Harvard-Westlake Life Magazine, Spring/Summer 2024

Dear Friends of Harvard-Westlake,

Hope you enjoy this issue—here are a few thoughts on some of the stories within.

HW LEGACY

A Portrait by the Artist as a Young Woman

HW acquires a painting by Westlake’s most famous artist, Marisol Escobar ’49

The arts were embraced at Westlake from its earliest days. Even in the 1940s, Marisol Escobar ’49 developed her artistic talent painting scenes around campus as well as a portrait of a classmate (left); that painting now hangs in the Westlake Staircase. Marisol went on to become a pop art contemporary of Andy Warhol, even appearing in some of his early films, and a world-famous artist in her own right.

Field Notes

Revisiting 40 years of field trips with Kevin O’Malley

One for the Books

Check out the new Mudd Library

In December, the upper school’s Mudd Library reopened after a complete reimagining of what the space could be. Now the library incorporates the Learning Center, meeting rooms, a book nook hangout, a silent study area, and other collaborative spaces to better meet the needs of today’s students. Come to campus and take a look for yourself!

Tributes to Our Retiring Teachers & Staffers

Works Wonders

How HW Works connects the Harvard-Westlake community to career resources

I’m a big fan of HW Works and the opportunity it gives alums to stay connected to HW, network with other alumni, and give back by mentoring current students and recent graduates. It’s quintessential HW4L—Harvard-Westlake for life. Join the Works community and check it out.

Goals

Lindsay Imber ’06 talks hockey, music... and coming out

Class Notes In Memoriam

Faculty & Staff Notes

The Supporting Cast

Tiffany Alexander Aldridge ’87: When the impact of giving comes full circle

By Eli Goldsmith

State of the Art

A visual arts faculty showcase This issue we introduce our vibrant visual arts teachers, most of whom have started in the past five years. Only the heads of the departments, Joe Medina and Gustavo Godoy, have been at Harvard-Westlake longer, though two of the current teachers, Megan Cotts ’97 and Flavia Zuñiga-West ’02, are alums. Many of their predecessors, including Cheri Gaulke, Marianne Hall, John Luebtow, Kevin O’Malley (check out his field trip memories on page 8), Allan Sasaki, Art Tobias, Ted Walch, and Carl Wilson taught at HW for decades.

Harvard-Westlake’s Upper School Visual Arts faculty, 2014: Art Tobias, Alyssa Sherwood, Dylan Palmer, John Luebtow, Ted Walch, Cheri Gaulke, Kevin O’Malley, Marianne Hall, Allan Sasaki

A Portrait by the Artist as a Young Woman

HW acquires a painting by Westlake’s most famous artist, Marisol Escobar ’49

By Alexis Sherman Arinsburg ’98

“All of us Westlake girls aspired to do great things when we graduated and were supported in our dreams to the maximum, but there were few artists among the Westlake alumnae for us to look up to,” recalls Justine Stamen Arrillaga ’88, who studied painting for three years with longtime Westlake and Harvard-Westlake teacher Marianne Hall. “Ms. Hall exposed us to many great female artists, but I will never forget when she made special time to teach us about Marisol Escobar [’49], the only world-famous artist to graduate from Westlake. It made me feel anything was possible.”

Stamen Arrillaga recalls Ms. Hall introducing students to Marisol, as she became known as an artist, taking them on a field trip to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to see Marisol’s

sculptures in person and showing them her work on the cover of Time magazine. “A ‘real’ artist who collaborated with Andy Warhol, had shows all over the world, spent time in the same buildings that my friends and I grew up in—that was a life changer,” says Stamen Arrillaga, who is now an artist herself.

Harvard-Westlake recently acquired a portrait Marisol painted of a Westlake classmate, Margaret Ann Futch Holschauer ’49, during their senior year. Three-quarters of a century later, Marisol’s portrait of her friend is now once again back on North Faring Road, prominently displayed in the middle school’s Westlake Staircase amidst other objects of significance to the school community. In this tribute, we look back at Marisol’s legacy as an artist and Westlake alum.

Artist Marisol retouching The Generals , 1961-1962, in November 1963. Artwork Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York. Image courtesy of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery Digital Assets Collection and Archives. © 2015 Albright-Knox Art Gallery.

Buffalo AKG Art Museum / Art Resource, NY

New to Westlake her senior year, Marisol Escobar ’49 befriended classmate Margaret Ann Futch Holschauer ’49 and painted a portrait of Margaret as a gift to her. “When I learned that this portrait by a Westlake alum was up for auction, I knew the school had to acquire it,” says Sam de Castro Abeger ’07, Director of Alumni Relations and son of a Westlake alum, Andrea de Castro ’83. “It’s not often that you have the opportunity to showcase a painting by a notable artist of another alum back where it was painted 75 years ago.” Marisol also completed watercolor sketches of the Westlake campus that were prominently featured in the 1949 yearbook, Vox Puellarum.

Born to Venezuelan parents in Paris in 1930, Marisol spent her childhood traveling in Europe and Venezuela before landing in Los Angeles in high school. After her time at Westlake, Marisol rose to fame in the late 1950s and 1960s as a multimedia artist whose distinctive style defied categorization, blending elements of pop art, surrealism, and folk art. Her works commented on social issues and explored themes of identity, femininity, celebrity, and the human condition. She was particularly renowned for her life-sized sculptures of figures made of wood and painted in bright colors.

Women and Dog . 1963-1964. Wood, plaster, synthetic polymer, and taxidermied dog head. Overall: 73 9/16 × 76 5/8 × 26 3/4in. (186.8 × 194.6 × 67.9 cm). Purchase, with funds from the Friends of the Whitney Museum of American Art. Inv. N.: 64.17a-i

Digital image © Whitney Museum of American Art / Licensed by Scala / Art Resource, NY

“Marisol Escobar’s assemblage works are a marvel,” reflects Katherine Holmes-Chuba, who teaches art history at the upper school.

The Family . 1962. Painted wood, sneakers, doorknob and plate, three sections. Overall 6’ 10 5/8” x 65 1/2” x 15 1/2” (209.8 x 166.3 x 39.3 cm). Advisory Committee Fund. Digital Image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA / Art Resource, NY

Marisol’s watercolor sketches of Westlake’s Great Hall entrance, the Circle, Westlake Towers, and the auditorium approach in the 1949 Vox Puellarum yearbook

“They are a window into the cultural, political, and economic times she lived in,” continues Holmes-Chuba. “When first confronted with her pieces, one smiles at their form, texture, and use of space. Yet, the more one looks at them, the more one begins to understand what she is forcing us to think about. Marisol’s view of the world and her experience in that world slowly unfolds; that is the genius of this artist.”

In 1966, Marisol’s solo exhibition at New York gallery Sidney Janis drew thousands. In 1968 Marisol was selected to represent Venezuela at the prestigious Venice Biennale, which many considered the height of the contemporary art scene at the time. The following year, Marisol was commissioned by Hawaii’s Statuary Hall Commission to create a sculpture of Father Damien, a priest who cared for patients suffering from leprosy in Hawaii, a statue that is still on view at the US Capitol today.

In the 1970s, Marisol traveled extensively in Asia and Europe, and her prominence began to wane. Before her death in 2016, she bequeathed her estate to the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, the first institution to acquire her work in 1962. Marisol’s artwork has been displayed at institutions around the world, including the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and Museum of Modern Art—and now, it’s at Harvard-Westlake School, ready to inspire a new generation.

Marisol’s first posthumous show, Marisol: A Retrospective, is currently on view at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum and will be at the Dallas Museum of Art next year.

Marisol’s painting of classmate Margaret Ann Futch Holschauer ’49, now on display in the Westlake Staircase

FIELD NOTES

REVISITING 40 YEARS OF FIELD TRIPS WITH KEVIN O’MALLEY

“I

can’t remember anything specific about seventh grade math, but I still remember how floored I was, at the age of 12, walking into the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and seeing that first in-your-face Bouguereau.”

Kevin O’Malley, who taught photography for 39 years at Westlake and Harvard-Westlake, fell in love with field trips while still a student himself. “My sixth grade teacher, Mrs. Sullivan, took the class to downtown Holyoke, Massachusetts, and showed us the Warm Oriole Building,” he recalls. “Or, at least, that’s where we thought we were going. Turned out it was the War Memorial Building. No matter. It was a great trip. Definitely one of the highlights of sixth grade. Mainly because we got to get out of school.”

The following year, he went on another memorable excursion. “I can’t remember anything specific about seventh grade math, but I still remember how floored I was, at the age of 12, walking into the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and seeing that first in-your-face Bouguereau.”

So when O’Malley became a teacher, he made sure to schedule plenty of field trips for his own students. “Harvard-Westlake is about 15 minutes from the Getty Center, another 15 to the Getty Villa, 25 minutes from the Norton Simon Museum, 30 minutes from Los Angeles County Museum, and 35 minutes from the Huntington Gardens and Museum,” he notes. “Rev up a couple of school vans and you’re there. I found that I could take my students to see even the driest of dry, didactic Getty exhibitions and they would still have a ball.”

X O’Malley took more than 200 field trips from 1979 to 2018. Half were for viewing art exhibitions, he recalls, and the other half were “working” trips where cameras were mandatory. His last field trip was in 2018 to Venice Beach with his senior photography students. “One month later we all graduated,” he says.

What a Trip

ONE FISH SHORT OF A SCHOOL

Over the cour s e of a 41-year teaching career ( 39 at We s tlake and HW), I calculate that I went on close to 250 field trip s . Over that period of time, I left only one s tudent behind—on my very fir s t field trip at We s tlake School. The s tudent called a taxi—I’m pretty s ure we pa ss ed her coming down the Getty Villa driveway when I a s ked the bu s driver to turn around and go back. I blame it on being di s tracted by a pod of dolphin s cruising by along Will Roger s Beach, but thereafter, I doublechecked my list s ....

LARGEST GROUP

4 bu s load s of HW student s to the Stanley Kubrick retro s pective at LACMA

FARTHEST ACTUALLY-PLANNED-BUTSOMEHOW-NEVER-ACCOMPLISHED TRIPS

Nicaragua ( 1984 ), Guggenheim Mu s eum in New York City ( 1994 )

Guided tour of the William Eggle s ton retro s pective exhibition at LA County Mu s eum of Art with curator Adrienne Adar ’99; viewing archived Edward We s ton photographic print s in the Huntington Mu s eum collection, arranged by Geneva Thornton (Huntington tru s tee and grandmom to Art Troy ’14 and Charlie Troy ’12); and Ja s on Reitman ’95 giving u s a tour of hi s s et for his televi s ion s erie s , Casual, at Tamarack Studio s

ONE OF MY FAVORITE TRIPS

Another foray to the Getty, 2010. The Video || kid s were curiou s as to why I wa s taking them to the Getty Center—they were, after all, moving picture arti s t s , not s till photographer s . I told them they had exactly two hour s to write and film a movie on the Getty campu s . Kind of like improv…only with a camcorder.

BEST CONCEPT TRIP

I dropped off pair s of Photo ||| s tudent s on Hollywood Boulevard at interval s of five block s , waited two hour s and then picked them all up again. I remember s ome great s hot s of the local s on the boulevard, s till lifes of s tore interior s with all the touri s t trap detritu s , fla s hy cars, and pavement s tar s .

Archer School for Archer Film

Fe s tival s ymposium s

Six Flag s

Amu s ement Park

Skirball Cultural Center

Hammer Mu s eum

Solstice Canyon

Malibu State Park

Paradi s e Cove Beach

Pepperdine Art Gallery

MOCA

Annenberg Space for Photography

LACMA

Huntington Garden s and Museum

Getty Villa Mu s eum

Getty Center

Descanso Garden s

Lo s Angele s County Arboretum

CSUN Art Gallerie s

Bergamot Station

Venice Beach

Di s neyland

LAX (pre- 9/11 )

Union Station

Hollywood Boulevard

Walt Di s ney Concert Hall

Grand Central Market

Tree People

Franklin Canyon Re s ervoir

Norton Simon Mu s eum

LA River

Santa Monica Pier

The“Got Get?” Project

An excerpt from O’Malley’s unpublished book on four decades in a school photography studio, What’s Our Next Assignment?

For the 2009 project “Got Get?” (the name lifted from those “Got Milk?” ads), we drove down the fabled Pacific Coast Highway and up the cobbled driveway to the Getty Villa. There weren’t any shows even remotely connected to photography, so I gave the kids something of a scavenger hunt assignment.

The month before, I had spent a relaxed afternoon at the Villa photographing every single portrait bust with my new little PowerShot camera. Then I printed up a 10-page bust guide for each student.

Here’s a sample page:

Key:

1. Photo III, Getty Center, 2014: Megha Srivastava ’14 (photo: Caroline Moreton ’14). 2. Photo II, Getty Tram, 2007: Catie Williams Bridge ’08, Rebecca Gotlieb ’08. 3. Photo II, Huntington, 2008: Chelsea McMahon ’10, Catherine Park ’10. 4. Photo II, Huntington, 2008: Todd Albert ’10, Elijah Lowenstein ’10, Chelsea McMahon ’10, Catherine Park ’10, Ilica Mahajan ’10, Candice Navi ’10. 5. Photo II, Huntington, 2008: Chelsea McMahon ’10. 6. Photo II, Getty Center, 2009: Bruno Seros-Ulloa ’10, William Hellwarth ’10, Ethan Kurtzman ’10, John Billingsley ’10, Marissa Rosenthal ’10, Katrina Zandberg ’10. 7. Photo III, CSUN Galleries, 2008: Gabie Horton ’08. 8. Photo III, Getty Center, 2015: (photo: Amanda McAdams ’15). 9. Photo III, Getty Center, 2014: Jessica Johnston ’14 (photo: Caroline Moreton ’14). 10. Photo III, Solstice Canyon, 1999: Erin Greenfield ’00, Rebecca Goldfarb ’00, Matt Sayles ’00. 11. Photo III, Getty Center, 2015: Photo: Brooke Reese ’15. 12. Adv. Video, LACMA, 2013: Cory Batchler ’13, Patric Verrone ’13, Cheri Gaulke. 13. Video II, Getty Center, 2010: Marka Maberry-Gaulke ’12, Leland Frankel ’12. 14. Photo III, Getty Center, 2015: Ben Goldsmith ’16, Kennedy Long ’16. 15. Photo III, Getty

Center, 2015: Ben Goldsmith ’16 (photo: Kennedy Long ’16). 16. Photo III, Getty Center, 2014: Ashley Volpert ’14. 17. Photo III, Getty Center, 2015: Josie Treadwell ’16, Kennedy Long ’16, Stephanie West ’16. 18. Photo III, Huntington, 2014: Alberto Rivera ’14. 19. Photo III, Getty Center, 2015: Stephanie West ’16 (photo: Kennedy Long ’16). 20. Photo II, Huntington, 2008: Elijah Lowenstein ’10, Candice Navi ’10, Catherine Park ’10, Ilica Mahajan ’10, Chelsea McMahon ’10, Todd Albert ’10 (photo: Joe Girton ’10). 21. Photo III, Paradise Cove, 1995. 22. Photo III, Getty Center, 2014: Jessica Johnston ’14, Caroline Moreton ’14. 23. Photo III, Paradise Cove, 2011: (photo: Chelsea McMahon ’10). 24. Special internal field trip for all photo students to hear acclaimed photographer, Art Wolfe, speak on the craft and art of photography, 2010. 25. Photo III, Solstice Canyon, 1999: Leslie Meller ’00, Lirona Katzir ’00, Wendy Lee ’99, Dolores Williams ’00, Meagan Waldron ’00, Ted Dowd ’00, Natalie Moreland ’00, Erin Greenfield ’00, Brian Donahue ’00, Rebecca Goldfarb ’00, Matt Sayles ’00, Chris Lee ’00, Dayan Gandhi ’00. 26. Photo III, LACMA, 2011: Julia Wald ’11, Riley Pietsch ’11, Jarred Green ’11, Joyce Kim ’11, Elizabeth Evashwick ’11, Kevin O’Malley, Lael Pollack ’11,

Photo

Their task was to wander about the Villa, spot someone (a tourist, guard, waiter, etc.) who resembled one of the cast of cast characters, and then devise a strategy to photograph them without getting kicked out of the museum and/or sued via the new California paparazzi legislation.

Usually a “Hi, can I take your picture for my high school project?” worked just fine.

My ostensive objectives for this project were:

1 Get the kids off campus for a little class bonding.

2 Take them to a place where only one of them had ever been to before.

3 Push the “sorry I can’t hear you I have an iPod/ Blackberry/Wii in my ear” generation to actually talk to and photograph other real-life people.

But then something funny happened.

The kids said they started noticing how some guy’s nose looked or how curly that woman’s hair was or how long a neck that little girl had. What started out as one of my classic “looking for” assignments had serendipitously migrated into an even better “looking at” project.

“Looking at” something is a far more phenomenological approach to the world than “looking for” something— kind of like the difference between how a space alien might experience our planet for the first time compared to a cyborg trying to track down a specific subject. Turns out, the best photographers live in both worlds.

Patricia Capiral ’11, Sophie Lee ’11 (photo: Adrienne Adar ’99). 27. Photo II, Huntington, 2016: Matthew Bergmann ’17, Andrew Lehrhoff ’17, Jack Hogan ’17, Ben Weinman ’17, Stephanie DeSoto ’17, Isobel Phillips ’17, Emma Kateman ’17, Eden Fincher ’17. 28. Photo III, Huntington, 2014: Eli Caplan ’14 (photo: Art Troy ’14). 29. Photo II, Huntington, 2006: Jason Vahn ’07, Jon Daneman ’07, Annie Goodman ’07, Rachel Horwitz Lewis ’07, Ally Young ’07, Sari Morgenstern ’07. 30. Photo II, Getty Center, 2013: Alex Ravan ’13, Madeline Lear ’13, Emily Plotkin ’13, Jack Wilding ’13, Tamara Fox ’13, Maria Gonzalez Hagerman ’13. 31. Photo III, Getty Center, 2015: Troy Loizzo ’16 (photo: Haley Wilson ’16). 32. Photo III, Huntington, 2014: Kevin O’Malley, Megha Srivastava ’14, Alberto Rivera ’14 (photo: Art Troy ’14). 33. Photo III, Getty Center, 2015: Josie Treadwell ’16, Ben Goldsmith ’16, Kennedy Long ’16, Daniel Eghbal ’16, Claire Quinn ’16, Lauren Weetman ’16, Haley Wilson ’16, Stephanie West ’16, Karla Alas-Lopez ’16, Ivan Rodriguez ’16, Troy Loizzo ’16, Juliet Nguyen ’16. 34. Photo III, Huntington, 2014: Caroline Moreton ’14, Jessica Johnston ’14, Megha Srivastava ’14, Eli Caplan ’14, Art Troy ’14, Josh Shapiro ’14, Ashley Volpert ’14, Alberto Rivera ’14. 35. Photo III, CSUN Galleries, 2008: Erik Haake ’08, Katie MacDonald ’08, Lauren Rose ’07, Kelsey Work ’08. 36. LACMA, 2011: Kevin O’Malley, Adrienne Adar ’99. 37. Photo III, Huntington, 2014: Caroline Moreton ’14, Jessica Johnston ’14, Megha Srivastava ’14 (photo: Art Troy ’14). 38. Photo III, Norton Simon Museum, 2011 39. Photo II, Getty Center, 2009: Ethan Kurtzman ’10, Katrina Zandberg ’10, Bruno Seros-Ulloa ’10, Matthew Bedford ’10, Marissa Rosenthal ’10,

Christopher Kenney ’10, William Hellwarth ’10, Bruno Paredes ’10, John Billingsley ’10. 40. Photo III, Six Flags, 2008: Photo: Chelsea McMahon ’10. 41. Photo II, Getty Villa, 2011. 42. Photo III, Paradise Cove, 2008: Joe Girton ’10, Ethan Kurtzman ’10. 43. Photo III, Getty Center, 2015: Haley Wilson ’16, Claire Quinn ’16, Kennedy Long ’16, Stephanie West ’16, Daniel Eghbal ’16, Lauren Weetman ’16, Josie Treadwell ’16, Ben Goldsmith ’16, Juliet Nguyen ’16, Troy Loizzo ’16, Karla Alas-Lopez ’16, Ivan Rodriguez ’16. 44. Photo III, Solstice Canyon, 1999. 45. Photo III, Paradise Cove, 2008: Todd Albert ’10, Joe Girton ’10, Ethan Kurtzman ’10. 46. Photo II, Huntington, 2016: Emma Kateman ’17. 47. Photo III, Huntington, 2014: Ashley Volpert ’14, Art Troy ’14, Eli Caplan ’14, Megha Srivastava ’14, Alberto Rivera ’14, Jessica Johnston ’14, Josh Shapiro ’14, Caroline Moreton ’14, Kevin O’Malley (photo: Arthur’s grandmother). 48. Photo III, Getty Center, 2014: Josh Shapiro ’14 (photo: Art Troy ’14). 49. Photo III, Getty Center, 2014: Art Troy ’14 (photo: Josh Shapiro ’14).

Photo: Alex Fullman ’09

Photo: Alex Fullman ’09

Photo: Unknown

TRIBUTES TO OUR RETIRING TEACHERS & STAFFERS

IN THE WORDS OF THEIR COLLEAGUES

HARVARD-WESTLAKE

Upper School French Teacher Amandine Nélaton and Upper School Spanish Teacher Margot Riemer on

SIMONA GHIRLANDA

UPPER SCHOOL FRENCH TEACHER

Two characteristics define Simona above all others: her unwavering commitment to intellectual excellence and her genuine love for her students. Simona cares. She cares about ideas; she cares about deep learning; she cares about her students. She cares a great deal about education and how it can transform young adults. She works tirelessly to inspire her students to uplift their lives and the lives of others. Her students know that she sees them for who they truly are, both in times of success and in times of struggles. Creative, innovative, flexible, relevant: Those are among the adjectives that best describe Simona’s approach to her classes. She is constantly evaluating her teaching and updating her curriculum; she never rests on her laurels. When significant world events happen, Simona adapts her curriculum and gives students an opportunity and a space to discuss what is happening around them and the role they can play in making it better. Simona is the definition of the growth mindset and cultivates this in her students as well. In her classroom, students can reflect on their learning and on who they want to be as people. At the same time, Simona has always expected the best from her students, and her expectations have led students to reach heights many did not know they could achieve. Simona’s retirement marks the end of an era, but her legacy will endure long after her departure, as she has left an indelible mark on the hearts and minds of those she has taught.

Upper School Drama Teacher & Master Carpenter Rees Pugh on

MARK HILT

UPPER SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHER

If you’re new and know Mark Hilt only in passing, say, in the hallway of lower Chalmers where he conducts the Symphony Orchestra and teaches Music Theory, you might get a sense that he is a man in perpetual motion, with half a hundred chairs and music stands to move into various configurations throughout the day. If you’d watched him conduct our orchestras, or heard him speak between numbers, you’d know that as a teacher, he is focused on the historical context and social significance of the work as well as the sound-making of the group. Why we do things has always been as important to him as what it is we do. If you’ve been lucky enough to have had lunch with him, you might know that he is from Kansas, was trained as an organist (which means he can play a keyboard with his hands and feet at the same time), and has worked as one for a church in Santa Monica for as long as he’s worked here. If you’d been in one of his classes, you might know that his knowledge of classical music, and in fact, of pretty much classical everything, is vast (in fact, [the late upper school drama and film teacher] Ted Walch used to say that Mark Hilt is “one of the smartest people I have ever known”). And you’d see the remarkable bond he made with our very best music students—the composers, conductors, and budding virtuosos…. And while I don’t speak or read the intricate language of music very well, I have learned enough to say, on behalf of all of us: Grazie mille e bravo, maestro!

Head of Middle School Jon Wimbish on

BETSY ILG

MIDDLE SCHOOL DEAN & FRENCH TEACHER

A warm smile, an open heart, a knowing nod of the head. Betsy Ilg has given body and soul to the students in her care for the last 19 years as a middle school dean, French teacher, and math teacher. She embodies the open door, student-first approach that her colleagues aspire to, and each young person who plops down on her couch for a chat is seen and known as the unique individual they are. The wisdom and guidance she doles out is tailored for just what their predicament requires, and that is precisely why they keep coming back. The original ferret from the humble beginnings of the Jacobson Cup, she continues the community building of our house competitions, paying homage to the past as we unite for present fun. For years now, she has introduced ninth graders to French language and culture with the same joie de vivre that she introduces them to their high school journey. As a colleague, she is revered as a trusted confidant, a creative collaborator, and a loyal teammate. While the work of a dean can sometimes be harrowing and complex, she navigates the thorny woods of adolescence with an optimism and hope that inspires belief. To know Betsy is to understand her deep and abiding passion for Disneyland, and guided by the spirit of wonder and the pursuit of dreams coming true, Betsy has worked tirelessly to make Harvard-Westlake our very own happiest place on earth. We are forever grateful.

@HARVARD-WESTLAKE

Middle School French Teachers Jacque Myers and Jenn Lechevallier and Middle School Spanish Teachers Jeannette Rodriguez and Heath Wagerman on

MYRIAM LEGOFF

MIDDLE SCHOOL FRENCH TEACHER

Myriam’s impact over the last eight years will be lasting. She achieved a complete overhaul of the Level 2 and 3 French programs here at the middle school, moving students out of textbooks and out of their seats, speaking, dancing, exploring a range of cultural experiences across the world, and plunging into current events, all in French. She brought back travel to the French program, leading students on trips through France and Canada, tasting maple syrup with 12-year-olds and inviting young Americans to her own backyard in Bordeaux. These experiences proved priceless and memorable for her co-chaperones as well, who had the pleasure of Myriam’s company for many excursions, meals, and the inevitable moments of student drama abroad. Students happily associate Myriam with some of the more delicious features of her courses: des gauffres (Belgian waffles), homemade crêpes, and, of course the galette des rois at Mardis Gras, complete with fève and crown. The crumbs of these experiences seem to stick with students even after certain conjugations are long forgotten. Myriam has been a companion to so many of us in the department, traversing difficult life moments, sharing joy and, so importantly, every day, sharing laughter. For some of us, she has been an essential piece of everyday successes here. It is with sadness that this professional collaboration comes to an end, but with joy for her adventures to come (and all the deliciousness she will prepare for us when we visit!). We know she will bring the same hunger for life and novelty she has gifted to her classes into this new and exciting chapter.

@HARVARD-WESTLAKE

Counselor & Dean Coordinator Camille da Santos and Counselor & Interdisciplinary Studies & Independent Research Teacher Michelle Bracken on

LYNN MILLER

DEAN COORDINATOR

Lynn is one of those people others are drawn to. Her warmth brings solace to a bad day; her kindness softens even the most difficult conversations. She is profoundly sensitive to others, often anticipating and articulating your needs before you even realize it. Chalmers 207 is a hotbed of random questions: “Ms. Miller, do you have Advil?” “Ms. Miller, do you know where my earbuds are?” “Ms. Miller, can I sit in here and talk about cats?” “Lynn, do you know where Beth is?” “Lynn, do you have a safety pin?” “Lynn, what’s for lunch today?” It does not matter what the question is; Lynn will respond with a smile, and if she doesn’t know the answer, she’ll go above and beyond to find one. Lest you judge her kindness as saccharine, speak with Lynn long enough and you’ll learn that she has just enough edge to keep it real. She has a wicked sense of humor (her favorite comedian is Ricky Gervais), and her laughter is contagious and frequent. She travels to far-flung locations to support the girls softball team, and she doesn’t just go watch the games—she learns the roster beforehand, downloads the schedules, and builds the games into her life. This effort does not go unrecognized by the students on the team who frequently stop by her office to thank and hug her for attending. It is hard to put into words how much she’ll be missed, so where prose fails, we turn to poetry: Your absence has gone through me Like thread through a needle. Everything I do is stitched with its color.

W. S. Merwin

Middle School English Teachers Julia Grody, Amanda Angle, and Mike Chavez on

FRANCIE NORRIS

MIDDLE SCHOOL ENGLISH TEACHER

Over three decades in the Harvard-Westlake English department, Francie has kept the love of literature at the center of all her teaching. By discussing how characters show empathy and compassion or build harmonious societies, she guides and inspires her students to become their best selves. Francie leads—as both a teacher and colleague—with attention to language and character. We will miss hearing cheers come from her classroom as she runs a game of grammar baseball, hearing her voice slipping into a Southern drawl “faster than a horse heading to the barn” when on the phone with family, and hearing the scratch of her fountain pen. What will we do without her smiling reminder that teaching seventh grade is “doing the Lord’s work”? We’ll have to content ourselves with picturing her walking Daisy midday rather than in the dark as she moves into her next chapter.

Head of Communications & Strategic Initiatives

Ari Engelberg ’89 on

JEFF SNAPP

DIRECTOR OF INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY & PROFESSIONAL

LEARNING

Jeff Snapp has worn many hats in his years of loyal service to Harvard-Westlake and its students. He’s been an upper school math teacher and a member of the Faculty Academic Committee. As Director of Instructional Technology, he chaired the Ed Tech committee for many years, was the driving force behind the digital signage we have on both campuses, provided tech support for the school’s Learning Management System virtually single-handedly, and helped at the onset of COVID to pivot the school to online learning as gracefully as any school in America. Those are the jobs Jeff did. But, of much greater significance are the lives Jeff has touched. He has been a confidant and a trusted mentor to students. He’s dedicated countless hours to one-on-one work with struggling students, patiently explaining math concepts and building in them a competence and confidence around math that they didn’t have before. Jeff has been a good friend to his colleagues and I’ll miss our conversations about everything from airplanes to Succession to artificial intelligence.

CHECK OUT THE NEW MUDD LIBRARY

Last December, Mudd got a makeover—and Upper School Librarian Jessica Wahl is loving the library’s new chapter. “There’s more purpose to the space now,” she says. “On one side of the library, there’s silent study, and on the other, a more social area. We also have private group study rooms and a large classroom, as well as areas where students can relax, play games, and just hang out with friends.”

In addition, the Learning Center moved from Seaver to upstairs in Mudd, in the tech center’s former location. “It’s great to have the Learning Center and the library in the same place,” Wahl continues. “They send students to us for help with research and citations, and we send them up there for help with writing and time management. The collaboration works really well.”

LARGE CLASSROOM

ONE FOR

We also collaborate with the history department, teaching students how to research history assignments—what databases are available, how to use our catalog, how to find books—and then going to the shelves with them and helping them find sources,” Wahl says. “We used to do that crammed into a tight corner of the library with four tables, but now we have this great large classroom for it. We’re looking forward to collaborating with other departments to see what else we can do with the room, like author talks with the English department, for example.”

BOOKS THE

It’s incredibly beneficial that we all have private offices to meet with students,” says Upper School Writing Support Specialist Jenna Dillon-Gasparino. “A lot of times kids need to share personal information, which wasn’t as easy in the old space. In addition, students who need a quieter, more focused area can sit and work in our office while receiving support.”

WRITING SUPPORT SPECIALIST

Our students have a lot on their plates and need a safe space to decompress,” adds Dillon-Gasparino. “The treehouse space gives them a spot to sit and read and just chill.”

LEARNING CENTER: TREEHOUSE

agrees.

With the new library, I love how you can use the Learning Center, study, get work done with friends, get help on an assignment, or just relax.”

JENNA DILLON-GASPARINO

Ashlyn Park ’25

[Director of Operations] Dave Mintz ’87 and Andrea Keller, the architect, were wonderful about working with us and with our suggestions,” Wahl recalls. “When we polled the students last year asking what they wanted to see in the new library, they said group study rooms. Now we have three.”

Ryder Katz ’25 appreciates having a dedicated place to study with friends. “I prefer the new library space because it feels more focused and centered around working,” he says.

MUDD LIBRARY MUDD LIBRARY

SILENT STUDY

Silent study is beautiful in that the students self-regulate so it’s always quiet,” reports Wahl. “Before, the silent study space had a lot of tables and chairs nearby, so a lot of socializing would bleed into the area. Now we have individual cubicles, which makes the area much quieter than before.”

BOOK NOOK

MUDD LIBRARY

MUDD LIBRARY

Students relax in beanbags or on the stairs in the book nook. They eat lunch and hang out with their friends here,” says Wahl.

“They have really settled into the new library and appreciate it.”

HOW HW WORKS CONNECTS THE HARVARD-WESTLAKE COMMUNITY TO CAREER RESOURCES

Director of HW Works Kwaisi France has a mission. “It’s my goal for every single Harvard-Westlake student to graduate with a letter of introduction, a resume, a cover letter, a LinkedIn page and profile on the HW Works platform, and some sort of professional experience—something where they’re waking up and going somewhere that’s not school. That’s stuff that every graduating senior can build on—and at 17, 18, they’ll already be so much further ahead than their peers.”

Head of Communications & Strategic Initiatives Ari Engelberg ’89, who teaches Catalyzing Change: Entrepreneurial Thinking, agrees. “HW Works is a real differentiator between HW and other schools,” he says. “It’s a big value-add for the community.”

In fact, Works doesn’t just help students prepare for the job market; it’s a comprehensive career resource program for middle and upper school students and alumni alike. Check out these top six Works perks.

Everybody should have access to opportunity, and that opportunity should be as expansive as possible.”

DIRECTOR OF HW WORKS KWAISI FRANCE

RESEARCH A FIELD OF INTEREST

I’ve heavily leveraged the alumni network to inform myself about any topic that I was interested in; for example, when I wanted to find out about private equity, I looked up all the people in private equity on the HW Works platform, reached out to them, and set up coffee chats: How can I get into the industry? Do you know people with internships? Pretty much everything that’s on my resume today is a benefit from the HW Works platform.”

Search the HW Works platform at works.hw.com to network with HW alumni and parents in the field you’re interested in. Students can also take advantage of Works-sponsored industry-oriented events throughout the year.

Every fall, Works holds a Career Fair. “We divide the job market into 24 industry paths and try to find a representative from each to give students an idea of, say, what an internship in that industry could look like, even if they aren’t focused on getting a job yet,” says France.

In the spring, Works offers Career Day, where middle and upper school students go to a workplace to shadow employees. On this year’s Career Day, an alum organized a tour for students interested in architecture to visit six firms around the city. Career Day participants get to ask questions, sit in on meetings, or, for those visiting the plastic surgery practice where Auria Mehterian Hayoun ’95 is a surgical consultant, even observe surgery in the operating room.

This year, HW Works and Harvard-Westlake’s entrepreneurial club, HW Venture, also offered the inaugural NextGen Conference, a “South by Southwest-style symposium about innovation in industry,” says France, who invited HW community members interested in AI to learn more about it from a half-dozen speakers on the topic.

HW WORKS BOARD MEMBER ANDRES WALKER ’18

GET GENERAL JOB SEARCH HELP

I was a sophomore and didn’t really know what I was doing, but HW Works was super helpful in teaching me how to write a resume and letters of introduction for potential employers.”

HANA MEHDI WILLIAMS ’25

Learn what France calls the “nuts and bolts of securing a position”—everything from writing resumes to finding job and internship listings, networking, acing an interview, and negotiating compensation—at seminars for students held throughout the year. France also offers students and alumni one-on-one feedback on resumes and cover letters and interviewing tips.

NETWORK ABOUT JOBS AND SUMMER OPPORTUNITIES

The HW Works platform has been a great resource to help my daughter Lydia [Gugsa ’26] explore different fields, connect with alumni, and find summer programs and internships across the country and around the world.”

Get help looking for a job, whether you’re a student looking for a summer gig or an alum already on your career path, or explore internship possibilities—France keeps a running list—and summer programs. When students ask their deans for advice regarding internships, research positions, and other experiential opportunities, “we send them to Kwaisi [France], says Upper School Dean and Dean Department Head Chris Jones. “And that conversation almost always lands them a great learning and personal experience.”

In fact, recalls Director of Kutler Center Jim Patterson, “helping students find summer internship opportunities in all fields was one of the founding aspirations of the Kutler Center. HW Works has realized that vision.” France, who started working at Harvard-Westlake in 2022, remembers his first Works success story. “Olivia Wang [’23] was looking for a science research position for the summer, so we made a list of colleges that might be hiring: USC, UCLA, Loyola Marymount, Caltech…. She lived in Pasadena, so she reached out to some Caltech professors and ended up getting a position using the resume and letter of introduction that she put together with Works. After the summer, she wrote about her experience on campus in her CalTech college essay—and that’s where she’s now going to school.”

SHARON LEGESSE P’24 ’26

GET COLLEGE INTEL

Reach out to alums for college advice through the Works platform. For example, HW juniors and seniors can ask alums studying at colleges they’re interested in for tips on dorm life, what the surrounding town is like, and what a typical workload involves.

GET (OR BE!) A MENTOR

Where HW Venture is concerned with supporting student ideas and solving worthy problems, HW Works is the all-important bridge to alumni who provide the necessary mentorship, expertise, and support to make those ideas a reality. Ultimately these mentor/mentee relationships create meaningful opportunities for students and alumni to connect and strengthen the HW community.”

DIRECTOR

OF INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH & HW VENTURE MIKE BARKER

Learn how to be an entrepreneur from alums involved with HW Works. The HW Venture entrepreneurial club and Kutler Center classes like Venture Beyond and Catalyzing Change depend upon alumni who often come back to HW via Works to critique student startup pitches and share their experiences, says France.

Works even “matches students with mentors who can give them advice specific to their cultural background,” says Assistant Director of Admission and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Jessica McKay. For example, in April, “Chris Hooks [’00] came in to speak about entrepreneurship at an event planned by HW Venture and BLACC [Black Leadership Awareness and Culture Club].”

In turn, Works helps entrepreneurial alumni. Andres Walker ’18, for example, has found the Works network invaluable in putting together his startup. “I’ve been able to connect with tons of people—angel investors, venture capitalists, other founders—who have given me great insights,” he says.

DISCOVER YOURSELF

Works is all about self-discovery. We want to help folks discover who they are—independent of Harvard-Westlake, parents, and friends.”

DIRECTOR OF HW WORKS

KWAISI FRANCE

Explore your interests and make connections, even if you don’t know where it will lead. Diving in and then reflecting on what you learn, whether you're a student or alum, is a core part of the Works ethos.

If you don’t have it all figured out yet, that’s fine with France. “A lot of kids are like, I guess I want to do medicine, but can I talk to you about photography?” says France. “And I’m like, yeah, let’s talk about that.” Exploring a field by talking to alums in the industry or taking on a related internship, for example, helps students find their niche. “Worst-case scenario, you get a more robust profile for college applications—a future doctor with a portfolio that shows off their impressive talent,” says France. “And best-case scenario, an unhappy person who’s pursuing something they thought they were supposed to do discovers that, no, I really want to do this instead; this is what’s going to make me happy. If you want to be an investment banker, we’ll help you on that path. But let’s make sure that’s really what you want to do, not ‘this is what everybody is saying that I should do.’”

Now in its tenth year, HW Works is a trailblazer and model for other high schools across the nation. In fact, “HW Works is one of the most ambitious and innovative programs offered at the secondary school level,” says Director of Institutional Research & HW Venture Mike Barker. “Kwaisi [France] tries to learn what each individual student he works with is passionate about and find them that perfect opportunity to take a deeper dive and explore it out in the wild. There is no better classroom than the world around us, and it is his mission to introduce that to those he works with.”

If you’re an alum and want to get alumni news, invitations to events, and other opportunities to reconnect with former classmates and teachers, check out the alumni portal and make sure your contact info is up to date. If you don't have an alumni portal account, contact alumni@hw.com for access.

Lindsay Imber ’06 talks hockey, music…and coming out

By Assistant Director of Alumni Relations Veronica Kopelevich

Lindsay Imber ’06 grew up going to games at Dodger Stadium and began playing piano at age seven. At Harvard-Westlake, she was elected student body vice president. While still in college, she started officiating high school basketball and founded Close Call Sports, a major league baseball umpire analyst website. In 2015, she became the sports organist for the Anaheim Ducks—and six years later, came out as trans. Here, she shares the high notes of her work and her journey.

What is the role of a sports organist?

In 1929, in the old Chicago Stadium, they installed a giant Barton organ [the organs typically used in theaters in the silent film era; the largest Barton organ was designed and built for Chicago Stadium, home of the Chicago Blackhawks hockey team]. This was before the days of digital amplification, so the organ had pipes, and the sports organist was known as “psychological accompaniment” to sporting events at the stadium.

I commentate on the game through my musical selections. A large part of what I do is interacting with the fans using prompts like “Charge,” “Let’s go,” all that stuff. Even if I’m not doing an actual prompt, I’m playing a song that comments on something happening.

Watching a game at home as a kid, I would prop up my keyboard, put it on the organ setting, and play along.

Does having a background in analytics and officiating serve you as a sports organist?

In a big way. Knowing the rules, how the game flows, things like when do we go to a TV timeout versus when do we stay live are all valuable skills to make the game more entertaining. For example, if I’m playing to a penalty, I need to know if it’s for or against us, what type of penalty it is, even what player it’s on. If it’s a delay-of-game penalty, I might go to something like clocks or timing-related music, which wouldn’t be appropriate for a tripping penalty. It helps being an official and knowing the rules because I’m the person on the entertainment crew who calls things when they happen before most people even know what they are. We have graphics set up for all types of penalties. If I call out a cross-check [a player using his stick to hit an opponent] before the referee even reports it, then our LED video displays are ready to go with the cross-check cue to synchronize that with the announcement. So it makes the show flow a little better.

Some kids grow up pretending that they’re a baseball player...

Did you play piano at Harvard Westlake?

I took piano lessons until I graduated high school but not at HarvardWestlake. I did, however, take Dr. [Paul] Ludden's AP music theory and Dr. [Jerome] Margolis’s electronic music courses. We did a lot of eight-track recording, a lot of layering stuff. After college, I got a job with the Dodgers managing the security and guest services command post. After the workday on non-game days, rather than try to fight rush hour traffic, I’d hang out at the stadium for a few hours, make my way to the press box, relax. “Oh, look, there’s an organ, I can play that.” I taught myself the organ on that Dodger Stadium organ. Over the years, they would have corporate batting practice on some of the off days. I’d be just practicing, as usual, and they’d have corporate bank practice. Eventually, the sound engineer asked me, “Do you want me to pipe you into the stadium?” So that’s how I got started. Then in 2014, the NHL held its outdoor Stadium Series at Dodger Stadium. I’m still doing my thing playing, only now I’m meeting hockey people who know that I can play an instrument. In 2015 the Ducks are looking to hire someone for the playoffs. I get a call from my future boss while I’m on jury duty downtown. I go do the audition, and as I’m auditioning, my boss says, we’re going to pump this into the bowl and go down and see how it sounds. A few minutes later, my boss comes back up and just says, all right, you got the job. And I’ve been there ever since.

You’re president of the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council. How did you get into politics?

I kind of fell into it. I ran for student body vice president at Harvard-Westlake because I wanted to be a part of the process and get as inside as I could. In 2019, I joined the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council. The two primary reasons I got involved were housing and traffic. I wanted to take part in local government and to gain some knowledge about what is happening in the community.

Can you share a favorite memory about your role as a sports organist?

I think the most meaningful game with the Ducks would be April 3, 2023, their inaugural pride night. They asked me to help design the first-ever pride jersey, which was amazing. I went into our concept meeting with the graphics team, and my thought was to swap the triangle in the Anaheim Ducks logo for a rainbow heart. It was really fun to design that. We have a graphics video producer who animated the heart logo with a heartbeat. Before the game, they interviewed me for an endgame feature, so that was super awesome, and I had an in-game feature on top of that.

What I’ll remember most from that night is going down to the lower bowl and seeing all the players in the jersey warming up. That was such an amazing moment for me. There had been so much stress leading up to this event because we were hearing how players in Philadelphia refused to wear pride jerseys. That was spreading, and I was really worried that my jersey could get banned here if someone got offended. Then I learned that the Ducks had had a meeting amongst themselves and all agreed that everyone would wear it. That meant a lot. It means even more to me now, because after that season, the NHL said we’re banning pride jerseys, we’re banning all specialty jerseys. Knowing that my jersey is the only pride that has ever been worn on our ice, or ever will be for the foreseeable future, reminds me how far we have to go in the sport. It’s also not lost on me that I got to be part of that moment, and it was very special.

...I just wanted to play the organ.

You’re a visible trans employee of the NHL, a league that has historically struggled with LGBTQ+ inclusion. Did you feel a responsibility to go public with your transition?

The thing about transition, for those who do it, there’s really no way to hide. If it were just a sexuality question, you could theoretically just not tell anyone. But it’s not. I had started my physical transition about a year before I came out publicly, and about ten months into that physical process, it just got louder and louder, you’re not going to be able to hide this forever. I also knew that due to my work and the public-facing activities that I do, it’s going to be public. I definitely preferred to control that narrative.

I decided it was going to be something that happens in the off season. I filed my name and gender change with the court in August 2021. They have a mandatory 45-day waiting period, which put me at October 7. Opening night of hockey season that year was October 13, and right in the middle was October 11, which happens to be National Coming Out Day. I was like, it has to be then.

What was that experience like?

I found representation where I needed to. In music, it was Laura Jane Grace [lead singer and guitarist for the punk rock band Against Me!]. For sports officiating, during my baseball job, we had [former MLB umpire] Dale Scott, who had come out as gay, on our show. What really turned the tide for me was Kyle Kennery, a Canadian lacrosse referee coming out as pan [pansexual, or attracted to all genders]. He was super helpful, and I was very happy about that. I found my examples of, okay, it can work. And then of course, that led me to think, well, maybe I could be that person for someone else.

And that’s why I contacted Outsports [a website dedicated to LGBTQ athletes and fans]. They said, write your comingout story and we’ll publish it. I was very nervous—this is sports, am I going to lose my job? This is my best job ever. I do not want to put myself in jeopardy.

I made preparations with the Ducks in September, because that’s when preseason was. I set up a meeting with HR to get a new badge and photo. As I walked to the corporate offices, my bosses were walking out to the arena. They’re like, “What are you doing over here?” I said, “Do you want to know now, or do you want to learn later?” So I told them. The first thing my boss said to me was, “Well, in that case, we’re gonna have to get you a new jersey,” so that my name plate on the back could be updated. What’s really weird is that I started hormone replacement therapy in May 2021. And so this is three, four months into the process. I hadn’t put on my jersey since the prior season. When I put on my new jersey for the first time, it was way too big for me. I’m like, how did this happen? So they got me a smaller size, and it fit a lot better. The name was right. So it was just very nice.

RESOURCES FOR LGBTQ+ YOUTH & FAMILIES

Trans Lifeline Call (877) 565-8860 10 am-6 pm PT Monday-Friday

The Trevor Project Call (866) 488-7386 or text "START" to 678-678

24 hours a day, 7 days a week

What advice do you have for others who can relate to your story?

The reason that I went so public about my experience is that I want to help queer youth who might be struggling. This journey is really hard. People who aren’t on this journey can never understand how hard it is. Use the resources that are out there. Just the act of reaching out and talking to someone is courageous in its own right. It takes time, and that’s okay. It’s a never-ending process. I don’t know if this is the endgame for me or not, but it’s where I am now. I’m pleased that this area of my life turned out this way. There are other areas of my life that I’m still working on and need to figure out. It’s okay to work on one thing at a time. There’s no rush. It’s not a race. Just go at your own pace.

988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline Call or text 988 or chat online at 988lifeline.org 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

State of the Art State of the Art

State of the Art

A VISUAL ARTS FACULTY SHOWCASE A VISUAL ARTS FACULTY SHOWCASE

IN THIS PRINT EXHIBITION, THE MIDDLE AND UPPER SCHOOL VISUAL ARTS TEACHERS

SHARE THEIR OWN ARTWORK AND HOW THEY APPROACH THEIR ART AND THEIR TEACHING.

These are Polaroids I made re-photographing images of my grandmother, Josefa. In recent years as I’ve become a mother, I’ve started the deep personal work of understanding my family’s story. I come from a family that doesn’t talk much about the past, largely because there is a lot of historical and personal trauma that has been difficult to share. In Puerto Rico, where my family is from, there is an embedded anti-Blackness and internalized racism that counters the myth of racial equality on the island, as we have considered ourselves with pride a mixed people with African, European, and Indigenous roots. In making these images, I am thinking about my grandmother as a light-skinned Black woman who carried within her the experience of antiBlackness that has, in part, shaped my family’s story.

I tell my students all the time how powerful artmaking can be as a site of self-reflection and creative outlet to process the world around you, particularly when the world feels difficult. I’ve seen the profound, invaluable resource that photography and artmaking has been through the pandemic, through the loss we faced last spring in our community, and in my own life, in losing loved ones, the importance of having a way to channel what is difficult or incomprehensible.

Alexandra Pacheco Garcia Teaches Photography

Josefa and Her Baby, Polaroid

Josefa Solo, Polaroid

Brannon Rockwell-Charland Cook

Teaches Photography and Video Art

My work Dancing Grids is a meditation on the symbolism of the grid. I recently found these pieces of discarded wire mesh and brought them into the darkroom, where they took on new life. In these silver gelatin prints, which use light to capture the shape of the mesh in photographic form, the grid stands in for oppressive structures and systems that one must navigate to survive. However, the warps and bends of the material undermine the order and conformity that the grid usually enforces, so much so that the structure of the material becomes secondary to the unbridled freedom of its movement. These prints serve as reminders of the power of improvisation and the perseverance of Black life and joy.

My art practice and teaching are very much connected. It’s impossible not to bring whatever I’m thinking about in the studio into the classroom. Conversely, my students inspire me to think differently about my work and how to nurture the artist within. Teaching also demands that I’m constantly practicing my various crafts; it keeps me challenged and helps my ideas evolve.

State of the Art

Heather Trawick

Teaches Graphic Design and Video Art

The Center of the Cyclone is a short 16mm film about transcendence and the interplay between the corporal and metaphysical worlds, using explorers like Ernest Shackleton and scientists like John C. Lilly as the framework.

We are currently working on a 16mm film in my Video Storytelling 2 class. I’m excited to share with my students the materiality of film and the way that movie images can break boundaries and take us to places that our minds and bodies can’t.

Dancing Grid I, Dancing Grid II, Dancing Grid III, silver gelatin prints

The Center of the Cyclone (stills), 16mm film

FACULTY & STAFF PROFILES

Flavia Zuñiga-West ’02

Teaches Drawing & Painting

In my artwork, I investigate the multifaceted nature of identity through the lens of intersectionality by interweaving concepts of nepantla (an Aztec word for in-betweenness) and nepantlera (a term coined by queer Chicana scholar Gloria Anzaldúa to refer to someone between worlds), colorism, and their significance in familial narratives. I use personal and found images in my collages to create quotidian objects that highlight the importance of the kitchen table in Black and Latinx homes. Nepantla as a tangible location is a central theme in my art, representing a liminal space where worlds and perspectives converge. In this in-between place, I explore themes of transition, transformation, and cultural hybridity, inviting viewers to contemplate the fluidity and complexity of identity and belonging within the public and domestic space.

The impetus behind my photographs has always been the landscape of my upbringing. I was raised in Arizona, on the US/Mexico border. There is an essential duality that comes from being so close to a physical border. I am of Mexican descent. I am fourth-generation American. Being Mexican, I once read [in Juan Felipe Herrera’s poem “Half-Mexican”], is like having a “half against itself.”

One of my key goals with my personal photos and teaching students is examining our feelings and attitudes toward our world in the process. I try to inspire on an authentic level.

From the photography series Half Against Itself

Joe Medina

Teaches Photography

Joy Is our Birth Rite, digital collage

Blaxico Is Real Installation, digital collage on textiles and plates

Conor Thompson

Teaches Drawing & Painting and Art History

My paintings’ influences range from archaeological rubble to midcentury modernism to graffiti. I work spontaneously, making changes as I paint, and attempt to balance my compositions to a tipping point where it almost feels like they could get up and move, or like the viewer could bring the next element into the painting. I’m not at all afraid of color, and I’m interested in this tension where color is both ugly and beautiful. My mom was a modern dancer, and the visceral emotion and freeform movement of modern dance is inspirational to my work.

My art inspires my teaching, and my teaching inspires my art. I first started teaching middle school, and seeing the weirdness and freedom of my seventh graders’ art had a huge impact on me. I hope I can bring the spontaneity and playfulness that’s in my paintings to my teaching.

State of the Art

State of the Art

Gustavo Godoy

Teaches Ceramics and Sculpture

I installed this large-scale sculpture and series of concrete and ceramic objects in the Joshua Tree landscape last fall as part of a project I call “Staring at Stars.” From an early age, trips to my greatgrandmother’s home in Tijuana sparked my interest in inventive architecture, intuitive problemsolving, and the materials of a place and culture. Working alongside my father, I developed an appreciation for the everyday building materials of concrete and wood that have become the cornerstones of my artistic practice. Whether the end result is wooden planks nailed together to form abstract climbable structures, concrete blocks conjoined into large ceremonial mounds and place markers, or ceramic objects through which one looks to isolate a set of stars or a moment within a landscape, my sculptures are meant to entice the viewer to interact directly with the artwork.

At HW, I ask my students to dig into who they are, where they come from, and the things that they care about. I want them to be as resourceful and deliberate in making their own artworks as my family has had to be, establishing roots here and chasing the American Dream.

Fast-Formal Object for Looking, painted wood, steel, ceramic objects, and concrete

Vacant Mound, cast concrete and cholla cactus

Bandstand, oil on canvas

Three Paintings (Gambol, Freeway, Nocturne) , oil and enamel on canvas

FACULTY & STAFF PROFILES

Megan Cotts ’97

Teaches Ceramics and Three-Dimensional Art

This work is part of my Honeycomb project. My great-grandparents came to America to escape Nazi persecution. They had a factory in Halle, Germany, that made honeycomb party decorations from tissue paper glued at various intervals; they came flat, and when you rotated and attached them, they became threedimensional objects. My ancestors filed patents for the machines to create these objects. In 1938, Jewish intellectual property was nullified, and during World War II, the apparatus designed to make these paper decorations was used on other materials to create lighter airplanes that the Nazis used for the war effort. Using the original patents to inform my artwork is a way of reclaiming the intellectual property that my ancestors lost.

For me, staying vibrant and vital with my own artmaking is very important to my teaching practice, which is constantly growing and informed by the work my students are developing day to day.

State of the Art

Nicole Stahl

Teaches Glass and Three-Dimensional Art

These organic, feminine forms are intended to challenge the viewer to question whether they are of the desert, the sea, or even the forest. Not looking exactly like one or the other, they emit a sense of belonging everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

You teach best what you know, so if I’m going to teach about being an artist, I value living the example. Personally, having an art practice also supports my own mental health by helping maintain life balance. I make my artwork in the same studios as my students, sometimes even alongside them, and it’s special to be able to show them what is possible to create within our incredible facilities.

We Need a Forest Fire, hand-built ceramic, gold luster, cast glass, crystals, epoxy

Clutch, hand-built ceramic, gold luster, cast glass, crystals, epoxy

Untitled, acrylic and thread on linen

Untitled (pink) , tempera on linen, wood

State of the Art

Reb L Limerick

Teaches Video Art

I’m a video and performance artist, and Ecca Echo is my alter ego. Ecca Echo is a pop star in a complicated relationship with technology and ecology. Ecca’s voice and lyrics echo Earth’s emotions. She’s been humming with seismic rumbles, feeling the urgency, packing her bag for the long emergency. Hear her tones that reach the ozone, giving way to open hearts and open minds.

My grad school teacher and mentor, Diane Willow, describes herself as a “classroom catalyst,” a title I aspire to embody daily. I make film poems and enjoy digging into my own personal archive, so I created the “personal archive docu-poem” project to encourage my students to do the same. I have decades of experience with and love for performance art and push my students to create beyond traditional narrative filmmaking practices as well. I am vulnerable in showing my work to my classes as a way of sharing who I am and what I care about with the teens in my life, hopefully shifting their perspectives on how art can inspire social change.

Whitney Lasker

Teaches Drawing & Painting and Graphic Design

In my most recent work, I explore methods of observation using photography and printmaking and how these processes can become filters for how we see. Over the summer, I took a screenprinting course because I was going to start teaching a new upper school class, Graphic Design Through the Medium of Merch. My desire to teach the subject was what gave me the energy to really jump into a medium that I have been passionate about for a while now. I am so grateful to work at a place that encourages teachers to further their own practice. I get to pursue what I’m passionate about and then share what I’ve learned with my students. It’s a beautiful cycle.

Untitled Still Life 1, silkscreen and Flashe on collaged paper

Untitled Still Life 2, silkscreen and Flashe on collaged paper

Faultline Music Video (stills), digital video State of

In this new column, you get the chance to test yourself: Can you answer this question from a Harvard-Westlake teacher? Answer at the bottom of the page.

THIS ONE IS FROM UPPER SCHOOL MR. HE’S CHINA STUDIES CLASS.

DO THESE CHARACTERS BEST REPRESENT CONFUCIANISM, DAOISM, OR BUDDHISM?

DOCTOR STRANGE

MR. BEAN

Both photos: Alex Wiezorek ’24

Top left to right: Chad Ward ’25, Alisa Williford ’26, Lyric Walker ’23, Claire Young ’24, Agatha Davies ’26, Piper Vita ’25

STAY

by Felicia Duan ’27

Tell me, do your thumbs hover before you speak

Do your words run dry

Before they’ve even passed the finish line

Do you remember me the way I see your early-March eyes

Do you reminisce when we were wolves

Cooling in the breeze

Do you think of our old obsessions; Singing in car and dancing On bright red clay tiles

Did you think of the consequences then, When we were crossing lines With warnings crossed out of mind

If I told you I want that back Would you think I was a broken clock Or are we ticking back in time together

If you realized I was broken and you had to leave, Could you say whether it was I said too much Said it too quickly, or said it wrong

What if I told you I’m waiting By the old school for you to appear

Would you even hesitate Before you let me linger

WESTLAKE

CLASS NOTES

1960s

SUSAN OKIE ’68 writes, “My prize-winning first full-length poetry collection, Woman at the Crossing, has been published by Grid Books. Classmates MALEAH EISNER GROVER-MCKAY ’68 and PATTI WARD PALMER ’68, plus TONI HOPKINS ’68 and her husband, Bob, joined me for a poetry reading and dinner together in Oakland, California, in October! Great to catch up.

From left to right: Patti Ward Palmer, Toni Hopkins, Susan Okie, Walter Weiss (Susan’s husband), Maleah Grover, Bob Hopkins.

We’re sitting in the backyard of my son, Pete Weiss, who lives in Oakland.”

1970s

MARY RUTH HARDESTYSCHREIER ’77 writes, “My daughter, KATIE SCHREIER ’11 , was married this past year to Nicolas Lauber.”

1980s

KAREN MOORE SCHMIDT ’80 writes, “NICOLE SCHER ’07 and I are a mother-daughter team who have officially teamed up our financial services practice under the name Mater Filia Financial & Insurance Services. Collectively, we have worked as financial advisors for almost 20 years and now are an unbeatable team together. ‘Mater Filia’ means mother-daughter in Latin, making it an appropriate name for our new practice specializing in estate and business succession planning. Both of us work and reside in the Woodland Hills/Calabasas area.”

Maya Stillwell ʼ26

Nicholas Nakamura ʼ25

HARVARD CLASS NOTES

1960s

FROSTY FURMAN ’62 & FLOYD MILLER ’62 in Beaune, France, July 2023

EDWIN STANTON III ’63 writes, “We celebrated our 60th last August at El Cholo restaurant. Here’s the lineup.

Front row: JIM VALENTINE ’63 , RANDY FERGUSON ’63 . Second row: Me (letterman’s sweater), LOU BOLANOS ’63 , and TONY BALLANTYNE ’63

Third row: KEITH RUSSELL ’63 , DAN DORAN ’63 , and JOHN EASTHOPE ’63 (letterman’s jacket).

Sad news: Randy died after a long struggle with cancer at his Palm Desert home. After Harvard School he went on to become a very successful attorney specializing in international trade and customs law.

Randy was one who would always be there to lend a hand. As manager of the football team junior year, Randy hid several buckets of water with towels and handed them out after Carlson had us run wind sprints.

Another time I was a little behind in my preparation for one of Friel’s tests and desperately needed to skip the class. Chapel was the following period, so I went to Randy and begged for a place in the service. Randy gave me a little bell which I rang twice during prayers. I took the test the following day and did fine.

Randy was a great guy and I’ll miss him.”

1980s

LANCE CHANG ’83 writes, “I studied art under the mentorship of Karl Benjamin. Karl was an American painter of vibrant ‘hard-edge’ geometric abstractions, who rose to fame in 1959 as one of four Los Angeles-based Abstract Classicists. During one of my upper division painting classes, I got several splatters of paint on my jeans. Instead of trying to quickly wash them off, I gave in to the entropy! I kept adding paint to my jeans until they were covered in paint. My college friend loved them, so I made her a pair. My girlfriend loved them, so I made her a pair, and so on and so on…. Fast forward to 2020 and COVID lockdown. Unable to continue photo shoots on location, I decided to start applying paint to some of my photographic prints. My background in painting heavily influences my practice, even down to the brushstrokelike swaths of color and the choice of watercolor paper or canvas for the prints. Now I was adding paint directly to the watercolor-like prints, and I had a flashback to my college days. I grabbed a sports jacket from my closet and started splattering it with fabric paint. I happened to wear it to a gallery event, and my friend Charis loved it, so I made her a dress, and that’s how I ended up creating one-of-akind haute couture to include dresses, skirts, jackets, pants, and shirts. Vogue once described haute couture pieces as ‘walking pieces of art.’ See more: bit.ly/4bZLTUq”

“In one of his classes at Harvard-Westlake, Justin was asked to say who he was in six words,” recalls his mother, Susan Toler Carr. “He said, ‘Darkest in the water. Brightest on stage.’ He always loved the water and the visual and performing arts. He was in HW plays. He helped with the dances. His imagination was all over the place. He loved drawing. He was so creative. As a kid, every time his friends came to our house, Justin rearranged the furniture to create a stage, quickly wrote scripts, and made friends perform before they could play Xbox... haha.”

While swimming during a team practice on February 22, 2013, Justin Carr died unexpectedly from Sudden Cardiac Arrest.

In his memory, Harvard-Westlake hosts the annual Justin Carr ’14 Memorial Relay Meet at the Copses Family Aquatics Center, where free heart screenings are provided by Justin Carr Wants World Peace, the foundation Justin’s parents started in his honor.

THOMAS SMITH ’88 writes, “I’m a PPP. Professional political pickpocket. Aka fundraiser. Self-employed, campaign focused, also run a PAC. Have won and lost races for Congress, US Senate, Lt. Governor, Governor, Presidential (5). Split time between LA and Nashville, Tennessee. You can usually find me at a Vanderbilt baseball game. Proud to be one of two class of ’88s ( CARLO DEANTONIO ’88 ) to hike Malibu Canyon with the inimitable Mr. Sal! He still has better hair than us. In Sammy. ”

“When Justin was about four years old, he got a chance to say grace and prayed for God to help him achieve world peace,” says Toler Carr. “He always wanted to help the underserved. Shortly before he passed, Justin started the ‘Dare to Dream’ program at an elementary school in Inglewood, recruiting classmates to do art and math tutoring on Saturdays. Still to this day we keep learning about the impact of what Justin has done for people.”

NATHALIE BRADFORD ’14, who became a doctor, is one of the people Justin inspired. “Justin was one of my first friends at Harvard-Westlake, and he was also my dance partner,” she remembers. “Justin went out of his way to brighten your day by cracking a joke or just smiling at you. Losing him made me feel called to pursue medicine because I realized the difference that a good doctor could make in identifying cardiac conditions. If I can even help even one person like Justin live a long life, then I will consider all the work worth it.”

1990s

TONY GREY ’90 writes, “GEORGE MUSTAFA ’90 passed away unexpectedly and peacefully in his sleep at the age of 51 on March 18, 2024. He studied electrical engineering and computer science at UCLA. He went on to cofound the healthcare startup 4PatientCare, developing the core technology and serving many roles along the path to building a successful company that was eventually acquired by Essilor Luxottica.

George was a great many things to a great many people. He was known as the peacemaker at work, intelligent, versatile, and approachable. He was the one people came to with questions and problems, and he helped without judgment or criticism. George worked tirelessly around the clock but he was never too busy to listen. He was a teacher, a mentor, and a guiding light to his colleagues. To family and friends, he was the jokester. He challenged opinions and debated every point. He could be stubborn, but he was always patient and empathetic. Friends recall George’s calm demeanor, his slightly twisted sense of humor, and his kindness. He loved technology, movies, science fiction, and food; he had the most adventurous palate. He is survived by his wife Trang and his daughter Alexis, whom he adored. He will be greatly missed.”

Justin’s visual arts teacher, Marianne Hall, shared these and other pieces of Justin’s art with his parents after his passing.

DAVID TRULIO ’91 writes, “I returned to California from Virginia to serve as President and CEO of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute in Simi Valley. The foundation is the sole organization created by President Reagan charged with advancing his legacy and timeless principles and engages in extensive public affairs and educational programming in California, Washington, DC, and beyond (including last fall’s second Republican presidential candidate debate and the annual Reagan National Defense Forum, featuring the Secretary of Defense and other top leaders). The foundation sustains the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, which is consistently the most visited presidential library. I would welcome hosting you.”

HARVARD-WESTLAKE NOTES

1993

NEHA WICKRAMASEKARAN ’93 writes, “My husband, Sean Comer, and our son, Rakesh, welcomed a new baby girl, Rani, to our family in October.”

2003

JAMIE LEE ’03 writes, “I have finally returned from my travels, and India is a beautiful, wild, and humbling country. We had a great time traveling along the Golden Triangle with ERIC GARCETTI ’88 and his family, visiting an elephant sanctuary, tiger reserve, and, of course, the Taj Mahal, which was breathtaking. We also had a chance to meet Eric in his office at the US Embassy.”

2013

JASLIN MARINE ’13 writes, “Hi everyone! Inspired by the Civics class I took with Mr. Newhart back in the seventh grade, I launched a podcast that gives adults a refresher course on how the government works. It’s called Civic Sense, and the best part is that my cohost is Mr. John Amato! Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and if you’d like to get involved, please email me at jaslinmarine@gmail.com.”

Class Notes is a regular feature in HW Life magazine, and all notes are submitted by alumni. If you have any news you’d like to share with the alumni community, submit it via the alumni website (hw.com/alumni) by logging into your alumni account or by emailing alumni@hw.com.

Remembering JULIA SIEGLER ’14

During her eighth grade year, Julia Cukier Siegler was crossing the street in Brentwood to board the school bus when she was hit by a car. Her brother, MATTHEW SIEGLER ’01 , reflects upon her life ahead of what would have been her 10th reunion.

“Julia delighted in being a HarvardWestlake student. The great big beautiful world began to open up to her at HW, and she was ready for it. Her soul soared as she painted, sculpted, and—most of all—danced with a grace and rigor that amazed us. She loved her Latin studies, excelled academically, had many friends across campus, and was unfailingly kind to her fellow students. That kindness and decency was what so many students shared with her family at memorial services, at impromptu gatherings at the bus stop where her short life ended, and when we have run into them in the years since. Julia was only a member of the class of ’14 for a short time, but her legacy can inspire her classmates and community for years to come.”

In her memory, and in that spirit, Matthew Siegler created the Julia Siegler Memorial Award to honor the eighth grader whose classmates vote them most kind, empathetic, and uplifting to their peers. The winning student exemplifies these values with decency and grace while also maintaining high academic performance. The first recipient was awarded in 2022.

2022 Winner of the Julia Siegler Award

DASHIELL SPARKS ’26 with Matt Siegler ’01 and Ashley Peterson Siegler ’01

2023 Winner of the Julia Siegler Award

KYLE HENDERSON ’27 with Matt Siegler ’01 and Ashley Peterson Siegler ’01

Hank Schoen ’24

Thomas (Randy) Ferguson ’ 63

Richard MacCoon ’ 42

Ludwig Kaftan Jr. ’ 58

Sallie Reynolds Westlake Community Service Program Founder & Coordinator, 1983-1992

Charles Berezin Harvard-Westlake English & Summer Programs teacher, 2009-2021

Keyvan Cyrus Razi ’ 95

George Mustafa ’90

Catherine Craine Unabia ’ 69

ALUMNI SPORTS DAY

This past January, HW alumni were welcomed back to campus for the inaugural Alumni Sports Day event, featuring men’s basketball, women’s basketball, field hockey, flag football, soccer, volleyball, and water polo.

THE BUSINESS OF COMEDY

The HW Alumni Arts & Entertainment Network Event hosted The Business of Comedy at Harriet’s this past fall, featuring panelists HW parent Patton Oswalt, Kevin Parker ’95, comedian Dulcé Sloan, Chris Spencer P’23 ’25, and Reg Tigerman ’03. Special thank you to our moderator David Nickoll ’89 P’21 ’23 ’25 and an additional special thanks to John Terzian ’98 for hosting at Harriet’s.

WOLVERUN 5K & TOT TROT

The WolveRun 5K Race & Tot Trot welcomed alumni, students, faculty, and friends back on campus for a fun-filled day of activities. We look forward to extending the WolveRun tradition next year as an event for the entire family.

BUILDING CHAMPIONSHIPS

In late February, the HW Alumni Association welcomed Ethan Levitt ’07, Director of Baseball Strategy for the LA Dodgers, and Sam Usher ’08, Director of Basketball Operations for the LA Lakers, back to campus to discuss their experiences working in professional sports. The event was moderated by Head of Athletics and ISIR Teacher Terry Barnum in Ahmanson Lecture Hall at the upper school.

Stay connected with your alma mater by updating your info on the alumni portal! Updating your contact info ensures that you receive HW updates and invitations to special events and other opportunities to reconnect with former classmates and teachers. You can also submit a class note, visit your class directory, join affinity groups, and more.

Questions? Email us at alumni@hw.com

LA INDEPENDENT SCHOOL ALUMNI TECH SUMMIT

The Harvard-Westlake Alumni Association was excited to welcome fellow independent schools Brentwood School, Campbell Hall, Milken Community School, and Oakwood School for the Los Angeles Independent School Alumni Tech Summit in March, hosted by Harvard-Westlake alumna Julia Boorstin ’96, CNBC Senior Media & Technology Reporter and author of When Women Lead.

ODE TO THE BIRTHDAY CARD

By Hayley Ross-Settineri ’27

Sitting in an empty house

Surrounded by junk and useless things

Dusty Celtic music CDs

Unpaid medical bills

Pill containers for every day of the week now emptied out

Is the card I wrote you for your birthday

Film of dust covering the grainy pink paper

Corners crumple back up as I try to smooth them out using my hands

Unproportionate letters spelling out

“Happy Birthday Grandma!”

In forest green, ugly mustard yellow,

And our favorite color

Purple.

The note I wrote to you is illegible

Although I can imagine if I had written you a birthday card now

I don't know what I would say.

Tears gouge my puffy, red eyes

Tired from the continual salty river flowing from them

And all I can think about is how

This little card has seen so much

So much I have not been able to see for almost 10 years after I wrote it

And while everything around it was either getting thrown out or buried by things

It stayed right where I remember you putting it.

Even though this card somehow solves all of the guilt I’m feeling

And allows for new questions to arise

I think now

The safety wheels on my bike are ready to come off

And I can ride off into the horizon holding onto the protection and comfort they gave me.

Clockwise from top left: Grant Caverly ’21, Lilah Mitchell ’25, Theo Tsai ’24, Maya Trakhtenberg ’23

FACULTY & STAFF NOTES

ASSISTANT CONTROLLER AND STUDENT FINANCIAL AFFAIRS

MANAGER SUE CHONG says, “I welcomed my second child, Henry, on January 24. Big brother Carter is ambivalent while cat brothers Fudge and Tater Tot are annoyed, but I’m over the moon about Henry!”

UPPER SCHOOL VISUAL ARTS

TEACHER NICOLE STAHL says, “I was invited by a curator for Craft in America to show some of my artwork in The Optics of Now: So-Cal Glass, a group show at Palos Verdes Art Center, from January to April. JOHN LUEBTOW (former HW visual arts teacher) and STEPHEN EDWARDS ’72 were also curated into the glass-centric show.”

Remembering SALLIE REYNOLDS

WESTLAKE COMMUNITY SERVICE PROGRAM

FOUNDER & COORDINATOR, 1983-1992

A fixture at Westlake School beginning in 1966 when her late former husband NAT REYNOLDS ’51 became headmaster, Sallie’s greatest contribution was the community service program she started at Westlake, which laid the groundwork for the robust program that continues to thrive at Harvard-Westlake today. In 1983, Sallie assumed the newly created role of Westlake Community Service Coordinator, a position she held for almost a decade and through the first year of the merger.

Sallie is survived by her three children whom she shared with Nat Reynolds: her daughter Elizabeth Reynolds Mahoney ’88 and her sons Greg and Adam.

FORMER VICE PRESIDENT

JOHN AMATO says, “I am currently living in Corona Del Mar with my wife, Sandy. My oldest, Ashley, who went to Poly in Pasadena and Boston College, has two girls, James and Henry. She and her husband, Blair, live in Culver City. Mary, my youngest, who went to HW and also Boston College, lives in SF with her husband, Rich, and is expecting her first in early July…. All very exciting!!!

Recently, I have paired with JAZZI MARINE ’13 to develop an informational podcast focused on the study of US Civics. Much of what we are planning to cover was taught over the years at HW when Jazzi was a student and I was teaching. We both felt that a significant amount of what we both learned about Civics while in school may have been forgotten or just placed in a remote part of the brain. Our podcast is called Civic Sense, and we hope that you will tune in when you have the opportunity.”

Anju Higashi ʼ26

TIFFANY ALEXANDER ALDRIDGE ’87:

WHEN THE IMPACT OF GIVING COMES FULL CIRCLE

On a warm Friday afternoon last June, a small group of Advancement colleagues gathered at the middle school to celebrate the end of the Harvard-Westlake fiscal year. This annual “toast” (champagne in Dixie cups) has become a tradition—both the culmination of a year’s work and an acknowledgment of philanthropy’s profound impact on HW’s students and teachers.

But this time, the toast felt different—for two reasons. 1) Thanks to the support of thousands of donors giving at all levels, Harvard-Westlake became the first independent day school to surpass $10,000,000 in Annual Giving; and 2) standing in the center of the office, eyes welling with emotion, was first-year Director of Annual Giving Tiffany Alexander Aldridge ’87

Tiffany’s Harvard-Westlake story began in 1982 in a dental office at the corner of Wilshire and San Vicente. Tiffany’s mother, Vernetta Bleavins, worked as a dental assistant to Dr. Gary Salenger, whose two daughters (Eden ’86 and Meredith ’88) attended Westlake. When Vernetta referenced her precocious daughter bringing home “another report card with all A’s,” Dr. Salenger took note. He commented, “My daughters attend an amazing school called Westlake. You should check it out.” Vernetta did, and thanks to both Tiffany’s exceptional talent and the availability of need-based financial aid, Tiffany became a Westlake girl.

While at Westlake, Tiffany thrived. She was a star cheerleader, ran track, and found community immediately. One of the first gestures of inclusion she experienced was from classmate Nicole Buckberg ’87, who invited her to a Passover Seder. Tiffany recounts that commuting from a predominantly Black neighborhood in South Los Angeles, she had never heard the term “Passover”—let alone participated in a Seder—but felt genuinely welcomed into the Bucksberg family and loved every minute of it.

WITH ELI GOLDSMITH

Tiffany remarks, “Westlake opened my eyes to an entirely new world—to new cultures and ways of life. It provided me with both the confidence to believe I could belong anywhere, and the inspiration that I could achieve anything.” Tiffany continues, “I loved the experience so much that after Westlake, I made it my mission to facilitate similar access to success, belonging, and expansive opportunity for other families like mine.”

After graduating from UC Berkeley, Tiffany began this mission by volunteering for Kathleen Brown’s 1994 California gubernatorial race (alongside Harvard School peer Eric Garcetti ’88). This led to advocacy roles at Rock the Vote, LA Conservation Corps, and the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation; followed by education nonprofit roles at LA’s Promise, Fulfillment Fund, and the Independent School Alliance.

Throughout this time, Tiffany volunteered and reconnected with Harvard-Westlake, especially after two Westlake alumnae (Jan King ’80 and Marcia Bryant Osborne ’80) founded the Harvard-Westlake African American Alumni Network in 2007. It was also during this time when Tiffany’s son Chase began considering HW for ninth grade, and thanks to his exceptional talent and the availability of need-based financial aid, Chase Aldridge ’15 became a Wolverine.

To Tiffany’s delight, at Harvard-Westlake, Chase encountered the same sense of community and academic inspiration that Tiffany discovered at Westlake. Chase adored Karen Fukushima’s history class, for example—so much so that he came home telling his mom that he’d like to be a history teacher someday. Chase was also a four-year member of the baseball and football teams, and after graduation, Chase’s baseball career continued at Harvard University. Now based in Arizona and working for his mom’s favorite team (the

LA Dodgers), Chase still finds community at Harvard-Westlake. As Tiffany puts it, “Chase’s best friends remain the same group of guys he met at ninth grade retreat on the Colorado River.”

Finally, in 2022, Tiffany added yet another chapter to her HarvardWestlake story when she began directing HW’s Annual Giving program. Tiffany was drawn to the role for many reasons, but none greater than its impact on students. Annual Giving, which encompasses 11% of Harvard-Westlake’s operating budget, supports many facets of the school, but is particularly critical to financial aid. Since only a third of Harvard-Westlake’s financial aid budget is endowed, the school relies heavily on Annual Giving to fund over $14,000,000 annually in financial aid, which removes the barrier of affordability for hundreds of talented and deserving HW students each year.

Tiffany remarks, “Doing this work at Harvard-Westlake is truly full circle for me. I was a financial aid recipient here. My son was a financial aid recipient here. Now I get to lead a program that enables others to have the same transformational opportunities that we did.”

For the last two falls, Tiffany has made a special point to share her story with Annual Giving donors and volunteers, wiping away a few tears in the process. “People don’t always realize the impact they make on people’s lives by volunteering and by giving. Well, look at me. Look at my son and our family. We are the impact. And thanks to Annual Giving, new stories like mine are being written here every day.” To learn more

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST

Below: St. Saviour’s Chapel sustained substantial damage.

Right: A member of the maintenance crew clearing debris from a classroom in Seaver at the upper school.

30 YEARS AFTER THE NORTHRIDGE EARTHQUAKE

By Alexis Sherman Arinsburg ’98

“We just withstood the largest earthquake under a major urban center in United States history,” reflected then Head of the Upper School Mimi Flood in the 1994 Vox Populi yearbook. “What I found even more amazing was the way that all members of our community came together for the good of the school.”

The 6.7-magnitude Northridge earthquake struck on January 17, 1994, at 4:31 a.m. The epicenter was only 11 miles from the upper school.

School was closed for two days while the maintenance team, assisted by students and faculty volunteers, worked tirelessly on cleanup and repairs on campus. St. Saviour’s Chapel and Mudd Library were hit especially hard. Former upper school history/social studies teacher Drew Maddock helped reshelve books in the library. “I remember walking into Mudd and seeing a big mess of thousands of books piled up all over the floor, a librarian’s nightmare,” he recalls. “For the sake of speed, we were told to just get them back on the shelves close to where they belonged and the librarians would straighten them out later.”

Looking on the bright side, Jonathan Marr ’94 told Vox Populi at the time, “According to my calculations, I’m into Stanford since many people from out of state will be too scared to go to school in earthquake-ravaged California.” (He did get in—but went to Yale.)

Students, teachers (including Drew Maddock, above), and staff members helped librarians replace books that had been shaken off shelves.

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REQUEST FOR FEEDBACK

We want to hear from you! Let us know what you thought of this issue and what you’d like to see in future HW Life issues. Please send your comments to Elizabeth Hurchalla at ehurchalla@hw.com.

HEAD OF COMMUNICATIONS: ARI ENGELBERG ’89

CREATIVE DIRECTOR & DESIGNER: LIZ WELCHMAN

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Abigail Hailu ʼ24