2013 Country Day 360 Viewbook

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Commencement 2013 New AROUNDPENGUIN THE WORLD Commencement 2011 Two Worlds OneLeadership School THE UNIQUE Early Is Language The Pulse Lucky Number ARTS Junior a Senior The Entrepreneurial Spirit A BANNER67 YEARTHE FOR TORREYS Sports Spotlight PROMOTIONS REUNIONS Career Day PROMOTIONS Lifers Alumni Review OperaLifers Star Stephanie Weiss REUNIONS 2013 DISTINGUISHED CLASS NOTES Alumni Events 2013-2014 CAREER DAY AlumniALUMNUS of the Year Class Notes ALUMNI EVENT SCHEDULE

TORREY 360 VIEWBOOK Editor Chris Lavin Contributors Scott La Fee, Georgi Hughes, Tara Kern Kuehnert ’90, May Vukotich, Rob Tirsbier and Kathy Woods, Jeff Hutzler, Barbara Weinstein Design Visual Asylum

Contents 02 Editor’s Note 04 Letter from the Head of School 06 Board of Trustees 08 New Leadership 10 Around the World 16 Early Language 19 The Pulse 28 Lucky Number 67 32 Commencement 44 Middle School Promotion 46 Lower School Promotion 50 A Year in the National Spotlight 54 Alumni Section

44 Baseball Champions

50 2013 Distinguished Alumni

Principal Photography Andy Hayt Additional Photography John Lyons, May Vukotich, Rob Tirsbier Printing ZUZAPrinting On the Cover Sergio Martinez ’05

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03 EDITOR’S NOTE

EDITOR’S NOTE

By Chris Lavin Director of Communications and Marketing

WITHOUT LIMITS Not long ago, there were significant limits on how much communication could occur between schools and parents. The time it took to produce written materials and the limited space on the few pages mailed out en masse put a premium on succinctness.

Avoiding repetition or duplication was the desire.

Wide consideration of the school’s precious messaging was the rule.

There is too much information. I’m overwhelmed. I can’t keep track of it all.

There is not enough information. There should be more, faster.

With the onset of the new digital age, all the rules have changed. Within a short scope of time, information has become not only a two-way street, but more like a superhighway system with arteries, access roads and flyovers. The focus is not solely on the messages the school wants to send to parents, but rather on accommodating instant, on-demand, twoway communication between and among teachers, parents, administrators, students and alumni. In the cyber world, you never leave Country Day; you just log in from a distance.

Not unexpectedly, in this time of transition, those working on communication services hear two complaints: • There is too much information. I’m overwhelmed. I can’t keep track of it all.

• There is not enough information. There should be more, faster.

Those two sentiments are not as contradictory as they may first appear. Those who are overwhelmed are a reminder to those of us in communication that gauging your audience’s needs and delivering the information in consistent, structured, predictable and repeatable ways is key. To that end, we are constantly watching the analytics to measure the effectiveness of communication channels. From those measurements we find Country Day Parents like:

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• Direct communication from room parents and teachers in the Lower and Middle Schools.

• The weekly rolling memos in the Lower and Middle Schools.

• The daily rolling memo in the Upper School.

• Sports team alerts sent automatically to team members.

• The Family Directory in the Parent Portal.

• Occasional – and ONLY occasional – email blasts on significant issues.

More than 900 families have also joined Torrey Times, the school’s participatory news engine, to get occasional special alerts as events unfold on campus.

Videos, slideshows and newspaper-like chronicling of campus events can be found here. Stories, photos, videos and comments are often contributed by Torrey Times members.

And there is our main school website – LJCDS.ORG, which houses many of our web services and is designed to be the first stop on a new family’s quest to understand our school.

In the fast-paced world of Web, mobile and print communication, May Vukotich, our website coordinator, and I don’t claim infallibility by any means. We constantly check messages, emails, texts and tweets for good ideas from our families and staff. And our doors on the third floor of Jacobs Family Library remain open for anyone who still prefers to communicate face-to-face with the use of the spoken word!

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Decades of Change H

Change swirls in and around our campus today, challenging educators to be innovators, entrepreneurs and part-time prognosticators.

Classroom walls have been dissolved by Internet access, and throughout the campus, live, “Skype” connections have brought events and experts from afar to our doorsteps with regularity. Middle School students are working on computer programming and 3-D design as well as traditional English and spelling. Upper School students, in their academic and personal lives, have become virtual digital citizens, preparing for a post-secondary life that increasingly brings demands in both real and cyber spaces.

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the well-rounded student –

the scholar, artist and athlete of character – remains our

”

unflagging goal.

istorians have always separated time

with labels and names – The Stone Age, The Bronze Age, The Industrial Age. More recently, cultural analysis might be described as the “decadization” of history: The Roaring ’20s, The ’60s, The ’70s, Generation X and Y. However, these labels and the sense that we were experiencing some defining collective experience came years after the trends and events that inspired them. Boomers only became “boomers” years after the boom.

To work in education today, however, is to know that we are currently deeply immersed in what historians someday will undoubtedly label as The Digital Age. They will describe a relatively short period of time in which the transfer of knowledge, relatively stable and unchanging for centuries, suddenly surged ahead as it was freed of the strictures of print and the limitations of the live, spoken word.

“ The dedication to developing

Fortunately, Country Day has been blessed with parents, faculty members and students who have been up to this challenge. Thinking far ahead, the Board of Trustees and the school’s donors funded a rebuilding campaign that transformed most of this campus, preparing it for the varied demands that are now unfolding around us in education and allowing us to grow enrollment and develop richer, more varied programs.

To be truthful, our work would be easier if we could focus just on the traditional, core subjects and skills that are still at the heart of what Country Day is about. The teacher-student relationship remains paramount here. The dedication to developing the well-rounded student – the scholar, artist and athlete of character – remains our unflagging goal.

Collective learning in both the classroom, on the sports fields and on our stages is what we do.

But when you describe yourself as a “college preparatory school,” you must watch and understand the effects this transformative change is having on those colleges and universities as well and reaffirm that you are continuing to meet this core “preparatory” challenge.

Again, it would be natural after so much effort over the last decade to stop and enjoy the fruits of that labor. Yet the winds of change continue to blow at our sails. We still face challenges in transforming both our programs and some of our facilities to meet what is clearly becoming the challenge of preparing students for their college years to come.

Not surprising, most of these needs are centered in the west end of our beautiful campus – the part of the campus largely untouched by the most recent building projects. It is in these Upper School years where we are most closely connected to the college years and where we must be most acutely attuned to the “preparatory” challenge.

In the coming months, we will be sharing more of the thinking and planning we are doing to keep our programs and our facilities state-of-the-art from our Kindergarten Village in the east to the Upper School in the west.

Our job has become more complex but no less important. We have prided ourselves for nearly 90 years now on taking young students and preparing them for college and a meaningful life.

This institution has seen many decades and much change come and go. Together, we will meet these challenges, too.

A committee of students, faculty, staff and outside experts has worked over the last year to surmount obstacles we must face to continue being a leader in college preparatory work. They have identified need for: • New and varied collaborative teaching and learning spaces that reflect the many innovative and independent ways students and teachers are working today.

• Improved theater and arts facilities that accentuate the irreplaceable value of shared experience.

• More flexible classrooms that allow for better use of digital teaching methods.

• Better places for the informal and social learning that is a key part of the maturation of a young adult.

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FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL

FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL

by Chris Schuck

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STEPPING DOWN, BUT NOT AWAY I am approaching my fiftieth birthday in a few months. Now I don’t make it a habit to share such information so readily, but milestone birthdays like this one often prompt reflection. So as I write this, I am reflecting on the things that truly matter in life.

When I was a younger man, the answers were quick to come but were, invariably, wrong. Lots of things passed through my head. In the end, the answer for me was simple.

For our family, life is about the relationships we form and the things we aspire to do to make a difference in those relationships.

The relationship we have formed with the La Jolla Country Day and its community is among the most significant ones we will have in our life. When our youngest of our two daughters graduates, we will have been making the drive to 9490 Genesee for 15 years. There are few places in our lives where we will spend so much time, so much passion, so much.

The teachers and administrators of Country Day will be meaningful contributors into who Melanie and Lauren will aspire to be in this world. They will help shape how they think, what they value, how they go about accomplishing the goals of their lives.

Weighty stuff for sure, but all true.

When we originally arrived at this school, the question arose, “What to do to make a difference?”

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•

•

Our school’s presence in the community has never been stronger. Each of the past four years has set new highs in the number of families who have applied to have their children attend Country Day. We have begun to explore different ways to expand our mission. From our partnership with UCSD in the STE[+a]M Project to speeches from local and national leaders on our campus sponsored by the City Club to our Young Leaders Film Festival to our ever-expanding Community Service program, Country Day

continues to push the boundaries of our influence beyond our campus.

I want to congratulate the families of all of the fine young men and women of the graduating class of 2012-13, as they proceed to the next step in their lives. I encourage these graduates, and all of the members of our Country Day community, to step up and make that decision to make a difference in all of the significant relationships in your lives. You will be richer for it.

by Howard Ziment

I feel fortunate in leaving the reins in the hands of our new and terrific Board president, Manish Parikh, and all of the amazing, dedicated, energetic trustees and Board committee members – all of whom made that all-important decision to simply try to make a difference in our community.

Country Day has never been stronger as we end this school year. In our strategic plan, we have four sustainability goals — Financial, Facilities, Mission and Environmental. We have accomplished much in these past few years on all of these fronts: • Our endowment has grown significantly to its present $21MM. While we still are short of where we should be, given national benchmark data, we are happy to have come this far.

• We continue to expand our ongoing support for our school’s daily mission as we have several pilot projects in place to explore better ways to educate our children using technology.

• We are poised to break ground momentarily on two projects this summer. The first is a solar energy system on our Middle School rooftop, the first step toward significantly reducing Country Day’s carbon footprint. The second is a combination sign/visual identity and storage and meeting space on the corner of Regents and Genesee, a visually stunning project with needed practical impact as well.

• Plans are almost together on our next significant capital improvement, an upgrade to our West Side of campus. More to come on this front.

Board of Trustees First Row Barry Rosenbaum, President Howard Ziment, Head of School Chris Schuck, Sherry Bahrambeygui-Hosey ’82, Ben Badiee. Second Row Angela Glynn, Kimberly Goldman, Peter Hamilton, Maressa Ciccone ’01, Pat Hughes, Alex Roudi, Lisa LaCorte, Debby Jacobs, Tricia Estrada. Third Row Manish Parikh, Earl Edwards, Sherry Mesman, John Collins, Bob Gans, David Ashworth. Not pictured Jeff

2012-2013

Church, George Guimaraes, Steve Morris, Michael Rosenberg, Jing Wang.

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BOARD OF TRUSTEES

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

And as it has been so often in our 28 years together, my wife, Judy, showed me the way by stepping up to become the president of the Parents Association a number of years ago. So I stepped up and became part of the Finance Committee of the Board a year later. Six years later, I am approaching the end of my term as president of your Board of Trustees.

The time we both have spent in service has been rewarding, frustrating, exhilarating, challenging and, we hope, meaningful. It has been a privilege to serve our community – to simply try to make a difference.

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09 LEADERSHIP

LEADERSHIP

NEW LEADERSHIP Manish Parikh Chairman, President The La Jolla Country Day School Board of Trustees voted unanimously to name Manish Parikh to succeed Howard Ziment as president.

NEW UPPER SCHOOL TEAM

The new school year will bring new leadership to Country Day’s Upper School.

Parikh, an engineer by trade and father of two Country Day students, served for six months in the new role established by the board as “President Designate’’ before assuming the president’s chair in June.

Ziment praised Parikh for his dedication to the school. As a member of the board’s Buildings and Grounds Committee, Parikh spearheaded a project to catalog and computerize the school’s infrastructure and to plan for ongoing capital needs.

“He has shown great leadership and applied his valuable skills to help our school,’’ Ziment said. “I have the utmost confidence in handing over the reins to Manish.’’

Head of School Chris Schuck praised Ziment for his leadership in helping drive the school’s growth and shaping its leadership going forward.

“Howard has been a strong hand as we managed to grow the school even through difficult economic times,” Schuck said. “We are honored that our library of talent is so deep in this school community that we can welcome a new President with Manish’s strength and dedication.’’

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Greg Martin (center) from Cincinnati Country Day School will be the new Upper School Director. He is joined by two new deans, Todd Ballaban from The Brentwood School and Colleen O’Boyle from the DaVinci School of Design.

“ We are honored that our

library of talent is so deep... that we can welcome a new President with Manish’s

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strength and dedication.

- Head of School Chris Schuck

Peter Hamilton Chief Advancement Officer As Chief Advancement Officer, Hamilton will report directly to Head of School Chris Schuck and oversee the school’s Development, Admission, and Communication and Marketing departments.

Hamilton, who most recently worked as Southern California area Director of Leasing for Embarcadero Capital Partners LLC, a Bay Area private equity group, has been involved in Country Day’s fund-raising and development efforts as a parent volunteer at the school. His three children – Jake ’10, Oliver ’11, and Kate ’12 – all graduated from Country Day.

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11 AROUND THE WORLD

AROUND THE WORLD

By Scott LaFee

AROUND THE WORLD Literally half a world away in Afghanistan, Sergio Martinez ’05, found his life at Country Day allowed him to make connections in a hostile and foreign land.

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13 AROUND THE WORLD

AROUND THE WORLD

As he looks around the campus, he says the school has changed a lot since he attended. It’s clear that Martinez has changed a lot, too – though not so much that he isn’t instantly recognized by school staff. Stepping into the room, Assistant Head of School Sarah Bakhiet, who had Martinez in her American government class, gives Martinez a huge, emotional hug, clearly delighted to see him – and maybe a little relieved, given where he’s been.

“Since he was a young teen, Sergio’s courage was his defining characteristic,” says Bakhiet. “He was a master of breaching his comfort zone. He tried new Sergio Martinez ‘05 with former French teacher, Alice Thornton Schilling. things at Country Day; new classes, new friends, new cultures, new sports. In high school, Sergio went out for swimming. When the coach told the

he distance between San Diego and Kabul, athletes to jump in the pool, Sergio did. He paddled

the capital of Afghanistan, is almost exactly around, doing anything to stay afloat. The coach 7,768 miles, long enough for Sergio Martinez to pack finally recognized his difficulty and asked if he in quite a few tales from his years as a student at could swim. Sergio could not. He had gone out for La Jolla Country Day School and the University of swimming without knowing how to swim.”

Notre Dame to his current status as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army doing military intelligence.

Born in Tijuana, Martinez – along with his four

T

“I’ve got a lot of stories,” he says, smiling, “but I can’t tell them.”

With the possible exception of the story about fending off a charging wild boar with a shovel. That one isn’t classified. We’ll get to it in a moment.

This spring, Martinez came home to see family and friends after concluding his first tour in Afghanistan. The trip included visits to Country Day, where Martinez attended from 1999 to 2005 and where his younger brother, Marco Mejia, is currently a high school freshman.

Sitting in a conference room above the school library, dressed out in a formal blue uniform with a chest full of campaign ribbons and medals (including a Bronze Star – awarded for acts of heroism, merit or meritorious service in a combat zone), Martinez is a 25-year-old at ease.

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siblings and their mother – grew up in Barrio

“Since he was a young teen, Sergio’s courage was his defining characteristic.”

Logan, where he dreamed of other places. Martinez attended the Barrio Logan College Institute, a program designed to help first-generation American families pursue higher education. It was there that he learned about Country Day, 16.6 miles and a world away.

“I got to visit the campus. Coming from an inner city public school, I thought, ‘Wow!’ This is a nice school.”

So, with one other student, he applied. Country Day offered a partial scholarship. Martinez enrolled as a seventh-grader.

The next years were a mix of easy and difficult.

Every weekday morning, Martinez caught a special Country Day bus near his house at 6:30 a.m.

Each night after sports (soccer, cross-country and swimming), he caught the same bus, arriving home around 6:30 p.m.

“I’d eat, do my homework, go to bed, wake up and do it all over again.”

Martinez made friends easily and says he cruised until he got caught up in the “healthy competition” of going to the best college possible. “My mom told me I was going to college, and initially I was fine to just go with the flow, go wherever. But everybody was working really hard to go to the best college they could, and I got that way, too.”

He applied to several top-tier universities, among them UC Berkeley, the University of Michigan, Williams College in Massachusetts and, at the last minute, Notre Dame, which flew him out for a threeday visit. The trip sold him on the blue and gold.

Martinez graduated from Country Day and enrolled at Notre Dame in 2005. Initially, he planned to major in physics, but he switched to political science, with a minor in French, the language he had studied at Country Day.

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“The whole thing gave me a feeling that I was really in the Army now.”

From basic training, Martinez joined the Army’s military intelligence operations. He didn’t know exactly what that entailed. “It was sort of a mystery, but I heard it was exciting and that they only took the smartest, best soldiers.”

He transferred to Arizona for special training and then to Fort Campbell in Kentucky, ordered to the fabled 101st Airborne division, where he helped manage a company responsible for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance duties.

In 2012, unexpectedly, he was assigned to become a military adviser, to help train Afghanistan National Army “in country.” For eight weeks, he studied Pashto, one of the two major dialects of Afghanistan. “It was intense. Eight hours a day, every day, plus homework.”

(There’s a story that Martinez was

just an average student in French

class until his exasperated teacher,

Madame Alice Thornton-Schilling,

who retired last year, asked him in

front of everybody, “What do you want to be?” Martinez answered, “An ambassador.”

To which Thornton-Schilling replied, “Well, if you want that, you better pay attention to languages.”

From then on, Martinez was an A student.)

“We were doing a night exercise, me and another guy guarding the perimeter. We’d dug a foxhole. Our job was to take turns staying awake all night to make sure nobody snuck past us. There were explosions, the sound of gunfire. We had guns, but they were filled with blanks.

“Anyway, the other soldier, who was also named Martinez (we were assigned alphabetically) hated the outdoors. He was terrified of fire ants. He’d spray insect repellent around the foxhole. I’m not sure why he was in the Army. I was sleeping when he Though he had notions about entering the Foreign Service, after graduating from Notre Dame in 2009, woke me up to say there was something big, dark and moving outside the perimeter. I finally looked, Martinez simply joined the service. “A part of me and it was huge. You couldn’t tell what it was until, had always wanted to go into the military. I wanted to start a tradition in my family. As an immigrant, I suddenly, it charged us. I grabbed my shovel – Martinez was down in the foxhole trying to find wanted to serve my new country and give back.” his – and I just swung it as hard as I could. I heard The Army shipped Martinez to Fort Benning, Ga., for basic training. It was, in many ways, just about as this kind of clink – it was the shovel banging off the foreign a place as he could imagine. For one thing, boar’s tusk – and the boar veered off and ran away.” there were wild boars.

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But Martinez said he was prepared: He already spoke English, Spanish and, of course, the French he learned at Country Day. He had picked up Portuguese and Italian in college. “Pashto was completely different from all of them, but I got to the point where I could get by,” Martinez said. “I got to where I was dreaming in Pashto.”

In time, he and his company were sent to Afghanistan.

It was a difficult, scary time. He often worked with only a handful of fellow soldiers, surrounded by hundreds of Afghan counterparts in situations that were sometimes surreal and even terrifying. He can’t talk about them. It’s classified material.

But he got through the tour OK. He can even smile about it. Including a chance meeting in Afghanistan with an Army chaplain that brought Martinez right back to Country Day’s La Jolla campus. The chaplain was the uncle of Country Day’s Director of Admission, Vincent Travaglione.

Martinez is scheduled for a second tour in Afghanistan, but first, there’s a spot of leave and plans to get married this winter to Amanda Maloof, a young woman he met during a college semester spent abroad in France. Right now, she’s studying in Alabama to become a nurse. In the six or so years that they’ve known each other, Martinez and Amanda have probably lived in the same place for less than a month.

But that’s all right, Martinez says. He’s taking the long view. He wants to stick with the Army a few more years, see if he can make captain. Then, if all goes well, he’d like to become a military liaison officer stationed at a U.S. embassy somewhere in the world. If that doesn’t work out, maybe he’ll go to law school or join the U.S. State Department.

No doubt there’s an ambassadorship out there waiting for him.

“Sergio is someone who is going to leave his mark,” said Travaglione. “He is one of the reasons why I feel great about my role here. Students like him make every day worthwhile. He’s an inspiration to young students. He inspires me.”

“A part of me had always wanted to go into the military.

I wanted to start a tradition in my family. As an immigrant, I wanted to serve my new country and give back.”

AROUND THE WORLD

AROUND THE WORLD

The next morning, Sergio was a celebrated boar hero; the other Martinez, not so much.

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become a natural part of

the La Jolla Country Day

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experience.

Early Language

By Scott LaFee

I

t is a bright and sunny Tuesday morning.

Es una brillante y soleada mañana de martes.

Maribel Bueno walks into one of the junior kindergarten classrooms where a dozen or so 3- and 4-year-olds have dutifully gathered (in a squirmy kind of way) on a rug to sing en Español about a white horse, recite the days of the week and discuss the marvels of el pulpo con ocho brazos – the octopus with eight arms.

None of the children actually speaks Spanish – yet – but they are getting an early start, far earlier than most children beginning to learn a second language.

Until a few years ago, the language program in the Lower School at La Jolla Country Day was broad and flexible. Starting in junior kindergarten, Country Day students went through a series of languages: two years of Japanese, two French and finally, two years of Spanish. At Middle School, they chose one to focus upon for the rest of their academic career.

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The program changed in 2007.

“The kids weren’t learning much actual language,” said Marna Weiss, director of the Lower School.

“It was more just learning about the cultures and costumes, which we thought they could get in social studies.

“But living in San Diego, where Spanish is spoken everywhere, we thought this would give them a real head start. The goal changed from just introducing students to a variety of languages to an emphasis on the beginnings of conversational Spanish, with a little bit of reading and writing.”

Each week, pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students meet two to four times for 20 to 30 minutes with Señora Bueno, a former elementary school teacher in Mexico and language instructor who has been teaching and tutoring at Country Day for six years.

Bueno (Spanish for “good”) also teaches some of the Lower School’s first- and second-graders. The rest – and all of the third and fourth grades – are taught by Patricia Aftahi, who came to Country Day more than a year ago after teaching language in the San Diego Unified and Chula Vista Unified school districts.

(Well, for the most part. When the students notice a stranger in the back of the room taking notes, their universal question will not wait for translation: “Who’s that guy? Quién es ese hombre?)

Not so long ago, it was broadly assumed that real exposure to more than one language was likely to confuse very young children, perhaps even cause developmental delays. How could a 4-yearold grasp a second language when he or she was still wrestling with the basics of his or her native tongue?

But research into dual language development has progressed significantly over the last few

The charge of Bueno and Aftahi is to introduce Country Day’s youngest charges to the maravillas de Espanol, the marvels of Spanish, and to lay the foundation for later fluency.

“We want the language to become a natural part of the La Jolla Country Day experience,” said Maria Curtis, assistant director of the Lower School. “We want the students to be confident and comfortable expressing themselves.”

The trick with learning any second language, of course, is getting over the initial terror of simply not knowing what somebody’s saying. That might seem a particularly daunting task with kids as young as 3, but Weiss said Bueno’s and Aftahi’s approach is very different from that found in language courses typically taken by older students.

“The classes are very participatory,” Weiss said.

“The language is taught through songs and games.

The teachers do everything they can to produce language, to get the kids to think and speak in Spanish in a natural, easy way.”

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EARLY LANGUAGE

EARLY LANGUAGE

“We want the language to

It’s surprisingly immersive. From the moment Señora Bueno arrives for her classroom visits or students troop into Señora Aftahi’s room, Spanish is the only language spoken.

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biblioteca (the library), la tienda (the store), el estadio (the stadium), el cine (the movies) or la playa (the beach).

Rather than being confusing, simultaneous multiple language exposure appears to produce measurable, long-term cognitive benefits, according to scientists.

For example, bilingual children have been shown to have denser tissue and greater neural activity in brain areas linked to memory and attention. They generally perform better than monolingual speakers on measures of concept formation, cognitive flexibility and analytical skills.

“Yo voy en mucho, mucho gordo cerdo,” says one student.

Then Aftahi asks them to turn and ask each other the same question, perhaps expanding their destination options. It’s a brave request of fourthgraders, who have a penchant for wandering.

“I am going to be a very, very fat pig.”

Well, maybe not yet. The correct grammatical expression is “Voy a ser un cerdo muy gordo,” but you’re getting there.

Aftahi walks around the room, listening, correcting, Of course, in Señora Aftahi’s Tuesday morning reminding two boys that if they’re going to talk class, the topic of the moment isn’t cognitive about spring training (entrenamiento de primavera), development, it’s answering the pressing question, A they must do so in Spanish. donde vas este fin de semana?

“There are always a few who test the limits,” she Where are you going this weekend? says, smiling.

Yo voy (I am going), the students uniformly reply, ending the statement with one of several prompts taken from a series of pictures tacked to the wall: la

SCIENCE: IT’S A CRIME

EARLY LANGUAGE

decades, and a lot of old misconceptions have been repudiated. Researchers have now concluded that very young children learn multiple languages simultaneously with relative ease. In the first few years of life, it turns out, their brains build separate but equally strong systems to understand and employ all of the languages that they hear frequently.

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the pulse

The lessons are painless, fast and fun. The younger students build vocabulary by describing what kinds of clothes they’re wearing; the older students write brief paeans to their favorite animals: el perro (the dog), la rana (the frog) and pez unicornio (the unicorn fish). There is much singing.

Some of the students are clearly gifted linguistically.

“You can usually spot who’s really going to pick up the language after a couple of weeks,” said Aftahi.

But everybody talks.

“We work to get them so they are unafraid of speaking,” said Bueno. “We want the language a fluir como el agua, to flow like water.”

Scott LaFee is a former science writer for The San Diego Union-Tribune and now covers science and health issues for the University of California at San Diego.

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a sampling of the constant activities in Country Day life. . . .

TORREYTIMES.LJCDS.ORG

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An Active Welcome Back!

ALL SCHOOL – The first day of the school year was bursting with activity as parents, students, faculty and staff hit the ground running on the Country Day campus.

S E P T E M B E R

The Art of Puppeteering LOWER SCHOOL – Students worked with traditional shadow puppets behind a stage and screen with guidance from an appearance by puppeteer Sam Gold, who had recently returned from a year-long fellowship studying puppetry in Bali.

Fifth Grade Presents ‘A Mosaic of Cultures’ MIDDLE SCHOOL – An array of Country Day fifth-graders’ readings, writing assignments, culture maps, interviews with family members, memorabilia and relics of students’ cultural identities formed “A Mosaic of Cultures,” exhibited in the Community Hall.

O C T O B E R

Scientific Studies With Mealworms ALL SCHOOL – Fifth-grade Country Day students welcomed second-graders into their science lab with an experiment testing various environments for mealworms. The students timed and measured the worms to determine whether they moved fastest in white paper, aluminum foil or sandpaper surroundings.

Up Close With Nature on Catalina Island On-Campus Mayoral Debate UPPER SCHOOL – A crowd of more than 600 gathered at the amphitheater on campus for a debate between San Diego mayoral candidates Carl DeMaio and Bob Filner.

MIDDLE SCHOOL – The seventh-grade class spent a week on Catalina Island, learning by seeing and touching nature as they found it.

Lights, Camera and the Reaction UPPER SCHOOL – Theater tech students used a temporary “lighting lab” in the Green Room to create lighting designs to

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indicate a mood or state of mind.

Classmates used clues of color, direction and intensity to guess the mood intended by the designer.

N O V E M B ER

First-Grade Presidential Election LOWER SCHOOL – Country Day first-graders elected a new president for their grade, via a race pitting the Cool Party candidate against the Dog and Cat Party nominee. The process included developing a 12-point platform and selecting a nominee for each party, complete with voter information pamphlets sent home to make the first-graders informed voters.

A Day With Karen Hart UPPER SCHOOL -- Karen Hart, nationally renowned composer, songwriter and vocalist, appeared on a Saturday at Country Day, to work with student singers and musicians and to perform her original work.

D E C E M B E R

County Day Community Service UPPER SCHOOL – Four Country Day ninth-graders volunteered an hour each day for a week to sing in the lobby of the Scripps Radiation Therapy Center, as a part of a community service they started on campus.

Tiny Torreys Visit Kidventure

Learning From the Top

Lower School Reading Night

LOWER SCHOOL -- Country Day’s first-graders learned to study a community by learning about Country Day itself.

Students visited with Head of School Chris Schuck, enjoying the patio outside his office, from which they could view the Middle School quad.

LOWER SCHOOL – Kindergarten through Grade 4 students, families and teachers spent an evening on campus reading stories, playing fun word games, enjoying Mad Libs on iPads, and doing a little Readers Theater to showcase some of the great work happening in their classrooms.

J A N UA RY

Inauguration Trip: LOWER SCHOOL – Tiny Torreys A Multimedia Event had fun with imaginative play, made connections with the fairy tales they had been learning and dressed up as princesses, princes, knights and dragons during a field trip to Kidventures.

Big Bad Wolf on Trial MIDDLE SCHOOL – Fifthgrade student lawyers as well as witnesses for the prosecution and the defense put defendant B.B. “Big Bad” Wolf on trial during two days in a Country Day “Courtroom”/English class. Four homeroom fifth-grade classes tried to convince a jury of parents, grandparents and family friends of Mr. Wolf’s guilt or innocence.

UPPER SCHOOL -- Fresh off a long day attending the presidential inauguration in Washington, D.C., 42 Upper School students spent a day in the nation’s capital sharing what it was like to witness history firsthand with Country Day fifthgraders back on campus, via a cellphone iPad camera link while visiting the Newseum.

Students Meet Justice SONIA SotomAyOr Art Walk at UCSD MIDDLE SCHOOL -- Country Day seventh- and eighth-graders toured pieces of UCSD’s Stuart Collection on the campus of University of California San Diego for Ms. Chaitin’s art class.

UPPER SCHOOL -- A group of two dozen Country Day students and teachers joined Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and several hundred San Diegans on the campus of the University of San Diego for a chat about the first Latina justice’s new memoir, My Beloved World.

San Diego Opera at Country Day ALL SCHOOL – Dr. Nicolas Reveles, the Geisel Director of Education and Outreach for the San Diego Opera, spent a full day lecturing Country Day music and theater students on the nuances of the upcoming opera company’s 2013 season. A group of Country Day music students later attended a dress rehearsal of the opera’s production of Daughter of the Regiment at the Civic Center.

Power Couple Share Their Biotech Success story UPPER SCHOOL – Husbandand-wife team Magda Marquet and Francois Ferre – parents of two Country Day graduates -- shared their fascinating story about parlaying their careers as accomplished scientists into a thriving biotech business, Althea Technologies, during a Country Day lecture.

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The Pulse

The Pulse

A U G U ST

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Whistle While You Woodwork LOWER SCHOOL -Kindergarten students, continuing their look at simple machines, were treated to a visit from Sheila Dawson and her “Build-It” Bus. Mr. Needle, Assistant Teacher Third Grade, came back to his Country Day origins (Kindergarten) to assist the handy helpers with their projects.

First-Graders’ First Dissection LOWER SCHOOL – First-grade scientists completed their study of earthworms with a dissection, a first at Country Day this past year.

The children added compostable material to Country Day’s compost bin and handled live worms. They learned the external and internal anatomy of a worm and followed its digestive tract.

As a result, the budding scientists gained a better understanding about the valuable castings that worms leave behind.

Cyber Team Earns Spot in Finals

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UPPER SCHOOL -- Country Day’s Cyber Patriot team placed second out of 26 California teams in two qualifying rounds and earned a finalist position in the San Diego Mayor’s Cyber Cup. The students had been learning

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about information assurance and computer security on both Microsoft and Unix platforms.

John Malashock Visits Country Day Dance UPPER SCHOOL – San Diego dance troupe namesake John Malashock spent a Thursday choreographing the dance class movements and exercises at Country Day, giving high school dancers time with an artist with an international reputation.

M A R C H

Entrepreneurial Series – Learning the Cohn Recipe UPPER SCHOOL -Restaurateurs Lesley and David Cohn catered lunch from one of their gourmet food trucks, Chop Soo-ey, then treated attendees at Chris Schuck’s Entrepreneurial Lecture Series to their story about how they grew their business, which started with Iowa Meat Farms in Mission Valley and now includes a “Cohn family” of 16 distinct restaurants that employ more than 1,000 people.

MIDDLE SCHOOL – The Middle School Advisory Council promoted a fundraiser to promote awareness of children throughout the world whose families cannot afford surgeries to repair cleft lips and palates. They raised enough money to cover 15 such surgeries.

Getting to the Roots ALL SCHOOL -- The Visual Art Department hosted students, parents, staff and faculty at the reception for our Current Exhibition from former art teacher, now full-time artist, Marsha Boston. Several pieces are collaborative ones with poet/ husband Bruce Boston.

LOWER SCHOOL – Students in grades 1 through 4 ushered in the season with singing and playing a medley of songs in the Spring Sing, a traditional Country Day program.

LOWER & MIDDLE SCHOOL – Country Day’s Junior Shakespearean actors and FifthGrade Drama students performed Twelfth Night and scenes from Macbeth in Balboa Park, with more than 60 schools at the San Diego Student Shakespeare Festival. Country Day’s Evan Estrada (second grade) and Ana Mendez-Fogarty (fifth grade) earned outstanding actor honors.

Glee Club takes First Place UPPER SCHOOL – The Country Day Glee Club took home a first-place award and earned an Excellent rating from judges at the Music in the Parks Festival at Disneyland.

Torrey Prosecutors Hear Sweet ‘Guilty’ UPPER SCHOOL – At a Thursday-night Torrey Mock Trial, involving reckless teenage driving, Superior Court Judge Katherine Bacal ordered Scripps Ranch defendant Adrian Vega remanded into custody as a result of another strong performance from a Country Day student prosecution team that took no prisoners.

Spring Sing

Young Thespians Perform at Shakespeare Festival

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Learning Developmental Psychology Firsthand UPPER SCHOOL -- Several students from Dr. Sammartino’s AP Psychology class visited the Country Day Kindergarten class to experience developmental psychology in person by reading stories and playing games with some of the kindergartners in hopes of furthering current psychological research on theory of mind, cognition and perception in children.

A P R I L

classroom was the culmination of a three-year collaboration with students of Francis Parker and The Bishop’s School to raise funds through bake sales, sweat shirt and bracelet sales and WIRED, the school’s coffeehouse music night.

Fancy Day! LOWER SCHOOL – Country Day ECC and Lower School were treated by a visit from Robin Preiss Glasser, illustrator for the Fancy Nancy book series, who entertained students, moms and dads and read from the new book, Fancy Nancy: Fanciest Doll in the Universe.

Young Artists 2013: The Story of Me ALL SCHOOL – The San Diego Museum of Art beautifully exhibited the work of young Country Day artists at a reception, intermixing the work of students from Kindergarten through senior grade levels with the collection of pivotal artists at the museum.

3-Year Student effort helps build a classroom UPPER SCHOOL – Representatives of Country Day proudly attended the grand opening of a state-of-the-art classroom at The Monarch School, a downtown school serving the homeless. The

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The Pulse

The Pulse

Community Service – A Mile for a Smile

F E B R U A RY

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ALL SCHOOL – Architects Ricardo Rabins and Taal Safdie, speaking in the final of Head of School Chris Schuck’s Entrepreneurial Lecture series, traced their careers for a group of students, from redesigning living rooms through home design, small commercial projects, larger institutional and educational assignments and finally into even larger land use planning and public facilities -- bridges and streetscapes.

M AY

Learning From Across the Globe MIDDLE SCHOOL – Fifthgraders representing the nations of the world tackled complex problems in a Model U.N. An authentic multicultural spread, researched and executed by students and parents, became one of the best food events in Country Day history.

Cutting-Edge Tech from M.I.T.

STE[+a]MING INTO SPRING MIDDLE SCHOOL – Students spent spring break participating in two “STE[+a]M” classes centered on learning musical electronics and 3-D computer modeling.

ALL SCHOOL – The campus is abuzz with news that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will be loaning Country Day its FabLab, a mobile laboratory containing the latest computer-generated 3-D and laser fabrication tools, during the 201314 school year.

Country Day Piano Ace Country Day student Ursula Hardianto was the 1st place winner in the Helen B. Goodlin Piano Competition in her division, taking home a trophy and a $500 prize.

Middle School Scores Big in Math MIDDLE SCHOOL – Country Day sixth-, seventh- and eighthgrade math scholars placed in the top 20 in the nation in the

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Student Art Goes To Washington

annual competition conducted

by SIGMA, a math league that promotes solving non-routine problems through its competitive challenges.

Fifth-Grade Poets Published in National Anthology MIDDLE SCHOOL – Sixty-nine fifth-graders learned that their poetry would be published in a national anthology. Country Day was lauded for its entry’s extremely high percentage of accepted submissions. “It’s such a pleasure to read through so many excellent poems in one package,” wrote the editor of A Celebration of Poets, a printed anthology of poetry by students across the United States.

Music Makes the Grade MIDDLE SCHOOL – Country Day Middle School musicians/ dancers swept 1st-place awards at the Knotts Berry Farm Festival.

Taking top honors in competition with high to highest scores were the Sixth Grade Honors Orchestra, the Seventh/Eighth Grade Honors Band, the Middle School Honors Band and the Middle School Glee Club.

Yale Lifts Country Day With Song UPPER SCHOOL – Yale University singing group The Spizzwinks(?), featuring Country Day alum Dan Stein ’10, wowed an Upper School assembly with good tunes, humor and inspiring moments.

The Pulse

The Pulse

Entrepreneurial Series – Building With Passion

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UPPER SCHOOL – An elite team of San Diego art experts judged the work of Country Day student Fedelia Speidel the best to represent the school in the 52nd Congressional Art Competition.

The work of winners throughout the country is exhibited in the nation’s Capital.

Labeling the Water Wise Zoo LOWER SCHOOL & UPPER SCHOOL – Students, faculty, staff and parents gathered at Country Day’s Water Wise Zoo, as Lower School students placed signs created by The Garden Club identifying the drought-tolerant, low-water plants growing there.

J U N E

Affair of Honour Returns UPPER SCHOOL – Two years after his work’s first workshops at La Jolla Country Day, Upper School music teacher Wil Reed hosted a reading of the updated script of Affair of Honour, his original musical about the rivalry between founding fathers Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr.

To read more about each of these events and so much more please log onto: http://torreytimes.ljcds.org

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67

LUCKY NUMBER

Sixty Seven. My number was 67, roughly scribbled on tape, and carelessly applied to three bottles. They weren’t bottles you would easily imagine, but rather, bottles with a past. They were made of thick, mottled green glass with odd plastic stoppers on their tops. They had been used hundreds of times, monotonously, to feed me, Georgeta, Number 67. Every day, they were filled with a grainy liquid that comprised my only nourishment for the first eight months of my life.

I

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was born in Romania. My circumstance

to give me a chance to thrive. Almost three years

resulted from Nicolae Ceausescu’s

younger than I am now, she had no way to care

dictatorship. He was executed in 1989 at the end

for me in her poor farming village, and no way to

of the 9-day Revolution, six years before my birth,

escape the harsh scrutiny and judgments of her

but he so thoroughly pillaged the country that

family and neighbors. I was loved. My parents tell

Romanians paid a heavy price for years afterwards.

me that when I was handed over in the middle of a

In 1995, people were still so impoverished and

beautiful September night, my caretakers hugged

desperate that thousands of children, like me,

me tenderly. They cried because they would miss

became wards of the State. I lived at Moara Vlasiei

me and overjoyed that I was on my way to a better

Children’s Hospital in Bucharest with dozens of

life. The average weight of a healthy 9-month-old is

other orphans. My birth mother, Aurelia, placed me

20 pounds. Though it’s hard to imagine, I weighed

there. It’s not that she didn’t love me. She wanted

only 12 pounds.

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Senior Speech: Lucky Number 67

Senior Speech: Lucky Number 67

Country Day Lifer Georgi Hughes, Class of 2013 who will be attending Syracuse University, was...

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is deceptive, causing some to underestimate my persistence and

”

determination.

Of course, I don’t remember my first year, but I know the experience is deep within my being and part of the fabric of my character. I believe my instincts for survival are what saved me then and give me strength and focus now. During the rehearsals of “Much Ado About Nothing,” I loved when Dr. Gideon Rappaport exclaimed, “She’s small, but tough!” It’s the truth. My small stature is deceptive, causing some to underestimate my persistence and determination.

In the orphanage, crying and tantrums didn’t get me food or a clean diaper, so I became self-reliant and patient. I didn’t fuss; instead, I entertained myself by listening and observing. It’s a lot like I am today.

Whereas most babies’ lives are saturated with color and texture and all sorts of gadgets to capture their attention, my early surroundings were very basic and barren. I had never been for a stroll around a neighborhood or traveled in a car. For weeks after I arrived home in San Diego, I continued my habit of dancing my hands in front of my eyes, which apparently I did to save me from boredom.

It took my parents’ time and patience to transfer my interest to the wonderful world around me.

However, I immediately responded to music because songs were sung to me and recorded music filled the rooms where our cribs were housed. Music is one of my earliest memories, which makes it so ironic that my family is in the radio business and it’s a big part of our lives!

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For my Bat Mitzvah, I decided that instead of receiving personal gifts, I wanted to raise money for three different organizations. I chose Voices for Children in San Diego; Freedom Riders in Maine, where we have a home; and Casa Montessori, the first ever Montessori school in Romania. It is located in the poorest section of Bucharest and dedicated to the most needy children. That same summer, we traveled there so I could know where I was born.

We visited the classroom that had been outfitted with the Montessori materials I was able to provide.

Upon seeing the children, I was thrilled that I had made such a difference. It was better than any gift I could imagine. To see the joy on their faces when playing with their new toys made me so happy. It also got me to thinking that if I had not ended up with my parents, would I have had the excitement of experiencing new toys? Another amazing moment was seeing the hospital where I was born, and the very room where I met my adoptive parents. Today, that building is in such disrepair, it is no longer used, but it gave me some sense of that September night.

Throughout our journey, my parents, and my sister, Sally, kept asking how I felt and what it was like for me to visit my roots. I didn’t know how to explain it.

All I could conjure up was, “What if I bump into my birth parents or a brother or sister?” My hopes are that they still think of me often. Since I have been blessed with this wonderful life, maybe my mission is to help others through community service or my theater work.

When you start out with nothing, you tend to pay attention to all the little things. Maybe that’s why I have a dark sense of humor. I’m struck by the absurdities that escape others. I often wonder why my classmates are racing to get to the end so fast. I want to take it day by day and enjoy the trip. Most people look back on their high school years and remember all the ugly things that were done to them. If you weren’t popular, it was like you didn’t exist in the way of cliques, parties and boys.

When writing this speech, I struggled to find the right words to tell people who I am. I think I have offered a pretty good insight. Some of me is too complex to be shared in words, but I relate to this quote by author Salman Rushdie: “Who, what am I? My answer: I am everyone; everything whose being-in-the-world affected was affected by mine.

I am anything that happens after I’ve gone which would not have happened if I had not come. Nor am I particularly exceptional in this matter; each ‘I’, every one of the now-six-billion-plus of us, contains a similar multitude. To understand me, you’ll have ortunately, I found my passion unexpectedly, to swallow the world.” and have dedicated the majority of my Lastly, I want you to know that my bottles traveled time to it. Theater is one of the only places home with me, where they sit openly on display, where exclusivity is not an option. Every serving as a link to my past and a reminder of what’s cast and technical crew member must possible. I didn’t have an easy start, but I am grateful work together as an ensemble to produce for what’s followed. My name is Georgeta Briana a fully functional piece of art. When a production Hughes and 67 may just be my lucky number. reaches the stage of perfection, the actors and techies become one. Our theater teacher Scott Feldsher always reminds his students and actors to remember why they’re on the stage. Each person could have a personal reason, but the one that sticks to me is that the audience wants to be included as well. Maybe it is no accident I took a liking to theater. It’s also kismet that I have one of the strongest relationships and friendships with my mentor, Ms. Mia Bane. She not only teaches me how to be the best stage manager and theater artist, but also the best person I can be. I will always cherish the silly conversations about boys and the heart-tohearts we’ve had about friendships, relationships and life in general.

In the film “Inside Hana’s Suitcase,” Auschwitz survivor George Brady said that his greatest retaliation against the Nazis and the loss of his family was to live fully and joyfully with passion and purpose. I didn’t experience loss like his, but he made me think this might be my legacy, too, because I have an extraordinary life. I’m a happy person and plan to make the most of my opportunities.

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Senior Speech: Lucky Number 67

Senior Speech: Lucky Number 67

“ My small stature

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31 COMMENCEMENT

COMMENCEMENT

Ryan Owsiany, below Chris Schuck, Julia Julima, Rod Jemison

Commencement 2013

Addison Richter

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33 COMMENCEMENT

COMMENCEMENT Tommy Edman

Bryce Bailey

Sheridan Rice

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Lauren Torres

AWARDS

Yoon Choi, Ryan Owsiany

TH E T R U S T E E AWA R D F O R S C H O L A R S H I P

Calvin Rhodes

T H E H E A D O F S C H O O L AWA R D

Michelle Nelson

T H E FA C U LT Y P R I Z E

Calvin Rhodes

Sheridan Rice

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35 COMMENCEMENT

COMMENCEMENT Chris Schuck, Howard Ziment

Trevor Smith, Josiah Poutoa, Eddie Garcia

Gordon Wang Carlo Bonacci Student Speaker

Below: Madrigal Singers

Student Speaker Blanca Yanez

Lily Wolfenzon, Lindsey Jacobs

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Jordan Hopf

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37 COMMENCEMENT

COMMENCEMENT Calvin Rhodes

Kendal Blank, Alexandra Morgan

Chris Schuck, Josh Church, Rod Jemison and board member, Jeff Church

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Ryan Owsiany, Gordon Wang, Danli Liang, CalvinRhodes

Seniors celebrate

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39 LIFERS

COMMENCEMENT

Lifers

Rod Jemison, Danny Roberts

Congratulations to these members of the Class of 2013 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. They take great pride in being “Country Day Lifers.’’

Connor Arleo Meg Arnold Kendal Blank Phelan Bowie Sage Burmeister Carlo Bonacci, Jessica Lewis

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Tommy Edman Amir Ferry Miquela Fiori Kristin Hill Georgi Hughes

Lindsey Jacobs Nathan Michalski Jackie Nguyen Alana Pockros Kenny Priest

Sheridan Rice Billy Schleimer Max Scurlock Stacey Shanken Rebecca Shanks

Chris Schuck, Megan Arnold, Rod Jemison

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OVER THE PAST FIVE YEARS, GRADUATES HAVE BEEN ACCEPTED TO THE FOLLOWING INSTITUTIONS. THE CLASS OF 2013 GRADUATES ARE ATTENDING THOSE SCHOOLS DENOTED BY AN ASTERISK. Adelphi University Arizona State University Azusa Pacific University Amherst College*° Bard College* Belmont University Bentley College Bentley University* Boston College* Boston University* Bradley University Brandeis University Brown University Bucknell University California Institute of Technology California Institute of the Arts California Lutheran University California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo California State Polytechnic University, Pomona California State University, Long Beach California State University, Los Angeles Carleton College Carnegie Mellon University Chapman University* Claremont McKenna College Clark Atlanta University College of Charleston Colorado College Columbia University Concordia College – Moorhead*° Cornell University * Cuesta College Dartmouth College Davidson College DePauw University Dixie State College

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Dominican University of California*° Duke University Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University – AZ* Emory University* ° Fairfield University*° Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, Los Angeles Fordham University Georgetown University*° Grinnell College Grossmont College*° Harvard University Harvey Mudd College Haverford College High Point University* Hope College*° Humboldt State University Idaho State University*° Ithaca College Johns Hopkins University*° Laguna College of Art and Design* Lehigh University*° Lesley University Linfield College Loyola Marymount University* Loyola University-New Orleans Macalester College Marquette University Menlo College Miami University, Oxford* Michigan State University Middlebury College* Mills College MiraCosta College Mount St. Mary’s College (Chalon) New School of Architecture and Design* New York University* Northeastern University* Northern Arizona University

Northwestern University* Oberlin College Occidental College* Oklahoma State University Pace University, New York City Palomar College Pepperdine University Pitzer College Point Loma Nazarene University* Princeton University Purdue University Rice University Robert Morris University Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Saint Mary’s College Saint Mary’s College of California San Diego Mesa College San Diego State University*° San Francisco State University Santa Clara University Sarah Lawrence College Scripps College Seattle University Skidmore College Sonoma State University* Southern Methodist University* Southwestern College*° St. Edward’s University* Stanford University*° Stonehill College Swarthmore College Sweet Briar College Syracuse University* Texas A&M University*° Texas Christian University The American University of Paris* The Art Institute of California, San Francisco The George Washington University*

University of Delaware*° University of Denver* University of Hawaii at Manoa University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign* University of Iowa University of Kansas* University of Kentucky University of Maryland, College Park* University of Miami* University of Michigan* University of Missouri, Kansas City University of Nebraska at Lincoln University of Nevada, Reno*° University of Northern Colorado University of Notre Dame University of Oklahoma* University of Oregon University of Pennsylvania* University of Pittsburgh University of Portland University of Puget Sound* University of Redlands University of San Diego* University of San Francisco* University of Southern California*° University of the Pacific*

University of Utah*° University of Vermont University of Virginia* University of Washington* University of Wisconsin, Madison U.S. Military Academy at West Point Vanderbilt University* Villanova University Wake Forest University Washington and Lee University Washington College Washington University in St. Louis Weber State University Wellesley College Wesleyan University* Western Washington University Wheaton College (MA) Wheaton College (IL) Whitman College* Whittier College* Williams College*° Wisconsin Lutheran College*° Yale University* ° Indicates schools where Torrey athletes are currently participating in college sports.

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COLLEGE ACCEPTANCES

COLLEGE ACCEPTANCES

College Acceptances

The New School* The Ohio State University* The University of Alabama* The University of Arizona 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* Tulane University United States Military Academy University of British Columbia* University of California at Berkeley University of California at Davis*° University of California at Irvine*° University of California at Los Angeles* University of California at Merced University of California at Riverside University of California at San Diego* University of California at Santa Barbara* University of California at Santa Cruz University of Chicago*° University of Colorado at Boulder*

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33 MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMOTION

MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMOTION

Middle School Promotion

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25 LOWER SCHOOL PROMOTION

LOWER SCHOOL PROMOTION

Lower School Promotion

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47 A SPOTLIGHT ON SPORTS

THE ARTS

The Arts

By Barbara Weinstein

Visual and Performing Arts Director The year began with the opening of The Gallery in the Jacobs Family Library Building. The remodeled space was designed by Gallery Coordinator and Upper School Art Teacher Cindy Bravo.

The inaugural show featured San Diego/Portland artist, Lauren Carrera.

The second equally stunning professional show was with artist and former Country Day art teacher Marsha Boston, with shows following featuring incredibly fine work by student artists and photographers throughout the year.

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49 THE ARTS

THE ARTS

The 2012-13 school year was also highlighted by one of the most popular Upper School Musicals ever produced and performed at La Jolla Country Day School. Little Shop of Horrors, featuring the outstanding design work of Pearl Hodges with the Audrey II puppets and the voice of Audrey II, one of our tech experts and marvelous tenor/bass, Michael Hardwick, brought down the house at each standing-room-only performance.

T

This school year included a long list of regular high quality concerts and shows from all of our divisions.

Rotary’s Stars in Our Eyes, Music Festivals highlighted by Superior and 1st place ratings and the many community performances supported by our Madrigal Singers. And our own Fourth Grade pianist, Ursula Hardianto, appeared not once, but twice in recital at Carnegie Hall in New York.

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51 A SPOTLIGHT ON SPORTS

A SPOTLIGHT ON SPORTS

By Jeff Hutzler La Jolla Country Day Athletic Director

A Spotlight on Sports!

A YEAR IN COUNTRY DAY ATHLETICS COULD FILL AN ENCYCLOPEDIA WITH THE SCHOOL’S “NO-CUT” POLICY FIELDING NUMEROUS TEAMS ACROSS VIRTUALLY EVERY SPORT IMAGINABLE. 2012 HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE ATHLETIC DIRECTOR The Torrey Football team won a first-round

Three Lady Torrey soccer players will take their

playoff game for the 11th consecutive year and beat both Francis Parker and Bishop’s in the same year for the first time since 1994. Eight of the team’s seniors will play college football; one will play college baseball, and college lacrosse. Coach Hutzler has 96 wins in his 11 seasons as head coach, the most in school history, and closing in on football’s magical 100-win mark.

games to the college level: Ana Cruz at Texas A&M, Lily Wollfenzon at the University of Chicago and Arielle Schechtman at UCLA.

Lady Torrey basketball team won its 13th Coastal League and 13th CIF championship. The team was a perfect 8-0 in league play and defeated league rival Bishop’s in the CIF championship game.

The team was placed in the state playoff’s Open Division for the first time in school history. Kelsey Plum was selected Coastal Player of the Year, CIF Player of the Year and Ms. California Basketball (joining alum Candice Wiggins ’04 in achieving that honor) and will play at the University of Washington next year.

T O RREY 3 6 0 VI EWBOOK

The men’s cross country team was the fastest in school history and won Coastal Conference and CIF championships (they won the CIF championship meet with an almost unheard of low score of 23 points and placing third at the state meet). David Castillejos was the first Torrey runner to win the CIF race since 2001, and the team’s CIF win was the program’s 10th in the past 12 years.

The girls softball team is the school’s strongest in many, many years. Pitcher Christine Campbell will play for Lehigh University next year.

Hadiyah Muhammad ’14 is among San Diego’s premier long and triple jumpers. She holds school and Coastal Conference records in both events and has a strong chance of being Country Day’s fourth ever California state meet qualifier.

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Vince Hayman ’14 finished the surf season

4-win 2011-12 season to win 13 games this year and played into the CIF quarterfinals. This was the program’s 20th venture into at least the quarters in Coach Jerry Fleischhacker’s 22 years as head coach.

undefeated in the short board division.

This spring’s baseball team is the school’s strongest ever. The team boasted one of the best records in school history and won the program’s first ever Aztec Foothill Tournament championship. Six of the seniors will play college baseball next year, and Coach Edman reached the 200 win mark in his coaching career.

A SPOTLIGHT ON SPORTS

A SPOTLIGHT ON SPORTS

The men’s soccer team bounced back from a

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The women’s tennis team won its fifth consecutive Coastal League title and third consecutive CIF crown.

Sheridan Rice ’13 will take her volleyball skills to Emory University next year.

The men’s golf team captured its fourth

consecutive Coastal League championship with an overall league tally of nine wins and a six-player tie with Bishop’s. The title gave the Torreys an automatic berth in the C.I.F. playoffs. The Torreys had a The men’s tennis team steamed along to another balanced team attack with senior Khaleed Attieh Coastal League title. Seniors Jack Murphy and match medalist five times, senior Alex Rapeport Gabrial Pamich will play at Georgetown and Fairfield match medalist four times, junior Adair Warren Universities, respectively. match medalist twice, and juniors Greg Chachas, Harry Kang and Juan Pablo Bustamante all match The 2013 Country Day Boys’ Swim Team medalist once. Senior Alex Rapeport shot a 74 in the successfully repeated as Eastern League champs.

San Diego Country Club Invitational, finishing second Stretching back to the 2011 season, our boys have in the field of 40 players, and junior Harry Kang’s 33 won 13 consecutive Eastern League dual meets. Kia at La Jolla Country Club is the low nine-hole score.

Bulluck has committed to swim for the University of Khaleed Attiah will attend University of Southern California Bakersfield next year.

California and play for the Trojans golf team.

Brooke Seay, Country Day’s sixth-grade golf phenomenon, hit the first, ceremonial drive of the PGA Farmer’s Open golf tournament at Torrey Pines South.

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ALUMNI 2013: Career Day

ALUMNI 2013: Career Day

Alumni 2013 Career Day

Alumni Leadership President, Maressa Ciccone ’01 and 2013 Distinguished Alumnus, Peter Huffman ’97

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Elizabeth (Liz) Friedman Coley ’79 Author Brandon Duncan ’00 Supply Chain Management Rick Galinson ’85 Hollywood Special Effects Peter Huffman ’97 Global Community Work & Private Wealth Management Jessica Johnson ’03 Mental Health/Child Development Rachael Lawrence ’95 Voice Coach, Musical Director & Published Songwriter Elyce Morris ’94 Attorney & Dispute Resolution Practitioner Shelby Scudder ’03 Celebrity Stylist Michael Simkin ’01 Film Production David Simon ’93 Medical Doctor (Pediatric Hematology/Oncology) Zack Sugarman ’01 Digital Marketing

Elyce Morris ’94, Alice Thornton-Schilling, Dave Simon ’93

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2013 Distinguished Alumnus Award Recipient

Ethiopia

Tanzania

PETER HUFFMAN CLASS OF ’97

improved monitoring and evaluation and using forecasting techniques to manage drug treatments and medical supplies.

eter Huffman was doing all right in a big high school, playing sports and getting by academically, but his parents thought he was being too distracted by socializing and sought a more disciplined, academic environment. They pushed for a change.

When he arrived on the Country Day campus to start his next school year, Huffman instantly took to the smaller classes and wider opportunities. He played three sports and was pushed by what he describes as “greater expectations from teachers and more intellectual curiosity across the board.’’

When he graduated in 1997, he had learned his lesson and chose “small” once again, heading, as guided by then-college counselor Kathy Woods, to Willamette University, a liberal arts school small enough that students got to know the professors and administrators. As an undergraduate, Huffman traveled to South Africa with the Willamette president for a five-week course on apartheid and development issues. He returned changed.

“I remember coming home and telling my friends and family, ‘I don’t know how, and I don’t know

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ALUMNI 2013: Distinguished Alumnus Award

By Chris Lavin

when, but I’m going to get involved in international development.’ ” Huffman recalls.

“ I remember coming home and telling my friends and family, ‘I don’t know how, and I don’t know when, but I’m going to get involved in international development.’

”

Fast forward a decade and Huffman, now 34, has an international résumé that includes impressive work combating HIV/AIDS in Tanzania and Ethiopia.

As the country director for the Clinton Foundation, he help build the supply-chain infrastructure that allowed significant inroads in helping combat AIDS throughout rural Africa. For his work in AIDS treatment and prevention, Huffman was named Country Day Distinguished Alumnus for 2013.

Today, Huffman has returned home, working now as senior vice president for investments at Merrill Lynch in La Jolla. His office is not far from the Country Day campus that launched his career.

“From the start, I was embraced by the Country Day community,’’ Huffman says today. “And I embraced every aspect of it. One of the best things about Country Day is that it encouraged you to take on a lot of responsibilities.’’

Good training, it seems, for a life that has already taken on heavy responsibilities and contributed much back to the world.

During his years in Africa, Huffman developed an initiative for HIV/AIDS prevention, testing and treatment for rural communities and started a large-scale program for hospital management and pediatric AIDS treatment. Huffman and his group made progress in establishing laboratory services,

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59 ALUMNI 2013: Reunions

ALUMNI 2013: Reunions Former faculty Will Erickson & Roger Weaver

Members of the Class of 1993 celebrating their 20-year reunion

Ami Hooker ’83, Sarah Ingraham ’83, & Luis Benito ’83

Seth Crosby ’78, Ed Cervantes ’78, & Talyor Ng ’78

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Geary Sheridan ’73, Dana Grossman ’73, & Lee Sawyer

Alumni Reunions

Coach Cathy Ellison enjoys being reunited with cheerleaders from the Class of 2003

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Elizabeth (Friedman) Coley ’79 achieved a long held goal and published her debut novel with HarperCollins in March 2013. Released as a young adult novel domestically and an adult novel overseas, Pretty Girl-13 has been called a psychological thriller. French, Spanish, United Kingdom, Russian, Czech and Slovakian editions are available, with more translations to come. Liz is now hard at work on her next writing projects. The new career comes just in time, as her oldest sons prepare to finish college (Ian – Northwestern ’13 and Connor – Caltech ’14). As soon as almost-15-year-old daughter Kate gets her license, Elizabeth will be at loose ends, saved only by writing deadlines.

Jim Bradbury ’91 and family

Mara and Noah Sachs, father Todd Sachs ’92

Cindy (Cohen) Marten ’84, Country Day’s 2011 Distinguished Alumnus Award recipient, is the new Superintendent of the San Diego Unified School District. Cindy worked at Central Elementary for 10 years, where nearly all of the school’s students qualify for free or reducedprice lunch and 85 percent are learning English as a second language.

She is a proven educator who has demonstrated that schools, even in the highest-poverty neighborhoods, can be turned around for success.

Jamie (Leach) Coates ’89 has been living in London since 1999. She and her husband, Darryll, married in the Highlands of Scotland in 2006, and their son, Dylan, will be 3 in June. Jamie is a global client managing director for Starcom MediaVest Group, a global communications agency, and balances a four-day work week running a global client team with family time. Her work involves travel to a variety of countries around the world. Jamie also keeps connected to her Southern California roots as a founding board member of the USC Alumni Club of London.

Jim Bradbury ’91 lives in beautiful Idaho and enjoys being active with his wife, Leah, and two children, Van and Gwen.

Tesse (Roberts) Rasmussen ’94 welcomes baby Andre Beck Rasmussen

Todd Sachs ’92 is a writer and producer living in Los Angeles. He and his wife, Judy, have 9-month-old twins, Mara and Noah.

Tesse (Roberts) Rasmussen ’94 and her husband, Mike, welcomed their first child, Andre Beck Rasmussen, on May 22, 2013 at 9:06 am, 7 lbs, 0.5 oz, and 21.5 inches. They are extremely proud parents and excited for this new chapter in their lives.

Anthony Anastasopoulos ’96 (last name change to Karnazes) and his wife, Martha, are proud parents to a baby girl named Athena Martha Karnazes born on April 20, 2013.

AnthonyAnastasopoulos (Karnazes) ’96 and family

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Sebastian Guerra ’96 along with his wife, Laura, welcomed Lucas who was born on October 17, 2012. Lucas joins big sister Camille.

Alumni Class Notes Nikki (McIntyre) Blackman ’97 and her husband, Mark, married in September 2010, recently welcomed their first child, Hayes Cedric Blackman, on February 1, 2013. He joins Nikki’s stepchildren big brother Miles, 11, and big sister Marley, 9. Nikki says that Hayes has changed their world for the better and they are so in love! Nikki would love to hear from old friends. Feel free to email her at nblackman9510@ gmail.com.

John Kollus ’97 and Melinda (Shaffer) Kollus ’97 live in San Diego. They are the proud parents of 22-month-old twins, Declan and Gwendolyn. John is manager of strategic investment accounts for Thomson Reuters and enjoys spending his free time competing in amateur golf tournaments.

Melinda is a full-time mom and current board member for North County Mother’s of Multiples.

Lucas Guerra - father, Sebastian Guerra ’96

Liz Griffiths ’00 has recently moved back to San Diego and started an educational technology company, Building Blocks Media. She is passionate about promoting the arts in education. In February 2013, her company released its first iPad app for early childhood called Musical Paint.

Adam Hirsch ’01 and Shelby Emmer were married on July 21, 2012, at the Brentwood Country Club. After honeymooning in Maui, Adam returned to Deloitte Consulting LLP, where he is a consulting actuary, and Shelby to Kehillat Israel Preschool in Pacific Palisades, where she teaches. They currently live in Los Angeles.

Nikki (McIntyre) Blackman ’97, husband Mark and baby Hayes Cedric Blackman

Jeni Noerenberg ’01 married Greg Bartley on April 13, 2013. Their wedding ceremony was held at St. Gregory the Great Church, and their reception took place at the Prado in Balboa Park.

Michael Simkin ’01 and his wife, Sherri, welcomed baby boy Oliver London Simkin into the world on October 22, 2012. Michael spends his time in Los Angeles working in film production with Zac Efron and “trying to groom Oliver into the next Zac Efron despite the unfortunate looks of his father.”

Maiya Chard-Yaron ’02 was a student-athlete at Columbia University, serving as co-captain of the softball team in 2004 - 2006. Following Columbia, she attended the Jewish Theological Seminary and earned a master’s degree in experiential education, completing her thesis on emerging adulthood and Jewish identity in the context of participation in the World Maccabiah Games. From 2009 to 2012, she was the Hillel program director at Davis and Sacramento and in July 2012 moved to Washington, D.C., to start a new job as the director of educational engagement for Hillel at the University of Maryland, College Park. In

John Kollus ’97 and Melinda (Shaffer) Kollus ’97 twins, Declan and Gwendolyn

Adam Hirsch ’01 and Shelby Emmer

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ALUMNI 2013: Class Notes

ALUMNI 2013: Class Notes

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her current role, she focuses particularly on leadership development (mainly with the first-year student population) and immersion experiences. She continues to play softball for the Israel National Team.

In July 2013, she will be traveling to Prague for the European Softball Championships.

Jeni Noerenberg ’01 and family

Hannah Morris ’03 and Ben Rosenkrantz ’03

Brian Witkin ’04

Jonathan Chesner ’02 is the author of ADHD in HD: Brains Gone Wild!

During its first year, Jonathan’s book has been getting amazing reviews.

Recently, he came up with a set of ergonomic wheelchair handles that helps push a wheelchair with increased comfort and control. Jonathan got the idea after pushing a friend in a wheelchair up a steep hill. If he is not surfing or hanging out with his girlfriend, Brittany, Jonathan can be found playing with Brittany’s Yorkshire terrier, Charlie.

Hannah Morris ’03 and Ben Rosenkrantz ’03 were married in August 2010 and have been together for 11 years. Ben is a travel agent for Cadence in La Jolla. Hannah works for Revolution Prep, teaching and tutoring for SAT/ACT exams. Hannah also volunteers as a behavioral observer of primates at the San Diego Zoo (most recently with gorillas, orangutans and capuchins).

Brian Witkin ’04 and his wife, Nicole, live in Carlsbad. Brian, who runs a residential real estate brokerage with his family, Witkin Real Estate, is also the founder and CEO of a record label, Pacific Records, with a roster of more than five artists. Its most famous is Billboard-charting artists Sprung Monkey, who have sold more than 300,000 records and appeared in movies and on TV, including the first “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” episode. Brian, also an avid surfer/diver/photographer, recently launched a petition to save great white sharks that has more than 13,000 signatures from more than 35 countries so far.

Jade Cunningham ’04 has been an anchor/producer for the “CBS Morning News” hour in Cheyenne, WY, for the past two years. She recently accepted a reporter position for KTAL in Shreveport, LA. She would love to hear from any of her classmates who may be living “down south.”

Cristina Hussong ’05 and Steven Seidman ’01 were married on May 18, 2013 at the US Grant San Diego Hotel, and many of their Country Day friends were part of the celebration.

Cristina Hussong ’05 and Steven Seidman ’01

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Peter Blanchard ’09 was selected to give the commencement speech for the science department at UC Berkeley (on May 21). He majored in astrophysics, will publish his first paper this summer and will be attending Harvard graduate school in the fall.

2013-2014 ALUMNI EVENTS Homecoming Reception Honoring Alumni Athletic Hall of Fame Inductees (alumni 21+ years of age)

Friday, October 4 5:30 – 7:00 pm

Homecoming Game Friday, October 4 7:00 pm Alumni Soccer Game Friday, November 29 (Thanksgiving Break) 1:00 pm Class of 2008 Five Year Reunion Friday, November 29 Location TBD 6:00 – 8:00 pm Alumni Leadership Council (ALC) Winter Social Thursday, December 12 La Jolla Marriott 5:00 – 7:00 pm Alumni Madrigal Reunion January 2014 Alumni Family Event Spring 2014

ALUMNI WEEKEND Career Day Friday, March 14, 2014 Spring Fling Reception honoring all Career Day Speakers.

Parents of alumni are welcome to attend!

Friday, March 14, 2014 5:00 – 7:00 pm Reunions Classes of ’64 - 50th Reunion! ’74, ’84, ’94 & ’04 Saturday, March 15, 2014 Jacobs Family Library Courtyard 5:00 – 7:00 pm

Distinguished Alumnus Award Nominations due by November 1, 2013 See criteria on our website. For more information contact Kathy Woods, director of alumni relations, at kwoods@ljcds.org

STAY IN TOUCH VIA LA JOLLA COUNTRY DAY ALUMNI on FACEBOOK and LINKEDIN

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Alumni: 2013-2014 Alumni Events

ALUMNI 2013: Class Notes

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64 ALUMNI 2013: ATHLETIC HALL OF FAME

2013 ATHLETIC HALL OF FAME LA JOLLA COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL WILL HONOR A VARIETY OF ALUMNI ATHLETES, COACHES AND ALUMNI PARENT BOOSTER CLUB VOLUNTEERS ON OCTOBER 4, 2013, FOR THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO THE TORREY ATHLETIC PROGRAM. INDUCTEES WILL BE INTRODUCED AT THE HOMECOMING PEP RALLY, AND HONORED AT NUMEROUS SPECIAL EVENTS HELD IN THEIR HONOR.

2013 ATHLETIC HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES I N D I V I D UA L AT H L E T E AWA R D S Kip Puterbaugh ’66 Rick Evans ’68 Forrest (Boomer) Shepard ’84 Niki Castle ’96 Joslynn Burkett ’01 Maiya Chard-Yaron ’02 F R I E N D O F S P O RT * Melissa Bartell Silvana Christy Sylvia Geffen Tess Golia Margie Kopiec Izzy Leverant Clarice Migdal (in memoriam) Viktoria Talbot Michele Zousmer

* Someone who has given meritorious service to, or is a loyal friend to, the Country Day athletic program.

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TEAMS 1995 Women’s Volleyball Team Jennifer Warshawsky Ackerman ’97 Ali Bjeldanes ’96 Nikki McIntyre Blackman ’97 Niki Castle ’96 Aly Picker Dahl ’99 Jennifer Landers ’99 Lindsey Thompson McGrath ’96 Jakey Toor ’98 Wilhemina Hardy Tyler ’98 Coaches: Jo Ann De Martini & Peter Ogle 2001 Softball Team Maiya Chard-Yaron ’02 Kimberly Claudat ’04 Jade Cunningham ’04 Kaili Eszlinger ’01 Nicki Fentin-Thompson ’02 Katie Foster ’01 Katy Foltz Hastings ’03 Kelsey Jones ’02 Alison Braunstein Kaufman ’01 Clara Saks Kenny ’04 Danielle Kerper ’04 Risa Goldman Luksa ’01 Marissa Rivera ’04 Sarah Wilson ’02 Coaches: Corinne Brunn, John Diego, Shannon Tracy

9490 GENESEE AVENUE LA JOLLA CA 92037 858.453.3440 WWW.LJCDS.ORG