence to invite Sharon to collaborate with us for our Activities Week trip there and then!” The recipient of one Round Square professional development opportunity, he created, on his own, another for me. His actions illustrate what can happen when the door is opened between fundamentally like-minded institutions and eager-toexplore colleagues.

Just as I was hoping, that opportunity pushed me to rethink curricular approaches in my senior Fiction Writing course, allowed me to try out some different writing exercises and group activities, and afforded me the chance to learn from the novelist and writing teacher Tim Clare. We evenly split the workshop time and sat in on each other’s sessions, and I tried my hand at whatever Tim asked of the students, a humbling endeavor that quickly made me admire even more what they produced.

Appreciative of the energizing boost of fresh material and inspiring techniques, I am excited to use them with my BB&N students, from whom the Latymer students differed not so very much, I quickly discovered.

Eager to engage, they were cheerful participants and dedicated writers for three hours each morning around the formal dining room table. They rummaged about in childhood memories for fruitful details and created characters and scenes from their own ignitable imaginations. Courageously, they volunteered to read their work aloud and to hear some feedback. Together we

PICTURED ABOVE: Upper School English Chair Sharon Krauss working in the garden with a Latymer School student during the creative writing workshop she co-taught this summer.

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awe of students’ especially clever turns of phrase. I found it unexpectedly reaffirming to see that my everevolving interacting-with-teenage-students skills worked just as well across The Pond as the Latymer students and I connected at the workshop table and while eating meals, preparing dinner, and playing evening games of Bananagrams. Some asked what BB&N students and classes were like, and I learned about the more-focused curriculum at their level: each studies just three subjects and will take comprehensive, university-determining exams on those topics this spring.

Afternoon tutorials presented an especially enjoyable occasion for getting to know the students. Tim and I both met individually with each of the 13 for half-hour stints over the course of a few days. In my lovely outdoor office, a wooden bench in a shaded back garden, I gave additional feedback on pieces in progress, brainstormed approaches, or discussed books they’d read. Come the late light of evening, we’d assemble, paradoxically, in “the Morning Room” for readings from our own writing as well as from admired works of literature. I chose Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby for the latter event (most of the kids knew only the DiCaprio movie version), while others shared excerpts from Donne, Coetzee, Eliot, Plath, García Márquez, and Woolf. My favorite gathering, hands down, was the last-evening celebration, when students read—with the pride and excitement of accomplishment—from work they had produced in the workshop. That night, when the last bird calls subsided to silence, their words still hovered in my head.

Lingering, too, from the whole experience is the inspiring possibility of a continued alliance with Latymer. Will, also an English teacher, and I talked about cross-Atlantic class interactions, another BB&N teacher taking a turn at the writing retreat, even a faculty exchange. I feel sure—and grateful—that we forged and will foster just the type of empowering collaboration and friendship that Round Square champions, promising in theory, fulfilling in actuality.

The Northmoor House in Somerset, England, an inspiring locale for creative writing

Students Attend Conference in India Beyond the faculty opportunities presented by BB&N’s partnership with Round Square, students have also taken advantage of this global network to do some exploring of their own.

This fall, six BB&Ners represented the school at Round Square’s International Conference at the Emerald Heights International School in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India.

Along with chaperones Karina Baum (Director of Global Education) and Stephanie Moon (Middle School Art), the students participated in a pre-conference tour on which they visited the Golden Triangle (Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur) and learned about the regions’ culture, history, and architecture before convening for the weeklong conference.

Focusing on the theme “the world we wish to see,” students participated in cultural performances, listened to keynote speakers, and participated in “baraza” groups (small group activities and discussions), student showcases, service projects in local communities, and special events such as a 3K run to benefit a local cancer hospital. Students bonded with peers from 160 schools from around the world, representing a total of 1,300 delegates.

Upon their return, the students welcomed the opportunity to share insights from the transformative experience, applying what they learned to positively impact their own community.

“The best aspect was experiencing a part of the world that is completely new to me. The journey was always rich and refreshing, whether seeing the chaotic streets and the colorful clothing, hearing the people and their language, tasting the paneer and the dosa, or walking down historic markets of Jaipur and the marble floors of the Taj Mahal. I was fascinated by India’s economy and politics, and the pre-conference tour gave me an opportunity to both see things first hand and talk to locals about how globalization and isolationism is impacting their daily lives.”

- DANIEL WANG ’22 “I feel like I have grown through this conference. I think the most beneficial experience was seeing the similarities and differences among the lives of all the people I met. It helped me see what was in store for my future and helped me feel more at peace with where I was and what my role in the world could be. I also felt

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very inspired by some of the talks and I felt that I really could have a voice if I want one.”

- AANIKA PATEL ’21 “I will always remember how kind and welcoming the people there were, particularly the students and staff of the school which hosted the conference.”

- DYLAN SAUNDERS ’21 “Hearing Madame Gandhi speak really resonated with me because of how inspiring she was and how relatable she was. By her describing her story and what she went through during her life, I felt I received a better sense of how I can embrace my own opportunities and what I can do with my own life.”

- AANIKA PATEL ’21 “It was fascinating to learn about the interesting history of the areas we visited. I learned a lot about how the various cultural, religious, and ethnic groups have interacted in Delhi in particular.”

- JACK HAINING ’22

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“I feel as though I have been enriched in how amazing it is to make human connections, and how we can all unify to do things we want to change. It’s made me realize that no action is too small and no voice is too quiet.”

- GABRIELLA BLANCO ’21 “My favorite speaker was Dr. Shashi Tharoor, Indian Member of Parliament and former Undersecretary General of the UN. His speech on the challenges that India faces today was informative, thought-provoking, and powerfully delivered. As a politician experienced in world affairs, he explained India’s struggle to achieve universal progress in an age of rapid advancement. His speech resonated with the social miracles and issues I witnessed on the pre-conference tour, such as how skyscrapers in Gurugram loomed over families living in roadside huts.”

- DANIEL WANG ’22 “I discovered a lot more about how I interact with people and the world around me. In regards to civic responsibility, it definitely opened my eyes to all the work that needs to be done.”

- CECILY CHUNG ’22

2 PICTURED 1: Middle School Art Teacher Stephanie Moon, Cecily Chung ’22, Daniel Wang ’22, Jack Haining ’22, Aanika Patel ’21, Gabriella Blanco ’21, Dylan Saunders ’21, and Director of Global Education Karina Baum at the Taj Mahal in Agra, India, during their Round Square trip 2: A street scene of Agra, India, one of the many eye-opening stops during their travels.

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Klara Kuemmerle ’19 Takes Front Row in Boston Climate Strike When an estimated 7,000 people—most of them students—gathered in Boston on September 20th as part of the Global Climate Strike, a familiar face to the BB&N community could be seen front and center.

Recent graduate Klara Kuemmerle ’19, who will attend Harvard next year, assumed a pivotal role in the Boston event as a co-organizer.

helped organize group events, and participated in climate actions such as a sit-in in House Speaker Robert DeLeo’s office requesting him to sign the “No Fossil Fuel Money Pledge.” As I was often busy with school, I mainly took part in events over the summer and on weekends, but after graduating I decided to take a gap year in part to dedicate more time to these types of actions.

The Bulletin recently caught up with Kuemmerle to hear about her experience in helping to facilitate a piece of what has been touted as the largest climate change protest in history, one which saw more than 7.6 million participants mobilize in 185 different countries.

How did you get involved in the cause?

What was your role in helping to organize the Boston Climate Strike?

For the past couple of years, I have been involved with a climate organization called the Sunrise Movement. The movement is led by young people all over the country and there is a large hub in Boston. It was through this organization that my passion for the environment transformed into large-scale action. I canvased for political candidates, 24

In August, when I heard about the upcoming Climate Strike, I immediately wanted to join and it was very easy to get in contact with the two main organizers. I participated in zoom-calls and in-person meetings, worked on outreach to students and schools, made sure we had enough fundraising, and helped raise awareness about the event by chalking the city. As we raised more awareness, more prominent people and news stations started reaching out to us and we were even invited to a city counselor lunch by Boston City Councilor Michelle Wu just days before the strike.

What was the most challenging part of the process? The most rewarding?

One of the most rewarding moments I remember happened just days before the strike. The lead organizers got an email saying that Boston public school kids would receive amnesty if they decided to attend the strike. The whole room erupted in cheers because that meant that over 54,000 kids had the option to attend. The night before was also crazy. From 5pm to 11pm we made last-minute signs, revised speeches, and took to the streets with flyers and stickers.

Two conversations stuck with me when I was handing out flyers. The first was a woman who said “I don’t believe in climate change, I believe in Jesus.” And I could only roll my eyes and laugh a little at her determination not to accept the truth. But another conversation left me just as shocked. I handed out a flyer to an older couple walking their dog and the woman took my hand in hers and said, “Thank you.

Thank you for everything that you’re doing. I can only say I’m sorry for what we’ve done.” I could see it in her eyes that she really meant the apology and that was incredible.

The next day, the strike went by in a blur of excitement and energy. The most surreal part was looking out from the stage onto the sea of 7,000 people all there to protest climate inaction. Part of me saw these people and could only think about how if we continued to burn fossil fuels we wouldn’t even reach the age of 25 before climate change became irreversible and exponentially more horrific.

Most Massachusetts’ mainstream environmental groups are merely fighting for 100% renewable by 2050, but that isn’t enough anymore. We have to get there by 2030 or we are going to take a turn for the worst. The reason no one wants to fight that battle is because they think it’s impossible. But humans have landed on the moon, we have globalized the world, and one girl (Greta Thunberg) inspired a bunch of high schoolers to organize strikes which millions of people would attend, so I think saying it’s impossible is just allowing us to be complacent.

If we really want it, it’s possible.

What is your outlook about the future of the planet and your role as an activist?

When I think of my own future, I can see myself being as involved or more with this

issue. It’s an all-hands-on-deck moment and I want to be there helping. I am thinking of studying government in college with an environmental focus, because politics is a large part of how we are going to get ourselves out of this mess.

Currently I am studying Environmental Systems, Political Science, Philosophy, and Math as a guest student at Tübingen University in Germany during the fall. I have even become involved in “Fridays for Future” here, and last month while I was in Copenhagen I had a chance to meet Anne Hidalgo and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at the C40 Climate Conference.

It’s also quite interesting to learn about the climate crisis from Europe because people don’t question its existence, but rather how best to address it. In Germany there is even a whole political party called “Die Grünen” or “The Greens,” whose whole platform is fighting climate change. Coming from the U.S., that completely bewilders and amazes me.

That being said, I am not sure how optimistic I am. There is a seemingly insurmountable amount of work to be done and no general

acknowledgement that it needs to get done.

Recently, climate change has gotten a lot of attention but I fear people are numbing themselves to the crisis instead of jumping out of their chairs and finding a way to act.

What is your advice to BB&N students who want to get more involved in this cause?

No one is too young, too inexperienced, or too busy to act. If you want to get involved, do it, because there are opportunities everywhere from helping the Eco Reps, to becoming an Eco Rep, to joining a climate organization in Boston. If anyone has more climate questions or might be seeking advice, I would love to help out in any way I can as an alumna: klara. kuemmerle@gmail.com (BB&N students from all three campuses also attended or observed the Boston Climate Strike. To learn more about their experiences from the day, see page 8.)

PICTURED: Klara Kuemmerle ’19 (third from left, front row) marches in the Boston Climate Strike she helped to organize.

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F O R M E R FAC U LT Y P R O F I L E b y Ro b L e i t h , Fa c u l t y E m e r i t u s

Roger Stac ey Retired in Name Only

None of Roger Stacey’s former students or colleagues will be surprised to hear that

PICTURED: 1: Faculty Emeritus Roger Stacey

English literature and culture remain central to his life since he retired from teach-

2: Stacey in the classroom, circa 2005

ing English at BB&N in 2007. When I visited recently, for example, he was preparing to read aloud the role of Macbeth at the Olde Cambridge Shakespeare Association.

Roger is a past president of the Association, which has longstanding BB&N roots— George Henry Browne was among its founders in 1880. Performing opposite Roger

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as Lady Macbeth would be Lower School librarian Heather Lee.

“Quite a bit of my time, as it turns out, involves Shakespeare,” Roger notes. “Last week I began a seminar on Hamlet at BHS, my third course there thanks to [former Latin teacher] Lee Behnke.” Beacon Hill Seminars, a non-profit organization, provides “a diverse set of courses in which participants…broaden their intellectual horizons, learn from one another, and have fun along the way.” His course description proposes a “close cooperative reading solely of the text,” with no prerequisites other than “a willingness to read thoughtfully, share perplexity, and propose ideas in a mutually supportive classroom,” a description that evokes memories of the rectangular table where Roger presided, as a former student once observed, like the host at a lively dinner party in his Upper School Pratt Building classroom. “It’s great to be back in a classroom—just like climbing back on a bicycle,” Roger observes.

Roger is also Vice President and a Director of the Boston Branch of the English-Speaking Union, an 26

organization created after World War One to preserve the “special relationship” and “contribute to world peace….” An enthusiastic Anglophile, Roger and his indefatigable wife, physician Maureen (“still holding down three jobs!”), visit England two or three times each year. On one visit they attended a banquet at Buckingham Palace honoring former E-SU Patron Prince Philip upon his retirement. Boston Branch President Paul Boghosian praises Roger’s “incisively expressed wisdom” as well as the characteristic “sly humor and witticisms” that he contributes to Board meetings. Roger was instrumental in establishing the E-SU’s Boston Shakespeare Competition, which several BB&N students have won over the years.

Though Roger still lives in the elegant West Cambridge home to which he moved when he came from the Taft School to BB&N in 1983 and summers on the Cape, he spends considerable time around Beacon Hill. The Hamlet seminar meets in

Prescott House, a Beacon Street house museum built in 1808. At the Boston Athenaeum, one of the oldest libraries in America, Roger is both a Proprietor and a docent, offering art and architecture tours. Further down the street, he regularly edits playbills and has acted—twice—as a butler in productions by The Somerset (Club) Players.

“In my first marriage, as the husband of a wife who was unwell, then as a father, and later as a son, I have been responsible for others,” he reflects.

“Since the death of my mother at 101 three years ago, I have been finding out who I now am as that role has diminished.” He recalls being struck by a line from Shakespeare after his mother’s passing: “Othello’s occupation’s gone.” But as much as Roger relates to the past, he continues to look forward, with plans to travel to Israel, Vietnam, and India, following a recent visit to South Africa. He is an active user of Facebook, and those who visit his page will be amused to see him and Maureen walking across

the famous intersection near Abbey Road, mimicking the Beatles. Roger’s page has a large following, and he welcomes keeping up with former students (although he “never solicits them”), electronically or in person.

Last spring Taft’s Class of 1974 invited Roger to their 45th reunion. One of those attending was his former student Richard Smoley, a writer and philosopher, who speaks of him as “a superb English teacher but much more. Being befriended by him was a great education in being courteous and civilized, in what it means to be a gentleman.”

Roger’s love of reading and his desire to encourage that love in others remain constant. He continues to lead an annual session of the BB&N Past Parents Book Club. Former co-chair of the BB&N Scholarship Auction Francine Crawford P’97, with input from her son Will, remembers asking Roger (in 1999), “if he would consider making a ‘guest appearance’ at a high bidder’s book group and leading a discussion.” She describes

his response as “thrilling: ‘I can do you one better,’ he said. ‘I’ll get a group of faculty together and we’ll offer a series.’ He did, bidding was fierce, and by the end of that year we all had so much fun we decided to continue.”

The Club recently celebrated its 20th anniversary and has, over the years, contributed over $200,000 to BB&N financial aid funds.

Roger, who is currently working with an eighth grader on her writing, has helped edit the publications of friends and former students. Their works are among the many filling his bookshelves and spilling out onto surfaces all around the house. Some of them, like Maura Roosevelt ’02’s novel Baby of the Family, published earlier this year, thank Roger in the acknowledgments. Maura told me that “Mr. Stacey not only exposed me to some of the best books I’ve read, but his satire class was where I learned that thinking about literature, and working through the problems it presents, can be really, truly fun. He also—nearly single-handedly—taught

2 me to write!” Roger describes himself as a voracious reader, someone for whom reading has always been such a “necessity” that he would “read the telephone book if no better alternatives were available.”

During our conversation, Roger’s many current pursuits and his undimmed intellectual powers struck me as an admirable, if intimidating, role model for retirement. While he enjoys the freedom of not having to grade papers or follow a daily class schedule, teaching remains an essential part of his life, a life upon which he looks back with satisfaction: “I have been very fortunate to have been free to pursue a career that engaged my talents and interests at two strong schools with a variety of capable students. I am always reluctant to take much credit for my students’ accomplishments but am always pleased to learn of them and to think that our working together provided some of them with occasions to discover and develop talents of their own.”

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Advancing Our Mission

Philanthropic Support: Making an Impact on Students, Faculty, Programs, and Campuses The generous BB&N parents, alumni/ae, grandparents, faculty, staff, and friends who donate to The BB&N Fund and our other giving programs have the power to transform lives. These gifts make an impact every day on student, faculty, and family experiences. Philanthropic support this past year allowed us to significantly improve physical spaces and available resources throughout the school, especially in some of the ways highlighted here.

|1| A banner along Gerry's Landing Road by the athletic fields highlights the school's motto. |2| Middle School students gather around new furniture to collaborate. |3| William Nguyen '21 and Catherine Coughlin '21 use new video equipment for a class film shoot. |4| Magnetic walls in the Upper School photography classroom make it easier to display and discuss student work. |5| An indoor turf field provides much-needed athletic practice space for Upper School athletes.

UPPER SCHOOL CAMPUS:

3 ALL SCHOOL: • Increase in the overall financial aid budget to support 24% of the student body • Support for a greater number of supplemental expenses for financial aid students, like funds for field trips, computers, and sports equipment • Increased signage and visibility on all three campuses for BB&N’s motto: Honor Scholarship Kindness (1) • Expanded professional development funding for faculty, such as international travel and global education programs • Creation of a new Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Global Education (DEIG) office with representatives on all three campuses • Addition of a new Community Outreach and Engagement Specialist to the DEIG team to foster partnerships between BB&N students, parents, faculty, and alumni/ae as well as with the local community

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Replacement of auditorium, stage, and scene shop lighting with energy-efficient LED lamps Installation of backstage safety lighting and electrical upgrades Purchase of professional-grade lights, cameras, microphones, and lenses to meet growing student interest in film and video classes (3) Addition of new furniture in common spaces in Renaissance Hall (see article on page 30) Installation of new magnetic wall panels in the photography classroom to accommodate the display and discussion of student work (4) Relocation of the Almy Library co-directors’ office space, creation of new small group space and a Head of School office in the library director’s former office area

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1 LOWER SCHOOL CAMPUS: • Upgrades to art rooms in the Markham Building • Renovations to Beginner classrooms to accommodate additional enrollment • Improvements to the Brick Building learning specialist room • Replacement of the boiler/heating system in the Lehner Center

MIDDLE SCHOOL CAMPUS:

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NICHOLAS ATHLETIC CENTER:

Upgrades to the Big Room: theater lighting, headset system for communication between the booth and backstage, video camera with live feed from the stage to the lobby for actors’ entrances, new projector, and Crestron system that makes the projection and sound system easier to use for faculty and guest speakers Addition of new furniture and rearrangement of existing furniture to create teaching spaces for better project- based learning (2) Reconfiguration of the Library Learning Commons to create more pedagogical learning opportunities

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Indoor turf field to provide much needed athletic field space for students (5) Significant repairs to the exterior façade of the building New Coaches’ Room with 7 workstations, assigned one per sport each season, and new boards in the film room, weight room, and fitness room Refurbishment of lower-level locker rooms including new bathroom partitions, lighting, and ceilings

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Advancing Our Mission

A Classroom Project Helps Inspire a Reimagined Student Gathering Space

Class of 2020 Parents Kick Off Gift Campaign

When Will Pappendick ’20 received an assignment last spring in his advanced architecture class to redesign an interior space at BB&N, he immediately thought of the second floor of the Upper School’s Renaissance Hall. With its bright light and windows overlooking the Upper School courtyard, the wide hallway leading to the arts wing experiences a steady flow of traffic during the day but previously offered few places for students to gather to study, meet with a teacher, or just “hang out.”

Will noticed that in recent years much of the furniture in the area had outgrown its usefulness and was not arranged in a way conducive to student needs. Seeing an opportunity, he approached his teacher, Upper School Arts Department Chair Laura Tangusso, with his vision for redesigning the space.

“...the most important part of a successful design is how it makes people feel.”

Tangusso identified some old furniture that was about to be discarded and spoke with Upper School administrators about moving it into the hallway. She then worked with Will to arrange it in different configurations to see how students would respond. They immediately noticed a difference in how students began using and gathering in the space, which supported Will’s vision for how it could be better designed.

This year’s Senior Parents’ Gift effort officially launched on September 3, 2019, at the Senior Welcome Reception when members of the Class of 2020 and their families gathered to celebrate the start of their milestone year. For more than 30 years, this gift program has offered parents an opportunity to leave a lasting legacy for BB&N. Historically it has supported one or more of the school’s highest priorities, and this year is no different. The Class of 2020 Senior Parents’ Gift Committee enthusiastically endorsed the Class of 2020 Upper School Library and 9th Grade Center Renovation Project and The BB&N Fund. The school is grateful to the committee for its dedication over the past weeks and in the coming months!

CLASS OF 2020 SENIOR PARENTS’ GIFT COMMITTEE Co-Chairs Karen Donovan P’18, ‘20 Ilyse Greenberg and Charles Rudnick P’20, ‘23 David Berger and Micki Rowaan P’20, ‘22 Roger and Gwen Forman P’18, ‘20, ‘25, ‘25 Zhenghua Hong and Jian Lu P’20 Joe and Laura Impemba P’17, ‘20 Bill Keravuori and Jennifer Epstein P’18, ‘20

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Dean and Paula Kolbas P’20, ‘23 Ken and Vicky Lang P’16, ‘18, ‘20, ‘22, ‘24 Josh Levy and Rachel Rock P’14, ‘16, ‘20 Qi Li and Yiqi Jin P’20, ‘22 Jie Liu and Weitong Ji P’20

“For most of the years since Renaissance Hall opened in 2007, the hallway remained a vacant, wasted space,” notes Tangusso. “Though originally there had been a few pieces of furniture for sitting, students preferred to push what was there into the far corner of the hall. What Will did was to imagine how the space could be made attractive to students by massing furniture, tables, and artwork in different configurations that offer a variety of options for sitting, working, and relaxing, while still allowing for easy movement through the hall. It was immediately successful.”

Ed and Marcy McGourty P’15, ‘16, ‘20, ‘21 Ted Pappendick and Erica Gervais Pappendick P’20, ‘22, ‘24 Kyle and Erika Pond P’20, ‘25, ‘26 Qiushi Ren and Margaret Shang P’20, ‘24 Liz Silverman P’20, ‘23 Pel Stockwell and Kim Druker Stockwell ’86, P’20, ‘22

PICTURED x 1 x Students enjoy the reimagined configuration of Renaissance Hall x 2 x Will Pappendick ’20 and Upper School Art Department Chair Laura Tangusso with Pappendick’s layout redesign for Renaissance Hall

Based on his observations, Will created a scale model of the hallway to show possible placement of seating, tables, display pedestals, and greenery. With funding from the school’s capital budget and supported in part by generous gifts to The BB&N Fund, new furniture was purchased over the summer and arranged in ways similar to Will’s model. Tables that provide flexible space for student collaborative work, a chess game, and fun activities like an occasional jigsaw puzzle were added to the space this fall, and additional pedestals to display student art will be fabricated and installed over winter break.

Christine Hogan Ward ’86, P’20, ‘22

PICTURED x 1 x Senior Andrew Monsalve ’20 displays this year’s gift of a t-shirt from the BB&N Advancement Office to the Class of 2020 x 2 x Upper School Science teacher and alumnus Anthony Moccia ’10 shared inspiring remarks with the seniors and their parents

Reflecting on the changes, Will says, “People tend to miss the emotional aspect of architecture. When we see a new space or building, aesthetics get all the attention, but the most important part of a successful design is how it makes people feel.”

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Frank and Alice Wang P’18, ‘20, ‘24

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6

MEGHAN BARRY ’93:

[1] New this year is BB&N Connect (bbnsconnect.org) our online alumni/ae community. It includes a directory, event calendar, jobs board, groups, and access to career development and networking resources.

A Foundation Built on the River will Provide for BB&N’s Future

[2] The Distinguished Alumni/ae Awards have been presented since 1993, recognizing graduates who are highly accomplished and exemplify the school values of honor, scholarship, and kindness. To see a list of past recipients and nominate someone for an award, visit bbns.org/alumniae.

Things About BB&N:

Alumni/ae Programs

[3] Last year Alumni/ae Programs organized and hosted more than 20 events in Cambridge and across the country, including regional receptions, networking events, Young Alumni/ae gatherings, and traditions like Homecoming, Head of the Charles, and Strawberry Night & Reunion Weekend.

bbns.org/alumniae

Meg Barry’s love of rowing dates back to her time as a BB&N Middle Schooler. Entering in seventh grade following her older sister Jennifer Barry Donovan ’91, Meg had strong academic skills but was particularly drawn to the school’s athletics program, participating in soccer, volleyball, and crew.

In addition to competing on BB&N’s girls crew teams, Meg’s love of rowing provided her with a number of transformative high school experiences including a trip to St. Petersburg, Russia, in the summer of 1991 with the BB&N girls crew team. Along with the boys crew team, they were the first U.S. high school rowing teams and the third U.S. teams to compete in Russia, partnering with the Znameya Rowing Club through connections made possible by former BB&N Russian teacher Armen Dedekian’s long-time exchange program with a Moscow school. The following year, Meg and other BB&Ners also had an opportunity to travel to Eton College in England to participate in a summer rowing camp.

Beyond her love of rowing, BB&N provided Meg with a strong academic foundation that helped her “learn how to learn,” and she found herself much better prepared than many of her classmates at Connecticut College, where she majored in anthropology and religious studies.

[4] The global Alumni/ae Council consists of a geographically, individually, and professionally diverse group of volunteer leaders committed to increasing alumni/ae engagement and participation, strengthening the alumni/ae network, and supporting BB&N’s strategic goals and priorities.

[6] There are many ways to stay in touch with your BB&N classmates­—not everyone has to contribute the remarkable 3,000+ word class note that Bob Ganz ‘43 produces for each issue of the Bulletin!

Email a quick update or connect with your peers on BB&N’s social media.

[5] How did Strawberry Night get its name? Reportedly, Browne & Nichols began the celebration early in the school’s history, when Cambridge still had strawberry fields; the community would gather when the berries were ripe. Do you have a story about the origins of Strawberry Night or a special memory to share? Send it to the Alumni/ae Programs Office!

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Meg Barry '93, Kirsten Catanzo Messina '94, Rosi Kerr '93, Emilie Schnitman Liebhoff '93, Elizabeth Robinson Montes '92, and Sarah Spitz '92 at Head of the Charles in 1991

Soon after college, Meg made her way to the west coast and settled in Seattle, where she met her husband Peter Hoffmeister through the local rowing club. She still actively participates in the sport and returned to BB&N this fall to row in the Head of the Charles as a member of the BB&N alumni/ae women’s eight.

When not on the water, Meg leads a very busy professional life as president of the international high-end real estate marketing firm, www.luxuryrealestate.com.

Several years ago, when Meg and her husband were reviewing their estate plans, they agreed that it was important to include provisions in their will for institutions that had shaped their lives, which for Meg clearly included BB&N. She recently notified the school that she and Peter had left an unrestricted bequest to BB&N, which will enable future generations of students to have the same transformational educational opportunities as she did.

They join the many other alumni/ae, parents, and friends who have made similar arrangements and are recognized as members of The Almy Society.

For further information about BB&N’s gift planning program, visit www.bbns.org/giftplanning or contact Roger Fussa at rfussa@bbns.org or 617-800-2722.

Buckingham Browne & Nichols School 80 Gerry’s Landing Road Cambridge, MA 02138-5512 www.bbns.org

BB&N 2020 ALUMNI/AE EVENTS On the Road and at Home JANUARY 4

Alumni/ae Ice Hockey Game

JANUARY 14

BB&N in Atlanta

JANUARY 20

MLK Jr. Day Luncheon

FEBRUARY 4

BB&N in San Francisco

FEBRUARY 5

BB&N in Los Angeles (Beverly Hills)

FEBRUARY 6

BB&N in Los Angeles (Santa Monica)

FEBRUARY 13

Boston Breakfast & Networking

APRIL 13

BB&N in Washington, DC

APRIL 14

BB&N in New York

MAY 15-17

Strawberry Night & Reunion Weekend

JUNE 17

BB&N in Boston

bbns.org/events

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