The Magazine of Cary Academy | Summer 2021

The Magazine of Cary Academy SUMMER 2021

Reflections on 25 years leading the Middle School Page 4

FOR ONE ALUM, ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS DOES A WORLD OF GOOD Page 24

RETURN OF ON-CAMPUS FUN Page 30

Follow the leaders

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Equal opportunity for discovery Page 22

2020–21 Annual Report Page 34

FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL

Dear Friends of Cary Academy, Welcome to the Annual Report edition of ?, The Magazine of Cary Academy.

Let me start by adding my thanks for the warm support that so many members of our community have shown during the past year.

While the Annual Report highlights financial contributions that were extremely important during a time of unanticipated COVIDrelated expenses, you also showed a generosity of spirit that helped pull us through one of the most challenging years in memory.

In this issue, arriving at the beginning of our 25th year, we appropriately look backward and forward. We are guided, as always, by a mission and vision that inspires us to do good work on behalf of our current students and extended community.

We celebrate the retirement of our founding Head of Middle School, Marti Jenkins, who built and sustained a model program for our younger learners, one that instills a joy of learning and discovery that positions them to thrive when they move into Upper School.

Unfortunate timing caused our new Center for Community Engagement to launch right before the pandemic, limiting some of our ability to connect our students to the broader community through service and experiential learning. Nonetheless, three short vignettes highlight the creativity and passion present in our community and offer a glimpse of the remarkable potential that we are just beginning to explore.

And, courtesy of the extraordinary generosity of alum Alex Wilson ’04 and his family, we’re thrilled to introduce the Center for Community Engagement Equity Fund. This new fund will enable all Chargers to take full advantage of all that the CCE offers— regardless of their financial resources.

Our alumni profile in this issue appropriately highlights not only the importance of global health but also how our students are equipped with a mindset and skills to own their learning beyond the walls of Cary Academy.

We hope you enjoy connecting with Cary Academy through this issue of The Magazine, and we hope to welcome you back to campus for one of our 25th Anniversary celebrations in the coming year.

With gratitude for your support,

Mike Ehrhardt, Head of School

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In this issue

SUMMER 2021 COMMUNICATIONS TEAM Mandy Dailey Dean Sauls Dan Smith PHOTOGRAPHY Dan Smith The CA community HEAD OF SCHOOL Michael Ehrhardt DIRECTOR OF ENROLLMENT MANAGEMENT Heather Clarkson DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS Mandy Dailey HEAD OF UPPER SCHOOL Robin Follet

Celebrated author, food historian, and former CA Board member, Sandra Gutierrez, delivered the keynote address at CA’s Commencement (see page 31).

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DIRECTOR OF FACILITIES Tony Hinton

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DIRECTOR OF TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION Karen McKenzie

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CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Deborah Reichel

CARY ACADEMY

www.caryacademy.org

Leadership in Crisis Program As educators, we often ask: how can we inspire and develop the next generation of leaders who might help move our country towards a more equitable future? For a group of Cary Academy students, seeking the answers required rethinking the classroom altogether.

is published three times a year by Cary Academy.

1500 N. Harrison Avenue Cary, North Carolina 27513 (919) 677-3873

Follow the Leaders

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Youth Engagement Summit What happens when a handful of high school students get a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to fly to Switzerland and pick the brains of global leaders? If “they dedicate the next year of their lives to democratizing the experience for more than a hundred of their peers,” was not your answer, you need to learn to say YES!

Migration Collaboration How do Middle School students develop a deeper understanding of human migration and the experience of refugees? For the seventh grade, nurturing crop and learning cuisine, helps plant the seeds of empathy and develop an appreciation for the taste of diversity.

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What exactly does it mean to “own your learning”? To get a grasp of the concept at the very heart of Cary Academy’s mission to build lifelong learners, join us as we dive in deep and get hands-on with the Center for Community Engagement.

DIRECTOR OF EQUITY AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT Danielle Johnson-Webb

DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT Ali Page

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What is it like to chart the course for an entire generation of students? Twenty-five years ago, Marti Jenkins was given the rare opportunity to shape the very essence of Cary Academy’s Middle School experience. As she steps into retirement, she reflects on a quarter century of shepherding CA’s youngest students.

DEAN OF FACULTY Martina Greene

HEAD OF MIDDLE SCHOOL Josette Huntress Holland

Founding Vision

Community Engagement Equity Fund Alex Wilson ’04 was transformed by the hands-on learning opportunities that characterized his time at Cary Academy. Now, he’s paying it forward with a new fund designed to ensure that all students can make the most of their CA experience.

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Healthy Curiosity For epidemiologist Kristin Andrejko, asking the right questions isn’t just about finding a good answer. Learn how scientific curiosity and a strong sense of service led her to seek a brighter, healthier future for us all.

Campus News 2

Snapshots 30

Alumni News 32

Campus News

Major Changes Afoot Across Campus Josette Huntress Holland assumed the position of Head of Middle School at the beginning of July. Ms. Huntress Holland has been Assistant Upper School Head since 2018.

In addition to teaching and leadership roles at schools across North Carolina, Ms. Huntress Holland has also served in various teaching and leadership roles at schools in Maine and Africa. She received her BA in sociology from Colby College and an Ed.M in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University.

THANK YOU AND FAREWELL! Following Commencement, we celebrated our retiring employees: Marti Jenkins—Head of Middle School, Freya Kridle—Upper School Spanish teacher, Sam Monsour—chef, Shawn Nix—Upper School speech and debate teacher, Jasmine Powell—dance teacher, Matthew Ripley-Moffitt—Middle School social studies teacher, and Leslie Williams—Middle School math teacher.

We also wish to express our appreciation and well wishes for those faculty and staff members who are moving on from CA: Sharice Chandler— Associate Director of Enrollment Management, Arnette Ejire—Upper School testing coordinator, Fred Haas—Middle School science teacher, Jane Panhorst—Middle School science teacher, Beth Popp—Middle School learning specialist, Laura Price—Middle School language arts teacher, and Jamie Roszel—Upper School English teacher.

FACULTY ACHIEVEMENTS In addition, we would like to highlight a number of recent employee achievements: Upper School math chair Craig Lazarski recently had an article on his work with students in his stats class published in the professional journal Statistics Teacher, Upper School art and design teacher Betsy MacDonald was invited to participate in a

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Elsewhere in the Upper School, longtime Dean of Students Donna Eason is assuming a new role as Assistant Head of Upper School, while college counselor Brandon Carter is the new Upper School Dean of Students for 9th and 10th grades. Sequenta Blackman has joined the Athletics Department as the new Upper School physical education teacher and Palmer Seeley has been promoted to Entrepreneurship Director in the Center for Community Engagement.

Congratulations, to all!

week-long education program offered by Epic Games on the use of Unreal Engine for interactive 3-D design, and Upper School Spanish teacher Vic Quesada-Herrera was awarded Stanford University’s J.E. Wallace Sterling Award for Academic Achievement as a teacher. A number of CA faculty also were named recipients of the Friday Fellowship and Innovative Curriculum grants. For the full list, visit bit.ly/CAfaculty2021

GERMAN ACCOMPLISHMENTS CA German students earned honors for their performance on the 2021 National German Exam, administered by the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG). CA’s 11 Goldmedal winners scored above the 90th percentile nationally, the five Silber-medalists over the 80th percentile, and seven students earned Bronze by scoring over the 70th percentile. Leah Wiebe ’23 was one of 55 national prize winners of the AATGCLV “Next Best Thing to Being There” Scholarship from the 2021 National German Exam. Closer to home, more than 30 Cary Academy Middle and Upper School German students took home awards from the North Carolina German Day Competition.

CA NAMES CHIEF ENVIRONMENTAL AND SUSTAINABILITY OFFICER As CA becomes an increasingly green

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community, the Upper School announced the creation of a new student leadership position: Chief Environmental and Sustainability Officer (CESO). The CESO will coordinate all environmental efforts on campus by facilitating collaboration and increasing publicity to drive a consolidated vision of sustainability at CA. For the 2021–2022 school year, Sydney Tai ‘22 will be the first to serve as CESO. Tai has co-led the environmental club, CA Seeds, for the past two years and established relationships with the PTAA, Middle School Green Club, and Upper School administration.

CELEBRATING CA ATHLETES The Athletics Celebration recognized dozens of All-Conference and All-State players, new record holders, and eight members of the Class of 2021 who have signed to compete at the collegiate level: Russell Burns—Track & Field at William & Mary, ThucUyen Dzu—Cross Country/ Track and Field at the University of Chicago, Kenny Eheman—Cross country/Track and Field at Davidson College, Ethan Hortelano— Fencing—Brandeis University, Koa Kaliebe— Soccer at Franklin & Marshall, Aaron Messer— Soccer at the University of Pennsylvania, Anna Newman—Swimming at Davidson College, and Abby Pompeo—Field Hockey at Davidson College. To see the full list of honorees, visit bit.ly/CA2021athletics

RETURN OF ON-CAMPUS FUN This spring, when students returned to campus, they brought the fun with them.

Fun Fest made a spectacular return (over three days!) to the Middle School. Each grade had their own day to play games, enjoy the sunshine, and share the laughter.

Everywhere you looked, there were smiling eyes, bucking rodeo sharks, wobbly surfboards, and infectious laughter.

In the Upper School, Flex Day became a wild, laughter-filled Fun Day as students became inflatable pinballs (well, Knockerballs), played Spikeball, soccer darts, human foosball, and more thanks to the hard work of the PTAA. Music and community filled the CA Quad during Quadchella, a mini-music festival featuring multiple student bands.

FOUNDING Ask founding Head of Middle School Marti Jenkins to recount a favorite memory of her twenty-five years at Cary Academy and she’s hard pressed to answer.

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“That’s too hard; there are too many!” she exclaims with a laugh, before sharing a series of quick vignettes that spring to mind: The thrill of breaking ground on campus (and the nail-biting anxiety of getting the required certificate of occupancy the day before school opened). The excitement and nerves of traveling to local events (while eight-months pregnant) with little more than a series of watercolor renderings and an impassioned mission to entice prospective parents to enroll. The overwhelming sense of community at the opening day ceremony. And, the warm connections made with early families—those that were willing to make the leap of faith and join CA based on the strength of vision alone.

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Of course, there are also the countless moments—small and large, challenging and cherished—that she has shared with students over the years that are close to her heart.

While impossible to choose a favorite, she admits that graduation days are highlights, as are the many notes, emails, and visits from former students that come back as adults to say thank you or share stories of their success (particularly from those that might have struggled initially in Middle School, but ultimately found their place and flourished).

In her final weeks on CA’s campus, however, it is those early days that have been top of mind as she reflects on her journey.

as miniature high schools,” explains Jenkins.

“Decisions—about curriculum, wellness, resources, etc.—were made with high-school students in mind and were expected to trickle down to the younger students.”

It was a model that was far less personal, far less human development-oriented and student-centered than middle school concept championed by Jenkins and embraced by CA’s founding leadership and faculty.

“We wanted something different. Instead, we started with a blank slate and the freedom and flexibility to focus specifically on the middle school-aged learner. We put them in the center and designed a program, a building, a school from there—one that would best meet their specific physical, emotional, intellectual, developmental, and social needs.”

INSPIRING VISION

Her eyes light up as she recalls them—pivotal moments that shaped CA’s foundations, long before the first bricks were laid. Together, they represent many intense hours spent collaborating shoulder-to-shoulder with an intrepid group of education visionaries, technologists, and operations experts that were tapped by Cary Academy Founders Jim and Ann Goodnight and John and Ginger Sall to design a ground-breaking, technology-forward, mold-busting middle school for the future.

For Jenkins, it was a time awash with the palpable promise of possibility.

“The opportunity to open a school is such a rare occurrence, such a wonderful opportunity for an educator,” enthuses Jenkins. “There was so much dreaming in that first year, so much exciting and inspiring brainstorming. We got to ask the big questions—the ones that matter.

What would our mission be? What would an ideal middle school look like? How do we best serve the needs of our students?”

What emerged from those marathon planning sessions was, of course, the philosophical and physical blueprint for the Middle School we know today—one that broke significantly from the traditional juniorhigh model that was still prevalent at the time.

“Junior highs were generally envisioned

A NEW BLUEPRINT

For Jenkins, that focus was personal. “I love Middle School-aged students. I love seeing them change on an hourly, daily, and annual basis. You might be talking to a student one day and that same student will be a little different the next day, just depending on the space they are in. At CA, we focused on developing a program that morphs around their needs, that meets them where they are and prepares and guides them for what comes next.

“I think from all my years here, that’s still what I am most proud of, what I find most exciting. We are true champions of the young adolescent learner,” reflects Jenkins.

Founding Middle School teacher, inaugural Service Learning Director, and CA parent, Tami Polge, remembers well the energy Jenkins brought to early planning and faculty meetings, facilitating lively discussions that would ultimately go on to shape the curriculum, culture, and lasting traditions of the Middle School. She credits Jenkins with setting a pioneering example—one that empowered faculty to dream big, lean into the CA mission, and innovate and collaborate in new and exciting ways.

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“I’m grateful for Marti’s leadership­—for setting a tone for the Middle School, one that put a high priority on team building, lifelong learning, and the spirit of adventure,” recalls Polge. “When we proposed a new curriculum, or even a whole new program such as service learning, when we pitched field trip ideas or events, or when we requested resources, Marti was actively listening and receptive.

For some of the more ambitious ideas, she would have a twinkle in her eye, asking how it would further our mission and what we needed to pull it off.”

And so, under Jenkins’s guidance, the hallmarks of the student-centric CA Middle School experience emerged: a robust advisory program to support physical, social, and emotional growth; an integrated, interdisciplinary curriculum that would inspire curiosity and invite discovery of connections across content areas; and arts, world language, and physical education components that were integral, not elective, to encourage experimentation, safe risk-taking, and exploration. Most crucially, it would all be delivered by a supportive, rallying community of educators working together in gradelevel teams to truly know and understand each student as an individual—their needs, passions, strengths, challenges, aspirations,

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and concerns—to ensure everyone had the best chance to thrive.

“Marti‘s gift to CA was designing a program that always kept Middle School children’s adolescent development at the forefront of our planning,” recalls former founding Head of School Don Berger. “She developed the Middle School team concept that still exists today and orchestrated the studentcentered teaching that blended beautifully emerging technology with core academic skill development. She also made sure the arts were an integral part of all students’ learning­—a major reason that CA is as renowned for its arts program as well as its technology.”

FIRM FOUNDATIONS

It was a forward-thinking vision that was shaped, in large part, by the culmination of Jenkins’s own history and experience as an educator in both independent and public schools across the United States.

Jenkins, who was born overseas, traveled extensively as a child, courtesy of her father’s engineering career. Igniting a love of travel, the arts, and of cultural exploration, these experiences would one day translate to an undergraduate degree in cultural anthropology with a minor in the arts from Vanderbilt University.

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The varied elementary and secondary education experiences of her youth—including both public and private institutions, American and European—also sparked an interest in education and teaching that was only furthered after opportunities to work with children both in high school and college. It was a nascent interest that would later lead to the pursuit of a Master in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of New Orleans.

In that program, she discovered her true passion. “Working on my certifications, I just fell in love with teaching, with working with kids,” recalls Jenkins.

After graduation, she spent years teaching in schools across New Orleans, both independent and public, gaining important insights into the affordances of both—into what worked programmatically and organizationally, and what didn’t—lessons that she would ultimately bring to Cary Academy. She was particularly intrigued by opportunities to combine her passions—education and the arts—in curricular innovations.

In Texas, she had opportunities to work in close collaboration with local school boards and communities, making recommendations for programmatic improvements. It was her first taste of effecting real change on the larger education landscape, of making education responsive to community and individual learner needs.

Happily, a successful trimester long culminating internship—as Assistant Principal in an elementary school in one of the top school districts in Texas—turned into a post-graduation invitation to take the position on a permanent basis. She was on her way.

Later, a move to Jackson, Mississippi for her husband’s career would prove serendipitous, coinciding with a career opportunity seemingly tailor made to her interests: a principalship for a new magnet public school program that combined academics and performing arts for grades four through twelve. As principal, Jenkins would transform the entire program, transitioning it from a pull-out model to an on-site program.

“It was exciting!” recalls Jenkins of her four years at the Power Academic and Performing Arts Complex. “We were partnering with the national advocacy organization Parents for Public Schools that was fighting flight from public schools. There were so many cool opportunities to work closely with the community, with the parents. I really valued that, just as I had in Texas.”

“Teaching in New Orleans was a fabulous experience, but I realized right away that I could make more of an impact, have more opportunities to make changes, if I was a school administrator,” explains Jenkins. “I had a wonderful professor at the University of New Orleans that used to say ‘don’t ask why, ask why not.’ It always stuck with me.”

BUILDING TOGETHER

Indeed, for Jenkins, building something more than a mere school—but a true collaborative learning community—has always been paramount. If it was the promise of a blank slate and similar start-up vibe that initially drew her to Cary Academy, in part, it has been the incredible close-knit and mission-driven Cary Academy community that has encouraged her to stay all these years.

ASKING ‘WHY NOT’?

Wanting to have the power to push the envelope and advocate for change—to ask ‘why not’ in the transformation of classrooms—she embarked on her second master’s degree. This time, she chose a Master of Education in Education Administration from the University of Texas at Austin which focused on the principalship level.

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“As a community at CA, we all live and breathe our mission. I don’t think all schools can say that. Discovery, innovation, collaboration, and excellence—I see our mission in action constantly. I see it in the dedication and creativity of our faculty and staff, in the forward-thinking vision of our board, in the curiosity and personal growth of our students, and in the support from our wonderful families.” She stops to smile, “Who wouldn’t want to work in such an exciting environment, with such wonderful people?”

Fostering a sense of community—a sense of belonging—amongst the Middle School student body has also been crucial for Jenkins. Having moved many times during her childhood, it is not something that she herself experienced growing up.

Recognizing that void in her own past has helped her to prioritize ensuring that her program supports students in authentically connecting with one another to find their place and people.

“Your friend group is so important in Middle School.

One of the things I love most about our Middle School is that we have a wide variety of students, with myriad backgrounds and interests.

Yet, we don’t have cliques; there’s not one group that’s more valued than another group. It is cool to just be who you are, to be athletic, to be geeky, to be artistic. Whoever you are, there is a place for you here. I love that.”

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Cultivating that community is, of course, an important part of her legacy, but Jenkins is humble. She is quick to shift focus away from herself, spotlighting instead the “incredible” group of faculty and staff that she has helped develop over the years.

“It really is about the larger learning team. I view my role as minor compared to what the folks in the classrooms are doing. I’m just supporting that role, making sure their needs and the needs and interests of our program are met,” she offers.

“I’m proud to have built a place that attracts creative, energetic, studentcentered, dedicated folks that love teaching Middle School and all it entails.

It takes a unique person; not all educators can do it. When you’re working with this age, if something comes up—and it will­—the content is not going to take first place; you have to be able to be flexible, to be able to set aside whatever you had planned for that day and, instead, meet them where they are. Sometimes, you have to put yourself in their shoes.”

“I think the best teachers are those that either had challenging experiences themselves as students, or had really wonderful experiences. Either way, they remember and bring the lessons learned from those experiences to the classroom in a powerful way,” she continues.

Longtime colleague and eighth-grade social studies teacher David Snively credits Jenkins with giving him the freedom and flexibility to do just that. “The guiding principle that I took from Marti was something she said to me way back in the 20th century: ‘Do what you think will be best for the students.’ That directive gave permission for all sorts of stuff, from simulations to trips,” offers Snively.

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“The message provided a constant, consistent signpost pointing towards an endless number of paths to follow and explore. For me, I think that message is what makes our program so special, and I thank Marti for making it the foundation on which the Middle School is based.”

MEASURING SUCCESS

As any good educator, Jenkins evaluates her success and the program she helped to found and build through the lens of her students.

“Kids showing up every day, happy to be here, wanting to come back every day.

Former students that come back and say ‘I just loved Middle School.’ Feedback from new parents that say ‘this is such a change for my child, they’re excited about getting up and coming to school’— these are huge for Middle School,” offers Jenkins. “I love watching as our students grow, get older, and go through the Upper School with a critical eye, one that is truly reflective of their own voice and thinking, their own perspective; that feels like success.”

A success, indeed, and one that Laneta Dorflinger, a longtime member of CA’s Board of Directors, credits to Jenkins.

“I have had the good fortune of witnessing Marti’s visionary leadership through two lenses: as a parent and as a Board member,” reflects Dorflinger.

“Always pleasant, calm, and in control, Marti embodies a rare combination of experience and qualities, including an unwavering commitment to CA’s mission and students, that has always inspired a strong sense of confidence in her leadership and the Middle School she helped to create.”

“Cary Academy owes Marti a debt of gratitude,” agrees Head of School Mike

the lifelong learner, she’s working towards getting a master gardeners certification—“It’s all about the chemistry,” she explains—and anticipating a long-awaited return to travel, including a tour of the United States by motorcycle and the intracoastal waterways of North Carolina by boat.

The moment is admittedly bittersweet.

Undoubtedly, she will miss her colleagues, in particular, her office staff and those faculty with whom she has worked side-by-side so closely all these years.

“That first year, we cut a piece out of the foundation of the Middle School building, and some of us have those bricks hanging on our walls,” Jenkins reflects. The people that have those bricks, and all the others that helped build the foundations of this program, a program that is so wonderful because of their efforts—I will miss them.”

And, of course, she’s gets a little misty thinking about precious moments with students—those that are so quintessentially Middle School: the din of excited voices in the hallway, a random saxophone solo that trickles into her windows from a student waiting for pickup, and all the impactful oneon-one conversations she’s had over the years from which she has learned so much.

“There is so much wisdom in our students’ voices, so many important insights they have to share,” says Jenkins. “If we really listen to what they are saying, really give their voices the consideration and weight they deserve, we can learn and do amazing things­—not only for them, but for us as educators, and as an institution.”

Rest assured, retirement does not mean Jenkins won’t be watching eagerly to see what comes next, to see exactly what CA is learning and we will respond as a community.

With unwavering faith in the mission and the school she pioneered, she smiles: “I have no doubt that it is going to be amazing.”

Jenkins, pictured here with her husband David, looks forward to more time with family.

Ehrhardt. “With dedication and vision, she has helped build a remarkable foundation for our Middle School—one that sets us apart and on which we can build for the next 25 years.”

THE FUTURE AHEAD

Now, as Jenkins looks toward retirement— a decision influenced by pandemic-inspired reflection—she’s excited to spend more time with her family, with her husband and stalwart support of over forty years, David, and her two daughters, CA alums Quinn ’12 and Anna ’15, and a grandchild on the way.

After dedicating so much time and energy to CA, she’s looking forward to crossing some long-postponed items off her bucket list. Ever

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FOLLOW THE

LEADERS Community engagement through experiential, service, or entrepreneurial learning is a cornerstone of every Charger’s learning journey—a crucial component of our signature “own your learning” formula. Beyond just getting students out of the classroom, it offers our students transformative, authentic, hands-on opportunities to pursue their personal passions, engage with the world, and lean into leadership opportunities. The results? Expanded worldviews, widened horizons of possibility, more nuanced perspectives, and a whole bunch of students well-positioned to make the differences they want to see in the world.

That’s because community engagement dividends are not limited to the initial experience. The discoveries that students make about the world and themselves and the skills they acquire pay off long into the future—and often not just for a single student.

You see, when impassioned students enthusiastically bring those experiences home—to their classrooms, their clubs, their teams, and their friends—they become mentors and teachers to their peers and knowledgeable, empathetic, and capable resources for our community. And that’s powerful and impacting stuff—and it is why

our Center for Community Engagement is mission critical.

Our CCE’s four divisions—diversity, equity, and inclusion; entrepreneurship; service; and experiential learning—intersect to create a truly hands-on learning ecosystem. One that puts students squarely in control, and which plants the seeds of empathy and action that are nurtured and cultivated into leadership opportunities—many of which act in service to our broader community.

Read on for a few examples of that ecosystem at work (spoiler alert: with CA students at the helm, the future looks bright).

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SPOTLIGHT ON:

“We wanted to drop students into the middle of a deep, wide complex debate about what this country is, what it wants to be, and how leadership can help it move toward those ideals,” explains Dr. Michael McElreath, CA’s Director of Experiential Learning.

“I sketched out an idea to use the pandemic and the fight for Black justice as focal points—as windows into other crises in American history—to better understand how leaders reacted. We’d investigate how those reactions shaped the ‘story of America,’ and what this next generation of leaders—our students—could learn about leadership from those choices, both good and bad.”

As students would be grappling with traumatic histories and events, creating an atmosphere of trust—one in which students felt comfortable sharing their authentic selves and experiences—was paramount, but not without challenge.

“For our students to get the most out of the experience—to be able to thoroughly explore some nuanced and difficult moments and have the chance to learn from each other’s perspectives and experiences—I knew they had to meet face-to-face,” McElreath shares with a sigh. “But at that moment, given COVID, it was obvious that we were not going to hold in-person classes any time soon.”

Leadership In Crisis Program Late last summer, as our nation grappled with the longstanding effects of institutionalized racism and racial inequity, CA’s leadership posed bold questions: how can we empower and encourage our students to delve deeper into the complex issues playing out so vividly in the headlines?

How can we inspire and develop the next generation of leaders who might help move our country towards a more equitable future?

From our Center for Community Engagement came one answer: a new, year-long, experimental, and expeditionary cross-grade program—the Leadership During Crisis Program—designed to experientially and intellectually immerse students in the complex intersections of history, inequity, social change, anti-racism, and leadership.

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PUTTING IT TOGETHER

The solution was something radical: program members—students and faculty alike—would become a distinct and mobile learning community. They would meet oncampus for multiple periods, multiple days each week, and participate in expeditionary field trips (with careful COVID protocols in place, of course), while their Upper School peers remained virtual.

“A self-contained ‘school within a school’ was an exciting idea we’d talked about but never tackled before now,” says McElreath. “It seemed the best way to give the students the chance to dive deep into all of these experiences, make meaningful connections, and come out of the class with a sense of purpose.”

Partnering with Upper School English teacher and Entrepreneurship Director Palmer Seeley, McElreath and Seeley crafted an ambitious interdisciplinary curriculum that spanned social studies, social activism, art as a social practice, and English literature (students still attended regular math and science classes, which fell outside of the program’s scope).

In collegiate seminar-style discussions designed to amplify peer learning opportunities, students explored a variety of works of non-fiction and historical fiction.

Together, they unpacked American history from multiple viewpoints—including their own—and discovered narratives that were often at stark odds with the sanitized and simplified story often presented as the American experience.

The group delved into the racial violence woven throughout American history with Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me. They gained rich insights into the complexity and intersectionality of race, gender, and class relations in America via the 17th century slave trade in Toni Morrison’s A Mercy. Ibram Kendi’s personal tale of racism’s toxic effects— How to Be an Antiracist—offered a call to action for systemic change. These and other

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books provided critical context for the events and places the students were exploring and experiencing firsthand.

Indeed, beyond books and classroom discussion, expeditionary firsthand learning was a crucial element of the program.

The group frequently traveled within North Carolina, visiting the State Capitol grounds to see where recently-removed Confederate monuments once stood, to Civil War battlefields, and the site of the 1898 Wilmington coup by white supremacists against the elected leaders of the thenmajority Black city.

“Getting out of the classroom and to the places where history happened makes the events and their effects on American society tangible to students. It was critical to the program experience. Being in those places allows us to develop a personal link to history

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and empathy for the people who lived it—it’s no longer just a fact in a book or an image on a screen; you can imagine what it would have been like to live it yourself,” says McElreath.

“We also visited several sites where later generations have marked historical events in a variety of ways—and not always honestly,” he continues. “Discussions about why and how those with power sometimes attempt to weaponize history in the service of maintaining power was an important part of our discussions about leadership this year.”

students are engaged and invested in the shared experience of learning.”

And, it worked. More often than not, the students were so caught-up in their conversations that discussions spilled out of the classroom, onto the Quad during lunch, and into the after-school hours. “There was one day, early on, when we all just sat together at lunch and kept the conversation going,” shares Clay Thornton ’21. “From that point on, we all started eating together so we could keep talking about what we had said in class.”

“Peer mentorship was critical for the program. It’s not enough for the students to learn about leadership,” offers Seeley.

“They needed the opportunity—and the environment—that let them lead the conversation. It had to feel organic, relevant, and have the right balance of guidance and agency. It was important that Michael and I be part of the community but to do so by guiding discussions, not leading them.”

That “guide-on-the-side” approach was well received by students and faculty alike, solidifying the bonds amongst group members. “We felt like a community. Dr. Mac and Mr. Seeley were in the class with us— even if they were sometimes 200 pages ahead in the book,” laughs Sydney Ross ’23. “It felt so good to have the teachers involved. The chance to be real when we talked about these really difficult events was so helpful.”

“The seniors had two years’ more knowledge,

LEANING IN

In all aspects of the program, students were encouraged to take the lead—to investigate, interrogate, and draw connections about what they were learning through the lens of their own varied experiences and perspectives.

“Being forced to make the connections ourselves helped us better understand exactly what happened in the past and how it came about,” shares Maris James ’23.

“Going into this class, the only thing we had in common was that we all went to the same school. We all brought our different experiences and perspectives into this class, which definitely shaped the way each of us analyzed history. While the course was based on a common set of facts, what we learned about leadership traits and how we can implement those into our own lives was drawn from our own experiences and what we—as individuals—see every day.”

Peer learning and peer mentorship opportunities were carefully and purposefully cultivated, down to the very organizational structures and assignments chosen for the program. Students often assumed the role of teacher, conducting independent research projects on historical events and figures and then teaching it to their peers as formal lessons.

“These student-led sessions were a vital part of the program concept,” says McElreath.

“Preparing to teach a lesson requires mastery of the topic. Peer teaching ensures that

The strategic decision to make the program cross-grade—comprised of sophomores, juniors, and seniors, many of whom had never been in the same room— was similarly instrumental in fostering an engaging peer-led environment. experiences, and skills to draw upon, but the sophomores were at a point in their high school careers that they could take more academic risk,” explains Seeley. “Taking those risks can provide them opportunities to expand their

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2021. “When January 6 happened, it felt like it was the logical next part of where the discussion had to go,” says McElreath. “It brought home, in realtime, just how quickly a single event can affect the course of history.

And it gave the students the opportunity to lead informal discussions with their peers who weren’t part of the program.”

“In that moment, it was almost like Dr. Mac and Mr. Seeley were in class with us,” says Thornton. “But they were also guides— helping point out the things that we, as high school students, might not have the life experience to pick up on or contextualize. It helped me process all the questions I had swirling in my mind, and it’s helped, since then, when talking to my friends from outside the program.”

While the academic year and formal program might have drawn to an end, the work begun in the class is far from over. “Ultimately these debates, these conversations about American identity are not going to end,” offers McElreath. “But that’s true for the nation, as well. We had that conversation for nine months. We may have finished the class, but, hopefully, the students are not finished with the conversation.”

They certainly aren’t. Already, McElreath and Seeley’s students have been incubating ways that they can turn their newly honed leadership skills to personal interests, both on campus and beyond. To name just a few: Eli Weinstein and Jared Seidel are exploring a re-branding of anti-fascism in hopes of helping to effectively stem the rising global tides of fascism; Bela Chandler and Jenna Pullen have created an animal wellness awareness campaign that aired on the Middle School’s CAST News; and Lexie Davila utilized educational resources about LGBTQIA+ issues created by Leadership During Crisis classmate classmate Christina Polge to facilitate the “Introduction to Gender & Sexuality” workshop during YES! (What’s YES! you ask? Just read on to find out.)

understanding of the world in ways that most people don’t get until college or later.”

Purposefully including students at different moments in their respective learning journeys proved lucrative, encouraging personal growth and reflection as students became sounding boards and learning resources for each other. Together, they developed a more nuanced and multifaceted understanding, not only of the historical and contemporary moments they were exploring and experiencing, but of each other.

“The year let me get to know the voices and perspectives of my peers in the class on a much deeper level than in my other courses,” says Kate Sandreuter ’23. “I gained confidence for speaking up in class and got to explore issues on a deeper level by listening to the different perspectives of other people experiencing the same thing.”

The year-long format allowed the students time to develop crucial nuance. “You might think that our opinions over the year would have become more homogenous,” reflects Eli Weinstein ’21. “As the class went on, however, I realized just how different each of us was. And that, in turn, changed the way I saw the American story. I realize now how it has been co-opted time and again; the fact is, the American story isn’t one thing.”

The flexible, experiential format also supported different learning styles. “As someone who struggles with memorizing facts and dates, this is one of those courses where—because we’re so discussion focused— we get to move beyond the what and when, and focus more on the who and the why, and how it connects with the things that we’re living through,” shares Lexie Davilla ’23.

LIVING HISTORY

It was that relaxed, flexible structure that allowed the class to pivot as history unfolded during the U.S. Capitol riot on January 6,

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SPOTLIGHT ON:

Youth Engagement Summit experience. Rather than become de facto leaders of a series of new initiatives, they wanted to democratize the experience, expanding the opportunity to their peers and classmates.

“We were the first overseas students to attend YFS. All the things they were doing to empower youth, seeing kids our age really making a difference in their communities and around the world, was so inspiring,” beams Ryan Azrak ’21. “We wanted to bring that back to CA but also to branch out even further and transfer that sense of empowerment to students all across the United States.”

According to Entrepreneurship Director Palmer Seeley, who accompanied the students to Switzerland, a plan to democratize the YFS experience was in motion before the plane landed back in the United States.

“Our students kept talking about how they wished everyone in their ENVIRO class had heard that speaker, or that the robotics team could have attended this session, or that there was a video of a panel that they could share with their club or affinity group. It was at that point that I heard them ask, ‘Would

Some might consider the task of planning and pulling off a virtual summit with more than one hundred attendees a daunting task, but once a group of CA students saw the chance to create a powerful learning experience for their peers and classmates, they couldn’t help but say “YES!” In mid-January 2020, a group of six Upper School students attended the Youth Forum Switzerland (YFS). Hosted by the International School of Zug and Luzern, YFS was modeled after the World Economic Forum, which was occurring at the same time an hour away in Davos. YFS brought together ambitious and energized students the world over to brainstorm ways to confront the challenges facing the next generation of leaders­—moving communities to zero waste, gender inequity, digital privacy, and mental health—and build connections between contemporary experts and teenage scholars.

The CA students returned to North Carolina empowered and emboldened but also very aware of the elite nature of the

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this sort of conference be something we could do back at CA?’” Despite the emerging disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, the students presented a plan for a global youth summit to be held at CA. The focus would be on connecting peers to explore some of the world’s most pressing issues, from racial justice to climate change to the pandemic. Knowing that building a global forum from scratch was quite a leap, they formulated instead a plan for a smallerscale virtual forum. Thus, YES!—the Youth Engagement Summit—was born.

Though the pandemic forced a shift to virtual learning, the students behind YES! carried on planning their forum, working on their own time, at first, and later also during Flex Days, when the new academic schedule was adopted in the fall. Their dedication and hard work paid off. With the guidance and support of the Center for Community Engagement, YES! would take place during Discovery Term—CA’s two-week experiential education period that closes out the school year—and exclusively open to the sophomore class.

“The biggest challenge they faced was time,” says Seeley. “They found time to meet as a group every week since they got back from Switzerland—even when CA was on break and all summer—and they worked on their own, as well. For most of them, they had only been to one conference—the one they’d just returned from—and they knew putting together a four-day conference like this would take a

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monumental effort. It took a huge amount of trust on the part of the school’s leadership that these students could make it work.”

CHALLENGE IS ANOTHER WORD FOR OPPORTUNITY

In case you were wondering, the ambitious task before the YES! leaders didn’t dampen spirits. “It was a really fun process for us,” smiles Sydney Tai ’22. “We had multiple meetings where we just brainstormed ideas about dozens of topics, based off what we had learned at YFS. Then, we sent it to the sophomores for their input and feedback.

Through that, we were able to expand the list tenfold then narrow it down to three plenary foci (youth mental health, racial justice, and confronting anti-Asian sentiment) and four deep-dive tracks: ethical inquiries, the future of environmentalism, gender and sexuality, and the accessibility of the American Dream.”

With a lot of collaborative hard work, the YES! leaders built a program of more than 40 (!) individual panels, discussions, activities, and opportunities for CA sophomores to find their sparks, while engaging with more than three dozen guest speakers, including experts from Harvard, Johns Hopkins, UNC, Wake Forest, faith leaders, and even a representative from SpaceX (just to name a few).

“I’ve really enjoyed figuring out how to get the sophomores more personally engaged in activism,” shares Allie Chandler ’22. One of the goals of the Youth Engagement Summit

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is to let youth find different topics that interest them. In Switzerland, we got the opportunity to explore all these different topics and then figure out what interested us and what we could take back to the community. It’s been a really transformative experience to go from being the person that was trying to learn, to trying to figure out how to help other people find something that they’re interested in.”

The YES! leaders wanted to give their peers more than just information sessions and the chance to hear from experts—they wanted their classmates to have the same transformative experience that they’d had, but without the jet lag. “The [YES! leaders] realized how powerful the experience of being in the room was, the value of their interactions with the experts at YFS, and—most importantly—how critical it was to share those experiences with other students,” says CA’s Director of Equity and Community Engagement, Danielle Johnson-Webb. “The excitement and personal investment that develops when a student is able to follow their passions and explore their interests is absolutely transformative. And not only as students—these experiences are lifechanging.”

“It was truly amazing, watching the students develop important soft skills,” notes Seeley. “They figured out not only how to brainstorm topics, reach out to potential speakers, and handle the logistical challenge of taking a swarm of rough ideas and turning them into a workable conference schedule, but how to communicate honestly with each other. They knew that they all had the larger effort’s best interest at heart, intrinsically understanding the pros and cons of whether or not to establish an

organizational hierarchy. They learned how to learn on the fly, adjusting based on what was and wasn’t working. More than anything, they developed the skill of confidence.”

TEACHING TO LEARN

For the YFS alumni, the process of building YES! wasn’t simply about producing material to be consumed by the sophomore class, but to elevate members of the Class of 2023, like Jacob King and Brianna Liang, to become leaders themselves.

Liang, new to CA this year, fell into the role by accident—not realizing that she was responding to a call for leaders by volunteering to provide further input when ranking her preference of topics— rose to the occasion. “I thought I was helping to inform how the workshops would be created, but I didn’t realize I would be leading a workshop on my own. And then I ended up leading two.

I’ve learned so much in the process, both about my topics—gentrification and upcycling—and about how to keep people engaged.”

“I can’t sit through a boring workshop,” says King, who became fast friends with Liang over the course of the year, often helping her overcome her self-described shyness by introducing her to other CA students. “I jumped in at the last minute when I saw that other sophomores were leading workshops. By helping Brianna teach, I’m helping everyone learn—including myself. I’ve had a few leadership experiences in the past and what I always find amazing and engaging about it is the sense that, as you’re teaching something, you’re learning it even more deeply.”

“Learning to teach is as much a part of the experiential education process as

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taking part in a seminar or participating in a field trip,” agrees Johnson-Webb. “Not only is it a fantastic way to ensure that the students have mastery of a subject, but it also helps them build confidence in their ability to connect and communicate with each other—to bridge differences in learning styles and experiences.”

ESTABLISHING CONNECTIONS

A common experience that Chandler, King, Liang, and Tai all had in building different parts of YES! was the opportunity to grow their own network of connections—whether within CA, or with subject matter experts on everything from manufacturing upcycled furniture to colonizing Mars. They hope that YES! helps their fellow students similarly build their networks.

“What we really loved about YFS was that they had all of these experts that we could actually engage with personally.

We could ask them questions,” shares Chandler. “And that’s why we had students interviewing some of the experts at YES. Even though it’s virtual, we built in opportunities for students to have unstructured time with the presenters.”

“Watching students connect with young presenters—including alumni like hip-hop educator Kevin “Rowdy” Rowsey ’09, mental health advocate Ceren Iz ’19, Activist Collab co-founder Meirav Soloman ’21, and space advocates Abe Weinstein ’19 and Orlin Velev ’13 of SpaceX—was truly exciting,” says Seeley.

Excitement, it seems, is contagious.

A dozen rising juniors are already brainstorming the next YES! experience.

Spurred by the examples set by their peers, they can’t wait to build upon what they’ve learned, passing along their lessons and impassioned opportunities to the next group of CA students.

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SPOTLIGHT ON:

land, education, and opportunities for refugee farmers.

CA families that subscribe to the CSA will receive a weekly box of organic vegetables locally farmed by Burmese refugee farmers (possibly with an occasional assist from CA students on Flex Days). In each box, a pamphlet thoughtfully researched, designed, and produced by Migration Collaboration students will offer information, not only on the vegetables included, but share profiles of the refugee farmers that produced them, the crisis they faced in Burma, and other ways the CA community can get involved to help.

“The pamphlet comes with the food, so it adds a sense of reality to it. These are actual physical people, these are the actual vegetables they grew, this is what they have been through, and what others like them are still going through,” explains Finn Miller ’26, who helped to create the profiles that appear in the pamphlet. “It’s a quick way to help, to raise awareness and get more people to learn about what they have been through.”

“I think it is cool that people can buy different types of vegetables that are from where some

Migration Collaboration Amaranth greens. Bitter melon. Long beans. Yu choy. Asian chiles. Next year, families across CA will have the opportunity to discover these delicious flavors firsthand—many for the first time—all while learning about and supporting our local Burmese refugee community.

It’s all thanks to a service-learning pilot program led by seventh-grade Migration Collaboration students and faculty in partnership with our Center for Community Engagement and Transplanting Traditions Community Farm, a local nonprofit aimed at uplifting food sovereignty in the Burmese refugee community through access to

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of our local refugee farmers are from,” adds Dana Jhoung ’26, who participated on the student-led communications committee tasked with promoting the initiative to the broader CA community. “These refugees have come a long way to share their culture—and that’s not easy.

Transplanting Traditions gives them not only a job and a home, but an important way to share their background and history.”

DIGGING DEEP

The hands-on service project is an outgrowth of the larger seventh-grade Migration Collaboration project. Now entering its third year, Migration Collaboration­—led by seventhgrade social studies teachers Lucy Dawson and Matt Koerner, in partnership with Service Learning Director Maggie Grant—is an immersive, interdisciplinary, and experiential exploration of human migration. It offers students a deeper understanding of the refugee experience through personal interactions with refugees and members of local refugee-serving organizations; explorations of non-fictional and fictional migrant and refugee narratives; interdisciplinary, student-led research projects; and various hands-on excursions where students work side-by-side with refugees and community partners.

“It’s been an amazing project,” enthuses Daphne DiFrancesco ’26, who participated in Migration Collaboration and the Transplanting Traditions service-learning project this past year. “I’ve learned so much about different communities and migration in general. I’ve done different research projects on stuff like this before, but it’s usually just reading website after website or the occasional book. With this, I was able to take a deep dive and connect with the community and really interact. It made me realize how we’re all connected. The experiential piece just adds so much.”

As president of the Student Leadership Club, next year, Difrancesco hopes to take what she learned to determine constructive

ways that CA students might support North Korean refugees. “There are only a handful of organizations that work with North Korean refugees because it is so dangerous to do so,” she explains. “I’m hoping to partner up with these organizations to see how we might help with fundraising.”

A RICH HARVEST

And that, of course, is precisely the goal: To help students develop the empathy, connections, and competencies needed to lead ethical and equitable community activism—

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all while gaining a more nuanced understanding of the complex historical, social, cultural, economic, and political forces that shape human migration.

“We want to inspire our students to understand not only why people move, but how we can responsibly support those that do,” explains Koerner.

“How we can help them in our own community.”

Central to that effort is challenging racist and reductive stereotypes of the immigrant refugee. “We want students to understand that refugees don’t look one way—there isn’t a certain race or ethnicity or class or level of education,” adds Dawson. “It isn’t a monolith; there isn’t a singular refugee experience.”

That empathy-building process starts with getting students into the community where they can build authentic, personal connections that disrupt stereotypes, broaden perspectives, and allow students to put themselves in someone else’s shoes. That’s where the Center for Community Engagement comes in, building partnerships within the broader Triangle-area community that facilitate impactful, memorable, and long-lasting connections and experiences for students that put a human, relatable face on the abstract concept of migration.

Take, for instance, one of Dawson’s favorite moments: when Scott Philips, the North Carolina field representative at the United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), brought two of his nearly-arrived clients—Israel and Mordecai—to meet with students. The two Congolese teenagers shared their experience of growing up in a Ugandan refugee camp, having never lived in the

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country of their birth. It was a wildly different experience than that of most CA students, and yet, through conversation, they found common ground.

“Our students got to hear about our guests’ experiences—about their culture, about growing up in a camp—firsthand.

It was just such a cool exchange,” recalls Dawson with a smile. “Our kids were just in awe. They were asking questions like ‘What’s math like there?’ and were dumbstruck when our guests said it was ‘way harder’ than it is here at CA. They were connecting as humans, as kids, bonding over the Black Panther movie and candy preferences. It was such an authentic exchange, and one that upended preconceived stereotypes.”

Koerner’s favorite moment? When Pauline Hovey, a volunteer with Annunciation House­—a nonprofit in El Paso, Texas that offers hospitality to newly arrived migrants, immigrants, and refugees at the border—visited, sharing stories from specific families that were undergoing the asylum-seeking process.

“She was able to share specific stories and faces, to paint a vivid picture of

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what this family, this woman, this child went through. It made it very real for students—they could connect,” offers Koerner. “And, she was working only with the people that had actually gained asylum status. Just the sheer numbers of even that population—which is less than 1% of the actual people that arrive at the border—it was mind-blowing for our students. I had so many students come up to me and ask to get involved after her presentation.”

And, of course, that’s the point.

“Making those connections, hearing the personal stories, the challenges of those that have had to resettle, it deepens empathy—both for our students and for the educators involved in this project.

You can see the light bulbs turning on.” says Grant.

Miller—whose research project focused on unaccompanied minor migration—is one of the students who experienced one of those light bulb moments. “I realized that, here in our little bubble in Raleigh, we’re all pretty privileged and live good lives, but there are so many scary things happening in the world, so many people and things that need our help. We need

propose and develop their own service initiatives designed in partnership with community stakeholders.

“It’s a balancing act,” offers Grant. “We want these to be student-directed projects and ones that empower students in their learning, but they must learn to do so responsibly. First and foremost, they must listen to the community. That’s why we stress empathy, listening, and interviewing. What are the people in our community telling us that they are experiencing, that they need?

Is there a way—because sometimes there isn’t—that we can be a part of a solution?

How can we utilize our resources—our time, energy, money, whatever—to meet that need in partnership with the community.”

Cultivating respect for local expertise, for the deep knowledge that partners can bring to the table—even those not traditionally viewed as educators—is crucial. “We’re mindful about using the term ‘expert,’” explains Grant. “We use it not only when we are going into the community to learn directly from professionals who are working with immigration policy or programs, but when referring to refugee newcomers themselves. It is important that our students understand and respect the kind of expertise that comes from personal experience.”

“The title we chose for this project— Migration Collaboration—was quite purposeful,” reflects Koerner. “It’s not just about our students collaborating in the classroom on projects—it is about working together in partnership with the broader community. We wanted to set that tone, to be clear about our intentions from the outset.

We’re not saving anyone—our community is broad and diverse. We are all in this together.”

He smiles, “I can’t wait to see what our students and their partners will do next.”

to do whatever we can to publicize it, to make people care, to help.”

CULTIVATING COMMUNITY

Once those light bulbs are turned on, Migration Collaboration aims to empower and equip students with the critical insights and skills needed to lead impactful change in their own backyards—and to do so in a way that stresses partnership and equity. Indeed, while fostering student empowerment is central to the project, so too is cultivating savvy leadership and collaborative skills. And that includes knowing when to sit back and listen and when to lead, or when to adjust an idea or let go of it altogether if it doesn’t have community buy-in or address community needs (no matter how invested you may be personally).

Dawson, Grant, and Koerner are hopeful that next year’s cohort of Migration Collaboration students will be putting those collaborative skills to action. In the longawaited next stage of the project (postponed this year due to COVID), students will

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Paying It Forward Introducing the Center for Community Engagement Equity Fund Lifelong learner Alex Wilson ’04 was transformed by the hands-on learning opportunities that characterized his time at Cary Academy. Now, he’s generously paying it forward with the creation of a new fund—one designed to ensure that all students can make the most of their CA experience.

to a corporate law practice in Raleigh. At Wyrick Robbins, Wilson works in mergers and acquisitions, collaborating with various organizations to help them realize their goals.

It is a career that he finds “inspiring,” with each day bringing new curiosities and engaging opportunities to learn as he explores the diverse industries he serves. For his efforts, he has been recognized as a “Rising Star” by North Carolina Super Lawyers seven years running.

Wilson’s lifelong love of learning has deep roots, extending back to his seven years at Cary Academy. Those 17 hobbies? Most have Cary Academy origins. Whether it is an enduring love of travel first ignited by a world language exchange trip to Germany or a passion for playing musical instruments initially discovered in CA orchestra (he still plays the cello, an instrument to which he was first introduced in sixth grade), the list of CA’s impactful introductions goes on and on.

Even his interest in the law can be traced back to David Snively’s classroom. As an impressionable eighth-grader, he sat riveted by guest speaker Rufus Edmisten, former Deputy

Wilson has been following where his intellectual curiosity leads for as long as he can remember. “I have at least 17 hobbies that I go back and forth between. I think it probably drives my family crazy,” he laughs.

“I’m the type of person that, if I discover something new—something that I don’t already know about—I’m going to spend at least thirty minutes scouring the internet to satisfy my latest curiosity.”

Wilson’s enduring curiosity has served him well, leading him first to an undergraduate degree from Wake Forest University, graduating magna cum laude with a double major in history and German, then to Duke University School of Law, and now

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Counsel for the Watergate Committee, during an immersive recreation of Nixon’s Watergate trial. (Incredibly, Wilson would later intern for Edmisten in college and now counts him as one of his most influential mentors.)

Indeed, more than simply introducing him to his passions, Wilson also credits CA for fostering in him the confidence and curiosity to follow where they lead. And for imparting the crucial soft skills—critical thinking, leadership, communication, time management— that have allowed him to capitalize on opportunities (like the internship with Edmisten) as they arise. At CA, Wilson first discovered the importance of being an engaged community member, a lesson that he has carried forward in his adult life as a volunteer with numerous organizations, including service on the CA Alumni Board, the Wake Forest Young Alumni Development Board, the North Carolina Battleship Commission, and the North Carolina State Banking Commission.

“Cary Academy was such a special experience for me. I was given so many more opportunities—to try new things, travel, and explore—than my peers at other schools. And what I learned from those experiences has stayed with me in very meaningful ways,” reflects Wilson.

A member of Cary Academy’s inaugural sixth-grade class—the first class to attend all seven years at CA—Wilson is now paying his “transformative” experience forward in a big way. In December, Wilson—with the support of his parents, Brad and Carole, wife, Mary Elizabeth, and their three children, James, Hohlt, and Grady—generously gifted CA a $150,000 endowment to create a new fund designed to ensure that all students can take full advantage of the CA experience.

CA’s new Community Engagement Equity Fund focuses on eliminating additional student costs associated with

the Center for Community Engagement’s service learning, experiential learning, entrepreneurship, and diversity, inclusion, and equity programming.

For Wilson, it is about democratizing community engagement opportunities and ensuring that all students can have the perspective-shifting, inspiring, and transformative experiences that he benefited from as a student—regardless of their financial standing.

“When I was at CA, there were students that couldn’t do things, couldn’t participate in opportunities they wanted to do—couldn’t go on a debate trip or study abroad or take advantage of other experiential learning programs—because they couldn’t afford it,” explains Wilson.

“I hated that. Funding should not be the barrier to students engaging in handson learning opportunities that could ultimately change their lives.”

Wilson’s decision to support the Center for Community Engagement was an easy one—and one closely aligned with his values. “It was important to me to give back and to do so in a way that will directly impact the lives of students,” offers Wilson. “CA has fantastic teachers and excellent academics. CA students undoubtedly graduate with the hard skills necessary to write a paper, or play an instrument, or do math, or participate in a sport. But there are so many other important skills and different perspectives that can only be gained through direct, hands-on experiences like those offered by the Center for Community Engagement.”

In particular, Wilson is keen to ensure that all students have equitable opportunities to get out of their bubbles and comfort zones to learn something new, discover a new perspective, and shape a more nuanced worldview. “We live in a society where the 24-hour media cycle and social media has everyone living in an echo chamber,” explains Wilson. “You can go online and find anything or anyone that will support your worldview without challenging it.

“I want all CA students to have opportunities to engage with people and projects that both support their worldview and challenge it. After all, that’s how you grow as a person, how you learn to think for yourself and solidify your own worldview. More than that—it’s how we create leaders for society.”

Interested in how you too can support the Community Engagement Equity Fund? Reach out to our Director of Development, Ali Page, at ali_page@caryacademy.org, to learn how we can ensure that financial barriers don’t stand in the way of life-changing and leadership-building learning opportunities.

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Alumni Spotlight

HEALTHY CURIOSITY As an infectious disease epidemiologist, PhD student Kristin Andrejko has focused her life on public health and helping communities on the path to wellness. Now, with an eye towards public health policy and a focus on how vaccines serve to protect those most vulnerable to the ravages of disease, she finds herself on the front lines of some of the most pressing global public health battles— from malaria to COVID-19.

“ The past 16 months have certainly highlighted the incredible value of vaccines in improving all aspects of our physical, social, and economic health. As an epidemiologist, my day job is to quantitatively analyze public health programs like routine vaccination campaigns to help mitigate the risk of future infectious disease outbreaks.”

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Andrejko’s path to global public health is one heavily influenced by her time at CA. She credits experiences in sixth-grade science teacher Aaron Rothrock’s class as igniting an early passion for the scientific method— one that translated into years serving as a counselor at CA summer science camps where she enjoyed making science accessible and engaging for students.

In Gray Rushin’s Advanced Chemistry class, she discovered the hard-earned reward of working through thorny scientific challenges. Building on those interests, an experience with the Student Global Leadership Institute (SGLI) in Punahou, Hawaii, the summer before her 12th-grade year, offered a transformative introduction to the broader concepts of public health.

Andrejko still remembers a pivotal question posed by Dr. Linda Rosen­—thenDirector of Hawaii’s State Department of Health, during an SGLI panel on urban

health­—that would ultimately set her professional course. “She started her talk by asking us to define health. I think most of us said, ‘health is the absence of disease; health is when you’re not sick.’ At some point, she stopped us and said, ‘health is more than just the absence of disease—it’s about being well.’

It was a lightbulb moment for Andrejko.

“I had this epiphany: you don’t have to wait until someone is sick to help them.”

After the seminar, Dr. Rosen suggested that Andrejko look into the work of Dr. Paul Farmer, whose efforts on the intersection of health, human rights, inequality, and infectious diseases earned him the label “the man who would cure the world.” She was immediately hooked, intrigued by the social justice dimensions of public health. ?

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Back at CA, Andrejko discussed her fascination with Farmer’s work with college counselor Laura Sellers, who suggested that she look into Notre Dame because of the ethos of social justice embedded in the school’s mission.

She applied, and upon being offered admission, made her way to South Bend to interview with Professor Joseph A. Buttigieg, then the Director of the Hesburgh-Yusko Scholars Program—a leadership development scholarship that helps social justice-oriented students develop their passions and pursue their purpose.

During the conversation, Andrejko gushed about her experience at SGLI, her interest in global health, and the excitement she felt about the prospect of doing the sort of work on infectious disease outbreaks like the Haitian tuberculosis epidemic described in Tracy Kidder’s Mountains Beyond Mountains.

“He paused me and said, ‘Kristin, that’s great, but you must think about sustainability.’

It was something I hadn’t even considered.

It prompted me to take a more critical look.

So much of the work in global health, while often well-intentioned, doesn’t necessarily lead to good outcomes. For example, if you go on a mission trip to build a bridge—but don’t

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involve any local stakeholders in the design or building process—when that bridge breaks after the mission trip leaves, who will fix it?”

As the conversation continued, Buttigieg walked her through the myriad ways that actions and outcomes play out in the global health arena. “It shaped my thinking for how I wanted to establish a role for myself in global health, and the types of organizations—those with ethical community engagement, capacity building, and sustainable practices—with which I wanted to align myself.”

A GOOD QUESTION

Accepted into the Hesburgh-Yusko Scholar Program, which afforded her guaranteed funding for summer learning opportunities, Andrejko immediately set to work with Professor Buttigieg, identifying health organizations that were making sustainable impacts in communities around the globe.

Ultimately, she found herself working with One Sun Health, an organization dedicated to sustainable, locally-driven solutions to improve health and well-being in rural South Africa.

Working alongside community health workers and local health departments, Andrejko saw firsthand the impact of malaria on rural South

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African communities and gained critical insights into the importance of earning public trust and respecting local knowledge in the implementation of public health initiatives.

A new interest bloomed—this time for field research and for learning more about the communities she sought to help. With new knowledge came new questions.

“During many of the conversations that I had with community health workers in South Africa, some began to ask, ‘if we have all of these great vaccines for measles, flu, and other infections, why don’t we have a vaccine for malaria?’”

It was a good question­—one to which Andrejko didn’t have a response. Intrigued, she set out to find the answer.

Returning to Notre Dame, she developed an independent research project to interview vaccine researchers from across the globe who were hard at work developing vaccines to combat malaria. Her project took her to Switzerland, where she met with vaccine researchers at prominent think tanks and the World Health Organization (WHO)— an experience she sums up as “incredible.”

The following summer, Andrejko returned for an internship in the WHO’s Immunization, Vaccines, and Biologics Department. “It was one of the most transformational experiences of my life,” reflects Andrejko.

“At WHO, I witnessed the critical role that evidence-based research plays in developing and informing life-saving public health policies. I gained insights into how health policy decisions are made on a global scale.”

She recalls assisting with the preparations for a WHO conference commissioned to update policy recommendations for pneumococcal vaccines that prevent pneumonia. “It was very exciting to have all these experts in one room, actually looking at the policy and seeing whether or not they have the necessary scientific evidence to change it,” shares Andrejko.

“It showed me the robust evidence base that is required to inform any public health policy decision, and gave me a new appreciation for what it takes to move the needle on any sort of policy decision in public health. And, I realized that I needed to

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learn more research methods so that I could design and implement the types of studies that would ultimately address evidence gaps identified by policymakers.”

her way into any and all of the university’s graduate-level courses on infectious diseases, public health, and epidemiology.

Her persistence and drive paid off, ultimately resulting in an internship at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.

There, in the Division of Parasitic Diseases and Malaria, she worked on observational studies evaluating the safety of various drugs to prevent malaria in pregnancy. “I loved the work I was doing. Working alongside the CDC researchers, I learned so many new epidemiological methods.”

It was an informative experience that ultimately made clear her next step.

“Taking a finding and converting it into a scientific publication that can inform policy was such a rewarding process,” explains Andrejko.

“But it also made me realize that I still lacked the skills to actually design and run these sorts of epidemiological studies on my own—and I knew that’s what I wanted to do in the future.”

THE PUBLIC HEALTH PARADOX

At WHO, Andrejko felt her interest shift away from an intense focus on malaria towards infectious disease epidemiology more broadly. Increasingly, she found herself at the intersection of public health and policy, interested not only in how specific diseases affect different populations, but how to develop policies that prevent outbreaks from occurring in the first place.

“I saw the public health paradox. When public health works, we don’t see it; when you prevent outbreaks from occurring, people forget how terrible a disease is. As a result, they stop following preventative measures— like getting vaccinated—and pathogens predictably return with terrible consequences.

I gained an intimate appreciation for how critical it is that policymakers understand the value of public health.”

Led by her new interest, Andrejko sought to bolster her skills beyond what was offered by her Science Business major. Because Notre Dame didn’t offer an undergraduate program in epidemiology or public health, she begged

FACING FORWARD

With a solid sense of what she wanted to learn, Andrejko began seeking a PhD program—and a mentor who would guide her studies in the emerging field of pneumococcal vaccines, and how they intersect with public health policymaking. She found that mentor in Dr. Joseph Lewnard, an Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at University of California, Berkeley’s School of Public Health, who uses mathematical and statistical modeling to study the transmission of infectious diseases and how vaccinations and public health policy improve community health.

Ambitiously, under the mentorship of Lewnard, in the fall of 2019, Andrejko set out to evaluate the role that pneumococcal vaccines play in reducing trends in antimicrobial resistance, a study now published in The Lancet-Microbe.

“Vaccines are the most cost-effective and life-saving public health intervention— and not just because they prevent disease

Andrejko, pictured here with her father, credits the love and support of her family for inspiring her to follow her passions.

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“ Taking a finding and converting it into a scientific publication that can inform policy was such a rewarding process. But it also made me realize that I still lacked the skills to actually design and run these sorts of epidemiological studies on my own—and I knew that’s what I wanted to do in the future.”

outbreaks,” offers Andrejko. “One of the biggest existential threats we face is antimicrobial resistance (AMR). If we can use vaccines to reduce the number of infections that require treatment with antibiotics, we reduce the opportunities for pathogens to develop resistance.”

And then 2020 happened…

Almost overnight, Andrejko found her focus shifting once again­—from the public health impact of pneumococcal vaccines to the impact of vaccines to combat SARSCoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. She’s focused on determining the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines in different populations, the ways vaccines are staunching the spread of viral variants, and the factors driving COVID-19 vaccine acceptance.

In some ways, it has been an easy shift.

“The methods I was using and the questions I was asking before COVID are very similar to the ones that I’m studying now—the pathogen just changed.” she explains. “It was incredibly rewarding to see our vaccineeffectiveness study presented alongside others at a recent CDC meeting in June that evaluated whether booster shots for COVID-19 will be necessary.”

“I am a graduate-student instructor for a foundational course that is often the first experience undergraduates have with global health. I get to introduce them to this whole new world of public and global health that they didn’t know existed,” offers Andrejko.

“So often, students are taught that if you care about health and if you like science, you should become a physician or a nurse or a kind of a health professional that works with individual patients. I get to show them that working in public health provides the opportunity to systematically improve health at the population level, but doing so successfully is challenging because it requires involvement not just from physicians and epidemiologists but from a wide range of stakeholders, like architects and engineers who design public health infrastructure such as safe housing, water, sanitation, and hygiene. Public health is exciting because it sits at the intersection of many of these disciplines.”

As for what’s next for Andrejko? When she finishes her doctorate, she hopes to work in a public health setting on the local, state or federal level, so she can continue to learn from those around her.

“I hope, in 30 or so years, that I can serve on the sort of boards that evaluate research evidence, creating the policy decisions that make a meaningful impact for everyone. But who knows? The beauty of public health is that people end up in different places and on different paths. I’m excited about what might come next for me.”

A NEW ROLE

Now, leading a team of researchers for a statewide study on COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness with the California Department of Health, coupled with the teaching responsibilities of being a doctoral candidate, Andrejko has become the mentor.

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During DISCOVERY TERM and the WORK EXPERIENCE PROGRAM, students flexed their leadership skills, explored new interests, and took their learning to another level—whether in the lab, wilderness, halls of justice, local markets, studios, or beyond.

Snapshots How time flies! Everyone shared memories and smiles on YEARBOOK DAY as they enjoyed sunshine and Italian ices.

Seventh-grade students shared their voices at Cary Academy's first annual MIDDLE SCHOOL POETRY SLAM. This community-building and advocacy-focused event was the culmination of a month-long study of spoken word, poetry, and rap under the tutelage of two artists-in-residence, including alum Kevin “Rowdy” Rowsey ‘09.

The Class of 2025 said farewell to the Middle School in style during EIGHTH-GRADE CELEBRATION.

It isn't easy being green, but the Middle School made it look easy during EARTH DAY, with a fast-trash fashion show and flower pot painting.

HOLI is a colorful and kinetic day to meet others, play and laugh, and reconnect.

The first-ever Middle School AFFINITY GROUP CELEBRATION allowed students to meet, share, and celebrate our incredible community.

The CLASS OF 2021—who will attend 49 different colleges and universities in 18 states, Canada, China, and Scotland­— was celebrated in CA’s first outdoor Commencement.

We’re proud of you, Chargers!

Alumni News

2001 Vanessa Hamer married Chelsea Schafer on October 17, 2020, in Cold Spring, New York. 1

2003 Alex Wilson was recently appointed by Governor Roy Cooper to the North Carolina State Banking Commission. The State Banking Commission supervises, directs, and reviews the activities of the Office of the Commissioner of Banks under the North Carolina Banking Laws.

2005 Whitney Hill married William Davis at The Umstead Hotel in Cary, North Carolina on May 8, 2021. Alumnae in attendance included Emily Gordon, who served as the maid of honor, Sharice Chandler, Lilly Behrend, and ceremony music was provided by harpist, Michelle Cobley. Following the wedding and a honeymoon, the couple returned to their home in Charlotte, North Carolina where Whitney begins her term serving as the Executive Vice President of the Junior League of Charlotte. As the EVP she ensures the overall alignment of League work, leads the Management Team in carrying out the mission, and oversees the day-to-day operations of the 1,600 member organization. 2

to introduce people early in their career to product development and leadership opportunities. She's wrapped up her first rotation on Instagram and has started her second rotation on Oculus.

2011 Max Henning was a founding member of Novus Think Tank—a student-led think tank designed to solve pressing, real-world challenges with creative solutions—during his time at University of Southern California.

“I was mostly just desperate to find other young people who were serious about building long-term solutions to the problems we all face,” said Henning, who continues to advise Novus while working as a research assistant to BCI Director Antonio Damasio. bit.ly/novusthinktank 3

2017 Lindsay Wrege was named one of Raleigh Magazine’s top 20 in their 20s for her work as Co-Founder and CEO of 321 Coffee, a coffee shop and roaster staffed by individuals with

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intellectual and developmental disabilities. bit.ly/raleighmag20in20s, bit.ly/321coffee Sarah Bodmer and Connor Clancy married on June 12, 2021, in Cary, North Carolina.

Coach Conrad Hall was one of the people in attendance. 4

2018 Olivia Frazier was named a First Team All-Conference honoree as apart of the Richmond Spider’s Field Hockey Team. She paces Richmond with 13 total points, on four goals and six assists, and has started in all six games this season. Frazier's 1.00 assist per game average ranks second in the nation, while her 2.33 points per game average is ninth nationally. bit.ly/richmondspiders 5 A top scorer and three-point threat for the University of Virginia basketball team, Trey Murphy has been making national sports headlines with news that he will likely go as a coveted pick in the upcoming NBA draft. Check out a compilation of his season highlights at bit.ly/TreyMurphy.

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2013 Caroline Woronoff was accepted into Facebook’s highly competitive Rotational Product Manager program in Seattle where she will develop new products across three different teams. The program is designed

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Alumni News

You asked, we listened!

We’re thrilled to introduce Alumni Charger Connect. Sign in today to view our alumni directory, connect with other Chargers, and access all things CA Alumni. Making an account is easy, check it out at alumni.cary.academy.

ALUMNI CONNECTIONS

Thank you to the alumni who came to our Raleigh Happy Hour in June with Bill Velto and Shelton Shephard! We are thrilled to get back on the road and connect with you in your cities. L-R: Kirsten Kohagen ‘09, Brendan Szulik ‘07, Alex Vig 07, Casey Miles ‘15, Sarah (Helfer) Fulk ‘07, Chase McGrath ‘13, Catherine Mulqueen ‘13, Corinna Egge ‘13, Nicole Ackman ‘13, Elizabeth Trent ‘09, Harrison Trent ‘18, Austin Lawrence ‘14

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1500 N. Harrison Ave. | Cary, NC 27513 caryacademy.org

Fighting Hate What can you do to help make the world a little more welcoming, accepting, and loving? The Middle School’s Student Leadership Club dedicated two Flex Days in April to serious conversations about the impact of hate and intolerance in the world and what steps students can take right now to make a positive difference.

Elsewhere, Upper School students spoke with WRAL reporter Sarah Kreuger about racial violence directed against Asian Americans and people of Asian descent.

In accordance with our mission and the law, Cary Academy does not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, national and ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or age.