CATE Spring 2016
Editor Sarah Kidwell Design Phillip Collier Design Studio Copy Editor Jeff Barton Student Editors Samantha Hill ‘16 Yvette Vega ‘16 Writers Jeff Barton, Sarah Kidwell, Selena Mone, Katheryn Park, Joe Gottwald ‘10 Photographers Barclay Fernandez, Ashleigh Mower, Jamie Kellogg, Yvette Vega ’16, Serena Soh ’17, Angie Meneses ’17, Brad Gordon ’19, and Makena Fetzer ’16 Image on page 18 courtesy of the Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University. Images on pages 20–23 courtesy of Katherine Lynn ‘01, Joseph Bornilla, Evan Halleck, Bob Reynolds, and Aaron Epstein. Images on pages 24–25 courtesy of Taiyo Watanabe, Joshua White, and R.M. Schindler Papers, Art Design and Architecture Museum, UC Santa Barbara © UC Regents. Image on page 26 provided by James Morgan, Director of Development at the Wayfarers Chapel. Image on page 27 provided by The Broad Museum. Headmaster Benjamin D. Williams IV Assistant Headmaster, External Affairs Meg Bradley Director of Marketing and Communications Sarah Kidwell Multimedia Coordinator Ashleigh Mower Archivist Ginger Williams Cate Fund Director Colin Donovan Director of Alumni Relations Andrew MacDonnell Director of Major Gifts and Planned Giving Chris Giles Director of Admission Charlotte Brownlee '85 The Cate Bulletin is published three times a year by Cate School and is distributed free of charge to alumni, parents, and friends of the School. Send correspondence and address changes to: communications@cate.org The Cate Bulletin is printed by V3 on Topkote paper.
MISSION STATEMENT Through commitment, scholarship, companionship, and service, each member of the Cate community contributes to what our founder called “...the spirit of this place...all compounded of beauty and virtue, quiet study, vigorous play, and hard work.”
TA BL E OF C ON T E N T S
IN EVERY ISSUE 2
FROM THE ARCHIVES
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FROM THE HEADMASTER
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ON THE MESA
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CLASS NOTES
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IN MEMORIAM
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18 WHAT CALIFORNIA LOOKS LIKE
Landscapes can be powerful, evocative images. For Ryan Bradley ’02, reexamining historic photographs of his home state coincided with his return to California.
28 ON THE ROOF OF THE WORLD The reopening of a Carpinteria trail leads hikers into the Santa Ynez Mountains, and into Cate’s storied past in the backcountry.
20 SETTING HER STAGE
Mattie Brickman ’01 danced her way through high school and studied public policy in college. Not even she could have written the script that turned her into a television writer and playwright.
24 GOOD, BAD, OR UGLY, BUT AT LEAST NEW: A VIEW OF CALIFORNIA ARCHITECTURE
Architect Joe Deegan Day ’85 sees lessons in all of California’s architecture, whether he likes a particular building or not.
29 WHAT IS THE SOURCE OF POWER IN LOS ANGELES? LANDSCAPE, LITERATURE, AND LORE
By senior year, Cate students are able to delve into some enticing electives. One class is spending the spring trimester decoding the City of Angels.
30 THROUGH THE LENS
The Mesa in spring is a paradise for photographers.
34 DISPATCHES
Stories about food, travel, and scientific exploration from Cate alumni around the state.
Front Cover: While El Niño promised more rain than it delivered, the Mesa is greener this spring than it has been in years. Photo by Ashleigh Mower. Back Cover: Early Saturday morning sand art at Rincon Beach. Photo by Angie Meneses ’17.
ON THE WEB Peruse the event calendar and look up old friends at www.cate.org/alumni. Find the latest Cate news at www.cate.org/news. Find all of this and more on our mobile site at www.cate.org on your smartphone. LINKEDIN: Join our LinkedIn career networking group “Cate School Alumni & Friends” at cate.org/linkedin. FACEBOOK: Befriend Curtis Wolsey Cate and become a Facebook fan of Cate School. TWITTER: Follow updates on Cate’s twitter profile “Cate_School.” INSTAGRAM: Follow @cate_school on Instagram for your daily dose of life on the Mesa.
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F ROM T H E A RC H I V E S
El Batidors of yesteryear drew their advertising dollars from businesses around California. 2
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F ROM T H E H E A DM A S T E R
A Special Part Of The World
I spent a few days of Cate’s Spring Break in Montana on the Missouri River. The first morning I woke up to temperatures in the teens and several inches of freshly fallen snow. It was quiet, too, like the earth had somehow been covered in soundproofing. And there were no tracks save mine in the snow. I’ll admit, I was thrilled to have the place to myself, though I wasn’t entirely alone. The denizens of the mountains and rivers hold their own bounty: bighorn sheep, bald and golden eagles, deer, antelope and, of course, big hungry trout. While I don’t think it takes solitude necessarily to come to appreciate a place, it seems to help. Being without cell phones or other digital forms of connectivity focuses us oftentimes on our own senses and contemplations. So on a wintry March morning I floated down a river thinking about the power of the places in the worldnot only certain places, but every
place whose character is expressed in its own unique way, provided we have the patience and the inclination to look for those expressions. We hope you will approach this Bulletin with such a posture, for it, too, is about place. In a literal sense it is about California, one of those special parts of the world that, like my morning on the Missouri, lives up to its own mythology. In fact, this is the second recent issue we have devoted to California topics, continuing testament to the diversity of stories that capture some portion of this land. Even before Huck Finn left his own raft on the mighty Mississippi and “lit out for the territories,” California has been more than a destination. It is an idea, an expression of possibility as powerful as the one Fitzgerald noted of those Dutch sailors who first set eyes on the coast of North America. Here that very wonder is revealed
in the flavors of California, the motifs, the language, the landscape, the literature, and the wanderlust. It is about both what we bring to this place and what we find here. It is about Cate, too, for so much of the culture of our School is influenced, informed, and made powerful by the state that we call home. Mr. Cate famously called the Pacific Ocean the “greatest asset of the School,” and though I am loath to challenge the King, I don’t believe he would mind if I expanded the assessment a bit. California is both people and place – and its power lies in the synergy of the two. That’s what this Bulletin will surely reveal. Cate is the same – a place distinguished by the ocean and the mountains and those who, like Huck, came here to be part of something that can’t exist anywhere else. Surely the contributors to this issue of the Bulletin will help us to understand why. Servons,
Benjamin D. Williams IV
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ON the MESA CELEBRATING MLK DAY Cate’s 2016 celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was an eye-opening and mind-stretching experience for all involved. Dr. Nwando Achebe, professor of history at Michigan State University, spoke to the community on three different occasions during her two-day visit, which took place on Sunday and Monday, January 17 and 18 . With a nod to this year’s schoolwide inquiry question – What is the source of power? – Dr. Achebe entitled her first lecture “What is the Source of Power in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart?” As the daughter of the famous Nigerian writer and a widely respected author and scholar in her own right, Dr. Achebe is eminently (if not uniquely) qualified to discuss that groundbreaking novel, which was first published in 1958. Since Cate students read the book each year in their sophomore history classes, most members of the audience were familiar with the work; and for everyone else, her talk provided a fascinating introduction to one of the most important works of the 20 th century. Before considering the novel itself, Dr. Achebe spoke of her father’s remarkable life; she recounted some of his many achievements, especially as an author who came to be known and admired throughout the world. She explained how his experience as a college student in Nigeria, where he was taught by British professors (at what was essentially a branch of the University of London), led him to a career as a writer. As he studied African literature, both written and taught by white Europeans, he realized that the experience was 4
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Dr. Nwando Achebe educates, enlightens, and inspires on MLK, Jr. Day.
beginning to turn him against the Africans he read about, who seemed savage and stupid in books – and very different from the Africans he actually knew. It was this unsettling response that made Chinua Achebe want to present Africans in an African voice – his own. Dr. Achebe explained that her father felt “a moral obligation to side with the powerless.” He asserted that African literature should be “of the people and for the people,” unlike the European literature he knew from his courses at the university. And he firmly believed that he, and other African writers who might follow his example, needed to confront the big political and social issues facing the African continent. On Monday morning, students and faculty returned to Hitchcock Theater to hear Dr. Achebe’s second lecture, “What is the Source of Female Power and Authority in Africa?” She began by discussing one of the challenges she typically faces in the undergraduate courses
she teaches: the need to combat Western stereotypes of African society, which tend to be negative – and often derogatory. She provided her list of “stop words” that reflect common but inaccurate Western notions of Africa, including jungle, tribe, backward, primitive, savage, pagan, and juju. Among the degrading and dehumanizing portrayals of African women, she noted, are those that show them as “beasts of burden” – working in the hot sun with their babies strapped to their backs, or balancing massive loads on their heads. She also finds herself fighting against the idea that African women tend to be subservient to men and, in another common depiction, hypersexualized. Among a host of examples to counter such traditional narratives, she spoke (and showed images) of elite armies composed entirely of woman warriors, of lavishly ornamented queens, and of modern female political leaders in countries across the continent. After a lunch break, students and faculty broke into discussion groups to share their impressions and formulate questions for the community’s final gathering with Dr. Achebe. That closing exercise produced some of the most memorable moments of the two-day exercise, as students from the different groups asked one thought-provoking question after another, eliciting responses from Dr. Achebe that were equally insightful. Her earlier description of gender-fluid African cultures, in which women become female kings and female husbands and female sons in the real world, prompted an interesting follow-up discussion.
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Elizabeth Douglas ’16 spoke for many in the audience when she asked, “Do women have to give up their femininity in order to adopt male roles?” Dr. Achebe’s short answer was no, though she acknowledged some of the nuances involved. (Trust us; it’s complicated.) She also talked about men playing female roles, and men becoming women (priestesses, for example) though that occurs more often in the spiritual realm. Throughout this lively Q & A session, Dr. Achebe referred to the oral histories that African women – farmers, weavers, potters, and market vendors, for example – have shared with her. She also spoke about important discoveries from her research into the past, including the sad reality that during the European colonization of Africa women lost (and in some cases never regained) many of their traditional and often powerful roles, especially those outside the family structure. It would be an understatement to say that this year’s MLK Day program stimulated a lot of productive thinking – and a fair bit of head scratching too, though that was also valuable. For Rei Imada ’16, it was all “a new and refreshing take” on an annual celebration, and an experience he thoroughly enjoyed. After it was over, a group of sophomore girls talked about how beautiful some of the photographs of African women were, even the images that showed them as beasts of burden. With irony that was probably accidental, one of the girls said to the others, “Imagine a white woman having the strength to hoe a field with a baby on her back.” None of them could.
Cate is hosting its first ever Asia Summit, set for May 6-8 in Hong Kong. This landmark event will gather alumni, families, faculty, trustees, and friends of the School for three days of discussions, classes, and cultural excursions. Headmaster Ben Williams will lead the summit as a collaborative undertaking designed to garner unique perspectives offered by those attending. Distinguished Alumnus Walter Douglas ’73 will be a featured speaker at the summit, and will be discussing Asia’s key role in U.S. foreign policy. Douglas serves as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs and Public Diplomacy in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. In that capacity he ensures that public diplomacy throughout the region supports the foreign policy priorities of the United States. His talk is one of many at the summit designed to engage participants in thoughtful discussion and stimulating conversation about Cate’s connections to Asia, the School’s new strategic plan, and its ambitions for the next decade. Faculty members Karl Weis, Annalee
Salcedo, Joshua Caditz, and Patrick Collins will lead master classes to highlight the interdisciplinary and exploratory nature of inquiry – vital components of every Cate classroom. Director of College Counseling Tamar Adegbile will share her expert insights on the current application environment. Panel discussions led by alumni who work, live, and contribute to the economy and ecosystem of Asia will be included. Monique Parsons '84, who chairs Cate’s Board of Trustees, is looking forward to celebrating Cate’s global reach. “Cate alumni and parents live and work throughout the world,” said Parsons, “and the weekend we’ve planned in Hong Kong will be a wonderful opportunity to bring the spirit of the Mesa to Asia in a new way. I'm especially excited that Cate faculty will be joining us. We'll reconnect with old friends, make new ones, and truly learn together in one of the world's great cities. The summit is already drawing attendees from the U.S., South Korea, Taiwan, and Australia. Learn more and register online at www.cate.org/asiasummit.
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PERFECTLY GOOD MATH
Perfectly matching mathematicians: (L to R) Nancy Wu '17, Alondra Torres-Navarro '16, Cecelia Sanborn '16, Jackie Cai '18, Jenny Lee '18, Ian Macfarlane '18, Keefer Rowan '18 and Sean Zhan '19 all competed in the Westmont College annual math contest this year.
On Saturday, January 30, Cate fielded two teams for Westmont College’s annual math contest. The theme of this year’s contest was “Perfect Numbers,” aptly named as this was the 28th year of the math challenge and 28 is a “perfect” number.” As a refresher, 28 is a perfect number because it is equal to the sum of its proper divisors (1+2+4+7+14=28). The two teams competed in the Upper School and Lower School competitions. Both teams started with a written contest, where Sudoku skills came in handy. They then answered questions read by a moderator in a college-bowl format (as in the popular movie Mean Girls). Cate’s Upper School team was composed of Alondra Torres-Navarro ’16, Cecelia Sanborn ’16, Nancy Wu ’17, and Keefer Rowan ’18. It faced 6
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three strong preliminary rounds of college bowl competition. However, even after overcoming some initial jitters associated with using a buzzer, the team couldn’t keep up with the experience and speed of Santa Barbara High School’s Varsity Math Club. Santa Barbara went on to win the Upper School finals. Jackie Cai ’18, Jenny Lee ’18, Ian MacFarlane ’18, and Sean Zhan ’19 composed Cate’s JV team – “Junior” indicating only the age of the team members. The JV team dominated the preliminary rounds, which included a sound squashing of the rival Toads. It then handily earned a spot in the finals. A tie for second place coming out of the prelims between Thacher and San Marcos led to a one-question sudden death situation, whose drama was heightened by a buzzer malfunction.
San Marcos eliminated Thacher and earned the privilege of facing Cate in the final round. Despite the team’s continued buzzer difficulties, Cate Math Department Chair Annalee Salcedo said, “The younger Cate Ewes and Rams kept their composure and worked as a team to solve non-routine problems in algebra, geometry, and probability with impressive speed and accuracy.” The team shut down the stunned San Marcos team, winning 8-0 and earning both the College Bowl and the School Award. The Westmont College High School Mathematics Contest was started in 1988 by a Westmont professor who wanted to give students the opportunity to compete and earn recognition for academics, not solely through athletic competition.
H E M E SA WARMING UPONTO TCUBA
MONDAY CONVOCATION: TURNING AND TWISTING ON STAGE
Cate students pose for a picture in Havana, Cuba.
Flamenco dancer Wendy Clinard, accompanied by (L to R) Carlo Basile, Kassandra Kocochis, and John Knecht takes center stage during a Monday night Convocation.
On Monday, January 11, the audience in the Hitchcock Theater was silent, all eyes riveted on the dancer at center stage. Keeping a rapid, complex beat with her feet, turning and twisting in space, stylized hand movements flashing against the unrelieved black of her costume, the flamenco dancer mesmerized her spectators. A recent convocation showcased Carlo Basile, founder of Las Guitarras de España, a Spanish guitar-influenced world music ensemble. The group included Basile on the guitar, Kassandra Kocochis on Cajon (box drum) and frame drum, and Director of Instrumental Music John Knecht on Cajon, Doumbek (African drum), and talking drum. Students learned about the tangled roots of flamenco, including its influences from India and Andalusia, and from gypsy, Jewish, and Moorish cultures. Original flamenco dances were accompanied solely with a stick beating out the rhythm, and even now the music still revolves around complicated
percussion lines. In a parallel to newer, more complex music, each dance embodies an aspect of the human condition—pride, melancholy—rather than just telling a linear story. After the initial introduction to flamenco, dancer Wendy Clinard left the stage to make room for Cate musicians. One of Basile’s special projects is a synthesis of flamenco music and Vietnamese music. Jeffrey Kim ’19 on electric guitar, Huy Le ’19 on vibraphone, Julie Phan ’16 on acoustic guitar, and Minty Pham ’16 on piano collaborated with Basile and his band to create a memorable fusion of South East Asian and flamenco sounds. The performing students unanimously agreed that working with professional musicians of this caliber was an overwhelming but incredible experience. Basile will continue this work as he travels to Hanoi to perform and teach in the next few months.
President Obama made headlines with his historic trip to Cuba in March, aimed at thawing the longstanding chill between the U.S. and its neighboring island nation. However, a delegation of Cate students and faculty got there first. Over the recent spring break, eleven Cate students and six faculty members spent a week in Havana just prior to the President's arrival. Photography teacher Monica Furmanski, who traveled with the group, said the trip was a unique opportunity for students to witness a country on the verge of major reforms. The Cate group stayed in the heart of Havana, exploring Cuban culture, music, and art. They visited several tourist sites, including the Cuban International Museum of Art and Ernest Hemingway's home. The Cate cohort met with Cuban photographer Rene Peña and Cuban filmmaker Miguel Coyula for group discussions. The students also attended a jazz performance at the Jazz Cafe and saw a Spanish flamenco performance at the Cuban National Theater. For their own artistic stimulus, they took an early morning stroll to watch the sun rise and photograph the city as it awoke. And as a trip to Havana is never complete without a ride in one of the city’s many taxis, the Cate group took a drive in the iconic vintage cars up and down the five-mile beachfront avenue, the Malecón, snapping photos all the while. Cate sophomore Emma Carrillo-Cordova ‘18, who is currently enrolled in Studio Art I, summed up her experience by saying, “Think of the liveliest, most artistic and vibrant thing you’ve ever seen, multiply it by ten, and you’ve probably only scratched the surface of what Cuba [was] like.” After their artistic stint in Havana, the Cate crew traveled to the countryside to explore the incredible limestone rock formations and caves in Pinar del Río. They finished the trip with tours of a rum factory, a tobacco farm, and a historic coffee bean plantation in Viñales. "There are a lot of layers to Cuba that take some time to process," said Furmanski. “The function of socialism, the role of art in a repressed country, the importance of music and dance, race relations, and more. But learning about the experiences of everyday Cubans may have been the most important lesson during the trip.” W W W. CATE . O R G
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ELAN HALPERN '16 EARNS QUESTBRIDGE SUPPORT FOR STANFORD Elan Halpern, a senior from New York City, will attend Stanford University on a full scholarship next year. Halpern is a recipient of a 2015 National College Match (“College Match”) through QuestBridge. College Match is a national program that pairs talented high school seniors with some of the country’s top colleges, along with full scholarships. This year, 657 students from 44 states were selected as College Match Scholarship recipients, surpassing last year’s high of 501 recipients. Students selected for the College Match are “matched” to a partner college—admitted with a guaranteed full, four-year scholarship, which includes tuition, room and board, and other expenses. Since 2003, QuestBridge College Match has successfully connected over 3,500 high-achieving, low-income students with full scholarships to participating colleges. These prestigious scholarships are generously provided to recipients by the partner colleges. In September, Elan was one of 13,264 students from across the country who applied to the QuestBridge College Match program, which chose fewer than 5,000 finalists. Finalists were selected based on their academic achievement, financial need, and their identification as strong potential applicants to QuestBridge partner colleges. QuestBridge currently partners with 36 of the most rigorous and selective colleges in the nation, including Emory, Stanford, Williams, Yale, and MIT. “We’re thrilled that both Questbridge and ultimately Stanford recognized Elan’s undeniable pursuit of excellence throughout her time at Cate,” said Director of College 8
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Elan Halpern ‘16 will attend Stanford in the fall on a full scholarship with the help of the QuestBridge College Match program.
Counseling Tamar Adegbile. “A prefect in an upper school dorm, a two-time captain of the varsity girls basketball team, a powerful student who has challenged herself with advanced-level classes, and the student representative to department chairs, Elan has demonstrated admirable wisdom and maturity,” Adegbile added. Elan is equally elated and relieved to know of her plans for next year. “I am beyond grateful for this opportunity to attend Stanford next year, and I am truly thankful for my past four years at Cate, which have
provided me not only with the tools necessary to succeed in college, but also with some of the best experiences in my life so far. If it were not for Cate, and all the people who have helped me along the way, I would not be in the position I'm in today.” According to QuestBridge, the caliber of this year’s College Matches is exceptional. In addition to an average unweighted GPA of 3.91, the middle 50% have received between 1890-2140 on the SAT (out of 2400), and between 29-33 on the ACT (out of 36). Academically, 96% rank in the top 10% of their class, including 28% who rank 1st in their class. Financially, their median household income is $30,245, and 84% qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The majority of QuestBridge Scholars—75% —are also among the first generation in their families to attend a four-year U.S. college. “It is so exciting to see this great increase in the number of College Match Scholarships this year,” said Ana McCullough, co-Founder and CEO of QuestBridge. “It really demonstrates our partner colleges’ deep commitment to providing opportunity to these deserving students and taking away the financial worry that attending college often presents.”
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COLLABORATION IN LATE NIGHT LABS
Students gather in School House 1 for an evening math lab to study.
It’s a warm February night and Chase McCaw ‘17 is sitting at the head of the long table in School House 3. Chase is a science lab proctor, which means he makes himself available to answer questions and review material with any student who visits him between 9 and 10 p.m. on Mondays. While most students are focused on their own homework and projects, he volunteers his time to help others in a subject in which he is comfortable and well versed. On any given school night, student proctors announce their lab times and locations with an email to the community “General” folder, like this coaxing one from English lab proctor Sam Hill: Lab SH2 Now - 10PM With me! Come write that essay you’ve been putting off. :) Chase spends the majority of the hour with freshmen who come in to ask physics questions. This night, however, he works with some of his Advanced Chemistry classmates, reviewing for
a quiz the next day. When they finish they talk briefly about Einstein’s theory of relativity and the newly announced discovery of gravitational waves. Chase explains that these topics won’t be on their quiz – but they still find them interesting enough to chat about. Learning labs have a proud history at Cate, says long-time faculty member Frank Griffin, who remembers the labs being present 30 years ago. He says that the student labs were “born out of the spirit of Servons,” and that institutionalizing the programs was a way of giving tutors and proctors credit for their service to others. He explains that the labs are more than just homework help. They are excellent training grounds for future teachers in that they give students a taste of what the profession is like. And of course, tutoring is never one-sided because, “as you know, when you teach something you learn a lot yourself,” adds Griffin. Back in Schoolhouse, Chase says that freshmen regularly visit him to ask homework questions or if they have an exam coming up. “If they learned a new topic in class that day and they
didn’t get it right away, then they come in for help.” He inevitably ends up at the whiteboard to draw explanatory diagrams. This current tutor remembers being in a similar position as a freshman when “a little help from an older student who’d taken the class could mean the world with figuring out a tough concept or assignment.” Senior lab proctors Jae Hong ‘16 and Cecelia Sanborn ‘16 both echo the satisfaction they feel from helping others and explain how their experiences in labs as freshmen compel them to pay it forward now that they are older. That same evening in SH 2, Joseph Thomassen ’18 is sitting next to Halie Straathof ’17 for help with Chinese. Chinese Lab mostly draws in students wanting help with presentations and skits. The majority of Chinese quizzes involve dictation, which students “can’t practice without someone helping them.” Halie says that she enjoys proctoring and that most nights are fun, even if she’s just checking grammar. She and Joseph review the Chinese PowerPoint that he plans on presenting to his class. Joseph notes another feature of the student-run labs -- the extra comfort of dealing with peers. “It’s easier to go to another student, partly because of convenience, and also because they can be easier to talk to,” he says. It’s mostly juniors and seniors in advanced-level courses who make themselves available for questions and extra help. These “pop-up labs” offer a collaborative learning environment, where more experienced students can help explain problems or offer guidance and support. Griffin suggests that the labs embody the culture of Cate – one that combines scholarship, companionship, and service. W W W. CATE. O R G
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A POWERHOUSE OF A PIANIST
Flora Hamilton '17 receives feedback from pianist Gabriela Martinez on some techniques that help relax the arms and fingers.
Through the generosity of Philip C. Berolzheimer ‘53, Cate was able to host professional pianist Gabriela Martinez. Martinez visited the School to speak with students about her career as a professional touring musician; during her two-day stay she also graced the community with some beautiful performances. On the evening of January 25, Martinez held a workshop for all Cate musicians, discussing how she became a professional performer. As she focused on developing one’s career, practicing, booking gigs, touring, having a manager, and recording an album in the classical world, Martinez captivated students with her breadth of knowledge and experience. As a fifth-generation Venezuelan pianist, she also responded to questions about growing up in a musical household and about her experience at Juilliard, where she studied from 10
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age 11 through graduate school. Students asked about perfectionism in classical music, making mistakes during performances, and whether Martinez likes any of the “modern” music. “Some of it” was her answer. And what does this classical musician rock out to when she’s off duty? “Radiohead.” The following day, as other students listened in, Martinez held a master class with Cate’s top pianists, offering them advice on technique and practice regimens. Junior Flora Hamilton enthused, “It was great! In the little time we had, the three students (myself included) had the chance to play a piece or an excerpt of our choice, which she then critiqued. She offered constructive advice on technique, goal setting, and musicality. … We gained a general sense of what kind of work it takes to shape and refine a piece of music to a
professional level.” Martinez capped off the morning by playing some introductory music for a Tuesday Talk assembly, filling the Katharine Thayer Cate Memorial Chapel with hauntingly beautiful melodies as the members of the community took their seats. A powerhouse of a pianist, Martinez can best be described as a graceful dynamo with a palpable passion for her art. Her current performance season is being split between solo recitals and various orchestral engagements. Martinez “had a blast” while on the Mesa, fulfilling a long-time goal of seeing the former school of Mr. Berolzheimer – something he had encouraged her to do ever since hosting Martinez during her time as a featured soloist with the Stockton Symphony Association. Berolzheimer continues to generously fund visits like this to the school by other professionals. The Cate community is truly appreciative of such opportunities, as they contribute to the unique and inspiring environment on the Mesa. Meg Bradley, assistant headmaster for external affairs, echoed this sentiment. “We are so very grateful that Gabriela was able to take the time to visit Cate and offer such an amazing opportunity for the entire community to interact with a performer at this level.”
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TUESDAY TALK: MICHAEL NETTESHEIM ‘16
Michael Nettesheim '16 during his Tuesday Talk on December 8, 2015, gave the community an opportunity to sit in silence and reflect, a rare experience on the busy Cate Mesa.
What would you say if given the chance to address the entire Cate community? It’s an opportunity that presents itself to every Cate senior who signs up to deliver a Tuesday Talk in the chapel. Most students tell a story about some important moment in their lives, or talk about
a valuable lesson they’ve learned, or describe the many ways they’ve changed during their time at Cate. Senior Michael Nettesheim used his Tuesday Talk to reflect in silence with the community to reflect on last year’s terrorist attacks in Paris and Lebanon. Michael explained
that the School’s prior discussion of these horrific events had ended too abruptly and left him feeling raw. In this communal silence he sought closure for himself, his peers, and his teachers.
HEADMASTER'S NOTEBOOK : BEING THE BEST Why do you think we worry so often about who’s the best? Not necessarily the best person, but the best at something? As though in the rarefied air of remarkable human achievement there were some way to determine exactly which particular accomplishment stands out from all the others. I’ve got no problem with drawing attention to the extraordinary. I think it’s great. What could be more thoughtful than to acknowledge another person’s exceptional accomplishment? The whole thing seems to break down, though, when we seek to choose just one – to find a winner, especially in an area of endeavor that was never intended to be a competition. For instance, we’re seeing more and more rankings about schools these days, most of them with little to no clarity about the basis for the hierarchy. But that doesn’t seem to be important, either to the publishers or the readers. But if you work in schools, the dynamic can become downright unhelpful. Communities don’t naturally lend themselves to hierarchical rankings, and neither do students. What do you think it does to a student if he or she believes that his or her best
expression of self is to be better than somebody – or everybody – else? How do you even do that? In what way exactly are you supposed to be better? I get the idea of being the best I can be. That’s a race I can run. I might even – for fleeting moments – feel I’m there, or nearly. That can be a good feeling. It makes me confident and humble at the same time. What happens, though, if I’m supposed to be racing someone else? Maybe that makes me go faster, but does it make me better? We don’t have a lot of ways to measure the things in people we really need: compassion, creativity, commitment, integrity – so we focus on the stuff we can measure: scores, victories, grades, etc. That’s how
students are ranked, and schools too, I suppose. But what do those numbers really tell us? Something about a person or school’s output, but relatively little about the person or the school. When families visit Cate, I often suggest that they think of the process of selecting a school as akin to choosing a spouse. With whom do you want to spend your life? Because your school – the people who compose it, the lessons you learn in it, the relationships that flow from it – will be with you forever. Fall in love with a place and great things happen. That’s not something any website or ranking can put into a formula, but the best choices are rarely quantifiable. The world is full of remarkable people and wonderful schools. The best any of us can do is to find the right one for us, the one that values and suits us, that challenges and fulfills us, that accepts us as we are yet asks for all that we might be, and reminds us that we are travelers on a journey rather than competitors in a race. So educated, we live our lives being our best. And then the only time we need to worry about “rank” is when something doesn’t smell very good. W W W. CATE . O R G
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ON T H E M E SA
Junior Eva Herman’s drawing, Faces, received a Silver Key award at the Scholastic Art Awards.
Thirteen Cate students received awards from the Scholastic Art Awards this year: (first row, bottom, L to R) Kenna Reyner ‘17, Eva Herman ’17, Julia Farner ’18, Mikaela Li ’16; (second row) Lauren Lokre ‘17, Flora Troy ‘19; (third row) Ruby McCullers ’18, Darling Garcia ’18, Kate Bradley ‘19, Laura Vences ’18; (fourth row) Ally Satterfield ’17, Halie Straathof ’18, and Charles Shi ’18. (Not pictured: Christian Burke ’16 and Charlotte Pecot ’16)
Sophomore Julia Farner’s painting, Pomegranate, received an Honorable Mention at the Scholastic Art Awards.
ARTFULLY WON Fourteen Cate students were recognized for their artistic talent in the 2016 Scholastic Art Awards, the oldest and most prestigious art competition in the United States. Organized by the nonprofit Alliance for Young Artists and Writers, the awards honor the nation’s most promising young artists in grades 7 through 12. Christian Burke ‘16, Julia Farner ‘18, Darling Garcia ‘18, Eva Herman ‘17, Mikaela Li ‘16, Lauren Lokre ‘17, Ruby McCullers ‘18, Charlotte Pecot ‘16, Kenna Reyner ‘17, Ally Satterfield ‘17, Charles Shi ‘18, Halie Straathof ‘17, Flora Troy ‘19, and Laura Vences ‘18 collectively took home a total of 26 awards this year. Kate Bradley ‘19 won three writing awards, including a “gold key” for her essay entitled A Series of Brief Meditations on Popular Fallacies. Charles Shi and Eva Herman received national awards for their respective drawings. Less than 1% of all art and 12
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writing submissions received the National Medal this year. On the success of the student visual artists, Cate Arts Department teacher Aspen Golann said, “There are currently 47 students in the studio program, and we earned 26 regional and national awards. That percentage is absolutely stunning and speaks to the dedication and talent of our students and to the originality, insightfulness, and power of their works.” The Cate artists’ submissions were categorized according to the media they used. Drawing and illustration yielded the most awards with six honorable mentions, nine silver keys, and five gold keys. Submissions of sculpture and painting were rewarded with an honorable mention in each category; and in the mixed media category, Cate artists took home one honorable mention and three silver keys. The competition is judged by
leaders in the fields of literary and visual arts. Former jurors such as Robert Frost, Judy Blume, Paul Giamatti, and David Sedaris are credited with identifying early promise in wellknown artists and writers both past and present. Alumni include Andy Warhol, Sylvia Plath, Truman Capote, Kay WalkingStick, Lena Dunham, Robert Redford, and Ken Burns. This year there were a record 320,000 entries in the competition’s 28 categories, which range from architecture to jewelry, from video games to poetry. Golann added, “The Scholastic awards value more than just technical skill. A technically excellent drawing on its own will not garner national attention; winning works differentiate themselves by demonstrating originality and the emergence of personal voice or vision.”
ON T H E M E SA
Headmaster Ben Williams conducts the ceremonial ribbon-cutting at the official opening of the new student store, The Blue Ewe.
THE BLUE EWE Saturday, January 9 marked the
the community was involved at every
in students get excited,” Collins said.
ribbon-cutting at Cate's new student
step. Greene was able to complete focus-
The new manager said that the store is
store, aptly named The Blue Ewe (a
group testing to determine what type of
designed to appeal to everyone -- from
play on the school's ram mascot). The
products students would be interested in
students who stop by on a daily basis,
1,000-square-foot space, which expands
purchasing in the store. In a community-
to family members who visit, to alumni
the original student store into some of
wide survey, Greene received more than
returning to the Mesa. “We want to be a
the real estate formerly occupied by
150 responses with student opinions. The
one-stop shop,” said Collins, who noted
the Day Room, houses some important
current stock in the store was “completely
the variety of items like pom-poms and
components of students' daily lives all
driven by what students asked for,”
seat cushions for Cate sports fans.
in one place. Students are now able to
Greene said. But community input
pick up their mail and buy books, school
didn’t end there. Students and faculty
with students and faculty coming in
supplies, snacks, and even Cate Cargo
were asked to submit their best name
regularly to shop, browse, or just chat
in one convenient location. Cate’s iconic
suggestions. They offered up: Ram Shack,
with the staff. The store has provided
mailboxes, formerly located in the math
Mesa Mart, King’s Coop, and Blue Spot,
a regular outlet for Cate Cargo, which
building, have been relocated to The Blue
among some 80 other potential names.
used to be available only during the
Ewe.
Once the “Blue Ewe” was selected, Cate
two Family Weekends each school year.
Photography Teacher Monica Furmanksi
Future plans for the space include an
planning, oversaw the project and
and Director of Admission Charlotte
ATM and a laundry card reloader to
described how collaboration and
Brownlee ‘85 developed and created the
further consolidate student needs. Next
community input drove the store to
store logo.
fall students will be able to order their
Hallie Greene, director of strategic
completion. Realizing that the Day Room
The new space is “more interactive,”
The initial offerings at the store
textbooks online through the store. In
was underutilized, with so many day
flew off the shelves, and every week new
Greene’s eyes, the Blue Ewe has been
student/boarder buddy pairs, Greene and
items are being added to the inventory.
a huge success, uniting the community
Superintendent of Buildings José Vega
KC Collins, the store manager, is still
from its inception, revitalizing a space
designed the new space. Cate’s Buildings
getting the feel for what students
on campus, creating a hub for a long list
staff spent about a month creating it,
gravitate towards, but she can count on
of student necessities, and expanding the
from demolition to completion.
customers for ten minutes after every bell
Cate School brand for current students,
rings. “Anytime something new comes
parents, faculty, and alumni.
With the design framework in place,
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ON T H E M E SA
SUMMER OPTIONS ON THE MESA
Cate sophomore Charlie Corman went to CSI camp while in 8th grade. Here he is seen experimenting with electricity circuits.
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Lacrosse is one of many sports sessions offered at the Cate Sports Academy.
For many years Cate has hosted the Music Academy of the West for its annual Summer School and Festival. In parting with that tradition, Director of Strategic Planning Hallie Greene says this year’s two summer programs will better align with the School’s mission. The Cate Summer Institute has been greatly expanded into a multi-faceted academic camp, where students will be exposed to the School’s teaching philosophy and core mission through interdisciplinary courses designed and taught by Cate faculty. The CSI is a week-long camp for rising 7th and
8th graders, devoted to academics, leadership, design thinking, and the outdoors. Participants will also get the full boarding school experience, sleeping in the dorms and eating in the dining hall. Cate faculty have worked together to create experiential courses across departments, combining physics and art, chemistry and literature, and other pairs of disciplines among the collaborative offerings. The Institute will give teachers “a way to test their boundaries as educators,” while providing students with “a totally
GRANDPARENTS WEEKEND
Grandparents Weekend gives Cate’s extended family a taste of daily life on the Mesa. Now occurring every year, students have the opportunity to invite their Grandparents to join them in class, at assembly, to meet their friends and attend sporting events...plus it is valued time for relatives to reconnect. This year, the weekend fell in late February.
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different learning experience.” Complementing the CSI is the Cate Sports Academy. Participants can sign up for any number of weeklong sessions in baseball, basketball, football, lacrosse, soccer, softball, tennis, track & field, ultimate frisbee, volleyball, or water polo. Director of Cate Summer Programs Jessica Seriano has put together a talented group of coaches and trainers for the six weeks of sports offerings. As enrollment in both programs grows, this summer promises to be a lively and engaging one on the Mesa.
ON T H E M E SA
COLLEGE PLANS
While many Cate seniors are breathing a sigh of relief this spring as their college plans come into final focus, one Cate faculty member in particular is also keenly sharing in their sense of accomplishment. Tamar Adegbile, who joined the college counseling office as its director late last summer, has just completed her first “season” of college advising with Cate, and she’s feeling pleased with the outcome. “I’m fortunate to begin my Cate career with a talented senior class,” she says. “They have made wise choices with regard to their applications and they have received offers of admission from
top schools, and even more importantly, from the schools they want to attend.” Adegbile is a veteran of the process, having spent many years advising students at Harvard Westlake School in Los Angeles and at Riverdale Country School in the Bronx, yet she points out that every school is a little different, as is every application year. The most striking observation, she says, is what she’s been hearing from admission officers around the country. “What I’ve been told over and over again is that Cate kids stand out. They [admission officers] also tell me how much they enjoy reading Cate applications, because our students do a
great job of distinguishing themselves.’” Confirming recent reports in the media about the increasing number of applications most high school seniors now send out, Adegbile agrees, “the sheer numbers are astounding. The UCs received 90,000 applications and Harvard received just under 40,000 – that’s unprecedented.” It is clear that students are applying to more colleges than ever before. It is essential for them to know themselves in order to demonstrate that they are a good fit with the colleges to which they apply. Cate students do well in this regard.”
The following is a sampling of schools and universities to which Cate’s Class of 2016 received offers of admission. Final matriculation plans are generally complete by early May. Babson College Barnard College Bates College Boston College Boston University Bowdoin College Brown University California College of the Arts University of California, Berkeley University of California, Davis University of California, Irvine University of California, Los Angeles University of California, San Diego University of California, Santa Barbara University of California, Santa Cruz Carleton College Centre College Chapman University University of Chicago Claremont McKenna College Colby College
Colgate University University of Colorado at Boulder Colorado College Columbia University Connecticut College Cornell University The Culinary Institute of America Davidson College Denison University University of Denver Dickinson College Elon University Emerson College Emory University Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering The George Washington University Georgetown University Grinnell College Hamilton College - NY Harvard University Harvey Mudd College
Haverford College Johns Hopkins University Juniata College Kenyon College Lewis & Clark College Macalester College McGill University University of Miami University of Michigan Middlebury College New York University Northeastern University Northwestern University University of Notre Dame NYU Shanghai Occidental College University of Pennsylvania Pepperdine University Pitzer College Pomona College University of Puget Sound Purdue University
Rhodes College University of San Francisco Santa Clara University Scripps College Seton Hall University Skidmore College University of Southern California Southern Methodist University Stanford University Trinity College Trinity University Tufts University Tulane University Vassar College University of Vermont University of Virginia Washington University in St. Louis University of Washington Wellesley College Wesleyan University Williams College Yale University W W W. CATE . O R G
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ON T H E M E SA
WINTER SPORTS ROUNDUP
Maddie Erickson '19 sets up to shoot for a goal during the JV match against Thacher on a very rainy afternoon.
This winter was filled with
her 2M position. The leading goal scorer
outstanding performances from Cate
this winter was freshman sensation Ella
varsity student-athletes across the board,
Hendriks ’19, who was voted first-team
with many teams competing for a playoff
all-league. The season was a great one, and
spot up until the final day of the season.
the future clearly is bright in the pool.
It was marked by terrific competition,
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On the soccer pitch the girls varsity
outstanding sportsmanship, and, most
team fought for a playoff spot until the
importantly, fun.
very last day. The girls got terrific net play
Kudos to the girls’ water polo team,
Mason Mackall '17 jumps for a basket during a game against Valley Christian.
from Emma Liberman ’16, who earned
which earned the program’s first playoff
first-team honors as a goalie. Leading
win in over a decade. The squad battled
scorer Isabela Montes de Oca ’18 was
through injuries all season and finished the
also named to the first team. Fellow
Tri-Valley League season in third place,
sophomore Julia Farner ’18 was named
behind defending CIF Champions Foothill
to the second team. The highlight of the
Technology and Malibu. The Rams went
season was a win over crosstown rival
on the road to face San Gorgonio (San
Carpinteria. The win over the Warriors
Bernardino) in the first round, where
was the first in five years for the Rams.
the girls made history. Sam Hill ’16 was
With several freshmen and sophomores
outstanding in goal this year. This was her
returning, next season looks extremely
first season ever playing water polo, yet she
promising for the young squad.
Ian MacFarlane '18 pauses for a moment during a squash tournament in Santa Barbara.
The season was highlighted by a win over defending CIF Division 7 Champion
performed admirably, keeping the Rams
On the boys’ side, first-team all-
alive in several tight contests. She earned
league selections Keller Mochel ’16, Joel
second-team all-league honors for her
Serugo ’16 and Christian Herman ’17 led
Nordhoff in an emerging rivalry with
efforts. Halie Straathof ’17 joined Sam on
the Rams to an 8-6-3 overall record, good
the Rangers. In addition to Herman, the
the second team for her defensive play in
enough for third place and a playoff berth.
Rams will return second-team all-league
CAT E BULLET IN / S P R I N G 2016
Dunn School, and two wild victories over
ON T H E M E SA
Junior Lila Dressler searches for an open teammate during a CIF playoff home game against Jurupa Valley.
Baillor Jalloh '19 keeps possession of the ball during a tough game against Santa Paula.
while senior co-captain Clinton Hall ’16 provided all-around balance to the
and her defensive presence this year. The squash team competed in various
offense and defense. The pair was named
tournaments throughout California this
first-team all-league, while co-captain
winter. The culmination of the season took
Christian Burke ’16 was named to the
place in San Diego, where two Cate teams
second team. The team finished 6-6 in
competed in the Southern California
league play, punctuated by an overtime
High School League Championships.
win over Thacher here in Sprague Gymnasium. A loss to Fillmore in the regular season finale knocked the Rams out of playoff contention. Returning honorable mention all-league players Pierce Lundt ’17 and Mason Mackall ’17 will lead the Rams next year. The girls basketball team witnessed one of the best individual seasons in recent memory from Elan Halpern ’16. Halpern
For Ryan Cain ’16, Ever Avery ’16, Prem Bunsmervicha ’16, Eunbie Coe ’16, Jonathan Kim ’16 and Porter Brown ’16 this would mark the end of their Cate squash careers. The A team (Ryan, Ever, Jonathan, Prem, and Ian MacFarlane ’18) performed admirably, reaching the semi-final round of the tournament, losing 3-2 to San Diego Access Academy. The
led the way in scoring and assists this
B team won their opening match before
season, helping the team to its second
bowing out in the second round. In the
straight playoff appearance. The team
individual championship, Eunbie advanced
was 11-8, finishing in fourth place overall.
to the B Tournament Championship Final
The best games of the season included
before dropping her only match of the day,
rivalry wins over Thacher and Carpinteria.
earning a 2nd place trophy for her efforts. It
by first-year head coach Andy Gil.
Maliha Hollis ’16 was named second-team
was an exciting end to a terrific season.
Marko Pliso ’18 led the team in scoring
all-league for her excellent play in the post
Chase McCaw '17 recovers the ball during a home game against Villanova.
selection Ryan Borchardt ’17 for next season, looking to continue to challenge for a title in the highly competitive TVL. In basketball, the boys were led
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What California Looks Like BY RYAN BRADLEY '02
W
hen I was living in New York, working for a travel magazine, I began to collect very old photographs of where I was from, which was California. I don’t mean that I acquired these images in any traditional sense. I wasn’t prowling flea markets or auctions, nor did I own the physical photographs. I just downloaded digital copies of the ones I was particularly drawn to and kept them all in a folder -- at first, for years, on my computer’s hard drive, and now, in the cloud, on several hard drives, owned by Google and Amazon and maybe even some other company or branch of government. Looking at my collection today, I have a difficult time remembering exactly what it was that prompted me to begin in the first place. I’d like to say it was to ease nostalgia, in the original sense of the word: the pain (algos, in Greek) of being away from home (nostos). But it wasn’t that, because I’d already been away for years, first in Chicago, then in Delhi. And besides, I loved New York and honestly don’t remember missing California much until the very end, after nearly thirteen years away, just before I moved back. The move prompted me to reexamine what I had been compiling all those years. A move prompts all sorts of fresh-eyed reexaminations, but I didn’t get to the old photos until recently. What prompted me, in
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fact, was a strange familiarity with a photo of my own -- one that I’d taken not long after my return. It was snapped quickly, from my phone, as I slowed on a long drive through a back-country road, headed east towards the last remaining big grassy plain in the state. I braked not to take a photograph, but because a pronghorn antelope had appeared, very briefly, beside a fence. I saw it, slowed, and then it was gone. So instead I took out my phone and shot straight ahead, looking down the road. There’s nothing striking about the image: the road winds through a few rolling hills that lead up to a sudden and pleasing but not particularly impressive mountain range. The land is dry, mostly dusty yellows, browns, and greys against a cobalt blue sky, but there are also a few oaks up ahead, a field cleared for farming, and a tall, spindly pole for power lines. Mostly, though, the land in front of me looked untamed. It looked like a California from a long time ago. It looked, I realized, like a particular image I’d collected, taken from a high location, some of which appears in the foreground, before dropping off into a valley where a road also winds before disappearing into the middle distance, which is again cut by a row of easy, low, rolling coastal mountains. The image is of the Carmel Valley, in 1874 or ’75, taken from Mission Road. The original photograph had been printed on a mammoth plate, an 18-by-21-
inch rectangle of glass. The man who took the picture was named Carleton E. Watkins, and until that moment, researching the provenance of the photo that reminded me of my own, I hadn’t noticed that almost my entire collection was made up of photographs by Watkins. He was everywhere in California in those early days of photography and statehood. Born in upstate New York, Watkins left in 1849, at 19 years old, and stopped in Panama, then Lima, then Valparaiso before eventually landing in Sacramento in 1852. He tried his hand at mining—the gold rush was still going strong—and when that failed to pan out he settled in San Francisco, finding a job as a clerk in a bookstore and another as a camera operator for a few of the first professional photographers in the city. His job—setting up the big awkward rigs, scouting locations, and fussing with the gear as the photographer huddled inside the heavy drapery surrounding the lens—had a wonderful name: he was an “outdoor man.” After a few years learning the trade, he saved enough to buy gear of his own. A friend gave him a job delivering goods to mining operations up the Sacramento River, and as he traveled these trade routes into the California interior he made daguerreotypes of the landscape, selling them back in the city. I like to think he took the outdoor man
Carleton E. Watkins, Carmel Valley from the Mission Road, Monterey, California, image courtesy of the Yale Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
W H AT C A L I FOR N I A LOOK S L I K E
Ryan Bradley captured this scenic view of California as he returned to the state after a thirteen year absence.
title very seriously, because for the rest of his life, the most significant images he made were in the wilderness. It was the size of the landscape that inspired him, in 1861, to build a camera large enough to capture it. He hired a cabinetmaker, and the two of them constructed his mammoth plate rig. Then, he traveled somewhere that would change his life, and career, and our history: Yosemite. It was at first the rumor of the trees that drew him there. At the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees he took a series of one colossal sequoia, the Grizzly Giant. Ralph Waldo Emerson, seeing Watkins’ images, said they “made the tree possible.” What he meant was that Watkins took what had been a fantastic rumor of natural splendor and brought evidence of it to the world. In capturing the tree, he manifested it. Watkins returned to the Yosemite Valley throughout the 1860s and 70s, making images for the California State Geological Survey that would lead to its protection, first by the state, then by the federal government. By 1871 his mammoth-plate Yosemite images had gained such renown that he opened a gallery dedicated to them, in downtown San Francisco. He traveled along the coast, and out to the Farallon Islands; he shot the geysers in Sonoma, the Central Pacific Railroad cutting through the Sierras, the new and massive hydraulic gold mines, and Mount Shasta. In Southern California he made brilliant images of new crops and irrigation systems, depicting a rough manmade geometry up against a still mostly unsettled land. But his eyesight was failing, as were his fortunes, and by 1895 he was living, with his wife and two children, out
of an abandoned railroad boxcar. The 1906 earthquake and fire left him destitute -thousands of his mammoth plates (40 years of work) were destroyed—and when he died in the Napa State Hospital in 1916 he had been blind and living in obscurity for nearly a decade. When I was reading about Watkins and researching his recent exhibits, I noticed that the word “edenic” kept appearing to describe his work—what Watkins captured was a “lost, edenic California.” But I don’t see that at all. Apart from the ones of Yosemite
relatives looked painterly, but was met with annoyance if not outright offense. As anyone can tell, the image is not true; the girl in the photograph is not dying. It’s hard to know exactly what a real dying girl might look like, but we can intuit truth in a still image just as we can in a painting. We know it when we see it. My favorite of Watkins’ Yosemite mammoth plates is not a particularly famous or grand vista, but it is to me the truest. It’s a view of Mirror Lake. The far shoreline of the lake, a ghostly white, is at the dead center of the frame, bisecting the picture perfectly. Below it lies the lake, and in the lake is a reflection of a mountain -- one of the amazing granite monoliths that rise from the Yosemite Valley, but certainly not among the most recognizable. Then, above the white sand of the lakeshore, rising above the skinny pines, is the mountain itself, which ended up being named after Watkins, several years after he stood on the lakeshore, capturing the image. When he stood there, under the heavy drapery, staring into the ground glass of his big lens, the image would have appeared upside down, as the images always did through the lens of his rig. The mountain below, Mirror Lake on top, with its mirror image of the mountain in its reflection—Watkins would have, for the first time, seen what he was photographing the
Mostly, though, the land in front of me looked untamed. It looked like a California from a long time ago. and the Mendocino coast, his images are almost entirely about a taming of the land. And even in the images that show nothing man made, I still see the work involved -his work: the framing, the careful camera placement, the way the line of a tree often draws one’s eye up to a distant peak or rock formation. What I see is an attempt to capture, instead of something imagined, something real. Watkins’ landscapes stand in stark contrast to much of the photography in that early era of the still-young form, when many “artful” photographers were attempting to be what artists then were assumed to be, and to reach the esteem of art through their work. I think of Henry Peach Robinson, whose staged image of a dying girl surrounded by her grieving
way it appeared, sky side up. I love thinking about all the reflections happening to make the mountain appear as it should, through the lake surface and the lens, then through another lens, in Watkins’ own eye, the waves of light flipped again and again until one aspect of the image appears, to him, the right way. It reminds me of the difficulty of seeing anything for what it really is, and how quite often time, distance, and some reflection help me notice what is most true. Ryan Bradley is a writer living in Los Angeles. His work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, the Virginia Quarterly Review, and Popular Science, among other publications.
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A N U N SC R I P T E D L I F E
Mattie Brickman '01 on the set of her play Reunions Reunions Reunions at LA's Studio/Stage Theater with director Hunter Adams.
Setting Her Stage by Sarah Kidwell
By the time you’ve taken your seat for Mattie Brickman’s latest play, Reunions Reunions Reunions, you’ve already been handed a nametag and assigned a class year, listened to the college fight songs piped into the lobby, and engaged with some of the actors – who have pretended to remember you from the good old days. If at this point you’re feeling primed for a light-hearted drama that might poke fun at the combination of re-connecting and nostalgia that often characterizes re-unioning, you’re in for a surprise. The play opts for a darker and more uncomfortable angle, and one that a college alumni office might not have in mind when it sends out those cheery invitations to return to campus. 20
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Brickman ‘01 calls the production and its subject matter “a tough-love valentine.” She’s a big fan of real-life reunions, having attended Camp Cate twice and her alma mater Princeton University’s reunions several times. “I think place, people, and certain items can be very transportive,” she offers. “Walking into your old dorm or just setting foot on campus — these things can take you back to memories you’ve forgotten, but that continue to inform how you live now.” Reunions Reunions Reunions takes that notion on, and more. It’s a complex drama involving a professor, his former student – who also happens to be the girlfriend of his son – and what transpires when they all gather on an artificial grass set strewn with crushed beer cans. Staged in an intimate Los Angeles theater for several weeks over
Staged in an intimate Los Angeles theater for several weeks over the winter, the play challenged the audience to examine both sides of the types of tradition that characterize a college experience. the winter, the play challenged the audience to examine both sides of the types of tradition that characterize a college experience. Brickman was thrilled that the play, her 12th dramatic work, was produced, and by all accounts, well received. The challenge for her was timing. She had just started working as the assistant to the showrunner of the CBS series Code Black several months earlier. In television, the showrunner is in charge of the entire operation from the writer’s room to production to post-production to communication
with both the studio and the network. After a demanding day on Code Black, Brickman found herself at rehearsals for Reunions nights and weekends so she could tweak the writing on her play. “That’s the best part. It’s a new play, and you’re going to do rewrites. It’s hard to know what you’re going to rewrite if you’re not there.” That sort of schedule called for tapping reserves, the ones “that come out when you need them,” confides Brickman. And she knows just where she learned how to store, and use, such reserves. Her first stage experience came
The cast of Brickman’s play Reunions Reunions Reunions gathers on stage in LA’s Studio/Stage Theater.
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S E T T I NG H E R S TAG E
Mattie Brickman ’01, a writer for the ABC show Code Black, poses for a portrait in front of a closed set at the Disney lot in Burbank, California.
in second grade when she was cast with her older sister as an orphan in a Santa Barbara production of Annie. “It was thrilling, but I also remember showing up to school the next morning completely exhausted – I was in 17 performances.” That proved to be good training for her days at Cate, where she led a double life as a student and dancer, the latter mostly off campus. Brickman remembers that she and classmate Katherine Lynn raced back and forth between classes on the Mesa and dance rehearsals in Santa Barbara. “We were always jumping in the car,” she recalls. “Most people at Cate knew we were dancers, but most hadn’t actually seen us perform.” That changed when Jane Maxwell, then head of the theater department, invited them to participate in a production of Working. Georgia Freedman ‘98 choreographed a piece for the duo, in the “Millwork” number. Then, senior 22
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“It was very fortuitous and strange, but I didn’t take my first playwriting class until after college.” year, Brickman danced with Susannah Freedman ‘03 and Gena Davis Bezdek ‘03 in The Tempest. Despite that early commitment, Brickman says she never envisioned dance as a career, and pursued a major in public policy at Princeton. During a junior year at Oxford, there was an administrative snafu and she had to replace an International Relations tutorial with Modern British Drama. She says she was surprised at how deeply it resonated with her. “I would read a play and immediately understand the post-war era in Britain.” She was struck by how these dramas
were time capsules of political or social eras. “It was a way of writing I hadn’t ever considered,” she recalls. Back on the Princeton campus she tried to fit her new passion into her chosen major, even trying to convince a dean that she could write a play for her required senior thesis. No go, she was told: “Go to grad school for that.” Brickman ended up writing about the history of the National Endowment for the Arts instead. “It wasn’t a play, but it was another thing that fueled this new interest.” Another monkey wrench in Brickman’s personal plotline – finishing
S E T T I NG H E R S TAG E
Brickman wrote the play Playground: The Hallie Flanagan Project, about the founder of Vassar College's theater program for the college's sesquicentennial.
Actor Luke Slattery played the part of Vassar's president, Henry Noble MacCracken in Playground.
her public policy major’s requirement that she complete a statistics course. The class conflicted directly with a humor-writing course she was dying to take, and writing won out. When graduation rolled around, she was short one course, but allowed to wear a robe, sit with her class, and stand with her department for recognition during the ceremony, but she did not earn a diploma. Needing the statistics course led her back to California, where she could live at home and take the class at UCSB. Brickman added a playwriting class, where she discovered that she was good at tackling political and social
issues in story form. She was hooked. “It was very fortuitous and strange, but I didn’t take my first playwriting class until after college.” (Her Princeton diploma was mailed to her once she finished the stats class.) The Yale School of Drama was the next step, a program Brickman calls “a wonderful playground for three years.” What distinguishes the Yale program, she explains, is that it acknowledges that plays are written to be seen. “You’re not going to learn playwriting unless you’re putting it out in front of an audience,” she explains. During her time at Yale, Brickman was involved in multiple productions, big and small, even acting, dancing, and directing. “I found it to be a very fertile place to try things. We learned by doing.” What does one do with a Yale Drama School degree? “Good question,” responds Brickman. “It’s not the degree per se; it’s the knowledge and experience.” Upon graduating in 2009, she had several productive years in New York where she wrote and produced a series of plays, including an outdoor audience participation show in Manhattan’s Bryant Park, and a dramatic
interpretation about Hallie Flanagan, a groundbreaking theater producer who started Vassar College’s experimental theater company in the 1920s. As personally rewarding as playwriting has been for Brickman, she wanted to explore writing for television and the burgeoning genre of web series. “I had some exciting notions for TV,” she said, “and I wanted to be able to afford to get my teeth cleaned.” In 2012, she returned to the West Coast to work for an online channel, WIGS, and wrote a series called Ro. It placed her firmly in California, close to her family, and in a locale where her twin interests in theater and television could more easily intersect. She says she loves the fast-paced and collaborative aspect of television writing, and treasures the ability to be able to stick with characters over the course of a season. “Sometimes when I finish a play, I get a little sad. TV offers the opportunity for expansive storytelling, to develop characters over a longer period of time. I love that…I hope to cobble together a lifestyle that allows for both television and theater.” By this spring, Reunions Reunions Reunions had finished its run and Code Black was on hiatus, with Brickman and everyone else on the show hoping for a call with news of a renewal. With that in mind, Brickman is working long days on the Disney lot (Disney/ ABC Television Group is co-producing the show). Her recent deep dive into all aspects of reunions has not dissuaded her from returning to the Mesa in June, though she acknowledges that she’s a little surprised it’s approaching so fast. “At my 5th, all the classes had different color nametags, and I was mistakenly given a 15th nametag. I remember thinking, ‘my 15th – I can’t imagine that.’ And yet here it comes!” Fortunately, she’s got plenty of good stories to share. W W W. CATE . O R G
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GOOD, BAD, OR UGLY, BUT AT LEAST NEW: Simple, spare, and what a view! Joe Day designed C-Glass house, overlooking Northern California’s Tomales Bay and the Pacific Ocean for a client who had long desired a glass house.
J
oe Deegan-Day ’85 says his interest in architecture likely dates to drawings of custom vans and skate
ramps in grade school, but it sharpened into a hunger at Cate, where Patrick Collins gave him Tom Wolfe’s From Bauhaus to Our House for summer reading and humored his “glacially slow” tracing of Andrea Palladio’s Villa Rotunda for an art class. Day says he started to find the hidden ratios in that design, but also had the luxury of imagining a life of drawing and building, rather than selling or trading or arguing over things. After Cate he headed to Yale and studied architecture and political science. Desperate to get back to Los Angeles, Day chose the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) for graduate school. Day calls SCI-Arc a vanguard, independent alternative to the Ivies and UCs that “design-wise runs circles around the more established schools.” He earned his Master’s degree from SCI-Arc in 1995 and since then has taught there, along with brief stints at Yale, UCLA, and Otis. While in school and just after, Day
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CALIFORNIA’S ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY IS EASIEST TO GRASP AS A MEETING OF WEST AND EAST, WITH A BROAD INFLECTION FROM THE LATIN SOUTH. worked for several architects and firms.
(Routledge, 2012), on museums and prisons.
Some were pretty cutting-edge, including
The heart of his work though consists of
Frank Israel and Dagmar Richter, but he also
houses and other projects by his practice,
worked for historicists like Robert Stern and
deegan-day design, located in the Silverlake
Marc Appleton, who recently rebuilt the San
neighborhood of LA. Day answered several
Ysidro Ranch and the Biltmore in Montecito.
questions about Californian architecture
From the latter he learned to appreciate the
for the Bulletin, though he warned us he
indoor/outdoor genius of Mediterranean
might be “a hostile witness” at times because
architecture – but also concluded,
he thinks Californians spend too much
“emphatically,” that period architecture
time “basking in the golden past, when the
would not be his calling.
strength of the state has always been its bias
Day then joined some friends in a design collective called HEDGE, and started to write “more than I ever planned to” – essays on urbanism, art and architecture, an introduction to Reyner Banham’s seminal Los Angeles: Architecture of the Four Ecologies, and his own book, Corrections & Collections: Architectures for Art and Crime
toward the future.” Q. Even for a relatively “young” state, California is home to a huge range of architectural styles. Consider everything from an L.A. ranch house, to a San Francisco Victorian, to a Santa Barbara Spanishcolonial style. Is there any one thing that defines California architecture?
A N U N SC R I P T E D L I F E
A VIEW OF CALIFORNIA ARCHITECTURE
The Schindler House, designed by Rudolph M. Schindler for a West Hollywood site in 1922, significantly advanced modernism. Inset, the architectural drawings for the building, which were initially rejected by local planning authorities.
A. California’s architectural history is easiest
then as “soon to reach our shores.” The
to grasp as a meeting of West and East, with
western march of progress had already
a broad inflection from the Latin South.
happened - and bypassed New England. This
California represents a culmination of many European styles – Victorian and Mediterranean, for sure, but also the
century-old conceit is still not commonly acknowledged at eastern schools. But the more provocative and dynamic
years ago, and friends and colleagues begged to be included. It turned out nearly every designer I know in LA has specific, carefully considered interests in Japanese architecture
Modern. Most of the earliest and best
influence on California architecture –
modernist homes in the US, by Frank Lloyd
largely because it involves so much more
Wright, Richard Neutra, and (especially)
misunderstanding and extrapolation
Q. Do you have a favorite style,
Rudolph Schindler, were built in L.A.
— is Asian, especially Japanese building
and if so why?
decades before MoMA devoted shows to
traditions. I co-curated a show of 40 recent
A. Architects tend to bristle at the idea of
Europe’s new “International Style,” billed
houses by LA and Tokyo architects a few
style – everybody would prefer to think they
and culture, historical or contemporary.
W W W. CATE . O R G
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G O OD, BA D OR UG LY, BU T AT L E A S T N E W:
instead have a “voice” or point of view and look for that in the work of others. I am, however, a fan of what I’d term California’s “Empire Style.” Between 1925 and 1975, California pioneered mid-century Modernism, which has broad and general echoes everywhere – LA was in that half-century the city of the future. I’m interested in the more banal, local manifestations of that prowess: the banks and towers, the airports and schools, even the tract developments, that have become templates for the good, fast life the world over. Many are ugly and overbearing, or kitsch – the Theme Building at LAX, for example – but this muscular style is the residue of epic, maybe even delusional, optimism. The world still needs more of that.
If you haven’t seen Hearst Castle, the masterpiece architect Julia Morgan designed for media magnate William Randolph Hearst, go, says Joe Day.
Q. Should seeing Hearst Castle be on everyone’s bucket list? A. It’s still on mine… I’d go more to see a major project by Julia Morgan, an amazingly early, gifted and prolific woman in a boys’ club of a profession, than for the architectural novelty of the place, though I’d also look for the walk-in fireplace where Orson Welles shot the “Rosebud” scene in Citizen Kane. Q. If you had to pick one California Mission to see, which would you recommend? A. The Voyager Mission, imagined, built, and monitored from the Jet Propulsion
Lloyd Wright’s (son of Frank Lloyd Wright) Wayfarers Chapel in Palos Verdes CA. is on the list of Joe Day’s faith-based architectural must-sees.
Laboratory just west of Pasadena. I’m not a
100’ cruciform vault… worth a visit after
Q. How about underappreciated California
fan of the historical missions. They feel like
one to the nearby de Young Museum, by
architect or style you think we should know
adobe plantations to me, with an overlay
Swiss architects Herzog and de Meuron.
about?
of Catholic mysticism and coercion that
Even more to my taste are Wright’s Wayfarer
A. My generation, especially my most
reminds me uncomfortably of my Italian-
Chapel in Palos Verdes and James Hubbell’s
digitally renegade contemporaries: Hernan
Irish roots. (Cate saved me from the Jesuits
tiny, snail-like one in Sea Ranch, both light
Diaz-Alonso, Marcelo Spina, Florencia Pita,
– my mother hoped I’d stay in LA and go to
but bold experiments in meditative space.
Jason Payne and especially Greg Lynn, a
Loyola High School….) Actually, there is some good religious architecture in California, even for Catholics. The cathedrals in San Francisco and Los Angeles are both well-wrought concrete structures, especially the former, in which square walls rise and inflect to a 26
CAT E BULLET IN / S P R I N G 2016
Q. Is there a “famous” California building you hate? A. The Los Angeles County Jail and Pelican Bay State Prison – the gaping mouth and darkest corner, respectively, of our state’s gargantuan ecosystem of punishment.
mentor to all of those. These designers came of age after drafting boards had become screens, and after the fixities of Euclidian geometry gave way to saddles and parabolic surfaces borrowed from aerospace design and Pixar. Between 1995 and 2015 a revolution
A V I E W OF C A L I FOR N I A A RC H I T EC T U R E
Between 1925 and 1975, California pioneered mid-century Modernism, which has broad and general echoes everywhere – LA was in that halfcentury the city of the future. Architect Joe Day says LA’s new Broad Museum is “enshrouded in a sponge-like veil of precast concrete vortices,” and he’s a fan.
Q. What do people want to see in California architectural design now? A. People want to see more ecologically attuned and more expeditious (cheaper, faster) buildings, as illustrated in dwell and similar magazines. Which is great, in so far as it has made a general public more aware of environmental issues and more open to contemporary design, but it has also proved limiting in its emphasis on “better boxes.” There’s far more evocative, daring work going on, but those projects require risktaking that few clients, or even patrons, have mustered yet. (I’m a fan of The Broad, for Day calls the Brutalist-style LA County jail “the gaping mouth…of our state’s gargantuan system of punishment.”
example, a new museum in LA enshrouded in a sponge-like Veil of precast concrete
overturned my discipline, but the new
A. Completed in 2014, C-Glass House
vortices, but for some of my more radical
design methods enabled by advanced
opens to Bodega and Tomales Bay from
colleagues, it’s too orthogonal and thus too
computation are just beginning to revamp
the northwest corner of Marin county. A
“static” overall to be truly daring, especially
the profession. That divide, between
retired plastics executive, the client worked
seated next to Frank Gehry’s gyroscopic
discourse and practice, has seldom yawned
on a Mies van der Rohe retrospective at
Disney Concert Hall.)
as wide as it did through the early years of
MoMA in the 1970s and had long imagined
digital exploration, but now the gap between
her own glass house. This one employs
useful, gap between what people want from
visualization and realization is closing. I feel
transparent glass sliders to the ocean view
architecture right now and what’s being
lucky to have entered my field when I did –
sides, and translucent channel glass planks
explored at the horizons of the field. As
it’s been a fireworks show since the ‘90s.
(thus “C-Glass”) to the land side. A solar
with so many of the avant-garde movements
array, well water, percolation field, and
that Patrick Collins introduced me to in
Q. Tell us a little bit about C-Glass
satellite dish keep C-Glass completely, and
his art history class, what’s uncomfortably
House (pictured on p. 24-25), which
comfortably, "off-grid.”
new today will likely be commonplace in a
your firm designed.
I think there’s a fascinating, even
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FIN CITY
The Pacific Ocean can be seen in the distance from many spots along the Franklin Trail.
ON THE ROOF OF THE WORLD by Joe Gottwald ‘10
Over a century ago, School founder
easements issued by the Land Trust of
his kids some tough lessons. Mr. Cate was
Curtis Cate threw down $50 to see to the
Santa Barbara County freed up some of the
an advocate of cold showers and rugged
completion of Carpinteria’s Franklin Trail.
area, and in 2010, a group called Friends
outdoor experiences, and every student was
That sum, $1200 in today’s equivalent,
of the Franklin Trail was established and
required to have a horse. Small groups of
made Cate the second-biggest individual
spearheaded fundraising efforts to reopen
boys rode the local trails every weekend,
contributor to the trail. One hundred years
the historic trail. With the involvement of
either toward the Casitas, or up the
later, after the trail’s forty-year closure and
a host of governmental bodies and local
Franklin Trail and over into the Santa Ynez
recent reopening, the Cate community
organizations, construction and clearing
River area.” While horses are no longer part
continues the tradition of hiking the
began in May of 2013. The initial phase of
of the School’s program, and hot water now
meandering path into the foothills.
the trail opened in November of that year.
flows through its showerheads, outdoor
“I take pleasure hikes and cross-
experiences continue to be an important
From the trailhead near Carpinteria High School, the Franklin Trail snakes up
part of the Cate experience.
the Santa Ynez Mountains that form the
throughout the year,” said math teacher
Carpinteria Valley. A mile of chain-link
and cross country coach Tim Smith, who
accessible. A new round of fundraising has
fencing separates the path from the campus
also takes students on walks and runs there.
begun for the third and final phase, which
on one side and avocado ranches on the
Director of the Outdoor Program Paul
will restore the remaining stretch of the
other. Where the fencing ends, switchbacks
Denison said that the trail has been used as
original trail. When finished, the trail will
through dense chaparral begin, with
part of the School’s fall sports programs. He
lead hikers, bikers, and horse riders up
breathtaking views of the valley, the Pacific,
noted that several students use the trail for
seven miles to the Santa Ynez River and will
and the Channel Islands at every turn.
mountain biking and enjoy the conveniently
connect to hundreds of miles of trails in the
close access. “It’s a nice resource to have in
backcountry. Today, hikers can share the
one’s backyard,” he added.
1921 experience of two Cate boys who spent
Initially constructed in 1913 by the Forest Service, for years the trail provided access to the network of hiking, biking,
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country training runs along the trail
As an avid outdoorsman who
As of spring 2016, 5.2 miles are
their Easter break riding the trail, and
and equestrian routes that wound through
believed in the benefits of fresh air and
who afterwards described “...the poignant
the backcountry. In the 1970s, access was
vigorous exercise, Curtis Cate supported
odor of pine needles” and wrote of being
lost when agricultural land in the valley
establishment of the trail knowing that he
“…on the roof of the world, for we could
expanded, and when owners ceased to
and his schoolboys could use the path. In
see for a hundred miles … the Coast
permit the public from passing through it,
Roxie Grant Lapidus’s essay, The Historic
Range to the southwest, the Channel
for fear of horses and hikers transmitting
Franklin Trail and Early Adventures in the
Islands, and way beyond the endless
plant diseases to their crops and orchards.
Back Country, she says, “[Mr.] Cate quickly
breast of the Pacific, glistening beneath
But in the early 2000s, conservation
discovered the trail’s potential for teaching
the sun like a sheet of gold.”
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WHAT IS THE SOURCE OF POWER IN LOS ANGELES? Landscape, Literature, and Lore by Katheryn Park Water, Hollywood, minority groups,
neighborhoods, the aqueduct, and—with
auto industry, and supplied jobs.” Seniors
rioting, natural disasters—ideas flew as
the participation of science teacher and
Michael Nettesheim, Taylor Bigony, and
Juarez Newsome and Charlotte Brownlee
geologist Jamie Kellogg—the landscape
Clinton Hall, along with several others,
’85 tossed out topics to be covered in their
under the city. Through discussion posts
good-naturedly debated in a recent class,
multi-disciplinary senior elective on Los
and class conversations, the students will
attempting to reach consensus: Which is
Angeles.
synthesize some of the various elements that
more important in LA, oil or water? Doheny
combine to make California’s largest city.
or Mulholland? Obviously familiar with
option was a course on California literature
The capstone project for this senior elective
these two titans of Los Angeles history, and
offered in the past by Brownlee, Cate’s
will be an inquiry project, allowing students
comfortable throwing around moments
Director of Admission. She always felt that
to pursue a topic of their choice, culminating
in the expansion of LA, like the arrival of
the class lacked the contextual focus needed
in a Wiki page and major oral presentation to share their work with their peers. Cate
water from the Owens River and the new
for a richer understanding of the material. Enter Mr. Newsome. As the original Colin
is in a unique position to offer this course.
Day Chair for Cross-Curricular Studies
Brownlee noted that “Cate is a piece of
and a long-time Cate history teacher,
California history, and many old California
Mr. Newsome is adept at team-teaching
families are Cate families.”
The genesis of this new academic
classes that cover a variety of disciplines.
“Where the money is is where
The Brownlee/Newsome collaboration
the power is.” “Water is money.” “Oil
has produced a class that uses this year’s
increased manufacturing, created the
school-wide essential question: What is the source of power? The students will examine various aspects of Los Angeles, using magazine articles, California writers of nonfiction like Joan Didion, movies such as Chinatown and Boyz ‘N the Hood, and footage of LA events like the Koreatown riots of 1992. At least two field trips will take the students to Los Angeles to roam through the city, examining transportation,
technology that allowed trains to run on oil instead of coal, these seniors engaged each other in trying to come up with an answer to the question of power in Los Angeles. Newsome and Brownlee tossed in the occasional question—What about immigration? Who gets the credit for expanding LA?—but mostly listened as the students made connections by using
Through discussion posts and class conversations, the students will synthesize some of the various elements that combine to make California’s largest city.
their reading in this class and what they had learned in other courses. The Chinese Exclusion Act, Western Migration, and the SoCal oil boom all made an appearance in the wide-ranging discussion. Cate is in the process of increasing its slate of interdisciplinary courses as a means to support the School’s educational principles, which include curiosity and knowledge. The goal is to create the kind of nimble, sophisticated thinkers required by the complex world in which our students live. By making connections across disciplines and media, by choosing and pursuing topics of interest, Cate students are preparing habits of mind that will allow them to be leaders in their chosen fields. “What is the source of power in Los Angeles? Landscape, Literature, and Lore” is crafted to further a uniquely Cate education while introducing students to the fascinating, complicated city 90 miles south of the Mesa.
Juarez Newsome uses a vintage map of LA's rail lines for a classroom discussion. W W W. CATE . O R G
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THROUGH THE LENS Spring is in full swing here on the Mesa. Multimedia Coordinator Ashleigh Mower and senior Yvette Vega spent an afternoon during Spring Break capturing some of the botanical wonders spread around the campus.
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DISPATCHES Whenever we speak with Cate alumni, we’re always compelled by their life stories – who they’ve become, what they do, and where they go. When we narrowed our search to just one state, we weren’t surprised to find that they are making their mark in myriad ways. immigrating from Belgium, and with 42 years of experience in the business, he’s seen a lot. Over the decades, de L’Arbre and his brother David, the company’s COO, have adapted nimbly to a changing world, as their thriving offices – two in Santa Barbara and one in Ventura – would suggest. In addition to the predictable sorts of travelers who go places for work or pleasure, the company’s clients include lots of people in the entertainment industry. “We started maybe 25 or 30 years ago, in a small way, doing a lot of work with jazz musicians,” explains de L’Arbre. “And that’s grown steadily ever since. We probably pick up Charlie De L'Arbre '69 stands in front the Montecito branch of his travel agency.
CHARLIE DE L'ARBRE '69 These days, with all those travel websites out there, why would anybody use a travel agent? After all, travel agents charge fees for their services, and most trips are
“equipment” problem or a weather “event”?
sometimes more than that.” About 15 years
What if your travel agent could do battle
ago SBTB began working with the film
for you when, after returning home, you
industry, first on a made-for-TV remake
discovered that your hotel in some distant
of South Pacific, shot in French Polynesia
corner of the world had charged you for
and Australia. “We handled all the travel
six nights when you stayed for only three?
logistics for that,” says de L’Arbre. “Then we
Admit it: using a travel agent is starting
started doing personal travel and touring
the airfare, hotel bills, rental car contracts,
to sound like a good idea – maybe even a
arrangements for one of the show’s stars.
and countless other expenses.
no-brainer – since it might not only save you
We got lots of referrals as a result, from one
money but also offer you peace of mind.
management company after another. More
If the previous paragraph hasn’t
films followed, and all of a sudden we were
pricey enough without added costs on top of
But what if paying a modest amount to a travel agency actually saved you money? What if it got you free upgrades
34
one new artist or band every month, and
brought you to your senses, a few minutes
arranging literally hundreds of trips – flights,
that you couldn’t get on your own? Or
with Charles de L’Arbre ’69 will surely
car rentals, hotel bookings, you name it.”
complimentary breakfasts? Or discounts on
do the trick. In his wonderfully deep and
excursions? What if your travel agent knew
reassuring voice, he can provide a long list
his clients like to vacation these days, de
much more about your hotel options than
of compelling reasons to use a travel agent,
L’Arbre mentions a number of interesting
you could ever hope to know, and could
if you ask him to do so. He can also regale
trends. With security very much on most
therefore steer you away from a poor choice?
you with both success stories and cautionary
travelers’ minds, lots of people wonder,
In response to a question about where
Or could get you on another flight quickly
tales to illustrate his points – a heady mix of
“Where will it be safe?” De L’Arbre says
and easily after your airline (with its surly
the delightful and the frightful. As the CEO
Turkey is currently the country his clients
counter staff and worthless 800 number)
of Santa Barbara Travel Bureau (SBTB),
ask about most often, largely due to recent
canceled your original flight due to an
which his father founded in 1947 after
bombings in Istanbul. “It’s been a very
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DI S PAT C H E S
popular destination for many years now.
Internet, we can often do in two or three
And we do a lot of business with Turkish
minutes.” And even if you don’t mind fussing
Airlines,” he explains. But even if the
around with travel websites, you probably
chances of getting caught up in political
do like saving money. “What we offer is
violence are miniscule compared to the
incredibly cost effective for our clients,” de
odds of having a car wreck on the way to
L’Arbre asserts passionately. “If we’re not
the grocery store, de L’Arbre understands
able to save somebody many times what we
his clients’ concerns. “Part of what we do is
charge in fees, we’re not doing our job.” -JB
risk management; maybe we don’t perceive the risk that the traveler does, and therefore it’s incumbent upon us to address that. … But how do you assess risk? How do you quantify it?” Sometimes, of course, de L’Arbre is obliged to advise against visiting certain areas. “We haven’t sent anyone to Egypt in a number of years,” he says, before mentioning an intrepid woman who recently traveled by herself to Iran, where she had the trip of her life! Medical tourism is another growing segment of the travel business,
JULIAN MARTINEZ ‘08 Julian Martinez ’08 is making quick work of a long shopping list. Dressed in baggy black pants, an orange t-shirt, and a baseball cap to shade him from the Santa Barbara sun, he maneuvers purposefully through the crowded farmers’ market on lower State Street, lifting bunches of fragrant herbs to his nose, sampling strawberries, and chatting with vendors. After adding the
Julian Martinez ’08, chef and owner of the restaurant Barbareño in Santa Barbara, California, poses for a quick portrait before his restaurant opens for the night.
choicest items to two large bins strapped to
assumed he’d pursue them in college. But
according to de L’Arbre. He notes that
a rolling cart, he wends his way to the corner
when he got to Claremont McKenna in
“Vietnam is one of the really up-and-coming
of Canon Perdido and De la Vina Streets, to
Claremont, CA, Martinez found that he was
places for plastic surgery, though that’s not
the restaurant Barbareño, which he launched
spending more and more time at a student-
an area we expect to get involved in, since
more than a year ago with a business
run restaurant on campus, The Shakedown
none of us at the agency has the expertise to
partner. As he walks, he talks about cooking,
Café. There, he cooked, wrote recipes,
recommend where to go for a tummy tuck
fresh ingredients, and how he became a
ordered food, and managed the staff. While
or a facelift.”
restaurateur.
he acknowledges that it wasn’t what he
This admission is in keeping with what
“When I was in 6th grade I got an ice
de L’Arbre says about SBTB and its value to
cream maker for Christmas – I guess that
he saw it as “a rare opportunity to have that
its clients. “There’s a professional, historical
was the beginning of it. I just loved making
much responsibility.”
perspective on everything we recommend,”
ice cream. After that I started cooking meals
de L’Arbre says. He goes on to describe long-
for my family,” he remembers. Martinez
devotion as a foodie secure, Martinez
time relationships with hotels and airlines
first got access to a restaurant kitchen at The
headed to the Napa Valley, where he was
and other companies around the world.
Nugget in Summerland during summers off
determined to experience every aspect of
“We do so much that you don’t get on the
from Cate, where he washed dishes, a task
restaurant work – from waiting tables to
Internet,” he adds. “And we save people a
he admits he still enjoys.
cooking to kitchen management. In the Bay
lot of time, too. What might take somebody two or three very frustrating hours on the
During the school year he was most interested in English and literature, and
anticipated getting out of his college years,
A business degree in hand and his
Area, he put in time in two more restaurants and managed a barbeque food truck. Finally, W W W. CATE . O R G
35
DI S PAT C H E S
running a restaurant is always with you, he notes. “It’s almost like having a child.” -SK
AMANDA CLARK HAPPLE '91 The road of life is hardly ever smooth, straight, and free of detours. (Californians know this to be true both literally and metaphorically.) For Amanda Clark Happle '91, the path that took her away from the Mesa has always, in serendipitous turns, led her back to the Golden State. After completing her undergraduate work at Duke University, Happle moved to New York for a stint. But the lure of the powder got her, and she returned to California to teach skiing at Squaw Valley for a few years. Trading the slopes for Santa Barbara's freshest produce finds its way into dishes at Barbareño under the guidance of Julian Martinez '08.
he felt ready to mount on his own effort and teamed up with former Claremont
The menu features some of the
McKenna classmate Jesse Gaddy to create
recently garnered goods – a little gem
Barbareño in 2014. Since Santa Barbara is
salad comes with a fennel vinaigrette,
home to Martinez, and good local produce
finocchiona, and pistachios; a salad of
and wine are abundant, the duo aimed for
garden lettuces has shu’s greens, apples, and
coastal California cuisine, drawing on local
Santa Ynez cheddar. The grilled chicken
inventions like tri-tip and ranch dressing,
is accompanied by cactus, grilled avocado,
with a new twist: “We noticed that a lot
and a chayote latke, and the Santa Maria
of the food in Santa Barbara was a little
BBQ comes with pinquito beans. Wines
conservative, and we wanted to be more
and beers, listed on a chalkboard wall, are
daring.”
local and craft. By 5:30 in the evening,
Back at the restaurant, Martinez’s
McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific in Sacramento. She graduated and passed the State Bar in 2001, and immediately began work in civil litigation. For many attorneys, this is the traditional, well-paved path – and it was for Happle, too. 2005 presented a new avenue, though: Happle gave birth to her first daughter, and shortly thereafter, moved with husband Scott and baby in tow to Panama, where they spent four years living and adventuring (and where her second daughter was later born). The family returned to the States in 2010, and Happle once again found herself
patrons are arriving, choosing between
on the California coast – in Ventura, to be
farmers’ market haul is unpacked and he
the ample outdoor seating or the interior’s
exact.
and the staff are readying for the evening
homey surroundings.
rush. He’s changed quickly into his chef’s
36
“Angeleno” refers to a Los Angeles resident.
textbooks yet again, Happle then attended
Looking back, Martinez says
Ventura serves as the headquarters for outdoor-lifestyle brand (and favorite
gear – taking charge of the kitchen, slicing
he wasn’t the least bit fazed by the
among the Cate community) Patagonia.
bread, and lighting an outdoor grill. Inside,
November 2014 headline in the local
And it's where her husband became Head of
simple earthen tones and wooden furniture
Santa Barbara publication noting that two
Facilities for the environmentally conscious
convey a California casual feel, with a dose
“20-somethings” were opening a restaurant.
company. Happle, however, merged back
of sophistication. The restaurant’s name
“I’m really glad I did this in my twenties —
into civil litigation. Despite working for
comes from the ancient Chumash language;
it took a lot of energy and maybe more than
prestigious and respected firms, she quickly
it also connotes a “Santa Barbaran” the way
I’ll have in my 30s or 40s,” he jokes. And
grew restless and tired of the herd mentality.
CAT E BULLET IN / S P R I N G 2016
DI S PAT C H E S
chose the road less traveled, to reassess what she wanted and saw for herself, and to go after it. "Always be open to and unafraid of change," she says. Caution: winding road ahead... -SM
CHAKA JALIWA ‘06 Chaka Jaliwa ‘06 beams as he guides kids through the California Science Center’s hands-on Roller Coaster Engineering Lab, using black tubing and a wall of slots to help them explore the science behind gravity. For him, working with young kids is especially rewarding. “You see them learn. You can see
Chaka Jaliwa '06 delights in sharing his love of science with elementary students at the California Science Center.
Amanda Clark Happle '91 stands in front of the original shed where Patagonia's founder, Yvon Chouinard, first started making climbing gear.
in their faces that they just had that moment
Determined to navigate her own course, she
is the outreach coordinator at the Science
took a leap of faith -- and a big risk at this
Center, developing his skills as an educator
point in her established career. She ditched
as he leads elementary school students to
his favorite things: performing, science, and
traditional law, landed herself a position at
understand everything from erosion to the
teaching.
Patagonia, and is now one of four in-house
evolution of space travel. He is the resident
attorneys involved in Commercial Contracts.
space expert, and he has created a travelling
shuttle for years, Jaliwa was inspired to
program to teach visitors about the inner
explore space for himself. Just last month he
interesting, and at the same time really
workings of the space shuttle Endeavor. Jaliwa has always been involved in
applied, through NASA’s space exploration
challenging," she explains. In her role at
"It keeps things really fresh and
of realization. And that’s a great feeling.” He
the outreach coordinator at the California Science Center full time, as it combined all
After working with the Endeavor space
program, to become an astronaut. If he is
Patagonia, Happle touches nearly every part
science, but during his time at Cate, his
of the business. "Almost all agreements that
love for the subject really took off when he
the company enters into will at some point
started working at the California Science
come across my desk." On any given day, this
Center summer camps. After graduating, he
can include agreements with professional
majored in engineering at Yale University.
on a commercial spacecraft. The SpaceX
athletes aligned with Patagonia, film
He focused on engineering but also
program, specifically, is intriguing to him.
contracts, music licenses, book publishing
developed his theatrical talents in singing
“I would like to work with SpaceX if given
agreements, and environmental initiatives.
and acting, proving that the STEM fields
the opportunity, because they’re pushing
Not only does Happle now get to dip a toe
and the arts can coexist. And of course,
the envelope more than any other company,
in various areas of law, but she also gets to
he found a way to spend time teaching. He worked with the America Counts
private or government.” The astronaut
"work with a lot of different types of people all across the company," which she very
mentoring program, providing math tutoring
much enjoys. No two days are the same and
for low-income kids in the New Haven
the job is never boring.
area. After college, Jaliwa took a year to
selected, he could live on the International Space Station, be a crew member on the upcoming Mars missions, or travel into space
application process is years long and involves many levels of interviews and tests, but, as always, Jaliwa is optimistic and ready to
explore his options, living on the east coast
handle any challenge the universe can throw
palpable. To shift gears mid-career and at
for a while, before finally returning to Los
at him. For now, he’ll satisfy his longing for
this stage in life is no easy feat. But Happle is
Angeles to pursue his passion in science. It
space by inspiring and educating the next
proof that it can be done. She purposefully
was only natural for him to take up work as
generation of scientists. -SH
The enthusiasm in Happle's voice is
W W W. CATE . O R G
37
E N DPAG E
Flowers and Stars Boarding school students bring all sorts of stuff to school with them, but it’s probably safe to say that most of them leave their telescopes at home. If they even have one, that is. Amateur stargazer and Cate senior Makena Fetzer does have a telescope. She and her father picked it up on Craigslist for $300, though Makena says that the 13.1-inch Dobsonian reflector model they scored is worth much more than that. Her father was kind enough to drive it all the way from his home in Arizona to the Mesa so she could keep up her interest in the night sky while she’s away at school – after her homework is done, of course. Though she heads up the Astronomy Club and has hosted “star parties” on campus, Makena got inspired to take the telescope on a weekend trip, off the Mesa, this spring. So in early April, she, along with seventeen other students, six teachers, two faculty kids, and two dogs set off for an overnight on the Zaca Ridge in the Los Padres National 52
CAT E BU LLET IN / SP R I N G 2016
Forest, about an hour’s drive from Cate, in search of some of the best stargazing in Southern California. They arrived in the middle of the day on Saturday, donned backpacks, and hiked the two-mile, 2000-foot trail to the campsite. The telescope got a ride up the famously steep roadway in one of the School’s fourwheel drive vehicles – it’s a bit too heavy to be carried great distances. After they set up camp and the telescope, the group enjoyed a dinner of burritos and outdoor instructor Peter Bonning’s “famous chili verde.” Then they started looking up at the sky. Makena says there was a bit of cloud cover at first but eventually they were able to spot Jupiter, Orion, and Orion’s nebulae through the scope, along with billions of other stars that dot the night sky. Freshman Brad Gordon brought his camera and captured lots of star trail photos. As it turned out, more than just the stars were aligned for this trip. Nature put on an earthbound show for the group the next morning
in a stunning wildflower tapestry of lupines and California poppies. Willie Kellogg, science teacher Jamie Kellogg’s 11-year-old son, had scouted a nearby meadow the previous afternoon, and led the group to it. Bonning later said he would describe the students’ response to the flowery abundance as “shock and awe—it was that beautiful.” They all sat amidst the color and watched the fog recede toward the ocean in a slow-motion show, he recounted. As excited as she was about experiencing both the celestial and the earthbound beauty of California, Makena seemed just as pleased that the trip happened at all. “That in the course of a few days you could approach a few different teachers and put something like this together – it just wouldn’t happen anywhere else. It was awesome.” -Sarah Kidwell
BOARD OF TRUSTEES OFFICERS
LIFE TRUSTEES
TRUSTEES
Greg H. Kubicek '74 Chairman Vancouver, WA
Richard D. Baum '64 Kenwood, CA
Ashish Bhutani Greenwich, CT
James F. Crafts, Jr. San Mateo, CA
Mimi Brown '92 Hong Kong
Dan A. Emmett '99 Santa Monica, CA
Thomas J. Cusack Santa Barbara, CA
George B. James San Francisco, CA
Kate C. Firestone Solvang, CA
Nelson D. Jones '48 San Marino, CA
Stephen J. Giusto '80 Laguna Beach, CA
Monique F. Parsons '84 President Chicago, IL Henry F. Burroughs '68 Vice President Jackson, WY J. Wyatt Gruber '93 Treasurer San Francisco, CA Benjamin D. Williams IV Secretary/Headmaster Carpinteria, CA
David Horowitz Irvine, CA
Sebastian Man '76 Hong Kong Sheila Marmon '90 Los Angeles, CA
Margaret Bradley Assistant Head, External Affairs
J.C. Massar Pasadena, CA
Charlotte Brownlee '85 Director of Admission
Casey McCann '97 Santa Barbara, CA
Jay Dorion Assistant Headmaster
Edward R. Simpson '86 Los Angeles, CA
Lisa Holmes Director of Studies
Lisa Stanson '92 Newport Beach, CA
Peter Mack Director of Residential Life
Eric C. Taylor '80 Los Angeles, CA
Sandi Pierce Assistant Head, Finance & Operations
FACULTY ADVISORY TRUSTEES
José Powell Director of Multiculturalism
Joshua Caditz Faculty/Science
Bryan Rodriguez Dean of Students
Frank A. Huerta '85 Santa Barbara, CA Jack Jackson '95 Fresno, CA Palmer Jackson, Jr. '82 Santa Barbara, CA Janet C. Jones Santa Monica, CA
EX-OFFICIO STAFF:
Annalee Salcedo Faculty/Mathematics
CATE SCHOOL 1960 Cate Mesa Road Post Office Box 5005 Carpinteria, CA 93014-5005
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