Holderness School Today: Winter 2010 by Holderness School

H OLDERNESS S CHOOL TODAY Winter 2010 INSIDE:

Fiston Kahindo â&#x20AC;&#x2122;03 & financial aid Catching up with Pete Barnum Alumni newsmakers

AND ACCESS FOR ALL Bishop Niles dreamed of an excellent school that was not exclusive. Today that dream looms even larger.

A mild southerly breeze in October leaves the Bull looking off towards Little Squam atop the belltower on Weld Hall. Photo by Steve Solberg.

Front Cover: Beneath a spreading maple, students repair from the Chapel to the Schoolhouse on a Monday morning in December. Photo by Steve Solberg.

Back cover: Weld Hall can seem a long way off when itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dark and the snow is flying. Photo by Phil Peck.

Holderness School Board of Trustees Holderness School Today

Nelson Armstrong (Secretary)

Volume XXVII, No. 2

Frank Bonsal III ’82 F. Christopher Carney ’75 (Alumni Association President) Russell Cushman ’80 The Rev. Randolph Dales Nigel D. Furlonge Douglas H. Griswold ’66 James B. Hamblin II ’77 (Treasurer) Pearl Kane Peter K. Kimball ’72 Peter L. Macdonald ’60 Paul Martini Richard Nesbitt Peter Nordblom Wilhelm Northrop ’88 (Vice-Chairperson) R. Phillip Peck

Features 4

And access for all Founder Bishop Niles wanted Holderness to be affordable

Tamar Pichette William L. Prickett ’81 (Chairperson)

even to clergymen’s children. Rector Edric Weld found that

Jake Reynolds ’86

the school could not be both that and solvent. Today, in

The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson (President) Ian Sanderson ’79

place of “affordable,” write “accessible.” And then dream

Jennifer A. Seeman ’88

as big as you dare.

John A. Straus Rose-Marie van Otterloo Ellyn Weisel ’86

Out of nowhere Fiston Kahindo ’03 seemed destined to be yet another Central African whose promise was blighted by life in

Headmaster Emeritus The Rev. Brinton W. Woodward, Jr.

refugee camps. Instead he was given a chance to attend Holderness, and now he’s using that promise on behalf of

Honorary Trustees

others.

Warren C. Cook Mayland H. Morse, Jr. ’38 Piper Orton ’74

W. Dexter Paine III ’79

Long-term rewards Pete Barnum was the school’s Director of Admissions for

The Rt. Rev. Philip A. Smith

25 years and the originator of that office’s “Volkswagen”

Gary A. Spiess

philosophy. Now he’s the Director of Leadership Giving,

The Rt. Rev. Douglas Theuner

and still helping to ensure that the same sort of kids have access to Holderness.

Holderness School Today

Departments 2

From the Schoolhouse

Editor: Rick Carey Editor Emeritus: Jim Brewer

Stopping by Woods

Honor Roll

Around the Quad

Sports

Update: Faculty & Staff

Update: Former Faculty

Alumni Relations

Advancement & External Affairs

Alumni in the News

At This Point in Time

Assistant Editors: Dee Black Rainville, Robert Caldwell, Jane McNulty, Phil Peck, Judith Solberg, Steve Solberg, JoAnne Strickland, Tracy White, Amy Woods Photography: Steve Solberg, Art Durity, Rick Carey, Phil Peck HST is printed on recycled paper three times each year by the Springfield Printing Corporation. Please send notice of address changes to Jo-Anne Strickland, Alumni Office, Holderness School, P.O. Box 1879, Plymouth, NH 03264, or jstrickland@holderness.org. Jo-Anne may also be contacted at 603779-5220.

From the

Schoolhouse

Paradoxically, while we become increasingly

YESTERDAY I RECEIVED a wonderful

ent way than we did for the first 75 years of

email from an alumnus who attends one of

our school’s history. Strictly speaking, we are

our country’s finest liberal arts colleges. He

no longer affordable, but we work hard to be

reported that he had made the Dean’s list,

the most accessible school possible.

was the assistant men’s basketball coach, and

had been elected vice-president of his class.

In this HST you’ll read how we have applied ourselves to filling our school with

Last week I received a photo from an alumna

students who align with our mission’s high

expensive, we have also

who is one of the top college athletes in the

calling, regardless of a family’s ability to pay.

country in her sport, is excelling at an intel-

The ways in which we did that 130 years

become increasingly

lectually powerful university, and is reaching

ago, 75 years ago, and in recent years are all

out to the community in many ways to serve

very different. This issue contains inspiring

accessible, doubling the number of students on financial aid.

others. Both emails were a reminder to me that

stories about some of the people who worked hard to find those students and make

our graduates truly do live up to the mission

Holderness possible for them; and also of

of our school:

those students themselves, who left Holderness to carry out the balance of that

Within the context of a caring community, Holderness School fosters equally the resources of the mind, body, and spirit in

mission. The story of Holderness and its determination to be accessible continues to be one of

each student, instilling in all the resolve to

good news. Paradoxically, while we become

work for the betterment of humankind

increasingly expensive, we have also become

and God’s creation.

increasingly accessible, doubling the number of students on financial aid to over 40% of

While we admire the excellence and accomplishments of these two students, I am reminded of a way of going about that mis-

the student body in recent years. It will always take a lot of hard work for Holderness to continue to answer to both our

sion, of building that community, that has

mission and the vision of Bishop Niles. That

deep roots in Holderness history. Both the

said, I hope you find this HST a reminder of

above alumni benefitted from the vision of

our commitment to making the Holderness

our founder, Bishop W.W. Niles, who in 1879

experience a reality for as many qualified

stated that our school’s goal was to “combine

students as possible. That’s the first thing that

the highest degree of excellence in instruc-

this community cares about.

tion and care taking with the lowest possible charge for tuition and board…” Today we clearly achieve that goal of “the lowest possible charge” in a very differ-

Holderness School Today

By Phil Peck Head of School

Stopping By Woods

by Rick Carey

The fall ’09 issue of HST wasn’t perfect. Actually, far from it.

PAGES, THE FALL

issue of Holderness School

issue in the usual amount of time, mistakes were made. In our

Today was the longest we’ve ever published. That

feature pages, we make a habit of listing—and so providing pub-

was due to a combination of things. We publish

lic recognition to—all students awarded prizes and honors at

class notes every other issue, and that happened to

Commencement. Of course that includes students named to the

be a class notes issue, and a rich one at that, with

Cum Laude Society, but this time, as I laid out those pages, I

26 pages of news by and from our alumni.

simply and somehow forgot about that particular

That coincided with our annual fall Report of Appreciation.

honor, and I never noticed its omission in proofing the

This is our formal thank-you to all the people who gave to

pages later. I apologize to all the students and families

Holderness over the previous fiscal year, and this 22-page report

included in that omission, and (better late than never)

was a particularly happy and important one. With the recession

you can find that list now on this page.

having taken a big bite out of the school’s endowment, we were

In the Report of Appreciation, we like to provide

blessed not only to see the Annual Fund exceed $1 million for

thanks and public recognition to members of the True

the first time in its history, but to see ten percent of the gifts to

Blue Society—i.e.,

the Annual Fund come from first-time donors. What’s more, an

people who have five

additional seventy percent of donors increased or sustained their

or more years of con-

level of commitment. That’s terrific in a year in which philan-

secutive giving to the

thropic giving declined sharply throughout the nation. Then we had our usual raft of school news to report, with

school at whatever level. The names of

Commencement and Reunion thrown in besides. The challenge

these faithful donors

in the Communications and Development offices was to keep it

were followed by

all under 100 pages, at which point we’d likely need to step up

Holderness Bull logos

to a more expensive sort of binding. We squeezed it all in under

in the document that

that, but just barely.

we sent to the printer.

So that was the good news. The bad news was that in preparing, assembling, proofing, and printing an unusually big

Inducted in their junior year: William Bohonnon Benjamin Magnan Tenley August Malmquist Jacob Bradshaw Manoukian James Randall Mathews Sophia Isabelle Schwartz New members of the Class of ’09: Isabelle Lane Curran Elena Crawford Hayssen Meghan Ann McNulty David C. Morgan Kelsey Anne Muller Meredith Tracy Peck Allison Bennett Robbins New members of the Class of ’10: Abigail Jane Alexander Christopher William Bradbury Hyun Jung Chung Sarah Rogers Clarkson Mary Jo Germanos Erika M. Johnson Mireille Cécile Pichette Sarah Ashby Sussman Laura Olivia Pohl

Ten pages of the fall’s Report of Apprecation suffered from a printer’s error. Those pages are reprinted in this issue.

But the Bulls disappeared entirely from certain pages during the printing process. Our friends at

Cum Laude Society 2009

Springfield Printing are still at a loss in understanding how this happened, but they have agreed to reprint at no expense to us the ten pages of that report affected by that error. Those pages appear again in this issue, this time with a complete set of Bulls. Finally, we were guilty of an incomplete photo caption in the class note pages. We noted that Finnegan, the son of Karrie Stevens Thomas ’93, was also the grandson of Brooke Thomas ’58. We should have mentioned as well that Finnegan’s other grandparents happen to be Dick Stevens, the school’s Plant Manager, now in his 38th year of service to Holderness, and School Store Manager Gail Stevens. We regret the error, but we’re glad of the opportunity to print an updated photo of Finnegan, courtesy of the

The grandparents of young Finnegan Thomas include longtime school staffers Dick and Gail Stevens. We should have mentioned that.

Stevenses. I guess I’m still waiting for the perfect HST, and probably always will. As long as this is a human enterprise, even repeated applications of spell-check won’t clear out the last bits of static. We just hope that our errors don’t cheat people out of honors or affiliations that they’ve earned, and we offer heartfelt apologies to those who endured such in our last issue.

Holderness School Today

And Access For All By Rick Carey

Towards the end of his tenure as Holderness School rector in the 1940s, Edric Weld was disappointed that he had not succeeded in making the school both affordable and sustainable. Now the school’s leadership is entertaining that dream once again, but this time the emphasis is on a different “a”-word, one that promises that anybody admitted to Holderness will be able to come, regardless of income, family resources, or what sort of car is in the garage.

“I

“I WANT TO SHOW you two sides of a coin,” wrote The Rev. Edric Weld in his 1947 year-

end report to the Board of Trustees. “On one

side are a group of a dozen men, with a teaching experience ranging from twenty-five years at one end to two who are beginners….” He continues, praising his faculty. Then he considers their students, who come from fourteen states and a wide variety of

backgrounds. “Eleven are sons of clergymen, others are children of teachers, doctors, social service executives, engineers, artists, corporate executives, widows. A few are from separated families, but not as many as you might think. They are of almost every creed, but not of every color. What binds them together is the fact that each is judged for himself and not because of family background. While there is a wide range of income and scale of living, we are fortunate not to have any of the ‘super-sophisticates’ who can be a school’s worst headache.”

4 Holderness School Today

The Rev. Edric Weld, Headmaster 1931-1951

He summarizes that side of the coin by observing that “we have a first-class group of teachers, a likeable and sound group of boys, an excellent location, and some fine buildings.” But on the other side, Weld writes, was “the state-

graduate.” Weld rejected the first two of the above options “for obvious reasons,” he wrote. Regarding the third: “Only through scholarships can we make the school available to at least a few people of lesser income . . . .

ment of the auditor, showing a substantial deficit.”

Taken as a whole, students with scholarships or grants

Costs had risen sharply during the war, and he accuses

have strengthened this school greatly, and other schools

himself of wishful thinking in his financial planning: “I

say the same.”

paid in deficits and some of the faculty paid in inadequate salaries. At least the boys didn’t have to pay in a shortage of food.” He reminds the trustees that Holderness “was founded to run on a simpler scale and provide less expensive education” than other schools of the time.

Weld’s solution? “As a long-range policy, therefore, I see no alternative but to approach the standard tuition and not attempt to maintain a rate two or three hundred dollars lower.” The trustees agreed, but not immediately. Edric and Gertrude would spend four more years sponging

That meant charging tuition at rates 15-20 percent lower

away red ink with their own money until their retire-

than theirs. But at that price Holderness only survived

ment in 1951. The new head, Don Hagerman, was not

because recurrent deficits were made good out of Edric

so wealthy as the Welds. Over the next decade the

and his wife Gertrude’s own pockets. “What are we going to do about it?” Weld asks. “I

school maintained its strong faculty, its small class sizes, its various programs—and its scholarship aid.

must repeat some of the things I said last year.” There

And quietly, incrementally, year by year, the school’s

are only way three ways to keep a lower-priced school

fees approached “the standard tuition.”

in the black, he says. The school must either employ “lower-priced inexperienced teachers”; or it must lay off

Today, for the 2009-10 school year, the cost of tuition, room, and board at Holderness is $42,675, a

some teachers, have bigger classes, and cut such non-

sticker price that puts Holderness $3,000 below the

academic programs as music, art, and shop (“which are

median of fees at its competitor schools, and makes it

essential to education for many boys,” he writes); or

the second least expensive. Good, but that’s still an

“eliminate all scholarships as fast as scholarship holders

awful lot of money. Don Hagerman used to say that the

Holderness School Today

price of an independent school education should be

been in her life. “It was called Outward Bound when I

about the same as that of a Ford station wagon.

was a student at Holderness, and it was a turning point

Nowadays make that a Lexus GS-10 sedan. But today’s

for me as well,” Peter said. “But a funny thing happened

standard tuition reflects the hard facts of today’s costs in

the day after my conversation with Kathleen—my jour-

salaries, benefits, insurance, program support, fuel, and

nal from OB appeared on my desk at home. I had kept it

building maintenance.

in a box for years, and my daughter just happened to run

And what about the clergymen, teachers, and

across it.” This served as a good example for Phil of how

Faced with a choice of either that or the school’s brand as “a lower-priced school,” Weld reaffirmed

Holderness, then and now, succeeds by virtue of its people and the quality of its programs. “Nobody talks about the buildings when they recall their years at Holderness,” he said. “They talk about things like OB, and about fac-

financial aid, and with it the role of a student body

ulty members who changed their lives.”

truly representing “a wide variety of backgrounds,”

with as he recruits students for admission to Holderness.

as the more essential portion of the school’s identity.

Edric Weld boasted of, “an excellent location and several

These also are the things that Tyler Lewis leads

In terms of facilities . . . well, Holderness still has what

fine buildings.” But Tyler admitted that he feels at a disadvantage in the “facilities wars” as he competes with social workers whose children came to the Holderness of

other schools for top students. One New England school,

Edric Weld, parents who didn’t drive Cadillacs then and

for example, has recently opened an athletic facility

aren’t driving Lexuses now? In 1947 their children,

whose cost is nearly equal to the aggregate value of the

those students, were judged for themselves, and not for

entire Holderness campus. “We have a couple buildings that can most gener-

their family vehicles. That was when Holderness defined itself, for better or worse, as affordable to the middle class. Today, in the

ously be described as quaint and rustic,” he said. “Less generously, they’re eyesores. We have no building that

strict sense of the term, Holderness can no longer make

really qualifies as a ‘wow’ sort of facility in this market.

that claim.

Anybody who thinks that Holderness has gotten too fancy with today’s high tuition, I encourage them to THIS SITUATION didn’t exactly

come and visit the campus, and then compare what they

sneak up on the school. It was fore-

see here to what they see at our peer schools.” Perhaps the most startling thing about that Lexus-

seen by both Weld and Don Hagerman, and grappled with by

level tuition, though, is that it still doesn’t cover the

both Pete Woodward (headmaster,

costs of running the school—in fact tuition pays only 72

1977-2001) and Phil Peck. In

percent of those costs. Holderness typically gets another

December Phil arranged for a con-

13 percent from endowment income, six percent from

versation on the subject, gathering in

other sources, and a critical nine percent from the

his office Director of Advancement

Annual Fund—which is to say, the generosity of its com-

and External Affairs Robert

munity, as opposed to that of Edric Weld. “We’re part of a new paradigm for school finance,”

Caldwell, Director of Admission Tyler Lewis, Business Manager Pete

Peter Kimball

Hendel, and—on conference

strength of tuition. The Annual Fund has become more

phone—trustee Peter Kimball ’72,

important than ever, sort of like an ongoing campaign. In

Executive Director of Gift Planning at Harvard University. Peter Kimball began with an anecdote. During a

Holderness School Today

said Robert. “You can’t operate these schools on the

fact you could describe it as one leg on a three-legged stool of tuition, endowment income, and the Annual Fund. You need them all, and you need an overall culture

recent staff meeting in his office, Kathleen Blauvelt

of philanthropy in the community that supports them

Kime ’99—also a member of the development staff at

all.”

Harvard—happened to describe her Out Back experience

Edric Weld must be regarded as an icon of philan-

at Holderness, saying what a positive turning point it had

thropy—not just for his years of service as the school’s

“Taken as a whole, students with scholarships or grants have strengthened this school greatly . . . .” —Edric Weld Each year students who receive financial aid from an

To Mr. & Mrs. Samuel W. Wakeman

endowment fund established by a particular individual donor or family are encouraged to write thank you notes to those sponsors. Below are excerpts from several such notes.

To Mrs. Robert S. Gillette

My name is Vytas Kriskus, and I’m writing to thank you for the opportunity which made my enrollment in the Holderness School possible. The scholarship given in honor of Ned Gillette has changed my life . . . . As a child of a firefighter and a nurse, I never even dreamed about the possibility of being able to study in the United States of America—even more so, in such a great institution as Holderness School. As a student at Holderness, I have always made the academic honor roll. I was elected captain of the cross-country team this year, which led me to win the Lakes Region Cross Country Championships. I originally thought I came to Holderness to play basketball only. While it is still my favorite sport, I have enjoyed myself on the football field, lacrosse field, the running trails, and on a bicycle. . . . Out Back is definitely the best experience of my life so far, and for all this I would like to tell you THANK YOU VERY MUCH. I cannot tell you how much my parents and I appreciate this opportunity given me by you. . . .

Sincerely, Vytas Kriskus ’08

To The Rt. Rev. Philip A. Smith

. . . I am a second-year junior and I love Holderness. I am a cross-country runner, a Nordic skier, and a cyclist. I am also in the chorus, I participate in the Green Team’s environmental efforts, and periodically I write for the Picador, the school newspaper. Holderness is a perfect fit for me . . . . I was looking for a small, athletic school with focused classes and great teachers. . . . The people here couldn’t be nicer. It’s true that one can’t walk on the path to the dining hall without passing someone who says, “Hi.” . . . The community here is infectious. Everyone is friendly and accepting. Contrary to other schools that I have heard about, every teacher knows almost every student, and nearly all the students know each other. I really love being at Holderness and I am very grateful that the fund named for you was presented to me. Thank you so much for this incredible opportunity.

Sincerely yours, (Member of the Class of ’09)

Can you believe it? My time at Holderness is almost over. The countdown to graduation has already begun as my days and time at Holderness tick away. . . . Being a senior does have its perks, even if it is incredibly challenging. With three APs, Literature, European History, and Statistics, I have a full plate on my hands. However, even with this tough schedule, I find myself making time for friends, or for subbing for Pantry, or for Frisbee on the Quad. I am also taking an art class this fall, which is a completely new experience for me. I am not artistic in the conventional way, but this class has allowed me to explore my own creativity, and it has created an oasis where I can unwind from a day of focused studying. I am also participating in the Job Program in a new way as a leader for the Alumni & Development crew. In addition, I am excited to participate in the Capstone program this year. I am planning on going to the small African nation of Botswana with a foundation that works to build libraries and increase literacy. I haven’t determined my focus yet, but I am looking into researching Botswanian democracy’s effect on its people in respect to public works projects and literacy programs. . . . These past four years will be ones that I will never forget, ever. . .

.Now, for the final time I simply want to thank you

for enabling me to have the opportunity of a lifetime. “I would thank you from the bottom of my heart, but for you my heart has no bottom.”—Anon.

Sincerely, Taylor Sawatzki ’08

To James C. Stearns ’68

I cannot thank you enough for your support this coming year. I am currently sitting on my porch enjoying the remaining days of summer and thinking about this coming year. . . . I love sports, a key to thriving at Holderness, but I also love the camaraderie of living in a dorm and doing well in classes. Holderness is a great school for learning valuable lessons in balancing all aspects of life. It’s an adventure every day finding the equilibrium between academics, athletics, friends, and responsibilities. Finding time to eat can sometimes be difficult, but I love the outgoing and upbeat atmosphere. . . . I hope this year I find the same success I found last year in the dorm, on the mountain or field, and in the Schoolhouse. I could not be here without your support! Thank you very much! I hope your year is just as exciting and enjoyable as mine!

Sincerely, (Member of the Class of ’10)

Holderness School Today

personal Annual Fund, but for his refusal to even consider

targeting middle-class households for partial grants, and

eliminating financial aid. Faced with a choice of either that

we’ve gotten more of them back into the school.”

or the school’s brand as “a lower-priced school,” Weld didn’t hesitate. It was a choice that put Holderness—at long last—on a path towards financial sustain-

Pete Hendel had some overall numbers in terms of expenditure. “We spent $1.17 million ’01, and $1.92 million in ’08.

on financial aid in

So there’s a two-thirds

ability. And at the same time it reaffirmed

increase. But look at ’09—$2.18 million—and this year:

financial aid, and with it the role of a stu-

$2.61 million. Over the decade we’ve more than doubled

dent body truly representing “a wide vari-

the funding.”

ety of backgrounds,” as the more essential

“What about tuition increases during that time?” Peter

portion of the school’s identity.

Kimball asked.

DON HAGERMAN, WHO hadn’t a penny

pare the two,” said Pete Hendel. “From 2007 through 2009,

in endowment for most of his tenure,

tuition rose at a rate of 4.9 percent each year. Financial aid,

“Tuition has gone up too, but it’s interesting to com-

awarded financial aid. Pete Woodward

on the other hand, has risen by 13.9 percent. Ours is the

awarded more, thanks to a small and

largest rate of growth for that of any school in ABOPS.”

growing endowment. Thanks in no small

Tyler Lewis

Tyler pointed out that Holderness was also spending

part to the efforts of Hagerman and

its financial aid in places where most schools don’t. “A full

Woodward and other stewards, Phil Peck’s

68 percent of our day students are on financial aid,” he

nest egg reached a high-water mark of $45

said. “Not one of our peer schools can match that. And

million in October, 2007. Since then the

international students—most schools go abroad looking

recession has taken a bite out of that, reducing it to $34

only for full-pay candidates. But we’ve got money invested

million as of last December.

in these students as well.”

At the same time Holderness has been welcomed into the Association of Business Officers of Preparatory Schools

But even $2.61 million doesn’t go nearly as far as Tyler would like it to go. Phil mentioned former

(ABOPS), an organization of the forty most selective East

Admissions Director Pete Barnum’s definition of the ideal

Coast boarding schools, and one in which sound business

candidate for Holderness. “He’s the sort of kid with whom

practices are another criterion for membership. And the school has very quietly launched the largest campaign in its history. Far away

more than at the beginning,” Phil recalled. “It’s a definition

its most ambitious element, with a target

that really has much more to do with character than admis-

of $10 million, is endowment for financial

sions-test scores. We have a certain bar set in terms of aca-

aid. Much of the conversation that day had to do with the current status of scholarship funding at Holderness. During the last two

demic accomplishment, of course, but beyond that, it’s all about character.” “I love visiting Holderness and running into kids who say hi and look you in the eye,” said Peter Kimball. “It’s

decades of the past century, Holderness

not something they just put on for the adults, and it has

suffered from a version of the “barbell

more to do than with just politeness. It seems to me that it

effect” that prevailed at many other

connects to a good understanding of who you are and of

schools: a majority of full-pay students,

your place in the world.”

another group of full-scholarship students

Pete Hendel

you can drive from one coast to another in a VW Bug without a radio, and at the end of the trip you like each other

from very low-income backgrounds, and a

“The amount of money I have to work with now has been a huge help,” Tyler said. “I can bring more kids exact-

slim minority between the two. That has

ly like that into this school, and fewer of the sort who

changed substantially over the last decade.

might be risky in terms of character or maturity. So it

Phil had the figures at hand. “In 2001 we had 52 students on financial aid, and the average grant was 90 per-

allows us to apply a much more appropriate filter to the admission process, which is great for Holderness in the

cent of tuition. In 2008 we had 108, which doesn’t include

long run. But even so, the money runs out and we still have

the children of faculty and staff, and the average grant was

to make a lot of tough choices involving candidates who

60 percent. So we’re distributing a good deal more money

might be less desirable but whose families can afford the

and doing it in smaller packages. We’ve made a point of

full tuition. And the families who come to us have to make

8 Holderness School Today

“It’s possible for us to get there . . . .” Fully-funded need-blind? Here are the thoughts of two current and one former trustee on the advisability and achievability of one very audacious goal for a small school. involve people of different backgrounds and perspectives.

Will Prickett ’81

I think every school out there should want to be need-

Chairman, Board of Trustees:

blind—not just for the sake of those different perspectives in THE

MISSION OF THE SCHOOL REMAINS VERY

clear, and one key

to the future success of Holderness depends on our sticking to

its student body, but also on behalf of a community of alumni who know the importance of giving and are all the more prepared themselves to start giving back.

that mission. We need to attract the best students we can in terms

Is that sort of goal achievable for Holderness? Yes, I

of intellect, curiosity, and charac-

think it is, in the long term, if the school continues to be man-

ter, and the fact is that there usu-

aged as conscientiously as it has been. And it may not really

ally is little correlation between

take so long. It’s surprising to me how little money, relatively

those qualities, on one hand, and

speaking, it would take for our endowment to support that.

family income on the other.

But we’ll never get there unless we first commit to it very

So while tuition income is

seriously as a goal.

the largest financial driver of our mission, we can’t focus on maxi-

Jamey Gallop ’83

mizing tuition income to the

Former Chair, Board

exclusion of the best candidates

Investment Committee:

to our community. Being need-blind in our admissions would allow us to focus just on the quality of the candidates, and I

THE

think it’s possible for us to get there. It will take some time to

school education right now are

build our endowment to the necessary levels, and we have to

difficult. Tuition inflation has

be careful not to go too far too fast, but the closer we get, the

outpaced overall inflation by a

better Holderness will be.

ECONOMICS OF

private

wide margin, and it seems that costs will continue to go up. But we don’t want Holderness to

John Straus

become the sort of private country club that’s available to a

Chairman, Board Investment

small percentage of the population. The education of students of modest means is a central part of our mission and identity,

Committee:

and that will require a larger focus on financial aid. IN

EDUCATION, WHO YOU

learn with

Of course it’s harder to raise money for financial aid and

is as important as who you learn

school endowment than it is, say, for buildings. But the great-

from. There’s so much more to it

est strength of Holderness is really not its buildings, but its

than just the classroom. There are

people—its faculty and staff and students. It’s essential to

all the interactions and exchanges

keep the cost of a Holderness education within the reach of as

that occur at dinner, on the athletic

many people as possible to maintain the school’s unique cul-

fields, in the dorm rooms, and

ture.

those are so much richer if they

tough choices as well, and sometimes end up doing all sorts

So it’s always been relatively easy to raise money for a con-

of painful things—extra jobs, second mortgages—in order to

struction project.”

stay here. Some boarding students will become day students, in fact, to keep their costs down.” Robert had another paradigm shift to describe. “You look

But lately that’s changed. “There really has been a shift in philanthropy towards financial aid, and investing in people,” he continued, “rather than in buildings and facilities. It’s

at this campaign, and you see financial aid in a very unusual

a different sort of orientation in values, one that’s more trans-

position—at the top of the list among campaign priorities,” he

parently altruistic. Look at the progress of this campaign so

said. “We’re renovating certain buildings—Weld Hall, which

far. The three largest gifts have been for financial aid.”

has already been done, and then certain classrooms and dorms. But you don’t see new buildings playing a lead role

The largest of the large has been donated by past parents Eijk and Rose-Marie de mol van Otterloo (Eijk is also a for-

here, and traditionally that’s been the path of least resistance

mer trustee, while Rose-Marie is current). The amount is

in fundraising. A shiny new facility is big and visible. It

breath-taking—$2 million, matching the largest single gift in

makes an immediate and obvious sort of difference in school

Holderness history (also courtesy of the van Otterloos)—but

life, and then stands as a permanent memorial to its donors.

perhaps even more so is the selflessness of the gift. “This is a

Holderness School Today

Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo are the donors of an historic gift to Holderness that Phil Peck describes as â&#x20AC;&#x153;transformative,â&#x20AC;? that Robert Caldwell praises as â&#x20AC;&#x153;altruism in the purest sense of the word.â&#x20AC;? Perhaps the best phrase was coined by the father of Bill Koyama in 1945 (see page 52): â&#x20AC;&#x153;the Great Providence.â&#x20AC;? Learn more about the scope, purposes, and potential impact of this gift in the spring HST.

Which it hasâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and flourished.

gift that has nothing to do with naming rights, with the establishment, for example, of any sort of van Otterloo

It has flourished

enough, in fact, for Phil Peck and his Board of Trustees to

fund,â&#x20AC;? Phil said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been given to us simply to build the

now dream of making Holderness so accessible that the

capacity of the school, and to provide matching money to

word â&#x20AC;&#x153;compromiseâ&#x20AC;? disappears from its admission and

encourage those who sponsor endowed scholarships now to

financial aid procedures, and the word â&#x20AC;&#x153;painfulâ&#x20AC;? from the

build them to higher levels.â&#x20AC;?

considerations of the parents of interested candidates.

THAT, REALLY, IS THE WHOLE key, and the continuing

process,â&#x20AC;? Phil said with a smile. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t look at family

â&#x20AC;&#x153;In fact weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re need-blind already in our admission

affirmation of what Edric Weld always demanded of

income in choosing the kids we most want to come here.

Holderness. In resigning himself to the fact that Holderness

We just arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t fully-funded need-blind. So then we have to

could not persist without raising its tuition, he surely fore-

make that next set of decisions about who can afford to

saw that the school founded as the economy-priced option

come here, and whom

to St. Paulâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s would grow to be virtually as expensive as that

we can afford to help.â&#x20AC;?

other great school, and that the word â&#x20AC;&#x153;affordableâ&#x20AC;? would have to drop out of Holdernessâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; description of itself. Weld refused to yield, however, on an admissions policy in which each candidate â&#x20AC;&#x153;is judged for himself, and not

Need-blind, as in fully-fundedâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;around Holderness the idea also goes by an

because of family background.â&#x20AC;? Convinced at last that

acronym common to

Holderness could not be bargain-priced in providing â&#x20AC;&#x153;the

the strategic planning

highest degree of excellence in education,â&#x20AC;? he insisted that

process: BHAG, or Big

it at least be accessible. If the school could run in the black,

Hairy Audacious Goal.

in fact, it could perhaps afford scholarships for a few more

The current $10 mil-

children of clergymen, artists, and widows.

lion campaign goal for

It was a choice both pragmatic and deeply principled.

financial aid is perhaps

It would necessitate finding enough candidates from the

big, perhaps audacious,

upper echelons of the economic ladder to make sure the

but not quite hairy.

Phil Peck

Endowment Debt school ran in the black. The Admission Office would do its enough money Quartile per Student Havingper Student best to filter out the â&#x20AC;&#x153;super-sophisticatesâ&#x20AC;? who might be in the endowment of a little school like Holderness to be 75th Percentile $ 219,491 $ 99,783 unsuitable for this rough-hewn sort of school. Some were able to accommodate each and every admitted applicant Median $ 157,123 $ 62,622 sure to get in as the 25th school went about balancing who might aidâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;now that idea sprouts hairs. Percentile $ its books,88,051 $ need financial 36,269 but at least the school would endure.School $ no question that even the ambition to become Holderness 117,345 â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s $ 10,601

In terms endowment and debt, this is where Holderness stands in a group of fifteen schools who compete for similar candidates.

Endowment Per Student 75th Percentile

$219,491

Median

$157,123

25th Percentile

$ 88,051

Holderness School

$117,345

Debt Per Student

75th Percentile

$ 99,783

Median

$ 62,622

25th Percentile

$ 36,269

Holderness School

$ 10,601

10 Holderness School Today

Phil Peck and his Board of Trustees dream of making Holderness so accessible that the word “compromise” disappears from its admission and financial aid procedures, fully-funded need-blind is a huge undertaking for Holderness,” said Peter Kimball.

and the word “painful”

“There

from the considerations of

are very few schools in the country that are in that position. Princeton is, but Harvard isn’t.

the parents of interested

Seventy percent of Harvard’s undergraduates receive some form of financial aid now,

candidates.

though, and there is a broader trend in society that sees financial aid as a worthy investment in what might be called social capital. I

child to Holderness, I’m looking for a com-

believe in fact that there is no more important

munity of kids who are reflective, who are

goal for Holderness right now, and that this is

inquisitive, but at the same time they’re

a moment where opportunity goes hand in

active—they participate, they assume lead-

hand with excellence and accessibility.” But how could Holderness’ endowment

Robert Caldwell

ership, they give back, and they take responsibility for where they are. We need

possibly achieve what Harvard’s can’t? Well,

to hold on to that ideal.”

the former’s endowment may not be impressively big at the

“And at fully-funded need-blind,” Phil said,

“we would

moment—well below the median of fifteen peer schools, in

never again have to turn away a family who embraces that

fact—but at least it almost all belongs to Holderness.

ideal, whatever their resources.”

The

school’s short-term debt of $10,601 per student is well-nigh

That was when Phil asked if Peter if he was enjoying his

microscopic in a group where median longer-term debt is

Outward Bound journal. “With the holiday season as busy as

more than six times that amount. “That puts our net endow-

it is, I haven’t opened it yet,” Peter said. “But I will, and I

ment up there at sixth in that group of fifteen, which is actual-

may very well transcribe it.” He laughed. “There’s a chance

ly pretty good,” said Pete Hendel.

it’ll bring back nightmares. It’s just so odd that it showed up

Size matters also, and this is one situation where it truly

now.”

pays to be small. “Given the size of our enrollment,” Tyler Lewis said, “we wouldn’t really need as much more in our endowment as people might think.” Phil knew the math. “That’s true,” he said. “So we figure our endowment on a five-year rolling average and annually

MANY YEARS AGO EDRIC WELD took a grim sort of satisfaction in making Holderness “available to at least a few people of lesser income.” The two sides of the coin that he showed to his trustees in 1947 were basically these: the

draw four percent of that amount. Then we could do it, say,

breadth, quality, and diversity of the school’s people and pro-

with an additional $40 million. That’s not impossible. It’s

grams, and the challenge posed to those elements by

achievable. And whether we get to that level soon or just

Holderness’ inability to pay its bills.

make headway there, we’ll be serving the school well, for now and for fifty years from now.” Peter Kimball wasn’t so sure about one part of that. “It may be admirable, but is it achievable? I don’t know,” he said. “In either event, it’s worth trying for.” Peter then wondered if being fully-funded might tempt the Admission Office into changing its thinking in any way. “Would you start looking more for kids with 90th-percentile scores on the SSATs? That sort of situation forces a school to really articulate who precisely is an ideal candidate.” “We would continue to emphasize character,” Phil said.

Bishop Niles had specified “the lowest possible charge for tuition and board” in his vision for Holderness, and it fell to Weld to conclude that a discounted tuition simply wasn’t possible in any sustainable sense, at least if excellence was required. Then there were still always compromises to be made at the Admissions Office, even as the school, through the decades, largely retired its debt and built an endowment. Perhaps there always will be such compromises. But Phil Peck and many others like to think that it ain’t necessarily so, and that this is the time to start doing something about it. They like to think that some-

“And we would continue to do what we do: Special Programs,

day, maybe, Bishop Niles will get his way

chapel twice a week, the Job Program, family-style dinner, no

after all—an entirely accessible sort of

specialization in sports. We would look for families who

school where, from the slam of a car door

embrace all those things, whether their children are 60th or

(any sort of car door) and the first firm

99th percentile.” “Good,” Peter said. “The money, if it’s ever there, shouldn’t change our priorities. If I’m a parent bringing a

Hagerman-style handshake, “each is judged for himself and not because of family background.”

Holderness School Today

Out of Nowhere At one time the dreams of Fiston Kahindo ’03 were limited to the meager possiblities of Kenya’s Kakuma Refugee Camp. Today he helps other African orphans to dream bigger than that. Chalk another one up to financial aid.

Fiston, left, spent time with Phil Peck and a lot of other old friends during a Lynn University recruiting trip this fall. On the right is J.J. Hall ’05, who was about to leave for his new job at Christ the Cornerstone International School in Lagos, Nigeria. Read more about that on page 40.

HAD IT NOT BEEN FOR Holderness School’s commitment to financial aid, a poor Kenyan girl named

Elizabeth might never have owned shoes. That’s just one of a great many things that might

Eventually he and Ruga found their way to northwestern Kenya’s Kakuma Refugee Camp, a sprawling city of 70,000 whose name is also the Swahili word for “nowhere.” There Fiston was lucky enough to be noticed

never have happened, but let’s begin in 1992 with what

by a soccer coach, Jean Kakusu, who helped him gain

shouldn’t have happened: the sudden death of Dr. Paul

admission to a boarding school in Matuu, Kenya, and

Kahindo, a physician and prominent political dissident in

funding from a foundation in Nairobi.

the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Soon after Dr. Kahindo died in circumstances that suggest a political

At the same time Elizabeth Campbell, the sister of Carolyn Campbell ’96, spent a month at Kakuma during

assassination, his grief-stricken wife succumbed to a

a semester abroad from St. Lawrence University. There

heart attack.

she became friendly enough with Kakusu—who is now

That was when their son Ruga, 20, went to the

Jean Campbell, and who works at a community college

Congolese press with questions about his father’s death.

in Portland, Oregon—for him to later be adopted as a

This provoked an attempt on his life as well. Three

brother into her family.

weeks later Ruga and his much younger brother Fiston, 8, were in Kenya, and among the hundreds of thousands in central Africa with no other home but a refugee camp.

But there was help coming for Fiston as well. In 2000 Carolyn had joined the math department of the Holderness faculty. She spoke to then-Admissions Director Pete Barnum about devoting some portion of

TOOK NO LONGER THAN

that for the world of Fiston

the school’s slim financial aid budget to a student from

Kahindo—and his presumed future—to be laid waste.

an African refugee camp. That led to Pete getting on the

By way of capital, such as it was, he had only a few

telephone with Fiston. Subsequently Pete sent Fiston an

years of good schooling. He had just learned the most

application and set aside a full scholarship.

brutal sort of lesson about the world’s capacity for

Okay, but how does someone who is essentially

treachery. He was about to learn about its capacity for

penniless get from Matuu to Holderness?

grace and charity as well.

me money for a plane ticket,” Fiston recalls. “But then I

12 Holderness School Today

“Carolyn sent

Fiston had grown up with shoes, but they wore out during his flight from the

arrived without anything to wear that would satisfy the dress code at Holderness. So Elizabeth and Carolyn and Jean bought

Congo many years ago. He

me jackets, pants, ties, shoes, and so on.” “Culture shock” only begins to describe this sort of

and his brother trudged three

upheaval, from Nairobi to Holderness and a new set of clothes for a whole new world. Fiston’s first language was French,

weeks through the forest.

though he now also speaks English and several African languages. But a second language was just one of the multiple

Fiston’s legs swelled to the

challenges he faced then. “It was very hard at the beginning,” Fiston says, “but I always had the support of the teachers

point that Ruga had to carry

there, and I certainly would not be where I am today had it not been for Holderness, and the grace of God.”

him.

He arrived as a junior, made the honor roll by dint of hard labor (and would win the Clarkson Prize for perseverance at the 2003 commencement), but did not distinguish himself on the English-language SAT tests he took that year for college admission. “Bruce Barton was the college counselor, and he helped prepare my application, edit my personal statement, and find several good colleges that would accept scores in my range,” Fiston says. “Bruce was extremely helpful.” One such school was Florida’s Lynn University, which has a large enrollment of international students and which at the last moment offered this student another full scholarship. And after a couple of years at Holderness, Fiston found himself ready to flourish at Lynn. He qualified for the school’s honors program, became a resident assistant, a student ambassador for the admissions department, and as a junior was elected president of the Student Government Association—the first international student to hold that position. That put Fiston in a place where he could accomplish a few good turns himself. Distressed to see a number of students dropping out of Lynn because of money problems, Fiston led a successful initiative to build a scholarship fund enabling students with high grade-point averages to stay in school. He lobbied effectively as well for more work-study jobs and more financial aid for international students. He helped also at the nickel-and-dime level of student life, establishing a popular free airport shuttle service for Lynn students. Today he is still at Lynn, working as a full-time admissions officer, making recruiting trips for the university to schools that include Holderness, and taking graduate courses in international business. And as the vice-president of Dream Sponsors, Inc., he is also revisiting Africa.

“A LADY FROM FLORIDA—her name is Carla Neumann— had gone to Africa, had come back, and had read an article about me in a Boca Raton newspaper,” Fiston explains. “It was about my being the first international president of the SGA at Lynn. She wanted to set up a non-profit organization that would help orphans at the refugee camps, and she asked for my help and advice.” That organization became Dream Sponsors (www.dreamsponsorsinc.org), whose mission is to create sponsorships and support networks “designed to assist orphan youth in Africa with the emotional, financial, and logistical means to trans-

The character of the organization, says Fiston, owes something to Holderness: “The basic model I proposed had very much to do with my experience there. We seek to pay tuition for schooling, to provide uniforms and books, to make possible medical care and insurance. We want to give them a chance to dream, and a chance to realize their dreams.” The bulk of Dream Sponsors’ work involves fundraising, but in 2008 Fiston and Carla Neumann visited Bunyore, a small village in western Kenya. There they set up a collaboration with another education-based non-profit and arranged sponsorships for a dozen village children. Even Fiston was impressed with how little money it took to make a big difference there. For example, he and Carla found the elderly grandmother of one sponsored child very ill with malaria during one home visit. “It took a small gift of $5 to provide medication to improve her condition in just a short time,” Fiston says. “We were able to provide mosquito nets and other supplies to help with their living conditions and to keep Elizabeth functioning in her small rural school.

She

must walk in excess of two miles each way to her school and had never owned a pair of shoes until our visit.” Fiston had grown up with shoes, but they wore out during his flight from the Congo many years ago. He and his brother trudged three weeks through the forest, subsisting on nuts and grasses. Fiston’s legs swelled to the point that Ruga had to carry him. But from Nowhere, Fiston was carried to Nairobi, and then to the United States. No one knows better than him the life-saving importance of philanthropy, the soul-uplifting strength of its helping hand. And no one is more eager to pay it forward. “If ever I reach any sort of position of financial success,” he says, “I will dedicate a portion of that to Holderness.” Ruga is also safe and prosperous today, living in Dallas and raising a family that includes three children. The courage, energy, and intelligence of these two survivors have played an enormous role in their success—but so has the sort of helping hand that Fiston now extends to others.

form their dreams into reality.”

Holderness School Today

Catching up with...

Pete Barnum

LongTerm Rewards Former Director of Admission Pete Barnum is still hard at work for Holderness, but in a different role these days. He says there was just one part of the old job that broke his heart every year. Now he’s part of a team working on the cure for that.

HIS FIRST OFFICE was the size of a walk-

school, and into the first four years of Phil

in closet on the second floor of Livermore

Peck’s. During this day in January he’s sit-

Hall, and it was never what you’d call a

ting down with Phil at the Common Man

low-stress sort of job, especially in the

Restaurant in Ashland and taking a glance

spring, after he and his staff had made all

backwards through the years.

the tough choices about who to invite into next year’s class of incoming students, and

the letters of acceptance had gone out. Then

Era of independent school admissions. The

you waited—to see who came back for sec-

economy was healthy, the market was grow-

ond visits, to see who finally signed those

ing, the grandparents of the kids coming in

letters, to see who signed those letters and

were prosperous. And Don Hagerman, Pete

then changed their minds in August.

Woodward, and a lot of other people had

“But in twenty-five years,” says Pete

drew more strong applicants than we need-

when I got out of bed and didn’t want to

ed, and I was never once in a position

His work was as the school’s chief recruiter and gatekeeper, Director of

Holderness School Today

built Holderness into a good place to be. We

Barnum, “there was never a single day

come to work.”

“I was lucky,” he adds. “I arrived just in time for what I consider to be the Golden

where I had to take someone just to fill a bed. I would have quit if I’d had to.” Holderness was lucky too, because it

Admission, from 1980 to 2005, throughout

was all so unlikely to have turned out that

Pete Woodward’s years as head of the

way. Pete was a Kent School alumnus relo-

cated to Colorado in 1970. There he and two friends were

ty, an inclination to work hard, he was willing to give them a

partners in a company that designed and built spec homes,

shot.”

and Pete began to get tired of that at about the same time the Colorado real estate market was drying up. In 1979, on the

So was Pete Woodward, and the result, in general, through the Hagerman and then the Woodward/Barnum years,

advice of a teacher at Kent, Pete attended a four-day work-

have been students who, adds Pete, “sometimes are knuckle-

shop for admission professionals hosted by the National

heads because they’re kids, but who in almost every case are

Association of Independent Schools. “It was in Menlo Park, California, and I had to talk my way into it,” Pete laughs. “My name tag said ‘Educational Consultant, Boulder, CO,’ which—except for the address— was a complete fabrication.” He learned enough about school admissions to want to

great company, fun to be around, and who have the potential to really flourish, academically and otherwise, in this sort of environment.” Pete is grateful as well for the character and constancy of the environment. Phil delineates the many elements that Hagerman-era alumni would recognize: multiple-point-of-

give it a try, but where? His father told him that Pete

contact faculty, the chapel, the dress code, the Job Program,

Woodward, who had been chaplain at Kent during Pete

family-style dinner, facilities that are functional but “not

Barnum’s senior year, was now head of Holderness School.

glitzy,” and more.

What’s more, the Holderness Admission Director (Steve Christakos) had suddenly resigned to take a job at Williams College. No doubt the Kent connection helped, but so did desper-

“Well, we never had to fiddle with the formula in order to fill our beds,” Pete says. “Whenever I was among other educators, and whenever the conversation got around to Holderness, I’d hear, ‘Holderness created a niche for itself

ate straits at Holderness, since all the experience Pete could

years ago and has remained true to that.’ They’re right, and it

offer were those four days of conference gate-crashing. “Bill

works both ways. We’ve been able to remain true because of

Clough was the Assistant Head then, and the interim Director

the steady quality of our applicant pool. That’s what’s enabled

of Admission,” Pete says. “He took me up to that little office,

Holderness to weather all the storms of hard times and

gave me the file of all the schools they’d visited, and told me

changes in educational fashion. We were able to stand by our

to set up a travel schedule as Associate Director of

dress code, for example, during years when other schools

Admission. Then in April, after the acceptance letters had

were tossing that overboard.”

gone out, he asked me, ‘Are you ready?’ I asked him for

In fact, the applicant pool was so strong and steady that

what. He said, ‘To take over.’”

Pete was able to do more than just recruit for Holderness

PETE LIVED IN LOWER Niles that year, an arrangement

ed educational consultant he had once impersonated.

School—he became, in fact, a good likeness of the disinterest-

that helped shape his philosophy of admissions. “We were a boarding school, where teachers lived 24/7 with these kids,”

“I’m thankful that you never encouraged families to apply just to raise our applicant numbers,” Phil says. “With

Pete says. “So I thought first and foremost, they had to be

you, it was always about finding the right match for a family

nice kids, the sort of people faculty members would enjoy

in terms of which school would be best. You were always

being around.” Phil laughs, and he repeats Pete’s trademark definition of the sort of student he sought: “The kind of kid with whom you can drive coast to coast in a VW Bug, without a radio, and at the end of the trip you like each other more than when you started.” It helped as well that this definition so neatly gibed with the one Don Hagerman had worked with in the days when the

honest that way, and helpful in finding a good fit, and I think that’s another reason why we were always full. People knew they weren’t being manipulated.” “Well, no kid needed to come here and have his legs knocked out from under him,” Pete says. “There are some kids for whom Holderness is just not the right place. But I felt if I could help the families find the school that is the right place—and I enjoyed doing that—then we could all feel good

headmaster was also the admission director. “There were so

about the process and move on. And because as a school we

many kids who came to visit but who thought they really

were so healthy, and not worried about the numbers, I could

didn’t have a shot because of their grades or test scores,” Pete

afford to do that.”

says. “But if Don saw strength of character, a good personali-

Pete says that really he enjoyed every aspect of the job

Holderness School Today

that he fell into more or less by chance—with one

You’ve got a lot more first-generation families com-

notable exception. “That was the financial aid

ing to campus, and a lot more of them need help in

piece,” he says. “That was one aspect that would

handling the cost, especially in this sort of econo-

depress me every year, drive me close to migraines.

my.”

I’d see these absolutely wonderful kids come into the

Phil laughs and remembers the years that he

office, and of course we’d accept them, but we only

worked for Pete, 1986-88, as a part-time associate in

had so much of that sort of money to go around, and

the admission office.

it ran out so fast.” Accepted, but without any help in paying the

“I’d never had so much fun,” Phil says. “Then I remember one day we were walking over to Bartsch,

tuition, though they qualified for such: “Then I’d get

and I asked you if you thought I should go full-time

calls from distraught parents,” Pete continues. “I’d

into admissions work.”

“I’d explain how there’s a much fiercer level of competition when financial aid is involved, but of course that can’t really satisfy them, because this is their own flesh and blood we’re talking about. They know how much their child has to offer, and they can’t help thinking that we don’t.”

take them through the process, step by step, and explain how there’s a much fiercer level of competi-

Pete was honored by Phil Peck for 25 years of outstanding admissions work in 2005. Then he moved into a new office in Livermore.

tion when financial aid is involved, but of course that can’t really satisfy them, because this is their

Phil notes that the years have played a trick on them both. As Head of School, he has had to relin-

own flesh and blood we’re talking about. They know

quish the classroom; similarly Pete has a whole dif-

how much their child has to offer, and they can’t

ferent sort of job to do now in the Development

help thinking that we don’t. It used to just tear me

Office as the school’s Director of Leadership Giving.

up.”

“The day-to-day rewards of working with the kids

THAT STOPPED IN 2005, when Pete left the homey

rewards are there for the school. It’s what we have to

suite of offices that occupies most of Livermore’s

do. It’s a calling.”

aren’t there so much,” Phil says. “But the long-term

ground floor. He handed the reins over to Tobi Pfenninger, who served a year as the school’s interim

Phil mentions the school’s current campaign, with its $10 million goal for financial aid endow-

director, and then to Tyler Lewis. He says that by no

ment, and the great goal that lies beyond that, a

means had he stopped looking forward to work each

school that’s need-blind in its admission process, and

morning. “I wasn’t burned out,” he explains. “I still

fully-funded for that.

loved it, but I just felt it was time for the school to have a fresh set of eyes in that job.” Nowadays Tyler looks for the same good road trip companions, and Pete applauds the fact that

Pete pauses over a bowl of corn chowder. He remembers R.C. Whitehouse ’00, a local kid whose family needed financial aid but couldn’t be provided any. R.C. came anyway, and was elected vice-presi-

Tyler does so with a steadily increasing financial aid

dent of the school, while his parents sold property,

budget. He also applauds Tyler’s commitment to ini-

mortgaged the house, worked extra jobs, and still

tiatives that Pete began in using that money, includ-

struggled. He remembers many candidates like R.C.

ing scholarship funding for day students, internation-

who never came, kids with whom Pete would have

al students, and middle class families, all of whom

loved to share seats in a Volkswagen.

are rarely funded at many other schools. “But the Golden Era is over,” Pete says. “These are hard times to work in admissions, even here.

16 Holderness School Today

“And I told you no,” Pete says. “Because I knew you loved the classroom so much.”

“If it means that more kids like R.C. can be accepted and funded,” Pete says, “then there will be many long-terms rewards for this school.”

GRADE 9 Miss Elizabeth Winslow Aldridge Mr. Jacob Cramer Barton Miss Elena E. Bird Miss Nicole Marie DellaPasqua Mr. Daniel Do Miss Jeong Yeon Han Mr. Chandler John Hoefle Mr. Caleb Andrew Nungesser Miss Victoria Sommerville-Kelso Miss Iashai Stephens Miss Taylor Kathryn Watts Mr. Charles Norwood Williams GRADE 10 Mr. Nathanial George Alexander Mr. Keith Michael Bohlin Miss Ariana Ann Bourque Miss Josephine McAlpin Brownell Miss Benedicte Nora Crudgington Miss Abigail Kristen Guerra Miss Yejin Hwang Mr. Nathaniel Ward Lamson Miss Kristina Sophia Micalizzi Miss So Hee Park Mr. Ryan Michael Rosencranz Mr. Jean-Philippe Tardif

High Honors: First Quarter

GRADE 11 Mr. Desmond James Bennett Miss Madeline Margaret Burnham Mr. David McCauley Caputi Mr. Jordan L Cargill Mr. Se Han Cho Miss Juliet Sargent Dalton Miss Amanda Claire Engelhardt Mr. Nicholas James Hill Ford Miss Pauline Zeina Germanos Miss Emily Maria Hayes Miss Cassandra Laine Hecker Mr. Carson Vincent Houle Miss Kristen Nicole Jorgenson Miss Paige Alexis Kozlowski Mr. Samuel Newton Leech Mr. Samuel Cornell Macomber Mr. Gabrielius Maldunas Mr. James McNulty Mr. Christopher Steven Merrill Miss Leah Peters Miss Elizabeth Ann Pettitt Mr. Ethan Patrick Pfenninger Mr. Colin Thomas Phillips Mr. Derek De Freitas Pimentel Miss Brooke Elizabeth Robertson Mr. Adam Jacob Sapers Mr. Lucas Paul Schaffer Mr. Nathaniel Owen Shenton Miss Emily Roberts Starer Mr. Nicholas E. Stoico Miss Margaret Mooney Thibadeau Mr. Niklaus Carl Friedrich Vitzthum

GRADE 12 Miss Abigail Jane Alexander Miss Ashleigh May Boulton Mr. Christopher William Bradbury Miss Elizabeth Hope Brown Miss Hyun Jung Chung Miss Sarah R. Clarkson Mr. Nicholas James Cushing Mr. Ivan Delic Mr. Mark David Finnegan, Jr. Miss Andrea Kourajian Fisher Mr. Brian Mullin Friedman Miss Mary Jo Germanos Mr. Duong Tung Ha Duyen Mr. William James Hoeschler Miss Erika Margaret Johnson Mr. John Scott McCoy Mr. Wesley Mitchell-Lewis Mr. Scott W. Nelson Miss Georgina I. Ogirri Mr. Benjamin Christopher Osborne Miss Emily Hope Pettengill Miss Mireille Cecile Pichette Miss Laura Olivia Pohl Miss Gabrielle Jillian Raffio Mr. Eric Rochefort Mr. Jack Kevin Saba Mr. Kody Ross Spencer Miss Chelsea Ann Stevens Miss Ji Eun Sung Miss Sarah Ashby Sussman Miss Marion Trafford Thurston Miss Aubrey Frances Tyler Miss Caroline Patricia Walsh Miss Kristen L. Walters Mr. Carter Travis White Mr. Chatarin Wong-U-Railertkun

GRADE 12 Miss Abigail Jane Alexander GRADE 9 Mr. Christian Anderson Mr. Alexander James Berman Mr. Christian Elliott Bladon Mr. Jeffrey Michael Hauser Mr. Aidan Cleaveland Kendall Mr. Alexander Min Lehmann Miss Celine Pichette Miss Olivia Grace Poulin Mr. Jesse Jeremiah Ross Mr. Peter Pesch Saunders Miss Lauren Louise Stride Mr. Robert Patrick Sullivan

Honors: First Quarter

GRADE 10 Miss Shelby Jeanne Benjamin GRADE 10 Miss Shelby Jeanne Benjamin Mr. Christopher Hepworth Bunker Miss Samantha Regina Cloud

GRADE 10 Miss Shelby Jeanne Benjamin Mr. Christopher Hepworth Bunker Miss Samantha Regina Cloud Mr. Peter Michael Ferrante Miss Hannah Morgan Halsted Mr. Preston Kelsey Mr. Andrew Phillip Kimbell Mr. Matthew Neville Kinney Miss Samantha Anne Lee Mr. Brandon C. Marcus Mr. William Marvin Miss Carly Elizabeth Meau Mr. Bennett McKinley Melville Mr. Oliver Julian Nettere Mr. James Ornstein Robbins Mr. Justin Demarr Simpkins Miss Abagael Mae Slattery Miss Erica Holahan Steiner Mr. Brian Alden Tierney Mr. Ruohao Xin

GRADE 11 Ms Radvile Autukaite Mr. Thomas William Barbeau Miss Kiara Janea Boone Miss Cecily Noyes Cushman Mr. Kevin Michael Dachos Miss Samantha Devine Mr. MacLaren Nash Dudley Miss Sarah E. Fauver Miss Kathleen Nugent Finnegan Mr. Justin M. Frank Mr. Alexander Ulysses Gardiner Mr. Nicholas William Maher Goodrich Mr. Chandler S. Grisham Miss Elizabeth Ryan Hale Miss Paige Nicole Hardtke Miss Lauren Michelle Hayes Mr. Andrew V. Howe Mr. Dewey W. Knapp Mr. Alex Kuno Mr. Charles Jacob Long Mr. Colin Hugh Gaylord MacKenzie Miss Alexandra Marie Muzyka Mr. Abe H. Noyes Miss Charlotte Plumer Noyes Mr. Alexander Sprole Obregon Mr. Zhachary Render Pham Miss Catherine Hope Powell Mr. Isaac Simes Miss Haleigh Elizabeth Weiner Miss Sarah Xiao

GRADE 12 Miss Karen Frances Abate Mr. Michael Scott Anderson Mr. Alvaro Calderon Apraiz Miss Sydney Tovah Aronson Mr. Philip Klein Brown IV Miss Julia E. Canelas Mr. Garrett Andrew Canning Miss Julia Franckhauser Capron Mr. Paul Jarvis Clark Miss Lucy Copeland Mr. Samuel Carter Copeland Mr. Alex Anderson Francis Miss Erica F. Hamlin Miss Brette Harrington Mr. Sean Patrick Harrison Mr. Colin Edward Higgins Mr. William Winsor Humphrey III Mr. Kyle Kenney Miss Morgan Braid Markley Mr. Kevin Sander Michel Mr. Matthew Nolan Miss Marissa Leigh Pendergast Mr. Jacob Andrew Scott Mr. Emmanuel Sherrard Smith Miss Elise Holahan Steiner Mr. Shiloh Summers Mr. Jeffrey Robert Regan Wasson

Holderness School Today

Around the Quad

Academics

Environmental Science

Inside the Squam ecosystem

HAMPSHIRE’S Lakes

trends, and seasonal changes within

Region is one of the best

the Squam ecosystem. “That field

places in the world for the

work is part of a directed effort

study of flowing water ecosystems,

over recent years by the science

and the science department is on to

department at Holderness,” said

it. All upper-level environmental

Maggie, “to incorporate place-

science classes devoted study to

based education and environmental

these systems this fall, and Dr.

literacy into our curriculum.”

Maggie Mumford’s biology class

The Lakes Region is a good

went to Squam Lake in September

place for the study of forest ecolo-

to do field work with Squam Lakes

gy as well, and in October

Association research associate

Maggie’s biology students were out

Rebecca Harvey and invasive plant

in the woods, learning the basics of

specialist Brett Durham.

tree identification and investigating

Froshers Nicole Della Pasqua, Olivia Poulin, and Caleb Nungesser take the measure of Squam Lake.

The biology

the timing of foliage and leaf drop.

students got a taste

They also studied the formation of

of environmental

forest soil, the factors determining

science as they

local diversity, and the interactions

investigated nutrient

that lead to forest succession.

levels, water quality

AP History According to Sgt. Long

ISTORY, FOR

many of us, is not only useful

but fun. It’s one thing to be whisked away to a different time and place in the pages of

a good novel. To be whisked away to a world sub-

stantiated by fact, however, and populated by figures who really lived, is another sort of experience, one described by genuine history enthusiasts as a “period rush.” No one experiences this rush more thoroughly, perhaps, than those who physically immerse themselves in history as re-enactors. In October Chris Day brought a re-enactor into his AP History class, and he didn’t have to go

Steve Solberg’s Senior Honors Thesis cohort

far afield to find one. That re-enactor was our own

who has acquired the uniform, the equipment, and—not least—the expertise to serve as a First Sergeant in the Revolutionary War’s First New York Regiment. Jack prepares for and participates in sever-

Jack Long

al re-enactments each year, most recently a recreation of the battle of Saratoga. It’s a way to not only live history, but to teach it, and we can recommend a good book about the culture and challenges of historical re-enactment: Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horwitz.

HE SCHOOL’S

Jack Long ’11, who hails from Riverside, CT, and

Senior Honors Thesis So tell

innovative Senior Honors

Thesis program is a spring phenome-

non, but preparation begins in the fall.

In October program director Steve Solberg took a group he described as the “Senior Honors Thesis 2009-10 Cohort” off campus for some good food, good conversation, and some serious talk about the challenges and

us what

opportunities that await them next semester.

you

demic research with independent experiential

The program combines extensive aca-

learning into topics of strong student interest. “Up until now,” Steve said that night, “we’ve

want to

been telling you what you need to know.

know.

you want to know.”

Through this program, you get to tell us what

That preliminary meeting has since been followed by one-on-one meetings with Steveand SHT advisor Emily Magnus ’88 as students define their topics and prepare for carrying out their research.

Holderness School Today

IKI PAGES ARE

simple informative

web pages modeled after those

that appear on Wikipedia.com

Western Civilization

RLANDO AND

Your best source on Fordamongus

and that can be edited by classmates, friends, and family. Among the school’s

academic goals this year is the implementation of Wiki pages into the curriculum,

Rosalind, the

protagonists of William Shakespeare’s As You Like It,

flee into the forest in order to accom-

Director of Residential Life Duane Ford ’74

plish a sort of self-realization. Sounds like Out Back, sort of, and in November a number of Holderness

and this fall Director of Communications

students—Monique Devine’s theater

Steve Solberg visited a number of classes

class and Peter Durnan’s AP

in order to provide tips and models.

Language and Composition class—

In Western Civilization, for example,

made the journey to St. Anselm

Steve helped froshers create a Wiki page

College in Manchester in order to

about a certain classical divinity, one pre-

see how that kind of Out Back was

Jenn Cameron ’10, Alex Kuno ’11, and Lucy Copeland ’10 at St. Anselm’s.

viously unknown to scholars: Fordamongus. “In Holderness mythology,

done in the 17th century. They also got a dose of Shakespeare’s extraordinary language in its true spoken

Fordamongus is the king of the leaders, the

version. The language, in fact, was the

ruler of all things residential (and day), and

chief interest of the AP Comp class.

the god of the sky, thunder, and community,” reads their Wiki page. “His followers

The theater class focused more on

are those that dedicate their lives to the

such dramatic devices as the college

concepts of initiative, fairness, dependabil-

production’s raked stage. Both class-

ity, and—of course—leadership. In addi-

es, though, came home with

tion to his Indo-European inheritance, the

increased admiration for the rich cul-

classical cloud-gatherer also derives cer-

tural offerings of New Hampshire’s

tain iconographic traits from the cultures

college community.

of the ancient Near East, such as the ratty

Drama/AP Comp.

old tie. Fordo (as he is affectionately termed by his followers) is frequently

Out Back as

depicted by Holderness artists in one of two poses: standing and striding forward,

Shakespeare liked it.

with a thunderbolt leveled in his raised right hand, or seated in majesty.”

Life Skills

A wealth of wisdom from a renowned fiscal expert.

“I

N FINANCIAL TERMS, THIS

is a different sort of world from the

one your parents grew up in,” said Mark Daniell in an October all-school assembly. “And if you don’t control your finances,

they’ll control you.”

hear Mr. Daniell recall that the the word “wealth” traces its real meaning to concepts of welfare and well-being, and that “wisdom” implies a mode of understanding that relies heavily on planning. “Hope is not a strategy,” he warned. “The achievement of welfare and well-being will

Mark Daniell is chairman of the Cuscaden Group, an advisory and investment business based in Singapore; vice-chairman of Aquarian

require plenty of effort and planning.” He displayed a graph that recorded the movement of the stock

Investment Advisors, an asset-

market from 1950 to the present: a steady upward climb for the first

management company also

fifty years, but during this decade nothing but either stagnation or loss-

based in Singapore; Director

es. “No more guaranteed returns of nine percent,” he warned. “We’re

Emeritus of Bain and Company,

going to have to learn how to save.”

one of the world’s leading strate-

He advocates a 21st century wisdom that is actually many cen-

gy consulting firms; and a fre-

turies old, but which has a new and essential relevance: write down a

quent guest on the BBC, CNBC,

financial plan as soon as you can and stick to it; specify a regular sav-

CNN, ChannelNewsAsia, and

ings target and stick to it; and be both conservative and diverse in your

Bloomberg TV channels. He is also the father of Christian

Mark Daniell

Daniell ’12, and the co-author— with Karin Iris Sixl-Daniell— of Wealth Wisdom for Everyone: An

investments. To that he added a recommendation to minimize our use of credit cards. The books that he donated to the community are a special edition of Wealth Wisdom, copies that bear a photograph of the Holderness

Easy-to-Use Guide to Personal Financial Planning and Wealth

campus on the front cover and an endorsement from Phil Peck on the

Creation (World Scientific, 2006), copies of which he generously dis-

back. “I hope the book is helpful to you all in learning how to control

tributed free to the entire Holderness community. A good portion of that community—all students and faculty, some early-bird parents, and many interested staff members—were present to

your finances,” Mr. Daniell said. “But there won’t be any exam on it. Well, actually, there will—the exam will be the quality of life that you subsequently sustain.”

Holderness School Today

Around the Quad

The Arts Not the way we planned it,

Drama

and (shh) don’t tell anyone.

HESE DAYS

TIGER Woods and other publicity-

shy public figures might find Neil Simon’s

play Rumors funnier than ever—or they might

not. The play describes what ensues when several affluent and prominent couples arrive at a New York suburban party, only to discover that the hostess is missing and the host (the deputy mayor of New York City) has shot himself through the earlobe. The guests decide that, first and foremost, the evening’s misadventures have to be kept out of the newspapers, and then things really start going wrong. But everything went right with theater director Monique Devine’s production of the play in October. Lead roles were played by Dillon Corkran ’10, Kristen Walters ’10, Dylan Zimmermann ’10, Charlie Poulin ’11, Brette Harrington ’10, Nick Cushing ’10, Lucy Copeland ’10, Jeff Wasson ’10, Jeff GordonJohnson ’10, Jack Hyslip ’10, and Will Hoeschler ’10. And rumor has it that they did a splendid job.

Matt LaRocca

Above, seniors Kristen Walters and Will Hoeschler; left, Lucy Copeland ’10.

Music All the way

VER THE

years, the programs

mounted in performance by bands and choruses under

the direction of music teacher Dave Lockwood have been wonderfully and reliably eclectic, ranging through a rainbow of musical gen-

from

res and styles.

Chopin

sabbatical, but the tradition of a lit-

ues under this year’s music teacher,

Hendrix.

tured in a November School Night

Currently Mr. Lockwood is on

tle something for everyone contin-

Matt LaRocca. The composers fea-

performance by the band and chorus ranged from Chopin to Jimi Hendrix. The performances were all different, and—at the same time— uniformly excellent.

20 Holderness School Today

Will Hoeschler ’10 performs the lead vocal on the combined band and chorus’s version of the “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.”

Edwards Art Gallery

AMED POTTER

Hideaki Miyamura brought an astonish-

ing collection of ceramic work to the Edwards Art Gallery in October—work that benefits from

Miyamura’s experiments in creating glazes that, as he says, “have never been made before.” Their inspiration, however, derives from some very old glazes, specifically those Tenmoku glazes used on Chinese tea bowls from the 12th and 13th century Sung Dynasty.

Hideaki Miyamura speaks to students in front of his exhibit in Edwards. Art teacher Kathryn Field looks on.

“These are very rare glazes, which no one has been able to reproduce,” Miyamura explained. “This set me on my own quest to experiment and create new iridescent glazes that have a three-dimensional quality and speak to an inner feeling of purity and peacefulness.” The New Hampshire-based potter was born in Japan but educated in the United States. After college he returned to Japan to apprentice himself for five years to master potter Shurei Miura of Yamanashi. There, after experiments with over ten thousand test pieces and countless formulas, Miyamura developed the stunning and unique glazes that have since built him an international reputation. He calls these glazes Yohen Tenmoku. “Yohen” literally means “stars glistening in a night sky,” and they come in varieties that Miyamura’s Wikipedia entry describes as “a compelling gold glaze, the ‘starry night’ glaze on a black background, and a blue hare’s fur glaze.” Beneath those glazes, Miyamura’s pieces are high-fire porcelain clay in forms that suggest a classical grace and

Hideaki Miyamura’s supernatural glazes

simplicity. “I am very conscious of the ways in which form interacts with the space around it,” he said. “I want my pieces to feel in balance with their environment, to feel as though they co-exist naturally with their surroundings.” Miyamura’s work is collected by individuals, corporations, and museums all over the world. These museums include, among others, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Carnegie Museum, The Sackler Museum at Harvard, the Minneapolis Museum of Art, the Israel Museum, and the American Craft Museum, as well as the Pucker Gallery in Boston.

Loss and identity: Dana Velan’s quest for home.

HE ART BORN

of exile was on

political turmoil of 1968. She ended

display in the Edwards Art

up in Canada, which is where she

Gallery last September. “I’m

began her training and career in art.

building up layers of marks that

suggest impermeability, restriction,”

She started out as a printmaker, but soon moved on to drawings,

says Dana Velan of works that are

one-of-a-kind books, and three-

done on paper with oil sticks and

dimensional mixed media pieces.

mixed media. “The flags [in one

Her work has been exhibited

piece] are red and they are collaged

throughout Canada and the

on to the drawings. They carry the

Northeast, as well as at galleries in

numbers corresponding to my termi-

New York, Chicago, Italy, and the

nated visas, and some of them have

Czech Republic.

my fingerprints. My specific experi-

And she came herself to this

ences with these termination draw-

show’s opening on September 18th.

ings have begun to transform into

She showed slides and discussed her

other issues of rejection, expulsion, exile, loss, and

Salamarie Frazier ’12, Kiara Boone ’11, and Gina Ogirri ’10 confront one of Dana Velan’s emotionpacked drawings.

identity.” Born in

work in all-school assembly that Friday morning. “My art work is shaped by many influences that come directly

Bratislava,

from my life experiences and back-

Czechoslovakia,

ground,” she said. “Folk tales, polit-

Ms. Velan fled the

ical upheaval, family suicide, and

country during the

rebirth.”

Holderness School Today

Around the Quad

Service Bridge House

OMELESSNESS IS

as much a rural as it

is an urban malaise, and that’s all the more true in times of double-digit

unemployment. In 1989 the town of

faculty and students in “the making of the greens,” which is a necessary prerequisite to the Hanging of the Greens in the Chapel each year. Children from the Bridge House

Plymouth converted a two-bedroom home on

worked side by side with

Green Street into a homeless shelter, and

Holderness students to

with the help of the local Community Action

decorate cookies and

Program (CAP)

make Christmas cards

and a number of local busi-

nesses, churches, and individuals, that mod-

and ornaments. In the

est house was succeeded in 2005 by the

meantime their parents

Bridge House, a spacious facility located on

created wreaths.

the grounds of the Whole Village Family

family, friends, candy, hot

Holderness students have been regular

chocolate, and snow,”

visitors to the Bridge House to help with

said Head of School Phil

construction and repairs, deliver food, and

Peck. “And it was a great

provide childcare. This year the Bridge

way to kick off the holi-

House came to Holderness, or at least sever-

day season.”

al families did so in early December. The visitors came to Weld Hall to join

Marissa Pendergast ’10 was one of the students making decorations with families from the Bridge House.

Sport Clinics

Faculty and students help stock the pantry

athletes

of Plymouth’s Meals for Many program.

young soccer and field hockey

Quinn Houseman, the son of science department chair Randy Houseman, got in on the action.

players.

matched up with aspiring

event, and a chance for

youngsters and went

good high school ath-

through a comprehensive

letes to test their skills in

set of drills and skill-build-

coaching and youth leader-

ing games. Over two after-

ship. Once again the varsi-

noons, more than sixty

ty field hockey and soccer

local kids came to the

teams invited younger

Holderness fields. Later

boys and girls from

that month the boys varsity

Plymouth and Holderness

soccer team also collabo-

to join them on the prac-

rated with Plymouth State

tice field for an afternoon

University’s men’s team in

in October.

a skills clinic for younger

Holderness players

players.

Holderness School Today

Meals for Many

Holderness

coach up

an annual

of the Xmas greens.

“It was a time for

Resource Center.

T’S BECOME

Extra help in the making

HESE ARE TOUGH TIMES ALL

over for social programs, which

have suffered a series of cuts in the downturn, and one such program is Meals for

Many, a community organization that helps local folks who are down on their luck to get regular and nutritious meals. At Holderness, students may fulfill their community service requirement by helping out with the Meals for Many program for one semester, and last November—as Thanksgiving approached—the Plymouth branch of the program received some extra help. Faculty members and students donated several boxes of food items to the Community Closet pantry, and over $150 to the cause. Then Meals for Many students accompanied Janice Pedrin-Nielson (the faculty coordinator for service programs at Holderness) to the supermarket, where they bought peanut butter, rice, and tuna fish to supplement the food distributed to local families. The experience left these students a little more understanding of others and their needs, and helped a number of local families meet the challenges of the current economic climate. .

Mee Wong URailkertun ’10, Ruhao Xin ’12, Duong Ha Duyen ’10, and Thai Dao ’12 were among those who went shopping for others before Thanksgiving.

Community Diversity

NE OF THE GREAT

Brown University’s Randy Ross maps out the learning curve of cultural competence at boarding schools.

advantages of an inde-

pendent school, and particularly an inde-

pendent boarding school, is the diversity

of its student body. Students of different races, ethnicities, and cultures learn of necessity how to live, learn, and work together. Which is not to say that it’s easy, or that any school—including Holderness—couldn’t do better in meshing its various populations. In fact building a stronger, more encompassing sense of community is one of the prime objectives of the school’s current strategic plan, and to help with that Ms. Randy Ross visited the campus after Thanksgiving to spend a day with the faculty. Randy is an equity specialist at Brown University’s New England Equity Assistance Center, and her talk that day focused on “cultural competence”—a concept that gathers up not only a clear grasp of the differences between race, ethnicity, and culture, but also the process by which an adolescent shapes his or her identity in the context of those realities and also a boarding school environment. “It was a provocative conversation, touching all that we do, from our academic curriculum to our athletic fields, our dorm rooms to our own identified ‘cultural norms,’” said Phil Peck. “Our hope is that this and similar programs will help us to provide a safe and thoughtful environment for all members of our community, regardless of their

Equity specialist Randy Ross

backgrounds and experiences.”

TODAY at the movies with Outsourced.

HINGS ARE

also hap-

pening at the student

level as the school

lays particular emphasis on

showing of Outsourced, a 2007 film about a Seattle call center manager who is fired

strengthening its shared

and then dispatched to India

sense of community. Much

to train his own replacement.

of it is thanks to TODAY— Together in Our Diversity

That film is a comedy, but it’s smart enough to earn

And Youth—which is a

a New York Times Critic’s

more-fun sort of name for

Pick honor and to raise chal-

the Cultural Alliance Club.

lenging questions about cul-

In November, TODAY

A gathering of TODAY

and was centered around a

ture, identity, class, and the

sponsored their first movie,

global economy. A number of

dessert, and discussion event

those questions were voiced,

in the Hagerman Auditorium.

and thoughtfully explored, in

The optional event was open

the discussion that followed

to all students and faculty

the film.

Holderness School Today

Around the Quad

Community Technology RU a digital native or a digital immigrant? And can U write a poem in 160 characters or less?

UILDING A

Ellyn Paine Weisel ’86

community, of course,

involves more than just meeting the

challenges and opportunities of

Communications Steve Solberg. Their por-

diversity. There are also the challenges—

tion of the assembly was titled “Five Things

and opportunities—of technology.

You Should Know Before Hitting Send,”

Ellyn Weisel ’86, who is also a member of the school’s Board of Trustees, has

Al th slpls nits Spnt pndrin th **

and focused on the various consequences— emotional, social, and legal—of misusing

Like <3 in spring

helped build a thriving initiative that

such tools and media as email, cell phones,

addresses just that issue. She is the Director

You blve itll last 4ever

and texting. “A simple mistake can have

of Outreach and Philanthropy for Common

long-ranging effects,” said Mr. Solberg,

Sense Media, a non-profit organization that

“sometimes dramatically out of proportion

provides information to parents and schools

to the actions taken.”

about any and all media of interest to young people.

But soon ths <3 freezes over Your lft 2 ponder the ** like dstant city lights

The rich opportunities of these

- Christian Daniell

devices, however, also extend into the artis-

In an October all-school assembly, Ms. Weisel spoke of the gap between “digital

tic realm. Text messages have a limit of 160 characters, and a new form of poetry is

natives” (today’s students, in other words,

starting to bubble up from the shorthand

who have never known a world without

routinely used by texters. That week the

computers, cell phones, and the internet)

school mounted the 160 Poetry Contest for

and “digital immigrants” (the parents and

the best poem that could fit into a text mes-

teachers who often struggle to understand

sage.

these new media). She provided a pop quiz that effectively demonstrated the breadth of

Finally there were two winners: Christian Daniell ’12 and Julia Capron ’10,

that gap, and then offered some eloquent

who had their poems presented in that

thoughts about why learning to use technol-

assembly, and who each received $20 gift

ogy responsibly is as crucial as learning

certificates to Biederman’s Deli in

how to use it effectively.

Plymouth. You can read Christian’s poem

She was followed on stage by School Counselor Carol Dopp and Director of

above.

Holderness history

AST

Edric Weld ’42 takes another walk across the Quad.

SEPTEMBER the school

school during a time when the

A. Weld, Jr., the son of

head’s residence was located

the school’s sixth headmaster,

where the Ford family now lives

The Rev. Edric Weld. The

in Livermore Hall.

Edric Weld ’42, with his daughter Leisa, right, came back to his roots and enriched our sense of history. Holderness School Today

where he and Chris went to

enjoyed a visit from Edric

younger Edric arrived

Prize text poets Julia Capron ’10 and Christian Daniell ’12.

with his daughter Leisa.

Then Edric met with archivist Judith Solberg and

He spent the morning

offered up a number of stories

touring the place where

about life at Holderness in the

he and his siblings—

’30s and ’40s, with several of

Chris, Kent, and Mary

them shedding new light on

Anne—grew up, and

Holderness history.

Dialogue

T THE AGE

of 32, after

logue in the school’s diverse com-

middle-class white family,

munity.

writer/actor Michel Fosberg discovered he was black. “Imagine

Michael Fosberg with a photo of his natural parents.

become polarized,” Mr. Fosberg

son you thought you were,”

said during the school-wide dis-

Fosberg writes, “that you have a

cussion that followed his perform-

family, a history, an ethnicity you

ance. “Light-skinned people fear

never knew. How would this dis-

talking about race. Or at least

covery impact your life, the lives

they’re too careful, trying to avoid

of those around you; your vision

saying something that could be

Those questions receive very

Incognito for the school community.

Field Hockey Eighteen post-season appearances in a row for this proud program, and nearly another crown.

NE MORE STEP

was taken this fall in a long-run-

considered offensive, and thus avoiding any possibility of a truly

personal sorts of answers in

open dialogue. There are many

Incognito, the solo performance

dark-skinned people, on the other

piece that Mr. Fosberg has per-

hand, who are waiting to pounce

formed in theaters, high schools,

on any language that they consid-

colleges, and performing arts cen-

er racist. We need to give one

ters throughout the country—a

another permission and space to

production chosen by the Chicago

have a real dialogue about race.

Tribune as “one of the top theatri-

Until we do, we can’t and won’t

cal events of the 2001 season.” In September Incognito came

make any progress on this important issue.”

to Holderness, where it served both as an engrossing work of art

Sports

day that he was black, performs his play

“We’ve reached a place now where we as a country have

discovering you are not the per-

of yourself and society?”

Michael Fosberg, who discovered one

and an important point of dia-

having grown up in a

One second after the game-winning goal against Dana Hall.

ning tradition of excellence, one unmatched in

New England Prep School Athletic Conference

play: the Holderness field hockey team qualified for its 18th consecutive post-season tournament. “This year’s squad doesn’t have a star, per se, but has many talented players who have learned to trust each other on and off the field,” said coach Doonie Brewer in an article that appeared in the Lakes Region’s Citizen newspaper (“Holderness field hockey advances in 18th straight tourney,” 11/20/09). “Team dynamics have played a major role in our success. As always, the fan support, both home and away, has been a terrific source of motivation for the girls as well.” Third-seeded Holderness endured an opening round nail-biter against the Dana Hall School in a game not decided until the end of the second overtime period on a goal by Charlotte O’Leary ’11. Then the Bulls dominated second-seeded Millbrook , 3-0, before falling in the finals to top-seeded Kimball Union Academy, 2-0. It was the Bulls’ ninth appearance in the NEPSAC finals since 1992. During that time Holderness has won the title four times.

Holderness School Today

Around the Quad

Sports

The 14th annual Tabor Day series won by the host school— Tabor.

Tabor Day

N SEVERAL

respects, the 14th annual

Tabor Day went better than expect-

ed from a Holderness perspective.

Holderness English teacher) Jay Stroud proudly hoisted the Tabor Day trophy after his school came out ahead 7-1 in

The driving rain forecast that day for

the game tally. But it was really a lot

southern Massachusetts went inland

closer than that.

instead, and all of the games were

Nonetheless it was a very good

close, with most decided by a single goal.

day. “The folks at Tabor were great hosts,” said Phil Peck, “providing deli-

The bad news was that those close scores went almost entirely Tabor’s

cious food, wonderful facilities, and a high level of competition.”

way. Tabor Head of School (and former

Phil Peck and Jay Stroud.

The speaker and skier with, from the left, seniors Erica Hamlin, Morgan Markley, Aubrey Tyler, and Andrea Fisher.

Extreme Skiing Chris Davenport ’89 at the fall athletic assembly: “This experience has empowered me.”

BREATH OF MOUNTAIN

air—a big

breath—came to the 2009 fall athletic

assembly, where the guest speaker was

Chris Davenport—the 1996 world extreme-skiing champion, and more lately the author of Ski the 14ers, a record in text and stunning photography of an extraordinary feat in extreme skiing: Chris’s alpine descents, in a single calendar year, of all 54 of Colorado’s 14,000-foot peaks. “Chris Davenport’s skill and audacity on

Two racers invited to US Development

Alpine Skiing

Team’s December skills camp.

HILE

JULIA FORD ’08 continues to post

great results as a member of the US

Ski Team’s development squad, her

younger sister Lily ’12 has also caught the attention of that organization. So has Sam Macomber ’11. Both were among the sixty or so junior alpine racers from across the nation invited to the National Development System’s camp in Beaver Creek, Colorado, in December. “These skiers earned invites after strong performances in their age-group championships last season,” said alpine coach Craig Antonides

SamMacomber ’11 and Lily Ford ’12.

’77. “This is a great early season training opportunity and a chance to train at one of the finest speed venues in America.”

Holderness School Today

skis is matched by his firm respect for mountaineering history and steadfast devotion to the ideals of boldness, tenacity, and commitment,” commented fellow alpinist Michael Kennedy in the feat’s aftermath. “In skiing all of Colorado’s Fourteeners in a single year he’s pointed the way to an adventurous future—and by sharing his and his companions’ experiences in this book, Chris has not only done justice to the efforts of his forebears but inspired generations to come.” Chris’s appearance on campus did much to inspire this generation. “I didn’t always appreciate Holderness when I was sitting in your seats,” he said to the students. “Today, however, I realize that I was so fortunate to have this experience, and it has empowered me, and will empower you, to do anything you want, if you apply what you learned.”

Sports Fall 2009: The Season in Review

GOAL!! for Charlotte O’Leary ’11 (5) at the end of double-overtime against Dana Hall in the NEPSAC semi-finals. She’s about to get hugs from Erika Johnson ’10 (25), Chuckie Carbone ’11 (1), and Juliet Dalton ’11 (8).

Cross-Country Running

That solidarity propelled these players to achieve more than they dreamed they could. With a record of 10-4, we were

The varsity cross-country team ran its way to another fun

invited to the NEPSAC tournament. This was when the team

and successful season!

peaked, defeating Dana Hall on our home turf in double over-

It was a big team again this year—

some 25 strong—and was led by a large corps of seniors.

time and coming away with a decisive victory against

Despite illness during the Lakes Region championship meet,

Millbrook in the semifinal game. Although we “got the sil-

the girls managed to win the league title again this year, with

ver,” we were all thrilled to have made our way to the New

help from seniors Andrea Fisher, Ji Eun Sung and Sarah

England championship game.

Clarkson. The boys, led by senior captain Scott Nelson and

By Doonie Brewer

bolstered by first-year senior Kody Spencer and junior Sam Macomber, also overcame illness and injury to earn a thirdplace finish in the Lakes Region. In addition to great success during competition, we

The JV field hockey team had an amazing season!

Margaret Thibadeau and Betsey Pettitt led the team to a 6-3-4 record. Although the season

always managed to have a good time. Whether it was long

brought cold weather and biting

distance training on Mondays, speed and hill workouts on

rain, the Lady Bulls weren’t

Fridays, or dinner at Coach Magnus’ beautiful home, we

deterred! As the year progressed,

found each other great company. We will miss all of our grad-

each practice and game brought

uating seniors, but we anticipate another successful season

the team together both physically

next year behind a bumper crop of young talent.

and mentally.

By Mike Carrigan

Captains

2009 crosscountry captain Scott Nelson ’10

New athletes such as Kendra Morse helped establish a success-

Field Hockey

ful season as a first-time goalie. Returning defender Emery Durnan

Despite having nine returning letter-winners, this year’s varsi-

and new players Iashai Stephans

ty field hockey squad felt “new.” Carrying a relatively large

and Salamarie Frazier helped to

roster of twenty, the team also included seven players making

make Holderness’ defense a daunt-

the jump from JV, two joining the program from another

ing force. Forwards and mids such

sport, one new student, and one one-year international player.

as Eliza Cowie, Bee Crudgington,

However, the feeling was “new” also because of the leader-

Sarah Fauver, Xajaah Williams-

ship of captains M.J. Germanos, Erika Johnson, and Gabbie

Flores, Sarah Stride, and Kiara

Raffio. They responded to a challenge and assembled an

Boone worked continuously to

incredibly cohesive group of young ladies.

score goals. Not many teams can

Holderness School Today

Sports say that every member of the team contributed to the

sents the fun-loving attitude of the team.

whole’s triumphs and tribulations, especially with twenty-

By Duane Ford ’74

five athletes, yet this team can. Coaches Magalhães and Smarse along with coaches Dopp, Dahl, and Lewis are proud of them all! By Katie Smarse ’04

Mountain Biking This fall cross-country riding made up the majority of the outings for the mountain-bike team, but the athletes

Football The 2009 varsity football team ended the season 5-3. Once

those with natural drops or

again the Evergreen League proved to be the premier foot-

built features. The highlight

ball league in New England. For the second straight year,

of the season was our trip to

three league teams made it to New England Bowl games. The offense put up some impressive numbers this

Vermont’s Kingdom Trails, where we joined up with a

year. The Bulls averaged 225 yards rushing and 190 yards

professional mountain biker

passing per game. The Bulls outscored their opponents

for instruction in dirt jump-

176-127. The offense was led by junior QB Mac Caputi

ing and indoor park riding.

and senior RB Sean Harrison. Caputi’s key targets were sophomore Tyquan Ekejiuba, juniors Jamie McNulty and

Quarterback Mac Caputi ’11 passed for 190 yards per game for the Bulls.

insisted on seeking out the most technical of trails—

In their sole race, the team secured a second place

Carson Houle, and senior Nate McBeath. The defense was

result out of nine teams

anchored by seniors Nate Gonya, Sean Harrison, and Kyle

competing. In the A

Kenney. Highlights of the season were beating higher -

Division, Jordan Cargill

ranked Tilton School 30-21, and just missing upsetting

(next year’s captain) made

KUA, 19-12. The Bulls earned a lot of respect in New

his mark, coming in second,

England this season and are looking forward to the 2010

and captain Brian Friedman

Nick Goodrich ’11 out on one of the team’s several crosscountry rides.

campaign.

placed sixth in a field of thirteen riders. In the B Division,

By Rick Eccleston ’92

Alex Obregon came in fourth place out of sixteen riders. In the C Division, Most Improved biker Dewey Knapp topped the field of 35 racers, followed closely by Oliver Nettere. Nick Goodrich and Coach’s Award recipient Peter Ferrante added to the team score with their eleventh and twelfthplace finishes, respectively. By Tiaan van der Linde ’89

Soccer The boys varsity soccer team finished with a 6-7-2 record. This was disappointing, as we may have made the playoffs with one or two more wins, and we certainly had those chances. With the exception of the Bridgton loss, we matched up well against our opponents in a reasonably tough schedule. In many games we controlled possession but struggled to finish on scoring opportunities. An early season 1-1 tie with Andover was a good example of the team playing up to its potential. Finding consistency was a challenge that will be a goal for the underclassmen who return to the squad next year. Post-season recognition included Christian Allen, senior GK, getting the Most Improved Award for four years of Holderness JV football had an excellent year of fun and

progress in the program. The Coach’s Award went to Thany

competitive growth. For some reason the team did not

Alexander for his steady effort and play. The Weston Lea

begin playing until they spotted the opponent two touch-

Spirit Award goes to senior Dylan Zimmermann. Senior co-

downs. This idiosyncrasy allowed for two very exciting

captain Francis Ahia represented the Bulls at the All–Star

comeback victories, one on Parents’ Weekend versus the

game.

Seacoast Titans, 22-12 and the other a hard fought revenge

By Craig Antonides ’77

match with Tilton, 32-22. Coach’s Award-winner Brendan Madden represents

The boys JV1 soccer team had a great season this year,

the hard work ethic and positive spirit of the team. James

finishing with a respectable 8-5-2 record. We started off the

Fredrickson won the Most Improved award, and he repre-

season hot, going on a five-game unbeaten streak, includ-

28 Holderness School Today

son there was not a day when the entire squad was healthy. Nonetheless, the team rallied and put forth incredible efforts in all the matches they played. The team was led by two amazing captains, Ashleigh Boulton and Abby Alexander, and their leadership this season set an amazing tone for all members of the team. Two other seniors were also great role models for the younger players: Jenn Cameron and Ashby Sussman. All four seniors will be greatly missed next year. There is a large group of underclassmen who have lots of soccer left in them and they are setting the stage for serious success in the future. By Margot Moses

Although the 2009 girls JV1 soccer season could be characterized by waves of

illness and injury, it was one of our most

successful seasons with a record of 10-2-1. Our team captains—Julia Canelas, Kristen Walters, and Caroline Walsh— kept the motivation and enthusiasm for soccer alive until the final minute of the final game. Radvile Autukaite won the team’s Most Improved award. New to the game of soccer, Radvile stepped in as our goalkeeper, showing her athleticism by only allowing eight goals against her all season. Caroline Walsh won the Coach’s

Coach’s Award winner Thany Alexander ’12 brought consistency and effort to every practice and game.

Award due to her leadership on and off the field, and her willingness to help at all times. We would like to thank all of the JV2 girls that stepped in to help us field a team when our

ing a 3-2 win against Exeter. There were many exciting

numbers were low. Although we will be losing five seniors,

games, such as the first match-up against KUA, where despite

we foresee a very promising JV1 squad emerging next fall!

the 3-2 loss, the boys played excellently for 80 minutes. In

By Jean Henchey

our second match-up against KUA, we tied 2-2, showing improvement over the season. One team we beat 4-2 in the

This fall was a great time for the girls JV2 soccer team,

beginning of the season, and then we shut them out at the end

which had a fantastic year and finished with a record of 7-2-

of the season.

2. Despite the onset of illness and injuries, the team had an

While early on we were hunting for an undefeated sea-

impressive season marked by consistent improvement in

son, the boys showed strength in overcoming much adversity

every player. Captain Yejin

with all the sickness and injuries that kept key players out of

Hwang led a solid defense

the line-up. My hope and expectation is that a number of

that included Hannah

these boys train hard in the off-season and make it onto varsi-

Weiner, Haleigh Weiner, and

ty next year.

Lauren Stride. Behind them

By Mike Peller

Co-captain Abby Alexander ’10 rallied her team through an injuryplagued season.

in the net, keeper Jazzy Young let in only ten goals

The 2009 boys JV2 soccer team put smiles on faces all sea-

all season. Our other cap-

son long and, whether playing at home or away, these boys

tain, Pippa Blau, led an

worked hard to improve and learn, and they all grew through-

impressive offense, fronted

out the season. They had many memorable games against the

by strikers Lizzie Legere

usual foes. It was their weekly scrimmages against the girls

and Katie Leake.

JV teams or their own big brothers (the JV1 boys) that brought out their best, however. Scheduled as a way to shake

The girls capped off a great season with a thrilling

up the monotony of the weekly practice schedule, these con-

victory against Tabor

tests typically elevated the play of all combatants and proved

Academy during Tabor Day,

to be the stone upon which the Deuce sharpened their skills,

in which they played their

and they were a better team for the experience. In all, the team won as many as they lost.

best soccer of the year. They It will be the

won by a score of 8-0,

shared laughter and camaraderie, more than the record, that

which included goals by six

the boys will likely remember about their season with the

different players. I thank all

Deuce.

of the girls for their hard

By Chris Day

work and enthusiasm, which made for a great season.

The girls varsity soccer team had a tough season plagued

By Matt LaRocca

with sickness and injury. For the last three weeks of the sea-

Holderness School Today

Update: Faculty & Staff

In Memoriam: Karen Pettitt, 1956-2009

Karen Pettitt, wife of science teacher Reggie Pettitt and former staffer in the school store, lost a long and valiant battle with cancer last August. The memory of her courage, grace, and warmth will linger.

Her family was her life: “What a great life I have lived.”

HAT A GREAT LIFE

I have lived," she frequently told friends

and family. Karen Pettitt was the mother of three wonderful

children—Adam Leslie Pettitt, Tyson Rudolph Perz Pettitt,

and Betsey Ann Pettitt. Her family was her life. She had them involved in church and sports programs like hockey, soccer, lacrosse, nordic skiing, field hockey, cycling, crew, and golf. Karen seldom missed an opportunity to be at a contest to cheer on their teams. One of her favorite events each year was The Prouty day in Hanover, NH, a walk/run or ride by individuals and teams like the Holderness Bull Riders—which she captained in recent years—to raise money for cancer research at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. It was "her special day" because it meant that cures for cancer like hers might be found sooner. Her diagnosis with ovarian cancer in 2002 began the seven-year fight she waged to beat the disease. That battle was conducted with clear resolve and a cheery outlook. She died on Saturday, August 15, the seventeenth anniversary of her marriage to husband, Reggie.

Karen, left, appeared at the Prouty Run last summer with teachers Frank and Susie Cirone and their children.

A Wreath for Karen Chaplain Rich Weymouth ’70 offered this eulogy for Karen at her memorial service this summer.

PAUL

WROTE IN

his letter to the Philippians:

“I press on toward the goal for the prize of the

when they met. Their love for

heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.” Karen

each other

Pettitt’s prize is to live in the presence of a

embraced

loving God and the thoughts I offer now might

Reggie’s son

be described as a symbolic verbal wreath—the ancient

Adam, Karen’s

prize of ancient competitors to symbolize, in green, the

son Tyson, and brought forth Betsy, our school classmate.

Both she and Reggie had lost a former spouse when they met. Their love for each other embraced Reggie’s son Adam, Karen’s son Tyson, and brought forth Betsey, our school classmate.

glory that never

Karen’s cancer arrived in the midst of the school years—

fades.

of Reggie as our colleague, and of Adam, Tyson, and

“I press on,” Paul wrote, “forgetting what lies behind.” Karen, without

Holderness School Today

now, Betsey, as Holderness School kids. To Karen’s eternal credit, she lived with cancer, she never succumbed to it. She pressed on with care. As a daughter and as a son, she and Reggie cared for ailing fathers a number of years back—one with cancer, the

a doubt, pressed

other dealing with by-pass surgery. And she managed to

on. Both she and

care for home and family through and beyond the illness-

Reggie had lost a

es of her own.

former spouse

Karen with her daughter Betsey in 1993.

Karen had a no-nonsense approach to her life. She

carried on! She could laugh. She possessed and shared a radiant

home. She gave great support to Reggie on his sabbatical two

smile, and her loyalty to family and friends was rock solid—as was

years ago, but remained in Ashland to facilitate Betsy’s start at

theirs to her. She was an avid sports fan, be it of field hockey,

Holderness. She wanted Reggie to learn and appreciate all that he

cycling, nordic skiing, or lacrosse. Where the games and races

could, to stay excited—and for Betsy to succeed. She more than

went, so did she. Even recently, while battling illness, she would

accomplished both!

marshal her waning energies to watch Adam, down at the Ledbetter

Finally, Karen had guts. She was an avid supporter of cancer

Golf Academy in Florida, as he wended his way around the course

research and made it to the Prouty Ride amidst illness and weak-

in pursuit of his PGA card. She went to Philadelphia to support

ness this past spring. Supported by able “pushers,” she was

Tyson compete on the Schuykill against elite oarsmen. And she

wheeled through the 5 K and she loved it!

attended races here at school as Betsy competed for the Bulls.

Karen’s care and tenacity were strong. She did not want her final

Karen loved the White Mountains and Squam Lake. Summers were treasured on Shepherd Hill and Grapevine Cove. Just weeks

Even at her end,

moments to be in the hospital at Dartmouth Hitchcock, nor did she want to be at home. She wanted to get to Concord and finish there

before she died, one of her prize moments, even amidst great

in hospice care. And she did! She was surrounded by family. She

weakness, was to float, in the cove, on the lake, surrounded by

never gave up and was always thankful for life and for her loved

family. She cherished that time and lived it—spirit full and grate-

ones.

ful, ever appreciative of the gift of life. She offered quality work in our bookstore and, in her time working with Gail Stevens, she helped it to become a school store

We give thanks for Karen as daughter, wife, mother, friend, colleague and caregiver. She pressed on and her wreath is well won! Amen.

and not just a place for books. Karen devoted herself to work, places, and persons alike. She battled to maintain happy holidays at

That Razor-Edge Moment

Franz Nicolay’s contributions to an exhibit of portraiture at St. Paul’s Hargate Gallery were in fact shot by his subjects. But he did the rest of the work.

HOTOGRAPHY/CERAMICS

teacher Franz Nicolay

and his spouse Henrieke Strecker were among the artists featured this fall in an exhibit at the

St. Paul’s School’s Hargate Center Gallery. The exhibit was called “Larger Than Life: Manifestations of Portraiture and the Human Figure,” and Franz contributed four pieces from his “Encoded Truths” portrait series. “In this work I create a studio environment in which the sitter has the opportunity to speak with someone in absentia, on still film, over a long timed exposure,” Franz says about his portraits. “I invite them to say something to that person that they have

previously been unable to express. I compose the frame, hand them the cable release, and leave the room—leaving them free to make their statement.

These four pieces from Franz Nicolay’s “Encoded Truths” portrait series were on display at St. Paul’s.

Sometimes we make a series of images, sometimes we make just one.” The resulting portraits, Franz adds, “are silent tributes to this threshold experience of expression, a pivot point of change. They carry the encoded voicing of that razor-edge moment between the private thought and its manifest expression to another.” Henrieke contributed a multimedia piece, “Pinhole Portrait of War,” that combined pinhole photography and audio.

Holderness School Today

Update: Former Faculty & Staff

Guaranteed

Former English teacher Jim Brewer always told a good story, and he continues to do so on a professional basis. He appeared at the Corner House Inn in Center Sandwich, NH, last December. Below is a story on the event from the Meredith News.

great stories

O YOU REMEMBER

how peculiar the

ads were in LIFE Magazine’s early

Dartmouth’s Institute for Life-Long Education.

issues? Did you miss Robert Frost’s

“As a backyard naturalist, Jim is as

final two readings at Middlebury College in

knowledgeable and insightful as any field

the 1960s? Are you curious about what’s

biologist,” says Sandwich author Rick

really going on with the animals in your

Carey, who has heard a lot of Jim’s stories.

backyard? And how does someone else cope

“He’s equally good as an observer of human

with an older sibling, anyway?

nature, and he puts it all together into won-

There’s at least one good story in the

derful around-the-campfire narratives that

answer to each of those questions, and

make you laugh as much as they pull at

famed storyteller Jim Brewer knows how to

your heart.”

tell it. He’ll be making his 18th—and

“As a backyard naturalist, Jim is as knowledgeable and insightful as any field biologist.”

At the Corner House Jim will tell sto-

final—appearance at the Corner House Inn’s

ries that will range between his popular

Storytelling Dinner Program in Center

“critter tales,” his life growing up with an

Sandwich on Thursday, December 3rd.

older sister, and storytelling itself as it was

Jim began his storytelling career at the

practiced in LIFE’s advertising pages and

Pasquaney Inn on Newfound Lake in 1985.

by the great Robert Frost at the end of his

At that time he was still in the midst of his

life.

first career as a legendary English teacher at

“The Corner House is a place that’s

Holderness School and Phillips Exeter

popular with all sorts of storytellers,” Jim

Academy. After he retired from teaching, he

says. “You’re guaranteed great audiences.”

became increasingly well-known as a story-

teller, performing at area schools and campgrounds, heading up the US Forest Service’s

Reprinted by permission from the Meredith

“Woods in Winter” storytelling program,

News, November 25, 2009

and leading a storytelling group for

In Memoriam: André Gauthier

WRITE TO REPORT

with sadness the

death of André Gauthier, a Fulbright Exchange teacher of

French at Holderness in 1959-

Always the teacher

ample opportunity to continue my education in French history and politics (both contemporary and colonial), French, British and American

1960. M.. Gauthier, his wife

literature, and the French and English

Claudine, and their children

languages.

Laurence and Sebastian, traded

André’s favorite cheese, by the

places with the Fiore family for that

way, was Caprice des Dieux, which

school year.

he called Caprice des Vieux. And lit-

I reconnected with the Gauthiers

erature in English no longer interest-

about ten years ago, and have visited

ed him; he was now on to German.

them three times since. Always the

Claudine says that she will continue

teachers, André and Claudine would

to live in the house that she and

help me plan my day each morning

André had built in a hillside orchard

over croissants and bowls of café au

overlooking the then quiet village of

lait. Each day I would be debriefed

Rosny-sous-Bois a few kilometers

in the evening over a five-course din-

east of Paris just before they came to

ner (prepared by Claudine) and mul-

Holderness.

tiple bottles of wine from André’s cellar. This would provide them

Holderness School Today

By Fred Fauver ’62

André Gauthier as he apeared in the 1960 Dial.

Claudine and André Gauthier, center, at their home in France. On the left is Fred Fauver ’62, and on the right is Fred’s daughter Alyson.

Alumni Relations

Reunion #50! Justin Orr was back for his first reunion ever. Behind him is an original print by legendary art teacher Herb Waters. Below, a group of classmates hit the links at the Owl’s Head golf course.

EGINNING WITH

October 2-4, 2009 Jerry Ashworth and Chris Hoyt share a Friday night meal and some memories at the Longhaul Farm in Holderness. their class-organized

golf “tourney,” right on through to

their Celebration Dinner, the Class

delightful evening at Longhaul Farm.

The

weekend’s activities wrapped up with lots of shared memories and much expressed

of 1959 enjoyed their 50th Reunion with

appreciation for their experiences at

gusto. The Reunion Committee of Dick

Holderness during the Celebration Dinner in

Floyd ’59, Jerry Ashworth ’59, Chris Palmer

Weld Hall. We welcome them all back at

’59, and Steve Barndollar ’59 pulled togeth-

their earliest convenience!

er a record number of classmates and organized both a 50th Reunion Yearbook and a

By Tracy White, Director of Alumni Relations

Dick Floyd returned with three other members of the Holderness Octet, an a cappella singing group who still sound great, even as a quartet. Dick also had a copy of “Caught in the Oct,” an album they recorded in 1959. Later Phil Peck honored Cushman Andrews for his years of steady support for the school’s Annual Fund.

Holderness School Today

Advancement & External Affairs

The Holderness Annual Fund Supporting students... one gift at a time. The Holderness Annual Fund is the cornerstone of philanthropy for Holderness School, supporting every aspect of the school’s operations, from people to programs. Ten percent of every dollar spent in making the Holderness Experience possible comes directly from the Annual Fund. And, beginning July 1, 2010, you can choose how your gifts go to work for Holderness, its faculty, and its students. Thank you for your continued support.

Designations The School’s Top Priorities From faculty salaries to financial aid, mini-vans to course materials, heating oil to lettuce for the salad bar, the school’s annual expenses are diverse and real. We need your help to meet these critical and ongoing needs. Faculty Support and Academic Programs Through our academic program, we prepare our students not only to enter selective colleges, but also to live lives of curiosity, inquiry, and learning. And it is through our faculty — a committed group of adults teaching life lessons inside and outside the classroom — that we achieve these goals. Athletics Our teams are known throughout New England for their high level of play and—at the varsity level—the frequency with which they qualify for post-season play. Yet we do not measure success by win-loss records or championships, but instead on the lessons learned through competition: focus, commitment, responsibility, and sportsmanship. The Arts As they explore the arts, students learn and develop their creativity, imagination, confidence, and resourcefulness. Whether through the performing or visual arts, our students find and share thoughtful and powerful pieces of themselves. 34

Holderness School Today

Financial Aid Students on financial aid—representing over 40% of the student body—bring unique talents, stories, and experiences to our community and to our classrooms. Financial aid makes this powerful opportunity available—both for them and for Holderness. Special Programs The March Special Programs period is something uniquely Holderness, as students learn lessons about themselves and their world through intense experiences in community service (Project Outreach), the arts (Artward Bound), the outdoors (Out Back), and the classroom (Senior Colloquium and Senior Honors Thesis). Student Leadership Leadership skills are developed through opportunity, practice, and direction. Holderness provides students with all three through the Job Program and a strong Student Leadership curriculum that permeates the Holderness Experience.

Alumni in the News

Ideas

A life-long education Provided to David Cayley ’62 by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, his several book publishers, and his own insatiable curiosity.

HINGS DIDN’T START

well for David Cayley at

the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in

interviews on Ideas with figures such as philosopher Ivan Illich, literary critic

1971. He was done with Harvard, graduating

Northrop Frye, and political theorist George

with honors in English in 1966. And he was

Grant. Others have to do with specific facets

done with CUSO, a volunteer organization

often described as Canada’s answer to the Peace Corps

of that curiosity, such as the role of the Christian church in Western society

(though properly it’s the other way around, since CUSO is

(The Rivers North of the Future,

the older organization). He had lived two years in a village

Anansi Press, 2005) or the crisis in

in northwestern Borneo, teaching in a secondary school that

North American prisons (The Expanding

had just switched from Chinese to English as its primary

Prison, Anansi Press, 1998). His most recent book, published last

language of instruction. Then he came home to his birthplace, Toronto, where he was uncertain about what direction to go next. In 1970

fall by Goose Lane Editions, is a collection of interviews, Ideas on the Nature of Science,

he acquired a friend who knew how to make radio pro-

which is itself a companion volume to the length-

grams, and with that friend’s help David recorded some-

iest series in Ideas broadcast history, “How to

thing that the CBC said they might be able to use: an inter-

Think About Science.”

view with Milton Acorn, a well-known Canadian poet of

“The idea for the series, then the book, came out of a conversation with my executive producer,” says

the time. At the end of the interview, however, David discovered that the reel on his tape recorder had never moved.

David, who is the son of long-time Holderness English teacher Ed Cayley. “We were talking about the way people

“So I had to ask Acorn to repeat the entire procedure,”

view science and scientists, and how that has changed over

David says, “which he graciously did, though he was

the years. I remember when I was a boy at Holderness, for

famously quite a rough diamond, and at other times quite

example, I regularly saw an ad in a magazine that depicted

irascible.”

a grave-looking scientist in a white lab coat, and the ad

The interview was finally delivered, but it was never aired. David’s first effort was not in vain, however. He

claimed that more scientists smoked Kent than any other brand. Science has always had a considerable mystique

began freelancing often for the CBC that year, and in 1974

within our civilization, but recently a number of questions

he landed a regular job as a story editor for a CBC morning

have been raised about the dark side of science, and its

show in Vancouver. Eventually he became executive pro-

effect on our lives always seems to be intensifying.”

ducer and then host of that show. “It was a way to finance a life-long education,” he

These changes and effects, and the ways in which science has directed human thought and shaped society

says about that and his subsequent career at the CBC. “I

throughout history, are considered in dialogue with a num-

came out of school without any focused academic ambition,

ber of heralded scientists, rough and smooth diamonds

but with many curiosities. I soon found out that just about

alike, among them biologist Richard Lewontin, sociologist

anything I was interested in could become a radio program.

Ulrich Beck, anthropologist Margaret Lock, science histori-

For example, I was very interested at the time in com-

an Simon Schaffer, and many more.

munes, and for a CBC show called Identities I did a program on such successful

intentional communities as the

Canadian Mennonites and the Doukhobors, who are radical

“The whole series ran for twenty-four shows,” David says, “and it was also made available as a podcast. So lots of people were able to listen at their convenience, which

Christians of Russian origin. That was followed by pro-

also meant that they paid very serious attention. It was a

grams on agrarian reform and the labor movement, and so

new quality of listening that I think was a boon to the

on. I was in my element.”

series.”

Then, as now, one of the CBC’s flagship national pro-

Meanwhile Ideas advances on to other theaters of the

grams was an interview show called Ideas. Think Fresh Air

intellect, and David continues his life-long tuition-free edu-

With Terry Gross, but on a higher intellectual plane, enter-

cation, reading and studying voraciously to prepare shows

taining scientists, philosophers, authors, and social critics.

about the hundreds of other things he is curious about.

Ideas dates back to 1964, or even earlier if you connect it to certain predecessors, and it was one of the first shows to

“Science has always had a considerable mystique within our civilization, but recently a number of questions have been raised about the dark side of science.”

And oh, yes—he still records his own interviews, and still has to remember to release the pause button.

which David had sold programs. In the early 1980s he began to do regular work for Ideas. Today he is a contribut-

Editor’s note: If you want to hear what David sounds like,

ing producer and something of a Canadian media institu-

or else learn something more about science (or both),

tion.

sound files for “How to Think About Science” are still By now David’s curiosities have been turned into a

available at www.cbc.ca/ideas/features.

number of books as well. Several are edited collections of

Holderness School Today

Alumni in the News

Ideas Jessica Saba ’06 had an idea that’s clicking with students all over the country.

Got clicker? Need sticker!

T WAS ONE OF THOSE

“aha” moments,

followed immediately by a good idea. “I noticed when our teacher said to

click in that everyone raised three hundred

identical i›clickers,” said Jessica Saba, speaking to a reporter last October from Boulder, Colorado’s CBS-TV affiliate. Jess was describing the moment in her sophomore year at CU-Boulder when the Clicker

Available in zebra, and many other patterns.

Sticker was born. If you haven’t been to college in a while, the

i›clicker is a hand-held audience response

device used by students to help teachers gauge overall understanding of their classroom material. The teacher poses a multiple choice question, say, and each and every student clicks in an answer. The teacher gets instant feedback on the results and knows what’s sinking in or not. Over one million students are now required to bring i›clickers to class at some 700 colleges and universities across the United States. But one mass-produced i›clicker looks just like another. Jess had heard plenty of complaints from her peers about losing attendance or credit points because of lost or stolen i›clickers, and when she saw all those identical clickers raised one day in journalism class,

so the Clicker Sticker was born. Jessica created an adhesive decal that fits the face of the i›clicker, and hired an artist

Jess is at the far right in this shot from last fall’s alumni gathering in Colorado.

to fashion seventeen different designs for the decal. Her small business turned a profit in its first year, and she now sells the stickers on-line (www.theclickersticker.com) and in twenty bookstores in seven states. And of course there’s a lot more market out there. It’s worth noting that Jess has innovation in her genes. Her grandfather is the inventor of the hospital medical identification bracelet. “Saba still hits up her grandpa for advice as her business grows,” said CBS Channel Four, “but she credits his advice to sock away cash for being able to execute her invention. She’s never taken out a loan.”

she also saw that they didn’t have to be identical—and

Service Honest, essential values

The Midland School, headed by Will Graham ’72, claims California’s most prestigious environmental honor.

ECAUSE

PAUL

AND

Louise Squibb saw

shower water with wood fires, exploring the

ty, and because the California inde-

outdoors and placing oneself on a topographic

pendent school they founded continues to carry

map, washing community dishes, tending a

that teaching forward so well, Will Graham ’72

garden, or installing solar panels puts people in

got an award (and a handshake) from

the cycle of life and materials.”

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger

Will Graham, right, exchanges that handshake with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

on September 30 in Los Angeles. Will is the headmaster of the Midland

in the school’s garden and pastures. For the past six years, students have been adding solar

located on a 2,860-acre working ranch in Santa

installations to the school’s power grid, to the

Barbara County. And the occasion was the

point where fifteen percent of the school’s

presentation of the 2009 Governor’s

electricity needs are met by student-installed

Environmental and Economic Leadership

arrays.

environmental honor, at the Governor’s Global

“This honor,” responded Will Graham, “recognizes Midland School’s long-standing

Climate Summit 2. Fifteen organizations were

commitment to develop well-educated college-

honored with GEELAs, but Midland was the

bound students who understand the connec-

only school among them. The Squibbs founded Midland in 1932.

tions between environmental protections and social responsibility. Midland has an obligation

“They saw in the lean economic times of the

to our families and community to protect our

Depression an opportunity to teach honest,

natural resources and environment for genera-

essential values within a rigorous academic

tions to come.”

curriculum,” says Lise Goddard, the school’s

Holderness School Today

For example, much of Midland’s food— organic produce and grass-fed beef—is raised

School, a co-ed boarding and day school of 90

Award (GEELA), California’s most prestigious

our resources transparent. Working to heat

the Depression as a teaching opportuni-

In a note to Phil Peck, Will added, “My

Director of Environmental Programs. “Their

daily work is still grounded in my Holderness

genius was in making our relationships with

experience.”

Carrying that stone

LAURA COTE,

THE

pivot point came very quietly

one day last spring at Holderness. She had just

learned that a friend of hers from home in

Massachusetts had gone off to a residential treatment program for help with some sort of personal difficulty. She was surprised by her own reaction to the news: sympathy, yes, but also something else—envy. That was because Laura was in the vise grip of her own personal difficulty. She couldn’t be certain about the when or why of its onset. Maybe it had begun once her siblings went away to college, injecting a vacancy into her

Laura Cote ’09 returns to Holderness to describe her struggle with “not just a disease, but an addiction.”

family life that she felt powerless to control. The anorexia began, perhaps, as an effort to reassert control, any sort of control. She left Concord to come to Holderness as a junior in 2008—another gesture of control, perhaps, but not one that in any way reversed that spiral into what she describes as “not just a disease, but an addiction.” And in fact the disorder began to increasingly control her. Thankfully, that’s not the case now, and this fall, in an all-school assembly, Laura came back to Holderness to share— with remarkable courage and aplomb—the story of her struggle with anorexia. She was diagnosed with the disease just before she returned for her senior year, but by then the diagnosis was not at all a surprise to Laura. She returned here with certain medical restrictions, one of which that she maintain a certain minimum weight in order to participate in sports. She ran cross-country, but struggled to keep up her weight. One week she could run; the next week she couldn’t. Her friends and teammates wondered why, but Laura found herself powerless to explain. That pattern continued into the nordic ski season. Finally she quit the ski team, an event that her friends found even more

How many sunsets?

STARE INTO

Angi Francesco ‘98 has completed the World Race, an event combining adventure, competition, and service. Here are some lines from her last blog entry. the sunset of my World

sinking into a lake or an ocean, or even escaping beyond a cloud-filled

Race journey, I have been spending some time flipping through the myriad

pictures I have taken these last ten months.

Angi’s home again, sharing time with Nat Campbell ’97 over the holidays this year.

horizon from an airplane window. No matter where I have been this

glance at an image, and I remember that day... I

year, the sun has still risen in the east and set in

remember so much of what I was thinking or

the west. And unless you are living in Alaska,

how I was feeling. And I feel blessed. In nearly every country in which I have

you have experienced the same number of sunrises and sunsets that I have. Check out these pictures and think about

lived this year, I have captured an image of the setting sun. In some places, it is over buildings

this:

and shrouded in smog, but most of the time, I

last year? How many sunsets do you remem-

How many days do you remember in the

have found the sun slipping behind a hill or a

ber?

Angi Francesco

mountain, sliding down behind great boulders,

Holderness School Today

Alumni in the News

Service Lessons in privilege, responsibility, and human rights in Nigeria

J.J. Hall ’ 05 takes the helm of an international school in Lagos.

J.J. Hall with students and other educators at a computer training center in Lagos.

AST FALL

J.J. HALL began a new job—as assis-

tant to the director and founder of Christ the

Cornerstone International School in Lagos,

less of any differences in what they might think or believe.

Nigeria, with the understanding that he would

I asked them to think very hard about the idea of “univer-

take over as the head of school in January this

year. “The school is relatively new,” J.J. wrote last

“If Gandhi used nonviolence, how could he be called a warrior? They didn’t have an answer.”

I taught them about the importance of respecting another human because that individual is human, regard-

sal international law” and whether or not they thought that it was possible for there to be laws to govern the behavior

September, “and its founder and director has tried to

of all humans on earth that all cultures could accept or

develop a similar model to Holderness—strong programs

would use; to compliment this I also asked them to think

in academics, leadership, and extracurricular activities.” In November J.J.

wrote again to describe how things

were going. He said that while English is widely spoken in

very hard about whether or not there still needed to be a set of rights to protect all humans. This idea is especially applicable in Nigeria due to the different ethnic and reli-

Nigeria, the three main languages are Yoruba, Igbo, and

gious groups and the failing attempts to implement feder-

Hausa, and that the English is accented enough to make it

alized laws. I tried to exercise restraint in these lessons,

hard to understand. The food is “AMAZING and very

allowing them to draw their own conclusions based on the

spicy,” and Yoruba hospitality is such that “a host may

material, although I did try to impress upon them the

give as he can if you demonstrate a desire for it, and will

importance of learning about human rights and human

be sensitive to any cues that indicate that desire. I’ve

rights leaders. As we boarded the bus the next day I didn’t

learned to accept that it’s too late to go back on those cues

hear shouting or arguing; I thought that my strategy to

that I accidentally gave before I knew better, and to focus

keep them behaved or else they’d have to sit through