News Bites Spring has given us plenty to write about.
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lumni news
HATS OFF TO TEACHERS
Class of 1989
At its annual Pythagorean Dinner, the Alameda Contra Costa Math Educators Association named math specialist Ashanti Branch a Teacher of the Year for his outstanding contribution to mathematics instruction.
Class of 1990
Seventh grade English teacher and high school admissions counselor Stacey Kertsman was named a Teacher of the Future by the National Association of Independent Schools. As such, she will help lead the online community of NAIS teachers in 2010–2011.
GUEST OF HONOR Melba Pattillo Beals was one of the Little Rock Nine, the group of black students who integrated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957. She visited Saint Mark’s in May to talk with our eighth graders. She has come to campus every year for the past 10 years, and her presence is always a great pleasure and an Melba Pattillo Beals honor for the students and school community members who attend. In addition to having written many books, including the best-selling Warriors Don’t Cry, she runs the broadcast journalism program at Dominican University. We thank Ms. Beals for her many visits to us over the years and look forward to sharing her story with future generations of students.
ROCKING OUT Jack Conte ’98 played and spoke at assembly in May. Jack is making a name for himself with his mesmerizing videosongs. The songs play over video that both document and reinterpret the process of creating the music. He describes the video song as “a new medium with two rules: 1. What you see is what you hear (no lip synching for instruments or voice). 2. If you hear it, at some point you see it (no Jack Conte ’98, center, with Damon Kerby and hidden sounds).” He plays Richard Navarrete almost every instrument himself, with his partner Nataly Dawn on some vocals. Check it all out at www.jackcontemusic.com and on his YouTube channel.
SPEAKING OF DIY CULTURE... Alex Jacobson ’09 and his friend Sam DeRose built a fire-breathing robotic dragon for Maker Faire Bay Area this year. Sam did the building, and Alex did the programming required for “Saphira” to be controlled by a joystick. Alex attends the Bay School, attended Saint Mark’s SuperTech summer camp for three years, and served as the SuperTech intern for one year. Their blazing contraption grabbed a lot of attention at the fair, the apt theme of which was Young Makers.
the Marker
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Cheryl Lever Amaya and her husband Avery welcomed their first son, Logan Thoreau Amaya, on February 27, 2010. Sean Peisert received his PhD in computer science from the University of California, San Diego, in 2007. His dissertation focused on formal models of computer forensic analysis. He has recently been jointly appointed as a research scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and an assistant adjunct professor at University of California, Davis, where he does research in computer security. Sean and his wife, Kathryn, are happy to be once again living in Marin County.
Class of 1996
Josh Biddle is the University Medal recipient for UC Berkeley’s Class of 2010, the school’s equivalent of valedictorian. He was the undergraduate commencement speaker on May 16; on May 17 he left for Nairobi, Kenya, where he will work in a hospital for the summer. He will return to the Bay Area in the fall to start medical school at UCSF.
Class of 1997
Vincent Kirkpatrick will graduate from UC Irvine medical school in June 2010.
Class of 1998
Emily Reitz graduated from Oberlin and is now in her second year at UCLA Law School. She plans to go into public interest law. Alicia Cunningham-Bryant is nearing the completion of her PhD in Egyptology at Yale and is researching at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Liz Eisenberg works for an e-commerce company in San Francisco and will be traveling to South Africa for the World Cup with sister Maggie Eisenberg ’02 this summer. Dan Stitzel is working in Sausalito for Berg Holdings, a real estate development company, and will join the Saint Mark’s School Board of Trustees as the Alumni Representative to the Board this fall. Gabe Torres graduated from Cal Poly Pomona and is now working in business development in Oakland. Joseph Sciarrillo is working as a paralegal and immigrant rights activist in San Francisco’s Mission District for Dolores Street Community Services and its new project, the African Advocacy Network. His work includes protecting families from unjust deportations and aiding individuals to become U.S. citizens.