Sewickley Speaking Winter 2019 by Sewickley Academy

THE ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUE

WINTER 2019

The Magazine of Sewickley Academy

Twenty-three students from the Class of 2018 attended the Academy since Pre-K, Kindergarten, or Grade 1, earning them â&#x20AC;&#x153;liferâ&#x20AC;? status.

WINTER 2019

Features

Dear Readers, The landscape of the energy industry is ever changing. As a country, we are eager to develop new ways to cultivate natural resources while also being cautious about the damaging effects these processes could have on the environment and, in return, us as human beings. “The Environmental Issue” features alumni who work in different fields pertaining to energy – from the oil and gas sector to water management to business continuity and disaster recovery. They all have one thing in common – they strive to protect the environment as they work to help America, and our neighbors abroad, progress in terms of renewable energy. This issue also features the amazing work our faculty is doing to ensure our students are prepared to deal with the challenges of the energy and environmental fields that will unfold in the future. From Pre-Kindergarten to Grade 12, students learn about nature through hands-on lessons in the classroom and at nearby sites like Fern Hollow Nature Center and Little Sewickley Creek. Our teachers help students develop the essential skills necessary to discover new ways to solve world problems. Collectively, we should strive to do the right thing environmentally. Do your part – whether you recycle or upcycle, use paper straws, or conserve water – we can work together to reduce our carbon footprint in an effort to leave the world a better place. After all, our planet is the one thing we all have in common. Enjoy!

Kaitlin Busch Director of Communications

04 08 12 16 27 34 42

Alex Miller ’08 Finds His Home with Range Making the Way Through the Waters: Hayley Oliver-Smith ’14 Rules & Regulations: Drilling into the Future the Right Way: Katie (Zuberbuhler ’84) Klaber Keeping the Energy Flowing through Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery: Roswitha Firth ’86 Sewickley Academy Celebrates the 58 Graduates of the Class of 2018 Head of School Honored for 15-Year Tenure SA Technical Theater Director Takes on his Fear of Open Water on Sculley Sabbatical

Contents SA Faculty & Staff Awards

Class of 2018 Facts & Stats

Winter & Spring 2018 Sports Wrap Up

A Memorable Milestone: Dania Paul Celebrates 25 Years of Dedication

Pipeline to SA

Lower School Lesson: What are Earth’s Natural Resources?

Grade 6 Students Present Research at Environmental Summit and World’s Fair

Senior School Science Students Learn to Think Sustainably About the Environment

Mission + Core Values = Vision of a Sewickley Academy Student

Class Notes

Erin Sebastian ’16 Shares her Experience as a CBD Intern

Drexel University Goes Green: Tim Hanlon ’17

In Memoriam

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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

DESIGN

Kaitlin Busch

Third Planet Global Creative www.333planet.com

Director of Communications

CONTRIBUTORS

Tim Banks

Win Palmer

Nathan Bell

Lindsey Petruska

Kaitlin Busch

Crista Pryor

Anna Foust

Jonathan Riddle

Annie Gensheimer

Brendan Schneider

Ken Goleski

Mary-Jo Shine

Tim Banks Design Technical Theater Director Director of Communications Middle School English Teacher Annie Gensheimer Photography Global Studies Program Coordinator

Holly Hilberg-Haddad Grade 2 Teacher

Susan Kinser

Director of Alumni Relations

Bevan Koch

Director of Teaching & Learning

Andrew McMillen

Athletic Director

Middle School History Teacher

Kolia O’Connor

Early Childhood Teacher Early Childhood Teacher Middle School Science Teacher Director of Advancement Senior School Science Teacher; Chair, Science Department

Susan (Ratcliffe ’55) Sour, Ph.D. Alumni Associate

Patti Coyne Stine

Director of Annual Fund and Auction

Quinn Theobald Intern

Director of Admission & Financial Aid Brittnea Turner Director of Public Relations

Christine Mulhollem

Michael Williams

MichaelWill Photography

Head of School

COPY EDITORS

INTERN

Susan (Ratcliffe ’55) Sour, Ph.D. Brittnea Turner

Quinn Theobald

College Signing Ceremony The Academy hosted its Athletic College Signing Ceremony on Tuesday, May 8, 2018, for two seniors who committed to play sports in college. Both athletes signed a letter of intent, accompanied by their families and coach, in front of the Hall of Fame in the Events Center. Sam Casale ’18 competes on the track team at the University of Chicago, and Will Nocito ’18 is playing golf at Hamilton College.

Visit us at www.sewickley.org facebook.com/sewickleyacademy twitter.com/sewickley instagram.com/sewickleyacademy pinterest.com/sewickley1838 blog.sewickley.org youtube.com/sewickley Access the digital issue at www.sewickley.org/ss

Sewickley Academy’s Day of Giving Annual Fund challenge on Friday, April 27, 2018, raised over $70,000! Several members of the Board of Trustees and a few other constituents offered a dollar-to-dollar match up to $25,000 on all gifts donated to the 2017-2018 Annual Fund during the challenge. The group also agreed to donate an additional $10,000 if at least 50 donors made a gift on that day. Parents, alumni, grandparents, parents of alumni, and friends of the Academy rose to the challenge. The results were amazing – 107 donors gave $35,990 to unlock an additional $35,000 from our sponsors, bringing the Day of Giving grand total to $70,990! This year’s Day of Giving, which will take place on May 3, 2019, will also benefit our students, academic programs, the arts, athletics, financial aid, and professional development. Sewickley Academy greatly appreciates all of our donors, and our students, faculty, and staff thank you for all you do to support the Sewickley Academy Annual Fund.

C O

Dear Readers of Sewickley Speaking,

This is an exciting time to be alive and to be an educator. As I look at the challenges we face in the world on a number of fronts, I am reminded again and again how important the work we do in our classrooms, studios, ball fields, and labs really is. Each challenge seems to offer a tantalizing glimpse at opportunities for advancement and discovery, and when you read about the work a number of our alumni are doing in energy and environmental fields, you quickly get a sense of the challenge of balancing (and sometimes even competing) priorities. It is vital for the United States to support a robust energy sector, yet we know that such a commitment must be balanced against potential environmental issues. Scientists will need to work closely with business interests, and engineers focused on harnessing energy resources may have to partner with scientists interested in protecting the natural environment, including vital resources like drinking water. The energy and environmental fields will have to be creative in their cross-disciplinary endeavors, which will require knowledge of multiple disciplines and the ingenuity to make imaginative connections and discoveries. Having a transferable skill set will distinguish those who are successful in the future from those who are less so. While there are likely no easy answers to these challenges, sensible solutions will require thoughtful collaboration, creativity, compromise, adaptability, and a willingness to apply different approaches to reach a desired outcome. This is where education plays a crucial role. Sewickley Academy contributes to a world where people come together to find a common path towards outcomes that allow us as a society to achieve our shared vision for ourselves and our communities. I believe our students have significant opportunities to engage in divergent thinking. In line with our Mission and Core Values, we provide our students a foundation that prompts them to think creatively and divergently, knowing that successful ideas may not always be the ones that seem most promising at the outset. From our play- and inquiry-based Early Childhood program, to our use of the Secret Garden in our Lower School science instruction, to the Grade 6 Worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Fair and the team-taught interdisciplinary Global Studies courses in the Senior School, Sewickley Academy is committed to providing our students with the skills they will need â&#x20AC;&#x201C; not for the world their parents and teachers inherited, but for one that is being shaped in new and exciting ways. It is gratifying to me, that where we sometimes see what appear to be irreconcilable conflicts between those who seek to serve their communities by providing access to safe and efficient energy sources and those who seek to serve their communities by protecting the environment to assure things like clean air and water, Sewickley Academy has provided and will continue to provide the sort of education that will increase the likelihood of a creative, collaborative, and sustainable solution not just to this one area of endeavor but to many. Enjoy this issue of Sewickley Speaking. May it prompt some creative and thoughtful ways to consider familiar challenges from new perspectives. Sincerely,

Kolia Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Connor Head of School SEWICKLEY SPEAKING

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Alex Miller ’08

Finds His Home with

Range

By: Kaitlin Busch Alex Miller ’08 knew Pittsburgh was the place to be well before it became such a hot spot destination for Hollywood production companies and oil and gas companies. Of course, as a child, he had no idea about Western Pennsylvania’s rich history of oil and gas production, dating back to 1859 when Colonel Drake drilled the first commercial oil well in America in Titusville, Pennsylvania. He couldn’t predict there would be over half a million oil and gas wells in Western Pennsylvania today, from the shores of Lake Erie to the West Virginia border, including many in Allegheny County. As a non-native, he knew he wanted to end up back in the area as an adult. The Miller family relocated to the Pittsburgh area in 1999 from Potomac, Maryland. After a few years with Quaker Valley School District, Alex enrolled in Sewickley Academy as a sixth grader in 2001, and his sister, Lizzie ’10, joined him at the Academy for Grade 5 the following year. Alex immediately saw the benefits of a Sewickley Academy education. He learned how to manage his time between the flexibility of his class schedule and free periods. “Having free periods during the course of the day taught me how to manage time between assigned coursework and after school athletics. I learned how to prioritize projects while keeping some availability for last minute assignments or work that needed to be pushed back due to a sporting event,” he recalled. “Having that flexibility helped prepare me for gaps in my schedule in college.” Alex has a lot of fond memories from his time as a Panther, especially the school trips in Middle School to Colonial Williamsburg and Washington, D.C. He formed lifelong friendships as a member of the varsity tennis team, which won WPIALs all four years of his high school career and the PIAA Championship in 2007. “Whitney Snyder ’79 [SA’s long-time tennis coach] is one of the greatest guys ever,” Alex said. “My favorite quote of his is, ‘It’s all about relationships,’ and Snyder embodies that to this day. I know he will always be there for his team.”

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Former Middle School German teacher and Dean of Students Larry Hall also left a lasting impression on Alex. “When I came to the Academy in Grade 6, new students could take Spanish or German. I didn’t excel at Spanish from past schooling, so I tried German. A lot of new students were in Mr. Hall’s German class, so I was able to make friends that way,” he recalled. “Our class was pretty much all new kids. Herr Hall created a friendly learning environment where we could still have fun and forget some of that anxiety of being a ‘new kid.’” While the Academy provided a complete educational curriculum, Alex was most engaged in his arts and science classes. His favorite art classes were with ceramics teacher Mr. David LaLomia and former Middle and Senior School art teacher Dr. Rob Edwards. He also thoroughly enjoyed physics. (Ms. Mary-Jo Shine’s egg drop lab is still one of his favorite projects!) Growing up, the Miller family often traveled to Colorado to ski, so when it came time to decide on a college, the University of Colorado at Boulder was an easy choice for Alex. He was undecided when it came to a major though, and considered going into business like his father, who is a financial advisor. But the business and economics classes offered often had upwards of 500 students in attendance, a less-than-ideal experience for Alex coming from the small class sizes at the Academy. During his first semester, parent of alumni Richard Weber, a family friend and local energy executive, suggested that Alex take a geology class. “Rich said it was an in-demand job nationally, as well as back in Pittsburgh, so I enrolled in a geology class that was coupled with a field course,” Alex explained. During the first week of class, the students took a hike through the foothills of Boulder and Alex was immediately hooked. “Being able to study something in the classroom then apply

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it hands-on in the field really clicked with me. I met with my advisor after my first field class and declared geology as my major.” Alex graduated with a B.A. in geology in 2012. He secured a summer internship with Range Resources, a leading independent oil and natural gas producer in the United States. The job was out of their Pittsburgh office, working in the Southern Marcellus Shale Division. He studied the shallow stratigraphy of southwestern Pennsylvania, where the majority of Range’s drilling activity occurred, for his summer project. “My job was to study the stratigraphy of historical oil and gas reservoirs. We would correlate subsurface strata via well logs, which measure bulk density and electrical conductivity. Certain combinations of those properties are indicative of oil and gas reservoirs,” Alex explained. “I had to pick the tops of the reservoirs, study the fields, and map out structure and thickness of the historical oil reservoirs. We still use my project today to predict if we will encounter any oil and gas while drilling for our deeper target, the Marcellus Shale.” At the end of the summer, the other interns Alex worked with went back to school to finish their graduate degrees. Alex wasn’t enrolled in graduate school at the time, so he asked his boss if he could stay with the company, and the answer was yes. Alex worked as an intern for Range Resources until the end of 2013. Having foresight of the industry and the best intentions for Alex, his boss recommended that he pursue his master’s degree in geology to further his career. “Earlier that year, I had met the vice president of geology at our headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas, and we hit it off. I called him and asked if I could work for him while I was working on my master’s, and he said yes,” Alex stated. He enrolled at the University of Texas at Arlington in 2014 and started his graduate studies while continuing to work for Range Resources. In the fall of 2015, after completing his Master of Science degree in Geology, he was hired as a full-time geologist at the company’s headquarters.

In the spring of 2017, Range Resources offered Alex a position in Pittsburgh, a place he refers to as “a great city with excellent food culture and a lot going on without being an overwhelmingly large city.” He accepted the transfer offer and was excited to move back to the area. After getting married in Colorado and honeymooning in Paris, he and his wife Jena, a 2006 Quaker Valley graduate, moved back to the area that fall, buying a house in Edgeworth. “We moved back to Sewickley because we both grew up here and knew it was where we wanted to raise a family someday. My parents live in Sewickley as does Jena’s mom (she is the middle school nurse at Quaker Valley School District),” Alex said of their decision to move home. “My wife and I enjoy the small town feel and like that we can walk into Sewickley from our home with our dog, Forrest. We like the wide selection of shops and restaurants, and enjoy supporting local small businesses.” Alex now manages a land area, laying out wells on a map and deciding where to drill based on sub-surface geology. He works with the land department to acquire leases to drill and secure surface locations for the drilling rigs to operate. One of his main duties is what he refers to as “geo-steering.” This is the process of analyzing data received from the rig and directing the drillers where to go. “We build well plans for how deep we want to drill, the angle of inclination, and if there’s a structure we need to avoid. We have a designated target window established by our team that we intend to drill in for optimized production,” Alex explained. “There is a motor behind the drill bit that collects data as it drills. The geologist will receive this data for every 90 feet drilled, interpret it, and ensure we are in our designated target zone. If we begin to encounter rock we don’t want to be in, we will communicate with the rig and tell them how much to make a change.” Alex’s job carries a lot of weight, politically and environmentally. He and his team must follow all of the rules and guidelines set by various government organizations and practice safe drilling, as an error in compliance can come with heavy fines or injury from heavy machinery. Plus, if the team is not drilling fully in the zone where they want to be, they could lose gas production. “We forecast how much gas each well will make, and planning will make contracts to sell it,” he explained. “It’s stressful because any mistake you make could financially impact the company.” Alex is no stranger to the media’s and the public’s often very opinionated views on the industry, but he doesn’t let it affect him day-to-day. “The wind doesn’t always

blow and the sun doesn’t always shine, but you can always burn natural gas,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean it comes without risks.” Drilling is a 24/7 operation, one that is often scrutinized. “I think the work we are doing is really good, and the way we are powering our lives is changing from coal to natural gas. People heat houses with natural gas and cook with it, and the process is much cleaner than burning coal or oil,” Alex said. “But it’s not a perfect practice and sometimes spills and accidents happen, but we are prepared for those moments. The public looks at the process under a microscope, but I know my colleagues at Range and our peer companies always want to do what’s right.” The job itself yields long shifts when he’s geo-steering – 12-hour days two weeks on and two weeks off. Although Alex currently enjoys what he is doing, he isn’t sure if working in this industry is a lifelong career. “My dad started his own business, and I see the flexibility he now has. He’s very successful, will work past his 60s, and can usually take vacation when he wants. It’s attractive, but I also see opportunities in our industry where you can rise up in a company like mine and do well for yourself,” Alex stated. “I’m still very new in the business and I’m not sure of my future yet, career-wise. I’d like to stay in the area and have a family and raise kids, though.” One of Alex’s proudest career moments thus far was being part of a team that drilled the longest horizontal well lateral in Range Resources’ and the basin’s history. “The well only took a few days more to drill than our average well, as we routinely drill very long laterals. This particular well exceeded 18,000 feet producible lateral length. The funny thing is, we beat that record on the next set of wells and continue to drill longer laterals, increasing efficiencies as we develop our field,” he said. When he’s not working, you can find Alex playing golf, traveling the world with his wife, working on their house, or walking the dog. His favorite hobby, however, is golf. “I’ve played my whole life, but didn’t really appreciate it until college, so now I’m obsessed,” he laughed. “Every time you play it’s a different experience – it could be a different course or the weather could change mid-round – and you’re never going to hit to the exact same spot every time. That’s what I find fun about it.”

According to Range Resources’ website, the Marcellus Shale is now the largest natural gas field in the United States. Range pioneered the Marcellus Shale in 2004 with the successful drilling of the Renz #1 well in Washington County, Pennsylvania. To learn more about Range Resources, visit their website at www.rangeresources.com.

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Making the Way

Waters

Through the

By: Kaitlin Busch

Hayley Oliver-Smith ’14, a Franklin Park native, always enjoyed the outdoors. As a kid, she was out running around, riding bikes, and climbing trees – a skill that helped her rock climb for the past 19 years! Her passion for the outdoors developed into a passion for science, which, after a trip to West Africa, led her to dedicate her work to helping the environment by managing water supply. Hayley came to Sewickley Academy in Grade 9 from North Allegheny School District and immediately felt connected to the way the school approached the science program. She appreciated that her biology teacher, Mr. Michael Gallagher, had a tendency not to shy away from the political implications of science. She recalled his lesson on admitting realities when he explained how DNA testing and technology was used to implicate OJ Simpson. She said he made sure to show both sides – the benefits and drawbacks – of such DNA tests. “Mr. Gallagher also challenged vegetarians’ views on health by defending against the charge that meat caused heart disease. He was on the Atkins diet – which encouraged participants to eat meat – so he would come back and counter students who challenged his position. It was those moments when I was actually learning that science could be personal and political, that people can embody and test their beliefs using scientific methods. It was a conversation,” she said.

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She refers to three teachers in particular as the trifecta – Dr. Bill Barnes, Mr. Gallagher, and Mrs. Ann Russell. “They taught their field of instruction with an awareness of the myriad other things happening in the world. While remaining grounded in their own fields they also engaged in the more complex lived social realities outside those worlds,” she stated. “They didn’t just teach their subjects, they also taught the limits of their respective disciplines, which allowed students to explore living, breathing truth. Too often systems are siloed into one or the other, like public vs. private; community vs. state; environmental vs. economic; or individual stories vs. universal narratives, and the truth doesn’t tend to be either or but often lies in the blend of both. Flexible, real-world intelligence involves a willingness to take your field seriously, know its discipline, and then bear that out with a more complex unknown.” While the academic education at Sewickley helped inspire Hayley’s path, it is the people and the relationships she formed there that have stayed with her most closely. “I think of my friends, those who I was able to learn with through the various stages of Sewickley Academy. From there, we have had the common experience of entering into the real world together. We’ve shared some unique landscapes, even when separated from one another. Those relationships have been an education in and of themselves,” Hayley said about

her experience. She also remembers times spent one-on-one with teachers at Sewickley. “It was wonderful to have teachers who were willing to offer us time outside of class, have philosophical conversations, or just talk with us and point us in the direction of books that they thought we would like. My favorite moments with my teachers were not moments they were explaining problems, telling me something, or flipping a switch in my mind. My favorite moments happened when I was just sitting with a teacher. I valued their company and their willingness to pay attention – it was remarkable to me from a young age.” Hayley also recalled the Bonsai Dance hosted by Bonsai Club in the Senior School Commons. “Everyone was encouraged to wear green or dress like a bonsai in some way. I am pretty sure someone wrapped themselves in a towel from head to toe with outrageous garland or tinsel. We were just geeking out to plant-based music and doing what bonsais do,” she laughed. Matriculating at Tufts University, Hayley thought she would follow an interest in medicine. However, after taking a few courses in bio-chem, she realized her energy flowed more naturally towards other fields. As a sophomore hoping to study different cultures and engage with the systems that drive the world, she declared a major in international relations, concentrating in globalization. Considering the world we live in, what does globalization actually mean? SEWICKLEY SPEAKING

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Is it about having an iPhone with a tiny, fast processing chip whose power grows exponentially with each new generation? Is it a phenomenon that has been going on since the genesis of the post-World War II economic order? Does it start with European colonialism, or does it go much deeper into the story of human and technological development? “It really began way before the internet,” Hayley said. “Globalization is a unique field of study that helps people contextualize a very complex and disturbed world and permits them to grow interested in solutions to some of the problems we have inherited.” Hayley inserted herself into the field by studying abroad in Senegal, West Africa, during her junior year. She studied Islamic history, French colonial history, and African culture while experiencing life in a developing nation firsthand. “I boarded a plan to Dakar, Senegal’s capital, on the day Donald Trump was inaugurated – January 20, 2017. At the time in the U.S., there was such a lack of interaction, so much division, the clashing of systems. Really, those are the foundations for breaking out of old patterns and cycles,” Hayley reflected. “My departure was the start of the journey of questioning my own internal boundaries and the differences between myself and the rest of the world. How do we take events and stories happening on the national scale and work with them in our lives? In many ways, I lived a charmed and privileged life in the U.S., and went to learn about somewhere else that is completely different, with Muslim heritage, an African population, and a fraction of the wealth the U.S. has. You have to learn to live between contradictions.” While in Senegal, Hayley was introduced to resource management, sustainability, and systematic and cultural circumstances in which people balance the need for environmental health with the need to survive in the short term. She reported learning to appreciate electricity, energy, water supply, and healthy food. “In America, we aren’t taught the value of water. We oftentimes leave the tap on, run the dishwasher daily, and take 20-minute showers. It seems innocuous for us but it’s something the rest of the world doesn’t have,” she said. “In Senegal, the intermittent water supply leaves two buckets of water to shower, that’s all you have. The difference between my two experiences has led me to focus on bringing natural resources, energy systems, and water supply into balance.” Hayley interned with La Case des Jeunes Femmes in Dakar during her semester abroad. The group, founded by Aminata Dièye, works to provide marginalized young women an economic boost by providing them with skills to enter into traditionally male-dominated trades. Its goal is to break down gender stereotypes, change community attitudes, and spread workforce empowerment to women throughout Senegal.

“Essentially, La Case des Jeunes Femmes fulfills their goal of promoting women’s engagement with village politics and leadership. Senegal has a traditional family structure and women in villages are not typically recognized. They are frequently left out and taken advantage of by the political structure, excluded from decisions, and with little to no employment opportunities, can find themselves in unfortunate circumstances,” she explained. “I would speak with women about developing career skills and opportunities to exercise leadership capacities in areas they were already involved in. Women are the primary caretakers of children and they are most often cooking and cleaning, so why shouldn’t women influence decisions on where to dig wells, how to use water and how to ration it? They are the ones who know how the resource works. The village should take advantage of their knowledge. There is an economic way to explain why women should take on leadership roles for a more efficient village and more equitable distribution of power.” After returning to the States, Hayley switched gears this past summer when she interned as a water analyst at Bluefield Research in Boston. She improved her research and data analysis skills to analyze the global water market and understand how best to create more sustainable systems in the long term. “There is not a global institutional framework to govern regulation on a local, national or international level when it comes to managing resources. As water is transitioning, there is a greater need for more integration in perspectives – uniting public and private entities and looking at the way they interact over water,” Hayley stated. “The efforts to manage the resource need to increase while the supply decreases. As the gap between public and private knowledge lessens, we have the opportunity to make solutions.”

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Students take a trip on a pirogue, a small fishing boat, through the mangroves of Mar Lodj, Senegal.

Hayley graduated from Tufts in February with a degree in international relations and a minor in philosophy. She is spending the early part of 2019 traveling in Southeast Asia, hoping it will bring her into contact with diverse systems and new perspectives. Hayley hopes that she is able to tell others’ stories she learns through her travels to create change. She credits English teachers from Sewickley Academy, Mrs. Ann Russell and Mr. Lawrence Connolly, as two major influences who helped foster her love for creative thought and storytelling. “Ann has extremely high standards for herself as a teacher and places a lot of critical attention on what material to engage her students with. She’s an educator with such a self-reflective spirit – you cannot put a name on the value it gives students. The same goes for Mr. Connolly. His students have to engage with his class in multiple media, which pushes them to think carefully about the way that they are telling stories. You have to be attentive to what elements might be distracting. The minute details ... that’s what tells the story,” she said. “I hope these teachers know they are doing a noble and important job and that they touch students’ lives long term by planting seeds in our hearts that will continue to grow later in life.”

reformed and we transition into a more open economy that isn’t based on exploitation,” Hayley said of her plans for work in the years to come. “I want to raise awareness of the need to efficiently manage resources by helping nonprofits and large institutions change investment portfolios to support water and resource management or do research and become a professor. On the other hand, I could see myself working with women who are shaping the conversation in water politics and redefining what it means to create order. So much can be gained by having more women at the table who are making decisions and approaching problems.” When she’s not studying, researching, or brainstorming ways to bring water management to the front of everyone’s minds, Hayley enjoys jazz and hip-hop music. She is even learning a style of hip-hop dance called breaking! And, years later, she still enjoys spending time outdoors exploring the natural world.

LIZATION Globalization is still a relatively new field of study, plagued by terrible social problems and serious challenges, but her interest in water management is her way of coping. “Water metering driven by the internet is so crucial going forward. There could be conversations with data science managers who are discovering new populations of toxins in water but don’t have the political will or the budget to advocate for regulation. If I could provide a liaison between those two parties, whether I was acting on the policy side or on the data and technology side, I could drive the integration of things that have previously been stuck out in left field. Profit should not be the enemy as capitalism is

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RULES & REGULATIONS:

DRILLING INTO THE FUTURE

THE RIGHT WAY By: Kaitlin Busch

Kathryn “Katie” (Zuberbuhler ’84) Klaber started her relationship with Sewickley Academy in Grade 9. Katie came to the Academy by way of Blackhawk School District in Beaver County as an excited and eager student ready to experience the broad-based education the Academy offered with an emphasis on language arts, math, and science. From day one, every experience she had at the Academy prepared her for something she would accomplish in her future. She was an editor of The 7 th Pillar at the Academy and now writes a monthly column for the Pittsburgh Business Times. She even met her husband at the Academy, although he was not enrolled at the school. “When I was a junior, Claudia (Brewster ’84) DeBonte and I co-chaired our prom, which was held at Allegheny Country Club,” Katie recalled fondly. “Andy (her husband of 28 years) was an import from Mt. Lebanon who attended prom with a senior girl. I didn’t actually meet him until college, but maybe I made out his name tag or something that evening,” she said with a smile. Katie and Andy have two sons, Duff and Samuel ’14. Sam came to the Academy as a freshman, just like his mom, while Duff decided to graduate from Quaker Valley School District. “I loved taking the legacy photo on the steps at graduation with Sam,” Katie recalled. “I also really enjoyed watching Sam play lacrosse on Nichols Field, a place where I spent time in high school. It’s a beautiful setting and a wonderful place to be visually with friends and family – the beauty and collegiality of Nichols Field.” Many of Sam’s friends’ parents were Katie’s friends in high school, bringing her Academy connection full circle. “The Academy is such a great mix today of people who have lived here and attended SA through multiple generations and people from around the country and even the world who see the Academy as a draw to this community,” she stated. Matriculating at Bucknell University, Katie studied environmental science and ecology, crediting the math and science curriculum at Sewickley (especially

Mr. Simmons’ calculus classes) for helping her to prepare for the rigor in college courses. Plus, she found the field of study attractive as it allowed for hands-on work outside of an office, a benefit for a 20-something. In 1990, she secured a job with the Philadelphia headquarters of Environmental Resources Management (ERM), an international environmental, health, and safety consulting firm, as a project manager. She helped companies comply with emerging environmental regulations and best practices. In the late 90s, over her maternity leave, ERM moved her to Pittsburgh to lead and grow that office. The timing could not have been more perfect, as her husband opened a regional office in Pittsburgh for a Philadelphia-based law firm and both were excited to move back home. She served as the manager of the Pittsburgh regional office of ERM from 1997-2000, when she decided to go back to school and earn her MBA from Carnegie Mellon University. Starting in 2003, Katie spent seven years working on public policy and economic development issues for the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, where she served as the executive director of the Pennsylvania Economy League, both in Southwest Pennsylvania and for the statewide organization. Her roles focused on sustainable prosperity for businesses and residents. Katie believes she has helped the region because of her understanding of how environmental rules manifest themselves within corporations and how a sound environment contributes to the Pittsburgh region’s competitiveness. “By understanding how regulations flow through the companies that they impact, I have been able to advocate for smart regulations and fight the poorly-designed ones. There are good regulations that meet the original intent and are workable and efficient, and then very bad regulations that are often passed for ideological reasons, without giving thought as to how they will impact the company, employees, customers, and therefore the economy,” she explained. “I’m an advocate for the regulated because we all want a clean environment but we don’t want to over pay for it if there is a more strategic way to accomplish our collective goals.”

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In 2009, Katie became the first president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, a nonprofit group that represents companies working to tap energy sources in the Marcellus Shale formation. The coalition was a brand new trade association that she and her members built from scratch. “I hired the best talent I could find who were quick learners and who believed in transparency and could make fast decisions with me and the board very quickly as the industry was evolving,” she reflected. “You had to have an energy level to manage that – it was key. Tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in capital investment were at stake, and continue to be, but it was a make or break time.” “I felt fortunate to be on the ground floor of the development of the Marcellus,” she continued. “I enjoyed working on a lot of the issues that were critical to the burgeoning industry with the public and private sector. I knew my way around Pennsylvania and the industry needed a native to be the lead,” she said of starting the Coalition. “I had a wonderful board supporting me in lobbying, hiring, policy, education, and stakeholder engagement. People needed to understand what this was when early drilling was taking place, and I felt it was well worth it to be spending time with local people who were closest to the development. This group is consistently the most educated and supportive of what is going on because they understand and see it literally and figuratively in their backyards.” During her tenure, Katie referred to the Coalition as a “trade association-plus” with three main components: 1. Develop a consensus around priorities for investment and growth 2. Form a collaboration among stakeholders from suppliers to landowners to special interest groups 3. Advocate for best practices for development and implementation While she was at the helm, the Coalition aimed to make technological innovations that allowed extraction of natural gas to be managed in more economically and environmentally efficient ways. It worked with exploration and production, midstream and supply chain partners in the Appalachian Basin and across the country to address issues regarding the production of clean, job-creating, American natural gas from the Marcellus and Utica Shales. The group also provided in-depth information to policymakers, regulators, the media, and other public stakeholders on the positive effects that responsible natural gas production has on families, businesses, and communities across the region. For instance, the group modernized regulations for horizontal drilling that were written for vertical drilling. After nearly five years leading the organization, she felt the building of the Coalition was complete and orchestrated a smooth transition by passing the torch to her board chair, David Spigelmyer, who took over the leadership role. She immediately started her own consulting firm, the Klaber Group, and moved her office to Sewickley, where she often commutes by foot when her schedule allows. Her firm provides strategic services to businesses and other institutions as they capitalize on shale development in the United States and abroad, and manages the impacts of public sector actions across many industries. She’s expanded her work internationally, as she’s working with companies who are 14

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A family outing: Katie ’84, Sam ’14, Andy, and Duff Klaber spend time on the slopes at Snowbird Ski Resort in Utah in December 2018.

trying to develop the Bowland Shale in the United Kingdom and earn licenses to operate as the Marcellus operators did in the U.S.

These capital investments are already underway and will likely continue through the next decade.

“There was a really good transition between building the Marcellus Shale Coalition and what was next,” Katie said of her strategic choices. “Integrating your career with your family is important, and I was fortunate to have some additional flexibility until both of our sons were off to college – Sam to Bucknell University studying accounting and finance and Duff to Cornell University studying mechanical engineering”

Over 30 years after graduating from Sewickley Academy, she continues to give back to the school that gave her so much. She comes to campus in the fall to speak to seniors on Career Day to give them insight into her line of work and answer any questions they may have.

Katie is also coordinating the Tristate Infrastructure Council, which was started in 2016 by a group of like-minded companies interested in advancing opportunities for economic growth in Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. The council engages in opportunities that come with an expanding petrochemical sector in the Ohio Valley region. “In addition to the massive Shell Polymers plant under construction near where I grew up and my parents now live, at least one or two more plants are expected to be built in the region, along with the supply chain associated with it,” she said. “This is a new industry sector for the Pittsburgh region, made possible by shale development, using natural gas liquids and adding value to make more products that can be sold around the northeastern U.S. and beyond. We have a world-class supply of natural gas liquids here. To be able to live and work in Western Pennsylvania because of a natural resource that we are not only pulling out of the ground economically and safely, but now have the ability to convert into manufactured products brings an exponential economic value to our region. There is a lot going on here that will provide meaningful work for decades to come.” Katie cites a recent analysis by the American Chemistry Council that took into account our region’s tremendous ethane and propane supplies from shale, projecting the Ohio River Valley to receive up to $32.4 billion in investments in petrochemicals and derivatives, and $3.4 billion investment in plastic products.

“My career has helped to implement environmental rules in ways that don’t get in the way of economic progress; I’m an advocate for the regulated community. There is a compelling need today to understand the technical aspects of environmental compliance, not simply the talking points. You can do more for the environment by knowing how to apply rules and best practices most efficiently,” she explained. “The ever-increasing politicization of the environment is counter to us moving in the right direction – where environmental and economic progress is copasetic. My goal is to make those two things work together better.” Katie’s accomplishments include her appointment to the Federal Reserve Bank’s Pittsburgh Board in 2017. She also serves on the board of the Edgeworth Club as its secretary/treasurer and the board of Junior Achievement of Western Pennsylvania. She continues to make strides in her career, and although she’s extremely proud of her work thus far, especially developing and launching the Marcellus Shale Coalition, she is most proud that she achieved her goals by doing the right thing the right way. And when it comes to her personal life, she couldn’t be more proud of raising her two boys to be young men contributing to various communities and their own professions and her 28-year-marriage to Andy, the boy she first laid eyes on at Sewickley Academy’s prom.

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Keeping the

Energy

Flowing through Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery

By: Brittnea Turner Do you ever wonder what happens when there is a power failure or a disruption to your service at work or home? There are teams of people working behind-thescenes to get the systems up and running, and business continuity and disaster recovery play a key role in those operations. The purpose of business continuity and disaster recovery is to track work flows – policies, procedures, and protocols – to prevent a disaster from happening and, in the event of an emergency or natural disaster, to have a plan in place to enable personnel to act quickly and efficiently to shut off circuits, valves, or lines, prevent further damage, and restore the system(s) as soon as possible. Roswitha Firth ’86 is an expert in this business and it wasn’t something she foresaw when she left Sewickley Academy. Roswitha visited Rice University, a school that wasn’t on her radar, thanks to a recommendation from founding Head of Senior School Jim Cavalier, and loved it. She decided to enroll, headed off to college, and landed right in the heart of Texas and the energy industry. She didn’t move to Texas with the energy industry on her mind, as she graduated with degrees in art history and German literature and a minor in women’s studies. But, as fate would have it, she ended up working in the energy industry for 10 years before returning to her true passions – art and history. Roswitha enrolled in the Academy in Grade 6 and developed a lifelong interest in ancient history. She fondly remembers Mr. Alden Sector’s eighth grade ancient history course, a class that shaped her academic and personal interests, and participating in the German exchange program with Mr. Larry Hall. “My education at Sewickley Academy was one of the first best things to happen to me,” Roswitha shared. “I had a terrific grounding in critical thinking and analysis which led to the ability to keep up at a very rigorous school. If I had gone to your average public

school, even with straight As, I doubt I would have been able to keep up at Rice because I wouldn’t have had the tools I needed to study and think critically. The experience and the education [at SA] were first class.” After graduating from Rice, Roswitha worked at a picture framing shop, the same one she was employed at during college, which she eventually owned and operated. As people in the real estate business say, location is key, and when business dried up at the mall where her shop was located she sought other opportunities. Through a connection, she interviewed at First Data, the payment processor that owns Western Union and TeleCheck, and her skill set from framing made her stand out. “The head of information security interviewed me for this position and hired me because he knew that in order to be a good picture framer you have to be really, really detailed-oriented. He had worked in his uncle’s shop in high school and knew what it took to produce good work. He said, ‘I can teach you data security, I cannot teach accuracy and perfectionism,’” Roswitha recalled. Her decision to take the analyst position in information security at First Data and transition into its business continuity and disaster recovery department ultimately opened the door to the energy sector three years later. Roswitha’s career path spans several industries and various companies, including AIGT, AIG’s technology company, Royal Dutch Shell, Calpine, and Enterprise Products. “Interestingly enough, through my entire career in the business world, I worked for two companies on the Fortune Top 10 List and three other Fortunelisted companies, which is quite unusual given the fact that I started completely outside of that industry,” she said. Her first spark in the energy industry happened when she pursued a consulting position at Shell, which started as a three-month contract, and lasted four years.

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Roswitha Firth ‘86 visits with her former English teacher Joan Cucinotta during a visit to Sewickley Academy this fall.

“Business continuity and disaster recovery is often a very small team supporting a very important purpose within a company. There might be anywhere from one to five people, and that’s really not a lot of people for the scope of work that you’re doing,” she commented. In the disaster recovery and business continuity industry, there are opportunities to travel and work with a variety of people. For instance, when Roswitha worked for Shell she traveled four to six times a year to recovery locations oftentimes on the east coast or in Chicago to work with IT teams to get systems set up for exercises with the business units, either back in Texas or as far afield as Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She was responsible for the project management of entire exercises and providing updates to sponsors and stakeholders, including 20 directors or vice presidents of different business units. This involved a lot of equipment and upwards of an additional 90 people, 30-40 at the remote site and 40-50 business testers in another location. Oil, gas, and electric companies often hire a third party vendor, like Sungard, to provide recovery services. “Contracts like that are multi-million dollar contracts per year to ensure that a company can continue its business in the event of a disaster,” Roswitha explained. “Technically, there is no such thing as a failed test, because you learn from everything, but obviously the goal is to recover all of your systems and test all of your processes to meet the objective of each exercise. A lot of time and money goes into making that happen to ensure continuity of business.” Roswitha was hired at Calpine as the business continuity manager when she left Shell in 2010. Calpine, a mid-sized company, taught Roswitha how to navigate critical elements such as a trading floor and plants that produced steam. She took a job with Enterprise Products in 2012 prior to returning to Calpine in 2014. 18

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Roswitha’s skill set is transferable from industry to industry, and each new endeavor taught her how to adapt to new environments. She spoke at industry conferences about best practices in developing a business continuity and disaster recovery program, pushed for innovation in the field, and sought additional professional development opportunities. “There are two organizations, one primarily in the U.S. and one primarily international, that certify business continuity and disaster recovery personnel,” she said. “It’s a lengthy process to become certified, and I am certified as a Member of the Business Continuity Institute (MBCI) and am qualified to teach training programs for the BCI.” She holds a certificate as a master of business continuity from Business Continuity International, the highest recognized certification body for professionals in the industry. Tracking business processes can be tricky at times because some employees don’t see the purpose. It’s time consuming, and can make people feel vulnerable. “Some people were afraid because they thought if they documented their jobs it meant they were expendable, so there’s quite a bit of education that has to go into making a business continuity program successful,” Roswitha explained. “One of the great things about it is that it’s a critical function for the company, because small, medium, and large-size events happen all the time. If you have a power failure in your data center and you normally run your business 24/7 and if your data center is down for just a few hours, you could be talking about multiple millions of dollars of loss per hour for an event, which is expensive.” A disruption to service affects consumers as well. “In the case of Calpine and the energy industry, Calpine supplied energy to the grid. If there was a failure to one of the systems that transmitted the energy, in the summertime months in

particular, you wouldn’t necessarily have enough energy to power everyone’s air conditioning and electricity,” she stated. “There is a direct impact on people when some of these systems don’t function, and a rolling blackout in August in Houston isn’t a pleasant thing. To my knowledge, we’ve been able to avoid that.” In a relatively young field, one of her favorite things in this line of work has been seeing the industry go digital. “It’s crucial that information is kept up-to-date. At Calpine, I was the primary driver behind making this happen and getting buy in from the executive team that this was the right approach – by making things simpler and available on a mobile device. I researched a variety of software tools that were available to the industry that would enable constant updating and, in the event of an incident, be able to notify people quickly – and that was a game changer for human safety,” Roswitha said. “It’s really satisfying when you’re seeing a key function within the business which is keeping the business running smoothly.” While working at Enterprise, Roswitha and her partner decided to start a family and became pregnant with twins. She looked at other job options, and did some consulting work for a while. Once her fraternal twin boys were born, she planned to stay home with them for a but when another chance encounter opened a door to reenter the art world. On Christmas Eve, she happened to walk into The Antiquarium, an art gallery she had bought something from in college that did custom framing and sold antique maps and prints, to take care of a small job. Knowing her background, one of the gallery owners mentioned that they were looking to hire a part-time framer and asked if she knew of anyone. She expressed her interest and started working at the gallery at the beginning of the new year for six months, before returning back to Calpine for a six-month consulting job.

I got a phone call, out of the blue, from the new owner of The Antiquarium, who asked me to come back to work part-time in sales,” she said. Roswitha worked through Christmas while continuing her consulting business and a few months later she was hired as the gallery director. She has thrived at The Antiquarium for the past three years. While she enjoyed her years of working in the energy industry in business continuity and disaster recovery, she’s now doing something that truly energizes her. These days, Roswitha enjoys spending quality time with her family and fiveyear-old boys and, instead of mapping processes and procedures, she oversees the restoration and framing of maps and other priceless family heirlooms in the retail gallery she described as a museum where people get to take things home. There are parts of business continuity and disaster recovery she found rewarding, and may consider returning to that line of work if the right opportunity presents itself, but for now she relishes that people are actually happy to see her. “They come in specifically to see me to help them design framing or to help them find the perfect map as a gift, and in business continuity people weren’t always happy to see me coming. Here [at The Antiquarium] I bring people joy every day. I touch beautiful and rare pieces of art,” she stated. “We consider ourselves custodians of history. We literally have maps that I’ve been able to touch that were 600 years old or are the only ones in the world, so I get to see history and art that’s unique. One of the very first atlases ever printed was at our gallery last year. On a daily basis, I really get to see and touch some amazing things.”

When the contract ended, she set up her own business and began consulting independently. She wanted to train others in business continuity and disaster recovery in Europe, as she had the certification to do so, but that required a lot of travel. As she weighed her options, she realized she didn’t want to be away from home or in a job that required her attention for 50+ hours a week. “Lo and behold,

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Ken Goleski

Global Studies Program Coordinator With more than 25 years of service at Sewickley Academy as a Spanish teacher, Senior School Dean of Students, and most recently as the Chair of the Academyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s decennial Self-Study as part of our Pennsylvania Association of Independent Schools (PAIS) reaccreditation process, Ken took on the role of Global Studies Program Coordinator this fall. This position provides an incomparable opportunity for Ken to bring together his passion for world cultures, languages, and travel in support of student learning, exploration, and discovery. Ken is excited to partner with Nataliya Di Domenico in leading this preeminent program of the Academy.

FAMILIAR FACES IN NEW PLACES Jessica Peluso

Senior School Dean of Student Experience After 20 years as a full-time member of the Senior School History Department, Jessica took on the duties of the Dean of Student Experience. This recast role provides Jessica an opportunity to use her remarkable skills as a teacher, leader, and coach to reflect on and strengthen the daily lived experiences of our students in the Senior School. One of her first tasks is to work closely with Head of Senior School Dr. Peter Lau and the Senior School faculty to strengthen the advising program. Jessica also taught a Global Studies course this fall and coaches our girls varsity soccer team.

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Melodia Scholarship Fundraiser:

On Friday, June 8, and Saturday, June 9, Sewickley Academy presented a starstudded cast of students, alumni, and friends of the school for The Music of the Night: The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber. Henry Shenk ’74 once again researched and programmed a show that delighted its audiences as the fourth show in the series to fulfill his dream of establishing this scholarship. Our cast represented the past, present, and future of musical theater at Sewickley Academy, as we concluded our efforts to raise funds to endow the Mario Melodia Scholarship for the Performing Arts in the Gregg Family Theater. We were able to raise over $47,000 for the scholarship.

Our cast and crew included: Mira Bhatia ’20 Jane Blaugrund ’16 John Bunce KJ Devlin Brennan Doyle ’17 Eiley Doyle ’20 Matthew Griffin Sofia Hartman ’23 Katie Hughes ’19

Felicia Niebel ’21 Dania Paul Henry Shenk ’74 Anna Singer ’76 Hayden Moyer ’13 John “Buzz” Moyer ’82 Justin Bendel Tim Heavner Nathan Bell

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Farewell, Friends! A heartfelt thank you goes out to all of our faculty and staff who have dedicated their time, energy, and passion to making Sewickley Academy the prestigious institution it is today. The Academy will not be the same without you, but will continue to thrive because of you. We wish you the best on your next adventure!

Doug Jones

Consulting Psychologist Doug Jones began working at Sewickley Academy in December of 1986. He was initially hired as a part-time consultant by Interim Head of School Archer Harmon but after his first year, he became a full-time employee. As time went on, consultations with administrators were added to his schedule. In all, Doug has been helping students, parents, and faculty regarding students’ issues for 31 years. He worked with various committees on project and policy development and made presentations to parent groups and faculty members at professional development workshops. His favorite memory from his time at the Academy was during a conversation with a former Lower School faculty member during the early 1990s. After this faculty member thanked him for helping her, she said, “When I speak with you, I don’t really get advice about what to do. However, I do know more clearly what I think and feel about the situation I’m in.” “I realized that despite all the stresses and strains and politics and controversies that come with working in a large organization, what still happens every day, probably every minute of every day at Sewickley Academy, is people trying to “do good” for students,” Doug said. “My parting advice to my friends in the community is to keep trying, despite any distractions, to do good!”

Judy Stewart

Global Studies Program Coordinator Judy Stewart came to Sewickley Academy 17 years ago, starting her career as a French teacher in the Lower School before transitioning into the role of Global Studies Program Coordinator in the Senior School. She enjoyed her tenure at the Academy, stating that “Sewickley Academy opened doors professionally to me in ways I never could have predicted. Traveling to France and Quebec as a trip chaperone prepared me for a role shift when I joined the burgeoning Global Studies program.” Madame Stewart cared equally for her students as well as her colleagues. She was always willing to help a student, but shared she would miss her “wonderful colleagues” the most. “The people I have met here have shared generously of their knowledge and experience,” she reflected. “I have marveled since my first day on the job as a substitute teacher at how everyone I met strove to be creative in the classroom, to stretch themselves to try something new, and to model for their students what it means to be lifelong learners.”

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John Dillon

Director of Finance and Operations After 15 years working at Sewickley Academy, John Dillon will most likely be remembered for his support of the Academy’s sports teams. He was fond of attending home and away games for boys and girls sports to cheer on the Panthers. In contrast to his cheering, John’s quiet nature professionally hid the impact he had on the school during his tenure. He was responsible for the implementation of our zero-based budgeting process, support on many major construction projects such as the renovation of the Oliver Science Building and the Events Center and Means Alumni Gym, review of our financial aid policies, and he led the review of all compensation and benefits for faculty and staff. This work and his relentless focus on the bottom line has left the school in excellent financial health. When asked about what he’ll miss most about SA he shared, “the great people I had a chance to work with. While there is not enough space to name everyone, I will always appreciate the various Finance Committee Chairs: Larry Mock, Amy Marsh, Rick Johnson, and Tom Hewitt for their support and guidance over the years, the great Business Office staff led by Brent Jackson, and the terrific facilities staff led by Tim Hastings.”

Kathy Boehmig Grade 2 Teacher

For the first time in 13 years, the Lower School started classes without Mrs. Boehmig in the classroom. One of her favorite books to share with students to teach them a lesson on hopes and dreams was “Miss Rumphius” by Barbara Cooney, a story about Alice Rumphius and her desire to do three things throughout her life: live by the sea, go to faraway places, and make the world a more beautiful place. Kathy seems to have lived her life by honoring this book. Kathy enjoys visiting the beach and ever the world traveler, she was a leader on Academy trips to Belize and the Galapagos Islands. With each trip, she made sure to bring back many wonderful things to share with Grade 2 students. Finally, Kathy made Sewickley Academy a more beautiful place every day in the way that she interacted with our students. Always inspiring them to do great things, helping them solve problems, and leading them to become beautiful human beings. She also has made the teachers more beautiful by imparting her wisdom with humility and gentleness. She was always there to lend a listening ear and put the needs of others before her own.

Ginny Connolly

Hansen Library Assistant Since the Hansen Library opened in 1999, a familiar face was always there to greet students, parents, and employees alike. After 25 years of working, first in the Mary Robb Library for six years and then in the Hansen Library for the next 19 years, Ginny Connolly decided to retire. When asked about what she enjoyed most about her time at SA, Mrs. Connolly shared, “the students and their energy and eagerness to read and learn. Their enthusiasm and zealousness were truly the high points of many of my days there.” She also shared her appreciation for Sewickley Academy when the school helped support her when she returned to library school to obtain her MLIS in 2003. The community will certainly miss Mrs. Connolly’s always helpful disposition and kind smile, and she will miss the students and teachers who inspired her every day. “Teaching is a progressive profession, demanding and yet forgiving in that each year in September a teacher can virtually start with a clean slate and correct anything that did not work the year before. It only gets better with time, and for me that was progress,” she said. “So, my advice to members of the SA community would be to just hang in there when the times are tough and know that it only will get better as time goes on.” SEWICKLEY SPEAKING

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SA Faculty & Staff Awards By: Quinn Theobald

Jerry Smith Award for Outstanding Service The Jerry Smith Award for Outstanding Service is an annual award that is given to a member of the Sewickley Academy staff. The chosen recipient is selected for their devotion to the Academy, commitment to excellence, care for others, and humility. These characteristics were all held by Jerry Smith, a former French teacher and technology department member at Sewickley Academy. The 2018 recipient is Debbie Mankowski. Recipients:

2012: Annie Bosh 2013: Cindy Bevevino 2014: Priscilla Henry 2015: Tina Maloney

2016: Kevin Gazda 2017: Heather Border 2018: Debbie Mankowski

Elizabeth Bishop Martin Faculty Award The Elizabeth Bishop Martin Award is an annual award that has been given to a teacher at Sewickley Academy since 1999. The recipient each year is a faculty member who made a significant contribution towards the Mission of Sewickley Academy, and who strives for excellence in and out of the classroom. The 2018 recipient is Lori Yost. Recipients:

1999: Cheryl Ann Lassen 2000: Susan Pross/Pam Scott 2001: John Charney/Larry Connolly 2002: Barbara Salak 2003: Gil Smith 2004: Guy Russo 2005: Jessica Peluso 2006: Linda Bowers 2007: Julia Tebbets 2008: Sira Metzinger 24

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2009: Jayne Parker 2010: Russ Weber 2011: Joan Cucinotta 2012: William H. Barnes 2013: Lori Sherry 2014: Jonathan Riddle 2015: Cynthia Kelley 2016: Carol McCormish 2017: Debbie Osterhout 2018: Lori Yost

The faculty and staff of Sewickley Academy are held to the highest standards, expected to excel in their field, and express a dedicated interest in the growth of our students. The value of the staff throughout campus is irreplaceable. Each member provides a skill set and perspective that adds to the growth of every student. These awards showcase members of the Sewickley Academy community who go above and beyond what is expected of them and have gained the admiration of their peers. Please join us in congratulating the awardees.

R.P. Simmons Family Chair of Excellence in Teaching The R.P. Simmons Family Chair of Excellence in Teaching, an award established in 2012, is given to teachers who have command of their subject, show consistent practice in their field, and devote time to their professional growth. The recipient also holds the chair for a four-year term. The last recipient was Joe Jackson. Recipients:

2013: Carla Garfield 2014: Julia Tebbets 2015: Matt Michaels 2016: Joe Jackson

Clark Faculty Chair The Clark Faculty Chair Award is an annual award that was created in honor of Ham and Ceci Clark for their service to the community. The Board of Trustees takes nominations every year for teachers who show master of subject matter, enthusiasm in the classroom, are respected by their colleagues, are fully engaged in the Academy, and have a true love for learning. This yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s recipient is Senior School technology coordinator Cristy McCloskey. Recipients:

2004: Sue Pross 2005: Tom Perdziola 2006: Lawrence C. Connolly 2007: Patricia S. Rose 2008: Barbara Carrier 2009: Susan Zawacky 2010: Linda Bowers 2011: Chris Anderson 2012: Evan Kurtz 2013: Jerilyn Scott

2014: Pam Scott 2015: Jonathan Riddle 2016: Dania Paul 2017: Bevan Koch 2018: Jayne Parker 2019: Cristy McCloskey

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Class of 2018 Facts & Stats

Admitted to 120 colleges and universities

GRADUATES

The SAT average for the Classes of 2015-2018 is 1283. This is 233 points above the national SAT average! The ACT average for the Class of 2018 is 28 versus a national average of 20.9.

46%

of the class was admitted to a college or university with an acceptance rate lower than 30%. 26

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86%

ventured out-of-state for college.

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6,470 hours spent engaged in community service

91%

were admitted to one of their top choice colleges.

Global Studies Certificate Awardees

The National Merit Scholarship Program recognized 9% of the class. SA had 2 Commended Students, 3 Semifinalists, and 2 National Merit Scholarship Recipients.

SEWICKLEY ACADEMY CELEBRATES THE

58 GRADUATES OF THE CLASS OF 2018 By: Brittnea Turner For the second time in Academy history, family members and friends of the graduating seniors, along with administrators, faculty, and staff, gathered in the Events Center and Means Alumni Gym on Thursday, June 7, to celebrate the Class of 2018. In keeping with tradition, the festivities began in the Richardson Dining Room with a reception for seniors, giving them one last chance to hang out as a class. Afterwards, they gathered on the steps of the Lower School for their iconic class photo which will be hung along with the other class pictures in the Senior School. “Lifers,” students who have attended SA since Pre-K, Kindergarten, or Grade 1, had the chance to pose for a picture, followed by the legacy photo of seniors with their parents who are alumni. The ceremony began promptly at 6:00 p.m. as Academy faculty, dressed in full academic regalia, and members of the Board of Trustees processed from the rear entrances of the Events Center. The Class of 2018 followed, with the majority of girls in elegant white dresses and the boys looking dapper in navy blazers and official SA ties. The graduates walked down the center aisle, stopped briefly for a picture, and proceeded to the tastefully decorated platform one by one until the entire class was seated on stage. Head of School Kolia O’Connor welcomed the crowd to the momentous occasion and introduced Claire Meakem, the senior class graduation speaker, who led

the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance and then addressed her classmates. She reflected on the significance of looking forward while framing the past, describing the class as “millennials.” “To some we’ve become known as Generation Z, but that’s not all. We’re also the iGeneration. We’re the first generation to not remember 9/11 and the generation with an eight-second attention span. As we prepare to leave Sewickley, and either accept or reject these memories and labels, it is important to look back before moving forward,” she stated. “Not only has each of us changed because of our personal experiences, but also because of all of you who are here today and who helped us along the way. Teachers like Mr. Connolly and his guitar performances or Mrs. McCloskey and her always open computer lab; Mrs. Cerniglia and her socially conscious discussions or Mr. Mills and his daily quote board. These are just a few of the many teachers that have dedicated their time and space to ensure that we grow not only as students but as people.” Mr. O’Connor, accompanied by Chair of the Board of Trustees Kate (Poppenberg ’82) Pigman, recognized students with special awards, including The Faculty Award, The Head of School’s Award, The Academy Award, and The Cavalier Cup.

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Graduation Awards Faculty Award The Faculty Award is given to the graduating student who has consistently displayed, with a cheerful and mature attitude, unselfish service to the entire school community and a sincere concern for others. Awardee: Natalia Arbelaez-Solano

Head of School’s Award

The Head of School’s Award is given to a member of the senior class whose service and accomplishments in academic, athletic, and/or extracurricular activities have made a significant contribution to the life of the school and who best exemplifies the ideals and spirit of Sewickley Academy. Awardee: Claire Meakem

Academy Award Given by the Board of Trustees, the Academy Award is presented at graduation to a deserving student who displays the distinguishing qualities of moral goodness, perseverance, and dedication to the Academy, and who, above all, is sincere in his or her academic pursuits. Awardee: Leila Wynnyckyj

Cavalier Cup The Cavalier Cup was given in June 1966 in honor of and to commemorate the graduation of the first senior class. This trophy was designated first to Mr. Cavalier for his leadership, guidance, and inspiration and is awarded each year to that boy or girl in the senior class who in the estimation of the faculty has achieved a record of combined excellence in scholarship, sportsmanship, and citizenship, thereby bringing credit to the Academy and distinguishing himself or herself as the best all-around graduate. Awardee: Cole Luther 1. Members of the Class of 2018 pose for a photo with their physics teacher, Mr. Ben Spicer. 2. Ms. Revathi Advaithi, Chief Operating Officer, Electrical Business for Eaton Corporation, addresses the Class of 2018. 3. Our newest alumni stand with their parents, who are also graduates of Sewickley Academy, for the traditional legacy photo. 4. McKenna Misko, Cameron Capito, and Madison Schulenburg are all smiles after the graduation ceremony. 5. Abbie Whitaker receives her diploma from Head of School Kolia O’Connor and Board Chair Kate (Poppenberg ’82) Pigman. 6. Heba Malik gives a thumbs up as she walks across the platform to receive her diploma. 7. Joseph Michael, Dylan Parda, Peter Goebel, Brian Weir, Will Nocito, Dave Groetsch, and Peter Curran pause for a picture before the start of the ceremony.

Following the recognition of achievements, Mr. O’Connor introduced the keynote speaker, Chief Operating Officer, Electrical Business for Eaton Corporation, Ms. Revathi Advaithi. She focused on two points based on her experiences – what it is like to be a woman in the workplace today, and the lack of progress the United States has made in advancing the cause of women, and how the graduating class can play a role in the fight for gender equality. Revathi shared statistics to give credence to her message. Four million high school students graduated in the U.S. in June 2018; of that 52% were girls. She said more girls will make the decision to go to college than boys – 72% to be exact. However, those promising statistics change very quickly after entering the workplace. From congress to the C-suite of Fortune 500 companies to the medical field, the percentage of women in high level positions is very small. “Data tells us that men rule the world … but, we have made progress,” she said. “We also live in the United States, one of the world’s most powerful countries, a first world economy, so why should we be satisfied with where we are [as women]?” Revathi discussed why she believes progress is slow by using her own story as an example. She grew up in India in a prosperous family with an educated father and intelligent mother who, counter to culture, intended for their daughters to attend college. Due to the death of her father, circumstances shifted and Revathi’s mother was left to take care of and educate f ive daughters. Through her mother’s strong will and determination, she learned several life lessons that she passed on to the Class of 2018. “One, the world may think you can’t do it, but all that matters is that you can. Never give up. Secondly, finish college; to girls specifically, never underestimate your potential and never give up because you think the boys sitting next to you are better than you,” she said. Her third and final point was to be a true sponsor of all women, “because you want the same success for your mothers, your sisters, your daughters, and yourself.” She finished her remarks by speaking directly to the graduates. “To the young men, dream big for yourself and all the women who surround your life. To the young women, never say ‘Why me?’ because it is all about you, so dream bigger and never give up. Thank you, and congratulations, Class of 2018.” Head of Senior School Dr. Peter Lau took the podium to announce the graduates as Mr. O’Connor and Mrs. Pigman presented each student with his or her diploma. The ceremony would have been remiss without Mr. O’Connor thanking everyone for attending and supporting the Class of 2018 and the Academy. Prior to sharing parting words of wisdom to the group of young adults, he focused on the importance of educators, like those at Sewickley Academy, equipping students with the skills of collaboration, leadership, and creativity. “Graduates, I am proud to see you today possessed by all that you will need to take advantage of your opportunities and to meet the challenges that lie before you. I encourage you, as you plan your college careers, to remain open to the creative, divergent opportunities for learning that you will encounter,” he said. “Seek out those courses that will stimulate your imagination. Provide opportunities for collaboration and open the doors to interdisciplinary thinking.” Mr. O’Connor concluded the ceremony by thanking the students. “Class of 2018, you are a remarkable group of distinct and powerful personalities. Individually and collectively, you have made an enormous and positive impact on your alma mater and for that I thank you. For all the ways you have supported one another and contributed to the success of this school year, I also thank you. Good luck and farewell.” The graduates recessed from the platform to the Senior School orchestra playing “Round Dance” by Felix Richard Meyer.

Congratulations, Class of 2018! SEWICKLEY SPEAKING

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Winter & Spring 2018

SPORTS WRAP UP By: Win Palmer

BOYS BASKETBALL The varsity boys basketball team captured both the section championship and the WPIAL Championship, finishing the year with an overall record of 24-5 and 13-1 in the section. The Panthers were led by senior captain Dave Groetsch and junior captain Nate Ridgeway. Sophomore Isiah Warfield was selected first team All-State, Nate Ridgeway second team All-State, and sophomore Isaiah Smith third team All-State. The three of them, along with sophomore Jett Roesing, led the team in scoring as Ridgeway also recorded his 1000th career point. The Panthers defeated Leechburg 83-49 and Chartiers Houston 65-33 in the WPIAL playoffs to advance to the Petersen Events Center for the third straight year to play OLSH in the championship game. There, SA put on an impressive free-throw shooting display to hold off the Chargers to capture gold. In the PIAA Tournament, SA defeated Cochranton 84-33, Ridgway 44-41, and Jeannette 64-56 before falling to OLSH in overtime 70-68 in the state semifinal to conclude another outstanding season.

GIRLS BASKETBALL For the second straight year, the varsity girls basketball team advanced to the WPIAL Semifinals and to the PIAA Tournament, finishing the year with a section record of 7-3 and 14-6 overall. The Panthers were led by senior captain Olivia Ryder who was selected to play in the prestigious Roundball Classic and earned All-Section honors

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along with junior Sam Smith. The Panthers defeated Aquinas Academy 42-35 in the WPIAL quarterfinals as Sam led the team with 13 points along with junior Theresa Wilsonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s nine points and freshman Bre Warnerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eight points. SA lost to WPIAL Champion Winchester Thurston 56-40 in the semifinals. In the first round of the PIAA Tournament, the Panthers lost in overtime to Allegheny Clarion-Valley 54-48 to conclude an exciting season.

ICE HOCKEY For the second straight year, the varsity ice hockey team advanced to the PIHL playoffs and won a first round playoff game, finishing league play with a 13-7 record and an overall record of 14-10. Senior Michael Hertzberg led the team in scoring, and senior Cole Luther was outstanding in goal as both players were selected to play in the PIHL All-Star Game. Junior captains Matthew Hajdukiewicz, Tommy Gordon, and Henry Meakem led the Panther team which featured eight juniors. In the playoffs, SA defeated Fox Chapel 6-4 as junior Andrew Beck scored two goals along with goals by senior Thomas Yung, junior Jack Duggan, Michael, and Matthew. The Panthers battled No. 1 seed and eventual league champion Bishop McCort in the quarterfinals before falling 7-5.

SWIMMING AND DIVING The varsity girls swimming and diving team finished second in the section with a record of 5-2 and 6-3 overall. The varsity boys swimming and diving team captured a fifth straight section championship and finished second at the WPIAL Championships with a score of 177, behind Northgate, who scored 228. The cooperative team with Quaker Valley has finished in the top two places at the WPIAL Championships the past four years. The 400-yard freestyle relay team, featuring junior Kieran Ragoowansi, finished in third place and advanced to states.

BASEBALL

SOFTBALL

During the rainiest spring season in recent years, the varsity baseball team struggled to build momentum early in the year, finishing the season with a record of 3-9 in the section and 3-10 overall. The Panthers fielded a roster with no seniors. Junior John DelVecchio was selected All-Section. Demonstrating the pride and growth from this young team, SA captured the final three games to set the stage for next season.

The varsity softball team earned a berth in the WPIAL playoffs for the seventh consecutive year by finishing 10-2 in the section and 11-5 overall. The Panthers were led by senior captain Kaylee Paterson and junior captain Alyssa Winters. Juniors Theresa Wilson and Alyssa, along with sophomore Alexis Barlock, were selected AllSection. In the first round of the playoffs, the Panthers trailed Mapletown 9-2 before rallying to tie the game 10-10 as senior Olivia Ryder and Theresa had multi-hit games. Down 12-10 in the bottom of the seventh, sophomore Maggie Goebel, and freshman Kamryn Lightcap had crucial hits before Kaylee drove in the walk off run. In the next round, the Panthers were defeated by Vincentian 8-4.

BOYS LACROSSE The varsity boys lacrosse team finished the last season in AAA play with an overall record of 2-13 and 2-4 in section play. The Panthers were led by senior captains Peter Curran and Brian Weir. SA earned a berth in the WPIAL playoffs by defeating section opponents Shaler 5-4 and Allderdice 12-3 led by outstanding play by junior goalie Josh Thomas. Freshman Jack Wentz led the team in scoring as a large roster returns for play in AA this coming year.

GIRLS LACROSSE The varsity girls lacrosse team capped an amazing season by advancing to the AAA WPIAL Championship game and the PIAA Tournament, finishing the season with an overall record of 15-7 and a section record of 10-2. The Panthers were led by seniors Lydia Elste, Lu Gillespie, Antoinette Heil, and Claire Meakem who helped the team with a large group of freshmen mature into a playoff tested team. Junior Sydney Larsen and freshman Elsa Gordon were selected All-Section and All-WPIAL. The Panthers defeated Latrobe 23-3 and Fox Chapel 13-7 in the first two rounds of the WPIAL Tournament. In the semifinals, SA played Mt. Lebanon and defeated them in a thrilling game 15-14. Larsen scored six goals, Gordon four goals, freshman Ellie Hughes three goals, and freshman Madison Recker registered the 15th goal. Sophomore goalie Jill Pollon made a number of crucial saves down the stretch. In the WPIAL Championship game, the Panthers were defeated by Pine Richland 11-3. In our first state tournament game in recent years, SA was defeated by State College 15-6 to end an incredible season.

BOYS TENNIS The varsity tennis team captured a section championship and a 15th consecutive WPIAL Championship, finishing the year with a record of 16-2 and 9-0 in the section. Led by senior captains Will Nocito, Dylan Parda, and Nishant Purewal, the Panthers defeated Greensburg Salem, Knoch, and South Park 5-0 to advance to the WPIAL Championship match. There, the Panthers defeated Indiana 4-1. In the PIAA Tournament, the Panthers defeated Elk County Catholic 5-0, Central Columbia 3-0, Lancaster Country Day 3-2 before falling to Wyomissing 3-2 in the PIAA Championship Match. Sophomore Arjan Bedi captured the WPIAL Singles Championship. The doubles team of Nocito and Parda captured both the WPIAL Championship and the PIAA Championship.

TRACK AND FIELD The varsity boys and girls track teams showed much improvement throughout the season, despite the rainy conditions during the majority of the track meets. A number of individuals and relay teams came close to qualifying for WPIALs, and with the vast majority of the team returning this year, there is much excitement.

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“Chairs” to You, Amy Sebastian! By: Brittnea Turner When it comes to Amy (Simmons ‘80) Sebastian, you could say she bleeds black and red. She has been an active member of the Sewickley Academy community as an alumna and parent of alumni – Connor ’12, Campbell ’13, and Erin ’16 – the former Chair of the Board of Trustees, and, as of May 2018, an Emerita Trustee. She has worn many hats and taken on various roles at the Academy, most remarkably serving on the Board of Trustees for 18 years, five of those as Chair. Amy first came to the Academy in 1974, but it’s her recent contributions to the life and overall well-being of the school that we especially applaud. “From time to time it comes to pass in the history of our school that we wish to pause and pay tribute to an outstanding leader, mentor, guide, and supporter. Such a time is now at the close of Amy’s service on the Sewickley Academy Board of Trustees,” Head of School Kolia O’Connor said. “Her wise leadership and extraordinary vision supported the school through an extraordinary period of transformative change, and through her leadership of the Picture This! Campaign, she set the stage for the remarkable growth of the Academy’s endowment, ensuring the stability and strength of the school for generations to come.” Under Amy’s leadership, the Board developed an ambitious strategic plan for the Academy that resulted in strengthened academic programs, including the Global Studies program. Through her tenacious efforts and personal generosity, the Oliver Science Building was transformed into a 21st century learning space and the Events Center boldly occupies the former site of Means Alumni Gym. Former trustee and chair Dr. Glenn Buterbaugh, with whom Amy worked on the Executive Committee and the Committee on Trustees, commented that Amy was well prepared and a natural fit to step into the chair position based on her understanding of the school and her ability to lead an effective board. “Amy had a lot of board experience beyond Sewickley Academy and had her own ideas on moving the school forward. Everybody was comfortable with her moving into that position, so she was able to essentially hit the ground running to move the school forward,” Dr. Buterbaugh said. “Every year has its challenges. I had mine, and she had hers. She certainly accepted those challenges and worked hard to persevere through them. It’s the job of the Board Chair to bring people together so that the Board has a singular voice, and she did that beautifully.” Lorraine Houston, former trustee and vice chair, worked closely with Amy and was able to see her in action. She described Amy’s leadership style as collaborative, inclusive, and open to varied viewpoints. She recounted numerous ways Amy left her mark on the Academy – leading a second capital campaign (the Oliver-Means Campaign), supporting the acquisition of the last contiguous piece of property on Academy Avenue in 2016, and substantially increasing the financial aid budget with the goal of creating a student body that celebrates different backgrounds, talents, interests, and divergent yet informed opinions. “Her clear vision and determination produced results that adhered to the Mission and Core Values of the institution,” Lorraine reflected. “She had an eye towards the future. As Board Chair, Amy was cognizant of the school being an organic, dynamic organization. She involved the Board in questions of culture, how to stimulate progress and yet preserve and maintain the many core attributes of the school. Her leadership in this area led to periodic surveying of the school community and annual surveys of the trustees. The results of the surveys were used in formulating the work of the Board, the effect of which will be felt in years to come.” Amy joined the Board in 2000, was elected as Member-at-Large during her fourth term, became Vice Chair in September 2011, and operated as Chair from May 2012 until June 2017. Her efforts, both seen and unseen, have already benefitted hundreds of students, faculty, and staff, and their families, and the legacy of her contributions will benefit generations yet to enter the school.

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FA L L 2 0 1 8

HEAD OF SCHOOL HONORED FOR 15-YEAR TENURE During Sewickley Academy’s annual opening of school assembly on August 31, 2018, Chair of the Board of Trustees Kate (Poppenberg ’82) Pigman, accompanied by Vice Chair Brad Busatto ’88, and trustees, past and present, honored Head of School Kolia O’Connor for 15 years of service at Sewickley Academy. “The Board of Trustees and Emeritus Trustees would like to take a moment to recognize someone who has dedicated countless hours of energy, talent, and excellence every day in support of students, families, and colleagues over the past 15 years. Happy 15th anniversary, Mr. Kolia O’Connor,” Kate proclaimed. In July 2003, Kolia moved to Sewickley from New York City with his wife, Susan, and their two kindergarten-age sons, Gus ’16 and Alex ’16, and took on the role as Head of School. To put that in perspective, the oldest students currently enrolled at the Academy were three years old when Mr. O’Connor came to Sewickley. “Kolia’s loyalty and dynamic leadership must be applauded. He has a ferocious dedication and vision for what our school is, can, and should be,” Kate said. “While education begins and ends with the student and teacher, Kolia’s focus on the future and the success of our students, not just today but tomorrow, is evident. As Kolia routinely says, ‘We cannot rest on our laurels,’ and Kolia never has.” Kolia’s accomplishments have been many during his tenure, and the school is much stronger today because of his leadership. His work has led to a clear Mission Statement that guides the school every day, in every way. A few of his lasting imprints on the Academy include creating and sustaining robust programs, two vital capital campaigns, a doubling of the endowment, supporting a community of lifelong learners, and renovating and expanding campus facilities into the 21st century. “Kolia routinely is the first person on campus and the last one to leave, staying for meetings or attending performances or cheering on our athletic teams. His enthusiasm and steadfastness for support and excellence was and is palpable,” Kate stated. “First and foremost, Kolia O’Connor has always put the best interests of the student at the forefront of his decisions – as he would often say, ‘We’re here because of the students.’ Our Mission has always been his guiding principle and his leadership has been adamant and clear.” Kate announced, “On behalf of our board and community, we applaud and sincerely thank Kolia O’Connor for his leadership, commitment, and for all that he has given to SA so far!”

Congratulations on this remarkable 15-year anniversary, Mr. O’Connor!

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A Memorable Milestone:

DANIA PAUL CELEBRATES 25 YEARS OF DEDICATION By: Quinn Theobald Staying in the same workplace for 25 years is not just a matter of stamina; if you are Dania Paul, it’s about growing and changing with the times and giving your very best every day. Dania has proven to be an incredible teacher and leader in the Lower School, so it is surprising that teaching was not her aspiration from the beginning. Though she comes from a family of teachers, she attended West Virginia University as a history major with hopes of continuing on to law school. Observing several friends making their way through law school, Dania realized that it might not be the best path for her. She made the change to focus on teaching during her sophomore year of college, and immediately knew it was her calling. Hoping to teach at the middle or high school level, her plans again changed, thanks to her experience student teaching with younger children. At the suggestion of a friend, Dania applied at Sewickley Academy and found herself as the After Ours Director. “I started as the After Ours Director and was subbing a lot, so I was here about three days a week. It was great to be able to see the classrooms and how different they all were and how the various grades functioned,” Dania said of her start at the Academy.

Through the years, Dania has seen incredible change around the Academy’s campus. With updated buildings, reimagined courtyards, and brand new playgrounds, she has watched the grounds blossom into what they are today. She also loves the small school atmosphere. The ability not only to see the campus grow, but to see the same group of students from their days in third grade until they are handed their diplomas is a unique pleasure. “The students here really want to learn, and the teachers really love what they do. We have a passion for learning and children, and want to impart our love of learning into our students,” Dania stated. “We also have the freedom to do what we want in our classrooms without the restraints [that public schools may require]. We can be really creative and the administration really trusts us as professionals and individuals.” Recalling her own years as a student, Dania remembers her time in third grade. The lack of connection with and passion for learning from her teachers left a deep impression on her. Her teachers typically stood in front of the class and lectured. “It made me think, it has to be better than what my experience was. So that experience was a springboard to think about what I could do to impact children positively since I was impacted so poorly,” she reflected.

As an active member of this community, and with the ability to see the inner workings of the Academy, Dania knew that she wanted to be involved fully, not only as a teacher, but also as a family. Her sons have been students – Willie ’16 and Jackson ’19 – and her husband, Joe ’82, is an alumnus. Dania says that this is not just a job for those who spend their time here, “it’s a calling.” The goal is never to get through the day as quickly as possible, but to impact the students by giving them the skills to achieve the most challenging goals. Staying in one place for so long also means experiencing some sad times. Dania recalled the passing of two unforgettable members of the Sewickley family, John Heagy, former Head of Middle School, and Kurt Cerny, former dance teacher. These darker moments that brought the community closer together are among the marker events of Dania’s time here. A gloriously happy moment, however, one that she will cherish forever, was receiving the Clark Faculty Chair Award in 2015. The award is given to a faculty member who exemplifies the love of teaching and achieves the highest levels of respect from their colleagues and students. “Sewickley Academy has been a special place for me. This is my only teaching experience, this is my one and only. I’ve been very blessed for this to be it,” she said. “The community is special. We all work together for the benefit of our students and our families. I also thank the colleagues I’ve had who have been so instrumental in developing me into the teacher I am today.” As a teacher, parent, and committed member of the community, Dania Paul has dedicated her life to Sewickley Academy and its Mission. Congratulations, Dania, on 25 amazing years at Sewickley Academy!

SA goes to ATL! Alumni and friends of the Academy gathered for an alumni reception in Atlanta at the Ansley Golf Club on March 8, 2018. Conversation was lively as guests shared their own experiences of the school and their old neighborhoods, and brought us up-to-date on their work and families today. Head of School Kolia O’Connor provided news from the school and answered questions about current initiatives in curriculum, focusing on what students are learning to prepare themselves for a constantly changing world. Susan Kinser, Director of Alumni Relations, and Susan (Ratcliffe ’55) Sour, Alumni Associate, greeted guests and enjoyed catching up as well. Guests included: Debi (Butteri ’73) Akers, Jonathan Beales ’71, Susan (Hawk ’75) Coy, Paul Dimmick (father of Peter ’04, Maggie ’08, and Kat ’11), Scott Kaufman ’77, Larry Mock (father of Mary Grace ’03 and Katherine ’06), Linda (Hawk ’73) Kluge, Mark Rafalko ’04, and John ’66 and Renee Richardson. We’d like to say a special “thank you” to John Richardson ’66 for helping us organize such a lovely venue for the evening. The following day Susan Sour had a delightful lunch hosted by Debi (Butteri ’73) Akers who is busy with wedding plans for her son’s marriage; coffee with Leslie (Sweet ’88) Crye who is tearing up the tennis courts winning tournaments; and an overnight visit with Steve Ratcliffe ’58 who is touring the region winning classic car competitions with his 1986 MGB.

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SA goes to LA! During a Sewickley Academy visit to the Los Angeles area in January 2018, Director of Annual Giving and Auction Patricia Coyne Stine enjoyed lunch with Deborah (Thaw ‘68) Valera at The 24/7 Restaurant at The Standard, Downtown LA, to catch up on her latest adventures with her husband, Milt. The Rooftop at The Standard, Downtown LA, was the hotspot that evening where Sewickley Academy alumni gathered for conversation, cocktails, and small plates with fellow Academy graduates to reconnect in the City of Angels. Pictured from left to right: Sydney Joseph ’14, Jessica Handy ’89, Lauren Lasorda ’08, Christina Lasorda ’12, Fran Handy (Jessica’s mom), David Lasorda ’10, and Kennedy Stine ’14.

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Welcome to Sewickley Academy! Karen McAvoy

Director of Finance & Operations

A native of Massachusetts, Karen has spent her entire career working in the public and nonprofit sectors, beginning initially at the State of Massachusetts Highway Department and Port Authority as an auditor. She served for 17 years as the Director of Administration and Finance for Caravan for Commuters, Inc., a nonprofit committed to providing the transportation needs of thousands of commuters in and around Boston. Later she served as the Finance Director of a national children’s healthcare advocacy group before becoming the Director of Finance and Accounting at Maimonides School in Brookline, Massachusetts. During her nine years at Maimonides, Karen oversaw the business operations of the school, which enrolls 550 students and has 125 employees, strengthening its business operations while serving the mission of the school. More recently, Karen served as the Director of Finance and Operations at The New School in Fayetteville, Arkansas. At The New School, she oversaw the business office operations and also completed a $22.5 million facilities project that expanded the school’s academic space by 65,000 square feet, a project that came in on time and under budget. Karen is a graduate of Salem State College (Massachusetts), with a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting and Finance. References highlight her business acumen while also noting her excellent interpersonal skills. During her time working in schools, she has developed a reputation among her colleagues as a sharp-eyed financial leader who possesses warmth and empathy. Karen is looking forward to continuing her career at Sewickley Academy, a school that reflects her commitment to mission, teaching, and learning: in short to supporting faculty and staff to be their best at what they do.

Kristen Rowe

Hansen Library Librarian

Having completed several years as a Library Media Specialist in the Plum Borough School District, Kristen Rowe joins the Hansen Library team as a librarian. Prior to her work at Plum, Kristen also worked at Hopewell and Leechburg Area School Districts, as well as the Mars Area Public Library. She earned her B.A. in journalism at Penn State, University Park, and went on to complete the Master of Library and Information Science program at the University of Pittsburgh, one of the premier programs of its kind in the country.

The Board of Trustees Welcomes New Home and School President Janelle Aslam Janelle Hanneman Aslam is a mom of three children; the middle child, Azeem Aslam, is a Grade 2 student at Sewickley Academy. She has been an active volunteer with the school as well as other organizations since moving to the area in 2016. Janelle is the owner of a strategic marketing and consulting firm, Start Something Solutions, and a professor of marketing at Chatham University. She has over 20 years of sales and marketing expertise working for Nestlé, S. C. Johnson & Son, Claritin, Dr. Scholl’s, Salonpas, and Freshpet. She graduated from Miami University of Ohio with a bachelor’s degree in marketing and earned her MBA from Cornell University, where she met her husband, Saad Aslam.

Kristen enjoys working in libraries because she loves to learn and is eager to help students become savvy consumers of information and media. She is also looking forward to partnering with the faculty to enrich student learning across the curriculum.

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INQUIRY

PIPELINE

TO SA By: Andrew McMillen and Jayme Thompson

The Admission Office at Sewickley Academy is pleased to announce that it exceeded its enrollment goal for the 2018-2019 school year. On August 31, the opening day of school, the Academy celebrated its enrollment of 640 students, the largest in three years. Pittsburgh continually tops the list for “Best Places to Live” and “Most Livable Cities” according to publications like U.S. News and World Report and Livability.com. With opportunities in technology, medicine, education, and energy, Pittsburgh has become home to many families who have relocated for careers in these fields. One of the most important factors in a family’s decision regarding relocation is often their child’s education. Sewickley Academy stresses its message that we welcome students for who they are and guide them as they develop into who they will become. Sewickley Academy is proud to be one of the most prestigious and rigorous schools in the region. Over the past decade, the Academy’s friendly relationship with Shell Oil Company developed due to the remarkable experiences other SA families shared through word-of-mouth with their colleagues who were going to be reassigned to Pittsburgh-based projects. When Shell announced it would be opening an ethylene cracker plant in Potter Township, Pennsylvania, the Academy was fortunate to be the only school invited to present at their headquarters in Houston, Texas. Representatives from the Admissions Office traveled to Houston in March and October of 2017 to provide details on the admission process, as well as screen and interview applicants.

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Many families that are affiliated with Shell have helped to grow our community. As the plant continues to progress in Beaver County, we look forward to working with more families from Shell as they explore the admission process at SA. Although the Academy does not have a direct partnership with other local companies, we also enroll families that relocate here for jobs with several of the major corporate and nonprofit stakeholders in the area. Highlighting our school and programs throughout Western Pennsylvania is an important job for the admissions and marketing teams. Collectively, we decided to focus our marketing efforts on the Academy’s Early Childhood and Lower School programs over the past two years. This effort produced great dividends in the Lower School enrollment, as the Pre-Kindergarten class is full this year and currently has a wait pool for students, and other grade levels are close to or at capacity.

ADMISSION

ENROLLMENT

VISIT SA APPLICATION

We market our academic, arts, and athletic programs in order to show potential students and parents the unique Sewickley Academy experience. During the school year, visitors are able to witness this first-hand through visit days, shadow days, and tours led by the admissions team or student ambassadors. We wanted families who visit campus over the summer to have a similar experience and, for the first time during the summer of 2018, our classrooms were brought to life through short videos that were shown on an iPad during tours. A few video topics include reading time in the Lower School’s Marion Hutchins Library, dance class with Mr. Joe Jackson, and a video game elective course in the MakerSpace, among many others. A thoughtful and robust admission process is vital to ensure the enrollment of Mission-aligned students. When families inquire, they are asked to provide detailed information on their application, which has components for both students and parents to complete. During a shadow day, the candidate visits the school, shadows a student, and meets with the admissions staff for interviews and/or evaluations. For students entering Grades 5-11, the Independent School Entrance Exam (ISEE) can help show aptitude in key areas. Additionally, a copy of a student’s school records and teacher recommendations help round out his or her admission profile. The student admission file is then sent to a committee of admissions staff, faculty, and administrators to determine their decision. Once a student is enrolled, we welcome them to the Academy via the new family social, division-specific orientation activities, and the SA Link program, which helps new families connect with our current community before the first day of school.

Helping new families navigate the admission process and begin their SA experience is an important duty of the Admissions Office, but our re-enrollment efforts for all of our current families are just as vital to the school. We are grateful to connect with and hear from our current families about their experiences at the school and check in on any new developments throughout the school year. Many of our community members have helped the Admissions Office, resulting in the enrollment of over 20 new families by referral this year. We are grateful that our current families are spreading the word about the exceptional academic programs, noteworthy faculty, and sense of community that Sewickley Academy provides! We are thrilled with this past admission season, and are looking ahead to 20192020. Our hope is to build on the momentum that we have captured in 2018, and continue to grow the “pipeline to SA.” The Admissions Team consists of Director of Admissions & Financial Aid Andrew McMillen, Assistant Director of Admissions and Coordinator of Lower School Admissions Jayme Thompson, and Admissions Assistant Wendy Berns.

Director of Admissions Andrew McMillen and Assistant Director of Admissions and Coordinator of Lower School Admissions Jayme Thompson work together to ensure the enrollment of Mission-aligned students. SEWICKLEY SPEAKING

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SA TECHNICAL THEATER DIRECTOR

TAKES ON HIS FEAR OF OPEN WATER

ON SCULLEY SABBATICAL By: Nathan Bell “Come about, head to wind, reduce speed. Prepare to raise the mainsail!” I try to sound more confident than I feel as I call out orders from my position next to the helm. The big diesel engines that power the twin screws of our 40-foot catamaran rumble to a lower pitch, and the big island that had been off to our right now swings into view. Steve, who works in the solar industry in Southern California, turns the wheel to starboard and we turn head-to-wind. A steady breeze of about 10 knots is in our faces now, chilly, and coming from due east. “The Trade Winds” they call it. “Standby on the main halyard, flake the downhaul!” Brian, a liquor sales rep from Manhattan, lays out the well-worn blue and white rope. Catching a tangle while pulling the rope with an electric winch can tear hardware right out of the hull of the boat if you’re not paying attention. Thankfully, we haven’t done that yet. Dean, a business executive from Toronto, Canada, winds the rope three times around the motorized winch and gives it a smart tug when he’s finished. “Um…” Surely I’m forgetting something. I ask Steve for a depth reading. Our charts tell us that it remains safe to sail right up to spitting distance from the rocky shores in front of us, but I am eager to finish raising the mainsail long before we are even close. With the motors powering us slowly but steadily straight into the wind, they are also driving us ever closer to the rocks dead ahead. I have a very real time limit on this exercise, and I can feel sweat breaking out on my forehead. “Go on the main!”

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Nate takes in the beautiful sunset on the coast of Grenada.

Nate and his crew set sail on this catamaran, a Bali 4.0.

The winch springs to life, pulling hard on the rope that lifts the mainsail, spilling rope onto the deck. A pile of red rope starts to build up at Dean’s feet, and I look up to see the pointed top of our mainsail rising up the mast. Brian furiously pays out slack of the downhaul, preventing a tangle. Steve makes constant adjustments to the helm, doing his best to maintain a steady course into the wind. Suddenly, Brian yells and we all look his way. A snarl in the downhaul line has stopped our progress. I start to move across the deck, but Brian waves me off, and he is quickly able to clear the snag. He gives us the okay and the winch resumes, pulling the sail slowly up the mast. The rocky shores of Grenada are still a good ways off.

Distracted by the confusion, Steve has turned over his shoulder to see what’s wrong. As he watches, the steering wheel at the helm drifts to his right. The rocks ahead are drifting to our port side, which means we’re turning southward. The wind whips the sail in the opposite direction, further snarling the batten. The ropes stretch and creak. The three sailors stay at their posts, all looking to me for orders. At this point, a cold sweat has broken out over my whole body, and I’m flooded with adrenaline. It’s all falling apart – we’ve got a mainsail half-raised, we’ve steered off course, and our running lines are a tangled mess. Visions of shipwrecks fill my head. I imagine water flooding the cabins, hulls cracking in two, pale faces staring up as the last trickle of bubbles drift towards the surface. The water looks deep here and I’m not a strong swimmer. Where did we store the life jackets again?

“STOP!” The voice from behind startles me at first. The figure standing and observing all of this action from the stern of the ship is a spry, sea-weathered, impish figure, with well-tanned skin, sun-bleached hair, and a lilt of South-African accent in his speech. This is our captain and instructor, Shaun Tarr. I look toward him for explanation, but he doesn’t say another word, just points upward toward the mast. I follow his gaze, but at first I don’t see any problems from my vantage point near the helm. I duck under the heavy boom, to the middle of the ship, looking over the other ropes and winches: nothing. I clamber over the slick surfaces of the hull to the port side and look up. My heart sinks, and I realize the problem. A gust of wind has tangled a batten of the sail in the lazy-jack, a web of ropes used to guide the sail when it’s being lowered back down. If we’d continued to haul the sail upward with the snag, we could have snapped one of the lazy-jack lines, or worse yet, snapped a batten and torn our mainsail. The seconds tick by in a seeming eternity, and I feel panic start to well up. “Ease the halyard! Back in, back in!” Dean unwraps the red halyard line from the winch, but nothing happens. It’s stuck. “Brian, the downhaul! Pull!”

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“Steer back upwind and lower the main! Climb up there and shake the sail loose from the lazy-jack! Stop staring off like an idiot!” Captain Shaun isn’t one to mince words, and his orders break me out of my panic. Steve corrects the course heading. Brian climbs up the pegs on the front of the mast, pulling at the bottom of the mainsail. I grab the back edge of the sail and pull with all my might. Eventually, the wind cooperates, the sail drops, and we shake the snag free. Dean rewinds the winch; the mainsail goes up. We trim lines, Steve steers us northward, well clear of any rocks, and kills the engines. The mainsail fills with trade winds, and we unfurl the genoa, a smaller sail at the front of the mast. In near-silence, we set sail on a pleasant starboard tack away from shore. We’re “under way.” I breathe a heavy sigh of relief. Shaun grins at me and walks away. I’ve learned that, from this man of relatively few words, this is praise of a job well done. What felt like an eternity was less than seven minutes. I can raise the mainsail on a 40-foot catamaran, and I can even do it with a bit of adversity thrown in for good measure. I’ve passed the “hands-on” portion of my exam. For seven days, I lived at sea on a Bali 4.0 sloop-rigged catamaran, sailing the waters of Grenada, Carriacou, St. Vincent, and the Grenadine Islands, thanks to the Sculley Sabbatical and Sewickley Academy. Over the span of the course, which was coordinated through an organization called Nautilus Sailing, I studied points of sail, rigging systems, wind speed and direction,

View from the Top: Back on land, Nate appreciates the view of Port Louis, from St. George’s, the capitol of Grenada, located in the Southern Caribbean.

Nate enjoys a quiet moment on board the catamaran.

weather patterns, navigation, man-overboard drills, engine maintenance, and more. The three other students and I worked together as a team to manage and maintain the vessel for the week long trip, and we all took turns serving as either “captain” or “cook” for the day. Together, we learned everything that is necessary to charter, pilot, and maintain this type of boat, and gained insight into the type of team learning and camaraderie that can develop when living in close quarters, working hard, and learning in an intense and all-consuming way.

of the open sea. Overcoming my own doubts and trepidation has led to a greater understanding of my place in the world, and filled me with a sense of tremendous pride, accomplishment, and humility.

A curiosity about sailing has been at the back of my mind since childhood, when I would hear tales of adventure and seamanship from my grandfather, who was a Naval officer during WWII. He served on the U.S.S. Requin, (the submarine currently on exhibit at the Carnegie Science Center) and, despite the harrowing experiences of war at sea, my grandfather loved life on the water. I remember trips out on the lake near his summer cabin in Ontario, Canada, in the motorboat he built by hand. I remember fishing trips in the rowboat, silently paddling on the clear waters of Lorimer Lake. Throughout these trips, while I was fascinated by the technology and lore of sailing, another feeling pervaded all of these experiences: fear.

The Sculley Sabbatical is to be used for “enriching, idiosyncratic travel,” and it is humbling to receive such an incredible opportunity. This experience has opened up a new passion for sailing that I am eager to pursue, and the skills and lessons learned in my week on the water will carry forward into all of my future experiences. My sincerest gratitude goes out to the Sculley family, the sabbatical committee that helped to make this happen, and to the whole Sewickley Academy community. While I may never get the chance to sail the trade winds off the coasts of the southern Caribbean again, you will undoubtedly hear of my future endeavors at sea in years to come.

I have the utmost respect and a healthy fear of the ocean and any deep body of water. While I enjoy boating, the thought of drowning is never far from my mind when I’m away from shore, possibly due to my meager swimming skills. Nevertheless, my interest and fascination with nautical technology and lore remains strong, possibly because so much of the theatrical rigging technology I use every day is derived from nautical roots. When I learned of the Nautilus Sailing program, I knew that I had to try to make it happen. What followed was the adventure of a lifetime. I experienced life in Grenada, which is a spectacularly beautiful country filled with some of the most genuine and welcoming people I have ever met. I worked, learned, and bonded with fellow students from other walks of life who shared the curiosity and desire to learn a craft that is built on hundreds of years of tradition. I developed strength, confidence, and resolve by working through what were, at times, truly grueling and difficult circumstances. To strike out into the ocean with little more than a boat and one’s wits is simultaneously thrilling and terrifying, as one stares with cold fear into the seemingly endless water

“Batten down the hatches, man the capstan, and weigh anchor. We set sail at dawn!” SEWICKLEY SPEAKING

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Lower School Lesson:

What are Earth’s Natural Resources?

By: Holly Hilberg Haddad Students are introduced to the importance of conserving natural resources beginning in Grade 2 science class as they ponder the question, “Where does garbage go?” After students share their ideas and misconceptions, they are introduced to the concept of Pennsylvania landfills and discover the reality of limited space to bury garbage in many areas on earth. This introduction to a unit on natural resources serves as a foundation for learning habits of conservation which help each of earth’s citizens work together to conserve natural resources. These habits are introduced as the 4Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Respect planet Earth. Students investigate the process of recycling to conserve non-renewable resources. Young scientists discover renewable natural resources as they create a composting system within the Academy’s Secret Garden. Composting requires balancing equal amounts of organic matter with browns and greens. As the organic materials decompose, scientists observe change as a natural process and can better understand how change takes time for non-renewable resources to emerge on earth. This unit of study highlights the natural resource soil, and students continue to investigate soil through collecting samples and comparing and experimenting with various types of soil to discover its ingredients. During this natural resource unit, the essential understanding of personal and collective responsibility develops as students continue to formulate ideas and habits which enable each community to take responsibility for sharing resources. Even prior to Grade 2, younger scientists are introduced to topics of ecology as they care for live organisms and discover their common needs: air, water, space to live, food, and sunlight. Students recognize their importance in helping organisms and humans to survive by identifying natural resources as needs for survival. Scientists in Grades 1-3 enjoy spring planting experiences in the Secret Garden. Students observe the stages of a plant’s life cycle and eventually taste fresh vegetables including radishes, lettuces, peas, tomatoes, and onions, all grown pesticide-free. In many years, the fall harvest enables students to donate produce to the school’s cafeteria.

Students in Grade 4 investigate water quality during science class as they study erosion, weathering, and filtering processes which lead to clean water. Visiting the local water treatment facility and constructing models to show how plants prevent erosion enables students to consider this essential resource and its value to all humans and organisms. This concept is integrated into social studies class as students discover commonalities of other cultures who also need to access and maintain clean water sources. The concept of energy is investigated in relation to accessing and sharing resources, and students conclude the year experimenting with various energy concepts. Each spring, Grade 5 students synthesize all they have learned about earth’s landforms, resources, and life forms as they spend a week in nature experiencing an outdoor environmental learning program, formerly at McKeever Environmental Learning Center and more recently at Mohican State Park in Ohio. Students participate in a myriad of experiences which highlight the necessity of conserving resources and respecting nature’s gifts. One of the most valuable lessons occurs during mealtime when students are taught to “take what you need; eat what you take” in which students are challenged not to leave any waste on their plates. This habit is practiced during each meal and hopefully transfers to each student as one way in which we can all work together to celebrate, respect, share, and conserve nature’s gifts for us all. The Lower School Science program encourages thinking and problemsolving skills. Students are encouraged to use questioning and inquiry as they function as scientists, conduct investigations, complete experiments, research concepts, and acquire a scientific vocabulary in the context of a hands-on science program.

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ta l

s Present R t n ese de

at Environm h en c ar

mit and W Sum o r

ir Grade 6 s Fa S t ld’

By: Anna Foust, Christy Mulhollem, and Jonathan Riddle Each spring at Sewickley Academy, Grade 6 students can be found digging into preparations for a culminating project of the year, the Environmental Summit and World’s Fair. During the month of May, students research an assigned country and an environmental challenge in their history, science, and English classes. The end result is a series of assignments designed to communicate how countries could respond to environmental challenges and opportunities existing within their assigned country. Throughout the research process, students are asked to consider their findings while keeping in mind the cultures, economies, and geography of each country. Students are encouraged to grapple with the complexity of global environmental issues and cultural differences while seeking responses that lead to a better future. The environmental topics represented typically vary from year to year, but often include water quality, climate change, land use, deforestation, fossil fuels, biodiversity, endangered species, and air quality. While individual and group research are integral components of this unit, instruction occurs in a variety of ways as well. These topics are further studied by students as part of Sewickley Academy’s social studies curriculum in Grades 4-6. As part of this curriculum, Grade 4 students begin to study the connection between cultures and their environments with units on water resources, food supply, health, and pollution. This foundation is built upon in Grade 5 as students learn about habitat preservation, energy resources, population growth, and climate change. The following year in Grade 6, the standards of living, globalization, and human rights units challenge students to think about the complex ways governments and economic needs impact environmental policy, both historically and in modern society. Students are focused on understanding the causes and ramifications of these challenges in their science classes, and conduct laboratory work to help clarify any

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misconceptions they may have. For example, different qualities of water are given to lab groups and they design and build filters to attempt to improve the water quality. Making use of online simulators, other lab groups are challenged to provide communities with electrical power using a variety of sources. This simulation tracks spending for the different sources and feedback from the simulated community members so students can see that these challenges are often complex. Throughout the project, students share their research findings, infographics, and written work with their peers in a number of digital ways. The project not only provides an opportunity for students to dig into how cultures, economies, governments, and geography are tied to environmental challenges, but also continues to teach students how to utilize digital technology and collaboration tools safely and ethically. The research phase of the unit requires students to evaluate sources, read for understanding, and synthesize information. An equally important skill, of course, is the ability to successfully communicate their learning with others. During English classes, students consider the components of an effective speech, such as strong opening lines and nonverbal communication. Students present their findings in two different ways: at an Environmental Summit with their peers, and at the World’s Fair which family and friends attend. During the Environmental Summit, students studying countries with similar challenges and opportunities meet, discuss responses, and build physical models that could help reduce the challenges these countries face. Creative, outside-ofthe-box thinking is encouraged. The use of words like “solution” are discussed to allow students to understand that many environmental challenges are not easily solved. These responses and models are then shared with the entire grade in a formal summit setting. On the following school day, we invite the Middle School community, including families, to celebrate student research findings during the World’s Fair. This is an opportunity for students to practice their communication skills with a diverse audience, using the skills honed in English class. As one of the culminating activities in Grade 6, it is also a celebration of the students’ hard work and growth throughout the year. Although we cannot always anticipate what future challenges our students will face, we know they will use the skills developed during the Environmental Summit and World’s Fair unit.

Jackson Quigley, Jordan Smith, Logan Carlson, Andrew Park, Taliyah Thornhill, Kendall Sykes, Joshua Okorafor, and Liam Glessner present their project on water quality and water access within the Dominican Republic, Greece, Haiti, India, Italy, Israel, Madagascar, and South Africa. Their research highlighted many of the challenges nations face in supplying clean and reliable water to communities in a variety of conditions. Students in this group cited pollution and the spread of disease as reasons why this issue needs attention internationally. In their final presentation, they proposed higher water quality regulations be put in place, particularly for industrial sites.

Sarah Grand, Ashley Close, Aekam Kaur, Anjali Shah, Gwyneth Belt, Max Peluso, and Abby Bojalad bring light to the environmental issue of deforestation in Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Ghana, Honduras, Indonesia, Russia, and Thailand. Their research highlighted many of the challenges nations face in preserving and sustaining forest area and lumber resources in a variety of ways. Students in this group cited the lasting impact the loss of forest area has on the environment as a reason why this issue needs attention internationally. In their final presentation, this group proposed the use of government incentives to encourage replanting of previously timbered forests as well as establishing more protected land area within countries facing large loss of forest area.

Zachary Kerrish, Will Manning, Cait Donohue, Harold Godin, Alaina Ohr, Jayden Garcha, Everett Meade, and Layla Lombardo report their findings on air quality in Australia, Egypt, Mongolia, Peru, Poland, Senegal, Ukraine, and Vietnam. Their research highlighted many of the challenges nations face in monitoring and improving air quality alongside industrial development and population growth. Students in this group cited health concerns as a reason why this issue needs attention internationally. In their final presentation, this group proposed encouraging industrial sites to move towards the use of renewable fuel sources, moving away from fossil fuel consumption. SEWICKLEY SPEAKING

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SENIOR SCHOOL SCIENCE STUDENTS

LEARN TO THINK SUSTAINABLY ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT By: Mary-Jo Shine By definition, environmental science is an interdisciplinary academic field that integrates physical, biological, and information sciences to the study of the environment and the solution of environmental problems. It is imperative to educate our students on environmental science to ensure a healthy, safe, and sustainable future for our planet, earth. The study of environmental science in the Senior School has taken different forms in recent years. “Environmental Engineering” was offered for a number of years and focused on water resources and usage, energy sources and uses, weather, and climate. In the 2017-2018 school year, “AP Environmental Science” replaced “Environmental Engineering,” allowing students to study a broader range of topics at the college level by including both the water, energy, and climate topics previously studied as well as ecosystems, biodiversity, land use, and sustainability.

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Lab and project work have been a mainstay in the Senior School environmental science classes as well as the exploration of global approaches to resource use and its associated impacts. In the “Environmental Engineering” class, students enjoyed dipping their feet into real world science by testing water quality in the Little Sewickley Creek and the Ohio River for several years and comparing their results to data collected by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and Creek Connections. Students were also challenged to design, build, and test small scale aquifers and wind generators as part of their lab work. Larger scale environmental engineering projects selected and constructed by students included building a rooftop runoff collection system to store rainwater and an entirely mechanical hydraulic pump, which proved successful in raising a portion of flowing water up 20 feet using only the energy of the flowing water.

To consider the global aspects of resource use on the environment, students researched topics using case studies they found from around the world. For instance, in examining fossil fuel use and impacts, students found case studies ranging geographically from Russia to Venezuela. Similarly, in studying watersheds, case studies ranged from the Yangtze River in China to the MurrayDarling Basin in Australia. Students presented their case studies to each other and could then compare the approaches used in various regions and their effects on different and similar environments. The “AP Environmental Science” course is interdisciplinary and focuses on first understanding natural environmental systems and then studying the impacts of the global population’s resource use and development on these systems. Throughout the course there is an emphasis on the interrelated nature of systems, the potential for unintended consequences, and the various factors that determine whether resources can/will be used sustainably. The students have challenged themselves on these topics through a variety of activities ranging from class discussions and lab work to simulations and project work. In class discussions, the students readily pulled in their own background knowledge, often from other classes, to try to fully examine the topics at hand. They particularly enjoyed setting up their own three-chambered ecosystems which they modified and observed for several weeks in the project lab early in the year, with one group continuing to maintain an aquarium even after the project was done.

years. For instance, one year a student club collected air quality data for the Pittsburgh Group Against Smog and Pollution (GASP), a nonprofit citizens’ group in Southwestern Pennsylvania that works towards a healthy, sustainable environment. A representative from GASP helped students mount air monitors equipped with GPS location devices on their bicycles, and the students then spent a couple of hours riding around Sewickley collecting data on air quality. The following year, students in the Environmental Club partnered with Director of Buildings and Grounds Tim Hastings ’77 in the re-initiation of the recycling program in the Middle and Senior Schools. Another year, the club periodically updated the student body on environmental issues during announcements and organized a fundraiser in support of those affected by the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. Environmental science in the Senior School will no doubt continue to evolve to meet the interests of the students and provide them with the background they need to understand and address the ever changing state of global environmental systems going forward.

Mid-year the students began an ongoing aquaponics project with the goal of creating sustainable systems. Starting from scratch, they designed and constructed small scale systems which pumped the water from goldfish aquariums into soilless planters to provide the nutrients to grow plants and then drained it back again into the tanks every hour. Students tracked the water chemistry throughout the project and related their results in their final reports. The project was more complex than anticipated – balancing the water chemistry, flow rates, and plant and fish needs combined with various mechanical difficulties required students to draw heavily on their critical thinking and problem solving skills. They did this with humor and perseverance and finished with several productive, sustainable systems and an appreciation for the factors involved in technologically mimicking natural systems. Labs and projects in the environmental science courses will continue to evolve as it becomes more established – one of the first labs planned this year will hopefully take us back out to the creek and a study of biodiversity based on the bottom creatures found therein. Another trimester course with an environmental bent, “Environmental Engineering – Water Quality,” allows students to focus with more depth on global environmental issues related to water quality and their associated engineering solutions. The course was originally conceptualized through a partnership with Duke University in conjunction with their Global Public Service Academy (GPSA) for the environment program, and would include travel to North Carolina for a hands-on learning opportunity in aquaculture. This year, student registration numbers did not meet the necessary threshold for full participation in the Duke program; however, a small number of students were interested in the course which allows for significant student individualization of the work. It is our hope that in the future, there will be sufficient student interest to revisit partnering with Duke University. Student-run clubs in environmental science have also been active in various SEWICKLEY SPEAKING

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E A R LY C H I L D H O O D P R O G R A M

ADAPTS REGGIO EMILIA APPROACH TO TEACHING By: Lindsey Petruska and Crista Pryor

Our Sewickley Academy Early Childhood team has begun to implement changes to our curriculum and teaching practices based on a new philosophy of how children learn. Known as the Reggio Emilia Approach, this philosophy is rooted in the idea that learning should be play-based and student-centered. Our Early Childhood team has studied this way of thinking through books, articles, seminars with speakers who specialize in the approach, and many internet searches, but we felt we needed more. We were incredibly honored to be sent to Reggio Emilia, Italy, to learn firsthand how this type of learning affects preschool and kindergarten students. We spent a week with educators from around the world, learning from top professionals in the field.

The energetic and highly-motivated community’s dedication to their children caught the attention of a man named Loris Malaguzzi. He left his job as a teacher in the state-run schools to become part of the effort. Malaguzzi studied at the University of Urbino and the Italian National Research Center in Rome, completing degrees in pedagogy and psychology. Throughout his education, Malaguzzi was heavily influenced by different educational theorists: Dewey, Piaget, Bruner, and Montessori, each of whom inspired him to develop a new approach to working with children. Malaguzzi was a constructivist believing that each person constructs their own meaning through their own life experiences, and children are no different.

To understand the Reggio Emilia Approach to teaching, it is important to know the history of the city. Reggio Emilia, a town in the northern part of Italy, is home to approximately 170,000 people. Like all of Italy after World War II, Reggio Emilia was dealing with post-war depression and the aftermath of fascism, and the city was left in ruins. In the face of this despair, however, this small community worked together to build a school for the children using bricks and materials from buildings that had been bombed.

Today, Reggio collaborates with public and private schools of all levels in Italy, as well as in and around the community of Reggio Emilia. One such place is the new K-8 Loris Malaguzzi International Centre which was also the main venue for our week of study. Four hundred educators met in the auditorium as we stood to applaud each of the 47 countries present. Reggio Emilia, “The City of People” as it is known, supports the rights for education for all. They strongly believe that every child has a right to education no matter race, religion, or ability, and it is the responsibility of the community to build and grow together.

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The Reggio Approach is based on the natural development of children. Children have infinite potential for learning from their environment which needs to be activated early on or it will be lost as they grow. Reggio Emilia teaches that learning is an interactive process of exchange, not an accumulation of knowledge. Children use a hundred different languages in their learning and thinking and express this knowledge through languages of creativity and discovery. In a Reggio Emilia preschool, children communicate and collaborate with each other and their teachers. It is the process of learning, not the final product, that allows each child’s self-discovery and ability to express how he or she sees the world. As a facilitator in this approach, teachers are considered co-learners and collaborators with the children, not just instructors.

The Reggio Emilia philosophy is based upon the following set of principles: Children must have some control over the direction of their learning; Children must be able to learn through experiences of touching, moving, listening, and observing; Children have a relationship with other children and with material items in the world that they must be allowed to explore; Children must have endless ways and opportunities to express themselves.

According to Malaguzzi, the physical space where children learn is critically important in early childhood programs; he often refers to the learning environment as the “third teacher.” The three preschools we observed, each unique in their own way, demonstrated this concept with an open common space that was warm and inviting, providing an opportunity for the parent to talk with the teacher and to see their child’s involvement in class. Each school was filled with natural light, and student artwork and photographs were on display throughout the space. The schools have a room known as the “Atelier” that is filled with natural materials like shells, flowers, or vegetables, technology such as laptops and microscopes, and houses ongoing individual projects. We witnessed the interaction of adults with children in small groups and the interactions of children with their peers. We observed the children prepare lunch alongside the cooks by crushing herbs that were grown in the community garden. We reflected on how we can bring this same sense of community not only to Sewickley Academy, but to the surrounding communities as well. Parent and community involvement are the cornerstones of the Reggio Emilia Approach. We discussed how our documentation, or “making learning visible,” can be shared throughout the Early Childhood building and our community. The teacher’s role in allowing these processes to work is vital. Malaguzzi states that, “teaching is a profession that cannot afford to think small.” We have to let go of the predispositions that we know and allow children to discover on their own. Instead of providing children with cutouts of a flower and instructing them how to arrange it, we may give them a fresh-cut flower and allow them to use different

languages of discovery, like drawing, painting, or using clay, to create their own version of that flower. This shift recognizes that every child sees the world differently and promotes self-expression. Our job as educators is to encourage their learning. We ask questions to prompt student thinking and document this process by making their learning visible through pictures, videos, transcribed conversations, and student work. We learned that though we can’t be Reggio Emilia itself, we can and must fully embrace our unique qualities with integrity, which makes Sewickley Academy such a special place for children to learn and grow.

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MISSION + CORE VALUES =

VISION OF A SEWICKLEY ACADEMY STUDENT By: Bevan Koch

MISSION Sewickley Academy inspires and educates students to engage their hearts, minds, and hands to cultivate their full individual and collective potential in the service of a greater good.

CORE VALUES • Character • Educational Vigor • Diversity • Community

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+ Grades Pre-K - 2

• Respect for self, family, and school • Taking responsibility for their actions • Developing empathy for others

• A sense of wonder, curiosity, and inquisitiveness • A creative problem-solver and risk-taker • Developing independence and responsibility, with a spirit of collaboration

• Investigating, exploring, and creating • Participating in multi-sensory experience • Caring for self and the environment • Developing a range of communication skills

•Purposeful in making decisions

Grades 3-5

Grades 6-8

Grades 9 - 12

• Humility: recognizing the needs of many outweigh the needs of the few • An appreciation for diverse perspectives • Taking responsibility for their actions through kindness, honesty, and compassion

• Developing awareness of him or herself as a learner

• A curious and resourceful risk-taker

• Engaging in active learning • Demonstrating initiative and follow-through • Developing one’s own skill, talent, and interests • A growing, confident participant within and beyond our Lower School community

• A deepening sense of integrity

• Increasingly independent, proactive, and resilient

• An active learner who is developing personal interests and skills

• Practicing self reflection to develop a growth mindset

• An inquisitive and playful nature

• Empathy: compassion for others, even if their views are different to our own

• Expressing individuality through creative thinking • Practicing collaboration and problem solving skills

• Courage to be oneself and allow others to be themselves

• An innovative and creative problem solver

• Motivated towards contributing to the common good with action and/or advocacy

• An awareness of community and the individual’s ability to effect change

• Inquisitive and receptive to new ideas and experiences

• Inspires others to contribute to their full potential

• Honor, integrity, and respect for self and others

• A critical thinker and problem-solver • A resilient risk-taker

• An active listener, and effective public speaker, and a skilled communicator in a variety of situations and media

• Intellectually engaged, reflective, and independent learner

• An engaged and well-informed citizen of the local and global community

• Respectfully engages with diverse perspectives

•An innovative and curious experimenter

• Sensitivity to the needs of others • Courage and confidence in one’s potential • A community builder

• Motivated and proactive

Spencer Krysinski presents his research on Russia to a parent during the Middle School World’s Fair.

At Sewickley Academy, the Mission and Core Values are fundamental to who we are as a school. When we say, “For Who You Are. For Who You Will Become.” we acknowledge our responsibility to honor our Mission and Core Values by preparing students to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing world. We take this responsibility seriously. Now more than ever, a student’s educational experience must include the acquisition of academic knowledge, in addition to the development of critical thinking, communication, collaboration, creativity, and other skills they will need to thrive in this complex world. In “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” Stephen Covey writes, “To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you’re going so that you better understand where you are now so that the steps you take are always in the right direction.” The Curriculum Leadership Team recognized that a clearly articulated Vision of a Sewickley Academy Student would provide focus and continuity for a student’s learning experience in Pre-K through Grade 12. During the 2013-2014 school year, the Senior School faculty and administration began the process of creating a Vision of a Sewickley Academy Student by asking the question, “What are the essential attributes and skills that a graduate of Sewickley Academy must have when he or she leaves our school?” This work continued the following school year as faculty from the Lower and Middle Schools reviewed the draft of the Vision developed by the Senior School and suggested that the Vision be articulated divisionally. Teachers and administrators from each division worked collaboratively to answer questions such as: What will learners at each level of our school look like and aspire to do? What will students at our school have learned and accomplished? How will our students impact their communities in positive ways?

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This process resulted in the creation of four distinct Visions of a Sewickley Academy Student that are developmentally appropriate, Mission-aligned, and reflect our Core Values. Each Vision serves as a guide for students and their teachers from the earliest school experiences through graduation in the acquisition of characteristics, attributes, virtues, and Core Values our students should possess as they matriculate. The Vision of a Sewickley Academy Student extends the Mission from a sentence printed on posters hanging throughout the school to a tangible set of outcomes that we hope to develop in students. Moreover, the Vision helps teachers maintain a focus on providing all students with educational opportunities to develop each aspect of the Vision to their full individual potentials. Sewickley Academy teachers use the Understanding by Design (UbD) framework to map curriculum. Content standards and the Vision of a Sewickley Academy Student serve as a North Star for providing strategic direction in planning learning experiences for students that are aligned to our Mission and Core Values. To bring the Vision to fruition, teachers plan and deliver lessons that provide students with opportunities to develop content knowledge while also developing the skills and attributes outlined in the Vision. Ultimately, we seek to have all elements of our program aligned to our Vision of a Sewickley Academy Student, which ensures the successful delivery of our Mission and Core Values. In visits to classrooms in all three divisions, it is clear that students are being engaged in activities that are designed to develop academic skills as well as the attributes included in the Vision of a Sewickley Academy Student. For example, during a Grade 1 science lesson designed to address next generation science standards related to engineering design and practices, students were building

Jack Carlson and Campbell Brown design their prosthetic leg during class.

and testing boats. The nature of the lesson made it easy to see that students were engaging their minds and hands in exploration of the content standards. The student experience was enhanced when the teacher asked students to provide feedback to one another. As individual students described the challenges they experienced during the testing phase, other students offered thoughtful and respectful advice intended to improve upon the design. Feedback included such suggestions as, “You should use tape to cover the holes.” or “You should balance the weight in your boat so that it is more evenly distributed.” The opportunity to offer suggestions for improvement allowed students to practice communicating respectfully. Their willingness to support classmates while being sensitive to the other students’ feelings demonstrated the development of empathy. This lesson is one example of how teachers design and deliver lessons that allow students to practice and develop the skills and attributes identified in the Vision of a Sewickley Academy Student. During the study of skeletal and muscular anatomy, Grade 4 students learn about disabilities and how adaptive medicine is used to mimic the natural function of missing limbs. Students work collaboratively to design and test prosthetic legs. Successful project completion requires students to work cooperatively, respond to challenges, and think creatively in order to solve problems. The project was specifically designed for students to learn about the skeletal and muscular systems and encouraged students to practice compassion while responding to an authentic, complex challenge.

As part of the Senior School’s “Global Issues: A Call to Action” course, students travel to Haiti to take part in service-learning.

and demonstrate their knowledge by presenting their research to members of the community. This project provides the students an opportunity to collaborate with others and consider how their actions might effect change and contribute towards the greater good. Similarly, in the Senior School “Global Issues: A Call to Action” course, students explore barriers to education, including poverty, religion, gender, and modernday slavery. Using case studies, students evaluate examples of successful social entrepreneurship as well as examine the unintentional consequences of foreign aid and donations. This course asks students to create a business proposal in social entrepreneurship that has produced two service trips to Haiti, which were run and led by students. Every aspect of the course is Mission-aligned and contributes to the fulfillment of the Vision of a Sewickley Academy Student. Ongoing curriculum review by faculty in all three divisions ensures that our Mission and Core Values are reflected in everything that we do as a school. Teachers prepare students to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing world by planning learning experiences that bring the Vision of a Sewickley Academy Student to fruition. These experiences ensure that our students learn and grow through contemplative exploration, deep thinking, and problem solving that enables them to reach the highest academic standards. Equally important are the opportunities to develop character and compassion that will inspire them to contribute to the advancement of society. Thus, the Vision of a Sewickley Academy Student helps us shape who students will become.

For Grade 6 students, the Environmental Summit and World’s Fair is an interdisciplinary project that is supported in English, history, and science classes. This project requires students to investigate complex world problems and propose creative responses grounded in sound research. Students develop research skills

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SA COMPLETES

PAIS SELF-STUDY AS PART OF

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ACCREDITATION PROCESS Every 10 years, the Pennsylvania Association of Independent Schools (PAIS) requires member institutions to conduct an extensive self-study as part of the accreditation process. The purpose of this â&#x20AC;&#x153;is to involve the entire school in a process of self-examination as the school searches to provide excellence in education.â&#x20AC;? The study provides us an opportunity to reflect on all areas of our school and to ensure that we are meeting the published PAIS standards as we strive to deliver our Mission. Global Studies Program Coordinator Ken Goleski is serving as chair of the PAIS Steering Committee during this evaluation cycle and has the help of a Steering Committee that is comprised of faculty and staff from all three divisions. During the fall of 2017, all faculty, staff, and administrators selected the

committee on which they wanted to serve, and cross-divisional, interdisciplinary teams reviewed standards, indicators, and descriptions of good practice. Teams began the process of developing a comprehensive self-study report that reflects a review of every aspect of our school. All sections include a narrative description of how we are meeting the PAIS standards as well as specific artifacts that serve as documentation along with examples of the amazing student learning happening in our classrooms. Each section of the self-study focuses on one specific area of the school and asks that we carefully examine our practices and how they align with our Mission.

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The ten sections are: Section 1 – Vision, Mission, and Philosophy – describes the ways in which a clearly articulated vision, mission, and philosophy define our purpose and guide our community in developing goals, academic programming, and strategic planning. Section 2 – Governance – describes the process by which our governing body supports the school’s Mission while meeting legal requirements and ensuring the financial stability of the Academy. Section 3 – Administration – focuses on the leadership structure and how it supports the mission-aligned implementation of policy, operations, academic, and non-academic programs. Section 4 – Financial Management – examines our financial policies, practices, and resources, and how our fiduciary planning supports mission and ensures long-term financial sustainability. Section 5 – Institutional Advancement – examines how advancement, admission, fundraising, communications, and marketing are aligned to support the vision, mission, and philosophy. Section 6 – School and Community – describes policies that support school culture and how we maintain harmonious relationships with the local community. Section 7 – Program – focuses on academic, co-curricular, and extracurricular programs and activities and examines how they are specifically designed to facilitate and enhance student learning. Given that for the past six years we have been working on mapping our school’s curriculum using Understanding by Design as a curriculum framework, the Steering Committee decided to address this section using a new format. The program section is now comprised of 54 essential questions (18 per division) that ask us to carefully examine and explain our practices using a rich narrative format. The questions were deliberately crafted so that they not only address all the standards and indicators that the original PAIS template required, but also allows our teachers to craft narratives that truly reflect the innovative learning happening each day at Sewickley Academy. For example, each division answered the question: How does Sewickley Academy align its program, pedagogy, and mission? Here are some excerpts of the great answers that each division crafted to address the question: Lower School – The Secret Garden is another resource that is used to encourage community as it nurtures students’ social and academic growth. Working in the garden brings many students together, and it also is used by teachers to enhance their curriculum. Reading and writing teachers take students to the garden for a shared reading experience on a sunny day or to be inspired in their writing about nature. Teachers and students work in the garden to prepare the soil, cultivate plants, and harvest the fruits of their labor. Spanish classes harvest vegetables to use in their multiple cooking experiences in the classroom. Science students study soil composition, composting, and the life cycle of plants. As an outdoor classroom

and experiential learning center, the garden provides students with opportunities to work collaboratively with peers and faculty to cultivate their understanding of the interconnections in the environment and to gain an appreciation of the importance of sustainability. This sort of hands-on learning encourages the development of hearts, minds, and hands in the service of a greater good. Middle School – The academic curricula are rich with Mission-aligned learning. Grade 8 civics and English students study the Holocaust concurrently. For the unit’s foreign policy assessment, civics students identify a contemporary human rights violation and develop a foreign policy intervention to resolve or alleviate that violation. Students then work collaboratively to develop a public service announcement that describes the urgency of the situation. This assessment cultivates students’“collective potential in the service of a greater good.” Further, it engages students’ minds through its educational vigor, hearts through the development of empathy, and hands through the technical production of the public service announcement. Senior School – Five years ago, Senior School teachers began discussions that carefully examined their collective vision of the strengths and qualities of a Sewickley Academy student and how those strengths and qualities aligned with specific parts of the Mission. Through their collaborative work, the Vision of a Sewickley Academy Student emerged. This Pre-K through Grade 12 document now helps all teachers to remain focused on our students’“hearts, minds, and hands,” both in and out of the classroom. Furthermore, the statement entitled “Relationships for Learning, Our Commitment to Our Students” serves to frame our dedication to fostering those relationships that best “provide a foundation upon which students are guided and empowered to reflect on and strengthen their skills for learning, leading, decision-making, and personal growth.” Section 8 – Personnel – highlights our well-defined process that ensures a sufficient number of highly qualified professionals are available to carry out our academic programs, to conduct school operations, and to meet the needs of our students. Section 9 – Health and Safety – examines the ways in which we commit to providing a safe and healthy environment for the community. Section 10 – Physical Plant – discusses the ways in which the physical facilities are appropriate to and adequately accommodate our programs and meet the needs of students and the community. This past fall, section committees reviewed their progress and identified strengths, defined challenges, and proposed recommendations for improvement. In February of 2019, a visiting team of peer professionals from member schools spent three days on campus to review our self-study and conducted a comprehensive independent evaluation. During their visit, they observed every aspect of Sewickley Academy and generated a written response to our self-study. Their observations and recommendations will guide our work for years to come, and we will be visited again in five years by a much smaller group that will check on our progress.

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CLASS NOTES SEWICKLEY SPEAKING

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Billie Spencer ’67 and Flat Panther enjoy the beauty of France this summer.

Baird Standish ’75 (center right) and friends meet with author Nathaniel Philbrick (center left) outside the Penguin Bookshop in Sewickley.

Elizabeth (Fleming) Frost wrote, “Ever since my Peace Corps days in 1968 in Liberia, West Africa, I love exploring different countries. This will be my third time to the Serengeti Plains. The first time in 1970, I hitchhiked to see the great migration of the wild animals. This time I stayed at the National Geographic Camp run by the Jouberts. Carol (Ranson) O’Keefe and I are going to Zambia in March. We will be volunteering at The Esther School. We plan to work with the students in kindergarten through fifth grade, developing academic games to improve math logic, reading comprehension, and written skills.”

66 Jeff Jones is playing a lot of duplicate bridge and gardening. He lives in Vero Beach, Florida, on the ocean in the winter and in York, Pennsylvania, during the summer.

67 Alumni celebrate the marriage of George Barry ’76 and Kathy Hale: First row: Rob Thomas ’76 and George Berry ’76; Middle row: Daryl Sakol ’76, Debi (Snow ’77) Trau, Pete Trau ’75; Top row: Bill Berry ’78.

Billie Spencer had another wonderful trip this summer. She visited France where she said “Merci, Monsieur Levesque!” as she posed “Sur the Pont D’Avignon” with Flat Panther to continue the Panther’s journey with alumni and students all over the world.

75 Taryn Harris ’77 works with her sister Lauren and brother-in-law Tony Dungy (pictured) on their recent book tour.

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Baird Standish enjoyed conversation at the Penquin Bookstore in Sewickley with his favorite author Nathaniel Philbrick, who has written many award-winning novels. Baird reported, “He wrote “The Heart of the Sea” about the American whaler Essex (made into a

movie) and “Mayflower” about the Pilgrims. He apologized to me saying that he did not treat my ancestor Myles Standish so well in that book.” Philbrick is a Pittsburgh native but now spends much of his time on Nantucket.

76 Several Academy classmates and friends helped George Berry celebrate his marriage on June 2, to Kathy Hale at St. James Church in Sewickley, including Bill Berry ’78, Daryl Sakol, Rob Thomas, Debi (Snow ’77) Trau, and Peter Trau ’75. Mary Nichols, former headmaster Cliff Nichols’ wife, was also in attendance.

77 Taryn Harris reported, “I’m excited to be a part of TeamDungy and promoting their two new books – “Maria Finds Courage” and “Austin Plays Fair.” They are written by my sister, Lauren, and brotherin-law, Tony, addressing the emotional struggles and moral challenges children face. While sporting events are the venues they use, the invaluable lessons emphasized are appropriate for many situations. The books are published by Harvest House and came out in August. “They would make great Christmas and birthday presents or a wonderful addition to the home library!” Taryn now works for #teamdungy Harvest House Publishers and composed all of the writing endorsements for the Dungy book tour on the road from California to Texas to New York.

82 Laura (Stember) Hopper published her first fiction book with co-author and friend Felicia Browell. Their book, “Melt in Your Mouth,” is an erotic romance set in Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania. Written under the pen name Skye Kohl, the book is the first in a series of at least six planned books. The pair are currently editing the second book in the series.

84 Aimee DeChambeau was appointed to dean of university libraries at the University of Akron after serving as interim director for a year.

89 Jessica Handy and her husband Ronan, along with their three fur kids, have been living in paradise (Santa Monica, California) for almost seven years. Jessica shared, “We miss New York City, but we are visiting “home” less and less as the sunshine and surf suck us in. I am a construction project manager for a local boutique design plus construction firm. I have been instrumental in the rebranding effort including ghost writing the weekly newsletter article (Mrs. Polinko – I am doing my best to show, not tell, my reader). I am also involved in the Kiwanis Club of Santa Monica (the adult version – well, that’s debatable – of Key Club!). As a member of the grants and scholarships committees, I get to give out over $150,000 to children in need every year. We spent the better part of July in Russia for the World Cup; it was an amazing trip. I even ran into my mother in St. Petersburg!

She had already planned a cruise through Russia with family and friends when we got our match tickets, but still the coincidence was bizarre. Mom spends her time traveling and with her grandkids (my brother’s children) in Washington, D.C., and spends her winters down here with us where we don’t have that season! Stephen Kavic is happy to report that all is well at the University of Maryland. He wrote, “I am a professor of surgery and program director for the residency in general surgery. Any alums who are looking to apply in surgery, or who have children who are, please feel free to send me an email at skavic@som.umaryland.edu for some free career advice.”

99 Colin Champ married Juli in Florence, Italy, in June. “We decided to forgo the typical United States wedding, which involves too many people, too much stress, bad food, and being overcharged for, well, everything,” he wrote. “Instead we filled a small room at our favorite restaurant in Florence. The meal included traditional local Italian foods and drinks like Chianti wine, cured meats and cheeses, olives, chicken liver, wild boar slow cooked in copper, Florentine T-bone steak, sea bass, and an array of vegetables. In other words, quite different from the so-called Mediterranean diet or even Italian diet that the media often promotes (speaking of, the big study touting its benefits has recently been retracted).”

Jessica Handy ‘89 and her husband Ronan enjoy a weekend in the Angeles National Forest.

Colin Champ ’99 and his bride, Juli, celebrate their marriage outside their favorite restaurant in Florence, Italy.

Turn Yourself In!

Here’s your chance to submit a class note for the next issue of Sewickley Speaking. Help us share your milestones and achievements with your Sewickley Academy network! Please submit your story today by visiting our website. If you have a digital photo you’d like to share, please send it to alumni@sewickley.org with a note identifying the people in the photo.

Sewickley Academy is Coming to a City Near You! Winter 2019: Naples and Ft. Myers, FL Spring 2019: Scottsdale, AZ

Stay tuned for more details!

Would you like to have an alumni event in your city? Contact alumni@sewickley.org. Have you moved or changed jobs? Be sure to update your contact information at www.sewickley.org so we don’t miss you!

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Erin Sebastian ’16

Shares her First-Hand Experience as a CBD Intern This summer, I interned in the governmental affairs office at the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) in Washington, D.C. The Center, headquartered in Tucson, Arizona, works to conserve wildlife and habitats through scientific research, law, and media to ensure that environmental laws are being followed. It supports nationwide research relating to specific conservation concerns of a local area. Field scientists support the research of the environmental practices in question. All of their actions come from an understanding that the welfare of humans is connected to the security of all ecosystems on our planet. The Center for Biological Diversity’s governmental affairs office is at the forefront of all legal battles, and is the liaison between legal and political engagement and the research that should drive such agendas. The CBD currently argues for the protection of habitats of endangered species before United States courts, including the Supreme Court. With the CBD focusing their efforts on the new direction of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) following the 2016 election, my primary projects were focused on public outreach and wildlife conservation. The Center often partners with smaller organizations to share research, hold rallies, and attend hearings. One such case was a rally outside the Mexican Embassy to bring attention to the dwindling population of vaquitas – a small species of porpoise – in the Gulf of Mexico due mainly to shrimping. With the growing support from citizens and politicians, and multiple lawsuits brought against the government on behalf of the porpoise, the U.S. Court of International Trade ordered the Trump administration to halt seafood imports from Mexico. Another example was the “Save the Arctic Refuge” demonstration. People from all over the country came to Washington for a rally against drilling in the Arctic Refuge, which is quickly destroying myriad habitats and ecosystems. Dozens of state chapters and Native American representatives spoke at the rally, and afterward attended a town hall hearing to weigh their arguments in support of needed land conservation against corporations. Both of these rallies and their subsequent meetings illustrated the dedication and concern people have for conserving our planet, especially when they are informed about how it affects their lives.

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The other large project I worked on was a petition for the federal list of endangered species. The Endangered Species Act protects all listed species, plant or animal, on American land. The federal list is constantly in need of updates to account for changes in ecosystems and new threats to a species. Organizations such as the Center keep track of the updated list and research that supports the addition of new species. The Center has had a longstanding focus in the loss of wildlife in Okinawa, Japan, due to the historical military activity and current location of the U.S. military base. The Center’s efforts have been focused on the Okinawa Dugong, a marine mammal, which is now a candidate for listing thanks to the effort of many organizations. Additionally, the Okinawa Rail, a small subspecies of bird whose habitat has been shrinking for decades, also made the list. Plans for moving the U.S. Okinawa military base, and therefore expanding American developed territory into the Rail’s habitat, prompted another surge of action from the Center. I conducted

extensive research on the species and its history in order to form an argument in support of its addition to the list. This research was one of the most impactful things I’ve ever done. While that particular battle will likely go on for years, the Center and fellow environmental groups are making strides for the future of our planet every day. As a zoology major at the University of St Andrews working predominantly in research, the internship at the Center for Biological Diversity offered a unique opportunity for me to see what becomes of that research and how it helps to shape policy and enforce laws. I got a taste of the importance and impact conservation research can have, and how I will be able to help support this important work and our world in the future. After graduation, I plan to work in field research dedicated towards wildlife conservation, but the legislative office afforded a perspective I wouldn’t have had access to in my studies.

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Tina (Smith ’01) Jones and Avonita (Byrd ’98) Stewart share hugs at Tina’s wedding in Atlanta, Georgia.

Tina (Smith) Jones married Louis Jones on August 19, 2017, in Atlanta, Georgia, with a reception at the Carl House. Tina said, “Avonita (Byrd ’98) Stewart was a bridesmaid in my wedding almost exactly three years after I was a bridesmaid in her wedding.”

Tom Droney and Nate Perry established the ITPS Wildcats as the first Pittsburgh-based Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) team to earn a shoe deal. The team earned entry into the exclusive Adidas Gauntlet Gold Division, featuring only teams which have achieved sponsorship by the shoe company. In an interview with the Beaver County Times, Tom said, “We saw an opportunity where there wasn’t really an elite AAU program after the Pittsburgh JOTS dissolved. So we decided to help kids and give them some of the wisdom that we were enriched with when we went through the recruiting process.”

04 Emilie (Smith) Rubin and her husband Max Rubin, welcomed a daughter, Dorothy Louise Rubin, on October 26, 2017.

Bryan Wise ’05 and Jenna Fain tie the knot in Tribeca. The couple married in October 2017.

On October 7, 2017, Bryan Wise married Jenna Fain, a fellow Hamilton graduate and Brooklyn Heights neighbor. The wedding was at their favorite restaurant, Marc Forgione, in Tribeca. Jenna is a founder of Stone Set Studio, a brand-building consultancy. Bryan is a vice president at Bank of New York Mellon. They enjoyed a wonderful honeymoon exploring the Pacific coast.

Academy alums celebrate the nuptials of Jimmy Barbuto ’08 and Christine Call. Pictured: Matt Kaye ’08, Dayne Weber ’08, Brett Ekberg ’08, Lauren Lasorda ’08, Rebecca (Gillespie ’08) Casey, Kaitlyn Buterbaugh ’11, Christine Call, Jimmy Barbuto ’08, Allison Buterbaugh ’08, Stacy Donovan (former SA faculty), Alex Kiefer ’08, Julia Hansen ’09, Katherine Hansen ’07, and Parth Sharma ’08. Other SA alums in attendance but missing from the photo include Nina ’02 and Estee ’04 Barbuto as well as Kristin Buterbaugh ’05 and Mark Melodia ’81.

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Jimmy Barbuto and Christine Call were married on September 22, in the Chapel at Princeton University. Members of the wedding party included Nina ’02 and Estee ’04 Barbuto, plus a huge support group of Academy friends and family. Jimmy is an attorney with Reed Smith LLP in New York City, and Christine is pursuing a Ph.D. at Drexel University in Philadelphia. They want to thank the Office of Alumni Relations for providing the banner for an Academy group photo.

11 William (Billy) Hough is the co-founder and chief operations officer at Shenzhen Pyro Education and Technology Ltd. in Guangdong, China, where, in addition to managing the company on a day-to-day basis, he designs syllabi and regularly teaches seminars to students of all levels. Pyro provides an innovative program in English language learning, combining preparation for international examinations with a medialiterate, liberal arts education. Billy graduated from Macalester College with a bachelor’s in Chinese language, culture, and economics. He also studied at Yunnan University and Fudan University.

14 On May 28, 2018, the Gettysburg women’s lacrosse team, including former Panther Maggie McClain, won their second national championship. The game was supposed to be May 27, but it was delayed due to bad weather. The Bullets won back-to-back championships on May 28 – first in 2017 and then in 2018. Margaret Weber (Middlebury College ’18) was presented with the Public Service Leadership Award in April by Megan (Osterhout ’02) Brakeley (Middlebury College ’06). Margaret shared, “I have had the pleasure to work with Megan for the past three years at the Center for Community Engagement and have had a special connection with her since we realized that her mom, Señora O, taught me Spanish in fifth grade at SA!” Keenan Hickton capped his career on the Emory men’s golf team on a national stage by helping the Eagles to seventh place and a record-setting performance at the NCAA Division III championship on May 15-18 in Greensboro, North Carolina. He shot a 72-round total of 308, including a 3-overpar 75 on the final day. Four of our alumni, including Keenan, competed in the UAA Golf Championship in Florida last spring. This is the first time in the history of the Academy that we had four alums compete together in a single college tournament! Anthony Muscato ’15 (Emory) and Declan Hickton ’17 (University of Rochester) competed in the stroke play championship, while Keenan (Emory) and Jason Li ’17 (Carnegie Mellon) competed in the match play

championship. Emory and CMU each won their match, and Emory won the league championship. Both Keenan and Jason were named All-Conference for their undefeated records.

16 Sofia Lynn had a terrific summer internship at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) working in the Emotion, Health, and Psychophysiology Lab which researches how the mind influences the body and the reciprocal, and how bodily changes influence thoughts, emotions, and intentions. Studies there include how emotions are experienced differently along the developmental trajectory, how aging influences risk perception and risk taking, how decisions are influenced by acute and chronic stress, and how people manage and attempt to control their racial biases and how those regulatory attempts often fail, resulting in revealing greater racial biases. She was especially grateful for her home stays during her internship with Lela (Means ’89) Wadsworth and a local family recommended by Steve Morris ’90. Sofia is a sophomore at Penn State majoring in psychology and bio-behavioral health.

The Johns Hopkins men’s basketball team, including former Panther Chris Groetsch, won the Centennial Conference Championship last spring by defeating No. 1 seed Swarthmore. With the win, Johns Hopkins received an automatic bid to the NCAA DIII Championship where they were edged out in the second round by MIT. Hopkins ended its season with a record of 24-5.

Maggie McClain ’14 celebrates her second national championship as a Gettysburg Bullet with her brother Teddy ’17 and parents Ted and Michele.

Margaret Weber ’14 (middle) receives the Public Service Leadership Award from Megan (Osterhout ’02) Brakeley.

Declan Hickton ’17, Keenan Hickton ’14, Jason Li ’17, and Anthony Muscato ’15 reunite on the course during the UAA Golf Championship in Florida.

Academy faculty member Moñica Lynn visits her daughter Sofia ’16 in San Francisco. Lela (Means ’89) Wadsworth and Steve Morris ’90 helped Sofia find places to stay during her internship at the University of California San Francisco.

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Drexel University Goes Green By: Tim Hanlon ’17 The very first morning after returning to Drexel University as a sophomore, I got up and went for a run. As I rounded the corner on 33rd Street to head down Chestnut Street toward the Schuylkill River Trail, I nearly ran into a group of freshmen standing in the middle of the sidewalk and as I passed this group I noticed two of them holding reusable takeout containers. I thought to myself, “It happened. It really happened. They implemented one of my programs.” In April of my freshman year, I walked into the president of Drexel’s office for the very first time with nothing more than two of the exact same sheets of paper. These papers, designed as a template for our meeting, as it turned out, would help transform the way Drexel thought about sustainability. Through the course of my meeting with President Fry, I highlighted several possible programs the university could easily implement to decrease any combination of food waste and single use plastic consumption and increase various components of recycling. In this meeting, I was able to show President Fry how Drexel could implement reusable to-go containers and water bottles and reduce plastic straw and utensil consumption. I also explained to him how removing trays would impact food and water waste, how to better disperse waste and recycling bins, and the energy and space saving benefits of using a commercial disposal in dining halls. While nothing immediately changed that day, the conversation sparked interest with many members of the administration. Following this meeting, I was paired with Hugh Johnson, a senior associate at the A.J. Drexel Institute for Energy and the Environment. With Hugh’s knowledge, he was able to mentor me on how to best propose my ideas in a presentation President Fry suggested I give to various members of Drexel’s faculty the following month. As I continued working with Hugh, we stumbled upon two other freshmen, Ryan Light and Ryan Howell, interested in similar work. While they wanted to implement an office of sustainability and I only had ideas for specific sustainabilityminded programs, there was no doubt that presenting these two ideas together would show a much greater desire by the student population – a desire previously unrecognized by the university.

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On May 29, 2018, after a few weeks of continually editing our presentation, the Ryans and I prepared to give our biggest presentation of the spring. The director of facilities, the director of operations, and several other department heads who we needed to win over were present; however, there were only two groups that we needed full support from: the representatives from Aramark, Drexel’s food provider, and the members of the vice president’s cabinet. With support from both of these groups, we would be able to move forward with our initiatives. Within a day of the presentation, we received an email from Aramark asking to meet to further discuss some of our programs. Going in, we had the expectation that Aramark would potentially entertain the idea of implementing one of my programs, but right out of the gate they wanted to implement trayless dining, a reusable bag incentive program, and a reusable to-go container program. For the remainder of spring term, we worked closely together to figure out all the specific details that needed to go into these programs: When is the best time to roll out these programs? What potential pushback might we receive from them? How can we make the containers as user-friendly as possible? Through Aramark’s willingness to work alongside myself and my team, we were able to roll out all three new initiatives at the beginning of the fall 2018 term.

Through this work at Drexel, I have created a wide breath of connections at neighboring universities and in the local government. In doing so, Ben May, a sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania, and I realized a gap in communications between the universities’ offices of sustainability (OS) with each other and the OS of the city of Philadelphia. As we explored several possible avenues to bridge this gap, we discovered that the most feasible way is to create a committee through the city’s OS comprised of student and faculty representatives from each school. While we are still working on the logistics for this committee, we have received tremendous support from the city in this initiative with the hopes of moving forward with this committee in January 2019. There is still a lot to be done at Drexel, and in the surrounding Philadelphia community, to limit our impact on the global environment. However, with each step we take – whether it be as small as deciding not to use a straw on an individual basis, or as large as removing all single use plastics on campus (as Drexel hopes to do by the beginning of the next academic year) – we take one step further away from our destructive past, and closer to our green future.

On October 25, I walked into the office of Subir Sahu, the vice president and dean of students, and the first thing he said to me, before I even began my presentation on the proposal for an office of sustainability, was, “I feel like I am meeting a celebrity with how highly President Fry and other administrators talk of you.” If you know me, I accept compliments like a vending machine trying to accept a wrinkly dollar bill, but thankfully this was not the tone for the remainder of the meeting. As we moved throughout the presentation and began discussing further details, it became apparent that Drexel wanted to move forward with the creation of a dedicated position in the administration solely for sustainability with the goal of building up to a full office of sustainability. Drexel is finalizing the logistics for this position, and hopes to begin interviewing candidates late winter of 2019.

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IN MEMORIAM ALUMNI MARION SUE (CLARK ’45) BAUM died April 7, 2018, in Monroeville, Pennsylvania. She was predeceased by her husband, Werner, with whom she had three children, Christopher, Barbara, and Stephen. MYRTA (ROBERTSON ’45) MACDONALD, 86, of Southern Pines, North Carolina, formerly of Sewickley, died June 26, 2018, following a short illness. She was born on August 18, 1931, in Sewickley to Harold Foster Robertson and Mary Gardner Robertson. She lived in Coraopolis Heights and then moved with her family to Scarsdale, New York. She graduated from Scarsdale High School and received her A.B. in theoretical mathematics from Smith College. She was employed as an actuary for New York Life Insurance in New York City before marrying Somerled Macdonald of Pittsburgh. She returned to Sewickley and was active in the Child Health Association, the Junior League, the Little Sewickley Creek Watershed Association, and the Carnegie Museum Department of Botany. She joined the founding administrative staff of the Sewickley Academy Senior School in 1963 and retired as the registrar after 28 years of employment. She was an avid outdoorswoman, camping and biking with her husband, and as the faculty advisor to the Academy’s outdoors club. Former science teacher Jane Konrad recalled, “Myrta and I ran the Trailblazers program, working to integrate life skills with a biology/science basis. We hosted meetings and also many hiking adventures. The most outstanding were trips to Long Pond in the Adirondacks each spring.” Myrta also led outdoor adventures with former faculty members Maggie MacMillan and Bam Behrer. Founding Head of Senior School Jim Cavalier recalled, “Myrta was absolutely wonderful at the Academy. In her quiet, thoughtful way, she worked tirelessly behind the scenes, interacting with students, parents, and teachers in such a positive, tactful way. She made my job easy.” In 1992, Myrta and her husband moved to Whispering Pines, North Carolina, where they resided until they moved to Penick Village in Southern Pines. She served on the vestry of Emmanuel Episcopal Church, was a longtime member of the Daughters of the King, and supported the Society of Anglican Missionaries and Senders and Trinity School for Ministry. Later in life, she was an active lay minister at the Chapel of the Transfiguration at Penick Village and served as the chapel liaison. She also volunteered at their Village Shoppe and was given the first Bill Starke Volunteer of the Year Award. Myrta was preceded in death by her husband, Somerled; and is survived by her three sons, Allan ’75 (Echo-Leigh), of Darlington, South Carolina; the Rev. Canon John ’75 (Gail), of Sewickley; and David ’77 (Debra), of Gulf Breeze, Florida; eight grandchildren, including Anne “Parry” (Macdonald ’06)

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Kietzman (Benjamin) and Timothy ’11; and one greatgrandchild. She is also survived by her sister, Ellen Matthews (Bill), of Penick Village. MARY LOU (MOORE ’45) SCHOLL died peacefully on August 13, 2018, at the Masonic Village in Sewickley. She had just celebrated her 88th birthday. She was born on April 25, 1930, to Mr. and Mrs. Frank Lester Moore in Pittsburgh. She graduated from Winchester Thurston School and Stephens College, Columbia, Missouri. Mary Lou was very active in the Sewickley community, dedicating her time to civic and charitable organizations, including the Junior League of Pittsburgh, the Child Health Association of Sewickley, and the Village Garden Club of Sewickley. She held board positions in the Union Aid Society and was a deacon and elder of the Sewickley Presbyterian Church. Mary Lou worked for many years at Hyde Travel Service, where she became interested in world travel. She had wonderful trips to Africa, Australia, Canada, the Caribbean, Egypt, England, France, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, and Thailand with friends and family, and enjoyed meeting new people and experiencing new cultures. Mary Lou is survived by four sons: Chris of Tucson, Arizona; Mark ’74 and Frederick, both of Moon Township, Pennsylvania; and Peter ’83 of Washington, D.C.; six grandchildren; and five great grandchildren. MAITLAND “SANDY” ALEXANDER III ’67, age 68, passed away on February 5, 2018, at the Sussman House in Rockport, Maine. Sandy was born in Sewickley on July 18, 1949, to Maitland Alexander, Jr. and Ann Paul. He was the middle of five children who grew up spending summers on Islesboro. After receiving his bachelor’s degree at the University of North Carolina, he moved to Bath, Maine, where he married Charlotte Knowles Higgins in 1973 and with whom he had two children. Sandy was a woodworker, pilot, registered nurse, and boat captain before retiring and building his dream home on Islesboro. His talents were many: learning foreign languages, traveling the world, gardening, beekeeping, cooking, sailing, and boat building. Sandy would say that his greatest accomplishment was swimming a 5K from Lincolnville Beach to Islesboro on August 19, 2017, in support of the Life Flight Foundation. He is survived by his partner and companion, Anne Bertulli; his children Sarah and Benjamin Alexander (Carly Cope); two grandchildren, Laughlin and Maitland Alexander; siblings, Louis ’57, Charles ’62, Madelaine “Laine” ’68, and Isabel (Alexander ’73) Jackson; as well as 10 nieces and nephews.

As of September 2018

AMY (GRAY ’79) ROBERTS, 57, passed away suddenly on May 7, 2018, at the University of Florida Health Shands Hospital. She was a longtime resident of Sewickley, and later relocated to Gainesville, Florida. Amy was an avid equestrian and actively involved in the Sewickley Hunt Club during her youth. She was passionate about cooking, gardening, and spending time with her grandchildren at the beach. Amy was preceded in death by her father, Lawrence L. Gray. She is survived by her mother, Polly McHenry Gray; her siblings, Nick ’77 (Christine) and Deborah ’68; her sons, Jason (Erin), Christopher, and Stephen; her granddaughters, Lily and Chloe; and her nephews, Ian and Jackson Gray. JOHN P. “TRIP” LEVIS III ’79, 56, a Pittsburgh business executive whose expertise in the office was matched by his love of spending time outside it, died July 11, 2018. His death at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Shadyside came after a lengthy illness that included leukemia and complications from a stem-cell transplant. Trip was born in Pittsburgh on September 16, 1961, to Susan Bryson Clancy and John Preston Levis, Jr. He graduated from St. George’s School, Yale University, and Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business. He went to work for management consulting firm McKinsey & Company in various offices around the country. Hired early on by Pittsburgh-based FreeMarkets Inc., an internet auction firm that went public in 1999, Trip was senior vice president and chief “people officer” as the company grew exponentially in influence with thousands of employees worldwide. Sam Kinney, a friend and former colleague, said, “Style-wise, Trip was in some ways an anachronism. He was truly old-school, old-soul, thoughtful, and wise. If there was a right way to do something, [he would] figure out what that right way was and do it.” Trip was a long-time board member of the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, where he was involved in the renovation of Schenley Plaza in the Oakland area of Pittsburgh. He was an outdoorsman who enjoyed fly fishing and bird hunting. He loved cooking and would read cook books in their entirety. “He was intellectually voracious, not just about cooking,” Erin Clancy, his sister, said. “He had an incredible breadth of knowledge about any number of topics.” Trip is survived by his wife, Elizabeth Levis; sons John of Boston, Parkman and Samuel of Pittsburgh; his mother, Susan Clancy of Sewickley; sisters Helen (Clancy ’71) Morrison of Helena, Montana, Margot (Levis ’78) Thompson of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and Erin Clancy ’87 of Miami, Florida; a brother, Peter Clancy ’73 of Washington, D.C.; and many nieces and nephews.

ROBERT W. NORRIS ’73 of Waxhaw, North Carolina, passed away on February 1, 2018, at age 64. He was born in Pittsburgh to Betty and Scott. He is survived by his wife, Maggie, and son, Robert “RW” II. Rob turned his avocation, woodworking, into his vocation when he left Sewickley in 1984 for Charlotte, North Carolina. He owned and operated his own business, Anything in Wood. After 10 years in Charlotte, the family moved to Roanoke, Virginia, for Maggie’s management role with a financial institution. Maggie said, “We bought a 20-acre farm and Rob was way ahead of his time being Mr. Mom for our son, Robert II. He enjoyed his days as a gentleman farmer. Rob was also a passionate outdoorsman, preferring Saturdays on the skeet field or wing shooting over a football game in front of the television. He was a great cheerleader at the ice rink as our son played travel hockey for 12 years.” They returned to Charlotte in 2002 and Rob became an active member of the Charlotte Rifle and Pistol Club where he was a leader in specialized formulas for reloading shot gun shells, in addition to continuing his wing hunting trips out west, Maine, Canada, Virginia, and the Carolinas.

FAMILY OF ALUMNI James Alfred Geaves Beales III, father of Diane (Beales ’66) Lobaugh, Jefferson ’71, and Jonathan ’71 W. Scott Brinker, father of Bill ’77 and Tom, stepfather of Edward, William, Robert, and the late Henry Sawyer ’78 Carolyn Whyman Jack Byrne, mother of Amelia (Jack ’79) Bond and Laura (Jack ’82) Butler Patricia D. Colavincenzo, mother of Maria ’94, John ’99, and Lucy ’02 Michael DiNardo, father of Andrew ’12 and Ben ’14, step-father of Sara (Seltzer ’94) Gran Betty Mann, mother of Susan (Mann ’58) Flanders, Marjorie ’61, Bob ’67, Tom ’70, and Christina (Mann ’75) Schmidlapp Robert E. Smith, father of Jeffrey Dwulit-Smith ’07 William John “Jack” Wagner, husband of Mary “Molly O” (Lore ’56) Wagner

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IN MEMORIAM FRIENDS OF THE ACADEMY DUNCAN DENNY passed away at his home in Norfolk, Connecticut, on June 19, 2018. He was born June 20, 1927, in New Rochelle, New York, to Dorothy Duncan and Cary Freeman Denny. Duncan grew up in Pelham Manor, New York, and Norfolk. He graduated from South Kent School in 1945 and served in the Army Air Corps as a radar technician, stationed in the Azores. He was a graduate of Rhodes College, Memphis, Tennessee, and Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts. Duncan was one of the original six faculty members who established the Senior School at Sewickley Academy with founding head Jim Cavalier. In addition to teaching and coaching, Duncan made the first schedule for the new high school and was a key player in designing math curriculum in the earliest years. “He was a terrific, outgoing guy,” remembered Jim Cavalier. “He would jump up and click his heels if a kid did something great!” Duncan also coached soccer and taught mathematics at Worcester Academy, St. Andrew’s School in Middletown, Delaware, and Housatonic Valley Regional High School (HVRHS) in Connecticut. Duncan was raised to a master mason at Western Star Lodge in Norfolk in 1970. He was a district deputy twice and recipient of the Edward Pierpoint Award. He served his community as an assistant scoutmaster and as a board member of the Norfolk Historical Society, and participated in the annual Teens Against Polio talent show. He enjoyed performing in musical theater at HVRHS and the Warner Theatre. Duncan sang in his church choirs and became a licensed lay reader in the Episcopal Church. He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Ayreslea; children Bea Tirrell (Charlie), Deirdre, and Rowland (Robin); and seven grandchildren. LOUANN TRONSBERG DEIHLE lost her valiant battle with cancer on June 11, 2018, at age 55. A Pittsburgh native, Louann graduated from Gateway Senior High School and received her undergraduate degrees in international business and international relations from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She began her business career in New York City. Returning to her hometown, she obtained a master of business administration from the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University. Louann enjoyed a long, successful business career in Pittsburgh, first at PNC Bank and subsequently at WESCO Distribution. Since 2008, she served as treasurer of Koppers, Inc., a position she was proud to hold. Louann served on the Sewickley Academy Board of Trustees from 2011 to 2017 where she was particularly valued for her keen insight and expertise on the Finance Committee. She belonged to the Academy’s Home and School Association and treasured every performance, sporting event, or rite of passage

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that featured her talented children. The charitable endeavors she supported were a perfect reflection of her life and her faith, especially the Brother’s Brother Foundation and the Pittsburgh Fellows, for which she was also a board member. Louann is remembered not only for her business expertise and tenacity, but also for the caring relationships she built with colleagues, friends, and everyone she encountered. She was a mentor and inspiration to many who were touched by her kindness and guidance. She enjoyed golf, travel, and most especially her role as mother to Emma ’12, Sarah ’15, and Ian ’17. She is survived by her husband Fr. Lawrence C. Deihle; her parents, Kenneth Sr. and Eileen Tronsberg; and her siblings; plus many loving family members and close friends who became family. CALVERT MAGRUDER of Cambridge, Massachusetts, formerly of Maumee, Ohio, Sewickley, Pennsylvania, and South Tamworth, New Hampshire, died on July 21, 2018, at age 91. He was born in Boston on May 17, 1927, to then professor (later federal judge) Calvert Magruder and Anna Saltonstall (Ward) Magruder. Cal was educated at the Shady Hill School in Cambridge, Avon Old Farms School (which closed briefly in 1944 during the war), and completed his senior year at the Browne and Nichols School. In 2006, on what would have been the 60th reunion of his class at Avon, he was awarded an honorary diploma and spoke at the commencement. One of the graduates later wrote him that his talk was the highlight of this landmark reunion. In 1945, at age 17, he enlisted in the Naval Reserve, serving in the Pacific and South China Seas on the destroyer U.S.S. Norris. Upon discharge, he entered the Harvard College class of 1950, the largest class in Harvard’s history with the return of veterans of many ages. He was very loyal to the university and to his class, and served on reunion committees for many years. As a teacher, he worked closely with local Harvard Clubs, interviewing prospective candidates for admission. In the early 1950s, Cal was employed as an analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency, before continuing his education, earning a master’s degree in history from Brown University. He taught American and European history and coached soccer at Sewickley Academy, the Fessenden School, and Maumee Valley Country Day School. He was known to never turn down a party invitation and could recount old stories in rich detail, with an astonishing memory for songs, poems, and historic speeches. He is survived by his brother, Michael, of Cambridge, and was predeceased by his brother, Robert Stuart Magruder. He was a descendant of the Calverts, proprietors of Maryland, and a great-great-great grandson of the lexicographer Noah Webster.

As of September 2018

SA Remembers Long Time Faculty Member Jamie Wardrop ‘57

JAMES R. “JAMIE” WARDROP ’57 died on May 15, 2018, at his home in Sewickley, surrounded by his family and favorite furry companions, after a short battle with cancer. Born on March 21, 1941, in Sewickley, the son of the late Mary Blair and Edmund Donnan Wardrop, he was preceded in death by his brother, Barker ’68. He is survived by his brother William ’55 (Susan Coyle ’60) of Sewickley; his sister Alexina (Wardrop ’62) Brooks (Frank ’62) of Birmingham, Michigan; his nieces Elizabeth (Wardrop ’91) Lawley (Jason), Georgiana Giancamilli (Andrew), Mary Byrd (Brandon); and nephews Blair Wardrop ’90, Daniel Brooks (Cara) and Colin Brooks (Casey). Wardrop Field, familiar to Academy students since 1929, was built in memory of Jamie’s great great uncle James Wardrop, one of the founders of the school and first treasurer of the Board of Trustees. Jamie pursued life with passion. As an accomplished photographer, Jamie traveled the world documenting the wars in both Israel and Vietnam for the American and foreign press. His photographs remain his legacy, chronicling his life as a private pilot, a member of the Tucson, Arizona, Police Department, a western bronco rider, a race car driver, and a sailor, among his many other interests.

For nearly 40 years, Jamie was dedicated to his alma mater. He served on the Alumni Council, hosted reunion parties for classes from the 1950s, and stayed in touch with SA alumni all over the world. He loved to try to find a “missing person” from the classes of his school days here, and recounted endless stories from behind the scenes of faculty and student life. He tirelessly photographed games, concerts, and special occasions for decades, creating an archive of photos that reflect all aspects of student life and the history of the school. Most importantly, he inspired and challenged generations of photography students who remain grateful for his critical eye and helping hand. Jamie often referred to himself as a “grinch” or “curmudgeon” in today’s world, but those who knew him knew his kind heart and caring concern for others. He retired as the Sewickley Academy archivist and instructor of photographic arts in 2016. He is fondly remembered by students on the field for Senior School sporting events, ringing the celebratory bell and sounding the siren on one of his antique Sewickley Academy fire engines, and by the Sewickley community for his special presence driving a fire engine with an entourage of Academy students in the annual Memorial Day parade. Jamie was truly “one of a kind” and is sorely missed by the Academy community.

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SEWICKLEY ACADEMY 315 Academy Avenue Sewickley, PA 15143

CALL FOR NOMINATION: An alumna/us who has demonstrated the highest standards of achievement, leadership, and service that reflect the enduring principles of Sewickley Academy. Nominees must have made significant contributions to the fields of science or technology, as determined by awards, grants, original research, and recognition by experts in the field. Nominees must have performed service to others in the classroom or the field that has greatly enhanced the quality of life for the recipients. Please send nominations for this Hall of Fame to alumni@sewickley.org. Include information as to why this nominee should be considered.

Previous inductees include: Dr. Carolee Bull ’81

Research plant biologist (bacterial systemics and plant pathology), professor, mentor (esp. migrant workers in Salinas, CA)

Dr. Mark Schafer ’75

Innovator, engineer, entrepreneur in medical ultrasound, 22 patents

Dr. Beth Willman ’94

Astronomer, professor, research scientist, Director of LSST (Large Synoptic Survey Telescope) project