Spring 2017 MOORESTOWN FRIENDS SCHOOL
Among Friends
What We Read and Why We Write
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
Spring 2017
From the Head of School
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Administration News
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Notes from Pages Lane
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Fox Tracks
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Career Day
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Feature: What We Read And Why We Write
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Class Notes
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In Memoriam
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Spotlight on Student Artwork
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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: Lukash Kulchyckyj ’21 and Christine Chandran ’21 in the Woodward Henry Diller Memorial Library reading I Am Malala by Christina Lamb, Malala Yousafzai, and Patricia McCormick. In the “What We Read and Why We Write” feature beginning on page 18, read about the atypical MFS English program, see hand-drawn sketches by Kendall Carty ’17, be transported back in time to the 1950’s through a short story by Alex Horn ’17, and enjoy profiles about alumni writers and artists.
Graphic Design Alison Judah ’86, Hypno Design
Associate Director of Development Beth Stouffer
Photography Peter Chollick, Juliane Frank, Curt Hudson, Stephanie Huie, 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. SPRING 2017
About the Cover
Printed on recycled paper. AMONG FRIENDS
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From the Head of School
Students hard at work in an Upper School English class taught by Jean Ricketts in 1967.
The Importance of Reading...and Writing When I was a student at MFS, I had superb English teachers like Jean Ricketts, Carolyn Hedges, Mona Darnell, and Jerry Delamater. They instilled in me an appreciation for the power of the written word. They taught me to keep it short, avoid reference errors, eschew the passive voice, and never split infinitives. I try hard to be true to those learnings — but regularly fall short. We read books that were not part of the 1960s high school canon. The Catcher in the Rye, The Grapes of Wrath, and To Kill a Mockingbird were not on the syllabus. Those novels are - and were - great literature. But the English department chose unusual and hard titles. We felt like college students as we probed the motives of billionaire Claire Zachanassian in Durrenmatt’s The Visit and tried to connect with Lucas Beauchamp in Faulkner’s Intruder in the Dust (and we felt ever-so sophisticated in knowing that Beauchamp was pronounced “Beacham” in Jim Crow Mississippi). We explored existentialism in Waiting for Godot by Beckett and The Stranger by Camus. Writing coherent essays based on rich, unconventional literature was a challenge. But, our assignments required us to draw on perceptions that we didn’t know we had within us, and the assignments required a degree of precision and clarity made all the more important by the ambiguity of the material. It was hard. And it was good because it was hard. As this issue of Among Friends describes, a focus on unconventional literature continues at MFS. Students consume contemporary fiction and express themselves in writing and in class discussions about works such as The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie, The History of Love by Nicole Krauss, A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan, and many more. There are practical benefits to studying mind-bending literature. Our students learn the timeless skill of being able to write - and think clearly about complex ideas. As Tony Wagner put it in The Global Achievement Gap, the book that helped form the foundation of our 2011 Strategic Plan: “While it’s obviously important to write and speak correctly, the complaints I heard most frequently [from prominent business leaders] were more about fuzzy thinking and the lack of writing with a real voice.” And our students do indeed benefit directly: In a 2015 survey done for us by Rockbridge Associates, 86% of our recent graduates reported being better prepared in “writing ability” than their peers in college or the workplace. I hope you enjoy this issue exploring “What We Read, and Why We Write.” Sincerely,
Larry Van Meter ’68 Head of School 2
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Larry Van Meter Announces Retirement in 2018; Head of School Search Underway In November, Head of School Larry Van Meter announced his retirement, effective at the end of the 2017-18 school year, in a letter to the school community. Commented MFS School Committee Clerk Nick Smith: “Larry is the embodiment of what is most special about Moorestown Friends School, combining a pursuit of excellence in everything he does with a gentleness of spirit and ethical strength. Faculty, staff, students, parents, and alumni all know Larry to be kind and generous, extremely bright and hardworking, and with a signal ability for strategic planning and institutional vision and leadership.” Clerking the Head of School Search Committee are Smith and Trustee and former Associate Head of School Barbara Rose Caldwell. MFS has retained Isaacson, Miller consultants to help conduct the search. In January, Issacson, Miller conducted an online survey and spent two days on campus for “Listening Sessions” with a wide variety of groups from the Moorestown Friends School community. From this work, a Head of School position description was created and advertising for the position has begun. For a complete record of all school communications about the Head of School search process as well as a Q & A fact sheet, the position description, and a listing of the members of the search committee, please visit: www.mfriends.org/head-ofschool-search.
US Director News Meredith Hanamirian Appointed Upper School Director In March, Head of School Larry Van Meter announced that Director of College Counseling Meredith Hanamirian has been appointed Upper School Director effective July 1. Meredith was selected from a strong group of finalists, emerging from a comprehensive national search. “I have spent more than 20 years of my life in Quaker schools as a student, teacher, parent, administrator, and college counselor,” she said. “I believe strongly in the value of Quaker education and look forward to working with our community in this exciting new role.” Meredith has been the Director of College Counseling at MFS since 2010. She is responsible for the operation of the three-person office that serves all students and families as they navigate the college search and application process. Meredith also taught Upper School Spanish from 2010-14, and she co-designed the acclaimed MFS Peer Leadership program, which began in 2014. She coclerks Upper School faculty meetings, co-clerked the school’s Diversity Committee from 2012-16, and was heavily involved in the school’s strategic planning process in the early part of this decade. An experienced independent school teacher and administrator, Meredith previously worked as Director of Admission and Financial Aid, Director of College Counseling, and as a Spanish teacher at Wardlaw-Hartridge School in Edison, NJ. Prior to Wardlaw-Hartridge, she taught Spanish at Dana Hall School in Wellesley, MA and McLean School in Potomac, MD. She has an M.A. in private school leadership from Columbia University’s Teachers College and a B.A. in psychology from Bates College. She is also a graduate of Sidwell Friends School in Washington, DC, where she was the student government president. Meredith and her husband, John, live in Moorestown and are parents of Ella ‘20 and Vani ‘22, who have been MFS students since Preschool.
Justin Brandon Accepts Position in Chicago In February, Head of School Larry Van Meter announced that Upper School Director Justin Brandon has been appointed Upper School Head at Francis W. Parker School in Chicago beginning in the 2017-18 school year. Justin arrived at MFS in 2012 from Episcopal Academy to fill the Upper School Director’s role vacated by Chris Kimberly when he became the Academic Dean and Associate Head of School. In his five years at Moorestown Friends, Justin helped create the much-lauded Peer Leadership program and has guided significant changes in the Advisory program, Intensive Learning, and Senior Capstone projects.
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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.
March 17 Lani Haynes and Jannette Cano-Schenk co-chaired a very successful Parent Council Auction at Collingswood Grand Ballroom.
March 13 For the fifth straight year, fourth grade students led a jump roping assembly in the West Gym for younger Lower School classes. The assembly is held in memory of George Thomas, father of Prekindergarten Teacher Lisa Martin ’84, who taught at MFS for 25 years.
January 12 Preschool students learned more about the ocean and sea creatures thanks to some polished presentations by Teri Kaiser’s first graders.
January 24 Middle School students were introduced to instruments such as the guqin and erhu on a trip to Philadelphia’s Chinatown to celebrate the Chinese New Year.
January 8 Lauren Kam ’21 performed as the principal violist in the South Jersey Band and Orchestra Director’s Association’s 2017 Middle School Orchestra Concert at Rowan University.
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January 7 Coding Teacher Liz Kahn and Computer Lab Assistant Matt Wartenberg ’07 attended the iOS Developer Camp in Manhattan and won Best Community Action App for their app called Witness. The Developer Camp, a two-day hackathon held January 7-8, was hosted at Google NYC by one of the original founders of Twitter, Dom Sagolla.
November 18 Upper School students performed and produced the musical production You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown. SPRING 2017
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November 15 Calvin Bell III ’20 was one of 20 young innovators in the U.S. selected as a 2016 Entertainment Software Association Leaders on the Fast Track Video Game Innovation Fellow for his design of a mobile application called “Waste-To-Move,” an environmental neighborhood watch app for urban areas.
November 4 Garrett McVaugh and Stephanie Morris often take their preschool classes to the wooded area near the community garden and Hartman Hall for “Forest Friday.” Lessons and activities are conducted outdoors so students have the opportunity to further explore their senses and the natural world.
November 8 On Election Day, the Middle School held a Mock Electoral College Assembly to study the presidential election process in an engaging, nonpartisan, and research-driven manner. This academic program was singularly focused on predicting the candidate for whom each state would cast its electoral votes. 6
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October 14 Nick Tursi ’17 was one of four American students that competed in the 9th “Chinese Bridge” Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign Secondary School Students in Kunming, China from October 14-31. Nick and a partner placed second in both North and South America out of 91 teams from 86 countries, and advanced as one of the top 30 teams to the semifinals. He was awarded a Certificate of Excellence and a half-year scholarship to a Confucius Institute-affiliated university in China. Mandarin Teacher Li Li (pictured) accompanied and advised Nick during the competition.
September 23 For the fall sports season, a few Lower School classes “adopted” a varsity sports team. The Upper School students shared details about their sport and the team’s progress, while Lower School students cheered on their teams at home games. SPRING 2017
September 23 At a special gathering with trustees and the school’s administrative council, the Field House was renamed The Mel and Diane Baiada Field House in thanks and recognition for the $3 million challenge match that Mel and Diane Baiada made as part of the Campaign for Arts, Athletics and Endowment in 2001. This generous gift helped to make the construction of the Field House and the renovation to the Arts Center possible. AMONG FRIENDS
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Fox Tracks
That Championship Moment… Boys’ Soccer players rush goalkeeper Teddy Kinzler ’18 at the end of the penalty kick shootout against Academy of the New Church which crowned the Foxes as Friends Schools League champions on November 1.
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Fox Tracks Boys’ Soccer Captures First FSL Championship in School History After finishing in fifth place in a tightly contested Friends League Boys’ Soccer regular season, the Foxes first traveled to fourth-seeded Westtown for a first round league playoff matchup. In the pouring rain, a second-half equalizer by OIivier Bastien ’17 knotted the score at 1-1 and that score held through two overtime periods. In the bestof-five penalty kick shootout, Ollie Frank ‘19 scored the clinching kick to lift the Foxes into the semifinals, 4-2 in the shootout. Next up was top-seeded Germantown Friends two days later. After playing 100 minutes on Thursday vs. Westtown, the Foxes once again found themselves in a marathon match as the teams played their hearts out to no avail, with the match ending 0-0 after 80 minutes of regulation and 20 minutes of overtime. This time in the shootout, five kicks were not able to settle the match as the score remained tied at 3-3. Finally, on the ninth kick, a GFS player shot high and wide, and the Foxes advanced to the FSL final for the first time in school history with a 6-5 shootout win. Two days later and one day before the FSL final, the team was required to play their first round NJSIAA playoff match. More drama found its way into the team’s story as it took a Bastien goal 54 seconds into overtime to send the Foxes into the sectional quarterfinals. The FSL final was played the next day at third-seeded Academy of the New Church (ANC). Amazingly, the Foxes found themselves in a scoreless draw after regulation and headed to overtime for the fourth straight game. Overtime would not settle the match and the teams headed to a shootout – one of the most amazing penalty kick shootouts that fans will ever witness. The teams went back and forth for 12 kicks until Ivo Iovanovitch ’17 successfully converted his spot kick and the ANC kicker hit the crossbar to ignite an MFS celebration – a 8-7 victory in penalty kicks. It was the first FSL Boys’ Soccer title in school history (the league was founded in 1981). Two days later the team found themselves in overtime and a shootout once again, as they tied Gloucester Catholic 1-1 after overtime, but fell in the shootout, 5-4, to end their season. It was a thrilling eight-day period that the student-athletes won’t soon forget.
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Goalie Teddy Kinzler ‘18 saves what would have been the ANC clinching kick in the FSL championship match shootout.
By the Numbers:
481
minutes of soccer played in five games over eight days by the Boys’ Soccer team during their playoff run – the equivalent of more than six regulation high school matches
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penalty kicks faced by goalkeeper Teddy Kinzler ‘18 in five playoff matches
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matches that ended in a tie or one-goal margin during the Boys’ Soccer season (of 21 total matches)
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penalty kick goals scored by the Boys’ Soccer team in the penalty kick shootout which decided the Friends Schools League championship (won by the Foxes 8-7 on the 12th kicker)
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Fox Tracks Girls’ Tennis Captures South Jersey Championship The 2016 Girls’ Tennis team added to the school’s tennis trophy case by capturing the program’s seventh NJSIAA Non-Public B South championship with a 3-2 victory over Ranney School on October 18. Third singles player Elena Styliades ’20, won the deciding match at third singles. It was the first Girls’ Tennis sectional championship for MFS since 2007. The Foxes fell one step short of a state championship, falling to Newark Academy, 3-2. Newark Academy ended the season ranked No. 3 in the entire state of New Jersey, all divisions. The MFS team, which finished with a record of 15-6, was led by Renna Mohsen-Breen ’20 and Jess Ferber ’17. Mohsen-Breen compiled a record of 22-4 at first singles and was named County Player of the Year by the Burlington County Times. She Renna Mohsen-Breen was also named All-South Jersey, and Second Team All-State. Ferber ended her season at second singles with a record of 24-3 and was also named AllCounty by the BCT. She won the Burlington County Open second singles tournament championship for four consecutive years. She also received All-South Jersey and All-State group honors. Ferber posted a record of 83-17 in 100 singles matches during her high school career.
By the Numbers:
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team victories for the Girls’ Tennis team in 2016 against very strong league and non-league opposition
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NJSIAA Girls’ Tennis sectional championships in school history
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singles matches won by Jess Ferber ‘17 in her career freshmen on the 2016 Girls’ Tennis team matches won by first singles player Renna Mohsen-Breen ’20
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Fox Tracks Girls’ Basketball Enjoys Historic Season Stingy defense, boundless energy, and team spirit marked a record-breaking season for the Girls’ Basketball team in 201617. Despite having just two seniors on the roster, Coach Mike Brunswick’s team set the program record for wins in a season with 21. They finished with a mark of 21-5. The team went 16-0 against New Jersey opposition until their 35-26 defeat to Holy Spirit in the NJSIAA sectional quarterfinals. Season highlights included: appearances in the Philadelphia Inquirer Girls Basketball Top Ten and Courier-Post “Mean 15,” winning the Pitman Holiday Tournament, an invitation to participate in a South Jersey Invitational Basketball Tournament showcase game - a 47-30 victory over Haddon Heights, and qualification for Friends Schools League and NJSIAA playoffs. Charlotte Stern ‘18 surpassed 1,000 career points during a 58-24 first round NJSIAA playoff victory over Doane Academy in front of a packed Baiada Field House. Bella Runyan ‘20 set the program record for steals in a season with 127, surpassing the mark of 99 achieved by MFS English Teacher and Assistant Coach Katie Stutz ‘09. Bella also set the record for assists in a season with 92, breaking the record previously held by Mara Cutler Katsikis ‘99 (80).
Bella Runyan ‘20 set Girls’ Basketball program records for assists and steals in a season.
By the Numbers:
21 16 1,024 127 92
team victories - a program record straight victories over New Jersey opponents career points for Charlotte Stern ‘18 steals by Bella Runyan ‘20, a program record assists by Bella Runyan ‘20, a program record
A capacity crowd watched the Girls’ Basketball team win their first round NJSIAA playoff game and Charlotte Stern (pictured) score her 1,000th career point. 12
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Holiday Tourney Champs!
The Girls’ Basketball team captured the Pitman Classic over Winter Break, defeating the hosts in the championship game, 43-21, after defeating Palmyra in the semifinal, 49-18. Charlotte Stern ‘18 was named tournament MVP.
The Boys’ Basketball team won the Audubon Holiday Tournament by defeating Holy Cross, 58-47, in the championship game. They advanced to the final with a 54-36 victory over Gloucester. Jordan White ‘17 was named tournament MVP.
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Fox Tracks 1 The Field Hockey team enjoyed a successful Friends Schools League season, finishing the regular season with a league record of 5-1-1. In the FSL semifinals, they defeated Shipley, 4-0, to earn the right to travel to top-seeded Academy of the New Church for the championship game. In the final, the team played very well in a 1-0 defeat, narrowly missing a few opportunities to tie the game. Pictured: Katy Repholz ‘17.
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2 Seven Field Hockey players were named to the National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) High School National Academic Squad: (l to r): Natalie Zakroff ’17, Hannah Thomson ’17, Alyssa Klier ’18, Katherine Repholz ’17, Kayleigh Schweiker ’18, Elizabeth Mayer ’18, and Katherine Kasperson ’17. In addition, Elizabeth Mayer was named a Scholar of Distinction. 3 Alexis Kasper ‘18 was named Honorable Mention All-State by the New Jersey Girls Soccer Coaches Association. 4 Dylan Carilli ‘17 was named Third Team All-South Jersey by the South Jersey Soccer Coaches Association (SJSCA). He was also named Honorable Mention All-State by the Soccer Coaches Association of New Jersey. He was selected to participate in the SJSCA Senior AllStar Game which took place on Tuesday, November 22 at RutgersCamden. 5 Charlotte Stern ‘18 and Jordan White ‘17 reached 1,000 points for their respective careers during the 2016-17 basketball season.
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6 Certified Athletic Trainer Kevin Cauley and Athletic Director Danielle Dayton are pictured with the new state-of-the art Vehicle that Kevin now uses to attend to student-athletes outdoors. Funds for the vehicle were provided Linda Van Name ’70 and the Red and Blue Club. Also of note... The Johns Hopkins women’s fencing team won the Eastern Women’s Fencing Conference (EWFC) Championship on February 20. Leading the way for the Blue Jays was Erin Chen ‘16, who also captured the EWFC individual sabre championship. Erin was named the EWFC Denise O’Connor Sabre Fencer of the Year!
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Career Day Dr. Stephanie A. Zarus Emboldens Students to Learn, Earn, and Return A student. An educator. A visionary business executive. A role model for giving back to the community. A big believer in creating ways for people to think differently. Those were the characterizations that Matthew Knowlton ’17 used to describe his mother, Dr. Stephanie A. Zarus, during his surprise introduction of her as the keynote speaker during the Grades 11 and 12 Career Day on February 10. Dr. Zarus opened her remarks by outlining her concept of the three phases in a career. “The first phase is the Learn phase where you learn everything you can. Then, when you learned enough, you begin to Earn. You begin to amass assets in whatever currency that is important to you, which may be collecting music, building a stock portfolio, writing publications, or receiving lots of awards and honors. You earn the currency that excites you. Then one day you sit quietly and reflect on who you are, what you’ve done, what your purpose is on Earth, and what you should be doing. You’ll say you’ve had enough of whatever it is you have been earning, and you will begin to Return. You’ll start giving back and find great joy because you are giving back on your own terms.” Dr. Zarus went on to share how Learn, Earn, and Return may appear differently in the careers of the Upper School students. Through advances in technology and medicine, more knowledge is accessible to humans than ever before and more time is available to humans than ever before as young people have a 50% chance to live to 100 years old. “You can Learn every minute; it’s at your fingertips. You can Earn at any moment. You have a social platform that connects you to the entire world. You can Return in any way you want, any time you want. It’s a different world now that you can Learn, Earn, and Return simultaneously.” But in recognition that career is not the only measure of success, Dr. Zarus explored three principles, or three circles, that she believed can intersect to create bliss. “Do something you absolutely love to do. I love to sing in church. I’m not good at it but it brings me joy. Be good at something. Consider this world your living laboratory and experiment until you find things that click. Then, after much practice, people will recognize you. Each one of you has a series of these circles in all kinds of things in your life, and if these three circles collide, that’s when the perfect storm happens. Your work will become a lifestyle. If in your career the circles are not connected, don’t worry, but keep your mind open to other opportunities when other circles can collide.” Dr. Zarus then traced the journey of her scientific and entrepreneurial career. In addition to co-founding Health Education Resources, Hospice Pharmacia and excelleRx, she co-founded the Mayes School of Heathcare and Business Policy at the University of the Sciences. As the Managing Director of Healthcare Innovation at
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Dr. Stephanie A. Zarus • Managing Director of Healthcare Innovation at the Avancer Group • Dean’s Professor at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia • Pharm.D./B.S. Philadelphia College of Pharmacy at the University of the Sciences Avancer Group, she is currently working to bring an anti-viral agent for the Zika virus to market. In addition, she serves on the boards of WHYY, Healthcare Improvement Foundation, Knowlton Foundation for Leadership Development, Calvary Presbyterian Church, and Moorestown Friends School. She concluded her remarks by urging the juniors and seniors to lean in whenever they reach pivot points in their lives. “Lean in. Learn, practice, surround yourself with experts, earn well in the currency that matters to you, and take the time to return by giving back. Now, go forth and write your own story so you can come back to Moorestown Friends to tell it.”
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CAREER DAY PRESENTERS
Omar Aguilar, MFS Parent Partner/Principal Deloitte Consulting LLP
Kathryn Park Cook, MFS Parent Head of School Frankford Friends School
Tim Fox, MFS Parent Founder and CEO FOX Rehabilitation
Vivian Pressley-Harris, MFS Parent AT&T
Aravind Immaneni, MFS Parent Chief Operations and Technology Officer Fifth Third Bank
Marge Jackson, MFS Parent Vice President for Call Center Sales Comcast
Greg Paw, MFS Parent Partner and Trial Lawyer Pepper Hamilton LLP
Mikel Pride ‘99 Family Medicine Doctor Overlook Medical Center
Adam Serlin ‘02 Director of Court Services NorthEast Treatment Center
Director of New Technology Product Development
These professionals visited MFS on February 10 to meet with 11th and 12th grade students to discuss their respective career paths and share advice as the students considered numerous career fields. Each presenter, along with keynoter Stephanie Zarus, hosted Upper School students in three breakout sessions.
Tim Stoeckle ‘10 Social Media Representative Philadelphia Phillies SPRING 2017
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What We Read and Why We Write Reading more than classics. Writing more than essays. English at Moorestown Friends has never been a “typical” reading and writing program, and the curriculum today may even surprise alumni who graduated from the school just a few years ago. Why? Students across all divisions are reading more than classic literature and writing more than standard scholarly essays. Of course, the English program is still rich with lessons on the fundamental pillars that all great writers rely upon – high-caliber storytelling, solid mechanics, and intellectual thinking. Students are also pushed to explore beyond the traditional canon by reading contemporary authors, thematic literature, texts set in geographic locations around the world, and books written about non-Western cultures. Young minds at MFS are challenged to experiment with all types of writing styles and forms, including screenwriting, poetry, short stories, flash fiction, memoirs, journalism, and more. The faculty is also striving to ignite the individual passions of students through personalization of the curriculum. This year, the Upper School revised its junior and senior syllabi to provide semester-long seminars modeled after liberal arts college courses, such as “The Supernatural and the Suppressed,”“Pride and Prejudice: LGBTQ American Literature,”“Caribbean Literature,” and “Literature and Sports.” The Lower School has continued to follow Columbia University’s Teachers College Reading and Writing Workshop program to support children at their proficiency levels, and the Middle School has carefully enhanced its book list each year to include more contemporary books with accessible themes relevant to young adults. Throughout the 15-year English program at Moorestown Friends the overarching mission is clear: build a foundation of critical reading and analytical logic skills to enable students to develop the tools to become sophisticated thinkers. As a result, MFS students typically average scores well over 600 in the Critical Reading and Writing sections of the SAT, always the highest in South Jersey by a significant margin.
Establishing and Enhancing the Building Blocks Teachers in the Beginnings at MFS early childhood program first explore literacy with preschool children by reading stories and introducing them to the letters of the alphabet. As the youngest three- and four-year old learners engage with books, they learn to ask predictive and analytic questions to build their vocabulary and comprehension of stories.
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Owned and Operated by the Student Voice Upper School students have opportunities to expand their writing skills through three elective courses linked to student publications: the newspaper WordsWorth, the arts and literary magazine IMAGES, and the Cupola yearbook. They are fully written, edited, and produced by students, giving them an insider’s look at the exhaustive process to create a publication from start to finish, including writing, editing, design, and composition. Highlights from each publication’s recent history: In 2016, WordsWorth began film broadcast productions in a new studio in the Greenleaf Building, as young journalists are often required to know how to create visual components to complement their written work in this digital age. IMAGES has been recognized for its striking original work. In 2015, the magazine won two awards - a Silver Medalist Certificate from the highly prestigious Columbia Scholastic Press Association and a second place honor from the American Scholastic Press Association. The 2016 Cupola won a Second Place Silver Award from the Garden State Scholastic Press Association, the authority on scholastic publications in New Jersey, improving upon its bronze award in 2015. The yearbook was also acknowledged in 2015 with a second place honor from the American Scholastic Press Association and a third place distinction from Herff Jones, the leading yearbook publishing company.
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What We Read and Why We Write “It is the talk that surrounds the reading that gives it power, helping children to bridge what is in the story with their own lives and helping to foster their love of literature,” said Lower School Director Kelly Banik. Next, Lower School students begin a personalized learning program developed by Columbia University’s Teachers College Reading and Writing Workshop. Kindergarten through fourth grade faculty approach reading and writing instruction by individually conferencing with students, while guiding the entire class with mini-lessons and targeted strategies. Partner reading and small focus groups are integral to the program so classmates can assist each other with vocabulary and comprehension. Teachers still read books aloud but they make these readings interactive by frequently pausing to ask the class to retell part of the story or identify an important message. Faculty model reading strategies such as how to use context clues to infer what unfamiliar words mean. Lower School students also have the benefit of further support from the full-time Reading Specialist Paula Cunningham. “Every summer, a few Lower School teachers travel to Columbia University to receive training at Columbia’s Teachers College to constantly refresh their skills,” said Mrs. Banik. “The school and the teachers believe in a culture of learning and ongoing professional development to ensure our students are receiving top-quality instruction.” Another engaging activity in which K-4 classes participate are author-sharing sessions. Students meet by grade level and in multiage groupings throughout the year to read each other’s writing and give constructive feedback. Through author-sharing, students begin to identify the attributes of strong writing in each other’s work, together growing as a supportive community of young writers. Middle School instruction returns to and expands upon the mechanics introduced in Lower School (vocabulary, grammar, sentence structure) but the teachers push their students further by presenting their English lessons through themed literature. Attention is also paid to supplying Middle Schoolers with strategies to help them comprehend more complex reading and write more refined papers. “We select books for our Middle School curriculum that have interesting characters and meaningful themes that are accessible for the age of our students, and which are examples of great literature,” said Middle School English Teacher Steve Shaffer. “We want our kids to read stories they can connect to because they become so enthusiastic when it’s personal.” Fifth Grade Teacher Monica Burrows begins the school year by reading the novel Wonder, which tells the story of a boy with
Third and fourth graders read Love That Dog by Sharon Creech, a first-person narrative book written in poem form that tells the story of a boy named Jack and his dog, Sky. Jack receives assignments from his teacher to write poems “in the style” of famous published poems (from poets like Robert Frost, William Blake, and Valerie Worth). At first, he is resistant and struggles to understand the poems and the assignments, but eventually he has a “lightbulb” moment when he reads the work of Walter Dean Myers. Through reading Love That Dog, MFS students not only have the opportunity to see Jack grow as a poet, but they, too, have the opportunity to stretch their own “poetry-writing muscles” using this book and the model poems as inspiration. - Third Grade Teacher Elizabeth Pei
Along this timeline are English department chairs and long-tenured teachers whose names and faces may resonate with many alumni. Harley Armstrong 1944-1970 20
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Jean Ricketts 1952-1970
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Jonas, the protagonist of The Giver, lives in a world where his job is assigned to him by Elders, and he has no say in what he will do for the rest of his life. Seventh grade students play the part of an Elder, recommending a job that would suit them, based on their strengths and interests. As students focus on the assigned essay, they learn more about themselves, essential information as they progress in life and begin thinking about a future career. - Middle School English Teacher Deb Casne
a severe facial malformation and his journey navigating fifth grade. Wonder is a vehicle that allows her to organically teach lessons about descriptive language, punctuation, parts of speech, annotations, and essay preparation, while offering lessons on character and struggle. “I teach Wonder because it possesses a beautiful message of tolerance and friendship that is an opportunity for community building, especially in fifth grade which is a transitional stage,” said Mrs. Burrows. “This book asks students to think about the type of citizen they want to be in fifth grade and our Middle School community, and this all relates to our goal of teaching the whole child and the school’s twin pillars of rigorous academics and an ethical education.” Ninth grade exponentially widens the framework of scholarly study by investigating the origins of English literature and its diffusion across the globe (Beowulf, Romeo and Juliet, Things Fall
Jerry Delamater 1965-1970 SPRING 2017
Louise Morgan Geary 1971-1987
Apart, Haroun and the Sea of Stories). In tenth grade, students examine what it means to be American through the perspective of women, social class, race, and war (The Scarlet Letter, A Streetcar Named Desire, Black Boy, The Things They Carried). Literary analysis, the writing process, developing arguments, and writing clear and concise prose are the skills stressed in Upper School to prepare MFS graduates to read and write at an advanced collegiate level. “Teaching writing is unique because every English teacher is continuously revisiting the same skill set that students learn from an early age while adding sophistication,” said English Department Chair Debra Auspitz Galler. “Developing the abilities to read something, break it down for understanding, find intellectual ways to challenge it, and craft an argument about your own interpretation...those skills are universal and applicable for all grade levels.”
Mary Williams 1976-1998
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After AP English students read Don DeLillo’s Postmodern masterpiece, White Noise, they engage in a Postmodern writing assignment. Each student creates a “hypertext,” taking a passage from DeLillo’s book and analyzing it through traditional writing and through links to multimedia sources that help inform their understanding of the text. A “hypertext” might include both close reading of DeLillo’s word choice and links to a song or piece of art that connects in an interesting way to DeLillo’s themes. - English Department Chair Debra Galler
Diversity of Voices The Lower, Middle, and Upper School divisions value sharing the stories of as many voices in as many contexts as possible to add depth to students’ cultural literacy. In Lower School, fourth graders discuss gender expectations during the American Revolutionary War era in Toliver’s Secret. Middle Schoolers experience the racism that was prevalent in the Deep South during the Great Depression through Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry as well as the struggle to escape an undesirable future on the Spokane Indian Reservation in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. But the revision of the junior and senior curriculum this past school year is the most
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Eileen Kogl Camfield 1990-1996
recent concerted effort to cover a wide range of literature and interests. “The shift to mixed grade seminars for juniors and seniors was a result of discussions on how to best engage young readers and how we could make English classes the best student experience,” said Mrs. Galler. “Through offering classes like ‘Fiction into Film,’ ‘African-American Literature,’ ‘Wilderness Literature,’ ‘Science Fiction,’ or ‘Romanticism,’ we can teach the same skills MFS has always taught but in a broader arena of text. The English department wants every student to find challenging, thoughtprovoking readings that they are passionate about and that they can write about thoughtfully and with purpose. Rather than
Katy Rinehart 1994-2010
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making book lists for every student to read, we want to expand our students’ minds to different ideas about how other people see the world.” In considering what courses to offer to 11th and 12th grade students, the department particularly focused on regions of the world not typically highlighted by high school courses, distribution of genres, including contemporary books to emphasize that literature is still thriving, and choosing ambitious texts. “Having students remember every detail about every text is not the point,” said Mrs. Galler. “Designing a challenging experience that students are able to make sense of is our objective.” Growing Into Great Thinkers As Head of School Larry Van Meter alluded to in his message on page 2, alumni have self-reported positive benefits from the strength of the English program. Director of College Counseling Meredith Hanamirian shared her sense of what recent graduates have affirmed: “MFS alumni often visit our office to share their college experiences, and one theme we repeatedly hear is that the MFS curriculum, building from Lower School through high school, prepares them well for the rigors of college writing. Our graduates often comment that unlike many of their peers in college, they find the research and writing assignments to be comparable to those they had in high school and they feel well-equipped for the challenges of writing in college.” As the English program at Moorestown Friends continually evolves, the dedicated faculty will, as Mrs. Galler stated: “retain its faith in the students to rise to the challenge of an interesting and atypical curriculum that allows them to grow into great thinkers.” For a more comprehensive book list of what literature is read from Kindergarten through Grade 12, please visit the Among Friends Magazine section under the News tab on mfriends.org.
Kendall Carty ’17 provided original artwork for this feature, illustrating Love That Dog, The Giver, and White Noise – texts from the Lower, Middle, and Upper School curriculum. Kendall enjoys anything creative, but spends most of her time writing and drawing. She is the poetry editor for IMAGES, the student arts and literary magazine, and she is an Original, beginning at MFS in preschool. Her favorite classes are AP Art, AP English, and Creative Writing. Next year in college and in her future career, she plans to incorporate both her creative abilities and writing talents.
For a list of all MFS teachers who have contributed to the English department, please see the Among Friends magazine section on the website. Marjorie (Maggie) Ritchie Beck 1997-2012 SPRING 2017
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As student writers progress through the different stages of development, they are able to add depth of ideas, clarity of language, and finesse to their work. In the following two pages, Alex Horn ’17 demonstrates his advanced mastery of the written word in this short story about the dichotomy between two unknown futures. This piece was originally written as the summer reading assignment for Debra Galler’s AP English Literature class, with the challenge of writing a personal memoir relating to the students’ own families.
One Line By Alex Horn ’17
It’s as typical a metaphor as ever there was. The fork in the road; one goes left, the other right. The two potions, red and blue; one harmless, the other deadly. Choices to be made, chaoses to be confronted, destinies to be damned. Life or death, do or die. To be, or not so much. The weight of lives unlived is so ponderous that even Shakespeare washed his hands of it in disgust, putting the subject to bed in six words, with two repeated. But Howard Cohen didn’t know Shakespeare, not well. To him, “to be or not to be,” might as well have been an ad slogan, adorning one of the flyers that his father always scraped crumbling off the pharmacy door, muttering about those people getting real jobs instead of graffitiing his private business. So Howie didn’t know quite how cliché a bind he was in when the U.S. Army called his draft number in 1951 and lined him up with all the other poor Brooklyn boys misfortunate enough to be born on the 24th of October. In that moment, knees knocking in his trousers, fists clenched in his pockets, Howie Cohen knew just two things. He knew that majority of the boys of his birthday would be shipped off to Korea, destined to die, most of them, shot full of so much shrapnel even M*A*S*H doctors, real or fictional, wouldn’t be able to fix them. He knew that the others would be sent to Germany, to reinforce the post-World War II bases, to practice training exercises for a Cold War that would never really heat up, to come home after in one piece and raise Baby Boomers in the suburbs. What Howie Cohen didn’t know was which company he belonged to. No one could know that. Not until the time came. They’d lined them all up alphabetically, for no real reason; the boys could have been called in any order, Howie reasoned, but that’s just the way it was in the army. Everything had its place. Howard Cohen was a ‘C’, so he was near the front of the line, thank God. Howie was afraid, sure, but it wasn’t even the anticipation that was killing him; more than anything, it was the sheer boredom. If he had not been born a Cohen but instead a Silversmith, or God forbid a Zaborski, he might have died of the boredom before he ever reached Korea. Catchphrases and quotations being much more appealing to his young mind than Shakespeare, he had heard that old saying before, the definition of war: interminable boredom punctuated by moments of terror. Still, he hadn’t supposed that the boredom part would start so soon, before he’d even been assigned a unit; if standing in line made him want to shoot himself in the head, what the hell was he going to do while stuck in a trench waiting for the mortar shells to strike? The obvious answer came to him, and Howie grinned in spite of himself. He’d have a gun, after 24
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all. That’s one way to get out of the army. The boy in front of Howie turned around and shot him an angry glare; Howie realized he’d guffawed out loud, breaking the somberly masculine mood the other boys had been trying to cultivate. He almost laughed again at that, but thought better of it. The boy in front of him was a lot bigger. So was the boy behind, actually. Most people were taller than Howie. Maybe the North Koreans would break that trend. Howie laughed again, but this time it was hollow. He glanced ahead; they were well into the C’s now. Only six more left until his turn. Nothing was funny now. One man sat alone at a desk, deciding the fate of the world, or at least the fate of the worlds of the boys from Brooklyn. Howie didn’t know how to read rank insignia—he supposed he’d have to learn that, no matter where he went—but if he could, he would have seen that the man was a sergeant. Not exactly an exalted rank, for someone choosing which men to send to their graves. Howie wondered why the man was working alone; there were a lot of boys in Brooklyn, after all, and with just one man to judge them, it could be hours. But Howie supposed there was no rush to this, that there needn’t be. Plenty of war to go around. Still, the sergeant worked with dull efficiency, going as fast as he could, which was somehow both faster and slower than anyone wanted him to go. He’d give a little speech each time, which of course slowed down the process further, about which unit they’d be serving in, and under which commander, and what an honor it was, and so on, but there was only one word anybody cared about. One word, with two options, for one line with two destinies. “Germany,” said the sergeant in monotone. A pause, as the name was called, the next boy shuffled into place, the file was reviewed, and the little speech was given. Then, “Korea.” The next boy stepped up, a tall, lithe Italian who Howie recognized as the heir to the pizza place on Fulton. “Korea,” said the sergeant. The boy shrank a little, and he was right to—the family business was to die with his father. Now just three more. Howie hardly noticed them; there were spots in his eyes and a ringing in his ears. He just barely heard, “Germany,” ringing out like a church bell, once, twice, three times. The Irish boy behind Howie clapped him encouragingly on the shoulder, maybe a little too hard, but Howie couldn’t feel it anyway. “Guess we’re goin’ over, eh?” While the Army maintained that they balanced the numbers on both sides, it was a known fact that about five times as many kids were sent to Korea as were sent to Germany, which wasn’t surprising; Korea’s boys had a much shorter expiration SPRING 2017
What We Read and Why We Write date. The odds of Howie being sent anywhere else but war, after the three kids before him were sent to safety, were simply nil. It was all random, all chance, except when it wasn’t that at all. Howie didn’t answer the boy behind him, didn’t even look back; there was nothing to say. He just stepped up. The sergeant began his speech, “Mr. Howard Cohen, you have been assigned the rank of Private in the United States Army. Your basic training will commence immediately, and your deployment after a period sufficient. . .” Howie tuned it all out. He knew it by heart. They all did. They’d been waiting. To his left, sat the men waiting to go to Korea, and on his right, men waiting for planes to Europe. There were no signs, there never were in the Army, but Howie could tell which was which by the looks on their faces. Pain, resignation, and a bit of excitement to his left. Relief, guilt, and a bit of excitement to his right. To Howie’s left lay a future where he died on the field of battle, leaving behind a Purple Heart, and grieving parents, and grieving girlfriend, and not much else. To Howie’s right lay a different future, one he didn’t know yet. In that future, one where he changes his name to Coleman to get promoted to Corporal, and goes home in 1953, and
sells stocks on Long Island until he’s made enough to send his kids to school, and doesn’t even visit Asia, let alone Korea, until his AARP membership card comes in the mail. Most of us, most of the time, exist with a million different futures at our fingertips, but not Howie, not then. There were only two futures for Howie, just then, just two, clear and distinct. And for one moment more, until the sergeant made his call, those futures stood at attention with Howie, flanking him proudly on the same one line. Howie was already moving left, because he knew where he was going, he was going over there, he was going to die, he was—and then the sergeant said “Germany.” Howard Coleman became my grandpa in that moment, before he changed his name, before he ever even had kids; once his path turned right, once he knew he was safe, the universe suddenly allowed a future with me in it to exist. “Move along, Private,” said the sergeant to Howie, who was still frozen in place. “Move along.” So Howie Cohen moved along, and he didn’t look back. The Irish boy behind him lost his legs on the banks of the Imjin River. So it goes.
From the Author: The Story Behind The Story My grandfather, Howard Coleman, served as a Corporal in the U.S. Army, working as a company clerk. While he served during the Korean War, his unit was stationed in West Germany for the entirety of that war, both to continue the post-World War II normalization efforts and to counterbalance the presence of Soviet troops in East Germany. The last lines of the story, referencing the casualty at Imjin and Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five, pay tribute to the sacrifices of the veterans who, unlike my grandfather, served in an active battle zone, and invoke the futility and random nature of war. In order to overcome anti-Semitic discrimination that prevented his advancement in the army, my grandfather changed his last name from Cohen to Coleman, a name which my cousins bear to this day. After returning from the war, my grandfather became a stockbroker in Long Island, and had three children, among them my mother Alison.
Alex Horn ’17 will attend Columbia University in the fall. At MFS, he has earned a number of honors and accolades, including National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist, U.S. Presidential Scholars Program Nominee, Cum Laude Society inductee, and member of National Spanish Honor Society. Alex also is the Editor-in-Chief of the student newspaper WordsWorth, Director General of the MFS’s Model United Nations delegation, and he completed a senior capstone project entitled “The History and Social Impact of Standup Comedy.” In 2015, he completed the rigorous Iowa Young Writers Studio program at the University of Iowa.
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What We Read and Why We Write The written word is an art form, and its beauty can present itself in many creative mediums, as varied as a sociological ethnography, a poem, an article on Forbes.com, and an artist’s book. The following alumni have intently studied the written word to elevate their particular craft, and their stories demonstrate the powerful impact that writing has had on their professional and artistic pursuits.
Writing Ethnographies for Mexican Immigrant Families Sociologist Joanna Dreby has received wide recognition for her written works examining Mexican immigrant families, and her deep commitment to the communities she has written about is unmistakable. Because Joanna came to academia with a background in social services and community-based work in the Spanishspeaking community, she has approached her sociological research with a grounded empathy that has made her a trustworthy ally to the families whose stories she wrote about in her most recent book Everyday Illegal: When Policies Undermine Immigrant Families (2015). The Fall 2015 issue of the Harvard Educational Review praised the book for its eloquent and sharp narrative about how immigration policy reaches deep into the daily lives of mixed-status (legal and illegal) Mexican immigrant families and credited the book as an important contribution to literature on undocumented populations. But it was Joanna’s fluid writing style that humanized the day-to-day experiences of the families affected by U.S. immigration policies that made Everyday Illegal such a compelling read, even for a non-academic audience. Joanna was first exposed to the concept of merging her interests of community work and sociology during an undergraduate internship at Coordinadora Nacional Indianista (CONACIN), a cultural organization that advocated for the rights of Chilean indigenous people, while she was studying abroad in Santiago, Chile. “Through my internship I became involved with a research project studying indigenous domestic workers in the city,” said Joanna. “I loved Chile and that experience, and it made me want to major in sociology so I could study the communities around me [at Rutgers] and focus on my own country. I ended up coming back from Chile speaking Spanish fluently and became very involved with the local Latino community.” Upon her return to New Brunswick, Joanna acted as a translator at Planned Parenthood, then, in her first job after college, she served as the Director of Human Services at the Puerto Rican Action Board, a community-based organization serving Latinos in New Brunswick. She also co-founded Unidad Cultural, an all-volunteer English as a Second Language community school. During this time period (1990s), Joanna noticed a large demographic transition occurring in New Brunswick and across the country. The Mexican population was growing rapidly and there was no data about this emerging population for community organizations to access. This information void prompted Joanna to enroll in a Ph.D. program in Sociology at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She continued to live in New Brunswick and commuted to New York though for the duration of 26
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Joanna Dreby ’94 • Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Albany, SUNY • Ph.D. Sociology, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York • B.A. Sociology and Latin American Studies, Rutgers University her graduate program so she could maintain her involvement in the Spanish-speaking community that was so important to her. In fact, the concept of her dissertation and first book Divided by Borders: Mexican Migrants and their Children (2010) was a product of her community connections. “One day I was teaching the future tense in my English class [at Unidad Cultural] and we went around the room saying what our hopes were for the future,” said Joanna. “One student said ‘I hope to see my children again’ and about one-third of the class repeated the same hope. I hadn’t realized at the time that many people had left their children in their home countries, so in Divided by Borders I explored that idea by interviewing kids whose parents left them to come to the U.S.” Divided by Borders was highly praised and was named the recipient of the Goode Book Award, the Thomas and Znaniecki Best SPRING 2017
Title Book Award from the American Sociological Association, and the 2011 Book Award of the Association for Humanist Sociology. Similarly, the inspiration for Everyday Illegal was a result of her sociological observations drawn from her surrounding community in Ohio, where she moved following the completion of her Ph.D. program for her first Assistant Professor position at Kent State University. “When I first moved to Ohio, I thought ‘where is the Spanish-speaking community?’” said Joanna. “I couldn’t see anybody speaking Spanish and it was jarring since I came from a very bilingual community where all my friends spoke Spanish and my oldest child was attending a bilingual preschool. So that’s when I had my idea for a second book, looking at the strong Mexican communities in New Jersey versus the dispersed immigrant communities in Ohio. I ended up narrowing my focus to look at immigration policies though, because my research coincided with the Obama administration taking office, which had a hard stance on immigration enforcement. I was learning stories about families’ fears of deportation, as the Obama administration had more deportations than under any other U.S. president, and I felt that this story needed to be told urgently.” Over the course of a few years, Joanna collected qualitative data through interviews with 91 parents and 110 children and participant observation with focal families in Ohio and New Jersey to understand how the singular experience of legal status, or lack thereof, affected the internal dynamics of mixed-status Mexican families.
“Sometimes ethnographic writing doesn’t feel great because it’s people’s lives and personal stories that I’m writing about at their expense. But I try to write them personally and I am committed to communicate their stories well.” “The field work is really exhausting, but I find that writing can be meditative and I enjoy it a lot,” said Joanna. “Sometimes ethnographic writing doesn’t feel great because it’s people’s lives and personal stories that I’m writing about at their expense. But I try to write them personally and I am committed to communicate their stories well. Because I felt like I was exposing all these families I interviewed to the gaze of the public, I thought I should do the same for myself and also added in my own family story in the last round of editing. I wrote the book without it at first but I decided I needed to include my story too.” Since the book’s publication, the issue of U.S. immigration policy has been pushed to the forefront of headlines in national news, and Joanna hopes Everyday Illegal can help readers consider another perspective of the conversation. Joanna is now an Associate Professor at the University of Albany, SUNY, where she has been since 2011. She is the daughter of former faculty members Ed Dreby and Katie Dole and the sister of Tim Dreby ’90.
To the right are a few photos from Everyday Illegal that depict the families and communities Joanna studied. SPRING 2017
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Writing Digital Content Strategy for Fortune 100 Companies In her senior year at MFS, Sade Muhammad was convinced that she would study business at Syracuse University, setting aside her lifelong love of journalism. Although she loved writing, Sade felt that journalists generally did not receive the highest compensation, so it would be more practical to pursue business in college. However, her MFS senior project ended up being such an impactful experience, it spurred Sade to revisit journalism. “My AP English teacher Katy Rinehart recommended that I get in touch with Sheryl Huggins Salomon ’83, who was an online magazine editor for NiaOnline [an online destination for and about the interests of Black women] for an internship,” said Sade. “Once I started working there, I knew that this was something I had to do forever, I loved it so much. Because the Nia team was small, I was able to write stories, create my own column, and see all parts of the business, which made me realize I could blend journalism with business.” As Sade transferred out of the business school at Syracuse after her first semester, she serendipitously landed a spot in the university’s Newhouse School of Public Communications, one of the top journalism programs in the country, to study magazine journalism and marketing. As she progressed through her undergraduate courses, Sade became excited by another facet of the journalism world -- digital media. “I was one of twelve students that were part of Syracuse’s first student social media team called #44Social,” said Sade. “We interviewed alumni, covered major campus events, tweeted news throughout the week, and we generated a lot of excitement for Syracuse. I thought the rise of social media and digital strategy was huge and it was a feature of journalism in which I was especially interested.” So when Sade visited top magazine companies in New York City she was disappointed that, when she asked about digital strategy, all the executives replied that they did not have active plans for their digital platforms, aside from republishing printed work. Her impression was the magazine industry at that time did not align with her vision of the future of journalism, so Sade instead accepted a role with NBCUniversal in its Page Program, a highly-coveted yearlong rotational experience for young people interested in media. As a page, Sade became immersed in all functions of the company, from production to public relations to operations. She then was hired by the NBC cable property Oxygen, which later merged with Bravo, and worked as a digital coordinator for three years. Sade was a lead contributor to the channel’s digital strategy and, in 2015, the Bravo digital team won an Emmy for Outstanding Creative Achievement in Interactive Media - Multiplatform Storytelling for The Singles Project, a dating docuseries. She credited her strength as a writer as a key factor in helping her earn leadership opportunities. “My first assignment at Bravo was to write 100-word award nominations for a few Bravo shows,” said Sade. “They were submitted to an Executive Vice President for review and, from that moment, she trusted me, which enabled me to get opportunities to create products, launch an influencer network, and write for the website. People trust good writers, so it’s an invaluable skill in all industries.” 28
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Sade Muhammad ’08 • Brand Producer at Forbes • Marketing & Communications Committee Chair of the Junior Leadership Board at Sponsors for Educational Opportunity • B.S. Syracuse University Sade decided to move to Forbes Media in January 2016 and discovered that her current position as a content marketer perfectly blended all of her professional interests -- business, journalism, and digital media. She manages digital content marketing campaigns and performance strategy for Fortune 100 financial services and technology firms on Forbes’ digital content marketing platform called BrandVoice. Aside from her career, Sade also volunteers with an organization called Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO), an academic program that focuses on supporting low-income New York City public high school students for eight years. Sade acted as a mentor for two years before becoming the Marketing & Communications chair of the Junior Leadership Board. Looking ahead, Sade hopes to stay close to writing, but perhaps in the creative writing arena. “I originally wanted to get into journalism in the first place to be a voice for those who may not have a platform,” said Sade. “I want to tell stories about people like me, women of color or those who have African-American/Caribbean heritage. At my core I love creative writing so maybe these stories will manifest themselves in television or film, but anything that involves writing, I want to stay close to. I think no matter what the story is, if you know how to tell it, people will listen to good storytelling.” SPRING 2017
What We Read and Why We Write “One of the best things about poetry is it stands opposed to a lot of things in culture that I use all the time, like Twitter and Instagram, in that there is a quality of depth and seriousness, which is nice.”
Jake Montgomery ’10 • M.F.A. Candidate in Iowa Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa • B.A. Harvard University
Writing Poetry to Explore Life’s Experiences and Emotions “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I – I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.” The closing lines to Robert Frost’s poem The Road Not Taken parallel the path that Jake Montgomery has followed since he graduated from Moorestown Friends. Before enrolling at Harvard University as an undergraduate, Jake elected to take a gap year to explore his many interests, and this spring he will receive his M.F.A. in Poetry from the lauded Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Although the roads he has chosen are decidedly less traveled, poetry has given Jake a sense of purpose, something he did not feel he had quite figured out before. While at MFS, Jake was an actively engaged student but he knew he was not yet ready to settle on one subject of study in college. “I wanted more time to mature and see more of the world before narrowing my focus,” said Jake. So he traveled to Israel with Kibbutz Ulpan, a five-month work-study program, where he studied Hebrew, worked on the SPRING 2017
kibbutz farm, and learned more about the unique communal kibbutz culture. When he returned, he went to Washington D.C. for an internship with an organization that did advocacy work in favor of the United Nations and peaceful diplomacy. Finally, he spent a few months as a farm hand in South Jersey. “With my gap year, I felt that I gained a much broader perspective about the world,” said Jake. “One of the great things about MFS is it is so nurturing, but it was nice to have an experience outside of the tightknit MFS community before college. After stepping away from school, I felt refreshed. I was very eager to return to academic work that MFS prepared me for so well.” Once on the Harvard campus, Jake found himself enjoying his English seminars and poetry workshops the most. “One of the best things about poetry is it stands opposed to a lot of things in culture that I use all the time, like Twitter and Instagram, in that there is a quality of depth and seriousness, which is nice,” said Jake. “Poetry is an opposite force to the constant interaction and confrontation that we consume. Compared to other forms of writing, it’s the closest we can get to our own thinking processes and emotions since there are not as many rules or structures that poetry needs to fit into. Poets are able to get
at bare emotions and experiences that other mediums look at from afar.” He further explained how the typical first person narrative of poetry allows for a deeper connection between reader and author. “My favorite experience in reading a poem is when I feel that I wrote it and lived it, and creating that feeling of a shared experience is harder to do in other mediums,” said Jake. “As a poet, I write not just for myself but I hope my reader gets it and is with me. I write every night as a way of checking in with myself but also connecting to other people.” In 2015, Jake’s work was honored by the Harvard Department of English with the Edward Eager Memorial Fund Prize and the Le Baron Russell Briggs Traveling Fellowship, and, two years later, he is nearly finished compiling his graduate portfolio of work at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, the oldest creative writing program in the country offering an M.F.A. credential. His thesis is the first step towards developing a manuscript to be published as a book. Following the completion of his master’s program, Jake plans to remain at Iowa and continue teaching undergraduate introductory literature classes, but will consider alternative options as well. Already proving himself to be unafraid to forge his own life path, Jake attributed his mentality of independence to his parents. “Both my parents switched professions mid-career and, because of them, I feel that it’s never too late to do almost anything,” said Jake. “While I can, I want to explore as much as possible and seek a balance of being practical while pursuing something I feel passionate about.” Jake is the brother of Esther Montgomery ’12 and son of Upper School Religion/Philosophy Teacher Sarah Rosenson and Carleton Montgomery, Executive Director of the Pinelands Preservation Alliance. AMONG FRIENDS
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Handwriting as a Portraiture of a Memory As you observe the artists’ books created by Anne (Sissy) Emmons Buck, you recognize traces of writing… but it is illegible. As you study the pages more closely, it becomes evident that the words are fragments of handwritten notes, letters, recipes, lists, among other strokes and lines, printed onto the book pages. Intentionally obscured in the printmaking process, these words leave a curious impression that the handwriting seems familiar, yet distantly unfamiliar at the same time. Through these hieroglyphic images a new, abstract story unfolds in Sissy’s books. Over the course of 35 years, Sissy gravitated towards monotype printmaking. The technique consists of painting a design on a plate, transferring the image to paper by running the plate and paper through a printing press, then pulling the paper to reveal the printed image. She appreciates its painterly quality, the improvisational methods, and the unique one-of-a-kind print (hence the term monotype). More recently she has used paper lithography to add the graphic quality of handwriting and drawings to her monotypes. “When Rebecca Goodale, an art professor at the University of Southern Maine, introduced me to book arts ten years ago, I was immediately drawn to it, and thought ‘this is what I’ve been looking for,’” said Sissy. “Combining printmaking with book arts offered a new three-dimensional direction in my art. I love the tactile hands-on act of creating vessels that can be held, shared, and, when opened, offer a new perception of the book.” The element of handwriting has been a distinctive feature of Sissy’s artists’ books. She finds that the defining scribbles and cursive loops reveal unique personalities, a kind of calligraphic portrait. Most of her books over the past four years feature her mother’s handwriting. “I have a collection of mom’s notes, letters, and lists that mirrored her decline into Alzheimer’s,” said Sissy. “Her handwriting became shaky and words were misspelled; the content was nonsensical. After mom passed away, I began to incorporate her writing in my work, a mapping of her fading memory, a glimmer of the past.” Creating the books has been therapeutic for Sissy, providing a continuing connection to her mother. The artists’ books additionally reflect Sissy’s value and appreciation for the handmade as an antidote to and relief from the digital world’s constant state of connectedness, flashing screens, and keypads. Her mother was a “maker,” sewing clothes and knitting
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Anne “Sissy” Emmons Buck ’75 • Book Artist and Printmaker • Advisory Board Member of the University of Southern Maine’s Kate Cheney Chappell ’83 Center for Book Arts • B.A. Wheaton College sweaters, and Sissy’s other recurring subject, her grandmother, was an artist, needleworker, and penmanship teacher. “When I’m printing and creating books, the immediacy of making art informs my hands,” said Sissy. “They have an intuition that take over and guide me. I shift into another realm. I discovered a quote by Carl Jung a few years ago that makes sense to me as an artist: ‘Often the hands will solve a mystery that the intellect has struggled with in vain.’” The creation of an artist’s book is complex as Sissy considers
“Her handwriting became shaky and words were misspelled; the content was nonsensical. I use copies of her writings that become altered and further obscured in the printing process to offer a glimpse into her journey into Alzheimer’s. Her handwriting just becomes a design, but the books are a representation of who she was in her final years.” the content, intention, and rhythm of the book when selecting her materials. Particular ink colors and papers that range from thin kozo and kitikata papers to heavier printmaking paper are taken into account to convey a particular subject and mood. Her favorite book form is the versatile accordion structure as “the book can be read page by page or unfolded fully, creating an interactive, playful movement while revealing the full-page image of my monotype.” However, Sissy’s true passion and excitement for her work is in the printing process. “When I pull a print, it’s exciting – like Christmas morning – and it’s always a bit of a surprise, depending on how much ink you use, how you apply the ink, or the pressure used in pulling the print.” said Sissy. “I either love it or question it, and in responding to the image, I inevitably decide to rework it. I’m curious to see what new images and conversations unfold as I make the books.” Sissy currently sits on the advisory board of the University of Southern Maine’s Kate Cheney Chappell ’83 Center for Book Arts where she facilitates a critique group for book artists. As a group, the members exhibit their work annually. She is also a member of the Peregine Press, a printmaking studio in Portland where she does all of her printmaking, as well as the Monotype Guild of New England. Before she moved to Maine, Sissy was the owner and director of the River Gallery in Ipswich, MA. Sissy’s work has been exhibited in New England and beyond and is in private collections – the Maine Women’s Writing Center at the University of New England, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Colby College Museum of Art, Portland Museum of Art, and the New York Public Library, to name a few. Reflecting back on her extensive artistic career, Sissy chuckled thinking back to her youthful aspirations while at MFS. SPRING 2017
FALL 2015
Sissy’s Delicious installation at the Portland Public Library in Maine paper lithography on kitikata paper, hand embroidery, loose pages each 16 ¾” x 10”. Describing the installation, Sissy said, “Mom’s recipe box held a cornucopia of delicious (and weird!) recipes from family and friends. Although the handwriting is abstracted and printed so that it is illegible, the distinct loops, curves, and slants still reveal the identity of the chefs.”
In Her Memory Garden is a trilogy of unique artists books that features Sissy’s grandmother’s handwriting. Sissy has a small collection of her grandmother’s letters sent to her after her daughter was born. These books interpret and reflect her grandmother’s faith, hope, and wisdom. Book two is a unique star accordion book with monotypes on kozo paper, paper lithographs of Sissy’s grandmother’s handwriting as tendrils, sewn in glassine envelopes holding words (seeds) from Garden poem, bookboard covered with Nepalese lokta paper with recessed monotype and title in Sissy’s handwriting. It is in the collection of the Women’s Writing Center at the University of New England in Portland, Maine.
“I loved math and being in Mr. Hartman’s class, so I thought I was going to be a math major in college but then I took Calculus II, which changed my mind,” said Sissy. “But I also loved my teachers in English– Mrs. Oliviero and Mrs. Geary. It’s interesting I still have a book that I made in tenth grade with Mrs. Geary where I chose my favorite poems, illustrated the imagery, and wrote my own poems.” Perhaps that first poetry book was an early indicator of the book artist that Sissy would become. To view more of Sissy’s work, visit sissybuck.com.
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Class Notes 1958 Rochelle (Shelly) Lario Towers shared an update: “Still doing the travel business after 35 years! Went to Mexico with all 15 of us (7 grandchildren) for [husband] Gene’s 80th! Dividing our time between Ocean City and ...Cherry Hill.”
1968
1961 Bill Archer and his wife, Eileen, celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary with an Anniversary Dinner Dance with family and friends in September.
1964 Bonnie Greenfield Reagan, Co-Founder and Board President of BRAVO Youth Orchestras in Portland, OR, shared that the BRAVO Vivaldi Ensemble was invited by Governor Kate Brown of Oregon to perform at her inauguration on January 9. BRAVO Youth Orchestras, inspired by the Venezuelan musical education program El Sistema, seek to improve the lives of underserved children through intensive orchestral instruction.
Lynn Mitchell Decker continues to pursue her passion for painting in Crystal River, FL. Since she moved to the Nature Coast five years ago, she has painted six murals depicting wildlife, birds, and fish. Previously, Lynn has displayed her work in St. Thomas, USVI, and painted marine murals at Honolulu Children’s Hospital in 2000. Lynn shared her latest mural of an egret, approximately 7’ by 9’ in size. She noted: “It feels good just to be an ‘artist’ - swim year round and be around such beauty. The fauna are almost like those of the rainforest and the water is relaxing and magical.”
1974
See photo of Ned Schellenger on page 38.
1974
1968 See photo from Lynn Mitchell Decker at right. See article about Dr. Karl Foord on page 33.
1969 In October, Larry Kotlikoff was featured on the FiveThirtyEight website in a feature called “Meet the Economist Running for President,” in which he discussed his platforms to reform the government.
1971 Kurt Klaus is enjoying life in the Rockland agricultural area of Miami-Dade, FL. He has planted a wonderful garden for birds and other pollinators.
1974 See photo of Wendy Beckhart Bachmann at right. Notes with this icon are Among Friends web extras. See page 41 for more details.
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Anne Rosenberg was one of a few South Jersey residents noted in the December issue of SJ Magazine for joining the shared-economy community as an Airbnb host. Anne purchased a 110-year-old home in Moorestown two years ago, made serious repairs, and rents it solely as an Airbnb property. See photo of Anne Rosenberg above.
1976 Special thanks to Lisa Attix, Peter Boutin, and Sarah Ann Miller for organizing the gathering of the class in May.
In August, Wendy Beckhart Bachmann traveled with her son, Henry, to Nuremberg, Germany, where she was an MFS exchange student at the Rudolf Steiner Schule from September 1972-June 1973. She is pictured with Peter Hohage ’72, who was an exchange student at MFS from 1971-72, in front of the school, where Peter now serves as an English and Religious Education teacher and administrator. Wendy shared: “Peter updated me on the sites and restaurants in Nuremberg’s quaint Altstadt, as well as WWII sites and a new museum. It was great to catch up with my friend and revisit the area.” SPRING 2017
Class Notes
1968 Dr. Karl Foord Returns to MFS Campus to Share Passion for Science Photography On October 28, Dr. Karl Foord ’68 visited with Upper School students to share how he uses photography as a tool in his scientific research of insects, particularly bees. Dr. Foord, an Extension Educator and Professor of Horticulture at the University of Minnesota, presented samples of his work to Art Teacher Michael Webster’s photography students and to the entire ninth grade class, as their science curriculum covers botany and ecology. Through his work of mixing scientific research and aesthetics, Dr. Foord said that his mission is “to capture images to inspire people to develop an interest in the ecology happening in their own backyard and take action, specifically in the plight of pollinators.” In the photography class, Dr. Foord said that his approach changes, depending upon the image he is trying to photograph, whether it be producing a garden calendar, diagnosing a garden problem, identifying an insect, or (“I get a kick out of this”) analyzing insect behaviors. In his field Dr. Foord specializes in highspeed photography, generally shooting at least 1000-5000 frames per second, to be able to capture the minute movements of insects whose wings may beat 250 times per second. He also utilizes quadcopters, or a flying camera drone, to conduct aerial analyses. After showing some of his impressive close-up footage of monarch butterflies flying, bees pollinating flowers, and more, the students were amazed that Dr. Foord was able to film the images. When asked how he did it, he answered: “Knowing the insects’ behaviors helps me immensely with the photographic challenge. The clarity of the shots come from when I see the subject, I put a stick in the ground, focus my camera on the stick, and wait until I see them again in that area. It’s tough though because if you get five great pictures out of 200, that’s lucky.” During his presentation to ninth graders, focusing on the native bees, Dr. Foord discussed the place of bees in the ecosystem, nesting sites, the bee’s life cycle, and mating behavior. As he explored the different aspects of native bees, Dr. Foord again shared more footage from his collection, displaying the interaction of the bees in nature. Apart from his class lectures with students, Dr. Foord also visited with Head of School Larry Van Meter, his long-time friend and fellow member of the MFS Class of 1968.
1977
Diane Franciosi Wing released her sixth book The Happiness Perspective: Seeing Your Life Differently on Amazon and B&N.com. In the book, Diane, a teacher, personal transformation guide, and intuitive consultant, shares methods to help readers transform thought processes, patterns, habits, and behaviors for greater happiness, peace of mind, and abundance. To learn more, visit DianeWing.com.
interviewing Paul in 1977 for the school newspaper.
1977
1986
See photo at left of Diane Franciosi Wing.
1978 Judy Berman’s opinion piece was published by The Baltimore Sun on November 21 and she mentioned her admiration of fellow alumna Alice Paul, Class of 1901. Judy recounted how she had the privilege of SPRING 2017
1982 See page 35 for photo of Sarah Feyerherm.
1983 See photo of Joenathan Barnes on page 35.
Colonel Shawn G. Wells, Jr. changed out of command after two years of serving in Germany as the Garrison Commander, U.S. Army Rheinland-Pfalz. He immediately assumed Command of the new Area Support Group-Afghanistan. This new organization provides installation services and quality of life to seven U.S. bases within Afghanistan. Upon his one-year deployment AMONG FRIENDS
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Class Notes
1989 and 1994 Riccardo Longo ’89 and Gigio Longo ’94 Raise Nearly €13,000 for Italian Earthquake Relief Since the opening of its doors in December 2014, Gran Caffe L’Aquila has become a hub for authentic Italian food, wine, and culture in Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square. But Riccardo Longo ’89, Founding Partner and Director of Regional Cuisine and Wine, and Gigio Longo ’94, Director of Operations, along with Riccardo’s co-founders Stefano Biasini and Michele Morelli, have also been committed to providing relief funds for the Italian town of Amatrice, that was completely devastated by a 6.1 magnitude earthquake in August. Gigio and Riccardo at Gran Caffe “When we heard the news of the tragedy, we contacted the mayor of Amatrice to L’Aquila see what we could do to help,” said Riccardo. “Amatrice is a small town with a couple thousand people but it is famous in the culinary world for its dishes and chefs. It’s also very close to where my partners are from in L’Aquila. So we wanted to do what we could to provide funds for families displaced by the earthquake. Giving 2,000 people shelter was the main concern.” In September, Gran Caffe L’Aquila hosted a dinner fundraiser at which 100% of sales were directly sent to the people of Amatrice. “We hosted a dinner where we invited guests to enjoy a re-creation of a typical Sunday dinner in Amatrice,” said Riccardo. “Our recipes for the evening were directly from grandmothers in Amatrice and I paired wines with each dish. The event was sold out, but our customers were generous, so we raised nearly €13,000, with half from the dinner fundraiser and the other half from additional donations.” Throughout the month of September the restaurant also offered the town’s famous dish, bucatini amatriciana, and those proceeds were added to the relief funds. Gran Caffe L’Aquila regularly presents a specialty menu where it features an Italian city’s distinctive regional cuisine, so it served a Bucatini all’Amatriciana sampling to further supplement the total donation pool. To give the check to the mayor on behalf of the people of Philadelphia and survey the damage themselves, Riccardo and Michele Morelli traveled to Amatrice in October. Mayor Pirozzi was so touched by the kindness of Gran Caffe L’Aquila and its supporters, he agreed to visit Philadelphia himself for a thank you dinner and follow-up fundraiser in November. The partners of Gran Caffe L’Aquila felt so strongly compelled to assist with Amatrice relief funds because the Amatrice recovery closely aligned to the story of the restaurant’s origin. The Italian city of L’Aquila, just about an hour south of Amatrice, was also destroyed by an earthquake in 2009. The home of the original Gran Caffe L’Aquila was located on Piazza Duomo in the center of the city. Riccardo met Stefano and Michele in 2012 and offered to reopen their restaurant in Philadelphia. “It took about three years to design and build the restaurant in Italy, and then to ship it over to Philadelphia,” said Gigio. “The vision was for the new Gran Caffe L’Aquila to be a destination for authentic Italian culture, so we had star chefs at each division -the bar, gelato lab, our in-house coffee roasting, kitchen, and wine program.” The second floor of the restaurant serves as a culture and language school as well, taught in partnership with members of the American-Italy Society of Philadelphia. Often, the history of an Italian region can be told through its food and wine, as the identities of many cities can be demonstrated through the ingredients in their cuisine. Educating, sharing, and honoring authentic Italian experiences is highly important to the Longo brothers. “Our family is from the Amalfi coast,” said Gigio. “Riccardo was born there, I was born in the U.S., but we were privileged to spend our summers in Italy and grow up with two cultures. We have a cultural school and partner with the American-Italy Society because the portrayal of Italian food and wine is inaccurate. We don’t have chicken parm or spaghetti and meatballs because they were created in America. The vision was to bring a truly authentic piece of Italy to Philadelphia to educate Italian-Americans and lovers of true Italian wine and culture through the food, but we also screen all Italian soccer, play iconic Italian music, and more.” For their contributions and leadership in the Italian community in Philadelphia, Riccardo and the Longo family were celebrated by the Italy-America Business Council and Network at the Festival of Five Kingdoms on February 25. Riccardo was awarded the 2017 International Economic Award for bringing authentic Italian culture to Philadelphia with the import of the earthquake ravaged landmark Gran Caffe L’Aquila. The entire Longo family was then honored for their decades of service to the community. “With the business, there is lots of emotion and love,” said Riccardo. “At one point, we stopped looking at costs and we were not thinking just about profit. We think about our impact on the city. Wherever we can help, we do. We always will be involved with the Italian community, the Philadelphia community, just trying to contribute as we can.” Riccardo and Gigio have a younger brother Roberto Longo ’98 who also attended MFS. To donate to Amatrice Disaster Relief, please visit grancaffelaquila.com/join-movement-rebuild-amatrice.
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Class Notes
1982
MFS Summer Scholars programs and Academic Transitions courses offer a variety of programming from June 26 through August 24. Open to the community, we welcome children ages 3 - 15.
Register online today at summer.mfriends.org. Sarah Feyerherm was named Vice President and Dean of Students of Washington College in Chestertown, MD in June after serving as the College’s Associate Vice President for Student Affairs since 2007. In her position, she has responsibility for the oversight of the following departments and offices: residential life, athletics, student engagement, career development, health and counseling, intercultural affairs, public safety, wellness and prevention, and Title IX. Prior to her work in student affairs, Sarah was the Assistant Director of Athletics and Head Field Hockey Coach at the college. On October 22, Sarah was married to Penny Weintraub at Paulsdale, the home of Alice Paul, Class of 1901. Sarah, as well as her brother Joel ’81 and sister Elise ’78, were raised at Paulsdale, which later became the home of The Alice Paul Institute (API). The API is dedicated to women’s education, empowerment, and equality. Pictured are former English Teachers and College Guidance Counselors Louise Morgan (Geary) and Mary Williams, with Sarah at Paulsdale, on the day of the wedding.
1983
(no breaks) he hopes to return to the U.S. His wife, Shelly, and his 15-year-old daughter, Katie, remain in Virginia and actively participate in school and church functions. Katie is a high school freshman and enjoys Drama Club and field hockey.
1988 Dana Calvo was profiled in The Philadelphia Inquirer on October 21, heard on Morning Edition of NPR on October 27, and featured in the November issue of Elle magazine about her Amazon Prime series called Good Girls Revolt, which debuted on October 28. The series was based on Lynn Povich’s book The Good Girls Revolt: How the Women of Newsweek Sued Their Bosses and Changed the Workplace.
1989 See photo of The Hon. DJ Jeyaram on page 36. See article about Riccardo Longo on page 34.
1991 See photo of Rebecca Ansel on page 37.
Joenathan Barnes shared positive professional and personal news: “We just celebrated our 10th year in business at MTM Media & Communications LLC. My youngest son, Jalen, was married this past September and my oldest, Denzel, will be graduating from Regent University this May.” Joenathan is pictured on the far right with his daughter-in-law Cacie, Jalen, Denzel, and wife Regina. SPRING 2017
1994 See article about Gigio Longo on page 34.
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Class Notes the evolving American healthcare system. Meg and her family, husband Anthony, and daughters Emma and Ruby, aged 6 ½ and 2 ½, live in Haddonfield. As the Clerk of the Alumni Association, Meg is thrilled to help lead ongoing work to keep the incredible alumni community connected. She is excited (and incredulous) that it’s time to start planning for the Class of ’97’s 20th reunion coming up in May! See page 37 for a photo of Meg.
1989
1998 See page 38 for photo of Ian Scott.
1999
On September 20, judicial history was made with the appointment of Georgia’s first South Asian American judge in Gwinnett County. The Hon. DJ Jeyaram was sworn in at his investiture as a Gwinnett County magistrate judge (pro hac). Beyond his new appointment as a part-time magistrate judge, DJ has his own law practice (www.jeylaw.com) providing legal services to a wide variety of healthcare providers including physicians, hospitals, nursing homes, and Medicaid waiver providers. He concentrates in healthcare regulatory matters, primarily in administrative appeals, Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, and program integrity audits and investigations. DJ is admitted as an Attorney and Counselor of the United States Supreme Court. He has also been recognized by his peers with the AV Peer Review Rating, which identifies a lawyer with “very high to preeminent legal ability, is a reflection of the firm’s expertise, experience, integrity and overall professional excellence.” Further, he has been recognized in Georgia’s Legal Leaders’ magazine as a “Top Rated Lawyer.” Tara Smith Pierman was recognized in the September edition of Profiles in Diversity Journal as one of 162 Women Worth Watching in the magazine’s 15th annual ranking, which promotes and advances diversity and inclusion. Women Worth Watching award winners are chosen for being role models for and inspiring other women. Tara is Campbell Soup Company’s Deputy Corporate Secretary and Corporate Counsel in addition to being the global co-chair and business advisor for the Women of Campbell employee resource group at Campbell’s world headquarters in Camden, NJ.
1995 See page 37 for photo of Linsey Davis. 36
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1996 See page 37 for photo of Erin Coleman.
1997 Meg Parrington Hollingworth celebrated 10 years working with UnitedHealthcare as a product director for their commercial insurance plans. Meg’s work involves analyzing the healthcare needs of UHC members and building innovative care programs to ensure members understand their options and how and where to go for the best quality and most affordable care. Building on her social work background, her role has been an interesting and rewarding journey and an exciting time to be part of
Adrian Rowan has been working as a professional photographer for over ten years. At MFS and in college, she took several photography classes, and was fascinated by gritty black and white images. Adrian began her career as a photographer in the United States Air Force, working as a photojournalist in the Public Affairs Department. She then worked as a civilian photographer at Dover Air Force Base, and was given the honor of photographing the somber Dignified Transfers. A dignified transfer is the process by which, upon the return from the theater of operations to the United States, the remains of fallen military members are transferred from the aircraft to a waiting vehicle and then to the port mortuary. Adrian then moved to Washington D.C. to work at the Pentagon with the United States Marine Corps in their Combat Camera section. She led a team of photographers and they took various types of photographs, the most visible were of the Marine Corps Parades at Marine Barracks Washington, the home of the Commandant. Adrian has returned to New Jersey to open a photography studio, A. Rowan Photo. Last year, she lived in Lincoln, England pursuing an M.A. in photography and exhibiting her work. See page 38 for a photo of Adrian Rowan.
2002 See page 38 for photo of Ed Schellenger.
2003 See page 39 for photo of Aaron Washington.
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Class Notes
1991
1996
Rebecca Ansel (pictured standing in the middle) was invited to teach a master class to the Upper School String Ensemble as part of the Upper School Instrumental Music Retreat on March 3.
1995
Erin Coleman, NBC10’s newest 5 p.m. anchor, was featured in the December issue of SJ Magazine and shared reflections about her 20-year journalism career. She returns to the Philadelphia area after covering the markets of Jonesboro, AR, Greensboro, NC, and Raleigh, NC.
1997
ABC News Correspondent Linsey Davis and her husband, Paul Roberts, attended the White House Christmas party this year. She shared, “[It] was quite a memorable experience. Thank you to MFS for giving me my start!”
Meg Parrington Hollingworth and her family: husband Anthony, and daughters Emma and Ruby.
2004
2005
2006
See page 39 for photo of Josh Washington.
See page 39 for photo of Max Friedman.
See page 39 for photo of Kalisa Martin.
SPRING 2017
Victoria Lockerman Grosvenor and her husband Vonn Grosvenor became the proud parents of daughter August-Sky in February. The Grosvenor family lives in Cherry Hill.
Since earning his J.D. from UC Davis Law in 2013, Michael Murza has been active in environmental law in Sacramento, CA. For the past three years he served as an attorney with the California Energy Commission, which is the leading energy policy and planning agency for California. AMONG FRIENDS
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Class Notes
1998
Ian Scott married Melissa Lampkins in Canadensis, PA, in the Pocono Mountains, on August 20. In attendance were MFS alumni Ted Napierkowski ’98, who served as Best Man, and Jeffrey Croshaw ’98, who served as a Groomsman. Also in attendance were Stephen Gifford ’00 and Rebekah Starr Sheppard Gifford ’99, Sean Meckley ’98, and Sandra Croshaw. Ian and Melissa live in the countryside of northern Vermont, where they enjoy hiking, skiing, and the outdoors. Ian is a senior software developer for Competitive Computing in Burlington, VT, and Melissa is a project manager for Comcast Cable in Philadelphia.
Make a Gift Online to the Annual Fund for MFS
1999
Adrian Rowan has returned to New Jersey to open a photography studio, A. Rowan Photo.
2002
The commission is responsible for appliance and building efficiency standards, power plant siting, and the distribution of over $300 million annually in grants and loans for advanced energy development. Michael is currently the Law and Policy Advisor to the Chair of the Energy Commission. See page 40 for photo of Billy Martin. See 2006 reunion photo on page 40.
2009 Catherine Reilly became engaged.
2010 See page 39 for photo of Nicole Respond. Tyler Bard graduated from the University of Southern California Viterbi School of Engineering with a master’s degree in computer security. 38
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Ed Schellenger ’02 was married to Lara Thompson in October 2015 at the Legare Waring House in Charleston, SC. Pictured are (back row) brother-in-law Durell Bouchard ’97 holding Ed’s niece Libby Bouchard, sister Suzann Schellenger Bouchard ’97, wife Lara Schellenger, Ed, mother Mary Ann Schellenger, and father Ned Schellenger ’64. Standing are nephews Jude Bouchard and Clayton Bouchard.
SPRING 2017
Class Notes
Visit giving.mfriends.org
2003
Aaron Washington married Emily DeMarchena on August 11 in West Cape May, NJ.
2004
2004
Kalisa Martin was featured by Forbes in August with an article titled “This Woman Opened A Hotel in Jamaica with No Money and Changed Her Life.” In the interview, Kalisa discussed the inspiration behind the decision to open up a bed-and-breakfast called The Runaway, how the business became the first successfully funded B&B through Kickstarter, and what it’s like to be a woman in the hospitality industry in Jamaica.
2010
Nicole Respond married Khal Barqawi on September 16 at The Merion in Cinnaminson, NJ.
2005
Josh Washington married Nicole Johnson on October 3 in Mount Holly, NJ.
SPRING 2017
Max Friedman married Havy Rosenstock at the Four Seasons Resort in Las Colinas, TX on December 17. MFS alumni in the wedding party included his sisters, bridesmaids Casey Friedman Cohen ’01 and Alexandra Friedman ’09, as well as co-best man Peter Siemens ’04 and Groomsman Will Stouffer ’05. MFS schoolmates who made the trip to the Lone Star State for the wedding included Josh Adams ’05, Chris Mauro ’04, Mark Pellegrini ’04, Chris Setz-Kelly ’04, Jon Wolf ’04, and Jon Zaid ’04, as well as alumni parents Mel and Diane Baiada, Mike and Mary Beckett, Gary Siemens and Elissa Favata, and Chris and Beth Stouffer. AMONG FRIENDS
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Class Notes
2006
The Class of 2006 held its 10th reunion on November 25 at City Tap House near Logan Circle in Philadelphia. The reunion was organized by Ryan Mulligan and Jodi Schantz Laughlin. Ryan reported, “Everyone was eager and happy to see each other, and pretty impressed with where everyone was in their lives, which speaks well to our MFS education.” There were a total of 52 attendees, 35 of whom were members of the class. Pictured are: Allison Bernard, Rob Leili-Marrazzo, Josh Shagam, Alex Stark, Andrew Preston, Billy Martin’s shoulder, Kayla Borden, Chris Santorella, Shawn Stutz, Cory Colijn, Megan Seyler, Chelsea Zlock Storm, Ben Spielberg’s wife Kate Frelinger, Ben Spielberg, Neece Echeverria-Harris, Ruben Vargas, Ryan Mulligan, Jessica Greenberg Kirsch, Maura Burk, Nicole Young, David Fischer, Jess Greenberg Kirsch’s husband Jordan Michael Kirsch, Danielle Chung Couture, Ken Koszowski, Caitlin Baiada, Eric Kim, John Gurrieri, Wes Jones, Christine Liang, Kevin Console, Dan Murray, and Maura Burk’s boyfriend Keith Nagy. Attending but not pictured were RJ Durante, Simone Hall, Stephanie Kaczmarski, Josh Nase, and Matthew Welsher.
2011 2006
Katherine Hoelz works for Ernst & Young as a supervising associate in the Experience Management and Deployment department in New York City. In July she became engaged to her boyfriend of seven years, Ben Hurt. An August wedding is planned. Bryce Langlotz and Nate Owens are roomates and currently co-workers at Amazon as software development engineers in Seattle, WA. Bryce has been at Amazon since July 2015 and Nate joined the company in April 2016.
On October 5, Billy Martin was named Head Sailing Coach at George Washington University. Previously, he successfully guided the University of Pennsylvania sailing program for two-plus seasons. 40
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Ailsa Stevenson served as producer for the MFS winter play The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged).
2013 See page 41 for photo of Shanelle Jones.
See photo on page 41 of Ethan Carilli and CJ Cooper. Austin Harris has contributed a number of articles to The Huffington Post since November. The pieces offer his personal views on pop culture, comedy, diversity in the film industry, and more. Austin is currently studying at New York University and aspires to be a writer and filmmaker. Maraina Adams was awarded a grant from The Steven Daniel Smallen Memorial Fund at Hamilton College. The fund is designed to encourage student creativity among Hamilton students by providing funds for projects displaying originality, expressiveness, and imagination. Maraina will use the award for a sculpture project called “To Deconstruct.” She is a senior majoring in art and Chinese. SPRING 2017
Class Notes
2013
Former soccer players Ethan Carilli and C.J. Cooper were on hand at Rutgers-Camden on November 22 to watch Ethan’s brother Dylan ’17 play in the South Jersey Soccer Coaches Association Senior All-Star Game.
2014 Carl Durkow had his “Avian Rockinghorse” design displayed on November 14 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art as part of the For Kids Only Collab Student Design Competition. The annual event, sponsored by the museum, is an opportunity for regional university students to network with peers, meet global design leaders, and receive valuable feedback from industry professionals.
Former Faculty and Staff Former Athletic Trainer JoAnn Sienkiewicz was inducted into the Catawba College Athletic Training Hall of Fame on February 11. JoAnn served as athletic trainer and clinical outreach for MFS between 1992 and 1998. She is employed as an athletic trainer and health and physical education teacher for the Burlington County Institute of Technology. She was named Teacher of the Year for Burlington County Institute of Technology in 2010.
2013
For three weeks between December and January, Shanelle Jones interned as a solar and water field representative with Saha Global in which she collaborated with women in rural Ghana to help launch sustainable water businesses. The women were the leaders of the projects, but Shanelle assisted by providing finances for the women, running to the market to get necessary supplies, and helping them build what was needed to provide and sell clean water and bringing electricity. Shanelle said, “I was able to get my hands dirty trying to conserve our beautiful planet and helped make a vision come true for women who saw the need to ensure that basic resources were here for generations to come. It was an amazing opportunity and I am proud to have been selected as one of 20 representatives.” Shanelle is currently a senior at Clark University.
Class Notes received after March 4 will be printed in the next issue of Among Friends.
Share Your News with Friends 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. SPRING 2017
Among Friends Web Extras Access additional information, media links, and more by scanning this QR code or by visiting the Among Friends scetion of the school website under “News.” AMONG FRIENDS
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Save the Date! The Boys’ Alumni Lacrosse Game and the Seiji Moriuchi ’98 Wiffle Ball Tournament will both take place on Saturday, June 3.
Class Notes
Boys’ Soccer Alumni Game 2016 On November 26, many former Foxes attended the Boys’ Soccer annual alumni match. The Odd Years downed the Even Years, 5-2, with David Howarth ’15 taking home MVP honors. Kneeling: CJ Cooper ’13, Bryan Gfeller ’12, Derek Preston ’09, Naoji Moriuchi ’94, Matthew Mullock ’16, Tommy Martin ’15, Trevor Heins ’12, Colin Gregory ’14, Andrew Karolidis ’16, Dan Richards ’14, Andy Cook ’15, David Howarth ’15, and Jake O’Donnell ’11. Standing: Mike Stobbe ’09, Chris Grahn ’16, Kieran McMenamin ’16, Mitchell Mullock ’16, Drew Bachman ’09, Justin Stark ’10, Josh Murdy ’16, Ethan Carilli ’13, Nick Harbist ’08, Andrew Preston ’06, Danny Salowe ’12, Louis Couture (husband of Danielle Chung ’06), Tevin Rivera ’13, Nick Cook ’11, and Varsity Coach Mike Schlotterbeck.
Basketball Alumni Game 2016 Alumni basketball players took to the court on December 16 to close out a tripleheader featuring Boys’ and Girls’ Varsity games earlier that evening. Front Row: Andy Cook ’15, Dan Richards ’14, Jake Brown ’12, Dylan Eni ’16, Chris Grahn ’16, Mike Stobbe ’09, Joe Beideman ’15, and Shailen Doshi ’15. Second Row: Stephen Dwyer ’12, Steve Haines ’08, Assistant Athletic Director and Math Teacher Ron Obermeier, Mitchell Mullock ’16, Darshak Thosani ’11, Tommy Martin ’15, and Wesley Share ’15. Third Row: Sean Denson ’08, Drew Haines ’11, Nick Cook ’11, Rushabh Thosani ’09, former Boys’ Basketball Coach Ryan Winkelspecht ’98, and Assistant Varsity Boys’ Basketball Coach and History Teacher Parker Curtis. Not pictured but also in attendance: Matthew Mullock ’16.
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AMONG FRIENDS
SPRING 2017
In Memoriam Philip Bright ’54
Mary Louise Serri Murray-Johnson ’58
Lois Brotsker mother of Glenn Brotsker ’74 and Karen Brotsker Granito ’77, grandmother of Matthew Granito ’18
Charles C. Jones father of Jamal Jones ’04 Ruth Jane Laessle ’41 sister of the late James Laessle ’38
Erik Brown ’91 brother of Ivy Brown Buchdahl ’89 and Chad Brown ’91
David P. Lennox ’84 brother of Kimberly Lennox ’87
Talbot D. Bulkley former faculty member
Henry (Hank) G. Lumb ’49 husband of Joan Herbst Lumb ’50
John Caughey ’70 son of former faculty member the late John M. Caughey and former faculty member and former School Committee member the late Mary P. “Polly” Caughey, brother of Patricia Jane Caughey ’71, Margaret (Meg) Alice Caughey ’74, and Robert Andrew Caughey ’75
John Makel ‘45 Gertrude Marshall wife of the late E.W. Marshall ’31 Edwin McVaugh ‘34 Aaron Price ’07
Barbara Middleton Chakroff ’45 J. Bruce Gilman father of Susan Gilman Elmore ’74
Barbara C. Ross mother of Alison Judah ’86 Len H. Shapiro ’60
Marion Glover Fitkin ’47 sister of the late Lawrence L. Glover ’43 Barbara Jefferis Gunn Haines ’48
Ann Stokes ’48 sister of the late Samuel Emlen Stokes, Jr. ’40, the late Lydia Stokes Willits ’42, and the late Sally Stokes Venerable ’44
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. SPRING 2017
AMONG FRIENDS
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Spotlight on Student Artwork
Thread Mateo Flores ’17, scanogram of ribbon overlay
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AMONG FRIENDS
Cal Blumberg ’22, wood container SPRING 2017
Dinner Among Friends, May 5, 6 p.m. The Alumni Banquet features the presentation of the 2017 Alumni Association Awards: Bill Gardiner ’67 – Alumni Service Award; Sonia Mixter Guxman ’02 – Young Alumni Award; Miriam Feyerherm – Alice Stokes Paul Merit Award. Library Assistant Mary Ann Griffis and Front Desk Coordinator B. Michelle Horton will be honored as they retire this spring.
Saturday, May 6 Activities include – Meeting for Worship, a Luncheon in honor of the 50th Reunion Class of 1967 and All Prior Classes, a Picnic for the Classes of 1968 through 2016 and their families, Student Guided Tours/Photo Scavenger Hunt, a “State of the School” Report at the Alumni Association Meeting, and a Reception for Former Faculty and Staff. Campus activities end with the 4 p.m. Alumni Networking and Class Reunion Reception at the Greenleaf Main Building. Numerous class reunions are scheduled off campus that evening.
For more information about Alumni Weekend, individual class reunions, and to register online, visit mfriends.org/AW17. Remember, this year’s Reunion Classes are the 2’s and 7’s. Questions? Contact the Development Office at (856) 914-4414.
Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Cinnaminson, NJ Permit No. 81 110 East Main Street Moorestown, NJ 08057-2949
NEW
Soccer, Tennis and Fencing Camps
Spend your summer at MFS! We offer innovative and exciting approaches to Science, Robotics, Technology, Coding, Design, Sports, Arts, Theatre, Economics, and more! visit: summer.mfriends.org email: MFSscholars@mfriends.org call: (856) 914-4493
NEW
in 2017
Tot Scholars for 3-4 year olds