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THE NEWSLETTER OF SAINT MARK’S SCHOOL
Letter from the Head One of the great privileges of my first semester at Saint Mark’s has been the opportunity to discover the wonderfully imbricate worlds of the school and community. Something new waits each day around every corner, and I marvel at the creativity, critical thinking, and love of learning that our students and faculty reveal in and out of the classroom. What I have realized, however, is that the sense of possibility that permeates the school is not magical simply because I am experiencing it for the first time. Instead, I am finding that at Saint Mark’s something new always waits just ahead for us to encounter—and to build—together. This quality is not new. As the interview with Saint Mark’s alumni who are now proud parents of a new generation of our students clearly demonstrates, from its first days in 1980 to the present day, Saint Mark’s has been a community focused on curiosity, innovation, and the joy of discovery. Running alongside those qualities is a commitment to developing our students’ character. Hadley Mullin ’88 shares in her reflection on Saint Mark’s past and present (page 5): “First and foremost, the school has retained its emphasis on teaching students to be responsible, caring, and contributing members of their communities. Be it environmental stewardship or appreciation for cultures other than their own, students are taught that the world is larger than their immediate environment.” Hadley’s impressions are borne out in the project that 3rd grade teacher Julie Fritz designed, in which students practice working together, thinking analytically, using technology, and communicating with peers from around the country as they try to uncover a mystery school. Julie’s description of her goals for the project captures a defining feature of Saint Mark’s: We continually nourish the spark of creativity. “I want my students to get inspired any way they can…Who knows? Maybe there’s a rocket scientist in my room!” With best wishes for a 2012 filled with curiosity, discovery, and community,
Joe Harvey Head of School
IN THIS ISSUE Q&A WITH OUR NEW HEAD OF SCHOOL • HISTORY MEETS MEDIA LITERACY • FEARLESS TECH FUN • ALUMNI INTERVIEWS AND NEWS
Time In, with Joe Harvey Saint Mark’s began the 2011–2012 year under our new head of school. Between visiting classrooms, having pizza lunches with Upper Division students, learning the name of every person in our community, and actually running the school, Mr. Harvey has had his hands full. We had the opportunity to sit down and get to know him a little better.
Q: You grew up on a farm in Joliet, Illinois, but Joliet is quite close to Chicago. What was it like there when you were growing up? Joe Harvey: Joliet is interesting. At one time, it was a booming steel town, very industrial, but we lived well outside that, where it got to corn and bean country, farm after farm. Joliet was not a suburb of Chicago at that time, but Chicago has sprawled and people from Joliet now commute to the city. The landscape itself has been transformed. Fields, farms, whole swaths of land have been transformed, some into light industrial but mostly houses, subdivision after subdivision.
had gone to that school, and then my brother and I both went, and my sisters went to the sister school. It was the combination of academics and character education that drew us there. There was real commitment to academic strength and to the quality of the decisions one made— what were your values, how did you live, how did you treat others? It was a place where we had great relationships, really important ones, with the teachers. And our teachers were also our advisors and our coaches, so they got to know us in more than one way. Our advanced math teacher, Mr. Golf, was just outstanding. He was an engineering guy at the University of Illinois and came back to Joliet to teach math…I’m not sure what drew him back, but these experiences with teachers are part of what drew me to teaching myself.
Q: When you went into education, did you have a mission? You hadn’t been in the classroom before. JH: I had done some volunteering [in schools] while I was at Goldman Sachs, but very little. There was one other experience, my crew experience at Harvard and my relationship with the coach, Harry Parker, that was life changing. He helped us to discover what we were really capable of in what we did together as a team. When you do something special, you realize that Q: Is there anything about that life the bar has been raised. An upward that you miss? spiral happens, and you realize that JH: Oh, yeah. Growing up and taking something is possible that maybe you care of land, those lessons in stewardhadn’t thought was before. ship have informed a lot of how I think So, if there was a mission when about what kids need to know and I went to Deerfield [a boarding school what leaders need to do. And I have a in Massachusetts], it was multifold: love for that landscape I grew up in. It’s One was I wanted to do something very different from California, but it’s meaningful; I wanted to be more beautiful all the same. I miss the opendeeply connected to the development ness. And I love it in part because I had of things. The second was that I really a very happy childhood. My mom is Amanda and Joe Harvey with their son, Jed. wanted to work with kids. I started doliterally still living on the same piece of ing admissions, a big structural part land I grew up on. We try to get her out of the school, but I was also running to California, but it’s not gonna happen. a dorm and coaching and teaching. It was a typical boarding school model of throwing you in to do everything at Q: How old is your son? Does he like going to the farm? once. I went from living in New York on my own to living JH: He’s 8, and he loves being out in the country. We go to on the second floor of a little house with eight students Illinois every summer, and we also go out to Boston and living downstairs. Maine [to visit wife Amanda’s family]. Jed just wants to be
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with family. We’ve discovered he loves boats—motorboats, tugboats, lobster boats, the whole Maine coast thing. And he likes going fast! He likes sailing, but it’s not quite fast enough. He likes it when you’re keeled over, with the water in your face.
Q: How’d that work out for you? JH: It was great! It was crazy! I was 24 years old, and suddenly I’m taking care of these kids, but I wanted to be involved in a variety of settings and not just be a onedimensional presence.
Q: Where did you attend school? JH: I went to public school through eighth grade and then attended a Catholic boys’ high school, called Joliet Catholic High School, which has since gone coed. My grandfather
Q: Some people go into teaching and love it right away. But sometimes you have a certain vision of it, and then you find out that it’s the hardest job that there is. How
did you find the teaching portion of the experience? JH: It is the hardest job, and I had just that experience—of both loving it and feeling like I had so much to learn all the time. When you’re a young teacher, you are sometimes sheltered from the depth of your ignorance. Looking back on those first few years, I realize now just how much I had to learn. It was exciting but really hard. How do you bring an individual’s learning along? How do you bring a class along? What role does assessment have in figuring out how effective your teaching is, their learning is? I initially thought I’d be at Deerfield for a couple of years and then apply to business school, and I just fell in love with the teaching, the coaching. Kids are remarkable.
cross-cultural competencies. Our media literacy program [acknowledges] that there are images are coming at us that have so much research and billions of dollars behind them. How are we equipping kids to deal with those? Those questions are at the heart of what we’re doing. And then, how do you know you’re successful? Brain research, new outlooks on assessment—it is an exciting time to be in education. If you’re being thoughtful about education, those are the kinds of things you should be thinking about.
Q: You’ve mentioned that character education is of great importance to you. Do you see any potential pitfalls in social-emotional learning in our current context, too Q: And the environment of ferment—people are becomgreat an emphasis on “being happy”? ing something new around you all the time. JH: I don’t see SEL as a layer of protection. I see it as a set JH: Exactly. They’re willing to take risks. They’re always in of tools that help you navigate what is at times a difficult growth mode, always asking, world and deal with unavoidWhat if? I think many of the able challenges and disapmost successful businesses, pointments. There are many at least in the information intimes when the right thing dustry, are places that are a lot to do is not what results in like schools, that ask, What if? immediate happiness for you. They engage in questioning, To me, kids with the tools examination, and reflection. It that SEL teaches are really is a version of the experiential equipped better as commueducation model: You have a nicators, collaborators, and plan, you do something, and leaders. The skills learned in then you step back and reflect SEL not only help students on it. That process, writ large, learn more effectively and peris the recipe for some very sucform better on assessments, cessful places. they also help people be more effective at collaborating; stuQ: So, now you’ve been in dents understand how to read Mr. Harvey has made spending time in the classrooms a priority education for a while. someone else’s perspective during his first year. JH: About 20 years. and know that people come to situations with different Q: What do you think have backgrounds. What I’ve seen is that students with the SEL developed as the burning issues since you started? skills are better prepared to lead their peers. JH: We could talk about this for an hour, but there are I think that Saint Mark’s focuses on SEL in terms of nur a few things that are really important. First—to borrow an turing goodness, kindness—and developing good decisionidea that Adam Gopnik has expressed—one major part of makers. The choice that seems to lead to happiness isn’t our job as educators is to preserve as much of the beauty always the best choice. You can’t begin and end there. and joy and curiosity that’s already in children through the We’re after a deeper happiness, a deeper sense of joy, and education process. How do you preserve intact what’s so that comes often from things that require work: relationmagical about what young people bring to the world, that ships and a true sense of growth and self-worth. M curiosity, that sense of What if? Also, we’re not teaching children what we believe they Joe Harvey joined Saint Mark’s in July of 2011. Prior to his appointneed for today—we’re trying to develop skills they’re ment as our head of school, he served as the academic dean at going to need in the world they’re growing into. What kind Marin Academy. In his 10 years at MA, he also served as the junior of collaborators are we going to need? What kinds of criticlass dean (2001 to 2004) and athletic director (2004 to 2007). cal thinkers? How about different ways of communicating? Throughout his time there, he taught English. Mr. Harvey earned his Are we raising kids who are going to be thoughtful about bachelor’s degree in political science from Harvard and his master’s the world we live in and the finite resources? How are we degree from the Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury College. going to do around cross-cultural relationships? Looking out to the skills students will need in their futures is an area where I think Saint Mark’s is doing such interesting work. Our commitment to diversity and local and global partnerships helps our students to develop www.saintmarksschool.org
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Thoroughly Modern
3F and the Wide World
The historical photograph project is a dynamic mix of history and media literacy dreamed up three years ago by Upper Division history teacher Mike Fargo and Director of Technology Bonnie Nishihara. The process begins with the eighth graders learning about visual analysis: How was the photograph composed or cropped to lead the viewer to certain points in the image? What’s in the foreground, the background? The process also covers choices made about publication: Why was one picture chosen and not another? Where was it published and who was the intended audience? Was the photograph manipulated before publication? Was there an intended effect?
Julie Fritz has earned the title of “early adopter”: She was one of the first Saint Mark’s teachers to set up a class Web site, use a SmartBoard, and offer iPods in the reading corner in her classroom. Her own experiments with technology pay off in a wealth of ideas for new activities and projects for her students. It was her use of Twitter that eventually led to Skype and the Mystery School game. “Through Twitter I have learned so much from teachers around the globe. We connect on many levels, sharing ideas and videos of the students, swapping files, and encouraging one another.” She and another tweeting teacher came up with the Mystery School idea, in which two classrooms connect on Skype and then, trying not to give any clues as to location, trade questions, using the
An interdisciplinary project opens students’ eyes to the power of photographic persuasion.
Third grade teacher Julie Fritz fearlessly engages students through technology.
Class “questioner” Camilla Rossi (left) examines a map while formulating a question for the mystery school. Below, “Google Earthers” Jackson Horick (left) and Coby Shpilberg cross-check clues with suggestions from their classmates. This photograph from 1934 helps introduce students to the process of visual analysis.
Students then choose from among some of the 20th century’s most iconic (and in some cases, incendiary) images: the raising of the American flag on Iwo Jima, Vietnamese children screaming in the street after a napalm bombing, and others. The final papers must offer both visual analysis and an analysis of the impact that a photo had on society. “Researching the event is not hard,” says Mr. Fargo. “Researching the impact of the photo is much more difficult. It requires the students to really dig, and I’ve learned a lot from doing this project with them.” In the process, students also learn about aspects of media that they might not have encountered before. A photograph taken by Kevin Carter, published in the New York Times in 1993, caused a worldwide uproar with its depiction of a starving Sudanese child being watched by a vulture. The backstory to this photograph raises issues still being debated, as Sophie Rosenbaum (Class of 2011) discovered and reported in her paper: “The image…changed the course of Sudan’s history by raising both awareness and funds for famine relief efforts. Carter’s photograph [also] provided insight into the difficult profession of photojournalists, whose challenges are depicted through his life story.” In a culture that becomes ever more image-centered, the historical photo project has a lot of room for growth in the future. M
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answers to deduce the state and city in which each school is located. Students work in teams of Google Earth users, atlas consultants, logical reasoners, and “questioners” who decide which question to pose and how to word it. Student learning is advanced thanks to the many skills at work in this activity. “The students have to work as a team to develop the questions, and they need geographical knowledge, which they are developing as the year goes on,” Mrs. Fritz says, adding that Marin County is great, but “we also need to value other places and the people who live there.” So far, 3F has played the game with a school in Missouri and one in Pennsylvania. “And I have four more lined up,” says Mrs. Fritz. So, what’s next in this exciting classroom? “A few of the teachers want to start Skyping regularly, like modern penpals. Learning is contagious. I want my students to get inspired any way they can, and if they see a classroom full of students in Missouri studying space, they might want to start their own project about space. Who knows? Maybe there’s a rocket scientist in my room!” M
The Next Generation
Alumni return to campus—this time as parents of Saint Mark’s students. INTERVIEW BY CHRISTINE MAGUIRE In 2010, Saint Mark’s reached a milestone, when we welcomed for the first time children of alumni as students. We now have four alums among our current families: Michele (Maier) Fisher ’82 and Michael Fisher, with sons Gabe and Max in 7th grade; Ann and Steve Sutro ’83, with son John in 7th grade; Hadley Mullin ’88 and Dan Kalafatas, with Avery in 1st grade; and Louisa (Ransom) Gloger Michael, Gabe ‘13, Max ‘13, and Michele ’92 and Andrew (Maier) ‘82 Fisher Gloger, with kindergartner Pamela. We caught up with some of these alumni to find out what it’s like to come back as a parent of a Saint Martian, as Mr. Orwig would say! CM: What made you consider Saint Mark’s for your children? Louisa: One of the reasons our family moved back to Marin after four years in Los Angeles was so that our children could hopefully attend Saint Mark’s. I had a very positive experience, my husband and I studied with Saint Mark’s students at the Branson School, and my husband works with graduates of Saint Mark’s on a daily basis as a humanities teacher at Sonoma Academy. In all cases, we have reached the same conclusion: Saint Mark’s students are true leaders, both inside and outside the classroom. They are models for what we want for our children. Steve: Ann and I knew Saint Mark’s was a first-rate school. You can’t walk the campus during a school day and not be impressed with the faculty and administration, their dedication to the students.
Steve ’83 and Ann Sutro, with John ‘13 (from left), Ellie, and Henry.
Hadley: When selecting a school for Avery, Saint Mark’s was the obvious first choice. I consider myself very fortunate to have attended and feel that the academic foundation it provided was second-to-none. But when becoming reacquainted with the school as a prospective
parent, I was tremendously impressed with how the school has evolved and expanded its offerings in the 20-plus years since I graduated. CM: How has the school changed in the last 20 to 30 years and how has it remained the same? Steve: The most obvious connection to the past, even though I graduated almost 30 years ago, is some of the teachers, including Ray Orwig and Richard Navarrete. I loved these guys when I was at the school (and still do). It’s a lot of fun to see them teach John and brings back a lot of great memories. Today, I would say the biggest change with the school, and probably education in general, is the way that technology is now a part of the curriculum. I know that Damon and the faculty over the years placed an emphasis on technology, and it is really paying off. The way that the faculty incorporates technology into learning is really amazing. These kids will be well prepared. Hadley: Despite the many ways in which Saint Mark’s has grown and evolved over the years, several core values clearly remain the same. First and foremost, the school has retained its emphasis on teaching students to be responsible, caring, and contribAndrew, Pamela (kindergarten), Iris, uting members of and Louisa (Ransom) Gloger ’92 with baby Ann their communities. Be it environmental stewardship or appreciation for cultures other than their own, students are taught that the world is larger than their immediate environment. Second, the school has retained its emphasis on a lack of pretension and a focus on academics and values. These were key reasons why we chose to apply. Louisa: One thing that has not changed is the quality of the Saint Mark’s faculty and staff. Eighteen years ago, Mr. Pincus was my 8th grade English teacher, and it was in his class that I developed a love of literature and writing. Mr. Orwig was another standout fixture of my time at Saint Mark’s. I have always been proud of the athleticism that I developed under his tutelage. Ms. Bredt was an exceptional science teacher—I will never forget my science fair projects. I could go on. While there are certainly many new faces at the school, the same commitment to teaching excellence is clearly evident. I have been very impressed by the enhancements to the campus, particularly the garden and chicken coop and the integration of these assets into the overall curriculum. What has surprised you most about the school now? Louisa: The biggest surprise for me has been how instrumental and critical the role parents play at the school is. Be it on lunch duty or field trips or fundraisers, the parent community is incredible.
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alumniNEWS
CLASS OF 1985 Geoffrey Lakritz is married and has one child, Haley Sky, who is 5 years old. He and his family live in Novato, and he works for Novato Toyota-Kia Marin. Perrin Dahling has two children, Parker, who is 8 and a half, and Ethan, who is 1 and a half. CLASS OF 1989 Jonathan Brown had a blast coaching his son’s under-7 AYSO team last year. CLASS OF 1992 Patrick MacLeamy and his wife welcomed son Gavin into the world this past fall.
Hadley Mullin ’88, son Drew, daughter Avery (1st grade), and husband Dan Kalafatas. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5
Hadley: I have been impressed with the strength of the community and the passionate connection that so many students, parents, faculty members, and administrators feel for the school. What has it been like to transition from the role of alumni into the role of parent at Saint Mark’s? Louisa: As an alumna, I would receive occasional mailings about the status of the school. Now, as a parent, I am aware of what’s happening at the school on a day-to-day basis. That’s inspiring me to take an active role in ensuring the continued success of the institution. Watching your child attend a school that was so instrumental in your development commits you in a unique way to creating the same memorable experience for them. Steve: Saint Mark’s is such a community—in a lot of ways, I did not feel like I ever left. My younger sister was there after I graduated and my father stayed on the board. When Ann and I moved to Marin, I was fortunate to be able to serve on the board of trustees for four years. So it was always familiar and welcoming. I think it feels that way to the kids and families there today. It’s a special place. M
THE CAMPAIGN FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING We wish to thank the following donors for their contributions to the Saint Mark’s School endowment through the Campaign for Teaching and Learning between July 1, 2010, and June 30, 2011. $5,000+ Karen and Danny Shea $2,000–$4,999 Morry Cater and Peter Scheer Up to $1,999 Rhona and Richard Lovett Cory and Jim Martin
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CLASS OF 1993 Amanda Atterbury Ryan and her husband Kevin had their first child, Kevin Samuel Ryan, in April 2011. She is taking some time off from working as an equine veterinarian to spend time with Sam. She would love to see any alumni who may be passing through Philadelphia. Stephanie Libien married Bryan M. Sandner on April 30, 2011, at Silverado Resort. She is currently vice president of the Algorithmic Electronic Trading Services Department at Jeffries and is based in San Francisco. CLASS OF 1994 Sierra Millman has spent the last few years in Beirut, Lebanon, where she worked as a contributing writer and editor and gained a working proficiency in Arabic. She has recently moved back to the U.S. and continues to work as a freelance journalist. To find out more, please visit www. sierraprasada.com. James Newton is in his sixth year teaching English literature to middle schoolers at Ocean Springs Middle School in Mississippi. He is also the head coach for boys’ and girls’ lacrosse teams, as well as the founder of the South Coast Men’s Lacrosse team. He is in the last semester of a master’s program at University of Southern Mississippi. Cory Putman Oakes had her novel, The Veil, a young adult fantasy (ages 12 and up) published by Octane Press in November. CLASS OF 1995 Kate Finney works for The Body Positive, an organization dedicated to implementing educational programs that transform individual and societal beliefs about weight, body image, and identity. CLASS OF 1996 Ashley Eagle-Gibbs was admitted to the California Bar in June 2011. Chris Detrick and his wife Danielle were featured in the January issue of Marin Magazine in an article about couples with deep Marin roots saying, “I do.” Chris and Danielle were married in August 2011 in Mill Valley. Chris is a musician and teaches Saint Mark’s rock band elective. CLASS OF 1998 Brandon Driscoll-Luttringer edited the film Jiro Dreams of Sushi, which was picked up for distribution by Magnolia Pictures at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2010. It will be in theaters in the U.S. starting on March 9, 2012. The film recently won the World Cinema Audience Choice Award in the AFI film festival. Kira George Haas and her husband Bradley welcomed Preston, their first baby, on January 4, 2011. They are enjoying every moment of parenthood!
CLASS OF 1999 Vincent Magaline graduated from UC Santa Barbara in 2009. He is currently a financial advisor with MassMutual Financial Group in San Francisco. Alexander Varner came in second in the 2011 San Francisco marathon. CLASS OF 2000 Kate Baer has been serving our country in Iraq. After four months in Tikrit with the 272nd Military Police Company, 4th Infantry Division, Kate sustained injuries during a military action. She was airlifted to Landstuhl, Germany, and then to Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, for treatment. She is recovering quickly and has since started working in the operations office of the Military Police K9 School at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas. After four years with the BBC, Lauren Howey is returning to graduate school in an entirely different discipline, contemporary art. She started the master’s program in art and art business at Sotheby’s Institute in New York in September 2011. She looks forward to a year of visiting as many galleries and museums as possible! Maryam Khorasani graduated from UC Berkeley in 2008 and in May 2011 earned a JD from Golden Gate University School of Law. Philip Markle has been cast by Second City in Chicago to entertain passengers on the cruise ship Norwegian Epic. CLASS OF 2003 Anna Hauswirth will attend UC San Francisco for a joint MD/PhD program. Alexandra Harvey recently graduated from UC Santa Barbara and will be teaching English in South Korea in 2011. Jules Kleinbrodt is in his first year at Michigan Law School. Nick Kraus graduated from college in May 2011 and is now living in New York City. He is teaching 7th grade algebra in Harlem as part of the Teach for America program, while working on his master’s degree in education. Drew Lawson graduated from Yale in May 2011 and now is working in management consultancy for financial services companies in New York City. He is presently on a five-month assignment in San Francisco. Christopher Martin is in New York City, working as a junior analyst for UBS in consumer products. CLASS OF 2004 James Brenner is a senior at Johns Hopkins. He plans to go to Africa or the Middle East next year to teach English. He is majoring in political science and minoring in French; he also takes Arabic and international studies courses. Eric Lee graduated from UC Davis in three years and will go on to law school next. His interest in history came in handy when he
volunteered to help grade the historical photograph project for Mr. Fargo’s 8th grade class (see page 4). Emma Spilsbury is a senior at Lehigh University, majoring in architecture. In spring 2011 she studied in Barcelona, Spain. CLASS OF 2005 Alexa Stevens is in her junior year at Tufts University as a Middle Eastern Studies and Arabic major. In summer 2011 she went with Global Exchange on a two-week trip to Iran, visiting Tehran, Yazd, Shiraz, and Isfahan. She studied abroad for the fall semester in Amman, Jordan, through Middlebury College. She was in a language intensive, taking classes at the University of Jordan (all in Arabic); lived with Jordanian flatmates; and traveled around the country. CLASS OF 2006 Alexander Kaplan is currently a sophomore at Brown University. He serves as a member of the Undergraduate Council of Students and is a writer for the Brown Daily Herald. CLASS OF 2007 Kelly Martin is enjoying studying marine science at the University of Miami. She has participated in a couple of marine mammal rescues, once spending four hours in a rehab pool with a sick pilot whale. Next semester she will be doing a work-study course and will be able to work at the university’s Rosenstiel School (marine science campus). CLASS OF 2008 Puneeth Gadangi, Jeffrey Liu, Toki Migimatsu, and Sharanya Venkataraman were named National Merit Scholarship semifinalists in October 2011. CLASS OF 2009 Jack Ferguson is in his junior year at Marin Academy. He is the varsity boys’ cross-country co-captain, along with fellow Saint Mark’s alum E.G. Garcia ’08. Their team, which also includes Alec Neal ’10, qualified for the state cross-country championships. Over the summer, Jack swam with the Marin Pirates and made sectional times in the 1500-meter free, 800-meter free, 200-meter breast, and 100meter breast. He also won best in show at the Marin County Fair with one of his photos from a photography class at Marin Academy. Katy Lee came in 21st at the state crosscountry championships. Mikey Mason plays on the varsity water polo team at St. Ignatius. In June 2011 he spent three weeks on a student exchange at St. Ignatius in Riverview, near Sydney, Australia, with an exchange family. He and 12 other San Francisco students traveled together and toured New Zealand. Zane Morrissey is a sophomore at Marin Academy. Between performing in Macbeth and a role teaching The Tempest, he devoted his entire summer to working long, hard, but
wonderful hours with the Marin Shakespeare Company. CLASS OF 2010 Pierce Freeman had his second iPhone app, called Boomerang, approved in October 2011. From Forbes.com: “Have you ever been in the middle of filling out a form on a Web page and been called away from your computer, only to come back and discover the session had timed out and you had to fill out the form all over again? Boomerang allows you to pick up where you left off when browsing the Internet on an iPad, iPhone, MacBook, or iPod Touch.” CLASS OF 2011 Sarah Corns made the varsity volleyball team at International High School. Macrae Sharp is taking a gap year before starting high school. She spent the fall living in Bayonne, France, for two months with a host family. She attended a French middle school and experienced life in a new culture. Since coming home, she has been volunteering in Marin County with Adopt-a-Family, Canal Alliance, and many other programs. In the spring, Macrae and her mom plan to do some volunteer projects in Tanzania, Mongolia, and Sri Lanka. She will begin her freshman year of high school in the fall of 2012. Ava Salmi attended a sailing and scuba diving camp called Broadreach in the Caribbean in summer 2011. She spent two weeks on a boat with 11 other teens. “I had a blast learning how to sail and meeting new people, but the best part was learning to scuba and receiving my certification.” Ava is a freshman at Branson and still swims for the Marlins, recently qualifying for the Far Westerns in two events. Otto Salmi spent three weeks this summer with his grandparents at their summer house in Finland. He is a freshman at Branson and runs cross-country.
TELL US YOUR LIFE STORY! We love hearing from our alumni. Contact Christine Maguire, alumni coordinator: cmaguire@saintmarksschool.org. LIKE US ON FACEBOOK. Look for our page under Saint Mark’s School - San Rafael, CA.
alumniEVENTS 2012 MARCH
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TRIVIA NIGHT 6 p.m. in the gym ALUMNI BREAKFAST 8:30–10 a.m. GRADUATION 10 a.m.–noon
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Saint Mark’s School 39 Trellis Drive San Rafael, CA 94903
The 2011 fall play was Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper. This production marked the debut of our new drama teacher, Tori Truss, and featured a cast and crew of 40 students.