Winter Magazine 2013 by The Northwest School

A publication for Alumni and Fr iends

2013

winter

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 Douglas Leek, Director of Admissions and Enrollment Management, douglas.leek@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 alumni notes and photographs by alumni, parents, and friends. Please email to alumni@northwestschool.org. Website: www.northwestschool.org

Mike McGill Head of School Margie Combs, Editor Director of Communications Leila Thomas Director of Development Rose Bellini Assistant Director of Development Lauren Nelson Alumni Relations Manager Jessie Schreiber Development and Alumni Coordinator

Contributing Writers Margie Combs Andrew Matson Lauren Nelson Daren Salter Contributing Photographers Diane Cassidy Andrew Matson Stefanie Felix NWS Parents Graphic Design Sarah Watson Design

Table of Contents Head’s Message ........................................................................................................... 2 News and Notes ...........................................................................................................

International Students Serve Community .......................................................... 3

Teaching in Ethiopia ............................................................................................... 3

Fall Sports Champions ........................................................................................... 4

Studying Climate Change in the Canadian Arctic .................................................. 6

NWS Math Teaches Economic Sustainability ......................................................... 7

Teaching About Embedded Racism in Seattle .......................................................

Locavore Lunch ....................................................................................................... 9

ArtsFest Gala 2013 ...................................................................................................

8 10

Feature: Pursuing the Secrets of Science ............................................................. 12 Alumni Profiles ........................................................................................................ 18

Patrick Campbell ’01 – Visualizing New Chemical Pathways ............................... 18

Anna Robinson ’03 – Designing Aerodynamic Software ...................................... 19

Ted Griebling ’90 – Creating Mechanical Wonders .............................................. 20

Rebecca Terry ’97 – Reading the Bones ................................................................ 21

401 E Pike: Let the Games Begin ............................................................................... 22 Graduation 2013 ........................................................................................................... 24 Class Notes ................................................................................................................... 26

Kenzan Tsutakawa-Chinn ’98 honored ................................................................. 26

Facebook Feedback ..................................................................................................... 35 Alumni Happenings ..................................................................................................... 36 Our Dream Comes True ................................................................................................ 38 Cover Photo: Conservation Paleontologist Rebecca Terry ‘97 emerges from Samwell Cave in Northern California. Rebecca studies fossilized bone fragments of small mammals dating back 12,000 years.

What’s (Not) in a Name? ccording to Mark Terry, the Founders had wanted to call their new place on Summit Avenue simply “The Northwest School.” State officials were having none of it, though. “Too many ‘Northwests’ of all stripes in this town,” the officials said. So as Mark, Ellen Taussig, and Paul Raymond drew up the articles of incorporation—which required them to select a name—they asked themselves what about their vision made the new school unique and named it accordingly: “The Northwest School of the Arts, Humanities and Environment.” (While certainly descriptive, it has been a real challenge to fit on a basketball jersey, much less a bumper sticker.) “But why not include science?” I ask Mark, noting that it was his own discipline they’d neglected. “Oh, but we did,” he shoots back. It turns out that what they called “Environment” back in the day actually comprised six departments: science, math, the Outdoor Program, maintenance, the kitchen, and what’s become known as the Environment Program. I tell this story in order to suggest one possible explanation why Northwest’s extraordinary Science Department remains one of our best-kept secrets. Our name, while nicely evocative of some of what we do, leaves a lot out, particularly for the uninitiated. And that’s frankly perplexing given the tremendous strength of the science faculty and program at Northwest. Of course, the name is probably only part of the problem. The confusion may also have something to do with our never having embraced standardized curricula with easy-to-digest metrics. (I doubt, for example, that the College Board will be inaugurating an “AP Primate Biology” exam anytime soon…though if they did, you can be sure that our kids would all earn 5’s!) Instead, our measures of success reside in our students and alumni. Talk to the pair of juniors who, with Physical Science and Chemistry teacher Emma Wolf-Saxon ‘00, spent part of last summer in the Arctic doing research on the earth’s permafrost layer, an important indicator of climate change. Or consider that many seniors elect to double—that is, take two classes, voluntarily—in science every year, graduating with five years’ worth of credit on their transcripts. Or check out the alumni profiles in this magazine, which feature four NWS grads who are working in scientific and engineering fields. The skills, habits of mind, and content they acquired at Northwest—and which they identify as crucial to their formation as scientists and engineers—are the very same qualities we continue to develop in today’s students in our lab-oriented curriculum: the ability to ask good questions and work collaboratively to find solutions; a willingness (or drive even) to tinker, mess around, and “get one’s hands dirty”; the confidence to take risks—to try different approaches knowing that some will fail— and the grit to persevere when they do; the ability to think creatively; the inclination to seek (and make) connections and synthesize information; and, perhaps most importantly, a boundless capacity for wonder. If everyone associated the word “environment” with all of that, I might be able to feel better about those bureaucrats who nixed the original name back in 1978. In the meantime, though, we’ll continue to nurture budding scientists and engineers who will graduate from Northwest and, in the words of our mission, “have a positive impact on the world.”

Mike McGill, He ad of School

News & Notes International Students Serve Community This fall, the NWS international dormitory community has contributed a record number of service hours to the Seattle community. Thirty-nine of our 56 residents have participated in at least one activity,

ne student told me, ‘I realized that I can help other people, and that feels good,’” says Residential Life Coordinator Catherine Bisignano. “And it’s really fun!” A semi-complete list of those activities: clearing away a good portion of Lewis Park Natural Area’s invasive morning glory and blackberry vines; helping sell and organize books at the annual fall sale benefit for the Seattle Public Library; painting faces and helping children build lanterns at a Moon Festival Celebration put on by the International District Community Center; participating in a volun-

teer day at The Gates Foundation filling backpacks with school supplies for El Salvador; making dog toys for PAWS; learning about global health efforts of The Gates Foundation and other organizations in Seattle; planning a fundraising project to build a water well in India; spending an evening supervising homeless children at First Place School while their parents learned valuable information to help their children succeed in school; sorting and repacking 8,000 pounds of food and other household goods for the Food Lifeline food bank; planting 900 trees (with the help of a few other groups as well as fellow NWS ski bus participants) along the Mountains to Sound Greenway; and trick-or-treating for canned goods to donate to Northwest Harvest. Our dorm students also attended athletics events and cheered on the NWS cross country and Ultimate teams. Our international students come to The Northwest School at the end of August and manage major cultural differences,

Teaching in Ethiopia Five NWS community members converged in Ethiopia this last summer at NWS Co-Founder Ellen Taussig’s new high school in Addis Ababa, the International Leadership Academy of Ethiopia (ILAE). Two of our current faculty, one former faculty, and one alum were teaching there at the same time. The vision of the International Leadership Academy of Ethiopia is to inspire the next generation of socially responsible global leaders, providing students with the academic and social skills they need to succeed. L-R: Joel Putnam ’04, Ellen Taussig (NWS Co-Founder), Andy Meyer (NWS Humanities), Jeff Blair (NWS Humanities), Jen Kulik (former NWS Theatre).

Congratulations

to our student athletes

NWS Junior Runs Fastest 5k in Washington State NWS finished strongly at the Washington State Cross Country championships Saturday, Nov. 9, with junior Graham P. taking 1st place in the 5k race. Adding to that standout achievement, our girls’ team took 4th in their gender category and our boys’ team placed 8th. The scores are evidence of the ongoing NWS cross country surge under Head Coach Joe Bisignano. His program so far is marked by athletic excellence and a certain culture NWS community members should recognize as “courtesy and common sense,” which the Emerald League recognized this year by awarding both our boys’ and girls’ teams sportsmanship awards. The Emerald League awards also named NWS coaches Joe Bisignano, Spencer Walsh, and Jane Ricardi as boys’ coaches of the year and girls’ coaches of the year. Tibebu P. was named boys’ rookie of the year, and Molly M. was named girls’ rookie of the year.

Coach Joe Bisignano

and athletic faculty

NWS Ultimate Wins State Championships The NWS boys’ varsity Ultimate team captured its 5th consecutive State title Friday, Nov. 1, defeating Franklin High School. Coaches described the playing as “tight, strong, and sharp.” The victory came after a flawless season of Emerald League play, and a first place finish in a field of 20 regional teams at the Seattle Invite. Next year is already looking good for the team. Five seniors are vacating spots, but 11 juniors, three sophomores, and one freshman are returning.

News & Notes, continued....

In August, 2013, NWS students and faculty helicoptered to the Nester 1 Field Camp in the Canadian Arctic to take part in a thirty-year research project, examining underground permafrost and ground level plant life, in order to understand more about patterns of climate change.

Studying Climate Change in the Canadian Arctic e did actual research and filled out data sheets,” says senior Michael M. “If we made a mistake it was a big deal—we had to go back and check what the mistake was and fix it.” Michael participated in the research project along with fellow senior Chris R., and NWS science teacher Emma Wolf-Saxon. Emma chose the students from a group of applicants, who wrote essays about why they should go on the trip. NWS joined students from various schools, including Park School in Baltimore and Kelvin High School in Winnipeg. They all contributed to a Park School science blog while in Canada, writing about their experiences. Chris explains the process in the field: “We had the macro team, which was judging plant type on the ground; then the micro team, judging each specific species; then the probing team, taking samples of the active [soil] layer—which is between the ground and permafrost.” By the end of the thirty-year process (now in year nine), the goal is to supply scientists with enough data to understand the relationship between permafrost and ground life. Specifically, how they affect each other, and how both are impacted by climate change. This will tell us more about how pollution and human behavior have triggered growing ecological imbalances. Chris says, “We saw a red fox right on the Hudson Bay, which is too far North—they shouldn’t be there, it’s unnatural.” Besides research, students swam in the ocean with belugas, met by day with locals who talked about hunting caribou and warding off polar bears, and at night, they witnessed the scientific wonder of the aurora borealis.

NWS Math Teaches Economic Sustainability NWS teacher Erica Bergamini presented her 6th grade math curriculum at the Northwest Mathematics Conference in Portland, OR, on Saturday, October 10th. Her seminar, “Real World Math: Making a Difference One Math Class at a Time,” centered on her 6th grade microlending unit, a fixture in NWS mathematics since 2008. “It teaches the power of a small loan,” says Erica, who also teaches science and is involved in the NWS Outdoor Program. “The idea is for the students to understand and achieve economic sustainability.” In the microlending unit, students are given $15 to start a business of their own design. Through that business, they are expected to generate enough money to pay back the loan with a 10% interest rate. Examples of products have included fudge, lip gloss, hats shaped like animals, handbags, a Shaquille O’Neal finger puppet, a fake mustache, and carnival games (throw a ball through a hoop and get a root beer float). Some students have made hundreds of dollars. “There were a few who led a three-week arts camp with kids in their neighborhood,” says Erica. “They charged $75, and made about $400.” The project requires both strategic thinking and Erica Bergamini computation. Students must figure out what they need to charge for their product in order to pay back their loan. And if they want to make more money, they learn to invest profits back into the business. There is also a social component. Students must conduct market research to conceptualize and develop their product. This involves polling classmates and various communities: school, home, neighborhood, Internet, etc. On top of teaching math and financial skills, 6th grade microlending is a service project. Students don’t keep the money they earn with their small businesses. Instead, they contribute to a pot, which is split and donated to organizations doing similar work on a bigger scale. “We usually make between $500-$800 a year,” says Erica. “We’ve given money to Washington CASH, a microlending organization in Seattle, Goodwill Industries, Farestart, and Kiva Microfunds. At the end of the day, we want students to see that a little money can make a big difference.” The seed money for the microlending unit began with a $500 grant, which Erica became eligible for after attending three lectures from the Education for Sustainable Future program. The grant was also made possible in part by the American Association of University Women and the Charlotte Martin Foundation.

From the NWS Website Blog:

Teaching About Embedded Racism in Seattle October 13, 2013 By Daren Salter n

11th grade Humanities, we begin the year with an intensive study of the post-Emancipation African American experience. This unit begins with the poetry of the Harlem Renaissance, is stitched together by Zora Neale Hurston’s 1937 novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, and climaxes with the iconic struggles and milestones of the peak years of the Daren Salter modern civil rights movement: the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v Board; the crisis in Little Rock; the March on Washington; the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts; and the rise of “Black Power”, to name a few. Moving students quickly into the late 1960s, the unit marks a break from the chronological approach we typically employ in Upper School Humanities. Instead, our approach is thematic; we hope students will draw upon the overarching themes of the African American freedom struggle, such as human dignity and human rights, the expanding participation of marginalized populations in the political process, and the philosophy and tactics of nonviolent direct-action, and apply those themes to future units on, for example, decolonization, Cold War politics, and current issues and events. At the end of September, we closed our unit by bringing the national story of civil rights home to our locale, the city of Seattle and the Pacific Northwest, through a remarkable online public history resource called the Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project. The project was founded in 2005 by University of Washington History Professor James Gregory, who also happens to be a former Northwest School parent (Rachel Gregory ‘08). As a graduate student at the UW, I had the opportunity to contribute to the project, which, as the name indicates, chronicles the linked histories of civil rights and labor— of race and class—in Seattle and across the region. In my presentation to the 11th graders, I gave students a brief tour of the website. My purpose was twofold: to teach them a bit about the history of civil rights in Seattle and to expose them to the project as a whole, in the hopes that they will explore it in further detail on their own. Who knows, perhaps some of our students will wind up contributing to the site as UW students!

Beyond this or that event or activist, however, I hoped to impress upon students why studying civil rights in Seattle is important; that is, how does Seattle’s story challenge or enhance our understanding of the civil rights movement as a whole? For one, scanning the faces of the activists

featured on the Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project, it is clear that Seattle’s movement was multi-racial in character. When we consider the civil rights movement, we tend of think in terms of the binary black/white racial divide of the American South. Seattle helps us to see why, especially in cities of the West, it is best to speak in plural terms of civil rights movements involving Asian Americans, Native Americans, and Latino/as, as well as black and white Americans, each building coalitions with, drawing inspiration from, and occasionally coming into conflict with each other.

database of restrictive housing covenants compiled by student researchers. Restrictive covenants were one of the primary ways white property owners and real estate agents maintained residential segregation in Seattle. We scrolled through the database, looking at neighborhoods where 11th grade students currently live. Here’s an excerpt from the restrictive covenant in my neighborhood, Greenlake:

So, Seattle’s history challenges us to expand our understanding of civil rights beyond physical safety, voting rights, and the integration of public accommodations—the lynchpins of the Southern freedom struggle—to include institutional racism in key sectors like housing, employment, and education, forms of segregation that we have made progress toward eradicating but that are still a part of the fabric of our city today. As I told students, in Seattle, fair housing was perhaps the foremost civil rights issue. Indeed, one of the most fascinating features of the website is a

Learning about Seattle’s civil rights history is important to our students for an additional reason. It impresses upon them the fact that history—life-altering, worldchanging history—begins in local communities and is made, in many cases, by young people who have little more than justice and courage on their side. This is a truth of the civil rights movement as a whole; it is certainly a truth of the struggle in Seattle; and it’s a truth worth carrying forward into our own time.

None of said lots shall be sold, conveyed, rented or leased in whole or in part to any person not of the Secondly, Seattle’s rich history of union organization and white race, nor shall any person not of the white race labor militancy added a different dimension to civil rights be permitted to occupy any portion of such lot or struggles here, one that often explicitly blended race and of any building thereon except a servant actually class consciousness in ways rarely seen in the South. Filipino employed by a white occupant of such building. Cannery workers, African American maritime workers, and Although declared unconstitutional by the U.S. black building tradesmen viewed economic justice as Supreme Court in 1948, most restrictive covenants inseparable from racial justice. remained in the deeds of Seattle neighborhood Finally, Seattle’s reputation as a tolerant and progressive associations, albeit unenforced, until 2006, when city, one mostly free of the worst abuses of the South such in response to publicity generated by the Seattle as lynching and de jure Jim Crow, masked the intransigent Civil Rights and Labor History Project, the state and often submerged presence of de facto segregation. legislature passed a law requiring their removal.

Locavore Lunch

Students Examine Food Ethics This September 13th, the NWS community ate Locavore Lunch in the cafeteria, and the junior class studied the complex route from farm to processing plant to table. The day before, in a full Raymond Room, NWS humanities teacher Daniel Sparler delivered his Food 101 lecture about the economics, ethics, and environmental ramifications of food production. his is where it gets serious,” said Daniel. “Relative to our income, food is cheaper in the U.S. than in any other country in the world. Why is food so cheap in this country?” The answer: hidden costs. Students heard about the physical price of consuming unhealthy and overly processed foods; the environmental price of large farms damaging the environment by carelessly dumping waste; and the price of human rights by exploiting workers. They were surprised to learn that Walmart, for instance, is the biggest retailer of food in the U.S., but also drives prices down by refusing to pay growers over a certain amount of money. When it comes to products sold in the average supermarket, fair wages and nutrition are not necessarily part of the picture. With that in their minds, students entered the cafeteria where NWS Director of Food Services Renee O’Harran had noted

on the menu board the specific city/region for each component in the meal. Everything came from Washington State. Students enjoyed chanterelles from the Cascade Foothills, oyster mushrooms from Burien, black watermelon from Wapato, and Draper Valley chicken from Mt. Vernon. As she planned the menu, Renee reflected on her time spent over the summer at Quillisascut Farm School of the Domestic Arts, a farm and school in northeastern Washington. She studied there on a NWS professional development grant, paid for by the NWS Annual Fund. “It gave me a shot to stay on the path we’re on. And a new

Director of Food Services Renee O’Harran

appreciation for the farmers, the farm workers, the cheese makers: all of it. They work so hard,” says Renee. The NWS locavore philosophy — which Renee subscribes to all the time and makes a special point of advertising at the annual Locavore Lunch—cuts down on another hidden cost: the environmental impact of fuel emissions involved in transporting foods. “Produce-wise, we eat seasonally,” says Renee. “I keep all our meat local. Do I really need to have six different vinegars, or three different oils?” After the Locavore Lunch, the NWS juniors broke into small groups to discuss current newspaper articles about H2-A employment, the U.S. Dept. of Labor’s Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act, and the pressures on farmers to improve living and working conditions. The students talked about the prices consumers are willing to pay, and the dignity of workers. All of these discussions helped students realize that there are no easy answers to many of the complicated issues surrounding the food industry.

ArtsFest Gala erforming on stage for hundreds of friends and family members, NWS students lit up Town Hall on Thursday, April 11, 2013, with two hours of dance, music, spoken word, and mime. It was all part of our annual ArtsFest Gala, emceed this year by Humanities teachers Scott Davis and Andy Meyer, and co-produced by NWS faculty Ellen Graham (Theatre), Susan Wickett-Ford (Dance,) and Dana Sewall (Music). Students practiced during and outside school for months for ArtFest and delighted the audience with a fantastic show.

Humanities Teachers Scott Davis (left) and Andy Meyer

Pursuing the Secrets enee steps back and looks around at the students. “You have only one question to answer,” she says, opening her hands. “What just happened?” The textbook will not give the answer. And neither will Renee. The students will need to do qualitative analysis to figure it out. In other words, they’ll have to stew and come up with the answer themselves. “All too often in lab manuals a procedure is all written out; it’s so prescriptive and students don’t ever have to ask themselves why they’re doing it,” says Renee. “This is not the way science is done. In real science, you have a question: why is it I can use this metal and not that one? Or this liquid and not that one? And is there a way I can predict that?” Renee, who has been teaching chemistry at The Northwest School since 1988, challenges her students with a combination of disciplined study and open-ended discovery. It’s an approach that characterizes science teaching at The Northwest School and has prepared and inspired many Northwest graduates to choose science as a career. “My goal for every student is for them to know how to ask great questions,” says Renee. “It’s not ‘should my notebook look like this?’, or ‘what data point should I have?’. My job is to teach them to figure out the question they most need to ask in order to move down the line to find the answer themselves.”

Learning how to ask great questions Chemistry Teacher Renee Fredrickson

It’s a September morning at The Northwest School and, in the upper floor Chemistry lab, twenty 12th grade students are gathered around a table topped with glass tubes and pipettes. Chemistry teacher Renee Fredrickson pours liquid into one tube and, with a few quick strokes, pipettes another drop of liquid into the mix. Suddenly, the students let out a collective gasp. The clear liquid coagulates and, within seconds, morphs into a blue solid.

The ability to ask great questions is a central focus of all science learning at The Northwest School. Whether students are in Chemistry unraveling a chemical reaction, in Biology analyzing bone specimens, or in Physics building and testing models, they are expected to frame questions about what they don’t know and troubleshoot their own way to the answers. “Open-ended exploration is something we’ve always done,” says Biology teacher Mark Terry, who co-founded The Northwest School with teachers Ellen Taussig and Paul Raymond. Mark now teaches 10th grade Biology and 12th grade Primate Biology. “None of us teaches directly from a textbook—it is only used as a resource. We teach students how to dig information out. We teach them how to ask productive questions that lead to even better questions.”

of Science Open- ended exploration Students are then challenged to design their own scientific studies. As might be expected, they must ask and answer their own questions: Is there something I’m interested in about bones that I can measure? Based on that measurement, what question can I get to? Invariably, students develop intriguing and sophisticated questions. Last spring, for example, one student designed a study around the question, ‘Do the tail structures of primates that hang by their tails differ from those that do not, vertebra for vertebra?’ Another examined handedness in Woodland Park Zoo’s Western Lowland gorillas, pursuing the question, ‘Are they preferentially using the right or left hand when they perform tasks?’ Biology Teacher Mark Terry

Mastery and discipline Science students at The Northwest School immerse in a four-year, discovery- and lab-based experience. All 9th graders focus on the investigative process, 10th graders on biology, and 11th graders on chemistry. 12fth graders select an additional year of advanced study in chemistry, biology, or physics. Depending on the teacher and course, NWS students will be triggered to develop questions and make their own discoveries in a variety of ways. In Advanced Chemistry for example, students may start out with a demonstration and open-ended

question, but across the hall in Primate Biology, they may start by observing and comparing full primate skeletons.

Says Mark: “The students do remarkable work and they don’t look to me for the answers.”

Continued...

“In the fall I’m very didactic: my students come in to tables of skeletons, and I say ‘here are the bones you have to learn’,” explains Biology teacher Mark Terry who has taught at the school since 1980. Over the years, Mark has amassed an extensive bone collection for the NWS Science Department. Students have access to the bones of several mammal orders, as well as a wide variety of the primate order, including apes, monkeys, and prosimians. “Students start sketching and asking each other, how does a monkey femur differ from a human femur?” says Mark. Within a single quint students can pick up a bone fragment and identify what bone it is from, what end of the bone it’s from, and what side of the body the bone belongs to. With this mastery, students are ready for the more open-ended discovery in the second half of the course. “Once they have learned their way around the skeleton, we can turn them loose,” Mark says.

The modeling approach In Physics, students engage in similar self-guided discovery, albeit by different methods. A signature way Science Department Chair Cecilia Tung teaches 12th graders about velocity, force, acceleration, and gravity is by handing them an open-ended project. “I don’t give my students any information; I start out by saying ‘build a rocket’,” testifies Cecilia who has a master’s in Physics from the University of Illinois, and a BA in Astrophysics from Wellesley College. Cecilia’s students must dig out their own research on flight dynamics. As soon as they’ve constructed their first rockets, they go outside and launch them from the school’s West Court. “Based on what goes well and what doesn’t, we come back and redesign,” says Cecilia. “It’s an iterative process: the students are asking ‘how can we hone it and make it better?’“ As they’re redesigning and retrying, the students are learning hard science: Newton’s Laws; What affects acceleration? How does the shape of the nose cone affect trajectory? According to Cecilia, students must justify their predictions, both to her and to each other.

“It takes longer to teach it this way, but our students are learning how to think and approach a problem, and also, how not to see the teacher as the source of information,” explains Cecilia. “The goal is for them to learn independently.”

The frustration zone One of the most valuable benefits of The Northwest School’s open-ended approach to learning science is that students get plenty of opportunities to try, fail, and try again. In fact, science teachers expect the process will be messy and that students will struggle through several trials. “A successful project in 9th grade science is one where students feel a range of emotions,” confirms 9th grade science teacher Jeremy DeWitt, who holds a BA in Geological Sciences from Brown University and a master’s in Science Education from University of Washington. “Science as a process is, among other things, an emotional process. You’re problem solving, coming up with ideas that will help you figure things out. In order to improve something, you have to invest yourself in it.”

Science Department Chair Cecilia Tung

Experimental Design One of the most important things students learn at The Northwest School is how to critique and question what they are learning and why they are learning it. “Self-agency is a big focus here: asking questions, taking control of your education, questioning the teacher and the procedure,” confirms Kathryn Wallace ’95 who is in her 6th year teaching 10th grade Biology at NWS. “We want the learner who digs in and asks ‘why is that true? Why am I learning that?’”

This applies even to standard science labs. In 10th grade Biology, for example, students prepare for cell biology and cellular respiration by conducting a standard calorimetry lab. Using a

device that Antoine Lavoisier came up with in the 18th century, students light a cashew nut or saltine cracker on fire to see how much it heats up H2O. Students learn how scientists found ways to quantify energy by measuring heat’s effects on water. “Students do have to get the data—the calories per gram—but what the lab is really about is experimental design,” reveals Biology teacher Mark Terry who co-teaches 10th grade Biology with Kathryn. “It’s about how you critique the equipment: ‘Wait a minute, this is not working!’ We want to hear them thinking about how the lab procedure itself is, or is not, effective.” Asking students to reflect on the meaning of what they’re doing pushes them into a higher level of thinking, according to Mark.

“Ultimately, we want students asking themselves, ‘What equipment and procedure do I need to step up in order to get to a better, more reliable answer?’” Later in the course, some students conduct the calorimetry lab again, this time with equipment they have designed themselves, based on their earlier experience. Says Mark: “Students learn one of the most important things a scientist must know: ‘How well the lab is proceeding is only as good as the steps you take.’”

Biology Teacher Kathryn Wallace

NWS Alumni Present Talks on Fossils, Caves, and Ancient Environments This fall, two separate science conferences featured talks by NWS alumni. Josh Miller ‘96, Rebecca Terry ‘97, and John Orcutt ’99 presented at the annual meeting of the Society of Veterbrate Paleontology in Los Angeles; and John Orcutt spoke an additional time at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Denver. Making both of these events particularly special was the fact that NWS faculty were listening in the audience. Here are reports from NWS science teachers Mark Terry and Herb Bergamini. (Background) Science Teachers Jeremy DeWitt and Emma Wolf-Saxon oversee a catapult launch.

NWS 9th grade students tackle two major scientific model-building projects: To better understand velocity and mass, they design and build a working catapult that can hit a target with precision, and to explore and explain the phases of the moon, they design and build a planetary model. “In the beginning, there is a lot of frustration with these models,” concedes 9th grade science teacher Emma Wolf-Saxon ‘00, who holds a degree in chemistry from the College of Wooster, in Ohio. “I hear my students say ‘I’m done now, this is as far as I’m going to get.’ We have a dialogue with them and support them with tools to get through this phase. By the time we do the moon model, they’re able to say ‘ok, it’s not working,’ and they go back to figuring it out.”

Empowered learners Acquiring resiliency—the ability to bounce back and not throw out an experiment after the first failure—is key to becoming a successful scientist, according to Emma and other NWS science alumni. 10th grade Biology teacher Kathryn Wallace ’95, who holds a BA in Biology from Occidental College and a master’s in Fisheries and Marine Science from the University of Washington, credits NWS for preparing and inspiring her for a life in science. “I recall in Mark Terry’s class, one of us would ask a question and he would say, ‘That’s a great question’. Then he wouldn’t answer it,” says Kathryn. “The implication was you could answer it, you could Science Teacher Emma Wolf-Saxon research it, and you go out in life and work on it. It empowered me as a learner, and I left here knowing I was going to study science and that it was my passion.”

Mark Terry At the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology’s annual meeting this November, 2013, I heard talks delivered by NWS alumni Josh Miller, Rebecca Terry, and John Orcutt. John presented a research poster he co-authored about new fossils found in southern Oregon marking the earliest appearance of an ancient relative of dogs. Both Josh’s and Rebecca’s talks covered aspects of paleoecology, trying to understand ancient environments by comparing modern remains with ancient remains—in Josh’s case, large mammal bones found all across Amboseli National Park in Kenya, and in Rebecca’s case, the chemistry (isotopic composition) of tiny mammal bones found in the Great Basin of North America. Josh serves on the Education and Outreach Committee of the SVP (as do I), and has been working on developing better outreach on all the public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Rebecca and Josh also serve on the Program Committee of the SVP. This means they are among the scientists who reviewed and accepted the talks and posters presented by the larger SVP community during the meeting.

Herb Bergamini I enjoyed hearing John Orcutt present to a room full of geoscience folk at the annual meeting celebrating the 125th anniversary of the Geological Society of America this past October. The conference in Denver was attended by some 8,050 geologists. John’s talk was about using caves (low energy environments), which provide a diverse yield of fossils as indicators of Pleistocene paleoecology. Besides getting a sample of the cutting-edge research and updates on the diverse aspects of earth science, I treasure opportunities to see what NWS alums are contributing to these fields.

Middle School: The Making of Scientists The main way 6th, 7th, and 8th graders at The Northwest School learn the language, process, and tools of science is by getting their hands dirty. According to 6th grade teacher Erica Bergamini, NWS’s Middle School science program plunges students into lab-based experiences from the first days of school.

Being sure of your answer cience is a verb, it’s something Although middle schoolers need more we do,” says Erica who structure and guidance than upper holds a BS in Biology schoolers, they are not too young to tackle from St Lawrence open-ended science questions, according University, and a to Erica. A good illustration is the 6th grade master’s in Education Mystery Blue Liquid Lab. Using scientific from Antioch College. procedures, students discover the identity Erica Bergamini “We certainly have and science behind a mysterious colorresources, but here, changing liquid. science is not about sitting and memorizing “We do several lab techniques, such as facts or reading collecting a pure gas and making your own stuff in textbooks.” pH indicators, but I will not tell the students Sixth graders start the year learning how the answer,” says Erica. “They must present to measure accurately and graph data, their own conclusions and they are graded and even these skills are learned through on how well they defend their conclusions.” action-oriented labs. In the Bristlebots Lab, As challenging as this process is for 6th for example, students set up a one-meter graders, Erica says her students are track and measure how long it takes their exhilarated once they feel the power of Bristlebots (tiny, directional vibrobots made out of toothbrushes) to go down the discovering the answer themselves. “I say to them ‘how great is it to be sure of track. Then they alter the Bot—by making your answer, without me telling you? No the legs longer or shorter, adding a tail, one has told you trimming bristles, or adding that it’s right, you weights—and just know.’” test it again.

“Some of Bots just get worse, and that’s real science too,” says Erica who has been teaching at NWS since 1988. “The test is what is the effect?, not whether it failed. Students learn quickly from me that you don’t get to throw out data. I want them to understand, one, what they’re trying to do, and two, that all results are results.”

A Bristlebot

The value of rumination This same type of open-ended discovery is echoed through 7th and 8th grade. Seventh graders, for example, begin the year familiarizing themselves with microscopes and then, very quickly, put their working knowledge into action. “We do a Microscope Forensics Lab,” explains 7th grade science teacher Chris Young who holds a BS in Environmental Science from Penn State University, and a master’s in Education from Keene State College. “Students examine certain kinds of fibers, hairs, torn paper scraps and fingerprints: evidence from the so-called crime scene. In the process of investigation, they do research and background on each of the suspects and then, plan their attack.” Some students choose to burn the fibers, others turn to microscope investigation. According to Chris, as they investigate, the students must also use their intelligence and knowledge. “Students must come up with their own procedure before they dive into the process,” says Chris. When students are quick to call her over during a lab, Chris is quick to say no. Instead, she gives her students other options.

7th Grade Science Teacher Chris Young

“I want them to learn that I’m a last resort, so I say ‘Have you tried…? Did you…? Will you...? You could...’,” explains Chris. “Right now, my students and I are talking about the word ruminate. They’re learning they have the ability to answer many of their own questions and develop even better ones.”

Using the mind NWS Middle School teachers agree that one of the best ways to foster rigorous and creative scientific exploration is by using simple materials. “Our goal is to get students to think, plan and develop,” says 8th grade Earth Science Teacher Herb Bergamini who has a master’s in Education from the University of New Hampshire. “That’s going to be easier if students are able to think outside the box, and that will be more likely if they can let go of being in a fancy lab or fixating on what it should look like. A household kitchen is a pretty fine laboratory.” The annual 8th grade Bridge Building Project is a good example. With little more than sticks and glue, students apply physics and structural engineering principles to design and construct their own bridges. Then, before the entire school, students compete to see which bridge will hold the most bricks before collapsing. The record is 11 bricks. According to Herb, in addition to getting excited about science, students see that science is accessible to everyone. “Our students get a strong sense that they can be, they will be, they are scientists,” although we have plenty

confirms see it’sBergamani not about fancy equipment, 8th Grade Herb. Science“They Teacher Herb emcees 2013 Building Contest. of that,the too. It’sBridge about how they use their minds.”

Patrick Campbell ’01

Visualizing New Chemical Pathways be charged every night, a process that takes 12 hours. With super capacitors, this problem will disappear. “Imagine being able to stop and charge up an electric car in no more time than it takes to fill up a tank with gas,” says Patrick. “It’s removing this rate cap that will change the paradigm.”

Extending lifespan Meanwhile, laptop users will no longer have to worry about replacing batteries every year or two as their performance degrades. Explains Patrick: “When you charge a battery overnight and run it down during the day it’s known as a chargedischarge cycle. The typical computer battery today lasts only 1000 cycles, but we’re already at the point where supercapacitors can do 10,000 cycles and retain their performance. So we’re on our way.”

Understanding the universe Patrick Campbell ’01 (right), with his mother, Suzanne Tripp

Patrick Campbell ’01 is busy creating the next generation of energy storage. At Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in Livermore, California, he and his fellow chemists are developing new carbon-based materials that can potentially store electrical energy with much higher power and longer lifespan. “We call them supercapacitors,” confirms Patrick, speaking over the phone from his laboratory. “These materials are going to mean you won’t ever have to replace your computer battery, and you’ll be able to charge your electric car in the same time it takes to fill your gas tank.”

t LLNL, supercapacitors are made by taking thin sheets of carbon, one-atom-thick, suspending them in an electrolyte solution, and then, through an innovative process, sculpting the sheets together.

Storing energy in 3D “We’ve found a way to link these sheets and form 3D structures you can hold in your hand,” explains Patrick. “It looks like a piece of charcoal until you zoom in close and see these individual sheets that hold together in these porous networks.” Inside the networks, the individual carbon sheets are exposed on both sides, allowing scientists to take advantage of the higher surface area for increased energy storage.

Fast rate performance Supercapacitors promise to boost the electric car industry. Because they can store and release energy much quicker than traditional batteries, supercapacitors will enable electric car drivers to accelerate faster when needed, and also, recharge in a fraction of the time. “Every electric car owner today is worried about having to stop on a long trip and recharge. It’s what’s known as ‘range anxiety’,” says Patrick. Right now, electric car batteries must

Patrick says he was always a “science-oriented kid,” but it was his Upper School years at NWS that hooked him on chemistry. “Our classes at NWS tied chemistry into the world around us—it was about understanding everything in nature at a fundamental level,” he recalls. A prime example was NWS’s Advanced Chemistry trip to Oregon, according to Patrick. The six-day trip, which was co-taught by NWS science teacher Renee Frederickson and photography teacher Lyn McCracken, immersed students in the actions and reactions of light and chemistry. Students visited industrial locations and, using traditional cameras, captured what they saw. Then, they transformed the school bus into an onsite darkroom. “We covered the bus windows and set up equipment and built a place where we could develop film and photos right there in the field,” remembers Patrick with a note of excitement in his voice. “It was just a great way of putting everything into a framework where I could understand the whole universe.” In his four years at NWS, Patrick was as passionate about photography as he was about science. He believes this interplay of science and art was invaluable to his development as a chemist. “A good chemist has to be creative and view the world as an artist does—he or she has to visualize new pathways,” says Patrick. “I saw and learned this at NWS.”

Anna Robinson ’03

Designing Aerodynamic Software y job is constantly evolving and I like that it changes,” says Anna who is now in her first year with Analytic Methods, an aerodynamics computing and consulting firm in Redmond, Washington. “A robot cannot do what I do. I’m handed a problem and I figure out a solution.” One of her recent projects involved gridding a 3D airplane model in order to demonstrate the accuracy of one of the company’s preliminary design analysis software programs. A grid is made up of rectangular and triangular shapes and must be airtight to obtain accurate results.

A holistic path to engineering Anna pursued her degree in engineering science at Smith College in Massachusetts. She chose Smith because of its reputation for academic excellence, its supportive, all-women environment and impressive new engineering program.

Anna Robinson ’03 spends her day steeped in critical thinking and problem solving. As a computer programmer for the aeronautical industry, she designs, debugs and maintains a variety of computer programs, including preliminary aircraft design analysis software and a project management database.

“I wanted a liberal arts college that had a strong engineering program. I liked math but I also ended up really liking economics and I wanted to pursue that. I wanted to be around a lot of students studying other subjects.” During her college years, she did not envision a career in the aerospace industry. The engineering classes offered at Smith were in mechanical, thermo, and electrical engineering. “The closest class I took to aeronautical engineering was fluid dynamics,” testifies Anna.

Opening up In a number of ways, Anna was destined to be a scientist. She comes from a strong science family: her father is a chemistry professor and her mother has a degree in chemistry/biology. From a young age, Anna was extremely strong in math and she made A’s easily. As an introvert, she was quiet and focused; she was also extremely shy. Her parents felt she would benefit from a multi-disciplinary, liberal arts experience like The Northwest School. They believed the balance of academics and arts and the close teacher-student relationships would draw Anna out and strengthen her communication skills. According to Anna, her parents were right. “I really blossomed at NWS. I actually started talking and speaking up in class,” she says, laughing. “I branched out and started trying a lot of things.” Gaining the skills to be a scientist In her science classes at Northwest, Anna

learned how to collaborate and share ideas. She particularly enjoyed Physics and how NWS Science Department Chair Cecilia Tung taught through hands-on, interactive experiments, which clearly showed Anna how the world worked. “To understand sound waves, for example, we held ropes with a partner and simulated a wave shape, and we stood on a rotating disc and put our arms out and in to see the deceleration and acceleration in spin,” remembers Anna. “I could really visualize the concepts. It made sense to me.” In Chemistry class, Anna says she learned how to problemsolve. The open-ended labs required that she seek out her own information and come up with her own answers. When asked to recall a favorite lab, she immediately names “Precipitants.” “In that lab we had to combine two liquids, two chemicals, and when they got combined they formed a solid. It was a huge logic puzzle,” Anna recalls. “I loved it.”

Teaching other engineers One of the most valuable skills Anna says she gained from NWS, which continues to serve her well as her career evolves, is the ability to articulate and communicate information. Increasingly, she finds herself not only designing computer programs but teaching others how they work. She points to a recent project whereby she had to present information to a group of engineers. “My company wanted to integrate our software program with complementary software from another company,” explains Anna. “I ended up traveling to a conference where I presented my company’s proposal of this software integration.” At her own company, she recently ran a training session for the employees, teaching them how to use a project management database system she designed and built. According to Anna, her colleagues today would never guess that she had been a shy and reticent child. “The ability to communicate and articulate is a great skill to have as a scientist,” she confirms, crediting NWS for helping her gain the confidence and ease she has on

Ted Griebling ’90

Creating Mechanical Wonders A single-use inspection robot searching for cracks in the ceiling of a nuclear power plant.

school, according to Ted. “At The Northwest School, I found the expectation was exactly that: you collaborate and share ideas; that’s just what you do,” recalls Ted. “I was taken aback by how colleges lacked this and did not treat engineering as a collaborative discipline.” His nearly twenty years as a career engineer have strengthened his belief that collaborative skills are essential. “To achieve anything of significance in today’s complex world, you need to share your ideas and seek assistance from many resources,” testifies Ted. “The group idea, when properly encouraged, will be better than one individual.”

his is a very specific, single-use, inspection robot,” explains Ted. “It’s making sure the tubes aren’t cracked and that water of the nuclear core doesn’t come in contact with anything outside that tube.”

A creative species The inspection robot is one of many such devices Ted has helped bring to life. As a mechanical engineer with expertise in software and electrical engineering, he provides consulting services for robot machinery and consumer products. His projects have ranged from the playful (a robot that rolls around and sorts M&M’s) to the serious (a police training videogame that zings the player with a plastic ball if he or she shoots the wrong target). Ted Griebling, and his son, Oslo

“I have always thought of science as a creative route,” says Ted, who served as president of Seattle Robotics Society in 2000-2001. “Anyone involved in science or engineering knows it’s creative. Think of Einstein and DaVinci—these were creative people.”

All ideas are good ones As a project consultant, Ted is often brought in to lead brainstorming sessions, and he attributes his success at facilitating these sessions partly to skills he first learned at NWS. In particular, he credits NWS’s Improv class, taught at the time by teacher Ed Sampson, for giving him skills he draws on today. “When brainstorming at the beginning of a project, one of the rules of those sessions is there are no bad ideas. We basically practice a variation of ‘Yes, and….,’ the main tenet of Improv. The word ‘no’ is off limits. Everyone is throwing out ideas to create something bigger and better than you could do all by yourself.”

Hard work is essential In addition to creative thinking and collaboration skills,

Crawling along the ceiling of a good engineer must have discipline, according to Ted. He particularly values NWS chemistry teacher Renee a steam generator in a nuclear Fredrickson for making him work hard and dig for answers. power plant is a creature that A community of collaborators “She was a great science teacher. She whipped us into looks like a giant beetle. After graduating from Northwest, Ted first headed to Bard shape and gave us a lot of discipline,” he recalls. “There on a Distinguished Scientist Scholarship. In his was no goofing around in her class; she required us to Hanging upside down, it’s using College sophomore year, however, he transferred to Rensselaer stay focused and learn the material. There was no way tiny sensors to inspect for Polytechnic Institute and, shortly around that—you just had to do it.” hairline cracks. According to after, to Lafayette College Ted also credits former teacher Kate Swick for being where he obtained a degree in “a fantastic math teacher.” From her, he gained the Ted Griebling ’90, product mechanical engineering. right amount of no-nonsense math skills as well development engineer with “I wanted to find a community of as “a good balance” of math concepts and skill SciTech Engineering in Seattle, individuals like myself— building. All of this prepared him for his science path I liked getting my hands dirty, in college. the tireless precision of this making things, and I “I wouldn’t change what I got from NWS for anything. compact machine is critical. wanted to find a collaborative M&M-sorting Robot community of people thinking about the same things as I was.”

Ultimately, he was looking for the same creative and collaborative community that he had experienced in high

High school is supposed to give you a good foundation and expose you to a lot of things, and NWS really excelled at that,” he says. “Above all, NWS taught me all ideas are good ones. That lesson turned out to be fundamental.”

Rebecca Terry ’97

Reading the Bones Rebecca Terry ‘97 is often found in the darkness of caves, sifting through carpets of bones. As a conservation paleontologist, she is researching the ancient remains of small animals, including the marmot and kangaroo rat, eaten by raptors and deposited over the last 12,000 years. She is identifying which species were thriving and which were struggling in times of past climate change, and most importantly, why and why not. She and other paleontologists believe this information will inform us how to better preserve our ecosystems today.

Unlocking survival Rebecca holds a PhD in Geophysical Sciences from the University of Chicago. In 2008, she won a NOAA Climate and Global Change Post-doctoral Fellowship and headed to Stanford University. There, she focused her post-doctoral study on species traits and how they might predict an animal’s chances of survival during climate change. As part of her current research project, Rebecca is examining the carbon and nitrogen isotopes locked in the bones. From this, she can distinguish what the animals were eating: both the dominant plants and any animal tissue they may have been consuming, such as insects and other rat babies. “With this information we can see how species are dividing up their resources over time,” explains Rebecca. “We can look back and see how wide their menu was and whether they could change what they foraged on in response to the climate. Then we can carry that information forward to today. It helps us understand what species today will be resilient and which more vulnerable. Ones who have been more channelized and eating the same thing are likely to be more at risk.”

ou can gain a lot of insight into systems as you look deeper in time,” states Rebecca, assistant professor of zoology at Oregon State University. “We can look back and see how these small animals responded to climate warming in the past and how these same species are responding today. This will help us identify what might be causing a biodiversity decline. Is it expected or not? Is it climate warming or is it tied to something else going on?”

Combating mass extinction Providing ecologists with long-term perspective is critical right now, according to Rebecca. Many scientists believe we are now in the 6th major mass extinction, losing species at such a rapid rate that it puts us on par with the Cretaceous.

Kangaroo Rat mummy and skeleton

She points out that other mass extinctions happened over millions of years. “Because we don’t have time or the logistical means of watching every species, it’s imperative that we know which species are ones of concern and which are less of a priority. We now have insight into this and we can focus our attention.”

Discovering traces of life Rebecca’s passion for paleontology began when she was about 12 years old. She accompanied her father, Mark Terry, NWS science teacher and co-founder of the school, on one of NWS’s first field trips to the John Day Fossil Beds in Oregon. This trip is now a foundational piece of NWS’s Primate Biology course. “I was lucky that my dad started taking those field trips to the fossil beds,” says Rebecca. “I was fascinated to think about preserving traces of life in rocks.” Rebecca’s fascination with fossils increased as she advanced through Upper School, studying evolution in 10th grade Biology and 12th grade Primate Biology. After graduating from Northwest, she realized the anatomy she learned at Northwest was college level and beyond.

“I got to college and the classes were almost a review,” recalls Rebecca. “I already knew how to interpret information from bones and teeth; I knew the link between form and function, and I’d learned what a different tooth shape means ecologically. My dad taught us how to read bones. I feel like I learned almost everything I needed to know to do my job now.”

A thinking scientist In addition to scientific knowledge and skills, Rebecca values the critical thinking she developed at Northwest and her ability to formulate new ideas. For her, NWS was a formative place. “I loved having all of the different perspectives,” she confirms. “Evolution, for example, which we studied from the Humanities perspective; the development of ideas and how ideas are evolving as well; how a concept has been shaped over the years. All of that is unique to Northwest.”

“Species have always come and gone and adapted, but things are changing really fast right now—it’s about rate and magnitude: can evolution keep up?” says Rebecca.

Let the Games Begin NWS basketball players will soon pound the floor of our brand new league-size Gymnasium. The new 401 East Pike facility officially opens January 3, and for the first time in the school’s thirty-year history, NWS will host basketball and volleyball games on its own turf, seating up to 100 game-cheering fans. Adding to the excitement is a 6000 square-foot Rooftop Sports Field where soccer and Ultimate players, as well as PE students, will exercise 60 feet above street level, in the open air.

nd that’s not all. As much excitement is brewing around the inside Fitness Mezzanine, an 1800 square-foot space that overlooks the Gymnasium. Along with two high-end stationary bikes and two rowing machines, the Mezzanine will come with an eight-foothigh customized ladder suspension, or so-called “monkey bars.” According to NWS Athletic Director Britt Atack, this will enable students to train smarter. “It’s similar to what a lot of modern gyms are doing,” says Britt. “We’ll have a suspension training system where straps are anchored to the monkey bars and doorways and you use body weight in a variety of ways to build muscle strength and cardiovascular fitness.” In addition, the space will come with a multiplicity of bands, balls, sandbags, and ropes that students can grab, bring into the space, and put back. This flexible approach reflects the current, improved understanding of the physiology of fitness, according to Britt. “The body craves variety, and the thinking today is that the fundamental movements of running, jumping, skipping, pulling, and pushing are not only more effective for overall body fitness, they’re also more interesting than sitting on a single-plane weight machine.” This winter, NWS students will have the opportunity to join a fitness team as an alternative to basketball, thanks to the Mezzanine. Says Britt: “Our goal is for students to get fitter, stronger, faster, and most importantly, for every student to see, ‘I can work on fitness for the rest of my life.’”

Congratulations to the Graduating ighty Northwest School seniors were awarded diplomas on June 12, 2013, at our 33rd annual graduation ceremony. It was a joyous event, filled with musical performances and speeches by students and faculty. Head of School Mike McGill opened the evening’s program by welcoming families and friends “from Ballard to Bellevue,” and especially those who traveled to Seattle from China, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan. In the process of congratulating the seniors, Mike encouraged everyone to stay in touch. “I’m looking forward to barbecuing for you on the roof of the new building next year,” he said, referring to the rapid construction at 401 E Pike. Mike told students that while their futures are full of possibility and many adventures lay ahead, the school they love is the school that will endure. “Our culture is firmly rooted, our values deeply held,” he said. “This clear sense of self is precisely what attracts new generations of students and teachers to the House.” The commencement program was enlivened by senior speakers Nathan May and Jacob Lin, and especially by the nine different musical performances, including a traditional Irish piece performed by the senior A Cappella choir. Enthusiasm erupted at the end of ceremonies when graduates jubilantly threw their caps into the air.

Class of 2013!

NWS Alumni honored with 2013 Collaboration of Design + Art Award Kenzan Tsutakawa-Chinn ’98 Five years ago, at the culmination of graduate school at the Pratt Institute, I founded Studio 1Thousand, an award-winning lighting design firm that specializes in creating LED lighting solutions for medium to large scale architectural installation. I’m thrilled to announce that one of our recent projects, a 14-footwide chandelier, was awarded the Jurors’ Choice Award from The Art Commission as part of the 2013 Collaboration of Design + Art Awards. The Awards recognize the importance of collaboration, and honor the design and art professionals whose collective imaginations create the public and private spaces that inspire us. The chandelier, named Starlight, was commissioned by the architecture firm Cooper Joseph Studio for their client, the Museum of the City of New York. Cooper Joseph was looking for something to activate the main stairs of the museum, which were underutilized. The rotunda, a beautiful white marble space was underlit and uninviting. Starlight, comprised of over 11,000 individual LEDs, was designed to replace a 1000-pound brass chandelier that was original to the building. The architect asked Studio 1Thousand to manage the LED technology as well as fabricate the chandelier. Working with a small, agile fabrication team, Studio 1Thousand was able to design, and define, the technical specifications from the ground up. From there, we were able to fabricate the chandelier to exacting specifications. The finished product is fantastic. The beauty of this piece comes from the juxtaposition of the cutting edge LED work and the classical stylings of the original marble. Both of these elements are a bit understated, and the opposition reinforces the subtle details of each element. People are fascinated by it. They often lie on the couch underneath the piece and stare at it or linger on the stairs, trying to decipher the patterns it creates. Studio 1Thousand was central to the production and fabrication of the piece. From the first conceptual meeting to creating a plan for cleaning and maintenance, I worked with each person who touched or worked on this chandelier: the architects, the clients, the fabricators, the installers, and the maintenance team.

Now, and in the near future, Studio 1Thousand is working to find new clients and develop new technology. Our goal is to develop a selection of small units that architects and designers can assemble in various shapes and sizes to fit their needs. We meet with architects and show them the work we do in the high hopes that they will take chances with

Photography by © Eduard Huber 2013

Class Notes 1980s Samarra Burnett ’83 (Samarra Thiessen) I remember once, in 10th grade, 1981, after our folk dance class with David Baron, thinking “I could devote myself to this.” I told my friend Jennifer Talbot “I can imagine doing something like this professionally” and her saying “You could!” I’ve been teaching a folk dance now for almost 5 years, Argentine Tango, and actually making a living at it. I would never have imagined back then, though, that I would be doing it while wearing high heels!! How strange, and wonderful. How about all of you? Jennyfer Samantha Purswell (Benjamin Purswell) ‘83 The big event in in my life this year is that I legally changed my name and gender. My current projects are finishing up a master’s in education centering on developing a LGBTQ curriculum for high school students, and working on several autobiographical artistic projects. Andrew Miksys ‘87 I recently published a new book of my photographs called DISKO. These are photographs that I made in rural Lithuanian village discos. For about 10 years I traveled around the back roads of Lithuania, photographing teenagers in the discos that are held in old Soviet-era cultural centers on Friday and Saturday nights. There are 45 photographs in the book and a short text by me and Andrei Codrescu. More info about DISKO is available on my website at: www.andrewmiksys.com. Dedra Whitt ‘87 I have recently launched my makeup line “Dedra”. It can be found at dedrabeauty.com.

1990s

Dedra Whitt ‘87 Mari Rutherford-Bundy

Junko Yamamoto ‘92 I’m excited to announce my exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum’s TASTE restaurant with fellow artist Olivia Britt. The exhibit will run through February 9, 2014. My work is spontaneous and intuitive and I had a lot fun creating new works for the show. I hope people will be able to enjoy them. Find out more about my work at: www.junkoyamamoto.com/. Andrew Miksys ‘87

Sarah Rutherford-Bundy ‘93 Baby Mari was born on June 17th and joins our 3.5 year old boy, Loic, in the family. I am a middle school teacher by trade but I am home with the kids most days, except to substitute teach occasionally. I’ve subbed several times at NWS and it is still a wonderful place to go to school and teach. We had a fun but sparsely attended 20th reunion this summer, I hope to see more of you next time.

Junko Yamamoto ‘92

David Kauffman ‘95 Since returning from service in the U.S. Peace Corps this past August, 2012, I have taken a job with the Northwest Justice Project, a non-profit law firm and the largest provider of civil legal services to the lowincome population of Washington State. As a staff attorney with the Foreclosure Prevention Unit, I am in daily contact with borrowers seeking to stay in their homes and avoid foreclosure. Having resettled in Seattle for the foreseeable future, I would look forward to reconnecting with other NWS alumni.

Samarra Burnett ’83

Class Notes, Continued...

Andy Neyens ‘97

Oceania Eagan ’96 and Chaz Welsh ‘97

Fleur Larsen ‘97

Caitlin Foito ‘97

Oceania Eagan ’96 & Chaz Welsh ‘97 Chaz and Oce are enjoying the addition of one more boy to the family. Thelonious (Theo) Carter Welsh couldn’t be more loved by his 7-year-old big brothers, Carlo and Nico. It’s been a busy year for us, juggling all the many adventures we are part of. Chaz continues to teach MS PE and coach the girls varsity basketball team at NWS. Besides working at NWS, Chaz spends much of his time driving his boys to and from various sports practices, music lessons and school activities. After 10+ years at a marketing company focused solely on beer, Oce has branched off to launch her own design and marketing company, Heads Hearts + Tails, dedicated to the craft beverage industry, which, no surprise, includes beer. Highly trusted and respected within the industry, Oceania has worked with companies of all sizes on projects ranging from start-up consultations to full-scale brand builds. With her passion for problem solving and her commitment to bring beauty to the world, she couldn’t be more excited to have an agency that reflects those values. Oce’s boys love hanging out at the office and being part of the creative process as mini-designers–for root beer, that is. Check out her work at: www.HeadsHeartsTails.com Caitlin Foito ‘97 Hi there! It’s Caitlin Foito, class of ’97. I am the proud mother of Zelda Bleiweiss, born in February this year. She loves music and is incredibly alert, observant and engaged. A real extrovert. I’m loving every single thing about parenthood so far, but as I look ahead I wish The Northwest School was located in Los Angeles! I still work in Drama Development at FOX and have the show “Almost Human” debuting in November and “Rake” debuting in January.

Fleur Larsen ‘97 I’m going to graduate school! Super excited to be a student again, I’ll be doing the executive master’s in Public Administration at UW. I took a professional sabbatical this past year, after working as the Program DIrector at Seattle Girls’ School for 5 years. I traveled to Israel, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Kenya (summited Kilimanjaro with my family) and Tanzania. All amazing experiences! Andy Neyens ‘97 I graduated from NWS in 1997. It was the greatest class ever to graduate. I moved to Japan after college to live with the woman who is now my wife. While living in her hometown of Toyama, I got a job working in a sake brewery. We moved home to Seattle in 2007 and I found work in the growing industry of craft beer. We now have two beautiful daughters. Beer is yummy and fun, but our goal has been to open a sake brewery in Seattle. During the last 6 months, my family and I have been working to make Tahoma Fuji Sake Brewing Company a reality. With the help of my father, we have built a large garage in my backyard, which will become my brewing space. There is no company website yet, but you can follow our progress on Facebook: Tahoma Fuji Sake Brewing Company. The page has pictures of the progress of the building and other aspects of the business. We are hoping to be up and running shortly after the New Year.

Rowena Kennedy-Epstein ‘98 I’ve had a very busy few years: I had my first baby and completed my PhD in English. I also recovered and edited the American poet Muriel Rukeyser’s lost Spanish Civil War novel, Savage Coast (The Feminist Press, 2013). While visiting Seattle last summer, Elliott Bay hosted a wonderful book event for Savage Coast, with the writer Rebecca Brown. It was a lovely homecoming, of sorts, and truly fantastic to have Suzanne Bottelli and Lisa Blodgett in the audience, as well as my classmate, Kalayaan Domingo. Danielle Kraus ‘98 Alice Zarin Both has arrived! My husband, Thomas, and I welcomed our first baby at 3:02 pm on May 19th. Three weeks early, healthy, and with some good-looking hair, Alice, who is named for our mom’s moms, was 5 lbs, 13.5 oz and 19” long. Now 2 months old, baby Alice likes to spend her days sleeping, eating, squeaking, and mastering tummy time. We are enamored with and amazed by our new daughter. Anne Hilborn ‘99 I am currently a PhD student at Virginia Tech, working on predator prey interactions. I spent 2004-2007 as a research assistant on the Serengeti Cheetah Project in Tanzania, and I hope to raise enough money to go back to Serengeti for a year of field work, recording cheetah hunting behavior in 2014. I have been in Blacksburg for about a year, and love living in a farmhouse and watching fireflies. People in my lab work on all sorts of carnivores. I’m sending a picture of me holding a black bear cub; it isn’t my study animal, but still pretty cute.

Iris Milligan ‘99 For nearly three years I worked on my dream of creating an ideal space to facilitate powerful learning, healing and personal growth. I am very happy to announce that I have opened The Sacred Garden Healing Center in a beautiful old craftsman home and garden, located in North Capitol Hill. In this space, I have been enjoying hosting a wide variety of classes, workshops, retreats, and seminars, which have to do with health, wellness, personal growth, and spirituality. Working on this project has caused me to learn and grow in ways that I could not have imagined. This is my gift to our community. www.sacredgardenhealingcenter.com Ani Raymond ‘99 On 6/29/13, I married Ryan Ridings, a fellow Seattlelite who is also from Capitol Hill. Ryan and I met in 2008 at Hannah Heller’s (class of ‘00) apartment in Brooklyn. We were reintroduced at Brian Quist’s (class of ‘97) apartment in Harlem in 2010, and after that, we stayed in touch. Ryan and I have lived together in Brooklyn for over two years now. He works as an attorney at a small real estate firm that specializes in creating affordable housing developments, and I continue to teach fourth grade in Park Slope, Brooklyn. We were married at a small, beautiful gathering on the Hood Canal, and were blessed with 85 degree weather and mountain views in June. Our east coast friends, many of whom had never been to the Pacific Northwest before, were taken aback by the region’s beauty!

Danielle Kraus ‘98

Rowena Kennedy-Epstein ‘98 (right) at Elliot Bay Books reading

Anne Hilborn ‘99

(from left) Kalayaan Domingo ‘98, Suzanne Bottelli, Rowena KennedyEpstein ‘98 and Lisa Blodgett

Ellen Taussig (left), and her daughter, Ani Raymond ’99

Class Notes, Continued

Shanti Giese’s paintings on display

Claire Taylor ’03 (Claire Carlson) I got married on September 1, 2013, in Seattle, WA. My husband and I met several years ago while working at Google, and live in San Francisco, CA. My wedding party included three NWS classmates: Kiana Scott ’03 and Gesse Stark-Smith’03 as maids of honor, and Tessa Taylor ’03 as one of the bridesmaids.

Shanti Giese ‘02

Lynda Turet ‘01

2000s Lynda Turet ‘01 I finished my master’s degree in Geography at the University of Washington in August and have launched an independent consultancy, facilitating people-centered design for collaborative spaces. My current project is working with an historic preservation agency and several communitybased arts and social justice organizations to rebuild Washington Hall, a cultural commons in Seattle’s Central District. Visit www.washingtonhall.org and www.lyndaturet.com to learn more. Shanti Giese ‘02 Shanti has been working hard at pursuing her artistic path in both design and the fine arts. Dividing her time between launching a women’s swimwear line and painting, Shanti is currently preparing for three gallery exhibitions in the next year.

Joel Putnam ‘04, (back row, center)

Joel Putnam ‘04 Summer this year was a lot of things, but “boring” was not one of them. I spent the first few weeks alongside Jeff Blair, Ellen Taussig, Andy Meyer, and Jen Kulik at the International Leadership Academy of Ethiopia, teaching English using theater games, Shel Silverstein poems and a lot more besides. After that I headed to San Francisco to perform in the Fools Fury theater festival, and then took a whirlwind west coast tour to visit friends and family. I am back in New York City and am well into my master’s program at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. I’m studying things like using tech to help disadvantaged communities worldwide. Aside from classes, a few students and I have volunteered as consultants for three NGOs, helping them get new international development projects up and running. I do miss free time, but I’m learning a lot, very quickly. Looking forward to whatever comes next!

Adam Miller ’05 Alumni Council I spent most of May in Hue, Vietnam, as a member of IBM’s Corporate Service Corps leadership development program. I worked with a local coffee company to develop a branding and marketing strategy. The program consisted of 12 IBM employees from around the world. Now that I’ve settled back into life in the states, I’m in the process of planning the 10-year reunion for the class of 2005. If you are a member of the class of 2005 and have not heard from me, please email me at miller87@gmail.com. Carol Gilderoy ’06 (Carol Wolf) My husband, Bryan, and I were blessed with a new addition this year! Elizabeth Jane Gilderoy was born on Mother’s Day, and is a happy, healthy baby. I am loving life as a stay-at-home mom. We spend our free time selling vintage toys on eBay, with a goal of one day opening a store.

Abbey Brown ‘07 After graduating from Bard College in 2011, I did a fellowship with the NYC Mayor’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, working on the development of the NYC Clean Heat program (nyc.gov/cleanheat). This program is cleaning the air in New York City by helping buildings transition off of heavily-polluting heating oil to cleaner fuels. I now work for the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), an environmental non-profit that serves as program manager for NYC Clean Heat, and I manage EDF’s day-to-day involvement in the program. I also participate in EDF’s climate work at the New York state and city level, working on policy to ensure our energy infrastructure is both clean and resilient.

Elizabeth Jane Gilderoy

Peter Kirk ‘07 I started medical school at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in August 2013. I graduated from Colby College in Maine in 2011, where I majored in cell and molecular biology/biochemistry, and graduated Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa. After college, I returned to Seattle and worked for two years in research labs at the University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center while applying to medical school.

(Second from left) Gesse Stark-Smith ’03, Tessa Taylor ‘03, Claire Taylor ‘03 and Kiana Scott ‘03

Adam Miller ‘05

Class Notes, Continued

Mari Smith ’07

Zach Liao ‘07

Zach Liao ‘07 I recently finished my first year of medical school at University of Washington. Since June, I’ve been working in the Andean village of Llaquepata, Peru, designing and carrying out a community health project. I’ve held a variety of educational sessions with different age groups, focusing on sanitation and prevention of intestinal parasitic infections. My time here has taught me an incredible amount about community health work, and I hope to build upon these experiences as I pursue a career in global health. Being in Peru has also been great practice for my Spanish, which I studied for several years at NWS. Annie Loggins ‘07 I am finishing a year traveling and working in Australia. I celebrated New Year’s Eve in Sydney, hiked in Tasmania, WWOOFed (volunteered through the Willing Workers on Organic Farms) on Kangaroo Island, tended bar in a country pub, and swam with whale sharks. I also spent 5 months in the outback, trapping feisty quolls, sleepy bandicoots, and other obscure Aussie mammals and marsupials for the Dept of Parks and Wildlife.

Mari Smith ’07 Alumni Council I graduated from Willamette University in 2011, with a BA in International Studies. Since graduation, I have been working at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on the Agricultural Development team. At the foundation, I have the opportunity to interact with scientists from all over the world who work on crop breeding and agronomy, with the ultimate goal of benefitting smallholder farmers and alleviating poverty. I’m excited to join the NWS Alumni Council and reconnect with Northwest! Piper Lewis ‘08 This summer, I had the wonderful opportunity to work on the USCGC Healy, a Coast Guard icebreaker doing research up in the Chuckchi Sea (a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean). It was amazing to see people doing work they loved, and to be able to participate in that research. I enjoyed learning, first hand, some of what is involved in oceanography. Being on the Healy was a bit like visiting a foreign country, in the best way. I felt like I was learning a new language, adapting to a different way of life. Even if I was only getting six hours of sleep a night and very, very busy, it was all totally worth it for the wonderful experience.

Annie Loggins ‘07

Piper Lewis ‘08

Simone McCready ‘08 I graduated from the University of Arizona a year ago with a BA degree in psychology. I have put my graduate school plans on hold and have taken a job as an office and building operations coordinator with The Blume Company, a Seattle commercial real estate development company in South Lake Union. Allison Schroeder ‘09 I graduated from Smith College in May, 2013, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Studio Art and Film Studies. I am currently interning at the Seattle International Film Festival in the graphics design department. Danielle Fenske ‘10 I am a rising senior at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, where I study French and Math/Computer Science. During the school year, I work as a piano accompanist, principally for the vocal students. In Fall, 2012, I studied abroad in Nancy, France, where I lived with a host mom, attended an art school and apprenticed in an artisan pastry shop. This summer, I am working as a research assistant at Lewis and Clark, studying parallel programming. I am excited to see what other opportunities and adventures the future will bring.

Danielle Fenske ‘10

Allison Schroeder ‘09

Moriah Patashnik ‘10 I am currently a senior at Goucher College. I recently spent a semester abroad in Paris and it was a formative lifetime experience. I became virtually fluent in French, wrote a thirty-page thesis paper in French, lived in the 14th Arondissement, and completed an internship with the Parisian equivalent of the Jewish Family Service, doing social service work with its clientele (all interactions in French, of course).

Simone McCready ‘08

Moriah Patashnik ‘10

Class Notes, Continued Jelena ‘Helen’ Dzamonja ‘12 I got my first job this summer, working at the Grassroots Campaign office. This year I will be working to get people to support Planned Parenthood and its quest to fight these 200+ laws passed this year that restrict women’s health rights! Nicholas Schneider ‘13 I just began my freshman year at the University of Redlands, studying Global Business with a possible minor in Spanish. I’m busy applying for work study and hoping to travel internationally with U of R’s award-winning, study-abroad program, which encourages travel from Freshman Year on. Nora Masler ’14 (Middle School Alum) I am currently a senior at Santa Monica High school in Santa Monica, CA. This last summer, I was part of the U.S. National Rowing Team. I won a gold in an 8-person boat, and another gold in a pair, representing the U.S. against the best rowers from Canada and Mexico.

Nora Masler ’14 (third from left)

34 34

Jelena ‘Helen’ Dzamonja ‘12

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We put out a recent call on our alum Facebook page: What was your favorite science class or moment at NWS? Who was your

Vivi Lapidus ’94

Keren Holt ’01

It’s hard to choose, but I’m gonna have to go with Mark Terry (even though Herb Bergamini’s “there’s the door, if you need to use it, please do” wisdom does come in handy regularly) and his Primate Biology class. Such a fundamental learning experience to have that level of seriousness in observational research at that age. Also, his emphasis on the importance of improving, not starting off with perfect work, but being able to see your progress. That’s something I think about a lot.

Herb for 9th grade science, biology with Mark Terry and senior year astronomy with Tim. What a fun class! Though I have heard I really missed out by not taking Primate Biology.

Andrew Wilson ’94

favorite science teacher? Here are just a few of your responses.

Melissa Enger ’94 Renee was an amazing inspiration to me, in terms of both how science could be learned, and how I as an individual could learn science. I’ve passed those qualities on to my kid, and he doesn’t think of science as a class, he thinks of it as life.

Katie Carr ’98 I still have a fossil I got during our Primate Biology trip. It is sitting on my bookshelf. Mark Terry was a wonderful and inspiring teacher!

Renee had the most profound effect on me. Not just how and what she taught in class, but the wisdom she imparted on a wide array of subjects. Twenty years later I still have some notes she wrote to me, and I still read them from time to time because they still have something to teach me.

Stay up to date on all things Northwest (including mouse trap cars, bridges, and courtesy and common sense) with our brand new alumni page on Facebook: www.facebook.com/NorthwestSchoolAlumni. It’s going to take alumni-ing to a new level. 35 25

Alumni Happenings

NWS class of 2003 at their 10th Reunion at Garage Billiards on June 8th

NWS Class of 1988, celebrating their 25th Reunion at Marc Madenwaldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s home on August 17th

On May 30th, Lyn McCracken previewed her new documentary film, Mujeres de la Guerra, Women of the War, and moderated a discussion about her creative process and the making of the film. More than 40 alumni, faculty members and friends gathered in the Raymond classroom to hear Lyn discuss her motivation to collect these womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s stories and how the project has culminated in photo exhibits in both the U.S. and El Salvador. On June 9th, 60 NWS alumni came back to NWS for Community Meeting. At the annual All Alumni & Faculty Reunion, alums enjoyed a musical performance from the NWS A Cappella Choir, had the opportunity to make announcements, and were treated to a presentation by NWS Co-Founder Mark Terry. After Community Meeting concluded, alums took a hard hat tour of our new building at 401 E Pike, scheduled to open in January 2014.

NWS Class of 1993 at Golden Gardens Park on August 25th for their 20th Reunion

Mission Statement Meet Your Alumni Relations Manager

Alumni Open Haus The Opening of 401 E Pike Friday, January 3rd, 2014 4:00 – 8:00 pm Come back to Northwest on Friday, January 3rd, and check out the new building before it gets broken in by its first generation of guitar playing and Frisbee throwing. Tour our state-of-the-art Theatre (no more crawling over props mid-show), enjoy dinner in the Dining Room (not bagels), watch the alumni basketball games in the Gymnasium (yes, our very own gym), or take in the spectacular rooftop view from the Sports Field (hello, Capitol Hill!). Don’t miss this opportunity to be a part of this unique moment in our school’s history.

Class Reunions This June 2014, we invite the classes of 2004, 1994 and 1984 to celebrate their 10th, 20th and 30th reunions. On June 6th, 2014, the classes of 1981, 1982, 1983 and 1984 will be invited back to NWS for a special Founders’ Dinner in the Upper Hall. If you are a member of one of these classes and would like to help plan a memorable gathering for your classmates, please contact alumni@northwestschool.org.

Greetings, alumni! My name is Lauren Nelson and I am thrilled to introduce myself to you as your Alumni Lauren Nelson Relations Manager. I’ve been at NWS for a little over three years raising money for the Annual Fund and managing special events. When our Board of Trustees made the decision to create a full-time position devoted to alumni relations, I jumped at the chance to fill this role. Each time I speak with alumni, I’m taken aback by your strong connection to our faculty and our school’s traditions. Whether you graduated in 1981 or 2013, NWS customs resonate deeply with you. Your teachers have had a tremendous impact on the way you see the world. You’re a community connected by a common experience. It’s going to be my job to connect you with each other and to reconnect you with your school. I want to plan alumni events that honor our traditions and celebrate our future. I’m excited to provide new ways for you to stay in touch with classmates and members of the faculty. Most importantly, I look forward to working with you to make these things happen. In order to build a more robust alumni program at NWS, I need your help. There are countless ways to get involved, and you don’t need to live in the Seattle area to volunteer. Please contact me to learn more: alumni@northwestschool.org.

The Northwest School offers a faculty who engage each student in sequential, cross-disciplinary study in the Humanities, Sciences, and the Arts. We are a diverse community of people who challenge each other to learn in a healthy, creative, and collaborative atmosphere of respect for ourselves, others, and the environment. We graduate students with historical, scientific, artistic, and global perspective, enabling them to think and act with integrity, believing they have a positive impact on the world.

I hope to see you at an alumni event soon!

L aure n N elson

Non- Profit Org. U.S. Postage

PAID Seattle, WA Permit No. 10921

141 5 Summit Avenue Seattle, WA 98122 | Address Ser vice Requested |

401 E Pike Our dream becomes a reality in January! Please join us in celebrating the opening of The Northwest Schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first new building since our founding in 1980. On Saturday, January 11, 2014, we welcome you and your family to see our new Gymnasium, Black Box Theatre, Dining Room, and Rooftop Sports Field. Details can be found on our website: www.northwestschool.org/401-e-pike If you would like to support our new building but havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t had a chance to contribute, please give online today at: www.northwestschool.org/support-nws or contact the Development Office at 206-816-6200. Thank you!