Brooks, Spring 2015 by aldeia

BOA R D OF T RU ST E ES President William N. Booth ’67, P’05 Chestnut Hill, Mass. Vice Presidents W. J. Patrick Curley III ’69 New York, N.Y. Paul L. Hallingby ’65 New York, N.Y. Secretary Charles E. Bascom ’60 Marion, Mass. Treasurer Donald R. Peck P’11, P’14 Lexington, Mass. Pamela W. Albright P’10, P’16 Topsfield, Mass. John R. Barker ’87 Wellesley, Mass. David E. Berroa ’13 Lowell, Mass. Anthony H. Everets ’93 New York, N.Y. Steven R. Gorham ’85, P’17 Andover, Mass.

Trustees Emeriti Henry M. Buhl ’48, P’82 New York, N.Y. Steve Forbes ’66, P’91 Bedminster, N.J. James G. Hellmuth P’78 Lawrence, N.Y. H. Anthony Ittleson ’56, P’84, P’86 Green Pond, S.C. Michael B. Keating ’58, P’97 Boston, Mass. Frank A. Kissel ’69, P’96, P’99 Far Hills, N.J. Peter A. Nadosy ’64 New York, N.Y. Peter W. Nash ’51, P’81, P’89 Concord, Mass. Cera B. Robbins P’85, P’90 New York, N.Y. Eleanor R. Seaman P’86, P’88, P’91 Hobe Sound, Fla. David R. Williams III ’67 Beverly Farms, Mass.

Valentine Hollingsworth III ’72, P’17 Dover, Mass. Booth D. Kyle ’89 Seattle, Wash. Zachary S. Martin P’15, P’17 Wellesley, Mass. Timothy H. McCoy ’81, P’14, P’15, P’18 Wellesley, Mass. John R. Packard Jr. Head of School Ginger B. Pearson ’99 Lowell, Mass. Daniel J. Riccio P’17 Los Gatos, Calif. Belisario A. Rosas P’15 Andover, Mass. Whitney Romoser Savignano ’87 Manchester, Mass. Lynne A. Sawyer ’83 New York, N.Y.

>> The third form traveled to Camp Becket in the Berkshires to begin Winter Term. Here, Justin Verissimo ’18 plans his route up Camp Becket’s rock climbing wall. Read more about the new Winter Term programming for thirdformers on page 36.

Letitia Ashley Wightman Scott ’84, P’11, P’14 Manchester, Mass. Thomas E. Shirley P’07, P’10, P’13 Beverly, Mass. Ramakrishna R. Sudireddy P’15 Andover, Mass. Isabella Speakman Timon ’92 Chadds Ford, Penn. Joseph F. Trustey III P’13, P’16 Wenham, Mass. Alessandro F. Uzielli ’85 Beverly Hills, Calif. 2

BROOKS BULLETIN

B CON TEN TS

BU L L E T I N • S P RI N G 2 0 1 5

Head of School John R. Packard Jr.

Associate Head for External Affairs Jim Hamilton Director of Development Gage S. Dobbins Director of Alumni and Parent Events Erica Callahan

Assistant Director of Alumni Programs Kevin Corkery Director of Admission Bini W. Egertson

Director of Communications and Marketing Dan Callahan Director of Publications Rebecca A. Binder Design Lilly Pereira Alumni Communications Manager Emily Williams Assistant Director of Communications Erin Greene

FEAT U R ES

D E PA RT M E N TS

20 A Scientific Method

02 Message from the Head of School

For ten years, the Students on the Forefront of Science internship program has helped rising Brooks sixth-formers experience science in the real world. Students perform laboratory research, observe complex surgeries and get a taste of fields from engineering to environmental research and stewardship.

28 Shining Light into Darkness

Correspondence concerning the Bulletin should be sent to Editor Rebecca A. Binder:

Underwater cave explorer Sam Meacham ’85 has spent two decades exploring, mapping and advocating for the ecological health of the underground cenotes of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. When divers found a prehistoric skeleton in the cenotes, Meacham’s expertise helped scientists secure an archaeological site that informs the very origin of humans in the Americas.

mail Editor, Brooks Bulletin 1160 Great Pond Road North Andover, MA 01845

36 Ready to Climb

Unsolicited manuscripts are welcome. Opinions expressed in the Bulletin are those of the authors and not necessarily of Brooks School.

Winter Term added a new feature this year: The third form took an overnight trip to an outdoor education camp in the Berkshires, before it settled in back at Brooks with classes designed just for third-formers. The “signature experience” helped the class bond and helped the students learn how to succeed in Winter Term and at Brooks.

03 News + Notes 43 Brooks Connections 50 Class Notes 84 Parting Shot

ON THE COVER: Sam Meacham ’85 at the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment at Texas State University. Meacham trains the next generation of underwater cave explorers at the center, using a spring-fed lake that’s part of the San Marcos Springs system. Read more about Meacham’s work in the Yucatan Peninsula on page 28. Photo: Jennifer Idol

A MESSAGE FROM JOHN R. PACKARD JR. HEAD OF SCHOOL

Great Teaching As we inch our way out of the snowiest win-

“ Great teachers and educators hold the keys to our meaningful student experience, and we are fortunate to have so many.”

ter in Boston’s history, we yearn for spring and the color that lights the campus once May takes hold. February can be a challenging month, and this year’s cold and snow pushed even the most hardened New Englanders to the brink. Thus, it was even more important than usual to find opportunities to pause and celebrate. On the first Monday of March, I had the privilege of presenting the Prince Charitable Trust Chair and the Waldo Holcombe Chair to two faculty members. There are six endowed chairs at Brooks, which allows us to celebrate great teachers and great work with students in and out of the classroom. On this occasion, we had a chance to celebrate two teachers at once, and to do so in the beautifully renovated and expanded Ashburn Chapel. The process we engaged in to determine the recipients was both challenging and affirming. I noted in my remarks that it was difficult to make these decisions with 18 members of the faculty nominated. This is as it should be at a school with so many great teachers and educators. The affirmation comes from reading so many thoughtful nominations that demonstrate the appreciation and admiration our teachers have for each other. This has been a hallmark of our school for generations, and this opportunity to celebrate two great teachers was really an opportunity to celebrate great teaching at Brooks School. The holder of the Hope H. van Beuren Endowed Chair, Doug Burbank, wrote to me with his nominations and shared

this thought about great teachers: “Great teachers must know their stuff. Great teachers must know the pupils whom they are stuffing. And above all, great teachers must know how to stuff them artistically.” I find all of Mr. Burbank’s wisdom to be worth sharing, and added a bit of my own when presenting these two chairs in early March: “Today, we honor two great teachers. We are mindful of the fact that no teacher finds her or his way to being great without others — without great colleagues who inspire them along the way; without great students who respond to and challenge them along the way; without being part of a learning community where ideas are invited into circulation in ways that spawn other ideas, and keep the work we do with one another fresh, fun, engaging and meaningful. Today we celebrate much more than two endowed chair recipients. We celebrate great teaching, great schoolwork, great engaging and great service to our school. We celebrate the entire Brooks School faculty.” As I make my way through the first floor of the Classroom Building, I am always struck by the pictures of the school’s faculty emeriti adorning those walls — portraits that remind us of those who reached Brooks students through the years. I think that group would have been pleased to be in the Chapel on this particular day. The occasion served as a powerful reminder: Great teachers and educators hold the keys to our meaningful student experience, and we are fortunate to have so many. Have a great spring.

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NEWS + NOTES IN THIS SECTION 04 News from Campus 10 Campus Scene 14 In the Classroom 16 Athletics

Kenza Bouanane ’17 (left) and Carolina Rosas ’15 perform during Winterfest at Brooks in February.

N EWS + NOTES

Endowed Faculty Chairs

The Head of School highlighted faculty in the Ashburn Chapel ceremony.

English teacher Leigh Perkins ’81 (left) was presented with the Prince Charitable Trust Chair. Susanna Waters (right), who is chair of the history department, was presented with the Waldo Holcombe Chair.

Two Brooks teachers received endowed chairs in March. Susanna Waters, who is chair of the history department, received the Waldo Holcombe Chair. English teacher Leigh Perkins ’81 received the Prince Charitable Trust Chair. Head of School John Packard announced the chair recipients in front of a packed house in Ashburn Chapel. Although Mr. Packard has previously presented faculty with endowed chairs, he noted that he had never before presented two chairs at the same time. He described the process of faculty nominating each other for chairs as “collegiality in its purest form.”

“In essence, today we celebrate much more than two endowed chair recipients,” Mr. Packard continued. “We celebrate great teaching, great schoolwork, great engaging and great service to our school. We celebrate the entire Brooks School faculty.” Waters, who was appointed to the faculty in 2009, teaches world and United States history. She previously taught at Holderness School. Waters received her bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in education from St. Lawrence University, where she played on the lacrosse team and earned Academic All-America honors. She lives on campus with her husband, history teacher Willie Waters ’02.

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Perkins grew up on the Brooks campus. Both of her parents were on the faculty at Brooks. She attended Brooks, and then attended Williams College and Suffolk University Law School. Perkins worked as a litigator and a journalist before returning to Brooks in 1998 as director of alumni and parent programs. Perkins joined the English department in 2004. She lives on campus with her husband, arts teacher and Audio-Visual Director Matthew Grant. During the ceremony, Mr. Packard read a tribute to Waters written by another faculty member: “She is a teacher’s teacher in the way she approaches her craft. She is a student’s teacher in the way she inspires kids and brings out their best, by setting a high bar and then helping them to clear it. It’s a terrific and rare balance of traits. She’s the kind of educator I hope my own children are lucky enough to have someday.” Mr. Packard also read aloud tributes to Perkins written by Brooks faculty. “She is someone who is always looking for ways to engage and challenge our kids inside and outside the classroom,” Mr. Packard read. “She’s creative, relentless and believes in kids when they don’t always believe in themselves.” He continued: “She is a statue in the community. She exhibits excellence in her teaching, works toward equity and justice, and is a wonderful community member. I most admire her passion and commitment to others. She works tirelessly to educate and inform the Brooks community about the notion of privilege.” The chairs support compensation and benefits for faculty members and provide the holder with a small stipend for professional use. In addition to Perkins and Waters, four faculty hold endowed chairs: English teacher Mark Shovan holds the F. Fessenden Wilder Endowed Chair; mathematics teacher Dusty Richard holds the Richard F. Holmes Chair; Doug Burbank, who is chair of the mathematics department, holds the Hope H. van Beuren Endowed Chair; and Deb Davies, who is chair of the classical and world languages department, holds the Independence Foundation Chair.

SUSTAINABILITY

The Race To Reduce “Team Brooks!” the email exhorts. “The news is good from the land of energy reduction!” The email, one of several written in late February by a group billing itself the “Power-Saving Rangers,” was something to look forward to: Each missive gave an update on Brooks’s standing in the 2015 Reduction Rivalry. The rivalry is an annual event that was founded four years ago at Brooks. It’s a competition between four schools — Brooks, Governor’s Academy, St. Paul’s School and Phillips Exeter Academy — to see which school can reduce its energy usage by the greatest percentage over a two-week period. The competition is run by students, and it focuses on what students can control. As such, the Power-Saving Rangers emphasized changes students could make in the dorms and kept tabs on which Brooks dorm reduced its energy usage the most. In the end, Brooks finished in second place behind Exeter. Exeter reduced its school-wide energy consumption by 8.4 percent, and Brooks followed with a 7.4 percent reduction. At Brooks, Whitney House reduced its energy consumption by an astonishing 19.3 percent over the two-week period. P.B.A. Hall, the top girls’ dorm finisher, reduced its consumption by 12.4 percent. Overall, the four schools that competed in the rivalry reduced their energy consumption enough to offset the carbon dioxide emitted by sports teams traveling between the four schools for competition during this academic year.

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BY TH E NUMBERS

Director of Environmental Stewardship Brian Palm supplied the following statistics on the reduction of energy consumption at Brooks. Brooks has added more than 45,000 square feet of campus building space since 2007, but the campus has lowered its electrical costs during that time. The school built new spaces with a focus on sustainability and invested in building technology and high efficiency system upgrades with an eye toward addressing deferred maintenance issues. As a result of this focused effort, Brooks will save approximately $240,000 in electricity costs each year despite having added 13 percent to its footprint. Brooks installed hydration stations on campus in summer 2012 to encourage the use of reusable water bottles. Since the stations were installed, community members have avoided using approximately 225,000 disposable water bottles.

50% Brooks recycles or composts

of its waste (approximately), an improvement from the 5 percent of waste that was recycled or composted in 2009.

Brooks is taking steps to update its campus heating system. This past summer, the two Hettinger dormitories received a new, high-efficiency system that provides hot water and heat. The project also included lighting upgrades, improvements in water efficiency and some additions to the insulation in the Hettinger dormitories. As a result of this work, the school received almost $100,000 in rebates from the utility company and is projected to save nearly $25,000 annually. The photovoltaic system installed on the roof of the Athletic Center uses solar panels to transform sunlight into electricity. Since 2011, the system has generated more than 285,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity, saving the school more than $34,000 in electricity costs and avoiding more than 300,000 pounds of carbon dioxide.

N EWS + NOTES

Shabana Basij-Rasikh (left), co-founder and president of the School of Leadership, Afghanistan, speaks with a group of Brooks students during Unity Day.

Educating for Change Unity Day gave the Brooks community a chance to reflect and hear from notable speakers. Shabana Basij-Rasikh never

gave in. As a young girl in Kabul, Afghanistan, she defied the Taliban edict that barred girls from receiving an education: She dressed as a boy to escort her older sisters outdoors, so that they could all continue to attend school in secret. As a teenager, she received a coveted spot in the U.S. State

Department’s Youth Exchange Studies Program. Basij-Rasikh finished high school in the United States and graduated from Middlebury College. While in college, Basij-Rasikh co-founded School of Leadership, Afghanistan (SOLA), the country’s first boarding school for girls. SOLA is a beacon: It educates girls representing all of

Afghanistan’s major ethnic groups, religious sects and tribes. Basij-Rasikh travels the world to advocate for the importance of educating girls. In January, her advocacy brought her to Brooks, where she delivered the keynote address at Unity Day, Brooks’s celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. “The main goal of Unity Day is one that’s driven by Brooks’s mission,” says Diversity and Inclusivity Coordinator Shaunielle McDonald ’94. “We have a responsibility to increase opportunities for conversation and reflection, and to not miss these opportunities. This year’s program was very successful. We’ve found that our students and our community are eager to have these conversations.” The theme of recognizing and challenging ideas of equity and equality carried through Unity Day. The day began as the Brooks community gathered in Ashburn Chapel to watch the film Mighty Times: The Children’s March. After the film screening, students participated in several smaller workshops. Basij-Rasikh led one of the sessions, where she spoke with students about her work. Filmmaker Marquis Daisy ’01 was the featured speaker at another session, where he showed clips of his work (see the Alumni Profile on page 74 for more on Daisy’s films). Unity Day concluded with meetings of self-identified affinity groups that allowed students to discuss what they had learned and experienced throughout the day in a close and conversational setting. Then, the Brooks community gathered in Ashburn Chapel once more for closing remarks and a concert by Boston-based gospel recording group Confirmation.

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W I N T E R M US I CA L

Blonde at Brooks The Brooks School Dramatic Association staged a boisterous, high-energy production of Legally Blonde: The Musical in Some of the cast performing the number “Bend and Snap.” From left to right: Caitlin Kluchnik ’15, Sho Nihei ’15, Anabelle Acevedo ’16, Zack McCabe ’15, Jaylen Cromwell ’18, Suzanne Egertson ’15 and Kenza Bouanane ’17.

February. The fun, upbeat comedy, which is based on the novel by Amanda Brown and the Metro-

“This was a fun show to work on,” says Director Rob Lazar, who is chair of the arts department at Brooks. “The students had a great time.” Suzanne Egertson ’15, who led the cast as Elle Woods, says

Goldwyn-Mayer motion picture, features music and

that she enjoyed working with students who had all different

lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin and a

levels of experience. “There were people who have never done a

book by Heather Hach. The plot follows Elle Woods,

musical, people like me who want to major in musical theater in

a UCLA sorority girl who, in an attempt to hang on to

college and many people who fall somewhere in the middle,” she

her Harvard Law School-bound boyfriend, finds her-

says. “I love working with people who are willing to work hard,

self taking the LSAT and enrolling at Harvard herself.

and the entire cast really proved that this winter. There was a

At Harvard, Elle finds herself and her potential, and

huge sense of accomplishment at the end of the run. The amount

reaches new heights academically, professionally and personally

of support that we received from the school was flattering and

(the boyfriend turns out to be a drag).

amazing. We all had fun while working very hard.”

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N EWS + NOTES

What’s it like to be senior prefect? I do a lot of things at Brooks, but I consider my role as senior prefect my first responsibility. It’s a lot of work, but it’s a big honor. My dad [Todd McCabe ’89] went here, and he was senior prefect. When I started at Brooks, I wanted to be senior prefect, and the fact that I am amazes me. I’m so proud that my name will be on the senior prefect plaque right with my dad’s name.

“I’ve become who I really am — or at least, I’ve become a version of who I want to be.”

2 Senior prefect Zack McCabe ’15 at School Meeting.

Fast 5 // Q+A Zack McCabe ’15 is a day student who never seems to go home. As senior prefect, he’s a constant presence on campus. He’s also heavily involved in the arts scene at Brooks. The Bulletin sat down with McCabe to find out what he’s gotten out of — and what he’s given back to — Brooks. 8

How can Brooks students remain conscious of the world outside campus? A lot of high school students get stuck in their own rhythms and in their own world. That’s not exclusive to Brooks. But, I think that Brooks students specifically should take the time to acknowledge our place in this world and how much influence we actually have. It’s overwhelming to think you need to fix the entire world, but everyone can pick a junction that they can contribute to and that they’re passionate about.

How has Brooks helped you grow? Brooks allows you to become who you truly are. I was a little bit lost when I got here. I didn’t have any extracurricular interests, and I wasn’t comfortable speaking in public. I was able to take advantage of all the opportunities Brooks offers to grow as a person. I’ve become who I

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really am — or at least, I’ve become a version of who I want to be.

Showing at the Lehman

Two prominent artists showcase their work.

When you look back at Brooks in 30 years, what do you think you’ll remember the most about this campus? The auditorium. That’s where all of my big moments have taken place. I started doing drama when I got to Brooks; that’s another thing this school has given me. All those moments where I could look out onto the crowd and think, this is what it’s all about, have been amazing. And now as senior prefect, being able to address the entire community at School Meeting every Friday is very special to me.

Why do you invest so much time into this community? What’s your motivation? I genuinely care about the well being of everybody at this school. I want to dedicate the fullest extent of myself to improve what I can, so that everyone here can have a good experience. A lot of people say that you get out of Brooks what you put into Brooks. And I want to get the most out of this place that I can, so I put the most into this place that I can.

The Robert Lehman Art Center at Brooks welcomed two well-known artists to its walls this spring. Edward Hemingway, a writer and artist known for his children’s book illustrations, took up residence from February 6 to March 7. Then, sculptor, painter and artist Jim Zingarelli took the space beginning April 2. Hemingway grew up in a decidedly literary family: He is the grandson of the writer Ernest Hemingway. Edward Hemingway has done his own fair share of writing — his work has appeared in GQ Magazine — but he’s found his true niche as a writer and illustrator of children’s books. Hemingway wrote and illustrated the books Bump in the Night, Bad Apple: A Tale of Friendship, and Bad Apple’s Perfect Day. He has also illustrated the children’s book Tiny Pie, by Mark Bailey and Michael Oatman, Bailey’s Of All the Gin Joints: Stumbling Through Hollywood History, and Bailey’s Hemingway & Bailey’s Bartending Guide to Great American Writers. Zingarelli, meanwhile, has been a professor of art at Gordon College in Wenham, Mass., since 1996. He works primarily in sculpture — notably, stone carving — typically using marble, granite and limestone. His series “Host & Hunger,” a collection of hand-carved stone and wood heads, focuses on issues of world hunger. He’s tried to create an art of public service within the global community and has traveled to Honduras, Morocco and South Africa in pursuit of this goal. His “4/4” series, a group of colorful geometric paintings, evokes a sense of changing pace, rhythm and melody over a block of predictable and monochromatic quarter note beats. The Lehman invites professional artists to work with Brooks students and show their work to the Brooks community, in order to engage the community in the viewing, participation, understanding and benefit of all art forms.

Image from the book Bad Apple: A Tale of Friendship by Edward Hemingway.

ADMISSIONS UPDATE Brooks offered admission to applicants to the school in March. The Admission Office had its work cut out for it this year: Brooks received just shy of 1,000 applications for only 100 spots. The school admitted 26 percent of applicants. This year’s applicant pool was especially notable for its geographic diversity. Brooks received applications from 34 states and from 28 countries. Applicants hail from locations around the country and around the world, including Massachusetts, Louisiana, Vermont, Oregon, France, Zimbabwe, China and Argentina.

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N EWS + NOTES

CA M PUS SC E N E

N EWS + N OT ES

Students enrolled in The Vietnam Experience through Interview, Literature, Film and Travel tour the National Museum of the Marine Corps near Quantico, Va. The class is taught by Head of School John Packard and Associate Director of Athletics John Fahey. This exhibit depicts a “hot” landing zone at Hill 881 South near Khe Sanh. Pictured, left to right: Hunter Runnells ’17, Nolan LeBlanc ’16, Mr. Packard and Richard Goldstein ’15.

N EWS + NOTES

A Walk Down Main Street In February, Brooks reached its goal of eliminating vehicles from Main Street. The school completed the construction of a road that leads from the Danforth parking lot past the Admission Office, merging with the road leading away from the Classroom Building and toward the school’s South Gate. As a result, vehicles have been diverted off the road stretching through the center of campus between the Luce Library and Wilder Dining Hall.

More than

100 inches

of snow fell in North Andover

SPEAKING OUT The Gay-Straight Alliance hosted speakers Paul Meoni (left) and Murray Wheeler in March. Meoni and Wheeler represented SpeakOUT Boston, a nonprofit organization working to create a world free of prejudice by telling the truths of people’s lives. Meoni and Wheeler told listeners their personal stories and engaged the community in a question-and-answer session intended to challenge harmful stereotypes and misconceptions. Photo: Hannah Latham ’17

Let It Snow (and Snow, and Snow)

this year, giving Brooks one of the snowiest winters in its history. Grounds Supervisor Bill St. Cyr says that the grounds department dealt almost exclusively with snow removal and snow-related work this winter, including repairing roof leaks, thawing frozen pipes and removing ice dams from buildings. Building repairs will likely linger long after the snow is gone. St. Cyr supplied the following statistics on snow removal:

97 6 TO N S

The amount of salt and ice melt products spread on campus roads, pathways and steps.

DAYS

The time spent clearing snow from the turf field in preparation for spring sports.

3.12 MILLION PO UN DS

The approximate amount of snow removed from the turf field.

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Care Packages to Curo All Ills

Brooks Beyond Business gives its members a taste of business and service.

Two sixth-formers have started their own care package company.

Small Loans for a Big Change

Sixth-formers Brian Fogarty and Naveen Rajur have turned their interest in business into an actual business. Last spring, they founded Curo, a care package company that caters to the parents of Brooks students. A year later, they’re working with distributors, keeping up with demand, and thinking of expanding Curo to other boarding schools. “Naveen and I wanted to get some firsthand experience in business before we went off to college,” Fogarty says. “The original thought behind Curo — the name ‘curo’ is Latin for ‘I care’ — was that we noticed that students would get homesick in the beginning of the year.” And thus, the “Homesick Hero” was born. The package helps parents give students a taste of home through comfort food such as microwaveable macaroni and cheese, potato chips and chocolate. It also includes a teddy bear and tissues. The “Exam Energizer,” meanwhile, keeps students fueled with healthy snacks and treats, and gives them a supply of highlighters, pencils and Curo’s website, sticky notes. The “Sports Snacks” package ensures which includes package descriptions that student-athletes will have the stamina they and ordering need for school and sports, and includes protein information, is curocares.com. bars, peanut butter and granola. Parents can even upload photos to the Curo website: The photos will be printed and included in the package. “We do a lot of research before we introduce a new package,” Rajur says. “We try to find items that you can’t buy at the school store and items that aren’t easy to access. We’ve done surveys and we’ve talked to students. The packages cater to what the students here tend to want.” Fogarty and Rajur say they’ve learned a lot from getting their fledgling business off the ground. Rajur says that he’s learning how to read and understand people. Fogarty agrees: “Having to do all the marketing, sales, accounting and financing ourselves really gives us a sense of the world outside of Brooks.” Now, the two entrepreneurs have set their sights past the borders of the Brooks campus. They’re trying to expand to additional boarding schools. They also conducted product research, and they noticed that no other care package companies cater to boarding schools. Fogarty and Rajur want to corner that market. “There’s a specific lifestyle behind boarding school that we’re trying to capture,” Fogarty says. “We’ve found that other companies want to market to these kinds of students. So, we’re trying to build a lifestyle section by offering to put other companies’ stickers or coupons in our boxes. There’s a mutual benefit there.”

“We gave the missionary in Cambodia a

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loan of $750 for his village,” Seiji Engelkemier ’15 says. “That breaks down to $150 each for five villagers. That $150 covers the cost of one pig, plus the cost of raising the pig. Our hope is that each of those five villagers will raise a pig, sell it, make a profit and then use that profit to get another pig. We hope that eventually, they’ll make enough money to pay back the loan, but we also want them to keep going on their own. We want our clients to create and invest in their local economies. We can help them become self-sufficient.” That, in a nutshell, is the idea behind Brooks Beyond Business. The club organizes fundraising events on campus to fund its microfinance loans, which are provided at no interest to clients. Engelkemier, who heads up the club, says that the organization tries to remain conscious of both the business side and the humanitarian side of its work. The club raises money through a variety of initiatives on campus — a coffee stand, for example, or a raffle where the winner gets to “pie” a popular teacher. “People want to help out,” Engelkemier says. “Buying coffee or a raffle ticket is a different way to help out, but I think people like knowing that their money is going to a good cause. And, we’ve learned a lot by figuring out how to make the most profit off the coffee stand: Should we get only coffee? Or, should we also get some hot chocolate? How much of each should we get, and how much should we charge?” Engelkemier has high hopes for Brooks Beyond Business, which is currently in search of new clients. “People in our club are passionate about what we do, whether it’s business or charity,” he says. “This is a way to bring those two worlds together and do some good.”

N EWS + NOTES

I N T H E C LASS RO O M

A Look at Winter Term Winter Term gives Brooks students a unique opportunity to step away from the standard curriculum and study one subject in-depth for three weeks. This year, the campus hummed with students immersed in subjects ranging from a mock criminal trial, to an exploration of culture through food, to the ecology and economy of the New England coastline.

nonprofit professionals on the structure and administration of nonprofits. Students learned about the role of government and nonprofits in society, and they explored contemporary policy issues. Students also competed in a grant competition, in which they advocated for a local nonprofit to receive the funds. Here, Andrea Millard ’16 (left) and Valerie Nam ’16 present Randy Larson, executive director of Merrimack Valley Habitat for Humanity, with the final grant proceeds, which will be used to accelerate the construction of a local build site. [7] Pulitzer Prize-winning author Paul Harding visits with students in The Creative Journey: Quotidian Balance. Students explored ways to find everyday balance through engagement and habit. Students learned how to balance the rigors of high achievement with their own

[1] In BrooksArt, students worked on a large

activities and case file discussions, and cul-

need for contentment. They explored their

mixed-media painting, the subject matter of

minated in a “whodunit” mock crime scene.

worlds on multiple levels while nurturing the

which was taken from a series of photos of

Students learned about the psychology of

habits that helped center their lives. Each stu-

Brooks students’ personal spaces. Sculptor,

observations and false memories, the collec-

dent committed to completing a self-chosen

ceramicist and previous Robert Lehman Art

tion and analysis of physical evidence, and the

product during the course.

Center artist-in-residence Miranda Shackleton

science of DNA analysis. The class also met

worked with students for two days to create

with professional crime scene investigators

[8] In The Art and Science of Scuba Diving,

work that is abstractly figurative in nature.

and forensic anthropologists.

students learned about the history, science,

The class visited the New Britain Museum of

equipment and technology of scuba diving.

American Art in New Britain, Conn., and the

[4] In Self-Replicating — 3-D Printing, students

Students who completed the course were able

class culminated with a show opening in the

explored the potential for low-cost 3-D print-

to earn their scuba certification. The students

Lehman that combined student work with

ing to put the ability to create physical objects

also spent time in the science laboratory

established work.

within reach. The class learned about a central

learning about the respiratory system and

tenet of this potential market paradigm shift:

gas laws, and made trips to the New England

[2] In Car Wars, the class fully restored this

the ability of 3-D printers to “self-replicate,”

Aquarium, a local Coast Guard station, and a

1974 MG Midget. The course immersed its

and print the parts needed to build additional

local museum of scuba and diving history.

students in the fundamentals of automotive

printers. The class built an operational 3-D

theory and restoration in intellectual and

printer and discussed the ways in which 3-D

[9] In SNL Brooks School Style: How to Write,

physical ways. The class explored the various

printing technology may change the traditional

Direct and Produce a Live Variety Show,

systems of the modern and mid-century auto-

manufacturing economy.

students explored the world of variety enter-

mobile, including, but not limited to, general

tainment from concept to show. The class

engine theory, braking, ignition, emissions

[5] In Learn to Play Guitar, students learned

produced a live show, which included situation

and steering. The class met with experts in

the basics of playing guitar. The class learned

comedy, musical performances and video

restoration and bodywork, and completed

how to read chord symbols, music notation

interludes. The class learned how to do every-

the restoration of the Midget — which began

and tablature, and how to play in a group envi-

thing from write, produce and perform parts

during Winter Term 2014 — to its original

ronment. Students also researched the history

of the show, to audio and video production.

splendor by stripping it, prepping it and paint-

of the guitar and important musicians who

ing it British Racing Green.

created the styles we hear today.

[3] In CSI: Brooks, Introduction to Forensic

[6] In Experimenting with Philanthropy,

the writing life. Students spent time writing

Science, students explored the science of

students engaged with the theory and practice

either a long piece or a collection of shorter

crime scene investigation and the use of

of philanthropy. Students surveyed the history

works. They brainstormed, created, shared,

science to establish facts in criminal courts.

of American philanthropy, studied moral phi-

gave and received feedback, and revised their

The class focused on hands-on group work

losophy, and attended a series of lectures by

works together.

[10] In Still Waters Creative Writing Workshop, students got the chance to live

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[2]

From left to right: Sam Vogel ’15, Harry Ellsworth ’15 and Xander Timpson ’15

[9] [6]

[5]

Kate Anderson ’15

[8] Sam Pruitt ’15

[4] [10]

[3]

Nury Herrera ’16

Ethan Gabert-Doyon ’17

[1]

[7]

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Harper Drew ’15

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A Winter Warmup Four Brooks teams dominated the competition this winter. The boys 1st ice hockey team won the Large School New England Championship. The wrestling team wrapped up its second straight undefeated season in the ISL. The girls 1st squash team won the New England Class B Championship. And, the boys 1st basketball team went undefeated in the ISL and made it to the New England Championship tournament final. Here, the coach of each team summarizes what went right for his program this year.

The Brooks wrestling team following its Graves-Kelsey Tournament win.

WRESTLING Head Coach and history teacher Alex Konovalchik

This year’s wrestling team met with outstanding success. For the second consecutive year, the team won both the ISL regular season title and the Graves-Kelsey Tournament. The regular season performance included an undefeated record in the league, and it culminated with a victory over ISL rival Belmont Hill School by a score of 46–24. In front of a raucous home crowd, Brooks won nine out of 14 bouts on

the day. The team then moved on to the very competitive New England tournament at the end of February. Following closely on last year’s New England title, Brooks qualified 12 wrestlers for this tournament and placed nine. This resulted in a second place New England Tournament finish behind team champion Phillips Exeter Academy. Overall, this Brooks team was a squad defined by camaraderie and hard work. There was great enthusiasm on the team, and they certainly enjoyed competing together. The

work ethic was excellent in the practice room, and the wrestlers consistently challenged one another to work hard. The team was also fortunate to be led by three talented and dedicated sixth-form captains: Andrew Bolte, Chris Cervizzi and Tom Caron. There was significant individual achievement by Brooks grapplers as well. At the Graves-Kelsey Tournament, Brooks placed 13 wrestlers and only failed to place at one weight class. Brooks was led by four individual champions: Nick

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Konovalchik ’17 at 152 pounds, Bolte at 160 pounds, Jake Gottfried ’16 at 195 pounds and Owen Rosenberger ’17 at 220 pounds. Brooks placed nine at the New England Tournament. The team was led here by two individual champions: Gottfried and Rosenberger. BOYS 1ST BASKETBALL Head Coach and Associate Director of Admission John McVeigh

Every so often as a coach, you get a chance to work with kids who meet every challenge you give them with hard work, teamwork and a smile, and then somehow manage to exceed your expectations. This year’s Brooks basketball team was just such a group. The team had incredible success on the court, including a historic, undefeated ISL season that earned Brooks its first championship since 1982. The team also went on a terrific run in the New England Class B tournament, making a run to the final game with wins over Pomfret School and St. Mark’s School in front of the biggest, loudest crowds to ever watch a game in the Brooks Athletic Center. While a last-minute surge from Canterbury School prevented the team from winning the New England title, Brooks finished the season with an impressive 21-5 record. Leading the way for Brooks were sixth-formers Andrew Barker-Morrill, Coy Candelario, captain Dontae Christian, Charlie Crockett, Aser Ghebremichael and Lavar Harewood. The team also got important contributions from underclassmen such as Tamenang Choh ’16, Ethan Gabert-Doyon ’17, Isaiah Godwin ’17 and team captain Jalen Martinez ’16. Making the success all the more remarkable was that Brooks was able to achieve all of this despite the absence of three starters for the entire year, including fifth-form captain Ikenna

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Head Coach John McVeigh and the boys 1st basketball team won the ISL with an undefeated record and got the opportunity to engage in community service.

Ndugba, one of the best players in New England. Perhaps most importantly, this Brooks team was about more than just great basketball. Brooks was recognized by the ISL coaches at the end of the season, as the team finished in a tie for most votes in the league for the team sportsmanship award. Brooks players also raised money and awareness for children with developmental disabilities through their charity game in the TD Garden for the nonprofit Arc of Massachusetts. Finally, Brooks hosted several events for local Special Olympics basketball teams and even held the Special Olympics’ first unified dunk contest. It was a terrific season in every possible way for the Brooks boys basketball team. BOYS 1ST ICE HOCKEY Head Coach David Ries

The boys hockey team ended a solid season with a wild ride to the NEPSAC Martin/Earl (Large School) Tournament championship. Led by All-New England and ISL MVP goalie Max Prawdzik ’15, the team won the Brooks-Pingree Christmas tournament and beat Phillips Andover Academy for the first time in recent memory

before notching exciting overtime wins over Saint Sebastian’s School and Choate Rosemary Hall to set up a championship game against Belmont Hill School. The boys jumped out to a commanding 3-0 lead on the strength of two goals by fifth-former Henry Cormier and a single tally from fifth-former Paul Capozzi. The Hillies scored twice in the final two minutes to close the gap, but fifth-former Jack Goodwin sealed the win with an empty netter to take home the school’s second championship in three years. After starting out with an 8-0-1 December, the team returned from break and faced a series of big games. January brought a tight 3-2 loss to first-seeded Phillips Exeter Academy and a big Friday night win at Milton Academy. The boys started a roller coaster February off with a 1-1 tie against a powerful Dexter Southfield School team, had key wins against St. Mark’s School and Andover, and suffered upset losses at the hands of Middlesex School and Roxbury Latin School. After tough losses to The Rivers School and Belmont Hill in the final week, the turnaround started when Brooks beat Buckingham Browne & Nichols on senior day before going on a remarkable playoff run.

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The boys 1st ice hockey team won the NEPSAC Martin/Earl (Large School) Tournament championship.

The team had a core leadership group led by sixth-form tri-captains Prawdzik, PJ Kelleher and Chris White. All three were All-ISL nominees, along with sixth-former KJ Moore and fifth-former Connor Moore. Fifth-formers Vito Bavaro and Colin Stevens, both honorable mentions for all-league honors, also played big roles. The successful year was truly a team effort, as players up and down the lineup stepped up when called upon and made their mark on a season to remember. GIRLS 1ST SQUASH Head Coach, Associate Director of Admission and Director of Financial Aid JP Burlington

The squash team ended the season on a high note. Winning the Class B New England Championship was a goal from the start, but the team was not sure that it would be attainable. The team had a good regular season, but nothing like the accomplishment of winning the championship. Heading into the tournament, the team was seeded first, so expectations were high. Four out of the seven players were seeded first, which gave the team a wonderful advantage over 14 other schools. The great aspect of the squash New England championships is that there are not only individual 18

champions from each flight, but also an eventual team champion. Each girl played an important part in the championship. They all won at least two matches over the course of the weekend, and three girls played in their championship match. Co-captain Helen Bernhard ’15, who played in the first spot all year and was the MVP during the regular season, was seeded in the fourth spot in the tournament in the first flight. She won her first three matches easily, but in the final match came up against a very strong opponent and lost in the finals, finishing second. Tyla McKenzie ’18, who played in the second flight, had a very good tournament and finished

in third place. Playing in the fourth flight was Isabelle Quarrier ’16, who also had a simple road to the finals but lost in the championship match to finish in second place. Lulu Porter ’15, Elizabeth Mahoney ’16 and Sarah Murphy ’15 all had a good tournament and finished eighth, fifth and fifth respectively in their flights. The MVP of the tournament was co-captain Molly Alvino ’15, who was seeded in the first spot in the third flight. She cruised to the finals and won the championship in four games, 11–8, 11–8, 6–11, 11–7. The final point was nerve-racking for everyone watching — Alvino won by placing a perfect drop shot tight against the wall. This win and title of New England Champion was a great way for a four-year first-team member and captain to end her career at Brooks. When the final results were tallied, Brooks won the Class B New England Championship by one point over The Loomis Chaffee School. The team was also voted on by other players and coaches to receive the tournament sportsmanship award. This was the second year in a row that the team was given that honor and the first time since 2010 that the team has won the Class B New England Championship.

PHOTO: LESLIE MURPHY P’15

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The girls 1st squash team won the Class B New England Championship and the tournament’s sportsmanship award.

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The Next Level Every year, some talented Brooks athletes trade in the green and white for college colors. Here are just a few of the sixth-formers who plan to continue their athletics careers in college.

FIELD HOCKEY

ROWING

SOCCER

Molly Reilly Trinity College

Alastair Hunt Syracuse University

Audrey Brady Washington and Lee University

Will Benedict Hobart College

Kevin Herrera University of Massachusetts Lowell

Steven Ives Hobart College

LACROSSE PJ Kelleher Connecticut College Hannah Rosenberger Union College Natalie Hartel The University of Findlay BAKSETBALL Lavar Harewood University of Maine

ICE HOCKEY Chris White Wesleyan University PJ Kelleher Connecticut College Danielle Doherty College of the Holy Cross

Amy Tournas Colby College SQUASH Helen Bernhard Colby College Sarah Murphy Dickinson College FOOTBALL Chris Cervizzi Colgate University Will Collins St. Anselm College

PHOTO OF HELEN BERNHARD: HANNAH LATHAM â&#x20AC;&#x2122;17

Coy Candelario Bates College

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A Scientific Method The Students on the Forefront of Science internship program offers Brooks students the chance to experience science in the real world. Students work in labs alongside research scientists, put on scrubs to observe surgeries, and even work in diverse fields such as engineering, construction and computer product design. Dozens of Brooks alumni and current students have benefitted from the program. They say that it informed their college applications, their fields of study and, ultimately, their careers. 20

[Fig. 1] Renu

Mukherjee â&#x20AC;&#x2122;15 (left) listens as Dr. William Curry explains an upcoming surgery.

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MORGAN DUNN ’15 TAKES A SMALL AMOUNT OF DNA,

and, making tiny wells in a tray of agarose gel, uses a syringe-like pipette to insert the DNA into the gel. She then adds dye to make the DNA more visible. After covering the gel, she runs a current of electricity through it and looks at it under ultraviolet lights to determine the size of the DNA. If the fragment size is correct, she can be sure the specific gene mutation has been correctly inserted into the DNA.

[Fig. 2] Morgan Dunn ’15 got to observe surgeries during her SFS internship. “You’re standing next to doctors, which is amazing,” she says. [Fig. 3] Matt Myers ’15 interned with the Quebec-Labrador Foundation through SFS. The QLF is a nonprofit organization that promotes the stewardship of natural resources and cultural heritage.

As an intern with the Students on the Forefront of Science program, now in its 10th year offering science internships to rising sixth-formers at Brooks, Dunn was taking what she had learned in AP Biology at Brooks leaps and bounds further: She was working with Dr. Joseph Cotten to research the role of potassium channels in the regulation of breathing while under anesthesia in a lab at MGH alongside post-doctoral students. She had done gel electrophoresis once before in her AP Biology lab at Brooks. “Now I’ve done it at least 20 times,” Dunn says. Dunn wasn’t just able to research the neural mechanisms of anesthesia; she also observed surgeries to watch those mechanisms in action. “We spent a lot of time on genetics in class, which is great because that’s what I’m doing in the lab, and I understand why it’s important,” she says. “Being in the operating room really solidifies that — it’s more real, and it helps me understand why research is so important. And it’s not like you’re in another room peeking in. You’re standing next to doctors, which is amazing.” That is the essential premise of SFS. In the classroom, students can learn the material, perform experiments and hear what it’s like to be in a hospital setting or work in a lab. But, as SFS interns, Brooks students get an opportunity that’s not typically offered to high school students

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PHOTO: COURTESY OF MATT MYERS ’15

This process is called gel electrophoresis, and it’s just one step in a complicated set of procedures Dunn undertook to study mutations in the DNA of potassium channels as an intern at Massachusetts General Hospital last summer.

[Fig. 2]

to perform real research next to doctors, residents and postdoctoral students. And, the Brooksians learn that science is more complicated in the real world. “The labs that students run in class are built to be done successfully, but most of science is not successful,” says science teacher and founder of the SFS program Brian Palm. “It’s important for students to know that.”

A WEIGHT OF OPPORTUNITY

[Fig. 3]

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Palm has thought a lot about the limitations of classroombased learning. When he came to Brooks in 2003, he wanted to find ways to further engage students in the sciences. “When you’re sitting there in class as a fourth-, fifth- or sixthformer, you don’t have a sense of what science is,” Palm says. “What does it mean to do science? I thought our kids who are most successful here could be doing some great work.” With that belief in mind, Palm reached out to alumni and parents in the fields of science and medicine. He connected with Dr. Robert Langer P’09. An internationally renowned chemical engineer, Langer holds a professorship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and manages a laboratory — Langer Lab — that performs cutting-edge work at the intersection of biotechnology and material science. “Dr. Langer is one of those incredible out-of-the-box thinkers,” Palm says. “I thought we’d get pushback of ‘these are highschool kids, we hire post-docs.’ Instead, Dr. Langer said sure, so we matched up two of our kids with scientists in his lab.”

[Fig. 4]

“That was the first time I had been in a lab, and I got to learn a skill set I never would have had exposure to. It put me one step ahead in college and allowed me to focus on my interests.” —JILL GERATOWSKI ’07

Langer says that his wife, former trustee Dr. Laura Langer P’09, helped convince him to offer a few spots in his lab to Brooks students. MIT, known for providing a strong foundation for its undergraduates, encourages students to explore research opportunities in its labs. Providing similar research opportunities to Brooks students wasn’t much of a stretch from there. Langer invited the Brooks students to assist the undergraduate and graduate students working in his lab. Langer Lab provided initial funding for SFS, and Palm’s vision started to become a reality as the program grew. Palm found it easier to make phone calls with Langer’s backing, and increasing numbers of doctors and scientists began to offer summer internship opportunities to Brooks students. “SFS would never be where it is today if not for Dr. Langer’s giving legitimacy to the program,” Palm says. In its first year, SFS facilitated three internships: two at Langer Lab and one at the QuebecLabrador Foundation, an organization devoted to leadership

development, environmental research and environmental stewardship in eastern Canada and New England. This past summer, eight interns took positions at organizations in locations ranging from Newfoundland to Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital and MGH. Dr. Mary Jo Carabatsos, chair of the science department at Brooks and the current director of SFS, says the pool of applicants keeps getting stronger and more diverse. “It’s growing because kids want this experience for a variety of reasons,” Carabatsos says. “Some just want the experience. Some want to explore career possibilities. All of that is driving interest in the program.” SFS is now funded out of Brooks’s operating budget, which ensures it will continue to be a part of a Brooks education; but Palm and Carabatsos still spend time thinking about the program’s future. “It’s institutionalized, but you wonder if it is institutionalized enough,” Palm says. “The challenges are funding and staffing it. We constantly need to develop new relationships. We need to have a pipeline.”

The program only works with each lab for three or four years with the exception of the QuebecLabrador Foundation internship, which has the longest-running relationship with Brooks and is more equipped to take on high school students as interns. Palm wanted to be conscious of not wearing out the school’s welcome at the labs and also of sending students who are up to the challenge. “Every year doctors come back to us and tell us that our kids do work on par with post-doctoral students,” he says. “We’re choosing self-starters who are capable and confident in roles that are not clearly defined, and who are motivated to find out how to do what they need to do. Hopefully they feel a weight of opportunity.”

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[Fig. 4] Lidiana Lantigua ’15 conducted anesthesia research as an SFS intern. She worked with Dr. Ken Solt, and she had the opportunity to conduct laboratory experiments and to observe surgeries. Lantigua says that her internship was a learning experience that taught her how to work independently. “I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to work with Dr. Solt and his assistant,” she says. “I learned so much from them.”

BETTER THAN THE BEACH

This past summer, Renu Mukherjee ’15 woke up at 5 o’clock every morning to travel from her home in North Andover to a lab associated with MGH in Boston. Mukherjee was an SFS intern paired with Dr. William Curry, whose work focuses on the way cancer cells interact with the human immune system. This field is known as cancer immunology, and its goal is to develop methods of stimulating the immune system to battle cancerous tumors. Mukherjee was surprised at how much fun she had working in the lab. The researchers in her lab would give “lab homework” over the weekend, which often consisted of watching a movie so they could discuss it the following Monday. The first week, Mukherjee spent a lot of time watching the other

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researchers. The second week, she dove right in. “It actually is a big deal if you mess up,” she says. “But it gave me confidence and reassurance that I could do this. No one treated me like a high school student. They treated me like a colleague.” Mukherjee also found she could use her status as a high school student to her advantage. Doctors and Ph.D. students were constantly teaching her what they knew, she said, and Ph.D. students would give her papers they were writing to take home and read. Mukherjee relished this opportunity. “It would take me an hour to read a paper that was four pages long,” she says, “because I had to look up every word.” In addition to working in the lab, Mukherjee observed surgeries

several times a week, standing right next to Dr. Curry in the operating room. To hear Mukherjee tell it, watching brain surgery is the most exciting thing to ever happen to her. She was able to observe an awake right-frontal craniotomy, during which the patient was asked to read words off cards during surgery — the doctors needed to make sure the procedure would not affect her speech. Mukherjee will tell anyone who will listen about this experience. “I told all my friends that this is better than the beach!” she says. Mukherjee’s father is a doctor, and listening to his stories growing up made her want to be one herself. Her SFS internship at MGH solidified her goals. “This has made me realize that not only do I want to go into medicine, but I want to be a surgeon,” she says. She plans to study molecular biology and English in college and then go on to medical school. The breadth of what Mukherjee learned during her internship can’t be quantified, but a big portion of it was just what Palm hopes students take away: a real understanding of the scientific process. “In the classroom, if you don’t get good results it affects your grade,” Mukherjee says. “Here, it’s normal to fail. It forces you to think outside the box.”

A STEP AHEAD

Jill Geratowski ’07, an SFS alumna, minored in psychology with a concentration in neural and behavioral science as an undergraduate at Haverford College. Now she’s a second-year student at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, where she studies how

[Fig. 5]

[Fig. 5] Renu Mukherjee ’15 in the operating room during her SFS internship. Mukherjee plans to go to medical school and become a surgeon.

“No one treated me like a high school student. They treated me like a colleague.” —RENU MUKHERJEE ’15

the brain functions at the molecular level. She wouldn’t be where she is today, she says, if not for her SFS internship. In the summer of 2006, Geratowski interned at the Center for Blood Research in Boston, where she studied short interfering RNAs and how they can be used to target HIV. “That was the first time I had been in a lab, and I got to learn a skill set I never would have had exposure to,” Geratowski says. “It put me one step ahead in college and allowed me to focus on my interests.” It was overwhelming to join a research team in a lab as a high school student, Geratowski says, but the knowledge she gained was invaluable. “I discovered that I like all the questions you can ask,” she says. “You come up with a problem and there are endless questions. That’s also frustrating, though. It never ends — you find one result and it leads to another question. I really think SFS helped me grow as a young scientist.” Geratowski is one of 76 Brooks alumni who have been through the internship program. It has steered them toward careers in scientific fields such as medicine and engineering. It has also steered some alumni away from careers in the sciences and into pursuits such as business and acting. This is a good thing: SFS alumni agree that the program helped them gain an understanding of what it would be like to work in a science-related career, and which aspects of the work they do and do not like. This knowledge helped them hone their focus as they went on to college. James Williams ’12 is currently a junior at the University of North Carolina, where he holds a double

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major in economics and Chinese and a minor in statistics. “I realized through the internship that I didn’t want to be contained in a laboratory every day for my profession,” Williams says. “I wanted work that was more interdisciplinary, that included more interaction with people, and that looked at the larger picture rather than looking very narrowly at cells and molecules. It directed where I went in the future.” Joe Napolitano ’09 took an SFS internship with Consigli Construction in 2008. Now he’s been working as a project engineer at Consigli for just over a year, and he loves every aspect of it. In 2008 Brooks was on the verge of building a new science center. Napolitano watched construction workers begin the job and asked former science teacher Bob Moore how he could get involved. SFS was able to design an internship specifically tailored to Napolitano’s interests: Todd McCabe ’89, P’15 was the project executive for Consigli, and he enthusiastically took Napolitano on as an intern. “Brooks 100 percent put me in the place I am today,” Napolitano says. Another important aspect of SFS is that it teaches students the basics of holding a job: Students learn the importance of arriving on time, figure out how to communicate effectively with colleagues and gain experience in how to ask questions that advance professional goals. Daniel Conway ’11 is currently a senior at Georgetown University, where he’s majoring in finance, but he says his SFS internship at New England Medical Center with Dr. Charles Cassidy ’79 taught him how to operate in a work environment. “Something that struck me was how well Dr. Cassidy treated the people around him,” Conway says. “He treated everyone with the same

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amount of respect regardless of their level. He was a great character, and he made it an enjoyable experience. I’m very fortunate I had the opportunity to shadow him for eight weeks.” Though the experience also taught Conway that a medical career wasn’t for him, he is still in awe of what he was able to do. “I saw upwards of 60 surgeries that summer, and I was literally leaning over the operating table,” he says. “It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

INTEGRAL TO BROOKS

For Mukherjee, the program has affected not only what she wants to pursue as a career, but also where she chose to apply to college. She applied almost exclusively to research universities that offer the option of applying to medical school at the end of sophomore year. “I had such a good time this summer contributing and seeing my work make a difference,” she says. “It’s something I want to get back into as soon as I can.” Mukherjee is taking honors anatomy and physiology this year at Brooks to put the knowledge she gained over the summer to use, but she feels eager to get out of the classroom and back into the lab. “A lot of the things we’re learning in class I’ve seen or done or experienced,” she says. “Honors anatomy is wonderful, but I don’t think I’ll get another experience like SFS until I’m a fourth-year medical student.” Carabatsos, the program director, says roughly 35 to 40 percent of students who go through SFS end up working in science-related fields. Mukherjee will likely be one of them. “I think what happens as a result of SFS is that students who think

they have a passion for something leave the internship fully empowered to pursue what they’re passionate about,” Carabatsos said. “That’s what happened for Renu.” And, Brooks is looking for new ways to offer these experiences to students. For the first time, Brooks is partnering with Apple to offer a two-week-long internship in Cupertino, Calif., to four students this summer. The experience will offer Brooks students exposure to the elements of product design. This fits right in with where Carabatsos sees SFS going. “The program will continue to fulfill Brian Palm’s initial goal, which is to give students applied experiential opportunities,” she says. “As the field of applied sciences evolves, we may need to add internships to meet the needs of students. We need to offer experiences that match experiences in the real world.” The Apple internship, like all SFS internship opportunities, was secured through a Brooks connection. It’s important to Carabatsos that this remain central to the program. It’s also important that the program remain selective. “We want to expand our options without increasing the total number of students accepted to the program,” she says. “It’s a matter of maintaining the integrity of the program. There’s an application process — there’s vetting.” Carabatsos is excited about the future of the program, which she believes has become an essential Brooks offering. “It’s become such an integral part of the science program here at Brooks,” she says. Mukherjee, of course, agrees. “I think this is really unique that Brooks lets you do this,” she says. “It really is a once-in-a-bluemoon experience.”

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A scuba diver exploring a cenote in the Yucatan Peninsula’s Sac Actun cave system.

Lıght Shining

into

Darkness

SA M

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Deep underneath Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, underwater cave explorer Sam Meacham ’85 navigates one of Earth’s last mysteries. His team has — literally — drawn the map of the extensive underground

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network of submerged caves and tunnels that provides fresh water to the region. Along the way, he’s become an advocate for vital ecological and conservation issues, and he’s helped secure an invaluable archaeological site that helps explain how the earliest humans arrived in the Americas. BY REBECCA A . BINDER SP RI NG 2015

umanity has been fascinated with cenotes since the beginning. The natural freshwater wells, which bore into the porous limestone bedrock of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, were sacred to the ancient Mayan civilization. The Maya used cenotes as sources of fresh water and built their grandest cities near them. They associated cenotes with fertility and birth, and believed they were the dwelling places of the rain gods. They left offerings at the edges of cenotes, including incense burners, jade beads and pottery, appealing to the rain gods in a land where irrigation was next to impossible and where agriculture was paramount.

The Maya were on to something: The cenotes really are sacred, at least to the extent that they allow life to flourish on the Yucatan Peninsula. The geology of the area is unique. Rivers, streams and lakes are few and far between; instead, the region gets its fresh water from the immense labyrinth of cenotes: the thousands of wells on the surface, and the hundreds of miles of underground, waterfilled tunnels and caverns that connect them. Rainwater falls on the lush canopy of the inland jungle; it filters through the ground into the tunnels and is carried to the sea. The water is clear and potable, and life on the Yucatan Peninsula depends on it. Now, the cenotes have lured another person to their edges. Underwater cave explorer Sam

Meacham ’85 has always been fascinated with the unknown: with the discoveries that lie just outside the body of human knowledge, with the questions that humanity hasn’t been able to answer, with the dark corners that lie just over the edge of the map. “When I was a kid, I had two posters hanging in my room,” he says. “One was of Farrah Fawcett. Right next to it, though, I had a poster of the Apollo astronauts. I was fascinated with the space program.” It’s fitting that Meacham had an early interest in the Apollo astronauts. He’s got a lot in common with them. Meacham goes places people have never been. He’s driven to look around the bend, to shine a light down a dark passageway, to push past the frontiers of what we know about our world.

This yen for adventure spurred Meacham’s interest in scuba diving while he was at Brooks: His roommate was certified, and some of his friends had been talking about diving, so Meacham took the plunge and earned his scuba certification while on family vacation in 1984. He didn’t know it at the time, but he’d taken the first steps toward becoming an explorer. “I moved to Mexico in 1994 with the intention of paying my way around the world as a dive instructor,” Meacham says. “I fell headlong into the cenotes. I met some of the pioneers of cave diving exploration in that region. It’s as if I showed up at Mount Everest and happened to meet Sir Edmund Hillary, and he took me under his wing.” Two decades later, Meacham’s still exploring the cenotes. His team has made thousands of dives and explored hundreds of miles of the cave system. They’re literally drawing the map of the life-sustaining universe underneath the Yucatan Peninsula. And, they’ve used their findings for good: Meacham is the founder and director of El Centro Investigador del Sistema Acuífero de Quintana Roo (CINDAQ), a Mexico-based nonprofit. CINDAQ’s mission is to continue to explore and research the aquifer of the Yucatan Peninsula, and to support its watershed management and conservation by raising awareness of the delicate ecological balance that lies underground. Meacham won Brooks’s Alumni Shield Award in 2005 for this conservation and advocacy work.

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Sam Meacham ’85 examines a Mayan pot found in a cenote.

PHOTO: DANIEL RIORDAN

“

THE REMAINS JUST SAT THERE FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS, WAITING TO BE FOUND.” —Dr. Dominique Rissolo

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Underwater cave explorer Sam Meacham ’85 advocates for the conservation of the cenote system of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.

“

IF THERE’S EVER A CASE FOR SUSTAINABLE TECHNOLOGY TO BE IMPLEMENTED, THIS IS THE PLACE TO DO IT.”

The divers who map the cenotes have also unearthed a treasure trove of archaeological specimens, including Mayan artifacts. Those artifacts are a good haul in their own right, but the cenotes held another secret. In 2007, divers made a stunning discovery: the well-preserved, nearly complete skeleton of a teenage girl, which is between 12,000 and 13,000 years old. The Paleoamerican skeleton gives archaeology one of its most complete glimpses into Ice Age humans. And, that’s not all: Scientific findings that were published last spring add ammunition to the debate over how humans arrived in the Americas.

Meacham’s also made it his mission to train and educate the next generation of underwater explorers and scientists. He holds a master’s degree in natural resources with a specialization in geospatial science from the University of New Hampshire, and he’s a research scientist and diving safety officer at The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment at Texas State University. He teaches biology and anthropology students how to work underwater in a spring-fed lake on campus that’s part of the San Marcos Springs system. Meacham also co-directs an underwater archaeology initiative with several sites around Latin America.

PHOTO: ROGER HYDE

—Sam Meacham ’85

Sustaining the Future

Meacham’s passionate about his work with CINDAQ. He reminds us that the Yucatan Peninsula relies on the fresh water from the cenotes, and that the rapid rise of tourism on the coast puts the region on the edge of an ecological cliff. Until the 1970s, the Yucatan Peninsula was a quiet, pastoral corner of Mexico with an economy that centered on cattle ranching, logging and agriculture. Forty years ago, though, the area refocused its economy on tourism, and the Riviera Maya was born. Immediate, almost unchecked development of massive hotels, all-inclusive resorts and a surge of vacationers flocked

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to the sparkling Caribbean coastline. The cities that stretch south down the coast tell the story of the population increase. Cancún, once a small fishing village, is now a boomtown that’s a magnet for spring breakers. Playa del Carmen, which had 10,000 residents in the early 1990s, grew to a city of 150,000 people by 2006. Tulum, once an outpost known mainly for majestic Mayan ruins nearby, has become a glittering international hotspot. The 80 miles between Cancún and Tulum attract millions of visitors each year. The rise of tourism on the Riviera Maya has brought indisputable economic benefits. Tourism accounts for more than 75 percent of the region’s gross domestic product. However, this onslaught of human development also poses a huge risk for the Yucatan Peninsula’s delicate aquifer: Pollutants have increasingly leached into the cenote system. The pollution of the region’s source of fresh water places the ecology of the region in danger; it also threatens to upend the same human development that caused it. (See sidebar.) “If there’s ever a case for sustainable technology to be implemented,” Meacham argues, “this is the place to do it.” This is where Meacham’s exploration becomes crucial. Meacham chalks up the failure to adequately protect the aquifer to an out of sight, out of mind mentality. Creating a map of the underground cenote system is important, Meacham says, because it’s the first step in making a solid case for conservation and for watershed management. “You can’t protect what you don’t understand, or what you don’t realize is even there,” he says. “I know the caves are there, and I can talk

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until I’m blue in the face — but when I put a map up that shows an aerial photograph of an area that everyone’s familiar with, and then I superimpose a map that we’ve made of these caves on top of it, people begin to realize the stakes and the interconnectivity of all this water that’s flowing through the system.” One of Meacham’s biggest obstacles is the population he’s preaching to. Most people that live on the Riviera Maya, Meacham says, aren’t from the Riviera Maya — they moved there in search of work when the tourism industry exploded in the region. As a result, few people in the area remember the way things used to be. One of Meacham’s goals, then, is to create a consciousness and a memory where none exists. “I love getting up in front of people and telling them about this environment,” Meacham says. “But I also tell people how important and fragile it is, and that the rampant development that’s occurring on the coastline between Cancún and Tulum threatens it all — not only the health of the ecosystem, but also the health of the human population that lives above it.” Can Meacham make a difference? Can a group of scuba divers, working underground and underneath a population that is largely oblivious to their presence, really make a difference in the face of an industry that’s so overtaken the region’s economy? Meacham faces a decidedly uphill battle, but he’s making progress. He points to two recent successes that, he says, prove that people are starting to hear him and his colleagues. First, Tulum: The city in the shadow of Mayan ruins is the farthest point south on the Riviera Maya. It’s only recently become an official municipality, and it’s

IN DEPTH

The Causes of Water Pollution in the Yucatan Peninsula According to CINDAQ, the Riviera Maya’s infrastructure, sewage systems and waste management policies haven’t kept up with the region’s rapid development and population explosion. Most local residents don’t have access to storm sewers or sewage treatment systems. Instead, residents rely on septic tanks, which are often inadequate, and which often leak raw sewage into the aquifer. Or, all too often, raw sewage is dumped directly into a cenote. Garbage also finds its way into the cenotes: Residents burn their garbage in unlined landfills, and contaminants leach through the ground and into the water supply. Even the well regulated, large hotels and resorts with top-of-the-line waste treatment practices may contribute to the pollution of the aquifer despite their full compliance with the law. Here’s why: The cenote system consists of two depths of tunnels. Tunnels closest to the surface funnel fresh water from the inland jungle to the ocean. Deeper underground, a second set of tunnels carries salt water inland from the coast. Vertical caverns connect the two sets of tunnels; the layer of salt water and the layer of fresh water don’t mix because salt water is denser than fresh water. Large hotels and resorts generally mix their treated sewage with fresh water, and dispose of that mixture, called wastewater, by injecting it deep into the ground — and in this case, directly into the saltwater tunnels. Because wastewater contains fresh water, which is less dense than the salt water it’s injected into, the wastewater finds its way up the vertical caverns and, eventually, into the fresh water supply. And, because the saltwater tunnels carry water inland from the coast, the wastewater that finds its way into the freshwater tunnels almost always enters the freshwater tunnels upstream of the coastal population centers.

Illustration of water flow and potential of contamination from deep saltwater injection of treated sewage

Saltwater flow Freshwater flow Sewage injection

just now starting to plan its future development. Meacham says that the original development plan city officials presented ran roughshod over the major cave systems concentrated around Tulum. In what Meacham calls “a fairly rare occurrence,” though, CINDAQ and other local organizations were given an opportunity to voice their concerns — and city planners listened. The subsequent plan acknowledged and included the cave systems. “This was the first time that any development plan for that coastline included the cave systems,” Meacham says. “That’s a huge victory.” Second, Meacham speaks glowingly of the golf course at Mayakoba, a collection of luxury resorts in the heart of the Riviera Maya corridor. Golf legend Greg Norman designed the course: He’s an avid scuba diver, and he’s toured the cenotes with Meacham. The Mayakoba course hosts Mexico’s only PGA Tour event, and CINDAQ receives a portion of the tournament purse. Moreover, despite the infamous reputation golf courses have for water consumption, Meacham says that the course is the most ecologically friendly, environmentally conscious development on the coastline. The course uses pest-resistant grass that doesn’t require as much insecticide or fertilizer as comparable courses, which decreases the amount of pollutants that leach into the cenotes. And, the Mayakoba grass can be watered with brackish water, which helps conserve fresh water. “Water and water quality is very much a part of the political conversation in the area now,” Meacham says. “Whether that’s going to effect any change, we’ll have to wait and see. But we’ve made the effort, and our concerns are on the books.”

Preserving the Past A diver explores the Yucatan Peninsula’s Nohoch Nah Chich cave system.

As much as Meacham gets a glimpse of the future of life on the Yucatan Peninsula as he navigates and maps the cenotes, he also gets a glimpse of its past. Over the years, the divers that explore the cenotes have come across caches of Mayan ceramics, jewelry and other religious artifacts that were left as ancient offerings. They’ve also found remnants of an even earlier age: Divers would occasionally discover the remains of prehistoric animals — mastodons, for example, or sabertoothed cats — and the remnants of prehistoric plants.

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PHOTO: SAM MEACHAM ’85

In order to understand how citizens of the Ice Age came to rest at the bottom of a submerged underwater cavern, we need to understand how the cenote system formed. The passageways that Meacham swims through today were dry up until around 12,000 years ago. This was during the late Pleistocene era, when glaciers ruled the earth and global water levels were almost 100 meters lower than they are today. During that last gasp of the Ice Age, these prehistoric animals made their way into the caves in the search for water. Not all of those animals found their way out: Many of them fell to their deaths into the caverns. Over time, the Ice Age ended, the glaciers melted, the sea levels rose, and the animals’ remains were sealed off in the watery abyss. This fate wasn’t limited to animals: Around 13,000 years ago, a teenage girl — one of the earliest humans in the Americas — also entered the caves, also likely in search of water. She fell into a deep, bell-shaped cavern, died from her injuries and was covered by the depths of water and time. The girl remained there, concealed and silent, until 2007, when three divers who are colleagues of Meacham’s discovered her. On what was otherwise a routine dive through a cenote tunnel, the three explorers suddenly found the tunnel opening up into a massive, submerged cavern. Meacham describes the sensation of entering the cavern as similar to walking out of the tunnel into the stands at a baseball stadium. The cavern, named Hoyo Negro, which is Spanish for “black hole,” is an archaeological treasure chest. At its bottom, 180 feet below sea level, the three divers found the remains of more than two dozen prehistoric animals, including mastodons and saber-toothed cats, and, in a crucial discovery, the nearly complete skeleton of the girl.

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They named her Naya, which is Greek for “water nymph.” Naya has led Meacham’s career down an unexpected path: Now, his underwater exploration and survey work around Hoyo Negro is helping solidify the theory of how humans arrived in the Americas. “What’s most exciting and unique about Hoyo Negro is that this evidence of the Pleistocene is discoverable,” says Dr. Dominique Rissolo, an archaeologist and anthropologist who works at the site. Prehistoric animals and humans were plentiful — if you’re reading this Bulletin in North America, chances are that mastodons lumbered up and down the street outside your door — but evidence of them is scarce. Over time, their remains would have disappeared, fallen to the rigors of time, weather and erosion. But, Rissolo explains, Hoyo Negro is different: It’s a contained, sheltered environment that hasn’t been subject to the weather or to erosion; the caves filled with water, and, Rissolo says, “the remains just sat there for thousands of years, waiting to be found.” Naya’s skull — her cranium and her mandible — have been recovered and analyzed. Scientists are still forming a complete picture of Naya’s significance, but they already know that she’s of massive importance to the debate over the theory of human migration into the Americas. The predominant theory is that humans first entered the Americas when our Siberian ancestors moved across Beringia — the land bridge that is today’s Bering Strait — between 26,000 and 18,000 years ago when sea levels were low during the last Ice Age. Scientists have linked the DNA of Native Americans to the Beringian migration. Recently, though, some scientists have launched an alternate idea: They point out that the skeletons of the oldest humans in the Americas,

the Paleoamericans, simply don’t look like the skeletons of modern Native Americans, Siberians and northeast Asians. In fact, the idea points out, the skulls of the earliest Americans look most similar to modern Africans, Australians and people from the southern Pacific Rim. This suggests that the Americas may have been populated in two waves: one overland migration from Beringia, and one earlier migration — quite possibly by boat — from Eurasia. Naya throws her weight behind the original theory, that of the single, overland migration across the Bering Strait. The fact that Naya’s skull is completely preserved is invaluable: Together, the cranium and the mandible show that she had facial features similar to the earliest Americans, who would have been part of the newly proposed first migration. And, scientists were able to extract DNA from one of Naya’s molars. The genetic evidence turned out to be the smoking gun. Naya shares DNA with modern Native American populations. We already know that modern Native Americans are descended from the Beringian migration. This DNA evidence gives scientists a clear link between the earliest Americans like Naya, and the population that crossed over the land bridge from Siberia. Meacham was invited to help secure, map and survey the archaeological site. His work has been critical to the geologists, archaeologists and paleontologists working on the surface. He becomes an extension of the scientists at the surface, exploring the site, mapping the tunnels that lead to and from the Hoyo Negro cavern and placing the cavern in the context of the cave system. “We map the passageways leading into the area, because we need to figure out where all the animals and Naya came from and how they got into the cavern,” Meacham says. “Mastodons also fell into

this cavern. How did they get there? Where did they come from? That’s where I help out, by surveying and helping understand these remains.” One of the major goals of the survey is to decipher the rise of water in the cavern — how fast it rose and which parts of the cavern were completely submerged first. Meacham’s work has been important in that respect. “Sam is a master surveyor,” Rissolo says. “He approaches the site as a crime scene, identifying all the clues and figuring out which ones we need to focus on and what they can tell us about the processes that shaped the cave over thousands of years. If we’re going to bring that cave topside for all the geologists and paleontologists and archaeologists, we need that detailed picture. Sam’s a big part of that.” Meacham’s work at the site isn’t done yet: There’s recovery of the rest of Naya’s skeleton, as well as recovery and study of a menagerie of prehistoric animals that also rests on the bottom of Hoyo Negro. Rissolo estimates that there’s still five to ten years of work to be done on the site. “I’ve fulfilled every childhood dream I had about exploration,” Meacham says. “Not just about exploring and climbing a mountain to put your flag on top of it, but also about exploration that has significant scientific importance. I mean no disrespect to mountain climbers, but I really don’t get that; I don’t see what the point is. Mountain climbers can stand at the bottom of a mountain and use a telescope to plan their route and see what’s waiting for them. When I come up to the side of a cenote, I have no idea what’s waiting for me below. We really are pitching into the unknown, which in many ways is what true exploration is about. We’re setting off across the sea in the hopes that we’ll hit land.”

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BY R E B ECCA A . B IN DE R

Brooks third-formers benefitted from a new WINTER TERM addition this year: a separate set of classes designed just for them, an overnight trip to the Berkshires, and a chance to learn the skills that will allow them to succeed at Brooks.

Ready to Climb

Patrick McCoy ’18 plans his route up the rock climbing wall at Camp Becket.

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Brooks third-former Tyler Gallant ogled the face of the craggy wall in front of him and pensively fingered the rope that trailed off his rock climbing harness. Gallant’s not a fan of heights, and his doubts almost surfaced through his cool demeanor. He listened closely as his instructor described how a climber communicates with their partner to ensure the climber’s safety. The instructor explained that just before a rock climber starts to scale the face of a wall, they have a quick but critical conversation with their partner, who belays the climber’s weight through a system of ropes and pulleys. The conversation is composed of four phrases that assure the climber that their belay is secure. It reads as follows: “On belay?” “Belay is on.” “Ready to climb.” “Climb away.” Those four phrases form the basis of the relationship that rock climbing demands. Rock climbing requires teamwork. It requires communication. It requires that you trust in your partner. Rock climbing requires that you follow your instincts while ceding to your partner’s. Most of all, rock climbing requires that you learn how to stand out as an individual while contributing seamlessly to the success of a larger group. Gallant wanted a clarification. “These are the words we have to say?” he asked the instructor. No,” the instructor answered. “These aren’t words you have to say. These are words you get to say.”

Clockwise: Annabelle Leeson ’18 focusing during her rock climbing session at Camp Becket. • Gabby Sanchez ’18 prepares for her turn at rock climbing at Camp Becket. • Tyler Gallant ’18 tries his hand at rock climbing during the third form’s retreat to Camp Becket.

JANUARY, those four phrases took on a new meaning for the Brooks third form. This year, the third form had the opportunity to hone those skills — communication, leadership, teamwork, community — while spending time together as a class and forming valuable bonds with classmates. For the first time, Winter Term included a separate program for the third form: First, the class took a three-day, two-night trip to Camp Becket, an outdoor education retreat in western Massachusetts. Next, the students enrolled in a separate set of courses that provided the depth that’s become the hallmark of Winter Term and that gave students room to learn the skills that they need to succeed in the classroom at Brooks.

A Signature Experience

Associate Head for Academic Affairs Lance Latham says that Winter Term is an invaluable opportunity for Brooks students. Now in its fourth year, Winter Term breathes life into the Brooks campus in January. It offers students and faculty a new way to learn and a new way to teach, and it revitalizes the Brooks classroom, campus and community in the depths of the New England winter. Students enroll in one course, which explores one topic in-depth for three weeks. This design gives students the chance to focus their education on one academic subject, and it gives faculty the chance to craft an engaging, experiential-based course on a topic that interests them. Latham sees the third-form program as a way for the newest Brooksians to ease into a standout Brooks experience: “This is an orientation to Winter Term, as opposed to just throwing the third form into it and hoping they figure it out,” he says. Winter Term is an exciting piece of the Brooks curriculum, but Latham acknowledges that it’s a constantly evolving work in progress. Each year, the Winter Term curriculum and structure adjust to address needs that arose the year before. This year, Winter Term evolved to meet two unique needs of the third form. First, Latham points out that after only one semester at Brooks, third-formers often have markedly different levels of background preparation and academic skills proficiency. “The third form comes from all over the world and from all different schools,” Latham says. “They each have such different levels of preparation for our curriculum. Many of the kids have established habits that aren’t right. The third-form faculty works all year to teach the third form to be the kind of students that we want them to be at Brooks. Winter Term gives our faculty the chance to teach these lessons and these skills in different and more in-depth ways.”

Second, Latham hopes that Winter Term can provide each third form class with an opportunity to bond with classmates who are no longer strangers but are not quite yet friends. “We wanted to give the third form a signature experience that they can look back on as a class,” he says. “We wanted to rework the social groups a little bit, put kids together that might not have spoken to each other since orientation and give them a chance to get to know each other. We purposefully wanted to move the third form outside of the influence of our upper forms, and have them out of the loop just long enough so that they could get together and form their own identity as a class.”

Looking for a Challenge

Amairani Farias ’18 chose her Winter Term class, called Let’s Get Creative, very deliberately. “I chose to take a class about creativity because I don’t see myself as a very creative person,” she says. “The class focused on drawing out your creativity and seeing what you can do with it. I knew it was going to be a challenge, but a challenge is what I was looking for when I signed up.” Gallant took advantage of the opportunity to hone his research and presentation skills during Winter Term. He took a class called TED Talks, where he researched, designed and presented a TED-style talk on the causes and prevention of suicide. In preparing his presentation, Gallant learned how to conduct effective online and library-based research; he got to practice his time management skills during days that are not as structured as during the regular academic year; and he learned how to break down a larger, longterm project into a series of smaller, short-term goals and deadlines. “I had to take a lot of responsibility for myself, because Winter Term is very independent,” Gallant says. “Between the research I did and the independence of it all, I learned a new way to work. My writing skills have improved. Also, the class focused on public speaking: If I ever have to debate a point in any other class, I know I’ll have the public speaking skills to do well.” The third-form Winter Term classes are, in many ways, similar to the classes offered to upper forms.

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“I knew it was going to be a challenge, but a challenge is what I was looking for when I signed up.” —AMAIRANI FARIAS ’18

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They are designed for collaboration between students, for the opportunity to explore a new area of knowledge, and for assignments based on the completion of a longterm project. This is purposeful: Latham says that the classes are meant to prepare the third form for future Winter Terms. “The third-form classes are different in that they only have third-form students enrolled,” says Latham. “They’re not different in terms of the variety of classes that are offered, and they incorporate the same elements as the upperclass courses.” But, the third-form courses also offer additional elements geared toward the third form: opportunities for presentation, and time for self-reflection and mindfulness, for example. “It feels like we’re accomplishing what we set out to do, which is offer a smooth transition for the third form into Winter Term while introducing the third form to skills that upperclassmen already have,” Latham says. Farias says that her Winter Term class on creativity broadened her perspective on her own education. “I learned that being creative isn’t just having art skills,” she says. “We read books. We read — and wrote — poetry. I learned how to find education in everything.” Not only are the courses offered to the third form selected very intentionally, but so are the faculty who teach those courses. Latham hand-picked the group of faculty who taught this year’s third-form courses. “We wanted a mix of faculty, and we wanted the students to have different teachers from the teachers they have all year,” says Latham. As such, some senior faculty — including department chairs — taught third-form Winter Term classes alongside more junior faculty. Latham composed a group of faculty with different levels of experience and with different teaching styles. The only character traits that the group had in common, Latham says, are that “they all connect well with the kids, and they were all excited to teach the thirdform Winter Term courses. They were all in.” Bettina Graves-Muto, who teaches Spanish at Brooks during the regular academic year, found that teaching the third-form course Obsoletely Not! was a challenge that informed her teaching. The course dissected how our society values material goods and examined ways in which space and goods are repurposed or recycled. As an example, Graves-Muto points to the High Line, a line of decrepit elevated train tracks on the West Side of Manhattan, which has been repurposed as a celebrated linear park and greenway. Graves-Muto’s students studied the High Line and other examples of repurposing, including the potential for repurposing on the Brooks campus. It was refreshing to plan a course that revolved around three- or four-hour blocks of class time, says

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COURSE CATALOG

The third form chose from seven Winter Term courses this year.

“They came back to campus with this class spirit, this sense of them all being in this together, that was great to watch.” —Associate Head for Academic Affairs LANCE E. LATHAM

Third-formers (from left to right) Ryan Neal, Alex Barenboim, Talha Kamran and Teagan Canning try to win it all during a lesson on momentum at Camp Becket.

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Everybody Cooks Rice: Family & Culture Around the World Inspired by the children’s book Everybody Cooks Rice, this course explored the constructs of family through the lens of culture, especially those cultures represented in the Brooks population. The course dealt with different definitions of family around the world, social conventions surrounding marriage, divorce, death, birth and adoption, and customs that create, reinforce and celebrate family. Students had the opportunity to explore and celebrate diversity while also affirming universal aspects of the human experience. Insider’s Guide to Brooks Are there tunnels connecting Russell House and Whitney House? How did a mild-mannered teacher named Dusty become a Brooks legend? Whose bronze statue is that in the Link? Why do the sixth-formers yell “SHINE” when the school hymn is sung? What should interested students and their families know about the Brooks experience that a tour and interview won’t tell them? Students in this class researched, created and designed materials intended to answer those questions. Ready… Set… Connect! Students researched and investigated opportunities for youth in surrounding municipalities in the Merrimack Valley, and created a digital clearinghouse for local residents. The searchable resource connects youth to programs and programs to youth. Let’s Get Creative The most important advancements in science, medicine, art, music, film and business can all be traced back to new, innovative and creative ideas. Creativity is an invaluable skill that will benefit you no matter what path you ultimately choose in life. In this class,

students began to develop and get in touch with their creative side. Students found the natural creativity that lies within them while also developing and nurturing other forms of creativity that may not come as easily. Obsoletely Not! This course took a new look at old stuff and explored our daily choices as they relate to material objects. Students challenged conventional decision-making by examining how we assign value to material goods, and ways in which we could extract additional value through reusing, retaking or recycling material goods. Hands-on projects focused on implementing simple and small changes that can have a great effect on our community and the world. Science is Elementary This course worked closely with an elementary school in Lowell, Mass., to promote science among elementary-age students. Brooks students explored the scientific concepts taught in elementary school and created take-home science kits related to these topics for the elementary school students. Brooks students also took related field trips, including a trip to the Boston Museum of Science. Ted Talks: Making an Idea Worth Sharing This class explored how to develop and communicate ideas for presentation to a wider audience. The class used TED talks as the model for the class. By the end of the course, each student presented a “talk” in the TED format and using the TED guidelines. The goal of the class was to give students an opportunity to dive into an area that fascinates them and equip them with the skills to present their research to a diverse audience in a clear and convincing way.

Graves-Muto, who usually plans classes that are less than an hour long. “The preparation is different,” she says. “Making sure that students stay engaged for that long is enlightening. A lot of that has to do with facilitating information as a teacher, but not necessarily being an expert in that information as a teacher. It’s a different approach to teaching.” Graves-Muto says that she had to let go of her class a little in order to be successful. “Usually, I’m the one structuring the class, and I’m in complete control. In Winter Term, you have to provide a solid framework but let the students go. I learned to let students be more involved in guiding their own learning — for example, when they sought out experts on sustainability and the reuse of space. Letting go of the responsibility of being the sole person to teach them was hard; but the students also found it gratifying to see that I was learning along with them, and working outside of my comfort zone keeps me fresh.”

Back at Becket, Dr. Mary Jo Carabatsos, who is the chair of the science department at Brooks, took advantage of a unique opportunity to give her students a memorable lesson in momentum. Poised at the top of a snow-covered hill, Carabatsos pointed to a stack of inflatable donutshaped sleds and smiled at the group of third-formers clustered around her. Break up into groups of four, Carabatsos instructed. One of you has to sit in the sled. The rest of you have to push. The group that gets their sled the farthest distance down the hill wins. Groups found each other. Hands gestured. Voices rose and fell as students debated the value of putting weight on the sled versus putting heft on the push versus hunkering down in the sled versus lying prone on the sled. Students were engaged, and Carabatsos was thrilled: “I just couldn’t resist throwing in some physics here,” she says. “This is so great.” Before Winter Term classes even began, the third form was out in full force. The form took a three-day, two-night trip to Camp Becket, a YMCA camp in the Berkshires. Latham explains that the trip’s purpose was not just an opportunity to teach real-world physics lessons — it was also a way to bring the form together in its own environment. The trip to Camp Becket served as an introduction to the themes that would run through the classes the students would return to. At Becket, the third form engaged in a variety of outdoor, team-building

An Education Outdoors

activities, including snowshoeing, cross-country skiing and rock climbing. “We wanted to introduce them to some of the elements of Winter Term,” Latham says. “The working together, the teamwork, the communication, the trusting one another. Outdoor, experiential learning is Becket’s bread and butter, and its staff did a great job. Our time there helped us springboard into Winter Term in a way that helped the kids get ready for their classes. They came back to campus with this class spirit, this sense of them all being in this together, that was great to watch.” Gallant knows exactly what Latham’s talking about. “I walked out of Becket being close with three new people,” he says. Gallant’s a day student, so he usually doesn’t get to experience life in the dorms. “I finally got to see what that was about, and have roommates,” he says. “We stayed up late, we played cards, someone brought a Rubik’s cube — it was so different from my normal days, and it was fun to see that other side of life at Brooks.” Farias used the Becket overnight to make connections with classmates that she typically only sees in passing between classes. She’s very aware, as all high-schoolers are, that chances to get to know peers outside of your immediate social circle are generally few and far between. She’s glad she got a few days to interact with classmates that she doesn’t know closely. “There’s this one person who I see in the hallway at Brooks, but we never really get to talk,” she says. “He was in my group at Becket, and as we worked at all the activities together, we got to spend time together. He’s a really friendly guy, a really cool guy, and I’m glad that we finally had that chance to get to know each other.” Latham believes strongly that Brooks’s core values — empathy, engagement, integrity, passion, confidence and creativity— are mirrored in Winter Term’s focus on community, on self-directed study, on slowing down from the usual hectic academic pace. “I believe — and this is a trend that’s appearing all over the country — that what we ought to be teaching, and what kids really want to and really need to know, isn’t as centered on teaching a collection of facts anymore,” he says. “Of course, there is a core set of knowledge that you need to learn. But I hope that, even into the academic year, we can shift our focus toward teaching kids how to write, teaching kids how to think, teaching kids how to work with other people. That’s what Winter Term really illustrates. It serves Brooks’s mission very well, and it makes January in New England a little brighter, and a little more invested and involved.”

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B RO O KS CONNECTIONS

BROOKS CONNECTIONS IN THIS SECTION 44 Alumni News 50 Class Notes 82 In Memoriam

Who are these gallant Brooksians from days gone by? Email Rebecca A. Binder, editor, at rbinder@brooksschool.org with your guess.

Charlie Davies â&#x20AC;&#x2122;04 (left) has become a valuable weapon for the New England Revolution. He helped the Revs to the MLS Cup BRO championship game in 2014. OKS BULLETIN

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PH OTO: STEWART COO K/R EVO LUT ION COM M UN ICAT IONS

Revolution Rising Soccer standout and New England Revolution striker Charlie Davies ’04 rocketed to the top of the regional sports scene this fall. He helped lead the way as the Revolution clawed through the 2014 Major League Soccer season to finish in second place in the Eastern Conference. New England dominated the playoffs, won the conference and made it to the franchise’s first MLS Cup final without losing a postseason game. Although the Revs lost the championship game to the Los Angeles Galaxy in extra time, the 2014 season defined the club as an emerging power. Davies came up big when the season was on the line and contributed what may be the defining moment of New England’s 2014 campaign. Davies led the Revs back from a one-goal deficit twice against the rival New York Red Bulls in the second game of the Eastern Conference championship series. First, Davies took a cross from Chris Tierney to knot the score just before halftime. Davies hooked up with Tierney again to score the game-tying goal with 20 minutes left in regulation. Davies’ goal put the Revs ahead 4–3 in the aggregate and punched New England’s ticket to the MLS Cup championship game. Davies sits alone as the only player in Revolution history to score two goals in an MLS playoff game. Davies’ rise to prominence is well earned: He’s fought his way back from a series of setbacks, including a devastating 2009 car accident. The crash left him with severe injuries and derailed a promising career that, at the time, included a spot on the United States national team. Following an arduous recovery, Davies found playing time with teams in France and Denmark, as well as with MLS club D.C. United, before he landed with the Revolution in August 2013. Now, Davies figures to be a vital piece up front for the Revs as the team attempts to get back to the championship game.

TRIVIA ANSWER // Winter 2015 Elizabeth Napier ’82 was the first person to correctly identify last issue’s trivia photo. Be sure to check out this issue’s trivia photo on page 43.

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A Return to Campus The February Trustees Weekend marked a return to campus for two Brooks alumni: Tom Holleb ’88 and Jeffery Hudson ’88 took the opportunity to tour the campus, get to know current students and take in presentations from Director of Operations Dean Ellerton and other key administrators. Both Holleb and Hudson found that while Brooks continues to look toward the future, it remains firmly rooted in the ideals that formed its foundation. “What’s going on at Brooks is truly remarkable,” says Holleb. “The mission of providing students with the most meaningful educational experience they’ll have in their lives, Mr. Packard’s leadership, the identity that’s being cultivated — I think that’s more than just words. It feels as if the kids at Brooks have a level of school spirit and enthusiasm that’s greater than when I was a student. It’s very intriguing to be around.” Hudson agrees, and says that walking through campus helped him form a very positive view of the school’s direction. “The event was a great experience for me in terms of getting a good overview of what’s on the agenda at Brooks,” he says. “Walking through campus helped bring it all together.” Hudson highlights his visit to one of Brooks’s most iconic structures, Ashburn Chapel, which was renovated last year. “Sitting in the new chapel brings back a level of peace or nostalgia, a feeling that is Brooks,” he says. “Alumni who walk into the chapel, and sit and reflect there, will feel like time has not passed. We’ve done a great rebuild of the chapel, and alumni that visit the building will see that Brooks has the best intentions. There’s a core there that’s not gone.” The February meeting was one of several gatherings that will help define and shape the institutional priorities that will allow Brooks to deliver on its mission and core values in the future. If you would like to join this ongoing conversation, please contact Director of Development Gage Dobbins via email at gdobbins@brooksschool.org or via telephone at (978) 725-6288.

HELP BRO O KS F ILL O U T ITS ROSTER We read with interest the class note that Lawrie Barr ’54 submitted to this issue (see page 53). Selected by coaches and team captains, the William Stuart Barr Memorial Trophy is awarded annually to a boys hockey player, not a captain, for outstanding performance and contributions to the spirit of hockey at Brooks. The plaque that recognizes and lists the award winners is currently being updated. In the interim, we need your help: Brooks has identified many of the trophy recipients, but we’re on the hunt for those who won the trophy from 1972 through 1988, as well as in 2008 and 2009. We’d like to give all the trophy recipients the recognition that they deserve. If you can help us fill in these gaps, please email Director of Stewardship Sandy Bosco at sbosco@brooksschool.org. You can read more about this year’s dominant boys team on page 17.

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Paying It Forward Brooks alumni help round out one of Winter Term’s most exciting courses. English teacher Leigh Perkins ’81 and Dean of Faculty and English teacher John Haile worked with a group of Brooks alumni to ensure that their Winter Term class reached its full potential. The class, titled Don’t Believe Everything You Read — Bias, Truth and the Media, examined the way in which news providers shape the news that consumers receive. The class asked questions such as: Who chooses which events are worthy of news coverage, and why? How do we know that the news we consume is accurate and truthful? How do a reporter’s background and previous experiences shape their presentation of the news they report? As part of the course, the class traveled to Washington, D.C., where students met with media players and toured relevant sites. Kevin Jacobs ’06 played host to the class. Perkins and Haile also asked three Brooks alumni

for help with the substance of the class, and Cristina Antelo ’95, Molly Bingham ’86 and Gary Witherspoon ’80 delivered. Antelo, a principal at advocacy and strategic communications firm The Podesta Group, wanted to present the Brooks students with a diversity of perspectives from different media figures. She set up several meetings for the class, including sessions with a foreign correspondent to the Washington Post, an editor at Politico and both Republican and Democrat communications directors. “Cristina got our students a view of so many aspects of media use, control and manipulation that John and I could not have managed,” Perkins says. “She really helped set the foundation for the entire course.” Antelo explains that she wanted to ensure that the students would be presented with perspectives that differed from their own. “It’s important for

these kids to get out and see the bigger world,” she says. “That’s something that was really important to my experience at Brooks, being from a small town in Texas. Having those little experiences taught me that there was this bigger world out there.” Bingham, a noted international photojournalist, writer and filmmaker, spoke to the class about her new venture: She is president and chief executive officer of ORBmedia, a nonprofit organization that’s providing a global perspective to the news by integrating world-class reporting with data science and contributions from the international community. “What we’re interested in doing is presenting stories that challenge us and unite us around our human story,” Bingham says. “We’re talking about the things that we have in common in a way that makes them accessible on a human level, so that we can understand the choices

people make even across very different national, cultural or religious backgrounds.” Bingham also sits on the board of the Center for Public Integrity, and arranged for the class to meet with R. Jeffrey Smith, a managing editor at the center. Bingham says that the time she spent with the class was mutually beneficial. “People helped me when I was a teenager,” she says. “Adults helped me and engaged me, and gave me their time and their ideas, and I’m always looking for opportunities to pay that forward. The experience also helped me: The students see and think about the world in a way that I don’t. This class represented for me the new blood, the new thinking — a new idealistic and great viewpoint on what information can help us with and how it might do that. It was wonderful to have an opportunity to engage with students on that level.”

<< Students look over the front pages of international newspapers at the Newseum. The class visited on the day after the attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical magazine. >> Molly Bingham ’86 discusses global journalism with the class.

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Three Miles, Fifty Years Later

Bill Kellett ’55 receives his trophy — 50 years in the making — at the 2014 Head of the Charles Regatta.

work out. We had terrible weather

When Bill Kellett ’55 helped organize the

that year. The third

internationally famous Head of the Charles

year, I did my part

Regatta back in 1965, he says, he doubted the

but then I moved

event would last more than a few years. And

to Connecticut and

when Kellett won the club junior singles event

didn’t compete

during that inaugural year, all he got was a pat on the back, as trophies weren’t introduced at the competition until many years later. Kellett finally received his trophy during the 50th anniversary of the Head of the Charles this fall. He was thrilled to see that the cup was named in honor of Louis Hawes, a longtime leader of the Cambridge Boat Club’s rowing program and former president of the New England Amateur Rowing Association. Hawes personally got Kellett, a Cambridge native, rowing on the Charles River at the young age of 11. Calling it a pleasure to have Ox Kingsbury as his coach, Kellett made the 1st boat during his fourth form at Brooks. He managed to pull his weight despite being the smallest rower in the boat — he was just 5 feet 9 ½ inches tall, while all the other oarsmen were more than 6 feet tall. Kellett went on to row singles at Harvard University, where he excelled in intercollegiate

after that.” Kellett claims he’s “the guy who shouldn’t have won” that inaugural race, as he had home turf advantage over silver medalist Jim Dietz, the longtime women’s crew coach at the University of Massachusetts and a member of almost every United States national team from 1967 to 1983. “I started the race first and he started second,” says Kellett. “Every time we went under a bridge, I used a stopwatch to tell if Dietz was gaining time or not. At the last bridge, he clearly was going to win on time. But I knew the Charles River backwards and forwards. I came through that last bridge and took the turn perfectly. Unfortunately, Dietz didn’t know the course as well and ran up on the boathouse dock. I won by 20 seconds, but I shouldn’t have.” Kellett did, however, win. And now, 50 years later, he has the trophy to prove it.

singles races. Kellett says that after his college graduation, he and a number of other members of the Cambridge Boat Club were disheartened that they didn’t have a fall event to work toward. Following the lead of Cambridge Boat Club members D’Arcy MacMahon, Howard McIntyre and Jack Vincent, Kellett and a number of other rowers set out to create their own event. They never dreamed it would become a premier international event, drawing more than 9,000

Introducing Brooks Works Have you recently published a book? Has your album just dropped? Tell us about it. We want to hear about your creative successes, and we want to highlight your work in an upcoming issue of the Bulletin. To have your work considered for inclusion in a future installment of Brooks Works, please send a review copy to:

athletes and 300,000 spectators to the banks of the Charles each fall. PH OTO : CO URTESY OF B ILL KELLE T T ’55

Perkins says that Bingham was “approachable, smart, engaging and informative — to the point where several students asserted a desire to adjust their career paths toward investigative journalism after meeting her.” Witherspoon, who is a deputy editor at Newsday, the newspaper based on New York’s Long Island, was a member of the staff that won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the downing of TWA Flight 800. He engaged in a Skype call with the class from the newsroom, and spoke about an editor’s role in presenting unbiased reporting. “Bias in the media certainly does exist,” he says, “because people in the media are people with various backgrounds who maintain different viewpoints. One of my jobs as an editor is to be a filter. We have to work to make sure that we’ve conveyed the news in a fair and judicious manner.” Perkins calls Witherspoon a “grizzled veteran of many newsrooms,” and says he gave the students a valuable look into what life as a local reporter is like. “The kids loved his war stories,” Perkins says, “and he stepped into the role of teacher naturally.” “We had a fabulous conversation,” Witherspoon says. “The students had a lot of good questions and they were very curious. It was a pleasure and honor to speak to Leigh’s class.”

“It was a very small, rather awkwardly run regatta,” Kellett remembers. “We borrowed launches from Harry Parker [Harvard’s legendary varsity rowing coach]. The first year, the clocks weren’t properly aligned; the second hand or minute hand would drop, so no one was sure of the reading. The second year, we rounded up

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The magazine does not purchase the materials listed in Brooks Works. The materials we receive will be donated to the Luce Library or another appropriate outlet. The Bulletin reserves the right to reject works that, in the judgment of the editorial staff, do not promote the mission or values of Brooks School or the Bulletin.

all the boats and just hoped everything would

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07 09 10 08

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BOSTON

REGIONAL RECEPTION Nearly 200 Brooks alumni, parents and community members attended a reception in Boston in February. The night featured cocktails, hors d’oeuvres and remarks by Head of School John Packard. 01 Head of School John Packard addresses the crowd. 02 Associate Head for External Affairs Jim Hamilton (left) and Patrick M. Gordon Sr. P’13. 03 Left to right: Matt Mues ’04, Charlie Cornish ’06, Ronnie Dixon ’06 and Derek Missert ’06. 04 Jennifer Lannan P’18. 05 Left to right: Nicole Kisner ’10, Lowell Abbott ’10 and Julia Demoulas ’10. 06 Left to right: Bryan Chang ’11, former faculty T. J. Baker and Matt Lawton ’11. 07 Richard Curtin ’08. 08 Alex Kenna ’92 (right). 09 Left to right: Former faculty Robert E. Morahan P’93, P’96, Carolyn J. Morahan P’93, P’96 and Christopher Morahan ’93. 10 Paul Fitzpatrick GP’18 (left) and James O’Shea P’18. 11 James Scully Jr. ’05 (left) and Assistant Director of Admission Jaime Gilbert ’04. 12 Ross Barman ’09 (right) and guest. 13 Left to right: Dean of Faculty John Haile, Trustee Isabella Speakman Timon ’92 and Russell Bashford ’90. 14 Director of Environmental Stewardship and science teacher Brian Palm (left) and Trustee John R. Barker ’87. 15 Trustee Valentine Hollingsworth III ’72, P’17. 16 Select members of the Brooks School Chorus and A Cappella perform. 17 History teacher Willie Waters ’02 (left) and Malachy Burke ’13. 18 Michael Burbank ’07 (left) and Brooks Goodyear ’08. 19 Scott J. Dufresne P’18 (left) and Yva M. Gallant P’18.

15 18

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PARTING SHOT

E L L I E CO RD ES ’ 17 drives to the hoop against St. Paul’s School in February. Cordes scored 16 points during this game and picked up an all-ISL honorable mention nod at the end of the season.

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PLEASE JOIN US FOR OUR YEAR-END FESTIVITIES AT BROOKS. Alumni Weekend will take place May 15–17. Prize Day Weekend will take place May 24–25. We look forward to seeing you on campus!