Farewells

inside lakeside

FAREWELLS

Felicia Wilks: Parting Thoughts

ON A BARELY-SPRING Thursday morning during her final semester at Lakeside, Felicia Wilks takes time out of a busy schedule to reflect on her five years as Upper School director and the impacts she has had on the school. There is perhaps no clearer contribution than her love for her advisories. “My advisory that graduated last year — was that 2021? — we did ethical dilemmas all the time,” she says. Debating her own ethical dilemma, she hesitates, then decides to tell me, “We would go to IHOP periodically as an advisory, which was always fun.” She laughs. She proudly notes her advisees’ 30-move Jenga record (achieved over two advisories) and their impressive collection of Mr. Potato Heads, retrieved from an unclaimed basket in the faculty room.

During a wide-ranging conversation, we discuss the role of resources in a community’s identity (inextricable, we discover, but not the whole story), the need for excellence in ever-changing education and research, and, in the context of Ms. Wilks’ imminent move to New York City to become head of The Spence School, the absurdity of simply walking into the street and assuming cars will stop. (“That just terrifies me,” she says. “That’s not how it is where I come from.”) But time and time again, our conversation returns to wellness. “I probably sound like a broken record,” Wilks says, but her advice for students is still “to listen to yourself and respond!” Every meaningful accomplishment in her time at Lakeside, she notes, touches on student wellness: the sexual misconduct policy she helped shape; the investments for which she advocated in 10th and 11th grade wellness; the new class schedule, which aims to help students better manage homework loads. This engagement with student health is about balance, she says: “paying as much attention to yourself as you do to the things that you create or are responsible for.” As she prepares for her next step beyond Lakeside, one message remains clear: “Take care of yourselves.”

Outgoing Upper School director Felicia Wilks, center, in her element: enjoying a light moment surrounded by students in her advisory.

Lucy Goldman, left, and Susie Mortensen put a spirited face on the Middle School for more than two decades. They retired this past June.

— Aaron Z. ’23

They Made Us Better

IT’S BEEN A CUSTOM of this magazine to recognize retiring faculty and staff members who have served Lakeside for 20 years or more. Two members of this year’s cohort — Zinda Foster, who worked in many roles across the school before retiring as the Upper School service learning coordinator, Head of School Bernie Noe — received special recognition this spring as co-recipients of Lakeside’s Distinguished Service Award. You can read about some of their contributions on the opposite page.

In addition to Noe and Foster, this year we also recognize two stalwarts of the Middle School faculty. Language teacher Lucy Goldman says au revoir after having taught at Lakeside for four decades. Goldman became known for many things — her toughness on 8th grade hikes, her understated sense of fun in faculty meetings and lunchroom conversations — but she will be best remembered for her devotion to teaching French to students in a vivid, memorable way. One of her pupils once said, “Madame is a national treasure!”

There are bright memories of English teacher Susie Mortensen shared by colleagues: the spontaneous breaking out into Broadway musical songs, the absurd, eye-catching walks down the hallway as she imitated John Cleese’s “Ministry of Silly Walks,” the relentlessness she showed in developing a creative online curriculum even while struggling with the ins-and-outs of the new virtual technologies. She had a reputation for balancing warmth and discipline, for being unfailingly positive and honest at the same time. That rare combination of traits made the English department, and the Middle School — and the young writers and readers in her classrooms — better at what they did.