The Riparian - Spring 2019

Riparian The Rivers School | spring 2019

Perfect Harmony Celebrating The Rivers School Conservatory

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THE RIVERS FUND • 2018–2019

Support Rivers. Transform Lives.

Impact the World. Be a Futuremaker.

Vol. XXXiV

Number 1

Editor

Your gift to The Rivers Fund will help support Rivers students as they create their own futures.

Jane Dornbusch, Senior Assistant Director of Communications De s i g n e r

David Gerratt

NonprofitDesign.com contributing Photographers

Janet Ciummei/NortheastProPhoto, Katie Harrigan, Joel Haskell, John Hurley Contributing writers

Audrey Doyle, Tanya Holton, Heather Jack Printer

Signature Printing & Consulting Brian Maranian ’96

He a d o f S c h o o l

Edward V. Parsons Director of Advancement

Krissie Kelleher D i r e c t o r o f C o m m u n i c at i o n s

Stephen Porter Se n i o r a s s o c i a t e d i r e c t o r s of advancement

Jan Hicinbothem, Mike Ebner a s s o c i at e d i r e c t o r s of Advancement

Heather Jack, Kim Fox Director of Parent Programs a n d Spe c i a l E v e n t s

Amy Dunne Director of Alumni Engagement

Marc Stroum ’98

The Rivers School 333 Winter Street Weston, MA 02493-1040 781-235-9300 www.rivers.org

Choose an area you would like to support—or make an unrestricted gift to fund Rivers’s highest priorities.

To make a gift to The Rivers Fund, go online at www.rivers.org/giveonline or mail your check or credit card information to: Advancement Office, The Rivers School, 333 Winter Street, Weston, MA 02493

Riparian: “One that lives or has property on the bank of a river or lake.”

The Riparian is published twice a year for The Rivers School alumni, parents, students, faculty, and friends. To conserve resources, Rivers has consolidated multiple mailings addressed to the same household so that your home will receive only one copy.

If you have reason to receive additional copies at your address, please call Jane Dornbusch at 339-686-2230.

Photo: “Spines and Ridges” by Crystaliz Frometa ’23 ON the COVER

The Middle School chorus performs.

Riparian T h e R i v e rs S c h o o l • s p r i ng 2019

Features 2 Redefining

the Finish Line 3

From the Head of School

Campus News

Rivers Trivia; Service Learning; New Director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion; New Construction,

by the Numbers; Day

of Giving; Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

14 Making the Future at Rivers 30 philanthropic impact

postcard from campus

32 Senior Parents Celebrate 33 Parent News

Alumni Events

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Innovative Courses

Celebrating the Rivers School Conservatory

Silicon Valley Sojourn; Celebrating Art History at Rivers; Thanksgiving Social; Alumni Winter Games

11 Five Questions for . . .

Riverside Chat

Michael Clancy

12 Girls’ Hockey Wins red Wing Report

Championships; Winter Season Honors

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Julian Willard:

37 Bob Hohler ’69: 2019 Alumni profiles

Diversity 2.0

Alumni Excellence Award; Alison Freed ’04: 2019 Young Alumni Achievement Award

focus on faculty

Thinking Outside the Silo

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39 Alumni News and Notes From our inbox

40 Students on Stage

Backward Glance

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M e ssa g e f rom t h e H e a d o f S c h oo l

The Most Important Finish Line

By Edward V. Parsons

Recently, The New York Times ran an opinion piece by David Brooks on a subject that many of our parents connected to and passed along to me. I was grateful to see people’s responses to Brooks’s piece; the article had been sent to me a dozen times by my colleagues here, who also saw in the article’s headline a message they knew I’d appreciate: “Students Learn From People They Love.” The subhead—“Putting relationship quality at the center of education”—spoke to so many at Rivers that the article eventually was shared throughout the faculty and disseminated in the internal newsletter in the Upper School.

Brooks’s piece, which cites cog- nitive research into the connections between emotions and learning, points to the presence of meaningful relationships as the focal point of those emotions. “In good times and bad,” he writes, “good teachers and good students co-regulate each other.”

The ideals inherent in Excellence with Humanity ring loudly through the essay. It’s easy to see why so many of you passed it along to me and why my colleagues were all talking about the article and the validation it offered for our approach.

I’ve thought a great deal about the article since reading it, back in January. It wasn’t so much because Rivers’s philosophy dovetails with Brooks’s observations and reporting, good as that felt. Rather, what struck me was the fact that the article’s 2

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insights on the connection between relationships and learning environments were presented as news.

I speak often and proudly about the philosophy and execution of Excellence with Humanity, and every time I do, I confess to experiencing some embarrassment—born of the sense that I am trumpeting an approach that is (or should be) obvious on its face. Of course, I find myself thinking, meaningful relationships make for deeper learning; doesn’t every parent intuitively understand that already?

I’ve come to understand that many—perhaps most—parents do understand this. At the same time, however, the culture is pushing them to believe something different— something they don’t agree with but get drawn into. That something is the pressure to achieve, to attain the measurable markers of success that often interrupt the relationships young people have with the adults in their lives. That pressure shifts the focus in the relationship away from a sense of partnership in a child’s journey and onto the need for measurable “wins” along the way. Connections become focused on an ever-receding finish line, and children are left to grow and develop on their own.

This is where our message breaks with that prevailing cultural push. At Rivers, what used to be thought of as “soft skills” are rightly seen as essential components of a successful life’s

journey: curiosity, passion, empathy, and the inclination to engage with a world in need, in the service of others.

I believe these are the core competencies parents truly want to see their children develop, because they so clearly lead to that most elusive of finish lines, a happy and productive life.

“Children learn from people they love,” Brooks writes in the Times, “and . . . love in this context means willing the good of another, and offering active care for the whole person.” I take heart in his observations and applaud the research supporting this approach, an approach captured in the philosophy I inherited here at Rivers when I arrived five years ago.

Excellence with Humanity is alive and well on the Rivers campus, where meaningful relationships form the foundation of the learning environment and where my colleagues in the faculty and administration have long heeded Brooks’s call to “design a school . . . [with] relationship quality at the core.” We’ll continue to ask hard questions about how that philosophy can be demonstrated by every member of our community each day and how we can measure our success in this area.

And I’ll be glad to hear from all of you when you come across articles, books, or videos that celebrate—or challenge—our approach, which insists that social and emotional learning is not an add-on to the curriculum but “the way we do school.”

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Rivers Trivia See how well you know your Rivers history! Answers are below.

2018–19 Board of Trustees President: Harley J. Lank

Term Trustees 1. Rivers was founded by a group of Boston _______________ pursuing an experiment in open-air education.

2. Robert Rivers was head of the English department at what school before becoming the first headmaster at what was then called Mr. Rivers’ Open Air School?

3. What world-famous naturalist, considered the inventor of the modern field guide, taught at Rivers in the 1930s?

4. In what year did Rivers move from Heath Street in Chestnut Hill to its current location?

5. In what year was The Nonesuch (yearbook) introduced?

6. Who was the featured guest composer at the Rivers School Conservatory’s Annual Seminar on Contem- porary Music in 1983?

7. Where did the flagpole come from?

Jon M. Baker, Jr. ’85 Dennis M. Baldwin Wayne M. Bloom Julie M. Bradley James F. Carlin ’81 Janet A. Correia Bala Cumaresan Louise Cummings ’98 Andrew C. Delinsky ’93 Ben D. Fischman Jay M. Grossman Scott F. Hilinski Helen L. Howard Stephen M. Jennings Daniel A. Kraft Hongmei Li Timothy D. Mann Alison S. Monaghan Jonathan H. Paul Heidi C. Pearlson Daniel R. Revers Alan D. Rose, Jr. ’87 Eileen H. Sivolella Andrew P. Slifka Richard L. Smith Steven J. Snider Matthew Vettel

Life Trustees David M. Berwind Charles C. Carswell Stephen R. Delinsky Peter A. Gaines Clinton P. Harris Harriet R. Lewis Thomas L. Lyons Roy S. MacDowell, Jr. Joel B. Sherman Frances B. Shifman William B. Tyler ’43 Joan A. Vaccarino Cai von Rumohr Joan C. Walter Dudley H. Willis

Honorary Trustees of the Corporation Joan T. Allison Marie Fitzpatrick Louis J. Grossman ’67 Joshua M. Kraft ’85 Warren M. Little ’51 Virginia S. MacDowell Frederick G. Pfannenstiehl ’59 A. Tozzer Spalding ’62

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Answers: 1) Doctors. 2) Noble and Greenough. 3) Roger Tory Peterson, author of A Field Guide to the Birds and creator of the Peterson Field Guides series.

4) 1960. 5) 1966. 6) John Cage. 7) One of the few remaining relics from the 1940 merger of Rivers and The Country Day School, the flagpole has traveled from the old Country Day campus to the Heath Street campus and finally, to its current location.

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Rivers students read and evaluated more than 150 essays to help choose a Max Warburg Courage Curriculum winner.

Service Learning: Students Lend a Hand Rivers offers its students numerous service learning opportunities throughout the year. Over the winter, two such programs gave students a chance to support those outside our community.

In January, Rivers hosted a Massachusetts Special Olympics basketball tournament. As they have for the past several years, 10th graders joined in to help run the tourney. Some 20 teams, whose members have intellectual disabilities, fought it out on the courts in Benson and Haffenreffer gyms during the all-day event.

The entire grade participates, explains Kit Cunningham, director of service learning, and students reap multiple benefits from the event. “They serve as officials, announcers, scorekeepers, team liaisons. Sometimes there’s some down time, and if there is, what they do is cheer. There’s lots of energy down on the court, cheering for the players. They’re really hosts representing Rivers.”

Rivers students read and evaluated more than 150 essays to help choose a Max Warburg Courage Curriculum winner.

In February, a group of Upper Schoolers volunteered to evaluate essays for the Max Warburg Courage Curriculum, which helps sixth graders recognize and celebrate courage in their own lives. The curriculum culminates in an essay contest that garners more than 1,000 entries from public, private, charter, and parochial schools in the Boston area and beyond.

On the evening of Thursday, February 14, the Courage Curriculum’s program manager, Tess Waters, came to Rivers to train some 15 students for

the task of essay reading. The 15 student volunteers then read through piles of essays written by sixth graders.

The Rivers students seemed happy to give up a bit of their free time to ponder the essays. Rayha McPherson ’20 said the Courage Curriculum “seems like a really good program.”

But the experience also offered opportunities for self-reflection. “It’s interesting to see what they say,” said Jackie Benjes ’20. “The things they went through, I never went through.

It really gives you perspective.”

New Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Named Head of School Ned Parsons announced in March that Ava Archibald will take on the role of diversity, equity, and inclusion director at Rivers starting in July. With the new hire, current DEI director John Bower steps away from the position to focus on his work as assistant head of the Middle School and assume the role of Middle School coordinator of DEI programming. Between Archibald,

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Bower, and Katie Henderson, who serves as Bower’s opposite number in the Upper School, the DEI office is now a three-person team, reflecting Rivers’s commitment to the work.

Through the world of diversity work at independent schools, Bower and Archibald have known each other for many years. Says Bower, “I couldn’t think of a more approachable, wise, strategic thinker to take the reins.”

Parsons echoes the sentiment: “I’m eager to see her bring her strategic mindset to the task of taking our ongoing work and deepening it to develop and execute initiatives in areas like admissions, curriculum, and hiring.”

Archibald began her career in the classroom, teaching English at the Cambridge School of Weston. She had long been interested in social justice issues and used literature as a lens to examine such issues, teaching works

by James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, Zora Neale Hurston, and Jamaica Kincaid.

In 2006, she was given an opportunity to teach a social justice class—not a common offering at the time. Archibald describes that as an “aha moment”: “I realized I could just teach social justice issues and not come to it through the back door of teaching English.”

She’s been engaged with the subject ever since, first at CSW and later

Slated to open in January 2020, the newest building on campus will provide inviting, state-of-the-art spaces for learning and teaching. at St. Mark’s School, where she served as founding director of community and equity affairs. Most recently, Archibald has worked as senior manager for the equity dialogues program at YW Boston (formerly the YWCA). Along the way, she also found time to attend culinary school, and though she didn’t end up pursuing a restaurant career, she remains a serious cook.

Archibald is looking forward to making her mark at Rivers. “The work, to me, is about helping make Rivers a place where everyone feels comfortable,” she says. “My title is a mouthful to get out, so I sometimes use shorthand: I’m here to make sure everyone plays nicely together.”

Building the Center for Science and Visual Arts By the Numbers 60 tons of rebar

Day of Giving a Great Success The Rivers School’s inaugural Day of Giving, held on Tuesday, February 12, set an ambitious goal, one that would eclipse any previous such effort at the school: to garner 495 gifts—one for each currently enrolled student—in a 24-hour participation challenge. It would take effort, focus, and teamwork to get there.

At day’s end, the gift total was 645, beating that original goal by a wide margin.

“We are just thrilled by, and grateful for, the incredible generosity of the Rivers community,” says Janna Anctil, director of The Rivers Fund, who steered the team effort.

Students, parents, staff, and faculty, among others, reached out to donors throughout the day, while posts on Instagram and other social media kept the community engaged and entertained.

At one point, a surprise snowstorm threatened to derail the fundraiser, with an unexpected early dismissal throwing schedules into flux. In the end, says Anctil, the snowstorm may actually have helped, as phone bank volunteers succeeded in reaching people hunkered down at home.

Providing donors with the option of giving through Venmo was clearly a game-changer, says Anctil. “The support we received from young alumni was unbelievable, and I think their willingness to give was in part because of the ease and convenience of Venmo,” she says, adding that current parents and older alumni also opted to use that platform, contributing to the day’s success.

The Day of Giving raised more than $280,000 for The Rivers Fund, in donations that ranged in size from $2 to a matching gift of $50,000. The dollars are important, but even more significant was the unprecedented number of participants. “The whole community pulled together and showed us that the experience and the education we provide here really matters to them,” says Anctil. “That, to me, was the most exciting takeaway from the day.”

15 million gallons of dewatering

5,500 cubic yards of excess soil removed

300 tons of steel

296 panes of glass

North Field and Pavilion

1,880 yards of concrete FALL 2018 Riparian

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Upper School Musical Zombie Prom Brings Undead to Life

Students Steer MLK Day Assembly

The Nonesuch Players’ February production of Zombie Prom, mounted at Regis College’s performing arts center, featured color, style, razzle-dazzle song and dance, and copious quantities of ghoulish humor. Set in the 1950s, Zombie Prom is an off-Broadway musical that embraces and satirizes the conventions of the era.

Dozens of students performed, with the thespian and terpsichorean talents of the Rivers community on full display. Other students worked in key roles behind the scenes. The show marked Daniel Bolton’s debut as director of the Upper School musical.

“I knew that our cast would nail it, and I am so proud of the professionalism and skill they bring to our stage,” says Bolton.

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Words matter.

That point was made passionately at this year’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day assembly, held on Monday, January 14. In his introductory remarks, faculty member Bruce Taylor said the gathering was “an opportunity to address the ongoing presence of hateful language.”

Head of School Ned Parsons called the assembly “one of the most impactful school meetings I’ve ever been part of. The presence of authentic voices at the front of the room enabled students and faculty to hear and understand some difficult truths. It reflected our ongoing efforts to be a community that leans into these conversations— without fear, and without losing our core of civility.”

This year’s presentation was planned by the African Diaspora affinity group. In the program’s first half, several students of color described their experiences and feelings around the N-word. The audience watched a video of author Ta-Nehisi Coates

explaining why the word should be off-limits for white people, even when singing along to hip-hop.

A video excerpt of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech followed. The students on stage then spoke of their own hopes and dreams for a world offering greater diversity, equity, and inclusion.

It’s easy, said Parsons, to feel as though we’re protected from issues of racism in communities like Rivers— which is what makes events like the MLK Day assembly so vital. The response from his advisees, he said, was overwhelmingly positive.

Rayha McPherson ’20, one of the event’s student organizers, noted that next steps are key. “Now we have brought that awareness, we have bonded together, and the question is, ‘What next? What can we do to keep up the momentum we created from this assembly?’ I hope that as a school we will hear what has been said and really begin to take action.”

Andy Delinsky ’93 Joins Board of Trustees In February, Andy Delinsky ’93 became the newest member of The Rivers School Board of Trustees.

The Delinsky family has deep ties to Rivers: Delinsky’s older brother, Eric, graduated in ’87, and their father, Steve Delinsky, served as board president during Delinsky’s years at the school.

After Rivers, Delinsky earned a BA in English at Franklin & Marshall College and an MA in English from the Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury College, as well as an MA in leadership from the McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University. He has spent his career in education, teaching at the Fay School

and St. Albans School and serving as an administrator at the Bullis School.

In July 2014, Delinsky was chosen to lead the Peck School, a co-educational K–8 school in Morristown, N.J. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, Julie, and their three young children.

Delinsky is delighted to be able to give back to Rivers both as an alumnus and an educator. “The school then and now means so much to me.

I had a transformative experience there as a student,” he says.

As a head of school himself, he knows how much thought goes into the selection of board members, and he didn’t hesitate when he got the

Overheard . . . at Senior Speeches Funny, sad, thoughtful, philosophical, and silly by turns, senior speeches are a Rivers rite of passage. All seniors are required to write and present an original speech on a topic of their choosing. Here are a few memorable lines from this year’s crop.

I found out that spitting down stairwells can result in some saliva on your teachers and friends and will end up with an awkward letter home to parents.

—Leslie Schwartz

call from Rivers. “It means a great deal to me that I can give back. It’s such a meaningful honor,” he says.

The Chinese have a saying: “He who returns from a journey is not the same as he who left.”

—Parker Weil

Something just felt wrong. I went back into the bathroom to discover that I had accidentally used Proactiv, the facewash, instead of toothpaste.

—Meghan Lally

I have never been a stranger to subtle forms of racism. Having spent most of my life assimilating to fit in with my white peers, I always thought I would be safe from blatant forms of You can credit racism—until I wasn’t. everyone you know for —Thando Khumalo something you’ve gained in your life, but there is no one you can credit for getting you to accept who you are as a person.

—Riya Shukla A while back, I came across an application question that snapped me out of SFAH: Senior Fall Application Hypnosis.

—Michael Manasseh

Flying standby has taught me so much over the years. First, patience.

—Andrew Sanderson

Statistically, softball is a sport of failure. I need to be all right with striking out two out of four times and having that be a success.

—Stephanie Dailey

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Rivers Artists and Writers Recognized The Massachusetts Scholastic Art and Writing Awards were announced in February, and Rivers students once again made a great showing. Overall, the students garnered 33 awards— six Gold Keys, nine Silver Keys, and 18 Honorable Mentions. In addition, two students went on to win awards at the national level: Apsara Balamurugan ’20 earned two gold medals for her personal essays, “Grains of Rice” and “Page 36,” and Jay Dieterle ’20 won a silver medal in the ceramics and glass category for his piece The Injustice System.

“It is great that so many of our student artists were recognized for their creative expression in such a broad range of media,” says David Saul, chair of the visual arts department at Rivers. “Numerous Middle and Upper School students were honored—a great reflection on Rivers’s inclusive arts program, which helps each individual to cultivate and articulate their creative vision.”

Rivers students garnered writing awards for work in a range of formats, from personal essays to poetry to short stories to critical essays.

“We in the English department are proud of the students honored for their writing in the Scholastic competition,” says English department chair Mac Caplan. “These students have produced insightful, moving, and creative pieces that reflect the hard work that they put into their writing both in English class and on their own time. We congratulate them on their accomplishments and look forward to reading more of their writing in the future.”

Matt Cronin ’19, Printmaking: Niccolo Tommaseo

Ayla Pfeffer ’22, Ceramics & Glass: Memories Entwined

Marguerite Monaghan ’19, Ceramics & Glass: Our Shared Brokenness

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Nati o na l Meda l W i nners

Jay Dieterle ’20, Ceramics & Glass: The Injustice System

Apsara Balamurugan ’20, personal essay/memoir, gold (two awards) Jay Dieterle ’20, ceramics & glass, silver G o l d K ey W i nn er s

Apsara Balamurugan ’20, personal essay/memoir (two awards) Jay Dieterle ’20, ceramics & glass Dylan Mentis ’20, drawing & illustration Marguerite Monaghan ’19, ceramics & glass Ayla Pfeffer ’22, ceramics & glass Si lv er K ey W i nn er s

Apsara Balamurugan ’20, poetry Matt Cronin ’19, printmaking Caleb Leeming ’19, ceramics & glass Gavin MacIsaac ’20, ceramics & glass Bethany Pasko ’19, personal essay/ memoir Sylvie Pingeon ’21, short story Ashley Shegog ’19, ceramics & glass Abi Warwick ’19, drawing & illustration Abi Warwick ’19, digital art H o no r a bl e Me n tio n Wi nn e rs

Abi Warwick ’19, Digital Art: Caution, Goldfish Brain

Gavin MacIsaac ’20, Ceramics & Glass: Abuser’s Language

Dylan Mentis ’20, Drawing & Illustration: Very Skullful

Sophie Bailey ’23, photography Anthony Borgos ’23, photography Lillian Branka ’20, sculpture Lauren Braudis ’23, ceramics & glass Thomas Dekin ’21, sculpture Crystie Frometa ’23, photography Cristina Gomez ’23, photography Annie Heuer ’21, ceramics & glass Gretchen Kerfoot ’23, photography Christina Kew ’20, sculpture Ciara King ’21, ceramics & glass Tully Mahoney ’19, photography Max Meyerhardt ’21, ceramics & glass John Morgan ’20, sculpture Adebiyi Oyaronbi ’21, sculpture Bethany Pasko ’19, critical essay Sylvie Pingeon ’21, printmaking Evelyn Thomajan ’20, drawing & illustration

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Campus Visitors Enhance Rivers Experience Over the winter, several distinguished visitors shared their expertise with Rivers students, parents, and other community members.

Liza Talusan On February 20, Rivers welcomed Dr. Liza Talusan to campus to launch the Parent Diversity Speaker Series, sponsored by the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Talusan’s extensive experience spans the past 22 years; she has worked with more than 85 schools and organizations to navigate the complex yet integral work of making institutions more equitable and inclusive for all. She asked the audience, which included some 60 parents, to consider how to navigate difficult conversations on diversity, equity, and inclusion with children and students, and discussed the challenges and opportunities in having such conversations with young people.

Carol Powers In February, Carol Powers visited Julian Willard’s Exploring Ethics class. A lawyer by training, Powers was instrumental in the creation of the Community Ethics Committee, an arm of Harvard Medical School’s Center for Bioethics. The CEC is a group of citizens who meet regularly to provide public input on ethical aspects of health care. Powers visited the class to address the role of community input in creating ethical standards and policies, and to offer support and insight to students as they worked on the course’s capstone projects. After addressing the class, Powers met with the students one-on-one or in small groups to discuss their “Make a Difference” projects, a culminating creative project designed to take on a pressing bioethical topic and make a positive social impact.

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Liza Talusan

Carol Powers

Alan Lightman

Dan Koh

Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic Just before the winter holiday break, students in John Adams’s statistics class had the opportunity to videoconference with data visualization expert Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic, founder and CEO of Storytelling with Data. A former member of Google’s analytics team, Knaflic travels the world as a consultant, conducting workshops and seminars that help companies learn how to make better use of data and graphs to tell their stories. Knaflic connected with Adams after becoming a fan of the class’s Twitter feed, @RiversStats. Knaflic shared her expertise on how to create effective graphs that engage viewers and communicate essential information.

Dan Koh Following a stint as Boston Mayor Marty Walsh’s chief of staff, Dan Koh ran for Congress in Massachusetts’s hotly contested third district in 2018— and nearly won, finishing just 122 votes back. Koh spoke at an all-school meeting in February, sharing with students the heartbreak, and the lessons learned, of running a close political race. Embrace failure, he told the audience: “The path to success is always rocky, and that’s a good thing.

Take risks, fail, and rejoice in the failures.” Two keys, he said, are persistence and treating those around you with kindness and respect.

Alan Lightman Einstein’s Dreams came a bit closer to being realized in March, when the bestselling book’s author, renowned MIT writer and physicist Alan Lightman, joined senior elective class Adaptation via videoconference. The students had read Lightman’s novel that playfully posits Einstein’s troubled dreams about time as he worked on the theory of relativity. Lightman answered student questions, urging them to value time and live “in the present moment.”

R i v e rs i d e C h at

Five Questions for. . . Michael Clancy Rivers executive chef Michael Clancy grew up near Albany, N.Y., and went on to earn an associate’s degree in culinary arts and a bachelor’s degree in food-service management from Johnson & Wales University in Providence, R.I. “Rivers is an amazing place to work,” says Clancy, who joined the school in 2011. “I’ve worked at three schools. This is the best community by far: The appreciation for what I do, the support I receive, and the facility I work in are top-notch.”

What’s the kids’ favorite dish?

At the end of every school year, for the seniors’ last week of classes, I give them their choices. It was going to be just the final day, but I get too many responses.

I’ve been doing it for four years, and it’s always the same: hand-breaded chicken tenders and waffles, soup in a bread bowl, pizza, mac and cheese, chicken parm—kids’ favorites.

I love getting feedback from students and faculty. I like to balance out keeping students happy and faculty happy; we have a diverse population with ages ranging from 12 to 70, and my menu rotation reflects that.

Any menu fails?

My first year, I did turkey and rice stuffed peppers. I’ve never done them again. It ended up in a senior speech. In seven years, I’ve had one or two menu items that haven’t gone well, but you live and learn.

What are the challenges in menu planning and purchasing?

Keeping the menu fresh is not the biggest challenge; the biggest is making sure we’re ordering enough food without going way over or running out. We’re always looking to repurpose, so we’re reducing waste. We do our best, using stuff for composed salads and soup and so on.

What do you do when you’re not here?

I spend a lot of time with my wife and son, who’s 2-1/2.

I enjoy doing work on my house, hanging out with my friends, doing brewery tours. I’m into craft beer; it’s one of my hobbies. I have made it, but it takes a lot of time.

There are so many great breweries out there. I’m more than willing to give them my money and have them make the beer.

Tell me about your team.

Any successful chef is only as good as the team around them. We produce so much volume that Diane [Merrill, director of dining services] and I have to have a lot of trust in the rest of the team. It’s our job to set the standard, get our associates to buy in, and then monitor and coach them up. I’m so thankful to have a great sous chef and strong associates to work beside every day. This is a total team effort.

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red wing report Girls’ hockey skated to victory in March.

Girls’ Hockey Championship Highlights an Impressive Winter Sports Season

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or the sixth year in a row, all four of The Rivers School’s varsity winter sports teams made it into the NEPSAC playoffs, the only school in the Independent School League (ISL) able to make such a claim.

“This is truly an impressive accomplishment,” says Rivers athletic director Bob Pipe. “It is a direct reflection of the skill and character of our student athletes, as well as the commitment and knowledge of our coaches. Everyone knows what it takes to achieve this kind of success, and I’m so proud that Rivers students and coaches all are willing to put in the work needed.”

This year, top honors went to the girls’ hockey team, which won the NEPSAC Division 2 Tournament by defeating the number-oneseeded Brooks School team in the championship game by a score of 3-1—avenging the team’s 2-3 loss to Brooks earlier in the season.

For the seniors on this talented team, the win represented their second NEPSAC championship victory in four years; it was the first for second-year coach Dana Trivigno. Last year, the team made it to the final round but fell just short of taking home the trophy.

“These girls have worked very hard all year,” says Trivigno. “They are an amazing group of kids, and I am especially proud of our seniors, who proved to be wonderful team leaders all season.” One of those seniors, team captain Kaitlin Shaughnessy, was named NEPSAC Tournament Most Valuable Player.

The boys’ hockey team, which went 20-8-1, had nearly as good a season, earning the number-three-seed spot in the NEPSAC Piatelli/Simmons Tournament but losing a close 2-4 game to Holderness in the semifinal round. The team, however, did take home the championship title in the ISL Eberhart Division, the fourth year in a row it accomplished that feat. Junior Philip Tresca was named the Eberhart League Most Valuable Player.

Rounding out the season were the successes enjoyed by the 16-6 girls’ basketball team, which was ranked as the number-four team in New England and earned a trip to the elite NEPSAC AA Tournament, and the 17-5 boys’ basketball team, which went to the NEPSAC Class B Tournament as the number-five seed.

— Stephen Porter 12

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Winter Season Honors ISL League Cameron Tongue, boys’ basketball, All-League Jay Dieterle, boys’ basketball, Honorable Mention Liam Regan, boys’ basketball, Honorable Mention Nicholas Johnson, boys’ basketball, Honorable Mention Fiona Finn, girls’ basketball, All-League Maren Durant, girls’ basketball, All-League Victoria Varsamis, girls’ basketball, All-League Tayja Sallie, girls’ basketball, Honorable Mention Samantha Sousa, girls’ basketball, Honorable Mention Philip T. Tresca, boys’ hockey, Eberhart League Most Valuable Player/Globe All-Scholastic Antonio Andreozzi, boys’ hockey, All-League Cade Webber, boys’ hockey, All-League Philip Tresca, boys’ hockey, All-League Matthew Cormier, boys’ hockey, All-League Michael McEachern, boys’ hockey, All-League Ryan Bell, boys’ hockey, Honorable Mention Patrick Lawn, boys’ hockey, Honorable Mention Leslie W. Schwartz, girls’ hockey, All-League Kaitlin Shaughnessy, girls’ hockey, All-League Rylee Glennon, girls’ hockey, Honorable Mention NEPSAC Cameron Tongue, boys’ basketball, All-NEPSAC Jay Dieterle, boys’ basketball, Honorable Mention Fiona Finn, girls’ basketball, All-Star Maren Durant, girls’ basketball, All-Star Victoria Varsamis, girls’ basketball, All-Star Cade Webber, boys’ hockey, All-NEPSAC East Team Kaitlin Shaughnessy, girls’ hockey, All-NEPSAC Div. 2 First Team, NEPSAC Tournament MVP Leslie Schwartz, girls’ hockey, All-NEPSAC Div. 2 First Team Rylee Glennon, girls’ hockey, All-NEPSAC Div. 2 Honorable Mention

f o c u s o n fa c u l t y

J ul i an W i l l ar d

Thinking Outside the Silo

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ivers’s interdisciplinary studies department chair is an accidental teacher of sorts. After completing his BA at Oxford in his native England, Julian Willard contacted one of his former teachers to discuss career trajectories. “I said, ‘I’m thinking about law or research or teaching.’ He said, ‘Well, I’m on sabbatical next year.

Do you want to take over for me?’ ” Thus a teacher was born, or revealed: Willard quickly learned that he loved the work and had a knack for it.

Willard met his future wife, Rachelle, an American, while she was in England on a college exchange program. When the time came for them to commit to one country or the other, Willard— who recently became an American citizen after 15 years in the U.S.— says, “I was happy to come here.”

Soon after arriving, he landed at Rivers, learning the American way of teaching English from former department head Barbara Ligon. Willard also has a particular interest in bioethics; he teaches an ethics class and launched a bioethics club at Rivers after developing the concept as a fellow at Harvard Medical School’s Center for Bioethics.

In 2008, Willard was asked by former head of school Tom Olverson to start Rivers’s interdisciplinary studies department. Interdisciplinary teaching at Rivers was certainly not new. But what came with the creation of the IDS program, says Willard, was a more focused and intentional approach. “Rivers has tried to delve into interdisciplinary studies as deeply and as systematically as we can,” says Willard, who attributes much of the program’s success here to a faculty that’s open to collaborative approaches.

Willard describes the crucial distinction between “multidisciplinary” and “interdisciplinary,” as the terms relate to education. “To take an extreme example, just to make the point, let’s say you’re studying a bunny rabbit,” he says. “Multidisciplinary would be reading a story about a bunny rabbit, drawing a picture of a bunny rabbit, maybe dissecting a bunny rabbit.” But the various aspects of bunny study would remain siloed, no one of them informing the others.

And that is decidedly not what he and his colleagues strive for in creating Rivers’s interdisciplinary courses.

“If you do that,” he says, “you’re not integrating the disciplines to learn something about the bunny rabbit that you couldn’t otherwise know”—which, in a nutshell, is what interdisciplinary courses are meant to accomplish.

Results are swift and measurable.

In Lisa Townley’s Studio Explorations of Anatomy class, science and arthistory faculty contribute their perspectives on drawing the human form.

“What Lisa has found,” says Willard,

“is that the student product is different. It’s richer and more expressive.”

In a pilot class weaving together history and English, students who participated in the interdisciplinary class were better able to answer a particular test question than those who’d studied the subjects separately.

What makes interdisciplinary work so important? Willard believes it helps develop the wide-ranging skills needed to address the world’s increasingly interrelated problems. Colleges and employers, he notes, recognize the value of managing complex challenges and organizing different kinds of information.

But, says Willard, “Education at Rivers aspires to be more than that.

It’s not just about helping students develop job skills but about helping them become happy, flourishing human beings and helping others flourish. A flourishing community needs interdisciplinary skills.

“Some would say,” he adds, “that all good teaching is interdisciplinary.”

— Jane Dornbusch

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F u t u r e m a k e r s : P h i la n t h r o p i c i m p a c t Girls’ hockey skated to victory in March.

Do no r C l o se - up — jer emy Coh en ’ 8 7

“Rivers Was the Impetus”

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followed my older brother Neil ’85 to Rivers,” says Jeremy Cohen ’87. He continues, “[My parents] wanted us to have a rigorous high school education. I definitely wasn’t in love with the fact that Rivers was all boys at the time, but it turns out that my parents were definitely right.”

After Rivers, Cohen attended Emory University, in Atlanta, and remained in Atlanta to attend Emory School of Law. Today he is one of the owners of a 30-attorney law firm in Atlanta that focuses primarily on commercial real estate development.

Cohen says that learning how to “bear down and study to make sure I performed well” was a habit mastered at Rivers that carried over to college, law school, and his professional life.

It is something he tries to instill in his two teenage boys (he regrets that they will not have the opportunity to attend Rivers). “Often, there’s no

substitute for rolling up your sleeves and going to work.”

When Cohen thinks of Rivers, he hopes that some aspects of the school have remained unchanged since his time there; he cites camaraderie as one such quality. Thanks to the small classes, he says, “everyone knew everyone else really well— almost too well. Jocks, nerds, artsy guys, it didn’t really matter, as we all hung out together because we were all in it together. The requirement that every student play a sport added to that camaraderie and chemistry.”

Cohen adds that the faculty, too, made the experience richer—not just one or two teachers, he says, but almost too many to name. One that he recalls in particular is football coach and Latin teacher Tom Walsh. Walsh could be gruff at times on the football field, says Cohen, but “in the classroom, he gave it his all. I often said that, if I

Jeremy Cohen (center) at this year’s Super Bowl, with sons Chaz (left) and Mason (right).

were ever a teacher, I would want to teach the exact same way Tom did.”

Cohen is a longtime donor to Rivers. Why does he direct his philanthropy to the school? “Rivers was the impetus that started me down my path of becoming a successful father, husband, and businessman. As a result, it is absolutely worthy of my annual donations.”

Kraft Family Supports Financial Aid

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any connect the Kraft family’s leadership with professional football.

But at Rivers, the family’s true leadership comes in leveling the educational playing field.

Financial aid is a key way to ensure that the student body at Rivers reflects the diversity of the world around it as much as possible. But, even more important, financial aid allows students to have the lifechanging experience of Excellence with Humanity. This is why Myra and Robert Kraft created the Kraft Family Scholarship Fund in 1997—to help ensure equity of access to Rivers. The Krafts are just one of several families

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who have created endowed funds to ensure that the greatest number of students can receive financial aid in perpetuity. Currently, 18 students at Rivers are supported by an endowed financial aid fund.

Azar Swain ’17, a sophomore at Yale who is a standout player on the school’s basketball team, received financial support through the Kraft Family Scholarship Fund. Swain recalls how crucial the Kraft scholarship was to him: “Being supported as a scholar athlete at Rivers allowed me to focus effectively on my schoolwork and my athletics and prepared me academically for the work in the Ivy League.”

Another scholar athlete supported by the Kraft Family Scholarship Fund, Jordan Cross ’15, attributes her upcoming post-college job in New York City to her Rivers experience. “I came from a blue-collar town where most kids don’t get opportunities as big as this one,” she says.

Cross feels deeply grateful for her Rivers education: “I always felt pushed to be my most honest, outgoing, and resilient self, whether it was in the classroom, on the ice, or on the field.” As Patriots Nation cheers another Super Bowl win, here at Rivers we cheer the academic and professional successes of our endowed scholars.

Initiated in 2016, the school’s first-ever comprehensive campaign is funding capital, endowment, and annual priorities at Rivers. Thanks to the generosity and engagement of the Rivers community, we are well on our way toward our $50

240%

Total Raised to Date

$42 Million

Increase in annual cash receipts

$8 Million Still to Raise

$9 Million Annual Fund

Donors to Date

855

$10.5 Million Endowment

Still to Raise out of $50M Goal

first-time donors since beginning of campaign

Additional classroom, lab, and art studio space

More than

34,000 square feet In the new Center for Science & Visual Arts

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New funds established

In FY2015, before we started the FutureMakers campaign, we benefitted from $3,067,364 in cash donations. In FY2018, three years into FutureMakers, we received $10,437,426—a ringing endorsement of our vision for the future of The Rivers School.

2,648

$22.5 Million Capital

$8 Million

million goal. Here are some milestones to date.

More than

$7.8M

committed for Financial Aid

Smallest Gift

$6,400,000

436

Largest Gift

Average # of Volunteer Roles per Year

FutureMakers celebrates every member of the Rivers community, because each one of us plays a fundamental role in shaping what the future can be—for our students, our teachers, our school, our neighbors, and our world.

Nonesuch Society

60% increase

in our| 15 | Riparian planned giving society

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Innovation in the Classroom Rivers Teachers Challenge Students to Challenge Themselves

By Tanya Holton, Heather Jack, and Stephen Porter What makes a Rivers education special? Our teachers.

They are passionate about learning and committed to crafting courses that inspire, excite, and engage. Their students not only master the subject matter but develop valuable life skills and gain important insights into themselves and the world around them. Read on for just a few examples of how Rivers teachers bring Excellence with Humanity to life every day in their classrooms.

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Flipping the Classroom Sixth and Seventh Grade Pre-Algebra with Tori Wilbur

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visitor to Tori Wilbur’s sixth or seventh grade prealgebra classes would never see students sitting in rows staring passively at their teacher as she stands at a whiteboard explaining a new mathematical concept. Instead, the visitor would see students divided into small groups collaborating on problem-solving tasks, planning real-life applications of math concepts such as shopping lists and recipes, or talking excitedly as they plan their next project.

As for Wilbur, she would be found moving from group to group helping to clarify concepts, challenging students to extend their thinking, outlining the parameters of the next activity, or talking individual students through a particularly challenging problem set.

So when do the math lessons take place? The students watch those at home on their iPads. The lessons consist of interactive videos that Wilbur created using the Explain Everything iPad app—41 lessons for sixth grade and 57 lessons for seventh grade.

Welcome to the flipped classroom, a world where students use homework time to get an introduction to a lesson and spend classroom time deepening their understanding of the topic and working collaboratively on a wide range of projects that put mathematical concepts to practical use.

The interactive nature of the iPad and the Apple Pencil allows Wilbur to create lessons by writing and speaking as though she were working one-on-one with a student. Students then move through the lessons at home at a speed that is comfortable for them.

The next day in class, Wilbur reviews the previous night’s topic to make sure everyone understands how each problem is solved before moving on to the application stage.

“The flipped classroom lets the passive part of the

learning process—the lecturing—happen at home, and it allows students to move through that

process at their own pace,” Wilbur explains.

“The active part of learning happens in the classroom with the support of peers and the teacher.”

Hands-on projects are a big part of the classroom experience.

For example, during their study of statistics, Wilbur’s seventh graders must give a presentation that uses statistics to inform others about a specific topic. Students make posters and charts for their presentations and prepare a speech. In a thought- provoking twist, they create two versions of the presentation: one that makes straightforward use of statistics and one that manipulates the statistics in a way that leads their audience into drawing erroneous conclusions.

“That project came out of an interdisciplinary partnership with the Media Literature class,” Wilbur says. “It helps the students understand how statistics can be used both to enlighten and confuse.”

The sixth grade “Natick Open Door Project” requires the students to plan, prepare, and serve a meal to 60 members of a nearby elderly community. “The project involves lots of practical uses of math, as kids have to calculate food amounts and grocery costs,” Wilbur says. “Plus, it gets them out into the world, teaches them a bit about cooking, and introduces them to the rewarding practice of community service.”

When asked to identify the advantages of a flipped classroom, Wilbur can easily rattle off a long list. But of all the benefits, perhaps the one she likes best is that it makes math fun.

“I think that’s the most important thing at this age: that kids have fun in math and that they experience success. Early middle school is when they are going to decide if they love math or hate it. It feels like a really important job to me to help them love math.”

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Exploring Identity through Art Eighth Grade Visual Art with Chris Love

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or millennia, philosophers have considered the question of who we are. At Rivers, students are encouraged to explore this age-old inquiry through the lens of art. Middle School art teacher Chris Love uses art projects and skill-building exercises to plumb the depths of student identity and build appreciation for artistic techniques.

“Over the years, I have seen too many students edit their personal story based on what they think others want to see,” says Love. “My goal is to use art to help students learn to see themselves more clearly.”

Love starts the year by instructing students to draw self-portraits with a line down the middle of the page that separates their summer self from their school self. Asking the students to depict the components of their “twin” selves helps them start to see the difference between who they are and who they might think they are.

The fall continues with students working on personal stories that have written and visual components. With the focus still on self-exploration, the student projects are designed to demonstrate how different media, alternative techniques, and varying color can convey their story in a way that words alone might not.

An iteration of this quest for identity involves another round of self-portraits tied to Día de los Muertos, the Mexican holiday that celebrates the memory of deceased friends and family members.

“For this project,” says Love, “students take a selfie and transform it into a mask representing how they would express their personality and tell their own story through images on their face.” During another classroom exercise, Love has Middle School students draw their shoe over and over again in time periods lasting from 10 seconds to 45 seconds.

Love wants students to understand that “you’ve got to mess up to get great.

I tell my students that they need to learn to risk it all. If you feel bored doing the same artistic task repeatedly, ramp up the challenge by using different colors or new media,” Love says.

“Ultimately, I want students to understand that they can learn from each effort of drawing what they see, and that what they see in front of them is an aspect of who they are.”

Unlocking the Mysteries of the Universe through Physics AP Physics with Stewart Pierson

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hysics,” says longtime physics teacher Stewart Pierson, “constantly requires you to figure out the rules of this world you are in and to figure out how to apply those rules to solve problems.”

Almost every student at Rivers takes a course in physics, and Pierson hopes every one of them finds the subject as fascinating as he does. He admits that’s a lofty goal. Nevertheless, he is convinced that everyone who takes physics will benefit from the experience in critically important ways.

“Those with an affinity and passion for physics can move on to the sophisticated concepts of Advanced Physics and AP Physics,” he says. “But even the students who take introductory-level physics get the benefit of having gone

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through the process of solving unfamiliar problems. Physics forces you to solve a succession of challenging problems. It hands you that practice every day in every test and every lab.

Being good at problem solving is a fundamental life skill.”

Those who do go on to take higher-level physics courses find Pierson eager and ready to lead them into a deep exploration of the complex workings of the universe.

Over the years, the AP Physics courses at Rivers have evolved, moving from non-calculus-based classes to calculusbased classes. Pierson is excited by the change.

“Connecting the two subjects allows students to bring their growing math skills into their physics work. That physics relies on math is probably obvious, but when you bring calculus into

it, it raises the game. Students quickly come to see the power of calculus.

It allows us to explore physics at a deeper level and tackle more interesting problems.”

This exploration happens through classroom work and labs. During the labs, students engage in hands-on activities that help them understand complex concepts. In the section on forces, for example, students will work with pulleys, pendulums, rolling carts, and even swinging bowling balls as they study the many forces at work in the world around them.

“We try to find a good balance between hands-on work and diving deeply into the textbooks, which students need to do in order to develop the depth of the math that they need to know,” says Pierson.

Although the students in AP Physics are up for the challenge, Pierson acknowledges that the material is difficult. To keep his students engaged, he starts each class by asking one science question that the students will discuss for 10 minutes. The questions can be as esoteric as “Do we have free will?” or as practical as “How does a refrigerator work?”

“Instead of just jumping into homework, we start with a free-flowing conversation about what we know and what we think,” says Pierson. “We spend a lot of time hypothesizing an answer, and the discussions are great. It gives us a chance to relax and just enjoy thinking about the world and how it works, so that we can take that energy and go back to studying physics.”

Understanding Systems of Justice and Injustice Eighth Grade Humanities with Melissa Dolan

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our years ago, humanities teacher Melissa Dolan became increasingly concerned by the country’s growing polarization, which was making it difficult to engage in civil discourse on complex issues. People were viewing the world in stark, black-and-white terms, as nuanced thinking, along with compromise and empathy, seemed to be disappearing from the national stage.

Although the eighth grade humanities course has long focused on helping students understand U.S. history and the American experience through the lens of literature, Dolan, who graduated from Rivers in 1998, realized that the course needed to evolve to help students make sense of the growing tensions dividing the country.

“We needed to talk about complex historical events, like segregation and the civil rights movement, in a way that would help them better understand the political and social dynamics that were at play in the world around them,” Dolan says. “We needed to make the course more relevant, to strengthen the connections between the past and the present. And we needed to help students develop the thinking skills necessary for engaging in nuanced discussions about current events.”

Today the course achieves those goals by introducing students to the concept of “systems thinking,” an approach that helps students analyze complex subjects.

“If we think about people as belonging to different systems that influence their beliefs, development, experience, and actions, it helps students become more open-minded in how they view the world. It helps them appreciate cause and effect and be more empathetic to different perspectives,” says Dolan. sprin g 2019

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The goal is not to teach students what to think, but rather how to think about complex subjects. The course, an inter- disciplinary blend of history and English, makes use of a wide variety of resources, including primary source material written by historical figures such as Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr., as well as poetry and novels.

“We think about the characters in the literature we read— like To Kill a Mockingbird and Animal Farm—and the kind of systems they are in,” Dolan explains. “We talk about how they

understand their role in these systems. Over time, students start linking different time periods and characters and novels, and they start making connections that help them understand the larger world.”

The course also includes an extensive writing component that helps students not only develop skills but understand how language can be used to promote a particular interpretation of a story. The goal is to help them become critical thinkers, able to examine how a story is being told and whether the storyteller— be it a historian, novelist, or newscaster—has an agenda or bias.

At the end of the year, each student takes on a project exploring a particular system that intersects with the American experience and the responsibility of government to ensure justice.

“This is an inquiry-based class, where we tackle big questions and figure out how to answer them,” says Dolan. “As a teacher, I set the structure and expectations, but the students drive the conversation. I love helping students wrestle with complexity. I love to see their thinking skills develop, and I love how they can often show me new ways of thinking about things.

The students are active and collaborating, and a big part of my job is knowing when to get out of the way and let them run.”

Making Global Connections International Relations with Andrea Diaz

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he history curriculum at Rivers challenges students to go beyond knowing dates, names, and events from the past. It encourages them to analyze the past from different perspectives, to think critically about the ways in which societies evolved, and to make connections between the past, present, and future.

To that end, the history department has carefully crafted and sequenced its courses, providing a logical growth path for student learning. “Student learning should proceed on a continuum that builds skills progressively and leads students into deeper and deeper levels of complexity,” says Andrea Diaz, department chair.

In the Upper School, the path begins in ninth grade with a course in world history that focuses primarily on the past 200 years. Students study history through different thematic lenses such as wealth and poverty, violence and conflict, and the function of religion and ethics in the human experience.

After completing United States History in the tenth grade, students in grades 11 and 12 can choose from several AP courses as well as an array of trimester electives. In her International Relations elective, Diaz stretches students’ understanding of the dynamics that shape the relationships between nations.

She teaches students about four fundamental theories of international relations—realism, constructivism, liberalism, and radicalism—and helps them apply the theories to current events so they can understand different countries’ behavior and decisions.

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“Students come to see that international affairs are complex and that finding solutions to global problems is not easy. They come to appreciate the importance of compromise, diplomacy, and cross-cultural understanding,” says Diaz. “It also makes them appropriately skeptical of those who suggest there are easy solutions to these complicated problems.”

Students are given a bi-weekly assignment to select a news story that is relevant to the study of international relations and present an oral summary of the article. Students must choose a different area of the globe for each report—Southeast Asia one time, Africa the next, Western Europe the following. The

exercise gives students the chance to engage in deep discussions about countries whose relationships with the U.S. are in the media that surrounds them every day, such as Russia, North Korea, and France.

One significant new resource that Diaz and all Rivers teachers have at their disposal this year is the Center for Community and Civic Engagement, directed by Amy Enright, former history department chair. Equipped with a videoconferencing

system and driven by its mission to help students become knowledgeable, engaged citizens in the world, the center provides the potential for exciting new learning opportunities.

“The center will help us strengthen the connection between history and current events, and it will create new opportunities for our students to talk directly with experts located around the world,” says Diaz. “It will help bring to life even more vividly for students the concept that past is prologue.”

Gaining Insight into the Mind Psychological Literature with Jennie Hutton Jacoby

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dolescence can be a challenging time. Teenagers may often feel anxious, confused, and isolated. Jennie Hutton Jacoby’s English elective, Psychological Literature, strives to give students insight into themselves and others with a bit more clarity and empathy. Jacoby does this by using literature—both fiction and nonfiction—to introduce her students to the different branches of psychology, the different approaches to psychotherapy, and some common psychol- ogical profiles.

“Literature serves as a great vehicle for discussing difficult topics,” says Jacoby, who has taught at Rivers for 23 years. “It provides students with the opportunity to see that they are not alone in their struggles to understand their emotions and their reactions to the stresses of life. It also provides a safe way to talk about those things.”

For example, students are introduced to the emotionally dysfunctional family in Judith Guest’s novel Ordinary People; through them, they explore the damaging effects of guilt and blame. Peter Schaffer’s play Equus provides the framework for using a Freudian lens to uncover the motivation behind a teenager’s violent crime.

The novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey provides the opportunity to discuss the debilitating effects of rejection and shame, as students delve into understanding mental illness and the power dynamics in an institutional setting. Sylvia Plath’s poetry and her autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar, help students understand the spiral of depression, while Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” explores a new mother’s descent into postpartum psychosis.

By pairing these and other literary readings with memoirs and case studies, Jacoby makes the literature feel more real and relevant. “Reading the biographies of the various authors, as well as studying the cultural landscape and political environment of the time periods in which the works were written, allows us to gain deeper insights into the meanings of the works and into the mindset of the authors.”

For Jacoby, one of the most rewarding outcomes of the course is that students are better able to make connections between the literature and their own lives, encouraging them to become more aware, forgiving, and empathetic. Hers is the kind of course that students often reflect upon and remember for years after they graduate.

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Music and Academic Excellence

At R i v ers ,

E x ist in P er f ect H armon y

By Audrey Doyle

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hen Gabriella Sanna, director of the Rivers School Conservatory (RSC) and chair of Rivers’s Performing Arts Department, was entering ninth grade in her native Italy, she asked her parents if she could enroll in a music conservatory instead of high school.

“They said no. If I wanted to attend conservatory, I’d have to do it at the same time as high school,” Sanna says.

Although Sanna had displayed great aptitude as a pianist from an early age and knew she wanted to pursue a career in music, her parents were concerned she’d be limiting her options by attending a conservatory that provided rigorous, focused music instruction but didn’t offer a comprehensive academic program.

So, unwilling to give up on her dream, Sanna says she did the only thing she could do: “I went to two different schools at the same time, focusing on two different degrees at the same time. And it was very difficult.”

At Rivers, students don’t have to choose between music education and academic excellence—or set foot off campus to achieve both.

Through The Rivers School’s Conservatory Program, which celebrated its 15th anniversary this past fall, Rivers students with a talent for and deep interest in music can prepare to pursue serious music study in college and beyond, while at the same time following Rivers’s rigorous academic program.

And Rivers students who are passionate about music but don’t wish to commit to the full Conservatory Program can, through the RSC, choose from a comprehensive list of music courses taught by distinguished and highly accomplished faculty, enjoying access to private lessons, performance-quality instruments and facilities, and myriad performance opportunities.

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That Rivers successfully combines such outstanding music instruction with advanced academic programming—and delivers both in an environment that allows students to reach their full potential without compromising their well-being—epitomizes the school’s commitment to achieving Excellence with Humanity.

“How the school and the music program work together is really quite exceptional,” says Sanna. Because the academic faculty understand that students participating in the Conservatory Program have deadlines and commitments, and vice versa, assignments and expectations are set in a “very mindful way,” she says. This gives students the freedom to explore their interest in music and assures parents that they can do so while reaping the rewards of a Rivers education, she says.

Evolving the Music Program to Meet Students’ Needs Lauded as one of the leading pre-college conservatories in the country, the Rivers School Conservatory, which will celebrate its 45th anniversary next year, is the foundation of the music program at Rivers. Students can develop, strengthen, and refine their music abilities via classes and private, in-depth instruction in classical and jazz instruments, piano, and voice. They can also participate in orchestra, chamber ensembles, big band, jazz combos, and men’s and women’s choruses that meet during the school day and perform regularly for the Rivers community and beyond.

When the RSC was established, in 1975, it served as an independent music school for families from Weston, Wellesley, and Wayland. Classes and lessons were conducted in Blackwell House, the unoccupied house of former Rivers headmaster George Blackwell. Today the RSC serves approximately 100 Rivers students and nearly 800 children and adults from across the region. Classes and lessons are held in Blackwell House

and Bradley Hall—the latter, which opened its doors in 2007, also boasts a state-of-the-art concert hall—and are delivered by more than 100 full-time and part-time artist-teachers who have decades of performance experience.

In fact, performance is the center of the RSC’s philosophy, Sanna says, and the breadth and depth of performance opportunities available to students are among the many factors that contribute to the RSC’s success. “Performance isn’t a natural talent; it’s a skill that needs to be practiced,” she says. “Students participate in workshops, informal performances, more than 200 recitals, competitions—the huge variety of opportunities we offer throughout the year gives them a solid foundation for success.”

Furthermore, because most of the faculty have at least a master’s degree in performance and are active performers, they understand how hard it can be for students to perform on stage. As such, they teach students how to channel any performance anxiety they may be feeling into positive, constructive energy, as well as how to bounce back if they give a less-than-stellar performance. This helps students develop emotionally, and it builds self-confidence, discipline, and resilience—skills that will benefit them in countless ways throughout their lives, regardless of the field they choose.

Also contributing to the RSC’s success is the fact that all lessons are private. Students receive instruction that’s tailored to their specific learning styles, and any mistakes or concerns are addressed at once, in a way that might be difficult in a group setting.

According to Sanna, all of these factors played a part in the RSC’s ability to grow, even during economic downturns. When the country entered a recession in the early 2000s, many of the area’s public schools cut funding for their music programs, which led to some growth in RSC enrollment of non-Rivers students. Yet, even as the economy improved and schools began to reinstate their music programs, students outside of the Rivers community continued to enroll in lessons at the RSC, seeking a higher-level experience than typically offered in school-based music programs.

“More performance opportunities and high-quality private lessons are what help students develop to their full artistic potential,” Sanna says. That the RSC grew even after the reinstatement of music programs in area public schools “speaks to the quality of the instruction provided here,” she adds.

Whereas all Rivers students can elect to take music courses through the RSC, the Conservatory Program within the RSC is highly selective; students must apply for it separately and must be accepted to both Rivers and the Conservatory Program to participate. Created by David Tierney, Sanna’s predecessor, the Conservatory Program can accommodate 40 students and is open to classical and jazz instrumentalists and vocalists in grades 9 through 12.

The Conservatory Program’s academic curriculum, identical to that of Rivers, offers 23 honors and 15 AP-level courses across all of the school’s departments. Its music curriculum is equally rigorous: During the school day, Conservatory Program students

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join Rivers students who are taking music courses through the RSC; at the end of the school day, they also take classes in music theory, ear training, performance, improvisation, solfège, and independent studies. They are also assigned to Conservatory Program jazz, chamber, or vocal ensembles.

For students in the Rivers Middle School, a version of the Conservatory Program is available during the fall and winter.

This program, which began in 2013, is a bit less formal and intensive than the Upper School program. But it is still rigorous, with required participation in a jazz combo, chamber ensemble, or vocal ensemble that meets once a week, as well as a weekly theory class.

Like the RSC, the Conservatory Program has also evolved since it was formed. “We started the program with seven Upper School students and five faculty,” says Conservatory Program director Dan Shaud, who also directs the Upper School orchestra and Middle School chamber ensemble and teaches horn and

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theory at the RSC. “Everyone took solfège singing class with me as well as theory every week, and we all sang together, faculty included, in a short-lived community choir. Concerts were at nursing homes and nearby churches and featured every single student performing classical solos.”

The opening of Bradley Hall in 2007 ushered in a new era characterized by a dramatic increase in enrollment and more highly structured music theory, chamber music, vocal ensemble, and jazz combo programs, according to Shaud. Since then, the Conservatory Program has expanded to offer courses in classical and jazz composition and a visual arts elective, and it now draws on the RSC faculty for additional support, he says.

Developing Students through Music Education Regardless of how music education is delivered at Rivers— be it through the Conservatory Program or simply through the RSC classes available to all students—the school considers it to

be fundamental to students’ development. Numerous studies, conducted by Brown University’s Annenberg Institute and others, have shown that, in addition to helping students achieve academically, music education is linked to social and emotional development, cultural awareness, and improved self-esteem, and it can help develop critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, and time management skills.

But even Rivers students who aren’t taking music lessons or playing an instrument experience the benefits of the music program. As Sanna explains, along with a multitude of student performances, the RSC hosts numerous concerts by guest artists. “We’ve had members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra perform in Bradley Hall, and we’ve hosted many famous composers, including John Cage and John Harbison,” she says.

The entire Rivers community has access to these performances, giving members the opportunity to develop a deeper appreciation for music and the arts.

Clearly, as the Rivers music program has evolved over the years, it has played a vital role in fulfilling the school’s mission to achieve Excellence with Humanity by giving students both the tools they need to succeed and a caring, supportive environment in which to pursue that success. “What we provide here is very special—and it’s something I wish I had available to me when I was a child,” Sanna says.

“To keep it special, we’ll keep assessing how to evolve as our students’ needs evolve,” she concludes. “That’s how we’ll be able to continue serving all our students well and prepare them for future success.” � R

Gabriella Sanna, director of the Rivers School Conservatory

Laying the Groundwork for Success

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ccording to RSC director Gabriella Sanna, the Conservatory Program’s challenging academic and music curriculum prepares students for entry into highly selective colleges and conservatories, as evidenced by the impressive list of institutions to which alumni have matriculated, among them Harvard, Tufts, Juilliard, the Royal Academy of Music in London, the New England Conservatory of Music, Berklee College of Music, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, MIT, and Yale.

Many Conservatory Program alumni are using the discipline, sensitivity, creativity, and community spirit they developed in the program to inform the choices they’re making and the lives they’re leading, says Conservatory Program director Dan Shaud. For example, Julia Strauss ’15, currently a senior at Harvard, has continued to play bassoon in a number of Harvard ensembles while majoring in linguistics. She plans to pursue a career in medicine. Marissa Birne ’15,

currently a senior at Tufts, co-founded and is co- president of a service club there called Public Har- mony that brings music to local shelters and assisted living facilities. And Alex Barstow ’07, who earned BA and BMu degrees through the Tufts/New England Conservatory dual-degree program, works as a computer programmer and plays viola with an Americana roots band called Grain Thief.

In addition, some alumni of the Conservatory Program have established careers in music. For example, upon graduating from Berklee College of Music, jazz pianist Ross Hoyt ’10 launched a career in music production for video games, television, film, and media. And Henry Fraser ’10, a New England Conservatory of Music graduate, is a bassist and composer who has toured throughout the United States, Europe, and South America and collaborated with a host of jazz luminaries, including Anthony Coleman, Brandon Seabrook, and Sam Weinberg.

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Diversity 2.0 Equity, Inclusion, and Courageous Conversations

By Jane Dornbusch

John Bower, of the diversity, equity, and inclusion office, addresses students during the Day of Consideration.

Students spoke at the Day of Consideration’s “This is my America” assembly.

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t had been a long time coming, but about four years ago, John Bower, Rivers’s director of diversity, equity, and inclusion, realized that the moment had come for a shift in the school’s approach to diversity. Back when the school’s initial diversity statement was written, the focus had been on numbers—on simply getting more students and faculty of color into the mix.

But, as many independent schools, colleges, and institutions had come to realize, numbers didn’t come close to telling the whole story or providing a framework for creating a fully diverse community. After years of working in the field, Bower knew that there had to be more to it—namely, that a cultural shift involving equity and inclusion was also needed.

In short, he says, it was time for Diversity 2.0.

For those not working in the area of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), the terms can be confusing. DEI educator Verna Myers is sometimes quoted as saying “Diversity is being

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asked to the party. Inclusion is being asked to dance.” And equity, to extend the metaphor, might be ensuring that everyone has the same access and opportunity to dance, and feels welcome to do so.

Bower brought his concerns to Head of School Ned Parsons, who quickly agreed that a revised statement was necessary.

“Diversity is the makeup of the community, but the inclusion and equity piece is almost more important or more central, in the sense that we want all students to have an equally transformational experience during their time here, to have an equal opportunity to find their passions and grow,” says Parsons. “We don’t want anything to get in the way of that.”

From a practical standpoint, that might mean ensuring that no student misses opportunities or activities for want of funding or transportation. But in ideological terms, hammering out a new diversity statement was more fraught. A committee was formed, and a “visioning process” was undertaken in the spring of 2017; it wasn’t until the following spring that the committee put its recommendation in front of Parsons.

“The struggle was with the word ‘privilege,’ ” Bower recalls.

“We were acknowledging ourselves as privileged, and as a committee, we felt strongly that privilege needed to be in the statement.” But in what way? In the end, members landed on a commitment “to examine our individual and collective privilege” (see sidebar for the full revamped diversity statement), which Bower feels was a good solution.

Parsons brought the statement before the board of trustees, telling them, “I see us being at an inflection point. We are

ready and eager to step into even more meaningful work along these lines.” There were head nods and thumbs-up around the room, and the statement was adopted. This marks the first academic year it has been in place.

Courageous Conversations Already, the impact has been noticeable—although those involved say the statement is both prescriptive and descriptive, to some extent reflecting DEI work already under way at Rivers.

Perhaps the most significant phrase in the statement, and one that is heard frequently and in many contexts on campus, is “courageous conversations.” Several campus initiatives embody the stated goal of engaging in such conversations.

The Day of Consideration, held in February, is one such undertaking. Katie Henderson, coordinator of Upper School diversity, equity, and inclusion programming, says the Day of Consideration is perhaps six years old. But what was different this year, she says, was an intentional effort to engage students and faculty in the run-up to the day so that the impact is farreaching. “We want it to feel like it has ripple effects; we’d love for teachers to be thinking about curricular connections,” she says.

This year’s Day of Consideration, themed around the American Dream, featured some 40 faculty- and guest-led workshops, which, says Henderson, was “exponentially more than we’ve had in the past. The messaging is that this was everybody’s day, and we want people to feel like this is everybody’s work.” Keynote speaker Steven Tejada kicked off the day with an excerpt from his one-man show, in which he inhabits several characters based on people he encountered during his South Bronx youth. The day ended with a student-led “walk in my shoes” activity that provided a snapshot of equity and inclusion in the Rivers community, followed by small-group debriefings and an assembly on the topic of “This is my America.”

Parsons applauds the Day of Consideration as a “great interdisciplinary approach to really complex issues that are driving

conflicts.” One of his concerns, he says, is that issues are too frequently reduced to sound bites. “These issues are really complex and take a lot of work to understand. [Students’] empathy and intellect are going to be called upon, and we need to make them understand that there are more questions to be asked than answers to be had.”

The approach focuses on introspection, respect, and values, and thus transcends any particular political orientation, say those involved. The election of 2016 changed the conversation

The Rivers School’s Diversity Statement

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he Rivers School believes that developing a sincere appreciation for and understanding of diverse perspectives, experiences, and identities is integral to achieving its broader mission of preparing students to lead and live in a world that “needs their talents, imagination, intellect, and compassion.” We embrace difference in its myriad forms, encourage every individual to be their authentic self, and value the inherent dignity of every member of our community.

As we confront issues of injustice, prejudice, and bigotry in the world around us, we challenge all members of our community to engage in courageous conversations that require us to speak across difference of experiences and opinions, to examine our individual and collective privilege, to ask hard questions, and to seek solutions to complex global issues.

Students participated in an interactive “walk in my shoes” activity.

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nationally, and Rivers is not immune from that. But, says Parsons, “I’m not interested in telling students what to think; I’m interested in teaching them how to think.” He continues, “We decided it was time to step into it in a meaningful, purposeful way and not put our heads in the sand.”

Not long before this year’s Day of Consideration, the school held an assembly for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, at which students of color powerfully expressed their thoughts and feelings around the use of the N-word. For Parsons, the candid presentation epitomized the work that has been done here, and the work that remains. “We’re not a place of perfection; no school is,” he notes, adding that “we don’t always get to hear it in stark terms from the mouths of those who walk in those shoes every day.”

Courageous conversations, Parsons is quick to point out, must also be civil conversations—an impulse that led to the creation of the Center for Community and Civic Engagement (CCCE) last fall. “In this contentious and complicated world our kids are graduating into, no one is teaching the skill of civic engagement, of how to be a citizen in an effective democracy,” says Parsons. “The center was born of our newfound conviction that these kids need to develop that skill set, to be able to sit across from someone they disagree with and make it a productive conversation.” (See sidebar below for more on the CCCE.) Another campus DEI initiative that pre-dates the new diversity statement but which has taken on a new life is Critical Conversations, a monthly get-together for faculty. It grew out

The Center for Community and Civic Engagement: Connecting Rivers and the World

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istory teacher Amy Enright, who directs the Center for Community and Civic Engagement (CCCE), describes the mission of the new initiative as twofold: to celebrate the many existing programs at Rivers in which students engage with public issues and to create new opportunities and models for civic engagement for students. A speaker series, student-designed projects, and curricular connections have been the CCCE’s main focus since it opened in September.

Located in MacDowell Library, the center is equipped with teleconferencing equipment that allows students to interact with visitors and experts all over the world. Along with service learning director Kit Cunningham, Enright also acts as a resource for students seeking internships and other off-campus opportunities.

Perhaps most important for now, the CCCE is a place where students can practice disagreeing. One of the first

tests came just days after the center opened, during the confirmation hearings for then Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Enright invited community members to watch the hearings, and they came by the dozens.

An upshot, says Enright, is that “we realized that having courageous conversations takes training.” As it happens, that process had begun a week earlier, when Nate Otey, content lead at ThinkerAnalytix and a fellow in Harvard’s philosophy department, gave an interactive presentation to the Upper School on reasoning skills and respect in argumentation.

During the hearings, students across the political spectrum were heard and respected. Enright sees a straight line from the school’s renewed DEI efforts to the need for such conversations: “Now that there’s more diversity here, it makes perfect sense that this issue of courageous conversations is in the forefront.”

Students engage with a classroom visitor via videoconference at the CCCE.

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Steven Tejada, the Day of Consideration keynote speaker. Inset: After the “walk in my shoes” activity, students debriefed in small groups.

of a 2014 faculty meeting at which attendees voiced a desire to have a regular forum for discussing DEI concerns. Each month, interested faculty members turn out to discuss a different aspect of DEI. Bower says faculty participation has steadily increased, reflecting a general trend. The new statement, he says, includes a call to action, and faculty members have risen to the challenge.

This year saw the creation of yet another initiative, connecting with the community on another front. As part of the diversity strategic plan to bring more meaningful conversations about DEI to the community, the DEI committee created a Parent Diversity Speaker Series, designed to bring parents into the conversation. “That’s another big frontier,” says Henderson.

“We wanted to bring in not just families of color, but all of our parents, to just keep signaling that this is what we do.” The series launched in March with a visit from distinguished DEI educator Dr. Liza Talusan. Some 60 parents turned out to hear Talusan discuss the topic of engaging children in conversations about racism, unconscious bias, privilege, and power.

New Director, New Directions In March, Parsons announced the hiring of Ava Archibald as new director of DEI, beginning in July. Bower will step fully into his role as assistant head of the Middle School and add to that the position of coordinator of Middle School DEI programming, so that he, Archibald, and Henderson will form a threeperson department. Says Bower, “Deciding to step away from the position of director of DEI did not come easily to me. I am encouraged and excited to know that Ava will join us in moving this work forward at an incredibly high level. Going from an office of one to an office of three, especially with Ava at the helm, makes a huge statement with respect to our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion at Rivers.”

Parsons anticipates that Archibald will extend the school’s diversity work into new areas, actively participating in the admissions process and in the recruitment of faculty of color.

“Hiring diverse faculty is a major priority for us,” says Parsons.

“Ava’s hire represents the next step in our work to be the inclu-

sive school community we seek to be, and we can’t wait for her to get started.” (For more on Archibald, see story on page 4.)

Above all, says Parsons, he’s committed to continued progress. “We are going to step into this work,” he says. “We are not going to back away from it.” � R

On the Same Page: Reading Dignity

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ast summer, in preparation for the upcoming academic year, faculty and staff read Dignity: The Essential Role It Plays in Resolving Conflicts by Donna Hicks. Later, there were small-group discussions, and in September, Hicks came to campus to speak on the topic of dignity.

Middle School Head Mike Kris ’87 had known Hicks for many years and thought the book would be a good fit, as Rivers pondered ways to hold conversations that are challenging, meaningful, and respectful. Kris explains why it made a great framework for teaching students how to treat one another: “Kids confuse respect and dignity. Respect is something you earn, but dignity is something you’re born with. No one can take that away.”

How does that play into the school’s focus on courageous conversations? Kris says that when students try on behaviors that may offend others—as middle schoolers will—he’s able to correct them using the concept of dignity and make it a teachable moment. Or, if students are afraid to talk about racism for fear of saying the wrong thing or hurting someone’s feelings, says Kris, “we can get into nuanced issues of intent versus impact.” In the end, it ties back to dignity and the way we treat one another.

Says Kris, “That’s the beauty of the dignity model. We can always come back to this basic premise that everyone has value.”

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postcard from campus

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Zombie Prom, the Nonesuch Players’ winter production, had it all: rat-a-tat dialogue, showstopping musical numbers, and, of course, the undead. Director Daniel Bolton called the experience of working on the show “amazing.” For more, see page 6.

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Pa r e n t s ’ L e a g u e n e w s

Senior Parents Celebrate

Mark Caggiano, Alison Hall, Ginny Caggiano, Mary-Ellen and Michael Sanderson

Arlene and Greg Stoller ’87, Priya Manasseh

Jennifer Paul, Alison and Bill Monaghan, Lisa Parsons Thomas and Christine Lally, Julie and Mike Deneen

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enior year is a time of excitement and transition.

To celebrate this milestone in their children’s lives, parents of the Class of 2019 gathered at the Head’s House in September as the school year got under way. Ned Parsons welcomed the crowd, sharing with the group his own experiences parenting a high school senior and assuring them that their children truly are ready to take that next big step. � R

Julie Wallace, John Schwartz, Ned Parsons

Parents enjoyed mingling and chatting at the fall gathering.

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Spring Break in San Francisco: Learning and Connecting

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n March, a group of 15 students traveled to San Francisco for an experience that brought them in contact with Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurship, the city’s struggles with homelessness, and a network of West Coast alumni eager to share and connect with them.

Among the trip highlights was a two-day hackathon held at ArcTouch, hosted by the app design and development company’s founder and CEO, Eric Shapiro ’86.

Shapiro encouraged the students to consider the problem they’re trying to solve, the potential customer, and the business, marketing, and technical sides. Students then broke into small groups, developed app ideas, and pitched them at a Shark Tank–style presentation.

The students, along with Ned Parsons, Eric Shapiro, and John Adams

Later, the group attended a reception at the home of Ali Grabler Stein ’01, where T.J. Hill ’93 spoke about social entrepreneurship, philanthropy, and the value of simple acts of kindness.

The students visited Glide Memorial Foundation, a leader in social-service programs, and then walked to historic city hall, where they met with Rick Sheinfeld ’80, a lawyer in the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office, and his colleagues to discuss various urban challenges. There were also meetings with Dylan Lockman ’07, Ken Friedman ’86, Chris Ehrlich ’88, and Simon Walter ’89. Friendships were cemented, connections were forged, and students gained powerful insights into navigating life after Rivers. � R

Ned Parsons, John Adams, John’s sister Hannah Willson, Ali Grabler Stein ’01, and T.J. Hill ’93 Math faculty member John Adams (left) works with students at ArcTouch’s San Francisco office.

Ned Parsons, Eric Shapiro ’86, and ArcTouch’s Adam Fingerman

T.J. Hill ’93, Whitnie Narcisse, and Carl Narcisse ’02

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Veterans Day

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ivers has long honored veterans in our community on Veterans Day. This past year, Dave Donahue ’03 addressed students and faculty, while alumni, parents, and others were recognized for their service to our country. Students were dressed formally for the occasion, and after the presentation, the community gathered around the flagpole for the playing of “Taps,” in honor of fallen veterans. � R

Above: Dave Donahue ’03, Richard Dana ’52, Griff Griffin ’61, Bob Cleverdon ’40, Bill Tyler ’43, Renny Little ’51, Jim Bullion P’04, ’06, ’10 , ’12, and Larry Colvin ’66 returned to campus to help honor those who have served our country.

Featured speaker Dave Donahue ’03 at the flagpole with his mother, assistant director of athletics Susanna Donahue

Thanksgiving Get-Together

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ozens of alumni from the classes of 2001 through 2016 kicked off the Thanksgiving weekend with a Wednesday night gathering at Lir in Boston.

This year’s event drew more than 75 grads, who enjoyed chatting, reminiscing, and sharing their Rivers spirit. � R

Bella Eberth, Ali Kraft, and Olivia McSweeney, all Class of 2015 Emily Snider ’12 and Justin Snider ’15

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Celebrating Art History at Rivers

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n December, more than 30 alumni joined legendary teacher Jack Jarzavek and current teacher Ben Leeming at the Harvard Club in New York City to celebrate their combined 50 years of teaching art history at Rivers. The evening started with drinks and hors d’oeuvres and featured an intimate conversation with the two revered faculty members. � R

Ben Leeming and Jack Jarzavek

John Stimpson ’88, who moderated the discussion, shared a quiet moment with Jarzavek.

Miles Jacoby ’07, Nicki Hunter ’05, and Lauren Fink ’05 were among the alumni in attendance.

Young Alumni Lunch

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embers of the Class of 2018 came to campus for lunch in January, while many were on their college winter break. This was the launch of a planned annual lunch for the most recent graduating class. The visitors enjoyed a special meal prepared in their honor and had a chance to visit with current students, faculty, and coaches. � R

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Alumni Athletes Return to MacDowell

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his past winter break saw alumni athletes back on campus to practice with current teams. And the annual Alumni Hockey Game was held at the end of February, followed by a lunch in Hutton Commons. � R

Former members of the Rivers girls’ hockey team came back to campus to practice with the current team.

David Shemligian ’86, Charlie Mulkeen ’86, Bill Stewart ’85, and Doug Stocklan ’85, all members of the ’85 championship team, skated in the traditional alumni hockey game in February.

Boys’ basketball alumni joined a winter practice with the current team.

Boys’ hockey alumni hit the ice with the current team for a December practice session.

Alumni Address Seniors at Rivers Connect

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ome 20 alumni returned to campus this February for “Rivers Connect: Life Beyond Winter Street,” a rebranding of the event formerly known as career night. The new name and focus reflect a shift in emphasis toward acquiring self-knowledge and life skills after high school, as demonstrated by the experiences of the visiting alumni who shared their stories. The event also functioned as an introduction to the strong network of Rivers alumni that the seniors will soon join. � R

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Alumni came from near and far to share their real-world wisdom.

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2 0 1 9 A l u m n i Ex c ell e nc e Awa rd — Ro bert Hoh ler ’69

Stories That Make a Difference

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ob Hohler has an indisputable knack for being in the right place at the right time.

The recipient of this year’s Alumni Excellence Award is a longtime reporter for the Boston Globe whose stories have won awards, led to policy changes, and exposed wrongdoing.

To hear the modest Hohler tell it, however, luck has played as large a role as talent in his success. Several times throughout his career, he’s been the beneficiary of a kind of reportorial kismet that has put him in the path of big stories just before they break.

But his initial stroke of luck, he says, was landing at Rivers. He spent his first two years of high school at Brookline High, falling through the cracks at the large public school.

“My parents had just turned 19 when I was born, and they were sort of low income and struggling, but they had the wherewithal to notice I was wasting my future,” he recalls. Through the intervention of a family friend who worked at Rivers, he attended the school with generous financial aid, for which he remains deeply grateful.

“They took a chance on me, and it really made all the difference, a difference that has lasted a lifetime. Rivers really saved me,” Hohler says. The structure, the small classes, the requisite jackets and ties—all were a new world. But the school welcomed him, he says. “I never felt shunned for being different.”

Hohler is characteristically self- effacing in describing his Rivers career.

“If they’d done a poll back then on who’d be most likely to win an excellence award, I’d have been at the bottom of the list.” And his post-Rivers journey didn’t quite proceed in a

“[Rivers] took a chance on me, and it really made all the difference, a difference that has lasted a lifetime.” straight line. He went on to the University of Vermont but dropped out after a couple of years. Returning to Boston, he drove a cab for several years while attending Suffolk University part time, eventually earning a degree in journalism in 1980. He soon landed his first job at a daily, working at the Concord Monitor in Concord, N.H. And then came the first of his many important stories. Assigned to cover Christa McAuliffe, the Concord teacher chosen to join the space shuttle crew, he followed the story for months, traveling the country with McAuliffe as she trained for the flight.

When the shuttle exploded, Hohler was uniquely positioned to cover the tragedy insightfully, later writing a book about it called I Touch The Future. The Globe took notice, and a job offer followed.

At the Globe, Hohler worked as a metro reporter for a couple of years before being assigned to the Washington bureau—the right place at the right time. He spent nearly the entire Clinton administration in D.C., covering government and politics and serving as the Globe’s chief reporter on the president’s impeachment. By 2000, he says, “it was time to come home” to Boston, though he wasn’t sure what sort of assignment he’d find there.

It proved to be another big break.

“Incredibly, the Red Sox beat opened up. To me, this was both a dream and a nightmare,” says Hohler. “I grew up near Fenway, and I loved baseball and the Red Sox. But it was so daunting.

An editor said to me, ‘This is as big as covering the Kennedy White House.’ ” It certainly played out that way; few area residents need to be reminded about what happened in 2004, Hohler’s final year on the beat.

His next act: investigative sports reporter. He’s particularly proud of the work he’s done in that role, from a big series on inequities in athletics in Boston public schools to an exposé of former tennis great Bob Hewitt’s sexual abuse of girls he coached.

Hohler also worked with the Globe’s Spotlight team on “Gladiator,” a series delving into the life of former Patriots’ player—and convicted murderer— Aaron Hernandez.

Hohler, like most newspaper veterans, is concerned about the future of print media, but he believes there will always be a place for good journalism.

As for his own pursuit of stories that matter, he’s not contemplating quitting anytime soon. “I’d love to spend more time with my grandson,” he says. “But there always seems to be another story, and another.”

—Jane Dornbusch

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2 0 1 9 Y o u n g A l u mni A c hi ev em e nt Award — Al ison Fr eed ’04

The Face behind the Voice

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f you think it’s simple saying “Visit your Audi dealer for exceptional offers” or “Panera—food as it should be” in a way that’s convincing, authentic, and relatable, Alison Freed will be happy to set you straight: “It’s not as easy as it appears.”

She should know. The successful voice-over artist has a lengthy roster of clients, from Google and Uber to Disney and Dunkin’ Donuts. Last year she won two Voice Arts Awards, for best voice-over in a national commercial campaign and best voice-over in a radio commercial.

Freed fell into a voice-over career, but that’s not to say she hasn’t worked for it. After graduating from the University of Redlands with a degree in business and studio art, Freed took a marketing job with a software firm.

“It was something I didn’t know much about and wasn’t super-passionate about, but I liked parts of it, and I worked my way up,” she says.

Then her beloved grandmother passed away, and Freed had an “epiphany”—namely, that life is too short to do work that isn’t fully engaging. “I quit my stable, high- income job and moved to LA, to try to make it in music,” she recalls. She was already in a band, and the group played clubs while Freed worked three or four day jobs to keep herself afloat.

She had, and continues to have, success as a singer-songwriter, but she still needed a dependable source of income.

“It was 2013. I was burned out and struggling. Then my sister-in-law, who had directed voice talent in Toronto, asked if I had ever thought about voice-over,” says Freed. “She said it could be a great career if I was good and worked at it.” Thus a voice38

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“I trained for six months.

There was homework.

It was way more intense than I imagined.” over star was born—but not quite instantaneously.

“I trained for six months,” says Freed. “I went every week to my teacher’s home. There was homework. It was way more intense than I imagined.” But once she made a demo and started sending it out, the jobs began to come in—slowly at first, and then steadily as her reputation grew. Along the way, too, she changed her last name from Fried to Freed, because a name that’s simple to spell and pronounce is paramount in the entertainment industry.

Freed says voice-over is really acting, but with a limited set of tools.

“Some actors find it way more challenging,” she notes, “because

you’re acting without using your body.” The goal, she says, is fully understanding and mastering how your voice comes across, and then “making it come to life, making it sound like your own feelings and emotions.”

Freed has long been a performer, dating at least back to her Rivers days, when she sang in a chorus under David Tierney that traveled to Italy. The Belgium native, who moved to the U.S. at age 7, chose Rivers for the sense of community and connectedness she felt when visiting campus.

An important part of her Rivers experience, she says, was participating in the LGBTQ club and coming out at age 14. “In that way, Rivers was huge in helping me explore who I was and what I wanted,” she says. Crucial, too, was the way classes were taught at Rivers: “The seminars were inclusive.

You were having a dialogue; you weren’t just being lectured at. You were respecting and learning from one another.”

Voice-over work has opened doors for Freed—in some cases, literally.

Much of her work is done in her home studio, but larger clients may bring her into their own recording facilities.

“One of the coolest ones is Disney,” she reports. “It’s so exciting to go into the voice-over studios where some of the most famous actors have been.

It’s such an honor.”

Voice-over is a competitive field, but Freed has a simple explanation for her success. “My voice cuts through,” she says. “It rings honest and true, modern and contemporary, like a friend that’s talking to you.

And I do have a texture to my voice, a little gravel, that makes it unique but relatable.”

—Jane Dornbusch

news from our inbox

Joseph R. Scott Jr. ’60 writes, “For the past six years, I have had the pleasure of serving as master of ceremonies at the annual Robert Burns dinner at the International House of Rhode Island, this year on the date of his 260th birthday, January 25. I am happy to share Robert Burns stories, poems, insights.”

Richard Clare ’69 writes, “Retired last March. Currently cruising on our 40-foot Bristol cutter in Florida, later perhaps to Cuba, and the Bahamas. Posting remarks and photos on Facebook as Rick Clare. Wishing my classmates and Rivers well.”

Maggie Petri ’04 married Matt Wolfson in September in Framingham. Classmates Jenny Grabler and Lyz Schuster were maids of honor.

Jen Keefe (left), on the set of Orange is the New Black Jen Keefe ’08 writes, “Hello from NYC! I’m still pursuing an acting and comedy career in film/TV. This year, I booked roles on Netflix’s Orange is the New Black and NBC’s Manifest. Thanks to all my Rivers teachers who let me be a class clown!”

Alyssa Herman-Kaitz ’07 writes, “I had a baby, Lucy Herman-Kaitz, in March 2018.”

Max Maguire ’07, Jen Post ’07, bride Meghan Hesselmann ’07, groom Bill Duplisea ’07, Rob Margolis ’09, Anthony Duplisea ’09, Hillary Ain Cherrabi ’07, and Jeff Sullivan ’07 Bill Duplisea ’07 and Meghan Hesselmann ’07 got married in Kennebunkport, Maine, in October. Bill writes, “It was almost 14 years to the day since we first met at new Rivers student orientation in August 2004. Our wedding was filled with Rivers friends and family.”

Quinn Taylor Yannone

Kadie Greenfield Yannone ’07 writes, “A little star, Quinn Taylor Yannone, was born on October 4, 2018, at Newton Wellesley Hospital— just in time for Thursday night football and Julian Edelman’s return to the field! He weighed 4 lb., 15 oz., and measured 18.1 inches. He made his debut a little early at 35 weeks, the same day that A Star is Born hit theaters. QT is doing awesome and is all giggles and smiles!”

Christopher Tomaselli ’13 is enjoying life in Austin, Texas. He is the youngest employee of an industryleading enterprise artificial intelligence company and recipient of the World Economic Forum Tech Pioneer Award in 2018.

Chris recently took over the Tomahawks Lacrosse Club as program director and completed his first ultra marathon in the Moab desert.

Alex Sidell ’16 went on tour with the Scottish Women’s National Lacrosse Team throughout Florida.

Christopher Tomaselli

Georgia Cabot ’18 writes, “The Meghan Gazard made the dean’s list during her first semester at Connecticut College!

Roll Humps!”

New job? New baby? Wedding? Awesome travel experience? We want to hear from you!

Submit a class note to share your news with the Rivers community. Please send your updates to Marc Stroum, director of alumni engagement, at m.stroum@rivers.org.

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Ba c k w a r d Gla n c e

Treading the Boards Before there was Zombie Prom, before A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, even before Children of Eden and Cinderella, there was . . . Bertha the Beautiful Typewriter Girl. Theater at Rivers has a long history, and even when the performers had to dress in drag and the facilities were less than ideal, plays and musicals have always been popular student activities.

Some of these photos from the archives are self-explanatory, and others remain shrouded in the mists of time. Readers, if you can fill in any gaps, please get in touch! Email Jane Dornbusch (j.dornbusch@rivers.org), Riparian editor, to share information about these photos or about your theater experiences at Rivers.

Gentlemen of the Nonesuch Players, 1976. Front, from left, are William Miller, Alan Prince, and Philip Goglia.

Back, from left, are Elliott Birckhead, John Fiorentino, Seth Katz, and Clifford White.

“In olden days, a glimpse of stocking was looked on as something shocking.”

We’re going with Anything Goes, from sometime in the ’90s.

Bertha the Beautiful Typewriter Girl, circa 1939 We can almost hear the wind come sweepin’ down the plain. Could it be Oklahoma! from the ’80s?

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Boys donned wigs, jewelry, and stockings to play female roles for this 1926 production. Later, Rivers teamed up with area girls’ schools for theater projects.

Planned Giving

Providing for Rivers’s Future Nonesuch Society Member Albert Gordon ’72 Believes in Rivers

A

lbert Gordon ’72 comes from a family with a long Rivers history. “Both my father, Morris, and my uncle Hugh went to Rivers in the ’40s when it was located on Dean Road in Brookline. Their experience was extremely positive. Dad especially loved Rivers, and throughout his life he was involved in the school, as a supporter and as a trustee. When it came time for me and my brother John to pick secondary schools, there was no question that we would be going to Rivers.”

Gordon is grateful for the education he received at Rivers, which had a powerful impact on his life.

Although he attended an Ivy League university, he says he found his Rivers years more academically impactful and rigorous. “I love going to museums, and whenever I browse through the galleries, I always think of Jack Jarzavek and his art history class, which taught us how to look at art thoughtfully and critically. I sometimes think of Dave Berwind’s U.S. history class, where, at the tender age of 12, he had us writing about whether we were liberal or conservative and why.”

After college, Gordon went on to a career in sales and management in the food- service equipment industry. He gives Rivers much of the credit for his success. “I’ve had a great career, and I think that one of the skills that I learned at a young age at Rivers that has served me well professionally is writing clearly, cogently, and correctly.”

Gordon is a Nonesuch Society member who is happy to support Rivers through planned giving. “I feel strongly—especially after visiting the school recently and seeing how far the Rivers experience has come in the 47 years since I graduated—that young people who are less advantaged than I was should be able to attend Rivers.”

The Nonesuch Society was established to recognize the generosity of alumni, parents, and friends who have made provisions for Rivers in their estate plans. Its members have each made a commitment to ensure the continuation of excellence in teaching that is so critical to the education of future generations.

When you include Rivers in your will, you play a significant role in helping future gen- erations of Rivers students.

At the same time, by taking advantage of tax laws that encourage philanthropy, making a bequest to Rivers can significantly reduce estate-tax burdens.

For more information about gifts to Rivers, such as bequests, living trusts, and gifts of life insurance or retirement plans, or if you would like more information about the Nonesuch Society, please contact Senior Asso- ciate Director of Advancement Jan Hicinbothem at j.hicinbothem@rivers.org or (339) 686-2231.

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The Rivers School

333 Winter Street Weston, MA 02493-1040

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Please notify us if your phone number, mailing address, or email address changes so that Rivers can stay in touch with you and your family. Contact Cheryl Malcolm at 339-686-2239 or c.malcolm@rivers.org.

You go: Girls’ hockey wins this year’s NEPSAC D2 Prep Championship