Friends magazine, Fall 2017

in this issue 5 Creating Space for Vigorous Exchange 24 College Counseling: Finding the Right Fit

FRIENDS SCHOOL OF BALTIMORE MAGAZINE

2017

Personal GETTING Individualized learning pathways are rapidly expanding at Friends, giving students a voice in their learning and an outlet for their academic passions.

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Meet Five Highly Adaptable Alumni

IN AND OF BALTIMORE For their senior work project last May, Samantha Briggs ’17 and Dakota Allis ’17, far left, worked with Art with a Heart, a Baltimore program with the mission of “enhancing the lives of people in need through visual art.” Here the duo work alongside apprentices from YES (Youth Empowered Society, a drop-in center for homeless youth) and alumni of BEST (Baltimore Educational Scholarship Trust) — including Shavona Dixon ’16, a Goucher College sophomore — to create a mosaic at the program’s social enterprise store, HeARTwares.

Dozens of other Friends seniors also immersed themselves in Baltimore-based organizations during the month-long work project, including Julianne McFarland ’17, who interned in the office of Baltimore City Council President Bernard “Jack” Young.

She shared insights about her experience in a Baltimore Sun op-ed. To read the piece, go to: goo.gl/Z9z4Qg

Contributors In and Of Baltimore (right) Jennifer Bishop, a Baltimorebased photographer who specializes in portrait and documentary photography, is the mother of Theodore Epstein ’13.

PHOTO BY JENNIFER BISHOP

Imagine That! (see p. 34) A recent graduate of Oberlin College, Louis Krauss ’13 has written for the Los Angeles Times and the Daily Beast.

in this issue 2017 Published annually by Friends School of Baltimore

FRIENDS SCHOOL OF BALTIMORE MAGAZINE MISSION STATEMENT Founded in 1784, Friends School of Baltimore provides a coeducational, college preparatory program guided by the Quaker values of truth, equality, simplicity, community, and peaceful resolution of conflict. By setting high standards of excellence for a diverse and caring community, Friends seeks to develop in each student the spiritual, intellectual, physical, and creative strengths to make a positive contribution to the world. Recognizing that there is that of God in each person, the School strives in all its programs, policies, and affairs to be an institution that exemplifies the ideals of the Religious Society of Friends.

Sue De Pasquale Editor Heidi Blalock Managing Editor Mid-Atlantic Media Design Christine Pappas ’01 Director of Alumni Relations & Engagement Stephanie McLoughlin Director of Marketing & Communications Ashley Principe Director of Development

SEND ADDRESS CORRECTIONS TO: Friends School of Baltimore 5114 N. Charles Street Baltimore, MD 21210 Attn: Christine Pappas ’01 alumni@friendsbalt.org Printing J.H. Furst Co. Photography Heidi Blalock, Rick Lippenholz, Laura Prichett, David Stuck, Justin Tsucalas and members of the School community.

Please recycle.

18 GETTING PERSONAL Thanks to a rapidly expanding suite of new offerings, Friends students are crafting individualized pathways to learning.

24 MAKE ME A MATCH The college search is filled with highs and lows, celebrations and uncertainty. Darryl Tiggle and his College Counseling team are there every step of the way.

32 THE BIG PICTURE On a hot and steamy (but rain-free) evening last June, hundreds gathered for a “Night to Remember” — Commencement ceremonies for the Class of 2017.

34 IMAGINE THAT! Meet five highly adaptable alumni who are pursuing careers in fields that didn’t even exist when they were Friends students.

departments CMYK / .eps

5 QUERY

52 COMMENCEMENT 2017

10 NEWSMAKERS

54 ALUMNI AND CLASS NOTES

You can connect with us in various ways. Join us online today!

16 REMEMBERING W. BYRON FORBUSH II ’47

FaceBook – @FS1784 Twitter – @Friendsbalt Flickr – Friendsbalt YouTube – friendsbalt

38 ACADEMICS

80 DEVELOPMENT

44 ARTS

82 THE FACULTY ROOM

78 FSPA NEWS

48 ATHLETICS

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from the head of school Dear Friends, It is my great pleasure to unveil the inaugural issue of our reimagined school magazine, simply titled Friends. Mindful of the crucial role Collection magazine has served in connecting generations of Friends alumni, families, and faculty to this beloved School community, the changes you will see throughout these pages were made with careful thought and reflection. We aimed to strike the appropriate balance between tradition and innovation — a balance that we continually strive for as we move forward into the future while remaining deeply grounded in our rich 234-year history.

Aside from the new name, you will also notice a number of editorial innovations.

One that I’m most excited about is the addition of the opening Query section.

With it, we have posed a compelling question and invited members of the community to weigh in. Their thoughtful (and thoughtprovoking) responses represent a wide range of viewpoints and are meant to be just the beginning of the conversation: We invite all of our readers to pursue the discussion further online at The Thinking Cap (blog.friendsbalt.org).

I’m happy to let you know that the issue raised in our Query — around how best to foster an environment for the free and vigorous exchange of ideas while maintaining a positive atmosphere — is one that will be a focus for growth and discussion across Friends School for years to come, with the launch of the new Institute for Public Involvement and Responsible Dialogue at Friends, or Inspired (see p. 80). Made possible by a generous gift from Lou Hanover ’83 and his wife Jeanne, Inspired will engage students from Pre-K through 12th grade, through activities including workshops, speaker series, and more.

Inspired is just one result of our move toward soliciting broader engagement on important matters. As technology has made it possible to communicate more frequently and dynamically with constituents far afield, we’ve

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been able to reap the benefits of a wider range of insights and perspectives. Our newly approved strategic direction, Friends Connects, (see p. 10) is another important outcome of this more participatory approach. As we set about charting Friends School’s future course, we reached out to a wide variety of adults and students — through guided conversation, surveys, focus groups, and fieldwork — to help us better understand and address the needs of our community.

The result, as you will read, are initiatives that respond to the rapidly evolving challenges and opportunities that face us, and simultaneously reflect the timeless values upon which our School was founded.

While remaining true to our fundamental identity, we embrace this next period of renewal with energy and enthusiasm, knowing that we hold in trust all that Friends School means to those who love it, and all the good that it is capable of doing in the world.

I hope you enjoy this first edition of Friends magazine, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts on these and other developments at our School.

Sincerely,

mmicciche@friendsbalt.org

query

//Q How can academia best foster an environment for free and vigorous exchange while maintaining a safe and positive atmosphere for students?

A \\

Artist’s Viewpoint

I used digital art to capture I teach at a public the idea of someone being policy school, so it is incredibly the “odd one out” and important that my students engage expressing themselves. with the full range of perspectives on Because they are different, controversial topics that they will face the question arises if it is after graduation. But it’s not easy: In a safe space for this person anymore. Is having unique many classes, the students don’t come in and uncommon beliefs with a great deal of diversity of political allowed in order to keep views. And, as my own research has a space completely safe shown, both liberals and conservatives for all? —Keelty Wyatt ’18 are really skilled at ignoring information that doesn’t fit their own worldview (what psychologists call “motivated reasoning”). I’ve found a couple of techniques that have worked well to help incorporate different views.

First, I spend the first day of every semester asking students to come up with a set of discussion guidelines. These usually set some boundaries for what will not be allowed in discussions (no name-calling, no relying on stereotypes), but the guidelines also usually set goals such as being open to ideas and not shutting down uncomfortable or unpopular perspectives.

I’ve found that students are really engaged in this process and want a vigorous dialogue, and that being part of this procedure of setting the rules gives them a sense of ownership and responsibility for how the class discussions will go.

The second technique I use is to have students take on specific roles in class debates. Not only does this guarantee that an unpopular viewpoint is

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query heard, but it allows students to engage with these ideas without having to endorse them. Students often fear that they will be judged by their classmates for voicing a minority perspective, so this gives them a cover to do so in the form of a role-play.

The last approach draws on my own discipline of social psychology. I spend some time in all of my classes talking about motivated reasoning, how everyone is susceptible to it, and how this can lead people to have a (false) sense of superiority about their views. This gets students to reflect on their own reasoning, question their assumptions, and consider how their own biases affect their perceptions of the world. This last technique is handy outside the classroom as well — I regularly use it with my colleagues and at dinner parties.

No approach is perfect, but modeling intellectual curiosity and openness to ideas is a really important part of my job. And it’s something I learned by watching my own teachers and mentors through the years, starting at Friends.

Kaitlin Toner Raimi ’02, is an assistant professor at the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan.

A \\

It would be superb if teaching at a Quaker institution made this question moot. Those unfamiliar with Quaker education may imagine peace and tranquility govern our campuses, and we all wear gray garb and Earth Shoes. Perhaps they believe, as my own parents and siblings suppose, that I teach in a stronghold of liberalism, where alternative viewpoints wither and die, and people always talk using library voices. However, few communities are monolithic entities where all members hold the same convictions on all subjects. This community is no exception. Because caring and passionate humans fill our community, when we deliberate issues that concern us deeply, our emotions and tempers may flare. What steps can we take to stimulate participation in healthy, robust, and respectful discourse from all quarters without breeding fear and anger?

From the moment students enter our orbit, we must model and teach civility as well as the Quaker belief that God lives in all of us.

We must train students to collaborate, to compromise, to listen, and to show respect for each other’s ideas from day one, and expose them to adults doing the same. Setting ground rules that compel courtesy

Artist’s Viewpoint I was inspired by Cleveland

and appeal for open minds and Cavaliers basketball player Kyrie Irving. He said many hearts will help. Allowing children times that he thought the to submit opinions anonymously, world was flat and so having them create and conduct I made this in response. polls electronically, and reading It changed the way I made their papers to the class without this sculpture because I giving names are popular strategies imagined the Earth spinning for keeping classrooms safe and on a finger like a basketball.

So my sculpture is able to positive. As students develop spin on its base. confidence, comfort, and talent, —Alexander Raynes ’18 they need frequent participation in organized debates in which they must defend their assertions. We have to demonstrate that it is possible to agree to disagree, and it is safe to do so.

Including students on panels, in discussions, and in all facets of decision making whenever possible will further develop the skills of civility, respect, and compromise that seem so lacking today.

Deloris Jones has taught social studies in the Middle School at Friends for 35 years.

“ I spend some time in all of my classes talking about motivated reasoning, how everyone is susceptible to it, and how this can lead people to have a (false) sense of superiority about their views.” —Kaitlin Toner Raimi ’02

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query

A \\

There seems to be a misconception lately that creating a safe learning environment will hinder a free discourse of ideas, because it requires that some voices will be stifled or censored.

I would argue that the opposite is true: There can only be open and dynamic academic discussions in environments where all participants feel safe. If the key to a safe learning environment is mutual respect among all parties, then only disrespectful voices would be censored.

Forcing students to interact with peers who insult and deny their humanity should not be seen as integral to their development or education.

What then does a safe academic environment look like? It means a foundation of genuine respect for the humanity of everyone in the room. It means people are actively educating themselves about experiences that differ from their own. It means teachers acknowledging and accommodating the fact that students have lives outside of their classrooms. Cultivating this sort of environment is the responsibility of everyone involved, but especially that of the administrators and teachers/professors who are in charge of educational institutions. Currently, however, it is students who are pushing for these measures to be taken.

At Oberlin College, my alma mater, there are many student-led initiatives for self-education on experiences that differ from your own.

For example, in the student-run co-op system, it is required that every co-op member (around 600 students total) attends a workshop on privilege and oppression every semester. There are a huge variety of workshops to pick from, but you must attend one. In this student-run organization, all members are held accountable for working to educate themselves. It is time for larger academic institutions to require the same self-education.

Teachers and administrators must also be acknowledging and accommodating the lives students have beyond the classroom. Trigger warnings have become a buzzword, used as evidence of the way college

students are coddled and entitled. If they expect trigger warnings, skeptics argue, how will students be ready for the “real world”?

What these sentiments ignore is that the necessity of trigger warnings demonstrates that students have already had plenty of experiences with the “real world.” This isn’t to say that teachers should refrain from teaching controversial materials or that students should get a carte blanche to not do their homework. Rather, trigger warnings are merely an acknowledgement that due to certain past experiences, some students need a heads-up before dealing with some subject matter. It doesn’t have to be a big deal — it can be as simple as professors making themselves available to answer questions about the content of the readings in advance.

Students are already taking the initiative to create these resources for themselves and to advocate for what they need and want from their schools in order to feel safe and supported in the classroom. Now it’s time for administrators and educators to listen and follow through, rather than debating whether or not student requests are justified.

Jennifer Kneebone ’13, earned her B.A. from Oberlin College in spring 2017, with a major in theater. She is as an admissions counselor at Earlham College.

A \\

I think this may the biggest challenge we face today in our classrooms. Tackling discussion topics that invite a range of opinions, many of which are deeply held and intensely personal, can feel like a minefield. I can recall times where we set down the road of a difficult conversation in class, got to the point where it was messy and unsettled, only to have the bell ring. It is upsetting to know that I only had time to expose the range of ideas without offering students the experience of being able to process through together. When that happens, it is natural to want to avoid challenging topics altogether, but that would be a mistake.

There are many aspects to supporting students as they learn to deal in the marketplace of ideas. One way I approach it from the discipline of history is to talk about the historical context that underpins whatever we are talking about. In order to understand the wealth gap between races Artist’s Viewpoint in America, students The project was to 3-D print an object have to understand local that represents an emotion or a feeling. and federal housing I chose the feeling of running out of time. policies in the 20th That’s why the clock has a bite out of it. century, for example.

The process was long and I messed it up a Beyond the history, it is lot, but I think I came out with a good piece. essential to help students —Emerson Rea ’20

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query “ While I would never want to deny a student’s personal experience, I do want to have the students look beyond themselves to learn about other perspectives.” —Molly Smith ’82

see that there are many different lived experiences today and that a person’s position on a particular issue will be different depending on what that experience is. For example, when we look at the question of immigration in U.S. history class, we read articles that demonstrate the varied impact that immigration has on different regions and different social classes so that they can understand there is no universal impact.

With the tendency to simplify and polarize prevalent in the variety of media our students are exposed to, the underlying and recurring theme in my classroom is “It’s complicated. Discuss.” While I would never want to deny a student’s personal experience, I do want to have the students look beyond themselves to learn about other perspectives.

Equipping students with a body of knowledge that takes them beyond their own history and that of their families, imparting a sense of empathy, is invaluable. One of my favorite phrases to hear from my students is “I never realized that …”

As Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie so eloquently expresses at the end of her TED Talk, “When we reject the single story, when we realize that there is never a single story about any place, we regain a kind of paradise.”

Molly Smith ’82, chair of the History Department in the Upper School, has taught at Friends for eight years.

A \\

You might expect me, as a law professor, to emphasize how legal rules determine the limits of free expression. Instead, I hope to persuade you that law — and even university policies — should play merely a peripheral role in establishing the conditions for a productive exchange of ideas.

To be sure, various sources of law prohibit falsely defamatory statements, protect individual privacy, and outlaw discrimination, threats, and harassment. Constitutional principles prohibit public — though not private — schools and universities from favoring one viewpoint over another. And university policies often regulate the time, place, and manner of otherwise protected expression to ensure that it does not disrupt day-to-day operations. In a well-functioning university, however, these formal regulations should be invoked only rarely. And they do only a small part of the work necessary to foster a free and vigorous exchange of ideas.

Legal rules wisely focus on only the most egregious conduct.

Indeed, First Amendment principles require the state to bear a heavy

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burden to justify any limits Artist’s Viewpoint on speech. We rightly I’ve been curious about “saying the fear that excessive legal right thing,” the “wrong thing,” and regulation will chill regretting what you do or don’t say. free expression.

I think this concept can tie into what it means to be a woman and biting Poorly drafted laws your tongue on the important things. and policies tend to be Constructing a tactile 3-D object (this both overbroad and vague. is my first official sculpture ever) was a Transitory controversies cathartic process in itself and stitching often inspire unduly the words felt meaningful because restrictive responses. sewing is a historically female activity.

For example, the recent The statements I stitched into the tarlatan, including “I trusted you and re-emergence of narrowly shouldn’t have,” “I am jealous of you,” circumscribed “free speech and “Sometimes boys aren’t where zones” illustrates a welllife starts and ends,” are things I never meaning but misguided got to say or was too scared to say approach to regulating during my life in high school. The campus speech. Conversely, piece is called “Parting Gift” for legislation prohibiting a reason. —Kayleigh Ford ’17 public universities from withdrawing speaking invitations ignores legitimate reasons for reconsidering a prior invitation.

We also should worry about vague anti-harassment policies, which sweep so broadly that faculty and students must worry when they express civil disagreement with others. Even well-drafted university policies depend crucially on administrators to interpret them sensitively to support legitimate aims and avoid unduly constraining speech.

query I propose instead that we should lead by example. Our goal should be to model scholarly inquiry and the highest standards of respectful discourse in everything we do. It is no great mystery what sorts of conduct we hope to inspire in our students. We want them to treat others with civility and respect, engage in thoughtful debate, and show the courage to stand up for their convictions. We hope that they will remain open-minded whenever there is room for reasoned disagreement and that they will be tolerant of diverse views, but also eager to challenge erroneous or oppressive positions.

We can best achieve these lofty goals by doing as we would have them do. Similarly, our teaching methods should encourage students both to express themselves and to develop empathy. We can use active learning exercises and classroom discussion to encourage students to take the perspective of others. We should expect students to make mistakes and give them the opportunity to learn from those experiences. Finally, we must constantly question our first impressions and conventional wisdom. Without a healthy dose of humility, we all run the risk of succumbing to the sort of arrogant overconfidence that so often afflicts contemporary political discourse.

J.H. (Rip) Verkerke ’77, is a professor of law and director of the Program for Employment and Labor Law Studies at the University of Virginia School of Law.

A \\

It has been very insightful watching the debate surrounding safe spaces on high school and college campuses evolve.

Some take “safe spaces” to mean “repressing speech,” leading to the hotly debated term “snowflake culture.” This is bemusing, as creating learning environments where debates don’t devolve into insults is hardly repressing speech. A safe space is an environment in which one can feel comfortable being their authentic self and safely expressing their viewpoints.

In theory, every environment should be a safe space; however, that is regrettably not the case. Within the past year, we as a country have witnessed many events proving that not every individual enjoys a universal sense of safety; many are in danger for merely existing. We all come from different social locations, intersections defining the lens through which we see the world. Despite the obvious fact that we are unevenly shaped by our privileges and disadvantages, many still remain confused by what demands for safety in academic communities mean.

Whether this “snowflake culture” truly exists — or in actuality is a group of traditionally marginalized and unheard people demanding a seat at the table — is up for debate. What most will agree on, though, is that those of us privileged enough to have a choice in where we receive our education often make that decision based on the

expectation of safety and a positive atmosphere for growth. We, too, make that choice based on the core values of that institution, hoping to find a community whose mission aligns with our individual beliefs.

For example, my mom chose Friends School because she believed it was the best place to prepare me for where I am today.

Friends’ focus on community, drawing from Quaker tradition, in many ways embodies what a safe academic space should offer. To me, a safe space does not mean repressing speech or viewpoints; a safe space is a classroom where each other’s humanity and community comes first and discussion remains respectful of differing perspectives.

A safe community provides students tools to engage in discussion of contentious topics without resorting to insults or raised voices.

A safe community embues its members with an understanding that listening to — and reflecting on — others’ experiences will enrich and strengthen ties. There are many critical, sensitive discussions to be had, and giving students the skills to navigate these discussions in a patient and understanding manner is invaluable.

The purpose of any institution is to help develop skills that are used for a lifetime. In college, I was encouraged to engage in classes and clubs that aligned with my beliefs and aspirations. I also engaged ideas that are counter to my own, often through vigorous classroom debates. The study of many opposing viewpoints helped me develop many of my current beliefs. It was only possible to expand my knowledge and worldview by vigorously debating many ideas.

Stretching oneself to do the hard work of inclusion is demanding but necessary work.

Everyone experiencing the same level of respect and safety strengthens the whole community. This starts with acknowledging the lived experiences of others and simply saying, “I believe you. I believe you when you are telling me that this makes you feel unwelcome here, and what can I do to change that?” We must recognize that within this context we are all working together, and sometimes it does get messy; in the end, students get the best that the school has to offer when learning environments are aligned with its mission.

Elijah Muhammad ’12, is an alumnus of Northeastern University. This fall he began teaching in Baltimore City Schools through the Teach for America program.

What’s Your Response to Our Query?

Be a part of our online discussion group. Weigh in on something you’ve read here or add a new insight on our blog, The Thinking Cap, at blog.friendsbalt.org.

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newsmakers A Bold Vision

FRIENDS CONNECTS IDENTIFIES FOUR AREAS OF FOCUS

WHAT’S IN A NAME? The development of Friends Connects was guided by the construct of the School’s name: Friends: In all that we contemplate, we will seek to deepen and enrich our fundamental identity as a Friends institution and to live and share our Quaker values in ways that influence others within and beyond the School’s immediate community.

School: Another thrust of our efforts is no less ambitious than reimagining the very purpose and shape of school, given the rate and complexity of change that is taking place in our world.

Of Baltimore: We will strive to be more fully in, with, for, and of Baltimore, in ways that will enhance our students’ experiences and broaden their perspectives, making a Friends education the beginning of a lifetime of deep and abiding civic engagement.

After months of planning and development, Friends School has embarked on a bold new strategic direction. Friends Connects: A Strategic Direction for the Future sets a unique and distinct course that will help Friends to remain a thriving, growing, and financially sustainable independent school, says Trish Backer-Miceli ’83, chair of the Board of Trustees from 2015 to 2017.

“We engaged a wide group of constituents — parents, alumni, faculty, staff, students, administrators, trustees — and their input was invaluable in developing this plan,” she says. “This was a true collaborative effort, placing the emphasis on the students and their families and the best way to engage them and our School for the future.”

Head of School Matt Micchiche notes that Friends School is committed to preparing students “to thrive in a future that we ourselves cannot fully imagine.” That preparation includes — and goes beyond — college preparation, he says. “Our aim is life preparation; nurturing young people who are self-aware, emotionally intelligent, intellectually engaged, socially conscious, culturally competent, and who interact with others — locally and globally — in meaningful and transformative ways.”

Friends Connects is organized around four groupings of communities. “For each group, a goal has been defined to guide our work over the coming years,” Backer-Miceli explains.

Students and Employees Goal: To base our educational program on leading-edge pedagogy, to offer a personalized and deeply meaningful education to all students, and to be the employer of choice for the talented professionals we need in order to most effectively partner with our students and families.

Families and Alumni Goal: To more fully engage families and alumni in the life of our campus community in order to enrich these vital relationships.

The City of Baltimore and Surrounding Region Goal: To partner with key stakeholders in the local community to create meaningful learning for our students while being a transformative force for the benefit of Baltimore.

National and Global Communities Goal: To prepare our students for life and work within communities that stretch far beyond the borders of our campus and our city.

“What excites me about Friends Connects is that it articulates a broadening understanding of the community in which we live, learn, and work,” says Amy Schmaljohn, an English and history teacher in the Upper School who served on the strategic planning committee.

“We are growing into a greater humility,” she continues. “We are here to be partners, to be allies in the work for justice, equity, and inclusion in our city and in the world. We have to be ready to be transformed and to grow in our capacity for love.”

Look for additional information, including opportunities to serve, in the months ahead.

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newsmakers

Deeply Gathered ALTERNATIVE QUAKER MEETINGS OFFER NEW WAYS OF PRACTICING SPIRITUALITY Meeting for Worship, the Quaker practice of gathering together in stillness, or “expectant waiting,” in the Meetinghouse, is a time-honored tradition at Friends and at Quaker-based schools everywhere. Generations of students have learned, over time, how to center down, to let go of racing thoughts, and to listen for the “still small voice” of the spirit — no small feat, as any new attender can attest. Now the Upper School, with guidance from the Quaker Student Union (QSU), is exploring the idea of alternative Meetings for Worship, small group experiences that create space for different ways of gathering New small group and reflecting.

Included among these, the QSU has hosted experiences include Meeting for Worship for Singing, led by math meditative drawing teacher and music enthusiast John Bonn; Meeting for Worship for Meditative Drawing and Listening, and listening, in which participants listen to wise Buddhist teachers meditative walking, Thich Nhat Hanh and Jack Kornfield while sketching with pencils and pens; Meeting for and poetry reading.

Worship for Meditative Walking; and Meeting for Worship for Poetry Reading, to which each participant brings a favorite short poem or stanzas of a longer poem to read aloud.

“We got the idea from attending the 2015 Quaker Student Leadership Conference at Moses Brown School and Lincoln School in Providence, Rhode Island,” says Ryan Hardy ’19, co-clerk, with Faith Apencha ’17, of the 2016-17 QSU. There, organizers offered alternatives, such as Meeting for Drumming. “We thought it might be a good way to engage our student body and get people interested in and excited for Meeting for Worship,” he adds.

It turns out they were right: An end-of-year survey last May about the alternative Meetings yielded overwhelmingly positive feedback. Student choice is one reason.

The ideas for the reflective gatherings come from the student body.

In a school steeped in Quaker practice, the small-group format will not supplant the traditional weekly Meetings for Worship held in the Stony Run Meetinghouse and in Forbush Auditorium. Instead, “they are helping to make our traditional ‘unprogrammed’ Meetings for Worship in the Meetinghouse feel more deeply ‘gathered’,” says teacher and QSU advisor Amy Schmaljohn, a longtime member of Gunpowder Friends Meeting.

She adds, “We think they’re making a difference in the quality of our overall Worship.”

Nick DeVinne ’17, left, and Pace Schwarz ’19 power through.

Oatmeals on Wheels A cold, windy and soggy day did not deter the stalwart team of Friends School kinetinauts who last spring braved the elements, stiff competition from almost 30 other teams, and a few engineering challenges to conquer the 19th Annual Kinetic Sculpture Race hosted by the American Visionary Arts Museum — a 14-mile, multiterrain course.

The 2017 design team, led by Pace Schwarz ’19 and Carter Ruffin ’19, plus Christopher Field (father of 2016 team leader Lucretia Field ’16), and Upper School Principal Steve McManus, employed a design-thinking approach throughout the fall and winter months — sketching, prototyping, and researching linear algebra — before setting on a design that would be both street worthy and able to handle the mud, sand, and water. The team’s entry, “Oatmeals on Wheels,” showed a lot of Quaker pride and conformed to the race’s theme “Food.”

At the award ceremony, the Friends team was awarded the “Judges Fill-in-theBlank Award,” given to the team the judges deem “worthy of some award.” The Upper School Kinetic Sculpture Club has already begun planning for the 20th Annual Kinetic Sculpture Race in 2018. Stay tuned.

CMYK / .eps

Go to kineticbaltimore.com to see more images from the event.

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newsmakers

Heidi Hutchison, Assistant Principal of the Pre-Primary, with, from left, Gil Hair-Ralston ’29, Clair Davis ’30, and Charlotte Linkroum ’30

Hutchison at the Helm

VETERAN FRIENDS TEACHER TAKES ON TWO IMPORTANT ROLES Did you know?

The Pre-Primary was the first school building constructed, in 1928, on Friends’ Homeland campus.

“I love this place!

I get hugs on a regular basis,” says Hutchison.

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When Heidi Hutchison walks the halls of the Pre-Primary Building, she’s greeted by happy little voices piping up, “Hi, Hutchy!” and “Good morning, Huggy!”

“I love this place! I get hugs on a regular basis,” says Hutchison, who this year stepped into the permanent role of Lower School Assistant Principal for the Pre-Primary after filling the position last academic year on an interim basis.

Hutchison, who has taught at Friends School since 2005, was one of five finalists for the position and was chosen after a national search. A well-known leader in global education circles for her work with Powerful Learning Practice, EdCamp, and the Global Classroom Project, she holds a master’s degree in School Leadership from the University of Pennsylvania.

Concurrent with her leadership of the Pre-Primary, Hutchison has also been named Friends School’s new Director of Community Partnerships, a position formerly known as Service Learning Coordinator. In

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this role, she is continuing efforts she started last year (on an interim basis) to build new relationships with outside organizations, forge collaborations between people and groups within Friends, and to strengthen existing connections by “better telling the story of all the wonderful things we’re already doing here in service learning and community service.”

“We really want to be more a part of Baltimore,” says Hutchison. Toward that end, she has invited speakers from local community organizations to campus — including Rebecca Lynn of the Living Classrooms Foundation and Darius Graham of Johns Hopkins University’s Social Innovation Lab — to talk with members of the Friends community during PLUSS day staff development meetings. She is also hoping to work with Graham to establish an Upper School elective in Socially Sustainable Entrepreneurship.

Hutchison encourages parents and students to check out the Community Partnerships resource button on myFriends to find ways to get involved in community service and to post information about upcoming events or programs.

As the 2017-2018 school year gets underway, Hutchison says she couldn’t be more excited to be wearing dual hats at Friends School, where husband Andy Hanes serves as technology integrator, daughter Olivia Giggey ’21 is in 9th grade, and son Gabriel Hanes ’27 is in 3rd grade.

“The faculty members in the Pre-Primary are incredible — true masters of their craft — and I look forward to supporting them in their great work. And of course our most important mission is to focus on the children.

The best way to do that is by partnering with parents. They know their kids the best.”

newsmakers

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Johnson Honored with National Teaching Award With its Cyrillic alphabet and unfamiliar pronunciations, Russian can seem a formidable language to conquer. But not for the Middle School students who study under Russian teacher Shannon Johnson. During her 20-plus years at Friends School, she has successfully launched hundreds of young people on the path to advanced study of the challenging Slavic language.

Last year, Johnson was honored for her excellence in teaching with a national award from the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages (AATSEEL). In making the teaching award, the AATSEEL also noted Johnson’s many other contributions to Russian study, both at Friends and on the national level.

Johnson co-leads an Upper School Friends School study/homestay trip to St. Petersburg every other year. With her

Did you know?

Illustrious Friends teacher Claire Walker began offering Russian language class in 1956, one year before the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik.

At the time, Friends was one of just 16 high schools in the U.S. teaching the “forbidden” language.

QUOTABLE

Shannon Johnson has launched hundreds of young people on the path to Slavic study.

colleague, Upper School Russian teacher Lee Roby, she has also developed an innovative Upper School memoir research and translation course.

In addition, Johnson plays a key role in the running of the annual Olympiada of Spoken Russian in Maryland (under the auspices of the American Councils of Teachers of Russian) and has served as Secretary/Treasurer of SLAVA, the national honor society for outstanding pre-college learners of Russian.

“ Questioning is often the starting point of innovation. I studied the origins of many breakthrough products and disruptive startup companies — and it’s amazing how often breakthroughs can be traced back to someone formulating (and then tackling) a question no one else was asking at the time.”

—Warren Berger, best-selling author of A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas, who spoke at Friends School last February as part of the School’s “Future of Education Symposium Series.” A longtime contributor to the Harvard Business Review, Berger is internationally recognized for his research into how creative thinkers ask fundamental questions to analyze data, solve problems, and create new possibilities.

His appearances at Friends informed the School’s strategic planning process (see p. 10).

National Merit Scholarship Windfall

2017 National Merit finalists, from left: Joshua Brooks, Hunter Davis, Jackson Davis, and Nick DeVinne

Four Friends School seniors were named Finalists in last year’s National Merit Scholarship Program. The students — Joshua Brooks ’17, Hunter Davis ’17, Jackson Davis ’17 (no relation), and Nick DeVinne ’17 — were among approximately 15,000 high school seniors, representing less than 1 percent of the 1.6 million juniors from more than 22,000 high schools who entered the 2017 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2015 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.

In addition, eight Friends seniors received Letters of Commendation from NMSC in recognition of their outstanding academic promise. These students represented approximately 2 percent of the highest scorers on the 2016 PSAT: Jonathan Keegan ’17, Nicos Ledakis ’17, Irene Lunt ’17, Daniel Millspaugh ’17, Jacob Present ’17, Maxwell Rollfinke ’17, Eric Scherer ’17, and Kyle Spawn ’17.

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newsmakers

Up for Debate When Marina Chiaramonte ’17 and Hunter Davis ’17 resurrected the Debate Team as a club two years ago, neither could have dreamed they would one day compete with the best of the best.

Fast forward to last May and the team co-heads, accompanied by Upper School Principal Steve McManus and history teacher Molly Smith ’82, traveled to Louisville, Ky., for the 2017 National Catholic Forensics League (NCFL) Grand National Tournament.

Debating in the public forum event, Chiaramonte and Davis entered a field of more than 200 teams from all over the country. Over the course of five consecutive contests against teams from Illinois, Alabama, New York, and more, the Friends contingent went 3-2 with one of their losses coming on a split decision, according to McManus.

“Had that match fell in their favor, they would have moved on to the playoffs,” he says, adding, “The real MVP of the weekend was Ms. Smith, who served as a judge. Not only did she score eight debates on Saturday, she had to get up at 5 a.m. on Sunday and serve as a judge for the Sweet Sixteen round!”

Chiaramonte and Davis are enjoying their freshman year, respectively, at Barnard College and Haverford College.

Marina Chiaramonte and Hunter Davis

This year the Debate Team looks to build on its success and grow the program with help from last year’s members, including Mason Davis ’19, Amee Rothman ’19, Jane Sartwell ’18, Carrie Wang ’19, and Emma Scherer ’19.

Were you a debater at Friends?

Email us at alumni@friendsbalt.org.

Celebrating Sustainability

FRIENDS EARNS DISTINCTION AS MARYLAND GREEN SCHOOL On the heels of a lively Earth Day Convocation last April, the School received welcome news: Friends earned certification as a 2017 Maryland Green School by the nonprofit Maryland Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education.

The certification award follows more than two years of continuous effort, demonstrated and documented, to integrate sustainable environmental management practices, environmental education curriculum, professional development opportunities, and community engagement into the School’s daily operations. The application process was led by divisional faculty coordinators Joshua Ratner, Katherine Jenkins, Andy Spawn, and Dave MacGibeny; landscaping consultant Kay McDonnell; and students Amanda Madsen ’17, Grace Apecha ’19, Carter Ruffin ’19, and Chase Andre ’18.

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In sharing the good news, the faculty coordinators expressed thanks “to all who worked on sustainability and eco-justice in clubs, classrooms, volunteer groups, in the gardens and by the stream on campus, and in our city,” and added, “We look forward to seeing how the collaboration in our efforts for sustainability and eco-justice can continue to grow in our community.”

Founded in 1999, Maryland Green Schools are part of a national and international community of sustainable Pre-K-12 schools that work to increase awareness and understanding of environmental relationships that impact public health and the local community. The program is aligned

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with Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement 2014 goals and supports Maryland State Department of Education graduation requirements and standards.

newsmakers

New Athletic Director Hits the Ground Running

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ust a few months into her job as Friends School’s new Athletic Director, Kara Carlin says she’s been impressed — and energized — by the enthusiasm for athletics she’s encountered from students, parents, faculty members, and coaches. “So many people here are excited about many different sports. It’s infectious,” says Carlin. “We’ve clearly got a great base on which to build.”

Carlin, who played field hockey and lacrosse at Franklin and Marshall College and coached women’s lacrosse at Goucher College for five years, is no stranger to the local independent school sports scene or the Friends School community.

For the last 11 years she served as athletic director at nearby St. Timothy’s School, where she has also coached field hockey and lacrosse. During that time she launched an annual I.A.A.M. leadership symposium and was twice honored as Athletic Director of the Year (District 10) by the Maryland State Athletic Directors Association (2011, 2016).

When Carlin wasn’t at St. Tim’s during those years, she could probably be found at Friends, cheering at her daughters’ sporting events, volunteering as a coach, and serving as class parent.

The mother of Bryce ’21 and Quinn ’23, and wife of Upper School history teacher Josh Carlin, Kara says, “I fell in love with Friends from the second my girls started here.” She recalls one hectic dinnertime, when Bryce was very young. “Things were particularly chaotic and she looked at us and said, ‘Can we just take a moment to sit here and reflect on our day before we start eating?’ I knew from that moment that my kids were in just the right place.”

Carlin believes that the Quaker philosophy that suffuses everything at Friends is particularly valuable for athletics. “Values like integrity, community, equality … these provide an incredible framework for our studentathletes and coaches,” she says.

The new AD hit the ground running on July 1 and has been meeting one-on-one since then with parents, faculty, students, and coaches. “There are a lot of different opinions out there, and I want to be sure we are listening to everyone as I work to make any necessary changes,” she says.

She will be looking for insights and setting priorities based on a comprehensive review of the Friends School athletic program, which was completed last spring after a four-month-long study period involving 50 parents, alumni, and employees (see article in “Athletics” on p. 51).

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remembering Byron Forbush Dr. William Byron Forbush II ’47 October 9, 1929 – March 30, 2017

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Byron’s Poignant Side

“Byron was one of the most direct — some might say ‘abrupt’ — people I’ve met: a no-nonsense, no-frills, peanut-butter-sandwich kind of guy.

I found he had a softer side, though, when we were discussing the School’s financial aid policies. I noted how sometimes Friends students got caught in the crosshairs of their parents’ divorce, with one parent refusing to contribute toward tuition as a way to ‘punish’ the other parent. Financial aid rules could not make up for this willful tuition shortfall. Byron didn’t make a characteristic quick retort. Instead, he shook his head sadly and said, ‘In all my imaginings, I just cannot understand how a parent would not want to do what’s best for his child.’ ” —Alice Cherbonnier, parent of alumnus and former Trustee

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r. William Byron Forbush II ’47, Headmaster of Friends School of Baltimore from 1960 until 1998, died on March 30, 2017, after a brief illness. He was 87. The ultimate Friends School “lifer,” Byron entered the nursery program at age 3 and graduated from the School in 1947. Post-retirement, he remained engaged in the life of the School, particularly in helping to preserve its archival history, until his final days.

An All-American lacrosse player at Johns Hopkins University where he received his undergraduate degree, Byron married Ann Farquhar and earned a master’s degree in teaching at Harvard University before being drafted into the U.S. Medical Corps during the Korean conflict. A birthright Quaker, he was granted 1-A-O status, which exempted him from carrying a weapon.

His time treating soldiers at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, solidified his belief in the value of service and its role in a Quaker education.

Byron and Ann’s first child, Marjorie [’72], was born in 1954 in an Army hospital. Upon his discharge, he accepted a teaching position at Friends Academy in Locust Valley, N.Y., and soon discovered his passion for school administration, serving as its upper school principal and later as its acting head. During this period, he and Ann welcomed two sons, William III [’75] and Norman [’78], and Byron earned his doctorate degree in education from Columbia University. Upon the retirement of his father, former Headmaster Bliss Forbush, Sr., from Friends after 17 years, Byron applied for and was offered the position as the School’s sixth Headmaster.

Amid tumultuous cultural and social change, including the advent of computer technology, Byron led the School through nearly four decades of sustained growth, guided by the foundational Quaker principles and the belief that truth is continually revealed. He helped found the Association of Independent Maryland Schools and the Baltimore Educational Scholarship Trust, and served as a mentor to countless educators.

In the late 1980s, he nursed his wife Ann through the devastating effects of Alzheimer’s disease until he could no longer care for her at home. She died in 1992.

Byron’s retirement from Friends brought to his life a new fullness and sense of hope. He was named chair of the Sheppard Pratt Health System’s Board of Trustees, on which he had served the previous 23 years. And he met and in 2003 married Elizabeth Simon Forbush, who remained his steadfast companion until his passing.

In addition to Elizabeth and his three children, Byron is survived by three stepchildren, Elizabeth Wingard, Katherine Manzanares, and Michael Simon; five grandchildren, eight stepgrandchildren, and one great-grandchild, all of whom, with all of us, will carry his spirit forward.

in memoriam Creative Time-Keeping and Fatherly Advice

“Doubtful that I would stay long on the job, Byron was loath to hire me in 1963. Hence, as he approached retirement 35 years later, I enjoyed needling him with the likelihood that my tenure at Friends could easily exceed his own. At his retirement party, Byron, ever the strategist, exercised his nuclear option: The clock, he opined, had actually begun to run when he entered kindergarten. I conceded his preeminence.”

“Byron always included a lengthy personal letter with one’s yearly contract. Also, Byron knew my father professionally as he (my father) was also the head of a Quaker school. Affixed to the contract materials for my fourth year at Friends, I recently discovered a supplementary, handwritten note: ‘Incidentally, I wonder if you ever read your evaluation notes to your parents ... they would enjoy them and be most pleased.’ I hope that I followed Byron’s typically thoughtful and generous suggestion.” —Gary Blauvelt, Friends School English teacher, 1963-2004

2.

1.

3.

1. Byron Forbush with son Norm ’78 and grandson Ned ’21 at the dedication of the newly transformed Forbush Fine Arts Building on January 10, 2016 2. Byron, Ann, and the children at the beach 3. A lighter moment

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Personal GETTING

Individualized learning pathways are rapidly expanding at Friends, giving students a voice in their learning and an outlet for their academic passions

BY SUE DE PASQUALE PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAVID STUCK

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Anne Tobin ’18 leads a discussion in the English class of Helen Berkeley.

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nne Tobin ’18 had always been a decent writer. But her writing quality improved dramatically, she says, after a course she took last year — though it wasn’t a writing course, per se. As one of Friends School’s first Student Assisting Teachers (SATs), Tobin worked throughout the year in the 9th grade English classroom of Helen Berkeley, helping to plan and teach lessons and to guide freshmen in their essay writing. “When helping a student, I’d ask things like: ‘Where is your topic sentence? Are you supplying enough analysis?

Do you have relevant quotes to support your ideas?’” she recalls. “Now, in my own writing, I am asking myself the same questions — and I am seeing the results.”

As someone who is passionate about current events and 20th-century history, Teddy Llinas ’18 has poured himself into the many related activities that Friends School has to offer — both inside and outside the classroom. He is co-head of the Model UN and co-president of the Student Senate. He regularly attends the Public Health Speaker Series, has loaded his schedule with courses on contemporary history, and is slated to speak later this year at the

“

WHEN HELPING A STUDENT, I’D ASK THINGS LIKE:

‘WHERE IS YOUR TOPIC SENTENCE? ARE YOU SUPPLYING ENOUGH ANALYSIS?’ NOW, IN MY OWN WRITING, I AM ASKING MYSELF THE SAME QUESTIONS — AND I AM SEEING THE RESULTS.” —Anne Tobin ’18

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Model UN conference at Georgetown University. The body of his work has earned Llinas the distinction of being a Renaissance scholar in Friends School’s growing Extradisciplinary Certificate Program.

In the winter of her junior year, Kofi Brooks ’17 attended a Student Diversity Leadership Conference offered by the National Association of Independent Schools, in Tampa, Fla., at the urging of Priyanka Rupani, Friends School Director of Diversity, Equity, and Social Justice. “It really opened my eyes to the world of diversity and to what I could do at my school to help make it a place where we can all coexist,” says Brooks. So as a senior last year, she jumped at the chance to enroll in the new Diversity Practitioners Course. As a capstone of the yearlong elective, Brooks and her 11 classmates planned and led the Upper School Convocation Day for Social Justice last spring, which offered 18 different workshops on topics ranging from gender identity to microaggressions (subtle acts of discrimination).

Tobin, Llinas, and Brooks are not anomalies. Across the Upper School at Friends, dozens of students are finding a fertile landscape in which to pursue their academic passions, thanks to a rapidly expanding suite of new offerings. While the scope of these programs is intentionally wide ranging, all share one thing in common: the opportunity to be personalized according to each student’s interests.

“We want our students to have the chance to pursue their interests and to cultivate new passions. And we want them to have a choice and a voice in their own learning,” says Upper School Principal Steve McManus. “High school is an important time when students forge

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their identities: social, emotional, academic.

By tapping into their passions, we are offering a program that is both college preparatory — and life preparatory.”

Because Friends School is not locked into providing an Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum, McManus notes, there is “an opportunity to fuse the best of all curriculums into shaping the experience of our students.”

While some individualized academic options have been in place for many years at Friends (Upper School students have long been able to pursue “majors” in music or art, for instance, and to double up on languages, math, and science courses), the last four years have seen an explosion in innovative new offerings. They are quickly gaining traction with both students and teachers.

Last year, for instance, the Students Assisting Teachers (SATs) elective was piloted with three students (two assisted in 9th grade English and one in 10th grade history). This year, 15 juniors and seniors are enrolled as SATs, assisting in courses ranging from Geometry Plus, to Printmaking, to Applied Chemistry, to Theater Workshop.

Similarly, the Extradisciplinary Certificate Program (ECP) has broadened since it was first introduced in the 2014-2015 academic year, with 30 Upper School students now participating. This fall, the School introduced ECPs in leadership development, Quakerism, Baltimore urban immersion and engagement, and entrepreneurship.

These join existing ECPs in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math); sustainability, artistic expression, global studies, Renaissance scholars, and diversity, equity, and social justice.

Students pursuing ECPs clearly value having the opportunity to “bundle” activities and to combine different learning experiences (internships, clubs, independent research) that cross the traditional boundaries of a single course of study, says Academic Dean Christine Koniezhny. While learning for learning’s sake is important, there’s an added benefit. “This really positions them well for the college admissions process and for college itself,” she says.

McManus concurs. “This is very much what colleges want to see: students who will take full advantage of all that the college has to offer, both in the classroom and in the life of the community.

The ECP and other offerings allow our students to showcase what they can — and will — bring to their college experience.”

HIGH SCHOOL IS AN IMPORTANT TIME WHEN STUDENTS FORGE THEIR IDENTITIES: SOCIAL, EMOTIONAL, ACADEMIC. BY TAPPING INTO THEIR PASSIONS, WE ARE

OFFERING A PROGRAM THAT IS BOTH COLLEGE PREPARATORY — AND LIFE PREPARATORY.” —Steve McManus, Upper School Principal

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Teddy Llinas ’18 is pursuing an Extradisciplinary Certificate as a Renaissance Scholar.

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Kofi Brooks ’17, presently a freshman at DePaul University, was among 12 students who completed the Diversity Practitioners Course, newly offered last spring by Priyanka Rupani.

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THE RIPPLE EFFECT With personalized academic pathways, the value for the individual student is easy to see. Less obvious, but perhaps just as important, is the ripple effect these programs are having on the broader Friends School community.

History teacher Molly Smith ’82, for example, met frequently with her SAT Marina Chiaramonte ’17 last year to discuss readings and to structure class activities. The senior’s perspective was invaluable, Smiths says. “She would field test the readings I intended to assign, and it was so helpful. She’d say, ‘I would go with this reading rather than that one. I think this one will resonate better with them, and they will find it more interesting.’” On writing workshop days, Chiaramonte’s presence made it possible to divide the class into two smaller groups, “which allowed us to get to every student’s writing,” says Smith.

Student course evaluations were positive across the board. “They really developed a bond with Marina,” says Smith. “Some students felt more comfortable going to her first with a question or to ask for help.”

Says English teacher Helen Berkeley, “Having an older student modeling academic engagement is a huge deal for these 9th graders.

Older students are ‘cool’ in a way that I can’t possibly be.” She recalls one instance when SAT Zoe Reck ’17 followed up after class with a freshman who had been struggling with the “hierarchy of need” concept in A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry.

“After they talked, he really got it,” says Berkeley. “And it meant so much to him that a senior would take the time to make sure he understood the material.”

The impact of participants in the Diversity Practitioners Course is even further reaching, notes Priyanka Rupani. Last year, students in the class helped her plan a Lower School assembly on respect, and they led discussions in 9th grade Friends Forum classes on responsible media use through a diversity lens. “They’d ask questions like: ‘What happens if you notice that a friend has “Liked” something online that is sexist or racially offensive? What does your digital profile look like?

Are you creating a meme that’s potentially offensive?’” says Rupani.

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THE STUDENTS WHO SIGN UP TO BE DIVERSITY PRACTITIONERS ARE

YOUNG PEOPLE WHO ARE INTERESTED IN ENGAGING IN DIFFICULT CONVERSATIONS. THEY ARE COMMITTED TO MOVING OUR SCHOOL IN A DIRECTION WHERE IT WILL TRULY BE INCLUSIVE FOR EVERYONE.”

Her student diversity practitioners also met with 9th graders and Middle School students to discuss proper terminology around gender identity and race and helped her plan an All Employee Professional Day that examined the state of the nation and the state of the school.

“Our student diversity practitioners are front and center. From my perspective, having students lead these discussions is so much more effective,” says Koniezhny. “That’s been a real plus for the community.”

“The students who sign up to be diversity practitioners are young people who are interested in engaging in difficult conversations,” says Rupani. “They are committed to moving our School in a direction where it will truly be inclusive for everyone.”

INTO THE WIDER WORLD Experiential learning is an important element of many of Friends School’s new learning pathways, notes Steve McManus.

The Extradisciplinary Certificate Program includes an internship piece, for example. And the University Partnership Program, launched in 2011, allows students to partner and work directly with professors, researchers, and others at nearby colleges and universities (such as Johns Hopkins and the University of Maryland) and even farther afield (Duke and Stanford).

“We like the idea of our students getting out into the wider world,” says Christine Koniezhny.

For students who want to accelerate their learning in a particular area, Friends also offers the flexibility — and encouragement — to make that possible.

“We have some students who have exhausted all of our math offerings, so we build their schedule so that they can take more advanced coursework down the road at Johns Hopkins or Loyola,” says McManus. Similarly, foreign language students who advance beyond Level 5 have the option to pursue independent studies and/or online options. “We are very open to all kind of alternative pathways and very supportive of these accelerations.”

In the months and years ahead, Friends School families can expect to see more and more student-teacher partnerships and personalized academic pathways. This year, for instance, one class of 10th grade world history students opted to pursue an inquiry-based approach to the course.

“A great high school is one that provides opportunities. We have intentionally forged our own path as a School,” says McManus.

“We do not offer a cookie-cutter curriculum.”

— Priyanka Rupani, Director of Diversity, Equity, and Social Justice

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Make Me a

Match

The college search is filled with highs and lows, celebrations and uncertainty. Darryl Tiggle and his College Counseling team are there every step of the way. Their mission: helping each Friends student find just the right fit

BY SUE DE PASQUALE PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAVID STUCK

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Step onto junior hall on the third floor of the Upper School

Building, and it’s hard to miss the booming voice and beaming presence of Darryl Tiggle, a regular in the hallways and classrooms. Now in his ninth year at Friends School, the high-wattage Director of College Counseling brings a measure of calm and confidence to the college search — a process that can be inherently anxiety-producing whether you’re a student or a parent.

The headlines don’t help: We all read about the esteemed, ivy-covered institutions in New England that routinely turn away class valedictorians with perfect SAT scores.

And the sun-splashed West Coast schools, where acceptance rates in at least one case have now dipped below 5 percent. Add to that the skyrocketing costs of college tuition, with price tags at many schools now exceeding $70,000 a year, and it’s easy to understand how angst can rule the day when it comes time for your student to start the college search.

Take a deep breath. Darryl Tiggle and his College Counseling team (see p. 27) have been at it long enough now to say a few things with certainty: Nearly all Friends School students (yes, even those without “A” averages) will wind up getting accepted to a variety of great colleges. And many will receive generous offers of need- or merit-based scholarship support from schools that are very eager to have them.

“The Friends School brand resonates with colleges,” says Tiggle. “They like the way we deliver education. With our students, colleges assume a certain level of academic prowess, community spirit, and richness in diversity and inclusion that combines for a very appealing package.”

The numbers bear him out. At Johns Hopkins University, the undergraduate acceptance rate last year was 13%. Among Friends students who apply to Johns Hopkins (from 2002-2017), that acceptance rate is 48%. At University of Pennsylvania, where 9% were accepted last year, the Friends acceptance rate is 25%. At Georgetown (15%) the Friends rate is 42%. At Tufts (15%) it’s 43%. At Brown (8%), it’s 22%.

While these schools are among the most selective in the country, Tiggle is quick to point out that the constellation of great colleges and universities is vast. “We work very hard to broaden students’ understanding of what a ‘good’ school is and of how many there are. There are easily 100 great schools,” he says, opening his arms wide for emphasis, “and I would argue even more.”

Toward that end, rather than unduly focusing on a handful of colleges with the biggest household names, Tiggle and his team consider it their mission to help each Friends student find the very best college fit — whether it’s Harvard or Harvey Mudd.

“We put our emphasis on students making the best match — on finding a place where they can truly prosper. And we do that by really making an effort to get to know each child and each college,” he says.

The much-anticipated “college list,” generated during the fall of junior year, offers a valuable starting point in the college search at Friends. Tiggle and Jessica Monterastelli, Associate Director of College Counseling, generate a list individualized for each advisee, which is based on a student’s grade point average, test scores, and detailed surveys filled out by the student and his/her parents.

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“We work very hard to broaden students’ understanding of what a ‘good’ school is and of how many there are. There are easily 100 great schools,” Tiggle says, opening his arms wide for emphasis,

“and I would argue even more.”

COLLEGE ESSAYS THAT EARNED AN “ADMIT”

Slim Shady’s Report Card

BY ERIN FARRUGIA ’17

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very report card I have ever received usually says the same thing: “Erin is easy-going” or “Erin is very respectful.” I’m happy to know that my teachers see me in such a socially docile, angelic light. To some extent I agree with what they say about me. I don’t yell, I hate conflict, and I rarely disobey authority. But what my teachers would probably never realize is that I am empowered by pre-sobriety Eminem rap music.

The obsession started during the winter of my freshman year when I rediscovered my Grammy Nominees of 2003 CD. Fingering the cracked blue CD case, I was instantly enveloped in nostalgia, remembering the mornings reluctantly fettered in the straps of my car seat, riding to drop my older sister off at school. Everyday my sister would pop the disc from its case into the slot of the car’s CD player and begin singing along.

Whenever I tried to join in, my sister would hiss at me to stop because apparently my vocal accompaniment was “ruining the song!” I preferred sitting in silence to disrupting my sister’s morning-time glow. Each day I waited for “Without Me” by Eminem — the only song that my sister not only let me sing, but encouraged me to sing. When the number five would magically appear on the car’s CD player, I would start to rap, beaming as my sister watched me in amazement, spitting out every word on the beat.

Naturally, upon recovering the CD, I had to play it. At first, when the neon five glowed on the display of my bulky CD player, I didn’t even recognize the song. After about 30 seconds, I instinctively began to regurgitate the lyrics, even proceeding to follow it up with my own attempt at the instrumentals. I was shocked. Words kept sporadically making the leap of faith from my mouth onto the beat that was filling the

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The list includes “foundation” schools (known to an older generation as “safety schools”), mid-range schools, and “reach” schools — a mix that mirrors the ultimate goal for college applications: For the most satisfying results, Tiggle and team recommend that students apply to five to 10 colleges, including schools from each of these three buckets.

So, how’s a student (or parent, for that matter) to know what constitutes a “reach” versus a “foundation” school? For the inside track, there’s the 21st-century online software tool known as Naviance, which Tiggle describes as being “almost biblical in its helpfulness.”

While Naviance has many features (it facilitates the online submission of applications, transcripts and school forms and helps college counselors track student submissions to colleges), it is perhaps most

room. After a minute, I stopped rapping and just listened. He was saying such obscene things. They were awful, misogynistic, terrible things. I felt guilty because I liked it.

In the following month, I submerged myself in Eminem, weeding out my favorite songs. After a bit of back-and-forth with my mother in the bookstore, I even ended up buying his autobiography. On the way home, I tore off the check-out bag, admired the heavy paperback book and began to read.

In his book, The Way I Am, Eminem explains how he created Slim Shady, his evil alter ego who he referenced in his music as an expression of his frustration, pre-sobriety. I was mildly concerned, because I realized that was what I liked. I liked pre-sobriety Eminem. I liked the Eminem who yelled and insulted people. I was infatuated by the thought that you could get angry, disrespect authority, scream profanity, and simply not care that you were only doing it for your own satisfaction.

My love for Eminem’s aggression is rooted in some obscure form of admiration and gratitude. My report card will never come home saying that I’m aggressive or that I yell at other students, and that’s good. I don’t want to receive Slim Shady’s progress report, because that’s not who I am. I don’t look to be disrespectful or offensive, but I aspire to be self-assured and to easily express myself. Eminem’s music introduced me to my own Slim Shady: an opinionated and strong-willed individual who knows never to shy away from defending her beliefs. I am not confrontational, but I am far from meek. Just as Eminem uses Slim Shady as an outlet for his frustration, I use Slim Shady to give myself the strength to be assertive and independent. I don’t know if I will ever become the kind of person to yell when I get angry, but until then Eminem can yell for me.

Erin Farrugia ’17 is a freshman at the University of Michigan.

> TEAMING UP: Sarah Carter, who joined College Counseling in August; Jessica Monterastelli, Associate Director of College Counseling; and Sarah Doochin, Assistant to College Counseling

BEATING THE ODDS: At Johns Hopkins University, the undergraduate acceptance rate last year was 13%. Among Friends students who apply to Johns Hopkins (2002-2017), that acceptance rate is 48%. At University of Pennsylvania, where 9% were accepted last year, the Friends acceptance rate is 25%. At Georgetown (15%), the Friends rate is 42%. At Tufts, (15%) it’s 43%. At Brown (8%), it’s 22%.

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COLLEGE ESSAYS THAT EARNED AN “ADMIT”

United by Music

BY MAX ROLLFINKE ’17

S

hocked. Saddened. Angry. Helpless. I felt all of these emotions when riots broke out in Baltimore in response to the death of Freddie Gray, highlighting the severe racial and socioeconomic divides in our city.

However, as a white student attending an independent school, I was distanced from the hardships associated with inner city poverty. For days, I followed the local news coverage with rapt attention. When protests turned into riots and people began looting Mondawmin Mall, schools dismissed students early due to concerns about the spreading violence. Many of my friends and I took to social media, pleading for peace, but I was determined to find a more direct way to contribute.

To unite the community, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) with its inner city outreach program, OrchKids, and the Baltimore Choral Arts Society planned a concert at Mount Lebanon Baptist Church in West Baltimore, just blocks from Mondawmin Mall. In the words of BSO artistic director Marin Alsop, “With this free public concert, the BSO strives to stand in unity and bring our neighbors together in our common language — music.” The BSO needed several members of its youth orchestra to round out the group, and I quickly jumped at the opportunity. This peace concert was a chance to expand my musical and social horizons, as well as an occasion to connect with musicians from varying backgrounds for a great cause. And so, on Saturday, May 9, 2015, I arrived at the church, where the sound of joyful drumming from the OrchKids bucket band greeted me, setting the tone for a positive experience.

I entered the beautiful wooden church while the Baltimore Choral Arts musicians were warming up, their harmonious voices echoing through the sanctuary. Light seeped through the stained-glass windows,

painting a dazzling picture on the pews. I took my seat between the principal trumpet of the BSO and a 4th grader named Ja’nae from OrchKids. While I was thrilled to be sitting next to a world-renowned musician, I struck up a conversation with Ja’nae instead. She told me she chose the trumpet because it is loud and commanding, giving her a voice and making her feel empowered. When I was younger, I had chosen the trumpet for the same reason; I had always been a quiet kid and I wanted a way to express myself. I also found out that Ja’nae and I had the same trumpet teacher and we were both going to attend a summer music camp in Interlochen, Michigan that summer. Even though our lives seemed strikingly different on the surface, we shared many of the same thoughts and experiences because of our love for music.

I realized I had been in a bubble, failing to see the connections between my life and those of others in my immediate community.

The three of us raised our trumpets to play, and as we performed Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” and hymns such as “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” our notes resonated vibrantly. At one point, we got to stand up and clap as a Baltimore beatboxer and the church choir performed “One Day” by Matisyahu, a reggae-rock musician. “One day this all will change,” they chanted. “Treat people the same; stop with the violence; down with the hate.” As we performed, I felt so honored to be contributing to the peace effort in my city. We concluded the concert with a passionate rendition of “Amazing Grace,” played in unison with the audience singing along. I glanced into the pews and saw people of different races and backgrounds holding hands, tears streaming down their faces, and then I looked to my right and saw Ja’nae proudly playing the melody.

She and I represented the next generation of Baltimoreans, united by music, celebrating our beautiful city and our desire for peace and justice.

Max Rollfinke ’17 is a freshman at Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina.

“This is all about you!” is Tiggle’s mantra to his juniors. “Tell them why they want you and why you’d be a great fit.” widely valued among prospective applicants for its scatter-grams. These show the acceptance history within a particular high school to a specific college using the historical average GPAs and test scores from the high school.

Simply put, once you and your junior receive password access to Naviance, you’ll be able to plug in his or her stats and see at a glance on the scatterplot — with symbols showing past Friends students who were

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FRI E N DS SC H OO L | W W W. FRIE NDS B A LT. O RG

accepted, denied and wait-listed — just where your student falls in the mix. Naviance is the ultimate reality check.

Equipped with their initial college list and access to Naviance, juniors focus throughout the year on honing that list — from 30 schools down to 10 or fewer by fall of senior year. That winnowing process is accomplished through regular classes with Tiggle and Monterastelli during Junior Seminar, via info sessions with visiting college admissions reps, and by touring a wide variety of colleges and university campuses during breaks and long weekends. The rule of thumb: Start by visiting nearby campuses of different types (large, small, public, private, urban, rural) to narrow the field for where your student will see themselves thrive.

By the end of junior year, it’s time to start thinking about that all-important part of the college application: the admissions

essay. With the advent of the Common Application, most students now write one 600-word essay that goes out to all the colleges to which they apply (and is supplemented by shorter essays specific to each school). It’s hard to overplay the importance of the Common App essay.

With university admissions directors handling hundreds — if not thousands — of applications a week, the essay offers each student a chance to stand out by capturing what makes them tick (see “College Essays That Earned an ‘Admit’ ”).

“This is all about you!” is Tiggle’s mantra to his juniors. “Tell them why they want you and why you’d be a great fit.”

It can be a daunting exercise, but Tiggle, Monterastelli, and the Upper School English teachers make themselves constantly available to offer students feedback as they churn through successive drafts.

Writer’s block — and procrastination — is not uncommon. To get the creative juices flowing, some students opt to participate in a hike-and-write trip with Tiggle and English teacher Michael Paulsen, which is offered each August. The group spends three days “off the grid” hiking and writing in New England, before emerging at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. The remainder of the trip is devoted to touring colleges in Maine and Boston. (A separate college tour is offered earlier in the summer, with different regions and schools — the South, California/Pacific Northwest, New England, Historically Black Colleges (HBCs) — featured each year.)

Once classes resume in the fall of senior year, the push is on to start completing applications and gathering teacher letters of recommendation. While some seniors have a very clear sense of where they intend to apply by this point (about one third of each senior class at Friends applies Early Decision, with application deadlines in the fall), there are always a number of seniors caught in the throes of uncertainty.

These are the students who may visit Tiggle’s office on a daily basis, looking for advice and wisdom. He offers equal amounts of both. More often than not, his late-in-the process suggestions end up resonating; more than one senior has changed course and/or

COLLEGE ESSAYS THAT EARNED AN “ADMIT”

Finding My Flavor

BY NATE SMITH ’17

A

fter trying the Island Fusion ice, I knew it stood out. It was more than just the unique flavors that caught my attention: it was the smooth texture and bright orange color. Somehow the ice managed to be both fruity and tangy, while still carrying a subtle note of creaminess. The treat delivered more than just a brain freeze; it intrigued me, pulling me deeper with every bite.

In middle school, before I started working at Rita’s Italian Ice, I always worried about what everyone else thought. I wanted to fit in. I tried to adopt a personality that wasn’t mine, quieting my occasional outgoing comments and funny observations that I’d been making since childhood. I chose to come to Friends School of Baltimore for high school, not knowing a single person.

While adjusting to life at an entirely new school, where I knew no one, I experienced the same anxieties about new friend groups and sports teams that any freshman has, yet I still found a job at Rita’s. I’ve always felt a responsibility to have a job. Within the first few weeks, my shoes were already sticky from the checkered floors, which were often marked with spills, signs of a busy shift.

My co-workers, none of whom went to Friends, accepted me into their tight group, and soon it felt like a big family. I could talk about anything. Over laughs about awkward customer interactions, messed up orders, and dumb workplace drama, I slowly crept out of my shell. I started to look at Rita’s as more than just a job; it was somewhere I could truly be myself and be happy. I made it my goal to bring this same happiness and openness to Friends School. It wasn’t until I started looking at the ice flavors as personalities that I understood how to bring the new “me” to school.

Our mango flavor is our best seller, always firm and rich in flavor. I know several mangoes, people who are confident and unique, popular for being themselves. Banana split may be one of our most underrated ices, a smooth and subtle banana base filled with cherries, banana chunks, and chocolate chips. We all know a banana split, someone who may seem quiet at first, but behind that lies a vibrant and colorful personality.

So what ice flavor am I? I am Island Fusion, a mix of banana, coconut, and passionfruit bursting with tropical flavor. The banana flavor is the foundation of the ice, and it represents my subtle and quiet side: I’m laid back, rarely anxious or overwhelmed. As for the coconut, I, too, have a hard shell, but once you crack it, the richness and depth of my personality comes out. The passionfruit, a rare and uncommon fruit, stands for my uniqueness and funny side. It isn’t what you first taste, but once you get a few bites in, it brings everything together. It’s no coincidence that “passion” is part of the word, as that word describes me in all my endeavors; I tackle everything from a shift at Rita’s to my academic studies with a strong work mentality.

After being promoted to a manager during my second year, I was trained in how to make ice, learning that no two batches of Italian Ice are the same.

Although the same recipe is used each time for a particular flavor, the grains of sugar and stabilizer, ounces of water and flavoring, and time in the freezer are never all exactly the same, just as no two people are the same. The one thing all flavors share is that they satisfy. And they do it in different ways; some ices are tangy, some are sweet, some are creamy. Is Island Fusion everyone’s favorite ice? No. But my time working at Rita’s has taught me that I don’t have to be a mango or a cherry to please others. I can stay true to myself and people will get to know and befriend the real me. I still smile every time someone samples Island Fusion, transported back to the first time I tried it, wondering if they, too, are seeing Italian ice in a whole new way.

Nate Smith ’17 is a freshman at the University of Miami in Florida.

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Unexpected

Outcomes

Meet three Friends School grads from the Class of 2017 whose path to finding the right fit involved a detour or two.

KAYLEIGH FORD ’17: TUFTS UNIVERSITY Kayleigh Ford has always enjoyed writing and art and she started out her college search thinking she might want to apply to an art or design school. Her dad, Karl, advised her not to limit herself. So after investigating a variety of options, she decided to apply early decision to Brown University, which offers a joint program with Rhode Island School of Design. Then a late-in-the-game visit to Tufts University in Boston gave her pause. She’d liked Brown — but she loved Tufts. “You really can’t know how a child will feel about a college until they are on campus,” says Karl.

Fortunately, there was time to rescind her ED application to Brown before December decisions went out. Kayleigh applied to Tufts — and learned last February that she’d be joining that school’s Class of 2021.

MAX JACOBS ’17: DICKINSON COLLEGE From the time he was 4 years old, Max Jacobs wanted to be an artist.

Throughout most of his years at Friends, he (and his parents) assumed he would wind up applying to art schools. But Max is also a talented musician, and his passion for violin, in particular, (he also plays trombone) blossomed as well. By senior year, he had earned the spot of concertmaster in the Friends Upper School Orchestra and the Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestra. During a meeting with Ms. Monterastelli late in junior year, she asked: “Max, how come you’ve never considered pursuing music?” Why not, indeed? By fall of senior year, Max had switched course, applying to conservatories and colleges with strong music programs. Ultimately, an hour-long lesson with a violin faculty member at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, which stretched to two hours, sealed the deal. Max is now happily attending Dickinson College with a music scholarship to study in the violin studio of Blanka Bednarz.

ALLIE BURROWS ’17: DARTMOUTH COLLEGE A frequent visitor to Darryl Tiggle’s College Guidance office, Allie set her sights on Duke University early on and finished junior year intent on applying there early decision (ED). In fall of senior year, Tiggle threw out a suggestion: How about looking at Dartmouth? Allie made the trip to Hanover, New Hampshire, with her dad — and it was love at first sight. “OMG! I like this place so much!” was the text her mom Nancy received back in Baltimore. Allie went all in, applying early decision to Dartmouth. Given Dartmouth’s low acceptance rate ( just 11%), Allie hedged her bets by applying early action to six other schools. As it turns out, those back-up applications weren’t necessary: She received her ED acceptance to Dartmouth in mid-December 2016. > Kayleigh Ford ’17, left, Max Jacobs ’17, and Allie Burrows ’17 pose during last spring’s Yearbook Signing event for seniors.

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belatedly fallen in love with a school based on a recommendation from Tiggle or Monterastelli (see “Unexpected Outcomes” see p. 30).

Once the applications are in (usually all are due by early in the new year), seniors and their families generally breathe a sigh of relief and settle in to wait for the March admissions decision season. For Tiggle and team, however, there’s no rest for the weary.

They use the winter months as a time for “relationship building” — i.e., reaching out to admissions directors at schools where Friends students have applied. They talk through any concerns or questions the admissions director might have, and they make an additional strong case for why the student would be a good choice. “I probably make 10 phone calls a day,” says Tiggle.

March and April pass in a blur.

As college decisions pour in, Tiggle and Monterastelli are on hand to celebrate with the joyful and to offer advice and sympathy to the disappointed. Parents call for advice on how to better their financial aid packages.

Students who’ve landed on a wait list seek wisdom on how to move up the list. And quite often, a Friends student’s biggest “problem” is an embarrassment of riches: They’ve been accepted at a variety of wonderful schools, with competitive packages, and just aren’t sure which one to pick.

By May 1, widely known as National College Decision Day, the long slog for Friends seniors and their families is finally over. While Tiggle may take a day off to recharge with a mind-clearing bike ride (he’s an avid cyclist), the “rest” is fleeting.

After all, he and his team have a class full of juniors (and their parents) just waiting to be shepherded through to the college search finish line.

Sue De Pasquale is the parent of two Friends School grads who both found their “right fit”: Ben Musachio ’13 at Stanford University, and Matt Musachio ’16 at Oberlin College and Conservatory. Son Dan ’21 is a 9th grader.

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the big picture

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PHOTO BY LENA MCBEAN

Rite of Passage The 89 members of the Class of 2017 received their diplomas during Commencement ceremonies on June 13 — a picture-perfect evening that featured keynote speaker Jason Berman ’02, an accomplished Hollywood film producer. See more about Commencement — and find out where the new grads are headed — on p. 52.

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !We ! ! !live ! ! ! in ! ! an ! ! !age ! ! !of ! !dizzying ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !advance ! ! ! ! ! ! !and ! ! ! !change: !!!!!!!!!!!!!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !in! science ! ! ! ! ! !and ! ! medicine, ! ! ! ! ! ! !communications ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !and ! ! technology, ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !arts ! ! !and !!!!!!!!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !culture. ! ! ! ! !Perhaps ! ! ! ! ! !nowhere ! ! ! ! ! !is!that ! ! !more ! ! ! apparent ! ! ! ! ! ! than ! ! ! !in!today’s !!!!!!!!!!!!!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !workplace, ! ! ! ! ! ! !where ! ! ! ! !those ! ! ! who ! ! ! !want ! ! !to! !thrive ! ! ! !must ! ! !be ! !nimble ! ! ! ! !and !!!!!!!!!!! ready to adapt to whatever seismic shift happens next. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !Embracing ! ! ! ! ! ! !this ! ! !new ! ! !reality, ! ! ! !Friends ! ! ! ! !School ! ! ! ! !is! committed ! ! ! ! ! ! ! to !!!!!!!!!!!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !preparing ! ! ! ! ! ! its ! ! students ! ! ! ! ! !for ! !a! future ! ! ! ! many ! ! ! !of ! !us ! !cannot ! ! ! ! imagine. ! ! ! ! ! !In! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !doing ! ! ! !so, ! !the ! ! !School ! ! ! ! has ! ! !a!rich ! ! !tradition ! ! ! ! ! on ! ! which ! ! ! ! to ! !draw: ! ! ! !For !!!!!!!!!!!! decades now, graduates have been leaving the halls ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !of!Friends !!!!!!!!!!!!!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !School ! ! ! ! !equipped ! ! ! ! ! !with ! ! !the ! ! !skills, ! ! ! intellectual ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !curiosity, ! ! ! ! ! and ! ! !vision ! ! ! ! to !!!!!!!!!

Imagine

That!

LOUIS KRAUSS ’13

forge successful careers in fields that didn’t even exist back when they were Friends students. Meet five of them.

told Forbes is “to democratize medical information.”

“Medical and health news is still a stepsister to political, sports, entertainment, and financial news. I envision the day when it becomes as vital and supported as those other verticals.

After all, most of us would trade our wealth for our health when faced with that decision,” she said.

On her Friends education: Forte earned her undergraduate degree at Swarthmore College and then a master’s in communications at Long Island University, which set her up nicely for business success. But attending Friends for 15 years was the most essential part of her development, she says — “absolutely the foundation of everything about me that is successful in life, business, relationships, everything.”

Nan-Kirsten Weinstock Forte ’80 Co-Founder, WebMD Senior Vice President, Brand Marketing, Healthline Media How she got here: Years before “biomedical communications” was a thing, Forte pursued her passion for writing about health, wellness, and medicine — eschewing the path to medical school her parents had prescribed for her. In 1999, her Medical Disease Network website was acquired by WebMD, launched three years earlier.

Forte joined the fledgling website’s leadership team and, as vice president of consumer services, steadily grew its

1.

34

monthly users from 1 million to more than 120 million.

In 2011, Forte made the decision to leave WebMD, where she had built a great reputation and was at the top of the corporate ladder.

As she related recently to Forbes, “When I left WebMD my best girlfriend said to me, ‘Haven’t you done enough? Rest already.’

And I thought to myself, ‘I am JUST getting started.’ I was turning 45 and I knew I wanted my next 20 years to be back in startups.

I wanted to fulfill my passion in all of wellness versus just illness.”

Current work: After WebMD, Forte held CEO and editor-in-chief positions at places such as Travora, a travel company that she describes as “the CNET of travel,” and now Healthline Media, where her goal, as she

FRI E N DS SC H OO L | W W W. FRIE NDS B A LT. O RG

Notable Friends School experience: “In English class, I would get A’s in English over F’s. My mom is from Denmark, so I didn’t grow up in a predominantly English-speaking family, and I had terrible grammar. Yet my Friends [English teacher] would give me an A/F grade instead of just a C. It really helped me realize where I excelled in English and where I still needed help.”

Such experiences helped her in recognizing talent in her own employees — particularly in those who are struggling. “In the work environment, I’m known as a specialist and always seem to get the person with [challenges] because people will say, ‘You should go work for Nan.’ And that’s because I can always see the genius, their A’s over the F’s.”

Memorable Friends teacher: Chemistry teacher Ken Drews, who convinced her to pursue chemistry in college.

!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alex Salkever ’87 Vice President of Marketing Communications at Mozilla, a free software community created in 1998 How he got here: After transferring from Johns Hopkins University to the University of California, Santa Barbara, to complete his degree in political science and Russian language and literature, Salkever moved to Hawaii, where he stayed busy as a freelance writer for the Christian Science Monitor, Travel + Leisure, Brides, and other publications.

Flexibility was key. “Everyone runs stories about Hawaii two or three times a year,” he says. “If you specialize in one type of journalism, you’re going to starve in life, but if you can do bits and pieces of everything, it’s actually a pretty great place to be a freelancer.”

After 15 years, Salkever moved to New York to become a technology editor at BusinessWeek.com. Next he held a number of more business-oriented positions: as a marketing director at Picarro, Inc., which specializes in creating systems for measuring greenhouse gas emissions; and Silk.co, a data publishing and visualization startup.

Current work: At Mozilla, Salkever manages a team of 25 people who market Mozilla Firefox around the globe and organize social media campaigns to increase awareness of the company’s Internet policy and advocacy issues.

In addition to his work at Mozilla, he is co-author of The Driver in the Driverless Car. Published last April, the book analyzes how

2.

such modernizing devices as self-driving cars and 3-D printers are rapidly changing our society — and whether such advances will ultimately help or hinder society and the job market.

Notable Friends School experience: Coach Tom LaMonica [’67] and the wrestling program. “Tom was an amazing guy. I came to Friends with no wrestling skills whatsoever and ended up placing fourth in the M.S.A.’s (boys’ sports conference, now the M.I.A.A.) my junior year. It was a transformative experience, realizing that if you work really hard on something, and the coaches care about you, you can make tremendous improvements quickly.”

Memorable Friends teacher: Longtime biology teacher George Wright.

“He made things that could be boring drudgery really interesting and made learning complex systems manageable — all while using entertaining metaphors for topics like procreation.”

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !Rand ! ! ! ! !LeBouvier ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ’74 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !extremely ! ! ! ! ! !remote ! ! ! !and !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! deep part of the ocean. ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !Strategy ! ! ! ! ! and ! ! !Business ! ! ! ! ! Development !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

“Our vehicle was ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !at! Bluefin ! ! ! ! !Robotics ! ! ! ! ! (purchased ! ! ! ! ! ! !and ! ! !now ! ! part ! ! ! ! ! !the ! !first ! !on ! !scene ! ! ! !to!go !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !of! !General ! ! ! ! Dynamics ! ! ! ! ! ! Mission ! ! ! ! ! Systems) ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !down ! ! !5,000 ! ! ! !meters, !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !How ! ! !he ! !got ! !here: ! ! ! LeBouvier ! ! ! ! ! ! had ! ! !an! !extensive ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !a !depth ! ! ! record ! ! ! ! at ! !the !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! time, to search ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !32-year ! ! ! ! !career ! ! ! !in!the ! !Navy, ! ! ! !traveling ! ! ! ! !all! over !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !the ! !world ! ! ! !on! Navy ! ! ! !ships, ! ! !before ! ! ! !landing ! ! ! ! !at! ! ! ! ! !a !completely ! ! ! ! ! !uncharted ! ! ! ! ! ! part ! ! !of!the ! ! ocean,” !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! says LeBouvier. ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !Bluefin ! ! ! ! as ! !a!developer ! ! ! ! ! !of! high-tech, ! ! ! ! ! ! unmanned ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !Bluefin ! ! ! !also ! ! developed ! ! ! ! ! ! !an! !underwater !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !underwater ! ! ! ! ! ! !vehicles. ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !vehicle ! ! ! !owned ! ! ! !by ! !Microsoft ! ! ! ! ! co-founder !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

“I saw every good and bad part of how ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !Paul ! ! Allen. ! ! ! !In! 2015, ! ! ! !the ! !exploration ! ! ! ! ! ! vessel !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the U.S.’s politics affect the rest of the world,” ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !he ! !says. ! ! !“I!got ! ! to ! !do! !everything ! ! ! ! ! !from ! ! !being ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !discovered ! ! ! ! ! ! the ! ! remains ! ! ! ! !of! !the ! !Japanese !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !a!French ! ! ! ! interpreter ! ! ! ! ! ! !in!Algeria ! ! ! !during ! ! ! !the ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !battleship ! ! ! ! ! !Musashi, ! ! ! ! !sunk ! ! !during ! ! ! !World ! ! ! War ! ! !II!in! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

3.

“A lot of what

Friends taught

me was how to

meet new people, and it helped for

understanding new cultures and embracing them, and not just being a typical American who goes in and thinks

Iranian hostage crisis on my first ship, to being in Panama during the invasion.” He was also on the scene in the Persian Gulf during the Gulf War and was working in the Pentagon when the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, occurred.

As his Navy career progressed, LeBouvier’s work on unmanned water vehicles intensified until he was basically the “de facto expert for the position.”

Current work: During his 11 years at Bluefin Robotics he has helped design hundreds of remote-controlled vehicles, which are used for research, detecting mines, or locating crashed vehicles. When Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went missing and crashed in the India Ocean in March 2014, the searchers first turned to vessels designed by Bluefin to explore the

everyone should be like them.”

—Rand LeBouvier ’74

one of the greatest naval battles ever fought.

Notable Friends School experience: “A lot of what Friends taught me was how to meet new people, and it helped for understanding new cultures and embracing them, and not just being a typical American who goes in and thinks everyone should be like them. It’s a skill that’s helped me in business as well.”

Memorable Friends teachers: English teacher Gary Blauvelt and wrestling coach Tom LaMonica [’67]. “Tommy really filled in at a bad time in my life, when some other things were going on. He was a central figure not just as a coach, but as a role model.

I would’ve loved to have been a better human when I was a teenager, but my mind was elsewhere. Luckily, I have the chance now to go back and be that good human.”

Karen Ferguson ’88 President of Jan Ferguson Inc., interior plantscaping and innovator of “living walls” How she got here: After graduating with an accounting degree from the University of Maryland, she started working for her mother-in-law’s company, Jan Ferguson Inc., which specializes in interior plant and flower arrangements for hotels, restaurants, and offices.

Ferguson took over as president of the company in 2006 and soon began incorporating living walls and roofs into its menu of services. Unlike vines of ivy that climb up surfaces, living walls’

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !Gabriel ! ! ! ! ! ! Helmer ! ! ! ! ! ! !’90 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !brief ! ! !—! which ! ! ! !was ! ! !pretty ! ! !surprising, ! ! ! ! ! ! because ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! people ! ! ! ! !who ! ! knew ! ! ! !a!good ! ! !amount ! ! ! ! !about ! ! ! many !!!!!!!!!!!! different subjects.” we were arguing some relatively experimental ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !Senior ! ! ! !Privacy ! ! ! ! !Counsel ! ! ! ! !at!Google !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! legal arguments,” he says. “It was an incredibly ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !amazing ! ! ! ! !and ! ! !worthwhile ! ! ! ! ! !effort.” ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Memorable ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Friends ! ! ! ! !teacher: ! ! ! ! !The ! ! !“awesome” !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

David Heath, who was faculty advisor of the How he got here: Helmer has followed a !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Computer Club.

Current work: After hearing that Google circuitous path since his time as the head ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !of! Friends ! ! ! ! !School’s ! ! ! ! !Computer ! ! ! ! ! !Club. ! ! !While ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !needed ! ! ! ! !lawyers ! ! ! ! with ! ! !security ! ! ! ! !expertise, !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !attending ! ! ! ! ! !the ! !University ! ! ! ! ! !of!Chicago, ! ! ! ! ! he ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !Helmer ! ! ! ! !applied ! ! ! !and ! ! !landed ! ! ! !a! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !became ! ! ! ! !interested ! ! ! ! ! !in!art, ! !so ! !after ! ! !his ! !B.A., ! ! !he! ! ! !job ! ! on ! !the ! !company’s ! ! ! ! ! ! !privacy !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !went ! ! !on ! !to!pursue ! ! ! ! a! B.F.A. ! ! ! !from ! ! !the ! !Rhode ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !counsel ! ! ! ! !in!2011. ! ! ! Quickly ! ! ! ! !rising !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !Island ! ! ! School ! ! ! ! !of!Design. ! ! ! ! !At! RISD, ! ! ! !he! joined ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !through ! ! ! ! !the ! !ranks, ! ! ! !he! !is !now !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! one of 15 legal professionals the student government as its sculpture ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !around ! ! ! ! the ! ! !U.S. ! !and ! ! !Europe !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! representative, which piqued his interest in ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !becoming ! ! ! ! ! !a!lawyer. ! ! ! !A!degree ! ! ! ! !from ! ! !the ! !Boston ! ! ! ! ! !who ! ! !write ! ! !policies ! ! ! ! !and ! !advise !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !University ! ! ! ! ! !School ! ! ! !of! Law ! ! !followed ! ! ! ! !in! 2001. ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !Google ! ! ! ! !on! how ! ! !to! !best ! ! comply !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

During the decade he practiced law in Boston, Helmer handled a broad range of casework. Perhaps the most interesting, he says, was Goodrich v. Massachusetts Department of Public Health, which in 2003 legalized same-sex marriage in Massachusetts. He and the rest of his firm presented arguments in favor of permitting same-sex couples to obtain marriage licenses, and in the end, Grand Justice Margaret Marshall’s verdict reflected much of his firm’s work.

“Marshall’s opinion addressed the same constitutional issues in the same order and in the same structure as our

5.

with the Internet’s security and privacy laws, among other tasks. “When people attempt to hack Google, or our products misbehave, I help guide the response efforts, investigation, and write notifications for the public,” he says.

Notable Friends School experience: “U Chicago and Friends were in many ways aligned in that they both believed in turning out well-rounded, well-educated

soil and grate construction provides habitat for plants to root and grow. This “green” approach is quickly growing in popularity in the design of contemporary office buildings.

In addition to providing aesthetic appeal, living walls help builders in gaining LEED certifications for sustainable design.

a person than any other schooling or experience I’ve had. It really felt like a family,” she says. As her business grows, Ferguson hopes to continue instilling in her employees the same values of “hard work, kindness, and respect” that she learned at Friends.

Current work: If you’ve visited Baltimore’s Inner Harbor lately, you’ve likely noticed Ferguson’s recent work creating the green living wall on the side of the PNC building on Pratt Street. Having now created 10 living roofs and five living walls in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., Ferguson’s company has become the go-to name for plantscaping needs.

Memorable Friends teacher: “I look back and value the challenging academics and often refer to Mr. [Gary] Blauvelt’s English and Literature class as a true turning point where I began to appreciate reading and analyzing books.”

Notable Friends School experience: “Friends definitely shaped me more as

Louis Krauss ’13 is a 2017 graduate of Oberlin College.

Share your “Imagine That!” story.

Email alumni@friendsbalt.org.

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academics

A New Science Sequence This academic year marks the launch of a new science sequence in the Upper School, with 9th graders now taking biology, rather than environmental science, then chemistry in 10th grade and physics in 11th grade. As seniors, the current crop of 9th graders will be able to pick from advanced courses in biology, chemistry, or physics, or from a series of science electives, including some new ones currently in development.

The change, says Upper School Principal Steve McManus, is aimed at overcoming limitations of the previous science sequence, which will be followed to completion by current sophomores through seniors: environmental science (9th); biology (10th); chemistry or applied chemistry (11th); and physics or calculus-based physics (12th).

“We were finding that seniors who were interested in pursuing advanced science coursework were forced to double up their senior year, which meant they had to drop something else to make room,” says McManus.

In addition, Friends School students hoping to pursue summer internships in science labs found that many programs required completion of biology and chemistry — which meant they couldn’t apply to these programs until the spring of their junior year, putting them at a competitive disadvantage.

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Last spring, students in Katherine Jenkins’ 9th grade Environmental Science course learned firsthand about the aquaponics operation at Baltimore’s Cylburn Arboretum. Field trips like these will continue under the new science sequence with coursework on environmental sustainability in biology.

While the new sequence means the end of a yearlong course in environmental science, “environmental stewardship and sustainability are still core to our values at Friends School, and we don’t want to lose that,” says McManus. The 9th-grade biology curriculum being rolled out this year includes coursework on environmental sustainability, he says.

Students try some of the local greenery at the Cylburn Arboretum.

academics

Mathletes Prove Their Mettle

Peace educator John Hunter leads 4th graders in the World Peace Games.

Peace Makers Last year, at precisely 11:49 a.m. on The students emerged Friday, March 10, 31 Friends School with a greater sense 4th graders achieved world peace.

At the critical moment, the giddy of their potential and students representing the fictitious their power to solve nations of Mulaland, Goldenville, Greenlandia, and the Ice Republic of even the most complex CHEK (short for Caroline, Henry, problems as long Eva, Khalil), jumped up and down, screaming and trading high fives as they work together. with their peers from the United Nations, the World Bank, legal counsel, and even the arms dealers.

At the center of it all, dressed in his signature African print Dashiki, a beaming John Hunter observed the scene with a mix of pride and awe.

The students had spent the week playing the World Peace Game, a political simulation created by Hunter that seeks to place “all the problems of the world,” including economic, social, and environmental crises and the imminent threat of war, on a 4-foot-by-5-foot triple-decker Plexiglas board in order to “let the children solve them.”

The author of World Peace and Other 4th-Grade Achievements, Hunter has watched this scene unfold hundreds of times, in cities and townships all over the world, in the 40 years since he first introduced it to a high school class in Richmond, Va. For their part, the students emerged from the experience with a greater sense of their potential and their power to solve even the most complex problems as long as they work together.

That is the central message of the World Peace Game: All of us have it in our power to help bring about peace and prosperity if we are willing to listen, to compromise, and to think beyond ourselves. It’s a message familiar to Friends School students because it aligns with our Quaker values of simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality, and stewardship.

Last winter, the Middle School MathCounts team took seventh place out of 34 teams in the Baltimore/Chesapeake Chapter MathCounts Competition to advance to the state competition in March. The chapter competition is comprised of middle schools in Baltimore City as well as Baltimore, Cecil, Harford, and Howard counties.

The Friends MathCounts team — 8th graders Eva Mammen, Luke Rollfinke, Dan Musachio, and Carter Hollins — solved seven of 10 problems correctly to garner their seventh-place spot. “The scoring was so close that had the Friends team gotten one more team question correct, we would have finished fifth, and if we had gotten one more team question incorrect, we would have finished nineth and would not have qualified for the State Competition,” says John Watt, Middle School math teacher and MathCounts coach. Only the top eight teams and the top 63 individuals (of the 251 competing in the Chapter) qualify for the state competition.

In addition to the team round, there are two individual rounds in any MathCounts competition: the Sprint (a written test of computational skills on which calculators are not allowed) and the Target (a written test of lengthier, more difficult problems, for which calculators are permitted). In the Sprint round, Eva Mammen led the Quakers with 41 out of 46 points to tie for 21st place with five other mathletes; following Eva were: Luke Rollfinke (40 pts., 28th place); Dan Musachio (39 pts., 39th); and Carter Hollins (37 pts., 64th).

In the Target round, each of the four mathletes scored 14 of a possible 16 points.

Eighth graders Joseph Badros, Manny Sachs-Kohen, Will Crosby, Henry Geller, and Joshua Mizrachi as well as 7th grader Logan Sampath also competed as individuals.

Seventh graders Alex House and Minea Stayman participated unofficially.

At the state competition held at Johns Hopkins University, the Friends team earned a 12th-place finish while competing against teams from across Maryland. Logan Sampath subbed for the vacationing Eva Mammen.

From left, John Watt with Dan Musachio, Luke Rollfinke, Ava Mammen, and Carter Hollins, all Class of ’21

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academics

Down to the Buzzer Generations of Baltimoreans have tuned in Saturday mornings to watch local high school teams match wits on It’s Academic.

The Emmy Award-winning national program, which airs locally on WJZ-TV, has been recognized in The Guinness Book of World Records as “the world’s longest-running TV quiz show.”

And yet, Friends — Baltimore’s oldest school — had never fielded a team. For longtime Latin teacher Lisa Countess, something seemed amiss. So in the fall of 2014, she set about to form a Friends School It’s Academic team. “I thought it would be fun!” she says.

After finding a willing accomplice cum coach in Upper School math teacher John Bonn (who also advises the School’s Mock Trial team), Countess wasted little time in recruiting a handful of earnest students to pilot the Friends program. That inaugural trio of Dylan Coiro ’15, James DeVinne ’15, and Alex Kaplan ’16 won an exciting first-round match. This feat was repeated the following year with Kaplan, his classmate George Porter ’16, Nick DeVinne ’17 ( James’ younger brother), Carrie Zaremba ’17, and Jackson Davis ’17 helming the buzzer.

Bonn admits that he and Countess didn’t know quite what to expect with last year’s 2016-17 team, “but it turned out to be our best installment yet!” Seasoned “Academicians” DeVinne and Davis recruited “a guy who always seemed to know the answer in history class,” Wes Culp ’17. With Zaremba also on board, the team developed into what Coach Bonn describes as “a truly competitive squad that covered all subject areas with confidence and command.”

The Friends contingent made it to the quarterfinals, where it faced a spirited Gilman outfit. It was Roland Park interscholastic rivalry at its best and when the dust had cleared, the Quakers were on to the It’s Academic semifinals last May.

On the set with Coach John Bonn, Carrie Zaremba ’17, Nick DeVinne ’17, and Wes Culp ’17

There, they ran into the defending champion and always-formidable Centennial High School, whose entrenched It’s Academic program boasts a middle school “feeder” team.

Although the Friends team lost, Zaremba, Culp, and DeVinne put on a strong showing in a highly competitive setting to claim a well-earned second place ahead of Urbana High School of Frederick County.

“

OVERHEARD

“ Poverty & racism are public health issues. You

should not wait to make a difference! The perfect opportunity is right now and right here.”

—Leana Wen, M.D., Baltimore City Health Commissioner Wen delivered the keynote address at the School’s first-ever Public Health Day on April 5.

Organized by the Upper School History Department and made possible through the Class of 1989 Visiting Scholars Fund, the full-day program engaged students in workshops and discussions led by researchers, physicians, and activists working on such critical issues as HIV/AIDS, the opioid epidemic, and heart disease.

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academics

Immersed in Moldova Even as U.S.-Russia relations remain tense and politically fraught, Friends School senior Benjamin Sherbakov ’18 has immersed himself in that country’s language during a trip to the other side of the world.

The recipient of a National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y ) scholarship from the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, Sherbakov is spending the 2017-2018 academic year in Moldova, where he is studying Russian.

The NSLI-Y program’s goal is “to improve Americans’ ability to communicate in select critical languages to advance international dialogue and increase American economic global competitiveness.” The program today aims to increase understanding and dialogue across cultural lines.

Sherbakov will spend the entirety of his senior year in Moldova, but will still graduate with his class at Friends in June 2018.

In an interview, Sherbakov said he originally applied to study Russian abroad during his junior year, but was not accepted, which he described as “kind of crushing.”

But his heart was set on studying abroad at a young age. He reapplied and, to his excitement, was accepted.

“As a high schooler, you’re still a dependent,” he said. “So you’re still part of the family and you receive this experience that’s quite unique and that you can’t replicate at any other age. So I was set on doing it in high school.”

His path to study Russian language and culture is fitting, given that Sherbakov himself is half Russian. He said he’d Benjamin Sherbakov ’18 heard stories about his family’s native country frequently from his grandmother, who helped raise him.

When applying for an NSLI-Y scholarship, students apply to a language, not a specific country. Despite the fact that his chosen tongue was Russian, he was picked to study the language in Moldova.

Sherbakov explained that although Moldovan is the country’s national language, enough people speak Russian in the capital city of Chişinӑu, where he will be living, that students of Russian are able to navigate.

The scholarship will cover many of Sherbakov’s expenses, including his travel to Moldova, visa costs, university classes in Moldova, and more. “It’s a very generous program, and I’m excited because this is what I’ve always wanted to do,” he said. “And now I can do it. And I can be fluent in Russian and use it in my career.”

Sherbakov is considering studying Russian in college, though he’s also interested in international relations and, further down the line, a career in public service. He joins a cohort of other previous Friends students who participated in the NSLI-Y program, including Katrina Keegan ’15 and Connor Hardy ’16, both of whom studied in Moldova as well.

“I’m really looking forward to being immersed in the culture that’s different from my own and just gaining a new perspective of the world,” Sherbakov said. “I’m also looking forward to being fluent in Russian.”

Marching to protect the Earth

Marchers with a Purpose Third graders collaborated with children and staff of Little Friends Early Learning Center late last May to organize a campus Climate March. The purpose? To raise awareness about the negative environmental impacts of Styrofoam. “The 3rd grade community and our Little Friends buddies have been concerned about our climate and how it is changing. By marching, we all let people know that we are trying to protect our future and the Earth,” said 3rd grade teacher Victoria LeBron.

This Climate March was the second such social action the 3rd grade undertook last year with help from their teachers and the School community. In January, the students held a campus Peace March, inviting parents and students from the other divisions to join them.

Lauren Eller ’14 is a student at Kenyon College and was the Summer 2017 intern for Baltimore Fishbowl, where this article first appeared. Reprinted with permission.

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academics

A Full Plate for Young Researchers How can we as food activists impact our community’s involvement in food production and consumption? That was the driving question behind an intensive project-based learning unit last year that got 5th graders out visiting local farms and farmers’ markets — and culminated in identifying problems they felt inspired to solve.

The students began the unit by viewing clips from Food, Inc. and watching the documentary What’s On Your Plate?

“This encouraged meaningful conversations about injustices they viewed and had trouble processing and felt confused about. It also developed a passion in students to solve some of the problems they viewed,” says 5th grade teacher Jenn Schultz.

Next, the students generated questions that drove their research. They read articles and excerpts from The Omnivore’s Dilemma for Young Readers, and listened to experts in the field.

“We also visited a local farm to view examples of ethical farming firsthand, as well as an urban farm in Hampden to rethink how city spaces can be used to produce healthy food for ‘food deserts’ in our city,” says Schultz.

Based on what they learned, the students identified businesses in Baltimore that sell healthy, ethically raised or grown food. “Many students also visited farmers’ markets on the weekends and interviewed local farmers and producers,” she says.

Their research culminated in identifying problems the students wanted to solve, Schultz says — and “taking some action to make a positive change related to our community’s involvement in food production and consumption.”

In one project a student designed and built a prototype of a chicken coop specific to Baltimore City laws and regulations. Another group developed a partnership with Liberty Delight Farms. These students developed a field trip opportunity in which visitors could learn about ethical butchering, how to properly and ethically care for animals, and how to support the farm’s community-supported agriculture (CSA) mission by packing bags of produce and meat for members.

All French, All the Time Fifteen Upper School students spent 24 hours immersed in French language and culture without even leaving Baltimore last winter, when Upper School Academic Dean and French teacher Christine Koniezhny organized an informal yet language-intensive event.

The fun began on a Friday evening with board games en françąis, followed by a cheese and chocolate fondue dinner prepared by the students themselves and a movie: Le Chef. After camping out overnight in the Upper School library, the group, including chaperones Koniezhny and fellow French teachers Kristen Andrews and Dahira Binford ’81, drove downtown the following morning to

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Reading is for the Dogs First graders in teacher Suzanne Whitney’s class each month visit the SPCA, where they sit outside the cages and read to the dogs. The reading program has dual benefits: It helps to socialize the pets and get them ready for adoption while building the students’ reading skills. “It was so noisy when they started that I wasn’t sure they’d keep reading, but they did, and the dogs magically quieted down to hear them,” says Whitney ’72.

Pâtisserie Poupon for pastries and then tried their hand at the outdoor sport of pétanque, or boules.

The weekend closed with a French-inspired three-course dinner, prepared by the students, with Head of School Matt Micciche and special guest Diala Touré, a Friends parents and adjunct professor of art history at Johns Hopkins University. Said Andrews, “The students were wonderful, they all stuck to their pledge to speak only French, and they turned out to be inspired chefs and gifted pétanque players. It was really a lot of fun, a lot of laughter.”

academics

An Abundance of Authors

Mixing it up with members of the Charm City Roller Girls

Lower School Librarian John Scott and teacher Andy Hanes went all out last May in preparation for a visit by Victoria Jamieson, author/illustrator of Roller Girl, who conducted a two-day writing and illustrating workshop with Lower and Middle School students.

The Friends teachers organized an evening field trip to Skateland in Dundalk to watch a Charm City Roller Girls scrimmage, in homage to Jamieson’s book, which was a Newbery Honoree. The following afternoon, Charm City team members — including Slampagne, Case-A-Diva, and Tearin’ Tina — arrived on campus to demonstrate the finer points of the sport on the Lower School blacktop.

Jamieson’s time on campus wrapped up a year of exciting author’s visits, including one last November from New York Times bestselling author Matt de la Peña, whose children’s book, Last Stop on Market Street, won the 2016 Newbery Medal.

Friends students benefit from a robust schedule of award-winning authors thanks in large part to Scott, who served on the 2016 Newbery Medal Selection Committee and also on the selection committee for the 2010 Caldecott Medal, which is given to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book.

KUDOS MOSCOW BOUND: Last year, senior Kyle Spawn ’17 was selected by the American Councils of Teachers of Russian (ACTR) to serve on the United States’ delegation to the International Olympiada, which took place in Moscow in November 2016. The prestigious honor was granted to just five Russian language students from across the U.S. Spawn’s selection to the international delegation was based on his outstanding performance in the semifinalist round for the international competition, which consisted of an online proficiency exam to test grammar and writing as well as a Skype interview to test oral proficiency skills.

Jonathan Keegan ’17 with math teacher Carl Schlenger

Kyle Spawn ’17 with Principal Steve McManis and science teacher Bill Hilgartner

MATH WHIZZES: Senior Jonathan Keegan ’17 qualified for Part II of the 2016 University of Maryland Math Competition. His score of 56 on Part I placed him 106th out of the 1,903 Maryland high school students who participated in the contest. (A total of 221 students qualified for Part II.) Senior Nick De Vinne ’17 and sophomore Tony Zhu ’19, both of whom scored a 44, just missed the cut-off score of 46 needed to participate in Part II. Other Friends students who performed well in Part I of the competition included top-scoring junior Richard Stevens ’18, who scored a 42, and four 9th graders, including Charlie Mallonee ’20, who “seemingly out of nowhere,” earned the fifth-highest score at the School with a 38, ranking him 243 in the state, according to Upper School math teacher Will Marbury.

AUTHOR, AUTHOR: Sydney Zimmerman ’18 won first prize in the Baltimore Science Fiction Society’s (BSFS) Young Writer’s Contest for her short story The Buoyancy of Thoughts. Zimmerman read her story before a live audience at Balticon51, the Maryland Regional Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention, on Saturday, May 27, at the Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace Hotel.

The talented writer, who entered the contest at the urging of her English teacher Michael Paulson, is presently working on an Extradisciplinary Certificate in creative writing at Friends (see p. 20 for more on the ECP program). As part of the certificate, she is working on a novel. Friends students have fared well in the annual BSFS contest: In 2016, Kayleigh Ford ’17 won second prize, as did Hannah Meshulam ’13 in 2013. Last year, Ford earned an honorable mention.

Sydney Zimmerman ’18

PROMISING FILM MAKERS: Friends students achieved high honors for their outstanding performance in the Baltimore High School Film Festival last June, a regional competition that is professionally judged. A Life Well Spent by Eli Henslee ’17 and Sam Barber ’17 won in The Mix category. Jackson Roberts ’17 was a finalist in the Narrative Short category for Tiny Galaxies.

Ayris Akbay ’18 was a finalist in The Mix with A Childhood Best Friend. Finalists’ films were shown at The Charles Theatre.

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arts The Gift of Music

A

s a feat of synchronicity, it’s truly a sight (and sound) to behold: Some 150 young string players, from 4th grade through 12th grade, grouped in three orchestras across the floor of the Old Gym, raising their bows in tandem to perform the Shaker classic, “Simple Gifts.” Leading them all, with her trademark sunny disposition and boundless energy, was Kirsten Walsh, director of orchestras for Friends School.

While this final piece in the program of last April’s All-School Orchestra Concert brought many appreciative parents to their feet in applause, there was plenty to clap about earlier in the program, including two toe-tapping interludes by the Friends Fiddle Club; a swinging rendition of “All About That Bass” (with guest vocalist Tristin Goodenough ’17); a technically demanding performance of Schubert’s Quintet in C Major, Opus 163, by the Friends Chamber Music Club; and an ambitious collaboration between the Upper School Orchestra and zither player Chenjiayi (“Sanny”) Ye ’18.

The Schubert Quintet, featuring Max Jacobs ’17 and Leah Dumaine ’20 on violin, Renee Audette ’18 on viola, Lulu Whitmore ’19 on cello, and Steedman Jenkins ’19 on bass, was originally written for two violins and two cellos. “Steedman took on the task of learning the second cello part on bass,” explains Walsh. “This is no minor task for a bassist, let alone a bassist new to Chamber Music Club having never read some of the clefs he would need to read to do so. He just took it and ran with it.”

Collaboration on “Mountain Water,” by composer Guanren Gu, began months in advance. Since there isn’t any repertoire in the Western music tradition that is written for Chinese zither, the first task was finding

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a piece that could be transcribed for a string orchestra of the Western tradition. Both Ye and Walsh loved the flowing tones of “Mountain Water,” but because it was written for Chinese zither and piano, Walsh needed to transcribe the piano part into a string orchestra score.

“Sanny taught me a little about how to read Chinese zither tablature and how to decipher the Chinese characters written in the music. I had Sanny take a basic piano book so she could start learning to read Western notation with a bit more proficiency.

Then we ran from there,” says Walsh. “She started learning the piece and I started transcribing.” What followed: “Hours of practice on her part and hours of listening on mine to best find what part should go where in the orchestra.”

When all was ready, Ye and the orchestra started rehearsing together in February. “It was a learning process for all,” says Walsh.

“Most Chinese music is based on a 5-tone/ pentatonic scale while most Western music is based on a 7-tone/major or minor scale.

The harmonies are therefore slightly unusual to the typical string player.”

While the audience members in the Old Gym that April evening were clearly captivated by Ye and her graceful performance on the zither, they weren’t the only beneficiaries of the artistic collaboration, says Walsh. “I think the orchestra students got a lot out of this process — learning how to play in an unusual tonality, playing with a completely different timbre of instrument, and finding how the patterns fit under their fingers.”

Right, cellist Laya Bubshait ’25; far right, Orchestra Director Kirsten Walsh accompanies the Lower School string players.

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arts

The Art of Competition

PHOTO BY LAURA PRICHETT

Poppin Fresh Like its older sibling, the Middle School Musical is a force of nature — one that annually draws in dozens of fledgling singers, dancers, and stagehands and, over the next three months, transforms them into a cohesive cast. While each show delivers standout performances, the real star is the spirit of community, collaboration, and resilience demonstrated by the 6th, 7th, and 8th graders who pull together while learning to balance school work, sports, and other responsibilities. Directed by Robert Oppel, with music direction by longtime choral music teacher Cécile Audette and choreography

by Kathy Satmary, last year’s show, Mary Poppins, which ran March 3-5, had us humming “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” all winter long.

Six Upper School art students received Gold Key awards in the regional round of the 2017 Scholastics Art & Writing Awards and moved on to the national competition.

Presented by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, a nonprofit dedicated to identifying and showcasing the work of students with exceptional artistic and literary talent, the national competition is among the nation’s longest-running and most prestigious recognition program for creative teens in grades 7–12.

In all, 21 Friends Upper Schoolers entered the competition. Of these, 15 were recognized at the regional level.

“Submitting work for a juried ‘call for entry’ is no small feat, particularly when it coincides with exam week!” says Upper School Art Department Chair Ben Roach, who praised all students who entered the prestigious contest.

He notes that participation in the Scholastic competition has grown at Friends. In 2016, six students submitted works, with four earning Gold Keys.

Below is the list of Friends’ regional winners, including this year’s Gold Key recipients: • Mary Budnitz ’17, Digital Art, Pirate (Gold Key) • Brenna Firlie ’18, Painting, “Through the Windshield” (Gold Key); Painting, “Baltimore Penn Station” (Gold Key); painting, “Florence Flowers” (Honorable Mention); painting, “Time Lapse” (Honorable Mention) • Sofia Geocadin ’19, Printmaking, “London” (Gold Key) • Jackson Roberts ’17, Film & Animation, “Pencils” (Gold Key); Film & Animation, “Vivid Memory Project: Mary Roberts” (Gold Key) • Kate Seim ’19, Digital Art, “introvert extrovert” (Gold Key) • Lucera Whitmore ’19, Painting, “Nina” (Gold Key); Drawing and Illustration, “Bolton Hill” (Honorable Mention); Painting, “Snowfarm” (Honorable Mention) • Renee Audette ’18, Drawing and Illustration, “Don’t Throw Any of Yourself Away” (Silver Key) • Hanna Field ’17, Art Portfolio, People (Honorable Mention); Mixed Media, “line” (Honorable Mention) • Charlie Hallock ’18, Digital Art, “Surreal Guitar” (Honorable Mention) • Amanda Holland ’20, Photography, “Statement” (Honorable Mention) • Kai Jenrette ’19, Digital Art, “Self” (Honorable Mention); Digital Art, “Red Hot” (Honorable Mention)

PHOTO BY LAURA PRITCHETT

• Maya Kirk ’17, Art Portfolio, “Range” (Honorable Mention) • Nicole Vershov ’18, Painting, “The Flight” (Honorable Mention) • Julia Weinberg ’18, Photography, “Motivation” (Honorable Mention) • Chenjiayi Ye ’18, Drawing and Illustration, “Still Life 1” (Honorable Mention)

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arts Poetry in Motion

PHOTO BY LAURA PRICHETT

The annual Dance Showcase on April 27 was a tour de force of grace, artistry, and athleticism, featuring a wide range of dance styles and a number of studentchoreographed works. Led by visionary instructor and former member of the Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble, Torens Johnson, Friends’ dance program continues to grow in exciting ways, with cross-divisional in-day instruction — including two sections of Upper School Studio Dance offered for credit — and after-school offerings. Middle Schoolers may join Junior Dance Company, while Upper School opportunities include two student-run troupes — the classical/modern Pirouettes and CHANCE, a hip hop collective — plus Dance Team, which performs during Friday Night Basketball games, and the Senior Dance Company. From left, Nacasha Stubbs ’21, Ana Lane ’21, Sophia Walper ’21, and Maria Angelos ’21

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arts

Emily Wolff ’18 with McKim friends.

WHAT Town?

Each December members of the Upper School Concert Chorale gather excitedly around Michael McVey following their winter concert and await the announcement: “This year’s spring musical will be …”

But when the veteran choral music teacher and director excitedly declared Urinetown the response was somewhat muted. “Most kids were unfamiliar with the show, but we wanted to do something different this year, especially after opening the new theater with the classic Oklahoma! last year,” he says. Needless to say, the students embraced the project wholeheartedly.

Over three performances, May 19-21, the cast of 48, directed by Theater Technician and Educator Robert Oppel, delivered stunning performances with equally impressive contributions by student set builders, lighting techs, and running crews.

Bringing the Stage to the Children Upper School students in veteran English teacher Tom Buck’s Theater Workshop traveled to the McKim Center last spring where they performed The Prince Who Wouldn’t Talk for children enrolled in the after-school program.

“Our performances of Cinderella and The Prince Who Wouldn’t Talk at McKim were highlights of the course,” says Buck. “Several of the kids actually returned to the center with English teacher and McKim liaison Amy Schmaljohn to teach theater to the kids who had enjoyed their shows.”

The Friends-McKim connection dates to 1817 when John McKim, a prominent merchant and a Quaker, bequeathed funds for construction of the city’s first free school. Today the former McKim Free School, now the McKim Community Center, serves Jonestown youth, seniors, and homeless individuals through a variety of programs. The organization occupies the historic Aisquith Street Meetinghouse, where Friends School was founded in 1784.

ARTstravaganza!

The best of Friends School student artwork from grades Pre-K through 12 filled the Gymnasium at the All-School Art Show last April, which drew hundreds of people over several days. The show’s opening reception featured music performed by the Upper School Acoustic Music Club.

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athletics

Run, Shoot, Score!

FRIENDS ATHLETES MAKE THE GRADE

I

n a 2016-17 academic year bookended by conference championships last fall, for Boys Cross Country, and the spring, for Golf, Friends School athletes continued to up their game, competing on some 50 different interscholastic teams at the Varsity, Junior Varsity, and Middle School levels.

With so many contests spread out across our campus and at schools nearby and farther afield (think Frederick County), creating a “best of ” list is nearly impossible. Nevertheless, here are a few of the teams and players that made our hearts pound a little faster and our voices shout, “GO QUAKES!” Led by co-captains Jay Crawford ’17 and Cameron Matsui ’18, the Varsity Golf team finished a 6-0 season last spring, narrowly defeating Jemicy School, 11-10, to clinch its second consecutive M.I.A.A. Conference title. In a thrilling final game at Mt. Pleasant Golf Course, Crawford delivered the best performance of his Friends career, shooting even par in his match; while Matsui came from 2 behind to win his last 3 holes. The dramatic three-foot putt of Mike Klausner ’18 ultimately sealed the deal, and the crown, for the Quakers.

Will the reigning championship Boys Varsity Cross Country team capture this year’s title? The 2017 season is barely past the halfway mark but already rumblings of three-peat can be heard throughout the Quaker Nation. It’s still too early tell. However, with a deep bench of roughly 40 talented runners — Did we mention Cross Country is our most popular team sport? — led by agile All-Conference athlete Henry Griffith ’20, the Quakers are well-positioned to go deep into the post-season.

Three Girls Varsity teams — Volleyball, Lacrosse, and, Softball — all reached the I.A.A.M. Championships in 2016-17. The journey was especially sweet for softball, which has not reached the playoffs since 2008. Led by All-Conference athletes Tyler Rifkin ’18, Katie Capizzi ’18, and Lucy Meigs ’18, and power-hitters Julia Parker ’20, Delia Hatten ’17, and Madison Moore ’17, Varsity Softball (8-4) staged a post-season upset, moving from #4 seed to the playoffs against a dominant Mt. Carmel. Look for this team to build on its momentum in 2018.

Varsity Girls Volleyball finished its 11-4 season with a remarkable run to the finals against St. Frances Academy. In a thrilling display of post-season play, the team racked up back-to-back shutouts against Glenelg Country School and St. John’s Catholic Prep. Although they lost All-Conference, Maggie Giblin ’17, Tristin Goodenough ’17, and Madison Moore ’17 this academic year, the Quakers are benefiting from a solid base of returning players this fall.

Returning to the Championships for the fifth time in seven years, the Girls Varsity Lacrosse (10-5) on May 13 fell to a strong Mercy team at Archbishop Spalding High School stadium. Although the lady laxers have lost goal machine Irene Lunt ’17, who is playing for Bowdoin College, the Quakers have a powerful line-up for spring 2018, with Charessa Crosse ’19, Alex Miceli ’18, and Carli Freeman ’18 (who is committed to play for Johns Hopkins University after graduation).

From left: The Varsity Golf team clinched its second consecutive M.I.A.A. Conference title; the Boys Varsity Cross Country team gears up for a three-peat this fall; the Girls Varsity Volleyball reached the finals, with shutouts against Glenelg Country School and St. John’s Catholic Prep, Grace Todd ’18 and Maggie Giblin ’17 pictured; the Girls Lacrosse team headed to the Championships for the fifth time in seven years, Irene Lunt ’17 pictured; and the Girls Varsity Softball team reached the I.A.A.M. playoffs for the first time since 2008, Tyler Rifkin ’18 pictured.

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athletics Hoops Homecoming Friends’ own Karleena Tobin ’02 delivered the keynote message at this year’s Friends School Athletic Association Awards Celebration. A standout basketball player at Friends, where she was one of only three other female players to break the 1,000-point mark, Tobin went on to play at the University of Delaware. There, she helped guide the Blue Hens to three 20-plus-win seasons and a trio of postseason Women’s National Invitational Tournament bids, earning the Delaware Sportsmanship Award in her senior year. Today, Tobin teaches in the Baltimore City Public Schools and continues to serve the community as a coach and game official.

All Conference, All Year Long Friends School athletes racked up a total of 29 All-Conference honors in 2016-17. Honorees are selected by the coaches of the I.A.A.M./ M.I.A.A. member schools.

I.A.A.M. Fall •F ield Hockey: Erin Farrugia ’17, Olivia Nengel ’20 •V olleyball: Maggie Giblin ’17 •T ennis: Lucy Meigs ’18, Julia Weinberg ’18, Anne Tobin ’18 Winter • I ndoor Soccer: Seraya Makle ’18, Brenna Firle ’18 Spring • L acrosse: Irene Lunt ’17, Carli Freeman ’18, Charessa Crosse ’19 •S oftball: Tyler Rifkin ’18, Katie Capizzi ’18, Lucy Meigs ’18

Going to the Mat Varsity Wrestling celebrated a big season in 2017, earning a 7-2 M.I.A.A. B Conference record. “The team had a challenging schedule, wrestling 31 dual matches over the season,” says coach and 5th grade teacher Bill Hardy, noting, “This doesn’t include the individual tournaments in which some wrestlers competed, giving them up to 45 matches during the season.”

In February four-year Varsity grappler Jack Schreck ’17 (6'1", 220 pounds), pictured, represented Friends at the National Prep Tournament at Lehigh University.

His achievement marked the School’s first appearance at the elite contest in at least eight years, according to Hardy.

M.I.A.A. Fall •F ootball: Skyler Kessenich ’18, Kavon Samuels ’18 •C ross Country: Dakota Allis ’17, Henry Griffith ’20 •S occer: Mike Klausner ’18 Winter •W restling: Caleb Boyer ’18, Lance Kevin ’18, Jack Schreck ’17 •B asketball: Ross Jones ’17, Jihar Williams ’17 Spring • L acrosse: Patrick Linehan ’18, Owen McManus ’18 •B aseball: Jake Rainess ’18 •G olf: Jay Crawford ’17, Cameron Matsui ’18

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athletics

CATCHING UP WITH Brian Rollfinke, The ‘Stat Man’ FRIENDS BASEBALL A TEAM RECORDS IN 2017 • Pitching staff struck out 121 batters (new record) = 9+ per game • Offense collected 151 hits (new record) •T eam scored 158 runs (second most in team history) = over 12 runs/game (Team scored less than 10 runs only 3 times all season!)

• . 401 team batting average = fourth highest in 28 seasons

G

iven that Middle School Baseball Coach Brian Rollfinke is a veteran math teacher (29 years and counting at Friends), it’s perhaps no big surprise that he’s fascinated by statistics. What is surprising is the ease with which he can spin-off key stats stretching all the way back to the start of the School’s baseball program in 1990.

He can tell you, for instance, the player with the all-time highest batting average (Ned Bartlett ’96-’97, .586) and the all-time leader in RBIs (Charles Whitman ’00-’01, 44). Then there’s the amazing pitching prowess of Arnie Capute ’12, who struck out 121 batters during the 24 games he pitched during the 2006-2008 seasons, and the 48 runs scored by lead-off hitter Gill Wylie ’11 during the 2005-2007 seasons.

Now there’s a new stat to add to the record books: Rollfinke’s A team ended the 2017 spring baseball season with a 12-1 record, falling only to Gilman. “This is the best team record in the 28 years of the baseball program at Friends Middle School!” the happy coach announced to his players last May, after the Quakers trounced Concordia 13-5 in the final game of the season.

With the help of assistant coaches Robby Miller ’08, Eliot Ballard, and Richard Dopkin, Rollfinke led his young Quakers to

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victories over area A Conference teams that had in the past proved to be formidable foes.

Friends bested Boys’ Latin 10-6; McDonogh 10-7; and St. Paul’s, 11-9.

For Rollfinke, the record-breaking 2017 season was particularly sweet because the team included his son Luke Rollfinke ’21, and a crew of other 8th graders that Rollfinke has been coaching through the Roland Park Baseball League since they were 7 years old.

“I remember teaching several of these guys how to put on catcher’s gear for the very first time, way back when the shin guards were almost as tall as the kids themselves.

To see how far they’ve come — as players, teammates, and students of the great game of baseball — in just six or seven years is stunning,” says Rollfinke.

He adds, “I’m so proud of their dedication to a sport that is difficult to master and relatively low profile here at Friends School.”

Because baseball at Friends is an off-campus sport, Rollfinke explains, “the associated time commitment is huge (due to travel, set-up, and break-down), and the players rarely ever get to compete in front of their peers.

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And yet the program thrives. The numbers got so high that we added a Middle School B Team beginning in 2015. This has clearly strengthened our A team. Just four years ago, younger ball players who were not yet among the top tier would have been cut altogether; now we’re able to keep them in the fold and continue to develop their skills for the next level.”

Rollfinke concludes, “Clearly, among the Friends population we have a very healthy interest in and talent for the game. We still look forward to the day when we’ll have our own field of dreams right here on Charles Street.”

On the bench at Medfield

athletics

Review of Athletic Program Yields Outcomes New Athletic Director Kara Carlin (see p. 15) will be setting priorities in the weeks and months to come based on a comprehensive review of the Friends School athletic program, which was completed last spring and involved 50 parents, alumni, and employees.

The review identified strengths as well as areas for growth across five specific topics: Athletic Philosophy; Access and Equity; Recruiting, Mentoring and Retaining High-Quality Coaches; Athletic Facilities; and Care and Prevention of Athletic Injuries.

Among the outcomes of this work are: •A n update of the 2009 Athletic Philosophy to reflect the importance Friends places on developing in student-athletes the qualities that will help them to succeed in any life setting, including resilience, collaboration, communication and teamwork. The philosophy is now actively used in the Upper School program as part of a team agreement that all athletes and coaches sign.

• Creation of an Athletic Handbook, which includes programs and policies, league information, training and injury information, guidelines for coaches, and much more.

• A commitment to use the same processes and standards to hire and train coaches that are used for Kara Carlin teaching faculty and staff.

• Continued work by the athletic facilities group to inform the larger strategic planning process, addressing athletic facilities, including locker rooms, in the bricks-and-mortar master plan of the strategic planning process currently underway. Some repairs and updates to locker room spaces are nearly completed.

• A decision to hire an additional part-time athletic trainer for the 2017-2018 school year to provide our student-athletes with the best possible care.

All Lit Up

PHOTO BY AMANDA HOLLAND ’20

Fans turned out in big numbers for Friends’ first-ever Lax Under the Lights event last April 28. The family-friendly night of Varsity Lacrosse, headlined by back-to-back Girls and Boys Varsity games, featured music, food trucks, and student-led entertainment. “The energy during the game was as good as it gets in high school lacrosse,” says Varsity Boys Lacrosse coach and Dean of Student Life Bill Ball, who credited a boisterous Quaker Nation with helping to propel his team to an 8-7 victory over Flint Hill School of Fairfax, Virginia.

The Varsity Girls for their part dominated Mercy, 17-9 (although Mercy would go on to win the title two weeks later).

The 2017 Athletic Hall of Fame ceremony took place on the evening of May 4, part of the Alumni Weekend 2017.

To see more on this event turn to p. 57.

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commencement 2017

A Night

to Remember J

ason Berman ’02, executive vice president of Mandalay Pictures, delivered the keynote address at the Friends School Class of 2017 Commencement ceremony on Tuesday, June 13.

Named in Variety magazine’s 2016 “Dealmakers Impact Report,” Berman was included in Deadline Hollywood’s 2012 “Top Ten Producers to Watch at Sundance” list, and in Variety’s “Top Ten Producers to Watch in 2011.” His feature films — including Nate Parker’s The Birth of a Nation, Jonas Carpignano’s Mediterranea, Sara Colangelo’s Little Accidents, Matt Russell’s Seven Days in Utopia, and Ryan Piers Williams’ The Dry Land — have debuted at premiere film festivals around the globe, including the Sundance Film Festival, the Cannes Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival, SXSW, Tribeca, Berlinale, and Edinburgh.

“

When we are young we are taught that the big red F is a bad thing. But failure when you enter the real world is OK and when it happens, it only makes you stronger. It’s all

part of the journey. If you exist better in entrepreneurial-controlled chaos, then don’t try to bend to the system, eventually let the system bend to you.”

—Jason Berman ’02, executive vice president, Mandalay Pictures

Friends School of Baltimore Class of 2017 College Acceptances and Matriculations The University of Alabama Albion College Albright College Alfred University (2) Allegheny College (2) American University (2) American University of Rome Amherst College Arcadia University Arizona State University The University of Arizona (2) Auburn University (4) University of Baltimore Bard College (2) Barnard College* Bates College Boston College Boston University (3) Bowdoin College* University of British Columbia*

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Brown University Bryn Mawr College* Bucknell University (2) University of California, Santa Cruz (2) Case Western Reserve University (2)* Chapman University (3)* College of Charleston (3) University of Cincinnati (2)* Clark University Clemson University Coastal Carolina University* University of Colorado at Boulder (8)* Colorado College* Colorado State University Columbia College Chicago University of Connecticut (2)* Cornell College Dartmouth College* Davidson College (2) University of Delaware (6)*

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University of Denver (2) DePaul University* Dickinson College (6)* Dillard University Drexel University (7)* Earlham College Eckerd College (3)* The University of Edinburgh* Elizabethtown College Elmira College Elon University (3)* The Evergreen State College Fairfield University Florida Southern College Fordham University (4)* George Mason University Georgia Institute of Technology* Gettysburg College University of Glasgow* Goucher College (4) Guilford College Hamilton College Hampton University (4)*

Harvey Mudd College* Haverford College (2)* High Point University Howard University (2) University of Illinois Ithaca College* John Cabot University Johns Hopkins University (2) Kenyon College (2) Lafayette College (2) Lasell College Loyola Marymount University (2) Loyola University of Maryland (3)* Loyola University New Orleans* Macalester College University of Maine University of Mary Washington* Maryland Institute College of Art (3) University of Maryland, Baltimore County (5)* University of Maryland, College Park (15)* University of Massachusetts, Amherst (3)

commencement

Did you know?

The Class of 2017 included nine legacies, graduates whose parent or grandparent attended Friends. From left, Henry Mortimer ’58, Will Mortimer ’17, Amy D’Aiutolo Mortimer ’87, Sam Barber ’17, Kakie Standiford ’81, Eli Henslee ’17, Anne Friedlander Henslee ’88, Daniel Millspaugh ’17, Sarah Johnston Millspaugh ’88, Logan Hand ’17, Lucy Williams Hand ’80, Jake Schindler ’17, Susan Bradford Schindler ’83, Jackson Roberts ’17, Philip Roberts ’81, Winslow Yost ’17, Sam Little ’17. Not pictured: Sally Evans Yost ’77, Anne Black Evans ’54, and Joan Sullivan Little ’82

Friends currently enrolls 70 legacy students in Pre-K through 12th grade.

Jihar Williams accepts his diploma from Head of School Matt Micciche. He is now a freshman at William and Mary, where he plays basketball for the Division 1 Griffins.

CMYK / .eps

Go to Flickr, found in the top righthand corner of www.friendsbalt.org, to see more images from the event.

Standing room only

Audience members filled the lawn on a humid Baltimore evening.

McDaniel College (2) McGill University (2)* Merrimack College Miami University, Oxford (2)* University of Miami (3)* University of Michigan (3)* Middlebury College (2) University of Mississippi Mount Holyoke College Mount St. Mary’s University Muhlenberg College* Nazareth College* New College of Florida (2) University of New Hampshire at Durham (2) University of New Haven (2)* New York University (4)* University of North Carolina at Asheville The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill* The University of North Carolina at Wilmington (3) North Carolina State University

Northeastern University (8)* Oberlin College Occidental College* Ohio University* Ohio Wesleyan University* University of Oregon Otis College of Art and Design Pace University Pennsylvania State University (2)* University of Pittsburgh (4) Pratt Institute* Quinnipiac University Randolph-Macon College University of Redlands (2) Reed College Rensselear Polytechnic Institute* Rhode Island School of Design* University of Richmond* Rider University Ringling College of Art and Design (2) Roanoke College Rochester Institute of Technology (3) University of Rochester (2)

Rollins College (2) Saint Joseph’s University Salisbury University Salve Regina University University of San Francisco Savannah College of Art and Design (3)* School of the Art Institute of Chicago (3)* School of Visual Arts (2) Seattle University* Skidmore College (2) Smith College University of South Carolina (3)* University of Southern California Spelman College* St. Mary’s College of Maryland (2) Stetson University Stevenson University (2) Susquehanna University Syracuse University (6)* The University of Tampa (2) Temple University (6) The New School (2) Towson University (4)*

Tufts University (2)* Tulane University (2) Union College University of Vermont (6)* Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Tech University of Virginia* Warren Wilson College Washington and Lee University* Washington College (2)* College of William and Mary (2)* Williams College (2)* University of Wisconsin, Madison (4)* Yale University* (#) Indicates number of students accepted, if more than one *Indicates that a Class of 2017 alum will be attending

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alumni

Alumni Weekend 2017

A

lumni from seven decades were well represented at this year’s Alumni Weekend, which drew some 250 Friends School grads and guests to the campus for a host of festivities — beginning with the Athletic Hall of Fame ceremony on Thursday evening, May 4, and concluding on Saturday evening, May 6, with a grand Reunion Reception followed by individual gatherings for classes ending in 7 and 2.

HALF-CENTURY SOCIETY BREAKFAST

Alumni from the Classes of 1967 and prior gathered at the Zamoiski Alumni Center for breakfast, conversation, and a presentation on Friends School history given by Alumni Association Board co-chair and research archivist James Goldsborough Bigwood ’08.

BACK TO THE CLASSROOM

Beloved English teacher Gary Blauvelt, who taught generations of Upper School students from 1963 to 2004, led an interactive session on the “10 Poems You Must Read.” Alumni and guests also participated in an experiential workshop on identity and diversity led by Priyanka Rupani, the School’s Director of Diversity, Equity, and Social Justice.

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alumni

Gregg Mace ’72, left, with Sally and Michael Foster ’72

MR. NICK BARBEQUE

Our 30th annual luncheon honoring beloved coach and mentor Robert A. Nicolls — affectionately known as “Mr. Nick” — is a hit with families.

From left: The Class of 1997’s Vanessa Harbin Sacks, Lauren Dopkin, Ian Milliken, and Rebecca Leonard McWIlliams with Marina Milliken, center

Camille Powe Foster ’02 and Manny Foster

MILESTONE CELEBRATIONS

The Classes of 1967 and 1992 marked their 50th and 25th Reunions.

DISTINGUISHED ALUMNUS

Among the highlights at Saturday evening’s Reunion Reception was the presentation of the 2017 Distinguished Alumnus Award to the Class of 1967’s Samuel Patz, Ph.D., professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School, associate neuroscientist at Massachusetts General Hospital, and scientific director for the Center for Pulmonary Functional Imaging at Brigham & Women’s Hospital. Dr. Patz’s ongoing research in MRI technology is advancing the study of pulmonary function in neonatal intensive care, and of brain tissue and elasticity in diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease.

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alumni

REUNION RECEPTION

Alexandra Johnson ’12, left, Gabi Roberts ’12, and Aasim Waqaar

From left: Suzie Bell Manger ’67, Bruce Manger ’66, Mary Paternotte Sully ’66, and Ray Sullly

From left: Carol Harrington Fitting ’57, Gil Iles, Dave Fitting, and Marcia Clark ’57

Newly inducted Athletic Hall of Famer Abby Owen Perry ’97 with her fan club — husband James, and their children, Sam, Rosemary, and Nate Guests gathered beneath the tent outside the new Forbush Auditorium.

Alumni and guests were invited to participate in a swab drive with “There Goes My Hero,” a nonprofit that seeks to connect blood cancer patients with bone marrow donors. Here, Dr. Ester Elizabeth Elliot ’92 and Emily Lamasa ’03 help Lauren Marks ’07 and Roz Kreizenbeck ’07 register.

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alumni

From left: Representing their teammates from the championship fall 2016 Volleyball team, from left, Rachel Ward Tuluchan ’97, Anna Katarina Carlin ’97, and Marci McLachlan Morgan ’97; Jeb Felter ’63, left, with 2017 Hall of Fame inductee Robert “Nick” Nicolls ’62; 2013 Tewaaraton Legend Award recipient and 2009 Friends School Athletic Hall of Fame inductee Joe Cowan ’64 delivered the keynote address. (Cowan was also the 2014 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient.)

Friends School Athletic Hall of Fame Celebrates Excellence The Friends School Athletic Hall of Fame on May 4 inducted 21 individual athletes and the 1996-97 Girls Volleyball team into its Class of 2017. Recounting the volleyball team’s accomplishments, master of ceremonies Mike Lurie ’81 told the audience that the team, which had been formed just four years earlier, “accomplished something quite remarkable.” During its 12-game season, he noted, “this group of women remained undefeated, beating teams like McDonogh, Roland Park, and Bryn Mawr.”

Playing “Strong and Confident” A member of the Field Hockey, Basketball and Lacrosse teams for four years, Hall of Fame inductee Abby Owen Perry ’97 served as captain of all three teams during her senior year and earned the Scholar Athlete, C. Markland Kelly and Frances Homer Field Hockey awards upon graduation.

The Baltimore Sun named Perry to its All Baltimore County/City 2nd Team for Field Hockey and she was also named an A.I.S. (the now-defunct Association of Independent Schools) Field Hockey All-Star. She credits her determination and passion for sports to Judy Turnbaugh and Carol Samuels, respectively, her Friends School Field Hockey and Lacrosse coaches, Abby Owen Perry ’97 noting that each taught her how to lead “as a strong and confident woman.”

Says Perry, “One of ‘Coach Sam’s’ most inspiring messages to her players was that ‘there are no shortcuts to excellence.’ ”

2017 INDIVIDUAL INDUCTIONS David H. Felter ’57 Mary Gordon Werner ’57 David S. Foutz ’62 Bernice Bunnecke Howe ’62 Georgeanna Jones Klingensmith ’62 Robert “Nick” Nicolls ’62 Dianna Yaeger Rankin ’62 Terry S. Walker ’62 David M. Lasagna ’67 Sally K. Sutley ’67 Beth Peacock Holcomb ’72 David W. Schulz ’72 Phoebe Flowers O’Neill ’82 Natt O. Riefler ’82 Noelle V. Still ’82 John W. McIntyre ’87 Jonathan W. Sacks ’87 Eric T. Tolo ’87 Todd R. Helman ’92 Robert P. Michel ’97 Abigail Owen Perry ’97

THE 1996-97 VOLLEYBALL TEAM Katarina Carlin ’97 Sarida D’Agostino ’97 Ruth Ann Draper ’97 Vivian Chang Hayward ’97 Marci McLachlin Morgan ’97 Rachel Ward-Tulachan ’97 Erica Steed Winters ’97 Sarah E. Wehner ’98

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classnotes

Science teacher Bliss Forbush, Jr. ’40 demonstrates an oscilloscope — used to measure voltage, time, and frequency — to students in his physics class (from left, Jim Hammond ’62, Diana Fleischer ’62, and David Windisch ’61). Bliss Forbush retired from Friends in 1986 after 36 years on the faculty. The Friends community mourned his passing on February 29, 1996.

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classnotes

This is the place In these pages, generations of alumni have shared life’s significant milestones and reminisced about their Friends School days. Be a part of the tradition. Send your news and photos to alumni@friendsbalt.org.* * Digital images should be 1 MB or larger and sent in .jpg format.

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Susanne Davis Emory vermontsue@aol.com

I wish all of you could have come to our 65th Reunion. We enjoyed each other so much! Attending were Pat and Ed Butler, Vivien and Charles Ellicott, Clay and Susanne Davis Emory, Joan and Buzzy Hodous, Sally and Dick O’Connell, Brownie Pearce and Betty Mitchell Pearce. Hilary Klein, Dan Klein’s widow, also joined us. On Friday, we met at the School and had a private tour of all the new facilities. All I can say is WOW! If I were a student there now, I wouldn’t have time for “readin’, writin’ and rithmetic.”

I would be so busy in the photography studio, computer labs, putting on plays in the fabulous theater, playing on turf fields, and singing in chorus. The only spaces and places that were familiar were the old gym, the library, and the lockers. After our tour, we drove over to Roland Avenue and had lunch at Johnny’s, a restaurant that’s in the basement of the old “Morgie’s.”

Saturday night, everyone came to our house for dinner and reminiscing.

Charlie and Vi drove all the way from New Jersey just to be with us for dinner. The rest of us were local, and we’ve decided to get together again soon. Joanne Mathias Stevenson would have joined us, but she was on her way to Harrisonburg, Va., for the graduation of her grandson from James Madison University. I received a wonderful, newsy letter from Ronnie Peacock Kamphausen, who says hello to our fellow classmates. She writes, “I try to keep active with my nature walks at a nearby campground. I help out there whenever they have lobster bakes or when they bring in live animals for the kids to get to know. I’ve been swimming less competitively, but try to fish for some records in the 80+ age group. Both of my daughters now have shoreline properties here in Phippsburg, Maine. They enjoy boating, while I am more likely swimming or fishing. Hope all is well with you and your families. I am

The Class of ’56’s Clarinda Harriss and Tom McClain The Class of 1952 gathered at Susanne Emory’s home.

grateful for the time spent at Friends School in Baltimore. I taught at a Friends school for a short period of time and still practice my Quaker upbringing.” Alan Halpern also sent his greetings to everyone from San Diego, Calif. Almost a year ago, I heard from Alison Herriott Wilder. She says nothing is new with her, except older and grayer and no accomplishments to brag about, although she and her husband did take a Road Scholar trip to Alberta and British Columbia to celebrate their 60th anniversary.

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This class presently does not have a Class Secretary.

If you are interested in volunteering for the post, please email alumni@friendsbalt.org.

Save the Date! Alumni Weekend 2018 and 65th Reunion Celebration: May 3-6, 2018

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This class presently does not have a Class Secretary.

If you are interested in volunteering for the post, please email alumni@friendsbalt.org.

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Patricia P. Tisdale GLENT24@aol.com

Send us your news!

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Lorinda R. McColgan lrmccolgan@verizon.net

Not much news from the Class of 1956.

I hope that means that everyone has been busy and productive this past year. I heard from Penny Nichols Watts who called to tell of the proud news of her son, John W. Nicholson.

He is a four-star general—one of 13 currently active in the United States—and the top commander of the American and NATO troops in Afghanistan. Martha Horner writes, “After a very busy spring here in Easton, Md., my family of 16 was here from Virginia, Vermont and Colorado for a week in June. Lots of people, lots of fun!” Clarinda Harriss writes, “In my photo, Tom McClain and I are holding our banners prior to heading over to Charles and 33rd Street for a local version of the recent Women’s March.

Looking at the photo I’m smiling through tears. In the couple of months that followed, Tom’s Alzheimer’s progressed to a point where it was unwise for all concerned for him to continue to live with me. I miss him terribly — for six years we’d been together 24/7 — but I must say he seems to be doing very well indeed at a posh assisted living/memory care facility located in Virginia near several of his children and grandchildren.

The Class of ’56 may recall that my 9th grade crush on Tom fast-forwarded to our 50th Reunion, when we got together at last.”

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Nancy H. Aronson nharonson@gmail.com

The members of the Class of 1957 celebrated their 60th Reunion at the Elkridge Club on May 6.

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Susan Shinnick Hossfeld shossfeld@comcast.net

Save the Date! Alumni Weekend 2018 and 60th Reunion Celebration: May 3-6, 2018 Kandi Foell Slade writes that her two granddaughters have graduated from college and are teaching in the South, one in Memphis and the other in Conway, S.C. The third granddaughter is a junior at the University of Kentucky.

The Class of 1957 celebrated its 60th Reunion at the Elkridge Club on May 6.

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classnotes Kandi’s grandson is living in Lutherville, Md., working hard and in his spare time making some great furniture. Kandi is still enjoying her job in property management and is having fun doing the Paint and Powder Club’s annual production. Glyn and Anne Easton Williams are still traveling while they are able. Their active itinerary included Portugal last August followed by Sri Lanka in the fall and, in February, an interesting cruise through New Caledonia, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and Papua, New Guinea. In May they traveled to France for three nights to enjoy the lovely fresh seafood in Brittany. Their granddaughter was married this spring and their great grandson recently turned two. They send their best wishes to all of our classmates.

Betsy Banghart Bratz has had a good year despite her sister-in-law’s health issues and property damage sustained during Hurricane Matthew last October. Fortunately no one was hurt and the repairs have all been completed. Betsy and Henry “Hap” Mortimer had a busy spring, attending three of their grandchildren’s graduation ceremonies, the first two being their son Henry and daughter-in-law Amy Mortimer ’87’s children, Anna ’13, from Fordham University in the Bronx, and William ’17, from Friends School.

The third graduation was that of Betsy and Hap’s daughter Elizabeth’s son Garrett from Catonsville High School.

All three are now busy with work and studies: Anna has a job with Teach for America here in Baltimore, Will is a freshman at the University of Mary Washington where he plays lacrosse, and Garrett is at the University of Richmond. Hap and Betsy stay busy with the children’s many sporting events. Granddaughter Mary Charlotte Mortimer ’20, a sophomore at Friends, is a three-Varsity sport athlete. Additionally, they have three granddaughters on the crew team at Notre Dame Prep and a grandson who plays sports at Catonsville Middle School. The Mortimers are fortunate to have all of their family in the Baltimore area. Once again, this summer they all retreated to Sherwood Forest, where they live in three different houses and the kids participate in the camp program. This was Hap’s 10th summer of teaching sailing and boating at the camp, but he volunteers year-round, teaching kids from several

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organizations about the Chesapeake Bay. Betsy spends a lot of her time with the grandkids and watercolor classes. Hap says that life is rewarding and that they are blessed with good health. Susan Hooper Hogge’s life at the time of this writing was quite hectic as she and John were in the middle of moving to a retirement community in Raleigh, N.C. This all came about last December, when the condo they wanted became available. They went on a three-week cruise in January and in mid-February left for their annual March/April trip to Vero Beach, Fla. The house sold while they were on vacation! Upon their return they attended their twin grandchildren’s graduations from NC State and West Point. Barbara “Barbie” Long O’Brien had a tough winter: Her second husband (and best friend) Felix Bendann III passed away, a limb crashed into her roof two days before Christmas, a pipe burst in her basement, and she battled a monster case of the flu. In September 2016 she returned for the eighth year to Xian, China, to teach English with the organization Global Volunteers. Barbie says she found joy and harmony in Xian with a lovely Chinese “family” of friends and students. Her sons, George and Patrick, are happy and healthy. Barbie now dates Alex Doyle, a childhood sweetheart, on the weekends. Last summer they traveled to Florida twice and this summer they planned to take a transcontinental trip.

She says life is good and she feels blessed! Susan Rugemer Kurtz is living in a cozy apartment frequented by her family, which includes her grandchildren, one of whom, Kayla Kurtz ’21, is a freshman at Friends.

Susan and I enjoy going out to lunch every now and then. Dick Jeanneret is busy as ever in retirement. Last fall he and Sandy traveled to London and the British Isles for two-and-a-half weeks, then to Tampa, Fla., to spend Thanksgiving with one of their sons and his two children. In December they went to New York to celebrate Sandy’s 75th birthday. They spent Christmas with another son and his family in Maryland and Virginia, and celebrated Sandy’s mother’s 98th birthday! Then in March, they traveled to China for a three-week trip with additional ports in Shanghai, Xamen, Hong Kong, Ho Chi Min, Saigon, and Bangkok. In between all of the trips and visits, Sandy had two knee

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replacements, one of which had to be replaced again after five weeks due to mechanical failure. Sandy and Dick have founded and sponsored several research programs, awards and help fund a grant for the Psychology Department at Purdue University. Carl and I are happy to be back on the road again after a foot surgery and subsequent knee replacement. We did manage to take the grandchildren and children to Snowmass, Colo. for a week of skiing, and Carl also happily went skiing at Jackson Hole for a week. Upcoming travels include a trip down South to visit friends, a reunion in September with a group of college friends in Maine, and in October we plan to visit New Orleans, which has been on our wish list for many years. Many thanks to all who responded with your news.

Carl and I wish you and your families the very best!

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Anne C. Bowdoin abowdoin@mac.com

Send us your news!

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Mary E. McElroy mem2008@comcast.net

Send us your news!

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Linda Brecht Stevens lindabstevens@aol.com

Our class was saddened to learn of the passing in April of Elisabeth “Lisa” Dresser Stewart and William “Bill” Seabold. Our deep sympathy goes to Michael Stewart and son Stephen, as well as Lisa’s sister Eleanor Dresser Duram ’64, and to Evelyn and Robert “Bob” Seabold. How special to be an identical twin and how difficult to lose that person. Deep sympathy also to Mary Ellen Price McLaughlin, whose husband Tom died in February. The above families appreciated hearing from various classmates. On a brighter note, Chris Neumann and wife Nicky are doing well and in February enjoyed escaping the Pennsylvania winter to visit the Florida Keys. What a great time to be in the sun! Don and I, along with Susan Stafford Trew and her daughter Lee, traveled to Italy for 10 days in March with a tour group. So much fun packed into 10 days! Susan’s husband Mort kept the farm running as there is never a dull moment on that beautiful Tennessee piece of heaven!

Next year Don and I hope to visit Spain. We plan to keep moving while we still can. We would love to hear from others in the class. You have six months to communicate and share your news. Blessings to you all!

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Eleanor Blake Fuller eaerobic@hotmail.com

Carol Davidson Methven Acting Secretary To those unaware, Eleanor Blake Fuller and her husband Cliff traveled to Portugal and Spain in April. Just prior to their return home, Cliff suffered an ischemic stroke in Madrid, where he was hospitalized for 25 days before Eleanor was able to arrange a flight back to the States for them. Eleanor’s daughter joined her in Spain to help out. Cliff is currently getting physical therapy at MossRehab — which is ranked #1 in Pennsylvania and in the top 10 in the country. We all wish Cliff a full and speedy recovery!

Congratulations to Terry Walker, Dianna “Pepple” Yeager Rankin, Robert “Nick” Nicolls, Georgeanna Jones Klingensmith, Bernice Bunnecke Howe, and David Foutz for their induction in the Friends School Athletic Hall of Fame. (See photo) This ceremony kicked off our 55th Reunion and was followed by a lovely cocktail party. In addition to the aforementioned honorees and their family members, others attending the Reunion included Chris Sherman Raywood, Bruce Goodwin, Paula and John Slingluff, Wayne Sutherland, Larry and Diana Fleischer Schofield, Buck and Linda Kardash Armiger, Emily Holman, Jens Neumann, and Carol Davidson Methven. On Friday, several of us met for dinner at Johnny’s located in the same shopping center as the former Morgan & Millard, or “The Morgue.” Saturday began with the Half Century Society Breakfast, which included a very interesting Bruce Goodwin ’62, left, with beloved coach and lacrosse legend Dick Watts

classnotes

Members of the Class of 1962 in May were inducted into the Friends School Athletic Hall of Fame.

presentation about the history of Friends School given by Alumni Board Co-Chair and historian James Bigwood ’08. Several of us then attended Worship at the Stony Run Meetinghouse. The annual Mr. Nick Lunch was next (somewhat hampered by the weather), followed by a late afternoon Reunion Reception hosted

by Friends, and finally our Class Dinner at Donna’s at the Village of Cross Keys. A good time was had by all and we are looking forward to the 60th! On a side note, Chris, Dianna Rankin, and I toured the campus during Reunion and were amazed at the changes and additions to the School. The Forbush Auditorium is beautiful and the arts departments are awesome, including a new art room and photography dark room, a stage and set design area.

These are wonderful additions to the orchestra and choral rooms and the dance studio the School built several years ago. The next time you are at Friends, definitely take a tour. Barbara Ensor Sena-Brizzee writes that since purchasing a Kawasaki Teryx Side X Side, she and Bob spend as much time as they can, camping and riding the many off-road trails in Arizona.

They have seen some awesome historical places that are not on the usual tourist trails. Chris Sherman Raywood traveled to France and England this spring, visiting the Champagne area, Chateaux in the Loire Valley, and Winchester and London in England. She proudly reports that her granddaughter

Tori graduated from Flagler College Tallahassee (Fla.) on May 5. Bruce Goodwin took advantage of his time in Baltimore during Reunion to have lunch with coach Dick Watts (see photo) and John Slingluff. Wayne Sutherland and Nick Nicolls also stopped by to visit with coach Watts.

Paula and John Slingluff enjoyed having all the grandkids at their place in the Adirondacks at various times this summer. John also reports that his daughter Jenny Levy’s University of North Carolina women’s lacrosse team lost to Navy in the NCAA quarterfinal game, but that the Lady Tarheels had a very good season overall, winning the Atlantic Coast Conference regular season and the ACC Tournament. Lucy and Bruce Goodwin welcomed their sixth grandchild this year. They continue to travel frequently — now for pleasure rather than business — with a summer trip planned to Glacier National Park and a late fall trip to the Dalmatian Coast in Croatia. Although she was still recovering from a skiing accident in March that fractured her left tibia, Georgeanna Jones Klingensmith enjoyed the 55th Reunion and seeing all of the “hard core” classmates. She said she planned to “completely” retire in July and was looking forward to visiting her children and grandchildren in Texas and in Brooklyn, NY, to spending more time in the Colorado mountains, where they live, and to traveling with her husband Bill, who retired three years ago. She hopes anyone coming to or

through Denver will let her know.

Emily Holman reports the big change in her life was retiring in April from her 16 ½ years of service as deacon at Christ Episcopal Church in Toms River, N.J., and moving to Oak Crest, a continuing care retirement community in Parkville, Md. She had been thinking about making a change, and a broken tibia last summer pushed her into making the decision. This doesn’t mean she has stopped traveling! She and her sister Elizabeth Holman ’69 were planning a trip to Paris in June, with a visit to their brother Hugh and his wife at their “six-month cottage” in central France, followed by a few days in Switzerland. In October, she will travel to Chile and Argentina to explore Patagonia, Easter Island, and lguassu Falls. In between traveling, Emily looks forward to acquainting herself with the folks and activities at Oak Crest, and to spending time with her brother John Holman ’67’s family.

Diana Fleischer Schofield reports that after having a wonderful time at Reunion catching up with everyone, she traveled to Canada for a week-long rug hooking workshop, translating the works of 19th-century English designer William Morris into rug patterns. She then came home and resigned from her part-time job — no doubt to spend more time rug hooking! She and Larry’s oldest grandson is now a senior at Poly, where he had a paid internship at Johns Hopkins University’s Department of Physics and Astronomy.

He wants to be a biomedical engineer and build new organs. Speaking of which, Diana’s new kidney is functioning well, and her old knee is getting better, but she says it will always give her problems. It was so good to visit with Jens Neumann who, in addition to attending Reunion in May, was looking forward to spending time with his daughter and her family in Potomac, Md. Jim Hammond, John Littleford, and Susan Seiler Haw also wanted to say “hello” to everyone. My husband Steve and I have a bucket list visit to Maine planned and then, in October, our annual trek to Montana, where we love to photograph the animals. Last year we were so fortunate to see so many moose and bear and hope this year will be as good. We also travel to Florida several times a year to visit family there and spend time with our nine grandchildren. I continue to golf, play bridge, and quilt, and recently helped start a quilt club in our community. Let’s keep in touch, everyone!

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Donna L. Hasslinger Dhassli@aol.com

Save the Date! Alumni Weekend 2018 and 55th Reunion Celebration: May 3-6, 2018 Our classmates continue to meet for lunch in the Baltimore area several times a year and recently some of our out-of-town classmates were able to join us. In May, Bob Caffee and his sailing partner Jage sailed north from Florida on the boat, Beach House, arriving in Hampton, Va. Their plan was to spend the summer cruising the Chesapeake Bay and hopefully having lunch with some of the Class of ’63 before returning home. Bob and Jage took a similar journey in May 2016, sailing to Penobscot, Maine in August to visit Lin Parker and his wife, Anne.

Lin had extended an open invitation for our classmates to visit, but was surprised when Bob called. He says he was very impressed with Bob’s sailing ability but that he had to laugh when he saw Bob, a longtime Floridian, shivering in the 75-degree Maine weather. Bob says he was impressed with the Parker home, which is imaginatively constructed with stone from an abandoned granite quarry, with additional stones they’ve collected from various parts of the

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classnotes Headmaster at 29 years old, but had also worked for him from 1977 to 1998, attended his memorial service at Friends School, joined by Jeb, Gail Levinson Shawe, Biff Forbush, Judy, and Gail Milne. That’s all for now.

It’s always wonderful to catch up with our Friends School classmates and we hope that more of our friends will be able to join us for our class lunches in the future. Keep in touch!

The Class of 1963’s Lin Parker and Bob Caffee at the Parker Home in Maine

Maggie and Steve Greif ’63 on safari in South Africa

world. On that same trip, during their journey home, Bob and Jage stopped at the Annapolis Boat Show where they met up with Mike Keene, Sheila and Bill Dawe (in town from Iowa), and me. Over lunch we recounted stories of the late Joe Albert and caught up with one another. Mike shared that he received his doctorate degree in zoology from the University of Rhode Island, where he lived before moving back to Maryland. Bill, a retired attorney, has taken a part-time job at an art gallery in Des Moines, but still manages to get on the golf course each week. In November, Chick Fetter Deegan, in town from Texas visiting her mother, joined Joane Knight Schumacher, Judy Klingelhofer O’Mara, Anne Skinner White, Gail Moran Milne, Marge Rowe Felter and me in Timonium for lunch. Chick is still working, but she is contemplating a move from full- to part-time in a couple of years; Joane is an avid gardener; Anne continues to judge figure skating competitions and shared that she became a grandmother for the first time and now has a new grandson!

The group also learned that Judy volunteers with Christian Women of Howard County, Gail is tutoring children and helping to support a family of refugees through her church, and Marge volunteers at a food pantry near her home. She and husband Jeb Felter, enjoy gardening and do a lot of walking. Jeb also plays golf at

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least twice a week throughout the year, “unless there is snow on the ground.” Donna and Gail are still enjoying their lifetime learning courses — Gail at Roland Park Country School and Donna at Johns Hopkins in Rockville, Md., where she lives. And, of course, they talked about the marvel of Anne Kay Joyner’s mother who lives at Pickersgill and is 108 years old!

In April Debbie Blucher Irvin and her husband Tom were in town from Florida visiting Barbara Nolte Kearney. They joined Steve Greif, Alice Long Gersh, Judy, Anne White, Gail Milne, Marge, and me for lunch in Columbia, Md. (Steve and Alice both live in Columbia and had run into each other the night before at a Judy Collins concert!) Steve is still working but has reduced his schedule to three days a week. Alice volunteers as a reading teacher; Anne, who joined us from a figure skating competition she’d been judging, marveled at how difficult and complicated skating is today. Steve shared that in April he and his wife Maggie took a two-week trip to South Africa with a three day stopover in London. They spent most of their time in Cape Town and on safari seeing animals that were often no more than 10 yards away. They also saw Victoria Falls in Zambia from across the river in Zimbabwe. Gail Milne has also been traveling throughout the year and enjoyed spending time in the Grand Canyon, Bryce and Zion national parks, southeastern New England and

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the Adirondacks. In December, she went to Germany and in May, our class Anglophile was back in England.

Joan Shinnick Kreeger continues to travel and lead tours for Women Traveling Together. One of the tours she led in the last year took her back to Hawaii where she lived for many years, and she was able to visit with some old friends. Then in September, Joan and her significant partner, John, enjoyed a Baltic cruise and spent five days in London. Joan’s son, Doug, is still active in the theater, where he has appeared on Broadway and elsewhere, but this time he has a different role. He has co-written the music and lyrics for a rock opera, “The Demise,” that was selected for the New York Musical Festival and was staged in New York City in August.

Frank Wing remains busy in California with his photography business. He recently photographed musicians of the Philharmonia Baroque and the Mark Morris Dance Group. And, of course, he still is photographing food, all of which can be found at his web site at frankwingphoto.com. He mentioned that his son finally was able to move to the Marais District in Paris to continue his work in computer technology. As Frank describes, “He walks along those ancient cobblestone paths while carefully selecting patisserie Francais along the way.” Frank and his wife, Dina, are planning to visit him in Paris as soon as possible! On a more serious note, we were saddened to learn that another of our classmates, Linda Ann van Reuth, passed away in October 2016 and that our Headmaster, Dr. Byron Forbush ’47, died in April 2017. Skip Dugdale, who had worked with Linda in the real estate business and notified us of her death, was able to attend the funeral. Marge, who had not only been a student at Friends when Dr. Forbush became the

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Susan Grathwohl Dingle s123dingle@aol.com

The Class of 1964 invites our younger alumni to consider us “The Comeback Kids.” Here’s a little of what we have been up to recently. Greg Neumann writes, “I’m still working at NASA (Moon, not Mars), thinking about Ceres and Europa with or without a filibuster in Congress. I can’t retire because of a hiring freeze! In my dreams I am becoming an historian, publishing reflections on WWII and the rise of fascism. Thanks to my daughter, Ona, 17, and the MICA librarians, I attended a workshop to get more artists and writers of the feminine identity into Wikipedia and we got our first article — about Elisabeth Hoemberg, a 20th-century historian and writer — approved last week. Ona, a senior at Baltimore School for the Arts, spent part of her summer taking courses at School of the Art Institute of Chicago, while Will, 19, worked at Brown University as a system programmer, and George, 40-something, is now enrolled at Community College of Rhode Island!”

Paul Newbury writes, “Nancy is busy with her 600 nut trees now that the weather is improving. I’m still doing sound at church and hoping to help another music venue, in a barn, get started up this summer. We now have four grandchildren, one each from our four children. Nancy has discovered that teaching Sunday school with flannel graphs is very popular with the iPhone generation.

Who would’ve thought four year olds in backwoods Pennsylvania would all have iPads. I recently spent four hours with the Carnegie Mellon University archivists regaling them with stories of their university and the recording studio that I built there in an old fan room. They had many of the tapes and records I had produced between 1966 and 1976 and no idea the context that went with them. It was lots of fun

classnotes and a bonus was a campus tour by my oldest son, David, who consults to CMU and is currently teaching a course on data visualization there.”

Sally Huff Leimbach writes, “Wendell Leimbach ’88 has been working with Head of School Matt Micciche and Friends on creating a closer relationship with McKim [Community Center] to benefit the Friends students and the McKim kids.” As for your co-class secretary, Susan Grathwohl Dingle, I am still writing and performing poetry. My play “BREAK OUT!”— co-written and performed with Maggie Bloomfield — was selected for the East End Fringe Festival and ran the first weekend in August at the Vail-Leavitt Theatre in Riverhead, N.Y. From the theatre’s website: “In this hilarious and heartbreaking conversation, two friends who found their voices in sobriety share their poetry and stories with incarcerated women, and offer hope for all people who want to break out of addiction and into recovery and change.” Also, Poetry Street, the open mic I started as a JumpstART project for East End Arts in 2014, celebrated its third anniversary in June; and, in January, I received the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Meritorious Award from the First Baptist Church of Riverhead at the 32nd Annual Memorial Breakfast for Dr. King. The passing of former Headmaster Byron Forbush ’47 marks the end of an era for all of us. As you may know the Magazine is moving to a yearly format. Marianne and I talk about resigning, but until Joan Mattheiss Thompson, Jay Biddison or an as yet unidentified volunteer step up to the plate, we’re still here.

(Thanks, Susan B.) So continue to send your news to s123dingle@aol. com and join the class Facebook page. Stay in touch, classmates, and we’ll decide what to do for our next Reunion. Maybe we’ll figure it out in rocking chairs on Betsy Knoche Wilhelm’s front porch.

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Emily Jane Thursby mejanemd@gmail.com

The class of 1967 celebrated our 50th Reunion in May. Our 50th Reunion. We couldn’t believe it had been 50 years since that very hot June 13th evening when, in our white floor-length dresses and white dinner jackets, shirts and school ties, received our diplomas from Dr. Byron Forbush ’47 in the old gymnasium that wasn’t air-conditioned. None of us could remember who the commencement speaker was but we did remember the after-graduation dinner and dance and the party afterwards at Geoffrey Greif’s house that only ended as the dawn lights arrived. For most of us it felt like yesterday, even if it was apparent that we had become wrinkled, grayed, and had lost most of our hair. The weekend events started on Thursday night with the induction of Sally Sutley and David Lasagna into the Athletic Hall of Fame. Both of their inductions were long overdue. The weather was not cooperating, being very cool (in the 50s) and rainy. This may have led to Bill Seegar tripping and injuring his Achilles heel. He braved it through the entire weekend of events and at this writing was facing surgery for a full repair. Some of us — including Candy Nolan Hallett and her husband, Ron, who had come from

Hawaii, and me coming from Atlanta — were just not prepared for the cold.

(Candy and I had the same thoughts and on Friday went shopping for after-season sweaters and jackets, which made Friday and Saturday’s activities at the School much more enjoyable!) None of this seemed to matter, though, as we talked and talked and shared memories and life stories. After a little cocktail party under the tent, it was deja vu with our class party at Geoffrey’s house Friday night. This time it was Geoffrey’s house instead of his parents, but if the volume of talk and laughter that continued for hours was any indication of fun, we sounded like our teenage selves again. Geoffrey had the Beatles’ first movie, “It’s a Hard Day’s Night,” on when we were arriving.

Sue Tracy Boyd and I went to the opening of this movie, and then went back the next day and the next day and the next day, seeing the moving multiple times each day for a total of 11 viewings! Luckily the movie theater was within walking distance of her house. Sue Tracy and her husband, Bill, couldn’t make Reunion as they are still in Africa on their five-year mission, which started right before our 45th Reunion. Harry “Scotty” Scott, Becky Browne Reynolds, Shelley Cole Morhaim, and Joan Bitner Brown could only attend the Friday night gathering but we were so glad to

see them. Sometime during Thursday evening activities Cayuga Camp came up. It seems that Nancy Shuger still has her canoe paddle from that summer. Nancy brought it to Friday’s party and we captured eight of the 11 Cayuga classmates in a group picture, including Nancy, Sally Sutley, Julie Brody, Ellen Hooper Mullan, Jennifer Merriman, Peggy Ramsey, Candy Nolan Hallett, and me.

Claire Blum Stampfer came to Reunion but missed the picture.

(Where were you Claire?) Candy also still has her paddle but didn’t bring it from Hawaii! (Why, not, Candy?)

Saturday morning, still chilly and very early, we met up at the Meetinghouse to remember those from our class who had died over the last 50 years. We reminisced, shed tears and even shared some laughs for our six lost classmates — Linda Newbury Campbell, Mary Steel Ramsey, Tom LaMonica, Sarah Elmendorf Zirpoli, Nancy Levinson, and Harold Biehl.

While comforting, it didn’t prepare us for the loss of two more classmates less than a month after Reunion — Thomas “Tommy” Ascher and David Frank. (I have included remembrances on Tommy and David immediately following the Reunion recap.) After the special meeting for worship, our class was treated to breakfast; then it was “back to the classroom.” Some of us went to hear

Class of 1967 and fellow Camp Cayuga alumnae, from left, Candy Nolan Hallett, Emily Jane Thursby, Peggy Ramsey, Jennifer Merriman, Ellen Hooper Mullan, Sally Sutley, Julie Brody, and Nancy Shuger

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This class presently does not have a Class Secretary.

If you are interested in volunteering for the post, please email alumni@friendsbalt.org.

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Nina L. Patry ninapatry@icloud.com

Send us your news!

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classnotes our old English teacher Gary Blauvelt read and discuss his “must read” poems. The class of 1967 was Mr. Blauvelt’s first class. What an introduction to teaching! Okay, so we didn’t break him. Maybe this was because we thought he was the very coolest in his shades, skinny ties and shiny suits. He told us that after 50 years the suits had finally given up the ghost. We don’t think he lost his cool, though. Lunch was Mr. Nick’s Barbecue and then, for this old broad, an afternoon nap. The weekend started up again with the big party under the tent. More talking, more laughing, more memories, with the highlight of watching one of our own receive the 2017 Distinguished Alumnus Award. Samuel Patz, Ph.D., is a professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School, an associate neuroscientist at Massachusetts General Hospital, and a scientific director in the Center for Pulmonary Functional Imaging at Brigham & Women’s Hospital. Sam moved from Georgia to Baltimore to live with his uncle following the tragic deaths of his parents and joined our class in the 8th grade. For all he has accomplished, he certainly deserved this honor. I personally want to thank him for all of the encouragement, information and helpful advice he offered me during that weekend; I arrived at Reunion facing a May 17 surgery to remove my left lung due to cancer. Sam’s warmth and candor helped me overcome the fear I was facing and allowed me to accept what lay ahead. (By the way, all went well and I am on my way to an amazing recovery.) The class of 1967 had its class picture taken with 26 classmates. Counting those who attended the earlier events but were not there for the picture, this is the most we have ever had at a Reunion.

Technically two attendees, Diane Katzenberg Braun and Donald “Bucky” Buck, did not graduate with us but were with us for most of their school years and so we consider them not honorary members but true members of our class. Following a dinner in our honor held at the Zamoiski Alumni Center we enjoyed a very special after-dinner presentation by Peggy Ramsey with help from Mark Merlis, who, although unable to be with us due to health issues, contributed memories from our Upper School years. Peggy’s acting skills were always great but

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she truly outdid herself and evoked laughter and tears from everyone.

Our 50th Reunion was the best it could ever be. Its success rests squarely with my fellow committee members: John Holman, Alan Rosoff, and Rudi Horner. Their calls, emails, and letters contacting and encouraging our classmates to come and participate made all the difference. Here, as promised are remembrances for our recently deceased classmates: Known by his classmates as Tommy, Thomas Ascher attended Friends from an early age. He was a serious student, yet had a highly developed sense of humor. He also had a strong interest in social justice. In Upper School he headed the Community Services Committee. This role gave him an opportunity to pursue his interest in social justice and to encourage others to do so through activities like tutoring low-income students and raising funds to buy holiday gifts for patients in state mental health facilities. In his spare time, he played a mean keyboard with “The Eyes of the Night,” a band of our classmates that occasionally performed at school dances. He attended college at Columbia University, where he thrived on its core curriculum in contemporary civilization and was also active in campus politics, graduating Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa. Tommy was truly a unique individual; his senior yearbook page said it all. His friends loved him and missed him greatly as he drifted away from us into his own world. John Holman says that Tommy would drop by his office in Towson occasionally and we would get updates on how he was doing. We will miss him and we wish he had dropped by Reunion so we could have embraced him with our love. Thinking of David Frank always brings a smile to my face and memories of the play, “Arsenic and Old Lace.” David played the role of Mortimer Brewster — the role Cary Grant played in the movie. The entire cast was perfect, but what I remember most is the best delayed double-take ever. David’s acting career began at age 3 when the nursery school presented “Chimes Rang at Christmas.” I didn’t begin at Friends until the 7th grade, but David was great in every acting and singing role I had the pleasure of seeing him perform. My first production at Friends

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had David playing Robert Burns in a musical we did in the 8th grade. I don’t remember the name of the play but I can remember several of the songs from it still. David was the male lead and Diane Katzenberg Braun was the female lead. David was in the Mixed Chorus and had supporting leads in two of our productions — “Camelot,” in which he played Mordred, with Mark Merlis as Arthur and Peggy Ramsey as Guenevere, and then “Bye Bye Birdie,” where his Harry MacAfee had the two funniest songs of the show. David attended Harvard College and went on to Stanford University, where he received a master’s degree in education along with other advanced certificates in music and acting. For 25 years, he taught English and drama at the Roxbury Latin School in Boston, Mass., directing numerous plays and musicals, often in collaboration with the Winsor School. He appeared in productions around the Boston area with the Vokes Theatre, the Boston Actors Theater, and Wheelock Family Theatre. He also performed under the aegis of the Town of Salem, the Bay Colony Shakespeare Company, Sanford Maine Stage and Green Mountain Guild, among others. David had planned to come to Reunion for Saturday only but he had to back out at the last minute. We all wish he had made it.

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Arlene D. Bowes adbowesdmd@gmail.com

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Frank Bond fbondini.bond@gmail.com

Julia Frank writes that she is so fearful of retirement that she has taken a job at Cornerstone Montgomery, a nonprofit mental health and substance abuse treatment center, and looks forward to bicycling to work. Terry Halle is now the proud “Pops” of two grandchildren — Lucie, born 2014, and Charlie, born 2016. His daughter Kirsten is a nurse practitioner and lives with her family in Atlanta. Pete Thanhouser is also preparing for grandparenthood in November. He quips, “It’s come way too soon!”

Louise Wagner writes “When I retired a few years ago I took a step back; it

Gilchrist and John Hammond ’70 in front of the Bridge of Sighs, Venice

was amazing to realize my careers added up to 41 years! What a long time that is... I have to say, it’s taken awhile for me to adjust to retirement after so many years of working. For most of that period I had been seriously interested in pursuing JHU’s M.L.A. — but no longer. Too much work. I want to exhale now. As far as any news goes, I adopted a dog from a rural South Carolina high-kill shelter in January after losing my dog Fred in December. She is a mix between a pit bull and a lab, or a boxer and a lab — hard to tell. I named her Lily Bailey Rose Wagner. Since surviving a serious post-adoption illness we’ve moved on to tackle behavioral issues.

Lily has been featured on Facebook.

All my best.” I find myself suddenly retired from The Newseum and am looking forward to my new role … as a grandfather! Miles Faulkner Griswold was born on June 10th. My daughter Molly and her husband are neck-deep in parenting and it’s a steep learning curve. Keep in touch!

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Melissa M. Pitts lpitts@friendsbalt.org

Kathy Cox writes that she just returned from a week in Sedona, Ariz., with a group of college friends – the same ones who have been traveling together for years to places like Kauai, the Grand Canyon, Grand Tetons, and Yellowstone. Last fall she became a master naturalist and now works with Arlington County Parks & Recreation,

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Bruce Parkhurst ’70 with son Myles, daughter-in-law Kerrie, and granddaughter Elena

conducting wildlife surveys, removing invasive plants, and assisting with educational programs in local parks’ nature centers. She also volunteers at Children’s Hospital, playing with and comforting young patients, and at the National Park Service nursery. Stan Dorst retired from medical practice three years ago and his wife Margaret, a nurse practitioner at the University of Missouri, will retire in December. Once that transition occurs, he shares, “Then we’ll find out what it’s like to be around each other 24/7! Both our sons are in graduate school in philosophy (weird, huh?); both in Boston – one at MIT and

one at Harvard (I have to brag a bit).

Chris, the older one, is married. No grandchildren yet.” Stan and Margaret traveled to Columbia, Md. in June to visit Stan’s mother and, while there, saw Paul Simon at Merriweather Post Pavilion with John Hammond and his wife Gilchrist. Stan is already looking forward to seeing the rest of the class for our 50th in a few years. Speaking of John Hammond, he and Gilchrist traveled to Italy in May to enjoy the vibrant sights and sounds of Rome, Florence and Venice, while also soaking up the tranquility – and the wine – of Tuscany. John is hoping

Tom Price ’70 was guest crew on the Pride of Baltimore 2’s voyage from Charleston, S.C. to Bermuda.

against hope that none of the electronic speed cameras caught him: “50 km/h is way slow, 30 km/h is nearly impossible,” he said. John nevertheless is extremely grateful for the advice about driving in Italy provided by Brenda Bodian, who lives in Milan part of the year. John continues with his power walking and last fall completed his third full marathon in three years, although he says those distances are now a thing of the past. “I was determined to complete one after turning 65, yet wanted an easier course after Richmond and Baltimore, so I did the relatively flat Marine Corps course in D.C.,” he said. “I clearly was not

counting on temperatures soaring into the low 80s in late October – the final 10K was brutal.” Bruce Parkhurst shared that her granddaughter Elena O’Connor turned one on May 24. “We enjoyed cake; Elena preferred her Mary Janes.” Tom Price just returned from a memorable voyage from Charleston to Bermuda as a guest “crew” on the Pride of Baltimore 2.

(Guest crew fully participate in crewing the vessel and standing watches.) “It was a Tall Ships race and Pride won handily, making the 733-mile trip in three days and six hours. A solid 20- to 30-knot southwest breeze at a near perfect angle kept them just ahead of some less perfect weather and we stayed in sunshine,” Tom said, adding that the Gulf Stream and Atlantic waters in full sun are the most incredible color — “more of a blueberry, purple, or indigo.” During the trip, they had one “all hands” situation when a large wave knocked the boom off the mast and broke a number of mast hoops, but the crew competently lowered the mainsail and made repairs, all the while rolling along at 10 knots. (Their top speed seen during the trip was over 13 knots.)

Each watch had five crew members, surprisingly few to handle a 105-ft. traditional sailing vessel, but they could draw from “stand by” watches when more manpower was needed.

Tom took a lot of pictures and, because he really wanted to draw, made use of the crew’s system of three watches — “on for four hours, off for four, then ‘stand by’ for four” — so that he didn’t spend his time sleeping when off watch. One of the sketches from Tom’s trip reminded me of the sailboat he drew in my yearbook way

“All Hands” on the Pride of Baltimore 2 with Tom Price ’70

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classnotes Reunion is coming up…hope to see everyone there!

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Sarah K. Slingluff sallykslingluff123@gmail.com

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This class presently does not have a Class Secretary.

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From left: The Class of 1973’s Marty Peacock McLaughlin, Sally Schulz O’Loughlin, Lisa Shuger Hublitz, and Margo Halle

back in the day. He had forgotten which one so I scanned it and sent him a copy. “All in all, a wonderful experience, quite different than the other six times I’ve sailed to Bermuda (from Newport) in a modern racing boat – much more relaxing!” Tom said.

He heartily recommends signing up for a passage on the Pride 2 or supporting her mission. The website is pride2.org. “She’s a spectacular example of the ships that were the envy of the world in their day, built fortunes, and put Baltimore on the map. Today, she is a favorite in every port she visits and her crews get the best out of her,” he adds. “I cannot believe it’s been 47 years since graduation!” writes Jim Merfeld from Chicago, where he’s been since 1994.

A senior director for marketing services at Bunzl USA Inc., a multi-billion dollar international company with headquarters in London, England and St. Louis, Mo., Jim at this writing had just completed his company’s single largest marketing initiative as part of its 20th anniversary “Go for the Gold” program, leading over 660 customers, vendors and corporate people on a seven-night, eight-day cruise of the Greek Islands.

June was an especially busy month for Jim — his eldest granddaughter turned 6 on June 21, her dad (Jim’s son) turned 39 on June 22, and he and his wife Joni celebrated their 43rd anniversary on June 29. Their middle granddaughter turned three on July 23 and their miracle granddaughter — she was born as a micro-preemie (under 1 ¾ lbs.) — turned 2 on September 30.

Jim turned 65 on his last birthday in

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February but says he cannot retire because his wife won’t let him — “She married me for better or for worse but not for lunch”— and his boss, who’s only in his late 50s, has instructed Jim that he can’t retire until he does. “All in all life has been pretty good and I am grateful for all the blessings that have been bestowed on me and my family.”

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Lucy C. Price hardimanprice@gmail.com

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Beth Holcomb bethholcomb54@gmail.com

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Sarah Schulz O’Loughlin somohopo@comcast.net

Save the Date! Alumni Weekend 2018 and 45th Reunion Celebration: May 3-6, 2018 Brian Kaestner has been living in San Antonio for about 30 years. He teaches A.P. Environmental Science and A.P. Human Geography at Saint Mary’s Hall, a small independent college prep high school. His wife, Jane, teaches physics and chemistry at the same school, and Brian also coaches the women’s varsity soccer team. Their son recently graduated from Goucher College. Brian stays in touch with Jim Schwabe, who lives in California and continues to grow grapes and produce wine under the label of Baccarossa. Jim writes that “the vines are growing like crazy” due to the 57 inches of rain this year. Jim’s son and daughter traveled this

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Debbie Brown ’76 and daughter Emily before her senior prom

summer with their high school band and choir to Germany, Belgium, and Netherlands, where they participated in two international music competitions. Beth Belcher Blake wrote from a trip to Barcelona that she recently sold her house in Richmond, Va. and is still working in the securities business for a bank broker-dealer. She plans to retire within the next few years. Leslie Evans writes that after living in Myrtle Beach for 12 years and losing her husband in 2015 she now lives in Charlotte, N.C. with her sister.

In May, Margo Halle, Marty Peacock McLaughlin, and Lisa Shuger Hublitz joined me, Sally Schulz O’Loughlin, in Towson for the Memorial Service of my father and mother, who both died this year at the ages of 94 and 91. Our 45th

John E. Humphries jehriver@aol.com

MaryAnne Bartlett reports that she and her husband Sam have been “crazy busy,” but she still finds time to work on her projects. Their shop in Waldport, Ore., is going well, and so is her embroidery pattern business. Their oldest son, Arthur, got married in August and their second oldest son, Alaric, got married last summer. The rest of the kids are doing fine. Keith Tabatznik has just finished his first full year as director of soccer at McLean Youth Soccer Club — an organization of 3,000 players. He also continues to scout and coach education for the U.S. Soccer Foundation. Steve Stuart writes that his son Jeff was married to his high school sweetheart, Rachel Leitner, in November 2016. Debbie Brown proudly notes that her 18-year-old twins, Emily and Donnie, graduated from high school in May. Doug and Lisa Mason had fun getting together with Charlie Cohen and his wife Deborah when they were in Los

From left: Deborah and Charlie Cohen ’76 and Doug and Lisa Mason ’76 in L.A.

classnotes Angeles in May for their son James’ graduation from the University of Southern California in. Carolyn Alkire continues environmental economics consulting in SoCal, with frequent beach walking breaks. In 2016 she was selected as a research fellow with Project Drawdown, a global coalition of scholars, scientists, entrepreneurs, and advocates developing solutions to global warming with the goal of reaching drawdown — the point at which the concentration of atmospheric greenhouse gases begins to decline on a year-to-year basis. Their book, “Drawdown,” edited by Paul Hawkin, was published in April. See the website at drawndown.org for additional information. Carolyn’s daughter Keli graduated from Carlsbad High School in June with a bilingual certificate in French and is now a freshman at the University of Denver’s School of International Studies.

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This class presently does not have a Class Secretary.

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Douglas G. Stevenson dougstevenson@hotmail.com

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Shawn Dorman dormanshawn@gmail.com

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Save the Date! Alumni Weekend 2018 and 40th Reunion Celebration: May 3-6, 2018

Save the Date! Alumni Weekend 2018 and 35th Reunion Celebration: May 3-6, 2018

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Anne Hockett annehockett@me.com

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Staige Robert G. Spencer-Strong

robertstrong@hotmail.com Send us your news!

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This class presently does not have a Class Secretary.

If you are interested in volunteering for the post, please email alumni@friendsbalt.org.

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Dahira A. Lievano-Binford dbinford@friendsbalt.org

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Joyce M. Jennings joycejen@berkeley.edu

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Laura Spivak Ryan ’88, with daughter Sophia, center, and stepdaughter Sabina on the Paseo del Prado in Havana, Cuba

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Sharon B. Stewart ladystewart1234@gmail.com

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Roger W. Hughes reosavvy@yahoo.com

Shelly Coates Stein shelley.stein@gmail.com

Alex Salkever is still living in the Bay Area and still not used to the idea that winter is in June and July.

He is entering his second year at Mozilla as the VP of marketing communications, telling the whole world to use the Firefox web browser rather than the one built by a giant advertising company. Belatedly he is learning to pitch a baseball to accommodate batting practice needs.

Summer plans include a family vacation back East on an island off the coast of New England. After nearly 16 years, Mindy Athas has left the University of Maryland for Carroll Hospital in Westminster to be their outpatient dietitian in the Tevis Wellness Center. She writes, “It’s a gorgeous facility with integrative health therapies and a wonderful staff, making it well worth the longer commute. Our kids will be in three different schools this fall, allowing Nick and I to experience elementary, middle, and high school simultaneously!” She invites everyone to keep in touch: mindyathas@hotmail. com. Keep the news coming!

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P. Angelo T. Valle gelovalle@gmail.com

Save the Date! Alumni Weekend 2018 and 30th Reunion Celebration: May 3-6, 2018 Liz Felter Farrell reported some exciting news: “We have launched our farm, our product, our website, and are

fully dragging ourselves into the digital/social media world! Look us up: Fat Stone Farm on the web, Facebook and Instagram.” Liz and husband Bill run everything on Fat Stone Farm. “We often wonder if we’ve gone mad.

Jonathan is 9, Colin is 6, and life in Connecticut is good. It’s been 14 years here after 5 years in London and a few years in New Jersey before that. Can’t wait to see everyone at Reunion!” Let Liz’s anticipation serve as a reminder to all of us to start planning our Reunion. Honestly, I can’t believe it’s already coming up in 2018. Using my strong background in math, thanks to Mrs. Boucher, among others, leads me to conclude that it makes total sense.

30 years?! Christina Long won’t have to travel as far for it. She and her family are moving from Belmont, Mass., to Baltimore. “I just bought a house in Roland Park! I think this will be a great place to raise my daughter, 6, and son, 3. And I look forward to reconnecting with the Friends School community.

Frankly, that was part of the draw back to Baltimore (and family and blue crabs).” Hopefully, even more of us will feel drawn back to North Charles Street in early May 2018 and we’ll have a good turnout for our 30th Reunion. It would be great to see as many people as possible there!

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Meghan P. Cochran meghan@stern.net

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Jahan C. Sagafi klaw74@gmail.com

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Jeffrey J. Dinger jeff.dinger@gmail.com

David Knowles knowlesdavid@gmail.com

The Class of ’92 had a fantastic time at our 25th Reunion, highlighted by a gathering and celebration at the Mount Washington Tavern. A group of us took a long walk through the Upper School. Every hallway and classroom brought back incredible memories.

We also enjoyed seeing the many changes and upgrades. We had a pretty good turnout, but hopefully we can get even more people for our 30th! Dabney Neblett Bowen and her family are enjoying life in Fairfield

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classnotes

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Andrew T. Dale atdale@gmail.com

Stephanie Hanes-Wilson, an awardwinning journalist and correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor, has written her first book, White Man’s Game — Saving Animals, Rebuilding Eden and Other Myths of Conservation in Africa.

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In May, Pete Levin ’97 (with Hanna Field ’17 and Mary Ryan Budnitz ’17) met with Middle and Upper School students to talk about his stop-motion animation work.

Conn., where her daughter Leighton is in the same first grade class as the son of Dan Weiland ’90. Although Dabney is no longer in Portland, Ore., she and Jamie Skeen SchumannDahlberg continue to stay in touch, and she enjoys keeping up with Carla Perry Paisley and Shawn Peterson on Facebook. As of May, Elizabeth Shaum Delfosse was hoping to make the move to Baltimore County in the summer before her son Aidan started high school. Elizabeth graduated from the University of Maryland School of Nursing in December and became an R.N. on March 23. She says the licensing exam was “the worst test ever!”

She’s working in the surgical acute unit at University of Maryland Medical Center and is relieved to not to have to study for a while. Her daughter Gwyn is now in the fifth grade.

Sarah Taylor completed her time with the Army, and recently joined a private dermatology practice in Evans, Ga. Working part time and only seeing patients three days a week is a dream for her. Her kids — “two big girls and one last baby boy” — are now 9, 6, and 3. Her husband is still active duty in the Army as an allergist/immunologist physician.

They travel when they can, enjoying Hilton Head, Atlanta, and Disney World. Kristin Fuhrmann-Simmons teaches “Culinary Tourism” and “Food & Culture” courses at the University of Southern Maine. She continues to travel and write about food and runs

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her own social media consulting company, specializing in the culinary trades. Kristin and her husband have two beautiful girls, ages 11 and 14.

As a family, they’ve started an exciting collaboration of documenting the stories and recipes of immigrant and refugee families living in their community. On the side, Kristin is a running team captain for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, which raises money for blood cancer research and treatment. She started running to honor her dad, who is in treatment for Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia, and completed her seventh half-marathon on Mother’s Day. Kristin welcomes all Friends Schoolers to reach out when they are in Maine.

Email her at kafcooks@gmail.com.

My wife Wendy and I sent our daughter Emmy, 5, off on the school bus to kindergarten this fall. Her sister Kaitlyn, 8, is in third grade.

Both attend Oak Hill Elementary School in Severna Park. I’m busy and at times overwhelmed with Lord of the Pies, the business I started two years ago. Our pies and cheesecakes are now in 30 grocery stores and steadily growing. As the years pass it has been more and more gratifying to keep up with classmates. We’re missing about 20 people from our Facebook group so please let me know if you want to join.

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Caroline Mallonee Huebner

carolinemallonee@gmail.com Save the Date! Alumni Weekend 2018 and 25th Reunion Celebration: May 3-6, 2018 The Class of 1993 lost Jessica Harrison Belzberg on February 24, 2017. She is survived by her husband Adam and their three children, Elias, Asher, and Ayela; her parents, Bruce and Marlene, her sister, Tracy Harrison Garcia ’95, and her grandmother. Jessica believed in the importance of visual arts to the development of children, not just from an educational perspective but as a platform for creative and emotional expression. She loved volunteering in art activities at the kids’ schools and did so with passion and vigor. Her family has established the Jess4KidsArt Fund to provide children in the Seattle, Wash.-area with positive exposure to the visual arts. For more information or to contribute, visit matthew-belzberg. squarespace.com.

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Rich C. Santos richie1124@gmail.com

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This class presently does not have a Class Secretary.

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Claire C. Kosloff clairekosloff@yahoo.com

Rob Travieso ’97 and wife Samantha Williamson ’00 are living in the Woodberry community with their baby daughter, Cleo. Rob is teaching in the Friends Upper School English department, which he loves. As a bonus, Cleo is enrolled at Little Friends Early Learning Center, adjacent to the Friends campus, so dad and daughter see each other during the day.

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Justine Alger Forrester jalger1@yahoo.com

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Chris Condlin Chriscondlin@gmail.com

Rosalie Parker rorosalie@gmail.com Hello, Class of 1999! This is the first post from your new joint Class Notes correspondents, Chris Condlin and Rosalie Parker. We would love to expand the number of responses in future installments, so please send us updates! First, from the Baltimore contingent: Michael Kremen and his wife Jessica live in Pikesville with their two children, Olive and Gus. Drew Shelton and his wife Sarah live in Lutherville with elder daughter Annie and newest member of the family, Molly, who was born in March 2016.

Drew teaches 8th grade science in the Baltimore County Public School System. Ben Bodnar recently moved back to Baltimore after adventures in far-away locales, including Rwanda and New Haven, Conn., and is now working as an internist and pediatrician at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and as an assistant professor at the School of Medicine. He and his wife Alia and their son, James, born October 2015, are living in the

classnotes Lauraville community. Next, from our nation’s capital: Brian Valle and his wife Laura have been living in D.C. since 2011; they were married in December 2015, holding their reception in true Baltimore style at the Peabody Library. Brian is a vice president at The Bozzuto Group, which develops real estate projects, including several in Baltimore. At a recent groundbreaking in Locust Point, he ran into none other than former FSB ’99 classmate Sophia Silbergeld, who is now working at the Greater Baltimore Committee, and Beth Hochman, whom Brian used to sit next to in fourth grade. Beth moved to Florida in Lower School and is now a surgeon at Columbia University Hospital in New York. Also spotted at the groundbreaking was Mark Pollak, father of Class of ’99ers Becca and Ben. Moving farther north up the East Coast, Ryan Welch has been ensconced in Philadelphia at the architecture firm of KieranTimberlake since 2011. He married Lidiya Petrova in May 2016 after a true East Coast, I-95 corridor romance — they met sitting next to one another on a Megabus from White Marsh to Philadelphia. Many more bus and plane trips ensued until Lidiya graduated from law school in 2016 and moved to Philly to work as an immigration attorney. Turning to the north, Chris is excited to report that the Class of ’99 representation in New York City continues to grow apace. The most recent addition is Jeremy Barofsky, who moved to Brooklyn in January and began working at behavioral economic consulting firm ideas42, doing research with a focus on the intersection of health and poverty.

Prior to his move, Jeremy was in D.C. working at the Brookings Institution and enjoyed attending various marches with Brian. After completing medical school at St. Louis University, Will Terrin decided to take his gifted hands to Brooklyn where he has been working in the emergency room at the Brooklyn Hospital Center. Jeremy and Will sometimes run into Tim Sweeney, who continues to call Brooklyn home, but who is often found on the road touring as international DJ sensation “Tim Sweeney.” Tim also continues to produce his weekly radio show on NYU’s radio station, which has

been running continuously without interruption since the fall of 1999.

Fellow Brooklynite Reid Cherlin has been working at VICE Media for the last two years, where he serves as the supervising writer for VICE’s new nightly show on HBO, VICE News Tonight. Sometime in the fall of 2017, Reid will be getting married to lovely Annie Schachar of Toronto. “Jays fan, sadly, but does know the words to ‘Simple Gifts.’” Reid reports, adding that he had a great time swinging through Baltimore for the Maryland Film Festival weekend, where he caught up with Robert Dietz near the newly opened Parkway Theater, championed by his dad, and FSB ’99 staple, Jed Dietz. There have been a few more sightings of Robert recently, now that he’s back at the Groupon mothership in Chicago after a year representing the company at its Asia headquarters, based in Malaysia. He and his wife Julie (married November 2015) recently bought a house and are expecting their first child in September 2017. In further news from the Heartland, Kelly Nielsen Bouxsein and her husband Drew celebrated the birth of their first child, Caroline Joan Nielsen, on May 1. The family lives in Omaha, Neb., where Kelly since 2012 has worked at CHI Health, most recently as its division director for healthier communities and community benefit. She and her team support 15 hospitals in partnering with their communities to identify and address the top health issues affecting residents. She loves to play tour guide and surprise people about how great Omaha is, home to the country’s “best zoo and College World Series” so look her up if you ever happen to be there! From the Pacific Northwest, David Raphael lives in Portland, Ore. with wife Lesley Wojcik Raphael ’00 and their two children, Jack and Charlie.

Last, but not least, about your class correspondents: Chris Condlin is still living in NYC, working at the same law firm since 2009 and married, since March 2015, to his long-time girlfriend Lisa. As of May 2017, Chris and Lisa were excited to welcome back to NYC Chris’s son Nikita, almost 13, who lives in St. Petersburg, Russia during the school year.

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Samantha L. Williamson slwillia@gmail.com

Hello Quakers! I was so happy to receive bulletins from many of you for this edition, coming in from all parts of the country. On the West Coast, Lesley Wojcik Raphael wrote in from Portland, Ore., where she lives with husband Dave Raphael ’99 and their two boys, Jack, 3, and Charlie, 2: “In addition to my full-time job as a mom, I work as an anesthesiologist and was recently promoted to medical director of obstetrical anesthesia at my hospital. Lots of babies! In our spare time we love to explore the Pacific Northwest in all its natural beauty and great food.” A little farther south, Andrew Kelly and his wife Eleni welcomed son Alexandros Wolfe Kelly in May in Oakland, Calif. In another piece of good news, he was hired as a professor at Cal State, and begins fall 2017. Congrats, prof! Also in the Golden State, Christina Schoppert Devereux and husband Andrew welcomed Peter Schoppert Devereux to their family in August 2016 in Los Angeles. Chrissy writes, “William, 3 ½, and Peter are already thick as thieves, and Andrew and I delight in their funny exchanges and their ever-developing individual characters.” Luckily for us here in Charm City, the Devereuxs spent the summer in Baltimore while on break from teaching. Laura Allen is a production manager at the Cartoon Network, and visited with Friends Upper School art students in February to talk about her work in a session the students described as “amazing.”

Bayley Kavanaugh Warner and Emily Heinlein completed a hiking expedition in Salt Lake City in May, and reported having a great time (see picture!) except for the bugs guarding the lake. Bayley lives in Colorado with her two kids, Aiden and Alice, and her brother Jamie Kavanaugh ’97 is down the street. Zach Wilcock and his wife Lindsay, married in July 2016 in New Orleans, have had an exciting year.

They welcomed their first child, Wes Wilcock, this summer relocated from Houston to Denver, and as BP moved its headquarters to the Mile High City.

On the other side of the country, Ana Muñoz wrote in, “My husband Justin and I moved to Boston last fall with our new kiddo, Alma, 1, who is a loving, lively, determined little tornado. I got to see some alums at a really fun happy hour this spring, hosted by Head of

School, Matt Micciche, and am looking forward to connecting with Bostonarea Quakers more in the future!”

Margo Murray in June finished up a two-year postgraduate fellowship program in psychodynamic psychotherapy at The Karen Horney Clinic and joined a group psychotherapy practice in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Aside from her work, she wrote that she gets to see her brother Nick ’98 and his wife Alice and their two little ones, William, 4, and January, 2, “as often as possible, which is so fun for everyone, most of all me.” Lots of great news coming out of Baltimore: Tiffani Sterrette Collins wrote, “I started my own law practice, Collins Legal Group, in 2015. This year we got a $2 million verdict for one of our clients in a slip and fall case. It’s one of the highest slip and fall verdicts in Maryland’s history.” Her son Cayman ’29 finished kindergarten under the tutelage of none other than Ms. [Miriam] Fleury ’71. Speaking of Ms. Fleury, her son Joe Fleury and wife Jenny added Benjamin Macsherry Fleury to their brood. Joe also passed along that Galen Haggerty is engaged to the wonderful Laurie Gerrell. Susie Peterson and Phil Ghassemieh ’01 welcomed a daughter, Karen Alexandra, to their family in September 2016. Geoff Graham and his wife, Cricket Arrison, continue to enjoy living in their home in Medfield. Geoff recently retired from his eight-year stint as a founding member of the band, Lower Dens, to pursue other musical projects and return to school to obtain an M.S.W. This summer he planned to spend his third semester studying abroad in Kochi, India. Aside from exposing himself to international social work, he looks forward to traveling within Asia for the first time.

His two current main musical projects, All Ball (featuring original music) and Sh’rumours (a Fleetwood Mac cover band), will be performing locally later this year. David Greenwood is back in Maryland after three years in the Australian outback. He says he “has never been happier to see snow, and looks forward to the next Reunion!”

Rob Travieso ’97 and I are living in Woodberry with our daughter Cleo.

Rob is teaching in the Friends Upper School English department, which he loves, and I am practicing as a corneal specialist at Kaiser Permanente. I am lucky to see other Friends alums in the city, including Sima Fried and

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Charlotte Baldwin van de Crommerts ’02’s son, Michael, and husband, Matthew, visit with the goats.

Lacrosse fans Sam Burgunder ’21, left, and Ned Forbush ’21 with three-time All-American and Tewaaraton Trophy winner Kyle Harrison ’01

Kelly Swanston, who continue to dominate the Baltimore legal scene.

Dr. Priya Shashidharan Little recently married Joe Little and is practicing family medicine at GBMC. Katrina Rouse left D.C. in the dust to take on a job at the Department of Justice in San Francisco. Hope to see others soon, and wishing all the best to everyone for the remainder of 2017.

Jamie Pitts ’01 and Roshelle Kades were married in June.

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Carrie Runde Paddock carrie.runde@gmail.com

Emma Viscidi is living in Boxborough, Mass., with her husband and two daughters, Natalie, 3, and Jacqueline, who’s almost 2. Emma works for a biotech company, Biogen, in Cambridge. Emily Kleeman moved to Denver two years ago where she works as a social worker and was recently promoted to a director position. She has pioneered through a foster care agency a therapeutic court-ordered supervised visitation program that is now used throughout the state. She’s remained active with her alma mater, Colorado State University, where she started an internship program, and through her private practice offers tutoring services to social workers sitting for licensing exams. Colorado is treating Emily well as she regularly skis, hikes and dances. Kyle Harrison was spotted in May by super-fans Ned Forbush ’21 and Sam Burgunder ’21 at the 2017 NCAA Lacrosse finals in Foxborough, Mass., and paused for a quick photo.

Christine Pappas moved back to Baltimore in September with her fiancé Bryan Miller after a journey that took her to San Francisco, St. Louis, and Washington D.C. She is thrilled to announce to her classmates and fellow alumni that she joined the Development Office at Friends in

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August as the Director of Alumni Relations & Engagement. You will be hearing from her often! It’s hard to believe that I’ve been back in Baltimore for three years. My husband, daughter, and I really enjoy living in the city and getting to spend time with family. For the last four years, I’ve worked at a nonprofit, multidisciplinary medical practice in Montgomery County using a new model of integrative, team-based primary care medicine. Two years ago, I started a private practice in Roland Park with my husband. I’ve also kept myself busy with two regulatory positions under the Board of Physicians at the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. All the best to the class of 2001! Please continue to send me your updates and keep in touch.

Alexis Johnson Walpole ’02’s son, Henry Johnson Walpole

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Camille E. Powe camille.powe@gmail.com

Christopher S. Wright cswright@gmail.com Many members of the class of 2002 returned for our 15th Reunion in May. Irene Donnelly Salmon and her husband, Dylan Salmon, hosted the class party at their new restaurant, Dylan’s Oyster Cellar, in Hampden.

We all caught up over fried clams, coddies, oysters, and cocktails, Dan Grayson and Keung Srisuma, both living in Singapore, held their own, smaller Class of 2002 reunion.

Arielle Goldman writes, “My husband Edward and I had a baby boy, Teddy, on February 26, 2017.” In February Dorothy Williams Cook welcomed

Members of the Class of 2002, pictured with Upper School math teacher Carl Schlenger, far left, celebrated their 15th Reunion at Dylan’s Oyster Cellar in Hampden.

classnotes

Becca Fogel Erwin ’02 and Carter Erwin’s ’03 sons, Deegan, 5, and Auden, 7, with their new baby brother, Granger

her second child, Henry Cook, into the family. Henry joins big sister Katharine.

Becca Fogel Erwin and Carter Erwin ’03, and their sons, Auden, 7 and Deegan, 5, welcomed baby Granger “Gray” in October 2016. The family lives outside of Boston and is happy, healthy and well. They recently paid a visit to Ben Pittman ’03 and family in Baltimore and realized that if they wanted to go out to eat together, they would need a table for 10. Wow! Alexis Johnson Walpole writes, “On August 29, 2016, my husband Joe and I welcomed our son, Henry Johnson Walpole. Parenthood is more fun than we ever could have imagined and we are completely enamored with our sweet little Hank. In other news, after nine long years Joe has just completed his M.D./Ph.D. from the University of Virginia and was matched at Johns Hopkins’ Department of Anesthesia! We have one more year in Charlottesville while Joe completes his internship with UVA Surgery, but we are delighted to finally be heading back to Baltimore in summer 2018!”

My husband, Manny Foster, and I welcomed a baby boy in August. In July, I joined the Endocrine Division at Massachusetts General Hospital and the faculty at Harvard Medical School, where my clinical work and research focuses on diabetes in pregnancy.

Keep in touch!

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Emily Lamasa selamasa@gmail.com

Save the Date! Alumni Weekend 2018 and 15th Reunion Celebration: May 3-6, 2018 Hi all! I was so glad to hear from so many of you again. First up is a list of all the 2016 marriages! Ben Bor married Casey Naughton at the Frederick Douglass Isaac Myers Maritime Park and Museum in Fells Point on October 8, 2016. In attendance were many ’03 alums, including best men Jeremy Rockman and Robert Jackson, and groomsmen Carlo Olivi, Tim Grau, Stephen Turk, and Stephen Frank. Ben still plays music around town, but works as a special assistant city solicitor in the Baltimore City Law Department. His wife Casey is a pediatric cardiac nurse practitioner at the University of Maryland Medical Center. Ellen Kutzer married Matt Blaustein, a law school classmate and Baltimore native, last September. Courtney Carlson performed the wedding ceremony!

Ellen works for the Baltimore City Comptroller in business collections.

Rachel Naumann Murphy married Greg Murphy last November and they bought a house in Ridgely’s Delight, next to Camden Yards. Also married in November is Rebecca Ohly, who wed Chris Palmer. They are living in north Denver where she works as an environmental chemist on Superfund cleanup sites and Chris works as an

architect. Gant Powell is working as a design director at a small homeproducts company, Indecor New York, which manufactures and imports shower curtains, pet products, and bedding. He and his boyfriend, Daniel, recently moved to Washington Heights. Will Sale is still enjoying New York City, where he is living happily with his growing family. He was thrilled to announce the birth of his daughter,

Georgia, who arrived in February.

Hannah Stern is still living in London and got engaged to Henning Rehm, from Schwerin, Germany, while they were on a weekend trip to Madrid.

They’re looking forward to getting married in April 2018! Kate Meyer Jakuta started a new job last October as a case manager for the Southeast Community Development Corporation’s Highlandtown Family Stability Program. She reports that she loves her job, working to prevent families at risk of losing their housing from becoming homeless, and recently became a board member of the Latino Providers Network in Baltimore.

Ben Pittman is enjoying being back in Baltimore and is currently the foreign language department head at the Calvert School. He’s still actively involved in coaching, musical theater, and a cappella music. He, his wife Jackie, and their three kids, Nico, 5, Josie, 3, and Luca, 1, will be moving “outside the beltway” this fall. He recently enjoyed visiting with Carter Erwin and his family up in Boston. (Maybe we’ll hear from Carter next time!) Lily Mendelson is still living in Baltimore, where she and her husband, Jesse, recently bought a house. Andrew Arceci lives in Massachusetts with his wife Asako Takeuchi Arceci, and their 2-year-old son, Junzo Robert Arceci. At this

Dorothy Williams Cook ’02 with new baby, Henry, and daughter, Katharine

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Catie Black ’05’s son, Mason

Charlie Totten ’04 and Lauren Marks ’07 in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, with their alumni-filled wedding entourage

writing they are expecting baby #2 any day now. Andrew works at Wellesley College as a musician and composer. In 2016 and again this summer he staged the Winchendon Music Festival, featuring a three-day lineup of international Baroque, folk, and jazz musicians, at the the Old Centre Church in historic Winchendon, Mass. Andrew created the event, which is free to the public, in memory of his father, Robert J. Arceci, an internationally respected pediatric oncologist, who died in a motorcycle accident in 2015. He has also released an album devoted to Joseph Bodin de Boismortier and has played in concerts with a number of ensembles throughout the US, Canada, and Europe. You can check him out at www.andrewarceci.com, though he also reports that it is outdated, www.vdgscores.com and www.floydsrow.com. Caroline Kensler is in the final year of her internal medicine residency in Pittsburgh, and says all she does is work! Danielle Waranch is living in Baltimore and recently started working at a new dental practice in Annapolis. I’m lucky enough to see her pretty regularly. I’m also still in Baltimore and have nothing new to report.

Keep in touch!

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Abigail M. Seiler aseiler8@gmail.com

Kathleen Gorman completed her pediatric residency at UNC Children’s Hospital, then moved to D.C. and started working for Children’s National Medical Center as a pediatric ER doctor. She’s now heading to Malawi for a year-long position as an inpatient pediatrician through Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. Charlie Totten was living in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico in 2016 and married Lauren Marks ’07 there last Labor Day Weekend. They had a great crew of Friends School alumni attend to make the long weekend a once-in-a-lifetime Lindsey Syropoulos Wedekind ’04’s daughter, Lucy

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event! They have since moved back to Baltimore to be closer to friends and family and bought a house in Federal Hill. Also in Baltimore, Michael Levin is an attorney at Anderson, Coe & King, LLP. Gary Williams is working for Family League of Baltimore on the Bmore For Healthy Babies Initiative, helping to reduce infant mortality in Baltimore City. He oversees investments in East and West Baltimore and co-leads the work to reduce racial disparities in birth

outcomes. He and his wife Christina are also expecting their second child in September and bought their first home last November in the Cedmont neighborhood of Baltimore. In more baby news, Lindsey Syropoulos Wedekind and her husband Russ welcomed a cute little nugget, Lucy Leigh, into the world on March 1, and Emma Bartlett Guzowski and her husband Brian welcomed a baby in July! Yana Demireva married Toby Fitzick in June 2016 and last November they welcomed their baby girl, Rosa Frances Fitzick. Ben Barchey is getting married in October to his girl Whitney in Sonoma, Calif. and is super excited! All of his friends from Friends are making the trek out

Nicholas Colvin ’04 with his wife, Kate, and daughter, Winnie

classnotes West, and so are some good friends from that lesser school, Gilman. Nick Silbergeld is Ben’s co-best man. Ben reports that Nick has been chasing birds in Panama for a few years and that he had to special order sunflower seeds for his dinner. Rebecca Gifford married Chris Vockley in April at the Maryland Zoo. Sarah Goldberg and Lindsay Repka were bridesmaids, and several other Friends friends were there, too! Caitlin Garman got engaged to Mike Brown in May and is living in D.C., where she works as a social worker at a KIPP high school. I’m also still in D.C., working for the nonprofit Food & Friends.

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Christina Forsting Taler christina.forsting@gmail.com

Charlotte Baldwin van de Crommert writes “My husband Matthew and I had our first child in August 2015. His name is Michael and we can’t believe he’s already two years old! I am currently nannying for a family in Baltimore.

They have a son the same age as Michael so they have been best friends for the past year and a half.

Starting this summer I am taking a teaching position at a local preschool where my son can also attend in a 2-year-old program. I am excited to get

back to the classroom after spending my son’s first two years with him.”

Jeremy King writes, “I made my Broadway debut last year, subbing on guitar for the show ‘Matilda.’ In addition to playing, over the past few years I’ve been designing synthesizer sounds and guitar effects for Broadway shows.

The coolest one I’ve worked on is ‘Hamilton,’ for which I was part of the team that designed and programmed the keyboards, guitar effects, and drum pads for both the off-Broadway and Broadway productions. I also designed the guitar effects for the tour’s Chicago and San Francisco companies. The most notable show from a Friends School perspective is ‘Bright Star,’ because I was working with fellow alum Rob Berman ’88.

Other shows I’m working on or have recently worked on, include ‘Waitress,’ ‘Side Show,’ ‘Cabaret,’ ‘Rock of Ages,’ ‘Book of Mormon,’ ‘Groundhog Day,’ ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,’ ‘Anastasia,’ ‘War Paint,’ ‘Bandstand,’ ‘Amazing Grace,’ ‘On Your Feet,’ ‘The Color Purple,’ ‘Dr. Zhivago,’ ‘A Bronx Tale,’ ‘Dear Evan Hansen,’ ‘Kinky Boots,’ and ‘Sunday in the Park With George’ on Broadway, as well as ‘The Death of Klinghoffer’ at the Met. Before moving to New York three years ago, I was living outside of D.C., gigging

David Fakunle ’05 with his fiancée Doralee and son Cruz-Matisse

with several bands, and wrote the advanced guitar curriculum for the Bach To Rock chain of music schools.

My girlfriend, Jamie, and I recently moved to a new place in Brooklyn in the Crown Heights area, which we are loving.” Brittany Starr reports that after more than a decade of various (ad)ventures in other places, she is returning to the Baltimore-D.C. area to begin a Ph.D. program in English at the University of Maryland. Charles Whitman writes, “I currently serve as a judge advocate for the U.S. Marine Corps, stationed in Yuma, Ariz. While aboard MCAS Yuma, I also serve as the base’s special assistant U.S. attorney. In that role, I prosecute civilians who commit crimes on the military installation in federal court. I am also getting married on November 4, 2017 to Jaimie Thomas.” David Fakunle writes, “I recently proposed to my longtime girlfriend Doralee and we will be married in December. We live together with my son Cruz-Matisse.

Professionally, I am finishing up my Ph.D. in mental health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health as well as a fellowship at the Baltimore City Health Department. I will likely move on to a post-doctoral fellowship when I’m done. I am also developing my business, which uses storytelling to aid in narrative development, be it for recovery from trauma or branding purposes, among other projects.” Sydney Hargrove writes, “I left NYC in 2014 after working for Morgan Stanley for five years to attend UCLA Law. In May I graduated and will be moving back to D.C. to start a clerkship.” Julie Maylor Lade writes, “After graduating from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine with my Ph.D. in pharmacology last October, my husband of five years, Kieran, and I in December relocated to San Francisco, where I joined the pharmaceutical company Amgen in the Department of Pharmacokinetics and Drug Metabolism.” Brittney Bogues writes, “After graduating from Wake Forest University, I created my own PR firm, handling events, branding, public relations, and social media for athletes, chefs and nonprofits. In addition I recently began working with Safe Alliance, a nonprofit helping victims of domestic and sexual violence. Hard but rewarding work.”

Margot Hecht writes, “I’ve spent the last seven years working for U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD), most

recently on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee where I work with ranking member Cardin on humanitarian, refugee, human rights, and United Nations-related issues.

The last couple of months have been the hardest of my career, but I’m looking forward to continuing to fight the good fight in the years to come. In October, I’m marrying Brian Schaffner, who I met in 2012 while living and working in D.C. Bridesmaids include Friends alums Jasmin Perry and Catie Black McDonald.” Speaking of Catie, she writes, “I continue to teach at Kennedy Krieger High School and just finished my seventh school year (minus maternity leave). My husband Rob and I welcomed our first baby, Mason Robert, on March 14, 2017. He was born at 12:08 pm, weighing 9 lbs and 14 oz at 22 inches long. We are really enjoying parenthood so far.”

John Ross writes, “I just finished my second year as a visiting assistant professor of mathematics at Southwestern University, which is just outside Austin, Texas . Before that, I was a graduate student studying math at Johns Hopkins.”

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Nicole R. Runde nicole.runde@gmail.com

Send us your news!

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Lauren S. Marks lmarks617@gmail.com

Send us your news!

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Jasmine L. Powe

jasmine.liana.powe@gmail.com Save the Date! Alumni Weekend 2018 and 10th Reunion Celebration: May 3-6, 2018

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Leah R. Koenig lkoenig14@gmail.com

Matt Moses will soon be selling the most delicious chili you’ve ever tasted in Baltimore. Keep an eye out!

Hannah Patterson Hill recently locked down her man toy with whom she’s been living in sin for the past three years. Their fat pitbull TBone is pretty thrilled. Libby Nichols and Catherine Rosenberg made their bridesmaid debuts and didn’t even trip. The flower baby was generously contributed by Hannah’s sister, Grace Patterson Leatherman ’04.

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Joseph L. Peyton jpey92@gmail.com

Seven years after attending senior prom together, Lyz Berg and Max Levine will celebrate their marriage this October!

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Ashley Geleta ageleta@fandm.edu

The Class of 2011 has been up to some pretty exciting adventures in the “real world,” taking on graduate school, new jobs, and new adventures!

Alex Young has taken his post-grad life to new heights, quite literally, working 280-feet up in giant Sequoia trees to collect canopy foliage as part of his research with UC Berkeley.

He spent last summer working at Sequoia National Park studying the impacts of drought on forest health — did you know over 100 million trees died within four years because of the drought? He also started a master’s program this past January at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, where he studies forestry and nutrient cycling. Very cool research and not to mention a full-ride scholarship! Katie Spradling has taken her career to the ice, recently starting a job working for the National Hockey League in New York City. It seems her

From left: Class of 2013 alumni Ana Garcia-Moreno, Will Gantt, Cedric Charlier, and Alex Poblete celebrate their May 2017 graduation from Bowdoin College.

bachelor’s degree in communication studies from Furman University has scored her a lot of great positions, previously working with the Eric and Jessie Decker Foundation, the Henrik

Wedding bells will be ringing this October for Class of 2010’s Max Levine and Lyz Berg.

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Lundqvist Foundation, and Street Soccer USA. Jesse Rosenstein is packing his bags to head north to Alaska, after recently quitting his job and purchasing a van for his journey.

That’s right, he’s driving the whole way and is converting his van into his home for the journey. He’s planning to make his way to Alaska over the next few months, shooting photos and video along the way. Have an incredible time, Jesse, and we look forward to seeing your photos!

Courtney Anderson also moved north, to Madison, Wisconsin, just over a year ago to pursue a position with one of the country’s largest medical software companies, Epic. When not working overseas with the company’s clients in Finland, she is casually training for a few triathlons. As the Class of 2011 pursues their awesome adventures around the world, I will hopefully be protecting us from scary pathogens and threats, having just graduated in May from Georgetown with a master’s of science in biohazardous threat agents and emerging infectious diseases — which is an extremely long way of saying I study biodefense, pandemics, and national security. I just finished an internship studying radiological and nuclear terrorism at the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism

and Responses to Terrorism and am currently serving as a research assistant at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. I’m hoping to keep us safe from all sorts of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons and threats. Until the next addition — cheers!

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Lauren P. Riley rilelp12@wfu.edu

Send us your news!

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Samantha R. Enokian

samanthaenokian@yahoo.com Save the Date! Alumni Weekend 2018 and 5th Reunion Celebration: May 3-6, 2018 Congratulations to those of us who recently graduated from our respective colleges and universities, including Ana Garcia-Moreno, whose parents hosted a small reception in honor of fellow Friends School-Bowdoin College Class of 2017 classmates, Will Gantt, Cedric Charlier, and Alex Poblete. Ana is a Fulbright Scholar, and will be teaching English in Mexico. Will Gantt is in Silicon Valley, doing computer programming for a company called Octa. Cedric Charlier is a Peace Corps

classnotes volunteer serving in Ghana. And Alex Poblete has joined a research lab at Boston Children’s Hospital, where he’s working on treatments for retinopathy in premature infants. If there was ever an example of our school motto, “The world needs what our children can do,” this is it! In other news, Ben Musachio spent the summer in Latvia after graduating from Stanford in June. He’s off to England in September for a two-year fellowship at Oxford, then will return to the East Coast in Fall 2019 to pursue his Ph.D. in Slavic Literature at Princeton.

Connor Finn graduated from Franklin and Marshall with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and is now studying mechanical engineering at Columbia University through the dual degree program. “Quite the transition from Lancaster to Manhattan!” he writes.

I graduated from College Park in May and am presently studying in Kazakhstan as a Boren Fellow with the National Security Education Program.

In May I stopped by the Friends campus to visit with Russian teacher Lee Roby and to talk with Upper School students about University of Maryland’s sexual assault prevention education program, which I was involved in as an undergrad.

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Amelia Merrill merrilam@dickinson.edu

As we look to wrap up our college careers, members of the Class of 2014

are taking on leadership roles, pursuing scientific research, traveling the world, combining art with academics, and even looking to graduate schools already. Although we have all accomplished different things in the past three years, and I could write a book about our diverse interests and achievements, I spoke to a few Quakes whose work has impressed and inspired me. Isabel Blalock has been accepted into Brown University’s combined degree program in public health and will graduate with a B.A. in 2018 and an M.P.H. in 2019. She hopes to work in reproductive and maternal health and spent the spring 2017 semester studying abroad in Granada, Spain.

Shane (Rabinowitz) Raphael graduated from the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism in December with a degree in broadcast journalism. He was awarded upon graduation for his volunteer service to the Merrill College. Shane is now living in Baltimore and working as a communications and development associate at Parks & People Foundation. Prior to that he served as an advance associate for the office of Barack and Michelle Obama.

Congratulations to Shane on his academic and professional accomplishments! In May, Julia Mann’s original artwork was featured at Sunnyfields, a Baltimore home showroom and art gallery that

promotes local artists. Most of the time, however, Julia is not in Baltimore but in Israel, where she’s enrolled in Middle Eastern studies and digital culture and communication classes at Tel Aviv University. She also takes weekly art classes in Jaffa at Beit Kandinof, which she describes as “part café, part open studio, and part artist residency program.” AJ Pruitt has been elected president of the University of Maryland College Park Student Government Association for the 2017-2018 academic year. In this role he’ll represent the more than 28,000 undergraduate student body.

Congratulations, AJ! In other election news, Courtney Booker will be serving in two presidential roles this academic year at Rider University. She has been elected Panhellenic President and will oversee all sororities on campus as a representative of the Panhellenic Conference. She will also serve as president of the Rider Dance Team during her senior year. Congratulations to Courtney! After three semesters of volunteering at Franklin & Marshall College’s animal behavior vivarium, Ashley Applefeld has been promoted to a paid position as an animal caretaker. She teaches and observes monkey behavior in addition to giving the various animals their medications and working to improve their environments in the vivarium. Ashley is a Russian major at F&M and hopes to work in veterinary sciences one

Sam Enokian ’13 caught up with Russian teacher Lee Roby during a visit to campus in May.

day. Taylor Copeland spent the summer conducting physics research at Columbia University as part of their Research Experience for Undergraduates program. A double math and physics major at Connecticut College, Taylor worked on simulations of spacecraft reentry into the atmosphere to monitor the chemical reactions that take place in that process. He is one of many members of the Class of 2014 who is doing innovative work in their field, and I look forward to seeing what we all do next!

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This class presently does not have a Class Secretary.

If you are interested in volunteering for the post, please email alumni@friendsbalt.org.

Troi Barber writes, “This past school year at University of Maryland has been a really exciting one — I changed my major from business to public relations and added two minors: Spanish and international development & conflict management.

I’ve also been involved in Images, a tour guide group at Maryland, and have been writing content for the university’s Odyssey blog since freshman year. This summer I interned with the marketing department at Friends, interviewing alumni from our class and the Class of 2014 for a series of short videos about our college experiences, study abroad programs, and various internships. Ted Kasper is enjoying being a Camel at Connecticut College, where he is a political science major and plays midfield on the college’s Division III men’s lacrosse team. After spending the spring semester in Oxford, England studying special and elementary education through an Elon University scholarship program, Emma Mutascio continued her education studies this summer as a camp counselor at Jemicy School, where she worked intensively with a group of five boys to help them retain their academic skills prior to the start of the school year. Jemicy is also where Emma completed her Senior Work Project at Friends. Zach Loewenberg is having a great time at Washington and Lee University, where he is majoring in business with a minor in Russian language and culture.

Outside of classes, Zach plays first base for the Division III Generals’ baseball team, which finished the 2017 season at 28-14. This summer he

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classnotes worked in Cape Town, South Africa, for a soccer development company called Fives Futbol, which runs adult and junior leagues, soccer schools, and team-building and social events in its five-a-side facilities. After completing a gap year in Moldova in 2015-16, where she studied Russian under a NSLI-Y scholarship, Katrina Keegan reports, “I had a wonderful first year at UChicago.

I am very involved with Model UN, competing on the traveling team and helping run committees for the high school and college conferences we host at Chicago, MUNUC and ChoMUN. I also work as a research assistant for Russian Professor William Nickell. I spent the summer in Azerbaijan, learning Turkish through the Critical Language Scholarship.”

Aubrey Akers is an information science major/computer science minor at Cornell. She spent her summer doing computer science research in the VACCINE Lab at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. VACCINE stands for Visual Analytics for Command, Control and Interoperability Environments, and it is the Department of Homeland Security’s Center of Excellence in Visual and Data Analytics. VACCINE focuses on creating methods, tools, and applications to efficiently analyze and manage vast amounts of information for all mission areas of homeland security. She says, “I am personally working on helping develop software called VALET (Visual Analytics Law Enforcement Toolkit), which plots crime data on a spatial and temporal distribution, allowing analysts to visually explore the data. I am still involved in dance — as president of Pandora Dance Troupe and the Paige Bowmaster at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London

Director of Community Outreach for Cornell Dancers’ Alliance!” Maria Park writes, “Harvard’s been an amazing experience so far — challenging, but also a lot of fun. Currently, I’m majoring in integrative biology and minoring in environmental science & public policy.

I’m playing viola in orchestra (decided that college was the time to learn a new instrument!), but still play the violin for side gigs. This summer, I went on tour to Argentina with the HarvardRadcliffe Orchestra and researched the physiology of Northern Red Oak trees in Massachusetts.” Sam Siegmeister is enjoying his time at Northeastern University, where he is a computer science major/business minor and serves on the CS2510 (Fundamentals of computer science 2) course staff as a TA and lab coordinator. This summer he worked at Liberty Mutual as a software developer, using emerging technologies, like augmented reality to build applications. Emilia Roberts studies ecology and evolutionary biology at University of Maryland. She spent much of the summer in Peru, conducting research on birds of both the lowland Amazon rainforest and the cloud forest in collaboration with a Peruvian nonprofit called Fauna Forever. Paige Bowmaster, an education major at Susquehanna University, traveled with school in May to Chester, England, where she worked with the University of Chester to observe nursery (preschool) to year six (fifth grade) classrooms at a small public school. “The biggest difference between American and British schools is the use of religion. The school is state run, though has a shocking amount of Christianity incorporated,” she wrote, noting that “[a] prayer has to be said every morning at the school, though the assistant head teacher joked that they say, ‘God help us’ before going into teach and that counts.”

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This class presently does not have a Class Secretary.

If you are interested in volunteering for the post, please email alumni@friendsbalt.org.

Cyrus Miceli is enjoying his sophomore year at Tufts University, where he is a sociology and economics double major and continues to pursue his passions for

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Addison Thompson ’16 in Utah’s Black Rock Desert

music and diversity/social justice work.

In addition to serving as a student consultant for nonprofits through Tufts’ branch of 180 Degrees Consulting, he participates in the Tufts Dance Collective, and in August helped lead this year’s Tufts Wilderness Orientation program for incoming freshman. This summer he interned for Jubilee Baltimore, a nonprofit urban development organization focused on community development and neighborhood revitalization. After completing a State Departmentsponsored gap year in Moldova, where she studied Russian language and literature intensively, learned some Romanian, attended a local high school, and took Latin dance classes as part of the National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y), Connor Hardy is enjoying her freshman year at University of Pennsylvania. Addison Thompson writes, “Although I’ve switched frigid and gray Maryland winters and springs for eternal sunshine in Southern California, I still carry at heart the lessons instilled in me during my time at Friends School. The past year has been an absolute blast; adjusting to college and a new part of the country was luckily seamless. During my freshman year I made sure to dive into the community, making a name for myself on the battlefield of intramural soccer — although our intrepid team never managed to win a game; volunteering at the student run café, the Shakedown, where we are known for our shakes as well as our ambitious

yet delicious burgers, and for serving tofu 50 different ways. I was also elected treasurer of the freshman hall council, on which my roommate was vice president. (We were a power couple, to say the least); participated in a weekly meditation group that followed the guidelines of Theravada Buddhism; and spent the spring playing club lacrosse as midfield for The Claremont Cougars, an MCLA club lacrosse team. Academically, I’ve concentrated on geology as my future major. I spent the summer in Utah’s Black Rock Desert, researching past lava flows.” Isabel Cooke had a great first year at Dickinson College, where she participated in the student senate, served as second semester president of her class, and also sings in an all girls a cappella group called the Syrens! She rushed the sorority Pi Beta Phi and won an award for the highest GPA in her pledge class. This fall she plans to apply for a head position in the Outing Club, which organizes hiking, kayaking, biking, canoeing, and other trips throughout Carlisle, Penn. and the surrounding counties. Annie Blalock is enjoying her “Feb” status at Middlebury College, where, in addition to working her butt off, she joined a student-run Southeast Asian dance troupe and served as a goalie for the School’s JV girls lacrosse team.

She spent much of the fall semester working on an organic farm in St. Lucia, located in the Lesser Antilles, where she was the only female on staff and learned how to smoosh six-inch centipedes.

classnotes

Milestones MARRIAGES

BIRTHS

1999 Brian Valle and Laura Manville December 2015

1999 Drew Shelton and Sarah, a girl, Molly March 2016

Ryan Welch and Lidiya Petrova May 2016

Ben Bodnar and Alia, a boy, James October 2015

Robert Dietz and Julie Goding November 2015

Kelly Nielsen Bouxsein and Drew, a girl, Caroline Joan May 1, 2017

Chris Condlin and Lisa Hin March 2015 2000 Zach Wilcock and Lindsay Parker July 2016 2003 Ben Bor and Casey Naughton October 8, 2016 Ellen Kutzer and Matt Blaustein September 2016 Rachel Naumann and Greg Murphy November 2016 Rebecca Ohly and Chris Palmer November 2016 2004 Yana Demireva and Toby Fitzick June 24, 2016 Rebecca Gifford and Chris Vockley April 8, 2017 2004, 2007 Charlie Totten ’04 and Lauren Marks ’07 September 4, 2016 2005 Charlotte Baldwin and Matthew van de Crommert October 13, 2012 Charles Whitman and Jaimie Thomas November 4, 2017 Margot Hecht and Brian Schaffner October 7, 2017 2009 Hannah Patterson and Robert Hill May 28, 2017

2000 Andrew Kelly and Eleni, a son, Alexandros Wolfe May 2017 Christina Schoppert Devereux and Andrew, a boy, Peter August 2016 Zach Wilcock and Lindsay Parker, a boy, Wes Ana Muñoz and Justin Steil, a girl, Alma Joe Fleury and Jenny, a boy, Benjamin Macsherry September 28, 2016 2000, 2001 Susie Peterson ’00 and Phil Ghassemieh ’01, a girl, Karen Alexandra September 2016

2004 Nicholas Colvin and Kate, a girl, Caroline January 6, 2017 Yana Demireva and Toby Fitzick, a girl, Rosa Frances November 16, 2016 Lindsey Syropolous Wedekind and Russ, a girl, Lucy Leigh March 1, 2017 2005 Charlotte Baldwin van de Crommert and Matthew, a boy, Michael John van de Crommert, August 1, 2015 Catie Black McDonald and Rob, a boy, Mason McDonald March 14, 2017

IN MEMORIAM 1932 Harriet Naylor Preston December 10, 2014 1935 Ann Burgunder Greif October 18, 2016 Harper C. Gisriel September 10, 2014

2002 Arielle Goldman and Edward Baldwin, a boy, Teddy February 26, 2017

1939 Rosa M. Gverke August 4, 2017

Dorothy Williams Cook and Mowry, a boy, Henry February 2017

1940 Arthur G. Turner February 11, 2008

Alexis Johnson Walpole and Joe, a boy, Henry August 29, 2016 2002, 2003 Becca Fogel Erwin ’02 and Carter Erwin ’03, a boy, Granger October 2016 2003 Will Sale and Kinsey, a girl, Georgia, February 2017

1947 Sally Henry Murray September 2, 2011 Caroline Hopkins Hoyle November 2, 2016 W. Byron Forbush, II March 30, 2017 1951 Grace Thomsen Babcock April 1, 2016 1957 James Anthony Bryan March 9, 2016 1959 James Cooper Bird February 15, 2016 1961 Elisabeth Dresser Stewart April 6, 2017 William Hayes Seabold April 22, 2017 1963 Linda A. van Reuth October 31, 2016 1967 David William Frank June 12, 2017 Thomas Barry Ascher May 15, 2017 Mark L. Merlis August 15, 2017

1942 Mary Allen Haggett Procter September 21, 2013 1944 Willard Russell Parson November 11, 2016 1946 Patricia Roberts Stephens July 23, 2016 Nancy Carr Reinheimer October 6, 2016

1972 Keith Lawrence Martin December 20, 2015 1989 Nicholas J. Tischler January 27, 2017 1993 Jessica Harrison Belzberg March 2017 1997 Woodson Ali Marks February 28, 2017

Please send all Milestones to alumni@friendsbalt.org.

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parents association Hello from the Friends School Parents Association!

The Friends School Parents Association (FSPA) is hard at work fulfilling our mission to build community and enrich the lives of our children. In 2016-17, our Family-to-Family program and its team of parent liaisons and Grade Chairs planned and organized five different welcome events for families new to Friends. Overall, 60 of our current families connected with 130 families new to Friends and helped create a smooth transition for them.

For the first time, fall parent socials paired parents from adjacent grades together to talk, laugh, and share our Friends experiences.

This same sense of inclusion is present in our monthly FSPA meetings, which are open to all parents.

Thanks to such successful fundraising efforts as Class Photos, Brain Boosters, Square One Art, and Friday Night Basketball Concessions, the FSPA was able to donate $3,500 to the School’s Mission Fund, which supports students in each division by furnishing items and services not covered by tuition.

The Friends School Community Giving Tree once again made the winter holidays brighter for children from low-income families living in West Baltimore. Working with the University of Maryland School of Social Work, the FSPA helped distribute and fulfill 350 children’s “wish” tags — for everything from toys and bedding to space heaters.

We satisfied our second $100,000 “Setting the Stage” campaign pledge … two years early! We also fulfilled our commitment of $20,000 to the School’s cross-divisional Wish List, which furnishes educational enrichments not covered in the School budget.

The 13th annual MLK, Jr. Day of Service, now under the auspices of the FSPA, drew nearly 400 participants, who engaged in 15 different activities — from serving lunch at Our Daily Bread to preparing bag lunches and casseroles We look forward for homeless shelters. to creating even more Our annual fundraiser, “Night Out opportunities for With Friends,” saw record attendance, Friends parents and as nearly 350 parents, faculty, staff, guardians to become and alumni gathered at the new more involved in the R. House food hall for a fun-filled evening. The event’s live and silent School community. auctions raised nearly $40,000 in support of the School’s Wish List and other initiatives.

Our dedicated team of Board members, Grade Chairs, and parent volunteers were in full force throughout the year, chaperoning field trips, organizing class parties (including the Upper School Post Prom party!) and gently used clothing exchanges, monitoring Middle School lunches … even creating the first-ever Lower School yearbook. We streamlined and strengthened our parent communications and, in March, treated faculty and staff to a catered Appreciation Luncheon in the Zamoiski Alumni Center.

As we head into 2018 we look forward to creating even more opportunities for Friends parents and guardians to become more involved in the School community. Planning is already underway for our 14th annual MLK, Jr. Day of Service on January 15 and “Night Out With Friends” on April 28. Details to come!

Thank you in advance to our parent volunteers for the time, talent, and generous spirit you bring to Friends every day.

Laurie Haas, Chair

Did you know?

All Friends School parents are automatically members of the Parents Association.

MLK DAY OF SERVICE

Friends volunteers packed lunches for shelters, glazed bowls for St. Vincent de Paul’s Empty Bowls fundraiser, and assembled health kits and casseroles for Paul’s Place guests and the Our Daily Bread Employment Center.

From left, Ingrid Laurens ’26, Carl Negin, and Wil Negin ’24

Reco Collins ’29

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Jen Smith, Vice Chair

parents association Guests bid on a wide range of items during the silent auction.

From left: Diana Sugg, Katherine Hancock Porter, and Felicity Turner

“NIGHT OUT WITH FRIENDS”

The Parents Association’s annual fundraiser took place at Remington hot spot R. House on Saturday, April 29.

Michael and Jessy Molina

From left: Karl Steiner, Deborah Stelling, Mary Bubala-Smith, Liz and Jurell Williams, Gwen and Cory Farrugia, and Doug Smith

From left: Bonnie Aubuchon, Max Stiavelli, Francesca Boffi, Natalie White, and Lahsen Assoufid

Cassidy Miller ’27 packs sandwiches for delivery to area shelters.

Olivia Prichett ’26

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development news New Institute to Foster Public Involvement & Responsible Dialogue “More than ever, I value the ability to listen, reflect, and constructively debate. These are qualities I want to see in my staff and colleagues, my family and friends, and to which I also aspire. In my experience, Friends School is uniquely positioned to develop these skills to help students participate in courageous conversations,” says Lou Hanover ’83, chief investment officer at Marathon Asset Management.

Toward that end, Hanover and his wife, Jeanne, have made a $1.5 million gift to fund the Bliss Forbush Jr. ’40 Endowed Chair and provide support to establish the new Institute for Public Involvement & Responsible Dialogue (Inspired) at Friends.

The holder of the endowed chair will coordinate the activity for the Institute, which will offer a wide range of experiences designed to help Friends students become the kind of citizens who — through respectful dialogue and meaningful collaboration — can successfully navigate the complex challenges and opportunities they face.

The Institute will engage faculty and students from Pre-K through 12th grade and may include activities such as: •D eveloping and identifying resources to support faculty and students •O ffering workshops and other professional development opportunities •B ringing to campus speakers who serve as models for vigorous and respectful dialogue around challenging topics Head of School Matt Micciche says the concept for Inspired emerged out of the ideas articulated in Friends Connects, the School’s strategic direction (see p. 10), which was guided by a task force committee of Board of Trustees members, faculty, alumni, and parents and included extensive input from a diverse group of Friends School stakeholders.

“ We believe that it is our responsibility to develop in ourselves and our students the ability to respectfully listen to multiple viewpoints, grapple with difficult issues, and take positive action. The Institute will support this work by leveraging the School’s Quaker identity and encourage our students to seek truth.”

—Head of School Matt Micciche

New Faces in the Alumni and Development Office Caroline Rayburn, who has served part time as gifts processor for the past 18 months, has taken on the role of Director of Annual and Alumni Giving. She is more than ready for the challenge, having already served in this capacity for Friends in the early 2000’s.

Christine Pappas ’01 is Friends School’s new Director of Alumni Relations & Engagement. Since graduating from Friends in 2001 and Denison University in 2005, Pappas worked in the development office at the Mercy Health Foundation and then in marketing research, serving a wide variety of clients in the education industry and the nonprofit sector. Reach them at alumni@friendsbalt.org.

Caroline Rayburn, left, and Christine Pappas ’01

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development news

Announcing The Fund for Friends Friends School students and alumni have a powerful impact on our ever-changing world, and annual giving makes the Friends educational experience possible. During the 2016-2017 school year, more than 1,600 alumni, parents, grandparents, parents of alumni, faculty, staff, and friends contributed to the Annual Fund, raising $1.18 million!

Their charitable financial commitment represents their confidence and belief in Friend School’s educational mission.

In an effort to more clearly articulate the impact that donors make when they give an unrestricted donation to the School, we are thrilled to announce that the Annual Fund is adopting a new name: The Fund for Friends.

How does your participation make an impact?

• Friends School allocates more than $4 million each year for financial aid.

The Fund for Friends helps cover that expense and sustain our commitment to a diverse community of well-rounded, well-grounded learners.

• Faculty compensation is the largest expense in the annual operating budget at Friends. Through The Fund for Friends, you help recruit and retain talented, dedicated teachers.

• With a commitment to stewarding our resources, The Fund for Friends helps enrich our educational programs and maintain our 34.5-acre campus and buildings.

We ask every member of our community to help support our students through The Fund for Friends. We hope you’ll answer the call when a volunteer asks you to participate and make an impact this year!

Parents Respond in Record Time As the 2016-2017 school year drew to a close, the Friends School Parents Association issued an inspirational challenge to our community to increase parent participation, called Participate Now! Through the challenge, gifts to Friends were matched by the FSPA, up to $10,000.

The response was overwhelming: 122 donors gave $27,870 in just 15 days. (That’s a record, for sure!)

Heartfelt thanks to everyone who helped achieve this feat!

Introducing New Board of Trustees Chair Meredith van den Beemt On July 1, the Board of Trustees announced Meredith van den Beemt as the next Chair of the Board of Trustees.

Van den Beemt joined the Board in 2014 and has served in multiple leadership capacities on a variety of committees, including the Quaker Mission Oversight Committee, the Finance Committee, the Enrollment Management Committee, the Executive Committee, and the Committee on Trustees. She and her partner, Kerry Zimmerman, have three children at Friends School: Ted ’19, Meg ’20, and Cate ’22.

“I look forward to continuing my work with the Board, especially given the exciting opportunities that have been opened up for us through Friends Connects.

It will be a pleasure to see our students, including my own children, benefit from all that the School has to offer,” says van den Beemt, whose professional background includes social work, mutual fund sales, sales management in the IT recruiting field, and currently, the field of forensic neuropsychology.

A graduate of The Bryn Mawr School and Bowdoin College, van den Beemt succeeds Trish Backer-Miceli ’83, P’18, who served as Board Chair from 2015 to 2017, and Bill White P ’12, who served from 2011 to 2015.

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the faculty room What Teaching Has Taught Me

BY HELEN BERKELEY

Being in relationships changes a person, and teaching is all about relationships, so I guess that explains why it is that I’m such a very different person in many ways than I was when I first arrived at Friends School in 2004.

When I started teaching the City in Life & Letters elective in the Upper School over nine years ago, I had a few main motivations.

I thought that looking at cities in literature would give a wide range of students a way in: Each of us has been to cities, so at the most concrete level, each of us could connect to the literature, and yet there would also be, I thought, lots of ways to invite students to more abstract thinking through this topic. I also thought that this would make it easy for me to move beyond the four walls of the classroom, to use the city as a classroom. In the earliest years, we watched one (carefully chosen) episode of Sex in the City, and I invited students on lots of trips and experiences around Mount Vernon, Fells Point, Canton, and other touristy neighborhoods that led them to love the city and to an eagerness to explore it more.

As time passed and I learned more and more about cities, my approach to teaching the class shifted. A former colleague introduced me to Jane Jacobs’ The Death and Life of Great American Cities and at some point, after he came to speak at Friends, I read [former Baltimore Sun editorial writer] Antero Pietila’s book Not in My Neighborhood— How Bigotry Shaped a Great American City. I began to learn about redlining and the racism that seems built into our city with each gallon of concrete and each brick and cobblestone. I read The Case for Reparations by Ta-Naheisi Coates, and it changed my understanding of American history, drawing me toward conversations about truth, reconciliation, justice, and reparations.

This same type of questioning had a similar effect on another class I teach — Creative Nonfiction. At first I clung pretty closely

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to the course it was based on, the First Year Writing Seminar at Boston College, which I had taught as a graduate student: one unit on personal essays, one on analytical essays, one on research essays, one free choice. For the analytical unit, I gave the students a wide variety of readings in which the writers were analyzing something, and on one day I showed the film, Killing Us Softly, which analyzes the depiction of women in advertisements, as we’d done in grad school.

The film produced so much controversy and so much discussion in my classroom at Friends that it led to my decision to hand out copies of print ads and have students do their own analysis. Their reactions led to more and more readings about the topics, until finally, I was teaching a mini-unit on gender and advertisements. The students’ ability to keep asking questions, to argue and debate and be fascinated seemed limitless. I increasingly felt that we needed an academic space where students could study gender. Others agreed, including the student-led Gay-Straight Alliance, whose membership began asking for more representation in our curriculum. And with that we were able to add Gender Studies to our choice of English electives.

This means that I keep reading about gender and sexual orientation, to learn how to teach that subject, and it continues to change me.

Loving my colleagues and students, and seeing the ways in which their lives as people of color, women, gay, straight, trans people, people with disabilities, people who have experienced poverty—seeing the ways in which their lives are affected by oppression—has changed me. I have learned to fight for social justice (however incompletely and haltingly and poorly I do that) because of my relationships with my students and my colleagues.

Teaching at Friends has changed me a lot.

I’m so grateful.

Helen Berkeley is Chair of the Upper School English Department.

looking back

Byron Forbush, Friends Headmaster from 1960 to 1998, pauses on the porch with young sons Bill and Norman, in a photo taken in the early 1960s. The home of the Friends School Headmaster formerly sat on the spot now occupied by the James L. Zamoiski ’68 Alumni Center. Read more about Byron Forbush’s legacy on p. 16. Turn the page to fastforward to today — with a photo of current Headmaster Matt Micchiche and his family on campus.

Non-Profit Organization U.S. Postage

PAID

Baltimore, MD Permit No. 4453

5114 North Charles Street Baltimore, Maryland 21210-2096

fastforward The Friends School playground, just steps away from the home of today’s Headmaster Matt Micchiche and his family, is a favorite — and convenient — spot for fun. Here, Frances and Matt pose with David ’27, Eliza ’25, Peter ’22, and beloved canine Nellie.