Keeping In Touch - Winter 2013

THE ROEPER SCHOOL COMMUNITY MAGAZINE

Keeping In Touch

EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING Math & Science at Roeper Volume 6: 2 WINTER 2013

In Memoriam CHARLENE WHITNEY EDWARDS ’66* Former student Charlene Whitney Edwards passed away on October 12, 2012.

Charlene attended Roeper from Nursery through fifth grade, with a special passion for Dance with Norma. Charlene’s mother, Charlotte, taught art at the school from 1950 until 1959, when the family moved to Olivet, MI. Charlene was a very successful graphic designer with her own firm, Whitney Edwards LLC. She was a breast cancer survivor for more than 20 years.

She always felt that Roeper gave her a great start in life.

Please go the following website to read a lovely obit: http://www.stardem.com/obituaries/article_61879b3e-172e-11e2-b781-0019bb2963f4.html.

ROBERT WASHINGTON ’82 Robert passed June 6, 2012, after a massive heart attack at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Queens, NYC. Roeper did have a presence at the funeral and was able to honor his memory.

Andrew Briskin ’86 Andrew passed away in San Diego August 27, 2012,after a long illness.

For more info, please visit http://www.sdgln.com/news/2012/08/28/gayentrepreneur-andrew-briskin-dies-44

JOAN HARDEN, former staff Joan passed away December 3, 2012. A long-time resident of Pontiac, she helped start Planned Parenthood and was a member of Project Hope. She was a member of National Organization for Women and the NAACP. She was Transportation Supervisor at The Roeper School. Joan was a talented artist and created the whimsical logo for Roeper’s Nursery program. After she retired from Roeper, she showcased her art work at local art festivals around Oakland County. Following her passing, a private celebration of her life was held at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Donations in Joan’s memory may be made to CCCS School of the Arts.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS David Feldman Head of School david.feldman@roeper.org Denita Banks-Sims Director of Development denita.banks-sims@roeper.org Keeping in Touch Editorial Committee Katie Buchmann Editor Bonnie Schemm Art Director Contributors Farah Bagne Denita Banks-Sims Jamie Benigna Gloria Cook Adam Dorfman ’90 Laura Evans David Feldman Ellen Hoppe Michelle Lane Jamie Lyons-Eddy Dianne O’Connor Marcy Sznewajs

The Roeper School

Features math is everywhere! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 David Feldman, Head of School STAGE IV MATH: BUILDING CONFIDENCE . . . . . . . . . . 4 Gloria Cook, Laura Evans & Ellen Hoppe, Lower School Teachers USING THE FOUR Cs in MATH . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Jamie Lyons-Eddy, Department Chair, Middle/Upper School Math

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NATURE TRAILS AND SCIENCE . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Michelle Lane & Dianne O’Connor, Lower School Science Specialists

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asking questions, finding answers . . . . . . . .

Jamie Benigna, Department Chair, Middle/Upper School Science

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ALUMNI PERSPECTIVE . . . . .

Adam Dorfman, MD, Class of 1990 A PARENT’S PERSPECTIVE . . .

Marcy Sznewajs, Roeper Parent

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class notes . . . . . . . . . . .

Emery Pence, Alumni Relations Coordinator Katie Buchmann, Editor

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ALUMNI PHOTO GALLERY . . . .

Weddings, Babies and Reunions!

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PARTING THOUGHTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Denita Banks-Sims, Director of Development

41190 Woodward Avenue Bloomfield Hills Michigan 48304 248/203.7300 www.roeper.org

The Roeper School is an independent coeducational day school for gifted and talented children preschool through grade 12 and an equal-opportunity institution

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David Feldman Head of School

math is everywhere!

I have a former colleague who always used to play this game with me. No matter what the occasion or the circumstance she would always find a way to break into the conversation and tell me in a well-reasoned voice that things are the way they are because, “Math is everywhere!” We’d be sitting in a meeting talking about advisory curriculum, a Harry Potter book, our children’s latest achievement or the 4th grade’s swim races, and Laura would see the mathematical connections in each activity. At first I just thought of her words as a math teacher advocating for her passion, or maybe just a friend’s gentle teasing of a colleague from the humanities. She had a way of looking at the world and seeing numbers, graphs and equations. But as I travel around The Roeper School and see how our faculty works to integrate curriculum, I can’t help but hear my friend’s words echo in my ears.

Traditionally in mathematics, students cover the same curriculum at pretty much the same pace. They rarely have the chance to see math or science applied in conceptual forms. At Roeper our students have choice and challenge.

Take, for example, the work being done by our Stage III students and the creation of their store.

Building on an understanding of environmental sustainability, students created products made from recyclable materials. Working in teams they developed a business plan that included marketing strategies, a communications plan, the integration of social media, and data analysis of how to make a profit. The Stage also selected a not-for-profit organization to support with the money earned from their sales.

Our teachers could have easily selected a text that talked about recycling and environmental stewardship. They could have solved equations or even story problems to practice the math computation covered in this project. It would have been easy to assign a writing topic, and maybe

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even ask students to type their papers. Yet the active and engaged level of learning in the Stage III store brought math, science, technology, reading, and writing alive. The act of doing a project rather than the passive act of reading about a store made the learning memorable and the depth of understanding significant.

We know that early adolescents go through enormous changes, and the ability to understand mathematical concepts happens at different rates for different children. As students develop the ability to understand math at more sophisticated levels, we want to make sure that our program provides opportunities that encourage students to advance when they have demonstrated appropriate mastery of skills. To do this, our faculty has worked very hard to assess student skill levels, but what do you do when a child’s skills and interests are significantly beyond his peers in the Stage — or even his peers on the Lower School campus?

This is the case for a couple of Stage IV students who are doing Pre-Algebra with the guidance and support of a group of seniors from the Birmingham campus. As Annemarie Roeper reminded us, learning is a lifelong endeavor — there is no end point, and just because a student finds a limit on one campus doesn’t mean he/she should be limited in exploring the next set of concepts and ideas.

Sit in a biology, chemistry or physics lab and watch the active learning as students engage in discussion and systematically apply the scientific method in the application of their work. There is certainly information to be gained from a text, but as our Roeper faculty do, why not flip the classroom, and have the direct instruction segment of the lesson happen at home so the applied lab work and important class interactions can happen in school.

Student time is valued, teacher insight is shared, and learning is enhanced simply by using home preparation more effectively. Using technology so students can learn from a teacher’s presentation

True to our understanding of how children learn, we are a school that values experiential learning.

We believe in the active nature of teaching; to do otherwise would be like talking about cooking and not making the recipe or eating the food.

in the comfort of their home, library, or coffee shop, a lecture or presentation is digitally recorded and made accessible to the students; this allows the in-class time with the teacher to be more personalized, focused and interactive.

The Stage III Store project, Rethought Things.

Roeper is a school that approaches the construction of curriculum with a clear understanding of children’s interest and what is developmentally appropriate. We know science is about kids experiencing and investigating; it’s not just the rote learning of vocabulary and history. True to our understanding of how children learn, we are a school that values experiential learning. We believe in the active nature of teaching; to do otherwise would be like talking about cooking and not making the recipe or eating the food.

Mathematics is the science of patterns and relationships. It is the universal language of our technological world. Mathematical power is the ability to explore, to conjecture, to reason logically and to use a variety of methods effectively to solve problems. Reflecting on these thoughts and the initiatives our faculty has begun, I know my friend Laura would be leaning over to nudge me, reminding me with her biggest “I told you so” grin that in fact — I should look around — because math is everywhere! F

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Gloria Cook Laura Evans Ellen Hoppe

Lower School Teachers

STAGE IV MATh: building confidence Stage IV students are guided through math in a way that encourages them to recognize themselves as successful mathematicians. The math program includes focus on process, discovering multiple efficient strategies, communication of mathematical thinking and identifying real life applications. Students look for patterns and relationships; they incorporate critical and creative thinking skills as they draw logical conclusions and analyze information. Stage IV Mathematicians are curious; they ask questions and seek explanations; these behaviors are promoted in a supportive community of learners. Students work independently, with partners and in groups. Working collaboratively provides opportunities for teamwork, responsibility and leadership.

Gloria

Roeper’s math program is unique. Individual learning styles are taken into account when planning and implementing math lessons. Students begin to acquire an appreciation of their own learning styles; they’re encouraged to use this information to benefit their learning by taking steps to advocate for themselves and their needs. This awareness builds self confidence.

The Singapore Math program serves as a foundation; it is complemented with use of inquiry-based puzzles and strategy games designed to stimulate the synthesis of interrelated concepts, skills and applications.

Math electives allow students the opportunity to combine collaborative learning with a passion for math.

Students can explore a variety of specific topics more deeply — topics typically determined by the interests of the members of the class.

Common Core Skills of 21st Century Learners are practiced daily in Roeper’s math program. Students demonstrate creativity and innovation as they tackle long-term projects connected to units of study in Humanities. They communicate effectively as they synthesize new information with previous knowledge.

Stage IV math students take initiative; they are self directed, flexible and accountable. Learning skills and work habits are nurtured to ensure success as students continue their journey as mathematicians in Middle School and beyond. F

Stage IV students built towers while they built relationships.

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Laura

Ellen

Students begin to acquire an appreciation of their own learning styles; they’re encouraged to use this information to benefit their learning by taking steps to advocate for themselves and their needs.

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Jamie Lyons-Eddy

Chair, Math Department Middle/Upper School

USING THE FOUR C’S IN MS MATH Last Tuesday was arch-building day in Geometry. In the previous lessons, students had discovered the formulas for the interior and exterior angles of polygons. Now they were assigned groups, and given a take-out food box — the kind Chinese food comes in — and asked to figure out how many of these boxes it would take to make a roman-style arch. (The trapezoidal shape of the boxes makes them pretty good voussoirs, although they aren’t heavy enough to stick together without tape.)

… it’s in the process of working together that the real learning happens.

There’s a particular strategy that works well and applies the formulas the students have been using, but over the years students have come up with other methods. If the students are as little as one degree off in their angle measurements, their arches won’t sit flat, but that’s part of the process. As they put the arches together, they find out if their measurements and calculations were correct. An important step in the activity is to test and then figure out where they went wrong.

But it’s in the process of working together that the real learning happens. One student is a whiz with the formulas, while another has a great method for measuring, and one will find the perfect strategy to hold the blocks together during construction. They find that cooperation in their own groups, and even the occasional consultation with other groups, is necessary to get the job done successfully.

By the end of the block, students proudly display their decorated arches, unaware that they’ve been applying the four C’s of 21st Century learning: critical thinking, collaboration, communication and creativity.

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Michelle Lane Dianne O’Connor

Lower School Science Specialists

NATURE TRAILS & SCIENCE The Roeper philosophy emphasizes the collaborative nature of learning and of making larger contributions to the world. Our inquiry-based science program from Stages I through IV offers opportunities for students to explore questions with their teachers and peers and to develop skills in finding answers. Through this process students also develop skills for life, which enable them to contribute in broader ways to the community around them.

Last spring, we offered a collaborative class called Nature Trails for Stage III and Stage IV students. In this class, children cultivated a stronger connection to our Roeper woods, working together to restore the trail and to enhance it through self-designed signs. Children learned more about the role of native plants in our woodland ecosystem and the life requirements of the species they chose to plant along the trail. The stewardship component of the trail restoration also included the children working together to woodchip the trail.

Each child selected a feature along the trail, based on their observations and questions. Examples of questions were: “Why do roots grow above the ground?” or “Why do insects make patterns on logs?”

The children researched the features they chose and summarized their findings in written text that was placed on signs installed along the trail. The children photographed their features or found graphics to include with their text. The intention of the signs was to enhance the awareness of the natural environment for those who walk along the trail.

This year, students in the Hindstrum (Stage III science elective) class added to the trail, with new signs that incorporated their poems and thoughts about the woods and the creek. These were installed along with the existing signs to add a reflective component to the trail.

The restorative work was a collaborative venture for the students, and their individual questions and research not only deepened their connections to our woods, but also enabled them to share the connections they made in a broader way. They gained a sense of empowerment through their contributions to the greater community. Learning for life, collaboration, making choices, making contributions, and integrating a variety of disciplines while developing process skills for science all are integral parts of our Science program in the Lower School at Roeper. F

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Michelle

Dianne

They gained a sense of empowerment through their contributions to the greater community.

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Jamie Benigna

Chair, Science Department Middle/Upper School

asking questions, finding answers

[Students] are encouraged and expected to exercise greater responsibility and initiative for seeking answers to their varied questions.

The Science Department at Roeper shares several core values: a dedication to inquiry as a way of knowing, a deep passion for the subject, a commitment to lifelong learning, and a belief that all students are capable of success. The variety of elective courses that the Science Department offers allows students to tailor their science education to their skills and interests. Having conducted scientific research themselves, Science faculty members consistently teach methods of scientific inquiry and investigation. The commitment to scientific literacy has resulted in many alumni returning to thank the Science Department for preparing them to undertake college-level studies, and many alumni report that they are now teaching and tutoring their classmates; a sense of collaboration is fostered early in science classes and continues beyond the Upper School.

In Science, students are encouraged to ask challenging questions, and often students are allowed to find ways to answer those questions through experimentation and research. As students progress through Roeper, they are encouraged and expected to exercise greater responsibility and initiative for seeking answers to their varied questions. They learn more sophisticated experimental techniques, how to use technology, and how to tackle concepts with greater complexity. Students learn concepts and how they apply to everyday experiences. Particular care is taken to expose students to the questions science has not yet answered, as well as the human implications of new scientific developments.

Students emerge from science classes at Roeper with a refined world view, answers to many of their questions, and an interest in studying questions that do not yet have answers. F

For example ‌ The Science of Energy and the Technology of Medicine are the two most important areas of development in the 21st Century. Advancements in both fields require an in-depth knowledge of mathematics. The United States has been the front-runner in Medicine for a century, but has lagged behind in the Science of Energy. To provide energy, no longer is it sufficient to drill for oil and fracture layers of rocks for gas.

The United States possesses the largest reservoir of coal in the world. It is imperative for science, technology and business to come together to develop economically successful and environmentally acceptable methods for using coal without polluting the environment. Scientists must develop a method whereby coal is converted to energy while simultaneously the carbon from carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide byproducts is extracted and converted to a useful substance such as industrial diamond, and the balance is released as pure oxygen. If this scientific technique is developed in such a manner that is economically profitable, the United States will not only become energy-independent, but also a major exporter of energy. For the students at Roeper to succeed, it is imperative that Science, Technology, Mathematics and Business be equally emphasized and fully integrated. F Farideh R. Bagne, PhD, JD,President & CEO Mercury Medical Systems and Roeper Grandparent

Sixth graders worked in teams to design and build water filters.

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Adam Dorfman, MD

Class of 1990

ALUMNI PERSPECTIVE I attended Roeper for 12 years, graduating in the Class of 1990. I went on after graduation to attend Yale University, and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Biology. Following undergrad, I attended medical school at the University of Michigan; I then spent seven years doing postgraduate training in Boston to become a pediatric cardiologist, and I am currently a Clinical Associate Professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Radiology at U of M. I received fantastic science and math training at Roeper. I took two years of Chemistry with Pat Vance and found that the college general chemistry class — kind of a weed-out class for pre-med students — was mostly review and quite easy after my Roeper education. Lotte Geller was a wonderful teacher and mentor in Biology. After taking many classes with her, I was ready as a college freshman to step directly into advanced biology classes with upperclassmen. I think the unique part of a Roeper education, then and now, is the emphasis on free and creative thinking (even in chemistry!). I learned to think about problems individually and develop my own style and approach to taking on challenges. This served me very well when it came time to write papers in college-level courses and, eventually, when learning how to work in a basic science laboratory. It was so much more than the rote memorization that plagues science teaching at so many schools.

My Roeper science education best prepared me for my life as an adult in two ways; first, learning how to work on my own, being pushed to delve further into questions that came up for me on various topics, but at the same time learning to work in small groups. These are crucial skills that I utilize every day. Second, the love of learning that is such an emphasis at Roeper, and that was instilled at a young age.

I love my career. One of the best parts of my job is that there is always something I haven’t seen before. I really do learn something new almost every day at the hospital. I believe that my thirst for this has its roots in my formative years at Roeper, as well as in my family upbringing. I am very grateful for the education I received; it has had a profound effect on my life. F

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I think the unique part of a Roeper education, then and now, is the emphasis on free and creative thinking (even in chemistry!).

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Marcy Sznewajs

Stage IV & Middle Schoool Parent

A PARENT’S PERSPECTIVE A Moment That Stands Out Lukas entered 6th grade as a new Roeper student. He had limited prior exposure to advanced math due to the lock-step-with-your-grade math program at his previous school. Consequently, he did not do well on the placement test, and the original recommendation from the Math Department at Roeper was for him to take 6th Grade Math.

Peter (Stage IV), Emma (Grade 6) and Lukas (Grade 8) Sznewajs.

I don’t believe many other schools would allow even a motivated student … to move so quickly in math.

I spoke to Sheh Yi because I knew he had the ability, and more importantly, the desire, to do more — and I was afraid of what another year of being under-challenged might do to his diminishing work ethic and increasing behavioral problems. She agreed to give him a chance in Pre-algebra. He worked very hard to catch up, and Sheh Yi was supportive every step of the way. Soon he was excelling and has never looked back. In fact, this year, he enrolled in Geometry and decided it was fairly easy ... so he decided to drop an elective and take Algebra II in addition to Geometry. While this type of rapid advancement may be fairly common at Roeper, I don’t believe many other schools would allow even a motivated student, especially one who is in 6th grade, to move so quickly in math.

I commend Roeper for taking the chance in 6th grade that his aptitude for math would allow him to catch up rapidly, for providing a supportive, stimulating and challenging environment, and never halting his passion and desire by arbitrarily limiting his pace.

Thank you! F

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Emery Pence

Alumni Relations Coordinator

Katie Buchmann

Editor

CLASS NOTES 1970s

MARLITA REDDY-HJELMFELT ’74 Marlita is heavily involved in VOST and SMEM. Emergency managers for natural disasters are now teaming with volunteers to help use social media to get info from civilians to the emergency team and from the emergency team to the public. For a better explanation, please go to http://www. slideshare.net/CMilliganNZVOST/vost-presentationbasics

Rae Ann Noyes Dotter ’81 receives her awards.

HERMAN MARABLE ’80 Herman who has served as a Judge at Flint 68th District Court since 2000, was re-elected to his third (six-year) term on the Court in the November 6, 2012, election. All of his races have been contested, and he scored his largest margin of victory ever. He defeated two opponents to win his seat, and he beat back a highly funded and nasty campaign launched by the Genesee (County) Landlords Association.

Herman is also the Alumni Representative to the Roeper Board of Trustees.

RAE ANNE (RANDI) NOYES DOTTER ’81 Rae Anne received some awesome recognition last April. She was selected as the “Challenger Learning Center of Colorado 2012 Teacher of the Year” and also went on to earn a National teaching award from the Challenger Center for Space Science Education in Alexandria, Virginia — 2012 Teacher of the Year. Only four teachers were selected for the National award this year out of 48 Challenger Learning Center programs across the US and in South Korea and the UK (about 20,000 teachers).

This past summer, Rae Anne taught a teacher workshop at Cape Canaveral. Through her association with the Challenger Learning Center in Colorado Springs, she “test-taught” and helped evaluate an 8th/9th grade Aerospace course. This spring, the developers invited her to attend their Kennedy Space Center seminar to provide input to others who also teach or are considering teaching the course.

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Rae Anne teaches science and Spanish at a small, rural school in Cotopaxi, Colorado, and got involved with the space science education programs at NASA Challenger Learning Centers in 2008. They have a variety of great educational programs for all ages and wonderful teacher resources that are standards-based and engaging.

She has so many great memories of Roeper, and had so many terrific teachers, but she gives special thanks go out to two science teachers who really inspired her while she was at Roeper — Judee Fish (chemistry) and Pete VandenBosch (physics and calculus).

1990s CLAIR BRANCH ’93 Clair has shifted gears from her work in Washington, DC, to teaching in the Midwest. She recently became an assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana in nuclear, plasma and radiological engineering. (See a brief glowing note at npre.illinois.edu.) Clair, her husband Michael and daughter Sophie moved into their house in Urbana in late summer.

DANA ACHESON ’98 In NYC, Dana began working for Samaritans, a crisis hotline organization, and that experience has inspired her to start working on a MSW at Hunter College.

2000s BEN HARWOOD ’01 Ben is doing very worthy work down in New Orleans as a founder of PUAP (People United for Armstrong Park). To get an idea of what this is all about please go to: http://www.kickstarter.com/ projects/2082250276/down-in-the-treme-jazz-inthe-park-live-album

nyregion/yale-memorial-project-commemoratesthose-lost-to-aids.html. In November, Chris was awarded an alumni service and volunteer award from Yale.

NATHAN JHAVERI ’01 Nathan was part of a two-man team that took the Grand Prize in the U.S. Energy Department’s “Apps for Energy” Competition. They won for developing an application they named Leafully that helps utility customers visualize the energy they consume in different ways, such as the number of trees needed to offset the amount of energy an individual uses.

PHRED BROWN ’03 DAN HIRSCHMAN ’02 University of Michigan Ph.D. student Dan Hirschman has received a prestigious NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant to assist with his dissertation research project. This grant, for $10,226, will help him execute his project entitled Inventing the Notion of the Economy.

Hirschman’s project is under the direction of Professor Greta Krippner.

AMY EWING ’02 Amy has spent the last year in Taiwan. She was there for a year to teach English, study Chinese, and work with a local church. She moved back to the US in November 2012 to return to her position as R&D engineer at a medical device company in northern Illinois.

CHRIS GLAZEK ’03 A July 4 New York Times article about Chris and his work in starting Yale’s AIDS Memorial can be read by going to http://www.nytimes. com/2012/07/05/

Phred Brown (far right, above) is still going strong as Musical Director for Bruno Mars! Their new album was released in December 2012, and they were the musical guests on Saturday Night Live the weekend of October 20, 2012, and a number of other TV and music award shows.

ALEX GOROSH ’03 Alex has been doing a lot of exciting things with media, technology and learning in the LA area.

He is spreading the good news about a new development in education. He has a video that he had about Aaron Sams, the pioneer of Flipped Learning. The video is now online at http://youtu. be/4a7NbUIr_iQ. Alex also has directed a powerful video about money in politics. It’s a project for Ben & Jerry’s about keeping money out of politics. Big Money Ballers: http://youtu.be/Gwq0FGZk0Ew.

DAVID KLOC ’04 Illustrator Dave Kloc was interviewed by Serial Optimist magazine. To read this hilarious article, please go to http://www.serialoptimist.com/ interviews/skulls-comedy-meet-illustrator-davekloc-9583.html#comments.

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SARAH PERNICK ’04

SHARA EVANS ’06

Sarah moved to Bellingham, Washington. She and brother Brian ’02* (former Roeper student) started a rafting company. The company is called Adventure Cascades. The website is www. adventurecascades.com.

Shara was thrilled to work this summer as an intern in the Israeli Ministry of Public Affairs under the Director of Pandemic Preparedness.

Sarah is also currently taking an EMT course and should be a registered EMT by December 2012 and ready to work on an ambulance and for the fire department.

From alumni parent and alumni staff member Mary O’Leary who lives in Washington state: Here’s a picture (below) I took it in August. It’s Patrick O’Leary ’05, Sarah Pernick ’04, and Erin O’Leary ’00. We went up north for white water rafting with Sarah’s and Brian’s company, Adventure Cascades.

JACOB HURWITZ-GOODMAN ’05 Jacob was recently awarded a “Detroit SOUP” award for his film Detroit Threat Management which premiered in late November 2012. http://www.modeldmedia.com/features/ detroitsoup1012.aspx

PHILLIP-MICHAEL SCALES ’05 On December 9, 2012, Phillip-Michael and his band Briar Rabbit gave an on-line concert on Stageit.com. To read more about Phillip-Michael’s Thought-Pop music, go to www.stageit.com/ Briar_Rabbit.

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NATE WILMERS ’06 Nathan Wilmers has been selected for the Presidential Scholar award as a PhD candidate in Sociology at Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Nate started at Roeper in kindergarten and attended through his 2006 graduation.

According to his parents (Stage III teacher Cathy and Brian, the school’s Owner Representative for architecture), Nate’s time engaging with Roeper’s philosophy and community led him to think about social problems and how to confront them.

As a student at the University of Chicago, Nate became involved in labor organizing, and in 2007 he spent a summer in Maseru, Lesotho, southern Africa, organizing workers with the Lesotho Clothing and Allied Workers Union. He also worked with the cafeteria workers on the UChicago campus, helping them win a large wage increase and an affordable health insurance option for single mothers. After earning his Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy with Honors from the University of Chicago, Nate worked as a field investigator at the National Labor Relations Board in Chicago, then as a researcher at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees in Washington, DC. He is currently working for the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) as a research analyst. His work there involves using workers’ pension assets to rein in executive compensation and improve corporate governance.

Thinking his work would be enhanced with a graduate degree, he applied to Harvard’s PhD program in Sociology. According to Harvard, the Presidential Award is offered to “… a small group of the most talented prospective students in the humanities and social sciences … bringing the most promising, creative and diverse group of students to Harvard to do their doctoral work.”

Nathan began his work at Harvard in September 2012. He plans to study economic sociology, with a focus on finance, labor and inequality.

Nate credits his teachers at Roeper for giving him the foundation in writing and critical thinking that has helped him in his work in Chicago and Washington, DC and now on to Cambridge.

COURTNEY SHUERT ’07

KATHRYN DENEROFF ’08

Courtney graduated from Michigan State University, Lyman Briggs College in May 2012, with Honors. She is currently doing her second internship at The Alaska Sealife Center in Seward, Alaska. She entered graduate school this fall at University of Alaska, Fairbanks to pursue a Master’s Degree in Marine Biology, specializing in Stellar Sea Lion Research.

Kathryn graduated from Bowdoin College with a BA degree, Cum Laude in Biology, and double major in Biology and Environmental Studies. She is now doing HIV research in the Microbiology and Immunology Department at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

TOM HICKEY ’08 NORA LEÓN ’07 Nora works as a full-time architect at a firm specializing in low-income housing. Here is a press release about an award she won:

Tom is helping nationally known researcher and educator Scott Page from the University of Michigan with an online class on modeling theory and practice. Please go to https://www.coursera. org/#course/modelthinking to check out this free class.

Detroit’s Canfield Social Yard Wins Contest A panel of national placemaking experts selected Detroit’s Canfield Social Yard project as the $2,000 grand prize winner of the Let’s Save Michigan “It’s About Place” contest. The contest, which started in May with online voting of 46 projects from 28 Michigan communities, concluded this week with a group of judges selecting four projects to receive a share of $4,000 in prize money.

The money is to be used to implement the projects, said Sarah Szurpicki, the contest’s project coordinator. A $1,000 second-place prize was awarded to The Fat Garden Project in Muskegon; and two $500 runner-up prizes went to Innovation Square project in Detroit and the Old Hartland High School Project in Hartland.

Nora León, of the Canfield Social Yard project, was ecstatic about winning the contest. The Canfield Social Yard project seeks to raise awareness of the west Woodbridge area in Detroit and foster a culture of neighborhood and civic engagement by programming a vacant lot with entertainment and educational events that support existing community efforts and encourage new projects.

“We are beyond excited about winning the Let’s Save Michigan It’s About Place competition,” León said. “It is a tremendous honor, and we can’t wait to get our hands dirty and bring Canfield Social Yard to life. We think the project has the potential to become a great asset for the Woodbridge community.”

DAVID LAUER ’08 (above) David and his partner from Movement For Peace drove from Ann Arbor to New York City to help with disaster relief after Hurricane Sandy.

They set up a kitchen that served food and hot beverages for more than 800 people a day, around the clock. Please read a local CBS TV report at http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2012/11/08/ sandys-devastation-on-staten-island-promptshelp-from-volunteers-near-and-far/ and the NBC website report http://photoblog.nbcnews.com/_ news/2012/11/08/15023558-bringing-cheer-andhot-meals-to-sandy-victims-in-staten-island. (Good move having a photo of a Roeper jacket shown in a major media market!)

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2010s

ADELA JAFFE ’09 Adela (Yale ’13) was the director of Chekov’s Seagull which opened in October, 2012 in New Haven. Please go to www.yaledailynews.com for more of the story.

AMY LACOUNT ’09 Amy founded Brown’s first feminist publication with two other girls in the spring of 2012, because they felt that a gender-aware creative voice was missing from their campus. To publish their first issue, they launched a successful kick-starter campaign that reached its goal on November 14. to read about the project, go to http:// www.kickstarter.com/projects/1848604913/ bluestockings-magazine.

EMI RUFF-WILKINSON ’09 Emi, who was the Service VP last fall for her chapter of APO, a co-ed national service fraternity, organized an instant blood drive with another APO brother at American University after Hurricane Sandy. Within three days, they booked the drive, lined up the space, publicized it and filled every appointment slot. They collected more than 40 units of blood, as well as cash and food donations.

RACHEL RATCHFORD ’09 Rachel who attends Brown will be interning in the office of the Elizabeth Roberts, Lt. Governor of Rhode Island, in matters of health policy.

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CACHET COLVARD ’11 Cachet has been accepted in the prestigious Global Scholars Program at the University of Michigan. According to a release from the university, the Global Scholars Program (GSP) prepares sophomore, junior and senior students to be interculturally competent global citizens, champions for meaningful change, and innovative leaders of tomorrow. GSP is an academically supported living/learning community that provides students the opportunity to engage with both U.S. and international students on campus and around the world. They learn about global issues from multiple cultural perspectives. Also, coursework and collaborative projects assist students as they begin to develop and hone their intercultural communication skills. Finally, Global Scholars residents are encouraged to study, intern or work abroad to reap the full rewards of the program — learning from intercultural experiences and engaging with the world.

RUTH LANE ’12 You can follow Ruthie around the world during her gap year via her blog: http://www.woofruthlane. blogspot.com/. F

KIT WEDDINGS

Emily Snyder Lindblom ’99 & Chad Laidlaw were married

28 JuLY 2012 The wedding and reception were held at MSU’s Tollgate Center. alison rogers napolean ’99 was matron of honor.

Danielle Seikaly ’99 & Raymond Karle WERE WED

13 October 2012 Roeper alumnus Brian Eschbach ’01 was in attendance.

Adam Abraham ’02 Megan Killian

danielle and raymond make their home in ferndale, michigan

married

25 SeptEMBER 2012

Heather Joy Thompson ’95 Edward Burke married

25 September 2012

at the home of heather’s aunt dot in ellenwood, georgia

erika mcphail west ’96 was heather’s maid of honor and alexandra sims ’06 was a hostess. other roeper folks in attendance were heather’s parents, of course, gerald and margaret thompson, peter and nancy badore, glenn sims and denita banks-sims, and chazara clark-smith ’94.

The New York Times wrote a piece on the event. www.nytimes.com/2012/09/30/fashion/ weddings/heather-thompsonand-edward-burke-vows.html? _ r=1&ref=weddings

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KIT

BABIES! BABIES! AND MORE BABIES!

Nicole Knibbe Chinigo ’96 & Gary Chinigo welcomed a son

October 10, 2011

Sawyer Christopher Chinigo

7 lbs 12 oz . 21” long Kelli Knibbe Diem ’92 is her aunt

Elizabeth Windram Laraki ’96 & Othman Laraki welcomed their son

Kamal Lucas Laraki November 29,2012 Everyone is doing well, including grandparents Mary & Garry Windram

Tim Rosser ’91 & Dana Tokioka welcomed baby girl

Mia Hanako Rosser May 18, 2012 7 lbs 6 ounces . 21” Mia’s Grandmother is former M/US Librarian Faye Rosser, and Alex Rosser ’89 is her uncle

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Rafael Corwin Mendez was born at home

December 3, 2012 12:42 pm 8lbs 10oz . 20” ¡Enhorabuena!

Sara Puzey Mendez ’96 y Luis Mendez y Abuela Linda Vernon y Tío Alex Puzey ’05

Kelly Kirker ’93* & Ben Luchsinger welcomed baby boy

DYLAN JAMES LUCHSINGER September 9, 2012 5:02pm 3 lbs 15.1 oz . 16¼” Former LS Teacher Gayle Kirker is the proud Grandma

One-year-old

Maia Carman (Karen Roeper’s granddaughter) proudly sports her

new Roeper bib

Susannah Harwell Hegarty ’92 & Jamie Hegarty added twin daughters to their family

Bridget Mae & Tessa Brynn 6 lbs 15 oz 6 lbs 12 oz December 21, 2012 They are held here by big sisters Charlotte (3) & Nora (6)

CONGRATS TO ALL!

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KIT

ALUMNI REUNION GALLERY welcome to ANN ARBOR Wednesday August 29, 2012 Hosted by

Shara Evans Ann Arbor

Seated: Science Teacher Linda Pence, Alumni Relations Coordinator Emery Pence.

Standing (L to R): Cat Spevak ’11, Sarah Ewing ’07, Photo Teacher Michelle Stamler, Ben Oztalay ’11, Amy Ewing ’02, Head of School David Feldman, Shara Evans ’04, Aaron Frantz ’09, Kassie Parrott ’07, Elane Feldman, Daniel Rubin ’00, Devin Rocco ’10, Melissa Golden ’11, Michael White ’11, Derek Rocco ’11, Tina Krysinski ’09, David Lauer ’08, Star Fall ’09, Brian Ziegler ’04, Elisabeth Lawrence ’00 and her daughter Matilda ’??

BARNES & NOBLE BOOK FAIR Thursday August 16, 2012 West Bloomfield

(L to R) Are You My Guru?: How Medicine, Meditation and Madonna Saved My Life and The Fat Girl’s Guide to Life author and “honorary alum” Wendy Shanker, Brian O’Connor ’78 and Susan Shapiro ’77 each read from their own writings to entertain the crowd and close the all-day Barnes & Noble Book Fair benefit. Funds raised were used to purchase books for The Children’s Library on the Bloomfield campus.

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SEATTLE GATHERING Friday March 2, 2012 Hosted by

The Edgertons Row 1: Head of School David Feldman introduces himself to the crowd.

Nina Edgerton’s partner Terry Hannan, Nathan Jhaveri ’02 Chris Ramirez ’80 (background), John Madziarczyk ’98, and Nina Edgerton ’83.

Row 2: Todd Haak ’81 and Eric Edgerton ’80.

Upper School Director Lisa Baker, Jim Adams ’74 and his wife Patti Barila-Wilmot.

Row 3: Alex Youells ’98 and Erin Orr ’98.

Our hosts, four of the five Edgertons, parents (left) — former Roeper Physics Teacher Bob and Elizabeth, and alumni (right) Eric ’80 and Nina ’83. (Not in attendance, Sylvia ’86.)

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THANKSGIVING REUNION Saturday November 24 2012 B’ham Campus An Afternoon of 6-Square, Basketball, Food & Friends

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1. Ben Oztalay ’11, Cat Spevak ’12, Sydney Schaefer ’12. 2. Amit Khandhadia ’12, Blane Rucker ’12*, Aaron Appel ’12, Derek Rocco ’12. 3. Matt Verbaan ’90. 4. Eric Peterson ’95, Nathan Pitser ’96. 5. Former Science Teacher Sandy Shoshani, David Lauer ’08 (background) Kathryn Sadlowski (Ted’s fiancée) and Ted Hoag ’89. 6. A.J. LoCicero ’82. 7. Rich Bjornson ’92, Jennifer Rhora ’93. 8. Claire ’08 and Isabelle ’10 Stamler-Goody. 9. Dan Hirschman ’02, Ryan Richardson (Rachel’s partner) and Rachel Feldman ’03, Max Milstein ’02. 10. Retired Physics Teacher Dennis King and Joe Golden ’03. 11. Victoria Moore ’08, Christine Curry ’05. 12. David Golden ’06, Kevin Chen ’02.

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KIT

Denita Banks-Sims

Director of Development

PARTING THOUGHTS Dear Friends — We have learned that transformative gifts can come in many guises, and this year has presented a cluster of moving and remarkable iterations of generosity. The breadth of generosity includes: •

… this year has presented a cluster of moving and remarkable iterations of generosity.

A resolute and inspiring “Student Annual Fund Campaign”… led by our Board of Trustee Student Representatives, Tom Allen ’13 and Alyssa Flynn ’14, and nurtured by Alumni Relations Coordinator Emery Pence, this historic effort raised over $1,300 and set the pace for constituency participation in the Middle/Upper School student body at 83%.

In fact, a community member was so impressed with the student initiative and ambition to reaffirm the tradition of stewardship at Roeper, that they matched each student gift — dollar for dollar!

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Two transformative contributions come from the inimitable Roeper alumni from the ‘80’s!

The $10,000 Annual Fund Challenge Grant from Frank Crosby, Class of 1985, has helped move the campaign to new heights and added a bounty of new donors to our giving rolls.

The other remarkable influence has been the establishment of the ‘80s Club. Their individual and collective support — born out of a great decade reunion — created and launched the Roeper Alumni Service Corps, as well as a unique, largely digital Annual Fund Giving Drive.

Kudos to the leadership team of Jenny Hansell ’82, Brad Rourke ’83 and Pam Victor ’84, who noted …

We successfully surpassed previous numbers for participation and dollar amount raised across the board! And we exceeded our $10,000 fundraising goal! I always will wish that more people contributed … but I am grateful for the people who stepped up — for the guy who is unemployed and financially strapped, but gave $5 in order to support his class. And the alum who kept donating a little every day for quite a while, even though she knew it didn’t earn any points. Just because it felt like an act of solidarity. And, of course, our Julie Gillikin, who worked through all sorts of extremely difficult conditions, and never once ceased to provide a requested report or uttered a peep of complaint. These are the real heroes of this story. The ones for whom I am most grateful.

Hailed as ”survivors” on the final day of RASC 2012, (L to R) Stephanie Johnson, Pam’s kids Sierra and Jake Hausthor, Christy Dunn Cohen ’94, Focus: HOPE’s Barbara Green and Pam Victor ’84.

In grand and often uncelebrated ways, The Roeper School benefits from transformative gestures of generosity. Thanks to all for continuing to believe … and for investing in our current and future students!

Yours,

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NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION

THE ROEPER SCHOOL

U.S. POSTAGE

Paid PERMIT NO. 16 BLOOMFIELD HILLS, MI 48304

41190 WOODWARD AVENUE BLOOMFIELD HILLS • MI 48304-5020

return service requested

THE AUCTION FOR ROEPER

Save th e

Date!!

Join Us for an Evening of Fiesta-inspired Fun! Live Auction, Silent Auction and Exceptional Dining!

Saturday, MARCH 16, 2013 DETROIT ATHLETIC CLUB To donate items for auction, become an auction sponsor or volunteer, please contact Aimee LaLonde-Norman, DEVELOPMENT OFFICER AIMEE.LALONDE-NORMAN@roeper.org or 248.203.7359

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