Belmont Day Magazine 2019–2020

2019 | 2020

magazine

An Issue of

INNOVATION

magazine

2019 | 2020 Head of School Brendan Largay Editor, Director of Communications and Marketing Koreen McQuilton Graphic Design Good Design, LLC gooddesignusa.com Writer Cheryl Bardoe Photography Tom Kates Photography Jim Walker Send alumni news to: Andy Rentschler Belmont Day School 55 Day School Lane | Belmont, MA 02478 or email bdsalumni@belmontday.org Comment?

We’d love to hear what you think.

Please write to Koreen McQuilton, Editor Belmont Day School 55 Day School Lane | Belmont, MA 02478 or email communications@belmontday.org

ON THE COVER Students use the 3D printer, laser cutter, and other hightech tools during dedicated classes in our IMPACT Lab and for projects relating to other academic disciplines.

Founded in 1927, Belmont Day School is a bold, remarkable, inspiring community of learners and leaders in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade.

mission:

Inspire and challenge.

At Belmont Day School, we foster intellectual curiosity, honor differences, and empower meaningful contribution with excellence, respect, honesty, responsibility, caring, and joy.

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A Culture of Innovation Discover how Belmont Day cultivates an innovative mindset throughout our campus.

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Where Do Our Graduates Go? Follow the successes of recent alumni, who are making an impact in high school and college.

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contents

A Fresh Look for a Twenty-First Century Library Renovations reinforce the role this learning hub plays in promoting literacy, innovation, and collaboration.

2 | From the Head of School 22 | Welcome New Faculty 23 | Meet Dr. Carlos Hoyt, Director of Equity and Inclusion 24 | Lower School

26 | Middle School 28 | Arts Spotlight 31 | Athletics 34 | Alumni in Action 36 | Why I Give 37 | Class Notes

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FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL At Belmont Day, we define innovation as the “ contribution of something new and useful that

is integrated across disciplines. We are not distracted by novelty for novelty’s sake.

”

Innovating for Today and Tomorrow Brendan Largay Around the globe, schools help children understand themselves as individuals; as part of a larger community; and as part of a continuum of humanity with a rich history, complex present, and dynamic future. Our work is to prepare tomorrow’s leaders for a world that is constantly evolving in its connectivity, technology, and discovery of challenges and opportunities.

This puts education at the heart of a global renaissance. In response, educational leaders are increasingly emphasizing core competencies such as critical thinking and collaboration alongside traditional academic content. Among the most important of such skills is cultivating a mindset for innovation.

At Belmont Day, we define innovation as the contribution of something new and useful that is integrated across disciplines. We are not distracted by novelty for novelty’s sake. With each enhancement to our program—whether a subtle but significant refinement or a bold breakthrough—we focus on enriching the daily learning experience for students. We set this standard for ourselves and model it for our students, whom we teach to view innovation as a process for applying their talents to create real-world impact.

2 | 2019–2020

Our expert faculty recognize the sea change happening around us and constantly generate fresh ideas to promote student success. Belmont Day supports these efforts through professional development and grants from endowments, two of which specifically highlight innovation.

Grants from the Lenesa Leana Endowment for Innovative and Collaborative Education, named for a former head of school, support the implementation of new inspirations. Meanwhile, INSPIRE grants empower faculty to explore noteworthy possibilities, even if those concepts don’t lead to a final product. This freedom to take risks increases our potential to truly think outside the box about how to best serve our students. Throughout this magazine, you’ll read about flourishing initiatives that both of these grants have brought to fruition. You’ll also find exciting examples of how our students and alumni internalize this instinct for innovation.

With its specialized studios, Belmont Day’s Barn is a hub for this work. In my role teaching seventh grade English, I’ve taken students to the IMPACT Lab to design and laser cut symbolic wooden coins. The students chose

FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL

their own symbols from a text, designed artwork, programmed the laser cutter, and wrote essays explaining their choices. This activity deepened engagement in literary analysis and encouraged self-expression, while also building students’ confidence in their ability as creators. This is the power of thinking strategically and creatively to develop skills across disciplines.

In every subject, Belmont Day faculty challenge students to define goals, employ multiple strategies toward those goals, learn from

setbacks, and revise their approach to eventually succeed. Our dedication to innovation is reflected in the tools we use, how we connect ideas, how we work together—even how we frame questions for exploration. We integrate this seamlessly throughout our classrooms knowing that pre-k to eighth grade are the most important years in a child’s education. By doing so, we are embedding the innovative outlook that Belmont Day graduates will carry into their futures as lifelong learners and leaders.

In every subject, Belmont Day faculty challenge students to define “goals, employ multiple strategies toward those goals, learn from setbacks, and revise their approach to eventually succeed. ” B E L M O N T DAY

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A Culture of

INNOV >>>

By Assistant Head of School and Director of Curriculum and Instruction Deborah Brissenden, in collaboration with Belmont Day staff

Innovation at Belmont Day goes beyond curriculum to be at the core of our school culture. Because education is most successful when it is responsive to individual learners and the broader world, innovation is vital for collaborating with colleagues and interacting with students.

Our faculty continuously iterate, evaluate, and identify strategies to deepen student engagement; add new connections; and further expand horizons. To do so, we balance attention to detail with an eye for the big picture. We consider the behaviors that lead to innovation, as well as the tools that support it for students in every grade and across every academic discipline.

In taking this approach, we model and encourage Belmont Day students to be innovators themselves. We are creating the next generation of thinkers, who face a complex world with many problems to solve and at least as many unforeseen opportunities. To thrive in this environment, our students must have the skills to articulate goals, identify who will benefit from their ideas, and work through a process to translate visionary concepts into concrete realities. The most important lesson we can teach students about innovation is to believe in that process

4 | 2019–2020

and keep going. Their futures will be about iterating—assessing situations, making sound decisions, and trying the next best idea. They must have resilience and understand that failure is not an end destination, but a chance to learn and to come at any question from a new perspective. (continued on page 6)

ATION We are creating “ the next generation

of thinkers, who face a complex world with many problems to solve and at least as many unforeseen opportunities.

�

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A Culture of

INNOVATION

(continued from page 4)

Following are four examples of the dynamic innovation occurring throughout our campus. In one case study, we collaborate with the Tufts University Center for Engineering Education and Outreach (CEEO); in another we partner with the Educational Development Center in Waltham, Massachusetts. Both

organizations research how children learn in science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM) disciplines and then develop tools to make instruction more effective. Such alliances reflect Belmont Day’s role as an educational leader. These mutually beneficial relationships bring new resources to campus, while our

SUPPORTING Engineers-in-Residence Hands-on projects that give learning shape and real-life applications have long been a cornerstone of a Belmont Day education. Capacity to harness the tools of the IMPACT Lab for these activities is now strengthened thanks to an 18-month partnership with Tufts University.

Beginning in summer 2018, CEEO specialists came to campus regularly to plan and facilitate training with industrial-grade machinery and share best practices for

6 | 2019–2020

making use of such technology across curricula. Belmont Day faculty—including lower and middle school teachers, specialists, and administrators—participated by joining the Innovation Group among our professional learning communities.

With this initiative, faculty could get into the maker mindset that we encourage in students, explains Director of Technology Dolly Ryan. “Faculty benefit from time to explore,” she says. “We need to try different

partners value the expertise of Belmont Day faculty in working with children and developing curriculum. This year we were also proud to host educators from as far away as Brazil and Nepal, who wanted to know more about how we integrate innovation throughout Belmont Day’s educational programs.

Mine took 35,564 “trillion billion tries,

so I was proud when it finally worked.

”

programs and machines, see how materials react, and problem solve.” This first-hand experience helps teachers prepare activities, support students when they face setbacks, and recognize new opportunities as they arise.

During the course of the year, faculty prepared files for laser cutting with Adobe Illustrator and Scratch. They assembled items with balsa wood, micro:bits, Velcro, snaps, copper tape, LED lights, push buttons, sound boards, cardboard, and acrylic. And they developed and tested multiple lessons in Belmont Day classrooms: first graders built viewers to identify cloud shapes; seventh graders created the architectural components for an invented civilization; learning support faculty made an interactive model that can be used across grade levels to connect sensory-regulation techniques to different parts of the body.

Fourth grade classes worked on two projects influenced by this initiative. First, they programmed Scratch with ancient Greek motifs that were then etched onto faux leather bracelets by the laser cutter.

Big takeaways from that project include: “The computer will only do what you tell it to, and fixing mistakes means being patient,” says Madeleine Wu ’23. The class later applied those skills to designing and programming fitness trackers—when something didn’t work the first time, they generated new ideas and tried again.

Kesariya Nallari-Jhala ’23 offers: “Mine took 35,564 trillion billion tries, so I was proud when it finally worked.”

Lab Setting INSPIRES Young Scientists At Belmont Day, even our youngest learners have access to specialized science facilities because teachers in any grade can reserve the dedicated science classroom in the Barn, where the basic accoutrements for hands-on experiments are at the ready. Lower school teachers also facilitate STEAM-related curriculum in their primary classrooms and take advantage of our campus for studying the natural world. Having such

varied options allows them to choose which best sets the stage for a particular lesson.

Students of all ages respond enthusiastically to the unique environment of the science classroom. “They feel very grown-up using this space,” says first grade teacher Cicely Gibson. “It encourages them to practice their scientific mindset and language.”

Leigh Twarog and Larissa Rochford ’93 agree. They brought third graders to the

science classroom three times a week for several weeks to implement a complex lab in which students learn about the effect of oil spills on the environment. Through research and direct experimentation, students design cleanup tools that will remove oil from water. “Conducting the activities in this setting makes the experience feel more authentic and important to students,” Leigh says. “They really feel like scientists here.”

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RETHINKING

the Classroom Library

For years, teacher Nancy Fell organized hundreds of books in the second grade classroom library mostly by reading level, genre, and author. With the support of a Lenesa Leana Endowment for Innovative and Collaborative Education grant, she has now restructured the classroom library to be more tightly integrated into the second grade curriculum and responsive to each year’s students.

Nancy worked with several colleagues, including librarian Amy Sprung and reading specialist Heather Smith, to create a professional-development opportunity.

After reading a book specifically about

8 | 2019–2020

making classroom libraries more vibrant spaces, this group invited the authors to campus to consult with faculty about development and use of the classroom library. At the same time, the Belmont Day team culled the collection, added new titles, and upgraded book storage bins. The result is a fresh new look that makes classroom shelves more inviting and accessible than ever to newly independent readers.

While some bins still focus on genre or author, others offer books based on themes such as Animal Friends, Characters Who Learn Big Lessons, Who Are We?, and Dynamic Duos. “Second grade is an

important year for children understanding themselves as part of a community,” Nancy says. “We are intentionally using the classroom library to reinforce that growth.” This structure also gives teachers the flexibility to introduce new book baskets as individual student interests emerge.

The new library also highlights student recommendations. “The children are learning persuasive writing skills by writing book reviews,” Nancy says. “It excites them to know they are writing something that others will read, which will may help their classmates enjoy more books.”

A Culture of

INNOVATION

EXPLORING Equity in Spanish Class Not all innovation relates to technology.

For teachers, the crux of innovation is understanding what excites students and what opportunities can be placed in their paths to motivate growth. With this in mind, teacher William Yepes-Amaya has been incorporating lessons about equity and inclusiveness into middle school Spanish classes. “Learning a new language is not just about memorizing components,” William explains. “Exploring topics of identity and culture gives our students valuable perspective as global citizens.”

In addition to teaching students the grammar and structure of Spanish, William introduces them to the cultures of native speakers of the language. When studying food vocabulary, for example, students planned out a full week’s menu for a

family living in Puerto Rico. They used the internet to identify local foods and grocery stores and to invent a household lifestyle, based on average incomes. When studying nations in Latin and South America, lessons may also cover government structure and other social, political, and economic factors that affect daily life. Classes also look at migration patterns, to connect lessons to contemporary issues beyond the classroom.

“Speaking Spanish can be a way of empowering people who immigrate to this country and showing that we value their experiences,” William says.

This work has brought William into collaboration with language teachers at The Putney School, in Vermont, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He has also become a regular speaker sharing

this work at conferences. Throughout the middle school years, he particularly enjoys witnessing how students gain a deeper understanding of what it means to study a world language. He also regularly hears positive feedback from alumni about this approach. “I can see how their growth mindset has evolved,” he says. “They truly understand that learning a new language is about broadening your perspective and building relationships with people.”

Exploring topics of “identity and culture

gives our students valuable perspective as global citizens.

”

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A Culture of

INNOVATION

Interdisciplinary “Mods” Our unique approach to humanities subjects in seventh grade resulted from a summer innovation grant. Students are divided into three cohorts that each spend one term, or module, with a different teaching team, comprising one English teacher and one social studies teacher.

This prepares students for the experience of having more teachers in high school.

nice to have “It’s feedback from

many perspectives to improve yourself as a student.

”

Meanwhile, students value the variety they encounter at Belmont Day: “Each teaching style brings out different sides of you,” says Kiki Friedbauer ’20. “It’s nice to have feedback from many perspectives to improve yourself as a student.”

Requiring six teachers, this structure also creates a window for Head of School Brendan Largay to teach a mod in English and for Middle School Head Liz

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ENRICH Seventh Grade

Gray to teach a mod in social studies. Thus both administrators get to know each seventh grader in class before they provide mentorship and letters of recommendation during the high school placement process in eighth grade.

Social studies teacher Suzanne Caruso describes the mods as combining the best of two fundamental teaching strategies. “Because we have separate classes, students receive focused instruction in English and social studies,” she says. “We also reinforce interdisciplinary thinking by aligning subject matter and using guiding questions that are relevant in both classes.” In Suzanne’s mod, students investigate migration patterns, including the colonization of Africa.

Parallel to those lessons, they read a text like Shakespeare’s The Tempest in Brendan’s English class. This heightens intellectual connections between historical events and literature, particularly when students ask fundamental questions like “What do you value?” or “Who gets access and who doesn’t?” Maya Gregor ’20 elaborates: “Examining different viewpoints helps you understand more. I’ve

learned that you shouldn’t focus only on a single story, in history or literature.”

Perspective-taking, analytical thinking, and effective communication are emphasized throughout the year, which culminates in the entire grade staging a mock trial. Each student is assigned to portray a historical or literary figure who plays a role in the trial. Most recently, for example, U.S. President Andrew Jackson was tried for the crime of stealing people’s voices in connection with the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Students portrayed characters such as Luella Bates Washington Jones, from Langston Hughes’s Thank You, M’am, as part of the jury; Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro as a defense witness; and Caliban, from Shakespeare’s The Tempest, as a prosecution witness.

Before the trial, students studied the case dossier, wrote reflections, and practiced interviewing each other as their characters.

“This activity puts students at the center of leadership and learning,” says English teacher Jonathan Drummey. “They flex their intellectual muscles to take control of the project, and it’s astounding to see the amount of learning on display.”

IMPACT Lab Promotes INNOVATION Professional development experiences can influence educators in unexpected and exciting ways. Take the case of innovation and art teacher Kurt Robinson, who, in 2018 took a deep dive into the writings of Mitchel Resnick, creator of the Scratch programming language and LEGO Papert Professor of Learning Research at the MIT Media Lab. Kurt was particularly struck by the article “Give P’s a Chance: Projects, Peers,

Passion, Play,” in which Resnick makes the case for helping young people to grow up as creative thinkers—necessary for their future success and satisfaction. Resnick’s four P’s align seamlessly with our goals for creative learning in the innovation studio, and in every classroom at Belmont Day. Starting with play, Kurt brainstormed a name for Belmont Day’s innovation studio. He knew that a single word could

not encompass all that happens there.

Articulating the optimal elements of learning in the studio—imagine, make, play, adapt, create, and tinker—led him to IMPACT. “Students love coming to the IMPACT Lab,” Kurt says, “because they can use a wide range of low- and high-tech materials and tools, they collaborate with peers, and they engage in meaningful projects and playful experimentation.”

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A STEAM Study in

NEUROSCIENCE

For part of eighth grade, Sonia Kim ’19 visited Belmont Day’s IMPACT Lab daily. She worked steadily with programs like Tinkercad and Blender and then watched her designs take shape on the 3D printer. She made choices about wires, pressure sensors, and lights. And she wrote code to program circuits on what actions to take when. “When I was working on the project, I loved that the IMPACT Lab had so many materials I could use,” Sonia says. And when her project was complete, she stepped back and thought, “Whoa. I actually built that.

I can do these things.”

Sonia’s creation was a life-size model of the upper bodies of twins who are conjoined at the head, with circuits that show how the two brains share sensory information. The project was inspired by two sisters who were born with this rare condition in Canada in 2006. Sonia built the model for her Capstone project because she wanted to understand more about how the girls can see out of each other’s eyes, control each other’s limbs, and share thoughts without speaking. Sonia, who currently attends Cambridge Rindge and Latin School (CRLS), describes science and medicine as long-term interests.

“What interests me the most is finding a specific topic that I can dive deep into,” she says. “I like to understand causes and effects and think about how that can inform other research.”

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A Culture of

INNOVATION

SYNTHESIZING Science and Art

TEXTURE GRAPHICS ©SHUTTERSTOCK.COM/HUNTHOMAS, HUANGYAILAH488, ARTISHOK

From the famous bronze ducks in Boston Public Garden to the sporting statues and abstract pieces in the Fenway neighborhood, the Boston area is rich with public art.

Miranda Harlow ’20 has often wondered about the origins of such pieces, so when Belmont Day offered an arts elective entitled Public Art, she signed up. “I’ve seen so many cool sculptures out in the world,” she says.

“I wanted to find out how they come about and make something like that myself.”

The class was designed and taught through a collaboration among art teacher Anne Armstrong, science teacher Sandra Trentowsky, and a trio of researchers from the Education Development Center. Students took on the challenge to design a work that would engage viewers as art and also reflect a message about the hazards of plastic polluting Earth’s oceans. To begin, students studied the work of various installation artists, including Maya Lin and Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Working in teams, students developed concepts that were reviewed

This project also got “them thinking about

how to use art as a method to explore and communicate about issues that are important to them.

”

by a jury committee. The whole class then worked together to create a single sculpture—which now hangs in the stairwell of the Barn. Students studied the properties of different types of plastic as they recycled those materials to depict a variety of sea creatures linked to a raft of entangled plastic.

“Students modeled the process of professional artists,” explains Anne. “They had to research project parameters, ideate, incorporate feedback, and collaborate so that every artist’s distinct voice contributed to a unified piece.”

Along the way, students also conducted scientific research. They discovered that sea turtles mistake plastic bags for jellyfish as they float along ocean

currents, clams take in microplastics as they filter water, and birds mistake shiny plastic on the ocean surface as food. Students also met with Brianna Shaughnessey, a doctoral candidate at UMass-Boston, to learn about her research in environmental biology. “Students grew a lot in their awareness of marine ecology,” says Sandra. “This project also got them thinking about how to use art as a method

to explore and communicate about issues that are important to them.”

Although students usually take their work home at the end of a class, Miranda doesn’t mind this piece remaining on display because she has developed a true understanding of public art. “Art invites people to think about things,” she says.

“It’s here for everyone to look at and be invited into the conversation.”

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Where Do Our Graduates

GO? Hint: They continue to thrive as scholars, artists, athletes, inventors, and community leaders.

By Sarah Merrill

Director of High School Placement

One of the best parts of my job

is hearing wonderful news about Belmont Day alumni thriving in high school and college. Not long ago, an admission officer at a prestigious high school told me that every Belmont Day graduate recently enrolled at their school had become a student tour guide. Another highly sought-after school once reported that the president, vice president, and treasurer of their student government were all Belmont Day graduates. Because of my steady interaction with secondary schools, I often hear anecdotes that speak volumes about the confidence that Belmont Day graduates take into the classroom and community at their next schools.

I’m not surprised. It is a tremendous pleasure every year to work with a new group of students as they look ahead to what will come next. My work with families begins in seventh grade and continues through eighth as students enjoy their culminating year at Belmont Day. Our graduates stand out for their genuine excitement about learning and their willingness to take on new challenges. Throughout their journey at Belmont Day, concluding with the Capstone project, our graduates have acquired a variety of strategies for thinking critically and creatively about any topic. Meanwhile, through arts, athletics, clubs, and community activities, they have developed the foundations for community engagement. Essentially, Belmont Day graduates know how to learn and to lead.

Elementary and middle school are formative years. Belmont Day creates an educational environment in which students build a strong sense of their identities as unique individuals and as part of a community. Being here boosts confidence because students learn to appreciate different perspectives at the same time that they gain skills for selfadvocacy. This results in students forming a can-do attitude that they carry forward, prepared to make a positive impact in their next school communities. I’m proud to introduce the alumni profiles on these pages, which are just a sampling of the good news that we hear about Belmont Day graduates every year.

Fulbright Scholar Examines the

power of lullabies

Can music help infants learn to speak? With the support of a Fulbright grant, Emily Tan ’11 has traveled to Australia to find out. At the MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development at Western Sydney University, Emily is investigating what role singing might play in how humans acquire language. “Singing is a universal cultural phenomenon, and it’s so instinctive to sing to a child,” Emily says. “A better understanding of how infants respond to this could have important applications for speech therapists, music therapists, and anyone who is helping children grow.”

To design her study, Emily composed original lullabies for parents to sing that include words infants do not frequently hear in everyday life. In the lab, the key words are repeated for several seconds, and the more infants turn their heads to tune in, the more likely they are demonstrating recognition of the sounds. The study compares attentiveness to the target words to vocabulary not in the songs, and to key words introduced through speech.

“I credit getting the Fulbright scholarship to understanding the value of mentors, which is something I discovered at Belmont Day,” Emily says. She particularly recalls working with Director of Communications and Marketing Koreen McQuilton as the mentor on her Capstone project. “Her feedback was always positive and constructive,” Emily says. “She really supported me in taking the project in the direction I wanted.”

Her experiences at Belmont Day motivated Emily to seek out mentors when she was one of 2,200 students at Lexington High School and was a psychology major at Bates College in Maine. She also spent a summer interning in the Harvard Lab for Developmental Studies, working with Dr. Elizabeth Spelke, who is recognized as one of the preeminent scholars in cognitive psychology. “Applying for a Fulbright is a complicated process,” Emily says. “Having mentors give feedback on your ideas is invaluable to creating a successful proposal.”

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Varsity Fencer

wins at Vassar

For Graeme Mills ’12, being a scholarathlete is essential to the college experience because it strengthens the mind and body. “I also would never be satisfied if I didn’t try to compete at the highest possible level,” he says. A senior at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, Graeme is looking forward to his fourth season on the varsity men’s fencing team. He ended last season with a 16–0 day that helped his squad capture its ninth-consecutive championship among peer schools.

Graeme took up fencing at age 10, although he played other sports at Belmont Day. He describes fencing as a game that combines critical thinking, inventiveness, and empathy because each action brings such a swift response from an opponent.

“Fencing forces me to have a solid argument for my ideas because I know there will be critical pushback,” Graeme says. “The worst that can happen is that I’m wrong and have a chance to improve. That also applies to life, school, and my professional life.”

“Our graduates stand out for their genuine excitement about learning and their willingness to take on new challenges.”

—Sarah Merrill

16 | 2019–2020

Majoring in urban studies and economics, Graeme has wide-ranging interests that include investing, marketing, business strategy, politics, social theory, and music. Toward the end of high school at the Cambridge School of Weston, he interned as a research assistant at Boston Medical Center, where he collected data about environmental factors and chronic health conditions. Currently, Graeme interns with Leading Cities, a nonprofit that works with ten global cities to promote research, collaboration, and best practices to address urban challenges.

Graeme points to his Capstone project about black holes as the true start of his intellectual journey. He particularly appreciates how the project encouraged him to explore a topic because of intrinsic interest. “To this day, I ask myself if I’m passionate about what I’m doing,” he says.

“That has helped me choose the right paths in high school, in college, and in making good life decisions.”

Young inventors

Earn Prestigious Award

Gabe Herman ’17 and Alexander Kim ’17 have a creative vision for bringing art and environmental awareness to subway travel. They recently won the EF Glocal Challenge, which is organized by travel company Education First, the city of Cambridge, and CRLS. Gabe and Alex’s team imagined that a series of 250 works of art, each like a single movie frame, could be installed in a subway tunnel to promote climate change awareness. When viewed through the windows of moving trains, the images would compose 15 seconds of animation showing the effects of rising sea levels in Boston.

The prize for winning included a STEM-themed trip to Panama, summer internships with the City of Cambridge, and $3,000 toward implementing their proposal. So far, the team has worked with the MBTA to scout locations and has reached out to artists. Further fundraising and preparation will be needed to bring the concept to fruition. Nonetheless, “It’s cool to think that there could be something tangible in my hometown that I helped create,” Gabe says.

Crew champion

Applies Team Approach to Life Clare Westerman ’15 likes to row in the same direction as her team—literally.

After graduating from Belmont Day, she attended The Winsor School, where she started to row crew as a freshman. Four years later she found herself skimming across the water, arms and legs pumping in perfect time with her teammates as they took first place in the New England Junior and High School Regional Championship Regatta.

Clare’s team then went on to finish eighth out of the nation’s top eighty-four junior and high school boats that assembled to compete at the world-famous Head of the Charles Regatta.

“I’ve always liked interacting with other people and working toward the same goal as others,” Clare says. “Rowing

epitomizes that. It can’t exist without it.

I learned that team-centric mindset at Belmont Day.” During middle school, Clare represented Belmont Day in basketball, soccer, and lacrosse. Although she played on the junior varsity team for all three years of middle school, basketball holds some of her favorite memories. “That experience made me think about sports both as a way of pushing myself and also as contributing to an atmosphere where everyone is having fun,” she says. “It’s also good to have the experience of doing something just because you love it. That was helpful in high school because learning to row has a steep learning curve, and it can take a while for the skills you’re building to kick in to produce results.”

Clare is currently a freshman at Georgetown University, in Washington, D.C., on a premed track and majoring in global health. She looks forward to rowing

Currently a junior, Gabe takes multivariable calculus at Harvard University through a partnership between the university and CRLS. He still has the scaled Egyptian pyramid he built in fourth grade and fondly remembers designing solar cars in sixth grade. “I really like math, science, and engineering,” he says.

Alex is also an enthusiastic engineer. For his Capstone project he attempted to build a wind turbine. “I don’t want to call it a failed project … because it was very educational,” he says. “I learned there’s a lot more to building things than getting it right the first time.” More recently, Alex built an electric skateboard and a hat with a built-in fan to wear in Panama. Time management, organizational skills, and public speaking were critical during the Glocal Challenge, Alex says, particularly when the team pitched their concept before an audience of 200 people. Alex also appreciated the summer internship, where he helped with outreach about new city projects. “This whole process is like taking skills we learned in Capstone and putting them to use in the real world,” he says.

on the club team in the future, but for now, her schedule is full with a different kind of team: Through a program offered at Georgetown, she is devoting nearly 12 hours a week to become a nationally certified EMT.

A F R E S H LO O K for a Twenty-First Century Library Renovations reinforce opportunities for innovation and collaboration

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THROUGHOUT THE DAY, THE ERSKINE LIBRARY BUSTLES WITH COMMUNITY EVENTS AND STUDENTS CULTIVATING A LOVE OF LITERATURE AND BUILDING STRONG SKILLS FOR INFORMATION LITERACY. Now an innovative renovation has made the library even more effective as a hub for twenty-first century learning. “In addition to housing books and resources, the library is a place for active collaboration,” explains librarian Amy Sprung.

“Students come to the library for a wide variety of purposes, and this renovation gives us much more flexibility in how we support groups and individuals.”

The library’s new furniture is specifically designed to balance the need for community space and coziness. Short

bookshelves in the center of the main room provide a broad vista of a communal learning environment. Those same shelves are curved, inviting students to browse undulating waves of books. Work tables have casters to be easily reconfigured into different shapes and for different-size groups. Meanwhile, a variety of uniquely shaped seating offers comfortable reading nooks for individuals—and since encountering the renovated library, students have been enthusiastic to try out all the chairs.

“Our window seats were always popular,”

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Amy says. “Now we have more opportunities for each student to find their own spot.”

The new middle school research and collaboration room also garnered instant attention. Aesthetically designed to appeal to older students, this room gives middle schoolers a sense of having their own space where, surrounded by library resources, they can plan and create. Flexible seating around a curved table encourages collaboration. Incorporating new technology was a key priority for the library renovation.

This room includes a Google Jamboard, which is an interactive whiteboard, with a built-in camera and microphone, that seamlessly integrates the functions of the Google Drive programs. Promptly after the room’s unveiling, eighth graders planned and recorded group videos to teach their classmates about Colonial America. One

middle school group enjoyed the space so much that they asked their advisor to bring their whole advisory group down during the resource period.

Amid the renovations, the Erskine Library’s iconic story room—formed by the stone walls of the original farmhouse in which Belmont Day began—remains preserved. It will soon receive updates to its collections and décor, along with an art installation being created by fifth graders.

Enhancements to the Erskine Library benefit every Belmont Day student because this resource is accessed by all grade levels to promote information literacy: searching, reading, evaluating, critiquing, connecting, and communicating ideas and information. These activities also connect to school-wide initiatives to promote digital citizenship. Reflecting how much

“Now we have more opportunities for each student to FIND THEIR OW N S P OT.”

the Erskine Library is valued in the life of the school, the renovation was made possible with funds raised at the 2019 parents’ association auction. “The library is the heart of the school,” said Katherine Sayn-Wittgenstein, parent of two Belmont Day students and 2018–19 president of the parents’ association. “Children know that it is an amazing place to be with friends and get lost in books and learning.”

This project brings to fruition long-term planning by faculty and administrators to envision how the Erskine Library could best support the student experience articulated in our school mission. “This renovation matches the facility to our program,” Amy says, “which has always been to offer students a space for inspiration, for challenge, and to find themselves within.”

R O O M TO L E A R N It Takes a Village to Promote Digital Literacy

Fifth Graders Seek Balanced Digital Diet Fifth grade students think critically about their media “diets” and screen time through an information literacy class facilitated by librarian Amy Sprung and classroom teachers Julia Juster and Emma Nairn. Using lessons from Common Sense Media’s digital citizenship curriculum, the students document their media consumption and explore the question: What constitutes a healthy amount of screen time?

Research led last year’s class to an eye-opening New York Times article titled, “Kids’ Brainpower Tied to Exercise, Sleep and Limited Screen Time.” The piece was challenging for students to read, as it was a new experience to analyze content based on a scientific study. Students applied the nonfiction reading strategies they had been learning in class, and the article sparked even more questions! Teachers then reached out to the lead author of the study, researcher Dr. Jeremy Walsh at British Columbia University, to invite him to speak with the class via Skype. Fifth graders were thrilled when he accepted, and the conversation took place on a large screen in the Erskine Library.

To see how scientists work in the field made an impact on students. It was also a lesson in using social media connections to establish positive, safe, healthy, professional relationships.

Dr. Walsh shared questions from the National Institutes of Health Toolbox, the assessment tool in the study, so students could see how cognition might be measured in a study like this.

Students then asked many thoughtful and thought-provoking questions, including: “How does assessing your speed at completing mental tasks conclude that screen time is affecting sleep?”; “Why is screen time sometimes addictive?”; and “If you get more than 11 hours of sleep, could you get more screen time, and if so, how much more?”

After his visit, Dr. Walsh tweeted “Thanks @belmontday1927 for the awesome questions today! Such a cool experience. I really appreciated the opportunity to chat about brain health and the influence of #screentime, #sleep, and #physicalactivity!”

In a world where middle school students live much of their adolescence online—and access to websites, games, and apps has become increasingly prevalent at younger ages—parents everywhere are eager for internet safety guidance from schools and experts in the field. At Belmont Day, our community of educators has embraced the responsibility of teaching digital citizenship.

Recognizing the essential value of the school-home partnership in this arena, we have long supported parents by offering forums that highlight current research, trends, and strategies for use at home. Last spring, the school hosted expert Katie Greer, a former intelligence analyst for the Massachusetts State Police and former director of internet safety for the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office.

Katie led separate sessions for students, faculty, and parents, presenting digital citizenship and internet safety tips for ages spanning kindergarten to college, with strategies tailored to each developmental stage. On March 19, 2020, we will welcome Dr. Devorah Heitner, founder of Raising Digital Natives, for another day focused on this topic.

Throughout the year, our thoughtful and intentional digital citizenship curriculum is a vital component of the character education that emerges from Belmont Day’s six core values: honesty, caring, joy, responsibility, respect, and excellence.

Components of digital citizenship are embedded in our information literacy and health and wellness curricula; concepts are reinforced in classroom lessons across various disciplines.

Common Sense Media has excellent resources that have inspired many of our own lessons and strategies to engage students.

The technology team collaborates regularly with educators at other schools, outside experts, and teachers to develop lessons that address:

• • • • • •

privacy and security impact of media on well-being and self-esteem digital footprint and identity relationships and communication cyberbullying and hate speech news and media literacy

Belmont Day is committed to bringing students and their families the latest best practices in this critical field.

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We

welcome You

to Belmont Day!

These excellent educators and administrators joined our community of learners and leaders this year.

Director of Development

Pati Fernández

Pati has 11 years of experience in development and communications in independent schools and nonprofit organizations. She joins us from Wediko Children’s Services and Camp Wediko in Boston, where she served as interim director of development and communications. Pati has worked at The Pike School in Andover as the assistant director of advancement and annual fund and prior to that at Elder Services of the Merrimack Valley in Lawrence.

She was appointed to the Northern Essex Community College Board of Trustees by Governor Charlie Baker in 2018.

Kindergarten Teacher

Missy Paravati

Most recently, Missy was a preschool teacher at the Radcliffe Child Care Center. She has also worked in an Early Head Start classroom and a Reggio Emilia–based private school.

Grade 2 Teacher

Sunny Lee

Sunny comes to Belmont Day after completing a master’s degree in language and literacy at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She was also an instructional aide in a first grade classroom at Morse School in Cambridge.

22 | 2019–2020

Grade 5 Teacher

Emma Nairn

Emma joins Belmont Day from Excel Academy Charter School where she taught fifth grade math for the last seven years and served as the fifth grade team leader since 2017. She was also a seventh grade math teacher at Salem Academy Charter School.

Middle School Science Teacher

Leal Carter

Leal joins BDS from her role as a physics teacher at Miss Hall’s School in Pittsfield. Prior to that she served as a Spanish teacher at Eastwood Elementary School in Ohio, an assistant teacher at Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, and an outdoor guide at Canyon Ranch Health Resort and Spa in Lenox.

Middle School Learning Specialist

Sally Harriss

Sally’s experience in middle schools in Colorado and Massachusetts includes teaching and designing math and reading curriculum for small groups of students, working closely with classroom teachers; leading professional development sessions; and coordinating, communicating, and analyzing testing data. As well as

teaching, Sally’s most recent experience as a student support coordinator at the Brooke Charter School in East Boston has provided her with many opportunities to reinforce her commitment to developing strong relationships with middle school students, their parents, and their teachers.

Middle School Math Teacher

Elinor Hannum

Elinor comes to Belmont Day after serving as a middle and upper school math teacher, eighth grade advisor, and faculty representative to the board of trustees at the Lincoln School in Providence, Rhode Island. Prior to her work at Lincoln, Elinor was a student teacher at Dimondale Elementary School in Michigan.

Physical Education and Athletics Teacher

Alex Tzelnic

Alex joins Belmont Day from Cambridge Montessori School, where he was a physical education teacher since 2008. Alex also served there as the athletics coordinator for nine years and most recently as the assistant director of auxiliary programming.

W E LCO M E

Meet the Faculty

Dr. Carlos Hoyt human traits. Our brains are bound to make assumptions about the world. Some assumptions can be helpful or innocuous, and some can lead to trouble. We cannot, as some folks prescribe, stop making assumptions, but we can and should check our assumptions to make sure that they don’t lead us to act unjustly.

Q: What inspires you as an educator?

Carlos joins Belmont Day as our director of equity and inclusion.

He has worked at The Chestnut Hill School and Phillips Academy in Andover, plus Wheelock College, Lesley University, Simmons College, and Boston University. Having worked with students from beginner grades through college, he has a unique perspective on learning and growth across a wide spectrum of development and backgrounds.

His publications include The Arc of a Bad Idea: Understanding and Transcending Race, published by Oxford University Press in 2016.

Q: What is your role as director of equity and inclusion?

I’ll work on the ground level to help Belmont Day realize its inclusivity goals across all constituencies. This will include collaborating with teachers on classroom lessons; facilitating faculty professional development; and interacting with parents, administration, and the board of trustees. One goal will be to establish a through line of what we mean by equity and inclusion. Every individual brings a unique set of perspectives and background experiences to this community.

Our community is strongest when people feel comfortable inhabiting their different social identities and also feel connected to a unifying culture at Belmont Day. It’s important to do both.

Q: What are examples of student activities?

Common themes relate to embracing differences and understanding how bias manifests itself so that we can prevent it. I once facilitated a classroom discussion with second graders who asked: Is it still bad to have assumptions if you don’t say them out loud? That led to a productive conversation about how even unspoken thoughts may be revealed in our behavior, so it’s important to recognize and evaluate our assumptions.

Another example is an activity that asks students to identify by sight which are most alike: a jar of white sugar, a jar of brown sugar, and a jar of salt. At first glance, students usually say that white sugar and salt are most similar. When they investigate further, they reexamine their conclusions and how they reached them. Both of these examples are grounded in critical thinking and acknowledgment of universal

I love to learn and teach, and I seek to do all I can to foster intellectual excellence, which, in my view, consists of an inextricable combination of academic rigor and social-emotional acumen. Working with students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade is particularly important because the youngest learners haven’t yet completely absorbed and concretized some of the biases that we have in the larger world. Up through about four years old, kids will talk about skin color without necessarily referring to or fully understanding race. They are picking up on visible human differences. They then learn about race through social norms. As educators, we have an important opportunity to help children think critically about this topic.

Q: What are you most excited about in coming to Belmont Day?

I feel a sense of readiness at Belmont Day. I love being in communities that have made headway toward their goals and yet do not want to become complacent. Continuing to strive is how we improve in every arena.

Sometimes a dichotomy is set up between being a good scholar and being a good citizen. The research shows that encouraging both is most effective for optimal outcomes and student growth. To me, it is clear that Belmont Day really wants to achieve that synthesis, and I’m excited to be a part of that.

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LOW E R S C H O O L

A Landscape for Learning Minna Ham

Lower School Head The years between pre-kindergarten and fifth grade are an incredible journey. Our youngest students skip in the door as pre-readers, excited to discover what it means to be a learner and aspiring to be a “big kid.” By fifth grade, students are reading for content and pleasure, have built the foundations of mathematical thinking, and have a core set of academic skills for increasingly sophisticated exploration in every academic subject.

At Belmont Day we divide the lower school years into two arcs. Our early childhood division has long had a classroom wing dedicated to pre-kindergarten through second grade. With the opening

of the Barn and reconfiguration of our middle school, upper elementary students in grades three to five now enjoy their own cohesive space. Within each division, teachers work together closely to promote curricular consistency and student growth.

Within each wing, students appreciate having a home base that is entirely focused on their developmental needs.

Organizing our facilities to help students mark progress on their educational journey reinforces their sense of pride in their accomplishments. It also increases opportunities for cross-graded activities and encourages students to see themselves as peer role models. Alongside

the new configuration, for example, we launched several clubs for third through fifth graders, which further increases leadership opportunities.

The lower school years will always feel like times of tremendous change for families because of the dramatic transformation that occurs in their children. The joy and confidence that our students have throughout this maturation is a sign of the strength and warmth of the Belmont Day community and of the intentional design in our program.

To be part of a school where every teacher and staff member invests so much care and attention into crafting a wonderful educational experience for students is inspiring.

each division, teachers “Withinwork together closely to

promote curricular consistency and student growth.

”

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LOW E R S C H O O L

Sunny Faces Shine From a Rainy Lesson The earnest excitement of first graders brought sunshine to the Barn science classroom as they learned about why clouds rain and how snow crystals form.

To teach about clouds and rain, first grade teacher Cicely Gibson created a fun experiment for her class. First, students watched closely as Cicely saturated a shaving cream “cloud” with a pipette of water dyed with blue food coloring. As the water seeped in, the cloud became bluer; then after a short while, the blue water began “raining” from the cloud and into the clear water below. First graders tried this experiment on their own using cotton balls for clouds and a small strainer.

An empty beaker below the cloud helped them to see how much rain accumulated.

Share the

Some of the donations became “leaves” on a mitten tree that was displayed during the Share the Warmth Assembly in 1993.

Warmth Each year fifth graders organize a drive in the weeks leading up to winter break for warm children’s clothing, including boots, hats, and mittens. This enduring tradition was established in 1992, thanks to the inspiration of parent Kathy Knight P ’99, ’00, ’06.

It is an example of the home-school partnership that infuses all aspects of school life to become a hallmark of the learning community at Belmont Day. In the early years of Share the Warmth, donations went to Shelter, Inc. More recently, in support of our longstanding relationship, the donated items are delivered to Cradles to Crayons, an organization that provides everyday essentials for children and families who

And like all budding scientists, the students finished the lesson by writing about and drawing what they observed during their experiment.

During their study of snowflake formation, first graders were delighted to learn that there are actually three types of snow crystals—a column, a star, and a plate. Further, they discovered that star crystals—think snowflakes—always have six arms, and those arms can have branches.

Students then brainstormed what type of snow crystal they would make, planned their design, and created them from a variety of recyclable and craft materials.

Using common materials, students found that they could simulate the design and structure of a real snow crystal.

face the challenge of clothing insecurity.

On Community Service Day in May, a student group travels to the program’s Giving Factory to clean and sort donations that come from individuals and families all

around Greater Boston. Belmont Day also serves as the collection site for the Town of Belmont’s drive for Cradles to Crayons and hosts community volunteers for a sorting day in the spring.

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MIDDLE SCHOOL They come to “ school every day,

comfortable in their own skins, eager to try new things, and excited to thrive as learners and leaders.

”

Behind the Scenes of Liz Gray

Success

Middle School Head Belmont Day’s middle school is a wonderful example of what can happen when vision and preparation come to fruition. Our faculty is extraordinary in the commitment, expertise, and care that they bring to every interaction with Belmont Day students.

From the classroom to the soccer field, from the stage to a club meeting, every element of our curricula and programs manifests the intentional thought occurring behind the scenes through ongoing planning, collaboration, and professional development. Middle school teachers meet regularly as subject departments and also as grade-level teams to coordinate this work. By incorporating a

26 | 2019–2020

deep level of reflection into our educational practice, we create a space for students to be reflective themselves. This is where learning and growth transpires.

Our program is developmentally sensitive to students at every phase of early adolescence. Sixth graders, for example, enjoy the security of having their own corridor as they adjust to the dynamic schedule of switching classes. Seventh and eighth graders appreciate the increased autonomy that comes with centering their day around our unique kiva. Our program builds on the trajectory that longtime Belmont Day students began in the lower

grades. At the same time, we integrate new students seamlessly to create a larger social milieu in middle school. Students entering Belmont Day during middle school particularly appreciate our orientation before school begins so that they can feel ownership of their new school and recognize friendly faces on the first day.

All of this thoughtful, choreographed effort contributes to Belmont Day middle schoolers feeling confident to be their full, authentic selves. They come to school every day, comfortable in their own skins, eager to try new things, and excited to thrive as learners and leaders.

MIDDLE SCHOOL

Students Committed to

Global Leadership Belmont Day students regularly earn recognition for their debate skills, strategic problem-solving and passion for global humanitarian issues through the Model UN club.

In February, nine Belmont Day middle school students joined students from twelve other schools to participate in a Model UN conference at Tufts University. For this event, students did not prepare in advance as they typically would. Instead, delegates were tasked with addressing situations presented to them with little to no advance knowledge of the issues they would be attempting to solve. Topics related to the Arctic Circle, including the impact of an oil spill, shipping routes, and the exploration of Siberia. Three students received the best delegate award that day: Miranda Harlow ’20, Christopher McEvoy ’21, and Margot Klug ’21.

More recently, in October, thirteen Belmont Day students addressed the cholera outbreak in Haiti at the Global Leadership Conference sponsored by the United Nations Association of Greater Boston. Before jumping into their work, the 200 middle and high

school students in attendance were addressed by Dr. Joia Mukherjee, chief medical officer of Partners in Health. Dr. Mukherjee concluded her remarks by reminding students they are the leaders of today, working on solving the issues of the world with energy, creativity, and determination. These were, in fact, the qualities that our students brought to the conference. Four students—Ana McEleney ’22, Kenna Schneider ’21, Cameron Colbert ’21, and Margot Klug ’20—were recognized for their outstanding participation.

Survey Facilitates

Community Dialogue About Homework Students, teachers, and parents often have a range of opinions— and sometimes emotions—on the subject of homework. Consequently, a recent survey on this topic garnered an impressive 160 responses from Belmont Day middle school students, parents, faculty, and alumni who graduated in the last five years.

Students were instrumental in the survey design and analysis, with eight middle schoolers joining four faculty on a task force led by Middle School Head Liz Gray. The group used a design-thinking process to develop questions focusing on the goals of homework; what is most rewarding and challenging about homework; and gauging the middle school homework load at Belmont Day. Results showed a strong consensus around key ideas:

• 83% of respondents believe that homework should reinforce concepts learned in class • 87% replied that homework provides opportunities to practice skills • 60% of respondents believe that homework should prepare students for their next classes Write-in responses indicated that students find homework rewarding when it “slightly goes over what we are learning in class but still extends our knowledge” and when it “helps us remember things more easily by just doing a little bit at home.”

One alum summed up other opinions well with the comment, “The most challenging part about homework is finding a balance between spending time with family and creating a bond with your loved ones and completing and understanding school topics.”

The task force identified key themes and challenges from the survey data.

Students on the task force then developed a set of final recommendations that were shared with faculty. So far, the survey has helped motivate the middle school’s transition to block scheduling, which makes students’ homework load more manageable. The findings and recommendations will continue to inform the development of protocols for making homework goals clear to students and parents and ensuring that teacher practices are aligned in this area.

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t Ar s

In the

Studio Anne Armstrong Arts Coordinator and Visual Arts Teacher

S P OT L I G H T

In less than a year, our students and faculty are so well settled into the Barn that it is hard to imagine a time before we had this wonderful facility. Just as we anticipated, having a building with our two visual arts studios, woodworking studio, and IMPACT Lab has made collaboration easier and has helped students envision new possibilities for what they can create. Plus, being next to the new gym and science classroom have sparked unique synergies across disciplines. In addition to filling our hallway gallery space, students have created an environmentally themed public art sculpture for longterm display in the main stairwell of the Barn.

The expansive windows showcase the piece, allowing it to be seen from both the exterior and the interior of the building.

One of the most exciting aspects of our program is the increasing level of focus and choice that students enjoy as they gain confidence and develop their skills in the arts. In the lower school, students enjoy arts specials weekly throughout the year. In middle

Visiting Artists Broaden

Perspectives

Belmont Day students regularly benefit from visiting artists in a variety of disciplines. Earlier this year, music classes welcomed Dr. Brett Abigaña, a music educator and accomplished conductor from Boston University Academy whose musical compositions have been played throughout the world. Students learned about a variety of topics ranging from composing music for movies and shows, the role of physics in the overtone series, the history of musical notation, healthy vocal technique and breathing, and the history of dissonant music. Middle school students also asked questions about high school requirements for music, and the course and ensemble offerings at the high school level. It was an amazing musical experience for our students to have this wonderful guest teacher, Dr. Abigaña!

28 | 2019–2020

school, our arts launch program offers sixth graders a more concentrated experience in each trimester as they specialize in two of the following arts disciplines: 2D visual art, 3D visual art, music, theater arts, digital arts, and woodworking. With this foundation, seventh and eighth graders then choose arts electives from all the different disciplines. Throughout the course of this year, for example, our oldest students have 38 elective possibilities, ranging from Fiber Explosion to Latino Music, from Improv to Cubic Foot of Wood, and from Game Programming to Pottery Wheel. Having choice in their arts electives is tremendously empowering for middle school students, as it is an opportunity to hone skills in an area that students are passionate about, as well as a chance to expand their horizons and try something new.

At Belmont Day, we are thrilled to offer an arts program with excellent facilities and engaging curricula that support our students in developing their self-expression.

Lifting Voices

at Collaborative Concert This past spring Belmont Day students were featured in the Boston Children’s Chorus concert, Lift Every Voice: Her Song, at the Wang Theater in Boston’s theater district.

The students joined several hundred other singers from the Boston Children’s Chorus, Winchester High School, and Boston Arts Academy to create a powerful performance of the protest songs, “Rise Up” and “Nina Cried Power.”

Preparation for the event began when Boston Children’s Chorus conductor Jason Holmes visited music teacher Yui Kitamura’s middle school classes to lead a workshop called “Social Justice Conversations Through a Musical Lens.” Our students also had the privilege of listening to Ms. Melinda Doolittle, an American Idol finalist. We hope to continue this interdisciplinary collaboration with Boston Children’s Chorus in the future.

Woodworking

Floats Our Boat

This past fall, students in woodworking teacher Bill Smith’s Cubic Foot of Wood elective decided to team up to build a full-size canoe. Enthusiasm for the project was so high that students even stopped in to make progress outside class.

Here Noah Burd ’20, Scott Abbott ’20, and Jack Abruzzi ’20 take advantage of the extra time they have on a parent conference day.

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A R TS S P OT L I G H T

Preparing the Next Generation of Teachers

This past fall, Belmont Day associate teachers have been enjoying a series of workshops in music, woodworking, theater arts, visual arts, and innovation. The hands-on workshops guide associates to think creatively about how to integrate art materials, projects, and experiences across academic disciplines. They offer emerging teachers the opportunity to tinker and play while generating ideas about how to incorporate the arts into their own teaching.

Currently in its twenty-eighth year, the Belmont Day Associate Teacher Program, which is a collaboration with Lesley University’s Graduate School of Education, aims to holistically prepare the next generation of teachers in the same way that our academic program supports whole-child development for Belmont Day students. Tapping into the expertise of our faculty arts specialists deepens associates’ understanding of the role of the arts in students’ learning and academic success.

Studying Ancient

Laughs

Seventh and eighth graders explored the origins of Western comedy and its influence through the ages in the theater arts elective, The History of Comedy, taught by theater arts teacher Susan Dempsey. While examining the differences between tragedy and comedy, students discovered how the earliest Greek comedies made fun of politics, society, literature, and war. Later comedies in Ancient Greece and Rome focused more on daily life, romance, mistaken identities, and misunderstandings. The students also dove into the Italian Renaissance world of Commedia Dell’Arte and discussed excerpts from plays by Aristophanes, Plautus, and Shakespeare.

B E L M O N T DAY AT H L E T I C S

B E L M O N T DAY On the

Field John O’Neill

Athletics Director This past fall, Belmont Day coaches and student-athletes are taking full advantage of our expanded and enhanced athletics facilities. The recent opening of the Barn brought two full-size gymnasiums, which allowed us to add volleyball and wrestling to our slate of seasonal sports. In addition, this spring we completed a much-needed renovation of the Barbara Osborne Tennis Courts (see page 36 for more) and were able to add a second interscholastic team in that sport. Our student-athletes recognize the investment we make in them and feel great pride in representing our school.

With more than 110 middle school athletes on our interscholastic rosters, our program has great energy and diversity. The varied experiences and skills students bring make our varsity and junior varsity teams stronger by inspiring growth in fitness, teamwork, and leadership.

With a unique balance of sport-specific knowledge and educational philosophy, our dedicated faculty coaches help each student challenge themselves to reach the next level.

The 2018–19 school year saw three of our teams—boys’ soccer, fencing, and ultimate frisbee—finish their seasons with records of 6–2. The 2019–20 school year already has kicked off strong. What we are most proud of, however, is that every student graduates Belmont Day with “athlete” as part of their identity. For some, that means going on to be team captains in high school and playing competitively in college; for others, it means enjoying lifelong fitness activities such as yoga and trail running. Either way, we are thrilled to see Belmont Day students and alumni benefit from the character and health that athletics help to build.

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Adventures in PE

With one year at Belmont Day under her belt, physical education (PE) teacher Abbey Nyland, along with new PE teacher Alex Tzelnick, is dedicated to reinstituting Belmont Day’s adventure-based curriculum for school and summer programs. Soon students will be navigating the traverse wall, low and high elements, and an outdoor challenge course. These experiences will develop muscular strength, flexibility, cardiovascular endurance, coordination, and balance—skills that prepare students for team sports and lifelong fitness. Alongside the kinesthetic benefits, adventure-based activities develop students’ cognitive abilities, encouraging positive risktaking, communication, leadership, and problem-solving.

This work is informed by an 18-month curriculum review that PE and athletics faculty completed in June. A grant from the Lenesa Leana Endowment for Innovative and Collaborative Education will cover the costs of equipment inspection and replacement as well as staff training and professional development.

32 | 2019–2020

In PE, I learned that being a “teammate is not always easy.

It takes kindness and courage.

”

—Lower School Student

B E L M O N T DAY AT H L E T I C S

Cross Country Team is on

Quite the Run

The cross country team put the finishing touches on its second consecutive undefeated season with a trio of top three finishers at the State Championships. Under the guidance of coaches Anne Armstrong and Elinor Hannum, the largest team in program history was just that—a team. By measuring success in terms of effort and improvement instead of in wins and losses, the team cultivated an environment where every runner was challenged, supported, and appreciated.

With such a large team, the Blue & Gold relied on three captains this past fall—Elena Ferrari ’19, Miles Sandoski ’19, and Cole Sparks ’19.

Having “grown-up” in the program, all three captains clearly understood what it took to create a sense of team in a largely individual sport and were strong leaders on and off the trails.

Playing Under

Harvard Lights Not many middle school students get the opportunity to compete under the lights at Harvard University, so Belmont Day’s annual Friday Night Lights showcase is an experience that our boys’ and girls’ soccer teams eagerly anticipate and remember long after they graduate. In addition to having current students, families, and faculty, this fall event attracts alumni to reconnect while showing their Blue & Gold pride to cheer on our teams.

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A LU M N I I N AC T I O N

Explorer and Music Producer Ben Mirin ’00

Inspiring Conservation Through Communication and Creativity For Ben Mirin ’00, the innovation mindset is alive and well. A biologist, explorer, journalist, educator, and musician, Ben takes a unique approach to conservation and science communication through music.

Currently a graduate student in the Bioacoustics Research Program at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ben’s research will investigate how music can be a tool for education, outreach, and the preservation of nature.

Ben is an internationally recognized beatboxer. By combining two passions— music and science—he captures and celebrates the natural beauty and musicality of nature. As a National Geographic Explorer, Ben has traveled the world recording the sounds of nature—birds, insects, and animals—to create music and art that advances scientific research and conservation efforts.

During his time as artist-in-residence at The National Centre for Biological Sciences in Bengaluru, India in 2015 Ben composed music from endangered Indian bird songs and took audiences on listening walks to raise awareness about local conservation efforts. He was a plenary speaker for the internationally recognized Student Conference for Conservation Science.

34 | 2019–2020

Ben is a 2019 Safina Center Fellow.

Recipients of the fellowship are selected for their distinctly innovative approaches in their respective fields to the conservation of wildlife and the environment and to give voice to nature. Ben’s work takes this last charge literally, as his field recordings and beatbox tracks are transformed into compositions that remind people to be present and acoustically aware of the diverse and beautiful chorus of sound that is around them when outdoors.

“Social Good ARTivists: Using Craft to Power Cause,” an event sponsored by Dell Technologies at South by Southwest (SXSW) 2018, featured Ben and other artists who create works that increase awareness of sustainability and social good.

As a four-time TED speaker, Ben notes “I learn the most by presenting to people outside conservation. Music reaches people beyond boundaries and attracts a more diverse audience, particularly music fans, to become fans of wildlife.”

Ben, or DJ Ecotone as he is also known, has a particular interest in engaging young people to inspire them to connect with nature. He created and hosted the digital and television series

“Wild Beats” on National Geographic Kids and Nat Geo Wild.

Another way that Ben gets elementary and middle school students excited about science is through his work as a volunteer instructor at the New York Audubon Society’s “For the Birds!” program. In 2016 he became the first artist-in-residence at the Bronx Zoo. Before entering the graduate program at The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ben teamed up with The Lab’s Bird Academy to create “BeastBox,” an online game that explores how animals use sound to communicate within their ecosystems. Players mix wild animal voices with beatbox loops to make their own music. The game has been distributed to more than 3.5 million students nationwide since its launch in early 2018.

“My journey began when I first started watching birds at age 4 and then beatboxing at age 9. I’m grateful for the wealth of choices that have come from examining these passions through an academic lens and finding ways to combine what I love in service of what I care about: protecting the planet,” says Ben. Ben spent his earliest school years at Belmont Day before moving on to another independent school for his later elementary

Music and art can “turn conservation

A LU M N I I N AC T I O N

into an international language that anyone can dance to and understand.

”

Photo: Katie Garrett

years. The move was because, at the time, BDS did not have the structures in place to support Ben’s learning style. He is a graduate of Concord Academy and Carleton College with a bachelor’s degree in English.

In the two decades since Ben left Belmont Day, thanks to research on learning and the brain, an evolution has taken place in education. Schools now have a much more complete understanding of individual student learning styles and embrace a much broader range of learning profiles.

For Belmont Day, that knowledge has led to ensuring that our faculty includes reading and learning specialists for students in all grades, as well as ongoing faculty professional development and parent education on learning differences.

“I’m glad to hear that they have made strides in embracing students who stray from the beaten path and helps them celebrate and explore who they truly are,” Ben noted. Ben’s unique path has served him well and landed him at the forefront of innovation in music, conservation, and science education.

Photo: Ryan Lash for TED

Photo: NY Audubon

Ben Mirin in Belize. Photo by Derek Rowe for Hello Ocean

WHY I GIVE Renovated Tennis Courts Dedicated to

Barbara Osborne ’56 Belmont Day’s two tennis courts are a hub of activity. In addition to seasonal use by our interscholastic tennis teams, they are a destination for kindergartners to ride tricycles, for sixth graders to drive solar-powered cars, and for campers and families to play tennis through our summer offerings. Belmont Day refurbished the courts earlier this year and in May dedicated this valued campus resource to the memory of alumna Dr. Barbara Mallinckrodt Osborne ’56.

“These courts are at the center of our campus and already they are becoming known as the ‘Osborne courts’ in our daily school dialogue,” Head of School Brendan Largay announced at the dedication ceremony.

Barbara attended Belmont Day before going on to Concord Academy, Radcliffe College, and eventually Harvard Medical School. In 1975, she moved to Houston, Texas, where she practiced pathology and hematopathology at MD Anderson Cancer Center for nearly 20 years. Barbara also raised two children, Jon Osborne and Bizet Osborne Seigel. When she passed away on March 29, 2009, Barbara named Belmont Day School as one of the beneficiaries of her estate. Her remarkable gift exceeded $1.2 million and has allowed the school to engage in numerous programmatic initiatives, including upgrading the tennis courts.

Barbara and her sister, Betsy Mallinckrodt Bryden ’58, remained closely connected to Belmont Day after graduation. Whether attending events on campus, hosting events, or generously supporting the annual fund and capital campaigns, the sisters have often shared fond memories of their Belmont Day teachers and experiences on Day School Lane. “This is the kind of place that Barbara and I loved,” Betsy said at the dedication ceremony. “We thrived here, and it really set a foundation for us to look at life in a positive and loving way.”

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Betsy shared with today’s students a yearbook article her sister had written, showing the pride she felt in starting a school committee for community service. Betsy also recalled meeting her first Belmont Day friend on the swings at recess and named friends from those years with whom she is still in touch. “Enjoy every minute of your time here,” she advised students. “Someone sitting next to you may become not just a memory but also a friend for life.”

Refurbishing the courts in conjunction with the opening of the Barn has made it possible for Belmont Day to field two tennis teams, expanding student involvement in the sport. Barbara was an avid athlete who particularly loved tennis. With her father as her coach, she became an excellent tennis player in her teens and continued the sport throughout her life. At the dedication ceremony, Jon said that naming the reopened courts after his mother was a perfect way to honor her legacy.

“She taught us the notion to leave this world a little bit better place than when you found it,” said Jon. “As I look at the talented young athletes, look at this beautiful facility, I can say, Mom, you continue to do just that.”

We thrived “here, and it

really set a foundation for us to look at life in a positive and loving way.

”

class

notes

As we continue to expand the class notes section of this magazine, we are looking for class representatives to help oversee the collection of news and updates from former classmates and friends. If you are interested in serving as a class representative, please contact Director of Alumni Andy Rentschler at arentschler@belmontday.org.

1950s BARBIE HOTTEL WILLIS ’51 writes, “I married the lovely Dick Willis, whom I met at Denison.

He passed away in 2016.”

MARY EDSALL ’55 has lived in Washington, D.C., for more than 50 years, working as a researcher and editor for her husband, Tom, who is a journalist. Mary says: ‘I find myself thinking often about Belmont Day, more than at any other time in my 76 years. I loved the school! Names and faces of my long-ago classmates— Kitten Weeks, Carolyn Mugar, Caroline Norton, Fay Woodruff, Susan Kroto, Dickie Dixon, Timmy Claflin, David Price, Jay Anderson, John Vivian, Leo Cass, Holly Smith—are suddenly vivid to me, and I’d love to know what happened to each of them.

My sister, Margie [Deutsch Carroll] ’58, was 3 years behind me. She is an art historian and lives in Cambridge. News or a visit from anyone would be most welcome!”

PRISCILLA COGAN ’58 has written six plays and won two playwriting awards, and her play “The Summer Cottage” was performed by the Glen Arbor Players. She notes: “I was surprised to discover that the real joy is in the writing as compared to seeing the play on stage.”

MARY EDSALL ’55

LISA SERINI ’69

1960s It has been a busy year for ZAREEN MIRZA ’69 with construction taking place at two houses and helping her mother, Josephine H. Detmer, who has undergone health procedures concerning her heart. Zareen writes: “I adore my memories of Belmont Day School.”

1970s For the past 20 years, ADAM FROST ’73 has helped people in the Greater Boston area to plan, maintain, secure, and improve their computer systems.

His company, Computer Care

(L to R) CHARLES PINCK ’76, president of The OSS Society; Gen. Norton Schwartz, USAF (Ret.), The Hon. James Mattis, Dr. Michael Vickers, and Adm. William McRaven at the presentation of the William J. Donovan Award to Secretary Mattis in Washington, D.C., on October 12, 2019

and Learning, offers a clinic that provides computers to families that can’t afford them.

Adam notes that “Belmont Day science teacher Mr. Ketchke helped me on my way—loved the artificial tornado!”

NINA FRUSZTAJER ’76 writes: “I have fond memories of field day, gymnastics performances in the gym, and so many wonderful

friends at BDS—it was all a lot of fun. These days, my three teenagers keep life fun!”

To commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day, CHARLES PINCK ’76, president of The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) Society unveiled a plaque honoring OSS Station VICTOR in Hurley, U.K., one hour west of London.

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ALICE BRONNERT ’85 (front row, on the left)

1980s ALICE BRONNERT ’85 is a lead focus group moderator in Portland, Oregon, and recently enjoyed teaching a class at the University of Oregon about qualitative methods in the trenches.

Alice also enjoys writing about gender in the workplace and is currently the organizer of a 300-member book group.

1990s CAROLINE BROOKS DETTMAN ’98 and husband Josh welcomed their son, Jack August Dettman on April 12, 2019.

JASON BARTH ’99 is teaching at a Denver Public Schools high school this year. He lives in Denver with his partner Sierra and their two dogs.

2000s

MADELEINE HOBBS ’04 with her husband Andrew research focuses on the etiology and treatment of depression and suicide prevention. In addition to pursuing her research, Morganne is completing the requirements to obtain her clinical license.

MADELEINE HOBBS ’04 married Andrew Alspaugh on September 5, 2018, in Nonquitt, MA. They moved to San Francisco in July of 2018 with their dog Ollie.

SIERRA STARR ’04 is a recent graduate of the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College. During her four years of medical school, Sierra also ran the school’s chapter of Medical Students for Choice. In this role, she joined members of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) in Washington, D.C., to meet with New Hampshire senators and representatives and advocate for women’s health issues. She is currently completing her

BRIAN BARTH ’00 lives in Amsterdam with his wife Emma and works at MassiveMusic as an account manager.

MORGANNE KRAINES ’01 recently graduated with a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Oklahoma State University. She completed her clinical residency year at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University. Morganne is staying at Brown to complete a postdoctoral research fellowship funded by the National Institutes of Health. Broadly, Morganne’s

38 | 2019–2020

SETAREH JAHANBAKSH YELLE ’04, husband Omar and their wedding party residency in obstetrics and gynecology at UMass Medical School in Worcester.

SETAREH JAHANBAKSH YELLE ’04 married Omar Syed on July 6, 2019, in Mattapoisett, MA, with several BDS classmates in attendance.

AMY BRIDGE HAUSMANN ’06 writes: “I graduated from law school this past May and am currently working as a clerk for a federal judge. I live in New Haven, CT with my husband, Andrew Hausmann. We were married in August 2017.”

CASEY BARTH ’07 lives in Los Angeles and is finding success in his music career. He is part of the band RKCB, which was on a 21-show national tour. The tour made a stop at the Middle East in Cambridge in February, where hometown fans Josh Troop ’09 and Director of Communications and Marketing Koreen McQuilton, SHELDON FARNUM ’09

SIERRA STARR ’04 with her parents and sister Emma Star ’08

along with several parents of BDS alumni, were in the audience. Casey is engaged to fellow musician Karina DePiano, and they plan to marry in May 2020.

ANYA PFORZHEIMER ’07 completed a master’s degree in sustainability management at American University’s Kogod School of Business.

While on campus, Anya coordinated a successful program that saw AU compost more than 800 pounds of food waste and coffee grounds each week.

SHELDON FARNUM ’09 completed a ten-week training program at the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy. He was sworn in on October 17, 2019, as a firefighter for the City of Cambridge.

YAZI FERRUFINO ’09, also known as YAZ, is a photographer who specializes in capturing the live music scene in Boston and beyond. He is a staff photographer for both El Mundo Boston, and Vanyaland, an online news, lifestyle, and entertainment magazine. Yazi covers performance and backstage action at festivals and live music shows.

He kicked off the summer festival season photographing Boston Calling and Firefly Music Festival. Studio Allston Hotel, in collaboration with Digital Silver Imaging, hosted a solo exhibition of Yazi’s work this past summer.

C L ASS N OT E S

VICTORIA RUVKUN ’11

JULIA KOSTRO ’12

2010s VICTORIA RUVKUN ’11 graduated magna cum laude and with distinction from Amherst College, where she was a member of the equestrian team.

Now, she’s excited to be shadowing the head of neurosurgery at Boston Children’s Hospital.

CATHERINE DICARA ’12 is a senior at Hobart and William Smith Colleges studying English language and literature. Cat is on the women’s varsity rowing team, the Herons. In October, the team claimed bronze medals at the Head of the Genesee. Cat was also a counselor at Belmont Day Summer Discoveries Camp this past summer.

SOPHIE DICARA ’12 is a history major at Harvard University.

She was recently inducted into the Alpha Iota chapter of the academic honors society Phi Beta Kappa. This past summer she was an intern at Bain & Company.

FLORA DICARA ’12 traveled to Australia this summer to conduct thesis research with the government’s behavioral economics team. She also worked as an intern for the venture-investing group at the Emerson Collective, founded by Laurene Powell Jobs.

SARAH JANE HENMAN ’12 authored a photo essay for a final project at NYU Tisch School

of the Arts. “The Contemporary New York City Gleaner,” tells the little-known story of “Freegans,” or people who go through garbage for their groceries rather than shopping at a conventional supermarket.

ERIC JUMA ’12 is a software engineer at Mass Open Cloud at Boston University and a student at UMass Boston.

JULIA KOSTRO ’12 is a senior at Colby College, completing a degree in education and also working on an honors thesis in education. She spent a semester of her junior year studying abroad at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid where she practiced speaking Spanish, traveled to other European countries, and made lots of new friends. After graduation, Julia will be a member of the Teach For America 2020 corps in Greater Boston.

HARPER MILLS ’12 is doing everything she can to ensure her fellow Scripps College classmates register to vote, canvassing residence halls and partnering with the college’s Leadership Center to help Scripps students register, find their polling locations, and learn how to submit an absentee ballot. Harper notes: “We want to make it as easy as possible for students to get registered. We want our voices to be heard.”

GRAEME MILLS ’12 (third from left)

NOAH CHENG ’13 is a junior at Swarthmore College and competes in both singles and doubles matches on the men’s varsity tennis team. He is also a trained fellow in the Writing Associates Program, which provides peer-to-peer mentors to students across various disciplines.

The strong play of brothers JAYSON CLAYTON ’15 and JORDAN CLAYTON ’18 led Lexington Christian Academy’s (LCA) boys’ varsity basketball team to a successful winter campaign and helped the team earn the sixth seed in the NEPSAC Class C Tournament.

Jordan was recognized as the 2018–19 LCA Breakout Player.

RYAN FIRENZE ’15 is excited to learn that Belmont Day has added a wrestling team to the athletics program. He writes: “When I started high school at Chapel Hill-Chauncy Hall, I tried out wrestling for the first time and kept with it for four years.

Our team had an undefeated season and won the league tournament two years in a row.

My dad was the assistant coach of our team and he would love to come to watch a BDS match.”

Ryan is a freshman at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

AUGUST POKORAK ’15 was a member of Concord Academy’s Big Data Club, which attended the Teradata Analytics Universe

Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, sponsored by the Teradata University Network (TUN) last October. The Concord Academy team presented on gun violence in schools and focused on whether access to mental health resources reduces the incidence of school shootings. The presentation earned the team the TUN People’s Choice Award.

SOPHIE SIEGEL-BERNSTEIN ’15 graduated from CRLS in June 2019 and is currently a freshman at American University.

VALERY FARLEY ’15 spent nearly a month in the Dominican Republic this past summer, where she worked with children in summer camps by day and explored beautiful beaches,

PLEASE EMAIL US ... ... so we can return the favor and keep you up-to-date on all things BDS. Share your news—your classmates will be glad you did!

Contact Andy Rentschler, Director of Alumni, at arentschler@belmontday.org.

Follow us @bdsalumniandfriends

B E L M O N T DAY

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JAMESON SPARKS ’16 was selected for inclusion in the juried Griffin Museum Regional Secondary School Photo Exhibition at Regis College. His photograph, “Roots and Rocks,” was captured during a family trip to Quebec—a trip that was inspired by Jameson’s Belmont Day experience in the city with Mme. Friborg and his French class.

CLARE WESTERMAN ’15 (second from right) with her crew team national parks, and welcoming communities during the evenings and weekends. Val is currently a freshman at Smith College.

GRACE KOLIS ’16 is a senior at Beaver Country Day School.

During her junior year, Grace received the school’s art department award and was selected to participate in Next Up 2019 at the Page Waterman Gallery in Wellesley. Next Up 2019 is a juried art exhibition for high school students in greater Boston. This year marks the second time that Grace’s work has been chosen for the gallery.

DANYA DUBROW-COMPAINE ’16 is a senior at Winsor School. This past summer, she attended the Maimonides Scholars Program, a two-week summer institute at Yale University for high school students interested in Jewish thought and philosophy. Danya is currently serving as religious and cultural vice president for NFTY NE. NFTY is an educational and social community for Reform Jewish high school students.

ELISABETH PITTS ’16 is a senior at Belmont High School where she writes for the principals’ blog. Last year, Elisabeth and fellow classmate Jane Wenzel ’16 had the lead roles in the school’s production of William Shakespeare’s The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

ELI SIEGEL-BERNSTEIN ’16, a senior at CRLS, traveled to Jordan this past summer to study Arabic through a National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y) scholarship.

NSLI-Y is a program of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

HALLE MCQUILTON ’08 lives in Los Angeles, CA. After a stint as an underwriter, she is working as the Compliance Manager at a fintech startup, leveraging blockchain technology. She continues to explore her interests in security, risk, and the regulatory space.

Former Faculty & Staff All that know former Head of School ANNETTE RAPHEL (2011– 2016) are aware of her legendary passion for math. After retiring from Belmont Day, Mrs. Raphel was drawn back to schools by the beauty of mathematics. She has conducted a math audit for a Maine independent school and is currently teaching math to first and second graders at Dedham

Country Day School. Her recent article, “Curiosity is Foundation of Toy Math Activity in Second Grade,” was published in the school’s spring 2019 magazine.

LENESA LEANA, former head of school (1999–2011), put her retirement on hold to take a leadership role as interim head of St. Luke’s Episcopal School in San Antonio, Texas, for the 2018–19 school year.

Before heading south, Mrs. Leana attended Belmont Day’s ninetieth celebration noting: “I miss a student-centered community that focuses on trust and respect and kindness plus all our other significant Belmont Day values.”

RICH BURCHILL, former lower school head (2007–14), and his wife Deb are now living in Reading and love it. Their five (soon to be six) grandchildren are a wonderful addition to their lives. Rich writes: “I am doing some consulting work with school administrators. In the last couple of years, I have been working with four local elementary principals and their assistants. I love the work. I have also continued writing articles for the Irish Primary Principals Network’s leadership magazine.

I often think about what a truly caring environment Belmont Day is for both children and adults.”

In Memoriam DOUGLAS FULLER ’69 passed away on December 26, 2018. After attending Belmont Day, Douglas went on to Belmont Hill School, graduating in 1976. He spent a number of years driving a cab in Belmont, Arlington, Boston, and ultimately in Tucson, Arizona, where he made a large circle of devoted friends. After he returned to the Boston area, he began volunteer work at the MSPCA. This was his favorite occupation, and he gave his heart and soul to it.

CALESTOUS JUMA P ’12 passed away on December 15, 2017, at the age of 64. Professor Juma was a Kenyan scholar and internationally recognized authority in the application of science and technology to sustainable development worldwide. He was a faculty member at the Harvard Kennedy School. His books and papers about the environment, biotechnology, education, artificial intelligence, and the politics of land in Africa made a significant impact both on the continent and across the world.

Calestous is survived by his wife Alison Field-Juma P ’12 and his son Eric Juma ’12.

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SHELDON RANDALL, father of Arianne Randall ’18 and Marielle Randall ’17, passed away suddenly on December 4, 2018.

GERRY OUELLETTE P ’64 ’66 ’69 passed away on February 13, 2019. Gerry joined the Air Force after graduation from Adams High School and then entered Harvard College, where he earned degrees in engineering. He enjoyed a long career in aerospace, primarily working on guidance and navigation systems for rockets, satellites, and missile-defense systems. He also taught astronomy at Boston University, appeared as an astrologer on Boston TV news, and was a guest lecturer at the Hayden Planetarium at Boston’s Museum of Science. Gerry is survived by his wife and companion Jeannie Ouellette; his children, Donald ’64, Tom ’66, Stephen ’69 and his wife Karen, Jillian McManus and her husband Brian; and grandchildren, Emma Ouellette, Jamey Ouellette, and Evan and Eden McManus.

He is also survived by his brother, Richard Ouellette and his wife Joan; and sisters, Claire Kennedy and Shirley Kosche. He was predeceased by his brother, Donald, and sister, Roma, as well as his first wife, Ann M. Ouellette P ’64 ’66 ’69.

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