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Faculty&StaffNews
Faculty & Staff News
Former Middle School Apprentice Teacher Stephen Quinn is now working in Dubai, teaching Grades 7 and 8. Former Upper School Visual Arts Teacher Lynn Donahue is staying active in the community and volunteering regularly at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church of New Canaan.Former Director of Community Development Lynn Sullivan was promoted to Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Yale Divinity School, April 19.
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New Kid, from award-winning author-illustrator Jerry Craft
(NCCS parent of Jaylen ’13
and Aren ’15), was selected for the NCCS Faculty & Staff Community Book Read and was a featured element in ongoing professional development. Craft joined faculty and staff during a series of workshops that focused on improving the school’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion initiatives. He answered questions and provided insight into his family’s experience. In addition, son Jaylen joined him for the event.
New Kid, the winner of the Coretta Scott King and Kirkus awards, and the first graphic novel to win the Newberry Medal, follows the experience of a student of color as he navigates a new school and finds himself in the minority, culturally. Craft is also the author and artist of Class Act, the second novel in the trilogy.
▲ Current and former Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Liaisons who reunited over dinner June 14 included (front row from left to right): Grade 2 Teacher Abigail Manny Newport ’89, former Upper School World Language Teacher Hannah Liu, Former Digital Marketing Manager Moina Noor and Beginners 4/5 Teacher Carin Walden; (back row from left to right): Director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Kojo Clarke, Kindergarten Teacher Jessica McKinney, Grade 6 Teacher Brayden Henry, Grade 5 Teacher Andrew Bevan and Horizons Family and Program Director Nehemie Moise.
▸ Former Grade 5 Teacher Suzy Sensbach writes: “I’m working as Youth and Recreation Director at a private club. I am enjoying all that Montana has to offer: rafting, kayaking, camping, biking and more! I was lucky to have two NCCS visitors this past summer. [Middle School Learning Resource Teacher] Dana Brooks, passed through with her children in July and in August. [LS World Language Teacher] Sean Robb was in town and we were able to spend a day together hiking and eating BBQ! If anyone is in Big Sky, be sure to look me up!”
Faculty professional development opportunities, including graduate coursework, are made possible by financial resources from the Special Professional Development Fund and the Ninth Grade Endowment Fund.
Nancy von Euler Honored with Horizons Leadership Award
Horizons National named Nancy von Euler, Executive Director of Horizons at NCCS, one of three winners of the annual Horizons Leadership Award. The award honors a Horizons executive director or site director who contributes both on a local and national level, embodying the spirit of the Horizons mission. In her nomination, Horizons Board Chair Sanny Burnham Warner ’88 cited specific examples of von Euler’s leadership that helped the program navigate the recent challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Nancy is in her fourth year as the ED of Horizons at NCCS and has provided experience, expertise and enthusiasm that would be expected of someone who has been with the program for decades. Her leadership has resulted in a successful fundraising program, a thorough strategic plan, inspirational speeches, and endless love and passion for Horizons students,” she said. “Nancy’s leadership and ability to pivot and be responsive amid the COVID crisis allowed for an extremely wellattended and successful remote summer program for Horizons students. Her understanding of how hard communities were hit by COVID inspired her to provide the best summer program possible, keeping in mind safety, costs and staff limitations. By diverting funds that would be spent in the cafeteria to grocery gift cards, Horizons families received support to provide some of the meals that the program normally provides each summer.
“Nancy’s inspired vision for the program has benefited families through increased programming, financial support and growth in the number of students served. Nancy has provided guidance and clear goals for her year-round staff and summer teachers. Her collaboration with the administration of NCCS has garnered her respect from the school community. Believing that we are stronger together, Nancy places a high value on collaboration and partnership with the Horizons National network of programs and within our local communities.”
▲ Marianna and FLIK Dining Services Chef William Barrera welcomed daughter, Nathalie Luna Barrera, Aug. 10. ▲ Jess and Database Manager Jen Gifford welcomed a daughter, Callie Anne Gifford, Sept. 29. ▲ Stoddard and Physical Education Teacher Meegan Horn welcomed a son, Tucker Macpherson Horn, June 5. ▲ Marielle and Upper School English and History Teacher; Advisor; Coach; Grade Level Dean Charles Khuen welcomed a girl, Hayden July 21.
▲ Assistant to Head of Middle School; Assistant Director, Secondary School Counseling Brenda (Friedman) Siegel and Gary Siegel were married on Aug. 22. ▲ Former Apprentice Teacher Whitney Powel married Andy Holmes June 26 at the Chicago Club in Charlevoix, MI, where they had spent many childhood summers as friends. The couple resides in Dallas. ▲ Former Apprentice Annie Upton Henry was among the current and former NCCS faculty and staff who returned to campus in July to help make the 57th Horizons at New Canaan Country School Summer Program a success. For more, please see page 50.
Farewell to Our Dear Colleagues
Tom Giggi
When going to a baseball game, always get there early. If you enter the stadium the moment they open the gates several hours before the first pitch, in addition to the immaculate grass and dirt and the wide open spaces filled with possibility, you see purposeful preparation in action. Players running, hitting, throwing and catching in established rhythms and understated focus, energy slowly growing as the stadium fills and first pitch approaches. That is also how Tom Giggi’s classroom feels early in the morning. Tom is always one of the first people on campus, quietly sitting at his desk in his immaculate room, walls adorned with Boston Red Sox paraphernalia, reading whatever classic his class is studying, preparing for his students. The order and understatedness of his room belie the focus, passion and spark that Tom brings out in his students, as anyone who has sat in his classroom knows.
Tom employs similar tenets in the classroom and on the playing field that get the most from his students. He gets to know his students/players and their areas of strength. He methodically prepares to place students in positions to bring the best out of them. As he teaches and coaches, he always explains the why in addition to the what. He might show an offensive lineman why it is preferable to move his feet in a certain set of steps, or why an argument can be more persuasive in an essay if it is structured in a specific manner. Then he lets his students perform. As a colleague recently commented, Tom “explains the context, works to find strengths and affinities, and then asks kids to lead.” His leadership is very much in service to students’ growth.
Tom has been an English and history teacher in our Upper School since 1981. During those 40 years, he has also been the History Department Chair, English Department Chair, as well as an advisor and coach of baseball, soccer, football and basketball teams. He was also a faculty representative to the Board of Trustees in 1995–1996 and was even acting Head of the Upper School from 2000 to 2001. He has led all manner of Upper School trips, including the Civil Rights trip upon which he has had great impact. In fact, Tom has had a hand in developing every aspect of our notable Upper School humanities curriculum and has been a guiding force in the division.
In the fall of 1981, when Tom arrived as a new Upper School teacher, there was also a new math teacher named Elaine, to whom he is now married. They are the proud parents of, Ryan ’07 and Tyler ’09. In a circular event that is more common than you may think, Ryan was an NCCS Apprentice and, while here, met another Apprentice named Jeannette Leapold to whom he is now married.
On campus, you could find Tom on the football and baseball fields, on the basketball court, singing in the faculty chorus, leading the ninth graders as they hosted the Frogtown Fair midway, performing a rousing rendition of “Who’s on First?” with former faculty member Al Perry, and in his classroom helping students become better writers, more incisive readers and more astute students of history.
Throughout the years, Tom has spent summers as a leadership director and assistant camp director at Camp Belknap in Wolfeboro, NH, and now, Tom and Elaine will also be spending winters in their home in New Hampshire. We wish them all the best and know that the Upper School will not feel quite the same without Tom there every morning preparing for class every day just as he always has.
A tree has been planted in honor of Tom Giggi’s dedicated 40 years of service to Country School. It is planted at the corner of the Stevens Building, directly between his former classroom window and the home he and his family shared on Frogtown Road, across the street.
At NCCS, teaching is much more than a vocation; it is a passion and, for some, a life’s work. On May 14, 2022, at the Frogtown Fair, we will be celebrating three such educators: Tom Giggi and Raphe Elkind who retired in June, 2021, and also Fraser Randolph, who stepped out of his Grade 6 classroom to teach part-time during the 2021–2022 academic year.
Raphe Elkind
Grade 5 Teacher
One of the great NCCS traditions is announcements at Wednesday lunch for faculty and staff. One only needs to attend a single such lunch to know Raphe Elkind. Whether giving an impassioned ask for the annual fund, educating us to a cause in which he is involved, sharing his perspective on school events, or simply letting everyone know when and where his wife, Lissy, will be singing with a jazz ensemble in Westport that week, Raphe’s is a regular and meaningful voice within the faculty and staff. Warm, reflective, honest and passionate, he leads with his heart and his caring for others. He brings those same qualities to his classroom as he encourages the development of his students’ voices in their writing, their analysis of literature, and their expression of perspectives, opinions and interests. He wants students to know their communities, know their passions and to get involved in the issues that compel them.
Raphe’s classroom is alive with learning. Games, puzzles and trinkets abound on the shelves, and students regularly solve the day’s “Braingles.” Nearly every morning, Raphe and his students discuss current events and their implications. An avid reader of young adult literature, he is a firm believer in the importance of reading. Raphe is known for his years of letter exchanges with his students about their independent reading; these composition journals went back and forth throughout the year, extending student thinking about and love of their reading (and offering good new book suggestions to Raphe). Raphe also lives civics in action — he once took a class to Hartford to present environmental speeches in support of clean car legislation. On top of all that, he has been a tremendous mentor to decades of apprentice teachers, many of whom have gone on to fruitful teaching careers themselves.
Raphe has been a mainstay of our middle school as a fifth grade teacher for the past 28 years. In addition, he has taught yoga, coached baseball and basketball, sung in the Faculty Chorus and performed with the orchestra, worn his famous orange bathrobe to the dunk tank at the Frogtown Fair, and chaperoned hiking trips to Devil’s Den and overnight trips to Camp Becket. He also served as a faculty representative to the Board of Trustees from 2011 to 2013. Raphe and Lissy’s sons, Peter ’11 and Henry ’14, both attended NCCS.
As much as he has meant to his fifth grade students during the school year, Raphe has similarly dedicated himself to our Horizons program. Over the past three decades, he has taught in classrooms, contributed to special events, and been a regular and transformational supporter of Horizons, bringing his voice and passion to students in the summer just as he does his fifth graders during the school year.
Raphe will most certainly be missed in the Middle School, around campus, at the low end of the faculty chorus, at faculty/staff lunches and by the many people upon whose lives he has had such a tremendous and lasting impact.
Susan Chiavariolihas been a
welcoming presence on campus for the past 20 years, most recently in the Grace House as a receptionist and dismissal coordinator. Previously, she assisted in the Kindergarten, Upper and Lower School libraries, and during the summer supported our Horizons program in various capacities, including driving a blue minibus filled with eager young student swimmers to neighborhood pools. Susan’s son, John, is also a former NCCS Apprentice Teacher.
John Hastings was a dedicated Grade 4 Teacher for the past 17 years. Additionally, he served as a Lead Grade 3 Teacher in the Horizons program for 15 summers. John brought his prior professional experience in drama to Country School, working with the fourth grade Greek and Mummers plays and teaching drama after school and in the summers. John’s extensive necktie collection hand-drawn by his former students and his regular involvement at events throughout the school — such as the dunk tank at the Frogtown Fair — demonstrate the care he has for NCCS. John is moving on to focus on working with children on their social-emotional well-being and mental health.
Will McDonough wore many hats during his 13-year tenure at Country School, including Upper School English and History Teacher, Advisor, Grade 6–9 Social Studies Program Coordinator, Coach, Life Skills Teacher, and Director of Service Learning. Will has been an active presenter at professional conferences including the National Association of Independent Schools and the Association for Middle Level Education. He has also self-published two books, The Things We Shared in the Time We Had: A Letter to My Students and Pause Together: A Handbook for Humans. Will, his wife Nicole, and their three children, Naomi ’26, Jonah ’27 and Gideon ’29 will move to the eastern part of the state as Will takes on a leadership role at the Country School in Madison, CT. Paul Nye served as Country School’s Controller and Human Resources Coordinator for 13 years. Throughout his years here, he impacted our financial and environmental sustainability through his stewardship and management. Paul says he was immediately smitten with the idea that he could bring his dog to work. In order to ensure that Country School would preserve its animal-friendly culture, Paul earmarked a financial donation to the school that would cover any costs associated with dog-walking on-campus. Paul and Hadley, his soft-coated Wheaten Terrier, have been staples on campus during their early morning and midday walks.
Melissa Ryan-Knowlton was the
Athletic Trainer for our student-athletes for nine years. During this past year, she also served as a valued member of our Health & Wellness Team, assisting with COVID compliance protocols and contract tracing. Present at every Middle and Upper School practice and game (and Lower School recesses as well), Melissa has ensured sport safety and appropriate medical supervision for all of our athletes. Melissa and her family are returning to Massachusetts this summer.
Moina Noor served as Country School’s Digital Communications Manager for eight years. During this time, she has been one of the school’s chief storytellers in pictures, videos and images sharing news from across campus on our website, social media channels, newsletters and emails. A champion for diversity, equity and inclusion in all forms, Moina has been a member of the school’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion faculty and staff facilitator group since it began in 2018. Moina is also the parent of Salman Memon ’23.
Lisa Schultz helped countless students successfully transition beyond Country School as the Director of Secondary School Counseling for the past seven years. A parent of Katherine ’08 and Reed ’11, Lisa brought to the position a well-honed understanding of the Country School journey. Her approach has always been to develop a relationship with each student, to recognize the entirety of each child, and to help match the student with the best secondary school fit so that the child will thrive. A passionate and longtime supporter of Horizons and similar programs, Lisa will continue to work with underserved populations in her work after NCCS.
Chantal Angelis served as Physical Education Program Coordinator, Physical Education Teacher and Coach for the past seven years. An athlete herself, Chantal brought to NCCS a passion for helping students develop a lifelong enjoyment of physical activity and a healthy attitude toward athletic competition. Notably, she created Dribblers, an NCCS afterschool program dedicated to building athletic confidence in second and third grade girls, in the hope that they would then persist in ball sports. As she leaves to spend more time at home with her young family, we know Chantal will stay involved at NCCS as a parent to Miles ’30.
Matt McDonald arrived at Country School in 2015 as a Grade 5 Apprentice Teacher with a passion for math and sports, and now, six years later, departs as Upper School Math Teacher, Varsity Boys’ Ice Hockey Coach, Advisor and Grade 6–9 Math Program Coordinator. A talented athlete himself, Matt has also coached Upper School soccer and lacrosse. Matt is moving to Massachusetts to teach, coach and lead the math department at the Fay School.
Debbie Colon welcomed visitors to campus for the past two years as a school receptionist. Warm and gregarious, Debbie is well known for connecting people to one another, helping lost items find their owners, and for offering positive affirmations to all who pass by her centrally located perch in the telephone office. Her quick smile and infectious laugh have been a bright spot in everyone’s day.
We also say farewell and offer our
thanks to Upper School Leave Replacement Substitute Teacher Richard Conley, Upper School Long-Term Substitute Science Teacher Jennifer Corcoran, Upper School Long-Term Substitute Teacher Geneive DeBono, Plus Program Assistant Rebecca Freitas, Grade 1 Teacher, Maintenance Assistant Elder Gomez, Grade 1 Teacher Katie Henkel, Plus Program Assistant Lynnet Karamanian, Beginners 4/5 Teacher Emily Schoonmaker, Grade Level Assistant and Plus Program Assistant Jane Zech, and to the following Apprentices: Lindsey Bemis, Isa Dumoulin,
Rebecca Evensen, Ann Abbott Freeman, Kait Harden, Liesl Hennig, Madeleine Ker ’10, Remi Klein, Katie Lashendock, Morgan Lowry, Kate MacNutt, Will Shaw
and Emma Pippert. Welcome to Our New Colleagues * * * Tori Bartlett, Grade 3 Apprentice Will Bass, Grade 6 Apprentice Hailey Biagi, Grade 4 Apprentice *
Lauren Catalano, Grade 1 Apprentice Kelly Cattano, KindergartenApprentice Monae Cherry, Grade 2 Apprentice Cherie Corchard, Physical Education Teacher; Coach Kendall Cornine, PE Apprentice JoAnn Corsillo, Controller Gaetana Deiso, Athletic Trainer; Health Office Assistant Samantha “Sam” Gault, Part-time Upper School English Teacher; Advisor Tate Given, Grade 3 Apprentice Clay Kontulis ’12, Grade 5Apprentice Sara Krusekopf, Upper School Math Teacher; Advisor, Coach Brian Muller, Grades 3–9 Associate Music Teacher Allison Smith ’98, Grade 3 Apprentice Jayne Tully, Grade 6 Apprentice Fay Venetsanos, Grade 5 Teacher Emma Zachary ’13, Grade 2 Apprentice
Also joining us or taking on new responsibilities are:
* *
Brooke Arthur, Director of Strategy and Communications Caroline Aronowitz, Grade 5 Apprentice Renee Bornstein, Communications Support Manager, Receptionist Christy Bottomley, Grade 1 Associate Teacher Holly Donaldson Casella ’04,Director of Major Gifts & Alumni Affairs Shannon Faella, Grade 4 Teacher Kent Findlay ’80, Assistant Director of Marketing & Communications Tom Hogenkamp, Upper School English and History Teacher Kristin Keneally, KindergartenApprentice Isadora Machado, Visual Arts Teacher, Plus Program Assistant Olivia Mao, Grade 4 Apprentice Mark Macrides, Director of Community Engagement, Visual Arts Program Director John Neill, Director of Operations Kat Norton ’12, Grade 5 Apprentice Welby Obeng, Part-Time Data Administrator & Systems Engineer Fraser Randolph, Visual Arts Teacher Winter Quisgard, Grade 1 Associate Teacher Hartel Smith, Grade 6Apprentice Kathy Steinman, Director of Institutional Research Carin Walden,Beginners 4/5 Teacher
