You're Not on Mute

There is an upside to all the pandemic-induced Zooming we’ve been doing over the last year. Bleary-eyed screen time notwithstanding, the ubiquity of video conferencing has enabled people separated by thousands of miles to connect with each other in real time and without the travel, location, and other logistical obstacles of meeting in person.

At Loomis Chaffee, the age of Zoom has opened a world of possibilities. Teachers have brought guest speakers from around the world into their virtual classrooms, giving students exposure to first-hand perspectives they might not otherwise have encountered. Students have met with elected officials, engaged in congressional lobbying,

and worked with local community leaders in ways that distance and expense previously hindered. Parents on the other side of the country and the world have been able to participate in parent association events and discussions with the head of school that were only in-person before the pandemic. And without major rearrangements of their busy lives, alumni have engaged in meaningful ways with the school, their classmates, and current students.

One might even describe these opportunities as thin bands of brightness around the edges of that giant fog of doom that has blotted out the metaphorical sun in the metaphorical skies for the last year.

Loomis Chaffee Orchestra students met and worked directly, via videoconference, with two composers this year as the Orchestra prepared pieces written by the composers. Both Zoomed in to work with the students from hundreds, and in one case thousands, of miles away.

Carlos Simon, an award-winning classical musician and composer from Atlanta, Georgia, spent time with the students as they prepared their parts of Mr. Simon’s composition “An Elegy: A Cry From The Grave.” The collaboration took place during the first half of the winter, when Loomis conducted classes entirely online because of the pandemic, so each of the students and Orchestra Director Netta Hadari also connected via Zoom.

The interaction gave students insights into the composer’s musical thought process as well as his experience in addressing issues of racial and social injustice through music, a topic the Orchestra also was exploring. Mr. Simon, who identifies as Black and Latinx, dedicated “An Elegy” to Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, and Alton Sterling, Black Americans who were killed by police in the past decade. The Loomis musicians practiced and recorded their individual parts of “An Elegy: A Cry from the Grave,” which were combined into a video recording.

In February, the Orchestra worked with Ameen Mokdad, an Iraqi composer who videoconferenced with the students from Turkey. “This would not have been possible without Zoom,” Netta confirms. Although Loomis had reopened to students and most had returned to campus, their familiarity with virtual collaboration enabled them to engage seamlessly with Mr. Mokdad on the other side of the world. Mr. Mokdad helped the student musicians as they prepared for a performance of "The Curve,” from a emotionally powerful repertoire Mr. Mokdad wrote while in hiding from ISIS for two years in his hometown of Mosel, Iraq. The Orchestra performed and recorded “The Curve” in March.

Applied Economics students spent six class periods this winter learning directly from alumni who work in finance, all via videoconference. One or two of the alumni could have come to campus for the class visits in a regular year, but most could not have spared the time or the travel, says Matthew DeNunzio, who teaches the course. “Zoom makes this so much easier for both parties,” he says.

Ned Salter ’95, global head of investment research at Fidelity International, sat in his office in London while visiting the class in February. Discussing how values are calculated for products and services, Ned also offered insights into his career and his day-to-day work.

Gretchen Engster Howard ’91, chief operating officer of the no-fee online trading app Robinhood, met with the class a week later. An in-person visit to the class would have been out of the question for Gretchen, especially this winter, when Robinhood was dealing with a stock market frenzy among individual investors. But via Zoom, Gretchen spent an hour talking with the students about the importance of investing early as individuals and discussed the concept of demonetizing financial markets, among other topics they were studying.

Loomis Chaffee Trustee Rachel Kort ’98, who works as a portfolio manager at Hall Capital Partners in New York and oversees the school’s investment

advisory team, spoke to the class about managing individuals’ and institutions’ investment portfolios and the idea of asset allocation. In a week focusing on careers on Wall Street, Martin Vulliez ’90 and Michael Anderson ’76 visited with students to offer their perspectives on the trading and investment banking aspects of Wall Street. With the New York skyline and rows of desks and computer terminals behind him, Martin spoke from his office at Cadian Capital, a global long/short equity manager where Martin is a partner and head trader. Michael, a managing director at The Blueshirt Group, an investment consulting firm, worked for more than 30 years in investment banking. In addition to describing their day-to-day lives on Wall Street, both alumni discussed the skills students should develop if they are interested in careers in finance.

In the final week of the term, former Trustee Jason Karp ’94 met with the class from his home in Austin, Texas, to discuss sustainable investing, the idea of investing in companies whose products and services improve the common good, abide by ethical standards, and are mission-centered. Jason, a former hedge fund manager, is the chief executive officer of HumanCo, a health and wellness holding company, and the chairman and co-founder of Hu Kitchen and Hu Products.

Even after the pandemic subsides, Mat says he expects he will use videoconferencing as much as he does this year to bring alumni and other guest

speakers into his classroom if they cannot come to campus. Asking alumni to speak to his class via Zoom does not feel like a huge imposition on their busy lives, he says. They want to help, and the time commitment is small when they can visit virtually.

Several of the economics class visits resulted from an outreach launched by the Alumni/Development Office last spring when the campus closed and all classes moved online for the remainder of the 2019–20 school year. Members of the office connected teachers with alumni who are experts in various fields and might be interested in speaking to classes via Zoom.

That outreach brought Nina Pelc-Faszcza ’08 to the virtual classroom of history teacher Reem Aweida-Parsons. Nina, a lawyer whose practice focuses on U.S. immigration law, spoke to Reem’s Immigration and Ethnicity class last spring about her work, the issues and paperwork of immigration-related legal work, and her general experiences working with immigrants. Nina works in Hartford at the law firm Robinson & Cole. The class gained so much from Nina’s visit last spring that Reem invited her back to speak to students in the course this year, once again via Zoom. Immigration and Ethnicity often brings in guest speakers — “experts and narrators,” as Reem says — who give voice to the topics that the class studies. Immigrants share stories of their journeys, researchers add context to statistics, and

immigration lawyers speak about the issues and experiences their clients face. “We’re basically bringing real-life cases to these kids,” Reem says. Thanks to alumni like Nina and several faculty members who are immigrants, Reem has been able to continue offering these perspectives to her students.

Reem herself is an immigrant. The daughter of Palestinians, Reem has a green card, or Permanent Resident card, allowing her to remain and work in the United States as a non-citizen. Among the faculty members who have spoken to her class are history teacher Kevin Guevara, who immigrated from El Salvador; and history teacher Lauren Williams, a citizen of Zimbabwe, who spoke about the difficulties of becoming a U.S. citizen from her home country. Richard Wright, a professor of geography and the Orvil Dryfoos Professor of Public Affairs at Dartmouth, visits the class every year — and did so via Zoom this fall — to lend his expertise on the intersecting topics of migration, labor and housing markets, race, and ethnicity. Richard also immigrated from the United Kingdom, as did his wife, Head of School Sheila Culbert, who taught the Immigration and Ethnicity course before Reem.

Pandemic limitations and the ubiquity of Zoom have worked in favor of students seeking a voice in national, state, and local governments. In November, students in the Loomis Chaffee Climate Action group lobbied members of the congressional delegation from Connecticut via Zoom. In February, students involved in community engagement efforts met virtually with Speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives Matt Ritter to talk about politics, citizenship, and community service. And at the end of March, Loomis was to host a virtual youth town hall about climate change with U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal.

Neil Chaudhary ’05, head of the Science Department, is an advisor to the Loomis Chaffee Climate Action group. He says the pandemic created a unique opportunity for the students to gain access to lawmakers without having to travel. “Typically lobbying takes place in person in Washington, D.C.,” he says. The financial cost, logistics, and time away from school required for a group of students to travel to Washington makes student lobbying less feasible. But video conferencing enabled the students to speak directly with the people who have influence and the power to bring change.

In a series of five video conferences in November,

members of the student group spoke with congressional legislative aides for Senator Blumenthal, Senator Chris Murphy, and Representatives John Larson, Joe Courtney, Rosa DeLauro, Jim Himes, and Jahana Haynes. The students lobbied for the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act, which would place a regularly escalating fee on greenhouse gas emissions and return the proceeds as a monthly dividend to citizens.

The Climate Action group also has met regularly over Zoom with the Greater Hartford Chapter of the Citizen’s Climate Lobby, a national, nonprofit, nonpartisan grassroots advocacy organization, as both groups worked to urge lawmakers to bring the bill to a vote in Congress. Neil says this collaboration, like the lobbying itself, happened because of the conditions caused by the pandemic, making virtual meetings a necessity and, thus, making it more practical for students to engage in them. The discussion with Mr. Ritter drew more than 50 members of the Loomis community. Organized by juniors Kunal Kothari and Karan Kothari through the Community Engagement Program, the question-and-answer session via Zoom covered a range of topics, including partisan politics in state government, issues of race and equity in policing, the state’s response to COVID-19, and Mr. Ritter’s preference for public service at the state, rather than national, level. Mr. Ritter also offered students advice on influencing state legislation even if they are not yet 18 and able to vote.

The limitations of the pandemic also brought together creative Loomis students and their peers at other independent schools for a virtual concert featuring musical performances and original art. When COVID-19 forced the cancellation of in-person musical performances last spring, Loomis music teachers and students experimented with combining individual video recordings of music and voice into ensemble performances. These editing experiences, combined with a desire to continue performing music during the pandemic and to engage with their artistic peers at other schools, inspired Loomis seniors Andy Wu and Baihan “Tom” Zhang last summer to organize a group of students from six New England prep schools to create the concert. The group, Renaissance Ensemble, includes students from Loomis, Choate, Deerfield, Exeter, Hotchkiss, and Kingswood Oxford, and the cabaret-style virtual concert, “The Key to Change,” debuted in August on YouTube.

Along with partners at the peer schools, Andy and Tom brainstormed ideas, enlisted performers and artists, hosted Zoom meetings, edited

performance video and sound, and promoted the concert. Vocal and instrumental musicians from each school performed, and student artists created graphics for the video and the group’s website. Fifteen Loomis musicians and artists, including Tom and Andy, were among the concert contributors. “The Key to Change” raised money from its online audience to benefit the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Legal Defense Fund. The collaboration has continued this year. Renaissance Ensemble is creating an album featuring music of various genres as well as compositions, poems, and radio plays written by students at the member schools, Tom says. The “2021 Concept Album” is scheduled for release in May. The group is developing its website to serve as a resource for students who want to start their own projects and collaborate with students from other schools.

Loomis graduates leaped at the chance, facilitated by video conferencing, to connect with current students through the Black Alumni Mentoring program, which was launched in November 2020. Twenty-two Black alumni volunteered to participate in the initiative to provide one-onone guidance and support to Black students during their journeys at Loomis Chaffee and beyond. Interested students were paired with the trained alumni mentors, and the pairs met for the first time during a group meeting over Zoom. Participating students will meet with their alumni mentors several times during the school year and may choose to meet more frequently. For now, because of the pandemic, the meetings are virtual, and while eventually the pairs will be able to meet face to face, the convenience and familiarity of meeting online may help them to connect with each other more often.

Originally conceived as an in-person program that would tap into the local alumni population, the mentoring program started to take shape last spring after a group of Black alumni expressed a strong desire to guide and support the school’s current Black students. The alumni recalled that, as students, they often had wished for someone who looked like them to talk to and to share their experiences. As it became clear that the pandemic would require an online approach at least in the program’s initial months, the mentoring program

grew in reach and size. “The widespread use of Zoom allowed for connecting to a wider pool of alumni to act as direct mentors,” says Assistant Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Stacy-Ann “Ro” Rowe ’97, who helped develop the program. Distance from campus and time zone differences no longer complicated participation. “We did still have a good number of mentors volunteer when they believed it would be in person, but the number grew exponentially once the virtual world was an option,” Ro says.

Alumni also have stepped up to offer online workshops in their areas of expertise for their fellow Pelicans during the pandemic, with good turnout. In pre-Zoom days, workshops like these might take place on Reunion Weekend, but they would be available only to alumni attending their Reunions that year.

Nancy Covello Murray ’83, a professional-level yoga teacher, offered a midday online meditation session, “Pelican Peace of Mind,” in November. Best-selling cookbook author Terry Jacobs Walters ’84, an expert in the “clean eating” lifestyle, led two virtual cooking classes for alumni — a holiday-themed class in early December and a “Taco Thursday” class on a weeknight in February. And Mark Nussbaum ’70, an experienced certified financial planner, presented two financial workshops for alumni, parents, faculty, and staff in March via Zoom.

Parents, too, have discovered a silver lining in remote access to school events.

Turnout for Loomis Chaffee Parents Association (LCPA) meetings has been higher since the meetings were moved online out of necessity. Until last spring, the gatherings took place on campus on Pelican Days, Saturday mornings about twice a term when students were required to attend special programming. About 40 or 50 parents, mostly parents of day students, attended the events, bringing their children to school and then staying for the parents association coffee reception and meeting, which usually featured a guest speaker from the teaching faculty or administration, says

Lisa Ross, director of alumni and parent relations. Since the LCPA began holding the meetings remotely through Zoom, more than 100 parents usually attend, Lisa says. Many tune in from other time zones and even other continents, giving them a connection to their children’s school far from home. The parents association has been able to keep most of its usual content for the online meetings, with guest speakers, information-sharing, and topical discussions.

Buoyed by the increased participation and the positive feedback from parents of boarders, the parents association plans to continue with regular online meetings even after the pandemic has subsided and face-to-face interactions are safe. “The parents who are not here are desperate for this,” Lisa says. The parents association will still host in-person events for parents during Family Weekend and on other occasions, especially because the social component and incidental conversations are missing from online meetings, she adds.

The list of lemonade-from-lemons pandemic innovations is long and continues to grow at Loomis Chaffee. At the beginning of the pandemic, a series of COVID-19-related webinars led by

medical, financial, and governmental experts from the Loomis community drew large audiences of parents, alumni, students, faculty, staff, and local residents — all hungry for reliable information. This year, Sheila Culbert has held "state of the school" webinars with alumni and parents. Lynn Lyons, a specialist in anxiety disorders who is working with the school this year, has conducted multiple live forums with Loomis parents, students, faculty, and smaller groups throughout the year, and more are planned for the spring. And far-flung Chaffee alumnae delighted in being able to join local alumnae for a Zoom-powered Chaffee Book Club meeting in February celebrating the book club's 20th anniversary.

No silver linings, of course, erase the loss, worry, and hardship that the pandemic has wreaked on the world, but they do provide sustaining rays of hope, reminders that wildflowers still can push their way up through a sidewalk's cracks.