60 Directors Michael Veitch
Teacher and Marcel Roby Director, 1986 – 1990 Director, 1990 - 1997 I began my tenure with the American Section as both teacher of American Studies and Coordinator (under Nancy Magaud’s supervision) at the American Section of the Lycée Marcel Roby from 1986 through 1990. I was appointed Nancy’s successor as Director of the American Section of the Lycée International in 1990 and remained there until 1997, teaching an occasional course in American Literature for 3émes and 2ndes. I have so many memorable moments of my Lycée years – it is almost impossible to choose one! The best three are: 1. Being hired by Nancy Magaud despite a wardrobe malfunction (pants ripped stem to stern while helping an American Section teacher move boxes) right before my final interview! 2. Playing clarinet and sax in the “faculty orchestra” for Guys and Dolls – again under Nancy’s delightful musical direction. 3. Casting and directing Tennessee Williams’s Orpheus Descending with the Class of ’95 (a class that remains near and dear to my heart)! My most enjoyable and entertaining challenges during my eleven-year stint at the school came from working as an American in the multi-sectional/European setting that is the LISG. It was very exciting when the Japanese Section joined the section ranks (others, I know, have followed). The Lycée is a totally unique school – there is truly no place like it! There is such an underlying buzz – with so many national/international points of view expressed by such a rich contingent of colleagues – truly the best and the brightest I have ever known! I left the American Section to return to the United States in 1997. There I was the Director of American Affairs for the Lycée Rochambeau in Washington, D.C. for a year, and then was appointed Head of the Madison Country Day School (Madison, WI), where I stayed until 2001. We then moved to back to Chicago, my hometown, where I was appointed Director of Admissions and Financial Aid at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, where I had the privilege of getting to know the soon-to-be President Barack Obama and admitting his daughters to the school. Since 2008 I have been the Middle School Principal at the Frances Xavier Warde School of Chicago, from which I will retire (semi-!) this spring. I am looking forward to reuniting with old friends and colleagues at the LISG’s 60th BD Party! 14
C O M PA S S M A G A Z I N E
Scot Hicks Marcel Roby Director, 1996-1997 Director, 1997-1998 Secondary School teacher, 2002 - present I came as Director to Marcel Roby (then a Cité Scolaire) in 1996/7, the year in which CS Marcel Roby and Lycée Debussy were reorganized into Lycée Jeanne d’Albret and Collège Marcel Roby and the American Sections were merged. I was then interim director of the combined Section in 1997/8. I returned to teach in 2002 after heading a school for four years in the US. That reorganization/merger year was particularly memorable of course: I don’t think I’ve ever been a member of so many conseils d’ administration or committees, what have you - or wanted to. Another memorable moment would be my children’s graduation(s) - knock on wood! There are a number of challenges involved in teaching bilingual children in a parallel education system such as the Lycée International. But mostly it’s just fun. You have to get used to different expectations of teacher and student, also the students’ workloads and sheer number of subjects. Then there are the ways students (and their parents) sometimes play section and French sides off one another. It’s a wonderful mess really, minestrone. My experience at the Lycée is both similar and different to other places I have worked. I’ve been very lucky to have taught in US independent schools, US international, British international, and now French international schools. They were all quite different, unique really, in their own way. But the fundamental things are the same. The Lycée is just a bit crazier is all.
Ted Faunce
Director, 1998 - 2006 I had the honor of serving as Director of the American Section from 1998-2006, an eight-year period that I believe to be, by a narrow margin, the longest such tenure in the Section. After a long sequence of directors who had emerged from the Section’s teaching ranks, I arrived fresh from a US independent school whose culture and regulations could not have been more different from the Lycée International. Suffice it to say that my first year or two required quite a learning curve, one that was guided with wisdom by colleague mentors such as Barbara Moross and Adrienne Covington, and of course the British-American rock of the Section, Mary Friel. Among the more memorable moments, apart from the Lycee’s 50th festivities, I count 9/11, when, shortly after 3pm, Jacques Monnet told me about the towers, and about ten minutes later the press somehow made it past the school’s security to enter my office. It was an extraordinary few days and weeks, with an outpouring of support from