CA Magazine Fall 2016

CONCORD ACADEMY MAGAZINE

fall 2016

CONCORD ACADE MY MAGA Z I N E

fall 2016

CREATING A SPACE FOR INNOVATION A new hub on campus for science and collaborative learning

10/24/16 10:03 AM

Editor

Editorial Board

Contact us:

Heidi Koelz Associate Director of Communications

Ben Carmichael ’01 Director of Marketing and Communications

Design

John Drew P’15, ’19 Assistant Head and Academic Dean

Concord Academy Magazine 166 Main Street Concord, MA 01742 (978) 402-2200 magazine@concordacademy.org

Irene Chu ’76, P’20 Cover and CA Labs: 2Communiqué

Letters to the Editor Do you have thoughts on this issue?

We’d like to hear your suggestions and responses. Please write to us at magazine@concordacademy.org.

602100cvr.indd 2

Alice Roebuck Director of Advancement and Engagement Billie Julier Wyeth ’76 Director of Development: Stewardship and Donor Programs

© 2016 Concord Academy

Committed to being a school enriched by a diversity of backgrounds and perspectives, Concord Academy does not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, color, creed, sexual orientation, or national or ethnic origin in its hiring, admissions, educational and financial policies, or other school-administered programs. The school’s facilities are wheelchair-accessible.

fall 2016

Contents

2 Message from the Head of School 3 Campus News 9 Athletics 12 Arts 16 Faculty 18 Creative Types 20 Alumnae/i Profiles ► Sean Carr ’93 and Matt Belknap ’93 ► Supawan Pui Lamsam ’73

25 Alumnae/i Association 26 Centennial Campaign CA Labs: Creating a Space for Innovation With its flexible classroom and laboratory spaces, the new, green CA Labs building has already become a campus hub for science and collaborative learning

Kristie Gillooly

38 The Sky’s the Limit

ON THE COVER FRONT: Seen through frosted glass, students

gathered in a CA Labs classroom; the building was designed with visibility in mind.

BACK: Set into the floor of the new Main

Once fraught with militaristic associations, consumer unmanned aircraft — better known as drones — are becoming a big part of small business

44 Commencement 46 In Memoriam 48 Reunion 52 Circa

School Lobby is a 30-inch medallion handcarved by artisans in Woburn, Mass., with the Haines House seal at its center, encircled by compass points extending to CA and Concord landmarks.

Photos by Cole+Kiera

602100txt1-25,38-52.indd 1

10/21/16 7:35 AM

Message from the Head of School

Kristie Gillooly

F

CO N CO R D AC A D EM Y M AG A ZIN E FA LL 2016

ALL IS always a time of great optimism at a school, a time when the story of the year is just beginning to unfold. This is true for both students and teachers, as I can attest. Each of us nurtures hopes for the year, hopes that we cannot realize on our own. We depend on and engage with one another—in classes, on teams, in performing ensembles, in common rooms, even on train cars—committing to a partnership that will benefit all of us.

The year takes shape moment by moment, day by day—a community experience that we must nourish and care for together. It is hard work sometimes, and it is also deeply gratifying.

Over the last number of months, we have faced some difficult challenges that have arisen from instances of inappropriate relationships in the school’s past. As I wrote in my letter of August 24, our investigation into misconduct at CA is open and ongoing; if we are to make good on our promise to parents to ensure a safe and healthy environment for their children, we must be willing to acknowledge when and where we have fallen short. And if we are to make good on our commitment to our alumnae/i, we need to confront the difficult truths about our past. We are grateful to those who came forward to report misconduct at CA, and we will use what we learn from them to foster a living and learning environment that ensures not only that kids will be safe, but that they can thrive.

In the past year we have also engaged in conversations about race, gender, and class, conversations that are happening across our country. Confronting difficult issues such as these in the nation’s current climate calls on us to be capable of holding two truths in mind: that here at CA we live in a community that “works” in many important ways, and that we cannot assume that our “work” is ever done. Laura Twichell, assistant dean for Community and Equity and a member of the English Department, has suggested that, just as we attend to our hygiene every day to ensure our physical health, we should attend to our sense of morality just as

regularly. It is a daily practice that we commit to—of striving to be aware of ourselves and our impact on others—as part of our covenant of common trust.

The start of the school year has been marked by the familiar rush of energy that students and adults alike bring to campus. We have felt the impact of thoughtful, engaged leadership from the class of 2017 and All-School Council, and we have appreciated the fresh perspectives that our newest students have brought to us. On September 30, we celebrated the completion of CA Labs, not with the standard ribbon cutting, but with a panel discussion featuring four alumnae/i discussing their work in the fields of science and technology, followed by a series of CATalks on everything from robotics to biotechnology. It was a fitting way to mark the moment. For while CA Labs, the newly renovated Main School Lobby, and the restored Quad are fine additions to campus, their value lies in their impact on teaching and learning. (I encourage you to read the feature on page 26 about what this means for our school.)

As we celebrate this moment, we are also thinking about the CA of tomorrow—and about the opportunity we have to shape this school’s future as we approach our centennial in 2021–22, five years from now. To that end, we have formed the CA at 100 Task Force, a working group composed of faculty and staff, and cochaired by Assistant Head/Academic Dean John Drew and Director of Advancement and Engagement Alice Roebuck. This group will build upon strategic planning that began in 2012 and led to the Phase I initiatives (CA Labs, Residential Life, Financial Aid, Faculty Leadership, and Boundless Campus) of the Centennial Campaign. The CA at 100 Task Force will take up the exciting task of imagining CA at its centennial and well beyond, and of identifying the Phase II initiatives that will help us to get there.

I am grateful to be part of a school that places such value on students, that empowers them to make art, to take intellectual risks, and to make discoveries, and that gives faculty a central role in this endeavor. Through this partnership, we will continually expand what is possible in this remarkable place that we call CA.

Rick Hardy Head of School Dresden Endowed Chair

2

602100txt1-25,38-52.indd 2

10/21/16 7:35 AM

Cole + Kiera

602100txt1-25,38-52.indd 3

10/21/16 7:35 AM

Cole + Kiera

campus news

Convocation 2016

“O

ften the question we are asked is the one the other person would like to answer,” said Jenny Chandler, a history teacher and the dean of faculty, at this year’s Convocation. Addressing the entire school community in the Elizabeth B. Hall Chapel to begin Concord Academy’s 95th academic year, Chandler reflected on personal experiences that had taught her enduring lessons about listening, and about generosity toward ourselves and others.

Chandler asked the CA community to imagine reframing the school year as a year in which to make mistakes. “Perhaps we’d realize that what we see as mistakes are actually perceptions we have created, or misunderstandings,” she said. Each year we have opportunities to get to know one another afresh by listening for the correct pronunciation of a name, asking about pronoun preference, or “consciously working to see beyond impressions garnered by limited information and false assumptions.” As Chandler reminded her audience, these acts are simple but can be so important.

For highlights of other Convocation speeches and Chandler’s full remarks, visit www.concordacademy.org/convocation-2016.

Seeing GREEN

Ben Carmichael ’01

ABOUT 7,500 plants were added to campus this summer around CA Labs and the Main School Lobby, many of them in a bioretention area suited to wet environments— and the Quad got a fresh new lawn.

See the cover story on page 26 for more about landscaping for CA Labs.

4

602100txt1-25,38-52.indd 4

10/21/16 7:35 AM

Ben Larsen

Robotics as a Way of Life his spring, a FIRST robotics team from Lexington, Mass., fulfilled a dream many of its members have had since they were nine years old: The Brainstormers made it to Worlds. CA students — Ben Larsen ’17, Dan Broun ’17, Ethan Oliver ’17, Mark Morton ’18, and August Pokorak ’19 — filled out nearly half of the 12-person roster. “It was amazing to see teams from all over the country and the world,” Ben said about the FIRST Tech Challenge World Championship in St. Louis. “It was electric with energy, the kind you only get when a lot of nerds who are passionate about the same thing get together in one space.”

Mission-Based Books

L

ooking for book suggestions? Each spring, faculty and staff are asked to add at least one volume to their summer pile of books and articles. This approach to the faculty-staff reading program creates opportunities for faculty and staff to engage with one another around common themes before the start of school. Again this year, selected books aligned with the three guiding principles of Concord Academy’s mission.

Few independent teams excel as the Brainstormers have. They have to put in extra work to compete against school-sponsored teams, which receive school time and funding. These students raise funds themselves. The captain’s mom coaches, and they operate out of her house.

They’re always preparing for the next competition, using “agile design”— completing full builds of a robot, keeping what they like, then stripping down the rest, iterating in six-week cycles.

They’re also judged on outreach.

This year, the team visited several Boston inner-city schools to distribute paper electronics kits that use simple tools such as copper tape, nickel batteries,

LOVE OF LEARNING Students and teachers work together as a community of learners dedicated to intellectual rigor and creative endeavor.

In a caring and challenging atmosphere, students discover and develop talents as scholars, artists, and athletes and are encouraged to find their voices.

Overloaded and Underprepared: Strategies for Stronger Schools and Healthy, Successful Kids Denise Pope, Maureen Brown, and Sarah Miles

The Brainstormers FIRST robotics team

and LED lights to help kids understand how circuits work.

While it’s not a school team, “everyone at CA is really supportive of our work,” Ben

says. “There aren’t many schools where it would be possible to source so much talent and enthusiasm from the community.”

COVENANT OF COMMON TRUST

DIVERSITY OF BACKGROUNDS AND PERSPECTIVES

Common trust challenges students to balance individual freedom with responsibility and service to a larger community.

Such learning prepares students for lives as committed citizens.

Between the World and Me Ta-Nehisi Coates

The school is committed to embracing and broadening the diversity of backgrounds, perspectives, and talents of its people. This diversity fosters respect for others and genuine exchange of ideas.

Originals: How Non‑Conformists Move the World Adam Grant

5

602100txt1-25,38-52.indd 5

W W W . C O N C O R D A C A D E M Y. O R G FA L L 2 0 16

T

10/21/16 7:35 AM

campus news

T

GETTING A HEAD START IN RESEARCH With a quarter of rising seniors applying, the InSPIRE program had its biggest summer yet

by Heidi Koelz

he laboratory was dark except for a glow from beneath an ultraviolet light. Nick Ornstein ’17, in a white plastic lab coat and latex gloves, peered into the bluish gleam as he cut sequences of DNA from a clear block of gel. In this lab, bacteria were serving as living factories, reading the DNA and synthesizing silk-like proteins. While the team waited for test results, Nick conducted his own research online, filling in theoretical gaps in his hands-on knowledge.

“I wanted to get lab experience to see what it’s like, and I like that what I was involved in has medical applications,” said Nick, who worked in the Kaplan Lab at Tufts University this summer and is interested in going into medicine. “It’s very exciting,

as a high school student, to be able to jump into cutting-edge research.”

Nick’s mentor, David Kaplan, professor and chair of the department of biomedical engineering, has worked with silk proteins for more than 25 years.

The human immune system can’t detect this biocompatible material, which makes it ideal scaffolding for growing cells, with applications from cancer research to targeted drug therapies. “In my lab it’s really an apprenticeship experience,” Kaplan said. “When I was a student, it made all the difference in the world to me to get into the lab. I don’t think I’d be in this profession if I hadn’t had that opportunity.”

Lauren Black, an associate professor who coordinates

Heidi Koelz

CA student Nick Ornstein ’17 working with DNA in the Kaplan Lab at Tufts University

6

602100txt1-25,38-52.indd 6

10/21/16 7:35 AM

W Engineering human tissue.

Investigating the brain circuitry that supports memory. Studying human-robot interactions.

For around six weeks this summer, 16 CA students got an inside look at current research at Tufts, MIT, and Boston University, among other leading institutions — pipettes, lab coats, and all.

Applications from rising seniors for the InSPIRE (Interested Students Pursuing Internships and Research Experiences) program jumped to 23 this year, nearly a quarter of the class. Begun in 2008 by former science teacher Mike Wirtz, InSPIRE drew a handful of participants in its initial years.

When physics teacher Amy Kumpel took over in 2011, the number climbed to eight, and it’s been growing steadily since; 62 students have now completed the program. Kumpel identifies students’ interests, then reaches out to a network of mentors, some of whom have reported that CA students in their labs have done more than they expect from undergraduates. Occasionally, former interns have even coauthored scientific papers. “These students are doing real work and making real contributions,” Kumpel said.

For some, the experience influences their career paths.

Arcadia Kratkiewicz ’12 interned with Dr. Michael House, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Tufts University School of Medicine and a collaborating scientist in the Kaplan Lab. “It was my first real laboratory research

602100txt1-25,38-52.indd 7

by Leah Drotch ’17

I LOVED how small and intimate the lab setting was. Everyone was so welcoming and willing to help me, not only with science but with life in general. Carrie was an incredible mentor. She created a safe work environment, where I felt comfortable asking questions, and she made my responsibilities very clear. Always willing to put down what she was doing to help me, she had this way of converting my mistakes into lessons, and my skills into strengths. I feel so lucky to have her as a connection in my life.

My favorite days were when I got to try new things, such as helping stain rat legs, or image sections of mouse knees under the microscope. I have never had an experience comparable to this internship. I walked in without a set career and future in mind, and walked

experience and good confirmation that I wanted to pursue a related subject in college,” said Kratkiewicz, who worked with human cervical tissue and made silk scaffolds for growing 3D cell cultures. “I got to do those procedures myself as opposed to just watching someone else do them, which was a great experience.” In May, she graduated from Smith College, where she was involved with research from her first semester and majored in biochemistry with a self-designed minor in computational biology. After teaching in France this year, she plans to work in a research lab for a while before pursuing a doctorate in biochemistry.

“The students who are most successful are the ones who are interested in exploring and learning for its own sake — something CA students do very well,” Kumpel said.

“They ask insightful questions.

They want to take risks, to try something new.”

The 2016–17 school year is the first in which Kumpel

out knowing that I want to do research surrounded by dedicated people like Carrie and all my mentors in the lab.

Their passion for their work has rubbed off on me.

Leah Drotch ’17 interned in the Li Zeng Lab at Tufts University’s Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences, where doctoral student Carrie Hui Mingalone ’08 and other researchers are investigating the mechanisms of arthritis and developing technologies to regenerate cartilage.

will have dedicated time to coordinate InSPIRE. Now that it’s drawn such a response, she’d like to deepen her relationships with mentors and integrate student-interns’

work at school. “How can we be more mindful of programs like this as we push for a boundless campus?” she asked.

“I want to increase the depth of connection with CA.”

CALLING ALL MENTORS DO YOU work in research at a university or corporation? If you’re involved with science or computer science and would welcome a CA intern into your lab, please email amy_kumpel@ concordacademy.org. The power of a CA education is extended when alumnae/i and parents become involved as mentors.

W W W . C O N C O R D A C A D E M Y. O R G FA L L 2 0 16

Tufts’ summer program for high schoolers, said internships also benefit the university. “As scientists ourselves, we’re interested in the next generation,” he said.

“We take mentoring seriously, and it’s important for our grad students and postdocs to have that experience.”

10/21/16 7:35 AM

campus news

George Larivee

Eye-Opening Experiences on CA Service Trips to Nicaragua and South Dakota

T

George Larivee CO N CO R D AC A D EM Y M AG A ZIN E FA LL 2016

Bottom: Students bought cans of spray paint at the Cheyenne River Youth Project gift shop to add their own artwork to a graffiti art park in Eagle Butte, S.D.

V The same month, on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation in Eagle Butte, S.D., 10 CA

Matthew Kaufman ’18

Matthew Kaufman ’18

Top: A group from CA en route to teach in a primary school in the mountains near La Laguna, Nicaragua

his June, seven students accompanied mathematics teachers George Larivee and Jessica Kuh on a cultural exchange with host families in Nicaragua, where they were welcomed warmly into homes and schools. The group spent one week with a family in the city of Estelí, and another with several families in the small, northern mountain village of La Laguna. Most mornings, they walked to neighboring villages to give math lessons in primary schools. The CA students did all of the teaching — in Spanish.

“They did a wonderful job of teaching and interacting with our hosts,” said Larivee, who has run the trip almost every year since 2009. “We were lucky this year to have several students on the trip who were native Spanish speakers, which made bonding with the families and school children very easy.” Ceili Lemus ’19 said, “Nicaragua preserves a lot of beautiful culture that I had found hard to stay in touch with during my time in the States and at CA, but visiting again not only reminded me of my own roots, it also gave me a chance to make relationships with people I will never forget.”

Adrian Balvuena ’19 found the experience opened his mind to the possibility of someday teaching in less privileged areas.

“The people, the culture, and their traditions gave me a sliver of happiness I’ll always carry in my heart,” he said.

students joined science teacher Amy Kumpel and mathematics teacher Cory Chapman P’19 to help renovate a house purchased by The Mustard Seed, a local organization that serves the alcoholic homeless population. They swung hammers and wielded paintbrushes to retrofit the kitchen so that it could be used as a cooking facility for a soup kitchen.

Students and faculty also visited Ginny Bonavia Webb ’99, whose mother-inlaw, a local pastor, works with The Mustard Seed. Staying in a volunteer house on the reservation, the group connected with a repeat

volunteer who proved a wealth of information about Lakota culture and also helped arrange for them to join locals for a traditional sweat lodge followed by a family meal. “It wasn’t just a fun experience but a very cultural one,” said Cole Chapman ’19. “It was almost like a prayer for them, and it was cool that they invited us into that.”

Jane Lindstrom ’17 felt she learned a lot about Lakota culture and the Eagle Butte community. “I loved meeting locals, working on the house, and going to the sweat lodge,” she said. Another highlight? The landscape. “Being from New England, we don’t get to see such wide-open spaces very often, and it was breathtaking,” she said. “We went outside to look at the stars every night, because the sky was just so incredibly huge.”

8

602100txt1-25,38-52.indd 8

10/21/16 7:35 AM

Stepping into Sports Journalism

F

or Jeremy Liang ’16 and points of a player he had always Kai Smith ’16, sports rooted against. “So much commentary wasn’t new. For sports writing is mundane,” said their senior project, the two avid Liang, now a freshman at Duke fans collaborated on 33 Sports: University. “I wanted to write The Magazine, an extension of outside the box.” a sports opinion blog they had Self-designed by students started the previous year for with faculty support, fullsemester senior projects have fun. They had learned graphic become elective capstones design from computer science of individualized study that teacher Ben Stumpf, but laying complete many CA careers. In out a print publication was a 2015, a similar passion drove new challenge. “We had a drive another sports journalism enterto make something tangible,” prise, when Matt Simon ’15 said Smith, now a freshman at completed his senior project, a Davidson College. sports blog called Six Tool Sports.

The duo continued to post “My earliest memories are of to their 33 Sports blog, but running along the sidelines at the print magazine allowed CA soccer games and sitting on them to step back from recent the bench with my dad,” said headlines to tackle bigger themes in different styles. Liang, Simon, son of longtime soccer coach Adam Simon. It came as for example, wrote a personal no surprise that he combined his narrative about Kobe Bryant’s loves for writing and athletfinal season on the ics. Starting as Los Angeles Lakers, a sophomore at exploring the finer

CA, he wrote sports pieces for Concord Academy magazine and the Concord Journal. By his senior fall, he knew just what his project would be. For Six Tool Sports, Simon did his own web design, writing, and social media — his first foray into blogging. He also made some connections in the industry, such as Kevin Paul Dupont P’15, a Hockey Hall of Fame awardwinning writer at the Boston Globe.

Now a sophomore at the University of Southern California,

where he’s studying political science and communication, Simon hopes to minor in sports media studies. Many of his professors are working journalists, such as longtime ESPN sports correspondent Shelley Smith. “I’ve watched her on TV since I was little, and she’s an incredibly inspiring person,” Simon said. “It’s amazing to think that I’m in her sports commentary class.”

This season, Simon is working with the LA Clippers, and during the summer he interned at CelticsHub.com. He has a coveted job in USC’s athletics department, too, coordinating community outreach with local student-athletes. He doesn’t know yet what specific path he’ll pursue, but he’s long known this: “Sports have always been what I love,” he said, “and I want to work at what I love.”

“So much sports writing is mundane.

I wanted to write outside the box.”

Heidi Koelz

Jeremy Liang ’16

9

602100txt1-25,38-52.indd 9

10/21/16 7:35 AM

athletics

10

602100txt1-25,38-52.indd 10

10/21/16 7:35 AM

Photos by Laurie Baker

DURING THE SPRING , CA teams enjoyed plenty of regular and postseason success. The CA track and field team had a stellar day at the New England Championships. Prior to a strong showing at New Englands, the coed Ultimate Frisbee team posted an unblemished regular-season record in its inaugural year as a varsity program. The girls’ varsity tennis team achieved a second-place finish in the Eastern Independent League as well as its second New England Preparatory School Athletic Council tournament berth in four years. For highlights from spring and fall athletics and news about all of CA’s dedicated student-athletes, visit www.concordacademy.org/athletics.

602100txt1-25,38-52.indd 11

10/21/16 7:35 AM

arts

“AM I BRAVE enough?” “Have I reached my limit?” “Can you be and at the same time make yourself?” Voices of CA students emerged from the collective, to question and to speak individual truths. Their bodies struggled against restraints, pounded transparent walls, broke through. An ambient murmur was punctuated by song. With that, a year of deliberately collaborative work in the Performing Arts Department culminated in Don’t Ask Me, an original, integrated arts performance created by CA Singers, Dance Company, and Theater Company. This true ensemble performance drew much of its music, dialogue, and movement from interviews with CA students —about body image, racism, sexism, and above all the challenges of knowing oneself and others.

It was the department’s most extensive collaboration yet. “Because the show wasn’t scripted and we were creating it as we went along, some students felt out to sea,” said Michael Bennett, choral director.

“The singers especially showed tremendous growth and transformation over the process, and it brought new life to the music. The concept of choir performance expanded for them, and their sense of collaborative art-making awakened. When they saw how well it was received, they wished they could have performed it a few more times.”

“Singers danced, actors sang, and dancers spoke,” said Wilcox Fellow Ned Singh, who designed the sound for the production. “Everyone switched roles and stepped completely outside of their comfort zones. There was a lot of giggling, and also a lot of frustration, but what we were able to do was groundbreaking.

At a high school, to be able to make such a poignant commentary on identity, race, and gender, and to channel it in such a beautiful way — that’s unique.”

Performing Arts Department Head Amy Spencer traced the journey toward this production back to the 2014–15 Hall Fellow lecture by renowned educator Howard Gardner P’87, ’90, ’94. Speaking of his work for the Good Project, a research-based organization that promotes excellence, engagement, and ethics in education, Gardner previewed a new focus: good collaboration.

“In the Performing Arts Department, we often work across disciplines,” said Spencer, “but in this project, rigorous, intentional collaboration between faculty, between faculty and students, and between students and community was central to the process and the outcome.” She began more than a year of work with Mark Braun at Boston University,

STAGE

What happens when arts programs get intentional about collaboration?

CO N CO R D AC A D EM Y M AG A ZIN E FA LL 2016

‘We asked what intentional collaboration meant to us, and how we could risk more and gain more.’

Amy Spencer Performing Arts Department Head

12

602100txt1-25,38-52.indd 12

10/21/16 7:36 AM

Photos by Sam Barton ’17

AND

13

602100txt1-25,38-52.indd 13

W W W . C O N C O R D A C A D E M Y. O R G FA L L 2 0 16

CA students performing and at work behind the scenes of Don’t Ask Me in spring 2016

one of the original Good Collaboration Project practitioners. The Performing Arts Department held a retreat that summer. “We asked what intentional collaboration meant to us, what we were already doing at CA, and how we could challenge ourselves and our students to risk more and gain more,” Spencer said.

“We had a chance to rethink how and why we do what we do,” Bennett said. In his second year at CA, he had created CA Singers, an advanced choir on par with Theater Company and Dance Company, and that group’s formation opened the possibility for all three advanced companies to create a show like Don’t Ask Me. The deliberate approach to collaboration also shaped a laboratory-based course last fall called Dance, Music, and the New Media, which integrated media production teams with original choreography and music — a class that brought film program director Justin Bull into the mix.

“It was a great opportunity to bring together two really different types of artists: time-based media students, who work their pieces to perfection, and performing artists, who have a more organic approach because they’re doing it live,” Bull said. “This kind of interactive media design for stage is becoming an essential component of live performance — and a career path that didn’t exist eight years ago. It’s an exciting field, and people are experimenting in ways unimaginable before.”

There’s no set model for future collaborations, but much is already in the works. This fall, Singh is mentoring students in a departmental study of digital recording and music production, an outgrowth of a two-day seminar he led for Spring Session last year. This is giving students who are passionate about recording a structured approach to the principles of music production for film — by recording and producing elements of the film score for a new endeavor this spring out of Bull’s Feature Film Production course. It will be CA’s first-ever movie musical.

“I love the energy that comes from doing something concrete and deliverable,” Bull said. “Suddenly there’s an opportunity to have multiple avenues for student engagement — filmmakers, musicians, actors, dancers — all working toward this larger goal of delivering a musical to our community, and beyond to film festivals, to a greater community.”

The Performing Arts Department is engaged in ongoing conversations about the importance of collaboration as an essential skill for students to master, and about ways in which the arts, in particular, provide critical opportunities for students to experience, learn, and practice those skills.

10/21/16 7:36 AM

arts

A Photographer’s Eye

14

602100txt1-25,38-52.indd 14

10/21/16 7:36 AM

BY M O L LY D ’A RCY ’ 16

I started photographing when I was 13 years old.

Whereas it began as a hobby, a way to fill time, photography soon became something that I both loved and needed. With adolescence came a newfound desire to document as I found the changes occurring in and around me too compelling to go unaccounted.

Concord Academy gave me the ability to explore visual art in a classroom setting but also offered me a culture and community that appreciated this art. I am grateful for the teachers, staff, and peers who encouraged and collaborated with me.

15

602100txt1-25,38-52.indd 15

10/21/16 7:36 AM

faculty

“Teaching in China this summer was a whirlwind of selfdiscovery, on-yourtoes teaching, cultural exploration, collegial support, and perspectivebroadening challenges.

It was wonderful.”

SUSAN FLINK Science Teacher

Ben Stumpf ’88

Teaching On Their Toes in Hangzhou What CA faculty learned this summer in China

CO N CO R D AC A D EM Y M AG A ZIN E FA LL 2016

“YOU’LL LOVE IT, but don’t expect everything to go as planned.” That was the advice CA computer science and film teacher Ben Stumpf ’88 got from Massachusetts educators who had traveled to Hangzhou, China, the previous summer to teach at the WeLearning Center.

Up for an adventure, he decided to go there himself this past July. The twoweek program, which exposes Chinese students to American styles of teaching, is only in its second year, and in its first as a residential program for students from around China. The center is based at the Wahaha International School; both institutions were cofounded by Jane Du P’15, ’16. Stumpf was joined there by CA science teacher Susan Flink P’13, as well as former faculty member Meg Wickwire and former Wilcox Fellow in mathematics Mark Rios, among colleagues from peer schools.

When the teachers arrived, they found that many of the students were younger, and struggled more with English, than they had expected, so they had

to heavily modify, and in some cases reinvent on the spot, the lesson plans they had prepared. But by working with translators and technology, Stumpf was able to teach basic computer coding, filmmaking, and natural science through a series of projects that appealed to a range of ages. “It was so educational for me to stretch myself in this way,” he said, “and even more interesting to watch veteran teachers struggle and improvise.”

Their small classes were filled with eager students, and over dinners they bonded with colleagues from schools such as Dana Hall, Landmark, and Buckingham Browne & Nichols. They met with groups of local Chinese teachers who were eager to swap notes about student engagement, lesson planning, classroom technology, assessment, and more. And students became their teachers in the cafeteria, explaining unfamiliar dishes and giving tips on how to eat with slippery metal chopsticks.

To make the most of class time for discussions in English and provide

hands-on activities for her students, Flink reworked her curriculum from her Spring Session course at CA on perception science, which had been inspired by a teaching institute at San Francisco’s Exploratorium. Students played with optical illusions, made personal pinhole cameras, wore inversion goggles, and dissected cow eyes, learning about neuroplasticity, the nature of light and color, and how the eyes and the brain construct the world we see.

Amid the challenges of each day— 95-degree heat, the mysteries of menus and street signs and announcements in Mandarin, reluctant cab drivers, and the 12-hour time difference that made home feel so much more distant—they empathized with the adjustments that international students go through when coming to CA. And they recognized how valuable it is to Chinese parents to meet teachers from U.S. schools face to face and know that they will care for and about their children if they choose to send them overseas.

16

602100txt1-25,38-52.indd 16

10/21/16 7:36 AM

A Supernerd, and Proud of It Meet Bajia Reed, Wilcox Fellow in History CA’s newest Wilcox Fellow, Bajia Reed, majored in history at Spelman, where she was a tutor and president of the Spelman College History Society. This fall, she is coteaching Early Modern European Revolutions with Stephanie Manzella. In the spring, she will teach two sections of The Early Mediterranean World: Greece and Rome, and she will assist with CAMUN, drawing on her own college experience with Model U.N. “Bajia lights up when she talks about history and about teaching,” said Sarah Yeh, head of the History Department.

“She impressed us with her curiosity, her enthusiasm for helping students read, think, and write critically about the past, and her excitement about joining and contributing to the community and culture of CA.” What made you want to try teaching?

Teaching has always interested me. Maybe it’s because I’ve read about so many tutors and scholars putting the seeds of knowledge into rulers. Teaching is really underrated as a profession. It’s an awesome responsibility that is for the chosen few — shaping young minds.

What was your own high school experience like?

I grew up in Woodbridge, Conn., and went to a public school there. I loved high school. I thought it was a great time to be alive, to learn awesome stuff, and home in on what I wanted to study in college. I had amazing teachers, so invested and present, who made learning interesting and

fun — the kind of teachers that change your life. Plus I’m a supernerd, and I enjoyed working really hard.

What’s your first impression of CA? It’s a school where students can ask any question and receive the fullest answer possible, where they can be as curious as they really are, and not fear their

‘Students here never have to hide their desire to know more, or be concerned about speaking their minds.’

BAJIA REED Wilcox Fellow in History

curiosity. The focus on love of learning drew me. Students here never have to hide their desire to know more, or be concerned about speaking their minds. I have an insatiable curiosity about a million and one things. So my first impression of CA? Happiness.

In your free time, what are you passionate about?

I’m a big movie and TV buff. Every year, my mom and I FaceTime and watch the Emmys and Oscars together.

We prepare, too: We watch every movie that’s been nominated, and I mean all of them — not just for best picture, but also for best score, best cinematography. My dad thinks we’re nuts, but it’s a lot of fun.

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: Denise Alfonso, science teacher; Alison Lobron, English teacher; Rebecca D’Angelo, history teacher; Bajia Reed, Wilcox Fellow in history; Shelley Bolman, theater teacher; Nancy Boutilier, English teacher; Sabrina Sadique, English teacher

17

602100txt1-25,38-52.indd 17

W W W . C O N C O R D A C A D E M Y. O R G FA L L 2 0 16

Ben Carmichael ’01

NEW FACULTY

10/21/16 7:36 AM

creativetypes types

by Library Director Martha Kennedy Have you published a book or released a film or CD in the past year? Please contact martha_kennedy@concordacademy.org and consider donating a copy to the J. Josephine Tucker Library’s collection of alumnae/i authors.

Karen Braucher Tobin ’71 Grit & Whimsy Cawing Crow Press, 2015

The Swan Boats

CO N CO R D AC A D EM Y M AG A ZIN E FA LL 2016

glide silently where willows hang their hair into the lake on Boston Common.

A chubby little girl years for that wordless grace, quiet and kind.

Her shiny black patent leather shoes blister her feet.

Grandmother talks, where willows hang their hair, endless adult talk.

At the lake on Boston Common, the boats shaped like swans float on lighted ripples.

Nothing else in her life makes her feel like the swan boats gliding, where willows hang their hair.

Middle-aged angst competes strongly with that of a teen’s in this collection from a poet resolving what it means to be female in the early 21st century. Through direct and blunt language, Braucher Tobin unapologetically presents her encounters and observances, allowing readers access to understanding life’s numerous contradictions.

Julie Agoos ’74 Echo System Sheep Meadow Press, 2015 With the radio as a backdrop and inspiration from a host of noted poets and lyricists including the likes of Shelley, Yeats, Eliot, Whitman, Bishop, Coltrane, and Holiday, Agoos sets off to construct a series of poems created within the echoing of voices in and around her own.

Uncertainties of birth, war, and aging in the moment give way

18

602100txt1-25,38-52.indd 18

10/21/16 7:36 AM

BOOKS

|

FILMS

|

CDS

|

M U LT I M E D I A

to certainties of interpretation over days, weeks, and even centuries.

Cynthia Katz, Faculty INPHA 3 Manifest Press: International Photography Annual, 2016

Ruth Ozeki ’74 The Face: A Time Code Restless Books, 2016

This third International Photography Annual Manifest received 1143 submissions from 340 artists from 43 states and 14 countries. Katz was among the 54 finalists, from England, Canada, Switzerland, Greece, and the United States, whose work was selected for this publication, which was blind-juried by professional and academic advisors in the fields of art, design, photography, new media, criticism, and art history.

Guided by a quote from Jorge Luis Borges, Ozeki and five other contemporary authors partake in a three-hour exercise requiring them to sit before a mirror, carefully scrutinize their image, and record their observations. For Ozeki, the journey

recollection of an off-campus birthday adventure with CA friends. Foley’s fifth collection of poems comes fast on the heels of Joy Street, her fourth.

Sebastian Junger ’80 Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging Twelve, 2016

Laura Foley ’75 Night Ringing Headmistress Press, 2016 Poems of reminiscence illuminate how chance encounters in daily life make way for key turning points that cause one to head in new and unforeseen directions. Foley’s deeply personal and revealing poetry explores her memories of youth and how they inform her in later life, from the pain inflicted by warring parents to a revelatory

Cynthia Katz Harrington Ave., Occupied Series Archival pigment print, 15” x 15”, 2012

19

602100txt1-25,38-52.indd 19

W W W . C O N C O R D A C A D E M Y. O R G FA L L 2 0 16

takes the form of the Zen Buddhist koan or riddle that asks, “What was your face before your parents were born?” The resulting search for her original face encompasses the complexities of identity, of making peace with her ancestry as a postwar child of an American man and a Japanese woman, and of finally recognizing and accepting the true self.

Tribe provides a concise examination of what it means to belong and how difficult this essential and seemingly simple human need becomes for veterans of the prolonged wars in the Middle East after they leave combat. Upon returning home, vets face divisive cultural battles that confound and confront them in a manner often far more unsettling than their military engagement. Although Junger sets out to relay the experience of soldiers, he reveals that all of us struggle with finding a meaningful place in contemporary society, one that pushes us further into lives of loneliness and isolation.

10/21/16 7:36 AM

alumnae/i profiles

FROM FILMMAKING TO FINANCING A NEW MEDIUM Revolutionizing the business of podcasting

TK Sean Carr

Sean Carr and Matt Belknap Class of 1993

by Nancy Shohet West ’84

T

HE CREATIVE synergy between classmates Matt Belknap ’93 and Sean Carr ’93 has come a long way

since their attempt to make a film about a bologna sandwich as sophomores in a CA film class. The company they dreamed up during hikes in Los Angeles’ Runyon Canyon, ART19, has recently burgeoned, to the point where they can barely keep up with the demand they face.

ART19, which officially launched in August 2016, is a podcast hosting, distribution, and monetization platform, reflecting a need Belknap recognized during his own early days as a podcaster. While working in the film industry with the goal of becoming a screenwriter, he got involved in the alternative comedy scene in LA. In 2006, he started a podcast called Never Not Funny with one of his favorite comedians, Jimmy Pardo. Carr was less familiar with the world of podcasting. Like Belknap, he moved to California to pursue an interest in filmmaking. Positions at 20th Century Fox and Dreamworks gave him “a terrific amount of exposure to the industry, but the work wasn’t glamorous,” he says. He went on to found his own literary management and production company, but problems with the business model were frustrating him— and, unrelatedly, so was the sense that he was getting out of shape. He solved the second problem by suggesting to Belknap that the two start taking daily fitness hikes together.

“Hiking every day, we needed something to talk about, so we talked about our professional challenges,” Belknap says. For him, this meant describing the difficulty of monetizing podcasts in a useful way.

At that point in 2010, “bigger names were beginning to enter the space, but almost none of them were making money,” Carr says. Podcasts are typically free to listeners, like blogs. Carr remembers talking with a high-profile comedian affiliated

20

602100txt1-25,38-52.indd 20

10/21/16 7:36 AM

SOME CA ALUMNAE/I IN PODCASTING

Above: Matt Belknap ’93; Left: Sean Carr ’93

with Howard Stern who was selling mugs to listeners to support his own podcast. “It was unimaginable to me that a guy with this much stature in the comedy world was going to the post office three times a week to ship $7 mugs to individual listeners,” he says. “In essence, that’s the problem we set out to solve.”

The obstacle, as Belknap and Carr explain, was that the existing technology had severe limitations. With episodes essentially static once they were produced and distributed, podcasters could not reliably measure their audiences, regionally target their advertising, or refresh the promotions on old podcasts.

Carr, who has a background in computer science, soon realized he could develop technology to fix that problem. A fully integrated platform for targeting ads, inserting them dynamically, and measuring audience engagement made ART19, now located in the San Francisco area, stand out. Once podcasting found its footing as a medium, it was easy to demonstrate to podcasters why it would be useful to have listeners in New York City hear different ads from listeners in Canada, or have listeners who downloaded a comedy podcast from three years ago hear a promotion for a comedy tour happening next month.

The two acknowledge that they owe a debt of gratitude to CA alumna Sarah Koenig ’86, host and executive producer of Serial, which almost singlehandedly turned the podcast medium from a niche into a phenomenon, with over 68 million downloads its first season.

“As recently as early 2014, podcasting was still something of a dirty word,” Carr recalls. “People didn’t see its potential and scale. Then in late 2014 came what in the industry is now called ‘the Serial effect’: a podcast that transcended a niche community and became water cooler conversation, part of the zeitgeist.”

Suddenly there was an interest in podcasting, from big media companies, strategic investors, and angel investors.

“The same people who months before had taken no interest in what we were trying to do were changing their tune,” he says.

“Since we rolled out our beta in September 2015, we have been extraordinarily lucky.

Recent growth has been off the charts.”

Among their investors was CA alumnus John Laurence ’92, who also served on ART19’s board of directors. (Additionally, Jon Lewin ’93 is an advisor, and Ben Upham ’94 worked on ART19’s social media strategy.) Companies currently using their product include The New York Times, Yahoo, Fox Sports, Recode, Time Inc., Mother Jones, Scripps, Midroll, Vox Media, Sports Illustrated, and numerous grassroots podcasters.

“Spoken-word audio is massive all over the world,” Carr says. “And podcasting is free of the gatekeepers that control other types of broadcasting. As smartphones and connected cars proliferate, we believe there’s going to be widespread growth in podcasting.”

The increase will be reflected not only in quantity but in quality and range, Belknap adds. He predicts that the next big stage in podcasting will be scripted shows, analogous to an HBO or Netflix breakout drama like The Sopranos or House of Cards.

And ART19 is one company making that change all the more likely to happen.

Learn more about ART19 at art19.com.

Sarah Green Carmichael ’00 hosts the HBR IdeaCast, the weekly podcast of Harvard Business Review. Each episode features an interview with an expert, with subjects ranging from office politics to strategy to work-life balance. The IdeaCast has been nominated for two National Magazine Awards under her tenure.

Julia Hanlon ’10 is the creator and host of Running On Om, a podcast that explores the mind, body, and spirit connection.

Running On Om features over 200 interviews with innovative individuals from a wide range of backgrounds, from authors, musicians, athletes, and actors to entrepreneurs, yogis, and chefs.

Hanlon believes that everyone has a story worth sharing.

Sarah Koenig ’86 is a producer at This American Life and host and executive producer of Serial, which attracted an unprecedented listenership and is widely credited as having revolutionized the podcasting industry.

Author Henriette Lazaridis ’78 runs The Drum, an online literary magazine that publishes short fiction, essays, novel excerpts, poems, and interviews exclusively in audio form. The Drum is an executive partner of Boston's Literary Cultural District and “your source for literature out loud.”

Annie Robinson ’05 created and curates two oral narratives projects: On the Road to Recovered: Voices from the Eating Disorder Recovery Community and Inside Stories: Medical Student Experience.

They provide a platform for individuals to share their stories of navigating challenges, and help cultivate community in oftenisolating circumstances.

Listen to sample podcasts and learn more about these alumnae/i at www.concordacademy.org/podcasters.

21

602100txt1-25,38-52.indd 21

10/21/16 7:36 AM

alumnae/i profiles

JEWELS OF THE HIMALAYAS A talent rediscovered helps preserve Bhutan’s most sacred sites

22

602100txt1-25,38-52.indd 22

10/21/16 7:36 AM

Supawan Pui Lamsam Class of 1973

by Nancy Shohet West ’84

Pui Lamsam ‘73

F

OR MORE than 25 years, Supawan Pui Lamsam ’73 thought

she had found her calling providing art and fine food to patrons of her restaurant and gallery in her native Bangkok.

Over those years, she adapted to various changes in the business climate: closing the gallery when interest waned, and then shifting her culinary focus from dine-in to take-out and supplying food to local restaurants.

But, as is not uncommon for successful professionals as they reach middle age, by 2005 she was ready for a change. She just wasn’t sure what. A friend asked her if there was something she had enjoyed doing long ago that had fallen by the wayside over the years, and she recalled the photography classes she had loved as a Concord Academy student.

And so, having barely picked up a camera since she was a teenager, Lamsam signed up for a 20-day National Geographic photographic tour of Tibet. The group was already full, but opportunity knocked in the form of a last-minute cancellation.

Lamsam discovered on that trip that she still loved photography. When her vintage film camera stopped working a few days in, she made the transition to digital photography. Just as challenging as the technology, though, were the physical demands of the trip. “Prior to that, I had never done rough traveling before,” she recalls. “I hated to walk, and had never done any camping or hiking.” Getting to many of the mountaintop temples required at least two hours of climbing; at the age of 50, Lamsam found she was up to the challenge. “The more difficult it is, the more you can sense your karma being cleansed and purified,” she says. “When you get up to the mountaintop temples, the energy is very different, very pure. I could feel the sense of blessing.”

A year after the Tibet trip, Lamsam met His Holiness the Fourth Dodrupchen Rinpoche, a Tibetan lama who resides in Sikkim, India. His spiritual teachings inspired her to travel to Sikkim, Bhutan, and the surrounding area in the Himalayan range in order to further her understanding of Tibetan Buddhism, which is different from the Thai Buddhist tradition in which she had been raised.

In the ensuing decade, Lamsam would make dozens more trips to Bhutan’s sacred sites. Her interest caught the attention of Her Majesty Ashi Kesang Choeden Wangchuck, Royal Grandmother to the present king of Bhutan, Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuck.

In 2009, the Royal Grandmother brought Lamsam to her newly completed Zangdok Palri of Kurjey Bumthang temple and granted her rare permission to put together a book about it. Lamsam has 23

602100txt1-25,38-52.indd 23

W W W . C O N C O R D A C A D E M Y. O R G FA L L 2 0 16

‘When you get up to the mountaintop temples, the energy is very different, very pure. I could feel the sense of blessing.’

10/21/16 7:36 AM

since published four more books. The first, which Lamsam describes as a small guidebook, was titled Zangdok Palri of Kurjey Bumthang. The second, a much larger volume of photos and spiritual writings for which Lamsam recruited help from Buddhist scholars, was Zangdok Palri: The Lotus Light Palace of Guru Rinpoche. “That book took three years to make, as well as trips up and down many mountains to photograph various temples and sacred sites,” Lamsam says. Her daughter, Tanika Pook Panyarachun ’05, helped with the photography. Three more books followed: Kyichu Lhakhang: The Sacred Jewel of Bhutan; Zangdok Palri Zingkod-ki Namshed Namdrol Lamdren (A Path to Liberation: Journey to Zangdok Palri Paradise); and Paro Kyichu Lhakhang: Ambrosia to the Ears of the Faithful. All but the last two are available in English. Her books address a varied audience: tourists, art connoisseurs, Buddhists on pilgrimage, locals, monks. Her sister, Varangkana Van Lamsam ’79; her daughter, Pook; and her son have all accompanied her to the temples

at various times.

Lamsam is pleased with the contribution she is making to expanding awareness of Bhutan’s temples and sacred sites (sales of her books are also supporting the restoration of the temples). Ultimately, she says, it’s not really about the books or the photography; it’s about the spiritual quest and the fellowship. “What has been most fulfilling for me is that I have been able to help preserve history, through recording what may be lost in the future,” she says. “I am most happy to be able to assist Her Majesty the Royal Grandmother in her temple restoration work through the sale of the books. We have restored several temples, funded prayer ceremonies, and built sacred statues, all of which is to enrich the souls of many others who have devotion. I feel most fortunate for the opportunity to work to exhaust my past negative karma. Each time we enter these places, before we can start working we’d have a prayer ceremony in respect for the temple. Every visit is like a ritual. First we do the blessing. The work comes later.”

Photos by Supawan Pui Lamsam ’73

‘What has been most fulfilling for me is that I have been able to help preserve history, through recording what may be lost in the future.’

24

602100txt1-25,38-52.indd 24

10/21/16 7:36 AM

C O N C O R D A C A D E M Y A L U M N A E / I A S S O C I AT I O N

Ten Things I Love About CA

BL

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION: Concord’s history and literature surround CA’s campus and permeate it: Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, the Alcotts. What an ideal place to learn and grow!

(

THE HISTORIC CAMPUS: I’ve seen it evolve beautifully to reflect today’s students and their needs. The expanded Chapel, the new athletic facilities, and CA Labs are among the enhancements that keep the campus relevant while maintaining its intimate feel.

* &

THE CLUBS: There are more than 70 clubs, and they are all student-generated. A cappella, astronomy, politics, social activism, outdoor exploration, magic … something for everyone!

THE ADVISOR SYSTEM: Sharing your best and worst moments with a caring adult who’s always there for you. How many of us have remained good friends with our advisors over the years?

^

THE DEDICATION TO SOCIAL JUSTICE: It was there in my day and continues to grow. Today’s students ask each other hard questions about community, harvest crops to feed the needy, volunteer at food pantries and shelters, raise money in the wake of disasters, build homes for Habitat for Humanity, handle recycling across the campus, and travel to areas of the country that need help.

by Lauren Bruck Simon ’85 Alumnae/i Association president

% $ #

THE SENIOR CHAPEL TALKS: We all remember ours! They give every student a voice and offer a wonderful opportunity for both self-expression and thoughtful listening.

THE CREATIVITY: I loved my arts classes at CA. They continue to be both very popular and valuable in their own right and critical to creative thinking across all disciplines.

THE CUBBIES: It’s so good to know, in our world today, that CA remains an idealistic campus, where common trust still presides, and where individual freedom and respect for others can coexist.

@

THE DIVERSITY: We can all be proud of the great strides CA has made in broadening the range of backgrounds, perspectives, and talents of students and faculty. Those efforts have enriched the entire community, including our alumnae/i family.

!

CA’S JE NE SAIS QUOI: We alums know what we mean when we say, “That’s so CA!” From the beginning, a lively mix of personalities and talents has shaped the school’s distinctive character: smart but self-effacing, individualistic but community-minded, focused but wildly creative, intense but warmly caring, rigorous but fun-loving. I believe these qualities have a lasting impact and that they inspire us to carry our CA experience well beyond graduation day. That has certainly been true for me.

Learn about Lauren Bruck Simon on p. 37

CATalks • CAService • CANetworking • CAGives • CAReunion

602100txt1-25,38-52.indd 25

10/21/16 7:36 AM

centennial campaign

CA Labs:

CREATING A SPACE

Kristie Gillooly

602100txt26-37.indd 26

10/24/16 12:02 PM

When members of the Board of Trustees approved the Centennial Plan in 2014, they set a goal of raising $32 million for the Centennial Campaign’s first five strategic initiatives. In the following pages, we highlight three of them. We anticipated a five-year drive to achieve this ambitious target. A mere two years later, the CA community has contributed $31 million, setting a new standard of philanthropy in support of the school’s mission.

This academic year, we expect to raise the remaining $1 million to complete phase one in remarkable time. This year the focus of the Senior Parent Giving Program is Boundless Campus. As Head of School Rick Hardy has said, “watching this community come together to support this campaign has been nothing short of amazing.”

FOR INNOVATION The Five Priorities of Phase One of the Centennial Campaign: n CA Labs n Advancing Faculty Leadership n Increasing Financial Aid n Boundless Campus n Revitalizing Main Street and Residential Life Read more about all of them at: www.concord100.org

A chameleon’s DNA sequence covers a threestory stairwell in CA Labs.

602100txt26-37.indd 27

10/27/16 9:36 AM

centennial campaign

Campaign Priority: CA Labs

Bringing Science into Dialogue with Other Disciplines How can a building facilitate the circulation of ideas? Glass walls and ample natural light. Collaboration zones in wide hallways. Reconfigurable classrooms with retractable, soundcurbing partitions. A rooftop experimental station. And a museum-worthy elevator and mobile carts that allow teachers to move equipment easily from the third-floor fabrication lab down for outdoor testing in Makers Alley.

During his CATalk at the opening celebration for CA Labs, science teacher Max Hall expressed frustration at the artificial distinction often made between art and science. In contrast, he said, “We’re doing a nice job of not being too compartmentalized, of letting ideas move.”

While the new CA Labs building is primarily home to the science faculty — classrooms are equipped with sinks, ventilation hoods, and portable lab benches with chemical-resistant countertops, along with fixed and mobile whiteboards— English, math, and language classes are also being taught in the building, to everyone’s benefit. The largest classroom on the third floor will house the Theater Program’s Directors Workshop in the spring, and students can expect more crossdisciplinary use in the future.

CA Labs was designed to maximize both flexibility and transparency. The architects from Dewing Schmid Kearns understood the importance of discussion to the Concord Academy community and sought input from many of its members, including faculty now using the building. Teachers drew up wish lists, visited science buildings at other schools to gather ideas, and blocked out the arrangements of cabinets and equipment on the walls. The collaborative process

resulted in classrooms with flexible amenities such as common access to prep spaces, three-sided glass display cases, and glassed-in consultation rooms.

The green roof, with its meteorological station, slate chalkboard, and temperature-regulating groundcover, offers an unobstructed view of the night sky and a fresh perspective on CA’s campus and beyond. In the new Main School Lobby that connects CA Labs to the Main School building, double glass doors create airlocks at all three entrances, bringing energy efficiency, light, and warmth to a space that was previously merely transitional. In CA Labs, each room has its own splitsystem air conditioning and heating unit. On a tour this summer, Director of Operations Don Kingman said his team had looked into possibilities for harnessing geothermal energy but decided the split systems would achieve the same efficiency for a fraction of the cost of drilling. They poured the savings back into quality materials.

It’s the details that show the thought and planning that went into creating this new space for creativity on campus.

In the first-floor hallway, an abstract-looking border along the gray slate floor tiles can be used to measure in both centimeters and inches. Poster-sized frames built into the hallways allow students to share their projects with one another. One stairwell wall is covered with a three-story map of Concord, Mass., in 1922, the year of the school’s founding, and the other depicts the DNA helix of a chameleon. If you look closely, you’ll notice that several “CAs” stand out in the sequence.

CO N CO R D AC A D EM Y M AG A ZIN E FA LL 2016

28

602100txt26-37.indd 28

10/24/16 12:02 PM

Dewing Schmid Kearns

With its carpet of sedum, the green roof not only helps to warm and cool the building seasonally, it also serves as an outdoor classroom, meteorology platform, and experimental station.

Makers Alley has turned an unused outdoor space into a creative playground for outdoor projects, with catenary lights, electrical power, access to the CA Labs elevator, and even a 12-by-10-foot wall reserved for street art.

behind CA Labs

The ceiling of the thirdfloor science office was raised by 18 inches.

Both the Main School Lobby and this side entrance to CA Labs are equipped with handicapaccessible ramps and automatic doors. The granite of the supporting walls reflects the character of other architectural details around campus.

The reconfigured Main School Lobby connects to CA Labs, creating a front entrance for the school and new gathering spaces both inside and out.

602100txt26-37.indd 29

Kristie Gillooly

This bioretention area was landscaped with plants that thrive in wet environments, and the Quad was regraded to improve water flow. New dark-sky-compliant street lights along the Quad unify the campus but don’t obstruct the night view from the roof.

With CA Labs, around 10,000 square feet have been added to the science building, nearly doubling its size. The building previously had six classrooms; now it has 11, plus a rooftop teaching space.

Main image: Cole + Kiera

The new construction was designed to blend seamlessly with the school’s existing architecture and is painted Boothbay Gray, CA’s signature building color.

10/24/16 12:02 PM

Cole + Kiera

Kristie Gillooly Cole + Kiera CO N CO R D AC A D EM Y M AG A ZIN E FA LL 2016

RAISED: $11M CA Labs n Flexible spaces reinforce problem-solving, interdisciplinary learning, and collaboration n Allows students to learn by designing, inventing, thinking, and taking academic risks n Matches the quality of CA’s teachers with the quality of its teaching spaces

30 Eric Roth

602100txt26-37.indd 30

Kristie Gillooly

10/25/16 7:36 PM

Kristie Gillooly

Kristie Gillooly

centennial campaign

+ celebrate Read about the opening celebration at www.concordacademy.org/calabs-celebration.

31

602100txt26-37.indd 31

W W W . C O N C O R D A C A D E M Y. O R G FA L L 2 0 16

CA parents, friends, and alumnae/i from across generations gathered on campus for a full day of festivities on September 30 to celebrate the opening of CA Labs. They joined students in welcoming a lineup of alumnae/i and parent speakers who highlighted an incredible diversity of scientific pursuits.

At a “CA Innovators in the World” panel discussion, moderated by Boston Children’s Hospital pediatric immunologist Hans Oettgen P’13, ’15, four young alumnae/i—archeologist Nat Erb-Satullo ’03, statistical climatologist Suz TolwinskiWard ’00, unmanned aircraft expert Paul Quimby ’08, and data scientist Erin Hult ’00—shared the largely unexpected paths they followed to their current careers. Held in CA Labs classrooms, CATalks by science faculty members, alumnae/i, and parents engaged audiences on topics ranging from building socially expressive robots (Matt Berlin ’98 and Jesse Gray ’98) to realizing the promise of the biological century (Doug Cole P’18). As several speakers remarked, now that science has this new home at the school, it is difficult to imagine CA without it.

10/24/16 12:02 PM

centennial campaign

“One of my favorite Campaign Priority: Faculty Leadership Fund

ways to teach is to

Invisible History, Authentic Learning

engage students through the lens of another discipline.

The research they’ll be

Department X frees time to ignite teachers’ imaginations

doing will tell exciting, untold stories.”

—JUSTIN BULL, FILM TEACHER

Christopher Rhodes Jr. ‘07

CO N CO R D AC A D EM Y M AG A ZIN E FA LL 2016

Just a mile from the CA campus, across from the Old North Bridge, stands an unassuming, wood-timbered farmhouse filled with little-known history. A mere 544 square feet, the Robbins House was home to three generations of free African Americans who lived in Concord while slavery was still legal in the United States. “These were free black people who were relatively successful and active in civil rights,” says history teacher Kim Frederick. “It’s not something we hear much about.” Next year, CA students will bring this invisible history to light — through fresh investigation into museum and town archives as well as a multimedia experience that will invite others to engage with their research.

This new interdisciplinary course, Concord’s Black History: A Multimedia Experience, will unfold in the 2017–18 spring semester, cotaught by Frederick and film teacher Justin Bull. It’s the first class supported by Department X, an initiative of the Faculty Endowed Leadership Fund, which was created to provide teachers and staff with resources to develop new curricula, exchange ideas across disciplines, and create and seize opportunities for experiential learning. This funding releases one-eighth of participating teachers’ time during a given semester to pursue a project that their colleagues have found promising.

During the 2015–16 school year, a Department X committee comprising teachers of visual arts, performing arts, English, science, and history met to create submission guidelines. A smaller review committee — to include Department X veterans in the future — considered eight submissions that represented the interests and ideas of 11 teachers, including topics such as remote sensing, symbolic economics, an intersectional approach to justice, and the connection between literary imagination and environmental science. As noted by the committee, Frederick and Bull’s “ambitious, thoughtfully written, and well-structured proposal” included a remarkable range of mission-driven ideas and approaches: an interdisciplinary, multimedia project that extends beyond CA’s campus to connect with both the history of Concord and the work of the Community and Equity Office.

Frederick had begun planning the course prior to Department X’s announcement. “I’ve been trying to change my classes into experiential classes that get students making or building something,” she says, citing the influence of CityTerm

cofounder David Dunbar’s definition of authentic learning: When you construct knowledge yourself, you retain it; if you don’t author and own it, you lose it. Last year, she restructured a U.S. history course of hers called War and Propaganda in Early America: Lying and Dying. To examine King Philip’s War, students researched Concord residents from the period, digging through archives and producing a play as their final project. When they compared the town’s deed book against a map of 17th-century Concord, they gasped, realizing that two individuals in conflict lived on adjacent properties; one even had to walk through the other’s land to get to town. “Holding up those two primary sources, students saw with their own eyes how people must have moved around and how ill-defined property boundaries could have contributed to disputes,” Frederick says. “It got me thinking about what else I could do in this vein to help kids use evidence to consider motivation and to witness historical realities play out over time.”

32

602100txt26-37.indd 32

10/24/16 12:02 PM

centennial campaign

RAISED: $5.95M | 99% OF GOAL

For Concord’s Black History, Frederick will identify historical figures with enough supporting primary sources in the archives, and Bull will involve students in shaping the final project. The students will piece together the research themselves. “It’s more fun for them, because I don’t know the story,” Frederick says. “And that’s important. They’re figuring it out. That’s doing history.”

“I value actual, engaging projects for students to dig their minds into,” says Bull, who adds that he gets much of his energy for teaching from collaboration. “I hope that students will see, as always, that they are 100 percent capable of rising to a real-world challenge within a classroom setting.

One of my favorite ways to teach is to engage students through the lens of another discipline. The research they’ll be doing will tell exciting, untold stories — and our film courses are always about storytelling. In the past, we’ve made movies. With this project, I’m excited about an interactive

museum experience. This is going to push us to grow as a program outside of traditional film production.”

This spring, Frederick and Bull will write grant proposals to cover technology costs for the final project. Frederick will identify source materials and find actors. Bull will expand his knowledge of interactive web design and research how museum galleries are using media effectively. The Department X release of time — they’ll each teach three rather than four courses this spring — is critical to this process. “We’re getting time to plan, to do it well, and not just squeeze it in,” Frederick says. “This is such a cool opportunity for the students, and we want to make the most of it.”

She and Bull plan to share the multimedia outcome of the course with the museum for use as an interactive interpretive tool. “This is not only a wonderful opportunity for students to do real historical work, it’s also a way for CA to give back to the community,” Frederick says.

33

602100txt26-37.indd 33

W W W . C O N C O R D A C A D E M Y. O R G FA L L 2 0 16

The Faculty Endowed Leadership Fund will: n Support a teaching culture of innovation n Provide CA teachers with the resources to develop new and interdisciplinary curricula n Allow greater faculty collaboration and mentoring

10/24/16 12:02 PM

centennial campaign

Campaign Priority: Advancing Financial Aid

What’s Possible with Financial Aid Concord Academy’s dedication to diversity —of backgrounds, perspectives, and talents —is written into its very mission. It may not be apparent at first glance, but a commitment to providing financial assistance is integral to CA’s identity as a school renowned for teaching individuals who go on to make their mark on the world. In no other way can the best possible combination of students be brought together, regardless of socioeconomic status, culture, language, location, or beliefs. CA changed the lives of these alumnae/i, who received financial assistance to attend, and they in turn shaped the school and the experiences of their peers for the better. Now they’re giving back to CA and helping to ensure access for a new generation of students.

RAISED: $5.29M | 88% OF GOAL Increasing Financial Aid will: n Bring CA’s mission to life, enriching the community with a diversity of backgrounds and perspectives n Increase the portion of CA’s endowment dedicated to financial aid to $16 million by the end of phase one, a nearly 63 percent increase n Continue to yield students who are motivated, independent thinkers and leaders

CO N CO R D AC A D EM Y M AG A ZIN E FA LL 2016

“I learned at CA that I shouldn’t just live for myself but for the world around me.”

— LEWIS SALAS ’09

34

602100txt26-37.indd 34

10/25/16 7:36 PM

centennial campaign

“My time at CA was lifechanging. It’s where I learned that the quality of my work mattered.”

— DANIELLE D’ONFRO-EPPS ’02

Danielle D’Onfro-Epps ’02 “It was an escape hatch and a launching pad.” That’s how Danielle D’Onfro-Epps ’02 describes receiving financial aid to attend Concord Academy. “I arrived at CA from an underperforming school system and found myself excited and challenged for the first time,” she said from her new home in St. Louis, which she shares with husband Dan Epps ’02 and their 18-month-old son, Oscar.

“My mother was cleaning houses, and one of her Concord clients suggested she think about Concord Academy for me,” said D’Onfro-Epps. “My mother was a great believer in education, so she encouraged me to apply. My time at CA was life-changing. I learned that CA is a place where people trust and help each other. It’s where I learned that the quality of my work mattered.”

D’Onfro-Epps went on to attend Columbia University and Harvard Law School and is currently a lecturer in law at Washington University in St. Louis, where Epps also teaches.

Along the way, she served as a research assistant to thenHarvard Law Professor Elizabeth Warren and worked as a senior associate for the Boston firm of WilmerHale.

“I still use so much of what I learned at CA,” she says.

“George Larivee’s Statistics class not only helped me get over my fear of math but also became the driving force in my work in the law firm.” She also recalls her English teacher, former faculty member Andrew Watson, teaching her how to write a paper. “He helped me in ways no one ever has since,” she says.

D’Onfro-Epps also considers her time in the dance and art studios as formative. “CA is all about abundance,” she says. “There’s so much to try. The school creates an environment that teaches you to get better by doing. You take that feeling away when you leave.”

You also take the CA network with you, she says. “My CA friends are still my friends—I even married one! Every time we land in a new city, Dan and I find other CA grads who are always happy to connect. We love to spot that CA ring. These connections are a huge part of what makes CA such a valuable springboard. You always know they are there for you.”

35

602100txt26-37.indd 35

W W W . C O N C O R D A C A D E M Y. O R G FA L L 2 0 16

Lewis Salas ’09 Upon turning 25 last May, Lewis Salas ’09 decided it was time to fulfill a long-held dream: running the New York City Marathon. When he pinned on his number on November 6, he was also running to raise funds for TEAK, the New York City academic enhancement program that recognized his talent as an inner-city middle schooler and helped him sharpen his skills and find his way to CA, where he received a fouryear scholarship.

Salas says he sensed when he first stepped onto CA’s campus that it was the school for him. “Here I was, this kid from Washington Heights walking into Concord,” he recalls.

“But it was such a welcoming place, with a warm, family feel.

I knew it would become a home away from home for me.”

Salas credits Pat Dresden, his advisor and the wife of then-Head Jake Dresden, with helping him flourish. “She was my second mom,” he says. “She helped me with skills and challenged me in ways I couldn’t do for myself. She saw something in me and believed in me, and that helped me see that I could, in fact, do it. The Dresdens are still a big part of my life, along with so many of the friends I made there. At CA people accepted me for who I was and let me grow, and that’s something I still carry with me.”

After graduating from Bowdoin College in 2013 and working in high finance, Salas realized he wanted to be part of a small team where he could have a big impact. So in 2015, he joined x.ai, a New York City-based tech startup that is designing an artificial intelligence personal assistant, called Amy. “I really love the work,” he says. “I’ve been able to use my technical skills but also those I learned in CA English classes — critical thinking and communication, all things I really enjoy doing.”

As Salas trained for the marathon, he hoped his running would also allow him to have an impact on TEAK. “I learned at CA that I shouldn’t just live for myself but for the world around me,” he said. “So this is one way for me to give back.”

10/24/16 12:02 PM

Annual Fund 2015–16 The Annual Fund is one of three pillars of Concord Academy’s operating budget, which the school relies on to support faculty and students every day.

“The Annual Fund serves as a crucial piece of the pie that makes up our operating budget. Without it, the school would have to either

TUITION

raise tuition or draw down our endowment in order to continue

ENDOWMENT DRAW

ANNUAL FUND

to offer the amazing program that it currently does. I am extremely grateful to all the alumnae/i who contribute to the Annual Fund,

249

parents and families participated from across all class years. Current families and students take immense pride in CA and its mission.

CONTRIBUTIONS TOTALED

“Simply, thank you. Your generosity enables Concord Academy to maintain the depth, breadth, and personal nature of its educational program. Also, your gifts, small and large, send a message to the broader Concord Academy CO N CO R D AC A D EM Y M AG A ZIN E FA LL 2016

community. The gratitude of cur-

The number of first-time donors increased to

235

Welcome to the community of supporters, and thank you!

$2,770,185

and others, enabling CA to make major strategic investments as it prepares for its second century.”

—KEVIN PARKE P’12, ’15, TRUSTEE

dollar is appreciated and put to work to continue to make sure CA is the same amazing place we were fortunate enough to experience.”

—SARAH FAULKNER HUGENBERGER ‘94, TRUSTEE

FROM 2,006 DONORS

$ 3M GOAL

708

of the 2,006 donors are members of CA’s Main Street Circle, which means they have donated for at least the past five consecutive years.

The CA community is grateful for such loyalty.

rent parents inspires and informs alumnae/i, parents of alumnae/i,

because I know that every last

100% of faculty and staff participated.

86% of donors

gave between $1 and $1,921, which totaled totaled an impressive $382,452.

The cumulative impact of giving at every level adds up.

A RECORD

36

602100txt26-37.indd 36

10/24/16 12:02 PM

New Trustees Kristan First attended Brown University and has a master’s degree in landscape architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

She practices landscape design in the Concord area and has been an active volunteer in the community as a member of the board of directors of the Concord Art Association.

First has also been an active member of the CA community, serving as a tour guide and host family, a member of the Bed & Breakfast Homestay Network, and a Harvest Appreciation and Athletics Parents volunteer.

She has also served on the Parents Executive Committee as the vice president of community outreach. She and her husband, Tom First ’85, a former trustee, live in Concord, Mass., with their three children: Olivia ’18, Timothy ’20, and Luke, who is 12.

Grossman earned a bachelor of arts degree in political science from the University of Pennsylvania in 1988, graduated summa cum laude from Boston University School of Law in 1991, and earned a master’s in business administration from MIT’s Sloan School of Management in 2012. Grossman and his wife, Katharine Olmsted, live in Chestnut Hill, Mass., with their daughters, Eliza ’17 and Charlotte ’19, and their younger son, Xander.

•••

Jamie Klickstein ’86, P’15, ’18 Jamie Klickstein is the director of global marketing operations at the international consulting firm Oliver Wyman—a position he has held since 1995. He is responsible for “operationalizing” Oliver Wyman’s global brand-building efforts: designing and implementing events, assessing client impact (surveys), and managing sponsorships, advertising, web, and social media. Klickstein holds ••• a bachelor’s degree in political economy from Wesleyan University, class of 1990, John Grossman P’17, ’19 and also spent time during college at John Grossman is the London School of Economics and managing director Political Science. He earned a master’s and general counin business administration from Dartsel at Third Sector mouth College’s Tuck School of BusiCapital Partners in ness in 1995.

Boston, a nonprofit Klickstein has been a member of organization that the board of the Carlisle Conservation leads governments, Foundation and says that he enjoys high-performing nonprofits, and private funders in building evidence-based “traveling to obscure/unsafe countries to pursue dangerous sports.” He has initiatives that address society’s most served for many years as a volunteer for persistent challenges. Prior to joining Concord Academy, including the previThird Sector in 2012, he spent more ous two years on the Board of Trustees than 15 years working for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, then com- as president of the Alumnae/i Association. Klickstein and his wife, Kathryn, pleted the MIT Sloan Fellows Program live in Carlisle, Mass. He is the father in Innovation and Global Leadership. of Lindsay ’15 (Williams College ’19) He most recently served as the underand Ethan ’18, brother of Alexandra secretary for forensic science and techKlickstein Glazier ’89, and uncle of nology within the Executive Office of Ava Glazier ’20.

Public Safety and Security.

Lauren Bruck Simon ’85, President of the Alumnae/i Association Lauren Bruck Simon is the founder and president of CuriOdyssey Travel, a company that provides worldwide travel-planning services to institutions and organizations seeking to offer educational travel experiences for their members or graduates. She has over 25 years of experience working in the travel industry as an adventure travel guide, tour manager, lecturer, and travel planner. Prior to founding CuriOdyssey, Simon spent over 13 years at Harvard University as the director of the travel program at the Harvard Museums of Science and Culture. This program and Simon were recognized as leaders in the industry for the more than 40 annual custom and unusual itineraries they offered to all continents.

Simon has been a member of the CA Alumnae/i Association Steering Committee since 2007 and currently serves as secretary. She is also a member of Combined Jewish Philanthropies’ Boston-Haifa Ethiopian Committee.

Throughout her career, Simon has held several volunteer positions, including serving on the board of trustees of the Exploration School, as a council member of the Harvard Travellers Club, as president of the Women’s Travel Club, and as a trustee of the Lassor and Fanny Agoos Charity Fund. Simon’s brother Michael Bruck graduated from CA in 1988; her father, Donald, was a member of the CA board from 1984 to 1990; and her mother, Joan, was a founding member of the CA Parents’ Committee in 1983.

Simon earned her bachelor’s degree in comparative religion from Wesleyan University in 1989. She and her husband, Jon, live in Newton, Mass., with their two young daughters, Lila, 9, and Orly, 7.

37

602100txt26-37.indd 37

W W W . C O N C O R D A C A D E M Y. O R G S P R I N G 2 0 15

Kristan First P’18, ’20 President of CA Parents

10/24/16 12:02 PM

S Y K S E TH

STIC I R A T MILI UMER H T I NS TW O H C G ER , U T S A T N R E O F I B ONCE ASSOCIAT RAFT — OMING IRC RE BEC A D ESS A N NE I S N — U A S UNM S DRONE F SMALL B NA RT O A W P O G KN A BI

BY HEIDI KOELZ

E TH

L

ess than three years ago, if asked what the word “drone” brought to mind, the average American likely pictured eye-in-the-sky surveillance and Predators dropping missiles.

Those strong military associations kept many in the burgeoning small unmanned aircraft industry from saying the word at all. At the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International conference in 2013, the Wi-Fi password — a reminder to journalists — was “DontSayDrones.” But now that you can walk into any mall and buy an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for your kid to fly, “drone” has won out.

Most recreational drones look like miniature, multirotor helicopters with tiny mounted cameras, and these days they’re more likely to elicit curiosity than fear. While public concerns persist, they mainly center around privacy. Regulation has been lacking — though evolving somewhat — for the last several years. In December 2015, rules became clearer for hobbyists, but the Federal Aviation Administration’s continued prohibition of unapproved commercial uses kept most businesses treading cautiously. Until now.

38

602100txt1-25,38-52.indd 38

10/21/16 7:36 AM

This August, new and long-awaited FAA regulations opened the doors to any number of drone-related businesses, from crop surveillance to filmmaking to emergency response. One entrepreneur who anticipated the shift is Paul Quimby ’08, who cofounded Converge Industries, which helps insurance companies manage the end-to-end workflow around drones in building inspections with little formal training required. Converge’s software allows the drones not merely to hover above but to fly down in and around buildings, making inspections safer, more accurate, and up to 10 times faster than with conventional methods such as cherry pickers and ladders. “We’ve made it really easy for this population of experts to use a drone as another tool,” Quimby says. “It’s not about needing to inject a third party who is a skilled user.”

Converge participated in the startup accelerator Techstar’s class of 2016 in Boulder, Colo., before moving to the Bay Area.

Now the company contracts with leading insurance carriers.

“It’s certainly been an interesting time to be involved in a market that we knew was about to explode,” Quimby says. In the year before Converge’s launch, the proportion of Fortune 500 property insurers adopting drones rose from nearly zero to more than 70 percent. “This old industry’s outlook on technology is significantly more progressive than I think most people assume,” Quimby says.

Like small drones themselves, Converge Industries is

an outgrowth of military research. Quimby worked at United Technologies Research Center on Sikorsky’s unmanned Black Hawk helicopter; at MIT’s classified Lincoln Laboratory on an autonomous driving system; and earlier, at MIT’s Humans and Automation Lab. When he met his Converge cofounder David Pitman at MIT in 2009 — Pitman was a graduate student, Quimby an undergrad — they were developing military technology. At the time, the most-requested resource from all of the armed forces was Predator aircraft camera time — people wanted to see what was going on in a particular location, live. Unable to meet the demand, the Department of Defense investigated alternatives for aerial imagery. One was Quimby and Pitman’s project: a tool for navigating urban environments in real time — for example, in Baghdad, where roads might be clear one day and obstructed the next. Although their research was expensive, and the wireless-products manufacturer Parrot had yet to launch the first widely available consumer UAV, Quimby and Pitman envisioned an aerial kit that could be carried in a backpack and assembled on site, and they built the world’s first mobile app to fly a drone.

Their formal human-subject studies proved invaluable for their later collaboration. They gave around 100 participants drones and brief instructions before observing how well they could fly the machines using a novel interface. “We were

39

602100txt1-25,38-52.indd 39

W W W . C O N C O R D A C A D E M Y. O R G FA L L 2 0 16

E

T I M I L

10/21/16 7:36 AM

trying to demonstrate that the training threshold didn’t need to be that of a normal pilot’s,” Quimby says. At that time, the military required in-jet cockpit hours for flying UAVs. At an investment of roughly $11 million in training per pilot, the model wasn’t sustainable. “When we looked at what it was going to take to do this in the future,” Quimby says, “one of the obvious things was lowcost hardware, but we also needed a much, much simpler experience for the user.”

Quimby and Pitman built on their research for years, making contacts in the industry and attending UAV conventions and academic conferences. They waited for the cost of equipment to drop, identified their market, and hoped for a regulatory environment permissive enough to allow them to operate. Most other national civil aviation authorities

DRONES IN AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY

For photographer Peter Michaelis ’74, flying his drone is part of the fun.

Mostly he takes pictures of estates, but he’s shot golf courses, polo matches, and fireworks using his camera If you haven’t flown a drone, in the sky. He even once you might assume it’s more photographed a friend’s boat complicated than it is. While rounding the horn of Manhatearly consumer models tan — from onboard, as they required rigging up cameras moved up the Hudson. It and separate communication takes a bit of talent to fly and devices, hobbyist drones retrieve the drone, especially today are plug-and-play. You in an area of New York where connect them to a smarttrees can be 150 to 200 feet phone or tablet, which contall. Power lines, too, can be trols navigation and displays the camera view. Newer mod- hazardous. But Michaelis has no problem staying below els have anticollision sensors and automatic lens correction. the 400-foot limit for both By locking onto GPS satellites, recreational and commercial drone flights: The best permuch of their flight pattern spective is usually around 125 can be automated — takeoff, feet. “It’s similar to shooting landing, even returning to from a hot air balloon,” he the point of origin. In the says. “They fly low for a betair, they can hover in place, ter view.” For him, the hardest self-adjusting for wind gusts, parts have been learning how and their wide-angle camera to reprogram the drone and lenses take surprisingly sharp keeping up with technological landscape photos and video. advances.

A DJI Phantom 4, which Before commercial use of drones was is what Michaelis uses, costs allowed in the United States, Paul under $1,500 — around Quimby ’08 and his business partner $2,000 if you include a case took their startup, Converge Industries, to New Zealand for testing. and extra batteries and blades — and prices look likely to continue to drop. Despite the increasing ubiquity of drones, Michaelis predicts the strong market for aerial photography will continue.

“Everyone has an iPhone now and takes unlimited photographs,” he says. “That trend has devalued photographers’ work, but aerial photography has expanded my options for selling individual pictures in addition to being hired for events.” It’s become a large part of his business.

Michaelis is pleased with the new regulations allowing commercial use, though he remains frustrated by irresponsible operators. “It’s unfortunate that some people are doing stupid stuff, like flying over — or crashing into — stadiums, invading

had issued rules, while the United States still lacked a framework for commercial operation. When that didn’t materialize quickly enough, they headed to New Zealand for research and development. Today the public perception in America had shifted so much that people barely even notice their drones during flight tests.

Converge’s service includes keeping up with regulations to make it easy for insurance companies to fly legally, and Quimby has spent the past several years explaining the nittygritty rules of drone use for businesses to his clients.

Attempting to predict which way the winds will shift in a fledgling regulatory environment, he has sent regular investor updates about the FAA’s next steps toward opening the floodgates for UAVs in any number of businesses.

40

602100txt1-25,38-52.indd 40

10/21/16 7:36 AM

TOP: From an elevated perspective, drone photos can showcase properties as well as their settings.

BOTTOM: Peter

41

602100txt1-25,38-52.indd 41

W W W . C O N C O R D A C A D E M Y. O R G FA L L 2 0 16

airspace near airports, or even buzzing an NYPD helicopter,” he says. “A few people taking stupid risks are giving drone users a bad name. But it’s not complicated to fly if used right.”

Like Michaelis, Caroline Ballard ’72 and her husband, Jerry Smith, came to drone photography wanting good photos from the air. Both realtors at the time, they conceived their business, Over and Above Photography, in 2008, thinking they could take better photos than most used to sell homes. Before drones were available and affordable, they tried other solutions: helium blimps and extendable masts, which were hard to use in the windy mountains of Vermont, where they are based. Now retired from real estate, they operate DJI Inspire drones to photograph stately houses for their owners. To free up Smith to navigate using his iPad, Ballard controls the camera from a second device. As with similar drones, they’re limited to flights of around 20 minutes on one battery, but that’s as much time as they generally need.

What caused them trepidation was trying to build their business while commercial uses were still prohibited.

They had applied for authorization from the FAA but joined a backlog of thousands of applicants while exemptions were being granted only to pilots. “That’s a specialized skill set that’s not really

Michaelis ’74 used a drone to capture this unique perspective of Manhattan from the Hudson River.

Photos by Peter Michaelis ’74

THE USE OF SMARTPHONES MAY HAVE DEVALUED PHOTOGRAPHERS' WORK, BUT AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY HAS EXPANDED PETER MICHAELIS' OPTIONS.

10/21/16 7:36 AM

Same scene, different view: Students and faculty looked up at CA's DJI Phantom 4 drone while it documented the Quad's reopening in September.

Photos by Ben Carmichael ’01

42

602100txt1-25,38-52.indd 42

10/21/16 7:36 AM

'THERE ARE TREMENDOUS BENEFITS TO BEING LEGAL NOW.' — CAROLINE BALLARD ’72

needed for the kind of operation we’re running,” Ballard says. Conscientious about following all regulations for recreational use, they worked for clients only on their own properties and with permission from neighbors, but their murky legal status prevented them from bidding on larger commercial and government jobs. “There are tremendous benefits to being legal now,” Ballard says.

It’s a bit of a sore point that the new rules require more from them than from amateurs. “We have greater experience and expertise, as well as more expensive equipment to protect,” Smith says. “Naturally we’re more cautious as operators than an enthusiast who loses a drone on its first flight.” He and Ballard see privacy as very important but feel that most concerns are already addressed by regulations on any sort of photography or trespassing. “With new technology, people don’t understand its limitations,” Smith says. “Our wide-angle cameras aren’t equipped with lenses suitable for close pictures.” Like Michaelis and Quimby, he emphasized the impossibility of a drone’s sneaking up on anyone — they’re far from quiet.

“We just want to continue learning,” Ballard says.

“We’re not trying to run a huge business. We’re doing this because we like it.”

A BRIEF HISTORY OF DRONE REGULATION

to FAA-issued warnings commercial use of drones was essentially prohibited, although no law had been passed to that effect. In December 2015, new hobIf Quimby could design a byist guidelines made the U.S. government course, he’d situation even less clear for have students examine the businesses. “You could say, history of commercial drone ‘I’m authorized to do this as regulation, which includes long as I’m having fun, but just one piece of legislation the moment someone pays and a handful of court cases. me a dollar, the same vehicle After a couple of years of doing the same things in the rapid technological innovation same place is now suddenly, that brought drones within by random writing of nasty reach of recreational users and businesses alike, the FAA, letters, illegal,” Quimby says. in delaying issuing rules, sud- “This has been a mess of a situation. No one has been denly seemed to be halting happy with this process. It’s progress. Congress stipulated caused a lot of people to be in 2012 that a path be cleared yelling and screaming at the for commercial UAV use, but same time to speed up and it took years to establish slow down.” the framework — Part 107 of Prior to the latest reguthe Federal Aviation Regulalations, the only legal way tions — that finally took effect to fly a drone for business this August. In the meantime, was to obtain a Section 333 the regulatory environment exemption from the FAA — a was shaped by conflicting process of Catch-22 surreality. opinions on exactly what a As Quimby says, it became UAV is — an aircraft, which “an instantly impossible situawould then be treated like tion,” because UAV operators any other under FAA juriswere applying for exempdiction, or a model airplane, tions from rules designed for which wouldn’t be. Court manned aircraft. For example, cases ruled both ways; now applicants requested relief drones are considered airfrom two requirements: an craft, with their own special aircraft manual in the cockpit status within FAA regulations, (many drones don’t have and shooting one down is a cockpits, and manuals can federal violation. “If anybody weigh more than drones) wants a great field of law to and tail numbering in onego into,” Quimby says, “this is foot high letters (larger than a specialty that’s going to be the vehicle). “A Section 333 around for a while.” exemption that permits Until this summer, due

operation was basically a list of the completely unintended side effects of conventional aircraft rules being applied to this new class of vehicle that didn’t fit,” Quimby says.

The new Part 107 regulations for small unmanned aircraft allow commercial use of drones under 55 pounds in unrestricted airspace, only during daylight and within line of sight of the operator, who must obtain a certification of aeronautical knowledge. The situation is clearer than it’s ever been, although a direct mandate from Congress might still alter the landscape at any time.

Small-business owners aren’t grumbling as much now. “I think everyone is just very glad that we moved from no sort of regulation to a system that can be amended,” Quimby says. The restriction to line-of-sight operations will be the next domino to fall — eventually. This limitation precludes neighborhood-level surveillance and advances such as real-time mapping. It’s a sticking point that has sent companies like Amazon, which has been pursuing drone delivery for years, to more welcoming regulatory environments in Europe.

But the framework now in place has given a green light to Converge Industries, aerial photography studios, and many other small businesses using UAVs to take to the skies.

ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: FOR AERIAL PHOTOS AND VIDEO AND A TIMELINE OF

DRONE REGULATION IN THE U.S., VISIT WWW.CONCORDACADEMY.ORG/DRONES. 43

602100txt1-25,38-52.indd 43

10/21/16 7:36 AM

Photos by Kristie Gillooly

“Sometimes, if you are lucky and stay curious, the data that kills one idea becomes fodder for another,” said DR. HELEN H. HOBBS ’70 in her Commencement address.

An investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and professor of internal medicine and molecular genetics at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Hobbs recently received the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences.

Her discovery of rare genetic mutations that affect cholesterol has altered treatments for heart and liver disease. In her speech, she credited “a process that became a habit at CA—the habit of responding, then analyzing that response.”

“Keep asking yourself, ‘What is it I find interesting? What is it I find satisfying?” Hobbs advised the class of 2016. “Every time you say, ‘Not this,’ you make progress.”

Read more at www.concordacademy.org/commencement2016.

COMMENCEMENT 2016

44

602100txt1-25,38-52.indd 44

10/21/16 7:36 AM

Helen Hobbs ’70

602100txt1-25,38-52.indd 45

10/21/16 7:36 AM

IN MEMORIAM

b Luciana Baker mother of Bruno Baker ’13

Ted Krouse grandfather of Ingrid Apgar ’16

Jean Bell mother of Donald Bell ’76

Nancy DeVeau Lamson ’46 sister of the late Phyllis DeVeau Francklyn ’47

Stewart Bennett father of Amanda Bennett ’83

Thomas Leggat father of Anne Irza-Leggat ’84, Martha Leggat ’85, and Margaret Leggat ’91

Steve Bergen, former faculty Jane Borden mother of Christopher Borden ’80; sister of William Bailey, faculty emeritus; aunt of Hanna Bailey Boyle ’87, Deborah Bailey Herrmann ’88, and Benjamin Bailey ’91 Richard Brown father of Katia Brown Green ’88 and father-in-law of Brian Green ’88 Robert Bruen grandfather of Jane Lindstrom ’17 Maryan Chapin mother of Aldus Chapin ’80 and Marya Chapin Lundgren ’86 Elizabeth Perkins Draper ’44 William Eddy Jr., former faculty Julia Pierce Fenske ’82 Constance Morrow Fulenwider ’60 stepsister of the late Edith Wilkie Edwards ’64 Al Gallup grandfather of Elizabeth Penland ’89 and David Penland ’99

Ann Blair Lyne mother of Jane Lyne Oakes ’74 and Elizabeth Lyne Tucker ’76 Annie Henry McLucas ’35 Sylvia Mendenhall, faculty emerita Lynne Mironer mother of Mark Mironer ’85 Emily Mitchell mother of Ellen Chapman ’71 and Nora Mitchell ’74, and aunt of Peter Mudd ’91 Flora Fay Ninelles ’44 John Quinn father of Emma Quinn ’09 Patricia Rabby mother of M. Caleb Neelon ’94 William Roth ’86 Jeanne Ruggles mother of Rebecca Ruggles ’70, Mary Ruggles ’73, and D. Fairchild Ruggles ’75 Elizabeth Twitchell Snyder ’41

CO N CO R D AC A D EM Y M AG A ZIN E FA LL 2016

Floyd Gamarra father of Katalina Gamarra ’12

Thomas Stout stepfather of Catherine Pakenham ’88

Paul Glover grandfather of Hope Thompson ’96

Eleanor Swaim ’57

Harvey Hunt father of Vivian Hunt ’85 Beth Olsen Johns ’79 Barbara Kaufman mother of the late Christine Kaufman Thompson ’61

Gray Thoron father of the late Claire Thoron Pyle ’59 and grandfather of Louis Crosier ’83 Joan Wood mother of Patricia Wood ’68 and Susan Wood ’70

46

602100txt1-25,38-52.indd 46

10/21/16 7:36 AM

Sylvia Mendenhall Faculty Emerita, English Teacher 1956–1992

by Lucille Stott, former faculty THE SERENITY of Sylvia Mendenhall’s passing last June

seemed entirely fitting. She had been able to lead the active, involved life she loved until the day before her death, and she left that life as she had lived it—peacefully and without fuss.

When I arrived at CA in January 1978, feeling awkward and at sea, Sylvia stepped in to offer solace. I spoke of my anxiety to her, she listened gently, and I relaxed. Over time, I realized that this place she chose to inhabit was far from center stage but very much at the heart of the school. Few knew that she remained an important figure in the life of one of her many devoted advisees, Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust ’64. Sylvia knew, and that was enough for her.

During her years in the classroom and for more than two decades afterward, Sylvia served as a generous mentor to us all, sharing her scholarly materials, her sly wit, and her nuggets of good teaching advice—including not to take ourselves too seriously. Her work with our Thai Scholars in recent years has become something of a legend—a model of skill, patience, and caring.

When she delivered the opening-day Convocation address in 2007, Sylvia sent us off with these words: “There have been many beginnings at CA, but something about the spirit of this place has remained the same, and this is what draws me back.”

Sylvia loved to travel. She taught The Odyssey and lived one.

But though she was often happily on the move, she remained centered in this place she loved so well. That, as I think back on all I learned from her, helped shape her dual gifts of coherence and joy.

47

602100txt1-25,38-52.indd 47

W W W . C O N C O R D A C A D E M Y. O R G FA L L 2 0 16

Gabriel Cooney

Sylvia saw the school weather many changes, and she knew how to distinguish between worthwhile change, which she embraced, and mere trendiness, which she mistrusted.

She held strong opinions and spoke them frankly, but I never heard her raise her voice or publicly disparage another’s opinion. We knew we could count on both her common sense and her civility.

10/21/16 7:36 AM

Photos by Kristie Gillooly

REUNION WEEKEND

CO N CO R D AC A D EM Y M AG A ZIN E FA LL 2016

48

602100txt1-25,38-52.indd 48

10/21/16 7:36 AM

2 016

MORE THAN 350 alumnae/i, family, friends, and former and current faculty of Concord Academy

gathered on campus the weekend of June 3–5, 2016. The reunion included celebratory meals, talks and panel discussions, tours of the CA Labs construction project then underway, and a memorial service, a portion of which was dedicated to faculty emerita Janet Eisendrath. With many chances to reconnect, thoughts turned to the past but also to the future—of politics, of work and life, of service, and of CA.

49

602100txt1-25,38-52.indd 49

W W W . C O N C O R D A C A D E M Y. O R G FA L L 2 0 16

JUNE

10/21/16 7:36 AM

THE STATE OF POLITICS MATTERS

THE HIGH-WIRE ACT OF WORK-LIFE BALANCE

PANELISTS : Nicholas Evans ’91, Mike Firestone ’01, Sandra

PANELISTS : Elizabeth Ballantine ’66, Claudia Burke ’91,

Willett Jackson ’61, Stephanie Manzella P’14, ’17, ’18 (faculty moderator), Cynthia Perrin Schneider ’71

Sarah Green Carmichael ’00 (moderator), Diana Erdmann-Sager Lovett ’96, Mike Rodman ’91

During the June reunion, the U.S. presidential primary campaigns were still underway. In this deeply divisive election year, CA alumnae/i panelists noted rapid polarization, widespread disaffection, and a dismissal of the promise of bipartisanship. The question on everyone’s mind: How did we find ourselves in such a state? Income inequality was an answer everyone could agree on. Concerned about the U.S. image abroad and its impact on national security, the panelists urged the audience to take nothing for granted. Turn back the clock to see if their predictions were right.

The average American takes one week less of vacation now than before 2000. Technology has driven assumptions of round-the-clock availability. And in the home, expectations for both sexes have increased. Add worsening college debt, wage stagnation, and trends toward fewer friendships, and the result is that many families and midcareer professionals are feeling strapped. From practical tips for coping to analysis of systemic issues such as parental leave and women’s representation on governing boards, CA alumnae/i panelists from the corporate, government, nonprofit, and small business sectors considered how we live today, and how we might do better.

Read more at www.concordacademy.org/politics.

Read more at www.concordacademy.org/worklife.

CO N CO R D AC A D EM Y M AG A ZIN E FA LL 2016

50

602100txt1-25,38-52.indd 50

10/21/16 7:36 AM

A leader in intercultural management turns her spotlight on five extraordinary women around the world

Mami Goldstein, a Jewish lawyer who fled Nazi Germany for Switzerland. Shahla Ismayil, who established a maternal health clinic and trains emerging female leaders in Azerbaijan.

Amira Al-Sharif, a young photojournalist from Yemen raising awareness of child marriage. Oksana Horbunova, a citizen leader of Ukraine’s Orange Revolution and combatant of human trafficking. Thuy (an alias), a seamstress in Vietnam who avoided an arranged marriage and started the family of her choice. These are the stories—humbling and hopeful—that Sandra Willett Jackson ’61 shared when accepting the 2016 Joan Shaw Herman Distinguished Service Award.

Jackson’s four decades in intercultural

leadership are inseparable from the lives of her work partners and their organizations’ beneficiaries. They are her inspirations, and her teachers.

“These are relationships of mutual empowerment, by women for women, which for me started years ago at Concord Academy,” Jackson said. On her own life of service—four decades of intercultural leadership in government, business, and nonprofit sectors—she didn’t dwell. But she did remark on her deep honor upon receiving the distinction, having as a girl met Joan Shaw Herman and observed how “she empowered others, physically challenged and not, to find joy in serving other people.”

At Strategies & Structures

International, Vital Voices Global Partnership, the Peace Corps in Hungary, and the U.S. Department of State, among other organizations, Jackson has devoted her career to creating economic and social opportunities for underrepresented populations, particularly for women and children in former Soviet countries and Vietnam.

“I believe that for most of us, being of service is simply a way of living and learning through engagement in ways that make the world a better place,” she said. “If I have been of service to others, it is because this school set me up to do so.”

Listen to Jackson’s acceptance speech at www.concordacademy.org/jsh-jackson.

51

602100txt1-25,38-52.indd 51

W W W . C O N C O R D A C A D E M Y. O R G FA L L 2 0 16

Lives of Service

Kristie Gillooly

Ben Carmichael ’01

2 01 6 J O A N S H AW H E R M A N D I S T I N G U I S H E D S E R V I C E AWA R D

10/21/16 7:36 AM

• 1922 • 1932 • 1942 • 1952 • 1962 • 1972 • 1982 • 1992 • 2002 • 2012 • 2022 •

CIRCA

Gabriel Cooney

Readers, please pull up a chair and tell us what you can about the people pictured here.

Do you see familiar faces or places? Please send names, dates, stories, or caption suggestions for the images seen here to magazine@concordacademy.org. We’ll publish select responses in the next issue.

602100txt1-25,38-52.indd 52

10/21/16 7:36 AM

vat

ti mo

CA INSPIRES ion

nce ability e d nfi in

po arn f le eo lov

ty

mm

uni

un ivi

e

ctiv

ity

spe

lity

ibi

s clu

y ilit nab tai ity sus us sibility

p

s on

rio

cu

res

a

min

er det

co

or

per

kn ality n igin tio

ort

opp

y

ge ed l ow

con

dge

wle

in

ty

ate v no

in

pos

exp t en tal

e

enc

eri

t en

CA INSPIRES COMMUNITY April 30 CAService Spring Community Event

m vit ati ivity on lity age cre lus g ti a nec origin en inc

n b lla natio o c mi er det kno

Make an impact with your support to the 2016–17 Annual Fund. www.concordacademy.org/give

ion dit ty i

What will your gift inspire?

r o g ri sibility t ac n t imp ity espo rus ss r t ogre un ort tive n p p o pr c o spe mm r e p cooration ing

en

bil ssi

nd

co

t

ity s r e div tm

i mm

tra

h

t epe ind ity ios

s

cur

t igh ins

com

d tio ac

ess ss ren ne wa tful f-a sel ugh nce o e

co susta

ty th ort i n mu grow upp

y ver o c is n

June 1–2 Baccalaureate and Commencement

June 9–11 Spring Reunions

Stay tuned for more details of upcoming CA events.

Contact the Advancement & Engagement Office at (978) 402-2248 or advancement@concordacademy.org

CATalks • CAService • CANetworking • CAGives • CAReunion

10/24/16 10:03 AM

U.S. Postage PAID N.Reading, MA Permit No. 121 Concord Academy 166 Main Street Concord, MA 01742

CONCORD ACADEMY MAGAZINE

Non-Profit

Address service requested fall 2016

Concord Academy magazine is printed on recycled paper with soy-based ink.

602100cvr.indd 1