THE ADMISSIONS MAGAZINE OF EMMA WILLARD SCHOOL SPRING 2019
M AKIN G THEIR MARK
Lise Pfau Ciolino ’81
(page 19) What food did you survive on at Emma? Honey mixed with butter on saltine crackers It’s your birthday. What do you eat to celebrate? Dungeness crab and a crisp white wine What ingredient can you not live without? Aside from grapes (for wine), I would say butter! Which female leader would you like to have dinner with? Kirsten Gillibrand (aka Tina Rutnick, when she was a year behind me)
Brighton Goh ’19
(page 24) What food do you survive on at Emma? Tater tots It’s your birthday. Where do you eat to celebrate? A restaurant in downtown Troy with friends What food can you not live without? Bananas Which female leader would you like to have dinner with? Billie Jean King!
Mikea Bodden ’19 played the role of St. George in Revels 2018.
MI SSION Honoring our founder’s vision, Emma Willard School proudly fosters in each young woman a love of learning, the habits of an intellectual life, and the character, moral strength, and qualities of leadership to serve and shape her world.
SP R IN G 2 019 Jenny Rao
Head of School headofschool@emmawillard.org
THE ADMISSIONS MAGAZINE OF EMMA WILLARD SCHOOL
Erin Pihlaja
Head of Communications epihlaja@emmawillard.org Ann Dejnozka
Head of Advancement adejnozka@emmawillard.org Amoreena O’Bryon
Assistant Director of Communications for Creative Services aobryon@emmawillard.org Katie Coakley
Assistant Director of Communications for News and Social Media kcoakley@emmawillard.org Kelly F. Cartwright
Director of Alumnae Relations kcartwright@emmawillard.org Robin Prout
Director of Donor Relations rprout@emmawillard.org
F E AT U R E S
14 Pass the Bread
Four alumnae share culinary wisdom
24 Changing the Game A push for equality in sports
30 A World in Search of a Tribe Restoring a relic as a place for healing
Megan Tady
Managing Editor www.word-lift.com Lilly Pereira
Designer www.aldeia.design
P HOTO BY AMOR EEN A O ’B RYON
Please forward address changes to: Emma Willard School 285 Pawling Avenue Troy, NY 12180 518.833.1787 alumnae@emmawillard.org or emmawillard.org/alumnae Signature, the magazine of Emma Willard School is published by the Communications Office two times each year for alumnae, parents, grandparents, and friends of Emma Willard School. The mission of this magazine is to capture the school’s values and culture through accurate and objective stories about members of the Emma community, past and present, as they put Emma Willard’s mark on the world.
O N T H E COV ER This “signature” is brought to you by History Department Chair and Instructor Josh Hatala. In the photo, Olivia Pattison ’04. Photo by Elizabeth Cecil.
D E PA R T M E N T S
02 From the Triangle
12 Faculty Voices
U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand ’84 talks women’s suffrage, catching up with the founder of Mock Revels, Emma students serve and shape, Revels, and more.
History Department Chair and Instructor Josh Hatala teaches students to be producers, not consumers, of information.
10 The Classroom A new robotics program instills teamwork and persistence.
36 Click 38 Admissions 40 Signing Off Head of School Jenny Rao looks forward to defining the future of Emma Willard School.
From the Triangle 2
E M M A W I LL AR D SC HO O L
FROM THE TR IA NGLE
Persistence, Power, and Determination
PH OTO BY AMOREENA O’B RYON
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand ’84 Talks Women’s Suffrage United States Senator and presidential candidate Kirsten Gillibrand ’84 returned to Mount Ida in December to discuss her new book, Bold & Brave: Ten Heroes Who Won Women the Right to Vote. She was inspired to write it while researching women’s suffrage in the United States, traveling to see the homes of Elizabeth Cady Stanton (Troy Female Seminary Class of 1832), Harriet Tubman, and others, as well as the Women’s Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, NY. Senator Gillibrand spoke of her personal heroes— her mother and grandmother—the latter of whom was one of just a few women to attend law school in her time. “It’s okay to find your own path,” she recalled her grandmother telling her as a young girl, a message that ultimately inspired a life in public service. The senator, who in January announced she was exploring a bid for the presidency in 2020, described the women in her book and their contributions toward equality, and shared details of each woman’s story in the book’s illustrations. She also answered questions from the audience, taking time to discuss how she selected the women in her book, particularly women whose contributions, while progressive for their time, were exclusionary of people of color. She explained why she made the choice to include those suffragettes, saying she felt their influence on the overall movement was important enough to merit inclusion, though she made every effort to ensure the book incorporated history and fact to tell the entire story. “Women [of color] had to overcome racism to achieve suffrage for all women,” Gillibrand explained. “They played an important role in fighting for all people.” She also answered questions about her past and present political philosophies, her views on making politics more inclusive, and what students can do to create change. The senator told students not to be afraid to take unpopular stances when it’s the right thing to do. “No one is going to hand you rights. No one is going to hand you power. It’s important to realize this at an early age,” she said.
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Mock Revels lives on at Emma Willard School. Pictured: Faculty and staff played up the tradition in spring 2018.
Catching Up
INTERVIEW BY ERIN PIHLAJA
A Conversation with John Foster After he was hired by Principal William Dietel in 1969 to head Emma Willard School’s language department, Emma Language Instructor John Foster found that life on Mount Ida would bring him more than he ever imagined. His experiences at Emma continue to inspire him well into retirement.
John would love to hear from former faculty and students. Keep in touch at lojofoster@ gmail.com.
Tell us about life at Emma in the ’70s and ’80s. My family, my wife Lorraine, my son, Willard, and my daughter, Elizabeth ’80, and I lived in a duplex on campus. I was frequently asked to play “fatherly” roles in school plays. My love of theater was truly ignited at Emma. Are you still involved in theater? After I retired in 1990, we moved to Sun City Center, a Florida community of around 35,000. I served eight years as president of the Pelican Players, Sun
City Center’s community theater. I did everything from acting and directing, to serving as chair of scholarships, and as editor of the Pelican Players newsletter. Have you continued to teach? I have taught the game of Bridge throughout retirement, introducing the game to more than 1,000 residents of Sun City Center. I received the runner-up award for “Bridge Teacher of the Year” in a nationwide contest sponsored by the American Bridge Teachers Association. I love teaching, and I loved teaching French at Emma. It sounds like retirement has been a busy time for you. What other activities are you involved in? I discovered and indulged my passion for poetry with my first book in 2008 at age 75. Since then, I’ve published three additional
collections. My latest publication, A Gesture of Words, has the endorsement of Florida’s poet laureate. I am also a member of the Florida State Poets Association. What did you do to create the most longstanding impact at Emma? Sometime in the late ’70s, after talking with colleagues one day about Revels, and how we might interpret certain parts, I thought, ‘Why not?’ Mock Revels was born! I directed it for many years, and assisted in directing Revels during the ’80s. I also established the John Foster Prize for Excellence in French Award after noticing that none of the yearly awards were associated with a foreign language. Since 1990, one accomplished French student receives a gift and I write each recipient a personal note. I love staying connected!
GIVING KIDS A LIFT Stella Rim ’19 worked in the after-school program at the Refugee and Immigrant Support Services of Emmaus (RISSE) Center in Albany, NY, conducting weekly art classes for children. Through art she sought to help them gain increased self-confidence and self-worth. Stella presented the children’s artwork at art shows across the Capital Region and used the pieces to create mugs, tote bags, and notebooks to sell as a fundraiser for the RISSE Center. Through this initiative, she raised over $3,000 for RISSE’s “Give Kids a Lift” fund, which purchased a van to transport participants to and from the center.
FROM THE TR IA NGLE
SERVING AND SHAPING
A BETTER TOMORROW
Pearls of Wisdom Inspire Senior Class When asked to speak at the fall senior dinner, Latifa Al-Khalifa ’19 (above, with rose) drew inspiration and wisdom from her experiences pearl diving at home in Bahrain. She explained how a pearl is made, how it begins as a single tiny irritant of sand inside an oyster, which responds by building layers of calcium carbonate around the sand, until it slowly morphs into a beautiful pearl. “The things that aggravate us in our own lives are no different from a grain of sand irritating an oyster,” she said. “So, let me ask you this: How have you been transforming your irritants, invaders, and miseries into masterpieces? Or have you even been transforming them at all?” Latifa challenged her class to wake up on each of their remaining days at Emma unafraid of failure, and to embrace it rather than give in to it. “We need to allow for these grains of sand in our lives in order to grow and form the beautiful pearls we all are.”
“ So, let me ask you this: How have you been transforming your irritants, invaders, and miseries into masterpieces? Or have you even been transforming them at all? ” LATIFA AL-KHALIFA ’19
Sanari Ismail ’22 earned the 2018 Ed Block Interfaith Youth Award from the Capital Area Council of Churches—the youngest recipient in its history. Ed Block was a tireless advocate for the impoverished, workers, equal rights, and veterans through hard work, protest, and prayer. After his passing in 2014, the Council of Churches established the annual Interfaith Youth Award in his honor to recognize young people who exemplify the principles of interfaith commitment he embodied. Sanari was recognized for uniting her peers from different faiths to advocate for gun control. As an eigth grader, she worked with school administrators to organize a presence for her peers in protests around the issue on March 14, 2018 and with schools from across the region on April 20, 2018. She is motivated to continue her political advocacy on issues that impact others. “It’s especially important for the younger generation to get out there because we are the future and the present. We don’t have a choice,” she says.
TAKING THE LEAD Yuma Mizutani ‘21 spent Thanksgiving break participating in an eight-day leadership, college prep, and service program called Ivy Leader at Dartmouth College, where she engaged in lectures on topics including leadership, feedback, creative writing, and negotiations; participated in college prep sessions; and explored Hanover, NH. She was particularly drawn to serving others and helped prepare Thanksgiving meals for over 1,200 families in need in the Upper Valley region of New Hampshire and Vermont. Program Director Ryan Sinclair, director of global leadership and service learning at Cardigan Mountain School, said Yuma “exemplified intellectual curiosity, confidence, and leadership in her work throughout the entire program,” and commended her on her “poise, commitment to her education, and spirit of service.”
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FROM THE TR IA NGLE
SO C IA L M ED I A
facebook.com/ emmawillardschool
instagram.com/ emmawillardschool
Through our Practicum program, Prim B. ’19 designed an early childhood education project that connects second and third graders at the Hope 7 after-school program with similarly-aged students at Parker School. She created a pen pal project between the classes, and helps both groups write letters that she then delivers each week.
#SageTower #View
twitter.com/ emmawillard
We could not be more proud of Latin Instructor Diane McCorkle for receiving an Outstanding Educator Award from the @UChicago! #OnThisDay, September 25, 1895, #EmmaWillard School, then the Troy Seminary, opened its doors to boarding students, in addition to day students, for the first time.
#MoleDay
youtube.com/ emmawillardschool The International Experience www.youtube.com/user/ EmmaWillard/videos
As part of her Signature project, Judy J. ’19 hosted a mock election during lunch. We loved seeing students crowding the ballot box to make their voices heard! #DanceParty l i ke s
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l i ke s
FROM THE TR IA NGLE
Explore. Play. Learn. GirlSummer, Emma’s signature summer program, offers girls ages 6–14 enriching, personalized, and fun two- and four-week summer experiences. Each July, girls from a diverse range of states and countries come to Emma to choose from an expansive array of electives, allowing each girl to discover new pursuits or deepen personal interests. We welcome girls as day campers and, for rising 6th–9th graders, we offer the option of two- and four-week boarding programs: July 7–August 3, 2019.
Explore GirlSummer at emmawillard.org/summer.
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The 104th annual Revels celebration at the Manor House was deeply rooted in tradition yet unique to this historical moment in time. With the guidance of a passing oracle, visiting guests were invited to look past the darkness inside themselves and to step into the light. This theme appeared on the cover art of this year’s program, drawn by Molly Jebsen ’19, featuring the Queen of Egypt as a Nubian queen as an expression of young women of color. “The facial expression she wears is one of confidence and hope, much like the young women fighting for equal rights in 2018.” Thoughtful observers noted the story of Revels depicted in the hieroglyphs from the opening procession through the Branles. PHOTOS BY AM O R EEN A O ’ B RYO N
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The Classroom
BY KATIE COAKLEY
Learning to Rebound Emma’s new robotics club teaches girls the power of trial-and-error learning. On a still and dark December night, the Signature Lab in Weaver 105 blazes with light. Inside, two groups of students stand around tall tables, combing through large yellow and black tool boxes filled with screws, spacers, bearing flats, and more. On the tables are two half-assembled VEX robots, a double reverse fourbar lift, and a scissor lift. Robotics has come to Emma. Chiara Shah, Emma Willard School’s new computer science instructor and robotics advisor, walks a student through building the robotic lifts that will be used to carry a ball. She demonstrates how the still unconnected pieces will work once completed, bringing the concept to life and sparking recognition and understanding on her student’s face. One girl works steadfastly on building, asking Chiara for advice. They huddle side by side as Chiara shows the student photos of robots on her phone, and they try to replicate a gear position. The student holds the pieces at eye level to make adjustments. It takes concentration and a steady hand at the same time. Spacers are small and wobbly before they are secured, making the task even trickier. It’s frustrating, but not overwhelming. She adjusts her grasp and slowly turns the screws between her fingers—twisting slowly to tighten
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it just enough to make slight adjustments. She gets eye level again, removes a spacer, and continues. This trial and error is part of the fun says Chiara. “It’s so exciting to see students create and design and try new ideas. And I love the fact that they fail a lot.” In competition, robots are programmed to be able to vacuum up a small ball, lift it, and carry it. A lot of careful planning, programming, and testing go into the lead-up to a competition. Often the only way to fix an error or learn from a mistake is to completely disassemble a robot and begin again. “It’s competitive. It’s a sport. You have to practice, train, and do things over and over again until you get it right,” Chiara says. She has the experience to know. After leaving her career in the computer programming industry, Chiara caught her true passion for robotics while accompanying a student to the world championships early in her time at the Renny School, where she taught computer science and was the robotics advisor for six years before coming to Emma. That self-starting student and their parent, an engineer, convinced the Renny School to buy a robot kit and won a state championship that qualified him for a world competition. Chiara chaperoned the competition, an experience that left
her inspired with new ideas for the next school year. She became officially trained in VEX online via the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy not long after returning home. Chiara says she learned many lessons in her time leading the Renny School’s program and is excited to grow the program at Emma. Empowering the Team Before arriving on Mount Ida, Chiara won a VEX Robotics Girl Powered grant, which gives all-girls’ teams access to competitions and events focused on getting girls thinking about the many different science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) careers, and introducing them to mentors in the STEM world. Girl Powered teams are asked to sign a pledge stating their commitment to giving all teammates an equal opportunity to participate, supporting and encouraging each other to take risks, establishing a diverse team culture, and advocating for the Girl Powered initiative by supporting, communicating, and spreading the message to others. The grant covers the cost of a robot kit, typically around $900, and $200 for parts or other supplies. The third robot allows Emma students to split into three small teams, so more girls can be actively involved in building and programming.
TH E CLASS RO O M
PH OTO BY AMOREENA O’ B RYON
“One of the best things about robotics is learning to work as a team,” says Chiara. “You really want to have three to four students who can work and discuss and be respectful of one another.” In the Signature Lab this December evening, this dynamic is taking place with a team of first year international students. The team has hit a snag—missing pieces, specifically the linear motion piece to make their scissor lift robot move. They take the lesson in stride, working seamlessly together through the problem, arranging the small pieces and metal bars in their toolkit in anticipation of tearing down and rebuilding anew. A Commitment to STEM Robotics is one of several new STEM initiatives made possible by recent donor-funded programs. In October, six students traveled with Chiara and Caroline Bunicky,
director of research at Emma, to the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women, the world’s largest annual gathering of women technologists, as the only group of high school students. Julia Felton ’20 applied in hopes of exploring different fields, interests, and careers in STEM, and to learn about new technologies. She left the conference inspired by the countless opportunities available for women in technology across sectors. Her highlight was hearing Anita Hill, who spoke to attendees the day after the testimony of Dr. Christine Blassey Ford in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, speak about the need to continue pushing for equity in all fields, including STEM. “She told us, ‘Courage isn’t something you experience once in your life. It is something you experience every day,’” says Julia. The increased emphasis on STEM and computer science extends into
Emma’s GirlSummer program, which offered Girls Who Code curriculum for the first time last summer. Budding programmers were introduced to concepts such as loops, variables, conditionals, and functions; and developed websites, apps, and robots; and designed devices using Makey Makey invention kits. Equipping girls of all ages with the skills and mindset to succeed in STEM will empower them to hold their ground and disrupt industries that remain largely male dominated. Before they get there, they must first learn to try, fail, rebound, and try again. “Sometimes it takes saying, ‘Let’s just go.’ That’s the way real life works a lot of the time,” says Chiara. “You jump in and don’t know what’s going to work, and you need to learn how to cope with that and develop strategies for fixing it. That’s why I love robotics.”
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Instructor and Robotics Advisor Chiara Shah uses robotics to teach students resiliency and teamwork.
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Faculty Voices
INTERVIEW BY ERIN PIHLAJA
Josh Hatala
Creating a Better World Josh Hatala, history department chair and instructor of Classical Mediterranean History, African History, and World Religions, teaches students historical thinking, empathy, and life skills to make them more discerning global citizens. What is historical thinking? We look at primary and secondary sources and consider point of view and possible bias. We analyze, synthesize ideas, and try to develop historical empathy. It’s a way of “doing” history in the classroom that attempts to have students do the work of historians rather than simply trying to recite, memorize, and retain. The idea is that students will be able to construct their own narratives and their own responses based on evidence. We are not teaching students what to think about the past, we are teaching them how to think about the past. The past is contested terrain and historians do the work of trying to uncover, the best they can, things that happened in the past. It’s interpretative work—an interpretation of the past. It turns students away from being consumers of information into being producers of information. Why is history important? The study of history provides us with a framework for understanding the
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human condition and for wrestling with complex moral questions and problems. I think learning history and a greater emphasis on history would help overcome some of our current problems, and that the habits of mind associated with “doing” history are valuable. For example, we look at various media and analyze a primary source, separate truth from fiction, identify biases, and test claims because claims need to be supported by sound evidence—all things historians do that should be applied to the way we evaluate media today. I don’t think it is an accident that Sam Wineburg, a professor at Stanford University and one of the creators of an organization called the Stanford History Education Group, just wrote a book on the continued relevance of history for today called, Why Learn History (When It’s Already on Your Phone). He points out we are surrounded by tons of information, a huge percentage of which is inaccurate. So how do you separate good claims from bad claims? Wineburg argues that
even as students have access to facts in their pockets, it’s not enough to make sense of the world. Google gives us the illusion of really possessing knowledge. What projects are you taking on outside of your class? [My department] is working on guidelines for charged language in the classroom. We want to be able to hear and empathize with diverse viewpoints. I had a professor once tell me a good biographer is able to empathize with the subject even if that subject is someone the author really dislikes. The argument is, if you don’t have empathy, you don’t really understand the person. It’s easy to write off historical figures as being backwards, but we strive to see the complexity in a moment. We have to understand why people acted the way they did. We want to transfer that empathy over to some of the conversations we have in the classroom, for more contemporary subjects. As we have these divisions, as the world becomes increasingly polarized, as culture wars seem to
PH OTO BY ERIN PIHLA JA
TH E CLASS RO O M
be reignited on new grounds, we need to be creating an environment where we can’t write off a whole segment of the conversation. My colleague, Dr. Robert Naeher, recommended a book called Confident Pluralism by John Inazu as a reference. It centers on three ways of approaching difference or different ideas: humility, tolerance, and patience. Those three principles are our starting point. There’s a tendency today to reflexively shut down views we disagree with—we are all guilty of it to some extent— but obviously that’s not the way we create a better world. In the classroom we are trying to foster a culture where all positions can be given voice and entertained. Sometimes we will put students in positions where they have to argue something they disagree with. It’s a
“ We have exceptional students who want to dig deeper beyond the research projects we have in class. It’s cool to be an intellectual here.”
Instructor Josh Hatala teaches students to use the past to help solve current issues.
JOSH H ATA LA
way to develop empathy with a different position. That said, there are certain things that are not up for debate like racism and sexism. What are your Emma students like? At least once a week I’m floored by the way our students are interpreting documents, and the types of questions they ask that allow us to delve more deeply into a topic in ways I might not have expected. It’s not required but they often pick a topic that interests them and
research everything they can find out over the course of a year or two. Last year, Charlotte Chen ’17 worked on a project which focused on the differences of how the Soviet Union and China interpreted socialism and communism. She wanted to understand why China was able to retain elements of communism but the Soviet Union was not. We have exceptional students who want to dig deeper beyond the research projects we have in class. It’s cool to be an intellectual here.
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From the Triangle
Four alumnae share food, wine, and culinary wisdom.
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FROM THE TR IA NGLE
THE
Bread
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The Accidental Baker
Sydney Bender is a food editor and writer who lives on the island of Martha’s Vineyard with her husband and two young daughters. Her most recent work can be found in Martha’s Vineyard Magazine, where she publishes a regular dining column.
Olivia Pattison ’04 says “thank you” a lot. The words roll off her tongue in two sharp syllables, the second one louder than the first. It is midsummer on Martha’s Vineyard and Olivia is wrapping up two loaves of oatmeal buckwheat bread for a customer at the West Tisbury Farmers’ Market. “This is just the best bread we’ve ever had! Thank you,” the customer says, to which Olivia replies: “Thank you!” Olivia is the owner of Cinnamon Starship, the only bread company on Martha’s Vineyard that exclusively bakes sourdough bread. “I call myself the accidental baker,” the 32-year-old proprietor says. Her path started with a banana cream pie. “I brought one to a dinner party and someone there offered me a job as a pastry chef at a restaurant,” she says, proudly adding: “I took it!” Within a year, Olivia created a new dessert menu at the Beach Plum Inn and added a bread service. Former-President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama were among some of her customers. While working at Beach Plum, Olivia was eager to learn about bread, particularly sourdough. She rented space from a local bakery, and through “lots and lots and lots” of trial and error, she began experimenting with sourdough starters. To further her studies of yeast and flour, she interned at The Mill and the Tartine Bakery in San Francisco, then at the Berkshire Mountain Bakery in Pittsfield, MA, and finally at Il Buco Alimentari in New York City. In 2015, she launched Cinnamon Starship. Today, Olivia bakes 70–200 loaves of bread to sell at each market—and in the summer, she rarely has a crumb left when the day is over. She also offers toast with butter or local provisions, like peach jam, and occasionally she makes pastries and sandwiches, too. Using Instagram to announce her weekly menu to a growing following, she tempts her fans with tantalizing images of warm bread (and her beloved dog, Milton). Recently, she started hosting pizza night
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at several local places on the Vineyard, where she bakes sourdough pies with local toppings. “It’s fun to pretend to have a restaurant for an evening at a time,” she says. Impassioned by sustainability and reclaiming land for local farming, Olivia feels her bread isn’t just feeding people—it’s part of a food revolution that allows people to see how their food is made, and by whom. “That’s really my food philosophy: knowing the food you’re eating and where it comes from.” This means collaborating with a farmer who grows the grains for her bread. “It’s very cool to be working with someone who is trying to take the land back to its purposeful use. This is something that is not just happening on the Vineyard. It’s happening everywhere— it’s a revolution. The more broken our food seems to get, the more people are going to try to fix it. And it’s cool to be a cog in the wheel of the food revolution that’s happening.” Olivia’s education at Emma Willard School has been a foundation in her desire to learn and discover new information about the food she bakes. “I think having a good education informs anything anyone does,” she says. “The education I received at Emma was stellar because we were taught to speak up about our values.” And in an industry that requires her to develop strong relationships with fellow vendors, farmers, and customers, Olivia says Emma’s discussion-filled classes “helped me play well with others.” It is now late autumn on the Vineyard and Olivia is bagging a loaf of raisin flax bread and a pain de mie—a soft, white bread—for a customer at her Cinnamon Starship booth. “These breads are both so good; I’m not sure which one is my favorite yet,” the customer tells her friend. Olivia smiles and hands her the breads, both wrapped in paper bags stamped with the telltale Starship logo. “Thanks,” the customers say in unison. “Thank you,” Olivia shouts back.
PHOTOS BY ELIZABETH CECIL
By Sydney Bender
Olivia Pattison ’04
FROM THE TR IA NGLE
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From the Triangle
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PHOTOS COURTESY OF LI SE PFAU CIO LI NO
The Award-Winning Winemaker Lise Pfau Ciolino ’81’s “wine epiphany” started with Syrah. She had never met a red wine she could cozy up to until, as a young woman, she traveled to the Rhône Valley in Southern France with her father, an avid wine collector, and tasted her first Hermitage, a red wine made solely from the Syrah grape. This life-changing first sip of Syrah would spark Lise’s 17-year career as an award-winning winemaker. In 2001, Lise and her husband, Vincent, purchased a 55-acre mountainside vineyard in Sonoma County, naming it Montemaggiore for Vincent’s ancestral home in Italy. Talking about Syrah the way a proud parent might effuse about a prodigiously talented child, Lise says: “It speaks so much of where it’s born you can’t ever get bored with it.” In Australia, for example, “you get very fruit-forward, bold, knockyour-socks-off Syrah, whereas in the northern Rhône, in a cooler climate, you get a much more elegant, spicy, complex type of wine.” Lise’s focus wasn’t only on Syrah—or wine, for that matter. After graduating from Brown University with a degree in applied mathematics and computer science, she spent 15 years working as a software engineer in Silicon Valley. On the weekends, the state’s wineries beckoned her, and she couldn’t shake the desire to learn more about wine—and the inclination that she, too, could make it. While she attended weekend and evening wine classes at the University of California, Davis, she hatched her “10-year plan.” “I had this idea,” she says. “In 10 years, I’d get an Airstream trailer, plop it in the middle of some land, plant a vineyard, and start making wine.” Even as she lived the Silicon Valley life—which she describes as “work, work, work, hustle bustle, give up everything for your career”—she was laying the
foundation for another life entirely. She and a friend bought some grapes, borrowed winemaking equipment, and produced 40 gallons of Zinfandel in her friend’s garage. She admits she didn’t entirely know what she was doing, but she wasn’t afraid to ask questions—a habit, she says, she picked up at Emma Willard School. “I learned at Emma that it’s okay to be smart,” she says, “but it’s also okay not to understand everything.” When she comes across something she just doesn’t get— inevitable in the life of a self-taught vintner—“I just keep asking questions.” Her garage Zinfandel earned a gold medal at the Orange County Fair. Never mind that the next batch was undrinkable. Lise was now, undeniably, a winemaker. The Airstream never materialized, but a real winery did. Montemaggiore is a mountainside vineyard near the Russian River, where the fog flows in from the Pacific and helps to create a climate somewhere between Australia and the Rhône Valley. The grapes Lise and Vincent grew produced a wine that magically melded the qualities of both climates. Their operation was organic, biodynamic (a holistic, ecological, and ethical approach to farming), and virtually mom-and-pop, with Vincent and a farmhand planting the vineyard and Lise making the wine. Over time, the couple added olive trees, farm animals, and in 2002, their son, Paolo. Then one day, Lise says, it occurred to them that they’d become “consumed by the winery.” Just as they’d followed their instincts to buy it, they did so in selling it, a move that freed them up to pursue other pleasures, chief among them travel. Lise continues to make wine at a nearby winery, experimenting with new grape varieties, like Mourvèdre and Petite Sirah. “They’ve got great equipment, they’re great people to work with, and it lets me take a step back and go into a slower gear,” she says. And she’s just returned from a vacation in Bordeaux, where every stop on her trip—Medoc, Pomerol, St. Emillion—shares its name with a world-class wine. “I can never be too far from wine country and winemaking because they’re so endlessly fascinating,” she says. “Every vineyard, every varietal, and every vintage brings new challenges and insights.”
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By Leslie Garisto Pfaff
Lise Pfau Ciolino ’81
Leslie Garisto Pfaff is a freelance writer with a special interest in the arts.
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Susie Davidson Powell is the restaurant critic for the Albany Times Union. Her articles on dining out and upstate travel regularly appear in several Hearst publications, including Upstate and Women at Work. Her website, TheDishing.com, will launch in spring 2019.
At the oyster counter shortly before service, afternoon light streams through the gold-stenciled front windows of the Plumb Oyster Bar. Heidi Knoblauch ’04, “The Oyster Lady,” has a mayoral presence as neighbors wave and call through the door of her restaurant, on 2nd Street, close to Monument Square in downtown Troy, NY. It’s clear she cultivates a sense of community as she greets early-bird customers and staff with equal warmth. Each evening, Heidi and her team will serve dozens, if not hundreds, of oysters—about 1,000 each week. Shucking them is only part of the job; Heidi and her staff help guide diners on which oysters to choose, and how to pair them with drinks and the rest of their entrees. Two years after opening Plumb Oyster Bar, Heidi knows some 70 oyster varieties, confidently identifying them by their ocean origins—or “merroir”—finding clues in their briny tastes and ridged shells. “Oysters fit into neat categories,” Heidi says. “They taste of where they’re from.” It could be metaphor for Heidi’s life, with many life pursuits and interests leading to one incredible creation, her oyster bar. After graduating from Emma Willard School, she embarked on an academic track that would net two master’s degrees, a PhD in the history of science and medicine from Yale University, and a professorial post at Bard College, interspersed with periods of travel and reflection. As a barista, between degrees, she came close to buying the café where she worked; while her wife was in law school, they frequented as many oyster bars in Manhattan as they could. When her wife took a job in Albany, Heidi was energized by the neighboring city of Troy’s vibrant downtown renaissance that had occurred since her Emma years. She decided to renovate the historical Plumb building owned by her mother, and to create a farm-to-table restaurant with a spotlight on her culinary interest: oysters. Often, customers step into the Oyster Bar with questions about oysters just as they might seek advice about wine from the shop across the street. A natural
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educator, Heidi enjoys teaching people about how the ocean environment affects oyster flavor and texture. Crisp Atlantic waters impart sharp, pure brine, and the sweeter Pacific Ocean yields notes of cucumber and kelp. Among her current favorites is the crisp minerality of Hog Island Atlantics, an East Coast oyster being raised on the West Coast. These days, she’s also steering customers toward her growing passion for Italian amari. Like oysters, these herbal liqueurs taste of their herbal botanical origins. Cappelletti Pasubio, one of her wine-aged favorites from the Dolomites, has alpine flavors of blueberry and herbs with a viscous body. “I don’t know whether it’s because I’m a historian of medicine,” she wonders, “but I find comfort in amari, in their long medicinal history and the way they can be complicated in a cocktail or simple enjoyed alone.” Along with her degrees, Heidi has had a fast education in entrepreneurship. Running a restaurant, Heidi says, “is social, but requires strong leadership,” particularly in a male-dominated profession where less than 33 percent of restaurants are women-owned. “It’s a puzzle. If there’s a problem I have to figure it out,” she says, before outlining lessons learned: the importance of resiliency and risk taking, working through failure, and acting decisively when something isn’t right. Heidi’s experience at Emma ingrained the sense of resiliency she’d need to be successful in the fickle restaurant industry, and she is quick to praise rich resources available to startups in Troy. Recently, Heidi hired Emma students as hospitality interns as a way to bring her alma mater and the business community in closer contact. The city of Troy also recently appointed her to the Local Development Corporation. “Community is the reason I [run this restaurant], not just the day-to-day,” she says. “As an educator, it’s about human contact, about engagement. Customers are eager to know what they’re eating…oysters are a catalyst for that. If we only sold burgers and fried chicken, it wouldn’t be the same.”
PHOTO BY ERIN PIHLAJA
By Susie Davidson Powell
Heidi Knoblauch ’04
FROM THE TR IA NGLE
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From the Triangle
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PHOTOS COURTESY OF KELSEY BANFIE LD
The wise food blogger When Kelsey Banfield ’95’s children were young, one thing was clear: She couldn’t waltz into the kitchen at 5 p.m. and drum up dinner without any forethought. Becoming her own sous chef, Kelsey relied on nap times to plan and prepare meals, making it much easier to serve something she loved to eat, like eggplant parmigiana, rather than take-out pizza. Her daytime cooking inspired a blog—The NapTime Chef—as well as two cookbooks: The Naptime Chef: Fitting Great Food Into Family Life (Running Press, 2012) and Family Calendar Cookbook: From Birthdays to Bake Sales, Good Food to Get You Through the Year (Running Press, 2015). Now that Kelsey’s children are older, she’s shifted her focus from blogging to coaching other food bloggers about how to boost their social media presences, to develop their online personas, and to build large followings. Drawing from her own experience, she helps steer people to make smart and sane decisions about their online businesses. “It really takes being consistent, steady, and positive over time, because it is very easy to jump into an online food business and manically photograph food and put up content,” she says. “It is a hamster wheel, and you will give out. Decide what you can handle. Map content on a calendar, pace yourself, and give yourself permission to experiment, but also try to find yourself as quickly as possible because that is what you will ultimately be known for.” It’s also important to Kelsey to teach new food bloggers what it really takes to cook and post beautiful food every week. “You can look on Instagram and see a whole grid of delicious food, like 10 different dishes, which can be misleading,” she says. “It is easy to think these cooks are in their kitchen every day, when in fact a lot of food bloggers do all their cooking in one day a week.” Kelsey, who lives in southern Connecticut, also recently launched The Little Snack Newsletter, a free e-newsletter that “takes the frustration out of
By Megan Tady
Kelsey banfield ’95
web navigation by curating t he best food, travel, and design content on the web.” She also created Cookbook Club, which celebrates female cookbook authors. Always cooking and still occasionally posting about her meals, Kelsey describes herself as a “simple cook.” “My style is simple photography, simple family food, keeping it accessible, keeping it real,” she says. “I am very real about my kitchen, which is not perfect. I don't have a marble kitchen counter and my food is not always camera ready and heavily styled, because that is not how it looks on my table. I like flavor, and I like a reasonable amount of ingredients. At this time in my life, I can’t make complicated dishes every day.” What’s on her table each night? Right now, her kids—10 and 5 years old— are enjoying soups and cauliflower (to Kelsey’s delight). “My kids are not crazy adventurous eaters; they don’t eat oysters or anything like that. I am totally fine with that. I think kids should be allowed to explore their palates and taste buds, but I don’t think my 10 year old should be expected to eat like a 40 year old. I am more interested in them understanding that good, healthy food fuels their bodies and they feel better.” As Kelsey has grown her own business, and in turn helped other bloggers do the same, she has called on lessons she learned at Emma Willard School. “I draw on the confidence and that growth mindset I was taught at Emma,” she says. “I still go back to the fundamentals of empowerment that I felt when I was there.” Reflecting on the last nine years, she’s proud of the knowledge and expertise she can share with others. “It has taken a lot of grit to get things going. I’ve put 100 percent into it, and I am glad for that.”
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From the Triangle
CHANGING THE GAME 24
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FROM THE TR IA NGLE
STORY BY K AT I E C O A K L E Y I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y TONGRO IMAGES
One alumna’s quest for equality in sports deeply impacts a current student athlete.
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QUIET CONTEMPLATION FILLED A SMALL OFFICE of the Women’s Sports Foundation (WSF). It was 1978. Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 had passed six years earlier, offering the promise of protection against sex discrimination in federallyfunded education programs and activities. However, the act had yet to be assigned to a government agency for enforcement, severely limiting the opportunities for women to fully participate in many areas of American life, including athletics.
>> Hollister “Holly” Turner ’73 helped to change the course of history and opened a world of athletic opportunities for girls worldwide.
Executive Director Eva Auchincloss and Associate Executive Director Hollister “Holly” Turner ’73 knew that guidelines for enforcement of Title IX were crucial for leveling the playing fields and getting more girls and women involved in sports. They were readying themselves for the fight, and working together at the WSF strategizing the steps that lay ahead. “Growth for kids and eventually women come through academia, through high schools and colleges,” Holly says. “We knew that without enforcement guidelines for Title IX, there would be no growth of women in sports because we had to rely on schools to make it possible.” The Beginning of a Movement Tennis legend and female empowerment advocate Billie Jean King established the WSF with her $5,000 winnings from the Gillette Cavalcade of Champions in 1974. The foundation used the bulk of the earnings to cover training and travel costs for female tennis players. Billie Jean and her then-husband Larry founded and established World Team Tennis in the United States, a league based in New York City with teams on both coasts, while also publishing womenSport magazine. In addition, Billie
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Jean founded the Women’s Tennis Association in 1974. When the Kings announced they would be selling womenSport to another publisher, Eva, then the associate publisher of the magazine, agreed to become the pro-bono executive director of the WSF. With only $500 in the 503c account, Eva built up the organization, and when she was able to, 18 months later, she brought Holly on board as the director of fundraising and the organization’s first additional full-time employee. Holly had been working for the Golden Gaters, a San Francisco franchise of World Team Tennis prior to joining WSF. Soon after, Holly would be named associate executive director. Eva and Holly were formerly hometown acquaintances, and as a team they were an unstoppable force. “It was one of those amazing things that happens in life—we were an incredible duo,” Holly recounts. “We had very different strengths but together we covered all that was required to launch an organization based in the United States that had global impact.” Through the magazine, they raised money for programs, includ-
ing the WSF’s High School All-Star and college scholarship program, but Eva and Holly knew they needed more than money to support their mission to promote and recruit women to the sports industry on national and global levels. The implementation of Title IX was key to achieving their goal, so they made it the WSF’s primary focus. A Big Break In September 1979, Olympic Gold Medalist Swimmer Donna de Varona, an enthusiastic promoter of women in sports and newly-elected president of the board of trustees of the WSF, teamed up with Eva and Holly to bring the fight for Title IX enforcement guidelines to Washington, D.C. Donna had worked with Senators Ted Stevens and Robert Kennedy on developing the Amateur Sports Act, which established the U.S. Olympic Committee and governing bodies for each Olympic sport and provided legal protection for individual athletes. Donna secured meetings with lawmakers to discuss the critical need for Title IX to be assigned to an agency for enforcement, while Holly and Eva used their collective connections to form a coalition of more than 30 million women athletes. Donna, Eva, and a number of notable athletes from the coalition traveled to D.C. to speak in front of the joint session of Congress and meet with President Jimmy Carter and Patricia Harris, secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW). They used the opportunity to denounce a number of amendments in the bill, which they said took the teeth out of Title IX. “I feel strongly that girls aren’t going to be equal until they learn to be physically and mentally strong,” Eva told The New York Times. “One problem is that women lack the stamina, agility, and coordination that comes from sports participa-
<< Brighton Goh ’19 discovered a love for pickleball and an extended “family” at Emma.
notes how if not for their efforts the world would never have experienced moments like the U.S. women’s soccer team—made up of athletes who all benefitted from the passage and implementation of Title IX—winning the World Soccer Championship in 1999. When Holly and Eva retired as directors of the WSF, they founded the first women’s sports marketing company in the United States, and WSF became their client. They also started another company, Symphony of Sports Inc., a production company that created original programming for ABC and NBC Sports.
“ It was hearing from an alumna from another decade—a trailblazer—that got [Brighton] to consider the sports world as a professional career.”
PHOTO BY AMOREENA O’ BRYON
DE AN O F ST UDE NTS A N D WELLBEIN G SH ELLEY MA H ER
tion—especially participation in team sports. And Title IX provides girls with the opportunity to learn these skills from an early age.” President Carter expressed his support for women in sports in the meeting, but without specific comment on Title IX. Secretary Harris, however, promised to immediately review the regulations the HEW’s Office of Civil Rights was drafting. The regulations passed in 1972 had been a target of a lobbying group made up of nearly 300 colleges, which opposed the financial
impact of protecting women’s sports under the law. The Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) worked for years to push back and get Title IX regulations for enforcement, but it took the WSF leading such an impressive coalition of top athletes to finally turn the tide. “What we did was just to pursue what was right,” Holly says. “We were blindly determined. We knew what we had to do.” The impact of her years of tireless work is not lost on Holly, who
Paying it Forward In retirement, 45 years after graduating from Emma Willard School, Holly wanted to give back to the school in a meaningful way. Holly was particularly inspired to give back to Emma because she attributes her confidence and drive to her Emma experience—specifically traveling down the East Coast as an intern to promote the school with the admissions team. “That experience changed me in a fundamental way because it gave me confidence that I never had academically,” Holly recalls. “I was not a great student, but I knew I was smart and good with people, and I had a wonderful mentor named Dick Zajchowski who recognized something in me that nobody else did.” The internship showed Holly that she was a gifted public speaker and that she could sell the school—skills that she would use to later sell the WSF to the corporate community and world at large. Holly wanted to inspire and instill future generations of Emma Willard School students with the same confidence, and she pondered creating a curriculum on women’s
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sports at Emma that would cover the history of the female sports industry, the impact, and the career opportunities now available for women in every level of sports organizations today. “The legacy these girls have inherited is one of great fortune— certainly not the one that greeted me when I left Emma Willard, where girls were not even permitted to participate in sports for the most part, even though Title IX had passed,” Holly says. Holly visited Emma in November 2017, leading three information sessions where she shared her background and the history of Title IX to gauge interest in such a curriculum. At the first session, she met Brighton Goh ’19, the sunny and enthusiastic senior class president who had discovered her talent and passion for pickleball at Emma. Brighton was visibly impacted as Holly shared the dismal statistics on women in athletics, particularly in terms of coaching and leadership. While more women play college sports than ever before, female NCAA coaches number around only 40 percent, and less than 20 percent of NCAA athletic directors are female. “It was completely jaw dropping. Holly opened my eyes to a whole world I never knew existed,” Brighton says.
PICKLEBALL is a paddle sport that combines elements of badminton, tennis, and table tennis. Two or four players use solid paddles made of wood or composite materials to hit a perforated polymer ball, similar to a Wiffle ball, over a net. The sport shares features of other racquet sports, the dimensions and layout of a badminton court, and a net and rules somewhat similar to tennis, with several modifications. —Wikipedia
A World of Opportunity Exploring the world of women in sport was a new focus for Brighton, who came to Emma from Singapore seeking a holistic high school experience. She grew up a competitive squash player but stopped in middle school because of her school’s strict emphasis on academics. Also a talented cellist, Brighton was invited to be part of an Ivy League program based in Vienna, but while she loved playing cello as a hobby, she didn’t want it to be her profession. She declined the offer, opting instead to study in the
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Brighton and other interns met legend Billie Jean King while at the Women’s Sports Foundation.
United States, where she hoped she could pursue her love of both music and sports. On a slow Saturday in September 2016, an email calling for students to try the school’s “newly-built pickleball courts,” caught her eye. She took to the game right away, and reignited her love of racket sports. Before long, she partnered with Dean of Students and Wellbeing Shelley Maher and began playing four times a week, building her selfconfidence and relationships with other students and the community outside of Emma. Joining Emma’s adult pickleball league for Capital Region residents, Brighton has found an extended family, affectionately referring to players as her aunts, uncles, and even a grandmother, many of whom look forward to supporting her throughout her senior year and at Commencement.
“She has an identity, not necessarily as an Emma Willard student, but as Brighton Goh, pickleball player,” Shelley says. “But despite her love for pickle [sic], it was hearing from an alumna from another decade—a trailblazer—that got her to consider the sports world as a professional career.” Twenty-Five Days of Impact Brighton was quick to connect with Holly after the November sessions—impressing Holly with her maturity, enthusiasm, and drive, which inspired Holly to reach out to Deborah Antoine, the new CEO of the WSF, and Olga Harvey, vice president of community impact, to see about setting up an internship opportunity.
Holly, Deborah, and Olga developed a three-week community engagement experience where Brighton, as their first high school student intern, helped host, run, and document basketball clinics in underprivileged neighborhoods around New York City to engage kids in sports. She describes how at a basketball event with 130 children, only ten were girls. “We weren’t just reaching out to the ten girls,” Brighton says. “We were speaking to the 120 boys, saying, ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover, judge one’s qualifications and abilities.’” In the office, Brighton helped orchestrate the WSF’s Athlete Leadership Connection conference and Annual Salute to Women in Sports Gala fundraiser. The conference aims to educate senior college athletes on how to stay engaged in sports after graduation and connects them with professional athletes. The fundraiser and gala honors the top echelon of past and present female athletes. Brighton says it was aweinspiring to be in the same room with so many successful female athletes including Oksana Masters, the Paralympic rower and cross-country skier named 2018 Sportswoman of the Year in an Individual Sport; Team USA Hockey goalie Maddie Rooney, who earned the designation as the Team Sports honoree; runner Caster Semenya, who earned the Wilma Rudolph Courage Award; and Gail K. Boudreaux, president and CEO of Anthem, Inc., who was honored with the Billie Jean King Leadership Award. That year, in addition to being the 39th year of the Salute, it was also the 75th birthday of WSF founder Billie Jean King. The room celebrated her with a fundraising challenge—could they match $75,000 donations from their sponsors in 75 seconds? The answer was a resounding, “Yes!”
“She’s Real!” As Brighton prepared to return to Emma after such an impactful experience, she was invited to appear alongside Billie Jean King in a photoshoot for Adidas. The photoshoot was inspired by a shoot Billie Jean participated in as part of the Original Nine, a group of women tennis players who defied the tennis establishment in 1970 and started their own tour. In the now famous photo, the women held dollar bills to represent their symbolic $1 contracts with their new organization. For the Adidas shoot, Brighton joined other high school students holding signs characterizing barriers preventing women from engaging in sports, including a lack of facilities, coaches, and financing. Although slightly starstruck, when Billie Jean asked if the group had any questions, Brighton knew she had to take the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to ask how her generation could keep pushing for equality. “For two minutes straight, she gave me 110 percent of her focus,” says Brighton. “She said, ‘Women need to stick together, that to advance we need to have each other’s backs, and that it can’t be limited to the United States—it has to happen all over the world.’” A Continuum of Impact As Brighton’s mentor, Shelley says it’s been incredible to watch her have such a transformational experience, which she says has all been possible thanks to Holly’s vision and determination. “Holly had this drive coming out of Emma. She was really comfortable with who she was and that allowed her to achieve her goal of working the women’s tennis circuit. She went on to make such an impact,” she says. Holly’s impact on Brighton has undeniably changed her perspective. “When I used to hear the word ‘sportswoman,’ I thought you had
“ Meeting Holly and working with the WSF to engage kids in sports really drove home Billie Jean’s message that ‘sports are fun, sports are for everyone.’” B RI G HTON G OH ’ 19
to be really fit and athletic, the right height, et cetera, so I thought I’d pass on sports,” she says. “Meeting Holly and working with the WSF to engage kids in sports really hit home Billie Jean’s message that, ‘sports are fun, and sports are for everyone.’” Back on Mount Ida, Brighton continues to be more inspired than ever, finding solace from the stress of senior year on the pickleball courts and sharing her knowledge and summer internship experience at Morning Reports and again through a Signature capstone project. She hopes to encourage others to overcome any stereotypes and insecurities they may have, and inspire them to jump into a new sport of their own without worrying about being the best. “Just go for it,” she says. “Make your mindset, ‘I’m doing this for myself.’”
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A WORLD IN SEARCH OF A TRIBE Libby Coreno â&#x20AC;&#x2122;95 restores a historic bathhouse as a place to gather, heal, and commune.
PH OTO BY SAMA NTH A DEC KER
STORY BY SHANNON SWEENEY
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As Top right: Saratoga Spa State Park, Roosevelt Baths entrance. Below: Outdoor yoga in the State Park offers relaxation and rejuvenation.
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Built in the 1930s as part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s Great Depression public works program, the bathhouse was used for health and wellness treatment in the area’s spring waters, renowned for their healing properties. Vacant since the ’80s and formally closed in 1996, the once glorious 18,000-squarefoot, 42-bath facility has languished. When Libby toured the facility, the original chandelier dangled above a dusty, star-tiled floor. Fallen tiles exposed a brick skeleton, and chipped paint fell beneath the
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prestigious columns lining its once grand entrance. “It was a building in want of a purpose,” Libby says. “It is calling for a purpose—to be a center for healing.” And a center of healing it shall be, as Libby and her business partner, Stephanie Ferradino, both Saratoga Springs attorneys, have embarked on restoring the bathhouse back to its former glory. The pair founded the nonprofit Coesa in 2015, named for a mineral spring within the state park. Libby and Stephanie have secured major funding in grants and philanthropic donations to restore the bathhouse— and in turn, restore health and wellness to the community and the bathhouse’s patrons. “It’s really important that we spend our resources on returning to the original tourist destination Saratoga Springs was—a place of healing,” she says. “That’s what this place is for.” Long before Libby came along, and before President Roosevelt became enamored with the springs, Native Americans flocked to
Saratoga Springs for its healing waters. Saratoga Springs’ other bathhouses, including the Lincoln Baths and the Washington Baths, were built after the discovery of Saratoga’s mineral springs in the 1790s. For decades after, people relied on the baths to treat heart disease, arthritis, and other ailments. Now, Libby is hoping the bathhouse will “build wellness and change the world,” at a time when communities grow more disparate from one another. Bathhouses foster connection and conversation, and when renovations are complete, slated for 2020, Coesa will also offer programs such somatic therapy training for professionals, Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy, and therapeutic yoga teacher training. These programs are based on the Eight Dimensions of Wellness, promoted by the New York State Department of Health, which are emotional, spiritual, intellectual, physical, environmental, financial, occupational, and social. Many of
PH OTO ( BOTTOM L EF T) COU RTE SY OF LIB BY CORENO, (TOP) DANITA DE LIMONT
a practicing lawyer in Saratoga, NY, Libby Coreno ’95 would often eat her lunch outside near the Roosevelt II Bathhouse in the Saratoga Spa State Park, and then sit for a silent meditation under the park’s blossoming trees. One day, she peered into the dusty, worn windows of the bathhouse and knew instantly she needed to revitalize it. She immediately put a plan into action.
PH OTO BY ERIN PIHLA JA
these dimensions, Libby says, were lost during the development of modern medicine in the early-mid twentieth century. “People know what we’re doing right now isn’t working,” she says. “It doesn’t mean there isn’t a place for Western medicine, whether it be diagnostic or acuity, there is no replacement for Western medicine. The problem is, we aren’t treating the whole person.” People do recognize the importance of holistic wellness—the wellness tourism industry is booming. In 2017 alone, $639 billion was spent on wellness tourism, according to the Global Wellness Institute. To put that in perspective, the wellness tourism market earned more than the preventive and personalized medicine and public health industry ($575 billion) and the fitness and mind-body industry ($595 billion). The growing wellness tourism market is the reason why more wellness centers and programs are popular destinations in Asia, Europe, and the United States’ West Coast, but Libby says there is a gap in the market on the East Coast—and Coesa is hoping to fill it. Wellness tourism was once a booming market in Saratoga Springs when the bathhouses were founded, its focus was even permanently inscribed in the masonry of one of the parks buildings: “Health, History, Horses.” Libby is excited about the prospect of bringing wellness-minded tourists back to Saratoga Springs, which will benefit the local community. She is interested in gathering people from around the world who share a common need for connection.“[Coesa] will be a place for paradigm shifting and thought leadership ideas,” Libby says. “People are searching for community. People
“ People are searching for community. People are starving to figure out how to reconnect. We are in a world in search of a tribe. We have forgotten how to gather, and we’re searching for a place to gather, a place of peace, of purpose, and for healing.” LIBBY COREN O ’ 95
are starving to figure out how to reconnect. We are in a world in search of a tribe. We have forgotten how to gather, and we’re searching for a place to gather, a place of peace, of purpose, and for healing. And the reason is because we miss each other’s wisdom so much.” Before Coesa can open its doors, it must go through a number of renovations, including the installation of modern electrical, heating, and plumbing systems, as well as restoring the main lobby, restrooms, and space for potential additional tenants. The nonprofit will hire an executive director in the future, as well as other support staff. Libby and Stephanie have launched successful fundraising efforts for Coesa. New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo originally pledged $2.2 million, but reportedly increased funding to about $4 million to complete the building’s renovations. Coesa’s plans have been heralded by Gov. Cuomo and by lawmakers for preserving an historic building, boosting tourism, and promoting health. Saratoga Springs Mayor Meg Kelly told the Saratoga Business Journal, “It is exciting to have Coesa
Inc. enhance our residential and tourism experience in the State Park. As they revitalize the historic structures and create an opportunity for people to ‘create a healthier self and world,’ it is priceless to our community. I look forward to supporting their efforts in our city’s beautification and historic sustainability.” Additionally, Coesa is raising $1 million, including $500,000 to be allocated as an endowment fund in order to attract and contract with world-class presenters, speakers, authors, teachers, and providers. Libby says the nonprofit may undertake an endowment model similar to higher education’s speaker series and bureaus, in which ticket sales enhance the endowment. Central to Coesa’s mission is accessibility, and the endowment would offer scholarships to people in need, to allow them to visit the facility. Libby is hopeful the scholarship fund would also help support and revitalize people doing challenging and important work in their communities, recharging them to return home to make an even larger impact.
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Libby Coreno ’95
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P HOTO COURT ESY OF LIBBY COREN O
Libby’s passion for leadership and service began during her time at Emma Willard School—one of the top three most transformative experiences in her life, she says. “Emma taught me to both be assertive and to lead, but also the importance of service,” Libby says.“It was the importance of being a woman, learning how to lead and stand up, and how to raise my voice, but also the incredible importance of learning that when you raise that voice, to let it be in service to others. That was deeply impactful for me throughout the course of my life. There’s always been this thread of Emma in my life.”
Libby believes that health and wellness will build community and help change the world.
And that’s what she’s doing— raising her voice in service to others to create a center for healing that allows people to build wellness and change the world. “We are so self focused on what’s wrong with me,” Libby says, “when we should really be saying, ‘How can we make us better?’” Shannon Sweeney is a writer based in Saratoga Springs, NY. She is the content manager at Death Wish Coffee Company, and freelance writes about a number of topics, including education, health, and wellness.
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The Canyon Walls Healed Me Anna Schroeder ’14 finds peace and meaning working in the Grand Canyon.
FROM THE TR IA NGLE
For nine hours a day for nine days in a row, you’ll find Anna Schroeder ’14 working on the trails of the Grand Canyon. It’s there that she disconnects from the harried world of her past and instead plugs into nature—and where she and her colleagues from the American Conservation Experience maintain the trails surrounding the canyon. Her work includes clearing out drains to prevent erosion, putting dirt on the trail, and diverting creeks that emerge during monsoon season. And each night, she and her colleagues camp on the rim of the canyon under the stars, a life she felt pulled to after attending college in the buzzing city of Washington, D.C. “Living in D.C. felt very big and overwhelming,” Anna says. “Now when I get overwhelmed, I’m overwhelmed by how lucky I am and how beautiful it is here. Obviously I still experience stress, but I think that hiking every day, cooking and eating together with the team, and experiencing something new every day has made a huge difference for me.” Anna graduated from George Washington University in 2018 with a degree in political science and a minor in human services in social justice. She originally worked on the trail for a three-month term in the summer of 2017, but decided to return after she graduated. Now, she’s a crew leader for American Conservation Experience with a contract running through the end of 2019. In the future, she wants to work for the National Park Service. Her typical day consists of waking up at 5:15 a.m. to boil water over the fire for breakfast, rousing her crew members to eat, and then driving to trail operations to stretch and do a safety circle. Then, the group either hikes into the canyon or around the rim to take care of its various trails. After nine hours, they hike back to camp, make dinner, and go to sleep around 7:30 p.m. After nine days of work, Anna has five days off to rest, relax, and travel, and then the cycle repeats. “It’s been really good for my mental and physical health. I get exercise every day and have a strong community of people around me—nature can be very healing. I say all the time that the canyon walls heal me,” Anna says. “Being surrounded by such beauty all the time is incredible.” Learning to prioritize her own physical and mental health was something she learned as a day student at Emma Willard School. She was a peer educator, where she helped freshmen transition into the school. She said that Emma Willard has focused more on mental health over the past few years, and it shows. “It’s really interesting to go from an all-girls perspective into the world because so many people don’t have that perspective,” Anna says. “There’s sexual harassment on the trail, and people who say that women can’t do trail work, and things like that. I think that having the confidence from Emma Willard has given me the ability to say they’re wrong. There are people who have been scared away from trail work because they don’t have that foundation of empowerment, which I am very grateful for.”—Shannon Sweeney
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From the Triangle Click
PH OTO BY AMOREENA O’ B RYON
Founder Emma Hart Willard’s 232nd birthday festivities united the Emma community in celebration of her contributions to female education.
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FROM THE TR IA NGLE
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emmawillard.org
Admissions
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How to Apply
Applying to a new school can be overwhelming. The admissions team at Emma is here to help make the application process as easy as possible. The Emma application process includes the following: APPLICATION This can be completed online at www.emmawillard.org/admissions. The application includes: ❑ Application Form ❑ Essay ❑ Parent Statement ❑ Application Fee TRANSCRIPTS Should be completed by a school official and contain a minimum of two years of credits as well as the first semester or trimester of the current academic year. RECOMMENDATIONS ❑ English Teacher ❑ Math Teacher ❑ Teacher of Choice
TESTING While we look at much more than test scores when selecting our future Emma Girls, standardized tests help us learn more about each girl’s academic background. More information on the tests we use in our admissions process can be found at www.emmawillard.org/ admissions. INTERVIEW Please contact the admissions office at 518.833.1320 or admissions@emma willard.org to schedule your interview. IMPORTANT DATES Application deadline: February 1 Financial aid application deadline: February 1 Admissions decision: March 10 Enrollment contract and deposit due: April 10 emmawillard.org
emmawillard.org
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Signing Off HEAD OF SCHOOL, JENNY RAO
A Look Ahead One of the things I find most valuable about Emma Willard School is the incredible diversity of our campus. This year our students came to us from 30 different countries and 20 different states. Emma is a global community, and through our regular connections and interactions, we have fantastic opportunities to develop a sense of common humanity. We share common goals and dreams as well. When we make decisions about our school we are making decisions for students today and tomorrow. Over the last six months, I have been traveling to meet alumnae at our regional events to gather feedback and to hear directly from as many engaged friends of Emma as possible. We have started conversations around envisioning the future for Emma Willard School, and I want to share some of the early emerging themes. Our world desperately needs female voices and leadership— the playing field is still not equal for women. I think Emma Willard girls were built for this moment and I’m convinced that the world has never needed us so much, and never have we been so ready to be the change needed. At Emma, girls learn to lead in myriad ways. Some find their place in student council, some on stage, and others instinctively inspire their peers as they travel on their journeys by offering comfort, support, and friendship along the way. Giving students opportunities to find leadership experiences both on and off campus is and will be a priority as we prepare girls for the future. Young people in high school and college today are predicted to have eight careers in a lifetime. The mental habits of an entrepreneur—following one’s own ideas,
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resiliency to try again after failure, and the passion to pursue something personally meaningful—will serve our girls well in a quickly changing, interconnected world. We don’t expect, nor do we desire, that every student at Emma Willard will be an entrepreneur, but we want every student to develop a mindset that will allow them to think on their feet, be resilient, and to feel confident in their individuality. We have put a lot of thought into how we promote wellness in our girls and nurture their self-confidence. Girls are often taught from a very young age that they can be anything. Unfortunately, many girls interpret this message as they should be everything. This causes tremendous anxiety and a sense of not being enough no matter what they do. We are very committed to helping our girls overcome this pressure so when they leave Emma, they aren’t just checking boxes along the way, but rather pursuing a life of purpose. A mix of girls from all socioeconomic backgrounds ensures our school truly represents the world our students will enter. Making an Emma Willard School education accessible to more students is a top priority. We want to welcome smart, determined, and deserving girls and provide the financial aid they need to have the transformational experience that is Emma. We are so fortunate to live and learn on this beautiful, historic campus. Prospective families are awestruck when they visit our school. Alumnae who graduated decades before share with me how the beauty and tradition of our buildings continue to inspire them. It is our duty to steward the legacy and the home that is Emma Willard School, and we know how challenging it is to preserve, maintain, and revitalize our facilities. I look forward to the next chapters for Emma Willard School. I find these conversations rewarding and invigorating, and I am inspired as we form our collective vision for the years ahead. Thank you for being a part of our past, present, and future.
285 PAWLING AVENUE, TROY, NY 12180