The
Quill The Pike School Magazine
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Spring 2007
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A Message from the
Head of School Summer-izing My initial intent was to use this space to report on my trip to China. However, we just put most of that material, including pictures, on the school’s new Web site. (I hope you are going to the site regularly, as the site changes more in a day now than it used to change in a year.) Instead, I thought it would be appropriate to share some accomplishments of the year to date. One of the most exciting developments is aforementioned new Web site. Elizabeth Watson and Tara McCabe led the effort in the early phases with the actual work of implementing the ideas being done very ably by Terry Dash and Cliff Hauptman. It is an amazing window into the life of our school, and we cannot yet begin to imagine its future impact. Specific examples of its use are the Third Grade’s salmon cam and Joan Regan’s blog on the wildlife that lives on our campus, as well as the ease and value of sharing projects and events with the entire Pike community. A great deal has been accomplished in the area of diversity and multiculturalism, including two groups that were created for Upper School students: the affinity group and the multicultural group. We knew we were on the right track when the students were asking for more meeting time even at the expense of recess time. Faculty enjoyed a wonderful presentation by the students of color who make up our affinity group. They spoke eloquently and favorably about the positive impact of these meetings on their lives at Pike. Our multicultural group of students has allowed all children to have a venue to discuss any issue of concern. Topics have included race, religion, issues of gender, and more. We are also pleased with our attempts to find more men and people of color for our faculty and intern program. We now award scholarships for our intern program to people of color and men, two groups underrepresented in the teaching profession. One of next year’s interns is of Iraqi descent, while another is from Japan. Our affinity group students voiced a strong desire to see more faculty of color as role models and confidants. Our faculty Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity (SEED) group has grown in numbers and meet regularly to discuss books they have read in common. We are thinking of starting a similar group for parents.
much of the year documenting what we currently do. Over this summer and the 2007-08 school year, we will decide on changes to the program with input from our consultant, Professor Jay Simmons from UMass Lowell. Also, teachers in all three divisions have been trained in a program called 6 + 1 Traits, a writing program we have found to be very helpful for our students. In the area of parent education, we successfully tried a new model based on readings distributed in advance on topics of interest. I took a stab at starting a conversation using my space on the Web page but got only one response to my first piece; I will try again before deciding whether to continue. We undertook the first major parent survey in recent memory at Pike and had an 80% rate of participation from the parent body. I look forward to sharing the data with our community at the start of the school year. Finally, our May kickoff for Pike’s Promise was an enormous accomplishment. It was as electric a moment as I can remember in 13 years at Pike. I felt a shared sense of pride in what has already been accomplished and a commitment to help Pike move forward yet again in the name of its students. Our community has the strength of a shared vision, and that strength will make the coming year one to remember.
We formed two new committees this year that have begun important conversations. Terry Dash is chairing a new technology committee that is developing a plan to take Pike confidently into the future. I am chairing a committee that is looking at issues of sustainability. We have many initiatives in the area of recycling and are seeking ways to minimize waste. Both committees will continue their work into next year. In the area of curriculum, we have spent a great deal of time on our Language Arts Review. This effort is being led by Susan Hauptman, Jennifer Mathews, and Amy Salvatore. We have spent
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The
Quill
Volume 14 No. 1 Spring 2007 The Quill is a publication of The Pike School Office of Development, Alumni Affairs, and Communications. Office of Development, Alumni Affairs, and Communications Tara L. McCabe Director Cliff Hauptman Director of Communications Christen Hazel Director of Annual Giving and Alumni Outreach
Features
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Graduation ‘07
The Naturing Environment by Cliff Hauptman
Alison Brandi Development Coordinator Our Mission The Pike School seeks to develop within its community a life-long love of learning, respect for others, the joy of physical activity and a creative spirit. A Pike education is a journey that prepares students to be independent learners and responsible citizens. Editor-in-Chief Cliff Hauptman Contributing Writers Debbie Anderson Bo Baird Betsy DeVries Christen Hazel Tina Morris Joan Regan Laura Russell Design/Layout Cliff Hauptman The Pike School 34 Sunset Rock Road Andover, MA 01810 Tel: 978-475-1197 Fax: 978-475-3014 alumni@pikeschool.org www.pikeschool.org On the cover: Azaleas frame Pike’s main entrance, soon to be replaced by new construction.(Photo: Cliff Hauptman)
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Cheeseburger Eddie to the Rescue by Bo Baird
Dirt Time
by Joan Regan, Tina Morris, and Betsy DeVries
Departments Facing Page
Message from the Head of School
2 Upper School News 4 Middle School News 6 Lower School News 20 Alumni News 24 Class Notes 30 Parting Shots
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Upper School
News
Twentieth Century A to Z At the 2007 Art Show, the Ninth Grade unveiled its two-term-long art project, an alphabet based on great issues of the twentieth century. Each Ninth Grader took several letters and designed photographs illustrating a single, powerful word, such as genocide, faith, optimism, or havesand-have-nots, all terms they study in their humanities course. Some photographs are conceptual, and others are representational. The Ninth Graders used a variety of
props and special effects to shoot twenty-six individual photographs for a unified exhibit. Upper School art teacher, Becca Shovan, was inspired to bring this project to Pike after taking the Ninth Graders to an exhibit at Phillips Academy’s Addison Gallery by photographer Wendy Ewald, who has created several alphabet collections representing the viewpoints of different groups of people living in the United States. The Pike students’ alphabet will become part of an exhibit of student photography alphabets at the Essex Art Center in Lawrence, Massachusetts, opening June 22 and running until August 17.
Waste Watchers In conjunction with the ongoing efforts of the Ninth Grade to raise awareness about the importance of recycling, this April, Pike Ninth Graders donned hard hats and safety vests for a tour of Waste Management’s site in Lawrence. John Wood, manager of the site, met with the students to answer questions about how recycling benefits our communities in northeastern Massachusetts. The students learned that in 2006, Lawrence recycled over 34,600 tons of materials, which conserved 588,000 mature trees, 141 million kwh of electricity, 242 million gallons of water (enough to meet the daily fresh water needs of more than 3 million Americans). Upon their return to school, the Pike Nines shared what they learned with the Upper School community.
The Pike School
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Non Sibi Solum at Work Always seeking ways to reach middle-schoolaged students more effectively, the Upper School faculty continue to improve the design of the Upper School Advisor Program, now in its fourth complete curriculum year. In keeping with the hands-on approach to much of Pike’s curriculum at all levels, the Grade 7 advisors redesigned part the program to make it more authentic, less didactic, more handson, and more fun. The advisors combined student input with teacher-engineered structure, and the result was three meaningful service projects that addressed the concerns of both students and teachers. One group of students, with help from Lower and Middle School students, wrote letters to servicemen and women overseas. A second group took responsibility for buying birdhouses and feed for the bird sanctuary behind Farnsworth. In addition, they researched what kinds of birds would be attracted to the feeders, and what they liked to eat. A third group had a goal of “raising” 180 blankets for abandoned pets at the MSPCA, but, with the promise of a dressdown day, students raised more than 300 blankets and took them over to the Methuen MSPCA facility.
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Spring 2007
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Middle School
News
Battling Aliens This community service project isn’t for everyone. You’re guaranteed a mudspattered face, soggy clothes, and water sloshing around the bottoms of your boots if you join the hearty band of Middle School Service Club members who take on the invasive plant purple loosestrife. Wearing gloves and rubber boots, volunteers walk along the mucky channel bordering the Lower School playground until they find the characteristic stalk of the loosestrife plant. Once identified, they drive a pitchfork or shovel into the root mass in the water. By pushing and prying at the root mass, they loosen the plant and pull it dripping out of the murky water. It’s then deposited in the tractor’s bucket and hauled away.
The first year, parents were “champing at the bit” to get their feet wet too. So in subsequent years, it’s become a family project. By not having the activity drag out too long in the afternoon, it remains a “good memory.” But there’s another reason too. One parent eyeing a mud-covered Middle Schooler said to her
own child, “You do not want to engage in this project because you’ll have to find your own way home.” Now the afternoon concludes with a thorough hosing down. Pike was given approval to begin the project from Andover Conservation Agent Linda Cleary. During her visit to the playground site this spring, she was very impressed by the progress we have made at removing loosestrife. The most encouraging sign she noted was the return of native cattails to this part of our wetlands. Over this same three-year period, loosestrife has overtaken the retention pond near the front drive. That has given members of the Middle School Service Club who have graduated to Upper School a project of their own. We’re certainly making headway, especially in helping children develop a lifelong commitment to our environment. Bo Baird
In summer it’s easy to spot the purpleflowered loosestrife in marshes and
along rivers. Because each plant produces three million tiny seeds, a few plants rapidly can become a purple blanket that chokes out native vegetation. To keep this from happening at Pike, Middle School Muddogs have waded into our wetlands for the past three years. April turns out to be a good month for the project: there are no mosquitoes, the water is warm enough, and the ground is still wet enough to allow the plants to be pulled easily. Later, the dry ground can be like cement.
Fifth Graders Julia Hoyt, left, and Lizzy Jaekle immerse themselves wholeheartedly in the loosesrife project as members of the Middle School Muddogs.
The Pike School
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Bo Baird
A Bright Idea for the Dream Factory and the Planet
Service learning took an exciting new direction this winter with Pike’s first light bulb sale. The Middle School Service Club sold 859 compact fluorescent bulbs as a fundraiser and helped educate the community about the benefits of replacing incandescent bulbs with much more energy-efficient alternatives. By switching from incandescent bulbs, we will be preventing 128,850 pounds of greenhouse gases from being released into the atmosphere.
School assembly. Her presentation enabled students to understand how greenhouse gases are trapping heat in our atmosphere, resulting in rising temperatures. While learning about effects such as the melting of polar icecaps and the increase in severe storms, they also discovered ways they could help reduce global warming. The bulb sale was one way they could have a positive impact on the environment and on their family’s electric bill.
In conjunction with the bulb sale, Pike parent Amy Janovsky told children about the hazards of global warming at a Middle
The sale also enabled the Middle School Service Club to purchase a computer, printer, cables, and software for a
Third Grader Chandler Washburn displays one of the energy-efficient replacements for incandescent bulbs in the home .
seventeen-year-old Lawrence girl, Natalie Vazquez. She suffers from a genetic disease called ataxia telangiectasia, or A-T. Third Grader Cam Kerry learned of Natalie’s need through the Merrimack Valley Dream Factory, a Methuen nonprofit that grants wishes to local children. He helped mobilize the Middle School Service Club to sponsor the project.
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Lower School
News
From Earth Day to Everyday Celebrating Earth Day has been a high priority for many years in the Lower School. Last year, when Lower School faculty debriefed our traditional Earth Day program, teachers were concerned that we need to spend more time focusing on environmental awareness than can be accomplished in one day a year. As a result, a small group of specialists and teachers representing different grade levels met during faculty meetings throughout the fall to discuss this topic. The final proposal from the Environmental Awareness Professional Learning Team (PLT) stated, “We hope with this plan children will begin to understand how their actions have an impact on our environment and that each of us has a responsibility to participate in the care and preservation of our natural world.”
“Two years ago we switched to using plastic cups and we are happy to report that this switch has made a great difference in saving the trees. How do we know this? Because the Second Graders did the math and we figured out that we used 17,972 cups a year! Thanks to all of you for protecting this valuable habitat.” First Grade has been focusing on the use of paper and learned that we spend $636.25 per month at Pike on paper for our copy machines. At a Lower School assembly, the First Graders informed the community about the importance of reusing paper and explained the difference between paper that can be reused for drawing, collage, or writing and paper that should be commercially recycled. Since their presentation, First Graders have limitied their use of construction paper for free drawing and
projects by using the backs of papers from the reusable paper bins they created. The weekly recycling job in each First Grade class now includes removing reusable paper from the recycling bin and moving it to bins for paper that can be used again. The children are beginning to understand the concept of recycling paper after it has been used for a second purpose. While the cost of copy paper remains unchanged, First Grade has reduced its use of construction paper, thereby saving money and trees. In conjunction with their Nutrition unit, next year’s Kindergarteners will be teaching the Lower School about healthy foods. They will also be encouraging students to take only what they can eat so that food is not wasted and thrown away. The Pre-K class has been focusing on the care of all living things in our outdoor environment. They have been spotted with small rakes and other garden tools caring for their outdoor play space. The importance of the natural environment works well into discussions throughout the year as they study birds, farms, plants, and pets. Our smallest Pike students have big ideas about caring for the earth, as you can see in the following statements:
Photos by Sarah Bardo
The PLT proposed that each grade focus throughout the year on a developmentally appropriate topic that complements another component of its curriculum. Each grade would be responsible for sharing its work with the rest of the Lower School at an assembly during the year. After all, we all learn something best by teaching it to someone else, and already the results have been gratifying.
Second Grade has chosen, for example, to focus on human impact on animals’ habitats as part of its study of bats and research on endangered animals. This year, Second Graders calculated how many paper cups were saved by the Lower School’s decision to purchase plastic, reusable cups for juice at morning snack. Second Graders proudly explained at a weekly Lower School assembly that:
The Pike School
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Our Promises to the Earth by the Pre-K
Trees are homes for animals. Trees make moisture. We promise we won’t litter. We promise we will not kill worms. We promise we will not cut trees just for paper. We promise we will not kill bugs. We promise we will never pick grass. We promise we will not kill ants. We promise we will never, ever cut down a tree. We promise we will recycle paper.
We promise we will plant flowers for people and water them. We will clean the world and love it. We will rake the leaves and take care of our playground. We will remember “Earth Day Every Day!”
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Spring 2007
The Quill
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Graduation ‘07 A
mid the traditional peach, green, and white balloons and blossoms, the girls holding peach-colored roses and the boys adorned with white boutonnieres, sixty-five new graduates entered The Pike School’s Harding Gymnasium in procession Wednesday morning, June 13. As the Cantabrigia Brass played Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance, approximately 400 parents, grandparents, siblings, faculty, and staff stood to honor the graduates at the start of the ceremonies. Head of School John “Muddy” Waters welcomed the assembled guests and addressed the students, saying that, as a history teacher, he was inclined to put things into historical perspective. He reminded the graduates that when many of them enererd Pike, Bill Clinton had just been elected to his second term, the Spice Girls were the hot new group, and the Dow Jones Average broke 8000 for the first time. Recalling that he used to enjoy reading to them before they acquired the skill to read to themselves, Waters read to them one last time, choosing as parting words of advice an eighteen-line poem by Dr. Seuss: My Uncle Terwilliger on the Art of Eating Popovers. The poet suggests that when eating the hollow pastry, as in other times in life, “Do a lot of spitting out the hot air. And be careful what you swallow.”
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The Pike School
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n
The Pike School held its 71st graduation exercises Wednesday, June 13, for a class of sixty-five Eighth- and Ninth-Graders. In addition to a number of academic and athletic awards presented to graduating students on the evening of Friday, June 8 (see the list of graduates on the following two pages), six additional awards were presented at Wednesday’s ceremonies.
faculty, has achieved notable academic improvement, demonstrated an ability to assume responsibility, and displayed friendliness to faculty and fellow students. He will attend The Governor’s Academy. • Nathan Elkin of Andover was the • José Bedoya of Lawrence received the recipient of the Margaret J. Little A. Daniel Phelan Award for meeting life’s Award, given to the student who best experiences with a positive spirit and good demonstrates integrity, generosity, and humor, thereby becoming an inspiration to thoughtfulness, thus exemplifying the the Pike community. The prize is named for spirit of The Pike School. The award Dan Phelan, a Pike teacher from 1990-1996. commemorates Margaret Little, teacher Bedoya will attend Brewster Academy. and Pike’s second Head of School. Elkin • All four members of the Ninth Grade will attend Phillips Exeter Academy. class—Thomas Kramer of Andover, • Jack Hartigan of Andover received Alexander Letwin of North Andover, the David A. Frothingham Award Max Lindauer of North Andover, and for contributing with distinction to Vinay Rajur of Andover—were awarded the betterment of the school and/or the Nicholas Grieco Prize, which honors community. Established in 1994, this one of Pike’s most loyal families and is award honors Pike’s sixth Head of given to the ninth grade students who, School. Hartigan will attend Brooks in the opinion of the Upper School School. faculty, have achieved notable academic • Claire Harmange of Andover and improvement and personal growth at Sarah Onorato of North Reading were Pike, having been positive influences on given the Head of School Award for fellow students. Kramer will attend Phillips exhibiting unusual qualities of leadership Academy, Letwin and Lindauer will attend in non-academic affairs, while setting a Brooks School, and Rajur will attend school standard for scholarship. Both will Pingree School. attend Phillips Academy in Andover. • Alexander Gacek of Dracut received the Alumni Prize, established to honor Pike This year’s graduation speaker was alumna alumni and awarded to the eighth grader Claire Abisalih of the Pike Class of 2004. who, in the opinion of the Upper School Abisalih, who was graduated this year from Phillips Exeter Academy and will next
year be matriculating at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Journalism, provided the Pike graduates with some insight into what to expect in high school. Abisalih told them, “What Pike has taught you goes far, far beyond simply how to write a great topic sentence and how to use those massive calculators to solve for ‘x’. Pike has taught you what it means to be part of a community; what it means to give back to people in need …; what it means to be independent while at the same time remaining an engaged, vital part of a community; what it means to cooperate in a group with three other kids who could not be more oddly matched; what it means to work hard with others to achieve a common goal—on the field, in the classroom, the dorm, the school paper. Pike has given you a sort of social survival kit.” Preceding Abisalih’s speech, several faculty and staff joined the Grade 7 Chorus in a rendition of The Pike School alma mater, “Non Sibi Solum: Not for Oneself Alone,” written and led by Fine Arts Department Chair Larry Robertson. Following Abisalih’s speech, Robertson also led the Graduation Chorus in a medley of songs. The graduating senior class announced its gift to The Pike School, which will be a bench and garden area in memory of Ruth Wight Caron, a beloved Lower School learning specialist who passed away last fall.
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Ninth Grade
Head of Upper School Laura Russell, Eighth Grade Team Leader Susan Cameron, Ninth Grade Team Leader Betsy DeVries, Pike Board Chair Gary Campbell ’69, and Waters presented the certificates of graduation to the following students:
Photos by FAYFOTO
Thomas Kramer Alexander Letwin Max Lindauer Vinay Rajur (Latin Prize cowinner)
Photos by FayFoto
Another gift, the Senior Council gift, traditionally presented annually to a local philanthropy whose focus is primarily on teens, was presented to the Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) program, specifically the Northern Essex County CASA, under the umbrella of Family Services, Inc. of Lawrence, Massachusetts. Through fundraising activities during the year, the Senior Council raised $4,000 for the program, which trains community volunteers to speak for the best interests of at-risk children before the court.
Eighth Grade Catherine Anderson Cody Aponas José Bedoya Ara Bilazarian Eve Bishop Jordan Brooks Andrés Burbank-Crump (Boys Athletic Award cowinner and Spanish Prize cowinner) Zander Buttress (Boys Athletic Award cowinner) Erin Cahill Elizabeth Carrolo Rebecca Cordero Sarah Crockett (Alice L. Jablonski Science Prize cowinner) Jared Curtis Karl Daum Tess Duggan Nate Elkin Nathaniel Feuerstein Alex Gacek (Kerri Kattar Athletic Award cowinner) Avery Galloway Hadley Green Claire Harmange (Alice L. Jablonski Science Prize cowinner) Carolyn Harmeling Jack Hartigan Emma Healey Grace Hoyt David Janovsky (History Prize winner) Sam Karlinski (Spanish Prize cowinner) Elizabeth Kelly Julie Kutchin
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The Pike School
Michaela Magliochetti Tebs Maqubela Patrick McGrath Timothy McLaughlin John Moltz (French Prize winner) Josephine Moon Meisha Mowatt Morgan Muggia Nicole Muto-Graves Nick Nawrocki Kevin Neville Jamie Newsome (Girls Athletic Award winner) Alexander Nuñez Sarah Onorato (Cynthia E. Pike Award winner and English Prize winner) Hayley Poole Evan Ruccolo Jacquelyn Ruiz-Henriquez Zachery Sarkis Stephen Sarno Turner Shaw Maddie Stephens Rachel Stern Bryce Stocks Alice Tao Michael Taylor (Latin Prize cowinner) Summer Washburn (Kerri Kattar Athletic Award cowinner) Callie Will Zach Wilmarth Brandon Wright Emma Zanazzi Calvin Zhao Bradley Zucchino
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? 18 10 7 6 4 3 2 1 Where Did They Go?
Phillips Academy in Andover
Brooks School
Top left: Ninth Graders, left to right, Max Lindauer, Vinay Rajur, Tommy Kramer, and Alex Letwin; Far left, top to bottom, diplomas and congratulations are imparted by Head of School John “Muddy” Waters, Head of Upper School Laura Russell, and Eighth Grade Team Leader Susan Cameron with Chair of the Board of Trustees Gary Campbell ’69; Above: Waters addresses the graduates; Left: Graduation speaker Claire Abisalih ’04; Below: Several faculty and staff members join with the Grade 7 Chorus in singing the school’s alma mater, Non Sibi Solum, written by Fine Arts Department Chair Larry Robertson, at the piano.
Pike Ninth Grade
Lawrence Academy
Andover High School Governor’s Academy
Pingree School
Concord Academy St. John’s Preparatory School
Austin Preparatory School Boston University Academy Brewster Academy Cambridge School of Weston Central Catholic High School Middlesex School Milton Academy Phillips Academy in Exeter
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The Naturing Environment There is a distinct advantage to a school’s being located on thirty-five acres of fields and woods when its teachers strive to incorporate place-based learning into the science curriculum.
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Photos by Cliff Hauptman
by Cliff Hauptman
A
Pike student who attends the school for all ten grades will go off to secondary school having significant knowledge of birds, seasons, seeds and plants, spiders, bears, butterflies and moths, owls, bats, endangered animals, watersheds, ecosystems, salmon, ducks, ecology, soil, structures of life, landforms, tide pools, and climate. And most of that learning will have occurred through hands-on experiences somewhere between the front and rear gates of campus. Add to that the resources of nearby Newburyport’s Plum Island, Andover’s Goldsmith Woodlands, West Boxford’s Witch Hollow Farm, and Nashua’s National Fish Hatchery, and you have the makings of an experience that, among other things, inspires deep affinity for the locale, an interest in its natural history, and a concern for its future.
Photos by Cliff Hauptman
Like the Upper School’s “Math Walk,” from which students get a grounded, real-life appreciation of the value of their quantitative skills by visiting local businesses and professionals and seeing how math is used on a routine, daily basis, the interdisciplinary study of nature throughout the curriculum reveals the reality and immediacy of the natural environment. The school property, the backyard, the town, and the world cease to be simply a backdrop upon which one’s life takes place; they become subjects worthy of closer examination, where exciting and wondrous things are happening all the time. Any doubt about the richness of Pike’s biosphere is quickly dispelled by a visit to the wildlife blog “Look and See.” (You can reach the blog from Pike’s Web site, www. pikeschool.org, by clicking on “Look and See” in the Quick Links drop-down menu on the Home page.) Photographs taken by students and a motion-sensitive camera set up on Pike property reveal an otherwise unseen abundance of wildlife passing through on a daily basis. Everything from a herd of at least seven deer to raccoons, a red fox, a coyote, and an elusive fisher make their homes and leave their signs in these woods and wetlands, and Pike students start to learn to read those signs and value the environment much the way they do a good book.
There is no more convincing way to spark an interest in one’s natural surroundings than to set out a handful of sunflower seeds and watch chickadees, titmice, nuthatches, cardinals, and bluejays flock to your offerings. Pre-K students are introduced to that instantly rewarding experience early in the winter. Once attracted, the birds themselves provide lessons in observation, as students identify the differences in the shapes of beaks, the colors of feathers, and the preferences in diet of their visitors. Later in the spring, students find sunflower sprouts under the bird feeders, pushing through the soil from fallen seeds and providing a perfect segue to a unit on seeds and plants. The integration of these nature studies into other areas of study is widespread. In Kindergarten, a comprehensive study of
bears and how each species adapts to its distinct environment lends itself to projects in graphing, mapping, and language arts. A unit on moths and butterflies leads to an awareness of symmetry. The Second Grade unit on owls engages the students in measurement projects. And the list goes on throughout the grades, integrating the study of the local environment with math, language arts, social studies, and other areas of science, all while providing Pike students with unusually keen observational skills and a lasting knowledge of their natural surroundings. Kindergarteners will eagerly tell you how spiders differ from insects, the life cycle of butterflies and moths, and which bears are herbivores and which are carnivores. First Graders know the six species of owls found in New England—saw whet, screech, barred, great horned, barn, great gray, and snowy—and have seen them, live, in their classrooms, during
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The Pike School
Throughout the extensive range of nature study in the Lower and Middle Schools, art plays an integral part. Whether instigated by the classroom teachers or by Vanessa Hynes in the art room, age-appropriate art projects related to the curriculum provide the dominant visual enhancements to the rooms and hallways of Pike. From the fashioning of fanciful insects from papier mache, pipe cleaners, and feathers; to designing dioramas of bat habitats from cardboard boxes; originating owls from paper bags and cut paper; or elucidating ecosystems with drawings of their distinctive flora and fauna, these nature-related projects add yet another bond between the children and their natural environment. That bond helps create citizens whose priorities are shaped, even in an age of absorbing electronic gadgetry, by a deep attachment to their natural surroundings, to the local plants and animals in their varied forms, their life cycles, infinite connections, and wondrous workings, and by a deep-rooted sense of stewardship.
Photos by Cliff Hauptman
visits by an owl expert and her feathered companions. They have investigated the owls’ castings—regurgitated packets of indigestible furs, feathers, and bones—and identified the skulls of the local prey species found therein. Second Graders appreciate the plight of endangered species, which animals face extinction, and why. They also know the importance of local bats in the control of insect populations, learn about echolocation, and become aware of ways to provide habitats for bats. Third Graders raise Atlantic salmon from eggs, watch them grow, learn their life cycle, and release them into the wild as part of a unit on watersheds, specifically that of the Merrimack River. They can expound on the importance of wetlands and the human influence on the survival rates of other organisms. Fourth Graders are steeped in the relationship of form and function in the lives of plants and animals, establishing up-close-and-personal associations with crayfish (see “Cheeseburger Eddie”) among other local creatures. Fifth Graders literally and figuratively learn the lay of the land, studying landforms, creating topographical models, designing stream table investigations, and observing human effects on landforms in their locale. They study tidepools, too, exploring at the shore and sketching the denizens of that unique environment.
Top: Owl expert Marcia Wilson introduces the First Grade to a snowy owl. Right: Third Graders visit the Nashua National Fish Hatchery to study Atlantic salmon. Below: Examples from an insect art project. Below left: A Third Grader searches for aquatic life in New Hampshire’s Souhegan River. Far right: Second Graders enjoying the lessons of the Pike woods.
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Cheeseburger Eddie to the Rescue
Cliff Hauptman
by Bo Baird
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Bo Baird
Cliff Hauptman
Far left: Fifth Grader Julia Hoyt with her crayfish catch. At left, Fourth Grader Anthony Lopez holds one of the crayfish in his palm for close observation.
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Cliff Hauptman
urviving the crayfish unit is challenging enough for the Fourth Graders, but what about for the crayfish? The heartiest individual last year made it through science boot camp and was placed in the specimen protection program. At year’s end he found himself in Will Eichenberry’s aquarium under the assumed identity of Cheeseburger Eddie.
that he alone was launching the new unit. But Julia Hoyt’s arrival a few minutes later changed everything. She held containers filled with stream water, leaves, and more.
After hearing of Mrs. Miller’s plight the day before, Julia dutifully spent an hour after school doing homework and then sang at chorus rehearsal for another hour and a half. It wasn’t until 7:30 p.m. that she made Cheeseburger Eddie would have continued her way to the stream where she hoped to find crayfish. She knew that this spot, with his life of quiet seclusion had this year’s running water and a mud and gravel stream crayfish unit started without a hitch. But it didn’t. The shipment of crayfish from Delta bed, was a haven for crayfish in the summer. But coldwater temperatures this April meant Supply was delayed. Ten years ago, when our science classes were more text-based, a they would still be burrowed in the mud. “I lack of specimens would not have mattered. had to dig down and then pick up the mud in my hands,” said Julia. Then, with the daylight However, today our science program is fading quickly, Julia sifted through the mud based on hands-on investigations, whether it is learning about the life cycle of Atlantic and leaves with the keen eye of a naturalist and plucked out her wriggling quarry time salmon in Grade Three or what stream and time again. By the time she finished it was tables show about the forces of erosion in dark, and Julia had ten crayfish for Mrs. Miller. Grade Five. Children are developing their understandings through observation and The unit began seamlessly. Fourth Grade inquiry—not by trying to penetrate inert investigators made detailed observations of concepts in a textbook. For the Fourth the specimens and wondered what functions Graders to understand the structure of the different structures had. Famed Harvard crayfish, requirements for their habitat, and their territoriality, Becky Miller needed Professor Louis Agassiz, who taught that observation was the key to learning about specimens, and she put out the call. organisms, would have been pleased to see how students studied the crayfish from Throwing caution to the wind, Cheeseburger Eddie signed up for a second antennae to tail flap. Questions poured forth in quick succession during the subsequent tour of duty. The day the unit was to discussion. What do they use their tails begin, Will carried him up the stairs to the Middle School at 8 a.m. Chattering students for? How can you tell the male from the clustered around the familiar crustacean. He female? How many eggs survive? As the unit was clearly numb to his celebrity status and fortunately not preoccupied with thoughts
progressed, students gained understanding of what crayfish require for their habitat and what the stages are in their life cycle. Interns who were teaching the unit this year added a new technology component to study their nocturnal behavior, when crayfish are most active. With the aid of an infrared light and a motion-sensitive camera, Fourth Graders were able to study the interactions of crayfish as they defended their territory. From timehonored practices of observation to the use of modern technology, students studied crayfish from every angle and used their curiosity to propel their learning. Julia returned her crayfish—well, almost all of them—back to the wild. Cheeseburger Eddie returned to his safe house in Andover; so, like his namesake from the movie The Longest Yard, he is no longer doing hard time. In fact, Cheeseburger Eddie continues his prodigious growth, thanks in part to his favorite food— hotdogs. Julia, Will, and Cheeseburger Eddie illustrate why our science program is thriving. Children are learning the concepts of science in ways that engage their curiosity and appreciation for our natural world. They know our science curriculum is not buried in textbooks—it surrounds them. The Pike woods and streams are essential features of our science classrooms. We are teaching children the big ideas of physics, chemistry, and biology, and they are becoming knowledgeable and caring stewards of our planet.
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Dirt Time by Joan Regan, Tina Morris, and Betsy DeVries
T
he Ninth Grade program this year opened with a viewing of An Inconvenient Truth and closed with the students having contributed to the creation of a Web site on sustainability at Pike. In between those technological bookends the students put in some ‘dirt time’. Dirt time is tracker jargon for time spent outdoors, studying the natural world first-hand and up close. Most young people today can name every car on the road, and most of the music on their ipods from the first bar, but they cannot distinguish among trees, or among shrubs, or even between shrubs and vines. It is just all the same: a green blur. Tracking teaches an ancient art of seeing. Sometimes one has to look at the ground for a long time before seeing what is there. Clearly, tracking mammals or even birds has a limited use in the twentieth century. However, tracking teaches observation. A doctor studies an x-ray to see the details that tell the story. An accountant studies spread sheets to find in the details the story on income and expense. A novelist studies his or her words to see if the story told is authentic. A historian looks at artifacts to understand societies. The outdoor education portion of the Ninth Grade year
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supports both the biology course and the advisor program by observing and experiencing the natural world. In conjunction with the advisor program, the Ninth Grade biology course uses an ecological approach in its curriculum. In the fall term, Ninth Graders study ecosystems and habitats, using the Pike woods as their outdoor laboratory. Each student has his or her own quadrant from which they collect data about species diversity, seasonal changes, and the effects of temperature, water, and light on vegetation distribution in a microenvironment. As they study the biology of organisms on a local level, the students are also applying those concepts to global issues like climate change, habitat destruction, and human population growth. Their trips to Camp Chewonki in Wiscasset, Maine, in September and February add to their experiences and exposure to different ecosystems at varying times of the year. Again in the spring, the Ninth Graders take to the outdoors in their study of animal behavior and evolution. This year they were able to go to the special Darwin exhibit at the Museum of Science, which gave them an in-depth look at the power
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of observation and field research as seen through the eyes of Darwin and other evolutionary biologists. In May, the Ninth Grade visits the Parker River Wildlife Refuge where the students inspect a barrier beach ecosystem and do a field study of Canada goose breeding behavior. The students visit the Maine and Parker River locations, as well as an old farm in Boxford, in pursuit of comparisons and contrasts. In each of those venues, tracks tell interesting stories. Nines exploring Pike’s campus as trackers have discovered groundhog heaven and the locust trees where the red squirrels have left their messages. They have found the sign of red fox, fisher, and coyote. A famous tracker, Mark Elbrock, sometimes imposes on himself the discipline of not leaving a spot until he has found ‘the hair’-not his hair of course, but the hair of some wild creature that had passed there. So far he has never had to leave a spot without finding ‘the hair.’ When a Ninth Grader comes down from his half hour solo on a windswept dune overlooking the Gulf of Maine in February with the wild mammal hair that he found, a memory has been made. The Ninth Grade canoeing trip with Chewonki guides down the St Croix River along the border of Canada is the kick-off of the Ninth Grade advisor program in September. It also begins their renewed relationship with the natural world. In a culture where children can spend more time in a climate-controlled car, watching a movie of their choice, than they do in the woods, it can be hard to have a relationship with nature. In order to write meaningfully about sustainability by year’s end, the student must have formed a relationship with nature during the course of the year. In outdoor education, we walk, we look, we explore, we see the stories. In biology we learn the terminology, the cycles, the groupings, and the interactions. In advisor we go outside to make memories, to explore the interconnections, and to find ourselves. The Nines go outside in every season. They know a little about how to handle themselves without the protection of the climate-controlled car.
From their canoes the students can look down and see that the floor of the St. Croix River is thick with cut logs that did not complete the journey when wood was delivered by river drives to the pulp mills around 1900. Coming full circle in the spring, the Nines visited the Waste Management plant in Lawrence where paper is sorted for recycling today. Because the students have personally seen and touched trees from the different perspectives—those of history, the red squirrel, the oxygen/ carbon dioxide cycle, recycling, antler rubs, and building cook fires on memorable trips-they have begun a relationship with trees and nature. When they create their own cartoons and Web site, using the technology of today, they have personal experiences with wood, weather, and wildlife to inform that process. Tracking and knowledge of the natural world was the high technology of not so long ago.
Left: Raccoon tracks in the Pike woods. Top: A red fox captured by Pike’s motionsensitive camera. Right: Ninth Graders reading animal sign at Chewonki.
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Alumni
News
Anna L. Kent ’80 A student at Pike from Nursery (now called Pre-Kindergarten) through Eighth Grade, Kent credits her Pike education with the value of lifelong learning. “My intellectual capacity is what I value the most,” says Kent. “What Pike taught me was the importance of continuously learning new things, rather than thinking I’ve got it all figured out. I have always had faith in the power of inquiry, and I think this quality of inquisitiveness, of being a continuous learner, is a hallmark of leadership. My challenge these days is to figure out how to unlock that potential in others.”
Anna Kent is program officer at the Maine Women’s Fund, a charitable 501(c)(3) organization that raises money from individuals, corporations, and other foundations, and then invests it in programs and projects that promote systemic change. “I work with our board of directors and other donors and volunteers to ensure that we make solid investments that reflect our goals and keep us well positioned in the nonprofit arena as a catalyst for change,” says Kent.
equipped to leverage their wealth on behalf of community interests. “Right now,” says Kent, “as part of our strategic planning in 2007, we are contemplating a 5-year focus on making grants that promote economic security, which is an issue that continues to affect Maine women and girls disproportionately. My hope is that through partnership with business, government, nonprofit, and philanthropic leaders, we will make some fundamental changes—in our public policymaking, in what we promote or discourage in the culture, and how we perform as economic actors, individually and collectively. It’s really time.”
Favorite Teachers at Pike Jean Spader – queen of Nursery and Kindergarten, and a great family friend as well. Mr. Bowen – 4th grade math, I think, and debate – made learning logic fun. Debra McNaughton – English lit -- taught me the importance of having an expansive vocabulary, which has served me well over the years with the Sunday crossword. Mr. Vivian – composition and grammar – I still have the notebook of our weekly essays – he was an expert at distinguishing the hastily composed Sunday-night shlock from the more thoughtful compositions. George Weymouth & Scott Smith – soccer coaches extraordinaire.
Most Lasting Pike Memory Spring, 1980 – when we put on the musical “Onions,” written by faculty members Pam Palmer and Larry Robertson. Matt Caffrey played a corporate drone who rediscovers the meaning of life while perched on an office window ledge. Erika Wilson, Allison Sellers, Emma Rosen, Brad Winer, Brett Longo, Rich One offshoot of that community Melillo, David Popowitz, and Matt’s sister investment strategy is the “New Girls’ Sarah were among the many cast members Network” program, of which Kent is an who brought the farce to life. Because of alumna, as well as the lead organizer. The my competitive streak and athleticism, I was program brings together groups of women well cast as the boss from hell, Elizabeth in their twenties and thirties who want In addition to her work at the Maine Vanderbilt Flick. I loved being on stage, and to explore their relationship with money. Women’s Fund, Kent enjoys being an aunt According to Kent, there is evidence to and would rather babysit for her sister’s new the costume—polyester pantsuit and tie, riding show that an increasing number of women daughter, Zoey, than “just about anything.” boots, and a crop—was priceless, but I really struggled with the singing. Pam and Larry are managing their own assets in addition to Kent’s sister, Erica, is also a Pike alumna, worked tirelessly to get me to sing on-key. I money they have inherited or share with a Class of ’83. With Zoey’s help as model, spouse. The “New Girls’ Network” theory Kent, an avid knitter, is working on a book still have the audio tape of that performance somewhere… is that if it develops the next generation of of children’s knitwear. philanthropic leaders, they will be better
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Bridget MacKean ’97 the patterns that have proven important despite the years that have passed since I last saw Pike’s walls. This has provided me with a confidence that, while I will not always succeed, I will always be able to keep working at it.
Combining her strengths and passions in studio art and math, Bridget MacKean immersed herself in the five-year architecture program at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. She then went on to the Architectural Association Graduate School of Architecture in London, where she received a Master of Arts in landscape urbanism.
“With the kind of confidence Pike gave me, I have found myself doing things, and seeing places, that certainly hadn’t entered my consciousness as possibilities when I was younger. I grew up in a small town, and never imagined that I would see Paris, Mumbai, Shanghai, Sri Lanka, and London. While each of these experiences pushed me far outside my comfort zone, I also knew I could handle the challenge, and, despite my trepidation, I took on each of these new experiences for the wonderful – and irreplaceable – opportunity that it was. Pike imparts upon each student the tools necessary for adventures that they probably can’t yet imagine during their time there. My only advice for them is to go find them, because they’re ready.”
“The subject of landscape urbanism,” MacKean explains, “is more of an interdisciplinary concept; not quite landscape architecture and not quite urban design, it is a discipline that borrows principles from both to develop new ways of adapting ecological and natural systems (on several scales) into a topographic organization of an urban landscape. It’s very interesting, but also very challenging to grasp, and something that I hope to continue to study for my professional career in the future.” In the meantime, while acquiring the experience necessary to qualify as an architect in the United States, MacKean chose to remain in London where she currently works as an architectural assistant at the London-based architectural firm of Foster + Partners. “They have built a lot of major works around London and worldwide,” says MacKean, “and are in fact currently working on the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. I’ve been working at the firm for about 5 months now, and I really do love the experience.”
Favorite Pike Teachers While it’s hard to look back on my time at Pike and single out teachers as “favorites,” I do remember a few whose encouragement affected me at critical times, and in important ways. First, of course, Mrs. Shovan’s enthusiasm for my artwork is much of the reason I’ve continued to pursue studio art through the years. I was always the type of student who needed some encouragement to work harder and be more dedicated, and she seemed to provide that perfect amount. I also MacKean entered Pike as a Sixth Grader remember feeling vulnerable in Ms. Smith’s and stayed through the Ninth Grade. French class (French was not my forte!), She feels that having the opportunity to At Foster + Partners, MacKean is currently participate in smaller classes during her final but she had a way of making the language working with a team of about fifteen people year allowed her to excel in her favorite much more manageable, and easier to grasp on a project in Abu Dhabi. The project and comprehend. In fact to this day I still subjects and boost her self-confidence. is a mixed-use building, and MacKean is remember learning phrases and songs that I From Pike, she attended St. Mark’s School working with the residential sector. She in Southborough, Massachusetts, where she learned my first year in French in the Sixth joined the project while it was still in the Grade at Pike. Whether it was Mr. Arsenault was a boarding student. MacKean credits conceptual stage, which involved her in on the soccer field, or Mrs. Logan and Mrs. Pike with teaching her to work hard and sketching, 3d modeling, and physical model- to enjoy and learn from her successes as Appleton pushing me to finish problems and making. “The design of the building is very well as her failures. She says, “I not only tackle translations, Pike’s teachers not only complex,” says MacKean, “and reflects pushed me, but helped me to believe I was learned the value of the work itself, but many detailed investigations into sunlight capable of pushing myself, too, even if that also how to enjoy my successes and, more and wind activities for the site. These are importantly, how to pick myself up after my meant leaving my comfort zone from time to very important issues in Abu Dhabi as inevitable failures. It helped me to establish time. temperatures reach 45˚C [113˚F] during the summertime. As part of the residential team, I work with two others on the distribution of luxury apartments, proper layouts for different apartment types, and the distribution of the MEP (mechanical, electrical, and plumbing) systems. I also help with some of the graphical representational drawings for the project, and the landscaping concept.”
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Alumni
News
Susannah Poland ’04 Having been accepted at Stanford University for the fall, Poland has deferred matriculation until 2008. Her plans for the intervening year begin with a three-week archeological/ anthropological study trip to Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala with the Peabody Museum of Andover. In the fall she will be working as an au pair and taking classes in Lausanne, Switzerland, and will most likely return to Andover in December to teach children’s art classes through the town’s department of community service. In the spring, she plans to work as an au pair with friends in Paris, where she will also be taking cooking classes.
Susannah Poland, left, and Sarah Sycz; photo courtesy of the Andover Townsman.
While still a senior at Phillips Andover Academy, Poland brought about the establishment of a weekly farmers’ market in her hometown of Andover, Massachusetts. Having grown up visiting such markets in Vermont, Poland appreciates the healthful value of the organic and fresh produce available, as well as the importance of recognizing the connection between a community and its physical and cultural environment. According to Poland, “A market unites and nurtures an eclectic populace, including agriculturalists, thus encouraging friendships, strong local economies, and environmental awareness.” Poland and her mother came up with the idea last summer, and Poland took on the project this year. After talking to the Federation of Massachusetts Farmers Markets and getting permission from the town, she and her mother conducted a poll to gauge local interest. The results were “overwhelmingly positive” toward the establishment of a local farmer’s market. Poland then contacted farmers throughout
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Massachusetts, and has so far gotten commitments from three. They will sell fresh fruits, vegetables, and cut flowers, and one of the farms. is organic. Word of the market spread fast, and a few months ago, Poland was contacted by Sarah Sycz, the museum educator at the Andover Historical Society (AHS), who was interested in collaborating in the organization and realization of the market. The AHS will work with Poland in creating a “Historic Foodways” display, highlighting the historical context and uses of locally grown fruits and vegetables. “They have kindly offered us use of their driveway and front lawn,” says Poland, “which is in the center of downtown Andover. Our official starting date is Saturday, July 14, and we will set up at noon and close by 4:00 p.m. each Saturday. We will have a banner printed for publicity, and we will be selling canvas bags with the market logo to support the market and offer an ecological alternative to plastic shopping bags. We are all so excited!”
Poland credits Pike with teaching her to write. “That was the most valuable skill I took from Pike,” she says. “Articulating ideas, in writing or otherwise, is essential in every endeavor. All interpersonal learning is dependent upon communicating thoughts. I built upon this foundation in every class I took at Phillips Academy, and I believe my ability to connect with people, verbally and in writing, made it exponentially easier for me to affect change in my community. Though it may seem like a far-fetched connection, I believe that Pike’s emphasis on concise, effective articulation of ideas has made me a clearer thinker, a better advocate of my own ideas, and thus a more capable producer of change. An example, of course, is the farmers’ market.” Favorite Teachers at Pike Mrs. DeVries, Mrs. Shovan, and Ms. Tissiere. Most Lasting Pike Memory In the spring of my Ninth Grade year, my classmates and I kayaked and slept over at Mrs. DeVries’s beach house in Essex. Adults and kids hung out as one big family – Mrs. DeVries’s husband and mother joined in digging for clams and eating them raw, esoteric debates lasting late into the night, brushing teeth side-by-side… All students were touched by the DeVries family’s warmth, which transcended conventional studentteacher formalities and demonstrated that holistic learning, liberated from a strict classroom setting, is more powerful than traditional teaching practices.
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News
Faculty
Annual Faculty & Staff Recognition Celebration Recognizing Years of Service
Front row, lwft to right: Steve Purington, Tom Lynch, Sue Dunn, Larry Robertson, Bob Hutchings, Susan Hauptman, and Chair of the Board Gary Campbell ’69. Back row, left to right: Tina Morris, Susan Schott; Kerry Fontaine, Mary Crockett, Telly Jorden, Tobi Levis, and Head of School Muddy Waters. Below: Larry Robertson displays his gift, recognizing his thirty years at Pike.
Following copious hors d’ouvres, drink, and colleagial conversation, the entire faculty and staff were addressed by Chair of The Pike School Board of Trustees Gary Campbell ’69, who lavished praise and gratitude upon all for the superior work they do at educating and nurturing Pike students. Next, Head of School Muddy Waters read a short tribute and presented a gift to each honoree, beginning with those completing their tenth year at Pike: Mary Crockett, coordinator of Upper School learning services; Kerry Fontaine, dining services; Bob “Hutch” Hutchings, history teacher; Tobi Levis, learning specialist; and Tina Morris, mathematics/science and English teacher.
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15 20 25 30
Waters then recognized Sue Dunn, secretary to the division heads, and Susan Schott, director of the FLEX Day Program, both of whom celebrate fifteen years at Pike in 2007.
Photos by Cliff Hauptman
This year’s Annual Faculty and Staff Recognition Celebration, at which those who have worked at Pike for ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, and thirty years as of 2007 were honored, took place in the beautifully timbered clubhouse of the Tewksbury Country Club.
Twenty-year honorees were Telly Jorden, First Grade teacher; Tom Lynch, history teacher; and Steve Purington, mathematics teacher. Susan Hauptman was honored for her twenty-five years as Lower School reading specialist. And for his thirty years at Pike, Larry Robertson, music/music theater teacher in Upper School and head of the arts program, was presented with a special gift—a framed copy of the original score of his composition, “Non Sibi Solum,” in which he put The Pike School motto (Not for Oneself Alone) to words and music.
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Class
Notes
Former Faculty
Mrs. Erickson lives on Singer Island, FL in the winter and then on the Cape in the spring/summer. Her three children and their families live in Massachusetts. She has six grandchildren. She loves to travel. This summer, Mrs. Erickson will be visiting her 100th country! In July, she will go with her two daughters to Normandy and Brittany and then take her 15 year old grandson to Costa Rica in August. In September she will fly to Bhutan, and her friend from Australia will meet her there. They will also go to Sikkim and Darjeeling, India, before separating. Then, she will fly on to Cambodia by herself and see the sights of Angor Wat. Past adventures include teaching English in
Poland, Southern Italy, and Romania for a group called Global Volunteers. Last fall, she took the Trans Siberian Railroad from Beijing to Siberia. She went to Mongolia later by plane and then flew to the Gobi desert and stayed in a ger, a round felt and canvas tent, for 3 nights. Fascinating. Mrs. Sturges and her husband are doing well. They went to Africa on safari. She is a volunteer at Mother Caroline Academy in Dorchester two days a week teaching reading in an after school program.
’55 1955
Lucy Kemper Pieh ‘55 is living in Arrowsic, ME at the Kennebec River in a lovely old farmhouse with her husband, Jerry. They have four grown children, three of whom live nearby. The
’59 ’60 ’58 ’71 oldest is in California. They have three grandchildren. She facilitates grief support groups for Hospice with children and adults. She writes, “I love working with fabric and traveling. My life is going well.”
1958
Marshall Darling ‘58 is living on 100% disability from wounds in Vietnam in a great three-room artist’s cottage close to the beach in Hyannis. (“Kennedy’s haven’t called me in weeks!”) This includes the loss of his lower left leg in ‘04 because of exposure to Agent Orange (Vietnam ‘67-’68) and the resulting diabetes. He lost the right leg in March. Though he writes that his dancing days are over, he still remembers his days as an actor (see photo, opposite).
1959
Muriel DeStaffany Karr ‘59 and her husband rented a flat in London for a month for their 25th anniversary.
1960
Anthony Sapienza ‘60 and his wife, Sally have two children: Emily (30) and Michael (26). Tony is COO of Joseph Abboud MFG Corp. His hobbies include golfing, skiing and sailing.
1971
Stephanie Curtis Harman ‘71 would love to catch up with classmates. If anyone’s ever in the San Francisco Bay area, give her a call. She and her husband Fred have three kids: one in high school and two in middle school. They live near Stamford so come by for a visit!
’78 1978
Jennifer Joslyn Pike ‘78 is living in Dedham with her husband of 18 years and three children: Erin (13), Emily (10) and Darren (8). She is currently working as a Director of an Employment Program for adults with developmental disabilities.
Left: Former faculty member Mrs. Erickson, seen here in the doorway of a Mongolian ger in the Gobi Desert, is an avid world traveler.
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Marshall Darling ’58, above, and, at left, in a Paramount Picture publicity still for The Great Gatsby (1974)in which he acted. Darling is at the far left in the still.
’82
1982
Shelley Sim-Herold ‘82 writes, “Come and ski in snowy Colorado!” She has been in Denver for 17 years, is about to celebrate 15 years of marriage, and the big “40” is around the corner. The pride and joy of their lives—Amanda (10) and James (8)! She has been in the financial services/capital markets industry forever it seems. Shelley is currently with A.G. Edwards running the Institutional Equity unit of the last eight years. She would love to hear from/catch up with fellow Pike alums. She writes, “Drop me a line at sherold@ comcast.net.”
’83
1983
Erica Kent ‘83 and her husband Mike have been living in Portland, ME for the last
eight years. On August 9, 2006 their daughter Zoey was born. Erica writes, “She is just as amazing as her older sister, Gretel, the Saint Bernard.” They are sleep deprived but absolutely overjoyed to be parents. She wonders if anyone has heard from Suzie Parish.
’85 1985
Kimberly Lomastro Craven ‘85 and her husband Michael recently moved to a new home that they built in Pelham, NH. She is currently in product marketing at IONA Technologies, a software company headquartered in Waltham, MA that focuses on distributed service1984 oriented architecture (SOA) JoAnn Kalogianis infrastructure. Stuart Rees ‘85 Nikolopoulos ‘84 and her graduated from Harvard Law husband Nick currently reside in School in 1997 and is now in North Andover with their three solo practice in San Diego, CA. children: Theo (8), Anastasia He specializes in representing (4), and Dean (1). They are back newspaper cartoonists in their at Pike with Theo as a student contract negotiations (Yes, he since PreK and are looking is the only such lawyer in the forward to Anastasia’s Pike start country). He is also a cartoonist soon. who does mostly law cartoons. Check out stus.com. He has a wife, a three year old girl, and
’84
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an infant boy. Barrie Karlyn Silk ‘85 cannot believe her days at Pike were so long ago. She lives in Newton, MA with her husband and three amazing kids. She writes, “Nothing too exciting to report, other than three kids under six and all the chaos that goes with it!”
’88
1988
Robin Leary Taylor ‘88 just moved down the street with her husband and three children: Preston (2), Luke and Avery (11 mos.).
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Notes ’89 Class
1989
Christina Herz ‘89 moved back to Germany in 1988 and went to medical school in Heidelberg and is now practicing as an urologist in Heilbronn, Germany. She and her partner have a daughter named Xenia (1 1/2).
’93 1993
James Moskos ’94 on the ice with the Olympia Heist IHC in Belgium
Inci Erdem ‘93 has been living in Tucson, AZ since 2000, following lengthy travels by foot and thumb across this country. She writes, “I am loving the desert!” She is involved in electronic music and media, and dance culture out there. Currently, she is in school for computers, etc. She writes, “Ever the student I am!” She is a card carrying member of the American Society of Dowsers and Ozark Research Institute. Love! Be free!
moved back to the area from living in NYC for 5 years. He is now working in Boston and thinking of going to business school in 2007.
’94
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Stones, Van Halen, Barbara Streisand, Christina Aguilera and Aerosmith. She writes, “It has been an amazing experience traveling the world, but it’s lots of hours and lots of sleeping on 1999 Alan Clarke ‘99 received buses.” his B.A. in English from Morehouse College in May 1996 2006. He graduated Summa Elizabeth Dayotis Conte ‘96 Cum Laude and Valedictorian received her Master’s and is with a 4.0 GPA. While at currently a first grade teacher Morehouse, he was a member in Glendale, AZ. She has been of Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma living in Arizona for the past Tau Delta. He also graduated three years but recently came from the Tuck Business home to New Hampshire for her wedding in July 2006. They Program at Dartmouth College in June 2006. He has deferred are enjoying their new house his admission to Harvard and married life in Phoenix. Business School for one year to attend the Asia Pacific 1997 Leadership Program at the Kristine Kirwin ‘97 received University of Hawaii. her B.A. and M.A. at Boston
’95 ’96 ’99 1995
Salvatore Bellia ‘95 founded a property management company, Belco Properties, LLC and is currently building his home in Windham, NH. He writes, “Hello to all my fellow alumnae. Time sure does fly!” He welcomes all correspondences from his former classmates. 1994 Bethany Caruso ‘95 is Benjamin Brown ‘94 is a currently living in Maine and lieutenant in the surgeon working on a lobster boat. She general’s corps or commissioned will be studying the relationship corps working at Warm Springs between water and health in Indian Reservation in Oregon. developing countries in August He is working as a dentist 2007 at Emory Rollin’s School through the Indian Health of Public Health. Pamela Service primarily serving the Deutchman ‘95 graduated Paiute, Warm Springs, and from Boston University in the Wasco tribes. He is also 2002 with a B.A. in computer enjoying the adventures and science and is now working misadventures that Oregon has as a software engineer at a to offer. James Moskos ‘94 company in Hauppauge, NY. graduated from the University Hilary St. Jean ‘95 is pretty of Ottawa last year with a much a “roadie” for a living. degree in Russian, played She works in tour management hockey for the Gee-Gees (CIS) and production for music artists and received the team’s 7th and has been touring over the player award. Now he is playing past few years with acts such for the Olympia Heist IHC in as: Velvet Revolver, The Rolling Belgium, coaching, and working part-time as a teacher and translator. Samuel Vaill ‘94 just
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law and Chinese/American studies, with most students, including Brendan, taking a broad range. He is currently taking Financial Investment, Comparative American and Chinese Economies and China’s Judicial System and its Reform in Chinese and Terrorism and Fundamentalism in English. Although he was accepted into the MA program here, he has decided instead to pursue job opportunities.
’97
College and is currently a career counselor at Princeton University. Brendan Pytka ‘97 is currently studying at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center as part of the certificate program, which lasts one academic year. The Center is composed of about 100 students, half from China and the other half are international students, who are predominantly American. Students are required to take 3 classes in their non-native language, and then are allowed to take one or two classes offered in their native language. Courses concern graduate level politics, economics,
’00 2000
Amy Malleck ‘00 graduated from Bryn Mawr College in May with a degree in Art History and a minor in Classics. She is also preparing to (hopefully!) go to London next year to pursue a PhD in Art History.
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’01 ’04 2001
Jessica George ‘01 is currently a junior at Georgetown University majoring in history.
2004
Andrew Lowrie ‘04 was inducted into the National Honor Society and was named the second-ranking senior at Brewster Academy. He was the 2007 Class Salutatorian with a cumulative 3.875 GPA over his four years there (while taking AP History, AP Calculus and AP Physics). At graduation, he received the senior history award. He is headed to Bucknell University in the fall to pursue an engineering degree. Susannah Poland ‘04 is deferring entry into Stanford and taking a year to work as an au pair in Switzerland and France while taking cooking courses and exploring Europe a bit. She will be spending a few months back home in the winter to take art classes at the MFA and teach some on her own in Andover. She writes, “Needless to say, I am very excited.”
’05 2005
Jennifer Hyslip ‘05 writes, “Well...I’m stressed out during my junior spring, looking forward to summer and to hopefully spending a lot of it with Liz MacMillan ‘05.” Will Kavanagh ‘05 has done quite a bit recently. He traveled to the Playa Del Carmen area in Mexico with his family over spring break. He was part of the Governor’s Academy men’s varsity track team again this year and was a varsity letter winner for his efforts in discus throwing. This summer, he’ll be in Andover for a short while before flying down to Florida to visit friends and family. His
Downtown Boston Alumni Event relaxation will continue on the shores of Long Lake in Bridgton, Maine, before he has to report to Brooks School Day Camp for 8 weeks of working as a second-year group counselor. In early August, he will be riding in the PanMassachusetts Challenge, the original charity bike-a-thon that supports Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. After work ends in mid-August, he will return to Long Lake to cool down from a busy summer before his junior year at GDA begins. Anna O’Neal ‘05 is finishing up the last week of school and is hoping to do well on her exams. She is a counselor at Sargent Camp this summer and looks forward to instructing kayaking and mountain biking. She is enjoying the warm weather.
Who says a sequel is never as good as the original? Pike held its second annual Downtown Boston Alumni Event on Friday, March 30, 2007 at the Hampshire House. Thanks to Alumni Council Chair Renee Kellan Page ’79 and other dedicated alumni, over 100 Pike faculty and alumni from seven decades came out for a night of fun and reminiscing. Some
To see more photos from this special evening and other alumni reunions, visit the Alumni section of our Website at www.pikeschool.org.
’07
2007
Gregory Serrao ‘07 has been having a great time at Andover High. He played both hockey and lacrosse and he “likes the way the system works.” Recently, he went on a surf trip to Barbados with the family, and it was really awesome. He is looking forward to a fun summer.
Left to right, Cindy McKee Scott, Lynn Worthen Berns, Cinda Kittredge Sullivan, and Lyndy Rogers Koch, best friends from the Class of 1964, came together for a memorial service for Scott’s father, Peter McKee.
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classmates had not seen each other in fifty years. During the festivities, Tim Horne ’51 received our inaugural Distinguished Alumni Award for his extraordinary dedication and generosity to Pike.
Spring 2007
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Photos by Matt Hakola
On June 12, 2007, ground was broken for major new construction at The Pike School. When the dust settles in the fall of 2008, Pike will comprise thousands of new square feet of space for performance venues, art classrooms, galleries, music studios, community meeting areas, learning services, and more. The process began with six shovels of soil wielded by representatives of Pike students, Trustees, administrators, and benefactors. Within the week, the earth-moving equipment drastically increased in scale and moved a bit more earth. By the start of school this fall, the Pike community will be able to watch the real-time progress of the construction project from the comfort of their computers at www.pikeschool.org. Top left photo: Accompanied by Pike Trustees and ready to break ground with the very first shovels of Pike soil are, left to right, Jaime Newsome, Chair of the Board of Trustees Gary Campbell ’65, Head of School Muddy Waters, Katarina Hodge, David He, and Trustee and Lead Donor Shamim Dahod. Opposite page: Viewed from Pike’s former main entrance, an excavator takes another bite out of what used to be the front lawn. Above: A steamroller compacts the ground in front of the administration offices where concrete will be poured for a new corridor leading to the theater. Left: Excavation continues in the courtyard in front of Farnsworth.
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Pike Clean-up Day Then (1966)...
...and now.
Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage Paid The Pike School 34 Sunset Rock Road Andover, Massachusetts 01810-4898 www.pikeschool.org
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