Staying Together While Learning Apart A Publication for Alumni & Friends
Spring / Summer 2020
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northwestschool.org
Mike McGill Head of School
Follow us!
Margie Combs, Editor Director of Communications Beth Mulvey Director of Development Julie Lombardo Assistant Director of Development Svetlana Turetskaya Alumni Program Coordinator Maria Mazcorro Development and Volunteer Coordinator Peter Woodburn Website and Digital Media Coordinator
The Northwest School is an international college preparatory and boarding school for girls and boys, grades 6-12. Inquiries for academic year admission should be directed to Michele Sanchez, Director of Admissions and Enrollment Management. michele.sanchez@northwestschool.org 206.682.7309 Inquiries for international admission should be directed to John Lloyd, International Program Coordinator. john.lloyd@northwestschool.org 206.682.7309
Inquiries for global partnerships and programs should be directed to Dmitry Sherbakov, Director of Global Marketing and Programs. dmitry.sherbakov@northwestschool.org 206.816.6202 The Northwest School Magazine welcomes notes and photographs by alumni, parents, and friends. Please email to alumni@ northwestschool.org.
Contributing Writers Margie Combs Amanda Demeter Peter Woodburn Randy Silver Svetlana Turetskaya Reid Wilson ’01 Contributing Photographers Barbara Chin Stefanie Felix Jeff Halstead Shelley Oberman Erik Stuhaug Peter Woodburn NWS Faculty, Students, Parents, and Alumni Graphic Design Barbara Chin
Table of Contents
cover photo: Oliver C. ’22 joins his advisory group online during the COVID-19 pandemic, April 2020. this page: Drawing of the novel coronavirus by Shoshana R. ’22
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Head’s Message
Teaching in a Pandemic
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From the Board of Trustees
A letter from Cynthia Tee
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From the Archives
Visualizing Our History – The Art of Photo Processing
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News and Notes
Farewell to Our Departing Teaching Faculty
Northwest Celebrates Virtual Earth Day
Students Take the Stage
Students Honor the Work of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Student Ceramic Artwork Selected for National Exhibition
Sixth Graders Research and Adopt the Lives of Scientists
Basketball Players Capture League Awards
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Staying Together While Learning Apart
How Do You Teach Ceramics Without Clay?
Staying Healthy While Staying at Home
Caring For Our International Students
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Alumni Profiles
Amy Wales ’97
Colin Coltrera ’08
Essay by Reid Wilson ’01
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Class Notes
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Alumni Happenings
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Devo/Pizazz
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Here are just a few highlights:
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n alumnus Reid Wilson ’01’s essay, “The Best of Us, at the Worst of Times” (which you can read in this magazine), he speaks of the goodness of people in a time of crisis and how compassion and humanity emerge.
Teaching in a Pandemic
In the nine weeks since we closed our campus in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, I have witnessed “the best of us” in our community and the resilience of students, faculty, parents, and guardians working together to make sure learning continues even as we are compelled to self-isolate and shelter in our homes. This pandemic and the resulting pivot to remote learning has tested all of us, but especially our teachers, who have modeled for us what it means to have an “agile mindset.” Teaching Excellence is one of four principles in our Strategic Framework and, before the pandemic, we saw it manifested every day in the dedication, creativity, and passion of our teachers in their classrooms. But to watch how those same teachers quickly regrouped and created an entire remote learning plan was especially impressive. They completely rewrote some curriculum, planned new lessons from scratch, adapted teaching methods, and shifted to a daily schedule that balanced the need for learning with the necessity for care, never losing sight of the fact that this was a time of significant anxiety for students and families.
Extraordinary nimbleness, incorporating emerging news and adapting labs: Alex’s Math Modeling class applying real-time COVID-19 data and economic fallout to learn about the principles behind the Federal Reserve, and how the federal government uses its financial abilities to keep the economy stable. Randy’s sculpting-without-clay class; Olivia’s gas laws lab, using Ziploc bags, baking soda, vinegar, and eggs to simulate the science of air bags. A willingness to swerve to new technologies: The plethora of projects across disciplines using Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Flipgrid, Padlet, Panopto, digital cameras, sound recording software, and smart phone video; a magnificent Earth Day concert on Zoom with 450+ people online, celebrating the 50th anniversary together. Tireless efforts to re-create community and bring joy: Jo’s virtual orchestra project with 125 musicians and vocalists; Solomon and Ellen’s theatre performance project; the Graduation Committee’s celebratory planning for a virtual ceremony, as well as faculty-created (and delivered) Flipgrid greetings to seniors, lawn signs, T-shirts, and invitations featuring student artwork. A compelling commitment to support students’ well-being in mind, heart, and body: Joe’s weekly fitness newsletters full of inspiring suggestions and links to resources followed by students and parents alike; Megan and Erin’s mental health care guides and links to helpful articles about teen anxiety and stress; Charlotte’s reading and gaming web page; Dorm faculty assembling safety care packages with gloves and sanitizer for our International students as they boarded airline flights home. I could go on. Though all of us remain hopeful that we’ll be able to open the doors to The House this fall and gather in person, we are also planning for the various scenarios we may confront come September. As always, we will take lessons away from this challenging time, and discover new ways of teaching and learning. One of the great benefits of being a small community-based school is that we’re able to respond quickly and creatively to perplexing circumstances, and together, ensure that our students’ education won’t be interrupted, not even for a pandemic. Be safe,
Mike McGill Head of School
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images: David Brickley, (building shot), Dorothy Edwards (headshot)
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irst, I want to say best wishes to all the families who are currently part of The House and those who attended or had children here through the years. I hope you and your loved ones are faring well in this challenging time. Those of you on the frontlines of healthcare and service, thank you for your continued excellent work. In the last several weeks the Board has heard from many families and faculty through surveys and multiple listening sessions about their current experience with the school. We have so appreciated additional feedback about their and our students’ experiences. From that feedback, the school is moving forward to address the central points raised, focusing especially on curriculum, advancing equity, and communications. We and the school administration are responding and will continue to do so. These are essential elements of a healthy, thriving school and we are committed to ensuring students, parents, and faculty feel fully engaged and supported.
Needless to say, this pandemic has presented our community with additional unprecedented challenges. It has asked all of us to swerve to new ways of working together and relating to one other. We are thrilled with how the school has gone to online learning and how faculty are developing a blended program for the fall to be ready for any contingency presented by this pandemic. We deeply appreciate, both as board members and parents, the humanity and passion the faculty bring to our children’s experiences and how dedicated they are to the work of teaching and learning. We are so glad to be a part of this community. As a parent, I chose this school for the honesty, integrity, and care I sensed from the faculty and parent community, and for the unique academic, artistic, and socially conscious experience offered by the program. This is a personal and wonderful place, nurtured by talented and dedicated faculty, and I know all of us on the board are devoted to stewarding everything that makes this place special far into the future. May you and your families enjoy a healthy and joyful spring. Sincerely,
01 From left: Northwest Science
faculty Jeremy Dewitt, Cecilia Tung, and Clare Prowse develop remote learning lessons, March 2020.
Cynthia Tee, President Board of Trustees
Message from our Board President
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From the Archive
Visualizing Our History – The Art of Photo Processing by Amanda Demeter Northwest School Archivist
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t last, I’ve begun working on the portion of the Northwest School Archive I’m most excited about—the photographs! Currently we have approximately 10 cartons of photographic material in the collection, which includes optical and inkjet prints, negatives, slides, photo albums, and photo CDs and disks. When processing is finished, these materials will be sorted first by format and then arranged by subject.
Because photographic material is particularly sensitive to handling and more prone to damage from residues and scratches to the photographic emulsion, the best practice is to encapsulate photos and film transparencies (negatives and slides) in inert plastic sleeves. This eliminates the need to handle the materials with gloves and keeps materials from damaging each other just by sharing a folder. By making the materials easier to safely handle, we not only preserve the photos but also make them more accessible. While the adage “a picture is worth a thousand words” is undoubtedly true for archival photos, we have to be able to “read” the picture to tell its story. The value of a photograph is greatly enhanced by knowing the who, what, where, when, and why of its image. Because I’m still new to Northwest, there is a lot that I don’t know—faces I don’t recognize, rooms that have been repurposed and remodeled, recurring events that have changed over time. That’s where the rest of the community comes in.
0 1 1984 photo with accompanying
note of identifying details 0 2 Middle School Humanities Teacher 01
Tamara Bunnell shares a moment with Middle School Science teacher Erica Bergamini. 0 3 Eighth-grade Science teacher
Herb Bergamini (seated) identifies a photo with the help of Dean of Students Kevin Alexander. 0 4 Northwest School Co-founder
Mark Terry (seated in back) examines a photo file as fellow Co-founder Ellen Taussig (center) confers with former Registrar Catherine Terry.
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Together with Communications Director Margie Combs, Development Director Beth Mulvey, and Alumni Program Coordinator Svetlana Turetskaya, I planned a series of events in which Northwest School alumni and faculty can help with these two essential components of processing the photographs—preservation encapsulation, and identification of the images. We had the first event on Wednesday, January 29, and it was a great success. In attendance were class of 1983 alums Gavin MacDougall, Michelle Mueller, and Jennifer Purswell, along with Northwest School Co-founders Ellen Taussig and Mark Terry, and former long-time faculty Catherine Terry and Glen Sterr. As attendees arrived, they were treated to coffee and cookies in the Haus West lobby, after which we relocated to the conference room. Following a quick presentation on the archives project, I gave instructions on how to handle, sleeve, and capture identification information for the photographs. Participants were each given a box of photos sorted into subject folders. While encapsulating photos in preservation sleeves, participants were also asked to write any identifying information they could provide on archival-quality acid-free slips of paper, which were then slipped behind the photos in the sleeves. Our second event on Tuesday, February 25 saw current faculty members stopping in to contribute throughout the morning, including Tamara Bunnell, Erica Bergamini, Kevin Alexander, and Herb Bergamini.
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At both events there was lively conversation, storytelling—and a few exclamations over younger photos of current faculty—and participants worked together to identify photographs. The information provided by these two groups has already added so much value to the collection. They helped correct missorted photos and illuminated mysteries by filling in incomplete captions written by previous photo owners. Some identification inscriptions ended up being their own stories, to the point that these little slips of paper intended as metadata about artifacts have become themselves new artifacts that inform and contextualize the original collection. Although the last two of these events planned have been cancelled to comply with social distancing guidelines, we hope to revive them in the coming months. In the meantime, you can catch glimpses of the Northwest School Archive’s photo collection on our new Instagram account @nws.archives, where identification assistance will always be welcomed!
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Follow us!
nws.archives
Farewell to Our Departing Teaching Faculty
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Lisa needed no training to embody both courtesy and common sense in her dealings with her students and with the innumerable surprising challenges that accompanied opening up a brand new school from scratch with about 250 students, from the get go. Lisa has always dealt squarely with the reality in front of her, and has always worked to make the full school experience better for fellow faculty and students alike. Throughout her career she established strong connections with students, kept the varieties of Spanish cultures at the forefront of her classes, and fostered vital interest in the diverse Spanishspeaking world, everything from traditional song and poetry to fascist manifestos and revolutions. We are all so lucky she didn’t just pour those coffee refills and walk away. – Co-founder Mark Terry
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Lisa Blodgett In the summer of 1980, Lisa Blodgett was fresh out of college with a degree in Spanish and a Washington State Teaching Certificate, and was temporarily working as a waitress in Block’s, a bagels, bakery, and deli on Capitol Hill. She often overheard three of her regular customers—Paul Raymond, Ellen Taussig, and Mark Terry—discussing the elements of a good education and making plans for a new school. At some point just before The Northwest School opened its doors, Lisa got a phone call. The co-founders had realized they had too many students enrolled for only one Spanish teacher, so they interviewed Lisa and hired her as a second 7-12 grade Spanish teacher. What Lisa experienced the first year inspired her to stay for 38 more. “What we had as teachers was a certain irreverence,” Lisa recalls, “a gentle thumbing-the-nose at some norms in education that had been established for the last one-hundred years. There was a trust among us (faculty)—not that we all agreed but we knew all of us were working for a common good. The intellectual curiosity and the conversations we had—it was a special place.” In addition to teaching Spanish in the school’s Main Floor Spanish classroom, Lisa at various times also taught 9/10 Humanities and Middle School PE. She led 26 international trips, including the first El Salvador trip with Paul Raymond. She created two exchange programs with schools in Seville (1992-2001, and 2013-present) and was Modern Language Department Head for 25 years. Lisa’s nearly four decades as a Spanish teacher were spent in the school’s Main Floor Spanish room, which she decorated with photos of students on the Spain trips and posters from all over the world, including the spring Feria folklore festival in Seville.
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0 1 From 1991-92 Yearbook 0 2 2016 Trip to Spain:
from left, Emelie Beatie ’17, Lisa Blodgett, Saebrinde Clayton ’17, Teofila SanJose ’17, Taylor McGlothlin ’17
From 1986 to 1990 Lisa took a hiatus from teaching to get married, live in Spain, and give birth to her two children: Ana ’05, and Alex (who left Northwest in sophomore year and finished at Roosevelt High School). Today, Ana is a librarian at North Seattle College and Alex is a certified watchmaker. When she decided to leave teaching in 2019, Lisa took up a new career. Certified as a medical interpreter in the Spanish language, she now travels to clinics and hospitals, interpreting for people who do not speak English. In addition to medical visits, she also interprets for Spanish speaking parents at school conferences, and recently, she had the pleasure of being assigned to a midwife’s clinic, where she followed three women through their pregnancies and then again at their six-month visits with their babies. “I don’t have a medical background, but my children were born in Spain and I spent enough time in the hospital that I remember a lot of the terms,” laughs Lisa. She loves applying her Spanish fluency to help others and finds the work very gratifying. Says Lisa: “The beauty is, I learn something new every day.” Lisa would love to hear from any and all alumni at Lisablodgett@msn.com.
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News & Notes
Melody Haff After twenty years of helping hundreds of international students improve their English fluency, Melody Haff retired from teaching at The Northwest School in 2019. Melody joined the faculty in October 1999 and, from that point forward, she provided international students with a safe haven to not only improve their English but practice in an atmosphere of acceptance and encouragement. “I wanted my classroom to be a comfort zone for them,” says Melody. “It was a place they could make mistakes and not feel bad about it. Going to other classes where they were mixed with domestic kids was stressful for them. There was a lot they had to learn and competition was stiff out there. They wanted to succeed so much and not let down their families. I really admired those kids; they worked so hard and were so motivated.” Melody often taught the same students for three years, so she got to know them well. While she held them to high standards in language fluency, there were many times when she knew they needed kindness. “I really enjoyed the students—they were always so sweet and so very thankful all the time. They were great kids. They always said at the end of the class, ‘Thank you Melody!’”
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In 1990, Melody’s husband was chosen as Washington State Exchange Teacher and the family moved to Japan for a year. Because Melody was experienced in teaching ESL, she was given a position teaching English at a junior high school and also a class at the local college. Her kids attended a Japanese school. As for life beyond teaching, Melody is just getting used to retirement. Over the last year, her 93-year-old dad had surgery and came to recover at her house; she helped move him into a retirement community, and cleaned out and sold his house; and over the holidays, her daughters and their husbands and their seven kids, ranging in ages from 5 to 14, came to visit. “So that’s what I’ve been doing,” says Melody, cheerfully, “I’m just letting it evolve.”
Melody was fascinated by language all of her life, and studied several in high school and college. When she was raising her three daughters, she and her husband hosted homestay students from all over the world, often two at a time. Her daughters played with college students who were Asian, Saudi, Swiss, Mexican, among others. The experience sparked Melody’s interest in teaching English as a second language. She obtained her certification from a program affiliated with Seattle University and then went back to the university to get a master’s in Teaching English as a Second Language.
0 3 From 2000-01 Yearbook 0 4 2017 Moon Festival
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Celebration: from left, Luoqi (Fred) Wang ’19, Melody Haff, Qigang (Auggie) Li ’19 (back), Chunzhi (Annie) Fan ’19, Jiayi (Barry) Yoo ’19
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Melody arrived at school with a depth of experience in ESL and of living abroad. Her skills were exactly what we needed as we established our international program. With three children of her own, and eventually seven grandchildren, she also offered a natural, comforting presence to our international students who were so far from their homes. Melody participated in many excursions and camping trips, offering reassurance to international students who were experiencing outdoor life for the first time.
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– Co-founder Ellen Taussig
01 Musician Connie Lin, known
as MILCK, performs for Northwest School students and faculty on Zoom, Earth Day 2020.
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Northwest Celebrates Virtual Earth Day
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he Northwest School community celebrated the 50th anniversary of Earth Day on April 22 online, starting with a moving and powerful concert by Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter MILCK, and engaging in a day of reflection surrounding environmental justice, education, and climate change, MILCK delivered a personal performance via Zoom, with 476 members of the school logged in and listening. She performed three songs, “If I Ruled the World,” “Quiet,” and “Gold,” and then engaged in a Q&A with students. MILCK introduced the set by expressing gratitude for the opportunity to perform in the special Earth Day celebration.
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“I am so grateful for the people who came before us and started this Earth Day 50 years ago and continue to speak up about the importance of thinking about our environment for the past 50 years,” said MILCK. “I am also grateful for the indigenous people who have been here and built a beautiful relationship with the land—we must acknowledge that—who have inhabited this land before us.”
02 Artistic responses to 03 Earth Day prompts by
Northwest School students
Northwest School’s Director of Environmental Education and Sustainability Jenny Cooper planned the day with the help of a group of faculty members and students. Their planning focused on curiosity, joy, and justice. Jenny says they were compelled to elevate those three points specifically because of the imperative to act on climate change, the connections between COVID-19 and environmental justice, and the upcoming 2020 election. Says junior Iliana G., who helped with planning the day’s events: “2020 has highlighted that many of our systems (speaking from a U.S. perspective) are inadequate and not constructed around quality of life. It is a topic that has repeatedly come up in the past months and it is important that we come together as a community and do our part to create change where we can.” Throughout the day, students convened in their advisories and engaged in a multitude of activities that had them observing their surroundings outside or researching such topics as access to freshwater, citizen science, and plant anatomy. Students posted their findings, thoughts, and artistic interpretations of the day’s prompts on Padlet, a digital bulletin board. One schoolwide activity involved creating a drawing with a dominant color scheme, which will later be stitched together to make a collage.
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News & Notes
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U
pper School students moved audiences with a compelling modern adaptation of Arthur Miller’s classic play The Crucible, on Feb. 6-9, 2020. Twenty-seven students took the stage in our Black Box Theatre, performing to four sold-out performances. The play was adapted and co-directed by Theatre teachers Solomon Davis and Ellen Graham. The show explored racism, sexism, the #metoo movement, class struggles, neighbors distrusting neighbors, and fact being accepted as fact simply because it comes from a person of power. On a different note, Middle School students in Advanced Theatre brought the beloved children’s classic Charlotte’s Web, by E.B. White, to life on Feb. 12-13, 2020. Under the direction of Theatre teacher Sara Venable, students portrayed the tender story of friendship between a spider named Charlotte, a pig named Wilbur, and a girl named Fern, who saved Wilbur’s life after he was born the runt of his litter. 06
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Students Take the Stage 0 4 Scene from The Crucible: Back row, from
left: Zeek P. ’22, Kyle P. ’22, Siobhan A. ’22, Nghia W. ’23; Front row, from left: Katie T. ’22 (lying down); Sophie R. ’21 (kneeling); Megan S. ’23, Juniper C. ’21 0 5 The Crucible actors, from left, Zeek P. ’22,
Kyle P. ’22, Nghia W. ’23, Siobhan A. ’22 0 6 From left: Juniper H. ’24, and Soraya D. ’25
perform Charlotte’s Web. 0 6 Scene from Charlotte’s Web: Back row,
from left: Evan C. ’24, Cara L. ’25, Elliott C. ’25, Stella B. ’25, Rosy O. ’24, Taig A. ’24, Soleyana M. ’25, Jewel M. ’24; Front row, from left: Soraya D. ’25, Bea M. ’25, Juniper H. ’24, Dorje H-B ’25
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News & Notes
Students Honor the Work of Martin Luther King, Jr.
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o commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and legacy, the Northwest School students and faculty engaged in a day of deep and reflective thought centered on looking inward at our school community. The day’s activities on Jan. 17, 2020, were planned and facilitated by 40 Upper School students comprising the MLK Day Planning Committee.
01 MLK Day Planning Committee
members introduce the day’s events, from left: Kovit V. ’20, Brian C. ’20, Emma C. ’23, Pelham C. ’21, Zora L. ’21, Eleanor C-S. ’20, Sy’Naeh S. ’20 (holding mic), Luka M. ’23, Maleda S. ’21, Brooklyn J. ’22, Sophie R. ’22, Catherine C. ’21, Aiden D. ’22
To begin the day’s work, the Planning Committee provided an overview of civil rights movements and outlined the working agreements and norms to frame the day. Amalia H. ’20, speaking on behalf of students who have dedicated time to social justice work and advancing equity, asked students and faculty to consider their individual roles in the work of anti-racism and social justice, and to imagine how the Northwest School could be a fully liberated and inclusive place.
“Let us interrupt the notion that social justice leadership is only for a certain type of student, one who is already so burdened with what they are made to deal with every day,” said Amalia. “Let us adopt this work as not just for some special people, but instead as the responsibility of all members of the community.” Faculty and students engaged in studentfacilitated affinity spaces and small discussion workshops centered around four themes: respect, inclusivity, justice, and liberation. Leading up to MLK Day, students had facilitated panel discussions, advisory activities, and an art project that took place during Community Meeting, in order to prepare the community for the MLK Day event. The day concluded as it began: in community, with students and faculty gathered in the gym. Sy’Naeh S. ’20 and German C. ’21 together expressed their dreams for a truly just and equitable Northwest School through an imitation of the style of Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech: “[I have a dream] That a student of color can proudly say they have a teacher who has the same skin color as them, that black lives actually matter, that white people understand that I do not speak for my entire race, that children are able to just be children, that black boys aren’t hyper criminalized and, instead, valued and seen for the people they are, that freedom will be a right and not a privilege, that no one feels unsafe to be who they are.” Black faculty members finished Friday’s event by singing “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing,” by J. Rosamond Johnson and James Weldon Johnson, a song often referred to as the Black National Anthem. 01
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Student Ceramic Artwork Selected for National Exhibition 02
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wo Northwest School ceramics students were chosen for the 2020 National K-12 Ceramics Exhibition. The art show, on March 25-28, in Richmond, Virginia, was viewable only online, due to restrictions associated with the COVID-19 virus. Puja C. ’20 created a highly detailed Aboriginalinspired mask in response to a “Masks of the World” assignment. Puja bisque-fired her mask, applied an underglaze, fired it again, coated it in clear glaze, and then finished with one final firing.
Luna B. ’22 created a moon box with a cleverly designed lid. Her artwork was in response to an assignment that called for making a slab-built box that in some way reflects personal identity. Luna employed a meticulous version of the soft-slab, hand-building technique. She cut the lid with a unique pathway that incorporated one of the incised stars on the side of her container. The star served as an alignment key to fit the lid snugly on the box. Ceramics teacher Randy Silver calls the National K-12 Ceramics Exhibition the “nationals of ceramics.” Thousands of pieces are submitted for consideration and only 150 pieces are chosen. Despite not being shown in person this year, the artwork appeared on posters, CDs, in a print catalog, and were eligible for awards, prizes, and scholarships.
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Congratulations Luna and Puja! 02 Ceramic
moon box made by Luna B. ’22 03 Aboriginal-inspired
mask created by Puja C. ’20
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F Sixth Graders Research and Adopt the Lives of Scientists 0 1 Claire W. ’26 (left),
as African American philanthropist and political activist Madame C.J. Walker; and Emeline W. ’26, as scientist and ecologist Rachel Carson 0 2 Back to front: Colt J. ’26,
as physicist Luis Alvarez, and Riley J. ’26, as former NASA astronaut Guion Bluford, await their turn to converse over tea.
or much of January, Northwest Schools 6th graders researched scientists, mathematicians, and inventors for the annual 6th Grade Tea Parties, an interdisciplinary project that combines science, Humanities, and library research. Ultimately, the students embodied a scientist, mathematician, or inventor from historical and current times, and conversed over tea before their classmates, discussing their individual’s contributions to society.
“With this project, students learn one person really well, learn three others pretty well, and hear about 50 other people,” says 6th grade teacher Erica Bergamini. “My goal is for students to see themselves in the field, with whatever their social identifiers are, and know that it is possible.”
After choosing their scientist, mathematician, or inventor, students researched the person by reading a biography or other online materials collected by Erica and the Northwest School librarians. In their Humanities classes, students met in their tea party teams and looked for commonalities among their scientists, such as social identifiers, work histories, and childhood backgrounds. The students mapped these into Venn diagrams and used this information as the basis for their tea party conversations. Students then wrote an outline that detailed the person’s history, achievements, and lasting impacts in his/her/their field. Once the outlines were finished, the students gathered in their tea party groups to write an original script that helped share their researched knowledge with the rest of their classmates. “This is all about doing research, taking notes, writing an outline, sourcing information, and sharing a document together,” says Erica. “There are a lot of layers in it and a lot of skills students are learning and practicing.” Delia S. ’23 is interested in science and space. She chose to study Jedidah Isler, an astrophysicist who graduated from Yale University. Delia came away from the project inspired to amplify the stories of those from minority communities. “I think how we as students can help is to learn about more people of color, and teach people what we learn,” says Delia. “We should teach each other more about all people of color. We can all always use more knowledge.”
To begin the project, students wrote out the names of as many scientists, mathematicians, and inventors they could think of in one minute. Erica then asked students to look at the ratio of white males within their list to females, persons of color, and other social identifiers. “Most of us in my class only had two or three people who weren’t white males on our lists,” says Colt J. ’26. “In science especially, white males get a ton of credit for a lot of different things, and they definitely get talked about more than people with other social identifiers.”
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News & Notes
Basketball Players Capture League Awards
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hree Northwest School athletes received Emerald City League (ECL) awards for their standout performances on the basketball court this past winter. Senior forward Jaedyn F. ’20 was named to the ECL All-League Second Team for girls’ basketball. Head Coach Mike Moss says Jaedyn, as the lone senior, did a wonderful job leading the young team by example. “Jaedyn brings experience and so many other intangibles to our team,” says Mike. “Since returning from injury, she became a force to be reckoned with around our league.” On the boys’ basketball side, junior guard Owen D. ’21 was named to the ECL All-League First Team, and freshman center Seth H. ’23 landed on the ECL All-League Second Team. Seth was also named as the ECL Rookie of the Year.
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03 Jaedyn F. ’20 04 Seth H. ’23 05 Owen D. ’21
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Learning Together While
n a time of school closure, what does it mean to teach and learn? In March 2020, The Northwest School rapidly conceived of and implemented the answer. Responding to the call for social distancing in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, faculty and families pivoted to staying at home and learning online for the whole of Trimester 3. On-campus classes closed on March 3, and within three weeks, students logged in from home for their first online classes. As with all of life’s challenges, the situation pushed the limits of patience and resilience for faculty, parents, and students, and simultaneously, yielded some of the most inspiring and joyful moments we have experienced as a community.
Staying Apart
01 Middle School Science
teacher Erica Bergamini prepares for a lab using natural pH indicators. 02 An 8th grade Earth model
created from in-home materials 03 Senior Owen B. ’20,
with a celebration sign delivered to his home by Northwest faculty. 04 Eli S. ’22’s egg survives the 05 egg-drop test as part of a
remote learning chemistry experiment.
Ingenuity and Nimbleness The first several weeks of remote learning were filled with exciting new experiences as students and teachers engaged in science labs in family kitchens, took in technology webinars, analyzed the economic impact of Covid-19 in math class, created new digital art compositions in visual art classes, and used sound recording and editing technology to create a virtual orchestra piece. The following are just a few more examples: • Beginning photography students switched to all-digital tools, created diptychs and triptychs by shooting with cell phones and resizing and color correcting images in Photoshop. • Tenth-grade Humanities students studied Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” wrote a creative response from the “husband’s” perspective or a continuation of the story, and engaged in online “pod” discussions, group work, and peer editing. • Using baking soda, vinegar, and Ziploc bags, 11th graders studied gas laws and the science behind airbags in cars: what chemicals are in the steering column, what happens when a car crashes to inflate the airbag, and what considerations (pressure, volume, temperature, and amount of gas) scientists need to use in order to perfectly inflate an airbag is 0.03 seconds. • Sixth grade students used Sketchpad to create selfportraits, using at least three types of lines to describe how they were feeling. Students then uploaded the photos to Oba and partook in a virtual gallery walk, commenting on each other’s artwork.
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Re-inventing Spring 2020 As remote learning extended into April, faculty gathered and developed ways for the school’s typical spring events to become virtual. Rather than art faculty pitching their art courses to students during Community Meeting, they presented them on Flipgrid and students interested in those courses uploaded audition videos during audition week April 19-24. Though social distancing meant track and field competitive season was on hold, our Upper School Track and Field Team members stayed in shape and in touch with each other through Zoom. Arts faculty collaborated to create a virtual ArtsFest-type performance. And a task force of faculty and students created a virtual graduation ceremony honoring the 89 seniors in the Class of 2020.
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For a full gallery of our remote learning experiences, please visit our Instagram, FaceBook, and Community Remote Learning Page on our website.
• Eighth-grade students in Earth Science built models of the Earth, using the materials they had at home. Each model was required to include labeled layers of the Earth and an accompanying written component detailing more information about the layers, such as depth and composition.
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Just a quick note to express our appreciation for your hard work and care in creating a meaningful remote learning program. It’s been wonderful for our family so far, and we are grateful to be part of a school community that in addressing these issues with such foresight and thoughtful communication. Your work alleviates a lot of stress for us, and we are thankful!
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– Note of Gratitude from a Sixth Grade Parent
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How Do You Teach Ceramics Without Clay? by Randy Silver, Northwest School Ceramics teacher
When I realized that the COVID-19 social distancing guidelines were extending into the rest of the school year, I had to act quickly and figure out a way to teach some of what clay has to offer, without actually using clay, kilns, glazes, a studio, or any opportunity for hands-on learning.
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I surveyed the class with a variety of ideas and adapted the curriculum based on the knowledge and authentic interest of my students. As I revised my curriculum, I integrated games, the vast resources of the Internet, a bit of trivia, and my own ceramic art into my daily teaching. Some students began the term by throwing virtual vases with a pottery game/app before they began their first research project. Next, they perused Google Art and Culture and explored virtual collections of art in nearly 2000 museums. Then they learned at least one of two 3D modeling and sculpting programs and sculpted imaginary mythological creatures and monsters after looking at mythological beasts from cultures all over the world. Why sculpt beasts, monsters, and mythological creatures? My upper school students have been working with clay all year and have focused on form, realism, precision, and seeking aesthetic beauty. 3D sculpting and modeling is new for them—a new and unfamiliar medium. When people work in a new medium, often the first thing they make can be somewhat hideous. That can either be a bit discouraging or it can be a lot of fun, if you intentionally embrace the ugliness and accentuate it. With this fledgling 3D modeling project, everyone wins! Students were required to create something that is more than just a head, use both additive and subtractive sculpting, glaze/paint their creation with three colors or more, include a background habitat, and then share an artist statement that revealed their sculpture’s name, strengths, weaknesses, and habitat. Students shared their work in a virtual gallery and thoughtful comments on each other’s creations. Next, students played an online game called QuickDraw, and (while sharpening their doodling capabilities) helped educate a baby-like neural network (AI) so that computers learn to understand how humans communicate with simplified artistic representations of meaning. By playing games, having fun, taking risks, being creative, boldly exploring art, being thoughtful and intentional with our learning and mindfulness, we’re paralleling what we might have done with clay in the studio. We’re making the most of this learning opportunity and are definitely getting our hands dirty, without getting our hands dirty!
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THANK YOU for… supporting our kids at this challenging time; focusing them on expanding their minds, not their anxieties; protecting them, physically and emotionally, from germs unseen; allowing them some normalcy amidst chaos; encouraging their best selves to rise up in support of each other; and ensuring a community response true to the mission of The Northwest School. You are greatly and sincerely appreciated. – Parent Note of Gratitude to Northwest School Teachers, April 2020
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01 Randy’s example of a virtual vase 02 Virtual vase being “thrown” on-line 03 Randy, holding a virtually
sculpted object 04 3D monster sculpture by Jaedyn F. ’20 05 3D monster sculpture by Ashwin R. ’20 06 3D monster sculpture by Molly K. ’20
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Staying Healthy While Staying at Home As we came up to Spring Break, Health and Wellness teacher Joe Bisignano produced weekly newsletters to parents and students, chocked full of helpful resources and guidance for staying balanced and healthy during weeks of stay-at-home isolation. Among his tips: establish a daily routine, build in breaks for walks outside, consider practicing yoga or meditation, go for healthy snacks, and respect your brain’s need for sleep. To support parents, Counselors Megan Reibel and Erin North issued a digital letter to parents in March (excerpted at right) full of helpful strategies and advice for talking with their children about fears and anxieties around COVID-19, and how to support themselves and their families with long crowded days inside the home. In addition, they hosted online parenting coffees to both Middle and Upper School parents in April and May. And Librarian Charlotte King-Mills assisted students in accessing fiction and other reading materials in the school’s audio book collection and through Seattle Public Library.
Megan & Erin’s Remote Learning Guidance for Families • Take stock of the personalities that are in your environment—everyone is going to need different amounts of structure and care. Have a family meeting to talk about what the days will look like, set routines that match your values, talk about what’s working and what’s not. When there are times where schedules overlap, plan ahead for moments where availability is stretched. Be kind to each other. • Validate, Validate, Validate. During this time of high emotion and need, our students (and all of our relationships) need extra care. Validation lets others know that you understand and accept their thoughts and feelings. Validation leads to understanding each other more clearly, and allowing for all to feel heard: • Communicate what you understand about the situation. • Legitimize the “facts” (of the thoughts, wants, etc.). • Explain your own feelings after expressing understanding. • Acknowledge the situation, the other’s opinions, feelings, etc. • Respect emotions, desires, reactions, and goals. • Normalize the wide range of feelings present in our current reality. If you are feeling scared, sad, stressed, disappointed, angry, etc., it is okay to share these experiences with your student in developmentally appropriate ways. Be thoughtful about how you are modeling healthy coping strategies. • Focus on what you can control; it’s okay to give things up. Let your values help guide what you can and can’t do. • Practice self-care. Do this as a family and also individually; create habits and routines that allow you to care for yourself (and others) in sustainable ways. This could include practicing gratitude, small acts of kindness, opportunities for regular movement, mindfulness/meditation. Two of our current favorite resources include the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley and 10% Happier’s Coronavirus Sanity Guide.
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Caring for Our International Students Perhaps our most amazing response to school closure came from our Boarding Program. Residential Advisors and International Parent Reps worked tirelessly to support our international students as they coped with moving out of the dorm and flying away to their home countries without knowing if they would be able to return. It was an emotionally taxing process, but the students safely arrived in their countries, reunited with their families, and kept in close contact with our faculty to troubleshoot cross-border technology so they could continue learning through the end of this school year. Through a balance of synchronous and asynchronous classes, faculty and students are engaged in learning and community despite multi-hour time differences.
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Here are some of those ways:
Hi Joe, I really appreciate this rich, detailed, and encouraging message to our community. Thank you. I plan to share it with my family. I’m sure they’ll enjoy and benefit from it as much as I expect to in the days and weeks ahead.
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– Eleventh Grade Parent Geoff Patterson
• Starting in April, RAs are available to students 15 hours-a-day on weekdays through Microsoft Teams. At least one, and often multiple, RAs are present from 6:00pm-9:00am in Seattle, which coincides with most day and evening hours in Asia, and allows for more connection with students in Russia and Ethiopia. Students can navigate to the Microsoft Dorm Team almost anytime and connect with an RA around homework, English practice, or just to say hi. • The RAs are providing the same great academic support as when the students were together in the dorm. Those who are strong in helping with math and science are on-duty in tandem with those who are comfortable with Humanities and grammar. • Students can participate in International Student Zooms every week, held at 10pm Friday evening in Seattle. • RAs are doing individual Trimester 3 check-ins with students from the four dorm “Houses.” • A “Skills for Resiliency” class offered by Seattle University PhD candidate Sydney Eckhardt will continue weekly through the end of the school year. • Every week, Film Friday at 8:30 pm in Seattle becomes “Saturday Morning Cartoons” for international students.
01 Eleventh grade
international students join ELL teacher Mercy Hume online for a class in English composition and advanced grammar, April 2020.
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No need to wait for a ‘formal’ invite or an academic conundrum to check-in! We are here on Microsoft Teams and available for casual and informal conversations, just like when we are in the dorm together. You have all been experiencing an incredibly challenging time, and we are here if you want to process with a caring adult—or talk about something, anything else!
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— Dean of Residential Life Justin Peters, reaching out to international students in an update letter, April 2020
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Amy Wales ’97 Restoring Eyesight Around the World
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S
ightLife is the world’s leading and largest eye bank and nonprofit community health organization dedicated to eliminating corneal blindness through sight restoration and blindness prevention. Each year, SightLife serves tens of thousands of people in the United States and tens of thousands more in low- and middle-income countries globally, where over 90% of the world’s corneal blind live.
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Amy Wales ’97, SightLife’s vice president of marketing and communications, is passionate about helping those struggling with corneal blindness to get a second chance that can come with restored eyesight and improved eye healthcare. “Anyone can become corneal blind from a simple scratch to the clear outer lens of the eye,” explains Amy, who holds a master’s degree in Comparative Health and Social Policy from the University of Oxford, “but people facing barriers to protective eyewear (such as low-income farmers or factory workers) or who are malnourished and deficient in Vitamin A, or vulnerable to a range of eye diseases and infections, are at considerably higher risk.” In addition to helping expand local eye donation and recovery policies and practices around the world, SightLife helps bolster local corneal transplant capabilities. In 2019, SightLife and its global partners provided 37,456 corneas for transplant, trained 1,664 clinical and eye bank personnel, and trained more than 875 local frontline healthcare workers in the treatment of corneal ulcers, which can lead to corneal blindness. This cadre of frontline healthcare workers reversed the progression to blindness and saved the sight of more than 6,500 low-resource patients in rural Nepal and India.
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Alumni Profiles
A Global Aperture
Remedying Health Inequities
It’s no surprise that Amy found her calling in global public health. She has spent much of her life studying, living, and working abroad in England, Spain, Argentina, the Netherlands, South Africa, Mozambique, and Brazil, among other places.
Amy’s passion for global public health, especially remedying health inequities for the most vulnerable, is rooted in her upbringing, including six years she spent at Northwest. She remembers Co-founder Paul Raymond speaking about injustices carried out by the U.S. Government in Central and South America during a lecture on imperialism. “‘They trained soldiers to kill with impunity!’” Amy recalls Paul bellowing loudly.
“While people’s health is heavily determined by socioeconomic and systemic factors, I also respect that health and healthcare can be deeply personal,” testifies Amy, “so I try to engage with stakeholders in a way that is nonjudgmental, void of assumption, and deeply empathetic.” Amy, who lives in Seattle with her husband and six-yearold twins, Joren and Sonia, notes that her interest in global issues can be traced to speaking Spanish with her paternal grandmother, also named Sonia, who grew up in Pachuca, Mexico. Later Amy attended Escuela Latona, a bi-lingual elementary school in Seattle before enrolling in sixth grade at Northwest. As a senior Amy went to study in Seville for a month as part of Northwest School’s study abroad program. After graduation, she attended Middlebury College, obtaining a dual B.A. in Spanish and Latin American Studies, and Sociology. While at Middlebury, she spent the entirety of her junior year fully matriculated at a local university in Madrid, Spain, and then studied for more than half of her college senior year doing the same in Buenos Aires, Argentina. A year after graduating from college, Amy attended the University of Oxford to pursue her master’s degree. Confirms Amy: “My aperture has always been global.” Before joining SightLife, Amy enjoyed a long tenure at PATH, the Seattle-based global health organization, where she helped drive communications and advocacy for product development teams in low-cost, peoplecentered nutrition, vaccine, and pharmaceutical delivery technologies.
03 01 Amy (center) and SightLife SVP of
Access & Innovation Paul LeBarre (right), share a moment with corneal surgeon and SightLife board member Dr. Audrey Rostov (left), after observing Dr. Rostov perform a successful corneal transplant to restore the sight of a patient suffering corneal blindness. 02 Amy Wales, 2020 03 Amy and husband Erik Pearson read
to their (then) one-year-old twins Joren and Sonia (who are now six).
She also credits Leah Kosh’s Drawing class for teaching her how to connect the details with the bigger picture to tell a visual story, and Renee Fredrickson’s Advanced Chemistry class for instilling in her a curiosity about life. “Renee had a unique ability to combine the rigors of science with the mystery of the universe, pushing us to ask ‘why?’ and ‘so what?’” recalls Amy. “We explored chemical reactions in the context of life’s bigger questions.”
Leading with Empathy Equally important to Amy was Northwest’s core value of “courtesy and common sense,” a concept that helps her to listen before exploring ways to help. “While I have a strong sense of social justice, I still try to lead with empathy, meeting policymakers and other stakeholders where they are,” says Amy. “Through collaborative advocacy and storytelling, my SightLife team and I work to paint a picture of what’s possible when barriers to care are removed, and people have the innovative tools and resources they need to improve not only their health but the health of their families and entire communities.”
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uman Centered Design and Engineering (HCDE) is an evolving field that focuses on understanding human needs and interests and applying that knowledge to engineer solutions to the world’s problems.
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Colin Coltrera ’08
Until recently, the whole concept of human-centered design was anchored in Silicon Valley, driving innovative design of apps and computer programs. Now there is a movement to take the concept “beyond the device” and use it to help companies and industries work more effectively in human-centered ways. “My work is to coach supervisors and executives in social science skills so they can see the larger picture and tackle problems with larger solutions,” explains Colin Coltrera ’08, who coaches several companies in human-centered design principles. Colin holds a master’s in Learning, Design, and Technology from Stanford University, and until recently, worked as a principal designer at People Rocket, a design management firm in San Francisco.
Human Centered Design and Engineering Consultant
Teasing Out Stories Colin guides people in using ethnographic methods to uncover the problems of work within their organizations. Then, he helps them address the problems in sustainable and human-centered ways with an equity lens and a focus on sharing knowledge. For many companies, this is a radically different way to solve problems. “A common practice is to get a bunch of experts into a room to solve problems from their set of expertise. But sometimes people have needs that cannot be solved from the expert’s eye,” says Colin.
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For example, at People Rocket, Colin worked with a large restaurant organization to re-examine their supply chain. The organization had senior directors and VPs who had expertise in supply chain, but no experience as a truck driver or back-of-restaurant employee in charge of tracking supplies. “The first thing we did was help the senior directors go to all those people on the supply chain and tease out the individual stories of what was happening on the ground. We asked, what’s not working? What are you doing to make it work? What are your pain points?” recounts Colin. “Then we took that data and put it on the wall.” According to Colin, the senior directors were flummoxed. “They said, ‘What are you talking about, we have systems in place.’ But it turns out those systems were not serving the people on the ground.”
Alumni Profiles
Learning from Others
Learning About Learning
In Human Centered Design practice, an essential design ability is to learn from other people, and especially from people in other disciplines.
All of these experiences led Colin to realize that his passionate interest lay not so much in linguistics and teaching ESL but in learning about learning. Thus, his decision to pursue his graduate work at Stanford, a program hosted primarily in the School of Education and centered on how people learn, both individually and in groups.
After graduating with his master’s from Stanford, Colin lectured at the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design in Stanford’s School of Engineering. His class did not have engineers or designers, but doctors, lawyers, business people, educators, and journalism students. “The objective was to help them see their own areas of expertise from a different angle,” says Colin. “For example: How can a doctor learn from a journalist, and apply how a journalist learns and explores to how she works with her patients?”
From Linguistics to Systems Thinking At first glance, it doesn’t appear Colin was destined to work in the technology and engineering field. In college at New York University, he studied linguistics, with a focus on semiotics (signs and symbol systems). After graduating with a B.A. in Linguistics, Colin went on get an ESL Teaching Certification from the Teachers College at Columbia University. While at NYU, Colin did an internship in Japan, teaching kindergarten students English as a second language. When he returned to New York he volunteered at The Door in Soho, teaching in the language program for recent immigrants and teens. He designed a program to integrate the English they were learning with life outside the classroom. “Most were working in the (so-called) ‘informal’ economy,” says Colin. “So we, my co-teacher and I, taught them through entrepreneurial skills.” Once he obtained his teaching certificate from the Teachers College, Colin co-founded a not-for-profit called Taxi to Tomorrow. It was a program that linked up ESL students at public high schools with university students who were learning second languages. “It positioned the teens as experts—they already spoke their own languages fluently,” points out Colin. Next, Colin went to India and set up an English language curriculum for Tibetan Buddhist monks. He lived in the monastery for a year and developed a curriculum and set of classes that could accommodate the monk’s unique needs, including the fact that they only had a certain number of hours a day they could study.
01 Colin Coltera, 2020 02 Colin and his husband,
Garrett, on their wedding day, August 2019 03 Colin (seated right),
facilitating a session for client Airbnb
In 2016, Colin left the Bay Area and moved back to Seattle, though he continued to work remotely with People Rocket until 2019. “I did it for love,” he says, sharing that in August 2019 he married his husband Garrett Dieckmann, a software engineer. Colin is now consulting with other clients in the Bay Area. Upon reflection, Colin says the seeds of his interest in the science of learning and in systems thinking began at The Northwest School. “Mark Terry’s Primate Biology class was really powerful for me. It centered us students as people who were not just capable of learning, but also contributing to a body of knowledge,” recalls Colin. “And the Humanities program, the way it connected literature, history, and art, made me understand how these larger systems are all ultimately rooted in individual experience.” According to Colin, he and his Northwest School classmates came to know themselves as actors in a social and political world.
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The Best of Us, at the Worst of Times
by Reid Wilson ’01, National Correspondent for The Hill
n February 2015, the White House team managing the American response to an Ebola outbreak in West Africa gathered an unusually eclectic group of people to meet President Barack Obama. They included two young doctors, one a Christian missionary, the other a liberal idealist from New York; two older missionaries who had worked in a health clinic in Liberia; and two young nurses, one Asian American and one African American.
They may have had little in common on the surface, but each bore the scars of the Ebola virus they had survived. Two White House officials in the room that day told me they were struck by the diversity on display. Here, they said, was the best of America—old and young, conservative and liberal, white, black, Asian, all of whom had put themselves in harm’s way to help others. That story, more than just about any other, has stuck with me in the years after I wrote Epidemic: Ebola and the Global Scramble to Prevent the Next Killer Outbreak, chronicling the American and international response to an outbreak that hit three of the world’s most impoverished countries, claiming at least 11,300 lives and scarring tens of thousands more. It shows that, for all the faults and warts we have as a people, Americans are fundamentally good, and the worst moments bring out the best in us. It’s been important for me to remember those people as a new deadly virus races across the globe. The coronavirus that emerged in Wuhan, China late last year presents a fundamentally different challenge to the world—in short, it’s a much smarter virus, one that keeps its host alive long enough to find new fuel and perpetuate its own existence in a way that Ebola does not. But it is bringing out the same strain of human decency and innovation that Americans tend to show in moments of crisis.
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Alumni Profiles
Students, teachers, volunteers, and tinkerers are using 3D printers to make masks for front-line responders. One young woman in Kentucky even invented a mask with a plastic screen so that hearing-impaired people could read lips. Lizzo, the rapper who claims to be 100 percent that b*tch, has made a habit of sending lunch to emergency rooms across the country. A police officer in Warwick, Rhode Island, volunteered to go grocery shopping for two older residents who were scared to go out – and then shoppers at the store picked up the tab. LeVar Burton and Dolly Parton are reading stories to kids online. William Lapschies, one of the first known Covid-19 cases confirmed in Oregon, got out of the hospital in time to celebrate his 104th birthday. And a few days ago, sitting on my stoop in Washington, D.C., I noticed birthday balloons at a neighbor’s house. A parade of friends began driving by, honking and waving at the birthday girl. Those drive-by birthdays have become a national trend. There is a lot of bad news in the world, and right now I find myself in the vortex of its swirling storm. The American government has so bungled the response that it will have decades-long ramifications. We are only beginning to comprehend what normal will look like in a post-Covid world, and it won’t be anything like what normal looked like in January and February.
0 1 Reid, discussing the
coronavirus on Hill.TV, February 26, 2020 0 2 Cover of Reid’s
book, published in December 2017
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But when so much goes wrong, there are so many who do what is right. When I start feeling overwhelmed by the news, it helps to take a break and actively search for the people who are making a positive difference in their communities. It is they who remind us that the path back may be long, but it is there. This too shall pass. Hopefully in time for all of us to celebrate William Lapschies’s 105th birthday.
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Class Notes
Anita Nadelson ’84 Anita Nadelson was recently in the news; The Seattle Times reported on April 9th that Anita played a key role in securing 84 boxes filled with critical COVID-19 testing kits shipped from China to UW medicine laboratories. The quickly executed project called for complex global logistical planning on Anita’s part and involved a mystery doctor from China as well as Amazon Executive Jeff Wilke. Jake Winkler ’94 [01] Jake Winkler, Artistic Director of Seattle Girls Choir, put together a virtual choir performance to celebrate music and community in times of social distancing. The performance, which can be viewed on the Seattle Girls Choir YouTube channel, was featured on an NBC podcast as well as Seattle’s King5, KIRO, and KUOW. Mark Terry tells the alumni office that “Jake spent over 24 hours putting the piece together, first playing the piano, then videotaping himself conducting, then capturing each girl’s contribution as she sent it to him, and finally editing the whole piece.” [Current NWS student Mara W. ’20 is in row 2, column 2.]
Liz Mair ’96 Liz Mair has recently joined The New York Times Editorial Board. Liz, a political and communications consultant, frequently writes for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Washington Examiner, The Hill, and other media outlets. Kenzan Tsutakawa-Chinn ’98 [02] The newly renovated Seattle Asian Art Museum is featuring work by Kenzan, a NY-based light installation artist. His LED light sculpture is prominently displayed on the ceiling of the Garden Court. “Born out of a combination of cultural inspiration, metaphysical energy of art, and compositional geometry, the installation takes the shape of a blanket with a cross pattern found in both ikat and sashiko (stitch) process. It slowly slants down in the front, creating an elegant curve; Noguchi’s “Black Sun” serves as a symbolic focal point.” (Seattle Asian Art Museum curator Xiaojin Wi, as quoted in South Seattle Emerald) Photo caption: Kenzan Tsutakawa-Chinn ’98, next to his installation at the Seattle Asian Art Museum
Eric Stegman ’00 Eric was recently named Executive Director of Native Americans in Philanthropy, the only nonprofit devoted to promoting equitable and effective philanthropy in Native communities. Previously, Eric was Executive Director of the Center for Native American Youth at the Aspen Institute, Major Staff Council for the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, and served in the Obama administration as a Policy Advisor at the U.S. Department of Education. Julia Wohlstetter ’11 [03] Julia, a Portland-based poet and author of the chapbook Please and Please, has received a full scholarship to attend the prestigious Iowa Writers’ Workshop, a program in Creative Writing at The University of Iowa in Iowa City.
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Class Notes
Abbey Brown ’07 [04] Last year, I got my master’s degree in International Environmental Policy from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California. While in grad school, I worked for the NDC Partnership, a coalition between the United Nations and the World Resources Institute, to help developing nations meet their Paris Agreement goals. After graduating, I joined the Washington State Department of Ecology to work on climate policy, collaborating with other states and the private sector. I’m so happy to be back in the Pacific Northwest! Hazel Carr ’15 [05] Hazel Carr was recently at the Burke Museum at the same time as Mark Terry—each of them working on different projects. Hazel, who has a degree in biology, was working with brown creepers. As Mark explained, “Brown creepers are little birds that not a whole lot is known about, despite being found all over North America.” Meanwhile, Mark was checking bat ID’s of locally collected bats so they could be accessed into the Burke Museum’s collections.
Leah Jarvik ’15 [06] Leah Jarvik was set to perform in the world premiere of the play The Fifth Wave with the Macha Theater Works at West of Lenin Theater, but the performance was cancelled days before opening, due to social distancing measures in Seattle. The Fifth Wave is a powerful story about a well-known feminist university professor whose character is tested when a sexual assault case rocks the campus. Willa Serling ’16 [07] Willa Sterling has been named an Erasmus Mundus Scholar, a highly prestigious scholarship that will allow Willa to earn a master’s degree in Public Health at the University of Sheffield, in England, the first year, and a master’s in Leadership in European Public Health at Maastricht University, in The Netherlands, the second year. Currently at Colorado College, Willa is an anthropology major with minors in global health and human biology and kinesiology. Willa was also one of 11 Colorado College Fulbright semifinalists this year for a public health research project in Indonesia, and a Global Health Corps semifinalist for a position with the Ministry of Health in Kigali, Rwanda.
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Alumni Happenings Alumni Gathering at Kaladi’s Alumni Reunion Weekend 2020 was not held in April, as planned! Students and faculty alike were so excited to have alumni in The House to celebrate Reunion 2020! Alumni were invited to attend classes, our Leadership Dinner in the new Burke Museum at UW was ready to be a fine celebration, menus for the International Marketplace were in process, and the brewery down the street was ready for alums and faculty alike. We were ready! And so sorry that these plans, with so many others, went awry. Planning is underway for Fall 2020, when alumni are invited to come to the The House to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of our School community with faculty, current parents, and parents of alumni. Save the Date of October 24! We hope to see you then!
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Alumni got together this winter at Kaladi Brothers Coffee, a beloved coffee shop within walking distance to Northwest, and had a great time reconnecting and sharing memories. The attendees at the event were: standing, from left Adam Miller ’05, Lindsey Miller ’09, Akesha Baron ’93, Jennifer Ferguson ’83, Willa Serling ’16, Mathea Pielemeier ’16, Japera Burres ’16; seated, from left: Kaya Wynn ’08, Kayla Sargent ’08, Mira Levenson ’08.
Alumni Basketball Game Alums returned to Northwest during winter break to play an exciting basketball game (final score 98–99!). Faculty, family, and friends cheered from the sidelines. Thank you to Britt Atack for organizing the game and to everyone who participated. Alumni players at the game were: back row, left to right: Marco Shugurensky ’15, Kilian Marsh ’11, Owen Freed ’13, John Curry ’11, David Kauffman ’95, Hanna Anderson ’18, Melat Feseha ’19, Ethan Kurofsky ’17, Ryan Kinerk ’17, Leo Packard ’17, Tomas Shugurensky ’17, Nick Marsh ’11, Ryan Witter ’17, Gray Davidson ’19; front row, left to right: Khalif El-Salaam ’12, Drew Benditt ’11, Britt Atack, Henry Schuyler ’16.
Northwest Archives Project Our Archives were open on January 29 and February 25 for alumni, founders, and faculty who came to NWS to identify events and people in our extensive photo collection. Amanda Demeter, NWS archivist, lead these greatly enjoyable sessions, focusing on photographs from 1980’s to early 2000’s. Many great stories about early days of Northwest were recalled and shared during these sessions!
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Development & Volunteers
Thank You, Amazing Northwest School Community! All for Financial Aid: 170 Donors, $260,000—Virtually! Pizazz Rewritten was held virtually April 28–May 1, standing in for the beloved book-themed event that has been held every year for more than a decade. More than 170 contributed $260,000 to support our families through the Raymond Taussig Terry Financial Aid Endowment Fund and the Northwest Experience Fund. Thanks to all for helping to make our community accessible and inclusive! Emceed by Dance teacher Elvin Jones, our asynchronous event featured daily videos from Elvin, Head of School Mike McGill, Director of Financial Aid and Assistant Director of Admissions Jonathan Hochberg, Trustees Lynda Lopez ’01 and Kim Armstrong P ’21 & ’24, and students Jonah D.P. ’25, piano; Haoru (Jeffrey) J. ’20, piano; Freya L. ’23, harp; Jack N. ’22, cello; Jiayu (Carrie) H. ’24, violin; Roxanne S. ’24, viola; and Izzy S. ’24 cello. The videos of the student performances can be found at classy.org/campaign/pizazz-rewritten/c281534 01
Board Member and Parent Volunteers Dan & Emily Raymond Thank you to Dan and Emily Raymond, parents of Sophie ’21 and Ella ’22, for their great work for The Northwest School! Dan, CFO of Gary Merlino Construction, is the Treasurer of the Board of Trustees and Chair of the Finance Committee. Emily is a member of the Development Committee and has been part of Pizazz for the last six years. With monthly board and committee meetings, and extra meetings as needed, their time and contributions are greatly appreciated. “Volunteering is essential to being part of a community. We believe in the community of education at The Northwest School. It has been our honor and joy to be volunteers working to foster equity in educational access at the school. We believe it is crucial to support all efforts to promote equal access for both academic and extracurricular experiences for all students.” - Dan & Emily Raymond
Need for Financial Aid Likely to Grow The impact of the Coronavirus on the economy is likely to mean that families will need more financial aid, and more families will be applying for financial aid than have in years past. In 2019-2020, 18% of our families received more than $3,000,000 in financial aid.
Thank You Parent/Guardian Volunteers! Many thanks to the Pizazz Committee, led by Northwest School Parents Aviva Richman, Barb Chin, Emily Raymond, Julie Lyss, Kari Straley, Monica Maling, Roger Capestany and Assistant Director of Development Julie Lombardo, and the parent/guardians who volunteered to host virtual Happy Hours to celebrate our coming together: They are: Kari Straley, Julie Lyss, Jason Barbacovi, Renee Raker, Kim Armstrong, Victoria North, Alan Caplan, Barb Chin, Emily Raymond, Val Nelson, Madlen Caplow, Ann Bradford, Barb Herrington, Jan Chow, Monica Maling, Carol Crews, and Alum Parent Sally Ketcham. 01 Elvin Jones, keeping the rhythm
going as Pizazz Rewritten emcee
As the need for these funds increases, your gifts to the school to support financial aid make all the difference in our ability to support our community. In addition to recognizing the need for more FA next year, the school is benefiting all families by suspending the finance charges associated with making monthly payments for tuition. “We want to do everything we can to give our families flexibility next year,” says Head of School Mike McGill. The Financial Aid application process can be found at northwestschool.org/ admissions/tuition-financial-aid/ financial-aid-process.
Left: Practicing Together in Spirit The Upper School Varsity Girls’ Ultimate Team created a video in which they filmed themselves “throwing” the frisbee to their teammates and edited the shots into one continuous sequence. To see the video, visit our website’s Remote Learning Community Page.
