Overheard

Corbin Prychun, Upper School social science and English educator, commencement 2020 speech

I can say with confidence that our educators will exceed your expectations. It is almost impossible to fall short when you love your students and their families, and deeply value the art and science of teaching and learning.

Gary Krahn, Ph.D., head of school, email to the community

Kristy Johnson, head of Middle School, email to Middle School Country Day has helped me become better at expressing who I am, and has helped me develop my thoughts and my feelings more deeply, and has really helped guide me to become the woman that I am today.

Juliet Welk ’20, video reflection

Marisol Aguirre, Middle School Spanish educator, new faculty/staff bio

We will disagree from time to time, and we need to learn to do so respectfully. And because that seems more difficult in this country, now more than ever, there is no time more important to have the space to disagree and to lean into the discomfort.

Geordie Mitchell, assistant head of school for enrollment management and outreach, Country Day Connection newsletter

Payton Hobbs, head of Lower School, email to Lower School

Nikita Nair ’20, video reflection

Tom Trocano, head of Upper School, email to Upper School

Payton Hobbs, head of Lower School, email to Lower School

Andy D’Avanzo, Middle School math educator, news article Let’s remind each other that this difficult time also offers greater opportunities for learning, kindness, compassion, generosity and new trails to forge to make our world a better place.

Gary Krahn, Ph.D., head of school, email to the community

By Michelle Choate and Katie Sigeti ’06

Our current world is facing an uncertain future dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic, but no less critical are issues of politics, social injustice, the economy and education. Essentially, it seems there are no areas of our lives untouched by the tumult of 2020 and the problems affecting all of humanity that have been simmering for decades.

At times like these, the greatest glimmers of hope are principled, talented and committed people who step up for the greater good—for their local communities and for the wider world. La Jolla Country Day School alumni continue to live the school’s promise of inspiring greatness for a better world every day. During the pandemic, Torreys responded to a calling and followed the path to combat COVID-19, to serve their fellow human beings during one of the greatest public health crises ever. In this, they are practicing the mission of their LJCDS education, to live a lifetime of intellectual exploration, personal growth and social responsibility.

“We saw an urgent need and were able to use Hologic’s existing knowledge and equipment and pivot quickly in the direction of developing tests for COVID-19.”

Product Manager, Hologic

Most critical for identifying virus cases and the prevention of its spread was reliable testing, and the race to create those tests began in earnest within the country’s medical technology companies. One of those companies, Hologic, Inc., created two of the first SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) tests to receive FDA authorization.

In short order, Hologic, widely known as a leader in diagnostic tests in the women’s health arena, was producing one million tests per week across all 50 states.

“We saw an urgent need and were able to use Hologic’s existing knowledge and equipment and pivot quickly in the direction of developing tests for COVID-19,” says Chase Mertz ’11. As of late summer 2020, the company had increased its weekly distribution of tests to two million.

For Mertz, who works in marketing for the diagnostics division of Hologic, the ability to play a role in fighting the biggest public health crisis of our time has provided additional meaning and urgency to a job that was already playing a critical role in preventive medicine. “I’m proud to say that we are greatly contributing to fighting this pandemic. Early on, when testing was such a dire need, we raced to develop a test and were able to then scale up our production and provide what the country and the world needed,” he explains. “The fact that Hologic’s tests have a very high level of accuracy is extremely gratifying.”

Mertz joined Hologic after graduating from Dartmouth in 2015, where he studied biology and economics. The job was an ideal fit. “Marketing products like this, you have to have knowledge of the science and speak the language of the industry,” Mertz says. “It’s a huge advantage when you have a good understanding of the essence of your company’s products.”

A lifer who joined LJCDS in kindergarten, Mertz was encouraged in many science classes, especially AP Biology. His teacher, Susan Domanico, Ph.D., set him up with a summer internship in a lab at Scripps Research, which helped to solidify his commitment to pursuing a career in the biology sphere.

“Country Day is very good at connecting students with industry, where they can put their knowledge into practice. They are great at making sure that students are truly aware of the world around them and what’s going on in it,” says Mertz. “Having that kind of awareness, and the encouragement to go out and do what you want to do to impact your world for the better, has never been more important.”

Supporting the Surge SARAH KASLOW ’05 General Surgery Resident, New York University

critical care units. The challenges of caring for patients who are in dire straits, suffering from a virus that continues to confound medical experts, can be demoralizing and overwhelming. But, ever true to their Hippocratic Oath, doctors all over the world ran toward the problem to provide the best standard of care to their patients.

As a surgical resident at New York University, Sarah Kaslow ’05 initially found herself far away from the maddening fray when the surge first hit New York City. With most surgeries canceled, she and her colleagues had clear schedules while doctors on the medical side were being overrun. But that inequity did not last long. Within three weeks, the entire hospital had been physically and operationally restructured to accommodate the influx of COVID-19 patients. “I went from assisting with operations and caring for postoperative patients to treating COVID patients and placing arterial lines or central lines for dialysis in the intensive care units,” says Kaslow.

During the busiest of times, Kaslow took care of patients with COVID-19 with the Surgical COVID Service, which was staffed entirely by the Department of Surgery. “COVID has brought so much human suffering in its wake,” she says. “It has humbled the most experienced of physicians and puzzled even the most astute clinicians. To feel such impotence in the face of human suffering challenges all of us in medicine. Every day I spoke to family members who were confused, scared and worried about their loved ones who were struggling without them. Often the only reassurance I could provide them was that we were working our hardest.”

Kaslow admits this is the hardest she has ever worked in her life. However, it is work that has been empowering and which reinforced her decision to become a doctor. She credits her experience at LJCDS with helping guide her during this particularly demanding time. “The school cultivated a sense of service and a desire to make the world we live in a little better,” she explains. “Part of the reason I’m here and keep pushing is because of that ethos of service that was passed on to me.”

Post-surge, Kaslow has taken a commission in surgical research at Columbia University, a critical step in her ultimate goal of becoming an oncology surgeon. No matter how extensive her training is, how impressive her future career, it is her experience treating COVID-19 patients that she will carry with her for the rest of her life.

“It will end up being one of the most valuable training experiences for me because I learned how to adapt and be a doctor and care for patients,” shares Kaslow. “My patients and their families have expressed so much gratitude for the work that everyone in the healthcare community is doing. As one of my patients was being discharged home after over a week in the hospital on supplemental oxygen, she told the transporter, ‘That’s my doctor’ and pointed to me at the nurses’ station. The pride and gratitude in her voice was the biggest reward I could have asked for.”

“COVID has brought so much human suffering in its wake. It has humbled the most experienced of physicians and puzzled even the most astute clinicians. To feel such impotence in the face of human suffering challenges all of us in medicine.”

“Because we had already done so much work with predictive forecasting and epidemiology, we were asked by the University of Washington hospital system to provide a forecasting model…”

Research Engineer, Data Science and Engineering, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, anxieties surrounding the novel coronavirus and what the future had in store ran sky-high. As people worldwide began to grapple with the disease’s impact, a thirst for knowledge about the virus and its potential trajectory grew. At the same time, data and forecasting models began to emerge. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), an independent health research center at UW Medicine at the University of Washington, became a leader of COVID-19 data tracking.

David Shaw ’14 is a research engineer for IHME, whose mission is to track the global burden of disease. The organization annually produces the Global Burden of Disease report, summarizing the major health crises faced in each country in a given year and over time. They create various metrics that illustrate and quantify the burden of disease. As the pandemic grew in the United States, Shaw and his teammates focused on rapidly building COVID-19 forecasting models.

“When COVID-19 started, our focus shifted a lot,” he shares. “Because we had already done so much work with predictive forecasting and epidemiology, we were asked initially by the University of Washington hospital system to provide a forecasting model so that they could estimate how many hospital beds they were going to need. What they were curious about is how many people in Seattle are going to need a hospital bed and whether they could support that kind of capacity and the surge in hospital resources,” explains Shaw.

The project garnered national attention. As a result, IHME started forecasting models for Washington State as well as other states in the U.S. They have collaborated with the White House and Dr. Anthony Fauci, as well as with Google.

Shaw began working at IHME two years ago as a data analyst on the Global Burden of Disease project after graduating from Washington University in St. Louis. He now works in scientific computing, and with the onset of the pandemic, he assists with IHME’s COVID-19 project. When talking about how this project has evolved, he points to their success at getting the data-processing time down from 11 hours to 40 minutes. “We work with large volumes of data, so the amount of time our computers take to calculate our final numbers is non-trivial,” Shaw states. “That was a huge win.”

While the project has faced challenges and limitations (e.g., certain countries’ governments are unwilling to share data), one of the most exciting aspects has been creating a brand-new project from the ground up. “COVID’s a very unique sandbox because it’s one of the few times we’ve gotten to build a system from scratch,” says Shaw. “It’s one of the very few times we’ve managed to have engineers looped in on the project from start to finish.”

Over the past several months, they have also seen many innovations in methodologies, now setting forecasts based on what kinds of mandates are in place, how many people are wearing masks and what level of mobility there is.

Shaw credits the enthusiasm of his teachers at LJCDS for shaping his career path, particularly regarding his journey in math. “I didn’t go into college expecting to major in something quantitative, but I remembered I loved math classes in high school because it was more about learning all the different concepts, and they taught it almost more like a language,” he says. “I had such energetic teachers. I had Mr. [Dave] Schall for calculus during senior year, and he was so excited every single day to teach. It made a huge difference.”

COVID-19 poses a higher risk for the Hispanic population because of the higher prevalence of comorbidities, linguistic barriers and essential jobs that require working in person.

be studied for years to come. The virus has not only touched the lives of countless people globally; it has also shined a light on inequities faced by people of color. The disease has disproportionately impacted Black and Latinx populations, highlighting the socioeconomic disadvantages and challenges of healthcare access.

Jordan Juarez ’13 serves on the frontlines of those working to mitigate this societal ill, specifically for the Latinx community. As a second-year medical student at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University in Philadelphia, he serves on the Latino Medical Student Association (LMSA) as co-president of his local chapter and as fundraising chair for LMSA-Northeast.

LMSA, a national nonprofit organization with chapters at medical schools across the United States, supports Latinx medical students. The mission of Juarez’s local chapter at Temple University consists of three pillars: increase the number of Latinx medical students, improve the student experience for Latinx students at Temple, and serve the greater community.

During the pandemic, the community service element of their mission rose to meet the Hispanic community’s needs in Philadelphia. covid-19 poses a higher risk for the Hispanic population because of the higher prevalence of comorbidities, linguistic barriers and essential jobs that require working in person. Juarez and his chapter launched a YouTube educational series in Spanish shared with local community health centers and clinics to educate the community. The short videos included resources about what to do when an individual or family member contracts COVID-19, protocols for physical distancing and hygiene recommendations. “Traditionally, Hispanic families live in multigenerational homes,” he shares. “It’s important to educate how they can appropriately social distance, especially when a member of the household falls under the high-risk category or becomes infected. Because Hispanics were disproportionately impacted by the pandemic in the city of Philadelphia, we felt obligated to assist our community.”

COVID Risk Rate Ratios by Ethnicity Compared to White, Non-Hispanic Persons

American Indian or Alaska Native, Non-Hispanic persons Asian, Non-Hispanic persons Black or African American, Non-Hispanic persons

Hispanic or Latino persons Cases 2.8× higher 1.1× higher 2.6× higher 2.8× higher Hospitalization 5.3× higher 1.3× higher 4.7× higher 4.6× higher

1.4× higher No increase 2.1× higher 1.1× higher

CDC.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/investigations-discovery/hospitalization-death-by-race-ethnicity.html

Juarez also served at Puentes de Salud, a healthcare clinic composed of medical student and doctor volunteers that predominantly serves the Hispanic community in Philadelphia. The majority of their patients are immigrants, many undocumented, who fear repercussions for visiting a health clinic or hospital. “I go several times a month, and it is the highlight of my week,” says Juarez. “Because when you’re in the library or you’re in your apartment studying, you sometimes forget why you’re in medical school. When you go to the clinic and you’re interacting with patients who come from similar backgrounds, who speak the same language, who face many barriers and are so appreciative to have not only a Spanish speaker but someone who can culturally relate as well, it’s uplifting. And it’s really encouraging,” explains Juarez.

According to statistics from the Association of American Medical Colleges, Black and Latinx communities are underrepresented in medicine. Latinxs make up 18.5 percent of the U.S. population but only 5 to 6 percent of U.S. medical school graduates. Through his involvement in LMSA, Juarez is working to change that because he believes representation matters. “There is significant research demonstrating that racial and ethnic concordance (or the idea of Hispanic patients being seen by Hispanic physicians) in medical care leads to improved outcomes such as increased trust and decreased confusion,” he shares. “[These are] two benefits that can help address both the cultural and language barriers prevalent in our community.”

Juarez, who is also pursuing an MBA at Temple, conducted a research project in summer 2020 on the social determinants of health—how the conditions in which one lives and works, access to resources, along with other social and environmental factors, impact health outcomes. He plans to specialize in cardiology and go into academic medicine.

“Country Day gave me the confidence to pursue medicine,” he shares. “Through taking courses such as Honors Neuroscience to engaging with the City of San Diego through our Community Service Board, I was able to develop my passion for both science and service to others. These are critical pillars that ground the art of medicine, and I credit my Country Day education, from the enthusiastic faculty to the caring staff, for supporting me to chase my lifelong dream of becoming a physician.” “There is significant research demonstrating that racial and ethnic concordance (or the idea of Hispanic patients being seen by Hispanic physicians) in medical care leads to improved outcomes such as increased trust and decreased confusion. [These are] two benefits that can help address both the cultural and language barriers prevalent in our community.”

Medical Student, Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University; Co-President, Lewis Katz School of Medicine’s Latino Medical Student Association

Registered Nurse, Sharp Memorial Hospital “My desire to be supportive of my community and my philanthropic nature … developed from my participation with community service.” Caring for Patients

nursing profession. Since the onset of the pandemic, nurses have rushed to treat patients suffering from this new disease while simultaneously facing ever-evolving protocols and procedures for how care is delivered.

Meredith Nevin ’00, a registered nurse at Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego, has played a pivotal role in the hospital’s response to the pandemic. A 10-year veteran of an orthopedic floor, Nevin shifted gears at the onset of the pandemic, helping to establish the acutecare COVID-19 unit, where she provided direct care to COVID-19 patients as a nurse, while also serving as charge nurse of the unit.

Nevin organized staff assignments and resources throughout the hospital while keeping a pulse on the constant change in COVID-19 procedures and policies. Approximately every six hours, she huddled with her staff to discuss the latest update that would necessitate a change to their procedures, the equipment used and more. In addition, Nevin also provided her staff with emotional support and a sense of security in a rapidly changing situation.

As the pandemic unfolded, Sharp implemented new protocols for patient care, which included fewer in-room patient visits. “We were told to try to limit the amount of time that you are in there, especially because we were not sure how limited we were going to be with protective equipment,” Nevin explains. “We had cross monitors who would walk up and down the hall to check in before you went into a room to make sure that you have your gown and you are putting your gloves on correctly and your goggles and mask.”

Honoring the strict procedures, adapting to constant changes, and learning about a new disease proved challenging. “It was tricky in the beginning because we just weren’t really sure what we were looking for as far as signs and symptoms,” says Nevin. “What we learned pretty quickly was that some of these patients would downward spiral super quickly.”

During COVID-19, with many hospitals restricting visitors, nurses stepped in as family. “People don’t want to be in the hospital when they are all by themselves,” she explains. “It’s hard for our patients, and it’s hard for the staff too because you are playing a double role there.”

COVID-19 facilitated an uptick in gratitude for frontline healthcare workers and their sacrifices. “It was very uplifting how much support we got from the community,” Nevin shares. “All of the different restaurants that would donate food to the hospital workers, that was the coolest thing. We were getting free meals three times a day. People were donating all sorts of things like water bottles, scrubs, coffee. … That really helped uplift the staff quite a bit, feeling that appreciation.”

After three months of working on the COVID-19 floor, the permanent staff took over and Nevin repositioned to the Command Center, where she undertook a behind-the-scenes role in lieu of direct patient care. Nevin took part in conference calls with the CDC, the state and the CEOs of all Sharp hospitals to gain a broad understanding of the situation in the community, subsequently disseminating the information to the hospital, assessing if any changes needed to be made to policies in place, and tracking all patients admitted. The Command Center served as a resource for the entire hospital and a source of answers as the ever-changing nature of the pandemic progressed.

For Nevin, service-oriented work has always been in her blood. At LJCDS, Nevin served on the Community Service Board and TRACE (Teens Respond to AIDS with Care and Education).

“My desire to be supportive of my community and my philanthropic nature to help others and do unto others as I would want done unto myself, a lot of that developed from my participation with community service,” she explains. “I really developed a passion for all of that through La Jolla Country Day School. That absolutely was part of what shaped me wanting to become a nurse. I think that those values definitely were shaped by La Jolla Country Day because we were raised with the notion that we were so fortunate that we were able to go to a great school and came from loving homes, and how could we help those in our community who needed more help.”

fig. i

and self-care. In the pre-COVID-19 world, there was still an element of shame and judgment that those experiencing mental health issues faced. During the heightened pandemic, it seems there are very few people who are not facing at least mild forms of depression and anxiety, and more people than ever are seeking out formal therapeutic solutions.

Brook Mehregany Choulet ’11 was one of the many mental health professionals called upon to treat an increasing number of patients—particularly children—who were experiencing mental health issues due to the COVID-19 crisis. Choulet, who specializes in child psychiatry, was responsible for admitting acute cases to multiple psychiatric hospitals in the Phoenix area and getting those patients stabilized, through medication management, individual therapy and family therapy sessions. The good news, according to Choulet, is that people generally responded well to therapy, “especially when we get them in the hospital, and they are removed from the acute stressors that brought them in,” she shares.

After returning to their current environments, however, patients may still face challenges. “In many cases, especially with children, patients are going back to a home environment that isn’t conducive to healing or calm,” explains Choulet. “There might be a house filled with people who are trapped together and not getting along, or the children might have working parents who have to leave them alone. There are also children who are struggling with the ‘new normal.’”

For Choulet, the pandemic didn’t change what she was already doing in her practice. But the work has grown and heightened, including the added challenges of treating patients who are alone and restricted from having visitors. Family and outpatient meetings are done over the phone. The inability to have in-person follow-up lessens the guarantee that recovery will be long-term, but, as with many other jobs, connecting virtually is the safest option.

The trials of this unprecedented time have only increased Choulet’s steadfast commitment to child psychiatry. “Seeing the state of children when they arrive at the hospital and the progress they make by the time of discharge is really rewarding,” she says. “Children who are manic or psychotic on admission often show significant improvement after medication initiation. We’ve noticed a decrease in symptoms in teens who came to us depressed and anxious, as well as resolution of suicidal thoughts. It’s nice to see that in a time of turmoil, we can still provide the kind of care we were providing before and help people get through these tough times.”

Choulet learned much about her vocation from her mother, Donna Kashani, M.D., who is a child psychiatrist. After her own time at LJCDS, Choulet went on to an accelerated six-year program where she earned both her bachelor’s and medical degrees in six years. After her residency at Banner was completed in summer 2020, she started her Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship through Creighton University School of Medicine in Phoenix. There, Choulet works with teens who are psychiatrically hospitalized as well as school-age children and teens on an outpatient basis.

After she completes her training, she intends to establish a private practice dedicated to working with children and their parents. And she has no doubt that, down the road, she will follow in her mother’s footsteps and return to San Diego to serve the local community. “The sense of community there [at LJCDS] fosters a good, cohesive unit that makes you feel supported through tough times,” explains Choulet. “I believe that’s what all people should strive to maintain in their own futures. And I want to be part of that.” i

fig. ii fig. iii

Psychiatrist and Founder, Choulet Wellness