HB Magazine Winter/Spring 2015

ns less o You Art ng W r i Stu sts Fe iters & s d pg ent C tival . rea Fue tivi ls ty

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excerpted from Head of School Bill Christ’s remarks to HB faculty and staff on January 5, 2015

wanted to share with you the news that I will be retiring at the close of the 2015–2016 school year. There, I actually said it—hard notion to get my mind around—and at this moment I am filled with an overwhelming sense of gratitude to you and the entire HB community for the privilege of serving as Head of this endlessly amazing and deeply beloved school. I have been so incredibly fortunate and words could never express how thankful I am for the gift of being able to live the Hathaway Brown adventure over the past 28 years.

Truth be told, I came to HB because of you—because of the creativity, dedication, and warmth of the faculty and staff. I still remember the vibrancy of the classes I visited in 1986, the inspiring conversations with teachers and administrators, the brio with which the life of the mind was lived here. I remember thinking: I’ve got to be a part of this. You drew me here and you kept me here through your generativity, passion, kindness, and capacity for growth.

I’ve read that the average tenure of school heads these days is six or seven years. A friend of mine was a very effective, longstanding school head and I remember him telling me that he finally left his school because he felt there just wasn’t anything more he could make happen there. I’ve never felt that way for a nanosecond. I always believed one didn’t need to leave HB to be at a fresh, dynamic new school because every three to five years we reinvent the place without straying from our core principles.

We’ve been driven by a relentless restlessness—an unquenchable willingness to experiment and explore. It’s this amazingly rich field of ideas where the more you harvest, the more fertile it becomes. And that’s a direct reflection of the quality of our people, and how brilliantly they revel in the limitless horizons of opportunity our school provides. People who are here to teach students, not just subjects; who believe in the unbounded

potential of HB girls; and who are committed to finding more and more transformational ways to help our girls become the brave, visionary leaders we need for these complicated times of ours. I’m not going to say the place never sleeps, but I know for a fact it never stops dreaming.

In November, Alex Kern ’03, an actor who lives in New York City and runs her web series, SingleDumb, about the dating scene there, returned to HB to talk about her work and teach some of our drama students. After her visit, she wrote and described her time at the school: “I am completely floored by HB. Completely.

I am so impressed with all of the new programs that the school has to offer and the level of sophistication. I’m beyond proud to say ‘I went there.’ But, above all, it’s the warmth and sense of community that is still so vibrant at HB. And, that is certainly a testament to all of the teachers and students. Walking around the halls, you can feel the positive energy, ambition, and genuine curiosity—it is contagious.”

That’s why I think this is a propitious moment to pass the torch to a new generation of leadership. The things Alex talked about are baked into the bones of this community. They aren’t going anywhere. They’re built to last. But make no mistake, these terrific things are happening because of you—you are the heart and soul of the place, the veritable imperishable essence of HB. Thank you for all that you have given to the life of Hathaway Brown, and to its very lucky Head of School.

William Christ, Head of School The full text of this speech is posted at www.hb.edu/magazine.

For more information about the Head Search process, please see Transition on page 30.

ON THE COVER: Rebecca Weinberger ’15 poses with a graphic representation of her painting, Logos (left), inspired by the artistic techniques taught by internationally renowned painter James March. The work was created during the Hathaway Brown Young Writers and Artists Festival in fall 2014. To learn more about the festival, turn to page 10. Cover photo by James Douglas.

PHOTOS BY JAMES DOUGLAS

thank you

Good-Natured Fun PHOTOS BY JASON MILLER

New Pre-Kindergarten program allows boys and girls to explore the great outdoors Pre-Kindergarten classes have embarked this year on a learning adventure through free exploration of the natural world in a new program called Taking Root. Three afternoons a month, PK teachers Stefanie Albrecht, Julie Harris, Marissa Haverlock, Emily Mount, Mary-Scott Pietrafese, and Kristen Wise accompany their students to Case Western Reserve University’s Squire Valleevue Farm in nearby Hunting Valley. There, the children are encouraged to investigate the distinct landscape that includes a creek, woods, meadow, and pond. The young explorers are able to watch the seasons change, study their surroundings, and just plain have fun.

PHOTO BY ED BYERS

... from the editor Although I spent the better part of my childhood hoping to one day become a pediatrician, a career that emphasized writing seemed, for me, predetermined.

(Especially after the grades came back for those chemistry labs I took in college.)

I grew up in a household in which the English language was held in high regard.

I was taught that words are immensely powerful. My parents emphasized the value of thoughtful expression to such a degree that to this day I cannot escape casual conversation without one of my siblings correcting my grammar.

Everyone knows that the first step on the road to being a writer is being a reader. Every Saturday, my mother would take my brother and sisters and me to the library, and we would check out big stacks of books to carry us through the week. Then I’d sit on my bedroom floor for hours on end, devouring everything from Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle to The Grapes of Wrath. In between all of those pages, I realized that although writers have rules to follow, the act of bringing thoughts to life is far more liberating than it ever could be restrictive.

While I certainly appreciate the way that James Joyce and Louisa May Alcott and William Faulkner and Harper Lee could turn a phrase, far and away my favorite writer is my dad. A journalist for more than four decades, my father taught me to spot all the stories swirling around right in front of my eyes. He showed me that you don’t have to squint in order to see beauty and history and intrigue and importance in all of the people and the places and the things that form our existence. Over the course of his career, my dad has written about families and governments and corporations and schools; he’s captured feelings of joy and betrayal and excitement and loss. From him, I learned what it means to put myself in someone else’s shoes. He was my first editor, coaching me to ask the right questions, to find the connections,

and to string ideas together in my mind and on the page in ways that actually say something. He cautioned me against falling so in love with my own voice that I don’t remember to give readers a bit of substance, but at the same time he taught me to hear my writing in my head. Life has a particular cadence; stories about it should too.

Because of my dad’s influence, I was able to be a newspaper reporter, to have my own business as a writer and consultant, and to become the editor of this magazine. In my personal and professional life, it has been an enormous gift to have been taught to write well.

At Hathaway Brown, Upper School students have similar benefits at their disposal. In addition to the superior writing education they receive in their traditional English classes, girls learn to develop and uphold theories, to conduct thorough research, and to construct insightful essays with significant takeaways in each of their other courses of study as well. And every fall, they’re invited to work in inspiring and instructional small group settings with a bevy of bestselling and prizewinning authors in fiction and nonfiction at HB’s signature Young Writers and Artists Festival (Object Lessons, page 10).

What’s the most important thing you can learn about being a good writer? You never stop learning.

All in the Family HB editor Kathleen Osborne with her father, Richard Osborne, at a Press Club of Cleveland event.

If you’d like to become a contributor to HB magazine, please email kosborne@hb.edu or call 216.320.8785.

Letters to the editor may be sent to publications@hb.edu or to the school’s mailing address. We welcome feedback through our social media channels as well. Find us on Facebook under Hathaway Brown School or send us a tweet at @HathawayBrown.

PHOTO BY SHANNON AHLSTRAND

Kathleen Osborne Editor, Director of Communication & Outreach

Vanessa Butler Creative Director, Director of Marketing

Scott Danielson Digital Media Specialist

administrative team: William Christ Head of School

Sue Sadler Assoc. Head of School & Director of Upper School

Sarah Johnston Assoc. Head for Enrollment Management

Sharon Baker Director of Middle School

Jane Brown Director of Early Childhood

Mary Rainsberger Director of Advancement

Katherine Zopatti Director of Primary School

alumnae relations team: Dana Lovelace Capers ’86 Director of Alumnae Relations

Erin Reid Advancement Coordinator

19600 North Park Boulevard Shaker Heights, Ohio 44122 216.320.8785 If you’d like to cancel delivery of HB magazine, please email publications@hb.edu.

Parents: If your daughter is not receiving this magazine at her permanent address, please notify publications@hb.edu so that it may be mailed directly to her.

index

alumnae featured in this issue Heather Strom Areklett ’88 – Good Chemistry, pg. 7 Caroline Bashour ’13 – Linked for Life, pg. 23 Kathryn Bashour ’08 – Linked for Life, pg. 23 Lauren Berger ’07 – Linked for Life, pg. 22 Tracy Buescher ’84 – Linked for Life, pg. 22 Helen Rankin Butler ’87 – Transition, pg. 30 Missy Vertes Butler ’86 – Good Chemistry, pg. 7 Dana Lovelace Capers ’86 – Linked for Life, pg. 21 Virginia Osborne Charman ’41 – Object Lessons, pg. 19 Sarah Dierker ’14 – (Un)Bound(ed) by Imagination, pg. 29 Courtney Dumas ’11 – Linked for Life, pg. 21 Susan Dakin Dumas ’84 – Linked for Life, pg. 22 Elizabeth Stewart Fox ’60 – Alumnae Weekend 2015, pg. 44 Ariel Frankel ’10 – Linked for Life, pg. 22 Danielle Frankel ’13 – Linked for Life, pg. 23 Francie Gottsegen ’84 – Linked for Life, pg. 22 Athena Haloua ’14 – (Un)Bound(ed) by Imagination, pg. 29 Denise Wood Hahn ’88 – Good Chemistry, pg. 7 Margaret Hamilton ’21 – A Heart is Not Judged, pg. 8 Dorothy Tremaine Hildt ’45 – Gifted Guests, pg. 6 Hadley Pennington Keefe ’05 – Linked for Life, pg. 22 Alex Kern ’03 – Thank You, inside front cover Danielle Bradshaw Lane ’90 – Alumnae Weekend 2015, pg. 41 Jean Mackenzie ’65 – Alumnae Weekend 2015, pg. 44 Tory Kauer Mateo ’04 – Joined in Matrimony, pg. 64 Mallory Kilfoyle Moler ’06 – Joined in Matrimony, pg. 64 Lisa Mortimer ’88 – Good Chemistry, pg. 7 Lisa Kroeger Murtha ’88 – Contributors, pg. 3; Linked for Life, pg. 21 Alison Oreh ’08 – Linked for Life, pg. 22 Natalie Sayed ’14 – (Un)Bound(ed) by Imagination, pg. 29 Molly Brooks Seitz ’84 – Linked for Life, pg. 22 Kate LaMantia Sherwin ’00 – Linked for Life, pg. 22 Bailey Vance Wells ’04 – Joined in Matrimony, pg. 64 Dori Jones Yang ’72 – Alumnae Weekend 2015, pg. 41 Margaret White Ziering ’68 – Linked for Life, pg. 22 Alumnae Council – Organization Roster, pg. 37 Head’s Council – Meeting of Minds, pg. 31

contributors James Douglas Cover; Object Lessons, page 10

James Douglas is a Cleveland photographer who has photographed everything from extreme snow sports to motorcycles to fashion. He specializes in high-concept commercial work that challenges the viewer and explodes with action. He’s a lot like this city—tough, passionate, and dedicated. See more of his work, including his Dark Portrait Series, at www.jamesdouglas.com.

David Giffels Object Lessons, page 10

David Giffels’ most recent books are The Hard Way on Purpose: Essays and Dispatches from the Rust Belt and All the Way Home: Building a Family in a Falling-Down House. His writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Parade, The Wall Street Journal, on Esquire.com, ESPN’s Grantland, and in many other publications. He is an assistant professor of English at The University of Akron, where he teaches creative nonfiction in the Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts Program.

Emily Imka ’15 Comic Relief, page 19

A senior at Hathaway Brown, Emily Imka has been part of Jamie Morse’s Advanced Studio Art class for two years, and she has taken a two-week undergraduate biomedical art class at the Cleveland Institute of Art. She’s won four Scholastic awards for her work. When she’s not painting or drawing, she enjoys playing guitar, discovering music a decade late, sleeping 10 hours a day, and pushing the limits of recommended daily chocolate consumption.

Jason Miller Contributing Photographer

Jason Miller is a commercial and editorial photographer with a passion for making great pictures and having fun in the process. Throughout his career, he’s photographed everyone from President Obama on the campaign trail to LeBron James during his triumphant return to his hometown.

But “working with HB is always one of my favorite assignments,” he says, “because it reminds me of shooting pictures of my own 4-year-old daughter.” Visit www.pixelateltd.com to view his portfolio.

Jamie Mueller

(Un)Bound(ed) by Imagination, page 28

English Department Chair and Eleanor & Kelvin Smith Chair in English, Jamie Mueller has taught English at all Upper School levels, she’s been a dean at several levels, and has been a teacher for 25 years. In 1996, she won a National Humanities Fellowship about African-American Literature, and in the same year won a St. Andrews Fellowship to study in St. Andrews, Scotland. She was a finalist in the Powell’s writing contest for an essay she wrote about her most memorable reading experience, centered on Madame Bovary. Her passion for reading and writing join when she reads for the annual AP Literature exam in Louisville, Ky., and her garden, children, and husband round out the teaching life.

Lisa Kroeger Murtha ’88 Linked for Life, page 21

Lisa Kroeger Murtha ’88 has worked for 19 years as a freelance writer, researcher, and television producer. She is a regular contributor to both Cincinnati Magazine and the Cincinnati Business Courier, and has worked for visual media clients ranging from PBS to the Do-It-Yourself Network.

She is also the creator, writer, and producer of a regional Emmy-nominated documentary film called A Hillside Firm. She lives in Cincinnati, Ohio,

with her husband, Matt, and their three sons … which is why she really enjoys writing about women–and especially fellow HB alumnae–whenever she gets a chance.

PHOTO BY JASON MILLER

contents Cover Story

10 Object Lessons Hathaway Brown’s Young Writers and Artists Festival

opens students’ senses to creative expression

17 Instructors Manual Ten inventive teachers convened at HB this fall to guide Young

Writers and Artists Festival participants

18 ibid

A sampling of excerpts from student work inspired by the HB Young Writers and Artists Festival

19 Comic Relief By drawing a comic strip about drawing a comic strip,

Emily Imka ’15 proves that existentialism can be fun

News from North Park

6 HB Highlights 7 Athletics Update Features

21 Linked for Life HB alumnae of all ages all around the world share a

common bond, and they’re finding ways to leverage the power of that network

26 MAKE #RAKE

HB’s Fall Legacy Day was devoted to making a difference in others’ lives through Random Acts of Kindness Everywhere

28 (Un)Bound(ed) by Imagination

Upper School English students create Out-of-the-Box projects to join characters together in new ways

pg. 26

30 Transition

With Head of School Bill Christ’s retirement in July 2016 approaching, the HB Head Search Committee begins the process of finding his successor

Class Notes

31 A Note from the Alumnae Office 32 Alumnae News 65 Brides, Babies, Memorials 67 Advancement Update: Tuition Runs Out Day

HB.edu/magazine

The contents of this publication—with the exception of Class News for privacy reasons—are posted online. To maximize your experience, we’ve made a wide array of additional content related to the featured stories available as well, including videos, photo galleries, and Internet resources.

PHOTOS BY VANESSA BUTLER

Gifted Guests Leading up to the third annual Young Writers and Artists Festival for Hathaway Brown Upper School students, some internationally acclaimed creative artists spent time on campus. Bestselling comic book artist, filmmaker, and writer Marjane Satrapi joined us for an onstage conversation about her life and work on October 23, and recording artist and activist Dar Williams performed, connected with students, and conducted a songwriting workshop on October 30.

All members of the HB community were invited to see Williams perform a 30-minute set in the Middle School Atrium, featuring such classic numbers as “If I Had a Hammer” and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” along with several originals, including “The Babysitter’s Here.” Following her performance, Williams spoke with HB students about finding their voices and being unconventional during a Real Conversations with Real People discussion. She also hosted personalized songwriting workshops with Middle and Upper School girls.

Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel Persepolis, a favorite of HB students, tells the story of the author’s youth in Iran in the 1970s and ’80s, of living through the Islamic Revolution, and the war with Iraq. After its initial publication in France, Persepolis earned enormous critical acclaim and won several prestigious comic book awards. The book has been translated into more than 40 languages, and it was chosen by the Young Adult Library Association as one of its recommended titles for all students, and also named one of the “100 Best Books of the Decade” by The Times (London). After a 45-minute conversation with HB’s Osborne Writing Center Director Scott Parsons, Satrapi stayed for an audience Q&A session with HB students and signed copies of her books.

Open to Cleveland-area high school students, the Young Writers and Artists Festival is organized by the Osborne Writing Center to offer small workshops in poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, playwriting, songwriting, painting, and comics. Each section offers students the opportunity to pursue their creative passions and develop their craft through working with a talented and accomplished professional writer or artist in a small workshop setting with other invested young writers and artists. The pre-festival visiting artist opportunities with Marjane Satrapi and Dar Williams were made possible through sponsorships by HB’s Center for Global Citizenship, the Tremaine Art History Endowment, Dorothy Tremaine Hildt ’45, the Hathaway Brown Parent Association, and a generous family donor.

An idiosyncratic songwriter who writes folk songs from a unique, often insightful perspective, Dar Williams has been compared to Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez. Since her debut in 1993, she has recorded nine studio albums, including 2012’s In the Time of Gods, she’s written two children’s books, and she has given talks to aspiring musicians and artists around the country.

To learn more about the Young Writers and Artists Festival, turn to Object Lessons on page 10.

High Marks

Tessa Murthy ’15 recently earned a 36, the highest possible composite score on the ACT exam.

The ACT features tests dedicated to English, mathematics, reading, and science, with each scored on a scale from 1-36. A student’s composite score is an average of these four test scores.

Typically, fewer than one-tenth of one percent of all test takers fare this well. Earlier this year, Tessa’s classmate Rebecca Weinberger ’15 also earned a perfect score on the ACT.

Blazer Varsity Coach Paul Barlow with players Mackenzie Berk ’17 (l) and Jordan ElHindi ’16 (r) on Barlow Recognition Night.

SPORT REPORT BASKETBALL

In Coach Paul Barlow’s final season with the Blazers, the Varsity basketball team finished as District Runner-Up * This year marked HB’s 10th trip to the District final game * Congratulations go out to the JV team on a strong season as well.

CROSS COUNTRY For the first time since

FIELD HOCKEY The Varsity team had a 12-5 season. * The JV team’s record was 8-2-4.

GOLF Advanced to the OHSAA Division II State

Additionally, nine members of the Class of 2015 received Letters of Commendation in recognition of their outstanding academic promise, based on their Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test scores. This year’s National Merit Commended Students are Emily Amjad, Alexis Anderson, Marta Baker, Emily Imka, Alison Martin, Laura Mueller, Anisha Sehgal, Emily Spencer, and Elizabeth Toohey.

Kayla Briskey and Ronda Kyle have been named Outstanding Participants in the National Achievement Scholarship Program, based on their performance on the 2013 PSAT. This designation is reserved for those students who scored in the top three percent of the more than 160,000 Black Americans who took the test in 2013.

Pictured (l-r) are Ronda Kyle ’15, Head of School Bill Christ, and Kayla Briskey ’15.

Tournament and finished fifth, with a team score of 702.

SOCCER The Varsity team was the OHSAA Division II District Runner-Up and had an overall record of 8-9-2. * JV completed their season with a record of 0-8-5.

SWIMMING & DIVING HB’s Varsity

Swimming and Diving team finished the 2014-2015 season on high note. The team was Runner-Up in the OHSAA Division II District Swim Meet and placed fourth overall in the OHSAA Division II State Meet. * Several Varsity records were broken throughout the season and Blazer athletes earned spots at the podium in numerous events.

TENNIS

The Varsity “A” team completed their season with an overall record of 11-3. * Varsity “B” finished the season with a record of 11-6. * The JV Tennis team’s record was 13-1. * Lauren Gillinov ’17 captured the OHSAA Division II Singles State Championship. * Catherine Areklett ’17 and Ally Persky ’17 were the OHSAA Division II Doubles State Runners-Up.

VOLLEYBALL The Varsity Volleyball team advanced to the OHSAA Division II District Semifinal, and they ended the season with a 10-11 record. * The JV team completed the regular season with an overall record of 4-12.

GOOD CHEMISTRY Upper School science teacher Don Southard has been teaching at Hathaway Brown since 1981. And he’s beginning to see some familiar faces in his classroom. During the 2014-2015 school year, Southard is helping members of the sophomore class understand the principles of chemistry. Four of those students have the added benefit of being able to turn to their mothers for help if they need it, because Southard taught them as well. Three decades may have passed, but Southard still has the

same classroom, and he’s still captivating students with his knowledge and expertise.

These mother-daughter pairs may not share a covalent bond, but they share a special HB Chemistry bond just the same. They are (back row, l-r): Denise Wood Hahn ’88, Lisa Mortimer ’88, Heather Strom Areklett ’88, and Missy Vertes Butler ’86; (front row, l-r): Skylar Hahn ’17, Maggie Cha ’17, Catherine Areklett ’17, and Maren Butler ’17.

HB

2012, the team was ranked fourth in the OHSAA Division II district meet and advanced as a team to the OHSAA Division II regional meet. * The Blazers finished ninth at Regionals.

Congratulations also are in order for Bridget Babcox, Tessa Murthy, Sanjana Roy, Charlotte Tse, and Rebecca Weinberger, the five Hathaway Brown seniors who have been chosen as National Merit Finalists this year for their high scores on the Preliminary SAT. They are part of the prestigious list of fewer than one percent of American high school seniors who are the highest scoring entrants in each state. They now will compete for 7,600 National Merit Scholarships, worth $33 million, that will be offered this spring.

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Through the school’s annual exchange with Ravenswood School for Girls in Gordon, Australia, just outside Sydney, Georgie Byers, Olivia Haglund, and Ali Westmore (l-r, inset) spent five weeks at Hathaway Brown in November and December. The relationship with Ravenswood is one of the longest such exchange programs HB has in place with a dedicated partner school. Each year, two or three rising HB sophomores travel to Australia in the summer, and their Australian counterparts arrive in Shaker Heights in the fall. The Ravenswood students anxiously anticipate experiencing the cold of the Midwest and watching the snow fall (many for the first time) while they’re in the States. These photos capture the girls’ excitement during an early November snowstorm, the first of the season. Shortly after the snow hit the ground, they dashed outside to feel the flakes on their faces and to enthusiastically make snow angels. Little did they know that by the next morning there already would be seven inches piled on the ground in the HB Courtyard, and the temperatures would have dropped to the single digits.

A HEART IS NOT JUDGED

BY HOW MUCH YOU LOVE; BUT BY HOW MUCH YOU ARE LOVED BY OTHERS.

In November 2014, Hathaway Brown staged The Wizard of Oz as a tribute to Margaret Hamilton ’21, who immortalized the role of the Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 MGM film. Prior to the show, a commemorative display honoring Hamilton’s life and career (1902-1985) was installed outside The Ahuja Auditorium. The display included dozens of photographs, newspaper and magazine clippings, and other memorabilia from the HB archives. In the play program, HB Theatre Director Molly Cornwell wrote, “We dedicate this production to Ms. Hamilton not because she was a scary witch, but because she was a young woman who had the courage, heart, and brains to follow her dream­­—to create her own yellow brick road—and who serves as an inspiration to all of us.”

FOCUS ON THE FUTURE

TOP PHOTOS BY KATHLEEN OSBORNE; BOT TOM PHOTOS BY VANESSA BUTLER

WELCOME TO OHIO

PHOTOS BY VANESSA BUTLER

Blanket Statement have included these works and others in their curriculum for many years. The themes of family and heritage are extremely prevalent in Polacco’s writing. A gifted artist, she spent her childhood expressing herself through art. Remarkably, she did not learn to read herself until she was 14 years old, having lived with undiagnosed dyslexia to that point. She began her career as a storyteller, and her first book was published when she was 41.

“For us, the idea of having the children meet with a real author and illustrator is very powerful,” Englehart says. “Our business is the business of literacy. Spending time with the person who created some of the students’ favorite books allows them to see, hear, and understand that writing and art are very key elements in all that happens in our world.”

“She’s incredibly inspirational,” Englehart says.

Polacco is the author of dozens of children’s books, including some HB favorites such as Chicken Sunday, The Keeping Quilt, and Thunder Cake.

Englehart and her Primary School colleagues

Polacco’s own family heirloom quilt that inspired The Keeping Quilt now is on display at the Mazza Museum at the University of Findlay, which houses the world’s largest collection of original artwork by children’s book illustrators.

In preparation for Polacco’s visit, HB Primary School students created their own “Keeping Quilt” out of fabric and felt, which they shared with the author while she was on campus.

Lighting the Way: Defining Excellence in Girls’ Education, Hathaway Brown’s new Strategic Plan, was approved by the Board of Trustees on October 3, 2014.

Designed as a blueprint for maintaining excellence and continuing to reach for even more goals outlined in HB’s mission, the plan was unveiled broadly in December.

This Strategic Plan was developed to emphasize and underscore the strengths that already exist at HB, and to help the school’s leadership seize the opportunities and rise to the challenges that the future brings. It was developed over the course of two years, with input from more than 150 members of the school community, including faculty, staff, administrators, parents, alumnae, and school trustees.

Another fun way that the school marked the visit was by serving “Thunder Cake” during lunchtime.

The recipe for this Devil’s Food cake was inspired by a day of baking Polacco shared with her grandmother during a Michigan thunderstorm when she was young. The cake contains a unique surprise ingredient, and recipe cards were available for the girls and their teachers to take so they could try their hands at baking Thunder Cake at home.

Wish you had the recipe for this special cake?

Go to www.hb.edu/magazine for a Photo by Kevin Reeves recipe card of your own!

The strategies contained within the plan—which are now being implemented— are wide ranging and far reaching. A condensed summary version of Lighting the Way was published and mailed to current parents and faculty and staff.

All others have been invited to view the document online at www.hb.edu/ StrategicPlan. The full Strategic Plan is available for download at that URL as well.

For questions about the plan, please email Head of School Bill Christ at bill_christ_headmaster@hb.edu. To obtain a printed version of the Strategic Plan summary or for a hard copy of the full Strategic Plan package, which includes implementation metrics for each goal, contact Kathleen Osborne, Director of Communication & Outreach, at kosborne@hb.edu or 216.320.8785.

HB

Beloved American storyteller, author, and illustrator Patricia Polacco made a special personal appearance at Hathaway Brown this fall. HB was the first stop on Polacco’s rare grand tour of Northeast Ohio, organized by HB’s Early Childhood & Primary School Librarian Kathy Englehart. Other schools and organizations on Polacco’s itinerary included Hawken, Laurel, University School, Cleveland Schools Book Fund, Gesu, and Bryden School.

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Hathaway Brown’s Young Writers & Artists Festival opens students’ senses to creative expression [ BY DAVI D GI FFELS ]

[ PORT RAI TS BY JAMES D O UGLAS ]

… white, like the pages of a gently used book, with only one small mark of imperfection, as though the reader had a speck of dirt lingering on her finger, transferred upon touch.

started with a wiffle ball.

Well, a wiffle ball and a Mr. Potato Head.

less o

This turned out to be enough.

Where it started was in the Senior Room, which apparently is sacred ground at Hathaway Brown. But I didn’t know this then.

What I did know, after two previous visits to the Young Writers and Artists Festival, is that the library at Hathaway Brown can feel chilly on a day like this: Halloween, overcast, drizzly, rough wind clattering the branches.

And when I learned that my group of 15 writers was assigned to gather in the library, and I began to lead them that way, past the regiment of cellos outside the music room, I asked the girls if they had any suggestions for a change of venue.

“The Senior Room,” one offered.

Can we? an underclassman asked, her furtive tone revealing the class divide that renders this section of the Upper School’s west end off limits to anyone under Grade 12.

I, ignorant of the rules, declared that, yes, we could go anywhere we wanted.

And so we changed course, settling into the cozy nook furnished with couches and padded armchairs. Then we began to talk about Mr. Potato Head.

I had come to the school to talk about writing, to explore it, to practice it. I was one of 10 visiting writers and artists here for the third installment of this growing, changing festival, an event that has become a highlight of both Hathaway Brown’s school year and my own teaching year.

Rebecca Weinberger ’15 poses with a graphic representation of her painting, Logos, inspired by the artistic techniques taught by internationally renowned painter James March at HB’s Young Writers and Artists Festival.

HB

ns

OK: A wiffle ball, a Mr. Potato Head, and a universe full of chaos.

11

Here was a chance to share one of my favorite lessons about nonfiction writing, one I stumbled across many years ago while doing some serious research-driven Googling on the subject of Mr. Potato Head. I found an essay by a journalist who suggested that a writer train himself to think like the old Hasbro toy. I told the young writers that morning about how I do this all the time, and that it always works.

You arrive at some new place or person or thing, with the intention of writing about it. Invariably, you feel lost, disoriented, overwhelmed, or uncertain. So you imagine yourself as the unadorned Mr. Potato Head, fresh out of the box.

Now: Open to a blank page.

First, put on Mr. Potato Head’s eyes. Begin to record everything visual about the scene before you. Only the visual detail. And concentrate. If you see blue, don’t call it blue.

Blue doesn’t mean anything. The sky is blue, and so is a new pair of jeans, and those two colors are as different as purple and green.

Look for shapes and misspelled wall signs, dust in the corners and odd grain in the woodwork. Get it all down, without worrying about what it means. That will come later.

Then put on Mr. Potato Head’s ears. Listen, I told them. If you weren’t thinking like Mr. Potato Head and I asked you what you hear here in the Senior Room when I stop talking, you would say, “nothing.”

But now, what do you hear?

“The lights,” one said. “Buzzing.”

“The wind outside.”

“Something squeaking.”

“A bird.”

Next, the hands. All the touch sensations— rough, smooth, rubbery, cool, wrinkled.

Then the mouth. Even when you’re not writing about food, there can be taste. A thunderstorm has taste. So does a roofing nail.

And the nose. We don’t do enough with smell as writers. If you can bring me into the scents of your kitchen on Thanksgiving morning when your dad is grating a lemon peel and your mother is sweating celery and onions, I guarantee I’m in for at least a page of whatever comes next.

That’s where we begin as writers. Not with ideas. Ideas are too hard; they deceive and elude. We begin with what the world gives us. What the world gives us first is chaos, and the way we wrestle that toward our ends is with our senses.

Go now, I told them. For 30 minutes, go wherever you want, inside or outside. School was not in session that chilly Friday, and we had the run of the place.

She looked at it. She looked at it some more. It had holes, of course. Holes, she determined, “the size of chickpeas.” And “a subtle seam around the circumference.”

She felt it. It was cold. And rough, yes, but rough was not exact. Writing “rough” is like writing “blue.” She felt it again. She determined that it felt like it had been “grazed over by low-grit sandpaper, leaving a matte, yet refined fluid shell interrupted only by the tiny sporadic craters.”

She pushed it off the table, and listened. … when it bounces, it emulates the dull empty thud of a hammer colliding with drywall and fades into the memory of a child touching the spinning foam propellers of a dollar store personal fan.

That’s where we begin as writers. Not with ideas.

Ideas are too hard; they deceive and elude.

We begin with what the world gives us. What the world gives us first is chaos, and the way we wrestle that toward our ends is with our senses.

Find a common object, I said. Something self-contained, and go all Mr. Potato Head on it.

Off they went, and I stayed, alone in the Senior Room, and it was quiet again. Except there’s no such thing as quiet. We knew that now. Because we were writers.

This is how Molly Sharpe ’16 found the wiffle ball. She and her friend Lizzie Poulos ’15 had wandered into the dim empty classroom of history teacher Kevin Purpura and began looking. Lizzie found a teardropshaped paperweight with swirls of blue inside. Molly found the white plastic ball full of holes, an everyday and uncomplicated object.

“I didn’t know it would be there,” she told me later. “It was random. It seemed so simple.

But I’ve never read about a wiffle ball before.

So I kind of wanted to challenge myself.”

She wrote and wrote, filling her notebook with detail after detail, half-formed metaphors, stretches of imagination. The time was up too soon for her, but the girls were making their way back to the Senior Room and Molly did too.

There, back together, they all began to share their findings.

McKenna Ritter ’16 had explored a coat rack. Sue Roy ’15 found far more humanity than one might expect in a trash can. Kacey Gill ’16 had begun with a guitar case but was headed somewhere completely different.

Continued on page 15.

TOP PHOTO BY JASON MILLER; BOT TOM PHOTOS BY JAMES DOUGLAS

To learn more, please visit www.hb.edu/writersfestival.

Inaugurated in 2012 with a comics workshop taught by Derf Backderf, the arts component of the festival has expanded to include a variety of artists. The 2014 workshops featured the return of Derf, as well as the addition of a painting workshop by internationally acclaimed artist James March, who creates stunning abstract geometric paintings that are shown across the country and throughout Europe. Students in both of these sessions produced work based on the style and methods of each artist, and the results are superb.

“I had a great experience with the workshop,” March says.

“The students were very motivated self-starters. I was amazed how they all just dove in using my painting techniques. Each had her own vision, and in the end, each made some truly remarkable art.”

PERSPECTIVE

Derf agrees. “It’s always a blast for me to teach comics to HB girls,” he says. “I’ve never encountered a more enthusiastic and receptive group of young writers and artists.”

Allowing high school students the opportunity to work under the tutelage of established artists is both a rare and exciting event. Because of the intensity of the tasks at hand and the extended periods of time the students had in which to work, the creative energy during these sessions was palpable; the art studios were alive with energy and purpose. The HB Young Writers and Artists Festival gives students an avenue to create art in ways that could never occur during the regular school day.

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Jamie Morse is Hathaway Brown’s Visual Arts Department Chair.

HB

The third annual Young Writers and Artists Festival was held at Hathaway Brown Oct. 31-Nov. 1, 2014. Developed by Osborne Writing Center Director Scott Parsons, the mission of the festival is to connect HB girls with talented and passionate professional writers and artists who are also dedicated to nurturing the creative spirits of students. The festival kicks off with performances and class visits so that participants can experience the talent and dedication of the workshop leaders: to hear music, experience spoken-word poetry, and be engaged by personal stories of the creative life of a writer. The heart of the festival is the full-day workshop experience, during which the girls can “go deep” and pursue a creative passion (or explore a curiosity). Through the workshops, they are able to take risks with their work, develop their authentic voices, and form more meaningful connections with their peers and workshop leaders. More than anything, the festival exists to inspire girls’ voices and to build an expanding community of encouragement and support.

visual arts portion of the Hathaway Brown Young Writers and Artists Festival is a perfect complement to the writing workshops in that students in both are encouraged to find their voices, and express themselves in ways that the traditional school arts curriculum cannot easily accommodate. During the festival, the campus is alive with sparkling creative energy. It is a moment in the school year during which HB students can feel what it’s like to be a working artist, clear their minds of all other tasks, and express themselves with an intensity and depth only this festival can provide.

13

New York Times bestselling author Alexandra Fuller is the “patron saint” of HB’s Young Writers and Artists Festival. Always a popular and inspirational instructor, she has been a pillar of the event since its inauguration in 2012. This year, she taught a session called “Mindfulness & Writing,” during which she asked students to meditate for an entire day before crafting one significant sentence.

LEFT PHOTOS BY JASON MILLER; BOT TOM RIGHT PHOTO BY JAMES DOUGLAS

Now here is where the writer begins, I told them. The world gives us chaos. But it also offers us detail, and has graced us with both the senses to determine those details and the whimsy to wonder about them. We only need one little hook to get us going.

Henry James offers one of my favorite quotes on writing: “We work in the dark— we do what we can—we give what we have.

Our doubt is our passion, and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art.”

Another favorite lesson: Write the small thing big and the big thing small.

They scattered again, off to find quiet corners to write. I went in search of Mr. Parsons.

That’s Scott Parsons, director of the Osborne Writing Center and the founder of the Young Writers and Artists Festival. He’s the one who invited me here and the one, I soon discovered, who deals with a lot more than the poetry of young minds. At this moment, he was dealing with a tardy delivery of a very large Chipotle order, which is to say he

and Karin Bergquist, came from Cincinnati.

Acclaimed comics artist Derf came from just around the corner. He lives in Shaker Heights.

Parsons began teaching at Hathaway Brown in 2011. I first met him while he was in his previous position, an English teacher at Maplewood Career Center in Portage County, a much different environment where he nonetheless had been inspiring young people to write and to appreciate art and literature. He inspired me as well, with his passion for teaching and art, and his commitment to changing perceptions of vocational school education in relation to creative pursuits.

Renowned author Alexandra Fuller, the “patron saint” of the festival, came from her home in Wyoming for her third visit to the festival. This year, she challenged her students to meditate for a whole day, not writing until the very end—a single sentence. (Each time I sent my own group of girls down the hallways in search of wiffle balls and quiet places to write, I felt a little guilty, as if I was violating Alexandra’s intense concentration.)

He arrived at HB to direct the writing program with three main goals: 1. Build community 2. Make safe creative spaces 3. Foster authentic voices The writing festival, he told me recently, “was the main thing I wanted to do when I started here.”

The festival has grown from 60 participants and four visiting workshop leaders in 2012 to 87 participants and five workshop leaders in 2013, to 109 participants and 10 workshop leaders in 2014. The most recent festival included daylong sessions focused on fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, playwriting, songwriting, painting and comics, led by visiting artists from near and far.

Poet Jamaal May came from Detroit. Over The Rhine, an Americana band led by husband-and-wife duo Linford Detweiler

“Everyone who does it one year does it the next year,” Parsons says. “Now it’s the centerpiece of the whole year.”

The festival, and its effects, have transformed his notion of teaching and many of these students’ notions of writing. After the 2013 festival, for instance, a young woman described how the experience affected her work.

“She told me, ‘At the beginning of the year, in class, you kept talking about not writing for a teacher, but writing for a real audience.

It wasn’t until I did the workshop that I truly understood what that meant.’”

Another told Parsons it was the most important thing she’d done all year. “It’s not about thinking you’re talented,” she said.

“It’s about being you and knowing that’s enough.”

The festival has grown from 60 participants and four visiting workshop leaders in 2012 to 87 participants and five workshop leaders in 2013, to 109 participants and 10 workshop leaders in 2014.

The most recent festival included daylong sessions focused on fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, playwriting, songwriting, painting and comics, led by visiting artists from near and far.

HB

But I don’t necessarily agree with the madness part. I’m more interested in the task. Writing is process. Each of the young writers had a subject now, a small thing.

And each of the writers now had pages of detail to work with. The basic pattern of writing, for me, is to begin in the dark, and to find a small, clear thing, and to write that small thing upward toward meaning.

So that’s what I sent them off to do next: Take the notes and craft them into an essay that strives to find some meaning from this object.

was about to be confronted by the very real terror of a hundred hungry teenagers (not to mention 10 hungry visiting writers and artists).

15

Each of these young writers had found meaning, some large, some small.

Molly’s turn came, and she read. In that unremarkable white sphere, she found metaphor after metaphor, ways of playing with language that gave an understated beauty and grace to, well, yes—a wiffle ball.

Her meditation on the object offered its own small, humble and yet satisfying answer to a question I posed to Scott Parsons: What is a writer?

“It’s someone who’s a risk-taker,” he answered.

“Someone who feels and thinks and is alive.

Someone who is a seeker and a questioner.

Someone who strives toward beauty.”

The results are remarkable, and not just anecdotal. In 2013, more than 90 HB students entered the region’s Scholastic Art and Writing Awards contest. Twenty-one of them won Gold Keys, qualifying them for national judging, and 60 percent of the regional awards went to Hathaway Brown girls.

“And there’s a hundred-percent correlation between festival participants and the competition,” Parsons says.

I left him to handle the Chipotle affair and returned to the Senior Room. The girls were coming back with their essays. We had enough time for an open reading of their work, and they began, one by one, to share aloud their writing.

I’ve done this before with groups of writers, and I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised by the results, but I am. Every time. I am surprised, and rewarded, and I learn again one of the truest lessons of writing: if you give yourself over to that chaos, and you work through the process, you will discover something you didn’t know you already knew. You will find the surprise—the delight—of your own insight.

“I think that anyone can be a writer whether they believe so or not. You don’t have to have an immense vocabulary or use insane metaphors to show people what you are feeling. Simply writing to get the words out of your head or to create something that you are proud of is what defines you as a writer. A writer is someone who writes simply because they love to write, not because they have to.”

And so she accepted the challenge offered by the wiffle ball. A risk of sorts. A challenge to think, and to seek, and to question. A challenge toward language and beauty.

The ball lays at rest until someone saunters by, each footstep shifting the carpet thrown over hardwood floors, giving motion to the ball once again. As it glides across the tight, roughly bound synthetic fabric, it composes the faint lull of a movie reel until it runs out of film.

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David Giffels is an assistant professor of English at The University of Akron.

After School Special

The 2014 Young Writers and Artists Festival featured a new component designed for parents and other adults in the community. Prior to the opening of the festival, on the evening of October 29, Hathaway Brown presented a special Writers Forum that gave attendees the opportunity to hear from and interact with an impressive array of professional writers, several of whom taught student festival workshops as well.

Writers Forum: Giving Life to Thought began with a panel discussion, followed by three rounds of breakout sessions, which allowed participants to speak with the writers in small settings. The opening panel discussion was a conversational roundtable about the creative process facilitated by Osborne Writing Center Director Scott Parsons. Panelists included Young Writers and Artists Festival instructors author David Giffels, poet Jamaal May, and singers/songwriters Karin Bergquist and Linford Detweiler (biographies on page 17). All of these panelists also met with attendees in breakout sessions. Additionally, breakout sessions were offered by New York Times bestselling author Alexandra Fuller, Pulitzer Prizewinning Washington Post book critic Michael Dirda, and former Yale University English professor and author Wes Davis. The evening event, which was free and open to the public and had more than 100 attendees, closed with an informal reception and group book signing. To learn more about the program, please visit www.hb.edu/writersforum.

TOP LEFT, BOT TOM RIGHT PHOTOS BY JASON MILLER; TOP RIGHT, BOT TOM LEFT PHOTOS BY JAMES DOUGLAS

He and I chatted briefly in the Anne Cutter Coburn Reception Room, where he had been trying to get a little writing of his own done in the quiet hours of the morning. But now, as will happen in a school, a collective energy—a new kind of chaos—was brewing.

Call it lunchtime.

I asked Molly, a junior who has now participated in two festivals, the same question.

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My Plate

[ BY NITYA THAKORE ’16 ] “Mumm some curry got on the potato!” I cry out. My mother shakes her head, disapproving.

“It’s okay for them to touch, Nitya.”

It’s not. The creaminess of the potato salad, the piquancy of the curry, and the crunchy zing of the celery just can’t mix. They aren’t meant to. Pouting, I use my fork, pushing the potato and eggs over slightly to make sure none of my foods touch. Even at that age, I had learned to compartmentalize.

Separation was only natural, after all. The green curry, dark and wintry-spruce, peppered with the spice of summer, was always eaten only with family friends; the ones that my parents met in college in India. The curry came along with fluffy white rice, golden lentil daal, and perfectly round flatbread roti that the mothers rolled out and heated over an open flame. In the kitchen, my aunts stirred murky red bean soup as they jabbered in Chinese in the kitchen.

As my grandmother shot rapid Chinese at me, I could reply only in broken phrases, stumbling and slow in an uncomfortable language that seemed to just roll off her tongue. We kids would grab the food and run downstairs as the parents laughed and chattered in the living room. In the basement, a Hindi film always rolled in the background; a beautiful woman in a sari danced, warbling a love song in a field of flowers as her lover playfully pulled on her scarf. I only ever understood snippets of the movie. As the others watched, I would stare down at the steaming curry, and rip up my roti into little pieces with my hands. The other kids laughed at humour that was in a language that I couldn’t comprehend, that I was excluded from.

I knew the rules. I learned what I needed to do in each situation. I compartmentalized. I struggled often with the pull of each, yanking me from one mode of being to another. While others sat so comfortably within the ranges of cultures they understood so well, I never belonged. I couldn’t speak the language, I couldn’t follow the customs, and I struggled often with cultural cues. I lived my life looking in from the outside. I was envious of those who knew where they belonged.

I only feel most comfortable at home, where the pressure’s off. My worlds collide here. Three different cultures float around my house, an eclectic blend. It’s strange and confusing; I am overwhelmed by the colors, the tastes, the cultures. Yet, it’s only here that I don’t worry about customs and languages; here, I do belong. I don’t need to compartmentalize. Can I eat the curry and fish with a fork and knife? Or try the potatoes with wooden chopsticks? Perhaps, now, it’s time to mix up the plate a bit. Let some curry accidentally splash on the potato. It’s me, after all.

Continued on page 20.

PHOTO BY JASON MILLER

ibid

a sampling of excerpts from student work inspired by the HB Young Writers and Artists Festival

Comic Relief [ BY EMILY IMKA ’15 ]

HB 19

The William McKinley and Jessie M. Osborne Writing Center Fund, the endowment that supports Hathaway Brown’s Osborne Writing Center, was established in 2001 by Virginia Osborne Charman ’41 in memory of her parents. At its core, the endowment is intended to support an atmosphere at HB in which student writing can originate and evolve. The entire school community is indebted to her and is grateful for the outstanding programming that has been launched as a result of her generous philanthropy.

Cultural Identity [ BY CHRISTINE ESPINOSA ’15 ] I made the active choice to be myself.

In high school I encountered people of all walks of life: black, white, rich, poor, preppy, and grunge. The more relationships I formed with various people, the more I accepted myself. I joined the Asian club, Israeli club, and Black Cultural Awareness just to name a few. Through these clubs I learned about several traditions, foods, and ideas. What resonated with me was how people could come together and host afterschool events such as our Chinese New Year celebration or pitch in to bake food for the Jewish holiday committee regardless of race and differences. These students inspired me to share my Filipino heritage with my friends and my American heritage with my family. Whether it is forcing my friends to taste my homemade empanadas, kicking off a fundraiser for Typhoon Haiyan victims, teaching my cousins slang words such as “swag” or introducing my cousins to my American friends, I discovered how to bridge my two backgrounds.

It amuses me that for the past 17 years, no one has been able to guess my ethnicity correctly on his or her first try. Chinese.

African. Italian. Mexican. I always say, “Good one, but I’m Filipino,” which is usually reciprocated with an, “Oh! That explains it,” and an occasional, “Uh, where the heck is that…?” It is disappointing that there will always be someone who cannot accept me, but frankly I am fine with this.

My piano repertoire consists almost entirely of Chopin, and hey, the King (LeBron) is back, so I’ll keep the jersey. People can judge me if they want to, but they do not possess the power to change who I am. I created my own cultural identity. I wear it with pride. I am different.

My mother called me the sunshine child. It was true that I was very happy. It is also true that I was alien, almost; I would make you blink if you stared too long. My aunt likes to tell this story: she had strapped me into a car seat when I was not yet two, and angry. I was angry, and as she strapped me in I

said to her, “Titi, Titi, you make me livid.”

Everyone laughed, she said, but when she tells the story her eye sprints back and forth as if she is still confused, still cannot make sense of a baby saying words like livid. But they all laughed, she said. And I probably sat there, strapped in, tiny and happy and sad and livid.

Boats

[ BY EMILY AMJAD ’15 ] As the dusks stretch longer and longer and the sun meets the moon later in the day, the boats coat the surface of Lake Erie. We are one of them. The waves crash into the bluff and sulk back out into the open water and I wonder what happens in the middle, when the going out meets the coming in. We stay steady for a few moments. The docks vanish, skyline fading. We are at the crossroads of life and nothingness. No one intends to sink to their demise in the brackish green, but for now we do. Letting the waves rock my body until my toes are ripened and I feel the toss of the earth even after I’m on solid ground.

I’m the girl afraid of open spaces, shying away from the unknown depths of whatever lurks near my toes under the cloudy surface.

But I know I was safe, though nothing concrete surrounds me.

My Son is Tamir Rice [ BY KACEY GILL ’16 ] I sat with one of my greatest mentors and looked her in the eyes as she broke down and admitted that the world wasn’t safe for us black youth, and that no matter how hard she tried, she doubted it ever would be. I listened to my own mother say how lucky she was to have had a girl and not a boy—because having a black son in 2014 is one of the scariest things she could possibly imagine.

Take Out Everything That Is Inside You [ BY BECCA LAMBRIGHT ’15 ] My mother was born in a country riddled with secrets and hidden history. She learned from the dirt beneath her feet that a Korean woman never gives up her pride, no matter what humiliation she is subjected to. My mother was raised by a father who had grown up in North Korea, by a mother whose sister had died from Japanese torture. She grew up without religion but she believed in the salvation from something better. She invested herself in American rock and roll and black market records and the English language. I think that she always dreamed of coming here.

In the way that humans look for their own face in inanimate objects, I constantly search for the face of my mother when I study history. I am hungry for her story but it never comes up except in the single sentence that ever mentions the name of the Korean War. In her absence, I see her wherever she isn’t. I see her in the revolutions and the wars and I always, always see her in the pictures of the Vietnamese women burning from Napalm. There is a reason I have never been able to look for too long.

I like to do my homework in the kitchen while my mother tinkers away over the mounds of insignificant memorabilia that makes up our home. Scraps of notes, paperweights, and bills create a shadow of a junkyard on top of our counters. She is the protector of anything that could hold sentimentality, a believer in the powers of memories long gone. Last night, the sky was filled with a haze of diffused moonlight, the fault of clouds trying to steal the spotlight that the moon takes nightly. My mother and I have not spoken for a few hours when she turns to me and says, “Take out everything that is inside of you and die empty.”

LI NKED FOR LI FE

BY LISA KROEGER MURT HA ’88 urely no one could have predicted 139 years ago, when Hathaway Brown was founded, the way the school’s alumnae base would grow. From just five women in 1876, the number of living alumnae spanning the globe today is approaching 4,000, says Dana Lovelace Capers ’86, Director of Alumnae Relations. What’s more? The majority of those women—61 percent—live outside Greater Cleveland, and three percent live outside the United States.

Creating social connections through reunions and regional events has always been a priority at HB, but as alumnae head farther away from the nest, “we’ve needed to get more creative in how we connect women to each other and back to the school,” says Kate LaMantia Sherwin ’00, HB’s Regional Director of Advancement for the Northeast.

There’s a dedicated alumnae page on HB’s website, and the school has a presence on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, too, says Capers, but increasingly, women of all ages stay connected to Hathaway Brown to facilitate growth in their professional lives as well. “With more women working and having full-time careers,” explains Sherwin, “networking has grown beyond what it was 10, 20, or 30 years ago.

It’s helpful for alumnae in similar fields to be able to connect with one another, share advice, and assist with potential job leads.”

Sherwin and Capers make introductions by email and in person, but HB has taken care to cultivate new means of reaching out, too, such as through LinkedIn and the school’s new Alumnae App. HB’s LinkedIn page has almost 800 members and features a message board where grads can interact and ask questions. Capers also posts current articles about women’s issues on the site. And through the app, a few taps on a mobile device now enable alumnae to find names, class years, professional titles and contact information for any HB grad, anywhere in the world.

We recently caught up with several alumnae—all at various stages of work and life—who have taken advantage of the school’s extensive networking resources. Their stories are living proof, says Sherwin, that “the HB spirit goes beyond the walls of HB.”

Working the Network

Photos at top (l-r): Hadley Pennington Keefe ’05; Alison Oreh ’08; Nu Yu’s Francie Gottsegen ’84, Tracy Buescher ’84, and Molly Brooks Seitz ’84; Danielle Frankel ’13 and Caroline Bashour ’13 at graduation; Courtney Dumas ’11 in action; Kathryn Bashour ’08 and Ariel Frankel ’10

HB

HB alumnae of all ages all around the world share a common bond, and they’re finding ways to leverage the power of that network

21

GOI NG FOR T H E FENCES

ALL ON T H E (CLOT H ES)LI NE

Courtney Dumas ’11 needed a place to live in a new city, and she needed it fast. The Northwestern University junior had just made the decision to take a hiatus from her studies to train for fencing in the 2016 Olympics. The catch? She’d have to move to New York City for two years and work out alongside other Olympic hopefuls at the New York Athletic Club. But Dumas didn’t know a soul there. “I was starting completely from scratch,” she says.

Tracy Buescher ’84 has worked in the apparel industry for a long time, designing for names like Jacadi and Calvin Klein, and even creating her own children’s line. So when the New York-based designer created NuYu, a women’s “athleisure-wear” clothing line, she knew she had the designing part down. The marketing and licensing, though, were gray areas, and Buescher needed help. She consulted plenty of people in her network, but two former HB classmates stepped up to help make her business visions a reality.

Dumas was already using online message boards to research places to live when her mother, Susan Dakin Dumas ’84, suggested she check out HB’s LinkedIn page. She followed that advice and quickly received responses from two different alumnae; subsequent contact with Lauren Berger ’07 led to finding a roommate and, eventually, a place to live on the city’s Upper East Side.

Tapping into HB’s alumnae network was “really helpful,” says Dumas, who moved to New York last September and began training right away. Next on her to-do list? Becoming a Team USA Olympic fencer.

Hadley Pennington Keefe ’05 tuned into HB’s alumnae network from almost the day she graduated. “I have three older sisters; I watched by their example how important networking—and relationship building, in particular—is for women in building careers,” she says.

It was only natural, then, that when Keefe, who lives in Massachusetts, wanted to re-enter the workforce after staying home with her firstborn, she would contact HB’s Regional Director of Advancement for the Northeast, Kate LaMantia Sherwin ’00, first. Keefe was looking for a position in girls’ school admissions, so Sherwin connected her with Margaret White Ziering ’68, a former member of HB’s Head’s Council and active alumna who also had ties to Dana Hall, a historic girls’ school in Wellesley.

After Ziering and Keefe spent time getting acquainted with each other via email, Ziering connected Keefe to Dana Hall’s director of development without hesitation. “Just knowing Hathaway Brown,” says Ziering, “I definitely felt comfortable recommending Hadley because she was an alum.”

Later, says Keefe, “when a job came available at Dana that I was interested in, I applied. And again, Margaret was so quick to be supportive and helpful. She was a great advocate.” Keefe was brought in as a maternity-leave replacement for an assistant director of admissions at the school. She looks back on the whole experience fondly, noting that “a lot of people spend their lives somewhere other than their hometown, so it’s important to have access to relationships with HB alumnae. They’re so much warmer and stronger than those from a university setting.” And, she adds, “it was through those connections and relationships that I found a place I’d like to be involved in for a long time.”

Francie Gottsegen ’84 joined forces with NuYu after she left a job with Major League Soccer last fall; she and Buescher had also kept in touch through the years. A sports marketing veteran, “Francie has worked for Wells Fargo, the PGA tour and the NBA,” says Buescher. This type of experience is key for NuYu, which includes sports-themed apparel. Gottsegen also has extensive knowledge of licensing—another crucial piece of NuYu’s business plan. In short, says Buescher, “she was a great person to bring on board.”

Did these former HB classmates ever see themselves working together someday? “No,” says Gottsegen with a laugh, “I never really gave it any thought.” Now, though, they agree that the HB connection brings something special to their working relationship.

“It’s nice,” says Gottsegen, “to know the people you’re working with, the quality of people that they are.”

“In a city the size of New York,” adds Buescher, “that can be hard to find.”

MI NI NG T H EI R BUSI NESS Alison Oreh ’08 was not quite sure what her career path would be when she graduated with an English degree from the University of Michigan. Put simply: “I knew what I didn’t want to do, but I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” she says.

She considered working with Michigan’s alumni association, but chose instead to reach out to the HB alumnae network, “which is a lot tighter knit.” Oreh used HB’s app, in fact, to find HB grads living in some of the major cities she was interested in exploring. She also “tried to find women who were employed in a career area of interest to me,” in fields such as marketing or business, Oreh says. Her plan? “To take a peek at the types of jobs our alums were currently pursuing.”

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NEW SCHO OL T I E

Molly Brooks Seitz ’84 was looking for something new to do professionally when Buescher approached her last spring about NuYu. The pair had stayed in touch since graduation, and had already worked together once before in the ’90s, so Seitz enthusiastically joined the team. Now she’s helping Buescher with marketing, doing things such as building the company’s website and prepping for NuYu trade shows.

LI NKED FOR LI FE

With more women working and having full-time careers, networking has grown beyond what it was 10, 20, or 30 years ago.

It’s helpful for alumnae in similar fields to be able to connect with one another, share advice, and assist with potential job leads.

She ended up connecting with between “five and 10” HB alumnae, asking questions about “what they did after they graduated and how they got where they were.” After several detailed discussions, Oreh chose a position in consulting, at Accenture in Boston. She arrived at that decision, she says, by “patchworking together all of these women’s different experiences.”

SIST ERS I N SP I RI T Having studied women and gender sexuality and public health at Washington University, Ariel Frankel ’10 had broad interests. She knew, however, that she wanted to work with public policy, and that she’d need to live in Washington, D.C. She searched LinkedIn for fellow college and high school alumni there, and Kathryn Bashour ’08 was the first who caught her eye. “I wasn’t necessarily looking to work at her company,” says Frankel. “I just thought: ‘This is somebody who knows D.C. and probably knows people in other fields I am interested in.’”

Bashour initially connected Frankel with several D.C.-area professionals, but the more the two HB graduates got to know each

Bashour counseled Frankel throughout the application process and took her under her wing when she was eventually hired. “I don’t have an older sister,” says Frankel, “so she’s like my mentor-slash-older sister.”

Speaking of sisters, it turns out that Bashour and Frankel had in fact been in close contact before. Well after they’d begun working together, they discovered that their younger sisters, Caroline Bashour ’13 and Danielle Frankel ’13, were good friends at HB and had even posed for prom pictures that their older sisters snapped at the Frankel house several years ago.

Even though Bashour recently changed jobs and moved to New York, she and Frankel still keep in close touch. “Out of this whole experience, Ariel and I have just become really good friends,” says Bashour. “We have the same values and the same standards and quality of work that we got at HB.” A 1988 graduate of Hathaway Brown, Lisa Kroeger Murtha is a freelance writer living in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Hathaway Brown makes it easy for alumnae to keep in touch with their alma mater through a variety of digital interfaces and social media platforms. Download the Hathaway Brown Alumnae Mobile App, built exclusively for HB alumnae*, available free in the App Store and at Google Play. You’ll be able to securely connect and network with your HB sisters around the world; join in conversations on Facebook and Twitter; map alumnae in the area whether you’re at home or on the road; access an alumnae directory that integrates with LinkedIn; and read news, view pictures, and check the school calendar for upcoming events.

HB maintains a very active presence on LinkedIn through the Hathaway Brown School Alumnae Network as well. Joining the group is a great way for alumnae with established careers and recent graduates alike to stay in touch with one another, form professional relationships, share best practices, and converse about topics of interest. * The HB Alumnae App uses email verification and is only available to confirmed alumnae of Hathaway Brown School. Email any questions about the app to hbsalum@hb.edu.

Alumnae App available FREE in the iTunes store.

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The takeaway for her is clear: “You’d be hard-pressed to find an HB alum who is not willing with open arms to help girls trying to find their path. It’s really reassuring to know I can reach out to any alum at any age and they’ll be happy to help.”

other, the more Bashour realized that Frankel would be a good fit at her own company, Social Impact. “I know the caliber of worker who comes out of the school,” says Bashour. “I have firsthand knowledge of what they can bring to a company, even at an intern level.”

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winning week Across all disciplines, Upper School students blazed some remarkable trails during the week of January 17-24, 2015 fter racking up an impressive 82 writing awards and 24 visual arts awards in the 35th annual regional Scholastic Art & Writing competition, HB girls brought home 10 additional high honors from the Cleveland Institute of Art’s special Scholastic exhibition ceremony on January 17.

As an Intel finalist, Emily Spencer already is guaranteed a $7,500 prize, and she will enjoy an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C. in March, with a visit to the White House to meet with President Obama. She will then present her research and compete for up to $150,000 in awards.

Emily Imka ’15 won the program’s top painting honor, the Sue Wall Award—a first for HB—and she won the Writing Poetry Award. Both come with $100 prizes. Additionally, Emily became one of five regional American Voices Award nominees for her poetry. The award will be chosen by the Scholastic National Committee in New York City and announced in midMarch. Her fellow nominees include Becca Lambright ’15 (who also won the $100 Writing Personal Essay/Memoir Award) and Isabella Nilsson ’16 (who also won the $100 Writing Short Story Award). Another $100 award, the Writing Critical Essay Award, went to Kacey Gill ’16. For her Printmaking, Lauren Kahn ’15 won $100 and became one of five regional American Visions Award nominees. The winner of that award will be announced in New York City this spring. Lauren’s jewelry also qualified her for the Cleveland Institute of Art Recognition Award. Recipients of this award receive a $10,000 scholarship to CIA should they be accepted to the school and choose to enroll there. This marks the first year that any HB student has received either the American Visions nomination or the CIA Recognition Award.

Emily was also the only Intel finalist in Ohio and the only girl in the state to be recognized by both the Siemens Foundation Competition and Intel STS for her work. Her project, “Synthesis of Photo-Healable and Thermal Shape-Memory Disulfide Polymers,” was the culmination of her research completed through HB’s signature Science Research & Engineering Program at Case Western Reserve University School of Engineering.

On January 21, Emily Spencer ’15 became one of only 40 high school students across the U.S. to be named a finalist in the Society for Science and the Public Intel Science Talent Search competition. The Intel STS is one of the nation’s most prestigious math and science competitions and rewards rigorous original research conducted by high school seniors. Every year, the Intel STS names 300 semifinalists and selects 40 finalists from the semifinalist pool. Earlier in the month, both Emily Spencer and Emily Amjad ’15 were designated Intel STS semifinalists.

And the collective contributions of 9th through 12th graders who work in the school’s Osborne Writing Center to produce HB’s new literary journal, Retrospect, were honored by the National Council of Teachers of English Program to Recognize Excellence in Student Literary Magazines. Retrospect won the top prize in Ohio: Superior. This designation was given to only one student publication in the state, and only 30 were awarded in total. Program entries were received from 366 schools across the United States and American schools abroad.

Not only are these diverse accolades well earned and much appreciated, but they also underscore the excellent academic preparation and co-curricular opportunities available to HB students in a wide array of disciplines. HB students continue to fare amazingly well in a number of fields, and at much higher rates than at other comparable schools in the region and across the country.

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PHOTOS BY JAMIE MORSE

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Scholastic

Award-Winning Work

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1. Lauren Kahn ’15 Gold Key and American Visions Nominee 2. Molly Sharpe ’16 Honorable Mention 3. MacKenzie Hridel ’15 Silver Key 4. Gracie Mowery ’15 Silver Key

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5. Molly Sharpe ’16 Silver Key 6. Emily Imka ’15 Silver Key 7. Emily Imka ’15 Gold Key and Sue Wall Award 8. Lauren Kahn ’15 Gold Key and CIA Recognition Award 9. Victoria Race ’15 Gold Key 10. MacKenzie Hridel ’15 Gold Key

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Photos by Jason Miller

In keeping with the school theme, HB Girls Making the Future, the fall Legacy Day focused on making a difference in the lives of others through RANDOM

ACTS OF KINDNESS.

PHOTOS BY JASO MILLER

n September 12, students, faculty, and staff in every division came together to create some meaningful moments and plans for continuing to do good for others.

This year, HB joined forces with Ricky Smith, uncle of HB student Kristen Ferguson ’16 and founder of RAKENOW.org, a nonprofit organization dedicated to committing Random Acts of Kindness Everywhere. Smith shows by example how one person from Cleveland, Ohio, can make a big difference in other people’s lives across the country and around the world.

For the HB Legacy Day, Smith kicked things off with a keynote presentation about how doing good can change people’s lives, including your own. A comedian of the digital age, he got his start on Twitter, where his 140-character humor caught the attention of Comedy Central executives and he landed a job writing for the show Black Dynamite. But he was looking for something more out of life. On a whim, he decided to travel the country with nothing but an ID and a cell phone. Strangers who followed him on social media made it a point to help him along the way, offering money, food, and even a car.

Smith discovered that people have a desire to help their fellow man, with no expectation of anything in return. Kindness, he learned, just feels good. So Smith launched a movement: Random Acts of Kindness Everywhere, or RAKE for short. He has traveled the country chronicling his actions—from buying a new wardrobe for a homeless man in California to organizing a blanket drive in Washington, D.C., to simply planting a kiss on a delighted 92-year-old woman’s face in Atlanta—via social media using the hashtag #RAKE. He passes out brown bag lunches to the homeless in Cleveland and hot dogs to fans at Indians games.

#RAKE is now an international sensation. If you search the hashtag, you’ll see people all over the world are doing Random Acts of Kindness Everywhere. Smith’s work has been featured in high-profile media outlets including Men’s Health. In 2014, Cleveland Magazine named him one of its Most Interesting People, and Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson declared February 17 Random Acts of Kindness Everywhere Day in Smith’s honor.

After the opening Legacy Day assembly, HB’s 48 family color groups gathered to make #RAKE boxes filled with colorful artwork, inspirational notes, creative origami, and candy. At the end of the school day, the boxes were distributed to members of the HB support staff, bus drivers, and parents who were picking up their children.

Some older students even walked around the neighborhood and passed them out to people who live near the school. It was incredibly gratifying to see the impact of such a seemingly small gesture. One woman called a school administrator and left a long voicemail message to praise and thank a group of HB students who were passing her on the sidewalk and handed her a #RAKE box as she was coming in from a physically exhausting 12-mile run. She said it was just the lift she needed at that very moment. And the mother of an HB middle schooler sent a note that read, in part: “Whoever came up with the idea for yesterday’s Legacy Day should be applauded! As I picked up my daughter in the front circle, I was greeted by a couple of middle school students who passed me a little box and smiled, ‘Have a great day!’ I had no idea what was happening over there. Just before then I hadn’t been having the best kind of day, but that little box turned it all around.”

Legacy groups also spent time developing ideas for larger #RAKE projects to be completed with Ricky Smith’s assistance at the second Legacy Day on May 22. The concept for that day is for family groups to leave campus and do Random Acts of Kindness Everywhere in Greater Cleveland. Preliminary plans include such things as delivering no-sew blankets to a local children’s hospital, bringing a mobile smoothie-making operation to a nearby firehouse, and baking treats for dogs at a regional animal clinic.

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HB’s Legacy Program builds on the class color tradition to foster a stronger sense of full-school community and to create connections, friendships, and camaraderie across divisions. At the core of the Legacy Program are service, sisterhood, and school spirit. The Legacy Program is centered around “legacy groups,” sets of mixed-age students, teachers, administrators, and support staff. Specific legacy events are held throughout the school year, including a Legacy Day at the beginning of each school year, and legacy groups gather for various traditional school events and activities. The Legacy Program facilitates connections in the HB community, strengthening sisterhood while creating a common experience for all of the members of our diverse School Family.

He does it because kindness feels good. And he encourages other people to do the same.

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my view (Un)Bound(ed) by Imagination Upper School English students create Out-of-the-Box projects to join characters together in new ways

BY JAMI E MUELLER When you allow smart, engaged, creative students the space and time to mindfully and deliberately play with language, you find academic gold. Many literary critics have long noted that whimsy, playfulness and humor are—far from being frivolous—at the heart of all literary and artistic pursuits. Others say that this ability to be playful with language is the sign of real scholarship. Of course, it’s no surprise then that Hathaway Brown students excel in this pursuit, but it’s no less delightful to witness their inspiring musings.

As the name implies, Out-of-the-Box projects are designed to encourage creativity across the curriculum. To complete the assignment, students choose a character from two different texts and create a scenario in which they meet. The resulting imaginative scene reflects ideas, themes, motifs, and moments true to both original texts, but the idea is to create a world that is wholly of the student’s envisioning. As they create these projects, girls are even encouraged to rethink the word “character.”

For her Out-of-the-Box project, a former student of mine made the shattered statue of Cupid in a garden from the classic novel Madame Bovary talk to a stone religious icon in the modern short story collection Krik? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat. The student’s sculpted Virgin Mary and Cupid discussed the sorrows of being human, and reflected on the idea that their own composition of the less permeable stuff of stone is preferable to having a heart that can be pierced and broken. Instantly, in one electrifying project, the title of the course, “What’s Love Got to Do with It?,” took on new weight and shape. The notion instantly became something that had real heft.

In a different project, another student also took inspiration from Madame Bovary and Hamlet. Drawing from her traditional roots in Central America, she wrote a melodramatic opera in which the dueling voices were the pearl of poison from Hamlet and the arsenic from Madame Bovary. Each poison tried to outdo the other with its importance. Yet another student had the inspired idea to have Hamlet and Snow White meet in a pub called “The Poisoned Apple.” Over drinks, they discussed the quiet horror of coming to the realization that a step-parent actively seeks your death.

The scene was simultaneously hilarious and profound.

One of the joys of teaching at HB is collaborating, and I’m indebted to former Upper School English teacher Amanda Mann, who did marvelous work in launching a project that allows students to re-envision Shakespeare. Rather than asking them to write traditional essays (though those are welcome, too), she allowed students to work in small groups to direct Shakespeare’s most famous (and famously challenging) work, Hamlet. Again, while being playful, the task actually requires deep mastery of language, motifs, symbols, themes, timing, and staging to be successful. Taking their cues from Shakespeare’s language, the students reset the play in a different historical period and put their unique stamp on it. Last year, one group latched onto the line “And I’ll drink heart’s blood …” and connected it to the fact that the Ghost cannot be caught in the sun. So they recast Hamlet as—you guessed it—a vampire.

PHOTO BY VANESSA BUTLER

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Through the years, students have used their talents in visual arts to help my colleagues and me see literary works in entirely new ways.

Inspired by the passion that Upper School English teacher Beth Armstrong instilled when she introduced them to the pleasures and challenges of graphic novels, an entire group of students conveyed their vision of Shakespeare’s play by converting their script into artwork. Natalie Sayed ’14 transformed Darcy’s proposal to Lizzy Bennet in Pride and Prejudice into a graphic page. In the process, she taught us the language of iconography, imagery, and the power of line breaks. By pulling out a single word and dropping the rest of his speech into a different box, Natalie changed the tone and intent of Darcy’s words. Others frequently mined their remarkable artistic talents to embellish—literally—our view of characters. For Pride and Prejudice, Sarah Dierker ’14 designed sumptuous dresses from the period, while Athena Haloua ’14 sketched lush wardrobe concepts inspired by Hamlet.

And this year, seniors Madeleine Schroedel and Lizzie Poulos teamed up to write and perform songs inspired by Austen’s text.

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Objective assessments measure the acquisition of important information, but meaningful success can only truly be discovered through the kind of mastery that happens when a student makes a subject her own. That more charged terrain is found where and when students step out of the constricted space of the classroom and into the limitless expanse of the imagination.

Listening in on what happens there is, for me, the most inspiring part of teaching.

An Upper School English teacher since 2006, Jamie Mueller holds Hathaway Brown’s Eleanor & Kelvin Smith Chair in English.

From original folk songs to elaborate artwork to innovative storytelling, Upper School English students’ Outof-the-Box projects reframe traditional literary works in entirely new ways.

You can find several examples of these projects at www.hb.edu/magazine.

Many literary critics have long noted that whimsy, playfulness and humor are—far from being frivolous— at the heart of all literary and artistic pursuits.

Photo by Vanessa Butler

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With Head of School Bill Christ’s retirement in July 2016 approaching, the HB Head Search Committee begins the process of finding his successor

ust after the start of the new year, President of the Hathaway Brown Board of Trustees Paul Matsen wrote to the school community with some significant news: Today marks an important moment in the life of Hathaway Brown, as I announce that Head of School Bill Christ will retire at the close of the 2015-2016 school year. Bill’s career has been illustrious and fruitful, and we are profoundly grateful that he has spent the majority of it at the place where he was always meant to be.

Matsen went on to congratulate Mr. Christ for the substantive impact he has made on Hathaway Brown and her students, faculty, parents, alumnae, and friends throughout his 28-year tenure. He also reported that fellow trustee Helen Rankin Butler ’87 is serving as Chair of the Head Search Committee.

In that capacity, Butler and her committee have been charged with establishing the process for the search, selecting a search partner, creating a position description for candidates, evaluating and interviewing candidates, and ultimately making a recommendation to the Board of Trustees for the appointment of the next Head of School.

“We are fortunate to enter this stage of HB’s evolution from a tremendous position of strength,” Butler says. “A thoughtful, intentional process over the coming months will further enhance Hathaway Brown.”

The Head Search Committee is comprised of trustees, alumnae, current parents, and two faculty members who were selected through a faculty election. This group is committed to keeping the HB community informed and engaged throughout the search process, while respecting the confidentiality of the candidates recruited. After a new Head of School has been appointed, the committee also will help to facilitate the transition. Prior to the start of the new Head of School’s tenure, the Head Search Committee will organize community events to celebrate Mr. Christ’s remarkable HB career as well.

To aid in this initiative, HB has engaged Carney, Sandoe & Associates, an educational recruiting firm that has worked successfully with more than 1,500 independent, private, boarding, and similar schools in 46 states and 26 countries. The CS&A consulting team to HB includes Aggie Underwood, Vice President and Managing Associate; Rayna Loeb, Senior Search Consultant; and Skip Kotkins, a CS&A Consultant.

These professionals will provide guidance to the Head Search Committee on format, logistics, procedures, and best practices in the search process.

Bill Christ is a wonderful man, an innovative Head of School, and he will be missed!

He has set a high bar for all of us.

“Hathaway Brown is truly an outstanding school and it is recognized not only in Cleveland but also across the country and globally for its innovative teaching and learning and work with girls,” says Underwood. “It will be great fun to talk with candidates about the many opportunities that lie ahead for the school and the outstanding legacy that Bill Christ will be leaving.”

Throughout the late winter and early spring, the CS&A consultants have been gathering information and feedback from members of the HB community through discussion sessions and surveys in order to create a position description that highlights HB’s unique characteristics. This position description will be used to recruit candidates. In late spring and early summer, the Head Search Committee will conduct candidate interviews. Following finalist selection, the goal of the Head Search Committee is to present a candidate to the Board of Trustees for a formal vote and appointment by the end of the 2015 school year. As in any search, the timetable is subject to change should circumstances dictate.

The Head Search Committee is committed to transparency and inclusivity in selecting HB’s next Head of School. They are working diligently to balance keeping the community informed about the search with respecting the confidentiality of the candidates. An array of resources related to this process has been posted at www.hb.edu/HeadSearch. There, among other things, visitors can find a list of Frequently Asked Questions and the Head Search Committee roster. The HB community also can expect ongoing email updates with pertinent information related to the search. Butler asks people to offer their insight and perspective at any time by navigating to the “Share Your Thoughts” page in the Head Search section of the HB website and completing the short form there, or communicating with her directly via email with any comments, concerns, or questions.

She may be reached at hbutler@hb.edu.

(l-r) HB Board of Trustees President Paul Matsen, Carney, Sandoe & Associates Search Consultant Skip Kotkins, Head Search Committee Chair Helen Rankin Butler ’87, and CSA consultants Aggie Underwood and Rayna Loeb.

I can’t imagine HB without him. He has made it a much better place.

share your thoughts

I am forever grateful for my time at HB, and I know that HB has flourished under Bill’s leadership.

PHOTO BY KATHLEEN OSBORNE

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Bill and Diane Christ, Jim and Hollington ’50 and Tom and Jane Griswold, Dick and Sally Stecher Ella Hornickel Quintrell ’45

Regional Alumnae Gatherings shington, DC for ed HB 8th graders in Wa DC-area alumnae joinents tour, September 2014 num mo dinner and a

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FL Julie North Murphy ’65, Dana Lovelace Capers ’86, Darby Lansdowne ’14 and Barbie Pace ’01 at the Girls’ School NET (Networking and Empowering Together) event in New Orleans

HB alumnae, friends, and past parents gathered with Bill Christ in Naples, FL in January

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Boston-area college alumnae joined HB Dean of Students Hallie Godshall, for dinner in Harvard Square, September 2014

Alumnae working in business and finance in Boston met for a networking dinner, November 2014

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Alumnae working in business and finance in NYC met for a networking dinner, November 2014

MD Alumnae gathered at the Yale Club in NYC with Joe Vogel, Director of the Center for Global Citizenship, November 2014

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ME Alumnae in Maine toured the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, ME, September 2014

Alumnae gathered for lunch in Annapolis, MD, September 2014

HB alumnae joined Bill Christ for lunch in Sanibel, FL in January

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PHOTO BY SHANNON AHLSTRAND

closing the gap Hathaway Brown honors donors’ contributions on

TUITION RUNS OUT DAY

id you know that tuition dollars cover only 72 percent of the cost for each student to attend Hathaway Brown?

If we relied on tuition alone, the school year would end roughly in the middle of winter. There would be no springtime classes gathered around the fountain, no running through the sprinkler in the heat of May for the senior class last-day-of-school hurrah.

Without the support of generous donors to the Annual Fund, the nine-month school year would be whittled down to six and a half.

The HB school community marked “Tuition Runs Out Day,” symbolically established on February 18, with a daylong celebration of the people who make a full HB education possible for students in every division. The Class of 2015 got everything rolling that morning with the Senior Gift Kick-Off. By the following week, all 93 seniors had made a gift to the Annual Fund, for a total of $1,765.77 that will be used to support general scholarship, the Serendipity Fund, and HB’s Institute for 21st Century Education.

This is the seventh year in a row for a graduating class to have 100 percent participation in the Annual Fund.

Alyzah Quereshy ’15 made a fun short film to emphasize the importance of the Annual Fund and get everyone excited about Tuition Runs Out Day. The video was shared in Morning Meeting and through the school’s social media channels, and it is now posted at www.hb.edu/magazine. Her classmates kept the momentum with tweets using the hashtag #HBTROD and through a special Phone-a-thon, during which they made outreach calls to members of the Class of 2014. In the evening, HB faculty, staff, parents, alumnae, and board members called former students, grandparents, current parents, and alumnae to encourage donations to help the school reach its Annual Fund goal of $1.7 million. And Upper School Gold Key students got in touch with alumnae who are celebrating their reunions this year to thank them for the gifts they have made in honor of those occasions.

To make your gift to the Annual Fund, please visit www.hb.edu/supportHB.

Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage

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Cleveland, Ohio Permit #3439

19600 North Park Boulevard Shaker Heights, Ohio 44122

HB.edu/upcomingevents PHOTO BY JASON MILLER

Carnival/ 5K April 19, HB Grounds, 8 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Proceeds benefit West Side Catholic Center Spring Choral Concert April 24, The Black Box Theatre, 7:30 p.m. iMagine Film Festival April 25, The Ahuja Auditorium, 1 – 4 p.m.

Eighth Grade Musical May 1, 7:30 p.m. & May 3, 2:30 p.m., The Ahuja Auditorium Anything Goes Alumnae Weekend May 15 – 16 Celebrate Sisterhood! All class years welcome.

Legacy Day May 22, HB Grounds, 1 – 3 p.m.

HB joins together to perform Random Acts of Kindness Everywhere Spring Play May 22 – 23, The Ahuja Auditorium, 7:30 p.m.

Play On! by Rick Abbot HB Orchestra Summer Soiree May 27, HB Atrium, 7:30 p.m.

Middle and Upper School orchestras perform Eighth Grade Closing Exercises June 1, The Ahuja Auditorium, 5 p.m.

Fourth Grade Closing Exercises June 2, The Ahuja Auditorium, 5 p.m.

139th Commencement Exercises June 5, HB Courtyard, 11 a.m.