e Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

e Scholastic Art & Writing Awards program is the longest-running, most prestigious recognition program for creative high school students in the United States. Since 1923, the awards have recognized the vision, ingenuity, and talent of creative teenagers. Work is judged on originality, technical skill, and emergence of a personal voice or vision.

Judy Wang ’23

For Wang, creating Belly was a mix of experimentation and inspiration. She created the piece using a palette knife during a life drawing session in her AP Studio Art class. “I decided to limit my palette and play…this painting really came from ideas of freedom and constraints. What’s attractive and interesting about it is exactly that contrast,” said Wang. “My portfolio touches on a really personal topic—loss and grief—and explores it in rather unique ways. Having been trained in realism pretty much my whole life, I would think that technique also came through in my pieces,” said Wang of her Gold Key Awardwinning portfolio.

Amalka Stuck ’23

“When building my portfolio, Skin Deep, I found myself creating things that weren’t necessarily pleasant to look at…things we might not normally think about or look at that make us who we are. I had a lot of fun working on A

Girl with Kaleidoscope Eyes.

The original was done in acrylic during the pandemic in 2020, but as I started learning digital art this year, I chose to replicate it in a more vibrant digital form. It is inspired by band posters from the 1970s, along with a few Beatles songs,” said Stuck, whose piece won an Honorable Mention as part of her portfolio.

TRUSTEES OF THE GOVERNOR’S ACADEMY

James M. Pierce ’72, P’08, President

James L. Rudolph ’68, P’05,’12, Vice President

Elizabeth Tuthill Farrell ’84, P’14,’17,’18,’22, Secretary

Steven G. Shapiro ’74, P’09, Treasurer

William L. Alfond ’67

William H. Brine, III ’80, P’09,’14

Byung Soo Baik P’18,’23

Frank Cousins P’20

Colin Cross ’74

Rob DeLena ’87, P’21

Jonathan J. Doyle P’08,’09,’19

Milan Gary ’12, Alumna Trustee

Christina Gentile P’25

Phillip S. Gillespie P’22,’25

From the President of the Board of Trustees

e culture and long-term performance of an organization is a direct re ection of the leader. I have seen this play out over and over in my career, and I have watched it happen here at e Governor’s Academy while Peter Quimby has been the Head of School. e Governor’s Academy has thrived under Peter’s leadership.

e Board of Trustees has been very pleased with our school’s performance during Peter’s eleven years as Head. During the summer of 2021, we initiated conversations with Peter that re ected that support and we posed to Peter the idea of entering into a mutual long-term commitment between him and the Academy. I am pleased to report that Peter and the Board successfully concluded those conversations in August 2022 with a ten-year contract between Peter and Governor’s that began with the 2022-23 school year and goes through June 30, 2032.

At a time when the terms of many Heads of School and College Presidents are shrinking, or where they are quickly moving on to new opportunities, at e Governor’s Academy, the opposite is occurring. Our results tell a clear story—Govs is on a roll and is ready to take its game to the next level. Peter’s leadership—and Peter and Laurie’s commitment for the next ten years—put us in a position to permanently di erentiate ourselves and in the process, positively alter the lives and careers of the students we are fortunate to serve.

e Board of Trustees is grateful to the entire Governor’s community—our students and their families, our faculty and sta , and all our alumni and friends—for its commitment to e Governor’s Academy. ank you for all you have done and continue to do for our school.

Stephanie Ginsberg ’85, P’20

Lucy Armstrong Henkes ’87, P’21,’23

Stephen G. Kasnet ’62, P’95

Leslie L. Lacy ’91

Mitzi Lawlor P’19,’21

Karen Ruth McAlmon, MD, FAAP P’13

Thomas M. Mercer, Jr. ’61

Jen Migliore ’10, Alumna Trustee

Paul Nardone ’86, P’19

Molly Scharfe Prinn ’95, P’23,’25

Spencer L. Purinton ’75, P’13,’14,’20

Peter H. Quimby, PhD ’85, P’14, ex o cio

Archie Seale ’93

Evan M. Trent ’98

Saundra E. Watson ’93, President

John Heald ’64, Vice President

Allison Williams ’89, Vice President

Ariel Aggarwal ’09

Sean Backus ’17

Namita Bhattacharya ’15

Jonathan Bird ’10

Rob Curran ’02

Eliza Dorsey ’14

Patrick Farrell ’14

Naomi Fink ’99

George Freimarck ’72

Daria Grayer ’00

Andy Ramirez ’98

Pam Toner ’74

Chris Webster ’09

Jennifer Wong ’04

Holly Zheng ’18

Abigail DeLena ’21, Collegiate Representative

Ethan Stern ’22, Collegiate Representative

Angela VanArsdale ’03, Ex-o cio

with Jackie Downing ’98

Jackie Downing ’98 has never been a bystander. Early experiences witnessing injustice and intolerance kindled what would become a lifelong passion for helping others. Today, Downing is a powerful force in philanthropy. Her recipe for making a real impact in the world? Get really good at something you enjoy doing and make it your passion.

f you want to change the world, it’s not enough to care. To make a meaningful impact, you have to make a concrete contribution. How? By getting really good at something you enjoy doing at’s the advice that helped propel Jackie Downing ’98 from a student activist at Govs to an accomplished philanthropy and nonpro t leader known for building large-scale partnerships and creating social change.

“ at advice from an African American Studies professor encouraged me to try everything—to take computer science and psychology courses, to read manuals on social justice, to get involved in di erent organizations,” Downing said. “It took a while to gured out that I’m good at fundraising. I decided to make that my specialty because every cause needs resources.”

Today, Downing helps donors nd their passions, build strategies, distribute grants, and launch initiatives across a range of issues, including education, racial justice, civil rights, climate change, democracy, housing and homelessness, and emerging needs such as COVID-19.

“A big priority for me is to use my privilege and skills to help communities in need access resources and opportunities,” she said. “I play an intermediary role where I connect wonderful organizations that lack ready access to capital with donors who genuinely want to support these communities.”

Downing’s career in philanthropy is rooted in activism and advocacy, which she said began during her ninth grade year at e Governor’s Academy.

“Shortly before starting school, my best friend was sexually assaulted. It sparked in me a deep sensitivity to injustice and a erce need to do something about it,” Downing said.

She joined the cast of Hitting Home, a play

BELOW: JACKIE DOWNING ’98 (RIGHT) RECENTLY CONSULTED WITH MISSY PARK (LEFT), FOUNDER OF TITLE NINE, ON BUILDING THEIR SOCIAL IMPACT PROGRAM TO CREATE OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN AND GIRLS

about date rape and domestic violence, which was performed in high schools and colleges throughout Massachusetts. As Downing learned about the challenges facing women and girls, she also became concerned about homophobia. She started to connect with student activists at other schools who were organizing to tackle these issues. Before graduating, Downing formed the Gay-Straight Alliance and helped kick o the annual day dedicated to educating students and faculty about diversity, equity, and inclusion.

“Drawing attention to these issues and educating other teens gave me a sense that I didn’t just have to be upset. I could do something about it,” she said. is drive to “do something about it” followed Downing through higher education and into her career. She moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2004 and worked in the nonpro t sector before switching to philanthropy. Along with this work, she has helped launch several initiatives addressing homelessness, immigrant rights, and education.

One of those initiatives is Oakland Promise, created by Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf. e program provides college savings accounts, counseling, scholarships, and educational support to Oakland public school students with the goal of tripling college attendance among low-income students. (When the organization reached its $50 million fundraising goal, Vice President Kamala Harris returned to Oakland to honor the leaders who made it happen—including Jackie.)

“As a nancial aid recipient myself, it brings me great joy to support a program that will provide college scholarships to more than 30,000 students,” said Downing.

Downing also co-founded the citywide homelessness prevention program Keep Oakland Housed. “Our goal is to prove that it is less expensive and more humane to prevent homelessness before it starts,” she said. e program has distributed more than $27 million, which has prevented more than 7,200 households in Oakland from losing their housing and beginning the downward spiral into homelessness.

“Individuals of my generation, and those that follow, don’t want to have two separate lives where we’re doing good in the world in one space, and excelling in our professional life in another,” said Downing. “We want more synergy. We want to be living our values more of the time.”

One way she nds this synergy is by advising leaders interested in increasing their impact through her consulting business, Vibrant Strategies. She recently helped Title Nine, a Bay Area company that makes clothing and outdoor gear for women, and its founder Missy Park, build their social impact program to create opportunities for women and girls.

“Title Nine is a great example of a company that is built as a re ection of the founder’s values, and it prioritizes women and girls at every opportunity,” she said. “ ey are trying to do good in the world one hundred percent of the time.”

As Downing prepares to return to the Govs campus in June to celebrate her twenty- ve year reunion (and 50 Years of Women at Govs!), she has advice for those students who may be interested in similar philanthropic pursuits.

“Get as much paid work and volunteer experience as you can. Intern at a nonpro t, serve on a board, run for student government, write for the school newspaper, organize events, try raising money, take nance and marketing classes. Figure out what you enjoy and get really good at it,” she said. “Whether you’re amazing at building websites, or you’re a great writer, or you love to organize events or give speeches, you can nd a way to transfer your skills to any given cause that you care about.”

Another piece of advice: avoid getting into debt. “If (like me) your family can’t a ord your tuition, go out of your way to apply for scholarships and nancial aid, do AmeriCorps, and work while you attend school,” she said. “ e less debt you graduate with, the more freedom you have to follow your passions.”

Downing has made a career out of activism and advocacy, but she said taking action doesn’t have to be an extravagant event.

“Taking action simply means participating in some way—and the most important way to do that is to vote. Not just in the presidential election, but in every election. It’s something that is all of our responsibility,” she said. “I think we used to take our democracy for granted, but we learned in recent years how important it is to truly participate.”

Downing brings these lessons home. “Like I tell my kids, ‘If you see a problem, try to solve it. If you’re upset that something’s broken, try to x it.’”

Along with classmate Evan Trent ’98, Downing is coordinating a class gift that will honor their beloved teacher Fontaine “Doc” Bradley P’05,’07,’11, faculty emeritus, by naming a classroom for him in the Alfond Coastal Research Center. Downing and Trent invite former students and friends to get involved and make a gift in honor of Doc Bradley.

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HER STORY IN HER WORDS

Over the last year, we have told the stories of dozens of Governor’s women—students, faculty, sta , and friends. e 50 Women of Govs project honors the anniversary of the rst women students at the Academy by showcasing the diversity of thought, backgrounds, and experiences of women who have called By eld home over the last ve decades. rough June 2023, we will share their stories in our magazine, on our website, in our newsletter, on social media, and in spaces on campus. Enjoy the nal magazine installment of 50 Women of Govs stories.