WINTER 2014
T H E M A G A Z I N E O F PA C E A C A D E M Y
My Teaching Partner Plus Fall Sports Highlights | Girls Cross-Country Wins State | Alumni Reunite
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2014 Parents Club Auction & Gala Honoring Head of Lower School Anna Valerius Saturday, April 5 The Georgia Aquarium Sponsorship & donation information online at paceacademy.org/auction
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Letter from the Editor You never know who’s going to show up in the days preceding winter break. As Middle and Upper School students complete their exams, and Lower Schoolers don angel wings to “light one candle,” a steady stream of young alumni appear on campus. They return not to visit their former schoolmates but to catch up and reconnect with Pace teachers. They share news of college courses, new friends and life far away from their highschool home—and their former teachers can’t get enough. They ask if their former pupils feel prepared and if they’re pursuing a specific talent; they offer book recommendations and general life advice. They care. These long-lasting relationships are central to a Pace education, and because our teachers care about their students, they care about their own professional development. They take part in programs like MyTeachingPartner (see page 30); they spend months of weekends on crosscountry courses around the state (see page 24) and late nights in the theatre (see page 12). There’s no questioning the impact of this dedication. We see the same care, compassion and conviction in our alumni—people like Kiery Braithwaite ’90, David Scales ’97 and Ethan Smith ’96—who strive to make a difference in the lives of others every day (read their profiles starting on page 34). We are fortunate to count as family such wonderful individuals.
Caitlin Goodrich Jones ’00 Director of Communications
ContributorS Will Frampton ’99 After graduating from Pace, Will Frampton attended Erskine College in South Carolina, where he majored in English. College internships at CNN in Atlanta helped pave the way to a career in television broadcasting. He got his start at WTHI, the CBS station in Terre Haute, Ind. Subsequent reporting stints in Columbia, S.C., and Sacramento, Calif., followed. Eventually he returned to Atlanta, where he now reports for the local CBS station. Frampton earned an Emmy for his reporting from Afghanistan in December of 2007. His reports can be seen regularly on CBS Atlanta News. He and his wife, Sarah, live in Buckhead.
Kate Miller-Bains Kate Miller-Bains is a graduate of Teachers College, Columbia University. She recently joined the Curry School of Education’s Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning (CASTL) as a research assistant and outreach coordinator. Prior to moving to Charlottesville, Va., in 2013, Miller-Bains worked with an educational non-profit in New York City that provides professional development and curriculum support to project-based learning schools.
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966 W. Paces Ferry Road, NW Atlanta, Georgia 30327 www.paceacademy.org
KnightTimes Fred Assaf hea d O F S C H O O L
WINTER 2014 Contents 6 NEWS What you need to know.
10 AROUND PACE A look at what's happening at Pace.
20 Fall Sports Highlights A synopsis of athletic achievements.
Division Heads Michael Gannon he a d of u p p e r school
John Anderson HEAD O F M I DDL E SCHOOL
Anna Valerius HEAD O F L O WER SCHOOL
Communications Department
24 THE PACE PACK The girls cross-country team takes state in dramatic fashion.
30 MY TEACHING PARTNER Pace goes outside the box to improve teaching and learning.
34 ALUMNI Where are they now?
Caitlin Goodrich Jones ’00 D I RE C TO R O F C O MM UNICAT IONS, EDITOR
Ryan Vihlen CREAT I V E S ERV I C ES M ANAGER, G RAPH I C DE S I G N ER
Lela Wallace DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER
Our Mission To create prepared, confident citizens of the world who honor the values of Pace Academy and who will preserve the legacy of our school for future generations.
Pace Cares Are you aware of a member of our community who is experiencing an illness or loss or is blessed with a new arrival? Pace Cares would love to help by delivering a home-cooked meal prepared by our dedicated volunteer cooks. Please call the Pace Cares hotline at 404-926-3727. To contribute ideas for the KnightTimes, please email Caitlin Goodrich Jones at cjones@paceacademy.org.
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CORRECTIONS While we make every effort to present accurate information in each issue of the KnightTimes, sometimes we make mistakes or inadvertently omit individuals who should be recognized. Please note the following corrections to our fall issue: The cheerleading article in the News section indicated that the Pace cheerleading squad attended the Universal Cheerleaders Association (UCA) summer camp at the University of Central Florida. In fact, the UCA camp took place on Jekyll Island, Ga. The article regarding the Verano Sin Límites summer experience failed to mention that third-grade teacher Christian Eden worked as a counselor at the month-long camp. Eden, a diversity coordinator in the Lower School, works with great enthusiasm to enrich the Lower School experience. According to colleague Beck McRae, “Eden’s contribution to Pace is in every way exceptional.” We truly appreciate his work on behalf of this important program.
Letter f ro m the Hea d o f S ch ool
Dear Pace Family, Over the winter break, I relaxed with friends and family and reflected on the happenings of our first semester. What a joyful, exciting time! Construction changed the face of our campus on a daily basis; we celebrated annual events like the Booster Bash, Fall Fair, Lower School Holiday Program and Upper School musical; and we cheered on our fall athletes and coaches (be sure to read about our state-champion girls cross-country team on page 24). It’s no secret that the vibrant Pace community is the key to our school’s success, and our outstanding teachers form the foundation of that community. Some have taught at Pace for decades, others for just a few years, but regardless of tenure, the impact that these educators have on our children is immeasurable. Because we love and value our teachers, we try to do everything we can to ensure their professional growth. So when I heard about the MyTeachingPartner (MTP) program, I wondered if it might be an effective tool for our faculty (see page 30 for the details). At the start of this school year, we implemented the collaborative program in each division, and I’m happy to report that the feedback from our participants has been overwhelmingly positive. As a school, we place the student-teacher relationship above all else, and because MTP focuses on positive interactions between faculty and their pupils, the program is a perfect fit. I’m grateful to our MTP coaches and participants for taking a chance on this program and investing time in perfecting their craft. The extent to which our teachers go above and beyond every day is mindboggling. I cannot thank them— and you— enough for all that you do for Pace. Sincerely,
Fred Assaf Head of school
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NEWS
PACESETTERS
Honoring Students Who Set the Pace Outside of School
Raising Awareness of Food Allergies
Sophomore Owen Moncino is allergic to pine nuts. His experience with food allergies prompted him to get involved with Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE) and to serve as the youth chair for the organization’s Atlanta walk last fall. FARE works on behalf of the 15 million Americans who have a food allergy, including those at risk for lifethreatening anaphylaxis. “I have no problem using my epinephrine,” Moncino says, referring to the hormone and neurotransmitter used to treat anaphylaxis. “I want others to know they don’t have to be afraid.” His advice to other kids with food allergies is to “be careful, but don’t let [your allergy] run your life, listen to your parents and use your epinephrine— it will stop your reaction and may save your life.”
Sokolic Named to Elite “20 Under 20” List
Nathan Sokolic
Every year, Atlanta INtown Paper recognizes 20 young men and women who give back to their communities in remarkable ways. This year, senior Nathan Sokolic made that “20 Under 20” list. Sokolic is an outspoken advocate for diversity and a dynamic leader in the Pace Academy Board of Diversity (PABD), as well as a leader in the service learning program. During his sophomore year, Sokolic facilitated a partnership between Pace and The Albert T. Mills Enrichment Center and coordinated a successful Thanksgiving drive. As a junior, he launched a clothing drive for CHRIS Kids and served as a service leader for Habitat for Humanity, a position he holds this year as well. Sokolic also volunteers in his church community, where he teaches a third-grade Sunday school class.
Pace Cares When our families and staff are in need, Pace Cares. 6
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Contact us to deliver a meal: 404-926-3727 pacecares@paceacademy.org
NEWS
Left to right: James O'Brien, Rebecca Husk, Bobby Stonecipher, Rachel Much, Maryellen Malone, Nathan Sokolic, Harrison Halberg and Jeri Brand
Excellence on a Global Scale
As part of the Pace Academy Policy Simulation program, Upper School students Jeri Brand, Rebecca Husk, Maryellen Malone, Rachel Much, Harrison Halberg, James O’Brien, Nathan Sokolic and Bobby Stonecipher, and faculty advisors Helen Smith and Keith Newman traveled to Budapest, Hungary, from Nov. 23 to Dec. 3 to participate in Yale Model Government Europe. Following four days of meetings, deliberation and crisis, the Pace delegation received the Outstanding Delegation Award—one of three delegations recognized for overall excellence. Smith credits the delegation’s success to “each student’s strong presence, diplomatic skills and quick thinking.” More than 35 schools and 350 delegates from around the world participated in the Model, and Pace students helped shape and guide the decisions made by European Union country cabinets and the Councils of Ministers. The following students received individual recognition: Much, Honorable Mention as the Hungarian Minister of Health; Halberg, Honorable Mention as Italy’s Minister of Foreign Affairs; O’Brien, Outstanding Delegate as the EU Affairs Minister from Belgium; Brand, Best Delegate as the Economic and Financial Affairs Minister from Greece; Husk, Best Delegate as the German Cabinet’s Minister of Defense.
Awards Recognize Pace Artists, DeRosa Takes Top Prize The 2013 Georgia High School Ceramic Arts Awards and Symposium recognized the work of students from high schools throughout the state. More than 700 entries were submitted for the 2013 exhibit, and approximately 160 were selected for inclusion. Fifteen Upper School students were accepted into the exhibit, and winners were named in November. Junior Juliana DeRosa received the Juror’s Choice Award, the exhibit’s top prize, while senior Mackenzie Kelly was awarded Special Recognition (second place in the exhibit) for her sculpture. Senior Denzel Franklin received an Award of Merit for best thrown pottery form, and senior Keith Tremege received Honorable Mention in the same category.
Top: Juliana DeRosa's Juror's Choice Awardwinning plate. Bottom: Mackenzie Kelly's second-place sculpture.
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Going Above and Beyond
Morgan Baker used an online fundraising campaign to purchase a carload of much-needed toiletries for My Sister's House.
Junior Morgan Baker is a longtime volunteer for My Sister’s House, one of Pace’s service learning community partners. The 264-bed facility offers overnight shelter and residential programs for homeless women and women with children, and Baker is one of five Upper School students charged with managing the school’s partnership with the organization. In August, Baker volunteered at a back-to-school event at My Sister’s House and noticed a list of desperately needed toiletries posted on the wall. To help solve the problem, she created an online fundraising campaign to purchase the products, generating more than $1,400. Baker then solicited local and national companies to collect toiletries such as soaps, shampoos, razors, feminine products, toothbrushes and toothpaste. The result? My Sister’s House received more than 5,000 much-needed items in time for the holidays.
Classroom Lesson Inspires Community Action
Seventh-grade girls packed hygiene kits for the Threshold Project after shopping at a local discount store.
A group of seventh-grade girls in Jan Bedol’s Discovery class recently completed a unit on living in poverty in America. After participating in lessons regarding the nation’s minimum wage, the girls decided to take action. With a $500 goal, they proposed coordinating a day to raise money to purchase hygiene kits for the Threshold Project at Decatur Presbyterian Church. After several presentations to the Middle School students, the team raised more than $800 in a single morning. Cash and lists in hand, Bedol and the girls hopped on a school bus, purchased the necessary items and packed hygiene kits with the help of the Middle School service club members. Their efforts produced 50 kits packed to the brim with items that homeless individuals require to meet their basic needs. In addition, they purchased 25 $15 Kroger cards for the Threshold Project. “Students are taught many lessons in school and throughout life, yet this particular group was so impacted by what they learned that they changed the world in their own small way,” says Bedol.
Maestros in the Making
Whit FitzGerald and Tracy Knight perform with selective youth orchestras.
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Two members of the Pace Upper School strings ensemble have been selected to play in elite Atlanta performance groups. Junior violinist Tracy Knight will return for a second season with the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra. Each year, more than 300 student musicians audition for the orchestra, and fewer than 100 are selected. The Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra rehearses and performs in the Woodruff Arts Center’s Symphony Hall under the baton of Maestro Jere Flint. Freshman violinist Whit FitzGerald was selected as a member to the Metropolitan Youth Symphony Orchestra, a community-based group that provides young students with unique opportunities to continue their music education in a full orchestral setting.
NEWS
Tanner Lewis, Clyde Shepherd, Eno Reyes and Jack McMillin hold trophies earned at the University of Michigan's national competition.
Debate Continues to Dominate
Under the leadership of coach Shuntá Jordan, Pace debaters picked up right where they left off after last year’s tremendously successful season. In late October, junior debaters Tanner Lewis and Clyde Shepherd won first place at the University of Michigan’s National Junior Round Robin after two days of competition against some of the nation’s top junior debaters. The team was undefeated, and Shepherd was named the second-place individual speaker. Senior Anshuman Parikh also was named the second individual speaker in the Senior Round Robin. Sixteen Pace debaters went on to compete in the main invitational of the national three-day tournament. Senior Erik Howard, Parikh, Lewis and Shepherd reached the elimination rounds in the varsity division, and in a field of 322 students from 20 states, Howard and Parikh reached the final 16. The Pace ninth-grade team of Jack McMillin and Eno Reyes and the team of Michael Chen and Jake Movsovitz reached the finals of the tournament’s novice division and were crowned co-champions. Freshmen Christopher Howard and Will
Movsovitz finished as semifinalists. Throughout the tournament, not one of Pace’s three novice teams lost a single debate. This is the fourth consecutive year that Pace freshmen have reached the finals in that division. Lewis and Shepherd continued a successful fall semester at the Glenbrooks Speech and Debate Tournament in November, where they tied for fifth place out of 181 varsity teams from across the country. During the first weekend of December, the team of Parikh and sophomore Jacob Queller and the team of senior Kal Golde and sophomore Reid Funston competed at the Ohio Valley Invitational at the University of Kentucky. Both teams advanced to the elimination rounds. Golde and Funston finished in the top 32, while Parikh and Queller came in second. Parikh was named the secondplace individual speaker. By the end of the fall semester, the team of Parikh and Howard and the team of Lewis and Shepherd had qualified for the national Tournament of Champions in April, and Pace was invited to participate in the prestigious Harvard Round Robin in February.
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AROUND PACE
AROUND PACE A Look at What's Happening at Pace
Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month Since 1988, Americans have celebrated National Hispanic Heritage Month from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 of every year. Students in all grades at Pace spent the month participating in educational activities that highlighted the cultures and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America. In the Lower School, each grade explored a different aspect of Latino/Hispanic culture through literature, music, food, dance and crafts. The month-long unit culminated in a traditional Latino/ Hispanic lunch, complete with “papel picado” decorations in the cafeteria. A mariachi band even visited for a special assembly. The Middle School used its daily Inspirational Moment to celebrate Latino/Hispanic heritage. During the special assembly, a group of students educated their classmates about the origins of the celebration and the contributions of American citizens of Latino/Hispanic descent. The presentation culminated with a performance of the Peruvian National Anthem played by strings teacher Tara Harris and eighth-grade violinist Jonathan Tennies. On Sept. 25, Willie Zaviano & LLC Hispanic Band visited the Upper School and shared its lively music with students. As the assembly progressed, students rose from their seats to dance in the aisles and on stage. That same day, SAGE Dining Services prepared a delicious traditional Latino/Hispanic meal for lunch.
PABD Off to an Impressive Start
Top: The Willie Zaviano & LLC Hispanic Band performed during an Upper School assembly. Middle: Strings teacher Tara Harris and eighth-grader Jonathan Tennies played the Peruvian National Anthem. Bottom: Lower School students enjoyed up-tempo mariachi music.
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The Pace Academy Board of Diversity (PABD), a new student-run organization in the Upper School, has been hard at work since the school year began, coordinating events in each division and facilitating dialogue about the many elements of diversity. On Oct. 29, students in grades four through 12 participated in national Mix It Up at Lunch Day. The campaign, launched by Teaching Tolerance, encourages students to identify, question and cross social boundaries. At lunch, students and faculty members were randomly assigned to tables, provided with discussion topics and encouraged to connect with someone new. Then, on Nov. 8, the Middle School and PABD hosted the inaugural Multicultural Holiday Celebration. The event came about as a result of a survey PABD members distributed, which revealed that 51 countries and 41 holidays are represented and celebrated among the Middle School student body. To celebrate this diversity, students, parents and faculty manned display booths that featured food, information and cultural items related to their families’ traditions.
AROUND PACE
Photography teacher France Dorman and world-renowned photographer Alison Wright stand before a photo taken in Ethiopia's Omo Valley.
Straight from the Pages of the National Geographic Pace students, faculty, friends and visitors were in for a treat when National Geographic photographer Alison Wright arrived on campus on Oct. 3. Wright’s visit was part of Atlanta Celebrates Photography’s (ACP) 2013 Festival, an event in which Pace has participated for many years. The Pace Fine Arts Center served as an exhibit space for many of Wright’s works throughout the month of October, and Wright spoke about her travels and the photos in her latest book, Face to Face: Portraits of the Human Spirit, during a public lecture.
The Fall Fair Celebrates 50 Years The weather forecasts that called for rain on Saturday, Oct. 19, turned out to be accurate, but that didn’t put much of a damper on the 50th Anniversary Pace Fall Fair. Thousands of visitors enjoyed traditional Fall Fair activities like the Pace Jail and karaoke, inflatables, panning for gold and face painting. As a result of the successful event, the Parents Club generated $88,000, which will be used to fulfill teacher and staff requests for items that will enrich the Pace experience in all divisions. The Pace community wishes to thank Fall Fair Co-Chairs Cathy Funston and Allyson Maske, as well as the army of volunteers and the Pace Facilities team for making the 50th Anniversary Pace Fall Fair happen.
Partying for Pace Athletics Exploring Social Media in Screenagers The Middle School drama department had audiences all a-Twitter about its production of Screenagers, which took place in the Fine Arts Center Oct. 17 and 18. The play, directed by Middle School Drama Director Patrick Campbell, was a humorous look at the increasingly digital lifestyles of today’s youth. It examined the way technology shapes communication and impacts human relationships. Screenagers featured a talented cast of 26 Middle School students who illustrated the issues inherent in 24/7 connectivity.
The Booster Club celebrated the Pace coaches and athletes who “bring it” every day during its annual Booster Bash, which took place on Nov. 9 in the Inman Center. The event, coordinated by Pace parent Cindy Gay Jacoby ’83, included delicious food and amazing sports-related auction items like a signed Matt Ryan jersey, a party in a Hawks suite and VIP Falcons tickets. All Booster Bash proceeds benefitted Pace Athletics.
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Peter Pan: A Conversation with the Boy Who Could Fly “Twenty-one years ago, Pace mounted its first and, until now, only production of Peter Pan, with a wonderful young actor named Randy Harrison ’96 in the role of Peter Pan, the irrepressible Andre Rivard ’93 as Captain Hook and Danielle Blank ’96 in the role of Wendy,” longtime Pace Theatre Director Dr. George Mengert wrote in this year’s fall musical playbill. “Though the musical was written for a female Peter, [in 1992] we had the perfect young boy to create the role… This time around, we had the perfect female for the part, and so we cast junior Caillin Cooke.” Cooke, along with a cast of 45 Middle and Upper School students, brought to life J. M. Barrie’s beloved story Nov. 14 –17 in the Fine Arts Center. Music direction by performing arts teacher Susan Wallace and an enchanting set designed by Technical Director Scott Sargent transported audiences to Neverland, and Las Vegas-based company Flying by Foy provided the “fairy dust” that enabled the actors to fly. We caught up with the “boy” who could fly to see just what it was like being Peter Pan. Peter Pan is such an iconic character... how did you feel taking on that role? I feel as though I am more like Peter Pan than people realize. Though he is a boy, I could easily relate to his constant struggle with not growing up. I was very nervous to play the part because being a boy was a challenge. For audiences, one of the show’s highlights was watching the actors fly. What was it like to fly over the Fine Arts Center stage? One of my biggest fears used to be heights, but now I have definitely overcome that fear. When I first put on the harness, it was awful. The leather straps hurt! But the moment you get into the air, you get a rush that makes you almost forget that your body is hurting. Flying is by far the coolest thing I have ever done! The fall musical also starred senior Sam Downey as Captain Hook, senior Cory Bush as Wendy and senior Alexandra McCorkle as Tiger Lily.
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You sure looked like you were having fun on stage… This show was so much fun because of the cast. We became a family by the end of the show. It was so hard trying not to smile in scenes where it wasn’t appropriate — especially the fight scene! I couldn’t help smiling during rehearsal for that scene because it was just so much fun.
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The Most Wonderful Day of the Year Year after year, Lower School students look forward to welcoming their loved ones to campus for Grandparents & Special Friends Day. On Nov. 26, special guests gathered in the Lower School Cafeteria for a continental breakfast and a special program, which included a performance by the Lower School Minstrels. Following the program, guests visited classrooms, participated in all kinds of fun activities and learned about life in the Pace Lower School.
Members of the 2013 Homecoming Court. Left to right, Boys: Sammy Lettes, Ethan Robinson, Elijah Holifield, JOSH BLANK, Kenny Selmon, Will Rucker and David Martos; Girls: Caroline Draughon, Kaki Cox, Jessica Haidet, Elizabeth Hawn, Molly Marks, Anna Brown, Sarah Smith, Katherine Merritt; Not pictured: Jordan Harris, Ross Cefalu and Mackenzie Attridge
A Royal Celebration Homecoming & Reunion Weekend festivities are a whirlwind of activity for the entire Pace community. Alumni and reunion classes return to campus to catch up with old friends (see page 46 for alumni coverage), and families in all divisions come out to Riverview Road Athletic Complex in droves to watch the Knights take on their Homecoming opponents. On Oct. 4, the Knights handily defeated Strong Rock Christian School 40–0, and the Homecoming Court was introduced during halftime. Mackenzie Attridge, Caroline Draughon, Katherine Merritt, David Martos, Will Rucker and Kenny Selmon represented the Class of 2014 on the Court. Later, at the Upper School Homecoming dance, Merritt and Selmon were named 2013 Homecoming Queen and King. Merritt is president of the student body, a longtime member of Pace’s girls lacrosse team and is involved in the service learning program. Selmon is a member of the track and basketball teams, manages the varsity volleyball team and has worked backstage with the theatre department throughout high school.
Pace Delegation Attends Diversity Leadership Conference
From Dec. 5–7, sophomores Lali Zamora, Payton Gannon and Xori Johnson, juniors Brittany Allen, Noah Brooker and Kamran Sadiq, and faculty members Laura Agront-Hobbs, Nikki McCrary, Karen Sommerville and Rick Holifield attended the Student Diversity Leadership Conference in National Harbor, Md. Hosted by the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), The Student Diversity Leadership Conference is a multiracial, multicultural gathering of high school student leaders from around the country. Participants examine issues of social justice, develop effective cross-cultural communication skills, practice expression through the arts, and learn networking principles and strategies.
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Holiday Program Turns 23, Honors “Mrs. V” The Lower School staged performances of Light One Candle, its annual holiday program, on Dec. 18 and 19 in the Fine Arts Center. The holiday tradition, now in its 23rd year, is a retelling of the Hanukkah and Christmas stories. Head of Lower School Anna Valerius was instrumental in crafting the program and has been its performers’ biggest fan for more than two decades. “Mrs. V,” as the students fondly call her, will retire at the end of the current school year. To honor her contributions to the production, on Dec. 19, faculty, staff and students named the Fine Arts Center seats in which she and her husband, Al, watch the performance every year after the beloved couple. Longtime Lower School faculty member Deb Cook presented “Mr. and Mrs. V” with the plaques that will adorn their seats for years to come, and the members of the Class of 2014 recognized Valerius for her impact on their lives. To close the program, the fourth and fifth grades performed a special rendition of The Lord Bless You and Keep You before an emotional audience.
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AROUND PACE
Dancing the Night Away Oct. 27 was a very special date night for some very special sixth graders. The girls of the Class of 2020 invited their fathers to join them in Knights Hall for an evening of dancing and general merriment. A disc jockey provided the tunes, and a good time was had by all.
Lower School Salutes the Troops Veterans Day is always a special event in the Lower School. Every year, faculty, staff and students take time out of their day to salute our men and women in uniform at a special assembly. This year’s assembly featured patriotic music performed by each grade and inspiring educational speeches from faculty members and students. The Pace Minstrels and Boy Scouts participated in the assembly as well. Several members of the Pace community who are veterans or current servicemen/women attended the festivities, including Pace parent and alumnus Captain Jordan Gillis ’92. Gillis served in Iraq and shared photos and stories of his experience abroad with second-grade students.
Pace Lower School Scouts participated in the annual Veterans Day assembly.
Sixth-grade girls cherished a very special evening with their fathers at the father-daughter dance.
Seventh Grade Travels Back to Colonial Times For decades, Pace seventh graders traveled to Williamsburg, Va., to learn about our country’s rich history in conjunction with their American History course. In recent years, however, the Middle School has explored other class-trip destinations. Well, Williamsburg is back! The Class of 2019 spent Oct. 1–4 seeing the sites in Jamestown, Yorktown and Colonial Williamsburg. They served as jurors in an 18th-century witch trial, learned to tie sailors’ knots, explored Powhatan culture, and visited reconstructions of the settlers’ ships and fortress. The trip also included stops at a Revolutionary War camp and a tobacco farm, as well as an in-depth look at slavery and business in the colonies. Students even learned to march in formation like Continental soldiers. The group did manage to fit in some time for slightly less academic activities and spent an afternoon playing putt-putt golf, driving go-karts and roller-skating.
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Parents Club Support Spans Departments and Divisions A look at what the Parents Club funded in 2013 With the support of our amazing Pace community, this past year the Pace Academy Parents Club fulfilled the majority of requests on the wish lists of Lower, Middle and Upper School teachers, administrators and staff, in a vast array of areas including academics, athletics, arts and creative play. Audiences may now relish in the melodies of new band and strings instruments, including state-of-the-art electric instruments for both groups. Visual and Performing Arts Chair Dr. Danny Doyle is elated with the new pieces and other improvements, including the installation of additional sound panels in the band room to enhance acoustics. “With the help of the Parents Club, we’re building the most sophisticated band program possible,” he says. Pace also has made tremendous advancements in sustainability with the installation of wireless rain sensors at Riverview Road Athletic Complex. These sensors, purchased by the Parents Club, supplement the irrigation system, conserving both energy and water. Thanks to the Parents Club, Upper School students now have the opportunity to train like champions. With the addition of state-of-the-art training equipment like rubber Olympic platforms, Plyo Boxes and agility bags, Strength & Conditioning Coordinator Clement Rouviere can help bring out the best in every athlete. “The new equipment will help us improve functional strength and agility,” Rouviere says. “Now everyone has a chance to train solidly and safely.” In addition, the Parents Club funded the resurfacing of the Lower School playground and used the proceeds from its popular Box Tops for Education Program to purchase a new, safer version of the very popular playground pirate ship. “The children were so thrilled to see the new ship,” says Head of Lower School Anna Valerius. “I overheard one little girl saying that she was going to ask Santa for one just like that.” The Parents Club also provided funds for new carpeting in the Lower School entrance hall and staircase, and for a new shelving system in the Lower School Library. “We are so pleased with the new system, which simplifies the management of the library and ultimately encourages the children to read more," boasts Lower School Librarian Davis James. The Parents Club also has given $50,000 to fund need-based financial aid and $15,000 for professional development for teachers in all divisions. “We want to encourage growth not only for our students but for our teachers as well,” says Valerius. “We are happy that our teachers have the opportunity to broaden their knowledge and become even better educators.” “The Parents Club had a record-breaking year,” says Head of School Fred Assaf. “I can’t thank our parents enough for their countless volunteer hours and unwavering support.” The Parents Club will host its annual Auction & Gala on Saturday, April 5, 2014 at the Georgia Aquarium. Please save the date for “Queen of the Knights,” an evening celebrating Anna Valerius, who will retire at the end of the school year. Visit www.paceacademy.org/ auction for details and sponsorship information.
Top: Librarian Davis James approves of the new shelving system in the Lower School Library.
— by Pace Parent Jamie Martin
Middle: Fifth-grader Giselle Strong prepares to play the cello. Bottom: Visual and Performing Arts Chair Danny Doyle instructs fledgling musical talent.
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Dr. Leonard Sax is in the House
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In October, the Pace community welcomed world-renowned psychologist and family physician Dr. Leonard Sax to campus. Sax is the best-selling author of Why Gender Matters, Boys Adrift and Girls on the Edge. Sax spent the better part of two days speaking with students and faculty in the Middle and Upper Schools and addressed parents during an information session on the evening of Oct. 8. During the event, Sax discussed how girls and boys use social media, video games and smartphones. “By sharing his research strategies and wisdom with us, Dr. Sax enhanced our awareness of and strategies for managing the potentially pernicious effects of social media and video game addiction,” says Head of Middle School John Anderson. “We are grateful for his mission to keep our young people emotionally and psychologically healthy in these challenging, changing times.”
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1. PATRick Warren, Stephanie Warren, Tyler Gardner, Ashley Gardner, Yong Hu and Leishi Hu; 2. Head of School Fred Assaf, Annual Fund Chair Amy Dwyer and Chairman of the Board Tim Walsh; 3. Elizabeth Richards, Michele Boushka and Mary Tanenblatt; 4. Carolyn and Nathan Wallace, Mark Chastain and Jennifer Buckley; 5. Scarlett Ferguson and Crystal Baker
Pace Honors Annual Fund Donors The Pace Academy Knights of the Round Table Society celebrated the success of the 2012–2013 Annual Fund on Oct. 22 at a reception at the home of Natasha and Christopher Swann. The Society includes members of the Pace community who give $1,500 or more to the Annual Fund. Thanks to the help of parents, alumni, faculty, staff, parents of alumni, grandparents and special friends, the Pace community raised more than $930,000 for the 2012–2013 Annual Fund. The Knights of the Round Table reception took place on a beautiful fall evening in Atlanta and provided an opportunity for old and new friends to come together and share a passion for Pace.
Dr. Leonard Sax expounded on the use of social media, video games and smartphones within our nation's youth culture.
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AROUND PACE
Creating a Space that Inspires On a construction site, the one constant is change, and that could not be more true for The Arthur M. Blank Family Upper School. On Oct. 31, the Pace community celebrated a milestone when crews placed one of the final steel beams on the building’s top floor. Prior to its installation, the beam was painted white and signed by Pace faculty, staff, students and members of the construction crew. An American flag and a small tree sat atop the beam to recognize the building’s “topping out.” “With the installation of this special beam, we honored our faculty, staff and students, and ensured that our current Pace family is quite literally a part of the building for generations to come,” says Head of School Fred Assaf. Since then, the building has morphed from a see-through steel skeleton to a solid structure jam-packed with architectural details. Throughout December and January, crews installed the Upper School’s yellow exterior “skin” at a rapid pace. The panels, along with portions of the roofing and window systems, have allowed the project to achieve a major construction milestone known as temporary dry-in, which speeds up interior finish work. Also in January, crews finished framing the building’s walls, making way for the mechanical,
electrical and plumbing systems that will soon be enclosed in drywall. Observers often note how quickly the building has taken shape, but there’s still much to be done, and Mother Nature has a lot to do with the timing of the remaining tasks. After soldiering through a record-setting wet summer, the project enjoyed a relatively dry and mild fall. Project managers hoped for a similarly mild winter, but it was not to be. Cold, wet weather plagued Atlanta. “We need to have the temperature at 40 degrees and rising to install the masonry work,” says Pace parent Bob Mills, president of University Development Services and Upper School project manager. “We would gladly accept some warm, dry days!” Despite complications due to weather, construction remains on schedule. In the coming months, a parade of masonry and drywall trucks will replace the structural steel and concrete trucks that frequented campus. Significant transformations will take place within the building, and its exterior will turn from yellow to blue as a waterand-air barrier is put in place. Ultimately, brick, granite and cast stone will complete the exterior look. “The new Upper School is going to be a truly remarkable and beautiful addition to our campus,” Mills says.
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FALL SPORTS HIGHLIGHTS
Denzel Franklin
Kameron Uter
Aaron Wasserman, Malik Staples, Kevin Johnson, Denzel Franklin
Coach Slade
Varsity Football Coached by Chris Slade It was an exciting year of growth and transition for the varsity football Knights. Under the leadership of first-year head coach Chris Slade, the team kicked off the season with a winning streak, handily defeating Whitefield Academy (38–23), Athens Academy (42–9) and King’s Ridge Christian School (42–9) before falling to First Presbyterian Day School (28–18) in its first loss. The Knights ended the season 5–5 with an additional win over Strong Rock Christian School (40–0) and a blowout victory over Mount Vernon Presbyterian School (59–0) in which seven different players scored touchdowns. Junior quarterback Kevin Johnson threw for 23 touchdowns and 1,672 yards, while senior Kameron Uter led the team with 39 receptions and 636 yards. Senior Denzel Franklin boasted the most interceptions, and sophomore Malik Staples logged 647
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rushing yards for the Knights. Other notable statistics include sophomore Anthony Trinh’s eight sacks and freshman DeAndre Byrd’s seven. Johnson was named one of two All-Region 5A Offensive Players of the Year, and Staples, Uter and Trinh received First Team All-Region honors as well. Franklin was one of two All-Region Defensive Players of the Year, and he and Uter were named to the All-State Class A First Team and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution All-Metro First Team. Franklin also participated in the Georgia Athletic Coaches Association North-South All-Star game as a member of the winning North squad. The team bids farewell to seniors Wilson Alexander, Baiza Cherinet, Kenneth Foote-Smith, Franklin, Max Greenberg, John King, John Morrison, Sam Rubenstein, Keith Tremege, Uter and Aaron Wasserman.
FALL SPORTS HIGHLIGHTS
Josh Rogers
Mark Grenader
Xori Johnson
Connor LaMastra
Varsity Boys Cross-Country Coached by Steve Cunningham Following an exciting season filled with outstanding performances, the varsity boys cross-country team headed into the region meet at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic High School with high hopes—and they did not disappoint. At the region level, senior Josh Rogers received the overall runner-up medal, and junior Mark Grenader was fifth. Freshman Rob Warren was third for the Knights, followed by sophomore Xori Johnson, freshman Max Irvine, sophomore Alec Rogers and freshman Connor LaMastra. The team
Varsity Cheer
Lindsey Schrager
left the meet as region runner-up and advanced to the state meet in Carrollton, Ga. Rogers had an outstanding race at the state meet, finishing seventh overall for the boys and earning All-Region and All-State honors. The state team, made up of the same seven runners that competed at region, placed seventh overall. The team will lose seniors Jordan Brown, Mark DiMeglio, Rogers, Michael Sloman and Bobby Stonecipher.
JV Cheer
Molly Jacoby
Junior Varsity & Varsity Football Cheerleading Coached by Shantell Norris (junior varsity) and Sarah Rhino (varsity) Pace may not have fielded a junior varsity football team this year, but that didn’t stop the junior varsity football cheerleaders! The girls joined the varsity squad in cheering on the Knights at home football games, and both squads powered through extreme heat, freezing temperatures, rain and wind to pump up the crowds. The girls worked hard over the summer and all season long to perfect their cheers, stunts and routines, and they delivered consistently outstanding performances. According to assistant coach Karen Sommerville, the varsity cheerleaders “really stepped up their
game under the leadership of [coaches] Sarah Rhino and Talisa Slade. They managed to take stunting to a whole new level. The routine they performed for senior night could possibly go down in history as their best ever!” Next season, the team will miss seniors Mackenzie Attridge, Katie Brewster, Eda Calapkulu, Tess Dillon, Caroline Draughon, Lauren Flick, Olivia Levine, Anna Luetters, Corey Richards, Micaela Robinson and Symone Sommerville.
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FALL SPORTS HIGHLIGHTS
Shabrea Duffy
Sarah Jacobson
Varsity Softball Coached by Kris Palmerton It was a record-setting season for the varsity softball team. Under the leadership of head coach Kris Palmerton, the Knights, No. 6 in Class A, scored 256 runs and won 22 games—five more than the previous year’s school record. The Knights advanced to the Sweet 16 round of the GHSA state tournament but came up short, losing two of three games to Darlington School in a series necessary to advance. Junior Lauren Hadley was named Region 5A Offensive Player of the Year and was a member of the 2013 Georgia Athletic Coaches Association All-State Second Team. Hadley, the Knights’ shortstop
Jules Zappone
Juliana DeRosa, Kaki Cox, Kandace Thompson
and leadoff hitter, had a .570 batting average, 29 stolen bases, 28 runs batted in and six homeruns. Junior first baseman Maryellen Malone and sophomore catcher Sarah Werner, a Defensive Player of the Year nominee, also were named First Team All-Region. Malone ended the season with a .337 batting average and 25 runs batted in, while Werner had a .460 batting average, 17 doubles, 28 runs batted in and three homeruns. The Knights bid farewell to seniors Sarah Jacobson and Shabrea Duffy.
Alex Bussey
Varsity Volleyball Coached by Anna Bush Fifteen girls, two managers and two coaches came together in August with their sights set on qualifying for the GHSA state volleyball tournament—and they did. After a hard-fought season, the Knights and head coach Anna Bush had to face No. 3 Pinecrest in order to qualify. The team took two of three thrilling matches to enter the state tournament as the No. 4 seed for the first time in more than a decade.
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The Knights played the Walker School—fourth in the state and the No. 1 seed—in the first round of state-tournament play. The team put up a valiant fight but was overmatched. The Knights finished the season 19–15—a major turnaround from the previous two seasons. They say farewell to three seniors: Alex Bussey, Pate Hardison and Kandace Thompson. Thompson was named to the All-Area Team.
FALL SPORTS HIGHLIGHTS
Matthew Seaman
Ciara Sadaka
Phillip Werner
Water Polo Club Coached by John Ague The water polo club completed its season with 11 wins (a team record!) and a 12th-place finish in state-tournament competition. Senior Phillip Werner, junior Cooper Drose and freshman Ciara Sadaka were named tournament All-Stars, and head coach John Ague was selected to coach one of the All-Star teams. The Georgia High School Water Polo Association (GHSWPA) rec-
ognized several Pace players for their contributions over the season. Drose and Sadaka both made GHSWPA First Team All-State, and Werner was named Second Team All-State. In addition, Sadaka was named the GHSWPA Girls Defensive Player of the Year and the USA Water Polo Athlete of the Month for October 2013.
Batters Up… and Off to College On Nov. 13, 2013, the first day of the NCAA early signing period, senior baseball players Jared Datoc and Raphael Ramirez signed National Letters of Intent. Datoc, a relief pitcher and the Knights’ starting shortstop, will play for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Centerfielder Ramirez will join the North Carolina State Wolfpack. Datoc and Ramirez have been power players for the Knights since they were freshmen. For three years, they have combined to lead the team in every offensive category. During the 2013 season, Datoc played in 22 games with 23 runs scored, 32 hits, 10 walks, a .578 on-base percentage and hit .464. Ramirez played in 22 games and had 27 runs, 31 hits, 10 doubles, 3 triples, 2 home runs, 17 RBIs, 15 stolen bases and hit .435. Both were named 2013 First Team All-Region. Entering their junior seasons, Datoc and Ramirez were named 2013 Perfect Game PreSeason High School All-Americans, identifying them as two of the top high school players in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico. The two have traveled all over the country with their respective club teams.
Morrison Named Rubio Award Semifinalist
Top: Baseball coach Matt Hall with Raphael Ramirez (left) and Jared Datoc (right) Bottom: Long snapper John Morrison went 37 for 37 on punt snaps this football season.
Senior long snapper John Morrison was one of 21 semifinalists for the 2014 Chris Rubio Award. The award is given annually to the National High School Long Snapper of the Year and is named in honor of Chris Rubio, a prominent long snapping coach who provides training and development to long snappers throughout the country. Morrison was the Knights’ starting long snapper during the 2012 and 2013 football seasons. This season, he was 37 for 37 on punt snaps, 5 for 5 on field goal snaps and 40–40 on PAT snaps. In addition, he had three tackles, five downed punts and one forced fair catch. In order to be considered for the award, long snappers can have no more than one bad snap, and Morrison has never missed a snap for the Knights.
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GIRLS CROSS-COUNTRY
The Pace Pack 24
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GIRLS CROSS-COUNTRY
Top (left to right): Caroline Mills, Lacey O'Sullivan, Katie Nelson, Jilly Paul, Hannah Kelly, Julia Ross and Katie Williamson; Bottom: Elle Stang, Callie Cunningham, Emilia Tripodi and Jolie Cunningham
Varsity girls cross-country takes the state title for the first time since 2004. There’s a long-standing debate among runners as to whether crosscountry is an individual sport, a team sport or both. Longtime Pace coach Jolie Cunningham and her 2013 varsity cross-country girls could not be more emphatic: when it comes to Pace cross-country, the team is everything. The girls entered the 2013 campaign following a deflating end to the previous season, in which they finished in fifth place—and off the state podium—by just one point. While the team didn’t necessarily have its sights set on a state championship, the girls were determined to gain a position on the podium. “We knew we could be good and could definitely improve on [last season’s] finish,” says senior co-captain Katie Williamson. “I think our goal was really just to work together and work hard all season to see what we could do.” As the school year began, the Knights didn’t have a clear frontrunner, someone who would be a top-five finisher in any given race. So, “Mrs. Coach,” as Cunningham is often called, along with boys coach Steve Cunningham, came up with a plan. In the state race, only a team’s top seven runners compete, and
each individual runner is scored based on the place in which she finishes. For example, the first-place finisher receives one point, while the 23rd-place finisher receives 23. The top five individual scores are added together, and the team with the lowest score wins. “If you can get your No. 6 and No. 7 runners in front of runners from other teams, you drive your opponents’ scores up and your scores down,” Cunningham explains. “So we trained the girls as a pack.” Ten runners —seniors Callie Cunningham (yep, the same Cunningham), Emilia Tripodi, Williamson and Elle Stang, juniors Hannah Kelly, Caroline Mills, Katie Nelson and Lacey O’Sullivan, sophomore Jilly Paul and freshman Julia Ross—made up that group. The girls embraced the pack mentality. “It’s reflective of the Pace culture as a whole,” Cunningham says. “The kids push each other and stick together. They know that it’s about more than just one person. It takes the whole group.” “Running is such a mental sport,” explains senior co-captain Cunningham. “If you can take yourself out of the picture and just set your
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GIRLS CROSS-COUNTRY
eyes on that blue [Pace] singlet in front of you and refuse to let it out of your sight, then you race for your team.” The pack solidified over the course of the season at and outside of practice. “We trained together, went to dinner together, texted each other… we really just bought into this idea of pack running early and [eventually] made everything click,” says the younger Cunningham. The girls went into the region meet on Oct. 31 hoping that their training paid off. It did. The Knights emerged victorious, taking the region title. Next up was the Nov. 9 state meet in Carrollton, Ga. The girls finished the season the way they started—as a pack. All seven runners finished between 16th and 31st position for a total of 99 points. As the meet drew to a close, Cunningham and the team weren’t sure they’d done enough. All 60 members of the boys and girls squads assembled near the podium to watch senior Josh Rogers accept his seventh-place medal and hear the announcement of the girls’ scores.
“They called the final four teams onto the field,” the elder Cunningham says. “We knew we were in the top four. They called the fourth-place team… we weren’t fourth. Then third place… and we weren’t third. When they announced the second-place team, our girls erupted. It was so much fun to watch.” The team won the state title 17 points ahead of second-place Providence Christian Academy. Ross was first for the team, followed by O’Sullivan, Cunningham, Paul, Tripodi, Stang and Kelly. Ross and Cunningham were named to the All-Region team. For the team’s seniors—Cunningham, Mary Liles Fiveash, Coco Schiffer, Stang, Tripodi, Maddie Wanzer and Williamson—saying goodbye to Pace cross-country will be difficult. “Obviously, it was amazing to win state our senior year, and I’ll always remember that,” Williamson says. “But most of all, I’m going to remember the team. We’ve become so close. I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like next year without all of them.” •
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6 1. Lacey O'Sullivan 2. The entire Girls Cross-Country team with coaches Jolie Cunningham and Gus Whyte 3. The start of the state meet 4. Julia Ross 5. Elle Stang 6. The girls react to the race results 7. Emilia Tripodi
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8. The boys and girls teams come together to celebrate the win.
GIRLS CROSS-COUNTRY
Pace Cross-Country: A Family Affair Although senior Callie Cunningham didn’t officially join the Pace family until her first day as a Pre-First student in the fall of 2001, she’s quite literally been a member of the school community since before she was born. Her father, Steve Cunningham, joined the physical education department and began coaching in 1981. Ten years later, her mother, Jolie Cunningham, came on board. “I am blessed to be able to share a common passion with Jolie,” Steve says. “I think we make an excellent team. She is my best friend, and we really complement each other.” Together “Mr. and Mrs. Coach” have led the school’s cross-country program for decades, helping hundreds of students—their daughter included—discover a passion for the sport (learn more about one of those alumni on the next page). “Callie has been an extension of the team forever,” her mother remembers. “We strapped her to our backs and carted her around at meets from the time she was a baby. Over the years, we’ve enlisted the help of countless babysitters in the Pace community—often very early on Saturday mornings.” For 17 years, Pace runners have watched Callie grow up, but despite her parents’ need for speed and cross-country’s constant presence in her life, Callie
never felt pressured to run. “I didn’t decide [to join the team] until my parents were walking out the door on the first day of practice my freshman year,” she says. It was a good decision. “I have spent countless hours at practices and more Saturday mornings than I care to count at meets, but I wouldn’t trade them for anything,” Callie says. “Watching my parents coach for 17 years has taught me a lot about the sport, but also about how to be a good coach, a good teammate and a good person.” She feels blessed to have the dynamic duo as parents and honored to have been part of their team for four years. The feeling is mutual. “Coaching Callie has been fantastic,” her father says. “I have been able to help her excel in a very competitive environment and never missed one of her races. Man, I’m going to miss that next season. It’s been a wonderful family affair.” Callie’s not sure whether she’ll run cross-country in college, but one thing is certain: “My parents will always be there for me. Who knows, maybe I’ll come back and help them coach one day.”
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PACE RUNNERS
Creating Lifelong Runners
Pace cross-country was a life-changing experience for Jessie Barnett ’04. Jessie Barnett ’04 sort of happened into cross-country. A lifelong gymnast, she was looking for an athletic outlet in the off-season, and beloved gymnastics coach Steve Cunningham convinced her to give running a try. “We went to cross-country camp in Brevard, N.C., the summer before my first season, and I was hooked,” she recalls. “Any group of kids and coaches who can make running camp fun is a good group.” Barnett ran for the Knights her junior year and was a captain her senior season. Following the team’s second-place finish at the region and state levels, she continued running for fun as a student at the University of Georgia. “Pace cross-country kick-started my ‘athletefor-life’ mentality,” she says. Barnett befriended like-minded people in college and began competing in triathlons, multi-stage competitions that include swimming, cycling and running in immediate succession. During graduate school, she advanced to Half Ironman triathlons, which involve a 1.2-mile swim, a 56-mile bike ride and a 13.1-mile run. In 2012, it was on to the full Ironman. An Ironman Triathlon consists of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a marathon—a 26.2-mile run. To get ready for her first race, Barnett and her running partner spent between 12 and 25 hours per week training—and it paid off. “In the end, the experience was just as life-changing as other Ironman competitors said it would be,” she says. “You never know how far you can go until you try, and you never realize how many people have helped you get there until you’re alone with your thoughts on a race course.” Barnett is now something of an Ironman addict. She and her train-
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ing partners plan to run a Half Ironman in April 2014 and a full the following month. She counts the Cunninghams among those supporters who “helped [her] get there.” “Working with Mr. and Mrs. Coach was the first time I had encountered coaches who truly wanted me to do my best for myself and the team,” Barnett says. “They valued runners of all speeds …and always challenged us to do better than we thought we could. Workouts were very demanding. I remember trying to walk up the steps from the back parking lot and thinking my legs were going to fall off.” But Pace cross-country was not all work and no play. Barnett remembers filling “Mrs. Coach’s” office to the brim with balloons on her birthday, and running “miles and miles” through trails by the river only to pop out near a teammate’s home where pancakes were served. “That’s the thing… no matter how hard practices were, the fun of Pace cross-country kept everyone coming back.” Barnett is now a researcher working for a public health and industrial/organizational psychology grant from the National Institutes of Health, and she’ll receive her Ph.D. from The University of Georgia’s College of Public Health in May. Things truly came full circle for her recently. “I was running a 30K trail race in Brevard, N.C.,” Barnett says. “The course took us up a mountain to a scenic overlook where a race official offered to take a photo of each runner. All of a sudden, I realized I was posing for a photo in the exact spot [in which] my Pace team posed after a camp run nearly 10 years prior. If Pace cross-country hadn’t been so welcoming to a new runner, I’m not sure were I would be.”
PACE RUNNERS
Sole Sisters
Members of the Pace cross-country teams aren’t the only ones running fast and winning races. Pace faculty members have been known to tear up the trail and track as well. The Pace Academy Sole Sisters—better known as part of the wonderful Middle School team—recently defended their title at Run Around the Park, a five-person relay in which each leg must run 3.4 miles around Atlanta’s Piedmont Park. Holly Jiménez, Tara Harris, Edna-May Hermosillo, Courtney Morrison and Eden Tresize donned Pace jerseys and brought home the first-place trophy in the women’s corporate division for the second year in a row. The Sole Sisters came together as a result of a shared love of running. “It has become our common bond,” Jiménez says. “We run together during planning periods, before and after school, on weekends and in races—everything from local 5Ks to a full marathon.” While the sport provides wonderful exercise, the women reap other rewards. “It makes us feel alive,” Jiménez says. “It gives us energy, peace and friendship!”
Married Marathoners
The Cunninghams may have some competition from another speedy Pace couple. On Oct. 27, Upper School Dean of Students and history teacher Matt Hall and Middle School history teacher Kelsey Hall awoke at 4:30 a.m. to run the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C. “Matt and I have been runners most of our lives, but this was our first race beyond 13.1 miles,” Kelsey says. They were inspired by Matt’s father and Kelsey’s parents, who kicked off their marathon careers with the Marine Corps race. “Our race day was inspiring, cold (32 degrees!) and incredibly exciting,” Kelsey says. “We prepped for the race surrounded by Marines with 30,000 other runners, which was thrilling. The start was unbelievable. Active and veteran Marines parachuted in next to the Pentagon while the National Anthem was sung. The crowds of people along the way helped us so much. It was emotional and awesome.” The experience was so amazing, in fact, that the Halls say it won’t be their last. “We intend to run another marathon,” Kelsey reports.
Thank you! The Pace community contributed $822,766 to the 2014 Georgia Private School Tax Credit program, exceeding our $750,000 goal. Since 2009, 40 qualified students have enrolled at Pace from public schools or area preschools as a result of this program. These students are funded through graduation provided that they continue to demonstrate financial need, and they contribute to our school community in a million different ways. They are scholars, artists, community servants, athletes and global citizens. On behalf of the entire Pace community, thank you! For more information about the Georgia Private School Tax Credit program, contact the Advancement Office at 404-240-9103 or advancement@paceacademy.org.
www.paceacademy.org/taxcredit KnightTimes | Winter 2014
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MY TEACHING PARTNER
Middle School teachers Pete Pope (left) and Kevin Coale (right) analyze footage from Pope's eighth-grade English class.
A New Kind of Professional Development Pace partners with the Curry School of Education’s Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning When it comes to improving teaching and learning, Pace is always up for trying something a little outside the box. That’s why the school has partnered with researchers at the University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education’s Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning (CASTL) to pilot MyTeachingPartner (MTP), an evidencebased system of professional development support for teachers. In the MTP consultancy, a trained coach observes teacher practice through videotaped classroom instruction. The coach then provides constructive feedback focused on enhancing student learning through improved teacher-student interactions. This is the first time MTP has been implemented in an independent K–12 school setting, and Pace is one of only two schools in the country participating in the program. The seeds of the partnership took root at the 2012 UVA–Penn State football game when Curry School of Education alumnus and Head of
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School Fred Assaf discussed MTP with Curry School of Education Dean Bob Pianta and CASTL Director Jason Downer. “At Pace, we focus on attracting the very best teachers and developing them to their full potential, so when I saw the work CASTL was doing in public schools, I wondered what this would look like in an independent-school setting,” Assaf says. “The program seemed very different than what we had offered in the past in that it was completely peer-driven. It really is professional development for teachers, by teachers.” Before implementing the program, Assaf needed to ensure that teachers accustomed to Pace’s culture of autonomous professional development were receptive to MTP’s peer-driven model. To provide faculty with a better sense of the insights to be gained through MTP, during the spring of 2013, Assaf sampled 10 classrooms across grade
MY TEACHING PARTNER
"MTP is the most positive experience I have ever had with an evaluator. MTP takes it up a notch." Pete Pope, Middle School faculty "MTP is unique in that it’s a formalized structure that morphs into wonderful learning and teaching moments with a peer." Amy Trujillo, Lower School faculty "MTP interactions often lead to great conversation about teaching styles and ideas for the classroom —conversations that would not have occurred without this program. I have implemented some of the ideas we discuss in my class, and they have worked very well!" Courtney Morrison, Lower and Middle School faculty
levels, videotaped classroom interactions and then sent off the recorded lessons to MTP researchers for their notes. “I was struck by the quality of the feedback we received,” Assaf says. “I thought to myself—they could really help us.” With the Pace staff and administration on board, Assaf approached Dennis Manning, headmaster at Norfolk Academy in Virginia, to see whether he would be interested in concurrently implementing MTP. “We thought that extending the partnership to another independent school would provide a great opportunity to verify the results of the pilot year,” Assaf explains. Assaf found Manning and the Norfolk Academy staff to be more than willing participants, and over the summer, a MTP specialist trained a total of 10 teachers from the schools (two per division at Pace) to serve as coaches during the school year. “I was amazed that the teachers came out of these all-day trainings feeling really energized and excited about the work,” Assaf says. The trained coaches are now engaged in observation cycles with other faculty, and teachers already report improvements in their practice (see sidebar). Fifth-grade teacher and MTP coach Rebecca Rhodes says the overall tone of the process is the model’s strength. “I appreciate the positive nature of the approach, and how it pushes teachers through reflection and not correction,” she says. She has also been surprised by the extent to which MTP has influenced her teaching. At the conclusion of the pilot year, Assaf hopes to expand the number of participants at Pace and encourage other independent schools to use MTP. “We hope that it becomes contagious,” he says.
MTP in Action When Assaf pitched the MTP concept to a group of potential Pace faculty coaches, they jumped at the chance to be involved. “I was hooked by the novelty of [MTP],” says eighthgrade history teacher Kevin Coale. “It is exciting to be part of a program that has not yet been introduced to the independent school world.” Upper School science department chair Jonathan Day loved the program’s simplicity, and its “reflective nature” appealed to Rhodes. “My first thought was that I want someone to come into my classroom and do this for me,” she recalls. Since participating in an intensive training period prior to the start of the 2013–2014 school year, Pace’s six trained coaches (Jasmina Patel and Rhodes in the Lower School;
How it Works
As the result of an ongoing partnership between the teacher and a trained coach, MTP improves teacher-student interactions, thereby increasing student learning and development. Teachers and coaches participate in the five-step process (outlined at right) over the course of several two-week cycles. All coaches rely on the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS), a standardized observational assessment of teacher-student interactions, as the primary way to observe and define effective practice.
1. Teacher records classroom video 2. Coach reviews and selects video and writes prompts 3. Teacher reviews video and responds to prompts 4. Teacher and coach discuss prompts and practices 5. Summary and action plan inform next cycle
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MY TEACHING PARTNER
"Because MTP focuses on positive student-teacher relationships, it’s perfect for Pace." Jonathan Day, Upper School faculty "MTP is the most individualized and constructive form of professional development I have ever been a part of. Rather than attending a conference where one hears presentations about what effective teachers do well, the MTP process allows me to view, objectively, my own work as a teacher and then filter these observations through the dimensions of the program." Bailey Player, Upper School faculty "MTP sends an incredibly important message that Pace is investing in and actively searching for ways to support the faculty."
Coale and Kim Peterson in the Middle School; Day and Megan Dickherber in the Upper School) have each been working with two self-selected colleagues to help them meet individual goals. “MTP begins with the understanding that the teacher is not to be reformed or fixed,” says Coale. “As a coach, my task is to help the teacher see what he or she is doing well, so that he or she may repeat that behavior more often.” That concept appealed to Upper School English teacher Bailey Player, who has partnered with Day in the MTP process. “Having used game film to help players improve their performance when coaching both football and golf, I thought it would be interesting and beneficial to take the same approach with my own performance in the classroom,” he says. Across the board, the results of the MTP program at Pace thus far have been overwhelmingly positive. Eighth-grade English teacher Pete Pope reports that Coale’s feedback reaffirms his teaching while helping him remain concentrated on student interactions. After participating in Columbia University’s weeklong Writing Workshop this summer, first-grade teacher Amy Trujillo chose to focus her MTP efforts on how she teaches writing. She and Rhodes meet frequently to discuss Trujillo’s taped teaching sessions. “MTP has made me accountable for what I learned this summer and has helped me dive in to the daunting task of revamping the entire way I teach writing,” Trujillo says. “It’s a fabulous tool to reflect and grow as an educator.” While the program has been valuable to its participants, facilitators report positive outcomes as well. “I sometimes think I get more out of this as a coach,” Day says. “I am constantly thinking of ways to better my own teaching based on what I see in other classrooms.” Dickherber agrees. “I have made my interactions with my students as much of a priority as the content of my class,” she says. “MTP has given me a way to evaluate my own performance and have a clearer idea for how to improve the class experience for my students.” All involved have found that MTP increases the sense of community they feel at work. “In my sixth year of teaching, I feel more conscientious, curious and collegial than I can remember feeling at any other point in my brief career,” Coale reports. “I credit much of this to my MTP coaching role this year.” • — with Kate Miller-Bains
Megan Dickherber, Upper School faculty
Join the Alumni Association for Knight Cap, a fundraiser benefiting the Pace Alumni Fund. Enjoy wine, bourbon and delicious food by Avenue Catering Concepts. Individual tickets are $75 online and $100 at the door. Alumni in the classes of 2003–2009 may purchase individual tickets for $55. The Pace Alumni Fund benefits need-based financial aid. www.paceacademy.org/alumni
Friday, April 25, 2014 | Chastain Horse Park | 7 P.M. – 1 A.M. | Blue-Jean Chic
MY TEACHING PARTNER
Save the Date
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Pace Race 4 | 12 | 14 Benefiting the 5 1–2. Bailey Player and Jonathan Day debrief a lesson on Shakespeare from Player's English class. 3–4. Rebecca Rhodes and Lynn Bazzel review teaching techniques in the Lower School. 5. Reviewing classroom footage is simple through the MyTeachingPartner website.
Pace Academy Booster Club www.paceacademy.org/pacerace Sponsors Needed KnightTimes | Winter 2014
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ALUMNI
Scales in Za'atari (photo by Adriana Reyes)
More than Medicine
David Scales ’97 helps immigrants and refugees find health care. The grandson of Italian immigrants, physician David Scales ’97 came to understand at an early age the language and socioeconomic challenges that immigrants face as they seek access to health care. Since then, Scales’ travels throughout Central America and the Middle East have furthered his understanding of those issues and incited in him a passion for serving immigrants in the U.S. and refugees abroad. Following graduation from Pace, Scales completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania before journeying across the Atlantic to Cambridge for a year of post-graduate work. He returned to the States in 2002 to attend Yale’s School of Medicine. Soon after medical school, an internship with the United Nation’s Children’s Fund (UNICEF) took Scales to Panama, where he witnessed firsthand the health-care access issues that often plague a developing country. The experience stuck with him and inspired him to do more. In the ensuing years, Scales thrice provided medical services to Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and spent two months assisting Syrian refugees in Jordan. Volunteering with the Syrian American Medical Society and the National Arab-American Medical Society, he worked in clinics in Za’atari, a refugee camp, helping unregistered urban refugees and at a spinal cord injury center in Amman. His 2006 tour in Lebanon was cut short when the Israel-Hezbollah War broke out. “I was there for 10 days while there was bombing,” Scales says — just long enough to meet his future wife, Genevieve. “We were both volunteering at a free clinic in a Palestinian refugee camp,” he recalls. “The war broke out two days after my wife and I started dating. We ended up being evacuated.” Despite the inherent danger of working in the Middle East, Scales says he would go back in a heartbeat to practice medicine on those most afflicted by hardship. It is what he does and a key part of who he is. “I just don’t feel like I’ve done enough,” he says. There’s no doubt that Scales is well equipped for his mission. After wrapping up a Ph.D. at Yale in 2010, he completed his post-doctoral studies at the Boston Children’s Hospital. Scales is now a resident physician of internal medicine at Cambridge Health Alliance and is scheduled to finish
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in 2016. After that, he plans to start his own practice in the U.S. under the umbrella of an academic hospital. Wherever and whenever that happens, Scales knows he will always focus on helping immigrants to this country. “They don’t speak English; they can’t navigate the health-care system,” Scales says. “Refugee resettlement agencies try to help them, but for someone who is a native Arabic speaker, it’s going to take a couple years to become self-sufficient. Our system for refugees is setting them up for failure.” While his medical outreach work and his studies have taken Scales halfway around the world, he is quick to point to Pace as the place that helped him grow as a person. “Pace had a huge impact,” says Scales, who entered the Upper School midway through his junior year. “Before I arrived at Pace, I was purely a science student, but my classes with [English teachers] Stan Gillespie and Ricks Carson opened up this new world of writing and literature.” “I developed a love for literature and poetry that I didn’t have before, and it helped me find my passion for social sciences. My experience at Pace took me from being one-dimensional to broadening my horizons and making me hungry for the art aspects that are out there.” When Scales arrived at Penn in the fall of 1997, he was well prepared. “There I was at an Ivy League School, and I felt like the education wasn’t as good as what I had received at Pace,” he recalls. “I took a poetry class, and my college poetry professor wasn’t as good as [Carson]. There’s just an amazing group of talented folks at Pace.” Scales now resides in Cambridge, Mass., where he continues to work with immigrants as they traverse the labyrinth of U.S. health care. “It’s an opaque, fractured system we have here,” he says. “It can be just as fractured as the one in Jordan. When you’re an immigrant looking in from the outside, it can be challenging. What really drives me is the desire to equalize access. If we go to the doctor, or we go to the hospital, we’re going to get some of the world’s best care. I want to be able to connect immigrants and refugees to that world-class care.” — by Will Frampton ’99
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Kiery Braithwaite (in grey jacket) alongside her family
Caring for Other People’s Children
Radiologist Kiery Braithwaite ’90 talks about her career in pediatric medicine. From time to time, Pace alumni take the Fine Arts Center stage during morning assemblies to address the Upper School student body. They discuss career and life experiences, offer advice and recount memories of their time at Pace. Some speakers fare better than others— to be fair, an auditorium of 400-plus teenagers is not the easiest audience —but on Nov. 20, Dr. Kiery Braithwaite ’90 knocked it out of the park. A diagnostic radiologist at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Braithwaite arrived armed with slides of dislocated digits, swallowed coins and necklaces and various other ailments— just the types of images that keep kids interested at 8 a.m. on a Wednesday morning. “I was shocked by how grossed out [the students] were,” Braithwaite says with a laugh. But it’s not at all shocking that Braithwaite knew her audience— she works with children every day. As a student and standout gymnast at Pace, Braithwaite never considered a career in medicine. “I always liked math and science. My favorite class was math with Dr. Martha Kasilus,” she says. “No one in my family was in medicine, so it didn’t really cross my mind.” As a student a Georgetown University, Braithwaite thought she would pursue business until a friend suggested she look into medicine. She decided to change majors halfway through her stint at Georgetown. She remained in D.C. and attended medical school at Georgetown University’s School of Medicine, where she met her husband, Matt Grabowski, a native New Yorker and an anesthesiologist. The couple moved to Atlanta, and Braithwaite completed a fiveyear residency at Emory University followed by a fellowship in pediatric radiology at Children’s. She’s been with the hospital— one of the leading pediatric facilities in the country—ever since. Because Braithwaite works in a tertiary care center, she and her colleagues see referrals from all over the state, which often means handling “the rarest of rare” cases. “Most people think radiologists just do X-rays, but we read all kinds of imaging and see all disease scopes,” she says. “We see trauma patients, inpatients with cancer… we’re not limited. We have to know about everything.”
Braithwaite works four to six days a week and thrives in the fastpaced environment in which no two days are the same. “You never know what you’re going to get,” she says. “In the summer, we see more fractures. When the weather is cold and rainy, we see coughs and fevers. Football season means an influx of patients. It never really slows down.” And although the broad scope of her work can involve tragedy and heartbreak, Braithwaite loves her job. “Children’s is a very happy place to be,” she says, describing the hospital’s brightly colored walls, numerous fish tanks, special events and its use of wagons instead of wheelchairs. “We want to make [being in the hospital] easier on the kids, which makes it easier for us.” It’s such a fun environment, in fact, that Braithwaite’s three children love to visit. She and Grabowski have two children at Pace: Kate Grabowski, a fourth grader, and Will Grabowski, a student in Pre-First. Their youngest daughter, Lily, is 4. Supporting Children’s has become a family affair; the kids participate in the hospital’s Strong Legs Run and Strong4Life Superhero Sprint, and for her birthday this year, Kate has requested donations in lieu of gifts. Braithwaite credits Pace for making that giving-back mentality part of her life, and now, part of the lives of her children. “Pace teaches you to think of others,” she says. “There’s nothing more rewarding than helping others when you can. It’s like eating well and exercising; if you make it a habit, it becomes part of who you are.” In that same vein, Braithwaite offers advice to Pace students, particularly those interested in medicine. “It’s a long road, but enjoy it,” she says. “Focus and work hard, but try to broaden your horizons. Have other outlets and live your life.” And whatever you do, don’t swallow magnets. “If you swallow more than one, they try to find each other inside your body,” Braithwaite says. “It’s not good.”
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Making Mental Health a Priority
Actor Ethan S. Smith ’96 shares his struggle with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder in the hope of helping others. Longtime fans of Pace theatre fondly recall Ethan Smith’s ’96 memorable performances. From parts in The Real Inspector Hound, Lost in Yonkers and The Music Man to leading roles in Guys and Dolls and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Smith was one of Pace’s most talented thespians during his short time at the school. “I came to Pace my junior year, which is a bit of an awkward time to go to a new school,” Smith says. “The reason I switched, however, was very much a secret.” While Smith was forever in
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control on stage, he struggled daily with severe Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). The International OCD Foundation defines the condition as “a disorder of the brain and behavior that causes severe anxiety in those affected. OCD involves both obsessions and compulsions that… get in the way of important activities the person values.” That was certainly true for Smith: “I was literally unable to walk in the doors of my previous school,” he says. But Smith found a home at Pace, particularly in the Fine Arts
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Center, and discovered that the activities he was passionate about distracted him enough from his OCD that he could function. “I graduated having thrived within Pace Academy’s walls,” Smith says. He earned a partial acting scholarship to Southern Methodist University and looked forward to all that college had to offer. “I had the time of my life for three months, and then I dropped out… because of OCD,” he says. Smith continued to pursue acting, appearing in films such as I Love You Man and in television series such as CSI: Miami and Dexter, but he lived a double life throughout his 20s. “I experienced constant fear and anxiety,” he recalls. “I was unable to do most things normal 20-somethings do. I couldn’t even leave the city without either my mother or father. I was a prisoner of my own brain.” Smith was born with OCD, and although he saw multiple psychologists throughout his childhood and teenage years, no doctor appropriately treated him. Even as treatments became more effective in recent years, finding proper, effective treatment was an elusive task. In 2010, however, Smith started therapy with a group of Florida doctors that would change his life. “At the time my father found this clinic, I was bedridden,” he says. “I was afraid to eat, afraid to drink; I had lost 100 pounds and was living in my parents’ guest bedroom.” Unlike other diseases that can be cured by medication or surgery, OCD sufferers often have to engage in therapy that can be more terrifying than the illness itself. “It’s one of the main reasons many who suffer from OCD refuse treatment or drop out shortly after beginning,” Smith explains. Smith’s doctors in Florida found that his OCD was resistant to treatment and enlisted the help of the OCD Institute at Harvard Medical in Boston, Mass. When his OCD failed to improve over the course of many months, the doctors developed an extreme treatment plan. “They created a seemingly life-or-death scenario in which survival would become more important than my OCD,” Smith says. Smith was cut off from his parents and friends and left on the streets of Boston with little money. His task was to create a new life in a strange city. “While that may not seem too scary for some, for a guy who never left his mother’s side, it was terrifying." For months, Smith rented rooms in dilapidated houses — the only places he could afford. He worked odd jobs and continued seeing therapists at Harvard three times a week, often traveling for hours to reach their offices. “Survival did in fact become more important than the thoughts in my head,” Smith says. “I started to get better.” In August of 2011, for the first time in his life, Smith was experiencing normalcy, serenity, and “an ability to live in the moment and accept the uncertainties of life.” In September of that year, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue his dream. “My separation anxiety was completely cured, and although OCD cannot be cured, it was 99 percent in remission,” he says. “I may have been 33 years old in body, but I was 18 years old in many other respects, ready to experience freedom and embrace the opportunities of life with curiosity and optimism.”
Ethan Smith '96 with Martin Kove (famous 1980s film actor who portrayed the vicious Cobra Kai sensei in Karate Kid). "Defeat does not exist in this dojo."
Smith has now lived in Los Angeles for more than two years. He sees his parents twice a year and frequently travels alone. He makes a living as a successful actor, writer, director and producer in Hollywood, working with some of the most talented people in the business. “I am more fulfilled than I ever thought possible,” Smith says. “Not every day is perfect, but hey, life is not a problem to be solved, it’s a process to be experienced.” Despite his Hollywood success, giving back to the OCD community is now Smith’s primary objective. He speaks all over the country to patients and their parents and works closely with doctors to develop new and effective approaches to treating the disease. The Harvard Medical newsletter recently published an article Smith wrote, and he spoke at the 2012 and 2013 OCD International Conferences. Smith knows the value of a supportive community and of surrounding himself with compassionate individuals. “Pace Academy was there for me when I needed it most — especially Dr. George Mengert, who knew my struggles but believed in me anyway and brought me into the Pace family,” Smith says. “He gave me the lifelong gift of theatre and friendship.” Smith is paying that gift forward through his work in OCD advocacy and education. “OCD is a debilitating and heartbreaking illness that goes way beyond its public image of hand washing, counting and cleanliness,” he says. “If anyone in my Pace family, past or present, has been diagnosed with OCD and secretly suffers, please visit www. ocfoundation.org. The resources on this website are invaluable. And please never hesitate to reach out to me through the Pace Alumni Office. You most definitely have a friend.” •
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Where Are They Now? Greenville, S.C.-based singer-songwriter Alaina Beach ’00 has teamed with producer John Briglevich, 2013 Georgia Music Awards Producer of the Year, to record several songs that were recently released on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify and other music marketplaces. A lawyer for McAngus Goudelock & Courie by day, Alaina has sung in choirs and bands for years (she was a member of the Pace chorus). She learned to play the guitar in high school and began writing guitar music and lyrics as a student at Davidson College. Alaina spent a semester in Granada, Spain, where she took flamenco guitar lessons and played in coffee houses. She taught herself to play the piano and began to write piano music for the first time in 2013. “This project gradually grew from a fun hobby to an obsession, and I hope everyone enjoys the songs as much as I enjoyed making them,” Alaina says. She plans to record additional songs this year. “I have been overwhelmed by the support I received from the Pace community after releasing [my first] songs,” she says. “I feel very lucky to be a Pace grad.” You can learn more about Alaina’s musical endeavors at alainabeach.com.
On June 5, 2013, his 11th day on Mount McKinley/Denali, John Nesbit ’85 solo summited North America’s highest peak via the West Buttress route. He climbed the 20,350-foot mountain without a guide, a partner or ropes. In the previous year, only 41 percent of climbers successfully summited via the West Buttress; seven died, and it took the average climber 18 days to reach the peak. John’s goal is to complete the Seven Summits, the highest mountains on each of the seven continents. “Only Everest will be more difficult [than Mount McKinley],” he says. He plans to solo climb Argentina’s Aconcagua (22,850 feet) in December 2014 and hopes to attempt Everest in 2016—without supplemental oxygen for support. John’s other notable climbs have included a solo summit of Wyoming’s Grand Teton via the Upper Exum Route, Devils Tower National Monument, Mount Ranier, Ecuador’s Cotapoxi and many rock climbs throughout the western United States. John lives in Bozeman, Mont., where he is a partner in a law practice. He and his wife have been married for 22 years and have two children. His passions are rock and ice climbing, mountaineering, snowboarding, snowmobiling and dirt biking. John hopes to see his classmates at their 30th reunion! Losers Take All, a film written and produced by Andrew Pope ’89, was released in select theaters in October 2013 via The Kevin
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Smith Movie Club and Phase 4 Films. The comedy follows fictional indie rock band The Fingers as they stumble their way in the opposite direction of 1980s success—commercial or otherwise. Jennifer Boles ’90 was recently featured in the New York Times’ Home section. An interior design expert, Jennifer has made a name for herself within the industry as a result of The Peak of Chic, her design blog the Times calls “a love letter to—nay, an epic poem in celebration of—the sort of effusive, ebullient and, yes, very traditional decorating practiced by Dorothy Draper, Nancy Lancaster, Albert Hadley and Sister Parish, among other 20th-century greats.” In October 2013, Jennifer published her first book, In With the Old: Classic Décor from A to Z. The book “will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about campaign furniture, tole and faux bois as well as how to wrap your books in vibrant red paper to create visual harmony on your bookshelves.” Jennifer lives in Atlanta and writes and lectures on design. She also is a contributor to House Beautiful. Read her blog at thepeakofchic.blogspot.com. The Shepherd Center spotlighted James Curtis ’90 in its October 2013 volunteer newsletter. The not-for-profit hospital specializes in medical treatment, research and rehabilitation for people with spinal cord and brain injuries. James began volunteering at the Shepherd Center when he was a student at Pace. After graduating from American University, he returned to Atlanta and served on the hospital’s Junior Committee, a fundraising and support organization. Since then he has volunteered in the Noble Learning Resource Center and assisted the respiratory therapy department. He currently performs a host of administrative tasks for multiple departments, including donor background research and volunteer coordination. Since 1990, James has logged more than 7,600 hours of service. David Glass ’90 and his wife, Betsy, recently received All About Developmental Disabilities’ (AADD) 2013 Legacy Award. The family was honored for its work with Darden’s Delights, a pie company founded as a result of Betsy’s overwhelmingly popular homemade fudge pies. The Glasses officially launched the company in 2011 and have since donated nearly $8,000 to seven local nonprofits that benefit children with developmental disabilities. The Glass’s daughter Darden was born with Down syndrome and has been part of the AADD family since she was a toddler. In November, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution profiled David and Betsy and their inspiring work in the community. Ashley McFarlin Buie ’99 recently published her first book, The Truth. She describes The Truth as “a daily devotional for people looking for a simple approach to understanding God’s word.” The book can be purchased at godzchildproductions.net. Following two months of rehearsals in North Yorkshire, England, singer and actor Cameron Smith ’05 boarded Cunard’s Queen Victoria cruise liner on Jan. 2 for an eight-month contract. Cunard
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Chip Wile, president of Darlington Raceway, strikes a pose on the legendary NASCAR track.
SPOTLIGHT ON CHIP WILE ’98, NASCAR’S RISING STAR It all started with an internship. The summer before his senior year at the University of Georgia, Chip Wile ’98 found himself in Winston Salem, N.C., working for a NASCAR marketing company. “I was always passionate about sports and wanted to make professional sports a career,” Chip says. “It wasn’t until that summer that I was really exposed to NASCAR.” Before he returned to school, Chip accepted an entry-level position with the company following graduation, and he’s never looked back. One thing led to another and, in 2012, Chip joined Motor Racing Network (MRN) as director of Business Development. International Speedway Corporation (ISC) owns and operates MRN, and Chip quickly moved up in the ranks until ISC named him president of Darlington Raceway in August 2013. The raceway, located in Darlington, S.C., is part of ISC’s network of 13 major motorsports entertainment facilities, which includes Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway. “Darlington Raceway has a rich history and is the oldest paved track on the NASCAR circuit,” Chip says. “Legendary names like
Pearson, Petty and Earnhardt have won [here.]” As the man in charge of “The Lady in Black,” as NASCAR fans often call the facility, Chip oversees every aspect of the business—from finance to operations. “We have a great team in place at Darlington that shares my passion for the facility,” he says. “Together, we are going to take the legendary raceway to the next level.” ISC believes Chip is the man for the job. “[Chip] is a respected and seasoned motorsports executive and [was] prepared to accept the leadership position at Darlington Raceway,” says John Saunders, ISC’s President. “We were fortunate to have such a high-caliber individual to transition into a strategic position within our organization.” Chip and his wife, Catherine Rigsby Wile ’98, have twin boys, Woodson and Rigsby, and a daughter, Jane Alyce.
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5 1. John Nesbit '85 2. Zack Ezor '06 3. Maggie Riddell '08 with her students 4–5. Anna Bokman '10, William Morse '10 and Claire Ellender '10 at Clemson University's Ring Ceremony; The trio during their senior year at Pace 6. Jasmine Little (right) with her business partner
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recently partnered with Yorkshire-based Qdos Productions to produce its onboard theatre shows, and Cameron is a member of the CunardQdos debut cast. He will perform in shows that cover a wide range of material—everything from the Rolling Stones to Celtic folksongs and traditional musical theatre. This is Cameron’s third contract with Qdos; he previously worked with the group onboard Celebrity Cruises. The ship will start its tour with a voyage from England to Australia and back via South America. It will return to the United Kingdom in May and will be based out of Southampton while touring the Baltics, Norway, Iceland, the British Isles and the Mediterranean. Cameron credits former Fine Arts Chair Beth Barrow-Titus and Upper School Theatre Director George Mengert for encouraging his performing career. "I have traveled the world and look forward to continuing to check countries off my bucket list,” he says. “Visitors are always welcome! If alumni are interested in cruising, I’ll be onboard Cunard’s Queen Victoria through Sept. 14.” Zack Ezor ’06 and his production partner’s pilot radio program, Stylus, has been selected for development by WBUR, Boston’s National Public Radio station. The two received a fellowship through the station’s iLab program after producing an hour-long documentary about silence. Each month, the team will produce audio segments focused on themes around sound and music, as well as other elements such as extra audio, interviews and related links to be posted on a dynamic Stylus website. You can hear the pilot episode of Stylus at prx.org/ pieces/99728-silence. Zack is currently member services coordinator for WBUR. He and his wife, Lara Goodrich Ezor ’06, live in Boston’s Somerville neighborhood. Lara is a graduate student at Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy studying food policy and applied nutrition. Ashley Lohmann ’06 has launched Beyond the Bombs (btbombs.com), a “transmedia project redefining how the world views, understands and connects with the Middle East and North Africa.” Visitors to the site are invited to read, watch, view and listen to stories that “aim to clarify misconceptions about the region by showcasing aspects of the region rarely seen in the news and humanizing the adversity that does make the headlines.” Ashley is the project’s founder and director. She lives in Los Angeles, where she is a media entrepreneur and “endlessly curious explorer with a passion for cross-cultural understanding and a background in Middle East-related issues.” After receiving her bachelor’s degree in International Relations with Honors in International Security Studies from Stanford University, she worked as a political analyst in Washington, D.C. She later moved to Los Angeles, where she joined Fair Observer as an associate editor for the Middle East Desk. Jasmine Little ’08 and a business partner have launched Trace, a company that makes underwear for everyday women. “Dissatisfied with underwear that was not well made or well designed, was too expensive and relied on sexist marketing, we decided to make the
underwear we want to wear,” Jasmine says. “Trace offers a wide range of sizes and believes in showcasing women of all body types, ages and races. We believe in well-designed, comfortable underwear that appeals to a large audience and is affordable.” In order to fund the project, Jasmine launched a Kickstarter campaign. Through the fundraising platform, Trace’s campaign reached its $10,000 goal with the help of 154 backers. Watch the company grow at tracelingerie.com. Teach for America (TFA) teacher Maggie Riddell ’08 was chosen to be part of a team of elite teachers that specializes in intensive leadership development and community-based social change. As a result of the team’s groundbreaking work in New Orleans, TFA asked that its members travel to India to observe Teach for All, an international version of TFA. The group will study Teach for All’s leadership-development model and examine other non-profits that work for student equality. “We hope to bring back strategies and insight that will help us improve TFA’s large-scale impact in New Orleans and beyond,” Maggie says. “I am very excited to have this opportunity to invest in the future of students through this personal experience in India. Our days will be packed with visiting schools in Mumbai and Delhi, volunteering with an NGO, working for girls’ and women’s rights through health initiatives, collaborating with a professor on a non-profit that helps children who beg for money on the trains, and incorporating time for reflection in some of India’s most sacred temples. I feel very lucky to be a part of this experience.” Isaac Sukin ’10 recently published Game Development with Three.js, a step-by-step guide to developing immersive 3D Internet games, available on PackTPub.com. Isaac is now a senior at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is studying entrepreneurship and information management. Isaac began building games when he was 8 years old. At 16, he became co-leader of the Community Bonus Pack team, an award-winning international group of game developers for the Unreal Engine. He started learning how to code around the same time by developing an open-source Facebook-style statuses system that thousands of websites have adopted. Since then, Isaac has been increasingly drawn to interactive JavaScript on the Web. He created an open-source 2D game engine in early 2012 and then dove into Three.js. Isaac has worked for Twitter, First Round Capital and Acquia, among others, and was previously a freelance consultant and developer. He also is a founder of Dorm Room Fund, a student-run venture capital fund that invests in student-run startups. On Oct. 8, 2013, Anna Bokman ’10, Claire Ellender ’10 and William Morse ’10 participated in Clemson University’s Ring Ceremony. The Clemson Alumni Association and Student Council host the long-standing tradition at which seniors receive their university rings. The Pace alumni and Clemson seniors shared with the KnightTimes a photo from their senior year and another from the ceremony.
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1. Elyse Grant Whitehead '03 with Eleanor Grace 2. Hawkins Cash Wheeler 3. Jane Painter Roberts 4. Micah Camden Warren
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BIRTHS Haynes Roberts ’96, his wife, Megan, and daughter Millie welcomed Jane Painter on Nov. 5, 2013. She was 7 pounds 11 ounces and 20.5 inches. The family resides in Sewanee, Tenn., where Megan coordinates the Sewanee Writers Conference, and Haynes serves as an advancement officer for the University of the South. June Weltner Lehman ’98 and her husband, Matt, had a son, William Matthew, on Oct. 15, 2013. He weighed 8 pounds 2 ounces. Their daughter, Sally, is thoroughly enjoying being a big sister. June teaches Advanced Placement U.S. Government and Politics to seniors at St. Catherine’s School in Richmond, Va. Whitney Inglis Sanders ’98 and her husband, Taft, welcomed a daughter, Elizabeth Carter, on April 25, 2013. The family lives in Charlotte, N.C., where Whitney is getting her associates degree in interior design. Taft has started his own staffing company, Circle40. Summer and Sean Warren ’99 are excited to announce the birth of their son, Micah Camden. Micah was born Sept. 11, 2013, and was 8 pounds and 21 inches. Since graduating from college, Sean has worked for Blue World Pools, Inc., a family business. He received his MBA and is currently the company’s vice president of Marketing. His siblings, Brett Warren ’97, Andy Warren ’01 and Kasey Warren ’06, work for Blue World Pools as well. “Business continues to do well and improves as the health of the economy rebounds,” Sean says. Elyse Grant Whitehead ’03 and her husband, Todd, welcomed daughter Eleanor Grace on Feb. 5, 2013. The proud grand-
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5. William Matthew Lehman with his big sister, Sally 6. Elizabeth Carter Sanders
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mother is Assistant Head of Lower School Phyllis Grant. Aunt Jessie Grant ’09 and uncle Brandon Grant ’06 are thrilled to have a niece! Jimmy Wheeler ’04 and Rachael Yarbrough welcomed a son, Hawkins Cash, on July 25, 2013, in Bozeman, Mont. Jimmy moved to Bozeman after graduating from the University of Alabama. He spent four years working for Discovery Land Company, which develops private golf and ski communities for high-profile and celebrity clientele. In 2012, he started Henson Lowman Estates, a luxury estate management company. Employees serve as “modern-day butlers” for clients when they are in residence, and the company currently oversees $30 million in property. “We are very excited about the future of our business,” Jimmy says.
MARRIAGES Laura Virden Mathis ’73 married Jim Mathis, a Marist School graduate, on June 15, 2013. Sheryl Fowler Butler ’73, Charlie Butler ’05, Lynn Clark Cogan ’73 and former Pace faculty member John Cogan attended. Also in attendance were Laura’s three sons, Chris, Corey and Cody McMillan, and Jim’s daughter, Faith Mathis. Ali Trauner Bebiak ’98 married Alex Bebiak on Sept. 1, 2013, at the Four Seasons Hotel in Midtown Atlanta. They celebrated with Jamie Trauner Rosen ’95, Lauren Wolf ’98, Patrick Dunaway ’98, June Weltner Lehman ’98, Ginny Muir Johnson ’98, Amy Russell Roark ’98, Lauren King ’98,
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Lacy Westerlund ’98, Jeff Westerlund ’98, Thomas Riddell ’98 and Haley Brumfield Westerlund ’03. Alex is the operating partner for Ray’s Restaurants; Ali is director of Sales and Events for Ray’s Restaurants. The couple lives in East Cobb. Jonathan Blank ’99 and his wife, Olivia, married on Aug. 24, 2013, at Camrose Hill Flower Farm in Stillwater, Minn. Pace alumni in attendance were William Bruer ’99, Paul Liebman ’99, Spencer Pope ’98, Rob Birdsong ’00, Davis Inman ’00, Kirk McAlpin ’00 and Tucker Ezell ’98. The couple lives in San Francisco and enjoys traveling, wine and tango. Laurie Gay Beard ’99 married Charles Beard at First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta on April 21, 2012. Following the ceremony, guests enjoyed a reception at The St. Regis Atlanta. Laurie, a former attorney, has been working since 2009 as a life coach and started BluePrint Balance. Charles works in commercial real estate as a senior associate at CB Richard Ellis in Atlanta.
Michael Harbour ’00 and Stephanie Northen were married at Atlanta landmark Paris on Ponce on Aug. 31, 2013. Lane Miller ’00 served as the best man, and many Pace alumni were in attendance. Stephanie lives in Los Angeles and runs regional publicity for Roadside Attractions, an independent film studio. Michael is spending a year clerking for federal appellate judge Mary Schroeder in Phoenix’s Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The couple looks forward to living in the same city soon. Caitlin Goodrich Jones ’00 married Wes Jones at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Atlanta on Oct. 5, 2013. Former Pace parent Rev. Craig Goodrich performed the ceremony. Lara Goodrich Ezor ’06 served as the matron of honor. Liz Townsend ’00 and Catherine Woodling ’00 were bridesmaids, and Pete Goodrich ’03 and Zack Ezor ’06 were groomsmen. (continued on page 45)
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1. Alex and Megan Gaddy with friends from the Pace community 2. The Arnold/Levine wedding 3. The Hogan/O'Brien wedding 4. Left to right: William Watters ’03, Jon Glass ’03, Blake Ficke ’07, Blythe O’Brien Hogan ’03, Sarah Kleban Ficke, Brooks Ficke '03, Katie Daly ’03, Molly Daly ’07, Bowen Hendrix ’03, Asa Flynn ‘03 and Marsh Lunati ’03 5. Left to right: Sarah Bray '04, Laura Dickey Corey '04 and Olivia Levine Arnold '04 6. The Quintrell/Carley wedding
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Following the ceremony, the couple celebrated at a reception at Monday Night Brewing, which included Will Amos ’99, Wilson Covington ’97, Dani Ezor ’09, Mary Liebman ’00, Andrew Teegarden ’99, Ben Thorpe ’00, Martha and Fred Assaf, Pace staff members George Mengert, Ryan Vihlen, Lela Wallace and Katherine Patrick, and former Pace faculty member Edith Woodling. The couple lives in Atlanta, where Wes is founder and CEO of Honeysuckle Gelato, and Caitlin is director of Communications at Pace. Brooks Ficke ’03 married Sarah Kleban Ficke at Peachtree Presbyterian Church on Aug. 10, 2013. Following the ceremony, a reception took place at Chastain Horse Park. The Fickes reside in Birmingham, Ala., where Brooks is an orthopedic surgery resident at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Sarah works in software sales. Alex Gaddy ’03 and Megan Rickard Gaddy were married in Atlanta on Oct. 24, 2013. Jon Birdsong ’03, Pete Goodrich ’03 and E.J. Gruber ’03 were groomsmen, and Genna Gaddy Franconi ’02 and Sarah Gaddy ’06 served as bridesmaids. Other alumni in attendance were John Lattimer ’03, Katie Daly ’03, Alec White ’03, Andrew Alexander ’04, Steve Shirley ’03, Caroline Faulkner ’04 and Tim Schaetzel ’04. The couple was married at Dunwoody Methodist Church and celebrated at a reception at Ansley Golf Club. Following the wedding, Alex and Megan honeymooned in Kauai. They recently bought a house in Atlanta’s Meadowbrook neighborhood, located near Chastain Park. Alex works in corporate strategy for Novelis, an aluminum fabrication company, and Megan works as a human resources consultant for Willis, an insurance brokerage company. Blythe O’Brien Hogan ’03 married Will Hogan (a Westminster Schools alumnus) at the Amelia Island Club in Amelia Island, Fla., on Oct. 5, 2013. Pace alumni in attendance were Asa Flynn ’03, Julianna Rue Cagle ’03, Jon Glass ’03, Katie Daly ’03, Brooks Ficke ’03, Erin Mazursky ’03, Claire Graves ’03, William Watters ’03 and Alec White ’03. Will and Blythe live in New York City. Will works in advertising, and Blythe is director of the art practice at Aon Private Risk Management. Olivia Levine Arnold ‘04 married Billy Arnold on Oct. 5, 2013, at Barnsley Gardens Resort in North Georgia. They celebrated with Matt Garcia ’03, Laura Dickey Corey ’04, Sarah Bray ’04, Tim Schaetzel ’04, Nicole Van Leuvan ’04, Eleanor Levine ’07 and Theo Levine ’12. The couple lives in New York City, where Olivia is a marketing manager at Estée Lauder. Billy is a television producer at Bloomberg and is pursing his MBA at New York University’s Stern School of Business. Bailey Quintrell ’05 married Mary Ann Carley Quintrell on Oct. 12, 2013. Elisabeth Quintrell ’08, Claire Quintrell ’12, Bud Whitmire ’05 and Alex Mikhalevsky ’05 were in the wedding party. Pace Trustee Randall Quintrell, the groom’s father, served as best man. Bailey is the son of Pace Middle School teacher Nancy Quintrell. Cam Simonds ’03, Assistant Head
of Middle School Kathie Larkin, former faculty members B.J. Hayes and Jane Wilkes, and former Pace parent and current ARC tutor Jill Sabulis attended. Both Bailey and Mary Ann graduated from Georgia Tech. Mary Ann works for McKesson Healthcare, and Bailey works for Caterpillar Inc. The couple recently bought a house in Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhood that they are enjoying fixing up.
IN MEMORIAM Donna Elder, mother of DJ Elder ’09, died on Oct. 29, 2013, after a long battle with cancer. “While [Donna’s] life was far too short, those who she touched understand that the quality of her existence far exceeds her time on earth,” her family wrote. Donna was a certified public accountant and held positions with Arthur Anderson, the FDIC and the Resolution Trust Corporation. She was dedicated to the improvement of her community and active in her neighborhood’s civic association. While undergoing cancer treatment in 2010, Donna ran and won a campaign for DeKalb County School Board, 7th District. As a board member, she was a consensus builder and an advocate for common-sense approaches to resolving issues. Douglas Billstein Reid ’64 passed away on June 10, 2013, following an extended illness. Doug served in the U. S. Army from 1969 until 1971 and worked in photography and automotive sales. “He will be remembered for his caring nature, caring for his mother Elizabeth up until her final days,” his family wrote. Lawrence “Larry” Thorpe, father of Ben Thorpe ’00, passed away on Dec. 13, 2013. “He lived a full, joyous and accomplished life,” his family wrote. “He was a lawyer, a veteran, a successful real estate developer, a community leader, a committed environmentalist and a powerful advocate wherever an issue of conscience stirred the fires of his tremendous heart… His love allowed us to succeed, his strength allowed us to fail and his consistency allowed us always to feel at home in his presence.” Melvin “Mel” Tinsley passed away on Dec. 13, 2013. Mel is survived by his wife of 69 years, Sally Tinsley, “one of the finest secretaries Pace ever had,” says longtime faculty member Charlie Owens. “She assisted former headmaster Frank Kaley and former Upper School Principal Bob Chambers for some 20-plus years.” Mel was a World War II veteran and a successful metallurgical engineer and property manager. “He was a man of extraordinary character and ability,” his family wrote. “He was an avid sailor, snow skier, painter, photographer, landscaper and published author.” Mel is the father of Nena Tinsley Allen, a former Pace faculty member, and Laura Tinsley McFayden ’67. His grandson, Vince Allen ’87, is a Pace graduate.
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Homecoming & Reunion Weekend 2013 Alumni of all ages returned to Atlanta to celebrate Homecoming & Reunion Weekend in early October. The weekend began on the morning of Friday, Oct. 4, when alumni interested in applying their children to Pace enjoyed breakfast in the Castle Boardroom followed by a tour of campus. Later that day, alumni and their families gathered at Riverview Road Athletic Complex for the annual alumni tailgate. They enjoyed food from The Varsity before cheering on the Knights, who handily defeated Strong Rock Christian School 40–0. Saturday morning brought a pumpkinpainting party on the Castle lawn for alumni and their children. A cocktail party took place in Boyd Gymnasium that evening. The Classes of 1968, 1973, 1978, 1983, 1988, 1993, 1998, 2003 and 2008 celebrated reunions.
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1. Molly Dowling Brown '93, May Lin Law '93, Katie Bell Mauldin '93, Rachel Day White '93, Nancy Canfield Carson '93, Meghan Elkourie Rathert '93 2. Neil Conrad '84 and Ann Douthitt Conrad '84 3. Whitney Allsopp Jackson '98, Kevin Jackson and their daughter, Isabel 4. Marthe Ballance Wolff '94 5. Linda and James Cartwright '67
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Reunion PARTIEs Class of 1968 The Class of 1968 gathered at McCray’s Tavern on Oct. 5 to celebrate its 45th reunion. Jan Anderson Manning coordinated the event.
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Class of 1973
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Jill Pinkerton Huitron and Sheryl Fowler Butler organized the 40th reunion gathering for the Class of 1973 on Oct. 5 at Jill’s home.
Class of 1978 David Cooper and Susan McLester Kemmerlin brought the Class of 1978 together for its 35th reunion on Oct. 5. The event took place at David’s home, and more than 30 members of the class attended.
Class of 1983 The Class of 1983 gathered at the Tavern at Phipps on Oct. 19 for its 30th reunion. Cindy Gay Jacoby coordinated the event.
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Class of 1988 The Class of 1988 celebrated its 25th reunion with a huge crowd at the home of Charley Brickley on Oct. 5. Charley, Erin Mengert Hadaway, Elizabeth Vickers Macdonald and Rhonda Peck O’Gorman organized the evening’s festivities.
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6 1. Bo Thompson '68 with his wife, Toni 2. Members of the Class of 1978 3. Dan West '78, Diane Maduros, Lee King '78 4. Cindy Gay Jacoby '83 and David Jacoby 5. The Class of 1983 celebrated on the night of Oct. 19. 6. Betsy Brandy Orr '78, Amelia Bruce Miller '78, Emily Neil Bazzel '78, Susan McLester Kemmerlin '78, Kay Pinkerton Deimling '78
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7. Blaine Ashmore Allen '88, Charley Brickley '88, Gordon Bynum '88, Elizabeth Vickers MacDonald '88, Heather Nichols Stames '88 and Lindy Morris Fishburne '88 at the Alumni Tailgate.
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Class of 1993
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More than 60 people attended the Class of 1993’s reunion celebration at Buckhead Saloon on Oct. 5. Marie Lamb Griffin, Jessica Sutherland Levenson, Katie Bell Mauldin, Jamie Waldron McWilliams, Jason Morris and Molly Haining Scott coordinated the event.
Class of 1998 Wheeler Bryan, Brent Eden and Lauren King organized the Class of 1998’s reunion party, which took place at Ormsby’s on Oct. 12.
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The Class of 2003 took advantage of the Thanksgiving holiday and celebrated its reunion on Nov. 29 at Paul’s Restaurant. Julianna Rue Cagle, Talbott Head Glover and Laura Ridall Tobert planned the party.
Class of 2008 On Nov. 29, Fado Irish Pub played host to the Class of 2008’s reunion, which was organized by Susanna Bramlett, Emily Evans and Elisabeth Quintrell.
4 1. Members of the Class of 1993 2. Annie Richardson Goode '98 and Jason Goode 3. Lila McAlpin, Annie Richardson Goode, Mac White, former Pace faculty member Sally Westerlund, Amanda Hoffman and Brent Eden celebrate with the Class of 1998.
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4. Members of the Class of 2003 at Paul's Restaurant 5. Amanda Calloway Mercer '98, Sally Westerlund and Lauren King '98 6. The Class of 2008 celebrated its five-year reunion at Fado Irish Pub.
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Are you interested in helping coordinate your class’s upcoming reunion?
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College Alumni Holiday Lunch More than 60 young alumni returned to campus on Friday, Dec. 20 for the annual Alumni Holiday Lunch. Claire Dillon ’11, Eric Estroff ’12, Jakob Gorgens ’12, Zeena Lattouf ’12 and Hayley Shoji ’12 served on the host committee for the event. Alumni enjoyed lunch from Willy’s while catching up with former classmates and current faculty and staff. Below: Jordan Schuchmann '13, Sydney Willis '13, Meredith Bradshaw '13, Kate Thomson '13, Sam Schaffer '13 and Megan McCurry '13 Bottom: John Carolin '12 with Upper School teacher Helen Smith
New York, New York More than 30 New York City alumni attended a happy hour at Galway Pub on Oct. 23. Trip Foley ’99 and Courtney Schaefer ’07 hosted the event. Top: Laura Dickey Corey '04, Sarah Bray '04 and Olivia Levine Arnold '04 Bottom: Emily Hishta Cohen '06, Liz Nellis '07, Courtney Schaefer '07, Brandon Grant '07, Olivia Mills '07, Lauren Kravitz '07, Louis Mittel '06, Allison Kessler '06 and Tasneem Ahmed '06
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ALUMNI OUT AND ABOUT Send photos of you and your Pace classmates out and about to alumni@paceacademy.org.
Andrew Pinckney ’01, Alexis Schulze Grace ’01 and Cooper Pettway ’01 (above) recently reunited in Singapore. The classmates are pictured in Chinatown with Alexis’s daughter, Salem, who donned a Pace Academy T-shirt for the occasion. Alexis and her husband, Lukus, live in Singapore, and Cooper and Andrew were traveling throughout Southeast Asia. Ciara Sadaka (second from left) and Katie Larson (third from left) with members of the GHSWPA water polo team.
Katie Mayer Larson ’97 hosted sophomore Ciara Sadaka and other members of the GHSWPA All-State Water Polo Team when the group traveled to Orlando for a holiday water polo camp in December 2012. Katie is the head coach of the University of Florida’s women’s water polo team. Over dinner, Katie told the girls about her days on the Pace and University of Massachusetts varsity teams and explained the college-recruiting process for water polo. The Class of 2006 gathered for an impromptu reunion on Nov. 30. Harrison Kaufman ’06 coordinated the event, which took place at Ormsby’s, a tavern in Atlanta’s Westside, where Michael Goot ’98 is an owner/operating partner. Pace and Georgia Tech alumnus Brandon Thomas ‘09 returned to campus on Nov. 13 to watch as senior Jared Datoc committed to play baseball for the Yellow Jackets. Thomas was a standout player for Georgia Tech and currently plays for the Staten Island Yankees.
Staten Island Yankees outfielder Brandon Thomas with Pace senior and Georgia Techbound Jared Datoc.
Allison Rosenbaum, Danielle Kerker and Michelle Rosenbaum at the St. Vitus Cathedral.
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Allison Rosenbaum ’11 and Michelle Rosenbaum ’11, both students at Tulane University, spent the fall semester studying abroad. Allison traveled with the Danish Institute for Study Abroad (DIS), a program based in Copenhagen that offers courses taught by professors from all over the world. Every two weeks, DIS students enjoy weeklong travel breaks, and Allison traveled to Italy, Prague and Paris. While in Copenhagen, she participated in Child Diversity and Development, which involved a traditional class as well as a teaching practicum. Through the practicum, Allison received 45 hours of teaching time with students in grades five, seven and nine. “[The] school system [in Denmark] is very different from the United States and gave me a lot of freedom to create fun lesson plans for the kids,” she says. At Tulane, Allison is majoring in sociology and working toward a teaching certificate in early education. Michelle traveled as a Tulane exchange student to Madrid, Spain, where she attended a Spanish business school with other international students. Michelle is a marketing and management major at Tulane and took advantage of weekend breaks to travel to Granada, Barcelona, Sevilla and Copenhagen. She and Allison reunited with Pace classmate Danielle Kerker ’11 in Prague. Danielle studied abroad in London and enjoyed exploring Europe over long weekend breaks.
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2013–2014 Annual Fund Goal: $1 million If you have not made your gift, please go to
www.paceacademy.org/annualfund. All contributions must be paid by May 15 and are tax-deductible as allowed by current IRS regulations. For questions or to make a gift of stock, contact the Advancement Office at 404-240-9103 or advancement@paceacademy.org.