Crossroads - Spring and Summer 2015

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crossroads a Mg Al Si P S Cl A Issue 29

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Inside this issue:

r Kr Rb Sr Y Zr Nb M Alumni pursuing Their passions PAGE 4

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also InsidE:

Inaugural Robson scholarship recipients

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1, 20 n May o y a D n o i rated their fu ture plans on Declarat

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crossroads Administration Dan Frank, Head of School Lisa Dwelle, Associate Head of School for Finance and Operations Carol Moore, Director of Upper School

highlights

elements 4 InMeettheir alumni who are pursuing their career passions

Susan Atkinson, Director of Middle School Melanie Casper, Director of Lower School Nancy Negus, Director of Curriculum and Professional Development JK-12 Publication Staff Lori Jobe, Editor Sydney Smith, Managing Editor Stan Hulen, Designer Kristina Kerns, Interactive Features Editor Elaina Brennan, Garrett Compton, Dan Frank, Bruce Hammond, Lori Jobe, Wally O’Brien, Susie Scott, Sydney Smith, Contributing Writers Bonnie Anderson, James Chance, Ashly Covington, Betty Enright, Donna Gocha, Katy Groff, Rebecca Groves, Bridget Hazel, Douglas Hinckley, Kristina Kerns, Samantha Mier, Jay Paul, Jerry Sheikh-Yassin, Sydney Smith, Ann-Marie Trepp, Jenny Walsh, Paul Zoeller, Contributing Photographers

Robson 13 Inaugural Scholarship Celebrating Debbie Robson’s legacy

Goodpasture 20 Gracie “Look Who’s Talking” with the NSTA Angela Award winner

innovators 30 Visiting The Bryan Innovation Lab hosted experts from Nike and Health Warrior

Hall of Fame 42 Athletic The first class of Spartans was inducted in January

Printing Worth Higgins & Associates, Inc. The Steward School admits students without regard to gender, race, color, religion, or national or ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school.

The editors have made every attempt to ensure the accuracy of information reported in this publication. We apologize for any inadvertent errors.

The Steward School’s Mission:

Prepare our students for college and for life in a community defined by robust academics, inspiration, engagement, and care.

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headlines campusculture teamtalk spartanliving alumninews

STEWARD WEBSITE www.stewardschool.org

SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS www.facebook.com/TheStewardSchool www.twitter.com/stewardschool www.pinterest.com/steward/RVA instagram.com/thestewardschool View this issue and past issues on Issuu.com: keyword The Steward School or download the app for the ipad at the App Store.

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Na Mg Al Entrepreneur and Apple, Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs once said, “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.”

The idiom

“in one’s element” is defined as being in an environment naturally suited to or associated with doing what one enjoys.

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In their Kelements Ca Sc

By Sy d n e y S m i t h

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Co Ni Cu The alumni on these pages have combined

these two thoughts to put their talents into practice in the professional world. Each has taken his or her true interests— from racing bikes and horses to international politics and style to curating masterpieces in art, food, and beer—and channeled them into customized careers. They are excellent spokesmen and women for Steward’s quest to encourage the pursuit of passions and excellence.

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Lainey Ashker ’02

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Professional Equestrian

Background: You could say that Lainey Ashker has always been driven by horsepower. Her mother, Valerie, rode in championship horse trials during the seventh month of her pregnancy, making Ms. Ashker an equestrian since before her birth. She is a California transplant who moved to Virginia at age 13. She was seriously into riding at that point and attended Steward because the school coordinated her schedule around extended absences for equestrian pursuits. “I kept up with my studies and was always on the honor roll, and I’m so thankful that Steward was supportive of my riding endeavors,” she says. She began riding professionally at age 18 while a student at UVA, where she was on the Dean’s List and kept five horses.

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c Ti V Cr Her near-death experience and recovery: In April 2008, Ms. Ashker was in a traumatic accident that landed her in the hospital for three months, much of that time on life support. According to the New York Times, her horse, Frodo Baggins, somersaulted over a fence at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, the nation’s premier eventing competition.

The horse had to be euthanized, and Ms. Ashker sustained a broken jaw, broken collar bone, multiple fractured ribs, and collapsed lungs. As a result, she faced an incredible amount of media attention about the dangers of eventing, which is best described as an equestrian triathlon that includes dressage, cross-country, and show jumping. “The public scrutiny broke my heart,” she says. Exactly two years after the accident, Ms. Ashker competed at the Rolex event again and finished eighth in the world, making it the most pivotal moment of her career and biggest accomplishment of her life. “It set me on the path to where I am now and made me a better rider and horse person,” she says.

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The public scrutiny broke my “ heart. It set me on the path to where I am now and made me a better rider and horse person. ”

U.S. in the Junior Olympics—winning the silver medal twice and the bronze medal three times—as well as participating in the Hong Kong test event prior to the 2008 Olympics, Ms. Ashker has her sights set on the 2016 games in Rio de Janiero. She has won several impressive titles in the last few years, including the American Eventing Championships Gold Cup in 2013 and reserve champion in 2012 and 2014. “Eventing is the only Olympic sport where men and women compete on equal playing fields,” she says. “The prime age for riders is upper thirties and forties. Understanding horses is not something you can do at a young age, so at 31, I’m headed toward my prime years.”

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Never-ending determination: Ms. Ashker divides her time between Virginia and Ocala, Florida, where she trains.

When she’s not showing horses, she’s on the road teaching clinics, working with clients’ horses, and assisting her mother with Crow’s Ear Farm, a Thoroughbredbreeding business. Beyond the training, her efforts are focused on obtaining more funding and on her business, Laine Ashker Eventing. She credits the horses for her strong sense of responsibility from a young age—“When you are that involved [in an activity], you learn really quickly what your priorities are.”

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u Zn Ga Ge Eyes on the Olympics: Having qualified for the Olympic training list four times and having represented the

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Jenny McComas ’95

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Art historians “ 37draw upon other

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Co Ni Cu Art Historian/Museum Curator

Background: As a child in Richmond, Jenny McComas was introduced to the art world by her parents, who frequently took her to museums, and she became familiar with the collection at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. As a student at the College of Wooster in Ohio, she planned to major in theatre until she took an art history class with “one of those professors who was incredibly inspiring and insightful.” She says she loves that art history “is not just about styles and dates. Art historians draw upon other disciplines—religion, politics, history—to understand the roles visual art has played in human cultures.”

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The beginnings of a career in art history: The College of Wooster offered a unique senior independent study program, in which every student was required to research and write an in-depth thesis, and Dr. McComas says that this process introduced her to academic research and writing and prepared her for what was to come. Following graduation, she moved to New York City and worked in the commercial side of the art world as an image researcher at Art Resource. There, she dealt with the licensing of artwork for books and media productions. “That job is probably obsolete now,” she says, “because there are so many more online visual resources.”

Br Kr Rb The right place at the right time: Knowing she wanted to enter the museum world, Dr. McComas applied to graduate school. Though she was tempted to stay in New York, she chose Indiana University— whose art museum is home to a collection of more than 40,000 works—because she was offered a fellowship that covered her tuition. In 2001, she left New York just weeks before 9/11 and headed to Indiana, ultimately earning her master’s degree and Ph.D. while working at the museum.

The fellowship allowed Dr. McComas to work as the assistant to the curator for 19th century through contemporary art, an endowed position that became vacant shortly thereafter. The museum did not refill the post until 2004, and she was hired even though she was only in the second year of the doctoral program. She

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disciplines – religion, politics, history – to understand the roles visual art has played in human cultures.

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completed her doctorate in 2014, having spent a decade balancing it with full-time museum work; in fact, she connected her dissertation on German Expressionism with her professional interests.

place. Her own museum returned a painting to a museum in Berlin upon the discovery that it had been taken by a British soldier at the end of the war; it had been donated to IU’s collection in the mid-1980s. Among her favorite pieces at IU is the 1938 mural Swing Landscape by American painter Stuart Davis, about whom Dr. McComas is hoping to build an exhibition in the next few years, a project she hopes will be of interest to specialists in American art as well as the broader public.

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Her future as a curator: As a curator focusing on European and American art of the last 200 years, Dr. McComas has conducted extensive research on works that could have been looted from European collections during World War II, the subject of the 2014 movie The Monuments Men. In her opinion, the film was not very accurate, but it did give a sense of the widespread looting—both calculated and accidental—that took

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Lee Kallman ’91

Zn Ga Ge Marketing and Business Development for UCI Road World Championships—Richmond 2015

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Background: After graduating from Radford in 1995, Lee Kallman moved to Atlanta.

“Richmond was buried in the past, and the job that I wanted didn’t exist here,” he says. At the time, Atlanta was gearing up for the 1996 Olympics, and there was considerable work to be found in sports-related events.

“I raced bikes, but I was never any good,” he says. “It didn’t take long to realize that it was not going to be my calling…I might have had the passion for it, but I didn’t have the genes.” Mr. Kallman worked in an advertising agency and claims that it was fantastic training for anything else he has done in his career.

“The communications part is a skill—you don’t have to know everything about the product.

Agencies aren’t for everybody, but I probably got the equivalent of ten years of experience in a short amount of time. It helped me hone in on more of what I wanted to do,” he says. He also gained experience working in the soccer world during the 1999 Women’s World Cup, when Mia Hamm and Brandi Chastain were household names.

2010, and Mr. Kallman became involved in early 2011; Richmond was awarded the bid that September. “Eventually it became clear that this would happen,” Mr. Kallman says. “The infrastructure was in place, and Richmond is the right size for this event.”

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The significance of the UCI event: Since 1921, the UCI Road World Championships have typically been held in Europe; the last time the race took place in the United States was 1986 in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

“We hope Richmond will be known as the cycling capital of the U.S. after this race,” Mr. Kallman says. “It’s been a catalyst for transformational change.

This is like the Super Bowl around the world.” As soon as the winning bid was announced, the city hired a bike and pedestrian coordinator, which jumpstarted the initiative, Mr. Kallman says.

He is one of eight people who comprise the main staff for the event, and they are all aware of the importance the race will bring to the region. “That’s why we’re doing this….This event is bigger than any one thing—there are not a lot of [events] here that have had this many key stakeholders—not just Richmond concerns, but the global piece.” For example, the start and end times of the races have been major considerations. They typically conclude at 4 or 5 p.m., and when the event has been hosted in Europe, that’s morning or lunchtime in the U.S. However, with a mid-afternoon concluding time on the East Coast, it will be prime time for viewing in Europe.

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Returning to Richmond: Mr. Kallman became interested in returning to Richmond when a friend moved here from Washington, D.C. “I’d come visit, and I noticed there was something different going on—the mindset, the attitudes, the culture,” he says. “Five or ten years before, there was zero chance [that Richmond could host the UCI event], but Richmond is a different place than it was in 1995.” He officially returned in 2006 and eventually heard a rumor that the city was submitting a bid to host the 2015 UCI Road World Championships. The plan was getting off the ground in mid-

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Pd Ag Cd of experience in a short amount of time.

It helped me hone in on more of what I wanted to do.

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His future plans: What will Mr. Kallman do once the UCI race is part of Richmond’s history this fall? “I’m available,” he says with a smile. “If we do what we’re supposed to do with the race, the opportunities should be there.”

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Joanne Konstantinakos ’90

g Al Si P Magazines/Digital Media/Entrepreneur

Background: Joanne Konstantinakos is a true Spartan—her father was born and raised in Sparta, Greece—who has known since she was a little girl that she was destined to work in media relations.

She wanted to be a reporter until she did an internship with a local television station during high school and realized that the crazy hours were not the path she wanted to follow. After graduation from VCU, she moved to New York City for a position with Conde Nast Traveler magazine, “the best travel magazine in the world,” she says.

From there, she held other magazine positions with international inflight publications and Business Traveler, where she was an associate publisher and traveled around the globe an average of two times a month. She says, “That was a pivotal experience for me because it made me super independent. I had to figure out how to travel alone.”

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a Sc Ti V It was scary to walk away from a great “ salary and a world where I knew everything...

I am now a big fan of lifelong learning. ”

The challenges of moving from print to digital: Moving on again, Ms. Konstantinakos became a publisher of Bene Italian Life & Style, collaborating with famed chef Mario Batali and his team and combining her loves of food, culture, fashion, and design. From there, she went to Saveur, a culinary travel magazine, a position she left in the late 2000s when the economy went south.

At that point, she says she realized she needed to leave the print publishing industry and move toward digital media.

“I was getting out of the magazine world in my late 30s, which was a really hard thing to do. It was scary to walk away from a great salary and a world where I knew everything. I could have stayed and

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found a mediocre job and taken classes while I was secure, but I didn’t….I am now a big fan of lifelong learning.” She says she spent a considerable amount of money on digital, technology, and design classes, which helped her bridge the gap between magazines and mobile and social media.

This period was a major turning point for Ms. Konstantinakos: “I don’t want to paint a picture that it’s all been perfect. Life is full of ups and downs, and when you’re down, it’s scary, but you have to believe, create a plan, and push through.”

year she founded Reel Destinations, an online magazine that combines film, travel, fashion, food, music, art, and architecture.

Ms. Konstantinakos regularly interviews trailblazers in those industries for the series “A Tastemaker’s Take.” For example, she has featured Sanne Ytting, the owner of the only Danish restaurant in New York City; celebrity jewelry designer Erika Peňa; and Diane von Furstenberg’s personal chef, Jane Coxwell. “I’m creating content in one job and helping content creators in the other,” she says of her dual roles.

Combining her talents: Putting her newly acquired skills to use, Ms. Konstantinakos is now the vice president of sales at Rapt Media, a start-up, interactive video company that gives users in-depth, “leanin rather than lean-back experiences. It offers great storytelling and big data,” she says. Rapt Media’s campaigns have included Maybelline, Beneful, and Philips, and each video is designed to entertain and inform. In addition to that role, last

Entrepreneurship from an early age: For someone who has continually reinvented her profession, it should come as no surprise that Ms. Konstantinakos designed the dress for her Steward graduation in 1990…and that she sold the design three times in three years afterward. “I probably made $1,000 on that dress!” she says.

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Edmund Rhoads ’91

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P S Cl A International Politics and Business

Background: When Edmund Rhoads was in high school, he was a devoted student of Norva Meyer, who taught world history and served as the Model UN sponsor. Young Mr. Rhoads was hooked on world events and fascinated with glasnost and the coming fall of the Soviet Union. He was so internationally minded that after he took all of the French, Spanish, and Latin courses available at Steward, Headmaster Paul Cramer made arrangements for him to take French at VCU; at the time, he was the youngest student VCU had ever enrolled in a class. Mr. Rhoads double majored in international relations and Russian language at Bucknell University, further intensifying his interests in global studies.

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Agency for International Development (USAID), as well as the British and Swedish governments, depending on the project.

His NDI job responsibilities included advising governments, political parties, and nonprofit organizations in Eastern Europe and Eurasia on conducting effective outreach to citizens; advising the president of Romania’s office on how to develop new political management systems; conducting public opinion research on attitudes toward the government in Serbia, Georgia, and Armenia; and monitoring elections abroad and giving advice on adherence to international standards for democratic elections. On American soil, Mr. Rhoads assisted with visits from high-level foreign officials who met with members of the U.S. government, including several presidents.

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and membership in NATO. Mr. Rhoads evacuated Georgian personnel to Armenia and helped political leaders reach out to western countries for support. After the war, he facilitated a delegation of toplevel Georgian leaders at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, where he participated in meetings with members of Congress, major media outlets, Ambassador Susan Rice, Governor Howard Dean, and Joe Biden and Barack Obama, who were nominees for their current offices at the time. As a result, Georgia and Russia became a focus of foreign policy debate during the presidential campaign.

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V Cr Mn F Developing a global career: Mr. Rhoads began his international career in Washington, D.C. at National Democratic Institute (NDI), a quasi-governmental group focused on strengthening political processes and governments around the world. His work was funded by the U.S.

Working with international leaders: At NDI, Mr. Rhoads often found himself in the middle of unusual circumstances. For example, in August 2008, Russia invaded Georgia, its southern neighbor, which was seeking integration with the west

Moving from international relations to the politics of business: When he chose to leave NDI for his current position at Kreab, Mr. Rhoads knew he could put his international experience to continued use where business meets politics. His primary responsibilities involve figuring out the risks of and opportunities for maintaining and expanding business in the developing world. Kreab is based in Stockholm, Sweden, and Mr. Rhoads has been impressed with the progressive views of the Swedish government.

Whereas “the U.S. government tries to tackle the whole range of global issues, the Swedes have the luxury of trying not to do everything. They choose where they can be competitive and make a difference by focusing on just those issues. They do an excellent job of looking at the forests and not getting distracted by the trees,” he says. “It’s very refreshing for me.”

The “ Swedes do

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an excellent job of looking at the forests and not getting distracted by the trees. It’s very refreshing for me.

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John Knorr ’89

Al Si P Restaurant and Craft Brewery Proprietor

I still use “ the basic

concepts from that class with my managers and the leadership skills I learned from Paul Cramer.

I take a piece of Steward with me every day.

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Background: After graduating from Maryland’s Washington College in 1993, John Knorr began his career with Phillips Seafood Restaurants in operations, working his way to senior vice president for U.S. operations and sales. During this time, he and his brother, Tom (above left), bought a Maryland landmark restaurant— the Red Roost in rural Whitehaven— where they made improvements to the building and the menu, ensuring that it remained a favorite for locals and tourists.

Throughout the next decade, they developed a number of other restaurants and established Southern Boys Concepts as the parent company of their dining group. In 2009, they ventured into the craft beer craze with Evolution Craft Brewing Company, which has become the focus of their collective energy. Their beer is now one of the most highly-rated beers in the industry and is distributed between New Jersey and Virginia.

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brothers concentrated on brews that would pair well with the foods being created in their restaurant kitchens. “We would have been thrilled to produce enough beer just for our own restaurants,…but it took off like crazy,” Mr. Knorr says. In 2012, they moved into a brewing facility in downtown Salisbury, which not only expanded their brewing and distribution capabilities, but also allowed them to open another restaurant, Evolution Public House. In addition to the brewery, their total number of restaurants is now nine—five on the Eastern Shore and four in Baltimore.

The biggest challenge of the restaurant business: “Why do you go back to a restaurant?” Mr. Knorr asks.

“Great food, of course, but also because you get great service. Finding the right people for our [restaurants’] culture to keep them family-oriented” is his biggest challenge. “It used to be that we’d know every server, dishwasher, and cook, but now that we’ve grown, I really rely on my managers,” he says.

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What’s next? In addition to becoming a strong regional leader in the beer industry, the Knorr brothers plan to expand their family’s restaurant business to their Richmond roots this year. They hope to open a third location of Birroteca, a rustic Italian eatery, sometime in 2015. In addition, look for Evolution beer at a future Steward alumni event.

Cu Zn Ga G On opening a brewery: When they first jumped into the beer business, the Knorr

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Lessons from growing up in Richmond: The inspiration for the company title, Southern Boys, came from being raised in a culture of southern hospitality—”manners were a must growing up at home,” he says, and Mr. Knorr credits part of his success to one of his classes at Steward. “I loved economics with Carolyn Brandt,” Mr. Knorr says. “I still use the basic concepts from that class with my managers and the leadership skills I learned from Paul Cramer. I take a piece of Steward with me every day.”

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Alumni to watch

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S Cl Ar Keep your eyes on these movers and shakers in their industries:

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n Adjehi Baru ’11, a 6’9” forward on the College of Charleston’s basketball team, holds the distinction of bringing down more than 900 rebounds (the third most in the school’s Division I history) and scoring more than 1,000 points during his time as a Cougar, a fact made more significant because the team has had four different head coaches in four years.

Upon graduation, Mr. Baru hopes to play professional basketball in the U.S. or abroad. His story is profiled in the spring 2015 issue of the College of Charleston Magazine (magazine.cofc.edu). Photo: Paul Zoeller/Staff of The Post and Courier

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n Catherine Bouldin Emery ’93 and her husband, John Tayloe Emery, are the tenth generation of the Tayloe family to own the 1,400acre estate known as Mount Airy Plantation in Richmond County, Virginia, on the Rappahannock River. The Emerys have spent the last few years restoring the 1758 home, which was featured in a recent issue of Virginia Living and is being documented in a television series.

n A Steward alumnus as of June 1, 2015, Nic Enright’s name has appeared on multiple lists of MLB prospects.

His record as a premier pitcher speaks for itself, so whether he plays for the Virginia Tech Hokies for the next four years or is drafted by a major league team, baseball fans no doubt will be hearing his name for years to come.

n Michael Congdon ’00 is a Grammy Award-winning music producer and engineer whose list of industry credits includes working with singers Chris Brown and Trey Songz, as series producer on the television series “Hannah Help Me,” as executive producer of the feature film Border Town, and as senior music producer on the upcoming feature film Shooting the Prodigal.

He manages the Richmond-based musical duo known as McBeth, whose song “The Rest of Time” went to #1 on the Taiwanese charts with Cantonese artist Jacky Cheung in December 2014.

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n Parke Rhoads ’95 has just concluded his post as the chief technology architect at the United Nations Headquarters; in September 2014, his work was part of an outdoor multimedia presentation called “IllUmiNations: Protecting Our Planet” on First Avenue in New York City, a project he will present at a TED conference in the fall.

He has returned full-time as principal of Vantage Technology Consulting Group, his design, engineering, and strategic consulting firm in Boston. Vantage provides guidance in planning and engineering for technologyrich environments, particularly for highereducation classrooms, research facilities, and commercial broadcast/entertainment.

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Cherishing a legacy

Inaugural recipients of the Debbie Robson Merit Scholarship, Aayush Lalwaney and Morgan King

Debbie Robson

I should not presume that everyone reading this magazine is familiar with Debbie Robson and what she meant to the school. Debbie was vibrant in every way you can imagine: full of energy and empathy, articulate and determined, playful and purposeful. When I became the interim head of school in the late fall of 2013, she was the director of institutional advancement. Pretty fancy title, you say, but what does it mean? In Debbie’s world, it meant making friends with everyone, helping me to meet as many people as possible, and fiercely protecting Steward’s future. One of my favorite things about her was that when she was moved by a story, she would say “wow” in a way that only she could.

When Debbie passed away unexpectedly in September, it was the greatest shock of my life and a day I will never forget. At that low point, I had to remind myself of what is most important, to be thankful for everything I have, to stand tall in the face of adversity, and most of all, to work with the Steward family in coming together as a community. The outpouring of love and support at that difficult time was amazing—if you need to understand what it means to be part of a community that supports and cares for one another, look no further. That we all came together so profoundly is, I believe, the greatest tribute we could have paid Debbie and the finest way in which to keep her dreams alive.

This past March, I had the honor of recognizing the inaugural recipients of the Debbie Robson Merit Scholarship, two full scholarships for four years of Upper School. This, again, was a day I’ll never forget. Although the impetus was very different, the reasons are much the same. The outpouring of gratitude for the school and what it has to offer, the number and quality of the candidates, the generosity of the donors who have made this scholarship possible, and the acclaim with which the recipients have been received again define us as a community truly marked by inspiration, engagement, and care.

In the moments I’ve described here, the background has been pushed to the forefront, the invisible made visible. In the pell mell of our busy lives, we sometimes forget the choices we are making. Every day, we choose to bring our best selves, to care for one another, and to lead. When I think of forty-plus years of alumni, several of whom are profiled in this issue, and the connections they formed in their high school years here, I am overwhelmed by the extent of our reach. The Steward School is a community united, and I am inspired by it every day in the ways that we care for and believe in one another. Here’s to Debbie—to her memory and to what she has helped us learn about ourselves. Wow!

Dan Frank Head of School

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Recipients of the Debbie Robson Merit Scholarship The setting of Pancakes for a Purpose was the perfect place to announce the two inaugural recipients of the Debbie Robson Merit Scholarship, Aayush Lalwaney and Morgan King. Both students will be ninth graders at Steward in the fall of 2015 and will receive four years of full tuition in the Upper School. They were chosen from a competitive pool of 38 applicants.

$5,000, 850 pancakes, and 350 people – WOW! A new school-wide event, the first annual Debbie Robson Pancakes for a Purpose, took place on a glorious Saturday in March to bring the Steward community together in celebration of Mrs. Robson’s legacy. Her family joined the party, which included breakfast served by Steward faculty and staff members, music, the spring athletic tournament, and family-friendly outdoor fun for all ages. Through t-shirt sales and donations, $5,000 was raised for the Debbie Robson Merit Scholarship.

“The idea for the breakfast was a collaborative effort from parents and trustees Ann-Marie

Trepp and Larry French, along with [Director of Admissions] Robin Oliff and the Robson family.

Once the idea took shape, a devoted committee worked to bring the event to life. It was great to see so many families and friends enjoy the camaraderie of the breakfast, then cheer on the Spartans at one of Debbie’s favorite events, the Steward Invitational,” said Director of Development Maggie Hoak. Members of the committee included Ms. Hoak, Ms. Oliff, Mrs. Trepp, Ashton Harris, Beth Farmer, Kristina Kerns, Corbin Orgain, Louise Robertson, Stephanie Bowlin, Lisa Dwelle, Jane Carter, Laura Thomson, and Cary Jamieson.

Aayush is currently an eighth grader in the International Baccalaureate program at George H. Moody Middle School, where he participates in the band, on the tennis team, and in the Moody Law Club. He was selected for the District Band, playing 15th chair clarinet, and he enjoys theatre, ping pong, piano, and cooking.

His community involvement has included collecting trash in a park, dancing traditional folk dances at the Indian Festival, and running in the St. Jude marathon and Relay for Life, a cause that hit him close to home during his mother’s cancer treatment.

Morgan is a Steward eighth grader and has been at the school since sixth grade. She has played basketball and volleyball for the last three years and is in the Middle School chorus. She is also a student ambassador, in the Recycled Arts Club and the Growing Leaders Club, and on the Headmaster’s List. She has taken the cause of homelessness to heart, raising money for CARITAS during the X-Out Homelessness campaign and participating in a Teen Impact volunteer program. She is a volunteer at the Richmond SPCA, where she contributes a minimum of six hours of service per month, and she has been singing the national anthem at the University of Richmond men’s basketball games since 2010.

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Welcome our new Lower School Director

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ffective July 1, we will welcome Ingrid Moore as the new director of Lower School. Mrs. Moore’s experience includes 15 years at Denver’s Colorado Academy, where she was a faculty member and held several administrative positions (Lower School admissions, director of financial aid, and executive director of the Horizons Program). Prior to her time in Colorado, she was a classroom teacher at The Potomac School and Flint Hill School in Northern Virginia.

Mrs. Moore holds a B.A. from Northwestern University, an M.A. from Middlebury College, and an M.A. in educational leadership and management from Nottingham University in England, where she has lived for the past year. The Moore family includes her husband, Paco, and four children, who will join grades 1, 3, 6, and 8 at Steward in the fall.

am thrilled to be joining the Steward community.

“MyIoverwhelming impression of Steward is that it is

committed to excellence and dedicated to the wellbeing and success of students and teachers alike.

It is this balance that sets Steward apart for me and why I am so excited to be moving with my family to Richmond this summer.

— Ingrid Moore

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”

The power of Grandparents!

Susie Scott, a trustee and member of the Governance Committee, said, “A Grandparents Association can create an opportunity to enrich the education of all our students.

It will set a real-life example of what it means to be a steward as an adult. In other words, being a Steward with a capital ‘S’ is a lifelong endeavor.”

A fellow trustee and member of the Executive Committee, Wally O’Brien, thought Mrs. Scott’s concept was commendable, showed exceptional leadership, and required action. Together with grandparents Betsy Jollay, Bev Jennette, Chris Porter, Carol McElhinney, and Barbro Caperton, Mrs. Scott and Mr. O’Brien are ready to engage grandparents in the school’s activities. They recognize that grandparents are valuable ambassadors in the greater community and can be mentors who inspire and guide the school community through acquired experience, knowledge, and wisdom.

The association will not officially launch until next fall, but plans are in the works for several volunteer opportunities, including reading in Lower School, sharing expertise with Middle School students, gardening in the Bryan Innovation Lab, and helping with school-wide events such as Grandparents and Special Friends Days, SpartaFest, and Gala.

Detailed information will be available at a later date, but if you have questions or ideas for the group, please send an email to GPA@stewardschool.org.

Wally O’Brien and Susie Scott

Giving games

Smart planning

The Development Office launched a unique spring campaign to give donors the chance to see their names in lights…almost.

Every Annual Fund gift made in April was entered into a raffle for one of ten overlooked items on Steward’s campus, including Yertle the Turtle’s tank in the Middle School, the maintenance team’s snow shovel, and the Bryan Innovation Lab’s ceiling pipes.

Winners were drawn in May, and each item will proudly display the donor’s name during the 2015-16 school year.

Included in this issue of Crossroads is a pull-out progress report on the school’s strategic plan, known as Vision 2018. Major initiatives this year focused on building school pride and engagement, increasing diversity on the Board of Trustees, defining what a successful athletic program should look like, modifying the annual budget process, and identifying opportunities for collaboration, real-world problem solving, creativity, innovation, and technology in the curriculum.

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faculty & staff

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t the annual Board, Faculty, and Staff Dinner on February 23, several special awards were presented to members of the Steward family. The eighth annual Paul R. Cramer Award, given in memory of the former Steward headmaster to the faculty member who best embraces the characteristics of balance, perspective, and humor he celebrated, was presented to music teacher Bonnie Anderson. In presenting the award to Mrs. Anderson, Head of School Dan Frank quoted Mr. Cramer in saying, “‘A singing school is a happy school,’ and I think we are exactly that.”

Mrs. Anderson joined the Steward faculty in 1983 as the school’s only music teacher. She single-handedly taught music for grades K-12 until 2002, when the department expanded and instrumental teacher John McAlister joined the faculty. She created what are now known as the Lower School Holiday Program and the Grandparents and Special Friends Day Program, both of which began as all-school events but evolved into divisional programs as the school grew. She has written and directed the accompanying performances for all of those programs, tailoring each play and the music to the students in the casts. She reformatted Stunt-Talent Night to make sure it allowed all students to feel comfortable participating, not just those with musical

Lyn Lunsford

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talents. She directs the Upper School chorus and has taken students to district competitions for many years. In addition to her school-day responsibilities, Mrs. Anderson has taught piano lessons for individual students in the early mornings and late afternoons for three decades.

She is a Richmond native, a graduate of Hermitage High School (where she was named Miss Henrico County Firefighter) and Longwood University, and was a competitive baton twirler as Miss Richmond Majorette.

Six additional awards were presented to faculty and staff members, including three awards presented to teachers by the Board of Trustees. n The 2015 Debbie Hanger Outstanding Lower School Teacher Award was presented to veteran teacher Lyn Lunsford.

Honored

roles

Faculty and staff members honored for excellence

Elizabeth Simpson

Kristina Kerns

n The 2015 Roger Coulombe Outstanding Middle School Teacher Award was presented to history teacher, basketball coach, and Martin Luther King Day Committee member Wallace Inge. n The 2015 Carolyn Brandt Outstanding Upper School Teacher Award was presented to social studies teacher and Student Council Association sponsor Elizabeth Simpson. n The Parents Association presented the 2015 Robert Sanders, Jr. Outstanding Staff Member Award to Assistant Director of Marketing and Communications Kristina Kerns. n The Spartan Club presented the Outstanding Boys Coach Award to PE teacher and soccer coach EJ Watkins, and the Outstanding Girls Coach Award to field hockey/soccer coach and Admissions Associate Beth Farmer ’09.

EJ Watkins

Beth Farmer

Academic Dean of the Bryan Innovation Lab Laura Akesson during her presentation at TEDxRVA.

Sparking curiosity

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aura Akesson, academic dean of the Bryan Innovation Lab and resident physics expert, presented at this year’s TEDxRVA event at the Carpenter Center on April 10, where the theme was “Uncommon.” In introducing Mrs. Akesson, event Curator Andy Stefanovich said, “[Virginia Secretary of Education] Anne Holton would like to clone this next woman. She teaches education from the bottom up. It’s highly experiential, it’s about emotion, it’s about effect, and it’s about immersion of the student in the middle of the mix.”

Photo courtesy of TEDxRVA

Mrs. Akesson’s presentation began with a demonstration of Ruben’s Tube (a standing wave flame tube) set to music. She used this experiment to pique the curiosity of the 1,300 audience members and as a vehicle for her first point: curiosity. “There are many things I want from my students…most of all, I want their curiosity,” she says. “Lesson plans need to leave a space for curiosity. They need to let students ask the questions and come up with their own problems instead of always being given them. Imagine a world where a student comes into class and says, ‘I wondered this’ instead of ‘Is this going to be on the test?’”

To culture this curiosity, she encouraged the educators in the audience to break out of their

individual subject silos—“Students need learning experiences across silos to be successful in our world. We can actually have this happen easily now with the resources that we have.” Whether it’s teaming biology and English for the study of a crime novel or a math lesson that explores the patterns in art and nature, Mrs. Akesson said, “Students can actually see the teaching across these disciplines and get inspired to do the same themselves.” Schools need to reflect the increasing interconnectedness of our world, and education should provide platforms for students to share ideas and approach defining problems and solutions from different perspectives.

Smart partners Through a Partners in the Arts grant with the University of Richmond, Stanford University adjunct faculty member John Edmark conducted a professional development session for six Steward faculty members. Mr. Edmark’s work in the Department of Art and Art History at Stanford merges art with mathematics, form, physics, technology, computer programming, and imagery. He helped Laura Akesson, John Alley, Shane Diller, Cary Jamieson, Jennifer Maitland, and Rugene Paulette work on ways to integrate arts into the curriculum through a process using his helicone (helix + pinecone). Mr. Edmark explained his fascination with spiral geometry and the Fibonacci sequence, and how he builds his pieces using the precision of a laser cutter. The teachers also visited Big Secret, a laser cutting and design company in downtown Richmond, where they customized and cut one of Mr. Edmark’s designs, and they are now able to incorporate his ideas into their classrooms.

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happenings

Good Works

QUICK STICKS such a special team In less than three years of existence, Steward’s Special Olympics (SO) Club has made a big difference in breaking down barriers. As the only local independent school with an active SO Club, Upper School students participate in events on a regular basis—the Polar Plunge, the Summer Games, basketball and volleyball clinics, and even an inventory of the supply closet at the regional SO office.

The club took root after Global Messenger Frank Stephens (pictured at right with Meg) first spoke at Steward in 2012, an event that was coordinated by Meg Trepp, a current junior and now the club’s president. Mr. Stephens returned to campus last December and helped even more students connect a face—and a terrific sense of humor—to the Special Olympics.

This spring, Meg worked with the regional office to apply for a grant totaling between $2,000-$3,000, which she won and will use to establish a Unified Youth Bowling Team at Shrader Lanes to pair Steward students and those with intellectual disabilities next year.

Meg will also be a global youth ambassador at the Special Olympics World Games in Los Angeles this summer and participate in a five-day youth summit. Locally, at the Summer Games held in June at the University of Richmond, the Steward club is the only

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group that assists with set-up before the event begins. The members continue to work throughout the weekend, participating in the opening ceremonies, the athletic meets, and breakdown afterward.

The Richmond SO region is known as Area 31, and the regional president, Rick Jeffrey, is extremely grateful for Steward’s help: “Meg Trepp, the SO Club, and The Steward School are incredible partners of Special Olympics.

People with intellectual disabilities have a tough go of it, and not much is expected of them. Meg and the SO Club have helped us provide them with a more welcome and inclusive environment, bringing together youth with and without disabilities to help us inspire the first unified generation—a generation in which youth are not afraid to live, work, and THRIVE alongside someone with a simple human difference. We’re so glad to have Meg, the SO Club, and Steward on our team.”

Meg’s passion for the Special Olympics has driven the club since its inception—the Special Olympics logo is even embossed on her Steward class ring. She plans to expand the club into the Middle School next year, ensuring that the group to which she has devoted so much of herself continues after her graduation in 2016.

Girls lacrosse coach Christina D’Angelo and the Spartans gave the team at Anna Julia Cooper Episcopal School (AJCES) a big boost in March. The AJCES players joined Steward’s Middle School practice for a Grow the Game Clinic led by the varsity players. As this is only the second year for the AJCES lacrosse program, Steward donated a set of reversible jerseys to the school. Coach D’Angelo hopes this event will become an annual tradition for the Steward lacrosse program.

BLANKET statement In January, Steward’s annual “Day On” during Martin Luther King, Jr. Day produced 180 handmade fleece blankets, 60 paintings, and five murals, all created by Steward students. In the months since, the blankets have been delivered to children’s hospitals throughout Virginia; the paintings are part of the newly-redecorated Hospital Hospitality House; and one of the murals was given to Anna Julia Cooper Episcopal School. The other murals will be given to other organizations in Richmond and will be part of Steward’s MLK Day activities in the future.

Green Ribbon Schools On Earth Day, April 22, Steward was named a 2015 Green Ribbon School by the U.S. Secretary of Education and is one of only six independent schools in the nation and the only school in Richmond to receive this honor. Green Ribbon Schools are energy-efficient and environmentallyfriendly schools that promote environmental awareness, community engagement, and student wellness. Steward will send a delegation to the recognition ceremony in Washington, D.C., this June to accept a green display banner.

BABY BUCKS In February, the Lower School Student Council kicked off Kindness Week with “Give a Dollar, Make a Smile.” Fourth-grader Lily Jennette created handmade bracelets as thank you gifts for every $1 donation to benefit babies in the NICU at MCV. The Student Council’s efforts were matched by Lily’s dad, Les, for a total of $465! As a followup to the fundraiser, the Goldberg family arranged for the Student Council members to take a field trip to MCV (below).

WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT Sophomore Mary Kathryn Pruett has become a clothing industry entrepreneur in her own right. For last fall’s YALLFEST (Young Authors Literature Festival) in Charleston, South Carolina, she designed and screen-printed a t-shirt for the attending authors to sign. “It gave me something to talk about with the authors,” she says. The shirt was such a huge hit with top-selling authors, agents, and publishers that Mary Kathryn began discussions with a lawyer who wanted to copyright her design. Ultimately, she decided to establish a business on Etsy called The Stories That Follow, through which she will sell shirts specifically for readers and book festival attendees. She tailored the original design for YALLWEST in California this spring, and she plans to return to YALLFEST in November, armed with a supply of reader-oriented shirts. With the profits from her first year of sales, Mary Kathryn says she hopes to buy her own screen-printing equipment. In addition to her retail excitement, she has also led a non-profit organization called Warm Hugs Blankets for the last five years. With help from friends, she has made 30-100 blankets and scarves each year for an orphanage in war-torn Moldova. The blankets are delivered to the country once a year through her church.

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happenings

Look Who’s Talking Gracie Goodpasture ’19 NSTA Angela Award Winner

Eighth-grader Gracie Goodpasture has had an amazing start to 2015 with a term as a page in the Virginia Senate for seven weeks (see page 21) and as the recipient of the Angela Award from the National Science Teachers Association. The Angela Award is presented annually to a female student in grades 5-8 who has a strong connection to science. The award was presented to Gracie by NSTA President Dr. Juliana Texley at Steward on April 29, and she received a $1,000 savings bond.

What scientific interests did you include on the NSTA application?

I had to list three or four scientific projects that I’ve done. I’ve done a lot of work with chickens and some weird experiments. [When I was] in kindergarten, I wanted to test the preservatives in fast food, so we bought four kids’ meals. We left them on a table to see what would happen. The one from KFC got moldy, so we threw it away in a few days, but the ones from McDonalds and Burger King still look perfect. We threw away the lettuce and tomato because we thought they would interfere with the meat, but we’ve kept the rest, and eight years later they’re still leaking grease. My mom was always telling me this type of food was unhealthy, and now I know why. I also wrote about the summer I tried to build a robot.

How did you become interested in chickens?

For the third-grade Expert Project, I wanted to become an expert in chickens because I’d been hoping to get chicks for a long time. I had to interview an expert for the project, and I loved the Jim Perdue [Perdue Farms] commercials. So, I composed an email to ask for an interview—I expected a phone conversation, but he wanted me to come to Perdue Farms [in Maryland].

He gave me a tour—we went everywhere except the processing plant. My favorite part was watching the chicks on the assembly line as soon as they hatched. I thought Mr. Perdue would be this big, scary guy, but he was wearing jeans, and he had smile lines around his eyes. He treated us like real people—he [and his staff] spent eight hours with us, and he even cancelled other meetings.

What happened with your chickens after the Expert Project?

We got more chickens at home—we had to get a minimum of 25 birds in the order, so we got a larger coop. I was worried about a cat or raccoon getting them, so I’d check every hour. I took a chair out and just sat and watched them. I started drawing diagrams of what they looked like when they were happy—they wag their tails back and forth really fast. They make loud sounds when they are paranoid or laying eggs. They’re very curious birds. I learned more than I ever thought I would when I was watching them. It sounds weird, but we had a bond and understood each other. Some people are cat or dog people—I’m a chicken person.

How do you see yourself using science in the future?

I want to go to Virginia Tech and major in poultry science—Ms. [Natalia] Frost told me about it on the first day of sixth grade. Then I’d like to run a corporation similar to Perdue Farms.

Mr. Perdue has remained in contact with Gracie and is her mentor. He wrote a recommendation for her NSTA application and pre-recorded a video presentation, which was part of the award ceremony on April 29.

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Pages of history

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ighth-graders Gracie Goodpasture, Ned Hayes, and Cole Mier served as pages for the Virginia Senate Page Program in January and February. Five days a week, they lived in a downtown hotel, walked several blocks to work, and ran errands from 8:15 a.m. to 5 p.m. with shorter hours on Fridays. They were among 42 13- and 14-year-old students from the commonwealth who assisted with senate duties; an additional 42 pages worked in the House of Delegates.

Stately honors The 2014 Spartan varsity baseball team was recognized during the 2015 session of the Virginia General Assembly with Senate Joint Resolution No. 310. See the proclamation at: http://lis. virginia.gov/ cgi-bin/legp604. exe?151+ ful+SJ310ER.

Cole says, “It was probably the best decision I’ve ever made. I like politics, but that’s not the reason why. I liked it because even though I was nervous about going out of my environment, it felt really comfortable.”

In addition to work-related duties during their seven-week tenure, Gracie, Ned, and Cole experienced incredible events: n Every Monday afternoon, they heard from speakers about topics that included creating resumes and money management. n They went on field trips to the Virginia War Memorial, the Federal Building, and a reenactment at St. John’s Church.

n They went bowling with Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam. n They cheered for their leaders in the senators versus delegates basketball game at the VCU Siegel Center (the senators won by one point). n They participated in a mock session in which they played senators and were allowed to propose bills (Cole’s was “Kim Kardashian Appreciation Day”—it was shot down in committee).

n They walked to downtown restaurants for dinner every night. n They received salaries and a per diem!

With all of this activity in their young lives, what was the best part of the experience? Ned—whose brother, father, and cousin served as pages—says it best: “Hanging out—you definitely become a family by the end.”

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Let’s jam!

The annual Lower School Jamboree was held on January 9.

paradise found Highlights from February’s “Gala in Paradise” included $15,000 raised for the Debbie Robson Merit Scholarship through the live auction of a Yardbirds’ birdhouse and Rudy the puppy, who went to a very good home. Mahalo to Clay Reynolds and Ann Slyh (right), who have coordinated the Gala for the last three years.

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Grandparents and Special Friends Day Students in grades JK-5 entertained their special guests with the production, Won’t You Let Me Take You on a Sea Cruise? (above).

Bingo!

What a great January night!

Spring Social April 23 was a perfect day for the Spring Social.

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fine arts

Steward shows off A fantastic display of talent awaited audiences at both Talent Nights in March.

During Lower School Stunt-Talent Night, fourth-graders Berkeley Roudabush, Kyla Johnson, and Holly Howard served as emcees for a show that included a large second-grade performance and numerous pianists, singers, dancers, and comedians. Seniors Ben Fox and Adam Mickle hosted Middle and Upper School Talent Night, which was full of stunning musical entertainment, surprise skits by the seventh-grade theatre students, and eighthgrader Cole Mier’s annual comedy routine.

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Flapper happy Steward visited the Jazz Age in The Boy Friend, a spoof of 1920’s musicals, with a cast, crew, and orchestra comprised of 40 Middle and Upper School students. The play was set in a French boarding school for perfect young English ladies in search of future husbands.

Big gig!

A choired status

The Pep Band performed at a University of Richmond men’s basketball game in February.

At the Music in the Parks Festival on May 2, Steward’s choral groups brought home three first-place trophies, including first place overall!

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GRADE 5: Ten Years of Fantastic-ness

GRADE 4: Well, That’s Just Nonsense

GRADE 3: Ha Ha, Very Funny

GRADE 2: The Super Jataka Tales

KINDERGARTEN: Mother Goose, Revisited

Lower School plays were written and directed

by Monica Moehring ’95.

The JK and first-grade plays were performed in May, past the magazine’s printing deadlines.

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A little Brit better The Little Princess, Sara Crewe is the story of a young girl with a brilliant imagination and a love for stories that can get her through all the challenges she faces. Thirtyseven Middle and Upper School students comprised the cast and crew, including newcomer Ava Dauer (grade 7) with a perfect English accent as Sara and sophomore Charlotte Finn as the evil Miss Minchen.

Flashback to 1905

By Andy Mudd Greetings from the Class of 1905 and the students of Miss Minchen’s Select Seminary for Young Ladies. All the girls looked resplendent in their matching uniforms and

very curly hair. We just wished they smiled more! To promote The Little Princess, Sara Crewe, Director Monica Moehring ’95 staged a remarkable photo shoot for her cast. “We wanted a picture reminiscent of the old photos from the turn of the century, when everyone looked very serious and stiff,” she said. “We

knew the juxtaposition of the old style portrait with some very familiar faces would get people’s attention.” Costume Coordinator Sharon Dintaman worked tirelessly to have the costumes ready a full month before the show opened, and Ashly Covington of Covington Portraits shot the photo session.

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fine arts

Art Achievers

THE VOICE:

photo: Jay Paul

Star struck: Eighth-grader Evelyn Dumeer (right) has had a busy school year on stage. In addition to her role in Steward’s winter production, The Little Princess, Sara Crewe, she played one of three narrators in Charlotte’s Web through Virginia Repertory Theatre’s Children’s Theatre at Willow Lawn, which ran for a total of 34 shows in five weeks last fall. Evelyn has performed with Virginia Rep for three years—her previous shows include Madeline’s Christmas and ’Twas the Night Before Christmas.

PITCH PERFECT: Junior Ally Dods was selected for the All-Virginia Chorus at the state choral competition. She is the first Steward student ever to be selected as a representative. The auditions included sight singing and a vocal audition in front of selected judges.

(Fun fact: Two decades ago, theatre teacher Monica Kallman Moehring ’95 was the first district representative from Steward and the first to be selected for an alternate position in the All-Virginia Chorus.) Ally practiced her singing frequently as the female lead, Fiona, in the CharacterWorks musical Shrek last fall.

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ARTFUL LEADER: Eighth-grader Natalie Christensen was accepted into the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts’s 2015 Museum Leaders in Training program, placing her among 45 participants who attended workshops at the museum for 14 weeks this spring.

In the last year, seventh-grader Olivia Hobbs released a CD titled Olivia, auditioned for “America’s Got Talent,” and participated in the Western Music Association’s Annual Convention in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she won the harmony contest for the youth division.

he’s got the beat: Junior Dan Eakin earned second chair in the percussion section of the 2015 District One Symphonic Band, surpassing 50 percussionists from throughout the district on snare drum, timpani, and xylophone to earn the distinction. As a result, he was eligible to audition for the All-Virginia Band—Dan is the first Steward student to earn this honor. He’s also the only high school student in the UR Wind Ensemble and a member of the Central Virginia Wind Symphony and VCU’s Greater Richmond Youth Wind Ensemble.

Eye Candy The Art Walk theme, Savor, appealed not only to the eyes this year, but also to the taste buds.

STRING BEING: Eighth-grader Logan Ransom earned a position in the violin section of the top orchestra for the 2015 Central Regional Orchestra, competing against 150 other violinists from across the region.

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v i s i t i n g i n n ova t o r s

Look Who’s Talking Sarah Severn

Recently Retired Director of Stakeholder Mobilization, Nike, Inc.

Visiting Innovator Sarah Severn brought her apparel industry expertise to campus in February to promote the idea of corporate care for the environment. Ms. Severn worked at Nike for 21 years and spearheaded the company’s efforts to make itself sustainable. Her visit included a tennis shoe design project with Upper School art students, a study of global regions with sophomore World Studies II classes, and a packaging discussion with seniors in AP Environmental Science.

What is your background with Nike?

When I joined Nike in 1993, I was setting up a consumer insight department in Europe, and alongside that I said, “What are you doing about the environment?” They said, “Well, we’ve started a small team over in the U.S., and so I got connected to that.

By 1995, I was asked to head up that team in Beaverton, Oregon. So I went from a background that had absolutely nothing to do with the environment to a job leading a team trying to figure out what that meant.

You retired last year. Why are you still passionate about spreading your message?

I’m still an ambassador for the company, and I wouldn’t have stayed 21 years if I didn’t believe in what they were doing….I’m now working with businesses that are trying to take action on climate change and helping them understand what it means to support good sound policy at a state level. But if people ask me to come talk about the Nike experience, I’m quite happy to do that. I was particularly interested in coming to the Bryan Lab because I like your focus on sustainability with children—they are our future, and it’s really important to get this message out to children.

Since 1993, how have you seen sustainability practices change?

When we started out, we were like the NGO [non-governmental organization] within the company, and that shifted into the company taking more corporate responsibility in a much more serious way. That in turn has evolved into sustainability being part of the innovation agenda. So, it’s come from being kind of a niche exercise to formally being in the heart of the company.

Where do you see the future of sustainable designs?

I think there’s a huge upswelling and interest in sustainable design in the fashion industry, and that’s really important because the fashion side, which is a step above Nike in the broader apparel industry, is where the cutting edge is coming, and it’s very fast turnover. Because there are more designers who are interested in sustainability, I think that’s going to have a huge influence, which in turn is influencing the Nikes of this world, who are very dedicated to performance wear for athletes, so I think it’s coming through that channel.

What do you try to convey to the students?

What I encourage them to do is really listen well and have inquiring minds. Don’t believe everything everyone tells you—ask good questions. Really be open-minded, immerse yourself in other cultures, get as much of a cross-section of the world as you can. We don’t see the world as it is—we see it as we are, so the only way to see things differently is to try to expand your view of who you are. Try to put yourself in other peoples’ shoes.

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Laura Skove ’08 works with young visitors in the Ipsen Gardens.

It’s all about eating healthy On April 15, the focus was on health and entrepreneurship when Visiting Innovators from Health Warrior, the locally-founded company with chia seeds and the #1-selling Chia Bar at its core, visited campus. n Ultramarathoner Zoe Romano (right, pictured with junior Ashley McCreary), who is sponsored by Health Warrior, spoke to the Middle and Upper School students about her 2013 quest to run the 2,000 mile Tour de France course, through which she raised $200,000 for World Pediatric Project. The run, which took her 72 days, was documented in the film Zoe Goes Running, from which she used footage to help tell her story and ultimately say, “You go on to discover what’s on the other side of impossible.” n Health Warrior Co-Founder and CEO Shane Emmett (right) shared his story behind the Chia Bar and the company’s success since its launch. Mr. Emmett began his lecture with some startling statistics. “More than 70 percent of the American diet consists of packaged food, and that number is only going to grow,” he said. “Our goal is to fix packaged food.”

“You go on to discover what’s on the other side of impossible.”

– ZOE ROMANO

“Our goal is to fix packaged food.”

– Shane Emmett

Throughout the day, Relay Foods conducted food demonstrations with students of all ages. From banana pizza to chia seed smoothies, students were introduced to new twists on healthy foods. Meriwether Godsey, Edible Education, Pizza Tonight, and Shalom Farms joined Relay with food-related fun during the evening.

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class acts

meeting of the minds

RECIPE for success It’s not unusual for an AP Environmental Science class to study plastic, but it is unusual for them to make it! Students in Mary Greenlee’s class created their own recipes using only glycerin, water, and starch or gelatin. The groups then tested the resulting bioplastics as a material for making products that can be composted, thus reducing landfill and litter; some experiments even produced moldy results. Braeden Glancy and her partners made small circular picture frames from bioglass, and Kevin Cameron and Cameron Bachman molded a hand out of their material. Ms. Greenlee, who worked as a professor at several colleges and universities, is not aware of any other high school that includes bioplastics in the curriculum.

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Lower School International Day

A group of 12 students, along with teachers Laura Akesson and Shane Diller, will study “Innovation and the Future of Education” in Europe this June. In preparation for the trip, the group has taken local field trips to VCU and UR to research the modern state of education. They will participate in a two-day leadership conference in Davos, Switzerland, which will include workshops and a talk by Sir Ken Robinson, one of the world’s foremost leaders on creativity in education. In addition to the Global Student Leaders Summit, the group will spend time in London, at the Eden Project in Plymouth, and at the United Nations in Geneva, where they will visit CERN, Europe’s nuclear research center and the world’s largest particle physics lab. More than 1,500 students from around the world are expected to attend the event; they will work together to apply regional research to designs for the future of global education.

Fourth-Grade Mini Economy

tiny testing Bryan Innovation Lab Teaching Fellow Shane Diller, a 2014 graduate of VCU, coordinated an assignment that connects the World Pediatric Project (WPP), an organization dedicated to providing health services for children in the Caribbean and Central America, with Steward students through one of his professors, Russ Jamison, dean emeritus of VCU Biomedical Engineering. WPP was founded in Richmond, and one of its clinics is set up on St. Vincent and the Grenadines, an island country in the southern Caribbean. This clinic purchased blood pressure monitors, which were advertised to take the blood pressure of neonates using the cuff method. Unfortunately, the cuff that comes with the monitors will not fit neonates, so WPP purchased appropriately-sized cuffs only to discover that they do not have a direct connection to the blood pressure machines. Dr. Jamison and Mr. Diller brought the challenge to Steward, giving the juniors in Laura Akesson’s Biomedical Design class the chance for a true hands-on project. To get the project underway, the students researched the Dinamap blood pressure cuff monitor, the cardiovascular system of neonates, the business and quality of life in St. Vincent, and the island’s electrical grid. The team worked with innovative technologies—including AutoCAD, Google SketchUp, and 3-D printers—to create a prototype design. While in the project’s final phase, students learned of an existing solution from the manufacturer of an adult blood pressure cuff. The students pivoted their efforts toward testing the machine’s functions to ensure it would not overinflate the neonatal cuff and cause damage. This added phase of the project included repairing the cuff when stitching came undone and teaching others how to sew. Both lowtech and high-tech solutions were tested, and the students successfully applied design thinking—and the importance of due diligence—to a real-world problem.

First-Grade Junior Achievement

Statistics Carnival

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experiences of a lifetime Stephanie Arnold’s Creative Writing students invited a group of Beth Sholom Lifecare Community residents to visit Steward’s campus in February. The students interviewed the guests in preparation for a creative narrative assignment inspired by the elderly peoples’ experiences. While many of the residents had incredible stories, Mrs. Arnold says that two visitors’ stories were particularly memorable.

Senior Jack Ross interviewed the woman who appears in the iconic World War II photograph in which a soldier is kissing a woman after peace was announced. Senior Braeden Glancy interviewed a woman who survived the Holocaust and spoke about the importance of forgiveness and being appreciative of life. The residents returned to Steward a few weeks later to read the students’ work.

Colonial Day

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Science visit

Scratch Math Vertical

Faire play The sophomore class hosted an Elizabethan Faire to celebrate William Shakespeare’s birthday—and death date—on April 23. Each student focused on a facet of life in the early 1600s and included an interactive component in his or her presentation. Amid the jousting, era-appropriate make-up, and Shakespearean insults, highlights includeth… n Karen Lane planted an English garden with flowers from the Elizabethan era, including plants named dusty miller and cosmos. n Khaos Rannels, Christopher Koerner, and Cole Richardson created an open-air amphitheater in the woods behind the Bryan Innovation Lab. n Ashley Higgs researched Elizabethan weddings and portrayed the bride in an authentic reenactment. n Jennifer Xu constructed a model of the Globe Theater.

Top 10 greatest things about Steward As written and presented by fourth-grader Jack Jordan at the Lower School Oratorical Program, March 2015

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

SpartaFest: SpartaFest is so much fun you can even try dunking your teachers in the dunk tank!

Bingo Night: Get a card and some raffle tickets and you might win like yours truly—me!

School Lunches: School lunches are truly, I mean truly, magnificent!

Colonial Day: Colonial Day is really amazing…until you have to dance with a mom.

Broccoli: I know I already said the school lunches are good, but the broccoli is sooo good! Once I had 19 cups! No seriously, ask Henry.

Lower School Jamboree: The Lower School Jamboree is a big night… trying to sneak under the bleachers without getting spotted and cheering on the players!

Mr. Tickle: Mr. Tickle is so cool! I mean really cool, like the best teacher ever. I mean, seriously, who else can pull off wearing a shiny Hershey Kiss hat?

Tennis with Coach Kurt: I improve my game and my bank account.

Sometimes we play for money. Once he gave me a euro because he was out of U.S. money!

The Bryan Innovation Lab: The Bryan Lab is awesome! You can plant in the garden and do great science experiments.

And the number one greatest thing about Steward—the people! I just love this small school because you get to know everyone, and they are so nice…the teachers and kids, too!

Thank you and this is Jack’s top ten list, signing off.

Kindergarten African Bazaar

Tie-dyeing in Second Grade

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BOYS BASKETBALL Middle School White

n The team was composed of 17 sixth graders, and more than half the team—coached by George Corwin—was new to the sport.

n The focus was quickly set on establishing basketball knowledge and skills. The team showed great determination and struck the perfect balance between being serious and playing around, as demonstrated by their dedication through the end of the season.

Middle School Blue

n Under Coach Patrick Tucker, the boys played in a very competitive league at St. Christopher’s School. They were off to a good start at 1-1 with a loss to a strong St. Christopher’s team and a big win over Collegiate.

n At the end of the season, the two final games were the Spartans’ best, starting with a 52-33 victory over Collegiate in a complete team effort. The highlight of the game was seventh-grader Riley Highfill’s buzzer-beating three-pointer to give the Spartans a comfortable lead going into the fourth quarter.

n The season finale against a gritty St. Christopher’s team was a nail-biter, although it wasn’t a Steward victory. The defensive effort was led by seventh-grader Peter Bartee and eighth-graders Sam Geissler and Kemper Roudabush.

Middle School Gold

n Coached by John Devany, the Spartans had a challenging year going up against all eighth-grade teams in a St. Christopher’s league.

n The team came up a few games short in the win column, but improved every game.

n The team was led by seventh-grader Hunter Milligan, who had a great scoring season, and sixth-grader Ethan Hopp, who held a key role as the youngest player on an older team.

JV

n Coaches David Hope and Mark Fox led a team of nine boys through a tough season against mostly older teams. The final record of 5-8 is not indicative of some of the close games they played.

n The team was led by sophomore captains Justin Jefferson and Liam Delfs, who were

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both difficult to defend no matter the opponent.

n Freshman Ned Cole and eighth-graders Dylan Fox and Logan Ransom rounded out the starting five for much of the season.

n Freshmen Peyton Mulligan and Ryan Odibo and eighth-graders Alex Poling and Tyler Watkins completed the team, and all saw action on a regular basis.

Varsity

n The varsity boys team was coming off a 13-13 finish in 2014 and had lost six key contributors from last year’s state tournament team. With ten boys on the 2015 roster, Coach Jamiel Allen ’02’s team finished the season 10-14 with quality wins over Division I teams Norfolk

Academy and Collegiate and a double -overtime win over Lee-Davis in the Freeman Holiday Hoops tournament.

n They were led by a group of seniors— Jack Trepp, Sam Trepp, Zach Beigel, Kevin Cameron, and Bowen Chen—and received a big lift with the addition of junior Alvaro Lizan from Spain. They were joined by returning juniors Chaise Johnson and Johnny Beigel and two newcomers, sophomore Khaos Rannels and junior Nico Martinez.

n Chaise led the way in scoring, averaging 25.6 points per game, which qualified him for the top five in the Richmond-area public and private schools. A highlight of the season was the Covenant Invitational, when Chaise reached his 1000th career point.

Chaise Johnson hits 1,000 points In late December, junior Chaise Johnson (below) needed only a handful of points to reach 1,000 career points, the milestone for which every basketball player strives.

Entering the game against The Covenant School, the magic basket arrived on a three-point shot with an assist from teammate Jack Trepp. Chaise was honored twice at Steward in January, including the Lower School Jamboree, when he was given a ceremonial basketball to mark his accomplishment. Immediately after receiving the ball, Chaise walked over and gave the prize to his mother. “She has always encouraged me, and I wanted to share the moment with her,” he said.

Chaise joins an elite group of Steward athletes who have accomplished this feat.

Jennifer Keller ’88 and Cheryl Mayers Hinton ’95 achieved this goal during their time at Steward; Mike Edwards ’03 was the first varsity boys player to reach the 1,000-point mark; and Pat Branin ’11 and Adjehi Baru ’11 reached the goal as seniors.

Senior winter athletes Cheerleading—Braeden Glancy (center front); Swimming (from left)—Emily Vaughan, Elise Taylor, and Kristen Cashwell; Basketball (from left)—Sam Trepp, Kevin Cameron, Bowen Chen, Zachary Beigel, and Jack Trepp.

GIRLS BASKETBALL Middle School White

n The Middle School girls white basketball team, coached by Wallace Inge, was composed solely of sixth graders and played in a sixth-grade league at St. Gertrude High School.

n Co-captains Casie Steinfatt and Grace Inge led the team that included many first-time players. Though the team started off the year with three losses to more experienced teams, the girls won four of their last six games to finish the year with a 4-5 record.

n Season highlights included a convincing win in the first round of the league tournament over St. Catherine’s, competing during halftime of the University of Richmond vs. St. Louis women’s game, and assisting the varsity girls team at a basketball clinic for Special Olympics athletes.

Middle School Blue

n Guided by father-daughter coaching duo Jeff and Christen Fratter, the team got off to a slow start but won four of its final five games to end the season with a 5-4 record.

n Sixth-grade guard Mimi Traynham and eighth-grade forward Morgan King led the offense, scoring more than half of the team’s Crossroads Crossroads

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total points for the season. Forwards Carolyn Aldredge (grade 7), and Abbie Campbell and Abby Dwelle (grade 8) were the third, fourth, and fifth leading scorers, respectively.

n Seventh-graders Alex Wilkerson, Anna Reese Richardson, Anna Kilduff, and Virginia Hopper contributed to the offense with timely scoring, outstanding passing, and overall team play on both sides of the court.

Varsity

n Coached by Adam Lonon ’06, the team was led by junior captains Haley Cummings and Meg Trepp and included many girls from grades 8-11.

n New additions Andrea Schwartz (grade

Middle School Gold

11), Bentley Mescall (grade 8), and Lizzie Parris (grade 8) played instrumental roles throughout the season, as Steward fought to a 6-12 record.

n Under Coach Catie Cox, every player

n Despite the record, the Spartans posted

scored during this season of improvement in an incredibly competitive league.

n Seventh-grader Danielle David was the leading scorer with 21 points, followed by sixth-grader Grace Fass with 20 points for the season.

Stringfellow and Jack Caldwell and eighthgrader Cole Hollier made it an impressive season for Coach EJ Watkins.

SWIMMING Girls

n The team was led by seniors Kristen Cashwell and Emily Vaughan, who both qualified for the state championship meet in two individual events.

a third place finish at the Trinity Invitational and also held a state-playoff ranking until the end of the year, missing the final rankings by one spot.

n Newcomer Christine Schultz, a freshman,

n Haley’s presence on offense was

n The fourth member of the qualifying girls

highlighted by her average of 12 points per game (ppg), closely followed by sophomore Matea Magnano (8 ppg), freshman Caroline Laibstain (6 ppg), and sophomore Kellie Fonville (6 ppg).

was part of a qualifying relay and just missed qualifying individually despite missing much of the season with a broken foot. relay was junior Ashley McCreary; she and classmate Lizzie Fernandez were the heart and soul of the team.

Boys

n The team was led by senior Turner Sykes,

FUTSAL n The main objective during futsal season is for the boys to stay fit and get more touches on the ball while gaining a tactical understanding of how to play a counterattacking style.

n Senior captain Will Farmer and standout players such as freshmen Jonathan

who just missed qualifying for States in the 50 freestyle.

n Juniors Danny Kovach and newcomer Baker Dewey were the spirit of the men’s team.

n The future is bright with freshmen Murad Matar and Chris Dellosso scoring points this year and seventh-graders Joseph Shaia and Noah Nichols poised to make an immediate impact next year.

CHEERLEADING n The 2014-15 cheerleading season was a year of firsts from a new coach (Katelyn McCay) and cheerleaders to new cheers and stunts.

n The year began with 12 girls on the squad, but due to injuries, there were only nine by season’s end. Despite this setback, the squad’s

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precision increased with each successive game, as did the crowd participation.

n Highlights of the season included Lower School students cheering with the girls during Jamboree and improved tumbling skills from working with an outside competition coach.

TENNIS n Coaches Kurt Hammerschmidt, George Corwin, and Allyson Brand worked with three seniors, four sophomores, two freshmen, and an eighth grader on the boys varsity team. Senior Jack Sims and eighthgrader William Hobbs held the top two positions throughout the season. n At 7-3 toward the end of the season, the boys team was ranked sixth in the state with the promise of a spot in the state tournament. n It was a growing season for the young girls varsity team. After losing five of the top eight players from last year, the new roster included eight girls in grades 8-11. The team, led by junior Anastasia Postolati, has been striving for ways to improve as individual singles players and as more effective doubles teams.

GOLF

GIRLS SOCCER Middle School

n The 2015 Middle School girls soccer team was composed of 19 rock stars! Several girls hadn’t played since they were very young, and Coach Beth Farmer ’09 was impressed by their ability to pick up the sport again with determination.

n The team goal was to “leave everything on the field,” and the girls were committed to achieving this goal at every game, regardless of the score.

Varsity

n The focus of the varsity girls soccer season was player development and fun. Coaches EJ Watkins and Patrick Tucker were very happy with the girls’ attitudes and teamwork.

n Sophomore Summer Owens JV

n Under Coach Steve King, the JV golf team had a fine season, with a three-match winning streak as of mid-April. n Led by seventh-graders Hunter Milligan, David Andrews, and Christian Andrews, the team—composed of students in grades 6-7—primarily played against much older teams, including some at the varsity level. n The highlight of the early part of the season was a victory over St. Christopher’s School, the first in school history.

and junior Ellie Hall led the team in goals and assists, while juniors Laura Hamilton and Haley Cummings anchored the defense.

n Lucy Davis was the team’s lone senior, and she finished her career on a high note; junior Andrea Schwartz played a vital role during her first season with the team.

Varsity n At the midpoint of the season, the varsity golf team’s record was 6-4, and it was ranked number three in the state (Division 2). n In mid-April, with Coach Catesby Jones and senior co-captains Cameron Bachman and Matthew Gelber at the helm, the boys set a school record for a team low at Spring Creek Golf Club with 151 (lowest four scores of six players), breaking the record by 11 shots. n Junior Owen Carter was the team’s number-one player, and he shot par or lower in seven of the first ten matches of the season, in addition to setting several new school records. In the Spring Creek match, Owen was two under par, and classmate Weston Popp shot a career low score of one over par 37.

Due to printing deadlines, the spring athletics reports include games through mid-April.

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GIRLS LACROSSE Middle School

n The Middle School girls team was led by coaches Janie Penney and Jess Miller, who both played lacrosse for the Richmond Spiders.

n The team had stand-out wins against Anna Julia Cooper School and Fredericksburg Academy plus an end-ofseason victory with a one-goal win over St. Catherine’s.

n On a team comprised mostly of sixth graders, the older girls did an excellent job leading the team, especially seventh-grader Dabney Leverty, who stepped up and played goalie for the Spartans.

Varsity

n Led by senior captain Emily Parris, junior captains Mackenzie Carnes and Helen Russell, and Coaches Christina D’Angelo and Amanda Florio, the girls varsity lacrosse team began its season ranked number two for Division 2 in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

n The team started strong with an 18-5 win over Christchurch and maintained a number three ranking for most of the season.

n Stand-out underclassmen Caroline

BOYS LACROSSE

Laibstain and Matea Magnano kept the team alive in close games, as did freshman goalie Emmie Curry.

Middle School

n At press time, the Spartans still had

n The Middle School boys lacrosse team had an

three games in the regular season, the outcomes of which determined their placement in the state and LIS tournaments.

outstanding 2015 season, especially given the youth and inexperience of a squad that included many first-time players and an equal mix of sixth, seventh, and eighth graders.

n Led by eighth-grade captains Sam Popp, Ryan Pope, Jack Slyh, and Dylan Fox, the team was 8-3 at the end of April with two games left to play.

n Steward went 2-0 to become the 2015 Ware Academy Invitational Tournament winner for the second time in three years.

Varsity

n Under a new coach, David Hope, the 2015 varsity boys lacrosse team had overcome weather, low numbers, and a difficult schedule by the midpoint of the season. The team was composed of 20 players, including seven freshmen, and the future looks bright as there are only five seniors graduating.

n The early wins of the year came against Trinity Meadowview and cross-town rival Trinity Episcopal. The team showed great resolve in a heartbreaking loss against Benedictine 12-11 after being down 10-3 heading into the fourth quarter.

n Senior captain Will Farmer anchored the team as leading scorer and quarterback with senior captain Patrick Neale second in scoring.

Graduating seniors Dylan Burnett, David Cross, and Jack Ross also excelled on the field—they will be missed in 2016.

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BASEBALL Middle School

n Under Coaches Brock Shiflett and Jeff Fratter, the Middle School baseball roster included many young players. Despite a challenging season, the results left many people in the Steward community excited for the future.

JV

n With just a few games left in the season, the JV baseball team had a 6-3 record coached by Chris Lundberg and Mitchell Henion. The victories included wins over tough competitors Fork Union Military Academy, Collegiate School, and Miller School.

n Multiple players served in the role of pitcher, with stand-outs Harrison Clifton, Logan Ransom, Cade Walker, and Parker Wright leading from the mound.

n Freshman Zac Abushmaies was reliable as catcher, and Alex Jobe, Alex Poling, and Gavin Booker played solid defense in numerous roles in the infield.

Varsity

n After winning the VISAA Division 2 state championship last year, the Spartans marched toward a repeat.

n With a mid-April record of 11-3 and ranked second in the Division 2 state poll, the team was led by the number one-ranked player in the commonwealth, Virginia Tech-bound Nic Enright. Scouts from all 30 MLB teams had their eyes on Nic throughout the season.

n At the plate, Roanoke College-bound centerfielder Jay Charity, right-field junior Theron Powell, and shortstop junior Kam Smith led the team. Two returning starters, catcher Dan McCarthy (grade 11) and first baseman Ryan Doggett (grade 12), also provided strength in the line-up.

Senior SPRING athletes Boys Lacrosse (from left)—Will Farmer, Jack Ross, David Cross, Patrick Neale (not pictured Dylan Burnett); Golf (from left)—Matthew Gelber, Cameron Bachman; Girls Lacrosse (from left)—Emily Parris, Emily Cox; Girls Soccer (center)—Lucy Davis; Boys Tennis (from left)—Mark Leopold, Will Renner, Jack Sims; Baseball (from left)— Sean Highfill, John Keefe, Zachary Beigel, Ryan Doggett, Nic Enright, Charlie Vaughan, Jay Charity, and Walker Poling.

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Our first Hall of Famers

T

he Steward School’s athletic program took a giant leap forward—with a look backward—on January 15 when it inaugurated the Hall of Fame. At a special dedication ceremony, five honorees were inducted in the first class. In his remarks, Director of Athletics Bob Stratton said, “After one-and-a-half years of thought and preparation, it is exciting to finally recognize The Steward School Athletic Hall of Fame Class of 2015. A school’s Athletic Hall of Fame is a chance to recognize the best of the best, as contributors, student-athletes, or coaches.

I am honored and humbled to be a part of the process and only hope this will become a major milestone in the deep and rich heritage and history of The Steward School.”

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Class of 2015 n Lee Healey has been a familiar face at The Steward School since 1990. She has been the Upper School division assistant since 2001, is a founding Spartan Club member, and has been a volunteer extraordinaire for the Athletic Department. n Mark Mayers ’87 earned 15 varsity letters in five years (grades 8-12) and was an outstanding Spartan basketball and soccer player. He is also an avid golfer and fisherman. Former teacher and coach Ian Coddington said, “Mark was one of the best natural athletes I’ve ever coached.” n Janet Rice was a fixture at Steward for 33 years, serving as a coach, teacher, and athletic director. She witnessed the school’s growth from 1980-2013 and was responsible for developing the athletic program during those decades. n As one of three original Steward “lifers,” Sandy Szilassy ’86 was a multi-sport athlete who truly excelled in field hockey. After playing for four years at the University of Virginia, she turned to coaching at the high school and collegiate levels; she has seen two of her athletes compete in the Olympics. n Corey Turnage ’88 was a stand-out soccer player during his years at Steward, and he hasn’t stopped playing the sport yet. He went on to play at the University of Connecticut and ultimately at the professional level.

Look Who’s Talking Bruce Secrest Director of Athletics 2015-16

How will you take leadership from the baseball field to other sports?

One, I think I am the same person no matter whether I’m coaching baseball or in the Athletic Department. My leadership style is that I am a server and not one who feels I need to be the boss. My form of leadership is leading by doing, and my goal is to be a blessing to our staff, to our athletes, and to our parents by serving and helping them. I think when people see how much you care, it changes how they care. People know how important baseball is for me,…and I think that carries over to them. I am the same person, though, whether it’s baseball or whether it’s girls field hockey or anything else. The reason I am passionate is that I love Steward School, and I love our kids. My goal is to see how I can be a blessing to those that are in charge, to our students, to our athletes, and to our parents. I plan to continue doing what I’ve been doing because that’s who I am and go from there. That’s the only way I know.

What’s your plan for mentoring young coaches?

You are continually mentoring; it’s not a “step one, step two, step three, and you are finished” process. From my experience, though, the first thing you have to do is develop relationships with your coaches. They have to know that you care about them, that you love them, that you want what’s best for them, and that you are in their corner. Then, while developing relationships, I need to be a support to them. I need to be the guy that is encouraging them when they are doing well because no matter who you are, everybody enjoys a pat on the back. A big part of mentoring is observing.

From observing coaches, I need to ask myself “Are we using our time wisely at practices?” and “Are we using everything we have at our disposal to help our athletes be their best?” Then, I need to sit down and talk with coaches, and I have to hold them accountable for the things that we have agreed upon to make the program better.

What makes you passionate about being an athletic director?

One time I heard an old man say, “When you can find a job that you love getting up in the morning and going to and you love doing, you’ll never work a day in your life.” So for 32 years, I’ve never worked a day in my life, because I love what I do—I love going to work, I love teaching, I love coaching. All these years, I’ve loved what I’ve done because I know it is exactly what the Lord wants me to do. So, it’s easy for me to be passionate about what I do. What’s most import to me is my faith, and everything I do, I do for Him. And, I know people are counting on me to help them and be a blessing to them. You don’t want to let anyone down. I say I am going to work, but I don’t feel like it’s going to work. I’m lucky; I guess I’m one of the few that are because I talk to so many people who start Monday feeling like they can’t wait until Friday. For me, all through the weekend, I can’t wait for Monday.

What is your vision for Steward athletics?

My vision is that we can be a blessing to the students, the athletes, and the parents at The Steward School. At the end of the day, we will have young men and young women who will walk away from the fields and learn what work is, learn what being a teammate is, learn to think about others before they focus on themselves, learn about fair play, and learn about giving their best. When they walk away, they are going to be better husbands or wives and better moms or dads one day. If our young people leave our program having learned those characteristics and being able to emulate them as adults, we’ve been successful. All the other things are icing on the cake compared to that.

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Tips for happy campers

By Bruce Hammond, LCSW, Westhampton Family Psychologists, PC I’m a firm believer in challenging our kids to move beyond their comfort zones so that they can grow. Virginia Satir, widely regarded as “the mother of family therapy” wrote, “Parenting is all about letting go, and it begins at birth.” With a heavy dose of love and empathy, it is our job as parents to teach and encourage resiliency, frustration tolerance, and conflict resolution skills. Sleep-away camp creates the perfect opportunity to practice these skills while letting go. Pave the way for your kids to develop these life skills using the following common sense approach to summer camp do’s and don’ts.

DO

n Provide practice separation times away from home and parents prior to camp. n Involve your child in picking the camp. n Familiarize your child with the camp, either online or in person if possible. n Explore camp activities and sleeping arrangements. n Discuss the camp’s daily routine. n Allow your child to attend with a friend, especially the first time. n Include your child in shopping and packing for camp. n Provide your child with stationery, stamps, and pre-addressed envelopes. n Write to your child expressing enthusiasm and joy for all the fun he or she is having.

DON’T

n Go into great detail informing your child about what’s going on at home. n Tell your child how much you miss him or her and can’t wait for him or her to get home. n Worry! You will convey that worry to your child.

Remember, parenting is all about letting them go. Sit back, be happy for your child, and enjoy watching him or her grow into an independent, confident child!

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Summer camp care packages

A

By Lori Jobe

highlight of attending overnight camp is opening special packages from home. These packages are small gifts of love that remind campers that they are missed.

But how in the world to you decide what to send?

n Read through camp rules. It is important to understand what items are allowed. For example, not all camps allow gifts of food and candy. How disappointing to open a package full of bubble gum only to have a camp counselor confiscate the lot because M: FRO gum is against the rules. Some camps limit the number of packages campers may receive, but most allow unlimited cards and letters. n Know your camper. What are things that will remind your camper of home without being extravagant or inducing homesickness? A card with a picture of a cute cat may be a cheerful reminder of home, while a picture of the family pet may be too much for a young camper to bear. n Be strategic. Does the camp have theme nights? If Tuesday’s theme is “holiday extravaganza,” send a Valentine with cupid-themed knock-knock jokes or riddles. Not only will your camper get a big laugh, he or she will be able to share the jokes with cabin mates. Shareable gifts are always a hit; toys such as Frisbees or MadLibs allow campers to interact with new friends. Also, consider the days your camper may need a bigger pick-me-up. If drop-off is Sunday, a big package isn’t necessary on Monday, but by Tuesday, the camper may need a bigger treat. n Plan in advance. If your child’s camp is only one week, you will need to mail items early to guarantee arrival before the end of the session. Some camps allow you to leave care packages on drop-off day, which saves postage and ensures timely delivery.

Sample Week of Care Packages

Sun.

No package needed. After all, you’ve just spent hours in the car with your cherub. If you must, a small treat may be left under the pillow to be found later, such as a journal with a comforting note encouraging your camper to keep a diary of daily activities.

Or, leave a treat that would be a great icebreaker for the whole cabin, such as playing cards or a group game like UNO.

Mon.

Depending on your child’s needs, this may be a day where only a funny card or note is necessary. If you sense your child may be a little homesick, a small lovey or stuffed animal is an appropriate gift.

Tues.

This is a great day for a shareable treat. If candy is allowed, send

enough for the cabin. Small party favor-type gifts are popular. Imagine a cabin full of boys with bouncy balls or stickon mustaches!

Wed.

Is today a neon space adventure or night-time scavenger hunt? Glow sticks make a perfect treat! Not up for another package? A card or note would be welcome. Make a homemade word find with camp or encouraging words for your camper. There are many websites that make this an easy task.

Thur.

By this point, your camper is sure to be tired. Quiet treats, such as small books or magazines, would be a welcome distraction from the whirl of daily activity. Is there a big game of capture the flag,

counselors versus campers planned for Friday? Do your kiddos need war paint?

Eye-black, available from any sporting goods store, is a great treat to bring campers together and to prepare them for battle!

Fri.

You’ve both almost made it! Now, it is okay to send a note telling your camper how excited you are to see him or her at pick-up tomorrow. Send funny selfies showing how you’ve spent your week. Your camper will enjoy seeing you napping with the dog or doing his or her chores.

Sat.

The big day has arrived! No treats today, but mom and dad are the ones who get the biggest gifts…bags of dirty laundry and lots of hugs and kisses from happy campers.

Good as

GOLD When it reopens in August, the Spartan Shop can be your pot of gold at the end of the summer rainbow! School supplies, blue-and-gold clothing, spirit gear, you name it…if it’s Spartanrelated, you’ll find it there. Here’s a yellow-themed sample of what’s in store, but visit the Spartan Shop during limited hours on orientation days (August 19, 20, and 27) or once school begins to find much more.

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alumninews

class notes

’80s

Ned Rorem’s Our Town this summer.

Catherine Woody Graves ’98 and Adam Graves ’98 are expecting their first child in June. Catherine is currently serving on the Steward Alumni Association Board and as the Class of 1998 representative.

’00s Keith Fairly ’81 just celebrated his 27th year with Ricoh USA, where he is a global account manager in Richmond. His wife, Teresa, continues to work part-time at VCU Health System in the NICU. Their daughter, Jessica, is a second-year student at UVA; she is double majoring in biology and Spanish and plays in the Cavalier Marching Band. Their son, Chalin, received an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy and will be reporting to Annapolis on July 1 to begin Plebe Summer.

Sound & Image Design, owned by Graham Hickerson ’89, was recently voted #1 for home media sales and installation by R Home magazine.

’90s

Catherine Leitch Emery ’93 and her husband, John Tayloe Emery, own and operate Mount Airy Farms LLC, through which they host weddings and gala events, offer guided waterfowl hunts, and grow flowers for local markets. See article on page 11 or mountairyplantation.com.

Stephanie Mann ’93 is a member of the Boston Opera Collaborative and serves as the alumni coordinator and historian.

She participated in a masterclass of Mohammed Fairouz’s works in 2014 and will be portraying Mrs. Gibbs in BOC’s production of

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Michael Congdon ’00 is managing the musical duo, McBeth, which is popular in Taiwan. The group was recently discovered by the Mandarinand Canotonese-speaking world’s biggest superstar, who recorded a version of their song “The Rest of Time.” (see page 11)

Kelsea Pieters ’09, a producer/reporter for WVTF National Public Radio, received an award for “Best Feature or Human Interest Story” from the Associated Press in Charlottesville. She is also getting married in March 2016.

’10s On March 23, Jason Lewis ’00 and his wife, Danielle, welcomed a third baby boy, Chandler Jason Lewis, who joins big brothers aged three and six.

Brianna Bloom Spotts ’01 was recently profiled on Richmond BizSense.com for her new business, Groovin’ Gears.

Operating out of Scott’s Addition, Groovin’ Gears offers tours of Richmond’s restaurants and breweries on a 14-person bike trolley.

Brooke Secrest Pillow ’05 recently received a national sales award from Sherwin Williams.

Hillary Lane ’10 graduated from Christopher Newport University with a Bachelor of Arts in English literature in May 2014. She is currently studying

Hall of Famers Alumni gathered for a group photo at the Athletic Hall of Fame inauguration in January (see page 42). to become a teacher and will graduate from CNU in May 2015 with a Master of Arts in teaching. She hopes to teach in Richmond or Newport News for the 2015-16 school year.

Madelyn Stoneburner ’10 graduated from the College of Charleston in the spring of 2014 with a double major in arts management and Spanish and a minor in business. After graduation, she spent two months doing an internship, six weeks in Southeast Asia, and now lives in Charleston.

Eleanor Jones ’11 presented an undergraduate research project at the Science, Society, and the Arts conference at Washington and Lee University, where she is a senior. The project, which took place in Ahuachapan, El Salvador, used 3D printing and Orthoplastic (thermoplastic) to create prosthetic arms for amputees.

For more alumni news, check out pages 4-11!

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Crossroads Crossroads Spring/Summer Spring/Summer2015 2015

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Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Richmond, VA Permit No. 320 Our passion is helping students discover theirs.

11600 Gayton Road Richmond, Virginia 23238 www.stewardschool.org

come join the fun

this summer

With over 50 camps to encourage intellectual growth, discover creativity, and boost athletic skill, your JK-12 child is sure to find the perfect way to spend summer days—we promise it will be a SUMMER EXPERIENCE to remember! A sample of camps offered: ● Culinary Camp ● Glass Fusion and Clay ● Baseball ● Bob Foley Basketball ● Field Hockey ● Lacrosse

2015 For camp descriptions and registration information, visit stewardschool.org/summer.

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● Tennis and Volleyball ● Chess ● Video Game Creation ● Art Camps with Young Rembrandts ● Lego Camps with Bricks 4 Kidz ● Amazing Makerspace Creations