Portrait of a Graduate: Lausanne Collegiate School

Portrait of a Graduate portrait of a graduate

A Lausanne graduate is‌ 3

a seeker of knowledge who understands the importance of intellectual, physical and emotional balance to achieve personal well-being for themselves and others.

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a thinker able to recognize and approach complex problems, make ethical decisions and understand and capitalize on his or her strengths and limitations.

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a confident risk-taker with understanding of a broad and balanced range of disciplines. a n open-minded global citizen with a strong sense of fairness, justice and respect for other individuals, communities and the environment. a n effective communicator who seeks and evaluates a range of viewpoints. a caring and reflective person who respects the needs and feelings of others and acts to make a positive difference. an inquirer with a passion to continue a lifelong love of learning.

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portrait of a graduate

Wendy Wurtzburger ‘76 Finding inspiration in a Paris flea market; exploring the beaches of the Galapagos Islands; brainstorming summer, spring and winter fashion and entertaining friends and family are just a few of the many colorful, creative, and fun activities you might find in a typical week with Lausanne alumna Wendy Wurtzburger ‘76.

Lausanne’s student communications interns were thrilled to interview Wendy, who is the chief merchandise and design officer for Anthropologie, a division of UrbanOutfitters. She has been with the company for 14 years, in which time it has grown from a less than 100 million dollar company to a billion dollar company in 2011. Charged with defining who they are as a company, Wendy and her teams of merchants and designers develop the essence of the products offered

by Anthropologie to “inspire” customers and deliver the sales and profits.

Always a passionate shopper, Wendy explains that she is not a designer but “an extremely creative merchant” who explored

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ur life to time in yo important ly al re . I a “...It’s and beauty t culture ou ab te na get passio rns who udent inte ople and st pe ng ri hi love e look ucation. W al arts ed ustomer, have a liber for our c ns le t en er diff t through a re. We wan t and cultu ar y, or st tying in hi present but try to e familiar ar at th gs part thin is a huge ways. Art t en er f f them in di ery day.” helps me ev now and it e lif y m of

her love of design and art through art history at Brown University. She still connects strongly with the student experience and shares, “It’s a really important time in your life to get passionate about culture and beauty. I love hiring people and student interns who have a liberal arts education. We look through a different lens for our customer, tying in history, art and culture. We want things that are familiar but try to present them in different ways. Art is a huge part of my life now and it helps me every day.”

“I had a great experience at Lausanne,” continues Wendy. “I’m still friends with many of the people I grew up with there. They are some of the smartest people I know and the most clever and creative.” Her sentiments about the meaningful relationships and joyful atmosphere of Anthropologie are similar. “It’s not about me; it’s about a team,” says Wendy. “We’re a group of entrepreneurs with a shared vision. We have a brand that has a strong personality and a lot of unique things that we weave together.”

Wendy explains that she is “a concept person who works with design to come up with great ideas and make magic.” For example, Wendy just returned from a trip to Paris where she and Anthropologie’s home team attended a trade show in which people promoted home design trends from around the

world. Now back in Philadelphia, Wendy and her team are putting the finishing touches on the fall collection and are starting work on the winter holidays 2012. They are also already thinking about next spring.

“We have created a special environment at Anthropologie,” explains Wendy. “We love our customers and are passionate about it. It’s really a lot of fun. The strategic energy and the passion we’ve put into our work we hope comes out in our product…giving her (the customer) what she wants and listening to her…and always trying to make it better for her.”

Anthropologie is an international company with its roots in Europe. Outside of the United States, some of Anthropologie’s most loyal customers live in Japan, The United Kingdom, Australia and Canada.

“We are a very flat organization,” shares Wendy. “Expanding internationally is a big part of our growth and it’s been really fun to think about what it means to be a global company. For example, I’m very proud of the business we do in South Africa.

We didn’t just go one time. Instead we’ve built relationships with our vendors. They may not be the most profitable, but it’s really important for me to continue those relationships. The artistry and craft is more important than finding the least expensive price.”

Wendy was in tow n for the March 201 0 grand opening of Anthropologie’s Sa ddle Creek locati on in Germantow She will return thi n. s May as Lausanne ’s Baccalaureate speaker.

Wendy explains, “I’ve had wonderful opportunities to travel, but it wasn’t just handed to me. I’ve had to go out and find it. You are the master of your own destiny. We have the opportunity to reinvent every day, to self-reflect on how to solve this problem and get over that hurdle.”

Wendy’s senior quote in the 1976 Lausanne yearbook was “It don’t really matter what steps you choose to do. The only thing that matters is your attitude,” by Carly Simon. Wendy still takes these words to heart and her work with Anthropologie is joyfully and passionately interwoven into her everyday life.

Lausanne junior Carly Stein ‘13 summed up Wendy best, “She is Anthropologie” and a product of Lausanne!

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portrait of a graduate

Bita Esmaeli ‘80

the time. It was t a e m e k li e n eo abulous for som learn as I faced o t ce “Lausanne was f la p t ea r g eltering and a an culture, pe o r u E a nurturing and sh in p u n nges. I had grow n Iran of today. io s vi en all of those cha t h ig m u t from how yo were learning is ph em which is differen M in g in iv enges upon arr an American d a h I The biggest chall e. m o h m o e being away fr e time I was don h t y b the language and s ce ie p in ry that was Heritage Dictiona ” with high school.

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Bita Esmaeli ’80 was fifteen when she came to the United States from Iran.

Her parents, both physicians, worked to help each of their children escape the political turmoil in their homeland.

Wanting Bita to be near family, her parents chose Memphis and Lausanne Collegiate School, which at the time was an all-girl, college preparatory, boarding school.

It was her parents’ early influence that ultimately inspired her own medical career in ophthalmology, but it was her experience at Lausanne and the welcome she received from the Lausanne community that empowered her future.

Bita was in culture shock when she moved to Memphis.

“Lausanne was fabulous for someone like me at the time,” shared Bita. “It was nurturing and sheltering and a great place to learn as I faced all of those changes. I had grown up in a European culture, which is different from how you might envision Iran of today. The biggest challenges upon arriving in Memphis were learning the language and being away from home. I had an American Heritage Dictionary that was in pieces by the time I was done with high school.”

“Some of the people that took care of all of us in the boarding school at Lausanne were key figures in my life at the time,” reflected Bita. “Martha Feldman was an American history teacher and was the assistant headmaster. She lived on campus in a house with her family, and we all had dinners and breakfasts together. These shared meals provided some semblance of family away from family.”

Reflecting fondly on those shared meals as well as the diversity of her classmates, Bita continued, “Academically, Lausanne was top-notch but also socially, it had the reputation for being tolerant and progressive and empowering students to think outside the box. That is what I relate to as a student the most.

There were several international students among the boarders with many different backgrounds. You pursued your own path and Lausanne prepared us to do it.”

Bita graduated from Lausanne in 1980 and attended Southwestern, now Rhodes College. Bita explains, “My Lausanne and Rhodes experiences were very connected and were critically important to

my early training and development.” It was Bita’s close relationships with Alyce “Poohie” ‘59 & Harry Burr, with whom she stayed on weekends, that ultimately led to her acceptance to Rhodes College. Alyce’s father, Ed Jappe, for whom the Lausanne Lower School wing is named, was good friends with Dr. Peyton Rhodes, the former president of Southwestern, which would later be renamed in his honor.

Knowing the certain turmoil Bita faced if she returned to Iran and recognizing her academic potential, Dr. Rhodes paved the way for her education at the small liberal arts college despite the visa challenges and political difficulties she faced as an Iranian student in the U.S. during those times. Grateful for the Jappe and Burr families and Dr. Rhodes’ kindness, Bita made the most of her education. After graduating from Rhodes College, she received her master’s degree in cell biology at the University of California in Santa Barbara. She completed her medical education at Chicago Medical School and her residency training in ophthalmology at the University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center. She completed her ASOPRS-sponsored oculoplastic surgery fellowship at the University of Toronto. Afterwards, Bita, a self-described calculated risk-taker, was instrumental in establishing the ophthalmology section as a comprehensive fulltime service at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in 1998.

She works weekly with fellows and residents as a professor of ophthalmology at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center and spends 70% of her professional time with patients in the orbital oncology and oncologic oculoplastic surgery practice she has built. At this writing, she is preparing for one of her many international lectures, the next of which will take place at the World Ophthalmology Congress meeting in Abu Dhabi, U.A.E., and she is beginning the college search with her 16-year-old son, who has Princeton and Colombia at the top of his list.

International conferences and presentations; work with fellows and residents balanced by her own clinical, surgical and research work and dedication to her son is “a lot to juggle,” says Bita. “But, I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

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portrait of a grad

uate

P H OTO S B Y T I M S H AV E R

Tyler Cotton ‘04 Tyler Cotton ’04 developed an early fascination with Asian culture through childhood lessons in karate and time playing Asian video games. Although he considered the study of Italian when he arrived at Middlebury College, he says, “I thought I was up to the challenge of Mandarin and went ahead with my original intention.” That decision helped Tyler build his career as a freelance translator living in China.

Although Lausanne’s student body was not as globally diverse when Tyler attended as it is now, he says he and his classmates gained “a heightened awareness in sync with the nation’s growing awareness of world news” after the attacks on September 11, 2001. Inspired by former Lausanne teacher Barry Gilmore, a Middlebury alum, and impressed by the school’s literature, Tyler found himself drawn to Middlebury for both its foreign language program and the family-type environment that reminded him of Lausanne.

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Middlebury has one of the highest enrollment numbers in Chinese for a school of its size, and whereas Tyler’s first-year class in Mandarin included 45 students, he was one of only four majors in the language. He described his experience as “being in the trenches with our professors. My Chinese professor took notice of the fact that I was always asking questions and remarked, ‘This is very good. Because if you don’t ask questions, you cannot learn. Keep them coming!’”

Tyler attributes his confident sense of inquiry to the educational freedom he experienced at Lausanne. “I wasn’t afraid to ask questions or to state my opinion. Curiosity was encouraged (at Lausanne). The classroom environment was very open to discussion and contributions by students. In the honors and AP classes, everyone was interested in contributing and participating. For that reason, we were given more freedom.”

After a nine-week full summer language immersion program in Vermont, Tyler traveled to China for the spring semester of his junior year. He said his time in China was difficult and he experienced culture shock. He found himself questioning whether or not he would ever return to China. “I was sick of the Chinese urban jungle,” shared Tyler. “I was sick of the headaches of the developing world and wanted to go back to the green of Vermont.

But I got an internship. It was sort of a dream come true.”

With a developing interest in environmentalism and his spring coursework complete, Tyler took a communications and

philanthropy internship at The Nature Conservancy in Kumming, China. During that time he assisted in the design of an exhibition highlighting the establishment of national parks in Diqing Prefecture of Yunnan Province, popularly known as “Shangri-La.” He also translated Mandarin text into English for exhibition pieces and edited and revised English documents.

So, when a friend and fellow graduate from Middlebury exploring jobs in Korea encouraged Tyler to look for jobs in China, he did. His first six months back in China were spent teaching. There were “great moments and terrible moments.”

Afterward, he spent six weeks traveling the country by bus and train working on his next step.

Although he enjoyed his time connecting with nature in the southwest of China, he was ready to return to the United States when his internship ended. He graduated from Middlebury in 2008 and was awarded the Timothy Loring Prize in Chinese Language and Culture. Still wrestling with his ambivalent relationship with China, he found himself wanting to simplify and work at a local organic farm in Vermont.

In the fall of 2008, he enrolled at Bejing Normal University (teachers’ college) to brush up on his Chinese while he looked for a job. He moved near the Drum Tower into a “hutong,” which is a traditional meandering network of single story houses and courtyards in old Beijing. Tyler reflected on sharing facilities with his neighbors and listening to their carrier pigeon pets “whistle” by his windows.

“You have a lot of time to think and talk on a farm,” explained Tyler. “I couldn’t shut up about China, so I had to go back because no one wanted to listen to me. It’s something you can’t understand unless you’ve been there.”

In March 2010, Tyler got a breakthrough job at the company that runs the Chinese facebook, Renren. He worked in their games division as an English polisher for their online games. His mentor at Renren began translating freelance and encouraged Tyler to begin his own business. A year later, Tyler took his cue.

Tyler returned to the United States last year and based his freelance work out of Philadelphia to be near friends from Lausanne and Middlebury. It wasn’t long though before he felt the now familiar call back to China and returned to Beijing to continue his work in translation. Fortunately, he arrived in time to participate in the 15-day celebration of the Chinese New Year of the Dragon!

Curiosity was encouraged (at Lausanne).

The classroom environment was very open to discussion and contributions by students.

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portrait of a graduate

Andrea Auguiste ‘82 The sanitation strikes, Martin Luther King, Jr. and school desegregation make Memphis an extraordinarily colorful chapter in the story of our nation’s civil rights movement and race relations of the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s. While many schools in the Mid-South fought to keep students segregated, Lausanne Collegiate School’s board, headmaster, and faculty were revolutionary in their determination to diversify the school’s student body and to increase the school community’s global mindedness. Andrea Dancy Auguiste ‘82 and her siblings attended Lausanne as a direct result of the school’s intentional recruitment of students of color from local public schools. Her cousins and brothers joined the Montessori program, and her sister, Amber Dancy Gooding ’81, preceded her joining the student body in the seventh grade.

Although Andrea was much more interested in following her friends from Campus School to Bellevue Junior High and Central High, her parents were adamant about making sure she and her sister attended a school that would introduce them to “different types of cultures.” She explained, “Race was an issue for us.” Some of the students were confused by her sister’s and her light skin and often thought they were “anything but black.” In addition, several of the students had only encountered black people as servants in their families’ homes, not as peers. As the daughter of the first black pediatrician in Memphis and a niece of American civil rights leader Benjamin Hooks, Andrea said, “I spent a lot of time educating people.”

“Although it was like we were being extracted from our culture, I gradually began to see the benefits. I still get goose bumps thinking about the protective veil that the teachers and (headmaster Thomas) Eppley placed over us. It was really very deliberate. We were constantly encouraged and reminded that we could do anything. It was really wonderful. I don’t think I would have learned the same leadership skills or initiative if I had attended public school.”

At Lausanne, “I was more involved in areas that I wasn’t necessarily great at, but I gave it a try,” said Andrea.

Lausanne students had a different attitude: “Even if you don’t think you can do this, you’re going to do it and give it your best. We took turns being leaders. We gave each other that space. It didn’t seem like we had problems with cliques like other students because we were focused on developing ourselves. Our teachers made us aware of this and told us to get over our personal problems.”

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Andrea related a specific memory of not winning a senior leadership position and feeling crushed. She still remembers her teacher Ms. Warfield saying, “This will not be your only disappointment. So you just need to cry about it and get over it. Frankly, I was a little nervous that you would win because I want you to be the yearbook editor. You would be excellent at this and it is an important role. Tomorrow let’s talk about how we go forward.” So Andrea cried, quickly got over it and came in the next day ready to work.

Feeling empowered by the meaningful relationships and early independence and responsibility she had at Lausanne, Andrea went on to develop an expansive career in communications and later development after finding her own way. It was her Lausanne experience and the liberal arts education it provided that made her realize that Howard University was not the right fit for her. Although she loved living in Washington, D.C., and she found the school academically challenging, the traditionally all-black university did not fit her personal mindset. Returning to Memphis, she kicked off her career by switching from business to journalism and completing her degree at the University of Memphis while working full time at WMC-TV Channel 5.

Over the years, Andrea continued to glean expertise and personal fortitude from the mentors surrounding her. Throughout her work with WMC-TV and later at Memphis advertising firm archer>malmo, Andrea started to realize her interest and passion for non-profits and how her gifts in communications could be applied to help others. She discovered how much she enjoyed “helping organizations grow from the ground up and building programs.” She was on the forefront of helping develop the Hope & Healing Center for the Church Health Center in Memphis as well as expanding Hope House’s services to children and families affected by HIV/AIDS from a day care to a social service agency providing housing for families.

After recently applying her gifts to enrich the lives of past and present Lausanne students as the school’s Director of Alumni Relations and Annual Giving, Andrea and her family moved last year to Boulder, Colo., where her husband accepted a job as an assistant professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Andrea arrived to a new chapter in her life and a new opportunity as the director of development at Naropa University, which focuses on contemplative education. At Naropa, she is helping the school to reach its full potential for fundraising and growth both in the United States and internationally while continuing her own lifelong journey of learning.

were as like we w it gh u ho re, Alt “ m our cultu o fr d e t c ra being ext the began to see I gradually bumps l get goose il st I s. t fi il bene rotective ve p he t t u bo ster thinking a and (headma rs he c a e t he that t us. placed over y le p p E s) a Thom te. We very delibera y ll a re s a w It ged and ntly encoura a st n o c re e w do t we could reminded tha derful. s really won a w t I g. n hi anyt have k I would n hi t ’t n o d ills I leadership sk e m sa he t d learned had attende I if , e iv t ia or init ” public school.

Andy Wohlfarth ’96, Ginnifer Goodwin ’96, Melanie Cook Clark ’97 and Andrea Dancy Auguiste ’82 during the event celebrating Ginnifer’s acceptance of Lausanne’s Chair of Ideas award on November 25, 2008.

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portrait of a graduate

Paul Guibao ‘91 When Paul Guibao ’91 visited Lausanne for the first time after graduating from Rhodes College and Emory University School of Law, he was curious about whether he would still connect with his alma mater that seemed to have changed so much since he attended.

Although the school had grown significantly, he found Lausanne had maintained the character, liberal arts approach and small class sizes he so appreciated as a student. This was a relief to the man who as a teenager had sought out the school for its empowerment of the individual.

education programs in Memphis. This early introduction to the arts gave Paul a perspective that did not always coincide with traditional educational mindsets.

Paul had always been surrounded by the arts as a child. His family had a great appreciation for the theatre and Paul had grown up involved with The Arthur F. & Alice E. Adams Foundation, through which his family supported local arts and

Paul shares, “Everyone needs a little something out there to inspire them if they are going to achieve any sense of greatness.” His early introduction to the arts and the inspiration he found at Lausanne and Rhodes helped expose him “to the

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Prior to Lausanne, Paul had attended another local high school that he says was “trying to shove me into a niche that wasn’t me.” Unhappy with the lack of a theatre program, Paul did a little soul searching and, with the permission of his parents, applied to Lausanne Collegiate School of his own accord.

Inspired by Lausanne’s reputation as a school where people could be themselves, Paul set out to discover what an education at Lausanne could offer him.

Paul directly credits the rich humanities courses at Lausanne, the inspiration of his teachers and his experiences on the Lausanne stage for empowering his choice to attend Rhodes College and later law school at Emory, where he would go on to apply his global perspective and thrill of performance to the courtroom. “The study of humanities is what enabled me to see beyond myself,” says Paul. “In addition, I don’t think those things would have occurred without being involved in the theatre or without going beyond just getting a grade. There was something about the subject that created a desire to learn.”

things that have had a cultural impact over time.” It gave Paul the insight of “a global citizen as well as a more philosophical embrace of learning because of a love of learning.” This is a philosophy he and his wife hope their two young children will also embrace.

“There is still very little that I am involved in today,” says Paul, “that doesn’t have a direct reflection on my teachers’ shaping of me back then at Lausanne. They took a student who had always tested off the charts but had underperformed at previous schools. My grades improved dramatically. My involvement improved dramatically.

(Lausanne humanities teacher) Brenda Robinette was a saving grace for me. I cannot thank her enough for the role she played in that level of my education.”

Once Paul had the taste of success at Lausanne, he continued to build on it and is now an accomplished attorney and philanthropist with an established law office in Midtown Memphis. He tries to give back to his school and community as much as possible by working through his family’s foundation as well as serving on additional boards such as Opera Memphis and Playhouse on the Square.

Paul’s first visit back to campus as an alumnus has led to many others as he and The Adams Foundation have helped to support projects such as the one-to-one laptop program and the construction of the Elder Performing Arts Center. “I really do look back on Lausanne as being such a big part of everything I do,” says Paul. “I’ve always been grateful for the fact that it was there for me and I try to be there for it as much as I can.”

“The study of humanit ies is what enabled me to see beyo nd myself,” says Paul. “In addition, I do n’t think those things would have occu rred without being involved in the th eatre or without going beyond just gettin g a grade. There was something about the subject that created a desire to lea rn.”

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