Brooks Bulletin Spring 2024

B BROOKS

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

President

John R. Barker ’87, P’21, P’23

Wellesley, Mass.

Vice Presidents

Cristina E. Antelo ’95 Washington, D.C.

Whitney Romoser Savignano ’87 Beverly Farms, Mass.

Secretary

Craig J. Ziady ’85, P’18, P’20, P’22 Winchester, Mass.

Treasurer Valentine Hollingsworth III ’72, P’17 Dover, Mass.

TRUSTEES

Peter J. Caldwell Providence, R.I.

Charles F. Cornish ’06 Sudbury, Mass.

Catalina Dib P’25, P’26 Boston, Mass.

Peter V.K. Doyle ’69 Sherborn, Mass.

Cheryl M. Duckworth P’22, P’23 Lynnfield, Mass.

Anthony H. Everets ’93 New York, N.Y.

Nancy C. Ferry P’21 West Newton, Mass.

Phillip W. Field ’05 Boston, Mass.

Julia Saltonstall Haley ’88, P’25

South Hamilton, Mass.

Paul L. Hallingby ’65 New York, N.Y.

Kevin R. Hendrickson ’04, P’24 North Andover, Mass.

Booth D. Kyle ’89

Severna Park, Md.

Diana Merriam P’08, P’11 Boxford, Mass.

Sally T. Milliken ’88, P’22, P’24, P’27 Byfield, Mass.

Sunit Mukherjee P’15, P’22 North Andover, Mass.

John R. Packard Jr. P’18, P’21

Head of School North Andover, Mass.

Vivek Sharma P’24 Boston, Mass.

Juliane Gardner Spencer ’93 Rockport, Mass.

Isabella Speakman Timon ’92, P’26 Gulf Stream, Fla.

Alessandro F. Uzielli ’85 New York, N.Y.

Meredith M. Verdone ’81, P’19 Newton Center, Mass.

Christopher T. Wood ’85 Los Angeles, Calif.

ALUMNI TRUSTEES

Matthew B. Nash ’14

Dover, N.H.

Sathvik R. Sudireddy ’15 Andover, Mass.

TRUSTEES EMERITI

William N. Booth ’67, P’05

Chestnut Hill, Mass.

Henry M. Buhl ’48

New York, N.Y.

Steve Forbes ’66, P’91 Bedminster, N.J.

Steven R. Gorham ’85, P’17, P’21

Ipswich, Mass.

H. Anthony Ittleson ’56, P’84, P’86 Green Pond, S.C.

Michael B. Keating ’58, P’97 Boston, Mass.

Frank A. Kissel ’69, P’96, P’99 Far Hills, N.J.

Peter A. Nadosy ’64 New York, N.Y.

Eleanor R. Seaman P’86, P’88, P’91, GP ’18

Hobe Sound, Fla.

David R. Williams III ’67 Beverly Farms, Mass.

Brooksians enjoy a snowy morning on Main Street in January 2024.

Head of School

John R. Packard Jr. P’18, P’21

Director of Institutional Advancement

Gage S. Dobbins P’22, P’23

Director of Alumni Programs

Lauri Coulter

Director of the Brooks Fund and Family Engagement

Mary Merrill

Assistant Director of Alumni Programs

Sara Bird

Director of Admission and Financial Aid

Bini W. Egertson P’12, P’15

Director of Communications and Marketing

Kate Moran

Director of Print Communications

Rebecca A. Binder

Design Aldeia www.aldeia.design

Alumni Communications Manager

Emily Williams

Director of Digital Communications

Jennifer O’Neill

Unsolicited manuscripts are welcome. Opinions expressed in the Bulletin are those of the authors and not necessarily of Brooks School.

Correspondence concerning the Bulletin should be sent to

Editor Rebecca A. Binder:

mail

Editor, Brooks Bulletin 1160 Great Pond Road North Andover, MA 01845

email rbinder@brooksschool.org

phone (978) 725-6326

© 2024 Brooks School

CONTENTS

BULLETIN • SPRING 2024

FEATURES

20 Adventure, Inquiry & Service

The Bulletin asked students enrolled in four Winter Term classes to journal their experiences over the three-week period of immersive, nontraditional courses. They learned a great deal, bonded with classmates and teachers, and had a chance to step out of traditional academics.

28 Rooted in Optimism

Brooks boasts a beautiful campus, dotted with trees that hold historical, botanical and community interest. The school’s efforts to create a beautiful space for its students, and student efforts to engage in sustainability and the natural campus, are important markers of the Brooks community.

36 Exercising the Brain

An endowed gift allowed the school to create a formal computer science curriculum this year, and student interest is high. The computer science curriculum provides a new content area that has applications across our students’ meaningful educational experience.

02 Message from the Head of School

News + Notes

Class Notes

ON THE COVER: Abby Derderian ’25 plays Tilly in Brooks School’s production of “She Kills Monsters: Young Adventurers Edition” in February. Read more on page 11.

PHOTO: KENSINGTONPHOTOVIDEO.COM

“Above all, perhaps, my gratitude for this gift centers on the opening the time will provide to reflect back and forward all at once about my work at Brooks, and how I might grow and improve that work when I return at the end of the calendar year.”

A MESSAGE FROM JOHN R. PACKARD JR. HEAD OF SCHOOL

The Gift of Time

My life at Brooks started in 1990 when I was hired right out of college to be an intern in the history department. In that first year, I began to learn about and come to love this life and school in ways that have only grown over 34 years. I have long felt there is no way that anything I contribute to our school will equal what my family and I have drawn from it. Kim is a proud member of the class of 1987 and would be the first to tell you that Brooks changed the trajectory of her life. Our children, Kate and Elizabeth, are also proud members of the classes of 2018 and 2021, respectively, and enjoyed the privilege of growing up on this magnificent campus ahead of attending the school themselves. While I cannot make the claim of having attended Brooks, I can underline that much of what is good and dear to me in life took shape at our school. This place matters a great deal to us.

With all of this in mind, I have not acted quickly on an incredibly gracious offer extended to me by the board of trustees a number of years ago — a six-month sabbatical and opportunity to engage in some professional and personal endeavors away from the day-to-day of school life. We love our life at Brooks and setting it aside for a period of time has been hard to do. Yet, as I complete my 16th year as head of school with an exceptionally strong leadership team, faculty and staff here at school, the coming year felt like as good a time as any to accept this extraordinary gift of time. I am looking forward to some professional development work I will be in position to take on — learning with and from leaders in and out of education in a couple of programs I am enrolling in this summer. Kim and I are looking forward to having a window of time to do some traveling to parts of the country and world we have never

visited before, and to all we will surely take in from being on the move.

Above all, perhaps, my gratitude for this gift centers on the opening the time will provide to reflect back and forward all at once about my work at Brooks, and how I might grow and improve that work when I return at the end of the calendar year. Our school is poised to run in the direction of beginning to celebrate its centennial year just two years from this summer. We continue to circulate and sharpen campaign aspirations aiming to deepen immersive learning, foster a culture of exploration and realize genuine belonging at Brooks with dormitory housing, academic building and endowment initiatives paving the way. I will be eager to dive back into all we are moving forward equipped with perspective and a deeper appreciation than ever before for what our school has been and might still be when 2025 rolls around. No one will be more excited to be at Brooks in January than I will be!

In the meantime, Assistant Head of School Nina Freeman will ably serve as acting head of school and work with the full breadth of the school community to continue moving our ambitious agenda forward. I could not be more confident in Nina’s leadership and the strength of relationships she has forged in her two years at Brooks, and I know she will quickly feel the same community wind at her back that I have felt throughout my tenure. As we continue to move closer to our centennial year, we do so acutely aware of the privilege and responsibility we have to build upon and strengthen our school in ways that generations before us have done with such care and commitment. It is exciting to think about where we will be as Brooks School’s second hundred years begins. Have a great summer.

CELEBRATING LUNAR NEW YEAR

Brooks School’s Asian Student Alliance, one of the school’s affinity groups, partnered with parents to bring a Lunar New Year celebration to Brooks in February. The celebration, held in the Keating Room and Wilder Dining Hall, featured a calligraphy station, a catered dinner and a lion dance.

The school wishes to thank the parents who supported this event.

Celebrating a Wilder Speaking Competition Tie!

THE WILDER SPEAKING PRIZE is an old Brooks tradition that, this year, had a new ending. For the first time in the school’s knowledge, the annual school-wide speech competition ended in a tie. Kiara Rivera Valdez ’26 and Charlie Rousmaniere ’25 were both awarded the prize in recognition of their excellence as individuals. The other three finalists were Lana Gibbs ’24, Mari Muñoz de Leon ’24 and Philip Mwangi ’24.

“This year’s Wilder asked students to reflect on where they have come from and where they’re going at an important moment in the school’s collective identity,” says English faculty Susannah Voigt, who

“One thing I’ve noticed over my years of clamming is that while I’m out there, my sense of time starts to blur. This tends to happen when you’ve been doing the same thing for hours on end. The one point of reference I have is the tide. About halfway through every day, someone will stand up and yell ‘the tide’s coming in; it’s time to dig faster.’ This meant that the tide had turned and was now quickly rushing in to hide the precious clams we were trying to pull from the ground. Around this time, everyone would realize that they’d wasted far too much time swapping stories. People would look at their sad pile of clams, around 200 pounds short, and start digging with the fear of God put into them. But no matter how fast they dug, the tide came in anyway. As I returned to Brooks this year, I couldn’t help but be reminded of this familiar summer ritual.”

Wilder Speaking Prize winner CHARLIE ROUSMANIERE ’25

“It has been seven and a half years, and losing her is part of my story. This part of my story, though, shifted the rest of my life. Right now, looking at my future ahead of me, my story has just started.”

Wilder Speaking Prize winner KIARA RIVERA VALDEZ ’26

leads the school through the competition. “The prompt gave our students the opportunity to tell their stories while highlighting the importance and power of the spoken word in an increasingly digital age.”

The Wilder Speaking Competition is currently a part of the school-wide English curriculum. Students from all forms learn to develop, write and deliver a speech on a certain prompt. This year’s prompt invited students to use the past as a lesson for the future. The top performers from each English class are invited to move on to all-school competition rounds. Quarterfinal, semifinal and final rounds later, a winner is chosen by a vote of the student body and a panel of faculty judges. The final round speeches were delivered in front of the entire school in the Center for the Arts theater right before Spring Break. Rivera Valdez spoke on loss and using grief as a way to look to the future. Rousmaniere spoke about his summer job as a commercial clammer and compared the way in which he times the tides on the clam flat to the way Brooksians move through their time at the school.

Wilder Speaking Prize winners

Charlie Rousmaniere ’25 (left) and Kiara Rivera Valdez ’26.

Girls and Women in Sports Day

The Brooks girls 1st ice hockey team hosted a celebration of National Girls and Women in Sports Day in February. The squad invited players from local girls ice hockey teams to watch Brooks take on Holderness School. After the game, the youth players were able to take to the ice and skate around with the current team, and then eat pizza with and meet the Brooks players.

“The team had a great time celebrating with youth girls hockey programs. It was another great way to grow the game and build connections with local youth programs.”

Girls 1st Ice Hockey Head Coach BEAN CLARK

<< Ainsley Waters (left) enjoys the skate session with the current Brooks girls 1st hockey team, including Molly McDowell ’24.

IN THE LEHMAN

Art That Makes a Statement

Two provocative exhibits graced the Lehman early this year. The first explored the Black experience in America. The second commented on the ways in which female artists have reclaimed the notion of craft as art.

The Robert Lehman Art Center welcomed two exhibitions this year that provided insight into issues of racism, patriarchy and social justice. The first, “Struggle,” was by noted artist Robert Freeman, father of Assistant Head of School Nina Freeman. The second, “Women’s Work,” was a collection curated by Amanda Pratt P’25, founder of Salon Design. The two exhibits were timed to coincide with Black History Month and Women’s History Month.

“Struggle” came to the Lehman over Winter Term and into mid-February. Freeman also served as artist-in-residence for Winter Term, working closely with the course “Italian Art and Culture” in its exploration of social justice issues in various regions of Italy.

“‘Struggle,’” Freeman said in his pre-exhibit statement, “is a creative eruption of deep and vast emotional frustration.” Freeman’s paintings represent the struggle for our nation’s soul, and they are the visual metaphor of adults playing children’s games.

Freeman’s painting “Black Tie” was recently selected by Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey to hang in her offices in the Massachusetts State House. Freeman has been showing nationally for more than 40 years, has instructed at Harvard University, and served as artist-in-residence and painting instructor at Noble and Greenough School for 25 years.

“Women’s Work” opened in late February and was installed until late April. The group exhibition, curated by Amanda Pratt P’25 and featuring the work of Sina Dyks, Jessica Switzer Green, Pernille Snedker Hansen, Brit Kleinman, Sam Klemick, Rosie Li, Fernanda Pompermayer, Manon Steyaert, Elisa Strozyk x Sarah Lee, Christina Watka and Kajsa Willner, celebrates the breadth and complexity of contemporary craft from the perspective of female artists. Broadly labeled “women’s work,” traditional craft techniques were historically overlooked by the fine art establishment. The 20th century brought

about a shift in how the art world perceived craft, and it began to be recognized as fine art. “Women’s Work” explores the effect of technological innovation in the use of traditional craft as a means of expressing the female experience.

Director of the Robert Lehman Art Center Babs Wheelden says that it’s “important to be intentional in including exhibitions that share a perspective less represented at Brooks and in our society. These exhibitions provided a lens for our students to empathize.” Wheelden continues: “My hope is that with curiosity and a little encouragement from the faculty, every Brooks student will spend time in the Lehman and feel the impact of these collections.”

The exhibit “Women’s Work” in the Lehman Gallery at Brooks.

A Moving Reflection

Brooks brought together clergy from local faith organizations to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

On January 15, the school paused its Winter Term schedule in the morning to welcome clergy to campus for an interfaith service to mark Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The service took place in Ashburn Chapel. The celeberation featured readings and musical performances from various traditions, as well as readings from the speeches and sermons of the Rev. Dr. King. A reception in the Robert Lehman Art Center followed. “ I hope the students walked away hearing that every faith tradition can look toward peace and bring collective healing,” says Dean of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Terri Ofori.

MODEL UN

The Brooks Model UN contingent attended Boston University’s Model UN Conference in February.

Model UN advisor Michele Musto, who is also chair of the Brooks history department, reported back that “Brooks students were representatives on committees ranging from the United Nations Human Rights Council and the United Nations Conference on the Status of Women, to crisis and specialized councils including the Congress of Vienna and the International Cricket Council.”

Jasmine Shi ’24 earned the award of Outstanding Delegate for the Taiping Rebellion Joint Crisis Committee: Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, representing Hong Tianguifu.

Giada Musto ’26 also attended the conference.

“Although everyone wanted their position to win, the most important thing to everyone was making sure that we solved the problems in front of us,” she says.

“It’s about making connections with other students and solving problems to benefit the people while having fun doing it.”

HEARD IN CHAPEL

“ It’s very narratively satisfying to pick a particular spot and say, ‘History starts here.’ And usually, people will pick whatever spot is most beneficial to them, or whatever side they’re on … but if you’re trying to understand people as human beings, every one of us exists on a continuum.”

OMAR EL AKKAD, the author of “American War,” which was this year’s AllCommunity Read at Brooks. El Akkad visited Brooks in February to meet with classes and address students and faculty at a talk given in Ashburn Chapel.

“American War” is a novel that imagines a second American Civil War. The book was selected by the history department and considers, department chair Michele Musto says, issues of climate change, state’s rights and federal rights, refugees, the unfairness of war, terrorism and international politics. El Akkad has a long career as a journalist covering assignments in Afghanistan and at Guantanamo Bay, and he held his Chapel audience rapt with his personal stories and insight into covering war and its aftermath.

100 DAYS

Brooks celebrated a milestone on February 16, when the class of 2024 marked the beginning of its final 100 days of school. The form was invited to a special luncheon in the Keating Room, which hosted themed desserts, a photo booth and an opportunity to donate to the class of 2024 gift. Pictured here, from left to right, are sixth-formers Selene Tecla, Sofia Fortenberry, Chris Liu and Jasmine Shi.

“At the celebration, the reality of my time at Brooks coming to a close began to set in. As I move closer to graduation, I become more grateful for the people around me here. It’s hard to believe that in a few months, my friends and I will be walking the stage together and preparing to start our next journey.”

SELENE TECLA ’24

Administrative Updates

A new dean of faculty, and Head of School John Packard announces sabbatical.

Mr. Packard announced that he plans to take a sixmonth sabbatical from Brooks, beginning July 1, 2024, and ending on January 1, 2025, to pursue both professional and personal goals. Over the course of Mr. Packard’s sabbatical, current Assistant Head of School Nina Freeman will become acting head of school. The school, Mr. Packard said, will be in wonderful hands under Ms. Freeman’s watch.

“I have never fallen in love with a school community as quickly as I have at Brooks,” says Ms. Freeman. “In such a tight-knit school, my experience has been full of opportunities to connect and establish relationships with students, colleagues, alumni and families. John Packard has been an impactful mentor to me since my arrival and has prepared me well for the transition. I am absolutely honored to carry the torch for six months and experience the school from a slightly different perspective, while continuing to celebrate, learn and grow together with such a special community.”

Longtime English faculty and current department chair Tim Benson, Mr. Packard announced, will assume the dean of faculty role beginning on July 1, 2024. The re-institution of the dean of faculty role will serve the school well, and Benson is well-prepared for the role. Benson was named the Prince Family Teaching Chair in 2022.

“Tim is especially well-suited to step into this role,” says Mr. Packard. “He has the capacity for and an interest in hearing from colleagues, and he has a lot of wisdom to share to help people navigate this life. I’m excited that he is at a point in his tenure here where he sees and wants to share that wisdom with others, because I know colleagues will benefit from it.”

Benson, meanwhile, anticipates strengthening the school’s commitment to its students through the faculty. “The best interest of the students is at the core of everything the teachers here do,” Benson says. “I look forward to being an ally for the faculty as it works to deliver on the mission of the school.”

Assistant Head of School Nina Freeman will become acting head of school during Head of School John Packard’s sixmonth sabbatical.

Chair of the English Department

Tim Benson will become the school’s dean of faculty in July.

“She Kills Monsters”

Firetrail Theatre staged the successful production in February.

Firetrail Theatre, the afternoon theatre activity at Brooks, treated the school to a successful threenight run of “She Kills Monsters: Young Adventurers Edition” in February under the tutelage of Director of Theatre Meghan Hill and Theater Technical Director Sarah Spollett. The one-act drama-comedy play by Qui Nguyen tells the story of Agnes Evans, a high school cheerleader who is grappling with the premature death of her sister, Tilly. Agnes begins playing a Dungeons & Dragons module written by Tilly, and through the course of the module learns about Tilly’s hidden thoughts and examination of her identity. The play presents themes of sexual orientation, gender diversity and the experience of coming out as LGBTQ+ with empathy and nuance. It also explores gamer culture and gives the audience an entertaining dip into mid-1990s culture and music.

“This was a play unlike any other I have been a part of before,” says Kat Thompson ’24 (pictured here second from the right). “For me, this show has emphasized the importance of individuality, kindness and bravery, three things I see reflected within the Brooks community.”

The Firetrail Theatre production was notable also because of the set: Instead of using traditional, static scenery, the crew built platforms and hanging canvases onto which projections were screened. Hill calls the projections “integral” to the production. The dynamic, animated background lent a memorable vibe to the play and added to the idea that the characters were in a video-game world.

“She Kills Monsters: Young Adventurers Edition” had a successful three-night run at Brooks in February.

PHOTO: KENSINGTONPHOTOVIDEO.COM

Fast 5 // Q+A

Sixth-former Emma Plante has dedicated much of her time at Brooks, both on and off campus, to promoting female health and female mentorship opportunities. She’s also a star student, actor and coxswain for the Brooks crew. The Bulletin sat down with Plante to learn more about her interests and her future plans.

1

What activities on campus are you most involved in? Well, beyond my involvement in Firetrail Theatre and with the crew team, I’m the leader of three different student organizations on campus: Women Supporting Women, which is one of our campus affinity groups; an organization called Girl Up, which organizes a mentorship program between female-identifying Brooks students and female-identifying students from local middle schools; and the Future Medical Professionals Club, which hosts talks and demonstrations from different medical professionals. In February, a doctor spoke with us about emergency medicine, and we got to do a lab focusing on learning how to suture, intubate patients and treat different injuries.

2

Why is Girl Up important to you? We started Girl Up this year. It’s really important for me to create a female mentorship program because I had a similar relationship at my dance studio in Wellesley, Massachusetts. There were seniors and juniors in high school who were not only great at giving advice, but who were also very kind, open and welcoming. They were generous, and they gave all the advice in the world. It

was really great to be able to learn and grow into that, so that when they graduated, we could take over and pass that on. We didn’t have a program like that at Brooks, and I wanted to create one.

3

You also do extensive advocacy and research for women’s health outside of school. What do you focus on? I had two internships this past summer and during my fifth-form year.

Emma Plante ’24

I was writing a literature review manuscript that I’m actually in the process of publishing right now with the head of OB-GYN research at the University of Massachusetts medical school. It’s a literature review on adolescent menstrual health and the experiences of adolescents in the United States. That’s how I figured out that this is really a passion of mine. From there, I joined the Massachusetts chapter of the National Organization for Women, and its subgroup, the Massachusetts Menstrual Equity Coalition. Through that coalition, I was given the opportunity to do an internship where we did even more research on topics ranging across social and medical issues surrounding reproductive health. I’ve volunteered at a domestic violence shelter and also at a women’s food shelter in Boston, as well as at a hospital where I got to work with women who were experiencing poverty and needed assistance.

4Is this interest in reproductive health and women’s health tied into your work for the Future Medical Professionals Club? Yes. I want to go into a career in medicine, specifically as a physician, and I want to continue to study women’s health. In the Future Medical Professionals Club here, we are going to have people from a variety of specialties coming in, one of which will be OB-GYN. Different people will be able to gain a perspective and

insight into what specifically interests them. I was lucky that I figured it out, that I was really interested in menstrual health and just supporting women’s health in all areas of life, but other people might have differing interests. So I wanted that to be an avenue for Brooks students to be able to figure out if they want to pursue any sort of career in medicine, and what they might be interested in specializing in.

5What other activities at Brooks have you found meaningful? The performing arts has always been one of my passions, and I’ve been a dancer for most of my life. [Director of Theatre Meghan] Hill, my acting teacher, recommended that I try out for the musical. I was amazed at how much I loved it because I had never acted before in my life. I got the experience of being in a theater production and getting to know that community, and I fell in love with it. I’m also a coxswain for the crew team: Coming into Brooks, I had no idea what a coxswain was. I didn’t even know it was a thing. And one of my dorm parents recommended that I cox, and I really liked it. This past fall, I did a flex activity that let me cox for Greater Lawrence Rowing. Coxing has helped me grow as a person, and I’ve learned a lot about myself. It’s definitely been a great learning experience.

“I want to go into a career in medicine, specifically as a physician, and I want to continue to study women’s health.”

THANK YOU, WINTER TERM VOLUNTEERS!

Winter Term is successful because of the support and engagement of our parents and alumni. We thank all of you for your help in hosting classes in your workplaces, arranging experiences in far-flung locations, and visiting our students to share your experiences of our world. Here is a partial list of Brooksians who helped make this year’s Winter Term an experience that combined immersive learning and the school’s culture of exploration:

Alumni

Cristina Antelo ’95

Robert Bonnie ’85

Britt Hart ’09

Justin Hayes ’93 (lead teacher of the school’s Mock Trial course)

Alysa James ’11

Colin Lahiff ’10

Hannah Latham ’17

Zachary McCabe ’15

Sam Meacham ’85

Faculty Emeritus Leigh Perkins ’81

Trevor Potter ’74

Tod Sedgwick ’66

Ben Sprague ’74

Parents

Ian Davis P’26

Julie Dunfey P’10

Robert Freeman (father of Assistant Head of School Nina Freeman)

Jay Gould P’27

Jorey Hurley P’26

Brian McCabe P’18

John Moritz P’24

Catharine Osborne P’26

Jon Payson P’16

Ellen Wallop (great aunt to Henry Osborne ’26)

Brooks students traveled to top-seeded The Rivers School in force to cheer on the boys 1st basketball team in its New England Championship Tournament semifinal matchup in March. Brooks played with intensity and grit and led at halftime. Brooks put up a spectacular fight in the second half also, but fell to eventual champion Rivers, 50–52.

Timmy Mulvey ’24

This year’s boys 1st basketball co-captain improved his game, found his academic passion and uncovered new interests while at Brooks.

Timmy Mulvey ’24 had name recognition when he arrived at Brooks. His brother, Matt Mulvey ’21, was a noted basketball star on campus, and when Timmy entered Brooks as a fifth-former, he hoped to follow in his brother’s footsteps. Mulvey says that he didn’t originally plan to follow his brother to Brooks, but after three years at his local high school, he sought out the green and white, and all the athletic and academic challenges and opportunities Brooks provides.

“I wanted to play basketball in college, and coming to Brooks gave me the best opportunity to do that,” Mulvey says. “But it was also an academic decision, and I definitely made the right decision.” Mulvey enrolled at Brooks as a repeat fifth-former joining his sister Megan Mulvey ’24, and he started traversing the same classrooms and courts that his brother had. “It was good being here,” Mulvey says. “I was kind of able to live through his time at school a little bit. I’d been here for his games and all the school activities he was engaged in.”

Mulvey was immediately drawn into his academic work at Brooks, and he found himself appreciating the school’s small class sizes and the close relationships Brooks students and faculty have. “I really like the small class sizes,” he says. “I benefit from small classes because it helps me be engaged in the class and maintain a good relationship with the other students in the class and our teacher.” Mulvey is typically most interested in math, and a lightbulb went off for him this fall when he enrolled in a history elective on economic history, taught by Independence Foundation Faculty Chair Lance Latham. “I didn’t know what I wanted to study in college, but taking that class got me interested in the economic and business world,” he says. “I plan to study economics or finance in college. That was my favorite class at Brooks.” Latham’s class, Mulvey says, engaged him to the extent that he read the assigned books again over Winter Break, once the class had concluded.

Mulvey has another plan for college, also: He intends to take to the basketball court at Babson College next year following a stellar career at Brooks.

Mulvey is the team’s point guard, and he picked up All-ISL Honorable Mention and All-NEPSAC mentions last year. This year, he was named Most Valuable Player of the ninth annual Patrick J. Harrington Memorial Game. He captained the team this year, and he’s worked hard to bring the team to its next level under head coach Kenya Jones. “Mr. Jones has been awesome,” Mulvey says. “As soon as the season started, I knew it was the right decision. And being a captain has been great for me. I’ve never been in this position before and I’ve been able to expand as a leader. You have to be the rock of the team when things are going well. You have to make sure everyone’s staying level. And when things are not going well, you need to make sure you’re staying level.”

Mulvey has learned valuable lessons about what leadership looks like. “Even though you have the captain title, you still have to show that you’re the leader,” he says. “This has been a great experience for me, and I’m confident that when I leave, the program will continue to be really good.”

When he’s not on the court or in the classroom, Mulvey, who is a day student, takes an active role at Brooks. He recalls with great fondness joining the cast of the spring play last year, “Peter and the Starcatcher.”

He credits student director Chapin Dobbins ’23 with handling the largely inexperienced cast well. “They did a great job directing it,” Mulvey says of Dobbins. “It was a bunch of kids, all together, and we really didn’t have any acting experience, but it was fun. I never would have done that if I wasn’t at Brooks, and it was awesome.”

Mulvey is also a member of the investment club, which he joined this fall. “I had already made my college decision by then, and I really wanted to learn more about investing and finance in general,” he says. “I’ve been trying to learn as much as I can, and it’s

“Timmy is an incredible kid and upholds everything Brooks basketball stands for. His irreplaceable presence will leave a lasting impact on our program.”

been really good for me to think about all of that. It’s what I want to study in college and probably pursue as a career, and it’s been valuable to introduce that into my life.”

When he leaves Brooks, Mulvey says, he’s confident he’ll be prepared for college. “Coming here for two years pushed me to be my best,” he says.

“I played against really good players and with really good players, and I had great coaching and training here. I’m also prepared academically, and I feel good about my education. The experience of going to Brooks has not only encouraged me to push myself outside my comfort zone, but it forced me to, in a good way. Students who come to Brooks are going to end up being pushed outside their comfort zone for the better.”

Boys 1st Basketball Head Coach KENYA JONES

Winter Sports Impress

The winter season was one that saw Brooks teams and athletes compete valiantly, leaving everything they had out on the court and the ice. Their efforts showed, as the school witnessed impressive playoff runs, winter holiday championships and impressive results in national tournaments.

BOYS BASKETBALL Rallies School With Impressive Playoff Run

The boys 1st basketball team put together an incredible season, finishing the year with 17 wins and 10 losses. Things really began to click for the team after an impressive run in the Rivers Holiday Tournament, in which the team reached the championship game before falling to the hosts. From there, the team went 9–3 in ISL action, earning a No. 4 seed in the Class B NEPSAC championship tournament, where they would face off against rival and fifth-seeded The Governor’s Academy on McVeigh Court.

On that day against The Governor’s Academy, Brooksians showed their school spirit. The gym was packed with fans dressed up in “Beach Day” décor, as voted on

www.brooksschool.org/athletics

A scene from the boys 1st basketball team’s game at The Rivers School in the NEPSAC championship semifinal round.

MORE ONLINE: Please visit the Brooks athletics website at

for more information on your favorite Brooks team, including schedules, game recaps and up-to-date news.

by the students. Their cheers were deafening the entire game, even quieting the Governor’s student section that brought three buses to the game. With the crowd behind them, Brooks defeated Governor’s 54–30 and advanced to the semifinal against The Rivers School, the No. 1 seeded team in the tournament and the team that had already beaten Brooks twice this year.

In the semifinal game, the community once again rallied, this time wearing “Green Machine” attire. Three fan buses packed the Rivers gym, and Brooks dominated the first half behind an incredible showing of support from students, faculty and staff, but it wasn’t meant to be. Brooks lost a nail-biter 50–52, and Rivers went on to win the championship game by more than 20 points the next day.

The team finished the year with five members earning All-ISL recognition and four athletes earning All-NEPSAC recognition.

GIRLS BASKETBALL Makes Late Run To Earn Playoff Bid

The girls 1st basketball team knew there were hurdles to jump this year, as it graduated several key players from a team that lost the Class B NEPSAC championship in heartbreaking fashion last year. That didn’t stop them from fighting hard, game in and game out.

The team got off to a rocky start, losing four of its first five games, but second-year head coach Ben Chase doubled down on his team and its systems and put together an impressive seven-win, three-loss run in the next 10 games to get back on track and launch Brooks into a competitive spot in the Class B rankings.

Two more wins against ISL opponents Thayer Academy and St. Mark’s School in late February

really capped things off, though. The team clawed back to earn the eighth seed in the Class B NEPSAC championship tournament, where Brooks would face off against St. George’s School, which Brooks beat as the seventh-seeded team the year before.

Despite its best efforts, though, Brooks couldn’t knock off the eventual Class B champions, despite keeping things very close in the first half, and the team ended its season with a 10–11 record, three All-ISL recipients and one AllNEPSAC recipient.

BOYS HOCKEY

Wins Winter Tournament for First Time Since 2015

Although the boys 1st ice hockey season didn’t end the way the team hoped, narrowly missing out on a spot in the small school playoffs, Brooks did take home some hardware after winning the BrooksPingree Winter Holiday Hockey Tournament, its first championship in that tournament since 2015.

Brooks defeated Hebron Academy 5–1 and New Hampton School 4–1 before a slip-up against North Yarmouth Academy, but

still earned a spot in the championship and cruised its way to first place with a 4–1 victory over Tilton School.

Brooks finished the year off with five different players earning All-ISL recognition.

WRESTLING Makes a Statement

For the first time since 2019, a member of the Brooks wrestling team qualified for the National Prep Championships. Fifth-former Aiden Crott (right) reached the podium at the New England Prep School Wrestling Association with a sixth-place performance, qualifying him for the nationwide tournament at Lehigh University. Eight athletes qualified for the New England tournament, a new best under head coach Chris Barker, and seven different wrestlers medaled at the ISL Graves Kelsey tournament as well. By the end of the season, five different athletes were given AllISL recognition, and Crott received All-NEPSAC recognition in his weight class.

From McVeigh Court to March Madness

This year, five different alums of the boys and girls basketball programs at Brooks made appearances in their respective divisions of the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament.

Brady Cummins ’22 and Sam Thomson ’20 helped Colgate University to its fourth straight Patriot League title and NCAA berth. Cummins led the way for Colgate with 19 points in the game that clinched Colgate’s spot in the NCAA tournament. Meanwhile, Darrel Yepdo ’22 was essential to St. Michael’s College’s amazing run that earned it the top seed in the east region of the Division II bracket.

Sophomore sensation Taina Mair ’22 led the way for Duke University in its run in the tournament as well. Duke reached the Sweet Sixteen before falling to the University of Connecticut.

Finally, Matthew Mulvey ’21 was part of a Swarthmore College team that advanced to the second round of the Division III NCAA tournament after winning the Centennial Conference championship.

Adventure, Inquiry & Service

Journaled by SONAKSHI GHOSAL GUPTA ’24, URMI PATEL ’26, ELLA SALHANICK ’26 , KAMRYN SHUMSKY ’26, LYDIA TANGNEY ’25

Winter Term through the eyes of Brooks students

DEFINING THREE SKILLS

Adventure, Inquiry and Service

Last spring, a faculty working group tasked with reviewing Winter Term took time to define the key skills of immersive learning, one of the school’s guiding principles: adventure, inquiry and service. Adventure classes, Dean of Curriculum and Instruction Joanna McDonough explains, push students beyond their comfort zones. Inquiry classes ground student work in research and questions. Service classes explore empathy through community engagement. McDonough says that these skills drove curriculum development this year and provided a solid foundation on which the school plans to structure Winter Term in the future.

At Brooks, January means Winter Term: a three-week period during which students enroll in nontraditional classes created out of faculty curiosity and interest. The campus is alive with immersive experiences, focused research and almost-daily trips to explore locations from neighboring towns to tropical climates. The Bulletin asked students from four different Winter Term classes to document the term by keeping journals. Read on to get a glimpse of both the depth and breadth of Winter Term through the eyes of current students.

● Italian Art and Culture: Traditions and Innovations

Immersive Learning Skills: Inquiry and Adventure

Students experienced Italian culture while also learning about the history and social context associated with Italian arts, architecture, cuisine, cinema and language. The course traveled to Italy over Spring Break.

Journaled by SONAKSHI GHOSAL GUPTA ’24

●

Brooks History and Film

Immersive Learning Skill: Inquiry

Students became experts on Brooks history by making videos for the school archives modeled after the documentaries created by noted filmmaker Ken Burns. Students dove into the materials housed in the Brooks archives while also learning about storytelling, filmmaking software and the work of historians.

Journaled by ELLA SALHANICK ’26 and KAMRYN SHUMSKY ’26

● Subversive Stitches: Activism and Service Through Textile Art

Immersive Learning Skill: Service

Students studied the ways in which, throughout history, groups who are silent in the written record have used textile and other craft to voice their thoughts and ideas. They learned basic embroidery, quilting and crochet techniques, and brought their own craftivism and service projects to life by donating pieces to a worthy cause.

Journaled by URMI PATEL ’26

●

Fair Winds and Following Seas

Immersive Learning Skill: Adventure

Students learned about maritime life and skills, and received their American Sailboat Association Keelboat 101 Sailing Certification. They received lessons in navigation, nautical knots, meteorology, and naval history and archaeology, and also learned about the work of local organizations dedicated to the conservation of our regional waterways. The group then traveled to Key Largo, Florida, to complete the certification course and explore the Florida Keys.

Journaled by LYDIA TANGNEY ’25

Sonakshi Ghosal Gupta ’24 (second from left) traveled to Italy, including the Colosseum in Rome, with the “Italian Art and Culture” Winter Term class.

Journal Entries

JANUARY 3

● ITALIAN ART AND CULTURE: Today was the first day of Winter Term! We talked about our plan for the trip to Italy in March, learned some greetings in Italian and then headed to the Lehman Gallery. We spent some time reflecting on Visiting Artist Robert Freeman’s paintings from his collection “Struggle.” I loved the expressiveness of his work and the sense of bravery and boldness in his technique. We also learned about the theme of our class: Tutto Fatto a Mano, which means “everything by hand.” We’ll spend the next three weeks working with our hands through cooking, drawing, painting and more.

● FAIR WINDS AND FOLLOWING SEAS: Our first class of the sailing Winter Term course went extremely well. I am excited to continue learning about how to sail and also about the other aspects that come with sailing. Learning terminology and how to tie knots was a nice way to ease back into school on the first day.

JANUARY 4

● ITALIAN ART AND CULTURE: After practicing the greetings we learned the previous day, we spent some time learning more Italian phrases. We learned how to do introductions and some vocabulary specific to restaurants. At 10 a.m., we piled into the busettes and were on our way to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston! Our main objective was to find a piece of artwork that was related to a location in Italy that we had been assigned to in class. My location was Murano, which is a small island off of Venice. I found some really interesting “chopines” from Venice, which are platform shoes popular in Renaissance-era Venice. These shoes allowed women to display their wealth and status as they would enable them to wear longer lengths of expensive fabric. Afterward, we walked to Tatte Bakery and enjoyed a quick snack.

● FAIR WINDS AND FOLLOWING SEAS: This morning we learned the bowline knot. The bowline was difficult to understand at first, but with more practice it became easier. Then, we went outside and learned about wind direction and the importance of understanding the

wind speed when sailing. We brought bubbles outside and determined that the direction of the wind was southeast. Wind is measured in knots. Here’s the conversion to miles per hour: 1 knot = 1.151 miles/hour.

JANUARY 5

● FAIR WINDS AND FOLLOWING SEAS: MORNING CONDITIONS: 9:25 a.m., southwest winds, 21 degrees outside, sunny with a bit of cloud.

● BROOKS HISTORY AND FILM: We visited Groton School for a campus tour led by Mr. Melchior, the library director. During the tour, Mr. Melchior walked us through notable locations like the Schoolhouse, the Chapel and Groton’s archives. While in the archives, we compared the similarities between Groton and Brooks. Once we returned to Brooks, we discussed the evolution of the Brooks campus and the roles Brooks students took on during wartime.

● SUBVERSIVE STITCHES: Today in Subversive Stitches we started learning to crochet, and we also worked on our embroidery and quilting projects. Before this Winter Term I had crocheted a little bit, but our new project helped me develop my skills and I helped my classmates learn how to crochet. While we were all working on our projects we learned about the history of these art forms and how they were seen as “crafts” because they were mostly done by women. Things like quilting, embroidery and crochet were commonly known as women’s hobbies. This perception resulted in them being viewed as “less than” when compared to paintings and sculptures of the time, even though they take just as much time, skill and effort.

JANUARY 6

● FAIR WINDS AND FOLLOWING SEAS: MORNING CONDITIONS: 9:05 a.m., southwest winds about 3 m.p.h., 33 degrees outside, cloudy.

● SUBVERSIVE STITCHES: We’re choosing an organization to help as a class, and today we’re pitching to each other which organization we should work with. Our class vote was to help Comfort for Critters and Binky Patrol. Comfort for Critters gives crochet blankets to animals in shelters waiting for homes; Binky Patrol collects handmade blankets to give to kids struggling with mental health and trauma.

● ITALIAN ART AND CULTURE: We spent the day painting. After putting the finishing touches on our smaller paintings, we moved on to creating a bigger painting representative of our assigned location. Visiting Artist Robert Freeman mentored us throughout the creative process. We took a short break to research a social issue at our assigned locations and then shared our ideas on how we would represent these issues through art.

● BROOKS HISTORY AND FILM: We screened documentaries created by alumni that dive into student life during the 1900s. Watching documentaries with notable interviewees such as faculty emeritus J. Tower Thompson, trustee emeritus Steve Forbes ’66 and faculty emeritus Nicholas Evangelos taught us about what the school was like throughout its history. We ended the day brainstorming our final projects.

JANUARY 8

● SUBVERSIVE STITCHES: Today I finished my quilt! I made a checkered quilt and added a small border to it. I also finished my crochet square that we will use to make a class blanket. Towards the end of class we focused more on our two service projects. I took the lead on one of them by collecting patterns we could use to crochet blankets for Comfort for Critters.

● ITALIAN ART AND CULTURE: This was such a fun day! The campus is covered in snow and looks beautiful! One of our teachers gave us a presentation on Rome and a quick introduction to the four types of pasta we would be making for lunch. We headed to our teacher’s faculty residence and divided into our groups for the cook-off. The first group cooked while the second group watched the Pinocchio movie in Italian. The first group cooked carbonara and cacio e pepe. They were both delicious,

Lydia Tangney ’25 (right) enjoys time on the water in Florida with classmates Charlie Rousmaneire ’25 (left) and Drake Tarlow ’25 in the “Fair Winds and Following Seas” Winter Term class.

but I liked the carbonara better. The second group also cooked a carbonara along with an amatriciana. The class really bonded today.

● BROOKS HISTORY AND FILM: We began our second week of Winter Term by learning about racial integration at Brooks. We also began to gather information for our projects by exploring the Brooks archives.

● FAIR WINDS AND FOLLOWING SEAS:

We took a trip to the oldest seaport in the Boston area: Gloucester, Massachusetts. In Gloucester, we explored famous landmarks by the sea including the greasy pole. We visited the Cape Ann Museum and learned about the fishing industry and sailing on coastal Massachusetts. After the museum we had some free time to walk around the town and visit local dining spots. A personal favorite was Jim’s Bagel and Bake Shoppe. To finish off the day, we went to a historic lighthouse at the end of a jetty to catch a glimpse of the view. Great day!

JANUARY 9

● BROOKS HISTORY AND FILM: Our morning began with discussing and learning about former head of school Peter Aitken. We learned about H.P.A.’s time here and the ways in which he influenced Brooks. We’re visiting the studio of filmmaker Ken Burns tomorrow, so we also watched a behind-the-scenes video of Ken Burns’ documentary “The War” in preparation.

● ITALIAN ART AND CULTURE: We departed campus at 8 a.m. and headed to Boston. The bus dropped us off at Boston Common, and then we walked to Old North Church in the North End. Our guide gave us a comprehensive tour, recounting the history of the church and the Italian community in the North End. We then took a tour of the crypts underneath the church—which was a spine-chilling experience. Afterward, we had two hours to have lunch at an Italian restaurant of our choosing. My friends and I chose Carmelina’s on Hanover Street, and the food was delectable.

● SUBVERSIVE STITCHES: I spent most of the day crocheting for our service projects. I learned a new crochet pattern for a blanket that will be donated to Comfort for Critters. Learning this new pattern was difficult at first, but towards the end of class I started to understand it. After lunch we learned about Mulyana, an artist who uses crocheting, knitting and stitching to bring awareness to the problems that sea life faces. In

the same way in which Mulyana brings awareness to causes, we will be doing the same and creating a class quilt. For this class quilt we will each design one square. My square will focus on climate change. At Brooks, I am a part of the No Planet B club, which advocates for environmental causes and sustainability on campus. I want more people to join after seeing my quilt square.

JANUARY 10

● SUBVERSIVE STITCHES: We all presented our designs for our class quilt. Topics my classmates wanted to bring awareness to include mental health, coral bleaching, beauty standards and women’s rights. I found it interesting how many of our topics relate to each other: Climate change can cause coral bleaching, and beauty standards can heavily impact our mental health. I got to know my classmates better and understand what causes are important to them.

● BROOKS HISTORY AND FILM: We traveled to New Hampshire to visit Ken Burns’ studio. We were able to speak with members of his production and editing teams. We’re making videos about Brooks as our final projects for this class, so the opportunity to visit the studio was valuable.

JANUARY 11

● SUBVERSIVE STITCHES: Today we went to Boston and spent the day at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Walking in, we were hit with the smell of fresh flowers from the courtyard in the middle of the museum. Then we made our way to the Fabiola JeanLouis exhibit, which had a paper mache dress that shows the strength and fragility of paper. We also got to see the Inventing Isabella exhibit. In this exhibit, we saw many portraits of Isabella Stewart Gardner, and we also got to see one of her dresses.

● ITALIAN ART AND CULTURE: Today was another trip day! It was very cold outside, but we bundled up and headed to Boston. After a stop at Caffe Nero to enjoy some breakfast, we walked over to our 11:30 a.m. tour at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. It was interesting to learn that the museum’s namesake is from the same family that Gardner Dormitory at Brooks is named after! The museum was breathtaking. It was modeled after an Italian villa and the courtyard, filled with exotic flowers and trees, was stunning. The tour

was fascinating and I especially enjoyed the elaborate tapestries. We then walked over to the Prudential Center and grabbed some delicious Italian food at Eataly before getting back on the bus to Brooks.

● BROOKS HISTORY AND FILM: We went to Boston to visit some locations that are significant to Brooks. Our first location was 119 Commonwealth Avenue, where Brooks was originally founded. We also took a tour of Trinity Church, where we learned more about Phillips Brooks, who Brooks School is named after.

JANUARY 12

● FAIR WINDS AND FOLLOWING SEAS: We took a trip to the New England Aquarium in Boston today. We explored different sea animals and ecosystems, some of which we might see while sailing in Key Largo. My favorite exhibit was the seals and sea lions. Then, we headed back to Brooks for a visit by Ben Sprague ’74. We met with Ben in the new boathouse, where we had a fire going. Ben was a huge Brooksian: He was involved in every sport, he succeeded in school, and he ended up meeting his wife while teaching here. He even got married in Ashburn Chapel! After graduating from Brooks, Ben had aspirations to adventure. He started working on boats and was asked to take a sailing trip to Bermuda. Ben and his crew faced a life-threatening storm

while at sea and capsized their boat. They had a dinghy but were lost at sea with no rations for two days. They were then rescued by a Cuban tanker. Hearing Ben's story really gave me a lot of perspective, and it was a reminder to always appreciate life and all its ups and downs. I hope everyone has an opportunity to hear a story like that. [Ed. Note: For more on Ben Sprague’s experience and his visit to campus, please see Page 44.]

● ITALIAN ART AND CULTURE: We spent the morning practicing our Italian phrases and expanding our Italian vocabulary. We were also assigned to “families” named after famous Italian artists. Each family was tasked with creating a menu in Italian that it could use if they were to run a restaurant in Italy. We spent some time in our small groups coming up with suitable appetizers, or antipasti; primi; secondi; side dishes, or contorni; and desserts, or dolce. After lunch, we worked on our bigger paintings that represent a social justice issue at our previously assigned locations.

● SUBVERSIVE STITCHES: Today, we went to the Concord Museum in Concord, Massachusetts, to see its exhibit “Interwoven: Women’s Lives in Thread.” In this exhibit we got to see many embroidery pieces; all of these were done by women, and they showed their voice throughout history. We saw many samplers of little girls learning to embroider, and we also saw a family register that was

The “Brooks History and Film” Winter Term class at Groton School, pictured with Groton’s Endicott Peabody bust. Brooks has a matching bust located in the Link. Journalers Ella Salhanick ’26 and Kamryn Shumsky ’26 are on the far right and second to the right in this photo, respectively.

embroidered. After visiting the museum we went to a cafe in Concord, got some snacks and worked on our projects.

JANUARY 13

● ITALIAN ART AND CULTURE: We’re headed to New York tomorrow. Today, we learned about the opera (Madame Butterfly) that we are going to see in New York and watched an important video on cultural appropriation.

JANUARY 14

● ITALIAN ART AND CULTURE: We started our day bright and early, as we hopped onto vans at 4:30 a.m. to head to South Station in Boston. After grabbing breakfast at the station, we boarded a train to Penn Station in New York. We all slept throughout the train ride. I opened my eyes to a breathtaking sunrise as we approached the city. We walked to Columbus Circle, where we had lunch, and then headed to our hotel right near the Metropolitan Opera. We got dressed for the opera and then walked over at around 2:30 p.m. The opera house was beautiful, complete with magnificent architecture and ornate decorations. We watched a production of Puccini’s “Madame Butterfly.” It was my first time watching an opera, and I thoroughly enjoyed the music, the impressive arias and the work that went into creating the set. We also had a chance to visit the orchestra pit and speak to one of the oboists, which was very special. After the opera, we enjoyed dinner together at the Italian restaurant El Violino. Overall, I really enjoyed the day.

JANUARY 15

● SUBVERSIVE STITCHES: After our Chapel service to honor Martin Luther King Jr., I made my way to class where I continued to work on my activism quilt. For my quilt I added a border and started writing out “There is no Planet B.”

● FAIR WINDS AND FOLLOWING SEAS: We’re in Florida! Our first day of sailing training was packed with things to cover. We prepared for the long day ahead while making breakfast. We spent the morning portion of our training meeting our instructors and assigning the boats to groups. Soon we were off on the boats. On the water we learned about docking, anchoring, rigging,

tacking, jibing and heeling. After our long day of sailing, we went back to the cottages and went straight to the kayaks to watch the sunset. For dinner, our teachers prepared tacos!

● ITALIAN ART AND CULTURE: We started our day in New York with breakfast at an Italian cafe. After that we walked through Central Park to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I enjoyed looking at the Hellenistic sculptures as well as the Egyptian exhibits. We also visited the Robert Lehman collection housed in the Met and learned how influential he was in the arts community. We went to lunch at Serafina and enjoyed some delicious Italian food. After that, we had some free time to explore the city. Then, we hopped on the subway and went back to Penn Station, where we grabbed some dinner before boarding the train back to Boston.

JANUARY 16

● FAIR WINDS AND FOLLOWING SEAS: The morning of our second day in Florida was spent on the water enjoying the beautiful weather and ocean. After about three hours sailing, we headed back to the harbor for lunch and then reviewed for our sailing certification test, which was taking place later that day. The test is not to be taken lightly: It consisted of 100 multiple-choice questions on all rules of sailing. The wait to see if we passed was agonizing, but all of us passed with grades in the 90s and above! When a student passes their certification they get to ring a bell hanging on the tiki hut! We all received our certification books, meaning that we can sail on our own. My group and I went back on the water to go over one last thing: putting the boat on a mooring. When we came back we spotted manatees in the harbor and took the kayaks to go see them. We hung out on the water while manatees swam underneath us and all around. We ended the night with a homemade meal cooked by three of our classmates — mac and cheese with burgers. We ate and sat around the fire pit playing music.

● SUBVERSIVE STITCHES: As we get to the end of Winter Term, we went on our last trip today. We went to the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, Massachusetts. We saw many old and new quilts. We got to learn about more quilting techniques that we can use in our own quilts. After our museum visit, we went out to lunch and got boba. Then we made our way back to Brooks, where we had time to work on our own activism quilts.

JANUARY 17

● FAIR WINDS AND FOLLOWING SEAS: On our last day in Key Largo, we got to decide what to do. We slept in and headed to a nearby beach at a national park. We hung around on the beach playing football, talking and swimming before heading to an ice cream spot. The captain of the cottages we were staying in invited us on a sunset catamaran cruise to end our great trip. Some of us had the opportunity to captain the large boat while the rest of us sat down in the bow. It was still an incredible experience. We saw dolphins swimming alongside us and the strip of docks and restaurants were lit up. After dinner, we all sat by the fire and roasted marshmallows. This day into night was such a perfect way to end our trip!

SPRING BREAK

● ITALIAN ART AND CULTURE: We traveled to Venice, Florence, Rome and the Amalfi Coast over Spring Break! Florence was my

personal favorite. The quiet charm of the city as we walked through rainwashed cobblestone streets brimming with Renaissance art and architecture captivated me. We often congregated at Piazza della Signoria, the main square in Florence, and this was my favorite spot: In addition to being a stone’s throw away from the beautiful Arno River, the square is bounded by historically significant buildings and has multiple statues, one of them a copy of Michelangelo’s “David.” We also enjoyed a very fun cooking class our first night in Florence where we learned to make asparagus risotto, chicken with honey and fennel, and a berry panna cotta with Chef Ana Dandrea. At night, we would see the square bustling with laughter and chatter and music, street vendors trying to sell their wares, tourists shopping and locals enjoying their evening passeggiata, or stroll. Enjoying the energy in the square, admiring the plethora of art in the Uffizi gallery, learning how leather is made, walking through the street markets filled with vendors selling local crafts and handiwork — every moment in Florence felt like a cherished memory in the making.

Urmi Patel ’26 (left) hard at work in the “Subversive Stitches” Winter Term class.

A scene from Brooks School’s fire trail, a wooded walking trail that follows the shoreline of Lake Cochichewick..

RoOted in Optimism

The Brooks campus is beautiful by design, and every Brooks student and graduate has memories of walking through fields, down paths and across quads dotted with trees. Many of the trees on the Brooks campus were planted intentionally after having been donated by generous Brooksians. Caring for this extraordinary resource takes skill and attention.

STORY BY REBECCA A. BINDER

The Brooks School campus has evolved to meet the continuously changing needs of its students, faculty and community. New buildings have risen. Old buildings have given way. Facilities have been expanded, upgraded and modernized.Buildings have found new and current uses. And now, as Brooks approaches its 100-year anniversary, the campus is poised to change shape again. Through these series of much-needed and well-used renovations and updates to the school’s buildings, though, one campus feature has remained constant. The trees that enhance our campus are an anchor into our past, a testament to the ongoing care of our campus, and an emblem for the growth of our current students and campus community in our future. The gorgeous specimens of life and seasonal change that stand sentry on our campus have meaning; they are cared for; and they watch over us as we engage in our lives here.

CARING FOR OUR PAST

Grounds Supervisor Bill St. Cyr credits the Russell family, who owned the original farm the Brooks campus sits on today, as visionaries who laid the groundwork for the natural beauty of the campus. “The Russells were the ones who really had the vision for this place,” says St. Cyr, leaning back in a chair in his office in the facilities building. “I’m just maintaining it. The ginkgo tree by the Head of School’s House, the horse chestnut tree by the flagpole, the shagbark hickories by the Farmhouse; those are from the 1890s.” St. Cyr has been the steward of the school’s natural beauty for more than 30 years, and he maintains a three-foot by five-foot, hand-drawn map of campus trees. His work is painstaking: Numbered circles mark rare and interesting specimens, trees with an interesting history and trees that have been donated by Brooksians over time. As the campus has changed, so has St. Cyr’s map, which he last updated in 2022. White correction fluid covers campus features that no longer exist, like the old South Entrance and the road leading to the Academic Building, which were returned to nature when the new main entrance was constructed.

St. Cyr points out that, in addition to the reconfiguration of the campus over time and the intentional replacement of trees that involved, natural forces have also shaped the trees on the school’s campus. He references, for example, the Great New England Hurricane of 1938 and the destruction it wreaked on the school’s collection of stately American elm trees. “They referred to the area behind Holcombe House as Hurricane Alley,” St. Cyr says, “because the winds just came whipping through there and knocked down a substantial amount of trees.” He recalls a “beautiful, signature American elm” that used to occupy the space between the Kingsbury and Gardner House. “The tree stretched its canopy over Gardner and Kingsbury,” he says. “It was huge, and it was gorgeous. But we lost most of our elms one way or another, either to Dutch elm disease or the hurricane.”

St. Cyr pegs the post-World War II era as a “huge time” for the planting of trees on campus. “I think in those post-war years, people were starting to feel good,” he says. “People started to have a little bit of money. We weren’t thinking about building bombers anymore. We weren’t cutting down trees for fuel and growing victory gardens. We could relax and look forward to a positive future, and the definition of an optimist is the guy who’s planting a tree. He’s not going to hang a hammock on that tree. That’s not going to be his tire swing on that tree. He’s planting it for the next person.”

The beauty of the Brooks campus is intentional, and St. Cyr believes that it vastly improves the quality of

life of Brooks students. “Sometimes this place can be stressful for students,” he says, referencing his own childrens’ experiences at Brooks. “They have classes and activities six days a week and it sometimes feels as if you don’t have much time to think. You’re on the go. And to maybe be able to sit under a tree on a nice sunny day and hear the bees buzzing; it’s a relaxing thing. In the summer, the Brooks daycampers sit under the trees to find shade, and they’re packed in within the confines of the shadow like a phone booth. I love that there’s a five- or 10-degree difference in temperature based on a five-foot difference of where you’re sitting. Seeing the Brooks kids and the daycampers sit under the trees— that alone makes me smile.”

The Brooks campus offers moments of tranquility in nature, like this view from the fire trail.

PIONEERING NATURE WRITER RICHARD MABEY

TREe MAP

#708: The school’s lone remaining older American elm is rooted near Hayden-Smith House, one of the faculty homes behind Dusty Richard Field. St. Cyr has cued other trees around the American elm to help give it a canopy, and he injects the tree with fungicide and insect repellent every couple of years to try to protect it. The school has also planted new, specialized varieties of American elm that are supposed to be more disease-resistant by the new faculty homes that were constructed last year. “If those trees become established, and if they maintain their health, they’ll be beautiful in 80 or 100 years,” St. Cyr predicts.

#244: A white oak located in the woods behind the site of Russell House, heading toward the lake. In 1949, faculty emeritus Oscar Root measured the age of this tree using Emerson’s method. Root determined that the tree was born in 1789. St. Cyr measured the tree using a different method in 2022, 73 years after Root measured it, and came within one year of Root’s 1789 estimate. “We don’t have a lot of super old trees

on campus, and so, how cool is that?” St. Cyr asks.

The Russell Drive Trees:

Two rows of signature London planetrees, a hybrid between the native sycamore and the non-native Asian planetree, line Russell Drive and were planted in 1979. They are, St. Cyr says, a good example of the way in which tree pruning techniques have evolved over time. When St. Cyr first arrived at Brooks, the trees were a lot smaller and had branches that hung lower. St. Cyr applied new pruning techniques, and now, he says, “those trees are growing the way they’re supposed to.” A Brooksian walking down Russell Drive can see rounded knobs on the trunks of some of the trees. Those knobs, St. Cyr explains, are where old branches were trimmed off and healed over correctly. Of the rows of identical trees, St. Cyr points out, one is different from its neighbors: #637 is a native sycamore.

#400: A Sargent cherry tree located just south of Ashburn Chapel. This tree originally grew in the woods by Lake Cochichewick. St. Cyr found it in bloom in April 1995. The following March, he transplanted it to the spot in which it now grows.

The Joshua Tree: The lone tree standing in the middle of the school’s playing fields has been known as “The Joshua Tree” for years. This tree, #578, is a European linden tree. It was donated by Robert Royce ’49 in the spring of 1948 and originally stood eight to 10 feet tall.

#407: A Serbian spruce located west of Dearborn House. This specimen was originally brought to campus as a live Christmas tree that was displayed outside Ashburn Chapel during the holiday season in 1999. Once the Christmas holiday passed, the facilities team transplanted the tree to its current location. It is currently between 20 and 25 feet tall. Other trees once used as live Christmas trees dot the campus, including #532, which is west of Whitney House and was donated by former faculty Mel and Amy Graham.

#498: A dawn redwood west of Gardner House that was donated by C. W. Eliot Paine ’54 in 1967. St. Cyr calls this deciduous conifer his favorite tree on campus. He calls to its very cone-shaped stem and the way it drops its foliage in the fall. “It looks superbly beautiful after a hard frost,” he says. “That foliage turns silver. I love that tree because of the unique way in which it grows and its placement.”

#565: A Schwedler maple located in front of Thorne House was donated by Phil Busby, who St. Cyr says was the first certified arborist in Massachusetts history. It was planted in April 1954 and was originally four feet tall.

#947: A male ginkgo tree rooted to the east of Whitney House that was planted by the Russell family in 1890. The ginkgo tree is notable because all of its foliage drops over the course of a few hours each fall. At Brooks, tradition holds that those who are able to catch a ginkgo leaf before it reaches the ground will have good luck over the coming year. Catching a ginkgo leaf is

Sargent cherry tree

#407

deceptively difficult because the fan-shaped leaves dart and weave through the air in unpredictable directions. Ginkgo trees, which can live to be 1,000 years old, became nearly extinct, disappearing from the fossil record in North America and Europe. They were preserved by Bhuddist monks in northern China before being rediscovered by the west in the 19th century. →

Russell Drive trees

Joshua Tree

Ginkgo tree. Inset: Close-up of the fan-shaped leaves.

#578

#498

#532

#947

#400

#565

#637

#708

#244

the definitiOn

Of an OptimisT is the guy whO’s planting a Tree.”

GROUNDS SUPERVISOR BILL ST. CYR

STUDENT-LED CARE

Generations of Brooksians have, together, created the beautiful campus that we live, learn and work on today. Current Brooks students and faculty are pitching in to continue those efforts and to help care for the campus and its flora. Sustainability Coordinator Shanel Antunes is working with students from the No Planet B student organization on sustainability initiatives around campus. No Planet B is the student organization dedicated to increasing sustainability and environmentally friendly practices on campus, and to educating the Brooks community on climate change.

Antunes speaks excitedly about a tree-identification project she’s been working on with students that immerses them in their own campus while teaching them about the natural world around them. Her group is using the school’s makerspace to create plaques that will be affixed to trees around campus in a way that does not harm the tree. The group is currently focusing on making plaques for and researching 10 trees that live in heavily trafficked areas of campus. When complete, the plaques will feature a depiction of each tree’s leaves, the name of the tree, and a QR code that campus denizens can use to visit a webpage dedicated to sustainability at Brooks. That webpage will house more information about each tree as well as information about sustainability initiatives at Brooks. Antunes hopes that this spring, No Planet B will be able to launch a school-wide scavenger hunt to introduce the community to the labeling initiative.

“It’s really important for both kids who are on campus now, and for faculty, staff and alumni — anyone who comes to the campus — to see what we have that we’re trying to preserve and what we have here that is beneficial for the land that's been here for hundreds of years,” Antunes says. “It’s really cool for them to take part in that and to be able to interact with it too. I

love that we get an all-campus email when the ginkgo tree starts dropping its leaves. What we want to do is keep that spirit going for the students here, and give them the opportunity to learn even more about it.” Ultimately, Antunes and her students hope to label all the campus trees that are notable, either because of their history, their specimen, their importance to the campus community or the generous philanthropy that led to them being installed on campus. “I want our students to be more aware of their surroundings and how they can contribute to making sure that they’re preserved,” she says.

The Tulip Tree: When the Center for the Arts was built in 2018, the school had to remove a well-loved tulip tree. The tree grew between the Danforth Center and the old barn, and the school needed to remove it in order to make room for the footprint of the modern facility, which also serves as critical space for our community. Recognizing the loss of the tulip tree, the school commissioned artisans to build large tables out of the tree’s trunk. Those tables now sit in the Center for the Arts, and they are used by students and faculty every day as gathering places. →

ALUMNI CARE

It should come as no surprise that alumni care deeply about the integrity and health of our beautiful campus. Case Lynch ’74 generously connected Brooks with a local company, Arborjet. Arborjet’s bounty of resources has helped the Brooks campus with turf water management and trunk injections to promote the health and recovery of some of our legacy trees. Their products are a great resource for Bill St. Cyr and his team!

STAY UPDATED! Brooks is creating a webpage to highlight sustainability and green initiatives led by faculty and students. Please watch for the debut of this webpage to read more about current efforts at the school.

“Trees provide so much value for us as individuals,” Antunes continues. “A study found that just sitting under a tree and being surrounded by trees lowers stress. I think that’s really profound. We can lower our stress just by going outside and enjoying nature. It’s valuable for our students to connect with nature. We’re all on this campus, but sometimes I wonder how aware they are of their surroundings and how beautiful this place is. This project is helping our students be more aware of their surroundings.”

AMERICAN AUTHOR KAREN JOY FOWLER “

Trees are as close TO immOrTaliTy as the resT Of us ever cOme.”

Students studying in the school’s remembrance garden, located behind the Science Center.

<Exercising> the [Brain]

An endowed gift brought a formal computer science program to Brooks this year, and students are engaging with courses that teach them how to think logically and use abstract thinking to solve real-world problems.

// STORY BY // REBECCA A. BINDER

A new computer science curriculum began in earnest at Brooks this year.

IN RECENT YEARS,

Brooks has stepped eagerly into the demand for classes focusing on new frontiers. The school has expanded its science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM) offerings, for example. Brooks also broadened its longstanding signature summer experience program, Students on the Forefront, to go beyond work in the medical field: Now, students can spend part of their summers immersed in and exploring engineering or coding projects. This evolving focus on STEAM opportunities has also allowed the school to respond actively with an exciting initiative in the classroom: a computer science program that formalizes the school’s offerings in a groundbreaking field.

010101010101010101010101

The school’s computer science curriculum was formalized as a response to student interest in the field and the school’s commitment to teaching classes that are forward-looking and responsive to the world around us, and that reflect what students need to be equipped and thoughtful citizens of the world. The computer science department is funded as an endowed fund and works in partnership with the math department.

The school’s computer science curriculum now includes five cumulative classes: an introductory class, two Advanced Placement offerings, and two elective offerings in coding and data science. Director of Computer Science Craig Gorton oversees the program, and he’s excited for the responsive learning opportunities that Brooks can now offer students. “Computer science has been offered here in different ways historically, but now it has a cohesive direction,” he says. “The school created this program and my position in response to that need, and also in response to an increase in demand in these skills and a broadening of what these skills are. When I took computer science in high school, there was one course — AP Computer Science — and that was the one course that you were expected to take before college. Now, the web is here, and so we have web development. Apps are here; embedded devices that you can program are here; and data science, especially, is here. High school students want exposure to a broader range of the computer sciences.”

The Brooks computer science curriculum is also notable because it stands apart from the mathematics curriculum. The course listings in computer science occupy their own section of the school’s course catalog, and Gorton is the program’s standalone director. This, Gorton says, gives the computer science program the attention and focus that it needs to be comprehensive, cumulative and to react well to the continued evolution of the field. The standalone nature of the computer science program also helps the program reach into other areas of school life in intentional ways. “It’s more holistic than just a curriculum,” Gorton explains. “We taught a Winter Term class in game development this year. Next year, we’re planning to offer robotics as an afternoon program. We’re able to offer internships for the Students on the Forefront program. We’re embedding computer science into more aspects of school life, and in other academic departments.”

Above: Students in a computer science class at Brooks. Opposite: Director of Computer Science Craig Gorton.

“LEARNING IS A CONSEQUENCE OF THINKING”

“Computer science is misunderstood,” Gorton says when asked to explain in layman’s terms what his field of study is. “A lot of people think it’s how to work with computers — how to turn them on and off, and how to use applications. We do get familiar with computers because we’re inside them, but in my view computer science really teaches students to manage complexity through abstract thinking. It’s teaching students how to use algorithmic thinking and logic to solve problems. The parts of the brain that we work are the problem solving and the puzzle solving parts, and the skills learned apply across our educations and lives.”

Algorithmic thinking asks students to solve a problem and describe that solution in such a way that another person — or a computer — could repeat the solution. For example, students might be asked to create an algorithm that describes the way in which a mouse could escape a maze repeatedly. Another algorithm could describe the solution to sorting a deck of cards: Can students describe how to sort a deck of cards accurately enough that a computer could also use those instructions to sort a deck of cards?

Computer science is a lucrative career choice, but the real benefit of teaching high schoolers computer science, according to Gorton, is that it “exercises your brain.” “My mantra is that learning is a consequence of thinking,” Gorton says. “In my classes, I need my students to puzzle through it. I could tell you a riddle and then tell you the answer to it, but you haven’t done any thinking and you probably won’t remember the riddle. But if you solve the riddle yourself, and it takes you an entire class period and you struggle with it, you’ve not only strengthened your brain, but you’ll remember how to solve that riddle. So I design as many classes as I can to actually be thinking and doing. This shows up in fields that kids are looking to take classes in for college majors or future careers, like data science, for example. But these skills are also applicable across the board to turn out the good thinkers that Brooks turns out.”

DIRECTOR

OF

COMPUTER SCIENCE CRAIG GORTON:

Sofia Fortenberry ’24 says that she’s become skilled and confident in an area she previously has little knowledge in. “I went into the class knowing barely any computer science,” she says. “But I’m doing well in the class. I’ve learned a lot and have been able to write full codes.” [Ed. Note: For examples of Fortenberry’s work in her class, please see the sidebar on page 41.]

Gorton says the skills that computer science teaches are applicable in many different fields, and he’s working with the school to bring it into other disciplines. “I try not to teach it as a skill that you learn in a vacuum,” he says. “If you can show students that, it makes it much more relevant.” He points to the elective “Creative Coding” and says that it focuses on visual representations of code. “You can use it to demonstrate physics,” he says. “You could solve a problem that otherwise you’d need calculus for. You can do it to create a piece of art. I can bring computer science into almost any other discipline and say, here’s a way you could do that with a computer.”

“Computer science really teaches students to manage complexity through abstract thinking. It’s teaching students how to use algorithmic thinking and logic to solve problems. The parts of the brain that we work are the problem solving and the puzzle solving parts, and the skills learned apply across our educations and lives.”

The Brooks computer science program arose out of an endowed gift to the school, and Gorton’s charge is to create a five-year plan that will result in a vibrant and impactful program.

“Students who take courses in computer science build skills they can use to succeed in a variety of other areas,” says Academic Dean Currie Joya Huntington. “Computer science is about algorithmic thinking: At the core of the discipline, students are building step-by-step solutions to problems. When students can reframe their other classes as problems to be solved, they realize that this skill is useful anywhere, whether they are constructing an argument based on historical research, analyzing a piece of literature or fabricating a prototype in an engineering class.”

AN IMMERSIVE EDUCATION

The school’s computer science curriculum offers students a chance to explore the world around them in innovative ways. One of the electives offered as part of the computer science curriculum at Brooks is a course in data science. Very few high schools offer data science, and Gorton says it’s a highlight of the program. “We get to use cutting edge tools, and we have students take real data sets that they’re interested in and find patterns and answer questions on their own, which I think is so valuable these days,” he says. “Can you look at the data an article used and verify that they didn’t slant it? I’ve had students take that course and then decide to major in data science in college.”

The data science elective, Gorton explains, begins with learning how to manipulate a large data set. Then, the course delves into machine learning, which Gorton calls “the fun part.” Machine learning, he explains, is useful when a data set is so large and complex that human beings cannot find a pattern themselves. Instead, data scientists feed that data set into a computer and allow the computer to find a pattern. The applications are boundless.

One data science lesson taught at Brooks combines history and computer science. The class inputs demographic data from two-thirds of the passenger manifest of the Titanic, including whether each passenger survived the famous shipwreck. “We tell the computer their name, where they’re from, their age, everything that we know about them, and whether they survived

A Close-Up Look

Sofia Fortenberry ’24 is enrolled in an Advanced Placement computer science class at Brooks, and she’s eager to show what she’s learning. She opens her laptop and flips between several code-based projects with pride.

She begins by clicking between screens that show a line drawing of a flower and the code she wrote that instructed her computer to draw the flower. Fortenberry is using the educational software application Codio to learn how to code. “This is a basic ‘how to do it,’” she says. “How to get shapes and colors.” Fortenberry flips to her next project, which she calls “really cool.” It’s an exercise in bubble sorting.

“Bubble sorting is a type of sorting in computer science where you’re given an array list — it’s a list of numbers, for example, or anything, really — and you write a program to sort the list,” Fortenberry explains. “For example, if it was a list of numbers, you could sort them from least to greatest.” Here, Fortenberry has a screen window full of bars of varying heights. When she executes the code she wrote, the code quickly rearranges the bars in order of height.

Finally, Fortenberry shows off the project that she says is her favorite: A code to simulate the child’s game Pass the Pigs. The game involves throwing two small model pigs, each of which has a dot on one side. Players gain or lose points based on the way in which the pigs land. “We spent a class period playing Pass the Pigs so that we could figure out how the game worked,” she says. “Then, we figured out how to code a simulation of the game by working on inheritances and subclasses.” Fortenberry was able to code the simulation into what she calls “a bot player” that could play against a human. “We spent a lot of time on it,” she says. “It was hard, and having a huge project that we could work through step by step was really helpful.”

A sample of a coding project Sofia Fortenberry ’24 engages in as part of her coursework in computer science at Brooks.

Fifth-formers Leito Sheckells-Betts (left) and Thayer McClintock work together on an in-class exercise as part of a computer science lesson at Brooks.

DIRECTOR OF COMPUTER SCIENCE CRAIG GORTON:

“The more often I hear a student come out of class saying that their brain hurts, the more often I know I made that lesson meaningful.”

or not,” Gorton says. “We train our computer on that data. Then we get to the last third of the manifest and ask the computer to predict whether all those people survived or not. The computer might find, for example, that every time the word R-E-V-E-R-E-N-D was in the name, that person survived. The computer doesn’t know what a reverend is, but it knows that they all survived, so it predicts that every reverend in the last third of the manifest also survived.”

Web development, which the school plans to offer next year, will give students access to the tools that real web developers use. Most high schools, Gorton explains, use software geared toward students to teach web development. He plans to teach a realistic environment, though, culminating in a group project that mimics the ways in which professional web developers work together. “For most of these students’ previous experience, they’ve written the program and debugged it and submitted it and gotten a grade,” Gorton says. “Now, the students are learning to work with five other people on the same code. I expose them to the tools that let them do that and show them how to do that.”

AN APPROACHABLE CURRICULUM

As Gorton enacts and refines the computer science program at Brooks, he notices that students come into his classes with different levels of previous experience in computer science. “Some of our kids come to Brooks from districts that have this embedded in middle school,” he says. “I also have students who don’t have any previous experience in coding. I have a group of kids who are really into STEAM topics, particularly engineering. We have kids who engage in coding competitions outside of school.” Since the students who take computer science classes at Brooks range across the spectrum of experience and interest, Gorton has a plan to bring computer science to other disciplines to expose all students to the field. “The metaphor I give is trying it like trying vegetables,” he says. “There are students that shy away from trying computer science and don’t know what they’re missing. It could be embedded into an introductory algebra math class in a fun way.”

The addition of computer science to the Brooks curriculum adds to the school’s mission of providing students with the most meaningful educational experience they will have in their lives because it trains students to think differently. “The reason I teach at the high school level is because this is where I think the most meaningful years are,” Gorton says. “You’re a total sponge in high school. My classes aren’t necessarily preparing you for college. Being able to think abstractly and solve problems appeals to engineers, but more people would do better if they had this kind of experience. The more often I hear a student come out of class saying that their brain hurts, the more often I know I made that lesson meaningful.”

The Brooks computer science program arose out of an endowed gift to the school, and Gorton’s charge is to create a five-year plan that will result in a vibrant and impactful program. He’s confident in the success of the program, and he’s mapping out a course of study that is holistic and focuses on skill development. Although foundational knowledge is important and not replaceable, the progression of courses Gorton plans is not linear. Experienced students could choose between data science or web development, for example, and engage in different experiences and focus on different educational priorities.

“I’m passionate about developing curriculum,” Gorton says. “There are no textbooks in my classes. The best classes I’ve taught are the ones that I developed myself. I’ve spent a lot of time developing the projects we work on and finding a really cool way to exercise what my students just learned. They get the most out of that.” The school’s computer science curriculum will evolve as the field and student interest do, and each year will look different from the one before. “It’s a dynamic program,” Gorton says. “The introduction to computer science course won’t look the same five years from now. I love that aspect of this. People who teach computer science love teaching computer science.”

Computer science classes at Brooks are also treated to hearing from professionals in the field, who visit Gorton’s classes: a colleague who walked students through a code review, for example, and a team from a game development studio who talked with students about what it’s like to build video games. “I love making it more realistic by bringing people in,” Gorton says. “I always keep my finger on the pulse of the industry and see where they’re going and what they’re doing and what they need. I want to teach things that are relevant.”

Dave Winans ’76 authored this poem, which he submitted to the Bulletin this fall. The poem, “Some Words for Jake,” is a heartfelt tribute to faculty emeritus Jake Dunnell, who recently passed away.

Ben Sprague Tells His Story

A Brooks graduate who survived a catastrophe at sea returned to campus to speak with a Winter Term class studying sailing.

Ben Sprague ’74 visited the Winter Term class “Fair Winds and Following Seas” in mid-January, and he held students rapt as he recounted surviving being lost at sea when the sailboat he was sailing off of Bermuda capsized and sank in 1978. The class spent Winter Term becoming certified sailors and learning about regional maritime history.

Sprague settled in to the circle of students and faculty in front of a roaring fire in the school’s new Demoulas Family Boathouse, and began. “I have told this story all my life,” he said, “and I love telling it to people who are interested.” Sprague recounted his childhood on coastal Massachusetts. He began taking sailing lessons as a child before becoming a boarding student at Brooks. While at Brooks, Sprague says, he played football, ran cross-country, rowed crew and captained the wrestling team. After graduating from Connecticut College, Sprague decided he wanted, he says, “to get to the Caribbean and work on charter boats.” He connected with Fred Strenz, who was headed to the Bahamas via Bermuda the following month, and Strenz took Sprague on as a crew member on the 42-foot steel ketch Bowditch out in Machester, Massachusetts. In a moment of foreshadowing, Bowditch set sail on Friday, October 13, 1978.

Sprague, who was 22 years old at the time, had some experience with larger boats, but not much, and he called the voyage to Bermuda “awful.” It was his first sail out in the open ocean, and the crew encountered gales reaching 60 miles per hour. Sprague told the Brooks students that he wasn’t worried because the waves were patterned consistently and the crew was able to keep the boat going. Eight days later, they arrived in Bermuda to dry out and switch the crew.

The group set off from Bermuda en route to ManO’-War Cay, Bahamas, 860 nautical miles away. The weather forecast, Sprague remembered, predicted fair weather and an easily navigable rhumb line for the length of the journey. “I wish that had been true,” Sprague said. On the fifth day at sea, he remembered,

they ran into Hurricane Kendra, one of the fastestforming hurricanes on record in the Atlantic. Kendra battered the waters off the Caribbean and the southeastern United States before heading out to sea. The Bowditch, Sprague lamented, was “going through it all over again.” The crew doubled up on watches and battled weather and rough seas for hours. Ultimately, Bowditch endured two near-capsizings before sinking. In the chaos, the World War II-era life raft washed away; the crew found itself clinging to a small, capsized but afloat sailing dinghy for 12 hours as the storm raged. Sprague likened the fight to stay above water like “being in a giant washing machine.”

Once the sun came out, Sprague noted, the weather was “gorgeous,” and the waves turned into rolling swells that finally allowed the crew to right the eightfoot dinghy and board it. The survivors had no flares, survival gear, rations or water. The men, one who was hypothermic, focused on keeping the dinghy afloat, siphoning water through foul weather gear, and counting off the hours. They were adrift for almost two days before Sprague sighted 24 de Febrero, a Cuban tanker ship. Quickly, the crew rowed toward the massive tanker. Sprague recalled being within a quarter mile of the ship: “I turned around and I saw someone on the catwalk in the bow running toward the

stern,” he said, “and I thought, ‘that’s good.’” He began reciting The Lord’s Prayer. Finally, thankfully, the tanker turned toward them (which took, Sprague said, “a very tense couple of minutes” due to the ship’s size and momentum).

As the tanker headed toward Havana, Cuba, at the height of the Cold War, Sprague recalled, “we were treated like long-lost relatives.” That changed when the tanker reached Cuba: The Bowditch crew was detained and questioned aggressively by Cuban authorities before being cleared to return to the United States through the efforts of the Swiss Consulate.

Sprague’s talk served as a wonderful opportunity for current students to hear from a graduate. The class then traveled to Florida to become certified sailors and bring boats onto the water themselves.

For more on the “Fair Seas and Following Winds” Winter Term class, please turn to the feature that begins on page 20 of this issue.

Thank you

Giving Day Success!

The school’s annual Giving Day on February 8 gave Brooksians a chance to engage and connect with Brooks and each other. The 24-hour event also helped propel the Brooks Fund to new heights that provide critical support for day-to-day life at Brooks.

We are so grateful to our alumni, students, faculty, parents, past parents, grandparents and friends who made a donation. We also extend deep appreciation to our volunteers for drumming up enthusiasm. Your generosity will immediately impact all areas of life at Brooks. Thank you!

BY THE NUMBERS:

771 donors $526,259

$25,656.40 raised by the Alumni New Donor Challenge with 106 gifts made

1975

Class with highest participation rate

1985

Class with highest number of donors

2018

Class that won the reunion classes challenge and will enjoy a champagne toast at Alumni Weekend

Ben Sprague ’74 (center) meeting with the Winter Term class “Fair Winds and Following Seas” in January in the school’s new boathouse.

A CONVERSATION:

Women & Work

Female-identifying alumni and parents gathered in Boston for a Q & A with author Jessica Begen Galica ’06 in February. Galica shared information from research and interviews she gathered for her best selling book, “Leap: Why It’s Time to Let Go to Get Ahead in Your Career.” When the conversation touched on striking a healthy balance between rewarding careers and motherhood, several graduates noted that they found femaleidentifying adults at Brooks to be fantastic role models, working tirelessly as teachers, coaches, dorm parents and parents. A reception followed the discussion and guests were able to enjoy light bites and mingle. Special thanks to Victoria and Jim Gribbell P’26 for providing the space for the event.

BROOKS WORKS

Have you recently published a book? Has your album just dropped? Tell us about it. We want to hear about your creative successes, and we want to highlight your work in an upcoming issue of the Bulletin To have your work considered for inclusion in a future installment of Brooks Works, please send a review copy to:

BEditor, Brooks Bulletin 1160 Great Pond Road North Andover, MA 01845

The magazine does not purchase the materials listed in Brooks Works. The materials we receive will be donated to the Luce Library or another appropriate outlet. The Bulletin reserves the right to reject works that, in the judgment of the editorial staff, do not promote the mission or values of Brooks School or the Bulletin

BROOKS GIVES BACK

In March, Brooks alumni and parents came together to volunteer at three locations. At Cradle to Crayons in Chicago, the Brooks team helped get clothes packs to 284 kids. At Lazarus House in Lawrence, Massachusetts, the volunteers worked on cleaning and reorganizing the space used for sewing classes. And the Brooks volunteers at the Greater Boston Food Bank were able to pack 1,398 boxes with food, which made 9,600 meals possible for families in need.

A scene from the alumni event featuring Jessica Galica ’06, who is pictured here wearing gray, center.

A Space of Belonging

This fall, the advancement office began a series of alumni affinity group gatherings that align with the school’s current student affinity groups. The calls are hosted by members of the board of trustees or the alumni board, alongside the faculty advisors of the student affinity groups. In October, the school organized a session with BIPOC alumni and former faculty that was hosted by school trustee Chris Wood ’85 and Dean of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Terri Ofori. In January, the school organized a session with LGBTQIA+ alumni, which was hosted by school trustee Charlie Cornish ’06, Director of Print Communications and English faculty Rebecca Binder and Director of Theatre Meghan Hill.

The school has two goals for these gatherings. First, we hope alumni will share their thoughts and experiences, and find community with each other. Second, we hope alumni also develop a connection and insight back to the school and its current work.

“It was incredibly powerful to have representation across six decades of alumni,” school trustee Charlie Cornish ’06, who hosted the LGBTQIA+ alumni call, reflects. “Brooks School and our country have clearly come a long way, and today is a much healthier environment on campus. The call could have gone on for hours with folks sharing perspectives. Everyone was so engaged, and you could feel the closeness, love and respect.”

There will be in-person gatherings for both alumni of color and LGBTQIA+ alumni during Alumni Weekend. For more information about these and future alumni affinity group gatherings, please contact Director of Alumni Programs Lauri Coulter at lcoulter@brooksschool.org or (978) 725-6242.

Alumni Hockey and Family Skate Event

The annual Alumni Skate event took place at Brooks in early January. Alumni ranging from the classes of 1987 to current student Aiden Moschella ’24, along with their families and children, laced up their skates and took to the ice at the rink. The group spent time skating around and playing pickup before enjoying a buffet lunch in the Keating Room.

“The call could have gone on for hours with folks sharing perspectives. Everyone was so engaged, and you could feel the closeness, love and respect.”

Charlie Cornish ’06

trustee Charlie Cornish ’06 will serve as speaker at this spring’s Donning of the Stoles and Symbols ceremony. The commencement celebration recognizes the achievement and aspirations of graduating students who have participated in affinity groups during their time at Brooks.

Pictured here are, bottom row, left to right: Willie Waters ‘02, Aiden Moschella ‘24, Ian Speliotis ‘14, Jamie Waters ‘04 and Ryan Wilson ‘01. Top row, left to right: Girls ice hockey head coach Jacqueline “Bean” Clark, Brendan McDonough ‘12, Cam Patch ‘14, Matt Mues ‘04, Nick Potter ‘12, Kevin Hendrickson ‘04, P’24, Chase Castner ‘05, Tyler English ‘05 and Russ Pyle ‘87, P’25.

School

School trustee Chris Wood ’85, shown here speaking at last year’s Donning of the Stoles and Symbols ceremony, hosted the school’s call for alumni and former faculty of color.

JOHN ARCHIBALD ’68

Empathy and Service

A Brooks graduate made his way through personal and societal challenges by focusing on the points of light he found along the way. Later in life, he found peace after turning to a career based in care and compassion.

Finding Support at Brooks John Archibald ’68 remembers one of the moments at which he decided he could, as he says, “do better.” It was January 1968, Archibald was in the sixth form at Brooks, and he was shopping for psychedelic posters to decorate the walls of his dorm room. “Mr. King was a revelation for me,” Archibald says. Arts faculty emeritus Michael King inspired Archibald to use his own talents and experiences to paint his own, superior, posters. Archibald listened. “Then, I started doing all kinds of other paintings,” he says. “I painted a ton before I left Brooks, and I’ve been painting ever since.” Archibald has since shown his work at galleries in Scottsdale, Arizona, San Diego, California, St. Petersburg, Florida, and Hawai’i.

That pattern one of Archibald learning to trust himself, learning to ask for help, and learning that the presence he brings into the world benefits his community — is repeated when Archibald talks about his life. One constant is that when he was younger, he found people, including Brooks faculty, who encouraged him, supported him and cared for him.

As a closeted gay man in the 1960s, Archibald struggled as a teenager and at Brooks. Archibald notes that throughout 1960s mainstream society, homosexuality was universally seen as a psychiatric disorder and was often penalized under the law. “I was extremely conflicted,” Archibald remembers. “At that point, my attitude about myself was that it would be shameful to even bring that up.”

Archibald remembers the care that he received from a few members of the Brooks faculty, especially founding headmaster Frank D. Ashburn. Those moments, he says, inspired him later in life. Archibald recalls with particular fondness a conversation he had with Mr. Ashburn after being caught smoking a cigarette, a violation of school rules. Mr. Ashburn asked Archibald why he had been smoking, Archibald recalls. “I said, ‘well, I’m having an awful time. I don’t like myself, and I don’t understand anything.’ That was the first time that I had actually been honest with anyone, and Mr. Ashburn’s reaction was so loving and supportive that I came out of that meeting renewed.”

Learning to Advocate

Archibald officially came out as gay and was struck clean and sober on New Year’s Eve of 1985, a transformation that he calls “a spiritual pivot.” Within two weeks of moving to Hawai’i in 1987, Archibald was approached by an opportunity to serve his community: He became director of Malama Pono Hawai’i AIDS Project. Now called Malama Pono Health Services (MPHS), the organization Archibald came to lead had been founded a year before to serve HIV and AIDS patients on Kauai. Presently, MPHS has expanded its services and team: It now serves patients of all income levels on a variety of health and wellness issues, breaking down barriers to quality care, support and education. Archibald recalls giving seminars on HIV/AIDS education and prevention to area residents. His talks, he says, were often met with frosty receptions. “I had no idea what I was doing,” Archibald says, recalling his days leading a young organization confronting a devastating epidemic. “But, I wasn’t afraid to ask for help, and we managed.” Archibald continued to advocate for the needs of the community despite the fear, incorrect information and prejudice that surrounded the early years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

“I realized that I could speak from a space of emotional safety and share that with other people, which was fascinating.”

JOHN ARCHIBALD ’68

Extending Care to Others

Once his role at Malama Pono Hawai’i AIDS Project ended in 1989, Archibald moved to Phoenix, Arizona, and found another avenue through which he could serve the people around him. He enrolled in nursing school and applied himself to the rigorous curriculum. Archibald recalls asking a mentor how he would know which area of nursing to go into. “She said, ‘you’ll find out; it will present itself to you,’” he says. “And, she was totally right.”

Archibald has worked as a nurse ever since, and he was drawn to providing care for people who, he says, needed focused emotional support. He worked in hospice units, for example, and on psychiatric units, and on units treating patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Archibald discovered, he says, that he provided care and support for people who served as surrogates for those who had not provided care and support to him when he needed it most. He refers to this dynamic as making amends, and he says that his nursing career has “healed areas within me that I didn’t even know were there.”

Archibald stresses that his life has been shaped by the forces of community around him, and the ways in which he has both given to

and received support from the people in his life.

“I realized that I could speak from a space of emotional safety and share that with other people, which was fascinating,” Archibald says. “I was able to speak with patients and families from an emotional center.” He ties this vulnerability to a single lesson, which he says stretches throughout his life experience: “No matter what position you’re in, don’t be afraid to ask for help.”

A painting made by John Archibald ’68 in 2008 called “Abide With Me.” Archibald used a technique he calls “instinctual pictures” for this work, which depicts his life in sobriety and recovery.

A Correspondence with Tolkien

While at Brooks, John Archibald ’68 was inspired by arts faculty emeritus Michael King to engage in a lifelong pursuit of art. As a fifth-former, Archibald sketched drawings inspired by “Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien. He sent Tolkien the sketches along with a letter. Tolkien responded, and Archibald and he struck up a friendly correspondence that stretched over the following two years until October 1968, when Archibald was a college student.

Over the course of their correspondence, Archibald and Tolkien discussed an anticipated animated movie of “The Hobbit” by Czechoslovakian animator Jiri Trnka. Archibald found a copy of a magazine that contained some proposed imagery by Trnka. He neglected to mail the magazine to Tolkien, though, because he was distracted by the flurry of his Brooks graduation and beginning college at Boston University. Archibald finally mailed the magazine to Tolkien in June 1968, apologizing for his loss of faith in not responding earlier.

Archibald received a reply from Tolkien in October 1968, which is the final letter in the correspondence. Archibald quotes from the letter today, and finds inspiration for the arc of his own life in Tolkien’s final message to him: “Do not apologize for loss of faith. I’ve actually only just read your letter again,” Tolkien wrote. “I have hardly ever read any modern work twice, although I do think it’s an admirable practice. No work that is written with any care could possibly reveal itself in a single reading, least of all narratives.”

GARY SAUNDERS ’73

A Caretaker And a Convener

A Boston-area leader in the hospitality industry has helped to grow Saunders Hotel Group by focusing on family, community and care.

GARY SAUNDERS ’73 is chair and chief executive officer of Saunders Hotel Group, which owns and/or operates four hotels in the Boston area. One of them is The Lenox Hotel, the sophisticated and historic hotel on Boylston Street in Boston’s Back Bay. And, from the second Saunders enters the lobby of The Lenox, he chats with every employee, greeting them by name as he makes his way across the elegant and timeless room.

As the head of a fourth-generation, family-owned and operated hotel management business, Saunders has seen great success. The Saunders family acquired The Lenox when Saunders was young. Now, Saunders Hotel Group owns The Lenox, The Comfort Inn Suites at Logan Airport in Boston and, its newest venture, Raffles Boston in Boston’s Back Bay. Raffles is poised to become a jewel of the Boston skyline and a monumental addition to its hotel scene. Raffles received the American Automobile Association “Five Diamond” designation in April. Saunders Hotel Group is also majority investor in and manager of Cambria Hotel in Somerville, Massachusetts.

Saunders credits his family’s success to a simple idea, though: He places great importance on helping his employees feel like part of a larger family. This translates, he says, to treating guests impeccably. Saunders recalls spending ample time working at The Lenox in his

youth during its extensive renovation in the 1960s. He spent time assisting the hotel’s maintenance and painting teams, he says, and he worked the door once he got his driver’s license. In 1976, his father purchased Boston’s Park Plaza Hotel, including its 1,100 bedrooms and 35,000 square feet of public space. Saunders left his post as manager of the Lenox Hotel and managed the Park Plaza Hotel during the 1990s. “It was a totally

different animal to run a thousand-plus room convention hotel than it was to run a 200-room boutique hotel,” he says. Shortly after selling the Park Plaza in 1997, the family built The Comfort Inn Suites at Logan Airport, which opened in 2000.

Saunders speaks excitedly about Raffles, a project that started when Saunders Hotel Group acquired the real estate site in 2011. Raffles is a true gem: Its rooms and suites are

Gary Saunders ’73 celebrating his 50th Brooks reunion on campus in spring 2023.

“We’re not a big corporation, and that’s the best thing about it. We’re hands-on and very much engaged with our guests.”

GARY SAUNDERS ’73

The Boston Sling

RAFFLES’ SIGNATURE COCKTAIL

Raffles Hotel, Saunders Hotel Group’s newest venture, serves a “Boston Sling” cocktail at its cocktail lounge, Blind Duck. The Boston Sling is an homage to the classic Singapore Sling served in Raffles’ Singapore location. Gary Saunders ’73 graciously shared the recipe for the Boston Sling, reprinted here.

a refined combination of timeless elegance and contemporary design, its five on-site restaurants and bars explore the best of Boston’s food scene and international taste profiles, and the hotel serves as an urban oasis that offers only the best services to its guests.

Raffles has faraway locations across Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The Boston location of Raffles is its first American footprint. Saunders says he chose to work with Raffles after staying incognito at the Paris location and being treated to personal, impeccable service by an employee in the hotel lobby upon arrival. “I wanted to be working with them because that’s the kind of culture that we want,” he says. Boston’s Raffles also pays personal attention to guests by offering butler service throughout a guest’s stay, which is unique in Boston hotels. “Raffles is poised to be the market leader for rates in the city by some margin,” Saunders says. “It’s designed to be in that position, and I think it’s worth that position.”

A Career Based In Care

“I grew up in the business, and these ideas about what people needed, how to accommodate them and how to take care of the people

around us — family, friends and guests — were ingrained in us around the dinner table,” Saunders says. “We’re not a big corporation, and that’s the best thing about it. We’re hands-on and very much engaged with our guests. Our service ethic is really a very special culture that’s been created and nurtured over many, many years.”

“I wouldn’t want to do anything else,” Saunders says when asked whether he ever considered a career outside of hospitality.

“I see myself as a caretaker and a convener; someone who loves being hospitable and providing a place, a comfort and an environment that people want to be in.”

He says that he has no immediate plans to retire. “No two days are the same,” Saunders continues.

“I come home and I feel fulfilled because I had a good, productive day and I made a difference. Making a difference in people’s enjoyment, in what they’re eating, in how well they’re sleeping that’s meaningful to me.”

This sense of creating community and fond experiences for the people around Saunders goes back to his time at Brooks, he says. “Brooks was pivotal for me as a person from a thinking point of view,” he says. He recalls history

INGREDIENTS

2 oz. Blind Duck gin

0.75 oz. pomegranate liqueur

0.25 oz. Drambuie

0.5 oz. Nonino Amaro

1 oz. cranberry compote

1 oz. apple shrub

0.5 oz. lime juice

Shake and serve over crushed ice

faculty emeritus John McVey, who Saunders credits with teaching him how to think independently. He also chuckles as he recalls a scheme he initiated that rivals today’s DoorDash and Uber Eats in design: Saunders would take orders from his fellow Tuckerman Hall residents for McDonald’s, travel to McDonald’s for the food and then sell it to his dormmates at a profit. “Creating a sense of community and involvement and caring is really important to me,” Saunders says, smiling softly. “That’s what makes me happy. One of the things we say about The Lenox is that when you stay here, you have the sense that you had a really nice time. That you enjoyed it. That you felt looked after. And that’s what I’m about.”

ACACIA NUNES ’14

A Young Talent in Journalism

A young Brooks graduate works as an editorial producer for Diane Sawyer.

ACACIA NUNES ’14 has had a meteoric rise through the ranks of journalism. After refining her love of writing at Brooks and honing her journalism skills as a college newspaper editor, she moved into a variety of roles at ABC News in New York. Currently, Acacia works as an editorial producer for Diane Sawyer Reporting, where she gets to further develop her career under the tutelage of one of the icons of journalism.

“It’s a huge privilege to be one of the people who brings the goings-on to the masses,” Nunes reflects.

“That’s why I was originally drawn to reporting, into journalism and storytelling. The term storytelling is used so ubiquitously nowadays, but at its core, it’s what I do and what all of us in this world do. I feel really fortunate to play a role in bringing stories to people who otherwise wouldn’t know about them.” Nunes says that her “driving force” is “getting to find out more about a person or topic or story, and then getting to report on that story and have it hopefully make a difference.”

Nunes remembers her time at Brooks fondly, and she treasures the connections she made on Great Pond Road. “I learned as soon as I got to Brooks that I valued the care that the teachers had for all of us,” she says. “Boarding school is such a unique experience; getting so much time up close and personal with your friends and your teachers and people that you learn from all the time was so special.”

While at Brooks, Nunes was a member of the girls 1st soccer and rowing teams. She also highlights her time as manager of the girls 1st ice hockey team as a fun experience. The small size of Brooks, she believes, draws people who want to

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Acacia Nunes ’14 (left) with her team. Nunes is an editorial producer for inimitable journalist Diane Sawyer (center).

“I feel really fortunate to play a role in bringing stories to people who otherwise wouldn’t know about them.”

ACACIA NUNES ’14

connect with each other. “The people that Brooks brings to campus are there for the same reason I was there,” she says. “To connect with others, to go beyond the everyday. I felt so bolstered by my dorm parents and my teachers. There’s something about the spirit of the school that draws people in.”

In the classroom, Nunes found her home in the English department. She speaks fondly of faculty emerita Leigh Perkins ’81, P’14, P’18 and current department chair Tim Benson as influences on her writing and storytelling skills. She also found her love of journalism through time working at the Brooks Shield and through an internship at the Cambridge Chronicle in her hometown of Cambridge, Massachusetts. “That’s where I first dipped my toe into reporting and learning that skill set in real time, and I fell in love with it,” she says. “I knew I wanted to write in whatever capacity I could.”

Nunes left Brooks for Bard College, where she further honed her writing skills as news editor of the Bard campus newspaper. She calls her team “tiny, but mighty,” and values the lessons she learned about self-starting and working independently. “We weren’t advised by a professor,” she says, “so everything that we put out and

wrote was driven from the ground up. That taught me about pitching stories and how to do solid reporting with very little guidance.”

Nunes is young, and she already has hefty professional experience. She’s worked in a variety of roles at ABC News in New York, where she’s moved from the overnight desk in the newsroom to her current role as editorial producer for Diane Sawyer. Along the way, she’s continued to gather experience and seek excellence in her work.

While on the overnight desk, Nunes was steeped in gathering news and disseminating it quickly. “You know what they say: News never sleeps,” she says. “I would work from midnight to 9 a.m. I think the desk, as we call it, was the best place to start because it’s the central hub of the network.” Nunes explains that since there are fewer people on duty overnight, “it’s trial by fire. You’re the one answering the calls and putting in the calls.”

Nunes learned quickly on the news desk, and her work landed her in front of Sawyer’s team.

“Every day is new, which is awesome,” Nunes says. Her responsibilities include preparing Sawyer for her interviews — conducting in-depth research on relevant topics, booking and interviewing experts, preparing Sawyer on her

questions — and “making sure,” Nunes says, “that the second she sits down in that chair, she’s as prepared as she could possibly be.”

Once filming is complete, Nunes works closely with Sawyer and her team of editors to produce different segments of the special.

Nunes benefits from her work environment, which encourages rapid learning and wholehearted participation. “I wear many hats,” she says, “and I feel lucky to be in a position in which I’m learning something new every single day, whether that’s because I’m researching something or learning from Diane how to form a narrative arc.” The biggest lesson she’s learned from working closely with Sawyer, she says, is the importance of staying prepared and being informed.

“Working with Diane is a master class in journalism every day,” Nunes reflects. “She’s incredibly generous, and enormously wellread and well-watched. She sees and knows about everything that goes on in the world, and getting to see her work every day is pretty incredible.”

Nunes has a bright future ahead of her, and she plans to continue to work in news. “Whatever comes next, I would love to be one of the many journalists who gets to bring stories to the public that may have been overlooked or not reported on. ABC News does an incredible job of making sure that its breadth of storytelling is very wide, and the importance of empathetic reporting is underscored in all that we do. So I feel lucky to work for an organization that has the same values that I do.”

PARTING SHOT

A group of Brooks students, along with mathematics faculty Paul Willis, takes in the total solar eclipse from the top of Observatory Hill on April 8, 2024. North Andover was treated to 94% coverage of the sun by the moon at 3:29 p.m. The Brooks science department arranged for the watch party, distributed eclipse glasses, and welcomed students, employees, families and even campus dogs to the astronomical event. A lucky cadre of Brooks students — some who had taken the Winter Term course “To the Moon and Beyond,” which focused on the basics of astronomy, and some who are members of the school’s astronomy club — headed to Stowe, Vermont, with science faculty Michael Dixon to experience totality.

“It was a party-like atmosphere,” science department chair Laura Hajdukiewicz observes. “One of our sixth-formers even made an eclipse playlist of music for us to listen to during the event! As a science teacher, it is so rewarding to see so many people appreciating an astronomical event together. Watching students don their eclipse glasses for the first time to see the eclipse was awesome.”

Brooks has always been a place where community members lift each other up. From cheering on our athletes, to recognizing artistic talent to nurturing academic passion, we value a supportive community that applauds the unique strengths of each of its individuals.

With just a few weeks remaining in the 2023–2024 Brooks Fund, we are closing in on our goal of $2.5 million. There is still time to make your contribution and lift up the experience of every Brooksian on campus. From the classroom to the dorm, from the theatre to the playing field, your gift directly benefits all of our students. Thank you!

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This year’s Advanced Studio Art class created an eight-foot wide mural of the Brooks campus map. The students then installed the mural for permanent display in the hallway of the school’s new admission building. Under the eye of artist Cynthia Houghton, each student created a 16-inch ceramic, wood-backed tile using the sgraffito technique. The mural includes the Brooks shield and the school’s land acknowledgement (inset).

Please visit www.brooksschool.org/alumni/events for information on Brooks alumni events on campus and around the world.