GFS Bulletin: Learning in Community

We CELEBRATE and THANK our faculty and staff.

IN THIS ISSUE

‘Something bigger than ourselves’

A conversation about the Picture This campaign and what it means for the future of GFS with Hannah Caldwell Henderson ’91.

A Community of Filmmakers, Built by Students

For seven years, GFS’ Philadelphia Youth Film Festival has given students around the world a unique platform from which to launch their careers—and not just in filmmaking.

Engineering

With Empathy

A GFS course challenges students to build a better world by designing solutions to real engineering challenges with the community’s needs and lives in mind.

Students in Sarah Gordin’s early childhood class explore different ways to move as they are led on an imaginary journey through air and sea. Read more on page 18.

EDITOR

Eryn Jelesiewicz

CO-EDITOR

Hillel J. Hoffmann

CONTRIBUTORS

Kyle Bagenstose

Lilly Dupuis ’17, photography

Scott Foley, photography

Ilana Goldfus

Hillel J. Hoffmann

Eryn Jelesiewicz

Heeseung Lee ’91

Charlie Myran ’14

Meg Cohen Ragas ’85

HEAD OF SCHOOL

Dana Weeks

CHIEF ADVANCEMENT OFFICER

Hannah Caldwell Henderson ’91

SCHOOL COMMITTEE

Jordan Bastien

Maureen Carr, religious life committee clerk

Joan Cannady Countryman ’58

Ben Cushman ’72, nominating and governance committee co-clerk

Marc DiNardo ’80, school committee recording clerk, facilities clerk

Moira Clare Duggan

David Feldman ’76, school committee clerk

Carmen Guerra

Takashi Moriuchi, school committee treasurer, finance committee clerk

Zoë Samuel Rankin ’06

Dianne Reed

Jonathan E. Rhoads ’56

Anne B.K. Stassen

Matthew Stitt ’05

Anthony Stover

Elizabeth A.W. Williams, school committee assistant clerk, nominating and governance committee co-clerk

TRUSTEES EMERITI

Pat Rose

Pat Macpherson

Christopher Nicholson*

Samuel V. Rhoads ’82

F. Parvin Sharpless

David A. West ’49*

*deceased

The GFS Bulletin is published for the alumni, parents, faculty, and friends of Germantown Friends School. We welcome your comments to the editor at ejelesiewicz@germantownfriends.org.

Dear Friends,

We’re deep in the process of finalizing details for our new All-School Commons and Center for the Arts—from choosing a new dining partner to outfitting classrooms. Preparing for the arrival of this transformative structure is a thrill, but what excites me the most is what will unfold there.

How will people live and move through these wide hallways, bright classrooms, big studios, and the expansive lobby and courtyard?

We’ve never had a dining space big enough for an entire division to eat together. What kind of energy will that spark? There will be a beautiful servery with a teaching kitchen. What will students experiment with there? There will be a new entry to campus on Greene Street leading into a lobby where students can hang out. Who will gravitate there?

Arts at GFS—always a keystone in our curriculum—will take on unexpected forms. Film, digital media, photography, drawing, painting, sculpture, ceramics, theatre, music, and dance will be taught, learned, and enjoyed in proximity, leveling up the creative possibilities. Our artists, musicians, performers, makers, and engineers will commingle, collaborate, and inspire each other in new spaces, including a fabrication lab and a screening room (see page 24).

The new facility is the most visible of the priorities of Picture This: A Campaign for Learning in Community

However, our comprehensive fundraising campaign is designed to support many aspects of the GFS mission well into the future. As you’ll read on page 12, the campaign priorities are interwoven and complimentary: increasing our scholarship endowment, strengthening community engagement, and growing the GFS Annual Fund. Altogether, these pillars form the backbone of a bold plan to extend the reach of GFS’ excellence in teaching and learning by amplifying the power of learning from and with one another—in community.

While we can plan diligently and lay the best possible foundation for learning in community to flourish by creating this new structure and supporting the campaign, the sense of wonder remains: Who knows what’s possible? The answer will become a story in itself, as our students and teachers author this next chapter. I can’t wait to see what they create.

Warmly,

Dana Weeks Head of School

NEWS & NOTEWORTHY

WHAT’S HAPPENING AT 31 W. COULTER STREET—AND BEYOND

GFS Alumnus Brings Energy to City Hall

Strategist Aren Platt ’94, part of Mayor Parker’s ‘Big Three,’ wants to cut through red tape

WHEN CHERELLE PARKER WAS SWORN IN AS PHILADELPHIA’S 100TH AND FIRST FEMALE MAYOR IN A PRIVATE ceremony on January 1, Aren Platt ’94, the new Chief Deputy Mayor of Planning and Strategic Initiatives and one of the architects of the most competitive and expensive primary campaign in the city’s history, was standing by her side.

Along with Chief of Staff Tiffany W. Thurman and Chief Deputy Mayor of Intergovernmental Affairs Sinceré Harris, Platt is part of what Mayor Parker and the news media are calling “the Big Three” in the mayor’s C-suite—an unusual structure at the top of the organizational chart at City Hall, where one all-powerful chief of staff has often ruled.

“It’s a new way of thinking about things,” Platt said.

Developing fresh approaches to what many Philadelphians perceive as entrenched and outdated practices falls in Platt’s portfolio. The goal: a more accessible and customercentered city government, with more app-based and online processes to help residents cut through the bureaucracy—and the cynicism that comes with it.

“Mayor Parker has laid out a vision that Philadelphia can be the safest, cleanest, and greenest city in America while providing economic opportunity for everyone,” he said. “But in order for that to happen, we have to unbound people from the layers and layers and layers of systems that are in place.”

It’s the type of challenge that might intimidate even the most battletested public servant, but Platt—a veteran strategist, project planner, and fundraiser with a broad range of experiences in the public and private sectors—including stints as the CEO of his own consulting firm and a senior executive at La Colombe—has always been drawn to finding solutions to the biggest, thorniest problems. He’s fueled by a devotion to his hometown and a work ethic to match. His daily routine: wake at 6 a.m., get to the office by 8, work until 8 or 9 p.m., get to sleep by 10, wake up at midnight to work until 3 or 4 a.m., then squeeze in a few more hours of sleep.

“I think I’m wired a little bit differently,” Platt said. “It’s a lot of long hours, but there’s a mission—an opportunity to change things for the better. If you don’t love that, you can’t sustain it.”

A Center City resident, Platt was raised in Mount Airy. His mother was a social worker and his father provided free legal representation to low-income residents. From them, he learned his sense of civic responsibility. His commitment to Philadelphia grew after he transferred to GFS, a school that “creates citizens of the city,” he says.

“To me, the promise of GFS is its location and its integration into the city at a formative stage in students’ lives,” Platt said. “I learned that there’s something special here in Philadelphia: the tapestry of the people, the infrastructure, the history, the energy. I believe we can harness that energy and create something better.” —Hillel J. Hoffmann

Aren Platt ’94 (right) with Mayor Cherelle Parker the day after she won the Democratic nomination.

Research Class Aims to Pair Students with Scientists

A NEW UPPER SCHOOL SCIENCE COURSE, “ SCIENCE RESEARCH,” WILL BRING GFS STUDENTS OUT OF THE CLASSROOM and into the working laboratories of scientists across the region.

Science Department Head Eva Porter spearheads the novel class. For Porter, science is something not just to be learned, but to be experienced.

“Science Research” is designed to facilitate just such an education over the course of two years. Starting in fall 2023, seven 9–12 grade students enrolled in the course’s inaugural year, which focused heavily on preparing students for the rigors of scientific research. Science teacher Ania Mazurkiewicz-Munoz helped students learn how research questions and hypotheses are generated using slime molds. Next year, Porter wants the students to get more experience in performing literature reviews and reading scientific articles.

The plan is that with such foundational knowledge in hand, students who elect to come back for a second year will be paired with working scientists at academic institutions to assist with their research. Fellow science teacher Caroline Fosnot is sharing opportunities for hands-on experience and has been exploring potential connections between GFS students and researchers. However, students will be given autonomy— and responsibility—in seeking out scientists.

“Students will have to identify the scientists in Philadelphia and New Jersey who are doing the kind of work they’re interested in. They’ll have to read their articles and research,” Porter says. “We’ll help them make the connections and help them with their resumes, cover letters, and emails. But it will be more of a student-driven effort.”

Once they are paired with a scientist, students will spend the month of January off campus, working directly with scientists on their research. Porter also envisions students presenting about their research at the annual GFS Science Night in the spring and at external competitions, as well as potentially working more with their scientists over summer break.

Porter says the real-world emphasis of the class has two major benefits. One is the resume-boosting credentials of working in an actual lab. Perhaps even more important is the understanding students will gain of how they can directly and positively impact local communities through science.

While the first cohort of students are primarily focused on microbiology,

Porter envisions the class expanding to other disciplines like the behavioral, physical, and environmental sciences. She hopes that will foster interest from students of all aptitudes.

“If they are writers or artists but have an interest in science, maybe they’d want to work with someone at Wissahickon Valley Park to draw species for a biodiversity study. Or maybe a student is interested in videography or photography,” Porter says.

“I want the science research program to be inclusive and welcoming to all students, including those who may not fit the traditional mold of ‘science kids,’ by empowering them to engage in their own sense-making processes to explore and uncover local scientific phenomena.” —Kyle Bagenstose

Science Department Head Eva Porter guided Harlem Rogers ’22 in the model bridge project.

Students Perform Marathon Overnight Reading of ‘The Iliad’

TO CELEBRATE A NEW TRANSLATION OF “ THE ILIAD,”

GERMANTOWN FRIENDS SCHOOL STUDENTS SHARED THE ANCIENT CLASSIC AS IT WAS ORIGINALLY INTENDED IN ancient Greece—through the spoken word—at an overnight public reading at the Friends Free Library.

“It feels modern. It feels alive. The words aren’t pretentious,” said Gavi Gilbert-Trachtman ’24. “It doesn’t have the same feel as a dead textbook that’s been gathering mothballs in the attic.”

Taking 20-minute turns, students started the reading the Tuesday before Winter Break at 5 p.m. and finished Wednesday morning just before 9 a.m. It was a continuation of a tradition started last year with an overnight reading of a new translation of “The Odyssey.” Both translations are by acclaimed scholar Emily Wilson of the University of Pennsylvania.

The event, which was organized by students in the Classics Club and the Poetry Club, was open to all Upper School students, who also had the opportunity to read and stay overnight.

Organizers wanted to share their love of this epic poem attributed to Homer in the middle of the 8th century BCE. They also wanted to create an opportunity for students to get together and have fun.

“How do you get students interested in something that isn’t the typical thing that teenagers care about?” asked junior Maisie Quinn. “A lot of times we don’t think of people from history as people. We think of them as one-dimensional figures. But they all had the same kind of ambitions and dreams and hopes as us. It’s just really cool that we can connect not only with each other over this, but with people who we know nothing about and who lived thousands of years ago.”

Classics teacher Greta Ham says the best part about the event is that it emerged from student interest rather than at the suggestion of a teacher.

“Any time students take initiative and show curiosity like this, we give them the space and support they need to explore,” she said.

Sixteen hours, 12 minutes and 45 seconds after the reading, the weary but satisfied students concluded with an offering to the gods, pouring libations (sparkling cider) over the ground.

The worst part of the night? The stretch from 5 to 6 a.m., said William Kessler ’25.

“Those were the difficult hours,” he said. “Of course, no one got a good night’s rest. But there was never a moment when someone else wasn’t there to take over the reading. It was a marathon exercise in teamwork.” —Eryn Jelesiewicz

William Kessler ’25 helped organize the overnight marathon reading of “The Iliad.”

Hello, Greene Street!

Under construction: a new campus gateway

GFS’ NEW ALL-SCHOOL COMMONS AND CENTER FOR THE ARTS PROMISES TO TRANSFORM THE STUDENT EXPERIENCE.

Among the building’s many thoughtful features (see more on page 24) is a welcoming, new gateway to campus that opens onto Greene Street. This new entrance will help diffuse drop-off congestion on Coulter Street and further open GFS to our neighbors, including the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf across the street.

The new entrance will feature a circular drive, several parking spaces, EV charging stations and green space. A covered archway (center) will offer protection from the elements. Just inside the doors is an interior courtyard, a corridor that leads to the spacious lobby, and an entrance to the Loeb Center for the Performing Arts. To the right of the archway is the new structure that will be home to arts and engineering. The Susannah S. Kite History Center, an archival gallery, will be located on the ground floor and classrooms on the lower, second, and third levels. This new building connects to Smith Gym, the new home for GFS’ dining and food service. —E.J.

Strong Off the Tee

The

Tigers’ new coed golf team achieves championship-level

success

SARAH STUMACHER ’27 RECALLS THE PUZZLED LOOKS SHE’D GET WHEN SHE TOLD PEOPLE WHAT SPORT SHE PLAYED.

“Most people at GFS didn’t even know there was a golf team,” she says. “Now they know.”

A lot can change in a year. In their first season last spring, the Tigers—a coed varsity team competing against established all-boys and coed teams with years of scholastic golf experience—won four of their seven Friends Schools League matches and finished tied for third. At the FSL Championship tournament, the team earned second place and Stumacher and Maria Ramos ’23 (the program’s first captain) finished in the top seven as individuals. Eight days later, Stumacher finished first and Ramos finished third at the PAISAA Girls’ Golf Championship.

For any scholastic athletic program, finishing with a winning record, competing for a league title, and winning an individual state championship would be a great season. For a new program, the golf team’s 2023 season was arguably one of the greatest success stories in GFS Athletics’ history.

No one is happier about the golf team’s brilliant debut than GFS Director of Athletics Katie Bergstrom Mark. But she doesn’t define that success by wins and championships alone. Bergstrom Mark cares just as much about how the sport and the team align with the school’s values, from GFS’ commitment to access to its engagement with the city.

“When we decided to start a program, we knew golf was popular, especially since the pandemic,” she says. “But we also knew that golf offers gender inclusivity and one of the highest rates of student-athletes of color in its national developmental programs. The diversity of our team reflects that.”

GFS’ home course is Walnut Lane Golf Club, a public course just seven minutes from campus. The course is managed by First Tee of Greater Philadelphia. A nonprofit, First Tee has produced several GFS golfers including Ramos.

Varsity Golf Coach Caleb Mactavish ’09 is deeply invested in the vision of a Walnut Lane-based GFS golf program. Mactavish, who also serves as a First Tee coach, learned the game at Walnut Lane at age 10. Two years later, inspired by the experience, he tried to start a GFS Middle School team.

“I’ve had this in my head for 20 years now,” Mactavish says. “I think it was a bit premature in 2004, but to see a golf team at GFS come to fruition now—it’s the fulfillment of a lifelong dream.”

The next step in that dream? Expanding the program by launching a JV team, and then winning a team championship.

“What we did in our first year was pretty impressive,” Stumacher says. “It shows that we have a lot of promise to get a lot better. Give us a few years. It’s going to be exponential growth.” —H.J.H.

Cooper Jackson ’24

Serving Up a Championship

A conversation with the captains of the girls tennis team

After falling just short in the Friends Schools League semifinals in 2022, the Germantown Friends School varsity girls tennis team entered the 2023 season determined to regain the league crown that they had earned in 2021. The Tigers responded with one of the greatest campaigns in the program’s history, finishing undefeated in FSL play, setting a program record for most wins, and winning the team’s seventh league championship with a 3–2 win over George School. We caught up with the 2023 team’s tri-captains, Lucy Gerber ’25, Alexandra (Ally) McNally ’24 and Gabi Rosenberg ’24 to talk about their magical season.

WHEN YOU LOOK BACK ON THE SEASON, WHAT MOMENTS STAND OUT IN YOUR MEMORIES?

LUCY: Watching Claire [Meyer ’24] in the last moments of the championship. That was so awesome, stressful and exciting. After she won the match point and we all ran onto the court, that was probably the best moment.

GABI: The U.S. Open trip was a really fun experience, and gave us more bonding time with everyone.

ALLY: Winning champs was definitely memorable. Especially seeing the faces of our coach, Chris Booth, and our teammates, and even the JV players after we won. Seeing their joy and pride was the best reward for working hard all season.

EVERY TEAM FACES CHALLENGES. WHAT’S AN EXAMPLE OF AN OBSTACLE YOU HAD TO WORK TO OVERCOME?

LUCY: The season had its ups and downs and it took us a little while to get a set line-up, which was hard. We had to figure out who could play where.

YOUR FOCUS ON TEAM SPIRIT IS EVIDENT. HOW DID YOU CULTIVATE THAT?

ALLY: I’m really into spirit, so I tried to organize spirit days, team breakfasts and snacks, and sending positive and uplifting texts in the team group chat.

ONE OF YOUR GOALS AS LEADERS WAS BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN THE JV AND VARSITY TEAMS. HOW DID YOU DO THAT?

GABI: To start off the season, we had a big team dinner and everyone came over to my house and we hung out in my yard and played games and got to know each other. That was a good way to create foundational relationships with everyone in the program.

LOOKING AHEAD, WHAT ARE YOUR HOPES FOR THE TEAM’S FUTURE?

LUCY: I hope we win again, and I hope we can get further in the PAISAA Tournament too. I hope the team continues to build on the foundation of unity and dedication we established this season.

GABI: I trust that Lucy will help the team continue what we started this past season. I hope the team continues to remain close.

ALLY: I hope the team stays dedicated. I hope they can keep the momentum from our strong season and repeat. Even though I won’t be a part of it anymore, I would feel really proud to see that happen, and I know they can do it. —Charlie Myran ’14

Left to right: Lucy Gerber ’25, Gabi Rosenberg ’24, Ally McNally ’24

Jordan Dill Takes the Next Step

The record-setting sophomore has proved he can score; now

he’s

proving he can lead

EVERYONE KNOWS JORDAN DILL CAN SCORE.

The sophomore guard has established himself as one of the most prolific scorers in Germantown Friends School boys basketball history. As a freshman, Dill became the youngest player in Philadelphia ever to break the 1,000-point barrier, and after adding 649 more points this season, he’s on track to become the all-time leading scorer in the city and one of the top career scorers in the state.

It’s not always easy to balance individual and team success on the court, especially as an underclassman who’s the focus of every opponent’s game plan.

“He just has a knack for getting the ball in the basket,” said Varsity Head Coach Jamil Pines ’15.

What few people outside the team know is that, despite his youth, Dill has grown into a dynamic and mature leader on and off the court.

“He’s the heart and soul of our team,” Pines said. “Jordan fills up the room. He has that energy where people look to him and want to follow him.”

This past season was Dill’s third varsity campaign, but his first as a co-captain. As self-aware as he is talented, Dill went into the season knowing that his leadership skills needed work, so he reached out to Colleen Finegan, GFS’ in-house mental performance coach.

“This year, I looked at it like it’s a new year, a new team, a new me,” he explained. “I tried to change my perspective and embrace my leadership role. I’ve been trying to find my natural voice and just be me, and let that get the best out of my team.”

JORDAN DILL BY THE NUMBERS

1,649 TOTAL CAREER POINTS

26.3 AVERAGE POINTS PER GAME, CAREER

2 RANK ON GFS ALL-TIME SCORER LIST (WITH TWO SEASONS REMAINING)

“I need to work on how I talk to my guys,” admitted Dill. “Sometimes I get caught up in the heat and intensity of the moment and my tone doesn’t hit all my teammates in the same way.”

That may be true at times, says Pines, but he says that Dill’s best qualities as a leader rise to the surface during some of the team’s lowest moments.

“Jordan’s leadership has shown the most in some of our losses,” Pines said. “In a few games, we were down big, but instead of pouting and thinking the game is over he continued to push our guys and play hard until the end.”

Investing effort in developing leadership skills makes sense for someone who values the sense of community that the basketball team and the school provide.

“From the moment I set foot on campus, GFS felt like home. It’s more than just basketball here; it’s a family,” Dill said. “While the game will eventually end, I know I’m in the right place to prepare for life beyond basketball.”

—C.M.

40 PERCENTAGE OF TEAM’S TOTAL POINTS SCORED IN 2023–2024 SEASON

49 POINTS SCORED IN 2023 WIN OVER WILLIAM W. BODINE HIGH SCHOOL— A CAREER HIGH (BODINE SCORED 44)

Jordan Dill ’26 (right) congratulated Scott Flaynik ’25 on his Junior Project presentation.

Field of Dreams

The varsity field hockey team’s redemptive season was years in the making

SOME GOALS MEAN MORE THAN OTHERS.

When the ball thumped into the back of the Friends’ Central cage in the waning moments of the Germantown Friends School varsity field hockey team’s first league game last September, the Tigers celebrated the buzzer-beating, game-winning goal as if they’d won a championship. Why the uproar? The 1–0 victory over FCS was the first league win the players on the roster had ever experienced.

The goal wasn’t a fluke, nor was the outcome. The Tigers went on to win more league games and finish higher in the FSL standings than any GFS field hockey team since 2013. To outsiders, the turnaround was sudden, but the team’s players and coaches knew the truth—the successes of the 2023 season were years in the making.

Varsity Field Hockey Coach

Rachel Steinman joined the GFS community in 2020 after successful stints as a coach at Upper Perkiomen High School and the X-Calibur Field Hockey Club in Pottstown. A fouryear starter for Temple University who helped lead the Owls to a top 20 national ranking, Steinman knew that competing and winning as an underdog would require more than practice. She needed to work with the team to cultivate a new culture.

While the team’s culture-building was happening on a deep level, another catalyst of the team’s success was the surface itself. In August 2023, GFS Athletics and La Salle University struck a deal allowing the Tigers to use La Salle’s Hank DeVincent Field, an artificial turf playing surface located six minutes from GFS.

“I’m so thrilled to see Rachel’s development as a coach,” said Director of Athletics Katie Bergstrom Mark. “She has been intentional about building team culture. I can see it reflected in the team every day.”

One of the early experiences that reflected cohesion and culture took place in 2022 when the team hosted a Pride Game, a celebration of the team’s and school’s support of the LGBTQ+ community.

“The Pride Game stemmed from Rachel’s desire to make us feel supported,” said cocaptain Anna Pendse ’25. “It came from her idea and her work, but it opened the door for the team to think about what we care about and the positive impacts we can have.”

“Something clicked when we started practicing on the turf,” Steinman said. “Turf allows players to execute the fundamentals and more advanced skills, and it expands the strategic options on the field. The team showed up with more energy and more willingness to learn, do better and grow as a team.”

The 2023 team narrowly missed qualifying for the FSL playoffs after losing a few close games to end the season, including a tough one-goal loss to the eventual league champions. But their fire isn’t dampened. Pendse and her teammates have set ambitious goals for 2024.

“I want us to win the FSL,” Pendse said. “With the people that make up our team, it’s definitely something we can do. We want to win every single game.”

Steinman says that attitude is here to stay. —C.M.

Left: Varsity Head Coach

Rachel Steinman and goalie

Izzy Spaniel ’24; top: Anna Pendse ’25 (right)

‘Something bigger than ourselves’

A conversation about the Picture This campaign with Hannah Caldwell Henderson ’91

On October 21, 2023, Germantown Friends School announced the launch of the public phase of Picture This: A Campaign for Learning in Community, a five-year, $40-million comprehensive fundraising campaign. The goal: to realize a vision, build on the school’s strong foundation of excellence in teaching and learning, and amplify the power of learning from one another—in community. We joined GFS’ Chief Advancement Officer Hannah Caldwell Henderson ’91 to learn more about Picture This and what it means for the school and its future.

WHY IS THE CAMPAIGN CALLED PICTURE THIS ?

It’s partly a literal reference to the arts and the creativity that will be happening in the All-School Commons and Center for the Arts. But Picture This represents much more than that. Our community has a bold, strategic vision of a possible future, something that with each passing month we can picture in more detail. And it’s an invitation to join in making that a reality.

THIS HAS BEEN IN THE WORKS FOR A LONG TIME, HASN’T IT?

Yes, the campaign is the product of a thorough, community-wide planning effort. Our alumni, parents, students, School Committee, administrative leaders, faculty, retired faculty, and staff came together for more than 25 conversations over the course of a year about the essence of a Germantown Friends School education and what we want to see happen in our wildest dreams for an institution that we all care for so deeply and that has impacted us immeasurably. From the strategic vision, four urgent priorities were identified.

WHAT ARE THOSE FOUR PRIORITIES?

The first is significantly growing our scholarship endowment to increase financial accessibility and the diversity of our student body. Another priority is supporting community education partnerships that serve and connect us with young people not enrolled at GFS, especially through two of our flagship programs: Breakthrough of Greater Philadelphia and Community Basketball and Enrichment. The third is the creation of the All-School Commons and Center for the Arts, a new complex that will transform the campus experience, nurture collaboration across the arts and engineering, and create community by giving us spaces to come together, including a new dining space. And undergirding everything is the Annual Fund. We’re asking people to grow the Annual Fund over the course of the campaign while investing in one of the additional three priorities that speaks to them.

THE ANNUAL FUND IS PART OF THE CAMPAIGN?

Yes, the Annual Fund is the beating heart of Picture

This. It’s what keeps the school operating and thriving. Every gift to the Annual Fund during the campaign counts toward the goal. If there’s one thing you can do to support this institution that you love, make it a gift to the Annual Fund.

OF THE CAMPAIGN’S FOUR PRIORITIES, THE ONE THAT SHOUTS ITS PRESENCE LOUDLY TO ANYONE WHO HAS VISITED CAMPUS LATELY IS THE ALL-SCHOOL COMMONS AND CENTER FOR THE ARTS.

Every day I walk by and look at that structure that’s going up as we speak, and every day I imagine the creativity that will be sparked there and how we’ll finally be able to break bread together in our new dining facility. The idea that so many epiphanies and connections will be made under one roof is something that I couldn’t be more excited about.

WHAT DO YOU THINK SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEMBER

JOAN CANNADY COUNTRYMAN ’58 MEANT WHEN SHE SAID THAT THE ALL-SCHOOL COMMONS AND CENTER FOR THE ARTS “CHANGES EVERYTHING WHILE CHANGING NOTHING AT THE SAME TIME”?

I love that quote. The sentence before that was: “This project will preserve the values of GFS as we grow and flex in a new era.” She captured the miracle of the All-School Commons and Center for the Arts: It’s big, innovative, and future-focused, yet it respects our past and fits into our campus and our culture so naturally. It feels like a product of the GFS spirit—especially our tradition of learning in community—as it was 10 years ago or 50 years ago or 100 years ago.

WE’RE TWO YEARS INTO A FIVE-YEAR CAMPAIGN.

HOW’S IT GOING SO FAR?

It’s been so inspiring! When we had our public launch in October, we announced that we’d exceeded 65 percent of our $40 million goal. By January, we had topped 71 percent. We’re optimistic about our trajectory, but we’re not there yet. It’s going to take everyone coming together to reach this goal for our beloved school.

WHY $40 MILLION? HOW DID YOU COME TO THAT GOAL? Were the school to realize its ultimate vision—full inclusivity, everything we would like to do programmatically for students in all disciplines, athletics, and more—the number might be triple that. The School Committee has

identified a set of ambitious, pressing priorities that we can realistically achieve in a five-year period, the first phase of the school’s multiyear, long-term plan. And we know our community is ready to support the effort.

YOU’VE BEEN A LEADER AT GFS FOR ALMOST A DECADE, THE LAST FIVE YEARS AS THE HEAD OF THE ADVANCEMENT TEAM. WHAT IS IT ABOUT THIS WORK THAT DRIVES YOU?

In the end, it’s all about students. They’re at the center of this campaign and everything that we do. To see these remarkable young people come into their full, thriving, confident selves—that’s the real driver for all of us at GFS. But I also want to acknowledge the people who step forward to support this campaign because they recognize that GFS is incubating something special, and they want to be part of it. Many are really stretching to steward this place that has given them so much, and they give to the best of their ability. It’s profoundly moving.

IN A WORD, HOW IS THE GFS COMMUNITY RESPONDING TO PICTURE THIS ?

With conviction. As part of this community, we know that we’re part of something bigger than ourselves. We have seen the conscientious approach our alumni take in their lives and work. And we know they overwhelmingly attribute this to their GFS experience. Giving based on a strong resonance with the mission and confidence in the impact your gift will make is a powerful experience! —H.J.H.

GFS Alumnus Gave Voice to the Voiceless

New lecture series honors late journalist Christopher Allen ’09

AS A JOURNALIST, THE LATE CHRISTOPHER ALLEN ’09 WAS DRIVEN TO TELL COMPLEX, UNTOLD STORIES.

To honor his memory at the school where that drive was born, his parents, Joyce Krajian, John Allen, and their friends and family have established an endowed fund that will ensure that future generations of GFS students will hear similar stories from visiting journalists—and perhaps be inspired to follow in Allen’s footsteps.

The Christopher Allen ’09 Fund brings eminent reporters, writers, and advocates to GFS who share Allen’s commitment to fairness, justice, and exploring the human experience, especially in under-reported areas in the U.S. and abroad.

Allen’s parents hope this lecture series will help students grasp the power of stories to make a difference in the world.

“I think that his love of learning and his passion for ideas would be a

wonderful thing to come out of this for all the listeners [of the lecture series], and we are really grateful for the opportunity,” they said. “He loved hearing stories and telling stories and understanding what motivated people.”

Allen risked his life in his search for truth about the civil war in South Sudan and conflict in Ukraine’s Donbas region. In South Sudan, he embedded with a rebel faction that was attempting to overthrow the government in Juba. During a skirmish in Kaya, he was targeted by government forces and killed on August 26, 2017.

The inaugural lecture in the series took place in February. Rebecca Vincent, director of international campaigns for Reporters Without Borders, spoke at GFS and met with students to share her experiences and answer questions. Vincent has been working closely with Allen’s family in the campaign for justice for his murder.

“We campaign to protect journalists but also the information that they work so hard to get out—information that is crucial to all of our ability to make informed decisions and hold power to account, everywhere,” Vincent said.

Allen’s ferocity as a writer and thinker was apparent to his teachers at GFS, foreshadowing his career path.

“He had incredible energy and passion for life and was really bighearted,” said Anne Gerbner, retired GFS English teacher. “Very independent as a thinker, he did not accept anything anyone told him unless he could see it for himself.”

At GFS, Allen was a prodigious writer, able to write two pages for everybody else’s one. Gerbner remembers a complex piece he tackled comparing Daniel Defoe’s “Robinson Crusoe” to works by Derek Walcott and Jamaica Kincaid.

Allen was a writer and editor for Earthquake, co-founder of the peer writing group, WordSharks, and a member of the varsity soccer and track teams. After graduating, he studied modern history, English, and international relations for a year at the University of St Andrews in Scotland and history and philosophy at Temple University before graduating from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in History. He completed his Master of Arts in European History and Civilisation at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, taking courses at the University of Oxford and Sorbonne University as part of that degree program.

“Chris was brave, with a fearless questioning spirit, and he wanted to tell the truth of what he saw,” Gerbner said. “I think these qualities may have propelled him into being a reporter on the front.” —E.J.

Christopher Allen ’09 documented conflicts around the world in a quest to illuminate complex truths. This year, the inaugural lecture in a series honoring his legacy brought Rebecca Vincent (left) of Reporters Without Borders to campus. Students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends gathered to hear about her experiences and her work to bring justice for Allen and other journalists.

“I came here to get as close to the conflict as I could. I believed there was an important story to be told. What I found was a situation immune to the reductive efforts of the media to define and describe it . . . My goal was always to get close to active sites of conflict rather than report on the collateral damage left in its wake.”

—Chris Allen in The Pennsylvania Gazette in 2014 on life embedded with Donbas Battalion in Ukraine

ENDOWED FUNDS AT GFS

Endowment programs focus on meeting the school’s long-term strategic goals for exceptional teaching and learning. The Christopher Allen ’09 Fund is one of a wide range of endowed funds that have been created by generous alumni, current parents, parents of alumni, foundations, and friends to support GFS’ students, faculty, and physical resources in perpetuity. They’re invested in accordance with the school’s investment policy, and a portion of the income from each fund is spent annually in support of its designated program. We’re grateful to the donors who have enriched our community with their legacy, and to those who continue to support these funds with new gifts. Interested in learning more? Contact Hannah Caldwell Henderson at hhenderson@germantownfriends.org.

Setting the Table for a More Humane and Just Future

A conversation about GFS—and why he supports it—with Ben Cushman ’72

Ben Cushman ’72 attended Germantown Friends School until 9th grade, when his father, then head of the Lower School, accepted a new position in Connecticut. After graduating from Hampshire College, he spent 30 years in senior executive positions building high-growth consumer businesses, ranging from high tech (Atari) to low tech (Supercuts). Since retiring as president of IntelliTools (now part of AbleNet), a California company that provides hardware and software to students with special needs, he devotes his time to serving as a leader on educational and nonprofit boards and operating the vineyard and farm he owns in Sonoma County, California. One of his many roles on the GFS School Committee is serving on the committee that drives Picture This , the school’s comprehensive fundraising campaign (see page 12). We spoke with Cushman about GFS’ role in his life and why he thinks the school—and the campaign—can make the world a better place.

HOW WAS YOUR PERCEPTION OF GFS CHANGED BY LEAVING IT?

It wasn’t until I left in 9th grade and transferred to a large public high school that it hit me how special GFS is. My new school didn’t offer the same academic rigor, or intimacy of classes and close relationships with teachers I’d grown accustomed to, and I really missed it.

AFTER LEAVING GFS AS A TEENAGER, NOW YOU’RE BACK IN THE FOLD AS A MEMBER OF THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE AND THE CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE. HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?

I met Dana Weeks, then the new head of school. When she asked me to join the School Committee, my first thought was: ‘This isn’t my thing; my thing is transition and change.’ But after learning more about Dana’s vision for the school and its evolution, I was sold.

I’m interested in scale and impact, and guided by Dana, GFS has broadened its lens and reach through its strategic vision and Picture This campaign. Yes, the first priority is to serve its own community but GFS is also embracing the role it plays in the

larger city and world, improving access and opportunity through increased scholarships, community education, and education thought leadership.

WHAT DRIVES YOU TO SUPPORT EDUCATION?

I have come to believe that education, the right kind of education, is the most hopeful thing I can do, or facilitate, in the world. I’m very alarmed about the state of the world and its trajectory in general.

Education is the most important thing that any of us can do to set the table for a healthier and more humane and just future, for our children and generations to come. When I think about my legacy and making a difference for humanity, there’s nothing more important.

AND WHY GFS, IN PARTICULAR?

To me, the kind of education GFS provides is the antidote to a troubled world. It’s an engine of positive innovation and change. You simply can’t do better than the breadth and richness of GFS’ academic programs and overall environment. The school cares about physical and athletic wellbeing while

weaving in artistic and cultural threads. It offers a solid grounding in fact, truth, and science. And Quaker values are important for the whole community in terms of how we operate in our own lives, but also how we operate as a democracy and society.

Students learn a mix of critical thinking and the process of inquiry, which helps illuminate important questions so that they can explore them in an open way. They’re learning these skills in community, deeply engaged with other students and teachers. GFS has some really special sauce.

WHY DOES LEARNING HOW TO THINK CRITICALLY MATTER?

To me, thinking critically GFS-style includes asking questions and listening. Over the years, it’s become clear to me that I’m not a subject matter expert in anything. I ran a tech company but I’ve never been a coder or programmer. I led Supercuts, but never cut hair. In both cases, and others, both as a business guy or nonprofit leader, I’ve been able to succeed through my own mode of inquiry which was cultivated at GFS. I’m really good at asking questions: What is so? Why is it so? How could it be different? What would it take to make it the best?

To ask those questions, to encourage that kind of curiosity and then be able to sort of shepherd a process by which

those questions get funneled down to an actual plan is the process of creative building, and sometimes creating something that didn’t exist before.

WHY DO YOU THINK GFS DESERVES SUPPORT NOW?

There is real urgency to support the kind of education GFS offers. The world has always had challenging periods, but right now, what it’s going to take to be successful—on every level—is as, or more, uncertain than it’s ever been. So finding our way to solutions, and scaling those solutions, will allow us to bring about the world we want to live in.

WHAT INSPIRES YOUR CONFIDENCE IN THE PATH GFS IS ON?

I’m such a believer in leadership. I think true magic happens when you have a leader who brings magic. Dana brings values, vision, rigor, creativity, openness, and an incredible willingness to put energy in. The results speak for themselves. Look at where GFS is now with its program, healthy enrollment, and its place in the community. The same spirit, values, intellect, vision, and tenacity I remember are still alive and well, and perhaps even more clearly articulated and modeled—certainly in a more complex world. She’s extraordinary and has

built an extraordinary team. GFS is a model that is recognized by schools across the country.

When I talk to people about supporting education at GFS, it’s not hard to get them to acknowledge the world is in trouble and the next generation that we’re educating right now is going to be called to address these issues. Who do we want them to be? How can we not focus a lot of attention on that? How can we not realize this is an investment we have to make?

—E.J.

Meet the Campaign Committee

MUCH OF THE ENERGY REQUIRED TO FUEL PICTURE THIS: A CAMPAIGN FOR LEARNING IN COMMUNITY AND THE wisdom to steer its course are supplied by the Campaign Committee, a group of 10 deeply committed Germantown Friends School alumni and parent volunteers (pictured at right).

The community leaders who serve on the committee—one of whom, Ben Cushman ’72, is interviewed on the facing page—are tasked with fundraising and relationship-building in support of all aspects of the Picture This campaign.

“The roles that the members of the Campaign Committee play in support of Picture This are critical to its success,” says Hannah Caldwell Henderson ’91, the school’s chief advancement officer. “They are advocates, connectors, solicitors, trusted advisors, hosts, list reviewers, and so much more. We’re in awe of their passion and forever grateful for their spirit of stewardship and community.”

—H.J.H.

Top row, left to right: Will Bishop ’92, Hardin Coleman ’71, Rebecca Cornejo. Middle row, left to right: Ben Cushman ’72, Joe Evans ’64, David Feldman ’76, Amina Loder. Bottom row, left to right: Tom Loder ’76, Thi Phan, Liz Williams. Head of School Dana Weeks is also a member of the committee.

Making Moves

Across the curriculum, theatre and movement arts boost student learning and engagement

WHEN JAKE MILLER BECAME CODEPARTMENT HEAD OF THE GFS THEATRE DEPARTMENT IN 2019, HE was given three ambitious charges: implement a schoolwide Theatre Arts curriculum; bring together theatre, dance, and film; and expand a new movement-rich, dance-informed vision of theatre education—he calls it “movement arts”—from the Middle and Upper Schools to include students in the Lower School and Early Childhood. Along with Miller, now department head, GFS administrators knew the power of a theatre arts curriculum in enhancing learning in community, that wonderful synergy that occurs when students move, express, and create together.

While this mode of learning inspires joy and connection, its positive impact on students goes deeper, activating neural pathways that strengthen students’ learning and development. Coupled with GFS’ robust athletics and physical education programs, Theatre has set the stage for students of every age to thrive through movement.

THEATRE FOR EVERY AGE

Miller and the Theatre Department team designed the theatre movement arts curriculum according to children’s developmental phases— basic movement and play for Early Childhood students, introduction to aspects of theatre, such as narrative and the staging of a scene, in the Lower School—and recruited faculty with expertise in those areas. In the

last two years, with the addition of faculty members Karina Banks and Sarah Gordin, the establishment of schoolwide theatre and movement arts is complete, a curricular focus unique among K–12 schools in the region.

“While most of us think ‘plays and dance performances’ when we hear ‘theatre,’ it’s actually not about that—or at least not only,” said Miller. “It’s about the community—the shared, lived experience. We’re exposing students to new forms of creative expression while at the same time reinforcing positive relationships among their peer group, all of which powers up their experience throughout the school day.”

THE MOVEMENTLEARNING CONNECTION

Educators and parents know the benefits of movement for children firsthand. They’ve seen how a well-timed recess or visit to the park can improve a child’s energy and mood. But what is actually happening in the brain when students engage in intentional movement?

Research suggests that the part of the brain that guides movement also influences learning. When movement is aligned with cognitive development, neurons, the powerful nerve cells that signal the body to operate, activate. More neurons are utilized

Above: Jake Miller guides a student in theatre and movement; opposite, top: Sarah Gordin leads a movement exercise; opposite, bottom: Karina Banks teaches a routine from “Singin’ in the Rain.”

and the brain pathways that bake in all we know to do, from walking and talking to studying and learning, become more efficient.

Sarah Gordin sees the magic of movement in her Early Childhood and Lower School theatre movement arts classes. On a late winter day, she led three and four-year-old students on an imaginary path through the air and water using props to explore different ways to move.

A large rainbow-colored parachute became a hot air balloon ride. Students pretended that their route took them on a curved pathway, which enhances their ability to make a circular motion. They also practiced moving on a straight pathway across a tightrope and a zig-zag pathway in an imaginary boat.

The lesson explored the brainbody connection deeply. Students timed their breathing to the parachute going up and down, sensing the feel of the parachute on their skin. For upper body development, they used their arms to bring the parachute up and down; for their lower bodies,

they kicked under the parachute; and for cross-lateral development, they crossed arms over each other. By moving side to side with the parachute, they built their sense of bodyhalves. Spinning with the parachute promoted balance.

“Learning through choreographed movement is invaluable for children because it’s working on their physical, cognitive, and social selves according to their stage of development,” said Gordin. “While they carry out specific physical skills, they’re also using their imaginations, helping to decide which movements to make, and learning how to travel on this adventure together as a group.”

MIDDLE SCHOOL MUSICAL

Middle School and Upper School dance teacher Karina Banks wasn’t sure how her middle schoolers would handle some of the themes and complexities of this year’s Middle School musical, “Singin’ in the Rain,” but taking risks is part of the excitement inherent in a performance: You never know what will happen.

Developmentally, middle schoolers are learning rhythm and spatial awareness as they are figuring out who they are as individuals. Banks works on getting them to the point where they can embrace the unknown.

“It turned out to be so beautiful,” Banks said. “I saw so many deep connections being built. It was jawdropping. Kids went from standoffish and uncomfortable to sitting up

“So, truly, from our youngest learners to our near-graduates, dance can be part of how GFS students move and grow.” —Jake Miller

close to each other and making new friends.”

On a recent afternoon, following two-nights of live performance, she taught the entire cast and crew one of the play’s dance numbers. Like other aspects of theatre, dance fosters critical thinking, collaboration, and selfawareness. It also allows students to take a metaphorical breath—a release that can generate a sense of freedom, especially when students try something they’re not comfortable with. As they start learning choreography, confidence in their ability to learn new things lifts and memory skills strengthen.

One student’s parents told Banks that thanks to the introduction of movement arts in theatre classes, their child is now excited about school. The dancing and moving even helped them approach math class differently, the parents reported.

CROSSING DISCIPLINES

While GFS’ integration of theatre across the curriculum is unique, the ways it’s integrated as students rise through grades and divisions stands out as well.

Creative movement with elements of theatre, such as crafting scenes with an understanding of narrative, is added in the Lower School. Dance is introduced as part of other lessons in collaboration with teachers in history, science, and other departments. This year, Lower School students learned folk dances to grow their understanding of a particular culture.

“When you study and then do, the new information sticks better,” Banks explained. “With dance, students move their entire bodies to interpret and express what they’ve learned. Being active and present releases brain chemicals and helps students transition more smoothly to the next lesson or the next class.”

As Miller looks to the future of dance and movement at GFS, he sees the deepening of the program in younger and middle grades and the introduction of new dance traditions in the Upper School curriculum. While dance has always been an integral part of the co-curricular mainstage musicals, the 2024–2025 catalog includes three distinct dance classes, for which students can earn theatre or physical education credit (“Modern Dance,” “World Dance,” and “Jazz & Hip-Hop”).

“So, truly, from our youngest learners to our near-graduates, dance can be part of how GFS students move and grow,” he said.

What better way to set the stage for learning? —E.J.

Opposite, top: Middle School students, led by Karina Banks, learn a “Singin’ in the Rain” dance; opposite, bottom: Jake Miller guides students in theatre and movement; above: Luca Minicucci ’37 learns movement using props.

Group Portrait

The latest cohort of teachers and staff is bringing new energy to the school

EVERY YEAR, GFS WELCOMES NEW FACULTY AND STAFF, AND ALONG WITH THEM, AN ANNUAL JOLT OF ENERGY AND EXPERTISE. For the members of the school community who recruited them, the new hires for 2023–2024—photographed here at New Faculty and Staff Orientation— represent hope for the future and the potential to transform the lives of generations of students.

BOTTOM ROW, L TO R: Karina Banks, Theatre; Eddy Yu, Mathematics; Zak Powers, Lower School; Colin Riley ’18, Lower School; Will Kimberly, Lower School; Ye Dam Alicea, Mathematics; Annie Fleming ’05, Film; Gladys McLendon, Modern Language; Ciani Fleming-Evans, Lower School; Sarah Bloom, Early Childhood; Danielle Saranchak, Mathematics; Tirah Keal, Open Door; Sonja Kistner, Open Door; Cong Ji, Music; Teodora Nedialkova, Lower School. BACK ROW, L TO R: Ania Mazurkiewicz-Munoz, Science; María Alvarez, Science; Monet Anderson, Science; Megan Partridge, Lower School; Caroline Fosnot, Science; Mawule Sevon, Lower School Psychologist

“It’s so exciting when new faculty come here because we know how much they’re bringing to the school,” said Page Fahrig-Pendse, associate head of school. “I think about all their individual stories. They’re going to change the school, and we’re going to support their growth as educators.”

This year’s new faculty reflect important goals and trends in teacher

recruitment at GFS. More than half of the full-time new faculty hires for 2023–2024 are teachers of color, and five of the newcomers who teach science, technology, or math—areas where gender imbalance remains a challenge nationwide—do not identify as male.

“It’s been amazing,” says María Alvarez, a new Upper School science

—H.J.H.

teacher who’s teaching biology this year and, starting next year, will be teaching organic chemistry, a course rarely taught at high schools and a new offering at GFS. “I’ve been welcomed into a community of educators who take care of each other, who see all my interests and the bits of my identity as an asset and who are setting me up for success.”

(behind); Joseph Simon, Lower School; Clarisse Cole, Lower School; Sharon Stovall, Lower School; Daamir Robinson, College Counseling; Elise Meslow Ryan, English; Noah Howell, Athletics; Steven Tynan, English; Lauren Wright, Early Childhood; John Kairis, Music; Nichole Rustin, History; Ben Bristol, Lower School; Laura Valdmanis, Mathematics; Raina Goldberg, Friends Free Library; Jillian Ma, Computer Science; Mike Epstein, History/general counsel; Casey Hedstrom, History; Laird Dibb, Open Door; Drayton Mapp, Open Door

ROOM TO GROW

A closer look at how the new All-School Commons and Center for the Arts will spark learning in community

The All-School Commons and Center for the Arts is designed to foster students’ creativity by bringing them together. The structure is filled with common spaces, including a new dining facility, labs, studios, screening rooms, seminar rooms, exhibition spaces, and performance spaces where students working in any medium can design, create, display, perform, observe, and discuss their work. Interdisciplinary collaboration will happen more easily and more often because departments that were once isolated will be neighbors in the new building. “Proximity begets possibility,” says Theatre Department Head Jake Miller. We asked Miller and Art Department Head Megan Culp to highlight a few spots (right) in the new building where they expect creativity and fellowship to blossom. —H.J.H.

Wide, sunny hallways overlooking an interior courtyard are among several new EXHIBITION SPACES where students, alumni and faculty can display artwork, curate shows, or just experience art and making.

The CERAMICS STUDIO will give the school the space needed to meet surging demand for ceramics instruction and take students beyond a basic introduction to a discipline that’s often a point of entry to art.

A large indoor LOBBY at the entrance to the Loeb Center for the Performing Arts will invite people to experience theatre, music, and art in a new way as they walk through a wide corridor to and from the school’s new entrance from Greene Street.

The school’s first makerspace, the FABRICATION LAB, strategically located between the Computer Science and Art departments—will have all the technology needed for digital fabrication, from software to 3D printers.

For the first time in the school’s history, GFS will have a DINING FACILITY big enough to serve an entire division where students, faculty, staff, families, and friends can share a snack or meal, as well as a servery with a teaching kitchen.

PHOTOGRAPHY at GFS emphasizes both digital and print, and this requires the right spaces. The popular department’s new home includes a spacious darkroom across from a digital photo lab, giving it room to grow.

FILM ’s new home on the lower level—an area that will bring filmmakers, actors, and photographers together— includes a digital seminar room and a screening room that will also host “Theatre Lab” and “Senior Studio.”

A COMMUNITY OF FILMMAKERS, BUILT BY STUDENTS

For seven years, the Philadelphia Youth Film Festival has given students around the world a unique platform from which to launch their careers— and not just in filmmaking

AS FREELANCE FILMMAKER ELI EISENSTEIN ’18 WALKS DOWN THE CAREER PATH OF A CREATIVE PROFESSIONAL, HE’S OCCASIONALLY GREETED BY A VISITOR FAMILIAR TO every person who has ever sought to make a living in the arts: doubt.

Does he know the right people? Does he have the right skills? Is he talented enough to make it in the competitive landscape of filmmaking?

But Eisenstein has a secret wellspring to draw upon. It’s one he can visit in person once every year if he needs creative inspiration, new industry contacts, or reconnection with a community of filmmakers he’s known for years.

It’s something he and a handful of fellow Germantown Friends School students dreamed up and launched: the Philadelphia Youth Film Festival.

Having completed its seventh year this past February, the student-run festival has become a flagship event in not only the GFS community, but to aspiring young filmmakers across the globe, attracting more than 350 entries this year from destinations as far away as Ukraine.

On one hand, the annual festival is a joyous event. Students cluster into Yarnall Auditorium, popcorn and pizza in hand, to watch the fruits of their creativity. But planning the PHYFF is also a serious, year-long

undertaking with life-changing potential for every student involved.

“It really encourages students to pursue creative ends in ways that they haven’t considered before,” Eisenstein says. “For me it also felt like proof that I could hack it in this industry . . . to give me the mental boost that I could make it through the tough spots or whatever arises.”

Indeed, organizing the first PHYFF was a watershed moment in Eisenstein’s unusual journey to the film industry.

As a young child, Eisenstein was terrified by movies. He’d have something akin to a panic attack every time he tried to watch one. The setting didn’t matter, and neither did the genre. The fear followed him into his teenage years: At age 13, Eisenstein panicked while watching “Frozen” in the theater with his family.

But from that low point, things started heading the other way. To help overcome his fear, Eisenstein enrolled at a WHYY filmmaking camp as a kind of exposure therapy. Sure enough, like Dorothy and the Wizard, once Eisenstein learned what was behind the magic, his fear subsided.

“I thought it was such a blast. I made great friends and realized I could kind of look at filmmaking like it was a science,” Eisenstein says.

Fortuitously, as Eisenstein entered the Upper School, André Robert Lee, an award-winning filmmaker and an ’89 GFS grad, was working in New York City when his phone rang. On the other end was Dana Weeks, Head of School for Germantown Friends. Multiple students were buzzing about wanting film classes, she told him. Did Lee want to start a curriculum at GFS?

“I said, ‘Sure!’” Lee recalls. “I started talking to people in filmmaking, who went to film school, and asked ‘What experience would you want students to have?’ And the big answer was, ‘making, making, making, making.’”

By 2017, film classes were up and running, with Lee at the helm. That gave students like Eisenstein a place to further refine their skills. But in addition to making films, Eisenstein wanted to have them seen by others, and maybe even win awards. The problem? There were precious few festivals open to high school students. Even fewer were free to enter.

Then a light bulb went on. Why not start a film festival at GFS?

beginning to develop his festival idea, his classmate Hyunji Kim ’18—inspired in part by taking the documentary films course—had formed a film club with Noah Weinstein ’19 and Adina Gewirtzman ’18 to discuss films and dabble with creative projects.

Eisenstein joined the club and pitched Kim, Weinstein, and Gewirtzman about the festival, an ambitious project that would significantly expand the club’s scope. They were in.

But Kappel, the club’s faculty advisor along with GFS Director of Library Services Kate Garrity, knew that the festival concept needed institutional backing and the resources that came with it. She pushed Eisenstein and Kim to pitch the idea to Weeks. Weeks gave her response: Greenlight.

Eisenstein and Kim thought the festival would receive perhaps a few dozen entries in its first year. Instead, hundreds rolled in. The festival needed a screening process, judges, a website, planning, and promotion.

Eisenstein approached mentor Sarah Kappel, an Upper School computer science and digital media teacher who had co-developed a J-Term class on documentary films in 2015. She knew that Eisenstein wasn’t alone. While Eisenstein was starting to make films and

Left to right: Current members of the PHYFF student club: Asha Wilson ’24, outreach coordinator; Graham Kohn ’24, publicity team; Isabelle Spaniel ’24, branding and design manager. Former members of the PHYFF student club: Sean Park ’21 and PHYFF co-founder Eli Eisenstein ’18. GFS Filmmaking Teacher André Robert Lee ’89.

“The club kind of morphed from film club to film festival club,” Eisentein says.

Planning began during Eisenstein’s and Kim’s junior year, leading up to the festival’s debut during their senior year. It was equal parts pleasure and stress, he recalls. But they pulled it off, securing several well-credentialed judges. Another big get was keynote speaker Tom Myers ’76, a Northwestern University film graduate and professional sound designer who has worked with Lucasfilm and received three Academy Award nominations.

Eisenstein says successfully launching the festival was transformative for all of those involved. Today, all of the founding members are still pursuing creative work in some capacity. For Eisenstein it’s become a career. After studying linguistics as an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania, he dove fully into filmmaking. After serving as a videographer at an independent boarding school, he’s a freelance editor and videographer while directing creative projects on the side.

Seven years later, Eisenstein says the festival continues to be successful because it remains true to its original mission: offering students a unique, free opportunity to showcase their work in a professional way before even graduating high school.

“It’s something that I look forward to every year. To see this new class of amazing, exciting filmmakers that are able to have a platform and be seen by other people that do the things that they do,” Eisenstein says.

THE SEQUEL:

MAKING THE MOST OF A PASSION

Sean Park ’21 can attest to the Philadelphia Youth Film Festival’s transformative power.

During his sophomore year at GFS, Park says he was very much a work in progress as an individual.

“I was still trying to find my interests. I was trying different things out,” Park says.

On a whim he took an introductory film course with former GFS teacher JT Waldman and immediately took an interest. He loved the art of cinematography—how to take an ordinary scene and make it visually captivating. After just a few months toying with his new interest,

he elected to spend his January Term taking the same film course that inspired Hyunji Kim ’18, during which he created “The Moral of Murals,” a documentary about the Mural Arts Philadelphia program.

“It was really fun to conduct interviews, take b-roll and tell this narrative in the way we wanted to tell it,” Park says. “It was creatively very fulfilling.”

But his appetite was far from satiated. He’d heard good things about PHYFF, which had premiered the year before. He decided to sign up for the second edition of the festival and ambitiously applied to become its submissions coordinator, whose job is to manage and organize the hundreds of submissions and ensure their viability before passing them through to the judges. He got the position and fell “deep into the inner workings” of the festival, electing to reprise the role during his junior year.

For Park, PHYFF connected the dots between the creative front end of making films and the rewarding back end of seeing them screened and celebrating the work with peers.

“I quickly gained a lot of experience, in terms of just being exposed to films and that world. I just fell in love with it more and more,” Park says.

As his high school career progressed, Park began gravitating more toward writing original screenplays. He developed an interest in the thriller/horror genre for its ability to completely enrapture an audience and manipulate their emotions. By his senior year, he also felt ready to take on a leadership position and was elected co-director of the 2021 festival, alongside Noah Eisenstein ’21, Eli’s younger brother.

That year came with perhaps the greatest set of challenges since the inaugural run, as the COVID-19 pandemic descended and forced the festival entirely online. But like the festival’s founders three years earlier, Park and Noah Eisenstein leaned on each other and found a way, hosting digital workshops and a virtual awards presentation.

After graduation, Noah Eisenstein went on to New York University’s prestigious Tisch School of the Arts to study film and TV. But Park, who the older Eisenstein describes as “one of the hardest working people I know,”

once again found himself at a crossroads. He decided to pursue pre-med at Penn, where he’s specializing in neuroscience and has already co-published research on neurodegenerative diseases.

And yet Park can’t quite kick the film bug he picked up at GFS. So he’s double-majoring in cinema and media studies while continuing to pursue filmmaking on the side. Once medical school comes around, he suspects he may finally have to set aside his love for film, at least for a time. But he’s playing it out until the final scene.

“I have this career part of my life, but this passion side as well. I’m trying to really make the most of it while I still can,” Park says.

EPISODE VII: A SENSE OF BELONGING

February 2024 saw the arrival of the seventh annual Philadelphia Youth Film Festival, and as attendees filed in and the popcorn started popping, festival director Tilda Stace ’24 took charge. As they moved around Yarnall Auditorium, the GFS senior looked the part in a black clip-on tie and pink sunglasses—an ode to the festival’s “Barbenheimer” theme, following last year’s blockbuster doubleheader of “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie.”

The event was the culmination of an intense year. Like all of PHYFF’s previous directors, Stace had overseen a gigantic undertaking in planning the festival’s seventh iteration, aided by a group of more than 20 peer volunteers. But Stace also encountered a completely unprecedented challenge when, last summer, fellow student and festival co-director Gary Gai ’24 unexpectedly passed away in his home country of China. Students held a special screening last fall and shared a moment of silence at the start of the festival to remember him.

Stace, like every PHYFF leader who came before, made a few mistakes. At one point, they created an email template to reach out to potential sponsors. More than 20 emails went out before Kappel noticed that the email had accidentally identified Stace as the director of Germantown Friends School.

“I was like ‘this,’” Stace says, contorting their face in horror. “But it’s OK. I’ve grown so much . . . I’ve grown up.”

A short time later, keynote speaker Tom Quinn, an independent filmmaker with a bevy of industry awards and honors under his belt, took a microphone to address Stace and other attendees. He let them know that mistakes are, in fact, part of the process.

After starting his own journey just down Germantown Avenue as a communications major at La Salle University, Quinn admitted to bumbling his way through making his first several low-budget films. But he “protected” his passion for filmmaking and stayed patient. As soon as he stopped caring about professional success, he said, the breaks started coming and his films started winning awards.

“In any creative practice, it’s not like a job where you go get one degree, get your entry job, get another degree. For everybody I know it’s a different path, and your path should be unique to you,” Quinn said.

Seven years after the inaugural PHYFF, the paths of its student leaders past and present are intersecting. After Quinn’s talk, attendees broke out for technical workshops. Eli Eisenstein led a group through editing a scene, enlisting the help of current GFS students in deciding where to make audio and visual cuts from dozens of takes of real-world film. Elsewhere, Park, who also led a workshop, Stace, and others learned from professionals about storytelling and filmmaking for social media.

Momentarily stopped in a hallway, Stace shared that while they love film, they also enjoy sculpture and painting and will study visual art in college.

But whatever the future holds, like Eisenstein, Stace will have the lessons learned from the PHYFF to draw upon—and perhaps even more importantly, a community to rely on.

“I joined PHYFF because I wanted to make friends who had similar interests,” Stace says. “That was the easiest part. I very much found a sense of belonging.” —K.B.

Left to right: Director of Library Services and PHYFF founding faculty advisor Kate Garrity; PHYFF co-founder Noah Weinstein ’19; PHYFF founding faculty advisor, current PHYFF advisor, and Upper School computer science and digital media teacher Sarah Kappel; and 2024 PHYFF Director Tilda Stace ’24.

ENGINEERING WITH EMPATHY

GFS course challenges students to build a better world

PEERING OUT THE WINDOW OF HIS SECOND-STORY LAB IN GERMANTOWN FRIENDS SCHOOL’S WADE SCIENCE CENTER, BOB WEIN SPIES A CURIOSITY. ON THE SECOND floor of the Alumni Building about 20 feet away is an odd doorway to nowhere on the facing wall, some vestige of a bygone era. If a person were to open the door from inside the Alumni Building and walk through it now, they’d tumble 10 feet to the ground below.

Wein, who teaches “Principles of Engineering” in the Upper School, turns to his students and points across the alleyway.

“That building isn’t handicap-accessible. This one is,” Wein said. “We need to talk about what that means.”

Then comes the assignment. Wein tasks his students with building a model bridge from Wade to the unused doorway, connecting the buildings and opening up access to the Alumni Building for those in wheelchairs or other mobility devices. Students will need to think about the slope, the texture of the floor, and other minor details to ensure the bridge’s utility, he tells them.

But then Wein presses his students to think even more deeply.

Science Teacher Bob Wein teaches “Principles of Engineering.”

“What does this do to traffic out on the street? What happens when it’s not just one person on crutches or in a wheelchair, but it’s now available to everybody else?” he asked. “How do we open up that space in an equitable way?”

It’s this second set of questions that reveal the essential ingredient of “Principles of Engineering,” a course now wrapping up its fourth school year in existence.

Prior to his arrival at GFS in 2019, Wein, a physicist by training, worked as both a scientist in private industry and as a college professor. After landing at GFS, he proposed an engineering course. The school was able to secure donor funding to build a state-of-the-art lab, replete with 3D printers, a high-precision laser cutter and other high-end equipment.

But more important to Wein than the physical elements of the lab was its soul. Over the course of his career, Wein has seen engineers oftentimes causing more harm than good. With the planet now in a more precarious state than any other time in human history, what Wein thinks engineering needs most is a recalibration of its moral compass.

“We need our engineers to be ethically trained,” he said. “They need to know when to say, ‘No.’ As I tell my students over and over and over again, we don’t need any more bad engineering.”

BUILDING COMMUNITY

Eva Porter, Science Department Head at GFS, sees “Principles of Engineering” as a model. In addition to the bridge project, students are tasked with building autonomous vehicles, concrete arches, and model-scale windmills, and along with technical challenges, each assignment asks students to confront real ethical and social challenges, especially those that affect communities in Philadelphia.

“I think the program is a good model for all of our science classes to follow. It’s problem-based, project-based, and there’s a focus on community and place,” Porter said.

The sense of empathy emphasized in the course has also become contagious. Senior Audrey Ling has ambitions to study architecture in college. This year, she elected to take both “Principles of Engineering” and “Senior Studio,” an advanced art course in the Upper School that challenges students to develop a project showing mastery of both technical skills and aesthetics.

She realized how she could approach both courses with the same project and incorporate a sense of ethical purpose. Over the course of the year, she has designed and constructed a model of a working-scale shelter for people facing homelessness. She needed to address the humanity of a person in crisis, Wein told her.

Made from materials recycled from last year’s Art Show, Ling’s “pod” is now about the size of a large refrigerator turned on its side. Once fully built it will offer protection from the elements, an elevated sleeping platform, storage areas, a security lock, and internal lighting. Ling also designed the pod with aesthetics in mind, incorporating a sweeping, modernist curve on one side. Wein also advises students to envision the placement of their creation so that the neighborhood will accept it.

“If you give something an aesthetic appeal, people will be less likely to vandalize it, and it will have more value,” said Ling, who hopes to find a real-world use for her pod design.

BACK IN THE LAB

Real-world implications are also top of mind for Wein’s current engineering students.

With ever-increasing demand for energy and the need to transition to renewable sources, technologies like wind turbines are essential. So, Wein challenges students to come up with different designs for a turbine, and then tests their efficiency using a fan and an electricity meter.

But baked into the project is a thorny ethical challenge: how to build a giant structure that a community can live with.

“With offshore wind, there’s a lot of people saying, ‘Not in my backyard.’ So how do we re-engineer a wind turbine so that you don’t mind having it at your house?” Wein said.

Wein forces his students to confront ethical challenges in every assignment and every class discussion. For example, autonomous vehicles appear to hold a lot of utility at first glance. But what happens, Wein asks his students, when they put thousands of truckers and taxi drivers out of a job? Concrete is the most commonly-used construction material on Earth, Wein says. But it also comes with a huge carbon footprint.

It’s up to Wein’s students to solve these problems in his lab. But the long-term goal is more ambitious. Once students graduate, Wein and Porter hope they’ll try to tackle the same types of challenges as professionals, and that they’ll insist on doing so with the same spirit they learned to apply in “Principles of Engineering”—with empathy. —K.B.

Opposite page: A student-constructed model bridge. Left: Audrey Ling ’24 builds a model for a shelter for people experiencing homelessness. Below: A 3D printer in Bob Wein’s science classroom.

THE POWER OF POETRY

How an English teacher’s ‘Poetry Workshop’ has reignited student interest in the power of language

“LOVE IT, HAPPY, REALLY HAPPY!”

This is a common refrain from Sam Sullivan to the students in his “Poetry Workshop” class as, one by one, they share their original work at the beginning of each class. The 32-year-old English teacher has even been known to bark like a dog when he’s really fired up about his students’ writing.

“Hands are a great place to explore displaced anxiety,” he says about the imagery in one junior’s poem. “I’ve been waiting for this internet poem!”

he quips in response to a senior whose latest verse was inspired by Amish teens’ TikToks.

Since incorporating the “Poetry Workshop” elective into the English curriculum in the 2019–2020 school year, Sullivan’s class has become a fan favorite among humanities enthusiasts, studio artists, social scientists, and STEM self-identifiers alike. Open to students in grades 10–12, the yearlong workshop has multiple sections and you can sign up for it more than

once. The repetitive yet satisfying format—students submit new poems before each class, which they read aloud and then mull over as a group, followed by the reading and discussion of published poems selected by Sullivan (contemporary, ancient, postmodern, whatever he feels will inspire the kids based on their recent work)—is designed for repeat attendees. Many admit to feeling shy or hesitant as sophomores, but evolve into confident and courageous poets by the time

they’re on the brink of graduation.

“It was initially a little intimidating,” recalls Sasha Fishilevich ’24, who took the workshop as a sophomore and then again this year, as a senior. “I remember [my first year] the seniors being really good, really talented writers, and so starting at a baseline and coming in with not much knowledge of how to write poetry, it was a little intimidating. But everyone in the class made it a lot more welcoming.”

What Fishilevich is hinting at is the safe, inclusive, nurturing environment Sullivan has cultivated for his students. When they read their poems aloud, they’re not allowed to make any disclaimers (no “I was really tired when I wrote this” or “This is different from what I usually write” allowed). Once everyone has shared their poem, Sam leads a discussion about each, but students can only give positive feedback—nothing critical, constructive or otherwise. Sullivan makes poetry fun. The stakes are low, and the payoff is hugely rewarding.

“I notice this every year when I see new people joining the class, like it’s hard for them to share their poetry,” says Mark Doraszelski ’24, who is taking the workshop for the third time.

“It’s something that’s creative and then it’s personal, right? But I think Sam makes this a really welcoming environment. People are always eager to share. And then, in turn, when people are willing to share, they’re like, ‘Oh, this is cool. What you’re doing is cool.’ It sort of creates [a space] where people want to be productive and want to be literary, and I think Sam is really good at [facilitating] that.”

Watching how Sullivan easily interacts with his students—the mutual respect and camaraderie, the passion and positivity, the goofy, kinetic gesticulating when he gets excited—it’s no wonder that his “Poetry Workshop” has helped propel a genre commonly associated with sonnets and dead white men to the epitome of cool. In

only five years, Sullivan’s “Poetry Workshop” has achieved something akin to cult status, spawning offshoots like an Upper School Poetry Club and overnight readings of verse poems (“The Odyssey” and “The Iliad”) in the Friends Free Library (see page 5), and elevating interest in the study of poetry across the English curriculum at GFS.

POETRY PILOT

Although the “Poetry Workshop” officially launched as an English elective in the fall of 2019, the concept was piloted first in J-Term two years earlier. Then co-taught by Sullivan and English Department Co-Head Alex Levin ’93, the catalog copy described the course as an opportunity to “develop our voices as poets” and promised, “We are not going to critique writing in a negative way, but will instead focus on what works, what resonates, and what sounds beautiful.”

“Whenever I taught poetry in class, a lot of students would say, ‘Oh, I’ve never written a poem before, I’ve never had the chance to try this out,’” says Levin, who has been an English teacher and department head at GFS for nine years. “Maybe they had done a sonnet study in middle school. But when I think about poetry writing, I think about it as a regular practice, you know, weekly, daily, whatever. Because when you write one poem, it makes the next poem, sets it up to be written. So in other words, I just felt like it had to be happening all the time. And I knew that there were students who would be drawn to that because it’s such a powerful mode of writing. I wanted to find a way to bring that forward, and to show how poetry can be so powerful within the context of a community, and how the role of poets in the community can be a powerful one.”

Levin knew that Sullivan—who joined the GFS English Department in 2016 after two years of teaching at the Wheeler School in Rhode Island

and earning his bachelor’s degree in English with a concentration in creative writing at Yale University—was the perfect fit to lead the workshop, citing his extensive knowledge of poetry and the pedagogy surrounding it. But what can’t be underestimated is the undeniable connection Sullivan has forged with his students. His classroom is a place of deep learning, but also of fun and whimsy, of casual banter and witticisms. He has re-energized poetry for GFS students, breathed new life into a genre that many used to write off as musty and stodgy.

“What he has done here has changed [students’] lives, and it’s profound and beautiful,” says Robin Friedman, who has taught English in GFS’ Upper School for the past nine years. “It has deeply changed the school and the culture of the school . . . and it’s just amazing. Of course, it’s not just him, but it’s like he seeded it . . . [Sam] is a person that kids look up to—girls, boys, all genders and races; there’s like this identification.”

Friedman’s son, Lucas FriedmanSpring ’23, took Sullivan’s workshop for three years. Now a freshman at Grinnell College, he’s on track to be an

Left: Sam Sullivan brings joy to his students in their poetic pursuits. Right: Ayanna Uppal ’25

value in what they’re doing, to want to participate and be invested in their own work and in the work of others, and in the concept of poetry itself.”

When Sullivan speaks about his love of teaching poetry, it’s clear why, as an educator, he has resonated so profoundly with his students. His extreme literariness and fierce intelligence, the way he bounces between topics with ease and expertise, creates a gravitational pull like moths to a flame. Although his own tastes lean toward poets of the 20th century—Langston Hughes, Carlos Bulosan, Claude McKay—and “young peoples’ work,” and he is “not obsessed with form,” he is passionate about putting language into a rigorously intellectual context that’s “not academic per se.”

“People see English and writing as a purely utilitarian exercise instead of language as something that is a volatile medium,” says Sullivan. “I think that the ‘Poetry Workshop’ allows people to put pressure on language and see it as something that’s a bit chaotic and capable of bringing them fear and pleasure and things like that. We don’t really have access to that

WELL-VERSED

landscape necessarily in a regular English classroom. . . . But I think that creating a space for students that’s intellectual without being academic is a fun place to be pedagogically.”

BEYOND THE WORKSHOP

Even beyond Sullivan’s popular workshop, poetry is alive and well at Germantown Friends School. English teachers have moved away from the idea of poetry “units” in class, a few weeks dedicated to the study of Whitman or Dickinson, Frost or Blake; now, it’s integrated into the yearlong curriculum, poems are read in connection with novels and composed alongside literary criticism. “It’s in the air” is how English teacher Alex Guevarez, who worked as an assistant editor to principal editor Mary Jo Salter on the Sixth Edition of the “Norton Anthology of Poetry,” describes it.

“[Poetry] doesn’t just live in a book,” Guevarez says. “It lives very often, for me at least, in conversation in the hallways, out on the street, when [English teacher] Adam [Hotek] quotes something that just came to him, or Alex [Levin] sends me an

Although the “Poetry Workshop” has certainly elevated the status of student poets, there has been a long legacy of poetry at GFS. From English field trips to New Jersey’s Dodge Poetry Festival to annual community poetry events held in the Friends Free Library, poetry has been part of the fabric of the school in innumerable ways. There were always several poetry courses offered each spring through the former Essentially English program (“Emily Dickinson,” “The Poet’s Prose,” and “An Investigation Into Contemporary Poetry,” to name a few), as well as each January during J-Term. There is also a history of famous poets visiting the school, from Robert Frost

Award-winning poet Patricia Smith delivered an Assembly last fall.

email about so-and-so poet in The Paris Review. It’s very casual. It sort of lives in our bloodstream and it’s in the air, rather than a stodgy sort of pierogi on the plate.”

This is a noticeable shift from just a decade ago. When Friedman arrived on campus in 2015, she felt that poetry seemed like something from the past, “something kind of cryptic” that “needed to be decoded.” Students were not as engaged as they could be.

“Now, no one blinks an eye if you ask them to write a poem,” she says. “I’m always asking kids to write poems—use this line as a starter, share your poem, share the first line of your poem. . . . We’re all going to share and it’s just completely the culture of the place. Nobody says, ‘I’m bad at poetry, I can’t do this.’ Across the board, I feel like there’s a big shift.”

That shift—in students’ understanding of, appreciation for, and comfort with reading and writing poetry—can, in large part, be attributed to the evolution of Sullivan’s “Poetry Workshop.” Allyson Katz ’22, a sophomore at Barnard College who took the workshop for three

Medal-winner Eleanor Wilner to Pulitzer Prize winner C.K. Williams to Elizabeth Alexander, who composed and delivered the poem “Praise Song for the Day” for President Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009.

There have been poets on the English faculty, including former Poet Laureate of Philadelphia Yolanda Wisher (a faculty member from 2007 to 2011), founder and director of the Germantown Poetry Festival. Last September, awardwinning poet Patricia Smith gave an assembly; afterward, she was mobbed like a rock star by worshipful students wanting to ask questions and solicit advice.

In the last few years, students established a Poetry Club and started an annual tradition of doing an overnight reading of a long-form prose poem, such as “The Odyssey” or “The Iliad,” in the Friends Free Library (see page 5). The literary magazine Polyphony continues to publish a wonderfully diverse collection of poetry.

“I think poetry writing is a very hopeful experience for kids,” says English Department Co-Head Alex Levin, “and my wish is that students will continue to try it out. And that we will continue teaching poetry at all grade levels.”

straight years at GFS, credits poetry as a crucial element in helping her understand literature and language in general.

“Poetry informs how I came to look at language and the way that language works,” she says. “The idea of ambiguity that poetry fosters, I think that’s something that became very important in my understanding of literature, and that ambiguity can, when employed correctly, be something that can make meaning . . . [Poetry] definitely helped me when it came to texts, or poems, that were more challenging, knowing that, OK, I don’t have to feel like I understand everything. I can just go in there, go with my gut, and that will be OK. Basically, [poetry] gave me a lot more confidence when I was approaching complicated things.”

“When you read a lot and consume a lot of poetry, it’s all about wanting to understand somebody else’s story, someone else’s perspective,” adds Katz, who was awarded the Dorothy Sugarman Poetry Prize as a first-year at Cornell University last spring (she transferred to Barnard in fall 2023), and is currently enrolled in a writing workshop with poet Alex Dimitrov at Columbia University. “I think cultivating a place where people want to do that is then also cultivating people who want to hear other people’s stories.”

A KIND OF SALVATION

Bill Yang ’23, a freshman at Harvard University who is currently taking a poetry class with Pulitzer Prizewinning poet Jorie Graham, will go as far as to say that Sam Sullivan and his “Poetry Workshop” changed his life. An international student at GFS who arrived in ninth grade and had some initial challenges acclimating, the workshop gave him a sense of community, a feeling of belonging. “[Sam] was a role model for me. . . . I was in this weird foreign country and I was a guy and I was into poetry, and I didn’t find a lot of people who were like me . . . and he taught me how to deal with my

For Willow Szpilczak ’25, poetry challenges her to think creatively about how she uses language to relate to others. “I enjoy building connections and conjuring shared emotions through interesting images,” she says, adding that “reading someone else’s work affords me the privilege of seeing the world [from] their perspective.” In her poem, “Autumn Leaves,” which she wrote for Sam Sullivan’s “Poetry Workshop” and was partly evoked by a school camping trip, Szpilczak reflects on her gratitude for the Thanksgiving assembly, comparing the beauty of the changing seasons to her growing appreciation for jazz music.

passion and my love for the humanities and my internationality, because it’s hard to carry that around in high school.”

Perhaps Sullivan knows something that we’re all just beginning to figure out: that in a fast-moving world dominated by technology and artificial intelligence, perhaps the simplicity of a poem, the process of playing with language and stringing words together to create meaning and emotion—connection—is a kind of salvation.

“I think that young people can sense a kind of crisis in the arts,” he says. “They see that despite all of the frothy spew of technological advancement, ‘I can still feel absorbed by a very small poem. I can still feel like that’s a complete artifice, like a beautiful artwork that involves me totally.’ You know what I mean? So I think that part of what’s going on is they’re figuring out what the forms of the future are going to be. And they see that poetry is implicated in figuring that out.” —Meg Cohen Ragas ’85

CLASS NOTES

Want to stay connected? We encourage you to visit the GFS website at germantownfriends.org/community/ alumni to share your stories and submit Class Notes.

JOIN THE GFS COMMUNITY ON SOCIAL MEDIA!

1941

EVELYN “EVE” MURPHEY MILLER (above, in armchair) celebrated her 100th birthday last summer, surrounded by her children (left to right around Eve, above), SYDNEY MILLER FOX ’74 , MEG MILLER ’71 , and RICK MILLER ’68

CLASS NOTES IN THE BULLETIN: It is sometimes necessary to edit notes to reduce the length so that we can accommodate as many entries as possible. We hope we have retained the essence of your news while also providing space to include messages from your classmates. Please contact us at 215.941.2340 or alumni@germantownfriends.org if you have questions or want more information.

1947

JACK KELLOGG , wife ANN WILLET KELLOG ’51 , and their three offspring—John III, Sandy, and Dan—spent the weekend of Thanksgiving in Lodi, Ohio. Jack shares, “We were visiting GEORGE MYLER (George Myler passed away on October 19, 2023), his wife Janet and their three offspring: Nancy, George, and Jeff. We all stayed at Nancy Myler’s horse farm. George and I met on the first day of school in September 1944 in Burton Fowler’s office. It was not our last visit to his office. George, his family, and ours have been extremely close friends ever since.”

1948

WALLACE “JERRY” MARTINDALE reports, “At 93 years old, I am still playing the piano and enjoying lifelong friends from my years at GFS.”

1950

GEORGE SPAETH writes, “I continue to teach locally in real time, and via Zoom internationally. A book of my poetry, ‘Hope for Awareness,’ will be published this year by Moonstone Press. I feel blessed. The silent time in the Meetinghouse for many years at GFS still guides me.”

1952

CINDY WILDER RITSHER says, “Hi to all. Still kicking. Still wild, not Wilder . . . also not really Ritsher though I go by that name. Special hi to Helen of the Mutch Wilder Black and Blue Club.”

1953

EMILY HARGROVES FISHER reports, “I celebrated my 70th reunion last May with a few hardy classmates.”

PAUL HODGE shares that he enjoyed his 70th class reunion in May 2023.

ROBERT “BOB” ISRAEL writes, “Having been Antony in ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ in 1953 under the direction of Irvin Poley led me to support theater. Now on the board of directors of A Noise Within, a classical theater company in Pasadena that has student matinees for 18,000 students a year.”

1955

CLAIRE VOGEL CAREY says, “No books (yet), but 33 published articles.”

1956

PARKER QUILLEN is spending most of his time happily in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

1959

MARGARET “ PEGGY ” MINEHART writes, “Alive and doing pretty well. Love to all.”

FAITH GROVER SCOTT reports, “Our monthly Zoom hosted by BETSY MAXFIELD CROFTS is a wonderful way to connect with classmates, share views on the state of the world and of us as well. Room for more!”

JIM WALKER sent this photo with CHARLIE DRUM , CLAY VON SELDENECK ’60, and JOHN FOSTER . “This picture was taken in Naples, Florida, after a round of golf. We all happen to be 82 years old.”

1961

FRANCIS “JAY” HAINES says, “Still here.”

1962

ROB EVANS shares, “I’m still consulting to schools and enjoying the work, but my wife and I are making time to travel, too. Hard to believe we graduated 62 years ago.”

JOHN “SKIP” MCKOY writes, “After COVID, back on the road: Healdsburg, California; Martha’s Vineyard; Philadelphia; Porto, Portugal; Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Enjoying golf, book club, and writing (skeleton of novel No. 4). ‘Reunion in Paradise’ is doing well.”

1963

MICHAEL MCCORD shares, “Blaze Elkins McCord, our first grandson and pictured in a lovely GFS onesie, was born August 8, 2023. His sister, Violet Frances McCord, turned two on March 24, 2024. Happily for us, they live close by and have immeasurably enriched our already fairly busy 2020 retirement.”

1965

WENDY WEINTRAUB LEVIN is a recovery specialist and proud grandmother of a wonderful granddaughter.

1966

CARLA CHILDS reports, “I am still helping GFS’ Middle School students with costumes for shows, along with various projects like directing plays, enjoying my grandchildren, and cutting up trees underwater.”

ERIKA LAQUER and her husband are both retired now. They started traveling again, to the Dordogne region of France in 2022.

A. PIERCE BOUNDS writes, “Our granddaughter, Rosemary, just turned four. She is a delight! While I retired from Dickinson College in 2010, I still do the production photos for the Drama Department.”

1968

JAMES LAGOMARSINO says, “My amazing partner Meg and I care for my 101-year-old mom, care for our small town by blocking a

1937

DEBORAH CLOUD VAUGHAN September 4, 2023

1943

ANNA WHARTON WRIGHT November 28, 2023

1944

JOAN LEVY COALE February 25, 2024

1945

MARGERY BUEHLER ENGLISH November 9, 2023

1946

W. STEWART MACCOLL October 19, 2023

1947

GEORGE W. MYLER October 19, 2023

WESLEY H. SHIRK JR. June 19, 2023

1948

DONALD STEHLE March 15, 2024

PAUL N. SUTRO August 29, 2023

CHARLES WURSTER July 6, 2023

IN MEMORIAM

1949

JOSEPH STAPLES

November 28, 2023

DAVID A. WEST

September 15, 2023

1951

ELMER “DEL” MENGES JR.

August 5, 2023

1952

GEORGE M. DALLAS

June 11, 2023

MARY WHITAKER DAVIS

December 21, 2023

1953

MARGARET “PEGGY” JOYCE STOCK

September 7, 2023

1954

MARGARET “PEG” TROTTER FELIX

November 16, 2023

ROBERT G. HOWE

February 24, 2024

1955

ARLENE JOHNSON FLICK

September 1, 2023

MARY BENEDICT MONTEITH

March 15, 2024

LAIRD SIMONS II

October 26, 2023

regional dump, and are in our sixth year working for Citizens’ Climate Lobby.”

MITCHELL STRAUSS shares, “Service is the most important thing I learned at GFS. An appreciation of music, art, biology, geology, and anthropology follow!”

1970

POLLY DREBY RICH is working with KEN HIGGINBOTHAM ’84 on their nonprofit ramping up goals—empowering fellow citizens to cut their carbon emissions.

1971

ADRIAN GURZAU writes, “It is sometimes hard to keep positive with the bad news in the world today. I focus on my children and grandchildren, including my newest granddaughter Elle, and hope for a better world when they come of age.”

LESTER “JIM” MAYER reports that it was great to see classmates at DAVID “DUFFY” CRAINE ’ S birthday party, including MEG MILLER , JON WILDRICK , DAN NORFLEET, and DAVID WEISS “Amazing that no one had changed a bit.”

1972

KARINA SCHLESS sadly said goodbye to her quarter horse Angus at age 32. She has upcoming travels planned to Italy and Wyoming.

1975

MALCOLM MCHARG shares, “Happy to see many classmates albeit because of the passing of Marj Little Dupuis.”

1976

MORTIMER “TIM” SELLERS has three grandchildren: Apollo, Timo, and Idris.

1977

LYDIA OVERTON reports, “I returned to Philadelphia from Columbia, Maryland, seven years ago to care for my mother. Since her death in late 2022, I have eased myself back into working again. Last summer I was dogsitting. I also started doing some administrative work for my classmate REBECCA EMERSON’S nonprofit, CAFE (Community Assistance Friends Enterprise). CAFE offers free business and legal advice to small businesses, serving primarily women, minorities, and LGBTQIA+ entrepreneurs. Last year I decided to return to full-time work and started as a teacher assistant at GFS. I’m with a wonderful, lively class of fourth graders who challenge and endear me daily. I’m enjoying being back at GFS.”

1978

BERNARD UNTI is happy to report that he has been seeing and/ or speaking with many GFS friends of late.

1979

VALERICE BABB writes, “I have been teaching for nine years after leaving a career in business. I have two teenage grandchildren. I am preparing to pursue my graduate degree in curriculum and instruction design.”

1983

JOHN LAUMER is now working for a newly created Commonwealth office working with the long-term care communities statewide after three long years of being deployed combating COVID -19 from a public health perspective at the state level. He shares it was “an honor having had the opportunity to work for Dr. Rachel Levine, now the highest ranking member of the nation’s commissioned corp and their first four-star admiral.”

ALISON WALD reports, “I live in Squamish, British Columbia, between Vancouver and Whistler, in one of the most beautiful places in the world. I work to protect the environment locally through education and advocacy, along with my partner Spencer. I have great memories of GFS and feel lucky that I had such a wonderful experience there.”

1984

MIMI SHELLER is “enjoying Massachusetts where I am dean of the Global School at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.”

1985

HARRY KEATES writes that he is “living in Freeport, Maine, with my wife Robin and helping out at our family farm, Tripping Gnome Farm. Would love to see anyone who is visiting Maine.”

BECKY WOLF ROSHON shares, “I have recently changed jobs and am now working at a multi-office, multi-specialty medical provider. It’s interesting because I’ve never worked on this side of the medical field before, and I’ve had to learn . . . A LOT!! I really like the job so far though and am working with good people! When I am finally done training, I will be working at a provider’s office about a mile from where I live. I continue to write and am working on my second book in the Haven saga. I enjoy seeing people from GFS so if you’re ever passing through Dover, Delaware, let me know and we can have a meal!”

1992

NICK MEALY says, “I moved to the Bay Area after college and . . . never made it back. My wife Liza and I met in Berkeley and we have two kids, Addy (10) and Elias (5), and we live in Oakland. I’ve been working from home basically every day for 13 years and have the stircrazy to show for it. I keep in touch with BEN STRAWBRIDGE and DENIS CONVERSE somewhat well

and see them at least every couple of years. But there are many other folks I wish I was in touch with. Hi!”

1994

MARILYN DODSON (center) sent this picture from her birthday celebration in Belize with fellow GFSers TORI DAVIS-ARTIS (left) and TONI BARRETT (right).

1996

CHARLES PARRY shares, “My two daughters are growing up fast and bring me so much joy. I am thankful I can share with them what I learned from my rich GFS education!”

RACHEL SILVERMAN reports, “My family and I moved to Idaho so I could be a professor of communication at Boise State University.”

1999

DOUGLAS BERNSTEIN says, “Couple of lovely kids and a lovely wife, bunch of high achievers partly due to values promoted by Germantown Friends.”

2002

JENNIFER LOW is proud to be a GFS parent, and still can’t quite believe she has two kids learning in the same rooms she grew up in. At her bakery, the Frosted Fox, Jennifer is always delighted to serve members of the GFS community, especially her former teachers.

IN MEMORIAM

1956

ROBERT “BOB” BUSSER February 18, 2024

PETER ERSKINE December 23, 2023

1957

JAMES LAZELL June 30, 2023

1959

ALAN MANN August 6, 2023

1960

ELLIOT SHUBIN November 29, 2023

1961

FRANCISCO “FRANK” AGUILERA

July 31, 2023

1962

WILLIAM “BILL” SAVACOOL December 2, 2023

1963

ALDEN “DENNY” MELLOR HECK August 20, 2023

1964

ROBERT “BOB” HASS March 3, 2024

1978

CARON LUKENS

February 1, 2024

1981

LISA B. CROMLEY

March 7, 2024

1983

BRUCE FRANK

July 24, 2023

2004

CLAIRE CRAWFORD

October 28, 2023

2009

JAMES KELLY

August 22, 2023

2024

XIAOTIAN “GARY” GAI

July 10, 2023

Faculty and Staff

ALDEN “DENNY”

MELLOR HECK ’63

August 20, 2023

MARY BENEDICT

MONTEITH ’55

March 15, 2024

DAN SHECHTMAN

July 2, 2023

2004

JESSICA HERSHBERG FONTANA shares, “I’m delighted to announce the release of my debut solo album, ‘Every Day Special,’ now available to purchase and stream on all platforms. The 10-track album features a mix of theater and pop covers with one original song, ‘Every Day Special.’ For the GFS crowd, I recommend listening to the 11-part a cappella arrangement of ‘All the Things You Are.’ I credit Don Kawash, Larry Hoenig, Judith Mallery, and the rest of the GFS Music Department for fostering my love of singing. Their enthusiasm for teaching and steadfast encouragement changed the course of my life forever. For more info on the album please go to www.jessica-fontana.com.”

SYREETA LOCKETT reports, “I’ve been interviewing local creative artists to highlight their unique perspectives for a new art and fashion video series I’ve created. My ultimate highlight has been watching my daughter, OCEAN ’37, enjoy playing in the snow this winter season.”

2006

DANIELLE GILLIAM-MOORE writes, “After 12 years in D.C., my company first moved me to Brussels for a year and then

permanently to London to continue my work as the director of global public policy at Salesforce. My job keeps me traveling around the world to talk to governments about tech policy issues including AI and cybersecurity.”

2008

MICHAEL BARSOTTI welcomed Matthew Dale Barsotti on August 13, 2023.

2011

TYLER CLAUSON-WOLF shares, “I have been performing stand-up comedy for over five years and run two comedy production companies in Philadelphia. One of them, Next In Line Comedy, just opened up a permanent independent comedy club in the Callowhill neighborhood. We have won Best Comedy Night from Philly Mag and have grown to put on 15+ shows a month. Our goal is to provide topnotch comedy entertainment, at a fraction of the cost of the traditional comedy club. You can often find me on their stage, performing on weekends when I am not traveling!”

(Left to right) GILLIAN GRANNUM ’91 , HEESEUNG LEE ’91 , Tyler Clauson-Wolf, JAMIE CLAUSON-WOLF ’15,

CAMPBELL HOLDER ’15, and SARAH CALDWELL ’92 attended a recent comedy show together in Philadelphia.

HARRI

LEIGH PLOTNICK

(whose professional name is Harri Leigh) recently began working as a national political correspondent for Spectrum News in Washington, D.C. She has already run into several GFS alumni in the Capitol and the White House.

2012

CALEB HAAS shares, “My friends got me into mountaineering back in 2019 and it changed my life. There’s nothing greater than leaving everything behind and venturing further than you’ve ever been. You’re reminded of your true power as a human being and what really matters in the short lives we’re given. Aconcagua, an Argentinian 22,800-foot mountain of rock, ice, and wind was my most daring summit yet. Eight strangers and two guides made up our team and we became each other’s whole worlds for three weeks. We went through every emotion together— we laughed, cried, fought, and went to battle together against the weather and against ourselves. The mind on its own can be fickle and get disillusioned by fear and doubt. But with a team of minds, everyone can pick each other up when they’re feeling down and out. One of the hardest parts of these trips is saying goodbye to your peers, knowing that you will likely never see them again. There are often tears of

mourning but also tears of gratitude for the time you had together and the feats you gave everything to achieve.”

2017

JOSEPH BLOCK shares, “One of the things I am most grateful for as a GFS student was studying composition and music theory with Andrew Westerhaus. The concepts and pieces we dissected still to this very day inform my musicianship and my approach to composition. One of the highlights was writing incidental string quartet music for the Upper School’s production of ‘Don Carlos.’ Thank you, Andrew!”

LILLY DUPUIS , ZOE OSBORNE , EMMA LYNAM , and EVE LUKENS-DAY report, “We are living our seventh-grade dreams of having a sleepover every night. Our favorite apartment activities include: watching ‘The Bachelor’ and ‘Survivor,’ attempting a fantasy football league, knitting and crocheting, making soup, and working on our Just Dance moves. We live in West Philly with our cat, Pancho.”

From top, left to right, Dupuis, Osborne, Lynam, and Lukens-Day with LILA STERNBERG-SHER , MARY ROSE “MR” PRIMOSCH , and LILLIANA GREENE

LILA STERNBERG -SHER writes, “After spending a year teaching English at a bilingual school in Bogotá, Colombia, I moved coasts and am now living in Seattle. I miss the East Coast snow but love being so close to the mountains!”

PHILO WANG says, “Almost seven years after leaving GFS I still think about Meeting for Worship a lot.

I wished I could have appreciated it more as I realize now that it was literally just free therapy.”

2018

COLIN RILEY is an assistant teacher in the Lower School at GFS after graduating from Haverford College. He is thrilled to be back and seeing things from an educator’s perspective.

2022

MARTINA KIEWEK reports, “I’ve just passed the halfway point (whooo!) of my degree studying circular engineering in Maastricht. It’s a small city in the south of the Netherlands with a beautiful river and a lot of bicycles. I’ve decided to pursue a concentration in chemical engineering and hope to work with biomethane in the future. Outside of my studies, I am the president of the basketball association and I get to spend a lot of time in Madrid with my family.”

2023

JADEN PALMER-WALDRON shares, “Transitioning from GFS to the illustrious Morehouse College has been an eye-opening experience. GFS has equipped me with the skills and motor to wake up daily and impact this campus. As a Business/ Finance major at Morehouse, I have taken advantage of numerous opportunities to expand my network and knowledge. I earned Dean’s List, finishing the semester with a 3.7 GPA; and I recently joined Scholars of Finance and completed an internship with a real estate start-up called Project Destined. Currently, I am taking a Financial Modeling course in real estate, a Wall Street Bound program, and I am trying to become a board member of CASA , the Campus Alliance of Social Activities!”

Jason Schogel ’91: ‘Never stop tinkering’

Jason Schogel ’91 is a staff solutions engineer at Splunk, a company that helps some of the world’s largest and most complex organizations explore and protect their data. His bio at Splunk’s website gives him a different title: “technical resource.” That may be a better handle for someone who admits a love for data and has a rare gift for explaining how data works to the company’s enormous clients, which include state governments and research universities. Before joining Splunk, Schogel worked at Oracle, NetApp, and the American Stock Exchange. He also co-founded a small video game company and an international import-export business that provides sustainable cooking fuel to Haiti. Born and raised in Germantown, Schogel now lives with his family in Brooklyn, where we caught up with him to talk about technology and how his time at Germantown Friends School prepared him for a career in tech in unexpected ways.

YOUR K–12 EDUCATION TOOK PLACE AT A TRANSITIONAL MOMENT IN THE HISTORY OF TECHNOLOGY. My generation was the last analog generation. We had an electric typewriter and a rotary phone at home. I remember when computers came to GFS. I think I was in sixth grade. John Harkins, who was Lower School principal at the time, taught a class on Logo, a programming language. That was my first formal introduction to a computer.

WHAT DID AN ANALOG-ERA KID LIKE YOU THINK OF THAT? I was hooked on it immediately. To me, it was artistic. Computers were a new type of creative outlet. I could do things and build things. I had a new way to express myself—to make this machine do something.

WHAT WAS IT ABOUT THAT CLASS AND OTHER EARLY COMPUTER SCIENCE CLASSES AT GFS (MATT ZIPIN’S WAS ANOTHER YOU’VE SAID YOU ENJOYED) THAT MADE SUCH A BIG IMPRESSION?

To me, computers were sci-fi up to then. Here was something I could touch for the first time that I only saw in movies or ‘Dr. Who’—and someone was teaching how to use it. Even just making little logic games or algorithms was exciting. But it wasn’t about just being exposed to computers. The important

part is that at GFS, there are people to guide you—someone who’ll see that you have an interest and take time to help nurture that interest.

WHEN YOU WERE SEEKING YOUR FIRST ENGINEERING JOB AT ORACLE AFTER GRADUATING FROM RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, WHAT WERE EMPLOYERS IN THE FIELD LOOKING FOR?

They needed people who have a deep technical understanding of complex systems at scale. I had that from college. But they also needed people with very good interpersonal and communications skills. And I got that primarily from GFS.

WHAT DO YOU THINK IT WAS ABOUT GFS THAT HELPED YOU LEARN THOSE “SOFT SKILLS”?

It’s the teaching environment. It’s more free-form and less structured. You don’t walk in and see everyone sitting at desks in rows. You’re encouraged to explore the world around you and do it together with people. We were put in situations where we had to learn how to read the room.

YOU PUT YOUR TECHNOLOGY SKILLS TO USE IN A VOLUNTEER PROJECT DURING THE PANDEMIC. WHAT DID YOU DO?

In the early days of COVID-19, there were test kit shortages—and lots of fear. Remember how you used to have

to get screened, and then depending on the screening, they’d tell you to go get a COVID test? My Splunk colleague Ryan and I got together with people at Adobe, Oracle, Microsoft, and other companies and built this app that could be used by municipalities so that people could go online and get screened, and based on how they answered questions, the app would reserve a slot for them at a testing center. Then, at the testing center, there was software we developed that people could use to see that you’re who you said you were and what you needed to do.

CREATIVITY ISN’T LIMITED TO ARTISTS. WHAT IS CREATIVITY TO YOU AS AN ENGINEER?

To me, creativity is the opposite of fate. When given a question or a task, even when someone gives me guidelines, I break the rules—and students should too. It’s the only way you’ll learn all the inputs. Make it fun. Always have an exit strategy. Come up with your own ideas, but also pull together other ideas (always giving credit where credit is due) and squish all the ideas together.

ANY PARTING WORDS FOR CURRENT OR FUTURE SCIENTISTS AND ENGINEERS?

Never stop tinkering. —H.J.H.

THE GFS ANNUAL FUND

Sustaining Joy and Innovation in Learning

SPRING HAS SPRUNG AT GFS! As we eagerly anticipate end-of-year traditions like All-School Meeting for Worship and Moving Up ceremonies, we’re also in the midst of Picture This: A Campaign for Learning in Community.

At the heart of Picture This is the GFS Annual Fund. In growing our Annual Fund, we’re fortifying the foundation of the school and ensuring opportunities for innovation—a GFS hallmark.

The Annual Fund makes everything possible, ensuring the quality of our students’ experience now. It allows GFS to attract and retain talented faculty, increase financial aid, and invest in new programs and initiatives.

JOIN US AND GIVE TO THE ANNUAL FUND TODAY: Call 215.951.2340 or return the enclosed blue envelope.

GERMANTOWN FRIENDS SCHOOL

31 West Coulter Street Philadelphia, PA 19144

215.951.2300

www.germantownfriends.org

On Giving Day 2024, Eric Aurelien (right), one of Germantown Friends School Athletics’ three full-time athletic trainers, tapes the ankle of the Tiger—on this day, a role played by GFS Theatre Technical Director April Tvarok. The school’s new Athletic Training room in Scattergood Gym, which opened in fall 2023, is twice as large as the previous facility.