A Look Back at Spring 2024
ACADEMICS
WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO VISION
We inspire individuals to pursue lives of meaning and purpose.
WHAT WE DO MISSION
We provide students with a world-class liberal arts education that stimulates intellect, ignites passion, and shapes character.
IDEALS WE LIVE BY CORE VALUES
Integrity
We act with integrity in our work, in our choices, and in our relationships. We aspire to the liberal arts ideal of wholeness, where honest self-examination makes possible integrated selfunderstanding.
Excellence
We embrace elevated standards of knowledge, performance, and character. We strive for excellence in everything we do, starting with excellence of effort.
Curiosity
We prize curiosity. We cultivate and celebrate the desire to know, to do, to question, to re-examine, and to improve.
Responsibility
Our commitment to responsibility starts with our individual lives and actions and extends outward in service to communities, both local and global.
Caring
We learn best in a caring environment, where respect and inclusion make possible the deepest forms of intellectual, emotional, and character growth.
Birding Buddies, Shiv S. ’28 and Baraka S. ’35 looking for birds on campus. April 2024. Photo by Heather Mortenson.
ACADEMICS
Poe during the Class V Celebration. June 2024. Photo by Heather Mortenson.
CLASSES & STUDENT PROJECTS
Upper School students during their Physics class with Mr. Joslin. January 2024. Photo by Neisha Williams.
Students in Class V practicing how to critique, revise and edit each other's essays. February 2024. Photo by Heather Mortenson.
PreK-3 learning about the role and responsibilities of Firefighters as Community Helpers. March 2024. Photo by Heather Mortenson.
Class VI students acting out 'The Seven Ages of Man' during their Shakespearience Lab. January 2024. Photo by Neisha Williams.
Class XII students presenting their final projects at the Medical Anthropology Poster Fair. March 2024. Photo by Neisha Williams.
Class V students, Sofia O. ’31 and Amin A. ’31 dissecting a sheep heart. April 2024. Photo by Heather Mortenson.
Manna A. ’35 and Daphne B. ’35, learning about how birds use their beaks to dig for food. May 2024. Photo by Heather Mortenson.
Upper School French students learning about the French-speaking country, Mali. May 2024. Photo by Neisha Williams.
CUM LAUDE SOCIETY 2024
In April of 2024, fourteen members of Waterford’s Class of 2024 were inducted into the Cum Laude Society — a century-old organization dedicated to the goal of recognizing and honoring academic excellence. Its member institutions include the very finest independent schools in the country and around the world. Waterford School is the only chapter school of the Cum Laude Society in Utah.
Each year, the Cum Laude selection committee aims to honor students who demonstrate true scholarship. Committee members look at students’ academic records and students’ contributions to the lively intellectual community that is fostered in Waterford's classrooms. This honor is bestowed upon the members of a graduating class who have a record of excellence in all academic disciplines and to those who demonstrate sustained commitment to the life of the mind.
Students formally inducted into the Cum Laude Society join the ranks of honored graduates from Waterford and other independent schools.
These students from the Class of 2024 were inducted into the Cum Laude Society this spring:
Tyler Adams
Ethan Brennan
Caroline Connolly
Marie Franzen
Nathan Kwon
Maggie Liu
Molly Mascardo
Alessia Massinople
Shayan Pandit
Ivan Post
Lauren Watabe
Gia Weaver
Niko Weaver
Kevin Zhang (not pictured)
Cum Laude Society members. April 2024. Photo by Neisha Williams
Class IX students assembling newborn mother kits for women in Guatemala. May 2024. Photo by Neisha Williams.
Class X students packing for the Pamela Atkinson Resource Center, a division of the Road Home. February 2024. Photo by Neisha Williams.
Waterford’s US Robotics Team at the Utah Regional robotics competition. March 2024. Photo provided by James Harris.
Waterford’s Science Olympiad team at the National Science Olympiad Competition. May 2024. Photo provided by Daniel Osipovitch.
CREATING
Adapted from a speech given by Emily Mortensen, History Teacher
Mónica Guzmán’s speech, this April, was the perfect chapter one to what I want to share today. She spoke of purpose, of signals, of joy.
I wish we were sitting around a campfire in Alaska’s Chugach Mountains because that is my favorite place in the world. But the concert hall will do.
You are, by virtue of sitting here, about 20 rungs up the ladder from many students in this world by sheer luck of the draw. In some ways. In other ways, maybe not. I guess it depends on what ladder you are climbing.
Appropriately, you are short on life experience. You have not yet gone to college, lived alone, attended grad school, maybe raised a family or chosen a partner, taken care of aging parents. Maybe you have achieved nothing or very little alone, independent of anyone’s support. Some of these things might await you.
Teenage confidence is a double-edged sword. You think you can do it all. At seventeen I decided I was done with high school. My college admissions were secure, I was bored with school, itching to get out into the world.
My parents let me graduate early from high school and move, alone, to London when I was seventeen. Just barely seventeen. But this is not something I would have encouraged any of my three own precocious daughters to do. I’m not sure why they thought this was a good idea. But I have to say, I salute my younger self for that courage.
But when I look back, I see that this felt to me like a necessary experience, this need to break away from parental protection and
see how I landed. I was trying, I see now, to discover a sense of my own self. You all might feel this need, and it hits in fits and starts right about now, and it can feel both urgent and terrifying.
My parents believed strongly that my life was my job. Life was different in the 80s, beyond the big hair and the leg warmers and funky styles. We had great music—U2, Rush, Boston, Journey, ABBA. The times then were not simpler, but different. For example, in college, I was in Virginia and my family was in Alaska, almost 4,000 miles away. I spoke to them for about ten minutes every Sunday night. We sent occasional letters by snail mail.
My parents never asked me about my grades. I don’t remember if I even told them where I applied to college.
But they believed in me. They gave me both nature through DNA and nurture through a loving childhood. They handed me my life to create. They knew I needed to create a self, a personhood, separate from them. I am forever grateful for the gift they gave me of independence and this chance to create my own selfhood.
There are some philosophical disagreements about the idea of an ego or self. You might consider learning how great thinkers view a self and how one can flourish as an individual within a society. But for the sake of today think of it as your unique identity.
You cannot AI a self.
You cannot google a self.
It is not a To-Do list or a transcript.
Social media doesn’t reveal the depth a self can be.
A developed self is not a series of labels or categories or tidy columns of traits. Forget about those. You will change and shift between columns and categories. They don’t hold.
Creating and discovering a self is arduous, exciting and necessary. It is a lifelong process of absorption and adaptation. You, yourself, will evolve.
You will get some things wrong. I used to think that what mattered most was having the right answers.
But I have come to believe that what matters most in understanding and forming a self is the quality of our questions, not necessarily the answers. A thoughtful question redirects and transforms.
I want to tell you about an ordinary man who posed an extraordinary question. He believed in the value of humanities courses, but above all he believed in the value of humanity.
He was a professor named Earl Shorris, living in NYC. It was the mid-90s. He created not just a self of compassion, but he devoted his adult life to helping others expand their sense of self in the world.
The extraordinary question he asked was, “What would happen if we taught those fellow human beings living in the most dire poverty in NYC about Socrates, philosophy, history, literature, art?” These are things you learn about every day at Waterford. But this is not the case for most Middle School students or Upper School students or adults in our world.
But he didn’t just wonder. He acted. His question changed lives. He actually committed a big part of his life to the ideal that ALL people should learn to think, should learn the humanities, these big ideas and things you are practically drowning in at Waterford.
So his single curious question led to the formation of the Clemente program, and over time it spread from New York to Chicago to San Francisco and Portland and Salt Lake City. Thousands of people have experienced the education he created.
Professors around the country advertised free college classes in homeless shelters, laundromats, food bank lines, health clinics. They sought out the people in the margins. People we often, in our own hubris and neglect, pass by, or think of as numbers not people. They put up signs, they passed out fliers, they asked for applications from those who wanted to learn. Since 1995, when he first asked the question, thousands of curious, eager students took the Clemente program up on its offer. In Salt Lake it was called the Venture Program.
Clemente wasn’t about transcripts or grades. It wasn’t about getting into a top college or pleasing parents or earning an income to buy a bunch of stuff or live in a fancy house or material status in shoes or cars or vacations.
Nothing is wrong with that, except that education for these students had no connection or consideration of such superficialities. They were hungry, physically and metaphorically. Hungry.
Some students enrolled to role model a beautiful hope to their children while they lived in homeless shelters.
Some students enrolled for a second chance.
Some yearned for confidence.
Some for the light that great ideas bring to the drudgery of disappointing lives.
Some for a sense of control in lives with very little within their control.
There was an urgency for them. Most Clemente students had seen their education interrupted because of poverty, early parenthood, homelessness, or addiction.
Folding chairs were set up in makeshift classrooms in public spaces. There was no dining hall, or concert hall, or art studio or uniform or Chromebooks. Just a teacher and probably eager but hesitant students.
Imagine the first day of class. Imagine being asked to write a paragraph for the first time in your life at age forty. Would you have the tenacity to show up, and risk and push into that uncomfortable space? What might the students be wearing, feeling that first class? What lives would they be returning to afterward?
They studied Shakespeare, and shared great works of music, paintings, literature, writing, and all about some of the world’s best thinkers. Imagine seeing Dorothea Lange’s masterful photos of the Great Depression, or a Van Gogh for the first time in your thirties. They learned about American History, and loved that history even within a country that had often systematically failed them or their families. They read “Odysseus,” like you did in Class VIII, and William Carlos Williams and Emily Dickinson or this quote by Pablo Neruda.
“Someday, somewhere — anywhere, unfailingly, you’ll find yourself, and that, and only that, can be the happiest or bitterest hour of your life.”
Or this…do you recognize its source?
“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them…”
Can you imagine first hearing such ideas as an adult? Or learning ideas that are the foundation of our nation, within which you are marginalized? Maybe had never voted? Could you be the same person, the same self, after hearing emotion and heart and beauty of such depth? They weren’t.
Changes happened. Even as adults, we change constantly and I assure you that the creation of a self is lifelong. You will change! I love the Mark Twain quote, at least he gets credit for it, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
What you see as true and certain will change. Experience and education will transform you.
Now, because the program started in 1995 with a single question still exists.
Clemente students began to have a voice. They began to attend city council meetings and PTA meetings, and community clean up days. They had hope for their place in their country. Our country. They began to view themselves and their place in the world differently. Today, students who took part in Clemente are graduate students, government officials, nonprofit activists, and small-business owners.
Another important thing that happened is that the professors changed their view of the word “poor.” These adult students, living financially impoverished lives, that they called poor, were not poor of mind or spirit. In fact, their economic conditions were the only thing related to the word “poor.” They were hungry for the feast of knowledge you get every day at Waterford. In classes, they shared stories of their lives and trials. They brought a wealth of life experience to the makeshift classrooms.
Know thyself. I have this posted in my classroom. I think it is perhaps the most essential imperative for our lifetimes. You get one life. One brain.
The story of the Clemente students is not your story. But I love the idea that ideas can transform at any stage of life, and that we are all capable of change at any age.
I hope someday you feel the same hunger for education and learning as the Clemente students felt. I hope you find ideas and subjects that ignite you.
Go after it! Make meaning out of this life. You don’t have one purpose in life. You have many, layers upon layers. You can do it.
I hope you honor your future selves by being careful with these present moments.
Ironically, it is those adults less absorbed with self that create the largest lives, and the richest selves, with meaning and purpose.
Maybe you will create a self with much to offer in generosity of spirit and care of others if you think beyond yourself.
I hope the legacy of nature and nurture you inherit will have greater meaning than any material inheritance.
Maybe with this legacy and your education, you will create a self that promotes a more selfless world.
Upper School students walking across campus. May 2024. Photo by Neisha Williams
Middle School students during the spring Choir concert. May 2024.
Photo by Neisha Williams.
Upper School students during the spring Chamber Orchestra concert. April 2024. Photo by Neisha Williams.
Middle School students during the spring Orchestra concert. May 2024. Photo by Neisha Williams.
Upper School students during the spring Band concert. May 2024. Photo by Neisha Williams.
Class III, IV & V Spring Concert. May 2024.
Photo by Heather Mortenson.
Class I & II Spring Concert. May 2024.
Photo by Heather Mortenson.
Spring Ballet—Cinderella. April 2024. Photo by Heather Mortenson.
Lower School Play—Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. April 2024.
Photo by Heather Mortenson.
Kindergarten Performance. March 2024. Photo by Heather Mortenson.
Upper School Spring Play—Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. May 2024. Photo by Heather Mortenson.
Upper School Winter Play—Charley's Aunt. February 2024. Photo by Neisha Williams.
ARTS
2024 NATIONAL SCHOLASTIC ART AWARDS
Things Forgotten, National Gold Medal Recipient. Photo by Ethan B. ’24
Waterford students received seven National Medals in the 2024 Scholastic Art Awards. Less than eight tenths of one percent of entries received a National Gold or Silver Medal. Though Waterford students have regularly received these National recognitions over the years, it is often one or two per year, and our previous high over the last 20 years or so was three in one year.
The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards were established in 1923, and are the nation’s largest, longest-running, most prestigious visual and literary arts program recognizing creative accomplishments of students in grades 7–12. Past winners have included many names you might recognize, including: Stan Brakhage, Donald Barthelme, Sylvia Plath, Cy Twombly, John Updike, Andy Warhol, Kay Walkingstick, Truman Capote, Stephen King, Ken Burns, Richard Linklater, Lena Dunham, and Zac Posen. There are 28 award categories in which students can submit work (some examples: short story, fashion design, photography, memoir, printmaking, poetry, sculpture, painting).
Congratulations to these young artists:
Evie H. ’26 - Two National Silver Medals
Rowan H ’24 - National Silver Medal
Jerry J. ’27- National Silver Medal
Halle P. ’24 - National Silver Medal
Ethan B. ’24 - National Gold Medal
Molly M. ’24 - National Gold Medal
Dissection, National Gold Medal Recipient. Photo by Molly M. ’24
5 AM Crew, National Silver Medal Recipient. Photo by Halle P. ’24
Reflections, National Silver Medal Recipient. Photo by Rowan H. ’24
STUDENT CREATIVE WRITING & ARTWORK
by
Chromatic Joy, National Silver Medal Recipient. Photo by Jerry J. ’27
A Traveler's Experience to a Comrade By Jerry X. ’26, Regional Gold Key Recipient
When you say a fork in a golden wood doth cleave,
Who said one traveler could not travel both?
For a traveler, who in imagination oft achieves
The ability to both ways perceive What lies past the bend in the undergrowth;
Why take the other, if it is just as fair, Is travel on the first path not deserved?
Quite surely both paths desire wear; What good does it do you to compare If the outcome remains undisturbed?
Why choose the latter on that fateful day, If both paths were in leaves equally dressed?
Why be so easily led astray
By sudden desire of grassy display?
For a choice made impulsively is not oft the best
Look at the misfortune that has befallen you,
That makes you breathe such gusty sighs;
Two roads in a wood, though you knew— What lay beyond, you still went through By taking the wood less traveled by.
Childhood Memory, Regional Gold Key Recipient. Artwork
Diane J. ’26
ATHLETICS
WOMEN'S GOLF
Congratulations to the Women's Golf Team on their 3rd place finish and to Evelyn A. ’24 on her 1st place finish at the 2A State Golf Tournament!
Evelyn was tied going into the 18th hole and finished with a birdie to take home the individual championship! Evelyn is also the first Raven to win the Women's State Tournament Individual Championship!
MEN'S TENNIS
Congratulations to the Men’s Tennis team on their 2nd place finish at the 3A State Tournament! Additionally, congratulations to Mack M. ‘27, who took 1st place in 2nd Singles with a 6-2, 6-4 win in the Finals and Preston J. ‘25 & Liam R. ‘27, who took 1st place in 1st Doubles with a 6-2, 6-3 win in the Finals.
Waterford's Men's Tennis team with their 3A State Tournament trophy. May 2024. Photo provided by Kory Carpenter.
Waterford's Women's Golf Team holding their 2A Region 17 Championship trophy. May 2024. Photo provided by Kory Carpenter.
Men's Soccer Team playing soccer with Lower School students. April 2024. Photo by Heather Mortenson.
ATHLETICS
WOMEN'S ROWING
This spring, 18 rowers traveled to New Jersey to race in the SRAA (Scholastic) National Championships. All boats performed their best at the race, but our women’s varsity quad of Gillian M. ‘25, Bella R. ‘25, Emery C. ‘25, and Anika H. ‘24 won their event and posted the fastest time ever for any women’s quad at that race. Congrats to the entire Rowing team and to the women’s quad on this amazing accomplishment!
MEN'S SOCCER
Congratulations to the Men’s Soccer team on a great season that lead to competing in the Semifinals in the 2A State Tournament.
Gillian M. ‘25, Bella R. ‘25, Emery C. ‘25 and Anika H. ‘24. May 2024. Photo provided by Kory Carpenter.
Waterford's Women's Varsity Quad competing in the SRAA National Championships. May 2024. Photo provided by Kory Carpenter.
Middle School Students playing kickball during Spring Spirit Week. April 2024. Photo by Neisha Williams.
Waterford’s Men's Soccer team season photo. Photo provided by Kory Carpenter.
ATHLETICS
MEN'S LACROSSE
Congratulations to the Men’s Lacrosse team—through their hard work and practice they were able to make it to the first round of the 4A State Tournament.
ATHLETICS SIGNING DAY
This spring, the Athletics Department recognized five members of the Class of 2024 who will continue their athletic careers during their time in college. Congratulations to Owen. P ’24 (Rowing), Oliver M. ’24 (Soccer), Molly M. ’24 (Soccer), Annika M. ’24 (Soccer) and Anika H. ’24 (Rowing) for their ongoing commitment and dedication to their sports and academics.
WOMEN'S LACROSSE
Congratulations to the Women’s Lacrosse team on winning the 4A Region 10 Championship! The team finished region play with an undefeated 8-0 record and are 9-4 on the season and made it to the Semifinals in the 4A State Tournament.
In order of appearance: Steven T. ’24, Oliver M. ’24, Molly M. ’24, Annika M. ’24 and Anika H. ’24. Photo by Neisha Williams.
Waterford’s Women's Lacrosse team season photo. Photo provided by Kory Carpenter.
Waterford’s Men's Lacrosse team season photo. Photo provided by Kory Carpenter.
ATHLETICS
ACADEMIC ALL-STATE AWARDS
PRESENTED BY DESERET NEWS
For over 25 years the UHSAA has presented the Academic All-State Award to recognize those students who have excelled in the classroom as well as in athletic competition. Individuals are selected for this award on the basis of their athletic ability and academic proficiency. With over 85,000 students participating in high school activities, this award is the most prestigious honor the UHSAA presents to students in their senior year. On behalf of all those who are associated with the UHSAA, we congratulate and pay tribute to those individuals who have earned and received this distinguished award.
Photographed below Waterford recipients for spring 2024 sports and for music in the 2023-24 school year:
SPRING 2024 ATHLETICS AWARD RECIPIENTS
2023-24 MUSIC AWARD RECIPIENTS
In order of appearance: Lauren W. ’24, Nora R. ’24, Zada S. ’24, Kevin Z. ’24, Hudson B. ’24, Nathan K. ’24, Auden S ’24. Max B. ’24 and Steven T. ’24. Photo by Neisha Williams.
In order of appearance: Anja R. ’24, Alessia M. ’24, Gia W. ’24, Tristan R. ’24, Shayan P. ’24, Nathan K. ’24 and Niko W. ’24. Not photographed: Ranveer S. ’24 and Steven T. ’24. Photo by Neisha Williams.
PARENTS VISITING DAY
INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL
Sabrina R. ’33 with her dad on Parent's Visiting Day. February 2024. Photo by Heather Mortenson.
Upper School students trying new foods during the International Festival. May 2024. Photo by Neisha Williams.
Micheal A.L. ’30 with his mom on Parent's Visiting Day. February 2024. Photo by Neisha Williams.
Upper School students performing during the International Festival. May 2024. Photo by Neisha Williams.
CLASS VIII END-OF-YEAR CELEBRATION
CLASS V CELEBRATION
Class VIII students celebrating the end of their time in Middle School. May 2024.
Photo by Andrew Patteson.
Class V students running through a "Human-Tunnel" during the Class V Celebration. June 2024. Photo by Heather Mortenson.
Students singing during the Class V Celebration. June 2024. Photo by Heather Mortenson.
SPRING FAMILY BBQ
Students with Poe and Andrew Menke at Waterford's Spring Family BBQ. May 2024. Photo by Neisha Williams.
Students enjoying live music at Waterford's Spring Family BBQ. May 2024. Photo by Neisha Williams.
Students enjoying cotton candy at Waterford's Spring Family BBQ. May 2024. Photo by Neisha Williams.
A UGUS T 24,
Upper School students at Waterford's Spring Family BBQ. May 2024.
Photo by Neisha Williams.
Aila A. ’34 getting her face painted at Waterford's Spring Family BBQ. May 2024. Photo by Neisha Williams.
Legacy of Service
FACULTY RETIREMENTS 2023-24
SUZANNE DAHL - P re K -4 TEACHER
Adapted from a tribute by Jennifer Rudd
Suzanne is a wonderful example of how to flourish in this world with compassion and patience, always giving the benefit of the doubt, and continually leading with love. Suzanne brings warmth into every interaction, creating a comfortable environment where students feel safe and eager to learn. Suzanne is a leader. Leading students to reach toward their learning edge, she guides with calm confidence and clear thinking. Suzanne models resilience, optimism, and joy in the journey. She is a dedicated and organized teacher who is always looking out for what is best for each child. She encourages each student to reach their highest potential and is loved by all! Suzanne has been a molder of young minds for over 25 years, beginning at Carden Elementary before joining Waterford 22 years ago. She has ignited passions and launched the learning journey of hundreds of children. There is no comparison! Suzanne, you were and are a hero to so many.
MEHMED DUHERIC - BUILDING TECHNICIAN
Adapted from a tribute by Charles Rosett
There are a great many things at Waterford that seem to happen by magic. When you show up for a meeting, for instance, you find tables for refreshments and lunch afterwards, decorations, a podium, a microphone, trash bins, and whatever else needs to be in place for the gathered faculty and staff. How did that happen? Most of us rarely see these magical occurrences in process, though we count on them for dozens of things we do each week. But I will tell you that it's not magic; it’s Mehmed. If it seems like magic, it’s because the way he does things is so understated and gracious and graceful and kind. It takes organization and planning and attention to detail and tireless work. Since 1997, he has made Waterford a place where he belongs and is a friend to all. He is a veritable compendium of knowledge and wisdom about everything: which plants will survive in the garden in different seasons; the American vs. European views on air conditioning; the prospects of various teams in the World Cup; presidential politics; which cooking spices will make for tasty sauces; how to get rid of bugs in your vegetables — and the virtues of cherishing those you love. Truly, he is a man who knows what life is for, and we are lucky to know him.
30 Years
15 Years
10 Years
20 Years
Susan Banks Kindergarten Teacher
Tim Dolbin Math Teacher
Tom Brennan Math Dept. Chair
Melissa Armenta Asst. Lower School Head
MaryAnn Pope Chemistry Teacher
Julie Smart LS Reading Tutor
Christa Gutierrez Spanish Teacher
Julie Ransom History Teacher
Tina Monosson Dir. of LS Tutoring
Kent Hodson Systems/DB Admin
Debbie Allred LS Reading Tutor
Julia Gunther LS Reading Tutor
Anikó Brewer Art Teacher
Lisa Rands Math Teacher
Michelle Curtis Class V Teacher
Greg Miles Chief Financial Officer
Kristi Watabe Science Specialist
DEVELOPMENT
ALUMNI FIELD DEDICATION
On April 26, the Waterford community came together to celebrate the completion of our new athletic turf field and dedicate it as Alumni Field. It was wonderful to celebrate this milestone of our Waterford Rises Capital Campaign and the incredible leadership of the Walkingshaw family and the entire Waterford community. Thank you to Bob Capener, Craig Morris, Steve Miller, and Sarah and Nate Walkingshaw ‘96 for unveiling the field name.
Nate Walkingshaw ’96 during the Alumni Field Dedication. April 2024. Photo by Neisha Williams.
Sarah & Nate Walkingshaw ’96, Bob Capener, Craig Morris and Steve Miller participating in the unveiling of the new scoreboard at the Alumni Field Dedication. April 2024. Photo by Neisha Williams.
Nate Walkingshaw ’96 and Bob Capener during the Alumni Field Dedication. April 2024. Photo by Neisha Williams.
WATERFORD FUND LEADERSHIP
Waterford School volunteers embody generosity, compassion and service. This year, we were so grateful to Amy Maentz and Selena Overholt for volunteering to lead the Waterford Fund Council, a group of parent volunteers who rally our community to support the Waterford Fund. This group has been key in growing Waterford’s culture of philanthropy and in ensuring that every family has an opportunity to contribute to a legacy that will endure for generations to come.
Waterford Fund Council leaders, Amy Maentz and Selena Overholt. July 2024. Photo by Neisha Williams.
DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARDS
This May, we were thrilled to celebrate an alumna who has made a significant impact on our community, Wendy Fisher ’87, the 2024 recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award. This prestigious award is given annually in recognition of those alumni who exemplify our core values, serve as enthusiastic supporters of the School, and have a passion for the liberal arts. Those who have been honored with this award have, through their life and work, embodied Waterford’s Mission and Core Values of Excellence, Responsibility, Caring, Integrity, and Curiosity.
Wendy is the Executive Director of Utah Open Lands. Our science faculty and outdoor program now regularly use the acreage that Wendy, through her work at Utah Open Lands, helped preserve. Wendy was a founding force of Utah’s first local land trust—Utah Open Lands, and in her current role she has protected over 64,000 acres of working lands, critical habitats, iconic landscapes like Castleton Tower Baselands and Hi Ute Ranch as well as safeguarding recreational
opportunities in beloved community landscapes like Bonanza Flat Conservation Area.
Wendy has spearheaded numerous community efforts for open space bonds including inaugural bonds in Park City, Midway City, Summit County and Salt Lake County. Early in her career with Utah Open Lands, Wendy was involved in legislative task forces that resulted in the creation of the only statewide open space and recreation fund. Wendy has been honored with numerous awards for her work including Utah State University Botanical Center’s Environmental Stewardship Award, Park City Rotary’s Professional Citizen of the Year Award, Park City Board of Realtors Community Service Award and other leadership awards.
In addition, Wendy has been the keynote speaker for different seminars and workshops including a visioning retreat for the Knight Cancer Research Institute’s Melanoma Department, and Columbia Law School’s State Attorneys General Program, Conservation Easement Conference. Wendy’s essay Accommodating, Managing and Sustaining the Wild can be found in the book Reimagining a Place for the Wild.
2023 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient, Lisa Hopkins Seegmiller ’97 and Wendy Fisher ’87. May 2024. Photo by Neisha Williams.
Celebrating Wendy Fisher ’87, the recipient of the 2024 Distinguished Alumni Award. May 2024. Photo by Neisha Williams.
ALUMNI
ALUMNI DAY
It was wonderful to welcome back our alumni to reconnect and reminisce about their most memorable experiences at Waterford on Waterford School Alumni Day.
During "Back to Class," alumni got to re-experience life as a Waterford student. A big thank you to Nancy Woller, Andy Larsen '08, Charles Rosett, Aaron Stockham '97, and Bekka Joslin for giving their time to ensure our first ever "Back to Class" was a fun and informative experience for everyone who attended.
We're also grateful to Kimi Miyashima '09 and Tim Dolbin for coaching our Alumni Soccer Game. It was a fun and exciting game that went into a penalty shootout.
Alumni during the Annual Alumni Soccer Game. May 2024. Photo by Neisha Williams.
Waterford Alumni enjoying Back to Class in the Mark Bromley Nature Lab. May 2024. Photo by Neisha Williams.
Waterford Alumni participating in a poetry class with Charles Rosett during Back to Class. May 2024. Photo by Neisha Williams.
ALUMNI
THE DOUBLE HELIX WIND SCULPTURE
A gift from the Class of 2024
A longstanding tradition at Waterford is for seniors to unite and show the power of class participation by donating a gift to the School in honor of their class. From the bronze raven sculpture near the 300 classroom building to the commemorative bell that we ring during the First Friday gathering, and the “W” that is now a landmark on our beautiful campus, senior gifts are part of the legacy each Waterford graduating class leaves for us to remember them.
This year’s Class of 2024 chose a Double Helix Wind Sculpture designed by Lyman Whitaker with the Worthington Gallery in Southern Utah. Lyman has said that he hopes that all of the sculptures that are crafted by his studio will “inspire love for our earth’s thin moving layer of air.”
The Class of 2024 is known for its hard work and dedication to academics, especially the sciences, and chose this sculpture to signify being the first senior class to enjoy the new Murray Science Center. To reflect their contributions, the Double Helix was placed between the Murray Science Center and the Visual Arts Building.
Some members of the Class of 2024 with the Double Helix Wind Sculpture. May 2024. Photo by Neisha Williams.
Congrats to the Grads!
Tyler L. Adams
Avin Agarwal
Hisham Aden Ali
Sophie Grace Allebest
Evelyn Mae Azares
Dominick Bazan
Anastasia Maria Beall
Ethan John Paul Brennan
Hudson Wayne Rice Brown
Maximillien Anderson Buxton
Manhattan Reese Caldwell
Ian Grant Cassell
Caroline Anne Connolly
Lucy Lynn Cook
Dirk Jacques de Vos
Casey James Dittmer
Leila Marie Farhart
Luke Henry Ford
Thomas Gaines Forkner
Marie Anna Streff Franzen
Gustav Gabriel Gibbon
Nathaniel Grant Hartwig
Rowan Whitney Hodell
Ana Katherine Holtey
Alina Claudia Horsley
Abhimanyu Prasanna Iyengar
David Jiang
James Alexander Kime
Mia Lee Knoll
Nathan Taehyun Kwon
Sofia Leveratto
Cash Everett Lewis
En-Lee Lin
Maggie Liu
Ryan Emerson Lopez
Annika Sehyun Marshall
Molly Ann Mascardo
Alessia Massinople
Matthew Fredrick George Matus
Jack Edward McCarthy
Indiana Rose Moore
Oliver Richard Morton
Lily Yasamin Moshirfar
Shayan Pandit
Fiorella Paredes
Owen Jerad Park
Luke Weston Pead
Halle Finn Pickett
Ivan Andrew Post
Eleanor Deanna Ransom
Anja Liv Rauscher
Tristan Andrew Richardson
James Redmond Ross
Ranveer Singh Sahota
Zada Belle Sheranian
Auden McBaine Smith
Hallie Elizabeth Spanos
Keira Kennedy Stockham
Sumer Jawaad Tariq
James Bradley Taylor III
Harrison James Thomas
Steven Newell Tingey III
Isabel Joy Wade
Adrian Solomon Walker
Lauren Masako Watabe
Gia Nikolis Weaver
Niko Mitchell Weaver
Annabelle Willes
Henry Jagger Winkler
ZhiYuan Zhang
Class of 2024 at Commencement. June 2024. Photo by Amanda Nelson.
1
Presidential Scholar Finalists
10
National Merit Scholarship Finalists
4
Students received medals in the National Scholastic Art Awards for photography
Cum Laude Inductees 14 45 67
12
Students earned a Certificate of Bi or Tri-literacy
5
Students will play for College Athletic Programs
Students Matriculated Out of State Attending Highly Selective Colleges
Seniors celebrating the end of the school year during Senior Dress Up Week. April 2024. Photo by Neisha Williams.
Seniors during their last Senior Lunch. May 2024. Photo by Neisha Williams.
CLASS OF 2024
CLASS OF 2024 ACCEPTANCE & MATRICULATION:
*Matriculation in bold
American Musical and Dramatic Academy
Amherst College
Anglo-American University
Arizona State University
Bates College
Belmont University
Binghamton University
Bocconi University
Boston College
Boston University (2)
Brigham Young University (3)
Brown University
California Polytechnic State University
Carnegie Mellon University
Case Western Reserve University
Chapman University
Claremont McKenna College
Clemson University
Colorado College
Colorado State University
Cornell University
Dartmouth College
Davidson College
Diablo Valley College
Drexel University
Duke University (3)
Edgewood College
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Emory University
Endicott College
Florida State University
Fordham University
Fort Lewis College
George Washington University
Georgetown University
Georgia Institute of Technology
Gonzaga University
Grinnell College
Harvard University
Harvey Mudd College
Idaho State University
IE University
Illinois State University
Indiana University
Johns Hopkins University
Lafayette College
Lewis & Clark College
Louisiana State University
Loyola Marymount University
Macalester College
Manhattan School of Music
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2)
McGill University
Miami University (Oxford)
Montana State University
New York University
Northeastern University
Northwestern University
Occidental College
Oxford College of Emory University
Parsons Paris at The New School
Penn State University
Pitzer College
Pomona College
Pratt Institute
Purdue University
Queen Mary University of London
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Rochester Institute of Technology
Rutgers University
Salt Lake Community College
San Diego State University
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
Santa Clara University
Scripps College
Smith College
Southern Utah University
Southern Virginia University
St. John’s College (Annapolis)
St. John’s University
Stevens Institute of Technology
SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry
Syracuse University
Texas A&M University
Texas Christian University
The College of Idaho
The New School
The Ohio State University
The University of Alabama
The University of Edinburgh
The University of Manchester
The University of Montana
The University of Texas at Austin
Trinity College
Tulane University of Louisiana
University of Amsterdam
University of Arizona
University of Bristol
University of California (Berkeley)
University of California (Davis)
University of California (Irvine)
UCLA
University of California (Riverside)
University of California (San Diego)
University of California (Santa Barbara)
University of California (Santa Cruz)
University of Cincinnati
University of Colorado Boulder
University of Delaware
University of Denver
University of Florida
University of Idaho
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Louisville
University of Maryland
University of Massachusetts (Amherst)
University of Michigan
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
University of Oregon
University of Pennsylvania
University of Portland
University of Puget Sound
University of Richmond
University of Rochester
University of San Diego
University of Southern California
University of Utah (17)
University of Vermont
University of Virginia
University of Washington
University of Wisconsin
Utah State University (3)
Utah Tech University
Villanova University
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Wake Forest University
Washington State University
Washington University in St. Louis
Wesleyan University
Western Colorado University
Western Washington University
Westminster University
Whitman College
Willamette University
William & Mary
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Yale University
Commencement Exercises. May 2024. Photo by Neisha Williams.
Graduates during the Commencement Reception. May 2024. Photo by Amanda Nelson.
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