The Bement Bulletin Fall 2023

The Bement Bulletin

THE MAGAZINE FOR ALUMNI, FAMILIES, AND FRIENDS | FALL 2023

Cultivating Curiosity

A HANDS-ON APPROACH TO UPPER SCHOOL SCIENCE

First up: From the Archives

Recognize these Bementers from the past?

Let us know if you see a familiar face! Email

genuine collaboration requires an open exchange of ideas to create some sort of change in the form of a novel outcome or a new perspective.”

MIKE SCHLOAT P’24 ’26, HEAD OF SCHOOL

Embracing past, present, and future

FALL 2023

MANAGING EDITORS

Jennifer Gottlieb FR

Emily Mikolayunas Rich P’24 ’28, FA

DESIGNER

Penny Michalak P’14

WRITERS

Jon Adolph FR

Alex Bartlett ’87, FA

Dave Belcher P’07

Jeff Cady P’31 ’33, FA

Jennifer Gottlieb FR

EDITORS

Sara Becton Ardrey P’22 ’24, FA

Katie MacCallum P’29, FA

Jamie Nan Thaman FR

PHOTOGRAPHERS

Alex Bartlett ’87, FA

Hannah Dancer FA

Alice Gearhart FA

Meghan Kalas P’28 ’30 ’32

David Michalak P’14

Emily Mikolayunas Rich P’24 ’28, FA

Matt Plager ’12, FA

Terry Shields P’19 ’21 ’25, FA

Carlin Tindall FA

Brad Walker P’24 ’27

Bree Wisniewski FA

CONSTITUENCY CODES

’GB Alumna/us from Grace Bement era (1925 –1947)

’00 Alumna/us Class Year

TT Trustee

PTT Past Trustee

HOS Head of School

FHS Former Head of School

P Parent

GP Grandparent

GGP Great Grandparent

FA Current Faculty or Staff

PF Past Faculty or Staff

FR Friend of Bement

About 15 years ago, American independent schools began weaving the term “21st-century skills” into their curricula and materials, a trend that launched exciting initiatives around global education, inclusion, critical thinking, collaboration, and creativity. Now, with the middle years of the 21st century approaching, that trend has been supplanted by other prerogatives: information literacy, social-emotional learning, resilience born out of the advent of generative AI, the still-echoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the surging mental health crisis among adolescents. Bement has ridden the wave of shifting external priorities with steady focus on our mission and values, as it has for the last century of evolution in independent education.

The so-called 21st-century skills are connected to the same principles that Grace Bement instilled in her school in 1925. Nate Tufts, an alum from the Grace Bement era, had this to say about our founder, a comment that speaks to the defining qualities of her school that persist today: “She would converse with an eight-year-old on the subject of global politics, The War (which was always with us), or the pricelessness of books, and that child would receive the full and genuine attention of this woman. She was absolutely intolerant of only one thing, and that was intolerance itself.” Embedded in that remembrance are Bement’s eternal emphasis on a global worldview and the ineluctable primacy of all kinds of literacy, as well as the school’s ongoing commitment to fully knowing and warmly holding each child in its embrace to ensure a sense of belonging and safety among peers and adults.

The pages of this year’s Bement Bulletin are replete with examples of Bement’s unique position astride its august past and sparkling future. Science education and collaboration across many areas of the school are featured, both examples of how Bement’s traditional curricula and pedagogy have adapted to meet the needs of students today. “Today at Bement” highlights a number of ongoing programs that address emerging priorities for education, from building bridges with the local community through service to cultivating self-care skills to promote resilience and holistic well-being.

The quarter-century mark, 2025, will coincide with Bement’s centennial, a moment all of us at Bement are anticipating as a time to celebrate the full flowering of Grace Bement’s vision. I hope you will join us in commemorating Bement’s history and envisioning its future by sharing your Bement stories, visiting campus to reconnect with our special corner of Historic Deerfield, and offering your aspirations for our treasured school.

The Bement Bulletin is published yearly by the communications office for current and past parents, alumni, grandparents, and friends of The Bement School.

More Play on the Way!

Recess just got even more fun:

Bement is excited to have a brand-new playground, with equipment selected with our students’ wishes in mind. Climbing, swinging, sliding, and spinning topped the list of favorite playground activities, and the new structures offer all of the above plus expanded opportunities for interactive play and social learning, enhancing the recess experience for one and all.

“Outdoor play is an essential and beloved part of a Bement education. Social-emotional learning, physical development, and love of nature will be greatly enhanced by our exciting new playground.”

Anna Casey, Lower School Head

FOURTH GRADE

Apprentice Alley

A highlight of the fourth grade Colonial History unit is Apprentice Alley, when students research a trade of the period, such as that of the wigmaker, cook, blacksmith, tailor, or apothecary, and showcase their learning in a living history museum. Each presentation is from the perspective of a museum curator, featuring a shop sign and tools of their trade, as well as a “day in the life” diary entry from the apprentice’s perspective. Open to all Bement students, families, faculty, and staff, Apprentice Alley is a wonderful learning opportunity for our fourth graders and visitors alike!

Exploring Robotics

PPart design, part construction, and all about problem solving, robotics is a new aspect of the fifth-grade science unit on engineering. Science teacher Eli Jarvis introduced the topic to students beginning with the history of robots, later working in groups to build lever-arm robots tasked with picking up a cup, raising it six inches, and putting it back down.

Students practiced design thinking, first sketching their ideas before creating cardboard prototypes; scaling them to build hydraulic- and electric-powered arm devices; then testing, modifying, and improving on each of their creations.

Students later had the opportunity to learn about and test real-world robotics applications with Xian Du P’28, assistant professor of mechanical and industrial engineering at the University of Massachusetts, who brought his students and technology to campus. On one occasion, with special cameras and a computer program used in the healthcare industry, Professor Du demonstrated his technology’s ability to recognize and track human movement, and students tested the computer by presenting various objects and body parts for it to recognize. On a second occasion, students were introduced

to the LoCoBot, a low-cost robot used for both navigation and manipulation, and tried their hand at programming it to identify certain objects, judge their distance, and pick them up.

“The UMASS students shared about their own backgrounds, including how they were not necessarily always outstanding math students,” says Mr. Jarvis. “Rather, they grew their interest over a longer period of time and through hands-on learning, just like what we did in class. It was great for students of various skill levels to hear that no matter where they find themselves now, the fields of electrical and computer engineering will be accessible to them in the future.”

FIFTH GRADE

This experience made a challenging and often intimidating field of study instantly attainable for every learner.”

Eli Jarvis Fifth-grade teacher

We are pleased to continue our partnership with Bement parents Justyna and James Arcoleo P’16 ’19 ’29 ’30 ’31 ’33, owners of the Falls Farm in Montague, whose seasonal produce adds literal local flavor to our lunch program!

Bement’s dining services feature the farm’s organic vegetables from A (arugula) to Z (zucchini) and everything in between, from beets, broccoli, and butternut squash to peppers, potatoes, and tomatoes.

Caring for Ourselves and One Another

Bucket filling, feeling happy when our “buckets” are full and sad when they are empty, is a concept introduced in kindergarten and carried throughout a student’s time in Keith House as a way to teach social-emotional skills, including empathy and selfregulation. Last fall, thirdgrade teacher Hannah

Dancer invited school counselor Ellen Carter to expand this work to the Drake building with a class dedicated to well-being and selfcare. Over the course of six weeks, third graders met with Ms. Carter to work on noticing and naming feelings, navigating conflict, and building compassion for self and others.

“The message for our students is that we are all human, that they are not alone in their singular experience,” says Ms. Carter. “We all experience big emotions, and we all struggle at times to be compassionate toward ourselves and one another on this shared journey called life.”

As an extension of this work, students from Jan Flaska P’26’s ethics class at Deerfield Academy spent time over the spring term with the third graders talking about how to be a positive and contributing member of the community. This work included discussions related to rules and values and how an understanding of these things can help people feel safe and included.

THIS YEAR’S WORKSHOP TOPICS INCLUDED:

The Sum of Us: Learning about Racism from a Bement Alum, led by Terry Shields P’19 ’21 ’25, Director of Student Experience and Inclusion

Decolonizing Teaching: Best Practices for Centering and Privileging Native Experience, led by Patrick Tenero, Upper School History Teacher

Art—Painting a Tropical Sunset in Acrylics, led by Karen Gaudette, Art Teacher

Observing, Tracking, and Modifying Behavior: How to Use an ABA Mindset Inside and Outside Your Classroom, led by Eli Jarvis, Fifth-Grade Teacher

Math Club for Everyone, led by Jeremy Galvagni P’24, Upper School Math Teacher

Searching the Web in 2023: Source Evaluation and Lateral Reading, led by Marcia Bernard, Librarian

An Introduction to Disc Golf, led by Zack Mazzone, Upper School Science Teacher and Ultimate Coach

Walking Tour of the Witness Stones led by Meg O’Brien ’95, Director of Residential Life and Upper School History Teacher

Justice: The “J” in DEIJ, led by Frank Massey, Director of English Language Learning and Upper School English Teacher

PHOENIX ACADEMY

In early April, faculty and staff attended Phoenix Academy, an annual day of learning and enrichment on campus “by us, for us.” Spearheaded by Librarian Marcia Bernard, what began as a twohour event in 2017 has grown into a full day of professional development programming that includes faculty keynotes, Spark Talks (Bement’s version of TED talks), and workshops on a range of subjects—all led by Bement faculty and staff as a way to share professional expertise, inspire collaborations, and connect with colleagues in new ways.

Service Learning

In an effort to better understand pressing community issues and connect with the organizations addressing them, seventh and eighth graders heard from local leaders in the fields of food insecurity and ecological preservation. Representatives from the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, the Franklin County Community Meals Program (FCCMP), and Stone Soup Café in Greenfield visited Bement to speak with upper schoolers about the work they do, which was followed by community service opportunities in the fall (eighth grade) and spring (seventh grade). This included meal preparation at FCCMP and Stone Soup Café, as well as planting and harvesting at Prospect Meadow Farm, which provides agricultural employment for people in the Pioneer Valley with developmental disabilities, autism, and mental health challenges.

In the spring, eighth graders continued their service work with trail maintenance and cleanup along the Robert Frost Trail, which spans 10 towns and is part of the Kestrel Land Trust, and at the Wissatinnewag property in Greenfield along the Connecticut River, managed by the Nolumbeka Project. A representative of the Kestrel Land Trust spoke to upper school students about land stewardship and how his interest in it was sparked during a similar service work experience when he was their age.

“When you have the opportunity to connect with organizations in the broader community, such as those dedicated to issues of food insecurity or ecological justice, learning becomes that much more real and meaningful for our students,” says Terry Shields P’19 ’21 ’25, director of student experience and inclusion. “And the more aware we are of the world in which we live, the more likely we are to engage and participate in making it a more compassionate, loving, equitable place.”

SIXTH GRADE

Copyright Cou®t

All rise! Copyright Court is now in session with the Honorable Ms. Marcia Bernard presiding.

As part of Bement librarian Marcia Bernard’s Information Literacy class, sixth graders present their cases, which include everything from selling products with well-known images to downloading, burning, and selling CDs for a fundraiser.

In our copy-and-paste era, says Ms. Bernard, it has become increasingly important that students understand the basics of copyright and fair use. She introduced Copyright Court eight years ago as a fun way to assess students’ understanding of their rights as creators and consumers. “Sixth graders love a little role-play,” she says. “They take it seriously and prepare compelling arguments.”

And the lessons last long after court is adjourned: one alum, now in eleventh grade, shared that when making presentations or citing in essays, she still refers to the rules she learned back in sixth grade Copyright Court.

SEVENTH AND EIGHTH GRADES

Eighth-grade students assemble meals at Stone Soup Café.

2022–2023 Athletic Highlights

CROSS COUNTRY FALL 2022 by

Dave Belcher P'07

When it comes to building any athletic team, talent and motivation are important— but so are chemistry, leadership, humor, and work ethic. Every once in a while, a group gets the balance just right and the result is greater than the sum of its parts. Such was the case for Bement’s 2022 cross country team. Led on course this season by Liam ’24 and in practice by ninth graders Jay, Flora, Jamie, Heather, Justice, and Emmett, this year ’s team was a cohesive group that proved formidable on race days. One highlight in particular: a midseason victory over Eaglebrook School, our first in more than a decade. At the end-of-season Mass State Middle School XC Championships, and without the ninth graders who had aged out of the competition, Bement finished 13th of 30 in the small-school division. Congratulations to Liam ’24 (20th place), Finn ’24 (38th), Hunter ’26 (94th), Henry ’25 (102nd), Ezra ’24 (104th), Liam ’26 (112th), and Lloyd ’26 (160th).

Fall 2022

CROSS COUNTRY

MVPs Liam ’24 and Ella ’24

Team Leaders Flora ’23 and Jay ’23

Most Improved Justice ’23, Ezra ’24, and Zelda ’24

BOYS VARSITY SOCCER

MVP Jonathan ’23

Team Leader Sam ’24

Most Improved Dachi ’25

BOYS JV SOCCER

MVP Justin ’26

Team Leader Christian ’26

Most Improved Alex ’26

FIELD HOCKEY

MVP Tianni ’23

Team Leader Amber ’23

Most Improved Doreen ’26

GIRLS SOCCER

MVP Wylie ’24

Team Leader Cleo ’23

Most Improved Nora ’25

Coach’s Award Anya ’24

Cross Country

Girls Soccer

Boys Varsity Soccer

Cross Country

Field Hockey

Winter 2022-23

GIRLS BASKETBALL

MVP Josephine ’24

Team Leader Maeve ’24

Most Improved Jessica ’24

BOYS VARSITY BASKETBALL

MVP Emmett ’23

Team Leaders Robert ’23 and Jay ’23

Most Improved Ezra ’24

BOYS JV BASKETBALL

MVPs Joey ’25 and JJ ’25

Team Leaders Will ’25 and Liam ’26

Most Improved Alvin ’24

SQUASH

MVP Flora ’23

Team Leader Cleo ’23

Most Improved Changyu ’25

ALPINE SKI RACING

MVPs Ying Kay ’23 and Wylie ’24

Team Leaders Ying Kay ’23 and Wylie ’24

Most Improved Rose ’23 and Jamie ’23

SWIMMING

MVP Sally ’23

Team Leader Larina ’24

Most Improved Yalda ’23

BEMENT SQUASH: FIVE FACTS

by Alex Bartlett ’87

1 About 25% of students on the team come to Bement with prior squash experience, either from a private coach or a camp.

2 Although squash programs and courts in this area are limited, Bement is able to host home matches at Deerfield Academy and travel to Williston Northampton or Eaglebrook for away matches. In the coming year, we hope to expand competitions to include Connecticut schools with squash teams and facilities.

3 While Mr. Bartlett and Mr. Galvagni oversee the program, Bement is fortunate to partner with Amherst College head coach Busani Xaba, who designates two or three players each season to assist our practices. This year we worked with Coach Yuri from Brazil and Coach Nadia from Ukraine.

4

Some Bement students have gone on to play squash at a high level, participating year round in tournaments across New England and the mid-Atlantic. Flora ’23 played in her first tournament in 2022, winning third place in her age group, and her dedication to the sport and competition has earned her a national ranking.

5 The 2022–23 squash team had 20 players with a wide range of talent and experience, with the top 11 competing in matches. The top 11 are determined through “ladder matches” during practice; our players compete heartily and also use the opportunity to try to make each other better, learn to play under pressure, and emphasize good sportsmanship.

Boys Varsity Basketball

Alpine Ski Racing Squash Squash

Swimming

Girls Basketball

Winter Track

BEMENT LACROSSE: A WINNING COMBINATION OF TALENTS

by Jeff Cady P’31’33

Lacrosse is a Native American sport, the oldest in North America. At Bement’s first boys lacrosse practice each spring, we read an ancient myth about the origins of the game. Long ago, according to Haudenosaunee legend, the Creator gathered the four-legged animals and the winged birds to play a lacrosse game. The four-legged animals featured the bear, noted for overpowering all opposition due to his girth; the deer, known for speed and agility on the field; and the great turtle, who withstood harsh blows but continued to move toward his opposition. Leading the winged birds were the owl, who was wise and whose keen sight allowed him to keep his eye on the ball, and the hawk and the eagle, each excelling in rapid movements. Moments before the game began, the mouse asked to join. Using the leather from a water drum, the birds made wings for the mouse, and the bat was created.

At Bement, we hold the same belief that each of our 18 players has unique gifts—from strength and speed to courage and creativity—that contribute to a successful team and community. And the results this season were impressive: we traded victories against Eaglebrook’s lower JV; played competitively against Cardigan Mountain’s U14 team; and won convincingly against Applewild and Brattleboro, two close contests just a year ago.

Inspired by the Haudenosaunee legend, our players work from day one to discover, embrace, and make the most of their unique talents. And while our best players will go on to play competitive lacrosse in secondary school and college, the goal of sports at Bement is and always will be to create an engaging experience in which each player learns more about themselves and one another.

Spring 2023

BOYS LACROSSE

MVPs Hayden ’24 and Ethan ’24

Team Leaders Sam ’24 and JJ ’25

Most Improved Taiki ’25

GIRLS LACROSSE

MVP Iris ’24

Team Leader Josephine ’24

Most Improved Zoe ’24

ULTIMATE

MVP Aiden ’25

Team Leader Eamon ’25

Most Improved Annabelle ’26

TENNIS

MVP Amber ’23

Team Leader Adam ’25

Most Improved Tianni ’23

TRACK AND FIELD

MVPs Jay ’23 and Angelina ’24

Team Leaders John ’23 and Angelina ’24

Most Improved Robert ’23 and Doreen ’26

GOLF

MVP Larina ’24 and Neo ’25

Team Leaders Sebastian ’25 and Liam ’26

Most Improved Ryan ’24

Boys Lacrosse

Girls Lacrosse

Golf

Ultimate

Track and Field

Tennis

The school provides space for individual learning and opportunities for working closely with others. Family-style lunches, buddies, mini-term, the arts, and athletics, along with engaging classes and supportive teachers, challenge our children, nurture their independence, and foster a deep sense of belonging to our school community.”

Our community helps to make this possible by giving generously to the Annual Fund.

Thank you for supporting the work we do.

We are grateful for our Bement family!

Bement is a magical combination of structure and freedom.

Stacey Mimnaugh P’24 ’27 ’30

By pairing the youngest students with an older “buddy” for regular monthly activities and other occasional programs and projects, the school builds a sense of responsibility to one another and to the community.

BY JENNIFER GOTTLIEB FR

Bement’s Culture of Connection

THE BARN WAS BUZZING with the beat of the Bamidele Dancers & Drummers, whose lively performance of West African dances adapted from Brazilian and Caribbean cultures brought Bement students to their feet and smiles to their faces. Just days before, a faculty flash mob to the BTS song aptly titled “Permission to Dance” kicked off the much-anticipated three weeks between Thanksgiving and the start of winter break known as mini-term, when the community comes together to learn, create, and explore around a particular theme, last year’s being Music and Dance.

Ask any Bement student, past or present, for a highlight of their school experience and chances are it will involve a memory from mini-term, which—along with our buddy tradition—is one of the most explicit and enduring examples of collaboration at Bement. From the committee of faculty and staff members who work diligently for months to create a meaningful educational experience for students to the mixed-age groups that rotate through a series of interactive electives, mini-term is an annual opportunity for the school community to deepen their learning and have fun getting to know more about a topic—and one another.

From good communication to meaningful collaboration,

takes many forms and provides a valuable foundation for learning—and for life

Mini-term kicked off with the Bamidele Dancers & Drummers, above, and a flash mob performance to BTS’s “Permission to Dance,” left.

CONNECTING WITH PEOPLE AND PLACE

“Like all small ecosystems driven by people, we are only as good as we can be when we work together, and that’s where collaboration comes in,” says Head of School Mike Schloat P’24 ’26. “When you draw from different ways of thinking, from diverse backgrounds and skills, it can be a powerful and transformative tool in education.”

Education is a field that lends itself to teamwork, Mr. Schloat says, with teachers often working together by department or grade level, and students participating in group projects, sports, and clubs. “That work is naturally collaborative,” he says, “but the most effective, genuine collaboration requires an open exchange of ideas to create some sort of change in the form of a novel outcome or a new perspective.”

At Bement, we work in our classrooms, around campus, and with the greater community to model and foster the skills and social-emotional intelligence that enable our students to work together in pursuit of understanding, solutions, and a shared experience. “Whether here for two years or for ten, our students will engage in collaborative experiences that tap into curiosities and best prepare them for what’s to come in secondary school and college and beyond,” says Mr. Schloat.

THE ESSENTIAL BUILDING BLOCKS OF COLLABORATION

Unlike joint efforts designed to create efficiencies, collaboration almost always calls for an even greater investment of time, energy, and thought. “To me, it comes down

Students wire and assemble a three-axis robotic arm as part of a new fifth-grade spring robotics unit in collaboration with Xian Du P’27.

to engagement,” says Bement trustee Lisa McCarthy P’22 ’24 ’28 ’30, chief financial officer for Duracell. When hiring people and building teams, Ms. McCarthy says she looks for a high level of self-awareness and the ability to integrate multiple perspectives and personalities around a table. “There’s a difference between being a participant and being a collaborator,” she says. “A collaborator comes to a team or a situation actively prepared to contribute, curious and aware of others’ strengths and opportunity areas as well as their own.”

This is why diversity and representation are vital to successful collaboration, she adds, echoing Mr. Schloat. Not only in terms of gender and ethnicity, notes Ms. McCarthy, but in regard to the many facets of one’s experience: where you grew up, whether you come from a big family or a single-parent household, your religious background, your military service—“all the pieces that combine to make us individuals.”

As a professional and a parent, Ms. McCarthy appreciates how Bement

works to build the kind of community that collaboration requires, proactively focusing on treating one another with respect and making space for diff erent viewpoints rather than simply reacting to a particular situation or confl ict. “I send my kids to Bement because it’s an excellent education and because of this commitment to inclusivity,” she says. “I love that it’s woven into the learning from the beginning.”

“Children learn by engaging with one another,” says Lower School Head Anna Casey, “and this natural inclination to connect with others enriches their learning experiences and deepens their grasp of concepts. Whether they’re working together on the playground to protect insects they’ve been learning about in the classroom or using design thinking strategies to build a boat that fl oats or a bridge that carries weight, learning collaboratively in the early years prepares students to use collaborative skills later on in the workplace.”

GAINING PERSPECTIVE THROUGH PARTNERSHIP

Being part of something greater than ourselves paves the way for important perspective-taking that enhances any collaboration. Bement’s longstanding relationship with Historic Deerfield is itself a meaningful connection, providing many unique and valuable opportunities for Bement students of all ages. For their social studies unit on Indigenous voices, third-grade teachers Hannah Dancer and Alexandra O’Sullivan P’27 worked closely with Historic Deerfield’s education staff, Claire Carlson and Michelle Parrish, to adapt the museum’s program on the Pocumtuck land and people, which was originally designed for students in upper grades. Sharing insights and expertise, they came up with a series of age-appropriate handson activities that included hearth cooking with Indigenous ingredients, studying native and non-native plants, working as archaeologists to differentiate Indigenous tools from colonial tools, and exploring land use and ownership with a variety of walks, including along the path to Pine Hill.

Collaboration elevates the quality of the work. If I’m thinking about something on my own, I can only get so far, but when I’m sharing ideas with others, not only do additional perspectives advance our thinking but there’s buy-in and ownership.”

ANNA CASEY Lower School Head

Eighth and ninth graders explore the intersection of art and math on a field trip to MASS MoCA.

Lower school students lend a hand as part of Bement’s collaboration with ServiceNet’s Prospect Meadow Farm.

“Claire and Michelle weren’t only great in their work with the kids but also wonderful resources for us, helping to deepen our own learning so that we could better support our students,” says Ms. Dancer.

“We often talk with our students about how we’re all experts in different things,” says Ms. Dancer, “so when we collaborate with people inside and outside Bement, we underscore that it’s okay to have someone else teach us about something, as we can then teach them about something we’re an expert in. We model it in our classroom, and our work with Historic Deerfield has been a great opportunity to practice it in a larger sense.”

COLLABORATING ACROSS AREAS OF STUDY

Another feature of collaboration is that it lends itself to interdisciplinary work. “By its nature,

collaborative learning is very layered and interconnected rather than about isolating issues or subjects,” says Ms. O’Sullivan, “and this creates a very rich educational experience.”

That is what upper school math teacher Ann Dubie had in mind when she invited art teacher Karen Gaudette to join her in planning a field trip for eighth and ninth graders to MASS MoCA to explore the work of Sol LeWitt, a contemporary artist known for his large-scale geometric drawings. “We wanted to give our students an opportunity to connect with something that’s not traditionally what they’d think of as ‘mathematical,’” says Ms. Dubie. “Art is such a great way to experience math, to get outside the box of solving equations and thinking only in terms of right and wrong answers.”

By working together, Ms. Dubie and Ms. Gaudette were also able to leverage this shared experience in their individual classes, broadening perspectives all around.

There are countless examples of how faculty support one another, from two teachers in a grade sharing lessons and ideas to the central role of the librarian in supporting all classes with resources related to literacy, technology, and more. In addition to enriching the educational experience from a content perspective and demonstrating how various disciplines overlap, it provides great modeling for the students in how to incorporate and leverage different types of expertise.

MUTUAL AND LASTING BENEFIT

In addition to human connection, says Director of Student Experience and Inclusion Terry Shields P’19 ’21 ’25, collaboration offers a mutual benefit of some kind. “It is important to understand that when collaboration is done well, everyone is represented, everyone sees how their gifts can be applied to a situation and how they can contribute. That, to me, is at the heart of collaboration.”

Though considered radical at the time, this abiding responsibility to self and others was what Grace “Menty” Allan Power Bement envisioned when she founded the school in 1925. “It’s deeply important to Bement that our students make a difference in the world, that they are good and generous and authentically motivated members of their communities,” says Mr. Schloat. “To see the role and power of collaboration and how it can weave into everything they do is a vital disposition we hope to instill in students during their time here.”

We tell our students: when you collaborate, you are working to create something together, and that means you may not always get all your ideas out and you have to listen to other ideas.”

HANNAH DANCER

Third-grade teacher

Fourth graders work with bridge-building kits for their unit on engineering and design.

At Historic Deerfield, fourth-grade students learn about different colonial trades.

T H E A R T S at B E M E N T

Upper school orchestra

Kindergarten: 3-D self-portraits

Fifth grade: colorful bird collages created with tertiary colored paste paper Third grade: sunflower impasto paintings inspired by Vincent van Gogh

Fourth grade: oil pastel dessert paintings inspired by Wayne Thiebaud

First grade: circle and dot painting inspired by the work of Yayoi Kusama

Eighth-grade dance performance

Seventh grade: big food sculptures inspired by Claes Oldenburg

Eighth grade: animal illustrations exploring value and texture

Seventh grade: studies of lemons and peppers in oil pastel

Fifth-grade band

Third grade: one-point perspective drawings of saguaro cacti in the Sonoran Desert

Sixth grade: dancing figures inspired by Keith Haring

Third-grade recorder players

Fifth grade: negative space stenciling inspired by Mondrian

Seventh grade: studies of lemons and peppers in oil pastel

Sixth grade: block print landscapes inspired by Edvard Munch

Fourth grade: stylized winter bird relief sculptures

First-grade performance of A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle

Kindergarten: sea creatures, a pattern and texture study

cultivating curiosity

BY JENNIFER GOTTLIEB

With new faculty, a redesigned curriculum, and an increasingly hands-on approach, Bement’s upper school science program is moving forward in exciting and creative ways

FR

WHEN UPPER SCHOOL science teacher Zack Mazzone was a student himself, his eighth-grade teacher told the class: “Matter is the stuff that makes up everything.”

“My hand immediately shot up with a question,” recalls Mr. Mazzone. “I wanted to know why scientists don’t have a cooler word for ‘stuff.’ I was the kid always looking for answers, and if there wasn’t one, I was going to seek it out.”

His drive and curiosity led him to a career in education and the Bement science department, where today, Mr. Mazzone and his fellow teachers inspire their own students in the pursuit of information and understanding. “It’s cool to know something, but it’s extra cool to not know,” he says. “Digging into the ‘why’ of the way things are and what you observe— to me, that’s exciting and what science is all about.”

This energy and enthusiasm for teaching and learning is not new to Bement, though the upper school science team is: Mr. Mazzone joined the faculty in fall 2021, followed by Keith Bevan in 2022. Rounding out the department is Jeff Pilgrim, whose primary role at Bement is director of secondary school counseling. But a few years ago, when a new hire suddenly fell through, Mr. Pilgrim’s science background and willingness to pitch in landed him a teaching position—and his affinity for the classroom, the content, and his colleagues keeps him in it.

Science students in ninth and fourth grades work together to measure the distance of a projectile launched from the trebuchet.

Sixth graders map the intestines as part of an anatomy lesson, left. Below, eighth-grade students studying forensics take part in a crime scene simulation.

Although Mr. Pilgrim’s expertise is biology, he is quick to cite chemistry: “I love the camaraderie and cooperation that exists in the science department. It’s great to have teachers working together in support of one another, and it’s great modeling for our students, as well.”

“The challenge has been that we’re all relatively new, but the opportunity is that we’re all relatively new,” says Mr. Bevan. It’s an opportunity all three teachers relished and ran with, he says, sitting down together prior to the 2022–2023 school year to look at the scope and sequence of the core science curriculum and how to structure it in the most cohesive, compelling way. Additionally, the three thought about how to integrate some other areas of interest, such as in-depth exploration of pond life at Pine Hill, Bement’s 12-acre outdoor education center, and the study of forensics.

Bement upper school students start with earth science in sixth grade, which is when they also receive foundational instruction in the scientific method, note-taking, lab protocols, and how to use various tools, from lab equipment to microscopes. In seventh grade, students learn the basic principles of chemistry and biology, building on them in

An object at rest remains at rest—or if in motion, remains at a uniform rate—unless acted upon by an outside force.

NEWTON’S FIRST LAW OF MOTION

eighth grade so that they are well prepared to delve deeper into each subject in secondary school. In keeping with the standard progression of high school science, physics is introduced in ninth grade, when students are developmentally ready for more abstract thinking and investigation.

“We took a close look at the major units we teach, and would like to teach, and asked ourselves: What makes the most sense in terms of building from one to the next? It’s a big complex world, and our goal is to teach students about it in a way that builds inquiry and gets them to wonder,” says Mr. Bevan. “We’re always thinking about how to take that broad curiosity and chase it down the chain to understanding—and how to have fun in the process.”

To that end, all three teachers have incorporated more demonstration and handson exploration into the curriculum—and the students love it.

“My favorite part about science at Bement is that I’m able to understand topics at a

deeper level through hands-on experiments,” says Cleo ’23, whose final project in forensics involved working in groups to solve a “crime.” Instead of learning by rote, she says, they secured the scene, collected fingerprints, studied samples, and “stepped into the shoes of Sherlock Holmes.”

It is just one way Bement is pushing the envelope, says Mr. Pilgrim, providing opportunities that are not typical for this age group—efforts recently and significantly bolstered by a sizable anonymous donation to the department. “It’s a generous gift that has allowed us to expand and truly transform our offerings,” he says, including the replacement of outdated glassware and the purchase of brand-new materials and equipment. Among them are several high-tech microscopes, including one with an attached tablet designed to broadcast detailed images to each student’s individual laptop rather than projecting onto one large screen. “These are assets that most schools like ours don’t have, and I know the kids are excited to use them,” he says.

“I’ve learned so much this past year,” says Eva ’24. “When I walk into class each day, I can’t wait for what’s about to come because of how fun and engaging it is.”

Fun is on full display in October with Ele-o-ween, when the periodic table comes to life as students are assigned an element to study in-depth, culminating in a costume parade and presentation. “It’s great to see students in these creative combinations of cardboard and tinfoil and duct tape, sharing what they know and learning from each other,” says Mr. Bevan, who introduced the activity in 2022—the first year of what he hopes will be a new Bement tradition. “It reinforces the fact that science can be this cool thing you can just converse about.”

This approach marks a shift that may take some getting used to, says Mr. Pilgrim. “Our department is working to foster a sense of intellectual curiosity in our kids and a passion for learning for the sake of learning,” he says. “For some students, it’s an adjustment to think in these terms rather than a focus simply on letter grades.” And while it used to be teachers lecturing on a topic, followed by a lab, it is now often the other way around. “We’ve flipped it and we do the lab first so that we can talk about the concept in context.”

Grappling with content in this way is important, adds Mr. Pilgrim, and a valuable part of the learning process. “It makes you a better student to sit with not knowing, to be patient and learn to ask the right questions. It pays off in science but also in life.”

All three teachers agree, however, that seeing a concept click for a student is the most rewarding part of the job. “That’s why I’m a teacher,” says Mr. Mazzone. “I love being able to facilitate and witness those ‘Aha!’ moments.”

Mr. Bevan concurs. “I know that as a student myself, once I got a grasp on something, I could see a more colorful world wherever I went. That’s the experience I want my students to have. It’s very empowering and gives you a sense of belonging when you realize that everything and everyone is made of the same stuff.”

And to answer Mr. Mazzone’s question back when he was in eighth grade: it really doesn’t get any cooler than that.

Dissection of a sheep brain in eighth-grade science class.

“In seventh-grade biology, students learn all the gross things about their body systems they didn’t know but are now stuck with knowing for the rest of their lives.”

Zack Mazzone Upper School Science Teacher

Upper School Science

SCOPE & SEQUENCE

EARTH SIXTH GRADE

Introduction to the scientific method & tools

Rocks & the rock cycle

Biomes & spheres

SEVENTH GRADE

Cells & organelles

Taxonomy & evolution

The human body

Matter, atoms & subatomic particles

EIGHTH GRADE

Periodic table of elements

“Physics is about taking an abstract concept and using reality to prove that it works time and time again.”

Keith Bevan Upper School Science Teacher

Properties of matter

The brain

Exploration of earth structure

Volcanoes & earthquakes

Climate change

CHEM I & BIO I

Using microscopes

CHEM II & BIO II

Bonding & chemical reactions

Genetics

Meiosis & reproduction

Fun with forensics

PHYSICS NINTH GRADE

Forces & vectors

Motion & collisions

Understanding the physical universe

Vibrations & sound

Light & optics

Energy, electricity & projectiles

Solutions, mixtures & compounds

“Students put their forensics skills into practice working as a team to solve a staged crime: collecting evidence from the scene, doing lab work, and compiling their findings to figure out who did it.”

Jeff Pilgrim Upper School Science Teacher

SOLID FOUNDATIONS

SARAH BOUDREAU ’05 still fondly remembers the childhood summer when she assembled an elaborate K’NEX roller coaster for the Bement classroom of her father, longtime middle school teacher Kenneth Boudreau P’05, PF. Building things— whether K’NEX or LEGO projects at home, or fairy houses and snowmen on the Bement campus— had always appealed to her, and with the encouragement of her science teacher father and physician mother, it eventually grew into a passion. Today, as a geotechnical engineer in the Bay Area, Boudreau constructs on a far larger scale, analyzing soil and designing the complex foundations for multistory structures in a region notorious for shaky ground.

“I wanted to work on things that were going to be big and exciting,” says Boudreau, senior project manager in the San Francisco office of Langan Engineering

and Environmental Services, which specializes in technically challenging projects, such as sports stadiums, housing developments, and high-rise towers. “And along with exciting come stressful and confusing. But that’s what I love about geotechnical engineering.”

Boudreau’s passion for shaping the built environment is reflected in her many volunteer efforts, working to create, as she puts it, “sustainable, resilient, and safe cities designed for all kinds of people.” Active in community advocacy groups, such as KidSafe SF and Yes In My Backyard (YIMBY), she also serves as a representative on San Francisco’s Bicycle Advisory Committee, on the Golden Gate Triathlon Club’s Ambassador Team and board, and as co-chair of the Urban Land Institute’s Sustainability and Resiliency Committee for San Francisco. Her exemplary public service, as well as her contributions to numerous Langan volunteer committees, was recognized last year by her employer’s board of directors, which honored her with the firm’s 2022 Citizenship Award.

Inspiring both her engineering career and her advocacy work is a deeply rooted optimism about what society is capable of creating and achieving in its urban areas. “I’m really excited about reimagining the way that we allow ourselves to build cities, so that we can build what really works for humans,” she explains. “A human-scale city. It’s less expensive, and it can be much safer when we have less people driving and more people walking and biking to their destinations. It also makes people happier.”

GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEER AND COMMUNITY ADVOCATE SARAH BOUDREAU ’05 HELPS KEEP BAY AREA BUILDINGS

STANDING TALL BY JON ADOLPH FR

Sarah Boudreau on a job site at Uber headquarters in San Francisco.

While Boudreau’s technical skills were honed at Tufts University (BS, civil engineering) and the University of California, Berkeley (MS, geoengineering), her appreciation for the benefits of human-scale communities owes much to her years at Bement. “I didn’t realize at the time how unique it was to be raised in such a thoughtful way, to have this community that really looked at everything carefully, taught us the right way to treat people and to think about the consequences of everything that we do,” says Boudreau, who was later joined at the school by her younger sister, Madeline ’09, now a mechanical engineer. “Having that sort of non-selfish attitude, if I have that, definitely came from the way that my schooling raised me as a kid. Being at Bement felt like a family, and not just because a lot of my family was there.”

After Boudreau graduated from Bement, her family moved from Greenfield to Sherborn, Massachusetts, where she attended public high school and took an interest in chemistry. (Her father went on to teach for many years at The Fessenden School in West Newton; he is now retired and living in Seattle.) After struggling in her first chemistry course at Tufts, she sought the counsel of the engineering school dean. “I told her that I’m interested in creating things, but I’m also really interested in people and how the world works, and how we’re all connected,” she recalls. “I ended up leaving the meeting declared as a civil engineering major.”

After earning her degree, Boudreau was hired by Haley & Aldrich, one of New

England’s first consulting firms to specialize in soil and foundation engineering (the field now known as geotechnical engineering), and worked in the company’s Boston office for three years. Recognizing that she needed more education to advance her career, Boudreau applied to UC Berkeley’s ninemonth master’s program in geoengineering, moved to the Bay Area, and was hired by Langan in 2016.

Today, working out of the company’s downtown San Francisco office, Boudreau is responsible for analyzing the underlying layers of soil at construction sites, using specialized drilling equipment and other sophisticated surveying tools to determine the best ways to anchor a structure so that it won’t fall down. Foundations are crucial to construction projects everywhere, but the stakes are far higher in earthquake-prone San Francisco. “It’s one of the fun things I like about California,” says Boudreau. “It’s definitely serious business, but it’s pretty cool to come up with a solution that will make people safe and be resilient when a large earthquake does come, which we know will happen.”

Her portfolio of recent projects includes 706 Mission, a mixed-use development built around San Francisco’s historic Aronson Building, featuring multiple luxury high-rise apartment towers; Uber’s new corporate headquarters in Mission Bay, billed as a model of human-scale design; and 730 Stanyan, a sustainably designed affordable-housing complex proposed for the city’s Haight neighborhood.

Recently, in keeping with her interest in rethinking how cities are built, Boudreau has begun working with Langan’s sustainability team on ways to reduce the environmental impact of large construction projects, “decarbonizing the footprint of the recommendations we provide,” she says. Solutions might include recommending foundation materials other than carbon-intensive concrete or steel, or adopting techniques to improve the site with materials on hand. “Or sometimes,” Boudreau explains, “it’s as simple as optimizing the design so that there’s less material being used.”

Outside the office, Boudreau remains busy as well, volunteering and running triathlons. She completed her first half Ironman last year, and notes that her interest in running dates back to Bement, where she discovered her love of track.

As for that K’NEX roller coaster Boudreau assembled for her dad’s classroom all those years ago, that has proven as resilient as the values she absorbed in her years at the school. “It’s still in the classroom at Bement,” she says with a laugh. “I saw it in the video newsletter that came out this winter, and I was like, ‘Oh, I built that as a little kid.’”

Sarah, center, with friends Jennie (Natenshon) Chibani ’05, TT (left) and Molly (Siguler) Thomas ’05 (right).

In March 2023, Sarah married James Webb FR during a blizzard in Lake Tahoe.

“Bement taught us the right way to treat people and to think about the consequences of everything that we do.”

SARAH BOUDREAU ’05

STRENGTH TRAINING

FITNESS COACH ANDY CHAN ’06 OVERCAME A HOST OF PERSONAL SETBACKS TO BECOME THE AUTHOR OF DYNAMIC BALANCE

BY JON ADOLPH FR

Today, as a personal coach and educator, Chan has found a way to bridge his two worlds. His new book, Dynamic Balance, co-written with Stella Wong, draws on the best of Western exercise science as well as the holistic teachings of traditional Chinese medicine to offer a hybrid approach to fitness, athletic performance, and wellbeing. The book complements Chan’s work as a certified strength and conditioning coach in Hong Kong, where he trains clients, oversees other trainers at high-end fitness clubs, gives presentations on health topics, and coaches student golfers.

From the time he left his native Hong Kong for Bement at age 13, TSZ CHIU “ANDY” CHAN ’06 has had to navigate two worlds that are as far apart culturally as they are geographically. As he will tell you, it was not always easy.

“It was a bit of a culture shock,” says Chan, who arrived for eighth grade with only a limited understanding of English. “My people in Hong Kong wouldn’t know what’s going on in the States. And then people in the States wouldn’t really know what happens in Hong Kong.”

Chan’s career achievements are all the more remarkable in light of his past struggles. Since childhood, he says, he has suffered from anxiety, ADHD, and sleep issues, which contributed to his learning difficulties and inconsistent study habits in school. With support from the Bement community’s teachers, counselors, and dorm parents, he had a successful ninth-grade year and was accepted at The Gunnery (now The Frederick Gunn School) in Connecticut. In the new environment, however, his issues returned. In the classroom, his grades were inconsistent. He rose to captain of the varsity soccer team but had trouble with focus and discipline. Complicating matters, Chan’s parents expected him to earn a college degree so he could join the family’s Hong Kong accounting firm; meanwhile, Chan had dreams of becoming a professional soccer player.

Difficult as his educational journey was, Chan says his experiences taught him important lessons that he continues to draw on today. For one, the support and counseling

Author and fitness instructor Andy Chan focuses on the connection between mind and body.

he received at Bement and elsewhere allowed him to “develop into quite a rational person,” he explains. “I’m able to take a step back and think, okay, I have anxiety right now. It’s not the end of the world, so let’s just calm down.”

He also developed remarkable resiliency. “Battling the foreign culture, battling the fact that I couldn’t fit in at first—all those experiences just made me tougher,” he says. “As a result, when it comes to my career, I’m not afraid of rejection and trying new things. I’m thick-skinned because I’ve been through so much.”

Today, living in Hong Kong with his wife Alison and their two-year-old son, Chan is appreciative of those at Bement who helped him navigate his two worlds. “Andy Hamilton P’15, PF was in charge of all the boarding students, and I owe him a massive thanks,” he says. “And I hope my English teacher, Frank Massey, is encouraged by

the fact that he taught a student that would go on to become an author, even if it seemed unlikely at the time.”

Chan was able to break what he calls the “recurring theme” of his young life when he was accepted at Indiana University. He soon was thriving in the larger school environment. Selected for admission to the university’s Kelley School of Business, he continued to play soccer, became a Christian, and—inspired by the story of Taiwanese basketball trailblazer Jeremy Lin—began training seriously at the gym. After graduating with his degree in accounting, Chan returned to Hong Kong, intent on pursuing his dream of professional soccer. He arranged tryouts with several local clubs, but nothing panned out. After one coach commented that his movements were stiff and robotic, Chan realized that his muscle-building gym regimen was actually limiting his performance. He signed up

for a personal training course, continued to learn and develop, and was soon teaching courses himself with the National Academy of Sports Medicine.

To further his newfound career as a coach, Chan enrolled in an online master’s program in exercise science at Concordia University Chicago, earning his degree in 2019. For a class project, he began investigating the research data on traditional Chinese medicine, a topic that had intrigued him ever since U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps had raced in the 2016 Rio Olympics bearing the circular skin marks made by the traditional Chinese practice of cupping. Chan turned his research project into the first draft of Dynamic Balance, which

was published in 2021.

An underlying premise of traditional Chinese medicine is that health requires harmony in all aspects of life. For Chan, finding that balance required being open to the lessons of adversity and recognizing his individual needs, a process that began at Bement. Staying active through sports, he now realizes, helped him manage his anxiety in school. “And that’s why I’m also thriving now as a fitness instructor and presenter, because I stand and move for eight hours a day. And it helped me write the book, because after spending all my energy, I can actually sit down and focus,” he says. “It happened that I found the perfect career for me.”

A SESSION WITH ANDY

Need to improve your own dynamic balance?

Andy Chan offers these simple lifestyle suggestions:

Breathe before eating. “The way we breathe can have a profound impact on the regulation of our nervous system,” Chan says. So before a meal, perhaps while waiting in line to order or while sitting at your table, relax with a few deep breaths. “Just take a long inhale and then a long exhale and reflect on your day,” he says. Do the same after your meal. “You want to digest well.”

Take time to recover. The Chinese concept of yin and yang is all about the interrelationship of opposites. In training and in life, Chan says, “there has to be black and white. You have moments where you can be aggressive, but you also have to have time to recover.” Those moments of downtime—of boredom, even—are also when we are most open to creative ideas: the insight that comes in the shower, for example, or when we are daydreaming. “If you want your creativity, then it’s better for you to take a break.”

Strive for good movement. When exercising, try to move with ease. “Think back to my story as a professional athlete,” Chan says. “I was rigid, and it certainly impeded my athletic performance. For those who are just starting to move—it could be walking, jogging, or going to the gym—try to search for movements that feel genuine. It shouldn’t feel awkward. You don’t want to move like a robot!”

Andy at a signing for his book, Dynamic Balance.

Mr. Massey and Andy at Farewell Evening in June 2006.

BURNING QUESTIONS

RESEARCH PHYSICIST JOSHUA “SHUKA” SCHWARZ ’87 STUDIES

THE ATMOSPHERIC IMPACTS OF FIRES BY JON ADOLPH

FR

While climate change has taught us all about the role carbon dioxide plays in the atmosphere, JOSHUA “SHUKA” SCHWARZ ’87 has spent the past two decades studying the gas’s dirtier but less notorious airborne companion: black carbon, a component of soot produced by wildfires and the burning of fossil fuels. In his role as a supervisory research physicist in the Chemical Sciences Laboratory at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Schwarz takes to the air in flying laboratories equipped with sophisticated measuring devices, gathering and analyzing black carbon and other aerosols so that policy makers can better understand their health and environmental impacts.

At a time when climateamplified wildfires and global warming dominate the news, interest in the workings of the atmosphere has perhaps never been greater. But Schwarz’s own interest in the topic, and in science in general, took time to emerge. “I wasn’t one of these kids who built a cyclotron”—a type of particle accelerator—“in my basement, or anything like that,” says Schwarz, who grew up in Amherst and was given

the Israeli nickname Shuka by his mother Noemi, a longtime Hebrew teacher in the Five College system. His father, Terry Schwarz—the onetime manager of the UMass Fine Arts Council— died when Schwarz was four.

Arriving at Bement as a seventh-grade day student, Schwarz recalls enjoying math with Mrs. Young, biology with Mr. Phillips, and history with Mr. O’Brien, as well as taking a handson balloon-building elective with Mr. Wells. The school provided a great foundation for his later career, he says, but not for the obvious reasons. “Of all the things that I did, probably reading was the thing I enjoyed most. And as a scientist, oddly enough, I think that the most important skill that developed from my early days is the ability to communicate through writing, and I thank Ms. Hawks for that. It’s really crucial for my position now.”

Indeed, Schwarz has written or coauthored more than a hundred research papers over the years, dating back to when he was a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in 1999, working to develop a new definition of the kilogram tied to Planck’s constant (the new definition was announced in 2018). A recent paper, published in February 2023 in the prestigious journal Science, examines the impact of pyrocumulonimbus clouds, a rare atmospheric phenomenon that occurs when wildfires and thunderstorms combine into towering clouds that can inject smoke high into the stratosphere. The team’s data, collected over the course of 13 years, shows that these events may be responsible for up to a

Shuka Schwarz in his lab at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

quarter of the black carbon in the lower stratosphere. “I thought it was going to be negligible and we could stop worrying about it,” Schwarz says. “But instead, we showed that it is actually significant.”

Just what impact black carbon has on the planet is a complicated question. A shortlived pollutant, it’s been linked not only to heart and respiratory illnesses but to decreased crop yields and to faster melting of snow and ice. Schwarz’s atmospheric research has found, however, that it may not be quite as big a factor in global warming as was once feared. “When we

fascinated by his work. “We love attacking problems and uncertainties. That’s the thrill we get,” he explains. “If you publish a paper that confirms a result, it’s valuable, but it isn’t exciting in the same way as discovering something that we’ve never seen before.” Even more satisfying to Schwarz is when a discovery also has social significance. “A scientist can find excitement on the scientific side from anything, but not all of it is socially relevant,” he says. “The work we do at NOAA is supported by the taxpayer and meant to be relevant to the country and, I like to think, to the world.”

University of Massachusetts. “I started off doing physics, chemistry, and math, because I couldn’t get into English,” he recalls. “And then physics was the most flexible, so I stuck with that.” When the University of Colorado accepted him into its graduate program, he headed west, thinking of all the skiing he would do (and he credits Bement for introducing him to a sport he came to love). Following the customary academic track, he earned his PhD in physics from Colorado in 1998. It was only after his postdoctoral stints—first at NIST and then in Switzerland— that it became reasonably clear that research physics was what he wanted to be doing.

which he joined an air-sampling team that literally flew from one end of the earth to the other.

Looking ahead, Schwarz sees a data-driven understanding of the planet’s atmosphere becoming even more critical, as global warming worsens and society considers the highly controversial proposal known as geoengineering—introducing materials into the atmosphere in an attempt to counteract the warming properties of carbon dioxide. Schwarz believes that manipulating the atmosphere is “likely to reveal unintended consequences,” but he is intrigued by the idea of using science to help define the uncertainties.

started doing this work, black carbon was considered possibly the second most important climate forcer behind carbon dioxide,” Schwarz says. “At this point, I think that battle is over and methane can have the number two spot.”

That kind of result—one that changes our understanding of the world—is what keeps Schwarz

Schwarz is careful to note that even though his work may have social implications, his job is not to recommend policy. He provides the data and physical understanding so that others can do that.

After Bement, Schwarz attended Amherst Regional High School, graduated a year early, then headed across town to the

He began at NOAA in 2003 and now lives in Boulder “with chickens, bees, a puppy, two kids, and a wonderful wife.” His fieldwork involves periodic flights to sample smoke from agricultural fires and wildfires around the world, but he’s also sampled the air over California and the soot produced by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill and fire in the Gulf of Mexico. A career highlight was a threeyear field campaign that began in 2009—the National Science Foundation’s HIAPER Pole-toPole Observations mission—in

“There are huge tensions associated with these kinds of decisions, which could result in unbelievably complicated policy decisions,” he points out. “There are a number of ideas about how geoengineering could be done, and a number of different players that are advocating for certain ideas. So it would be great to have better certainty—if geoengineering ever becomes necessary for a policy maker to consider.”

With Schwarz’s help, at least some questions won’t be left up in the air.

Shuka at graduation with past trustee Nick Filler P’01 ’03 ’05, center, and former Head of School Peter Drake P’90 ’93 ’96, right.

“I think that the most important skill that developed from my early days [at Bement] is the ability to communicate through writing, and I thank Ms. Hawks for that. It’s really crucial for my position now.”

Shuka Schwarz collects air and smoke samples from a DC-8 high above the clouds of California.

WHERE THEY’RE HEADED

Blair Academy

Choate Rosemary Hall

Concord Academy

Deerfield Academy

Dublin School

Frontier Regional School

The Holderness School

The Lawrenceville School

The Loomis Chaffee School

Northfield Mount Hermon

Phillips Academy Andover

Phillips Exeter Academy

Pope Francis Preparatory School

Portsmouth Abbey School

The Taft School

Westminster School

CELEBRATING THE CLASS of 2023

NINTH-GRADE MUSICAL FOOTLOOSE:

2022

WE DID THIS TOGETHER!

Bement believes in making a difference through service to our community and teaching our students the value of giving back.

Our impact

583

Total number of community service hours logged by Bement students, parents, faculty and staff, trustees, alumni, and parents of alumni in November

46

Total number of local organizations supported

$29,159

Total number of Annual Fund dollars raised through service work

Students cleaned up Court Square in Greenfield.

Students decorated cards for our local senior community that were delivered with holiday meals by LifePath, an organization affiliated with Meals on Wheels.

Bement held its annual Community Needs Drive to benefit the Franklin County Community Meals Program, ServiceNet’s Shelters, Stone Soup Café’s Free Store, and Treehouse Foundation.

Students decorated and filled lunch bags for the Franklin County Community Meals Program.

Students and families helped prepare meals at Stone Soup Café, which fed our neighbors in Franklin County.

class notes

KEEP IN TOUCH! Recent marriage? Exciting adventure? New baby? Keep your classmates updated on the latest happenings in your life. All Class Notes also appear in the magazine’s online version. To submit your entry, you can contact us via phone or email.

PHONE: 413.774.3021 EMAIL: alumni@bement.org

’GB

Last summer, Rose Gage FA visited with SUE HOLDEN ’GB when her family was in Rockport, MA. “She’s a real cheerleader for Bement and for the alumni pen-pal project.” (1)

Writes Sue: “I am still involved with the various patriotic societies and the Bement School alumni pen-pal project. This project has been a rewarding experience and a lot of fun. It has been interesting hearing about the school through a fifthgrade student and learning about the new programs. Love hearing about the extracurricular activities and field trips being offered. The school is wonderful to teach cursive. Many schools today do not offer it or encourage or, in some cases, allow a student who has learned it outside of school to use it. People may need to be able to read the old documents should the occasion arise. I am still in contact with my roommate, BARBARA BOND NUTT ’GB. She is a great source of information if I am asked by my pen pal about life at the school many years ago. I remember having whooping cough. When so many of us had it, we were moved to the brick building on the corner as you enter town!! No vaccine back then!”

1960s

PAMELA (LEE) CRANSTON ’65 writes: “I am pleased to announce that my latest book, The House of Metaphor, has just been published by Wipf and Stock Press. I have written four books: The Madonna Murders (2003), Coming to Treeline: Adirondack Poems (2005), Searching for Nova Albion (2019), and The House of Metaphor (2023). My work has been published in: Blueline, Christianityand Literature, Crosswinds, Windhover, and many other journals. Searching for Nova Albion was a semi-finalist winner in

the Poetry Society of Virginia 2020 North American Poetry Contest. My poem ‘My Grandfather’s Typewriter’ won fifth place in the national 2020 Writer’s Digest Poetry Contest. My poem ‘Summer in Deerfield’ won first place for the Poetry Society of Virginia 2023 Elizabeth J. Urquhart Memorial Prize. I am a retired Episcopal priest and live with my husband, Edward, in Oakland, California.”

SANDY CUNNINGHAM ’68, GP’26 ’31, writes: “Dear Bementers, It was such a thrill to go to A Grand Day at Bement and see such engaged students and teachers, just like it was when I was at Bement in the ’60s! Some of the buildings are still the same, with their great character intact. This is a special school, and my two grandchildren are thriving there.”

1970s

RACHEL HOBBIE ’79, JOHN RELOJ ’23, SARAH (HOBBIE) RELOJ ’80, and MARGARET HOBBIE ’83 at John’s commencement. (2)

1980s

Reposted from Instagram with permission from NICOLE (KAIDES) BISHOP ’85 and KATHY (KRONENBERGER) SHANAHAN ’85: “Middle School BFFs now (today) & then j! ‘Friday Dress’ Blazers courtesy of @ thebementschool r.” Kathy adds: “I am currently living in Port Washington, NY—married with three children ages 23, 20, and 15.” (3)

JOHN HALLOWELL ’87 writes: “Hello to everyone! I currently live in Springfield, MA. I have three grown children who are world travelers; the oldest graduates from college this year. I finished a master’s degree and postgraduate work in 2008 and

CONSTITUENCY CODES

’GB Alumna/us from Grace Bement era (1925 –1947)

’00 Alumna/us Class Year

TT Trustee

PTT Past Trustee

HOS Head of School

FHS Former Head of School

P Parent

GP Grandparent

GGP Great Grandparent

FA Current Faculty or Staff

PF Past Faculty or Staff

FR Friend of Bement

work as an independent consultant in global communication. I’m still in touch with some of my Bement friends and wish everyone the best.”

NICOLE MAIO ’87 visited campus this fall for a tour with her two children.

1990s

MEGHAN WILSON DUFF ’92 writes that she has written a new picture book titled How Are You, Verity? illustrated by Taylor Barron and published by Magination Press. The story is about a neurodivergent character who loves sea life and interacts with their neighbors to discover the true meaning behind greetings and salutations. For more information, visit www.meghanwilsonduff.com

JISOO OH ’96 attended The Bement School Korean Association dinner event in Seoul with Head of School Mike Schloat P’24 ’26 and Assistant Head of School and Director of Admission Kim Loughlin P’18 (4)

2000s

HENDRIK WOLFF ’00 writes: “Hello, it’s been 22 years since my graduation at Bement and I still have great memories of my time at the school. Since then, I got married and we have two beautiful baby boys, Oliver and Otto. We live in Rio de Janeiro, and we love taking long walks at the beach and playing soccer. I founded a liquor company 12 years ago and we are now a worldwide company selling in over 10 countries, including the U.S. I hope to visit soon and to show my kids the long but amazing walks we took every day from the dorm to

the school, and see if ‘The Hendrik List’ is still something the boarders use in order to get their spending money. Sending my best wishes to all.” (5)

JEIMING WU ’09 writes: “I’ve recently been feeling very nostalgic for my days at Bement and wanted to share a few life updates here. I’m now living in the beautiful mountains of Wengen in Switzerland with my husband. We got married in 2021 during the height of COVID and then had our wedding party in beautiful Tuscany in 2022. For work, I am a well-being coach and meditation and mindfulness coach. I wanted to also give a little shoutout to Mr. Bartlett ’87, FA because I remember him teaching us yoga and meditation during our advisor meetings.” (6)

2010s

YOU JIN NAM ’10 shares that she is enjoying a gap year after completing medical school and an internship in South Korea. “I went to Bement when I was 11 years old and I kept in touch with teachers and friends. I met up with ELIANA GOLDSHER ’10 and MACKENZIE GAGE ’10 last summer in New York and with Eliana when she visited Korea too!! Also during my New York visit I contacted Ms. Jackson and Ms. Graves (my Barton House teacher!), but sadly we couldn’t meet up this time. I’m certainly going to visit again! I went to Bement just one year, but it meant as much to me as 10 years and changed my life a lot. With this update I hope to connect and meet up with more friends and teachers.”

NICOLE BITZER ’11 is a registered nurse working at Shriners Children’s New England, running several multidisciplinary clinics at the facility. She is planning to get married in December 2023. In her free time,

she can be found camping around New England or spending time with friends and family.

MINJI CHO ’12, PF met up with Bement alumni and other friends to celebrate her birthday this spring at Tree House Brewing Company in Deerfield, MA. (7)

BRIANNA (BRIE) DUSEAU ’12 writes: “I’m about to start interning for the supreme judicial court in Boston (MA Supreme Court) next semester. I’m very excited for it!”

DAVID LIU ’12 has been working at a Fintech startup company in New York City since his senior year at New York University; NICHOLAS LIU ’15 graduated from Purdue University in May 2022 and worked as a mechanical engineer at a solar manufacturer in Georgia.

WILDER MCCOY ’12 is working on water and sanitation infrastructure projects in emerging markets. Based out of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, for the last nine months, he recently relocated to Nairobi, Kenya, to continue in his same role. The job mostly entails working with water utilities to financially structure long-term sustainable investments by blending public and private capital.

TOMMY SONG ’13 writes: “In 2022, I received my master’s from Columbia Journalism School, where

I specialized in investigative journalism as a Toni Stabile Fellow and Elaine Exton Scholar. After working on a variety of public history projects in the summer, I began my PhD in history at Yale University, where I’m studying the global history of the United States in the Progressive Era. History has been a passion since Bement, thanks to Mr. Dave Belcher P’07, FA, Ms. Katrina Spicer PF, and the late Mr. Ted Pina PF. I feel especially grateful to have studied U.S. History with Mr. Belcher, as I began to think seriously about the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the civil rights movement, among other topics, all thanks to Mr. Belcher’s seventh- and eighth-grade classes on American history.”

ALLIE STAMLER ’13 and her mother, Marlea Clark P’13 ’19 ran into DEAN FUSTO P’17, PF on the streets

of New York City! (8)

EMILY LEROLLAND '14 and SILAS HASTINGS ’14 came back to campus and visited with faculty and staff in the fall. (9)

CHARLIE BEALL ’15 has started Beall Lawn & Landscapes, a lawn care, landscaping, and property maintenance company out of Amherst, MA. Visit his website for more information: bealllawnlandscapes.com. (10)

NEIL NIE ’16 met up with MINH NGUYET FUSTO P’17, FA and DEAN FUSTO P’17, PF for lunch in New York City. (11)

AMELIA CHEN ’15 graduated from Williams College on December 11, 2022, 7.5 years after her graduation from Bement! (12)

JAMEY SIMPSON ’16 writes on LinkedIn: “I feel incredibly honored to have created the launch video for the Smithsonian’s new climate Initiative, ‘Our Shared Future: Life on a Sustainable Planet.’ This video premiered at COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, in November 2022. This project is particularly special to me because it was the first Smithsonian video where I had complete creative freedom. I was responsible for sourcing and editing the footage as well as pulling soundbites from an interview with Ellen Stofan (the Under Secretary for Science and Research at the Smithsonian) that encompassed the essence of ‘Life on a Sustainable Planet.’ I look forward to sharing more of my work in the future! https://lnkd.in/gjqyn9ks

ANGELINA FUSTO ’17 and her Fordham University tennis teammates made Club Nationals again this year. After a grueling day playing six matches, they qualified for nationals in Arizona! Bravo! (13)

DEAN FUSTO P’17, PF and his family hosted SETH MCKENZIE ’17 for lunch in New York City. (14)

2020s

XITING (AMY) WANG ’20 was inducted into the Cum Laude Society for her academic achievement at The Taft School.

Spotted at the Richard Miller Invitational cross country meet at Westminster School in Simsbury, CT, on October 1, 2022, MIKE WU ’21, JEFFREY WARNER ’21, and JONAH BERRY BROWN ’21. Jeffrey came in first, Jonah fifth, and Mike 48th in the JV Boys race. (15)

STELLA TUROWSKY-GANCI ’21 participated in the World Individual Debating and Public Speaking Championship in Durban, South Africa, this spring. Stella competed over the course of five days in multiple categories, making it to the finals in three different events: After-Dinner Speaking, Interpretive Reading, and Impromptu Speaking. Stella’s scores from the preliminary rounds propelled her to the top 10 overall at the championship, where over 100 students from 16 different countries competed. (16)

SYDNEY ROURKE ’22, SKYLER JEON ’22, CAMPBELL ARDREY ’22, CASEY KITTREDGE ’21, JOSIE SABELAWSKI ’23, and JORDAN BERNIER ’15 (from left to right) came together at a Northfield Mount Hermon/Deerfield Academy field hockey game last fall. (17)

SKYLER JEON ’22 from Northfield Mount Hermon played against Bement girls lacrosse this spring and saw her old roommate and one of our newest alumni, JAELYN KANG ’23 (18)

2022–2023 IN MEMORIAM

We are deeply saddened to have lost the following members of our Bement family this year:

Kurt Anderson ’51

Joan Arms PF

Martha H. Barrett FR

Jeannie Redpath Becton GP’22 ’24

Sorin Chelaru GP’26 ’31

Richard Warren Coolidge ’GB

Penelope Trask Curtis ’49

Amy Dassati GP’20 ’23 ’24

Cathy Shepherd Tady DeVoe FR

Mary Louise Doleva GGP’28

David Duprey ’69

William (Bill) Elias PTT, P’82 ’83

Bradlee Gage P’10

Ann Hamilton GP’15

Jane Herchenreder P’75 ’78

Patricia Hisz P’92 ’94

James C. Ho GP’25

Diana (Bond) Holtshouser ’GB

Rosa Jackson GP’92

Griffin James ’94

Alan Peter Kari P’08

Kirsten Kowalski Lane P’15 ’17

Dorothy Lucey P’86

Christopher Maniatty PTT

Eileen Morange PF

The following Bement alumni came back to work at Bement Summer Programs this summer:

(left to

EMMA DEMERATH ’16, CLARESE GARDINER ’18, CHARLOTTE GILMORE ’21, and LOGAN CHEREWATTI ’21

Donald Paarlberg P’79

Jeannette Pearson GP’24

Paula Powell FR

Clifford Prestia P’95

Suzanne T. Purrington ’52, PTT

Pamela Siguler P’98 ’00 ’02 ’05 ’14

Arnie Steiner PF

David Wendell Streeter GP’12

Gretchen Swisher ’GB

Barre Tozloski ’61

(left

ADAM SUSSBAUER ’17, SALLY ROLLAND ’20, and ELLA SABELAWSKI ’20

Peg Verdery PF

George Withington ’52

John Wolanske P’91

Laura Yacavone GGP’29

right):

to right):

The list of names included in the In Memoriam section is reported from September 2022 to August 2023.

Bement by the Numbers

EMPLOYEE FUN FACTS

Number of pet dogs : 42 Cats : 44

Other pets: tarantula, blue and gold macaw, guinea pig, turtle, chickens, goats, parakeets, tortoises, cows

Percentage who prefer ice cream over sorbet : 78

Average number of countries visited : 8

Average number of U.S. National Parks visited : 4

Number who have lived in another country : 26

Number who have run a marathon : 6 A half marathon : 11

Number who can fly a plane : 1

Number who have bungee jumped : 3 Who have been skydiving : 3

Number who have been a Bement dorm parent or adjunct dorm parent : 31

Percentage who grew up in Western Massachusetts : 46

Estimated total number of books (including audiobooks) read in the past year : 1,673

The most books read by one employee in the past year : 294

Percentage who speak more than one language : 46

Percentage who participate in athletic endeavors in their free time : 67

Percentage who participate in artistic endeavors in their free time : 56

Percentage who play an instrument : 42 Instruments played: guitar, bass clarinet, mandolin, piano, keyboard, clarinet, saxophone, flute, trombone, percussion, kazoo, fife, violin, viola, ukulele, cello, Aztec death whistle

(Data collected from 72 out of 80 employees)

BELIEVE IT OR NOT, Bement employees are not always at Bement! Sometimes they are doing other things, which include: acting, ballroom dancing, boating, Broadway shows, building things out of wood, calligraphy, camping, collecting classic cars and sports memorabilia, composing music, constructing crossword puzzles, cutting firewood, cutting hair, cycling, cyclocross, drawing, farming, fishing, gardening, golf, highland games, hiking, jigsaw puzzling, knitting and crocheting, lifting heavy things, listening to music, lying on a beach, math, metalworking, night sky gazing, painting, photography, playing video games, preparing gluten-free snacks, PingPong, reading, restoring furniture, rock stacking, RollerCoaster Tycoon, running, sailing, sawmilling trees, scrapbooking, sewing, singing, skiing, snowboarding, stock trading, swimming, target shooting, traveling, volleyball, weight lifting, woods wandering, working on small engines, writing poetry, yard work, and zip-lining. And cooking— lots of cooking!

EMPLOYEE MILESTONES

5 YEARS

Eli Jarvis

Amanda Howe P’18 ’18

Katryna Nields

10 YEARS

Sara Becton Ardrey P’22 ’24

Toni Costa

15 YEARS

Kim Loughlin P’18

20 YEARS

congrats!

BEMENT on the ROAD

MANY THANKS TO ALL OUR ATTENDEES!

October 22, 2022

Deerfield, MA

Tree House Brewing Company

We hope to see you at our next event!

February 25, 2023

New York City | City Winery

u

to

row: Alex Bartlett ’87, FA, Julie Schloat P’24 ’26, Jane Plager PTT, P’12 ’16, Ben Plager ’16, Kimberly Caldwell Loughlin P’18, FA, Mike Schloat HOS, P’24 ’26, Terry Lee ’81, Stefan Pepe ’81, Stefanie Bennett ’82, Dean Fusto P’17, PF; front row: Lisa Peddar TT, P’06 ’18 ’21, Casey Kittredge ’21, Jordan Bernier ’15, Caroline Haines ’04, TT, Tommy Song ’13, Matt Plager ’12, FA, Timothy Xu (former ELAC student), Minh Nguyet Fusto P’17, PF

October 23–28, 2022

Seoul, Korea

p

to right: Eugene Kim P’24, Hyo Jung Park P’24, Kimberly Caldwell Loughlin P’18, FA, Mike Schloat HOS, P’24 ’26, Eunhee Choi P’26, Soyoung Oh P’25, Hyunghang Jeong P’25

BEMENT WILL TURN 100 IN 2025!

If you are interested in helping Bement make the most of this milestone, please contact alumni@bement.org.

June 26, 2023 Hong Kong

p left to right, back row: Xiaodong Su P’26, Cheng Cui P’25, Edward

Wan P’25, Karmen Wu P’20 ’23, Enhan Wang’s goddaughter Nanga, Enhan Wang P’26, Ka Lok Wong P’22; seated: Kimberly Caldwell Loughlin P’18, FA, Mike Schloat

p left to right: Minji Cho ’12, PF, Streeter Elliott ’12, Jonathan Friedman ’12, Anya Shevzov-Zebrun ’13, Jiyoung Jeong ’13

p left to right: Greg Holden ’85, TT, Dakkan Abbe ’85, Mike Schloat HOS, P’24 ’26

left

right, back

left

Ho P’20 ’23, Kenny Ho P’25, Xiangrong Han P’26; middle row: Raymond Chen TT, P’15 ’17, Xueying Zhang P’27, Jing Chen P’26, Hanxi Zhao P’24, Irene

HOS, P’24 ’26, Julie Schloat P’24 ’26; kneeling: Yuxian ’26, Renqiu ’26, Jiaxin ’27, Jamie Ho ’23, Megan Ho ’20, Lauren Chan ’22, Wansxi ’26

New Trustees

WE’RE PLEASED TO INTRODUCE OUR NEWEST BOARD MEMBERS

Allison Neumeister Fry ’98

Ms. Fry is an advancement professional who lives in Northern California. Most recently, Ms. Fry served as associate dean of external relations at Stanford Law School, leading all fundraising, alumni relations, and alumni communications. In her 11 years at Stanford, Ms. Fry and her team raised tens of millions of dollars for Stanford Law School and the broader university. Prior to Stanford, she was a fundraiser at the University of the Pacific Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry in Stockton, California. Ms. Fry attended Bement from seventh through ninth grades as a day student and is a graduate of Deerfield Academy and Colby College. She is currently on long-term leave from Stanford to spend time with her young family. She and her husband Christopher have three boys (6, 4, and 18 months) and a labradoodle named Fenway. In her spare time, Ms. Fry enjoys skiing, hiking, and playing soccer with her children.

Benjamin Simanski P’30

Mr. Simanski currently serves as the president of the Franklin County Bar Association Community Fund, which focuses on fundraising efforts to support scholarships for Franklin County students entering college. He is an active member of the Franklin County Bar Association and its former president. Prior to this, Mr. Simanski practiced criminal defense and probate law in Western Massachusetts, was the first assistant clerk magistrate in the Franklin County Superior Court, and served as a member of the Human Rights Committee for The United Arc of Franklin County. Mr. Simanski is an avid skier and competitive ultra runner, having completed over eight 100-mile ultramarathons. He is a graduate of Northfield Mount Hermon and received his BA from Roger Williams University and his JD from the Massachusetts School of Law. Mr. Simanski lives with his wife Kathleen and his son Will ’30 in Greenfield, Massachusetts. He is a member of the Rotary Club of Franklin County, a managing coach for Greenfield Minor League Baseball, and a new member of the Bement Risk Assessment Committee.

Jill Keiter P’27 ’30

Ms. Keiter is the director of finance and administration at the Keiter Corporation, a leading construction management firm in Western Massachusetts (established in 2008), where she is responsible for accounting, risk management, and strategic planning. Prior to her career with Keiter Corporation, Ms. Keiter was the executive director for the New England Center for Cosmetology and Esthetics Education, based in Northampton, Massachusetts. Ms. Keiter is a dedicated member of the Cooley Dickinson Hospital Golf FORE Health Committee in charge of raising funds for such efforts as the Childbirth Center and the Emergency Department. She and husband Scott have two children, Jack ’27 and Abby ’30, and reside in Florence, Massachusetts. She currently serves as the co-chair of the Bement Family Association and is a member of the Bement Development Committee.

Shawn Robinson P’29

For the past 21 years, Mr. Robinson has worked with individuals living with chronic mental illness, developmental disabilities, and autism, with a special passion for making programming more accessible, equitable, and meaningful for all. Since 2011, Mr. Robinson has served as the founding director of ServiceNet’s Prospect Meadow Farm, a therapeutic vocational farming program that provides meaningful employment opportunities for over 80 individuals with developmental disabilities, autism, or brain injury. He currently serves as director of vocational services for ServiceNet, overseeing social enterprises and vocational programming for disabled individuals residing in Franklin, Hampshire, Berkshire, and Hampden Counties. Mr. Robinson was awarded a certificate of appreciation and recognition for his “vision, creativity, and outstanding leadership at ServiceNet’s Prospect Meadow Farm” by the Department of Developmental Services Central/West Region and the Massachusetts House of Representatives (2015). In addition, he was named one of BusinessWest’s 40 Under Forty (2017) and the Daily Hampshire Gazette and United Way Person of the Year (2023). Mr. Robinson currently serves as a member of the Cooley Dickinson Hospital Ethics Committee, chair of the Hatfield Council on Aging, and chair of the Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA) Board of Directors. Mr. Robinson resides in West Hatfield, Massachusetts, with his wife Jill, daughter Sofia, and son Jacob ’29.

Departing Trustee Farewell and Thank You

Wayne Wilkey P’11 ’16

Wayne Wilke joined the board of trustees in 2014. During his nine years of service, Mr. Wilkey shared his financial expertise and served as a valuable member of the Finance Committee. As a parent of two domestic boarding students, Mr. Wilkey helped to represent full perspectives from all corners of our community. In addition, Wayne and his wife Kathy were gracious hosts for numerous admission events in New York City and helped expand awareness of Bement. At the April board meeting, when Mr. Wilkey’s three terms as a trustee were completed, Kimberly Petelle Butz P’19 honored him with farewell remarks: “Your guidance and strategic thinking have helped to position Bement for success, both now and in the future. Your analysis of the current administrative structure of the school yielded some very useful ideas that will contribute to our strategic planning work as we continue to plan for Bement’s future. Thank you for the work you put into that process and for helping to shape the organization of the school heading forward.” We thank Mr. Wilkey for his service to Bement.

Board Leadership Update

After two years as board president, Kimberly Petelle Butz P’19 has stepped down from the role and longtime trustee Lisa Peddar P’06 ’18 ’21 will lead Bement’s board for the 2023–2024 academic year. Jennifer Chibani ’05 will serve as vice president, a position previously held by Bob Howe P’18 ’18. Our community thanks Ms. Butz and Mr. Howe for their leadership and devotion to Bement and appreciates their continued service on the board.

2023–2024

THE BEMENT SCHOOL BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Lisa Peddar P’06 ’18 ’21 President

Jennifer Chibani ’05 Vice President

Brian Pearson P’24 Treasurer

Scott Smith P’98, ’01, ’03, PF Secretary

Kimberly Petelle Butz P’19

Raymond Chen P’15 ’17

Emma Chen-Banas P’28

Allison Neumeister Fry ’98

Caroline Haines ’04

Greg Holden ’85

Bob Howe P’18 ’18

Jill Keiter P’27 ’30

Desiree Kicza P’25 ’27 ’30 ’30

Lisa McCarthy P’22 ’24 ’28 ’30

Shawn Robinson P’29

Benjamin Simanski P’30

Brian Thompson P’24 ’26

Craig White P’03, PF

Michelle Wirth P’24 ’26 ’28 ’32

HONORARY TRUSTEES

Xing Ping “Simon” Lu P’09

Stephanie McLennan ’85

Bill Polk ’52, PF

2022–2023 Bement Trustees (left to right) Greg Holden ’85, Emma Chen-Banas P’28, Lisa McCarthy P’22 ’24 ’28 ’30, Jennifer Chibani ’05, Craig White P’03, PF, Kimberly Petelle Butz P’19, Caroline Haines ’04, Brian Thompson P’24 ’26, Scott Smith, P’98 ’01 ’03, PF, Desiree Kicza P’25 ’27 ’30 ’30, Brian Pearson P’24, Bob Howe P’18 ’18, Lisa Peddar P’06 ’18 ’21. (Not pictured: Raymond Chen P’15 ’17, Wayne Wilkey P’11 ’16, Michelle Wirth P’24 ’26 ’28 ’32)

Bement’s community of alumni, parents, and friends is truly remarkable. Your generosity supports every student every day, helping them to thrive and develop into the leaders that our world needs. You inspire imagination, creativity, a passion for learning, healthy bodies and minds, athletic accomplishments, professional growth for our devoted faculty, and so much more!

The recent—and wonderful!—playground renovation is one example of how your donations and dedication make a real difference to each child at Bement and to our school as a whole. In addition to providing a social and physical outlet for students during the day, research shows that such activity enhances learning and is an essential part of a complete school experience. We are thrilled and grateful for the resources that enabled us to make some major updates to Bement’s primary playground. By incorporating new equipment and features, we are able to provide students with more options for activities that not only engage, empower, and excite them but promote overall health and happiness as well.

I would like to express my gratitude to the dedicated members of our community who generously give their time and resources to help in various ways. The Bement Family Association actively works toward building community at Bement through beloved events such as Spring Fling, the All-School Picnic, and the Bement Gives Back Challenge. This Challenge continues to gain momentum and inspires our community to come together and support local area needs, while teaching our students the value of involvement and giving back.

As we strive to strengthen our community and enhance the Bement experience, we are excited by the numerous possibilities that await us as Bement nears the conclusion of its first century and prepares for its next 100 years. These are exciting times for Bement, and we are deeply appreciative of your unwavering support. Together, we can make great things happen!

Desiree Kicza P’25 ’27 ’30 ’30 TRUSTEE, DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE CHAIR

A LOOK AT FISCAL YEAR 2022–2023*

Those who gave to Bement this year:

EXPENSES

CONSTITUENCY CODES*

’GB Alumna/us from Grace Bement era (1925 –1947)

’00 Alumna/us Class Year

TT Trustee

Current Parents Alumni and Current Students Parents of Alumni Faculty and Staff (past and present) Grandparents (past and present) Friends (this also includes vendors, matching companies, and foundations)

31% 30% 19% 9% 7% 4% 477 Total Donors

PTT Past Trustee

HOS Head of School

FHS Former Head of School

P Parent

GP Grandparent

GPP Great Grandparent

FA Current Faculty or Staff

PF Past Faculty or Staff

FR Friend of Bement

* Donors are listed with their Bement affiliation following each name. For example, John ’72 and Alice PF Smith P’95 means that John is an alum from the class of 1972, and Alice is a past faculty. Together, they are parents of a student who attended Bement Class of 1995.

BEMENT LOYALISTS

Donors with a B preceding their name have donated for five or more consecutive years.

PHOENIX SOCIETY

Donors with a P preceding their name are Phoenix Society members who have named Bement as a beneficiary in their will, life insurance policy, retirement policy, or bank account documents.

GRACE BEMENT CIRCLE ($25,000+)

Anonymous (4)

B P Mike Banas and Emma TT Chen-Banas P’28

B Henry and Jeannie Becton GP’22 ’24

Cheng (Adam) Cui and Yi (Chelsea) Cheng P’25

P The Estates of Irving N. Esleeck Jr. ’GB, P’62 and Cathy Esleeck ’GB, PTT, P’62

Merrill and Jenn Gagne P’24 ’27 ’32

Scott and Jill TT Keiter P’27 ’30

B Brian and Lisa TT McCarthy P’22 ’24 ’28 ’30

B George PTT and Pamela Siguler P’98 ’00 ’02 ’05 ’14

Chun Ki (Louis) So and Ling (Linda) Yang P’23

Haiwei Wang and Yun Han P’25 ’28

Peter and Michelle TT Wirth P’24 ’26 ’28 ’32

De Hua Zhou and Xin Ru (Alice) Lai P’26 ’26

Lei (Simon) Zhu and Ji (Grace) Wang P’24

BLUE AND WHITE SOCIETY ($10,000–$24,999)

Anonymous

Jeffrey and Danielle Ethier P’32

B Caroline Haines ’04, TT, Sidonie Haines P’04, and Pendery Haines FR

B Edward Ho and Karmen Wu P’20 ’23

B Greg ’85, TT and Caroline Holden

Sungtaek Kim and Jeongyoon Cho P’24

B The Kittredge Foundation

B John Levine and Susan PTT Clopton P’03

B John Longmaid PTT, P’93

B Lisa TT, P’06 ’18 ’21 and Jeff Peddar

Yifeng (Hans) She and Jun Li P’26 ’29

Timothy PTT and Wendy ’88 Van Epps P’21 ’23 ’25

Viktor and Oxana Vlasenko P’28 ’33

B The Whitten Family

Yuguang Xie and Qiong Zhang P’24

Lei Xu and Shuping (Jane) Zhang P’23

Stanley Xu and Nanling Chen P’24

Richard Zhang and Yun (Scarlet) Dai P’26

Hong Chen Zhen and Kathy Mo P’25

Ning Zhou and Meixuan (May) Zhang P’23

HEAD’S CIRCLE ($5,000–$9,999)

Anonymous (2)

Hua Chen and Weixia (Vivian) Zhang P’26

B Robbie PTT and Mary PTT Cohn P’03 ’06

Mike and Tiffany Doyle P’29 ’32

Kenneth Ho and Irene Wan P’25

Dongjoon Joo and Heeyeong Kim P’23

Jonggoo Kim and Sumin Lee P’24

Hong Ki Ko and Soojin Eum P’24

Guanghai Li and Yanhua Deng P’26

Edmund L. Lincoln, Lucy A. Lincoln, and Emily T. Lincoln FR

Shuk Cheong (Johnny) Lok and Vily Ku P’23 ’25

B Peggy Nathan PTT, P’83

Zhijian (George) Qiao and Lingyi Rao P’24 ’33

B Charles PTT and Sarah Sanford P’12 ’14 ’17 ’19

B Jeffrey and Linda ’83, PTT Schutzman

Xun Zhang and Xue (Sabrina) Zhao P’24

1925 SOCIETY ($1,925–$4,999)

Robert and Linda Cady GP’31 ’33

Wai (Lawrence) Chan and Ka Lok (Carol) Wong P’22

Gang (Steven) Chen and Jun (Elaine) Song P’25

Guohua Chen and Wenyan Yang P’31

Jason Chen ’21

Jianhan Chen and Xueying (Sharon) Qin P’23 ’25

Heyna (Hannah) Cho ’07

City Building Maintenance, Inc.

B Lawrence Dean P’89

Edie Drexler Denney ’50, GP’14

B Mark Donovan and Anne Lozier P’24

B Jim and Joan Edzwald P’95

Ivan and Celeste Enriquez P’22 ’24

Clark Flynt ’01

B William PTT and Suzanne Flynt P’01 ’09

Margaret Fox ’88

B Gilmore & Farrell Insurance Agency, Inc.

B Amy Gordon P’99 ’03, PF

Anonymous

B P Guy Ardrey and Sara Becton FA Ardrey P’22 ’24

B Richard Brook and Shawna Pazmino-Brook P’19 ’21

B P Joan H. Butler P’83 ’84

B Joe Butz and Kimberly Petelle TT Butz P’19

Sidney Chang and Xiao Lan Wang P’27 ’27

Thomas Cosenzi and Amanda Douglas P’32

B P Peter FHS and Nancy PF Drake P’90 ’93 ’96

B Anthony Kwame Harrison ’85, PTT

Kap-Young Jeong and Young-Joo Hwang GP’27

John and Margaret Kalas P’28 ’30 ’32

B Jason M. and Desiree TT Kicza P’25 ’27 ’30 ’30

Dooyoung Kim and Eunhee Choi P’26

Eugene Kim and Hyo Jung Park P’24

B Lilia Levine ’03

B The Honorable Juliette McLennan ’60, PTT, P’85

B P Stephanie McLennan ’85, PTT

B Virginia Morsman ’87, PTT, PF Takashi and Nina Murata P’25

P Ted and Carole PTT, PF Pennock P’90 ’94

Marshall and Katie Royce P’32

Carmel Schettino P’13 ’15

B Mike HOS and Julianne Schloat P’24 ’26

Benjamin TT and Kathleen Simanski P’30

Frederick Treyz and Enhua (Joanna) Zhang P’26 ’28

Michael Waidlich and Naomi Gendron-Waidlich P’26

Craig TT, P’03, PF and Amy White

Xiaosong Xu and Weihong (Sarah) Xiong P’23

P Joshua and Hollis Young FR

Sharon Young PF

Nicholas and Carla Zayac P’29 ’31

Wei Zhu and Enhan Wang P’26

Timothy Grader FR

Lei Guo and Lihong Gong P’22

Rongshen (Grace) Guo ’21

B Perry O. Hanson III and Susan Easton Hanson ’56

B P Christine Hart PTT, P’02

B Nicholas Hayes ’55 and Sheila Donovan

Jordi Herold and Elizabeth Dunaway P’24

B John ’63, PTT and Lee Holstein

Xue Qi Hong and Su Ping (Sally) Yan P’25

B Estate Kokosadze and Anna Japaridze P’21 ’22 ’25

Casey Kittredge ’21

B Kylie Kittredge ’18

Larry and Deb Klein GP’28

The Leung Family P’23

Yong Xian Liu P’27

Amir and Danuta Lotfi P’26 ’29

Matthew Lustig P’29

Martha Lyman ’58, PTT

B David and Penny Michalak P’14

David and Joyce Milne P’69 ’75, PF

B Jisoo Oh ’96

B Thaddeus ’00 and Marisa Olchowski

Neville and Catherine Orsmond P’28 ’28 ’31 ’33

B P Ralph Parady and Bunny Boyden Parady ’GB

B Brian Pearson TT and Sira Berté P’24

B Michael and Jane PTT Plager P’12 ’16

P David PTT and Nancy PF Pond P’89 ’95

B Sam and Julie Owen ’57 Rea

B Ned ’67, PTT and Maria Reade

Todd and Paula Rees P’16

B Philip and Elizabeth Rosenberry P’13 ’15

Janet Schloat GP’24 ’26

Michael and Kathleen Schneider P’25 ’27

Sin-Thomases Family P’25 ’27

Scott Smith TT, PF and Sally Reid P’98 ’01 ’03

Nathaniel and Amy ’89 Snow

Timothy and Kayla Snow P’30 ’32

Jooyoung (Paul) Son and Jina Cha P’28

Anonymous (4)

James and Justyna Arcoleo P’16 ’19 ’29 ’30 ’31 ’33

Edward Arron and Jeewon Park P’28

B Andy PTT and Hut Beall P’15

Willson ’76 and Vickie Beebe

Jennifer Montgomery Bethlenfalvay ’68

Alexander Byron ’83

B Bob and Sally Spencer P’98 ’00

B Melissa Stetson P’14 ’18

Matthew Striebel and Kristin Kelly P’29 ’33

William King Stubbs and Dace Stubbs ’61, PTT, PF

Qiye Sun P’23 ’26

B Brian TT and Julie Thompson P’24 ’26

B Greg and Katie ’91 Vadasdi

Thanks to the following donors to all Bement funds between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023:

B Vermont Community Foundation

Brad and Margit FA Walker P’24 ’27

Cang (Vic) Wang and Yuhua Zhu P’25

Guy Williams ’64

Eliza Wilmerding and Amanda Herman P’25

Tak Wing (Albert) Yung and Angela Fan P’23 ’25

Bing Zhang and Pan Huang P’24

BEMENT MERIT LIST ($250–$499)

Anonymous (4)

Bob Adam and Stephanie Velez GP’25 ’27 ’30 ’30

Mark Amstein and Sarah Cummings P’25

Jim and Joan Ardrey GP’22 ’24

Gery and Katie Benedetti GP’24

John and Mary Benjamin GP’27

B Daniel ’01, FA, Rachel, and Eliza Bensen

Jeffrey Blomstedt and Susan LaScala P’02

Ken PF and Karen Boudreau P’05 ’09

Harris Bucklin ’67

Zerah Burr ’99

B Fred Byron P’80 ’83

Jeffrey FA and Gina Cady P’31 ’33

Gregory and Daina Carvel P’28

Jonathan Chen and Kelly Lee P’26

Raymond TT and Julia Chen P’15 ’17

Yanis and Jennifer ’05, TT Chibani

B Jennifer Cox P’25

Alyssa Crockett P’30

B Michael and Janice FA Currie P’99 ’02, GP’33

Aaron and Jo-Ann DiBari P’22

Massimo DiBari ’22

B P Matthew Drake ’96

Joshua Guthman and Anne Bruder P’28

Robert Haigh and Nicole Guertin P’30

Justice and Elizabeth Hammond P’23 ’25

Viva Hardigg ’78

Jennifer Harlan and Joy Rain P’29

Michael and Sarah Hayes P’26

Adam and Emily Lent PF Hemingway

Frank Henry Jr. PTT, FHS and Wanda Henry P’05 ’08

Ivory Hills and Christina Kopp P’25

B Gabriel and Kristin Hmieleski P’26

Daniel and Kellie Houston P’32

Ting (Eva) Huang P’28 ’32

B Jeanet Hardigg Irwin ’73

Hyunghang Jeong and Soyoung Oh P’25

Lu Ji and Fang FA Liu P’16

B Margo Jones PTT, P’07 and Philip Elmer

John Knight and Martha Wofford P’21

John Langmaid and Katherine Berry Langmaid P’23

Joohyun Lee and Jeeyon Jeong P’27

B Kimberly Caldwell Loughlin P’18, FA

B Benjamin ’02 and Wendy MacKinney

B Patrick and Wheaton Mahoney P’23

B Frank FA and Suk Massey

Kevin and Jennifer McDonald P’26

Jeremy and Laura FA McGeorge P’24

B Phoebe Montgomery Moeller ’72

Dana Molt ’06

B Ladimer PTT and Anna Nagurney P’09

B Michael and Barbara PF Parry P’98

Matthew Plager ’12, FA

Katherine Porter ’92

Michael Posever and Anne-Marie Demetz P’10

B Don and Tammy Powell FA

B Suzanne T. Purrington ’52, PTT

John ’69 and Masumi Reade

Jonathan and Maria Schaefer P’27 ’30

Annette Schettino FR

B Robert and Bette Schmitt GP’19

David and Jeanne Simanski GP’30

Chen Wang and Jia (Maggie) Xu P’24

Zhengxiu Wang and Lan Gao P’26

Anna S. Whitcomb ’66

Tim Wilcox and Caroline Pam P’24

Dingguo (Bill) Zhou ’22

Tianqi (Angel) Zhou ’19

Sasha Discala Zolik ’89

FRIENDS OF BEMENT ($1–$249)

Anonymous (28)

B Jerry and Casey FA Ahern P’31

B Ronald and Carol Aleman P’87 ’97 ’99

Charles Altmiller ’72

AmazonSmile

Allison Bachrodt ’83

Nick Bagley and Cong Chen P’16 ’20

Shel Ball ’64

Robert and Agnes Banas GP’28

Jeffrey and Sally Barden P’14

Alexander Bardzik ’95

B John PTT and Kay Bardzik P’88 ’91 ’95

Jonathan Bardzik ’88

B Alexander Bartlett ’87, FA and Megan Tady FR

Wilson Becton FR

David FA and Sue PF Belcher P’07

Ben and Pamela Bensen P’86 ’91 ’98 ’01 ’02, PF

B Carla Bernier GP’15 ’18 ’19 ’20 ’21 ’23 ’24

Jordan Bernier ’15

Susan Berte GP’24

Melanie Bete ’06

Keith Bevan FA

Maria and Grace Bianciardi P’25

Alexandra Bluh ’80

Catherine Boody GP’13 ’16

Madeleine Boudreau ’09

Sarah Boudreau ’05

William and Jennifer FA Boyden

James Bragdon ’81

B Joseph Brook ’19

Preston and Janet Brown P’91

Preston P. Brown ’91

Robert and Joyce Brown GP’28 ’28 ’31 ’33

Steve and Michelle Call GP’28

B Jaime Correa and Juliana PF Camacho P’27

Dominic ’03 and Rebecca Capasso

Ellen Carter FA

Robert and Anna FA Casey

John and Kathryn ’95 Chiavaroli P’30

Minji Cho ’12, PF

Michelle Conant FA

Brian PF and Toni FA Costa

Edward and Pamela ’65 Cranston

Richard and Margaret ’66 Curran

P Emet Davis ’80, PTT

Gordon and Melissa Davis P’91

Victoria Davis ’91

Benjamin PF and Mary FA Demerath P’16

John and Brooke Doleva P’28

Helen Drake GP’25

William Drake and Erin Donnally Drake P’25

B Jerry and Ann FA Dubie

B Paul and Renee Duseau P’12 ’12

B Kate Echeverria ’95

Tom and Anne Echeverria P’95

Les and Wendy Edinson GP’28 ’31

Joey Elias ’82

Streeter Elliott ’12

Noah Epstein ’96

Matthew PF and Sara Evans

Thomas PF and Lyudmila Falcon

Nancy Forrest P’82 ’93

Henry ’89 and Kristine Forsyth

Hannah Frank ’05

Robert Franklin and Cheryl Roberts P’05

Dean and Minh Nguyet Fusto P’17, PF

Mackenzie Gage ’10

Rosemarie Gage P’10, FA

Jeremy Galvagni FA and Kimberly Pinkham P’24

Joan B. Garraway ’GB

Paul and Roselle FA Garro P’25

Samuel Garro and Marcia McCormack GP’25

B Dody Phinny Gates ’65

Karen Gaudette FA

Mark J. Gexler ’71 and Peggy Gexler

David ’67 and Jane Gilbert Keith

B William and Quaneta Greenough P’75

B Arthur Gregg FR

B John Gundelfinger ’08

Abbey Haggerty ’12

Valerie Haggerty P’12

Mary E. Hanlon GP’31

Ruth Harlow PF

B Howard and Jinx Hastings GP’21

B Richard A. Herchenreder ’75 and Jeanne M. Sojka

B Greg and Deborah Weaver ’88 Hills

B Susan Conant Holden ’GB

B Bob TT and Amanda FA Howe P’18 ’18

Delores Howley GP’26

Ron and Lorene Ishimaru GP’17 ’19 ’24

Rob PF and Shelley Borror FHS Jackson P’00

B Stephen and Evelyn Jakub P’99

B Cary and Sue PTT Jubinville P’98 ’00 ’06

B Kirsten P’07 ’09, PF, Ingrid ’06, and Ilse ’09 Kapteyn

Cheri Karbon P’22 ’23

B Amie Keddy FA

Terry Kopinto FA

Darlene Kuzmeskus GP’29 ’32

Dolphuss Lafave GP’28

B John and Marcia Lannon P’98

Peter and Jessica Lapachinski P’31 ’33

B Paul and Christine Lapuc GP’14 ’17

Joan Williams Laundon ’58

Shawn and Carol LeBlanc P’21 ’23

Terry ’81 and Jungeum (Vivian) Lee

Jay Levin and Michal Ganz P’31

Jing Liu FA

B MaryBee Eberlein Longabaugh ’GB

Jane Lyman P’00 ’02, GP’32

Katie MacCallum P’29, FA

Stephen ’87 and Monique Marshall

Nanami Matsui FR

Mac McCoy and Polly Byers P’10 ’12

P Brad and Rebecca ’93 McCutcheon

Ann McGlashan P’83

Sharon McGuinness P’25

Carol Polk Meenan ’55

Madeline Merin ’04

Jillian Chaffee Meyler ’07

Benjamin Michalak ’14, FA

B Nancy Mihevc P’12

B Roberto Mugnani and Silvia Ribes-Mugnani PF

Matthew Naumowicz and AnnMarie McCready P’32

B Ryan Noble ’91 and Kerry Shaw P’23

Colin ’87 and Kara O’Brien P’24

John O’Keefe and Lynne Stopen P’17 ’19

B Martha Olver ’84

B Jeanne Hinckley Orlando ’95

Brendon O’Shea ’85

Ron and Jennifer Paasch P’22 ’24

Robert and Dorothy Pam GP’24

B Marlisa Drexler Parker ’52

Robert and Elizabeth ’95 Patterson

Claire Patton ’18

B Douglas and Alice Patton P’16 ’18

B Will Paulding FA and Lauren Cerillo P’32

Nicole Pelc P’25

Shirley Pelletier PF

Joy Perry ’98

Trosky Peters and Laverne Robinson-Peters GP’29

Jeffrey Pilgrim FA

Adam Pistel ’04

Benjamin Plager ’16

Sharon Pleasant GP’31 ’33

B Rickey Poor ’60

B David Powell FA

Joseph Rees ’16

Nathan Reid ’98

Sarah H. Reloj ’80, P’23

James and Margaret Ricci P’93 ’95

B Emily Mikolayunas Rich P’24 ’28, FA

Ezra Michael Rich ’24

Matt Rich P’22 ’23

Madeline Surgenor Richards PF

Donald and Sara PF Robinson P’85 ’91

Roderick Robinson ’60

Shawn TT and Jill Robinson P’29

Matt Robison and Emily Jones P’26 ’28 ’31

Leslie Rockwell FA

Christian Rojas and Alexandra Andino P’23 ’29

Deborah Roll GP’24 ’28

B Greg and Kate Rolland P’20 ’23 ’23

Philip Roosevelt ’71

B Josh PF and Kate ’73 Rosenblatt P’05

Paul Rossini and Cynthia White Rossini ’70

Sierra Rother ’12, PF

Ana Rueda-Hernandez FA

Victor and Carol Russo GP’32

John and Amanda Rymes P’19

The Schatz Family P’23 ’25 ’29

Justin Serpone and Angela McMahon P’27 ’29 ’32

Terry FA and Julie Shields P’19 ’21 ’25

Michael Anthony Silipo ’04

Michael S. Silipo P’01 ’04 and Lydia Hemphill

Amy Simmonds ’06

Barry and Linda Stacy P’08 ’11

Charles Staelin and Karen Golding-Staelin P’84 ’96

B Alan Stefanini and Dianne Bensen Stefanini P’98 ’01 ’02

Jane Stewart FA

Stop and Shop

Yandong Sun and Binbin (Kitty) Xu P’22

Mark and Emma Theriault P’16 ’16 ’28

B Gary Therien ’78

Philip and Nancy Torrey FR

B Jean Pitman Turner PF

Stephanie Vassar ’02

Brian ’74 and Danette Wadman P’03 ’05 ’10

Ashleigh Wall FA

P Ted and Sarah ’90 Weihman

Margareta Welch P’33, PF

B Peter Whalen and Janna Ugone P’14

Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. PF and Perry Wheelock

Walter Wickersham and Allison Mills ’83

B Mary Wickwire P’82

B Wayne TT and Kathy Wilkey P’11 ’16

Taylor Williams ’05

William and Sandra Wittig GP’29

Larry and Donna Wrisley P’05

Yuxiang Xu and Yingqian (Jolene) Huang P’25 ’27

B Nancy E. Yarmac PF

Christopher Yoon ’05

Robert PF and Mary Ann York P’93

Sarah Young ’02

Angelina Zhang ’24

Jeff and Kathy Zilch P’27 ’29

GIFTS MADE IN MEMORY OF

Kay Bartlett FHS, PF Marlisa Drexler Parker ’52

Jeannie Becton GP’22 ’24

Guy Ardrey and Sara Becton FA Ardrey P’22 ’24

Elizabeth B. Beebe PTT, P’60 ’63 ’65 ’76, PF Willson ’76 and Vickie Beebe

Susan W. Beebe ’60

Willson ’76 and Vickie Beebe

William H. Beebe P’60 ’63 ’65 ’76 Willson ’76 and Vickie Beebe

Marianne Bourbeau P’75, PF Matthew Drake ’96

Donald and Sara PF Robinson P’85 ’91

Lee Boyden P’49

Ralph Parady and Bunny Boyden Parady ’GB

John N. Butler FHS, P’83 ’84 Joan H. Butler P’83 ’84

Aiden Francesco Day ’13

Annette Schettino FR

Carmel Schettino P’13 ’15

Mary “Gug” Drexler PTT, FHS, P’50 ’52

Marlisa Drexler Parker ’52

Bradlee Ewing Gage Jr. P’10

Massimo DiBari ’22

Mackenzie Gage ’10

Rosemarie Gage P’10, FA

Ted and Carole PTT, PF, Pennock P’90 ’94

Sally Cook Gregg ’55

Arthur Gregg FR

Mary Hawks ’GB, PF Anonymous

Richard A. Herchenreder ’75 and Jeanne M. Sojka

Roderick Robinson ’60

Pamela Wick Lincoln ’65

Edmund L. Lincoln, Lucy A. Lincoln, and Emily T. Lincoln FR

Amy O’Hare ’87

Ronald and Carol Aleman P’87 ’97 ’99

Theodore Pina PF Anonymous

Amy Spencer ’00

Bob and Sally Spencer P’98 ’00

Philip Tyler Staelin ’84

Charles Staelin and Karen Golding-Staelin P’84 ’96

Ed Wells PF

Shirley Pelletier PF

Littell White ’GB, PTT

William PTT and Suzanne Flynt P’01 ’09

Josh PF and Kate ’73 Rosenblatt P’05

Timothy C. Young ’61, PF Anonymous (2)

Madeleine Boudreau ’09

GIFTS MADE IN HONOR OF

Maisie Ahern ’31

Mary E. Hanlon GP’31

Sara Becton Ardrey P’22 ’24, FA

Wilson Becton FR

Anna Banas-Chen ’28

Robert and Agnes Banas GP’28

Dave Belcher P’07, FA

Zerah Burr ’99

Ben Bensen P’86 ’91 ’98 ’01 ’02, PF

Katherine Porter ’92

Dan Bensen ’01, FA

Anonymous

Pamela Bensen P’86 ’91 ’98 ’01 ’02, PF

Katherine Porter ’92

Judith C. Bernier ’25

Carla Bernier GP’15 ’18 ’19 ’20 ’21 ’23 ’24

Jordan Bernier ’15

Jacob Brook ’21

Richard Brook and Shawna Pazmino-Brook P’19 ’21

Joseph Brook ’19

Richard Brook and Shawna Pazmino-Brook P’19 ’21

Rachael Carter FA

Zhijian (George) Qiao and Lingyi Rao P’24 ’33

Beckie Duseau ’12

Paul and Renee Duseau P’12 ’12

Brie Duseau ’12

Paul and Renee Duseau P’12 ’12

William H. Franklin ’05

Robert Franklin and Cheryl Roberts P’05

Rosemarie Gage P’10, FA

Philip and Nancy Torrey FR

Clarese Gardiner ’18

Melissa Stetson P’14 ’18

Emily Gardiner ’14

Melissa Stetson P’14 ’18

Alice Gearhart FA

Jason Chen ’21

Katharine Golding ’96

Charles Staelin and Karen Golding-Staelin P’84 ’96

Howie Harrison ’92, PTT, PF

Michael Silipo ’04

Barrett Kicza ’30

Bob Adam and Stephanie Velez GP’25 ’27 ’30 ’30

Desiree Kicza TT, P’25 ’27 ’30 ’30

Bob Adam and Stephanie Velez GP’25 ’27 ’30 ’30

Emma Kicza ’27

Bob Adam and Stephanie Velez GP’25 ’27 ’30 ’30

Jason Kicza ’25

Bob Adam and Stephanie Velez GP’25 ’27 ’30 ’30

Jason M. Kicza P’25 ’27 ’30 ’30

Bob Adam and Stephanie Velez GP’25 ’27 ’30 ’30

Lane Kicza ’30

Bob Adam and Stephanie Velez GP’25 ’27 ’30 ’30

Taeeon (Alya) Kim ’26

Dooyoung Kim and Eunhee Choi P’26

Casey Kittredge ’21

The Kittredge Foundation

Kylie Madison Kittredge ’18

The Kittredge Foundation

Michael Kittredge ’06

The Kittredge Foundation

Emily Lynn Dean Lawrence ’89

Lawrence Dean P’89

Katie MacCallum P’29, FA William and Sandra Wittig GP’29

Ashby McCoy ’10

Mac McCoy and Polly Byers P’10 ’12

Wilder McCoy ’12

Mac McCoy and Polly Byers P’10 ’12

Kenneth O’Brien P’95 ’00, PF

Anonymous

Matt Palumb PF Michael Silipo ’04

Martha Price P’07 ’10, PF Michael Silipo ’04

John Reloj ’23

Anonymous

Sarah H. Reloj ’80, P’23

Ezra Michael Rich ’24

Emily Mikolayunas Rich ’24 ’28, FA

Henry Rich ’22

Matt Rich P’22 ’23

Jay Rich ’23

Matt Rich P’22 ’23

Marshall Royce ’32

Victor and Carol Russo GP’32

Madeline Rose Sabelawski ’24

Carla Bernier GP’15 ’18 ’19 ’20 ’21 ’23 ’24

Jordan Bernier ’15

Emmett Powell Schatz ’23

The Schatz Family P’23 ’25 ’29

Carter J. Schloat ’24

Janet Schloat GP’24 ’26

Macrae Schloat ’26

Janet Schloat GP’24 ’26

Scott Smith TT, P’98 ’01 ’03, PF

Michael Silipo ’04

Mark Snow FA and Bement Dining Staff

Jeffrey FA and Gina Cady P’31 ’33

Jason Yoomin Son ’28

Jooyoung (Paul) Son and Jina Cha P’28

Ashleigh Wall FA Anonymous

Oliver Wilcox ’24

Robert and Dorothy Pam GP’24

MATCHING GIFT COMPANIES AND FOUNDATIONS 2022

We are most grateful to the companies and foundations listed below for participating in the Matching Gift Program, which offers the donor the opportunity to increase their gift to Bement.

Cleveland H. Dodge Foundation

ConocoPhillips

Gates Foundation Google Johnson Controls

Nasdaq, Inc.

Pew Charitable Trusts

Pfizer, Inc.

Piper Sandler Companies

We have made every attempt to publish the names of our donors accurately. If your name has inadvertently been omitted, misspelled, or listed incorrectly, please accept our sincere apology and bring the error to the attention of the Alumni and Development Office so that we may correct our records.

Generosity Shapes Generations

Cathy and Irving Esleeck made a planned gift to Bement in their wills, knowing that a bequest today will have a lasting impact on the students of tomorrow.

The Phoenix Society

Thank you to the following members of our community who have named Bement as a beneficiary in their will, life insurance policy, retirement policy, or bank account documents:

Anonymous

Guy Ardrey and Sara Becton FA Ardrey P’22 ’24

Mike Banas and Emma TT Chen-Banas P’28

Terry Belanger ’63

Nancee Bershof PTT, P’97 ’98

Joan H. Butler P’83 ’84

Emet Davis ’80, PTT

Matthew Drake ’96

Peter FHS and Nancy PF Drake P’90 ’93 ’96

Kathleen Fontaine ’80

John Gardiner PTT, P’14 ’18

Lester and Burdine Anderson ’54 Guiese

Dolly Glennon PTT, P’08 ’11

Christine Hart PTT, P’02

Fred Honnold Houck P’96

Robert and Ellen Fuller PTT Kaufmann P’94

Charles and Pamela PTT Klonaris P’11 ’13

Katherine Stenson Lunt PTT, P’00 ’02

Debra MacLean P’04

Brad and Rebecca ’93 McCutcheon

Philip PTT and Deborah McKean P’84

Stephanie McLennan ’85, PTT

David and Joyce Milne P’69 ’75, PF

Ralph Parady and Bunny Boyden Parady ’GB

Ted and Carole PTT, PF Pennock P’90 ’94

David PTT and Nancy PF Pond P’89 ’95

Melissa Stetson P’14 ’18

Ellen Waldinger PTT, P’11 ’14

What will your legacy be?

Make a plan today, and make an impact tomorrow.

To discuss making a deferred gift to Bement, please contact Director of Alumni and Development Sara Becton Ardrey P’22 ’24, sardrey@bement.org, 413-774-3021.

Ted and Sarah ’90 Weihman

Ann Wright ’65

We want to thank the Esleeck family for their transformational gift, which will help to provide a new playground, several campus and facility upgrades, faculty professional development, and above all to enhance the Bement experience for generations to come. thank

Joshua and Hollis Young FR

Cathy Esleeck ’GB, PTT, P’62, Edwin (Ed) C. Esleeck ’62, and Irving (Red) N. Esleeck ’GB, P’62 at the Deerfield Inn on Cathy and Red’s 60th wedding anniversary, October 31, 2004.

ENDOWED AND SIMILAR FUNDS

Over the years, generous individuals and groups have established endowed funds to help support tuition aid, professional development, athletics, and the general needs of the school. Gifts to Bement’s endowment are invested, and earnings provide a permanent source of income and security for the school.

For a complete list of funds, visit bement.org/giving/funds.

Thank you to the following donors who contributed to the endowed funds below in 2022–2023:

Beebe Memorial Fund

Established in memory of William H. Beebe P’76, former business manager, for the general needs of the school.

Willson ’76 and Vickie Beebe

The Bement School Bridge Grant

Established by Dolly Glennon PTT, P’08 ’11 in 2014; provides complete financial support for an incoming local lower school student with demonstrated need of full financial assistance to attend Bement.

Anonymous

Clagett Professional Development Fund

Established in 1978 as a bequest of Nancy L. Clagett P’60, GP’85, and augmented by gifts from the family; provides Bement faculty with opportunities for professional development.

Stephanie McLennan ’85, PTT

Nancy and Peter Drake Scholarship Fund

Established in 1999 to honor former head of school Peter Drake P’90 ’93 ’96 and his wife, Nancy Drake PF, P’90 ’93 ’96, in recognition of their dedication and years of service; provides financial aid.

Anonymous

Jisoo Oh ’96

Ted and Sarah ’90 Weihman

Fox Family Scholarship Fund

Established in 1999 by John and Gretchen PTT Fox P’86 ’88; provides financially deserving students who represent diversity at Bement with the opportunity to participate in all activities and services offered at the school.

The Honorable Juliette McLennan ’60, PTT, P’85

Stephanie McLennan ’85, PTT

Library Endowment Fund

Established in 2004 by the board of trustees; provides funds for the Clagett McLennan Library.

Matthew Lustig P’29

Stephanie McLennan ’85, PTT

James Mullins Athletics Fund

Established in 2009 in memory of James Mullins P’14 ’17; provides support for the athletics program.

Stephanie McLennan ’85, PTT

Carole Pennock Lower School Fund

Established in 2016 to honor Carole Pennock PTT, P’90 ’94, PF in recognition of her dedication and 34 years of service to Bement, provides support for the lower school.

Ben and Pamela Bensen P’86 ’91 ’98 ’01 ’02, PF

Ted and Carole PTT, PF Pennock P’90 ’94

Nancy Pond World Language Fund

Established in 2016 to honor Nancy Pond P’89 ’95, PF, in recognition of her dedication and 31 years of service to Bement; provides support for world language programs.

Jason Chen ’21

Clark Flynt ’01

Matt Rich P’22 ’23

Siguler Family Fund

Established in 1999 by a gift from George PTT and Pamela Siguler P’98 ’00 ’02 ’05 ’14 for general endowment growth.

Jane Lyman P’00 ’02, GP’32

George PTT and Pamela Siguler P’98 ’00 ’02 ’05 ’14

Timothy C. Young ’61 Fund

Established in 2020 in honor of Timothy C. Young ’61, PF, in recognition of his devotion to Bement; supports financial aid and tuition remission for faculty and staff children attending Bement.

Anonymous (3)

Allison Bachrodt ’83

Andy PTT and Hut Beall P’15

Madeleine Boudreau ’09

Joan H. Butler P’83 ’84

Jeffrey FA and Gina Cady P’31 ’33

Dominic ’03 and Rebecca Capasso

Jim and Joan Edzwald P’95

Noah Epstein ’96

Matthew PF and Sara Evans

Hannah Frank ’05

Ruth Harlow PF

Adam and Emily Lent PF Hemingway

Katie MacCallum P’29, FA

Stephen ’87 and Monique Marshall

Nanami Matsui FR

Ann McGlashan P’83

Brendon O’Shea ’85

Richard Brook and Shawna Pazmino-Brook P’19 ’21

Matthew Plager ’12, FA

Michael and Jane PTT Plager P’12 ’16

Zhijian (George) Qiao and Lingyi Rao P’24 ’33

Nathan Reid ’98

Madeline Surgenor Richards PF

Philip Roosevelt ’71

Jane Stewart FA

Brian ’74 and Danette Wadman P’03 ’05 ’10

Walter Wickersham and Allison Mills ’83

Robert PF and Mary Ann York P’93

Joshua and Hollis Young FR

Sharon Young PF

Angelina Zhang ’24

DONATE TODAY!

It's not too late to participate in the Annual Fund!

BEMENT WILL TURN 100 IN 2025!

If you are interested in helping Bement make the most of this milestone, please contact alumni@bement.org.

SAVE THE DATE

Field Hockey Jamboree October

Spring Fling May 3, 2024

21, 2023

Check the Alumni Portal for the latest on upcoming alumni gatherings, to update your contact information, to find your classmates, and more. Visit www.bement.org/alumni.

To join the Bement community email list, send a message to alumni@bement.org. Alumni, parents of alumni, grandparents, past faculty and staff, and all Bement friends are welcome to sign up!

Please forward address changes to: The Bement School

94 Old Main Street, PO Box 8, Deerfield, MA 01342 413.774.3021 | alumni@bement.org