Community Counts

A LOOK BACK AT 2021-22

New York Times reporters Jodi Kantor (left) and Lulu Garcia-Navarro with GDS Head of School Russell Shaw

BENJAMIN COOPER MEMORIAL LECTURE

In a series of articles beginning in 2017, New York Times journalists Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey broke the Harvey Weinstein scandal, a watershed moment for the #MeToo movement. Their reporting, which documented the transformative journeys of the women who spoke out, earned them a Pulitzer Prize. In November 2021, GDS proudly welcomed Jodi into conversation with Peabody Award-winning New York Times journalist (and GDS parent) Lulu Garcia-Navarro for the 24th annual Benjamin Cooper Memorial Lecture. The Lecture Fund, established in memory of Ben Cooper by his close friends and endowed by the Cooper-Areen family, enables GDS to bring a renowned guest lecturer to the school each year to stimulate the kind of dialogue in which Ben loved to participate.

WELCOMING THE YEAR OF THE TIGER

Though there were no fireworks, GDS celebrated the Lunar New Year on February 1 with a veritable explosion of brightly colored tigers, festivities across campus, and plenty of loud, joyful voices repelling bad spirits. High School students studying Chinese performed three songs in the Forum and practiced calligraphy for new year’s cards. They brushed red paint and golden glitter onto wooden tiger ornaments carved in our High School Innovation Lab along with students studying Chinese in the LMS. In visual arts classes, LMS students made tigers for display throughout the LMS building. Finally, the Asian American Pacific Islander parent affinity group generously hosted a live dumpling-making Zoom for families. Happy New Year to all who celebrated!

HS STUDENT-STAFF BREAKFAST

Carrying on a long-running tradition of preparing food and then dining as a community, High School students and staff enjoyed breakfast together in the Internet Cafe after Spring Break. The chocolate-chip pancakes on the griddle, made-to-order parfaits, and good company made for a smooth transition back to school.

SPRING SEMESTER HIGHLIGHTS

Students came together around shared interests, academic endeavors, and matters of character. Four snapshots:

In January, the Lower School took on the Great Kindness Challenge, a grassroots movement to create habits of kindness and gratitude in our lives. Students stayed attentive to their actions and celebrated examples of caring, generosity, and helpfulness among peers.

Seventh graders made their annual trek to the Chesapeake Bay to learn about water ecology, the economy, and the people who depend on the Bay. On Middle School STEAM Day, students explored topics in science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics through dozens of workshops, culminating in a highenergy design challenge competition.

CORY ROYSTER

From the blistering to the beautiful and everything in between, performers at GDS’s first-ever High School Poetry Slam Night spoke their truth with wisdom, wit, and courageous vulnerability.

GLADYS M. STERN MEMORIAL BRUNCH

WEIKERKEN ALTEMA

For decades, the names Gladys M. Stern and GDS were practically synonymous. Gladys began her GDS journey as a parent before working at the School in various capacities from 1954 to 1996. She served as the

School’s Associate Director and founded the High School branch of GDS, becoming its first principal. Eventually,

Gladys was named the third Head of School and devoted most of her waking hours to the position, which she held for the final 21 years of her tenure.

Gladys knew every student by name and paired high expectations with a warmth and desire to meet children where they were. Her passion to impart a lifelong love of learning continues to be a guiding ethos at GDS, as is her conviction that a good education involves shaping children into caring adults.

“Together we must take care to see that in addition to learning reading, writing, and arithmetic, or narration, philosophy and calculus, that our children become generous, humane, compassionate, just, and comfortable adults,” Gladys once said about the partnership between schools and parents.

Gladys passed away on November 14, 2021. She was 104 years old.

The School honored the GDS legend with a special brunch in April 2022. Family, friends, alumni, former faculty, parents, and school leaders gathered to celebrate her life through song, dance, and testimonials from those who knew her best. GDS alumnus Jay Coleman ’90 painted her portrait for the occasion. Artist and GDS alumnus Jay Coleman ’90 with Head of School Russell Shaw

WEIKERKEN ALTEMA

Gladys’s son, GDS alumnus Michael Stern

A reunion for former athletic director Kathy Hudson (left) and former CFO Kate Lindsey-Kerr with current director of facilities and maintenance Kenny Miluk

Alumni parent (and grandparent) speaker Judy Lichtman with daughter, Julia Kepniss ’93, and husband Elliott Lichtman

Get your GREEN and WHITE on, Hoppers! As you can clearly see from the photos, Lower School students had zero fun and no spirit whatsoever. So it goes. Let’s try again next year.

CORY ROYSTER

É JASON PUTSCH

CROSS-DIVISIONAL BUDDY PROGRAM

One of the greatest joys of campus unification is watching our older and younger buddies grow close over the course of the year. Students met weekly and gathered for end-of-session celebrations. The GDS cross-divisional buddy program has got a winning recipe with its mix of mentorship, careful planning, and heaps of fun.

SENIOR WALK

Every student and staff member turned out to cheer on the seniors as they crisscrossed campus on their last day of school in April. The Senior Walk coincided with Community Day, when seniors traditionally wear shirts from their chosen colleges.

Shortly after setting out from the High School, seniors reached the Pre-K and Kindergarten cheering section! They looped around the second floor of the Lower/Middle School building, where 1st and 2nd graders held signs with phrases like, “Stay cla22y!”

High School students lined the hallways and corridors as seniors snaked through that building before exiting onto the HS field, where teachers and staff blasted them with bubbles. Next, they walked the LMS driveway gauntlet to wild applause from the 3rd and 4th grades.

Seniors were met on the LMS field by Middle School students waving pom-poms, not to mention some hugs from their former teachers. In recognition of Earth Day, GDS’s Eco-Market Day was planned, staffed, and executed by students from the Student Action Committee (SAC). The day’s offerings aligned with areas of interest to the SAC, including: voter registration and affordable housing booths (civic engagement); a clothing swap and an innovation station (sustainability); a sweet treats booth (food donations); booths for face painting, murals, making pencil holders, and tie-dyeing onesies for donation (art advocacy); and stations for making wildflower seed bombs as well as learning about composting and local food production (environmental action). GDS a capella group Five O’Clock Shadow performed three tunes.

ECO-MARKET DAY