LJCDS 360 Viewbook 2011

TOR R E Y

VIEWBOOK

G R A D U AT I O N 2 0 1 1

Commencement 2011 Two Worlds One School THE UNIQUE PENGUIN Junior Is a Senior The Entrepreneurial Spirit A BANNER YEAR FOR TORREYS PROMOTIONS Lifers Alumni Review Opera Star Stephanie Weiss REUNIONS CAREER DAY Alumni of the Year Class Notes ALUMNI EVENT SCHEDULE

Contents 02 Editor’s Note 03 Letter from the Head of School 06 Commencement 16 Two Worlds One School: The Browns 20 A Unique Penguin: Zoey Turek 24 Junior Is a Senior: Junior Togiaso 30 The Entrepreneurial Spirit: Stories of Success TORREY 360 VIEWBOOK Editor Chris Lavin Contributors Shannon Cleary, Lee Grant, Zoey Turek Design Visual Asylum Principal Photography Andy Hayt

40 Middle School Promotion 42 Lower School Promotion 44 A Banner Year for the Torreys: Girls Volleyball 47 Alumni Review

38 Junior Is A Senior

42 Volleyball Champions

Additional Photography John Lyons, May Vukotich, Rob Tirsbier and Dan Trevan Printing CPS Printing On the Cover Gabi Shevel

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02 La Jolla Country Day School shapes students from the age of 3 to age 18; virtually from infancy to the threshold of adulthood. Still, in the American tradition, it is the college or university that makes the public claim on the adult identity. You may have been a Torrey for 15 years, but invariably you quickly become known as a Harvard man or woman, a Cardinal (Stanford), an Aztec after a mere four on the college campus.

Today, that dynamic is changing more quickly than the traditions can even follow. In many ways, Torreys no longer disperse. The cellphone numbers stay in our phones. The email addresses are static.

We watch each other age, if not in person, certainly in the photos we post to our Facebook walls.

Upper School teacher Glen Pritzker, a tennis lover extraordinaire, could and did virtually watch 2007 Country Day grad Greg Hirshman’s Stanford career unfold in the four years after he left our team. Our Alumni Facebook page, stewarded ably by Shannon Cleary, has created a space where classmates can be in virtual touch year-round. What the traditional, in-person reunions may lack in suspense, they make up for in the kind of deeper connections classmates are nurturing in the years between gatherings.

In fact, our goal in Communications at Country Day is to create ways for Torreys to be virtually here any time they think of their alma mater. In May 2010, graduate Katrina Ilich, now a George Washington University freshman, took the time to write to Torrey Times to share with her teachers and former schoolmates the excitement of being outside the White House as President Barack Obama announced the death of Osama Bin Laden.

The goal is the same for our current Torreys. This year, many major campus events were presented in photos, words and videos even as they were occurring. We had live reports from our China trip as our varsity baseball team produced and distributed its own video highlights just after games ended.

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The challenge going forward is to organize all the information that connects former Torreys, while keeping current families up to date as well. This summer, we will be working to refine the Parent Portal that was launched last August, adding student information and making teachers’ websites more easily accessible to students and parents. And we will continue to add in volume and depth to information on Torrey Times and the schools’ Facebook pages.

The friendships of our youth, the mentors who taught us how to read and multiply, no longer need to fade with time and distance. Once a Torrey, always a Torrey. Now 24/7. Keep in touch.

Chris Lavin Director of Communications and Marketing

The Meeting of Minds

by Chris Schuck

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n the traditions of education, as each year passes, another generation of students moves through Country Day and then, as it is said, out “into the world.’’ Yet, in so many ways, that tradition is fading.

Change is revealing itself in ways big and small, in shifts to the very foundation of things we once felt were unchanging. Classrooms, classes — the very definition of “teaching’’ — all are evolving as we discover and master new tools that bring the world in much greater relief to our campus — even as we increasingly send our students out into that world to learn in new and experiential ways. China, Kenya, Dominican Republic, Sacramento, Washington D.C., Joshua Tree. More and more instruction is happening in times and places — using tools and techniques — that are not limited to the hours students sit as a group before master teachers.

Websites, emails, computer links to the great knowledge of the world allow educators and students to draw on ever more accessible resources. Teachers have become guides as well as the traditional sources of knowledge.

Still, this we know: There is no replacement for the meeting of two minds. Reading about great ideas is not the same as meeting the author, probing his or her mind, feeling the inspiration that brought about great achievement. There is a conversation in education circles that starts with, “How do we use technology to enhance student learning?” It is a good enough question and an important conversation.

Given the extraordinary foundation we have to build upon at La Jolla Country Day, however, I suspect we may accomplish even more if we ask, “How do we use technology to enhance the relationships —inspirational, motivating, mentoring — that exist between teachers and students?” I have no doubts about the learning that will follow.

During the 2010-11 school year, we endeavored to remember the importance of human contact. We invited to the campus some of the most interesting, innovative and paradigm-breaking entrepreneurs.

In small, intimate groups of students and faculty, we had conversations with these men of letters, science and business. What we learned was concrete and inspirational, grounded in both the freedom of research and the practicalities of the marketplace.

During the coming months, we will expand exponentially (literally, by 2 to the 4th power!) the Internet portal that connects our classrooms, libraries and offices to the outside world. However, I would like to see that expansion — the ability to connect faster and deeper electronically — as a metaphor for our renewed efforts to continue valuing the person-toperson touch, to fully understand the inspirational talents that we may first discover on the Internet, but only come to fully understand in deeper study.

Further on in this magazine, you will find reports on what we learned from the visit of America’s great entrepreneurs to our campus. I commend their thoughts to your attention. And I commit my own efforts to preserve and enhance the value of exposing your children to the best minds of our time — here on campus or elsewhere in our world.

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FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL

EDITOR’S NOTE

VIRTUALLY HERE

Dr. Susan Domanico’s Neuroscience Class and Upper School science teacher Tom Perrotti’s Science and Society class both presented their term papers this year in class but also to the entire school community through Torrey Times. Our Early Childhood Center teachers shared with the school community, in pictures and words, how pre-reading and pre-math skills take shape. Campus life has never before been accessible to so many.

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by Howard Ziment

In many ways, we each see Country Day through a lens held up by our children. It is, after all, their day-to-day success and happiness that matters most to us. After four years serving on your Board of Trustees, this past year as the president, my lens has grown wider. I now have a deeper appreciation for the great work done here on behalf of our children.

It is a great privilege to serve the school and in some small way, assist it in its mission of sending esteemed, young men and women out into the world.

contributions to our collective whole. To that end, we have many examples for them to see. The board has established a task force, under Country Day Board Member Lisa LaCorte’s guidance, to craft a future-looking plan for how we will operate more environmentally responsible.

I would also like to acknowledge the legacy that Mike Wall is leaving to Country Day. As Chairman of the Board’s Buildings and Ground Committee for the past seven years, Mike led the rebuilding This experience has also given me a deeper appreof our campus. We see the fruit of his labors daily. ciation of what is required to keep our school on the Cameron Rooke leaves our board after nine cutting edge of American education. It takes a daily years of tireless service, much of it running our commitment from our entire community to be the Development Committee. His dedication to our best, not just in San Diego or in California but in the school and its mission is inspiring. There are many nation. It takes faculty that are engaged with our others who have gone above and beyond in serving children daily, and creative, energetic administrators our school: through their board service, as Parent who passionately care. We have all of that. But it is Association volunteers, the names and efforts are not enough, because it also takes financial resources too numerous to list. I represent our community in beyond our tuitions. Growing a larger, more produc- thanking all of you for showing our children how to tive endowment is the crucial next step in putting stand up and serve others.

Country Day into the national conversation. It allows us to attract and educate even more extraordinary That said, it is important to remember that a great children, helping them reach their potential in life, school is more than the sum of its parts. Our goal literally changing the world in which we live one as a board, on behalf of all parents, remains to put child at a time. And in our ever more competitive our full support behind providing the optimal world, we must have resources to: environment for our talented educators to flourish. ?S[`fS[` fZW TWef XSU[^[f[We We will continue to look for ways to keep the school Bdah[VW _adW bdaYdS__[`Y at the forefront of a fast-changing world. I encourage 7jb^adW `Wi iSke fa fWSUZ you all to look for ways, big and small, to add to the Bdah[VW YdWSfWd XSUg^fk egbbadf life of our community.

7`ST^W ^[XW UZS`Y[`Y WjbWd[W`UWe Xad fZW efgVW`fe (from trips that reach from the local food banks to the California mountains and on to the streets of Beijing).

Further, we need to teach our children by “doing,” by looking for ways to improve the community that surrounds us, by demonstrating that a school can operate with greater environmental responsibility and sustainability, by standing up as volunteers within the community to make extraordinary

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BOARD OF TRUSTEES

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Keeping Us on the Cutting Edge

Board of Trustees First Row Ben Badiee, Sherry Bahrambeygui-Hosey ’82, Head of School Chris Schuck, President Howard Ziment, Barry Rosenbaum Second Row Wade Doshier, Lucy Smith Conroy ’90, Sherry Mesman, Alex Roudi, Debby Jacobs, Beth Davidson Third Row George Guimares, Lisa LaCorte, Lori Temko, Cameron Rooke Fourth Row Robin Webster, Jeff Church, Larry Hershfield, Peter Hamilton, Steve Morris, David Ashworth Not Pictured Gwyn Carter Rice, Ken Gonzalez,

2010-2011

Jonathan Huberman, Patricia Hughes, Keith Kanner, Steve Libman, Michael Wall, Jing Wang Lauren, fourth grade, Judy Ziment, Howard Ziment, Melanie, sixth grade

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07 COMMENCEMENT

COMMENCEMENT

Sophia Palmer

Commencement 2011

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Fiaalii “Junior” Togiaso

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09 COMMENCEMENT

COMMENCEMENT Brook Mehregany and Anthony Paolucci

Connor Jacobs in the Black Box preparing

AWARDS

Chase Mertz in the Black Box preparing

THE TRUSTEE AWARD FOR SCHOLARSHIP

David Flicker

THE HEAD OF SCHOOL AWARD

Ryan Taylor

THE FACULTY PRIZE

Fiaalii Togiaso Kelsey Miller

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Matt Go

Debbie Austria, Yuvi Anchondo

Kelsey Miller

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11 COMMENCEMENT

COMMENCEMENT Rod Jemison Upper School Director

Gabi Shevel

Alex Cromidas Student Speaker Below: Hunter Khaleghi, Ruben Pena

Student Speaker Allie Hieb Chris Schuck, Howard Ziment

Erin O’Grady Faculty Speaker

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The Madrigal Singers

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13 COMMENCEMENT

COMMENCEMENT Rachel Atkins, Joelle Juarez-Uribe

Gillian Howard

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Frankie Brown

Molly Rogers

Alex Perez

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OVER THE PAST FOUR YEARS, GRADUATES HAVE BEEN ACCEPTED TO THE FOLLOWING INSTITUIONS. THE CLASS OF 2011 GRADUATES ARE ATTENDING THOSE SCHOOLS DENOTED BY AN ASTERISK. Adelphi University Arizona State University Bennington College Bentley University Boston College (6)* Boston University (7) Bradley University Brandeis University* Brown University (3)* Bucknell University* California Institute of Technology* California Institute of the Arts California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (2) California State Polytechnic University* Pomona California State University, Chico

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California State University, Long Beach* California State University, Los Angeles* Carleton College Carnegie Mellon University Chapman University (6)* Claremont McKenna College (3)* Clark Atlanta University College of Charleston* Colorado State University Columbia University Connecticut College* Cornell University* Dartmouth College (5)* Davidson College* Defiance College DePauw University Dixie College*

Dominican University of California* Duke University (2) Emerson College Emory University (7)* Fordham University (2) Georgetown University (5)* Grinnell College* Harvard University (5)* Harvey Mudd College Haverford College* Indiana University at Bloomington Ithaca College Johns Hopkins University (7)* Les Roches, Swiss Hotel Association, School of Hotel Management Lesley University* Linfield College*

Loyola Marymount University (11)* Loyola University New Orleans Macalester College Marquette University* Menlo College Michigan State University* Middlebury College (6) Mills College* MiraCosta College Mount St. Mary’s College* New York University (5)* Northeastern University Northern Arizona University (2) Northwestern University (5) Oberlin College (5)* Occidental College (8)* Oklahoma State University Pepperdine University Pitzer College (3)* Princeton University (2) Purdue University (2) Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Robert Morris University*

Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey at New Brunswick Saint Mary’s College of California San Diego Mesa College (3)* San Diego State University (5) San Francisco State University San Jose State University (2) Santa Clara University (5) Sarah Lawrence College (4) Scripps College (3)* Skidmore College Southern Methodist University (8)* Stanford University (11)* Swarthmore College Sweet Briar College Syracuse University* Texas Christian University (2)* The American University of Paris* The Evergreen State College The George Washington University (6)* The Ohio State University The University of Arizona (13)*

The University of Iowa* The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill* The University of Texas, Austin* Trinity College Trinity International University* Trinity University* Tufts University (4)* Tulane University (3)* United States Military Academy University of California at Berkeley (6)* University of California at Davis* University of California at Irvine (3)* University of California at Los Angeles (6)* University of California at Merced University of California at Riverside University of California at San Diego (3)* University of California at Santa Barbara (10)* University of California at Santa Cruz (3) University of Chicago* University of Colorado at Boulder (11)* University of Denver (3)* University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign* University of Kentucky University of Miami (2)* University of Michigan University of Missouri, Kansas City* University of Northern Colorado (2)* University of Oklahoma (2)* University of Oregon (3)* University of Pennsylvania (6) University of Portland University of Puget Sound University of Redlands (2)* University of San Diego (9)* University of San Francisco (6)* University of Southern California (17)* University of the Pacific* University of Vermont University of Washington (2) University of Wisconsin, Madison Utah State University Vanderbilt University (4) Villanova University (4) Wake Forest University* Washington University in St. Louis (2) Wellesley College Western Washington University Wheaton College MA* Whittier College (7) Worcester Polytechnic Institute Yale University (6)*

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COLLEGE ACCEPTANCES

COLLEGE ACCEPTANCES

College Acceptances

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t’s the start of another typically long day of commuting, study and athletics as Frankie, 17, and his brother, Joseph, 15, a freshman, wolf down a breakfast of bacon and eggs, climb into a 2007 Chevy Suburban and make the nearly hour-long trek from deep in the East County to Country Day’s campus in time for their first class at 8 a.m.

Frankie Brown is thoughtful and intuitive, a breakthrough sort of student.

twoWorldsoneSchool HOW THE BROWN FAMILY FOUND A HOME AT COUNTRY DAY In a Mediterranean-style home on the Viejas Indian Reservation, about 40 miles east of La Jolla Country Day School, the alarm goes off in senior Frankie Brown’s room. It’s 5:45 a.m. and still dark outside. The alarm is actually mom, Nancy Brown who urges her resistant teenage boy to get out of bed. On most mornings, if she’s feeling generous, he’ll get another 15 minutes.

by Lee Grant

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it goes with the rest of his outfit. That’s even though his favorite baseball team is the New York Yankees and its iconic star Derek Jeter (“the franchise,” Frankie calls him). “Sports are my life,” said Frankie, a path that brought him to Country Day and helped him sidestep the troubles into which some of his friends drifted.

Said Coach Hutzler: “Now, every day, Frankie not only drives the distance from home to school but also the distance of crossing that metaphorical cultural barrier.” That includes social adjustments. On the reservation, for instance, looking someone in the eye can be disrespectful, particularly to an older person.

As Frankie talks of his life, little brother Joseph, who arrived this year at Country Day, listens. “You During his early Country Day days as a freshman, Frankie was wary of his new surroundings but found have to work at this,” says Frankie to Joseph, of a welcoming community of students, staff and faculty. Country Day responsibilities. “Get your homework done early.”

And soon he gained a muscular self-confidence as a multi-sport athlete. In football, he’s a 5-foot-9, 165-pound starter for the Torreys on both offense, as In many respects, Frankie Brown is a typical teenager with a musical soundtrack to his life that includes a running back, and defense, as a cornerback, and bands from Guns N’ Roses and Avenged Sevenfold on special teams as a kick and punt returner. He’s also a speedy centerfielder on the baseball team. And to rhythm-and-blues groups like Day 26 and Brutha and the singer Chris Brown. he has achieved, too, in the classroom. There have been college scholarship offers, and Football Coach He’s also a movie fan. “Any Will Ferrell movie,” he and Drector of Athletics Jeff Hutzler notes, “He can says, or comedies like The Hangover. Avatar blew me play at the next level.” For Frankie, the university away, and so did Inception, like what’s going on? It he chooses will offer a combination of academics, made you think.” As for TV, it’s Family Guy and (wait athletics and “a personal life.” for it) Jersey Shore, but mostly his spare TV time is taken up with sports like the NFL Network and Frankie, who experienced some rough times in ESPN’s “Sports Center before I fall asleep.” elementary and middle schools, cares about Country Day and how, he says, in a composed Over the years on campus, manner, it changed his life. There’s the discipline Frankie has become an of full days, not returning to the reservation until 7 p.m. or so after football or baseball practice. Then, articulate young man who has opened up about his greeted by his dog, a half Alaskan malamute/half heritage and goals in life. wolf named Jenny, there’s dinner and hitting the He’s more comfortable, books for “a full load of demanding” classes that too, with others and span from government to psychology. There’s an acknowledges “a big elective, too — ceramics. difference from the reservation, attending middle On this day, the style-conscious Frankie is school and being here. In the sporting a Colorado Rockies cap because, he says,

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scored the only touchdown on a 30-yard run and gained 142 yards on 18 carries and made a couple of key interceptions.”

When Frankie arrived on campus four years ago for an interview, people were accepting. I felt like I belonged. I didn’t know how or why. I saw the baseball and football guys were big. ‘OK, I could be one of those guys.’ I made a good decision to go to Country Day.”

“I was thought of as this stereotypical Indian kid,” said Frankie, “a drug user, dumb and stupid. Girls wouldn’t talk to me. Kids would ask me, ‘Why do you have long hair?’ I just shut down.”

Nancy Brown understands her child’s heartache.

“He didn’t want to get off the school bus,” she said.

“He was teased so much.” Those years were difficult: “I went through it with him, had meetings with teachers and principals. Joseph has also gone through these things. My daughter (Autumn, 13, who’ll be a freshman at Country Day in the fall) is going through it. It’s just the relationship some locals have with the reservation. For all my kids, it’s something tough for them to overcome. Frankie’s experiences will be with him the rest of his life.

And, in different ways, he’s overcoming it.”

As his mom shares the pain, Frankie is quiet and then adds, “Still, everywhere I go, I think, ‘Will they accept me for who I am?’ ” At Country Day, Frankie says, he’s found acceptance for who he is and recalls something Coach Jason Taylor, a former NFL player, told him during a speech at last season’s football banquet: “Don’t let another person’s opinions be your reality.”

It was in the seventh grade, he said, “I got good in baseball, and that carried through into the eighth grade. I got respect through sports. In middle school, I was the only Native American kid on the team. I tried to be nice to people. In the eighth grade, finally, I began to make friends.”

Said Nancy Brown, whose hometown is Lakeside, “I think racism is generational, historical.” She said, “You know, ‘Just see those dumb, dirty Indians.’ ” Then she softens, emphasizing that “not everybody in town is like that.”

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For the ninth grade, after encouragement from his mom, Frankie arrived at Country Day “and the beach,” as some on the reservation refer to La Jolla.

Nancy Brown, meanwhile, has become active in Country Day’s Parents’ Association and often works the snack bar at Torrey sporting events. On this day, she was returning from “a two-hour planning meeting” for a social event to raise funds for tuition assistance and the endowment.

“They asked me to join,” she says. “It’s been a learning experience. You get to know a lot of people, and you get to throw your ideas out there. It’s timeconsuming, yes, but it’s worth it. I ask my kids to give their time, so how could I not?”

She said the teachers and staff have been welcoming to her and the family: “They’ve had open arms. They always say ‘the Country Day family’ and it really is.

They want to know about me as much as I want to know about them.”

To those who ask about his experiences, “I don’t tell them a lot,” said Frankie. “I say, ‘Good, it’s cool.’”

Now, seeing what he’s done on the field and off, he gets another reaction from the kids: “It’s a good school. You’re lucky you go there.”

Frankie had one of his best games last season against Pine Valley’s Mountain Empire High School, only a few miles from where he grew up.

Coach Hutzler remembers it clearly as if Frankie had something to prove: “He played his butt off. He was the Player of the Game. The score was 10-0. He

Frankie is taking on the big-brother role for Joseph, also a fine athlete, who’s in the midst of his own Country Day journey. “I feel I have paved a path,” said Frankie. “It’s to do your best, step up, I tell him.

‘This ain’t no joke. The teachers want to see you grow independently.’ ” As for his sister, Autumn, he has no worries: “She’s smart, she’s organized.” Also coming up is Jacob, 10.

“Joseph is a great student,” said Mrs. Brown. Coach Hutzler and head baseball coach and math teacher John Edman, see a promising athletic future for him, too. “He’s a corner infielder and a home run hitter,” said Edman. In football, Joseph is on the JV team and plays both offensive and defensive line, “the only starting freshman on the line,” beams Frankie.

graves and artifacts; natural resources and places that have special religious significance. “Basically, said Mrs. Brown, “his job is to make sure it’s done in a respectful way.”

Frankie has had opportunities to share his Native American culture at school but not as much as he’d like. “I want to,” he said. “The teachers sometimes think I know everything, but I haven’t thrown it out there. I’m kind of quiet and to myself, so I don’t participate all that much in class discussion.”

As he’s matured, Frankie understands more deeply the provocative history of this country’s Native Americans. It touches him. “This is a trail of tears,” he says, expressing the phrase that’s often used to describe the forced relocation of Native Americans.

In class, some teachers do sensitively touch on the tragedies of Indian history, but others, said Frankie, “want to teach what happened, but they can’t, because they have to cover so many other things as part of the curriculum.

“There’s like five minutes on Wounded Knee (the infamous 1890 massacre on the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota). The Civil War gets five weeks. Then there’s Col. Custer (killed at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876 by a coalition of Native American tribes). They (the teachers) do talk about that.

For all her children, expectations are the same, says Mrs. Brown. Calling herself a demanding mom, she makes sure homework gets done, pushing until she hears that universal teenage lament, “Mom, I’ve got it!” “The idea for me is to be cool and learn more about our people. We’re more than a casino and the outlet Says Joseph, “She nags you a lot, knows how to.” stores. We’re not dumb, stupid, lazy. Being Native Mrs. Brown laughs: “I stress out more than they do. American, a member of the Kumeyaay tribe, is I just want to make sure that everything gets done.” something good, not stereotypical.”

Speaking for her family, says Mrs. Brown, “People don’t realize what a commitment it is. Frankie has said, ‘I know I could leave, but I don’t and I won’t.’ ”

His coaches, meanwhile, see something else. “He’s a kid who started off super quiet as a ninth-grader, came out of his shell, has become a leader, emotional and dynamic on the field,” Edman said.

Meanwhile, back home, Frankie’s dad, Frank Brown Sr., an independent contractor who grew up on the Frankie gets the last word: “I’m a proud Native reservation, is an official monitor for Viejas and American, a member of the Kumeyaay Indians.” And works on projects off the reservation as well. He a proud La Jolla Country Day School Torrey, too. takes into consideration factors like the impact on

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past, I’ve had firsthand experience with white kids making fun of you because you look different, shoving you, picking on you,” being bullied in elementary school, shunned in middle school. “I was treated differently,” he said.

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ZOEY TUREK IN HER OWN WORDS

By Zoey Turek

A Unique Penguin!

Zoey Turek’s Senior Speech, delivered to the Upper School student body at an assembly, captured the character of the Country Day student.

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nce upon a time, there was a young girl. This young girl had a dream: to grow up, become an astronaut, ballerina, firewoman, dinosaur, cure cancer, and marry a movie star. While this young girl might have gone on to do all these things and more, I wouldn’t know because that girl was not I. I am different. Pause for dramatic effect. I live in a mid-sized town in north San Diego County, but I go to an exclusive private school in La Jolla. My parents cannot afford to buy me a car, like many of my classmates’ parents can, so I wake up at 5:45 every morning to get to school by 8 because it takes an hour to get to school on the school bus. Instead of traveling to places like Paris, Ecuador, or even Mexico for spring and summer breaks, more often than not I am at home or my second home, the Barnes & Noble my mother has worked at for almost my entire life, curled up in a squishy chair with a good book. My parents have never believed in the merits of television or video games, so I grew up with only books to entertain me. Thanks to the wonders of the Internet I’ve been able to tune in to the pop culture of my generation in the past few years and no longer seem to live under a rock, but this change is only recent.

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When I was younger, there were three things I was absolutely certain would be in my future. I defined myself by these three things, using this skeleton to flesh out the rest of what my future would be.

Looking back, these things that were then so important to me seem silly, but not too silly to share them. I was going to be Zoey Turek, 1. a citizen of London, England who 2. had a tattoo and 3. owned a motorcycle. While I would still like these things to happen, I no longer define my whole future through only small details.

If any seniors remember me way back in seventh grade, you’ll probably remember that I was a bit weird. When I first arrived at Country Day, the differences between my new classmates and me seemed overwhelming. I had come from a public middle school with approximately the number of students Country Day has in total in only three grades. I went from being lucky if I spotted a friend amidst the rush of students to knowing every single student, not only in my grade but the grade above as well. In order to cope with my new intimate setting, I decided to completely reinvent myself into the kind of student that goes to a school like Country Day.

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provided by a community and, more personally, my friends.

Yet I am a rainbow penguin, because I have a way of standing out in a crowd.”

Most of my new classmates had not experienced the awful feeling of being funneled from a relatively small elementary school to a monstrous middle school where my favorite game became “Find Your Friends Before the Lunch Period Is Over.” I had landed in a pond of individuals, a fish who had been used to swimming unnoticed in the ocean now forced to habituate to a personalized aquarium.

Everyone at Country Day was such an individual, and I decided that the best way to fit in was to stand out as much as possible. If I demonstrated constantly that I was as much my own person as everyone else, then they were sure to welcome me, right? I can assure you through experience that this is not the best logic. All my attempts at fitting in by standing out might have had exactly the opposite effect I was looking for, but I was lucky enough to find a group of fish that were used to accepting those new fish that acted a bit weird but really meant well.

Without them, I surely would have become a social piranha (get it? Pariah, piranha… hah…).

Because my transition was so rocky, I am fascinated with the even newer students who have joined the community in my six years at Country Day. I often wonder what kind of person I would have become if I had not found my “clique,” but it is impossible for me to picture my six years at Country Day any other way. At the beginning of each year, new students are faced with a dilemma that I remember vividly: Whom should I hang out with? What group do I fit best in? Who is willing to hang out with the new kid?

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I’ve tried to figure out some kind of mathematical equation that determines which group a new kid will join, but as of now I’m stumped. Somehow, magically, everyone seems to find the group that they fit perfectly with and which fits perfectly with them in only a week or so.

I am lucky. I can make friends wherever I go, in part because I am more comfortable being in a group than being alone. I love the power being in a group of people gives you, but I love feeling a sense of belonging the most. I’m the kind of person who will go all out for spirit days, wearing blue and white overlapping soccer socks, blue eyeliner and mascara, and blue ribbons in my hair in addition to a Torrey shirt (my closet has WAY too much blue in it). I love the sense of belonging to something bigger than myself, and while seeing everyone wearing the same color kind of freaks me out, I love feeling part of a whole. I love joining clubs, participating in sports teams, going to sports games, and essentially everything Country Day has to offer. I’ll admit it, I even love riding the bus and knowing the name of (almost) every single high school student. I’ve become friends with people I normally would never have talked to by riding the bus, and trust me, there’s no way to not be friends with people you see every morning and every afternoon. Like I said earlier, Country Day really feels like a community to me, and not knowing someone’s name is like not knowing your neighbor.

personas. Sometimes I’ll ask my mom if what I’m wearing looks good, and she’ll shrewdly reply, “Not really, but you’re a teenager so you can get away with it.” I’ve had every hair color (except blonde…

YET…) and almost every haircut in the books, and I love wearing quirky clothes no one else would dare try. While it may not be completely obvious, I actually do like clothes and the infinite possibilities that await me when I open my closet door in the morning. In a way, this experimentation has helped to define my sense of self; perhaps I am the kind of person who thrills at constantly reinventing myself. But no matter what I wear, no matter what color my hair is, no matter who I am friends with, I will enjoy every I’m not quite sure exactly who I am, but I don’t think minute of my journey to discover anyone can truly know who they are by the time they who I am, specially while speeding graduate from high school. Getting to know oneself across a bridge over London’s Thames takes much longer than 18 years, and I’m not going on my shiny new Ducati, the wind to rush the process. I enjoy the freedom not knowing whipping through my multi-colored exactly who I am has given me, a freedom to experi- hair and a rainbow penguin tattoo ment with my image, testing out multiple different on my shoulder.

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ZOEY TUREK IN HER OWN WORDS

ZOEY TUREK IN HER OWN WORDS

“ I am a penguin because I cannot live without the support

Possibly the most important quality I possess is loving a group mentality but remaining a thoroughly defined entity the whole time. And now we reach the main point of my speech. I’ve brought along a visual aide to illustrate these qualities: A rainbow penguin.

As you all know, penguins are black and white, a fact that has made them key specimens for demonstrating uniformity and monotony. However, this penguin is rainbow-colored, a quality that no other penguin possesses. This penguin is still obviously a penguin, but it has defining characteristics that differentiate it from every other penguin. I am a penguin because I cannot live without the support provided by a community, and more personally, my friends. Yet I am a rainbow penguin, because I have a way of standing out in a crowd.

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By Lee Grant

A

fter four years at La Jolla Country Day School, Fiaalii “Junior” Togiaso, scholar, athlete, singerdancer-actor, “a real Renaissance man,” according to his football coach, is headed for the Ivy League and Cornell University, where he’ll play defensive end and major in civil engineering.

His is a story of persistence and drive, a rise from poverty and a challenging home life to finding his way on a campus that enveloped all 6-foot-1, 280 pounds of him. It includes a remarkable, lifechanging gesture by football coach Jeff Hutzler and his wife, Lisa, a Country Day third-grade teacher.

As a freshman, the Hutzlers took Junior into their Encinitas home simply because, Coach Hutzler says, “He’s one of my students, one of my players. We saw a kid in real trouble, with an immediate need for shelter and food, clean clothes, something to eat and a place to sleep. He had nowhere to go. One night became a couple of weeks and now 3 1/2 years.”

If this seems like “The Blind Side,” La Jolla edition, it’s different from that award-winning movie and more the chronicle of the inner fortitude of a selfdescribed Samoan Huggy Bear. “People mention the movie all the time,” says Lisa Hutzler. “Some of Sandra Bullock’s abrasiveness, they see that in me. I do power through. Junior, Jeff and I went to see the movie together. There are similarities though Junior’s family (his parents and three younger brothers live now in Long Beach) is not removed. They love him dearly and are very much a part of his life.”

Of the movie, based on the saga of Michael Oher, an African American, homeless, Texas high school player taken in by a white family, “That was his story; this is mine,” said Junior. Oher, incidentally, a successful offensive lineman, now plays for the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens.

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On a blustery morning, Junior takes a seat on a bench near the Upper School Amphitheater, delivering a crushing handshake to a visitor. He’s between classes, resting for the moment near the physics, biology and chemistry classrooms in which he has achieved. Wearing a light jacket emblazoned with a “CD Track & Field” logo (he competes in the shot put and discus), he waves to folks a couple dozen times, at least, in little over an hour. There’s the man driving by in a maintenance vehicle and a class of second-grade, Lower School kids, who love to joke with him, poke him, hassle him. They look up to him, one can tell, in more ways than one.

Junior’s athletic prowess on the football field caught the interest of a number of universities. He was pursued heavily by a dozen Division 1 programs from Stanford to the University of Florida. On a visit to one school recruiting him hard, the coaches pointed to the impressive number of Samoans on the football team. Junior then had a question: “How many of them will graduate?” That school was scratched from his list.

Meanwhile, prestigious Ivy League institutions like Princeton and Yale courted him. Then he visited the Cornell campus in Ithaca, New York, a small town about a five-hour drive from Manhattan in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York.

“I loved the atmosphere,” says Junior. “The coaching staff was awesome. They cared about the athletes as students, developing great young men, determined to get their kids what they needed academically and athletically.” He accepted a full-ride scholarship based on his 3.6 GPA built with AP classes and extracurricular activities, including music (the guy can sing!), theater and athletics.

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JUNIOR IS A SENIOR

JUNIOR IS A SENIOR

JUNIOR IS A SENIOR.

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Here’s what Coach Hutzler observes: “On the football field, he has a passion for the game. My philosophy is we want you to be a killer on the field and a gentleman off the field. We’re trying to build the warrior poet – and Junior is the example of that.

Junior carries his brother, Jonathan, as he walks with Lisa Hutzler

“He’s rare, having been a captain as a junior. He’s respected as a leader. Junior has been very willing to risk the leadership role. For instance, there’s the pledge our athletes take not to use alcohol and drugs.

It wasn’t always popular. He’s accountable.”

Estimated cost for out-of-state Cornell students is $57,000 a year, so his four-year scholarship is worth As students strolled by this day, wearing sweat shirts more than $200,000. with logos from Brown, Yale and UCLA, Junior talked fondly of a trip to the Heritage Music Festival And already he’s shopping for winter clothes to pro- in Florida with the concert choir, the Madrigal tect him from the snowy, windy, below-zero weather. Singers and Mad Men, the a cappella group he “Mom (Hutzler) has been stockpiling,” he said. Said co-founded. At the event, Junior, who sings bass she, “Last week, his snow boots arrived in the mail.” and baritone, made the transition from classical repertory to tunes by Billy Joel and the Four Seasons.

Added to his résumé was this year’s Willie Jones Most Inspirational Award from the San Diego chap- Says Country Day choir director Carrie Rose, “He is ter of the National Football Foundation and College the scholar-artist and so charismatic, the one who Hall of Fame, honoring “special types of players who sings the National Anthem (along with two other succeed on the field and in the classroom.” Junior football players) in uniform at football games.” Also, knew of Willie Jones: “He was a kid who went to she notes, “He says ‘thank you’ after class. He’s Lincoln High, was valedictorian, a great young man always, ‘Let’s practice this,’ and wants to stay after. who lived in a difficult neighborhood and got caught He’s so kind. He inspires.” in something out of his control.” The day after he graduated in 1994, Jones was gunned down in a As a performer, she says, “Audiences love him. He drive-by shooting as he left a graduation party. He, cares about the music and the lyrics. He won’t stop too, had been accepted to Cornell as a scholar-athlete.

“I always wanted to play football,” says Junior, who started on the Torreys’ defensive and offensive line and special teams (“I block for the punter”). “I just enjoy the game.”

On YouTube, there are highlight videos of his on-field exploits and a two-parter on his life and career that includes interviews with teachers and the Hutzlers.

“ Audiences love him. He cares about the music and the lyrics. He won’t stop until he gets his part right.”

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until he gets his part right. He’s grown a lot, confident in his solo singing voice.” He and the Madrigal Singers performed at Disney World in Florida and performed the “Habanera” from “Carmen” with ’92 LJCDS alumna Stephanie Weiss at a special opera performance in San Diego.

It was at one of those when Coach Hutzler noticed Junior’s abilities and invited him to visit Country Day. Junior’s first impression: “Very welcoming.”

At the time, he was living in cramped East County residences with his parents and brothers. Travel to La Jolla took at least an hour. His dad was workAsk Junior what kind of music is his favorite and he ing double and triple shifts as a security officer. His says, “all kinds” from rhythm and blues to jazz, but mom was at home tending to the younger kids -on his own he’ll be listening to old school like Otis brothers Jayde, now 16; Jericho, 9; and Jonathan, 4.

Redding, The Temptations, Marvin Gaye and the This school year, as a senior project, Junior wrote Four Tops, the music of his parents. and delivered a speech describing life then and now.

At Cornell, Junior will study in the school’s highly It was delivered before an advisory board made up regarded civil engineering program, taking with of classmates, a teacher and an administrator, and him a childhood wonder with building blocks. “I then to the student body at an assembly. It began: loved Legos,” he said, “hands-on stuff, constructing. I “To many of you, I am known as the only Samoan like city planning, making sure foundations are set. on campus, someone who will help you move someAs a kid, I loved building forts. Give me a hammer, thing to and from your car, or the one with the big, I’ll build something.” A long-term goal: “Building a teddy bear hugs. Some of you call me big June, the water filtration system overseas.” fireman, and I used to be known as that guy with the dreadlocks.”

In the meantime, Junior has constructed a legacy at La Jolla Country Day School. His journey of a “Big June, the fireman,” became a nickname around youngster who overcame great odds to graduate campus that stuck when, in his freshman year, he with honors as a student-athlete (all-Pacific League accidentally pulled a fire alarm in the middle of the first team last season) to the Ivy League’s Cornell Quad. “I got into trouble,” he says.

University, has been chronicled in the local news“It was a speech from the heart,” says Junior, “about paper and in online videos. See Junior scoop up a things I went through, how a person is developed fumble and race it in for a touchdown! See Junior into the one they are now.” solo on the Four Seasons’ “Walk Like a Man”! See Junior being interviewed for a two-part MaxPreps video on his life! As the school year winds down and while maintaining a challenging course load that includes AP algebra, AP biology, English and economics, he says, “I’m glad to be in college,” the first in his family to do so.

It detailed living in motels in the East County, being evicted time and again, standing in line at food banks, and a family who moved to Long Beach to be with relatives. Here’s an excerpt: “My family cannot afford much. My father saves money for food and gas by putting off bills. But those overdue bills delayed Junior’s education began at Lincoln Park’s Knox other bills and other overdue bills. My infant brothers Elementary when, his fifth-grade teacher spotted enable my family to apply for WIC coupons, which his academic potential and recommended him for are government subsidies given to underprivileged The Preuss School. That’s the charter school on the families with children under 5. My family uses UCSD campus for motivated, low-income, urban those and food banks as our primary sources of food. students. Once at Preuss, a physical education teacher When I used to live with them, my brother Jayde took note of Junior’s size and thought he should be and I would walk down to the park and stand in the playing football. First were pee wee leagues and then food bank line. We’ve been there for free handouts camps for seventh- and eighth-grade athletes. more times than I can count. Although it’s against

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27 JUNIOR IS A SENIOR

JUNIOR IS A SENIOR

About a year ago, Junior had major surgery on his knee, and now, after a year’s rehab, he says, “I can dance on it,” though he still wears a protective brace.

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He ended his speech this way: “… every day I must prove to myself that my current state of life does not mean that I have forgotten my familial situation.

“I am simply in a fortunate environment which will prepare me for the future, a future that will enable me to change the lives of my family for the better. I can only do my best to advise my brothers in their daily activities and encourage them to always make wise choices. I hope that one day all my brothers realize that I only want to set an example, one in which my accomplishments … they will emulate or even transcend, so that they, too, will be in a position to live a better life.”

Afterward, at the student assembly, says Junior, he received “bunches of hugs.”

Home life in Encinitas, says Lisa Hutzler, has been like this: “We have a teenager. There are ups and downs, but I think part of what makes Junior so special is that he has taken on a great deal of responsibility at a very young age. He feels he has to do his best for his brothers. He really wants to set the example — hard work, effort and determination.”

“There’s a goodness in Junior.”

Before Junior came to live with them, she said, “I knew very little about him. His family was having some difficulties. Junior was upset and spoke with Jeff about that. They had a personal connection. Jeff called me and explained the story. Both Jeff and I said at the same time, ‘Bring Junior home.’ It was doing for Junior and his family what was needed at that time.”

“We live in a very old house in Encinitas. It’s a small house, Junior’s a big boy. He’d turn on the shower and the shower head would come off in his hand; he’d sit down on a chair and it would collapse under him. The first year or so he spent in his room. The only way I could lure him out was with food. I made a home-cooked meal every night for a year.”

Coach Hutzler already has two sons — Luke 12, who lives with his mother, and Coleman, 26, an assistant football coach at the University of Florida. “They consider themselves brothers,” says Lisa Hutzler.

“Junior was part of Coleman’s wedding. Luke worships the ground Junior walks on. It’s turned into this large extended and convoluted family. My mother and Jeff’s parents consider him a grandson.

Junior’s family is accepting of us. We’re invited to Junior’s grandma’s birthday party.”

Junior displays great pride in being the only Samoan on campus. Choir director Rose, in her first year at Country Day, recalls “the Madrigal Singers had an opportunity to perform at an event and dress traditionally, and he had on his cultural dress. We sang a Samoan folk song. He taught the rest of the kids the lyrics and pronunciation.”

Adds Lisa Hutzler, “He’s very proud to be Samoan.

At the banquet for the Willie Jones award, his family came in traditional Samoan dress. He had a Samoan dress made for me.” And from Coach Hutzler, “He wears a T-shirt that says ‘Samoan Pride.’ ” Bringing him to their home, says Coach Hutzler, was a challenge: “There are two types of needs – easier ones you can see – food, shelter, money to go to the prom, money for football cleats, that’s immediate. Then there’s things like sleeping habits, how to eat in a restaurant. He didn’t have some of that background. More insidious are the cultural issues – lack of confidence and certain types of hopes, having dreams, pursuing dreams.”

“ I like giving hugs” T O RREY 3 6 0 VI EWBOOK

JUNIOR IS A SENIOR

JUNIOR IS A SENIOR

policy, I told my brother to stand at a different point in line to gather extra food. Even after the many times we were asked to leave for such conduct, embarrassment came across as a practical sentiment.

It was a luxury I could not afford; it would not feed the hunger in my brothers’ stomachs.”

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Norma and Fiaalii (left) shared a special wardrobe with Athletic Director Jeff Hutzler and his wife, third-grade teacher Lisa Hutzler. Norma made the traditional Samoan celebration shirts and dresses for graduation.

Before his trip to Cornell, Hutzler offered some advice. “I told him to visit the engineering department, and I told them, ‘If you want him to play football at Cornell, put him in front of people.’ They did, and later they told me he blew everybody away.

At Florida, San Jose State and Stanford, there were zero guys on the team in the engineering department.

I think Junior has an opportunity to play at a very high level. He’ll have to balance engineering at Cornell — that’s immense. One of the advantages is that there are a number of guys on the football team who are in engineering. The coaches schedule around that.”

Embedded in Junior’s consciousness is the Country Day experience. “I love La Jolla Country Day,” said Junior, “the extremely welcoming community that encourages kids like me to be open and explore, to be scholars, artists and athletes of character, to try things, to be willing to fail at things, to celebrate success and learn from failure.

“What I love most are the opportunities and the teachers, the support they give. There’s the bonding with other students in and out of school. It allowed me to take a spot in the thespian world.” He was featured in “Oklahoma!” (check out the “Poor Jud Is Dead” tune from the Country Day production on YouTube).

And this year, he performed in “The World Goes ’Round” musical.

“In a nutshell, what makes him special has been and will be his willingness to do what it takes to be successful despite the disadvantages he had in his upbringing, the cultural differences he’s faced and will face, biases he’s faced. He and I have had some To Cornell, he’ll bring his reputation as a hugger. “I conversations on people who might think he only like giving hugs,” he says. “People need hugs.” Here’s got into La Jolla Country Day because he plays footone for Junior Togiaso. ball and just how this Samoan kid got to Cornell. We talk those things over and over and over again. He realizes the situation. He’s going to win this game.”

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31 THE ENTREPRENEURAL SPIRIT

THE ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT

Waitt To Students: Aim High, Work Hard Ted Waitt, the founder of Gateway computers, spent an hour with 30 Country Day Upper School students on a January day in 2011. This class could have been called “Entrepreneurship 101.’’

Waitt, 48, who revolutionized computer retailing from a barn in Sioux City, Iowa, remained true to his energetic and casual style. He arrived dressed in denim, and he told his story to students, who hung on every word.

The Entrepreneurial Spirit STORIES OF SUCCESS For the most part, it is not the mission of a college preparatory school to focus students on any specific profession. Rather, we give students the tools we know will be important elements in whatever their life’s work demands. We know from our own experience that many Americans, before retirement, have pursued multiple careers. At the heart of our “scholar, artist, athlete of character’’ motto is the belief that all these skills and experiences will be needed to discover passions, build capacity, and lead a rich and rewarding life.

and in their own voices, Country Day students are by nature and training an enterprising lot; many of them will play leading roles in the resurgence of entrepreneurial activity.

At the heart of the selection of these speakers was not a tutorial in any specific line of work. Instead, we hoped to expose our students to the nexus between the intellectual curiosity of these successful professionals and the creative (and successful) ways in which they found outlet for their passions. Each of the speakers brought a unique voice, a unique With that in mind, this year Country Day began a passion —computers, the environment, solar power, lecture series in which some of the leading entrepre- biotechnology, fashion — but each, in one way or neurs in this region (in the country, in fact) brought another, had a similar core message: Aim high. their vision and energy to share with our most Follow your passion. Don’t be discouraged by setbacks. mature students. With their experiences in thinking critically and creatively, in taking initiative and Chris Schuck, Head of School working collaboratively, in speaking from the heart

T O RREY 3 6 0 VI EWBOOK

Waitt acknowledged being a less-than-stellar student, but one who could focus intently when he needed to and tested well. He told of growing up in Sioux City, Iowa, in the shadows of the family’s cattle business. He assumed he would eventually enter that business but learned otherwise when he tried to tell his father he wanted to drop out of college.

His father informed him that the family business wasn’t available to him and went further, telling him that his faith in his son’s abilities also kept him from arranging for any future financial support for the boy.

“I got the message,’’ Waitt said. He returned to college and eventually took a job in a poorly run local computer store. There he learned a lot about computers and even more about how not to run a business.

“I learned the three things that became my approach to business: Treat your employees right; treat your vendors right; and treat your customers right.’’

Waitt then sketched the sometimes harrowing route through the early years of building and selling computers over the phone. He told of times he worried whether his bank account was empty. He talked of the importance of partnerships and having

employees who grow to fully represent the company culture.

He rattled off the rapid growth in yearly revenue — $1 million the first year, $1.5 million the next, then $12 million, $70 million, $275 million, $600 million and then more than $1 billion.

But he also talked of the sacrifice. Early years, in which he was paying his employees more than his own salary, banking on the eventual value of the company as his payoff.

Waitt acknowledged making mistakes along the way and said successful entrepreneurs and successful companies depend on the ability to acknowledge making wrong turns and correcting them.

Waitt said, in retrospect, that the biggest mistake he made was when he moved the company from Sioux

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business: treat your employees right; treat your vendors

Robert Noble: Envision Solar Chief

right; and treat your customers right.’’

City to San Diego. Moving the company from its Midwestern roots challenged the company culture that had been a big part of its appeal to customers.

The move, he explained, was made for rational reasons — the need to hire more talent in an increasingly competitive computer market and his plans to position the company for his own looming retirement. But it was a wrong move, he acknowledges now, saying he should have stuck to Sioux City the way Wal-Mart has stayed in Bentonville, Arkansas.

During a lively question-and-answer period that followed, senior David Flicker noted that Waitt, like several famous entrepreneurs of the Internet boom era, left college before graduating. Flicker asked whether he thought there was a cost to entrepreneurs who stay in school.

Waitt smiled but quickly explained that all the ideas that fueled his success and the ideas that fueled those other entrepreneurs’ success were generated in the college environment.

“Architecture was the clear choice for me,’’ he told the students.

Noble credited a class he took at the University of California Berkeley – Environmental Control Systems – with allowing him to think of buildings as almost organic, living structures with their own interactions and relationships with their environments.

When he finished his education and began working, it was a natural move, he said, to begin focusing on sustainability and green building techniques. That “seed of a passion,’’ Noble said, motivated much more than money to direct his career decisions. He eventually left his architecture firm to form Envision, where he has once again merged his aesthetic sense with science and his entrepreneurial skills.

“When they dropped out, they had the idea, and at that point there may be an opportunity cost to consider,’’ Waitt explained. “But the genesis of their idea happened in college.’’

Noble took the students through new solar projects he has designed to be both energy efficient and aesthetically pleasing. He revealed prototypes of solar recharging stations for new electric cars and showed students how his team used trees as inspiration in developing solar projects that fit with the environment. He also showed new technologies in development based on solar power, including highly mobile containerized shelters that hold out hopes for helping developing countries overcome the lack of power plants with small, micro-solar systems that can generate light or power water pumps in locations off the traditional power grids.

Waitt said there are still opportunities for smart, younger entrepreneurs. He mentioned composite materials, nanotechnology, biosciences and wireless communications as fertile targets.

“What is the next Internet?” he asked the students.

“I don’t know. It is up to you to figure it out.’’

Robert Noble, the San Diego architect who now heads Envision Solar International, spent an hour with Upper School students, sharing the story of his own development from student to eco-entrepreneur.

The presentation literally spanned the globe as Noble took students to the cutting edge of the current boom in solar power, at one point sharing artist renderings of projects proposed for the Dallas Cowboy’s stadium and government projects in India.

Noble featured several projects in San Diego, which he described as ground zero for the solar movement.

He ended his talk encouraging students to let their professional choices be guided by “passion and persistence.’’

“ San Diego is the number one solar city in the world.’’

Noble described how, from its earliest days, his college education was engaged both in the sciences and the arts.

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THE ENTREPRENEURAL SPIRIT

THE ENTREPRENEURAL SPIRIT

“ I learned the three things that became my approach to

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that his motivation to start a business was to find a way to spend more time with his brother. The operation of his business, from its inception, was built on handshakes, friendships and a desire to appreciate family and friends.

In fact, when the business had grown to more than 5,000 employees – when his brother and he spent months apart, one handling worldwide operations, the other marketing – they decided it was time to sell.

“The reason to do the company – so that we could be together – was being defeated by material success,’’ he said.

Today, Aguerre, the father of 14-year-old triplets, spends his time learning to be the father of teenagers and pursuing his passions – surfing and the oceans – through civic and charitable organizations. Fluent in English, Spanish and Portuguese, with a working knowledge of Italian and French, his speech to the students was filled with stand-alone quotes that, well, stand alone:

It is better to regret your mistakes than regret doing nothing at all. The friendships you are developing right now in school, they are like family for you. You should never lose them. You have to keep learning. If you are not learning, you’re dead. Impossible is a word invented by lazy people. You are lucky; you are born in When Fernando Aguerre was young, growing up in Argentina, he attended school in Spanish in the mornings before returning home for lunch. When his friends then went out for an afternoon of play and fun, Aguerre had to return to school, where he learned the same lessons of the morning, this time taught in English.

“I hated my father,’’ he told a group of Country Day students. “I begged him to let me go out, but he just said ‘No, you’ll thank me someday.’’

Today, Aguerre does thank his father, for instilling the importance of learning to communicate across cultures and in a number of languages. After moving to join his brother, Santiago, in La Jolla, Calif.,

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the brothers founded Reef, a surf products brand that eventually grew into an international company worth millions.

During his talk, Aguerre traced his roots from small entrepreneurial efforts involving surfboards and the surfer life in a politically unstable era of Argentine history to piecing together with his brother a line of sandals and beach wear while learning the art of advertising and marketing.

Aguerre, from his informal dress to the way his professional and personal life stories intertwine, offered students a view of an entrepreneurial life that contrasted sharply with the stereotype of hard-driving, cold and calculating businessmen. He explained

an English-speaking country. Then learn Spanish and you can talk to most people in the world. Learn Mandarin on top of it and the world is at your feet. Life is short, play more. Business can’t be the center of life because then you’re not going to have a life.

We had a saying in Argentina, better to be the head of a mouse than the tail of a lion. Health is the only wealth.

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THE ENTREPRENEURAL SPIRIT

THE ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT

Fernando Aguerre: His Own Brand of Success

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Ivor Royston As a high school student growing up in Washington, D.C., Ivor Royston knew he wanted to be a doctor. When he was studying medicine, he had an equally singular goal.

“I wanted to cure cancer,” he said.

How that single-minded doctor ended up pioneering a biotech industry in San Diego and, eventually, becoming a venture capitalist and one of America’s leading medical entrepreneurs was the subject of Royston’s appearance at Country Day. Speaking to a group of more than 30 students and faculty, Royston displayed both the mastery of the minute details of cell biology and the dogged business tactics it takes to drive a medical idea through the financial and government oversight processes it takes to bring a new drug or treatment to market.

Royston traced the origins of his career through high school years that seemed traditional, except he

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aggressively sought out any sort of summer work that would get him experience in the medical field, and he joined an investment club, which exposed him to the business practices he would later bring to his medical career.

Royston credited his summer work as a technician at the Walter Reed Army Institute for cementing his decision to pursue medicine, and he encouraged students to volunteer, if necessary, to get experience in the fields they are interested in pursuing.

Royston finished medical school and spent years in postdoctoral research, including a stint in Palo Alto, where he witnessed firsthand the birth of some of America’s first biotech companies, including Genentech.

After moving to San Diego in the late 1970s and, as an assistant professor at UCSD, Royston wanted to push breakthroughs in the development of monoclonal antibodies through to clinical applications, so he

approached venture capitalists. With their funds, he founded Hybritech, San Diego’s first biotech company.

said. “We are quickly moving away from the era in which everyone takes the same drug for a disease.

They will be tailored for the individual.”

That move, Royston said, irritated some colleagues in academia, who questioned whether a professor should be heading such a firm, but he stood by the decision, and the company succeeded before being purchased by pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly.

Royston also said the application of tests and diagnoses through wireless technologies is another area he believes will offer opportunities for the entrepreneurial scientist and business professional.

The move from purely academic research into business – “a jump to the dark side,” Royston said it was called – allowed him to speed up the movement of good, theoretical work in the laboratory to a form that could help patients. Though the business endeavors clearly reduced his engagement in pure research, he told the students he didn’t see the move as abandoning his dream of curing patients’ ills.

In addition to his work in medicine, Royston also shows traits that suggest he would have fit nicely into Country Day’s culture of “scholar, artist, athlete.’’ Through his involvement with the La Jolla Playhouse, he has invested successfully in Broadway shows like “Jersey Boys,” which continues to be a worldwide hit. (He acknowledges backing some losers as well.)

“My whole goal in life was to translate breakthroughs into practical application,’’ he said. “It was never about the money. The ability to move some ideas faster through business arrangements was very appealing to me.”

And his son Aaron Royston, a medical student now, has shown some of his father’s entrepreneurial spirit as well. Recently, Aaron had an idea for an iPhone application that would allow young, athletic types to quickly schedule pickup sports games through the Internet.

Royston acknowledged to the students that he erred in negotiating the original deal with his first venture capitalists, but said he learned a lot from the experience. “I just wanted to get the treatments to the patients. I didn’t care about the rest.”

Royston eventually founded Idec Pharmaceuticals, which later merged with Biogen to form the giant Biogen-Idec. He became extremely wealthy for his efforts and has continued working as a venture capitalist.

“When I started in this, I didn’t know what a venture capitalist was,’’ he said smiling. “Now, I’m a venture capitalist.”

Royston said he sees the future of biotech investing targeting “personalized medicine, targeted therapeutics.”

The younger Royston, who attended Bishop’s, turned to Country Day alum Nick Shiftan, ’00, who is a Seattle-based technology expert. This Bishop’s/ Country Day collaboration has produced an iPhone app called Sportaneous.

The elder Royston showed it off to the students but couldn’t predict its ultimate success or failure. He may be able to cure cancers, but he won’t try to predict the social network future quite yet.

“ My whole goal in life was to translate breakthroughs into practical application.’’

“That’s medicine based on an individual’s genetics and the genetics of the specific disease you have,” he

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THE ENTREPRENEURAL SPIRIT

THE ENTREPRENEURAL SPIRIT

Ivor Royston: Curing Cancer, Building an Industry

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cellphones and called friends over to see what Wilder hopes is the future of the American auto industry.

During his hour-long conversation with students, Wilder took them through his early years, where he was smart but not a great student. He said he was interested in the surf, having fun and experiencing cultures all over the world, so he chose academic pursuits that allowed him to focus on those things.

A meeting with famed Scripps and UCSD scientist Roger Revelle, he said, opened his mind to the riches of unexamined subjects that could be found by studying the interdisciplinary subject of oceanography.

Wilder loved oceanography but found himself straightjacketed by the conventions of academia.

He wanted to do things now to save the ocean, stop habitat destruction and overfishing and attack climate change, but many of his efforts were deemed too broad and outside the basic research that fuels tenure decisions.

Robert Wilder If there has been a constant theme

Isn’t the electricity produced by dirty coal and oil?

Aren’t the batteries constructed of minerals that require damaging the earth to produce?

Wilder admired the students’ chutzpah, even as he politely explained the narrowness of their thinking.

Electricity is produced by coal and oil in some regions, but not heavily in California and, in any event, it is much cleaner than the “rock oil”-burning cars that clog our roads today.

Wilder acknowledged that miners of the minerals needed to produce electric car batteries may do some damage to the earth, but any damage they do is far less than the impact of gasoline-engine cars.

“Don’t let perfect be the enemy of the good or the great,’’ Wilder said. As he drives his car for just pennies per mile, fueled by electricity produced by

solar panels on his home, he feels bad for those who are still stopping at gasoline stations.

Wilder told the students he made his fortune and found his mission in life by pursuing his interests and trusting in his passions. “I was just a little ahead of the curve on these issues,” he said.

The future, he told them, will hold many similar opportunities in energy and environmental areas for young entrepreneurs willing to pursue their passions.

“ Don’t let perfect be the enemy of the good or the great.’’

Wilder remained within academia but branched out, taking his visions for “clean energy’’ and his desire to invest in “green’’ companies into a marketplace that embraced his ideas in a way the academy never did. The public’s investment in his investment funds made him a rich man.

in the talks given in Chris Schuck’s Entrepreneurial Lecture Series, it has been that the successful entrepreneur hits roadblocks, ruffles feathers and is told “no’’ often by the establishment of his given industry. “My wife always said I ran away from money,” Wilder told the students. “But in this case, I failed miserably.”

“You should see my ‘no’ pile,’’ said Robert Wilder, the oceanographer and clean-energy entrepreneur who talked to a group of Middle and Upper School students.

Today, Wilder continues to pursue his vision of a world liberated from dependence on what he calls “rock oil,” and he showed the students through an Internet connection how he measures, each day, his own home’s production and use of electrical energy.

Wilder, CEO and founder of WildShares, LLC, and a self-described iconoclast, drove onto the Country Day campus in a pumpkin-orange Tesla, an electric car he fuels solely from the sunlight that hits his roof He owns the Tesla and also now a $20,000 Leaf, a more accessible electric car that can travel about 80 at home. miles on an overnight charge. Wilder, who relishes debate, got some from Country Day students, who Even before Wilder started lecturing, his car was probed what they clearly thought were some stopping students, who clicked pictures with their weaknesses in his electric-car shtick.

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THE ENTREPRENEURAL SPIRIT

THE ENTREPRENEURAL SPIRIT

Robert Wilder: A Ride on the Wilder Side

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41 MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMOTION

MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMOTION

Middle School Promotion

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43 LOWER SCHOOL PROMOTION

LOWER SCHOOL PROMOTION

Lower School Promotion

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I

t was truly a record-breaking year for the Torrey athletic program. In fact, this summer workers will raise 18 new banners in the Country Day gymnasium in honor of the league, regional and state championships won by Torrey athletes during the 2010-11 school year.

Torreys brought home a total of seven C.I.F. championships, including Men’s Cross Country, Women’s Basketball, Men’s Golf, Women’s Tennis, Men’s Tennis, and Varsity Baseball.

But it was the Women’s Volleyball team that was the highest achiever. Winning not only their league and the C.I.F. championships, but also going on to win

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the California State Championship during a state tournament in San Jose in which the Torrey women were judged by coaches and journalists as the consensus best team in all divisions.

There are key departing seniors from many of these teams, including a number who will continue their sports careers in college, but Athletic Director Jeff Hutzler said the teams are already getting ready for a new season.

“Every year we lose irreplaceable players,’’ Hutzler said, quoting a famous sports adage, “but every year we find a way to replace them. We have a lot of talented juniors coming up as well.’’

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A BANNER YEAR FOR TORREYS

A BANNER YEAR FOR TORREYS

A BANNER YEAR FOR TORREYS

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Lifers

Congratulations to these members of the Class of 2011 who have attended Country Day from Kindergarten (or longer) through Grade 12. These students have fond memories of traveling from the east side of campus to the west as they experienced a “full” Country Day education. These students, and their families, take great pride in being “Country Day Lifers.”

Rachel Atkins Samuel Brink William Carleton

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Alexander Cromidas Andrew Cross Shayla Dinwiddie Daniel Faierman Matthew Friedman

Laura Herman Conner Jacobs Reilly Katnik Hunter Khaleghi Adam Kleinfeld

Brynn Maisel Chase Mertz Laura Morgan Mollie Rogers Austin Rooke

Tara Roudi Adrienne Sigeti Ryan Taylor

ALUMNI REVIEW

ALUMNI REVIEW: LIFERS

Alumni Review

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ALUMNI CAREER DAY Maite (Benito) Agahnia ’85 Artist

LaNaadrian Easterling ’00 Psychologist

Barry Behr ’80 Reproductive Physiology Professor

Michael Hirshman ’04 Writer/Editor & Marketing Manager

Jason Carbone ’85 TV Producer/Small Business Owner

Dawn (Enoch) Holman ’89 Autism Counselor

Jonathan Chesner ’02 Actor/Entrepreneur/Author

Cynthia (Cohen) Marten ’84 Educator/Principal

Agnes Chu ’98 Director of Daytime Programming

Christian Navarro ’97 Advertising/Global Consumer Marketing

Maressa Ciccone ’01 Pharmaceutical Sales

Glen Woods ’05 United States Naval Officer BUD/SEAL Student

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By Chris Lavin

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49 ALUMNI REVIEW: STEPHANIE WEISS ’92

ALUMNI REVIEW: STEPHANIE WEISS ’92

From Four Flowers to Opera Stardom Being a teacher has been described as being like a San Diego Opera patrons. The opera had partnered farmer who plants seeds but never sees the harvest. with Country Day to sponsor Weiss ’92’ Four Flowers performance. In fact, Weiss’ return to San Diego was at the request of San Diego Opera Managing Director Ian Campbell, who had seen her work in Europe.

More than 20 years ago, Keith Heldman, then a music teacher at La Jolla Country Day, saw something in Stephanie Weiss ’92. He taught her, coached After her performance at Country Day, Weiss ’92 her and, eventually, ushered her into his Madrigal began rehearsals for “Der Rosenkavalier,” in which Singers. She felt at home. she performed with the San Diego Opera in April.

In March of 2011, Heldman was back at Country Alumni, students, parents, teachers and friends Day and so was Weiss ’92. They met once again in of Country Day, including Heldman, attended a the Four Flowers Theater, and, throughout a magiperformance and met for a reception between acts. cal evening, you could see in pleased and proud “The whole visit was just such a great experience expressions that this farmer was appreciating the for me,’’ Weiss ’92 said after returning to her busy harvest of what he had sown so many years before. schedule in Berlin. “I loved getting back in touch with For a teacher there can be no better reward. the school, and seeing Mr. Heldman was special.’’

Weiss ’92, now a regular on the opera stages of Weiss ’92 also used the visit to gather, once again, Europe, stood at the piano as Heldman, long retired, with Country Day friends she has kept in touch baton once more in hand, stood before the latest with over the years. Weiss ’92 and some of her closest iteration of the Madrigal tradition he had founded. friends attended the new, spring reunion, which The students were nervous, singing with a profescoincided with her San Diego Opera engagement. sional, taking on a song in French and clearly “It was a great San Diego experience,’’ she said, wanting to hold up their end. recounting how she was walking to the Civic Center Weiss ’92 acknowledged some nervousness, too. for her “Der Rosenkavalier” performance one night Performing before family and friends and with her when she ran into some old friends. mentor, the veteran of some of the most demanding “It’s not like that on the streets of Berlin,’’ she said. opera stages in Europe, she still wanted to shine.

Weiss ’92 says she would like to return to the San And shine she did.

Diego Opera. Her fans at Country Day are hoping With the Madrigals as her chorus, Weiss ’92 thrilled that happens soon. a crowd that was a mix of Country Day families and

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Stephanie Weiss ’92

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ALUMNI REVIEW: REUNIONS

ALUMNI REVIEW: REUNIONS Class of 1981 30 Year Reunion

Homecoming: Larry Potomac ’67, Chris Schuck, Elouise Hurd Potomac ’73 and Brett Potomac

“Doc” Stevenson and Gerry Fontanini

Alumni Reunions

Lee Sawyer & the Ladies from the Class of 2001

Class of 1991 20 Year Reunion

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Rashawn Allen ’01 & Kathy Woods

Homecoming: Pre-Game Kick-Off Reception

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Barry Behr ’80 Dr. Behr was recently promoted to full professor at Stanford University School of Medicine in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology. Some research that he co-authored in Nature Biotech at the end of 2010 made it as #8 on Time Magazine’s top 10 medical breakthroughs of 2010.

Cindy Cohen Marten ’84 was the recipient of this year’s Distinguished Alumni Award. Cindy has been an educator for more than 20 years and is currently the principal of Central Elementary in the City Heights section of San Diego. She is also the author of Word Crafting: Teaching Spelling, Grades K-6. Earlier in her career, she was both a classroom teacher and a literary specialist. In 2003 she moved to Central Elementary, and in 2008 she became the principal. In her school of 938 children, 99 percent live below the poverty line and qualify for Title One and free lunch programs. 85 percent are learning English.

As Cindy says: “We face every challenge and risk factor known to public education. I consider it my honor and my privilege to serve this community and bring to them the quality of education that is equal to what I was fortunate enough to experience at Country Day. We are committed to creating the conditions within the urban public school setting that will result in actively literate, contributing, participating members of a democratic society who choose to apply their reading, writing, math and science literacy skills for multiple purposes and audiences.”

It is Cindy’s belief that because she has been so fortunate in life, she must engage in a life of service and seek to better the lives of those around her through education.

Cindy has recently reengaged with Country Day as an alumna and was among those who addressed the class of 2011 at the annual Career Day. Her message of public service and the importance of education resonated with students who have been engaged at Country Day in active community service programs throughout the community and the world.

Todd Kern ’88

Todd Kern ’88 with Baby Lola

Todd recently left San Diego to work as the chief marketing executive at Elevations Credit Union in Boulder, Colorado. He and his wife, Carolyn, had a baby girl they named Lola on April 6, 2011.

Amanda Neborsky ’90

Amanda Neborsky ’90 with her husband, Joseph Charles Rothengast

Amanda and Joseph Charles Rothengast of New York were married in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, on January 16, 2010. Sixty friends and family members were part of the joyous three-day celebration that included a sunset wedding surrounded by breathtaking views of the ocean and the famous Arch. Amanda and Joe currently reside in San Carlos, California, where Amanda is a K-8 school principal and Joe works in the pharmaceutical industry.

Kerith Michelson Overstreet ’90 and Brian Overstreet ’90

move out into the world and into the workplace,’’ said Lucy Smith Conroy ’90, president of the Alumni Leadership Council. “I feel honored to be able to call her a fellow alumna, and it is my hope that we would honor her with the 2011 Distinguished Alumni Award.’’

Kerith Michelson Overstreet ’90 and Brian Overstreet ’90

“ I am hard pressed to think of a better person to lead by example for our current students as they move out

“I am hard pressed to think of a better person to lead by example for our current students as they

into the world and into the

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workplace.”

Victor Cheng ’91 and the Cheng children

Kerith and Brian founded Bruliam Wines in 2008 and are already looking ahead to their fourth harvest. Bruliam Wines continues to garner devoted support from numerous San Diego venues. They are poised to release their inaugural Rockpile Zinfandel this spring.

To date, Bruliam Wines has made donations to over 26 national charitable organizations through their own charitable arm, the “Bruliam Brigade.” Kerith and Brian plan to relocate to Healdsburg full time this summer and can be contacted through their website: www.Bruliamwines.com.

Victor Cheng ’91 Victor is living in Bainbridge Island, Washington (about 30 minutes from Seattle), married with three daughters. He spent a few years in management consulting and worked as an executive in high tech for a few years. The past eight years he has been running his own consulting business and distance learning company. Victor has published four business books (which he says he is sure would be a shock to Mr. Boston, considering he “barely passed his classes”).

He is a public speaker and he occasionally serves as an expert source on business and economic topics for reporters from Fox, Time magazine, Wall Street Journal and Forbes. You can email Victor at me@victorcheng.com.

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ALUMNI REVIEW: CLASS NOTES

ALUMNI REVIEW: Distinguished Alumni Award

Alumni Class Notes

Distinguished Alumni Award Recipient

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Jeremy Spath ’91 & Grace Blankenship

Alumni Class Notes

Jeremy Spath ’91

Joely Pritzker ’03 & Jacob Gelfand ’02

Jeremy Spath married Grace Blankenship on April 29, 2011, and went to Vietnam, India and Nepal for their six-week honeymoon. They live in Encinitas, two blocks from Stone Steps beach. Jeremy worked at San Diego Botanic Garden for many years and now has his own landscape design business. He also worked with two friends who created Xeric Tissue Culture, tissue culturing the latest succulents.

Country Day “sweethearts” will marry this summer in Big Sur. Faculty member, Glen Pritzker, adds that many alumni will be in attendance and this will be “the ultimate Country Day wedding”.

Eric Navales ’91

Stephanie (Lenz) Kreamer ’04

Joely Pritzker ’03 & Jacob Gelfand ’02

Eric is living in Boston, working as a strategy consultant with L.E.K. Consulting and focused on the life sciences and clean technology sectors. He and his wife, Emma, celebrated their sixth anniversary this year, and they have two beautiful daughters Ava (5 years old) and Maddie (2 years old). They get back to San Diego at least once a year to see friends and family, and try to time their visits to escape the Northeast winters as much as possible!

Eric Navales ’91 & Emma, Ava, Maddie

Robyn Denton ’95 Robyn Denton married Seth Johnson on April 9, 2011, in Rancho Santa Fe.

Michael Hirshman ’04 Michael Hrishman ’04 & Jason Svet ’04

Amy (Dinger) Rohrbach ’97 Amy and her husband, John, joyfully welcomed their son, John William David Rohrbach II, on Monday, March 7, 2011. Will weighed 8 pounds 6 ounces and was 20 inches long.

John William David Rohrbach II

Nicole Mallory Cunningham ’97 Nicole and her husband, Shane, welcomed their son Brody to the world on his father’s birthday in January.

Stephanie met her husband, Jonathan, at the University of Pennsylvania where they became friends her freshman year, 7 years ago. They were engaged in February 2009 and, shortly after, moved to Washington DC where Stephanie started an MD program, and Jonathan started a PhD program in Economics. They were married in Philadelphia on June 5, 2010 and they have enjoyed spending the last year settling into married life. They spend a lot of time studying, drinking coffee, and enjoying their grad student married life.

Michael started with the Eastridge Group of Staffing Companies in August 2010, where he now works closely with friend and LJCDS alum Jason Svet (’04). Michael is now the manager for marketing, as well as, workers’ compensation and safety at Eastridge. Michael returned to campus last month for Career Day, where he spoke to seniors about their future career paths - and how so much can change in just a few years.

Sheya Meierdierks-Lehman ’99 Sheya Meierdierks-Lehman ’99 and Jasmine Kung ’99

Sheya Meierdierks-Lehman and Michael Baker were married in October of 2010.

Tania Lombrozo ’98 Tania and husband, Tom Griffiths, are pleased to announce the birth of their daughter, Orli Lombrozo Griffiths, born on December 16, 2010.

Like most new parents, they are thrilled, grateful and exhausted!

Andrea Leverant Minor ’01 Orli Lombrozo Griffiths

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Andrea married Mark Minor on March 12, 2011, in San Diego.

Andrea and Mark met in Chicago five years ago. LJCDS alumni: Meredith Wyman, Jason Davis, Meghan Sullivan and Julie Glazer were in attendance. Andrea has been with Northwestern University’s development office for a little over a year and loves working with donors, faculty and students every day!

Madame Thornton-Schilling at the Class of 2000 Ten Year Reunion.

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ALUMNI REVIEW: CLASS NOTES

ALUMNI REVIEW: CLASS NOTES

Alumni Class Notes

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56 ALUMNI REVIEW: 2011-2012 EVENT CALENDAR

Alumni Schedule

2011-12 Homecoming Pre-Game (alumni 21+ years of age)

Friday, November 4 5:30 – 7:00 pm

Homecoming Game Friday, November 4 7:00 pm Class of 2006 Five Year Reunion Friday, November 24 Gringo’s Cantina, Pacific Beach 6:30 – 8:30 pm Alumni Soccer Game TBD (Thanksgiving Break) Alumni Leadership Council (ALC) Winter Social Thursday, December 15 La Jolla Marriott 5:00 – 7:00 pm Alumni Ice Cream Social A Family Event Saturday, January 7 LJCDS Kindergarten Village 3:00 – 4:30 pm

ALUMNI WEEKEND Career Day Friday, March 16 Spring Fling Reception honoring all Career Day Speakers.

Parents of alumni welcome to attend!

Friday, March 16 5:00 – 7:00 pm Reunions (classes of ’72, ’82, ’92, ’02) Saturday, March 17 Jacobs Family Library Courtyard 6:00 – 8:00 pm Community Service Walk for Water Sunday, March 18 Time to be determined Reception for Deora Bodley ’99 Community Service Award Recipients Sunday, March 18 Time to be determined

Distinguished Alumni Award

STAY IN TOUCH VIA FACEBOOK:

Nominations Due: November 1, 2011

BY JOINING THE ALUMNI FAN PAGE

via email to: scleary@ljcds.org

LA JOLLA COUNTRY DAY ALUMNI

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Anthony Paolucci Torrey golf star Anthony Paolucci thrilled the golf world in early 2011 by making the cut at the PGA Farmer’s Open at Torrey Pines Golf Club and finishing two shots ahead of Tiger Woods.

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