IN THE LOOP A Publication for the Alumni Community Please share this newsletter with friends and family.
Planting Seeds
In my first year at Waldorf School of by Robert Schiappacasse, Lexington it School Director has been a pleasure to meet many alumni and alumni parents at various events for the school. The high caliber of WSL graduates is remarkable, and it is delightful to discover where your passions have taken you as you advance in your studies and pursue your interests into adulthood. This past year has been one of planting seeds for the future. We have inaugurated a campus Master Planning process to improve and expand our facilities. Alumni par-
Waldorf School of Lexington
Summer 2012
ents and staff have created an Alumni Committee. This initiative is facilitating an alumni network that will help us to stay in touch with 30 years of graduating classes and into the future. We are thrilled to report that this year alumni and alumni parents attended the Holiday Fair, enjoyed sublime music at the Mendenhall Concert, relived May Day, danced with us at our 2nd annual spring Gala, and helped out at the 5th grade Olympics. Ben Deily, ‘82 was our special guest speaker at graduation. He provided an engaging address with wise advice to Class of 2012. (For a transcript see the Summer News.) Visit our website for upcoming events and become a Facebook friend for the latest WSL news. We hope to see more of you at events this next year, so keep in touch!
From Opera to Hindi by Christina James, Class of 2001 After guest-judging the discus event at this year’s 5th grade Olympics, I was again reminded of how Waldorf education prepared me for the choices I have made in life. When learning how to sing, act and move at the same time in opera scenes classes at Oberlin Conservatory, I used the exercises I’d learned in Eurythmy to remember pitch intervals and integrate movement with sound production. When learning Indonesian, I recalled the songs in Spanish and German that I had learned at Waldorf to remember numbers and colors. Having lived and stayed in many different places since 8th grade, from Ghana to the Czech Republic, I am now studying Hindi to prepare for my next adventure as a Shansi Fellow through Oberlin Shansi, an NGO that sends graduates to sites in China, Japan, Indonesia and India to promote cross-cultural learning. I will be going to the Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh, India to work at Jagori Grameen (www.jagorigrameen.org), an NGO that helps women and other marginalized communities get access to legal aid, life-skills training and health education. I will work with the Aware Women’s Action for Justice team to use theater as a tool for educational and social change, organizing female empowerment workshops, designing and implementing small research projects related to female empowerment, and teaching an English class. I hope this experience will prepare me for a career in the State Department as a Foreign Service Officer—a shift in
Christina in a traditional Indonesian boat
focus from Vocal Performance studies at Oberlin where I pursued a childhood dream of being a singer. As I began learning the languages required of me for my performance studies, I realized that they could take me to continents like Africa and Asia, giving me a world-view that extended beyond Europe. I applied for a Fulbright Fellowship to Indonesia in 2010 and haven’t looked back since. Singing will always be a part of my life, and it is a great ice-breaker when getting to know people from different cultures. In fact, I hope to study Hindustani classical singing while in India. Waldorf education encouraged me to wonder about these far away places. Now that wonder has turned into action and I always hope to reconnect to WSL, part of my base camp for my adventures. Christina graduated from Buckingham Browne and Nichols in 2005 and Oberlin Conservatory and College in 2010.
Alumni Profile Abigail Spindel, Class of 1994 Abigail, a camerawoman and television producer, graduated from Williams College and Columbia University where she completed a master’s degree in international affairs and journalism. Her work has appeared on PBS, MSNBC, and MTV, among others. Abigail has traveled extensively in pursuit of her interests, including studying in Russia as a Fulbright Scholar in 2004 and covering politics in Pakistan as a photojournalist and filmmaker. To see more of her work, go to www.abigailspindel.com.
Explain how you came to the Waldorf School of Lexington. My mother was a midwife so she had a proclivity towards the natural. Being sceptical about manufactured toys and teachers with mini-fridges behind their desks who yelled at the kids and other what-not from the public school I attended, she fell in love with the Waldorf school when she walked into the building for the first time.
Top: MIlitary Hospital, Moscow, Russia, 2004
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Bottom: Mining Town, Northern Areas, Pakistan, 2009
Who was your class teacher? Our teacher was Mr. Bloomquist. When I visited the class for the first time beforing enrolling in Second Grade, he left the room and came back as his “twin brother.” That was the kind of sense of humor I could get behind. He is a terrific story-teller and extremely patient. Please share any particular memories you have about your class and classmates. They were the building blocks of how I understand character. It’s nice to remember the class before puberty ravaged us and we asserted our natural interests: Blake and Jesse’s friendship and their imaginative games, Theresa’s dedication to the end-of-year books, Carmen’s wry sense of humor, Matthew Hill’s logic, Christiaan’s maturity and friendship with our teacher, Jennifer’s beautiful dancer physique, Matthew K and Laura’s love of the outdoors and animals, Claire’s discipline in writing an entire book of fiction, Meghan’s kindness and Megan’s endless reading.... I loved our trips to Hawthorne Valley Farm, when I think we came together as a class. But I think the founding myth of our class was based on the stories Mr. Bloomquist told us about the Norse Gods and Goddesses. And then when we embodied them in a class play we absorbed those archetypes. I can easily see Blake as Odin, Meghan as Freyja and Theresa as Loki, although there was a little Loki in many of us, I’m sure. And speaking of Loki: of course getting in trouble! There was a kind of middle-school middle-ages variety show aspect to getting one’s name on the board, the class ooo-ing and ah-ing and then the minor public humiliation of standing behind one’s desk. I think I had lunch on time only once or twice. It’s all pretty vivid, and I’m happy for that. I remember walking in the woods behind the school and Mrs. Wells had her finger bit by a gnome under a mushroom! How utterly terrifying.
Did Waldorf education influence how you approach your studies and work? The way I approach work is to run towards situations I’m uncomfortable with. Actually that’s how I have approached life thus far... it’s even how I’ve chosen some friendships and relationships. Maybe it’s the desire to exercise the muscle of courage, to be more of a pagan god of courage. More philosophically, I think that Waldorf or the Waldorf aesthetic set me up as a nonmaterialist, and taught me how to appreciate simplicity. Why did you choose your field of study? I studied anthropology and political science with an emphasis on Russia and later Africa. I was attracted to other cultures by default. Most of my friends in high school were from other countries, and I loved going to their houses and getting a bit more of a taste of the spectrum of human experience. I was attracted to Russia initially because of the beauty of the culture, and then stayed interested because of the work I was doing with Chechen refugees in 2000. I was attracted to studying Africa in particular because I’m always trying to figure out how it is that some conflicts are hyped beyond their body counts and others, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, are swept under the rug. What are you doing now? I moved to São Paulo Brazil last year and am settling
in, learning Portuguese, volunteering with teenagers, and finding work here and there in the film and art world. My boyfriend and I are working on a television documentary about the first street images of São Paulo, taken in the 1910s by an Italian photographer and discovered by his grandson who is a beautiful concert pianist. I’m a little in love with the city, a little overwhelmed, and definitely fascinated. I have a dog named Dalila who we found on the street in São Paulo’s periferia. She is the most chill, loving dog I’ve ever met. She reminds me not to expect to know what will emerge from the rough neighborhoods. Have you had any particular experiences that have influenced your path in life?
I’ve had a few brushes with violence and death, I was lit on fire in a cave in Ukraine, caught in gun-fire in Pakistan and robbed a couple of times at gunpoint in the States. Basically realizing the randomness of violence and then in addition becoming disillusioned with the nature of ‘hotel journalism’ and cowboy/girl journalists knocked me quickly off the path of becoming a conflict photographer. The thing about having a piecemeal career is that often too many experiences influence my direction. It’s easy to get lost. That’s my cue to chill out, eat a guava and do some watercoloring.
Alumni at Waldorf Olympics Once again Zeus bestowed WSL with a glorious sunny day for its Olympic Games. The fifth grade athletes were cheered on by parents, alumni and many friends from the community.
Top L-R: Christina James, ’01 and Cade Eastman, ‘01; Chris O’Gara, CT’86 and Stephen Bloomquist CT‘85, CT‘94, CT’03, CT’11 Bottom L-R: Tuija Voutialinen, P‘02, P‘05, P‘07, P‘09 and Anniina Voutilainen-Gregg, ‘05; Nancy Heselton, P ‘06, P’08 and Chris Voss, ‘03; Nancy Heselton, P ‘06, P’08 and and Amelia Turner, P’10 measure the long jump.
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Class Notes Ben Deily, ’82 addresses the Class of 2012
Class of 2008 Front L-R: Caitlin Canty, Lucy Kania. Back L-R: Emma Busiek, Mirabel Winston, Molly Carnathan, Nate Lance, Ben Clements, Annika Voss, Lily Fishman, Emma Hede-Brierley, Sarah Schnebly, Emma Currier
Members of the Class of 2008 gathered at Lily Fishman’s house before their upcoming high school graduations. Their post-graduation plans include: Barnard College Champlain College Clark University Colorado College Drew University George Washington University Ithaca College Kenyon College Skidmore College SUNY/Binghamton Trinity College Tufts University University of Massachusetts University of Vermont Gap Year in South America
Ben and Aidan lend a hand.
Lily Fishman, Emma Hede-Brierley Kati Farkas Lilia Gaufberg Caitlin Canty Peter Braaten Ben Heselton-Clements Nate Lance Sarah Schnebly Annika Voss Phaedra DeNatale Andrew Donahue, Emma Currier Geoff DiNardo, Lucy Kania Molly Carnathan Mirabel Winston Ajanta Mahli
Ben Busiek, ’04 graduated this year from UMass Lowell with a Bachelors Degree in Mechanical Engineering. He begins work at the end of July at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard where he will help design deep sea submersibles used for ocean rescue missions. Ben said, “It is what I have always wanted to do.” He also said that the class of 2004 had a get together this year and they discussed how Waldorf education “gave us a base for becoming anything we wanted to become.”
Aiden Freeburg, ’09 will be a senior at Arlington Catholic this fall. He is an avid baseball player and plays on the school team as well as for the New England League.
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Guest speaker, Ben Deily, a graduate of WSL’s first-ever 8th Grade class, addressed this year’s graduates from the humorous, yet wise, perspective of “some old guy.” His speech is reprinted in its entirety in the Summer News.
Waldorf School of Lexington graduates are vibrant and engaged individuals. As the school continues to expand its alumni outreach, we hope to hear directly from more of you about what you are doing. PLEASE BE IN TOUCH! Email your news to the Editors at alumni@ thewaldorfschool.org. Carol Damm, P’09, P’11 Elizabeth Green, P’09, P’15 Linda Mack, Interim Director of Development
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