Winter 2018
Editor Karin Storm Wood Class Notes Editor Jacque Jones Communications Associate Tori Gibbs Photography Tori Gibbs Contributors as noted Layout CZ Design The Packer Magazine is published twice a year by The Packer Collegiate Institute, 170 Joralemon Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201. Nothing herein may be reprinted wholly or in part without the written permission of Packer’s Development Office. The Packer Collegiate Institute © 2018
Bruce L. Dennis Head of School Karin Storm Wood Director of Communications Tori Gibbs Communications Associate Sara Shulman Director of Development Dona Metcalf Laughlin Director of Alumni Susan Moore Director of Annual Giving Aaron Heflich Shapiro Manager of Development Services Shriya Bhargava-Sears Development Associate
Communications (718) 250-0264 Alumni (718) 250-0229 Registrar (718) 250-0263 General (718) 250-0200 www.packer.edu
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Deborah Juantorena P’19 Chair Cynthia Gardstein ’66 IVAc Vice Chair Karen Snow P’21, P’25 Treasurer Richard Story P’17, P’19, P’24 Secretary Steven Fineman P’20 At Large
Alumni Association Leadership 2017-18 Geoffrey Brewer ’82, P’26 President Sasha Baumrind ’00 Vice President
Packer is a member of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). More content at www.packer.edu/magazine
Board of Trustees Leadership 2017-18
Jeremy Schiffres ’07 Secretary Cynthia Gardstein ’66 IVAc Ellin Rosenzweig ’52 Directors Emeritae
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Head’s Message
4 On Campus
Do you #KnowYourPelicans? Every Friday, we feature a member of our faculty or staff at www.packer.edu/kyp and on Instagram and Facebook (@packercollegiate). Follow us!
On the cover: The 67 Kindergarteners in the Class of 2030 painted selfportraits that captured their unique skin tones — and personalities. See story on page 9.
Bruce L. Dennis announces 2019 retirement; students unite to support Puerto Rico; George Snook is recognized; Pelicans take home nine fall-season championships.
14 WHEN LEARNING IS A LABOR OF LOVE The personal motivations that lead many Upper School students to pursue capstone projects give rise to deeply fulfilling learning experiences. A dozen recent alumni reflect.
22 Alumni News
From New Mexico to Senegal to the Department of Homeland Security, Adriana Mirarchi ’99 has had one goal: to make a positive impact on the world.
Meet four members of the Class of 2009 with something in common: working at Packer.
Mandeep Singh ’11 talks about founding FLIP, the First-Generation Low-Income Partnership, and being interviewed by one of his heroes, President Barack Obama.
28 Class Notes 47 In Memoriam
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Head’s Message
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JULIE BROWN; ABOVE: FLYNN LARSEN
My visits to classrooms, performances, sports events, and academic presentations are invaluable opportunities to appreciate the profound growth arc that our students experience by the time they graduate.
The Class of 2017 celebrating at Commencement.
Seeing our students exhibit their talents is a responsibility of the Head of School that I consider a privilege, and something that I make time to do regularly. My visits to classrooms, performances, sports events, and academic presentations are invaluable opportunities to appreciate the profound growth arc that our students experience by the time they graduate. Arcs and conclusions have been on my mind lately, given my recent announcement that I will retire on June 30, 2019. By that date, I will have walked these halls for fifteen years — precisely the same tenure as that of our current juniors who enrolled as “Puppies” in 2004 and who will, in less than 18 months, earn their Packer diplomas. That date represents a culmination of my Packer journey, something I consider with excitement as well as apprehension — a paradox surely shared by many of my “fellow” second-semester juniors! Like me, students anticipating their final days here often look for fulfilling ways to conclude their Packer journeys. They have many options with which to achieve this: Advanced Topics classes, Independent Science Research, Independent Study, and Senior Thesis. In these programs, students explicitly identify what they are interested in studying and assume nearly full responsibility for their projects. And they undertake these challenges by choice, often at considerable sacrifice to their personal time. The finished products — whether published writing, live performances, or presentations of their research — reveal the best of what our students are capable of achieving. In this issue of the Packer Magazine, a dozen young alumni, most from the Classes of 2016 and 2017, reflect on their experiences in these programs. They describe tremendous efforts and deep engagement — and, indeed, some anxiety when their projects pushed them out of their comfort zones. These alumni also express a deep sense of fulfillment in their final projects, not in spite of the tremendous amount of work they did, but rather because of it. Their stories remind us of a simple but profound truth: when you are invested in something you really care about, work doesn’t feel like work. It’s a labor of love. I consider myself lucky to have experienced that deep sense of fulfillment in many personal and professional experiences. At the very top of that list are the fourteen years I have spent in this wonderful place.
Bruce L. Dennis
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On Campus
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PACKER ATHLETICS celebrated an outstanding fall season, with five teams — Girls Varsity Soccer (below), Boys Varsity Soccer, Boys JV Soccer, Boys CrossCountry, and Girls JV Volleyball — winning a total of nine championships. Athletic Director Darrin Fallick praised the athletes’ “unmatched level of commitment and determination.”
Bruce L. Dennis to Retire in June 2019
RASHAD RANDOLPH; ABOVE, RAOUL BROWN
In January, Head of School Dr. Dennis announced his plan to retire at the end of the 2018-19 academic year, which will be his fifteenth at Packer and his fiftieth in education.
“I am one of those very fortunate people to have done work that I truly love for the past 49 years,” said Dr. Dennis in a meeting of faculty and staff at the end of January. He spoke of the School’s achievements since his arrival at Packer in 2004. “We have done outstanding curricular work at all levels, we have restored almost every square inch of our physical facility, and we are completing the expansion of our campus with the Packer Early Learning Center, which will open in September at 100 Clinton Street.” “But what I feel proudest of is all of you,” he continued, noting that he had hired over 80% of Packer’s current faculty and staff. “There is no finer faculty to be found anywhere.” Dr. Dennis also thanked the dozens of trustees with whom he has worked and expressed his commitment to continuing to lead the School actively through the remainder of this tenure. “There is still much we can accomplish together before I hand this job over to the lucky woman or man who will become Packer’s 10th Head of School.” Deborah Juantorena, Chair of Packer’s Board of Trustees, thanked Dr. Dennis for his service. “For the last 14 years, Bruce has led Packer to new heights, overseeing the School’s rise in stature and recognition. He has had many significant accomplishments in his time at Packer, and he will be deeply missed.” She announced that a Search Committee — chaired by Ronan P. Harty, Trustee and former Board Chair — has retained the search firm Carney, Sandoe & Associates, and that a new head will be appointed in the fall. “We look forward to Bruce’s continued leadership, as well as the opportunity to celebrate his years of wonderful service.” Visit www.packer.edu/headsearch for updates and information on the search for Packer’s 10th Head of School.
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Students Mobilize to Support Puerto Rico Relief Efforts
A Year to Examine Gender Roles
After Hurricane Maria’s devastation of Puerto Rico, third graders [above] and students across the School united to raise awareness of the storm’s impact and to contribute to relief efforts. From coin collecting for UNICEF in the Lower School, to “coin wars” and bake sales in the Middle School, to a supplies drive and a Sabores Latinos-sponsored lunch fundraiser in the Upper School, students rallied to support the cause, as well as to support members of the Packer community whose families were directly affected by the hurricane. One of those people was Rita Pavia, a Puerto Rico native who, for the past five years, has served as Packer’s permanent substitute teacher. “After Maria, there was a tremendous outpouring of support and love in getting help to the people of Puerto Rico — including my brother’s family, who relocated here to Brooklyn,” said Rita. “There are simply no words that can express my gratitude toward the Packer community.”
This year’s seventh annual Middle School Equity Simulation explored the question: How does gender impact our experience here at Packer? Eighth graders built on their leadership training and Health 8 curriculum to develop four different accounts of a fictionalized dispute between a female middle schooler who wants to play basketball and a group of boys already on the court [above]. When one of the boys refuses to let her join the game, she throws a basketball towards him in frustration. Scenes subsequently acted out in locations around the School revealed varying retellings and reactions to the dispute among students, faculty, and parents. After witnessing the initial scene and the different responses to it, the Middle School gathered by advisory group to consider what role gender played in the simulations, sparking deep discussions about perspective, power, voice, and silence as they relate to gender and gender socialization. “The silencing of women on a small and large scale is something that I see daily but that I rarely connected to a bigger issue before this simulation,” said Frankie Komar ’22. “For example, in the faculty scene, the men kept thanking Ms. Clark for being there, but they interrupted her whenever she tried to contribute to the conversation.” The simulation prepared students for a gender-focused Packer in Action event held in February school-wide.
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HUDSON STUDIO ARCHITECTS
Historic Expansion on Schedule for Fall 2018 After two years of thorough renovation, the Packer Early Learning Center is on schedule to open in the fall. Packer purchased the building at 100 Clinton Street in 2014 to achieve two strategic goals: to create a learning space explicitly designed for preschool students and to allow the School to expand and reprogram significant space on the main campus. This historic milestone represents Packer’s first physical expansion since the opening of the Middle School 16 years ago. This summer, a new Lower School Innovation Lab and art studio will be created in the newly vacated space in Founder’s Hall. Nearby, the Hart Library, beloved by so many Packer students, will also be renovated and expanded. The Garden House, the 19th-century brownstone on the southeast corner of the Garden, will be lightly retrofitted over the summer for selective programming for older students. Exciting plans for a thorough transformation of that space are underway.
The Packer Early Learning Center is located one block north of the main campus, on the corner of Clinton and Remsen Streets.
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PA Programming: Pumpkin Patch and Much, Much More
Championing Young Storytellers to Build a Better World
The Parent Association held a full program of events in the first half of the year, with offerings for parents, students, and faculty members. Parents enjoyed a night off thanks to Lower School Movie Night. Volunteer groups cleaned up local parks, packaged thousands of meals for shipment around the world, and delivered holiday gifts to those in need around Brooklyn. For Middle and Upper School families, the PA teamed with Packer’s Health Department for timely presentations on sexuality and consent. Bringing together the whole community on a crisp and sunny Sunday was, of course, the annual Pumpkin Patch festival. In the new year, the PA hosted a conversation about girls’ positive self-expression and development. Families enjoyed festive nighttime skating in Prospect Park and celebrated the culture of China and the Lunar New Year with performances, games, crafts, and delicious food at Packer. The PA also launched two exciting initiatives: the PA Community Fund, which provides financial support to help families address the ancillary costs of a Packer education, and the Parent Association Reuse/Exchange, or PARE, an environmentally-conscious online bulletin board where Packer families can trade goods and services.
While visual art teachers Elizabeth Eagle and Liz Titone spend their days in Packer’s art studios, during their time off they often find themselves across the country and around the world holding their workshop This is Ours, an enrichment program for students that combines digital photography, storytelling, and illustration to craft personal narratives that are then published in a class book. Rooted in the belief that every young person has a unique story, their workshop provides the tools to bring those stories to a global audience. In recent years Elizabeth and Liz have worked with incarcerated populations. “Walking in the door, you can feel the skepticism and hesitation,” says Liz. Once the participants see the books and realize that they are encouraged to become the authors of their stories, “the air in the room shifts. They can hardly believe that we are asking them to share their knowledge and talents.” The duo has led workshops in Kenya, Guyana, and all across the US, and were recently awarded the national See the Girl Direct Service Award by the Delores Barr Weaver Policy Center for their work in helping to advance the rights of young women. “Using the same curriculum, whether it be in a school like Packer, a bush community in Kenya, or an incarcerated community, we ask our students to share what is most important in their environment and join a global conversation with [other young people] from across the world,” says Elizabeth. “Watching them discover their knowledge and find their voice through this process never stops filling us with pride and passion to continue this mission.”
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Celebrating Identity through Art If you visited Packer this fall, you might have noticed a colorful display of self-portraits hanging in the Front Hall. The artists? The Class of 2030 — aka the Kindergarteners. The project was inspired by Brazilian artist Angélica Dass’s project “Humanae,” which she created to draw attention to “our true colors, rather than the untrue white, red, black or yellow associated with race.” The students mixed paints to match their individual skin tones, painted backgrounds in those hues, and then drew their self-portraits with ink and paint on top. In a project statement, the Kindergarten teaching team wrote: “We know that children are not colorblind. In an effort to promote positive self-identity development, we celebrated that all human beings have a unique skin tone and no two colors are exactly the same. This project challenges us to notice and value the difference that is all around us.” Their classes also read and discussed several books that explore visible identifiers such as skin tone. One student reflected on the project: “We are all different and that’s what makes us beautiful.” Another shared: “Yeah, because I’m not black or white!” See all 67 self-portraits at www.packer.edu/magazine.
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Faculty and Staff News Lynnette Arthur, José De Jesús, Sara Goin, Cara Hill, Tené Howard, Akeem Layne,Vidya Misra, Semeka Smith-Williams,
George Snook and Students Recognized “As a teacher of history, I want my students to confront the past in a way that surveys courses do not permit. History can and must provide students with tools to make sense of the world and influence its future.” So said Upper School history teacher George Snook in an interview in The Volunteer, the quarterly journal of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives (ALBA), regarding his Advanced Topics course in European history. Two of his former students — seniors Liam Doyle ’18 and Raphael Wood ’18 — were recently awarded ALBA’s 2017 Pre-Collegiate George Watt Prize for their essay on the Spanish Civil War. Read Mr. Snook’s interview and an excerpt of his students’ award-winning essay at www.packer.edu/magazine.
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LUCY FRIEDBERG ’18
Rashad Randolph, Chelsea Rojas, Shane Pierre and six Upper School students [above] attended the annual People of Color Conference (PoCC) and Student Diversity Leadership Conference (SDLC) in Anaheim, CA. Speakers included author Ta-Nehisi Coates and activist Anita Sanchez. DeRay McKesson, a leading voice in the Black Lives Matter movement, presented exclusively to the student conference. Choral director Esther Liu Harris earned her doctoral degree in education from Teachers College at Columbia University with her dissertation, “An Investigation of Students’ Experiences in High School Student-Run Choral Ensembles.” Science teacher Erin Schmitz attended an Academy of Teachers master class, “The Future of Food,” with chef Dan Barber at his renowned restaurant and farm, Blue Hill at Stone Barns. Math teacher Sam Shah co-presented “The DIY Math Curriculum: Simple Tricks to Make Creating Your Own Material Feel Less Onerous” at the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics conference in Orlando.
PACKER ARTS presented a vibrant fall program: Delilah Draper ’18 led the Upper School’s rendition of The Madwoman of Chaillot; many new and returning students produced the Middle School’s exuberant Bye Bye Birdie; the Upper School Chorus performed Handel’s Messiah with musicians from Brooklyn College; and Paul Riggio led instrumentalists in their 31st annual MetLife holiday concert in Manhattan. The Shen Gallery presented a retrospective by Upper School art teacher Eric Baylin (see page 12), followed by “Volitia Turns Around,” the latest piece in a twenty-year-long global installation series by Melissa Marks P’19.
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Pushing Boundaries, Finding Balance Upper School visual arts teacher Eric Baylin has taught at Packer for over 30 years. This past fall, a retrospective of his sculpture, drawings, and photographs was exhibited in the Carol Shen Gallery. He reflected on the exhibit, entitled “Finding the Point of Balance: A Life of Making Art,” for the Magazine.
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For me, the most interesting aspect of having this exhibit in the Carol Shen Gallery was the chance to interact with the different classes that came to visit, from the Pre-K 4s to Upper School physics and math classes. With each group I asked the students to formulate questions they might have about my work. Some of their questions ranged from very practical and easy to answer: Where did you get the sticks and stones? Answer: In the woods near my studio in the Catskills. Others were more provocative, like this one from a Middle School student: Why is finding the point of balance important to you? I answered his question with another: What’s it like, when you are off-balance, say, about to stumble, but you catch yourself and regain your footing? The student answered, Relief. It’s sort of like that, I said. And yet it is much more. I didn’t elaborate at the time, but his question gave me pause to think. I am interested in pushing boundaries, in approaching the point of near-collapse and yet having the structure elegantly hold its place. How far can a branch extend from the wall without falling when held only by the tension of the string? It’s not just a question of physics. I am also interested in finding the visual balance, when the space around the branches becomes as important as the branches themselves, when the emptiness itself becomes sculpture. When all the elements —the lines, the empty space, the weight and the lightness — settle into place, I experience a moment of stillness. Something in me settles into place.
And in the pieces that interest me the most, there is an uncanny feeling of mystery. How could this structure be physically possible? So I suppose a follow-up question might be: Why am I so interested in pushing boundaries? And then we get into the whole reason for my being an artist, which for me is to live on that edge of discovery. That’s where the life of the work exists for me, and why I love working with simple materials that I can change quickly without being burdened by the need for permanence. There is no welding, gluing, or nailing. When the newest discovery becomes a known quantity, I take that as a challenge to test the boundaries of my imagination and to find the next possible configuration. That’s what is exciting for me as an artist. It’s an unfolding adventure.
Another aspect of the two-month-long exhibit was a performance piece, Drawing Performed. I had always been interested in the energetic, gestural aspect of drawing and had experimented years ago with some simple drawings generated by my moving along a wall and swinging my arm while holding a large crayon. What if I took that initial idea and had groups of people drawing in a dance-like performance? What if I added music to the mix? One evening in November, student dancers and musicians, along with several faculty members, joined together to create a series of four performed drawings on large walls in the 5th floor art studio that were created for the occasion [above]. It was a extraordinary collaboration and a thrilling moment for me as an artist. — Eric Baylin See a video of Drawing Performed at www.packer.edu/magazine.
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When Learning is a Labor of Love In the final projects that many students pursue before they graduate, deep personal motivation, and great mentors, lead to extraordinary achievements. While a formal capstone project is not a requirement at Packer, many students conclude their Upper School experience with extended projects in Advanced Topics classes, the Science Research Program, Senior Thesis, or Independent Study. These programs offer students a great deal of independence. “The learning is completely in their hands,” says Allison Bishop, Upper School Dean of Student Life and Leadership. “They rise to that challenge, finding it a freeing and exciting journey.” Different motivations lead them to take on these projects: interest sparked in a prior class, the desire to test their creative ability or explore their identity, or simply a question that cannot be ignored. 1 4 | THE PACKER MAGAZINE
We asked a dozen young alumni about their experiences in these programs. They spoke of steep learning curves and bouts of self-doubt. They recalled challenges that were “uncomfortable,” “intimidating,” and “scary.” Yet none of them dwelt on their struggles. Ben Bienstock ’16, who pursued two independent studies in fiction writing, summed it up simply: “Working that hard was really worth it.” Universally, they spoke with pride at having achieved things far beyond what they had imagined — things that, in many cases, have influenced the course of their lives.
TAKING A CREATIVE LEAP Hawa Sako ’11 still considers her independent study in
songwriting with Spanish teachers (and avid musicians) Rashad Randolph and Matt Urbania “probably my most empowering experience at Packer.” Initially, Hawa felt self-conscious about her interest in songwriting, concerned that her lack of instrumental ability would prove insurmountable. “Trying something new is always uncomfortable,” she says. But with Señor Randolph’s and Señor Urbania’s encouragement, she says, “[I learned that] the things I saw as barriers didn’t have to be.” Encouraged by her foray into songwriting at Packer, at Princeton University, she learned to play to her strengths — lyrics and melodies — and to collaborate with musicians who had different strengths. Soon, Hawa and a college classmate created an electro-soul duo called BROWNI, which has two dozen songs on SoundCloud and an EP on Spotify. “We are still creating music to this day.” She credits her independent study for the “confidence and validation” that allowed her to view music as a realistic pursuit. “I never imagined that I would one day be writing songs and [that music would be] such a large part of my identity.”
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“My entire book sprang from this notion”
CHAMPIONING A CAUSE For her senior thesis, Ellie Story ’17 channeled her passion for women’s issues and social issues into Letters to my Younger Sister, a 128-page collection of art and writing by a “diverse and passionate” group of female Packer students, teachers, and parents. She was mentored by English teacher Loryn Evanoff. “Having the opportunity to create the book was a great way for me to encapsulate what I had learned and experienced at Packer, as well as allowing me to highlight all the amazing women I met throughout my time there.” [An excerpt of Ellie’s introduction to the book appears in the sidebar.] Ellie credits her senior thesis experience with her decision to pursue a gap year before enrolling at Barnard College. She
BRIDGING DIFFERENT DISCIPLINES Maddie Lloyd ’17 first became interested in the Industrial Revolution’s impact on women in George Snook’s Advanced Topics in European History. For her senior thesis, mentored by dance teacher Mandy Stallings, Maddie choreographed a dance that explored the Industrial Revolution and the development of feminism. “The contrast between women’s entrance into the workforce and their suppression in it by male factory owners, factory workers, and their husbands was of particular interest to me,” she says. Now in her first year at the University of Edinburgh, Maddie is looking more closely at the women who were able to participate in factory work and those who were “still excluded from the narrative [of industrialization].” Maddie’s senior thesis “definitely” took her out of her comfort zone. “It made me reevaluate my own identity as a privileged white woman. It allowed me to understand feminism, womanhood, and my own identity in a broader, more well-rounded way.”
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At the beginning of this year, I was asked [in Peter Melman’s Literature of New York City] to write a letter to a hypothetical younger sister after reading Edith Wharton’s novella The Old Maid. Having a younger sister of my own, I connected with this notion of passing down advice to her, and that made me think about the advice I was given by my older sister. I started to reflect on what I had learned and what advice I wish I had been given when navigating my own girlhood. My entire book sprang from this notion. Although a lot of the faces and stories behind the incredible women that make up this book look different from the outside, a lot of the collective struggles and advice intersect. I’m hoping with this book that any girl can connect to one of the girls amongst the pages. But more importantly, I hope that from somewhere within these pages, there is a light that goes off, a moment of recognition, a moment of understanding, or a moment of reassurance.
spent the fall as an intern at an advocacy organization in her native London, and then traveled to Cartagena, Colombia, where she provided educational, career, and health support to adolescent mothers and their children living in poverty.
EXPLORING IDENTITY “Amazing, to say the least” is how Ayinde Castro ’17 summarizes his experience in Elizabeth Eagle’s Advanced Topics in Photography. During his senior year, his 13th at Packer, Ayinde set out to explore identity as a capstone project. At local and national student conferences he had attended, “people [of color] let me know that they felt there wasn’t an outlet for them to express their feelings.” Mentored by Ms. Eagle and Semeka SmithWilliams, Packer’s Director of Diversity and Equity, Ayinde created a powerful series of portraits and interviews of 14 students of color at Packer and other New York City independent schools. [See excerpts at left.] His goal was to give “a voice to the voiceless.” Now a freshman at Claremont-McKenna College, Ayinde recently landed several photography gigs. He hopes some day to own a gallery.
NAVIGATING UNCHARTED TERRITORY Dr. Sarah Strauss’s Advanced Topics history class, known formally as Advanced Topics in Conducting Scholarly Research in the Archives, is one of the more project-driven courses in the AT program. Each student pursues research in Packer’s archives, now housed at the Brooklyn Historical Society, where Dr. Strauss’s students regularly spend class time. For her year-long research project, Lia Di Bitonto ’17 explored the letters and postcards of Alice Van Vliet, a Packer teacher who traveled throughout Europe in the 1920s. “My goal was to assess and reflect on the shifting ideals for educated white women like Alice: Did she feel the need to play a submissive role in her travels due to the gender norms of the era? Or do the thrills, subtle romances, and rebellions that her writing is tinged with suggest that travel acted as a form of ‘rebirth’ for her?” Unlike in previous history classes, Lia found that there was not a myriad of scholarship she could consult. “I was forced to take ownership of my research. Instead of looking to historical literature for answers, I learned how to use it as a springboard to synthesize my own ideas.” Lia feels the impact of her research experience in her studies at Wesleyan University. “AT Archives taught me the value of navigating uncharted territories. [It gave] me the confidence to draw connections and form arguments that have never been made before, and to not rely on a blueprint.”
Lia pursuing her research at the Brooklyn Historical Society in October 2015.
See an image from Packer’s archives inside the back cover and read more about the collection at www.packer.edu/magazine.
Blake Boadi ’17 Ethnicity: Ghanian “Being a person of color at a predominantly white institution is a challenge my father prepared me for. He always told me that I had to make sure I was a step ahead of everyone else.”
Aly Aly ’17 Ethnicity: Egyptian “It’s hard to relate to most of the kids here. They don’t and never will understand the struggle. Being a person of color is another thing to worry about.”
Stephanie LaPorte ’17 Ethnicity: Puerto Rican “When I was younger, I would try hard not to be seen as the ‘stereotypical’ Latina until I realized that hiding parts of my identity was more harmful than embracing who I really was.”
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ADDRESSING A BURNING QUESTION Oakley Friedberg ’13
pursued a senior thesis because something was bothering him: the awareness that five years of Spanish study allowed him to navigate complex grammatical structures but not to speak the language entirely comfortably. With former Latin teacher Susanna Ciotti advising him, he wanted to understand what it means to acquire language, particularly a second language. Oakley dove into language-acquisition theory and explored several innovative teaching methods that resonated with it. One was Where Are Your Keys? (WAYK), a method that entails “pure immersion from the beginner level, where every linguistic item is acquired within the context of that [same] language, aided by props, body language, and a little bit of sign language.” “One of the most significant concepts I came across in my research is the distinction between language learning and
language acquisition. I discovered that I had been learning Spanish but not acquiring it.” To truly acquire a language, he says, one must do the same things that infants do: “first listen and babble responses, then map sounds to props, and finally [perform] simple storytelling that can evolve in complexity — all while embracing an intuitive ‘feel’ for the language.” That “feel” often excludes high-level grammatical analysis, he explains, which is why people who acquire languages as children can usually detect a grammatical error but may not be able to explain it. It was that intuitive grasp of Spanish that he felt he lacked. While in college, Oakley spent a summer working with WAYK on a First Nations reservation in British Columbia, helping to save the natives’ language from extinction. As a student at Brown University, he expanded his interest in language to include studies in psychology, artificial intelligence, neurobiology, and philosophy of mind. Oakley now works as a cognitive process transformation consultant at IBM. As a member of the Watson Health Consulting Services team, he helps leverage Watson’s artificial intelligence capabilities for companies in the healthcare and life-science markets.
PAYING HOMAGE For his final project in Advanced Topics in Photography, Eli Isikoff ’17 pondered a way to connect with New York City — “the city I love” — before heading off to the rural environment of Penn State University. He found himself drawn to something in our urban environment that he felt goes unnoticed: the juxtaposition between old buildings and new construction. Photography not only depicts an image, he says, “it can change the way people view that image — as well as their surroundings.”
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BRIDGING DIFFERENT DISCIPLINES When a three-dimensional surface such as the Earth’s is mapped onto a two-dimensional surface, distortions inevitably occur. Nadia Grisaru ’16 and Sara Van Horn ’16 were introduced to the mapmaker’s dilemma in Sameer Shah’s multivariable calculus class. For a joint senior project, they decided to explore how different map projections yield different distortions. Putting their discoveries in a socio-political context, they noted that map distortions have influenced perceptions and actions throughout history. They concluded that “it is dangerous to believe in the objectivity of scientific and numerical thought,” noting that such a belief vests scientists and mathematicians
with the “power to claim truth where there is only perspective.” Pursuing complex math on their own was a challenging but worthwhile experience. “I struggled to understand some of the math at first,” says Nadia, “but I proved to myself that, with enough time and thought, I could teach myself difficult concepts.” Nadia is now a sophomore at Yale University, “[juggling her] interests of geology and geophysics, chemistry, and history.” After Packer, Sara spent a gap year traveling and “thinking about the professed objectivity of official maps, specifically the maps that detail our nation’s borders and their use as a tool to sanction state violence.” Her love for maps has also sparked connections: at Brown University, the first person she became friends with “had an upside-down map on her wall!”
TAKING A CREATIVE LEAP For his two-year independent study in music theory and composition with music teacher Paul Riggio, Jared Chan ’16 wrote and performed a three-movement suite for a woodwind quartet. Already a dedicated musician, Jared saw how his enhanced understanding of theory bolstered his performance skills. Composing in its own right also began to interest him. “I’d want to outdo myself each time I composed something new. I’d ask myself, ‘What haven’t I done before?’ or ‘What’s going to sound good and be technically appropriate but difficult to figure out?’ These habits followed me to college.” On a music scholarship, Jared enrolled at Loyola University in New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz. Though he recently decided to major in chemistry, he still “lives and breathes music.” He plays jazz regularly around town, including at the Sunday gospel brunch at the legendary House of Blues. Jared reflects on how his independent study pushed him toward challenges he had avoided. “Before Packer, I was a self-taught guitarist who had no knowledge of theory, form, style, or anything technical for that matter. Mr. Riggio encouraging me to learn the nuts and bolts put me constantly on trial, though I’m a much better musician for it today.”
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EXPLORING IDENTITY
“Everyone deserves to be passionnate about something” Now at Yale University, Brittany Boyce ’17 wrote “The Friendship of Calculus: A Girl’s Journey Into the Unwavering Depths of The Third Dimension” as her final project in Sameer Shah’s multivariable calculus class. An adapted excerpt of her essay appears below.
Calculus was never meant to be unreachable. Renowned mathematician Edward Frenkel once said, “Mathematics directs the flow of the universe, lurks behind its shapes and curves, and holds the reins of everything from tiny atoms to the biggest stars.” But the beauty that math holds has become a privilege unreachable to those who are marginalized every day for their skin color, race, and sexuality. Every day students of color and women are told that they cannot or should not see this beauty, a beauty held from them until they climb and fight to the point where they are so bruised, broken, and beaten that they give up. Being a black girl who was able to show her intelligence at such a young age, I was set on the path to success. Do your school work, get a good job, be successful. But at the time, I didn’t really know what it meant to be successful. I still don’t. Most of the time, success is
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dependent on whether or not I beat the system. I was never told to do what makes me happy. I was told to do what makes me money. I never had the privilege to study what interested me, or what I was passionate about, and I never knew that having the chance to delve into European history or a new language was a privilege. I was too busy preparing for survival, getting a head start so that the pressure and rigor of a predominantly white and male setting wouldn’t defeat me. “Path Independence” shows that the value of a line integral of a conservative vector field along a piecewise smooth path is independent of the path. That is, the value of the integral depends on the endpoints, not the actual path. Most people think that life is path independent — that they can see past their privileges and just go on with their lives. But everyone deserves to be passionate about something. We must not be path independent; we must be aware of the stories that are around us. Math is beautiful, and I only hope that seeing this beauty no longer becomes a privilege in this world, but a necessity.
FLYNN LARSEN
ADDRESSING A BURNING QUESTION Ruby Laufer ’16 went into her senior thesis with a very precise aim: “I was trying to understand what advice Shakespeare would have given me as I was about to leave for college.” With guidance from her mentor, former Arts Head Debbie Pressman, Ruby explored the fates of the main female characters in Henry VI Part III, King Lear, and As You Like It. Her final presentation included her acting out a scene from each of the plays — an experience she calls “scary and very intense.” “Both [Henry VI’s] Margaret and [Lear’s] Cordelia were rigid,” she says. “Shakespeare ended their stories unhappily. Rosalind, however, was more adaptable. She had both masculine and feminine qualities (literally), and knew when to draw on each. She took the reins of her own destiny instead of playing right into it, and she was the only one who lived happily ever after.” Ruby acknowledges seeing aspects of herself in all three women. “I had to look at myself and the ways I play into roles and stereotypes, but of course I learned from it. Rosalind survived because she was adaptable. That’s not a lesson I will easily forget.” Ruby put Shakespeare’s lesson to use a little sooner than she expected. A longtime competitive rider, she entered the animal science program at Cornell University after graduating from Packer. But she felt it wasn’t right environment for her and made the difficult decision to leave. As Shakespeare taught her, she adapted, and has spent this year studying at a farm school in Greece and pursuing the classics in Rome. She plans to return to the US to finish college. “Where and when that will happen, I do not know,” she says, “but I’m really enjoying the ride so far.” Despite describing her senior thesis as “scary,” Ruby reflects on the experience with obvious enthusiasm. “It’s too easy to make excuses not to do something, to graduate from a school you didn’t like, then end up with a job you didn’t want, without taking any risks in your life,” she says. “The most important lesson I’ve learned is that if something scares you, really scares you, you need to do it.”
NAVIGATING UNCHARTED TERRITORY Through Packer’s Independent Science Research Program, Will Merrill ’15 worked at NYU’s Morphology Lab, using brain imaging to investigate how the brain processes different forms of the same word (for example, laughs vs. laugh). “My particular project dealt with common texting acronyms like LOL — in particular, whether such acronyms are morphologically derived from one of their component words (i.e., whether LOL relates to laugh in the same way that
“I can’t thank my mentors enough.”
laughs relates to laugh). Although his experiment in psycholinguistics was “far from conclusive,” the data he collected in a crowd-sourced online study supported this hypothesis. Discussing complex topics with university professors and presenting his research was, he admits, “intimidating at first.” Today he credits the experience with “forcing me to develop my ability to speak confidently, both in public and in one-on-one conversations with authority figures.” Now a double major in linguistics and computer science at Yale University, Will spent last summer developing language-processing software that rates essays written by Spanish-language learners. He plans to pursue a PhD in computational linguistics. He is very clear about the impact of his experience in Packer’s Science Research Program, which is overseen by Lutz Holzinger and Erin Schmitz. “I can’t thank my mentors (both from Packer and outside) enough for the exposure to linguistics and the experience with research that the Science Research Program provided.” P
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Alumni News
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Choosing Public Service as a Special Agent Adriana Mirarchi ’99 is a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security. She has served as an HSI special agent since 2009, leading investigations of intellectual property theft, immigration and document fraud, transnational gangs, financial crimes, and human trafficking. Prior to 2009, Adriana served as a special agent with the Department of State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security, conducting protective details for US and foreign diplomats. In October 2017, she returned to Packer to serve as the 106th Founder’s Day Speaker. When Adriana Mirarchi graduated from Packer, she thought she would work in medicine or science. She had spent two summers in a lab at NYU Mount Sinai as part of her Science Research Program project, guided by former Science Department chair James Short. At Mount Holyoke College, she planned to heed her mother’s essential career advice: to get a job “where no one would want to shoot at me and I wouldn’t have to shoot at anyone.” She spent several summers charting vegetation in New Mexico’s Cibola National Forest with a professor who had secured a grant from the US Forest Service and NASA. “I learned about sweat, hard work, and satellite images, and how to identify different types of vegetation,” says Adriana, “but I realized a career in remote sensing wasn’t for me.” Inspired by former French teacher Tom Fennell, Adriana spent a year abroad at the University of Dakar in Senegal, where she studied French and the national language Wolof. There Adriana took an internship at a medical clinic, where she got real-world experience in the medical field — so real that a patient suddenly died while she was taking his pulse. She realized then that although medicine wasn’t the career for her, her personal mission was to help those in need. Back at Mount Holyoke, she stumbled upon an information session for the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service (DSS). Almost on a whim, she took the foreign service specialist exam, which she passed. After a year of teaching French in the suburbs of Paris (“I finally understood how difficult the job of a teacher is”), she entered the DSS’s training program, where, in spite of her mother’s advice, she learned to shoot a firearm. During her time with the DSS, Adriana provided security detail at the United Nations and for US and foreign officials.
Before her speech, Adriana answered Upper School students’ questions, ranging from her favorite security detail during her time with the Diplomatic Security Services (Condoleezza Rice) to her thoughts on constitutional law and its effects or limits on her job as a federal investigator with the Department of Homeland Security. She also met with members of the Middle School Model UN Club.
As a member of the Eurasian Organized Crime Task Force with the US Attorney of Virginia, she began her work investigating human trafficking in the United States, identifying foreign nationals who were illegally employed in the US and living in inhumane conditions with meager, if any, pay. In her current position as a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations (a wing of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement), Adriana pursues a wide range of investigations into international organized crime. For the past eight years, her investigations into human trafficking and sex trafficking on American soil have brought dozens of victims out of the shadows. Her job requires her to collect evidence and testify in court in order to prosecute traffickers. It also allows her to partner with nonprofit organizations to connect trafficking victims to resources and assistance. “For me, arresting human traffickers and helping survivors have been the most rewarding things I have done professionally,” says Adriana. The real success stories in her cases, she says, are the victims who have survived their circumstances and who persevere in spite of traumatic experiences. Through her life’s work, Adriana says that she wants to leave “a positive impact in some way, and I want to inspire my children to do the same.”
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Annabelle Baylin ’09, Tiffany Zarabi-Aazam ’09, Louis Minsky ’09, and Suzy Storr ’09 in a preschool classroom.
Walking with the Greats: The Class of ’09, Back at Packer Four classmates shared what they love most about being members of the faculty.
Annabelle Baylin studied mindfulness education at NYU’s Gallatin School. She is an Associate Teacher in the Pre-K Fours and is earning her masters in early childhood and special education from Brooklyn College. Tiffany Zarabi-Aazam majored in Middle East studies at Brown University. She is an Associate Teacher in the Fourth Grade. Louis Minsky studied computer engineering at Johns Hopkins University. He is an Upper School computer science teacher. Suzy Storr graduated from Camberwell College of Arts (University of the Arts London) and is a long-term substitute art teacher in the Lower School.
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What is one thing about your tenure as a student that would surprise your current students? Annabelle: I think they might enjoy knowing that many of the
people who were in my Kindergarten class are still some of my closest friends now. It’s fun to imagine the 4- and 5- year-olds I now teach at age 27, all friends, maybe working at Packer!
Louis: Packer might actually be Hogwarts. As a student I spent a lot of time exploring the building. If you had asked me back then, I would’ve said that I knew about all of the secret passages and rooms, but I keep learning about new ones. Suzy: It might surprise them to know that I was convinced I was going to become a neurosurgeon like my grandfather. I took an anatomy class with former science teacher Judy
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Tiffany (1), Louis (2), Suzy (3), and Annabelle (4) all entered Packer as members of Jaki Williams Florsheim’s Kindergarten class.
Kemlitz. I thought I was studying the body to become a doctor, but in the end those lessons helped me to understand the human form so deeply that in college I became a figurative painter instead! Tiffany: I became studious in Upper School, but I was much
more focused on sports, friends, and adventure up through Middle School. Also, I still think of Tim as “Mr. Jensen.” Some of your teachers still work in the building. What is the best part of having them as colleagues? Annabelle: It’s wonderful to have people in the same community who have known me for so long and in multiple capacities. I find that it makes my experience as a Packer teacher very multidimensional and rich. Louis: I think back on what a huge impact many of the teachers at Packer had on me and how many of their lessons I still remember. Now I get to work alongside people like Dr. Lurain, Ms. Fahy, and Mr. Snook, and I can only hope to inspire my students as much as they inspired me.
“ Working at Packer allows me the privilege to watch and learn from the teachers who inspired and nurtured me as a child.” Suzy: Working at Packer allows me the privilege to watch and learn from the teachers who inspired and nurtured me as a child. It’s a treat to learn more about their lives outside of Packer and hear stories and advice from their early days as educators. Tiffany: The best part is to be able to walk with the greats. In true full circle, each 4th Grade class has a student whose parent was once my teacher: Noah Reinhardt was my 7th Grade math teacher, Richard Brownstone was my 11th Grade English teacher, and Peter Melman was my 12th Grade creative nonfiction writing teacher. Maybe one day their kids will teach my kids!
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Packer on the Road This winter, we loved connecting with alumni in Los Angeles, Miami, Naples, Vero Beach, and Palm Beach. We’ll see you in Washington, DC, on March 13!
Members of the Classes of 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017 came back to Packer for the Young Alumni Pizza Party in January.
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The “Lightbulb Moment” that Sparked a Movement — and Won the Praise of President Obama After graduating from Packer, Mandeep Singh ’11 majored in urban studies at Columbia University, where he co-founded FLIP, the First-Generation Low-Income Partnership, a campus organization for students who, like him, were the first in their families to attend college. Since then, FLIP has expanded to college campuses across the nation. At the Obama Foundation’s 2017 Summit, Mandeep was one of three young changemakers interviewed by President Obama. Tell us what you are up to professionally these days. After graduating from Columbia in 2015, I landed a job at Dropbox in San Francisco. I started off as a salesperson, then became a data analyst, and finally finished as a project manager. In September, I left to join the business strategy team at a software company called Zenefits. Although I’m having an incredible journey, I’m looking forward to eventually heading back home to New York City and finding the intersection between technology and social impact for my future endeavors. Tell us about your role in the creation of FLIP — First Generation Low-Income Partnership. When I first came to Packer as a freshman in 2007, I quickly learned that my narrative was different compared to many other students. I knew that being a first-generation, lowincome student created gaps for me in terms of integrating socially and academically. Though I couldn’t have imagined a more welcoming community than Packer, I knew from my personal experience that there is much work to be done to fight the challenges that students like myself face on their paths to upward social mobility. After starting at Columbia, I had a major lightbulb moment when I realized that I was not the only one experiencing the isolation of being a first-gen student. With friends I had made through other social justice initiatives on campus, I slowly began conversations related to our identity and the fact that Columbia’s policies and student life made us feel unsupported. I went on to co-found and lead FLIP as a formal student organization that not only built community for first-gen, low-income students, but also organized projects that directly helped meet our needs. Given its success, we went one step further and started FLIP National my senior year—a nonprofit aiming to create a national community for first-generation, low-income students. What was it like being interviewed by President Obama? Ever since he was the junior Senator from Illinois, I have found deep inspiration in his message and story. Attending the
President Obama: What do your parents make of you being [an activist]? Mandeep Singh ’11: At first they were taken aback. But now that they’re seeing the impact I’m able to have with members of my community, they are incredibly proud. Obama Foundation Summit and meeting President Obama feels like a daydream that I continue to process. Although the three of us who were interviewed were nervous wrecks, we instantly felt a calmness when he shook our hands and made a joke to ease our nerves. The perception so many of us have of him, of his charming character and his care for people, is very much genuine. You have a deep commitment to organizing on behalf of marginalized groups. If you could change one thing in this country on their behalf, what would it be? I’ve always been drawn to this line by author Teju Cole: “We fight not for the love of fight but to guarantee the part of life that isn’t fight.” If there’s anything I could change, I would change the fact that marginalized people are bound to this constant fight for their survival day in and out. Whether it’s first-gen students trying to graduate, the African-American community seeking justice, or women fighting for equity, grassroots organizing and activism are fueled by this relentless need to survive within a system that ignores them. However, the constant lack of stability and fear that comes with their marginalization has incredible impacts on the psyche of the community and produces a life in which peace can be a foreign concept. I wish their voices were truly listened to by majority communities so that we can help build a life for our communities that is not based solely on the foundation of fighting. Watch a video of Mandeep’s conversation with President Obama at www.packer.edu/magazine. WINTER 2018 | 27
“ The story of Packer is more than that of a school. It is one of social and economic transformation in Brooklyn and the United States. It is the story of the development of urban growth and institution-building, of the evolving status of American women and a progressive commitment to women’s education reaching back to before the Civil War, and of the changing beliefs about education and its role in American society.” — Dr. Bruce L. Dennis, Head of School Packer’s rich historical archives made their public debut in November at the Brooklyn Historical Society — and online — thanks to the vision of Shelby White ’55, a generous gift from the Leon Levy Foundation, and the dedication of our partners at BHS. Read more at www.packer.edu/archives.
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170 Joralemon Street Brooklyn, NY 11201 (718) 250-0200 www.packer.edu
The Class of 2030. See story on page 9.
The Class of 2030. See story on page 9.