The Compass | Winter 2023

WINTER 2023

Catching Up WITH KATE

In her second year as Head of School, Kate Saunders P’17, ’21 has overseen some of the most significant progress in Tilton’s history. As we turn the page on 2022, we caught up with Saunders to hear what she’s excited about and what she’s looking forward to in 2023.

TC: As construction continues across multiple projects on campus, how would you describe the progress of the last two years?

KS: We are writing the script for a transformational window into our history. We keep breaking records and it just makes us hungry to do more. We have raised nearly $20M and are tackling extraordinary projects that will define the next generation of Tilton School for our students.

TC: What are the newest developments in Knowles Hall?

KS: We are excited to see the interior take shape! It is really funny now in the winter with the scaffolding covered by a protective wrap — it looks quite strange yet there is a metamorphosis underway inside bringing the building back to life. At no point have we compromised on the quality. We will need all our friends and family to help us cross the finish line and that makes me excited to find a creative way to represent that support in the final iteration of the project.

TC: There’s so much work happening that we can see (and hear) on a daily basis, but what’s happening behind the scenes that will impact the future of the school?

KS: One of the key behind-thescenes initiatives that’s made a huge difference in our direction as an institution is a commitment to professional development,

compensation, and fun activities to take care of our community. In order for Tilton to continue on its trajectory to being a top independent school, we have to make Tilton one of the best places to work. I’m humbled by the commitment of our faculty and staff and we’re matching that commitment on our end.

We’ve also seen a major impact through scholarships that support new programs, diversity, and young women. These new opportunities would not be possible without our donors coming forward to help champion the causes they care about. Their leadership, and the leadership from all levels of our organization, is making this a transformational time for our students and our community — and there will be more exciting news to share on this front soon!

TC: What is yet to come that has you feeling excited?

KS: In my heart I love to design and build. That’s why it’s so exciting that, as the physical campus starts to take shape, we’re also strengthening and fortifying our program to meet the needs of today’s students. I love watching our faculty bring learning to life alongside the coaches and program leaders who unlock the potential in our athletes and artists. I love how much fun the leadership team and faculty have together — I think it helps us be creative and engaged as we build something really special at Tilton.

TC: We’ve seen some amazing participation from alumni in the classroom this year — what has it been like to see former students so involved and how can others get involved?

KS: Our alumni grow up way too fast, yet they are all so young at heart! The engagement has been unparalleled this year with alumni collaborating with us in classrooms, college counseling, and so much more. I also love hearing stories of their escapades, like the secret room we discovered in Knowles. During the course of construction, we found a space between the second and third floors that was filled with signatures of former Tilton students. It’s a wonderful reminder that Knowles has been a home to so many.

TC: To those alumni and friends who are reading this and thinking about getting involved — what would you say to them? Why Tilton?

KS: The world needs schools like Tilton. We are developing a program that is highly personalized and helps students develop confidence and character while also making an impact in their community. This work will help Tilton emerge as a leader in independent education, and I think that is a north star we can all get behind. The construction on campus is a physical manifestation of these changes and it comes alongside the strongest faculty and staff group I have experienced over the last 15 years. This is truly an extraordinary time to be a part of Tilton — your voice and engagement as our community is what will make this work special!

“There is a metamorphosis underway inside, bringing the building back to life.”

Kate Saunders P’17, ’21 Head of School

The hallways in East Knowles have been torn back to the original floorboards as renovations continue.

RAMNATION The Reach of

You may have noticed a colorful new addition inside Skinner Tower this year. To celebrate our global community, flags now fly from the second and third floors representing the countries that make up the student body at Tilton.

“We’ve worked hard to expand our reach and encourage students to find their second home here on the Hill,” says Director of Admissions Candace Landroche P’02. After seeing international student representation decline during the initial years of the

RAMS TRAVEL FROM:

• Bahamas

• Canada

• China

• Croatia

• Czech Republic

• Dominican Republic

• Finland

• France

• Germany

• Ghana

• Greece

• Japan

• Mexico

• South Korea

• Spain

• Switzerland

• Turkey

• Ukraine

pandemic, Tilton proudly welcomed students from 18 different countries for the 2022-23 academic year, nearly tripling the number from the previous year, says Landroche.

Several international students have shared their culture with the community in a series of events, including Ukrainian national Andriana Petrykevych ’24. To see and hear more about her experience and get a look at what it’s like to be an international student at Tilton, scan the QR code to the right for bonus video content!

FROM DAY OFF TO Day On

By: Meg Smith

On Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Tilton students and staff turned what is typically a ‘day off’ into a ‘day on’ through several labors of love — approximately 30,000 of them.

To honor and commemorate the civil rights leader, Tilton School partnered with Meals of Hope, a nonprofit organization created to assist food-insecure communities

across the country. Together the two groups packaged, measured, sealed, and stocked shelf-safe meals, ready for the New Hampshire Food Bank to distribute.

Spearheaded by the Black Student Union (BSU) club at Tilton —and made possible with support from alum and trustee Mark Rudd ’69 — the community divided into 11 stations, each in a race to package as many boxes as possible. Teams were tasked with carefully measuring ingredients, weighing the completed meal bags, sealing them for transport, and tallying how many meals they packaged. “It was pretty stressful planning the event,” says BSU member Isaac Carter ’24. “But everything turned out better than we could have imagined. We had been planning this event since the start of the year, so a lot of thought went into everything.”

In one afternoon, Rams packaged 32,832 meals that will be delivered across New Hampshire, helping the New Hampshire Food Bank Network

“We are looking forward to continually making Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day a day of service at Tilton, and next year we’re hoping to have more events throughout the year to help the local community.”

Isaac Carter ’24

to provide nutritious meals to our neighbors. “As for the event itself, we completely smashed our initial goal,” Carter explains.

Meals for Hope works to supply families with meals rich in vitamins, minerals, and proteins to bridge the gap that food leaves in communities that do not have access to it. According to BSU faculty advisor Maura Veilleux, the meals that Tilton packaged will reach dozens of communities across the state, with the potential to impact thousands of families.

“We are looking forward to continually making Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day a day of service at Tilton, and next year we’re hoping to have more events throughout the year to help the local community,” Carter says. After a day filled with music, laughter, and lighthearted competition, at the close of the event, several community members walked away asking, “when can we do this again?”

Leading

THE WAY

By: Meg Smith

What started as a club idea from Tilton student Abigail Gilbert ’23 grew to catalyze a network of women set on amplifying their voices. The Women’s Interest Group meets weekly to bring Rams together, both current and past. Set in motion alongside incredible donor support, Gilbert’s idea helped spur the creation of the Young Women’s+ Leadership Program (YWLP), which is in full swing this year with several exciting events being offered to students across campus.

For the second time, the group hosted the YWLP Summit, welcoming numerous alumni and community partners to the Hill on October 15, 2022. The event began with a keynote address from public radio journalist Laura Knoy, followed by workshops with Tilton alumnae Michaela Callahan ’09, Miyoshie Lamothe-Aime ’09, Jenn Persio ’09, and Kelly Shen ’13.

“I am so proud of the young women in the YWLP who have kicked off this work to support the campus,”

says Head of School Kate Saunders P ’17, ’21. “The intersection of capital support for the events and scholarship funds through the program has cultivated a special connection with the young women who are leading the way on campus.”

As winter settled in, Tilton’s Women’s Interest Group has been busy at work hosting activities across campus, including a “female empowering” open skate opportunity where beginners to ice skating could learn and practice the foundational skills in a safe environment, free of judgement.

“The Women’s Interest Group is off to a great start,” says the group’s leader, Gilbert. “Not only are we able to discuss our interests and opinions but we are able to make changes on campus. Throughout our meetings we have created new opportunities for women and girls alike. Whether we are sponsoring open skates or petitioning for an improved school constitution, we are always stiving for better.”

LARRY BARTELL Tubing Night

Among the many events and opportunities that make up the Tilton experience, there are those select memories that students take with them when they leave the Hill. For many, one of these memories is the annual Larry Bartell Tubing Night. This January, Rams adventured to nearby Pats Peak Ski Area to spend an evening under the lights tubing down snowy slopes or watching from the warm lodge, hot cocoa in hand.

The event is affectionately named for Larry Bartell ’76, a former trustee who passionately supported the creation of fun opportunities for Tilton students. Bartell was long known for his kindness, humor, and generosity at Tilton. He spent more than a decade on the Board working to enhance the student experience and facilitate memory-making for generations to come.

His legacy lives on through the creation of a “Fun Fund” — supported by current and former trustees — that provides funds for Tubing Night and other activities throughout the school year.

WHAT COMES After the Hill

By: Bryan Geary

Sarah Morin ’17 kicked off her presentation to Tilton students with authenticity and a dose of experience she picked up along the way. Morin, now a software engineer at Oracle, spoke about her journey and career path as part of the Alumni Speaker Series organized by the Student Experience Block and the Advancement Office. Her opening comments helped establish a connection and helped illustrate that it’s okay to leave the Hill without knowing 100% what will come next. After all, it turned out well for Morin. “I didn’t even consider studying computer science until I was a senior at Tilton,” she says. “I never actually knew where I was headed, but I’m thrilled with where I am.”

With alums ranging from the Class of 1961 to the Class of 2018, today’s Tilton students had the opportunity to hear a variety of perspectives on what comes after the Hill. “I think it was really valuable for our current students to hear about a variety of professions knowing that these people once sat in the same seats as them,” says faculty member Eliza Smith. Part of her work to redesign this aspect of Tilton’s program was to carve out dedicated opportunities for more interaction between current students and alumni. “I feel like sometimes our students have trouble connecting with speakers who have no connection to Tilton. Our alums bring that level of reality that other speakers can’t.”

With more than a dozen former students joining virtually or in person

“If we’re being honest, no one really knows what they want to do.”

over the course of the school year so far, current students are aware and appreciative of their contributions to the present-day Tilton experience.

“It’s important for us to hear about different experiences and possibilities from all perspectives,” says Lily Webster ’24. “Especially in the job field, a lot of people have no idea where to start. These small glances we got to see of their careers made me feel at ease — knowing that there are incredible possibilities after Tilton.”

Various classes have also been able to draw on the specific expertise of alumni in the field, like the Entrepreneurship class through its virtual visit with Chris Burch ’72. With more than 40 years as an entrepreneur, Burch doled out lessons learned along the way and answered questions about his many successful ventures, including Burch Creative Capital and Tory Burch LLC.

“The world we live in today is about me, me, me,” Burch told the students, “and we need people to think about

others. Make your mind a camera — try to understand others and what they want and what they need. Tune in to understand what is next and then partner with creative people with strong intuition — they are the difference makers.” Burch began his career as an entrepreneur by selling sweaters with his brother as an undergraduate student at Ithaca College and reflected on those early days throughout the conversation. His most important takeaway? “Life is about never giving up.”

Regardless of how alumni get involved with programming at Tilton, the takeaway — from students, faculty, and alums themselves — has been overwhelmingly positive. “Giving back through any means is a great way to remind yourself of where you started and how far you’ve come,” says Master Sergeant Michael DeNutte ’05, who spoke about his experience in the Air Force.

“Whenever I reach out to Tilton, I always leave with a smile on my face.”

“These small glances we got to see of their careers made me feel at ease — knowing that there are incredible possibilities after Tilton.”

Lily Webster ’24

Community COFFEE &

By: Bryan Geary

In the heart of New Hampshire’s capital city, just steps from the State House, sits Revelstoke Coffee. For locals, it’s become a Concord staple. The shop just celebrated its fouryear anniversary and, according to Alex Stoyle ’10, their success has been more about community than caffeine.

“We did this for Concord, not for coffee,” says Stoyle, who co-founded Revelstoke with his wife Lyndsey in 2019. “We love coffee and enjoyed traveling and drinking specialty coffee all over the country and the world, so we recognized the need for something like Revelstoke in Concord. When this specific storefront opened up, we were like, ‘Oh my god. This is it.’”

Along the way, they’ve invested not just in their own business, but in the success of their neighbors on Main Street. “99% of the time, you’re not going to be the solution to people’s problems,” he says. “We’re really good at coffee, tea, and light breakfast items, but we love playing concierge too. We get to know our customers and what they’re looking for and send them to a

place that does that well if it’s not us.” That philosophy has led to great partnerships — from locally sourced menu items, to collaborations with local breweries, to pop-up shops run by local merchants on the weekend — that give Revelstoke customers the feeling that they’re in a community hub as much as a coffee shop.

Their work is a culmination of what he’s learned from many experiences along the way, including a year at Tilton as a post-graduate student. Growing up in nearby Goffstown, Stoyle was a basketball standout who got serious about the sport a little later than most of his peers. “It wasn’t really until my junior year,” he says.

“I played AAU ball and had a good year, and I realized I had no idea how any of this worked — trying to get a college scholarship, all of it.”

At the urging of his coaches, he began to consider prep school and ultimately ended up at Tilton, which was just a season removed from winning the 2009 Rebook National

Prep School Championship. “I had a great time and played well but I also saw that I wasn’t necessarily going to end up where my teammates were going in basketball,” he recalls. “I got to understand that I was okay with that.” Stoyle says his time at Tilton, though initially focused on basketball, allowed him the opportunity to explore different interests and develop a sense of self-awareness that helped contribute to his future endeavors.

“I got to take a backseat to younger teammates who were beating me in practice and I embraced being a role player. That helped me be a little more accepting of being the weird kid on the team,” he says with a smile. “I was the kid who was more into art and music — I was okay with being the indie kid.”

Stoyle calls the post-graduate experience one of the best decisions he could have made and remembers feeling “miles ahead of” his peers at Brandeis University who arrived straight from their senior year of high school. It was during his time on the Waltham, MA campus that he first took an entrepreneurship class and realized that owning a business would become a north star for his future plans.

“I did this event called Three Day Startup where you had Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to come up with a business, write a plan, and take it as far as you could,” he remembers.

“It was the most exciting class I could have ever imagined — the group aspect, the business aspect, the problem-solving aspect.”

Stoyle says his time at Tilton allowed him the opportunity to explore different interests and develop a sense of self-awareness that helped contribute to his future endeavors.

Now that he’s lived that exercise out in real life, Stoyle is enjoying reconnecting with Tilton to help bring those types of experiences to today’s students. So far, he’s visited with the school’s Entrepreneurship class and serves as a resource and sounding board for the course’s instructor, Connor Compton. “Just to hear the way that they’re thinking about new and exciting ways to teach kids is so cool,” he says. “Not just a class about entrepreneurship, but asking ‘how are we going to get these kids thinking in a hands-on way about starting a business?’”

Because if you ask him (no offense to his alma-mater) starting a business is a learning experience like no other. “It’s the best education I’ve ever had. It’s not just learning in one subject or being knowledgeable — it’s about having intelligence and understanding how things connect and how to take one subject and bridge it together with another.”

Armed with that experience, he found that his first job in sales out

of college lacked the meaning and purpose he was chasing, and that his favorite days often had nothing to do with his work. “The ones that always stuck out to me were the days that were unpredictable and filled with anxiety,” laughs Stoyle. “I started to think about how I could make more days of my life like that and, ultimately, decided what better way than to open a restaurant?”

Four years later, Revelstoke is part of an emerging Main Street scene and Stoyle still enjoys the quirky items on his to-do list (like annually siphoning water out of the air conditioner). He’s started a new chapter by starting a shared kitchen space that can be used by local restaurants who need prep space or by emerging retailers who don’t have a comparable space of their own.

“We’re putting all of our eggs in this basket,” he says proudly. “We love Concord and we think it still has a ton of potential.”

“To hear the way that they’re thinking about new and exciting ways to teach kids is so cool. Not just a class about entrepreneurship, but asking ‘how are we going to get these kids thinking in a hands-on way about starting a business?’”

Alex Stoyle ’10 Owner, Revelstoke Coffee

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