Spring 2014
UHS JOURNAL A Magazine for University High School Families, Alumni, and Friends
University High School welcomes students of demonstrated motivation and ability to engage in an education that fosters responsibility and the spirited pursuit of knowledge. We are a school where adults believe in the promise of every student, and together we work to build and sustain a community of diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and talents. UHS challenges each individual to live a life of integrity, inquiry, and purpose larger than the self. SPRING 2014
CONTRIBUTORS Editor Alissa Kinney
UHS Journal s p r i ng 2014 2
From the Head’s Desk 4
The Lessons That Stay with Us by Holly Johnson ’82, Director of Alumni Relations
Editorial Board Shaundra Bason Lindsay Criswell Thelma Garza Kate Gorrissen Holly Johnson ’82 Photography UHS Communications Jean Fruth Mollie Crittenden Design Shelby Designs Oakland
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Commitment to Community by Alissa Kinney, Director of Communications
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The UHS Album Fieldwork in Tahoe
Printing Burns & Associates Fine Printing UNIVERSITY HIGH SCHOOL VOL. XXV, NO. 1
by Alissa Kinney, Director of Communications
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Classroom Reflections Connecting through Service by Jackie Thompson ’09 Alumni Teaching Fellow, Community Service Instructor
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Service by the Numbers 17
Community Milestones 18
Spotlight On: Decorator Showcase Reviving a Classic Beauty 19
Spotlight On: Fundraising at UHS What Your Support Means 20
Alumni Association News by Holly Johnson ’82, Director of Alumni Relations
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San Francisco University High School admits and welcomes students of any race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the School. The School does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin in the administration of its educational policies admission policies, employment policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic or other school administered programs.
Class Notes and In Memoriam by Holly Johnson ’82, Director of Alumni Relations
(cover photo) Ninth-grade students ham it up for the camera in front of a mural in the Haight during the Community Service Learning program’s Ninth-Grade Neighborhood Visit Day on Monday, January 27, 2014. Photo: Mollie Crittenden, Director of Community Service Learning.
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March Madness / Mission-in-Action: Notes from the Court / Field During the month of March, I have continued on my anthropological tour of University High School, trying to capture observations and impressions (noted here as “O&I”) that can only come from the unique position of a leader with a fresh set of eyes and ears. As Margaret Mead said, “Anthropology demands the open-mindedness with which one must look and listen, record in astonishment, and wonder that which one would not have been able to guess.”
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With numerous visits to classrooms, labs, and concerts; conversations had in hallways, at art openings, and on athletic fields; and inspiring meetings and reunions under my belt, March held some new experiences in store, as I spent more time with an increasingly wider scope of community members in locales as varied as sailboats, the Student Center, and AT&T Park.
For this Journal’s letter, I offer a quick peek into my observer’s notebook: m a r c h 5, 5:30 p . m . Travel to Alameda for the North Coast Section’s semi-final Boys’ Varsity Basketball game vs. St. Joseph’s with Athletic Director Jim Ketcham and Board member and UHS parent Jim Shapiro (impromptu meeting in the car to discuss future athletic initiatives)
O&I: The Bay Bridge continues to enchant. UHS athletes are fierce competitors, while also displaying great sportsmanship. Our staff and volunteers are uniquely committed to their work on behalf of our students.
m a r c h 19, 7:00 p . m . Sophomore Parent Evening with Deans Kate Garrett and Alex Lockett in the Dennis Collins Library
O&I: The first cohort of parents of our mentored classes are unusually engaged and focused on a growth mindset for their children and themselves. University’s parent programming is the most comprehensive and best delivered I have ever experienced. m a r c h 23, 1:00 p . m . Meet at the coaches’ launch to watch the UHS Varsity Sailing Club compete in the NorCal Sailing Championships at St. Francis Yacht Club
m a r c h 6, 8:00 p . m . Dance with the Devils (Battle of the Bands) at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall
supportive of their schoolmates — especially the brave ninth-grade band who opened the show. UHS parent-chaperones are troopers!
O&I: San Francisco looks so serene and beautiful from the Bay. The UHS sailors have incredible stamina — this is their second five-hour day on the water this weekend! I hope they have a lot of snacks on board. The cheering of our team parents fills me with pride — Go, Devils!
7, 8:00 a . m . Coffee with former UHS Board chair and past parent Phil Halperin at Rigolo Cafe
m a r c h 24, 2:00 p . m . Off to Potrero Hill to meet with alumna Jen Dulski ’89, president and COO of Change.org.
O&I: UHS students are multi-talented and extraordinarily
march
O&I: The Board’s leadership has set us on a great course with our signature Mentoring Program.
m a r c h 9, 6:00 p . m . Dinner with global education consultants visiting UHS from Washington, DC at Mamacita
O&I: Preparing our students for a global society is imperative and UHS is committed to exploring ways to do so in our upcoming strategic planning.
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Second Annual Community Day on
O&I: After watching the one-man show, “The Scion,” by actor and comedian Brian Copeland, students and faculty are enthusiastically create action plans for change as we work toward an even more engaged and inclusive community. I have come to expect nothing less.
magically transformed Devil Dome, followed by the annual UHS Spring Concert in the Theater
O&I: Seniors are starting to put a toe out the door, but not yet
m a r c h 26, 7:00 p . m . The Families Multicultural Committee Potluck in the Student Center with Dean of Faculty Nasif Iskander
a whole foot. I’m so impressed by their ability to stay in the game this late into the year and am genuinely touched by the mutual admiration between our students and faculty. Hugely entertaining John Williams trilogy performed by our Sinfonia (“Doc” Lamott makes for a darned good Darth Vader).
O&I: Families are keenly aware of the challenges that increasing selectivity among public and private colleges places on our students. University’s faculty and administration are committed to balancing these concerns with the integrity and rigor of our academic program.
O&I: San Francisco is the home of many extremely talented Generation Xers and Millennials, and UHS is well represented in that cohort. Our University delegation includes Daniel Lurie ’95 (featured on pages 9 – 10), founder and CEO of Tipping Point, and Danae Ringlemann ’96, co-founder of Indiegogo. It is no accident that students who attend a school with a commitment to public purpose go on to lead lives that make a difference.
What I am coming to fully appreciate is that at UHS, “each individual” is not just our current students. It is our parents, our alumni, our trustees and other volunteers, our faculty and staff, and our friends, of whom there are many. Additionally, UHS holds this expectation of “purpose larger than the self” to the entirety of the institution. The mission challenges the individual and the institution to conduct itself with integrity, inquiry, and purpose larger than the self.
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the UHS campus
14, 6:00 p . m . Senior-Faculty Dinner in the
My take-aways from these March moments continue to confirm my initial impressions of UHS since my arrival in San Francisco last July. Our mission states (in part) that UHS “challenge(s) each individual to live a life of integrity, inquiry, and purpose larger than the self.”
24, 6:00 p . m . Alumni round table dinner at the
O&I: Alumni are eager to be engaged in a robust dialog around strategic planning for the future of UHS. From web entrepreneur to attorney to contractor to realtor, our alumni loyalty, reach, and experience is critical — this is a group that is ready to lead UHS.
O&I: An almost 10% increase in applications this year makes for a tired and gratified team. We are on our way to enrolling another multi-talented and diverse ninth-grade class — welcome, 2018-ers!
m a r c h 18, 5:00 p . m . San Francisco Business Times’ “40 under 40” event, honoring two UHS alumni, at AT&T Park
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head of school’s house
m a r c h 13, 6:00 p . m . Celebration for the UHS Admission Committee at The Slanted Door in the Ferry Building
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O&I: Alumna leader of an organization that empowers people across the globe to submit petitions for change still believes that Western Civilization was one of the most valuable courses she ever took. Do workspaces (and office cultures) get any cooler than this?
m a r c h 27, 5:00 p . m . Meeting with the Strategic Planning Subcommittee of the Summerbridge Advisory Board in the Jackson Street Lounge
O&I: We are poised to integrate the important work of Summerbridge into all that we do and stand for at UHS. Summerbridge volunteers are second to none.
In the following pages of the Journal, I hope that you will observe for yourself (and through these stories) how UHS — individually and institutionally — is living out this aspect of our mission. It has been for this amateur anthropologist a most gratifying, astonishing, and wonderful observation.
Julia Russell Eells head of school UNIVERSITY HIGH SCHOOL
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The Lessons That Stay with Us by Holly Johnson ’82, Director of Alumni Relations
Justin Christensen ’99’s most vivid memory of physics class with Nasif Iskander involves a project involving early GPS devices and Ocean Beach. “We used the GPS coordinates at each end of the beach to figure out the circumference of the earth,” he says. “Nasif was doing student-centered learning before anyone else knew what it was.” It’s a lesson that has stayed with Justin throughout his education, and that he says has shaped his own teaching methods to this day. Justin has been teaching AP Government at St. Ignatius College Preparatory in San Francisco for ten years, and his innovative teaching methods recently earned him an award as an Educator of the Year for the California League of High Schools. He tries to create activities where the students are doing something, rather than just learning facts. Recently, Justin had his students simulate the process of attempting to pass a bill in the US Senate.He also asks his students to blog throughout the year about a policy area of their choice, relating it to processes they study in class. Justin’s appreciation of the lessons he learned from his UHS teachers is reflected in the statements of many other alumni when they talk about their choice to become teachers themselves. In fact, teachers at UHS appear to have inspired an extraordinary number of alumni to follow their example. A quick look at the alumni database reveals that about 5% of alums work in K–12 or college-level education, meaning that, on average, five members of each graduating class have gone on to become teachers or professors.
on ideas and teaching methods from some of my favorite UHS teachers. I didn’t realize that Will had been pulling on the same teachers for inspiration until our end of summer exam. In the style of Ben Jacobs, I included [a reminder] on my test: “Don’t forget to breathe.” And Will did the same. Suffice it to say, our students were perplexed at these repeated reminders. Duncan Lyon ’87, whose first full-time teaching job was back home at UHS, treasures the years he was able to learn from his former teachers, Sudie Sides and Sheila Lichtman, when they became history department colleagues. “Teaching at UHS has been my most formative experience because Sheila and Sudie not only recruited me to come teach, but they were so interested in the [methods and] scholarship that new teachers such as Jesse Berrett and I brought to the mix,” he says. “[They] were very direct with us about teaching and how to handle student or parent issues, and it was such an inculcating environment to come back to the office after classes and talk about our work.” Duncan taught US history for five years, and helped develop the ninth-grade history rotation of non-Western civilizations that UHS students go through to this day.
“Nasif was doing studentcentered learning before anyone else knew what it was.”
Indeed, University’s faculty influence their former students generations and miles away, as Rebecca Kimport ’99 shares: After graduation, I joined Teach for America (TFA) and immediately began my summer training, teaching physical science to a group of incoming ninth-graders. There, I ran into a familiar face: Will Veatch ’98 had also joined TFA, and through happenstance, we ended up at the same placement school, teaching the same group of students. As I honed my teaching skills, I drew 4
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After UHS, Duncan moved to New York to become dean of students at the Dalton School. While there, he attended the Klingenstein Center for Independent School Leadership. Back in California, he became middle school head and then assistant head of Bentley School in Oakland. Today, Duncan is in his third year as head of school of The Carey School, a Pre-K–5 school in San Mateo. “I see myself as a K–12 educator, having started in high schools, moved to middle school, and now elementary. Being able to connect is
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Justin Christensen ’99 surrounded by his St. Ignatius students. Photo courtesy of St. Ignatius College Preparatory.
What Our Alumni Teachers Learned in the UHS Classroom ALICE TULLY PIRTLE ’78 UHS teachers built personal
relationships with their students, and that was great modeling for an essential component of successful teaching. MARE KALIN MANANGAN ’87 When I started teaching third grade at MCDS, I thought of Tucker Hiatt and how he had a way of engaging all kinds of students with a variety of interests. Sudie Sides, Mal Singer, Judith Klau, Eliza Anderson, Geoff Worrell, and Fred Horner all took such an interest in their students. They made a point to get to know them outside the classroom. HELEN POGREL ’94 What really sticks with me about my UHS teachers is how much they truly cared about the subjects they were teaching, and because of that, even if it wasn’t my favorite subject, I came to care about it, too. VANESSA CARTER ’95 My UHS teachers were hands down the
best educators I ever worked with as a student. Why? Because in addition to encouraging me to be my absolute best academic self, they were available for the tremendous emotional support and character development that I so needed during adolescence.
LARISSA HSIA-WONG ’03 Kate Garrett was my English teacher freshman year, and she taught me so much about how to write well. One day last year, while I was teaching my middle-schoolers how to write a strong thesis statement for a literary essay, I [found] myself writing on the board: “Observation + Interpretation = THESIS.” Those were the exact same words Kate shared with me when I was struggling as a ninth-grader years ago. CAITLIN KENT ’06 I remember being inspired by Sudie Sides
in US History class and being pushed to learn in a high-energy environment when I had Spanish with Ernesto. I try to make sure that I am doing my best to give my students a fun place to come and learn every day, and I think some of what those teachers taught me is reflected in that. ANDREA IMHOF ’07 UHS shaped so much of who I am today,
that the values I learned there are fully ingrained in my teaching philosophy. I believe that character growth and citizenship are as important as any academic subject.
SHAHEEN MUNIR-MCHILL ’02 My experiences with teachers at UHS help me identify the unique strengths and needs of the students I work with ... rather than defaulting to standardized objectives for all students.
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Alumni Advice for Future Educators ELIZABETH BRAKEMAN DE BORD ’87: You are desperately needed out there! Visit schools and classrooms everywhere you can. Ultimately, the life skills teachers instill in their students far outweigh the information shared. NED DIAMOND ’91: It is a wonderful profession and a great lifestyle if you have a love for learning and think of yourself always as a work in progress. I highly recommend it. It keeps me young. VANESSA CARTER ’95: You will never be convinced that you are doing enough. Knowing that, go to bed, eat well, make time for yourself and family and friends. It will make this challenging road so much more beautiful. LOGAN MANNING ’98: In order to really be part of a change, you have to commit. You have to take time to get to know the students and their families. You have to first learn from the community. Too many people come in with a missionary stance and think they have the answers for people whose struggles are very different from their own.
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MELISSA HOLMAN-KURSKY ’99: On the first day of grad school, the head of the program cautioned us that if we were going into teaching for the summer break, the “shorter” days, or because it was a fallback career… we should leave. It was great advice. If you don’t love teaching, [it] will not be worth it. If you do love it, it will be the most fulfilling thing you ever do. BEN LOWELL ’06: I am so grateful that I took the time to train for an entire year before I became a full-time teacher. The ways of thinking, teaching tools, connections, and resources that I had after completing my master’s degree were invaluable. LYDIA KROOSS ’08: Get as much experience as possible first! I know there are a lot of shortcuts to teaching out there, but I’m glad I worked with kids for many years and was formally trained before I had my own classroom.
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(1) Lydia Krooss ’08 with her young students on a sunny day in the city. (2) Duncan Lyon ’87, principal of The Carey School, with his students—who also happen to be the children of fellow UHS alum Mark Moore ’86. (3) Math teacher Ned Diamond ’91 works with a student.
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“I believe that character growth and citizenship are as important as any academic subject.”
what’s important at any grade level,” he says. He continues to teach, heading up a debate class for fifth-graders in order to better know his Carey students. With his expanded role as head of school, Duncan feels that he can now spread his wings even further, connecting with students, teachers, parents, and even training board members. Rebecca, who recently moved from the science classroom to become an assistant principal in Washington, DC, agrees: Seeking to take on a bigger role in school leadership, I moved to my current position last year. Like my time in the classroom, it comes with its own challenges and rewards. Students [realize] small achievements almost every day and I love having a job in which I can watch a preschooler write his name for the first time, ask a fifth-grader to explain the difference between rational and irrational numbers, and challenge an eighth-grader to formulate a more precise hypothesis all in the same day. Although there are times when I miss the classroom, I have been able to broaden my impact by working with teachers to help them ensure our students achieve success within and beyond the classroom. Most teachers will say that having an impact on student lives is what drives them, and our alums are no different. Andrea Imhof ’07, Caitlin Kent ’06, and Vanessa Carter ’95 all testify to the desire to make a difference on an individual, school, and community-wide level. Andrea is a kindergarten and first grade intervention specialist at a charter school in the Bronx,
working with individual students who are struggling in their classes. She finds the work incredibly fulfilling, saying: Every teacher knows that moment in a child’s mind when all the pieces click together and their eyes light up with understanding. It’s a magical second, when you simultaneously realize that all of your hard work has finally paid off, and all of a sudden they don’t need you anymore because they can do it by themselves. Working with the students who struggle the most academically means that I get to experience that moment almost every day. Every single one of my students comes to me because they’re behind—they can’t read yet, they don’t know the alphabet, they don’t understand subtraction, they struggle to remember how to write their numbers. By definition my job is to figure out how each kid’s brain works, and to dance, sing, draw, write, and push our way to that moment. I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. Caitlin Kent ’06 has been teaching first grade at the Alison Bixby Stone School in Zamorano, Honduras, this year. The school is a bilingual Pre-K–6 school that educates a cross-section of Honduran youth, from poor, rural families to those of college professors. Caitlin came to Honduras after teaching in San Francisco, Houston (as a Teach for America fellow), and Ramallah, Palestine. Her experience has cemented her passion for education and educational equity. She loves teaching, but is also looking forward to going to graduate school to study education and policy. “I want to work to
both identify and break down the social, economic, and political barriers that come between low-income students and quality primary education throughout the world,” she says. Vanessa Carter ’95 taught in the classroom for 12 years, including as the co-founder and director of the Green Academy at Abraham Lincoln High School in San Francisco. At Lincoln, she taught environmental science and environmental service learning to youth who had been identified as at-risk of dropping out of high school. She saw the Green Academy as a way to provide a sense of community in an otherwise daunting school. Today she focuses on professional development programs for public school teachers at the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center in Sonoma County. Specifically, Vanessa works on the SEED Program (School Ecoliteracy Education Design), helping schools weave ecoliteracy into their curriculum through community organizing. “I realized that though I loved facilitating learning experiences with teenagers and was skilled in this service path, I was meant to step out of the classroom and engage with teachers, admin, and [policymakers] in order to leverage change at a larger scale,” she says. It is so gratifying to see the wonderful work that so many of our alumni have undertaken in the field of education. Their inspirational stories and their gratitude for the examples set by their UHS teachers create a cycle of positive energy and a sense of commitment that validates the work we do at our school.
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Commitment to Community by Alissa Kinney, Director of Communications
From a young age, Hart Fogel ’16’s parents instilled in him the importance of being an active citizen in his community—it was his responsibility to contribute to the world around him. This early lesson created a lasting impression on Hart, and he began volunteering at the age of four, accompanying his dad to pitch in at a local nature preserve. From that point on, Hart was involved with numerous organizations, notably the international humanitarian nonprofit UNICEF. However, it was not until middle school that Hart would discover a service opportunity that has changed his life. It was an ordinary lunch period when he decided to attend his middle school’s annual community service fair and came across a pamphlet detailing the hands-on experience young people could have serving on the local youth court, a concept that fascinated Hart: “‘How are youth possibly allowed to handle criminal cases? They aren’t attorneys or jurors, are they?’ My interest was piqued, so I showed up at the court’s next hearing to see what the program was all about.” Hart began to actively participate in the Marin County Youth Court, where young people who have been charged with misdemeanor offenses may face a jury of their peers in order to “engage the offender in a constructive dialogue, instead of having an adult admonish the youth and send him or her off with a criminal record and probation.” As he became more involved, Hart began presenting on the court’s innovative work throughout California, sitting on a statewide planning board for youth courts and organizing workshops for youth court volunteers. Hart was inspired: “The Marin County Youth Court,” he says, “takes a restorative justice approach to teen crime, providing a less punitive alternative to the traditional juvenile justice system. Restorative justice is based on the belief that people are not defined by their mistakes.”
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It was during this time that Hart first had an idea that has since evolved into a moving example of youth leadership and commitment to community. Keeping the goal of restorative justice in mind, Hart developed The Marin City Community Garden Restorative Justice Project, which enables young offenders the opportunity to work in a community garden with neighbors, volunteers, and other teens, instead of other more punitive measures such as school suspension and juvenile detention. Hart’s early plans and model for the garden were so impressive, in fact, that he was bestowed University High School’s Rosenblatt Grant for community service when he was just halfway through his ninth-grade year. Mollie Crittenden, University’s Director of Community Service Learning, says: “Hart had already done a great deal of organizing, connecting to others in his community, and had an imaginative vision for how to enhance the restorative justice efforts he has been engaging in for years through the community garden project. He [had] demonstrated a deep commitment to making a positive impact in his community before coming to UHS, and I am thrilled that our CSL Program can continue to support him in his ongoing and inspiring endeavors.” Hart was similarly excited to hear the news: “When I heard [I won the grant], I was elated. All of my plans were no longer hypothetical musings—they were about to become a reality. I could hardly wait to start my work. I am so grateful.”
Hart Fogel ’16 poses with a volunteer in front of Marin City’s community garden.
And he clearly treasures his time in the garden, which is now thriving in nearby Marin City: “If one were to visit the community garden and just spend an hour interacting with community members, one would see a vibrant community whose residents are more than willing to share their stories. It has been so inspiring to see and collaborate with such a diverse group of people who are all brought together by something as relatively simple as growing food. To me, that is what community is truly about.”
of our school culture for decades. Daniel Lurie, a member of the Class of 1995, was also drawn to service at a young age. Growing up in San Francisco, Daniel was often reminded by his parents how
moving to Durham, NC, to attend Duke University, Daniel forged a friendship, and arranged a standing weekly visit, with an elderly man who resided in a nursing home nearby. Upon his graduation from Duke, Daniel began to work at the Robin Hood Foundation in New York City. It was during his first week that the September 11 attacks occurred and sealed his resolve to dedicate himself to community: “I felt inspired and proud to be part of the team at Robin Hood, and to see the impact that the organization was able to have in helping lift up those hardest hit by the attacks—especially the low-income
“Restorative justice is based on the belief that people are not defined by their mistakes.”
Hart’s story is remarkable, but is in line with a long tradition of service and commitment at UHS that has been part
lucky he was to have the opportunities he was offered. Throughout his childhood, during which he attended Town School and then UHS, Daniel volunteered with his family at a homeless shelter in the Haight and interned with the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. After
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families, many of whom had lost their jobs or their loved ones as a result of the attacks.” Witnessing the important work Robin Hood undertook in the face of such horror made Daniel realize how much his home city needed a similar organization. “Poverty is visible here, but what became clear to me after my time in New York was that it’s not as easy as wealthy versus poor. It’s not only the chronically homeless people we see on Market Street that need help—there are so many people who are just one accident or one layoff away from falling into poverty.” From the start, Daniel recognized that there were already numerous worthy causes in the Bay Area—he wanted to
“There are 1.3 million people living here in the Bay Area who struggle to meet their basic needs. And there are well over 3,000 people who have contributed their time, money, and talents to the fight against poverty since Tipping Point began.”
(top) Daniel Lurie ’95 brings the message of the Tipping Point Community to Market Street in downtown San Francisco. (bottom) Onstage with Tipping Point grantee executive directors at a 2012 benefit. 10
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do everything he could to ensure that they received the support they needed in order to help as many Bay Area residents as possible. “By some counts, there are over 15,000 human service organizations here in the Bay Area alone. I saw a need to create an organization that inspired people, young and old, to give back to the best ones that are already fighting poverty in truly effective ways here in our community.” Thus, the Tipping Point Community was born, a widely lauded organization that as gained incredible momentum and support from some of the most well-known philanthropists in the Area since its founding in 2005. “There are 1.3 million people living here in the Bay Area who struggle to meet their basic needs. And there are well over 3,000 people who
have contributed their time, money, and talents to the fight against poverty since Tipping Point began.” In fact, Tipping Point’s Board covers 100% of its operating and fundraising costs, ensuring that every donation can go directly to those who need it. With this Robin Hood-inspired model, Tipping Point acts as a connector between donors and nonprofits (or grantees), giving away every penny of the $60 million it has raised since its inception to groups such as Aspire Public Schools, Year Up, Bayview Child Health Center, and Community Housing Partnership. The organization estimates that its grants impacted the lives of over 88,000 Bay Area residents in 2013 alone. Nearly ten years since founding Tipping Point, Daniel remains just as committed
and enthusiastic about his work as ever. “We have some ambitious growth goals over the coming few years,” he says, “which means that we need to get more and more people involved. We always say that there is never one way to fight poverty—we are willing to work with anyone who’s interested to find a way to contribute.” Hart echoes the sentiment that creative thinking and partnership are key: “These experiences have taught me that community service is not only gratifying because it allows me to give back to my community, but also because volunteering provides an outlet for creativity and the desire to collaborate and take on leadership roles. It may sound paradoxical, but I gain so much when I give.”
Samantha Andow ’14, a longtime equestrian, started volunteering at Halleck Creek Ranch when she was 12 years old. Set against the serene backdrop of the Nicasio Valley in Marin County, Halleck Creek offers therapeutic horseback riding to people with disabilities and their families. Below, Samantha shares how Halleck has changed her, both as a volunteer and as a person: When I started as a volunteer at [the ranch], I was motivated by the horses. I didn’t know that much about children with disabilities, and I had never worked with them before. I mainly came out because I love horses and I wanted to be able to share my love. After my first month, however, I realized how much it was about the kids. I would come home [with so many stories] to tell my mom. I realized that these kids ended up meaning so much to me that it’s hard to spend weekends apart from them and it’s hard for me to watch them grow up. I know that next year [when I go to college] it will be so difficult for me to leave the kids, the volunteers, the entire program, because it’s an essential part of my life now, as it has been for six years.
The Summerbridge program was started by visionary faculty members at University High School nearly 36 years ago, with the aim of providing tuition-free academic enrichment to motivated but underserved San Francisco middle school students. Adam Harb ’14 is one of the 30 UHS students who currently tutor middle-schoolers as part of Summerbridge’s After School program, which keeps kids on-track academically throughout the year. Recognized by the staff as a deeply committed volunteer, Adam is himself a graduate of the program who sees the importance of giving back: I volunteer at Summerbridge because I realized that the best way to perform community service was to give back to the program that helped me throughout middle school. My experience has been meaningful because of the willingness of my tutees to learn and the lighthearted way we approach the material. Because of this, I have become more confident in myself as a teacher. UNIVERSITY HIGH SCHOOL
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Fieldwork in Tahoe by Alissa Kinney, Director of Communications
For AP Environmental Science (APES) instructor Rae Ann Sines, surrounding her students with the nature they are studying is an essential component of her class. This past fall, Sines, in collaboration with the Gateway Mountain Center, had the opportunity to bring her students to the Lake Tahoe area to hike, reflect on the history and beauty of the area, and complete fieldwork that contributed to studies currently being conducted by the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences and the Truckee Donner Land Trust. Field trips like this “give students the opportunity to collect data that supports actual scientific and conservation research,” says Sines. “And working with [Gateway] gives us the flexibility to select from their well-crafted field activities and projects. Their staff is very knowledgeable and bonds with our students quickly.”
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For Sines’s students, the opportunity to do research in the field— and connect with classmates—was truly special. Sines says that experiences like this give her students “a greater appreciation of the awesome natural beauty and pristine habitats in the Sierras, away from the urban environment.” She also hopes that the trip can continue annually, perhaps in conjunction with another class at UHS, such as US History or a visual arts course. “Being in this different environment and stepping out of one’s comfort zone a little can expand one’s mind and perspective in some truly amazing ways!”
“[The trip] was an extremely valuable experience because we were able to apply all of the concepts that we learned in class to the real world and connect it to a larger picture. Field trips are important, especially for classes like APES, because you can experience what actual researchers do. All of the data we collected will go into a database and contribute to a larger study of wetlands in the Sierras, which I thought was really cool.” — JULIA LU ’15
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“In any class, there are people you don’t always get to talk to, but the trip let me connect with them on a more interpersonal level than a class lab or activity ever could.” — D E V IN R EES E ’ 1 4
“I think the most meaningful part was the campfire the last night when Rae Ann did her bird calls and students sang and danced.” — W YAT T KIM ’14
“Getting out of the classroom and spending time in the great outdoors was the perfect break from the hustle and bustle of my life in San Francisco and at UHS. I learned about environmental science in a new way.” — M A URE E N FLA H E RM A N ’14 14
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Connecting through Service by Jackie Thompson ’09, Alumni Teaching Fellow & Community Service Instructor
In my role this year as an alumni teaching fellow, I have had the privilege of re-engaging with the UHS community on deeper levels than I could have as a student. Thanks to the Community Service Learning (CSL) program, I have connected with ninth-graders, sophomores, and juniors through powerful discourses in cocurricular classes and one-on-one reflective meetings. Topics of our discussion range from income inequality to recognizing privilege, from the American Dream to food accessibility in San Francisco, from issues affecting the Castro to being an effective volunteer. As UHS students move throughout their high school careers, they are challenged to investigate their potential for enacting change in our ever-changing world. Recently, each ninth-grade cluster partook in a daylong field trip to explore seven different San Francisco neighborhoods. On the Castro trip, we visited the Pink Triangle Park and Memorial, which commemorates the thousands of LGBT individuals who were persecuted and killed during and after the Nazi regime. Contemplating the visit, one student commented that, “[The memorial] raises awareness about how persecution harms everyone and how important it is that we fight it.” Last semester in their CSL co-curricular class, the tenth grade engaged in a modified Monopoly game to tease out the complexities of income inequality in America. At the start of the game, each student was randomly given an amount of money to play with. Given the disparities of wealth established at the start of the game, it became clear as students played that achieving the American Dream was easy for some and nearly impossible for others. Students were reflective afterward, commenting
that the game “… offered an interesting perspective that I was unable to understand previously.” One student shared that she now “[feels} better informed about the subtleties of the American Dream.” Throughout their participation in the CSL program, students are asked to consider
the reciprocal nature of community service. Through volunteering, they learn they have as much to give as they have to learn. University’s commitment to service learning shows students that it is through working in solidarity with communities in need, rather than for charity, that lives are truly transformed.
Alumni Teaching Fellow Jackie Thompson ’09 listens as her students express their thoughts and feelings upon visiting Pink Triangle Park and Memorial in the Castro this past January.
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Service by the Numbers
San Francisco neighborhoods visited by UHS ninth-graders as part of their Community Service Learning (CSL) curriculum
7
Amount raised by the 2013 Decorator Showcase for University’s Financial Aid Program:
$620,000 Average number of alums from each graduating class who have pursued a career in education:
FIVE Number of years Samantha Andow ’14 has been working with children with special needs at Halleck Creek Ranch:
5%
Percentage of UHS alumni who work in the field of education
SIX Percentage of parents who have already given to the UHS Annual Fund:
80% Minimum amount one must give to make a contribution to the UHS Annual Fund
Number of AP Environmental Science students who participated in the weekend-long field trip to the Tahoe/Donner Lake area this past fall
NONE * Age of Hart Fogel ’16 when he first began volunteering:
FOUR Number of Bay Area residents served by Tipping Point since its inception in 2005:
Number of UHS students who have volunteered at Summerbridge since 2002:
250
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250,000 *Every contribution makes a difference and is appreciated! 16
SPRING 2014
Each spring, we honor and celebrate those members of the faculty and staff who have reached special milestones in their careers at UHS. The Journal would like to take this opportunity to recognize the following people for their dedication to our school. Samuel Beltran
5
YEARS
Summerbridge
Ana Gonzalez
Foreign Languages
Sharon Young Administration
Mollie Crittenden
Community Service Learning
10 YEARS
James Faerron Arts
Scott Laughlin English
Alex Lockett
Administration
Rachel Damian
15 YEARS
Arts
Helena Senatore Foreign Languages
Ina Clark Technology
20 YEARS
Vicky Hierro Math
Nasif Iskander Administration
UNIVERSITY HIGH SCHOOL
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Reviving a Classic Beauty We are delighted to announce the 2014 Decorator Showcase, which will run from April 26 through May 26 at 3660 Jackson Street in Presidio Heights, considered one of San Francisco’s most exceptional properties. This classic Edwardian home was designed by renowned San Francisco architect Alfred H. Jacobs (designer of San Francisco’s Curran Theater) and was built by the architectural team of Bliss and Faville in 1908 for Rose and Alfred Sutro. It has magnificent views of the Presidio, Golden Gate Bridge, and San Francisco Bay and includes gardens that extend to the Presidio. At nearly 9,000 square feet, the stately mansion features exquisitely detailed woodwork, a gracious entry with a three-story staircase and coffered skylight, a beautiful wood-paneled library, a formal wine cellar, a spacious gourmet kitchen, and a music room. h i s t o ry o f t h e h o u s e
Crafted by Walter Danforth Bliss and William Baker Faville in 1908 for prominent attorney Alfred Sutro and his Francophile wife, the former Rose Newmark, the handsome home at 3660 Jackson Street sits on a third of an acre overlooking the Presidio and San Francisco Bay. Bliss and Faville were greatly influenced throughout their careers by the design philosophy of
the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, which held up Greek and Roman architecture as models for creating structures of lasting beauty. Much of the home’s rough red brick exterior is embraced by climbing ficus, and raised borders line the windows and doorway, setting off the third floor. Matching shallow wings visually break up the massing of the house and carved wooden brackets lift the roof’s broad overhanging eaves. The simple arch of the recessed entryway is repeated in arched floor-to-ceiling first floor windows. Ornamental metalwork embellishes the second-floor-balconies and third-floor window bases, and echoes the scrollwork over the heavy glass front door and along the fence above the adjacent garage. The property’s natural setting is further enhanced by a small front garden, Mediterranean-style gardens to the rear of the house, and the sweeping landscape of the Presidio beyond. When the home was built, the Presidio was still largely scrub brush and sand, with tree planting beginning in the late 1870s and
still incomplete in 1900. The rear gardens, planted by the Sutros, include a rose garden and a secret garden, as well as the large formal garden. d at e s
April 26 – May 26 hours
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday: 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.❖ Friday: 10:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.❖ ❉ ❉ Please check: www.decoratorshowcase.org for information on special events planned for Friday Nights at Showcase!
Sunday and Memorial Day: 11:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. ❖ Last entry
❖
Closed on Mondays, except for Memorial Day tickets
Available at the door or online at: www.decoratorshowcase.org. We accept payment via cash, check, VISA, or Mastercard. $35 general admission; $30 for seniors (60 and over). bookings
For group bookings of 10 or more, please contact Thelma Garza at (415) 447- 3115 or thelma.garza@sfuhs.org. i n f o r m at i o n
(415) 447- 3115 www.decoratorshowcase.org
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SPRING 2014
Robin Hauser Reynolds
Ed Poole
Alex Lockett
What Your Support Means
Our community gives to the Annual Fund for so many important and inspiring reasons… ALEX LOCKETT (Dean of Students)
LAURETTE (SLAWSON) HARTIGAN ’84
“I’m often asked, ‘What makes UHS unique?’ And while there are a million things that make this school special, I am most amazed by the level of engagement of our students and their families. The willingness to share ideas, resources, and time so generously makes this a thriving environment that attracts the kind of curious students that sustain the robust intellectual and community environment we all treasure.”
ROBIN HAUSER REYNOLDS
(Trustee and Parent of Holland ’12 and Will ’14)
“One-hundred percent parent participation in the Annual Fund is vital because it shows solidarity in the UHS community. Active participation, at any level, also helps UHS raise needed funds from grants and outside organizations. It is important that each parent help cover the tuition gap — the actual cost of educating a UHS student versus the price of tuition. Participating in the Annual Fund helps ensure that UHS can continue to provide the very best education for our students.”
University extends a heartfelt thank you to those members of our community who have already shown their commitment to UHS. Rest assured your gift will be used to further the mission of the school in a variety of ways, such as: » »Salaries for inspiring faculty who help to
shape the minds and hearts of our students
» »Financial aid packages for deserving
students and their families
» »Innovative and exciting curricula that
extend beyond the classroom, like this past fall’s 20:20 Vision Symposium
» »Current technology for our students
and faculty
“I give to UHS because I want to support the school that gave me such a strong foundation and I hope my gift will help create a similar experience for those attending now.”
ED POOLE (Parent of Sarah ’14) “The Annual Fund is a critical part of a school’s continued health, and has always been a fund that Lynn and I support. We realize the true cost of a year’s education is not met by tuition alone, and we feel it is important to make sure the excellent academic programs are supported.”
CAROLYN LANGELIER (Parent of Jackie ’12 and Katie ’16) “The Annual Fund is vital to UHS because it supports every aspect of the school, from its academic program, to its sports and arts programs, to helping the faculty learn the newest teaching methods, and, of course, tuition assistance.”
There are a few volunteers that have gone above and beyond in championing the Annual Fund and we would like to thank: » »The 2013–14 Annual Fund Co-Chairs:
Clay Corbus (Josiah ’14 and Ellie ’16) and Carolyn Langelier (Jackie ’12 and Katie ’16)
» »The Alumni Fundraising Chair:
We hope that if you have not already shown your support with a gift of any amount to the UHS Annual Fund, you will consider doing so today by:
Using the envelope provided
Oscar Flores ’89 (Brenda ’13)
» »The 2013–14 Annual Fund Alumni Parent
Chairs: Chris (also a former trustee!) and Dennis Fitzsimons (Matt ’04 and Kevin ’09)
» »And YOU, the alumni, parents, former
parents, grandparents, and friends of UHS who have already contributed so generously to this year’s Annual Fund!
Logging onto our UHS Giving page: www.sfuhs. org/giving Calling Kate in the Development Office at (415) 447-3117
» »Groundbreaking programs like
Summerbridge, the Mentoring Program, and the Alumni Teaching Fellowship
And remember — your participation is the true gift! UNIVERSITY HIGH SCHOOL
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by Holly Johnson ’82, Director of Alumni Relations
This year, several events — which doubled as opportunities to meet Julia Russell Eells, our new head of school — were added to the calendar of traditional alumni activities. The annual Holiday Reunion exceeded expectations as alums of all ages turned out for some great tacos, margaritas, and the chance to enjoy each other’s company and meet Julia. Similarly, the recent reunion in sunny Los Angeles proved to be another great bonding opportunity for our alums and Julia over good food and even better conversation. Still to come this year: more alumni seminars on campus, the milestone class reunions, Alumni Night at Showcase, and an artfocused alumni extravaganza in New York on June 19 and 20. Make sure that the Alumni Office (uhsalumni@sfuhs.org) has your individual contact information (not just that of your parents!) to receive invitations to regional events. You can check the alumni calendar online at www.sfuhs.org/alumni for the most up-to-date information.
Upcoming Alumni Dates Alumni Night at Showcase
Milestone Class Reunions
FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014, FROM 5:00 – 7:00 P.M.
Celebrating the Classes of 1979, 1984, 1989, 1994, 1999, 2004, and 2009
Alumni can buy discounted tickets at the door and enjoy happy hour at the beautiful Showcase house at 3660 Jackson Street.
Alumni vs. Varsity Baseball SATURDAY, MAY 17, 2014 AT 10:00 A.M. PAUL GOODE FIELD IN THE PRESIDIO
Alumni Soccer Scrimmage SATURDAY, MAY 17, 2014 AT 12:00 P.M. PAUL GOODE FIELD IN THE PRESIDIO
SATURDAY, MAY 17, 2014, FROM 6:00 – 9:00 P.M. UNIVERSITY HIGH SCHOOL CAMPUS If you have not received an invitation, please contact the Alumni Office at (415) 447-3116 right away!
New York Area Reunion and Art Extravaganza JUNE 19 AND 20 | MORE INFORMATION TO COME! Meet Head of School Julia Russell Eells and hang out with the Western Civ team (Rachel Damian, Bruce “Doc” Lamott, and Chris Martin). If you live in or near New York and have not received an invitation, please contact the Alumni Office at (415) 447-3116 right away!
Even if you aren’t available to come to any of the special events listed above, please know that you are welcome to visit campus any time. Come by and see what’s new—there’s always a myriad of activities happening on any given day, and we’d love to have you! 20
SPRING 2014
by Holly Johnson ’82, Director of Alumni Relations
These class notes include information submitted through February 19, 2014. We’d love to hear from you! Please submit your news by email to uhsalumni@sfuhs.org or by mail. Photographs are welcome and will be returned upon request. Digital images should be of high resolution for printing. Remember that the Alumni Office is here to help you network with other alumni and connect with old friends. The passwordprotected online directory can be reached by logging in at www.sfuhs.org/alumni (click on the “Log In” button at the top of the page). Thank you for keeping in touch!
1978 Michael Solomon reports that his latest book, The Nonprofit Fundraising Solution, was published by AMACOM last October. In it, he and co-author Laurence A. Pagnoni discuss why most nonprofits struggle to succeed and what practical steps can be taken to help them truly change the world.
1979: 35th Reunion Year!
Come back to UHS to celebrate 35 years since you were the first class to attend University for all four years of high school! We need mailing addresses for Mary Scott Albert, Kenneth Besser, Leslie Graham Clayton, Pamela Couch, Clara McKale Firestone, Lawrence Jarach, Shelley Tatum Kieran, Rick Love, Keith Lyon, Kari Burns Malcolm, Thomas Pallmann, David Persky, Ari Pezaro, and Jasmine Sloan Star. Please contact the Alumni Office if you can help locate these missing classmates. We also need email addresses for many of you! If you haven’t received any email communications from UHS this year, please update your email address at uhsalumni@sfuhs.org. Kudos to Katie Ballard Cross, who submitted this class note after receiving her reunion save-the-date! Katie attended the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio, graduating with a BA in Piano Performance. Then she met this cool
drummer dude, artist, and teacher, Greg, who lived in town. They married and moved to Ithaca, NY, so Katie could pursue a Master’s degree in Piano and Pedagogy, before migrating to the Cleveland area, where Katie taught piano, sang professionally, and raised three children. The couple is now back in Oberlin, where Katie teaches at BaldwinWallace University and is the choir director and keyboardist at the Oberlin Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. Katie and Greg’s oldest daughter now attends Oberlin herself. Web Stone married longtime girlfriend Katrina Alisha Robinson on New Year’s Eve in South Africa. Rob Stone ’82 and family were in attendance, as was Tanya Malott ’84.
1980 Susan Kelley married William DeGrado on September 25, 2013. Susan is head of the Math Department at Lincoln High School in San Francisco. Eric Sklar has left Alpha Omega Winery, a boutique winery that he and a partner started in Napa Valley. He writes that he is pursuing new projects and hopes that some become as beautiful and fulfilling as AO.
1981 Julia Sweig is the director for Latin America Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and specializes in
Latin America and U.S.-Latin America foreign policy. She was recently interviewed on CNN about President Obama shaking the hand of Raul Castro at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service.
1982 Energy That is All Around, the show that Natasha Boas curated at the San Francisco Art Institute about the Mission School, ran with great reviews this fall, including raves from an alumni group lucky enough to walk through the show with Natasha in December. The show moves to NYU’s Grey Gallery in New York in April and will be part of the alumni gathering there on June 19. Jenny Rosenthal Hitchings writes: “Andy and I had an amazing time rafting the Futaleufu in Patagonia (Chile) with Bio Expeditions. I can’t say enough wonderful things about what Marc Goddard ’84 and Laurence Alvarez-Roos ’84 have accomplished there.” Barbara Keys has published a book on the new moralism in US foreign policy after the Vietnam War: Reclaiming American Virtue: The Human Rights Revolution of the 1970s (Harvard University Press).
1983 Helen Brady has left the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague, the court hearing cases of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in countries of the former Yugoslavia, for the International Criminal Court (ICC), also in The Hague. The ICC is the world’s first permanent international criminal court and tries cases of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide committed in countries around the world. Helen is in the Office of the Prosecutor as
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CLASS NOTES CONTINUED...
senior appeals counsel and head of the Appeals Section.
the rest of their time taxiing their four kids around!
1984: 30th Reunion Year!
Trevor Traina was interviewed on the local NBC television station last December about his new start-up, IfOnly. com, which combines philanthropy with a new business model of selling experiences.
Come back to school to celebrate your 30th Reunion! We still need mailing addresses for Matt Ager, Eric Anderson, Winston Hsia, John Molinari, Rebekah Bailey Porter, Francesca Ricci, Riccardo Ricci, and Tali Stern. And if you haven’t received any emails from the Alumni Office this year, please send your email address to uhsalumni@sfuhs.org. Thanks! Jay Sokol and his family moved to New Zealand from Denver in November to try living a perennial summer. Jay is a radiologist and can work from home. He says to look him up if you’re in Nelson!
1985
Nina Lewallen Hufford is an editor at the UC Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive. Basil Twist was in town last November with his Dogugaeshi show, based on the ancient Japanese art of painted screens. The Berkeley Performances show gave Bay Area audiences, including many from the UHS community, the opportunity to witness his puppetry magic.
Joel Vargas is a vice-president at Jobs for the Future, a national nonprofit organization that works with schools, districts, colleges, employers, and state and federal policymakers to create and expand strategies enabling low-income youth and struggling workers to earn postsecondary credentials that lead to good careers. Joel lives in Somerville, MA.
1988
1986
1989: 25th Reunion Year!
David Buttaro writes that he “finally surrendered his relentless saga of peripateticism and found someone truly spectacular to wed. In attendance as he tied the knot with Sierra Brandis were Eric Bigas, Josh Habermann, Deke Sharon, and Andrew Lovett ’85. When not engaged in bucolic nuptials, David makes gasoline out of algae with Sapphire Energy in San Diego and bakes memorable linzertorte. Louise Greenspan, a pediatric endocrinologist with Kaiser Permanente in San Francisco, was interviewed for a news report on All Things Considered about early onset puberty and puberty education in schools. In the report, Louise says she feels like she is “on a mission now to make sure that people understand that teaching kids about puberty in fifth grade is way too late.” Annalisa Swig Poirel still lives in France, where she teaches English to kids and adults and directs four choral ensembles. She and her husband, Sebastien, spend 22
1987
SPRING 2014
Mark Wild has been a professor of history at California State University Los Angeles for 12 years, ever since he received his PhD in History from UC San Diego. Matt Young is a research assistant professor at the medical school at the University of Michigan.
It’s time to celebrate the Class of 1989’s 25th Reunion! Please help us locate these lost classmates: Karina Braunstein, Franklin Bravo, Jennifer Cha, Nari Chavis, Daphne Hodge, Megan Jones, Beau Dunning Kelay, Jon Kwong, Kim Laurins, Sara Maene, Jeremy Schwartz, and Alex Weinstein. Also, if you haven’t received any emails from UHS lately, please check that we have your latest contact info by emailing uhsalumni@sfuhs.org.
Up in Seattle, Katherine Cardinal is the director of development for Pacific Northwest Ballet, the fifth-largest ballet company in the country. Jennifer Huret Dulski was interviewed for Corner Office, a twice-weekly feature of the New York Times. The interview was published in the Sunday paper on December 1, 2013. In it, Jennifer talks about lessons learned rowing crew in high school, running a Summerbridge site in Pittsburgh, and as a business executive.
Anne Fung and her husband, Jeff Sternberg, welcomed baby Charlie Ace Sternberg on August 30, 2013. The Fung-Sternbergs live in San Francisco. Paul Haas’s musical piece State of Grace, composed for his sympho chamber ensemble to perform at Grace Cathedral, was commissioned as part of an installation by artist and theatrical designer Anne Patterson called “Graced With Light.” The October performance was a veritable UHS reunion, according to Bruce “Doc” Lamott. Alison Corning Mulliken submitted that she currently lives in funky Fairfax, CA, with her husband, David, and two boys, Matthew (four) and William (seven). She is currently a full-time mom and has taken up road biking and mountain biking in the last two years. Her parents, brother, and sister are also living in the Bay Area and each have two kids who enjoy playing with their cousins. Alison’s goals for 2014 are to relax, enjoy life, and read more books—in that order! Matt Peek is principal of Peek Ancona Architecture. In the great UHS tradition of thinking globally and acting locally, Matt received an AIA Design Award for his flood-proof house in Stinson Beach. He’s currently building a hurricaneresistant house in New Jersey, and recently led his students on a Japan tsunami relief project, designing a community center near Ishinomaki. Matt lives in Noe Valley with his wife and daughter.
1990 Monique Williams Morris reports that her latest book, Black Stats: African Americans by the Numbers in the TwentyFirst Century, was released by The New Press in February. Monique addressed the student body at University’s annual MLK, Jr assembly, where she spoke about her research, and then chatted with students and faculty during lunch. Ari Lurie was recently lauded for his good works in the Marin Independent Journal. Ari founded the Mill Valley Surf Film Festival, which has taken place for two years at Sweetwater Music Hall. He also founded Eastern Horizons, a nonprofit after-school tutoring program for at-risk urban kids. The one-on-one
1
2
(1) Keith McWilliams ’79 meets Head of School Julia Russell Eells at the Holiday Reunion. (2) A scene from Basil Twist’s ’87 amazing show, Dogugaeshi. (3) Jenny Rosenthal Hitchings ’82 and Marc Goddard ’84 in Chile. (4) Natasha Leof Boas ’82 leading an alumni walkthrough at her show, Energy That is All Around, at the San Francisco Art Institute. (5) David Buttaro ’86 and his wife, Sierra Brandis, with the UHS crowd at their wedding. 3
4
(6) Christin Hokenstad Kos ’90 with Oscar Flores ’89 and Matt Peek ’89 at the Holiday Reunion.
5
work with middle school students includes a scholarship to attend summer camp in Maine. Ted Levinson is an Eisenhower Fellow for 2014, giving him the opportunity to travel to Indonesia and India to explore social finance and social enterprise in the region and to look at possibilities for integrating social finance into mainstream financial systems and infrastructure. Ted works at RSF Social Finance, a nonprofit lender based in San Francisco.
1991 Ned Diamond, his wife, Adina, and son, Joseph, welcomed baby Sara on August 21, 2013. The happy family lives in San Mateo, and Ned teaches and coaches at Crystal Springs Uplands School in Hillsborough.
1994: 20th Reunion Year!
We are missing mailing addresses for: Gregory Benison, Kristine Firth, Andrew Gilson, Emily Green, Justin Howell, Curt Johanson, Grace Kline, Elizabeth Lim, Brooke Patterson, Irene Spektor, Patrick Strand, and Melanie Ward. If you haven’t received emails from UHS or from your reunion organizers, please send your updated email address to uhsalumni@sfuhs.org! Thanks!
James Halow submitted this note in anticipation of the 20th reunion: “I am still living in San Francisco, married with an 18-month-old and another on the way. We are in the midst of building a home in Alamo (where we will be for a while), but are planning to move back to SF when the kids are high school-ready, just so they can go to UHS. This is clearly a long time
6
away, but definitely in the game plan. I work at a private equity firm in SF, Calera Capital, where I’ve been for 15 years. My brother (Mike Halow ’95) and Mom are both still in the Bay Area — so nice to all be together.” Veronica Roberts writes: “I moved to Austin a year ago for a great job as curator of modern and contemporary art at the Blanton. Austin’s a great town — very much like the San Francisco we grew up in. It lacks the charm of fog or redwoods, but it does have the bonus of providing an endless supply of entertaining bats, great live music, and breakfast tacos. I travel a ton for work, but anyone from UHS who passes through Austin should say hello. I have a guest room and make a mean cup of coffee in the morning!”
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CLASS NOTES CONTINUED...
1
2
3
4
(1) JP Harbour ’94 and Scott Okamoto ’94 at the Holiday Reunion. (2) Elizabeth U, Ethan Mevi, and Lewis Samuels represent the Class of 1995 at the Holiday Reunion. (3) UHS alumnae and our Varsity Red Devils after the Alumnae Game in December 2013. (4) Lily Jensen-Blumberg ’96’s new son Joshua. (5) Linden Bader ’99 with her new husband, Bryan Rees, at their recent wedding in San Francisco. (6) Max Hanlin ’98 and his son Oliver on campus for Veterans Day.
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SPRING 2014
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Eve Youngdale is an English lecturer at two universities in Hawaii, the University of Hawaii at Manoa and Hawaii Pacific University. She moved to Hawaii with her family a few years after graduating from UHS and enjoyed being able to complete her undergraduate and graduate studies in such a gorgeous place.
1995 Daniel Lurie and the Tipping Point Community, the organization he founded, were featured in a profile by San Francisco Magazine last December. Tipping Point supports nonprofits that are working to alleviate poverty. Daniel was also instrumental in San Francisco’s successful bid to host the 2016 Super Bowl and in ensuring that 25% of the money raised to host that event would go toward fighting poverty and improving the environment in the Bay Area. Daniel (along with Danae Ringelmann ’96) was also named to the San Francisco Business Times’s “40 Under 40” list. You can read more about Daniel in this Journal on pages 9–10. Jennifer Pepin has opened J. Pepin Art Gallery in Portland, Oregon. The gallery features artists who are reframing the perception of mental illness. National Public Radio picked up Jabali Sawicki’s Instagram photo of a mother and child commuting on NYC’s subway this past winter. He and the subject of the photo were later interviewed by NPR in a touching story about education.
1996 Double Devil! Lily Jensen-Blumberg and Marc Blumberg welcomed baby boy Joshua Allen Blumberg, born on December 21, 2013, in San Francisco. Both Lily and Marc are doctors. Danae Ringelmann and her co-founders at Indiegogo were named to the 2013 “Top 40 under 40” list by Fortune Magazine. Danae was also named to the “40 under 40” list compiled by the San Francisco Business Times. Danae reports that she’s loving life with her new niece and nephew (children of sister Mercy Ringelmann Manning ’95) and she couldn’t be happier with Indiegogo. “We’re now helping entrepreneurs, artists, and causes raise millions every week in every country of the world. #happy.”
Cary Cronholm Rose starred in Gruesome Playground Injuries, a play put on by Tides Theatre in San Francisco last fall. Alex Rosenblatt won an award from his employer, Northwestern Mutual, for his community service with the San Francisco General Hospital Foundation, helping to secure a $10,000 grant for the foundation.
1997 Lisa Lindenbaum reports that she has partnered with Laura Grigsby to open Grigsby Lindenbaum Art Consulting. After 10 years working for contemporary art galleries (in New York, Seattle, San Francisco) and three years working at UHS, she says she is thrilled to be back in the art world working with individual and corporate collectors to build collections that reflect each client’s objectives and personality. Robert Reffkin ran his 50th marathon (in 50 states) and beat his fundraising goal of $1 million at the New York Marathon last November. Robert set out to raise money for nonprofit programs benefitting disadvantaged kids. On his website, runningtosupportyoungdreams.com, he explains: “My motivation for this stemmed from the fact that throughout my life I have received help and guidance from my loving mother, inspiring mentors, and outstanding organizations. I am deeply grateful for the assistance that I received,” he writes. Robert was recently appointed to the Panel for Educational Policy by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. The Panel is responsible for approving standards, policies, and objectives directly related to educational achievement and instruction, among other responsibilities. Antony Taylor founded Lyte (lyteup.com) a Brooklyn-based event ticketing service. From sporting events to indie shows, Lyte is a platform for reselling tickets you can no longer use. Antony lives in New York.
1998 Anthony Levandowski thrilled the UHS community when he spoke at an assembly last year, and the rest of the world got to know him in the November
25, 2013 issue of the New Yorker magazine. Anthony is one of the engineers behind Google’s self-driving car. New Yorker writer Burkhard Bilger rode around with Anthony and learned about the history of self-driving vehicles and Anthony’s role in their development. Anthony has also been named one of the top 10 techies to watch in 2014 by CNET, the tech website. Max Hanlin put a face to the stories for UHS students on Veterans Day when he attended All School Meeting with his son, Oliver. At ASM, students honored UHS alumni who have served in the military by presenting short biographies of, and messages from, several UHS alums who are serving today, and reminding the students and faculty gathered to remember all veterans. Max was in the US Army for nine years and today is a major in the Army Reserves. Other UHS alumni with military experience include: Tanya Trodden Brennan ’95, Henry Clock ’08, Thomas Dowd ’09, Sara Galvin Biroschak ’97, Sean Koffel ’01, Kevin Lee ’04, Rob Menist ’86, Bear Mistele ’11, Tom Oakley ’96, John Pettus ’96, Sam Proud ’05, Jay Sokol ’84, Erik Sparks ’99, Rishi Srinivasan ’00, John Vrolyk ’06, and Bill Wroten ’84.
1999: 15th Reunion Year!
Can you help make sure that Miriam Coleman, Maggie Danielson, Whitney Kassel, Robyn Kurland, Grady Love, Sophia Sanchez, Eric Strand, and Lisa Thomas receive their invitations? And if you haven’t been receiving emails from UHS lately, send your email address ASAP to uhsalumni@sfuhs.org! Thanks!
Linden Bader married Bryan Rees in San Francisco on November 9, 2013. Among the UHS alums in attendance were Linden’s brother Tony Bader ’04, Mollie Allick, Margie Butler ’98, Annie Welch Winship ’98, and Caroline Wolff. Linden works at Airbnb. James Choy is finishing his second year as a professor of economics at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom. After college, he spent two years in the Peace Corps in Mali in West Africa, and then did his PhD in Economics at Yale, focusing on international development economics. UNIVERSITY HIGH SCHOOL
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2001 Sean Koffel co-founded Windy Hill Spirits in Nashville, TN, and recently launched their first product: American Born Moonshine. After four years as an officer in the Marine Corps, Sean attended business school at Stanford and worked in investment banking in New York before moving to Nashville.
2002 John Casnocha was married on October 5, 2013, to Sarah Rathman (Sarah’s sister, Meghan, was in the class her freshman year, and then moved to London). The wedding took place at Sarah’s parents’ property in Glen Ellen, CA. Also in attendance were John’s brothers Alex ’02 and Ben ’06, as well as classmates Zach Baker, Nick Fram, Adam Karageorge, Daniel Kilduff, Jon Leung, Thomas McKinley, Hayden Simmons, Adam Staley, Jamie Timbrell, Ryan Van Runkle, Andrew Payne ’01, Carolyn Wendell ’04, and Jonah Platt-Ross ’04. Soon after, on October 26, 2013, Adam Staley was married to Jessica Vernick of St. Petersburg, FL. In addition to his brothers Willy ’04 and Max ’04, Adam was accompanied by classmates Zach Baker, Alex Casnocha, John Casnocha, Nick Fram, Adam Karageorge, Daniel Kilduff, Jon Leung, Thomas McKinley, Hayden Simmons, and Jamie Timbrell. CC Ragan was married to Eric Schnapp in Key West, FL. CC writes that she and Eric graduated from Emory University School of Law together in 2011 and now live and practice in Atlanta. She is a law clerk to Chief Bankruptcy Judge C. Ray Mullins of the Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Georgia. “If there are any other UHS alums in the Atlanta area, I’d love to know!” she says.
2004: 10th Year Reunion! Help us find out where to mail invitations for Olga Machkine, Bjorn Vanberg, and Dominic Schwenter, and please update your email address at uhsalumni@sfuhs.org if you haven’t received emails from UHS lately!
Alexandra Suich is based in New York and is a media editor for The Economist, where 26
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she has worked since 2008. She writes about the film, television, newspaper, and music businesses worldwide.
2005 Nick McAdoo is getting his Master’s in Architecture from Yale University. Mac Parish is in his third year living in Nairobi. He is a senior field support specialist for Anglophone and Lusophone Africa, at Kiva, the international microlending nonprofit. Sam Roberge reports that after fourteen months as a corporate attorney in the Los Angeles office of Latham & Watkins LLP, he joined Morgan Stanley’s Investment Banking Division in January. He is an associate in the Century City office and initially is splitting time between the Mergers & Acquisitions and Industry Coverage Groups. You might have spotted Hollis WongWear on the red carpet at the Grammy Awards last winter. She was nominated as a collaborator (songwriter and vocalist) on the album The Heist by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. Congratulations, Hollis!
2006 Ben Casnocha was featured in Nathan Heller’s article about San Francisco’s entrepreneurial culture in the November 5, 2013, issue of the New Yorker. Andy McKenzie is doing the MD/PhD program at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. He reports that he is still in the MD portion of the program and hasn’t determined what his dissertation research will focus on, but he would like to study Alzheimer’s disease. Geoff Shaw is back from Oxford and pursuing a law degree at Yale University. Juliana Sullam reports that she lives in New York and does product marketing for a technology startup called Chartbeat. Lincoln Wheeler is currently in the States, but has been living in South Sudan for most the last year as a consultant, implementing a nation-building program funded by USAID. “It is an interesting place to work to say the least,” according to Lincoln.
2007 Rachel Tecott and Michael Kremer are both associates at Veracity International, in New York, putting their international relations studies and experience to good use. Rachel says they assess risk for clients entering emerging markets. Michael shares a house with Andrea Imhof, who is teaching kindergarten in the Bronx (Andrea is featured in “The Lessons That Stay with Us” on page 4.).
2008 Justin Baker-Rhett teaches middle school English and history at Head-Royce School in Oakland. Allison Dorey works at the Council for Foreign Relations in New York and plays on a soccer team with Harrison Watkins ’07 and Olivia Robertson. Alex Holtzman is at Yale University Law School.
2009: 5th Reunion Year!
Does anyone know Grace Campbell or Vivek Menon’s mailing address? And if you have not received any emails from UHS, please send your email address to uhsalumni@sfuhs.org. Thomas Dowd graduated from the US Naval Academy and is now at in graduate school at Stanford University.
Lindsey Fong writes: “Since graduating from Carnegie Mellon University in May, 2013, I have enrolled in the PhD program in Development, Regeneration, and Stem Cell Biology at The University of Chicago with the intention of pursuing academic research as a career.” Peter Roberge graduated from UC Santa Barbara in June, 2013, with a degree in Economics. In July, he joined Wetherby Asset Management as a financial operations associate and compliance analyst in the San Francisco office.
2010 The Class of 2010 had the highest attendance at the Holiday Reunion in December (followed closely by ’08, then ’07, and ’06) and we thank Cole Delbyck, Hannah Feldman, Alysia Gonzales, Vera Gould, Megan Graves, Sara Gridley,
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(1) Adam Staley ’02 and his wife, Jessica Vernick, at their wedding in Florida. (2) Will Crawford ’07 with Cole Armstrong ’06, Jimmy Ouyang ’06, and Dan Bernstein ’06 at the Holiday Reunion. (3) Simone Stolzoff ’09 and Richael Best ’09 at the Holiday Reunion. (4) Nick Prey ’10 with Doc Lamott at the Holiday Reunion.
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(5) Will Wiebe ’10, Gale Jesi, Jack De Sanz ’11, and Diane Schroeder at the Holiday Reunion. (6) Chiara Packard, Vera Gould, Megan Graves, and Alysia Gonzales from the Class of 2010 at the Holiday Reunion. (7) Eliot Bacon ’12, Max Savage ’12, Ken Savage ’10, and Carol Coles at the Holiday Reunion.
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(1) Nikki Symanovich ’13, Phoebe Hankins ’13, and Kate Halper ’13 at Oracle Arena, cheering on the Devils as they battle Lick! (2) Brenda Flores ’13 and Joshua Kwan ’13 at the Holiday Reunion.
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Jessie Holtzman, Olivia Jew, Stephanie Lee, Chiara Packard, Nick Prey, Cameron Ruby, Ken Savage, Yuma Shinohara, and Will Wiebe for helping make the party so much fun! Natalie Salmanowitz and Jake Leichtling were both inducted into Phi Beta Kappa at Dartmouth College in November. Ken Savage directed My Fair Lady at Stanford University for the AsianAmerican Theater Project in January, and the production, which starred brother Max Savage ’12 as an AsianBritish Professor Henry Higgins, was the first student-produced musical to be performed at the new Bing Concert Hall. Cassandra Euphrat Weston was spotlighted in the Harvard Crimson as one of 15 seniors to watch. After graduating from UHS in 2010, Cassandra went on to Harvard where she founded the school’s first spoken word organization. “Spoken
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word can play an integral role in articulating what needs to change,” she says. Cassandra developed her passion for spoken word while participating in Youth Speaks in San Francisco.
2011 Sweeping up at Princeton: Misha Semenov was awarded one of Princeton University’s four undergraduate prizes last fall when he, along with another student, won the George B. Wood Legacy Sophomore Prize. The prize is presented each year to a member of the junior class in recognition of exceptional academic achievement during the sophomore year. Misha is majoring in architecture and pursing a certificate in urban studies. He was previously the recipient of the award for Outstanding Work by a Freshman in Creative Writing and the Shapiro Prize for Academic Excellence.
2012 Nick Perloff-Giles did not take long to make his name as a DJ at Columbia University. Nick, who is also known as DJ Flaxo, was recently crowned “Best College DJ in the Country” in a nationwide contest; you can read all about it in USA Today. Nick played in the Jazz Band at UHS.
2013 Kate Halper, Phoebe Hankins, Zach Lusk, Alan Mozaffari, Devayu Parikh, Nikki Symanovich, and Andrew Thompson were among the fans at the annual UHS versus Lick-Wilmerding Varsity Basketball match-up at Oracle Arena in January. Jack Wilson is attending Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis, MO, and is majoring in finance and computer science.
In Memoriam We acknowledge the loss of the following members and friends of the UHS community and extend our deepest sympathy to their families and friends.
Elizabeth Denebeim, mother of William Denebeim ’78 and Thomas Denebeim ’82 and grandmother of Allton Vogel-Denebeim ’16, November 15, 2013. Victor B. Levit, father of Carson Levit ’83 and Vicky Levit Zaroff ’85, January 10, 2014. Monica Maduro ’88, October 17, 2013.
Martha Scott, mother of John Scott ’84 and Andy Scott ’86, December 24, 2013. Rosemary Tarlton, mother of Sarah Young ’16, November 11, 2013. Robert W. Young, past trustee and father of Grant Young ’84 and Margaret Young ’86, February 6, 2014.
George Pfau, Jr., father of George Pfau ’01, November 2, 2013. Obituaries in this issue include notices received in the Alumni Office by February 13, 2014. Please let us know if you would like a relative to be remembered in an upcoming issue of the UHS Journal. 28
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San Francisco University High School welcomes many forms of charitable contributions, offering varying tax benefits. Gifts to UHS may be tailored to fit the donor’s interests and tax situation.
Gifts of Cash Most gifts to UHS are cash contributions, for which donors receive tax benefits if they itemize deductions. Checks should be made payable to San Francisco University High School. The school also accepts payments by Visa, MasterCard, or Discover. Gifts may be made securely online by visiting the school’s web page www.sfuhs.org/giving.
Securities Many donors may realize substantial tax advantages by transferring sizable gifts of appreciated stock to UHS. Capital gains on the amount of appreciation are avoided, and the donor receives a tax deduction for the stock’s full market value at the time of transfer. Please contact the Development Office for complete instructions.
Restricted and Unrestricted Gifts Donors may designate their gifts unrestricted, giving UHS the flexibility to allocate the funds where they are most needed or they may designate their gift to a restricted fund.
Life Insurance A gift of life insurance can take the form of a new life insurance policy, an existing policy that is paid up, or an existing policy on which premiums are payable. All options can result in tax savings.
Matching Gifts Many businesses and corporations match their employees’ personal gifts to educational institutions. Contact your company’s human resources office for more information. Honor and Memorial We invite you to make a donation in honor or in memory of an alumni, faculty or staff member, parent, trustee, or friend of the school.
Deferred Gifts and Bequests Many donors can make a more substantial gift to UHS through deferred giving than through an outright contribution. Usually, deferred gifts take the form of charitable remainder trusts that generate income paid to the donor during his or her lifetime, with the principal going to the school after the donor’s death. Donors receive tax benefits, including the ability to diversify assets without the
payment of capital gains taxes, and an income tax deduction for the value of the school’s interest, thereby enhancing their own financial situation while making a lasting contribution to the school. Bequests, large and small, offer a significant source of support to UHS. Such a bequest, which names UHS as the recipient of all or a portion of a donor’s estate, not only helps the school, but can also reduce the donor’s federal estate taxes. Gifts of Property The gift of a home, building, or land may be advantageous to a donor. Under certain circumstances, arrangements for continued occupancy by the donor for a specified period of time can be made. Tangible personal property may offer the donor an immediate tax deduction. Tax benefits vary and are determined by whether or not the gift is related to the educational purposes of the school.
Contact Shaundra Bason, director of development, at (415) 447-3119 or shaundra.bason@sfuhs.org for more details.
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Parents of Alumni, If your son/daughter no longer maintains a permanent address at your home, please notify the Alumni Office of his/her new mailing address at (415) 447.3116 or UHSalumni@sfuhs.org.
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