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Closing Exercises
Upper School Community Gathers for Memorable Closing Exercises
Our graduating eighth graders and their families came together remotely over Zoom with faculty and staff for our Upper School Closing Exercises on June 12, 2020.
This year’s celebrations were truly like none other in our
Pierce Van de Rhoer performed “Humoresque” by Antonin Dvorak on the flute.
school’s history. We are incredibly proud of what our boys have accomplished. They have proved themselves to be compassionate, resilient, adaptable, and incredibly resourceful young men.
Attendees were welcomed to the virtual ceremony by Head of School David Trower. “On behalf of the whole Board of Trustees, I would like to welcome you to the Upper
Jamie Resurreccion played “Shenandoah”, arranged by Paul Basler, on the French horn with Aleeza Meir on the piano.
School Closing Exercises. This has been a remarkable year for Allen-Stevenson… We would like to start by thanking all of you for your good will and good cheer during this unusual and unprecedented time created by the pandemic. To the Upper School boys: you have done a really good job with your work. We celebrate you as eighth-grade graduates of A-S today. It’s probably not the way you would have chosen to finish the year or your time at A-S, but I think when you look back you will realize that this time was unforgettable.” The featured speaker for the morning was alumnus Christopher Weitz ’84, an American film director, screenwriter, and producer.
Mr. Trower announced the winner of this year’s George Kellner Great Teacher Award: Assistant Middle School Head and Sixth Grade History Teacher Ben Neulander. We are so grateful to Mr. Neulander for continuing to provide our boys with a joyful learning environment, and for his invaluable role in running the Middle and Upper School Morning Meetings. Keeping these meetings going during this period of remote learning was all the more important in keeping us connected, and we are grateful for his determination, creativity and resourcefulness.
Jeremy Negrin gave the Eighth Grade Farewell. “This is the end of a chapter of our lives and also the start of a new one,” said Jeremy. “We have all accomplished so much… We are all different, yet we all share the fact that we are all part of the Allen-Stevenson community. And although we are moving on, we will always be part of this community and will carry the memories we have created here in our hearts.”
Jeremy Negrin
—Chris Weitz ’84
Christopher Weitz ’84 Chris Weitz was born in New York City, the son of actress Susan Kohner and Berlin-born novelist/fashion designer John Weitz (born Hans Werner Weitz). His brother is filmmaker Paul Weitz. He is the grandson of agent Paul Kohner and Mexican actress Lupita Tovar on his maternal side. His grandmother, Lupita, starred in Santa, Mexico’s first talkie, in 1932.
Chris was educated at The Allen-Stevenson School in New York and St Paul’s School in London and went on to graduate with a B.A. and M.A. in English Literature from Trinity College, Cambridge.
Chris began his film career as a co-writer, along with his brother Paul, of the 1998 animated film Antz. In 1999, he and Paul directed and produced American Pie, which became a major box office success. In 2002 the brothers co-wrote and directed About a Boy, which earned them an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Chris went on to direct several other feature films, including the 2007 adaptation of Philip Pullman’s bestselling fantasy novel, The Golden Compass, and the second film installment in the Twilight series, New Moon. His 2011 film A Better Life garnered an Award nomination for its lead actor, Demián Bichir. He most recently directed Operation Finale (2018), starring Oscar Isaac and Sir Ben Kingsley.
More recently, Chris has written several feature films, including Cinderella, for Disney, and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, for Lucasfilm.
Chris has produced a number of films through his and Paul’s company Depth of Field, including Tom Ford’s A Single Man and Peter Sollett’s Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist; Columbus, starring John Cho and Haley Lu Richardson, which premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, and The Farewell (2019), written and directed by Lulu Wang, for which Awkwafina won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy.
He lives in Los Angeles with his wife Mercedes Martinez and three children.
Awards were presented to the following boys during the Closing Exercises:
Desmond Cole Fortiter et Recte Award Julian D. Sandoval Athletic Award Sebastiano O. Williams Hold your phone’s camera over the QR code to listen to Alumni Speaker Chris Weitz. The Kellner Great Teacher Award was initiated by a gift from George and Bicky Kellner, parents of Peter ’84. It recognizes outstanding achievement by an AllenStevenson teacher. The 201920 recipient of the award was Ben Neulander, Assistant Middle School Head and Sixth Grade History Teacher.
“On the morning of the Upper School Closing Exercises, I was sitting in Carl Schurz Park, socially distanced from another A-S family, wrapping up my 20th year of teaching at AllenStevenson. After sharing the building with my son for 9 years, he was graduating from A-S, and we had just finished two and half months of remote teaching. For so many reasons, it was a bitter-sweet moment. With all of these things running through my head, the Kellner Great Teacher Award was not on my mind, so hearing my name read by Mr. Trower was unexpected to say the least. After receiving the congratulations from the people I was with, sitting on my Allen-Stevenson picnic blanket, all of it—the 20 years, my son leaving, the exhaustion of teaching remotely—came flooding out in a wave of tears.
I am truly humbled and honored to have my name added to the list of those who have been granted this award. I owe so much to the people who took chances on me, those who directly helped me grow along the way and those who simply provided examples of what great teaching looks like. Being recognized by people I hold in such high esteem is a wonderful feeling, but winning this award also is a challenge to continue to learn and grow and teach in a way that will demonstrate that I truly am worthy of the honor, and I will continue to do so as I move forward at Allen-Stevenson, strongly and rightly.”
