Bishop's Magazine Fall/Winter 2016

BISHOP’S A MAGAZINE FOR THE BISHOP’S SCHOOL FAMILY AND FRIENDS FALL/WINTER 2016

PDG Puts the GREAT in Gatsby Fitzgerald’s novel is a hit on stage.

Better Than the Real Thing?

Virtual reality brings learning to life.

Coming Home Student-athletes return to campus as alumni coaches.

table of contents

BISHOP’S A magazine for The Bishop’s School family and friends

FEATURES

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Fall/Winter 2016 • Vol. 14, No. 1

Better Than the Real Thing?

Credits

Virtual reality brings learning to life.

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Remembering Robert Mulgrew: The Joy Is in the Conversation Honoring the late chair of the Bishop’s English Department

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Standing at the Margins

Editor Suzanne Weiner

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Founder of Homeboy Industries, The Rev. Gregory J. Boyle, S.J. encourages compassion as the Endowed Leadership Lecture Series speaker.

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Managing Editor Keri Peckham

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Tech Talk

Different Voices From science and service to children and money, the Bishop’s community learns from visiting speakers.

14 Returning Alumni Prove That

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Contributing Photographers Max Davey Melissa Kenyon Pablo Mason Paige Nordland ’16 Dave Siccardi Michael Spengler Sadie Traylor ’16 David Zaitz

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Bishop’s Heart Remains the Same

The Bishop’s School

Alumni Weekend events celebrate the best of Bishop’s.

Head of School Aimeclaire Roche Assistant Head of School and Chief Advancement Officer John A. Trifiletti

Finding a Home a World Away Bishop’s Profile: Board of Trustees President Max Webb

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Coming Home Student-athletes return to campus as alumni coaches.

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Director of Alumni Relations Sarah Garro Bishop’s is published two times a year

by The Bishop’s School.

100 Years of St. Mary’s Chapel Reflections on the chapel’s many celebrations, including the 100th anniversary of its dedication

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Honor Roll Staff Jayne Atkinson Gale Hill Lisa Johnston Graphic Design Design Perspective

Bishop’s alumni are on track to be leaders in the technology industry.

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Contributing Writers Zach Jones ’01 Melissa Kenyon Keri Peckham Trisha J. Ratledge Joe Tash Jared Scott Tesler Suzanne Weiner Diane Y. Welch

PDG Puts the Great in Gatsby Dance show based on Fitzgerald’s novel is a hit.

24 bishop’s buzz 25 family matters: class notes HONOR ROLL OF DONORS 2015-2016

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Letters: We welcome your comments.

Please send letters for possible publication to weiners@bishops.com or contact us at (858) 875-0735.

The Bishop’s School 7607 La Jolla Boulevard La Jolla, CA 92037-4799 Phone: (858) 459-4021 Fax: (858) 459-3914 www.bishops.com Mission Statement The Bishop’s School is an academic community pursuing intellectual, artistic and athletic excellence in the context of the Episcopal tradition. We are dedicated to offering the highest quality education to a diverse student body and to fostering integrity, imagination, moral responsibility and commitment to serving the larger community.

Cover Photo: Danielle Wood ’17, Gabe Garon ’17 and Sarah Bauer ’17 perform in the PDG show, Gatsby. Photo by Max Davey, studio m.

on the quad with AC

well as disappointment or sorrow. These are critical questions for our students; it is a privilege to be a part of their discernment of how to answer them and to share with this community all that we together experienced this fall.

Sincerely,

Aimeclaire Roche Head of School

Above photo: Aimeclaire Roche presents Father Greg Boyle with the Bishop’s Medal.

1 on the quad with AC

It has been a significant fall on campus, scenes from which you will read about in this edition of Bishop’s magazine. We enjoyed joyous moments: from the phenomenal attendance at Alumni Weekend and honoring our Ellen Browning Scripps Celebration awardees to the Performing Dance Group’s stunning adaptation of The Great Gatsby. We marvel at the work of our computer science students that brings learning to life and what our alumni are accomplishing in technology fields. We welcomed Father Greg Boyle and his colleagues from Homeboy Industries with awe for his life of service and with renewed appreciation for our ability to make change in the world. And we bid a sad farewell to colleague, mentor and friend Robert Mulgrew, who made an indelible mark upon Bishop’s with his humility, his care for others and his passion for intellectual curiosity.

Amid all of these campus events, we also, as a nation, held our elections, which this year gave us a unique moment to appreciate special qualities of our school community. First, it is a remarkable opportunity to work with adolescents and young adults who are grappling, for the first time, with the challenges of our complex democratic process. As one of my colleagues reminds, adolescents are “in the process of coming into possession of themselves,” and still honing ideas about the world at large and their role in it. Our enviable role as educators is to be committed to the thoughtfulness and depth of that process of intellectual maturation. Our discussions at school, always and regardless of topic—from the national election to technology to artistic expression—continue to test and challenge students’ assumptions, and give them opportunities to practice careful and thorough analysis.

I, too, am grateful for my choice—and yours—to be a part of a community whose values transcend political affiliation. Bishop’s Mission Statement, Diversity and Inclusion Statement, as well as our Fundamental Standard are clear: we pursue intellectual, as well as artistic and athletic excellence, in the context of the Episcopal tradition; we promote an inclusive and compassionate community where diversity—in all its forms—enriches the exchange of ideas; we all maintain integrity, honor, responsible citizenship and respect for the rights of others. While every member of this community embraces the right to hold individual and differing views on issues, policy and politics, our actions and our words are always compassionate and elevate the dignity of others.

All of the events of this fall, both national and local, called us to think about how and whom we serve; the needs of the communities in which we live and work; how we express joy and wonder as

Bishop’s students glimpse future with virtual reality headset, computer education program

By Joe Tash

Better Than the Real Thing?

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Chair in Computer Science. “Virtual reality is something that enhances classroom learning.”

The virtual reality museum is just one example of the advanced technology projects Irasema’s students have tackled during her tenure at the School. An engineering graduate from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Irasema began teaching computer science at Bishop’s in 1985.

The program has grown steadily.

This year, the School brought on a second computer science teacher, and 177 students are enrolled in computer science classes, which are elective offerings.

“We’re never afraid to be cutting edge at Bishop’s...”

Over the years, Irasema’s students have used their programming skills to create software and games, compete in and win contests, build websites and apps, and land internships at organizations ranging from Google to Princeton University. Many of her students have also gone on to work in the tech industry, including Paul Sottosanti ’98, a principal game designer at Riot Games, which is best known for “League of Legends.”

Among the things that stand out from his Bishop’s experience, says Paul, was Irasema’s computer science class, where he first learned about networking, the Internet, Web pages and HTML (a computer language used to create Web pages). “Mrs. Triana was a wonderful teacher who directly inspired me to see what I could create with computers,” says Paul, a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University. “Without her, I think there’s a good chance I wouldn’t have known that I wanted to study computer science, and I doubt that my technical skills would be as strong as they are today.”

“I think it’s impressive that Bishop’s

takes computer science so seriously, and Mrs. Triana is the driving force behind that,” Paul says.

Irasema continues to inspire her students, including many whose first experience with computers and programming has taken place in her classroom.

“She really thinks of the future,” says Alessandra Aguirre ’17, who plans to play basketball and study computer science as either a major or minor in college. “She wants us to use computers and technology to improve something in this world. Her goal is to prompt us to make this world a better or more efficient place, and to use our creativity.”

Veronica Tang ’18 has taken computer science classes at Bishop’s every year, and is currently in the Independent Study Advanced Topics in Computer Science class. Among her endeavors in the technology field has been helping the San Diego Fringe Festival, an annual arts event, by creating an online box office and ticketing system. “I use computer science basically every day,” she says.

Veronica, working with a classmate, also founded the All Girls STEM Society, which hosts workshops and math tournaments for girls around San Diego County, and aims to introduce girls to science, technology, engineering and math. There are now 700 participants from 90 schools who take part in the group’s events annually. “It’s turned into this huge thing,” she says.

Rachel Hong ’17, who is also doing a computer science independent study this year, has used her programming know-how to create a mobile app that filters images and creates visual contrasts to assist people who are colorblind.

She also participated in summer internships at Princeton University, where she helped build a website and learned about crowd-sourcing and bioinformatics, a field in which computer technology is used to manage biological information.

As a younger student, she says, she loved solving puzzles and doing math.

But it was through the computer science course she took, Rachel says, that she began to see larger possibilities

3 Better Than the Real Thing?

efore now, to get an up-close look at world-famous artworks such as da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa,” Michelangelo’s David, the Terracotta Army and the Great Buddha of Kamakura, an art lover would have had to travel to such far-flung places as France, Italy, China and Japan.

But thanks to the work of Finnegan (Finn) Sinclair ’17 (photo, opposite page), a student in the Bishop’s Computer Science Program, students can experience those masterpieces (and others) all in one place, without even stepping on an airplane—by visiting a “virtual reality museum” accessible through a cutting-edge virtual reality (VR) system in the School’s computer lab.

Visitors to the virtual museum can “walk” through the central lobby to a series of exhibit halls, where they can get so close to three-dimensional versions of the paintings and sculptures that they can see brush strokes and surface textures, with no barriers, museum guards or other visitors to obstruct their view. They can circle around sculptures, seeing them from all angles, and look up at the large works to get a sense of scale. Finn has enlivened the experience by adding such effects as the murmurs of museum patrons, battle sounds from the Terracotta Army and falling snowflakes around the buddha.

Students in the Advanced Placement (AP) Art History class have toured the museum, which their teacher says is an invaluable resource that will help them prepare for the newly revised AP Exam next spring. The virtual museum allows students to see for themselves the fine details of the artworks they learn about in class.

“This is Finn’s gift to us, it’s providing an incredible experience,” says AP Art History teacher Dr. Nicky Holland.

“This is reality. It is an authentic experience, a 21st century experience.

It lifts these works off the pages of the textbooks, literally.”

Finn’s creation is “captivating and accomplishing what we hoped it would,” says Irasema Triana, who chairs the Bishop’s Computer Science Department and holds the Wattis-Dumke Foundation

Better Than the Real Thing? 4

Above: Irasema Triana and computer science student Ian Walker ’18; below: The Great Buddha of Kamakura

offered by the world of computers and technology. “I could see how broad computer science was, and it was absolutely endless.”

That is one of the lessons Irasema tries to instill in her students, along with the necessary skills they need, whether using various applications or writing clean, efficient code. “I want them to pursue their passions. I don’t ever want them to think they can’t achieve what they’ve set out to do,” she says.

Nick Barber ’17 took that concept to heart, as he used his computer skills to create a pair of computer games featuring a character based on a real-life YouTube video personality nicknamed Pewdiepie, who has more than 40 million followers. For a year, Nick doggedly worked to contact the YouTube star, which paid off when Pewdiepie made a video demonstrating one of Nick’s games, called “Sky Guy.” The video has since chalked up more than 5 million views, leading in turn to 350,000 downloads of Nick’s games.

“I like the idea that with technology, you can have a huge impact,” says Nick.

“I truly believe a 15-year-old with a laptop has more power than Julius Caesar.” Nick loves the challenge of getting his work into the hands of as many people as possible. Bishop’s, he says, is “heading in the right direction” with its emphasis on building the

computer science program.

Keeping the program current is a top priority because new discoveries are made every day in computer science, a broad academic discipline that encompasses such fields as globally distributed systems, robotics, artificial intelligence, scientific computing and graphics. “We’re never afraid to be on the cutting edge at Bishop’s, even if the technology is so new that there are no available textbooks to teach it to students,” says Irasema. “In this department, we write our own curriculum.”

The students’ approach to their work is as important as their technical expertise.

“In the programming classes, I try to teach them how to think, not what to think.

How to see the things that other people fail to see,” Irasema says. “Our environment here is very

forward thinking. We are always looking to improve or create things that have yet to be developed.”

Instruction also touches on real-life skills such as entrepreneurship, being a team player, becoming an effective speaker, offering constructive criticism and learning to be positive, contributing members of the larger global community.

Irasema wants students to be prepared to take what they know and to build on it, and hopes they apply these skills throughout their lifetime and continue to give back to their communities.

“The creativity in young people is often hindered when they are asked to do something only in a specific way, or told not to pursue something because they might not be good at it. In the computer lab, if students want to create something, they are strongly encouraged to go for it and not to be afraid to fail.

If they do fail, they are taught that is okay, to learn from it, and then to go forward and try again,” Irasema says.

Her students have responded by “going above and beyond. They’ve pursued their passions and their ideas.

They’re giving back to the local community and some of them globally, which is remarkable.”

Finn, who spearheaded the virtual museum project, certainly fits the bill of going above and beyond. Until recently, virtual reality systems were either too expensive, or didn’t work very well. But that changed in early 2016 when two consumer-oriented virtual reality headsets, the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive, hit the market. “Now, literally, the average Joe if they have the money, can go out and get a system, and it’s making virtual reality a lot more accessible,” Finn says.

Finn Sinclair ’17 and Samantha Steele ’17

He pitched the idea to Irasema, who was enthusiastic about the project.

They purchased the components and custom built a computer to run the VR system. Finn began working on the virtual art museum software just before school ended last year and continued with the project through the summer. Finn decided to make the virtual museum his capstone project, which allows Bishop’s seniors to focus on an area of interest through independent study.

Nicky, the art history teacher, was impressed by Finn’s dedication and passion for the project when he contacted her over the Fourth of July weekend to review the list of pieces that would be included in the museum.

In building the museum’s collection, Finn was able to find virtual 3D representations of many of the famous artworks from Nicky’s list, including a repository of images at the British Museum’s website. In some cases, he had to adapt the images to work with

the virtual reality program. He also designed the museum space itself and wrote display placards with descriptions of the artwork and created a museum brochure and map that visitors can use to navigate through the exhibits. The first version of the museum consisted of one floor, with several exhibit rooms branching off from the main entrance hall. An updated version will feature a second floor and additional exhibits.

Finn has trained several volunteers, including Samantha Steele ’17, to serve as virtual docents, who guide fellow students as they experience the museum.

Samantha, a fellow computer science student, says the students who have toured the museum have been impressed. “A lot of them were extraordinarily excited. People from my class were just astounded, speechless.”

According to Samantha and Irasema, the virtual museum marks one of the first times that VR technology has been used for educational purposes, particularly for curriculum that was tailor-made for a

specific class, in this case AP Art History.

Until now, this type of technology has mostly been used for gaming. “The idea of using the Vive as an educational tool is really amazing and hasn’t been done before,” Samantha says.

Students in the art history class spend much of the year preparing for their AP exam. “Everything they are doing in the museum will prepare them to write beautiful reflective exam essays next spring,” Nicky says.

The virtual museum has even gone global, since Finn posted his software on Steam, an online community where users share software, games and other content. Users who have a Vive system can download the program—for free— and experience the museum for themselves, which people from around the world have already done.

One user wrote, “This is an excellent start. There’s not really anything else like it. The soldiers were impressive.

I can imagine with more exhibits this would be like ‘Night at the Museum.’

Better Than the Real Thing? 6

Left: The Birth of Venus; below: “Lintel #25 at Yaxchilán,” located in structure 23

Well worth the download.” Another wrote, “It’s the best ‘educational’ VR experience I’ve encountered, by far.”

People who have checked out the virtual art museum have contacted Finn, offering to work with him on future projects, including a large collaborative museum with numerous galleries.

Finn has also begun work—with the help of other Bishop’s computer science students—on another virtual reality project. The students are building a library of digital images that will be used to create virtual scenes from the classic novel, The Great Gatsby. The virtual experience will help students in Chad Bishop’s English classes better understand the book’s complex themes and ideas.

“There are a lot of physical metaphors that may come to life a little more because they are walking around, seeing (the scenes) with their own eyes,” Chad says. “Ironically, what you do in your head when you read is exactly what the virtual reality headset does for you.

We don’t want to replace that, but it’s a nice complement.”

Finn has already created a scene in which Gatsby stands on his dock, staring across Long Island Sound at the home of his love interest, Daisy, where a green light shines. “I’ve recreated that in virtual reality, so students can themselves stand on the shoreside dock and stare out across the water at the green light.”

Chad says the virtual reality experience will be helpful for his students, but it may be even more

beneficial for the students building the software. “People are hungry for this content” and the computer science students are “learning a very valuable and contemporary skill.”

Paul, the Bishop’s alumnus and video game designer, agrees saying, “I think anything that makes education more immersive and engaging can only serve

humanity well in the future. Particularly as games, movies and other media become more impressive, I imagine it’s becoming harder for traditional textbooks to compete for a student’s attention and interest.”

As demonstrated at Bishop’s, virtual reality could be used to teach many topics, from geology to history and

more. “Both virtual and augmented reality (in which real images are augmented by computer-generated input such as sound, video or graphics) also seem strongly applicable to learning the sciences, as directly manipulating molecules or walking on the surface of Mars would bring concepts to life in ways that would make them less abstract and more immediately understandable.

Not to mention that virtual frog dissections would be a much less messy way of learning biology,” Paul says.

And Bishop’s, through its computer science program, is poised to be in the forefront of this intersection of education and technology. Irasema concurs, “It’s amazing the possibilities you have with virtual reality. It’s endless and this is only the beginning.”

By Keri Peckham

Remembering Robert Mulgrew: The Joy Is in the Conversation

By Keri Peckham

A

“And there is a Catskill eagle in some souls that can alike dive down into the blackest gorges, and soar out of them again…”–Moby Dick

7 Remembering Robert Mulgrew

beloved teacher and coach at Bishop’s since 2003, English Department Chair Robert Mulgrew passed away on Aug. 2, while on vacation with his family in New York state. A favorite of many Bishop’s students and alumni, Robert is survived by his wife, Francesca Gallozzi and their two children, Duncan ’18 and Sophie ’19 Mulgrew.

Robert, a graduate of Brown University and The Middlebury Bread Loaf School of English, taught high school Latin and English and coached basketball at schools in New York, North Carolina and Florida prior to coming to Bishop’s.

Bishop’s became a “home” for Robert and his family, and as Head of School Aimeclaire Roche commented upon his passing, “Robert’s gifts to the Bishop’s community were countless: his vibrant and skillful teaching, his care for advisees, his affection for coaching, his sound counsel to colleagues on all aspects of education and his commitment to Bishop’s each and every day of his years with us.”

As English teacher Blake Cass shares, “Mark Twain said that a really great person never makes you feel small, but always makes you feel that you, too, can become great.

Even when he was offering me criticism, he always made me feel that I could become a great teacher.”

Aimeclaire concurs, “Indeed, Robert made that very same impression on so many of us, whether student, colleague or friend. He could discern the greatness within each of us.”

For those who knew Robert, his love of the Herman Melville classic, Moby Dick, was no secret. Yet when asked about Melville, his response was, “It’s a stretch to call me a Melville master. Think of me as a fellow reader and enthusiast of Moby Dick.

The joy is in the conversation.”

With Robert, it was always about the conversation. Books were his passion, but those who knew him often found themselves in conversations broaching many topics—from his beloved New York Knicks to his children’s many activities and accolades. The art of conversation—and true connection with others—brought Robert great joy. And that conversation, which was always paired with a smile, is greatly missed on campus.

Since Robert’s passing, the Bishop’s community has joined together to honor him.

Earlier this fall 1,000 books were donated in Robert’s memory to Nativity Prep Academy, the Monarch School, Barrio Logan College Institute and the nonprofit, Words Alive. R.J. Faltinsky ’20 is making a memorial bench as his Eagle Scout project.

And the fall dance concert, in which his daughter Sophie performs (see page 22), was fittingly dedicated to Robert.

Because his “was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life” (The Great Gatsby).

Endowed Leadership Lecture Series

Father Gregory Boyle, founder of Homeboy Industries, brings his lessons of compassion and kinship to The Bishop’s School.

Standing at the Margins 8

By Trisha J. Ratledge

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ruz Lopez grips the sides of the podium in the Eva May Fleet Athletic Center and with a tentative smile he looks out at the packed audience of students, faculty and staff.

He takes a deep breath, exhales and begins the story of his life growing up in East L.A. “As soon as my dad found out that my mom was pregnant, he left. As a kid, my stepfathers … they hit my mom, and me as well,” says Mr. Lopez, 20, pausing to maintain his composure as he recalls the alcohol abuse he witnessed in his stepfathers and the physical abuse that infused his childhood.

“It was hard for me to grow up. I was scared. I had nobody to take care of me.

All I wanted was attention, someone to listen to me,” he explains, his honesty and candor resonating throughout an audience stilled to absolute silence. “Most of my relatives, they are alcoholics. At the age of 10, I was taking my first drink.”

Mr. Lopez found family in his neighborhood homeboys. “They took care of me. They would always tell me, ‘Don’t worry, we’ve got your back.’ But it’s not true. I had to learn that.”

Mr. Lopez was the first of three speakers at The Bishop’s School on Sept. 19 as part

of the Endowed Leadership Lecture Series that brings individuals to campus who are role models for the students through demonstrated leadership achievements in their communities. The Rev. Gregory J. Boyle, S.J., founder and executive director of Homeboy Industries, was joined by Mr. Lopez, a Homeboy trainee, and Jose Arellano, a senior staff member and former trainee.

Homeboy Industries, founded in 1988 by Father Boyle in Los Angeles, is the largest gang intervention, rehabilitation and re-entry program in the world. With a combination of job training and placement assistance, therapy and support services—including education, tattoo removal, substance abuse treatment and legal assistance— Homeboy Industries serves more than 10,000 former gang members and felons every year. Of these, more than 200 men and women at any one time are employed full time in an 18-month job training program through Homeboy’s

social enterprise businesses, including Homeboy Bakery, Homegirl Café, the Homeboy Diner at Los Angeles City Hall, Homeboy & Homegirl Merchandise and more.

In the 30 years since Father Boyle started working with gang members as the newly-appointed pastor at Dolores Mission Church in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of East L.A., he has pioneered programs with lasting results and rejected many common notions, such as the attraction and allure of gangs in impoverished neighborhoods.

“What this is about is a lethal absence of hope,” he reminds the audience.

“Gangs are the places kids go when they discover their life to be a misery, and misery loves company. It’s about kids who can’t imagine their future so they plan their funerals. Hope is an essential thing.”

Jose Arellano is a testament to that idea. Despite growing up with a drugaddicted mother who was a gang member

9 Standing at the Margins

herself, he loved learning and was part of the Gifted and Talented Education program in his school.

“I wanted to learn as much as I could,” remembers Mr. Arellano, 31. But the drug and gang activity at home took its toll. “I felt alone. I felt lost. I felt unwanted. I felt hopeless. That was the biggest thing; when the hopelessness began to overwhelm me is when I chose the neighborhood.”

Mr. Arellano was jumped into his neighborhood gang the summer after he finished sixth grade.

At The Bishop’s School, the plan to invite Father Boyle and his colleagues was led by The Rev. Brian Fidler, Bishop’s Chaplain, and Dr. Clara Boyle, English Opposite page, top left: Father Boyle; bottom right: Jose Arellano and Cruz Lopez listen as Father Boyle addresses Bishop’s students. Above: Mr. Lopez, Father Boyle and Mr. Arellano in Clara Boyle’s English class teacher and Father Boyle’s niece.

“We thought Greg would be an awesome speaker and would dovetail which is kinship, connection,” says and not just works of art,” says Clara. nicely with the theme of service we have Father Boyle.

“I was hoping that his visit to the School as part of the 21st century citizenship “The day won’t ever come when I have would inspire a conversation and maybe pillars we organize our co-curricular more courage or I am more noble or I am open some minds regarding how we as program around,” says Brian, who plans to closer to God than these two men and a community and as individuals can act use writings from or about Father Boyle’s the thousands and thousands who have justly in the world. And that we have a work in his Social Justice in American walked through our doors,” he tells part to play in justice.”

Society class next semester. “He is an Mr. Lopez, Mr. Arellano and the assembly.

As Mr. Arellano, Mr. Lopez and Father exemplary person of service, as we would “This is such an important message for Boyle peeled back the layers of their like our students to understand service, the Bishop’s community,” says Danielle stories at the assembly and talked about and a person of faith.”

Wood ’17, who concentrates her service the hope and transformation they see The visit also served to kick off in Catholic ministries in her parish. at Homeboy Industries, their words the School’s celebration of the 100th “Father Boyle demonstrates that it’s not held lessons about the true meaning anniversary of the dedication of about the hours.

It’s truly about meeting of service.

St. Mary’s Chapel “as a place where people where they are and believing that “What you hope to do is to be in loving, kindness and compassion stand at the center of the message we proclaim,” you are not above them just because your the world who God is: compassionate, circumstances are different. It’s growing loving, kind,” says Father Boyle. “What adds Brian. with them.” you hope to do is know that the answer Father Boyle lives and serves by a “I think the way he put it made service to every question is compassion. I know lesson he took from Henri Nouwen, more personal, that you are doing this you have service projects, and it’s not so the late Dutch Catholic priest and writer, because you are standing with these much the help you are going to offer. who was a professor of Father Boyle’s people as opposed to going out and It’s not so much about what you will do. at Harvard Divinity School. saying, ‘Let me help you,’” adds Amber It’s always going to be about what will “He said, ‘Can you receive people?’”

Ray ’17. “It was a perspective I hadn’t happen to you by showing up at the Father Boyle recalls. “That changed my heard before, and it was a good paradigm margins. How you imagine the circle life. You are always trying to save, rescue, shift for me.” of compassion and then you imagine help, do something. It feels passive, After the assembly, Father Boyle, nobody standing outside of that circle.” but it isn’t. It’s the secret. It’s humble.

Mr. Arellano and Mr. Lopez visited “The blessing is that where I’m at right Can you just receive who people are?”

Gary Hendrickson’s upper-level class now in my life, I get to be a part of it,” Service, he says, is not primarily about on African American literature, and confirms Mr. Arellano, who now mentors deeds and actions. It’s about kinship, the following day, Father Boyle spoke incoming trainees. “I get to greet people relationships, standing together, seeing in ninth-grade chapel and the group like Cruz when they are coming in. I get each person for who he or she is, and then visited Clara’s ninth-grade to be available just like homies were accepting that it’s not what you do, but English class. available when I was out there in the what you experience if you can receive “I think one function of English is to streets. I get to introduce people to this people for who they are. “Service is the allow us to talk about moral questions way of living. It’s a gift.” hallway that leads to the ballroom,

TECH TAlK

By Jared Scott Tesler

Tech Talk 10

These young alums have technology down to a science.

The world is their lab!

Madison White ’09

Alex Wright-Gladstein ’04

Jeff Wu ’08

Software Developer at athenahealth

Co-Founder and CEO of Ayar Labs

Co-Founder of Terminal.com

Before accepting her current post as software developer at athenahealth, a leading provider of cloud-based services and point-of-care mobile apps, Madison White ’09 held internships with Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s Whale Acoustic Lab and Qualcomm’s research & development team. An electrical engineering alumna of Stanford University (she graduated Phi Beta Kappa), Madison also team-teaches an Introduction to Computer Science class at San Francisco’s Gateway High School as part of Technology Education and Literacy in Schools, a program funded by Microsoft Philanthropies.

With the goal of improving data centers’ bandwidth and energy efficiency, clean energy and technology entrepreneurship enthusiast Alex Wright-Gladstein ’04 co-founded Ayar Labs, winner of last year’s MIT Clean Energy Prize. She also serves as an advisor to Spark Clean Energy, which empowers the next generation of energy innovators and entrepreneurs through the U.S. Department of Energy’s Cleantech University Prize Program. In college and graduate school, Alex was recognized as a Neubauer Scholar at Tufts University and a Siebel Scholar at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

During his days at Bishop’s, Jeff Wu ’08 was a qualifier for the USA Mathematical Olympiad. Then, while studying mathematics and computer science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he landed in the top 200 of the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition. Three years later, following a software engineering internship with Google, Jeff would go on to co-found Terminal.com, which offers technical education providers—Codecademy, Stanford University and Udacity— cutting-edge software to help their students learn to code in the most interactive and engaging way possible.

Madison: I think I spent almost every

Madison: I guess the obvious answer

free period in Mrs. Triana’s computer lab.

In that lab, I took a year of 3D modeling classes, learning a software program called Maya. I was also at Bishop’s when the new science center was built, so I have a lot of fond memories of taking biology, chemistry and physics in some pretty high-tech spaces. I loved math and science at Bishop’s, and by the time I left, I knew I wanted to be an engineer.

is my phone. I even have a phone case that can hold an ID and credit card, so most of the time, it’s the only thing I carry around with me. I’m pretty addicted to podcasts as well. I don’t go a day without listening to at least one or two.

we would have all of this technology stuff so figured out that we would be working 15-hour weeks. That’s certainly not the case for me. Technologists, and people in general, like solving complex problems, and I think there will be challenges for us to tackle for a long time.

Alex: None! I find it incredibly

Alex: No. I do believe that parts of

important to disconnect completely once in a while. Every day, I spend my first hour after waking up with my phone and computer off, so I can focus on going for a run with my husband and dog, and getting ready for the day.

I also make a point to go on vacation a couple times per year and completely disconnect from everything. I find that these times of not being connected to technology are when I come up with my best ideas or entirely new insights.

a lot of jobs will be automated, just like jobs in the past have been automated.

The number of horse breeders in the world decreased when cars became popular. The number of taxi drivers will probably decrease when driverless cars become popular. Maybe we’ll even get to a point where artificial intelligence (AI) creates enough wealth that the government can provide universal basic income. It’ll be tough for AI to replace all of the unique ways that people create value in this world.

Alex: I didn’t truly discover the power of technology to change the world until midway through college, but it was while I was at Bishop’s that I found my passion for the environment. I’ll never forget how my seventh grade science teacher, Mr. Otis, taught us about rainforests and the efforts of scientists to preserve them by having us play a team-based video game in class. I got hooked on the idea of fighting to save our planet.

Jeff: During my time at Bishop’s, Mrs. Triana let me do an independent study, and her lab was a home for computer nerds. Outside of the classroom, the computer was a really important educational tool for me.

I spent a good chunk of high school online, both for doing research and for reinforcing concepts.

Jeff: I use Google to find any particular information I want to dig up. Search is probably the single most indispensable tool within the Internet and is easy to take for granted. Wikipedia is great for summaries of various topics. I use Feedly, an RSS feed aggregator, to control subscriptions to content I decide I want to read regularly. I read a fair bit of content from other sources via articles recommended by friends on Facebook.

Jeff: I personally believe it’s possible, in principle, to achieve human-level intelligence via artificial means. I would guess there’s at least a 25 percent chance we’ll automate nearly all human jobs. In that case, we’ll have to solve this political problem of redistributing all the wealth.

I don’t know what happens if we don’t do that. But if we do, maybe humans will all live lives of great leisure.

11 Tech Talk

What role did technology play in your Bishop’s education?

Do you subscribe to the theory that artificial In today’s world of intelligence will eventually information overload, what modern technological put everyone out of work? conveniences can’t you Madison: I do not. Economist John Maynard Keynes thought that by now, go a day without?

Given the ever-changing landscape of the technology industry, how do you stay ahead of the curve?

Madison: Technology people love

Tech Talk 12

talking about technology, so there are lots of ways to keep up with changes in the field: blogs, tech talks, conferences, seminars and more. I really like going to tech talks around San Francisco; it gives me a chance to talk to people facing the same technology problems, hear some creative solutions and visit the offices of other players in the tech field.

(Pinterest’s office is as cute as you would expect!)

Alex: I talk to people. I make a point to check in with people I know who have their pulse on technology every so often, and I meet new people all the time by going to conferences, hearing talks and introducing myself to the other people in the room. I also read academic papers and tech news, but I find that there’s no substitute for plain, everyday conversation to find out about new developments in technology that aren’t mainstream knowledge yet.

Jeff: I think one of the best things you can do is surround yourself with others who are ahead of the curve. Having coworkers who can teach you things and an environment that embraces new ideas and learning is going to automatically help your growth. Outside of a day job, you can go to tech-related meetups or conferences. It may also help to follow tech blogs and news—in Silicon Valley, Hacker News is quite popular. For software in particular, it definitely helps to work on side projects, especially to experiment with new technologies or programming paradigms.

Who do you think is the greatest tech trailblazer of all time?

Madison: Grace Hopper. She was one of the first computer programmers, she invented the compiler, and she came up with the idea that we could write code in programming languages. She was integral to making the technology world what it is today. There’s even a computing legend that she invented the term “bug” when she found a moth short-circuiting a computer.

Alex: It’s a tie between Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison. Both enabled the modern economy by inventing key breakthroughs in electrical engineering like power systems and light bulbs. You can see these key early inventions as having made it possible for others to innovate in countless other ways—from mass manufacturing to the Internet, smartphones, and now apps that let us hail a ride in minutes, have video calls with family across the world and hold all of the knowledge of humanity in our hands.

Jeff: Bill Gates. He played a big role in the development of personal computers, built a company worth hundreds of billions of dollars and is an exemplar of philanthropy for other tech trailblazers.

This feature is part of a series Bishop’s magazine publishes about the professional journeys alumni are taking. If you are working in technology and have a story to tell, please contact the Alumni Office, alumni@bishops.com.

DIFFERENT VOICES

By Keri Peckham

The Bishop’s School welcomes diverse speakers to campus to inform and inspire our community.

How Do You Choose to Serve?

Science Matters…How Your Circadian Clock Affects Your Health On Oct. 27, Katja Lamia, Ph.D., was the first Shaffer Family Foundation Endowed Science Lecture Series speaker for the 2016-2017 school year. While on campus, Dr. Lamia, a professor at The Scripps Research Institute, shared her internationally recognized research connecting circadian clocks with metabolic disease and cancer.

The Opposite of Spoiled On Nov. 14, in partnership with WeCare, a San Diego consortium of independent schools that presents renowned speakers for parent and student communities, Bishop’s welcomed to campus Ron Lieber, the “Your Money” columnist for The New York Times. In his evening presentation to Bishop’s parents, Mr. Lieber shared tips on talking to children about money.

Save the Date: Endowed Scholar-In-Residence Juan Felipe Herrera The School is proud to welcome poet laureate of the United States, Dr. Juan Felipe Herrera, to campus as the 2017 Endowed Scholar-in-Residence, the week of Jan. 23-27, 2017.

In June 2015 Dr. Herrera was appointed as the 21st poet laureate, and he was re-appointed in April 2016 for a second term. Dr. Herrera is the first Mexican American to hold the position, and growing up in California as the son of migrant farmers shaped much of his work.

Dr. Herrera is the author of 30 books, including collections of poetry, prose, short stories, young adult novels and picture books for children. From 20122014, he served as California’s poet laureate and created the i-Promise Joanna Project, an anti-bullying poetry project.

The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Dr. Herrera has received fellowships and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Arts Council, the University of California at Berkeley, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the Stanford Chicano Fellows Program.

In addition to participating in classes and meeting with students and faculty, the Endowed Scholar-in-Residence Program provides an opportunity for scholars to share their work with the greater community. Dr. Herrera’s presentation will take place the evening of Jan. 24. More information will be available on the Bishop’s website in January.

13 Different Voices

On Oct. 20, the Bishop’s Service Learning Program brought community service professional, Kate Dickinson, to campus to speak at an all-school assembly. Ms. Dickinson, is a “change leader” at San Diego Cooperative Charter Schools, the only “changemaker” school in San Diego. She works with schools and universities to develop innovative service learning and community engagement programs to advance social change.

Ms. Dickinson shared with Bishop’s students her belief that everyone can be a changemaker— someone who is taking creative action to solve a social problem—by making true connections. The best way to do that, she suggested, was to find something you are passionate about and to share it with others.

She closed by telling students, “Connect with people who aren’t like you, in places that you are not necessarily comfortable. How you choose to serve and connect offers incredible power. If all of us do something, we will have an impact.”

Returning Alumni Prove That Bishop’s Heart Remains the Same

By Diane Y. Welch

Returning Alumni 14

A

lumni Weekend proved, once again, to be a heartfelt coming together of former students, faculty and staff, where laughter and joy were abundant and the memories of shared experiences plentiful.

The events, held Oct. 14-16, included the now traditional Flashback Campus Tours and Class without Homework when recent graduates to those marking their 50th reunion, joined a variety of classes from middle school math to Advanced Placement U.S. History. “Many students had the opportunity to interact with alumni and learn for themselves what the future will be like when they are returning to participate in the same tradition,” says Sarah Garro, director of alumni relations.

On Friday evening, Head of School Aimeclaire Roche welcomed alumni who gathered on the Larmour Lawn & Plaza to kick off the weekend’s festivities. With live music in the background, attendees had a chance to reconnect with all classes before heading off to their individual class parties throughout La Jolla. In total over 450 alumni and friends were present over the weekend, with graduates from the 1960s through to 2011 being represented.

For Saturday’s daytime events alumni enjoyed a much-loved milk break in

front of the head of school’s office, followed by a chapel service, picnic on the Quad and campus tours for alumni, friends and family.

On Saturday evening the weekend’s high point was the Ellen Browning Scripps (EBS) Celebration, an awards program founded in 1993 by the Alumni Association to honor alumni, faculty and staff for their achievements and service to Bishop’s. The sunset reception, followed by a sit-down dinner, video tributes and speeches by the awardees, was rounded off with a star-lit dessert reception.

This year, five honorees from one family, a first in EBS Celebration history, were recognized. “We were very excited about the award recipients,” says Julie Zures Turner ’95, Bishop’s Trustee and Alumni Association Board president, about the nomination committee’s selection.

The Gengler sisters: Marjory Gengler Smith ’69, Louise Gengler Thomas ’71, Nancy Gengler-Saint ’74, Jeanne Gengler

Swiacki ’76, and Marion Gengler Melton ’80 each received the Ellen Browning Scripps Distinguished Alumni Award, being recognized for their inspirational accomplishments in the sport of tennis.

“These women are so deserving of the award yet so humble and so well-liked among their peers,” says Julie.

Between the four who attended the event—Jeanne in Great Falls, Virginia, was unable to travel following a medical procedure—they had journeyed afar from their respective homes in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina; Annapolis, Maryland; London, England and New York City.

In looking back, Louise says that Headmistress Ruth Jenkins had played an important role in her future. “She represented the high academic standards at Bishop’s and the importance of working hard and being a strong student.

Her messages also supported the belief that excelling in your passion had value.”

The teachers impacted her life at Bishop’s, says Margie, “They encouraged hard work, discipline and excellence. The tennis coach, Alex Gordon, became a ‘father figure’ to so many of the boarders who were on his team. While the

Opposite page, top left: Marion Gengler Melton ’80, Nancy Gengler-Saint ’74, Bill Goss, Louise Gengler Thomas ’71 and Marjory Gengler Smith ’69; this page, above left: members of the Class of 1966 enjoying scrapbooks together; above center: Class of 2011 attendees with Head of School Aimeclaire Roche; above right: Laura Minton Sinacori ’96 with her husband Daniel and son John

tennis competition was fierce (and the demands in the classroom were challenging), he always added fun to our team trips and provided a shoulder to cry on when needed.”

Margie joined about a dozen of her classmates for her alumni dinner, friends she had not seen for over 45 years. “I was amazed how all of us reconnected immediately. We had so much fun reminiscing and each memory triggered others. I will definitely be back for future reunions and look forward to keeping in touch with my class.”

For Louise it was her 45th reunion.

“We had a wonderful group to celebrate with, including my first roommate, Kathryn Beaumont ’71. Living on the East Coast and with a busy life, I had never made it back to a reunion. This was my first! It was wonderful.”

Additionally at the awards event, the Michael W. Teitelman Leadership Award was bestowed on recently retired administrator and science teacher, Bill Goss. The award honors a visionary leader who has been transformative in shaping the minds, hearts and spirit of the Bishop’s community.

“I feel honored and humbled receiving this award,” Bill says about the accolade. “Given the people who have gotten it in the past, I feel that I have stepped onto hallowed ground.”

Bill, whose time at Bishop’s spanned 27 years, says that there were a number of people who were instrumental in his success. “But I guess I would have to say that Mike Teitelman, as the first person to take a chance on me when he hired me as science department chair and later as dean of students, was most

influential in my career at Bishop’s.”

A poignant aspect of the evening was that Chelsea Smith-Carmichael ’07, one of Bill’s former students, came specifically to see him and to thank him for influencing her to become a chemical engineer. “She was married one week before the EBS Celebration, and she chose to come to the event which meant a lot to me,” says Bill. “Also having my niece, Jazmin Decosmo, a 2011 graduate of Bishop’s, at my table, was special.”

Though he has retired from Bishop’s, Bill is not sailing off into the sunset!

Parallel to his career as a teacher he has been involved in ballroom dancing for many years. Now with his retirement, Bill and his wife Carol are moving to Arizona to pursue their mutual passion, teaching ballroom dancing together.

The couple plans to return to San Diego and visit Bishop’s often, says Bill.

“We have lots of connections here both within and outside the School. I hope it will remain a part of my life in the years to come,” he adds.

Over the decades, while much has changed at Bishop’s, a fundamental aspect remains. “So much is the same in the way you can feel the emphasis on academic pursuits with the impressive successes of the students,” Louise comments. The heart of it remains the same, she says.

Matt Copland, current Bishop’s tennis coach, attended the EBS Celebration. He was moved seeing the videos of the honorees and reflected that the Bishop’s he knows now—and the students he works with today—feels like it has the same heart, that students are having the same experience that

alumni had 30 or 40 years ago.

For the five Gengler sisters life at Bishop’s meant boarding and along with the transition to a day school, other changes have occurred since they graduated. “While many traditions remain, others that meant a great deal to us like ‘T day’ and the ‘willing’ of items and attributes from seniors to the younger classes, no longer exist,” says Margie. “We brought with us our precious doll Eloise who each of us willed to the next sister. While accepting our Bishop’s Medals we willed her to the Alumni Association, returning her home to Bishop’s where she belongs.”

Above: The Class of 1996 kicked off their 20-year reunion on campus. Below: EBS Celebration

bishop’s profile

Max Webb Finding a Home a World Away

By Zach Jones ’01

Finding a Home a World Away 16

W

hen Max Webb arrived in La Jolla with a new family more than 20 years ago, he knew nothing of the Bishop’s community, its decades of excellence as an independent school, or its deep heritage within this sleepy beach town.

He and his wife Sheila had a 6-month old daughter who probably—they figured—wouldn’t celebrate her fifth birthday in Southern California.

“We thought it would be a bit of an adventure for a year or so—we didn’t quite know,” he says. “And 20 years later, here we are.”

After all, when their work moved the family more than 9,000 miles from Sri Lanka to Southern California, the Edinburgh native had already lived and worked on three different continents (none of those places the United States).

Another move seemed much more likely Max Webb than a two-decade stay in a country where neither he nor his Canadian wife had ever lived before. preparatory schools, Max and Sheila “I was used to traveling, and it was determined early on that they wanted quite nice, with the start of a new family, a similar experience for their daughters. to put down roots,” he says. “I didn’t As their search began, there was an think we would be here for 20 years— unexpected familiarity at 7607 La Jolla I have to be honest—but that’s the way Boulevard. it’s worked out.”

“The Bishop’s campus is obviously But the Webb family hasn’t merely different—distinctly Southern California resided in La Jolla for the last 20-plus architecture—but the feel of the campus years. They’ve become enmeshed in and the Quad, it was really quite the community, specifically the one remarkable to me,” Max says. “I felt surrounding The Bishop’s School, where that this atmosphere, the feeling I got, that 6-month-old (Saskia) graduated reminded me of my school quite in 2014, and their younger daughter significantly.”

Natasha is currently a senior.

We’ll stop here, because this statement Sheila has been heavily involved in deserves more context. the School’s parent community, and Shrewsbury School, which Max Max is now in the second of two years attended in Shropshire, England, was as president of the board of trustees. more than 300 years old when the Both products of independent, college American Civil War began. The campus

is dotted with cricket pitches, boarding houses, and features a fresco to honor its most famous alumnus, Charles Darwin.

While Bishop’s still has a few hundred years to go to reach that level of history, the place captured the Webb family almost immediately, and by the time it was Natasha’s turn to choose a school, there was really no choice to be made.

“My younger daughter in particular did not want to apply anywhere else,” he says. “She was very keen to go there, and it was Bishop’s or nothing for her.”

Which made for a rather high pressure application process around the Webb household, circa 2011. Natasha had collected her eggs, and the family waited for the Bishop’s basket to arrive.

“I remember all of us sitting outside by the mailbox one afternoon, biting our fingernails over whether Natasha would be accepted. Luckily she was, and the rest is history.”

Now in his sixth year on the board of trustees, Max’s time as a Bishop’s parent may be coming to a close, but his responsibilities as president mean that his eyes are fixed firmly on the future and the needs of students whose applications won’t be read for several more years.

“It’s been an incredibly enriching and fulfilling experience, first and foremost because the quality of the people who are on that board is really remarkable,” he says. “People who are driven by a sense of mission—maintaining the School’s values, while trying to continually evolve.”

As always, financial concerns for both students and teachers dominate his priority list. The ever-rising cost of a topnotch education means extra care and fundraising to make that education as

Left: Saskia Webb ’14, Sheila Ferguson, Natasha ’17 and Max Webb with the family dog Rory; bottom right: Max ziplining on Ometepe Island, Nicaragua

family has been part of that mission as well, finding a home in what must have seemed a very unlikely place once upon a time. It has meant giving of their time and effort over the years, but with the knowledge that they’ve received so much in return.

The familiarity they felt on that first visit to campus was about more than quads and ivy and school uniforms.

“Bishop’s has given the girls a real education, and I mean that in a very broad sense,” Max says. “It’s not just about getting a grade and going to

a great college that’s a match for you.

It’s about a love of learning.”

No matter the architecture, that’s a love that looks the same on either side of the Atlantic.

“I didn’t get the best grades in high school, but I got a really superb education. I didn’t realize it at the time, and I don’t think my girls have realized it—perhaps a lot of Bishop’s students don’t—but if you look back, whatever your interests and passions are, the School gives you that love of learning.”

17 Finding a Home a World Away

widely accessible as possible.

When it comes to hiring the best teachers, the School’s San Diego location is both a blessing and a curse.

While generating interest is hardly a problem, the area’s high cost of living is a challenge that Max and the board try to help the administration meet.

Complicating that effort are the habits and proclivities of a new, “millennial” generation of teachers in the workforce.

“We’re finding that a teacher isn’t going to stay for 20 or 30 years as in the past,” Max says. “That’s a new trend that not just schools, but any employer is finding—people turn over much more quickly now. We’re making sure that we have the support, financially and otherwise, to be able to attract and retain the best faculty that we possibly can.”

As the current five-year strategic plan comes to a close, these are the challenges that will shape the next strategic plan, supported as always by a devoted community of families and alumni.

“That’s the other thing I’ve been absolutely blown away by—the generosity that people provide to the School,” he says, “because they believe in the institution, and they believe in its mission.”

For almost a decade, the Webb

100Years

100 Years of St. Mary’s Chapel 18

of St. Mary’s Chapel Bishop’s is celebrating a big anniversary this school year—the 100th anniversary of the dedication of St. Mary’s Chapel, which was designed by architect Carleton Monroe Winslow and dedicated on Feb. 15, 1917. Since then, the chapel has played a significant role in the lives of many who have crossed its threshold and sat in its pews.

By Melissa Kenyon Alumni Weekend Every year, Alumni Weekend draws alumni back to Bishop’s, where they reconnect with friends and share fond memories from their time at the School.

On Oct. 15, alumni from the Classes of 1961 through 2011 returned to the campus, and many of them gathered in the chapel for the weekend’s traditional service. With the anniversary of the chapel’s dedication approaching, during this service Chaplain Brian Fidler recounted historical occurrences in the year 1917, and spoke about the architectural history of the building.

Brian explains, “Where we have been inevitably shapes who we are; the forces that intersect with our lives along the way provide shape and meaning to who we have become.”

Roberto Rosas ’10, a member of the Young Alumni Host Committee, says this message resonated with the congregation. During the chapel service, Roberto read the names of recently deceased alumni. “It felt nice to be back in St. Mary’s Chapel,” he says.

“The music was marvelous, and I enjoyed seeing familiar faces from my formative years.”

Brian reflects, “One of the great joys of welcoming alumni back is realizing how much a part of their lives this sacred space became while they were students here, whether they realized it at the time or not.”

Baptisms Welcoming a child to the Christian faith is a ceremonious occasion. In St. Mary’s Chapel, there have been 330 baptisms recorded since 1937, and

many have been the children of Bishop’s alumni.

Melissa Alioto Murfey ’97 met her husband, Scott Murfey ’95, at Bishop’s in 1994, and ever since they were married, they knew their children would be baptized at the School. The chapel was a peaceful place where Melissa and Scott would go to get away from the stress of academics and sports; an experience that led them to return with their sons.

Their oldest son, Carl, 9, was baptized in February 2008, and their youngest child, Ryder, 3, was baptized in April 2014 (photo below). Laird, 7, was not baptized in the chapel, but in the NICU after his birth; however, he has enjoyed exploring the place where his parents once sat as students.

Along with the names of graduates on plaques mounted on the chapel’s walls, two plaques list baptisms. After each ceremony takes place, a plate is engraved with the person’s name. “It was fun to show Carl his name on the wall when we were there for Ryder’s baptism, and to show our own names on the wall under our class years,” says Melissa.

“There is so much tradition in the chapel, and we wanted our kids to experience that as well.”

Weddings St. Mary’s Chapel, with its exquisite stained glass windows, pipe organ and incredible woodwork, is a charming location for a wedding. But it’s not the aesthetics that draw alumni back to say ‘I do,’ it’s the cherished memories. This is the case for husband and wife, Jake ’00 and Kelsey Knight Armstrong ’02.

Chapel Talks

19 100 TitleYears of St. Mary’s Chapel

Jake and Kelsey first met when they were 12 and 10, respectively, on a joint family vacation. After Bishop’s, life took them in different directions, but fate prevailed when they were reunited at a wedding in the chapel. There they learned they were both living in New York City— the place where they rekindled their friendship and eventually fell in love.

Kelsey had been in three weddings in the chapel, and she was baptized there her senior year at Bishop’s, so she knew that’s where she wanted to marry Jake.

“Bishop’s played such a big role in our lives,” adds Jake. “For us, it was the perfect location to get married.”

Jake and Kelsey, now back in San Diego, are expecting in January 2017, and they hope to have their baby baptized at Bishop’s.

Since 1938, 313 weddings have taken place in the chapel, and it is possible that additional unrecorded ceremonies occurred prior to that year. Bishop’s welcomes all alumni, faculty and staff to use the chapel as a place for uniting in Christian marriage.

The Bishop’s community is privileged to welcome guests to the chapel pulpit who encourage others to reflect on life in and beyond the community. This school year, to celebrate the anniversary of the chapel’s dedication, several alumni are speaking.

Ann Wolterstorff Love ’65 (photo above), parent of a graduate, former Alumni Association Board member and class agent, and current trustee spoke on Oct. 6. She opened with, “There is a lot of history here, a lot of stories.

I represent the past, you represent the present, and together, we will forge the future stories of this School.”

Ann recalled memories from her time at Bishop’s, telling the sixth- and seventh-graders who filled the pews what has changed since she was a student.

The room filled with laughter when she spoke about the time she was turned in by a Warwick’s employee for not having her blazer on. “I got called in and written up for a uniform violation before I even got back to campus,” she said.

Ann also explained what the chapel meant to her saying, “Here we learned to center ourselves, and prayerfully and calmly move into the chaos of the day.

Chapel was a central part of the Bishop’s experience.”

Mimi Holman Test ’61 (photo, above right) started at Bishop’s as a seventhgrader with her twin sister, Sheila Holman Banks ’61. A teacher, coach and school administrator for 40 years, Mimi

took from Bishop’s a love for education.

Since graduating, Mimi has remained involved with the School, recently attending her 55th reunion and serving as a class agent for 25 years. She has been on the Alumni Association Board several times and currently serves on the Board of Trustees.

When Mimi addressed the eighth- and ninth-graders in chapel on Oct. 17, she spoke about her time at Bishop’s and her connection to the chapel. “This chapel offered me a sense of belonging. It presented me with the chance to sit back and think how I should best live my life.”

Brian feels that the alumni speakers have had a great impact on the students, explaining, “Already, I think our students are developing a broader, deeper appreciation for the ways in which they stand on the threshold of the life that emanates from this chapel, inheritors of a tradition embedded in faith and in the fervent belief that to serve one another is to serve God.”

On Feb. 26, 2017, an Evensong service will be held in the chapel. The Bishop’s Singers will join a professional choir, accompanied by the prayerful reflections of Chair of the Board of Trustees The Right Reverend James Mathes.

More details will be available at www.bishops.com/chapel.

Coming Home Bishop’s Alumni Return As Coaches

By Zach Jones ’01

During their high school careers, Kaylee Kastrup ’11, Will Wilde Botta ’12 and Shane Walton ’98 helped push their respective teams to excellence. Now back on campus as coaches, they’re sharing their wisdom with the next wave of Knights.

Kaylee Kastrup ’11

Coming Home Title 20

Water Polo If Kaylee Kastrup ’11 isn’t standing on a pool deck, she’s probably on her way there. In addition to serving as the middle school girls’ water polo coach and an assistant for the boys’ and girls’ varsity teams, the 2011 grad is also the head coach for the girls’ swim team, head coach for the San Diego Shores Water Polo Club’s 12-and-under program and head coach for the Pacific Southwest Zone’s Olympic Development Program.

“Everybody always thought I was going to be some sort of a teacher, but I like moving around a lot, and I don’t like being stuck inside,” she says. “In (head coach) Doug Peabody’s program, I fell in love with the sport, and I found a way I could be a teacher and be a leader, but not be in a typical classroom role.”

A swimmer and soccer player before she took up water polo competitively in high school, Kaylee can point to that late adoption—followed by a very successful 4-year water polo career at Cal Lutheran—to encourage her younger players.

“I love coaching kids, especially at that (middle school) age group, when they’re so willing to learn, and they bring a huge enthusiasm to anything they do,” she says. “For me to start so late, and they’re starting so early, I say, ‘Don’t be discouraged if you’re struggling—you’re three years ahead of me.’ I think being able to tell them that really eases their minds.”

Now in her second year on the Bishop’s coaching staff, Kaylee has been coaching in one form or another since her graduation from Bishop’s, taking a coaching job at San Diego Shores after her freshman year of college, and returning each year to Bishop’s to take part in winter practices.

Coaching players just a few years her junior hasn’t always been the easiest task, but Kaylee says she’s growing into the role while she grows her players’ skills in the pool.

“It takes a village to raise a child, and that’s kind of how it was for water polo with me,” she says. “All the different coaches I had, and the community that I’ve been a part of, have certainly helped me to find my voice as a young coach.”

Shane Walton ’98

Football Those familiar with Bishop’s Football will recognize Shane Walton ’98 as the most successful player in the history of the program. Ironically, when he returned to campus after an All-American career at Notre Dame and an NFL career cut short by injuries, he wanted nothing to do with the game.

“At the point when I first arrived back at Bishop’s, I was really trying to separate myself from football and just

Will Wilde Botta ’12

Cross Country

“It is nice to be relatable for the kids, to be someone who can say that just a couple years ago I was on the same bench doing the same things,” he says.

“I think they appreciate seeing someone who has gone through what they’re going through.”

become who I was going to be and figure out my identity,” he says. “Football was what I did; it wasn’t who I was.”

Ten years later, Shane serves as an assistant on the coaching staff, which he has done since 2009 (also head coach Joel Allen’s first year at the School), and is now in his third season as the team’s defensive coordinator, but it’s not the Xs and Os of the game that brought him back to the football field.

“Our coaching staff does a phenomenal job of first trying to turn these boys into young men and then we try to win football games, and we do it in that order,” he says. “I understand it’s a platform to be able to teach these kids some life lessons.”

Of course, his experiences at one of the most storied programs in college football and as a fifth-round draft pick by the Rams in 2003 don’t hurt when he’s trying to get a point across to his young players.

“Usually it’s the younger guys who come in, and they hear I used to play, and they want to test me to see if they

While his college running didn’t last as long as he hoped, Will says he gained an appreciation for the details of preparation and conditioning in his sport, something he’s trying to pass on to the runners at Bishop’s.

“What I realized throughout all my injuries at Yale is that it just took doing the little things, and those are the hardest things to do,” he says. “I’m really trying to make those small processes a habit for the students and include them in their daily routine.”

Now in the throes of the MCAT and the road toward medical school, Will says the team helps take him back to a slightly simpler time.

“When I think back on cross country at Bishop’s, I’m able to think of it as part of everything that was going on in my life,” he says. “But I can also realize that it’s an enormous part of their life.

It’s nice to see that while they’re doing the academics at Bishop’s, they’re still immensely invested in their running and training.”

can beat me,” he says. “They find out that it’s much more difficult than they thought it was.”

Away from the football field, Shane works with young people in a different capacity, on the staff of Families in Training, an organization that provides support to families dealing with children’s behavioral issues. He also works for Organizations in Training, a nonprofit that provides similar services to families with lesser resources.

Shane’s football playing career left him with mixed emotions when it came to an end, but more than a decade later, the game is providing him a different kind of satisfaction.

“I never really got to do what I wanted to do in the NFL,” he says. “I really enjoy coaching, and it’s not so much about coaching football as it is being a role model, serving as a mentor for these young men.”

21 Coming Home

Will Wilde Botta ’12 knows that cross country is rarely a high school athlete’s first choice. His own running career almost ended after a few training jaunts with his dad during middle school.

“I hated it,” he says, laughing. “It was the last thing I ever wanted to do.”

Even though he competed in middle school, it was a fluke that motivated him to take cross country to the next level.

“This one kid who would beat me every single time didn’t show up,” he says. “I went for it that race and ended up winning, and after that, I was bitten by the bug, and it was just fun.”

Just like that, Will was on his way to a decorated high school career and would eventually run at Yale University before he was short-circuited by a string of injuries.

A future medical student, Will says he’ll soon begin applying to master’s programs, but in the meantime, he’s back on campus in La Jolla making good on a promise to Coach Adam Weiner.

While he was a team captain as a senior, Will assured his coach he’d be back after college to serve as a team assistant.

PDG Puts the GREAT in Gatsby

By Melissa Kenyon

A

uthor F. Scott Fitzgerald’s characters in The Great Gatsby are lost in an illusion. They live at the surface—in a spin of money and champagne-fueled parties. We witnessed this theme of excess when the literary classic was brought to the Bishop’s stage this fall by dance teacher Donna Cory and the talented Performing Dance Group (PDG).

“It all began with talking to the late Robert Mulgrew (Bishop’s English teacher),” responds Donna when asked why she chose Gatsby.

His thoughtful feedback on her analysis of the book helped her in designing the concert. “The students read the book in English class and studied the 1920s era in history, so the story was a fitting curricular choice,” she adds.

The show began taking shape in Donna’s mind in April, after routinely listening to music in the car between school and her home in Oceanside.

Like jigsaw pieces, she assembled the show, telling the tale through dynamic choreography. “This book is symbolic and open to interpretation,” says Donna.

“I had to analyze it for myself and find a way to tell the story on stage.”

To prepare for the show, Donna asked each cast member to reread the book from the point of view of their character, which led to a deeper, more intimate connection that came across in the concert.

Taking this assignment to heart was Ryan Feng ’17, who played the mechanic, George Wilson. “Reading the book from George’s perspective provided me with connective tissue. I was able to sympathize with who he is—a Godfearing man.”

Ryan’s body channeled his character’s desperation in a passionate performance.

During “Creep,” the moving scene with George and his wife, Myrtle, (Megan Schwarz ’17), the audience could feel the turmoil caused by Myrtle’s affair with Tom Buchanan (Noah Adaikkalam ’18, guest artist). We felt the devastation when the love of George’s life slipped through his fingers.

Sarah Bauer ’17, who played the “green light”—the idyllic Daisy

Opposite page, inset photo: Natasha Webb ’17 and Emma Lewis ’17; above: Eliza Lafferty ’17

Helping to set the tone for each scene were the costumes. “Donna imagines it, and you find a way to make it happen,” says costumer Jean Moroney of the process. Jean was able to reference photos of World War I uniforms and riding clothes, and modify the designs to be danceable. Ensembles with sequins, silk, fringe, lace and flowy fabric—some vintage finds and others hand sewn— transported the audience back in time to the roaring twenties.

In regard to the set design, Nick’s cottage was the one static component, illustrating his role of the observer and narrator in the story. Aside from the cottage and occasional piece of art deco furniture, the scenes incorporated limited décor. Instead, for added effect, scenes from the 2013 Baz Luhrmann adaptation, photos from the era and other relevant images were projected behind the dancers.

Elaborate set designs weren’t necessary; the gifted dancers told the tale. Their deep connection with The Great Gatsby mesmerized the audience and prompted them to look beyond the surface of the story.

Nico Langlois ’17

23 Gatsby

Buchanan, flickering beyond Gatsby’s reach—explains that her relationship with the book has grown stronger since first reading it in the tenth grade. “After revisiting the book, it’s interesting to see what I missed. My perceptions of the characters are different now based on where I am developmentally.”

With a fresh lens, Sarah realized Daisy is not, as she put it, “a docile, flower-like character.” Daisy’s coy façade feeds her power—the power to entrance people and make them yearn for her attention.

Playing the “real Daisy” was Natasha Webb ’17. “You definitely saw variations between Sarah, the green Daisy, and me during the show,” says Natasha. “It was a unique experience to have someone play the ideal version of my character on stage.”

Donna wanted to make it clear that Daisy “is not a woman of substance.”

She explains, “The Daisy in reality had much more balletic choreography, appearing very in control, very contained.

The green Daisy is a far more primal creature and her movement reflected that.”

Only Gatsby could see the green Daisy; he was drawn to her like a moth to a flame. Gabe Garon ’17 conveyed this infatuation brilliantly. His character’s zealous, pompous nature and camouflaged insecurity was revealed in each emotion-filled movement.

Gabe searched for common ground with Gatsby, in order to understand and express his motivations. “He is outgoing and has a strong sense of hope, which I can relate to. He creates this persona for the sole purpose of getting the girl.”

The parties, the glitz and glamour, all orchestrated to win over the unattainable Daisy, were beautifully captured. The first of Gatsby’s grand fetes celebrated freedom at the end of World War I. People were finally able to let loose and enjoy life—a feeling of liberation showcased by the dancers in performing the “Charleston” and the “Varsity Drag.”

The frivolity repeated at the second party, where the music climbed and the choreography followed suit. Gatsby’s neighbor Nick Carraway (Nico Langlois ’17, guest artist) and his date, Jordan Baker (Emma Lewis ’17) were both fascinated by their host and left the celebration to look for him before stumbling into Owl Eyes (Eliza Lafferty ’17) in the library. Owl Eyes was surprised that the books were real despite Gatsby’s phoniness.

“Owl Eyes is a truth seer,” explains Eliza. “He sees the nitty gritty truth, the buried intentions and the brokenness.”

This powerful scene encouraged the audience to reflect on Gatsby’s complex character.

Back at the party, the unruly revelry grew. The musicality was spot on— every beat accounted for. Eventually the energy of the party-goers waned, and the last few stumbled off stage as the lights faded.

The audience knew that a lavish celebration was on the cusp when the character named “The Life of the Party” arrived in her typical over-the-top fashion. Based on Fitzgerald’s socialite wife, Zelda, Danielle Wood’s ’17 character exuded sass. “I am very sassy in real life, so I just amped that up on stage,” says Danielle. “I poured my confidence into my character.”

bishop’s buzz JACOBS PRIZE

therapy sessions at Westside

joined New York Times bestselling

curriculum guide to the book.

Dance Physical Therapy,

author Sam Kean (The Violinist’s

n Library Director Abby Saunders

attended workshops and

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co-wrote a chapter, “Developing

lectures at the American Ballet

the National Association of

K-12 Outreach Methods for

Theatre and worked alongside

Biology Teachers annual

Special Collections Centers,”

orthopedic surgeons at

conference in Denver. In collabo-

for the book New Directions for

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.

ration with the College Board,

Special Collections: An Anthology

Ben and Julianne wrote a

of Practice.

2017 Auction: KNIGHT IN HAVANA Announcing the theme of the 2017 Auction “Knight in Havana” were co-chairs

Throughout Donna Cory’s career

Jennifer Greenfield (Rachel ’19),

as a choreographer and teacher,

Sherry Manoogian (Ricky ’19)

she has noticed that dancers

and Haeyoung Tang (Justin ’20,

bishop’s buzz 24

will often dance through the

Julian ’22). Mark April 8, 2017

pain, ignoring what can

Donna has already implemented

sometimes be a serious injury.

what she learned into her

with a purpose” that supports the Bishop’s Financial Aid and Faculty

“I’ve had kids with pain, and

teaching. “In the Bishop’s

Enrichment Programs.

I’m usually the last person to

Dance Studio, we’re working

know,” says Donna. “Students

to accept that pain is a message

don’t want to miss a class or a

to be listened to, not an

performance, so they ignore

inconvenience to be ignored.”

the problem.”

Wanting to combat this dilemma, Donna applied for the Jacobs Prize, which gives Bishop’s faculty the chance to pursue enrichment opportunities during the summer months. She explained in her proposal that firsthand training would provide her with knowledge pertinent to ensuring her studio is a place where the body is treated with the utmost respect.

FACULTY Elizabeth Wepsic, chair of the visual arts department, has worked with the San Diego Museum of Art for over 15 years and currently teaches art portfolio development workshops for students planning to apply to art school. n The National Association of Episcopal Schools has established a mentoring program for new chaplains, lay or ordained, who are in their

After being granted the Jacobs

first or second year as school

Prize, Donna lived in New York

chaplain. The Rev. Brian Fidler,

City for a month this summer,

Bishop’s Chaplain, was invited

where she learned from top

to be one of 10 Episcopal school

medical specialists and dance

chaplains to participate as a

professionals about dancer

mentor. n Science faculty,

wellness. She observed physical

Ben Duehr and Julianne Zedalis,

on your calendar for this “party

Romance and Honesty: Irving J. Gill and Bishop’s This fall, multiple San Diego and Southern California organizations, including The Bishop’s School, collaborated to celebrate the legacy of Irving J. Gill (1870-1936)—widely considered the first preeminent architect of the Modernist era.

In October Bishop’s staged a student-curated exhibition, Romance and Honesty: Irving Gill’s Vision for The Bishop’s School, which highlighted Gill’s inspiration for the architectural design of three campus buildings: Scripps Hall (1910), Bentham Hall (1912) and Gilman Hall (1917)—the largest collection of buildings designed by Gill for education. The public was invited on campus to view the exhibition on Oct. 29.

The following members of the 2015-2016 Art History Club researched Gill’s architecture and wrote exhibition copy: Gabe Cappetta ’17, Jiadi Chang ’16, Allison Havermale ’16, Mary Kimani ’17, Eden McColl ’17, Charlie Michael ’16, Evers Pund ’16, Joseph Ramirez-Cardenas ’16 and Allison Zau ’17; Faculty Advisor: Dr. Nicole Holland; Alumni Contributors: Ashley Chang ’09, Nicholas Stougaard ’09 and Pieter Stougaard ’09.

Enduring. Boundless. Passionate.

REACHING HIGHER ENDOWMENT CAMPAIGN STANDS AT $16.75 MILLION!

On November 21, Head of School Aimeclaire Roche announced to the School leadership and community that a recent major commitment to the Reaching Higher Endowment Campaign will create two fully endowed chairs in science and computer science.

This gift and other contributions to the campaign move the School closer to achieving the campaign’s $20 million cash goal.

In 2009 the endowment totaled $25 million. The success of this campaign will double the endowment and shine the light on the health of the School’s long-term resources.

The Reaching Higher Endowment Campaign benefits The Bishop’s School Faculty, Financial Aid and General Endowments.

Just as Bishop’s students soar, so does the School community with its support of the Reaching Higher Endowment Campaign. To learn more about the campaign or to make a gift, contact Chief Advancement Officer John Trifiletti at (858) 459-4021, Ext. 851 or trifilettij@bishops.com.

The Bishop’s School 7607 La Jolla Boulevard La Jolla, California 92037-4799

parting shots

Then…and now.

St. Mary’s Chapel, dedicated in February 1917, and St. Mary’s Chapel today with the Bishop Johnson Tower added in 1930.

Parents of Alumni, if your son or daughter no longer maintains an address at your home, please notify the Office of Alumni Relations of his or her new address. (858) 875-0505 • Fax (858) 456-2681 • tbsalumni@bishops.com

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