Durham Academy The Magazine of Durham Academy
R e co r d • W i n t e r • 2012
Turkey Trot
More than 300 runners turned out for 5K and Fun Run
From the Headmaster’s Desk
If we are behind the curve in this endeavor, I must admit I am part of the problem. I have been reluctant to require students to acquire
truly oriented to the future often feel alienated in their own time.” Last month, we sent a team of faculty
an expensive item that could turn out to be
members on a fact-finding visit to schools
underutilized as an instructional device.
where all students have either an iPad or a laptop during class time. Our group included
harboring some skepticism about the ability of
both early adopters of technology and those
educators to forecast the future. As Christopher
yet to be convinced. While a final report is still
Doyle put it in a recent issue of Education Week,
being drafted, the initial responses to what they
f my memory is accurate (no longer an
“Educators make bad prognosticators of the
observed were quite positive, and I expect we will
assumption I make without trepidation), for the
future. There is no shame in that. Politicians,
begin a program at DA in the very near future.
third time in my career, I am hearing a host of
stock market players, CEOs and gamblers, people
(See article on p. 11 about the Middle School
powerful arguments claiming that technology is
with a lot at stake, routinely fail in their predictive
Digital Device Pilot).
going to change the way we learn and what we
efforts. But when school ‘reformers’ try to reorder
do in our schools. The first two times, schools
education based upon ‘21st-century skills,’ or
the things we are doing and will be doing with
raised a bunch of money and put computers
what some described as ‘teaching tomorrow’s
our new devices were impossible until the 21st
in classrooms (the second ones “faster” than
skills to today’s students,’ they show not only a
century, so I guess we can say we are producing
the first ones). They mostly became expensive
lack of prescience, but also ignorance of the past.”
21st-century learners. But I also believe we will
Doyle is of the opinion that those who
continue to do much of what Socrates helped
Les Todd
Truth be told, I must also admit to
I
paperweights, so we raised all that money based
I supposed it is fair to say that some of
on a false premise. I guess those of us involved
sought to reform educational practice at the
students to do in the fifth century B.C. And
owe somebody an apology. Sorry about that.
beginning of the last century, (presumably to
along with Doyle, I still find myself “trying to
equip their students with 20th-century skills),
understand and reach a generation of high school
the calculators from Texas Instruments have
uttered themes that are surprisingly like those
students whose intellectual world is increasingly
changed math instruction. We have adopted
in vogue today. He reports, “They stressed
fragmented into sound bites, PowerPoint bullets,
Moodle as our academic management system.
‘efficiency’ (today called efficacy), competition
text messages, Facebook posts and ‘tweets,’ and
Most of our rooms have ceiling-mounted
and nationalism (today ‘competency in a global
who appear rapidly to be losing the capacity for
projectors so any teacher can take a class to the
economy’) and following directions (today
lengthy reading, synthesis of thought and actual
Internet without complication. Many students
‘respect’ and sometimes ‘collaboration’).” There
analysis.” This is why I became a history teacher in
now carry devices that give them vast access to
were some folks scattered around who “better
the first place.
knowledge anywhere they can find a signal. It is
understood where the century was headed,
probably time that, as a school, we ask students
but their ideas had no currency in mainstream
to bring a device to class (an iPad or perhaps a
education.” Among them, Doyle includes Freud,
laptop), intending to use it as one of the tools we
Einstein, Gandhi and Picasso, all “odd men out at
employ in the process of teaching and learning.
school.” It is fair to say that then, as now, “those
This time, it’s different. We have seen how
Ed Costello, Headmaster
Durham Academy Record • Winter 2012 • Volume 39 • Number 1
The Magazine of Durham Academy
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Durham Academy
Front Cover The second annual DA Turkey Trot 5K and Fun Run had something for the serious runner as well as for those looking
3601 Ridge Road
for seriously good fun! Kids ages 3 through 10 chased a “trotting turkey” (Upper School history teacher/DA dad Thomas Phu and DA dad/
Durham, NC 27705-5599
alumnus Conrad Hall) around the track. Second-grader Meghan Tarpey couldn’t resist donning the turkey hat and taking off on a run of her
telephone: 919-493-7363
own!
e-mail: communications@da.org
website: www.da.org facebook.com/durhamacademy twitter.com/durhamacademy
Ed Costello, Headmaster Matt Taylor,
Director of Communications
Leslie Holdsworth,
Director of Development and Alumni Affairs
Kathy McPherson,
Associate Director of Communications
Tim McKenna,
Associate Director of Alumni Affairs
Photo by Megan Morr
2 New Learning Commons will open in February; gym project is next 6 Coach Dennis Cullen: protégés Conrad Hall ’89 and Nick Lehman ’01 reflect on learning from the best 8 Second Annual Turkey Trot attracted more than 300 runners 10 It’s a “game-changer” when sixth-graders are equipped with laptops and iPads 13 New Middle School program works to reduce and prevent bullying 14 “Skyping” with veteran ABC News correspondent Martha Raddatz 16 Love of reading is only membership requirement for faculty book club 17 Preschool Director Sheppy Vann on why she loves kindergarteners’ shoes 18 Fourth-grade pen pals help college freshmen remember DA 19 Lower School sharing assemblies give every child an opportunity to participate 20 First-ever girls golf team finishes fifth in state tournament 21 DA community packages 35,000 meals for Stop Hunger Now 22 From the Green: a round-up of notables from Preschool through Upper School 24 Alumni Stories: Distinguished Alumnus Jim Sidbury ’76 • New Alumni Legacy Award honors Dave Gould • Meet the Alumni Board • Homecoming Weekend • Class Reunions • Kendall Bradley ’07 • Mollie Pathman ’10 • Kelsey Kearney ’08 • Steven Suggs ’03 • Andrew Tyson ’05 • Weddings • Pre-Thanksgiving gathering at Alivia’s • Networking events • Babies • Class Notes • Emily Glick ’05 • Stephanie Callaway ’02
The Record is published bi-annually by Durham Academy
Mission Statement “The purpose of Durham Academy is to provide each student an education that will enable him or her to
Kathy McPherson, Record editor
live a moral, happy and productive life. The development of intellect is central to such a life and, thus, intellectual endeavor and growth are the
Linda Noble, designer
primary work of the school. The acquisition of knowledge; the development of skills, critical judgment and intellectual curiosity; and increased
Theo Davis Sons Inc., printer
understanding are the goals of the school’s academic program.”
Durham Academy Record | winter 2012 | www.da.org
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New Learning Commons will open In February Upper School prepares for next phase of renovations with exciting new plans for the gym
he new Learning Commons at the Upper School is set to open in February! Thanks to favorable weather conditions this fall and the watchful eye of contractor Charlie Wilson ’89, construction on the building has stayed on schedule and students will finish out the school year using the new, beautiful space. Construction on the Learning Commons has transformed the way students and faculty have spent the fall semester at the Upper School. What had been the quad, library and administration building has been a busy construction site. Students and faculty watched the new building taking shape beyond the chain-link fence and adapted easily to maneuvering around the site. This summer, construction crews demolished the old library and gutted the administration building to prepare for the new Learning Commons and adjoining, renovated office space. When the building opens in February, the Upper School campus will finally have an indoor hub where students and faculty can gather for purposeful study, as well as informal meetings. The renovated campus also will feature a landscaped courtyard that will function as the crossroads of the campus. The Learning Commons offers nearly 7,000 square feet of new space, including a commons room equipped with 20 iMac work stations, a large entry hall that can serve as a meeting space for an entire grade level and a dedicated library space with group study rooms and a new classroom. The Evergreen Campaign is providing the funds for the new Learning Commons, and plans are underway for a major renovation to the Upper School gym, as well. To date, The Evergreen Campaign has raised more than $6 million, or 67 percent of the $9 million goal. The hope is to begin construction on the gym this spring, which would avoid having to restage for construction and save an estimated $100,000. The decision is dependent upon the success of The Evergreen Campaign. In preparation, the board of trustees has approved an updated plan for the gym and is in the process of seeking approval from the city to move forward with construction. The new plans call for a fully renovated gym featuring new bleachers, playing floor, basketball goals, scoreboards and air conditioning. An expansion will add 8,000 square feet for a spacious lobby with a trophy gallery, public restrooms, concessions, home and visiting locker rooms and a large fitness center overlooking the Upper School quad. If the school is able to move forward this spring, the construction timeline is approximately 10 months, meaning the new gym would open next winter. These projects will transform the Upper School campus and dramatically improve the learning environment.
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Durham Academy Record | winter 2012 | www.da.org
Photos by Kathy McPherson
T
By Leslie Holdsworth Director of Development and Alumni Affairs
ABOVE: The new floor plan shows a fully renovated gym, featuring lobbies and a trophy gallery, and an expansion that will add 8,000 square feet for locker rooms, a fitness room, a training room and offices. LEFT TO RIGHT: The new Learning Commons will serve as the hub of campus, offering much-needed gathering space, work stations, study rooms and a library. The Upper School courtyard will be the crossroads of campus.
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RIGHT: A two-story trophy gallery in the new gym will be a vital walkway from the gym parking lot to the center of campus, and will finally provide the school with ample display space for athletic trophies and memorabilia. BELOW: A view of the new gym shows a spacious fitness and weight room overlooking the Upper School courtyard and an entrance canopy that mimics the front entrance to the campus by the new Learning Commons.
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Durham Academy Record | winter 2012 | www.da.org
TOP: The main entrance to the gym from the parking lot leads directly to a lobby and trophy gallery. The new gym features a concession area and public restrooms. The exterior of the new gym will be completely new. BOTTOM: The new fitness room will offer a range of exercise options from free weights and aerobic equipment to a workout room that can be used for stretching or small classes such as yoga. Durham Academy Record | winter 2012 | www.da.org
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Dennis Cullen came to Durham Academy in 1976 to teach math and coach cross-country and track. As a math teacher he is no slouch; he’s chair of the department and teaches algebra, geometry and honors precalculus this year. As a track and cross-country coach, he is a superstar, winning 39 NCISAA state championships in 35 years.
The incomparable Dennis Cullen But his finest accomplishment is the impact he has on the athletes he coaches. Two of them — Conrad Hall ’89 and Nick Lehman ’01
B y Co n r a d H a ll ’ 89
D
ennis Cullen has been a mentor to me for more than 25 years at many different levels of my education and professional life. This goes all the way back to being a runner on DA’s crosscountry and track teams in the 1980s, to our current relationship as colleagues and friendly rivals as coaches in the TISAC conference. The qualities that I think reflect Dennis the most, and from which I have benefited and learned, are his passion, intelligence, wisdom and deep caring for his students and athletes. Dennis’ passion for what he does is immense and inspirational. Anyone who has seen him on the trail or track — or talked to his teams — can see his passion for the sport and for his athletes. This passion helped me and countless other DA runners develop a love for the sport, as well as success in it. Dennis’ intelligence and wisdom are also immense. His coaching is excellent, and I know that I excelled in no small part because I was receiving some of the best coaching available. Dennis is a wonderful teacher, and this extends to teaching competitive running. I learned a tremendous amount about the sport from Dennis, much of which I still use today in my own coaching. When I was a college athlete, Dennis continued to take an interest in my career and give advice and support. Later still, 6
when I began coaching and teaching, Dennis continued to give me guidance and support. His deep experience and wisdom were invaluable to me as a young coach starting out. Now, after being a high school coach for the past 17 years, 14 of them down the road at Cary Academy, Dennis and I still talk frequently and collaborate, and I still find his wisdom, insights and support extremely precious. I’m grateful that, as coaches in the same conference, Dennis and I have been able to be such close colleagues. His wisdom, insights and the high bar that he sets with the Durham Academy program have all helped me to become a better coach and have been instrumental to the success my teams have had through the years. More than anything else, though, I appreciate the confidence that Dennis has had in me and support and encouragement that he has given to me over the years, as he has done with countless other DA students and athletes. I would say that the deep caring Dennis has for his students and the great energy and interest he takes in them, not just as athletes, but as people, and throughout their lives, has made Dennis the best role model possible for me as a teacher and coach. I have learned, and continue to learn, so much from Dennis. He inspired me as a one of his athletes when I was a teenager, and he continues to inspire me as
Durham Academy Record | winter 2012 | www.da.org
a model of what a teacher and coach can and should be. He has dedicated his life to teaching and coaching, and I am extremely grateful to the profound impact he has had on me over the years.
Thinking “I will” instead of “I might” B y N i c k L e h m a n ’ 01
O
n Halloween 1999, as a Durham Academy junior, I came to school wearing a plaid shirt, tie and glasses, with a stopwatch around my neck. I carried a black duffel bag because I couldn’t find a green one, but my depiction of Dennis Cullen was still good enough to win the school’s costume contest. I had no idea at the time this costume was foreshadowing my future career. Several years later, the stopwatch is no longer part of a costume, and I find myself trying to emulate Mr. Cullen in a different and much more meaningful way. As a high school coach, I strive to live up to the great legacy that Mr. Cullen has built at DA. I am reminded just how broad this legacy
Evan Pike
Passion, wisdom, intelligence and deep caring
Kathy McPherson
they have written about what they learned from Dennis Cullen.
Evan Pike
— are now teaching and coaching at schools DA meets on the trail and track, and
is each August at the annual DA cross-country alumni meet. I have run in it nearly every year since graduating, but I don’t show up just to race a 5K. I am there to see a veteran coach welcoming the return of his former athletes — some who received their diplomas a mere two months before and others who haven’t worn a Cavalier uniform in 30 years or more. The alumni team may span two
Kathy McPherson
record-keeping aren’t just for show. I remember occasions when they came in handy to excite the team and boost our confidence. There were days when, at the end of practice, Mr. Cullen would pull out an old notebook to compare the day’s results with someone he coached years earlier. He might say, “Conrad Hall did this same workout in 1991, and a week later he ran a 4:25 mile. I think you can run a 4:25 Clockwise from LEFT: Dennis Cullen and Conrad Hall ’89 mile!” Faced with historical facts, share a moment before the DA-Cary Academy meet this fall. Cullen and it was impossible not to believe Nick Lehman ’01 review the list of top finishers in the 2011 Durham him. At the next meet, I would City-County meet. Hall gives his Cary Academy girls team some pre-race step onto the track thinking, “I pointers. Cullen is known for instilling confidence in his athletes, helping will” instead of “I might.” them think “I will” rather than “I might.” These boosts of confidence are an important part of Mr. Cullen’s coaching style. Mr. Cullen never needed to resort to Hollywood-esque motivational speeches prior to a championship event. Those theatrics were unnecessary because he knew — and he knew that we knew — that we were ready for the big race. Our confidence and race-readiness were built gradually throughout the season; what might have seemed like insignificant comments on a dayto-day basis had a cumulative effect. A few encouraging words, simple physiological explanations behind a specific workout, or a comparison from the annals of DA history may not have been monumental moments on their own, but each was its own small nugget of confidence. By the end of the season, these nuggets had grown into a generations, but we are united by the experience mountain of confidence that made each of us of being coached by Dennis Cullen. feel unstoppable. Mr. Cullen always begins the alumni meet The confidence I gained as a runner had a by introducing the alumni to the current team. He walks down the line from youngest to oldest, lasting impact on me. It permeated into other areas of my life and made me more confident proudly reciting the highlights of each of our academically and socially, and eventually laid the careers. He will remember an athlete’s best times, or where he or she placed in the state meet foundation for the adult that I would become. Knowing how influential a coach can be in a just as easily for someone who ran in 1979 as young person’s life, I aim to instill confidence in for someone who ran in 2009. His impeccable my athletes the same way Mr. Cullen did in me. memory never ceases to amaze me. I have The fact that so many return year after year trouble remembering what some of my athletes for the alumni meet — decades after graduating, ran last week, yet Mr. Cullen will spout off times in some cases — is a testament to the lasting from the early 1980s as if it were yesterday. Mr. Cullen’s great memory and his detailed impact that Mr. Cullen had on so many students.
Although it is much more difficult to quantify than counting championships (not that that’s an easy task in Mr. Cullen’s case), the true measure of a coach’s success is how many peoples’ lives were improved by their experience as an athlete. In that category, Mr. Cullen knocks it out of the park. He has set the bar high, but I continue to follow in his footsteps, striving to inspire my own athletes just as Mr. Cullen inspired me.
Dennis Cullen and his protégés • Dennis Cullen earned a B.A. from Dartmouth College and an M.A.T. from Harvard School of Education. While teaching and chairing the math department at Durham Academy, he has won 17 state championships in boys cross-country, six in girls cross-country, eight in boys track and seven in girls track. His first championship was in 1976, his first year at DA, when his boys team won the cross-country state title. His most recent state championships are for boys cross-country in 2008 and 2009. In addition, he has coached multiple conference championship teams, the most recent in boys track in spring 2011. • Conrad Hall ’89 was a four-year letterman and co-captain of the Duke University cross-country and track teams. He earned an AB from Duke, double-majoring in history and political science, and earned an M.A.T. in social science education from Duke. He has taught history and coached boys and girls crosscountry and track at Cary Academy since 1998. His cross-country and track teams have been state champions once, state runners-up 10 times and conference champions 10 times. • Nick Lehman ’01 majored in sociology at Davidson College and was captain of the track and cross-country teams his senior year. He has taught and coached at NC School of Science and Math since 2005, supervising a residence hall of 37 boys and teaching a class that covers time-management and study skills, resumes and job interviews, diversity topics and sex, drugs and alcohol. In nine seasons as head coach, he has had three state championship teams, three state runners-up teams and 14 regional championship teams. His teams have twice won the Dennis Cullen Award for having the best combined men’s and women’s score at the Durham City-County meet.
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more than 300 runners turn out for da’s second annual turkey trot
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By Hannah Hannan, Turkey Trot Co-Chair
t was a chilly but picture-perfect morning for the second running of the DA Turkey Trot 5K and Fun Run! As of race time on Nov. 12, there were 328 members of the DA community registered for the event. By 8:30 a.m., the Upper School fields were filled with students, parents, siblings, faculty, staff and friends, all moving to the music, huddling around the hot cocoa and sporting their favorite hair and face-painting creations. Master of ceremonies and varsity cross-country coach Dennis Cullen called the energized crowd to the Lower School driveway and whistled the 5K start at 9 a.m. on the dot. Spectators hardly had time to walk back to the fields to cheer on the finishers when DA sophomore Tommy Monson was spotted rounding the final curve. He crossed the finish line in just 18 minutes 47 seconds, followed by DA parent and alumnus Conrad Hall at 19 minutes 18 seconds and DA junior Jimmy Mosca at 20 minutes 8 seconds. Our super-athlete DA moms took top honors for the women, with Shelley Dekker coming in first in an impressive 22 minutes 13 seconds. Roberta Drewry and Sarah Myers were just behind at 22 minutes 30 seconds and 22 minutes 32 seconds, respectively. The top student and adult runners in each category were
• • • • • • • •
Upper School: Michael Kontos and Elayne Wang Middle School: Neil Mosca, Anneke Dekker and Cami Simpson Lower School: Crosby Williams and Elizabeth Griffin Preschool: Jason Hugh, Smith Hill and Fleming Burkert 29 and under: John Bacsik and Katie Foley 30-39: Brent Miller and Virginia Hall 40-49: Chris Kontos and Joanie Preyer Masters: Rob Jackson and Sue Cullen
The Fun Run was a big hit again this year, even with our veteran trotting turkey, P.E. teacher Costen Irons, on injured reserve! Nearly 75 students and siblings ages 3 through 10 chased our stand-in turkeys, Upper School history teacher and DA parent Thomas Phu and Conrad Hall around the track. The morning was extra special for DA thanks to the nearly 50 faculty and staff members and their families who came out to support the Turkey Trot. Finally, the Turkey Trot could not have been such an incredible success without the expertise of our master of ceremonies, Dennis Cullen, and our tireless and talented teacher, parent and student volunteers. They did everything from slicing bagels to painting faces, from cheering runners to picking up trash. All proceeds from the Turkey Trot help fund programs supported by the Parents Association, including teacher wish lists, visiting authors and artists, financial aid and DA’s capital campaign and endowment fund. Photos by Megan Morr
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meeting students where they are and Taking Them Where They Need to Go
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W r i t t e n a n d P h o to g r a p h e d B y Pat t i D o n n e lly, L a n g uag e Ar t s , S i x t h Gr a d e
hen I started teaching 22 years ago, I had no computers in my classroom. From there, my access progressed from two desktops for the whole class to a small lab. Now at Durham Academy this year, I have a mix of two desktops in my room, access to a shared cart of 20 laptops and the computer lab shared by the whole Middle School. In the current pilot, I am getting to experience what it could be like if every student had equal access to a device that worked seamlessly between school and home. Currently, I teach two, sixth-grade language arts classes. My afternoon class began using the laptops from the pilot just seven weeks ago. Since we already used the laptops from the shared cart and the computer lab, the laptops were not a new device to master. However, being responsible for the device throughout the school day, as well as getting it home and back, was new for students. The week after we began, one of Julie Williams’ two classes received their iPads as a part of the pilot. Here are some discoveries I have experienced so far, knowing that there is so much more to learn in the coming months. Furthermore, I will have yet a broader perspective once my morning class receives its iPads for the first time in February.
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Durham Academy Record | winter 2012 | www.da.org
To meet a student where he or she is and take them where they need to go is imperative if we want to maximize a student’s learning opportunities, as well as sustain motivation. Equally important is the ability to nurture a delicate balance of both independence and collaboration. Last year was my first year teaching at the Middle School. I had my laptop, which I could use to project information through the LCD projector for the whole class to see at once. Later in the year, I gratefully acquired a document camera, which increased my capacity to involve more students, but not individually. If I needed the laptops from the cart, I had to take the chance that another teacher did not have them signed out. Given that Julie Williams and I use them at least one period in the double period language arts block each day, I was initially frustrated that logistics and resources were impeding learning. My next option was to sign up for the computer lab. Again, if I could find a slot, I then had to have students bring their materials for our class (e.g., outside reading book, three-ring binder, class novel, planner, grammar workbook and often their books from another class) down to the lab.
“I really like having a laptop. When I first received it, I felt very trusted, excited and scared. I get to bring this home and to every class with me until sometime in February! … Another thing you have to do with your laptop is take care of your laptop. It is a very big responsibility. You have to make sure it is charged.” — Forbes Collier ’18 Energy put into scheduling and resource allocation took away from planning and learning. It also limited my ability to differentiate instruction for students. In other words, I did not always have what I needed from my classroom in the lab or vice versa. As a result, more students had to work on the same kind of assignment at the same time. An additional benefit of having a laptop or other device is the potential to reduce the load in backpacks while increasing organization. In contrast, just today in my classroom, when students finished the vocabulary quiz, they could immediately work on what they needed to
in that moment. I did not have to be in two places at once, and we had all the essential tools we needed at hand. Some were making a Quizlet set to study for the upcoming Wisdom Tales test next week. A few were using the computer to locate where each tale originated on a map and record it. Another group went to Moodle and began to quiz each other on types of stories from a link there. In the back of the room, two students were creating a new blog post about collaborating on Google Docs for a writer’s workshop piece they were working on with a student in our class and a student in the other class, as well. I was able to meet individually with students to discuss their writing. Learning with technology is very public. Learning to navigate the digital world in a safe and sophisticated way is very timely considering what middle school-aged students are already dealing with. We frequently discontinued
LEFT: Karl Schaefer, Middle School technology teacher, and Trevor Hoyt, DA’s director of computer support, talk to sixth-graders about how to take care of the laptops they can take home with them. RIGHT: Technology is a partner in Julie Williams’ sixth-grade language arts classroom.
About the Middle School Digital Device Pilot (MSDDP)
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urham Academy believes students need access to technology as part of a modern learning environment. There are more than 100 computers on campus and, for years, DA has supported students using their own laptops or other devices on campus. The school has investigated the idea of a one-to-one laptop program in the past and carefully considered how such a program would impact our families and learning community. DA is now testing how consistent access to either an iPad or a MacBook helps students and teachers fulfill their mission. The goal of the MSDDP is to determine which device best meets the needs of the teaching and learning mission of Durham Academy. Beginning in October, students in Julie Williams’ and Patti Donnelly’s classes had consistent use of either an iPad2 or a 4-year-old MacBook. All other Middle School classes serve as control groups. At any given time in the project, 38 students have had consistent access, on campus and at home, to a school-issued device. Other students continue to use the computer labs, desktops, iTouch cart and laptop carts.
Pre-use and post-use questionnaires are being used to assess which device more successfully integrates learning and teaching. The information gained in the MSDDP will guide the school’s adoption of a student device in the near future. The following factors are also being monitored to see how they affect the learning environment: • 24/7 access with a one-to-one device • How broadly and frequently apps and input methods are utilized • Increased independence and self-guided learning by students • Extension of learning opportunities beyond the classroom • Development of skills and literacy through interacting with digital media • Levels of creativity and collaboration demonstrated by students and teachers • Possible reduction of the number of paper textbooks, ring binders, folders and paperbacks students carry to and from school Anecdotal evidence from teachers and students is available via classroom blogs. You can follow our students’ and teachers’ experiences on Edublogs. Julie Williams’ blog address is: http://jwroom211.edublogs.org/ and Patti Donnelly's blog address is: http://pdroom212.edublogs.org/.
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decision or have cuss issues related a conversation to privacy, safety about what the and how or when right thing to do to share and access would be, we information. Things have a wealth of students used their resources live and phones, iTouches in person on this or home computers campus or, thanks for before are now to being digitally more a part of our connected, shared experiences LEFT: A sixth grader uses an iTouch to record homework assignments. around the world. in the classroom. right: Another uses the Quizlet program to study Wisdom Tales on a laptop. I am a Learning at teacher, but more importantly, I am a learning specialist. Yes, I have a the knee can be viewed differently now in schools. For some, learning at knowledge base that helps me, but I also have to continue learning. Doing the knee means learning from those who know more or learning from so with technology as one of my tools helps meet a professional and a people who are older. In our classroom, learning at the knee means when personal need. I am fortunate that I do not have to do this alone. Our you have a question, you take a moment, “kneel” next to the person you professional team at Durham Academy is stellar. The group that handles are working with and solve it together. We all learn more when we learn the technical side, including Forrest Beck, Trevor Hoyt and Shea Craig, from and with each other. is forward thinking and responsive. At the Middle School, Karl Schaefer listens to a teacher or a student’s idea and makes it happen. He is also a “In history today, many of us typed our paragraphs on our computer. This saves time, resource for parents. Fellow teachers and administrators share ideas and and you can write much quicker. This is very helpful when you want to be productive. resources while challenging each other to stay on course. Finally, students Language arts and history are usually the only subjects that I use my laptop for, but I could conceive of using it in Spanish and science, as well. Overall, so far, the laptops have are constantly creating and contributing to this shared knowledge and exploration. been very useful to me, both with schoolwork and homework.” — Ian Layzer ’18 Problem solving does not mean it happens fast or that someone has the answer. The ideal situation is when a person, teacher or student, has an effective question. Perhaps what I most value is that we are not limited to our classroom. If we want to know more about how to make a
Technology helps students
Decision making and integrity emerge in ways that force teachable moments that students really understand. Understanding how students learn and knowing how to facilitate creative and critical thinking in my classroom is essential.
homework. Everyday I type all my assignments into an app called Evernote. When I take my laptop home, instead of checking my assignment notebook I check Evernote. In some classes I take notes (if I get permission). My binder is now replaced by my laptop. Almost everything I do is on here, even my very day I witness students finding their voice in a blog, face to face or in communication with people around the world using resources such as homework! I love my laptop and it helps me so much. It’s easy and efficient.” Finally, while working on drawing Wisdom Tales comics in Skitch Skype. In the few weeks our language arts classes have been blogging, I have for Comic Life, one student was having difficulty with the details of his seen increased motivation and attention to writing and word choice, as illustration. Cam Brown immediately shared that a Bamboo tablet that well as critical, creative and reflective thinking. One student shared a story he started in Google Docs during writer’s he uses in his technology elective would help. He got it out, showed his classmate how to use it in a 15-second demonstration and then gave helpful workshop earlier this year. When Josh Klein’s peers began giving him feedback, he replied in the discussion forum: “I am driven to write this. This tips as they worked side by side. As a teacher, I have always felt comfortable learning with students. is my best piece of writing. EVER!” Now he posted an excerpt on our class I do not have to have all the answers. Information is endless. Conversely, blog, and he cannot wait to steal a moment to get back to his story. He is learning to prioritize, filter and make intelligent decisions with integrity is also seeking interested peers to illustrate his work. Another blog entry contributed recently by Isha Arora read as follows: imperative. Embarking on fully integrating technology is no different. I am excited about what will transpire each day throughout this pilot experience “I have now been using my laptop for about two months now. Everyday and beyond. — Patti Donnelly I use it more and more. It is becoming part of my everyday life. I use it for
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Durham Academy Record | winter 2012 | www.da.org
New Middle School Program Works to Reduce and Prevent Bullying
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B y J o n M e r e d i t h, M i d d l e S c h o o l D i r e c to r
ust the other night, my wife and I put our children to bed and turned on the TV to try to enjoy a few moments of diversion from our hectic lives. Instead, what we saw was a real-life horror story. A mother was talking with Piers Morgan about how bullies drove her daughter so deeply into despair that she took her own life. Although nearly two years had passed since her daughter’s suicide, Anne O’Brien still struggled to understand how this had happened and why the people in her daughter’s life had not done more to prevent this tragedy. Sadly, this story is one that our society hears all too often. In the past few years, stories of bullying and its victims have dominated headlines around the world. For those of us who work with children, there has been a surge of interest in trying both to understand why this happens and to plan how to address it in a responsible way. Starting last year, teachers and parents in Durham Academy’s Middle School began a concentrated effort to make sure that we, as an institution, are handling this challenge as well as we possibly can. In the spring of 2011, Headmaster Ed Costello formed a committee that was charged with implementing the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program (OBPP) in our Middle School. Over the next few months, that group was trained in the Olweus approach to bullying prevention. With over 35 years of research and successful implementation all over the world, OBPP is a whole-school program that has been proven to prevent or reduce bullying throughout a school setting. In August, Middle School faculty members, extended day staff and other adults who work with our students spent a full day learning about bullying and thinking together about how to prevent it as a community. We studied statistics about bullying and role played, discussed our own experiences with bullying and worked in groups. By the end of the day, this group of educators not only more fully understood the dangers of bullying, but also realized that if we move forward with
some common understandings and consistent preventative approaches, we could maximize the chances that this program could have real benefits for our students and our community. That first day of training was an important start to our newly energized approach to bullying prevention, but it was just a start. In subsequent weeks, the Olweus Coordinating Committee planned and executed a student rollout that included an inspiring talk by Chris Collins, associate head coach of men’s basketball at Duke and a DA dad. That was followed by a parent night to introduce these ideas to the rest of our community. Since then, additional anti-bullying activities have been incorporated into our advisory program.
“We know that we will never eliminate bullying completely, but I do feel that we are doing a very good job of heightening awareness, arming faculty with effective weapons with which they can respond and creating a culture that emphasizes positive interactions.” Students made posters that illustrate their thoughts about bullying, and we now have signs in every room on our campus that remind us of “Our Four Anti-Bullying Rules.” The Middle School chorus performed a program that emphasized an anti-bullying message. Our student council launched a contest in which students can design a spirit week T-shirt that will include an anti-bullying theme. It is clear that we have made bullying prevention a visible and frequent topic of conversation on our campus, but has the message sunk in? What effect is all of this having? Are we truly preventing bullying? I believe we have made significant progress toward making our campus a safer place. Students have a very good understanding of what bullying is, and the appeal to the “better angels of their nature” has been promising. I
have had a number of students mention how important it is to them that they not be labeled “bully,” which indicates strongly to me that this message is being heard. We know that we will never eliminate bullying completely, but I do feel that we are doing a very good job of heightening awareness, arming faculty with effective weapons with which they can respond and creating a culture that emphasizes positive interactions. While we have yet to fully realize the effects of our efforts, I feel that we have made and will continue to make significant progress toward turning these hopes into day-to-day realities. The following are some of the central ideas taught in the OBPP: • A community needs to start with a common definition of bullying. As people who work with children every day, we knew that we needed to be able to distinguish between poor choices (bad behavior) and real bullying. Olweus gave us this working definition: “A person is bullied when he or she is exposed, repeatedly and over time, to negative actions on the part of one or more persons and he or she has difficulty defending himself or herself.” • There are three components that define behavior as bullying behavior: 1) aggressive behavior that involves unwanted, negative actions; 2) a pattern of behavior repeated over time; and 3) an imbalance of power or strength. • The goals of the OBPP are to reduce the existing bullying problems among students, to prevent the development of new bullying problems and to achieve better peer relations at school. • Our four anti-bullying rules are as follows: 1) We will not bully others; 2) We will try to help others who are being bullied; 3) We will try to include students who are left out; and 4) If we know that somebody is being bullied, we will tell an adult at school and an adult at home. Visit www.da.org/magazine for information related to this story, including student posters about bullying.
Durham Academy Record | winter 2012 | www.da.org
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ABC News correspondent Martha Raddatz “skypes” with DA class on her experiences covering war B y J o r da n A da i r , E n g l i s h, Upp e r S c h o o l
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“Some guys have seen things that no one ever wants to see … I understand now what it means when you go to a veterans’ ceremony and you see the old veterans get together and hug and cry, and you never really understood it. I understand it now.” — Lt. Col. Gary Volesky
t’s not surprising that Martha Raddatz uses this quotation as the epigraph to her book, The Long Road Home: A Story of War and Family, because it encapsulates much of what she tries to do when she reports from a combat zone — get to the essence of the soldier’s experience and communicate its emotional core. That is how she humanizes her subjects and, in the process, gains their respect. My class on the Literary and Artistic Responses to War got a firsthand look one morning recently at this side of Martha Raddatz, the senior foreign affairs correspondent for ABC News, when we had a Skype session with her from the network’s Washington bureau. She has earned her hard-fought reputation for honesty, compassion and evenhandedness during 20 years covering the military for ABC. We saw all of these traits in abundance during our 50-minute session with her, an experience that few of us will soon forget. This year’s incarnation of the course has explored in equal measure the Vietnam War and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Reading both fiction and nonfiction by the likes of Tim O’Brien, Dexter Filkins and David Finkel, and watching films such as Platoon, Two Days in October, Restrepo and Taking Chance, we explored the artistic responses to war. However, as has been the case each year, the most inspiring and emotionally resonant part of the course involved bringing in veterans to share their stories. This year, we had 15 veterans visit; their experiences spanned America’s involvement in World War II, Vietnam, the first Desert Storm and the current conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. It has been an eventful semester, but the addition of a Skype session with an internationally respected 14
television correspondent — one with extensive experience covering stories of war — would offer us an unparalleled opportunity to learn even more about the nature of conflict and how humans respond to it.
We asked her what it was like to be one of the few women covering these wars and how she managed to achieve the respect accorded her by virtually all of the military personnel she came into contact with. Getting to that session, however, was a technological adventure, the components of which I’ve only flirted with these past few years in the classroom. I found out rather quickly that my students are perfectly fluent in this language of the 21st century, and that it was time for me to get with the program. It all started one day when I brought into class an article from The New York Times written by Jennifer Conlin titled, “Telling the Stories of War Through Many Voices” (Nov. 11, 2011). I had wanted to share with my students something about the work of a television journalist I had admired for over 30 years since I first saw her on WCVB, the ABC affiliate in Boston, back in the 1980s. At that time, Martha Raddatz was covering the statehouse, but soon she’d move to the national level and Washington, D.C., to work the big time. Interestingly enough, Conlin’s piece was a part of the Fashion and Style section of that day’s Times and seemed like such a strange place to find a story about a war correspondent. And yet, the word “glamour” found its way into the
Durham Academy Record | winter 2012 | www.da.org
piece several times, and there was a fetching shot of Raddatz standing on the roof of a building dressed for a dinner date and not in the slacks, flak jacket and helmet she routinely wears when covering the combat stories we have come to expect from her. But that is the paradox of Martha Raddatz and what undergirds her approach to reporting. Yes, she brings a steely intellect to that reporting, but the foundation of her storytelling is the emotional depth of her pieces and her strong desire to tell the whole story, not just the objectified version of it journalists are expected to deliver. As Conlin says in her piece, “[Raddatz is] a reporter who shows the human side of the story.” I wanted my students, if possible, to see this firsthand. As I spoke to my class about Raddatz, I lamented my inability to find her email address. I so wanted to invite her to Durham Academy so that she could speak to my class and, perhaps, the entire school about the remarkable work she has been doing all these years. Before I could whine anymore, Chris Crawford had opened his laptop and found out that Raddatz has a Twitter account, the news of which Sammy Hobgood dutifully blurted out. No sooner had Sammy done this than five other students had whipped out their iPhones and “tweeted” Raddatz the invitation I so desired to send her. Though the whirlwind nature of this sent my head spinning a bit, the students handled it with the calm that comes from years of experience. The next day in class we found out that Raddatz had actually written back! She would love to come down to speak to us, she tweeted, but her schedule would not allow it. I quickly said, “Ask her if she can Skype with us.” To our delighted surprise, she quickly agreed. And so, we
were on our way, and the technology that DA has so wanted its teachers and students to embrace in the classroom had made that possible. Through an exchange of emails, Raddatz and I set up the Skype session. To keep things simple, she asked that the students submit questions to me, which I would then pose to
perceived slight, Raddatz learned to keep her sense of humor. Instead of expecting others to accommodate her, she carried her own bags, slept in the sand and dirt with the soldiers, and listened. She did lots of listening. She admitted that she learned the most by listening and observing. Most important of all, she added,
in the face of such heartbreak and loss, Vincent Corwin remarked on how moved he was by her admission that “she has the personal emotions that anyone would have when they see someone who is injured or dying.” Raddatz expanded on this thought a bit later by saying emphatically: “You are allowed to feel, and you don’t have to be objective about sacrifice.” In the end, perhaps Sarah Molina’s response to this session most reflects the sentiments of the class and my own sentiments:
Photos by Kathy McPherson
Her response both surprised and impressed us, for what she said revealed more about her character than about her professional chops. “If Martha taught us anything, it was the importance of balance. Balance in the way she handles gender-skewed situations with humor. Balance in the way that she is both a mother and globetrotting journalist. And finally, balance in the way that she can deliver LEFT: Jordan Adair poses a question to war correspondent Martha Raddatz. Right: Raddatz impressed students with her news stories as both a formal correspondent “human side.” She has a reputation for honesty, compassion and evenhandedness. and a human being. She noted that she ‘braces herself’ for the stories she hears, but she can is that she had the utmost respect for the never be objective about personal tragedy. This her during the session. Over a wide-ranging resolute decision on her part seems to stem interview of almost 50 minutes, we saw all sides jobs the soldiers had to do. All of this, in turn, engendered the respect that she enjoys today. from respect. She emphasized how important of Raddatz’s character: funny, self-deprecating It is this human side of Martha Raddatz respect is to her, to the military personnel she and forthright, all of it leavened by the deeply that most impressed us. Chris Crawford found interviews and to the world in which we live. serious way she approaches her work. it most interesting that she was able to put Only by telling these stories fully and with The arc of our exchanges ranged from herself into the same mode as the soldiers, to the proper amount of emotion, can she pay the basics of how she goes about setting up a follow them where they went. H. Hoell found respect to the trials of soldiers. Her ability to story in Iraq or Afghanistan (she now has the her descriptions of the more “normal” side of empathize but also maintain her composure routine down, but it’s never a “simple” task) to life in both Iraq and Afghanistan to be incredibly as a journalist is what I found most inspiring. how she handles the transition from covering As she simultaneously talked about the stories stories in a combat zone to her life as mother (to revealing, especially in light of what the news media seems to focus on these days — death, of soldiers such as Mark Little [who lost both her two children, Greta and Jake) and wife (to destruction and violence of every kind. It is this legs to an improvised explosive device] who NPR correspondent Tom Gjelten). As has been alternative perspective, a concerned, curious experience horrific pain and discussed her the case all semester with this class, the focus and compassionate one, that Sammy Hobgood role as a mother, Martha seemed to be the of many of their questions was on Raddatz’s personal experiences and her perceptions of the valued, for Raddatz was able to give us a glimpse antithesis of my preconceived notions of what into a world that none of the veterans could it means to be an objective journalist reporting soldiers she covers and the stories she delivers. provide. the ‘facts.’ Instead, Martha appeared as a We asked her what it was like to be one of Many of the students in the class wanted woman who is not only good at her job as a the few women covering these wars, and how to know about Martha’s transitions back to the reporter, but lives to contribute to the world she managed to achieve the respect accorded United States after extended time in the war beyond what her title or position suggests.” her by virtually all of the military personnel zones. Maggie Mishra wrote that she found it Raddatz left the students with one piece she came into contact with. Her response “unique how [Raddatz] could on one day be in of advice: “Have a life outside of your job, and both surprised and impressed us, for what Iraq interviewing a soldier and the next throwing find ways to contribute as a human being to the she said revealed more about her character a dinner party at her home in Washington, D.C.” larger world.” That, ultimately, is something we than about her professional chops. Instead And on the subject of maintaining her objectivity could all stand to remember. of being offended by some sexist remark or a Durham Academy Record | winter 2012 | www.da.org
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Marilynne Robinson, the 2005 Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction. As he spoke with us, he helped us to more fully understand each character’s role, as well as to understand the role of faith and prayer in the novel. These were some of our best discussions because they deepened the group’s n 1997, a small group understanding of the Durham of teachers gathered to novels, but also led them Academy discuss a shared book they to discuss topics that spun Book Club had read. They met at a off from the novels. picnic table outside of a Because club Clockwise from above: Current and former DA faculty Liz Jasinski, Sally portable classroom on the members believe strongly Markham, Trena Griffith-Hawkins, Beth Cornwall, Wendy Nevins, Janis Academy Road campus. in reading and the power Travers and Patsy Harlow discuss The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. This was the beginning that it can have in a of the Durham Academy person’s life, they try to Book Club. Since that first meeting, teachers and each book in reading journals, notebooks or find a way to spread that message to others. with an electronic app like Evernote. staff from all four divisions have met regularly Each winter, the group contacts Durham Many of the best discussions occur when to talk about books. The two things these book Nativity School and works with the school to one or two of the book club members have an club members have in common are that they provide copies of books that can be used in actual connection to the topic. One spring, the are lifelong readers, and they are educators. their language arts classrooms. Club members group was discussing a novel by author Lisa Being lifelong readers, they believe in the power collect money from family and friends and See. The story included very vivid descriptions of reading, and they practice the lessons they then purchase books for the school or send taught to countless children about the value of a of the practice of foot-binding in China. As the gift cards so that the teachers may supplement group discussed this practice, they viewed X-rays their classrooms with literature. This has been good book. of actual bound feet, read articles about the very well received by the faculty at the Nativity practice and were able to actually hold and look School. “The best moments in reading are when you come at an antique pair of shoes created for bound across something — a thought, a feeling, a way of The book club itself is very varied. feet. This was all because book club member looking at things — which you had thought special Members come and go and come back again Carolyn Ramsey had made a recent trip to China as time allows. Everyone is welcome, and each and particular to you. And now, here it is, set down by and sought out the shoes and other information month a whole school email is sent inviting someone else, a person you have never met, someone specifically to bring to the book club meeting. even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come faculty and staff to participate, even if it is only Because the book club is a part of the out, and taken yours.” for one book. In the spring, everyone brings — Alan Bennett, The History Boys: The Film Durham Academy school community, members books to “pitch” to the group. They may be do take advantage of their colleagues’ expertise. books previously read by a club member, One meeting found the group asking questions The first year, the group decided to meet recommended by a family member or friend, of Michael Ulku-Steiner, then Upper School twice — once in the fall and once in the spring heard about on NPR, read about in a book director and Spanish teacher. He shared his — but that proved to be not nearly enough, as review or even a suggestion from another book understanding of the Nobel Prize winner, One the group generated lists and lists of books they club. A few of the members belong to more than wanted to read and discuss. Now, the club meets Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia one book club, and one club member belongs to Marquez. The group was able to create a family an online book club. After book suggestions are five to seven times a school year, discussing a tree as well as a time line for this incredible novel presented to the group, a list is created for the wide range of genres. As the group evolves, they deeply immersed in magical realism. Another are finding they are reading less popular fiction upcoming year. If a book is not selected, it will faculty member, then history teacher David and more non-fiction, as well as always setting probably not go unread, as many club members Markus, shared his knowledge of the Civil Rights record book titles for their own personal lists. As aside one meeting to discuss a classic piece of literature. There is no leader of these discussions, Movement when the group read Sena Jeter the saying goes, “So many books, so little time!” Naslund’s The Four Spirits. Jordan Adair, English no preplanned questions, no rules — just a B o ok Cl u b 2011-12 R e a d in g L i s t department chair, assisted book club members natural love of books. • Joker One by Donovan Campbell as they tried to untangle the fantastical novel As a meeting begins, it is common for • The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin. Using family everyone to chime in on whether they liked the by Rebecca Skloot members as a resource has also helped the book or not, and then the discussion rapidly • Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson evolves from there. Many members bring notes, book club. Friar William McConville, of the • Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand questions, reference materials and even artifacts Catholic Community of St. Francis of Assisi • Howards End by E.M. Forster and brother of teacher Susan Hidalgo, guided to the meetings. Some of the members have • Proud Shoes by Pauli Murray been recording thoughts and impressions about the group through a discussion of Gilead by B y L i z J a s i n sk i, T h i r d Gr a d e
Durham Academy Faculty are Lifelong Readers
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Photos by Kathy McPherson
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Durham Academy Record | winter 2012 | www.da.org
I love
shoes!
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Writ ten and
P h o to g r a p h e d B y
S h e pp y Va n n , P r e s c h o o l D i r e c to r
love shoes. I don’t mean Jimmy Choos or Manolo Blahniks; they are too expensive for a teacher and too unstable for anyone my age. The shoes I love have sparkly, sporty colorful laces or light up with each step. They are hightops with crazy designs and athletic shoes with little Nike swooshes, New Balance logos, the shadow of a Puma or the Skechers signature. They have names like Twinkle Toes and Nollies. They come in a rainbow of colors and arrive at school on our Preschool students’ feet. I love shoes because they are symbols of a new school year. As a parent, I remember the yearly ritual of selecting a new lunch box and purchasing new shoes for school. As a teacher, I love hearing the happy announcement
of “I got new shoes!” accompanied by an emphatic stomp. I love the way they happily skip into school and eagerly head toward their wearer’s classroom each day. I love their constant motion as it represents the seemingly inexhaustible supply of energy possessed by their owners. I love them because they represent the secret desires of their wearers. Young boys invest great faith in new shoes and are convinced their new footwear renders them rapid as eagles and agile as monkeys. Our Preschool girls are inclined to prefer “fancy shoes” and sometimes bring them to wear until it’s time for P.E. class. I love the way our students are thoroughly surprised and delighted to discover that another student has the same shoes; frequently they will become best friends forever — for a day or two anyway! I love tying shoelaces and am a specialist in “double knots.” Over the last three decades, I have tied more laces than I can count. It has been good for the quadriceps and has allowed
me short conversations with the shoes’ owners. I am never reluctant to tie shoes and regard it as an honor to be asked to do so. It indicates that the young wearer of the shoe understands that I am here to help out when needed. Learning to tie one’s own shoes, like riding a two-wheeler or losing that first tooth, is a sign of growing up. The teacher, mother and grandmother in me cherishes the little shoes because I realize that all too soon those little feet will graduate to less colorful, less sparkly shoes, cleats, riding boots, high heels and then the appropriately worn-down flip flops essential in high school and college. Finally, our former Preschoolers will trade them in for shoes befitting their professions — a surgeon’s booties, a banker or broker’s wing-tips or conservative pumps, the builder’s construction boots, the busy mom’s oh-so-aptly named “driving mocs,” the soldier’s combat boots … or maybe even the school teacher’s utilitarian flats. When I was a child, I never understood why my mother cherished a bronze replica of my first shoes. Now I do.
Durham Academy Record | winter 2012 | www.da.org
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Fourth gradeDA alumni pen pals B y To m B a rr y, Fourth gr ade
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eading off to college is an exciting time in a young person’s life. It’s a time when most everything seems different and new: new surroundings, new friends and new challenges. And, while I’m quite certain most incoming freshmen relish these new opportunities, I know it’s a time when thoughts of familiar surroundings and of old friends can help provide comfort and a sense of security. Thoughts of “home” and of belonging to a community can help students through some of the new challenges a first-year college student might encounter. The Durham Academy fourth-grade class — the Class of 2020 — recently reached out to the DA Class of 2011 to remind them of that familiar surrounding in Durham, and to let them know that there’s still a community at home that is thinking of them. In early October, Tim McKenna, associate director of alumni affairs, and Kathy Cleaver, Upper School college counselor, approached Lower School Director Carolyn Ronco with the idea of reaching out to the recent graduates. Carolyn suggested that fourth grade would be an optimal age for just such a project. Each fourth-grade student was assigned a recent DA graduate and told their university or college. Before writing these letters, each of the four fourth-grade teachers brainstormed with their students about how to go about writing a letter of this type. The fourth-grade teachers and 18
students realized that it would benefit their efforts if they knew a little something about the school their “pen pal” was attending. Each class ventured off to the Lower School computer lab to gather information on their “pen pal’s” school. This research provided much valuable information. Once the fourthgraders had collected their information, they set out to writing a draft. Final drafts were mailed in late October. The research the fourth-graders did provided topics for many different questions. Here are just a few of the questions… • “Your campus looks beautiful. Do you have a room with a view?” • “I see your school has a lot of different sports. Do you go to many games?” • “What are your roommates like?” • “How’s the food in the cafeteria?” • “What is your major?” • “How did your school come up with its mascot?” It’s funny how these 9- and 10-year-olds seem to have zoned in on all matters important to a freshman at college. In addition to asking some great questions, the current DA fourthgraders highlighted some of the major events in their school year. These events would be of particular interest to those freshmen who were fourth-graders at Durham Academy. The
Durham Academy Record | winter 2012 | www.da.org
fourth-grade students mentioned recent field trips and special events. Unity Day had recently come and gone, and many mentioned the thousands of bologna sandwiches that were made for the nearby food shelter. DA fourth-graders have been doing this particular community service event for many years, and many of the recent DA graduates would surely remember their time of unwrapping endless sleeves of bologna and cheese. As a special touch, some letters were sent with a picture of the college recipient’s fourth-grade yearbook picture attached to the letter. These pictures and the corresponding letters hopefully accomplished one of the primary goals of this letter-writing project … to bring a smile to the faces of these recent graduates. Freshman year was a long time ago for me, but I still remember it being incredibly daunting and hectic. I’m sure it’s even more so for college freshmen in 2011 than it was for me in 1985. With that said though, it wasn’t long before the fourth-grade students started receiving feedback from their college buddies. Many wrote about how they appreciated receiving a letter. Many of them wrote about how they remembered being a fourth-grader at Durham Academy, or how they liked to hear from someone at Durham Academy. Many of the letters attempted to address the multitude of questions from the original letters, and many tried to pass along what their first year in college was like. One recurring theme was that they loved their new environment, but missed friends and teachers from “back home.” The Durham Academy Class of 2011 went off to some truly amazing institutions and locations. It is a diverse list of schools that scan from as far west as California to as far east as the United Kingdom. It’s an impressive list of schools that speaks to that class’ hard work and should make anyone associated with DA incredibly proud. But while many of them went to faraway places, it was the intent of these letters, written by today’s fourth-grade class, to remind these recent graduates that they’ll always be a member of a very special community, and that they’ll always be welcome back home here at Durham Academy.
Sharing assemblies give every child an opportunity to participate B y M at t Tay lo r D i r e c to r o f Co mm u n i c at i o n s
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Matt Taylor
joined the Durham Academy community in June, so perhaps it is too soon to make comparisons with my previous job in the communications office at Duke Law School. Nevertheless, I will risk drawing a pre-emptive conclusion to say that I never covered an event like a Lower School sharing assembly while I was
my little boy standing at the front of the Brumley Performing Arts Building one day and participating in this worthwhile communitybuilding event. Sharing assemblies are held monthly and provide students in grades one through four the opportunity to present work from their classes individually or in groups. A visitor might experience students reading their poetry, displaying their artwork, performing a brief theatrical production or singing a song. Faculty members inform Lower School Director Carolyn Ronco when they have students who are ready to participate at an upcoming assembly. Roughly 40 children — an average of two to three per class — spotlight their work at each sharing assembly. “The purpose is to give children the opportunity to share what they’re doing in class with other grade levels and other faculty. It’s
Above: Lower School students perform The Penguin Song in Spanish during one of the LS sharing assemblies. Participation is optional, but throughout the school year every child has an opportunity to share.
at Duke. I wrote about Supreme Court justices, a representative to the United Nations and various other legal figures, but, with all due respect to the inspiring subjects of my past stories, not one of them did anything quite as entertaining as The Penguin Song. I’ll pause here for a moment so you can picture the justice of your choosing singing these words and performing the associated choreography:
“Have you ever seen a penguin come to tea? If you look at me, a penguin you will see. Penguins attention. Penguins salute.” Perhaps it is difficult to imagine a member of the nation’s highest court flapping his or her arms in a penguin salute. However, as the parent of an infant son, I naturally envisioned
not a talent show. Students read poems they’ve written, talk about research they’ve done and do song performances,” Ronco said. “Over the course of the year, every child has a chance to participate, but they don’t have to if they don’t want to. Usually they’ll see their classmates participate and get inspired themselves. I’m always pleasantly surprised; even the little ones gain confidence over the course of a year.” Sharing assemblies begin with the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by a medley of patriotic songs, the reading of the Lower School’s Student Statement and a moment of silence, during which students are encouraged to center themselves and put their hearts and thoughts on others. The presentations follow. The 45-minute assemblies enable students to practice their public speaking skills in front of an audience and to learn about the importance
of preparing for a presentation. The assemblies also offer opportunities for leadership, reinforce community guidelines, build community and, perhaps most importantly, help the children develop pride in themselves and their work. The assemblies conclude with a review of the Lower School’s “Principles of a Caring Community” and a celebration of birthdays for the month. The latter tradition is particularly popular and naturally leads to students asking when summer birthdays will be honored. (That celebration takes place during May’s sharing assembly). Students and teachers with birthdays come to the front of the room, and everyone sings a special birthday song created by Kathy Pause, Lower School music teacher. The birthday boys and girls then receive a small gift, such as a key chain or eraser cap. It is hardly an apples-to-apples comparison to discuss my past life as an employee at a law
“The purpose is to give children the opportunity to share what they’re doing in class with other grade levels and other faculty. It’s not a talent show. Students read poems they’ve written, talk about research they’ve done and do song performances. Over the course of the year, every child has a chance to participate, but they don’t have to if they don’t want to. school in relation to my current work at an independent school. However, similarities do exist. At Duke, the law school’s regular roster of distinguished guest speakers challenges students to think beyond their hefty legal tomes and motivates them to become the best lawyers they can be. At Durham Academy, the Lower School’s sharing assemblies challenge students to take the courageous step of demonstrating their learning for an audience of peers, teachers and parents and contribute to an ongoing process of helping students become the best people they can be. I think of the assemblies as an important, early step in the process of developing future lawyers, doctors, scientists, engineers, artists and teachers. To see video of students singing The Penguin Song (in Spanish, no less), visit www.da.org/ magazine.
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Erik Dunk
Girls golf makes a successful debut
By S t e v e E n g e b r e t s e n D ir ec to r o f At h l e t i c s
Members of the 2011 inaugural varsity girls golf teams were:
seventh-grader Madison Dunk; freshmen Kit McHutchison and Elizabeth Hall; sophomores Christen Howlett and Sammy Lanevi; junior Maggie Mishra; and senior Lydia Nicholson.
Season highlights: • Best score in a nine-hole match was 47 by Madison Dunk and Sammy Lanevi. • Best score in an 18-hole match was 94 by Madison Dunk in the NCISAA tournament. • Top DA finisher in the TISAC match was Sammy Lanevi. • Top DA finisher in the NCISAA match was Madison Dunk, finishing 12th in the individual scoring.
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Left to right: Members of DA’s inaugural girls golf team were Elizabeth Hall, Sammy Lanevi, Kit McHutchison, Madison Dunk, Christen Howlett, Lydia Nicholson, assistant coach Sydney Jones, Maggie Mishra and coach Greg Murray.
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here are many considerations when a school like Durham Academy decides to add a new athletic team to our already crowded schedule of events. Do we have enough student interest to sustain the program for the long haul? Do we have a qualified coach to offer? What are the budget concerns? How will it impact other Durham Academy programs? Is there appropriate competition out there to compete against? Is it logistically possible, given how busy Durham Academy always seems to be? These and other factors were considered in spring 2011 as we looked at the merits of adding varsity girls golf to the fall athletic schedule. It began with several students asking Greg Murray, DA boys golf coach, about the possibility of a girls team. Our discussions led to investigating how many other NCISAA schools might be planning to add girl’s golf, and doing a little research and recruiting to determine valid interest. After consideration and discussion, and trying to properly answer the questions above, it became clear that we should go for it … we should “tee it up,” so to speak! Putting together a viable schedule proved very doable, as several other schools were also adding girls golf. Boys golf coach Greg Murray was interested and willing to take on the coaching responsibilities. With cooperation from parents and some local golf courses, Durham Academy opened the 2011-12 school year with a varsity girls golf schedule, a coach, a place to play and practice, and six to 10 interested girls. As meetings turned into practices, the
Durham Academy Record | winter 2012 | www.da.org
roster settled to seven determined girls. They brought a variety in age and golf experience, but all brought a desire to improve and compete and make this inaugural season the first of many more girls golf seasons at Durham Academy. Through the regular season, our team proved to be a bit behind several other conference and non-conference schools that we faced. But our girls got better, and they continued to be excited about the possibilities and committed to the season and the team. We finished third in the four-team TISAC tournament, finishing ahead of a team that had beaten us early in the season. Then our golfers prepared for the 10-team NCISAA state tournament, knowing that many of these schools had more established programs and players. As the bus pulled back in to the DA parking lot upon returning from this first-ever NCISAA girls golf tournament, I heard our team cheering and the bus honking … we had finished fifth in the state! Several girls shot their best scores ever, and the depth of the team helped us earn that top five finish. I am grateful to Greg Murray, to each team member and to their parents for making this venture a successful one. After the season had ended, and I was presenting letters and plaques to these girls at the varsity athletics awards program, I couldn’t help but wonder how many girls will be interested next fall when we open up the second season of girls golf at Durham Academy.
Megan Morr
ABOVE: School was closed on Jan. 16, but 220 parents, students and faculty members came to campus to package 35,000 meals for Stop Hunger Now. They gathered around funnel stations to assemble dehydrated, fortified rice-soy meals that are especially formulated for people who are undernourished.
DA packages 35,000 meals to honor legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.
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“ T her e is such a spir i t of co oper at io n a nd serv ing ot her s w ho need hel p.”
or the third consecutive year, the Durham Academy community honored Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy with a meal-packing service event to benefit Stop Hunger Now, a Raleigh-based organization that has shipped 34 million meals to 72 countries since 2005. School was closed Jan. 16 to honor the King holiday, but 220 volunteers — including students, parents and faculty members — worked two shifts on the DA campus to pack 35,000 meals as part of the event, which has grown in size and impact since 2010 when 80 volunteers packed 20,000 meals. Diversity Club members were on hand from early until late on Jan. 16, unloading 50-pound bags of the dry ingredients and then reloading the truck with corrugated boxes, each containing 1,080 meals. “There is such a spirit of cooperation and serving others who need help,” said Anne McNamara, Upper School community service director. DA volunteers gathered around funnel stations to package dehydrated, fortified rice-soy meals containing more than 20 vitamins
and minerals especially formulated for the undernourished. The meals were vacuum-sealed in bags 3 millimeters thick. The food stores easily, has a shelf life of five years and transports quickly. The hard work began long before the actual packaging, as members of DA’s Diversity Club and adviser Liliana Simón had been raising funds for the event since last spring. Fund-raising totals have increased from an original $5,000 in 2010 to $8,500 in 2012. Each meal costs only 25 cents, but fund raising is crucial as DA must cover the cost of the supplies. Fund-raising sources were varied and included a benefit concert by In The Pocket in November, a Jan. 10 art exhibit hosted by Durham Academy senior Cameron McHutchison and the Upper School Diversity Club and a Lower School quarter drive. The Upper School Diversity Club and the Middle School also collected donations. Meanwhile, Parents Council provided a grant and individuals from within the DA community wrote checks. Durham Academy Record | winter 2012 | www.da.org
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FROM THE From the Green F r o m
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• Headmaster search committee appointed; Ed Costello to leave DA at end of 2012-13
Les Todd
Spatola arrived at Durham Academy in 2007 with 30 years of experience in independent schools as a world history and western world history teacher, basketball coach and adviser. He taught previously The second-longest tenure of any Durham Academy headmaster at Friends Academy in Long Island, N.Y., where he served as history will conclude at the end of the 2012-13 school year when Ed Costello department chair and girls varsity basketball coach. leaves after 14 years of service. Only Bess Pickard Boone, headmistress “I view the honor as really special, and I am certainly excited about from 1938 to 1957, served longer. In preparation for Costello’s departure, it. But I am also humbled by the recognition, because I know that without DA has formed a search committee with the goal of having his successor key people such as my wife, my mom and all the teachers and coaches in place by December 2012. who had a major effect on my young life, I’m not in the position to be duly Brendan Moylan ’85, a member of the board of trustees, is recognized,” Spatola said. chairing the search committee. Also serving on the committee are David “I happen to be a member of a team, a truly terrific team; that team Beischer ’85, chair of the board of trustees; Liz Gustafson, immediate is the Durham Academy faculty,” he added. “It is due to the support, past chair of the board; Anne Murray Lloyd ’82, vice chair of the board; encouragement and inspiration of those teammates that an individual Kip Frey, secretary of the board; trustees Jim Coleman and Laura Horton thrives. Frankly, I am merely one among many superb teachers. My Virkler ’91; Margaret Jones, president-elect of Parents Association; teammates have made me look pretty good.” Jamie Krzyzewski Spatola ’00, vice president of the DA Alumni Board; Spatola’s team-first attitude is and faculty members Tim Dahlgren borne, in part, of his communication and Karen Lovelace. many years ago with legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden. After • Stanford University an initial in-person meeting, the pair honors DA history teacher exchanged letters about teaching Mike Spatola in which Wooden stressed the Durham Academy history teacher importance of keeping good people in Mike Spatola has been recognized by the profession. the Stanford University Teacher Tribute One sentiment in particular Initiative for his work with DA alumna stuck with Spatola, who had Alison Kohl ’11, who credits her former considered leaving the profession teacher with pushing her to realize her himself. Wooden wrote: “No spoken full potential as a student. word, no oral plea can teach our “I had Mr. Spatola for World youth what they should be, nor all the Cultures my freshman year, and I books on all the shelves, it’s what the remember thinking on the first day Above: Alison Kohl ’11 said she knew DA history teacher Mike Spatola “would be teachers are themselves.” of class that he would be a teacher a teacher who would challenge me to be the best student I could be.” “I continued to teach and coach, who would challenge me to be the and it was at that point that I also developed an incredible passion for best student I could be,” Kohl said. “As I found out over the rest of my history and fell in love with government. Since Coach Wooden’s letter, I high school years, I was not mistaken. His classes push you to explore have gratefully never looked back,” Spatola said. “When I am recognized the course material on a deep level, through seminars, primary source in the way Alison and Stanford honored me, I think about my meeting document readings and a variety of other college-level techniques.” with Coach Wooden, and his wonderful expressions of appreciation for Spatola says those interactions over the course of three years the teaching profession.” challenged him as well. “As a student, she provided the fuel for me to be a good teacher; there wasn’t a day when I wasn’t motivated to be really good and • Sixth-grader Hannah Jones acquires grant to fund that’s because of Alison. Students such as she force you to be on top Archaeology Day at Jordan Lake of your game or get there,” Spatola said. “She made us proud, and she Durham Academy sixth-grader Hannah Jones used a $750 grant will continue to make our community proud. It’s gratifying, and quite she acquired from the North Carolina Archaeological Society to fund rewarding, to know that I played a small part in her successful academic Archaeology Day, a free community event at Jordan Lake on Oct. 1. experience at Durham Academy.” Archaeology Day included professional exhibits as well as activities The annual Stanford Teacher Tribute Initiative recognizes for kids. outstanding teachers and mentors who have been nominated by “Hannah attended a North Carolina Archaeological Society incoming freshmen and transfer students. The program website meeting in May to defend her proposal,” said fifth-grade science teacher encourages students to nominate one person who has “helped to shape Theresa Shebalin. “The board awarded her the money because they your perspectives, hone your critical thinking abilities and instilled in you really liked the fact that she included the establishment of a Junior North an abiding sense of compassion for others.” Carolina Archaeological Society for kids. The new statewide organization 22
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for kids was launched at Archaeology Day.” Jones wrote the grant proposal for Archaeology Day as part of her fifthgrade science project last year. The North Carolina Archaeological Society grant covered the majority of the event’s outof-pocket expenses. A private company provided another $100, and there were a number of “in-kind” donations. Archaeology Day included exhibits from archaeologists around the state, primitive technology demonstrations such as fire-making and flint-knapping, and live entertainment. Hands-on activities for children included chocolate chip cookie excavations, rock art, pinch pots, pottery puzzles, archaeobotany and more.
Kathy McPherson
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Mary Kendall, Durham Academy’s reading teacher and a published poet, was thrilled to learn that winter haiku she wrote are the inspiration for a new piece of choral music. “Well, this is exciting and a first for me,” Kendall wrote on her Facebook page. A choral piece of music called Winter Moon was written by Chicago-based composer Paul Carey, and the text is based on Kendall’s winter haiku. The choral work premiered Dec. 8 in Vancouver, Wash., with the Clark College Chorale and Women’s Choral Ensemble Concert. “I am hoping they record it so I can have a DVD of the performance,” said Kendall. “In any event, I am very honored that the composer asked to use my haiku.”
Megan Morr
• Reading teacher’s winter haiku inspire a new piece of choral music
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“Globalizing the Curriculum,” and will attend global education workshops in Washington, D.C., in February and October. The workshops will bookend a two-week fellowship this summer in India. Bessias said the online course was challenging, but she also “learned a lot of valuable concepts and content to make global education meaningful. I look forward to meeting my fellow students and professor at the February symposium in D.C. I'll also be producing quite an extensive resource guide for Durham Academy as a ‘capstone project’ for the course.” The Teachers for Global Classrooms program is funded by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State.
• New tree in Preschool play area honors Kenyan Nobel Prize winner
Sheppy Vann
The Preschool play area has a new purple plum tree. On a chilly morning in December, Preschool children gathered to observe a tree planting in honor of Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai, who was born in Kenya and studied in the United States. When Maathai returned to her native land, she discovered that the rapid deforestation of Kenya had worsened the lives of her countrymen and rendered the beautiful Kenyan landscape a wasteland. She set about to plant trees and began with only nine saplings, but because of her unrelenting determination and the help of many Kenyan women, thousands of trees were planted and lives and landscape were improved. • Tina Bessias chosen for Lower School librarian Michelle global program, will travel Rosen introduced the Preschool children to India this summer Top: Hannah Jones tells her fifth-grade science class about plans for to Maathai during research sessions Upper School English teacher Archaeology Day. Middle: English teacher Tina Bessias will spend two in the library and presented a brief Tina Bessias is one of 68 teachers from weeks in India this summer with Teachers for Global Classrooms. Bottom: assembly prior to the planting. Head across the country selected to participate Preschoolers honored Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai by planting a tree. groundsman Chad MacKenzie identified, in Teachers for Global Classrooms, a obtained and planted an appropriate tree, one that will bloom in early professional development program aimed at globalizing pedagogy in spring. Preschool children and faculty will look for the big, white and pink American classrooms. flowers next spring and will think of Wangari Maathai. Bessias participated in an eight-week online course this fall on Durham Academy Record | winter 2012 | www.da.org
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DurhamAcademy e-mail: alumni@da.org website: www.da.org/alumni
Author, historian to be honored
Jim Sidbury ’76 to receive DA’s Distinguished Alumni Award Spring Alumni Reception Friday, April 13, at 6:30 p.m. Upper School Learning Commons
“Jim relished the opportunity to
Join us as we recognize
challenge students, encouraging them
collective identities Distinguished Alumni Award
to think independently and view history
winner Jim Sidbury ’76 and
from a variety of perspectives.”
DA Faculty and Staff Legacy Award winner Dave Gould.
Watch for your invitation or
email Tim McKenna, associate director of alumni affairs,
tim.mckenna@da.org
for more information.
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— Jim Speir, Upper School History Teacher
Above: The accomplishments of Dr. Jim Sidbury ’76, historian and professor of humanities at Rice University, will be celebrated at the inaugural Spring Alumni Reception on April 13.
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urham Academy will honor Jim Sidbury ’76 as its Distinguished Alumni winner on April 13 at the inaugural Spring Alumni Reception. Sidbury not only attended Durham Academy, he also taught and coached at the Upper School 1982-85. Sidbury is the Andrew W. Mellon Distinguished Professor of Humanities at Rice University in Houston, Texas. He received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1991 and taught at the University of Texas at Austin
Durham Academy Record | winter 2012 | www.da.org
1991-2011. He is a historian of race and slavery in the Englishspeaking Atlantic world from the 17th to 19th centuries, with a special interest in the ways that non-elite peoples conceived of their histories and, through their histories, their collective identities. Sidbury has written numerous books and essays on these topics and is currently working on a book analyzing the era of the American Revolution as an era of race formation. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on Atlantic history,
early North American history and the history of race and slavery in the United States and the Caribbean. While at Durham Academy on April 13, Sidbury will meet with the Upper School student body at an assembly and will have lunch with students and faculty. That evening he will be honored at an alumni reception at 6:30 p.m. in the new Upper School Learning Commons. For more information on the Distinguished Alumni event, please visit www.da.org/alumni.
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D a v e G o u l d w i ll b e t h e i n i t i a l r e c i p i e n t
New alumni faculty award honors “those who made us who we are” B y J a mi e K r z y z e w s k i Sp a t o l a ’ 0 0 , Al u mni B o a r d Vic e P r e s i d e n t
Les Todd
With these things in mind, the Durham Academy Alumni Board is proud to announce the establishment of the Durham Academy Faculty and Staff Legacy Award, which will be given annually by Durham Academy Alumni to the faculty and/ or staff member(s) we select based on the criteria established. Above: Dave Gould, who has taught at DA since The guiding 1981, will be honored with the inaugural Faculty thought behind and Staff Legacy Award. the establishment of the award was the desire to he relationship between recognize those individuals teacher and student is a who, during our time at DA, disproportionate one. While taught us things that became great teachers will tell you a part of who we are and that they do, indeed, learn what we do every day in our from their students, there lives and careers. We simply is no one who can have the want to thank those teachers kind of impact on a person’s who did more than make life that a teacher can. As us knowledgeable in their alumni, we often think of the subjects, to honor those who few teachers, maybe even the made us who we are. one teacher, who changed We could think of no our lives by challenging us more deserving individual at an impactful time and as our first Legacy Award by believing in us before recipient than Dave Gould. we even knew much about While in his history courses ourselves. While we think of he conveyed the paradigms of the few or the one, teachers the Renaissance, the essence can think of the hundreds, of Kantian philosophy and maybe the thousands of lives that they have impacted in this the nuances of the French Revolution, he also secretly incredible way.
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hoped that his students would question everything he told us, every word of our textbooks. But, when it came to his expectations of his students’ work, there were no questions to be asked. His standards for student essays are higher than those of most college professors and his exams are notoriously difficult. To reflect a complete grasp of the subject matter in one of his assignments may earn you a seven out of 10; the highest marks are reserved for those who take knowledge of the subject matter and combine it with the creativity that comes with thinking — thinking differently. Gould teaches skepticism without cynicism; he teaches fearless independent thought; he teaches synthesis and connectivity. While I remain inspired by the paradigms of the Renaissance, confused by the essence of Kantian philosophy and fascinated by the nuances of the French Revolution, these things are not part of my everyday life; but Mr. Gould is. Gould taught me not what to think, but how. It was a sincere privilege to have been one of the hundreds of students fortunate enough to have been taught by him since he came to Durham Academy in 1981, a privilege I will never forget.
Durham Academy Faculty and Staff Legacy Award As chosen by the Durham Academy Alumni The Durham Academy Alumni, through its Alumni Board, grant this award annually to those Durham Academy faculty and/ or staff member(s) who, in their service to the school and its mission, best represent the alumni’s aspirations for Durham Academy.
Criteria The recipient(s) should have: • Embodied the best of the teaching profession in general and of a particular commitment to excellence at Durham Academy; • Shared a history with the school that is long and/ or substantial enough to have impacted a significant number of Durham Academy alumni; • Imparted lessons that transcend subject matter and extend beyond classrooms; • Instilled values and/ or modes of thought in Durham Academy’s students that continue to play a role in students’ careers and lives after graduation; and • Served as pillars of the Durham Academy community by representing the school’s mission and core values of living a moral, happy and productive life.
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ALUMNI Meet Durham Academy’s Alumni Board •
Rob Everett ’86,
Alumni Board president
Rob Everett ’86 Jamie Krzyzewski Spatola ’00
Everett Anderson ’01 Seth Jernigan ’96
Libby Lang ’89 Kate McAllister ’92
Everett is the president and chief executive officer of Triple “E” Apartment Management, Inc., a property management company that manages real estate assets in Durham, Wilmington and Fayetteville, and also brokerin-charge for Walk to NC State, a property management company in Raleigh. A 2008 graduate of the UNC School of Law, Everett also serves of counsel to the Raleigh law firm of Everett, Gaskins & Hancock and is active in the Wake County Bar Association. Everett serves as trustee for a number of non-profit organizations.
• Jamie Krzyzewski Spatola ’00,
Alumni Board vice president Ian Niedel ’88 Mike Pisetsky ’96
Garrett Putman ’94 Jason Sholtz ’99
Geneviève Tindall ’02 Jessica Crowe Whilden ’00
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Spatola majored in English with a minor in linguistics at Duke University. Upon graduating in December 2003, she married Chris Spatola and moved to Lawton, Okla., where she lived for three years while her husband served in the U.S. Army at Fort Sill and overseas in Baghdad, Iraq. During that time, Spatola served as the executive assistant to the president at Cameron University while earning her MBA from the university. While in Lawton, she also taught high-school English and co-authored a book with her father, Beyond
Basketball: Coach K's Keywords for Success. The couple moved back to Durham in 2007. Since returning, Spatola has earned her M.A. in liberal studies from Duke, written a second book with her father and has continued to run the administrative side of Duke Men’s Basketball camp. She and her husband have a son, John, 2, and a daughter, Mackenzie, who was born in January.
Everett Anderson ’01 Anderson is a wealth management specialist who joined the Anderson Advisory Group of Raymond James & Associates in October 2008. Prior to joining the Anderson Advisory Group, he was a benefits analyst for a small firm in Charlotte, N.C. During his time at the firm, he ran extensive shortfall analyses and developed investment plans to fit the retirement needs of top executives at credit unions. Anderson graduated from UNC- Chapel Hill with a bachelor’s degree in economics. He and his wife, Candace, live in Morrisville.
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• Seth Jernigan ’96 After graduating magna cum laude from N.C. State University in 2000 with a degree in business/finance, Jernigan worked three years with Accenture, a global management-consulting firm in Charlotte, focused primarily
BOARD on bank merger projects. In 2003, Jernigan returned to Durham, and brought his consulting skills to Real Estate Associates, a Durhambased property management and commercial real estate firm. Jernigan is currently vice president of brokerage and business development at Real Estate Associates. He is a member of the Downtown Durham Rotary Club, and serves on its board of directors. He and his wife, Kelly, have two children, Wyatt and Stella. Libby Lang ’89 Lang graduated from Elon College in 1993 with a major in elementary education. She then attended UNC-Chapel Hill, where she received her master’s degree in learning disabilities with an additional certification in reading. Lang is a second-grade lead teacher at Durham Academy. In 2006, she received Durham Academy’s prestigious F.Robertson Hershey Distinguished Faculty Award.
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Kate McAllister ’92 McAllister graduated from Princeton University in 1996. After spending time in New York studying art history and classical archaeology, she returned to North Carolina and now works as a paralegal for Carlos Mahoney at Glenn, Mills, Fisher and Mahoney, P.A., a small civil litigation firm in downtown Durham.
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She also works part-time at Purple Puddle, a gift, flower and stationery store in Chapel Hill. McAllister served as president of the Junior League of Durham and Orange Counties in 2010-11 and is actively engaged in the league’s ongoing community endeavors.
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Geneviève Tindall ’02 Tindall is a research analyst in the health communication program at Research Triangle Institute International. Prior to working at RTI International, she worked at Duke University as a genetics and public policy analyst in the Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy. A graduate of UNC- Chapel Hill, she holds a degree in public policy analysis with a concentration in health policy • Garrett Putman ’94 analysis, as well as a degree Putman is a senior global in economics. Tindall has brand manager at Burt’s Bees. extensive experience in survey He graduated cum laude from methodology and design, Wake Forest University in focusing on creating survey 1998, where he also ran track. content to optimize both Putman received an MBA qualitative and quantitative from the Fuqua School of data analysis. She specializes Business at Duke University in in survey data analysis and 2005. He and his wife, Harriet, has developed and conducted have two sons, Will, 4, and nationwide surveys focusing Wesley, 2. Putman serves on on health policy issues, mainly the executive committee and related to the use of genomic board of directors of SEEDS, information in health care a downtown Durham-based diagnostics, delivery and non-profit. treatment. advised in general corporate and compliance matters, as well as in transactions ranging from private equity and venture capital offerings, initial and follow-on public offerings, convertible debt offerings and mergers and acquisitions. Pisetsky received an A.B. in applied math and economics from Harvard University and a J.D. and MBA from Duke University.
Ian Niedel ’88 Niedel attended Duke University and graduated with a B.S. in psychology in 1992, followed by a master’s of architecture from the University of Florida and an MBA from UNC-Kenan Flager. Niedel holds a N.C. real-estate broker’s license and is a LEED-accredited professional. He is selfemployed and is the founder of Niedel Development, which offers sustainable design, development and project management consultation, and Pinehurst Heritage Development, a historic properties redevelopment • Jason Sholtz ’99 company. He and his wife, Jennifer, have two sons Jackson, Sholtz attended Wofford College, where he played 7, and Maxwell, 4. football and graduated with a degree in business economics. • Mike Pisetsky ’96 After college, he worked Pisetsky joined Mark at Duke University in the Properties, Inc. in 2011 and sports information and media is involved in commercial real-estate acquisitions and new relations department. In 2007, Sholtz became the owner business development. Before of the James Joyce Irish Pub joining Mark Properties, in Durham, and a year later he practiced corporate and opened Alivia’s Durham securities law for several years Bistro. with Cooley LLP, having •
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Jessica Crowe Whilden ’00 Whilden teaches kindergarten at Durham Academy, and she is a Durham Academy “lifer.” She earned a B.A. degree in education from Elon University and a M.Ed. from UNC- Chapel Hill. Before assuming the lead teacher position, Whilden was a kindergarten teaching assistant at DA. She is married to Guy Whilden ’00.
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Right: Kendall Bradley ’07 (far left) was recognized at halftime of a Duke football game for receiving the Claude T. Moorman II Scholarship for medical school.
Medical student Kendall Bradley ’07 honored with scholarship
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endall Bradley ’07 was awarded the Claude T. Moorman II Scholarship in October by the Bassett Society, an organization that encourages and assists Duke University student athletes in pursuing medical careers and encourages research related to injuries from competitive sports. Bradley is a first-year medical student at Duke University and hopes to pursue a surgical career. The scholarship is awarded
annually to two former student athletes who are enrolled in medical or dental school. The recipients are selected based on “academic excellence, contributions to respective Duke teams, citizenship and Blue Devil spirit.” Bradley was a member of the women’s soccer team at Duke, graduating with distinction in 2011 with a major in evolutionary anthropology and a minor in chemistry. During her four-year career,
she was on the ACC honor roll four times, received ESPN Magazine all-academic team honors twice and was named to the All-ACC academic team twice. She collected 27 starts and 12 points over her first three seasons as a midfielder for the Blue Devils before sustaining a career-ending injury. Despite being unable to play, Bradley was elected captain by her teammates and coaches for her senior season campaign.
Mo llie Pathman ’10 wins NCAA honor
Shane Lardinois
Duke University soccer player Mollie Pathman ’10 was the recipient of the Elite 89 Award for the 2011 NCAA Division I women’s soccer College Cup. The Elite 89 is presented to the student athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average participating at the finals site for each of the NCAA’s championships. The Elite 89 recognizes student-athletes by honoring individuals who have reached the pinnacle of competition at the national championship level, while also achieving the highest academic standard among their peers. A Duke sophomore, Pathman received the award during a banquet preceding the women’s soccer final four. She is the first Duke women’s soccer player to earn the Elite 89 Award and the third Duke recipient since the award was created in 2009. Pathman currently carries a 3.912 GPA. The Duke women’s team (22-4-1) reached the NCAA championship game before falling 1-0 to No. 1ranked Stanford. Pathman led the 2011 Blue Devils with 11 assists and also scored six goals to end up with 23 points, the third most on the team.
Above: Duke sophomore Mollie Pathman ’10 had the highest grade-point average of any player competing in Division I women’s soccer College Cup. 30
Durham Academy Record | winter 2012 | www.da.org
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K else y K e ar ne y ’08: at hl e t ic , ac ademic e xcell ence at UNC- G
Pianist Andrew Tyson ’05 wins top prize Andrew Tyson ’05 recently Former Durham Academy goalkeeper Kelsey Kearney ’08 became the second player in UNCwon first prize in the 2011 Young Greensboro history to earn All-Southern Conference honors for four consecutive years after she once again Concert Artists (YCA) International Auditions in New York, N.Y. The earned the honor following the 2011 season. YCA Auditions are unlike any other Kearney also was one of 10 members of the Spartans’ soccer team to receive Academic All-Southern competition: There are no rankings, Conference honors. The team posted a combined 3.41 grade-point average and received the National and any number of winners in a Soccer Coaches Association of America’s Team Academic Award for the 10th consecutive season. wide range of Prior to the 2011 season, Kearney was among 30 student athletes nationwide nominated instruments and voice can for the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award, recognizing excellence in the classroom, character, be selected. community and competition. She was a five-year letter winner in soccer at Durham Academy The artists and earned recognition as a member of the All-Triangle Independent Schools Athletic Conference compete in her junior and senior years. against a standard of excellence, not each other. Tyson also Andrew Tyson recently won the Juilliard School’s Gina Bachauer Piano Competition and received a fulltuition scholarship. He is pursuing his master’s degree at Juilliard and working with Robert McDonald. t seems like yesterday that I was in school at He is a 2010 graduate of the Curtis Durham Academy. Here I am, eight years later and Institute of Music, where he studied a senior/fourth year for the third time, about to with Claude Frank. complete my journey to become a doctor that I began Tyson has appeared in in Mr. Ebert’s advisory sometime between eating concerts throughout the United Bojangles and playing Magic cards. I don’t feel like States, Mexico, Portugal, Belgium, life since DA has changed all that much, maybe less Luxembourg, New Zealand, Paris, time for video games and more responsibilities during Valencia, Berlin, Copenhagen and the day, but I have been blessed in being able to Warsaw. He has been a prizewinner follow my passions in and outside of medical school. in both the Kosciuszko Foundation In addition to working hard as a medical student, Chopin Piano Competition and I have been competing in triathlons for three years. ABOVE: Steven Suggs ’03 relaxes after a big race. the National Chopin Competition It takes a lot of time and dedication to train for these of the United States and was a semifinalist in the 2010 events; it’s an exercise in exploring the limits of your body and in fighting the voice that says, International Chopin Competition “Give up.” In medicine, we also like to fight that voice. For the past two years, I have blended in Warsaw. Tyson has performed my interests in athletics and medicine by participating in the Dolphins Cycling Challenge in Caramoor’s Rising Stars Series, (DCC) and sending the message to cancer patients not to give up hope. and at festivals including Brevard The DCC is a two-day cycling event of 170 miles, held in honor of Miami Dolphins Music Festival and Eastern Music legend Jim “Mad Dog” Mandich to raise money for the University of Miami Sylvester Festival. He has been heard as a Comprehensive Cancer Center. I was fortunate enough to be sponsored in my ride by members soloist with orchestras including of the DA community, and I thank you all very much for your support. The ride took place Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle, on Nov. 5-6 this year and raised more than $1 million. It was a very inspiring weekend to the Raleigh Symphony and the see cancer survivors riding, as well as being accompanied the full 170 miles by many of the Frost Symphony Orchestra of the Sylvester doctors. It’s one thing to be out racing for a win or for a personal best, but the feel of University of Miami. challenging yourself for a cause is much more rewarding. — Steven Suggs ’03
Steven Suggs ’03: Medical school, triathlons and 170mile cycling event
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Alumni Weddings
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Jenny Matthews and Jeremy Reed ’97 October 24, 2010 • Dahlonega, GA Joseph Kochan and Lauren Mauro ’98 May 14, 2011 • Washington, DC Mike Johnson and Rebecca Hylander ’99 May 21, 2011 • Fries, VA
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Robert Cerwin and Erika Streck ’98 July 1, 2011 • Durham, NC Danny Willner and Emily Wellman ’03 July 3, 2011 • Chapel Hill, NC
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Ian Blakely and Suzanne Perreault ’95 July 3, 2011 • Chapel Hill, NC
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Richard Abbott and Sarah Monsein ’05 July 23, 2011 • Pittsboro, NC Holly Becker and Kevin Cullen ’03 July 30, 2011 • Brentwood, TN Jonathan Ambler and Lindsay Speir ’02 July 30, 2011 • Durham, NC Jesse Gaylord and Julia Lacy ’03 August 13, 2011 • Durham, NC 6
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1: Mike Johnson and Rebecca Hylander ’99 2: Danny Willner and Emily Wellman ’03 3: Jesse Gaylord and Julia Lacy ’03 4: Robert Cerwin and Erika Streck ’98 5: Pete McWilliams, Bonnie McWilliams, Kristen McWilliams, Robin McWilliams ’89 and Allison McWilliams ’91 6: Holly Becker and Kevin Cullen ’03 7: Tyler Wooden ’03 served as best man for Kevin Cullen ’03 8: Bridget Hidalgo Hall ’02, John Hall ’02, Emily Moore-Pleasant ’02, Stephanie Callaway ’02, Catherine Clark Everson ’02, Will Soper ’02,
EDDINGS Corey Mansfield ’02, Jon Ambler, Elizabeth Stevens Detring ’02, Lindsay Speir ’02, Lizzi
Clark ’02, Julianna Tabor ’02, Emma Gould ’02, Andrew Weinhold ’05, Sarah Goldstein ’05,
Teddy Denton ’05 and Jeffrey Speir ’05 9: Jonathan Ambler and Lindsay Speir ’02
10: Richard Abbott and Sarah Monsein ’05 11: Jenny Matthews and Jeremy Reed ’97
12: Ian Blakely and Suzanne Perreault ’95 13: Joseph Kochan and Lauren Mauro ’98
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Photos by Tim McKenna
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Top: Alivia Sholtz ’00 and Jessica Crowe Whilden ’00 MIDDLE: Cliff Elam ’81 and Tom Farmer ’81 Bottom: Ania Oddone ’08, Brennan Vail ’08 and Ashley Brasier ’08
Alumni flock to Alivia’s for preThanksgiving cheer
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ore than 200 Durham Academy alumni gathered at Alivia’s Bistro in Durham to meet old classmates, have a few drinks and share in some stories. Jason Sholtz ’99, owner of Alivia’s Bistro, was thrilled by the turnout and hopes that this is the beginning of something that will continue for years to come. “We had alumni from the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s and ’00s in attendance, and everyone had a great time,” said Sholtz. “This was something Alumni Director Tim McKenna had done at his previous school in Maryland, and he felt would be a great tradition to start here at DA. Based on this first year crowd, I think we are off to a great start.”
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spring alumni networking events in
Charlotte, Washington, New York City
his spring, Durham Academy’s alumni office will host regional networking happy hours in Charlotte, Washington and New York City. This is a great opportunity to catch up with old friends, make new ones and hear about all the exciting new happenings at DA. These events are free; watch for information in the coming weeks.
Charlotte, March 29, 6 p.m. • Washington, April 19, 5:30 p.m. • New York City, April 25, 6:30 p.m. For more information, please contact Associate Director of Alumni Affairs Tim McKenna at tim.mckenna@da.org or 919-287-1717
Durham Academy Record | winter 2012 | www.da.org
BABIES
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Alumni & Faculty
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Babies 1. Duke, son of William Kimbrell ’98 2. Ella and Reves, twin daughters of Betsy Reves Sidebottom ’94
3. Eloise, daughter of Lawrence Warner ’87 4. George, son of Ran Holeman ’00 5. Grant, son of Andrew Taska ’94 5
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6. Hallie, daughter of Gregory Tayrose ’99 7. Keira, daughter of Sean Streck ’97 8. Lena, daughter of Meredith White Howell ’97 9. Lila, daughter of Lee Patterson ’00
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10. Lyra, daughter of Leann Widmark Jocius ’03 11. Owen, son of Susan Knott Easterling ’00 12. Sebastian and Evelyn, children of Liz Larson Clapham ’99 13. Soledad, daughter of Constanza deRadcliffe, Upper School Spanish and French
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14. Sophie and Gryffin, twin daughter and son of Elizabeth Allan, first grade 15. Walker, son of Tyler Elkins- Williams ’00 16. Mackenzie, daughter of Jamie Krzyzewski Spatola ’00
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Class Notes
Hannah Jacobs ’07 graduated from Warren Wilson College in spring 2011. She was very proud to graduate in the top 5 percent of her class with the English Award, Theatre Award, the Award for Academic Excellence and the Alton F. Pfaff Award — the most prestigious award given by the school. Hannah spent the summer working as an assistant program director at Camp Riverlea and recently joined the Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University as the program associate. She is also the youth coordinator at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Hillsborough. Rebecca Hylander Johnson ’99 and Mike Johnson were married May 21 on their farm in southwestern Virginia, where they farm some 750 acres and 400 head of cattle.
Singer/actress Emily Glick ’05:
Charisma and Talent That’s Hard to Miss
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urham Academy’s finest student and alumni performers took to the stage on Sept. 25 for a theatrical tribute to the Upper School fine arts program that also served to publicly introduce “The Evergreen Campaign,” a comprehensive campaign to support renovations and additions to two key Upper School facilities, build endowment and grow the Annual Fund. Among the alumni performers on stage was Emily Glick ’05, who wrote the following note to Headmaster Ed Costello following the weekend: “I just wanted to thank you (and everyone involved) for inviting me back to sing this weekend. I realized that, despite growing up in ACC Basketball Land and going to a Big Ten University, I’ve never
really followed a team. I never understood why all of these old men in Ann Arbor cry if the team loses (or wins for that matter...). It’s not like they played the game, right? But, as silly as it might seem, this weekend, I realized that, in a way, DA is my team. “I was more than impressed with the accomplishments of the students, Mr. Meyer, Mr. Bohanek and Laci. I was so proud to say that I came from DA. All of their achievements that I saw this weekend felt like my achievements, and I guess that’s what it’s like to be invested in a team, long after you leave the school. I don’t know if there’s a ridiculous amount of talent there now, or if the faculty is just able to draw it out of each individual, but DA is absolutely competitive with arts
schools around the country. “Everyone kept telling me how I was ‘giving back’ to my community, but I really felt like I gained more than I gave. Living in New York, bouncing from audition, to babysitting, to really great gig, to baby-sitting again, it’s so important to remember your roots. Not just that people believe in me, but I really think I sing my best, and am my most confident, on the stage in Kenan. “Thank you for creating an environment where students can explore artistically, and also an environment where alums can come back and get reinvigorated ....” Glick graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.F.A. in musical theater and moved to New York to seek her fortune. She is blessed with a phenomenal soprano voice, acting skills that draw you to her character, a personality that dares you not to notice her and a pluck that vows “I’m gonna make it here!” Until she hits the big time in the Big Apple, Glick is hitting the audition circuit, working as a hand model (yes, there really is such a thing) and baby-sitting. You can read and see more about Glick at http:// www.emilyglick.com and enjoy her terrific DA performance at http://www.emilyglick.com/media. html.
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utley, aka Muttybear, Mutsers or Bubaloo to his adoring fans, is a vivacious miniature golden doodle puppy and part-time “employee” at Ralph Lauren. He started his career nearly a year ago when he began coming to work with his mom, Stephanie Callaway ’02, who coordinates photo shoots for RalphLauren. com in New York City. Mutley had his first photo op during a Lauren Home shoot when Callaway’s studio team needed to add something “playful” to a children’s bedroom. Mutley was the perfect (and cuddly) solution. But Mutley is no ordinary dog model. Instead of working for treats, he works only for carrots. The salary is high — sometimes requiring upwards of 10 carrots for a few shots! Since his debut, Mutley has modeled polos alongside the Ralph Lauren kids — all modeling figure the while with a strict Mutley takes in the NYC Christmas maintaindiet of puppy lights with mom Stephanie Callaway ’02 ing his role chow, carrots and dad Jason Ellison. as the unand sticks; long official mascot and entertainer walks with mom and dad in of the RalphLauren.com office. Central Park; and lots of puppy Mutley maintains his playtime. Mutley requires
Celebrity dog tales: Alumni pup is Ralph Lauren “employee”
little upkeep to maintain his photo-worthy look — just a bath a week, a good brushing and a trip to the groomer every three months. His celebrity status has not made him highmaintenance either. Though he loves head scratches and
belly rubs from his admirers, he greets all his fans like they are his best friends. As for the future, Mutley plans to model here and there for Ralph Lauren and perhaps, with more training, branch out into other modeling opportunities.
D u r h a m A c a d e m y 3601 Ridge Road Durham, NC 27705-5599
Nonprofit Organization U.S. Postage Paid Durham, NC 27701 Permit #1083
Elvis is in the building
Yes, Elvis Presley, otherwise known as fifth-grader Shaffer Woody, made an appearance at the Middle School this fall! Avery Goldstein encouraged her students to come in costume when they gave a presentation on a biography they had read, and Shaffer must have gotten an “A� for effort! P h o t o
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