Fall 2017 MOORESTOWN FRIENDS SCHOOL
Among Friends
30 UNDER Thirty: Rising Rising Young Young Alumni Alumni Talent Talent Under Under 30 30 Years Years Old Old Annual Report of Donors 2016-17
Mission Statement Moorestown Friends School is a community rooted in Quaker values and dedicated to the pursuit of educational excellence for a diverse student body within an academically rigorous and balanced program emphasizing personal, ethical, and spiritual growth. Fall 1987, revised May 2011
Contents
Fall 2017
From the Head of School
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Notes from Pages Lane
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School Committee Leadership/ New Trustees
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Fox Tracks
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Alumni Association Awards
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Honoring Retirees
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Feature: 30 Under Thirty
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2016-17 Annual Report of Donors
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Alumni Weekend Photos
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Class Notes
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In Memoriam
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Moorestown Friends School 110 East Main Street Moorestown, NJ 08057 (856) 235-2900, www.mfriends.org Published By The Development Office Editor, Director of Marketing and Communications Mike Schlotterbeck Managing Editor, Assistant Director of Marketing and Communications Stephanie Huie
Pictured: Velika Nespor ’08, Keyanah Freeland ’10, Adam Mohsen-Breen ’15, Alexandra Stark ’06, Ashleigh Cartwright ’13, and Justin Spencer-Linzie ’10. In the “30 Under Thirty” feature beginning on page 16, read about 30 promising young alumni. Highlighted are artists, engineers, academics, lawyers, theologians, bloggers, doctors, entrepreneurs, and more! The profiles continue throughout the 2016-17 Annual Report.
Graphic Design Alison Judah ’86, Hypno Design
Associate Director of Development Beth Stouffer
Photography Peter Chollick, Stephanie Huie, Andrew Rowan ’19, Mike Schlotterbeck, and alumni and student contributors
Director of Parent and Alumni Programs Suzanne Abrams
Head of School Larry Van Meter ’68
Director of Annual Giving Julia Applegate ’10 Development Office Staff Roberta Fenska and Sue Giacchetto
Director of Development Stephen Zakroff
Moorestown Friends School admits students without regard to race, color, creed, national origin, ancestry, gender, or sexual orientation. All photos are identified from left to right unless otherwise indicated. FALL 2017
About the Cover
Printed on recycled paper. AMONG FRIENDS
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Commencement for the Class of 2017 took place on the Oval on June 10.
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From the Head of School “SUSTAINING EXCELLENCE” AT MFS Most independent schools are accredited by an outside standards organization. At Moorestown Friends, we are accredited by the Middle States Association of Schools and Colleges (MSA). This agency, based in Philadelphia, accredits institutions large and small, at the college level from the University of Pennsylvania (25,000 enrollment) to Haverford College (1,300 enrollment). MFS has been accredited by MSA for many decades. Every seven years, MSA requires its members to go through a reaccreditation process. We are privileged at Moorestown Friends to have been invited to be accredited under the Sustaining Excellence program, a new protocol reserved, as MSA describes it, for “leading schools.” For MSA, “Leading schools are those schools that are achieving high levels of student performance, have an excellent understanding of the necessary antecedents for those results, and are likely to continue achieving those high results over time.” There are only a few New Jersey independent schools under the Sustaining Excellence protocol, and they include Lawrenceville School and Christian Brothers Academy. Being accredited under the Sustaining Excellence protocol frees schools from spending months doing endless checklists on inconsequential minutiae. Instead, MSA challenges Sustaining Excellence schools to identify an issue of overarching strategic importance, outline programmatic initiatives to advance the chosen issue, and then hold a public symposium to share the results of their efforts. At MFS, we have focused our strategic initiative on helping our students develop skills that build on Quaker values of compassion, inclusion, and consensus, to produce “successful, ethical, and service-oriented leaders.” This thrust is based on the Value Proposition work undertaken by the School Committee (board of trustees) several years ago. It is also the raison d’etre for the newly required Leadership course taken by all sophomores (and taught this year by Associate Head of School and Academic Dean Chris Kimberly and me). We believe that MFS students are uniquely positioned to be effective leaders. We know from surveys of our recent grads that they feel better equipped than their college and work peers to communicate ideas and lead teams. We further believe that these skills grow directly out of the Quaker Dimension of MFS: the ability to listen empathetically, to commit to a point of view, to take into account other points of view, and, ultimately, to express their convictions persuasively and with passion. As Friends would say, to “let their lives speak.” In October, we will host the heads and religion department chairs of Friends schools from across the nation for our Sustaining Excellence symposium. The event will be an opportunity to showcase what we have been doing at MFS as well as to draw out ideas from other Friends schools in this important area. We anticipate an interesting, provocative, and successful event. In a demonstration of confidence, MSA has already reaccredited MFS — in advance of the symposium. But the underlying importance of this effort is not about reaccreditation or other external requirements; it’s about the benefits our students gain from learning to become compassionate, effective leaders. As we often say: students (and graduates) have “tough minds and tender hearts.” Our nation needs leaders who embrace these values. Sincerely,
Larry Van Meter ’68 Head of School
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Notes from Pages Lane
Notes from Pages Lane This section of Among Friends takes its name from Pages Lane, the road that bisected the Moorestown Friends School campus prior to the construction of Stokes Hall in 1986.
June 2 Half-Day Preschool Teacher Garrett McVaugh’s class discovered the beauty of the dogwood trees outside of Stokes Hall Plaza and painted their own clay flowers to attach to the trees.
June 2 The annual Camden Scholars Luncheon celebrated the Camden Scholars Program and recognized the graduating seniors. Several alumni were in attendance, as well as Director of Camden Scholars Program Dot López and retired Upper School Director Mary Williams.
May 31 Students in kindergarten through fourth grade had a morning of friendly competition on Lower School Fun Day – blacktop games, water relay races, long jumps, basketball, parachute, and more. 4
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Notes from Pages Lane
June 1 At the Genius Hour Expo, fifth graders displayed and presented their projects that they conceived, developed, and produced over the course of the school year. The effort was modeled after a successful Google Genius Hour initiative in which the company permitted engineers to spend 20% of their time on a project in an area of interest/passion.
May 26 Director of Finance and Operations Lisa Carbone Warren was the recipient of the National Business Officers Association’s 2017 Will Hancock Unsung Hero Award. The honor is given to business officers who have made an extraordinary and significant difference in their schools. MFS Treasurer and Trustee Toni Proffitt-Brown and Head of School Larry Van Meter presented the award to Lisa (center) at a School Committee meeting. Lisa joined MFS in 1989. FALL 2017
April 22 Liam Schenk ’19 (right) won the third place prize in the intermediate division of the 12th Chinese Bridge Speech Contest for U.S. High School Students. He was selected as one of 24 finalists from around the country. Nick Tursi ’17 (left), a previous competitor who twice earned second place awards, returned to act as emcee for the event at the University of Massachusetts Boston. AMONG FRIENDS
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Notes from Pages Lane
April 21 The 19th annual Science & Engineering Expo (S.E.E.) showcased over 200 displays from students in Grades 5-12.
April 20 The Middle School Talent Show included musical acts, dance routines, short films, and a performance by comedic riddler Tori McKlaine ’24. 6
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April 7 Sixth graders in Cathy Wang’s Chinese class had a friendly competition of jianzi outside. Jianzi is a traditional Chinese sport in which players keep a shuttlecock in the air by using their bodies, apart from their hands. The game is similar to hacky sack. FALL 2017
Notes from Pages Lane Title
April 13 The Middle School Diversity & Inclusion Club created a bulletin board in the Middle School hallway where students could self-identify an aspect of their character, personality, and uniqueness to promote acceptance. Kindergarteners in Kenya Barber’s class were inspired by the project and wrote their own poetry using the phrase “I Am.”
March 31 In a new Intensive Learning program called “Design Thinking,” French Teacher Scott Kelly introduced 16 Upper School students to the creative, iterative problem-solving process. The class partnered with the Pinelands Preservation Alliance (PPA) to design an actionable solution to stop illegal ATV riders from damaging the natural habitats of the Pinelands. Pictured are: Hannah Jin ’20, Evan Fenska ’19, and Andrew Rowan ’19. FALL 2017
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School Committee A Message from Outgoing School Committee Clerk Nick Smith Dear Members of the MFS Community: The mission of a Friends school is more than just academic excellence. In addition to the three R’s, we also educate for goodness. A Friends school witnesses the primacy of the values of honesty, compassion, integrity, commitment, and courage. As Douglas H. Heath writes in The Peculiar Mission of a Friends School, “A Friends education is a moral one that is not in opposition to but is integrative with the academic.” At the Commencement ceremony on the Oval in June for the Class of 2017, I could feel that each individual graduating student really cared for and assumed responsibility for the growth of their classmates, and that each student in turn felt that their classmates and teachers as a corporate body were equally concerned and devoted to each individual student’s growth. While the Class of 2017 had its share of exceptional scholars and above-average SAT scores and athletic trophies, the long-term effect for these graduating students lies elsewhere. I would argue that the long-term effect of an MFS education is primarily moral. While these students are no doubt well prepared for college, MFS empowers its alumni to not merely be successful, but to also contribute to their communities in positive ways. These students are carrying forth different hopes, different insights, and different sensibilities than they might have carried forth from another school. We like to say that MFS graduates are known for “doing well, and doing good.” Over the past several years I have had the pleasure to meet and work with MFS faculty and staff and administrators on a variety of projects large and small. Over the course of that time I have occasionally heard it said that Quaker values are typically “caught” not “taught.” At MFS Quaker values are certainly taught, but perhaps more importantly Quaker values are modeled and also nurtured. Teachers actively seek and question, and this inspires students to seek and question. The atmosphere of loving-kindness and mutual cooperation enables students to become seekers in their own right, and students are ultimately launched at graduation well prepared to serve their communities once outside the protective shelter of MFS.
Moorestown Friends School has been superbly led by Larry Van Meter since 2001. When he retires next June, he will have been the second longest-serving Head in the school’s history, and the school has remained true to its mission under his strong leadership. It has been an honor and a privilege for me to serve as Clerk of School Committee for just a small part of Larry’s tenure as Head of School. I am very pleased that School Committee has chosen Barbara Rose Caldwell to be my successor as Clerk. Barbara is a Quaker and is a member of Providence Friends Meeting in Media, PA. She joined MFS in 1993 and served in a number of key roles including Chester Reagan Chair of Quaker Studies, Upper School Director, and ultimately as Associate Head and Academic Dean. Since her retirement from MFS in 2012, she has remained close to the school. Institutional history is important, as is a deep understanding of our school’s culture, and as we prepare to celebrate Larry’s retirement and to then welcome a new Head of School, Barbara is the ideal person to serve as the next Clerk of School Committee. Sincerely,
Nick Smith
New Trustees Ivy Brown ’89 – Ivy is Vice President for Brand Marketing and Advertising for TIAA Financial Services. She serves as a leader of consumer and business-to-business integrated marketing communications, devising advertising strategy and omni-channel media presence to drive brand awareness, saliency, web engagement, and net positive dollar flows of investment funds for the TIAA Brand. Prior to joining TIAA in 2015, Ivy held several progressively advanced marketing positions within Johnson & Johnson since starting with the firm in 1998, including Brand Manager, Group Brand Director, and Senior Marketing Director positions. She earned a M.B.A. in 1997 from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Washington University in St. Louis in 1993. Ivy is a volunteer mentor with “She Runs It,” (formerly Advertising Women of New York), and a member of the National Advertising Review Board. She also serves on the Marketing Committee of the National Museum of American Jewish History. Ivy lives in Moorestown with her husband Micah Buchdahl. Their children Lily, an eighth grader, and Ben, a fourth grader, each started at MFS in preschool. Ivy has served on the Executive Committee of the MFS Alumni Association and has been a class representative.
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School Committee
Quaker Schools Hold Special Place in Heart of New Clerk Barbara Rose Caldwell To the MFS Community: My involvement with Moorestown Friends School dates to 1993 when I joined the school as the Chester Reagan Chair of Quaker Studies. Employed by the school for 19 years, I also served as Upper School Director and Associate Head of School and Academic Dean. After retiring in 2012, I joined the School Committee in 2014 and have served as Clerk of the Property and Governance Committees. I now begin a new role as Clerk of the School Committee. My predecessor, Nick Smith, who will remain on the board, has been an inspirational leader — organized, empathic, and visionary. He provides me and the rest of the board with a model of good governance. During my tenure at MFS I have worked with five clerks and have appreciated their examples of leadership based on collegial decision making, reliance on the inner light, and dedication to the school. I have also had the privilege of working with Head of School Larry Van Meter for the last 17 years. MFS is fortunate to be led by a person of such integrity and thoughtfulness. MFS is about to embark on a new chapter with the appointment of a new Head of School who will begin work in July 2018. I am Co-Clerk of the Search Committee with Nick Smith and in that role and as clerk of School Committee I will help guide the transition process over the next two years. This is an exciting and challenging moment for the school. The whole community — students, faculty, parents, alums, and the board — will work together to ensure that MFS remains the best school in South Jersey — a school that values academic excellence and emphasizes the Quaker values of equality, integrity, peace, simplicity, and community. In the 2004 Strategic Plan we referred to this dual
emphasis as the “twin pillars.” Since then we have implemented many programmatic initiatives dedicated to graduating students with “tough minds and tender hearts.” We will continue this important work as we help students understand what it means to lead, in Socrates’ words, an “examined life” — a life dedicated to truth and also to rely on the “still small voice” within each of them. If there is a Quaker “distinctive,” it is the conviction that we can become our best selves. MFS is hard at work leading students toward becoming their best selves — able to think and to feel, to reason and to empathize. Such an education is a gift and one worth working for. I am honored and humbled to be able to advance this work. Quaker schools hold a special place in my heart — my children, step-children and grandchildren have attended eight different Quaker schools ranging from Media Providence Friends School to Germantown Friends School to Delaware Valley Friends School. Each of these schools has contributed to their development as balanced, inquisitive, and generous people. I personally discovered the power of Quaker education and faith at my first job, teaching Latin, at Friends Select School. Quaker schools educate children intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually. At this moment in time there is no more important mission. I look forward to serving the MFS community as Clerk of the School Committee and welcome your thoughts and feedback. Sincerely,
Barbara Rose Caldwell
Neuman “Larry” Leverett ’91 – Larry is Senior Compliance Counsel focusing on Anticorruption and Investigations with Johnson Controls, a global diversified conglomerate headquartered in Milwaukee, WI. Prior to that he was Senior Corporate Counsel for anticorruption and antitrust investigations at Tyco, managing the company’s FCPA compliance program, including adherence to enforcement obligations, interacting with government agencies, and providing legal advice to the company’s Third-party Management Program. As a partner formerly with Pepper Hamilton, his practice focused on white-collar criminal defense, internal investigations, and commercial litigation. He was an Assistant United States Attorney in Philadelphia from 2009 through 2014. Since 2016, he has been an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania. Larry earned a B. A. in English and English Literature from The College of New Jersey in 1997. He earned a J.D. from Rutgers School of Law – Newark in 2004. Larry joined the MFS Risk Advisory Committee in 2016.
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Fox Tracks
1 Alyssa Runyan ’18 and Dylan Carilli ’17 were the 2017 recipients of the Herm Magee Award, presented to one male and one female athlete in recognition of outstanding athletic achievement, leadership, and sportsmanship contributions to MFS athletics during the school year. 2 The Boys’ Tennis team won the NJSIAA Non-Public B South championship on May 23, defeating Rutgers Prep 5-0 at Moorestown Tennis Club, for the program’s 14th sectional title. The team, coached by Kathleen Tuck, did not lose an individual match during its run to the championship. The following day the Foxes fell to Newark Academy, 4-1, in the NJSIAA state championship match. 3 Charlotte Stern ‘18 and Jack Stern ‘19 earned medals representing Team USA at the 20th World Maccabiah Games in Israel featuring over 10,000 athletes from 80 countries. Jack was selected to play for the USA Juniors Boys’ (Under 16) Basketball team, while Charlotte was chosen for the Juniors Girls’ (Under 18) Basketball team. Jack’s team went 6-0 winning the gold medal with a 63-33 victory over Argentina. Charlotte’s team won the silver medal falling in the final to Israel. Also of note... Jacob Desman ‘17 and Carolyn Feigeles ‘18 were named to the 2016-17 USA Fencing All-Academic First Team. Jacob plans to fence at Johns Hopkins University. Carolyn and Chloe Chen ‘18 were also named to the 2016-17 USA Fencing All-American Honorable Mention Team. Bella Runyan ‘20 (Second Team) and Charlotte Stern ‘18 (Third Team) were named to the Burlington County Times AllCounty Girls’ Basketball team.
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Alumni Association Awards County, TX, volunteering over 5,500 hours locally. He has worked on renovations of two Habitat for Humanity Re-stores in the area, which are Habitat’s nonprofit home improvement stores and donation centers. In 2003, Bill began volunteering internationally with Habitat. Not only do volunteers on these trips pay their own way, they contribute financially to the project costs. His first international trip was to Bolivia, with Wellspring United Methodist Church, to build a medical clinic. In 2004, Bill took a Habitat for Humanity Global Village trip to Hungary. Since then he has taken Global Village trips to Romania, Bolivia, Canada, New Zealand, Lesotho, Chile, Nepal and gone seven times to Guatemala. In the trips to Guatemala, Bill has served both as a volunteer and as a trip leader, supervising teams of 12-17 volunteers each, sometime including recruits from his work with Habitat back in Texas, as well as a few family members. Bill also took three additional trips to Guatemala, volunteering with the Guatemala Stove Project, a Canadian organization. The Stove Project builds stoves adapted to the Mayan form of cooking in order to prevent respiratory illnesses, blindness, and burns, primarily among women and children.
“Every one of those international trips Bill Gardiner with his wife, Robin Mueller
has been a great experinece. I cherish the idea of the volunteer vacation.”
Service Award: Bill Gardiner ’67 Longtime Habitat for Humanity volunteer Bill Gardiner was presented with the 2017 Alumni Association Service Award on May 5 at the Dinner Among Friends. Bill joined the Class of 1967 in seventh grade, coming from Westfield Friends. He has credited a number of MFS teachers with having an influence on his life, including Neil Hartman, who taught him scripture and math, Math Teacher Harrison Mechling, Social Studies Teacher Cully Miller, and English Teacher Jean Ricketts. Bill was inducted into the Cum Laude Society, and also qualified for a National Merit scholarship at Bucknell University. Like his father, H. Lindley Gardiner, Bill was a member of Moorestown Meeting. His father, a farmer in Maple Shade, was civic-minded and went on to be recognized as a Moorestown Citizen of the Year. Bill has followed in his father’s footsteps and has devoted much of his life to community service. After graduating from MFS, Bill majored in geology at Bucknell. After college, he enlisted in VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America), a program originated during the Kennedy administration. He was first deployed to El Paso, TX where he worked in housing construction. Following VISTA, Bill worked for the U.S. Soil Conservation Service. He and Robin Mueller, whom he had met in El Paso, were married under the care of Santa Fe Friends Meeting in 1977. Bill eventually owned a retail greenhouse business in Georgetown, TX. He began volunteering for Habitat for Humanity with his son Evan, then in high school, in the summer of 2000. Since then, Bill has been involved in the construction of 68 houses in Williamson FALL 2017
Bill’s participation in U.S. relief efforts following natural disasters has included a Habitat for Humanity build in Houma, LA after Hurricane Katrina. He made four trips to Houma, including one in which he served as the Habitat for Humanity Coordinator, supervising a team from Reuters News. Meanwhile, in his hometown of Georgetown, Bill has continued to coach and serve on the Soccer Association Board of Directors, even after his sons graduated from high school. Since 2009, he has also worked two days a week at the Palace Theater in Georgetown as a volunteer set builder. Reflecting on the origins of his passion for volunteerism, Bill cited his former school and teachers. “There is a tradition of service at Moorestown Friends, from (former Social Studies Teacher) David Richie, and many, many others, so that has been a considerable influence for me.”
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Title
Young Alumni Award winner Sonia Mixter Guzman ’02 (center) with sisters Gaby Martinez ’09 and Fanny Mixter Babajide ’03
Young Alumni Award: Sonia Mixter Guzman ’02 Sonia Mixter Guzman ’02, Lower School parent, and passionate advocate for the City of Camden, received the MFS Young Alumni Award on May 5 at the Dinner Among Friends. In her remarks, she spoke highly of her MFS teachers and the influence they had on her life. “My family is my foundation,” said Sonia. “But the pillars in my life, the people who saw that Light in me, are the teachers to whom I am thankful for their unending support.” After graduating from Rutgers with a bachelor’s degree in English, she joined the staff of the Ronald McDonald House of Southern New Jersey in Camden where she is currently the Operations and Communications and Educational Outreach Manager. It offers a place for families with sick children from across the country to stay while visiting hospitals in the area. A proud wife of a Camden City firefighter, Sonia never misses an opportunity to shine a light on what is right about Camden. In 2014, she was one of the organizers of “The Goodness Project,” which released a joyful video based on the Pharrell Williams song “Happy,” featuring 12 local nonprofit organizations conducting meaningful work in the city. Upon arriving at MFS from Cooper’s Poynt Elementary School in Camden, Sonia established herself as a highly engaged member of the school community. During her four years at MFS, Sonia was on the year-long honor roll every year, the recipient of the
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Douglas Searle Poetry Award in 10th grade, a National Spanish Honor Society inductee, and received the Mary and David Richie Service Award upon graduation. The award honors students for dedication to volunteerism. She was chosen by her classmates to be a Commencement Speaker. A teacher observed that Sonia’s family’s odyssey, leaving Nicaragua due to the political climate there, provided her with a much more worldly perspective than many of her peers, and fueled her interest in helping others. As a teenager, her record of community service included visiting the elderly in nursing homes, traveling to Costa Rica to help build an irrigation system, serving meals to the homeless, taking care of infants and toddlers at her church, and helping to build houses with Habitat for Humanity. Sonia still consistently volunteers for Moorestown Friends as an alumna and now as a Lower School parent — her daughter Sadie is in kindergarten. She has been a Strategic Planning Working Group volunteer, Alumni Phonathon volunteer, Leadership Circle volunteer for the Parent Annual Fund, and a supporter of the Camden Scholars Program. She has tutored MFS students in English and provided Senior Project opportunities at Ronald McDonald House. One of the MFS students Sonia tutored, Adalberto Rosado ’16, is now attending Princeton University. Sonia lives in Camden with her husband Andy and their children Sadie ’30 and Vincent.
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Sarah Feyerherm ‘82, Elise Feyerherm ‘78, Miriam, and Joel Feyerherm ‘81. Standing: Sarah’s wife Penny Weintraub, Beth Weber Hermann ‘82, and Keith Hockenbury ‘82.
Alice Paul Merit Award: Miriam Feyerherm Former Librarian and Lower School Teacher Miriam Feyerherm received the Alice Paul Merit Award at the Dinner Among Friends on Alumni Weekend. Miriam began at MFS by teaching in the Lower School. Soon after, she started work toward a master’s of library science degree at Glassboro State College (now Rowan University). In 1973, Miriam became the Lower School Librarian. Long before MFS had a dedicated Quaker educator for the Lower School, Miriam engaged students in meaningful projects centered around peace and equality. Miriam helped bring national and international media attention to the school in the 1980s as the advisor of the Kids for Peace Club. The club was formed when a group of students in grades 4-6 grappling with issues related to the Cold War approached Miriam to ask how they could “make a difference in the world.” The resulting letter writing campaign to students in the German Democratic Republic led to a visit by East German officials to MFS which was covered by local, national, and international news outlets. Subsequently, Kids for Peace Club students traveled to Washington D.C. to visit the East German Embassy and meet students at the Embassy School. As a result of the group’s activities, a philanthropist sent the school its first Peace Pole, which was installed and dedicated in April 1988. Located just outside of Stokes Hall and since updated, it is a visible reminder of the establishment of the Kids for Peace Club in the 1980s and their outreach efforts at the height of the Cold War. Deborah Edmund Colitas ’96, a former member of the Kids for Peace Club, presented Miriam with her award. “Moorestown Friends School has been blessed with many teachers who have FALL 2017
been wonderful examples, and whether Quaker or not, have helped spread the messages of simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality, and stewardship,” she said. “My warmest congratulations to my former teacher Miriam Feyerherm.” Another interesting Miriam Feyerherm connection to MFS is the fact that she lived and raised her three children (Elise ’78, Joel ’81, and Sarah ’82) in the historic Paulsdale home in Mount Laurel. Built in 1800, this home is where MFS suffragette Alice Stokes Paul was born in 1885. Paul, Class of 1901, was the author of the Equal Rights Amendment passed in 1972 and was a leading American suffragist. When Miriam and her husband moved to Vermont in 1990, they were instrumental in working with the Alice Paul Institute so that their former Mount Laurel home could become the Institute’s headquarters. Paulsdale, where Alice Paul lived while she attended MFS, is listed on both the U.S. and the New Jersey National Register of Historic Places, and belongs to a very small group of historic sites which honor the legacy of significant women in American history. In Vermont, Miriam became the children’s librarian at Kimball Library in Randolph, and helped to distribute children’s books to families living in rural areas around Randolph who needed them. Widowed in 2000, she moved to Chestertown, MD near Sarah in 2005 and continued to volunteer her time at the local library and elementary schools. Miriam is now part of the community at Medford Leas, where she serves as an active volunteer and is involved in development of an enhanced Large Print library. She closed her award acceptance remarks by citing an Alice Paul quote: “I always feel the women’s movement is a sort of mosaic. Each of us puts in one little stone, then you get a great mosaic in the end.” AMONG FRIENDS
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Cum Laude Speaker
Ashley Edwards ’08 • Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of MindRight • M.B.A./M.Ed. Stanford University • B.A. Yale University
Ashley Edwards ’08 Provides Life Lessons to Honor Society Inductees Social entrepreneur Ashley Edwards ’08 provided keynote remarks for inductees, families, and guests at the 2017 Cum Laude and World Languages Banquet on May 17. Ashley is Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of MindRight. MindRight’s mission is to help at-risk youth recover from trauma. Its vision is to leverage technology to make mental health support accessible to every child living in poverty. MindRight provides personalized mental health education over text message to youth who have experienced community violence, abuse, neglect, and poverty-related stressors. After graduating from MFS in 2008, she attended Yale University where she received an undergraduate degree in Economics in 2012 and the Yale Franciscus Fellowship in Entrepreneurship. Ashley is a 2016 graduate of Stanford University where she received an M.B.A. and a Master of Education degree. Prior to studying at Stanford, Ashley served as Director of Operations for the first “blended learning” charter high school in New Jersey – Newark Prep Charter School where traditional face-to-face classroom instruction was blended with online learning. She developed the school’s operations and data management system from launch to 300+ students. Her experiences at this charter school inspired her to work toward eliminating barriers to educational achievement for inner-city youth. During her remarks, Ashley spoke of three lessons she wished to pass along to students: 1) Use your privilege to serve others; 2) Give yourself permission to be your whole self; and 3) Practice self-care.
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She spoke passionately about her career path in the non-profit sector: “I love who I am in this work and I love who I have become doing this work,” she said. “And if I could give one thing freely, it would be the gift of knowing that you’ve changed a life. That is the gift I hope each of you can experience if you have not already.” In speaking about giving permission to be your whole self, Ashley cited her experience mobilizing a demonstration of solidarity in 2007 for the “Jena 6” as Co-President of the MFS Martin Luther King, Jr. Club. “The entire MFS community showed up to our rally for racial justice and I was just floored,” said Ashley. “I realized that day that what makes me come alive is fighting for social justice for my community...and that realization has continued to guide my decision making ever since.” Finally, Ashley urged students to take care of themselves. “The world - especially now - needs you, but the world needs you at 100%,” she said. “Your family, your friends need you at 100%. So when you don’t take care of yourself and devalue yourself, you devalue others who care about you.” In the past, Ashley has worked in venture philanthropy through an M.B.A. internship with the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation and with Ekya Schools in Bangalore, India, where she helped to develop innovative school models. Additionally, she has served in various positions including at Atrium Capital, where she was responsible for conducting due diligence on edtech investment opportunities; at Google where she served as a BOLD Intern in People Operations; and, at Capital Micro Credit in Uganda, where she worked in microfinance lending and co-led entrepreneurship training classes at Makerere University. Ashley has received many awards for her entrepreneurial work including the 2017 Camelback Ventures Fellowship, 2017 Halcyon Incubator Fellowship, 4.0 Schools Tiny Fellowship, and the Stanford Graduate School of Business Social Change Leader Award.
“I love who I am in this work and I love who I have become doing this work. And if I could give one thing freely, it would be the gift of knowing that you’ve changed a life. That is the gift I hope each of you can experience if you have not already.”
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Honoring Retirees Mary Ann Griffis Assistant Librarian, 1983-2017 In Mary Ann Griffis’ 34 years of faithful service, she had many different - and at times overlapping - roles both in the Music Department and in the Woodward Henry Diller Memorial Library. She began as the school’s piano accompanist, taught fifth and sixth grade music, and for many years conducted Middle and Upper School Handbell Choirs. She had been a long-serving Upper School Advisor, and, for the last 25 years, the Library Assistant. Mary Ann was the “go-to” person for the Upper School office for students who need extra advisory support, able to help the most meandering students back on track. One colleague noted, “Mary Ann is a quiet force. I have seen the biggest senior boys obey her gentle/firm nod to stop the nonsense and behave appropriately.” One of her most significant accomplishments was that she almost single-handedly created and maintained the online library catalogue. Mary Ann looks forward in retirement to being involved with the Good Counsel Home for homeless, single expectant mothers in Riverside, a program which helps young women further their education and learn life and parenting skills. Mary Ann was recognized for her years of service at the Dinner Among Friends. Along with her large family, she was supported by her fellow librarians. Pictured are Lower School Librarian Deborah Alterman, Mary Ann, and Head Librarian Martha Reilly.
B. Michelle Horton Front Desk Coordinator, 2011-2017 Michelle Horton is multi-dimensional: she is a daughter, a mom and a grandmom, an author, a spoken-word artist, and most of all, she is a woman of faith. Ordained in 2016, Michelle is the Associate Pastor at Greater Enon Missionary Baptist Church in North Philadelphia. In retirement, Michelle plans to devote more time to her family, especially to her mother, Mary Dawson. She also plans to get more involved with her Church. Having studied both at Palmer and Princeton Theological Seminaries, Michelle has touched many people at MFS with her spiritual gifts. Many colleagues praised her endless kindness, looking to Michelle for prayers and support in times of need. Additionally, over and over again, many members of the community shared they will greatly miss Michelle’s signature smile. “Her dimpled smile is infectious. The students truly enjoy her bright ‘hello’ every day.” At the Dinner Among Friends, Michelle’s retirement was celebrated with her family and colleagues in the Business Office. Michelle is pictured in the center of the front row, with (clockwise) Business Office Administrative Assistant Rose Frola to her left, Director of Finance and Operations Lisa Carbone Warren, Front Desk Coordinator Chuck Viggiano, and Director of Payroll & Employee Benefits Marie Loveland.
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30 UNDERThirty Cum Laude Alumni Speaker
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COMPUTER SCIENCE • ACADEMIA • CONSERVATION • LAW • DANCE • MEDIA • MEDICINE • DESIGN • ACTIVISM • THEOLOGY • DIGITAL BLOGGING • THEATRE •
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30 Title UNDER
Thirty
HEALTHCARE • EDUCATION • POLICY FOOD • ENERGY • HUMAN RIGHTS ENGINEERING • ENTREPRENEURSHIP COMMUNITY PROGRAMS • ART
W
h ere did you see yourself at 30 years old? Did you imagine
you would be living in Hollywood and writing for a hit TV show? Did you think you would be an engineer whose work would power deep space missions to Mars? Did you envision yourself producing extraordinary scholarship that would be an agent of change to make the world a better place? Highlighted in this feature and the 2016-17 Annual Report are young alumni who are pursuing those endeavors and much, much more… all before the age of 30. Moorestown Friends has helped educate and guide these alumni towards promising futures in a wide variety of industries and fields, from traditional careers to new careers that did not exist a decade ago.
Six of the subjects of the “30 under Thirty” feature story were close enough to campus over the summer to meet up for an early August photo shoot. The geographic diversity of the thirty young alumni profiled in this article is a microcosm of the dispersal of MFS grads across the country – ten in California, six in the Greater Philadelphia area, four in the Boston area, three in both the Washington, D.C. and the New York City area, and one each in North Carolina, Tennessee, New Mexico, and Texas. Pictured are Ashleigh Cartwright ‘13, Adam Mohsen-Breen ‘15, Alexandra Stark ‘06, Keyanah Freeland ‘10, Justin Spencer-Linzie ‘10, and Velika Nespor ‘08. FALL 2017
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Tyler Catanella ’09
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Briana Pressey Ellerbe ’07 28 • Los Angeles, CA Ph.D. candidate at University of Southern California in Children’s Media
Briana qualitatively codes responses from one of her research surveys Following her undergraduate studies at Penn and having earned her master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Briana is now a Ph.D. student at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. She feels media has an important role in shaping children’s beliefs about the world and their place in it, so her doctoral work is dedicated to creating research-based media as potential tools for education and equity. Prior to USC, Briana conducted research about innovative technology arrangements at the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop. She has also worked on preschool shows such as SuperWhy! Wishenpoof! and Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood. “I hope that one day children of color have an abundant array of characters to look to and stories to see themselves represented in, and I believe that these will only be truly meaningful if they are created from the voices of the communities themselves.”
27 • Boston, MA Artistic Director of ParadiseMoves and Adjunct Professor at Emerson College The heart of Tyler’s work lies in his passion for the power of art, dance, music, and storytelling. With ParadiseMoves, a company of Boston artists that share stories through movement and create from a process of collaboration and improvisation, Tyler developed his latest piece “Enough.” The project tackles topics surrounding identity and mental health among youth through performance and facilitated discussion that connects audience members with each other. In the fall, he will also begin to teach dance composition at Emerson College to add to his K-12 teaching duties as director and choreographer with Watertown Children’s Theatre. “The production of ‘Enough’ is my way of helping others know that they are ‘enough’ for others, and more importantly themselves.”
Orysia Bezpalko ’09 26 • Philadelphia, PA Enterprise Improvement Advisor at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Orysia’s work at the CHOP focuses on the continued pursuit of innovative improvements to the care the hospital provides, so the end result is a child that can go home a little sooner or a child who does not need to visit the hospital at all. She specifically supports the Harm Prevention Program at CHOP to pioneer new ways to keep patients safe from hospital-acquired infections and conditions. Orysia graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in 2013 and earned her M.P.H. from Drexel University in 2015. “I am very fortunate to work in a place where every day provides an opportunity to make a difference for children and their families when they are most vulnerable.” 18
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Shakeil Greeley ’11 24 • Brooklyn, NY Visual Editor at GQ.com and Freelance Visual Artist
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Carolyn Chelius ’12 23 • Cambridge, MA Food Literacy Project Manager at Harvard University Carolyn has always been interested in food and, most importantly, increasing education and access around healthy, sustainable food. Through her role at Harvard University, she is able to do just that by working with local farmers and university chefs on sustainable sourcing, managing Harvard’s Farmer’s Market, acting as staff advisor for the Harvard Community Garden, organizing guest lectures with faculty, or leading field trips and cooking classes for students. Carolyn received her bachelor’s degree in Economics and Environmental Studies from Wellesley College. “I love that I’m able to reach so many different people with different interests and educate them about something so universally connecting as food.”
Isaias Munoz ’11 24 • Van Nuys, CA M.Div. Candidate at The Master’s Seminary in Theology
Before Shakeil’s 24th birthday, he had a new position designed specifically for his unique blend of skills at GQ.com. As Visual Editor, he edits GQ’s Snapchat Discover channel where he designs, writes, produces, and art directs original video shoots. At a legacy magazine like GQ, Shakeil’s team is at the forefront of bringing the brand fully into the digital era. He is also very active as a freelance visual artist, as he has done design work for AFROPUNK, directed a music video for Ivy Sole, exhibited a collaborative photography art show, and served as visual director of an electronic dance opera called Lazer Eyes creating a web comic and clothing line. Shakeil is currently working on a large-scale, activism-focused project to follow a silent march he led around City Hall in Philadelphia to commemorate the deaths of unarmed victims of police brutality. Shakeil earned his undergraduate degree at Penn in 2015. “Freedom to explore my various interests at MFS, and not be boxed into one type of thinking, really helped me to not see walls between writing, design, video, music, etc.”
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Isaias is currently enrolled in a master of divinity program in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, as he hopes to later pursue a Ph.D. in either church history or apologetics so he can teach at the university level and engage in public discourse through a Christian worldview. He is passionate about his field of theology because he contends that the truth of the gospel frees humans to live truly purposeful lives. Isaias decided to return to graduate school following his undergraduate career at Cornell University. “As a follower of Jesus Christ, I believe that the gospel is the bedrock of certainty, and I live to deliver its message of hope, love, and truth to a world that increasingly yearns for the same.” AMONG FRIENDS
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Mia Zayas ’16 19 • New York, NY Undergraduate at Columbia University studying Ethnicity and Race Studies Mia is most passionate about activism and recognition for underrepresented individuals, especially in education, and particularly for indigenous peoples. As a Puerto Rican student attending college in New York City, Mia has realized how much privilege she has because of her access to education so she spends her time supporting marginalized communities. While serving on Columbia University’s Native American Council, she helped the indigenous Lenape people gain recognition from the university that the institution was founded on occupied land. Mia was a residential counselor for international students this summer at an English as a second language summer program at Haverford College. “Indigenous people often don’t get the opportunity to access higher education institutions because of intersecting factors such as poverty and discrimination that have been institutionalized in society.” Mia explains the plaque that Columbia University’s Native American Council placed on campus this year to recognize the Lenape people.
Karan Hiremath ’12 23 • San Francisco, CA Software Engineer at BioBots Karan was the first software engineer at the startup BioBots, which produces 3D bioprinters and bioinks that build 3D living tissues out of human cells for research in materials science, tissue engineering, and biology. He leads the software product strategy and manages data collection initiatives with customers and internally within the company. Karan’s work determines how to best leverage hardware, software, and wetware tools to solve customers’ problems by automating manual processes. He received a B.S. from the University of Pennsylvania. “The work we do at BioBots is aimed at eliminating the organ waiting list, reducing the cost and failures in the drug development process, reverting climate change, and living on other planets.”
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Ashleigh Cartwright ’13
22 • Philadelphia, PA J.D./Ph.D. candidate at University of Pennsylvania in Sociology Following her graduation from Columbia University in May, Ashleigh has begun a Ph.D. program in sociology and will pursue legal studies at Penn. Her current research centers around the effects of law and policy on the lives of black women, and her latest project alongside Columbia professor Carla Shedd focused on overdiscipline of black girls in school. For her research, Ashleigh was named a Mellon Mays Fellow and Moore Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program Fellow. “I am pursuing the fields of sociology and law because I am passionate about producing scholarship that ultimately influences the policies that produce and reproduce inequality in marginalized communities.” FALL 2017
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Kevin Schlagle ’08
27 • Boston, MA Stage Manager of Theatre and Opera In the summer 2015 production of King Lear outside on the Boston Common with Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, there were 25 actors, 26 theatrical weapons, 23 moments of violence, 3 types of stage blood, and a 20-minute downpour rain effect – and those were just some of the logistical and technical challenges that Kevin coordinated as stage manager. In his freelance stage manager roles in and around the Boston area, Kevin gets to use both the left and right sides of his brain on a daily basis to help with both the creation and maintenance of the art. He is celebrating five years as a member of the Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the U.S. Kevin graduated summa cum laude with a B.F.A. in stage management from Boston University in 2012.
Kevin managing backstage for the Huntington Theatre Company’s production of Sunday in the Park with George in Boston.
Keyanah Freeland ’10 25 • Brooklyn, NY Ph.D. candidate at New York University in History
“I have always found theatre to be a powerful way to engage artists and audiences while providing a fresh perspective on the human condition.”
Specializing in the history of the African Diaspora in Latin America, Keyanah is currently a Ph.D. candidate at NYU. Her dissertation analyzes the relationship between diasporic connections and the creation of racial logics, or racial classification systems, among people of African descent in Buenos Aires and Montevideo at the turn of the 20th century. In addition to research, Keyanah teaches undergraduate courses on the history of the African Diaspora. As an aspiring history professor, she strives to cultivate a social and historical literacy in her students, showcasing the rich and integral histories of the global black experience. Keyanah graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University in 2014. “Social and historical literacy skills allow me to identify and articulate the problems embedded within my own liminal space between overwhelming privilege and its staggering absence.”
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Charles Hodgens ’08 28 • Chapel Hill, NC Ph.D. candidate at UNC Chapel Hill in Genetics and Molecular Biology After he completed B.S. degrees in public health and biology at UNC Chapel Hill, Charlie entered a graduate program at the university to study the signaling pathway for the plant hormone cytokinin. His research, relevant to all food resources that humans depend on, seeks to understand the basic biology behind this pathway so future scientists may be able to modify crop species to improve their yield or more effectively resist the stresses of climate change. Charlie also developed a web-based software tool that can detect disrupted mutant genes, expediting a previously cumbersome process. Charles at his lab bench measures mutant plants in preparation for experiments.
“My work gives me the knowledge, tools, and infrastructure to design experiments to find brand new information, information that literally no one else in the world possesses.”
Gabe Hege ’12 23 • San Jose, CA Software Engineer with Applied Machine Learning Team at Apple In the spring, Gabe Hege graduated from MIT with both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering and computer science. His thesis was in machine learning and artificial intelligence. Gabe also was a founder of the first annual MIT Undergraduate Energy Career Fair. After road tripping from South Jersey to California, Gabe spent his summer teaching entrepreneurship and computer science to students in São Paulo, Brazil. He will begin work at Apple in California in October working for the Applied Machine Learning Team building smart systems that detect fraud on iOS devices. “Working in machine learning is literally programming the future. Soon all machines will be capable of thinking as flexibly as a human and that achievement will improve our lives.”
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Justin Spencer-Linzie ’10
25 • Philadelphia, PA Director of Community Youth Programs/ Strategic Advancement at YMCA of Burlington and Camden Counties Every day, Justin feels fortunate to be able to work towards strengthening the community of Camden by making the next day better than the one before for the city’s kids through the YMCA. He works with schools, non-profit agencies, corporate businesses, and government agencies to fund programs like the Rutgers Ignite Sports Camp, which educates North Camden students in grades 4-8 through STEM, art, literacy, athletics, and mentoring. Justin oversees his staff of 40, maintains fiscal responsibilities and grant reporting to funders, and participates in various boards and committees such as Campbell’s Healthy Communities and NJ Partnerships for Healthy Kids. He earned his bachelor’s degree and M.B.A. from Springfield College. “I get to assist in creating solutions that allow the City of Camden to become a safer, better place for its kids to grow up in and feel proud about.” FALL 2017
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29 • New York, NY Ph.D. candidate at Columbia University in Premodern Chinese Literature
Working towards her doctorate degree at Columbia University, Allison has researched Ming-Qing literature and the intersections of literary and historical writing, book history and print culture, and the world of Chinese theater. Previously, Allison received her M.A. in Chinese literature from Columbia and earned her B.A. from Middlebury College. As central as it is to her academic work, Allison has become fluent in modern and classical Chinese and Japanese, which has opened up different ways of thinking about the world and allowed her to live abroad in China, Taiwan, and Japan. “It is truly a joy to be in a place where interesting conversations are the currency of my weeks. There is nothing better or more exciting than this.” Allison midway up the 392 stairs leading to the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum on Nanjing in one of her most recent trips to China.
Tish Henderson ’06 29 • Greensburg, PA Orthodontic Resident at Seton Hill University Center for Orthodontics Becoming an orthodontist was a very personal and intentional decision for Tish. When she was younger, she experienced bullying and teasing solely due to her teeth. After completing her treatment of braces, she hoped to enter the field to be a part of the life-changing profession of dentistry. Tish obtained her doctor of dental medicine degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine and completed a one-year orthodontic fellowship at Seton Hill University in Greensberg, PA. She is now an orthodontic resident of the same program and will receive an orthodontic certificate and M.S. degree in December. “After three years of braces, I came out a changed person, and ever since I felt the need to give others the same confidence.”
Send Us Your News!
These are just a sample of the interesting careers of MFS alumni under the age of 30. Alumni - even those over 30 - are welcome to share news about their career path. Visit www.mfriends.org/alumni. We may post the news online, in subsequent class notes or in future publications.
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1967
50th Reunion
Alumni Weekend 2017
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A large group of alumni returned for the Class of 1967’s 50th Reunion on Alumni Weekend. Front Row: Alison Cadbury Senter, Janet Sawyer Thomas, Meg Brunt Griffin, Betty Richardson Hagstoz, Janet Lippincott, Gina Aguilar Yerkes, Linda Dworkin Shade, Agnes Miyo Moriuchi, and Diana Harrison Comber. Standing: Dan Kurtzman, Percy Ransome, Bob Stevenson, Dave Barber, Bill Gardiner, Jim Soffer, Frank Hagstoz, Tom Hedges, Chris Price, Bill Lewis, Martha Richie, Richard Haupt, Dick Hess, Kathy Russell Dunlap, and Bob Abramowitz. Also, attending the festivities during the weekend, but not pictured were Paul DiMaggio, Matt Harman, Hank Naisby, and Lynne Nelson.
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Alumni Weekend The Class of 1967 50th Reunion Committee
1947
70th Reunion
Dave Barber, Kathy Russell Dunlap, Janet Sawyer Thomas, Alison Cadbury Senter, Gina Aguilar Yerkes, Linda Dworkin Shade, and Bill Gardiner. Nancy Ritschard Hall ’47 represented her class for their 70th, attending along with her husband Bill.
1952
65th Reunion
Members of the Class of 1952 who attended the Saturday luncheon included John Dick, Janet Carslake Aaronson, Wayne Bancroft, and Galt Siegrist. 76
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Alumni Weekend
1957
60th Reunion
Members of the Class of 1957 at the luncheon hosted in honor of alumni celebrating reunions of 50 years or more. Seated: Joy Crippen Parsons, Robert Braddock, Gay Ciprico Japinga, and Rowland Ricketts. Standing: Charlie Haines, Ronald Roberts, Ted Jamison, Martin Lehfeldt, and Asa Stackhouse.
1957
60th Reunion
At a dinner at Caffe Aldo Lamberti, more alumni joined the group. Front row: Bob Braddock ’57, Joy Crippen Parsons ’57, Bonnie Richie Lyons ’57, Margaret Doehlert Barovich ’57, Ruth Rogers ’57, Cathy Roberts, Diane Allen, and Asa Stackhouse ’57. Back row: Charlie Haines ’57, Ted Jamison ’57, John Chigounis ’57, Rowland Ricketts ’57, Frank Walker ’57, Martin Lehfeldt ’57, Ron Roberts ’57, Debbie Haines Read ’57, Sam Allen ’57, Gay Ciprico Japinga ’57, Bill Japinga, Betty Halteman Scott ’57, and Charles King. In attendance but not pictured were: Rowland’s wife Mary Lynn Ricketts, Bob’s wife Sarah Braddock, and Bonnie’s husband Jim Lyons. FALL 2017
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Alumni Weekend
1962
55th Reunion
After the Alumni Reception at Greenleaf, the Class of 1962 headed to Thomas’ on Main Street for dinner. Twenty classmates and spouses celebrated the class’s 55th reunion. First row: Tom Russell, Polly Price, and Marie Persic Cowan. Second row: Bill McAllister, Renee Powell Johnson, Ginny Grisel Guerrera, Barbara Stevenson Watson, and John Watson. Third row: Harold Berry, Richard De Cou, and Jay Tyler. Not pictured but in attendance was Peter Brunt. Many thanks to Polly and Marie for organizing the gathering.
1977
40th Reunion
The Class of 1977 gathered for a reunion at the Blue Monkey in Merchantville on the Friday of Alumni Weekend. Seated are Gordon Palmer, John Mills, and Beth Matlack Schulkind. Standing are Jane Elkis Berkowitz, Janet Stevens, and Diane Franciosi Wing. Chris Evans also attended. Marie Hageman made it to campus for Alumni Weekend events. Janet, Julie Shulman Forvour, and Pam Harrison Musulin met to plan the gathering. 78
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1982
35th Reunion
Steven Weeks ‘82 and his wife, Andrea Merritt, current parents at MFS, attended the Alumni Reception.
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Alumni Weekend
1982
35th Reunion
After the Alumni Reception, the Class of 1982 gathered at the home of Ed Devinney’s parents. Front row: Loren Grossman, Ed Devinney, Natalie Dunkelman Ryan, Jodi Gellman-Wallach, Deidre Comegys Gordon Wilson, Ellen Feder, Keith Hockenbury, Sarah Feyerherm, Sheri Kapel Herzberg, and Fred Young. Second Row: Lisa Wilson, Steve Weeks, Evan Andrews, Katherine Caldwell, and Beth Weber Hermann.
1992
25th Reunion The Class of 1992 gathered at Kensington Quarters in Philadelphia to celebrate their 25th reunion. The event was organized by Takashi Moriuchi and Christopher Wershoven. Kneeling: Darrin Jaffe, Shereef Ali, Chris Wershoven, Daniel Diamond, and Takashi Moriuchi. First row standing: Mark Yokoyama, Carrmen Wrenn, Jennifer Yerkes, Annemarie Orth, Amrita Prabhakar Barth, Sam Thu Le, Daniel Diamond’s girlfriend Maria Cruz, Carla Cicalese Sullivan, Michael Strambler, Shane McAleer, and John Boxer. Second row standing: Sam Bossen, Sara Allen Davenport, Carrie Oliver Boxer, Erica Wershoven, Mey-Yen Moriuchi, and Sobeira Strambler. FALL 2017
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Alumni Weekend
1997
20th Reunion
The Class of 1997 celebrated their 20th reunion with a gathering at Pub & Kitchen in Philadelphia, organized by Alumni Association Clerk Meg Parrington Hollingworth, Karinne Damadio Lindner, and Kristin Bromley Fitzgerald. Although she was too ill to attend the event, Meg reported that the party was a big success and everyone had a blast catching up. The class is now planning a MFS mom’s night out for the local ladies! The class also hopes to start the trend of a 22.5 year reunion so stay tuned! Pictured are: (back) Cynthia Hall, Saita Davis, Mark Dann, Karinne Damadio Lindner, Sarah Weiss Domis, Courtney Pearson Esposito, Urbi Utley Medley, Ethan Medley, and Tiffany Taylor Jenkins. In front are Robin Wu, Kristin Fitzgerald, and Esther Horowitz Steinberg. In attendance but not pictured were Abe Sudhindra and Jesse Hayes.
Former Faculty & Staff Reception
Head of School Larry Van Meter, former LS/MS Quaker Education Coordinator Lynne Brick, former Chester Reagan Chair of Quaker Studies Priscilla Taylor-Williams, and former faculty member Katie Dole at the Former Faculty & Staff Reception, which was hosted by Lynne Brick and former second grade teacher Marge Dawson. 80
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Class Notes
1941 & 1943
1941 See photo at left. Betty Newell Nelson traveled to Alaska for the third time this summer, with this past trip by the inland passage. In the fall, she will be teaching a genealogy class on how to make your ancestors come alive for readers. Betty is also finishing her ninth book, a memoir about her family’s travels in their airstream trailer. Her family toured all over the continent with her six children as they were growing up. She aims for a genealogy or memoir book each year.
1943 Coles Roberts ’43, Jim Dauerty ’41, Joyce Cooper Haase ’41, and Bud Stratton ’41 pictured at the Saturday luncheon hosted by the school in honor of all alumni celebrating reunions of 50 years or more.
See photo at left.
1954 Jim Scott Presents Evidence on Why Civilization Is Bad for Your Health in New Book In his recently published book Against the Grain, Jim Scott shared compelling ideas about why many “schoolbook lessons” about the first states in the world and early civilizations are wrong. Although the subject matter is a bit outside his area of expertise, as Jim specializes in studying peasants and agriculture life of Southeast Asia, the book aggregates the current state of knowledge of early Mesopotamian domestication in order to diagnose why the modern world is facing extinction of species and climate change. Jim is the Sterling Professor of Political Science, Professor of Anthropology, and Director of the Agrarian Studies Program at Yale University. “We are in a jam ecologically and environmentally, but why is that?,” said Jim. “How did we come to this point of [the epoch of] anthropocene, where geologists believe that mankind and our activities are maybe the greatest danger to the planet? The first thing to do is, if you’re in a mess, to try to figure out how you got there, so my job is not a medication or a cure. My job is diagnosis of how this illness developed, which is the reason why I wanted to go back to the first states when large numbers of people formed agrarian societies to understand why we’re here now.” What most surprised Jim during his research for Against the Grain was that all human infectious diseases did not exist before humans began to live as domesticated human beings with domesticated animals and plants. “Measles, mumps, the flu… they did not exist,” said Jim. “These are diseases of civilization and the reason they are is because early civilizations were the first time that huge numbers of people and animals were crammed together in a small space. Our evidence is in the skeletons from early agrarian societies as those bones show those people were smaller than those who lived outside the grain area. The skeletons of those who lived in early states showed signs of nutritional deficiencies and disease. They were less healthy than people who had a more varied diet and were not subject to those diseases, indicating civilization is bad for your health.” Jim has dedicated his career in academia to studying agricultural life since the Vietnam War, when he became interested in peasant uprisings and rebellions. Since peasants have been the largest social class in world history, he thought it a worthy and honorable subject to devote his life to studying. Originally he studied political uprisings among peasants but, as Jim is a farmer who raises sheep, Scottish cows, chickens, and bees, he has expanded to rural peasant life. Against the Grain can be ordered online through the Yale University Press by searching the title at yalebooks.yale.edu or at bookstores.
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Class Notes
Notes with this icon are Among Friends web extras. See page 89 for more details.
1944 Dick Hollerith and his wife, Romy, are rounding out their ninth year in a continuing care retirement community in Williamsburg, VA. He also shared, “It has been a long time since the days of MFS, but I am impressed with what I read about the school today.”
1946 George Krusen reports that he has been in touch recently with a number of classmates, including Barbara Bagley Moule and Charlie Rose. George and
Make a Gift Online to the Annual Fund for MFS Jennifer, his middle daughter, were in Paris during August and September 2016, visiting her daughter Rachel, who has studied and worked there for eight years. They explored the countryside while driving to Bordeaux. They then took the train from Paris to London, to visit with Lilla Rowland Smithson. Lilla and her husband Ken, along with daughter Heather, hosted George and his daughter at their home just north of London. The Smithsons have a history of being hospitable to classmates! Mary Grimley Mason is a resident scholar at Brandeis University’s Women’s Research Center. She came there after retiring as a Professor of English at Emmanuel College in Boston. While at the Center she has written two books on disability and a memoir. She is living at Newbury Court, a retirement
community in Concord, MA, and enjoys visiting with her three children and four grandchildren. Charlie Rose joked that all three of his daughters are close to his home in Pennsylvania. One is in New Zealand, but comes back for Princeton University reunions each year. Another is in South Carolina and another is in western Ohio. His younger grandson just finished school at Georgia Tech with highest honors and is spending a couple of years in Mongolia in the Peace Corps, having deferred medical school. Charlie is still active at Princeton and said even his internist is a Princetonian.
1951 Mary Rose Caldwell Schlatter and her husband, David, continue to enjoy living in
1957 Rowland Ricketts and Peter Thiele Celebrating a 60-Year-Old Transatlantic Friendship In honor of the Class of 1957’s 60th reunion during Alumni Weekend, Rowland Ricketts ’57 installed an exhibit featuring the work of his classmate Peter Thiele ’57, a German graphic designer. Peter was an exchange student from the Rudolf Steiner Schule in Nuremberg, Germany and he lived with the Ricketts family during the 1956-57 school year. Meanwhile, fellow classmate Martin Lehfeldt ’57 was visiting Germany for the year as the first MFS exchange student. The exchange program between the two schools was organized by the American Friends Service Committee after World War II as part of a program to increase international understanding and friendship. The “foreign affiliation program,” as it was called then, was supported by fundraising done at an annual faculty and student-run “Friendship Fair.” After Peter returned home, the families remained in touch largely through letters, although Rowland and his wife Mary Lynn were able to visit Peter once in the suburbs of Nuremberg. But Peter also shared his artistic talents and sent many hand-illustrated gifts of beautifully designed cards and calendars for holidays and other special events over the years. “Peter has sent gifts for a long time, but I never had the skill to send something back to him,” said Rowland. “So with our 60th class reunion coming up, I wanted to do something nice for Peter and exhibit an installation of his artwork. Now, Peter adamantly says he’s not an artist, that he is a graphic designer. And I tell him that you may not be an artist, but you’re my artist.” To view photos of Peter’s artwork visit mfs.smugmug.com/Alumni/Peter-Thiele.
Members of the Class of 1957 pictured with some of Peter Thiele’s artwork displayed in the Moriuchi Room of Stokes Hall. 82
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Visit giving.mfriends.org
Williamsburg, VA. They are living in a gated community called Ford’s Colony, as do her brother William Caldwell ’46 and sister Margaret Caldwell Karb ’49.
1953 Lydia Stefanov Demko reported that her oldest granddaughter, Cassie, turned 21 after graduating from the University of Oklahoma. Next year, Cassie will be going to school for physical therapy. In April, Lydia spent time with her best friends in Howell, NJ. She also commented that lilacs, dogwoods, lilies of the valley, and all the beauty of the spring are unknown in her home in Texas.
1954 Janet Vaughn Crisler was disappointed to not be able to attend Alumni Weekend 2017, as work demands kept her in Oxford, England. She was continuing to finish the research that her beloved husband, Benjamin, did not complete at his untimely death 29 years ago. She shared: “I do send all my dear classmates love and all best wishes. If any of you find yourselves in England, please come to Oxford. There is a nice guest room that awaits at my house.”
gone by. I hope our 1958 class makes a special effort to return to MFS next year.”
1959 Patricia Ann Metzer was interviewed for a feature article in the June issue of the ABA (American Bar Association) Times. In the interview, Pat discussed her upbringing in South Jersey, falling in love with tax during law school, landing her first job in Boston, why she has enjoyed remaining a tax specialist for her entire career, among other things. Pat practices tax law with Vocovec, Mayotte & Singer, LLP in Boston, MA. She is a long-serving member of the ABA Tax Section who has served in various leadership positions, including as chair of the Committee on Government Submissions (1993-1995), Council Director (1996-1999), Vice-Chair (Publications) and Editor-in-Chief of The Tax Lawyer (2000-2002). She also served as Associate Tax Legislative Counsel at Treasury at the end of the Ford Administration and into the Carter Administration. Pat also serves on the MFS School Committee.
1961 See photo of Bill Archer below.
See article about Jim Scott on page 81.
1957 At its Annual Convention on April 3 in San Diego, the Association of Home Office Underwriters inducted Rowland Ricketts into their Hall of Fame. See article about Rowland Ricketts and Peter Thiele on page 82.
1966 Betsy Ward Alexander finally reached a point of restlessness in retirement and joined with a friend to establish a new business, Good Words Editorial Services
(goodwordsnh.com). Travel, family, and the garden keep her moving. Betsy wrote “Seriously, folks, the world seems full of promise and opportunity, and my glasses are still half full and rose-colored.”
1968 Lyle Manheimer wrote in that he is still enjoying retirement after 10 years. He also rides a motorcycle almost every day.
1973 See photo from Trish “Patty” Soffer Mainwaring on page 84.
1974 See photo of Anne Rosenberg on page 84.
1977 John Mills shared that he had a lovely time connecting with classmates during Alumni Weekend. He also enjoyed attending the Former Faculty & Staff Reception where he and Marie Hageman talked with their Ninth Grade Math Teacher John Mahoney. They also spoke with their seventh grade math teacher Grace Blackburn, whom John and Marie knew as Mrs. Kennedy.
1980 The Class of 1980 had a mini-reunion on March 22. See photo on page 84.
1982 See photo of Linda Federici on page 84.
1961
1958 Brenda Kumpf Donahue is happily volunteering in animal welfare at a non-profit shelter helping with the socialization of felines, adoptions, low-cost spray/neuter, marketing, and trap-neuterreturn. She is looking to possibly relocate with her significant other, Chuck Herbruck, to the Chesapeake Bay near her daughter. Saundra Griffith Nottingham is looking forward to the class’s very special 60th reunion in 2018. She shared, “In all our family travels over the last almost 60 years, I’ve always enjoyed opportunities to return to MFS and see special friends from days FALL 2017
Bill Archer is still active as the town crier mascot with the Historical Society of Moorestown. He can be seen at various events for the Historical Society and a few local events in Moorestown. AMONG FRIENDS
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Class Notes
1984
See photo of Alison Judah on page 86.
See photo of Beth Petrie on page 85.
1973
See photo of Nicole Edmund on page 85. See photo of Jay Patel on page 85.
1986 See photo of Dave Jefferds on page 86.
1987 Adrienne Hollander is living and working in South Jersey. She is the managing partner
1974 and 1982
Linda Federici ’82 and Anne Rosenberg ’74 visited the Upper School Social Psychology: Canine Corner Intensive Learning class in March. Together, Anne and Linda talked about all the different types of work that dogs can do, including being therapy dogs. They also spoke about the the different competitions that dogs can participate in, particularly earthdog trials.
Trish “Patty” Soffer Mainwaring shared that she is excited that her daughter-in-law, Rachel Mainwaring, will begin teaching third grade at MFS for the 2017-18 school year. She wrote, “It is a dream come true that my granddaughters, Chloe and Janie, will be attending first grade and preschool at MFS too! I look forward to visiting frequently as I will be retiring as a teacher in June 2017. So happy to continue the MFS tradition!” Pictured are Rachel and Janie.
1980
Members of the Class of ’80 gathered on the evening of March 22 at the Harvest Seasonal Grill and Wine Bar at the Moorestown Mall. Thanks to Ken Stevens, Andrew Searle Pang, and Ken Zekavat for organizing the event. Pictured are Anthony Lyras, Ken Wunsch, Ken Zekavat, Ken Stevens, Andrew Searle Pang, Sollie Pinkston Miles, Tom Edmunds, Stefani Bryen Kasdin, Mellonaé Mumford, and Marc Cohen. 84
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Class Notes
1984
1986
Beth Petrie and her son, Tyler Radack ’17, and daughter, Lauren Radack ’19, at Commencement.
1984
Nicole Edmund and her daughter, Mattie Sloan ’17, at Commencement. business valuation and providing financial professionals with the ability to prospect for and improve relationships with clients.
1992 See photo from Christopher Wershoven on page 86.
1998
Jay Patel with his son Sachin ’23, wife Yogini, daughter Saiya ’22, daughter Sarina ’17, and daughter Sonia ’19 at Commencement. in a large rheumatology practice in the area. Both her boys, Ari and Zev, attend Moorestown Friends and are in fifth and fourth grade. She shared, “It’s wonderful to be on campus and see old friends!”
1988 Jill Carey-Melton currently lives in Moorestown and her daughter will begin seventh grade at MFS in the fall. She received her Doctorate in Psychology in FALL 2017
2006 from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. See photo of Janice Johnston on page 86.
1991 Michael Carter was named a finalist for the Philadelphia Business Journal’s Entrepreneur of the Year award for E-services as the founder of BizEquity. Launched in 2010, BizEquity specializes in
Kalia Brooks was featured in an ART NET story about female art curators who are changing the game. The article described her project of co-curating the 2016 edition of Jamaica Flux, a public art project from the Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning that will bring site-specific work from 19 artists and collectives to unconventional locations along Jamaica Avenue in Queens. She also is collaborating with Hank Willis Thomas on the Philly Block Project, a year-long community-based photo project at the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center. Kalia was formerly the exhibitions director at Brooklyn’s Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts and, in 2015, curated a historically-minded art exhibition at the mayor’s home with New York’s Gracie Mansion Conservancy.
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Class Notes
1992
1986
Christopher Wershoven and his wife Erika welcomed a son, Seamus (named after poet Seamus Heaney), in June.
2003
Alison Judah organized a yoga team for the Living Beyond Breast Cancer’s Reach and Raise event on May 21 to honor her mother, Barbara C. Ross, who passed away in March from the disease. The team raised money that will help LBBC offer support to patients with breast cancer and to their families.
1986 & 1988
1998 See photo from Dr. Tracy Ransome on page 88. Michael Franco recently moved back to New Jersey with his wife, Nicole, and 2-year-old son, Mikey. He took a position as a reconstructive plastic surgeon at Cooper Hospital. He would like to extend his gratitude to family, friends, and the Moorestown Friends teachers that have supported him and helped him get to where he is today.
2002 Janice Johnston caught up with Dave Jefferds ’86 during Princeton University reunions in June (Janice’s 25th). Dave had shown her around the university when she was an admitted student and deciding where to enroll, so she was overjoyed to see him and remember their shared MFS bond. 86
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Erika Richardson Hall and her husband, Kareem, welcomed a gorgeous baby girl named Eila Olivia Hall on February 23. Eila met Isaiah, Fanny Mixter Babajide’s son, in the spring.
2004 Justine Korkor Sarraf and her husband currently live in Vermont. They became parents in March welcoming a baby boy Samson Marius Sarrah. He weighed 9 lbs, the same birth weight of his mom!
See photo of Richard Stouffer on page 88.
2005
2003
Doug Tracey was married on May 20 to Ashley Elizabeth Mohler in Las Vegas. The best man was Scott Wardell ’02 and the groomsmen were Dan Brooks and Dave Knospe. Doug and Ashley reside in Northfield, NJ.
See photo of Erika Richardson Hall above. See article about Deborah Harris Beard on page 87.
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Class Notes
2003 Deborah Harris Beard Leaves the D.C. Rush and Becomes a Bed & Breakfast Owner in Virginia For the past few years, Deborah Harris Beard and her husband Drew were seriously intrigued by the idea of operating their own bed and breakfast. Both were working in Washington DC, Deb as a climate change and energy consultant at ICF and Drew at the Department of Defense, but they dreamt of what it would be like to work together in the hospitality industry. Both enjoyed hosting people at their home, so they were most interested in the personal interaction piece of owning an inn. Each had their own strengths to contribute. Deb loves to bake and make breakfast, and she’s skilled at bookkeeping and accounting. Drew is a whiskey and spirits connoisseur, full of personality, and knows how to market a brand well. With their combined talents, Deb and Drew decided to take a leap of faith and officially opened their doors at the Gay Street Inn in Washington, VA in April. “Drew and I just thought ‘Why wait until we’re older to do this?’ when we can do it now,” said Deb. The couple kickstarted their search by attending a weekend seminar in August 2016 that taught them the logistics of becoming inn owners and they met a broker Deb and her husband Drew. and consultant team that helped them begin their search. They wanted to stay close to downtown D.C., as Deb’s brother Jeffrey Harris ’03 and friends still lived in the area, yet they wanted to be far enough from the capital to feel definitively outside the city. Deb and Drew also knew that they wanted to buy an existing B&B property to ease the transition of getting it ready for guests. Eventually Deb and Drew found the Gay Street Inn in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, about an hour and a half west of DC. In February, Drew quit his government job to focus full-time on promotion with creating the inn’s website, writing blog posts, and refreshing the decor. On April 12, Deb and Drew welcomed their first guests as the new owners. “I was definitely anxious but luckily we had very nice first guests,” said Deb. “We had good feedback, which built our confidence, and the anxiousness went away after the first week. Now it seems very comfortable and I’m enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would! I had concerns with balancing this work with staying on part-time with my other job. But we were pleasantly surprised as the startup takes the most work and as we’ve settled into a routine somewhat, it’s not as much work as we initially thought. Of course, we came from D.C. careers where we were working 60+ hours a week too!” Deb and Drew hope to stay in “Little” Washington, VA for the long haul as they love getting to know their guests and introducing people to their area. Unexpectedly, one of their first guests attended Moorestown Friends. “My husband was downstairs talking to some folks and they discovered that one attended Moorestown Friends and was married in the Meeting House,” said Deb. “It’s a small world and such a coincidence that she stayed with us within our first few weeks.” This year, Deb and Drew will celebrate their six-year wedding anniversary. Deb is a member of the MFS Head’s Advisory Board. To learn more about the Gay Street Inn, visit gaystreetinn.com.
See photo of Luke Van Meter on page 89. See photo of Will Stouffer on page 88
day of a showdown vote in Congress on the passage of the American Health Care Act to replace Obamacare.
2006
2007
Ben Spielberg, a research associate at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, co-authored an Op-Ed in the March 22 edition of The New York Times titled “Medicaid Work Rules Won’t Work.” It was a very significant piece to have published on the
LeighAnn Matthews presented at the 2017 NJTESOL/NJBE Spring Conference about empowering English language learners through the use of technology, specifically using “Seesaw,” a digital portfolio. The website/app helps students develop key language skills in the areas of
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reading, writing, listening, and speaking, while also building a home-school connection. LeighAnn is an elementary ESL teacher in East Brunswick Public Schools and a current member of the East Brunswick IT Instructional Council. See photo of Ann Stouffer on page 88.
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Class Notes
2002
Richard Stouffer and Kerry Lambert were married on April 22 at Underground Arts in Philadelphia. Richard is the production manager of UA, and Kerry is an education specialist for Foundations for a Brighter Future, a national non-profit. They met as next-door neighbors in South Philadelphia in 2007, and now make their home in Queen Village. Pictured are Richard’s brother Will Stouffer ’05, his mother MFS Associate Director of Development Beth Stouffer, the groom, his bride, his father Chris Stouffer, and his sister MFS Varsity Lacrosse Coach Ann Stouffer ’07.
1998
Dr. Tracy Ransome is a chiropractic doctor in Los Angeles specializing in Network Spinal Analysis, a very unique, gentle, and powerful type of holistic chiropractic medicine that helps to give patients increased energy and awareness. Her website is DrTracyRansome.com. 88
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2008 Darcy Berenberg completed a M.A. in teaching Spanish and TESOL at New York University in 2016. Her first year was spent in Madrid, Spain writing a thesis entirely in Spanish that evaluated the efficacy of an English as a New Language (ENL) textbook used in elementary classrooms in Spain. She also studied phonetics and sociolinguistics while in Madrid and taught in a bilingual elementary school. Her second year was completed in NYC, consisting of both coursework and student teaching in both traditional and dual-language classrooms. In the fall of 2016, Darcy started working at Mary McDowell Friends School in Brooklyn, which serves students with disabilities. Darcy teaches middle school Spanish, literacy, math, and service learning. Darcy feels right at home in a Quaker school and is looking forward to new school year. Rich Rinaldi was engaged to Hadley Kunz on Easter Sunday at the top of Glen Onoko Falls in the Poconos. They first met at Camp Ockanickon in 2006. Rich is an analyst at Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health, and
Hadley is a program director at Riverbend Environmental Education Center. Kristen Stobbe Jesperson began her sixth year of teaching this fall. She currently is a Prekindergarten teacher and Summer Camp Director at Haddonfield Friends. She shared, “I felt a constant yearning to one day return to a Friends school, which I was happy to achieve last year.” Alyss Vavricka was elected to the Board of the Alumnae Association of Barnard College as Chair of Barnard’s Young Alumnae Committee. She has been involved with the committee since 2015 and served as acting Chair throughout the past year before formally beginning her role in July.
2009 Sophie Demuynck became engaged on April 16 to Heidi Grego.
2013 Joe Kiernan received the prestigious 2017 Thouron Award following his graduation from the University of Pennsylvania. FALL 2017
Class Notes
Share Your News with Friends
2005
Moorestown Friends School encourages all alumni to share their news for Class Notes. To contribute, please email communications@ mfriends.org with updates on your life and any high resolution photos you would like to submit for publication. If you prefer, you can also write to Assistant Director of Marketing and Communications Stephanie Huie, Moorestown Friends School, 110 E. Main St., Moorestown, NJ 08057.
Class Notes received after July 15 will be printed in the next issue of Among Friends.
Among Friends Web Extras Luke Van Meter started as an MBA candidate at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth in August. The academic award allows students of outstanding ability to pursue a graduate degree at any university in the United Kingdom. Joe chose to study at the University of Cambridge and will pursue a M.Phil. in International Relations and Politics.
2013
See photo of Simone Stanley at right.
Access additional information, media links, and more by scanning this QR code or by visiting the Among Friends section of the school website under “News.”
Vashti Williams returned to MFS this fall to serve as the inaugural teaching intern. In the newly created position, Vashti will be mentored by several veteran teachers and she will contribute to many aspects of the MFS program in the Middle and Upper Schools.
2014 Lawrence (formerly Kirsten) Mullen shared the news: “I graduated undergrad a year early and will be attending Arcadia University to pursue their dual degree master of arts in English and a master of fine arts in Poetry program.”
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Simone Stanley was recognized by Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honor society, as one of three 2017 Laureates, or engineering students who have excelled in areas beyond their technical majors. She will be honored on October 14 at the 112th Tau Beta Pi Convention in Michigan, and she will receive a $2,500 award and a commemorative plaque. Simone, who graduated with a degree in chemical engineering from Howard University in the spring, was honored for her achievement in the arts, particularly in music, dance, and choreography. AMONG FRIENDS
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Class Notes
Alumni Lacrosse Game 2017 The annual Alumni Lacrosse game was held on June 3. Many thanks to Tim Yingling ’09 for organizing the event and to the many parents and friends who came to watch. Participants included: (kneeling) Tevin Rivera ’13, Doug Tracey ’05, Greg Yingling ’11, Andy Cook ’15, Nick Cook ’11, Matt Gaiser ’12, Daniel McGinn ’14, Joseph Nyzio ’17, Andrew DeNittis ’17, Spencer Dennis ’17, Tim Yingling ’09, Spencer Krohn, (standing) Shane Rowan, Program Founding Coach Steve Yingling, John Murray, Adeola James ’13, Joe Filippone ’11, Kieran McMenamin ’16, Kyle Koste ’11, Dylan Eni ’16, Joe Beideman ’15, Mike Murray ’08, John Latimer ’11, Tim Latimer ’13, Sam Madamba ’14, Trevor Golden ’14, Jackson Blanchard ’17, Varsity Boys’ Lacrosse Head Coach Michael McGinn, and Harrison Krohn ’11.
Seiji Moriuchi Wiffle Ball Tournament 2017
The 3rd Annual Seiji Moriuchi Wiffle Ball Tournament was held at MFS on June 3. The event was organized by Ryan Winkelspecht ’98 and Math Teacher, Varsity Baseball Coach, and Assistant Athletic Director Ron Obermeier. The event celebrates Seiji’s life and was attended by many members of his family, as well as friends and numerous alumni. Eight teams competed in the tournament, which generated more than $2,000 in proceeds to be added to the Seiji Moriuchi ’98 Endowed Scholarship. The winning team members included alumni Stephen Haines ’08, Drew Haines ‘11, Adam Quaranta ’15, and John Nutaitis ’15. Adam also slugged the most home runs in the tournament.
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In Memoriam Deirdre Clark ’76
Mary Hull Lewis ’49
A. Carter Fergusson ’41 husband of Ruth Coe Fergusson ’45
Manoj Patel father of Naiya Patel ’23, Anjali Patel ’31, and Milan Patel ’31
Ruth Coe Fergusson ’45 wife of A. Carter Ferugsson ’41 Terry Harman mother of the late Betsy Harman Johnson ’63, Matt Harman ’67, and mother-in-law of former School Committee member J. Floyd Johnson Reagan Hull ’62 husband of Debbie Miller Hull ’63, brother of James Dixon Hull III ’56 and Mary Hull Saldino ’59, son of the late Alta Mary Reagan Hull ’32, grandson of the late Headmaster Chester Reagan, son-in-law of the late faculty member G. Macculloch “Cully” Miller and former School Committee member Carolyn Miller, and brother-in-law of the late Jennifer Miller ’65
Pauline S. Pennington Beatrice Smolens mother of Brian G. Smolens ’66 and former faculty member Lois Taylor Stegenga ’44 sister of the late Katharine Taylor ’38 Mary Hilton Stow ‘45
Editor’s Note: Full obituaries are found on the MFS website. “In Memoriam” lists the passing of the following: alumni; immediate family of alumni (father, mother, child, spouse, sibling); current parents; current and past faculty and staff; spouses, partners and children of current faculty, staff and administration; current and former trustees; and spouses and children of current trustees. Notices will include any of the deceased’s relatives who are MFS alumni. To locate full obituaries on the MFS website, navigate to “News” in the top menu of www.mfriends.org and then select “Among Friends Magazine.” Alumni who do not have access to the Internet may contact Director of Marketing and Communications Mike Schlotterbeck at (856) 914-4434 to request a hard copy of an obituary. FALL 2017
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May Day MFS will celebrate one of its oldest traditions, May Day, this spring on May 4. The Elizabethan celebration of spring will include festivities such as the Maypole Dance, special performances, music, crafts, and roving costumed characters.
Pictured is May Day 1974 with May Day Queen Anne Rosenberg ’74.
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Congratulations, MFS Class of 2017!
Melissa Abrams - George Washington University Camille Aguilar - University of Chicago Ahimsa Aradhya - Johns Hopkins University Meredith Aristone - Temple University Alexander Barrett - Northeastern University John Barton - Gap Year (National Security Language Initiative for Youth Russian Academic Year Program) Olivier Bastien - University of Delaware Lauren Becker - Ursinus College Rebecca Berg - University of Scranton Hannah Bianco - Flagler College Jackson Blanchard - Rochester Institute of Technology Nicolas Boller - University of Maryland, College Park Noah Borromeo - New York University Ian Bucci - Drexel University Lauren Buck - Cabrini University Dylan Carilli - Loyola University Maryland Kendall Carty - The College of New Jersey Jeremiah Charles - Howard University Dozier Coles - Stockton University Janasia Copling - Rutgers University - Camden Connor Cronk - Muhlenberg College Andrew DeNittis - Saint Joseph’s University Spencer Dennis - Drexel University Jacob Desman - Johns Hopkins University Bradford Devlin - University of Vermont
Dragon Ding - Boston University Maura DiVentura - Lafayette College Steven Dong - Rutgers University - Camden Tori Edelstein - Syracuse University Jessica Ferber - Cornell University Mateo Flores - Ithaca College Bradford Geyer - Lehigh University Leah Gimeno - Gap Year Julia Giordano - Haverford College Hunter Harris - New York University Aparna Hiremath - University of California, Davis Alexander Horn - Columbia University Ivo Iovanovitch - Drexel University Byron Kasper - University of Delaware Katherine Kasperson - College of William & Mary Amanda Kezbari - West Chester University of Pennsylvania Grace Kim - New York University Alyssa Klier - Wake Forest University Matthew Knowlton - Hamilton College Charles Kropiewnicki - University of Maryland, College Park Ewan Larkin - Loyola University Maryland Xin Li - Northeastern University Noah Magaziner - University of Delaware Lucia Mayser - Ursinus College Rebecca McGrath - Rutgers University - New Brunswick Kirstin McKeown - Bucknell University
Kirindeep Momi - Drexel University Isaac Muñoz - Drexel University Joseph Nyzio - Saint Joseph’s University Elijah O’Neal - Delta State University Mary Omilian - Wagner College Sarina Patel - Virginia Tech Caroline Paw - Pennsylvania State University Tyler Radack - Boston College Katherine Repholz - James Madison University Jose Rivera - Drew University Kelcie Satterthwaite - University of Virginia Michael Sawyer - Drexel University Katie Schuyler - Tulane University Medina Shah - Barnard College Mattie Sloan - Seattle University Tyler Soso - Seton Hall University Alyssa Spates - Stockton University Daniella Spector - University of Vermont Zachary Swope - Delaware Valley University Hannah Thomson - McDaniel College Nicholas Tursi - University of Pennsylvania Jordan White - Syracuse University Rachael Whitley - Barnard College Hanlan Yang - University of Pittsburgh Natalie Zakroff - The College of New Jersey Haiqi Zhou - University of California, Irvine
Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Cinnaminson, NJ Permit No. 81 110 East Main Street Moorestown, NJ 08057-2949
Alumni Soccer – Nov. 25 Alumni Field Hockey – Nov. 25 Alumni Basketball – Dec. 15 Alumni Weekend & Class Reunions – May 4-5 May Day – May 4 60th Anniversary of Girls’ Lacrosse – May 5 Boys’ Alumni Lacrosse – June 2