Spring 2013 Bulletin by Rippowam Cisqua School

Spring 2013

Rippowam Cisqua School

Non Profit Org US Postage PAID Permit No 6030 Bedford NY

Bulletin

Rippowam Cisqua School P.O. Box 488, Bedford, New York 10506 Lower Campus: 914-244-1200 Upper Campus: 914-244-1250 www.rcsny.org

FULL

STEAM AHEAD Also in this issue:

Strategic Planning Update, Alumni Profiles, Class Notes

Mission Statement

The mission of Rippowam Cisqua School is to educate students to become independent thinkers, confident in their abilities and themselves. We are committed to a dynamic program of academics, the arts, and athletics, and support an engaged faculty to challenge students to discover and explore their talents to the fullest. Honesty, consideration, and respect for others are fundamental to Rippowam Cisqua. In an atmosphere that promotes intellectual curiosity and a lifelong love of learning, Rippowam Cisqua strives to instill in students a strong sense of connection to their community and to the larger world. We, as a school, recognize the common humanity of all people and teach understanding and respect for the differences among us.

A few of the many reasons to support

The RCS Annual Fund The Annual Fund is the Schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most important ongoing fundraising activity. Like most independent schools, tuition revenues at RCS do not cover the entire cost of running the School. Tuition provides approximately 84% of the annual operating budget with the Annual Fund supplying 7%. The School relies on this source of income in order to meet the essential needs of students and faculty. This year, the difference between tuition revenues and total operating expenses amounts to approximately $5,100 per child. Our Annual Fund goal this year is $1,200,000 and 100% community participation. Each year, we achieve remarkable results, thanks to the incredible efforts of our volunteers and the generosity of our community. If you would like to make a gift, please take a moment to fill out the enclosed pledge envelope and send it back to us with your contribution. If you have questions about the Annual Fund, please contact Eldira Curis at 914-244-1292 or edlira_curis@rcsny.org

1 Rippowam Cisqua School

Bulletin Spring 2013

Rippowam Cisqua School Bulletin is published by the Advancement Office: Edlira Curis, Director of Annual Fund and Alumni Relations Manager Aggy Duveen, Website Manager and Master Teaching Fund Coordinator Barbara Jarvis, Advancement Executive Assistant/Campaign Manager Ryan Smith, Director of Development and Communications Debe Stellio, Advancement Operations Manager Bob Whelan, Associate Head of School

Table of

Contents

Send address changes to alumni@rcsny.org. Credits: Design: Peapod Design, New Canaan, CT Photography: Tim Coffey, Stamford, CT

Board of Trustees Amanda Riegel, Chair Alexandria S. Altman, Vice Chair William D. McLanahan, Treasurer Scott A. Barshay, Secretary Steve Bean Ralph J. Bernstein Robert S. Boyd ’75 Charles Buckley Kirtley Cameron Dr. Neil J. Capolongo James A. Diamond Gregory J. Fleming James D. Kallman Dr. Elizabeth L. Kilgallon, DVM, dACVS Stuart Kovensky Desta Lakew Philip S. Lawrence ’80 Anna P. Lee James B. Renwick ’63

4 Cover Story: Full STEAM Ahead 2

Letter from the Head of School

Campus News

14 Community Service

Ex Officio Matthew Nespole, Head of School Katie Boyd, Parent Association Chair Deborah A. Hurrell, Assistant Head for Finance and Operations Robert F. Whelan, Associate Head of School Christopher J. Wirth ’94, RCSAA Chair

30 Distinguished

Alumni Award

Student Awards

Strategic Planning Update

Winter Athletics Update

RCS in Pictures Spring 2012-13

Master Teaching Fund

Alumni News

Alumni Board Association

32 34

Young Alumni Holiday Party

Remembering Stephen Sanger ’60

Dr. Sarah Danziger ’93 and Sarah Strong ’09

Class Notes

In Memoriam

Alumni Profile

Letter from the

Head of School Last fall, at the opening faculty meeting, I asked the teachers to reflect on, and share with one another, specific examples of the opportunities they create for our students to foster the seven attributes we want all RCS students to embody when their time at our School comes to an end. These attributes include creativity, collaboration, curiosity, a sense of ethics, joy, resiliency, and responsibility, and are recognized by both educational and business leaders as key components for success in the 21st century workplace and, perhaps more importantly, key components to finding personal happiness and satisfaction in life. The faculty spent close to two hours discussing the attributes that advance our Mission and exist at the heart of our School, and generated hundreds of different examples of learning experiences that enable our students to become confident, independent thinkers, who value honesty, consideration, and respect for others. What energized the room, and set the tone for the academic year were the conversations among teachers across grade levels and

disciplines about how interdisciplinary collaboration creates meaningful learning experiences that promote these attributes and student experiences. Our commitment to advancing these key elements has positioned our School and its faculty and administration as thought leaders in the educational community. This past February, at the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) Annual Conference, representatives of the Elementary Schools Research Collaborative (an association of twenty eight independent schools across the United States of which RCS is a member) presented their findings from four years of research. NAIS works in partnership with the Educational Testing Service, a global leader in diagnostic assessments, which focused on the creation of an assessment tool that can accurately measure these important traits that are a hallmark of our educational program. The findings clearly demonstrate that our students are actively engaged in instructional activities that foster essential growth. This issue of The Bulletin focuses on the meaningful work undertaken by our faculty to create learning experiences that advance these traits and our Mission. Educational research clearly demonstrates the direct correlation between intellectual and emotional growth and meaningful

immersion in dynamic, joyful, learning experiences. Research also points to the importance of students taking ownership of their own learning. Our annual Lower Campus science fair, second grade Arctic unit, eighth grade science program, and ninth grade portfolio projects are just a few of the countless examples of our educational approach. What is known in the education world as STEM, the combination of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to advance learning goals, has been extended at Rippowam Cisqua to also include the fine and performing arts (STEAM). In the pages that follow, you will learn more about the wonderful opportunities that our teachers create as the dedication to the success and growth of every child at RCS is reflected in their own words. Enjoy. Warmly,

Matthew

Cover Story

Full Ahead STEAM. The word conveys the power and the By: Charlie Duveen, 8th Grade Physics Teacher

pulse of the industrial revolution. From the kettle on your stove to the engine room of the Titanic, steam has been at the center of western civilization from the late 1700s, right up to the end of World War II. Gigantic steam driven engines transported goods and people across continents and over oceans, seas, and navigable rivers; but, more recently, the very same word, in educational circles, has become an acronym for a combination of five related subjects â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics â&#x20AC;&#x201C; all intertwined in the application of technical fields. Previously, programs of this sort were called STEM, a progressive approach that, for decades, introduced young people to engineering and science. Art was not considered to be remotely part of the mix, but the recent addition of artistic creativity was long overdue. Somewhere along the way, someone figured out that if your science and math based programs leave out the creative, artistic mindset, you might be squashing the very ingredient that has driven American ingenuity.

Cover Story: Full Steam Ahead continued…

At Rippowam Cisqua, we had been STEAMing along quite well when the acronym STEAM entered the pedagogical scene. Although it applies to much of our curriculum in grades PreK-9, the focus of this article is on what students do in our eighth grade physics class at the Upper Campus. We’ll look at how the program integrates these five areas, and how much of that work reflects a diverse set of skills that students have learned at RCS.

Using STEAM, let’s design a nuclear powered research submarine

Since 2001, our physics curriculum has included an engineering project that spans five months. This project incorporates the entire mix: the science of physical objects and the transformations between forms of energy; the online programs for word processing, electronic spreadsheets, and presentations, as well as research tools and communications; the art of sketching, drawing, and presenting; and finally, enough mathematics operations and algorithms to make your head spin. Sometimes this engineering project involves designing, building, and testing an aerospace launch and retrieval system. This year, however, our three eighth grade classes are designing a nuclear powered research submarine. “How can 14 year old students design a highly technical ocean-going vessel like a submarine?” you might ask. The answer is, it’s not easy, and if you ask any of our students, you will hear a barrage of recounted tribulations concerning convoluted spreadsheet calculations, heated debates over which type of nuclear reactor is safest, some agonizing decisions about the efficiency of a Brayton cycle engine room, or the method of deploying deep submergence vehicles. Working to a twelve-page “contract document,” each class sets up a separate

engineering company and a project organization with a management team coordinating five departments: hull design, nuclear, propulsion, electrical distribution, and deep submergence vehicle (DSV). The three classes compete for the best design, which is decided in the spring by a panel of naval architects and marine engineers. Since this submarine “is designed to non-military commercial specs and must carry twenty scientists doing underwater ocean research for periods of up to nine weeks,” each team has its hands full.

Why a submarine?

Students often ask why a nuclear sub? There are a few things about a nuclear submarine that are particularly intriguing for students of physics. One is that nuclear energy is going through a transition from unsafe designs to much more effective and safer designs. Since 1980, we have almost doubled the carbon dumped into the earth’s atmosphere, and nuclear energy is a part of the mix that will save the planet. We need our students to understand the technical aspects of this complex form of energy as they will help form the next generation that will solve our energy problems. The second reason is that a submarine is a rather simple shape, and the equations to find the hull resistance and powering are fairly simple too, much simpler than designing a surface ship like a tanker or container ship where you have to consider wave-making and windage. Can

you imagine how messy those equations would be? The third reason is that none of our eighth graders have ever designed a nuclear sub, which, as you can surmise, is a real challenge. Eighth graders are ready for this. One just has to show them that they are. “This is the craziest thing I have ever had to do! This is hard.” All of this makes it an ideal challenge for our eighth graders, whose capabilities are quite developed by the time they reach the classroom in September. They come with various talents – some artistic, some in research, some in theatrical performance, some with computer savvy skills, others who excel in mathematical acumen, and some who are good leaders. That mix of expertise is what makes any venture as monumental as designing a submarine, an achievable goal.

So let’s look at the STEAM model and point out a few of the highlights in each of the major areas …

SCIENCE - a targeted physics curriculum One of the primary goals of our eighth grade physics course is to show each student how physical objects in the universe behave. Once we do this, they can apply their understanding and strengths in the context of a long term engineering project. We complete some basic concepts: forces, velocity, acceleration, work, and energy. Then we look at some special forces: Archimedes’ Principle of the buoyant

force, then Newton’s laws of motion and his universal law of gravitation. On the way, we add a few mathematical gyrations working with scientific notation and, with those skills under our belts, we are pretty much ready for anything. We study the periodic table of elements and the model of the atom. These come in handy when we look at the fission process of splitting the atomic nucleus. There are other applications like the Lithium Fluoride molten salt reactor design or the

lead-bismuth in a liquid metal coolant reactor. Even nickel or zirconium alloys have new meaning because we have memorized these elements on the periodic table. Forms of energy are, of course, at the very heart of the submarine’s propulsion plant, so we spend a good amount of time with the physics of energy: chemical, electrical, mechanical, thermal, nuclear, and electromagnetic.

Cover Story: Full Steam Ahead continued…

The 21st Century Classroom

Processing and Inquiry On the Upper Campus, the science curriculum focuses on process skills—collecting data, observing data, and analyzing data—across all scientific disciplines. This curriculum-wide focus is rooted in the tenets of scientific inquiry, and several elements of STEAM are incorporated into the various units of study. In the 5th grade astronomy unit, which functions as a continuation of the study of the planets in 4th grade, students gain a visual understanding of the expansion of the universe through the intersection of science and art. Each student is given a balloon and a permanent marker. The students draw as many dots as they can on the non-inflated balloon, and they draw a picture of the balloon in their science journals. They inflate the balloon up a little bit, and then they observe how the distance between the dots has changed. Finally, they inflate the balloon up all the way and make further observations about the distance between the dots. After each step, they draw a picture of the balloon in their science journals. In Kate Daly’s 5th grade Botany unit, the study of the physiology of plants is a hands-on experience for the students. In the RCS Botany Lab, the students observe the life cycle of plants, over the course of six weeks. Daly incorporates math into this unit of study by asking the students to measure their plants during the observation process, and she edifies the lessons by using technological resources, including web videos from Discovery and brainpop.com, a website with animated curricular content. Art and creativity have a home in the Botany unit as well. Daly’s students demonstrate the life cycle of a plant, either from seed to plant or flower to seed, by drawing scientifically accurate cartoons, which are then displayed around the School.

In April, the RCS Third Grade boarded a bus for a local field trip to Curtis Instruments in Mount Kisco. Curtis Instruments designs and manufactures the electrical interface between electric vehicles and the people operating them. You will find their instruments in electric cars, most golf carts and the Moon Rover used on the Apollo missions to mention a few. The third graders were invited to bring their Science Fair projects, electrified scenes from the movie, WALL-E, and explain the circuitry to all the employees of Curtis. The students were very proud to be invited and eagerly interacted with Mr. Stuart Marwell, the CEO of Curtis Instruments; his wife, Mrs. Victoria Marwell; the engineers, and staff who asked them many questions. The students were treated to pizza while watching videos of robotic operations in Puerto Rico as well as a testimony of a Curtis wheelchair user. Then it was the students’ chance to ask questions of the Curtis employees. When they headed back to the bus, students explored the workings of an electric car with Curtis instrumentation on board. Both the students and the Curtis employees were inspired by this opportunity to share a peek into the learning of a 21st century classroom and a forward look into real world applications of STEAM. The trip to Curtis Instruments was organized by Grades 3 and 4 Science Teacher Tanis Moore as part of the third grade unit on electricity. The third grade science curriculum, which is taught by Ms. Moore and Science Intern Emily Willson, focuses on problem solving in the natural world, and it embraces the tenet that, “Math is the language of Science.” Data that is generated in science is organized, analyzed, and shared using graphs and math algorithms. In the electricity unity, students connect and test various kinds of electrical circuits. They electrify scenes from movies or books, and create the characters and murals for these scenes in their art classes. These projects embrace creativity and collaboration, and the students have the opportunity to share what they’ve learned at the annual RCS Science Fair!

TECHNOLOGY - using computer software Technology is the term often used to describe the use of computers and software in our schools, even though the broader meaning applies to stone tools of the cave people as well as the development of James Watt’s steam engine. Our students are introduced to standard programs for word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations at all levels. One of the breakthroughs for us in eighth grade physics was trying out Google Apps as a platform for our engineering project. Using Google Apps opens up a way we can store all of the research our students have completed, and it also allows us to communicate with each other using the School’s secure Google Apps email account. The biggest advantage of Google Apps is that their documents are “in the

clouds” so they can’t get lost. Even more exciting is that an entire team can work on the same document from many different places at the same time. One can be on a plane to Zurich and still create slides for the team presentation. Another software tool that helps in any engineering project is Google SketchUp. Using this program, some of the students become adept at creating engineering drawings that are quite impressive. The panelists who evaluate the student design presentations are impressed by the Google SketchUp renderings, but they are just as impressed by carefully made hand drawings that the students create. In fact, variations like that make for a very interesting presentation.

Students Explore Animation Technology and art came together on the Upper Campus this year when the 8th grade students, led by art teacher Marnie McLaughlin, created their own animated films. Ms. McLaughlin launched the project by taking her 8th grade students on a field trip to the Katonah Museum of Art, where they viewed an exhibit on the computer-animated film, Ice Age. At the Art Museum, the students had the opportunity to work on stop-motion animation projects, which they brought back to the Art House. The Art Department and Technology Department came together to teach the students how to create animated films using iMovie, and the students worked together in teams to write, direct and shoot their projects. The students took multiple shots of images that they had drawn and manipulated on dry-erase boards, and they then added the images into iMovie, where they animated their stills and added music and sound effects. The students had a blast weaving together technology and art!

Cover Story: Full Steam Ahead continued…

ENGINEERING and leadership

Every project, big or small, needs leadership to be successful. In fact, a project’s organization can make or break its success. This leadership aspect of the project is as important as the details of technical knowledge. So, in the beginning of the year, each of the three classes chooses their Program Manager. They are told, “You are picking the student among you who is smart, fair, respectful, organized, not frazzled under pressure, and is someone you respect. This is a person who will lead you through the most complex project you have ever encountered in school.” They are asked to make this decision because they have been working together for years, and they are pretty good at choosing their leader. Once this is done, the program manager chooses the deputy program manager, that “right hand” student who will help to lead the program.

When we get started on the project in January, there are five departments set up in each class: Hull Design, Nuclear, Propulsion, Electrical Distribution, and Deep Submergence Vehicle. Each of these departments includes two to four students, one of whom acts as the first department head. That leadership job involves coordinating the research and the presentation for the Program Status Review. The position of department head rotates about every two weeks, so that each student is a leader more than once during the course of the project. By the time we finish with the entire project, these young engineers are quite proud of the material they have mastered and the leadership they demonstrated in creating a unique submarine.

Machines on Mars Science on the Lower Campus is a hands-on process. In Heather DeBlasio’s second grade science class, students don't just study simple machines--they build them! Students discuss how simple machines make work easier, and they begin by learning about ramps, inclined planes, and levers. The unit on simple machines dovetails with the math curriculum, and students apply the knowledge that they learn in their measurement unit in math class by measuring ramps in the science lab. They go on to study pulleys, wheels, and axles, before demonstrating their knowledge of simple machines at the annual Science Fair. This year’s theme was “A Community on Mars,” and Ms. DeBlasio asked her students, “If you were building a community on Mars, what would you need to live there?” Students then built various simple machines designed to make life easier and more entertaining on Mars. Students built a Ferris wheel (complete with a ticket booth), a miniature golf course (incorporating the wedge, a simple machine useful both on and off the fairway), a playground with a slide and seesaw, and various ramps for vehicles on Mars. The objects were all built using recycled materials, and students embraced creativity, artistic expression, and teamwork by working collaboratively to build and decorate the objects. STEAM shows that creativity has a home in the science lab and, for the students on the Lower Campus, art and science each complement the other.

ART

So where’s the art in all of this? One of the best parts of any design is trying to give it life by rendering some form of special drawing or modeling. It is the artist who gives us a window into the mind’s eye. The artist gives us the creation to feel, touch, and see long before it will ever be built. We can decide on the dimensions of a submarine – its length, beam, and draft – but what does that really look like? Is it a pipe in the water or does it appear like a shark? We can shape the conning tower, we can plan the bow planes, the stern planes, and the rudders, but what hydrodynamic form have we created? Only the artist can show us. Only that sketch or drawing can galvanize our imagination and allow us to critique how our measurements really look and feel. Every one of our students is an artist. With unflinching courage, they will sit in groups explaining concepts by scribbling a ragged sketch on a blank piece of paper. We are not looking for perfection. We just want a way of expressing the physical – how does it look? Art in this way is simply a communication tool, like writing, but now directed at how objects fit together. “I can’t really draw this, I’m not a good artist,” she says as the sketchy rendering takes form. In response, “Is it a plan view,

looking from the top, or are we seeing an elevation view from the side? Is this a cross section, cut in half, or are we seeing the outside skin of the vessel?” By the time we are finished, we have created several iterations of the same part of the ship, and soon we are sketching to scale, where the proportions are more correct. The length-to-beam ratio starts to have meaning as the object is rendered too fat,

Theater as art Theater is another art form that is so important in our engineering design project. Not so much for its drama or comic relief, but more for its ability to communicate to an audience what is important. When our students arrive in eighth grade, they have already been on stage in some form, whether it is coordinating the backstage props, working the lights, or singing the lead song in the musical. Performance is an integral part of life at RCS at all grade levels. So when our students are asked to make a presentation about the reactor’s inherent safety features, it’s just another performance. Granted, we have more technical material, and now the student is writing his or her own script for each presentation slide, but they are ready for this daunting challenge. The audience is no longer friends and family, but instead, a panel of professional engineers and people who work in the shipping industry.

too thin, or pretty close to our image of the real thing. Our art is, without fail, the center of numerous conversations, be it a schematic diagram, a process flow chart, or an interior compartment in two, and sometimes three, dimensions. Nowhere is there more need of art than in any technical venture like designing a submarine. Creation has its own beauty, and so often we want to capture it in a visual form. This may be more obvious when we look at multi-colored billowing clouds, a pastoral scene with buffalo racing across the plains, or the Thomas Benton paintings of rural America. All of these depictions have their scientific explanations and even their evolutionary engineering but, unless the artist captures it on a canvas, in a photograph, or in a sculpture, we will only see it by memory and then only if we were there as a witness. The artist helps us to see and feel our massive submarine, long before our calculations are finalized. This is what is missing in the STEM program. The visual, tactile aspect of the technical world is one reason art is such an integral part of our curriculum, but not only art as studio renderings.

Cover Story: Full Steam Ahead continued…

MATHEMATICS

The idea of underwater travel is not so difficult to imagine, but the mathematics involved is a real bear. Take, for instance, the calculations we must carry out to determine the hull resistance or drag on the submarine as it moves through the water. If we can find that resistive force at the submarine’s maximum speed, we can tell how much power the propeller needs to push the vessel. The math algorithm we use is the same one employed by naval architects and, from it, we can arrive at the power of the sub’s main engines and the thermal output of her nuclear reactor. The first equation looks like this: Rhull = .5 Cf  A v2 Here Cf is the coefficient of friction caused by the outer surface of the hull,  is the density of seawater, A is the surface area of the submarine and v is its maximum velocity in the water. After all of the physics and math we covered in the first trimester, those factors are not so difficult.

You might ask, “How do we arrive at an approximate surface area of a submarine?” The answer is pretty simple. We turn it into three regular shapes: a hemispheric nose, a cylinder for the main body, and a cone for the tapered tail end. We have formulas for the area of all of these shapes, and when we add them together, we get a pretty good approximation to use in our resistance calculations. The tricky factor is Cf , the coefficient of friction. To find that variable, we have to first calculate Reynolds’ number, which depends on the length of the vessel, the maximum velocity, and – get this – the kinematic viscosity of sea water. This requires some magic manipulations using scientific notation and a logarithmic function to boot. Yikes! Have I lost you yet? My eighth graders get this right! All of these lead to the power calculations that allow us to speak with engineers in the industry to determine

size and weight of the ship’s propulsion equipment. We ask them, for example, “Just how big will that five megawatt nuclear reactor be?” and with this information, we can figure out if the reactor will fit into our hull. The layers of equations get so complex that, once we do the math operations by hand, we want to put all of these parameters and equations into an electronic spreadsheet. This way the students can determine how changes in the hull design will affect the engine room equipment. Math is a powerful tool and all of my students come into eighth grade physics with the math skills to tackle this important algorithm. Even though scientific notation is introduced in the seventh grade, we need to practice using those operations until we have mastered them. This allows my students to not only make accurate calculations, but to also troubleshoot their own spreadsheets.

learning process and in so many areas of development, that each child can move forward and find his or her strengths that eventually define them. They gain a confidence in their ability to tackle many things. We also work on weaknesses that one day may turn out to be strengths. It is that engine rolling down the tracks powered by STEAM, and a whole lot more, that we love to see in action every day.

All ahead, flank – a sea story Every now and then I sit with my students and tell them a story. Here is one for you:

8th Grade Physics Teacher Charlie Duveen on Grandparents Day

What lies ahead? Robots anyone?

Some exciting new developments usher in our focus on STEAM. We are taking a look at revising interest in computer programming, where the application of engineering robots meets the art of programming. Much of this new focus on the rudiments of technology, and machines that obey commands, is a revolution in electronic component design. These circuits have been around for decades. The revolutionary part is their cheap availability and the freeware that unleashes the power of these palm sized circuit boards. Arduino is a company that makes these programmable circuit boards, now available so cheaply that anyone can afford them. These powerful computer cards that used to cost hundreds of dollars are now available for around $20, and they use a simplified version of C++ programming software also available online for free. This makes it easy and exciting to introduce programming to young people. The lure for many of our young thinkers is the robotics control. It’s like magic, but really it is science, technology, engineering, art, and math all rolled up into one desktop project. The same electronics that control the launch sequence of a modern rocket engine can

control a homemade robot. Only the imagination is the limit. Through the expertise of two enthusiastic RCS parents, Slim Zouaoui and Michael Beakes, we have started a pilot program on the Upper Campus to integrate this exciting technological jump into our Allied Art period during the school day. It is a humble start, riding on the wave of a few enthusiastic students. What better way to catapult into the future?

Mapping the curriculum

Another area that will support STEAM at RCS is our initiative to map the curriculum. Using an online mapping program, Rubicon Atlas, we are in the process of placing our curriculum into a database. This will help us to view the links we are making to different areas in our curriculum. It will help us to do a better job of finding new and imaginative ways for injecting life and meaning into what our young people learn, and isn’t that the road to the brighter future that we want for them? This is one of the many reasons why RCS is such an interesting place to teach. Teachers are all so integrated into the flow of learning, at each stage of the

At one point in my life I was standing watch on the bridge as officer of the deck on USS LEAHY CG16. We were headed into port after two weeks at sea playing war games off the coast of San Diego. We were running parallel to some other ships that were also heading home for the weekend. I wanted to get into port ahead of the other ships so we could tie up and go on liberty. Our 1200 pound steam plant was designed to give us 25+ knots and I called down to the engine room and spoke to the engineering officer of the watch. It’s always good to communicate with the engine room before such a maneuver. “Engine room. Bridge. Can you go to flank speed if I need it? This way we can get into port ahead of the other ships and tie up earlier.” Murphy, the engineering officer of the watch got on the phone. “We sure can, Chuck. Give me the bell and we’ll respond.” On the bridge, I called out, “All ahead, flank.” The lee helmsman repeated the command, and set the engine order telegraph for a flank bell. The quartermaster entered the order into the ship’s log, and our massive cruiser picked up speed like a greyhound out of the gates. We surged ahead of the pack, taking the lead, and slowed just as we entered the harbor channel. Our ship docked within the hour. It’s somewhat like that with STEAM. At RCS, the engine room is quite ready. All ahead, flank.

Campus News Highlights

Community Service

Students from both campuses give back Lower Campus Activity

True to the mission of the School, Rippowam Cisqua students serve others out of a commitment to the broader world. Their continual volunteer work raises awareness of others, has a direct impact on the surrounding community, provides many opportunities to see progress, and fosters a lifelong commitment to service. Here are some curriculumbased activities on the Lower Campus this year:

Lower Campus students donate toys to children at Northern Westchester Hospital

Students on the Lower Campus Community service activities reinforce these lessons. On the Lower Campus, curriculum-based activities this year included: •

Third grade students cleaned the Butterfly Garden on the Lower Campus and watered the plants, and students in Kindergarten, first grade and second grade planted seeds in the garden. In art classes, students made environmentally friendly totem poles to decorate the Garden.

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Second grade students wrote birthday letters to women in a New York-area shelter, and JPK students helped bake items to send to the women on their birthdays.

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Students embraced the opportunity to participate in Jeans for a Cause, a teacher-led initiative that enables students to dress more casually on select days in exchange for donations of any size to specific charities. In February, students raised money to build a playground at the Golda Meir Academy in Ghana.

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Students wrote end-of-the-year thank you cards to members of the School community, including the members of the Maintenance Team and the Front Office staff, which created community awareness for the students.

The Parent Association Community Service Committee, led by third grade parent and Lower Campus Community Service Coordinator Alison Kallman, continues to provide meaningful, handson opportunities for Lower Campus students in all grades to work together on service-learning projects. The spirit of collaboration is fostered by partnering students in different grades together for each of the four after-school projects that make up the extra-curricular community service calendar on the Lower Campus. The student groups take ownership of the projects, each of which is a schoolwide collection for the Community Center of Northern Westchester. The students come together to sort and pack the collected items, and the students and parents deliver the items to the Community Center. The student participants are recognized during assemblies each year, which are led by Alison Kallman and provide an opportunity for all students to learn about the importance of helping others. •

Holiday ornaments from the Lower Campus Share the Warmth clothing drive

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Families on the Lower Campus donated more than 500 pounds of clothing during the annual fall clothing drive for the CCNW. Fourth grade students sorted and packed the items, and several students helped to deliver the items to the Community Center, where they were given a tour of the facilities.

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Lower Campus students collect clothing for the Share the Warmth drive

SPK and second grade students came together in December to sort and pack items collected during the School’s annual Share the Warmth clothing drive. Members of the school-wide community had donated new pajamas, robes, slippers, and socks (91 pounds in total!), and the students gathered the items and delivered them to the CCNW. The students also made beautiful, sparkling holiday ornaments that were delivered along with the clothing to the Community Center for distribution to the Center's patrons during the holiday season. In February, Lower Campus students and parents came together for the annual Get Well Soon Winter Toy Collection to benefit children in the Pediatric Unit at Northern Westchester Hospital. Members of the RCS community donated new toys for the hospital, and several Lower Campus students gathered more than 20 boxes of toys and delivered them in person to the hospital. When they arrived with

their carloads of toys, Northern Westchester Hospital President and CEO Joel Seligman was there to greet the children and express his gratitude for their support and generosity. •

In April, JPK and first grade students sorted and packed several hundred pounds of food donated by the RCS community. The students also decorated reusable RCS bags for the CCNW to distribute to their food pantry patrons.

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As we go to press, students are collecting school supplies to give to children of the CCNW. Kindergarten and third grade students will work together to sort, pack, and deliver the items.

Campus News: Community Service continued… Highlights

Upper Campus students tend the RCS Garden

Upper Campus Activity

The School’s commitment to community service continues on the Upper Campus, where students have the opportunity to take on leadership roles with specific service-learning activities. For ninth grade students, community service is fully integrated into the curriculum through activities, as well as their year-long portfolio projects. The Parent Association plays a key role in supporting community service projects on the Upper Campus as well, and Upper Campus Community Service Coordinator Angela Lowman, along with several other parents, helped to organize several projects this year. •

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In the fall, students volunteered at the Ronald McDonald House in Valhalla, where they prepared meals for families, spent time with the residents, and wrote them letters. In September, students spent several hours tending to and beautifying the RCS Garden.

9th grade Habitat for Humanity project •

Also in September, the ninth grade students, along with several teachers, left Bedford and traveled to Shenorock, NY, for a two-day Habitat for Humanity project. Rippowam Cisqua School has had a longstanding relationship with Habitat for Humanity of Westchester and, this year, the students and teachers tackled two projects. The ninth graders gathered at Head of School Matthew Nespole’s residence for a leadership retreat following the two days of community service. During the retreat, the students reflected on their experiences.

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In December, students took part in the annual Share the Warmth event, and they gathered and delivered 34 pounds of new clothing to the CCNW.

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Also in December, the Upper Campus students held a food drive to coincide with the Share the Warmth clothing drive and, before they left for Winter Break, the students and teachers delivered more than 1,300 pounds of food to the CCNW and to Neighbor's Link in Mt. Kisco.

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In February, the ninth graders and their chaperones traveled to Manhattan to participate in the annual Midnight Run to provide support for homeless men and women in New York City. The students prepared sandwiches and put together sack suppers including hot soup and coffee to distribute to the homeless individuals. Students also packed up personal care items, clothing, and blankets. For a number of years, RCS ninth graders have participated in the Midnight Run. This year, two ninth grade students, Annabelle Nemeth and Alex Needham, took on the challenge of organizing the Midnight Run as part of their ninth grade Portfolio.

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In May, Upper Campus students organized a Bake Sale and Jeans Day to support children in Kenya that RCS faculty member Vincent Kwarula works through his organization, Kwarula Society for Kenyan Education.

Community service at Rippowam Cisqua is not mandatory. Guided by a mission that encourages students to “recognize the common humanity of all people,” RCS students, teachers, and parents work together to effect change in the surrounding communities. Rippowam Cisqua students have accomplished much this year for their greater community, with more to come as the school year comes to a close!

Student

Awards

During the 2012-2013 school year, Rippowam Cisqua School students competed in some of the most rigorous and prestigious academic competitions in the country, and they earned local and national recognition for their strong performances.

French Awards

Each year, The American Association of French Teachers sponsors the National French Contest known as Le Grand Concours. Nearly 100,000 students across the United States competed in the contest in 2013 and, in Westchester alone, nearly 1,100 students competed. In May, eight Rippowam Cisqua students in seventh, eighth, and ninth grades placed in the top ten rankings of the Westchester, New York Chapter. Six of these students also placed in the top ten National rankings. The RCS students who placed among the top ten in Westchester and/or nationally are:

Seventh grade students

Hannah Buckley – eighth in Westchester Isabella Giammalva – ninth in Westchester Eighth grade students

Michael Badey – Bronze Medal, tenth in the Nation Maia Bernstein – Bronze Medal, tenth in the Nation Sahra Denner – Bronze Medal, fourth in the Nation Lily Fauver – Bronze Medal, tenth in the Nation Ninth grade students

Aaron Casella – Bronze Medal, eighth in the Nation Natalie Harrington – Bronze Medal, seventh in the Nation

Campus News Highlights

Spanish Awards

In the spring of each year, the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese sponsors the National Spanish Examination. The exams are the largest of their kind in the United Statesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;nearly 160,000 students participated in 2013â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and they feature two forty minute sections incorporating listening, reading, and grammar concepts. Twenty two Rippowam Cisqua students earned awards for their performance: Level 1: Honorable Mention: Ryan Alpert (9th Grade), Kristen Brown (8th Grade), Georgia McLanahan (9th Grade), Teddy Vallar (9th Grade) Medalla de Bronce: Mya Lipscomb (8th Grade), Andrew Pittman (8th Grade), and Sara Mendoza (8th Grade) Richard Lillis, grades 5-9 Latin teacher

Latin Awards

For nearly four decades, Latin students have devoted the second week of March to the National Latin Exam, an exam set under the sponsorship of The American Classical League and The Junior Classical League. The exam is given at seven levels, and Rippowam Cisqua students sit for three of those levels. In 2013, nearly 150,000 students from around the country, and countless more students from around the world, sat for the exam. At Rippowam Cisqua, seventh graders participate in the Introductory Level exam, eighth graders participate in the Latin IB exam, and ninth graders take the Level II exam. In the 7th grade, on the Introductory Latin Exam, receiving certificates of achievement are: Tommy Fornara, Harrison Roth, Sebastien Seymour, and Giovanni Wolfram Receiving blue ribbons and certificates of outstanding achievement are: Chloe Barshay, Caroline Carpenter, Jack Fife, Benjamin Hirsch, Ella Horn, Jack Kaitz, Mairead Kilgallon, Sean Malcolm, Audrey Palmeri, Luke Powell, Sean Rowan, and Kemp Taylor

In the 8th grade, receiving a gold medal and a summa cum laude certificate for the level IB exam is: Olivia Selmonosky Also in the 8th grade, receiving silver medals and maxima cum laude certificates are: Jackson Corrigan and Kyla Spence And receiving magna cum laude certificates in the 8th grade are: Andrew Lowman and Henry Mockridge

Medalla de Plata: Theo Bartlett (8th Grade), Kendall Burdick (8th Grade), Grant Corso (8th Grade), Anjali Goyal (8th Grade), William Langham (8th Grade), and Jake Lustig (8th Grade) Medalla de Oro: Hannah Burdick (8th Grade), Christopher Glynn (8th Grade), Sophia Gutfreund (8th Grade), Amelia Riegel (8th Grade), and Cecilia Thieberger (8th Grade) Level 2: Honorable Mention: Cameryn Lacey (9th Grade) and Alexandra Needham (9th Grade) Medalla de Bronce: Gabrielle Brooks (9th Grade) Medalla de Oro: Cian McGillicuddy (9th Grade)

Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

The Scholastic Art & Writing contest is the nation’s longest running, largest, and most prestigious recognition program for creative teen artists and authors. In 2013, Scholastic received seven hundred submissions from students in Westchester, Fairfield, and Putnam Counties, and they gave out 290 awards. Rippowam Cisqua students won 38 of those awards, including several Gold and Silver Keys – the contest’s highest form of recognition.

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Isabella Giammalva (7th grade), awarded an Honorable Mention in the Flash Fiction category

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Riley Goldstein (8th grade), awarded two Silver Keys and an Honorable Mention in the Poetry category

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Anjali Goyal (8th grade), awarded an Honorable Mention in the Poetry category

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Charlotte Grunebaum (8th grade), awarded a Silver Key in the Poetry category

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Sophia Gutfreund (8th grade), awarded a Silver Key in the Poetry category

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Ben Hirsch (7th grade), awarded a Silver Key in the Poetry category

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Jared Jones (8th grade), awarded a Gold Key in the Poetry category

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The following Rippowam Cisqua students won regional recognition for their writing at the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards: •

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Chloe Barshay (7th grade), awarded two Gold Keys and an Honorable Mention in the Poetry category Kendall Burdick (8th grade), awarded a Gold Key, two Silver Keys, and an Honorable Mention in the Poetry category

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Jackson Corrigan (8th grade), awarded a Silver Key in the Short Story category

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Sahra Denner (8th grade), awarded a Silver Key and an Honorable Mention in the Poetry category

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Kendall Downend (8th grade), awarded a Silver Key in the Poetry category

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Thomas Falci (7th grade), awarded a Silver Key in the Poetry category

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Charlotte Fleming (8th grade), awarded an Honorable Mention in the Poetry category

Evan Kieltyka (8th grade), awarded an Honorable Mention in the Poetry category

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Adam Mann (8th grade), awarded an Honorable Mention in the Poetry category

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Ryan Manocherian (7th grade), awarded an Honorable Mention in the Poetry category

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Sara Mendoza (8th grade), awarded a Silver Key and an Honorable Mention in the Poetry category

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Henry Mockridge (8th grade), awarded an Honorable Mention in the Poetry category

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Maeve O’Brien (8th grade), awarded a Silver Key in the Poetry category

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Andrew Pittman (8th grade), awarded an Honorable Mention in the Poetry category

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Manveer Sandhu (7th grade), awarded a Silver Key and an Honorable Mention in the Poetry category

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Sebastien Seymour (7th grade), awarded an Honorable Mention in the Humor category

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Elizabeth Shelbred (7th grade), awarded a Silver Key and an Honorable Mention in the Poetry category

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Daniel Solomon (8th grade), awarded an Honorable Mention in the Poetry category

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Cecilia Thieberger (8th grade), awarded an Honorable Mention in the Poetry category

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Barron Thomas (8th grade), awarded an Honorable Mention in the Journalism category

Poetry Live!

In April, three Upper Campus students were selected to read their poems at Poetry Live!, a celebration of creative writing held annually during National Poetry Month. Poetry Live! provides students with the opportunity to read their original poetry aloud in front of an audience of parents, teachers, fellow writers, and other guests. This event, which is in its 12th year, took place at the Emelin Theatre in Mamaroneck and featured student poets from across Westchester County. The three poets from RCS included Natalie Bartlett, Jack Fife, and Manveer Sandhu. Congratulations to each of the student award winners and their teachers on a wonderfully successful year. Their accomplishments are both a reflection of the talents and hard work of the teachers and students at RCS, and an affirmation of the commitment to scholarship and excellence that is embodied by the entire School community.

Campus News Highlights

Strategic Planning

Update

If it has been a while since youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been on Clinton Road in Bedford, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll find that things look a little different these days! Thanks to the generosity of current and former RCS families, the School was able to purchase the residence at 10 Clinton Road this past fall. This beautiful stone house, which sits adjacent to the Upper Campus, played a meaningful role in Rippowam Cisqua history. In 1917, the home served as the original schoolhouse,

with twelve students who began school that September. The home was rented for $25 a month from Mrs. Cortlandt Van Rensselaer. After undergoing a modest renovation last fall, 10 Clinton served as a reception space for the lively young alumni reception held in December. The residence currently houses Upper Campus Division Head Bill Barrett and his family. Just next door to 10 Clinton is the future home of a new soccer and lacrosse field. The three-acre property will serve as a

key element of the athletic field complex, which, upon completion, will be named for longtime coach, Rich Meyers. The field has been cleared and graded, and recently had an extensive irrigation system installed. Weather permitting, sod will be planted in June and the field should be positioned for student play in the fall. Director of Facilities John DellaVecchia and his team have worked tirelessly on all of the Upper Campus athletic fields over the past year, with a newly renovated

baseball field serving as their most recent achievement. With extensive work that included leveling the field and installing an irrigation system, new sod was laid last fall and the infrastructure was developed for this spring’s efforts, which included the installation of an entirely new backstop, new dugouts, plantings along the nearest neighbor’s fence, preparation of the clay, a new outfield fence, and much more. As for the main playing fields that were installed last summer, they performed beautifully this past fall and this spring. The School invested in Kentucky bluegrass and it has made for a very consistent playing surface. Many of the other enhancements are also visible: new football goal posts, new soccer goals, netting system to capture errant lacrosse balls, new LED scoreboard, two large portable bleacher systems, and new team benches. Another noteworthy addition has been the relocation of the softball field, with

newly installed clay at the pitcher’s mound and around home plate. This has provided a safer playing surface and has been met with resoundingly positive feedback from the coaches and the athletes.

Sustainability

The School has remained consistent with its commitment to sustainability throughout the process, investing in a state of the art computer controlled irrigation system that helps the School achieve its water conservation goals. The irrigation system senses rainfall amounts and makes adjustments accordingly, allowing the Maintenance team to maintain and repair the fields to ensure student safety and a top flight playing surface for years to come. For both environmental and student safety reasons, the School uses organic fertilizers and pest controls, including nematodes that attack grubs, deer ticks, ants, and other pests. The watering system increases the effectiveness of this effort dramatically. The School’s own

Rocket Composter, which composts food waste from the kitchen and student dining rooms, contributes to the rich top soil that is put on the fields in the fall. A significant number of the trees that were removed from the new field at 20 Clinton were either damaged or at the end of their life-cycle, but the School will be putting in new plantings to replace the trees that had been removed. All of the branches from the downed trees were mulched and will be left on site for use on school grounds or on the Bedford Riding Lanes Association paths, and any wood that was considered viable for other uses was sent off to a lumberyard. So, with the behind the scenes work in place, the attention appropriately reverts back to the real action – the kids on the fields. Mark your calendars now for Saturday, September 28th for a day of Rippowam Cisqua sports, games for the kids, alumni gatherings, and family fun on the Upper Campus for the annual Rippowam Cisqua Homecoming!

Campus News Highlights

Winter

Athletics Update On Thursday, March 7th, Rippowam Cisqua School students, teachers, and coaches filled the Upper Campus Trustees’ Gym to celebrate the winter athletics program. Each team was recognized, and awards were given to members of the varsity teams for Most Improved Player, Most Valuable Player, and the highly esteemed Coaches Award.

Participation on a team sport is a requirement for Rippowam Cisqua middle school students – an outgrowth of the School’s mission that seeks to foster attributes such as collaboration and perseverance, which feature so prominently in team sports. Athletic Director Thomas Morrissey spoke about the role of athletics at RCS and the tremendous opportunities afforded every student athlete. He highlighted the strength of the teams, the number of teams

with hallmark seasons, and the impressive level of improvement on every team. "Ripp sports is clearly on the rise,” Morrissey told the students. “We are representing our community with good sportsmanship, respecting our teammates, our coaches, and, most importantly, our opponents. Rippowam has always been known for its fierce competitive spirit along with its fierce sense of respect for others. I am glad to say we are continuing both traditions."

Many of the teams enjoyed extremely strong seasons, and three RCS basketball teams finished the year with undefeated records: the Girls’ 5/6 Central team, coached by Amanda Brandon; the Boys’ 7th Grade North team, coached by Steve Willson; and the Girls’ Varsity team, coached by Thomas Morrissey. In fact, over the past five seasons, the Girls’ Varsity team’s record is an amazing 70-4!

The following athletic awards were given at the assembly:

Boys’ Varsity Hockey – Coached by Lou Tocco and Seth Michaelson • Most Improved Player was presented to seventh grader Sebastien Seymour

Girls’ Varsity Basketball – Coached by Thomas Morrissey • Most Improved Player awards were presented to eighth grader Carrie Kinui, eighth grader Mya Lipscomb, and eighth grader Cecilia Thieberger •

Coaches Award was presented to ninth grader Annabelle Nemeth

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Most Valuable Player was presented to ninth grader Gabrielle Brooks

Boys’ Varsity Basketball (East) – Coached by Ed Clarke, Tom Morrissey, and Bob Whelan • Most Improved Player awards were presented to ninth grader Zaire Elleby and eighth grader Evan Kieltyka •

Coaches Award was presented to eighth grader William Meyers

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Most Valuable Player was presented to eighth grader Jared Jones

Boys’ Varsity Basketball (West) – Coached by Tim Hart • Most Improved Player was presented to eighth grader Griffin Small •

Coaches Award was presented to ninth grader Nicolas Seymour

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Most Valuable Player was presented to eighth grader Chris Glynn

Girls’ Varsity Hockey – Coached by Eli Williams and Jamie Mendelsohn • Most Improved Player was presented to eighth grader Sophia Gutfreund •

Coaches Award was presented to ninth grader Georgia McLanahan

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Most Valuable Player was presented to ninth grader Natalie Harrington

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Coaches Award was presented to eighth grader Theo Bartlett

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Most Valuable Player awards were presented to ninth grader Thomas Tenney and eighth grader Michael Badey.

All of the School’s winter sports teams had their moment in the spotlight during the assembly, and the coaches took the opportunity to introduce each player by name. As the names were announced, the students gave a rousing cheer for each one of their fellow athletes. It was a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the winter athletics program and recognize the players for their great teamwork and perseverance this year. “This is what Ripp sports is about: Great kids coming together to work hard and learn what it is to be part of something larger than themselves, to excel and compete with everything you have,” said Athletic Director Morrissey. Congratulations to all of the players and coaches on their great seasons.

Campus News Highlights

2012-2013

RCS in Pictures Lower Campus Grandparents Day

Upper Campus Grandparents Day

Fun Run

Revelry

Red-Blue Competition

Musicals â&#x20AC;&#x201C; The Little Mermaid and Mulan

Walk to Cisqua

Campus News Highlights

Master Teaching

Fund Recipients Recipient of the Nicholas Bluestone Award

The Master Teaching Fund was established in 1991by RCS alumni in honor of the School’s retired master teachers. The goal of this endowed fund is to support the professional and personal development of today’s teachers. In the fall of 2012, the RCS Alumni Association awarded eight Master Teaching grants to RCS faculty, including the Nicholas Bluestone award. This award is given in honor of Nicholas Bluestone who was a member of the class of 1994. The purpose of this special designation is to serve as a perpetual remembrance of Nick’s love of RCS and his interest in the Arts. A major consideration in awarding this grant is that the applicant seeks funding support for a journey of discovery.

Kathy Perry teaches fifth, eighth, and ninth grade Spanish and ninth grade biology on the Upper Campus and has been with RCS for twenty years. Along with some camping in National Parks, Kathy intends to do some long distance bicycling along the coast of Maine and into Canada to visit Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and the Bay of Fundy this summer. Her grant allowed her to purchase a new bike and camping equipment, as well as stays in campgrounds and some historic Bed and Breakfasts along the way.

Amanda Brandon teaches fifth grade language arts and humanities on the Upper Campus and has been with RCS for ten years. Amanda has chosen to use her grant to take her family on a meaningful, peaceful vacation on Mirror Lake in Lake Placid, NY.

Isabel Dominguez is an art teacher for JPK through first grade on the Lower Campus and has been with RCS for five years. Isabel had always wanted to learn how to sew with a sewing machine and learn how to make patterns. Her grant allowed her to buy a sewing machine, take sewing lessons, and purchase all the fabric and sewing notions she will need to keep her creating for a very long time.

Harriet Doniger is a fourth grade teacher on the Lower Campus and has been with RCS for twenty seven years. Harriet decided to share her grant with her three grandchildren by taking them to Italy. Their itinerary includes the Vatican, the Sistine Chapel, and the Coliseum in Rome. A visit to Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast is also planned.

Charlie Duveen is the eighth grade physics teacher on the Upper Campus and has been with RCS for nine years. Always wanting to do some writing, but never seeming to have enough totally free time, Charlie used his grant to purchase a new laptop and to rent a small cottage for a week in Maine.

To help support the Master Teaching Fund Endowment, please send your donations to: Advancement Office Rippowam Cisqua School PO Box 488 Bedford, New York 10506

Sara Englis teaches Spanish Gail Laird is a fourth grade to fifth through ninth graders on the Upper Campus and has been with RCS for five years. Sara has always been interested in holistic health practices and nutrition, so she used her grant to participate in workshops through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN) and to purchase an iPad with downloaded lectures from IIN.

teacher on the Lower Campus and has been with RCS for fifteen years. Gail is using her grant to fund a trip to the Yucatan Peninsula. She plans to visit Tulum, Mexico to immerse herself in the rich culture and history of the last city inhabited and built by the Mayans. She also plans to do some scuba diving and snorkeling while in Tulum.

Leslie Thivierge is a kindergarten teacher on the Lower Campus and has been with RCS for five years. Leslie has been on a selfimprovement quest, both mentally and physically, and has decided to use her grant to work with a personal trainer at a local health club.

Please make checks payable to Rippowam Cisqua School and identify â&#x20AC;&#x153;MTFâ&#x20AC;? as the fund designation in the memo line of your check. If you have additional questions, please contact Ryan Smith, Director of Development and Communications, at 914-244-1292 or ryan_smith@rcsny.org.

Alumni News

Alumni Update From Christopher J. Wirth ’94, Chairman of the RCS Alumni Association Board

Calling all Ripp Alums – Red or Blue! It is the 95th year of Rippowam Cisqua and many traditions that we knew and loved are still happening on campus every day. I hope you have had the opportunity over the years to come back and visit the School – some of our favorite teachers are still making a difference in the classroom – Mrs. Swan, Mr. and Mrs. Perry, Mrs. Vincent, Mr. Barrett, Mr. Duveen, Mr. Fornara, Mr. Smee and many others who have impacted our lives in so many wonderful ways. They would love to see you! The RCS Alumni Association Board is excited to share that alumni engagement at the School continues to grow, and alumni events have been incredibly successful in recent years. A special shout out to the members of the Alumni Board and other alumni volunteers who helped put together the fascinating stories and class notes in the class notes section of this Bulletin. Our alums are all doing amazing things in the world – please, stay in touch and share your work, hobbies, and interests with us! A special Thank You also to all those who have attended our alumni gatherings, such as the Young Alumni Holiday Party, the New York City Gathering of Alums, or our Fall homecomings. These events have become annual traditions, which help us reconnect with each other and the School. I hope you can join us this fall at Homecoming 2013! Yours,

Christopher J. Wirth

Supporting RCS Taking the Red-Blue competition to a whole new level! Every Alumni Gift in support of the Annual Fund earns one point for your team. • The team with the most number of points by June 12 (one day before graduation) wins the competition • The winning alumni team will share the points with the student team on campus • Red – Blue competition continues on campus and beyond – may the best team win! •

Any gift of any size matters – thank you for supporting a legacy of belonging and giving back!

RCSAA Welcomes Two

New Board Members New Alumni Board Members Debby Coward Smicka ’75

After finishing college, Debby started working with the International Atomic Energy Agency and moved to Austria. She continued her career in Austria as a financial consultant with Merrill Lynch International and later in the Austrian banking arena in private banking for international clients. A year and a half ago she returned to the US with her two daughters Alessandra (16) and Elektra (12), Buckley, an Airedale terrier and Lucky, their black cat. They are all living happily in New Canaan, CT. Debby continues to work in the financial sector as a consultant in the area of retirement and financial planning strategies in Stamford, CT. Since her return home, she has enjoyed reconnecting with RCS and her classmates. She recently joined the RCS Alumni Association Board and is very excited to be supporting the mission of the RCSAA board.

Sam Goodhue ’97

Samuel Goodhue ’97 and his fiancé, Jennifer Wells, who is from Waccabuc, have recently relocated to Katonah. Sam went to the Masters School in Dobbs Ferry for high school and then graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2005. He is currently working for the Atlantic Partners Financial Group, Member of John Hancock Financial Network. He is excited to be joining the RCS Alumni Board and to support the Alumni efforts. The Goodhue family has a strong connection to RCS – Sam is the son of Francis (Randy) Goodhue ’64 and the brother of Georgia Goodhue Reath ’94 and William (Willy) Goodhue ’04.

RCS Alumni Board of Directors 2012-13 Christopher Wirth ’94, Chair Board of Trustees Ex-Officio Stephen Ohler ’66, Vice Chair Susannah Sard ’58, Secretary Richard Cahill ’92, Treasurer Meg Atkin ’76 Todd DeSimone ’93 Nancy Dwyer Eaves ’92 Sam Goodhue ’97 Harry Grand ’93 Randy Wilson Hall ’94 Gus Levy ’98 Cynthia Branch Mas ’71 Forrest Mas ’04 Bill Meyer ’84 Caroline Vincent Mockridge ’81 Philip Ohler ’75 Elly Dwyer Rice ’94 Vanessa Seide ’93 Lisa Pagliaro Selz ’66 Debby Coward Smicka ’75 Elsie Swank ’04 Ex officio Matthew Nespole, Head of School Robert F. Whelan, Associate Head of School

Alumni News

Distinguished

Alumni Award The Distinguished Alumni award is given to alumni who have shown exceptional service to RCS, and/or outstanding achievement or leadership in their community or profession. The award is presented at the discretion of the RCS Alumni Association Board. The RCS Alumni Association Board considers candidates who have been nominated by their classmates and fellow alumni.

Left: Whitney Johnson '99 with Roger Vincent '59, founder of the Rippowam Cisqua Alumni Association Board and the first recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award

On Thursday, February 21st, RCS alum Whitney Johnson ’99 returned to the School’s Upper Campus to speak to students, teachers, and alumni at an assembly where she was presented with the Rippowam Cisqua School Distinguished Alumni Award.

Whitney is an ardent activist and youth leader, and she is the founder of Ubuntu Africa – an organization dedicated to helping HIV-positive children in South Africa. Inspired by her experiences while studying abroad in Cape Town, South Africa, and volunteering in an orphanage in the nearby township of Khayeltisha, Whitney was drawn to the cause of

supporting HIV-positive children. She noticed a gap in services and sustained assistance for children living with HIV and she wanted to ensure that HIV-positive children received the support they needed to live long and healthy lives. Whitney graduated from Colorado College in 2006 with a degree in psychology and, at the age of 21, established Ubuntu Africa.

The assembly began with some words of welcome from Rippowam Cisqua math teacher Missy Swan, who served as Whitney’s advisor during her time as a student at RCS. Missy then introduced ninth grade student Alex Needham of Bedford, who has been involved with Ubuntu Africa for several years. Alex first established a connection with Whitney and Ubuntu Africa in fifth grade when she and her family traveled to South Africa and visited Whitney’s clinic. Alex organized a

Following Whitney’s remarks, the Chair of the RCS Alumni Association, Christopher Wirth ’94, presented her with the Distinguished Alumni Award for outstanding achievement, leadership in her profession, and service to others. By dedicating her life to serving others, Whitney embodies one of the key tenets of the mission of Rippowam Cisqua School: To instill in students a strong sense of connection to their community and to the larger world. She is the third

Whitney’s message to the students was clear: everyone can do something to help others. Her message was one of exploring one’s interests and passions, and channeling that to make a difference in the world.

RCS alum to receive the Distinguished Alumni Award, and she joins past recipients Roger Vincent ’59 and Ambassador Nicholas Platt ’50. Following the assembly and award presentation, Whitney and her family, friends, and former teachers gathered in the Upper Campus library for a breakfast reception. Several of Whitney’s fellow alums were in attendance, including Roger Vincent ’59, Macy Johnson ’65 (Whitney’s father), Marilen Tilt ’57 and her husband Rod Tilt, Stephen Ohler ’66, Cynthia Mas ’71, Christopher Wirth ’94, and Niko Viglione ’02. During the reception, Head of School Matthew Nespole welcomed the crowd and congratulated Whitney on her accomplishments. Rippowam Cisqua School salutes Whitney Johnson for her great work, and congratulates her on receiving the Distinguished Alumni Award—a well-deserved honor indeed.

fundraising event for Ubuntu Africa, and has continued to work with the organization as part of her Ninth Grade Portfolio project. The portfolio program is a very intentional opportunity for ninth grade students to explore areas of personal interest, and the focus of Alex’s portfolio has been on helping others in meaningful ways. After speaking about her project and the impression Whitney made on her, Alex had the honor of introducing Whitney. Whitney spoke to the gathered students, teachers, family, and guests about her experiences working in Africa, and she shared the mission of Ubuntu Africa by screening a brief film on the organization. She then took several questions from the students, who were engaged and inspired by her work. Whitney’s message to the students was clear; everyone can do something to help others. Her message was one of exploring one’s interests and passions, and channeling that to make a difference in the world.

Whitney Johnson '99 with her parents, Betsey Johnson and Macy Johnson '65

Distinguished Alumni Award Winners Roger Vincent ’59 – 1992 Nicholas Platt ’50 – 2011 Whitney Johnson ’99 – 2013

You may contact the Alumni Office at alumni@rcsny.org to nominate fellow RCS alums as candidates for the Distinguished Alumni Award.

Alumni News

Young Alumni

Holiday Reception

(L-R): Sophie Boyd ’12, Mike Cerrutti ’12, Annabel Grunebaum, ’12, Will Maerov '12, Will Conway '12

(L-R): Greg Schroeder ’07, Scott Collins ’09, Bill Barrett, Sarah Young ’10, Jacqui Young ’10, Ben Young ’09

The Young Alumni Holiday Party is a wonderful annual tradition at RCS, and it provides our high school and college-age alums with the opportunity to return to campus to reconnect with classmates and teachers. This year’s party featured a record turnout of young alums spanning the classes of 2007 through 2013. The event featured a special Red and Blue RCS trivia competition, pitting two teams of teachers against each other with questions provided by the 9th grade students and the alumni. The Blue Team was represented by Ms. Vincent, Ms. Sperling, Ms. Swan, Mr. Morrissey, and Mr. Nespole. The Red Team was represented by Mr. Kober, Mr. Barrett, Mr. Duveen, Ms. Messinger, and Ms. Daly, and Mr. Whelan served as the MC for the festivities. The competition was fierce, the questions were tough, the audience was fantastic, and the victory was sweet for the Blue Team!

Audrey Keller ’09, Louise Stone ’09

Alex Needham ’13, Stefan Spain ’13, Georgia McLanahan ’13, Lindsay West ’13

A special thank you to all the RCS teachers who participated in the trivia competition. Thank you to all the 9th graders and the alums for your questions! Bob Whelan and Sophie Potter

RCS Trivia

We have included a sample of the trivia questions below for all those alums who would like to test their RCS knowledge!

Answers: (1) Rippowam – 1917 / Cisqua – 1942, (2) 1972, (3) Walk to Cisqua Day, (4) 31 years, (5) Wade’s wall, (6) 1991, (7) Roger Vincent ’59, (8) Blue, (9) Red, (10) Ms. Sperling (Ridley Sperling ’93, now a member of the RCS faculty)

In 1917, the stone house occupied by Mrs. Cortlandt Van Rensselaer was rented for $25 a month to house the twelve students who began their studies at the original Rippowam School that September. Thanks to the generosity of current and former RCS families, the School was recently able to purchase the home, which sits adjacent to the Upper Campus. This year, this original stone house, now sitting at 10 Clinton Road, welcomed our young alums and RCS teachers for our annual Young Alumni Holiday Party.

1. Before the Rippowam School and the Cisqua School merged, they existed as two separate schools. When was each school founded? 2. When did Rippowam and Cisqua merge? 3. What is the name of the day when Upper Campus (Rippowam) students go to the Lower Campus (Cisqua) and get lower campus buddies? 4. How long has Mike Kober taught at RCS? 5. What is the name of the wall out in the recess fields? 6. What year was the Master Teaching Fund established by RCS Alumni? 7. Who was the recipient of the first Distinguished Alumni Award? 8. Which team won the Red/Blue competition in 2009? 9. Which team won the alumni Red/Blue competition in 2012? 10. Who served as the girl Blue captain in 1993?

Alumni News

Alumni Profile

Griffin Anthony ’98

Students and teachers proudly cheered on Griffin Anthony ’98 in the fall when he returned to RCS to perform at an Upper School Assembly held in the Crosby-Fiala Playhouse. Griffin is a singersongwriter known to many of his RCS classmates as Griff Occhigrossi. He graduated from RCS in 1998 and, as he shared with the students during the assembly, it was here at Rippowam Cisqua where he first discovered and developed his love of music. During his visit, in addition to performing a few songs from The Canyon, his most recent EP, Griff shared stories about his years at RCS, his passion for music, and his career plans. After the assembly, he signed autographs and took pictures with the students. Following the assembly, we caught up with Griff to gain some insight into his career to date, and to find out what the future holds for this talented singer-songwriter:

What have you been doing since you graduated from RCS? RCS

After graduating from Wooster School in Danbury CT, I attended Nova Southeastern University, receiving a B.A. in Psychology, a B.A. in Sociology and a bachelor’s degree in Business. Throughout college, I was a pitcher on the baseball

team, but found myself sidelined from competing on the diamond after a number of sports-related injuries, ultimately resulting in Tommy John surgery. Around 2005, I started seriously thinking about music as a profession. While in graduate school, I began shying away from my studies in business and delving deeper into studies of music theory and songwriting. Soon after, I launched into playing music venues in my down time. Before I could finish up graduate school, I signed with The Orange Music Company and began traveling extensively. What was once just a hobby had transformed entirely into a new career.

my classmates and I formed our own group called “The Ripptides.” I sat behind the School’s drum set and everything just clicked. It felt so natural and fun! I began taking drum lessons outside of school... and the rest is history! If RCS never offered that after-school program, I might not have ever found my true passion. RCS Let’s go back to your time at RCS… When you think back to Ripp, what are some of your most vivid memories? GA

Ripp was an incredibly positive experience! I started at the Cisqua campus

“RCS gave me a sense of community like no other place had prior. I felt I belonged there; in the classrooms, on the athletic fields, even walking the halls. Ripp is a very special place.” RCS Where are you now and what are you working on? GA

I recently moved back to the New York Tri-state area. I’m most inspired by this beautiful region, which always feels like home. I spend most days writing music, every waking minute. I’m currently recording my next album, writing for some side projects, and playing dates a few times a week. My passion to write, perform, and study is an ongoing endeavor.

How did you become interested in writing and playing music? RCS

in 3rd grade and graduated from the Upper Campus in ’99. RCS gave me a sense of community like no other place had prior. I felt I belonged there; in the classrooms, on the athletic fields, even walking the halls. Ripp is a very special place. My best friendships were formed during my years at 439 Cantitoe Street. It’s remarkable for me to take a step back and look at just how many of my Ripp classmates are still a part of my daily life. RCS Was there anything in particular about your RCS experience that you take with you always? GA

RCS was the true spark! Back in the mid-90s, Ripp offered an after-school music program taught by Matt Wilder. I was in 5th grade and it was an autumn afternoon. By the end of the first meeting,

Understanding people and their differences. When you’re one of thirty in a grade, you represent ethnic and financial differences on an intimate level. At RCS, the learning continued even when the textbooks were closed.

Griffin Anthony '98 performs at an Upper Campus assembly

You had the chance to perform at RCS in front of the teachers and the students. Can you share a little bit about that experience? RCS

It felt great! I walked into the building and was immediately surrounded with countless beautiful memories. I got to perform on the very stage that helped inspire my career in the first place! RCS What’s next for Griffin Anthony? What projects should we watch out for and tell our friends? GA

I have high hopes for a song that I recently wrote for the SPCA entitled, “Nobody Loves Like You.” I was asked by a friend at HBO if I’d be interested in composing the title track for a film about the SPCA. It was an incredible honor to be asked to write for a cause so important and dear to my heart. The film was recently named among the finalists for “Best Original Music” in this year’s “New York Festivals: Best of Television & Film.” I’m proud of my association with, and promotion, of this wonderful organization.

Alumni News

Remembering

Stephen Sanger ’60 Stephen Sanger ’60, alumnus and brother of fellow RCS alums Michael ’57, Alexander ’61, Morgan ’65, and Anne ’67 was killed in action during the Vietnam War at age 19. To honor his brother’s memory, Alexander Sanger ’61, together with the Sanger family, worked with Rippowam Cisqua School in the Fall of 2012 to establish The Stephen Sanger Memorial Lecture Program at RCS. This fund was established through the generosity of the Sanger family and close friends and classmates of Alex and Stephen. It will provide material support for Rippowam Cisqua’s existing Foundations of Education Lecture Series—and, each year, one of the School’s Foundations of Education lectures will bear Stephen Sanger’s name. The purpose of the lecture program is two-fold: To invite outside experts to speak with members of the School community and the larger Bedford community about parenting, child development, and lifelong learning; and to identify alumni who have followed career paths of note, and invite them to speak with the School community. Stephen Sanger entered what was then known as the Bedford-Rippowam School

“I have the warmest and most vivid memories of Stevie. We must have toted our little canvas bags and smacked golf balls around the course at the Bedford Club with wood-shafted mashies and niblicks dozens of times. I can still see and hear him absolutely clearly, which I can’t say about many of my childhood contemporaries of the l950s: the warmth of his smile, his guffaw of a laugh. Stevie was a wonderful, generous human being, and when the news came that he had been killed in Vietnam, it hit me, and everybody who grew up with him in Bedford, really hard. It still does.” Alex Shoumatoff ’60

Stephen and the 1959 Boys’ Football First Team

in kindergarten in 1951, and he graduated nine years later after completing his Special Course of Study for the Eighth Form. Stephen was a superior athlete and he played football, basketball, and baseball at Rippowam. He captained both the football team and the basketball team. He was also an excellent tennis player and swimmer, and he was a scratch golfer, winning the Bedford Club championship at age 18. He was a member of the Blue team at Rippowam, and he served as the Blue Team Captain in his eighth grade year. After graduating from Rippowam, he entered Westminster School, where he played on the soccer and baseball teams and served as the manager of the ice

hockey team. Academic success eluded Stephen for many of his early years, but he blossomed toward the end of his career at Rippowam and, in the words of his brother Alex, “he reached full flower” at Westminster. In fact, when Stephen graduated from Westminster in 1965, he was presented with the History Prize for an essay he had written on civil rights based on several texts by Martin Luther King, Jr., Booker T. Washington, and other luminaries of the movement for equal rights. After graduating from Westminster, Stephen was accepted at Rollins College. At the time, the conflict in Vietnam was raging and, in July of 1966, Stephen was

drafted into the United States Army. Efforts to obtain a student deferment for Stephen by his father, Dr. Grant Sanger— himself a Navy veteran who had served for the duration of World War II and was all too familiar with the horrors of war— proved fruitless. Stephen had the option to flee to Canada, but he refused, saying, “If I don’t go, they will just get the next guy in line and I would not feel right about that.” After spending eight weeks in basic training at Fort Dix in New Jersey— where he earned several awards for excellence—and an additional stint at Fort Jackson in South Carolina for specialized training, he was sent to Vietnam. He was 19 years old. During his training at Fort Jackson, he had been offered officer training and various noncombat jobs, but he refused them and requested to serve in the Infantry. He arrived in Vietnam on January 5th and underwent a week and a half of processing and training. During the last training period, his commanding officer promoted him to platoon leader. Three weeks later, while on a reconnaissance patrol in the Iron Triangle—an area in South Vietnam that would see intense fighting

“Stevie was my immediate neighbor. He and his brother Alex and I used to ride bikes on their fabulous driveway, and drink sodas in my kitchen. We had to stay on the bus for a long time every afternoon and I remember talking so easily with him. He had a fine attitude about life on the bus on those afternoons. He was a good, good person.” Betsy Dunham Blachly ’61

Alumni News

Excerpts from a letter that Stephen wrote to his teachers at Westminster on January 13, 1967, approximately two weeks before he was killed in action in Vietnam.

throughout the war—one of the members of Sanger’s three-man patrol stepped on a land mine. All three patrolmen were killed instantly. Stephen’s passing was mourned by countless friends, family members, classmates, and former teachers. He was remembered for his kindness, perseverance, and empathy, and he was lauded for his athletic accomplishments, his selfless nature, and his sense of humor. Concern for, and service to, others was one of Stephen’s defining characteristics, and it was embodied not only by his service to his country, but also by his interest in civil rights. In a 1997 memoir of his brother, Alexander Sanger wrote, “Steve, had he lived, would have been a great civil rights lawyer, teacher in an inner city school, or social worker or maybe someone who taught kids how to read.”

“I really got to know Steve after we left Ripp, where he was known as a wonderful athlete. I remember him as a kind and thoughtful friend who died, tragically, way too young. Today, when I see young soldiers in uniform, I think of Steve and wish he had lived to reach his full potential.” Phyllis Oxman ’61 Rippowam Cisqua School honors the memory of this brave, loyal, and true alumnus, whose name will live in perpetuity through the Stephen Sanger Memorial Lecture Program. Rippowam Cisqua extends its sincerest thanks to Alexander Sanger, the Sanger family, and all those who helped to endow this lecture program, which will have a positive and lasting impact on generations of lifelong learners.

And the Student Becomes the Teacher…

Dr. Sarah Danziger ’93 and Sarah Strong ’09

RCS alums Sarah Strong ’09 and Dr. Sarah Danziger ’93 forged a special connection at Rye Country Day School, where Dr. Danziger is an Upper School Latin teacher and Classics Department Chair, and where Strong was a student. Ms. Strong recently graduated with distinction from RCDS, where she continued to develop the passion for excellence in academics, the arts, and athletics that was first sparked at Rippowam Cisqua. Dr. Danziger served as Ms. Strong’s Latin teacher, and the two bonded over a shared love of learning.

Sarah Danziger (bottom row; seated second from right) in Mr. Canning’s English class photo

Dr. Danziger’s own passion for Latin developed when she was a 6th grade student at Rippowam Cisqua. Eileen Lambert was her teacher and, in describing her first Latin class, Dr. Danziger said, “my first year of Latin, with Ms. Lambert, was the hardest class I had ever taken. Learning Latin wasn’t just about using common sense; you actually had to memorize all those grammatical forms and all that vocabulary! I loved it because it was difficult, and because it required a kind of precision that other subjects didn’t.” Dr. Danziger is now able to pass on that love for this beautiful and precise language to her students with the same level of enthusiasm and passion that she experienced at RCS. As Ms. Strong noted, “I do not think I would love Latin as much as I do if I had been taught by any other teacher.” Dr. Danziger, in turn, praised Ms. Strong as a real “academic superstar” with possession of a “steel trap mind” who is just as enthusiastic about physics and math as she is about languages, dance, or lacrosse. We recently connected with Dr. Danziger and Ms. Strong and we discovered that their stories share a common thread – both were shaped by the magical teaching and learning that can take place in a classroom led by an inspiring and passionate teacher.

Alumni News

What can you share with us about your experience at Rippowam Cisqua School? Who were some of your favorite teachers and/or coaches from Rippowam Cisqua? RCS

When I was at Cisqua and at Ripp, my teachers were like mythical figures in my eyes, larger than life; I really did want to grow up and be just like my favorites. My Latin teachers, of course, ranked among my favorites. I actually think my love for Latin came about first, not because of the language itself, but because of the folks who taught me early on: Mr. Crosby, with his theatricality and intellectual curiosity (I still use his Shakespearean “M.O.H.K.,” or “Milk Of Human Kindness,” to tell kids they have no homework); and Ms. Lambert, with her amazingly detailed approach to teaching, her incredible love for and excitement about Latin and the ancient world, her unwillingness to let students get away with not trying their best, and her dry sense of humor. In other subjects, I’ll always remember Mr. Valentine’s English class, Mrs. Fiala’s music classes, and Mrs. Thacher’s math (although that was never my strong suit!). SS

I went to RCS for nine years so the foundation of pretty much everything about me was formed there. My love of learning was truly fostered by the teachers at RCS and the interactive environment in every class. RCS taught me to speak up in class and to make sure I asked questions. The language program at RCS was phenomenal. I often find myself thinking about my discussions with my teachers at RCS about proper grammatical usage. My first grade teacher was Mrs. Stadler whom I am close with to this day. I have such specific memories about the class and the engaging way we learned about topics that might not be very interesting for the typical first grader, such as learning about fractions by eating Twinkies. Some of my favorite teachers

at Ripp were Mr. Barrett, Ms. Vincent and Miss Birdsong. Mr. Barrett was a very engaging teacher and sixth grade was a wonderful year for me. Ms. Vincent really wanted us to teach ourselves math and to realize how much we already knew. Miss Birdsong was both an amazing Spanish teacher and a great lacrosse coach. She taught me a very important lesson: in the middle of a lacrosse game, she pulled me from my regular defensive position. She told me that I needed to work on my footwork, and told me to try out offense for the rest of the game. I scored a goal only a few minutes after becoming an offensive player and have been an offensive lacrosse player ever since. Without that mid-game switch I probably would not have played lacrosse at all at RCDS and I really loved playing there.

SS I think all RCS alums share a sense of community between students and teachers that other students and teachers do not necessarily have or understand. RCS alums also value participation in class. I think Dr. Danziger and I respect the same values in a class with regard to structure but also know when it is important to break from the regimen and indulge a topic that might be slightly removed from a lesson. One of my favorite parts about my two years in Dr. Danziger’s class was a project in which I compared a Catullus poem with the lyrics of a Backstreet Boys song. I love song lyrics so this was so much fun for me and it was great to really see how ancient and modern lyrical verse had the same message at their base.

Dr. Danziger – what do you find most inspiring in teaching? RCS

What are some of the characteristics of an RCS alum? RCS

Kids who come from Ripp are characterized most of all by their capacity for independent thought. I think Ripp gives its students enough intellectual freedom and support to send them into high school having achieved a certain measure of academic independence and autonomy. It’s a central skill to nurture, since it’s one of the hardest to teach.

SD When a kid gets excited about a point of Latin grammar, and is willing to spend time debating with a peer or with me the various possibilities for a particular form or sentence; that’s rewarding. Watching kids actually think, instead of simply spit back what’s already been said by someone else, is the whole point of being in the classroom.

Sarah Strong (back row; second from right) in Mr. Kober's class photo

RCS Sarah, what are you most proud of that you have accomplished so far? SS

I don’t think I can pinpoint one or even a few things I have done in my life so far. I am proud of almost everything I have accomplished academically, with the exception of a few history papers! I wrote an English paper during my senior year about T. S. Eliot’s The Wasteland that involved extensive research about words that confused me to no end. In the end, I was truly proud of that paper and truly relieved to hand it in! I received a few awards at Prize Day last year, which was an honor, but the most meaningful moment for me was when the paragraph describing the nominee for the Headmaster’s Prize* was being read and all my friends were able to guess I won the award before the name was actually announced. They all knew me so well! This was true when I won the Latin award as well and I was so touched that everyone had picked up on subtleties of my personality that I did not realize were so obvious. RCS What is your advice to our 8th and 9th graders who are about to embark on their high school experience next year? SD

First of all, know that you’ve received excellent training from your teachers at Ripp: it should give you a lot of confidence to know that you’ll be among the most prepared of all your classmates as you start the next step of your educational journey. Secondly, don’t be afraid to expand your horizons: if you always wanted to try theater, or basketball, or Latin (fingers crossed!), try it! SS

I think it is important to utilize the academic preparation RCS gives students and take classes that are at a challenging level. High school will be an adjustment but all RCS graduates are equipped to handle the changes and thrive in their new environments. RCS provides a strong foundation but leaves room for students to grow and prosper while building on their base.

Currently, Ms. Strong is finishing her first year at Yale University, where she continues to pursue her passion for physics and languages. She is considering majoring in physics and mathematics but is committed to simultaneously pursuing another passion of hers – food and nutrition. She is the author of the food blog, “Welcome to the Food Life”, and here are her thoughts on food: I started my food blog in the summer of 2010 when I attended an eight-day teen cooking camp at the International Culinary Center in New York City. I have always been interested in food and cooking and the culture surrounding the two. The Food Network is exactly one year older than me to the day, which is great and makes people who know me laugh. I blog about what I cook and eat. I like to go on what I call “foodventures” with my friends to interesting restaurants or food fairs in the area. I cook for my friends and family on a regular basis and share these experiences on my blog. I have done other culinary programs through Oxbridge in Paris and through Summer Discovery and The University of Pennsylvania along with shorter classes on specific subjects such as cupcakes at Butter Lane Bakery in Manhattan and at The Little Mexican Cooking School in Puerto Morelos, Mexico. I am also an avid reader of other national food blogs, especially when they combine food and pop culture. I am interested in taking the food classes offered at Yale and have already taken two. There is no “food studies” major and the class offerings are limited but there are other outlets for food related activity. I have also written for the Epicurean Magazine at Yale and am going to be part of a pop-up restaurant in a residential college kitchen this spring. After college I want to go to culinary school possibly at the Culinary Institute of America or the International Culinary Center. Many people are confused when I tell them I want to major in physics and then go to culinary school, but there is an ever-growing connection between science technology and cooking that I am fascinated by. I would love to be part of the Food Network family or working with the Cooking Lab who published Modernist Cuisine. Regardless of what my future holds, food will play a larger than normal role in my life.

*The Headmaster’s Prize is presented at Prize Day to “that student who models leadership, courage, or academic excellence.” From Recognizing Excellence at RCDS newsletter, August 2012

Alumni News

SAVE THE DATE Homecoming 2013 Saturday, September 28th

Join RCS faculty, parents, students, and alumni for varsity football and soccer games, a barbecue lunch, and other fun activities for the whole family! Hope to see you there!

Alumni

Class Notes 54

Anita Pagliaro: My first career was in retailing. After college I worked at two department stores, then ran a small clothing business and eventually opened my own business. For twelve years I designed and sold clothes and wedding dresses in my New York City store, Anita Pagliaro Designs, on Lexington Ave. In the nineties, I closed this business and made other changes in my life. Jobs that followed

sure you visit the School’s website and check out the Alumni Pages for all the latest news and updates. Also email alumni@rcsny.org to give us your most current contact information.

Jean Tilt Sammis: I graduated so long ago I can’t even remember the year, maybe 1954! This long President’s weekend my husband, Sam, our daughter’s family, and my sister, Priscilla Tilt Pochna ’56, are reveling in the snow in Randolph, VT where, for many years now, Sam and I have owned the Three Stallion Inn and the large lot real estate development on the historic Green Mountain Stock Farm. My brother and sister-in-law, Rod and Marilen (’57) Tilt have a home here as well. Our grandchildren enjoy skiing at nearby Suicide Six in Woodstock. Sam and I are still very much involved in real estate both in CT and VT. Life revolves mostly around family, business, music, sports, and church, with the occasional joint repairs, which come from overuse and advancing age. Glad “Ripp” is still going strong.

Did you hear about an alumni event coming up, but don’t have all the details? Did you miss a recent event and would like to read about it or even check out some photos? Make

included farming tilapia and greens and doing marketing for manufactured and modular homes (among others), I started spending more time in the west and worked on commercials and film for several years as a wardrobe, hair, and makeup stylist. When word got out about my previous wedding experience, I was asked to plan events and weddings. Wedding clients then asked me to help them with other things, among them their homes, and that’s how I got into interior design. I currently live in Livingston, Montana, but am in New York often for work, fun, and family. I am often in Mount Kisco as my sister Lisa Pagliaro Selz ’66 lives in our family’s home where we grew up. I still do event planning and interiors but also whatever comes my way; and I am considering one more career… we’ll see!

Joan Wedlein Mudge writes: 2012 was a great year for our class since so many of us were able to reconnect as a result of our fabulous reunion chairs – even those like me who were not able to make the event were able to email and talk to classmates. It’s amazing how the years disappear when we start thinking about elementary and middle school years! Ann Todd Osborn: Wow! It’ll be 50 years this June! Glad to know that more generations of Ripp students are still learning music, art, sportsmanship, and classical scholarship. I remember winning a copy of The Hobbit in fourth grade. What a thrill and what fun to discover the trilogy soon after. I loved Fridays in sixth grade when Larry Tighe read aloud. My grandchildren all love being read to. See you next spring?

Alumni News: Class Notes continued…

Special Tribute to Brennon Jones ’59 from fellow classmate Roger Vincent: I am humbled and certainly inadequate to offer this brief tribute to my great friend and classmate, Brennon Jones ’59. Our School’s motto Dare to be True plus the Rippowam Cisqua underlying value – instilled by generations of teachers – of giving back to others are both exemplified by Brennon Jones perhaps more than anyone I know. I offer three examples drawn from a far larger life story embodying these values. During the Vietnam War, Brennon elected to go to Vietnam as a journalist/ photographer for the National Council of Churches. Operating entirely on his own, Brennon was far more exposed to risk of life than most soldiers operating out of protected bases. During the year 1970, Brennon lived in Quang City where villagers hid him from Viet Cong and North Vietnamese. Fast forward 40 years to find that Brennon has maintained his ties to this day with the inhabitants of Quang City. He provides financial support for the School for the Deaf and Blind and as well for ethnic minority medical students. Brennon returns to Quang City repeatedly, certainly epitomizing the ideal of giving back. Brennon’s professional career has been so extensive that it defies encapsulation in this short account. He has written extensively on human rights issues in Asia, the Middle East, and Indochina using the power of truth to combat injustice. He has worked for major media firms, NGOs and, principally, for the United Nations. A common thread of his career has been the courageous protection of citizens in war-torn, or otherwise dangerous, global hot spots. Brennon’s humanitarian service following his Vietnam War assignment has included postings in Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Timor to name but a few places that would not be included on most of our future vacation plans. The photo above shows Brennon emerging from a U.N. helicopter in Timor where he served as U.N. spokesperson responsible for ensuring that the Timorese people understood the security provisions of the U.N. mission in the country. Talk about Dare to be True! Brennon maintains a home base in New York City for the occasional interludes between his overseas assignments. He is a certified EMT volunteering extensive time with an ambulance corps that is part of the 911 EMS system. If you were living, working, or visiting in NYC and experienced a life-threatening injury or illness, take a look at the photo above and ask yourself “Would I feel fortunate if Brennon Jones reached me in time to provide lifesaving care?” I know that I would.

Cecily Fowler Grand is the owner, founder, and head designer of Cecily F. Grand Design, created in 1998 in the New York Area. Cecily’s passion for flowers began as a child working alongside her grandfather, a professional landscape architect in Westchester County, New York. “I grew up with a woodsman’s pal in my hand. Chopping and clearing forest, or so I thought at a young age,” says Cecily. Her interest in landscape evolved as she studied floral design and ran The Baobab Tree flower shop in Charlottesville, Virginia and then The Wind and The Willows in San Francisco, California for over thirty years. Cecily’s years of practice have allowed her to study and design around the world, encompassing landscapes and designs from Virginia, Maryland, California, New England, and Europe. Cecily’s children, Angela ’91, Harry ’93, and Jake ’98 all attended and graduated from RCS and Cecily also served on the Alumni Board. Her son, Harry, is a current member of the Alumni Board. Cecily remains connected to her RCS friends. She says, “Most recently I saw Annie Smith Goodhue ’66 (spouse of John Goodhue ’65), Josie Smith Koehne ’65, Lynne Eckhardt, Anne Putnam ’66, Randy Goodhue ’64, Lisa Selz ’66, and Cynthia Mas ’71.” Cecily has handled the flower deigns and arrangements for many RCS weddings, including the weddings of: Kate Abbot ’92, Nancy Dwyer Eaves ’92, Ellie Dwyer Rice ’94, Lindsay Dearborn Butters ’92, Angela Grand Cavallo ’91, Daniel Ryan ’93, Harry Grand ’93, Georgia ’94 and Roo Reath ’93, Sydney Chase ’98, and many more.

Charles Branch (Chucker) lives in Hastings-On-Hudson NY with his wife Christine. He has two children: Charlie, who lives in NYC and works at MarkitSERV and Colby who is in the Peace Corps in Nicaragua. Chucker founded Let It Bee Apiaries, a raw honey,

lip balm, and hand cream company. Fascinated by the life of the honeybees and their importance to our food chain, Charles started beekeeping in the Westchester area in 2005, where he holds twenty hives that can be found in Rye, Bedford, Irvington and, most notably, at Lyndhurst, a National Trust property in Tarrytown. As soon as beekeeping was legalized in NYC in 2010, Charles placed three hives atop the 12-story headquarters of the Natural Resources Defense Council as well as three hives at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Charles’s story has been published in Westchester Magazine and The New Yorker. You can learn more about Let It Bee as well as the find different products at www.letitbeehoney.com.

Stanley Ross: Still in Egypt for the third year of the “Revolution” with this transition from Autocracy now reaching truly crisis proportions. Using some USD 25.0+ mmm of foreign exchange reserves over the past two years means that the consumption driven GDP growth economy now seriously hiccups along. Unfortunately, with the local security situation, the family is not as able to see as much of this fascinating country as we were all looking very much forward to when we arrived in November/ December 2010. However, as there are so few tourists these days the attention those who do come receive is most extensive, even if the current descendents of the ‘hawkers’ written about by the 19th century English diarists remain an eighth plague. But the monuments are worth all the distractions. Between mid April and end September, the climate is too hot to be gallivanting about. The family spent Christmas/New Year’s in Paris which was a true joy from a culinary, sightseeing, and shopping point of view. Clearly, too short, but we go to the Red Sea the first week in April for some beach and snorkeling.

Eleanor (Ellie) Wyeth: From 1959 to 1969 I attended the Bedford-Rippowam School, from kindergarten through the ninth grade. My older sister Lisa ’65 and my brother Sims ’65 were also there for ten years each. My mother Nancy Wyeth was the lower school art teacher for nine years until she got her license to become a real estate agent in 1966, the same year I was going into sixth grade and had my first experience with the remarkable Mr. Paul Fisher. I had many memorable and influential teachers during my ten years at Rippowam. I was in Mrs. Fowler’s third grade class when I decided I wanted to be a children’s book illustrator. I still have notebook after spiral notebook of illustrated stories from that period, but the most influential for me was Mr. Fisher, the “upper school” art teacher. Mr. Fisher was kind, patient, and full of encouragement. He convinced me that I had talent and that I should be a cartoonist or a caricaturist. This positive feedback stayed with me for years even though I did not pursue any specific art courses until after high school. I had always carefully studied the cartoons in The New Yorker, not for the punch lines but for the individual drawing styles, my favorites among them were Charles Addams and George Booth. I also loved the illustrations of Honore Daumier, Arthur Rackham, Maurice Sendak, and Edward Gorey, among many others. In New York I studied for four years at the Art Student’s League, the School of Visual Arts, and Parsons, studying everything from anatomy to humorous art and illustration. I began freelancing, designing cards, invitations, and house portraits as well as posters for my brother Sims’s theater. I showed my portfolio of line drawings to the cartoonist James Stevenson who advised me against going to formal art school because “they would try to change my style.” I think that advice might have made my career path harder because I did not learn how or where to market my work but, at that point, I was in the midst of moving to Princeton and starting a family.

I illustrated a guidebook to New Jersey for Rutgers University Press, among many other free-lance jobs in the Princeton area. I began to paint with gouache, watercolor, acrylic, and finally oil. I had exhibitions in local schools and galleries. Twenty-five years later, I had developed a style, a studio, and a career in painting. In 2005, my youngest son graduated from high school and was planning on a gap year, beginning with a semester in Russia. Faced with this new stage of an empty nest, I decided that it would be important, for my painting career, to go to Italy. I found and fell in love with The International School of Painting, Drawing, and Sculpture situated in a tiny medieval hilltop village in Umbria. I was hired as the Assistant to the Director of the Residency Program and, for the next five years, I spent two months a year, May and September, at the school hosting groups of plein-air painters from all over the world and studying with wellknown and distinguished painters. I also began to study at a low residency college program in Vermont. I designed my own curriculum in every aspect of Fine Art to earn a BA in conjunction with the intense painting schedule in Italy. My thesis project was very personal, expressing a visual sense of self in a series of oil paintings combining animals, interiors of my home, and the symbolism behind their presence. I have participated in local Fine Arts events in the Princeton area for many years exhibiting my original painted floor cloths, note cards, and handcrafted laminated place mats. Two years ago I decided to widen my audience, so I ventured beyond the local events to Fine Art shows from Massachusetts to Delaware to Maryland and Pennsylvania. I applied only to juried shows that were highly selective and the more I was accepted, the more I learned. In some ways I feel like I joined the circus with the amount of equipment I have to display my work, but the rewards are great. My website updates any interested clients with my upcoming events.

Alumni News: Class Notes continued…

One of the lessons I learned while painting in Italy was how important it is to look at the paintings of the masters, visit museums and galleries, read books on and become familiar with the work of artists who inspire me, to have a company of painters who are personally influential to my own work. My personal list includes (in no particular order, and the list changes periodically): Giovanna Garzoni, Michael Sowa, R.O. Blechman, Sendak, Gorey, Cezanne, Piero della Francesca, Vuillard, Balthus, Leonora Carrington, Henri Rousseau, Pierre Bonnard, Chagall, Matisse, Vermeer, Bronzino, N.C Wyeth, Giorgio Morandi, Antonio Donghi, among many other painters and illustrators.

thank her for all she did. I tell stories of her to my friends with great pride. She was a woman of her time, and not of her time. If she were my peer today, I would be her friend. I miss her and think of her with love – every day. Jim Pierce shares with us a photo of his mother, Margie Pierce, who taught kindergarten at Rippowam Cisqua for over twenty years.

My advice to my students is to paint from observation as much as possible, on site and in person, and as often as you can. Stay true to your sense of self, and draw at every opportunity.

Kathleen (Kathy) Pryor Burgeson lives with her husband Mark, children Peter (21), Sarah (19) (see photo below). Kathy is Deputy General Counsel of MeadWestvaco Corporation, Richmond, Virginia.

Eugenie Harvey sends along a tribute to her former RCS teacher Miss Stover: “I would like to thank Miss Stover. She was my favorite teacher. Not a day goes by that I don’t think of her with love and

Scott Pierce ’79 and Jim Pierce ’71 walk their mother Margie Pierce, down the aisle at their niece’s wedding.

Tidbits about the class of 1975 from Debby Coward: Gina Giobbi is writing cookbooks, Daphne Wood is a cuisinier privé trotting across the globe, Tatsy Gordevitch is painting her heart away, Pamela Leroy helps fund those who can’t always help themselves, Nobu Ishuzuku (yes I found him) is a successful businessman in Japan, Sara Weil is studying again, Woody Neeley is creating this incredible energy efficient device (I don’t want to give it away), Rusty Stein is making his part of the world a safer place, Peter Warren is building partnerships in Asia and still hasn’t called me back yet!!! (see Peter you should be connecting with Nobu), Dana George and her dog are putting out lots of fires and helping people heal, Pam Davis is seriously legal:), Alexandra Spoffard – sorry Alex I forgot,

it was so much fun chatting with you on the phone, that goes for Carrie Brush too:), Geoffrey Kerrigan – you tell them Geoff, Audrey Jones is helping the feeble including animals, Perry Keasbey is painting absolutely everything, Lisa Nolen is a big career girl, Mark Sperry is keeping Wall Street afloat, Robby Boyd is a parent of two RCS alums and one first grader – just saw him in church with his wife, Katie (head of Parent Association at RCS). Jessica Stedman is traveling so much that we keep rearranging our breakfast meetings, Kate Fissel is a big time career gal, Scott Warkinton – fabulous international career – saw him in Europe, he has now returned back home and is living nearby, Patty Parker is doing a lot of skiing, Cade Little is spreading the word around about top artists, Tia Baldwin is helping people get it together, Bill Montgomery is big on land, and Todd Horn is busy beautifying the ladies in Florida! Eugenia Giobbi Bone says: I live in NYC with my husband, architect Kevin Bone. We have two grown children in various stages of higher education. I published my fourth book, Mycophilia: Revelations from the Weird World of Mushrooms, in 2011. It is a popular science book about fungi and it just came out in paperback. I am working on a cookbook (my fourth), tentatively titled The Kitchen Ecosystem and coming out from Clarkson Potter in 2014. Ellie and Ed (mom and dad) are still kicking, gardening, cooking, and making art in Katonah. Sending my very best to all my old friends, all of you are still so vivid.

Eugenia Giobbi Bone

Robert Boyd: My wife and I have been living in Bedford for the last ten years. Funny enough, in the house where Philip ’75 and Steve Ohler ’66 lived as young children. A senior managing director at Guggenheim Partners, I also devote a fair amount of time to Rippowam Cisqua as a member of the Board of Trustees. In fact, Rippowam has been a large part of my family’s life these last ten years. My two older daughters, Emma (a junior at Middlesex) and Sophie (a sophomore at Choate) both graduated from Rippowam where I am pleased to report they were both Blue Team Captains. Our youngest daughter Margot (a first grader) is hoping to someday carry on the family tradition. Go Blue. Kate Fissell writes “Who would have guessed that I would land in Pittsburgh, doing software development for some research labs doing brain imaging? When I’m not doing that, I love to get outdoors and hike, x-c ski, canoe, and so on. Don’t pass through Bedford that much anymore, but anyone passing thru Pittsburgh is welcome to look me up.” Tatiana Gordevitch says she has been in Thailand working with rescued elephants for the last two months and has no Internet access. She looks forward to writing longer when she gets back to the states in a few months. Nobu Ishizuka sends along his greetings to all his fellow classmates and a brief update about life post RCS: “After Rippowam Cisqua, I went to Andover, then Columbia College and Columbia Law School. I’m currently living in Tokyo, managing the Tokyo office of Skadden, Arps and working as a corporate lawyer in mergers, acquisitions, and corporate finance. We’ve been in Asia for fourteen years, including a year and a half in Hong Kong, but still keep a house in Madison, CT and an apartment in New York City. My wife and I travel often back to the east coast for business and family

visits. We have two daughters, one of whom has graduated from college and is working in Boston and one daughter who is a sophomore in college on the west coast. Looking forward to seeing news of others from the class. I have fond memories of being on the baseball diamond playing second with Doug Dry ’75 on the mound, Phil Ohler ’75 at third, Todd Horn ’75 at first. Trying to remember the rest of the lineup, especially the shortstop ... Our coach was Richie Meyers. Roger Janeway says: “I moved to Los Angeles in 1985 to study linguistics at UCLA, and eventually ended up in its law school. For many years, I worked on capital habeas corpus cases as a staff attorney for the federal district court in Los Angeles, and I now practice criminal appellate and habeas law. In 2008, while California briefly permitted it, my husband and I got married, and subsequent legal developments won’t change that.” Pamela LeRoy Keenan: “I worked for a small nonprofit that funds food and education programs for children in Haiti for the past three years. I spent time working with children in Africa before that and did many other things before that. I currently live in Berkeley, CA with my husband, Jake. I had lunch with Sara Weil ’75 one day, and Alex Spofford Johnston ’75 another day while visiting my mother in Boston last week. So fun!”

Sally Kaufmann Kirkpatrick: “Married to Rick Kirkpatrick for 27 years – two children, Molly (19) and Gabriel (18). We live in Orono, Maine, with all of the above, plus three dogs – Lily, Daisy, and Indigo – and five hens, all known as “chicken.” I work as a Neurologist, in group practice (Neurology Associates of Eastern Maine). Still looooovvvvveee horses, but no special equids in my life right now. Spin, knit, felt, weave, garden, cook, read, fantasize about raising sheep or angora goats. Happy!” Audrey Jones Mosley: “Living in the Mad River Valley in the village of Warren, VT. I have been an au pair, concert promoter, singer, professional photographer, dark room tech (not in that order), and now a Hospice caregiver, and caregiver to seniors in their homes. Traveled extensively until I met my wonderful husband, Jack, 25 years ago, and settled down. I just turned 90 K miles on my distance BMW motorcycle, and 30K on my ’73 Norton Commando. We have MANY motorcycles, and my ’76 Austin Mini (HAHA is the plate on it) is for bombing around VT. I love anything with wheels, and can still ride a unicycle. For the last 25 years I have been “the bird lady.” I run a permitted rehabilitation facility at my home for migratory birds – raise and release program and education in the schools. Our house, in the summer, is a scene with tame songbirds mooching food off guests’ plates and landing on my head. Currently battling a second round of breast cancer in as many years. Double mastectomy in June, 2012, and on the meds till Sept ’13. It is all good. I am blessed with a remarkable husband, family, and community. I have learned over the years that I am built of rugged stuff, and have a stout heart. We lost my wonderful father, Andy Jones, in May 2012, and our mother Janet lives

Alumni News: Class Notes continued…

on the banks of the Connecticut River in great health and peace. I can be reached at Oddly@madriver.com. Door is always open. Craig McLean: I live in Boulder, CO. I am married with two teenagers, a boy and girl. Son is going to college next year. I am on my third career but do mostly environmental work. My education background is biology/ecology, my vocation is photography and I like being outside. My husband is an energy consultant. We ski a lot, spend lots of time in Crested Butte, CO, and just returned from a trip to Zermatt, Switzerland. Both of my parents have passed away. I have a sister in Vancouver, BC, and a brother in PA. I have connected with several old friends on Facebook. I actually just had dinner (last month) with Robbie Boyd ’75 and Cory Sperry ’68 and I communicate with Gena Giobbi ’75 on occasion. She and her husband have a place in western CO. Willard (Woody) Neeley is living in Greenwich, CT and has a “day job” working as a Senior Business Analyst / Project Manager in Financial IT. He’s worked for major hedge funds, banks, and insurance firms. Addressing his deep concern for the environment, Woody also has a start-up company in the alternative energy / energy harvesting / electric vehicle (EV) space, which leverages his experience in the EV industry in the early 1990’s and earlier engineering background. The firm works with technologies that translate mechanical motion into emission-less electric power, extremely long life batteries, and long range and

high performance EVs (including hybrid and electric race cars). Any legal, financial, or engineering consulting / advice or help from RCS alumni would be very welcome!

Wyoming. Now with the kids getting older, busier, and having different schedules, it is getting tougher but John and I love watching the kids taking off and being here to see it!

Last year, Woody discussed the possibility of a class on EVs / alternative transportation at RCS with RCS faculty, and eventually that may come to fruition. For fun, he plays electric bass and guitar in several local bands, and is restoring an older Mercedes sports car. He invites anyone to contact him at wneeley103@aol.com, and thanks classmate Doug Lamm ’75 for doing that recently! Carrie O’Connor: I am mostly a fulltime mom making meals, taxi driving etc. I fit in some substitute teaching and volunteer work. Our oldest son John is in his second year at the Crane School of Music with a double major of Music Ed / Musical Studies. His goal is to get his PHD and teach music at the college level. He sings in the all male a cappella group on campus and on tours. Our second oldest son Ryan is going to Ithaca College next year as a Health Science major. His goal right now is to go on to medical school. He will also swim on Ithaca’s swim team. Our daughter Annabel is a junior in High School and we have started the whole college search thing again with her. She too will continue swimming competitively in college and is thinking right now of a sociology/ psychology major. Andrew is our youngest. He is presently in 7th grade in the junior high playing lacrosse and he too swims competitively ¾ of the year. My husband John works in the family business at Mohawk Fine Paper. The picture (upper right) was taken a couple of years ago maybe 2010? But we are all in it! It was taken down on the Jersey Shore in Avondale. I’m afraid we wouldn’t recognize this same shoreline today. We have enjoyed some great trips with the kids over the years from bare boating in the British Virgin Islands (my husband is an old salt) to a dude ranch in

Debby Coward Smicka writes: Life is busy, happy, exciting and challenging. So much has changed since I left US, but seeing and getting in contact with old friends from Rip and “taking off where we left off” has truly been the best part. I have been so furtunate to spend time with my close friends Dana George Neuman and Cade Little Tompkins I hope you and all of your families are well. Hoping to see many of you at the Alumni cocktail in NYC on May 16th. If any of you find yourselves in the area please let me know – I would love to get together! Hugs to all!!

Dana George Neuman ’75 and Debby Coward Smicka ’75

Cade Little Tompkins ’75 and Debby Coward Smicka ’75

Sarah Swett has devoted the last decade or three to telling long, slow stories with handspun yarn. Her tapestries and sweaters travel the world in books, magazines, and exhibitions while she does her best to stay at home attempting to do all her favorite things at once: spin, weave, read, write, walk, drink tea, and practice the concertina. She hopes that this will keep her occupied for some time to come. www.sarah-swett.com

Debby’s two daughters: Alessandra and Elektra Smicka

Nick Stoneman says; “happily married for over 25 years to a classmate from Bowdoin College, Vicky McClure. We have three children: Jesse is a recent grad of Pomona College and now works as a consultant for Deloitte in its Human Capital area out of the San Fran office. Becky is a Junior at Bowdoin College and taking her Junior spring semester in New Zealand. She is a math major and captain of the soccer team. Andy is our caboose and is a 7th grader. She loves sports (esp. hockey) and has some musical talent just waiting to be explored (It’s not yet “cool” to pursue). I work as President of Shattuck-St. Mary’s School in Minnesota. We are a 6th-12th grade prep school of 450 students from around the world. I oversee the Head of School and spend most of my time fundraising and developing campuses abroad (one opening in Beijing in the fall). Been here ten years, a Head for 18, and in education for 23. I was a carpenter and college coach prior, and worked on Wall Street when first out of college for five years. I have not seen many classmates over the years. Lisa and I are still in touch and, of course, so are Billy Mitchell and I – he still lives in the same house! Best from the Midwest (via Shanghai where I am right now!)

Life post RCS? Sarah says: “I came to Idaho on a greyhound bus in 1979 and married my husband Dan, a professor of Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Idaho, in 1989. Our son Henry, born later that year and now 23, lives by an enormous lake in Sandpoint, ID where he is a baker, boat builder, and bass player. He makes his living at the first, has a degree in the second (he became a shipwright at the Northwest School of Wooden Boat Building in Port Hadlock, WA), and plays music whenever he can. He is one of the most interesting people I know.” Cade Tompkins: “Hi Everyone! Such a long time has passed, but I have vivid memories of all of you who were at Ripp from 1st to 6th grade before I had to leave to go to Chapin in NYC! We all had such freedom to go places on our bikes and to walk through the woods to Lee’s brook and ride our horses (or neighbor’s horses) all day long in the summertime. We were so lucky!!

and I surveyed the art scene in Providence. Fast forward to 2013, and it’s been four years since I opened my gallery in Providence and I have a “pop-up” space in NYC (just so I can return lots). I represent 26 nationally and internationally known artists whose works are collected by all kinds of people and are in all kinds of museums. You can see and learn more if you jump on my website: cadetompkins.com. Send me a comment through the “contact” as I would love to hear from you! Oh, the family! Well, Chris is a financial guy who works in the hospital reorganization world and Gigi is at The Hill School as a junior and will be co-captain of her water polo team next year and loves economics – she’s amazing. Win is my international and Middle East historian and current events guy and it looks likely that he will join his sister at The Hill School next year – one year together in the same school before Gigi goes to college. I love my little family. Oh, and Bella, my third child – see the picture of the three children (below) and you will pick her out of the crowd.”

So now to 2013: my family – Husband Chris Tompkins and children Gigi (18) and Win (almost 15) and I live in Providence, Rhode Island. We moved out of the big city (NYC of course) in 1998 with two little children (three years and three months) and we raised them right here in this very historic and beautiful small city. All the NYC years I worked as an art dealer and focused on contemporary art of all kinds. Fast forward to 1998 and two little children and a big move out of New York (which no one could believe that we did)

Gigi and Win Tompkins

50 50

Alumni News: Class Notes continued…

Daphne Wood lives in Cross River and is currently working as a private chef. After starting her career in the fashion industry, first working in public relations and production in the 80’s for then famous designers, Pinky & Dianne, she ended up Executive VP for Beverly Feldman shoes running the New York office. Deciding it was time for a career change she chose to follow her true passion: cooking. Attending the French Culinary Institution to get her degree, she then went on to owning a catering company and later accepted a position teaching at her alma mater for four years. For the past seven years she has worked privately for Walter Cronkite, Martin Scorsese in New York City, and back and forth for two years to Bora Bora for Francois Nars. For the last two years she has been cooking for half of the New York Rangers.

Peter Nordberg has been active in the NYC startup scene. He has formed a co-working, accelerator, business development and finance firm called Nest New York that brings Nordic/ Russian/Baltic startups to the US. In addition he recently launched a K-12 school fundraising app called Class Photo Fund (www.classphotofund.com) – a platform for America’s 104,000 K-12 schools, PTAs, booster clubs, and student councils to upload and sell old school group photos to raise money, but also promote legacy and build community. The service enables users to create a personal archive of all their old K-12 class, team, and club photos.

Rachel Cooks Mills shares with us her latest news: “I have recently accepted a position as Summer Camp Director at North Yarmouth Academy for a change of scene. I am also now co-owner of a new business, Free Me Arts & Crafts, with the goal to promote the arts in after school

programs, as well as creating and marketing my own works of art. Planning a retail store, classes, merchandise, and everything is very exciting. Still running my messy and fun Summer Arts Camp as well as training for a few triathlons this summer. So yes, I am busy but very happy – come to Maine this summer and visit!

Tamlyn Freund continues to work as a stage manager on Broadway and being a mom. She writes: “I’ve recently been married to Bradley Nathanson and we live in Bedford Corners. Daughter Lilly is in 6th grade at Hackley, son John graduates from Amherst this year, daughter Emily is in her sophomore year at Vanderbilt, and son Luke is in 3rd Grade at CISQUA!”

Marah Rosenberg says: “I’m still at Girl Scouts, well into my second year. In recognition of National Girl Scout Cookie Day, I was honored to join in on the NASDAQ closing bell ceremony on 2/4 (see photo below). Girl Scout Cookies are the world’s largest girl-run business. The $790 million cookie program teaches girls five essential skills including goal setting, decision making, money management, business ethics, and people skills.”

Alix LaMotte, now a parent at RCS, says: “I am currently living in Bedford Corners, only a mile from Cisqua where my daughter Avery is now in Kindergarten. It is so fun to be back in the halls and see how the School has changed in so many good ways, yet still seems like the place I knew and loved! We can’t wait for our son Walker to go to JPK this fall!”

Harry Grand shares with us a photo (below) of his daughter Lily with her baby brother Win, born 3/10/13 at 7.5 lbs and 20 3/4 inches. Congratulations Harry!

Faculty Notes

James Foley ’00, Giff Foley ’95, Catherine Foley ’93, Corbin Woodhall, Lily Gumz ’00, Rebecca Allen ’00, Marian Seherr-Thoss ’00, Harry Lodge ’00, Gordon MacGill ’00, Matt Andrews ’00, and Jamie MacDonald ’00

James Foley shares with us a wedding photo (above) from his November 24, 2012 wedding in Washington, DC.

Emily Ginnel moved to Boston in June and will be getting married to Lanyon Blair in Bedford Hills in September. Paige MacDonald Clarke is married to Garrett Clarke and is living in Washington, DC. She is currently getting her Ph.D. in Applied Social Psychology at George Washington University.

Ways to Reconnect with RCS and Alumni Rippowam Cisqua Alumni on Facebook Did you know you can find Rippowam Cisqua Alumni on Facebook and even catch up on latest news and postings from other alums or the School? Simply log on to Facebook and search for “The Official Rippowam Cisqua Alumni Group” and begin reconnecting with RCS alumni today.

Nicole Pucci: After graduating from RCS in 2004, Nicole attended Trinity College and majored in political science and Italian studies. After graduating, she applied for a position at Teach for America and is now in her second year with the program. She really enjoyed the time she spent tutoring in high school and college and wanted to do it full-time. She now teaches at the South Bronx Classical Charter School in the South Bronx and lives in Manhattan.

Rippowam Cisqua Alumni on LinkedIn Whether you are looking to hire young talented professionals or thinking of a career change, be sure to join the RCS alums on LinkedIn to find out more about fellow RCS alums and their professional careers.

Note from Former RCS teacher Norman Macartney (1971-1981): Hello. First of all I want to say that during my ten years at the School, I was fortunate to have worked and gotten to know many wonderful, kind, and thoughtful people. I have thought of them many times over the years. Following Rippowam, I had a successful landscaping design business. Then in 1994, our family moved to the eastern coast of North Carolina where Mena and I still live. I’ve spent over fifteen years in competitive swimming, ten years of which included taking motorcycle trips to five Indian reservations in the West and Southwest. Presently, Mena and I try to spend as much time as we can with our three children and three grandchildren. I send this to you all with my best wishes.

Memoriam Donald McAllister ’69

Donald McAllister ’69, known as Jay died May 4th 2013. Following his years at RCS, Jay attended St. Mark’s School in Southborough, MA and Franklin and Marshall College. Many years later, Jay also attended Johns Hopkins School for International Studies and the second part of his career focused on Sustainable Development. He is survived by his wife, Ellen; sons Hoitt and Ned; his sister Wendy McAllister ’72 and brother Malcolm McAllister ’73.

Nanny Wyeth

Nanny Wyeth, longtime Katonah resident and parent of three Rippowam Cisqua alums, died on August 21, 2012 in Princeton, N.J. Nanny began her work career as the lower school art teacher at Rippowam Cisqua School, where she taught for nine years. She is survived by her son Sims Wyeth ’69, daughter Ellie Wyeth ’69, sister Lisa Coffin Witte, brother Jarvis Coffin and six grandchildren. Her husband Marion S. Wyeth Jr. died in 2011. Her daughter Lisa Wyeth Kirk ’65 died in 2001.

Robert C. Vincent, Jr.

Robert C. Vincent, Jr., age 74, of Pound Ridge, New York and Florence, Wisconsin, and parent and grandparent of many RCS alumni and current students, died September 12, 2012 in Greenwich, Connecticut. He is survived by his wife Karin, his three children: Page Vincent ’79 of North Salem, NY, Caroline Mockridge ’81 of Mt. Kisco NY, and Robert Vincent III ’84 of Greenwich CT, and their spouses, Arthur Gosnell, Oscar Mockridge and Elise Vincent; nine grandchildren, including Elizabeth Walker ’07, Hope Walker ’08, Dorothy Walker ’16, Henry Mockridge ’14, Brewster Mockridge ’16, Chase Mockridge ’18; two siblings, Wendy Townsend of Bedford, NY and Roger Vincent ’59 of Bedford Hills, NY as well as two sisters-in-law, Nancy Vincent of Bedford Hills, NY and Maureen Vincent of Bedford, NY. In addition to his role as Partner of the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher, Flom, Mr. Vincent was involved with many academic institutions. He advised several committees at his alma mater, Dartmouth College. He served as a

Trustee for Choate Rosemary Hall. And he was a constant supporter of RCS. Mr. Vincent was predeceased by his wife, Barbara Vincent in 1993. During their years as parents at RCS both Barbara and Bob were very involved in the Rippowam Cisqua community and contributed countless volunteer hours in support of the mission of the School. Barbara was Head of the Parents’ Council and ran the Peter Duchin Cherry Blossom Dance, a precursor to the Auction. Barbara also served on the RCS Board of Trustees at which time she chaired the Search Committee that brought Head of School Dick Wade to RCS in 1983. Barbara Vincent was the first woman to serve as the President of the Board of Trustees, a position she held from 1982-1985. The RCS community is grateful for the continued dedication and commitment the Vincent Family has shown to Rippowam Cisqua School. The Barbara Vincent Fund, which was established in 1993 to provide grant money to interns pursuing a graduate degree in teaching, continues to create opportunities for our aspiring teachers to this day.

Mission Statement

A few of the many reasons to support

Spring 2013

Rippowam Cisqua School

Non Profit Org US Postage PAID Permit No 6030 Bedford NY

Bulletin

Rippowam Cisqua School P.O. Box 488, Bedford, New York 10506 Lower Campus: 914-244-1200 Upper Campus: 914-244-1250 www.rcsny.org

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STEAM AHEAD Also in this issue:

Strategic Planning Update, Alumni Profiles, Class Notes