Peddie Chronicle, Fall 2016

PEDDIE C

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Reaching Great Heights Peddie alumnae are leading the tides of change in the finance industry.

Their stories, page 20

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Fall 2016

Five-cent Five-cent stamp, anyone? stamp, anyone?

Bookkeeper Bookkeeper Evelyn Zinn Evelyn works Zinninworks the school in the bookstore school bookstore (then located (then located in Wilson in Hall) Wilson circa Hall) 1965. circa 1965.

Fall 2016

FROM THE HEADMASTER

Vol. 145, No. 1

Dear Alumni, Parents and Friends,

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Rowing in Rio

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A Culture of Collaboration

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Shelley Pearson ’09 makes Olympic history

Faculty create impactful educational experiences

Women in Finance Alumnae lead tides of change in the industry

Faculty Arts Retreat Exploring an ancient photography technique

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From the Headmaster Meet the Trustees Center Campus Class Notes

Editor: Carrie Harrington Director of Marketing and Communications: Katie Germain Contributors: Deanna Harkel, Doug Mariboe ’69 P’10 ’14, Patricia O’Neill P’13 ’15 ’17, Wendi Patella P’17 ’20 Design: Carter Halliday Associates Photography: Andrea Kane, Conor McArdle Printing: Prism Color Corporation

On the Cover: Women in Finance (From L to R) Nancy Davis ’94, Aarti Kapoor ’03 and Jackie Shoback ’84 are three Peddie alumnae with distinguished careers in the financial services industry.

Illustrator: James Bennett (jamesbennettart.com) The Peddie Chronicle is published in the fall and spring by the Marketing and Communications Office for alumni, families and friends of the school.

Peddie School 201 South Main Street Hightstown, NJ 08520-3349

Tel: 609.944.7501 peddie.org/chronicle We welcome your input: editor@peddie.org

Throughout this issue, look for this icon for exclusive online content at peddie.org/chronicle

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By the time this issue arrives in your mailbox, a new president of the United States will have been elected. Political viewpoints aside, it has been an inspiration for many to see, for the first time in history, a woman campaign for the highest office in our country. In this, as in every issue of the Chronicle, we celebrate the accomplishments of female Falcons who similarly inspire each of us to strive to become better versions of ourselves with every passing day.

You will read about Peddie alumnae who are leaders in the finance industry and about an alumna who this summer became the first Bermudian female rower to compete at the Olympics.

Throughout its long history, Peddie has been at separate times an all-girls and an all-boys school.

Today, we welcome students from all over the country and the world, and we are committed to building a diverse community in which students of every gender, ethnicity and background can learn from one another and seize new opportunities.

Our enrollment stands at 564 students this fall, a few more than usual! We were thrilled to open the fabulous new Green and Kaye Dormitories, which now house 84 upperclassmen and women. We are nostalgic about the removal of Kerr Dormitory, a home for hundreds of “Kerrmites” since 1977.

Tell us what you think!

We would like your opinion and a few minutes of your time to help improve the effectiveness of this publication. Our online survey takes about 10 minutes to complete. You will be asked questions about the Chronicle, including several that allow for open-ended responses.

Begin the survey at Peddie.org/alumni Thank you in advance for helping to make the Peddie Chronicle even better.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR This October, we partnered with the local fire department to use the space for real-world firefighter training, and our students were on the sidelines getting a first-hand look at citizenship in action. Kerr Dormitory housed many great memories. While we are sad to see it go, its demolition paves the way for our community to begin anew.

We welcomed six new faculty members this year who are already enriching the lives of our students in the classroom, on the field, on the stage and in the dorms. In this issue, we explore the collaborative nature of teaching at Peddie and how our faculty work together to innovate upon and broaden our curriculum. Throughout the year, we will be paying tribute to three such faculty members, who will be retiring this spring — Melanie Clements, Pat Clements and Bill McMann. You will read more about those revered members of our community in the spring issue of the magazine, but I invite you to reach out to them or come back to campus this year to wish them well in their final go-round.

To the Editor, I want to take a moment to thank you for the Chronicle that arrived yesterday. I enjoyed the focus on sports. During my five years at Peddie, I played soccer, lacrosse and football, and also swam. I wasn’t much of an athlete, but I loved the team concept and sports helped me stay focused.

Thanks for the memories. Like fine wine, they do get better with age.

Best regards, TED BROOKS ’64

To the Editor, Loved, loved, loved the front inside cover and back inside cover of “Pops” and Melanie on the porch — very cool!

The only thing missing is the dog … but I guess they don’t live to be 30!

LEAH JACKSON ’80

Editor’s Note: We are both happy and sad to announce the retirement of Patrick and Melanie Clements, effective June 2017. Between them they have given more than 80 years of service to this school and its students. Stay tuned as we celebrate the Clements throughout the school year.

This year also marks the ten-year anniversary of our partnership with EFZ, our sister school in Shanghai. Dozens of Peddie and EFZ students and faculty members have had the opportunity to immerse themselves in a new culture in a welcoming and structured educational environment through this partnership. To commemorate the anniversary, we planted trees in both locations that we hope will thrive and grow for another ten years alongside our relationship with EFZ. There are many new advancements to celebrate this year, but that’s nothing new for Peddie.

I look forward to seeing many of you on campus and abroad this year and hearing about the new chapters that are opening in your lives as you continue on your personal and professional journeys.

Ala Viva,

Peter Quinn

We love to hear from you!

The Chronicle welcomes your letters and comments. We reserve the right to edit letters for space. Send your comments to editor@peddie.org or Chronicle Editor, Peddie School, 201 South Main Street, Hightstown, NJ 08520-3349.

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COM M U N IT Y Welcome to Peddie!

The 2016–17 academic year — the 153rd in Peddie history — began the weekend of September 2–4. Peddie On Campus Orientation (POCO) included games and team-building activities for new and returning students. Prefects were especially enthusiastic about welcoming the Class of 2020 to campus.

This year’s student body comprises 564 students, including 138 seniors.

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CAMPUS 6 Peddie Chronicle

Nightlife Lights from Coleman and Trask dormitories illuminate the campus during study hall on a clear, crisp fall evening. This year, 63 percent of Peddie’s students reside on campus.

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ARTS The chaos of corruption Students showed off their talent for satire and comedy as well as creative set design in this year’s fall play, The Government Inspector. Following the October production was the much anticipated freshman musical, Legally Blonde. View the entire Peddie arts calendar at Peddie.org/arts.

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AT H L E T I C S 10 Peddie Chronicle

Go Peddie! Beat Blair!

It’s always easy to tell when it’s Blair Week at Peddie. There are themed dress days, banners around campus, and a pep rally and bonfire the evening before competition begins.

For the third straight year, Peddie captured the Potter-Kelley Cup over Blair Academy, finishing 13 competitions with six wins, five losses and two ties on a beautiful day in Blairstown. In a wild conclusion to Blair Day, the Peddie football team held on to win 19-17, decided in the final 30 seconds when the Falcons recovered a fumble with the Bucs in field goal position. The Falcons now command an 18-8 advantage in the series.

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Peddie alumna makes history in Rio For Shelley Pearson ’09, the road to Rio, where she made history as the first Bermudian female rower to compete at the Olympics, was long and winding.

Pearson’s impressive rowing resume begins at Peddie, where she excelled beginning her sophomore year.

She went on to win numerous honors in national collegiate and international competitions before qualifying for Rio last spring. All in spite of a disease that left her with a fractured pelvic bone and nine hospital procedures in two years.

“Jeepers, this kid’s got something!”

Barbara Grudt, director of rowing at Peddie, remembers Pearson as a happy, optimistic student.

“She was also fiercely competitive,” said Grudt.

When Pearson inquired about rowing during her sophomore year, Grudt suggested that she try the ergometer, an indoor rowing machine. Pearson picked up on the technique quickly and was able to keep an intense pace, prompting Grudt to remark, “Jeepers, this kid’s got something!”

Pearson remembers falling in love with the sport at Peddie. “The movement of gliding on top of the water was incredible,” she said.

The following year, Pearson earned a spot in the varsity boat with a team that had just won the national championship.

“Rowing is a sport where there is a direct link between how hard you work and how successful you are.” — Shelley Pearson ’09 “That was a pretty scary seat to fill,” Pearson said. “But I learned not to underestimate myself, and my teammates taught me how to push myself. In the mornings before school I would run the stairs in Annenberg and do core work in the basement. I remember working out while some of the teachers trickled in before classes — they must have thought I was crazy.”

During her time at Peddie, Pearson became a two-time Youth National champion and a World Junior champion.

She recalled, “I remember after winning my first national championship, Coach Grudt turned to me and said, ‘get used to it, sophomore.’ I’ll never forget that moment.”

“Peddie was the perfect place for Shelley,” Grudt said.

“If you have the ability, we can make it better.”

Painful obstacles emerge Athletic genes run through Pearson’s family. Her father is a former Bermuda Half-Marathon Derby winner, and her brother is an accomplished rower at the collegiate level. But DNA alone couldn’t prepare her for the challenges ahead.

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“Rowing is a sport where there is a direct link between how hard you work and how successful you are,” Pearson said.

Pearson continued rowing at Harvard University.

During the fall of her junior year, she began to experience discomfort in her legs and hips. She initially thought it was just normal wear and tear from rowing, and she kept up with her training regimen. The pain persisted, prompting her physiotherapist to recommend an MRI. The news was not good: the MRI revealed an aneurysmal bone cyst on Pearson’s pelvis. Although benign, such cysts can be fairly destructive because they deform the bone and cause fractures.

Pearson received an anti-inflammatory injection that allowed her to continue to train and compete. But a month later, while simply getting up from the couch, she fractured her pelvic bone. While the injections had helped with the pain, they had also prevented the inflammation from initiating the healing process.

Over the next two years, Pearson would undergo nine surgeries. Her surgeon, Dr. Raja Shaikh at Boston Children’s Hospital, described Pearson’s disease as “very aggressive” as it kept recurring quickly after treatments. He advised her to stop rowing.

But Pearson persisted. She was determined to race in the 2014 U.K. National Championships in April. Eventually, the intense training took its toll. Pearson tore a tendon attached to the pelvic bone, forcing her to put down her oars and rest.

From crutches to Cambridge Pearson arrived at Oxford University in the fall of 2014. Still on crutches, she was determined to row for Oxford’s team.

That winter Pearson’s doctors gave her the green light to start training again.

“I didn’t fully anticipate how hard it would be to get back into shape after not rowing for six months and spending two of those months on crutches,” Pearson said.

By February Pearson was performing well enough to earn a seat in the boat, and by springtime she was ready to compete in the historic Oxford versus Cambridge Boat Races along the River Thames. For the first time in the 88-year history of the race, the women rowed on the famous Tideway course, on the same course and same day as the

Shelley Pearson rows in the 2009 Henley Regatta with the national championship Peddie crew.

Shelley Pearson competes in the Women’s Single Sculls quarterfinal at the Olympics in Rio.

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men’s race. Until that year, the women’s race was held a week before the men’s on a significantly shorter course at Henley.

In front of an estimated 350,000 spectators along the banks of the Thames, and a reported 15 million who tuned in to watch the race live on television, Pearson’s Oxford crew beat Cambridge to capture the historic first women’s boat race.

Qualifying for Rio Following the celebrated boat race, Pearson set her sights on the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. She continued to train, now as a single rower, while nearing the end of her master’s degree program in child development and education at Oxford.

In March Pearson was crowned the women’s single scull champion at the Latin American Olympic Continental Qualification Regatta in Curauma, Chile, her one and only opportunity to qualify for the Summer Games. Pearson was about 250 meters behind before she surged late and won the final with a sprint finish.

“She had the dream and is now part of a very elite group of athletes.” — Barbara Grudt By qualifying for Rio, she became the first woman to represent Bermuda in rowing at the Olympics, and the first to row since Jim Butterfield competed in the men’s singles in Munich (1972).

Grudt was excited when she heard the news. “Knowing her mentality, her desire and passion, I’m not surprised that she persevered,” she said.

A former Olympian herself (Grudt competed in rowing for the U.S. in the ’84 and ’88 Olympics) Grudt feels a kinship with Pearson. “She had the dream and is now part of a very elite group of athletes,” she said.

There are a number of people who have inspired Pearson at different phases in her life. Along with Grudt, she cites her father as a role model, as well as former teammates and two-time Olympic gold medal winner (U.S. Rowing) Erin Cafaro.

“I am so excited for Shelley and beyond humbled that I am her inspiration,” said Cafaro. “It takes a special someone to step forward and be the first in anything. I bet there are already a lot of young girls in Bermuda that Shelley has inspired and empowered by her actions.”

An Olympic dream realized On the morning of August 5, facing some of the worst conditions she had ever experienced, Pearson battled her way to a third-place finish in the women’s single sculls, qualifying her for the quarterfinals.

Amid the high winds and choppy waters of Rio’s Lagoa Rodrigo de Freita, she battled past the lead rower, and into second place before finishing a close third. The previous day, high winds forced organizers to call off the day’s races.

Conditions were much improved four days later for the quarterfinals race. Pearson needed a top-three finish in her heat to advance to the semi-finals. After the opening 500 meters, she advanced to fourth place, and appeared to be closing in on third, but finished just four-tenths of a second behind for a fourth-place finish.

Pearson described her performance in the quarterfinals as the best race of her life.

“I got a sense of how close I could be to the best athletes in the world, people who have won Olympic medals,” she said.

“I also love a come-from-behind exciting race and that was one of the closest ones I’ve ever had.”

Pearson was especially excited to participate in the closing ceremonies, which she described as “incredible.” Opting to rest before her race the following morning, Pearson missed the opening ceremonies. Instead, she asked her role model — her father — to walk in her place.

What’s next

“The Shelley” Peddie’s girls’ crew decided to name one of their crew boats in honor of Shelley Pearson.

“The team is very enthusiastic about it,” said Grudt. “It was their idea to name the boat, ‘The Shelley.’”

Pearson said she was delighted to learn about the boat dedication. “I’m very honored and excited,” she said.

A boat dedication ceremony is planned for later this year.

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Life has not slowed down for Pearson following Rio. She returned to Oxford, completed her master’s degree just weeks later, and is currently exploring job opportunities in New York City.

As for her health, Pearson reported that she has not had any new cysts since 2014. She acknowledges that they could recur at any time, but remains optimistic.

“For a while I was getting an MRI every few months to check up on it, but now that I haven’t had any cysts in two years, my MRIs are becoming less frequent,” she said. “I occasionally have classic rowing injuries like rib or back pain, but nothing serious.”

Pearson’s performances in Rio give her hope for the future.

“I hope to stay fit enough so that I will be able to make a decision in 2018 as to whether I would like to compete in the 2020 Olympics. But right now, my focus is on my career,” she said. n

MEET THE TRUSTEES Domingo Garcia P’17 ’20 Domingo Garcia is senior vice president and chief tax officer at Aon Plc., a global provider of risk management, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, and human resources solutions and outsourcing services. He is responsible for the global tax team, which encompasses all of Aon’s state, local, federal, and international tax compliance and planning. He joined Aon from Nike, where he served as chief tax officer.

He is a current Peddie parent of Andrew ’17 and Gabriel ’20.

Garcia received a Bachelor of Arts and Juris Doctor from Harvard University. He has worked for Agilent Technologies, BP/Amoco, Dell, and PepsiCo. A Chicago native, Garcia currently lives in London with his wife, Jenny, and his son Luke. He is a road cycling enthusiast.

“It is a privilege to be a member of the Peddie Board of Trustees. Peddie has a unique opportunity to provide young adults with an extraordinary educational experience and prepare them to make a difference in the world. I very much look forward to helping Peddie in this incredibly impactful endeavor.”

Since 1864, countless parents, alumni, faculty, staff and friends have thoughtfully planned for the future of Peddie.

What legacy will you leave to build the Peddie of tomorrow?

The Bell Society honors those whose estate plans benefit Peddie School. For information on charitable bequests, trusts, gift annuities or other planned giving opportunities at Peddie, or if you have listed Peddie in your will but have not yet informed the school, please contact Regina Ketting, director of gift planning, at 609-944-7521 or rketting@peddie.org.

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Teachers of biology and biology honors collaborated to reinvigorate the course curriculum this year. For their unit on evolution, the team started the course with a classroom designed to imitate the beginning of life on earth.

A culture of collaboration

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onning sunglasses and oxygen masks, students entered a darkened classroom. A few spotlights shone through the fog onto a pool filled with “primordial soup.” Thunder boomed and lightning flashed.

This was the first day of biology in the Annenberg Science Center, and sophomores began their coursework with a hands-on lesson in the study of evolution.

It was a dramatic display, and it happened at least four times during the first week of school. That’s because the course is taught by a team: Josh Sham, Caitlin McDermott, Meredith Salmon and Jennifer McKeever. The four members of Peddie’s science department work closely together to plan lessons, create assessments and grade student work, inspiring one another along the way.

The level of excitement the faculty members display about their class plans is infectious.

“That lesson was so cool!” exclaimed Salmon. “It’s the first time we’ve tried anything like this. No matter how much you plan, you never know how it will work out until the class gets going.”

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The group had talked last spring about switching things up in their syllabus, but it wasn’t until McDermott and Salmon were working in separate graduate programs over the summer that the idea for beginning the course with a unit on evolution started to churn.

“It makes sense, because this unit is a great way to enforce some basic concepts before moving forward into more complex material,” said Sham. “But it has to be taught in an engaging way that fosters a deeper understanding of evolutionary principles.”

“We know that not all of our students will pursue sciencerelated fields,” he explained. “But many of them will go on to AP biology or anatomy and physiology next year, and we want all of them to be scientifically literate, so we try to plan the coursework in a way that leaves a lasting impression.”

Once the team received support from department chair Shani Peretz, Ph.D., they quickly set to work adapting the existing curriculum, re-ordering units of study and brainstorming ideas for effective teaching of concepts. Much of the work was done during preseason athletics, in between coaching responsibilities.

Faculty schedules allow for weekly meetings, but department members also meet spontaneously throughout the week. “We talk all of the time,” Sham explained.

“Sometimes, even just passing in the hallway, I’ll quickly review what went well or not so well in my last class, so that the next person teaching the lesson can tweak and improve it a bit.”

Collaboration supported and encouraged at Peddie Collaboration among teachers happens in most high schools, faculty say, but it occurs at an extraordinary level at Peddie.

Teachers are encouraged to work closely together, share ideas with one another, and collaborate both in their own discipline and across departments. The administrative structure at Peddie is relatively flat, which fosters an ease of communication between teachers and the administration that enables the school to approve and implement new plans quickly and effectively. And, faculty here not only teach together, they also coach together, live in dorms together and often eat their meals together, too.

“Our administrative emphasis on collaboration between teachers is supported in structural ways, including scheduling priorities,” explained Associate Head of School Catherine Rodrigue. “Teachers who are part of a team for a specific discipline have regular meeting times built into

The administrative structure at Peddie is relatively flat, which fosters an ease of communication between teachers and the administration that enables the school to approve and implement new plans quickly and effectively. their schedules. This promotes reflection on practices and content that, in turn, often leads to ideas for improving our classroom instruction. So, changes and new ideas often start at the classroom level and get communicated through the department chairs.”

Experimenting with new programs and solutions This deeply collaborative spirit is tangible in every department at the school. Last year, art department teachers Andrew Harrison and Liz Sherman created a joint course, Acting for Film and Television, in which acting students collaborated with film and video students to gain experience on both sides of the camera. The math department is rolling out a newly designed path of coursework based on research

Students conducted an archaeological dig as part of the biology curriculum.

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and input from a department subcommittee. The new program replaces the traditional lecture-based format of learning with student-led, problem-based learning.

Members of the history and English departments have joined together this year to design and teach parallel courses matching the study of American history with period literature. Spanish classes integrate work in the art studio into their cultural studies. And AP United States History teachers Erik Treese and Alison Hogarth have woven together content and lesson planning so that students can — and do — transition seamlessly from one teacher to another if they need to make up a class or receive extra help.

“Each of us brings something to the table — we have different areas of interest and our own ideas,” explained Treese. “Throughout our department we often remark about the mix of input into lesson plans from both past and current history faculty. It’s important to keep what works, but it’s also key to know that we have the support to be creative — and to continue to move forward if something doesn’t work.”

Treese and Hogarth see evidence of how their collaboration is making an impression on students.

“Our students know that Erik and I work closely together, planning the course, writing tests, and even co-grading assessments,” said Hogarth. “As a result, they, too, collaborate — students study together even if they have

Matt Roach (English), Kurt Bennett (English/history) and Stef Graefe (history) discuss ways to align literature and history lessons.

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Biology students created comic books illustrating the ways creatures adapt for survival.

different teachers, and they often attend review sessions with a teacher they don’t have in class.”

Working across disciplines There are larger academic undertakings whose roots lie in this culture as well. Peddie’s Digital Fabrication Lab, for example, has its origins in the math department. Several years ago, teacher Mark Sawula and department chair Tim Corica sought to further develop programming and technology offerings. They approached Rodrigue, who in

“There is a universal sense of wanting

Continue the Tradition

to get better as teachers, and a level of trust among the faculty that encourages us to explore the best ways to teach.” — Matt Roach turn formed a committee made up of members of the math and technology departments. The committee researched and then visited models they thought might work for Peddie and interviewed a series of candidates to head up the initiative.

They made a proposal to Headmaster Peter Quinn, received support from the Board of Trustees, and launched a full program, now in its second year.

Teachers Stef Graefe (history), Kurt Bennett (English/ history) and Matt Roach (English) felt their students could increase and deepen connections between literature of the era and the history they were studying. They took their ideas to Rodrigue, who not only gave them the green light to explore new options, but also teamed up with registrar Mary Palilonis to look at the complex academic schedule and puzzle out how to practically implement the new coursework.

“Both Matt and I were inspired by a course offered at Middlebury Bread Loaf School of English, where we spent the summer doing graduate work,” said Bennett. They approached Graefe, who jumped at the idea and spent much of the summer revising the U.S. History curriculum to align it with works to be taught in Junior English: “Men We Reaped,” excerpts from “Huck Finn,” works of authors Junot Diaz and Toni Morrison, movies like “Gangs of New York” and “12 Years a Slave,” and even songs from the hit musical “Hamilton.”

“There is so much support here, both from the administration and from fellow faculty members,” said Roach. “There is a universal sense of wanting to get better as teachers, and a level of trust among the faculty that encourages us to explore the best ways to teach.”

In typical Peddie fashion, faculty members are quick to give credit to others for their success. Treese and Hogarth are profoundly grateful for both the practical and personal support department chair Sarah Somers gives to their efforts.

“There is no pressure regarding scores, and we don’t feel judged,” Hogarth said. “That, plus Sarah’s informal and formal efforts to encourage and allow time for collaboration, goes a long way in giving teachers the courage to be creative, and that in turn builds confidence in the classroom.

Collaborating with others also reassures us that the basic foundation of our course is solid, and that knowledge frees us to put our own personal stamp on each class.”

I feel fortunate to have this kind of experience,” Treese said. “It has made me a better teacher, and it certainly makes the course better, too.” n

Your love for Peddie is automatic.

Making contributions to the Peddie Fund can be automatic, too.

Help guarantee the continued excellence of the Peddie experience by ensuring a steady source of support for the place you hold so close to your heart.

Automatically recurring gifts are an easy way to make a big impact that works for your budget and schedule. Set one up online at my.peddie.org/give.

Thank you for your support!

Together, we are Peddie

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Shattering the glass ceiling Peddie alumnae are reaching great heights in the finance industry

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here is a significant gender gap in the U.S. finance industry. Only 58 of the Fortune 500 CFOs are women. Throughout the industry, female representation in senior leadership roles remains low, ranging from 16 percent in the investment banking and securities

sector to 30 percent in commercial banking (Catalyst, 2015).

It’s no surprise that Peddie women are leading the tides of change in the industry. These nine distinguished alumnae have made it to the upper echelons of the finance world and are showing everyone that success in finance has nothing to do with gender and everything to do with hard work, dedication and perseverance.

And in true Peddie fashion, each of these accomplished women carves out personal time to balance the demands of a high-powered career through travel, fitness or rocking out on the bass guitar. Here, they share their career journeys, their inspirations, and how Peddie factored into their current success.

Nancy Davis ’94 Managing Partner & CIO Quadratic Capital Management LLC Member, Peddie Investment Committee Current residence: Greenwich, Connecticut

“I still rock out on the bass guitar.”

Nancy Davis founded Quadratic Capital Management in 2013, and considers it her biggest career achievement to date.

“Founding Quadratic was the culmination of many career experiences I accumulated over a span of nearly twenty years,” Davis said.

Prior to starting Quadratic, an investment advisory firm focused on global macro strategies, Davis was a portfolio manager at Highbridge and a senior executive at

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AllianceBernstein. She began her career at Goldman Sachs, where she spent ten years.

According to Davis, the investment management industry provides clear, tangible results, and that can level the playing field in an industry where women have historically been underrepresented in senior positions. “Irrespective of one’s gender, race, ethnicity, etc., returns are returns,” she said.

“As a result, I think that women who enter investment management can potentially succeed solely based on results, not by having to navigate a so-called ‘boys’ club.’”

Davis writes and speaks frequently about financial topics.

She has been published in Financial News, Absolute Return and Institutional Investor, and has appeared on CNBC, Reuters, Sina, Bloomberg and MSNBC. In 2014, Davis was selected by Institutional Investor as a Rising Star of Hedge Funds and recognized by The Hedge Fund Journal as one of “Tomorrow’s Titans.”

Peddie provided a nurturing environment for Davis.

“Several of my teachers were very influential and helped me navigate my mid-teen years and prepare for college,” she said.

In fact, Davis credits Peddie with making her transition to college at George Washington University “seamless.” She graduated from GWU magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in economics, and was a recipient of the Presidential Academic Scholarship.

Here’s a fact about Davis that you won’t find on her resume: “I still rock out on the bass guitar,” she said. “I played when I was a student at Peddie in the basement of Swig. I guess some things just never leave you.”

Robin Landsman ’83 President Beacon Global Group Human Capital Solutions Member, Peddie Leadership Council Speaker, TEDxPeddie 2016 Current residence: Amsterdam, The Netherlands

A dynamic, exciting and very volatile industry Ever since she can remember, Robin Landsman has been fascinated by financial markets. Today, she cites two Wall Street trailblazers, Sallie Krawcheck, chief executive officer and co-founder of Ellevest, and Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, as sources of inspiration.

In her role as president of Beacon Global Group’s Human Capital Solutions practice, Landsman has the opportunity to work directly with leaders of Fortune 500 organizations.

“We help our clients drive their performance by designing the right talent strategies that identify, develop, engage and reward their employees,” Landsman said.

Landsman previously served as chief talent officer at McGraw Hill Financial. She has worked in the field of talent management since 1999, hiring top candidates and shaping performance strategies for Avon, PepsiCo and Baptist Health South Florida.

At Peddie, Landsman was the leading backstroker on the nationally-ranked girls’ swimming team. She also participated in student government and was considered an outstanding dorm prefect by all who worked with her.

“Peddie provided a vast network of support to help me achieve my academic and personal goals,” said Landsman. “[The experience] broadened my perspective to reach out beyond my immediate network for insights and encouraged me to mentor others in the industry.”

Landsman says that traditionally many women have left their corporate roles in the financial sector and other industries to either stay at home or work in a more flexible environment. But, she said, things are changing as many companies get serious about work-life balance.

“More women will opt into instead of out of the workforce because of this, and we will continue to move as quickly up the ladder as our male counterparts,” she said.

Landsman described the finance industry as “very dynamic, exciting and at most times a very volatile industry.”

She finds balance between family and work life by setting aside specified down time to reenergize and invigorate her thinking.

“I voraciously read industry insights and news to keep abreast of all new thinking and business strategies,” she said.

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Allison Davi ’02 Managing Director, Head of Business Development Benefit Street Partners Member, Peddie Leadership Council Current residence: New York, New York

“Nothing is out of reach if you are willing to work for it.”

It was a guest speaker at Peddie who opened Allison Davi’s eyes to the world of finance.

“I remember we had a guest from Goldman Sachs come speak to us,” Davi recalled. “He drove up in a sports car and spent some of his time quoting ‘Liar’s Poker,’ considered to be one of the books that defined Wall Street in the 1980s.

The whole thing sounded like something out of a movie. It was at that moment that I decided, ‘I want to do what he’s doing!’”

Today, Davi is a managing director at Benefit Street Partners, a private equity firm and credit asset managing company.

“It sounds cliché, but I love the people that I work with, and I like that I am challenged every day. I think my job is quite interesting,” she said.

Davi was hired by Lehman Brothers straight out of Georgetown University, where she received a bachelor’s degree in business administration. Following her work as an analyst for Lehman’s investment group, she joined CCMP Capital, where she analyzed and structured private equity investments primarily in the healthcare space.

Davi believes that more than any other experience in her life, Peddie shaped the person she is today.

22 Peddie Chronicle

“At Peddie, I learned that nothing is out of reach if you’re willing to work for it,” she said. “I think Peddie really levels the playing field. There are people from so many different backgrounds and cultures, and no one really has the upper hand. Success is given to those who work for it.”

Davi thinks it is essential to make time for things that are not work related.

“My husband and I try to make sure that every weekend we spend at least one day not thinking about work,” she said.

She also believes that vacations are essential for rejuvenating and keeping focused. “I love to travel, especially to places I haven’t been,” she said. “We just got back from a safari in Africa, and we’re going hiking in Patagonia this Christmas.”

Davi is inspired by her husband, who also works in the finance industry. “He’s taught me to appreciate every positive thing that happens, as opposed to constantly moving on to the ‘next big thing.’ It is okay to want more — we all do — but it’s so important to appreciate what you have.”

“I put a lot of effort into doing considerate things for everyone around me. I think this quality carries over into my career as well, and has been a huge contributor to any successes I’ve had,” she said.

Aarti Kapoor ’03 Investment Banker Moelis & Company Speaker, TEDxPeddie 2016 Current Residence: New York, New York

Health is wealth Aarti Kapoor has been recognized as a young standout in the field of finance. The Moelis & Company banker took a chance on an idea to build out a new business for her firm, and is now considered one of the earliest movers into the health and wellness market.

“We were founded less than 10 years ago — during the financial crisis — and have experienced one of the steepest growth stories on Wall Street,” Kapoor said. “Our roots allow us to maintain a very special culture at the firm, and a truly entrepreneurial spirit that has allowed us to be nimbler, more opportunistic and more responsive to opportunities in the marketplace than our peers.”

Kapoor embraced that entrepreneurial spirit when she pitched the idea to build out a new wellness business within the firm. Despite skepticism from those around her, she maintained her conviction and worked tirelessly, often late at night, on her business plan.

“I spotted hints of meaningful changes in the marketplace early and identified the opportunity to add a new area of coverage to my firm,” said Kapoor. “We’ve really built a great name in the space and are seen as the ‘go to’ investment bank for health and wellness brands.”

Sara McGinty ’96 Executive Director, Real Estate Lending Head of Syndication Morgan Stanley Former Peddie Fund Co-Chair Current residence: London, England

“Our struggles are all the same no matter where you are in the pecking order.”

At Peddie, Kapoor was known by her teachers for her tremendous mathematical talent, work ethic and unfailing attention to detail. She values the school’s rigorous curriculum and diverse student body, and said that her experience at Peddie helped her come up with the “outside the box” business opportunity for Moelis.

“One of the ideas that I value from Peddie is the constant encouragement to think outside the box … I credit the school with always encouraging and teaching me to think about more than what was merely required of me,” she said.

“It’s this exact theme that made me think about the business opportunity — and the exact theme that also made me act on it.”

After graduating from Peddie, Kapoor continued her education at Harvard University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in economics.

Kapoor has recently been able to achieve more balance in her life by pursuing a number of interests, including Spanish language, foreign films and travel, that she temporarily put on hold while focusing on her career.

“As an ambitious junior banker, I ended up setting aside many of my personal interests to focus on work,” she said. “Now that I’m finally at a point where I have greater flexibility and control over my schedule, I’m working hard (sometimes in overdrive!) to make up for lost time.”

“After sacrificing too much and experiencing the all-tootangible effects on the body, I’ve now learned to prioritize myself and am no longer afraid to take ‘me’ time. You — not anything or anyone else — are your best investment.”

Since Sara McGinty began her career, not a day has passed when she hasn’t learned something.

“At some points, the learning curve feels so steep that it is insurmountable, but it would be far less exciting a career if that wasn’t the case,” said McGinty.

She currently serves as executive director, real estate lending at Morgan Stanley in London, and also runs the company’s syndication effort. McGinty admitted that work consumes a considerable part of her life, but she still sets boundaries.

“Luckily, I live in Europe, where taking long holidays is encouraged,” she said. “I use every day of my allotted vacation. I try not to pick up the BlackBerry too much on the weekends if I can avoid it.”

McGinty believes that women face tough choices when they have demanding careers and also want to raise a family, and that this is the biggest reason why women leave the industry before advancing to senior positions.

“Morgan Stanley, as well as many other firms in my industry, are increasingly focused on finding ways to retain women as they advance in their careers,” she said. “Really, it’s

Fall 2016 23

just about listening to what women are asking for to ensure they get as much support as possible as they try to juggle family and work.”

At Peddie, McGinty was a member of the soccer team, which finished second in the national championships in 1995, and the lacrosse team. She also served as a day student prefect. She learned valuable lessons during her time at Peddie that have stuck with her throughout her career.

“Peddie taught me to be myself and to have confidence in who I am,” she said. “That carried me through college, finding a job and my whole life since.”

McGinty is inspired by Google Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat, who previously spent close to 30 years at Morgan Stanley. McGinty spoke with Porat during a small group breakfast shortly before Porat joined Google.

McGinty recalled: “Porat was asked how she managed to succeed in the many different roles she had at the firm, despite not always having the experience for those jobs. Her advice was to ‘fake it until you make it.’”

“At times in her career Porat felt thoroughly overwhelmed, but she put her game face on and persevered.

It was pretty amazing to hear this coming from such a powerful, successful woman. It reminds you that our struggles are all the same no matter where you are in the pecking order.”

Suzanne Hart ’99 Senior Vice President Two Sigma Investments Member, Peddie Leadership Council Current residence: New York, New York

Breaking the mold As a student at Peddie, Suzanne Hart was a natural leader.

She was captain of the varsity tennis team, president of the debate team, a dorm prefect, and was twice elected president of her class. By her senior year she was student body president, and at graduation she was awarded the Walter H. Annenberg Award.

Now a senior vice president at Two Sigma, a New York city-based hedge fund, Suzanne brings the same determination and leadership to her work in financial services. “My greatest reward is having the opportunity to work with smart people who are passionate about what they do,” said Hart. “I also genuinely enjoy working with people from different backgrounds who are working toward a common goal.”

Hart took an unconventional path to the finance industry.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in art history and French literature from George Washington University, and received a master’s degree in art business from Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London. She then pursued a graduate internship 24 Peddie Chronicle

program at Deutsche Bank, which she thought would better position her for a career in wealth management and art advisory. In the process, she ended up specializing in global financing and hedge funds.

Hart said that companies in the finance industry have begun to acknowledge that in order to attract top talent and solidify long-term success, they must develop a workplace culture that enables both men and women to thrive.

“Historically, succeeding in the finance industry has been more about fitting into a certain mold rather than about being yourself,” she said. “More recently, companies have recognized that having people from diverse backgrounds who bring unique perspectives is more important than fitting into a certain mold.”

Hart experienced a similar culture at Peddie. She recalled, “At Peddie, I learned that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. What makes an organization successful is not about one capability, type of individual or skill. It is the perspective of many that sets an organization up for success.”

In her free time, Hart likes to travel with her husband, and they often explore New York City together. “I’m a serious foodie,” she said. “There is nothing I enjoy more than sharing restaurant recommendations with family and friends who are visiting New York.”

Hart offered the following advice for a successful worklife balance: “Recognize that you can’t do everything and be everything to everyone at the same time. I’m only just starting to appreciate that life is a series of tradeoffs, and provided that you remember to be authentic, work-life balance becomes less about two separate things and more about being realistic.”

Humor is also important, she said. “My sense of humor is similar to ‘Seinfeld,’ the show about nothing. I try to find the funny side of everything.”

Sasha van de Water ’85 Co-Founder & Managing Partner Keyhaven Capital Partners Current residence: Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Firms need to build inclusive cultures Sasha van de Water enjoys the freedom that comes with owning and managing her own business. “It’s enormously rewarding, as well as challenging,” she said. “Being able to work with and for people and organizations I believe in is one of the greatest advantages of being an entrepreneur.”

Van de Water is co-founder and managing partner of Keyhaven Capital Partners, an independent London-based private equity investment firm. In addition to managing the company, she is responsible for leading the investment process.

Van de Water learned valuable lessons at Peddie that have followed her throughout her career. “At Peddie, I learned to follow my instincts — to take courses that interested me and also challenged my belief in what I could do,” she recalled.

“The faculty was positive and encouraging. I developed a strong sense of self.”

Van de Water said that the finance industry isn’t doing enough to support women when they start families and try to juggle young children and a demanding career, which is why there is a high drop-out rate of talented women as they hit mid-career.

“In order to bring more women into senior roles, firms need to build inclusive cultures that recognize and promote the value of diversity, and that are free from unconscious bias and therefore support gender balance,” she said.

Women across the industry, including van de Water, have begun to organize efforts to push this agenda more publicly.

She is one of a group of 12 women who last year set up Level 20, a nonprofit organization that works with industry leaders and stakeholders to attract and retain women at all levels of the industry.

Outside of her family, van de Water’s main extracurricular activity is with the Lebanese International Finance Executives, a membership organization comprising Lebanese executives in the financial services industry. The organization provides a platform to channel the influence of Lebanese finance executives worldwide.

Van de Water said that the single most important tip she has for establishing a work-life balance is to listen to yourself.

“No one knows your heart and mind better than you do.

That being said, it can be enormously helpful to have friends or mentors with whom you can speak openly, and who are willing to share their own story with you. Sometimes just knowing that you are not alone, that others have struggled with similar issues and managed to find a balance — often a compromise — makes the process a lot easier.”

Donna L. Franco ’77 Senior Vice President & CFO Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia Current residence: Hamilton Square, New Jersey

Diversity increasing at Federal Reserve If Donna Franco could have witnessed anything in history, she would like to have seen the Constitutional Convention.

“I am fascinated about how a group of individuals with very different beliefs and opinions were able to work together to establish a way to govern the new Union,” she said.

“Maybe it is because the bank is located just down the street from Independence Hall.”

That “bank” is the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, where Franco is a senior vice president and the chief financial officer. It is one of the 12 regional Reserve Banks that, together with the Board of Governors in Washington, D.C., make up the Federal Reserve System.

Franco oversees the bank’s financial management services, and is responsible for the planning and budget process as well as the business resumption and enterprise risk management functions. She is also on the advisory council to PhillyFedCares, which supports the community service and volunteerism efforts of the bank’s employees.

At Peddie, Franco recalled, she learned the value of seeking knowledge, the benefit of effective communications, and the importance of hard work and dedication.

Franco went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in economics from Rutgers University’s Douglass College, and a master’s degree in business administration from Rider University. She decided to pursue a career in finance soon after college.

Fall 2016 25

“I started as an accounting analyst with the bank right out of college,” Franco said. “In that job, I observed that the finance function was integral to all aspects of an organization and decided that’s where I wanted to be.”

Franco finds her job at the Federal Reserve Bank incredibly rewarding. “The greatest reward I get from my job is watching employees develop to take on new opportunities and advancements,” she said.

At times, Franco said she struggles to establish a good work-life balance. In her free time, she likes to travel. “I love to go on cruises and have cruised in Alaska five times,” she said. Franco’s advice to others: “Concentrate on the important things, be willing to accept help, and stay focused in the moment.”

There are few role models to inspire women to enter to finance industry, Franco said, resulting in a gender imbalance in senior positions in the field. However, Franco also sees this changing as company leaders realize the importance of diversity throughout an organization.

“Eight of my eleven peers at the Reserve Banks are women, a large increase in number from when I started at the bank 35 years ago,” Franco said. “And, in February 2014, Janet Yellen was sworn in as chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the first woman to hold this position in our 100-year history.”

Franco noted that there is significant attention being focused on the issue. In October, Rutgers Business School, the Federal Reserve and the Global Interdependence Center sponsored a conference, “Improving Diversity in the Financial Services Industry — A Holistic View,” to explore issues and solutions for improving opportunities for minorities and women in the financial services sector.

26 Peddie Chronicle

Jackie Shoback ’84 Executive Vice President Chief Development Officer Boston Private Financial Current residence: Brookline, Massachusetts

Paying it forward The best compliment Jackie Shoback ever received was from her 94-year-old mom.

“She said that I am a good person, and I always put others’ needs ahead of my own,” Shoback said.

Shoback is the chief development officer for Boston Private Financial, a wealth management and private banking firm that serves high net individuals, privately held businesses, private partnerships and nonprofit organizations. In her role, she is responsible for accelerating client acquisition and development.

Previously, Shoback served in a number of strategic executive marketing, distribution and P&L management roles at TIAA-CREF, Fidelity and Staples. Under her leadership as head of operations for Staples.com, the company’s website traffic grew to second behind Amazon.com. At TIAA, she created a financial empowerment program that has helped tens of thousands of women become more retirement ready.

She won industry awards for both projects.

At Peddie, Shoback was exposed to a diverse student body and benefitted from an empowering environment.

“I learned to appreciate people with different skills and talents,” Shoback said. “I also found Peddie to be an environment that encouraged constant and continuous improvement — both in terms of questioning ideas or theories and striving for more in the classroom and on the field. The teachers, coaches and overall community pushed individuals

to do more. I suppose I gained a lot of confidence from my Peddie experience, and that is critical to success in any career.”

Shoback is grateful to have been mentored by key leaders in her industry, and believes in paying it forward. Today, she spends time mentoring early career professionals and often speaks to them about work-life balance.

“There are times when work requires complete focus and other times when family is all-consuming,” she said. “My husband and I really have a partnership in balancing our professional schedules with the needs of our family. Having that type of approach has been a key to success. Prioritizing what is most critical now is another tip that I have learned over the years.”

Shoback said that, like in many industries, there are a number of traditional norms and structures that exist in the financial sector that make it hard to balance family and work

needs. “I am fortunate that at Boston Private, we have a very progressive culture and have a lot of gender diversity throughout the company,” she said. The organization’s board of directors is 60 percent female, and women make up more than 40 percent of the executive management team.

“Having this type of gender diversity across our organization breeds a culture that is progressive and supportive of a spectrum of needs,” she said. “I think change across the industry will only happen as more women continue to break into the C-suite and work as change agents across the antiquated norms and policies that exist.”

Outside of work, Shoback spends a lot of time with her children and their various athletic teams. Along with mentoring others, she also enjoys running. “It is relaxing and I also find I get my best ideas after a good run,” she said. n

Advice for Peddie students and alumni who are interested in a career in finance “I’m a big believer in getting a well-rounded, liberal arts education. Internships and analyst programs are a great way to experience various career channels in the field of finance.”

— Nancy Davis ’94 “Be prepared for constant change and the need to always professionally develop your skills. Seek out mentors who can provide you with guidance, support and feedback.”

— Robin Landsman ’83 “Start getting internships as early as possible.

For both alumni and students, networking is critical. Reach out to Peddie alums who work in finance.

Ask if you can simply have a brief informational call about their career. Keep an open mind about jobs that may not be perfect, but that could be a stepping stone for your dream job down the road. Everyone has to start somewhere!”

— Allison Davi ’02 “I’ve learned the hard way just how important it is to take care of oneself; health truly is wealth, and you have to start investing early.”

— Aarti Kapoor ’03 “Do it! It is a challenging and rewarding career path.

Don’t let the myths out there about what finance is like convince you otherwise. Try it out and see where it leads you. There are not only finance careers available, but we also need armies of lawyers,

marketers, salespeople, IT professionals, public relations specialists, and others.”

— Sara McGinty ’96 “Learn as much as you can about the finance industry … and about how the world operates as a whole.

Politics, the global economy and trends in other industries all shape finance. Also, develop your Peddie network! I consider the friendships and connections I made through Peddie to be invaluable.”

— Suzanne Daly Hart ’99 “There is nothing like experience to test your interest. Talk to as many people as you can who are active in the field. Apply for internships in as many different areas of finance as you can. Use alumni networks from Peddie and from your college to make connections and gain insight.”

— Sasha van de Water ’85 “My advice is to have a strong foundation in academics and develop a good network.”

— Donna L. Franco ’77 “Be curious, ask questions and work hard. There are so many different areas around finance — it is important to think about whether you like being in an operating environment and leading people, or devising and executing transactions, or being an expert in a functional area of finance. Learn what your passion is and follow it.”

— Jacqueline Shoback ’84 Fall 2016 27

Faculty arts retreat blends photography, physics

S

cience faculty member Nick Guilbert didn’t quite know whether a physics teacher would qualify for a fellowship at an arts retreat, but his love for photography and his interest in exploring an ancient technique known as camera obscura inspired him to try.

Guilbert spent two weeks this summer at the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Vt., on a grant from Barry Goldsmith ’62 P’83 GP ’12 ’15 ’18. For nearly two decades, Goldsmith has funded up to two Peddie faculty members per summer for independent work on their art. Artists and writers use the studio center for private workspace in a variety of genres.

Although dozens of Peddie arts faculty members and writers have received the grants in the past, Guilbert was the first full-time science faculty member to receive the fellowship.

“I wanted to explore the imaging abilities of the camera obscura, a simple camera that is by far the world’s most ancient imaging device,” he said. Camera obscura uses neither lenses nor film, but is a simple box with a small hole in one of its sides. The image is formed — inverted — on the inside wall of the box opposite the hole.”

In Vermont, Guilbert turned his entire studio space into a large camera obscura. “I used contractors’ thick plastic

garbage bags to black out the light coming in the windows but left an opening for a small aperture. I brought my own digital camera and tripod to set up inside the studio to take a long time exposure of the faint, inverted image that is formed on the wall opposite the aperture,” he said. “My inspiration for this technique comes from the Cuban-born photographer Abelardo Morell, whose work with recording wall-sized camera obscura images using digital cameras is simply breathtaking.”

The first known writings about the camera obscura date back more than two millennia, Guilbert said. Early visual artists mostly used the images formed by the camera obscura to trace their subject before drawing them or painting them fully. Later refinements of the camera obscura added mirrors, allowing the subject’s image to be right-side-up.

In recent years, art historians have debated a theory by British artist David Hockney that many of the revered master artists from the Renaissance and earlier could have employed camera obscura.

“I find Hockney’s arguments compelling, and my experience in photography and in physics agrees with his claims and bolsters their credibility in my view,” Guilbert said.

As the first science teacher to benefit from the arts fellowship, he said he plans to bring what he learned back to his students.

At the Vermont Studio Space, Guilbert turned an entire room into a camera obscura. By allowing only a pinhole of light into the space, an upside-down image from outside the room is projected on the walls.

Guilbert: “There are two windows in the studio that look out onto the campus and the town beyond, one about eye-level and one at a second-story level. This shot is from the lower window using a 1” diameter aperture and a focal length of about 7 meters (22 feet).

The gray area at top is the floor, and I clearly need to make the studio door more light-tight!”

28 Peddie Chronicle

“As a physics teacher, developing my photographic skills is of benefit to my students in a very real but indirect way.

Photography has everything to do with light, and although photographic technique is appropriately taught as an art course at Peddie, the light captured in a photograph — as well as how that capturing happens — is entirely the province of physics,” he said.

“How light interacts with matter — reflection, refraction, polarization, and scattering — is a subject I cover in Advanced Research Physics every fall, and photography provides vivid examples of all of those behaviors.” n

Guilbert experimented with camera obscura techniques on campus by projecting the image of Annenberg Hall onto a wall on the third floor of the Caspersen History House. The Annenberg Library is seen in the foreground.

Guilbert: “The image on the wall is also very faint, ephemeral and ghostly, so this is a minute-long exposure at f/5 (ISO 800). The wall on which the camera obscura image was formed is rough plywood, and I like the juxtaposition of the vision-like image on the very workmanlike medium. The more white-ish background area at the bottom is actually the ceiling of the room in which the image was formed.”

View Nick Guilbert’s entire album at peddie.org/chronicle.

A rotated view of the room shows the view outside the window of Guilbert’s studio space.

Guilbert: “This photo was taken using the smallest aperture I have tried, 3/16” (4.8mm), mounted in a window covering about 14.5 feet (4.4m) away from the wall on which the image was formed, making the focal ratio for the camera obscura about f/925. To compensate for the dim image, I opened the lens on my Nikon DSLR to f/4 and used a six-minute exposure (ISO 400). The upside of the small aperture is the crisp rendering of the scene, even down to the row of birds visible on the peak of the roof nearly 100m away.”

Fall 2016 29

SPORTS HALL OF FAME

Bryon S. Magill ’91, G. Scott Smith ’61, Fernando Perez ’01, Lauren A. Sellers ’96, Rich D’Andrea ’01, Sean Casey

Peddie honored a remarkable group of athletes at the 28th Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony in June. Bryon Magill ’91, Fernando Perez ’01, Lauren Sellers ’96, Scott Smith ’61, Coach Sean Casey, and the 2001 boys’ lacrosse team were recognized for their exceptional athletic feats and inspirational leadership.

Since 1986, 121 individuals, 39 teams and one family have been inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame, representing more than a century of Peddie athletics.

G. Scott Smith ’61 Football, Lacrosse, Wrestling One of the preeminent three-sport athletes ever to don a Peddie uniform, Scott Smith lettered four years in football, four in lacrosse and three in wrestling. He excelled in promoting the true spirit and ideals of fair play, earning him Peddie’s citizenship award and membership in the coveted Gold Key Society.

On the gridiron, Smith, at center, was one of the “hefty linemen” considered to be the “indispensable, yet unsung heroes of the Falcon eleven.” Led by captain Aysseh at right tackle, the 1960 football season proved to be the most exciting and successful since the 1950 squad went undefeated. Forcing undefeated Lawrenceville to a tie and crushing Blair 24-0, Coach Mickey Shuman’s Shu-men compiled a 4-2-2 record. In Smith’s four years, the Falcons never lost to Blair.

Smith went on to play football for Denison University and after graduation turned down offers to play professionally.

As wrestling captain his senior year, Scott compiled a record of six wins and one loss in the heavyweight class. The ’61 grapplers were runners-up in the heavyweight division of the New Jersey State Wrestling Championship for Preparatory Schools.

Lacrosse was only in its second year as a varsity sport Smith’s senior year. Smith and Aysseh teamed up again along with a small nucleus of returning lettermen. The stickmen had trouble solidifying into a working unit, but their spirit on the field made up for any other shortcomings.

A consummate team player, Smith represented Peddie in all seasons with great honor and dedication.

30 Peddie Chronicle

G. Scott Smith

Lauren Sellers

Bryon Magill ’91

Lauren Sellers ’96

Wrestling

Soccer

There were very few wrestling events that Bryon Magill didn’t win while at Peddie. National Prep Champion at 103 pounds as a freshman and again at 130 pounds as a senior, Magill was fourth at 109 pounds as a sophomore. Elected captain in his junior year, Magill was on a 17-match winning streak before dislocating his elbow during a bout against a Rutgers Prep athlete. Magill still went on to win the match despite not having the use of one arm.

Lauren Sellers arrived at Peddie as a sophomore in the fall of 1993, and she, along with some talented teammates, made an instant impact on Peddie’s girls’ soccer program. Peddie captured the Prep A State Championship in each of the three years that Sellers played for the Falcons, and the girls’ soccer team compiled a remarkable cumulative record of 47-3-3 during her career. A dynamic and talented player on the left side of the field, Sellers was almost impossible to contain. She was an intense competitor with a fiery passion for Peddie and was also a great leader and loyal teammate.

Despite playing only three seasons for the Falcons, she remains the all-time leader in points scored (103) and assists (48) in the program’s history. She is second in career goals (55) and second in goal scoring in a single season, tallying 24 goals in her senior year. A recipient of innumerable awards and accolades, Sellers took her game to the next level at Villanova, ranking sixth all-time in career points and fourth all-time in career assists.

Magill found himself rebuilding his timing, wind and confidence at the start of his senior year. The ultimate test of his recovery was when he faced the same Rutgers Prep athlete, the 1990 National Champion, in the Prep State Finals. He dominated the rematch 15-1 to claim the state title at 130.

A three-time Mercer County Tournament champion and 1991 Trenton Times Wrestler of the Year, Magill boasted a career mark of 124-10, second on the all-time list for number of wins in the county behind Marty Fagerman ’87 (125).

Perhaps more important than these individual accomplishments, Sellers contributed immensely to the cultivation of a winning attitude at Peddie and helped build the foundation of a program that lasted far beyond her years in a Peddie uniform. She played soccer with near reckless abandon, and her blazing speed, strength and innate sense of the game were difficult to defend. A natural leader, Sellers encouraged others to share her passion and her commitment to the team.

She kept the team loose at stressful moments and sincerely appreciated the human value of being part of a team.

According to his coach, Magill “was the best wrestler in my 20 years at Peddie for being consistently good from his freshman year through his senior year. If he ever got a lead in a match, he was almost impossible to beat. He was a good student, a good person and a very good wrestler.” His classmates elected him president his senior year.

Magill continued his craft for Division I Franklin and Marshall, where he secured a career record of 55-26, placing him tied for 17th for the most wins at Franklin and Marshall.

Fall 2016 31

Members of the 2001 Boys’ Lacrosse team

2001 Boys’ Lacrosse team

Fernando Perez ’01 Baseball, Soccer With the perfect combination of athleticism and simply astonishing speed, Fernando Perez excelled in soccer and baseball at Peddie. A prolific scorer on the soccer pitch for the Falcons, Perez played with boundless enthusiasm and received the Joseph R. Wilbert Award for sportsmanship, ability and dedication.

Perez was perhaps the most electric and talented player during the most successful era in the history of Peddie baseball. In his three years as starter, the varsity teams won two state championships, a Mercer County championship and multiple MAPL championships. His senior year team, which finished 23-2, was likely the best team in Peddie history.

Perez ended his career with a lifetime .400 average and as one of the most active base stealers in Peddie history.

Perez enrolled at Columbia University and devoted himself to literature and baseball, playing in the footsteps of Columbia alumnus and Yankee star Lou Gehrig. Drafted in 2004

by Tampa Bay in the seventh round, Perez became the highest selection of all Columbia players ever drafted. After a productive stint with Tampa’s AAA Durham Bulls, he joined the parent club in August 2008.

In a pivotal September victory at Yankee Stadium, Perez hit his first major league home run as Tampa went on to secure the pennant. Perez continued his heroics in the postseason and scored the winning run in game two of the Championship Series against the Red Sox in extra innings, flying home on a shallow sacrifice fly to right. Perez appeared in the 2008 World Series in the final game, stealing second base in the ninth inning, the tying run and last man standing when the Phillies closed out the Rays.

Fernando Perez Fernando Perez 32 Peddie Chronicle

Sean Casey celebrates 300 career wins with the 2008–2009 Girls’ Basketball team.

The 2001 Boys’ Lacrosse Team

Sean Casey

It is easy to be awed by the numbers surrounding the 2001 Peddie boys’ lacrosse team. Their undefeated record of 16-0 is in itself incredible, but accomplishing it against one of the toughest schedules in the state made it that much more remarkable. Finishing with a top 15 national ranking amidst some of the most storied and respected high school programs in the nation brought the team to even higher levels of inspiration. But Coach Bob Turco would argue that what made this team unique, special and worthy of our deepest respect was their sense of team.

Girls’ Basketball Head Coach

This team was loaded with depth and talent and was led

by Rich D’Andrea ’01 (Georgetown), two-time high school All-American and two-time Dietrich von Schwerdtner award winner for the best goalie in the state. Classmates Eliot Dahood (Stevens), Peter Freidman (Bates) and Dave Paolisso (Georgetown) keyed the offensive production, while Brian Dower (Rutgers), Matt Meehan (Navy) and Matt Alt (Navy) locked down the opponents on the defensive side. Rounding out the team were nine juniors including strong contributors Jackson Kiniry (Butler), Tim Weigand (Villanova) and Rob Lemming (Stevens). One sophomore, David Bauer Jr., would finish his career as an All-American and go on to captain Georgetown. Two freshmen rising stars, Ryan Spitz and Mike Cummins, would continue their careers at top programs (Lafayette and Brown, respectively).

On their way to the perfect season, the 2001 team knocked off powerful Lawrenceville twice, the second time in a one-day playoff for state and MAPL championship bragging rights. But most impressive of all was beating the future state tournament champions, Moorestown, in a one-goal epic game that to this day marks one of the most impressive victories in Peddie lacrosse history.

Coach Turco, along with trusted assistant Dacque Tirado, extolled the team concept, and the boys came together at just the right time to achieve greatness.

Sean Casey patrolled the basketball sidelines at Peddie for 17 years with incredible energy and success. The Casey recipe of unselfish play on both ends of the floor, combined with the ability to maximize each player’s basketball skills, helped guide the Falcons to several national rankings while sending 17 student-athletes to Division I programs.

During his tenure, Casey mentored three McDonald’s High School All-Americans: Bridgette Mitchell ’06 (Duke), Crystal Goring ’05 (Richmond) and Haley Peters ’10 (Duke). Hall of Fame member Lauren Kokotajlo Grace ’99 put Peddie basketball on the map with a miraculous last-second three-pointer to upset Mount St. Dominic in the 1997 Prep A title game. The magic continued through Casey’s final campaign in 2009-2010 as Peddie defeated Blair Academy to notch its 14th consecutive Prep A State Championship. Adding to his prolific numbers, Casey steered the Falcons to 12 straight Mid-Atlantic Prep League crowns with a spotless 77-0 mark. Celebrating nine 20-win seasons, Casey went out a winner by defeating Oak Hill Academy in the nationally-televised ESPN National High School Invitational, giving the coach a final career record of 329-89 (.787).

Longtime assistant coach Eric Gustavson said, “Sean knows how to make people, especially his players, feel concerned, valued and appreciated. He was tough-minded, but also loving and generous with a sense of humor and the understanding that it’s necessary at times to have fun. Even more important, perhaps, than the lessons on the court, Sean nurtured and helped his players be successful in academic and social areas as well.”

His wife Jill, serving as assistant coach, helped build the enduring culture of the girls’ basketball program. Coach Casey cemented his legacy when he was selected to be the 2010 Naismith National High School Coach of the Year.

Fall 2016 33

center campus Green and Kaye Dormitories Open Green Dormitory, named in honor of former Head of School John F. Green (2001–13), officially opened on September 2.

The new three-story, 60-bed residential living space, located between Avery Dormitory and Austen Colgate Hall, faces center campus.

A second dormitory, named in honor of Trustee Robert M. Kaye ’54, opened in October. Kaye Dormitory is located between Potter South and Octagon House and sits along South Main Street.

Kerr Dormitory is scheduled to be removed, and plans are in place to appropriately honor the memory of former Headmaster Albert Kerr on campus.

A dedication ceremony is planned for Spring 2017.

Students organize TEDx Talk Last spring, a small committee of students hosted the first-ever TEDxPeddie event.

Created in the spirit of TED’s mission, “ideas worth spreading,” TEDx programs support independent organizers who want to create a TED-like event in their own community.

Using video, or a combination of live presenters and video, TEDx events are meant to spark deep conversation and connections at the local level.

The program, “The Future as We Know It,” brought together six industry leaders, some of whom are Peddie alumni, to discuss issues in the areas of social injustice, energy and sustainability, business, entertainment and social media, finance, and immunology and microbiology. Many of the talks originated from ideas that the student committee explored in their classes. Per TEDx rules, the private event sat 100 students and invited guests.

Here’s something fabulous Peddie’s Digital Fabrication Lab (we call it the Fab Lab) turns one-year-old this fall. Set in the school’s repurposed boiler plant, the state-of-the-art facility is home to coursework in engineering, and mechanical design and manufacturing. It’s also home of Peddie’s award-winning robotics team (pictured here), which advanced to the finals of the FIRST Robotics Competition in St. Louis last spring.

34 Peddie Chronicle

Christopher Fu ’17, Christine Ayoh ’17, Oliver Crane ’17, Sach Iyer ’17, Hanako Kurita ’17 and Elizabeth Sullivan ’17 spent six months carefully arranging all aspects of the event from speaker outreach to ticketing and marketing.

“Working with the members of the TEDxPeddie team has been a life-changing experience for me,” said Fu. “The thrill of hosting an event that brings together creative and innovative ideas to help spark meaningful conversations within the Peddie community is more incredible than words can describe.”

The committee plans to bring in additional speakers for the 2016–17 school year, and recruit younger students to continue the program after the committee members graduate.

New Faculty Alyssa Corcoran | Math

Jennifer McKeever | Chemistry

Alyssa Corcoran joins Peddie from St. Benedict’s Preparatory School in Newark, N.J. Corcoran previously served as a flight engineer in the U.S. Army. During her time in the service, she was also a member of the Army boxing and running teams. Corcoran holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Washington in Seattle.

Jennifer McKeever grew up on a farm in Blairstown, N.J. She studied biology at Ramapo College, and graduated in 2012. For the past two years, McKeever worked at Dover High School, a Title I New Jersey high school, where her colleagues praised her collegiality, dedication to students, and superior organization skills. Outside the lab, McKeever serves as a cross country coach.

Karolina Fraczkowska | Chemistry Karolina Fraczkowska previously taught chemistry at Stuart Country Day School, The Pennington School and The Hun School. She holds a master’s degree in science from Rutgers University and a bachelor’s degree in science from MIT. Fraczkowska knows Peddie well.

She and her late husband, Tom Phelan, lived at Peddie for several years when he served as the school’s director of technology.

McNeil Parker | Math McNeil Parker joined Peddie in February 2016 as a temporary maternity leave replacement. He enjoyed his experience and agreed to stay on as a football coach and math teacher. Parker graduated magna cum laude from Kenyon College and holds a master’s degree in sports administration and liberal studies from Northwestern University. Prior to joining Peddie, he coached football at Lafayette College.

Evan Kalkus | Counseling Evan Kalkus holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and psychology from the University of St. Andrew’s, and a master’s degree in school psychology from Rutgers University. He has done extensive supervised counseling as part of his doctorate program at Rutgers, which he will complete in 2017.

Madelaine Shellaby | Arts Madelaine Shellaby is a graduate of Scripps College and University of California, Berkeley. She was a fine arts teacher at Stuart Country Day School for 27 years. Exhibitions of her work have recently appeared at the Nassau Club, Bernstein Gallery and the New Jersey State Museum.

Shellaby returns to Peddie after previously substituting for faculty on sabbatical.

Students Shine in AP Testing Peddie students have yet again produced impressive Advanced Placement (AP) test results.

In 2016 Advanced Placement exams:

47% 80% 94% earned a “5,” the highest score possible

earned a “4” or “5”

earned a “3” or better

Peddie offers a total of 18 Advanced Placement courses in English, history, math, world language, visual and performing arts, and the sciences.

Fall 2016 35

Congratulations Congratulations Class of 2016!

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College and University Destinations for the Class of 2016 Villanova University 9

Wellesley College 2

Oregon State University

New York University 6

Amherst College

Pennsylvania State University

The George Washington University 5

Assumption College

Purdue University

University of Pennsylvania 4

Babson College

Rhode Island School of Design

Princeton University 4

Barnard College

Rhodes College

Boston College 2

Bates College

Sacred Heart University

Carnegie Mellon University 3

University of Bologna

University of San Diego

University of Chicago 3

Bowdoin College

University of South Carolina

Colgate University 3

Colby College

University of Southern California

Lehigh University 3

Columbia University

Stonehill College

Rutgers University-New Brunswick 3

Dartmouth College

The University of Texas, Dallas

Syracuse University 3

Dickinson College

The New School

Bryn Mawr College 3

Drexel University

University of Toronto

Bucknell University 2

Endicott College

Tufts University

Claremont McKenna College 2

Florida State University

Tulane University

Cornell University 2

Fordham University - Lincoln Center Campus/Rose Hill Campus

United States Coast Guard Academy

Duke University 2 Elon University 2

Franklin and Marshall College Georgetown University Gettysburg College Hamilton College – NY Hobart and William Smith Colleges James Madison University Kenyon College Marist College Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Georgia Institute of Technology 2

University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Lafayette College 2

McGill University

Northwestern University 2

University of Michigan

Randolph-Macon College 2

Middlebury College

Smith College 2

University of New Hampshire at Durham

Stanford University 2 Union College 2 United States Naval Academy 2 Washington University in St. Louis 2

Ursinus College Vassar College University of Virginia Wake Forest University Wesleyan University Wheaton College MA Whitman College College of William and Mary Williams College Yale University

The College of New Jersey University of North Texas University of Notre Dame Fall 2016 37

2016

Reunion

Chuck Winans ’46 and wife Abigail

Student volunteers Oliver Watkins ’17, Aidan O’Neill ’17 and Bridget Wood ’17

View the entire reunion weekend album at peddie.org/chronicle.

Members of the Class of 1981: Ian Elmslie, Sean Rockoff and Danny Adlerman

Headmaster Peter Quinn leads the Class of 1966 on the 50th reunion tour.

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Idara Umoren ’98, Kevin Shane ’99 and T.J. McCarthy ’99

Charlie Ascher ’52, David Tattoni ’16, Kelly Coyle ’16 and Tom Wallace ’51

Charles Lin (guest of Tina Shen ’06), Roby McClellan P’88 ’90 GP’19, Tina Shen ’06 and Brittany Frederickson ’06

Bell Society members Kawi Kambhu ’56 and George Entin ’56

Brian Hayes ’08, Dylan Klein ’08 and Tariq Shabazz ’06

Jessica Cook ’11, Kumari Lewis ’11, Jennifer Prostoff ’11 and Baillie Lawless ’11

Paul Davies ’76, David Hill ’76, Linda Hanway ’76, Karen Davies and J.J. Clark ’76

Tara Geller ’81, Drew Schneeloch ’81, Moira Kearney ’81 and Dana Mayer ’81

Fall 2016 39

Leadership Council offers expertise to advance key objectives

T

he Peddie Leadership Council (PLC) was formed in 2014 to help Peddie build upon its strengths

and identify new opportunities to create an unparalleled environment. two “We academic can learn a lot fromNearly listening.” years and 60 members later, the PLC is a critical part of the campus community.

PLC members represent the diverse characteristics, talents and geographic locations of Peddie’s alumni and parent body. The council lends its support in the areas of strategic planning, marketing, financial planning, admissions and student and alumni engagement. The PLC also plays a key role in identifying immediate and long-term opportunities and challenges for the school. New initiatives generated by the PLC include monthly email newsletters and regularly scheduled lunches connecting students with alumni.

The Peddie Leadership Council is one of many ways in which alumni and parents are able to make significant contributions to Peddie. We encourage everyone to connect with students and faculty, and we invite those who may be interested in speaking on campus to reach out to Amy Cross, director of major gifts, at across@peddie.org.

Members of the PLC were on campus October 28–29 for the annual fall meeting.

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NEW PEDDIE LEADERSHIP COUNCIL MEMBERS David Bauer ’03 Financial Advisor Goldman Sachs New York, N.Y.

Amy Jacobi ’07 Transportation Systems Analyst Noblis District of Columbia

Cathleen Betz P’13 ’15 West Windsor, N.J.

Stuart Kerr ’73 Attorney Jones Day University Park, Md.

L. Frank Blaisdell ’69 P’02 Independent Insurance Agent Norwood Agency, Inc. Vero Beach, Fla. Kristin Borhofen ’88 New York, N.Y. William Brentani ’82 Partner, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP San Francisco, Calif.

Charles Burton ’81 Owner/President IG Burton Milton, Del. Paige Daggett ’90 Interior Designer Paige S. Daggett Interiors Haverford, Pa. Allison Davi ’02 Managing Director Benefit Street Partners New York, N.Y. David DeSocio ’83 Senior Vice President Ad Sales Marketing and Partnerships A&E Networks New York, N.Y. Roger Durling ’82 Executive Director Santa Barbara International Film Festival Goleta, Calif.

Erik Hanson ’83 Former Professional Athlete Major League Baseball Kirkland, Wash.

Newell (Smith) Harbin ’97 Director Sir Elton John Photography Collection Atlanta, Ga. John Harris ’94 President & Chief Executive Officer Junior Achievement of Georgia Atlanta, Ga. Randolph Hicks ’83 Managing Director/Partner Nations Equipment Finance, LLC Easton, Conn.

Jane Labban P’10 ’12 ’14 Princeton Junction, N.J.

FOUNDING PEDDIE LEADERSHIP COUNCIL MEMBERS Jaleh Amouzegar ’85 Charles Ascher ’52 Virginia Bauer P’03 ’05 (2014–2016) Bernadette Schmidinger Brown ’01

Sarah Masland-Fatherree ’03 Director of Parent Relations Dickinson College Carlisle, Pa.

Linda (Attaway) Burke ’83

Ndiya Nkongho ’95 Psychologist Pine River Psychotherapy Associates Atlanta, Ga.

John Coiro ’87 P’17

Robert Price ’01 Assistant Vice President Morgan Stanley New York, N.Y.

Patrick Dennis ’98 (2014–2016)

Tariq Shabazz ’06 Budget Specialist New Jersey Office of Management and Budget Willingboro, N.J.

Brian Grossman ’04

Timothy Starkey ’96 Vice President/Financial Advisor Morgan Stanley Chatham, N.J. Patrick Ting ’91 Morgan Stanley Hong Kong, China Tracey Wetmore ’97 Former Director of Admissions Morristown-Beard School Little Silver, N.J. Nora Wolf ’03 Attorney Gibbons P.C. Hoboken, N.J. Kevin Wong ’94 General Manager Top Form International Hong Kong, China Von Worthington ’65 P’93 ’95 ’97 ’99 President Worthington Biochemical Corporation Lakewood, N.J.

Joshua Charnin-Aker ’07 Joseph Clark ’05

Alene Bronfman Court ’80 Sangu Delle ’06 (2014–2016)

Heather (McCarthy) Drstvensek ’97 J. Mark Enriquez ’77

Manuel Grullón ’71 P’95 Suzanne (Daly) Hart ’99 Joshua Henriquez ’90 P’16 P.J. Horgan ’84 (2015–2016) Patricia (Smith) Kempe ’02 Robin (Fischer) Landsman ’83 Tsion Lencho ’02 Clarence Chun Kit Ling ’01 Mitchell Mackler ’84 Michele Martin ’86 Craig Mudge ’67 P’99 Ryan Packard ’00 Ashish Patel ’95 Fred Price P’99 ’01 Robert Ruberton ’93 Daniel Szemis P’10 John Taylor P’10 David Thompson ’96 Bruce Tucker ’71 Scott Zifferer ’74 P’16

Fall 2016 41

Stephanie Klein P’08 ’10, manager of the Peddie Bookstore, welcomes visitors. Klein also manages Peddie’s new online store, which offers everything from baby bibs to diploma frames. Find clothing, hats, blankets, mugs, banners, ties, belts, water bottles, books and more at Peddie.org/alumni.

PEDDIE SCHOOL 201 South Main Street Hightstown, NJ 08520-3349

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NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION U.S. POSTAGE PAID CINNAMINSON NJ PERMIT NO. 579

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