The Hotchkiss Magazine, Spring 2010

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FROM

THE HEAD

of school

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A good graduation ceremony is a glorious exhalation

of the positive spirit of a whole community. We enjoyed a lovely commencement this year: the weather

My feelings were unusually warm, for two reasons. First, a sizeable group of the departing seniors, those who were Lower Mids in 2007, were the last of the students who welcomed me to Hotchkiss three years ago and helped me to settle in. They are special for me, and I thanked them on their graduation day for their tolerance and hospitality. Second, even more personally, I enjoyed the honor and wonder of presenting a Hotchkiss Diploma to my daughter Morag. That was special, indeed.

A parent said to me after the event that she thought that I might be the first Head to have done so at Hotchkiss. Research revealed this not to be so: Headmaster Coy awarded a diploma to his son in 1897. I can say, however, that I am the first to have enjoyed this rare moment with a daughter.

Sam Prouty, from our faculty, gave a remarkable graduation address, full of humor, delight, insight, and love. After starting with some impersonations of colleagues, at which Sam is a master, he moved to his main topic, that of impressions, positive and negative, and the marks that we make on each other and on the places that make us. At one point he held up a sandal with a bearcat sole, and said: “Like this sandal, which is designed to leave a ‘bearcat’ print in the sand wherever it steps, you have marked this ground; you have marked one another. If those marks have been well-made, then they will last, no matter how strong are the tides of time that erode them, bit by bit. My hope for you, as well as for myself, is that the impression is deep enough to withstand that wearing away.”

There is much in this magazine about community service. Service is, indeed, a forceful and lasting way of making a really positive impression, of marking others and allowing them, in turn, to mark us. The tradition of genuine service at Hotchkiss starts even earlier than 1897, with the formation of the St. Luke’s Society in 1894. One of our early graduates,

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George Norton Phillips ’09 (that’s 1909), died of a sudden illness in 1914. Before his death, he wrote a charming pamphlet called “Suggestions to Hotchkiss Boys.” It still retains its freshness, and it offers useful and wise counsel. In writing of the St. Luke’s Society, of which George was President in his senior year, he comments: “St. Luke’s is a unique Hotchkiss institution, and from it men have gathered inspiration to DO things in school, and later in college and in the outside world.” He then went on to write about the Boys’ Club at Ore Hill, a small mining community in Salisbury. Hotchkiss students brought sports and music to the boys there, and they built a clubhouse in 1909. In urging new students to support this endeavor, George says: “Even the most uninterested of you will find that as you go ahead the work will become intensely engrossing and surprisingly helpful. It is not necessary to urge you to help in all the ‘charity’ work that may come up from time to time, for you cannot be selfish in such matters and true to your school.”

The acquisition of a living knowledge of interdependence, honed in the heart, is what underpins this claim. A fine illustration of this is a story by Alec Dickson, the founder of the British organization, Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), the equivalent of our Peace Corps. Alec used to tell of giving blood when he was in his late 20s, before the Second World War. He was a young journalist working in Manchester. Being known to have a rare blood type, Alec was called out late one night by the local hospital to help save the life of a man, of the same blood type, who would otherwise have bled to death. As was the case with blood donations in that remote technological time (only 80 years ago!), Alec was linked intravenously to the patient. In telling this story, amazing in our HIV/AIDS era, he would speak eloquently of the extraordinary experience of feeling his own blood pumping straight into the body of a fellow human, reviving and

PHOTO BY JONATHAN DOSTER

was sunny and the mood sunnier.

Malcolm with daughter Morag, setting a precedent at Graduation

strengthening him. Alec used this image as a defining emblem of what community service meant to him from then on. It was the gift of something rare, essential and life-preserving. It entailed a deeply personal connection between donor and recipient. Above all, it implied the knowledge on the part of the giver that roles are arbitrary and that they can easily be reversed. Genuine service of this kind has to recognize and feel fully the dependencies between people and appreciate that, in a real sense, human community cannot survive without acknowledging, supporting and reinforcing our interdependence upon each other.

How much deeper an impression, a mark on another, might one make? And how much more profoundly might one be transformed in return? The past, and our past, speaks to us forcefully at times. When it comes to serving others, “you cannot be selfish in such matters and true to your school.”

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READERS

w ri t e

Dear Ms. Jenckes, While recently reading the Fall 2009 Hotchkiss Magazine (yes, some 8 months later) I noticed two photos that were unidentified.

One from page 32 identified as ‘circa 1960’ is actually ’55-’56. They are my ’57 classmates, from left: Ed Brown, Tom Wey, H.L. Sparks, and Dan Lester.

The other photo on page 29, seated with his back to the camera, is Harry Parker.

I would not want my classmates from the great class of 1957 to go unrecognized.

Very truly, Bob Streett ’57 Clayton, MO (e-mail from Gerald D. Skoning ’60 of Chicago, IL) Hi, Roberta – Just a short note to say how much I enjoyed the feature “For the Love of a Sport – 100 years of Hotchkiss Hockey.” Congrats to all, especially Molly McDowell and Robert Johnson.

I was particularly interested in Damon White’s comments on the unfortunate influence of juniors hockey on his program (something I have written – whined – about).

I would imagine everyone who touched a puck during his or her sojourn at Hotchkiss will be touched by the piece. And, those of us fossils who shoveled off the rinks before play will remember being so exhausted from the shoveling after a heavy snow that the game became somewhat of an afterthought. Taft was the only school in the Housatonic Valley League that had a covered rink. They were considered really soft.

Many thanks.

Gerry P.S. I loved the rest of your magazine as well, but I’m kind of a hockey nut, so that piece just jumped out at me.

Dear Ms. Jenckes, I thoroughly enjoyed reading the last issue, particularly the Woods Squad article, and the fine look-back on Hotchkiss Hockey, “For the Love of a Sport,” by McDowell & Johnson.

I played Club hockey for four years at Hotchkiss (’72-’76) and recall vividly the transition from outdoor games to indoor games, and the “integration” of women onto the team.

I would be remiss to not bring up the first true woman hockey star at Hotchkiss, Gigi

Harry Parker, Class of ’57, listening to teacher Clint Ely ’45

LEFT TO RIGHT: Ed Brown, Tom Wey, H.L. Sparks, and Dan Lester, all Class of ’57

Vayda ’76. Gigi was light-years ahead of her time. She could skate as well as 80% of the boys, and could stick handle and shoot with any of them. She was one of the few, if not the only, female hockey player with real hockey skates that first season. The article accurately depicts the girls, along with a few freshman boys, being paired against each other after a whistle to play a few minutes just girl on girl.

Yes, they occasionally scored on the goalie who, of course, had remained in net the entire game, Gigi getting her share of those goals.

My Hoyt team won the championship that year, in no small part due to stellar play by our goalie during the times when the girls’ line was out there.

I ran into the U.S. and Canadian Olympic teams in Denver in December, where they were staying at a hotel where my company was having its Christmas party. It was nice to greet Hotchkiss Olympian Caitlin Cahow. The Canadian women had won the game 4-2, but the spirits were high on the U.S. team.

Now, if only we could bring back the days of Black Ice on the Lake, and hockey games a quarter mile in length!

Dave Covill ’76 Evergreen, CO March 30, 2010 Dear Ms. Jenckes: It was with great delight that I opened the latest Magazine and saw the cover and article on “The Woods Squad.” What goes around always comes around!

It so happens that I am in the midst of closing down and selling our house since the loss of my wife in June. Amongst the piles of “unknowns” I came across the enclosed photo of the cabin four of us built, I guess over the winter of ’38.

Mr. Van Santvoord was of course overseer of the project. My classmates were Bob Baker,

Hotchkiss Cabin, winter 1938

Dick Veit, and J.O. Young. Bob Baker was the mastermind as he was from Maine and had a good knowledge of what to do. Veit and Young were strong bodies who did the heavy lifting and I followed whatever assignment Bob issued. I found that peeling the bark from the pine logs with a draw shave was a tiresome and especially messy chore. The heady odor of pine sap filled the corridors of Alumni as we dried out our heavy clothes on the room radiator.

I can hazily recall [that] the Headmaster selected the trees and we felled them and hauled them to the cabin site. Most of the trees were in the swamp near the highway, I think. When last at school for our 60th I tried to find the cabin but was unable to locate even the place.

Building was hard work but one of the benefits was to become familiar with the firm L.L. Bean, through the instructions of Bob. As a result, we obtained proper “woods-oriented” clothing and best of all, proper woodsman’s tools, especially the axe. I was able to preserve my axe for years and later used it at my camp in the Adirondacks. It would be an understatement to say we benefited mightily from the experience.

I trust that you will guide this material to the archives.

With kind regards, Roland P. Beattie II ’39 CORRECTION:

The caption for the map of the Woods on page six in the Winter 2010 Magazine is not the correct one for the map that’s photographed.

According to Senior Archives Assistant Joan Baldwin, it is likely the caption for the framed 4’ x 4’ map by Richard Brinckerhoff ’37 that hung in the small lobby just outside the main Library lobby for many years and now needs conservation. The map printed in the Magazine is from the 1933 Record.

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Graduation

GRADUATION 2009 The PromiseClass of a New Day of 2010 ‘ I M PRES S IONS’

by Samuel Prouty

FAR LEFT: Students in the prep, lower mid, and upper mid classes line up to applaud the 169 graduating seniors.

ABOVE: Pausing for the photographer LEFT: A hug before the procession begins

The following is an excerpt from the 2010 Commencement Address by Samuel Prouty, Instructor in English. A video of the full address appears

I am known in some circles within the Hotchkiss community as someone who does impressions. Indeed, whenever the energy level in my class or a department meeting starts to wane, I break into a few impersonations to enliven the mood; at this point, sadly, I may be known as much for these impressions as I am for the quality of my teaching. I take impressions seriously; I want to get them right, down to even the most minute, subtle nuance. With that in mind, I would like to talk to you today about impressions and why they

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mean so much to me.

After all, what is an impression but a way of demonstrating our appreciation of that which is unique, special, and memorable in those around us? When I perform impressions of people I know, I am telling them in no uncertain terms that they have made a mark on my life, that they have contributed something to me that I will remember and that will accompany me wherever I go, even when they are no longer near me. That’s what an impression is – an indelible mark, a memory that has

ABOVE: Debbo Jones of Admissions helps a senior with his boutonniere.

RIGHT: Each senior presented the Head of School with a unique golf ball.

ALL PHOTOS BY JONATHAN DOSTER

at: www.hotchkiss.org/abouthotchkiss/hotchkiss-today/video/.

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ALWAYS LEAVE A POSITIVE IMPRESSION …

been stamped into our minds or into our hearts.

We make all kinds of impressions: first impressions, fleeting impressions, lasting impressions, and sometimes we make no impressions at all. One impression breeds another; as you make a mark in your world, you will do so having been informed – whether you like this or not – by your Hotchkiss experience, just as my future teaching, for example, has been shaped by the impressions you all have made on me.

The funny thing about impressions is that they are just as often positive as they are negative, and we often don’t even know when we’re making them. Thanks to the swirling pheromones of springtime, for example, some of you have made quite an impression on the poor main building duty teams who roam the hallways at night.

ABOVE: The audience of faculty, family members, and friends TOP RIGHT: Co-School Presidents Max Bottini and Emily Drinkwater

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Striving to be your best self… WILL

RIGHT: Malcolm McKenzie gives his address.

BELOW: Seniors show their joy.

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BEEN INFORMED BY YOUR HOTCHKISS EXPERIENCE … .

FAR LEFT: Graduation speaker Sam Prouty won the day with his witty and thoughtful speech.

LEFT: Seniors Hye Yeon Chang and Leo Scholl provided a memorable interlude.

RIGHT: New graduates celebrate on their big day.

BELOW: “Friends for life” BELOW RIGHT: A quiet moment after the ceremony

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…as you make your mark…YOU WILL DO SO HAVING

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Certainly, those of you who are about to celebrate your graduation at this week’s round of parties will make all kinds of impressions; I want you to know that I will be Facebook-stalking you, so be sure to post only those pictures and comments that will leave positive impressions. Just as weak or impulsive moments have the potential to leave negative impressions, so too are individual moments alive with positive possibility. Striving to be your best self even in your most private or dark moments will always leave a positive impression. Your time at Hotchkiss has made an impression. Like this sandal, which is designed to leave a “bearcat” print in the sand wherever it steps, you have marked this ground; you have marked one another. If those marks have been wellmade, then they will last, no matter how strong the tides of time that erode them, bit by bit. My hope for you, as well as for myself, is that the impression is deep enough to withstand that wearing away.

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A Spring of Nobel Laureates

In what Hotchkiss Poet-in-Residence Susan Kinsolving aptly calls “an embarrassment of riches,” within a three-week span this spring the School was graced by the august and inspirational presence of two of the greatest living Nobel Laureates in Literature: Wole Soyinka and Seamus Heaney. Both are from lands where violence is all-too familiar, Nigeria and Northern Ireland. Both arrived at the School through the generous auspices of past or present parents and alumni – Wole Soyinka, through Ileene and Howard Sobel, among others; Seamus Heaney, through The Class of ’63 Fund, the Blair Torrey Creative Writing Fund, and the kindness of Irish poet and publisher Peter Fallon, last year’s Lambert Fund Speaker. Both use words – whether in poems, plays, or memoirs – as weapons in the fight against intolerance and racism, as windows into the emotions raised by war and disaster, as keys to recognizing ourselves, and as a way of capturing reality with a single striking or subtle image.“Through poetry, we catch fire, we calm down, we generate and we reflect light,” writes Head of School Malcolm McKenzie, in answer to a question about the relevance of poetry in today’s world. “The poetry in poetry allows us to sense the poetry in so much else. Having poets in our midst shows us how words, language, beauty, and imagination are so central to our lives. This is not a luxurious ointment, it’s an essential balm.”

Wole Soyinka Not many Nobel Prize-winners would fly to the U.S. from Africa for a single night just to talk to a theater full of teenagers, but that’s what Wole Soyinka did on March 30.

On a night so rainy that Connecticut’s rivers rose above their banks and washed out bridges all across the state, the distinguished 75-year-old Nigerian poet, playwright, and political activist stood on stage at the Esther Eastman Music Center’s Katherine M. Elfers Hall, simply dressed in a white shirt and dark vest, and began to speak about human dignity.

“I promised I would come,” he said later that evening, while attending a reception at Harris House. “And I don’t often have a chance to speak to high school students.”

Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986 for plays and poems that demonstrate “the drama of existence,” Akinwande

Oluewole “Wole” Soyinka is not only one of Africa’s foremost authors but also a lifelong human rights activist whose deeply rooted sense of justice has caused him to be jailed at least nine times and forced him into exile for much of his life.

A writer of awe-inspiring fecundity, in the past half century he has produced such critically acclaimed plays, poems, memoirs, and essays as A Dance of the Forests (1963); The Man Died: Prison Notes (1972); Myth, Literature, and the African World (1975); and, most recently You Must Set Forth at Dawn (2006), a memoir that continues the story of his life from the end of his groundbreaking autobiography, Aké: the Years of Childhood, named one of the best books of 1982.

As a dramatist, according to the Swedish Academy’s Nobel website, he bases his work on the mythology of his tribe, the Yoruba, while also embracing the influence of J.M. Synge and other Western writers. Linking lit-

PHOTO BY ANNE DAY

Visitors

By Divya Symmers

ABOVE: Wole Soyinka listens as Malcolm McKenzie introduces him.

erature and politics, European and African traditions, he continually addresses “the wider question of the persistence of humanity in the face of cruelty, intolerance, and outrage,” as an article in the Harvard Gazette noted.

“If the spirit of African democracy has a voice and a face, they belong to Wole Soyinka,” said The New York Times.

A TEACHER’S GENES

He loves to teach – a few years ago he confessed to having “a teacher’s genes” – and currently holds the post of emeritus professor at Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria. He is also a non-resident fellow at Harvard’s W.E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African-American Research and the President’s Marymount Institute Professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, where he lived before the latS p r i n g

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PHOTO BY ANNE DAY

LEFT: Students in several English classes read Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman before his visit.

est political crisis spurred his return to strife-torn Nigeria.

As Head of School Malcolm McKenzie explained in a graceful introduction, Professor Soyinka “remains deeply concerned about continued clashes between Muslim and Christian compatriots, and he is trying to help make an amnesty effective between the acting President…and militants or ex-militants in the Niger Delta.

“When we engaged Professor Soyinka, over a year ago, to speak tonight,” Mr. McKenzie continued, “we all thought he would be flying here from within the United States. It is a measure of his honor, and a huge compliment to us, that he has flown from Nigeria to be at Hotchkiss this evening.”

His hair a nimbus of white, his face betraying the merest hint of jet lag, Soyinka thanked the School for its warm welcome, cracked a joke about the weather, and launched into a subject close to his heart.

DIGNITY IS THE ESSENCE OF HUMANITY

He talked about how attempts to try and reduce human beings to absolute nothingness have been a constant in conflicts with tyrants through the ages. How power is tied to the need to humiliate. He went on to decry the historic tendency of Europeans to view Africans as less than human. And he noted the oxymoron inherent in the phrase “a dignified slave,” because when one is dig-

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nified, he or she is no longer a slave.

He also spoke of the dual legacy of racism and colonialism that lies at the root of most African conflicts, exacerbated by Western corporate interests – particularly oil – that have helped to prop up military dictatorships.

But he reminded his audience that there is something embedded in the human psyche that finally says ‘no’ – and that dignity lies at the essence of humanity. “Democracy provides a social framework in which the dignity of the individual is a right,” he said, pointing out that it was an integral part of many ancient African societies.

As Head of School McKenzie related earlier, Professor Soyinka’s best-known play, Death and the King’s Horseman (which students in several English classes read before his visit) includes a warning against “simplistic notions of cultures clashing,” offering a hopeful message exemplified in its last lines: “Now forget the dead, forget even the living. Turn your mind only to the unborn.”

Eagerly raising their hands for a turn at the microphone, students peppered the visiting Nobelist with an array of questions: How does dignity exist within a true democracy? (“Accountability, openness, and transparency are all important.”) Is it possible to change unjust laws in a different culture? (“Cultures are not static; cultures evolve.”)

Is justice determined by a society’s morals? (“To me, justice is absolute.”)

At the end, a student from Botswana wondered whether there is anything important enough to give up dignity for. Love, perhaps?

“If there is, I haven’t found it yet,” Professor Soyinka answered, with a merry little smile, as everyone laughed. “I know that some people think that it’s the most important thing in the world. But love should be dignified; it should be a meeting of equals. You probably know more about that than I do,” he added.

He received three standing ovations.

Seamus Heaney The skies outside were a deep April blue, the lake looked bedazzled in the remaining sunlight, and the Esther Eastman Music Center’s Katherine M. Elfers Hall was filled to capacity with students, faculty, and staff, all gathered to hear one of the great poets of the English language.

He didn’t disappoint. In a voice that’s been described as both musical and intimate, Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney transported us to a place where ordinary moments become transcendent, as in the pair of sonnets he wrote “out of loss when my mother died,” one about peeling potatoes, and the other “about the ancient art of folding sheets.”

At 71, Heaney – who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995, when he was 56 – has a body of work stretching over half a century, from his first book of poetry, Death of a Naturalist (1966) to his latest, District and Circle (2006). A new collection, Human Chain, will be published this autumn.

Dubbed “the greatest Irish poet since Yeats” by Robert Lowell, Heaney counts among his influences James Joyce, Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz, and the Anglo Saxon he studied as a student at Queens University in Belfast.

His 1999 translation of Beowulf beat one of the Harry Potter books to win the Whitbread Prize and sold 200,000 copies in 2000 alone – unprecedented for a modern translation of an epic poem written in Old English a millennium ago.

“I thought I would begin with a poem about reading aloud in a great hall,” he said, clutching a well-worn copy, though hardly glancing at it. What no one in the audience could see was that this particular copy of Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney was not only heavily annotated but that the handwriting inside belonged to

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RIGHT: Seamus Heaney charms students after his talk.

BELOW: Heaney with Susan Kinsolving

re-recited Lightenings viii, cited by the Nobel committee in 1995 as “a crystallisation of … history and sensuality, myths and the dayto-day – all articulated in Heaney’s rich language.”

PHOTOS BY ANNE DAY

Instructor in History Robert Barker.

“It was a tremendous honor,” said Barker, who returned from an out-of-town trip to discover the poet had taken the time to inscribe the book. “I’ve used his translation for as many as ten years, maybe more.

It takes the story of Beowulf to an entirely different level. It flows beautifully. And the kids just love it.”

In fact, the translation might never have happened: As Heaney confessed to his Hotchkiss audience, he began the first 100 lines in the late 1980s, put it down, and didn’t pick it up again until March 19, 1995, two days after St. Patrick’s Day, on what’s known (in Ireland) as St. Joseph the Worker Day. “I got a fax from an editor at Norton. By this time, the first one had passed away, so this one said: ‘I can see you’re not interested in doing this.’” She asked him for the names of other poets he thought could handle the job. Ted Hughes came to mind, he said, as did another poet. “But then I thought, ‘Why should they have it?’ So I got to work, and as I worked on it, I got to love it.”

As he read (“Then a powerful demon, a prowler through the dark, nursed a hard grievance, It harrowed him to hear the din of the loud banquet every day in the hall, the harp being struck and the clear song of a skilled poet telling with mastery of man’s beginnings…”) Elfers Hall fell silent. It remained that way, in a kind of collective hush, for the rest of the evening.

“He didn’t look at his notes until halfway through the performance,” marveled English Department Co-Chair Charles Frankenbach.

At one point, Heaney, former professor of poetry at Oxford and poet-in-residence at Harvard, turned to the students seated in the upper balcony behind him and said, “I like this one so much I will read it twice.”

His back to the microphone, his voice muffled, the faces above him were rapt as he

The annals say: when the monks of Clonmacnoise Were all at prayers inside the oratory A ship appeared above them in the air.

The anchor dragged along behind so deep It hooked itself into the altar rails And then, as the big hull rocked to a standstill, A crewman shinned and grappled down the rope And struggled to release it. But in vain.

‘This man can’t bear our life here and will drown,’ The abbot said, ‘unless we help him.’ So They did, the freed ship sailed, and the man climbed back Out of the marvellous as he had known it. © Seamus Heaney Seeing Things (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1991)

Although Heaney has lived in the Republic of Ireland for well over three decades, his roots in the North are embedded in the soul of his work, and the poems he read at Hotchkiss touched on everything from his childhood on his father’s farm to the death of a cousin during the Troubles.

Later, when it came time for questions

(“Questions are more important than answers for an artist,” Heaney noted earlier), a senior asked: “Can you learn to write poetry as beautiful as yours, or is it innate?”

Heaney, who is white-haired, entirely approachable, and resembles a sharp but kindly librarian, admitted, “I didn’t start to write in earnest until I was in my 20s. I was shy of poetry. I didn’t think I had the gift for it.”

When he reached university, he told his listeners, he began reading poetry and loved it, and soon tried his hand at it. Gradually, he learned confidence, he said, adding: “Once you have some kind of confidence, you’re on your way.”

Afterward, the word “magical” echoed up and down School hallways.

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An Interview with Poet-in-Residence Susan Kinsolving B Y

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Despite the School’s proud history of alumni writers and poets (Archibald MacLeish ’11 comes to mind), Susan Kinsolving is Hotchkiss’s first official poet-in-residence. The Midwest-born, Northeast-raised, West Coast-educated poet, who has won several major awards and written three critically acclaimed books and two internationally performed librettos, last year began teaching poetry to four senior and upper-mid classes. Bright, brilliant, and imbued with a questing spirit that inspires students to learn with joy, she added new and unexpected depth. Who could forget her “Like” skit in Auditorium? Or the Chapel presentation where students from other countries read poems in their native languages? The intriguing guest speakers she invited, including Major Jackson, Susan Cheever, Laura Baudo, and Edward Hirsch? The news that Ms. Kinsolving is returning for a second year fills us with anticipation. Early this spring, we sat down with her for the following interview: HOW DID YOU BECOME POET IN RESIDENCE AT HOTCHKISS?

I have taught poetry for many years, at colleges and universities, most recently in the Bennington Writing Seminars. A former Hotchkiss English teacher, Athena Fliakos, was one of my M.F.A. students. She invited me to Hotchkiss to give a poetry reading and to teach a few clas-

ses. I spent the day, and I really didn’t want to leave. So when someone in the English department said, ‘Oh, what could we do to get you here?’ I replied, ‘Well, probably ask me.” [She laughs.] Perhaps they were suggesting that I return for just another day, but it went on from there.

WHAT WAS IT ABOUT THIS PLACE THAT APPEALED TO

RIGHT: Susan Kinsolving

YOU? WAS IT THE KIDS? WAS IT THE OTHER TEACHERS? OR WAS IT THE WHOLE PACKAGE?

First of all, the teaching ambience was so inviting: The size of the classes, the enthusiasm of the students, their differences. And then I met several members of the faculty. I have enormous respect for them. They are so dedicated and wise. I’ve learned a lot from my students and from my colleagues. I’m getting a superb education here!

WHAT AGE GROUP ARE YOU TEACHING?

I’m teaching four courses – Creative Writing, with seniors and upper-mids, and two units of a poetry elective for seniors. I’m also teaching American Lit to upper mids. I really like the mix. I enjoy teaching a Seamus Heaney poem, then teaching Fitzgerald’s Gatsby or The Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle. The seniors did a lot of work on prosody. It’s wonderfully stimulating. The upper mids had a heated argument over Hawthorne’s Hester Prynne. It was fascinating. I took notes!

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SCHOOL AGE KIDS AND TEACHING GRADUATE STUDENTS?

House Lights Down

With high school students, I am more involved with the foundations of their growing intellect. I feel a greater responsibility, but also a greater excitement. In the classroom, over a semester, I witness transformations. Not just children becoming adults, but possibilities being realized, creatively, intellectually, socially, even spiritually. Teaching can be thrilling. Even addictive. I’m always wondering about how best to present a text or reach a student.

In the straight-back wooden chairs of eternity left from a recent run of Our Town, I am here beside you to tell the darkness how we endure endless forfeiture, how our days disappear, how all we do must be left undone. As on a pocket watch that never opens its face, the unregarded hours elude us and convey seconds

WHAT’S THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TEACHING HIGH

HOW DO YOU MAKE POETRY RELEVANT TO SOMEBODY WHO’S 15 OR 16?

To some degree, it’s finding the poem that meets them, that gives voice to their elusive feelings and thoughts. Once they have a poem that they can embrace and identify with, they’re interested in the next poem. And on it goes. They want that curious magic, that alchemy of individualism finding a shared expression. They also want the laughs of light verse or the fever pitch of a wild love poem. Or maybe the enraged voice of rebellion. Sometimes, the first poem that speaks to them is one of loss and sorrow.

WHAT ABOUT STUDENTS FOR WHOM ENGLISH IS A SECOND LANGUAGE?

I’ve had students here who are Korean, Ghanaian, Italian, Dutch, Chinese. Although it takes them a while to find some security with English verse, they bring other points of view and other possibilities to the classroom. This difference usually becomes an asset. It certainly provided a global context in my creative writing class. Nuance gained further complexity. And that is truly an understatement.

into seasons, making a surrealism of years. Already we have not walked far enough in snow, swum deep enough in the lake.

We haven’t read a week of Keats or memorized seven minutes of Mahler. Will we ever pick a wild peach, step on shadows in Sicily or stones in the Bering Sea? All unlikely. Like bees abandoning an autumn field, we yield, relinquishing our nightclothes and notebooks, the lost powdery scent of our missing infant, the dazzling waltz, the daily bread, and the best words, left unsaid. Ours is this small space between an answered prayer and a coming curse. Still we are honored to have played our part, lovers living our days unrehearsed, as if each were the first.

– Susan Kinsolving Also, I believe the international students enjoyed the acknowledgment.

TELL ME ABOUT THE “LIKE” PRESENTATION YOU

DOES THIS “OTHERNESS” CONTRIBUTE TO THEIR

GAVE IN FEBRUARY.

OWN VOICE IN ENGLISH?

Oh, that was great fun. First of all, it makes me positively crazy to hear this word “like” used over and over again in a meaningless way. It’s an invasive species. Rampant crabgrass on the lush lawn of English! An awful metaphor, I know. Anyway, in my attempt to weed it out, if you will, I thought it might be amusing to do a skit in Auditorium. I enlisted a student, Hector Marrero ’11, and our good doctor, Jared Zelman. The basis of the skit was Dr. Zelman’s rushing to stop the spread of “likitis,” a new epidemic on campus that was making bright Hotchkiss students sound stupid! I had hundreds of stickers made with “LIKE” crossed-out in a red circle. These were our immunity patch-

It contributes new imagery, anecdote, and accent. The first chapel program I organized was a reading by international students. They read poems in their own languages, and then they read English translations. It was an opportunity for all our students to hear sound separated from sense, to hear the musicality and rhythm of a language without comprehending its meaning. Few of us understood Polish, which was read, or Ga, which was read, or Russian. So we were able to hear those sounds before we understood what the poem was about. That’s a particular and rare opportunity. I would like to do a similar program again next year.

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es. After the auditorium skit, lots of students wore them and it did help with that dreadful linguistic tic. Some students were even counting others’ misusage. That was a small victory. I’m not alone in this. My department chair has been conducting her own crusade against “like” in the classroom. We’ll have to keep it going. I am all for similes and healthy verbs, but not spasmodic reiteration. I have to carry earplugs with me. Now “like” has been joined by “you know.” More for the weed whacker!

I HEARD THAT AT SOME POINT DURING THE YEAR YOU TOOK A GROUP OF STUDENTS TO FAIRFIELD FARMS TO BE ONE WITH NATURE. IS THAT TRUE?

Well, not just to be one with nature. Josh Hahn and I took all my poetry students to Fairfield Farms. We did a class comparing so-called nature writing and environmental writing. We read Thoreau, Wendell Berry, Mary Oliver, Whitman, and others. Josh spoke about viewing landscape with some environmental insight. We wanted the students to have some contemplative time with Hotchkiss’ beautiful land and farm. For a while the freedom to wander in the fresh air seemed to baffle them.

They asked what exactly was the assignment? But eventually they began to connect their senses with the place.

DID THEY PRODUCE POEMS BASED ON THIS?

Poems really require contemplation, reverie, and return.

And by return, I mean rewrite. Verse and reverse. If you have two hours at the Hotchkiss farm on a beautiful day, you might come away with a few lines. You might find a metaphor, an image. You might find a starting point. But it would be very rare that you would come away with a complete poem. And I would prefer that my students didn’t try for a complete poem, because they might force it and lose whatever was essential, impulsive, sensed yet unknown. Imaginative and unexplained.

WHAT OTHER PLACES DID YOUR POETRY STUDENTS EXPLORE?

We worked on ekphrastic poetry: poems based on other art forms (think ‘Ode to a Grecian Urn’). So we spent many hours in the Tremaine Gallery. It’s often helpful to find inspiration outside oneself, from another art form.

Students would see disparate images or references.

Sometimes they would assume the voice of the painting or photograph. Or they might create a dialogue among the pieces. Abstractions can be stimulating. Ascribing lan-

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guage to them refuses the obvious, the representational.

Some of our best creative writing came from these ekphrastic exercises.

TELL ME ABOUT ALL THE T-SHIRTS WE SEE AROUND CAMPUS WITH “HOTCHKISS POETRY” ON THEM.

As a surprise, my husband had an athletic-looking blue sweatshirt made for me that read ‘Hotchkiss Poetry’ in big white letters. When I wore the shirt, everyone on campus seemed to want one, too. So I had an idea: I asked Malcolm McKenzie if I could have 100 shirts made to reward students who memorized and recited poems. He immediately agreed. Of course, he recited a poem and received the first shirt! Soon after, varsity athletes were wearing the shirts, and even faculty from other departments. The whole thing took off. We ran out of shirts, but the recitations kept coming. Next year, I plan to have more shirts.

WHAT IS YOUR VISION FOR THE COMING ACADEMIC YEAR?

I have great hopes to do new programs: poems about sports, poems about music, poems from the various states of the U.S.A.; it goes on and on! There are many poems and novels I am eager to teach. Hotchkiss definitely keeps ideas coming – it’s an energy chain of sorts. Obviously, the School has a long tradition in poetry, and the determination of my colleagues in the English department to bring great writers to campus is thoughtful and ongoing. My contribution has been only a small continuation of a tradition. The guest list was dazzling long before I got here.

What an embarrassment of riches it was to have Wole Soyinka and Seamus Heaney here in the same month. The muses seem quite at home at Hotchkiss. It’s a privilege for me to be here. It’s hard work, intense, but also a gift.

Susan Kinsolving is the author of three books of poems – her latest, My Glass Eye, is in manuscript. A previous book, Dailies & Rushes, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. She has received numerous fellowships, including from foundations in Italy, France, New York, Scotland, Illinois, and Switzerland, and two from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, along with as many literary laurels. The Poetry Society of America bestowed its 2009 Lyric Award on her. The New York Times called her poems “A powerful and practiced repertory of formal gestures including a startling backhand of wit and irony.”

This year, her new libretto was performed by three symphonies.

Recently, she was invited by Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka to give a reading at his college in California.

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PHOTO BY AL FERREIRA

LEFT: Summer Portals students take their studies outdoors.

Hotchkiss Summer Portals will open two more doors to learning in the next couple of years. eadership, Peace & Conflict Transformation will enroll students in the same age group as those in the current Portals programs in environmental science and chamber music – 12 to 15.

Another collaborative program, with Peking University High School, will enroll older teenagers selected by the high school who want to prepare themselves for university studies in the U.S. “The Summer Portals program is growing in size as well as growing even more in tune with the public purpose of the School,” says Head of School Malcolm McKenzie. “We bring young boys and girls from all over the U.S.A. and abroad, to our campus, many on financial aid. Next year we are adding a program on Leadership, Peace & Conflict Transformation as well as developing a new partnership with the Peking University High School. It is uplifting to be able to use our amazing resources like this to give a taste of the Hotchkiss experience to many who will not be here during the academic year.”

This year marks the seventh year of operation for Hotchkiss’s three-week summer program, and Dean Robert Barker, who is also a longtime history teacher and administrator at Hotchkiss, believes the new addi-

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tions will build effectively on the successes of the current Portals.

“The Leadership Portal is something that I have had in mind,” Barker says, “because I believe that leadership is not just innate – a good deal of leadership is learned. Portals has talented, thoughtful kids who can learn how to be really good leaders. I think, in part, the shape of the program came from some of the work that Malcolm McKenzie is doing within the School with a renewed focus on leadership. So, there is a lot of connection between the plans for the School and the embryonic program we are developing.

“We’ve chosen our first director, Cornelia Holden, the founder of the Mindful Warrior program. I think Cornelia is going to bring to this curriculum and to the leadership of the program some of the best aspects of programs like Seeds of Peace or the Axis of Hope, but also she will bring a mindfulness component. This says that leaders have to model and embody the concept of an internal healthy outlook on life. They can’t be ‘TypeA’ people, running around all the time trying to do this and dominate that. They have to be confident, self-assured, and reflective. And again, this idea of reflectiveness is something that Malcolm talks to our students about as being essential in their education.”

Barker plans to recruit students for the Leadership Portal from throughout the U.S., including possibly from places like the Navajo Nation, as well as suburban and urban places. He will also look at enrolling students from areas such as Israel and Palestine, Northern Ireland, China, and Tibet. His goal is to have about 40 students at the start, with a good gender balance of boys and girls.

“These students may have very different backgrounds and different ways of looking at the world and each other,” he says. “My hope is that, as with the other Portals students currently in chamber music and environmental science, although they have separate programs, everything else is shared. They share life together in the dormitory, in the dining room, and in afternoon activities, so there’s a lot of interaction – sharing ideas, talking about what they are learning in their programs. So, we hope that would happen with this program.”

And, as with the existing programs, some of the students in the Leadership Portal may later enroll at Hotchkiss. This year, Barker notes, 13 former Portals environmental students will be attending Hotchkiss in September.

That will not be the case with the students from the China portal, he says. “We were approached by the Peking University High School to offer a program to Chinese students who want to enroll in university in the United States. So this is not a conduit to Hotchkiss. What these students want is practice on reading and writing in English, particularly analytical writing, reading, and speaking. We will offer them, at their request, British literature, theater, and college advising. In English, history, and theater, they will be speaking more in class, because it’s not part of the general Chinese education that kids speak up in class. And this kind of exchange is very much a part of American classrooms. That’s the essence of the program, in which we will ultimately enroll 40 students.”

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KEVIN HICKS AND CORNELIA CANNON HOLDEN BRING TALENTS THAT BROADEN, ENRICH THE SCHOOL Every September, Hotchkiss renews itself.

Incoming students breathe new life into the school, even as they acclimate to our traditions; new faculty and staff, similarly, add energy and experience developed elsewhere to a community that is famously lively and learned. In keeping with this longstanding pattern of renewal, Kevin Hicks and Cornelia Cannon Holden will bring an amazing breadth of talents to Hotchkiss when they begin their duties here this summer.

Kevin Hicks, formerly Dean of Berkeley College and Lecturer in English at Yale University, is Hotchkiss’s new Associate Head of School and Dean of Faculty. A highly respected teacher, mentor, and coach, Hicks holds a B.A. degree in Religious Studies from Yale University and his Ph.D. in English from Princeton University. As Dean of Berkeley College, he has taught one course a year, a junior seminar on Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Larry Becker, former Hotchkiss faculty member who served as a consultant in the Dean of Faculty search, says of his first meeting with Hicks: “Very quickly, I knew Kevin was extraordinary: brilliant, but not pedantic, warm, friendly, articulate. As I thought about the task of attracting top teaching candidates to Hotchkiss, I was confident that Kevin would be outstanding at this. They will be impressed. While he is brilliant, unlike some great minds, he will never work to prove to others that he is the smartest person in the room, although quite likely, he will be.”

Cornelia Cannon Holden, Kevin’s wife, is the founder of Mindful Warrior, which teaches elite athletes, coaches, and teams the principles of high performance. Recently, Holden worked with the U.S. Women’s Ice Hockey Team, which held its first-ever No. 1-world ranking entering the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. At Hotchkiss, she will work half-time as Assistant Dean of Admission and in the Summer Portals office with Dean Robert Barker. Recently, she and Barker workd together on the design of a third Portal, Leadership, Peace & Conflict Transformation, which will be added to the existing Portals in Environmental Science and Chamber Music. And, she will work with coaches

Kevin Hicks

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and Athletic Directors Robin Chandler ’87 and Danny Smith to share Mindful Warrior principles with individual athletes and teams.

KEVIN HICKS

Hicks is one of two Associate Heads of Hotchkiss, his major responsibility being the leadership of the faculty.

“Hotchkiss is poised to become something no New England boarding school has ever been,” Hicks said in a recent interview, “even as it maintains its firm commitment to the longstanding traditions that are at its core. To be invited to contribute to the school’s distinctive ecology, especially at this critical moment in its long and distinguished history, is a true honor. Anyone who truly aspires to be a ‘schoolkeeper’− and by that I mean, in part, a person who can think well beyond his or her own tenure at a place − would give anything to have a role at today’s Hotchkiss.”

“My whole life, I’ve enjoyed the blessing of great teachers,” he added, “and I was reminded of so many of my favorites when I met the Hotchkiss faculty.” At the Robert Louis Stevenson School, the independent boarding and day school in Pebble Beach, CA, which he attended in the mid-1980s, he was taught by “inspiring and thoroughly professional people who weren’t just passing through secondary education on their way to something else. They gave me an opportunity to see my work as meaningful beyond itself; they enlarged and enhanced my sense of the world.

When I visited Hotchkiss, it felt familiar to me in precisely this way.

“The Hotchkiss folks I’ve known throughout my life − people my own age and older, as well as more recent graduates − have always spoken of their time in Lakeville with deep and uniform reverence,” Hicks said. “As I’ve learned more and more about the school and its evolving mission, their incredible, soulful love for the place has taken on new texture and depth. I feel so fortunate to be coming to this community at this moment.”

Hicks, who wrote his doctoral dissertation on antebellum American literature, has taught at The Peddie School (NJ) and Wellesley Public

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High School (MA). He has also served as an admissions officer at Bennington College (VT) and Middlesex School (MA), and as an assistant women’s lacrosse coach at Brown University and Trinity College (CT). He also developed the curriculum for Peak Goalie School − the nation’s top summer camp for pre-collegiate lacrosse goalies − with which he has been associated since 1991.

CORNELIA CANNON HOLDEN:

The founder and CEO of Mindful Warrior, Cornelia Holden is excited to bring her unique curriculum to Hotchkiss. Her approach, which unites mindfulness practices with citizen-leadership models to help clients become more resilient and powerful, has been successfully introduced at Georgetown University, Yale University, Middlebury College, and the Navajo Nation. Since Holden joined the staff of U.S. Women’s Ice Hockey in 2006, the team has enjoyed unprecedented success, winning two consecutive World Championships (2008, 2009) and Gold Medals at

APPOINTMENT

both the 2009 Four Nations Cup and 2009 Hockey Canada Cup. Holden graduated summa cum laude from Bowdoin College, where she was a NCAA Division II giant slalom ski racing champion and a member of both the varsity tennis and crew teams. She also holds a Master’s degree from Harvard Divinity School, where her program of study included courses at Harvard Business School.

She also worked with The Bridgespan Group, the non-profit consulting division of Bain & Company, before entering private practice as a psychotherapist, coach, and complementary and alternative medicine consultant. She is a licensed massage therapist with training in body-centered healing therapies and a registered yoga teacher.

“We are so excited to partner with Hotchkiss,” says Holden. “We feel so welcomed by the school community, and so in tune with the place at this moment in its history.”

TO READ THE FULL VERSION OF THIS ARTICLE, PLEASE GO TO: WWW.HOTCHKISS.ORG/ABOUTHOTCHKISS.

JOSEPH FLYNN APPOINTED TO HEAD ADVANCEMENT

oseph P. Flynn, currently the Assistant Headmaster for External Affairs at Woodberry Forest School in Virginia, has been appointed Chief Advancement Officer at Hotchkiss, effective August 1, 2010. Joe will be responsible for all aspects of the program of the Hotchkiss Development and Alumni Offices and oversee a staff of 26. Current Director of Alumni and Development Christopher French will become Director of Principal Gifts, as announced some months ago, in advance of the School’s upcoming campaign.

“I am honored by this opportunity and excited to join the outstanding Alumni and Development team,” said Flynn. “Hotchkiss has a rich history, a compelling mission, and a bright future. I look forward to taking on the challenges of this great school and of the forthcoming campaign.”

A graduate of The Lawrenceville School, he has extensive experience in education, having run the annual fund at Lawrenceville and led the development and alumni programs at McDonogh School and the University of Virginia Alumni Association before beginning at Woodberry in 2002. At Woodberry, he has overseen the execution of a $100-million comprehensive campaign and managed the master plan for institutional advancement.

Flynn earned a B.A. in history at the University of Virginia and

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Cornelia Cannon Holden

holds an M.B.A. from Loyola University in Maryland. He has served as a trustee of McDonogh School and Sacred Heart School, both in Maryland. He has also served on the Executive Committee of The Lawrenceville School Alumni Association.

“We are thrilled to have Joe and his family join the Hotchkiss community,” says Head of School Malcolm McKenzie. “In addition to having an appreciation for the mission of independent schools, Joe has tremendous experience in fundraising and campaign management. He is very excited about the new initiatives that form part of the Hotchkiss Plan and is eager to get involved in the ambitious campaign that will flow from the Plan.”

Joe and his wife, Carol, will be moving to Hotchkiss this summer. Their daughter, Claire, will be a Prep at Hotchkiss, and their son, Conor, is a rising senior at Woodberry Forest School.

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2010 COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD RECIPIENTS LEFT: Participating in the program were, from left: Nan Philip ’12, Jennifer Case ’80, Malcolm McKenzie, Wendy Weil Rush ’80, Julian Houston ’62, Anna Lamb ’10.

SINCE 1992, 51 ALUMNI HAVE RECEIVED THE COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD, AN AWARD ESTABLISHED AT THE TIME OF THE SCHOOL’S CENTENNIAL IN 1992. RECIPIENTS ARE SELECTED BY THE NOMINATING COMMITTEE OF THE HOTCHKISS ALUMNI ASSOCIATION BOARD OF GOVERNORS AND ARE HONORED AT AN AWARD CEREMONY ON CAMPUS. THE 2010 AWARDS WERE PRESENTED TO JULIAN HOUSTON ’62 AND JENNIFER LITTLE CASE ’80 AT AN ALL-SCHOOL MEETING ON APRIL 26.

The Honorable Julian T. Houston ’62 Julian T. Houston ’62 came to Hotchkiss in 1959 as a lower mid from Richmond, VA. He wrote for the Lit, served as art editor of the Review, and sang with the Glee Club and Blue Notes. He also played on the basketball team and competed in track.

After graduation, he began studies at Boston University, but left after one year to work in civil rights as a community organizer for the Northern Student Movement. On returning to BU, he was elected president of the student body and received his undergraduate degree in Government in 1968. He entered BU’s Law School that same year. While a law student, he spent a summer working for consumer advocate Ralph Nader and

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another as law clerk to the distinguished Boston trial attorney, William Homans.

After practicing law with Attorney Homans, Houston became director of the Juvenile Justice Project of the Massachusetts Advocacy Center. There he organized Project Interaction, which brought 36 high school students from southern states to assist Boston students in the first year of court-ordered desegregation there. Houston then returned to private practice.

In 1979 he was appointed Associate Justice of the Roxbury District Court, with principal responsibility for the Juvenile Session. Shortly thereafter, in 1981, he founded Roxbury Youthworks, Inc., which he now serves as President Emeritus of the Board of Directors.

In founding Roxbury Youthworks, he hoped to reduce recidivism and help inner-

city youngsters stay off the streets. This organization, which started as a small clinic in Roxbury District Court, now operates seven youth sites. In its first 25 years, the organization has: grown from two to 37 employees; served approximately 20,000 youth and families; and operated all of Boston’s youth Community Re-Entry Centers (and continues to do so).

Judge Houston served for 11 years in the Roxbury District Court before being appointed to the Superior Court in 1990 by Governor Michael Dukakis. He recently retired after 27 years as a Massachusetts judge, having devoted himself to improving the relationship between residents of the inner city and local institutions. In 1984, he was instrumental in founding the Justice George Lewis Ruffin Society, which promotes the advancement of minorities in the field of criminal justice.

He has also worked to develop programs that build relationships between the innercity community and Boston’s great cultural institutions, including his role in paying tribute to African American concert tenor, Roland Hayes. “Lilacs,” the work commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra for the tribute and composed by George Walker, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Music in 1996, the first such award to an African American composer.

Judge Houston has served as a member of the Massachusetts State Board of Education, the Governor’s Select

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RIGHT: Malcolm McKenzie, left, with Julian Houston

Committee on Judicial Needs, and the Chief Justice’s Commission on the Future of the Courts. He is the author of a novel, New Boy, (Houghton Mifflin, 2005). Judge Houston lives in Brookline, MA with his wife, Susan, and family.

I want to thank the Alumni Association for giving me this award. Frankly, I have never expected an award for the things that I’ve done to benefit the community.

I’ve simply done them because, as I looked around me, I decided they needed to be done.

As most of you know, I was a judge in Massachusetts for 27 years, and most of what I have done has, in some way, involved the court system. In 1979, I was appointed to the Roxbury District Court, a troubled inner-city court serving a largely black community. As soon as I arrived, I began to look for ways the court might improve life for the people using the court. Eventually, I realized that there were lots of people who brought their children to court because they had no alternative. They couldn’t afford day care or a babysitter, or they wanted a husband or a boyfriend in custody to see the child.

There were small children languishing in courtrooms listening to testimony in murder cases, rape cases, cases of extreme violence. It bothered me, but I didn’t know what to do about it. Then in 1984, I was reading an article in The New York Times about childcare centers in two New York City courts, and I saw the solution to my problem. I brought together a group of childcare professionals and social service agencies to help develop a childcare center for the court, and in 1989 the first court-

based childcare center in New England opened at the Roxbury District Court.

Over the next 12 years, we were able to open nine additional centers in courts around the state; however, in 2002, our funding was eliminated to meet a crisis in the state budget, and all ten programs were forced to close. This is an unfortunate fact of life whenever you develop something that relies upon government funding.

By 1996, I had been appointed to the Superior Court. My jurisdiction was statewide, so I no longer worked in a community court. As I travelled to courthouses around the state, however, I noticed that there were no portraits of African American judges occupying a place of honor in any courtroom. I sought more information about the history of African Americans in the Massachusetts courts. I learned that the first African American to sit on the Superior Court was Edward Gourdin, an extraordinary individual who, in 1921 broke the world’s record in the broad jump while he was a student at Harvard College, and who won the Silver medal in the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris, shortly after graduating from Harvard Law School. Gourdin was appointed to the Superior Court in 1958. He died in 1966, and by 1997 not a single one of my colleagues on the court could tell me his

name. As a result, I organized a committee to commission a portrait of Judge Gourdin.

Several distinguished members of the bar raised funds to hire an artist, and today a portrait of Judge Edward Gourdin hangs in a courtroom in the Suffolk Superior Court in Boston. It is the only portrait of an African American Superior Court judge in a courtroom in the state.

I began to realize that African Americans had played a substantial role in the Massachusetts court system for three centuries. In the late 1700s, the slaves Elizabeth Freeman and Quock Walker summoned the courage to sue their owners for their freedom, and the result was the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts. At the age of 25, Robert Morris, the second African American admitted as an attorney in Massachusetts, filed the first school desegregation suit in the nation, Roberts v. School Committee of Boston, in 1848. The decision of the Supreme Judicial Court rejecting his claim came as a great disappointment to the abolitionist movement; however, it led to the passage of a law by the Massachusetts legislature prohibiting racial segregation in the Boston public schools.

Much of Morris’ argument was used a century later by the plaintiffs in the historic Brown v. Board of Education case, which abolished racial segregation throughout the

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2010 Community Service Award speech by Julian T. Houston ’62

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United States. And Anthony Burns, an escaped slave from Virginia, became a nationally known figure in 1853 when his owner hired slave catchers to apprehend him in Boston and return him to Virginia.

A court hearing on whether to release Burns was vigorously argued for days until the judge ordered Burns returned to slavery. Two thousand federal troops were ordered into Boston to preserve order when Burns, in manacles, was led onto a ship that took him back to Virginia.

The more I read, I realized there were many stories about this history that deserved to be told, important stories that everyone should know. So I began to talk with others about organizing an exhibition that would portray the experience of African Americans in the Massachusetts courts, and I found considerable interest.

At one point, there were more than 40 people working to prepare the exhibition for its unveiling. In fact, one of the most satisfying results of overseeing the development of an idea like the exhibition was the way others came to its aid and volunteered their support.

Four years and four hundred thousand dollars later, Long Road to Justice: the African American Experience in the Massachusetts Courts opened in September 2000 in the Edward W. Brooke Courthouse in Boston. If you would like to look at it, it is available on the web.

Simply go to Google and punch in Long Road to Justice. After travelling throughout the state for three years, the exhibition has been permanently installed at the Edward W. Brooke Courthouse in Boston.

If you’re in Boston, you should stop by and see it. It is an accomplishment of which I am particularly proud.

I subscribe to the statement Ted Kennedy made about Senator Phillip Hart at the dedication of the Senate office building in Hart’s memory. “His life was a testament,” said Kennedy, “to the principle that there is no limit to the amount of good a person can do, if he doesn’t care who gets the credit for it.” I submit to you if you give of yourself to those in

need freely and without concern for personal recognition, you will discover that others will inevitably recognize what you have done, and, more importantly, you will gain an inner satisfaction, a spiritual satisfaction, that is humbling and cannot be replaced.

Thank you, again, for this award.

Jennifer Little Case ’80 Jennifer Little Case came to Hotchkiss in 1977 from Stamford, CT. She served as assistant layout editor of the Mischianza and played on the volleyball, girls’ lacrosse, and JV field hockey teams.

After receiving her B.A. from Middlebury College, Case worked for two years at Bankers Trust. She then earned her M.B.A. at the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth. After completing her graduate studies, she went to work in TimeWarner’s magazine division, where she did marketing and business development for FORTUNE and Sports Illustrated for Kids.

For the latter magazine, she managed a not-for-profit program that distributed the publication to 250,000 third and fourth-graders in low-income areas across the country. The program was a huge success in engaging these sometimes hard-tomotivate students in reading and learning activities.

A former volunteer for Save the Children, Jennifer is the founder and president of Cradles to Crayons in Philadelphia. Cradles to Crayons provides low-income and homeless children, from infants to pre-teens, with the basic essentials they need to be safe, warm, ready to learn, and valued. All of this is provided free of charge. The organization also sets a foundation for lasting change through the meaningful, tangible volunteer opportunities it provides to thousands of youth and adults each year.

Cradles to Crayons in Philadelphia was “born” in September 2005, when Jennifer Case, with the help of her three young children, held a multi-family tag sale in

their Glenside, PA neighborhood. All the proceeds went to assist children who were victims of Katrina. The event was called “Kids 4 Kids.” Through the garage sale, Jennifer, who had been a stay-at-home mom for several years, saw the lessons that she could teach her children and others about the power of giving. At the same time, Jennifer realized that she wanted to take this effort to a much bigger level.

Through a good friend, Jennifer was introduced to Lynn Margherio at Cradles to Crayons, visited the organization’s Boston office, and made the decision to bring this successful organization to Philadelphia. In 2006, she founded the Philadelphia chapter of Cradles to Crayons.

Like her counterparts in Boston, Case has spent countless hours building bridges to social-service partner organizations, volunteer groups, and corporations (which organize groups of volunteers and – in many cases – donate funds or make in-kind contributions). “It’s about creating opportunities for what we call ‘widespread volunteerism,’” says Case.

“We partner with social-service organizations in the Philadelphia area to connect communities that have surplus resources – new or used items in good condition – with communities that desperately need access to those resources.”

Last year, Cradles to Crayons provided, free of charge, packages of clothes, shoes, books, toys, baby safety equipment and school supplies to 48,000 children in the Boston and Philadelphia metropolitan areas. Read more here: H T T P : / / P H I L A D E L PHIA.CRADLESTOCRAYONS.ORG/NODE/5.

2010 Community Service Award Speech by Jennifer Case ’80: How many of you have now, or have at home any clothes, sweaters, shoes, books or games that are still in good shape but that you don’t wear, read, or use any more?

(All hands went up.)

Yes, I thought so. Well, as the mother of

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RIGHT: Malcolm McKenzie with Jennifer Case

three, I was living in a home where we, too, had a lot of ‘extras’ in our closets.

Now, imagine three young children – a 12-year old boy, seven-year-old girl, and baby girl, escaping with their mother from an abusive situation and arriving at a shelter in the middle of the night with only their clothes on their back. How many of you would like to help these children, providing clothes, books, or toys – if you had hand-me-downs appropriate for their age? (All hands go up.) Great!

That is what Cradles to Crayons does.

And that was our first order back in June 2007 for Jeremy, Jamillia, and Johanna.

Cradles to Crayons recycles the children’s essentials that so many of us are fortunate to have and redistributes them directly to those living in households at low-income or poverty levels. ‘C2C’ collects donated items in a warehouse, sorts and processes these items with the help of volunteer groups – adults, students, and school groups – and then distributes the items when ordered by an agency for specific children. It’s simple, smart, and incredibly low-cost.

But what I wanted to share with you today are the lessons I learned in starting Cradles to Crayons – lessons I also remember learning during my years at Hotchkiss.

Follow your passion; Believe in yourself; Work hard, and perhaps most importantly; Build and work as a team: Everyone has something to bring to the table.

How Cradles to Crayons started was in some ways very simple. After Hurricane Katrina, my children and I decided to have a garage sale to raise money to donate to Katrina’s young victims. We sent out 30 emails to tell friends and neighbors to stop by. We got back 40 emails saying, “I have stuff to sell, too.” We realized then how much excess we all had in our closets and

playrooms. Before we knew it, we had a community yard sale.

But what was most inspiring about the day was seeing the joy and excitement of my children, who were getting so much joy out of helping others.

And THIS is where the passion started.

So, I searched and looked for something to build that would engage families and their children in ‘giving back.’ Originally, I was working on a garage sale model that would raise and donate funds. But then I came across Cradles to Crayons in Boston, which had a warehouse where items were collected, sorted, processed, and packaged for children in need.

The next challenge was: How to build an organization like this in a city with four times more poverty than Boston; and where one in three children doesn’t even have his or her own books to read. It was a daunting idea.

And this is where Believing in yourself, Working hard, and Working as a team became critical. I had to believe that I could start this from scratch, but that if I only served one child, then it would be worth it.

So I set to talking about it, and finding others with a similar passion – building a team of knowledgeable people – and then we all worked very hard! We began by col-

lecting product in garage spaces, driving uhauls, and sorting items in dark school basements – endless hours, but a great team.

In June 2007, with one part-time employee, Cradles to Crayons Philadelphia opened its first warehouse – 8,000 sq. ft. – and started by serving six agencies. Our six distribution partners included: a hospital, a school district, a homeless shelter, an abuse center, a faith-based shelter, and a family support organization.

This March, two- and one-half years later, we moved to a 17,000 sq. ft. space.

We have grown to a staff of nine, but all of those on the original team are still involved and still passionate.

In less than three years, Cradles to Crayons Philadelphia has engaged more than 16,000 volunteers and served more than 31,000 children. And we now serve over 420 distribution partner programs.

This success could never have happened without: Following my passion; Believing in myself; A lot of Hard Work, and most importantly; Building and Working with an incredible team.

So – no matter what you go on to do in life, remember these lessons – and also, please remember that if we all give a little, we can make a big difference.

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n a quiet Saturday morning in May, I drove north along Route 41 with the radio on.

As I was listening to NPR’s morning news program, I happened to catch an interview with Elizabeth Samet, a professor of literature at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. She was answering questions about her book, Soldier’s Heart: Reading Literature through Peace and War at West Point. She spoke at length about the correspondence she maintained, mostly by e-mail, with former students serving all over the world.

Whoa! I slowed the car and focused more carefully on what she was saying. I, too, had been exchanging e-mails with military men and women stationed in far-flung places, all of them Hotchkiss alumni. And during these exchanges, I found myself struggling always with a worry that I was distracting them from important work or from possible physical danger. My e-mails seemed so trivial.

Hearing the professor talk about her e-mail conversations with young men and women whom she knew well as former students put me in touch with the disconnect that I felt. Here I was in quiet Lakeville, working every day at a place of sublime beauty, enjoying the immense pleasure of spring in New England. How could I not be aware of my own discomfort as I carefully addressed my e-mails to these soldiers, living in difficult situations and sometimes dangerous places?

And so, here is news received from 12 Hotchkiss graduates serving in branches of the U.S. military, here and overseas. As to the mechanics of this exchange, I sent e-mail queries to alumni for whom our database showed a record of active service. I asked questions about their decision to serve, the daily life in their current deployment, and the lessons and surprises in their military experience.

Several expressed appreciation at being included in an article. “Thank you for contacting me. It warms my heart to know that Hotchkiss values its sons and daughters in the military,” one wrote.

But, “do they know they warm our hearts?” I asked myself again and again that day.

Letters Home:

Hearing from

Hotchkiss Alumni in the

Military

By Roberta Jenckes

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FIRST LIEUTENANT JAMES P. “BIFF” MCNALLY ’02 Currently deployed to Helmand Province in Afghanistan; graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point

‘‘A

s an Infantry Platoon Leader deployed in a combat zone, I am responsible for the tactical employment of 40 infantry soldiers, four Stryker Infantry carrier vehicles, and myriad other equipment. I lead my platoon in the execution of raids, reconnaissance, ambushes, civil-military operations, and other combat operations as needed to support the war effort in southern Afghanistan.

“I think fighting the war in the heart of one of the poorest and most radicalized locations in Afghanistan has really illustrated the benefits we have as Americans. The poverty here is oppressive, and most people will never have the opportunity to choose their lives or affect their futures in a tangible way. The Taliban has managed to shut down most educational outlets, save for the madrassas (religious schools), and this limits the ability of children to become upwardly mobile. In effect, the lack of educational opportunity and reliance on religious education serves to tie the populace to either a) radical religious clerics preaching jihad and/or b) makes them totally incapable of developing the skills necessary to earn a living doing anything other than harvesting poppy. The Taliban, of course, provides the poppy farmers with the most consistent customer, and this lack of education then binds the people to the Taliban for economic reasons.

“Many of the children we pass in the streets, especially the little girls, follow us down the

‘‘9/11

happened while I was at

Hotchkiss. I

remember watching the day unfold in the Memo common room. I was, of course, angry and saddened. … I suspected we would be going to war, and thought that it would be a defining experience for my generation.”

— Biff McNally ’02

road with smiles and waves. To these kids, we represent hope for their futures... one in which they can go to school, women can participate in a meaningful and large-scale way in their public society, not worry about whether they can leave their homes at night, etc. Most people here live hard and insular lives that I am not sure very many Americans could relate to. I think it is a testament to our strength as a country that most of us do not have to worry about the most elementary of concerns, and that people from other countries still look at us the way in which we like to think of ourselves.”

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COLONEL CHRISTOPHER “CHRIS” J. COHOES ’84 U.S. Air Force Pilot, whose service began in 1987

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am currently working on the staff of the Commander, European Command. I am involved in the ‘battle of the narrative.’ We launch ideas instead of weapons to influence adversary decisionmaking processes in an attempt to dominate the information environment.

“The military experience has been outstanding. At first it was the thrill of flying and having the responsibility to make life-

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and-death decisions in combat at an early age. Most surprising was the realization that there is a special connection between all military servicemen, past, present, and future, because we understand ultimate sacrifice.

We do what we do because we are driven not by what we want, how much we earn, intellectual curiosity, or any other motivation than that a life serving a higher purpose is the ultimate reward.

“It has been very rewarding to see a team of people from incredibly diverse backgrounds come together under my command and win. I never considered the military while at Hotchkiss. In fact, my parents’ counsel to me during college was something along the lines that I’d be committing intellectual suicide by joining the military. They have since reversed course.”

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SECOND LIEUTENANT ALEX LEZAMA ’05 U.S. Army

‘‘I

NICK LEZAMA ’75, M.D., M.P. H. P’05, ’08, ’11, ’11 Air Force Colonel, currently assigned to U.S. Transportation Command at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois

‘‘I

provide medical oversight for the Department of Defense patient movement system, which moves war casualties back to the U.S., and civilian patients during domestic and international disasters.

This August I’ll be moving to a medical school faculty assignment at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda. Maryland.

“I entered the military after receiving an Army Health Professions Scholarship to Boston University School of Medicine. I served nine years in the Army from 1984-93, then had a three-year break in service while working as an emergency physician in Framingham, MA. I joined the Air Force in 1996 and am still on active duty.

“Military medicine offers many opportunities outside the traditional civilian hospitalbased practice. Over the last 23 years, I have held clinical, teaching, command, and headquarters staff assignments. My most rewarding experiences have been during my deploy-

ments in support of our current operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and during hurricane and earthquake disaster responses.

“The most surprising aspect of my career has been how much I missed the military after leaving the Army. I missed the camaraderie, common sense of purpose, and pride in wearing the uniform. I never expected to serve 20 years, but interesting opportunities kept popping up, and I had a supportive wife and family who were willing to endure multiple moves and ‘uprootings.’ Hotchkiss has been very generous in its support of the Lezama family; my three sons and daughter (Diana ’11, Robbie ’11, Alex ’05, and Peter ’08) all have had the benefit of a Hotchkiss education, for which I will always be grateful.

“When I was at Hotchkiss, I knew I wanted to be a physician, but I never imagined being a career military officer. Growing up in the ’70s left me with an independent and freedom-loving perspective on life, and surprisingly I have found personal and professional satisfaction in the military... guess we all gotta’ serve somebody!”

began my military service a year ago after graduating from The George Washington University in Washington, DC. I am a Military Intelligence Officer and currently work in an Army Counterintelligence unit at Fort Meade, MD. I have a four-year commitment to the Army in exchange for my ROTC scholarship.

“In the year I have been in the Army, I have been fortunate to do a significant amount of travel around the U.S. I have not yet deployed overseas but am planning on going as soon as I am able to. The most surprising thing about the Army so far has been the incredible diversity that exists within the organization as a whole. My unit is comprised of people from different areas of the country, ideologies, and socioeconomic backgrounds. The integration of all walks of life within the Army is a welcome surprise and, I believe, a driving force for its organizational success.

“The idea of joining the Army was always in the back of my mind due to my father’s military career (Colonel Nick Lezama ’75) and my general exposure to military culture as a child growing up. Coming to Hotchkiss in the fall of 2001 brought that idea to the top of my priorities. Experiencing September 11th as a young Prep convinced me to pursue a military career, and I began to explore ways to do so. Eight years later, after Hotchkiss and college, I am finally in the position to serve my country to the best of my ability as an Army officer. The Army has turned me into a stronger person and a better leader. I strongly encourage everyone, current Hotchkiss students and alumni alike, to consider a military career as a way to honorably serve your country while gaining experiences that will change your life for the better!”

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AFGHANISTAN: ANYTHING BUT ROUTINE

by Biff McNally ’02

“Daily life for me is pretty varied, as I am in the middle of a combat deployment. It is hard to give an exact definition of a ‘normal’ day here, because there are so many variables that can affect what you experience. Your unit, your area of operations, the people you serve with and under, the enemy you fight, etc. all have votes in what your daily routine may consist of. Fighting in southern Afghanistan in 2009-2010 (a region defined as the heart of the insurgency) has been interesting, and my platoon has seen a relatively significant amount of combat (We have had over half of my 40-man platoon wounded in ten months, and I was wounded myself in a suicide attack just over a month after I got to Afghanistan), which has obviously shaped my experience in the Army thus far.

“The variability has been a departure from my original youthful expectations. On a Monday, you may patrol into a village and spend the day drinking chai and eating goat with the elders, sharing stories about your respective homes and families and building a relationship. That Tuesday, you may walk into a nearby town and find yourself in a fight that lasts the better part of the day, taking fire from machine guns and RPGs while Improvised Explosive Devices, suicide attacks, and car bombs detonate nearby or on your guys.

“Wednesday may consist of refitting for the next mission by conducting vehicle maintenance, planning for the next set of missions, resting and working out, checking equipment, helping one of your soldiers deal with a family problem at home, credit issues, plans for their future, etc. You really have to be ready for a variety of situations of variable levels of intensity. I’m not sure that you are ever really aware of that concept while you are thinking about leading a platoon in combat; it’s just something you need to experience to understand. Being a platoon leader has been as much an intellectual challenge as a physical one, and again I am not sure that dynamic is necessarily at the forefront of your thoughts as you prepare to lead in combat.”

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CAPTAIN EDWARD J. “TED” HUBBARD ’02 Joined the Marine Corps in 2006 after graduating from Boston College

‘‘I

am an Infantry Officer with tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, but I am now stationed at the Marine Barracks in Washington, DC. We conduct ceremonial missions throughout the Capital and the country. If you want more information about my most recent deployment to Afghanistan, you can watch the PBS ‘Frontline’ documentary, ‘Obama’s War.’ My Company and Platoon are featured in it, and I appear a few times as well.

“The Marine Corps has been very good to me, and right now I am committed to continuing my service. The most surprising thing to me has been the incredible amount of dedication and determination that many Marines put in on a daily basis. Our jobs require extremely long hours and many sacrifices, and while Marines often complain about it as young men and women are prone to do, they continue to do incredible things in the worst imaginable conditions and are happy to do it.

“I guess that has also been the most rewarding. Being given the opportunity to lead 40-60 of America’s finest young men in combat is a huge responsibility and a great honor. Seeing them develop into mature men and watching them sacrifice everything, including their lives, for their brothers has been completely awe-inspiring.

“Good luck and go, Bearcats!”

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‘‘U

LIEUTENANT CHRISTOPHER “CHRIS” KIESEL ’98 Currently an Instructor Pilot in the Navy at HSC-3 in San Diego teaching young aviators how to fly the MH-60 Sierra Helicopter

pon graduating from Hotchkiss in 1998, I attended the United States Naval Academy, graduating in 2002. I was winged as a Naval Aviator in 2004.

“I spent two years completing flight training in and around Florida and Texas prior to earning my wings as a helicopter pilot. I had a deep desire to travel as far as I possibly could, and the Navy made my dream a reality when they chose to station me in Japan for three years as a member of the Helantisubron Fourteen Chargers. This was a challenging experience because this helicopter squadron was part of the only permanently forward deployed Air Wing in the Navy. This proved to be the beginning of a truly unique adventure that is still fresh in my mind to this day.

My squadron’s job was to provide support in Search and Rescue, Submarine deterrence, and Logistics support. It was an extremely rigorous, yet rewarding experience that forced me to grow and mature in more ways than I believed possible.

“After completing my tour of duty in Asia, I was chosen to become a flight instructor in San Diego, where I now train newly winged Helicopter pilots in the mission areas they

will need to master prior to heading out to the fleet. I have been a flight instructor for two years now and am currently waiting for my next set of orders. Where I go from there is anyone’s guess.

“The challenge of dealing with constant change in dynamic environments has been the most rewarding aspect of my job and one that continues to surprise me to this day. I believe what was so special about my time at Hotchkiss is that I was able to savor each moment because I already knew that I had been accepted to the Naval Academy through the Foundation Program. This knowledge allowed me to embrace the school, my classes, my fellow students and the shared experiences in a very dynamic and fulfilling way. I continue to reap the benefits of my Hotchkiss experience and know that both my personal and professional lives are more robust as a result.”

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‘‘I hope

CAPTAIN JOSEPH L. “JOE” HOLLIDAY ’02 U.S. Army, the Battalion Intelligence Officer for 2-327 Infantry, 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division; currently deployed in Konar Province in Afghanistan

‘‘A

fter my freshman year at Princeton, when everyone began to think about what they wanted to do after school, I soon realized that I didn’t want to be an investment banker or lawyer, at least right away. I wanted to do something exciting and memorable that would be good life experience. There are plenty of jobs that fit that description, from Peace Corps to teacher, but none that also offered the level of responsibility and leadership as the Army.

“When I graduated from Princeton and commissioned in the Infantry, I spent nearly a year of training at Fort Benning, GA, before taking a platoon of 30 soldiers to Baghdad, Iraq in November 2007. The deployment was a rewarding experience because I was lucky enough to be at the center of it all at a pivotal moment in Iraq. In March 2008, when the Iraqi Army moved on Shia gangs in Basra, this quickly led to Muqtada al Sadr’s calling for a general resistance among the Shia population in Baghdad, primarily in Sadr City, which our Battalion’s operational area bordered. This

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some Hotchkiss students will think about this path. As hard as this is right now, every day I find myself in situations where I have to think, ‘How many of my friends ever will experience something like this?’”

— Joe Holliday ’02

became the last major Shia uprising to date.

“Here in the Konar Province, the pockets of population that we can’t easily reach are completely controlled by the Taliban through brutal, armed propaganda. No one wants to be seen as working against the Taliban in those areas because they’re dead in a day or two. It is incredibly sad and frustrating because our responses to this violence are limited by restrictions about the types of operations we can and can’t do. Winning hearts and minds and protecting the population have somehow been interpreted as no offensive actions. But when villagers have surrendered for fear of their lives, how can we expect to protect them other than through force, which by the way is what the military is designed to do?

“Encouraging the people to resist themselves is equally frustrating because everyone here is convinced that we are leaving, and as soon as we are gone that Karzai’s government will fall. Everyone, and especially those political survivors who have survived the last 30 years in Afghanistan to reach the highest levels of government, has an exit strategy that involves maintaining a relationship with the

other side of the fight. More than once I have had dirt-poor farmers with no access to international news media say things like, ‘Why should we help you? Your president said you will be gone in 2012, but the Taliban is here to stay.’”

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of Iraq. As the Executive Officer, I was responsible for supervising supply and maintenance operations, while planning future missions and facilitating combat operations.

Prior to my assignment as the Executive Officer, I served as the Vertical Construction Platoon Leader. I led a platoon of 55 soldiers on numerous combat patrols and construction missions throughout the Salah ad Din and Diyala Provinces while successfully training and working alongside soldiers from the Iraqi Army’s 5th Field Engineer Regiment.”

What has been the greatest lesson of the experience?

“Individuals, especially soldiers, have a remarkable ability to persevere and get through the most challenging circumstances.”

CAPTAIN COURTENAY W. CULLEN ’03 U.S. Army

C

ourtenay recently returned from a 12month deployment to Iraq and began study at the Captain’s Career Course in July.

She will return to Fort Bragg following graduation to attend the Civil Affairs Qualification Course, which is headquartered under U.S. Army Special Operations Command. Civil Affairs is a relatively new branch in the U.S. Army and an important aspect of our ongoing counter-insurgency operations in the Middle East.

Courtenay knew when she was at Hotchkiss that she might pursue military service and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers in May 2007 after graduation from Lehigh University’s Army ROTC program.

“I was recently assigned as the Executive Officer of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 37th Engineer Battalion (COMBAT)(AIRBORNE) in Iraq. As the Executive Officer, I was responsible for running the day-to-day affairs of a company consisting of over 250 soldiers conducting combat operations primarily in the Diyala Province

SECOND LIEUTENANT MILES KASS ’04 U.S. Marine Corps Commissioned in March 2009; Currently at Ground Intelligence Officer Course in Virginia Beach, VA

‘‘I

when I have the opportunity to mentor young Marines, either as their platoon commander or intelligence officer.

“Three things have been most surprising about my Marine Corps experience. They are the striking mental aptitude of my peers, the emphasis the institution places on learning from its mistakes, and the importance of being a person of principle in both our private and public life.

“When deciding to enter the Marines, I knew that I would be surrounded by intelligent people. However, the reality of their capabilities far exceeded my expectations.

“Learning from mistakes: The Marine Corps has the remarkable ability to ‘check its pride at the door’ when the conversation turns to righting past wrongs and improving the institution as a whole. Abu Ghraib and Mai Lai are constant topics of discussion.

The Marine Corps recognizes that pretending such incidents did not happen or that there were no wrongs committed, leaves us vulnerable to repeating past injustices.

“Public vs. private life: Marines, especially officers, are held to a very high standard when it comes to personal conduct. A violation at home is taken just as seriously as a violation at work. If an officer is caught having an extramarital affair or engaging in an affair with a married woman (man) even if he himself is single, the Marine is separated from the Marine Corps immediately. The rationale behind it (as I understand it) is that if you are unable to be faithful to your wife and respect the most sacred covenant in our culture, then there is no reason to believe that you can be faithful to your country.”

knew early on in high school that I would choose military service. My time in the Marine Corps so far has been short. I have spent all of my time in training commands. However, I am certain that the most rewarding element of my job will come S p r i n g

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CAPTAIN JOSEPH T. “JOE” CURNOW ’03 1-82 Attack Reconnaissance Battalion “Wolfpack”

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oe graduated in 2007 from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point as a military intelligence officer with a degree in electrical engineering. In 2008 he was stationed at Fort Bragg, NC, assigned to the 182 Attack Reconnaissance Battalion of the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade as the assistant military intelligence officer.

In May 2009 he deployed to Southern Afghanistan with 1-82 ARB as the primary intelligence officer for the battalion in support of NATO forces. His unit returned from deployment in April and is currently conducting reintegration operations.

“When I first attended Hotchkiss, I did not have plans to join the military, though both of my grandfathers had served. My

RYAN LARRIVEE ’03 Lieutenant Junior Grade in the U.S. Navy; commissioned on graduation from the United States Naval Academy in 2007

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urrently serving as Assistant Supply Officer onboard the USS Princeton, which is deployed to the Indian Ocean, Middle East, and Horn of Africa in support of various operations including the UNsanctioned counter-piracy operations, for Combined Task Force -151; then, to Bahrain for 12 months “Being a post-grad student at Hotchkiss my only goal was to have a good year and

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receive my acceptance to the United States Naval Academy, which had been a childhood dream of mine.

“My time in the military has been incredibly formative. The usual standbys of discipline and confidence are certainly something that all military personnel are familiar with, and the training did wonders for that in me. It’s the sailors that I work with on a day-to-day basis that are the real surprise and part of the job that we were never trained for. So many different types of people coming from different countries (Philippines, Malaysia, Japan) working to gain citizenship and get a better life for their families. My sailors are some of the most dedicated and hardworking people that I have ever met, and they continue to amaze. They also do some of the craziest things on leave that I could never have dreamed of.

“The most rewarding part of the experience is the knowledge that by our presence we help stabilize troubled regions and try to make the seas a safe place to be for everyone.”

senior year I became interested in the military as a way to serve my country, so I conducted a tour of the academy and spent the weekend attending classes and training events. That weekend I recognized that West Point offered in addition to academics, leadership training, physical training, and more importantly an opportunity to serve my country. After the weekend I had made my decision and applied for early acceptance before leaving the campus.

“The biggest thing I have learned in the military is problem solving. Often a young leader is given a task to complete that he or she was not trained on, and it is up to that individual to find a way to complete it. This is especially true in the current war we are fighting, as young soldiers are making decisions that have a great impact on the larger success of operations.”

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LIEUTENANT COLONEL SUNIL DESAI ’87 On active duty in the U.S. Marine Corps, presently stationed at the Pentagon and working on strategic issues such as preparing the Marine Corps for future threats to national security

ven before arriving at Hotchkiss, Sunil knew he wanted to join the Marines.

He recalls, “I told my faculty advisor at our first meeting that I intended to go to the Naval Academy or enlist in the Marine Corps if I didn’t get accepted. As it turned out, I was accepted and, upon graduating, was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps.”

An average day now: “I am presently assigned to the Marine Corps’ Headquarters, which supports the Commandant in his duties leading the Corps. I have been here two years and have one more to go. This ‘staff’ assignment is very much like a corporate office job and completely different from my ‘operational’ assignments, which have included five deployments, most recently to Iraq in 2007-2008.”

Have there been any big surprises in the military experience? “In many ways the Marine Corps is exactly as I expected, and yet, in many ways, it is very different – not necessarily for better or worse, just different. I think, however, that is true of most organizations – what one knows on the outside is not completely what one finds on the inside.”

What has been the greatest lesson of the experience? “There are many great lessons that are worthy of note, but perhaps the best overarching lesson is the realization that I am capable of overcoming even greater challenges that I had previously thought.”

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TEACHING

ma t t e rs

Griffith ‘Fritz’ Mark: Broadening Horizons in Many Corners of the School B Y

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H E N R Y

M C N U L T Y

“When I was young,” says Griffith “Fritz” Mark,

“I wanted to be a medical missionary and organist. Albert Schweitzer was my hero, and there’s always been that streak in me.”

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Mark, who retired this past spring after serving for many years as Instructor of English and for a time as Coordinator of International Programs, has worn many hats at School: teacher, coach, admission officer, adviser, and more. But at heart, he is a missionary, exploring uncharted territory to improve the lives of others.

He grew up in Winnetka, IL, and attended Lawrence Academy in Groton, MA. “In high school,” he says, “I was interested in medicine, but before I got into that, I needed to know why, so I got into philosophy.” At Carleton College, where he earned his degree in three years by going to the University of Chicago in the summers, he was a philosophy major with a minor in ancient Greek.

After being graduated from college, he returned to his alma mater, Lawrence, to teach English. “I absolutely loved it,” he says. “I thought, ‘nobody should love something this much at such a young age’.” He also pursued a Ph.D. in philosophy at Boston University.

But those were the late 1960s, a time of great social upheaval, and Mark decided to become more involved in societal issues than being a teacher and graduate student would allow. He joined Morgan Guaranty Trust Co. in New York, and became an Assistant Secretary in the company’s newly formed Urban Affairs department, dealing every day with the problems of inner-city poverty.

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OPPOSITE: Hilla Meller '04 with Fritz Mark RIGHT: Faculty, staff, and students cheer Mr. Mark after his last class.

BELOW RIGHT: Mark, posing with varsity sailors Blaire Largay Farrar '87 and David Williams '87, with the team's trophy

LIFE IN THE ‘BED-STUY’

PHILOSOPHY IN LITERATURE It was, at first, not an easy adjustment.

“Australia had been such a warm, friendly place,” he says. “New England is a lot colder, more formal and correct. And I was not ‘of the Hotchkiss manner’ – I’m from the Midwest. But I stayed here anyway.”

His first week, the then-head of Admissions asked him if he had any particular goals in selecting students. “I looked around, and I saw there were only a handful of African American students at the School,” Mark remembers. “So I said, ‘I think we should recruit our own minority students.’ I then spent the better part of 10 years trying to change the complexion of this school as much as I could. I went to the major cities and established networks.”

He was pleased when then-head of English L. Blair Torrey gave him permission to start a Great Books course. “My passions are authors like Plato, Dante, Milton,” Mark says. “I love teaching, no matter what it is, but I would say the Great Books course is the one that sustained me.

It gave me freedom to grow myself by teaching new books and exploring new minds. It’s really teaching philosophy through literature.”

Faculty colleague George Faison agrees wholeheartedly. To hundreds, “maybe thousands,” of students, he said in a speech at Mark’s retirement dinner, “you have given literary life, engendering their passion for reading great works. You have spent whole semesters talking about archetypes, but you are yourself an archetype, the template of the

PHOTO COURTESY OF HOTCHKISS SCHOOL ARCHIVES

“My days were spent in Harlem, and the lower East Side, and the South Bronx,” he says. “For four years, my job was to find out about drug abuse, housing, health care, and education. I learned that until you experience something, you have no credibility. If you want to make changes, you have to immerse yourself in the situation.” So he, his wife, and their two children moved into a house in the troubled Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, where riots and looting were not uncommon.

Working with Morgan Guaranty, Mark helped create the publicly and privately funded Lower East Side Prep School, where minority students, particularly Chinese, predominated. At the time, there were virtually no Chinese-speaking teachers in the New York City school system, but the success of the school he helped start led city administrators to hire many more.

Still, he missed teaching, so in 1973 he took a post at The Hill School in Pottstown, Pa. A few years later, touched by the spirit of adventure, he moved to Canberra, Australia, to teach English, religion, history, philosophy, and personal development at the Canberra Grammar School. “That’s the Australian system,” he explains. “You teach everything, and I mean everything.” The position originally called for his filling in for a year while another teacher was on leave, but the Markses, then with three children, fell in love with Australia and ended up staying four years.

Eventually, they came back to the United States. “I wanted to teach at either Hotchkiss or Deerfield,” he recalls, “but at the time, Deerfield was not yet coed, and I did not want any more boys schools. So I came to Hotchkiss in 1982 and took a job in Admissions.”

PHOTO BY LEN RUBENSTEIN

NEIGHBORHOOD

independent school teacher whose benevolent mark on students is indelible.”

Says Instructor in English Carita Gardiner: “Last year, Fritz helped a group of eager Upper Mids to read Les Miserables together as an Independent Study. They grew to love the book, each other, and Fritz. This year, most of them begged me to figure out how to get them into his senior English elective.”

A NURTURING PRESENCE Mark also coached sailing – something he admits he knew nothing about. “My grandfather was an Admiral,” he says, “so sailing was in our family, and I did know how to sail.

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ma t t e rs bers the confidence Mark gave her. “His teaching,” she says, “helped me find a confidence in my academic ability and laid the groundwork for all that followed for me with my studies and my career.”

THINKING INTERNATIONALLY

But I didn’t know how to coach sailing, which is quite a different thing. And I knew zero about racing.

“It was difficult, but I worked at it, and I finally made it my own. I spent as much time on sailing as I did on anything else. Those sailors were hugely important to me, and as usual, the kids knew much more than the coach. They needed support, attention, and then somebody to make a final decision, but I couldn’t teach them anything about sailing.”

Under his leadership, Hotchkiss won a national sailing championship, the Mallory Trophy, in 1991. And the New England Team Racing trophy is named the Fritz Mark Trophy.

Former students fondly remember Mark’s enthusiasm. “For my last semester of English,” says Katherine Afzal ’10, “we spent almost the first quarter solely on Hamlet, reading every scene carefully and multiple times. Every class was filled with interesting discussions, and often arguments, where Mr. Mark was just as heated as the students.”

Others recall his nurturing presence.

“When I arrived at Hotchkiss,” says Nakia Elliott ’93, now a corporate lawyer in New York, “I was nervous about what to expect, because I hadn’t spent much time outside of Brooklyn, NY, where I grew up. I have never forgotten the confidence Mr. Mark gave me when I was sitting in his office in tears and feeling overwhelmed. He told me I was one of the smartest students at Hotchkiss, and he encouraged me to read books and newspapers, and open my mind to the world.”

Gretchen Biedron ’83, founder of the Willow School in Gladstone, NJ, also remem-

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In the 1990s, Mark’s view of Hotchkiss’s potential expanded. “Just as we had very few minority students when I first was here,” he says, “we had done very little internationally, apart from the school year abroad. The door was open to all kinds of changes, but how do you wake a school up to an international perspective?” The answer came in 1998, when at its 50th Reunion the Class of 1948 gave more than a million dollars to set up a fund for global understanding. Mark was chosen to develop the program.

Part of what he did was to encourage international students to come to Hotchkiss. One was Hilla Meller ’04, who had found Mark’s name on the Hotchkiss website and sent him a request. “The e-mail said, more or less, ‘you don’t know me, I’m a 16-year-old from Israel.

I found your name on the Hotchkiss website.

I want to come to Hotchkiss,’” she says. He not only encouraged her, he practically insisted that she apply, and she did.

“Coming to Hotchkiss was a bit like landing on the moon,” she recalls. “Although I was determined to come to boarding school, everything I knew about it I had learned in the movies. I found myself in a new language, without family, no friends to speak of, and basically no idea what I had gotten myself into. Mr. Mark immediately took over. When I got sick, he talked to the doctor, and when I was homesick I found a home with his family.

His office, which was then in the college counseling office, became a second home for me.”

He also encouraged the School to give summer grants for students to go abroad, providing they did some sort of community service; the program has involved as many as 50 students per summer, and continues under the leadership of Assistant Head of School Manjula Salomon and Coordinator of International Programs David Thompson. And he helped Hotchkiss become a member of Round Square, the worldwide association of secondary schools with an international perspective.

“We were very insular,” Mark says. “There was mostly ‘the Hotchkiss Way’ – the ‘Hotchkiss Experience.’ Now, the School is

such a much healthier place than it was. We have students from all over the world; we send students to colleges all over the world; we have faculty from all over the world. It’s a one-world environment.”

To Hilla Meller, Mark’s missionary zeal has meant a stronger Hotchkiss. “It’s been only six years since I graduated,” she told guests at Mark’s retirement dinner, “but I am thrilled to see the many positive transformations that Hotchkiss has undergone. I have spoken to many here, and [they] have seen great change, welcome change. In conversations we’ve had, he has told me about how he sees that change – how he sees the school evolving, growing, becoming better. Those are the fruits of the work of many people, but Mr. Mark is a unique visionary among them.”

THE WATCHWORD: WISDOM As he approached retirement, Mark, ever the philosopher-missionary, continued to examine the heart and soul of the School. “The moral question for me is, how do you justify Hotchkiss – a concentration of wealth and beauty like this – in this world?” he asks. “I think it’s important to articulate who you are; then our mission is to put that philosophy into action.”

To that end, at the close of the school year, he gave a Chapel talk – he termed it his “last lecture” – in which he urged Hotchkiss to reexamine and better define its essential principles. He argued that truth and virtue – the “logos” and “arete” inscribed on the front of the Main Building – are excellent qualities, but they are not enough; they must be supplemented by wisdom, as represented by Athena on the School Seal.

“Wisdom,” he told the assembled students and faculty, “is our essential watchword …

‘Act with wisdom’ our motto, our individual and communal charge. And if we can do that well, we will be able to lead well, serve well, and steward well.”

In retirement, Mark plans to work with Global Connections, the international consortium of independent schools, teaching abroad. His job will be to match retired teachers with foreign schools.

“This program is for retired teachers who want to stay involved, perhaps in another country,” he explains, “but not committed for the long term – maybe for a month, or two months. We’re not just going to sit back and twiddle our thumbs, but have a purpose.”

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Sandy Haiko: Teaching Students to See with New Understanding B Y

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“Anybody now can go out with a digital camera,” says

Instructor in Photography Sandra Haiko, “and come back with some pretty good pictures. But can they go beyond that?”

There, in a nutshell, is Sandy Haiko’s approach to teaching photography: going beyond. Whether it’s finding beauty in the seemingly ordinary, bringing back long-ago techniques such as using pinhole cameras or hand-tinting, or mastering darkroom techniques in the digital age, she has always gone beyond the routine.

For almost 25 years, she has been half of Hotchkiss’s Photography Department – the other half being her husband, Bob Haiko, who started the department in 1969.

“My father got me interested in photography,” says Sandy, who retired this past spring. “He had lots of things he did as hobbies, and one of them was photography. He would process the film and make prints in the basement, so that’s where I learned. I started out with a 35-millimeter camera.

Until, then my main interests had been painting and sculpture.”

Interested in art since high school, Sandy was a liberal arts major at Boston University when she met Bob, an art student at B.U. A few years later they married, and shortly after he started teaching photography at Hotchkiss; when she arrived here, she enrolled at the State University of New York

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LEFT: Sandy Haiko, in the backyard of the Haikos' campus home; a photo taken by Bob Haiko

at New Paltz and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with a major in photography.

COMING ON BOARD Then she found work nearby at the Lakeville Journal. “For three years, Sandy was the darkroom lab technician,” Bob explains. “Typically each week in a two-day period Sandy would develop about 50 rolls of film, make contact sheets, and then print 30 or more photographs. It was grueling work. I don’t know how she did it.”

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She then worked as an assistant in the Hotchkiss library. In 1985 the photography department underwent a dramatic renovation and Bob needed help, so Sandy came on board.

“I started teaching black-and-white basic photography, and some of the old processes,” she says, “and I continued ’till today. In addition, both Bob and I taught color photography and until, at last, when the quality of digital was good enough and archival inks and papers were readily available, we

stopped working with color chemistry.

However, digital photography has been part of the program since 1991.”

And while she has taught “straight” photography – many of the Haikos’ students went on to photograph for the Misch or the Record and for the Alumni Office – Sandy never neglected her more artistic leanings.

“The kids also do mixed media,” she says, “photocopying, coloring, collages. Of course, you can do similar work digitally, but there is something about the hands-on approach that, to me, is more immediate.

Another aspect of photography that I enjoyed was teaching students how to extend the meaning of an idea by bringing two or more photographs together to make a statement. This led to teaching sequences and narratives including handmade books.”

In some classes Sandy allowed students to try unconventional laboratory techniques, such as developing film using instant coffee and washing soda – yes, it can be done, with interesting results – or giving prints an antique look by staining them with tea.

“Mrs. Haiko had a profound effect on me during the four short years that I was a student here,” says Annika Lescott ’06, who graduated this spring from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and who spoke at Sandy’s retirement dinner in May. “When I enrolled in basic photography with Mrs. Haiko at the start of my lower mid year, I knew nothing about photography as an art form,” she says. “I had never been in a darkroom, much less developed a photo.

Shutter speeds and f-stops were completely foreign concepts. I was prepared to take photography for one year to fulfill the mandatory art requirement; one year evolved into two, two became three. And by my senior

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RIGHT: "Bittersweet 1," 2004, by Sandra Haiko LOWER RIGHT: Enjoying the speakers at the retirement dinner in May

year, I was voluntarily spending every free period in the bottom of the science building, working on projects for my independent study in photography with Mrs. Haiko.”

PATIENCE AND KINDNESS Bryan Small ’03, who now works for an insurance advisory firm in Jersey City, NJ, is another former student who knew little of photography before taking an introductory course from Sandy. “I came to enjoy it a whole lot,” he says. “Learning about light and shadow, and the way you can manipulate images with filters – it was all very interesting to me. Also, I found her to be one of the nicest people at Hotchkiss; people I talk with still mention her fondly.”

To some, using celluloid film and developers in darkrooms may seem like ancient techniques, but they are still taught at Hotchkiss, to give students a thorough understanding of the medium. And that requires patience – a quality several students mentioned when describing Sandy.

Bob Haiko agrees enthusiastically.

“Oftentimes, students ruin their film,” he says, “so you have to send them back to process again, and if they do mess up again, they do it a third time. And printing, too, often involves asking students to repeatedly do more test strips, or burn this in, or dodge that, or crop this – students often protest, but they go back and do it anyway, and eventually, if they come back with a really nice print, they feel that all of this stress was worth it.”

Her own specialty is hand-coloring black-and-white gelatin silver prints. One

recent series shows bittersweet, an invasive vine that can engulf entire stands of trees.

Looking at her hand-colored prints of local bittersweet, one can almost feel the smothering. Sandy’s work has been exhibited at the Lyman Allyn Museum, the Slater Memorial Museum, the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA, and the Agnes Irwin School in Philadelphia. For a number of years, she was a member of a collaborative multimedia ensemble that brought 20th-century music and poetry to the stage. One performance piece performed by the group brought together a song cycle of 20 poems by Wallace Stevens, set to music by Vincent Persichetti, and accompanied by simultaneous projections of imagery by Sandy.

In retirement, she says, she plans to return to her love of studio art. “I would like to get back to the sculpture,” she says.

“Yes, I’ll do photography, as well, but it’s always going to be mixed media for me.”

Former student Nicole Tang ’00 wrote, “Marcel Proust once wrote, ‘The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.’ Mrs. Haiko was an inspiring and wonderful pho-

tography teacher…She is someone who helped me see with new eyes and take risks in the creative process of photography and ultimately, seeing life in a whole new dimension. I will be forever grateful for the time, energy, and kindness she bestowed upon me during the hours in the lab and during our field trips. She and Mr. Haiko went above and beyond their responsibilities as teachers at Hotchkiss and became wonderful mentors and basically surrogate parents!”

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Jenny DaSilva ’94: Teaching financial literacy and creating new beginnings in the South Bronx

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BY KRISTEN HINMAN ’94

From an organic farm to a fair elections campaign,

a clinic for domestic violence victims, and a microfinance institution, Jenny DaSilva ’94 spent her early

30s lending thousands of hours to an array of service agencies.

Three years, three continents, and a spate of life-changing experiences later, she’s returned to her native New York to launch what she hopes will be a life-changer for residents in one of the U.S.’s poorest Congressional districts.

The organization – Start Small. Think Big., Inc. – aims to get people banked.

The idea might not sound novel to most people. But to many working immigrants

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newly settled in the South Bronx, banking’s a concept as foreign as the English tongue.

Cash rules. Pawn shops, “payday” loan centers, and the informal I.O.U. dominate the local credit market. Annual interest rates exceeding 400 percent leave families saddled with a legacy of debt.

“Almost 60 percent of the people who live in this community don’t have a bank

account,” Jenny explains. “They have all the same financial needs as everybody else, but they have no access to the means that you or I will use to conduct our business.”

Founded in February, the startup aims to sever that reliance on predatory lending with free financial literacy classes and personalized counseling. A massive challenge, maybe – but colleagues say there’s nobody better equipped than Jenny. As Josué Rodriguez, associate executive director of East Side House Settlement, a social services agency that houses Start Small, puts it: “She’s a member of the Bar both in New York and D.C., and she’s choosing not to practice law but to try to provide for these folks here. If that’s not amazing, I don’t know what is.”

Rodriguez met DaSilva more than a decade ago when she was a Yale University junior.

She’d just finished reading Amazing Grace, a non-fiction account of the poverty plaguing one South Bronx neighborhood. Jenny’s mother lived in Yonkers, just a ten-minute drive from the destitution the book described.

Recalls Jenny: “I thought, ‘How is it possible that this place exists right nearby?’”

Intent on volunteering in the area, Jenny

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OPPOSITE: Jenny, with children in Cambodia RIGHT: Financial literacy class graduates BELOW RIGHT: In Cambodia

arranged to meet a community organizer.

But the woman never showed. Walking back to her car, Jenny noticed East Side House and wandered in. By day’s end, Rodriguez enlisted her to run a summer program for parents.

“We serve close to 10,000 people a year, and my toughest experience is getting volunteers who are really committed,” Rodriguez says. “You get a volunteer that will come in for a day – a month, maybe, if you’re lucky.

Jenny was one of those who came in and hung in there. She put in more hours than a salaried employee.”

Rodriguez later hired her to run a collegeplacement program. Jenny went on to Cornell University Law School, clerked for a federal judge in Washington, D.C., and became a litigation associate for Debevoise & Plimpton in New York. In the spring of 2007, her husband took a job in The Hague; the couple began a three-year adventure abroad.

Unable to work because of foreign visa rules, Jenny honed her goals by volunteering worldwide. She was the West Coast director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights’ fair-elections effort during the 2008 U.S. election cycle. And in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, she helped a microfinance lender develop an insurance product.

She found the entrepreneurial environment in Cambodia intoxicating. “Watching people start up a whole new business with 130 dollars: it was incredible. Our landlord was a young woman who had built the building, ran it, and then started a store on the first floor. She was supporting her extended family on all of this. She was 22! There were stories like that all over the place, where people with almost nothing just go and do.”

Jenny had been thinking about starting a

microfinance operation in the South Bronx; Cambodia clinched it for her. “I think it sort of shamed me. What was my excuse? I had this idea, a supportive family, and a great education. There was nothing stopping me from doing it.”

She’d thought her startup would make loans, but soon realized that many local banks and credit unions had sound products to offer and were eager to partner. Graduates of Start Small’s financial literacy classes qualify for free checking accounts, discounted interest rates, and match-savings programs.

Beginning this summer, Start Small will also host a free legal clinic to help combat the underlying problems that can contribute to debt. All the financial advisors and lawyers are working pro bono. (More are needed. See www.startsmallthinkbig.org.)

The agency is en route to providing some $250,000 worth of services this year. That’s on a budget of $80,000, and thanks to wordof-mouth fundraising with help from a few Hotchkiss connections, including John Bourdeaux ’91, former director of The Hotchkiss Fund, and a former classmate, Kelly Shimoda.

“I’ve worked on other professional projects with friends, which can be tricky,” says Kelly, a Start Small board member. “But it occurred to me that I would really trust getting into business, so to speak, with any of my good friends from Hotchkiss. I think it stems from

the unique bond we created living together during our formative years. I knew inherently that Jenny would give this 100 percent.”

Jenny came to Lakeville as an upper mid; she says she’s indebted to the School.

“Beforehand, I wasn’t sure I was going to go to college. Then I got to Lakeville and met all these amazing friends and got into student government. It opened up a whole new world – an academic world, certainly – but just a world of possibility that was much bigger than the world I’d come from.

“So from a psychological standpoint, I went to Hotchkiss, and therefore I went to Yale, and therefore I went to law school, and therefore I started this organization.

Hotchkiss put me on this path to think big.”

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Tony Essaye ’51: Helping to Build the Rule of Law in Developing Nations

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BY ROBERTA JENCKES

The International Senior Lawyers Project (ISLP) supports

grassroots nonprofit organizations and developing country governments around the world by enlisting senior lawyers and law firms

to work with them on a pro bono basis on programs

This young organization, founded in 2002, in one single year (2009) linked volunteer lawyers and firms to projects in 25 countries, providing more than 27,000 hours in pro bono services.

ISLP’s co-president Tony Essaye ’51 easily recalls the ISLP’s unlikely beginnings. The idea grew out of a lunchtime conversation. In 2000, Essaye, then a partner at Clifford Chance US LLP in Washington, DC, was talking over lunch with a friend, also a Washington attorney, about the work they might do in the future.

“We would be retiring in a few years,” he said, “and we thought we might want to do something together… perhaps offer our services to an international human rights organization.

We’d both done a lot of international work.

“The more we talked about it, the more we thought other senior lawyers might be interested in international work as volunteers. There were two real question marks. One was, were there in fact a lot of people our age who would be interested? And even if there were, would the opportunities and needs in the developing world be such that volunteer lawyers from the U.S. and other developed countries could really contribute and do effective work? We got a grant to explore those issues and hired an able

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varying from human rights to economic development.

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OPPOSITE: Volunteer Andy Haas in Ethiopia training public defenders RIGHT: ISLP volunteer (fourth from right) in Goma, assisting a local NGO in providing legal assistance to women victims of sexual violence and training of their lawyers

consultant who had done this type of work for the U.S. government. She came back with a very positive report on both counts.”

Essaye and his friend and co-founder, Robert Kapp of Hogan & Hartson LLP, set to work on building the framework for the new organization. The ISLP has “a strong board of directors,” says Essaye, whose members bring a variety of experiences to its work. “We have a small but very effective paid staff,” he notes, adding that he works as a volunteer in his administrative role. He finds the work “most rewarding.”

“The ISLP has really progressed beyond my expectations,” he notes. “We owe it to the commitment and skills that the volunteer lawyers have brought. We started with the idea of only recruiting semi-retired or retired lawyers, but over time we found a great deal of interest on the part of lawyers who were still practicing. While these attorneys can only go overseas for a couple of weeks at a time, some of our projects can either be carried out on a short-term basis or involve work that can be done from the United States. And sometimes the volunteers go back for two or three times – to follow up and each time to build up a little more capacity.

That is something I hadn’t anticipated.

“We began with just U.S. lawyers, and now we have lawyers from Europe and Canada.

For example, recently, for projects in Haiti we have been able to recruit fluent Frenchspeaking lawyers from Canada and France.”

What are some of the kinds of projects the ISLP attorneys do? In the area of human rights, a partner in a Boston firm spent time in Nairobi with The Kenyan Coalition for

Disability Legal Action, helping to catalyze the establishment of the first legal aid clinic in Africa for persons with disabilities. In the area of strengthening the rule of law, the ISLP sent an experienced litigator to Moscow to work with the Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations, a human rights group that provides legal assistance to journalists facing defamation and other charges in the Russian Federation. To help promote economic development, the ISLP arranged for an attorney to travel several times to Liberia, to advise on a range of economic initiatives, from tax investment incentives to proposed regulations governing mineral exploration licenses. And this spring, eight ISLP volunteer attorneys with experience in international contract negotiations conducted a two- and one-half day mock contract negotiation exercise with 20 lawyers and other senior officials from Iraq’s Ministry of Oil, who will be leading their country’s contract negotiations with international oil companies for the expansion of Iraq’s oil production.

While Essaye has been involved in planning some projects, he has not had time yet to do a volunteer assignment with ISLP. Growing the organization has consumed his time to date. “We have a large board to coor-

dinate, and we have to do constant fundraising. I’m probably working about 75% of the amount of time compared to when I was fully engaged in my law practice.”

Practicing international law seems now to be in his DNA, although while he was at Hotchkiss, Essaye did not know that it would become his career. Hotchkiss did help to open his eyes to the world, however. “Certainly George Van Santvoord had a worldwide view for his day,” Tony says. “While I was born in England and came over to the U.S. at an early age, clearly my years at Hotchkiss sustained my interest in international matters.

“Hotchkiss really gave me a fine, broadbased education. I think it prepared me for my further education: how to study; what serious work meant in terms of preparation and learning; how you had to apply yourself.

It took me a while, but by my senior year I think I started doing that effectively. I had some great teachers — Robert Hawkins, Richard “Gus” Gurney, Delaney Kiphuth. I had a great Latin teacher, Allan Hoey, and Peter Beaumont for French. These were just outstanding people in my memory. Peter Beaumont taught me to box. I think this was just an interest of his, but I did continue boxing in college.”

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After college, he served overseas in the U.S. Army and then began graduate study in history on his return. But, “I felt it was so removed,” he recalls. “Law was more of a present, vivid experience, so I decided to go to law school. I didn’t know how I would use it or how long I would do it, but I practiced every day from 1961 to 2003.”

After a brief stint with a New York law firm, he joined the five-person legal office of the fledgling Peace Corps, where he ultimately became deputy general counsel. There he was involved in everything from drafting amendments to the Peace Corps legislation to the myriad of legal issues that arose as more and more Peace Corps volunteers went overseas. He recalls the excitement of seeing the ranks of the Corps grow to 16,000 volunteers.

Essaye was hired away from the Peace Corps by William Rogers, Attorney General under President Eisenhower and later Secretary of State in President Nixon’s Cabinet.

Rogers and Wells, his law firm, wanted to do more international work. But principally, Essaye did libel defense work for the firm for

about five years, including work for The Washington Post on the famous Pentagon Papers case. It was “intense,” he recalls.

Then one day the firm’s other principal, Jack Wells, asked Essaye if he spoke French.

“That went back to Hotchkiss,” he says. “I did speak some. He asked me if I’d like to go and take over the fledgling office in Paris.”

The Essaye family moved to Paris in 1974 and stayed for two- and one-half years.

“That experience was a watershed for me,” Tony says. “It got me back into international work. I was able to start in on a new international practice, mostly a corporate practice, helping foreign companies with U.S. regulatory issues and helping U.S. companies with investments overseas.”

And that work and his Peace Corps experience provided the foundation for the work with the ISLP, a venture in which he feels such pride. “We have been blessed with exceptional volunteers, people with great skills and equally great commitment. While it’s not always easy, they have generally been able to achieve concrete results and make a real impact.

“We’ve also been helped by the fact that there is a certain degree of worldwide commonality in the legal process. For example, how you go about compiling effective evidence to support a claim against a mining company for despoiling grazing land in Mongolia is not that different from preparing an environmental claim in the United States. And the role of our lawyers is not only to provide guidance to the people with whom they’re working but also to build up their capacity to carry on their work more effectively.

“All of this is encompassed in my mind with the concept of building the rule of law as a foundation for effective government and effective civil society.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION, GO TO WWW.ISLP.ORG.

ABOVE: Tony Essaye ’51 LEFT: ISLP Volunteer in Liberia for her project with the Ministry of Health

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A MESSAGE TO ALUMNI f ro m t h e B o a rd o f G o v e r n o r s o f t h e A l u m n i A s s o c i a t i o n Dear Fellow Alumni, Five years ago I joined fellow Hotchkiss classmates to celebrate our 50th reunion. I edited our reunion yearbook, a project that brought me back in touch with the School and stirred up lots of memories. Several trips to Lakeville to pore over the School archives searching for yearbook material, while spending time talking to faculty and students, gave me fresh insight into Hotchkiss. While at first glance the School looks much the same as it did when I was a student, it has steadily evolved into a dynamic, energetic preparatory school that has moved far beyond what I experienced in the 1950s.

Three years ago I received a telephone call asking if I would serve as a member of the Hotchkiss Alumni Association’s Board of Governors (BOG). My recent retirement, combined with my interest in Hotchkiss, made me a very willing listener. My first question was for a description of what exactly the BOG is and what function it performs.

I learned that the BOG serves as a link between Hotchkiss and its alumni. Its various committees focus on a variety of topics and programs of interest and value to alumni and the School. Accepting nomination to the BOG was a decision I have not regretted for a moment. Working with other Hotchkiss alumni spanning several decades on a variety of meaningful projects is stimulating, informative, and fun.

ing to discuss that person’s perspective on Hotchkiss, his or her perception of the School today and the direction in which it is heading, and describe his or her experience as a student. We ask whether alumni keep in touch with faculty and classmates, what type of local Hotchkiss event most appeals to them, and we try to learn something about their career experience and personal interests. The point of the exercise is to reach out to Hotchkiss alumni, let them know the School is sincerely interested in them. The Initiative also provides alumni and the School with up-to-date information and feedback that could be of interest and helpful to both parties, including updates on the current size of the student body, admissions, and what it means for Hotchkiss, with its New England roots, to be a national school on a global stage.

The Board of Governors’ Outreach Initiative is now in its second year. The initial experience has been very positive.

Alumni have been most gracious with their time and very willing to talk. Our contacts have spanned graduates from the early 40s to those in recent classes, providing very interesting conversations. The major source of Hotchkiss information for alumni seems to be the Hotchkiss Magazine, so I hope readers of this article will respond favorably should they receive a call from a member of the Board of Governors asking them to meet.

Shortly after joining the BOG, I was asked to chair the Alumni Services Committee. The BOG had voted to undertake a new program of outreach to individual alumni under the direction of that committee. We realized that we were breaking new ground with this particular initiative.

Hotchkiss is a vibrant community with an outstanding group of alumni. The Alumni Association Board of Governors Outreach Initiative is an important way we can continue to keep in touch, help the School learn more about its alumni, and keep alumni informed and up-to-date on the ever-changing and evolving landscape that is Hotchkiss.

The Outreach Initiative is structured in the following way: each Governor is given a list of three to five alumni in his or her locale and asked to call each and arrange a meet-

Ed Greenberg ’55 Vice President and Chair, Alumni Services Committee E-mail address: esgreenb@optonline.net

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PUBLISHED ON THE FREIRE PROJECT: WWW.FREIREPROJECT.ORG

A Thank-You Letter to My Teachers

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BY LIZ MEYER ’89, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION AT CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY IN MONTREAL

Dear Mr. Wilson & Mr. Katzman: I am not quite sure how to start

this letter other than to let you know that I recently received an email from a former student of mine, and it made me wonder if I had ever

written to you to thank you for the lessons I learned in your class.

I was a student in your American Studies class during the 1987-1988 school year.

After my three years at Hotchkiss, I wanted to work with students to support and challenge them the way I had been, and you were both an essential part of that decision. I had been a student at a large, anonymous, public school in Texas where I had become a cheerleader to fit in. School was a place where I was bored and an exercise to be endured. At Hotchkiss, I was thrilled that I could be an athlete, a performer, and a scholar and be celebrated for each of these strengths. I appreciated the new challenges presented by the culture of teaching and learning at my new school. After college, I became a high school teacher for five years, and am now a teacher educator and am constantly reflecting on my own experiences in school. I am currently writing an article on critical ontology, or self-study and teacher education, so I’ve been doing a lot of reflection recently. This is an exercise that I regularly encourage future teachers to do in order to critique and analyze their own understandings of education and what they know and think they understand about schooling.

In my own reflections, I keep coming back to my experiences in this class and your teaching because it was so revolutionary for me and it was my first exposure to what I now call critical pedagogy.

American Studies was a sort of curriculum experiment (as far as I can remember) where our English and History classes were harmonized so that what we studied from a literary and cultural perspective intersected and

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aligned with what we were learning from a political and historical perspective. You brought in guest speakers to teach about Jazz, art history, and religion. I remember reading poetry in the woods, a field trip to HancockShaker village, and studying powerful literature such as My Antonia, Invisible Man, The Color Purple, and Their Eyes Were Watching God, as well as The Great Gatsby, The Scarlet Letter, the poetry of Walt Whitman, the civil disobedience of Henry David Thoreau, and the short stories of Mark Twain. Looking back at this curriculum, I am impressed with the diverse selection of authors and perspectives, since many high school English classes still are dominated by the white, European, heterosexual, male Christian perspective. This class brought important works by women, gays and lesbians, and writers of color into my “canon” of American literature and is the foundation of my critical approach to “reading the world.” I remember grappling deeply with the topics of racism and discrimination in Ralph Ellison’s novel and being stunned when Mr. Wilson actually called our attention to the homoerotic imagery in Whitman’s writing– this was the first time such topics had been introduced into my formal schooling experiences.

I can still remember Mr. Katzman’s mnemonic for us when analyzing any historical event: PISER. We had to understand and explore the political, intellectual, social, economic, and religious implications of these events. We never studied anything in a single dimension – everything was questioned and examined from multiple points of view. This

approach to learning and understanding American history and culture was rich and fascinating and was strengthened by the brilliant peers who were also in this class.

Although you were both passionate presenters, the discussions you facilitated allowed such deep understanding and co-creation of knowledge to emerge that I still have visceral memories of moments and conversations with my peers in that class. The major assignments you gave us helped me to develop essential research, writing, and critical thinking skills through the interdisciplinary research paper (I did mine on American Impressionism), as well as an ‘identity paper’ based on reflective journals we’d been keeping throughout the year.

I am writing this as an open letter because as an educator, I feel it is so important to publicly celebrate our mentors and to help others understand how deep learning and critical thinking can be sparked in schools. I want my fellow alumni, current colleagues, and students to be able to be a part of my ongoing learning and dialogue about how to infuse more critical pedagogy in K-12 education as well as teacher education programs.

Thank you so much for being such passionate educators and enduring role models in my educational career.

Sincerely, Liz Meyer Hotchkiss ’89 David Wilson taught English at Hotchkiss from 1978-1999. Tim Katzman taught history at Hotchkiss from 1981-1997.

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Board of Trustees

Alumni Association Board of Governors

Thomas C. Barry P’01,’03,’05

EMERITI

Katheryn Allen Berlandi ’88

Howard C. Bissell ’55, P’82

Christopher M. Bechhold ’72, P’03, Vice President and Chair, Nominating Subcommittee for Membership

Ian R. Desai ’00

John R. Chandler, Jr. ’53, P’82,’85,’87, GP’10

Lance K. Beizer ’56

Thomas J. Edelman ’69, P’06,’07

Edgar M. Cullman ’36, P’64, GP’84

William J. Benedict, Jr. ’70, P’08, 10

William R. Elfers ’67, Vice President

Frederick Frank ’50, P’12

Katheryn Allen Berlandi ’88, President

John E. Ellis III ’74

David L. Luke III ’41

Lawrence Flinn, Jr. ’53

Dr. Robert A. Oden, Jr. P’97

Keith E. Bernard Jr. ’95, Co-chair, Alumni of Color Committee

Diana Gomez ’76, P’11,’12

Frank A. Sprole ’38, P’65,’73,’78, GP’89,’91,’01,’02,’03,’07,’09,’09

Douglas Campbell ’71, P’01

Nancy Watson Symington P’76,’78, GP’00,’10

Patricia Barlerin Farman-Farmaian ’85

Francis T. Vincent, Jr. ’56, P’85

Kerry Bernstein Fauver ’92

Arthur W. White P’71,’74, GP’08,’11

Quinn Fionda ’91

Sean M. Gorman ’72, Secretary John P. Grube ’65, P’00 Elizabeth Gardner Hines ’93 Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet ’85

Charles A. Denault ’74, P’03, Ex Officio

Eleanor Green Long ’76

Meredith Mallory George ’78

Forrest E. Mars, Jr. ’49, P’77,’82 GP’09,’09,’11,’11, Vice President

Brenda G. Grassey ’80

Malcolm H. McKenzie P’10, Trustee Ex Officio

Edward J. Greenberg ’55, Vice President and Chair, Alumni Services Committee Seth M. Krosner ’79

Christopher H. Meledandri ’77

D. Roger B. Liddell ’63, P’98, Secretary

Kendra S. O’Donnell

Jennifer Appleyard Martin ’88, Chair, Gender Committee

Philip W. Pillsbury, Jr. ’53, P’89,’91 Peter J. Rogers, Jr. ’73, P’07, ’11 Jean Weinberg Rose ’80, Vice President Roger K. Smith ’78, P’08 Jane Sommers-Kelly ’81 Marjo Talbott John L. Thornton ’72, P’10,’11, President William B. Tyree ’81, P’14, Treasurer

Alison L. Moore ’93, Co-chair, Alumni of Color Committee Alessandra H. Nicolas ’95 Daniel N. Pullman ’76, Ex Officio Peter J. Rogers ’73, Ex Officio Wendy Weil Rush ’80, P’07, Vice President and Chair, Nominating Committee Peter D. Scala ’01, Chair, Communications Committee Bryan A. Small ’03 George A. Takoudes ’87 Jana L. Wilcox ’97

To learn more about The Board of Governors, please visit www.hotchkiss.org/Alumni/BoardGov.asp

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