The Magazine of William Penn Charter School
Fall 2017
The STRATEGIC VISION for Penn Charter’s future is organized around six goals, each with a set of strategies.
Goal 1: Quakerism
Goal 2: PROGRAM
Advance our educational program to provide students with the knowledge and skills they need to thrive in a complex and changing world.
Goal 3: Teaching Goal 4: Time
Goal 5: Space
Develop and repurpose space to serve the changing needs of the Penn Charter program and mission.
Goal 6: Financial Sustainability
Digital Citizens and Problem Solvers Penn Charter is exemplary in that we have a technology educator whose sole focus is the Lower School students and faculty. Working in the Lower School’s designated IdeaLab, Technology Coordinator Daniel Stahl has launched an exciting Lower School technology curriculum that begins with developing digital citizenship across grade levels, and provides a wide range of hands-on learning experiences utilizing technology to investigate, simulate and solve real-world problems. The focus for the beginning of this year is ensuring that all of our students are learning, exploring and staying safe online and becoming upstanding digital citizens by teaching them to: • think critically and evaluate online sources; • protect themselves from online threats, including bullies and scams; • get smart about sharing: what, when, and with whom; • be kind and respectful toward other people and their privacy; • ask for help from a parent or other adult with tricky situations.
Educating Students to Live Lives that Make a Difference A Strategic Vision for the Future of William Penn Charter School
The digital world in which our students are learning and growing up is incredibly exciting. Through technology, children have access to new tools, to an incredible range of resources, and to stimulating opportunities to participate in novel ways.
Contents Fall 2017
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Features
10 Kate McCallum:
Director of Lower School
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Fifth Grade Drives
Artistic Collaboration
16 Food Insecurity:
Connecting Service and Academics
19 Touchstone Keeps Ortale Legacy Alive 0 Teaching & Learning Center Holds 2 the Bar High
22 How Far? PC Unveils $75 Million
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Capital Campaign
Departments Opening Comments
From the Head of School. ..................................................................................... 2 Around Campus
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Campus Currents...................................................................................................... 3 Welcome Home, Goldbergs.................................................................................4 Achievements in Athletics....................................................................................6 Commencement 2017. ...........................................................................................8 Newly Appointed Overseers.............................................................................. 11 Alumni
PC Profiles Allison Pearce OPC ’05.....................................................................................12 OPC Weekend 2017.............................................................................................. 30 Then & Now. ............................................................................................................34 Class Notes............................................................................................................... 35
On the Cover
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The Magazine oF WilliaM Penn CharTer SChool
Fall 2017
On October 20, Penn Charter unveiled the brilliant possibilities for our future and the bold plan to realize them. Page 22. Back Cover: Art by Grace Agosto Class of 2024 created as part of fifth grade art collaboration. Page 14.
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The Magazine of William Penn Charter School
Darryl J. Ford Head of School Elizabeth A. Glascott Hon. 1689 Assistant Head of School Jeffrey A. Reinhold Clerk, Overseers John T. Rogers Hon. 1689 Chief Development Officer Brian Cash OPC ’00 Alumni Society President
Magazine Staff Sharon Sexton Editor
Opening Comments
From the Head of School Penn Charter magazine provides an opportunity to share a small sample of the innovative, exciting and meaningful learning that happens at school each and every day, and to catch up on OPCs and highlight their adventures and contributions to the world. While this issue accomplishes both, it also highlights our future, asking the evocative question How Far Can We See?
Rebecca Luzi Associate Editor Julia Judson-Rea Assistant Editor Michael Branscom Feature Photography Proof Design Studios Design William Penn Charter School 3000 West School House Lane Philadelphia, PA 19144
At the public opening of our capital campaign in October, we introduced the campaign’s title—By the Light of Our Charter, How Far Can We See?—and our vision to chart the next 328 years of our mission and Quaker stewardship. At that event, I announced a campaign goal of $75 million and shared our fundraising success: more than $50 million in gifts, pledges and bequests raised at that point. The philanthropic support of the PC community makes us strong in the here and now and illuminates brilliant possibilities for faculty and staff professional development, financial aid and new facilities, all to improve teaching and learning at Penn Charter.
215.844.3460
The new academic leadership in Lower School, new board members, curricular initiatives and professional development opportunities you will read about in this publication are helping light the way to an even brighter future for our school.
Follow Penn Charter at your favorite social media sites:
How Far? is both enhancing today’s work of the school and enriching the future. For both, I am thankful. Sincerely,
www.penncharter.com Penn Charter is the magazine of William Penn Charter School. It is published by the Marketing Communications Office and distributed to alumni, parents and friends of the school. In addition to providing alumni updates about classmates, reunions and events, the magazine focuses on the people, the programs and the ideas that energize our school community.
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arryl J. Ford D Head of School
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Campus Currents PC Bids Farewell to Kern
Making Peace in 2017-18
David Kern made an impact, and many friends, in his seven years as director of Lower School, and when he departed, PC made sure Kern knew what he meant to the school.
Head of School Darryl J. Ford unveiled the theme of the 2017-18 school year, the Quaker Testimony of Peace, at the 2017 All-School Opening Assembly.
Penn Charter arranged for Kern, a huge sports fan, to throw out the first pitch at the April 21 Phillies game. Wearing a customized jersey with his name on the back and the jersey number 7, which commemorated the years he spent at PC, Kern threw a strike! Then, on a sunny morning in Chigwell Close in May, parents, students and colleagues gathered to thank Kern with speeches and songs. Kern told the assembled crowd, “Most of all what is in my heart is so much caring and thanks to all of you for the support.”
Kern and his wife, Karen Vaccaro, have “retired” and are working at the Bududa Learning Center in Bududa, Uganda; they plan to stay until August 2018. The 14-year-old center offers a Saturday school for children who have lost one or both parents, and vocational courses in tailoring, computer studies, building construction, nursery teacher training, carpentry and joinery, and hair dressing. Read about their travels and work: https://voyagerafrica3.blogspot.com/ On page 10, read about Kate McCallum, Kern’s successor as director of Lower School.
“Making worldwide peace in a big way is complicated,” Ford told the audience. But Penn Charter can play its own role in promoting peace by being “active peacemakers in the hallways of our schools and on the playground.” Ford discussed his own idea for spreading peace, telling students about “talk it out” chairs, where students in the classroom sit down in two chairs to talk things out and resolve any present conflicts with words. “How great would it be if we all agreed to find the ‘talk it out’ chairs, a ‘talk it out’ table or a ‘talk it out’ room to meet conflict head-on and to become active about peacemaking?” Ford asked. Almost 900 students from grades 1 through 12 came together in Dooney Field House with faculty, staff and school leaders to usher in the new school year, one Ford hoped would bring about learning opportunities bookended by the Quaker Testimony of Peace. “I know it will be one of great learning and growth, friendships and even challenges,” he said. “Yet, I know that if we use peace to guide our actions with each other, it will be a year like no other.” Jake Cutler, president of the Class of 2018, discussed his journey as a Penn Charter lifer with his peers, and how the last 12 years have helped him grow into a stronger, more confident person, a person open to trying new things—he pointed to his bleached-blonde hair, a summertime fashion statement, to laughs from the room. “For the new students, and even the students who are coming back, do not hesitate to say hi to people you don’t usually talk to,” Cutler said. “Everyone at this school is special in some way.”
Senior class president Jake Cutler and Head of School Darryl J. Ford presented the traditional OPC banner to the Class of 2018.
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Campus Currents
Welcome Home, Goldbergs! Surely, in his wildest of dreams, Adam F. Goldberg OPC ’94 never could have written this script. A packed audience assembled inside Dooney Field House on the campus of Penn Charter, Goldberg’s alma mater and a school that “wasn’t a place for a kid like me,” and they were all there to see him. Goldberg, a self-proclaimed outsider who never thought he would be able to weave his own eccentricities into the fabric of Penn Charter, had officially come full circle as he greeted a gymnasium full of Middle and Upper School students, teachers and PC administrators, all of whom gave him a rousing, standing ovation. Goldberg, the creator and showrunner for ABC’s hit sitcom The Goldbergs, was quick to return the love to the place that molded him and stunningly spawned a successful Hollywood career. “I was the kid who was always picked last in gym class,” Goldberg told the room, flashing back to his lonely JV baseball days where he stood in right field and literally prayed to God that the ball wouldn’t come his way. Academics weren’t much easier, Goldberg confessed, and he also prayed for chemistry teacher Sandy Portnoy never to call on him. “It took every ounce of my energy to get Cs at best,” he said. But, unsurprisingly now, Goldberg loved to film things. He liked to film everything, at home, at school and everywhere in between, making
movies by himself and with friends. That, plus his eventual love of writing, led him to his calling, even if he didn’t know it at the time. It took Charlie Brown, Goldberg’s eighthgrade English teacher, to realize Adam’s “spark” by allowing him to turn in his book reports as films instead of raditional papers. Later, art teacher Randy Granger’s film class inspired Goldberg to apply to New York University, where he eventually honed his craft.
Adam F. Goldberg OPC ’94 and Charlie Brown Hon. 1689.
“Making movies was the first thing for me that clicked and made me feel like the kid who could finally catch the ball,” Goldberg said. “Instead of writing papers, I made movies. It was fun and easy, and I knew then that this is what I wanted to do with my life. After having been looking since middle school, I finally had found my thing, and I hit it hard. It was all that I did.”
Goldberg wrote about his grandfather’s struggle with Alzheimer’s and the overbearing nature of his ultra-protective mother (whom he jokingly nicknamed “Smother”), always injecting some of his trademark humor into the material to make it more relatable to the masses. “I was literally writing (what became) The Goldbergs right here at Penn Charter,” Goldberg told the students, whom he encouraged to stick it out until they find their own passion, the same way he was able to, no matter how long it takes. “I’d have no career without this school and what I ultimately learned here. A school I never thought would get me, got me, and the teachers eventually understood me and what I was all about.” The Goldbergs – with Penn Charter in a starring role as the school dubbed William Penn Academy – began its fifth season on ABC this past fall, and also now airs weeknights in syndication at 6:00 and 7:30 p.m. on PHL17. Goldberg was joined on campus by his family, including mom Beverly and older brother Eric OPC ’85, and friends, including Emily Mirsky OPC ’94, who is portrayed on the show. September 16 was quite the day. In addition to his visit to Penn Charter, Goldberg received the key to the City of Philadelphia from Mayor Jim Kenney’s office and, in the evening, before a crowd of almost 300 Penn Charter supporters, was honored when the Phillies hosted Goldbergs Night, and his brother Barry Goldberg OPC ’87 threw out the first pitch. – Ed Morrone OPC ’04
Run for Peace Celebrates 12 Years The Penn Charter community—OPCs, faculty, student teams and even dogwalkers—put on their favorite and comfy footwear and came out in numbers to participate in the Run for Peace, the 12th annual event. The 5K run and 1-mile family fun walk honors those who died on 9/11, especially Peter K. Ortale OPC ’83 and Kenneth Caldwell OPC ’89. Proceeds from the event support Penn Charter scholarship funds honoring the two men.
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Members of the Caldwell and Ortale families hosted another meaningful Run for Peace.
Campus Currents
Exploring “Hidden Biases of Good People” Penn Charter hosted a powerful Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Conference on Oct. 6 for more than 1,100 independent school educators who wanted to dig in to learn and to build skills for promoting equity in schools and classrooms. Sponsored by the Multicultural Resource Center of the Association of Delaware Valley Independent Schools, the all-day conference offered keynote presentations from two nationally known speakers—Mahzarin Banaji, experimentalist psychologist, Harvard professor and author, and Lee Mun Wah, filmmaker, author and diversity trainer. If the keynotes were designed to raise awareness about bias—“The thumbprint of the culture is on your brain,” Banaji told the crowd.—the nearly 40 workshops offered teachers group sessions focused on relevant topics: Diversity through Literary Theory; The Guide for White Women Who Teach Black Boys; Middle School Affinity Groups; Teaching Diversity and Inclusion in the Lower School Classroom through Art and Literature; Teaching the Immigrant Experience; and many more. Banaji, co-author of Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People, made her presentation immediately relevant with a gender bias example related to the names of hurricanes. The data show that fatalities during hurricanes with female names are higher than male-named hurricanes. Why? Because, Banaji said, people do not respect the power of femalenamed hurricanes; we don’t heed warnings for Irma as we would for a hurricane named, for example, Bruce. In the span of her three-hour morning presentation, Manaji returned frequently to data and what the data reveal about biases, whether it be pay equity for women, distrust of people whose eyes are close together, discrimination in hiring, or under-treatment of black Americans for pain relative to white Americans.
BBC Film Crew Visits Campus An Irish film crew used a Penn Charter Lower School classroom as the location for a scene in The Man Who Spoke the Truth, a documentary about Charles Thomson, an Irish-born leader of the American Revolution and secretary of the Continental Congress. The film was scheduled to air in November on BBC Northern Ireland.
Mahzarin Banaji, third from left, with PC organizers and hosts David Brightbill, academic dean for curriculum and professional development, Imana Legette, director of diversity and inclusion, and Head of School Darryl J. Ford.
The work ahead, Banaji said, is to understand hidden biases and “align our behavior with our intentions.” Lee Mun Wah, an internationally renowned documentary filmmaker and founder of StirFry Seminars & Consulting, a diversity training company, titled his presentation “What Stands Between Us.” Lee exhorted the educators packed into Dooney Field House to challenge acts of discrimination and learn to listen to our neighbors. “We can never become a community until we have first learned about those who are next to us, our next door neighbors, and those we have been taught to be afraid of. What we are talking about is breaking down the walls we have created out of fear and truly desiring to confront what stands between us.”
Thomas Jefferson in the early days of America, and his trip to Mount Vernon to inform George Washington of his election as the first President of the United States.
Penn Charter was chosen for a scene in which a couple in period costume explained the historical significance of Thomson, a little-known American patriot who taught Latin in the 1750s at one of Penn Charter’s early schools. Penn Charter third graders acted as an audience in the classroom scene, learning about Thomson’s work with Benjamin Franklin and
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Athletics ACHIEVEMENTS
Golf
Isztwan Tapped for All-America Golf Team
Penn Charter golfer Brian Isztwan was named to the 2017 Transamerica Scholastic Junior All-America Team in October by the American Junior Golf Association. The team features 24 young men and women who demonstrate the ability to excel not only on the golf course, but also in the classroom and the community. Isztwan, a PC senior, has been a captain on the golf team the last two seasons, and he earned Inter-Ac regular season championships as both a junior and a senior.
Soccer
DeMarco Playing in All-American Game Penn Charter soccer standout Giovanna DeMarco was chosen to play in the High School All-American Game that will take place in Orlando on Dec. 2. DeMarco was one of 40 elite high school girls soccer players chosen for the game, which will feature 20 players—DeMarco included — for the East squad and the other half forming the West team. DeMarco, who began playing with the varsity program as an eighth grader and will play at Wake Forest University, registered 80 goals and 49 assists in her PC soccer career.
crew
Perry Receives John Izzard Award
Maria Perry, a member of the Penn Charter crew team, was named the recipient of the 2017-18 John Izzard Award, which recognizes one junior athlete from the Philadelphia Scholastic Rowing Association for athleticism, achievement and dedication to service. Perry, now a PC senior, was presented a plaque at a September award ceremony and will receive a personal trophy at the Schuykill Navy Annual Awards Banquet in March 2018.
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Girls Lacrosse Coach Joins Athletics Admin Team
Following two years as the head girls lacrosse coach at Penn Charter, Colleen Magarity was named PC associate director of athletics in late June. In addition to the new post, Magarity will remain coach of the lacrosse team. “We are excited to have Colleen join our administrative team,” Director of Athletics and Athletic Planning John Thiel said. “Her talent and energy will further strengthen our programs.” Prior to her arrival at PC, Magarity was an assistant lacrosse coach at the University of Colorado from 2012 to 2015. She is a 2011 graduate of Northwestern University, where she helped the Wildcats to three Division I national championships as a player. In 2016, Magarity was drafted by the Boston Storm, a team in the first professional women’s lacrosse league.
Softball Achieves Three-Peat!
It was business as usual for the PC softball team this season, as the Quakers captured their third consecutive PAISAA championship after going an undefeated 3-0 in the postseason tournament. PC finished with 22 wins and only five losses this season, and in the last three campaigns the Quakers have posted a sparkling 66-9 overall record. Seniors Faith Fenton, Brigitte Gutpelet, Abby Cohen and Emily Zurcher were able to close out their high school career with a coveted three-peat. “I really feel good for the seniors,” PC head softball coach Doc Mittica said. “They strived to get this three-peat.”
Athletics ACHIEVEMENTS
PC Exports Lax Knowledge
PC Baseball Achieves Championship Season
It truly was a season for the record books for the PC baseball squad. Though the Quakers fell in the PAISAA semifinals, that still didn’t take away from the team’s remarkable season, which included an Inter-Ac title, a 25-2 overall record and an appearance in the USA Today Top-25 national rankings, reaching as high as No. 14 late in the season. Led by Joey Lancelotti—the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Southeastern Pennsylvania Player of the Year—professional prospect/current senior Mike Siani and a host of other talented players, the Quakers nearly ran the table in 2017, losing just twice the entire season, both times to Springside Chestnut Hill Academy.
Penn Charter lacrosse coaches Joey Sankey OPC ’11 and Colleen Magarity traveled to Japan in February to offer instruction and knowledge of the sport to local university students. Sankey and Magarity coached at the Lacrosse Sunflower Cup in Okayama, which attracted 1,200 male and female Japanese collegiate players. The trip also included stops in Kyoto and Tokyo, and came together thanks to Cross Crosse owner Sachiyo Yamada, whose goal is to have top male and female lacrosse players from the United States teach the game to students in Japan, where the sport is still growing. “This truly was an amazing experience and trip,” Magarity said. “The Japanese players were the most hardworking, diligent and appreciative group of girls. They showed such a desire to learn and try exactly what I was coaching. They were extremely talented, and it was an honor to meet and work with so many teams.”
OPCs Competing in College
At a ceremony in May, Penn Charter celebrated student-athletes who will play their sport at the collegiate level.
Boys Track Captures League, State Titles
For the first spring since 1997, both the baseball and boys track teams are Inter-Ac champions! The Quakers soundly defeated Germantown Academy in the track champs meet on May 15, and coach Steve Bonnie got a victorious ice-water bath courtesy of seniors Harold Anderson and John Grace. Then, later that weekend, the boys picked up right where they left off in capturing the PAISAA state championship, the program’s first such title in the eighth year the tournament has been in existence.
Pictured are: (top, L-R) Hannah Griffith (Dickinson College, swimming), Brigette Gutpelet (Dickinson College, softball), Kelsey White (Boston College, crew), Courtney Cubbin (Haverford College, lacrosse), Janelle Sullivan (Wellesley College, field hockey), Emma Grugan (College of the Holy Cross, crew). Bottom (L-R) Dylan Burnett (La Salle University, track and field), Evan McFadden (Ohio State University, swimming), Harper Pollio-Barbee (Brandeis University, track and field, cross country). Not pictured: Mireyah Davis (New York University, basketball).
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commencement 2017 “You have challenged us and made your mark on this 327-yearold school. As you leave this campus today as OPCs, I hope you will leave it with conviction and resolve to act with love. And when, in the future, you return home to Penn Charter, you will have lived lives that make a difference.”
–Head of School Darryl J. Ford
“I urge you to connect with yourself on a level you may have never done before. Take a break from what society expects of you and find yourself. And once you do, check back in and incorporate supporting others into your life. It’s never too late to be a positive change in the world. Doing the smallest things always helps and always has an effect. Break out of the mold of simply living for yourself. Humanity will not progress without you taking action.” – Harold Anderson OPC ’17, University of Pennsylvania
Olivia Brody-Bizar received the Phi Beta Kappa Award, presented to the student outstanding in scholarship in the senior class. Brody-Bizar now attends Dartmouth College.
“This institution does more than help students mature: It also allows us to better understand that before you are a leader, you must be taught the skills to become a better role model. Penn Charter students are able to take what they learn about leadership and apply it to the classroom and future jobs … This school has brought out the best version of ourselves and has helped us to inspire others to do the same. This form of leadership that we have been taught at Penn Charter will hopefully allow us to positively change our community, our nation and world.” – Dylan Burnett OPC ’17, La Salle University
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Marilyn Pease (pictured here with Alumni Society President Brian Cash OPC ’00) and Harold Anderson were co-winners of the Alumni Senior Award, given to “a member or members of the senior class who, on qualifications of scholarship, character, leadership and athletic ability, exemplifies the best Penn Charter type.” Anderson and Pease are both members of the Class of 2021 at the University of Pennsylvania.
Senior class presidents Joshua Patton and Amira Martin presented a $168,871 Senior Parent Gift to Penn Charter on behalf of the parents of the Class of 2017. Ninety-five percent of Class of 2017 parents contributed to the gift.
“This one year, these four years, these 13 years have taught us that being vulnerable allows us to put forward the best parts of ourselves: passionate, outspoken and headstrong. It’s in these moments of discomfort and conflict that we are able to grow. Admitting to our mistakes has made us vulnerable, but it has also helped us seek to understand rather than to prove we’re right. Giving testimony about what we believe doesn’t just mean saying what we think. Listening to each other and letting that change what we believe in are just as important.” – Emily Zurcher OPC ’17, Darthmouth College
College Choices
An end-of-year survey showed that 97 percent of students in the Class of 2017 are attending one of their top-choice colleges. More than two thirds were admitted to a “most competitive college,” according to Barron’s Profiles of American Colleges.
Congratulations to the Class of 2017! Amherst College Auburn University Bloomsburg University Boston College Boston University Brandeis University Bucknell University (2) College of the Holy Cross Colorado College Cornell University Dartmouth College (2) Dickinson College (5) Drew University Drexel University (5) Elon University Emerson College Fordham University Florida International University Franklin & Marshall College Georgetown University
George Washington University Goucher College Harford Community College Haverford College (2) Indiana University Bloomington Ithaca College La Salle University (2) Lackawanna College Lehigh University (2) Loyola University Maryland Marist College Marquette University Massachusetts Institute of Technology McGill University Middlebury College Misericordia University Muhlenberg College New York University (4) Northeastern University
Ohio State University Pennsylvania State University Pennsylvania State University, Abington (2) Purdue University Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rutgers University Southern Methodist University Spelman College (3) SUNY College at Cortland Susquehanna University (2) Syracuse University (2) Temple University (3) The New School Tufts University Tulane University (3) United States Military Academy United States Naval Academy University of Alabama University of Chicago
University of Colorado at Boulder University of Connecticut University of Delaware (2) University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University of Pennsylvania (11) University of Pittsburgh (4) University of Rhode Island (2) University of South Carolina University of Texas at Dallas University of Vermont (2) Ursinus College Vanderbilt University Villanova University (2) Washington University in St. Louis Wellesley College West Chester University Widener University
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Faculty News
Exciting Students to Learn and Do Whatever Calls Them Kate McCallum’s tenure as director of Lower School officially began on July 1. Shortly afterward, McCallum sat down for a conversation with David Brightbill, academic dean for curriculum and professional development at Penn Charter, to discuss her early impressions of the job, as well as her present and future plans as the new leader of the Lower School.
talk and walks the walk. It’s hard to put a lot of substance behind that, but it’s really transparent and evident here. DB: Why do you see this position as Lower School director at Penn Charter as the right fit for you? KM: One of the most amazing things about an independent school, particularly from my viewpoint as a director, is that I’m still an educator, whereas in a lot of other contexts you really become a manager. I’m excited about the opportunity to still be working with kids and families and developing those really tight relationships in support of student learning and family learning. Having the Quaker background places a lot of emphasis on input and consensus, which gives me the opportunity to come from a position of “How can I help and support?” as opposed to having to just manage. DB: You have a great deal of experience teaching and in the administrative realm with a number of advanced degrees [two master’s degrees and a doctorate]. What are some key takeaways or lessons that you have learned that you regularly employ today as an educator and leader?
Kate McCallum, director of Lower School since July, has observed that expectations at Penn Charter “are high, and I thrive in environments with high expectations.”
DAVID BRIGHTBILL: What is it about Penn Charter that attracted you to the school and motivated you to apply? KATE MCCALLUM: I was lucky enough to visit in the summer of 2016, and I remember walking on campus and thinking, ‘Wow, I really want to work at a school like this someday.’ I didn’t realize it would be in the immediate future. Particularly, I was looking for a Quaker school, one that had character education that really valued the social and emotional component as highly as the academic and athletic. Penn Charter not only has outstanding athletics but is also deeply invested in the whole child. There’s an energy on campus that I felt in the visit. Expectations are high, and I thrive in environments with high expectations. DB: Is there anything specifically about the Quaker foundation of the school that is appealing to you?
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KM: I’d say the focus on equity and inclusion. I value being a part of a diverse community and what that fosters, and also the focus on integrity—having high expectations for individuals and the school, but also very high levels of truthfulness, compassion and really giving all of yourself in whatever you’ve committed to doing. DB: Do you feel what you felt initially when you stepped on campus that first time compared to what you’ve seen now that you’ve been around and on the job? Is it living up to your expectations? KM: It’s actually exceeded expectations. I realize that sounds easy to say, but it’s really authentic. There’s a lot of trying to understand where we are, and a lot of future thinking to see how we can continue to grow to be the best space for all students. I can honestly say Penn Charter talks the
KM: Everything comes down to relationships. We know in classrooms kids thrive when they feel connected to teachers and in turn the teacher deeply cares and is invested in them. That should be reflected not only in conversation, but also in teaching and planning. My experience in administration taught me the same thing about relationships and trust. Earning trust comes from being consistent and kind in student focus, but also giving trust early and often. I want to come from a stance of understanding that the parent is the expert on the child, with the teacher being the expert on classroom practice. DB: What social things would you like to see as you walk around the building and visit classes? KM: There is a deep culture of kindness at PC that I want to continue to grow and build. All kids benefit from overt lessons in social communication and connection. Conversations should be like tennis matches: back and
forth. So much can be done to prepare them for adolescence, and those social skills are what help kids thrive. Feeling comfortable and confident socially—and feeling that they’re being heard— that paves the way for stronger academics. DB: A quick glance at your resume notes extensive background in reading, writing and literacy. What is not as easily apparent is your knowledge of technology and tech integration and STEAM [Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics] related work: Can you talk about how that interest developed and some of the work you have done? KM: I was fortunate with timing as a young teacher when instructional technology started blowing up. I was the last car in the parking lot every day because I was excited and interested in it, whether it was learning how to use a SmartBoard or teaching kids how to use iMovie or editing audio to do podcasts. I saw that you could apply a variety of literacy practices beyond just print. The kids got really excited, and they became better writers because we were writing movies and producing them. There are so many opportunities for technology to make life easier and more efficient for the kids, and I’m really trying to capitalize on that. DB: Is there anything specifically related to STEAM you would like to bring to Penn Charter or see become part of our Lower School program? KM: What I’m hoping for is to walk into the IdeaLab and hear kids say “Whoooooa!” or “Come look at this!” I think if you give kids some basic background knowledge and resources or a direction and let them run, you will be floored by what they can come up with. DB: Darryl Ford often talks about the learning experiences that make each division unique. Under your leadership, what would you like our Lower School to be known for three to five years down the line? KM: I want us to be known for being outstanding and for helping to cultivate happy, confident and articulate students who are excited about continuing to learn and go out and do whatever calls to them. PC
Newly Appointed Penn Charter Overseers Amy Gadsden P ’23, ’27 Education: BA, Yale College; PhD, University of Pennsylvania, Chinese Legal History Professional Background: Gadsden is the executive director of Penn Global and previously was the associate dean of Penn Law. She has worked for the International Republican Institute as the China country director, and as an advisor on China issues for the U.S. Department of State. Passions: “My family, and China, every which way,” Gadsden said.
Connections and Thoughts on Penn Charter: The Gadsden family was initially attracted to Penn Charter because it is a campus school in a city environment. “Then, I didn’t understand how the Quaker ethos weaves its web through the school,” Gadsden said. “But as I’ve watched my children grow, it has been the most delightful education for us; to see the thread as it begins in Lower School, expands in Middle School and I’m sure continues in Upper, is great.” PC’s history—328 years—is attractive to Gadsden, too. “I’m a historian by training and I enjoy the history of PC,” she said. “It is fascinating and connects to my abiding interest in historical roots and antecedents, how those impact the present and how we have grown. “I understand the complex ecosystem and the commitment to students, to faculty, to staff, the institution, and the importance of nurturing all of those groups, to prepare leaders for tomorrow,” Gadsden said. The Overseers “are creating knowledge and insight, and we must figure out how the pieces fit together to support the institution … It is really about stewardship. You are not in charge or leading, you are shepherding the school from one period to another as an overseer. And hopefully you add your insight, you make a mark that improves the school, but ultimately, you’re stewarding.”
Larry L. Turner P ’19, ’22 Education: BA, University of North Carolina, Political Science and Speech Communication; JD, Georgetown Law Professional Background: Turner is a partner at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius. He is the co-leader of the Unfair Competition Task Force, which assists companies, globally, in protecting their trade secrets and confidential information. Passions: “My children and my family. We watch a lot of lacrosse together; Alex and Grace [who are students at Penn Charter] both play.” Connections and Thoughts on Penn Charter: “I am attracted to the quality of the people at Penn Charter. From the first person I ever met who was connected to the school to the last person I shook hands with today, it is the quality of the people,” Turner said, that draws him to the school. “Earl Ball was the first person I met, and Darryl Ford sealed the deal. I am impressed with the quality of the leadership.” Turner joined the Overseers at the end of 2016. “I’m still learning about the board, looking for my spot,” Turner said. “It is an exciting time for the board.” Turner is called to serve because, he said, “I want to be part of perpetuating cutting-edge education. Penn Charter prepares kids not for what we see today but for what they can dream up tomorrow. That’s imperative.”
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PC P RO F I LE S
No Secret: Use Your Network Allison Pearce OPC ’05 by Mark F. Bernstein OPC ’79
On any given week, you might find costume designer Allison Pearce OPC ’05 at her studio in Port Richmond. Or selling some of her new apparel line around Philadelphia. Or in New York working on an episode of Saturday Night Live (SNL). You might even find her performing with her band, Double Wild, at Bob & Barbara’s Lounge on South Street, where she hosts the monthly country music party. On one particular week in mid-October, though, Pearce was walking through the aisles of a TJ Maxx in Miami searching for a certain shade of blue fabric for dancers appearing in a short film called Swamp Lake being shot in the Everglades. Florida sunsets are a particular dusty blue and she wanted material that would capture that feeling. Designing for dancers is challenging because the costumes must be sturdy yet allow for a full range of movement. Oh, and adding a few more degrees of complexity here, there are alligators. “We had to take air boats to get to set,” Pearce explained, “and we were shooting on an alligator farm so there were literally alligators everywhere.” While Pearce was trying to put the finishing touches on her beautiful costumes, someone armed only with a stick was responsible for keeping the gators from venturing too close. Pearce did not have time to pay much notice. Asked to identify which of the many hats she wears best describes her professionally, Pearce paused. “I guess I’m a designer,”
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she concluded. “I like to mess around and experiment with a lot of different materials. But I’m a freelancer. I go where the work takes me.” Over the course of a relatively short career, Pearce has designed for a wide range of outlets, including TV shows, feature films, short films, music videos, commercials and print advertisements. Her work, for clients such as the Gap, Walmart, Morgan Stanley, and the New York City Ballet, has appeared everywhere from The Atlantic to ESPN’s magazine. No matter the format, she explained, the aim of costume design “is to let the actors have a playground to do what they want to do with the character. The costumes shouldn’t be distracting.”
Each project, though, presents its own challenges—even the ones without alligators. A 2016 commercial for Penn State, for example, required the characters to have break-away costumes. An actor would walk along wearing one costume and then rip it off to reveal a different costume underneath. Costume design, like set design, is critical to setting the mood of an entire project. As Pearce explained it, her job “helps the director bring the character to life visually. Why does the character look a certain way? It’s very psychological.” When done well, costume design dovetails with set design to create a unified theme. If Pearce is designing an outfit for someone seated on a couch, what color is the couch? What color are the background walls? Everything can influence the way a character is dressed. Nowhere is the pace for this work faster than it is on SNL, where Pearce is an assistant costume designer during the show’s September-to-May season.
Allison Pearce on an airboat on set in the Everglades with Swamp Lake, a new film by Celia Rowlson-Hall. Photo by Strangers creator Mia Lidofsky.
PC P RO F I LE S She joined the show in 2015 after working with SNL costume designer Jill Bream on a Ford car commercial starring Kate McKinnon. Pearce now takes the train to New York each week when SNL is in production. After the scripts are green lit on Wednesday night, costume designers meet with the writers and directors to decide what look they want. The next morning, she said, “we hit the ground running.” The show is famous for its timeliness. During the 2016 election, for example, Hillary Clinton might have worn a particular style of suit in a midweek debate and the show would have an exact copy for the opening on Saturday night. Fortunately, Pearce said, SNL has “the best tailor shop in film and television. Anything I need in the world, I can design it and they can make it for me.” Naturally, the time pressure for a weekly live
show is intense. Pearce says that SNL’s video shorts are usually filmed in a single day. “It happens really fast.” About a year and a half ago, Pearce— a 2009 graduate of the Parsons School of Design—introduced her own clothing line, called simply Pearce. She describes her designs on her website: “Pearce makes the basics of the past, present, and future in natural fabrics. Comfortable, wearable, and simple with a nod to 1940s loungewear and daywear. Cuts that are freeing, moveable, and flattering for all body types.” All of her designs are gender-neutral. It was also important that they be made only with sustainable materials. “A lot of the ‘fast’ fashion you see is not made with humanity in mind, in factories that don’t give a lot of thought to environmental conditions,” she explained. “I felt that there was a need to
make things on a smaller scale and with more specialty.” Pearce releases her collections in small numbers throughout the year rather than seasonally. “When it’s gone, it’s gone,” she said. Singing for Joe Fitzmartin in Quakers Dozen showcased Pearce’s musical talents at Penn Charter. Her outlet now is her band, Double Wild, where she sings and plays guitar at venues around the area. In a description PC’s founder no doubt would have loved, Double Wild says it plays “country music from Billy Penn’s Greene Country Towne.” Pearce’s emerging career could go in many different directions, which suits her fine. She likes having a lot of balls in the air. “I think I have problems taking on too much at one time,” she admitted, “but I like to be continually creating, and I enjoy doing lots of different things. Variety is the spice of life.” PC
Save the Date
OPCs @ Spring Training with the Phillies Penn Charter travels to Clearwater, Fla., this spring! OPCs are invited to reconnect and take a sneak peek at the Phillies.
March 24-25, 2018 Watch OPC Spirit for details. Questions? Contact Chris Rahill at crahill@penncharter.com.
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Strategic Vision
Goals 1,2&3
Quakerism • PROGRAM • Teaching
Fifth Grade Students Drive
Artist Collaboration by Ed Morrone OPC ’04
The air is electric when students are excited about a topic and when teachers are able to respond to that excitement in ways that deepen learning. Students in fifth grade experienced that electricity last year with their teachers and PC’s Center for Public Purpose. The fifth-grade arts curriculum includes discussion of artists who create beautiful works but who also have endured hardships such as blindness or the discrimination female artists faced in earning attention and respect. Those discussions led the fifth graders to collaborate with Kansas-based artist Jeff Hanson. Hanson is on a mission to help change the world through his work. Hanson’s sight became impaired as a child when he was diagnosed with neurofibromatosis and an optic brain tumor. He turned to painting at the age of 12, creating notecards to keep his mind distracted during chemotherapy treatments, then started an art business out of a lemonade stand; by the time he turned 20, Hanson said, he had donated over a million dollars to charities. Working with
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acrylic paint on canvas, Hanson utilizes heavily sculpted texture to produce his signature style, which he has dubbed “a sight for sore eyes.” The PC fifth graders were drawn to, and inspired by, Hanson, especially given that he interweaves the Quaker traditions of peace and community into his art and personal philosophy. His mission statement reads: “Every act of kindness helps create kinder communities, more compassionate
nations and a better world for all … even one painting at a time.” Lower School art teachers Karen Riedlmeier and Michelle Dowd were excited to collaborate with Lower School counselor Lisa Reedich and with Alyson Goodner, director of the Center for Public Purpose, to build on the students’ interest to create an art philanthropy project. Riedlmeier and Dowd worked with students on techniques for creating art inspired by Hanson’s work, with
Reedich collaborating on the ways the project could help students evolve social awareness. Goodner contacted the Hanson family in Kansas and worked to help evolve an art lesson into an art philanthropy project. “The Center for Public Purpose was very excited to partner with fifth grade on their art philanthropy project,” Goodner said. “We aim to connect students, learn about their interests and the spaces in the community where they want to get more involved.”
“The deeper connection to the artist came out of their fascination with him and his work. They were … in wonder and awe of his story.” The students did the actual work on the project in January and February, and eventually that led, later in the school year, to an online Skype conversation with Hanson. PC was the first pre-K to 12 school school to be invited into Hanson’s studio via video conferencing, allowing both the fifth graders and Hanson to gain a deeper understanding and closeness through each other’s interests and work. And when the Skype connection experienced audio problems, the students immediately shifted into problem-solving mode, ultimately utilizing dry erase boards and markers to keep the communication going. “It was a beautiful moment,” Goodner said, “watching students be supremely engaged and acting quickly and creatively to overcome an obstacle to continue a deeply valuable conversation.”
Representing fifth grade student art: Lucas Parapatt (top) and Ellie Choate.
As far as the philanthropic effort on Penn Charter’s end, students made printed notecards in the classroom—making art with acrylic paint, something they had never used prior to learning about Hanson—and sold their work to families at Color Day in assorted 4-packs. The students made a significant contribution to the Children’s Tumor Foundation. When the project was completed, the students’ art was turned into a book, with a student’s painting and a personalized letter
to Hanson conjoined on adjacent pages. These were sent as a gift to Hanson, who was “so touched by the Jeff Hanson-inspired art and letters from the fifth graders,” according to his mother, Julie Hanson. “The deeper connection to the artist came out of their fascination with him and his work,” Reidlmeier said. “They were really excited and in wonder and awe of his story. They were buzzing the entire time they were painting and never tired of the topic.” PC
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Strategic Vision
Goals 1,2
Quakerism • PROGRAM
Food Insecurity:
Connecting Service and Academics by Rebecca Luzi
In Philadelphia, one in three people qualify for food stamps. So, last year when sixth grade teachers asked students “How do we solve the issue of food insecurity in Philadelphia?” it was a big question. Students would work for seven months and employ design thinking, collaboration, research and creativity to find answers.
Teachers posed the question last year as they built a new curriculum around an endof-year capstone project. For about 20 years, PC sixth graders had been studying and performing A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with imaginative costumes in outdoor settings, as an end-of-year capstone and celebration. Shakespeare was a tough act to follow. But teachers were looking for an interdisciplinary project that put students in touch with real-world issues calling out for solutions. They wanted a project focused on service. Jim Pilkington, who teaches English and social studies, and advises in sixth grade, thought the issue of food insecurity could be a “connecting force” among sixth grade subjects. The curriculum already presented opportunities for learning across disciplines. In English, the class reads The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, about drought and famine in Malawi. In math, percentages make an easy segue to statistics about hunger. In science, students learn about biomes and carbon footprints and where food comes from. And social studies offers the opportunity to explore food insecurity worldwide. Teachers added new projects that explored food in four core academic subjects, plus health class. In English, students wrote about a favorite family meal or holiday to demonstrate that a meal is more than food—it’s dignity, community, memories. In science, sixth grade students took trips to food pantries and farm shares. And in health, students collaborated to create videos on essential nutrients. “Our work then,” Pilkington said, “was to think about how we were connecting the dots for students across our classes with shared experiences, trips, speakers, etc.”
On Capstone Night, students demonstrated their research, collaboration and critical thinking.
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Sharon Ahram, assistant director of the Center for Public Purpose, helped connect those dots. She worked with the teachers to invite speakers based on the questions students were asking.
Speakers included Steveanna Wynn, executive director of SHARE; and Sandy Brown of Brown’s Super Stores, who discussed Shop Rite’s decision to build a store on Fox Street in a former food desert—and to include a rich international food section. Other speakers hailed from Coalition Against Hunger and Germantown Avenue Crisis Ministry, and a pediatrician spoke about child nutrition and obesity. “One of the interesting things about the speakers is they’re attacking the issues from very different perspectives,” Jim Pilkington said. “It’s been interesting to hear the different voices on how they are working to solves these issues.” Teachers even put a new twist on the Middle School Day of Service. Students spent the day brainstorming—and design thinking—in Balderston Commons. The rules: Don’t judge. Encourage wild ideas. And don’t invent anything that already exists. “The issue that we’re talking about is bigger than you,” technology coordinator
Brian Hecker told students. “You have an opportunity to do something awesome today.” When science teacher Eve Schwartz instructed students to use creativity and critical thinking to address real world issues that affect a person’s access to food, students came up with unemployment, low minimum wage, education level, a lack of nutritious food (food deserts), family structure and immigration. Students broke into groups, chose a topic and drilled down to devise solutions. Live in a food desert? What if we had veggie vending machines? Or a traveling food truck that stops at homes where people need it? If language is a barrier for immigrants, let’s help them learn English. If families with lots of children can’t afford enough food, we could take a burden off them and provide free baby clothes. When school is out, many students miss
Sixth grade students employed design thinking to brainstorm solutions to the real-world problem of food insecurity.
perhaps their only nutritious meal of the day. What about free summer camp, with meals, for underprivileged kids? How about an app that recommends healthy food options and where to find them? One group worked on the issue of climate change and how it can affect homes and continued on next page
Before Shop Rite came to Fox Street in Allegheny West, the neighborhood, among the poorest in the city, was a “food desert.”
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In classrooms, each student group then presented its final project—a website they built that demonstrates the team’s vision for reducing food insecurity locally or globally. Mini Mall, one team’s website, is a hub that provides “affordable everyday essentials, healthy food, clothing, day care, and we employ people who are in need of jobs.” It is powered by donations and volunteers. If transportation is a problem, Mini Mall has a shuttle and a delivery service. If you need help paying your bills, you can meet with a financial specialist. Mini Mall is a judgment-free zone. Near You aggregates resources … near you. Through the website you can find nonprofits that offer services, such as Germantown Avenue Crisis Relief Ministry; coupon sites to help you save money; searchable apartment listings; nutritional guidelines; and a budget calculator.
The sixth grade class took trips to food pantries, farm shares and grocery stores to learn about accessibility of nutritious food.
crops worldwide. “We’re trying to think of a solution to change the world forever,” said Lindsay Gadsden, a sixth grader last year. “We’re trying to find a new way to look at it, instead of the way people have been looking at it for the last 50 years or so.” The next step was to choose one idea from their cluster—a tangible idea rather than something abstract—and figure out how to implement it. “My challenge for you is the how,” Schwartz told students, citing an example. “How do you make loans more affordable?” “This is a messy process with a really difficult topic,” Pilkington told students. “We took this huge idea of food insecurity, broke it down, broke it down some more, and now we have some really concrete ideas.” Finally, it was Capstone Night. Parents gathered with their children in Balderston
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Commons, drew a number and learned a lesson about the world’s resources. Parents with numbers 1-18 represented the top 15 percent of the world’s population. That group consumes 70 percent of the world’s grain, can afford health care, and has a comfortable home and at least one car. At the other end of the spectrum, parents who drew numbers 49 and higher represented the 25 percent of the population that makes less than $911 a year, is frequently hungry, probably can’t send their children to school, and live in inadequate housing or are homeless. “I think it’s good to know how small the population is that has great health care,” said Michelle Gee, mother of Sean. “I don’t know that [Sean] realized how the majority doesn’t have access to health care. This study gives him a broader perspective and a bigger appreciation.”
At the end of the presentations, engaged parents asked questions and opened a dialogue. Will you offer job training? Do you have a social media strategy? How many locations do you have? Will you partner with businesses? Afterwards, parents had the opportunity to offer their feedback about the project. “I enjoyed the comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach that you took to the topic,” one parent wrote to teachers. “I was impressed that you had the students exploring food insecurity through the lenses of social studies, health, public policy, home economics, etc. ... It was a social justice topic imbued with practical skills training and analytical thinking.” Ahram said the project gave students “ownership in what they are learning. The majority of students were really passionate about this topic through the year and continue to be aware of it now. This was a time where students got to really explore an authentic, real-life issue … they got to understand the causes and effects of food insecurity and the solutions to combat it.” PC
Strategic Vision
Goal 5
Space Develop and repurpose space to serve the changing needs of the Penn Charter program and mission.
Touchstone Keeps Ortale Legacy Alive Each time lacrosse players walk to their newly renovated field they now pass a touchstone, a metal sculpture designed to inspire their best efforts and their best selves. The touchstone is in memory of Peter K. Ortale OPC ’83, who died in the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, and it is designed from the remnants of two steel rails salvaged from the transportation system that ran below the center. Ortale’s family, friends and members of the lacrosse community gathered on May 5 to unveil the touchstone and remember Ortale, a exceptional student and lacrosse star who excelled at Penn Charter and Duke University.
petitioned the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in hopes of securing the remnant. PC parent Jack McDavid helped Rogers transport the steel to Philadelphia. With the materials secured, the search was on for an artist. Enter Avi Golen OPC ’98 and John Wybar OPC ’96, owners of Revolutionary Recovery, a local recycling and waste management company. As part of their upcycling business, the OPCs house Recycled Artist in Residency (RAIR), a program that offers artists materials recovered from Revolutionary Recovery projects as well as workspace to create art. Golen, who was so moved by Peter’s story that he made a contribution to the Peter K. Ortale OPC ’83 Scholarship Fund when the project was finished, connected the Ortale family with a team of RAIR artists who collaborated on the sculpture. The touchstone was unveiled on OPC Weekend 2017, before the PC vs. Haverford lacrosse game, during a ceremony attended by Ortale’s family as well as many of his classmates, teammates and coaches. “Today, we remember Peter and honor him — not just his passing, but the remarkable being he was,” Cathy Ortale Grimes said, reminding those who gathered “to never forget that life is precious. The relationships you make are precious. What you do today matters. Go all in.” PC
Family, friends, classmates, lacrosse teammates and coaches returned to PC for the unveiling of a touchstone in memory of Peter K. Ortale OPC ’83.
Cathy Ortale Grimes, one of Ortale’s sisters, delivered a speech in which she thanked Penn Charter for continuing to preserve her brother’s legacy. “Peter’s exceptional character is visible in some of his favorite sayings,” she said. “Among them: ‘In the race to be better or best, miss not the joy of being.’ It is this message that we have chosen to include in the touchstone honoring Peter.” The idea for an Ortale memorial originated with his family and, with Penn Charter Chief Development Officer Jack Rogers, they
The touchstone is designed with remnants of steel rails salvaged from the transportation system that ran beneath the World Trade Center. Ortale died in the 9/11 attack on the Trade Center.
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Strategic Vision
Goals 3
Teaching Promote excellence in teaching by supporting faculty to develop and advance their professional practice.
Teaching & Learning Center:
Keeping The Bar High The Penn Charter Teaching & Learning Center (TLC) is in its fifth year and is now a model for centers across the country. The center allows faculty to learn what they want, when they want, and how they want by providing meaningful and easily accessible professional development on the Penn Charter campus, just steps away from their classrooms.
With 15 to 20 collaborative, interactive workshops each week, the TLC has inspired faculty to model, innovate, coach, research, collaborate, continue to learn—and teach better than ever.
“Better than ever is a high bar at Penn Charter,” Head of School Darryl J. Ford said when he spoke of the success of the TLC at the October 20 kickoff of Penn Charter’s new capital campaign, By the Light of Our
At lunch and after school, in a space on the second floor of Gummere Library, faculty offer workshops or one-to-one sessions to share their areas of expertise with one another. The sessions are inspired by teachers’ professional interests and needs, as well as by these goals of our Strategic Vision:
• promoting excellence in teaching, • educating students for global competency, • collaborating across divisions and disciplines, • strengthening use of technology, • and creating a community of lifelong learners — faculty and students — who make a difference.
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Ruth Aichenbaum was inspired to create the center because of the user-friendly learning experience she encountered one summer at her local Apple store.
Charter, How Far Can We See? “Quality of teaching, yesterday and today, is a hallmark of Penn Charter. “Since 2013, we have used gifts and income from our endowment to create change now,” Ford said, highlighting the TLC as an early success of Penn Charter’s efforts to implement the Strategic Vision. “We initiated change by focusing on people, the people who are at the heart of the Penn Charter educational experience—our teachers.” Ruth Aichenbaum, coordinator of the TLC, was inspired to create the center because of the user-friendly learning experience she encountered one summer at her local Apple store. As co-clerk of the Committee on Teaching and Learning, which was charged with promoting professional development, Aichenbaum was aware that faculty wanted to continue to learn, but it was challenging for faculty with busy lives of teaching and coaching to find the time to do this when it required going to workshops outside of school. An in-house Teaching & Learning Center seemed like a perfect solution. Each year the center has grown in terms of variety of sessions and the number of faculty attending and leading sessions. In year one, Aichenbaum logged 377 faculty visits to the TLC, whereas last year there were 927 visits and the TLC was used by 77 percent of the faculty.
Campus, formerly Philadelphia University. Jefferson University’s weekly workshops and Talking Teaching sessions are open to our faculty, and our TLC sessions welcome their participation. Aichenbaum said the TLC “has made it the norm for our community to collaborate with one another, share our successes and
challenges as we strive for excellence in teaching, and eagerly share our expertise with one another. “These five years of daily workshops, learning from and with one another, are nurturing us as a vibrant learning community of lifelong learners who make a difference.” PC
“Guided by research and best practices, faculty collaborate across divisions and disciplines to design and deliver engaging and relevant learning experiences. We provide students with the knowledge and skills they need to thrive in a complex and changing world.” – William Penn Charter School, Statement of Philosophy, January 2013
Teachers Teaching Teachers In addition to summer and off-campus opportunities, the TLC offers 15 to 20 workshops each week. The breadth and depth of TLC topics are captured in this partial list of titles. Pedagogy:
EQUITY AND INCLUSION:
Meaningful Use of Homework, Design Thinking, Differentiated Instruction, Notetaking in the Digital Age, Students as Curriculum Makers, How Does Quakerism Guide Our Teaching?
Discussions about Teaching Tolerance Webinars, Curriculum Interventions to Mitigate Stereotype Threat and Solo Status, Leaning into Difficult Conversations
When the center first started, faculty had to be recruited to lead sessions; now faculty regularly volunteer to offer sessions and suggest various affinity groups based around interests, disciplines and divisions. Now there are so many offers to lead TLC sessions Aichenbaum often offers concurrent sessions and would offer even more sessions at the same time if there were more available rooms to use.
Make It Stick:
Center for Public Purpose:
The TLC has even inspired parents to create a spinoff, Parent-to-Parent, as well as a student-led version, Student Learning Community.
Technology:
Wellness:
Podcasts, One-to-One Computer Help, Using PearDeck to Make PowerPoint Presentations Interactive, PC Hub Rubrics, Online Testing and Surveys
Mindful Meditation, Morning Swim, Rock Climbing
The TLC has a partnership just across the street with Jefferson University’s East
Using Neuroscience Tells Us About Learning to Inform our Teaching
Arts: Eco-Dyeing and Printing, Ceramics, Learn to Play the Ukulele, Making Movies Using Your iPhone, Learn about the VITAL Quakerism Pop-Up Book Project Led by US PC student interns
Creating Lifelong Learners and Other Ways to Connect with the Center for Public Purpose
Environment and Sustainability: Composting, Learning Gardens, What You Don’t Eat Can Hurt You!
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How Far? What if we refuse to limit ourselves and instead follow our bravest imaginations to the best future for children?
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1689. William Penn ignited the spark of Penn Charter and our school’s enduring purpose. More than 328 years later, that light has expanded and radiated, revealing the path forward. Now, we face a new milestone for our students–and their world. We can continue to improve incrementally. That would be the mark of a fine school.
Or, we can ask ourselves: What if we committed to being not only a fine school, but a visionary school? What if we refuse to limit ourselves and instead follow our bravest imaginations to the best future for children? Then, how far could our light travel? How far could we see?
How Far? After four years of quiet conversation with the school’s closest friends, Head of School Darryl J. Ford gathered a crowd on October 20 for a momentous public announcement: Over the next three years, the school will engage in a $75 million campaign to fund a vision for the future of Penn Charter. By the Light of Our Charter, How Far Can We See? is a comprehensive capital campaign to support key initiatives which, Ford said, will position Penn Charter for the next 10, 20 and 50 years, and beyond. “We are at an inflection point in time,” Ford told a crowd of 515 OPCs, parents, faculty and friends gathered in Dooney Field House.
Head of School Darryl J. Ford addressed more than 500 members of the PC community who came together to kick off the public phase of a comprehensive capital campaign, By the Light of Our Charter, How Far Can We See?
“We have been reinventing a classic education, and now we will join together in a capital campaign to secure the future of our school and transform this 47-acre campus.” The crowd gave an audible gasp when Ford announced the $75 million goal, and an even louder gasp when he revealed that, during four years of a quiet, leadership phase of the campaign, the school already raised $50.1 million toward the goal. The total raised climbed to $53.1 million by press time. continued on next page
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Teachers at the Center The public phase of the campaign is designed to last three years and the impact will be most evident to visitors in the construction they will observe on Penn Charter’s campus. However, Ford’s reference to “reinventing classic,” and a significant portion of his presentation on October 20, emphasized changes to the educational program that began in 2013 when Overseers approved a new Strategic Vision. That vision recognizes that traditional competencies are no longer enough to prepare students to thrive in a complex and changing world. The new global economy requires collaboration across networks and cultures, creativity and adaptability, critical thinking and problem solving.
Dooney Field House was transformed for the campaign kickoff with exciting and artful lighting — light being a metaphor for the new campaign.
Director of Athletics and Athletic Planning John Thiel explained plans for a new Athletics and Wellness Center.
Commitment to Access “Everyone was so excited holding our candles, just walking down the aisles and singing and having a good time. It was great,” said Samyyah Muhammad, an eighth grader who sang at the October 20 event.
“Since 2013, we have used donor gifts, dollars from our robust Annual Fund, and investment income from our endowment to create change now. Change and innovation our students could benefit from now,” Ford said. The innovations in curriculum called for by the Strategic Vision were incubated in two programs for teachers: the VITAL summer grant program that pays teachers to collaborate to develop new approaches and methods, and the Teaching & Learning Center, a hub for on-campus professional development. (See page 20.) Recognizing the centrality of teaching at Penn Charter, Ford said a key campaign initiative is to raise more than $5 million to “pay, retain and inspire the best teachers.”
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Also critical is the campaign’s commitment to continuing Penn Charter’s history of access for talented students. Penn Charter’s endowment currently funds need-based, mission-inspired financial aid to attract the region’s most talented students. The campaign seeks to raise more than $13 million in endowment for financial aid to continue Penn Charter’s unique culture of inclusivity and service. “All of this is important, and important to me,” Ford said of the vision for PC’s future, “but equally important to me and to us as a leader in independent schools, as a Quaker school, is the reality that teachers and our newly established Center for Public Purpose are educating student to live lives to make a difference. “That was the overarching goal of the Strategic Vision: to prepare our graduates to thrive in the 21st century global economy, and, as the title said, to ‘Educate Students to Live Lives that Make a Difference.’ For William Penn, public purpose was indeed this school. Today public purpose starts with the school and extends to the world.”
By the Light of Our Charter, How Far Can We See?
Campus Transformation When the 2013 Strategic Vision called for the construction of
Constructing a new lower school
a new lower school, much speculation ensued at PC about
on the site of Dooney Field House
where to place the building. However, once architects studied
creates the opportunity to build
the possibilities, it became clear to them and to school leaders that the best site was the patch of land occupied by Dooney Field House. Placing the lower school there will unite PC’s three divisions and create a vibrant “academic village.”
an Athletics and Wellness Center located on the other side of campus, adjacent to the track, Maguire Field, the front fields and the Strawbridge Campus. And the decision to create a new, car-free academic village, with parking and circulation pushed to the periphery of campus, inspired a vision for a new landscape with spaces for outdoor learning, observation and exploration. According to the new master plan, the first piece of the campus transformation is construction of a new baseball field across School House Lane on the 2.7-acre property PC acquired last year with the goal of expanding the Strawbridge Campus. continued on next page
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Campus Transformation:
Lower School
Penn Charter needs facilities to support interdisciplinary curricula, project-based learning, and future innovation. The How Far? campaign seeks to raise more than $18 million to build a lower school designed for the way we teach and children learn. This landmark building will be bigger, brighter, with:
• flexible classrooms • learning communities on three levels with grades pre-K, K and 1 on the first floor, grades 2 and 3 on the second, and grades 4 and 5 on the third floor • multilevel library • spaces for studio, movement, language, flex, science, music, IdeaLabs, woodshop, and art • outdoor learning, observation and “classrooms” • hardscape and natural play spaces
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Campus Transformation:
Athletics and Wellness Center To promote fitness for life and fortify the PC athletics legacy, the campaign seeks to raise more than $16 million to build a state-of-the art center (shown below) with:
• facilities for physical education, health, sports • locker rooms, meeting spaces, two basketball courts for team practice and PE program that convert to one competition court • safe, direct access to the track, Maguire Field, the front fields and Strawbridge Campus, the site of a new baseball field
Campus Transformation:
Campus Master Plan To evolve our 47-acre campus in one of the nation’s largest cities, we seek to raise more than $6 million for a campus master plan that will include:
• open spaces for outdoor exploration and observation • improved environmental practices, teaching our students conservation by example • a new landscape inspired by the Wissahickon Gorge • repurposing vacant spaces for classrooms, labs, offices continued on next page
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Ensuring Our Next Decade The Annual Fund is a key initiative of the How Far? comprehensive capital campaign, and we
Securing the vision for PC will require talent, time
seek to raise more than $17 million in annual
and substantial philanthropic support. The How
giving over the course of the campaign to secure
Far? campaign seeks to raise $75 million to fund
Penn Charter for the next decade.
these initiatives:
Penn Charter’s Annual Fund is robust — we raised almost
Academic Village
$18 million +
Brilliant Teaching
$5 million +
Athletics and Wellness Center
$16 million +
Financial Aid / Public Purpose
$13 million +
$12 million in Annual Fund gifts during the leadership phase of the campaign — and creates a flexible fiscal foundation that moves Penn Charter forward to:
• spur bold curricular updates every year • attract and retain the most qualified teachers • maintain optimal class sizes and resources • provide technological advances in every classroom Head of School Darryl J. Ford told the audience at the campaign kickoff that, because the Annual Fund is part of the campaign, “if you’ve made an Annual Fund gift, you are already part of this campaign. Thank you!”
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Campaign Math
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Campus Master Plan Annual Fund
$6 million + $17 million +
Trusted Friends One of the highlights of the campaign kickoff on October 20 was the recognition of Frances Robertson Graham and William A. Graham IV
In addition to the Grahams, Ford highlighted several individuals who helped kickstart the How Far? campaign.
Duncan McFarland OPC ’61 “Duncan comes from a family that over generations has sent almost 100 students to Penn Charter … brothers, cousins, second and third cousins.
OPC ’58 for their $7.5 million campaign gift, the single largest gift in Penn Charter history. “Just as William Penn called upon his closest friends to found this school, we have called upon our trusted and closest friends to secure its future,” Ford said.
“On my first day as head of school, Duncan was one of the first persons I called. He has always given me wise counsel. He has advocated for the resources we need to deliver the educational experience he thinks is worthy of Penn Charter. He started us off with a gift of $5 million.”
Richard OPC ’69 and Claudia Balderston “Rich and Claudia supported us in the last capital campaign and, early in this campaign, they made a $1 million gift to endowment for financial aid. Then, they made a second, transformative gift that inspired others and pushed the campaign forward in a significant way.”
William F. MacDonald Jr. OPC ’62 Head of School Darryl J. Ford with Frances Robertson Graham and William A. Graham IV OPC ’58. The Grahams made a $7.5 million gift during the leadership phase of the campaign.
campaign.penncharter.com Visit campaign.penncharter.com to view videos, read stories about donors and the the impact of their gifts, see updates on construction projects, and better understand the priorities of the How Far? campaign.
“Bill is our quarterback. Bill supports the vision for the future of Penn Charter and has been there from the first instant, providing the financial support for our Strategic Vision work. As many of you know, he has made a $5 million gift. Every time I meet with Bill, he is concerned about our students and whether they have what they need to thrive at Penn Charter.” PC
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William Davison OPC ’59 and Nelson Luria OPC ’59
OPC
weekend 2017 Alumni returned to Old Penn Charter for the 125th Annual Alumni Reception to celebrate each other, their former teachers and the newest members of the Honorary Class of 1689.
Class of 1952
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Longtime friends Val Erdmanis Hon. 1689 and Rick Mellor OPC ’69 hung up their PE whistles at the end of the 2016-17 school year.
The Kenny Caldwell Kicknic welcomed OPCs and their families for an all-ages kickball tournament.
Sean M. Weston OPC ‘83, Joseph Perrott Hon. 1689, Patrick J. McDonough OPC ’90 and Michael Biront OPC ‘84.
The Class of 1947 had an impressive turnout for its 70th reunion luncheon at Head of School Darryl J. Ford’s house. From left: H. Randolph Schofield, Alan T. Willoughby Sr., Dwight J. Hartzell, George Scott Stewart III, Edward C. Driscoll Sr., Charles S. Ganoe, Paul Shuttleworth and Ford.
Head of School Darryl J. Ford, Tim Myers OPC ’77, John Rodgers OPC ’77, Cliff Donahower OPC ’52.
At the OPCs of Color Luncheon, alumni and students had the opportunity to share their experiences at Penn Charter and beyond.
Eric C. Ross, Bimal Desai, Todd Goulding, Michael Rudolph, all OPC ’92.
The Class of 1967 celebrated its 50th reunion at the Whitemarsh Country Club.
“Fitz,” as Joseph Fitzmartin is fondly known by his students, has directed the Quakers Dozen since 1996. Fall 2017 •
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Alumni
OPC weekend 2017
alumni award of
merit
“To a graduate of the William Penn Charter School whose character and outstanding achievement have reflected lasting credit upon this school.”
David Evans OPC ’59
David Evans OPC ’59 received the Alumni Award of Merit, given each year “to a graduate of the William Penn Charter School whose character and outstanding achievement have reflected lasting credit upon this old school.” 32
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Since 2011, David Evans, board president of Amani Global Works, has worked to build and support a community hospital and public health outreach service on Idjwi, an island in Lake Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Evans travels to Idjwi in the summer, introducing new vegetables into the diet of the Ban’Idjwi, supporting a nutrition program for malnourished children and helping to control neglected tropical diseases like malaria and intestinal worms. More than 500 community health workers are helping families control these diseases and learn about family planning. Most children can’t afford school, Evans told the audience assembled in the Meeting Room, because the cost of educating one child is 60 percent of an average family’s income. So, in 2015, the hospital and community started a free school for girls, which now has more than 200 students from kindergarten through sixth grade. “We believe that education and health care are the keys to helping communities develop and thrive,” he said. Evans was introduced to the OPC Weekend audience by classmate William Davison, who sees the beginnings of Evans’ commitment to others in his youth at Penn Charter. “Among his important early experiences,” Davison said, “were two summerlong American Friends Service Committee workshops—one resettling and integrating a black community in Des Moines, Iowa, displaced by a new interstate, and a second assisting Native Americans in North Dakota whose houses and livelihoods were taken from them by a large Army Corps of Engineers dam. David early on worked to improve the lot of those less fortunate—an experience that shaped his career and his work with Amani Global Works.” In addition to his work in Africa, Evans is professor emeritus and special lecturer in sociomedical sciences in pediatrics and public health at Columbia University Medical Center. After graduating from Penn Charter in 1959, he earned a BA from Harvard College and a PhD in sociology from Northwestern University. He has more than 30 years of experience working with colleagues to develop health education programs for children with asthma and their families, and for families of children with sleep problems. One of these programs, Open Airways for Schools, is distributed by the American Lung Association and is used in more than 24,000 U.S. elementary schools. Another, Physician Asthma Care Education, teaches pediatricians the medical treatment and counseling skills they need to help parents learn how to control their children’s asthma. In 2005, Evans was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Thoracic Society. Evans serves on the Overseers at Penn Charter, and is also a board member of WE ACT for Environmental Justice. Since 1998, he has worked with WE ACT to build community partnerships for Columbia’s Center for Environmental Health in Northern Manhattan and Center for Children’s Environmental Health. PC
Alumni
OPC weekend 2017
honorary 1689 Honorary 1689 diplomas are “given to a member of the Penn Charter community who has shown extraordinary commitment to the school by demonstrating pride and excellence in the performance of their duties and by consistently providing encouragement and support to the student body.” This year, Bruce MacCullough and Rosanne Punzo became members of the Honorary Class of 1689.
Bruce MacCullough Bruce MacCullough made Penn Charter his career, teaching math since 1983 and jumping right into the service program as it expanded during his tenure. MacCullough also spent 20 years directing the College Prep program for underserved Philadelphia public school students.
Rosanne Punzo’s family helped her celebrate her award. From left: Tim and Jenn McCusker, Emma Lockwood, Rosanne Punzo, Michael Punzo, Beck Punzo. Front: Cassidy, Cru and Gia McCusker.
john f. gummere distinguished teacher award Joseph Fitzmartin
Bruce MacCullough, pictured with his wife, Noreen, retired at the end of the school year.
“Bruce was always excited and passionate, seeing his vocation as an opportunity to change the trajectory of a young person’s life for the better,” said James Ballengee Hon. 1689, founder of PC’s Center for Public Purpose. “I introduce Bruce to you tonight as a Renaissance man who has chosen to get involved in, touched and had an impact on every area of life at PC in addition to impacting the lives of thousands of Philadelphia-area students at PC and beyond—a humble individual with such a spirit of generosity and depth of character that has influenced not only those many students but all of us as well.”
“The John F. Gummere Distinguished Teacher Award is given by the William Penn Charter Alumni Society to that person who, as a member of the faculty of the William Penn Charter School for a period of at least five years, has demonstrated outstanding scholarship, teaching and character; and has been an especially constructive influence upon others in all phases of Penn Charter life.”
Rosanne Punzo Rosanne Punzo has worked in the facilities and business offices at Penn Charter for 29 years. Although Rosanne learned technical and digital skills on the job, Facilities Manager William Quinn said, “the true power of Rosanne’s work is what she does behind the scenes. ...Rosanne thinks about the little things, the details that need to happen to make things not only work but work well. Her attention to detail is always intended to show Penn Charter in the best light possible, and her care for the school is evident in everything she does. She is a true professional.”
Longtime choral director Joseph Fitzmartin, pictured with Assistant Head of School Beth Glascott Hon. 1689 and overseer Mark Hecker OPC ’99, received the John F. Gummere Distinguished Teacher Award.
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William Penn Charter School
Then & Now
1992
Modern Penn Charter became fully coeducational in 1980, and the Class of 1992 was the first Penn Charter class to graduate girls.
2017
The Class of 2017 was Penn Charter’s 25th coeducational class.
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Alumni
Class Notes Penn Charter magazine wants to hear from you, and your classmates do, too! Submit your news and photos at penncharter.com/classnote. Digital photos should be 300 dpi JPEGs.
1949 Harry E. Richter writes, “At age 86 I am still in fairly good health, although it is much more difficult to get around without some mobile assistance. We are, however, in the planning phase for our eighth year of supporting the acoustic research of endangered right whales in their winter habitat off the east coasts of Georgia and Florida with the scientists from Florida Atlantic University and Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute Foundation. These breakthrough recordings are the first indication of how whale calves learn to speak—like a human baby’s first words. This interesting project, mixed in with lots of cruises and travel, at least keeps our brains young while our bodies continue to age.” Carl F. Rumpp Jr. reports that he and his wife, Patty, celebrated their 31st anniversary in August in their Maui condo overlooking the blue Pacific. “Our first date 33 years ago was in Maui, and we have been happy together ever since. Hopefully, the OPCs of 1949 are also well and happy. Aloha to all.”
body is far less than you can imagine, and the mental and physical benefits are huge!” Christopher W. Parker Sr. reports, “Janie and I are doing fine, with Janie still doing most of the ‘doing.’ We’re off to merry old London this summer with son Chris, daughter Pam and hubby Mike and granddaughter Sammy (a new third grader at PC). Going over on the Queen Mary 2, which should be great. Home by air: not so great. Maybe we’ll run into some distant relatives who were essentially booted out of England because they were Quakers!”
1952 Bruce Waechter OPC ’52 writes, “In spite of some pretty rainy weather, we had a great 65th reunion in May. We had a group
of 24: Barbara and David K. Colescott, George C. (Skip) Corson and Penny Brodie, Ellen Crompton, Shirley Davis, Clifford W. Donahower, Pat and Colson H. Hillier, Jean and David M. Jordan, Eleanor Kelley Given, Carol and William J. McGuckin, Michael P. Ritter, Molly Simon, Elise T. (Lisa) and Robert Y. Twitmyer, Carol M and Joseph B. VanSciver, Janet and F. Bruce. Waechter, Joan and Frederick J. Yannessa, and Shannon Makhija, our excellent PC organizer and hostess. “We started off with a Thursday dinner, and after lunch at the Timmons House on Friday, we watched an excellent student program, including a 40-piece band, just for us! Friday night was the annual Alumni Reception, and on Saturday we had dinner at the Philadelphia Cricket Club. “A highlight on Saturday evening was Colson H. Hillier’s presentation of a
Class of 1952 65th Reunion
1950 In June, Whitman P. (Pete) Cross II competed in his age division in pickleball at the National Senior Games in Birmingham, Ala. Pete and his partner placed third for a bronze medal, but the embarrassment was being defeated by 92- and 87-year-olds! Nine hundred people over age 50 competed. Pete passes on these words of encouragement: “If you haven’t tried this delightful sport, contact your local pickleball association. The demand on your
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Alumni
Class Notes special plaque to George C. “Skip” Corson, honoring his service to the school (39 years as an overseer), and also honoring his service to our class. “We are sorry more couldn’t be with us, but those who were there had a great time. We did send 30 or more pictures of our reunion to our e-mail list. If you didn’t see any, let me know. Wishing you health and happiness in the years ahead!!”
Henry R. Waddington writes, “Not much to report from me except that back in March, Gov. Nikki Haley appointed me commissioner of the Board of Voter Registration and Elections for Beaufort County, S.C. I will have the eight voting precincts located here in Sun City with more than 14,000 potential voters. I believe my appointment was one of the last acts of our beloved governor before she became the ambassador to the United Nations.”
Richard P. Allman was inducted into the Penn Charter Athletic Honor Society on Nov. 10, 2017, at the Union League of Philadelphia. David A. Scott (right), senior vicecommander of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, met up with Jon C. Sirlin OPC ’66 at the organization’s annual meeting at the Corinthian Yacht Club in January 2017.
1955 William T. Commons writes, “My Sharon and I are snowbirds, dividing the year between our central Florida home near Sebring and our inherited summer cabin on northern Lake George in the Adirondacks of upstate New York, just south of Ticonderoga. We sold our Pennsylvania home when entering full retirement and moved to Florida, where I serve as volunteer chaplain to the 1,100 residents of the Highlands Ridge community in Avon Park. Come visit.”
1956 In June, James F. Tetzlaff and his grandson Charlie Jordan attended the Believe and Achieve Golf Outing in Elverson, Pa., and got a chance to meet Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matthew T. Ryan OPC ’03.
1957 Daniel P. Mitchell III did not make the reunion festivities because his bride of 56 years, Maurine, slipped in their home and crushed her L1 vertebra. Fortunately, she suffered no paralysis, is fully recovered and doing physical therapy to regain mobility and strength. In 2009, Dan sold his radio station in Palm Springs, Calif., and moved to San Juan Capistrano. He now markets luxury houses in the southern Orange County area. This senior career, he says, is “a great way to stay vibrant, meet new people everyday and use a lifetime of sales and marketing experience to keep everyone smiling and looking forward to blue skies and green lights. Life is just a great gift and full of fun.”
1958 William A. Graham reports, “I recently sold my interest in the Graham Company to all of the employees who helped me build a successful company. An employee stock option plan is now in place, and everyone seems pretty pleased that I sold the company to the employees who helped build it. Also, my 3-year-old granddaughter is very active, and I have a chance to be with her almost every weekend at the seashore.” (Read about Bill Graham’s gift to Penn Charter on page 29.)
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1961 Jeffry H. Tindall writes, “We are here in Rhode Island for the summer, where we can see our eight grandchildren. Zoe, the oldest, graduated from high school as a merit scholar and national debate winner and will attend Columbia in the fall. Three of our grandchildren will be at Keewaydin and Songadeewin camps in Vermont for the summer, and one will be a counselor at Brown Ledge on Lake Champlain. We enjoy babysitting our youngest grandchild (17 months) every day and are learning again why raising children is best done in your 30s! In our spare time, Joy paints, and I still coach girls and boys pole vault and love it.”
1962 Kevin A. McKinney writes, “Thanks to all who attended the Class of ’62 reunion, shared their real and imagined memories and helped us make new memories
Alumni
Class Notes
Class of 1962 55th Reunion
together. Thirty-seven of us (including 22 classmates) attended at least one of the three events. By reunion’s end, we agreed that we were all worthy products of Penn Charter and its mission to inspire students to think, collaborate, innovate, lead and live lives that make a difference. We did it!”
active. I know a few people involved with
Paul E. Quante writes, “Due to health issues, I had to retire from active ministry. I am no longer assigned to Our Lady of Grace Church in Castro Valley, Calif. In July 2015, I was assigned by my Order of St. Augustine provincial superior to St. Augustine Monastery in San Diego. I have lost contact with some of my classmates because my health prevents travel to OPC gatherings, and I am a lousy Christmas card sender. If any of them want to contact me, I bet they could get my mobile phone number or email from the alumni office. I keep them all in prayer.”
also trying to get into my swim trunks and
John Sheridan writes, “In Portland there is a growing organization called the Village, a nonprofit that encourages contact between seniors and services to encourage people to age in their own homes and stay socially
Francisco, and your instruction saved me
it, I am on a waiting list for one of their book clubs, and I have a membership. A Wednesday morning coffee meeting gives our neighborhood a chance to vent about politics and the rain. So, at the pool yesterday I saw a book club member. I was get going on the laps. He introduced me to another old guy. We exchanged pleasantries and, since he was wearing a MOAB Music Festival T-shirt I asked him if he was
Thomas F. Strickland Jr. and his wife, Elizabeth, celebrated their 51st wedding anniversary on June 4.
Albert B. Wilson Jr. is the coauthor of A Declarer’s Workbook, a new text on declarer play at bridge. It describes 13 techniques that all good declarers should know and then presents 108 problems, each using one or more of the techniques. Al reports, “The book has been favorably reviewed in The Bridge Bulletin, the monthly publication of the American Contract Bridge League. It has also been recommended by one of the leading players in the world, Eric Rodwell. Copies can be purchased at Amazon.com. Those wanting personalized copies may order them by contacting me at al@ruffandsluff.com.”
a musician. He said no, he had been a Portland contractor and carpenter. Then he looked at my T-shirt that said ‘Penland’ for the North Carolina craft school. I explained that I had taught there once a half dozen years ago. He looked me in the eye and exclaimed, ‘You are John Grew Sheridan, and you and your wife taught me how to cut dovetails, use machines 38 years ago in San from any injury ever since!’ What a moment, and I was nearly naked. Splendid. And we finally have a warm (or almost warm) sunny day today. Ciao.”
Albert B. Wilson Jr.
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Alumni
Class Notes
1963 David K. Crosby writes, “Graduation from Lafayette College in June of 1967 meant the end of college student days and the beginning of the rest of my life. Ending were the days of formal education in economics; brother, house manager and waiter in Phi Delta Theta fraternity; and ROTC Ranger Unit commander. I entered a managementtraining program with Bell of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, where I learned all about customer service and business office operations. But then in May 1968 the Army requested that I join them to complete my military service ‘obligations.’ Starting as an Army second lieutenant, I went to Ft. Eustis, Va., for training as a transportation officer. Spent three years active duty and was repeatedly redirected to non-standard slots in both Heidelberg, Germany, and Phouc Vinh, Vietnam, such as aircraft maintenance, operations and training, assistant adjutant, security control, contracting and psyops. I only spent four months in a real transportation slot! It wasn’t until I joined a transportation battalion Reserve unit in Trenton, N.J., that I did transportation branch duties. I finally left the Reserves as a lieutenant colonel after moving to Colorado. I returned to Bell of Pa. in 1971 to continue my career in customer service and operations. But once again I was diverted from this field path to operations staff planning and information technology. Fortunately, this led to an opportunity to relocate to Denver, Colo., in 1978 to work on new systems development and deployment with Mountain Bell. After several job and location changes, I ended back on the corporate staff where I met my wife, Charlene. Her successful career took us on adventures with moves to Phoenix, Minneapolis, Atlanta and back to Phoenix. After much work-related travel through all of Mountain Bell/US West’s 14 states, I got retired in 1999 in Phoenix. Since Char
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continued to work until 2001, I thought I would take a short sabbatical, then rejoin the workforce. Didn’t quite work out that way! So I used my newfound free time to help form a homeowners association for our new community, and I spent many years serving as president on the board. Also had lots of fun being a U.S. Census taker and a field representative for the Census Bureau. While in the Army and starting back with Bell, I married and had two children,
David Kelly and Susanne Kristine, who both still live on the East Coast. Now I have four grandchildren and one great-grandchild. These are the reasons I go back east. Also, Char’s daughter Heather is in Scottsdale, Ariz., and keeps us up-to-date with the social media. Char and I continue to enjoy Arizona winters; the summers, not so much. Our miniature schnauzers provide lots of entertainment and help keep us active.”
Charles Kurz II writes, “Dr. Gummere carefully saw that five members of the Class of 1963 attended Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. They were me, Robert E. Brickley, William T. Fox III, Paul R. Kroekel, and Warren Wiegand Jr. From left to right, this is Warren, Robert, me and Paul at our 50th reunion at Trinity. “And here’s me and Richard M. Dearnley (right) following this year’s Longport American Mile race. In the 70-and-over category, Dick won a second place medal and I came in third. We have to improve by more than one minute to catch this year’s 70-and-over winner. We look forward to our 55th reunion in May!”
Alumni
Class Notes
1964 Charles H. Ellis III reports, “I graduated from Syracuse University in 1968, got drafted at the end of the year, and wound up as a Pentagon clerk, in for three years in front of an electric typewriter – which pleased me more (and would please me more now) than any bloody tech object possibly could. I met my wife while in the Army, and we married in Washington in 1972, a few months after my Army stint ended. No regrets about the college, the Army experience, the marriage, or our two wonderful children. We have two lovely daughters, both fairly close by, and are expecting our fourth grandchild soon. We went west by car in 1973 for grad school (and for some fine travels) over the next six years, and then moved to Richmond of all places for a job with the state – a love-hate relationship from which I eventually retired in ’07 and moved back to Washington. The state job was with an environmental agency – worthy purpose, good friends inside and outside the agency, and mostly political backwardness, but nothing like what we’re now seeing around much of the nation and on Capitol Hill. We enjoyed the neighborhood we lived in, and I participated happily in PTA endeavors during the children’s school years. My wife taught in Montessori schools and in day care places when necessary. We both worked in that world here, as well, although I am also active in the neighborhood and volunteer in schools. And I have worked part-time. We have traveled across the U.S. and up and down the West Coast (my wife’s siblings live in California) as well as much of the East Coast. We have visited the Philippines (my wife grew up there), Japan (to see friends in the U.S. embassy), and Hong Kong (before 1997). We have also seen a little of eastern and western Canada, and visited France and England. I can’t say we visit these places for jobs or for frequent vacations, but the memories are delightful. It looks as if PC is doing a lot of good
things with its education of today’s students, and of course the admirable principles of peace and caring for others are very evident. I owe my citizenship interest to PC and also to Syracuse, which mandated a “Citizenship” class for all freshmen when I was there. The PC magazine also depicts new buildings fairly often; I hope some shade is being protected because the Pinehurst campus was one pretty place in my day – and during reunions in 1989 and ’94.
Does one get to give guidance as a mere lad of 71? Well, yes. My age group, and perhaps yours as well, must work to make this world a better, fairer, more peaceful place. It would be rotten of us to leave younger people totally responsible for repairing the the earth, fixing inequalities of wealth and power, and addressing – with money and effort and citizenship – the threats to democracy and civilization that we now face. Go, PC!
John C. Hoffmeier writes, “As a member of the Class of ’64 and having enjoyed our 50th reunion at PC, I was thrilled to once again use the Senior Stairs and noticed during my visit that the underclassmen still respect the tradition. I remember our class as having a mascot ceramic frog (pictured), about fist sized, hidden behind a little door over the radiator on the main landing of the senior stairs. The radiator remains, but the little door accessing the radiator valve is now gone, as is the frog. I don’t know what happened to it, but woe be it to anyone who disturbed the frog during that senior year. It was fun returning to PC and challenging trying to find recognizable areas of the campus. A hallway here, an outside patio there, but always easy to find the Senior Stairs.”
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Alumni
Class Notes
1966
1968
John W. Braxton writes, “I continue to teach biology at Community College of Philadelphia, where I am the treasurer of the union representing 1,300 faculty and staff. Drawing on my background in the labor movement, I have recently become active with the Labor Network for Sustainability and am working to advocate for policies that move our economy rapidly toward 100 percent renewable energy and at the same time protect workers who have jobs in the fossil fuel industry. My wife, Marcy, and I are happy that our two sons and one grandson live within a few blocks of us. I’d be glad to hear from classmates at jwbraxton@gmail.com.”
Bruce C. Gill writes, “The class of 1968 is working on the 50th reunion scheduled for next May 4-5, so please save the date and be sure to send in your class notes and updated emails!” Bruce, a historian and director of the Harriton Foundation, which protects and preserves Harriton House in Bryn Mawr, accompanied a Northern Ireland film crew to Penn Charter last April. (See page 5.) Charles Thomson, Irish-born leader of the American Revolution and secretary of the Continental Congress, is the best known inhabitant of Harriton. “The Man Who Spoke the Truth” is set to air in November on BBC Northern Ireland.
1971 Randolph C. Barba writes, “My wife and I continue to travel the world in our long program to explore ancient civilizations,
1972 David R. Gilkeson writes, “I just got back from our 45th reunion, and what a good feeling it was to get back to Penn Charter. Much has changed physically with the campus, but the people and the human
Class of 1972
John W. Braxton
Allen F. Steere reports, “Stephen A. Bonnie, James Q. Stevens, Richard W. Holmes Jr. and I met at the Woodmere Art Museum in June to view a retrospective art show of works painted by classmate John F. Laub. Much acclaimed as a plein air oil painter, John, who died in 2005, painted bold, colorful canvases utilizing just six colors! His scenes of the Adirondacks and the coastal Eastern states are striking and brilliantly composed. One favorite is the pathway and garden of a house on Fire Island, N.Y., where in 1955 Truman Capote spent the summer writing the story Breakfast at Tiffany’s. John was a frequent visitor to that house. Steve, Jim, Rick and I enjoyed the show and reminisced about John and his developing talent when he was a student of longtime art teacher Ollie Nuse.”
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modern cultures and the natural world. Following our very successful Madagascar trip with Renata and John R. Harbison, we are planning a joint trip to the wilds of the Danakil Depression in the Great Rift Valley in Ethiopia in January. We will finally visit Egypt and will have completed a multiyear exploration of the Nile River from its source to Cairo. We also just finished visits to the wilds of Odisha in India visiting the primitive tribes and the ancient civilizations of Sri Lanka. Our extended global explorations continue to be intellectually challenging, downright fun and a wonderful way to spend retirement.”
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45th Reunion
Alumni
Class Notes respect and friendship still remain very solid. I was amazed with the student project presentations — one a replica of an aqueduct by eighth graders and the second from a senior that felt more like a thirdyear medical student thesis dissertation. Speaking of people, it was nice to say hello to Joe Perrott Hon. 1689 and visit the lacrosse field dedication. I look forward to our 50th reunion in five years and wish my classmates well. It was a good visit.” Timothy R. Knettler accepted an invitation to be on the Richmont Graduate University’s board of trustees. He’ll continue as the executive director and CEO of the National Association of State Mental Health Programs Directors Research Institute in the Washington, D.C., area.
Virgin Islands. “We had a wonderful week of sailing with Captain Walt at the helm,” Christoph reported.
David C. Hahn is working to create final versions of new Concert Imaginaire CD, tentatively called “Works,” for release both as a CD and as digital downloads through his label, the Sublunar Society. Listen to Slogan, an exploration of the meanings behind political “catch phrases” for narrator and an ensemble of instruments at soundcloud.com/ davidhahn/slogan. David has also made published sheet music for Chippewa
1973 Frederick H. Bartlett writes, “My wife, Melanie, and I have three children, Henry, Lincoln and Emily, all graduates of Penn Charter. Our son Lincoln and his wife,
Songs for soprano and guitar, and
Start Spreadin’ the News, a solo guitar arrangement of the song New York, New York. Dorchester Sunset is a new piece written for Concert Imaginaire that will premiere in the 2017-18 season. David also reports, “As a solo guitarist, I have been volunteering in the Healing Music department of the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance hospital. This involves performing soothing music in various patient waiting areas to help cut stress and create a more relaxed atmosphere.” David S. Jonas has been formally nominated to be general counsel of the U.S. Department of Energy and is awaiting Senate confirmation. Benjamin H. Linton III writes, “I graduated from Montgomery County Community College with a certification in alcohol and drug counseling in May 2017. I intend to continue in the master’s in psychology program at Chestnut Hill College this summer. I suppose it’s all due to my 13 years spent at Penn Charter! What a solid education foundation!”
Class of 1977 40th Reunion
Jaime, have two children, Violet and Lincoln. Henry and Emily both got married last summer.” Glenn S. Koach reports, “We moved to Palm Springs. I would love to see anyone who has plans to visit. J. Craig Shields III will be one of our first guests. We see each other a lot.”
1974 Walter G. Delevich (see above, left, with wife Elsie) and Blake M. Christoph (with wife Julie) at Pirates Bight in the British
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Alumni
Class Notes
1978 Theodore F. Decker Jr. writes, “A recent family trip celebrated the graduation of Kathryn (Katy) S. Decker OPC ’13 from the University of New Hampshire, the acceptance of Timothy G. Decker OPC ’08 to the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and the success of Theodore S. Decker OPC ’06 at Comcast! Sue and I are ‘retired’ and enjoy our time with our 2-year-old granddaughter, Whitney, and trips to our beach cottage in Ocean City, N.J.! Look forward to seeing all OPC ’78ers at our 40th reunion in May 2018!”
Lynch and Peter K. Miller. Pat has really kept up with school. He is psyched for our 40th! All look young and fit and are doing well. Also, I heard Stephen C. Shaifer is back in the area and doing well. And Pete told me that Richard W. Mercer is rocking it down south, in Florida, I believe. By the way, Pete and Karen Miller’s talented, beautiful daughter, Gabby, just got married. Congratulations, Pete!”
1980 John B. Caras, class president, recently reunited with Class of ’80 advisor Stephen A. Bonnie OPC ’66 at the PC/GA baseball game.
Paul C. Mancini writes, “Classmates, our 40th reunion is coming up soon. Please join the Penn Charter Class of 1978 Facebook group for updates, notices from other classmates, and pictures to help you recognize friends you haven’t seen in years. We have about 34 members (some more active than others) and hope to add as many as possible.”
1979 RIchard A. Bedford Jr. writes, “I had a year full of anniversaries. I’ve been married to my wife, Lisa, for 32 years with two sons, Rich, a Bates College grad, and Christopher, who graduated this year from Ramapo College. I’ve been working for Novo-Nordisk pharmaceuticals for 19 years in sales. I’ve been officiating
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boys high school lacrosse for 25 years, NCAA men’s lacrosse for the last 10, and I officiated the boys New York high school lacrosse finals this year. I’ve been living in Bergen County, N.J., outside of New York City, for the last 25 years.” John D. Lemonick addressed his classmates. “I think often of our days at PC. We had great, colorful teachers like Joseph S. Perrott Hon. 1689, Jacob A. Dresden Hon. 1689, John R. Schug Hon. 1689, Randy W. Granger Hon. 1689 and so many more. I recall in a wistful way how much fun we had senior year. We really came together as a class (and had some killer parties!). Then, boom, we scattered to the wind, off to college and beyond. I recently, or fairly recently, saw Michael P. Good, Mark F. Bernstein, Michael L. Coben, James R. Dautrich, Patrick E.
Steven J. Molitor, James H. Lubowitz, Louis Hockman and Ward Greer Jr. had a blast celebrating Jim’s wedding last fall in New Mexico.
Alumni
Class Notes
Class of 1982 35th Reunion
career has included a staff assignment with the U.S. House of Representatives, active and reserve service as a naval cryptologic officer, an engineering consultancy to the Strategic Defense Initiative, and nine years with international and domestic charities. He serves with the Defense Logistics Agency in support of Marine Corps recruits and the audit readiness of the GFM and non-GFM business processes. Rev. Deacon Andrew also serves regularly in the Albanian Orthodox church and on the board of directors of the Orthodox Christian Mission Center. His most recent dinner guest was none other than Colonel Michael J. Reilly II, USMC (Ret).
1985 1982
1983
After a 30-year career in financial services, Benjamin E. Robinson III was appointed college chair and associate professor of the Johnson & Wales University College of Business. He held a number of executive roles at Prudential Corporation, most recently including senior vice president and chief administration officer for Prudential Annuities. Before joining Prudential, he held executive positions at Bank of America and MasterCard International. Earlier in his career, he was congressional advisor to the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Banking, Finance & Urban Affairs. He currently serves as a member of the Executive Leadership Council and the Society of International Business Fellows. Last year he was appointed to the board of directors of Bottomline Technologies, a leading provider of cloud-based payment, invoice and banking solutions.
In October 2016, George E. Brockman placed first in his age division in the Harvest Classic 5K in Longview, Wash. His time met the USA Track and Field All-American standard for masters runners at that distance. He writes, “Hello to my classmates, my soccer/track teammates, and a public thank-you to Stephen A. Bonnie OPC ’66 for his steadfast belief in me and for driving me to those indoor track meets during the cold winter days of February.” Benjamin E. Long lives in Narberth and is engaged to Beth Packel. He started 17 Mile Real Estate, a specialty real estate firm in Conshohocken that buys properties that have a telecom tower. He’s an avid golfer, collects single malts and looks forward to sharing both passions with his classmates.
Thomas F. Burke Jr. writes, “Thank you to all teachers, staff and administration who made me the person I am today! A special thank you to Tom Crochunis for crafting me into a journal writer and to Bruce MacCullough Hon. 1689 for doing the same for me in mathematics. I just finished my 27th year of teaching high school mathematics. Marriage has been great for 25 years! Our four children are doing great! A quick shout-out to all 1985 OPCs!”
1986 G. Davis Greene III (left) recently finished up a tour of the Western states by visiting Paul P. Rabinovitch in San Francisco.
Andrew J. Rubis is married with three children and lives in the Lawndale section of Northeast Philadelphia. His varied
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Alumni
Class Notes P. Timothy Phelps has been active in promoting alternative transportation options and transportation land planning options. In April, he was a presenter in the Association for Commuter Transportation (ACT) Public Policy Summit in Washington, D.C., and became the secretary of ACT’s National Public Policy Committee. In June, he hosted the Annual PA Transportation Management Association (TMA) Summit in partnership with Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. One of the highlights, Tim reports, was having Secretary Leslie Richards, a Penn Charter parent, speak at the summit. Tim also wrote about his classmate: “Congratulations to Jack S. London. In Jack style, he charged into Chester County politics. Even though he did not win the 19th district for Pennsylvania Senate, many people in Chester County met the guy we have known for over 30 years. During many community events, it was always a pleasure and honor to introduce Jack as friend and classmate. Today, Jack is continuing his political aspirations and running to be the Chester County treasurer.”
Class of 1987 30th Reunion
from a nine-year stint as a professional Muay Thai fighter, I became a fight promoter for the state of New Jersey, where I continue to run large amateur kickboxing events. I’ve been happily married to my high-school sweetheart, Romy, for 23 years now, and we have three awesome kids: Austin, a sophomore at Georgetown University; Chase (17); and Savanna (11), pictured.”
“I’m also an avid singles and doubles player, having played at Charter, if not very well,” he said. Greg and Alex play on the Squash Doubles Association Pro Tour.
1987 Mark J. Skoczynski was inducted into the Athletic Honor Society on Nov. 10, 2017, at the Union League of Philadelphia.
1990
1988 Derek L. Riddick writes, “As it did for many of my colleagues, the Wall Street meltdown in 2008 marked the absolute nadir to an otherwise successful career. Citigroup eliminated my department, the Corporate & Investment Banking Unit, where I was a VP. But, as they say, when one door closes, another one opens. I used my unexpected extended vacation time to embark on another true passion in my life. I followed a dream and opened Strikezone Mixed Martial Arts Academy in Maple Shade, N.J., which serves children, teens and adults. Also, upon retiring
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David M. Shipon was inducted into the Athletic Honor Society on Nov. 10, 2017, at the Union League of Philadelphia.
1989 Brian M. Donaghy OPC ’89 (left), Gregory O. Park OPC ’01 and Alex Domenick OPC ’08 at the Squash Doubles Association 2017 Buffalo Club Pro Doubles event. Brian is treasurer for the Buffalo Squash Racquets Association.
From right: In July, Barry J. Markman OPC ’90, Jason McDavid OPC ’08 and Mary McDavid, Class of 2019, provided and served meals to 300 homeless people in Central Park through Life Experience Faith Sharing Associates, a nonprofit in New York City.
Alumni
Class Notes congregation here and was humbled and honored in June to give the Sunday sermon at our annual UU gathering of 4,000 in New Orleans. I continue to be so grateful for my years at PC and how much my Quaker education shaped me.”
Class of 1992 25th Reunion
1997 Kathleen Cunningham relocated to Tampa, Fla., where she works as a physician assistant at the Moffitt Cancer Center specializing in cutaneous oncology. She is hoping to connect with OPCs in the Tampa area. Brendan Moore was inducted into the Athletic Honor Society on Nov. 10, 2017, at the Union League of Philadelphia.
1993
1996
Laurel Neff writes, “My family and I are stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma, Wash., while I am in the middle of a two-year fellowship for faculty development. This fellowship offers me the opportunity to teach other family medicine residents while I go to Pacific Lutheran University for an MBA. We are enjoying what the Pacific Northwest has to offer, but we sure do miss the East Coast.“
Mara J. Dowdall writes, “Greetings from Burlington, Vt., where I live with my husband, Ben, and our sons, Dean (5) and Cassidy (2). I’m entering my fifth year as minister of the Unitarian Universalist
1998 Christopher M. Fox recently moved back to Philadelphia with his wife and daughter, Kennedy Rose. He is working for Berkshire Hathaway as a real estate agent.
Class of 1997 20th Reunion
1994 Jennifer R. Gallagher and Megan L. (Miller) Wilson were inducted into the Athletic Honor Society on Nov. 10, 2017, at the Union League of Philadelphia.
1995 Ariel T. (Gordon) Bernstein wrote a children’s book, “I Have A Balloon,” that was published by Simon & Schuster in September 2017.
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Alumni
Class Notes
1999
Class of 2002
Jennifer S. Leath was inducted into the Athletic Honor Society on Nov. 10, 2017, at the Union League of Philadelphia.
15th Reunion
Joseph M. Nejman was recently named to the “25 Inspiring Entrepreneurs Under 40” list by Entrepreneur.com.
2001 Kenneth J. Devenney was inducted into the Athletic Honor Society on Nov. 10, 2017, at the Union League of Philadelphia.
2002 Jordan Canino recently moved back to the Philadelphia area with his wife, Dana, and son, Marley, pictured.
as well, and we hope to bring him to many Penn Charter events in the future! Everyone is doing great, and Morgan is an amazing mom. We live in Jenkintown now and still see many OPCs in the area.” David B. Cahn writes, “I recently completed my residency in urologic surgery at Einstein Healthcare Network and have begun a fellowship in urologic oncology at the Fox Chase Cancer Center.”
Chelsea Erdmanis Greenspon graduated from Chestnut Hill College with a doctorate in clinical psychology. She is now working as a psychologist at SPIN Inc., doing autism evaluations and therapy.
2003 Henry Bartlett writes, “My wife, Morgan, and I welcomed our first child to the world on July 9. (See births). His name is Henry
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Christofer C. Johnson is now deputy counsel to the governor of Delaware. In March 2017, he was awarded the Pioneers and Trailblazers Award from the Black Law Student Association at Widener University Delaware Law School.
2004 Megan E. Kaesshaefer is project manager for Get with the Times, an online video streaming series started by the New York Times to engage college students in a conversation about arts, politics and modern life.
2005 Caroline F. Braun writes, “After joining Teach For America and teaching in the Bay area for seven years, I earned a master’s degree in school leadership from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in May 2017 and now work for the School District of Philadelphia as a professional learning specialist.” Colin W. Hitschler was inducted into the Athletic Honor Society on Nov. 10, 2017, at the Union League of Philadelphia Allison Pearce started her clothing line, Pearce, in 2016. She is currently part of the Saturday Night Live costume design team. (See PC Profile on page 12.)
2006 Michael Weick was recently named an assistant coach (linebackers, recruiting coordinator) at Bucknell University. Previously, he was the defensive coordinator at Salve Regina University in Newport, R.I.
Alumni
Class Notes
2007 Kelsey McDowell and Joshua Heinsheimer graduated from Temple University’s School of Dentistry last spring.
Members of the Class of 2008, from left: Matthew Tausch, Sam Lozoff, Matthew Cahn, Andrew Murray, Jeremy L. Maurer, Kyle A. Maurer and Sam Yeoman.
2008 Robin R. McDowell graduated from chiropractic school in 2015 and is living and working in the Philadelphia area, eager to build her practice. More recently, she has embarked on her own with a new mobile chiropractic service. Feel free to email her directly at RobinMcDowellDC@gmail.com. Andrew R. Murray writes, “Since graduating from Penn Charter in 2008, I’ve been living in Cincinnati, where I’ve received a bachelor’s and master’s degree in geography from the University of Cincinnati. For the past two years I’ve been working at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development here in Cincinnati, where I research the vulnerability of drinking water to various sources of contamination across the United States. In January, my family will be moving to Chapel Hill, N.C., where I’ll pursue a Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina. I hope to focus on surface/groundwater interactions and continue my work on studying vulnerability to water resources. “On May 2, 2015, my (now) wife and I welcomed our son, Hudson, who is an extremely energetic, happy and healthy boy.
Savannah and I tied the knot in May 2017, and I’m happy to say a few of my fellow classmates made it out for the occasion. On our honeymoon we happened to run into Stephanie Yuhasz and Brian Kotloff, two other ’08 graduates who are engaged, on a small street in Croatia, of all places. “I’d like to mention the two people at PC who I believe had the greatest impact on my desire to pursue environmental research as a career path: Elizabeth A. Glascott Hon. 1689 and Nora Comiskey. Wishing the PC community all the best.”
Kashif O. Smith graduated from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in May. He’ll complete his emergency medicine residency at Temple University Hospital.
2009 Curtiss R. Jones is a lead lab technician for a genetics testing facility in Gaithersburg, Md.
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Alumni
Class Notes Stephen F. McVeigh recently returned to Philly after an extended road trip around the country.
University of Delaware (pictured). Andrew was a coach for the Blue Hens baseball team before joining the staff at LaSalle University.
Michael P. Rauchet lives in Nashville, Tenn., where he runs his own boxing and training company. He also coaches youth lacrosse.
2010 Elizabeth L. Thom writes, “I’m finishing up a year at Oxford studying for a master’s degree in comparative social policy. My best friend, Sara A. Rowland, just visited me here, all the way from San Francisco.” Pictured: Liz and Sara at Wimbledon.
2013 Gabriella E. DiGiovanni is a reporter for Major League Soccer’s New England Revolution.
2014 Isabella Djerassi attends Barnard College and interns on Capitol Hill for Sen. Chuck Schumer.
Sydney Weinberg says, “I’m pleased to announce that as of July 2017 I’m working at the New York City chapter of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society as a campaign specialist for the organization’s Light the Night campaign.”
Scott M. Mason OPC ’14, while a junior at Connecticut College last spring, came in third in the Steeplechase at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Cathryn (Catie) Skinner OPC ’13, who was a senior at Middlebury College, came in eighth in the Steeplechase at the same meet.
2015 Nile J. Hodges and Paige A. Hodges OPC ’16 studied at the University of Oxford in England last summer. Nile studied international medical research and practice — he was able to explore many facets of medicine within the human body and engage in medical case studies that are seen every day by emergency room doctors. As a part of the course, he wrote a research review paper and gave a presentation on the differences between allograft and autograft in anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstructive surgery. Paige studied public speech and debate, giving speeches and participating in debates involving controversial topics in current events. She received the course achievement award for her final assignment, a moving speech on police brutality around the world.
2016 Andy Nguyen and Jack Rogers Hon. 1689 had dinner at Jack’s Firehouse with Dubois Stewart of Squash Smarts and Harold Anderson OPC ’17. Andy shared his experiences at the University of Pennsylvania, which Dubois and Harold now attend. Pictured: Mick Houston, Dubois Stewart, Harold Anderson, Andy Nguyen, Jack Rogers.
2011 Andrew R. Amaro, son of David M. Amaro OPC ’80, recently showed Kasey Caras, son of John B. Caras OPC ’80, around the
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Jonathan D. Weiss wrote while he was in China, “I’m studying intensive Mandarin Chinese at Fudan University in Shanghai,
Alumni
Class Notes China, with the UVA in Shanghai program and Yale’s Light Fellowship. The program is nine weeks long, and we do a lot of traveling (previously visited Hangzhou, just got back from a week in Xi’an and Beijing, and will be going to Nanjing next weekend!). We’re living in international student apartments, and there are three to four hours of class every day with a lot of opportunities and requirements to interact with the local people and community. All of the teachers are incredible, I really like our group of 26 classmates, and we are having a lot of mostly great experiences that come from independent living and studying in a country with a completely different culture!”
DEATHS 1689
1938
Richard P. Brown Jr. on May 29, 2017. John R. Schug on July 23, 2017.
1946
1937 Henry N. Paul on July 27, 2017. John A. Shrader on Dec. 7, 2016.
1947
2017 The newest crop of class agents: John J. Grace, Dylan C. Burnett, Abigail B. Cohen, Mary Jane McGlinchey and Amira M. Martin.
Frederick W. Larson on June 6, 2017.
1958
Bradford M. Gearinger on May 30, 2017. John H. Newton, on May 26, 2017.
1959
Kenneth S. Krieger, on Oct. 17, 2012.
1961 Class of 2017 graduates and their OPC dads gathered for a photo just before the Commencement ceremony began. Pictured: Charles (Chip) Goodman OPC ’80 and Leslie, Craig R. Cubbin OPC ’88 and Courtney, Harith Buie OPC ’91 and Jamillah, David and David Giorno OPC ‘85, and Macaul and Richard D. Mellor OPC ‘69.
Harvey D. Shoemaker, on Aug. 18, 2017.
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Alumni
Class Notes 1973
MARRIAGES 2003 Scott L. King on May 7, 2016.
Lauren E. Cash married Daniel O’Hara on June 3, 2017, at the Washington Memorial Chapel in Valley Forge Park. Whitney E. Ehret and Brian M. Cash ’00 were in the bridal party. Lauren and Dan then celebrated their new marriage at a family reunion in Crested Butte, Colo.
1974
Clifton C. Stroud II on July 12, 2017.
1975
David H. Byerly III on May 7, 2017.
Samuel L. DeCoursey on June 1, 2017.
1982
Gary McDonald on Aug. 7, 2017.
1990
J.C. Spink on April 19, 2017.
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2006 Lauren Ingersoll married Brian Heenan on June 10, 2017. Guests pictured from left: Julie A. Bown OPC ’06, Alexandra Brady Beckmann OPC ’05, Marghi Walters Adzick OPC ’07, Stephanie Ragg ’06, Lauren Ingersoll ’06, Anne McKenna OPC ’07, Meghan Curtin OPC ’10, Alexandra Ingersoll OPC ’09, Blair (Braun) Weber OPC ’06, Julia (Bateman) Tewksbury OPC ’06, Kiera Murasko-Blank OPC ’07, Phoebe B. Ingersoll OPC ’12.
Alumni
Class Notes Christina Matthias married Hank Garrett, on June 24, 2017. Their story appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer Weddings feature.
Eve Schwartz married Trevor Mishler on April 29, 2017, at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. Emily Bartlett Walker, Paris Harper, Rachel Dowling and James R. Bell (not pictured) celebrated the couple.
2011
2003
Katherine E. Brock married Ethan Ruby, on April 22, 2017. Pictured: Elizabeth A. Wills, Anne M. Entwistle, Katherine Brock, Martina T. Merlo, Grace E. McInerney and Mackenzie L. Kramer.
Henry, to Morgan and Henry Bartlett, on July 9, 2017.
Asher Logan, to Remy and David B. Cahn, on June 17,2017. Gabrielle Brynn, to Brian and Francesca (Murasko-Blank) Roth, on April 18, 2017.
BIRTHS
Finley Grace, to Corinne and Ryan D. Still, on June 12, 2017.
1999
Milo James, to Zack and Ashley (Soloff) Supalla, on July 10, 2017.
Kenneth, to Lauren and James Wybar, on Jan. 10, 2017
2004 Blythe Elizabeth, to Anthony and Sarah (Rogers) Sepe on May 11, 2017.
2008 Andrew R. Murray married Savannah Roberts on May 28, 2017.
2002 Jonah Pep, to Natalie and Aaron Mittica, on April 6, 2017.
2006 Nolan Francis, to Todd and Jillian (Taylor) Roth on June 14, 2017.
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Strategic Vision
Goal 1
Quakerism
Make the Magic Happen “The Grace Fund is all about the fairy godmother we all dream of, the one who sees exactly what you need and makes the magic happen.”
Mom ended up working at the market research firm Alderson & Sessions. My aunt, Ella Russell Torrey, tells me that Drucker called Mother his most brilliant student, and never lost touch with her; she traveled to California in 2000 to celebrate his 90th birthday with him.
The Grace Fund is a full-access fund designed to pay the cost of items and activities not covered by tuition, and therefore not covered by financial aid awards—items such as field trips, calculators, textbooks, musical instruments, soccer cleats and much more. For some families these expenditures are minor or manageable; for others they can sideline students from access to the full Penn Charter experience.
While women of her generation wore pearls and tweedy skirts to college, my mother wore men’s blue jeans and flannel shirts. She was tremendously practical. It was cold in Vermont and Bennington students ran a farm.
Established in 2008, the Grace Fund is named for the late Grace Russell Wheeler, a Penn Charter Overseer, parent and grandparent. Wheeler guided the board as clerk from 1973 through 1988 and was a strong voice for enrolling girls in the discussions that led to the Overseers’ decision, 25 years ago, to become coeducational. (See “Then and Now” on page 34.) In honor of that 25th anniversary, and Wheeler’s enduring contributions to Penn Charter, we asked her daughter Grace Sharples Cooke, now a PC Overseer, for permission to reprint excerpts from a piece she wrote about her exceptional mother.
A Bit about Mom My mother grew up in the Great Depression. Her father was head of U.S. Pipe and a man ahead of his time. Her mother was technically a socialite, but she was one of those women who would be running a business today. She lead a group of women to challenge Philadelphia’s decision to put the expressway on the east side of the Schuylkill, cutting Fairmount Park off from the river. They were persuasive; the expressway was relocated and we got Kelly Drive instead. That kind of thinking was basic to who my mother was—she looked at the whole issue, thought about and always landed squarely in the corner for public good. … my mother enrolled at Bennington College, and was taught by professors like WH Auden, Martha Graham and the management theorist Peter Drucker. She graduated at 20 in three and half years.
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To Mother, knowledge was everything. It meant freedom. Freedom from ignorance. Freedom to think independently. Freedom from convention. She was a born thinker and researcher. Looking into other people’s lives as a market researcher became her career, and led her to an MBA. It also led her down the consistently empathetic path. When she joined the Penn Charter board, she was the wife of a man from a well-known Philadelphia family. After she and my father divorced in 1975, this school became her “significant other,” and we lived through a period of such tight finances that we kept the heat in the house at 64 degrees. But she still gave to Penn Charter. Generosity was her priority. She stewarded Penn Charter through coeducation; she was clerk when they hired Earl Ball. When there was talk of tearing down the clock tower—which had rotted—and replacing it with a sort of roof cap, she said, “That makes no sense.” When there was talk of buying the Strawbridge fields, she said, “That would make sense.” When there was talk of not springing the stage floor of the Kurtz Center, she said, “but to be able to dance you have to have a sprung floor.” And quietly it was done through gifts from generous overseers. Not many people knew my mother was mostly deaf. That handicap, which she ignored, or made light of, was a window into a certain kind of darkness. In that darkness she learned something: When you are accustomed to the dark, you see better. When you feel pain, you know the pain of others. The Grace Fund is really about four different kinds of Grace. The first Grace is my mother who died, and whom so many loved that this tsunami of gifts poured into Penn Charter and built the Grace Fund. The second Grace is the grace of our faculty, who have always helped PC students get what they need to have that critical sense of belonging. The third Grace is the grace of our head of school, who thinks about equity and makes it happen. And the final Grace is the wholeness that comes from knowing one has done good. That is what we all live for. More than 200 teachers, parents, OPCs and friends contributed to the Grace Fund in 2016-2017. PC
Before Our Very Eyes Sustaining the Annual Fund, Sustaining Excellence
As our How Far? capital campaign advances a transformative vision for the future, the Annual Fund is the means by which we secure excellence here and now. Example: Tech resources and exceptional teaching create opportunities for students to collect data about the body during exercise, and for other students to then study the data in biology and physics labs.
Support Penn Charter. Make a gift today. penncharter.com/give How can I give?
Questions?
• In our traditional yellow
Contact Director of Leadership
envelope, by check or credit card • Online at penncharter.com/give • Monthly recurring gifts • Gifts of securities
and Annual Giving Tiffani Harris: tharris@penncharter.com 215-844-3460 ext. 276
Nonprofit Org. U.S. Postage
PAID Philadelphia, PA Permit No. 6118 3000 West School House Lane Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19144
Save the Date January 25
April 25
Downtown Reception 6 p.m.
Washington, D.C., OPC Reception
March 15
May 4-5
Great Day to Be a Quaker
OPC Weekend
March 24-25
May 2018
OPCs @ Spring Training with the Phillies (Clearwater, Fla.)
NYC OPC Reception
April 23 Bert Linton Golf Outing 11 a.m. Art: Grace Agosto, Class of 2024
