LAKESIDE FALL | WINTER 2013
Gender Matters How it plays out on campus, in alumni lives
INSIDE » Girls science posse | Legacy of Title IX | When Lakeside went coed
MADE YOU LOOK
2013-2014
BOARD OF TRUSTEES Peter M. Polson ’91
Chair
Theiline (“Ty”) Wyckoff Cramer ’78
Vice Chair
Connie Ballmer
Immediate Past Chair
Stephen V. Sundborg, S.J.
Secretary
Mark Klebanoff ’80
Treasurer
Christopher H. Ackerley ’87 Rodney A. Bench Kelli Curtis
Parents Association President
Robert M. Helsell ’55 Lynn Hogan
Dapper in 3-D: Students in Lakeside’s 3-D printing class last spring “printed” a plastic bow tie for Bernie Noe in a nod to the head of school’s penchant for that sartorial touch. Computer science teacher Lauren Bricker built Lakeside’s first 3-D printer several years ago with help from two students; Lakeside now has eight. (Her
lindsay orlowski
students named the six printers in her classroom Bilbo, Samwise, Meriadoc, Peregrin, Gandalf, and Frodo.) After teaching 3-D printing as an independent study for two years, Bricker conceived the formal class in 2012; engineer Matthew Rogge ’93 helped brainstorm and lent resources. This year 13 students are enrolled.
Natasha Smith Jones ’89 Henry L. (“Skip”) Kotkins Jr. ’66 Michael Larson Connie Mao, M.D. Artemios (“Tim”) S. Panos ’85
Alumni Association President
Carey Crutcher Smith ’77 Charles Stevens
Letter to the Editor
Creativity, Wonder, and Why Re the articles on creativity in the spring/summer 2013 issue: As a former trial lawyer (criminal defense and plaintiff ’s personal injury) and an adjunct professor of law at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, I appreciate the vital need for creativity – yes, even in the practice of law. As a law school student, I enjoyed the professors “pushing” a factual situation by successively adding or changing the facts of a hypothetical case, and the students trying to determine how a court (and more importantly why) would decide the changing case As one of the articles states, “Risk aversion is so huge in highachieving schools like ours.” By the
ON THE COVER:
Taylor Harris ’14 prepares a subject for an experiment related to the brain’s role in controlling movement. – Photo by Tom Reese
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way, it is also huge in other schools. The Greek philosopher Epictetus’s solution: “Be content to be thought foolish and stupid.” Which, of course, demonstrates that you are neither. For me, creativity begins with wonder, both the feeling of wonder and the activity of wondering – about all aspects of the world. In “On the Nature of Things,” the Roman philosopher Lucretius wondered why noise could be heard through a solid door (or was it a wall?) or why a cloud in a pool of water appears as far away as one in the sky. I recommend the Alicia Stallings translation (Penguin Classics, 2007) – best read out loud in a pleasant garden (with a small
Lakeside magazine is published twice yearly by the communications office of Lakeside School. Find past issues at www.lakesideschool.org/ magazine. All contents ©2013 Lakeside School.
Edward Taylor Bertrand Valdman
pool) unburdened by technology while imagining Lucretius wondering while sitting in the same kind of place. Okay, I read it on my Kindle but you get the idea. By the third page of my reading the Creative Endeavors section of Lakeside magazine, I began to wonder when the word “why” would show up; it does, but not until the ninth page (p. 28). The most important questions begin with “why” (or “how”). I don’t recall if “wonder” was ever mentioned. Good luck with the (creativity) project. I am very happy to see that you have undertaken it. ■ Brian Phillips ’69, in Sattahip, Thailand
yugobrian@hotmail.com.
WE LOVE LETTERS!
Lakeside magazine welcomes letters. Email us at magazine@ lakesideschool.org, and please include your class year or Lakeside affiliation.
David W. Wiley ’71
LAKESIDE MAGAZINE EDITOR:
Carey Quan Gelernter
WRITERS: Carey Quan
Gelernter, Maureen O’Hagan, Eliza Ridgeway ’01, Leslie Schuyler, Amanda Darling, Mike Lengel
ALUMNI RELATIONS NEWS: Kelly Poort,
Carol Borgmann
ART DIRECTOR:
Carol Nakagawa
CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS:
Tom Reese, Lindsay Orlowski COPY EDITOR:
Valerie Campbell GRAPHICS:
Lindsay Orlowski
Changing the gender equation
As we began planning this issue of Lakeside magazine with a working title of “Gender Matters,” a longtime Lakesider recalled that that had been the name and theme of the second-ever Student Sponsored Day, in 2005. Gender remains an often constricting force in 2013. And yet – as you’ll read in this issue – Lakeside students and alumni are using their knowledge, power, and confidence to change that. Our striking cover photo is of Taylor Harris ’14, performing an experiment as a summer intern in a University of Washington neurosurgical lab. While researching internships last spring, Harris realized that females are woefully underrepresented in science and related fields. Within days she enlisted 20 Lakeside girls and two teacher advisors to form a mutual support club: Women in STEM. Find out what happened next on Page 22. More highlights: • Lakeside Upper School students grapple with the way gender affects their generation. Hear why some do and others don’t relate to the word “feminist” and how some see the world as essentially post-feminist. Don’t assume you know the gender of those who take either stance. Page 16. • We look at the difference Title IX made at Lakeside in “Girls Sports Then & Now” (Page 26). Don’t miss the inspiring profile of Sandy Schneider, whose accomplishments as player and coach are testament to the transformational role of the landmark 1972 legislation. Page 28. • Archivist Leslie Schuyler explores what the merger of St. Nicholas and Lakeside meant to the first awkward coed class at Lakeside in fall 1971. Delving into records and interviewing alumni, she cleared up years of rumors to tell the tale of “the tombstone.” Page 41. • Meet a host of fascinating alumni, including: two alumnae who met on a project to redefine the iconic female; one who fought to balance an all-consuming job with parenting her young daughter; and several who are exploring complex matters of nurture and nature, from how toys affect children’s gender identity to differences in how males and females compete. Page 32. As always, we welcome your comments and ideas. ■
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TABLE OF CONTENTS FEATURES
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Cover story ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■
Gender Studies 16 Women in STEM 22 Girls Sports Then and Now 26 Sandy Schneider profile 28 Alumni profiles 32 From the Archives: Going Coed
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DEPARTMENTS Inside Lakeside
36
Head of school’s letter 4 Board chair’s letter 5 Campus news 6 Admissions 9 College choices 10 Commencement 11 Sports highlights 12 Global community theme LinkedIn for alumni 15
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Alumni News
16
New Alumni Board 44 Reunions 46 Alumni of Color Reception Class Connections 50 In Memoriam 58 Personal Story 61 Alumni sports 62
Carey Quan Gelernter
Editor, Lakeside magazine carey.gelernter@lakesideschool.org 206-440-2706; 14050 1st Avenue NE, Seattle, WA 98125
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Planned Giving 49 Calendar 63 Contents
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HEAD NOTE
by BERNIE NOE
Empowering girls M
y two daughters were “lifers” at Lakeside. They entered the school as children, at 10 years of age, and graduated as young women eight years later, so I had the opportunity to watch them grow up at the school and to observe at a personal level the experience of girls at Lakeside. Judging from my daughters’ experiences and those of the many young women I meet with each year at school, life at Lakeside for girls, while not perfect, is very good. Young women feel that they are treated respectfully by everyone and are perceived as equals by their peers. Our young women are taught and coached by men and women who are committed to gender equity and who do all in their power to view their disciplines from a gender-neutral perspective. Consciousness is high and teachers and coaches try very hard to make certain that all voices are heard and empowered in their classrooms, on the athletic fields, and in the arts. Though nationally young women have been and still are underrepresented in STEM subjects, in Lakeside’s science classrooms girls are supported and encouraged by dynamic teachers, and they push themselves to the highest levels in our most rigorous courses. In the words of Caryn Abrey, Upper School science department head, “They are taught to think like scientists and graduate from the school well-versed in scientific content.” While fluctuating somewhat from year to year, the gender balance in science classes, as well as math classes, is essentially balanced. We have taken strides to foster girls’ interest in STEM subjects by paying
attention to participation rates; encouraging their confidence and abilities in these courses from an early age; and, as with the Middle School computer curriculum, making changes to promote girls’ attraction to and achievement in science, technology, engineering, and math. All students at Lakeside also have the opportunity to take an upper-level elective titled Gender Studies. In this course, they examine the role of gender in the larger society, the many ways in which gender roles play out in a number of different settings, and
their own views on a host of issues relating to gender roles. As a result of Title IX, women’s sports have come a long way in the past 40 years. Most schools, Lakeside included, now provide the same wide range of sports offerings to young women as was once offered only to young men. As a result, girls’ teams at Lakeside have had great success over the past two decades, winning a total of 11 Metro League championships and 10 state championships. Finally, young women hold a significant number of leadership positions in the school in student government, in clubs, and on teams. In the words of Upper School Assistant Director Bryan Smith, who oversees student leadership, “Our female students have been seeking out and obtaining high-level positions over the past several years. Currently, we have two young women serving as the chair of the Judicial Committee and as Student Government president, and 14 of 20 members of the Lakeside Leadership Institute are young women.” Of course, we still have much work to do at Lakeside regarding gender roles at the school, and we are working hard to make certain that we are providing all of our students with a world-class education that will prepare them to thrive in all settings. We have made good progress and will continue to do everything we can to be a good school for all of our students. I hope to see many of you on campus this year. Please let me know when you are coming and we will arrange to have coffee together. ■
BERNIE NOE TOM REESE
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Head of School
FROM THE BOARD CHAIR
How new initiatives are launched T
homas Edison once said: “There’s a way to do it better – find it.” This mandate to find and embrace change does not only apply to light bulbs. The educational world is evolving quickly, and Lakeside is committed to staying ahead of this progression. One of the ways Lakeside promotes change is through the carefully placed bets it makes on new programs. Choosing the right ones is challenging, and the Board plays an active oversight role. Two exciting initiatives underway tell the story of how new programs at Lakeside come to be. The first is Global Online Academy (GOA), proposed by Head of School Bernie Noe and the administrative team in 2010 as a proactive effort to engage in the rapidly expanding world of online education. Trustees embraced GOA with the understanding that online education would offer opportunities to improve how we teach. GOA was structured to take into account Lakeside’s constraints as well as a vision for how it could best succeed. We didn’t have resources to create GOA on our own and didn’t want to raise tuition to fund it. Also, Bernie believed it would be more successful as a partnership with other schools. So Lakeside recruited nine leading schools, each contributing $30,000 per year, and GOA launched in 2011 as an independent nonprofit consortium. In three short years, GOA has grown to include 36 partner schools in five countries. This year 537 students are taking its classes, including 35 from Lakeside, studying everything from Arabic to Comparative Governments. Online education is still in its infancy, but ideas and best practices from GOA have already started to inform the rest of our curriculum and even our teaching methodologies. In one example, the Upper School chemistry program has experimented with “flipping” the classroom, offering lectures for students to watch at home and using classroom time to work on extended lab projects and practice problems.
TOM REESE
Of the proposals brought to the Board in 2010, one more was also approved: Lakeside Peru Semester. At the time this was proposed, our summer Global Service Learning (GSL) trips had been running successfully for five years. The Board believed that a semester program abroad would strengthen our commitment to global service learning by innovating ways to teach students about global issues – ultimately supporting the Lakeside mission of global citizenship. We wanted to move carefully, however, so as not to distract from several other critical projects underway. We began by hiring Charlotte Blessing as the new director of global education and then started site research to confirm the right location. Lakeside recently recruited more than a dozen partner schools that will send students, and these schools will also provide funds to offset some of Lakeside’s startup expenses. We plan to welcome the first students in Peru next fall. GOA and Lakeside Peru Semester are great examples of programs the Board has endorsed, but other proposals never get that far. There are three fundamental screening criteria trustees consider before approving a proposal. First, does it fit with our mission? We’ve reviewed several compelling proposals, some with generous funding attached, that were exciting … but
were not a good fit. While it’s hard to turn down money, our strength as an institution comes from having a coherent mission. We can’t, and don’t, take on projects unless they deeply connect with that mission. Second, how will we pay for it? The Board watches tuition closely. We know that today’s tuition is already a stretch for many of our families. Capital projects (like The Paul G. Allen Athletics Center) and big new initiatives (like GOA and Peru) need to have their own funding so they don’t impact tuition. Finally, how will a new program affect pace? The Board regularly evaluates the workload of the administration, faculty, and staff. Bernie and the whole school are naturally ambitious. Knowing this, the Board sometimes applies the brakes, delaying or turning down proposals to optimize for a marathon pace that is swift but also sustainable. Given the significant initiatives underway, the school will not be starting any new projects this year. Much of the Board’s attention is currently directed inward, reviewing our curriculum and evaluating progress from recent strategic reviews of diversity and athletics. Change has always been a part of Lakeside. The school is remarkably different today from what it was at its beginnings more than 90 years ago on the shores of Lake Washington. By continuing to focus on academic excellence while being thoughtfully innovative with new programs and initiatives, the school hopes to be even more effective over the next 90 years at building citizens ready to contribute wisdom, compassion, and leadership to a global society. ■
Peter Polson ’91
Chair, Board of Trustees Head Note, Board Chair
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INSIDE LAKESIDE
Campus news
Courtesy of Elizabeth Scribner ’77
Women at a New Year’s celebration of the indigenous Lahu people. Lakeside’s newest Global Service Learning site is a small Lahu village in Thailand’s Chiang Rai province.
Newest GSL site: Thailand
Lakeside will add an eighth Global Service Learning site – northern Thailand – in summer 2014. Students will stay in Doi Mod, a Lahu village of 30 families, in Chiang Rai province. “The Lahu, like a number of other indigenous people, are transitioning from a semi-nomadic existence to an agricultural livelihood because of government restriction and, of course, these transitions are full of challenges,” said Charlotte Blessing, director of global education. Upper School students will work on community projects developing organic coffee farming and building bathing facilities in the village as well as tutoring local children. Alumna Elizabeth Scribner ’77, who lives in nearby Chiang Mai and has been working with the Lahu people for the past five years, is spearheading the project, along with her partners, two brothers from Doi Mod. GSL has hoped for some time 6
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to find a South Asian site, Blessing said. GSL needed an additional site to accommodate the large number of Lakeside students eager for a GSL experience. She sought a locale that would augment Upper School curriculum; the history teachers felt having Thailand in the mix would support regionalhistory studies. Already there are GSL sites in Latin America, Africa, India, and China. The experience will also support curriculum studies about Buddhism, which is strong in the region. The hope is that students will spend time on a Buddhist meditation retreat, Blessing said. Scribner took an unexpected route to Thailand. During a year stint as an assistant basketball coach at Pacific University in Oregon, her team made a summer trip to play the Chiang Mai University team and offer clinics to hill-tribe kids. On the way back to the States, as the team prepared to board the plane, she announced that she wasn’t going home. “Thailand had seduced me –the people, the food, the freedom to give up
control; I just wasn’t ready to leave. I ended up moving here for a year – and that was 10 years ago.”
Top schools join Peru Semester
As of press time, 12 independent schools, including some of the strongest in the country, have joined Lakeside to launch Lakeside Peru Semester in fall 2014. The program, based in a small, scenic town in the Andes, focuses on rigorous academics and service learning. Participating schools include: Belmont Hill School, The Blake School, Buckingham Browne & Nichols School, The Chapin School, The Dalton School, Friends Seminary, Latin School of Chicago, The Madeira School, Pingry School, Punahou School, University School of Nashville, and The Windsor School. At least several more schools are likely to join this year, and eventually the program will grow to include 30. Students can attend in either fall or spring of their junior year, with each school allowed to send up to two students per
semester. The curriculum will include immersion Spanish at all levels; Latin American studies; math courses; environmental science with a lot of field work; and a global-engagement course, during which students will reflect on how what they’re learning in their Peru classrooms and service projects “relates to them as individuals, both as global citizens and residents of a community back home,” said Charlotte Blessing, Lakeside’s director of global education. Applications went out in November to students. To be eligible, students must have at least a year of Spanish language, have some track record of service, and be resilient and responsible. They must be interested in a rural immersion experience, since the program is in the mountain town of Ollantaytambo, pop. 4,000, about 40 miles from the city of Cusco. Tuition will be about $21,000 per semester, with each school responsible for meeting the financial-aid needs of their students. More info: www.lakesideperusemester.org.
Taking a deep dive into what students should learn
What are we teaching, how are we teaching it, and why? What changes might be in order so the school continues to offer students a “relevant, future-focused” education that will equip them for a globally connected world making itself over at a head-spinning pace? Those are the questions at the heart of a top-to-bottom review of the curriculum that began last school year and continues through this fall.
Faculty news
Applause please … Groundwork began last spring with departments agreeing on “habits of mind” that teachers seek to instill in students. Some habits were anticipated to overlap between disciplines (e.g., curiosity; independence) while others would be unique (“inspiration and confidence to study more science”). Leaders were named to head eight “idea groups,” with each group focusing on a leading-edge educational tool or approach, for example: online/blended education; global education; and project-based learning. The leaders researched and assigned summer reading to the 178 people tapped to participate in a two-day launch of the review in late August. Included were all Lakeside teachers and administrators and representatives from alumni, parents and guardians, students, trustees, and staff. Head of School Bernie Noe began the session with a historical review of Lakeside’s curriculum, leading up to today’s “aims of a Lakeside education,” a foundation statement he wrote that covers academic excellence, diversity and inclusion, global citizenship, and an ethical foundation. Middle School Director Elaine Christensen, who organized the launch in her role as head of professional development, told participants these aims should be considered their “north star.” The 178 were charged with thinking deeply about who Lakeside students are today; what kinds of knowledge, skills, attitudes, and attributes they will need for the future; and what would be “the most relevant, future-focused, engaging education possible?” They mixed it up in various configurations of departments, disciplines, Upper School and Middle School levels, and idea groups over the two days. In the final session, each department was charged with brainstorming “bold and doable” ideas, which they will refine during the rest of the fall. The ideas are scheduled to
be unveiled to the Lakeside community Dec. 3, with trustees considering approval of a final plan in January. A group of school leaders will then take that plan and place tasks on a five-year timeline. The changes are to begin in fall 2014.
New partnership with Grinnell College
Global Online Academy has added its first class taught by a college professor. The course, Advanced Statistics and Data Science, will be offered as part of a new partnership with Grinnell College, the highly selective liberal-arts school in Iowa. Grinnell becomes the online academy’s first affiliate member — a new category created for colleges. Initiated by Lakeside and founded in 2011 with 10 schools, the online academy today has 36 independent-school members. Could more colleges join in the future? “I can’t speak to other colleges yet,” says Michael Nachbar, the academy’s director, “but we will continue to look for courses that fit GOA’s mission and would be of value at GOA.” The new affiliation with Grinnell is among several developments that highlight the growth of the online academy, which this school year will enroll more than 500 students from five countries and 21 states, including 35 students from Lakeside. More than 25 courses are being offered over the fall and spring. Nachbar says Grinnell approached the academy after its president heard about GOA during visits to Lakeside and another academy school, Hawaii’s Punahou. In announcing “this innovative new partnership,” Grinnell College President Raynard Kington said, “Global Online Academy offers online courses that are consistent with what we emphasize and value here at Grinnell: small classes, close attention ➢
ROB BURGESS, theater director and maintenance foreman, is playing multiple roles in Seattle Repertory Theatre’s world-premiere adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” which runs from Nov. 15 through Dec. 15.
SHEILA DANIELS, Upper School drama teacher, directed Aristophanes’ “Lysistrata” as part of this summer’s Intiman Theatre Festival, reimagining the classic anti-war comedy in the setting of a fictional U.S. military base in Afghanistan where a platoon of soldiers are performing the play for their company. BARRY WONG, Upper School photography teacher,
Sheila Daniels directed Intiman’s “Lysistrata.” had work from his “Asian Still Life Series” featured in “Observations from the New Gold Mountain,” an exhibition this fall at the Kirkland Arts Center Gallery. The multimedia show highlighted “how art, culture, and personal experience are viewed through the eyes of contemporary Chinese and American artists.” ARI WORTHMAN, director of college counseling, was elected to the Board of Trustees of the Association of College Counselors at Independent Schools. The association supports 1,000 independentschool college counselors across the country. ■
Barry Wong’s “Shiso Leaves” is featured in an exhibition at Kirkland Arts Center Gallery. Inside Lakeside
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➢ INSIDE Lakeside
from talented faculty members, and small-group discussions. This new partnership will give Grinnell exposure to the world of online education in an environment that allows our faculty to interact with very talented high-school students. A lot of schools are talking about MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) - but this is the approach that seems right for Grinnell.” The statistics and data course was chosen as the first because “it’s not offered by any of our schools and is a course we think is relevant and applicable to students in our schools,” Nachbar says. “It’s got real-life applications and goes into an area that a lot of people think all high-school graduates should learn about.” The equivalent of a 200-level course in college – “beyond AP statistics” – it also was the course the Grinnell professor of mathematics and statistics wanted to teach. More Grinnell courses probably will be offered later. Nachbar emphasizes that this will be an academy course, not a Grinnell course, with the academy helping the teacher design the course and supporting her while she teaches it. Though a few Grinnell students could take it, most students will be independent-school students, who can potentially get dual high-school and college credit. Nachbar says the academy is committed to GOA enrolling mostly high-school, not college, students.
Remembering Max Henningsgaard ’14 The Lakeside community came together in August to honor the life of Max Henningsgaard, a member of the Class of 2014. Max and his father, Bill Henningsgaard, were killed Aug. 9 in an airplane crash in Connecticut that also took the lives of two children on the ground. Lakeside students and faculty spoke about Max at a memorial service in St. Nicholas Hall. The senior class will be remembering him at important moments throughout the year. ■
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Update: LEEP by AMANDA DARLING
Summer program revamps to enhance learning, provide support throughout high school
O
n the cusp of its 50th birthday, Lakeside Educational Enrichment Program is making some significant changes to help it meet the needs of students today. Adjustments to the six-week summer program include smaller classes and the addition of a service-learning component. These will be combined with year-round skill-building exercises and academic support and a collaboration with Seattle Public Schools to measure students’ progress. The goal, says LEEP Director Latasia Lanier ’90, is to re-energize the program by offering a more effective learning environment during the summer and individualized support that extends through the students’ time in high school. Changes began last winter, with a refining of outreach efforts. Staff spread the word about LEEP at community centers and churches, in addition to making customary rounds to Seattle public middle schools. Required interviews on campus were introduced. These give LEEP staff another way to gauge the promise of applicants, while allowing the students and their families to get a better sense of both the commitment required to participate and the benefits offered by LEEP. Several modifications to the summer program itself resulted in tangible improvements. A major one was reducing the number of students from 90 to 64. LEEP 2013 students benefited from having smaller classes, particularly in math. “A smaller class size allotted more time for individualized questions which are crucial to solidifying an understanding of fundamental math concepts,” says teacher Will Katz. The camping trip was replaced with a weeklong service-learning experience. Students worked on projects with one of three local environmental organizations: Seattle Tilth, Friends of the Cedar River Watershed, and Solid Ground’s Lettuce Link. The projects – which
included working at an urban farm, surveying wetlands, and water-testing – emphasized teamwork; taking physical, emotional, and social risks; and practicing problem-solving. An upcoming change is the addition of a bolstered school-year component. A 2012 evaluation of LEEP conducted by Evaluation & Research Associates confirmed students’ desire for staying connected after their LEEP summers. Starting with LEEP’s Class of 2014, students will receive support throughout their four years of high school. The year-round program will provide math- and writing-skill development, individual tutoring, experiential learning opportunities, and college and career counseling to supplement what their own schools can provide. Students also expressed appreciation for LEEP as a network – an aspect of the program that Lanier hopes to grow by fostering connections between students and LEEP and Lakeside alumni. The 50th birthday celebration will be an opportunity to make connections, and LEEP also would love to recruit alumni to tutor students or offer internships. Lakeside’s ties to the Seattle public-school system are being strengthened in two important ways. Seattle Public Schools will share results from testing they are conducting to measure students’ progress and the impact that LEEP has on participants. And a new LEEP advisory council, made up of teachers and administrators within Seattle Public Schools, will help Lanier and LEEP Associate Doug Moon make personal connections at schools around the city. ■ Amanda Darling is communications director of Lakeside School. Reach her at amanda.darling@lakesideschool.org or 206-440-2787.
50th birthday bash • In May, LEEP will celebrate its 50th birthday and plans are in progress for a community celebration that will bring former and current LEEP students, counselors, and teachers back together on Lakeside campus. Since 1965, more than 3,650 students have experienced LEEP.
Seeking alumni volunteers • Interested in tutoring a LEEP graduate or offering one an internship? Contact LEEP Associate Doug Moon at doug.moon@ lakesideschool.org.
HERE’S WHO GOT INTO LAKESIDE New students who joined Lakeside this fall are part of a larger-than-typical group, thanks to an unusual bump-up in the number of spots available. At the same time, the number of applicants increased by 6 percent over 2012. Here are more details about the admissions picture:
RACIAL/ETHNIC DIVERSITY: This is considered as one among many factors in admission. Despite misconceptions he hears, Kyle said no racial or ethnic group has a statistical advantage in admission. “White students and students of color apply at the same rate and are admitted at the same rate.” The makeup of this year’s new students reflects the Lakeside applicant pool. 49% EUROPEANAMERICAN
21% ASIAN-AMERICAN
HIGHLY SELECTIVE: Lakeside continues to be tough to get into. This year the overall admit rate was 18 percent – slightly higher than last year’s 16 percent. The number of students enrolled this year increased to 169 – versus 139 students in 2012 – due to two factors. The Class of 2013 was the largest class to date, and when they graduated, that opened up more places than usual for new students, said Booth Kyle, assistant head of school and director of admissions and financial aid. And the Board of Trustees decided last year to increase the size of the school by 30 students over the next three years, beginning this fall.
188 OFFERED 1022
ADMISSION (18%)
90%
STUDENTS APPLIED
Overall student body is at 50-50.
ENROLLED
49% 51% FEMALE
169 NEW STUDENTS
MALE
WHAT IS LAKESIDE LOOKING FOR?: Despite myths to the contrary, Kyle said, the first requirement remains strong academic performance and potential. That’s the starting point, but it’s not enough as there are many more academically talented students than the school has space for. Lakeside additionally seeks students who come from a variety of backgrounds, hometowns, and school systems, and who have many different interests and talents in music, athletics, chess, writing, service, and more. This mix contributes to the life of the school, Kyle said.
1% OTHER 1% LATINO/HISPANIC AMERICAN 1% MIDDLE EASTERNAMERICAN 1% NATIVE AMERICAN 7% AFRICAN-AMERICAN 19% MULTI-RACIAL
STUDENTS FROM PUBLIC SCHOOLS: At 49 percent, the percentage of new students coming to Lakeside from public schools is up from last year’s 43 percent. This is a reflection of the fact that more applicants from public schools are applying these days, Kyle said. “It’s great that such a diversity of families from so many different places recognizes Lakeside as a potential destination for their kids.” While some independent schools draw nearly exclusively from independent “feeder” schools, he said, “We’ve broken down the wall; we had applicants this year from more than 270 schools,” and newly enrolled students came from more than 90 schools.
CONNECTED STUDENTS: The admit rate for connected students this year was 34 percent; for students not from connected families, the rate was 15 percent. Connected denotes those who have siblings already at Lakeside, or are children or grandchildren of alumni, trustees, faculty, or staff. The percentage from connected families was lower than last year’s 38 percent. Kyle explained that the reason stems from a general policy to keep the connected makeup of the overall student body to 40-45 percent of all enrolled students. Because the number of connected students increases every time a younger sibling of a current student enrolls, keeping within the desired target is a balancing act every year for the admissions office. The target is designed to “allow us to enroll more connected students, on a percentage basis, than unconnected students, because we value our community,” Kyle said, “but also to keep the doors open to as many people who are not connected as possible.” Lakeside does not follow the practice, common at many independent schools, of considering connected and not-connected students in separate pools of applicants, he said. So how to account for the higher percentage of admitted students who are connected? Kyle said it’s because Lakeside admissions committee members consider connectedness as a plus for an applicant – an attribute that adds to community life, just as artistic or athletic talent might. FINANCIAL AID: 31 percent of new students will receive aid, the same as last year, which brings the overall rate for the student body up a percentage point, to 30 percent.
2% 11% CATHOLIC OTHER
49%
38%
INDEPENDENT
PUBLIC
OUR NEW STUDENTS COME FROM TOTAL SCHOOLS
93
Inside Lakeside
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INSIDE LAKESIDE
The majority of colleges, for yet another consecutive year, reported record numbers of applications. That continues to shape our students’ decisions. Members of the Class of 2013 have spread across the globe to pursue their academic interests and personal goals, which for some include a gap-year experience. Our recent graduates continue to enroll in some of the nation’s most selective schools, as well as in a greater number and variety of schools than past years. The growing competition for admission has prompted some to explore a wider range of opportunities, and the rising cost of tuition in these unstable economic times has caused students to carefully weigh each school’s opportunities against tuition costs.
Students’ colleges
On Twitter: @CCLakeside for instant updates on college
Gap-year locales
admissions trends.
Lindsay Orlowski
College Choices, Class of 2013 Amherst College Arizona State University Bowdoin College (2) Brandeis University Brown University (8) California Institute of Technology (2) Carleton College Carnegie Mellon University (2) Claremont McKenna College (2) Colby College Colorado College Columbia University (3) Cornell University (2) Dartmouth College (2) Duke University (2) Emory University (4) Georgetown University (4) Hamilton College Harvard College (2) 10
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Hofstra University Hollins University Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Johns Hopkins University (2) Kalamazoo College Kenyon College Lewis & Clark College Loyola University Chicago Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2) New York University (3) Northwestern University (2) Oberlin College Occidental College (5) Pitzer College Pomona College (4) Princeton University Rhode Island School of Design (2) Santa Clara University (4) Scripps College (5) Seattle University Stanford University (4) The George Washington University (2)
Trinity College Dublin Tufts University (2) University of Chicago University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign University of Michigan University of Notre Dame (2) University of Pennsylvania University of Redlands University of Rochester (2) University of Southern California (4) University of Virginia University of Washington (10) Vanderbilt University Vassar College (2) Villanova University (2) Washington State University Washington University in St. Louis (3) Wellesley College Western Washington University Whitman College (8) Whittier College Williams College Yale University (5)
CLASS OF 2013: BY THE NUMBERS In the top 5% of students in state, according to National Merit Scholarship Corporation: 63% Rank among classes in state for National Merit Scholars: 1 Metro League individual and team championships: 25 National top-10 finishes by the Lakeside Chess Team, led by members of this class: 4 First, second, or thirdplace ribbons by seniors who helped Lakeside win its third consecutive state title in the Washington State High School Photo Contest: 4
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Lindsay Orlowski
Members of the Class of 2013 cheer as the commencement ceremony concludes. They heard their class lauded as accomplished, altruistic, and “amazing for its focus on inclusion.”
A class that stands out
akeside celebrated the graduation of the Class of 2013 at the 87th commencement exercises June 13. Noting that the 142-member class was the largest ever in Lakeside history, Upper School Director Than Healy said,“This class is large – and larger than life.” Healy carried out his tradition to select a single adjective to describe the graduating class – for the last time. (This fall he began a new job as head of Menlo School in the Bay Area.) His word for the Class of 2013 was … stand-out. Healy justified that word choice by citing a long and eclectic list of accomplishments for class members – academic, athletic, artistic, altruistic, humorous. To name just a few: “Members of this class make their own honey – bees and all; blogged for The New York Times; were finalists on “Jeopardy”; have lived in Kenya, China, France, and Rwanda during their high-school years; and, perhaps most impressively, have appeared in a Macklemore video. There is a bagpiper, a tap dancer, a cricket player, a fire skater, and at least two composers.” He listed athletic glories from golf to volleyball to basketball to swimming to lacrosse, competitions in fields from computer science to Knowledge Bowl. Healy spoke of their many acts of caring, from providing bottles for babies with cleft palates to working with military veterans in a hospital. He called the class “amazing for its
focus on inclusion,” noting student leadership on a Student Sponsored Day on identity and diversity. Ben August Johnson ’13, outgoing president of the Upper School Student Government, opened the ceremony by thanking parents, guardians, and teachers and noting “how many times I left a class saying ‘that class was amazing and my teacher is amazing’ … the love of teaching is what makes this school what it is.” Emily Lydia Rudder ’13 and Ellis Magotswe Simani ’13, chosen by their class to speak, traced the class’s history together by recalling dance styles they’ve tried, from the Harlem Shake to Gagnam Style, and how they progressed in both dancing ability and confidence over the years. Peter Polson ’91, chair of the Board of Trustees, bestowed the Distinguished Service Award on Dale and Judy Bauer. Addressing the crowd, which gave them two rousing ovations, the Bauers evoked the world of Lakeside in 1963, when they first arrived, and spoke of their many roles at Lakeside over 50 years and how they’ve adapted to and embraced the changes they’ve lived through. In his valediction, Head of School Bernie Noe gave the students three pieces of what he called “non-academic advice” to guide them: He urged them to choose friends and communities that “hold you to a high standard
☛View more: Go to www.lakesideschool. org/magazine to see Than Healy’s entire speech, a photo gallery of the commencement ceremony, and the Distinguished Service Award citation in the spring 2012 magazine article about Dale and Judy Bauer.
and … a life lived for others.” He suggested they “learn from everyone. Some of the wisest people didn’t go to college or even high school.” Noe told of a frank-speaking foreman at an aluminum-chair factory where he worked for a year who became his invaluable mentor. “True sophistication is not being able to pick the right bottle of wine or being able to comment about a work of art,” Noe said, but rather “appreciating and being receptive to working with people from all walks of life.” And finally, he advised them neither to be “overly impressed with your own accomplishments” nor to compare themselves with others. You don’t know what others have overcome in life, he said, and at the same time, someone else’s successes may have been earned at little cost to the person. As the new graduates couple their excellent educations with a humble spirit, Noe said, “I look forward to all the good you will accomplish in this world.” ■ College, Commencement
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SPORTS ROUNDUP
by Mike Lengel and Chris Hein
Girls lacrosse takes state; tennis and boys soccer win Metro League SOFTBALL Overall Record: 4-14
Metro League honors
All-Mountain: Danielle D. ’16, Hannah S. ’16 Honorable mention: Emma E. ’16
GIRLS LACROSSE Overall Record: 15-1
WSLA North Sound conference champions WSLA state champions WSLA honors
Clayton Christy
Gaby J. ’14 hoists the Lions’ second straight Metro League soccer championship trophy after helping Lakeside topple Bainbridge 1-0 at Interbay Stadium.
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irls lacrosse finished with a near-perfect 15-1 record, its sole defeat coming from Lake Sammamish – who fell to the Lions in the state championship. After facing an early deficit, the Lions rallied to score eight second-half goals to win the 12th state title for girls lacrosse in school history. The victory was also the sixth state championship for head coach Jamie Asaka ’96. Elsewhere in Lakeside athletics, the boys soccer team snagged the Metro League championship, and the tennis team captured its second Metro League team championship in a row. A member of the golf team won the Sea-King District 2 championship, and girls crew rowed its way to a second-place finish at the USRowing Junior Regional Championships. Those were just a few of the highlights from the spring season. Check out the full recap below:
SPRING SPORTS HIGHLIGHTS BASEBALL Overall Record: 7-13
Metro League Honors All-League 1st Team: Adam H. ’14
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Andrew S. ’14 All-League 2nd Team: David B. ’14 Honorable Mention: Om C. ’14, Ryan S. ’16
All-Conference (North Sound Division): Kaylee Best ’13, Jo Canino ’13, Natalie Fox ’13, Avalon Igawa ’13, Rebecca Long ’13, Sammy McGanney ’13, Amerra S. ’14 All-State 1st Team: Natalie Fox ’13, Avalon Igawa ’13, Rebecca Long ’13 All-State 2nd Team: Kaylee Best ’13, Jo Canino ’13, Amanda R. ’15, Amerra S. ’14 US Lacrosse Academic AllAmerican: Sammy McGanney ’13 US Lacrosse All-American: Natalie Fox ’13, Avalon Igawa ’13
BOYS LACROSSE Overall Record: 8-8
WHSBLA honors
All-State 3rd Team: Connor Haney ’13 Honorable mention: Peter Scott ’13 US Lacrosse Academic AllAmerican: Peter Scott ’13
BOYS SOCCER Overall Record: 14-4
Metro League champions WIAA 3A state qualifiers Metro League honors
1st Team: Charlie Devine ’13, Thayer Fisher ’13, Seyi A. ’14, Wallis L. ’15, Wyatt P. ’15 2nd Team: Gaby J. ’14
Honorable mention: Trevor P. ’14, Sharif K. ’16
TRACK & FIELD Metro League Championship Meet
Peyton J. ’14 2nd Place – 400 meters (58.61) 3rd Place – 200 meters (26.27) Rebecca D.-G. ’14 1st Place – 3200 meters (11:12.05) 2nd Place – 1600 meters (5:21.29) Andrea Masterson ’15 2nd Place – 3200 meters (11:13.49) Vaiva Palunas ’13 2nd Place – shot put 4kg (3201.50) 3rd Place – pole vault (10-00.00) AJ Adekoya ’13 1st Place – triple jump (42-09.50) 3rd Place – high jump (5-10.00) James V. ’15 3rd Place – pole vault (11-06.00) 4x200 relay: Mia K. ’15, Peyton J. ’14, Kaela A. ’16, Abby W ’16 2nd Place – 1:47.47 4x400 relay: Kaela A. ’16, Peyton J. ’14, Kate M. ’15, Abby W. ‘16 1st Place – 4:11.36
A sound defense and an explosive second-half comeback helped secure a state championship for the girls lacrosse team, the 12th in school history.
AJ Adekoya ’13 2nd Place – triple jump (43-00.75) Rebecca D.-G. ’14 1st Place – 3200 meters (11:20.28) Peyton J. ’14 3rd Place – 400 meters (58.30)
Sea-King District 2 Tournament
CREW
WIAA 3A State Tournament
Girls 2V4+ Emma D. ’14, Aly Counsell ’13, Grace Stonecipher ’13, Anna T. ’15, Kate K. ’14 2nd Place – 7:51.7
WIAA 3A State Championship Meet
AJ Adekoya ’13 2nd Place – triple jump (45-03.50) Rebecca D.-G. ’14 8th Place – 3200 meters (11:20.11) Peyton J. ’14 7th Place – 200 meters (26.25) 4x400 relay: Kaela A. ’16, Peyton J. ’14, Kate M. ’15, Abby W. ’16 8th Place – 4:06.00
Washington State Multi-Event Championships (decathlon/ heptathlon)
Vaiva Palunas ’13 2nd Place Overall – 3,428 points
Sea-King District 2 Meet
TENNIS Overall Record: 13-0
Jeff Omori
Molly G. ’14 and the coed tennis team captured the Lions’ second Metro League team championship in a row with a perfect 13-0 team record.
Clayton Christy
Metro League team champions Metro League Tournament individual championships
Daniel P. ’16 1st Place – boys singles Shea Wojciehowski ’13 3rd Place – girls singles Claire Revere ’13 / Helena Eitel ’13 2nd Place – girls doubles Logan B. ’16 / Mary T. ’14
3rd Place – mixed doubles Daniel P. ’16 2nd Place – boys singles Shea Wojciehowski ’13 3rd Place – girls singles Daniel P. ’16 4th Place – boys singles Shea Wojciehowski ’13 6th Place – girls singles
GOLF Sea-King District 2 Tournament Libby Ramsey ’13 1st Place – 80
WIAA 3A State Tournament Libby Ramsey ’13 10th Place – 83, 89 ■
Statistics compiled by Chris Hein, assistant athletic director at Lakeside School: 206-440-2750 or chris.hein@ lakesideschool.org.
Sports
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INSIDE LAKESIDE
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by Mike Lengel
Schooled for change
s Lakeside faculty and staff piled into St. Nicholas Hall for their first meeting of the new school year, Global Education Director Charlotte Blessing began her presentation with a film clip that posed a formidable question: If you wanted to change an ancient culture in a single generation, how would you do it? The answer, Blessing told the gathering, is also this year’s global community theme: education. Blessing said the project aims to support this year’s major endeavor of revising the school’s curriculum. Through book and film assignments, Lakeside’s faculty and staff will explore educational systems and beliefs from different cultures and countries, and thought leaders’ views on what should define a 21st-century education. The annual global community theme project, now in year five, offers the Lakeside community the chance to study subjects of global significance by way of films, books, volunteer opportunities, talks and lectures, and field trips. Here are a few selections that alumni may find interesting to view and read. You can find the full list of films and books, as well as links to more information, on our Web page, lakesideschool.org/magazine. FILMS: •“Schooling the World: The White Man’s Last Burden” offers a fascinating look at the effects of modern education on the world’s last indigenous cultures. •“Digital Media: New Learners of the 21st Century”
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examines the way young people communicate and learn in today’s fast-paced, technological world. •“2 Million Minutes: A 21st Century Solution” suggests some solutions for how the United States educational system might improve and compete with the rest of the world.
BOOKS: •“Generation on a Tightrope: A Portrait of Today’s College Student,” by Arthur Levine and Diane R. Dean. Based on their new research of 5,000 college students, Levine and Dean explore the differences and
similarities between today’s generation of college students and previous generations.
programs to share what’s working and what’s not in classrooms around the world.
•“World Class Learners: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students,” by Yong Zhao. Zhao, a researcher and professor, discusses the intricacies of developing young people who are willing and able to use education to contribute to an interconnected and globalized world.
•“Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World,” by Tony Wagner. The education expert – and first Innovation Education Fellow at the Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard – explores what parents, teachers, and employers can do to develop the capacities of young people to become innovators. ■
•“The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way,” by Amanda Ripley. Ripley, a Time magazine journalist, follows American school kids on global exchange
Mike Lengel is digital communications specialist at Lakeside School. Reach him at mike.lengel@lakesideschool.org or 206-440-2955.
Global theme
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by CAREY QUAN GELERNTER photographed by TOM REESE
deas about gender equity and women’s power and place in the world have been surging in the news. We marked the 50th anniversary of “The Feminine Mystique” this year, on the heels of last year’s 40th anniversary of Title IX. Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, touched a nerve with “Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead,” her bestselling manifesto on the continuing dearth of women in the top echelons of corporations and government and how to change that. The New York Times talked of “a renewed feminist conversation” after public debate over tactics ensued between Sandberg and Anne-Marie Slaughter, author of an influential piece in The Atlantic, “Why Women Still Can’t Have it All.” And the headlines kept coming, from horrific violence against women everywhere from India to the U.S. military; to college women outdistancing men in numbers and GPAs; to continuing gender-pay inequities. We felt it was a good time for Lakeside magazine to explore how issues of gender have played out on the Lakeside campus and in the lives of our alumni. In the following stories, we introduce you to students who are banding together to promote girls’ interest and success in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math); visit a gender studies class; and look at the legacy of Title IX in the career of coach Sandy Schneider and Lakeside athletes. And we give a glimpse into the lives of some alumni whose personal and career paths have turned on gender issues, in fields from arts and psychology to health and technology. ■
a year of gender milestones 16
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gender matters how it makes a difference in the lives of lakesiders
APRIL/2012
JUNE/2012
lPew Research Center reports women ages 18-34 surpass their male counterparts in valuing a high-paying career or profession: 66% versus 59%. But both women and men continue to rate the importance of being a good parent significantly higher (59% and 47%).
l Fortieth anniversary of Title IX of the Educational Amendments Act, which prohibits sex discrimination in any educational program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.
Zoe Walker ’13 created a mannequin with hip-hop lyrics derogatory to women written on it for her f inal class presentation.
SEPT•/2012
lYale University study finds that researchscience faculty – male and female – asked to evaluate identical student applications with either a female or male name rated the males as significantly more competent and worth hiring, paying more, and mentoring.
MARCH/ 2013 lPublication of Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s feminist manifesto, “Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead,” spurs a renewed public debate over women’s progress.
APRIL/2013 l The New York Times reports a “raging debate that engulfed the campus” of Phillips Academy Andover (established 1778, went coed in 1973) over the dearth of girls as top leaders. The year’s winning co-school presidents, two boys, promise “campuswide forums discussing gender equity in student leadership.”
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Gender Matters
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Gender Studies
A popular elective leads students to conclude it’s time to change society – and, sometimes, themselves
Students consider how their gender impacts their lives. From left, André Mattus ’13, Aminah Lawal ’13, and Amanda Milloy ’13.
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by CAREY QUAN GELERNTER
hen the Gender Studies class listened to Sheryl Sandberg’s TED talk about how women need to assert themselves to take their rightful place as leaders, one anecdote she told particularly hit a nerve with Rebecca D.-G. ’14. Sandberg, chief operating officer at Facebook, recounted how in college she studied with her brother and a girlfriend for a difficult test. The girls prepared a lot, the brother not so much, yet afterward her brother was confident and the girls beat themselves up for perceived shortcomings. “I feel like boys are cultured to assert their opinions with more confidence whereas girls – I see this all the time – will say, ‘I’m not sure this is right, this is just what I thought, it’s probably wrong, ’ ” Rebecca said. “The boys will say, ‘here is what I have.’ Even if they’re wrong, they’ll just be – ‘OK, I’ll change it.’ “Girls feel the need to excel to a really high degree in something if they are to be perceived to be doing well,” she concluded, which can make them risk-averse. Since taking the Gender Studies elective this spring, Rebecca makes sure she doesn’t fall into that trap. If friends fret about their chances on an upcoming test or she finds herself drifting into that line of thinking, she cuts them or herself off fast. “I say, ‘That’s ridiculous; you studied, you’ll be fine.’ ”
gender milestones MAY/2013 l The Pentagon estimates 26,000 military personnel were sexually assaulted the previous year (6.1% of women, 1.2% of men surveyed), up from 19,000 in 2010.
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That was just one of the epiphanies students experienced in Gender Studies, a popular elective that’s been offered at Lakeside off and on since 1993 and was taught by Emily Perez from 2006 to 2013. Even today, it appears to be the rare class of its kind at the high-school level, though gender studies is common in colleges. Perez wrote in her syllabus: “This class will explore how forces within society – family, media, school, science, etc. – help to create, regulate, and reinforce gender. Through a combination of reading, writing, film-viewing, discussion, and independent research, we will investigate how gender overlaps and interacts with other aspects of identity — such as race, class, ethnicity, sexuality, religion, political affiliation, etc. — all the while calling these categories into question … ultimately leading us to a more nuanced understanding of the impact this aspect of identity has upon the society in which we participate and our own day-to-day lives.” Among the topics covered are work and family; sports; gender violence; notions of masculinity, beauty and bodies; and the differences between gender, sex, sexual orientation, and gender presentation. More girls than boys still take the course; this spring, of the 18 students, five were boys. Whatever their gender, the students generally learn a lot they hadn’t known, having been born a generation after the women’s movement lost much of its visibility. For a few, taking this class is a means of bridging a generational gap with parents. As Lizzy McElroy ’13 put it, “My mother has some of that feminist anger that is stereotypical. I wanted to have a more structured way to talk about those kinds of things.” Both her parents did the class readings along with her, and her mom would circle newspaper articles for her and mark them: READ, GENDER STUDIES. But more say they’d simply heard the class was interesting. “I thought it was a good opportunity to hear opinions. It wasn’t something we
l Pew Research Center releases a study revealing 40% of U.S. breadwinners are female; 4 in 10 households with children under age 18 include a mother who is either the sole or primary breadwinner.
JUNE/ 2013 l 50th anniversary of the federal Equal Pay Act (1963) requiring employers to pay men and women equally for doing the same work.
Charles Pollnow ’13 shared f indings from his f inal project on women in the military, prompting spirited class debate about women in combat and whether women as well as men should be included in the event of a draft.
lThe Colorado Civil Rights division says a transgender 6-year-old who was born a boy but self-identifies as a girl can use the girls bathroom at her elementary school. Transgender advocacy groups say the decision sets a new precedent.
talk about a lot in our classes. Race is a much bigger topic in freshman and sophomore year,” said Charles Pollnow ’13. Kyle Lee ’13 said simply: “I’m into equality.” The boys did encounter curiosity from other males. “They think it’s riledup women and bashing you every day. I say it’s not really like that,” said Matt Poplawski ’13. Not surprisingly, the things that most resonated with the students were those that relate to their life as adolescents and to school: academic and leadership roles in classes and on sports fields, media images, and how societal forces might affect the way they will forge their own careers and future families. They were sobered to hear of how childbearing years often wind up limiting women’s salaries and promotions, Perez said, and they talked about what solutions, such as paid paternity leave, might make a difference. By the end of the semester, some of their changed thinking was reflected in their final projects. Zoe Walker ’13 said she always used to watch hip-hop videos without thinking much about the way women were objectified and dehumanized. As part of her project, “Hip-hop culture’s relationship with misogyny and its effects,” she created a mannequin and wrote on it hip-hop lyrics derogatory to women; she found a study showing that 20 to 37 percent of hip-hop lyrics are misogynistic, in some cases more than 75 percent (Eminem). Walker showed the class Kanye West’s “Monster” video (featuring Jay-Z, Rick Ross, and Nicki Minaj), noting that it begins by showing “dead, scantily clad women hanging by their necks from the ceiling … (which) seems to condone and glorify violence against women while also sexualizing them.” She, and the class, didn’t think much of the video’s disclaimer – “The following content is in no way to be interpreted as misogynistic or negative towards any groups of people. It is an art piece and it ➢
JULY/2013
AUGUST/2013
lSeattle city government pays men 9.5% more than women on average, a study finds; Mayor Mike McGinn announces a task force as part of a broader Gender Justice Initiative.
l California Gov. Jerry Brown signs law, to take effect Jan. 1, guaranteeing certain rights for transgender students, requiring public K-12 schools to allow students to have access to facilities and participate in activities in accordance with their gender identities. Sources include: The New York Times, The Seattle Times Gender Matters
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Gender Glossary Rebecca Delacruz-Gunderson ’14’s f inal project on the pervasiveness of media images that sexualize young girls included a vision for what TV and other entertainment would look like if it highlighted “the accomplishments of intelligent and powerful women instead of broadcasting them as sex objects.”
Gender Studies
shall be taken as such.” went to a girls first-round state game last year and – I’m The class discussed whether and how much they being generous – there were 20 fans … There are differthought they were influenced, consciously or subences — the guys hadn’t been there in 20 years, the girls consciously, by these kinds of images and lyrics, and had experienced continued success. But it was the most whether artistic expression justified them. telling example of celebrating guys’ successes in that way.” Ellen Taylor ’13 researched gender roles in chilA different kind of discussion followed Pollnow’s dren’s literature and found that, overwhelmingly, the report on women in the military and combat and the lead characters and hero figures are boys, potential for a future draft of women. and that boys are the ones usually having McElroy said this is one area where adventures. She led the class in an exercise “equality could be more of a disadvantage. where they made up a fun, non-genderI would not want to be drafted. That’s stereotyped children’s tale. hard for me personally to think about.” Rebecca documented the pervasiveness Lee countered, “If you ask men to give of media images that sexualize young girls up their privilege to achieve equality of in popular culture, showing how adolescent women in the workplace, women, too, girls are pressured to play up their sexuality would have to give up their privilege not to to be popular, and proposed how parents get drafted. It shows the difficulty of giving Studying children’s litand others can counter with more positive up privilege.” erature, Ellen Taylor ’13 ways of valuing girls. As the semester came to a close, a visifound that the classic “The Poplawski posed the question of tor to the class threw out a few questions: Story of Ferdinand” stood whether society encourages women to What have they learned, and how are out as an exception to play sports. He compared the amount and they different? Would they call themselves what are typically more kind of media coverage of female and male feminists? stereotyped gender roles. athletes, then showed that the emphasis on A handful – boys and girls – embrace women athletes is too often on their looks the word “feminism” but most do not. They rather than athletic talent, and how, for young women in explained that, for both boys and girls, the word carries a college and high school, Title IX has increased financial stigma. As Taylor summed up, “The word feminist comes support and opportunity for women, but in numbers of with the idea of very combatant and almost militant, participants and fan support, men still dominate. as well as hating men. That’s not how I would think of A member of the boys basketball team, Poplawski myself. ” noted the fervent support they got during the year as their Some said it doesn’t adequately convey males’ roles successes took them to the state tournament and said, “I and the idea that stereotypes hurt men, too. Said Cooper 20
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l Gender: Refers to attitudes, feelings, and behaviors a given culture associates with a person’s biological sex. l Sex: Refers to a person’s biological status and is typically categorized as male, female, or intersex (i.e., atypical combinations of features that usually distinguish male from female). l Gender identity: One’s internal sense of being female, male, both, or neither; not innately connected to one’s biological sex. l Transgender: Umbrella term describing a broad range of people who experience and/or express their gender differently from what most people expect. l Cisgender: Denoting someone whose selfidentity conforms with the gender that corresponds to the person’s biological sex. l Genderqueer: Word some use to self-describe personal nonstandard gender identity or expression. l Transsexual: Medical term describing people whose gender and sex do not line up, and who may seek medical treatment to bring body and gender identity into alignment. - Definitions drawn from American Psychological Association, the Human Rights Campaign, Anti-Defamation League; Oxford Dictionaries; Gender Spectrum.
Vincent ’13, “It’s not women’s issues, it’s all of our issues. That’s what I kind of realized through this class. If a woman is beaten, it’s the man who’s beating her.” Several like the word “equalist,” and they debated whether “treating everyone the same,” as McElroy said she favored, is enough or whether there is a need for any action to right past wrongs. André Mattus ’13 said, “I’d rather identify as a feminist than an equalist … the fact is, there is male privilege and I benefit from it. Not because I’d bash on anyone who gets support from male privilege, but those who don’t receive the privilege need to be raised to be on the same plane, the plane is uneven…” Alena Kantor ’13 said the notion that “evening the playing field” doesn’t take into account the sacrifice that will be required of the more privileged. “Certain things, somebody has to do child care, if women do less, the men will have to do more. It’s the same as with white privilege. You can’t just ‘raise women up.’” They all concluded that their generation needs to change some things – and sometimes that’s themselves. The way they dress; the pressures boys feel to tough out pain and hide emotion; how they treat younger kids in their family circles. Djenanway Se-Gahon ’13 said she’s now much more conscious of how she praises her 3-year-old niece. “She’ll say, ‘Doesn’t my hair look pretty.’ I will say ‘Yes,’ but I also tell her she’s smart so she’s not just focused on looks. My sister wanted to get her a kitchen set; my dad wanted to get her a tool box. It doesn’t mean she’ll be a housewife – not that there’s something wrong with that – but now I understand why he didn’t want her to have a kitchen set.” After learning how females are less likely than males to negotiate better salaries, one girl already made plans for how to approach her boss at her summer job for a raise. Concluded Rebecca: “We still have a way to go as a society, with stereotypes and different perceptions; we’re not aware of inequalities and stereotypes we still have. That’s why gender studies is so valuable.” ■
LAKESIDEGENDERMILESTONES 1910
lFounding of St. Nicholas as an all-girls school.
1919
lFounding of Lakeside School as an all-boys school.
September/1971
lMerger of St. Nicholas and Lakeside to form a coed school. lFirst varsity victory for girls at Lakeside; on Sept. 22 the girls tennis team wins 4-1 against La Conner High.
1993
l“Gender Island,” a five-day “winter project” class held on Orcas Island, team-taught by Mullen and arts department chair Al Snapp, begins a three-year run. An even split of boys and girls read about, discuss, and write about gender issues.
1999
l GLOW (Gay, Lesbian, or Whatever) becomes the first on-campus group to include gender specifically in its goal of welcoming “people who are interested in learning about and discussing GLBTQ (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning) issues.” GLOW succeeds Gay Straight Alliance (started in 1995) and CHIASMUS (1997; “dedicated to bringing tolerance, respect, and ultimately understanding of all sexual orientations to Lakeside”).
2000
l Anne Stavney ’81, as Upper School English department chair, moves to broaden the required reading list to include more women writers, striving for greater gender balance.
2001
Stavney revives teaching a version of the women’s studies course, which hadn’t been taught for several years, refocusing it and calling it Gender Studies.
December/1971
April/2005
lA Tatler article reports “a great variety of opinions” from Lakesiders asked, “How do you feel about equal rights for women?” and comments on media portrayals of women: “Rarely is a woman student, doctor, professor, attorney, or even homemaker shown … thinking creatively on the world’s problems, or doing much of anything other than unclogging those drains.”
l Gender Matters Day is the second StudentSponsored Day. Madison Burgess ’05, one of the coordinators, recalls students drew inspiration from materials learned in an independent studies course that year.
1990
2012-2013
lThe first Women’s Studies class, an English elective, is taught by Wendy Mullen; nearly as popular with boys as with girls.
1992
lTerry Macaluso becomes Lakeside’s first female head of school.
2006
l Lakeside faculty members attend a regional professional-development day on gender featuring psychologist Michael Thompson, expert on the “boy crisis” (that boys are more likely to have academic and behavior issues than girls). l In the first year (2012-13) of the extracurricular Lakeside Leadership Institute, students were appointed; there were 10 girls and 10 boys. This year, students had to apply; 14 girls and 6 boys were accepted. Sources include Leslie Schuyler, archivist of the Jane Carlson Williams’ 60 Archives. Gender Matters
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lindsay orlowski
Upper School members of the Women in STEM club share a fun activity with Middle School girls involving a colorful single displacement reaction between aluminum and copper. The older girls aim to encourage younger girls’ interest in science, technology, engineering, and math by serving as role models.
Women in STEM Girls start club to foster females’ success, participation
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aylor H. ’14 was researching summer science internships last spring when she came across references to opportunities that encouraged participation of underrepresented groups: minorities, women. At first she was puzzled: Women were considered minorities? Then something clicked. She thought about how irked she was when some boys would casually voice surprise that she was taking the highest level math and science classes. And how, when they broke into small groups to work, she was irritated when too often boys ignored her answer – until it later became clear her answer was the correct one. That’s when the idea came to her: Why not form a science club for Lakeside girls like her and some of her friends who wanted to pursue science and math careers? They could sup-
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port each other and encourage other girls to become comfortable taking their place in what have been male-dominated fields. Taylor approached her honors chemistry teacher, Sally Mingarelli: Would she sponsor the club? She would indeed. Michelle Wahlin, the new general chemistry teacher, overheard the conversation and wanted in, too. Wahlin had been working for some time on issues of women and STEM, as the fields are called – science, technology, engineering, and math. She is on the board of the local chapter of the Association for Women in Science, an organization that had given her a college scholarship. The members run an after-school program called GEMS (Girls Empowered by Math and Science), mentoring public-middle-school girls as they do fun, hands-on science projects. What if the Lakeside girls club helped out with GEMS? Taylor fired off an email to her circle,
mostly junior girls, and right away the club had more than 20 members. They named themselves Women in STEM. Gathered together in their last club meeting of the year, they shared stories of why they joined. Michelle L. ’14 said, “When I think of the image of scientists, I think of males. I want to change that.” Christina H. ’14: “Men and women have different ways of discussing and conceptualizing” and “It’s weird when it was only one or two of us (females) in a class.” Sharanya S. ’14: “In biology and chemistry there is a good mix, but in physics there were only four girls and twice as many guys. It was hard to argue a point they don’t agree with; they have a tendency to back each other.” They want to increase the numbers of girls in advanced math and science classes; and they’re eager for more real-world career-building opportunities. This was late spring, but they squeezed in lots of activities before the school year ended. Teachers secured funding for them to attend a regional science conference for girls. A Lakeside science speaker series – open to boys as well –included, by design, women scientists. The teacher-sponsors began working on a
TOM REESE
Chemistry teacher Michelle Wahlin writes down ideas of the Upper School women teachers in math and science who met this summer to plan how to build on the energy generated by Women in STEM. They decide they will expose all students, but especially girls, to a wider breadth of career options in the sciences and help them build networking skills and conf idence.
website that would include internships and other resources and began working with the alumni relations office to recruit alumnae in STEM fields as role models – alumnae such as Tess Rinearson ’11, a Carnegie Mellon computer-science major who blogs about the issues of women in male-dominated tech fields (tessrinearson.com/blog); Tori F. Borish ’08 at Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information in Austria; and Diana Hews ’75, a biology professor at Indiana State University. The plan: Have the girls begin conducting video interviews with the alumnae and post the interviews to the website. At the last meeting of the year, a couple girls voiced a bit of uncertainty. Were they being fair to the boys, having a club just for themselves? There was a hesitation; then Wahlin stepped in: “You are craving support from other females now – it’s OK to have this,” she said, adding, “It would change the dynamic” to include boys. She and Mingarelli suggested they put on events that boys are invited to and open the website to all. Reassured, the girls talked about their goals for the next year, including a fall membership drive to increase their ranks. ➢
STEM gender numbers, faculty and classes lSTEM faculty: Upper School science: 5 of 10 are women, including the department head (one woman joint with history). US math: 4 of 11 are women, including the department head (one woman joint with MS computer science). Middle School math: 5 women; 1 man, the department head (one woman teaches both math and science). MS science: 2 of 5 are women, including the department head. MS computer science: 3 women; 3 men, including the department head. lUpper School biology, physics, chemistry classes: Required by Lakeside or college, so overall gender-balanced. Honors physics: Usually skews to more boys than girls. Honors chemistry: Usually slightly more boys. Advanced biology and organic chemistry: Usually at least 50/50, sometimes more girls. Advanced physics: Far more boys typically but more balanced this year: 10 of 25 are girls. l Advanced-level math: On average over the past 7 years, about 45% female in BC level calculus; this year, 59% F (including both honors and accelerated versions; BC was the most advanced calculus course offered before this year). Honors multivariable calculus, a new course this year and the most advanced: close to 40% F. Combining all advanced placement-level calculus (regular, accelerated, and honors) this year: 52% F. lUpper School computer science: Overwhelmingly male, with sometimes one or no females in a class, until 2011 when female numbers began rising because of curriculum changes in MS that included seeding programming into required math classes. This year, while Computer Science 4 is 6M/1F and 3-D printing is 14M/1F, entry classes are gender-balanced. Enrollment in CS 2/3 went from 16M/2F in 2010 to 20M/20F this year; CS1, which was new in 2012, had 16M/12F but this spring will be 7M/10F.
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Lindsay Orlowski
Five of the 20 or so members of Women in STEM, a club started last year by Taylor Harris ’14 for girls who, like her, aim for careers in STEM fields, where women have been underrepresented. From left, all Class of 2014: Christina H., Taylor, Hannah K., Madee E., and Jenny S.
»Women in STEM By now all nine of the women STEM teachers in the Upper School, which includes the math and science chairs, had signed on as club sponsors. “The idea of underrepresented groups in the sciences is something that is on every teacher’s mind all the time; it’s not a new thing at Lakeside,” said Wahlin. “It’s been talked about, addressed, time and time again in faculty meetings and professional development days.” But the girls starting the club fast-tracked action plans. “Everyone got excited.” In professional development during the year, the teachers had studied gender and “stereotype threat” – the idea that members of groups negatively stereotyped tend to underperform in a way consistent with that stereotype when placed in situations where they’re reminded of the stereotype. Studies show the anxiety that they’ll fulfill the stereotype produces a physiological response and mental distraction that takes a toll on 24
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performance (see sidebar). The main point the teachers took away, Wahlin said, was this: Having a critical mass of a stereotyped group is a key way to counter stereotype threat. The women STEM teachers each can tell a personal story about gender and science. In some cases when they were young, they were more teased for “being nerds” than female (“pudding in my backpack, eggs my hair,” said Mingarelli). Most said they had thick skins so they’d persevered, but they knew many kids aren’t quite as tough, nor should they have to be. In Mingarelli’s case, there was the Colorado College admissions representative who told her there were no merit scholarships available except one for intended chemistry majors, and he knew she wouldn’t be interested in that. Why had he assumed that? (She got the full-ride scholarship.) And all had stories of reaching out to fellow females in their fields for support and stories of mentors who believed in them. The nine teachers received a Lakeside curriculum grant for a summer workshop to plan more ways of furthering the Women in STEM efforts and for Wahlin to research successful
programs. They decided on several goals to increase the chances girls will stay in science as they move into the professional world, including: Expose all students, but especially girls, to a wider breadth of career options in the sciences; help them build skills in networking, developing support communities, and confidence in expressing their ideas and needs. As the fall semester began, the girls – many fresh from summer science internships at institutions such as the University of Washington and Institute for Systems Biology –were ready to mentor girls at GEMS and, for the first time, to mentor girls at Lakeside Middle School as well. The middle-school years are often where interest in math and science falls off. The Upper School girls in Women in STEM can counter that by offering their support and being role models, said Huang. And, added Hannah K. ’14, by learning themselves about, and sharing, the wide career possibilities in STEM fields. “So that girls don’t get to their senior year and find out, ‘this is so cool why didn’t I take more math and science earlier?’ ” ■
The threat of stereotype
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tanford social psychologist Claude Steele’s work on stereotype threat was the focus of a professional development day about inclusiveness and diversity at Lakeside earlier this year. In a video watched by faculty and staff, Steele, author of “Whistling Vivaldi and Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us,” explains that almost everyone, in certain contexts, encounters some type of stereotype threat related to their social identity. Steele’s work has shown how fear of confirming a negative stereotype takes up some of a person’s valuable cognitive resources and produces a physiological response and mental distraction that can take a toll on performance. Social identities may include gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, political orientation, health status, and mental-health status. The phenomenon of stereotype threat, Steele says, explains why members of groups stereotyped as academically inferior — female students in math and science courses, African-American and Latino college students — score much lower on tests when reminded beforehand of their race or gender. In one study, a female group of advanced math, science, and engineering students was shown either a video where men outnumbered women 3 to 1 at a summer leadership conference or one where genders were balanced. Those who watched the unbalanced video experienced faster heart rates and more sweating and reported a lower sense of belonging and less desire to participate in the conference. They were also found to have higher recall of details of science-related items placed in their physical environment as part of the experiment – considered a sign of their increased vigilance relating to possible stereotype threat. White, high-scoring math and engineering students scored significantly worse on a math test when told Asians typically did better on the test. Black students performed comparably with white students when told that the test they were taking was “a laboratory problem-solving task” but much lower when told the test measured intellectual ability. White athletes scored worse than blacks when told a test was of “natural athletic ability” but better when told the test was for “sports strategic intelligence.” To blunt the effects of stereotype threat,
Lakeside faculty listened to a talk by Stanford professor Claude Steele on how fear of conf irming a negative stereotype can take a toll on performance.
Steele cites the importance of having a critical mass of any underrepresented group, prominent role models, and clear leadership from the top of an organization in conveying the values of diversity. Lakeside faculty and staff plan to build on what was learned. Cultural competency and inclusive teaching practices will be the focus of this January’s professional development day, led by Christel McGuigan, Lakeside’s director of equity and instruction. McGuigan will also be weighing in on this year’s revision of the school’s curriculum with an eye to diversity and equity. McGuigan will be assisting teachers to assure no one gender or group dominates in a classroom, that they address different learning styles, and that the history and contributions of different groups are presented as “core” material and not, for example, as an optional topic: “That sends an implicit message that only certain perspectives or groups are worthy of being studied.” She has been meeting with and consid-
MOREONLINE lMore resources on women and STEM and a link to interviews of STEM alumnae by Lakeside girls.
ering the views of student groups who have asked that LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning) history and women’s history be incorporated more fully in required classes, that gender-neutral bathrooms be made available, that students be given the right to choose a personal pronoun that they feel best fits them, and that health classes present more about the difference between sex and gender. Some of these ideas were also shared this spring with the Upper School community by a panel of GLOW (Gay, Lesbian, or Whatever) members. They spoke about their sexual orientation and gender identity as part of Lakeside Real Talks, a new forum for honest sharing about “our true authentic selves,” started by Upper School students in Lakeside Leadership Institute. “We’ll see where there might be areas for improvement,” McGuigan says about future plans for curriculum and teaching. “The goal is to make sure what we are teaching and how we’re teaching it are reflective of our mission of diversity and inclusion.” ■ Visit lakesideschool.org/magazine or see these QR codes for: l A video of Claude Steele on stereotype threat.
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girls’ sports
THEN/1971-72
then&Now
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he merger of St. Nicholas and Lakeside schools in 1971-72 coincided with the passage of Title IX, the mandate for equality in education that ushered in a new era for female athletes. What follows are a snapshot of the evolution in girls and boys sports at Lakeside and a profile of Lakeside’s coach extraordinaire Sandy Schneider, whose career reflects the profound changes brought by the landmark federal legislation.
Sports at St. Nicholas
For the first year of the merger, 17 sports were offered for boys, 12 for girls l
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t. Nicholas School had a robust athletic tradition. Athletics were compulsory. Sports played (from 1910 to the beginning of 1971) included: baseball, speedball, basketball, tennis, soccer, field hockey, riding, skiing, archery, volleyball, gymnastics, golf, and dance. Through the ’50s basketball was beloved. The Athletics Association organized events, including basketball tournaments and a gala devoted to championship tournaments in several sports. The “S” award – bestowed on the most outstanding participant in all sports – was highly coveted in the 1950s and early ’60s. The sports traditions faded in the late ’60s when counterculture influences made them less “cool,” a phenomenon also reported at the time among Lakeside boys. ■
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Field hockey was one of the fall sports offered for girls in the first year of the merger with Lakeside.
GIRLS: basketball, bowling (coed – first coed team), track, tennis, crew, kayaking, fencing, gymnastics, field hockey, cheerleading, volleyball, skiing. BOYS: basketball, football, swimming, wrestling, bowling (coed), track, cross country, baseball, golf, tennis, crew, rugby, lacrosse, kayaking, fencing, soccer, skiing.
I Cantoria
As a senior at St. Nicholas, Peachy Williams ’58 won the highly coveted “S” award, given to the most outstanding participant in all sports.
n fall 1972, only months before the Title IX decision came, Athletic Director Jerry Esser told the Lakeside News Bulletin: “Girls’ sports at Lakeside is in its second year and has, I think, really excelled in comparison with other schools in our league and schools in Seattle. This term, 32 percent of our girls are involved in fall sports, namely crew, field hockey, track and field, and golf. The girls’ program is designed to accomplish the same as the boys’ and this is to provide them with
NOW/2013
Jane Carlson Williams ’60 Archives
the opportunity to develop individual and team skills to a degree of excellence which will allow them to experience success and learn from their failures while enjoying what they’re doing. Development of character, leadership, sportsmanship, and self-discipline, of course, ranks high among our objectives. Coed sports is a very controversial item in today’s school systems, athletic associations, and courts of law. I am now serving on a committee which I instigated in the Cascade League to study the possibility of coed competition in sports in our league. Today’s administrators must be the pioneers in this area. If they are not, they may find themselves in the situation where some legislative act, Senate bill, or court order will force them to act on something for which they are not prepared.” By winter 1973, the Bulletin reported the girls tennis team swept through six matches without a loss to take the Cascade League title – the first girls’ team championship at Lakeside; the girls volleyball team also won its Cascade League championship. ■
Clayton Christy
Members of the 2013 girls lacrosse team celebrate their state championship – the 12th in Lakeside’s history
Both boys and girls are offered 12 sports:
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BOYS: baseball, basketball, crew, cross country, football, golf, lacrosse, soccer, swimming, tennis, track and field, wrestling. GIRLS: basketball, crew, cross country, golf, lacrosse, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, track and field, volleyball, wrestling.
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be Wehmiller, athletic director since 2008, comments: “We’re proud that girls’ sports are thriving at Lakeside. Our girls are on an equal footing with our boys in terms of all the typical ways we measure success for our program – number of participants, number of teams, number of league or state championships won. And perhaps more importantly, our girls leave our program reporting that they have learned the lifelong lessons about leadership, commitment, and resilience we want all our student-athletes to learn. Of course, we face
the same sorts of societal challenges that any school or institution does in seeking gender equity. Coaching remains a male-dominated field, even when we’re talking about coaches of girls’ teams. And fans still flock to boys’ sports – football and basketball in particular –in greater numbers than they do for the girls. But we are working hard at recruiting, hiring, and retaining highly qualified female coaches (seven of our 12 girls’ sports had female varsity head coaches last year) and at promoting our girls’ sports through our Web and social-media outlets and by featuring them regularly at events like tailgates and homecoming. We’re constantly monitoring our performance in terms of gender balance, and, on the whole, we feel like we’re doing a pretty good job of hitting our marks. But the challenges to being truly equitable will always be present, and we’ll have to continue to be diligent in this work going forward.” Girls’ teams at Lakeside have won 11 Metro League championships and 10 state championships since the 2000-2001 school year. ■ Historical research contributed by Leslie Schuyler, archivist of the Jane Carlson Williams’ 60 Archives.
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Lakeside’s Legendary
SANDY by MAUREEN O’HAGAN
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Tom Reese
Schneider has slowed the pace – a little bit, anyway. She retired from high-school coaching and now coaches at the Middle School, where she’s still teaching the same lessons to kids like 5th-grade running partner Ceci P.
for women in sports. Her goal at the time was practical: to get through school without going into debt. At CMSU, she was among the first female athletes to get a merit-based sports scholarship – thanks, in part, to Title IX. It was a valuable lesson. Equal opportunity in athletics, it turns out, isn’t just about athletics. “You get a college education,” she points out. “That’s pretty good.” It’s worth noting, though, that Schneider and other women in this initial Title IX wave only got part of their tuition covered. In 1976, women’s basketball became an Olympic event, and Schneider was invited to train for the trials. She didn’t make the final cut, but “I’m eternally grateful for having the opportunity,” she says. Later, she began a master’s program in sports administration at WSU. Not long before she was to graduate, she got a call from Barnes: Would she be interested in playing professionally? In Portugal? At the time, there still wasn’t a women’s basketball pro league in the U.S. “These opportunities present themselves and sometimes you grab ’em,” Schneider says. And sometimes you don’t. She turned it down; she had put too much into her education to leave it at this point. She was hired at Lakeside in 1979 and had a long and successful
career as a teacher, coach, and administrator. She retired from coaching the varsity girls in 2009 but still coaches basketball and cross country at the Middle School. She’s served on many athletic boards and committees, often as the only woman – a token, really, but it was a step in an ongoing process. “I felt compelled to say yes to these things so that someone would represent women at the table,” she says. It’s gotten better over time. But still, “the fight continues,” Schneider says. Why does a single NBA player earn more than the entire roster of the Seattle Storm? Why are there so many male coaches of women’s teams? “I think there is still this prevailing sense that men know more about sports than women,” she says. “I want girls to see women as leadership figures. How do young women aspire to be leaders if they never see any?” she wonders. “Male coaches aren’t necessarily interested in this piece – they’re interested in basketball. I’m interested in this whole picture. “It’s way bigger than basketball. It always has been for me.” ■ Maureen O’Hagan is a Seattle-area writer. You can reach her at maureen.k.ohagan@gmail.com. Gender Matters
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photo by Jim Bates, The Seattle Times, 2000
Title IX provided the path to her career as basketball player, coach extraordinaire
Local sportswriters considered Sandy Schneider one of the best coaches in the region, period. She coached girls basketball; but to her, it was about much more than shooting hoops.
SCHNEIDER Gender Matters
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Schneider’s Stats To people who follow high-school sports, Sandy Schneider is considered one of the all-time best coaches in the region. lCoached the Lakeside girls basketball team for 26 seasons. l Led the team to five state titles over the years, including one with a squad The Seattle Times called the “Team of the Century.” l Career record of 473-205-1. l Elected to the Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association Hall of Fame in 2013. Jane Carlson Williams ’60 Archives, circa 1990s
Schneider coached high-school hoops for 26 seasons, including a 56-game winning streak in the ’90s. More important, athletics offered lessons in empowerment, in teamwork. “Women need that,” she said.
Lakeside’s Legendary
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SANDY SCHNEIDER
andy Schneider can still remember it clear as day, even though it was four decades ago: the game that signaled times were changing. She was a sophomore playing for the University of Washington’s basketball team – hardly the savvy veteran. Just 150 spectators were there, according to a news report. But that’s beside the point. The game stands out because she felt for the first time the women’s team was being treated equally. They weren’t playing in second-class intramural space. They weren’t wearing their old powder-blue polyester uniforms. That day, the women wore Husky colors; the band played, just like it did for men’s games; and the women got to play in the real basketball arena, Hec Edmundson Pavilion. “We were so excited, we were on fire,” Schneider recalls.“It was extraordinary, an amazing feeling. Wearing the uniform said,‘I’m a Husky.’ ” The squad was so pumped, they outplayed the heavily favored Washington State University, 43-41. It was 1974, two years after Title IX took effect. And Schneider was seeing a cultural shift. She would go on to become an icon at Lakeside, coaching girls basketball for 26 seasons. She would be an inspiration to scores of young female athletes. But four decades ago, Schneider – a child of the 1950s – was just the right age to see a monumental law create a path in front of her. The law prohibited discrimination on the basis of gender in any educational program that received federal financial assistance. At the time, athletics weren’t the main thing on lawmakers’ minds, but the law has transformed women’s sports. Since Title IX, girls’ participation in highschool sports has increased tenfold, according to the U.S. Department of Education; women’s college sports have grown sixfold. It is widely seen as a great civil rights success story. In some ways, Schneider’s life and career embody the Title IX journey. Schneider started off as a student/athlete in a fortuitous place: Bishop Blanchet. Back then, Schneider says, Catholic schools were giving
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University of Washington Daily, 1974
For the Husky women, Title IX meant a chance to play for the f irst time in Hec Edmundson Pavilion, in 1974.
sporty girls more opportunities at a young age, and she jumped at the opportunity, playing tennis and basketball. That gave her far more experience than her public-school compatriots. In 1972, she enrolled at the UW, where she played basketball and volleyball. She remembers practicing just a few times a week— lax by today’s standards. At the end of the volleyball season, the team was given a choice: Step it up and practice every day? “We voted yes,” she recalls. “We wanted more.” She enjoyed the UW but became convinced it wasn’t the best fit. She wanted to go someplace where women’s sports were more of a priority and wound up transferring to Central Missouri State University, playing for legendary coach Mildred Barnes. At the time, there weren’t a whole lot of opportunities after college
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deas about gender equity and women’s power and place in the world have been surging in the news. We marked the 50th anniversary of “The Feminine Mystique” this year, on the heels of last year’s 40th anniversary of Title IX. Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, touched a nerve with “Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead,” her bestselling manifesto on the continuing dearth of women in the top echelons of corporations and government and how to change that. The New York Times talked of “a renewed feminist conversation” after public debate over tactics ensued between Sandberg and Anne-Marie Slaughter, author of an influential piece in The Atlantic, “Why Women Still Can’t Have it All.” And the headlines kept coming, from horrific violence against women everywhere from India to the U.S. military; to college women outdistancing men in numbers and GPAs; to continuing gender pay inequities. We felt it was a good time for Lakeside magazine to explore how issues of gender have played out on the Lakeside campus and in the lives of our alumni. In the following stories, we introduce you to students who are banding together to promote girls’ interest and success in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math); visit a gender studies class; and look at the legacy of Title IX in the career of coach Sandy Schneider and Lakeside athletes. And we give a glimpse into the lives of some alumni whose personal and career paths have turned on gender issues, in fields from arts and psychology to health and technology. ■
PHOTO BY TOM REESE
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the power of gender ALUMNI LIVES
How are changing gender roles playing out in the lives of Lakeside alumnae and alumni? Here are some who illustrate this societal shift – whether they’re breaking glass ceilings, carving out nontraditional roles for themselves, or exploring many ways that gender matters in the world. l by CAREY QUAN GELERNTER, ELIZA RIDGEWAY ’01, & MAUREEN O’HAGAN Charlotte Austin ’05 Mehak Anwar ’12,
Reshaping the iconic female
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orn in Pakistan and raised by a mom with a master’s degree in Islamic studies, Mehak Anwar ’12 was reared as a practicing Muslim. You wouldn’t know that reading the irreverent Isis, the online feminist magazine Anwar began last year as a freshman at Emerson College. (It already has 25 writers, five marketers, and a photographer.) And you couldn’t tell from the ideas in Anwar’s posts on the companion blog to “The Better Bombshell,” a book project of Charlotte Austin ’05’s that paired writers and artists to explore alternatives to popular culture’s notion of an iconic female. Without knowing their Lakeside connection, Anwar sent her resume to Austin this spring, angling for a summer internship. She’d heard about Austin from the bookstore-owner father of Emma Page ’12. He’d met and was impressed by Austin and her business partner, who were driving around promoting “Bombshell” at bookstores, colleges, retirement homes, and women’s prisons from Canada to Mexico. The anthology’s contributors ranged from humorist Dave Barry to Valerie Miner, a Stanford professor of feminist studies. It has drawn substantial attention with
some favorable reviews (including this plaudit from The Stranger: “I like that the project crosses earnest sociology with creative monkeying around.”). Austin called Anwar back: “Class of ’12? I’m Class of ’05!” Anwar proposed bringing more diversity to thebetterbombshell.com’s blog and giving it a sharper political edge, saying in her debut post, “I especially want to give space to writers and artists whose demographic isn’t represented in the mainstream media – namely, people who aren’t young, hot, thin, able, cisgender, heterosexual, and white – so that we can expand and diversify the type of person who is allowed to be a bombshell and role model.” Anwar was already doing that at Isis, where her posts have included biting but humorous takes on gender and language (check out “Language you don’t realize is offensive” at www.isis-mag.com/feminism. html). She introduced herself to the Bombshell blog readers with a tongue-in-cheek description of her work at Isis and how fellow college students have reacted to it. “When I call them out for saying something blatantly offensive, they take a second to listen. But there are ➢ Gender Matters
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Theresa Wagner Romagnolo ’97/
Dartmouth soccer coach
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TOM REESE
Charlotte Austin ’05’s “The Better Bombshell” explores popular culture’s ideas about women. Mehak Anwar ’12 works on the book’s companion blog.
«anwar/austin also those who truly believe feminists are all crazy Wiccan lesbians who are out to destroy capitalism, traditional family structures, and stab men to death with shards from the broken glass ceiling. When I encounter people like this, I generally chant those feminist Wiccan spells under my breath to make them run away.” Austin – who guides mountain climbers, often in Alaska and the Himalayas, when she isn’t writing or editing – launched the “Bombshell” project with a similar dose of moxie. She cooked up the idea of a ’zine while brainstorming with artist friends at Louisa’s Cafe on Eastlake. Profits go to a scholarship fund for women. The project quickly ballooned into an arts-oriented production company, Wolfram Productions (wolframproductions.com). They’re publishing a second book, expanding on a piece that appeared in “Bombshell”: “The Survival Girls,” about a theater group of Congolese refugee girls (Hillary Clinton blurbed it: “You’ll be delighted to meet the Survival Girls, turning their stories of abuse into empowerment in a Nairobi slum.”). Emma Page ’12, now at Wellesley College, got a summer internship working on that project. ■
— Carey Quan Gelernter
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he is described by Lakeside legend Sandy Schneider as “probably the fiercest competitor I’ve coached.” Today, she’s not a whole lot different. After Lakeside – where she played soccer, tennis, and basketball – she went on to focus on soccer, playing first for the University of Washington and then professionally, with the San Jose CyberRays. She is now in her third year as head coach for women’s soccer at Dartmouth College, a Division 1 school. Athletics allowed her to learn and grow not just physically but emotionally. “I was a shy person growing up,” she recalls. In class, “I would look down and hope I wouldn’t get called upon.” Romagnolo says she was fortunate to have come of age at the right moment – when sweat stopped being a dirty word for women. Competing, being part of a team, and learning that she was actually good at something gave her the confidence to move past that shyness. And to shine. That’s the lesson she tries to instill in her Dartmouth players, as well. She describes her coaching style as “tough.”
As the Dartmouth College soccer coach, Theresa Wagner Romagnolo ’97 has been tough. And inspiring. It didn’t come naturally, though: “As an athlete, you learn you have to step up,” she said.
“As a coach, you’re really pushing the envelope. Sometimes, you have to put them in an uncomfortable environment to get the most out of them,” she explains. “And you’ve got to demand things of them that maybe they don’t know they can do yet.” At Dartmouth, some players were initially resistant. Under Romagnolo, everything became a competition, even off-season training. “I think some coaches maybe shy away from doing that because they’re afraid that girls can’t handle the pressure of competing constantly, and it can be kind of draining,” says player Kim Rose, a senior. But it worked. In Romagnolo’s second year, she turned the team’s record around from 4-12 to 13-4. She “developed our mental toughness,” Rose realized. Exactly, says Romagnolo. “Doing 5 a.m. practices, going through trying times physically and emotionally, going through losses, it teaches you how to overcome challenges,” she says. On the field, and in life. ■ — Maureen O’Hagan
COURTESY OF TONI REMBE
Toni Rembe ’53 at her law f irm’s partnership dinner in 1971. She’s easy to pick out. She notes one advantage to being the only woman. “Men butt heads – let them save their egos. Agree, but then build on it.”
Toni Rembe ’53/ pioneering law partner
W PHOTO Courtesy of Dartmouth College
hen Toni Rembe ’53 arrived on her first day of work as a lawyer on Wall Street in 1961, she faced “a sea of suits.” “I was very, very shy,” she remembers. And it had been a battle just to get in the door. After finishing up law school at the University of Washington, Rembe earned a master’s degree at New York University’s School of Law, where she was the only woman in her graduating class. Prospective employers told the (male) professors who advocated on her behalf that clients would be nervous at the prospect of an attorney in a skirt – and they worried that she’d get married and leave the job. Yet a decade later, she became the first woman partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLC, a major law firm whose corporate relationships with companies like Chevron and AT&T date back to the 19th century. A photo of Pillsbury’s 1971 partnership dinner shows – amid that sea of suits – Rembe glowing in a lone white gown. “When you went into a world where there weren’t any women, you had to stand up and make your point,” she says. Diplomatically but firmly adding the word “but” after saying “yes” turned out to wield great power. “In a way, I found that to be an advantage,” she says. “Men butt heads – let them save their egos. Agree, but then build on it.”
As a tax law specialist at Pillsbury’s San Francisco office, Rembe lectured in her field and served on a variety of corporate boards, including AT&T and Safeco. She joined her first board as a still-shy 30-something because the Potlatch Corporation’s “progressive” CEO wanted a woman on the board and Rembe seemed like a trustworthy candidate based on work she did for his company. “It wasn’t because I was the greatest board member they could get,” she recalls. While she was “kind of a token,” she also learned how to thrive in that environment of networking and shared skills. In a world short on woman mentors among the business elite, she says, learning to nurture your network proves crucial – whether connections sit on a board with you or date back to your school days. “People like to be asked for help,” she says. “Successful people keep up their contacts.” Now semi-retired, one of her many philanthropic roles is as president of the van Loben Sels/ RembeRock Foundation, where Rembe applies her management experience to the private foundation’s social-justice mission; it provides legal services for low-income northern Californians. “People have more in common than they have differences,” she says. “Law is a great leveler. It gives somebody a voice – it gives them a chance to complain, because there are a lot of inequities.” ➢ Gender Matters
35
«Toni
Storme Webber ’77 dressed as Langston Hughes for a Richard Hugo House performance of the Dead Poet Society, in which poets are asked to embody a favorite dead poet. “He was said to be gay, and of black, native, and white ancestry,” as she is, she says. Listen to her signature “Ode to Blues,” blues-influenced spoken word with a capella vocals, on the QR code below or at lakesideschool.org/magazine.
Rembe
She has counseled young women at her firm struggling with the balance of work and family. As a member of Pillsbury’s executive committee, Rembe saw women take the role of managing partner and master its responsibilities even while, in one instance, working part time and raising children. She buys Sheryl Sandberg’s “Lean In” argument that women shouldn’t agonize in advance over the conflicting interests of career and biology. “Don’t give up your options too early – that’s just a life rule,” Rembe says. And when motherhood or other family duties demand that you make a hard choice, she notes, it pays to remember your skills as a negotiator. “Cut a deal,” she says, noting that you have to approach your company with a plan rather than merely conflicted feelings. “They’re busy, and they want the help. Go in and say, ‘I’m going to work three days a week,’ or ‘a week off, a week on.’ … If you’re good, they’ll want to keep you.” ■ — Eliza Ridgeway ’01
Storme Webber ’77/
A two-spirit artist
Jim Gupta-Carlson
A
s a “second generation LGBTQ person,” Storme Webber ’77, a poet, playwright, teacher, and performer of spoken word, theater, and music, says her art has been profoundly shaped by her upbringing. Her mother was a mixed Aleut-white lesbian, just 19 when Webber was born; her father, black and Choctaw. “I grew up in the queer community, which meant that I grew up in gay bars in the ’60s; I experienced preStonewall gay culture as a child.” At the same time, she was influenced by her Native American culture in which “traditionally they do not always enforce gender role conformity,” and she was treated gently as “an androgynous girl, like a two-spirit child.” Twospirit signifies a person for whom gender is not just either/or and who is viewed as having a special spiritual connectedness. As described in a recent bio for a writ-
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LAKESIDE
Fall/Winter 2013
ing conference where she was a featured artist, Webber today creates “blues-influenced, socially engaged texts about Two Spirit identity, art activism and the intersection of race, class, gender, sexuality, memory, and spirit. Her performances are an innovative melding of text and a capella vocals.” Between those tightly packed words is an interesting path – one in which her years at Lakeside played an important role. She went to college in San Francisco (where “I was mentored by Angela Davis for some time”), in New York got a degree at New York’s New School for Social Research, and, based in London, began performing spoken word, theater, and music, touring throughout Western Europe. She was featured in the
award-winning documentary “Venus Boyz.” Returning to Seattle to help her terminally ill mother, in 2007 she created Voices Rising when “I saw the need for an organization that would focus solely on the arts and culture of LGBTQ of color.” Since then, it has presented numerous shows and events. “We honor the elders and partner them with youth and emerging artists, and create a digital record of this culture.” She has had her own work published (including “Beyond Borders: Black Women Writing New Worlds,” “Serious Pleasure”) and teaches writing to others, in both adult and youth programs. She continues to perform, recently at the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival. Her new CD,
just out, is “Blues Divine.” It hasn’t been easy. She notes that, “Lakeside supported me in the life that has seen me travel and cross many borders of identity and being. Coming from a very challenging background, and to go this far in this world –the early steps, a lot of them were taken at Lakeside.” She fell into the foster-care system at age 10 and was bored and getting D’s in school when “through sheer luck and blessings” a perceptive teacher recommended her for Lakeside Educational Enrichment Program. “This was the magic,” she says. Spending two summers in LEEP and then enrolling by invitation with a full scholarship at Lakeside, bolstered her love of reading and language. Her grades rose to A’s and B’s, she found real friends for the first time, “arty, lefty, progressive friends. I’m still friends with them.” She was, she recalls, one of about three black students then at Lakeside. At 16, when she came out, she mostly was accepted, including when she took a girlfriend to the prom in 1977. “I would venture to say no lesbians had done that before.” She wore a white tux, red shirt, and white bow tie; her girlfriend wore a peach-colored dress with black satin straps. “The photographer asked if we were with the band.” She does remember getting a racist note in her mailbox after a teacher asked her class for words to describe the U.S. and other kids “said things like ‘freedom’ and ‘democracy’ and I said ‘racism and poverty.’ ” And she recalls “the performance thing I did around race, on Halloween I wore a long blond wig, powdered my face with light powder, wore white gloves. All day, people said, ‘who are you?’ I said, ‘I’m white.’ I was trying to do these kinds of ‘interventions.’ I think it was for the good of Lakeside.” Her ties and affection for the school remain. Upper School English teacher Lindsay Aegerter, who met her at a poetry reading, often asks Webber to speak to her African-American literature classes. Webber is always happy to oblige. ■ — Carey Quan Gelernter
Courtesy of Katherine Krug ’00
To survive in the “sharkfest” of New York real estate and as a tech exec in aggressive Silicon Valley, Katherine Krug ’00 has found it’s essential to take risks and exhibit self-confidence and a certain amount of bravado.
Katherine Krug ’00/
Tech COO, entrepreneur
I
n Silicon Valley, business culture reveres boozy office parties, slapdash dressing and swaggering self confidence – a combination that tears up the old rule book for women in business. Katherine Krug ’00 doesn’t shy away from the fact that women are still struggling to find their place in Bay Area boardrooms, but she rejects the idea that a businesswoman must be preoccupied with gender. “If I were a man, we would never be having this conversation,” Krug points out with a hint of impatience when asked about fitting into tech culture. Nonetheless, she ruefully ran down the list of rules she learned as a young woman from her mother, then a commercial real-estate broker: Never have more than one drink at a work function, dress conservatively, and find ways to keep your gender off the radar. First off, Krug says, this model of ladylike restraint doesn’t work in the aggressive, fast-moving workplaces where she has built a career – in Silicon Valley, certainly, but even before that, in the world of commercial sales and management. “It was a total sharkfest in New York City real estate,” she says. When she was promoted to an executive role at a company five years ago, a cash bonus came with the command from a superior to redo her “hair, glasses, makeup, and clothes.” “He clearly had an image of what a successful female leader looked like and I didn’t fit it,” she says.“Ironically, I never really changed and it never made a difference.” Krug struck out on her own, ready to set her own rules for corporate culture. “Starting a company, I was most excited that I could be myself,” she says. She’s the co-founder and chief operating officer at Everest, a startup aiming to help users achieve their
personal goals and live their dreams (“Everyone has their Everest. We help you climb yours.”). The company’s app helps users define their ambitions, map out a process for reaching them, and connect to a community of other users who will act as role models and cheerleaders. Krug, for instance, dreamed – and achieved – a set of 50 pushups. Building a successful startup didn’t happen immediately. When Krug arrived in Northern California three years ago, she plunged into founding a company solo, drawing on personal savings and conviction. For this first venture, a browser-based platform for charity donations, she tried to rely on contract software engineers. The project stumbled along, and Krug concluded that a team with a shared, zealous belief in the product was a missing – and essential – ingredient. She started over, founding Everest with two partners. Krug marvels at what a small group of people can accomplish in the world of high tech, but that phenomenon also places tremendous pressure on each individual’s performance. As COO, Krug works on internal cohesion, managing people, deadlines, and strategies. She notes that women in particular sometimes hesitate in the work world, trying to check every box perfectly and wait for approval at the expense of timely and decisive ambition. “When I was starting my own business, I felt I had to be validated, and have customers, before I started to fundraise and build a team,” Krug says of her first company. At Everest, she and her cofounders plunged right into pitching their product and themselves, and initial bravado paid off when legendary investor Peter Thiel wrote them their first check in 2012. “My advice is to leap, it doesn’t matter if you fail,” Krug says. “Failing gives lots of lessons along the way that make you that much stronger when the next door opens.” ■ – Eliza Ridgeway ’01 Gender Matters
37
COURTESY OF ANNE STAVNEY’81
Anne Stavney ’81’s position as head of a three-campus preK-12 school was all-consuming until she set aside two nights a week to be home before her daughter’s bedtime, along with one weekend day with Grace, 5, and husband Dan.
Anne Stavney ’81/
Head of School, The Blake School
W
hen The Blake School hired Anne Stavney ’81 to become head of school last year, the search committee and board of trustees really liked that she had a young child who would be enrolled at the Minneapolis school, which teaches 1,360 students from prekindergarten through grade 12 on three separate campuses. Stavney is an anomaly in that regard: While about a third of independent schools have women heads, they mostly are in elementary and middle schools, she says; and among the 70 or so at bigger institutions with older students,“You can count on one hand those with very young children.” Asked to speak on the topic at an institute for new heads this summer, she shared the dilemma of needing to balance a desire to be an engaged parent to daughter Grace, age 5, and her school community’s expectation to see her every night at myriad events. “It’s been interesting and at times frustrating that people can’t see the conflict between that. ... My predecessor also had young children; he did not feel the need to be home. I don’t know if that’s just me, or female. I think it’s more female, wanting to be really present in Grace’s life, and her daily routines; to talk about her day.” Her solution: “I carved out two nights a week, where I’m home with
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Fall/Winter 2013
my family before Grace’s bedtime. And Saturday I’m with Dan (her husband) and Grace; we might sometimes go to a Blake event together, but that’s our day together. Sunday I work in the office. Five nights a week I could be out doing things related to Blake. It took making some structures, communicating them to the board.” That satisfied most and for those it didn’t, “I have to let that be OK. That’s been my learning.” Last year, Stavney led Blake on three days of professional development related to gender. She brought prominent author Lise Eliot (“Pink Brain, Blue Brain”) to talk about brain research on gender differences. The gist: Brain differences start out as minor at birth but grow into differences in how boys and girls learn based on cultural expectations and reinforcements. Teachers shared ways they address some of these issues; for example, by accepting a range of ways that students can show what they know. As Stavney explains, “Too often girls are rewarded for neatness and things being very linear and complete and looking pretty… like a tidy poster with neatly cut out things. That will almost always make the girls seem to excel more than the boys. And boys can be misdiagnosed at having a behavioral or learning disability because they get antsy and aren’t engaged in activities that the girls have learned to focus on and be good at.” Blake started a robotics club in its middle school for girls, and this year is offering two “female-friendly” computer-programming classes based on the Harvey Mudd College curriculum. (Our alumnus Peter Osgood ’76 has been part of that initiative at Mudd.) ■ — Carey Quan Gelernter
Sonja Stump
Peter Osgood ’76, director of admissions at Harvey Mudd College, a leader among science, math, and technology schools in enrolling women. With wife, Nancy, running for election to the school board in Claremont, Calif., and their children, Connor, left, a high-school senior, and Aidyn (given name is Perry, but he is transgender and unoff icially changed his name), a junior at Williams College who is studying abroad at Oxford this school year.
PETER OSGOOD ’76/
Claremont Port Side, “the progressive publication of the Claremont Colleges,” ran this cartoon lampooning student reaction to a surge in enrollment by women students at Harvey Mudd.
HARVEY MUDD COLLEGE DIRECTOR OF ADMISSIONS
W
hen Peter Osgood ’76 was suddenly promoted to the top admissions job at Harvey Mudd College in 2006, he faced a daunting challenge. Only 25 percent of new students at the hardcore math, science, and engineering liberal-arts school were female – an unexpected dip from the previous few years when gender balance had improved. The new college president, a woman, wanted answers and change. Fast. By the next year, females were at 42 percent. By 2010, 52 percent. This fall, 47 percent. Some hailed Osgood as a hero. Others hurled charges he’d “lowered standards.” Not true; women as a group are near the top of the applicant pool each year. What he’d pulled off was leading a serious ramp-up of outreach to “make women feel very welcome,” including subsidizing women applicants’ visits to campus; aiming merit scholarships at underrepresented groups, which at Mudd includes women; highlighting female faculty, mentors; and changing teaching approaches. For example, introductory computer-science classes now emphasize how computers are a cool tool to solve problems. Before, Osgood said, they started with theory and hardcore coding, which rewarded the
Courtesy of the Claremont Port Side
“(male) geeks who come in knowing how to program everything” and tended to make women, who generally haven’t had the same prior experience in the field, feel outmatched from the start. In the span of a few years, the percentage of Mudd women in computer science went from 15 to 40 percent. When his oldest child, Perry, announced this summer that he was transgender and would now be known as Aidyn, Osgood embarked on a personal journey that ultimately dovetailed with his efforts at Mudd. ➢ Gender Matters
39
Ashley Jackson ’03/
Engender Health
W
«peter
osgood
“There’s a ton I’m still trying to learn. I’ve learned more about language, body language, the way people perceive themselves. What biology is, identity is. I understand better how those two are separated from one another, or can be. About how powerful social forces are. This is where it loops back. When I first came to Mudd, I didn’t give as much credence to the enormous power that social pressures have on individuals. I used to think there could be some validity to the argument that men and women are wired differently. Now – I think this is where Aidyn’s experiences have helped me understand – I see the societal messages are so powerful … They can completely run over any biological or wiring trends. And that’s part of why women aren’t in these fields as much.” Mudd does, for now, require filling out “M” or “F” on admissions forms because the school uses the Common Application; the federal government requires identifying male or female as a way to monitor equity concerns. But along with many colleges, Mudd no longer asks for mothers, fathers on forms: “It’s parent 1 and parent 2.” And there are restrooms accessible to any gender. The trustees were at first baffled at why the school had to make available gender-neutral housing but accepted the college’s rationale: As Osgood explains it, students who don’t see themselves as just male or just female “don’t have to choose, they can express identity the way they want. Therefore they will be more successful, which is what we want.” ■ — Carey Quan Gelernter
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Fall/Winter 2013
hy in a country where 5 percent of adults have HIV would young girls have unprotected sex? Ashley Jackson ’03 was studying that question in Cameroon as a college student in 2005. “To my naïve surprise,” she says, “the data betrayed an underlying gender norm: Teenage girls had very little power in decisions about whether to use condoms with their boyfriends.” For example, Jackson collected a survey response from a sexually active 17-year-old girl who wrote, “If my boyfriend says no [to condom use], then it’s no. If he refuses, I refuse too.” Jackson’s findings in Cameroon – along with further studies on links between gender-based violence and HIV in Tanzania as she earned a Master of Science in Public Health from Johns Hopkins – drew her to work for EngenderHealth. The New Yorkbased nonprofit “addresses the ways that gender norms influence health.” Gender norms are the ideas a society has about acceptable roles and behaviors for men and women. Jackson frequently travels to West Africa and East Africa to coordinate programs that expand access to family planning, encourage HIV testing, and reduce sexual assault. “We work with local governments and communities, including both men and women, to improve reproductive health and gender equity. In Burundi, for example, we invite men who work at mines and tea plantations to participate in ‘Men as Partners’ workshops.” The tea and mining companies pay the men their usual wages while they attend. “Over the course of four days, the men use case studies and role plays to confront harmful gender stereotypes, discuss the concept of sexual consent, and model healthy communication in relationships.”
Emily Coyle ’06/
gender-fair play
E
mily Coyle ’06 is studying the ways in which children’s development of gender stereotypes affects achievement and aspiration. As part of her Ph.D. work in developmental psychology, she has specifically looked at how to attract girls to STEM from a very young age, including through play that builds spatial skills, and at how children’s toys might be working against that by increasing stereotyping. The National Science Foundation has funded most of her research, including earlier investigations of how “career Barbies” increase gender stereotyping and decrease girls’ interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). She turns her academic findings to real-world use blogging about gender and play at www.fairplaytoys.com. At our request, she shares a few of her do’s and don’ts:
l DO encourage play with toys like puzzles, Legos, and Goldie Blox, which promote spatial skill development critical to STEM success. l DON’T emphasize that certain kinds of toys are “for boys” or “for girls.” That increases gender stereotyping and may ultimately keep girls from pursuing math and science or entering STEM fields. l DO encourage play with computer games that incorporate 3-D graphics and rotation. Along with promoting visuospatial skills, this helps to bridge the “digital divide” between boys and girls. l DON’T assume every approach to increase participation in STEM will work for every child. For some children, single-sex programs for STEM, such as mentoring, foster confidence and career development. For others, single-sex programs aren’t effective in countering existing stereotypes. Research is ongoing to understand the most successful ways to increase STEM interests while reducing stereotyping. l DO encourage physical activity and sports participation, which teach spatial skills at the same time they promote physical health. ■
Po Bronson ’82/
how women, men compete
J
ournalist and author Po Bronson ’82 includes some fascinating studies on the differences in the way men and women compete in his latest book, “Top Dog: The Science of Winning and Losing.” Bronson and co-author Ashley Merriman write about research that shows women tend to be better judges of their odds of winning and their own abilities than men are, and they are less likely to take risks because of that. Hence, men are more likely to run for office because they’re unrealistic about their chances. Women who are confident they have a good chance, will run and win as often as men. Their tendency to manage or reduce risk more than men leads them to make smaller bets when they gamble, and women have a better track record as stock analysts on Wall Street. The research also shows that in a competitive school, the highest achieving girls pull up the others, and girls at all levels are motivated to work harder, while less accomplished boys can be more discouraged by the competition. At a Town Hall author appearance in Seattle in March, Bronson mentioned that he himself attended an academically competitive school, and he wasn’t saying boys who aren’t superstars shouldn’t attend such schools; they can be helped to manage and keep perspective about healthy competition. ■ Eliza Ridgeway ’01 is a Bay Area journalist: eridgeway@gmail.com. Maureen O’Hagan is a Seattle writer: maureen.k.ohagan@gmail.com. Carey Quan Gelernter: carey.gelernter@lakesideschool.org.
FROM THE ARCHIVES
GOING
coed
Bruce R. Burgess
Members of the Class of 1971 posing with their tombstone. Its Latin inscription, Virgor Vivat Virilis (roughly translated as long live manly vigor), contains a mistake; it was supposed to read Vigor. Alumni differ a bit in their recall of what they’d intended to convey with their message.
by LESLIE SCHUYLER, archivist
Marking the end of the single-sex era
I
This picture of the Class of 1971
up the headstone in my 1956 Packard
surrounding the tombstone was taken
Clipper, a classic vehicle with red body
about a week before the last all-male class
(faded to pink), black top, and four doors
graduated, according to Daniel Clancy
with large chrome bullets protruding from
’71. It was his idea, he says, to mount a
the front grill. In addition to a back seat
permanent memorial to mark “the end of
that could easily accommodate five or six,
t seems impossible to imagine
an era.” He says that, in addition to the
it had a huge trunk. When the monument
Lakeside without female students,
straightforward “In memory of the passing
yard folks placed the several-hundred-
but for the first five decades of its
of the last all male Lakeside senior class,”
pound headstone in the trunk, the car
existence, Lakeside was an all-boys
the boys chose a phrase, “long live virility,
settled down to the bottom of the shock
school. Founded in 1919 as a day school
with these last three words on a separate
absorbers with the rear fender resting
for students ages 6 to 13, Moran-Lakeside
line in Latin to give it a sense of history.”
on the ground. Then the automatic load
opened with 13 boys. (It should be noted
Why that phrase in particular? “My
leveler motor came on and lifted the rear
that one of the first four faculty members
thinking has always been that when the
of the car up so it was level. We drove the
was female: Miss Cymbra Daniels taught
all-male class died, so did virility.
car right onto the Senior Circle next to
the primary grades.)
We wanted virility to live on,” says Terry
the Chapel and lifted out the tombstone
Smith ’71.
and placed it on a concrete footing we’d
The 1960s brought great change to American society, and Lakeside was
Latin teacher Ken Van Dyke came up
prepared where it was grouted in place
no exception. The creation of Lakeside
with a translation – Vigor Vivat Virilis –
with the time capsule buried in front.
Educational Enrichment Program in the
writing it on a piece of paper that Clancy
The rear of the car sitting high in the air
summer of ’65 was the first big effort
gave to a monument shop near Evergreen
was quite a site! Then our classmates all
toward diversification of the student body,
Washelli funeral home on Highway 99.
gathered for the famous picture.”
and in fall 1971, under the leadership of
Clancy recalls: “Several of us (no Latin
As for the misspelling (Virgor should
Dan Ayrault, Lakeside went coed.
scholars apparently) drove over to pick
be Vigor), that was simply a mistake, ➢ Archives
41
«the single-sex era likely misread and therefore engraved incorrectly on the stone. Today the tombstone still sits where Clancy and his friends put it 40 years ago, on the lawn by McKay Chapel. In the years since, in the absence of a plaque or other labeling to provide historical context, many interpretations have filled the void. Some have read it as a challenge to girls’ rights to be at Lakeside, seeing it as a signal that the boys who planted it opposed Lakeside’s decision to go coed. According to Clancy, that wasn’t the boys’ intent, and their sentiment behind the stone wasn’t a chauvinistic one. “I think that the student body was generally supportive of the idea [of coeducation]. We didn’t have any regrets except that boxer-short sunbathing in the high-jump pit would probably be a thing of the past and the colorful language would probably get cleaned up.” Interestingly, one of the points that then-headmaster Ayrault made in a letter to faculty in 1969 was that coeducation might help provide a “restraining or civilizing influence” since universities that had gone coed were reporting that “the deportment and dress (!) in coeducational dining/social rooms is a marked improvement over what prevailed when there were either boys alone or girls alone.”
Jane Carlson Williams ’60 Archives, 1921
Lakeside as the director of planning the
St. Nicholas School girls basketball team in 1921. When St. Nicholas merged with Lakeside, it gave up some traditions but gained a wider variety of classes and a less cloistered atmosphere.
year before the merger, said that there
‘men’ in a way that was bonding in a
mean, but I felt it again at our 40th reunion
was very little resistance to the idea from
time when the trend was in the opposite
when many of us ‘guys’ returned to the
the community, and notes from a St.
direction. This is not a chauvinistic point
Quad for dinner. I think every Lakeside
Nicholas Board meeting also report no
of view. The women’s liberation movement
alum knows that it was never exclusive or
opposing votes. Tom Rona ’72 remembers
created an image of ‘men’s groups’ as
discriminatory in a misogynistic way.”
that he and his friends were enthusiastic
being exclusive and discriminatory.
for the change: “Girls were coming to
Robert Bly explored the ‘male mode of
“I think the relationships we developed
campus. We were like ‘bring it on!’ ”
feeling’ in the 1980s and restored the
in an all-male environment may have
Bruce Bailey ’59, who had returned to
If that was so, why the need to celebrate
Clancy expressed a similar sentiment:
value of ‘men’s groups.’ I experienced a
resulted in a closeness that might not
“virility”? What was the meaning of the
unique opportunity of spending my time
have occurred after coeducation.” Clancy
marker to this last all-male class? The
at Lakeside with Dexter K. Strong, Dan
also acknowledges the possible merits
answer to this varies according to whom
Ayrault, David Davis, Gary Maestretti,
of having gone to school in a coed
you’re asking – there were many students;
Dean Soule, and other male teachers in
environment: “Having girls as classmates
it probably meant something a little
an environment that modeled the value of
would have probably allowed us to develop
different to every one of them.
dignity, intellect, and common decency.
different types of attitudes that might be
My years at Lakeside were rich and unique
considered more natural and inclusive.”
Mark Olson ’71 offers his view: “It is hard to describe the connection we all
not just because it was a boys school, but
felt about attending an all-boys school,
I cherish that factor nonetheless. I still
recognized that the experiences of
but I felt like it brought us together as
can’t put an adequate descriptor on what I
students post-merger would be very
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LAKESIDE
Fall/Winter 2013
And so, they say, the tombstone
A St. Nicholas School riding class, popular in the early years. Cantoria noted that the girls’ “skill and sportsmanship ... were very f ine.” St. Nick, founded nine years before Lakeside, maintained a varied athletics program.
Jane Carlson Williams ’60 Archives, 1935
different. They had cherished their singlesex Lakeside education and its passing was something to grieve and memorialize. Of course Lakeside students were not
VIEW VIRTUAL EXHIBIT ON COEDUCATION To see images and learn more about this period in the school’s history, visit www.lakesideschool.org/archives and click on the “special exhibit” button.
the only ones affected by this change. St. Nicholas School, founded nine years
campus was more appealing. “Gone were
off dead than coed” and “played taps to
before Lakeside, had thrived for six
the gawky awkward days; the braces
mourn the passing of something very
decades before it merged with Lakeside in
were off. By that age, students had more
special, the ‘Deerfield Boy.’ Born sometime
the fall of ’71.
academic maturity and self-confidence.”
in the last 191 years, he died Saturday,
Jeri Smith ’72 remembers that it was
Add to that the variety of courses from
Jan. 30, 1988. From now on, it will be the
incredibly awkward to be among the first
which students at the larger Lakeside
‘Deerfield person.’” In June of 1971, the
coed class: “My general recollection was
could choose and no wonder some St.
Lakeside Boy died. Lakeside students
that we all stared at each other; girls, guys,
Nick students welcomed the transition.
laid a tombstone in the lawn to mourn his
teachers. We stared for the whole year! What a great study in personal social science we were. In class, it was hard to speak up. We didn’t have any idea what these boys’ school teachers would expect from us ...” On the one hand, Smith recalls a
And yet, there was also a genuine sense
passing. The St. Nicholas girl died that
of loss. Many alumnae held - and still
day, too. On a Seattle afternoon in October
hold - fast to the traditions, friendships,
of that first coed school year, the entire
and memories formed at St. Nick. The
campus gathered next to the tombstone to
school hadn’t even employed male
plant a cherry tree to mark the birth of the
faculty members until 1968. When the
“new” Lakeside - as the Lakeside News
general excitement among her St.
two schools merged, St. Nicholas lost
Nicholas friends about merging with
its name. Ten years later, when Lakeside
a monstrous watermelon feed. Fog, smog,
Lakeside. St. Nick students at that time
consolidated its campuses and sold the
and a slight drizzle failed to dampen the
were caught between two worlds: the old
old St. Nicholas School building, the girls
obviously active faith in the future.”
world of the female finishing school’s
lost their school. The name lives on in the
white-gloved traditions, and the new world
hall built on the Lakeside campus in 1978.
ushered in by the 1960s. Smith thinks
Mourning the loss of an all-male or all-
Bulletin noted, “with songs and games and
What’s past is prologue; the tombstone and “St. Nick’s” (as current students and faculty refer to it) are reminders of our
that parents of the era were desperate for
female experience was not uncommon in
school’s collective past. We move forward,
a place to “rein in” and protect teenage
the 1970s and 1980s, when a number of
adding new chapters to that past, while
daughters; St. Nicholas was known for
single-sex educational institutions went
remembering what came before. ■
maintaining a tradition of discipline.
coed, sometimes with controversy. A New
Although Smith had liked attending a
York Times article from 1988 on Deerfield
single-sex school during her early years,
Academy in Massachusetts reported that
by the time she was a senior, a coed
students marched and chanted “better
Leslie A. Schuyler is archivist for the Jane Carlson Williams ’60 Archives at Lakeside School. Reach her at 206-440-2895 or archives@lakesideschool.org. Please contact her if you have questions or materials to donate, or visit the archives’ Web page at www.lakesideschool.org/archives. Archives
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ALUMNI Lakeside/St. Nicholas Alumni Board
2013-2014
NEWS
Welcome new Alumni Board members
L
akeside is pleased to welcome eight new members to the Alumni Board. The board is off to a busy start this year planning events and looking for new ways to help build an even stronger alumni community. Lakeside School and the alumni relations office are grateful for the time and effort board members give to supporting the school and our alumni community. If you or someone you know is interested in serving on the board, please contact the alumni relations office at alumni@lakesideschool.org. Kathryn Jobs Gerke ’81
graduated from Northwestern University in 1985 with a B.S. in communication studies. She has more than 25 years in the hospitality field with Westin Hotels and Resorts in Chicago and Seattle and with Columbia Hospitality at Bell Harbor Conference Center and Talaris Conference Center. While her son was young, she was able to work from home doing a variety of part-time jobs. In 2010, she returned to work at CRG Events and is now the director of sales at the Space Needle and Chihuly Garden and Glass. She also sits on the PTSA Board for Bryant Elementary School. Gerke lives in Bryant and enjoys gardening, skiing with family and friends, and hanging out with her son and husband. Christine Gilbert ’07 is a production partner at Absolute Mortgage, a division of Pinnacle Capital Mortgage Corp. She received her B.A. in music from Trinity College and minored in architectural studies. After Trinity she worked with ZINO Society, a local angel investment group that connects entrepreneurs with investors. She is co-president of the 120-voice Chancel Choir at Bellevue Presbyterian Church. She loves traveling the world and has gone on several mission trips: music ministries, from Costa Rica and Finland to Russia and Austria; medical missions to Ghana; and as part of a Lakeside Global Service Learning trip, to Morocco, she helped build a school in the Atlas Mountains. She is a member of the Junior League of Seattle’s Northwest Art Project /Bellevue Arts Museum committee. Gilbert is a stickler for spelling, grammar, and “the proper use of the Oxford comma.” She has two big German Shepherds, Petty and Gunnar, and she loves both Wagner’s and Tolkien’s “Rings.”
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Deanna Hobson ’93 is the
director of marketing and client service for Pugh Capital Management, a fixed-income institutional investment company. She is responsible for developing new business, managing existing clients, and working with investment consultants. Prior to joining Pugh, Hobson worked in various areas within investment banking. Outside of work, she has a long history of community service. She was a LEEP (Lakeside Educational Enrichment Program) counselor in the early ’90s. She served as a board member of the HerShe Foundation, a Los Angeles-based organization that empowers young women in foster care or recently emancipated. She also supports and volunteers with local organizations such as Seattle Rotary 4 and A PLUS Youth Program. She holds a B.A. in economics from Columbia University. Meghan Mullarkey Kiefer ’98 is an internal-
medicine physician and public-health researcher at University of Washington, where her focus is on medical education and the impact of low health literacy on chronic-disease management. She earned a bachelor’s degree at Princeton in English with a certificate in African-American studies and her medical degree from the UW. She and her family recently relocated from Boston, where she completed her training at Massachusetts General Hospital. In her spare time, she enjoys running, reading, and spending time with her husband, Will, and their two sons, Liam and Rowan.
2013-2014
LAKESIDE/ ST. NICHOLAS ALUMNI BOARD Tim Panos ’85
President
Christian Fulghum ’77
Immediate Past President Chris Loeffler ’00 is the cor-
porate development manager for Concur Technologies. He focuses on mergers and acquisitions and venture-fund investment. From 8th grade to 12th grade at Lakeside, he competed in every sport he could find and joined as many Outdoor Program trips as he could. Loeffler spent 10 years away from Seattle studying or working in Vermont and at the Salzburg Seminar in Austria. He also interned for Congressman Jim McDermott in Washington, D.C., and worked at tech startups in San Francisco. He returned home to Seattle in 2010 for the UW MBA program. Loeffler and his wife, Heidi, a fellow environmental science major at Middlebury College, share a house with their dog, Hugo. He enjoys biking, hiking, mountaineering, and backcountry skiing and was a board member at the local nonprofit EarthCorps. He recently returned from a trip to Nepal and India. Émile Pitre ’96 has been a
chemical engineer in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers since 2001. He began in environmental cleanup, serving as a field engineer on Superfund sites throughout the Puget Sound area. After eight years he transferred to the Corps of Engineers’ construction division, where he now works as a project manager and project engineer. He attributes his affection for being a public servant to the hundreds of community-service hours he accumulated while at Lakeside. Pitre received his B.S. from the UW and continues his graduate studies in project engineering and construction management at Missouri University of Science and Technology. In his spare time, he is an amateur songwriter who also practices teaching his new dog old tricks.
Hana Rubin ’93 earned a
bachelor’s degree in Japanese studies at Middlebury College and a master’s in international policy from the Monterey Institute of International Studies. After several years of working in Japan, she returned to Seattle to work in nonprofit communications – first at Global Partnerships, a microfinance organization with a focus in Latin America, and currently at The Seattle Foundation. She is a key team member of the foundation’s GiveBIG campaign, a one-day, online-giving event that in 2013 raised more than $11 million for local nonprofits. She enjoys running, traveling, and exploring the greater Seattle area with husband Jesse and son Kai. Lauren Deal Yelish ’99
graduated from the UW with a B.A. in business administration. After college, she spent a ski season working for Whistler Blackcomb at Horstman Hut at the top of 7th Heaven chairlift, then moved to Los Angeles for three years to work for a real-estate developer focused on mixed-use urbaninfill projects. After returning to Seattle in 2008, she worked in the apartment division of a propertymanagement company, then started a multi-family investment and management business with her siblings. Yelish got married in Maui last March and now lives with her husband on Queen Anne. She loves boating, water sports, and snow sports and is looking forward to a sailing trip in the Caribbean in spring. ■
Bridget G. Morgan ’98
Mission and Governance Chair
Crystal Ondo ’99
Activities Chair
Shael Anderson ’90
Alumni Connections Chair Kelly Poort
Alumni Office Liaison
Members Bruce Bailey ’59
(Lifetime Honorary Member) Blake Barrett ’02 Lee Brillhart ’75 Maureen Wiley Clough ’01 Chris Fitzgerald ’89 Leslie Flohr ’79 Kathy Jobs Gerke ’81 Christine Gilbert ’07 Adam Hartzell ’91 Deanna Hobson ’93 Claudia Hung ’89 Meghan Mullarkey Kiefer ’98 Chris Loeffler ’00 Phil Manheim ’00 Ulrike Ochs ’81 Lindsay Clarke Pedersen ’92 Émile Pitre ’96 Hana Rubin ’93 Spafford Robbins ’77 Donald Van Dyke ’02 Lauren Deal Yelish ’99
Alumni news
45
REUNION 2013
by KELLY POORT
Celebrating 3s and 8s
From left, Sara Axelrod ’03, John Shields ’03, Leonora Stevens Diller ’03, and Jesse Diller.
Head of School Bernie Noe, left, and Bill Gates ’73.
n June 14, nearly 450 alumni and friends gathered at Lakeside Middle School to celebrate their reunion. Festivities were moved from the Upper School campus due O to construction of The Paul G. Allen Athletics Center (scheduled to open in January).
Classes ending in 3s and 8s filled the Middle School gymnasium with lively conversation. Upper School faculty members Bob Henry and Jim Gaul took the stage to recognize those who traveled the farthest to attend and the class with the most reunion attendees – that prize going to the Class of 1993. The Class of 2008 had a record turnout for a fifth reunion, and a standing ovation was given to the members of the Class of 1943 on hand to celebrate their 70th. Special recognition was given to the members of the St. Nicholas and Lakeside Classes of 1963 who had begun their 50th reunion festivities the previous day by leading the Class of 2013 in their commencement procession. Reunion festivities continued through the weekend for individual classes. Next year’s reunion dinner takes place June 13, 2014, for classes ending in 4s and 9s. Save the date! ■
Members of the Class of 1988, from left, Lisa Black, Drew Williams, and Emily Mockett.
Kelly Poort is assistant director of development, alumni relations. She can be reached at 206-440-2730 or kelly.poort@lakesideschool.org.
Members of the St. Nicholas and Lakeside Classes of 1963 gather outside of McKay Chapel before leading the Class of 2013 in its commencement procession.
From left, Beth Baker, Jack Pankratz ’53, Judson Parsons ’53, Jules Loftus ’53, Snookie Pankratz, and Bob Baker ’53. Todd Larson ’95 and Camilla Altschul Larson ’93.
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From left, Leland Bull ’58, Sylvia Bull, Eva Rogge, Joe Ann Rucker, Rich Rucker ’58, and Lee Rogge ’58.
Members of the Class of 2008, from left, David Alvaradaro, Mac Fisken, Jonathan Amkraut, and Isaac Axelrod.
Members of the Class of 2008, from left, Ali Andrews, Lucy Potter, Jackie Mena, and Andrew Torrance.
Lance Collins ’93, left, and Upper School history teacher Bob Henry.
Members of the Class of 1973, from left, Mike McNutt, Greg Ahmann, Kris Kristoferson, and Martin Withington.
From left, Carina Lea, Vanessa Willson ’98, Matt Johnson ’98, and Blythe Mackey ’98.
Members of the Class of 1993, from left, Ken Bensinger, Jule Treneer, and Dylan Ragozin.
Marilyn and Clifford Winkler celebrated his 70th reunion.
Reunions
47
Alumni of Color Reception 2013 by KELLY POORT
Connections and stories
I
n May, the Lakeside/St. Nicholas Alumni Association welcomed nearly 60 alumni, friends, teachers, and students to the 2013 Alumni of Color Reception. Head of School Bernie Noe and Director of Equity and Instruction Christel McGuigan spoke about Lakeside programs and the Diversity and Inclusion Initiative. Then a panel of four seniors shared their experiences as affinity group leaders and Lakeside students. As always, the highlights of the night were the connections made between alumni and current students, sharing stories and celebrating our community. To view more photos from the event go to www.lakesideschool.org/alumni. ■
Members of the student panel, from the Class of 2013. From left, Ishani Ummat, Ellis Simani, Avalon Igawa, and Joanne Nguyen.
Upper School English teacher Lindsay Aegerter Louisa Huynh Lambert, left, and Crystal Ondo, and Brandon Vaughan ’06. both Class of 1999.
Head of School Bernie Noe, left, and Dawayne Rainwater ’88.
Middle School Assistant Director Jamie Asaka ’96, From left, LEEP Director and Middle School teacher Latasia Lanier ’90, Donald Van Dyke ’02, and Direcleft, and Darin Reynaud Knapp ’98. tor of Equity and Instruction Christel McGuigan.
Shaun Spearmon ’97, left, and Émile Pitre ’96.
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Fall/Winter 2013
PLANNED GIVING
by CAROL BORGMANN
Anne Repass shows by example her belief that women should be community leaders. Among her roles: board president of The Seattle Public Library Foundation.
Courtesy of KCTS
M
a n n e r e pa s s • The power of words
eet Anne Repass in her downtown condominium and her love of books is immediately apparent: An eclectic collection fills the shelves that cover an entire wall from floor to ceiling. “I love things that keep our brains moving,” she says, explaining what’s been most rewarding about her time as board president for The Seattle Public Library Foundation. “I am inspired by all the innovative programs that are taking place inside the libraries across our city. I am proud of the outreach the library does in the community and the way the library helps people get the information that they need, be it books or access to online resources.” She believes it is important for women to lead the way in their communities, and she is an example herself. Repass says, “I went to Mills College in Oakland in the 1960s at the start of the women’s movement.” At the all-women liberal arts college, “We were treated like we could do anything. When we left school, we were expecting to be included at the table, but the world wasn’t quite ready for that. I spent my whole professional career at CenturyLink. I began in 1970 at the Boston office. In those days they were fast-tracking women into management roles. I spent 22 years making my way up the ladder. It was a fortuitous time that opened up opportunities for women. Because of my longevity with the company,
I was offered early retirement at age 48. I was so lucky.” Being retired has allowed Repass to channel more energy into many civic and philanthropic causes. Her association with the library goes back 10 years to when she made a contribution and asked if the foundation needed any volunteers. Put in charge of reading 350 entries for a contest that asked people to answer the question, “Why do you love your library?” she recounts: “I love stories. Two stand out in my mind. The first is an African-American gentleman who said when growing up in Arkansas he was not allowed to use the library. He shared how valuable it was for him to be able to access this resource now. Then there was the 9-year-old who stated that she loved the library so much that she was going to grow up to be the president of the United States and head of her own library.” As a member of the Rainier Club board for several years, Repass has served on committees that shared ideas and knowledge with members. “I joined Rainier Club for the social connections and have stayed for the rich intellectual discussions that thrive there,” she says. “I’m part of a literary group that is full of the smartest people.” Repass also chairs the education and philanthropy committee of the Washington Women’s Foundation, founded
To find out more about naming Lakeside in your will or as a beneficiary of a life insurance policy or retirement account, or to inform the school that you have already done so, please contact Carol Borgmann, director of major and planned giving, at 206-440-2931. Find helpful information about planning your estate at www.lakesideschool.org/plannedgiving.
in 1995 to enable women to pool their financial resources to make high-impact charitable gifts; co-chairs YWCA luncheons; and sits on a community advisory board to KCTS 9. She continues to volunteer at the Lakeside Rummage Sale every year, even though her youngest daughter, Jane, graduated in 2001. While her children were at Lakeside, she was a consummate volunteer, co-chairing the Rummage Sale one year and the auction another. Repass, who has named Lakeside in her will, says she is grateful for the education and opportunities her two daughters received at Lakeside and for Lakeside’s efforts to become a diverse community. “Our family started the Repass Family Endowed Scholarship because we really admire the work the school is doing.” ■ Reunions, Planned Giving
49
CLASS CONNECTIONS 1972
In August, members of the St. Nicholas Class of 1972 gathered for their “2nd Annual 40th Reunion.” For some in attendance, it was the first time seeing their former classmates in 41-plus years.
1974 – 40th Reunion
More than a dozen 1974 classmates and their spouses got together for a lunch on Sept. 7 in what has now become an annual mini-reunion for the class. Lysa Hansen organized the meal, Richard Hartung hosted the event, and everyone who participated thoroughly enjoyed the chance to catch up.
1976
In April, David Kaplan was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, which recognized his distinguished and continuing research in elementary particle theory. Currently a professor of physics and the director of the University of Washington’s Institute for Nuclear Theory, David did his undergraduate work at Stanford University and earned a doctorate in physics from Harvard University in 1985. He joined the UW faculty in 1994 and become director of the institute in 2006.
1980
Scott Olson writes, “I am currently posted to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, as the FBI’s legal attache – the FBI director’s official representative to Iraq. As the senior FBI official in Iraq, I work closely with other components of the U.S. government on a broad range of critical issues, and I maintain liaison relationships with senior officials in the Iraqi government. I arrived here at the end of June and will be here for at least a year, maybe two.”
1973 Members and friends of the Class of 1973 wrapped up their reunion festivities with Sunday morning canoeing in Bellevue. From left, Lincoln Ferris ’73, Sandy Hoffman, Erich Volkstorf ’73, Leslie Brown Katz ’73, Ken Pilcher, and Quincy Anderson ’73. 1973 Members of the Class of 1973 reminiscing over dinner at their 40th Reunion celebration. From left, Chris Browning, Leslie Bain-Iano, Michael McNutt, Laura Stone Shifflette, and John Kucher.
1981
Alexandra Sagerman (formerly Debra Reichler) visited Lakeside this summer while vacationing in Seattle with her husband, Eric, and their three children. They toured the campus on a sunny August afternoon and stopped by the Jane Carlson Williams ’60 Archives, where archivist Leslie Schuyler pulled out the Lower School scholarship cup so Alexandra could show her kids her name under the year 1977.
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Fall/Winter 2013
1972 Members of the St. Nicholas Class of 1972 at their “2nd Annual 40th Reunion” in August. Back row, from left, Sue Tomlinson Gorman, Ann Mortimer Hankerson, Jeri Robinson Smith, Carla Wessel Rockwell, Ann Jordan Knight, Cynthia Johnson Glazer, Chandra Pettit Van Delft, Nancy Carlisle Henry, and Patricia Barr; front row, from left, Jan Sturkey Kerruish, Jamie Houston, Judy Jones Raykovich, Jean Krynicki (St. Nicholas teacher), and Nikki Koren-Jutte.
1984 – 30th Reunion
In August, Sunset magazine included a spread on Jeanne and Paul Moseley’s “prefab and fab, modular and modern, eco- and kidfriendly” Montana home calling it “a Western design classic in the making.”
coaching, workshops, and retreats. More at SisterFire.com.
1987
Kudos to the Class of 1987! The class donated the funds remaining from their 25th reunion to the Lakeside Annual Fund. Thanks for supporting Lakeside students and faculty!
1991
Jordan Williams, his wife, Lindy, and big sister India welcomed a baby boy, Theodore “Theo” David Williams, on Nov. 15, 2012. In May, Eleni Carras, Kendra Jones Kelly, and Marlene Chen traveled to China to visit Ernie Chen ’88, Marlene’s brother, who is living and teaching in Beijing. Eleni writes, “There is nothing like traveling the world with childhood friends. We met in Middle School – and this just can’t be right, can it? – 30 years ago. Here’s to more years and more travel rewards!”
1994 – 20th Reunion
Karl Johan Uri has been appointed to the St. Olaf College alumni board for a four-year term.
1995
Katie Monroe Hetherington and her husband, Jim, along with big brother Miles,
Alexandra Sagerman ’81 (formerly Debra Reichler) and her children, from left, Samantha, Mikayla, and Michael, proudly hold the Lakeside Lower School scholarship cup that bears her name for the year 1977. are thrilled to announce the arrival of Evan Monroe Hetherington, born May 18 (Jim’s birthday, too!).
1997
Shaun Spearmon, his wife, Brooke, and big sister Ava welcomed Olivia Hope Spearmon on Jan. 29. A graduate of Spelman College with a degree in comparative women’s studies, L’Erin Donahoe Alta-Devki is a speaker, writer, and educator whose small company, SisterFire, “helps women create purposeful lives that they love.” She’s the author of the forthcoming book, “Sacred No * Divine Yes: A Soulful Guide to Healthy Boundaries.” As her website says, “She teaches trailblazing women how to become their own sanctuaries as they catalyze miracles and transform the world.” She provides
1975 Members of the Class of 1975 gathered in July for a casual dinner
at Duke’s near Green Lake. Back row, from left, Amado Shuck (Lisa’s husband), Lisa Haug ’75, and Ross Baker ’75; front row, from left, Steve Loeb ’75, Lee Brillhart ’75, and Rhana Burgess ’75 (formerly Janet Passerelli).
In July, Trevor Parris married Brittany Trimberger in Chelan, Wash., at the Trimberger family home. The couple met when they both attended the UW MBA program, and they now live in Ballard. The wedding party included Shane Parris ’99 as best man and Tracy Faulds ’02 as maid of honor. Also in attendance from Lakeside were Amy Kosmos ’99, Andrew Jonsson ’99, Erin Pettersen ’04, and Ian Babbitt.
1998
See 1999 notes for news on Andrew Laughlin. Shira Kost-Grant Brewer and her husband, Matt, welcomed their second child, Aziza Charlotte Brewer, on Jan.17. The family moved back to Seattle this summer from South Africa, where Shira and Matt were teaching at the American International School of Johannesburg.
1999 – 15th Reunion
Andrew Laughlin ’98 and Vanessa Brewster Laughlin welcomed their son, Blake, into the world on July 1. Blake is the first grandchild and greatgrandchild on both sides of the family and the first nephew of Andrew’s sister Julia Laughlin Belsante ’04. Andrew is a patent attorney working at the UW’s Center for Commercialization, and ➢
L’Erin Donahoe Alta-Devki ’97’s company SisterFire coaches women on “journeys to growth and transformation.” Alumni news
51
CLASS CONNECTIONS
From left, Eleni Carras ’91, Kendra Jones Kelly ’91, Ernie Chen ’88, and Marlene Chen ’91 at the Great Wall of China in May.
Vanessa is currently on leave from her role as a management consultant at the Seattle firm SwitchPoint LLC. “Big brother” Kayser, the family’s chocolate labrador, could not be reached for comment on his recent demotion to the position of dog.
2000
Laura Cunningham Henderson married Scott Henderson in October 2011. In
attendance were fellow Lakesiders Emily Cunningham Cressey ’98, Ciara Brady Stewart, Tracy Yuen Hugenberger, Krista Kawaguchi ’01, Steve Johnson ’01, Whitney Moller Howe ’01, Anna Batie, Jessica Martin, Jeremy Lazowska, John Bocharov, Scott Graham, and David Howenstine ’99. One year later, the couple welcomed their handsome son, Elijah.
2001
Rosalind Echols, a physics teacher at Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, spent three weeks this summer in a research vessel off the Shumagin Islands, Alaska, in NOAA’s Teacher at Sea Program. A July 6 article in The Philadelphia Inquirer described the work that Rosalind would be doing while
Members of the Class of 1993, from left, Lisa Narodick Colton, Anne Shira Kost-Grant Brewer ’98 with her Martens, and Heather Proctor Steer at a gathering during reunion children, Aziza and Rafael. weekend in June.
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LAKESIDE
Fall/Winter 2013
Elijah Henderson, son of Laura Cunningham Henderson ’00, and her husband, Scott.
Children of members of the Class of 1998 enjoy their f irst class picnic on reunion weekend. From left, Calder Lee (Mike Lee), Naomi and Josephine Manheim (Nick and Lisa Marshall Manheim), Liam and Rowan Kiefer (Meghan Mullarkey Kiefer), Blair Evans (Steffenie Birkeland Evans), and Rafael and Aziza Brewer (Shira Kost-Grant Brewer). at sea and how she would bring it back into her classroom this fall: “Echols’ work mapping the bottom of the ocean is key to making sure ships do not run aground or sink after hitting unseen objects. To accomplish the task, she will take a small motorboat equipped with sonar to chart shallow areas too dangerous for the main ship to navigate. She will also use
Theodore “Theo” David Williams, son of Lindy and Jordan Williams ’91.
equipment that gauges the temperature and salinity of the ocean, which can be used to track oceanic warming and the movement of fish. This fall, students in Echols’ four physics classes will have the chance to work with the data she will help collect.” Rosalind wrote a blog while at sea; read more about her summer at http://teacheratsea.wordpress.com/
Olivia Hope Spearmon is the second daughter of Shaun Spearmon ’97 and his wife, Brooke.
category/rosalind-echols/. Morgan Richards writes, “On August 10, 2013, I married Hannah McClellan at the Seattle Yacht Club. We celebrated with our friends and family including Lakeside graduates Lillie Cridland ’98 and Dana Luthy ’93 and Lakeside faculty members Kivonne Tucker and Sandy Schneider. Hannah works as a senior operations ➢
Evan Monroe Hetherington, son of Katie Monroe Hetherington ’95 and her husband, Jim.
Blake Laughlin, son of Andrew Laughlin ’98 and Vanessa Brewster Laughlin ’99. Alumni news
53
CLASS CONNECTIONS Kathryn Bailey graduated from Northwestern University in June with a Bachelor of Science in education and social policy. While at Northwestern, she served as co-coordinator of the Peer Health Exchange, a national program that organizes college students to lead health workshops in public school 9th grades. She was a counselor for Project Wildcat, which supports freshmen orientation each year with weeklong backpacking trips, and also was a mentor for the YMCA’s Project Soar to support local youth. Currently, Kathryn is employed as a legal assistant for Asia and Latin America at the Center for Reproductive Rights, an international nonprofit focusing on women’s health issues worldwide, with headquarters in New York City. She and two of her best friends from Northwestern are living in Brooklyn.
Michael Hwang ’09 and teammates took home the bronze medal at the 2013 World Rowing Championships this summer.
Brian Reiser received an A.B. in classics from Princeton. He graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. In May, Owen Wurzbacher graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College with a Bachelor of Arts in human evolutionary biology and a secondary degree in economics. While attending Harvard, Owen was a four-year varsity athlete on the swimming and diving team. He served as team captain in 2012-13 and was the recipient of the Harold S. Ulen Trophy, given annually to the senior team member who best demonstrates “qualities of leadership, sportsmanship, and team cooperation.” Out of the pool, he served as vice president of the African Development Initiative and vice president of the undergraduate Veritas Financial Group 2011-2012, and he received the
SEND US YOUR NOTES We want your notes and photos! Events big and small, personal or professional, are always of interest. Send us a baby announcement and photo, and we’ll outfit your little one with a Lakeside hat. Email notes and photos to alumni@ lakesideschool.org. 56
LAKESIDE
Fall/Winter 2013
to San Luis Obispo. She is now living in Chicago and working for BP.
From left, Alex Pascualy, Alexander Oki, and Garrett Ruoff hit the links at Newcastle Golf Club during their class’s f ifth reunion weekend. Mary Gordon Roberts Fellowship for research related to mind, brain, and behavior. Owen is currently employed by the Blackstone Group in New York as an analyst in restructuring and reorganization. Erika Fisher graduated from the UW in 2013 with a degree in biology. She spent the fall working as an environmental education intern at the Casper Mountain Science School in Casper, Wyo. Lila Fridley graduated from MIT in chemical engineering in June. She celebrated her graduation with a bike tour on the California coast from San Francisco
Alex Anderson graduated in June from Swarthmore College, where he received an award for having the highest GPA of the African-American male students in the graduating class. Alex is a ceramics artist producing prize-winning pieces for competitions and sales around the United States. He received a Fulbright scholarship and will be continuing his studies in China beginning in March 2014. Alex shares, “I will be doing an artist residency in ceramics and studying at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou. I chose China because of its rich history of masterful ceramic creation as well as the emphasis on realism present in the Chinese ceramic tradition. During my undergraduate education at Swarthmore College, I studied abroad in Jingdezhen, China, which is a ceramic mecca, and after three months of focused studio work and exploration, I knew that there was an infinite amount of knowledge and skill to gain from contemporary masters of the craft in China. The China Academy of Art is one of the two top-ranked art schools in the country and I am certain that it will be the perfect place to continue this journey in clay.” Alex’s work can be viewed at www.andersonceramics.org.
2013
To all members of the Class of 2013 – welcome to the Lakeside/St. Nicholas Alumni Association! Special thanks to Ishani Ummat and Ellis Simani who will serve as class connectors for the Lakeside Class of 2013. They will work to keep their class connected to each other and to Lakeside and to make sure that the care packages sent by the alumni office this winter reach each of their classmates. If your contact information changes, be sure to let the alumni office know.
FORMER FACULTY & STAFF Kate Okrasinski ’05 (in black) coached the Dutch national team in the World Lacrosse Championships this summer.
2010
Mike Siew graduated early from the UW summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in neurobiology and Phi Beta Kappa honors. Most recently, he conducted cleft palate and lip research at the Seattle Children’s Research Institute before entering the UW School of Dentistry this fall, following in his parents’ footsteps.
Laura Coff in ’09 at Camp Muir on Mount Rainier this summer.
2012
After his freshman year at Loyola Marymount University, Matthew Pigott spent his summer in Seattle interning at IndieFlix, an online marketplace for film-festival movies from around the world, co-founded by Scilla Andreen ’80. Matthew and several other interns helped curate films and enter them into the online library, and he interviewed Seattleites to raise awareness for independent films. He ended his internship by creating a “viral” video.
Dale and Judy Bauer write, “This summer was much like summers of the recent past, in that we went to Oregon in June, spent July at home, and then enjoyed 18 days in British Columbia. One of the high points of this summer’s annual trip to Tofino, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, was time spent with Marc Fowler ’71 and his wife, Rhonda. Marc took us out in his small boat to check his crab pot and then we made a 20-minute run through dense fog to an area where he promised we would find sun. We did – dolphins, too. Then we
Kevin Yu, a member of the CalTech swimming and diving team, was named “most outstanding freshman male athlete” at the Caltech all-sports awards banquet in May. Mykaylla Vederoff writes, “This summer, I started a program at Whidbey Island Center for the Arts (WICA), called TIC-TOC (Theater Improvisation Class-The Other Camp), for children with neurodevelopmental disorders affecting social skills and learning ability, and that are generally associated with the autism spectrum. I orchestrated a two-week, sixday camp that used improv games to allow the campers to open up and connect with one another. The camp was received quite positively by all those who participated and is scheduled to run again next summer. As a result of what the WICA community learned from working with the TIC-TOC campers, they have started a campaign to make the arts available to everyone.”
Dale and Judy Bauer during their July trip to Vancouver Island. had a wonderful dinner feasting on crab and salmon that Marc and Rhonda had caught that morning and reminiscing about the good old days. While on Vancouver Island, when we realized we weren’t counting down the days ’til the opening meetings, retirement became real for us. We’re finding it an easy adjustment and we’re looking forward to seeing what comes next.” ■ Alumni news
57
IN MEMORIAM
ST. NICHOLAS ALUMNAE Mary Annette Eggert Usack ’42 • June 17, 2013
If you have a remembrance to share about a St. Nicholas alumna or Lakeside alumna/alumnus that you would like to have published in the next magazine, please email the alumni relations office at alumni@ lakesideschool.org or call 206-368-3606. All remembrances are subject to editing for length and clarity. Your thoughts and memories are much appreciated. The following are reprints of paid notices or remembrances submitted by family members. Mary Jeanne Bleitz Campbell ’36 May 8, 2013 James Renton ’40 June 25, 2012
Mary Annette (“Teddy”) Eggert Usack, of Kent, formerly of Bellevue, passed away June 17 after an extended illness. Mary was born Oct. 24, 1924, to Carl and Frances Eggert in Seattle and attended St. Nicholas School and the University of Washington, where she was a member of Delta Gamma sorority. She remained an active alumni member of that sorority throughout her life. Mary was also a lifelong member of the Seattle Tennis Club. She loved to ride horses and had a special fondness for Moosehead Ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyo., which she visited with her family as a child and returned to with her husband and children many years later. She was keen on botany as a student and later was a member of the American Orchid Society, growing orchids for enjoyment for many years and winning a number of awards. She was proud of her family heritage, including being part of a pioneer family of Seattle, where the Eggerts settled prior to the great fire in 1889 and owned a shoe company. She and her husband of 59 years, Kenneth John Usack, had many happy years spending winters on the Big Island of Hawaii after his retirement. Mary was preceded in death by Ken in 2004. She is survived by her four children: Lynne Larson of Cashtown, Pa.; Michele (Mike) Suttle of Florence, Ala.; Richard (Patti) Usack of Kent, Wash., and Robert (Victoria) Usack of Gig Harbor, Wash. Mary also leaves six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren: Sara Larson (Brad Stuart) and daughters Eleanor and Phoebe of Westminster, Md.; Katherine (Nathan) Weinert and daughter Cecilia of Birmingham, Ala.; Rebecca (Jerry) Crabb and daughter Hailey of Florence, Ala.; Daniel Usack and daughter Mackenzie of Kent, Wash.; Theresa Usack of Auburn, Wash.; and Leah Usack of Peoria, Ariz. While all of us deeply miss our
mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, we know she is now in the best place she can be. We are very thankful for the care she received from her doctors and caregivers, especially Dr. Stacey Donlan, the caregivers of Andelcare, caregivers and staff at Arbor Village in Kent, and her team from Providence Hospice. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that anyone wishing to do so make a donation to the American Heart Association or to the American Diabetes Association.
Suzanne Anderson Peterson ’42 • July 8, 2013
Suzanne Carver Peterson, age 89, died peacefully in her sleep Monday, July 8. Preceded in death by her brother Roger Anderson and her son John Peterson, Suzanne is survived by her husband, John Manfred Peterson; brother Stuart (Helen) Anderson; son Martin (Debbie) Peterson; son Dean (Cindy) Peterson; grandchildren Greta, Carly, Laura, Carver, Kelly, and Carolyn; and four great-grandchildren. She was born in Seattle Jan. 18, 1924, to Dr. Roger and Susan Anderson. Suzanne attended St. Nicholas School, Wellesley College, and the University of Washington, graduating in 1946. She was a Gamma Phi Beta. Suzanne enjoyed gardening and was a member of the Seattle Garden Club, Lake Washington Garden Club, and the Arboretum Foundation, and she was head of fundraising for the Graham Visitors Center at Washington Park Arboretum. She was also a member of the Seattle Yacht Club, Sunset Club, and Ancient Skiers and was an avid sailor, skier, and a three time hole-in-one golfer (two in the same round). John and Sue traveled by motorhome for 27 years visiting 49 states. Suzanne was an active member of the Mercer Island’s Emmanuel Episcopal Church since 1954. Remembrances can be sent to Arboretum Foundation or Emmanuel Episcopal Church.
LAKESIDE ALUMNI Robin Appleford ’77 • April 14, 2013
Robin was the daughter of Lyle and Betty Appleford. She is also survived by sister Barbara Beier, sisterin-law Marcia Bruno, niece Charlotte Appleford, and nephew Elliott Appleford. She was preceded in death by her brother Christopher in 2012. She attended The Bush School, McGilvra Elementary, and Meany Middle School and graduated from Lakeside School in 1977. She graduated from Whitman College with a degree in political science in 1981 and earned a master’s degree in economics in 1986 at the University of Washington. She started her career in the office of Gov. Booth Gardner, then worked in the House of Representatives as an analyst for the Revenue Committee. She worked
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briefly for King County before becoming a contract lobbyist and economic consultant. In 2010 she began a new career in education. She was an avid athlete, earning the Mignon Borleske trophy at Whitman for outstanding athletic performance. She hiked, skied, backpacked, and trekked with llamas, enjoying the outdoors with friends and family. Robin was an advocate of low-income housing, serving on the board and as president of Plymouth Housing Group. She also was on the board of the conservation group Forterra. Robin was a longtime resident of Vashon Island, where she maintained a menagerie of chickens, dogs, birds, llamas, and horses. She was a valued member of Plymouth Church, United Church of Christ,
until she transferred to Fauntleroy Church, United Church of Christ in January 2013. Remembrances to Seattle Children’s Hospital or Swedish Medical Center.
Harold Blanton ’47 • Aug. 2, 2013
Harold Hall Blanton was born Nov. 23, 1928, to Harold and Gladys (Hall) Blanton in Seattle. He passed away peacefully at his home in Packwood, Wash., on Aug. 2. Harold spent much of his youth in Ketchikan, Alaska, with his mom, dad, and younger brother, George, growing up hunting, fishing, and camping. He graduated from Lakeside School in 1947. Harold joined the U.S. Coast Guard and was stationed in Alaska. In 1953, he married Beverly Rudio and they had two children, Dawn Rae and Harold George (Hal). They lived and worked in Seattle, moving to Packwood in the late 1950s. The family returned to Seattle in the early 1960s to help manage a family business. In 1964, Harold married Ruth Harmon and added to the family stepsons Bill and Bob and stepdaughter Barbara. Harold and Ruth moved to Packwood in the mid-70s, and in 1977 he and his father built Blanton’s Mini-Mart, which they expanded twice before building Blanton’s Market in 1988. For a time, three generations worked alongside one another: Harold oversaw the daily operations; his father managed the store; and son Hal worked as the store’s butcher. Harold was known for his resourcefulness, thriftiness, and ability to work with his hands. He designed the original Blanton’s Market logo with Hal; the logo featured a “Mr. Friendly” character. Most customers assumed the drawing featured Harold, who always had a ready smile, twinkling blue eyes, and a laugh to share with his customers. Harold retired in 1994. In 1998, Harold married Robin Hill and their family expanded to include stepsons Stuart, Steve, Stan, Tom, Dave, Hiram, and Matthew. During their retirement, Harold and Robin enjoyed traveling, gardening, and relaxing in the peacefulness of Packwood. Harold was a beloved husband, father, stepfather, grandfather, brother, uncle, and friend and will be greatly missed. He was a life member of Post 3057 Veterans of Foreign Wars and a charter member of the Packwood Lions Club. Harold was preceded in death by his parents, wife Ruth, stepdaughter Barbara, and stepson Stan. He is survived by his wife Robin; daughter Dawn, of Anaconda, Mont.; son Hal (Tracey); stepsons Bill, Bob, Stuart, Steve, Dave, Hiram, Tom, and Matthew; and brother George, of Packwood. He leaves behind a legacy of 14 grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren, numerous nieces and nephews, and a great number of loyal and dear friends. The family suggests donations to a Lions Club eye bank in lieu of flowers.
Frank Donaldson ’52 • Aug. 2, 2013
Frank Donaldson, 80, of Everett, beloved husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather went home
to his heavenly Father on Aug. 2. Frank was born and raised in Seattle, the only child of Margaret and Frank Sr. He graduated from Lakeside School and the University of Washington with a degree in marketing and worked his entire life in sales. Frank and his highschool sweetheart, Carol, would have been married 58 years on Aug. 6. Together they raised three sons, David (Karen), Kenneth (Gayla), and Robert (Lexi). He is also survived by seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. Frank and Carol loved traveling, and Frank was happiest planning his next road trip. The favorite destination was Palm Desert, Calif. Frank was also an avid sports fan and faithfully attended Husky football games for many years. He enjoyed golfing with his sons and father-in-law and spent many frustrating hours looking for his golf ball due to a chronic slice. Frank had a lifelong love of music, singing, and playing the trumpet, and as a young man was known to burst into song at the slightest provocation. Frank was a faithful churchgoer until ill health prevented attending worship services. He was a longtime member of Faith Lutheran Church, serving on the church council and singing in the choir and men’s chorus for many years. Remembrances may be made in Frank’s honor to Faith Lutheran Church.
Graham Gaiser ’54 • Feb. 24, 2013
Hugh Graham Gaiser was born Feb. 12, 1937. He passed away on Feb. 24 in Bellevue. He is survived by his loving wife, Carol Gaiser, daughter Kate Gaiser, son Steve Gaiser, as well as many other family members and friends. He will be dearly missed.
James Harms ’48 • May 28, 2012
Born in 1929 to Edna Robinson Harms and James Harms, Jim spent his school years living on Yarrow Point in Bellevue. Later his family purchased a 20,000-acre ranch at Northport, along the Columbia River. Jim managed the ranch for his father during his 20s. He used his engineering skills for many innovations on the ranch. The cowboys laughed at his ideas until they proved successful. Jim taught himself trigonometry and engineering after attending college for just two years. Some of Jim’s projects as site manager and resident engineer include: the construction of Totem Ocean Trailer Terminals at the Port of Tacoma, a $40-million project; construction of a Shielded Anechoic Facility for testing guided-missile control systems for the Taiwanese government; Port of Tacoma, Continental Grain Company, Export Grain Terminal, a state-of-the-art automated export terminal capable of loading 3,000 tons per hour without visible dust emissions; and the Blair Waterway Wharf Log Export Terminal, which withstood continuous abuse from 100-ton log stacks for more than 17 years. Jim built his first sailboat at age 11 and continued his ➢ In Memoriam
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➢ IN MEMORIAM: alumni love of sailing his entire life. He purchased a 44-foot steel Dutch boat in Amsterdam and cruised down the canals and rivers to the Mediterranean Sea over the course of three summers. Jim visited 25 countries during his lifetime. He was generous, and he was interested in what you had to say. If you mentioned that you had a construction project in mind, he’d have a plan drawn up the next time you saw him. For all this, Jim was a modest man. He seldom mentioned his major achievements but loved to make people laugh, telling about the “rattlebox cows” that bedeviled his life for several years in Northport. Jim died of a very fast growing brain tumor. He will be greatly missed by all who knew him. He is survived by his loving wife of 27 years, Rosemary; his children, James Jr. of Snohomish; Stephen (Rebecca) of Milwaukie, Ore.; David (Tamara) of Seattle; Lisa, of Colorado, Bridget (Jim Turrell) of Seattle; six grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.
Steve Haynes ’67 • Aug. 22, 2013
Steve, age 64, passed away Aug. 22 after a short illness. He was a wonderful husband, son, brother, in-law, and uncle. Everyone loved Steve with his gentle, quiet spirit and quick humor. He and his wife, Val Styrlund Haynes, had so much fun just being together. They loved traveling together and laughed often with each other over so many little things. Steve grew up on Mercer Island, attended Lakeside School and the University of Washington, and received his master’s at Thunderbird International School of Business. He had a banking career spanning 30-plus years, including time at Rainier Bank, US Bank, and Peoples Bank, and he joined 1st Security Bank of Washington in 2005 as chief lending officer. In 2012, Steve was appointed their chief credit officer. He served on the board of the Woodland Park Zoo, heading the audit subcommittee, and was a member of the Seattle Golf Club. He is survived by his loving wife of 26 years; his father, Hal Haynes; his sister Christine Stime (Randy); their children Drew and Kimberly Crawford (Rob), and their children; his brother Kevin (Wendy); brother-in-law Mark Styrlund (Val) and their children Kelsie and Timothy. He is in heaven now, with his mother, who passed away in 2007. Thank you to everyone who showed concern and shared prayers during his illness. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the charity of your choice in memory of Steve.
Frank Hopkins ’45• July 17, 2013
Frank was born June 8, 1927, in Seattle with twin brother Fred, was raised in Ballard, and attended Lakeside School. Early in 1945 he enlisted in the Coast Guard and became a radio operator on the cutter Atalanta. After Coast Guard service he attended the University of Washington, where he was a member of Psi Upsilon fraternity. Following graduation he joined the fourth-generation family business, Seattle Boiler Works. He also was a principal in a mill manufacturing veneer for plywood as well as a building-material warehouse in Los Angeles. Frank was one of the four founders of Plywood Supply in Kenmore. He was a life member of the Seattle Yacht Club and Seattle Tennis Club. He was preceded in death by his daughter Mary
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Hopkins Smith and younger brother Richard Jerry Hopkins. He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Ethel; son Craig Hopkins and his wife, Marion; grandchildren Mike Smith and wife Heidi, Chris Smith and partner Liz Dominick, Brooke Hopkins, and Matthew Hopkins; and great-granddaughter Audrey Smith. May he rest in peace.
Clyde Ludberg ’58 • June 17, 2013
Clyde ““Bill” Ludberg Jr. was born Feb. 15, 1939, in Spokane to Clyde and Barbara Ludberg. He passed away June 17 in Spokane. Clyde grew up in Spokane and then joined the United States Army. He served one year in Taiwan and learned how to speak fluent Mandarin Chinese in just six months at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, Calif. He loved fishing and the Mariners. He golfed on a professional level and was very athletic in his younger years. He married the love of his life, Janis, on Feb. 14, 1969. She had three children from a previous marriage, and Clyde quickly took them in as his own without question and with the love only a father can have. Two years later, they had their fourth child. He spent the majority of his later life helping to raise many of his grandchildren with the same care and love. He was a quiet, gentle teacher to his family, instilling a strong value system based on patience, devotion, compassion, acceptance, and unconditional love. He is survived by his children, sons Dan (Renee) of Medical Lake, Wash., and Frank Daniels of Spokane, daughters Joni (Tom) Holbrook, of Spokane, and Lisa Ludberg, of Spokane; and sister Joyce (Ted) Hughett, of Hayden Lake, Idaho. He is also survived by 13 grandchildren, 10 great-grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews. He is preceded in death by his parents, his wife, Janis, and a sister, Barbara Lorenz. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Clyde’s name to the Wounded Warrior Project, P.O. Box 758517, Topeka, KS 66675.
Robert Stiffler ’50 • May 30, 2013
Robert “Bob” Morse Stiffler, 81, of Punta Gorda, Fla., passed away peacefully at his home May 30 after a long illness. He was born in San Francisco, the son of Lester and Lourita Stiffler. He grew up in Seattle and graduated from the University of Southern California and Michigan State. Having retired from the U.S. Air Force and the State of Maryland, he moved to Punta Gorda from Maryland in 1992. He and his wife retired to Florida to make their boating dreams come true, which he was able to do. He also found senior softball and played locally as well as on a traveling team that played in tournaments around Florida and in the senior World Series. Playing sports was always an important part of his life. Bob is survived by his loving wife of 41 years, Penny Stiffler; his daughter Linda Jean Thomas, of Euless, Texas; his son David Lester Stiffler, of Costa Mesa, Calif.; his daughter Karin Diane Wilson; granddaughters Lauren Jeanette Thomas, Kylee La Rue Wilson, and Delaney Wilson; and last but not least, his beloved cat Patches. Bob was preceded in death by his parents and his brother Jim. In lieu of flowers, Bob designated donations be sent to the American Brain Tumor Association, 8550 West Bryn Mawr Ave., Suite 550, Chicago, IL 60631. ■
P.S. E R S O N A L
T O R Y
I
by Brock Adler ’76
Environmental education to save the world
n 1970, I was a new 7th grader at Lakeside (the school started at 7th grade then, and this was its last year as all-boys). During the first semester, all incoming freshmen had to take an ecology class taught by Doug Thiel. On the first day of class, the first thing I learned was that “everything was connected.” This was a revelation; I actually remember the moment I learned this. We also learned about how ecosystems worked and the various types of pollution of the day. The class even took brooms and garbage cans to Pike Place Market to do some local clean-up with a couple of teachers. Fast forward more than 40 years from my first and most important piece of environmental education to today, where the most important thing I can be doing with my professional life is working on environmental ed. I oversee advocacy efforts for federal funding of environmental education through the North American Association for Environmental Education. I also help states develop, adopt, and carry out “environmental literacy plans” (as encouraged by pending federal legislation; half the states have them adopted and/or written, including Washington, the others are working on them). And I’m involved in environmental investing. My parents understandably wanted me to go into the family business (wholesale fashion jewelry). But I went to Lakeside and was fortunately introduced to its beautiful hybrid of humanities and math and science. The 1960s cultural revolution in the U.S.
Courtesy of Brock Adler ’76
Brock Adler ’76 traces his path to environmental educator back to a 1970 ecology class he took at Lakeside.
was still going strong. Technologies of all sorts were rapidly developing (those 1970s garbage cans in the first paragraph were metal – no plastic ones, and certainly there were no plastic garbage bags; plastic was too expensive to make something disposable out of!). There were just so many new types of careers. So I and my peers were fortunate to be able to follow our own callings. I then took a circuitous route to where I am now: economics then museum studies degrees; museum work then running professional educational programming for people in the field of philanthropy; and finally environmental education programming and advocacy. My circuitous route also includes having two children,
now 13 and 18, and, of course, I want them to do professionally what I do! Well, they can be doctors, artists, farmers ... but whatever they do, it should have an environmentally positive component. (I have taken them to lobby Congress since they were 9 years old; they did great.) It is important for all students to be guided in an environmental direction, hence my current work. In our precarious state of environmental affairs, we need everybody to be an environmentalist, whether
Brock Adler ’76 is co-chair of the Advocacy Committee for the North American Association for Environmental Education. He holds degrees in economics and museum programming. Adler is also a home-school dad.
they work for a gas station, a laundry, or the White House. And because of this urgency, which will affect all kinds of professions, an environmental education is surely a key to future career success. The last time I weighed in about the environment and education in Lakeside magazine was 20 years ago. The editors collected questions from 5th graders about the future to be posed to alumni. I was given the question: “Is our Earth in as much danger as everyone is saying?” (Find the original article at lakesideschool. org/magazine or this QR code.) While the first part of my answer has unfortunately changed – the Earth is in considerably more danger now than it was back then – the other parts still hold true: I don’t think it’s too late, and I still stress that students are part of the solution. For today’s students, being part of the solution means that you are learning what you can to help ... in the not too distant future. ■
TELLING YOUR STORIES P.S., or Personal Story, is a personal essay written by a Lakeside alum. If you’re interested in contributing a short piece for a future issue, please write us at magazine@lakesideschool.org. In Memoriam, Personal Story
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ALUMNI SPORTS
Participants in the 2013 alumni soccer game. The annual odds vs. evens battle ended in a 1-1 tie. Special thanks to past Lakeside parent David Friend (back row, far left) who has refereed the game for more than 10 years.
Homecoming 2013 / Alumni soccer match lumni took to Parsons Field on homecoming day in October A for the annual odds vs. evens battle. It was a spirited match; after a scoreless first half, the game ended in a 1-1 tie. Throughout the day,
Lakeside fans cheered the Middle School soccer, the junior varsity and varsity girls soccer, and the varsity boys football teams. To view photos from the alumni soccer game, visit www.lakesideschool.org/alumni. ■
alumni row 2013
by Carol Borgmann
Drowers to the annual Alumni Row. Gathering at the
uring reunion weekend, Lakeside welcomed nearly 30
Ayrault Shellhouse on a beautiful morning, they enjoyed breakfast and hearing about the 2013 season from boys coach Jeff Iqbal and girls coach Libby Weick. Then alumni joined current Lakeside rowers on Lake Washington for some friendly racing. ■
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Alumni rowers gather outside of the shellhouse before heading out on the water. Below, from left: Bruce Moses ’83, Skip Teel ’83, Eric Ayrault ’83, and John Kelly ’84 in the Ayrault shell.
CALENDAR OF EVENTS 2013-2014 December
18
College Chatter Luncheon and Assembly for young alumni (Classes of ’10-’13), Refectory and St. Nicholas Hall. Lunch at 11:30 a.m., assembly begins at 12:55 p.m.
January
6 College Chatter Luncheon for young alumni (Classes of ’10-’13). Casual lunch in the Refectory, 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. 10
The Paul G. Allen Athletics Center Opening Celebration, details TBA.
February
12
Dan Ayrault Memorial Endowed Lecture featuring Gayle Karen Young, St. Nicholas Hall, 7 p.m.
13
Bay Area Alumni Reception, location TBA, 6 p.m.
March
5
Seattle Area Alumni Reception, Pacific Science Center, 6 p.m.
29 - 30 Lakeside Rummage Sale April 30 New York Area Alumni Reception, location TBA, 6 p.m. Members of the Class of 1979 in front of Bliss Hall the night of their senior year TOLO dance. Photo courtesy of the Jane Carlson Williams ’60 Archives and Duncan Milloy ’79.
REUNION 2014 June 12-15
Recognizing St. Nicholas and Lakeside alumni from classes ending in 4 and 9.
Lakeside School invites all classes celebrating their reunion to a reception and casual dinner on Friday, June 13, 2014. Reunion volunteers are needed to help plan their individual class events. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact the alumni relations office at 206-368-3606 or email alumni@lakesideschool.org. In addition, the St. Nicholas and Lakeside Classes of 1964 will be honored at a luncheon and at the Upper School commencement on Thursday, June 12, 2014. Additional details to come!
May 28 Arts Fest, Upper School campus June
12
Commencement and 50th Reunion Luncheon, Upper School campus
13
Reunion dinner for classes ending in 4 and 9, hosted by Lakeside, Upper School campus, 5:30 p.m.
13 - 15 Reunion 2014 weekend. For more information on all alumni events, visit www.lakesideschool.org/alumni. Questions? Please contact the alumni relations off ice of the Lakeside/St. Nicholas Alumni Association at 206-368-3606 or alumni@lakesideschool.org.
Get LinkedIn with alumni!
Join classmates on Facebook
Want to network with other Lakeside/St. Nicholas alumni? Go to
Stay connected with your classmates by joining the Lakeside School Alumni group on Facebook. Interested in connecting with alumni in your city? Contact the alumni relations office at alumni@lakesideschool.org or 206-368-3606 about setting up a Facebook group or organizing an alumni gathering in your area.
LinkedIn.com and join the Lakeside School/St. Nicholas School Alumni (Official Group). It’s a great way to connect with fellow alumni as well as enhance your LinkedIn connections. Help current students and young alumni in their search for internship or job opportunities; search for contacts using keywords such as location, profession, or company; network with other members; join in discussions on the discussion board; and post and view openings on the job board.
Alumni Sports, Calendar
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