Bulletin Summer 2010

S T. G E OR G E ’S 2010

summer Bulletin

I NSIDE :

Intensive care: Anne Harvey ’99 tends to young lives on the brink

BY SUZANNE

L. MCGRADY

St . Geor ge’s S choo l Mi ssio n Stat ement In 1896, the Rev. John Byron Diman, founder of St. George’s School, wrote in his “Purposes of the School” that “the specific objectives of St. George’s are to give its students the opportunity of developing to the fullest extent possible the particular gifts that are theirs and to encourage in them the desire to do so. Their immediate job after leaving school is to handle successfully the demands of college; later it is hoped that their lives will be ones of constructive service to the world and to God.” In the 21st century, we continue to teach young women and men the value of learning and achievement, service to others, and respect for the individual. We believe that these goals can best be accomplished by exposing students to a wide range of ideas and choices in the context of a rigorous curriculum and a supportive residential community.

Therefore, we welcome students and teachers of various talents and backgrounds, and we encourage their dedication to a multiplicity of pursuits —intellectual, spiritual, and physical—that will enable them to succeed in and contribute to a complex, changing world.

St. Ge orge ’s Pol icy on Non- Disc rim inat ion St. George’s School admits male and female students of any religion, race, color, sexual orientation, and national or ethnic origin to all the programs and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of religion, gender, race, color, sexual orientation, or national or ethnic origin in the administration of its educational policies, scholarship and loan programs, or athletic and other school-administered programs. In addition, the school welcomes visits from disabled applicants.

St. George’s Bulletin The Alumni/ae Magazine of St. George’s School Newport, R.I. The poignancy of Prize Day was not lost on anyone who knows the Richards family (right): Max ’10, a childhood cancer survivor, ascended the front steps to receive his diploma from his father, Tim, assistant head of school for student life, as his sisters, Molly ’11 and Lucy, and his mother, Anne, looked on.

PHOTO BY K ATHRYN W HITNEY L UCEY

On the cover: (Looking through the arm of Caio Menezes ’12) Brett Passemato ’11, Pearson Potts ’12 and Emma Garfield ’12 hard at work in Memorial Schoolhouse.

PHOTO BY L EN R UBENSTEIN On the back cover: Pearson Potts ’12 and Caitlin Connerney ’12 made big sailing news this summer when they emerged the overall winners at the C420 North American Championship in Brant Beach, N.J., on July 23, 2010.

PHOTO BY S USAN S IMMONS

Suzanne L. McGrady, editor Dianne Reed, communications associate Toni Ciany, editorial assistant Contributing photographers: Ray Woishek ’89, Andrea Hansen, Kathryn Whitney Lucey, Len Rubenstein The St. George’s Bulletin is published bi-annually.

This magazine is printed on paper that is certified

by SmartWood to meet the Forest Stewardship Council standards. FSC sets high standards that ensure forestry is practiced in an environmentally responsible, socially beneficial, and economically viable way.

Contents From the editor’s desk ........................................................................................................................................2 Friendship born on the courts: Courtney Jones ’10 and Jesse Pacheco ’10 BY SUZANNE L. MCGRADY ....3 She tends to young lives on the brink: Anne Harvey ’99 BY SUZANNE L. MCGRADY ................................8 On the move: The Jaccacis head to China BY SUZANNE L. MCGRADY ..........................................................15 Around campus ..................................................................................................................................................18 Chapel talks: Learning English BY TONY KIM ’10 ............................................................................................................19 Heeding the call BY ELIZABETH BAYNE ’10 ................................................................................................22 Shock value BY C ARL NIGHTINGALE ’10 ......................................................................................................24 SG Zone - Athletics ............................................................................................................................................27 New students 2010-11 ......................................................................................................................................31 Prizes awarded May 31, 2010 ........................................................................................................................32 Global outreach ..................................................................................................................................................38 Classrooms ..........................................................................................................................................................42 Campus happenings ..........................................................................................................................................46 Geronimo ..............................................................................................................................................................50 Next steps: News from the College Counseling office ............................................................................53 Faculty/staff notes ..........................................................................................................................................54 Highlights: Student achievements ................................................................................................................56 Arts ........................................................................................................................................................................60 Community service ............................................................................................................................................62 Development news: News from the Alumni/ae office ............................................................................63 Post Hilltop: Former community members, alumni/ae in the news ....................................................64 Board notes..........................................................................................................................................................66 Reunion Weekend 2010....................................................................................................................................67 Class Notes ..........................................................................................................................................................71

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St. George’s From the editor’s desk B

eing the writer for an independent school magazine means you come into contact with some pretty amazing people. Of course, it’s always a dance: Which stories will be appealing to the readers? Which subjects will allow me to tell their stories? How will I honor the subject’s story with my writing? Ever since the fifth-year reunion of the Class of 1999, I’ve wanted to write about Anne Harvey ’99. I knew Anne mostly as my former Red & White co-editor. So when she came back for her fifth-year reunion and told me she’d begun a career as a pediatric intensive-care unit nurse, I thought, “Someday, I’ve got to write about her.” Thank you, Anne, for opening up your life to me (“She tends to young lives on the brink,” p. 8), and for being such a thoughtful, caring, hopeful person to all the patients and parents you come into contact with.

“Friendship born on the courts” (p. 3) is the story of a friendship between two excellent female squash players, but also at its core, the story of Connor and I in Stonington, Conn. two girls, each with very different life challenges, who met because they each saw in St. George’s a rare opportunity to change the course of their lives. As they were both about to head off to Ivy League colleges this fall having reached the latest goal of their youth, I wanted to capture their moment on the edge of their dreams. A sincere thanks to both Jesse Pacheco ’10 and Courtney Jones ’10 for allowing me to tell their stories.

Of course the spring always brings the news of faculty members moving on. This year several teachers who have served the school loyally and energetically for years saw opportunities for themselves off the

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Hilltop, but within the United States—all except two: Tony and Lucia Jaccaci journeyed across the world this summer to start new lives in Shanghai, China, because Tony, who has been a classroom teacher, now is serving as the head, or executive principal, of the YK Pao Secondary School (“On the Move,” p. 15).

Our students are always testing their limits, so I’m pretty excited about the back cover photo on this edition. A former small town daily newspaper reporter, I don’t get to do much “breaking news” anymore, so this is about as breaking as I’m going to get. In fact, as you’re reading this, the current-student duo Caitlin Connerney ’10 and Pearson Potts ’10 just may be collecting some other trophy for their sailing expertise. But as the two showed off their prizes for winning the C420 National Championship in July, they gave the St. George’s Bulletin its best photo op in a while as well. Congratulations to our sailing celebrities.

Finally, I’m most happy to report that one of the stories from the Summer 2009 Bulletin has been recognized by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. “A Dream to Succeed,” the story of Vianca Masucci ’09, who came to St. George’s after a challenging childhood in Newark, N.J., and now attends Swarthmore College, was the winner of the Circle of Excellence gold award for Best Article of the Year (Independent Schools). Thanks, again, Vianca.

Amazing stories. Amazing people who have called St. George’s home.

Let the cycle continue in September …

Suzanne McGrady Bulletin Editor

C. VIGOR S TUDIOS PHOTO BY

Friendship born on the courts Challenges, victories bring together two squash standouts

BY SUZANNE MCGRADY

T

he exchange is a simple 90-second pep talk.

Two girls are standing next to the water fountain in the Hoopes Squash Center. It’s game day and one is in the middle of a particularly tough match; the other is urging her on. “You can do it,” she says. “You can beat this girl. Play like we practice …” A few fist pumps and the two are back to their respective courts, fortified by the exchange.

Those pep talks became a hallmark of their relationship—a personal formula for success developed

between two girls who came to boarding school from very different worlds, and who forged a friendship over past experiences that set them apart from many, but that bonded them to each other all the more.

Like so many students on the Hilltop, Courtney Jones ’10 and Jesse Pacheco ’10, who graduated in a sun-dappled Prize Day ceremony in May, likely never would have met so soon, never would have become companions had not a place like St. George’s brought them together.

Jesse Pacheco ’10 (left) and Courtney Jones ’10 (right) came to St. George’s as promising squash players four years ago—and are now realizing their dreams to play in the Ivy League.

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PACHECO ’10 PHOTO COURTESY OF J ESSE

PACHECO ’10 PHOTO COURTESY OF J ESSE

Top photo: Pacheco and Jones with Jones’ father, Roger, in the Hoopes Squash Center.

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Jones, now a Massachusetts resident, spent her earliest days in the tony Philadelphia suburb of Erdenheim, Pa., the daughter of a high school math teacher and squash coach, and a stay-at-home mom. Diagnosed with juvenile diabetes at age 3, she learned about life challenges early on. After taking daily insulin shots for four years, she began monitoring her own insulin pump in elementary school.

Pacheco, whose mother, Yolanda, emigrated from Ecuador at age 14, grew up speaking Spanish on the gritty streets around the Grand Concourse in the Bronx. Born to a single mom, one of 12 siblings, Pacheco comes from a family of strong women. She still lives in the same sixth-floor apartment her grandmother secured in the United States decades ago; her two older sisters, Jenny, 24, and Joli, 29, are independent-minded parents; and her mom is the classic matriarch of her brood. The story of Jesse’s first day of middle school is indicative of her watchful mindset: Unhappy with the experience her first two daughters had at the school Jesse was first assigned to, Yolanda took Jesse by the hand that first day of middle school and walked out of her assigned building to enroll her in a different school across the neighborhood. It would prove to be a fortuitous decision.

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Like many childhood friends, a game brought Jones and Pacheco together. With no squash courts within a 45-minute radius of her home, Jones came to boarding school to be able to play every day and to gear up hopefully to play in college.

Pacheco came to St. George’s through the CitySquash program in New York, which teaches underprivileged kids squash while encouraging them to excel academically. The best prospects get placed in selective independent high schools.

The game was important to both girls, but what helped grow their friendship was a unique blend of adversity and drive.

When the two girls ascended the steps to receive their diplomas on May 31, Pacheco ranked 16th overall in the U.S. for girls under 19 on the list of 436 players ranked nationally by the U.S. Squash Association; Jones ranked 20th. For two years, the two played No. 1 (Jones) and No. 2 (Pacheco) on the girls’ varsity squash team here. They had entered the team their freshman year together—the only promising third-form players expected to make varsity—and continued to develop their games on pace. By junior year, the two became cocaptains, leading the team both their junior and senior years together. The team had good years under their leadership, and both excelled individually at their own game, so much so that both were recruited heavily to attend Ivy League schools: Jones heads to nursing school at the University of Pennsylvania this fall; Pacheco heads to Cornell.

The highlight reel for both is voluminous, especially when both hit their stride in their fifth-form year.

At the New England Interscholastic Squash Championships at Choate School in Wallingford, Conn., on Feb. 28, 2009, Jones, “won comfortably against the No. 1 players from Rye Country Day and Hotchkiss Saturday 3-0 and 3-0,” according to then head coach Peter Anderson. “On Sunday morning, [she] faced Taft phenom Sashia Balvani and could not pull out a victory.

But in one of the last matches of the afternoon, Jones faced off against Milton’s No. 1 Casey Cortes.”

Then the drama: Jones beat the top national contender for the second time that season and emerged a 3-0 victor.

Meanwhile, Pacheco was having the battle of her career in the championship match in the No. 2 flight against Greenwich Academy standout Meredith

PACHECO ’10

Schmidt-Fellner.

Pacheco was down 7-10 in the fifth and deciding game. Her mom and her old coach from the Bronx were in the stands …

Housed in a double suite on 602 East 187th Street in the heart of the Bronx, CitySquash is a model of

PHOTO COURTESY OF J ESSE

Off the courts Jones and Pacheco became roommates, confidantes, soul mates. They saw parts of themselves in each other’s eyes, and parts of each other they coveted. From two East Coast enclaves, they found in their friendship what they needed to help them through the rigors of high school, the roller coaster of the teen years.

Growing up with Type 1 diabetes as a little girl means you can’t blend into the crowd. The birthday cupcakes, the candy for Halloween—instead of magical, it’s all medical. Jones remembers one emblematic experience, when one of the girls in her first-grade class brought in candy she knew she couldn’t eat. She remembers the day as if it were yesterday. It was when her torment turned into fury: Instead of crying in the corner, she confronted the kid on the playground and chewed her out.

Pacheco says Jones has still got a little of that pique.

“You know when Courtney is in her focused game mode when she starts talking to herself,” she says.

“She’ll wipe her hands on the glass and be like, ‘OK. C’mon, Courtney,’ and she does this thing with her racquet, and she’ll fight for every single ball, and when she wins a point, she’s like, ‘Yes! C’mon!’—especially if her opponent is really annoying.”

Still, the diabetes is always part of the experience.

Sometimes mistaken for an MP3 player, the insulin pump on Jones’ waist is a constant reminder of her state of affairs. Although the insulin pump makes it easier for her to live a normal lifestyle, it’s not a cure.

Monitoring her blood sugar levels is still a part of life.

But since so much of squash is mental, it’s also become a part of her game. If her blood sugar is low, she needs some honey, a granola bar or a juice box from her “just in case bag”; if it’s high, she may get dizzy or exhausted. The state of her blood, even on the courts, is never far from her mind.

creative thinking and altruism run by the darling of the late-1990s Harvard University men’s squash program, Tim Wyant.

Raised in Cincinnati, Wyant graduated with a degree in comparative religion. At Harvard, he volunteered for SquashBusters, the country’s first urban squash program, then went on to play pro squash for two years. These days he’s more than dedicated to the CitySquash mission: “Enabling at-risk youth from the Bronx to fulfill their academic, athletic and personal potential.”

Pacheco was in the sixth grade when a representative from CitySquash came to Thomas C. Giordano School, or M.S. 45, the school her mother fought for her to attend.

The program would be holding tryouts soon, he said, and anyone who wished to come was welcome.

Pacheco, who had never picked up a squash racquet, jumped at the chance. Surrounded by 1,500 students, many of whom weren’t academically motivated, already was beginning to take its toll.

“New York is New York. You’ve got the New York attitude,” she said. “Kids there didn’t care about their studies; they didn’t care about anything. They loved to make trouble to be really cool.”

Skipping class, not doing your homework, failing a test and not caring about it: that was the prevalent attitude.

Meanwhile, Jess’s mom didn’t let up on her expectations.

“My mom, she would constantly push me to do my best at school and do well in my studies. Not everyone had that,” Pacheco acknowledges. “So from the start, I felt different than everyone else.”

On the day of the CitySquash tryout, Pacheco just thought she’d have some fun. Wyant saw something more.

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C. VIGOR S TUDIOS PHOTO BY PHOTO COURTESY OF

COURTNEY JONES ’10

“I remember the day she tried out like it was yesterday,” he said. He was doing his usual walk-through in the program’s facility. On five courts, dozens of kids were hitting balls with coaches. Wyant checked in to see how things were going. “Sometimes I’ll look a bit to see which kids have a little more athletic ability,” he said.

“But when I saw Jesse, I stopped in my tracks. She had this beautiful squash stroke and she was just effortlessly hitting balls back and forth with the coach. I knew right then that she had the ability to get a lot out of the program.”

Wyant has seen hundreds of kids, maybe over a thousand, try out. “Maybe one or two others have had the natural ability that she showed that day,” he said.

Top: Jones ’10 (in front) warms up with Pacheco (back) before a match in February.

Above: On Prize Day, the girls pose for a photo with Jesse’s mother, Yolanda.

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In middle school, Jones also was finding solace on the squash courts. Having moved to Massachusetts in 2002, she was practicing hard under the coaching of her father, who got a job working as the head of the middle school at Bancroft School, a K-12 school in Worcester.

“I always wanted to prove to myself that I could be an athlete, even with my diabetes,” she said.

The hard days are easy to recall. “There have been matches … I can think of 10 or so … that I’ve just walked off the court with my blood sugar in the 400s and it’s just frustrating because I know that my opponent didn’t beat me, it was just my blood sugar that beat me,” she said.

Still, she said, the medical issues have actually made her into a better squash player: focused and hardworking.

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“It forces me to step back and remember that my health is more important than the game, and that I’m just blessed to have this game as part of my life,” she said.

Pacheco understands that, she added.“Jesse’s put up with so much,” Jones said, recalling their practice schedule at St. George’s. “I’ll be like, ‘I can’t play. I need to sit. My blood sugar is too low.’ There have been times when I’ve just had to leave her on the court. And she never gets mad at me. She understands.”

Pacheco was with Jones not just during the school day, but also in the dorm and during athletics.

“If her blood sugar is too high or too low in between a squash match, I have to help her any way I can,” she said. “Sure everyone knows about her diabetes, but I see it all the time.”

As fourth-form roommates and sixth-form dormmates, the two walked to practices together, and as captains of the team, ran the warm-up drills together for the team.

Their skills on the court are different, but somehow complementary.

Jones is tall and strong. Pacheco compact and fast.

“She has a lot more power on the ball and so she can really control where the ball goes, whereas I’m really quick on my feet, so I can get to every ball,” Pacheco said. “I can’t hit every shot from every angle that Courtney can, but I can get there. And Courtney can’t necessarily get there, but when she can, she can pound it.”

Off the courts, the two say they’re also good for each other.

“I have a comfort zone and I like to stay in that, and she pushes me, so she’s really good for me,” Jones admitted. “She makes me stay adventurous and she makes me go out on Saturday night and she helps me hang out with different people I probably wouldn’t have.”

But the influence goes both ways.

“I think I’m good for her, too,” Jones said, “because she sees me doing work and she says, ‘OK, I have to do my work.’ Or I go to bed earlier and she says, ‘OK, maybe I should go to bed earlier, too.’”

Pacheco is by far one of the most successful students in the CitySquash program.“She’s gone the furthest as a squash player and academically,” Wyant says.

Pacheco is used to beating the odds.

Down 7-10 in that fifth and deciding game at the New England Interscholastic Squash Championships that day in 2009, she reached back and got something not a lot of players could—and Jones was invested in the outcome.

“It was the fifth game and I was just like, ‘C’mon, Jess, c’mon. Just dig it out. Play like we’ve practiced every day.’ We did the fist pump, which we always do. I was just trying to kind of get her pumped up, because I knew she could beat that girl.”

Pacheco and her opponent battled valiantly, Wyant said. “It was a very high-quality match. Everyone was watching at the edge of their seats.”

Jones couldn’t help but try to break away from her own match to lend her support. “I think she can hear me when I’m shouting in the crowd,” she said.

The match went long and Pacheco and SchmidtFellner were tiring, Wyant recalled. He was watching in the stands with Jesse’s mother at his side.

Then Pacheco came on strong. “She never gives up. She always pushes herself to the physical limit,” Wyant said.

She edged out her opponent to win 16-14 in the

KATHRYN WHITNEY LUCEY PHOTO BY

Just last December, Pacheco came in fifth at the U.S. Open.

No doubt, her mother gets some of the credit.

“Her mom is such a dutiful, loving, thoughtful parent,” Wyant said. “She always walked Jesse to the train and made sure she was accompanied by an adult.

She always made sure she did her homework.”

Wyant remembers a time that first winter when Pacheco’s mom told him she might have to pull Jesse out of the program. “She’s not wearing her hat and gloves when she goes outside,” she said. “I know how much she likes squash, so I told her if she doesn’t wear her hat and gloves, I won’t let her play.”

At that time, Pacheco had been coming to CitySquash for about four months and Wyant was already invested in her potential. “And I knew her mom enough to know she wasn’t kidding.

“I took Jesse aside and told her, ‘You better wear your hat and gloves.’”

fifth game, securing the first individual Championship at No. 2 in SG history.

Several trophies were handed out that day and the audience politely applauded for each winner. But when Pacheco went to collect her prize, “the place kind of exploded,” Wyant recalled. “There really was a collective exuberance, seeing this girl from the Bronx win the New Englands. It was a heartwarming moment to see how people responded to her and acknowledged her accomplishment.”

As Jones and Pacheco contemplate life at separate schools in September, both seem confident but contemplative. They leave St. George’s thankful for the opportunities they had here and excited to continue their squash careers in college. Both feel as though they came to the Hilltop with a set of goals that—with personal perseverance and support from the school— they had accomplished by Prize Day. “I’m not worried our friendship is going to fade,” Jones said. “I think our friendship is too strong to break just because we don’t go to school together.”

Pacheco said she’ll miss her confidante. “[Courtney] gets me,” she said. “She knows my background. She knows CitySquash and she knows how important taking advantage of every opportunity is to me, and how it’s important to my family as well.

She definitely understands that.”

What matters now is not losing what they’ve gained.

“I think what we have is really special,” Jones said. “… we have a lot of similarities—not just squash, but just being an athlete. I think we’re really focused. We’ve both had different challenges in our lives and we’ve both worked hard to overcome them.”

Jones and Pacheco bask in the celebration of Prize Day 2010.

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ANNE HARVEY PHOTO COURTESY OF

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She tends to

Young lives on the brink At SG, Anne Harvey ’99 was a tri-varsity athletic captain, academic star and co-editor of the student newspaper, but it’s her heart that gets tested most in her job as a pediatric intensive-care nurse in New York

BY SUZANNE MCGRADY

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ntering from East 68th Street in New York City, New York Presbyterian Hospital has the air of a Fifth Avenue luxury hotel. A stately awning with overhead heaters ushers visitors inside, or keeps them warm as they wait for a ride. Taxis and high-end cars make their way up the circular drive lined with well-tended landscaping.

The plush entrance, however, belies the drama inside, a world beyond worlds, where Anne Harvey ’99 feels at home in a place many of us never want to be.

Being at the bedside for a nurse like Harvey is a life of ecstatic highs and deep lows. There’s death there, and tragedy, the unfairness of life, but also moments of sparkling joy—the feeding tube that

finally gets removed, the climb to consciousness, the parents’ relief. It’s a life that Harvey never imagined while she was on the Hilltop, yet somehow suits her perfectly now. She says over the last six years she’s been a nurse, she’s learned to use her experiences in medical care to better understand her own life and the lives of those around her. “It’s not that I have more perspective; I have a different perspective,” she says. “There can be positive and negative aspects to the experiences that I have.” She might come home after a really difficult day and feel overwhelmed. “But having to deal with something so difficult at work has helped me deal with things a little bit better in my personal life. I think more about what’s important— and what’s trivial.”

Continued on page 10

Photo, opposite page: Harvey cares for a baby with chronic lung disease who had been born premature and who caught Human Metapneumovirus, a respiratory illness.

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It’s a late winter Friday and the pediatric intensive care unit at NYPH is abuzz with activity and the air smells like a freshly opened Band-Aid. The hallways of the unit form a square with patients, some of them with bodies so small they seem a slight bump in the sheets, mostly housed three to a room. With the round-the-clock care these children need, they get a dedicated nurse working one-on-one from a station inside their room.

As Harvey walks onto the ward in her scrubs, there’s the trademark sun-streaked blonde hair from her ponytail days on the soccer and lacrosse fields, the slightly Kathleen Turner-esque voice. She walks the ward as a familiar resident headed to the set of rooms in the back hall. She passes doctors in their break room, barely the size of an entry-level corporate office, which in an ICU doubles as place to both eat and work. One physician has dinner and reads the paper; one looks at X-rays.

As Harvey enters the back room, a tiny baby

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PHOTO COURTESY OF

ANNE HARVEY

A 3-year-old boy who just had his second cardiac surgery is ready for discharge.

raises her doll-like legs and the full-size hospital blanket accidentally swallows up her fragile form.

Another nurse gets up from her station to reorder the sheets, check the monitors surrounding the big metal bed, hold onto life for one more day, a week, hopefully years. Harvey knows the children’s names and their stories.

Harvey’s life after SG has been a series of revolving achievements. When you’re a nurse, it takes years to get a job working days rather than nights. Harvey’s paid her dues a couple of times. Before NYPH, she worked nights at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego. Coming back to New York, she had to work nights again. But these days, after two and half years on the night shift, life is just that much easier: no more 3-5 p.m. naps to transition to the nighttime work, no more sleeping through the New York days and getting up at 3 p.m. for the gym and a quick dinner before heading back to the ward.

Still you wonder: What makes a young woman choose a profession that would wring many people’s hearts such as this?

It wasn’t until her sophomore year at the University of Virginia that Harvey got interested in the nursing profession. A few girls from her sorority were in the program and it seemed something to further investigate. “I really enjoy being with people and helping them to get better,” she says. “It brings such joy.”

The blood didn’t bother her, or the pain. “Some people walk in a hospital and hate it. I walk in and I’m interested … oh, what’s going on in there? What’s their story? What’s that machine? It’s all still intriguing to me,” she says. When she did her practicum in a medical intensive care unit, she says, “I felt very comfortable.”

Further pursuing her interest in critical care, she did an internship in NYPH’s surgical intensive care unit the summer before her senior year at UVA. Growing up in the affluent suburb of Darien, Conn., the Harvey kids could have taken the good life for granted, yet their two parents—Darrell, a former St. George’s trustee and a real estate company CEO, and Robin, an employee at Barrett Bookstore in Darien— must have instilled a solid work ethic into their brood: All three Harvey kids now work in the nonprofit sector.

Kate ’02, who got a master’s degree in education at UVA, now works in Italy as a fourth-grade teacher at the International School of Trieste. John ’97, is at Montgomery Bell Academy, teaching history and coaching varsity lacrosse. He’s married to Jill McCarthy ’97 and has two children.

Among Harvey’s assignments tonight is a 10month-old girl named Chloe* who wouldn’t be here but for a horrible, horrible accident. The girl’s chubby little form lies exposed in the hospital sheets and she’s covered in dressings and hooked up to a ventilator to help her breathe. Yesterday the little one was in the kitchen of her family’s apartment when she pulled a crock pot full of boiling water off the counter. Now she has first- and second-degree burns all over her body— her stomach and both arms and legs. Amazingly, the scalding shower missed her face.

Harvey will spend the night changing the girl’s dressings and monitoring her breathing. But health care in an ICU is a mixture of physical and emotional work. Chloe is scheduled for skin grafts and her

single mom is still in shock. Taking care of the patient’s family members is half of the assignment.

“You become very involved,” Harvey says. “You’re physically dealing with the patient, but emotionally dealing with the parents and the family.”

Also this week, Harvey has tended to a little boy who had cardiac surgery and a girl with a neuroblastoma, a malignant tumor, which had been surgically removed.

Later she will give a report on her patients to the next nurse coming on duty. They’ll go through the drill: Respiratory: This is what’s going on … She’s intubated on this breathing machine. These are the settings; these are medications we’re doing. This is what’s happened. This is where her oxygen is.

Cardiovascular: Does the patient have a fever? This is where their blood pressure is. This is the heart rate.

Was his blood pressure going up? Going down?

Medications, drips, I.V. lines, G.I./G.U.: What’s going on with their stomach? Are we feeding them? Are they urinating? Are we treating them for that? How’s their fluid balance?

Neurological: Are they intact? Are they well sedated if they need to be sedated?

Pain management: What pain medication are they on today? Have they needed more? Less?

And then the biggest one: social. Family.

Chloe’s dad is questioning the doctors: Are her injuries consistent with what the mom says happened to his little girl? Are you sure?

Harvey, who was on the 7:30 a.m.-8 p.m. shift, leaves at 9.

“You don’t take paperwork home with you, but emotionally you take a lot,” Harvey says. Sometimes it’s good baggage.

“It’s amazing how resilient kids’ bodies are and how they can fight back from major, major tragedies,” she says.

Back at Rady, Harvey remembers one particularly sweet victory.

Lilly, a three-year-old little girl with blonde hair Continued on page 12

*The patients’ names in this article have been changed to maintain medical confidentiality.

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ANNE HARVEY PHOTO COURTESY OF

and blue eyes, had become very sick from a specific type of food poisoning that was ravaging her kidneys. She ended up with a disease called HUS, Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome, and was on dialysis for a week and half.

“She wasn’t awake and was on a lot of pain medication. I was doing a lot of medical care for her, but also getting emotionally involved with the family,” Harvey recalls.

Lilly’s parents would trade shifts at her stuffed-animal-covered bedside because they had another little baby girl at home.

Slowly the little girl began to recover, the pain medications were taken away, and she became more alert.

Still she was very quiet, shy and nervous, Harvey recalls. “I just remember in the beginning that she would not speak if I was in the room. It was hard at first. I wanted her to communicate with me. I wanted to get to know her better.”

Then one day Nurse Anne and Lilly bonded.

Her mom was the angel who helped. “I’m going to go. Your dad will be here in a few minutes. Nurse Anne

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is going to stay here with you,” she told Lilly.

Lilly looked up at her mom with terrified eyes.

“It’s just for a minute. Here, let’s put a movie on your DVD.” Then suddenly the lady in scrubs wasn’t so bad after all: “Hey, Lilly, can I watch ‘Bare Necessities’ with you?

I love that movie! Please?” Harvey asked. She recalls the little girl looking up at her hesitantly.

“Sure.”

Harvey sat down beside her bed and began to watch and sing along with the movie.

“And then she reached out her hand and looked at me and said, ‘Hold my hand?’”

And so the two sat for a while, holding hands and watching the movie.

“It was the first step toward getting to know her,” Harvey recalls. “I had finally gained her trust.”

After that, Lilly began specifically asking for Nurse Anne.

Recovered fully, Lilly walked out of the hospital in a light pink dress the next week.

Now here’s the human experience at its most gut wrenching. “After they call the time of death and the patient’s passed away, we clean up the patient the best we can and make them look as peaceful as possible,” Harvey says. “We let parents hold their babies if they want to hold them. We let them climb in bed with them if they want to. They say their prayers around the bedside. They hold their hands.

“We do memory boxes for the families. We’ll cut a little piece of their hair and do a finger prints or hand prints. Take their little ID bracelet and put it in a box.

For little babies, we’ll do little footprints on a colored piece of paper—so that they have something to take home with them.”

Continued on page 14

A day on the job

ANNE HARVEY

“Today at work I took care of a 20year-old young man who is a quadripelegic from a football accident a few years ago.

He usually lives in a long-term care facility but had to come to the ICU when he became critically ill with sepsis a little while ago. Today he was finally well enough for us to put him on a stretcher with a portable monitor and portable ventilator and take him outside for some fresh air! It was the first time he had been outside in over a year! It was really exciting and he was so happy. We even got him an ice cream! He could not stop smiling and never wanted to go back in! We were only able to go right outside the ER but we were out for almost two hours! And it was a beautiful day in NYC. These are moments that make me love my job!”

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In six years, Harvey’s had only two of her own patients die.

One had been sick for a very long time, and passed away peacefully; the other she’ll never forget.

It was at Rady in San Diego.

To pass the time in her hospital bed, 16-year-old Christina liked to watch “CSI” while she painted her nails. That day she had been talking in Spanish with her mother and grandmother while the show flickered on the screen. The nail polish was purple. Her girlfriends from high school smiled at visitors from photographs on her bedside table.

For a few days, Harvey was her assigned nurse.

Christina suffered from primary pulmonary hypertension, a condition in which the arteries that carry blood from the heart to the lungs become narrowed, and over time the patient needs medication to help the heart pump the blood.

She was at the point where any day the medication would not be enough to keep the blood flowing.

In some ways, being with Christina was like being with her younger sister Kate. The two would plan out Christina’s future career as a crime scene investigator and talk about boys and makeup.

The next day Christina was up brushing her teeth when she started feeling like she was suffocating.

“I need my oxygen. I need my oxygen,” she called out. “I can’t breathe.”

Harvey was within earshot right outside the room and rushed to get Christina back into bed and hooked back up to her monitor.

It wasn’t very long before doctors converged on the bed and adrenaline was pumping. One of the nurses closed the curtains around the bed; a social worker rushed to Christina’s mother’s side, put her arm around the woman and pulled her away for a second, told her what was happening. Periodically, as the doctors worked, the mother and the social worker walked over to the edge of the room, and peered in to see the doctors and nurses working frantically. For several minutes the staff tried everything to revive the young girl.

Then suddenly: silence, stillness, and a lull as a doctor looks up to the clock on the wall.

“Time of death: 8:34 a.m.”

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ANNE HARVEY

“It’s amazing how resilient kids’ bodies are, and how they

PHOTO COURTESY OF

can fight back from major, major tragedies.”

Success is easier to talk about.

Every one of the nurses on duty back at Rady in 2007 will remember Christopher, the-10-year-old surfer boy who wasn’t supposed to survive his massive injuries.

The skinny towhead was building a sand castle out of a huge dune with his brother when it collapsed on him. He was trapped inside for about 20 minutes before rescuers dug him out.

“He had cardiac arrest. He was very, very sick. He barely even made it to us,” Harvey recalls. “We were supporting every system of his body: a breathing machine, different cardiac medications to help his heart, dialysis because his kidneys weren’t working. He had a drain in his head to remove extra fluid that was building up pressure around his brain. He was on a monitor watching his brain for any seizure activity; he was getting blood products and extra fluids.”

His prognosis was so poor, Harvey recalls, that “many times we didn’t think that he was going to make it at all.”

Then, miracle of miracles. As the days went on,

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slowly the boy got better and nurses started to pull the machines away.

“Many doctors believed that he would be very neurologically devastated after everything,” Harvey says, “and he slowly got better.”

Six months later, Harvey and some other nurses were in the hallway when Christopher appeared with his mother and father.

“He wasn’t quite playing sports yet, but he was back in school with his friends. His speech and memory have completely returned,” she recalls.

Harvey says the successes make all the difference.

“You think about all the hard work that you put in, the long days when you never sit down because the child you’re caring for is so critically ill, the nights you stay late to help the new nurse coming on to understand or finish charting or to make sure that you didn’t leave anything undone, or that the patient got everything they needed.

“There are times when you wonder why you do it and then you realize how amazing it is to see a kid who we thought was going to die many, many times survive and then return to a pretty normal life.

“It touches your heart like nothing else.”

R AY WOISHEK ’89 PHOTO BY

On the move A veteran Hilltop family seeks a new life abroad

BY SUZANNE MCGRADY

T

hese days, the Jaccacis have a very different view from their living room window: Tony Jaccaci, St. George’s now former director of global programs, and his wife, Lucia, a history teacher and coach, have traded their apartment in Zane Dormitory, across the fields from Second Beach, for an

18th-floor high-rise in Shanghai, China.

The couple leaves St. George’s after 13 years of immersion in the academic, residential and athletic life of the school, as Tony becomes the first teacher from St. George’s in more than a decade to be hired directly into a head’s position at another school.

Tony and Lucia Jaccaci depart the Hilltop this summer after 13 years of service.

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Living abroad is a move the Jaccacis and their three sons have contemplated for a while. And while Lucia, having grown up on Aquidneck Island, admitted to butterflies as she spoke about the move earlier this summer, she also said it was an opportunity the family couldn’t pass up.

“The more I heard about the school and the project and the family, my curiosity kept growing and growing,” she said. “For me, if we were going to do this, I wanted to make sure that we had a home base in the States for our kids.”

Lucia plans to bring the boys home to Newport and their grandfather, Attorney Arthur Murphy, when the academic year is over in Shanghai. “I wanted to know that during the summer we could come back to this area and keep our connection to this area and to the community here. That was an important part for me.”

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Still, the move is a leap of faith. Construction is just beginning on the YK Pao Secondary School campus, which is scheduled to open to seventh and eighth graders in September 2011. After that, it will open a new grade each year for the next three years.

When the Jaccacis flew to Shanghai for a four-day interview last summer, the overseers of the school couldn’t even show Tony where he would be working.

“They showed us a nice, big field and said, ‘This is where the school is going to be,’” recalled Tony.

It was the vision and the passion of the founders that convinced the Jaccacis it was the right move for them at the right time.

YK Pao was a shipping magnate who amassed his fortune in Hong Kong in the 1970s. Deceased now, Pao passed on his altruistic sensibilities to his daughter and grandson.

“I found myself very intrigued by their vision of the school, which is a true nonprofit in a country where most private schools that are cropping up are for-profit schools,” Tony said. “This family was really in it for the right reasons. I really believed in their mission.”

Some of the members of the team’s search committee also impressed the couple. One of them, Betty Wei, who has granddaughters who go to Middlesex School, met with Tony near Concord, Mass., back in April. “She was quite a force and quite a voice for this project. She certainly got us excited,” Tony said.

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Tony has been appointed the first executive principal of the YK Pao Secondary School, where he is now in charge of hiring the school’s faculty and designing the curriculum for an international, nonprofit boarding school in the Jinshan district of the city. Lucia plans to take a year to learn Chinese and get her children settled in a very new place.

Tony left the states July 28 for a next-day school meeting in Shanghai. Lucia and the boys—Sam, 11, Nick, 9, and Ben, just turning 5—flew over Aug. 6, with Ben’s godmother, English teacher Beezie Bickford, in tow to help for a week.

At St. George’s, the Jaccaci legacy will linger for some time. As the founder of the St. George’s Chinese Department, Tony created a program here that really was at the cutting edge of globally minded education. It was the late Headmaster Chuck Hamblet who envisioned a school that connected students to the other nations of the world. That was in 1997, the year the Jaccacis were hired. Lucia had spent a year working at Portsmouth Abbey and Tony had just finished his master’s degree at Fletcher School of Diplomacy at Tufts.

Lucia, a former Brown University hockey standout, was hired to be the new girls varsity hockey coach, serve as assistant athletic director and teach A.P. Modern European History, while Tony taught history and created our Chinese language program from scratch.

Right away, the study of Mandarin Chinese attracted a unique group of students.

“A lot of my students understood the importance of the rise of China, the importance of the language,” Tony said. “And not just to try a language that was different and new. Many of them were taking it for practical reasons.” They expected to some day need the language for personal or business ventures.

“We were really on the forefront,” he added. “There were some programs out there, but they were mainly being taught by Chinese people who had been hired to come to the U.S. “So I felt that I was really unique being a Western person who had studied Chinese now coming in and teaching the language. In some ways I felt the teaching styles and everything I did truly were homegrown.”

Tony didn’t begin his own study of Chinese until college, when he took a class with a passionate teacher of Asian studies at Bowdoin and participated in a studyabroad program before going on to earn a bachelor’s degree at Harvard University.

Developing the Chinese program was certainly a milestone, Tony said, but he also is proud of the history courses he designed. He took over teaching “China and Japan” from former history instructor Tom Lamont, and redesigned the class after spending time working with students at the Naval War College in Newport, where he taught an elective class on China. The new course at St. George’s became “Global Powers.” He went on to create the Introduction to Asian Civilizations class, and the

now four-year-old Seminar in Global Studies, which incorporates an overseas trip into the curriculum.

With incoming Director of Global Studies Joe Gould, Jaccaci also coordinated three trips for faculty members to Asia. The groups visited Korea, China and Japan, where faculty members, who had studied Asian culture for a year prior to the trip, each participated in individual professional development opportunities.

For four years, Jaccaci also served as director of the St. George’s Summer School.

“That’s probably where I cut my teeth most fully on the leadership and gaining the skills of becoming a head,” he said.

The challenges that lie ahead are numerous. “We don’t know how communications are going to work, or bank accounts or the lives of our children. It’s been stressful trying to imagine a life over there. We know it’s going to be different, but we’re not quite sure which portions will be similar and which will be different.”

Sam and Nick are enrolled at the Shanghai American School and Ben will be going to the Soong Chingling Kindergarten.

As the two were packing up their home in July and putting many of their possessions in storage, they said they realized they could never simply transfer their current lifestyle to Shanghai.

“Maybe it’s our opportunity to look at a life more simply lived,” Tony said.

The two are taking inspiration from Christopher Stewart Clarke, a principal of the YK Pao School, and well-known educator in the U.K., with forty years of experience in some of the world’s leading schools. He was Founding Headmaster of the Chinese International School in Hong Kong, with which St. George’s has engaged in a faculty exchange program for the past five years. Previously, he taught English and was Head of Admissions at Eton College.

“When we went last July, there was no school, so the school really was an idea, and the people who envisioned it. I think Christopher made that idea more or was just one more voice to make it seem like a school that would really work,” Tony said.

Then he envisioned the plane ride he would take the next week that would start his family’s new adventure: two and half hours from Providence to Chicago, then 14 hours to Shanghai …

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Around campus E E N

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water infiltration above the ceiling line in the corners of the building.

Stained-glass artist Lyn Hovey was set to start the installation of the new glass just July 19, once all the limestone work was complete, according to Director of Operations Ge orge St aples.

A tentative date for the formal dedication of the new window has been set for Feb. 12, 2011.

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ork continues this summer on the installation of the new stained-glass window behind the altar in the St. George’s Chapel.

In June, when the old window was removed, contractors found the stone around the edges of the tracery coated with lead putty, and embarked on a hazardous waste removal program using an outsourced project supervisor.

Most of the old glass was put into storage and two sections of the old window were salvaged and cleaned, which will be kept for a possible display or for preservation in the archives.

The stone tracery on the east wall was honed in July, the interior stone was steam cleaned and the southeast pinnacles were waterproofed to prevent

SUZANNE MCGRADY

The waves at Second Beach beckon surfers from the Hilltop.

Different takes H A P E L

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Learning English A Korean boy spends elementary school in New Zealand and middle school at a military academy, all before St. George’s—and Dartmouth

BY TONY KIM ’10 Following is a chapel talk delivered on May 18, 2010.

H

ello, my name is Tony Kim, and I’m a senior from Seoul, South Korea. Back when I was in third grade, I went to school in Korea. I hated my school, and going to school was the last thing I wanted to do. My parents got called

in every other month, usually because I failed the math test I took, or I refused to draw for my art class. After school, I had to go to after-school academies to get ahead of the school work. My mom even urged me to go to an art school to improve my art skills, or lack thereof, but to this day, I still have a hard time drawing stick figures. There was no time

Tony Kim ’10 shares time with his family during Parents Weekend.

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After earning all A’s in the spring 2009 semester, Kim receives a Head of School’s Commendation for Academic Excellence at Convocation.

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for sports, music, or any other activity I wanted to do. I hated my life in Korea.

One subject I liked at my school was English.

Although I wasn’t really good at speaking English, I liked learning English. My dream ever since I was young was to travel around the world, and I knew that I had to speak English in order to do so. My “journey” away from home started when I was 10 years old. It was summer vacation after third grade.

One day, my friend Chris told me that his aunt lived in Auckland, a city in New Zealand, and asked me if I wanted to come and spend the summer there with him and John, who was my friend since kindergarten. The three of us were infamous among teachers back in Korea, the three biggest troublemakers in school. I really wanted to go somewhere where my potential talent might be recognized. I wanted something new, and I thought that it’d be really cool to speak another language. My parents gladly consented to let me go there for a month.

No one realized at the time that this trip was going

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to be the turning point of my life.

So, the three of us were off to Auckland, and we were clueless about the place. We just thought that it was going to be fun getting away from our parents.

If you asked me to point on the map where New Zealand was, I probably wouldn’t have been able to tell you where it was. I had no idea where New Zealand was, or what language they spoke. When I first got here, I found out that New Zealanders had quite a different accent of English. They greeted each other with “oi” instead of “hey.” To this day, I still remember the first day of school in New Zealand. As I said, I wasn’t the best student in my English class, and unfortunately didn’t know what homework meant. My teacher said, “Your homework for tomorrow is to finish the exercise you’ve been working on.” I was delighted that I understood three English words: Home, walk, and finish. So, I walked back home, and proudly walked into the classroom the day after. My teacher asked me where my homework was, and I said “I walked home,” and everyone in the classroom burst out laughing.

I loved New Zealand, and we asked our parents if we could stay for another year or so. Everything looked perfect until three months later. Chris and John told me that they decided to move to other host families to follow their own interests. I begged them to stay, but Chris went to live with a professional golf teacher, and John moved to his piano teacher’s house. I decided to stay, because my host was an English teacher, and I liked getting to know about New Zealand and learning English. But after they left, I felt all alone. I was homesick and lost in a country I’ve never been in before, losing both of my only friends there.

So, I decided to study English and try my best to make new friends there. My host generously gave me English lessons. I started reaching out to Kiwis, which is a term referring to white people in New Zealand. Getting over the language barrier didn’t come naturally, and I struggled to fit in. Although it took two years to fully convert my Kiwi accent to an

American one, I became more fluent in English, and this made me want to go study abroad in the future.

I graduated elementary school in New Zealand and came back to Korea for middle school.

I wasn’t very excited to go back to Korea because I knew I couldn’t satisfy my interest in English. I went back to my routine, which was a boring cycle of school, academy and sleep. Towards the end of the summer vacation of my seventh grade, my mom asked me if I wanted to go to the United States to study abroad. I was so excited when my mom said that, because I was suffocating from the cutthroat environment in the Korean education system, and because I was able to pursue what I wanted: to study English.

Well, I didn’t quite expect that I’d end up at a military school in Texas. It was August so none of the junior boarding schools were accepting applications at that time, and I was only able to apply to that one school. I packed everything in three days and left for Texas. I became a part of the Junior ROTC program and on the first day, I found myself, at 6 a.m., waking up hurriedly to a trumpet fanfare that blasted out of the speaker in the ceiling. I had to be fully dressed in military uniform and lined up outside the dormitory by 6:30 in time for the morning march. In the first few days, I deeply regretted my decision. At least I didn’t have to roll on the ground, run two miles every day, and march around while playing my instrument for the halftime shows back in Korea. Maybe I wouldn’t be complaining if our football team recognized the marching band’s efforts. The marching band was scoffed at because our football team only managed to score one touchdown in the whole season. I remember our homecoming game when the marching band marched into the half-time show with our team losing 54-0 to Texas School for the Deaf.

The life at military school wasn’t exactly what I wanted. Everyone was so unfriendly and it seemed as if no one cared about academics. I researched other boarding schools when I was in seventh grade, and found SG. As soon as I saw the pictures and the

list of courses offered here, SG became my dream school. I still remember when I got the acceptance letter in March, staring at the letter in disbelief. Not only was I ecstatic to escape the military school, but I was happy to join a much more welcoming and warm community here at SG. When I first got here, I was surprised by everyone’s friendliness. In the military school, I saw kids fighting nearly every other day. Here, I haven’t seen a real fight during my four years here. It took almost no time to become friends with my Diman floormates—Graham, Chris, Carl, Hayden and Patrick. I’ll remember the 10 p.m. Russell fights, snow fights in front of the quad, shouting “Hot Carl” whenever Carl walked by, countless morning proctored study halls I’ve been to, and the beach hangouts in the spring. It seems as if our third-form picnic in front of the Twenty House was just yesterday, but time flew by, now we’re seniors with 13 days until graduation. My experience here at SG was exactly what I dreamed of ever since I was young. I am glad that I followed my interest to study English.

It had been six years since I last saw them when I got back in touch with Chris and John. Chris became a professional golfer in the Korean PGA, and John currently attends Curtis Institute, which is a very prestigious music school. A lesson I picked up while I was away from home is that you should really follow what you want to do, and I still think that I couldn’t have made a better choice by choosing to study English and by choosing to come to SG. Thank you, seniors, for making my time here so precious and priceless. I hope I’ll be better at keeping in touch, but I’m already looking forward to our fifth-year reunion. I can’t wait to find out which one of us will be the next Steve Jobs, the next Lady Gaga, or even, the next Obama. Thank you very much.

Tae Kyung “Tony” Kim heads to Dartmouth College this fall. He can be reached at Tae.Kyung.Kim@Dartmouth.edu

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Heeding the call Life was comfortable back in Connecticut— but this risk taker wasn’t ready to settle

PHOTO BY

KATHRYN WHITNEY LUCEY

BY ELIZABETH BAYNE ’10

Following is a chapel talk delivered on May 11, 2010

Elizabeth Bayne ’10 celebrates earning her diploma on Prize Day.

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I

sometimes compare myself to Greek deities. I wish I could divulge that I relate most strongly to the wise and powerful Athena or the beautiful Aphrodite, but no. I identify with a considerably less glamorous or exciting god. I am like Hermes:

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the jack-of-all-trades.

Why? you ask.

There is one fundamental philosophy that I apply to everything I do, that’s why. I take risks. Do things I think I can’t. Do things I think I shouldn’t. Do things I think may very well be impossible. I always ask myself: Well, why not?

Now back to Hermes. I relate to him because he is, as Homer once described him, polytropos, or one of many forms. He is a messenger, an aid to athletes, and a bringer of dreams, among other things. As a result of a risk that I took a few years ago, I, like Hermes, have had the opportunity to play different roles that I never would have thought of. Because of the chances I have taken throughout my life and especially during my time here at St. George’s, I have developed interests in things that I thought I wouldn’t have —in a sense, very much like Hermes.

Four years ago, I never imagined that I would become the person who stands before you today. I

would have laughed in your face if you had told me that I would become the excited, academically enthusiastic and confident individual you’re listening to. I would have never believed you if you had told me that I had elected to attend St. George’s of my own free will and leave my comfortable life in Connecticut behind. I had my longtime friends, my family, oh yeah, and my career (and obsession) as a statecertified emergency medical technician.

Yup, those were the days. I lived with a beeper on my belt and a smile on my face. I was part of a nationally recognized organization known as Post 53 that is run completely by high school students with a few adult supervisors. The Posties, as they are known, comprise the only source of emergency medical assistance in my town, and they are serious about it. I felt like I had become a part of something bigger than myself—and it felt right.

The first position one could earn as a Postie was working the radio room at night—a tiny cube filled with an overwhelming amount of radio communication devices.

And I got to be in charge of all of it. I got to talk over the radio, chat with the police, and order the food. Then I progressed to managing all of the equipment on the ambulance during calls; and once I began to take a 170-hour EMT class at my local hospital during the summer before my first year at St. George’s, I became an assistant EMT. Then—the glory of it all!—came the position of the EMT itself. If you were the EMT on duty, you were in charge of the entire crew. You called the shots. That’s one way to learn.

I was passionate about my participation in Post 53; it was important to me. In fact, I vividly remember the times I explained to my parents why it was OK that I didn’t do my homework or care about school anymore because I was saving lives. Wasn’t that more important?

I applied to St. George’s mainly to humor my father who had a great experience here some 30 years ago. So by the time second-visit weekend rolled around, I was anything but excited at the prospect of abandoning my incredibly busy and meaningful life at home. I won’t go into the details, but let’s just say my bedroom door may have suffered substantial damage in the process of dragging me out to the car. On the ride up I was sullen, sulky, and seriously mad at my parents for breaking my door.

Seeing the Hilltop as a prospective student gave me something to struggle with during the upcoming weeks in which I had to mail a decision back to the school. I caught a

glimpse of the academic potential I could harness as a student here. Of course my mind wasn’t completely changed. I was steadily climbing my way up the ranks at Post 53 and, even as a freshman, had aspirations of running for an officer position my senior year. I had made incredible friendships and memories during my brief stint as a Postie.

Why would I want to lose that?

I took a risk.

I sent in the card.

I said: Why not?

It had a domino effect. I didn’t consciously realize it then, but by taking what seemed like the ultimate risk to me—leaving my lifelong friends and passion behind—I gave myself a greater opportunity to try out more things in the future.

I was not a sailor but I sailed on Geronimo because— why not? I had never held a stick before but tried out for lacrosse last spring because—why not? I picked up a guitar this winter because—why not? Four years ago, I didn’t think I could have done any of these things during my high school career because, very simply, I never suspected I would end up at a place like St. George’s, a place that values the process of learning as much as the outcome.

The best part about taking risks is that the experience leads to development of a sense of self, regardless of whether I feel as if I’ve succeeded or not. I’ve learned about new things I love, like music, and things I am, perhaps, not so keen on. But I would have never had known if I hadn’t tried.

So I encourage you, fellow classmates, as we head off to college this fall, to take a risk. Try out for the play next year.

Sign up for a class that you think will be a challenge. Make friends with someone who seems like your complete opposite. The odds are that you will end up learning something valuable about yourself in the process.

The next thing I’m trying out? I decided to enroll at all-female Smith College in Northampton, Mass., for the next four years. Tell me that’s not risky.

Although Hermes may not have the reputation for being the most highly regarded god on Mount Olympus, I must speculate: He certainly must know who he is.

E li za be th B ayne ’10 of Darien, Conn., is the daughter of David Bayne ’79. She may be reached at EFBayne8@aol.com.

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R AY WOISHEK ’89

C

Shock value A medical emergency puts life into perspective

BY CARL NIGHTINGALE ’10 Following is a chapel talk delivered on March 30, 2010

T

he room began to spin as I stumbled through the door to the bathroom. My eyes were tearing, my hands shaking. I was sweating profusely and my heart was pounding. I got down on my knees in front of the toilet and began thinking, please just let me be sick and it will all be over with, but my stomach wouldn’t cooperate. Instead, I could feel something in the back of my throat beginning to close. I quickly realized that it wasn’t going to happen: I wasn’t going to be

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able to just get sick and make it all stop. At that moment, as I knelt there on the bathroom floor of Expeditors International, fragile and week, it dawned on me what was happening. The severity of the situation became so real: I was quickly coming closer and closer to death with each passing breath.

Earlier that day, my dad picked me up at noon and we drove down the street to a deli that had been recommended by one of my coworkers. I was in the first week of a two-week internship at Expeditors International, and was greatly looking forward to my hour lunch break

with my dad. As I walked up to the counter to place my order, I made one of the worst mistakes of my life. Maybe it was the boredom of having sat in the office all day, or maybe it was fate, but one way or the other I was not careful enough in placing my order. Now for those of you who have gone out to dinner with me before, you know the drill: I have to make sure that none of the food I get has any dairy products in it. This is because of the food allergies that I have had since my birth. My allergies defined my childhood. I was always the one with special snacks at school, or the boy who would get sent home from school early about once or twice a year because he had gotten sick due to eating something with dairy in it.

This was how it worked, and it was something I had grown accustomed to dealing with over the past 16 years.

However, on this day, I ordered a steak sub, without the cheese of course, but was not careful enough to make sure that there wasn’t any butter on it, or milk in the bread.

After taking one bite, I knew that it was contaminated, and that my body would reject the food. The next mistake that I made was not telling my father immediately what was wrong. Looking back on that moment now, I can’t really explain why I didn’t tell him. Maybe it was the fact that I didn’t want to disrupt his work day, or possibly it was because I didn’t think it would be a problem. I would simply return to work, go to the bathroom, get sick a couple of times and return to my desk … no big deal. I had played a baseball game a mere hour after having a reaction before. Why couldn’t I sit at a desk and sort papers? The only problem was that this wasn’t a normal reaction. No, this was something much worse. By the time I got to the bathroom after having been dropped off at work by my dad, I knew deep down that something was wrong—terribly, terribly wrong.

After about two minutes of waiting, I began to realize that things were getting far worse, rather than getting better. My mouth was beginning to feel swollen, and I was short of breath. It was at this point that I reached into my pocket and called my mom, who was home at the time. Our conversation went something like this.

“Mom, I’m having an allergic reaction, I need you to get Benadryl and come here to help me.”

“Carl, are you OK?” “No, I don’t think I am, and can you grab my EpiPen too?”

“Yes, yes, I will be there as fast as I can.”

“Thanks. Please hurry.”

Within a minute of hanging up the phone with my mom, I felt a vibration in my hand. I looked down and saw that my dad was calling me. I hit answer, and began the call that saved my life.

“Carl, are you OK? Mom just called me.”

Fighting back tears, I replied, “No dad, I am not.”

“OK, Carl. I am coming over there, but do you need me to call an ambulance?”

“I don’t know dad.”

“Are you having trouble breathing?”

“Yes, I am.”

“OK, I am calling 911. Hang in there.”

“OK, hurry Dad. This is really scary.”

For those of you who don’t know, an EpiPen is an auto injector that is filled with a dose of epinephrine. Epinephrine is basically a medicine that stops swelling, and opens up your throat during an allergic reaction. In essence, it buys you about 20 minutes of breathing time during a severe anaphylactic reaction. I had been prescribed an EpiPen since I was a baby, but had never had to use one, because my reactions were never life threatening. So, because of this fact, my EpiPen was sitting in my bathroom at home, rather than at work with me.

The next few minutes are a bit of a blur, but I did manage to drag myself out to the couch in the waiting room lobby. It was on this couch where I was forced to wait, sitting there as my throat continued to close, and my life began to tick away.

There came a moment during those 10 minutes in which my mind began to realize what was happening. I became convinced that this was it—that I was going to die there sitting on the couch, at the age of 16. There is no worse feeling than what came upon me at that moment, however the strange thing was that it wasn’t the thought of death that was so painful, it was the thought that I was going to lose so much of what I cared about. I was only a teenager, and I had so much left to do in my life. I had so much left to accomplish and yet it was all slipping away in that instant. My family, my friends, my education, and my life were all evaporating with every last feeble breath that I took. As I sat there gasping for air,

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Different takes C

H A P E L

T A L K S

I realized that it wasn’t right; it wasn’t OK. I wasn’t supposed to die like this. And yet it was all so real; all these feelings that I had were so vivid. This wasn’t a movie where you watch as someone dies. This was reality, and my life was ending.

I can’t remember how long these thoughts persisted in my head, but what happened next is something that I will never forget, as long as I live. I looked up and out the window to see a silver car come flying up the driveway and into the parking lot. It was my dad’s car, and when I saw him come running through the front door, I began to cry. The only thing I could think to say was “Dad, I am sorry.” I was sorry for letting them down, for being on the verge of leaving them behind, for not being nicer to them, for not being a better son, a better brother, or a better friend.

However, it was also at this moment that I knew I had to fight. I had to fight, not for myself, but for them, for my parents, my brothers, my friends, and everyone I loved. I can’t explain how it happened, but I know that when I saw my dad, something deep down inside of me said no. No I’m not going to die, no I’m not going to leave my family behind because I can’t. Because it is not right, I am not ready to die yet.

So as my father sat there next to me, something inside my body held me alive. I don’t know if it was love or biology that saved me that day. But I do know that I have never been more grateful than when I woke up, hours later in the hospital, to find my entire family standing around me. There was my dad, my mom, Chris and Matt, all huddled around my bed, all there for me.

Moments after my dad arrived, the police, fire truck, and ambulance all arrived. They were standing over me, and asking my dad questions. Then they were lifting me up, strapping me to a stretcher and placing an oxygen mask over my head. Then there was the IV that contained the epinephrine, and the bumpy ride to the hospital. That ride, and the next hour, were all a blur. The doctor later told me that this blur, the sense of vision loss and the haziness were all due to the lack of oxygen that had been flowing to my brain. One thing I do remember was that the EMT kept saying, “Now just relax. Don’t start panicking until you see us start panicking.” But I knew it was OK. I wasn’t panicking any more. I had

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stopped panicking the moment my dad had arrived.

Now, you are probably all wondering what exactly this experience has to do with all of you and St. George’s. Well, that’s what I am here to talk about today. To tell you what happened to me after that day.

Though it has taken a while, I have come to learn some very valuable lessons from that experience. First off, I now understand that life is no certain thing. We can’t always control how it goes, or when it comes and goes, but we can control how we live it and that is what is most important.

Today, we live in a world where there is so much pressure to be one way or the other. There is a set standard for how to “live your life” that people try to abide by, and it doesn’t always work out for the best. What I have learned since that day is that the best possible way to live your life is just to be yourself. Don’t try to be anything but what you want to be. So many people in the world and even on this campus change their personalities to fit what is “socially acceptable” or considered the “norm.” It is this attempt to try to be something that I wasn’t that made me so sorry when my father walked through the door. I knew that I hadn’t been nice to my parents. I knew that we had fought about stupid things, that I had been self-centered and downright selfish in the past.

Though there have been bumps along the way, since that day I have tried my best to lead a new life, a different and better life. I have tried to be nice to people, and to return the kindness that has been bestowed upon me. And most importantly, I have tried to think about others as well as myself. So, as I leave here today, there is one message that I want to give to you all: Be yourselves, and treat others with respect.

We live in a community where it is almost considered normal to pick on kids, or to bully even our own friends. But listen to me when I say that this attitude needs to change—because believe me, when your day comes, you don’t want to be left with nothing to say but “I’m sorry.”

Ca rl Nig hti nga le ’10 of Marblehead, Mass., heads to Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., this fall. He can be reached at carl.w.nightingale@vanderbilt.edu.

SG Zone T H L E T I C

D E P A R T M E N T

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PHOTO COURTESY OF FLICKR

A

One to watch: Dan Perry ’13 St. George’s hasn’t had a pole-vaulter this talented since the 1970s—and he’s only a freshman Reported by journalism student Patrick Park ’10 Freshman Da n Pe rr y broke the long-standing school record in the pole-vault with a spectacular 13-foot jump at the ISL championships at Thayer Academy on May 8. The previous record, 12-feet-6inches, had been set by then sixth-former Hunt Block ’71 in his senior year.

Perry, a native of Keller, Texas, continued his winning ways the next week. He was the New England pole-vaulting champion with an 11-foot-6-inch jump on May 15.

Perry started pole-vaulting when he was in seventh grade. “I had a [pole-vaulting] coach at school, and he was asking people if they wanted to try pole-vaulting so I wanted to try and I just started going to the practices and that’s how it all started,” Perry recalls.

That middle school coach, Hal Theodore, a gym teacher at Keller Middle School, established a pole-

vaulting club, which Perry joined to learn all the proper techniques.

Perry fell in love with pole-vaulting from the very beginning. “It’s just a really fun sport,” he says. “Just going up in the air—and the best part is falling back down to the mat after clearing the bar.”

Pierre Yoo, the head coach for the St. George’s track and field team who watched Perry compete in the ISL, says Perry has “nerves of steel” and is able to control his emotions very well.

“He doesn’t get too excited; he doesn’t get too down about anything. He’s a pretty even kid,” says Yoo, regarding Perry’s ability to remain calm, even in the bigger track meets.

Furthermore, Warren Williams, the pole-vaulting coach at SG, says that Perry possesses all the athletic qualities that a vaulter should have. “He’s got speed, and without speed you’re not going to get a decent height. He’s got strength, upper body strength, but also

In the spring, Daniel Perry ’13, of Keller, Texas, broke a school pole-vaulting record set back in 1971.

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SG Zone A

T H L E T I C

Left: Hillary Wein ’11 competes in track & field.

N E W S

just control of his body, which might sound silly but some people might have great speed and strength but just can’t put it all together. Dan happens to have all those naturally, which allows him to do very well,” says Williams.

Perry’s success has also had a positive impact on Hillary Wein, the team’s strongest female pole-vaulter.

“We kind of joke around and call him Coach Dan sometimes because he knows what he’s doing,” says Wein, “It’s great to have him at meets because now if we want to move our hands up on the pole trying to clear different heights, he tells us how far away we have to move back from the runway.”

Perry’s impressive debut as a star pole-vaulter also gave a boost to the entire track and field team. “It’s definitely really positive for the team ’cause when the team sees their own teammates winning and when they have a star athlete, it boosts the morale,” says Wein. “I mean when you have someone that exciting in your program, it’s definitely motivation for everyone.”

GIRL S TR ACK TEAM W INS NEW ENGLANDS The girls’ track team took first place out of 20 teams at the New England Private Schools Track Asso-

ciation (NEPSTA) Division III Track and Field Championship Meet May 15 at the Hyde School in Woodstock, Conn. With every member of the team contributing to the scoring, the day was filled with bright spots, according to coach Pierre Yoo. “One of the most memorable events of the meet was when sophomore Die rra Joy (D .J.) Wi lso n threw the discus 106feet-2-inches shattering the St. George’s school record of 98-feet-11-inches set in 1992 and the New England Meet record of 104-feet-3-inches set in 1999,” Yoo said.

“One round later, her good friend and throwing partner, E si wa ho mi ( E si) Oz eme bh oya bettered the record with a heave of 106-feet-9-inches.”

Co-captain K i nye tt e H e n de r so n ’10 came in fourth in the 4x100 meter relay and co-captain Hi l la r y Wei n ’11 ended the meet fourth in the 4x400 relay, second in the pole vault, sixth in the 300-meter hurdles, and fifth in the 400 meter with a personal best of 65.00 seconds.

M A S ’ 10 E A R N S A L L- A M E R I C A N HONO RS FOR L ACRO SSE Midfielder Syd ney Ma s ’10 was awarded the highly prized First Team All-American status by the U.S. Lacrosse Association in June. Mas, who heads to

PHOTOS BY

R AY WOISHEK ’89

Right: Sydney Mas ’10 is our latest All-American in lacrosse.

D E P A R T M E N T

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R AY WOISHEK ’89 PHOTO BY

ANDREA HANSEN

demanding conditions, was no exception,” noted coach Ro y Wi lli am s. The top three teams were from California, followed by teams from the Midwest and MidAtlantic. SG finished 13th and was the second New England school, behind Darien High School, which placed 10th. On an historical note, Williams added, “this was the 80th sailing of the Mallory regatta and the very first Mallory was also sailed at Indian Harbor YC. Two of the schools that attended the original regatta were there to compete in this year’s 80th event —St. George’s and Hotchkiss.”

PHOTO BY

the University of Vermont this fall, was one of just two players from Rhode Island schools to earn the honor.

According to the Association, a U.S. Lacrosse AllAmerican is a player who exhibits superior skills and techniques as well as possesses exceptional game sense and knowledge of the game of lacrosse. Guidelines are stringent regarding both skill and sportsmanship.

St. George’s Varsity Lacrosse Coach Lucy Hamilton says Mas, a Bedford, N.Y., resident who joined the varsity squad her freshman year, committed early on to becoming a strong lacrosse player. “She was determined to excel,” Hamilton said. “The I.S.L. (Independent School League) is a highly competitive league and Sydney held her own with some of the best players in New England.”

Hamilton said that although Mas started out on defense, she quickly became a force to be reckoned with on the goal-scoring side as well. “And you can’t tell if she’s right-handed or left-handed. She’s as strong from both sides and she has a variety of shots.”

Hamilton predicts a positive year for Mas at UVM. “Sydney is highly competitive and there she’ll be surrounded by other players who have the same drive,” she said.

Also receiving honors from the U.S. Lacrosse Association were Ju lia Ca rre lla s ’11 and L au re n O ’Ha l lo ran ’10, both of whom earned Academic AllAmerican status.

Academic All-Americans must exhibit exemplary lacrosse skills and excellent sportsmanship on the field while also representing high standards of academic achievement in the classroom.

PHOTO BY

The varsity sailing team took 13th place May 8 and 9 in the Mallory Trophy, the National Fleet Racing Championships, hosted by Indian Harbor Yacht Club in Greenwich, Conn. Competing for SG were P ea r so n Po tt s ’12, Eva n R ea d ’12, Su zy Reyno l ds ’10, Will O sle r ’10, Kyle Pow er s ’11, Al ex Wil ste rma n ’11, Gra ha m An de rso n ’11 and Juli a O a k ’10.

“Traditionally this is an event dominated by the districts that specialize in fleet racing, rather than team racing, and this year’s event, sailed in extraordinarily

R AY WOISHEK ’89

SAILING TEAM PERFORMS W E L L AT N AT I O N A L S

Clockwise from top left: Varsity tennis standout Leiter Colburn ’11; varsity baseball’s Jordan St. Jean ’11; and Matt Martyak ’10 on the attack in varsity lacrosse.

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SG Zone A

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SPRING ATHLETES MAKE THEIR MARK 2 010 S T . G E O R G E ’ S S P R I N G AT H L E T I C AWA R D S BASEBALL

BOYS TRACK

Twitchell Baseball Cup (M.V.P.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ben Lewis Reynolds Baseball Cup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kelly Bullock R.B.I. Cup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Teddy Swift All-ISL, first team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jake Dunn All-ISL, honorable mention . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ben Lewis, Eric Lowry

Holmes Track Trophy (M.V.P.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chris Chew Track Coaches’ Cup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aaron Brown Track M.I.P. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Daniel Perry All-ISL, first team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Daniel Perry, Chris Chew All-ISL, honorable mention . . . . . . . Garrett Sider, Jaleel Wheeler All-New England . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Daniel Perry All-County . . . . . . . . . . Daniel Perry, Jaleel Wheeler, Drew Boyd, Jason Park, Patrick Park, Patrick McGinnis, Justin Jaikissoon

BOYS LACROSSE Alessi Lacrosse Bowl (M.V.P.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Findlay Bowditch Herter (Coaches’) Cup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Matt Martyak Hollins-Sheehan Lacrosse Cup (M.I.P.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chris Ellis All-ISL, first team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Niall Devaney All-ISL, honorable mention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Matt Martyak

GIRLS LACROSSE Lacrosse M.V.P. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sydney Mas Lacrosse Coaches’ Cup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Charlotte Deavers Lacrosse M.I.P. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Maddie Lucas ISL Team Sportsmanship Award . . . . . . . . . . . St. George’s School All-ISL, first team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sydney Mas All-ISL, honorable mention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anna Carr NEPSWLA All-Stars . . . . . . . . . . Mary Klimasewiski, Sydney Mas ELNE National Tournament Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Julia Carrellas

SAILING Wood Sailing Bowl (M.V.P.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kevin Martland Leslie Sailing Bowl (Best Crew) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Julia Oak Coaches’ Cup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Will Osler Sailing M.I.P. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Suzy Reynolds

GIRLS TRACK Hubert C. Hersey Track Award (M.V.P.) . . . . . . . . . . . Laura Lowry Track Coaches’ Cup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Esi Ozemebhoya Track M.I.P. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D.J. Wilson All-New England . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Esi Ozemebhoya All-ISL, honorable mention . . . . . . . . . . Laura Lowry, D.J. Wilson All-County . . . . . . . . . . . . . D.J. Wilson, Hillary Wein, Kelly Miller, Mary O’Connor, Emma Scanlon. Sharnell Robinson

LETTER AWARDS 8-Letter Awards . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lindsey Brooks, Graham Knisley, Caroline O’Connor, Suzy Reynolds, Taylor McElhinny, Charlotte Deavers 9-Letter Awards . . . . . . Teddy Swift, Matt Martyak, Laura Lowry, Garrett Sider, John Karol 10-Letter Awards . . . Kevin Martland, Hannah Coffin, Jesse Pacheco 11-Letter Awards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ashley Winslow, Sydney Mas 12-Letter Award . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Courtney Jones

SOFTBALL Softball M.V.P. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hannah Coffin Holly Williams (Coaches’) Cup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jesse Pacheco Softball M.I.P. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ashley Winslow All-ISL, first team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hannah Coffin All-ISL, honorable mention . . . . . . Katie Rodriguez, Taylor Risley

BOYS TENNIS SUZANNE MCGRADY

York Tennis Bowl (M.V.P.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Emil Henry Trotter (Coach’s Cup) Bowl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Stathi Kyriakides Tennis M.I.P. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sam Livingston

Tennis M.V.P. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Carrie Uhlein Tennis Coaches’ Cup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Courtney Jones Tennis M.I.P. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Victoria Leonard All-ISL, first team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Carrie Uhlein, Leiter Colburn All-ISL, honorable mention . . . Courtney Jones, Hannah Greenwood

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PHOTO BY

GIRLS TENNIS

Olympic track stars Lauryn Williams (left) and Wallace Spearmon (right) stopped by St. George’s during a photography shoot for Saucony in the spring. Our own track stars Kinyette Henderson ’10 and Sharnell Robinson ’11 got the chance to meet them.

School Year 2010-11 ASSES

START

S E P T. 13

AND

WE’LL

WELCOME

Josiah Adams

Elizabeth Collins

Quang Hong

Boxford, MA

S o m e r s e t , VA

Hanoi, Vietnam

Scott Allen

Juan De La Guardia

Ziye Hu

Te n a f l y, N J

Panama, Rep. of Panama

Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

Samuel Alofsin

THESE

NEW

STUDENTS

DIANNE REED

CL

Katelyn Hutchinson

Bedford, NY

P o t t s t o w n , PA

Aaron Anane

Elizabeth Desrosiers

Andrew Issa

Middletown, RI

R a s Ta n u r a , S a u d i A r a b i a

Ian Dickey

Kayla Jeffrey

S. Hamilton, MA

Demgrara, Guyana

Roger Dorr

Keisha Jeffrey

Sands Point, NY

Demgrara, Guyana

Annabella Doyle

Kayla Kaull

Tu c ke r s To w n , B e r m u d a

Marblehead, MA

Andrew Duff

Amirah Keaton

Orange Park, FL

Newark, NJ

Charlotte Dulay

Mary Keith

Bronx, NY

Ossining, NY

Hayley Durudogan

Margaret Kilvert

Por tsmouth, RI

Concord, MA

Virginia Moylan

James Ferretti

John Kim Concord, MA

Rosemary Mulholland

Harrison Boehm

L o n g Va l l e y, N J

Nor well, MA

Genevieve Flynn

Thomas Kits van Heyningen

Noah Buffum

P o r t C h e s t e r, N Y

Newpor t, RI

Sophie Nagle

We s t e r l y, R I

Allison Fuller

John Lathrop

Providence, RI

We s t e r l y, R I

Camille Nivero

Alexander Gates

Matthew Lau-Hansen

Wa l p o l e , M A

Greenwich, CT

Elodie Germain

Xingyan Li

Kigali, Rwanda

Shanghai, China

Alec Goodrich

Samuel Loomis

Essex, CT

N e w Yo r k , N Y

Elizabeth Grace

Hannah Macaulay

O y s t e r B a y, N Y

Carbondale, CO

Hikari Hasegawa

Peyton MacNaught

M i n a t o - K u To k y o , J a p a n

D u x b u r y, M A

Elizabeth Herne

Margaret Maloy

Phongpol Punyagupta

Middletown, RI

Hopkinton, NH

B a n g ko k , T h a i l a n d

Kowloon 852, China

Anderson Hershey

Samantha Maltais

Callie Randall

Bronxville, NY US

Edgar town, MA

L o c u s t Va l l e y, N Y

Woo Won Chun

Austin Heye

Nicholas Mandor

Emma Reed

Belmont, MA

Boca Raton, FL

Por tsmouth, RI

Barrington, RI

Cameron Cluff

Sage Hill

Miles Matule

Brooke Reis

Robert Woodard

Middletown, RI

Oneida, WI

Boston, MA

Jamestown, RI

Aquinnah, MA

Manning Coe

Norah Hogan

Duncan McGaan

Samuel Rickabaugh

Jieun Yoon

Greenwich, CT

Nor thbridge, MA

Chicago, IL

Boston, MA

Seoul, Korea

Hillsborough, NJ

Timothy Archer Jamestown, RI

Siri Arends Ta ’ x b i e x , M a l t a

George Barnes Andalusia, AL

Katherine Bauer Cambridge, MA

Jonathan Bayne Darien, CT

Alexandra Blakelock Needham, MA

Camilla Cabot Dedham, MA

Lucas Campbell Providence, RI

Eliot Caple Naples, FL

Margaret Cardwell Austin, TX

Peter Carrellas Middletown, RI

Edward Carter A l e x a n d r i a , VA

Yu Yao Cheng

Seoul, Korea

PHOTO BY

John DeLuca

Newpor t, RI

Alexandra Medeiros

Mikhail Rogers

Little Compton, RI

Middletown, RI

Jorge Melendez

Virginia Ross

Cranston, RI

Francesco Mennillo Milan, Italy

Carly Mey Middletown, RI

Andrew Michaelis Katonah, NY

N e w Yo r k , N Y

Aubrey Salmon Z u m i ko n , S w i t z e r l a n d

Lily Sanford Redding, CT

Margaret Schroeder Greenwich, CT

Saunderstown, RI

Ian Schylling Essex, MA

S u d b u r y, M A

Seung Hyouk Shin Seoul, Korea

W h i t e H a l l , VA

William Silverstein Dartmouth, MA

N e w Yo r k , N Y

William Simpson

Margaret O’Connor

Middletown, RI

Middletown, RI

Andrea Suarez

Charlotte O’Halloran

Bronx, NY

Middletown, RI

Kate Pesa

Natalie Sullivan Middletown, RI

Darien, CT

Hannah Todd Tyler Pesek

Austin, TX

We s t o n , M A

Grace Polk

Julian Turner Milton, MA

Marblehead, MA

John Vigorita Amagansett, NY

Brendan Vischer Concord, MA

Emily Walsh

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River run

BY ERIC F. PETERSON

Following is an excerpt from remarks made by the Head of School Eric Peterson on Prize Day, May 31, 2010.

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o the members of the Class of 2010, we offer our heartfelt congratulations. You are without question an extraordinary class, and you have led the school through a sometimes-tumultuous year with grace and courage. You are artists and athletes, scholars and activists. You have studied, competed and served the school and our community with great enthusiasm and great success. You should be very proud. We

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will certainly miss all of you next year, but we know that you will enliven your new collegiate communities with the same energy and character, intelligence and humor that you’ve shown in your time at St. George’s. In the meantime, however, we have you as our own for a few minutes more, and I ask your indulgence in one last opportunity to offer you some perspective.

In my class last Friday, while discussing the final book of the semester, our conversation turned briefly to the nature of time, and what the famed physicist Stephen Hawking calls “the time stream.” As I’ve been thinking

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about the years that the class of 2010 has spent here, and the time we’ve shared as a community, this image of rivers and especially the river of time kept recurring in my mind. It was the ancient Greco-Roman philosopher Heraclitus, who famously remarked, “No man can enter the same river twice.” In his own way, Heraclitus reminds us that time and our lives flow past remarkably quickly. This is certainly true for each of you, but I imagine even more so for your friends and families. But even though your time here is nearly gone, and our travels together on the river are nearly over, I suspect that the princi-

pal reason I’ve been thinking about rivers and time is the memory of how an encounter with a river nearly stopped time for me.

As some of you know, I went to boarding school in Western Massachusetts, where spring arrives a little earlier, and a lot warmer than on the Hilltop. On one particular May afternoon, just days before graduation, it was over 90 degrees, with a near summer sun blazing in the sky. Having just finished practice, a couple of classmates and I came to the conclusion that the hot weather all but required a quick, cooling swim in the river that flowed just west of our fields. The river was well known to us, and was a popular spot for after-practice swims, but we generally only swam there in the fall, when both the weather and the water were warm. At this particular time of year, the river had receded from its spring flood stage, and though it was still running high, the glassy sheet of wide, green water sliding through the forest was too tempting to resist.

As three of us approached the river, one of our company backed away, pleading fatigue. We agreed that we’d meet him just downriver, around a small bend where we’d hung a rope swing in the fall. My other friend and I picked our way through the roots and tangles of the shallows to our usual swimming spot. I remember noticing in an entirely casual way how much wider the river seemed. That is, I saw it, but didn’t take an extra moment to consider the implications of the observation. After a glance back at my teammate, who was trailing me by a few yards, I blurted out, “See you at the swing,” and I jumped in. It was nearly the last thing I ever did.

As I hit the water at the edge of the main channel, I had several immediate and alarming flashes of insight. The first was that while the day was warm, the deeper water was still running ice-cold with spring runoff. I am a strong swimmer, but the cold water took my

breath away, and immediately started sapping my strength. Furthermore, I was shocked at how fast the current was moving. From the shore it had looked almost lazy, but the instant I plunged in, I was swept rapidly downriver. In fact, I only had time to yell “Stay out…” to my friend before the river spun me around, and drew me out even deeper. Finally, to my horror, I realized what I’d not noticed before: running higher than normal in its post-flood stage, the river was not flowing under the branches of the trees along its banks. Instead, it was running through the trees, which meant the water was essentially full of branches, some freshly broken from the spring flood. In order to make it to shore, I would have to somehow avoid being speared or snagged by an underwater obstacle.

By the fact that I am standing here, you know how the story turned out, but it was a terribly close call. Twisting myself around so that I could see some of the branches before they hit me, I worked gradually to my right.

All the while, I could feel the weight of the river pressing and pulling on me, and I had a sudden vision of its living strength and its hunger to move. At the same time, I felt clearly my own determination to live, to avoid being swallowed by the river. We were in a contest, the river and I. Eventually, after what felt like days, I made it to shore, well below the rope swing, with a collection of bleeding gouges and a chunk of wood stabbed into the back of my forearm. As I literally crawled up the bank, panting and heaving, my friends ran over and one, with an epic mastery of the obvious, blurted out, “Man, that was really stupid. You almost died…” If I could have, I would have punched him.

But the truth is, he was right. What I had done was incredibly, inexplicably stupid. I had fundamentally failed to do what I’d been taught to do, what each of you has been taught to do: I failed to think. I just assumed

that since the day was hot, a swim would feel good. I never took even a second to consider any of the larger factors—the high river, the cold water, a fast current, or God help me, the tangle of branches. Instead, I gave in to impulse, to the literal heat of the moment, and it nearly killed me. In the years since I crawled out of the river, I’ve often thought about this episode and what I learned from my first (but not last) brush with mortality.

With that experience in mind, I offer you the following observations: First, as my professor of criminal law taught on the very first day of law school: “Luck counts.” I was incredibly lucky that day. Had a single thing gone differently, had I cramped, or tired, or been snagged by a branch, I would not have made it to shore.

So clearly, fortune smiled on me in that moment of danger. At the same time, had I exercised a little forethought, I would have minimized the role luck needed to play. This is where your training at St. George’s can benefit you. The mark of an educated mind is in the ability to analyze a situation, a person, a deal, a problem, in a thoughtful, critical way. Had I done this, had I used even a modicum of critical thinking, I’d have never gone into the river. As you approach the nearly lawless frontiers of college life and even those somewhat more regulated lands beyond, I ask only that you recall some of the lessons learned at St. George’s, and that you apply a measure of critical thought to the sometimes dangerous opportunities that await you. Understand that as graduates of this school, you’re already the beneficiaries of some significant degree of good fortune. Please don’t count on that luck always holding. Instead, rely on your own judgment and use the critical thinking skills you’ve been taught here.

Second, I hope you will recognize what I did not when I entered the river. The real dangers in most situations are those that lie

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hidden, sometimes just below the surface.

Situations, opportunities and decisions are almost always more complicated than they seem. In my case, this was literally true, with the cold and the current and the most dangerous branches being invisible to me until it was nearly too late. For each of you however, the same will be true in a more general sense someday. If you are able to recognize in advance that peril can lie hidden even in an otherwise appealing opportunity, you will at least be able to examine the situation carefully and critically before making a decision.

Once you’ve made that decision, once you’ve weighed the costs and benefits of a course of action, proceed with confidence and your best efforts. This too is something I hope you’ve learned at St. George’s. We’ve pushed you in many ways, demanding that you make choices, and occasionally disallowing the ones you’ve made, but doing so always with a purpose. Our goals for you, like your parents’, lie far beyond this Hilltop, out in the great wide world. When you get there, to

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avoid the danger, use the skills you’ve learned. The legendary basketball coach John Wooden once told his players near the end of a tight game, “Be quick, but don’t hurry.” In like fashion, as you seek to avoid the hidden dangers of the world, I urge you to be careful, but not afraid. Careful thought will most likely bring you to a point of critical understanding, but allowing fear, even the ever-present fear of unseen risks, to control you will ultimately cripple you, not serve you.

Finally, as my buddy’s obvious and belated commentary suggested, understand that everyone is a critic. No matter how successful your efforts or how well informed or thoughtful your choices are, someone will still criticize them. When this is done in advance of an effort, you can score it as a kind of cynicism or a preemptive, defensive pessimism. When the criticism comes after the fact, as it did in my case (despite my friend’s clear intention to participate in the swim), it wears the no less irritating but ever

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more commonplace skin of the habitual critic. Perhaps it’s just a defense mechanism on the part of the critic, but it is to these sorts of people that Alexander Pope in his “Essay on Criticism” directs the barb that “A little learning is a dangerous thing …” And even though Pope was talking more about literary and artistic criticism, the point still holds. Things will go wrong, and you’ll be second-guessed. At some point, your best efforts and most thoughtful choices will fail to pan out. So what? Press on and ignore the chatter of the critics. In the end the critic builds nothing, and lives ultimately in a parasitic fashion, feeding on the work of others. So, rather than falling into the critic trap either as an observer or a participant, take the initiative, take action and then take ownership of the outcome. Trust your own judgment and politely ignore those who tell you something can’t be done, or those who claim after the fact that they knew it wouldn’t work. Press on in pursuit of your dream. No one can ask more.

Looking back, I confess that I am quite pleased that I can never return to that moment in the river. Nevertheless, I am still reminded as I look at you today that the river of time moves for all of us, that we cannot exit it and return, and that its current will soon sweep your class away from here, into the wide sea of the world. Those of us who have traveled with you this short distance will miss you, but you should know that you move downstream with our best efforts on your behalf. So, Class of 2010, we wish you good luck, fair winds and Godspeed. May the Lord watch over, protect and bless you in the years ahead. May you recall fondly your days at St. George’s, and may you always remember that we are proud to count you as our own.

Eri c F. Pe ter so n has been the head of school at St. George’s since 2004. He can be reached at Eric_Peterson@stgeorges.edu

KATHRYN WHITNEY LUCEY PHOTOS BY

Sophie Flynn ’11 was the winner of the Harvard-Radcliffe Prize.

Joe Mack ’12 was the recipient of the 2010 Allen Prize.

Senior Prefect-elect Hillary Wein ’11 accepts the keys to the school from Senior Prefect Stephanie Johnson ’10.

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The Prizes G

R A D U A T I O N

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PRIZES AWA RD E D M AY 31, 2 010

C HINESE P RIZE : — Awarded to a student who has demonstrated consistently high performance in the study of Mandarin Chinese and shown a genuine interest in the Chinese language and culture while at St. George’s: M a r y K at h e r i n e B e h a n

ship in the Sixth Form:

H e n d r i k Ke at i n g Ki t s v a n H e y n i n g e n

D RURY P RIZE — For excellence in art: C a s e y C h r i s t i n e Ha n s e l

K ING M EDAL AND M C C AGG P RIZE — For consistently outstanding performance in Latin.

K ING M EDAL : Ma r ia C r is t in a Ar gui m ba u G e be le in KATHRYN WHITNEY LUCEY

B INNEY P RIZE — For the highest scholar-

M C C AGG P RIZE :

H OWE P RIZE — For excellence in graphic arts:

Ma ria Cri stin a A rgu imb au Ge be le in

O k s an a N a g o r n u k a

L OGAN P RIZE

FOR

E NGLISH :

C AMER A P RIZE :

T HE R EAR A DMIR AL J OHN R EMEY W ADLEIGH M EMORIAL P RIZE —

Fa n B u

PHOTO BY

He n d r i k Ke a t i n g K i t s v a n H e y n i n g e n

Awarded to a student whose enthusiasm for and interest in history and marine studies are worthy of special recognition:

Hendrik Keating Kits van Heyningen ’10

Ka t h e r i n e B r a n i n O ’ B r i e n

M ARY E USTIS Z ANE C UP — Awarded to

Ta na po n g Jia ra tha n ak ul

T HE R AMSING P RIZE — Excellence in Marine and Environmental Biology:

T HE S T . G EORGE ’ S I NSTRUMENTAL M USIC P RIZE – Awarded to the student

a girl of the Sixth Form whose steady devotion to the high ideals of good sportsmanship has been an inspiration to her fellow students:

O k s an a N a g o r n u k a

J e s s e n i a P ac h e c o

E DGAR P RIZE

T HAYER C UP — Awarded to a boy of the Sixth Form whose steady devotion to the high ideals of good sportsmanship has been an inspiration to his fellow students:

T HE C L ASS

OF

1978 M USIC P RIZE —

Awarded to the student who through personal effort has inspired the musical life of the school:

whose talents, dedication and leadership have contributed the most to the instrumental program of the school:

E l i z a b e t h F or b e s B ay n e H e n d r i k Ke at i n g Ki t s v a n H e y n i n g e n

C HOIR P RIZE : B a r b ar a B e n s on M u r r ay

W OOD D R AMATICS P RIZE — For the student whose abilities and efforts have contributed most to the theater at St. George’s:

La r a Ail is Mc Le o d

D ARTMOUTH C LUB H ISTORY P RIZE :

M ATHEMATICS :

D EAN S CHOL ARSHIP — In memory of Charles Maitland Dean, Senior Prefect 1968, killed in Laos in 1974. Given by his family and friends, and awarded for the Sixth Form year to a boy or girl who has demonstrated a concern for the community, the ability to lead and a sense of civic responsibility (Presented by trustee, Bill Dean ’73, P’06):

OF

R HODE I SL AND

E VANS S PANISH P RIZE : E l i z a b e t h F or b e s B ay n e

M at t h e w T h o m a s M a r t y a k

L OUISE E LLIOT C UP — Awarded to a Sixth form girl for excellence in athletics and for promoting the spirit of hard, clean play: C o u r t n e y B o l l i n g J o n es

L’Ore a l Mc Ke nn a L amp ley

G EORGE D. D ONNELLY A THLETIC A WARD — Awarded to a girl and boy who,

G a r r e t t M a x we l l S i d e r

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IN

Fa n Bu

in the opinion of the Headmaster and the Athletic Directors, possess a passion for athletics and who demonstrate the dedication and the sportsmanship to succeed in a variety of athletic endeavors:

A s h l e y - A n n e H a m i l t o n W i n s l ow Th e o d o r e P h el p s S w i f t

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S AMUEL P OWEL C UP — Awarded to a Sixth Form boy for excellence in athletics and for promoting the spirit of hard, clean play: G a r r e t t M ax w e l l S i d e r

H EADMASTER ’ S A WARD — To the Senior Prefect for his or her faithful devotion to the many duties of the past year:

S t e p h a n i e P a m el a J o h n s o n

PHOTO BY L EN

RUBENSTEIN

KATHRYN WHITNEY LUCEY PHOTO BY

A LLEN P RIZE — To a member of the Fourth Form who during the year, in the opinion of the faculty, has maintained a high standard in all departments of the life of the school:

J o s e p h M a t r on e M a c k

H ARVARD AND R ADCLIFFE C LUBS OF R HODE I SL AND P RIZE — For the student of the Fifth Form whom the Headmaster and the faculty deem most worthy in scholarship, effort and character:

S o p h i e C ar o l F l y n n

T HE J EFFERYS P RIZE — Given in memory of Cham Jefferys to the Sixth Former who in the opinion of the faculty has done the most to enhance the moral and intellectual climate of the school: H e n d r i k Ke a t i n g K i t s v a n H e y n i n g e n

P HELPS M ONTGOMERY F RISSELL P RIZE — Awarded to the member of the Sixth Form who, in the opinion of the faculty, has made the best use of his or her talents:

J u l i a El i z a b e t h Pi n k h a m O a k

C ENTENNIAL P RIZE — Inaugurated during the school’s centennial year. Awarded to a boy and girl of the graduating class who have demonstrated extraordinary and inspirational efforts on behalf of the school community: K i n y et t a H en d e r s o n C h r i s t o p h e r R y a n El l i s

S T . G EORGE ’ S M EDAL — Awarded to the member of the Sixth Form who, in the opinion of the faculty, through effort, character, athletics and scholarship during the year has best caught and expressed the ideals and spirit of St. George’s: C o u r t n ey B o l l i n g J o n e s

H IGH D ISTINCTION : H e n d r i k K ea t i n g K i t s v a n H ey n i n g en F an (L or e t t a ) B u M ar y B e h a n O k s a n a N a g o r n u ka N a p o n J a t u s r i p i t ak Ta na po ng Ji ar at ha na ku l S o p hie D o m a ns k i Yo o Jeo ng ( Ch rist y) L ee

H EAD ’ S C OMMENDATION A C ADEMIC E XCELLENCE

FOR

(Second Semester 2009 – 2010)

M a r y K a t h e r i n e B e h an Fa n ( Lo re tt a) B u S o p h i e M ar t h a D o m a n s k i Ta na p on g Jia ra tha n ak ul H e n d r i k Ke at i n g Ki t s v a n H e y n i n g e n

C UM L AUDE S OCIET Y

D ISTINCTION :

Inducted September 2009:

C o u r t n e y J on e s G r a h am K n i s l e y Gra c e O we ns-Sti ve ly L au r e n O ’ H a l l or a n J u l i a O ak K a t h er i n e S h e k L el a Wu lsi n L ar a M c L e o d B a r b a r a M u r r ay J e s s e n i a P a ch e c o P av i n e e P r an e e p r ac h a c h o n W i l l i am R i i s k a M ar ia Ge be le in C a s e y H a ns e l E r i c J e r n i g an C l a i r e Ku d e n h o l d t L au r a L ow r y G a r r e tt S ide r A l e x an d r a B a r r o ws K a t h l ee n F i t z g e r a l d S a m u e l L i v i n g s t on

Fa n ( Lo re tt a) B u Ta na p on g Jia ra tha n ak ul Ta e Kyun g ( To ny) K i m H e n d r i k Ke at i n g Ki t s v a n H e y n i n g e n Yoo Je on g ( Chri sty) Le e Inducted May 31, 2010:

M a r y K a t h e r i n e B e h an S o p h i e M ar t h a D o m a n s k i N ap on J at u s r i p i t a k Ok sa na Na go rn uk a

KATHRYN WHITNEY LUCEY

(The next prizes are awarded by vote of the faculty)

All dressed up with a great place to go: Sixth-form girls pose on Sixth-Form Porch before the Senior Dinner Dance following Baccalaureate on May 27.

PHOTO BY

Fan (Loretta) Bu ’10

Seniors Patrick Park and Oksana Nagornuka.

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Global outreach O M M U N I T Y

M E M B E R S

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A

W O R L D

V I E W

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PIERRE YOO

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The TCIS Exchange: A science teacher of Korean ancestry embarks on a professional development experience that mingles work and family

BY PIERRE YOO Science teacher Pierre Yoo (middle) makes a stop at his father’s old school while on an exchange program in Korea last spring.

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W

hen I sent my application for the TCIS exchange in Korea, I knew a trip to Korea could provide a much-needed respite from the busy school schedule, some time to reunite with family members I have not seen since 2001 and

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most importantly, a refreshing breath of professional development. Little did I know what I would learn during this two-week trip.

Since my time was short, I set some goals for the trip. One goal was to become a more effective science teacher by learning from the teaching faculty at TCIS. Another goal was to become a more effective dorm

PIERRE YOO PHOTO BY COURTESY OF

parent by observing how other schools run the residential life program because at TCIS, they have a separate residential life faculty who may coach but who do not teach. Other goals were to visit Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology with the faculty at TCIS; to meet St. George’s students and families; and to enjoy this learning opportunity. Here are some of the many lessons I learned.

La ngu ag e. Armed with a phrase book and vocabulary in my iPod, I was a bit apprehensive that my elementary-school-level Korean was good enough to communicate. Although retrieving vocabulary was a recurring problem for me during the trip, as time progressed I found that practicing the language did wonders to my confidence. At times, however, I did need to be a bit tautological because I could not find the correct words. I could now powerfully sense what a student felt in foreign land.

Fa mily. When I arrived in the incredible Inchon Airport, I was met by my cousin and her husband. It was the first time meeting my cousin’s husband, who is Iranian and speaks fluent Korean. It was wonderful to meet my hyung for the first time and great to see the rest of my father’s family. The following day, my cousins, uncle and aunt went to visit the family gravesite to pay respects, as is the custom.

TCI S. When I arrived in Daejeon, I was impressed with the Christian hospitality of the faculty and staff at TCIS. I also think they were extra nice to me because I knew Joe and Jennifer Gould who visited TCIS in 2007.

Although the campus is more concentrated than our own and their population is more homogeneous with mostly Korean students, I felt at home from the start due to their incredible hospitality. I was especially impressed with the members of the school’s science department because of their passion for teaching science. I was immediately reminded of my own science colleagues at St. George’s and was very glad to see the same passion. A personal highlight of mine was that I took one academic day to visit every science instructors’ class. It was wonderful to be an observer and to see classes and learn tips on how to improve my own teaching. I also had an opportunity to attend a school assembly where after an announcement that there was a personal computer missing, I heard the announce-

ment from the Assistant Principal McAllister that all the computers that have gone missing have always been returned—even one taken by a member of a team from another school. He believed this one would be returned also. Amazingly, I heard the following day that the computer was returned to its owner.

I also had an opportunity to visit dormitories with some being off the campus grounds. Although the present campus (with a move to new location imminent) is adjacent to a college, I was intrigued with the security measures taken and the constant communication via cell phones to constantly track students’ whereabouts right after the class day is complete.

KA IST. The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) is one of the most pre-eminent science and technology universities and has the goal of being one of the best in world ranking in certain areas under the leadership of Dr. Nam Pyo Suh. I had the incredible opportunity to visit KAIST University for three days with differing science faculty each day from TCIS. We started by meeting three male and two female students who told us that they enjoyed the school but felt the pressure to perform at a high level because the education is only free of tuition if the students maintain a 3.0 grade point average or above.

We also had the opportunity to see science in action: the On-Line Electric Vehicle, a humanoid robot, and a model for the Mobile Harbor Project. We also toured the incredible facilities, met admission officers, the directors of departments and incredible professors who exuded their love for science. I would like to thank Dr. Won and Dr. Lee for making this visit possible.

St. Ge o rge ’s Co nne c tio n s. During my first weekend, I took the bullet train to Busan. I have always wanted to visit the second largest city in South Korea and see where my own father grew up. I went on an incredible tour of the city with Chri sty Le e’s (’10) father to see my father’s middle and high school, the site of my grandfather’s bank, and the neighborhood Continued on page 42

Teacher Pierre Yoo has dinner with Tony Kim ’10, William Kim ’12, Yonghan Park ’12 and Andy Kim ’13.

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Global outreach O M M U N I T Y

M E M B E R S

G E T

A

W O R L D

PHOTO BY COURTESY OF

PIERRE YOO

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Continued from page 41

where my father used to live. Although I was in the area for less than 24 hours, I am extremely grateful to him for showing me a piece of my father’s history.

At the end of the trip, I was able to see a former advisee, Seung Kang ’07. Again the Korean hospitality was on display as his parents picked me up and drove me to see him while he serves in his required military service and takes a leave of absence from Johns Hopkins. He spoke very fondly about his experience at St. George’s School and how it prepared him well. It was a great way to end a two-week stay in Korea by reflecting on my past six years on the Hilltop and seeing our former students take on different roles in their lives.

I would like to thank the Global Studies Program, Tony Jaccaci, Joe and Jennifer Gould, and Eric Peterson for making this trip possible.

Pierre Yoo meets with Hyun Seung Kang ’07, a former advisee now doing his military service in Korea before returning to Johns Hopkins.

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Pie rre Yo o is a chemistry teacher at St. George’s, a track coach, a Wheeler Dormitory parent and a leader in many community service efforts. During his trip to Taejon Christian Academy in Daejon, South Korea, in March, he created a blog, which is available at http://y2kten.blogspot.com.

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V I E W

Students in Assembly heard firsthand about the struggles of young Afghan women to obtain a good education when an Afghan college student and the founder of the School of Leadership (SOLA) in Afghanistan, Ted Achilles, visited St. George’s on March 1.

Shugufa Basij-Rasikhs told students that violence continues against schoolchildren in Afghanistan, particularly at all-girls schools, even after the Taliban left power nine years ago.

When the Taliban was in power, from 1996 to 2001, she said, females were prohibited from attending school or even leaving their homes alone. She and her sisters were sent to study at secret schools in private homes, one of the girls dressed as a boy to escort the others.

Achilles, who formerly ran the Afghanistan division of American Councils for International Education, recruiting students to attend American high schools as part of the State Department-funded Youth Exchange and Study program, founded SOLA in 2008. The Kabul facility offers classes in English and math and helps students prepare for admission tests to selective colleges and universities.

SG alumna Ri an Smit h ’78, a teacher living in Wakefield, R.I., is the U.S. liaison to SOLA and arranged the SOLA visit.

The goal of SOLA is “to prepare the very best Afghan students for study in the United States and abroad so that they can return home and be the future leaders of Afghanistan.”

Basij-Rasikhs, now 27, graduated last fall with degrees in public health and sociology from Simmons College in Boston. At press time she was hoping to attend Tufts graduate school of Public Health in Boston to earn a master’s degree by 2012.

The four-year-old Global Studies Seminar this year heads to Senegal.

The seminar-style class for St. George’s seniors was created by outgoing Director of Global Studies Tony Ja cc a ci and has given students their first opportunity for an international travel component outside the classroom in the school’s history.

This year the course will be taught by history teacher Jere my Go ld ste in.

PHOTO COURTESY OF WWW. BRITANNICA . COM

Students will spend the first half of the year “studying the underpinnings of the global, political and economic systems that guide global connections, as well as the social and philosophical components of international relations.” In the second half of the year, students will use the tools and skills they’ve learned to focus on Senegal and will begin a research project to include field work in Senegal.

Course reading will include “Taking Sides: Clashing Views on African Issues” by William Moseley, “Understanding Culture: An Introduction to Anthropological Theory,” by Philip Salzman, “Comparative Politics: A Global Introduction” by Michael J. Sodaro, “Globalization and its Discontents” by Joseph Stiglitz, and “The Lonely African” by Colin Turnbull.

A view from the waterfront of Dakar, the capital of Senegal, where the Global Studies class will visit next March.

PHOTO BY COURTESY OF TONY J ACCACI

GLOBAL STUDIES CL ASS VISITS POL AND Students in the Global Studies class, along with faculty members Jen Tuleja and Jeremy Goldstein, this year embarked on a nine-day trip to Poland, where they visited historic sites, met high school students in Gdynia and gathered information for individual research projects.

Research topics included “Access to Health Care in Poland,” “How Poland Can Transition into a Market Economy,” “The Rise of Prostitution in Eastern Europe” and “The Effect of Religion on Youth Development.” Jul ia O a k ’10, whose research led her to investigate different housing policies in the country, said her research allowed her to meet a number of different people whom she’ll remember, including the owner of a hair salon who lived through the Communist era to later find success as an entrepreneur.

The trip was the third such trip since Director of Global Studies To ny Jac c a ci designed the program in 2007. Students the first year traveled to Uganda, and last year visited Panama.

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Rachel Sellstone ’11, Graham Cochrane ’11 and H aley Congdon ’11 work in the lab during Holly Williams’ DNA class. This spring the class once again returned to Cambridge, Mass., to see the techniques they are learning in class being used by professional scientists and on a larger scale.

The group went to the research lab of Dr. Wook Kim, a post-doctoral student at Harvard’s Center for Systems Biology, and then to the Bauer Lab where DNA is sequenced, copied and analyzed. As a side trip, the group stopped at Harvard’s Museum of Natural History.

PHOTOS BY

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Left: Chinese 4 Honors class with Jamie Harrington ’12, Martin Ventoso ’11, teacher Mike Wang, Bettina Redway ’10 and Tucker Harrington ’12 Right: Nico DeLuca-Verley ’13 in a Visual Foundations class.

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Above: Algebra 2 Honors Mathematics teacher Warren Williams with Theresa Salud ’13 and Dan Perry ’13 (background).

Left: Art teacher Kathryn Lemay and Colby Burdick ’13.

Right: Robotics class with Joe Mack ’12, Will Greer ’12, Jack Bartholet ’12, teacher Ed McGinnis and Olivia Gebelein ’11.

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Campus happenings

Sam Smith, special assistant to the vice president for enrollment management and marketing at Stonehill College in Easton, Mass., offers fifth formers some perspective during a “mock admission” program organized by the College Counseling Office.

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The College Counseling Office once again staged its Fitch College Mock Admission Program on Thursday, May 13. The program allows rising seniors access to a number of college admission professionals to talk about how admission decisions are made and how best students can profile their own strengths and accomplishments. This year’s special guests were: Mary French, associate director of admission at Boston College; Patrick McNally, associate director of admission at Boston University; Meaghan McCarthy, director of visitor relations and on-campus programming at Columbia University; Parker Beverage, dean of admission and financial aid at Colby College; Lindsay Slattum, associate director of admission at Fairfield University; Jim Richardson, associate director of admission at College of the Holy Cross; Chris Lydon, associate vice president of admission and enrollment at Providence College; Laura Oliveira, vice president for enrollment at Salve Regina University; Sam Smith,

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special assistant to the vice president for enrollment management and marketing at Stonehill College; Amy Cembor, associate director of admission at Wheaton College; and Jarrett Warshaw, assistant director of admissions at Bucknell University.

The Science Department, under the leadership of Department Chair and biology teacher Ho ll y Wi ll ia ms continued to offer its series of “Brown Bag Lunches” throughout the second semester. The discussions offered presentations by various experts in the sciences and helped students gain another venue in which to talk about the health and well being of the planet.

History and Global Studies teacher Jer emy Gol dste in was the speaker for the series on April 15. His topic was forensic archaeology. In the late 1990s, Goldstein worked for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers directing excavations to recover the remains of personnel missing since the Vietnam War.

Chemistry teacher Ja me s Ste ve ns presented a talk entitled, “From Proposition to Publication: My Experiences as an Undergraduate Researcher,” during another of the department’s Brown Bag Lunches on March 4.

Stevens, who earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Vermont, did a number of research projects and internships to investigate an early interest in going to medical school. After his freshman year at UVM, he worked at the office of the Suffolk County Medical Examiner in Hauppauge, N.Y., as a mortuary intern.

The St. George’s English Department welcomed teacher and poet Jeffrey Harrison to campus on April 16 and 17.

Harrison, the author of four full-length books of poetry, has received fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as two Pushcart Prizes, the Amy Lowell Traveling Poetry Scholarship, and the Lavan Younger Poets Award from the Academy of American Poets. His poems have appeared in The New Republic, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Poetry, The Yale Review, Poets of the New Century, and in many other magazines and anthologies. He has taught at several universities and schools, including George Washington University, Phillips Academy, College of the Holy Cross, the University of Southern Maine and Framingham State University.

Harrison met with SG English classes in workshop sessions in the Main Common Room over two days, reading and discussing his own poems as well as those of other poets whose work influenced his writing.

He offered a number of writing tips to students as well as some explanations about his own craft.

On the writing process, he promoted revision, though not too much. “I save all my drafts,” he said.

“They’re in a box in my attic.”

But be careful, he advised. “Sometimes you over-revise a poem, and it becomes too planned out, almost wooden.”

He also likes to play with syntax, he said. “There are so many things you can do with that and the way lines continue across stanzas.”

Even punctuation “can have a certain effect on the

poem,” he said, and he often holds off revealing the main subject of his sentences to add suspense.

“Once you get there, the main clause has more impact.”

On subject matter, Harrison said he often uses scenes from real life as the basis of his poetry. “I find I usually don’t want to make up too much,” he said.

He read one of his own poems to students called, “Fork,” which can be found at http://home.comcast.net/~jeffrey.harrison/poems.htm.

“Just enjoy the poem. It’s supposed to be funny,” Harrison said. “It’s about a bad creative writing teacher.”

Harrison said the story stemmed from a real incident told to him by a friend. “But I put a lot of things together and embellished a lot.”

At the end of one of the sessions with St. George’s students, Harrison talked about his own career and the successes and challenges he’s faced.

When his brother died eight years ago, he said, he faced one of the most difficult periods he’s had as a writer.

“It was really awful,” he said. For two years, he wrote exclusively about the experience. But when he wrote a poem called “The Names of Things,” he said he

Poet Jeffrey Harrison meets with English classes in the Main Common Room.

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Campus happenings felt relieved. “Just to know that I could write something that wasn’t about my brother.”

After reading the poem, he defined the role of the poet.

“In the end,” he said. “The poets are just trying to create something beautiful with words.”

The annual end-of-the-year yard sale, organized by Alumni/ae Office Assistant To ni Ci any, this year raised $6,137.53 for Camp Ramleh. Mostly stocked by donations of clothing, furniture, athletic equipment and supplies from students, the June sale also benefits a number of local charities, including the Rogers High School Athletic Department, Norman Bird Sanctuary, Lucy’s Hearth, the Women’s Resource Center, the Martin Luther King Jr. Center, the Potter Animal Shelter, McKinney Shelter/Fifty Washington Square, Resources Recycling for R.I. Education, Vet Tech, Soles 4 Souls, Child and Family Services of Newport County, the James L. Maher Center and the Big Sisters Association.

St. George’s took part in its 52nd blood drive in April, and remains one of the premier school donor sites for the state, according to organizer We ndy Dr ysda le, assistant director of athletics and certified athletic

trainer. St. George’s community members have donated more than 2,500 pints of blood since the school began contributing to the R.I. Blood Center’s life-saving initiatives in 1983. On April 12, 25-year-old Eric French, a Providence singer-songwriter diagnosed with leukemia at age 13, came to Assembly to personally thank students for their efforts.

Amity Shlaes, a syndicated columnist for Bloomberg and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, was the guest speaker for a special community lecture about the economy on April 19.

At the time of her speech, the national unemployment rate was hovering close to 10 percent, and Shlaes said she had recently Amity Shlaes focused her work on learning about today’s economic situation through looking at the Depression.

Her book, “The Forgotten Man,” examines the political choices of Franklin Roosevelt in a single election year, 1936, and Shlaes’ view that today’s politicians are left with FDR’s legacy: A public that on the one

The athletic fields got an extra dose of SG pride when a new, larger flag was raised on the flagpole in North Field on St. George’s Day April 23, 2010.

The flag, donated by Tia a nd P et er B ul la rd ’73, P’03, ’06 and created by Brewer Banner Designs of New Bedford, Mass., is 20 feet high by 30 feet wide and weighs about 60 pounds.

“Those poor little souls from Middlesex will now know they’re going to be greeted by a whole lot of attitude when they visit the Hilltop,” Bullard said.

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Singer-songwriter Donna Williams led students on “A Musical Journey Through Civil Rights” in the Main Common Room on March 1.

Students participated by singing and clapping during the jam session, a lively presentation about the civil rights and other historical movements throughout the world.

The event was organized by Director of Diversity Dr. Ki m Bu llo c k.

R AY WOISHEK ’89 PHOTO BY

hand, “has enormous faith in the private sector; and on the other, expects government to provide them with ever more generous entitlements.”

“I’m going to offer you a framework for the political decisions that made the [economic] recovery choose to stay away in the 1930s,” Shlaes told students.

As the Depression was taking hold, according to Shlaes, Roosevelt got “buy in” for his policies from the middle and lower classes who believed Wall Street bankers were acting unfairly and there were “too many top hats lording it all around.”

“He handed out a fairer game,” she said, by establishing the modern mortgage format, working with big labor and making taxes necessary to fund big government programs.

But she called 1935-1940 “a forgotten period,” “a depression within a depression.”

“Because the economy was always recovering, but never recovered.”

FDR publicized his policies as “The Good News.”

“But when I went to research this book I found a very different story,” Shlaes said.

“The New Deal created a new forgotten man, the man who subsidizes the funding of other constituencies—and who haunts politics in all developed nations today.”

She told students they are today’s “forgotten” people.

Shlaes’ uniquely conservative perspective on the economy prompted a number of questions from the audience.

Shlaes, also a contributor to public radio show Marketplace, was formerly a columnist for the Financial Times and, before that a member of the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, specializing in economics.

The St. George’s College Fair, a required event for fifth formers, took place on April 23 in the Field House. This year 94 colleges were represented.

Fifth Form Parents Weekend 2010, organized by the College Counseling Office, took place Feb. 12 and 13. The weekend—intended to educate parents of fifth formers about the college application process—featured a panel of SG seniors E l i z a G h r i s ke y ’10, C a r l Ni g h t i n g a l e ’10, J u l i a O a k ’10, E s m e Yo z e l l ’10 and a recent grad S o Yo o n J u n ’09 who attends reflecting on their experiences; an admission officer panel with Ted O’Neill, former dean of admission at the University of Chicago on “Keeping the College Search in Perspective,” Bonnie Marcus, senior associate director of admission at Bard College, on “Conducting a College Search,” and Matt Malatesta, dean of admission and financial aid at Union College, on “How Selective Colleges Make Decisions.”

Other topics included “The Role of the Counselor”

by Bu rke Ro ge r s ’81, SG’s director of college counseling; and “Advice for Parents from Parents” by B e tts and Wis ne r Murr ay, P’07, ’10.

Music instructor Tony du Bourg conducts the Brass Ensemble at Baccalaureate in May.

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Note from home A grandmother’s letter helps a young sailor find comfort away from the familiar

BY BRITTANY CORSO ’11 Note: Bri tt a ny C or so was a member of the Winter 2010 Geronimo crew, along with Lo re tt a B u ’10, Sh ea l ag h Co ug hli n ’10, O xy Na go rnu ka ’10, K a tie Ha rri s ’11, Li nds ey Ma cNa ug ht ’11, R a ndy R eyno ld s ’11 and Ta ylo r Ri sley ’11. The professional crew included Captain Mi ke Daw so n, First Mate Kel ly Po o le and Second Mate Stua r t S idd on s.

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On Geronimo: Katie Harris ’11, Brittany Corso ’11, First Mate Kelly Poole and (in background) Second Mate Stuart Siddons.

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s the sun continued to descend behind the horizon after my first day aboard the vessel, the words “What am I doing here?” kept replaying and ringing over and over again in my head like a scratched CD-ROM. Upon my first steps aboard the boat I was already faced with what seemed to be a horrifying and quite uncomfortable challenge: getting rid of my cell phone and iPod. I was being forced to give up the two elements that seemed to link me with my family, friends and everything I was used to back at home.

As Ms. Poole, our incredibly demanding first mate, forcibly confiscated my two most valuable possessions, I felt helpless and terrified. As she clutched the items

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from my hands and locked them securely in a tight Ziploc bag, my palms began to sweat. Questions of all kinds continued to flow through my head like a neverending stream: How would anyone be able to reach me? What if I needed to talk to my parents? How would I listen to my favorite music when I felt down or needed an escape? If only I was able to hold onto these items thus holding onto my connection with everything I was accustomed to. As I sat on my lumpy, damp bed in the crowded bunkroom, the stench of the head lingering in the air began to circulate. With nothing but my schoolbooks in front of me, I began to cry, but only for a minute: I decided to tear open the letter that I had been anxiously saving and waiting to read until I had arrived on the boat.

Before I left, my grandmother had handwritten a letter to me and instructed me to open it only at a time when I found myself down or homesick. I had packed it away in the small pocket of my backpack and had been saving it for a moment when I felt significantly insecure. I couldn’t have chosen any better moment to open this letter as I sat there feeling helpless and disconnected without my two outlets of communication

and escape that I had been depending so largely on. As my eyes surfed over the perfectly inked words, I could smell my grandmother’s perfume on the monogrammed stationery she had been using since I was about 6 years old. “This is a wonderful and a once-in-alifetime experience. Don’t let the negative things affect you,” read the letter. “And whenever you feel lonely, look up at the sky and know that although we are miles and miles a part, we are still staring up at the same moon and stars.” I could picture my grandmother saying these words with her red lipstick smudged on her lips and her usual paisley scarf wrapped elegantly around her neck. These words gave me a great sense of comfort and reassurance as I dozed off into what I thought would be a peaceful and deep slumber.

“WAKE UP, BRITT! IT’S YOUR TURN TO BE ON WATCH!” Katie screamed into my ear as I lay in my bunk with my eyes fixed on my digital watch. I could feel the freezing wind from the open hatch above blowing onto my face. The glowing numbers on my watch read 12 a.m. and I was going to have to be on watch for the next four hours in order to navigate, take fixes, steer the helm, and make sure that the boat was running smoothly on our voyage across the Gulf Stream. This was my first night watch and as I scurried on deck I began to panic. It was completely pitch black and it was extremely difficult to see things. How was I going to be able to maneuver and avoid collisions with other boats if I couldn’t even see what was in front of me? Once we relieved the other watch, all of whom looked as if they were about to collapse, I sat down in the cockpit and began to think about my grandmother’s letter and the words of wisdom that she had given to me. As I stared up into the sky and gazed at the bright moon shining vibrantly above, I began to feel at ease once again.

Although the night was extremely dim, my eyes continued to adjust and the only thing I had guiding me to decipher between the main halyard and the jib was the glowing beam of the moon that acted as a nightlight and guide until the arrival of the morning sun.

Once we had arrived in the Bahamas, a feeling of great achievement and success overcame me. I had just sailed across the Gulf Stream from the U.S. to the Bahamas. The rays of the vivid sun shone powerfully down on my face as we tied the mainsail in place and made sure that everything was tidy aboard the ship.

Once we had dropped the anchor, we were situated near an island in the Exumas called Staniel Cay. Although I was happy to finally have arrived in the warm and picturesque Bahamas, my homesickness and desire to be connected with my family, friends and the world I had left behind continued to grow. I felt confused and lost. Why was I so homesick? I go to boarding school and I have gone months without seeing my family and loved ones, so why was it so hard for me now? These were the questions that continued to penetrate my brain each time my family came to mind.

Stemming from my homesickness came my dependency on the moon and the sky that continued to grow even greater as the trip went on. One night in Staniel Cay, as we all sat on the beach after a long day of turtling and sailing, I stared up at the sky and began to think of my grandmother’s letter, giving me a sense of comfort when I needed it. The sky had struck a fascination in me, vastly spreading over miles and miles, overflowing with marvel and beauty. As I continued to be absorbed in my thoughts and questions about the sky, Captain Dawson began to inform us about the many

“As my eyes surfed over the perfectly inked words, I could smell my grandmother’s perfume on the monogrammed stationery she had been using since I was about 6 years old.”

stars that we were seeing. He taught us the names of various stars and their altering positions in the sky. Two constellations I found most intriguing were named Castor and Pollux. This beautiful pair represents the Gemini twins, especially interesting since my sign is Gemini. After being informed of the many stars, I continued to look up into my comfort zone. The moon remained in the shape of a crescent while the stars reminded me of strands of shimmering diamonds encased in a black velvet box of wonder.

A couple of weeks later while we were docked on the island of Rum Cay, the days seemed to drag on. We were being docked due to a fierce cold front that was approaching. The sky was filled with clouds and the

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Old friend and former Geronimo Captain Stevie Connett P’86 joined the boat this spring for a bit. Here, he helps Oxy Nagornuka ’10 tag a sea turtle, as Brittany Corso ’11 and First Mate Kelly Poole look on.

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moon and stars were barely distinguishable for two days straight. As the sky continued to be shrouded by clusters of clouds throughout the day and night, my homesickness began to start up again. I hadn’t been feeling it for quite a while, however, without a moon or stars to gaze up at, how was I supposed to feel connected to my family and friends back at home?

I tried to find and seek comfort in the many other aspects of nature besides the moon and sky as we continued to explore the desolate island of Rum Cay. As we all hopped into a broken-down pick-up truck covered in chipped paint to explore our surroundings, memories and recollections of times I had with my family and in my home surroundings began to trickle into my thoughts. The memories of riding bikes with my sister up and down the poorly maintained driveways and back roads in my hometown of Bedford Corners, N.Y., came rushing back to me within seconds. The dirt roads that we were traveling on were anything but smooth and provided an unenjoyable ride. These rocky dirt roads reminded me of the ones that I had grown up with and had become so accustomed to in my everyday travels. With every bump in the road that we hit, another pleasant memory entered my thoughts and provided me with the same comfort that the sky had been giving me for the past couple of weeks. As I stared around the truck at the faces of my crewmates and friends, I realized how lucky I was to be surrounded by such great people and having the opportunity of a lifetime that not many others are afforded during theirs. After continuously riding over bumps, speeding through muddy puddles, and getting whacked in the face with a tree branch, we arrived at a windy, deserted

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beach with not one element of life in sight besides the breathing and roaring of the waves and the anxiously stirring sand. As I slowly made my way across the sand admiring the beauty of the untouched ocean and the solitary trees bordering the cliffs, I noticed a beautiful heron perched on a fragile branch with its wings fully spread. Its wings of plentiful colors meshed creating a beautiful array of feathers along its back. The chirping noises it made reminded me of my bird back at home and reminded me of the natural sounds that could be heard in my house on a daily basis. As the day came to a close and we made our way back to the boat, I scurried to my bed in order to finish my reading of “Siddhartha.”

I had been reading “Siddhartha” for the entire last week of the trip and it seemed to be taking up a good amount of my time. I had been intently immersed in the literature and description of Siddhartha’s struggles with temptation, the ego and his desire to steer clear of all things materialistic. I began to think about Siddhartha’s long and arduous journey towards his goal and how he finally achieved what he had been yearning for. It was at that moment that it became evident to me that if Siddhartha had the strength and stamina to dedicate his entire life to giving up all material objects and temptations in his life, then being without my cell phone and iPod for five weeks should be fairly easy for me. I needed once and for all to let go of my yearning and desire for my electronics and truly be one with my surroundings. After putting down “Siddhartha” and resting it on the table next to my history textbook, I sauntered onto the deck to watch one last sunset with my Geronimo crewmates.

I sat on deck surrounded by the clear, vast ocean and the good company of my friends. At this moment, there was no need for my cell phone or iPod; the waves and the wind crashing against the side of the boat created a perfect symphony of sounds and provided me with a sense of music. At this moment, as the sky came into view once again after being absent for the past couple of days, there was no longer a feeling of homesickness or insecurity lingering inside of me. As I looked out to the horizon I could see beautiful specks of blue, pink, yellow and gold merging together, creating an exquisite Monet of colors.

While staring off into the picturesque sky, I felt the most at ease I had the entire trip.

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And they’re off...

Here’s where our graduates are heading:

Mary Behan ’10, whose adoption story was the subject of a feature article in the 2010 Winter Bulletin, gets a congratulatory hug from her mom, Tish, on Prize Day.

Babson College Barnard College Carnegie Mellon University Chapman University (2) Colby College College of Charleston College of New Jersey College of Wooster Colorado College (3) Concordia University (Canada) Connecticut College (2) Cornell University (3) Dartmouth College

Dickinson College Drew University (4) Embry-Riddle Aeronautical U. Emory University George Washington University (4) Georgetown University Gettysburg College (2) Hamilton College - NY (3) Haverford College Hobart & William Smith Colleges Howard University Lake Forest College Lehigh University (2)

Loyola Marymount University Middlebury College (3) New York University Pratt Institute Providence College Quinnipiac University Rutgers University Salve Regina University Smith College Southern Methodist University (2) St. Lawrence University Syracuse University Trinity College (6) Tufts University (2) University of Delaware University of Miami University of Michigan University of Pennsylvania (3) University of South Carolina University of Southern California University of St. Andrews (Scotland) (2) University of Vermont University of Virginia Vanderbilt University (2) Villanova University Virginia Tech Wake Forest University (2) Washington & Jefferson College Washington and Lee University Wellesley College Wentworth Institute of Technology Williams College Yale University

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Faculty/Staff notes

IN-SERV ICE DAY HAS A GLOBAL FOCUS

Director of Global Programs Tony Jaccaci (top right) looks on as Theater Department Chair Kevin Held makes a presentation for his faculty group— Pierre Yoo, Jen Tuleja, Burke Rogers and Jinny Chang— during a faculty inservice day in March.

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Members of the St. George’s faculty took part in an in-service day March 24, 2010, focused on global affairs titled, “A Complex, Changing World.”

The day began with a short presentation by Anna Mack ’09, who took a gap year after graduation to take part in the Where There be Dragons’ “Life Along the Mekong” program in Southeast Asia.

Mack told the faculty that her semester abroad, as well as the Global Studies Seminar to Panama in her senior year, allowed her “to see the familiar in a new light.” She showed a photo of a bomb casing used as a prayer bell in Southern Laos. “I was able to, when I had a question, to go out in the world and answer it,” said Mack, a Bristol, R.I., native who will attend Middlebury College in the fall.

The keynote speaker for the in-service day was Robert H. (“Skip”) Mattoon, Jr., head of the Hotchkiss School from 1996-2007, who asked teachers to contemplate what a global program should look like and whether the current push for global education was here to stay or just a passing phase.

In the afternoon, teachers discussed a number of topics aimed at increasing students’ knowledge of human cultures and the physical and natural world.

Teachers also were asked to read Thomas Friedman’s March 21 New York Times column, “America’s Real Dream Team.”

The in-service day was organized by Director of Global Studies Tony Jaccaci.

Head of the Spanish Department Ma fa ld a Nul a was deemed the 2010 Rhode Island Foreign Language Teacher of the Year at an awards dinner on May 6 at the

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University of Rhode Island.

Nula was nominated by Miriam Gorriaran, a member of the RIFLA’s Board of Directors who has taught at St. George’s as a sabbatical replacement.

“Mafalda’s election was a well deserved honor after all her years of dedication to her profession, her students and her colleagues,” Gorriaran said.

Nula is the coordinator for the National Spanish Exam for Rhode Island and was president of the Rhode Island Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese from 2004-2008. “She works diligently for her students to learn and be enriched by the Spanish culture,” Gorrian added.

P et er Do rri en Tra is ci assumed the role of executive director of Camp Ramleh this year. The camp’s three-week-long 85th season began Aug. 2. Dorrien Traisci takes over for Lis a Co nw ay, who served as director for nine years and who heads to graduate school in Boston this fall.

On Friday, April 30, English teacher Patricia Lothrop gave a workshop, “Teaching the Fiction of India,” for the Second Annual Conference of the professional association, Educators for Teaching India, at Harvard University. Lothrop’s co-presenter was former SG history teacher Tom Lamont ’79, now at Groton School. A wiki provides online access to the materials used in the presentation. [http://southasiafiction.wikispaces.com/].

Director of Library Services and Archives Je n Tu le ja was a presenter at the NEAISL (New England Association of Independent School Librarians) annual conference on Friday, April 23, at The Hotchkiss School. Her presentation was: “Archives 101 for Private Schools: Starting an Archives.”

Physics teacher Bob Wein delivered a presentation March 3 to the Southeast New England Defense Industry Association about his role as a summer teaching “extern” at Paramount Solutions Inc., in Middletown in 2009. The association is hoping to expand the program for local educators. Wein spoke about the positive impact it had on his students and contributions teachers can make to the program’s corporate sponsors.

LESLIES RE TURN FRO M SABBATIC AL Ste ve and B et sy Les lie returned to the Hilltop from a sabbatical in Montana in July. The two spent the last year living in a one-room schoolhouse, studying the wolf population in Yellowstone, hiking, cross-country skiing and otherwise taking in the natural beauty of the rustic landscape. Steve returns to his position teaching in the science department; Betsy is back in the Admission Office.

It was a milestone year for St. George’s at the U.S. Office of Immigration: Three St. George’s employees became U.S. citizens this spring.

Chinese teacher Zhoulin Wang passed his citizenship test in April, and changed his name to Mi ke Wa ng, after his N.B.A. hero Michael Jordan.

Wang, who lived in Beijing within walking distance of Tiananmen Square, came to the U.S. in 1998, when he left Mike Wang a governmentassigned job as a travel agent to make a new home for his family. Finding a job at St. George’s helped him earn his green card. Wang now has three children—Yutong, Jordan and Lily—with his wife, Shuzhen Li, and has worked at St. George’s for 12 years.

Natalia Tavares, now Na ta li a d o C ou to, gained U.S. citizenship in July. Natalia, who grew up in Sao Miguel in the Azores, has worked at St. George’s for 14 years and is now a development officer in the Alumni/ae Office.

Her husband, Jose, also earned citizenEder Ribeiro and ship this year and Natalia do Couto was awarded his certificate during a celebration at McCoy Stadium, home of the Pawtucket Red Sox, on July 4th weekend.

The two have a soon-to-be-10-year-old son, Antonio.

And finally dining services staff member E de r R ibe iro also became a U.S. citizen on July 13, the same day, surprisingly, as do Couto. Ribeiro was born in Brazil and has worked at St. George’s since May 2006.

SLE EP STUDY A RTICLE P ROMPTS MAJOR PUBLICIT Y A journal article on adolescent sleep cycles coauthored by Assistant Head of School for Academic Affairs Pat Moss and Brown University Associate Professor of Pediatrics Dr. Judith A. Owens P’10, was published in the July edition of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, a monthly professional medical journal published by the American Medical Association. “The Impact of Delaying School Start Time on Adolescent Sleep, Mood, and Behavior” by Dr. Owens, Katherine Belon and Patricia Moss discusses the medical reasons why teenagers may benefit from a later start to the academic day, using St. George’s as a “study school.” SG began an experiment in January 2009 to investigate the potential value to the community of beginning the school day at 8:30 a.m. rather than 8 a.m.

We’ve never turned back. The new start time was overwhelmingly endorsed by both teachers and students in March 2009 and administrators promised to retain the new schedule after Spring Break and into the recent academic year.

The journal article immediately received major national press attention. A medical writer from the Associated Press in Chicago interviewed both Moss and Owens in late June, prompted by advance publicity for the study by the American Medical Association.

The story ran in the Wall Street Journal (“Delaying School Start Time Associated With Improvements In Sleep, Mood/Study,” July 5, 2010), as well as on local television stations.

The Leslies stop for a break during a hike on the Divide Creek Trail in Montana’s Glacier National Park.

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The 2010-11 school prefects will be Martin Ejiaku, Hillary Wein, Graham Anderson, Victoria Leonard and Katie McCormack.

Wein will serve as senior prefect.

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2 0 1 0 - 11 S C H O O L P R E F E C T S ANNOUNCED

H ONOR BOAR D MEM BER S ANNOUNCED

During the traditional clue-laden skit staged by the current school prefects in Madeira Hall April 29, the community learned which fifth formers would serve as the top five school leaders for the 2010-11 school year.

Amid cheers and applause, congratulations went to K at ie Mc Co rma ck, Ma r ti n E jia k u, H ill ar y Wei n, Gra ha m An de rso n and V ic to ria Le o na rd.

The first clue came when the prefects pretended to be in search of a restaurant for something to eat and somehow stumbled upon set of golden arches attached to a sign “McCormacks.” Ejiaku’s clue came in the form of a “martini.” Wein learned she’d won when the five spotted a mysterious chapel on the “Hill”top. As current prefect H end rik K its va n H eyni nge n ’10 played the theme from “Chariots of Fire” and the rest of the prefects pretended to be in a slow-motion race, Ga rre t Si der ’10 announced he was “Victorious!” prompting Leonard to take her place on the stage. Anderson knew he’d won when the prefects started listing the exaggerated number of people they’d invited to Prize Day. “Even my second cousin—and her son,” one said.

After another round of voting it was announced on April 30 that Wein had won the role of Senior Prefect for the 2010-11 year.

St. George’s first-ever Honor Board, comprised of six faculty members and five students who will take on the role of Disciplinary Committee representatives previously held by the prefects, was established through an election this spring.

After schoolwide voting in May, Class of 2011 members Jul ia Ca rrel la s, Mi ke Ca sey, Gra ha m Co c hra ne, Sop hi e Flyn n, and Sa m Pe te r son were elected to the board. Carrellas will serve as chair. Faculty members Wen dy Dr ysda le, Devon D uc ha rme, Kevi n H el d, E d Mc Gin nis, B o b We sto n and R ay Wo ish ek will serve alongside the students.

The board was established in an effort to lighten the load for the prefects, who up until now have carried both the “school spirit” and disciplinary committee roles for the students, often logging hundreds of hours to accomplish both.

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Each year, St. George’s honors its highest-performing students with the naming of the Top 15 Scholars, those who ended the year with the highest grade-point averages. For the academic year ending in June 2010, the Top 15 were (in alphabetical order): V ir gin ia Me rril l Ad am s ’11, M ar y Ka th eri ne Be ha n ’10, Se ba st-

ia n A le xan de r Bi erma n-Lyt le ’11, L ore tt a Bu ’10, E mily De re c kto r ’12, Me gan Ho pe E ve re tt ’12, So ph ie C aro l Fl ynn ’11, Be th any Lyn n Fow le r ’13, Po l ina V ic to rivn a Go dz ’11, Mi c ha el J. K i m ’12, H en dri k Ke a tin g K its va n H eyn ing en ’10, E rin Kel ly Le ist ’12, Jo se ph M at ro ne M ac k ’12, E vel yn Daw n Ma ld o na do ’11 and Ok sa na Na go rn uk a ’10.

Calculus brains unite! St. George’s top math students showed some big-time prowess in the American Mathematics Competition this spring, with Mi ch ae l K im ’12 taking first place in Rhode Island on the 10th-grade-andunder test, and No n t Jia ra nth an a kul ’10 earning second place in Rhode Island on the 12th-grade-and-under test.

Michael Kim ’12 In group competition, St. George’s Math Team—JJia ra nth an a kul, He nd rik Ki ts va n H eyni nge n ’10 and Tuc ker M oo re ’10—scored fifth out of 21 teams in Rhode Island.

Head of the Math Department Do ug L ewi s says the team’s performance was extraordinary—especially considering the group spent virtually no time preparing for the tests.

In fact, two of the students, Jiaranthanakul and Kim, scored so well on their respective tests that they were invited to take the American Invitational Math Exam, which consists of 15 questions in three hours.

Kim scored so well on that test, he was one of only two students in RI (and about 250 nationwide) invited to take the USAJMO (USA Junior Math Olympiad).

Fun, fun: The qualifier was a six-question, two-day, nine-hour essay/proof he took in a conference room April 27-28.

At press time, scores from the USAJMO hadn’t been reported.

We do know that Kim will receive a plaque from the MAA (Mathematics Association of America) in September recognizing his accomplishment as a top scorer in Rhode Island on the 2010 AMC-10.

Ra c h el A sbe l ’11 was awarded Superior (gold) honors in the intermediate level of the Spanish Writ-

ing competition sponsored by the Rhode Island chapter of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish this year.

In all, 17 St. George’s students, competing in two categories—intermediate (level 3) and advanced (levels 4, 5 and 6) received awards in the contest.

Also receiving a Superior award were Em ily De rec k to r ’12, Jo n at ha n Ma io ’11, Eve lyn M al do na do ’11, and Sha rn ell Ro bi nso n ’11.

Emm a Ga r f ie ld ’12, Ma t thew Arc h er ’11, E liz abe th Bayn e ’10, Sa ra h Bu rdi ck ’11 and Jo hn K a ro l ’10 won Excelente (silver) awards; and O li via Gebe le in ’11, Cha rlo tt e E dso n ’10, B ra ndo n Go rdo n ’11, Ave r y Mc Do na ld ’11, C aro l ine Mil le r ’11, Ma tth ew S ow ley ’10 and B o Wulsi n ’11 won Notable (bronze) awards.

Ra c he l Sun g ’12 was selected to represent St. George’s at the Rhode Island All State Orchestra Concert at Rhode Island College in Providence on March 21, 2010.

Competition was very fierce, with more than 90 student flutists from across the state participating in the audition for just a few spots on the orchestra or band.

Rachel Sung ’12 In recognition of their outstanding academic achievements, Class of 2010 members M a r y K a t h e ri n e B e h a n , S o p hi e M a r t h a D o m a n s k i , N a po n J a t u sr i p i t a k and O k s a n a Na g o r nu k a were inducted into the Cum Laude Society, on May 30, 2010, during the Sunday night Awards Ceremony before Prize Day. Assistant Head of School for Academic Affairs P a t M o s s, the St. George’s chapter secretary, made the presentations. The mission of the Cum Laude Society is to honor scholastic achievement in secondary schools. Each chapter may elect up to 20 percent of the members of the senior class in the college preparatory curriculum who have an honor record.

L o r e t t a B u , Ta n a p o ng ( N o n t ) J i a r a t h a n a k u l, Ta e Kyu n g ( To ny ) K i m, H e n d r i k K e a t i ng K i t s v a n H e y n in g e n and Yo o Je o n g ( C h ri s t y) L e e were inducted into the Cum Laude Society in the fall of 2009 at Convocation.

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Sim on Ha rd t ’11 showed off his world geography acumen April 16 by taking first place in the 2010 St. George’s Geography Bee, organized by Director of Global Studies To ny Jac c ac i. First runner-up was T imo n Wa tk in s ’11 and second runner up was Joh n Sn ow ’12.

Ma r ti n E jia k u ’11, Tysh o n H end er so n ’13, Ja le el Whe e ler ’12, M at thew Sow l ey ’10, B ra nd on Gord o n ’11, Ke lly B ull oc k ’10, V i via nn e Re yno so ’13, Do min iqu e Sa mue l ’13, Li sbe ily M en a ’13, D.J. Wi lso n ’12, Ca rin e K an imb a ’12, La u ren H i lto n ’10, Jo rda n Wa tso n ’10, Joy B ull o ck ’12 attended the annual AISNE Student of Color Conference April 17-

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Students in Mike Hansel’s Advanced Welding class completed a final project this spring that’s now on display just outside East Dormitory. The as-yet-unnamed red sculpture, which was designed by Ben Lewis ’10, was a collaboration among Lewis, Phil Baus ’10, Teddy Swift ’10, Matt Mar tyak ’10, Ashley Winslow ’10, Max Richards ’10, Moritz Petre ’10, Chris Chew ’11 and H enr y Young ’12.

Lewis said he was “thinking about wings when [he] started this project.” Contemplating just how the sculpture would be fabricated, he says he came upon the idea of “having square frames peeking off from one another in two directions to give a spiraling effect to the sculpture.” He says he is pleased with the outcome.

“It’s a mark of what our class was able to accomplish by working together.”

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18 at Beaver Country Day School in Chestnut Hill, Mass.

Nearly 400 students from 30 schools across New England could choose among 27 workshops on topics ranging from “The Power of Language” and “Black Beauty in the Media” to “Social Change: Time to Take Action” and “Youth Organizing: Leadership Today and Tomorrow.” And affinity group discussions were held for African-Americans, Latino/a Americans, Asian-American/Pacific Islanders, white European-Americans, Middle Eastern Americans, Native Americans, multiracial and international students.

Keynote speakers and performers for the event were spoken word poet Patricia Smith, Japanese drumming group Taiko Masala, Hip hop poet and engineering instructor Dr. Marc Graham, and the step dancing troupe Iconic Movement.

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STUDENTS CAPTURE POETRY PRIZES St. George’s students captured two out of three prizes in the Redwood Library and Athenaeum Poetry Contest in April.

Car ol ine Mi lle r ’11 won first place with her poem “Ode to Miami,” and Ju lia Ca rre lla s ’11 earned thirdplace honors with an untitled poem about nature.

The contest, held in conjunction with National Poetry Month, was open to all high school students on Aquidneck Island and directed by Dr. Ted McCrorie,

Ode to Miami

Emeritus Professor of English at Providence College.

Miller and Carrellas were informed of their wins in person on Saturday, April 3.

The two, along with eight other students who were judged to be finalists in the contest, read their poems at the library. The readings were then followed by a round table discussion after which the prizes were announced.

Below are the winning entries.

by Caroline Miller ’11 Lights flashing, colors blazing Horns blaring, speakers thumping Pulse.

Pulse.

Pulse.

Silence, more deafening than the reggaeton Trying to burst its way out of the tightly packed cage containing it Accompanied by, packed in with, the people That, in the tequila and ecstasy stupor, flail and shriek Making them belong in the cage with the reggaeton Pulse.

Pulse.

Pulse.

Waves lap, palm fronds sway Waiting to reclaim their inhabitants and revive Heat, gentle breeze, the all curing medicine Monotony of waves, sense dulling, appealing Pulse.

Pulse.

Silence.

The conundrum of it all.

Caroline Miller ’11

Nature Poem

by Julia Carellas ’11 So simple, yet so complex, Violent but at the same time so Julia Carellas ’11 incredibly peaceful An ineffable presence Only experience can truly capture its power The power of nature The power of the unfamiliar The power of living freely Encompasses all other fears The fear of the unknown, the fear of the unthinkable Is born in this place of vast uncertainty A place where death is inevitable But growth is even more empowering Breathe, absorb, and just live Connect with the environment The beauty, The simplicity The incandescent power Look around, observe Do not attempt to understand Or draw conclusions But rather sit patiently And let nature decide.

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Photographer Dan Mead ’65 and his wife, Sally Eagle, captured this image at Horseshoe Bend, Ariz., 1,000 feet above the Colorado River.

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“Earth Designs,” a photography exhibit by Da n Me a d ’65 and his wife, Sally Eagle, was on display in the Hunter Gallery in May. The exhibit featured photographs taken during the couple’s trips abroad.

“We are fortunate to have traveled to some of the most interesting and beautiful countries in the world in terms of landscape, wildlife and cultural identities,” Mead notes.

Mead, a former educator turned psychotherapist, and Eagle, an entrepreneur, first photographed their

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travels for personal enjoyment, and subsequently to document them for family and friends. “Over the past 35 years, the process of editing and selecting photographs to be viewed by others enticed us to focus more intently on capturing the essence of the places we beheld, the scenes we witnessed,” they say.

In 2008, they started to exhibit their work in schools and communities in the Northeast, with the hope of sharing their discoveries of the physical wonders and various cultures with others, especially young people.

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The St. George’s Dance Troupe practices for a public performance in May.

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An exhibit titled, “Inside Out: Sculpture, Drawings and Paintings” by artist Susan Lyman was on display in the Hunter Gallery in the Drury and Grosvenor Center for the Arts in April.

Lyman, who has lived year-round in Provincetown since 1981, when she was awarded a Visual Arts Fellowship at the Fine Arts Work Center, teaches sculpture at Providence College. She is also the recipient of grants from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), the National Endowment for the Arts, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation and the Artists Foundation of Boston.

Thomas Fu ’11 works on an assignment in the Hunter Gallery.

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Scott Ferguson ’80 talks with students in the science center in April.

When BMW Team Oracle captured the 33rd America’s Cup in Valencia, Spain, last February, at least two St. George’s alums got some of the credit. Sc ot t Fer guso n ’80 and (John) An drew Gayno r ’93 were members of the BMW Oracle’s team of more than 30 designers and scientists who were responsible for the innovative design of BMW Oracle’s giant trimaran. The boat featured the option of sailing with a conventional mast and soft sails, or with a massive wing sail that towered more than 220 feet above the deck. The wing sail, according to the designers, was more than twice the size of a Boeing 747 airplane wing and the largest wing sail ever fitted to a sailing boat.

The Associated Press reported in May that some of the world’s leading yacht designers and engineers are hard at work on the boat for the next America’s Cup Challenge, which likely will be held in 2013 or 2014.

They discussed three options: multihulls of approximately 66 and 82 feet, and a monohull class of up to approximately 89 feet. “The group met in Valencia, Spain, where the American syndicate BMW Oracle Racing routed Alinghi of Switzerland in two races in February in a showdown between two of the biggest, most powerful and costly sailboats ever built,” the AP reported.

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Ferguson brought his sailing expertise back to St. George’s on April 29 when he led a “Brown Bag Lunch” program in the science building.

Former trustee P aul Sc hmid P’00 announced in February that he is seeking election as the Democratic candidate for State Representative in the eighth Bristol district in Massachusetts.

“My No. 1 priority will be jobs. No. 2 is education. No. 3 is public safety,” Schmid told the Chronicle weekly newspaper. “Our problems are regional. Elected officials must work together with business and community groups. I am ready to serve as part of that team. I am ready to be a fierce advocate for Westport, Fall River and Boston.”

Schmid has lived in Westport, Mass., with his wife, Tina, since 1962. The couple has two children, Celeste and Paul, who graduated from St. George’s in 2000.

The family operates River Rock Farm, where they raise grass-fed Angus beef cattle.

The primary is Sept. 14, 2010.

Other alums who are also running for office include Ma rk Steve ns ’82 in Pennsylvania, P et e I llow ay ’59 in Wyoming, and Jay E dw ar ds ’76 and Ch ris O tti a no ’87 in Rhode Island.

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The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia dedicated its new Ruth and Tristram Colket Jr. Translational Research Building on June 9, 2010. Launched with an initial gift of $25 million from Ruth M. and Tri stra m C. C ol ket Jr. ’57, the 12-story, environmentally friendly structure houses high-profile, cutting-edge programs for advancing research in pediatric diseases, with additional programs scheduled to move in over the coming months. The initial $25 million contribution by long-time board members Ruth M. and Tristram C. Colket, Jr. helped to launch construction more than four years ago. The $504 million project encompasses 700,000 square feet— four new laboratory floors, administration and conference space, and a two-story ground floor housing a lobby and cafeteria.

K a itl yn E va n s ’06 was selected as one of just two College of Wooster students to present their independent research at an international symposium. Evans, a communication sciences and disorders major, addressed “Speech Language Pathologists’ and Audiologists’ Role in a Medical Mystery: Their Knowledge, Awareness, and Attitudes towards Clients with Pediatric HIV/AIDS” at the Central States Communication Association Meeting in Cincinnati on April 17.

Add another title to the resume for Seymou r “M ike ” Mo rri s, Jr. ’64: author. Morris’ recently published book, “American History Revised: 200 Startling Facts That Never Made It Into The Textbooks,” (Broadway, 2010) came about after Morris says living abroad for the last 12 years and recruiting foreign students for Harvard University “forced him to see his country as an outsider and compelled him to examine American history from a fresh perspective.”

Morris is an international business entrepreneur and former head of corporate communications for the world’s largest management consulting firm. His first book

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Also filling up the pages of Amazon.com is To by Le ste r ’82, whose recently published “The Fourth Part of the World: The Race to the Ends of the Earth, and the Epic Story of the Map that gave America its Name” (Free Press, 2009) earned a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly. In the book, Lester tells the story behind the map that first showed the New World surrounded by water and distinct from Asia, the map that gave this New World the name America in honor of Amerigo Vespucci. “He traces the origins of our modern worldview and shows how this 1507 map literally altered humanity’s worldview,” the reviewer notes. One thousand copies of the map were printed, yet only one remains: In 2003, the Library of Congress paid $10 million for it.

Lester also was the featured speaker in March at Newport’s Redwood Library.

The editors of Star Publications in Malaysia are keeping an eye on the career of homegrown Leong Siu Lynn, better known as Lynn Leong ’01. When Siu Lynn arrived at St. George’s in 1999 at the age of 18, she already had a number of accomplishments under her belt. A talented squash professional from Kota Baru, Kelantan, she won the Asian Women’s Championship in 1996, and was the Malaysian Women’s National Champion in 1999. Next, she captured the U.S. Junior Open Champion (under 19) title. This past April, the Star Online featured a profile of Leong, who is now

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is getting rave reviews from critics, including the Huffington Post, which called the book, “Eye-opening, interesting and lively.”

“If schools put it on the curriculum, kids would pay more attention,” the Post’s reviewer noted. Morris came back to the Hilltop on May 17 to address the U.S. History and American Government classes. He has two other books now under development, one on presidential elections and the other on criminal justice.

Retiring St. Mark’s School Senior Master H e nr y La rg e ’58 was honored for his “45 years of distinguished service to the school” on Saturday, June 12, 2010 during the school’s Reunion Weekend. married and the head professional at the New Haven Lawn Club in New Haven, Conn. She graduated from Trinity College, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in studio arts and photography in 2005.

After a year as the new head of Milton Academy in Massachusetts, To dd B la nd ’86 is getting some public thanks for his efforts to build positive “town/gown” relationships. In the March 22 edition of the Milton (Mass.)

Times, titled “Academy Will Open Communications,” Bland tells the paper he wants to extend “a message of inclusion and openness to bridge the perceived gap between publicand private-school education.”

“This is very important to me,” he told the paper. “There are wonderful ties to Milton as a town and Milton Academy. And it’s clear to me that actually Milton Academy’s connections to the town of Milton are closer than many independent schools. I think there are reasons for that. …And that’s because we have many residents who work at the academy, and obviously families who send their kids here.”

Before his appointment to the Milton’s headship last year, Bland was serving as the interim head of school at Seven Hills School, an independent K-12 school outside Cincinnati. He had served as the assistant head and the head of the upper school there for nine years. Previously, he taught at Beaver Country Day School in Chestnut Hill, Mass., and served as a teacher, coach and administrator at Belmont Hill School in Belmont, Mass.

Newport artist R ic ha rd Gro sve no r, who served as head of the art department from 1953-1993, was awarded an honorary doctorate in humane letters from Salve Regina University during their commencement on May 16, 2010.

“Grosvenor has been an artist-in-residence in Newport for well over 50 years and has devoted his life to teaching, sharing his talents with the local community, and providing guidance and insight into the historical aspects of architecture throughout the city,” officials at Salve Regina noted.

Grosvenor and his wife, Margot, have been long-time members of the Circle of Scholars at Salve Regina, and for the past five years, he has taught one of the university’s most popular classes, a combination of walking tour and classroom lecture, on the rich variety of Newport’s architecture.

He wrote and illustrated “Newport: An Artist’s Impressions of its Architecture and History” (2002), a compilation of his paintings and sketches of mansions, homes and churches in Newport.

Grosvenor was born to American parents in Saint Jean de Luz, France, in 1928. His father had been in the cotton textile business.

The family returned to the United States and lived in Newport. Grosvenor grew up in his great-grandfather’s (Theodore Phinney) home at Ruggles Avenue and Carroll Avenue.

The house was originally designed by Richard Morris Hunt. He graduated from Harvard University in 1951 with a major in fine arts.

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Left: The Rev. Canon Andrew White, of St. George’s Church in Baghdad, addresses students during a special St. George’s Day chapel service.

Right: Brett Passemato ’11 and Jason Park ’11 paint a picnic table for the Jamestown Community Farm.

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A special chapel service in recognition of St. George’s Day, April 23, featured visiting clergy and honorary St. George’s trustee Geralyn Wolf, the Episcopal Bishop of Rhode Island, and the vicar of Baghdad, The Rev. Canon Andrew White, of St. George’s Church in Baghdad, Iraq.

In his sermon, Canon White told students to recognize the involvement of God in their lives and to seek to change the world.

“Maybe God wants you to really go for it and do something radical,” he said.

An inspiring figure in his own right, White, a medical school graduate and now a religious scholar, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1998. He travels with 35 soldiers surrounding him while he’s near his home church in Iraq’s highly dangerous “Red Zone.” At St. George’s, he urged students to decide early in their lives what they wished to do to honor God. “Take risks. Aim high. And achieve what is best,” he said.

After the chapel service, students and faculty members took part in diversity workshops and service projects. Third and fifth formers participated in service projects that ranged from planting onions and beets on a Jamestown farm whose produce goes to local food pantries, to helping with a Habitat for Humanity building project in Pawtucket, R.I., to planning and running a “play day” at a Middletown daycare facility.

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Fourth and Sixth formers participated in an array of workshops offered by SG faculty members, as well as some guest speakers, that focused on issues of racial, religious and gender-based diversity. Some titles included “Who Are We?: An Interactive Workshop on Identity,” “Kingian Non-violence,” and “I Was Just Kidding: A Discussion of Jokes and Their Impact.”

Ch a d La rc om ’11 organized a dress-down day in January that raised $1,100 for the Pan-Mass.

Challenge/Jimmy Fund for childhood cancer research. For the second year in a row, Larcom also organized a PMC Kids Ride for local children on Aquidneck Island to help the cause.

The Global Studies Seminar class sponsored a Dress Down Day on Friday, April 16, 2010, with the nearly $1,000 raised going to support the upkeep and continuation of the museum at the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Seminar students and teachers traveled to Poland and visited Auschwitz in March.

“It was a very emotional and powerful day,” said K inyet te H e nde r son ’10, a member of the class. “There were many other school groups from all over the world and it was an experience that some people will never have again.” In 2009, the museum at Auschwitz launched a desperate appeal for funding in an effort to develop a long-term conservation plan for the site, which has fallen into disrepair.

Development news

The school welcomes our new chief development officer, P a ul Hi ggi ns, and his family to campus this summer.

Higgins takes over the fund-raising operation of the school from Jo e Gou ld, former assistant head of school for external affairs, who has transitioned into the role of SG’s director of global programs.

Higgins will oversee all of the school’s efforts in development, communications and alumni/ae affairs, along with assisting St. George’s in the next stages of an imminent capital campaign.

“Paul brings to us a wealth of experience in development and communications at both the secondary level with boarding schools and in higher education,” reports Head of School E r i c Pe t e r s on .

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Chief Development Officer Paul Higgins, his son Sam, and his wife, Sue, join us on the Hilltop from Western Massachusetts.

For the past four and a half years, Higgins has served as the director of development at Deerfield Academy, where he has been one of the lead players in planning a major capital campaign set to launch publicly later this year.

In the seven years prior to his tenure at Deerfield, Higgins worked as the director of major gifts at Mount Holyoke College, where he was involved in the planning and successful launch of a $300 million campaign. Finally, Higgins also served for a number of years as the director of major gifts and a regional campaign director at Northfield Mount Hermon School.

“In short, given our institutional and community needs both in the near term and beyond, his proven success as well as his skills, style and experience make Paul a natural fit

for us,” Peterson said.

Higgins said he and his wife, Sue, and son, Sam, are thrilled to be joining the St. George’s community. “In my role as chief development officer I’ll have the privilege of following the successful tenure of Joe Gould and benefiting from his wealth of knowledge and experience throughout the coming years,” Higgins said.

“St. George’s is a beautiful school. I came away from my visits to campus being particularly impressed by the community, one filled with talented faculty and students who are eager to learn. I’m looking forward to meeting all of the students, faculty and staff this fall and getting out on the road to talk with alumni/ae and parents. The opportunity to be part of St. George’s and to promote this wonderful place will be a pleasure.”

ONCE AGAIN, ANNUAL FUND TOPS GOAL The 2009-10 Annual Fund exceeded its $2.2 million goal in June and closed the year at $2,204,476.52.

“Now that’s precision fund raising,” Assistant Head of School for External Affairs Joe Gould remarked to the group of SG supporters who donated $250,000 to help fuel the end of the campaign by supplying matching gifts to donors.

It was no mean feat to reach the goal this year, he said.

The “Flat is Still the New Up!” Challenge was launched on May 1, with the challengers matching every dollar given to the

Annual Fund (one for one) from May 1 until June 30 up to $250,000.

The challenge was a success, just as it had been last year, and prompted 672 gifts totaling $411,862.10, Gould reported.

To the challengers, Gould wrote: “You did it! You inspired Dragons everywhere to support the 2009-10 Annual Fund.”

To everyone who donated, the Development office, on behalf of all the students and teachers of St. George’s, extends the warmest of thanks.

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Board notes N

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Van Norden appointed to SG Board of Trustees; Anderson, Harrison and Parker retire One new member was appointed and three longtime members of the board retired when the St. George’s Board of Trustees held its end-of-the-school-year meeting in June.

La ng do n “ Ta d” Va n No rde n Jr. ’84 joins the board with a wealth of financial expertise.

Van Norden graduated from St. George’s in 1984, from Duke in 1988 and from Penn Law School in 1991. He is a partner in the Alternative Investments Practice of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, where he represents clients in a variety of financial transactions, including secured Langdon “Tad” financings, restructurings, instituVan Norden Jr. ’84 tional private placements and securitizations. Van Norden lives in Manhattan with his wife, Kara, and their son, Duncan. He volunteered as a class agent on the St. George’s Annual Giving Committee from 1997-2000.

Ke ith A. An de rs on ’74, L oi s E . Ha rri so n ’82 and Fo xha ll A . Pa rke r ’43, P’80 retired from the board in June, each having served loyally for years.

Harrison retires after nine years on the board.

During her tenure, she served on the development, education, and student life committees. Board chair Sk ip Bra ni n ’65 called her “the classic trustee triple threat: fundraiser, supporter and volunteer.” Her inscription on the dragon in the campus center grill reads, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”

Anderson joined the board in 1994. He was a long-term member of the committee on trustees as well as member of the education and student life committees. After participating in the first Diversity

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Conference in 1993, he sat on the Trustee of Color Panel for the Alums of Color Conference in 2008 and on the Alumni/ae of Color Panel for the conference in 2006. “Keith has been a critical force in connecting our alums of color with the school,” Branin remarked. “And he is very warmly regarded by the faculty for the time he spent getting to know them.”

Parker leaves the board after serving for 21 years. He served as board secretary and treasurer and on the building & grounds, development, investment and executive committees.

Keith A. Anderson ’74 A member of the Ogden Nash Society who has included SG in his estate planning, Parker is a former class agent with many connections to St. George’s. His father, Morgan Parker, is an SG alum from the class of 1913 and his wife Helen’s brother, the late Ernest Walker, graduated from SG in Lois E. Harrison ’82 1955. The Parkers’ daughter Mary is a 1980 alumna.

The curved courtyard leading to the art center is named the “Parker Family Courtyard—to celebrate what St. George’s has meant to Morgan Parker ’13, Foxhall A. Parker ’43, P’80 and Mary Foxhall A. Parker ’43 M. Parker ’80.”

Reunion Weekend ’10 E C O N N E C T I N G

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Journalist Zernike ’86 presented with Diman Award Ka te Ze rnike ’86 was presented with St. George’s highest alumni/ae award, the Diman Award, during an all-school chapel service at the start of Reunion Weekend, Friday, May 14, 2010.

Zernike, a national correspondent for the New York Times who was a member of the team that shared the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting for a series of stories about terrorism and the Sept. 11 attacks, told those gathered about her career and about her hopefulness that stories of humanity are still necessary to the fabric of our society.

“I’m still an optimist about the power of journalism,” she said.

Currently Zernike, who most often covers politics and education, is writing a book about the Tea Party movement called “Boiling Mad: Inside Tea Party America,” which will be published by Henry Holt/Times Books in September. When she returns to the Times

this summer, she will be covering the midterm elections, continuing her focus on conservatives and the Tea Party and how it influences the midterms in November.

Journalism, she said, forces us all to keep an open mind.

“Think about how you can understand other people’s perspectives,” she urged students.

“Ask questions of people who don’t agree with you.”

Covering the current political environment, she said, has given her a unique perspective on how passionate people are about the government.

Upon publication of her stories these days, she says she has a bevy of readers who are sometimes vitriolic in their response to her articles. But she doesn’t shy away from engaging them in conversation. “I think we have to try to figure out,” she said, “how we get to a place of better understanding.”

Diman Award winner Kate Zernike ’86 is escorted from the chapel by the 2010-11 Editor in Chief-elect of the Red & White, Sophie Flynn ’11; 2009-10 News Editor Sam Livingston ’10; and 2009-10 Editor in Chief Hendrik Kits van Heyningen ’10.

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Reunion Weekend ’10 E C O N N E C T I N G

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Dean Service Award presented to John G. “Jack” Doll ’52

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Jimmy Dean ’11, grandson of the late SG trustee Howard B. Dean P’66, ’68, ’72, ’73, presents Jack Doll ’52 with the Dean Award.

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his year the Howard B. Dean Service Award— presented annually by the Board of Trustees to any member of the St. George’s community whose service to the school has been exceptional—was awarded to Jo hn G. “ Ja ck ” D ol l ’52.

“It is his selfless presence on the Hilltop over the course of the last decade, his dedication to preserving and promoting the history of the school, and his unique attachment to the Chapel that we honor today,” remarked Head of School Eri c P et er so n at the award presentation on May 15, 2010.

In 2001, Doll turned the dream of the late school historian Gil Taverner—to develop a proper formal archive—into a reality, overseeing the design and setup of rooms housing a massive collection of SG documents, photographs and memorabilia into a new climate-controlled space in the lower level of the Nathaniel P. Hill Library. For the next seven

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years he spent two days a week on campus and served as SG’s school archivist.

When in 1999 the Rhode Island Historical Society asked Doll to give a tour of the Chapel, he began the years-long process of compiling a formal history of the building, including a comprehensive directory of its architectural features and countless works of art.

The resulting book, “Heart of the Hilltop,” was published in 2002.

For years he served as one of SG’s most enthusiastic tour guides, offering Chapel tours filled with colorful anecdotes and little-known facts to hundreds of visitors. And as a member of the class of 1952, Doll also was an important fundraising catalyst for the John C. Howland, Jr. ’52 antiphonal organ, which was dedicated on Sept. 30, 2005.

He retired as school archivist and was honored for his service as well on Prize Day 2009.

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A memorial service for the late Head of the Science Department Emeritus Gilber t Burnett Jr. was held on the Saturday of Reunion Weekend, May 15, 2010. With dozens of Burnett’s family members, former colleagues and students in the congregation, former English teacher Robin Rogers ’44 delivered the chapel talk, remembering Burnett as “a fervent anti-communist and upholder of school traditions,” who served the school community passionately for 26 years before his retirement in 1990.

Later, Nathalie Burnett offered this remembrance of her grandfather: “Gil Burnett was my grandfather. Bon-Papa, as I called him, was not one to coddle little ones with fairytales or childhood games of ‘tag’ and ‘peek-a-boo.’ Rather, the summers I spent with him were filled with lengthy discussions on the most current state of the world, visits to the biology lab at St. George’s, and long walks at the Norman Bird Sanctuary.

“One of my fondest childhood memories involved a ‘prize’ he and I found during a walk along Third Beach. We discovered a large intact stingray washed upon the shore, and when I crouched down to investigate the specimen, Bon-Papa suggested that I bring it along with us back to the house. When we arrived back home, Bon-Papa procured a little ‘surgical table’ for me, and left me with a scalpel to dissect as I wished. Hours later (and much to the chagrin of Bonne-Maman, my grandmother), I had a table full of various stingray organs and parts. The true trophy was the eyeballs I had carefully cut, which Bon-Papa placed in a formaldehyde jar for me. I debuted the jar several weeks later at school, during my week for Show and Tell. It was a big hit, and

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stayed in our class’s science room for the remainder of the year.

‘As he was to many students at St. George’s, Bon-Papa was also a great inspiration to me to pursue an education in the sciences. I miss you dearly, Bon-Papa, and know you will be watching from above as I graduate soon with my bachelor’s degree in Nursing. I owe all my passion for the sciences to you!”

St. George’s Today Madeira Hall ~ May 15, 2010 Far left: History teacher Jeremy Goldstein tells alumni/ae about the Global Studies Seminar’s trip to Poland.

Left: Ping Praneeprachachon ’10 participates in a student panel.

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Show your dragon pride!

Order one of our newest items from the SG Bookstore.

Vineyard VinesÂŽ Silk Ties (available in salmon, light blue or yellow with knight or dragon logo, navy or green with dragon logo and red with knight logo) $

60

SG Decals prices range from $1-$4

Call the bookstore at 1-401-842-6662 for these items and more, or visit our online store at www.stgeorges.edu.

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Upcoming Events* 2 010 Day Student Family Picnic

Tues., Sept. 7, 5 p.m.

Convocation/Classes begin

Mon., Sept. 13, 8:30 a.m.

Parents Weekend

Fri., Oct. 22 - Sat., Oct. 23

Sports Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and Banquet

Fri., Nov. 12, 5:45 p.m.

Lessons and Carols

Fri., Dec. 10, 7:30 p.m.

Christmas Festival

You’re invited: Regional Receptions

Tues., Dec. 14, 7:30 p.m.

2 0 11 Dedication of the new altar window

Sat., Feb. 12, 1 p.m.

Fifth-Form Parents Weekend

Fri., Feb. 18 - Sat. Feb. 19 Reunion Weekend

Fri., May 13 - Sun., May 15 Prize Day

Mon., May 30

New York, N.Y. New York Yacht Club

Thurs., Nov. 4, 2010

Boston, Mass.

Gathering of Young Alumni/ae (classes of 1995-2010) Eastern Standard Kitchen

Tues., Nov. 9, 2010

New York, N.Y. Gathering of Young Alumni/ae (classes of 1995-2010) Location to be determined

Tues., Feb. 1, 2011

Los Angeles, Calif.

At the home of Hal and Lisa Reynolds P’ 13

Tues., April, 12, 2011

* For information on additional events, visit the St. George’ s School Facebook page, our web site www.stgeorges.edu or contact events coordinator Ann Weston at Ann_Weston@stgeorges.edu or 401.842.6731.

St. George’s School P.O. Box 1910 Newport, RI 02840-0190

Non-Profit Organization U.S. Postage PAID St. George’s School

In this issue: She tends to young lives on the brink: Anne Harvey ’99

BY SUZANNE

L. MCGRADY

Friendship born on the courts: Courtney Jones ’10 and Jesse Pacheco ’10 BY SUZANNE L. MCGRADY On the move: The Jaccacis head to China Prizes awarded May 31, 2010 Chapel talks: Learning English BY TONY KIM ’10 Heeding the call BY ELIZABETH BAYNE ’10 Shock value BY C ARL NIGHTINGALE ’10

Reunion Weekend 2010 Class Notes Left: Caitlin Connerney ’12 and Pearson Potts ’12 win youth sailing’s coveted C420 North American Championship in July.