Penn Charter Magazine Spring 2014

THE MAGAZINE OF WILLIAM PENN CHARTER SCHOOL

SPRING 2014

HANDS ON, HIGH TECH: 3D Printing at PC

The STRATEGIC VISION for Penn Charter’s future is organized around SIX GOALS, each with a set of strategies.

Goal 1: Quakerism Deepen our identity and actions as a Friends school – and our students’ understanding of Quaker values – to prepare our graduates to live lives that make a difference.

Strategy: Seek opportunities for collaborations that enhance global competency through a commitment to Philadelphia and the world.

Goal 2: Content Goal 3: Teaching Goal 4: Time Goal 5: Space Goal 6: Financial Sustainability

Educating Students to Live Lives that Make a Difference A Strategic Vision for the Future of William Penn Charter School

Flexing its innovation muscle, Penn Charter hosted a TEDx in March, a multidisciplinary event modeled on the internationally popular TED Talks.

TEDx William Penn Charter School featured four speeches with a common thread: the strengths of communities and individuals, and the power of creative ideas to force change.

Jim Ballengee, founder of Penn Charter’s Center for Public Purpose and organizer of our first TEDx, said the event was “focused on the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and, ultimately, the world.”

Penn Charter parent Jeffrey Brown (inset), a fourth-generation Philadelphia grocer and president and CEO of Brown’s Super Stores, told the invited guests in the Gummere Library of his efforts to open ShopRite supermarkets in neighborhoods that were once “food deserts.” His markets provide access to healthy food, create jobs and community pride, and, in the case of the ShopRite Brown opened in Allegheny West near Penn Charter, offer medical care, banking and additional services.

Deneene Brockington, director of Equal Dollars Community Currency, directs an innovative program that makes it possible for people in need to earn currency – Equal Dollars – for community service work and then exchange that currency for food and other goods.

PC senior Julia Fleming told of her work to educate the community and raise research funds for Progeria, a rare disease that produces rapid aging in children. Through events, bake sales and the sale of crafts she has made, Fleming has raised $12,000 – and counting! – in her passionate effort to help children with a little-known disease.

PC Associate Director of Development Philip Consuegra brought the TEDx idea to Ballengee and used his 18 minutes (the format of a TEDx event is highly disciplined) to speak of finding connections and inspiring strength within communities, individuals and oneself.

Watch the video of the event at penncharter.com/TEDx.

Contents SPRING 2014

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FEATURES

12 Teachers Teaching Teachers

Penn Charter’s new Strategic Vision encourages the faculty to teach for the future: to embrace creativity, collaboration, global partnerships, and innovative curriculum and technologies.

16 M ore Green, Less Wasteful

Penn Charter’s new Strategic Vision articulated a “green” strategy for the school — and that initiative is blossoming.

22 P enn Charter + Smithsonian

A 3D Partnership

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DEPARTMENTS OPENING COMMENTS

From the Head of School....................................................................................... 2

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AROUND CAMPUS

Campus Currents...................................................................................................... 3 PC Profiles: Adam F. Goldberg OPC ’94; Robert Gordon, Harvey Rentschler and Jean Taraborelli ...............8 ALUMNI

Red Carpet Treatment Downtown Reception 2014...............................................................................28 A Tale of 22 Steps.................................................................................................. 30 Class Notes............................................................................................................... 32

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ON THE COVER The Magazine of WilliaM penn CharTer SChool

Spring 2014

Hands On, HigH TecH: 3D Printing at PC

Students in the Innovation Club use a 3D printer to create, among other artifacts and implements, a replica of Alexander Calder’s statue of William Penn.

Photo: Meredith Heuer.

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OPENING COMMENTS

From the Head of School THE MAGAZINE OF WILLIAM PENN CHARTER SCHOOL

EVER TRUE In my travels for Penn Charter, I have been trying out a new mobile application, called Evertrue, which tracks my physical location and then lets me know which OPCs reside in close proximity to my whereabouts.

I have clicked on the Evertrue app while on recent trips to Orlando, Sarasota, St. Petersburg, Buffalo, New York City, San Francisco and Los Angeles – and at each stop the map on my cell phone has shown my location surrounded by tiny graduation caps, each one representing a Penn Charter alumnus or alumna.

When I click on the cap, I can access the contact information for the OPC. Each one of those tiny caps represents a Penn Charter story of how one first enrolled at the school, and where life led after commencement, college, family and children – and many OPCs have a lesson about the difference Penn Charter made in one’s life.

I hear compelling stories each time I meet a graduate of our school. At a lunch gathering in New York City, two OPCs shared their own knowledge of sustainable fishing and oceanography and why they give to Penn Charter; others reminisced about their overlapping time as students and their memories of the unforgettable Steve Bonnie OPC ’66. At a meeting in Los Angeles, a filmmaker spoke about how Penn Charter never pigeonholed him but fostered his creativity; he talked about his recent, happy experience fostering the creativity of an OPC intern who had the opportunity to work with him. Another graduate, in San Francisco, recalled that he planned to transfer to a public school for his senior year of high school because his father died and he feared that his mother could not afford tuition. Fortunately, Penn Charter offered the family financial aid that enabled him to stay at PC, and he now gives generously to Penn Charter to help others benefit from the opportunity given to him.

While Evertrue leads me to OPCs engaged in interesting activities around the country, walking our hallways and entering classrooms leads me to current students engaged in interesting learning here at school: lower schoolers doing algebra through bar modeling math, middle schoolers traveling to Costa Rica to develop their leadership and language skills, and upper schoolers presenting at our first TEDx event or experimenting with our new 3D printer. Outside the classroom, students in all grades are engaged in physical activities that keep their bodies strong and teach them to collaborate with each other and compete with fervor. Our students are engaged in great work and learning each and every day.

While Evertrue has provided a fun and helpful way for me to locate and connect with OPCs, its name illustrates something special about those who are privileged enough to attend our school.

The commonality between what I experience with our graduates and our current students is that both engage fully in what they undertake. Whether in life or in school or both, their Penn Charter education makes a difference, prepares them to make a difference, and leaves our students and OPCs ever true to Old Penn Charter. For this, I am thankful.

Darryl J. Ford Head of School Stephanie Judson Associate Head of School Elizabeth A. Glascott Assistant Head of School Anne Marble Caramanico Clerk, Overseers John T. Rogers Hon. 1689 Chief Development Officer J. Peter Davis OPC ’74 Alumni Society President

MAGAZINE STAFF Sharon Sexton Editor Rebecca Luzi Assistant Editor Michael Branscom Feature Photography Proof Design Studios Design William Penn Charter School 3000 West School House Lane Philadelphia, PA 19144 215.844.3460

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.

Follow Penn Charter at your favorite social media sites: FACEBOOK Login and get updates.

TWITTER Updates and announcements.

YOUTUBE Video and announcements.

Sincerely,

arryl J. Ford D Head of School

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PLEASE RECYCLE THIS MAGAZINE

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SPRING 2014

CAMPUS CURRENTS The Movie

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n preparation for a major celebration this fall of the 325th anniversary of the 1689 founding of Penn Charter, the school and filmmaker Philip Katz OPC ’01 are producing a documentary film about William Penn.

Combining interviews with historians and historical reenactment, William Penn: Founding Father reveals Penn as an enlightened thinker who planted the seeds for revolutionary ideas that shaped this nation, including education for all,

religious tolerance and the very principles of democracy.

“Penn was a visionary, an explorer, and as a thinker he was ahead of his time,” said Head of School Darryl J. Ford. However, “… so many people know him only as a statue on top of City Hall. I hope this film will educate people around the world about the enlightened founder of our school.”

In addition to interviews with Ford and more than a dozen historians and educators,

The documentary about William Penn, which features Penn Charter teachers, parents and students, explains how Penn planted the seeds for revolutionary ideas that shaped not only our school but our nation.

Pictured: Harvey Rentschler, Jim Fiorile, Josh Oberfield, Eva Kay Noone, Debbie McIlvaine, Marianne Master and John Thiel.

Penn Charter students and Middle School teacher Christine Pearsall arrived, got into costume, and joined other PC cast members in the documentary about William Penn being produced by Penn Charter and Phil Katz OPC ’01.

Penn Charter students, teachers and parents acted in six scenes Katz filmed at Historic Fallsington, in Bucks County.

Following its premiere in the fall, the 12-minute film and 20 one- and two-minute “webisodes” that elaborate on specific topics – including Penn’s personal history, his spiritual awakening, his founding of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, and Quaker education – will be available online for educators, students and anyone interested in learning more about William Penn.

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CAMPUS CURRENTS

MARCH MADNESS

RED CARPET TREATMENT This winter’s Downtown Reception brought alumni, parents, teachers and friends together for a sneak-peek film screening and Q&A with film industry executive Stephen Bruno OPC ’97. Noticeable uptick in young OPCs in attendance for this hip event at the Ritz Five!

More photos on pages 28-29.

T

he Parent Community’s big party of the year creatively combined four of Penn Charter’s favorite things – academics, arts, athletics and service – into a fun and fundraising evening.

Chaired by parents Susan Davis and Michelle Hinshaw, the party offered 300 guests fun activities, including wacky dress-up for the camera, archery and Quizzo—under one roof at Philadelphia University’s athletic center. Parents, faculty, staff and friends bid on exciting silent auction items and honored eight individuals who have made significant contributions to the 3As and service at PC. The final tally of the night’s proceeds was not available at press time, but the success of the evening will make it possible for the Parent Community to make a sizable contribution toward implementation of Penn Charter’s Strategic Vision.

More than Just Words on Paper

P

enn Charter sophomore Nirvikar Singh was one of 14 finalists in the statewide 2014 Poetry Out Loud contest, a recitation competition that encourages high school students to learn about great poetry through memorization, performance and competition.

One of more than 10,000 competing students, Singh advanced to the state championship after he won the Poetry Out Loud contest among all Penn Charter sophomores and then advanced to, and

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won, the southeast regional competition among Philadelphia-area students.

“Poetry had not been my particular forte,” Singh said, “but I have found deeper meaning in poetry through recitation, more than just words on paper.

I really like reciting it.”

Singh selected for the competition “The Road Not Taken,” by Robert Frost, “Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night,” by Walt Whitman, and “I am the People, the Mob,” by Carl Sandburg.

CAMPUS CURRENTS

PLAYER OF THE YEAR!

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he Markward Club named senior Sean O’Brien the Inter-Ac boys basketball Player of the Year, just one of the superlatives O’Brien earned at the end of his Penn Charter career. O’Brien also won 1st Team All Inter-Ac, Daily News All-City, and AAA All-State 3rd Team, and finished with 1,116 career points, making him one of the top scorers in the city. With head coach Lynard Stewart and Director of Athletics and Athletic Planning John Thiel, O’Brien is shown here on the night he scored his 1,000th point – in a spirited, crowdpleaser of a game in which PC beat favored Haverford School. O’Brien has signed to play for Colgate University next year.

GO CHARTER! First four students in the fall and then six in the winter signed national letters of intent to play their sport in college.

“This is one of the biggest decisions of your young lives,” said John Thiel, director of athletics and athletic planning.

“We congratulate you and thank you for sharing this moment with us.”

For both signings, the student athletes gathered in Gummere Library for a brief ceremony and photo opportunities with family and friends, teachers and coaches.

Congratulations and best wishes!

JULIANNA CASASANTO, Soccer, Chestnut Hill College STEVE COHEN, Baseball, Lafayette College LAUREN DIMES (not pictured), Soccer, St. Joseph’s University CHARLES HOYT, Track and Field, Lafayette College COREY KELLEY, Football, West Chester University SCOTT MASON, Track and Field, Lehigh University DREW MURRAY, Lacrosse, Fairfield University SEAN O’BRIEN, Basketball, Colgate University DEAN ROSEMAN, Lacrosse, University of Richmond STEPHANIE SOROKA, Soccer, Drexel University

Recycling Hero

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enn Charter was honored as one of 26 “Recycling Heroes” in the Green Cup Recycle Challenge, a fourweek competition designed to improve recycling compliance rates in schools in the U.S. and abroad.

To compete, the Green Club members Stephen Flemming, Akeem Blake and Robert Kerwood, all ninth Middle School and Upper graders, helped lead the Green Cup School Green Clubs this Challenge at PC. fall surveyed recycling and trash bins once a week for four weeks. Students calculated the “percent correct” — which means no trash in the recycling bins and no recyclables in the trash bins — and submitted this data to the competition database.

Both student clubs worked hard to inform the faculty and student body of the challenge: speaking in assemblies, creating posters that showed exactly what and how to recycle, and even monitoring the dish-drop area in the cafeteria on two days.

READ MORE about Penn Charter’s new “green” initiatives on page 16.

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CAMPUS CURRENTS

WHOPPER WINTER For all those friends of Penn Charter living in warmer climes, you dodged a doozy.

We had 67 inches of snowfall (and eight snow days) and lots of white stuff to play in during recess.

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CAMPUS CURRENTS

A Drive for Diapers

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epresentatives from the Maternity Care Coalition visited the Penn Charter third grade classroom this winter to thank students for their leadership in Penn Charter’s disposable diaper drive and to explain what a difference the drive is making in the North Philadelphia community.

The third graders’ yearlong effort included a persuasive letter to Penn Charter parents that displayed both their intention and understanding of how a seemingly minor matter can have major ramifications. “You might be thinking that they can use cloth diapers,” the students wrote in their letter, “but they might not be able to wash them because they might not have a washing machine. Also, day care centers don’t take cloth so that can be a big problem, and then the parents can’t go to work.” They continued, listing more cause and effect, and concluded: “To make things worse not many people are aware of this.”

Glee … and Me!

by Ruth Aichenbaum “Hi Ruth!

“You entered The BIGGEST Giveaway for a chance to perform on stage with the cast of Glee and YOU WON!” I read this e-mail and was in shock! I had forgotten all about the raffle ticket I bought to support student playwriting. A month earlier when I found the raffle online, I thought the grand prize was made for me. The winner would perform in students’ plays in support of the Young Storytellers Foundation, which brings playwriting to schools. I taught Penn

Charter fifth graders playwriting for 16 years.

The contest would fly my husband and me out to Los Angeles. My son Josh lives in L.A. It was an opportunity to act with actors from Glee. I have to admit, I am a “gleek” – a true fan of all things Glee.

But thinking that the grand prize was perfect for me was different than thinking I had a chance in the world of winning. I knew I didn’t. Who wins the grand prize in a random

raffle? I didn’t tell anyone I even entered, and I forgot all about it.

But I won! I won! And I learned that out of all grades, I was going to be performing in fifth graders’ plays. This prize was made for me! This was all so surreal.

From the time that I was notified that I won, I had less than two weeks before flying out to L.A. During this time, I shared my shock and joy about this unbelievable adventure with the Penn Charter community.

Everyone’s enthusiasm fueled my own. A particular highlight was when Fitz – Choral Director Joe Fitzmartin – invited me to tell the Middle School chorus about my upcoming Glee adventure. The chorus, filled with many of my former fifth graders, sang congratulations to me and gave me fist bumps. I was beyond joy!

After all of this buildup, could my experience possibly live up to my expectations? Well, it did and more. My weekend in L.A. was magical from start to finish. The highlight was performing in five fifth graders’ plays with amazing actors from the cast of Glee who were so welcoming and warm. The hosts of the evening grandly welcomed on stage five members from the cast of Glee and me! The event is now on YouTube, so I can watch it to reassure myself that it really did happen; it wasn’t just something I dreamed up. It was a dream come true.

WATCH RUTH AICHENBAUM on YouTube at http://goo.gl/JtRpV0. She is introduced around minute 33.

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PC P RO F I LE S

Reliving the Glory Days Adam F. Goldberg OPC ’94

by Rebecca Luzi A child of the ’80s, Adam Goldberg owned parachute pants, wore a Rubik’s Cube costume for Halloween, and played with Transformers and Garbage Pail Kids.

He had an overbearing mother (or “smother”), a Flyers-obsessed older brother prone to meltdowns, and a dad for whom comfort meant taking off his pants at the end of the workday.

Lucky for us, Goldberg also had a video camera.

The creator, show runner and writer of ABC’s The Goldbergs has scores of video tapes of family antics and scenarios he acted out with friends, some of which he brought to ABC to pitch his idea for the series. It worked, and the longtime television writer brought his formative years growing up in Jenkintown to the small screen.

Goldberg, who now lives in Los Angeles, attended New York University for playwriting and got his professional start writing for the comedy series Still Standing. But, you could say his career began when he won the Philadelphia Young Playwrights Festival as a PC student at age 15. Even then, Goldberg wrote what he knew. His play, The Purple Heart, was about his grandfather’s early Alzheimer’s. In The Goldbergs, Pops drives his car into a burger joint. True story.

Penn Charter during his time, Goldberg remembers, was more about athletics and math and science. His real-life brothers (now doctors) excelled in that environment, Barry OPC ’87 especially in athletics, and Eric OPC ’85 (portrayed as sister Erica in the series) in academics. “I just went to Penn Charter by

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default,” he said. But Goldberg blazed his own trail. His senior year, he produced two nights of student-acted and -written plays called The Playground. “It was the night I realized I wanted to be a writer, it really was,” he said.

In contrast to the fledgling theater program at Penn Charter, Randy Granger, then head of the art department, ran a sophisticated film studies program. “What I learned at NYU’s film program my junior year, I already learned from Mr. Granger,” Goldberg said. “We had this amazing film class with Bolex cameras and Steenbeck editing bays. We were shooting on 16mm film, not VHS tapes. It was the only program in the country like this. While there was no playwriting class – it wasn’t in the curriculum – we did have this class that was just mind-blowing, and it got me into NYU.” Goldberg made the most of his interest in film. “While I was at Penn Charter, I was always

trying to make a movie instead of writing a paper,” he said. For Anthropology class, he made a film all about a day in the life at Penn Charter. “At the end of the day, I should have just written a paper because it took me a month to make and I got a C+.” He also created films to promote a school dance (Studrota, featuring classmate David Sirota, now a New York Times best-selling author and television commentator) and for the PC/GA Day pep rally (Howie, Goldberg’s version of Rudy). “Howie was amazing because I got all of the football players to act in it, which was a first – they hadn’t really shown much interest in my movies until I did a football parody. We reenacted a PC/ GA game where Howie Levy, the smallest guy on the team, scores the winning touchdown.

Making movies in school was a way for me to make work fun. And the teachers were okay with it, which was pretty cool. I lugged my camera around school a couple days a week.

Ask Charlie Brown. He’ll tell you.”

What Goldberg didn’t have was any particular athletic ability. “I never did any of the required sports, which at the time were two a year,” he said. “Bill Gallagher was head of the athletics

The cast of ABC’s The Goldbergs, created by Adam F. Goldberg OPC ’94. Back row: Jeff Garlin, Wendi McLendon-Covey, George Segal; front row: Sean Giambrone (who plays Adam), Hayley Orrantia and Troy Gentile.

PC P RO F I LE S did it out of love. She was always down there, way too involved and never leaving.” Like all the players in Goldberg’s childhood, she gave him a lot of material to work with.

“Where I got my start,” Goldberg said, “was

having teachers encourage me at Penn Charter.

Back then, nobody had a cell phone camera or a computer with an editing program on it. I was encouraged by teachers like Charlie Brown and Randy Granger to be me and find my voice.” PC

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program. He sat me down at the end of my senior year and said, ‘You never did any sports and that means I can’t let you graduate. But you took my daughter to the soph hop, so you’re cool.’ And he let me go, wishing me luck with my movie making.”

Goldberg carried his camera around at home, too – an RCA VHS camera. “It was giant.

It weighed down your shoulder.” In addition to the family dynamic, he also captured friendships with Penn Charter classmates. Tune in to past episodes to see Emmy “Muscles” Mirsky and Dave Kim. Another episode features a real-life video of Goldberg and Barry wrestling, filmed by classmate Adam Abel, now a documentary filmmaker. Adam Abel spotted the home movie and contacted Goldberg after 20 years. “What’s really cool is my show has really united our class,” Goldberg said. “There has been lots of Facebook chatter as we all re-live our glory days.”

Fans of the show can expect to see more of Goldberg’s life at PC, referred to in the series as William Penn Academy. “I’m doing a whole episode about Barry joining the wrestling team at Penn Charter,” Goldberg said, “and he thinks he’s doing WWF and he’s very confused.” In another episode, J.C. Spink, now a Hollywood producer who made the Hangover movies, but once a kid who threw spitballs at Goldberg on the bus, has a cameo performance as a bus driver who yells at the kid throwing spitballs. That’s right: “J.C. gets to yell at himself.” Also this season, Goldberg recreated Mr. (Rick) Mellor’s gym class, complete with the names of his actual classmates written on the gym shirts. “I gave my class roster to the costume department,” he said, proving that Goldberg either remembers everything or he keeps everything.

Goldberg’s biggest fan is his mother, Beverly, the original helicopter mom before there was a label for it. “She loves the show, of course,” he said. “She recognizes that the character is much sweeter and nicer than she was back in the day.”

Goldberg learned as an adult that his mother was remembered for frequently storming into school with a complaint. “She meant well and

Fun Facts • Dave Sirota and Adam Goldberg, friends and classmates, both attended writing programs at Northwestern University, Sirota for journalism, Goldberg for playwriting.

• Goldberg’s wife, Sarah, whom he met at the same Northwestern program, was his date for Penn Charter’s senior prom.

• The character Mr. Glascott was a combination of Beth Glascott, now assistant head of school, and dean of students in the early ’90s John D. Dover.

• Emily “Muscles” Mirsky OPC ’94, now Emily McCoy, young Adam’s tomboy playmate, is godmother to Goldberg’s son.

• Goldberg reached out to his freshman class for permission to include a page from the yearbook at the end of an episode.

• Goldberg plans to do episodes in season two about Charlie Brown and Garry Ball, son of Penn Charter’s longtime head of school Earl J. Ball III. If they’ll let him.

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PC P RO F I LE S

Farewell to Three All-Star Teachers

Harvey Rentschler Hon. 1689

When the news that teachers Robert Gordon, Harvey Rentschler and Jean Taraborelli would retire at the end of this year posted to the Penn Charter Facebook page, former students replied with gratitude – and many anecdotes.

There was sadness, too. “Tears,” wrote Dillon Minacci.

Some students remembered one of the teachers, or two, but Jason Winig gave a shout-out to all three: “Mr. Gordon was patient enough to help me get through calc even when things got tough.

Ms. Taraborelli made Spanish fun and encouraged me to go to Spain, helping instill a love of travel and, of course, Spain! And, well, Mr. Rentschler taught us our state capitals and, strangely enough, to never yawn without covering your mouth.”

Read more about Gordon, Rentschler and Taraborelli, including recollections from students.

Robert Gordon Hon. 1689 A member of the math department since 1987 and currently director of the Math Center, Robert Gordon is the faculty’s most accomplished tango dancer. He brought his sense of humor to math and, for more than a decade, to his role as coach of the Comedy Sportz club.

“On one of the many days B- math were giving Mr. Gordon less than complete attention he just borrowed Wyatt Gallery’s leather jacket and sat right down [to teach] the group,” wrote Carolyn Kogan Loughran OPC ’93. “He never let our colorful behavior get in the way of his stellar lesson plan.”

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“Mr. Gordon, thank you for all the time you spent with me at the math center!” wrote Samantha Jarmul OPC ’09. “That extra support got me through calculus and allowed me to be confident and comfortable with a subject that did not come easy to me!”

Harvey Rentschler has taught fifth grade for his entire 38 years at Penn Charter and leaves a legacy in Lower School. The long and lanky runner also coached boys cross country from 1976 to 2005; he won 12 league championships and four state championships, and was named independent school coach of the year in 2001.

“Will always remember Mr. R’s kind reassurance, ‘It’s not a test, it’s an evaluation!’

Always made me feel better,” wrote Alice Affleck Bullitt OPC ’98. “And I’m lucky enough to run into him on runs in my neighborhood.”

“Mr. R made me feel like a ‘super star’ when I caught a tennis ball he launched up into the air at recess,” recalled Megan Evans Kafer OPC ’95. “He treated me to a Dunkin Donut of my choice the next morning, yum!”

PC P RO F I LE S Jean Taraborelli Jean Taraborelli, who came to Penn Charter in 1990 to teach Spanish, became just as well known for her dedication to the school’s service learning program. Read more about Taraborelli’s contributions to Penn Charter in the tribute she received this spring from the Parent Community, which honored her for her service work.

Spanish was Jean Taraborelli’s specialty at Penn Charter, but it wasn’t her only gift. Her heart connected with underserved children and families, for whom she has provided invaluable support through the years.

Taraborelli grew up in a close family of Italian heritage in Havertown, where she still resides.

She attended Archbishop Prendergast, and then went on to Chestnut Hill College, taking education courses while teaching elementary school. Taraborelli then attended Temple University, where she received her BA and master’s in education.

Taraborelli’s early teaching career was centered around providing educational support for children residing at the Methodist Home for Children, a nonprofit organization providing residential care for children suffering from neglect or abuse. Taraborelli spent three years

teaching English in the Canary Islands, and enjoys going back almost annually for a visit.

Taraborelli began her career at Penn Charter teaching Spanish 24 years ago. She continues to be interested in serving others, with a special interest in the Hispanic population. Taraborelli has enjoyed working with students at Penn Charter studying advanced topics, and has enjoyed nurturing the school’s relationship with the Taylor School, especially their bilingual program. Taraborelli also spearheaded the holiday gift drive, in which the PC community provides gifts to families at the Taylor School or at the Northwest Interfaith Hospitality Network, another Penn Charter partner, which provides temporary housing for families in transition. “This program is nice as we know the families, and it is gratifying to see people in our own community being helped by Penn Charter,” Taraborelli said.

Taraborelli believes that what makes Penn Charter special is the Quaker nature of the school. “To recognize and respect the Quaker philosophy fits well with my personal beliefs and actions,” she said. Additionally, Taraborelli values her time with her colleagues, who are “wonderful and extremely dedicated.”

When asked what it meant to be honored, Taraborelli responded, “I don’t need to be

honored. I love doing what I do. Opportunities to serve others are recognition enough.”

Taraborelli is excited about the Center for Public Purpose and believes it will help the entire community to understand how we can share our wealth with others and get people involved.

Taraborelli would like for all of us to “Do Good with What Thou Hast.” PC SEND US YOUR RECOLLECTIONS. Robert Gordon, Harvey Rentschler and Jean Taraborelli will be feted and photographed this spring. Send your recollections to ssexton@penncharter.com, and we’ll compile all online in a tribute to these three stellar teachers.

Kudos for McCloskey Former coach and current Dean of Students Brian McCloskey OPC ’82 was inducted into the City All-Star Chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame! McCloskey led the Quaker football team as head coach for 13 years, winning eight Inter-Ac titles. He also was starting quarterback for Penn Charter for three years, earning All Inter-Ac and All City. At Ursinus College, he started at QB for four years and helped return the program to a winning

tradition. McCloskey, honored as a player and a coach, wore #10 back in the day. Here he is accepting the Geis Trophy for his stellar performance at quarterback on PC/GA Day in 1981. Go Charter! Go Brian!

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t ea c h e r s

STRATEGIC VISION

Teaching t ea c h e r s

by Ruth Aichenbaum COORDINATOR, CENTER FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING

P

enn Charter’s new Strategic Vision encourages the faculty to teach for the future: to embrace creativity, collaboration, global partnerships, and innovative curriculum and technologies.

My colleagues and I were charged to guide our students to “live lives that make a difference,” and tasked to build a faculty of lifelong learners.

From my professional development work as co-clerk of the school’s Committee on Teaching and Learning, and my 16 years on the faculty, I knew that our teachers were eager to learn and reach these goals. I also recognized that time and easy access to learning would challenge us. Penn Charter’s dedicated faculty already works more than full time between days full of teaching, nights spent lesson planning and paper grading – and afternoons coaching, advising and teaching extracurriculars.

The inspiring Strategic Vision – and the need to meet the challenges of time and access – were the heart of the idea for creating a new Teaching and Learning Center (TLC).

The summer before last, after our exciting year developing the Strategic Vision, I happened to spend many hours at the Apple Store using their One to One program. I was a PC person (that other PC) and wanted to learn what Mac had to offer educators. The One to One

STRATEGIC VISION

GOAL 3: TEACHING Promote excellence in teaching by supporting faculty to develop and advance their professional practice.

THE TEACHING AND LEARNING CENTER SUPPORTS: One-on-one instruction, small group workshops, drop-in assistance for pedagogy, technology as a tool for teaching and learning, classroom visits (internal and external), Critical Friends Groups, outside workshops and conferences, book discussions and online learning.

program allowed me to learn what I wanted to learn, when I wanted to learn, and how I wanted to learn; Apple provided one-to-one mentor sessions about creating iBooks, making iMovies, using iPhotos to create slideshows, making powerful presentations using Keynote, all of which I planned to use to enrich my teaching of fifth grade.

This easy access to learning made me feel so empowered as a learner, and I learned so much! I realized that a program like this at Penn Charter held the answer to the time / access challenge for meaningful faculty learning.

LEFT PHOTOS: MEREDITH HEUER.

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DAVID EVANS OPC ’59 has made a five-year gift to Penn Charter designed to fund some of the operating expenses of the new Teaching and Learning Center in the short term and to create an endowment to support the center over time.

Evans is a PC overseer and was a student at Penn Charter in the days when his father, Henry “Bugsy” Evans, was a beloved biology teacher.

An expert in pediatric pulmonary disease, Evans is professor emeritus and special lecturer of sociomedical sciences at Columbia University Medical Center.

WHY DID HE GIVE? “The gift is mainly rooted in my own early experiences as a teacher and researcher at Hunter College and Columbia. With no prior training in teaching, I began teaching students who were getting master’s degrees in public health. I struggled a lot, but gradually learned how to make my classes more interactive and based on problem-solving, but I could have benefitted from some help in developing teaching skills. I also did some research on teaching pediatricians how to be better teachers of their patients who had asthma, and found that this not only helped the patients, but that the pediatricians enjoyed putting these new skills into practice.

“Since joining the Overseers in 2006, I have been impressed by seeing innovative teaching in science and in humanities at Penn Charter. Watching a class in theater take the various roles of director, actors and audience while working through the blocking and gestures for a short scene, with the teacher then debriefing everyone about what was done and how they did it, was a remarkable experience. And I’ve seen some great teaching in science where the teacher used different ways of visualizing a physical process to help students grasp what was taking place.

These experiences made me feel strongly that teachers at PC could benefit from a center that would help them discover and teach each other new ways to teach students.”

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I took this seed of an idea to Darryl Ford, Beth Glascott and Stephanie Judson. Through collaboration, many conversations and an envisioning day with colleagues, Penn Charter’s Teaching and Learning Center (TLC) became a reality in September. The TLC has a physical presence on the second floor of the Gummere Library and an online presence that teachers use to sign up for programs or individual support – all designed to help us participate in the vision of “a faculty of lifelong learners who collaborate with students in a process of continuing revelation and joyful learning.”

The TLC allows faculty and staff to learn what they want to learn, when they want to learn, and how they want to learn by making use of the innumerable talents of our own community, as well as resources outside our school. The center offers one-to-one mentoring sessions, small workshop sessions during lunch and after school, classroom visits, online learning and more. Workshops have been offered about diverse topics, including 3D printing, iMovie, creating e-books, authentic assessment, mindfulness, iCloud and educational apps. Faculty have individually mentored one another about classroom management, digital portfolios, Prezi presentation software, mastery assessment, Google Sites, facilitating rich discussions, and using videos in a flipped classroom.

The Teaching and Learning Center is off and running, and thanks to a gift from David Evans OPC ’59 (see sidebar) it will continue to empower faculty learning for a long time. I feel so blessed to be its first coordinator. I look forward to guiding the center as we continue to build a vibrant learning community at Penn Charter and nurture our faculty to become creative teachers and collaborators ready to meet the needs of 21st century teaching and learning. PC

First Grade Teacher Orit Netter says about the TLC: In addition to attending several Lunch and Learn offerings, which have no doubt improved my tech skills (I attended those focused on Apple technology), Ruth also offered one-on-one support when I was exploring reading and writing progress-tracking applications.

While I always intended to do this research on my own, the reality was that other tasks always took precedence and I simply never got to it. Ruth not only did this research for me, she then presented me with my options and proceeded to help me learn the program that I ultimately chose. Needless to say, she saved me many hours and provided the one-on-one attention I needed to effectively use this tool.

I am truly grateful to have this type of professional support available to me. In fact, I am already signed up for several future offerings, including making the most of benchmark assessments, and drumming! Indeed, it seems that the sky is the limit at the TLC.

Global

LIFE- CHANGING

EXPERIENCES

STRATEGIC VISION

Howler monkeys, waterfalls, service work with the indigenous Bri Bri people.

Text messages to parents from science teacher Kevin Berkoff capture some of the excitement and adventure.

T

WENTY MIDDLE SCHOOL students and two teachers traveled to Costa Rica over spring break on a multidisciplinary, multisensory 10-day field trip. The trip built leadership and language skills, and self-awareness. “The last night summed up the trip with a moving talk with the students about the ‘take aways’ and ‘leave behinds,’” Middle School social studies teacher Alice Bateman wrote in a note to Head of School Darryl J. Ford.

“Many students expressed that they wanted to take away the feeling of being more self-reliant, more aware of their own local environment and better Spanish speakers. And they wanted to leave behind their ungratefulness (or lack of awareness) of basic things in their lives, as well as leave behind the quick assumptions we tend to make of others.”

As the school looks for ways to implement the Strategic Vision – and specifically the imperative to prepare students to thrive in the 21st century global environment – Ford intends that the Costa Rica trip explore how future trips could involve many more students.

F

OR THE SECOND TIME since Penn Charter established a partnership with the Yaohua School, a group of Upper School students traveled to Tianjin, China, on a cultural exchange. About half of the 13 students are studying Mandarin, which was added to our foreign language program four years ago.

Highlights in China included: a packed house for a Penn Charter vs. Yaohua basketball game; visits to Beijing; and homestays with Yaohua families, many of whom had children who visited Penn Charter last year for our first Yaohua @ Penn Charter summer camp. PC

DAY 2 Having an incredible day at 9,500 ft on the Seelye Farm.

DAY 3 Up early to milk the cows, eat a big breakfast, and now we are hiking to the Paramo at 10,500 ft. No Internet, so no blog today.

DAY 4 We left Seelye Farm and are now by Lake Arenal. Arrived in time to watch the sunset, take a swim and listen to the howler monkeys.

DAY 5 AND 6 Great day zip lining and visiting Don Juan’s farm yesterday. Today, we are off to caving and the La Fortuna waterfall.

DAY 7 Up at 4:30 am and on our way to whitewater rafting!

DAY 8 Arrived in Puerto Viejo late last night.

Packing for a day of service at an indigenous school in Bri Bri.

DAY 9 Today we are off to Gandoca-Manzanillo National Park for a hike with Tino and then for lunch and a swim at Punta Uva beach.

DAY 10 We visit the Jaguar Animal Rescue Center and then head back to San Jose for our last night in Costa Rica. Pura Vida!

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M RE GREEN LESS WASTEFUL

“After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, and so on – have found that none of these finally satisfy, or permanently wear – what remains? Nature remains.”

– Walt Whitman

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Penn Charter’s new strategic vision articulated a “GREEN” STRATEGY for the school — and that initiative is blossoming.

STRATEGIC VISION

NATURE REMAINS:

PC Takes Its Green Mission to the Source

by Elizabeth Spagnoletti OPC ’08

It’s a rainy afternoon in late fall, and where can Tom Rickards, chair of religious studies, be found?

How about suspended in mid-air, dangling 25 feet above the ground?

Don’t worry. He’s used to it. Rickards is a skilled rock climber and, in addition to teaching classes such as Bioethics, South Asian Religions and Hebrew Bible (to name a few), he serves as a fearless faculty advisor for Penn Charter’s Upper School Green Club and an enthusiastic participant in its outdoor activities.

While the Green Club focuses on environmental awareness issues, over the past two years an idea slowly gained momentum among both faculty and students that a significant aspect of stewarding the environment is actually immersing oneself in it. The club has expanded its activities to include rock climbing, hiking and paddling – providing students and faculty with exciting and educational experiences surprisingly close to Penn Charter’s campus.

“As much as it’s good to sit around and think about the environment, about these big issues, the Wissahickon is right there,” Rickards said. “Our hope is to build a wide range of activities because, given the location of our school, this stuff is right at our back door.”

Rickards and Jonathan Howe, PC coordinator of environmental stewardship and sustainability, are the coleaders of the club and have worked to create a dynamic mix of environmental awareness, community service and outdoor exploration.

A skilled rock climber, teacher Tom Rickards (left) introduces students to the sport using PC’s new climbing wall.

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Whether it’s hiking, cleaning up parks or learning about invasive species, Rickards claims none of it is mutually exclusive: “There are times that we’re trying to juggle, ‘Is this curriculum? Is this athletics?’ And, in some ways, it doesn’t matter. It’s just about spending time and getting really engaged and passionate about it.”

Rickards also notes the deep spirituality to being outdoors and engaged with nature.

While describing his paddling ventures, he acknowledges that the Quaker comfort with silence is almost a given: “There are times when we just take a turn on that river, and we’re just quiet. We just don’t want to talk; we just breathe it in.”

It works for junior and club member Stephen Lehman: Though the athletic, physically exhilarating rock-climbing

Members of the Green Club and advisor Jonathan Howe, coordinator of environmental stewardship and sustainability, prepare the beehives on the Strawbridge Campus for spring.

trips were his favorite activities, he’s also “looking forward to seeing monarch butterflies next year because of the milkweed” students will plant on campus this spring.

SKILL DEVELOPMENT Older OPCs may recall the Outdoor Skills club, led by a few veteran teachers – including Fred Huntington and Don Campbell – in the 1970s. In Outdoor Skills, students learned how to rock climb, hiked and went camping on a regular basis. Last year, Rickards and Huntington were able to connect over their two clubs and the

passions that inspired them. As a selfproclaimed “annoying admirer of Fred,” Rickards asked Huntington to visit the club last spring to tell current students of his past exploits. “And the kids’ jaws were dropping!” he said. “Their first question was, ‘Why don’t we do that anymore?’”

In this sense, the outdoor component of the club is not starting from scratch.

Many alumni remember rappelling off the Activities Building, or when students used to change light bulbs over the pool using simple and safe harnessing gear and pulley systems. Even if students today do not partake in those particular activities,

THE PC GREEN JONATHAN HOWE, director of environmental stewardship and sustainability, this fall led students in a recycling competition designed to improve compliance rates in schools in the U.S. and abroad (PC was designated a Recycling Hero; see page 5 for details), and Howe is looking forward to the results of two professional audits:

ENERGY AUDIT Penn Charter has hired a firm to conduct an energy audit of the five main buildings on campus with a goal of reducing both our environmental footprint and bottom line. The audit will result in an itemized list of possible conservation measures and their likely savings.

“We can then prioritize the list and address those opportunities as we are able,” Howe said.

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WASTE AUDIT Another firm is evaluating Penn Charter’s waste practices and waste hauling needs to help reduce costs and improve efficiency. “Once the audit is complete and we re-tool our waste hauling, we hope to start separating and collecting compostable materials in the kitchen – and ultimately in the cafeteria – and improve our recycling separation opportunities as well.”

penncharter.com/green Connect with Penn Charter’s new environmental stewardship and sustainability initiative on The PC Green, Jonathan Howe’s new blog at penncharter.com/green. Watch the video about PC’s green initiative on YouTube at pennchartertube.

The Robert F. Chapman OPC ’36 Fund for Sustainability and Environmental Stewardship was established in 2013 by William E. Chapman II OPC ’59 in memory of his father, who was a scientist at heart and a chemical engineer by profession.

An avid outdoorsman, teacher Tom Rickards looks forward to introducing more students to paddling.

Rickards believes the spirit needs to be revived and that it’s important to have that history and feel connected to the past.

The club has at its disposal nature itself – Wissahickon’s world-renowned bike trails, PC’s own indoor rock-climbing wall, wonderful hiking trails – and a team of dedicated faculty and students. What more does it need?

Time.

“It’s hard with everyone’s schedules – kids and adults alike – to just carve out opportunities to go and experience being outdoors,” Rickards said. Rickards passes no judgment on students who are already struggling to juggle academics, athletics and extracurriculars, but he does hope to see a trend toward students and teachers alike setting aside time and space for meditative and sometimes physicallydemanding outdoor activities.

Rickards calls it a stress relief, “to get out there and on the trail and under that tree canopy and just breathe in that air. It’s needed.”

As Rickards and other faculty members look to the future of the club and supporting Penn Charter’s green mission, students, too, are excited about the possibilities. “I think it is very cool that we are enjoying the environment and giving back,” said junior Sylvia Miller, “and I look forward to getting the rest of the school involved in our efforts towards creating an environmentally conscious community.” PC

The fund supports Penn Charter’s efforts to minimize its environmental impacts, teach the principles of sustainability, and honor the Quaker testimony of stewardship.

The fund will also provide an annual prize to a member of the junior class whose talents in the sciences and passion for nature recall Robert F. Chapman’s lifelong application of scientific understanding to environmental issues.

WHY DID William E. Chapman II GIVE TO Penn Charter’s Strategic Green Effort?

Chapman writes: “My father loved nature and science, and virtually all of his lifelong interests were related to one or both.

“As a PC student, he was very interested in falconry and had a sparrow hawk named Charlie that he trained and flew. (Charlie turned out to be a female.)

“Dad was a skier while at Penn Charter; he and his classmate John McCown OPC ’36 skied Tuckerman Ravine on Mt. Washington. He was also an avid sailor and continued to race his sailboat on Pocono Lake until the year of his death. At age 79, he was still winning races every once in a while.

“Henry ‘Bugsy’ Evans taught my father, and I took Biology from him, too.

I remember staying with Bugsy, his wife, Meg, and his son David, (David Evans OPC ’59) on the Rancocus River in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey.

Bugsy made biology very real.

“My father supported Penn Charter financially throughout his life. I have given every year since 1960. My father’s gifts were never very large. When my mother died last year, I came into a small inheritance which was derived from his estate. I decided that I wanted to make the gift that my father wished he could have made, but never did out of financial caution.”

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STRATEGIC VISION

From the Other Side of the Page

O

ver the past decade, I began to travel internationally on a regular basis, taking a trip every other year or so. My hope was that I could learn

more about other countries from the other side of the page: I wanted to move well beyond what I could read, and bring home new awareness so that I could become a better teacher and global citizen. My major interests have been the Caribbean region, particularly Cuba, and the Middle East.

This spring, I created a media exhibition, “Seeing, Hearing and Understanding the Middle East,” based on my trips to Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Thanks to the help of many people in the Penn Charter community, I was able to assemble images, audio clips and short videos, and include all of these media forms in the exhibit. I wanted exhibit visitors to see many different scenes of people and landscapes, all of which they might expect, but also to hear sounds of birds singing and children laughing, material that might surprise them.

My thinking behind the exhibit’s design is simple. Americans hear quite a bit about the tensions that exist between the United States and nations across the Middle East, yet the people who live in this diverse region have fascinating and complex cultures that we can strive to see in their broader modern and historical dimensions.

Penn Charter’s generous support for professional development enabled me to take these trips. PC — SARAH SHARP, SOCIAL STUDIES

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Because

of the

A N N UA L F U N D

T

HE ANNUAL FUND makes up the difference between

Middle School sports teams have new uniforms.

the cost of tuition and actual spending per student.

The fund also makes a difference, a profound difference, in

The new college counseling suite provides dedicated space for college admissions visits.

teaching and learning at PC. Because of the Annual Fund: Native plants – and their ecological benefits – are coming to campus.

Look for them in the beds in front of the Kurtz Center this spring.

Upper School students attended the Student Diversity Leadership Conference in Maryland, returning to present to faculty in all three divisions on how Penn Charter could become an even more diverse and inclusive community.

A social studies teacher traveled to Iran with a group that advocates for human rights and international understanding. The trip also supported her project grant to teach Iran’s history and culture to students.

A Spanish teacher used professional development funds to prepare for and pass the prestigious DELE exam (Diploma de Español como Lengua Extranjera) at the Cervantes Institute in New York City.

A new high-speed video camera that can shoot 1,200 frames a second – and isolate one of those frames – has applications for both physics and animation.

A 3D printer in the Upper School, and another in Middle School technology, printed models of hemoglobin in biology class, of Pennsbury Manor in third grade and of Abraham Lincoln’s life mask in social studies.

Students have an opportunity to learn rock-climbing skills on the new climbing wall.

The Peff Memorial Scholarship Fund, part of the Annual Fund and supported by the recent class reunions of 2007 and 2008, provided financial assistance for students who otherwise would have been unable to afford PC’s foreign travel programs.

The school purchased a pickup truck, the first one since 1997.

These are but a few examples of how the Annual Fund makes PENN CHARTER STRONG. Every Annual Fund donation is vital – no matter the size. Gifts range from $25 to $50,000 each year.

It’s easy to make a donation.

1) Donate online at www.penncharter.com/give.

2) Send a check in the yellow envelope.

3) Make a gift of stock.

Your support keeps Penn Charter strong.

QUESTIONS? Call Elizabeth Spagnoletti OPC ’08 at 215-844-3460 ext. 227.

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PENN CHARTER + SMITHSONIAN

A W A

HEN SCIENCE TEACHER Corey Kilbane read last spring that the Smithsonian Institution was in the early stages of creating 3-dimensional scans of its artifacts, he wanted in. He was advising Penn Charter’s Innovation Club, which he had established along with parent David Robertson for the purpose of increasing invention and innovation in the curriculum.

Robertson had a 3D printer himself, which piqued the students’ interest. And Kilbane’s.

He cast around for an email address of someone on the Smithsonian project, and when he sent his question – Would the museum publish any of its 3D models for others to print? – he got a quick response.

The Smithsonian was actually looking for educators to partner with its National Museum of American History to create curricula surrounding these 3D objects. With

STRATEGIC VISION

PARTNERSHIP

by Rebecca Luzi

state-of-the-art 3D scanning and imagebased modeling technology, the museum will be able to make its collections accessible around the world.

Especially in light of a PC partnership with the Smithsonian, Kilbane saw great potential for a 3D printer at Penn Charter for use in both the curriculum and the Innovation

Club. With a technology grant, the school purchased a $3,000 MakerBot 3D printer that arrived in September.

Kilbane wasted no time printing 3D plastic models of Smithsonian artifacts, including a sixth century statue, Vairochana, the Cosmic Buddha, featuring detailed illustrations on its surface. “With a high-definition printer,”

STRATEGIC VISION

GOAL 2: CONTENT Collaborate locally, nationally and internationally to enhance learning and leadership opportunities for Penn Charter students.

STRATEGY Multiple platforms for content delivery, including new technologies, will maximize student engagement and success.

Excellence • Innovation • Collaboration

LEFT PHOTO: MEREDITH HEUER.

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PENN CHARTER + SMITHSONIAN A 3D PARTNERSHIP

Kilbane explained, “you can touch the relief, which you could never do to the actual artifact.” Kilbane offered feedback to the Smithsonian: make it easier to print smallerscale models with the same level of detail.

Its ability to engage students makes the 3D printer a powerful tool, and Kilbane found practical applications for it across disciplines. “What can we do that would be good curriculum?” he remembers thinking.

“Not just nifty. … at Penn Charter we want to be more substance than flash.”

Kilbane found a website on which researchers had published 3D models of proteins and hemoglobin, which carries oxygen in red blood cells. After downloading the models, and converting them into a printable format with another piece of software, Chimera, he was able to show that the addition of two atoms of oxygen to a protein can change its entire shape, affecting how it works. “Kids could actually be hands-on with biology in a way never before possible,” he said. A limited number of 3D models are available for purchase but cost hundreds of dollars. “Now we can print as

many as we want for just a few dollars.” Plastic filament for the 3D printer costs about $15 a pound, and most prints weigh about an ounce.

Kilbane also printed a model of the P53 protein, a mutation in which is a likely cause of glioblastoma. Science teacher Timothy Lynch is a survivor of this cancer and is currently on sabbatical conducting research at the University of Pennsylvania on how the immune system interacts with glioblastoma.

Lynch used the model, Kilbane said, “to explain cancer in a very hands-on way to his students.”

When the Innovation Club students decided to build hovercrafts, they custom designed a propeller and an engine-mount for them. Using Google’s SketchUp, a 3D CAD (computer-aided design) program, they uploaded the dimensions, then printed the models to scale. After some trial and error, they got the size they needed.

They also used the printer to prepare for April’s Greater Philadelphia SeaPerch Challenge, an underwater robot competition at Drexel University in which remotely operated robots navigate a course and pick up objects underwater. Competitors begin with a $25 robot kit and can make improvements – within a $20 limit for materials. Using SketchUp, PC’s young innovators fashioned parts for their robots.

They also printed miniature prototypes of their robots. “When we think we’ve got an idea,” sophomore Gordon Robertson said, “we can look at the whole idea from a 3D perspective, not just on paper. We can look at the merits of the model.”

“The great thing about the Innovation Club,” junior Blake Hastings said, “is that we’re allowed to use these [tools].” What Blake was not allowed to do was print parts for his PHAT Physics vehicle. In the Penn

“…at Penn Charter we want to be more substance than flash.”

After creating prototypes of their robot on a 3D printer, Innovation Club members Blake Hastings and Emily Ominsky built their underwater robot – and waterproofed the engine – for the SeaPerch Challenge at Drexel University. PHOTO: MEREDITH HEUER.

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Charter physics competition, students build and race self-propelled cars made with very specific materials like coffee cans and mousetraps. Blake was able, though, to create a prototype of the car so that his teammates “could see what was happening inside my head.”

“It’s fun just to mess around and have Mr. Kilbane give us goals and keep us on track,” junior Henry McIlvaine said of the Innovation Club.

“I think the Innovation Club could almost make their own 3D printer at this point,” Kilbane said, and paused. “That might be next year.”

HIGH TECH, HANDS ON Penn Charter teachers and students are playing a significant role in one of the Smithsonian’s first 3D projects: an Apple iBook of Abraham Lincoln’s life mask. Currently in production, Abraham Lincoln: The Mind Behind the Mask is a free educational resource for grades 8-12. The iBook includes 3D models of two life masks, one made in 1860, months before Lincoln was elected president, and the other in 1865, two months before his assassination. 3D images of the life masks, molded and cast by two different sculptors, Leonard W. Volk and Clark Mills, respectively, illustrate in minute detail the man, his life and the toll that the presidency took. The iBook also contains a timeline of his life, early images of Lincoln, and primary documents that he wrote, such as the “House Divided” speech he delivered at the Republican Convention in 1858.

Social studies teacher Sarah Sharp, like Kilbane, got an early peek at the iBook.

“In some ways,” Sharp said, “it’s sort of the ultimate getting inside Lincoln’s head, pretty literally. It explores different approaches of understanding who Lincoln was.”

Earlier this year when Kilbane told her and other teachers about the 3D printer and his involvement with the Smithsonian, Sharp realized it was the idea she needed for her AP U.S. History students in May, after AP exams.

“I wasn’t interested in it just because it was

Students used photogrammetry, the science of making measurements from photographs (shown on p. 22), to create a 3D model of Alexander Calder’s famous City Hall statue of William Penn, a replica of which stands outside Gummere Library. PHOTOS: MEREDITH HEUER.

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PENN CHARTER + SMITHSONIAN A 3D PARTNERSHIP

More Classroom Applications FOR A RECENT ARCHITECTURE CLASS TRIP TO CLIVEDEN, a National Historic Landmark, science teacher Corey Kilbane gave a student a short tutorial on photogrammetry, the science of making measurements from photographs. The student photographed the building from many different positions and angles, uploaded the photos to Autodesk software to produce a 3D file, and was able to print a model of the building, shown below. In this way, after a field trip, a teacher can go back and expand on the features of a historic site. Earlier in the year, Kilbane accompanied PC’s third grade class to Pennsbury Manor, the 17th century country estate of William Penn, and followed the same process to create a 3D mini version of Penn’s home. And during spring break when Innovation Club member Andy Nguyen traveled to China on a PC study trip, he used photogrammetry to document and create 3D models of Chinese monuments to share with the PC community.

In Middle School, technology coordinator Bob Rowan has been experimenting with a second, smaller 3D printer given to Penn Charter by the Smithsonian. “One of my sample prints,” he said, “was a replica of the bones in a human knee joint, which tied in with work that Jeff Humble was doing in science class, and we also printed a replica of a human heart to show his students. I’m expecting there will be many more uses for the printer with our work in science classes.”

A musical use for the Middle School printer came about during a lunchtime discussion between Rowan and music teachers Hayley Varhol and Bob Wilson about the difficulty of playing a brass instrument in cold weather. Rowan found a 3D model of mouthpieces for the trumpet and trombone and was able to print plastic mouthpieces, rather than the metal (cold!) ones that musicians normally use.

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different,” Sharp said. “I was interested in it because I’m always looking for ways to help kids think, and thinking historically isn’t easy.

After the AP exam, kids need to be working on something that’s different and refreshing. Still working, but turning something sideways – out-of-the-box thinking.”

Testing a student activity in the iBook, Sharp will have students simulate the presidential campaign of 1860. Each member of the class will be assigned a role: Lincoln, a supporter, or a delegate who is a potential supporter, for example.

The activity will “enable students to see who Lincoln was.” Students will assess the activity. Does it work? Is it worthy of class time? “They’re put in the position of being evaluators” for the project, Sharp said.

Educators from the Smithsonian will visit Penn Charter at the end of May for a chance to ask the experts – students – about the iBook. In addition to Sharp’s students,

Supporting the school’s 1:1 laptop program, Kilbane and head librarian Doug Uhlmann used the 3D printer to create fixed charging stations for Mac laptops. Modeling and printing a plastic insert to fit inside a standard electrical box, they nested a charger inside and securely mounted each box in the wall or under a table.

The Smithsonian provides on its website 3-dimensional views – as well as downloadable 3D models – of its two Lincoln life masks. The 1865 Clark Mills life mask (right) was printed by PC students. Visit https://3d.si.edu/browser to explore these and other models.

Bridge, Baltimore’s Oriole Park or Coney Island’s Cyclone roller coaster. They will download and print the models, and record their insights into the process of creating the 3D images.

Sharp hasn’t told her students about the 3D projects she has in mind. She’ll wait until they need a boost, “when they’re making a final push for studying for the AP exam” in early May. A 3D model of oxygenated hemoglobin protein allowed freshman biology students to see how red blood cells use proteins to carry oxygen.

members of both the Innovation and Science clubs will weigh in on the iBook. Some have already begun using and evaluating a student papercraft activity. Designed for schools that don’t have a 3D printer, this project involves printing and cutting out pieces of paper and connecting them to make a 3D, paper life mask of Lincoln. PC students already have a suggestion: When piecing together the life mask, instead of matching tab A with slot A, match an event in Lincoln’s life with the date it took place – match up the Lincoln-Douglas Debates with the year 1858, constructing a timeline of Lincoln’s life as a way of building students’ knowledge while they piece together the life mask.

Another section of Sharp’s AP U.S. History class will work with 3D models found on 3D Warehouse, a crowd-sourcing site that allows users to create 3D scans of buildings and structures and upload them to Google Earth.

Students will choose and research three landmarks – perhaps the Tacony-Palmyra

LIFE-ALTERING APPLICATIONS Tenth grade Quakerism students and 10th and 11th graders at Widener Memorial School, a Philadelphia public school for students with physical disabilities, are working on an exciting, real-world application for 3D printing. Many Widener students have difficulty resting their arms on a walker because they lack the strength to manipulate it with just their hands. So, teams of two PC students and two Widener students are designing and producing on the 3D printer a “trough” that can be attached to the walker to make it easier for Widener students to move around both the school and community. “Our hope is that we can not only make a series of braces for Widener students to use, but that we can also personalize the troughs for individual students,” said Jim Ballengee, founder of the Center for Public Purpose.

Outside of Penn Charter, doctors and scientists are using 3-dimensional technology to make life-altering – even life-saving –

Science teacher Corey Kilbane, shown here with Innovation Club member Gordon Robertson, presented in November at Smithsonian X 3D, a sold-out conference on how 3D technologies will transform museums and research institutions worldwide. Kilbane spoke about multidisciplinary applications for 3D printing in the classroom.

PHOTO: MEREDITH HEUER.

devices. In Michigan, doctors treated a toddler born with a defective windpipe by making a CT scan of his windpipe, then 3D printing a replica of it to wrap around and support his own trachea like a splint, keeping it from collapsing. Biomedical researchers at Alfred I. DuPont Hospital for Children created a custom exoskeleton for a child whose arthrogryposis meant that she couldn’t move her arms on her own.

The applications for 3D printing at Penn Charter, as well as throughout the world, are seemingly endless. “While it may not be the solution to everything,” Kilbane said, “it’s definitely adding a whole new set of tools to our toolbox.” PC

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ALUMNI

Downtown Reception 2014

RED CARPET TREATMENT

Penn Charter rolled out the red carpet for Stephen Bruno OPC ’97 – and vice versa!

Bruno, president of marketing for The Weinstein Company, a multimedia production and distribution company, returned to PC in February for a jam-packed day that included a presentation to the entire Upper School student body, a video interview with The Mirror, lunch with students who have a keen interest in film, and the firstever Downtown Reception at a movie theater.

Guests socialized at Positano Coast in Society Hill and then walked across the street, and onto a red carpet, at the Ritz Five theater complex.

Bruno, named in the 2012 Hollywood Reporter’s Next Generation list of “50 superstars 35 and under who are moving up fast (and having fun)” in the film and television industry, used his connections to snag an advance screening of a Weinstein Company release.

Sitting in a Hollywood-style director’s chair after the sneakpreview, Bruno answered questions about his career and the movie, which is the story of a healing relationship between a disgraced music executive and a heartbroken singer/songwriter. Bruno warned that Can a Song Save Your Life? might be retitled – and a month later it was reborn as Begin Again, promoted on the Today show, and slated in the coveted position as closer of the Tribeca Film Festival. Nice work, Weinstein Company: you must have a superstar marketing team! The movie officially opens on July 4. PC

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Matthew D. Byrne OPC ’09, Katherine E. Grace OPC ’09, James H. Grace OPC ’09, Carolyn Grace OPC ’12 and Samuel Rowland OPC ’12.

Liana Yoo and Aaron Z. Cohen OPC ’97, with Melissa Bruno, wife of Stephen Bruno.

Karen and Handsel Minyard, Head of School Darryl J. Ford and Michael T. Bak OPC ’10.

Stephen Bruno OPC ’97 with his Penn Charter kindergarten teacher, Kathy MacNight.

Richard A. Balderston OPC ’69 and his daughter, Jessica Balderston OPC ’05.

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A Tale of

22 Steps The senior stairs, one of Penn Charter’s most storied traditions

of time,” as one graduate, Allan Dash OPC ’57, said. But the tradition links all those who have earned the rank of PC senior and assumed its privileges.

“One of my happiest, most vivid memories of PC school days,” Dash said, “was that September morning in 1956 when I walked proudly up my senior stairs for the first time.” Today, more than a half-century later, senior Mason Thomas remembers his first time on the stairs as “real special. I felt like I had finally made it.”

The Upper School Student Handbook spells out the rules for the senior stairs. The stairs “are reserved solely for seniors; no other students may use them during the school day.” (Faculty, parents and other visitors may use the stairs anytime.) Although the school day is defined as 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., some underclassmen cautiously avoid the elegant staircase at all hours.

“They’re nice to look at. I don’t think about them to walk on,” said sophomore James Frye, who uses one of the other, unsung stairways to

by Lea Sitton Stanley

J

ust inside the red double doors framing the main entrance to the William Penn Charter School is a broad, winding staircase known simply as “the senior stairs.”

Challenges have been leveled and honor reclaimed in the name of these 22 lovely,

meticulously maintained wooden steps. And for as long as anyone can remember, they have telegraphed: You’ve arrived.

The tradition of the senior stairs is woven tightly into the fabric of Penn Charter. How and why it all started may be “lost in the mists

Have a senior stairs story of your own?

Do tell.

Email your recollection to ssexton@penncharter.com.

We will compile the stories into an online feature.

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move between floors. He couldn’t say why he doesn’t walk on the senior stairs after hours, but added, “I heard stories.”

“When it was an all-boys school, boys did boy things,” said Brian McCloskey OPC ’82 and dean of students. “I never tried to go up and down the senior stairs ― I was too smart,” he said, laughing. “Kids would try to do it and they’d get in trouble.”

Although he wasn’t here then, Travis Larrabee, director of Upper School, has heard that enforcers needed only hear about a violation to act. As the story goes, they’d even yank the offender out of class as the teacher watched, powerless to interfere with tradition.

“They would find them and put them in the showers,” Larrabee said. “Fully clothed.”

Today, the handbook carries this warning: Names of violators should be given to the dean of students. Under no circumstances should a senior punish, intimidate or harass another student over this or any other tradition.

Larrabee, who joined PC as dean of students in fall 2007, nudged the evolution of a kinder, gentler tradition around the senior stairs that had begun even before the school went coed in 1980. “I knew it was a big tradition,” he said. “I heard what it was like 30 years ago.”

In his first year or two at the school, Larrabee formalized the tradition as a rite of passage. For a half-dozen years now, after the final Meeting for Worship of the school year, the junior class has left the Meeting Room and paraded down the winding staircase, lined by cheering seniors, who give high-fives, hugs ― and pass the baton to the new leaders of the school community.

“It’s cool, especially if you’re standing at the bottom of the stairs,” Larrabee said of the procession. For older OPCs, however, it might be more culture shock than cool. The transition they experienced after the final May assembly was less scripted, to say the least.

Dash recalled: “At the close of that assembly, the juniors became seniors and could use the hallowed stairs. The actual seniors always disputed that scenario, and charged out of the [Meeting] Room to defend their property while the juniors raced out to use the stairs.” The result? “A lot of pushing,

pulling, and taunts from both camps.” Most of the time, Dash said, it was just “a lot of raucous fun.”

That king-of-the-hill tradition lives on in the stories students share with each other and with prospective students they take on tours of the Upper School. Student journalists also relish playing with the lore.

The Mirror, in September 2012, ran a list of nine tips, “Everything a Freshman Needs to Know for the First Week of High School: Advice from an Upperclassman,” that included: 8. Want to meet more seniors? Take a casual stroll up the senior stairs between 8:00 am and 3:00 pm.

9. Can’t find the nurses office? Refer above to number 8.

If the tradition struck fear in students decades ago, today they are fascinated by it, maybe even in awe of it. After all, it’s part of their school, this wild, colorful practice.

They can claim it as their own.

Although the origin of this senior privilege may have been lost in the mists of time, it remains “one of those traditions that make schools unique,” Larrabee said.

So unique, that Dash can vividly recall the joy he felt on a September day nearly 60 years ago. So unique, that senior Mason Thomas admits, “I’m not sure if I want to give the senior stairs up to anyone,” even as he knows that in May, he must. He will clap and cheer, then step away. And in that moment, a new class of seniors will hear, You’ve arrived. PC

YOU CAN BE FORGIVEN IF YOU HAVEN’T NOTICED IT, considering how it blends quietly into the tradition of its location, but there is a memorial plaque of some significance embedded in the wall of the senior stairs. (Look for it on the wall above the small landing near the bottom of the stairs.) Clearly, this marble marker deserves a moment.

None knew him but to love him, it says of Charles Louis McKeehan OPC 1893, the first president of the Penn Charter Alumni Society. Friends and alumni paid to have the tower clock erected in McKeehan’s name atop the building in 1928, right over the senior stairs. A year later, an endowed fund for the Penn Charter library was set up in his name.

McKeehan died before age 50, in 1925, but accomplished much. He had already practiced law for more than 15 years when he began serving as a lieutenant colonel in World War I, and at his death he was a U.S. District Court judge in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

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Class Notes Penn Charter magazine wants to hear from you, and your classmates do, too! Submit your news and photos to jcubbin@penncharter.com. Digital photos should be 300 dpi JPEGs.

A Look Back at

1949

1939

1689 Class Agent Jane F. Evans jevans@penncharter.com

Class Agent Robert C. McAdoo

Williard S. Boothby Jr. OPC ‘39 Philip M. Maroney Hon. 1689

See death notices.

See death notices.

Recollections at penncharter.com/maroney.

Harold M. Cobb OPC ’39

1936

See death notices.

1940 Thomas W. Cowdrick OPC ’36 See death notices.

Class Agent Robert J. Harbison III rharbo@aol.com

1937 Class Agent Edmond H. (Ted) Heisler

A Look Back at

1939

John S. Price OPC ’40 See death notices.

1945 Class Agent H. Leonard Brown

Robert W. Schneck OPC ’45 See death notices.

1948

Jack Van Baalen OPC ’48 See death notices.

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1949 Class Agent Bruce R. Barstow brbarstow@aol.com

Bruce R. Barstow OPC ’49 writes, “Theodore F. Decker Jr. OPC ’78 has a daughter, Kathryn S. Decker OPC ’13, who is a freshman at the University of New Hampshire in Durham. We spend the summers in Durham, which gives us the opportunity to see the Decker clan when they visit Katy.

“The Benoliel lunches are still being held quarterly in Conshohocken and are usually attended by Peter A. Benoliel, Charles H. Schaeffer OPC ’48, Carl F. Rumpp, Thomas B. Force, William M. Welch, Tim Thomas, George C. Fuller and me when I am in town in transit between Durham and Savannah twice a year. Last fall, Peter J. Meehan came from Naples, Fla., to Philadelphia to have lunch with the group! Thanks, Peter, for your expressed loyalty to the school! That luncheon group will very much miss William J. Wall OPC ’50, Andres S. Graham, G. Davis Greene and Robert P. Hauptfuhrer, all of whom passed away in the last year.

“Howard W. Hanson has had some heavyduty surgery, but seems to be quite fit now!

He was always a competitor!

ALUMNI

Class Notes “Thomas B. MacCabe made a nice gift to the school in the memory of Stanley S. Frazee OPC ’49, another former classmate who recently passed away.

Class of 1952

“Edwin A. Snape has become even more of a traveler since wife Pam retired from her medical practice in Greenville, S.C. They returned to Colorado to ski this year, but Ed chose not to do downhill for the first time.

“Anthony A. Caimi has moved from his retirement venue at Gainsville to another college campus venue in Ohio. When they have lots of land in which to expand, universities are finding their campuses to be an attraction to retirees.

“Although they haven’t made it back to school in recent years, I tip my communication hat to T. Morris Perot, Jack Ogelsby and Harry E. Richter, who usually respond in some way to current class events/ activities. It assures me I’m not writing into a wind tunnel.”

1950 Class Agent Christopher W. Parker cwp420@aol.com

Stanley S. Frazee Jr. OPC ’50 See death notices.

John S. C. Harvey OPC ’50 See death notices.

John K. Walters Jr. reports that he has five grandchildren.

1951 Class Agent David N. Weinman ombudinc@aol.com

Left to right: (seated) John H. Wagner, Head of School Darryl J. Ford, Colson H. Hillier, William H. Brehm; (standing) Joseph B. VanSciver, David E. Smith, George (Skip) Corson, Frank F. Embick, William J. McGuckin, John L. Graham, David K. Colescott, Michael P. Ritter, Clifford W. Donahower, David M. Jordan, Charles J. Nicholas, David A. Potter, Charles M. Waygood, F. Bruce Waechter.

Seventeen classmates from Penn Charter’s Class of 1952 traveled to St. Petersburg, Fla., to attend their 62nd reunion. The four-day reunion, March 2-5, 2014, was hosted by St. Petersburg residents Carole and Charles M. Waygood. Thirteen spouses accompanied the group for a total of 30 participants. The reunion started with a wonderful welcome party on Sunday evening on the 28th floor of the Bayfront Towers. During the party, classmates Michael P. Ritter and Joseph B. VanSciver recreated music from their band, the Sleepless Knights, during their PC school days. Monday included a trolley tour of downtown and a sightseeing boat excursion of Tampa Bay, with viewing of the St. Petersburg’s harbor and coves, including many large bay-front houses, occasionally with dolphins accompanying the boat. Additionally, there were many museum tours, plus shopping and bay-side dining. A highlight of the trip was their final dinner Tuesday night at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club with Head of School Darryl J. Ford and Chief Development Officer Jack Rogers Hon. 1689, addressing the group. The weather was perfect, and a great time was had by all.

Those attending included William H. Brehm, Barbara and David K. Colescott, George (Skip) Corson, Clifford W. Donahower, Anna and Frank F. Embick, Martha and John L. Graham, Pat and Colson H. Hillier, Jean and David M. Jordan, Carol and William J. McGuckin, Nancy and Charles J. Nicholas, David A. Potter, Margo and Michael P. Ritter, Lee and David E. Smith, Carol and Joseph B. VanSciver, Janet and F. Bruce Waechter, Carol and John H. Wagner, and Carole and Charles M. Waygood.

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Class Notes 1952

Sharing His Time and Talent Jim Lehman OPC ’54 writes, “Since 2004, I have continued to go to Chile on a yearly basis with a team of 10-12 medical personnel to do surgery, working with our Chilean counterparts. It has been a very rewarding experience, and we now have a group of very close friends in Chile. The program is supported by Rotary, which is a key component of our success. We perform 60-90 surgeries each year and see many of the patients in follow-up the next year. In addition to Chile, I have also gone to Bolivia and China, again with the support of Rotary. I can truly say it has been a fantastic opportunity and I have enjoyed all of the experiences, including one earthquake (2010). Recently at the request of our Chilean surgeons and the Department of Health, we have helped develop a program to train surgeons in breast reconstruction.”

Class Agents George C. (Skip) Corson Jr. gccesq@aol.com F. Bruce Waechter fbw413@aol.com

1953 Class Agent William H. Bux mbuxc@aol.com

Donald O. Baumann OPC ’53 See death notices.

John F. Coppolino OPC ’53 See death notices.

Harrison G. Wehner Jr. OPC ’53 See death notices.

Jim Lehman (center) and his son, Thomas, a nurse, with Ricardo Roman, president of Rotaplast Chile, which treats children with cleft lips and palates.

John S. Budd published his first fictional novel, Common 3, in September 2013.

1954 Class Agent Alfred F. Bracher III fbracher@aol.com

1955 Class Agent Charles (Chuck) Clayton Jr. cclayt@comcast.net

John MacWilliams OPC ’55 is a senior consultant and analyst at Bishop & Associates, Inc.

Jim Lehman (second from left), pictured with a surgical team at the Naval Hospital in Viña del Mar, has returned to Chile time and again for the last decade to contribute his medical expertise to those in need.

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1956 Class Agent Bernard E. Berlinger Jr. bberlinger@asidrives.com

ALUMNI

Class Notes

Chris Rosser OPC ’56 Scoreboard Dedication The scoreboard at Somers Field, donated by Julius B. Rauch III OPC ’56 (pictured with Head of School Darryl J. Ford) was officially dedicated in memory of Chris Rosser OPC ’56 in November 2013. Of the two friends and classmates, the marker reads, “Both truly believed good instruction is better than riches.”

Members of the Rosser family gathered to mark the dedication.

1957 Class Agents G. Allan Dash allandash3@comcast.net James V. Masella Jr. vesperent@aol.com James G. Masland Jr. jgmasland@yahoo.com

1958 Class Agents John E. F. Corson jefcorson@aol.com Robert D. Morrow Jr. djm112@aol.com

William A. Graham IV received the Distinguished Leadership Award from the Insurance Society of Philadelphia.

G. Allan Dash OPC ’57 and his wife, Gigi, flew to Philadelphia from their Cape Cod home in December to attend a family reunion. But that Friday evening, they enjoyed another sort of get-together: a reunion of three PC classmates and their wives at a Chestnut Hill restaurant.

Pictured, left to right: Louis F. Metzger of Maple Glen, Allan Dash, and William N. Tanner of Wyndmoor. Allan writes, “Bill and I have been friends since first grade; Lou is a relative newcomer, having belatedly joined the class in second grade! Anne Tanner’s friend and Gigi Dash’s colleague, Gail McFadden, also joined the party. Gail is the former wife of classmate Henry G. Schwarz OPC ’57.”

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Class Notes

Edwin A. Weihenmayer III enjoyed dinner with Head of School Darryl J. Ford in Orlando, Fla., during the annual conference of the National Association of Independent Schools. Both attended an inspirational presentation by Ed’s son, Erik. The younger Weihenmayer is an adventurer and motivational speaker, and the only blind person who has reached the summit of Mount Everest and the tallest peak on each continent.

1959

A.J. DiMarino Jr. OPC ’61, chief of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital since 1996, has been honored with a portrait in the hospital’s Hamilton building.

Pictured: DiMarino with his wife, Dorothy, and grandchildren at the portrait presentation.

1960

Class Agent Rush B. Smith smithrushb@aol.com

Class Agent James M. Arrison III arrison@attglobal.net Jared Sparks OPC ’61 See death notices.

1961 William T. Porter OPC ’59 See death notices.

A Look Back at

1959

Class Agents Richard P. Hamilton Jr. rick1480@aol.com J. Freedley Hunsicker Jr. hunsicjf@dbr.com

1962 Class Agents Louis F. Burke lburke@lfblaw.com

The Class of 1962 gathered for a holiday reunion at Phil’s Tavern in Blue Bell in December 2013.

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Class Notes Kevin McKinney pmckin5750@rogers.com

Class of 1968 45th Reunion

Ronald O. Prickitt ron@netilla.com

Thomas F. Strickland writes, “Patricia and Gordon A. Hasse (center and right, respectively) visited my wife, Elisabeth, and I at our Sarasota, Fla., home on Jan. 9.

We had a great time discussing our days at Penn Charter.”

1963 Class Agents Robert E. Brickely bob@bds-1.com Richard J. Gilkeson gilkeson1@msn.com Douglas S. Little doug.little@comcast.net

1964

The Class of 1968 held its 45th reunion at Timmons House on PC/GA Day, on Nov. 9, 2013.

1967 Class Agent Harry S. Cherken Jr. harry.cherken@dbr.com

1968

Class Agents John T. Long Jr. longacres1@yahoo.com

Class Agents Bruce C. Gill bcoopergil@aol.com

John S. Morrow jsmopc64@hargray.com

Richard E. Stanley dickandlea@aol.com

1965 Class Agent Jonathon P. (Buck) DeLong b.delong@charter.net

1966 Class Agent Allen F. Steere asteere3@verizon.net

media. The music is from this region, and our new university radio station is focused on Caribbean music. It is only interesting because my PC senior project involved creating a Caribbean-style steel pan.”

A Look Back at

1969

1969 Class Agent Thomas C. Robinson Jr. thomascrobinson@comcast.net

Alexander Randall writes, “I am chairman of communication at the University of the Virgin Islands and professor of Digital Media Communication. We have a rather interesting program restoring old music from old

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Class Notes 1975 Class Agents Robert L. Nydick robert.nydick@villanova.edu James S. Still jstill3boys@gmail.com

1978 Class Agents Sterling H. Johnson III ag96cu4@aol.com Thomas Field OPC ’70, pictured (center) hanging out in the physics lab his senior year at PC, is a contributing editor at Sky & Telescope. In February, he published an article on an inspiring 17-year-old woman astronomer, who won fourth place in the Intel Science Fair. He writes, “I almost lived in the physics lab during my last two years at PC. I had a teacher (Sam Tatnall) who changed my life. My passion for education and science led to my developing software and hardware: first for amateur astronomers and now for physics teachers. I work at booths at national conferences like the American Association of Physics Teachers and National Science Teachers Association. I often work in the Arbor Scientific booth, which is an amazing experience meeting so many educators and also being around the fun toys that Arbor has. And, in the booth, while I’m doing my lively presentation of the spectrometer in operation, I’m always picturing in my mind the system being used in the PC physics lab (long gone, I’m sure) where I first studied physics. Penn Charter remains one of the most formative and significant experiences of my life. Now that I’m marketing a product to teachers, I’m learning how incredibly hard good teachers work. And for that, I thank you.”

1970

David H. Neff dn@neffassociates.com

David Neff and his marketing firm, Neff Associates, won three 2013 Pepperpot Awards from the Philadelphia chapter of the Public Relations Society of America, including Best in Show, Excellence in Media Relations and Single Social Media Platform.

1972

Class Agents Charles L. Mitchell dhammalawyer@yahoo.com

Class Agent Bruce K. Balderston bruce.balderston@pncbank.com

Robert N. Reeves Jr. robreeves@eareeves.com

Stefan-Matthias Pulst returned to Philadelphia in April to receive the George Cotzias Prize from the American Academy of Neurology, named after the physician who discovered L-dopa treatment for Parkinson’s disease.

1971 Class Agents Marc A. Golden harvardceo@aol.com Frederick H. Landell rlandell@ltk.com

1973

W. Bruce McFarland performs with his musical partner Dana Coughlin, whom he met three years ago in Stockton, N.J. They can be seen and heard in restaurants, country clubs, fund-raisers and other events in Bucks and Montgomery counties as well as throughout the Philadelphia area.

Robert Picardo played Juror 4 in Pasadena Playhouse’s production of Twelve Angry Men last December.

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Paul C. Mancini paul@mancini.com

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Class Agent Robert J. Marquess rjmproteus@aol.com

1974 Class Agent J. Peter Davis davisphily@comcast.net

David C. Hahn released a new album in December with his band Concert Imaginaire titled Fortune’s Wheel.

Stephen K. Robertson (pictured, right), Charles S. Finney OPC ’87 and Chip’s son, Miles, recently got together at a holiday gathering at the home of Sterling H. Johnson III.

1979 Class Agents John D. Lemonick jlemonick@donnellyandassociates.com Patrick E. Lynch patrick@tsle.com

Peter L. DeCoursey OPC ’79 See death notices.

ALUMNI

Class Notes A Look Back at

1979

providing civil legal services, collaborating with other legal services organizations and promoting a culture of volunteerism by educating and exposing attorneys and law students to issues of poverty. Dean began volunteering his legal expertise with VIP in 1990 and has handled 28 VIP cases.

1982 Class Agent James L. Walker Jr. jimwalks@yahoo.com

Robert Hellings published his first book, a novel titled Promises Made, in September 2013.

1984 Class Agent Robert T. Myers rob.myers@barclayswealth.com

1985 Class Agents Matthew M. Killinger killingm@uphs.upenn.edu Thomas D. Kramer tom.kramer@am.jll.com

Johnathan Bari OPC ’85 sits on the board of directors for Legacy Youth Tennis and Education with PC teacher Cheryl Irving Hon. 1689.

1980 Class Agents John B. Caras john.caras@cingular.com Charles J. (Chip) Goodman chip_goodman@cable.comcast.com

Jonathan H. Newman has been appointed

by Gov. Tom Corbett and confirmed by the Senate to the three-member Pennsylvania State Horse Racing Commission for a three-year term. Jonathan is chairman and CEO of Newman Wine, one of the country’s leading wine broker/importers. He is former chairman of the state Liquor Control Board, serving under governors Tom Ridge, Mark Schweiker and Ed Rendell. He was named Wine Enthusiast Man of the Year and received the American Wine Society’s Award of Merit.

He is former chairman of the Pennsylvania Disciplinary Board for Lawyers and former chairman of the Board of Law Examiners.

1981 Class Agent Andrew J. Kramer akramer@kanepugh.com

Dean E. Weisgold was recognized as Volunteer of the Month by Philadelphia VIP for his commitment to helping low-income Philadelphians obtain equal access to justice.

VIP promotes equal justice for the poor by

Joseph F. Doherty, Brian J. Duffy and Matthew M. Killinger at the ninth hole of the U.S. Open at Merion in June 2013.

Victor C. Mather covered the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi for the New York Times.

Pictured with Danielle Bembry OPC ’11.

(See 2011.)

1983 William J. Green Jr. stepped down from Philadelphia City Council and was sworn in as chairman of the School Reform Commission in February 2014.

Edward Malandro Jr. was named TD Bank’s senior vice president, head of North America ATM sales, innovation and analytics.

John D. Smith became the new mid-north region president for Caesars Entertainment Corporation and general manager of Horseshoe Southern Indiana.

1986 Class Agent P. Timothy Phelps chambertim@hotmail.com

1987 Class Agents David Felderman felderman.david@gmail.com David B. Gleit leyladavid@yahoo.com Adam M. Koppel akoppel@baincapital.com

1988 Class Agents H. Bruce Hanson hbhanson@duanemorris.com Gregory D. Palkon greg@palkonlaw.com

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Class Notes Joshua Brockman OPC ’88 contributed an article to the New York Times in October 2013 on artist Thomas Eakins and kayaking, titled “Following in the Wake of Oars and Paintbrush.”

1989 Class Agent Kenneth (Casey) Murray playnikez@yahoo.com

A Look Back at

1989

game in South Bend, Ind., last November.

They were joined by Mary and William Gallagher Sr. Hon. 1689, as well as Megan OPC ’93 and Andrew Duffy OPC ’94, their four children, and Jennifer Gallagher OPC ’94. Billy Gallagher reports, “The highlight of the weekend was spending time after the game with Notre Dame offensive tackle Michael S. McGlinchey OPC ’13. The icing on the cake was Notre Dame beating Paul J. Kane’s Midshipmen in a close game!”

1994 Class Agent Jennifer R. Gallagher gallagherj@unionleague.org

1995 Class Agent Stephanie Teaford Walters walters-stephanie@aramark.com

Pamela (Cunningham) Escobar is a reporter for WBTV in Charlotte, N.C.

1992 Class Agents Anna V. Davis vanleer@hotmail.com Keith M. Nigro kmn5774@yahoo.com

1996 Class Agents Alyson M. Goodner alygoods@yahoo.com Michael Sala sala_lm@yahoo.com

1993 Class Agent Victor S. (Tory) Olshansky victor.olshansky@gmail.com

Wyatt Gallery published a book, #SANDY, featuring acclaimed photographers’ iPhone photos during Hurricane Sandy.

1997 Class Agents Brendan Moore brendanmoore78@yahoo.com Allison MacCullough O’Neill allisononeill88@gmail.com

1990 Class Agent James D. Phillips jphillips@penncharter.com

Richard L. Dressler OPC ’90 lives with his wife and four children in Ma’ale Adumim outside of Jerusalem. In addition to practicing family medicine, he is working to bring lacrosse to popularity in Israel.

1991 Class Agents Daniel S. Donaghy dsdonaghy@hotmail.com Leo J. Wyszynski ljwyszynski@aol.com

William Gallagher, his wife, Aimee, and their children Molly (11), Will (9) and Kate (7), went to the Notre Dame vs. Navy football

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PC/GA Day 2013 brought together a group of OPC ’97s. Pictured (left to right): Janine M. Wyszynski, Brooke A. DiMarco, Shaheen M. Beg, Allison (MacCullough) O’Neill, Kate (Keller) Samson, Christopher J. Albright and Eric S. Stiles.

ALUMNI

Class Notes 1999

Michael H. Goldman OPC ’97 See death notices.

In October 2013, Christopher J. Albright formally retired from professional soccer as a member of the Philadelphia Union. He was recently named Philadelphia Union’s assistant technical director.

Kate Houstoun, after two decades of city life, moved to the suburbs with her husband, John. Along with their two dogs, they are enjoying life in Wyndmoor and look forward to reconnecting with OPCs in the area.

Kate (Keller) Samson earned her doctorate degree in clinical psychology from Widener University last spring.

Wesley Schwartz has been performing in and around Philadelphia with his band Grimace Federation.

Margaux Pelegrin margaux.pelegrin@gmail.com

Keith C. Cappo OPC ’99 is head coach of Chestnut Hill College men’s soccer.

2000 Class Agent Adam K. Sperling adsperling@gmail.com

Jennifer N. Cooperman is based in Philadelphia as the director of capital planning for Hersha Hospitality Trust.

She is currently serving as the owner representative for the renovation of the new spa, salon and fitness center at the Rittenhouse, set to open this summer. She also served as the owner representative for the recently completed renovation of 87 guestrooms at the Rittenhouse.

Whitney E. Ehret is head diving coach at the Wissahickon Community Aquatic Club.

Gabriel E. Liedman OPC ’00 is a stand-up comedian and writer for Fox’s Golden Globe Award-winning Brooklyn 99.

2001 Class Agents William A. McKinney williammckinney@gmail.com Jessica A. Stein stein.jessica@gmail.com

1998 Class Agents Jeff Bender jb2424@gmail.com Patrick A. Sasse psasse@hotmail.com

A Look Back at

Class Agents Mark D. Hecker mhecker616@gmail.com

Benjamin J. Cooperman is still living – and skiing – in Vail, Colo.

1999

2002 Class Agent Katherine A. Butler butlerka@gmail.com

Shawn Sweeney was sworn in as a Lower Gwynedd Township police officer in January.

Aaron Mittica graduated from acupuncture school, the Won Institute in Glenside, with a master’s degree and is now practicing in Lafayette Hill.

2003

Ryan Still writes, “My wife, Corinne, and I were married in Barnstable, Mass., last August. Derek Still OPC ’05 was my best man.

Colin Still OPC ’08, David Gaunt OPC ’03 and Denis Whelan OPC ’03 were among my groomsman. Timmy Convey OPC ’03 was also in attendance.”

2004

Class Agents Jessica A. Kolansky jekolansky@comcast.net

Class Agents Katherine A. Entwisle kentwisl@gmail.com

Anthony E. McDevitt mcdevitt44@gmail.com

Erin E. Hozack erin.hozack@gmail.com

Jennifer N. Cooperman jcoop9185@gmail.com

Jerome B. Wright jwright08@gmail.com

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ALUMNI

Class Notes 2005 Class Agents Christopher W. Garrison cwg008@bucknell.edu Jessica Kalick jessiekalick@gmail.com Maureen Ryan mmr54@georgetown.edu

Allison Pearce is costume designer and co-producer for a modern-day silent film, MA, designing and fabricating one-of-a-kind and imaginative costumes.

Derek H. Speranza OPC ’08 writes, “Shiver me timbers! Emily Drinker OPC ’08 (right) recently spent four months on the high seas, filling the Mediterranean with song as the lead singer of the house band on the Celebrity Equinox cruise ship. Fellow OPC Katherine Damm and I boarded the ship in Spain and surprised Emily as guests on her final cruise! Armed with years of Penn Charter Spanish and Latin instruction, our trio spent the next two weeks venturing through Barcelona, Nice, Monaco, Rome, Naples, Pompeii, Venice, Croatia and Montenegro. A partial Quakers Dozen reunion ensued when Emily and Katherine performed several QD standards for crowds of wonderstruck seafarers. We made it back to Philadelphia just in time for our five-year PC reunion!

2006 Class Agents Joey Fugelo insaniac83@aol.com Sarah Roberts sar777@aol.com Katherine Siegmann ksiegmann@gmail.com Jeffrey Torchon jazzjeff88@gmail.com

Jeffrey Torchon continues to perform in and around Philadelphia with his musical ensemble Conjunto Philadelphia.

2007 Class Agents Richard Baska Lynn richardbaskalynne@gmail.com Audra Hugo audra.hugo@gmail.com Anne McKenna anniemck515@comcast.net Eric Muller bericmuller@gmail.com

2008 Class Agents Kathryn Corelli kcorelli@stanford.edu Ryan Goldman ryg@sas.upenn.edu

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Kyle Maurer kmaurer3@jhu.edu

2009 Class Agents Alexandra M. Glassman amg296@cornell.edu

Sierra Tishgart sierratishgart@gmail.com

Kellen Pastore is pursuing his PhD in systems engineering at Villanova University.

Matthew Star was featured in Technical.ly Philly in an article on CityCoHo, Philadelphia’s own green-focused coworking space.

Curtiss R. Jones Jr. crj213@lehigh.edu Laura A. Kurash chargefan5@comcast.net Sam H. Lerner sam.lerner@richmond.edu

Class of 2008 5th Reunion

ALUMNI

Class Notes A Look Back at

2009

better prepared to work in L.A. Also, I spent a lot of time traveling around the area and just taking in the experience of Hollywood.”

Casey T. Maher is headed to the U.S. Navy’s Officer Candidate School for the Pilot Officer program in Newport, R.I., in June.

James H. Seo is a junior at Temple’s Fox School of Business.

2011 Class Agents Demetra B. Angelakis dangelak@bowdoin.edu

Justin Renfrow transferred from the University of Virginia to the University of Miami and is an outstanding defensive lineman for the Hurricanes.

2010

Adam J. Garnick ajg9692@gmail.com Casandra P. Gigliotti cassieg@bu.edu Grant A. Guyer guyerg@dickinson.edu

Class Agents Megan C. Delaney megan.c.delaney@gmail.com Cormac J. Ferrick mac.ferrick@gmail.com Casey T. Maher ctm214@lehigh.edu Kellie C. Ragg kragg@princeton.edu

Hunter D. Beck plays squash for the United States Naval Academy.

Blaine A. Steinberg OPC ’11

Jay H. Schaeffer, Andrew R. Amaro, Neil B. Ahmed (with his mother, HanHee Yoo) and Daniel P. Lawn, all at the University of Maryland. Neil is the baseball team manager and a bullpen catcher.

Aleesha R. Powell plays basketball for Iona College and is a kinesiology major.

Kendall A. Stokes reports that she had a winter internship; is a New York state EMT, working with alcohol-awareness groups on her campus at Cornell University; is involved in Cornell’s Public Service Center; and organized a spring break trip to teach innercity kids nutrition and basketball.

See death notices.

Joya A. Ahmad received the Kevin T. Roach Scholarship at the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science at Columbia University.

Alexander Brown traveled to China and kept his blog updated with descriptions and photos. Read about his adventures at thatonetimeinchina.blogspot.com.

2012 Class Agents Sarah L. Butler slbutler94@gmail.com Ben P. Krieger benpkrieger@gmail.com Edward Malandro edmalandro93@gmail.com Cathryn C. Peirce cpeirce@sas.upenn.edu

2013 Class Agents Rachael D. Garnick rachaelgarnick@gmail.com

Frank I. Lieberman (pictured, right) writes, “I completed five weeks in Los Angeles working with Smitty OPC ’69, president/ owner of In Sync Advertising. All I can say is wow! He was just great to work with. I loved my time at In Sync and feel that I am much

Aaron C. Mandelbaum aaronman@sas.upenn.edu

Alexandra Rosen (left) and Danielle Bembry covered the Winter Olympics in Sochi as NBC interns.

Bennett W. Samuel bennettsamuel44@gmail.com Julia H. Vahey julia.vahey@hws.edu

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ALUMNI

Class Notes Luke H. Angelakis plays squash at the University of Pennsylvania and is enrolled in the Wharton School of Business.

Augustine P. Crofton plays squash at Drexel University and intends to major in sport management.

Maria Georgiou rows crew for the University of Pennsylvania. She had two first-place finishes at the Navy Day Regatta last fall on the Schuylkill River.

Eric B. Berger, Charles S. Giunta, Kevin S. Murphy, Raymond C. Vandegrift and John J. Moderski OPC ’12 returned to Philadelphia last fall to compete in lacrosse’s seventh annual Nicholas Colleluori Fall Men’s Classic at Ridley High School.

BIRTHS 1987 Josie, to Lauren and David Felderman, on Sept. 3, 2013.

1991 Caitlin Carey and Elizabeth Josephine, to Stephanie and David S. Ide, on Oct. 3, 2013.

Hon. 1689 Philip M. Maroney, on Dec. 13, 2013.

1936 Thomas W. Cowdrick, on Dec. 31, 2013.

1995

1939 Willard S. Boothby Jr., on March 22, 2014.

Harold M. Cobb, on Jan. 28, 2014.

Jackson Tony, to Emily and Tony A. Dual, on March 16, 2014.

1940 John S. Price, on Feb. 22, 2013.

1996

1945 Robert W. Schneck, on Nov. 25, 2013.

Mackenzie Stephanie, to Leigh and Matthew R. Arizin, on March 10, 2014.

1997 Grayson Ilhwan, to Liana and Aaron Z. Cohen, on Oct. 5, 2013.

Analee Joan, to Tracy and Christopher J. Rodgers, on Sept. 7, 2013.

MARRIAGES

DEATHS

1997

1948 Jack Van Baalen, on Oct. 27, 2013.

1950 Stanley S. Frazee Jr., on Jan.15, 2014.

John S. C. Harvey, on May 21, 2013.

1953 Donald O. Baumann, on Jan. 12, 2014.

John F. Coppolino, on Feb. 14, 2014.

Harrison G. Wehner Jr., on Nov. 9, 2013.

1959 William T. Porter, on Nov. 26, 2013.

1961 Jared Sparks, on Nov. 28, 2013.

1979 Peter L. DeCoursey, on Jan. 1, 2014.

Henry Korte, to Bill and Virginia (Brown) Yinger, on Nov. 20, 2013. (See photo.)

1997 Michael H. Goldman, on Dec. 19, 2013.

2007

2011 Blaine A. Steinberg, on March 7, 2014.

Lucas Patrick, to Sue and Brendan Moore, on Jan. 29, 2014.

Kate C. Houstoun to John Lisko, on Feb. 11, 2013. (See photo.)

Alan H. Rappeport to Kristen Looney, on Aug. 10, 2013.

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Alumni, if you aren’t receiving the OPC Spirit, Penn Charter’s monthly alumni newsletter, you don’t know what you’re missing! Send an e-mail to alumni@penncharter.com, and we’ll hook you up.

OPC Network

GOES MOBILE Do you ever find yourself in a new city and wonder what OPCs live or work in the area? Are you looking to network with a fellow OPC in your profession or industry? Curious about what your classmates are doing? PC’s new Evertrue mobile app has all this information and more!

Evertrue is uniquely partnered to LinkedIn, making the OPC mobile networking experience both practical and professional.

HOW TO JOIN YOUR FELLOW OPCS ON EVERTRUE: 1. Search “Evertrue” in your app store and download.

2. Search “William Penn Charter School.”

3. Enter your name and email address, then hit submit.

4. Check your inbox on your mobile device and verify.

5. Begin finding fellow OPCs by location, class or industry!

IMPORTANT: If you enter your name and email address but cannot access the community, that’s because PC does not have your most current email. A notification will be sent to the Alumni Office that will update your email information and then give you access

Nonprofit Org. U.S. Postage

PAID Philadelphia, PA Permit No. 6118 3000 West School House Lane Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19144

Save the Date MAY 23

JUNE 7

Color Day, 1:00 pm

Commencement, 10:30 am

MAY 27

NOVEMBER 8

Senior/Alumni Society Barbeque, 4:00 pm

128th PC/GA Day @ GA Class of 1969 45th Reunion

JUNE 4

NOVEMBER 29

Women’s Legacy Celebration, 6:00 pm

Class of 2009 Fifth Reunion

Second grade plays on Costa Rica explored themes of conservation and reforestation.