Athenian Magazine Fall 2005

FALL 2005

celebrating the vision of dyke brown

40 YEARS OF ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE & INNOVATIVE LEARNING

A pecial nvitation In September of 1965, The Athenian School welcomed its first students.

This year, we proudly celebrate Athenian’s 40th Anniversary.

Join founder Dyke Brown at Athenian’s 40th Anniversary Celebration.

Current and former students, families, faculty, trustees, staff and friends will gather to celebrate student learning, and to enjoy speakers, entertainment and more.

Please join us and share in this memorable day, honoring Dyke Brown’s vision for an extraordinary educational community.

THE ATHENIAN SCHOOL CAMPUS

Saturday, October 15, 2005 2:30 to 5:00 pm

contents

AT HE NI A N S C HO OL M A G A Z INE Message from the Chair of the Trustees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Message from the Head of School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Reflections on the Occasion of Athenian’s 40th Anniversary . . . . 6 A Curriculum for Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Living in AWE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Men of Many Hats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Making a Planned Gift to Athenian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Athenian Parent Association — The Year in Review . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 The Class of 2005 off to College . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Turning Kids into Citizens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Round Square . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Scholarship Recipients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Athenian Alumni . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Alumni Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Former Faculty Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Donor Honor Roll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE & INNOVATIVE LEARNING To make a gift in honor of Athenian’s 40th Anniversary year, please go online to www.athenian.org, or phone 925.362.7204 or write to the Development Office.

PARENTS OF ALUMNI: PLEASE FORWARD THIS PUBLICATION If your son or daughter no longer maintains a permanent address at your home, please notify the Alumni office of his/her new mailing address at 925.362.7212 or alumni @ athenian.org.

THE ATHENIAN SCHOOL 2100 Mt. Diablo Scenic Boulevard Danville, CA 94506 925.837.5375 www.athenian.org

HEAD OF SCHOOL Eleanor Dase EDITOR & DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT Sue Newman ALUMNI & PUBLIC RELATIONS COORDINATOR Mandi Semple

MAGAZINE DESIGN Shelby Designs & Illustrates · Oakland PRINTING Solstice Press · Oakland

Athenian Magazine is published annually each fall by the Development and Alumni Relations Office of the school. We welcome your comments and suggestions. To update an address, call 925.362.7252 or email alumni@athenian.org. We encourage alumni updates and photos to alumni@athenian.org.

mission statement The Athenian School prepares students for the rigorous expectations of college and for a life of purpose and personal fulfillment.

WE OFFER a challenging academic program with a difference: intellectual inquiry is active, learning is interactive, the disciplines are interrelated, and analysis and creativity thrive simultaneously. The acquisition of knowledge becomes authentic and joyous.

WE CULTIVATE the personal qualities of each student to become an integrated human being with integrity, strong moral character, aesthetic sensitivity, and physical well being. The Athenian community requires students to face life directly through open communication, while developing their inner strength to exceed their perceived potential and emerge compassionate, responsible adults.

WE INSTILL an appreciation of the reciprocal relationship between the individual and cultures, society and the natural world. We value the power and beauty of multiculturalism within our diverse community. We embrace the principles of democratic governance, stewardship of the environment, respect for human dignity, and service as a way of life.

By providing an atmosphere of intellectual, artistic, and physical challenge within the warmth of a nurturing community, we develop in our students the confidence and skills required to meet the complexities of their future.

The Athenian Board of Trustees J U LY 2 004 – J U N E 2 005 Sinjin Bain

Nonie Ramsey

Mary Bianco

Aaron Sasson

David Buchanan ’72

Barbara Scanlon

Eleanor Dase, Head Steve Davenport Ann Fletcher Richard Frankel Patty Frazer Dan Lynch Michael McCoy Susan Nebesar Patti Paulson

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Claire Solot ’84 (Chair) Pete Solvik Fiona Stewart Jackie Thomas ’82 Ted Urban Dick Warmington Beatrice Winslow ’75

Steve Podell ’77

H O N O R A RY TRUSTE E

Steve Post

Dyke Brown

THE ATHENIAN SCHOOL

M ESSAGE F ROM T H E CH A I R OF T H E T RUST EES

Claire Solot ’84

A FEW YE ARS AGO , the board faced a major challenge—find someone to step into the role of board chair, a position that Mike McCoy had occupied for five years. Mike provided the community with the experienced voice of a seasoned trustee, the perspective of an alumni parent and “knowledge and know how of group planning” as a result of his experience and success in business.

When Mike and Eleanor approached me about the position, my feelings were mixed. Unlike Mike, I live over an hour away from the school, have a car full of young children to care for, and have the temperament of a native New Yorker—as opposed to Mike’s easy going Mid-Western demeanor. However, the opportunity to serve as the first female chair of the board of trustees at Athenian was too good an experience to pass up.

Serving as chair has allowed me to come full circle in my journey with Athenian. Nearly twenty-five years ago, I began my affiliation with the school.

At that time, fresh out of the traditional educational environment of a very proper all girls K-12 school in Manhattan, Athenian offered me an opportunity to redefine myself. I quickly became a successful scholar, thespian, athlete and community member.

After fifteen years “on leave,” I dove back into the world of Athenian when asked to join the board of trustees, as one of several alumni members. My “early years” on the board were focused on the development committee. As a result, my review of issues was done with an eye on student and fundraising matters. In 2003, as I stepped into the role of chair, I soon learned that my view would need to expand. As chair, one is faced with the charge of considering each and every matter in its totality. Personal interests and biases must give way to the constant reality that you must advocate for what is best for the school as a whole.

Working with the entire board, the administration and the rest of the Athenian community has been thrilling and fulfilling. Each fall, as I address parents at Open House, I feel a tingle of joy, knowing the amazing year that lies ahead.

Each June, as I speak at graduation, I experience the pangs of a parent, sending her children out into the world. Throughout the year, as I field calls from Eleanor, emails from trustees, preside over board meetings, and represent the school at functions both on and off campus, I feel a sense of pride, knowing that I am able to give back to a community that gave me so much. I thank you for the opportunity.

M ESSAGE FROM TH E H E A D OF SCHOOL

Eleanor Dase

HAPPY 40TH BIRTHDAY, ATHENIAN! This wonderful anniversary evokes pride in our past and confidence in our future. With the additional milestone of Dyke Brown’s 90th birthday this past spring, Athenian has the luxury of honoring its esteemed founder, while simultaneously celebrating the extraordinary educational environment created here.

Athenian alumni reconnected in record numbers this past year as they visited campus, participated in community service opportunities, and shared their stories. Fulfilling Dyke’s original vision of leading a purpose-filled life, they are combining successful careers with meaningful service and civic leadership. Stories that alumni have shared with us this past year include an alum in Dyke Brown envisioned a school where students Washington D.C. working toward the eradication of would flourish both academically and personally, hunger; another at Stanford University pursuing a where minds would stretch and confidence soar. Far doctorate in robotics; another beginning the final ahead of his time, Dyke realized the importance of phase of residency in medicine; and yet another community service, international understanding, who begins law school this fall after a year of vola diverse student body, environmental stewardunteering in a Russian orphanage. ship and outdoor challenge as integral parts of a Alumni frequently reflect on the transformative strong academic curriculum. Under his leadership, role that AWE played in their lives, and I am always Athenian was the first and the most comprehensive in designing programs reflecting these values. inspired by that unique blend of passion for Forty years later, these ideals have become a model learning and compassion for others. They are accomplished and insightful, successful and and inspiration for education in the 21st century.

Far ahead of his time, Dyke realized the importance of community service, international understanding, a diverse student body, environmental stewardship and outdoor challenge as integral parts of a strong academic curriculum.

Athenian’s academic program remains uniquely powerful. The blend of rigorous college preparatory coursework with enriching, innovative study fosters scholarly excellence, independent thinking, and a passion for learning. This past year abounded in examples of rigorous and exciting learning.

Students excelled in college level math and Honors Applied Science courses, but they also created a rehabilitative swing, built a robot, and put the finishing touches on the Piper Cub that will fly this fall. Students read Shakespeare, Mario Llosa and Nietzche in advanced seminars, but they also traveled to Vietnam to plant peace trees, visited Ashland to see Shakespeare, and invited a teacher to their home one Saturday to teach them more about world religions. In both Middle School and Upper School, students strived for excellence and expanded their horizons.

humble. As global citizens, they seek to make a difference in the world. On our 40th birthday, these qualities are more important than ever before.

This past academic year was also a banner year for volunteerism and leadership. The Athenian Parent Association exceeded their fundraising goals with generous support of numerous initiatives, and their dedication throughout the community supported both faculty and school programs. Senior exit interviews once again validated the exceptional teaching and commitment of the faculty – relationships forged while here continue into adulthood.

Personally, I am very grateful to Athenian’s Board of Trustees. Loyal and invested, they provide the school with extraordinary leadership.

As we embark on our 40th year, I am honored to continue as Head of a school with such a distinctive mission, empowering education and promising future. Join us this year as we celebrate our history and founder.

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Reflections O N

T H E

O C C A S I O N

O F

A T H E N I A N

’

S

As Athenian celebrates 40 years of fulfilling its mission, shared here are the personal messages and memories, thoughts and wishes of the leadership, past and present, that brought the school through the past four decades.

When I first arrived on Athenian’s campus in 974 to interview for a half-time math position, I had no idea that I was discovering a place that would become such an integral part of my life. I was initially charmed by the idyllic setting and excited about talented colleagues and interesting students. But over time, this community of learners has helped me discover who I am in much the same way it does for students.

In my early years as Head, the composition of the school shifted from boarding to predominantly day, but Dyke’s original mission continued to inspire the curriculum and Athenian’s distinctive features. Students then and now are the embodiment of this mission. They are excited about learning, accomplished in their work, curious about the world, understanding of their civic responsibilities, compassionate of others in their community service, and committed to making the world a better place.

I am proud to be part of such an exemplary educational environment on its 40th Anniversary.

EL E A NOR DA SE

Head of School, 992 – current

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the early 990s, is true especially for It a. er ch al ea to ll and extensive capit word that applies we rollment shortfall en , sts “Challenging” is a co ra ist ng in ati m er ad g and ed increased op population, teachin when Athenian fac exceptional student complement of its s us ro ha o ne als ge a d d rio ha needs. Each pe stees. Our era tru d ate dic chair, I expede its d an as pport ard, and then bo an ni he tive staff, parent su At e th we all had when s. As a member of the satisfaction that d an s all of those resource ge en went all ch e s capital campaign s related to thes y and an ambitiou rienced the stresse cit pa ca d are ne t enrollmen finances stabilized, e p. to over the strongly identify th a Strategic Plan to g tin our ea ed cr en to in gth nt en d effort we als that str A lot of thought an claring a series of go medide im d e an th es th tiv wi jec alt ob y and ow that we de kn to ht lig school’s philosoph de e a Th is d It essfully guide and commitment. m vision that succ ter gsense of direction lon a ted op ose days and ad ate pressures of th to the 2st centur y. in ol ho n proudly in The Athenian Sc es of that era can joi ste tru e th d an s nt a sustaining link be y, staff, pare ing that they were ow g The students, facult kn din n, an tio tst ra ou leb y’s ce da niversary g work and to in nd fou n’s Athenian’s 40th An ow Br enging days of Dyke tween the very chall . m IC E educational progra

JI M PR

– Board Chair, 994

998

Can it truly be 40 years? This is a thought that rambles through my mind, with respect to both Athenian and myself, as we share the same birth year.

In her “Fabulous Forties”, Athenian is truly shining. Blending excellent academics, community service and involvement, environmental awareness, international issues and personal growth, Athenian has become an inspirational role model and guide for schools throughout the world.

Young at heart, but with the experience and maturity of 40 years — we truly now know what works well. And at 40, the school has never looked better!

Happy Birthday Athenian. I look forward to continuing to work with the board, the administration, the faculty, the staff, the alumni, the families and the students of Athenian, as we move forward into our fourth decade.

C L A I R E SOL OT

Board Chair, 2003 – current

Current Board Chair Claire Solot ’84 with her mother Mary Bianco at a May 2005 reception, honoring Mary’s 20 years of leadership and service to Athenian as a trustee.

I had the distin ct pleasure to C hair the Athen Board from July ian of 997 through rene w the cam June of 2002. Th was an exciting pus and improv is and vibrant tim e our outdated in adequate facilit , e to and part of the be a Trustee ies. The result w Athenian comm as the opening fu nc tio nal and attractiv unity. Eleanor of a her ne w team ha e new Middle Sc and d settled into th Additionally, w hool campus. e administratio the school and e ac co mplished the re n of had demonstra library (complet location of the ted their leader and direction to e with a ne w co ship build upon the mputer laborato to a totally renova Athenian miss ry) and founding pr ted facility in th ion inciples with fu e center of our campus, plus th ll support from experienced an e co mpletion of a m our d dedicated facu Performing Art uch needed lty. s Center for Ath enian.

Shortly after m y term began, w While all of this e hosted the International Ro was going on, en und Square Con rollment was sk rocketing with ference. It was am y ing to see over cl ass waiting lists az400 internatio as area families an d ed uc na at or l ed s alike began to students from uc at or s an d all se ven contin recognize the va an Athenian ed ents descend up lue the Athenian ca ucation brings on mpus for nearly to developing to m or ro w ’s leaders. a week. Within hours, they wer 24 e totally integr ated into the A community, de thenian We have prevailed th spite their varie rough uncertai d cultures. n times during our first forty ye During this tim ars. Today, Athen e, we launched ia n a has matured in w or ld cl as ou s educational in r first very successful Cap to stitution based ital Campaign solid foundatio on a rock to raise money n that will ensu to re its continued into the 2st cent success ur y. Thanks to A LL for the man varied contribut y and ions the people of the Athenian community have made to our mut ual success!

M IK E MCCO Y

Board Chair,

998 – 2003

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e 960s. rth years, back in th ring its third and fou ing du cit ol ex ho d sc an is s th iou d atten ol was an ambit ho sc e I was fortunate to Th . an ni he time to be at At part in creating it.

It was a mar velous we were playing a gh ou th as t fel all s and venture, and we d far fewer student ent back then. It ha er mpus. As diff ca bit a on s ed wa liv ol y nts and facult de Of course, the scho stu e th of all ly ult ts and fac y got up ys, and near very strong. Studen facilities in those da s wa ity un students m m co e sense of rformed alongside a consequence, th eakfast. Teachers pe br e for be er th ge to early to play soccer and musicals. ys pla e th lists of e m so in manding. Reading enthusiastic and de re ply had we s sim er u ch Yo tea e. e th hid e, was no place to ere th On the academic sid at th all sm at g amazed how classes were so ll remember feelin sti I . were long, and the on ssi cu to excel dis ss cipate in cla sense that you had to prepare and parti s were. There was a ate ortive. pp ssm su cla ry y m ve s g orkin vironment wa en e th d an talented and hard-w ing cit ex t the courses were of just to keep up, bu Chair of the Board and briefly ser ved as e, ste tively va tru a er ns as l co oo the sch -haired men Later, I returned to stees—mostly white so tru e e lik th us en se mp d ca ha e I , th nt oping through tro s— Trustees. As a stude tie rk sa da wa d it , an n the Board , white shirts, I was honored to joi dressed in dark suits gh . ou th res Al . atu gs cre tin us ee d their m n and mysterio many crows to atten one of those solem e m co be d ha I at lize th nt . bit of a shock to rea e school as a stude that I had loved th s wa ol. e ho ste sc tru e a th as at s ges I faced my own year One of the challen ide my memor y of as e t th pu t to ou e ab m t os for hard asured m Sometimes, it was e of the things I tre finanlearn that even som to d to strengthen its e lan hil s aw ol’ e ho m sc e ok th It to of e m so ogram g pr g llin the boardin to change. Se d de-emphasizing an school would have ol, ho evenI Sc le gh idd ou th M nding the the school. Al cial position, expa d positive steps for an ry . ssa pt ce ce ne ac re ol we for me to in the Upper Scho they were difficult e changes, initially, os th ted school or pp su y tuall the teachers at the s a trustee was that wa just I k ile pic wh To d . re nt ve de I disco en I was a stu wh d ha One of the things ey th as en e, Experienc once h to teach me th henian Wilderness At e still had just as muc th of r e’s cto re Di nts. Despite Arlen e Ustin, the e Sierras with stude one example, Arlen th to e in th ps of tri e r on , he in of t one d break them told me a story abou to s ahead of time an ng ot gli bo ug eir str th s y wa bu e s dent hurting , and sh re we t insistence that stu fee r g He kin rs. loo have been uble with bliste she told Arlene, “I rs, girls was having tro tea in E d an AW y ted m n’t want oup. Frustra disappointed. I did keep up with her gr I came here. I’m so ce s each student in a sin ge er en ev all E ch E AW for ward to ur AWE—AW yo is is “Th : ed pli re e to be like this.” Arlen e your challenge?” are you going to fac w Ho y. wa ed, and t en er diff e school had evolv rstand that while th de mattered un at to th e gs m in d th lpe he d by others, the ce pla Hearing that story re re we d ll an ers were sti work teachers left ged. Creative teach an some of my favorite ch t g no in d eth ha m nt so was a stude s. That says eet ne w challenge most to me while I and nts successfully m de stu o about the talent lp als he d to an y ol, ssl ing tirele for the scho and ion rs, vis no n’s do ow s, Br nt re ke pa Dy staff, trustees, rs, to ra about the quality of ist in m ad s, hool’s teacher hard work of the sc past 40 years. e th g students durin

IC H ’6 9 N D R E W W IS T R A E L B A R O N O H Board Chair, 993

– 994

During my first few months at Athenian, I had a recurring nightmare that I had not been appointed Head of Athenian, after all. No, I had just wanted it so much that I had dreamed it and now was awakening to discover that I had signed a lifetime contract to lead some other school. That other school kept changing in my nightmares, but it was always one where I would never consign my children: the philosophy was fiercely unprogressive, the buildings resembled fortresses, and the campus was always covered in tired, dirty snow.

Imagine my joyous relief when I really awakened to the golden California sunshine pouring through the window, and stepped out of the house into what I still regard as the world’s most beautiful campus to engage with this marvelous community Dyke Brown had founded twelve years earlier.

In 97, six years before my appointment, a foundation had granted me the means to travel around the country studying schools that were reforming the ways to liberate young people to their full potential. I didn’t know Athenian then, but my mentors told me I should pay a visit to this very young school, and when I did, I learned why.

Here was a school that operated on the desire to learn that we all possess, rather than the coercion of external rewards.

an Board. Eleanor Dase first years on the Atheni my of s rie in mo me rm wa I have chaired. We used to meet airs Committee, which I ple peo at gre her d was on the Academic Aff recognize ce at CAL, where I soon the Vice Chancellor’s Offi At that early time, I prean. eni Ath to n tio dedica skills, common sense and l Head of The Athenian sfu ately be a most succes im ult uld wo r ano Ele dicted and we are all grateful. n fulfilled that prediction, School. She has more tha

RO D PA R K

Board Chair, 9 85 – 99

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Here was a rich academic and artistic curriculum married to an emphasis on service, responsibility to a world beyond oneself; and here was AWE—to prove to young people that they can meet challenges they never dreamed were possible.

Here also was a true community where everyone counted!

The school was miles and miles ahead of the times, and I fell instantly in love, never dreaming I would be lucky enough to return and actually be a part of it. When, six years later, I was invited, I came running!

So, what I want to say now on the school’s 40th birthday is “Thank you, Athenian” for my chance to be a part of your community. For your legion of gifted, dedicated teachers. For the board members who have taken such good care of you.

For Eleanor Dase’s extraordinary leadership. For the alumni whose lives are compelling evidence of your effectiveness.

And, of course, thank you, Dyke Brown, for starting it all.

Athenian thrives! Let’s celebrate!

ST E V E DAV EN PORT

One of the great joys of my life was perf orming “Teach Your Children” at Athenian’s 25th Annivers ary celebration with Tony Ackerman, Carrie Patterson, and Adr ian Valeriano. As the song ’s lyrics suggest, growing up is all abou t becoming yourself. Of all the schools I know, Athenian is, by far, the best at helping kids do that .

This was true in 969, when I visited for the first time, and in 974 and 98 (other visits), and in 987, whe n I seceded Steve Davenport as Head of School. Something extraord inar y happened that year.

Having decided that I was worthy of their trust and respect, the members of the school community cons istently helped me to be — or to become — the person they need ed me to be. Their steadfast support, guidance, and candor were at the heart of whatever success I may have enjoyed as Head of Scho ol. The faculty and staff at Athenian are simply the very best I have ever worked with. I use the present tense deliberately, as most of my colleagues are still there.

When I was there, Athenian, too, was in the process of becoming itself — building on Dyke Brown’s vision, embracing diversity, recovering from some financial hard times. I knew when I left that the school would prosper with Eleanor’s leadership. It is rare, and gratifying, to be proven right by even ts. All schools are work s in progress, of course, but I belie ve that Athenian has come further in 40 years than most schools have in 00 or more.

Serving Athenian was a great privilege — the one job I loved most and did best . Thanks to all the faculty and staff who made it so, for me, and who make it so today for ever yone there, and congratulations on four decades of inspirational teaching . As Mar y Metz said so memorably at the 25th Anniversary celebration, “If Athenian did not exist , it would be necessary to inve nt it.”

SA M ELI OT

Head of School, 9 87– 992

Head of School, 9 77– 987

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When I left the Athenian School’s Boar d, I received a framed memento that still hangs on the wall of my study at home. The lettering is done by hand and reads, “In grateful appreciation for your years of service… ” The framing and matting, I suspect, are also home-grown. The three 3 by 5 inch colo r photos, images of the School and its landscape and its daily life, have started to fade —that being the fate of color before the picture world went digital. In its home-grown character, it reminds me vividly, no matt er the fading colors, of a particular time and place. I don’t mind the fading.

The world of the 960s and 970s has faded, too, to the regret of some, the relief of others. But that world brought many good things into being. One of them was the Athenian School, nurtured by Dyke Brown’s visio nary optimism, by the commitment of some rare and gifted teachers, and by the willingne ss of adventurous students to take their part in something new.

Who would have imagined, these 40 years later, that it would have survived and thrived so remarkably well? Long may it flourish.

BLI SS CA R NO CH A N

Board Chair, 98 – 985

ed to make maninnings of the school—as we all work When I think back to the turbulent begi a part of its been have but to be honored and proud to fest Dyke Brown’s dream—I can’t help early growth. ck an Outward Ed Ellis on a trip to the Sierras to resto My memories include traveling with black bear in the gry hun a with r an exciting encounte Bound Expedition (a trip that included etball team… and Bask s’ Girl first ol’s scho to coach the middle of the night)… to being co-opted ALL school the ear-old, cigarette damaged lungs in experiencing the fear of testing my 43-y y race. two-mile long mountain cross-countr most important to guide an institution where the two I was also able to participate in helping of that individuent lopm in the community and the deve things were respect for the individual al’s self-discipline. ng success of the people in bringing about the continui The effort of many good and talented proof in the pudding”. school in achieving its mission is “the

JOH N ST R EET Z

Head of School, 968 – 970

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ion of Dyke Brown I have a very distinct personal recollect when I was teachol, Scho visiting Lick-Wilmerding High ideas for a new high his g ussin disc was ing there in 96. He a California-style school, blending the rigor of Exeter with gy and enthusiasm ener progressive student governance. His that , while the then me to ed were infectious, and it seem ergo a great deal und t migh ol scho d ecte specifics of the proj be realized—in some of change, Dyke’s vision was likely to ation and strong rmin form or other—because of his dete personality. e to me about the It was a decade later that my father spok envisioned a series he how and ted new school Dyke had crea ined span of time. of campuses to be built over an undeterm e, but I felt it ther hing He even invited me to consider teac Chairman was r fathe my unwise to work at a school where . Again, ction dire her anot took of the Board, so my career t did not poin that at nian Athe for ed sion the exact plan envi gy and ener r’s fathe my develop as originally anticipated, but red that assu h whic , ning plan determination assisted in sound per. pros and grow Athenian would be able to Dyke. In 970, I My father always enjoyed working with was able to learn and ol Scho e Burk . became the Head of K.D s, and, on occafrom him about school governance issue how hard my wing sion, to share my own experiences. Kno supported he es caus us father always worked for the vario about the learn to self him upon it and how seriously he took , I can imagine how institutions with which he was involved of them to work tostimulating it would have been for both r would have found fathe my gether and how enthusiastically n. visio ways to support Dyke’s

Dedication of Fuller Commons (or “The Commons”, as students call it today), name d in honor of Board Chair Fuller Brawner pictured here to the far right . Also pictured, from left to right , Dyke Brown, R.G. Sproul and Easton Rothwell.

DAV I D F L EIS H H AC K ER Son of Mortimer Fleishhacker Board Chair, 973 – 976

My father, Fuller Brawner, was Chairman of the Bo ard, from 968 to 973 and again in 976 to 98. He then was also a founder of the school, along with Dyke Brown.

I remember from my chi ldhood that my father stro ngly believed in the impor of education and philanthr tance opy. He was able to use his business background and leadership abilities to hel p fulfill Dyke’s vision for Athenian.

When my daughter Lynn was in seventh grade, my father quietly suggested she might be interested that in attending Athenian. She subsequently spent four lent years at Athenian and excelwent on to Harvard Unive rsity, both of which please my father immensely. I bel d ieve this exemplifies the effectiveness of his reserv manner which contribute ed d to his success as Board Chair.

A N N J EF FR I ES

Daughter of Fuller Bra wner Board Chair, 968 – 97 3 & 97 6 – 98

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A Curriculum for Life

by Gabriel Del Real

IN CONVERSATION WITH other Athenian faculty members, our efforts to articulate the essence of The Athenian School curriculum often elicit the phrase, “the education of the whole person.”

Anyone who has seen Dyke Brown’s graphic representation of his curricular vision, referred to as “the mandala” (and truly the proverbial “great idea captured on the back of a cocktail napkin” or in this case, shelf paper) will quickly understand all the various facets of the human being that he wanted to shape.

Just a few years ago, Dyke shared an address with faculty and staff, describing his vision of a curriculum that would offer students both “intellectual fitness and moral virtue.” An easy perception would be to see this vision only as cumulative, where the pursuit of good character is merely an addendum to intellectual excellence. It is interesting to note that for the ancient Athenians, the degree to which one could possess intellectual virtue without moral virtue was a matter of controversy; however, there was general agreement that moral virtue was not an addition to but a practical extension of intellectual fitness. For Kurt Hahn, who inspired Dyke Brown and other educators whose schools are part of the Round Square consortium, the value of one’s academic training was proportional to the degree it manifested itself in service.

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Many schools will talk about education of “the whole person” and “character education,” but to speak of “moral virtue” in a secular context is a bold statement. The mission of the school, therefore, calls students at the very least to pursue intellectual excellence in a variety of disciplines.

It goes without saying that Athenian has a college preparatory curriculum. Moreover, and perhaps more importantly, the curriculum seeks to help students be good people. Again, to use Dyke’s own words from the days when Athenian was still just a vision — a dream of a school outlined on a piece of shelf paper — Dyke posed the question, “Who wouldn’t want that for their children?”

In sharing with you an overview of the current Athenian curriculum, I hope to emphasize how we have continued to embody that tradition of intellectual fitness and moral virtue that began forty years ago. I also hope to share with you how Athenian faculty and administration imagine ourselves living that tradition into the new and next generation of Athenian.

For alumni of each of the past four decades, you will find that our teaching still takes place within the relationships we form with our students — that what has always been at the heart of delivering this resonant and relevant curriculum remains.

For more current members of our community, I hope the highlights here confirm your enthusiasm for the great education Athenian offers. It is our privilege, as teachers, to contribute to the development of young people toward successful academic careers and lives fulfilled, as they take the skills they have discovered and refined from Athenian into their communities and contribute to the world.

T H E M I DDL E SCHOOL

Although Athenian was invented as a boarding school for high school students, Dyke Brown’s ultimate vision included a multi-level program with a number of campuses on what was then an almost 150 acre plot of land. The addition of the Middle School in 1979 was a natural progression in his commitment to introducing a whole person curriculum to students at a young age. In fact, as his research continued into his retirement, following his days as the Head of School, he became more convinced that the younger children were when introduced to this kind of education, the better effect it would have.

When Steve Davenport, former Head of School and current Board member, would address Middle School students, he would share that we were not to look for whether or not students were smart; instead we were to look for “how” they were smart. The entire curriculum for grades 6 through 12, therefore, is built upon the optimistic assumption that everyone by nature wants to know everything, and that everyone by nature has an inclination toward what is good.

The first challenge for us as educators becomes our addressing the different ways in which students can become intellectually fit; that is, the different ways “how” they are smart, not just with regard to their strengths in certain disciplines but also in how they learn. This is one reason why especially the Middle School curriculum is so interdisciplinary in scope and so cooperative in its approach. The second challenge is our working with a child’s natural inclination and strengthening it with the clarity of vision that is required to guide the will toward good action. We realize that the development of moral virtue ultimately resides in our modeling the attitudes and behaviors we expect in our students.

When students consistently see what ways of interacting with one another work, they are more apt to interact in those ways. This is why being a teacher, in general, but especially at Athenian is so challenging — we are constantly invited to be good people and model good behavior we seek in our students. All of this is true in the Upper School, of course, but understanding that the end or purpose of a journey is defined in its beginning, we realize that it all begins in the Middle School.

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Another feature of the curriculum is the possibility for Middle School students to crossover into Upper School classes in math and foreign language. This year, we had our greatest number of Middle School students in classes ranging from Spanish II, French III (Honors), and even Calculus AB. Next year, we will have students in Geometry, Spanish II and Spanish III (Honors).

Each grade level has its own theme in humanities (Pacific Rim in 6th Grade, Roots of Western Civilization in 7th and U.S. History in 8th), which is also aligned with the visual arts curriculum at each grade level. The intellectual habits of seeing the connections between the foundations of certain cultures and how these cultures express themselves in literature and art begins from the first day a student begins at the Middle School.

Math and foreign language curricula are placement appropriate for students. This means that more than half of our Middle School graduates are ready for Geometry (and higher math) and even a higher percentage of students begin at level two or even higher in French and Spanish, when they are promoted to ninth grade. Science, too, has themes for each grade (astronomy and earth science for 6th, life science in 7th and physical science in 8th). Of course, physical education and the performing arts (music, chorus, drama) are integrated throughout a student’s curriculum each year on both a required and elective basis.

Because the Middle School community is smaller (about half of the Upper School), its faculty has more of an opportunity to approach curricular issues as a whole. Thus, one of the hallmarks of the program is the Friday Focus Day. Every week, each student participates in a variety of activities both on and off campus that serve as culminating events or projects emphasizing some part of their grade level curriculum or one particular discipline. At the beginning of each semester, the faculty works as an entire cooperative group to invent new ways of using these focus days and strengthening standard favorites. Community Service is also included in the Focus Day program throughout the year.

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As a result of scheduling amendments that bring the Middle and Upper School schedules into a smoother interconnection, we will have one of our Middle School humanities teachers, Charlie Katz, teach one seminar in the Upper School, in addition to the crossover teaching that has been done for years in music and chorus.

More and more, we emphasize to ourselves that we are one school, with two divisions. Each has a curriculum appropriate to its students, but both the Middle and Upper Schools engage in their work, guided by the light of one mission: to educate the whole person, using principles articulated as the pillars of the Round Square philosophy. We understand that there are two main points of entry into our curriculum: 6th and 9th grades. Every year, however, we find that those students who have begun in our Middle School and continue in the Upper School are consistently well-prepared academically and are those who take leadership in keeping alive the Athenian ethos.

T H E U PPER SCHOOL

The interdisciplinary approach to studies that begins in the Middle School continues to characterize Athenian’s academic philosophy in grades 9 through 12. This is especially true in the core curricula in ninth and tenth grades. By the time students are taking upper division seminars, it is common for them to be using information in any one of their classes as reference points for discussions in any other. However, a typical high school curriculum is a little more departmental, for size if nothing else.

So, let us look at the approach and accomplishments of each department in the Upper School.

Humanities While some of my colleagues might accuse me of departmental bias, it does seem that Humanities is the one department where the “big questions” of living are pursued most directly.

Whether it’s through a study of human history, of cultural expressions in religious imagination or of expressions of human thought in literature and philosophy, humanities seminars this year ranged from standards like Shakespeare and Poetry to The Sociology of Malcolm X and Good and Evil in Literature. Of course, they build upon the core curriculum of World Cultures/World Literature and U.S. Studies in the ninth and tenth grades, respectively. In these courses, students begin looking at how human beings have pursued questions of our origins, our destinations, our purpose and ultimately, our identity.

One course that culminates this examination is the interdisciplinary study called Humanitas, which I was involved in team teaching (representing Humanities) for a fourth year with Bruce Hamren (Science), and Karen Sanford (Fine Arts).

In the first semester, Bruce and I expose students to the study of human nature from the perspectives of ancient Western science/philosophy, modern science/philosophy and mysticism as expressed primarily in the Shamanic tradition.

Are we embodied spirits capable of some kind of ultimate knowing and loving? Are we “survival machines,” bodies evolved only for the sake of passing on genetic material? What is the relation of our bodies and what we call human mind? Is it possible to experience the transcendent?

artwork never ceases to amaze Karen and me.

This year, projects ranged from an original piece of music, a self-portrait as dance, to beautiful renditions of stained glass and painting. Anyone who has taken the course knows that at the very least it is a challenging intellectual exercise. At its best, it is an invitation to the habit of living an examined life and being able to declare to oneself a little more clearly “this is who I am.” In the end, the successful student doesn’t just take Humanitas, he or she does Humanitas.

Indeed, a common theme in humanities is that analysis or conceptual knowledge is only part of the picture of being educated. That one should live what one knows is what the department (and really the mission of the school) strives to teach.

This is why a complementary interim trip to Vietnam has been offered for the past three years.

Led by instructor April Smock, it has enhanced the academic curriculum of her course. In addition to seeing first hand those sites of conflict from more than thirty years ago, April’s students have participated in a service project led by the organization Peace Trees Vietnam, raising money

Having looked at a variety of answers to these questions in the fall, students in the spring semester then have a chance to express these ideas as their own artistic expressions. While the assignments each year are the same (an expression of the students’ imagination of a source of being, an imagination of this source and its effects and a culminating “self-portrait”), the

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and then actually planting trees where land mines once threatened the local population.

This integration of service learning begins with the U.S. Studies program, where tenth graders are required to apply several hours of service toward addressing a social inequity they have researched in the context of U.S. history. One example that took place on campus this year was an open forum on religious intolerance, sponsored by a group of sophomores. They invited leaders from different religious communities to address issues of how religious differences affect politics and foreign policy in the United States. Figuring it is never too early to begin, ninth grade teachers are considering a similar program for the Humanities I curriculum beginning in the 2005–06 year.

The depth of the content of our courses becomes the vehicle through which the skills of analytical reading and writing of all kinds — expository, creative and research — are refined. Whether it is about topics such as the tragic flaw of Richard III or the relation of the end of World War I to the beginning of World War II, our students come away from their humanities coursework knowing how to identify and articulate clearly their own thoughts and the thoughts of others. Our alumni consistently report on their confidence and success in their college humanities courses.

Mathematics By definition, math is the most abstract of all the disciplines, as the realities it studies are in themselves abstractions — that is, they exist as concepts. This is one reason why so many high school students, when slugging through quadratic equations or trigonometry identities, ask “When am I ever going to use this?” The fact is most students have probably already learned most of the practical applications of mathematics that they will need, unless they are going to become engineers. However, the department tries not to justify the importance of math just for its applications or for its necessity as part of one’s SAT training, for that would be to denigrate the discipline.

Harkening back to the motto that was alleged to have been above the entrance of Plato’s Academy, “No one may

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enter here who does not know the Geometry,” department members have emphasized that quantitative reasoning (the category under which Dyke Brown included math) helps to discipline what some claim makes us to be human: our ability to reason. Plato’s point was that if one could not understand the relations of parts to wholes or the abstractions of lines, planes, triangles and the like, one would be hard pressed to begin discussing the soul or the just or the true. This is why students are always encouraged to take four years of math, as it trains the mind to work in ways one will always find it needs to work — rationally.

As Curriculum Coordinator, I am very pleased by the fact that but for a handful of students, every Athenian graduate has four years of math upon graduation. This year, for the first time, we had three sections of Calculus AB, in addition to a section of Calculus BC. We also had a full section of A.P. Statistics and two other full sections of Statistics.

In fact, the A.P. test with the greatest number of examinees is Calculus.

This year, the department continued its winter tradition of inviting all students to take the A.M.C. (American Mathematics Competitions), levels 10 and 12. About 120 of our students took the exam, which is the qualifying exam for the A.I.M.E. (American Invitational Mathematics Examination), which further qualifies students for competitions on the national and international level. This year, five students qualified for the A.I.M.E., two for a second consecutive year. For those for whom math is truly a passion, we have Q.E.D., the moniker for Athenian’s math club, headed by self-proclaimed “math geek,” instructor Todd Miller.

Abstract as the discipline may be, this is no “headin-the clouds” department. Each year, Mary Girard’s Statistics class has students investigating a

variety of relevant topics both on and off campus.

This year, the class was vital to the Curriculum Committee’s investigation of the ninth and tenth grade health programs and the daily schedule. It was their work that guided the committee to its recommendations for keeping the ninth grade program, trying to alleviate schedule conflicts that hinder it and making improvements in the tenth grade program. The Statistics class also helped the committee’s progress in amending the daily schedule, adjusting the PA period to the end of the day every day.

Foreign Languages Language is an expression of thought, and thought is the foundation of culture. No doubt one of the goals of the foreign language curriculum is to help students toward a practical use, if not mastery, of either French or Spanish. Often this translates (no pun intended) into a number of students taking the A.P. tests in both languages, but for those who still want to pursue the cultural exposure that Spanish brings without necessarily a preparation for an exam, the department for the last several years has offered a Spanish IV-Communication and Cultures course, taught by Judy Harrod. This year, in addition to that course, Judy also offered a Spanish V literature seminar.

This course combined the best of a seminar (a focused study on a particular topic — in this case, a view of gender relationships) and a foreign language course. Students were not only exposed to issues from a different and more in-depth cultural view, they were required to address these issues in the language of that view.

The great challenge was in moving from being merely an observer of culture to becoming a participant. In the end, this is the value of having access to a number of languages: having greater access to the people of the world.

As she does every year, Judy also participated in a student trip abroad. While she has traveled with students to the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Cuba, this year, she accompanied Niki Stefanelli of our Fine Arts department on the interim trip to Ghana, in West Africa. Judy admits she likes to help students get out of their cultural comfort zones, to realize that the world is much bigger than the Bay Area or the United States. As with other trips she has helped to facilitate, students returned from this trip amazed and more open-minded. Indeed, the Foreign Language department is instrumental in fostering in our students the understanding that a whole person is a citizen of the world.

Science I often quote my colleague, Eugene Mizusawa, when I speak of the science curriculum. Very succinctly, he states, “Our goal at Athenian is to turn students into scientists.” This means much more than an exposure to or a race through a quantity of material, for being a scientist means more than just having information available at one’s fingertips. It means knowing how to gather that information through a detailed examination of one’s experience (the literal translation of the word “experiment”) and looking for ways to apply that information to help improve life.

It was Aristotle’s contention that humans by nature are born scientists (and philosophers), as we ask the question the scientist asks (“What is that?”) practically as soon as we can talk. Only a little later do we ask the question of the philosopher (“Why is that?”).

Our Science department, therefore, might not turn students into scientists so much as they cultivate or even rekindle that natural enthusiasm for investigation and knowledge that we all have. Because our students are immediately exposed to looking at how the natural world works in Conceptual Physics, which is highly experiential, their enthusiasm carries into Chemistry and Biology.

Once again, the majority of our students take four years of science; notably, most who do are not necessarily planning to pursue academic or professional careers in that area. This is one reason why the department has begun to offer Geology in addition to Environmental Science as a fourth year science option. But for those who want to stretch the limits of their scientific pursuits, the department also offers Applied Sciences.

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Designed for those most passionate about science, this course required students to design special projects that would allow them to take their advanced knowledge of physics, chemistry and biology and apply them to areas that would be of benefit to the world. This year, one group of students began construction of an exercise set designed especially for those with physical disabilities. It currently stands outside the science building, and students enrolled in this course next year will work to bring this work to completion. Another group, in studying bone disease, designed a clothing line that would help women to improve their posture.

I would be remiss not to mention that for a fourth year, our Robotics program (also known as the Athenian Robotics Collective) again took awards in the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Silicon Valley Regional Competition in San Jose, placing second overall this year. The success of this program has manifested itself in supporters investing in a new 800 square foot space next to “The Spirit of Athenian” airplane hangar (pictured on page 13). In what Eugene refers to as the new “Athenian Center for Innovation Learning and Applied Technology”, Robotics will have its own space, stocked with 12 new computers, a permanent LCD projector and screen. Given the growing relationship between science, technology and art, the Science, Fine Arts and Humanities

departments will share this space to offer Applied Science, Media Arts, Visual Design, Yearbook and Journalism courses.

Among the most exciting results of the department’s commitment to developing young scientists is the story of alumnus Keenan Wyrobek ’99.

While at Johns Hopkins University, Keenan traveled to Brazil to participate in a surgery that was performed by a robot while the surgeon remained in Baltimore. Now at Stanford University, Keenan will begin work on sophisticated robotics through their Artificial Intelligence Lab. He is just one of a number of recent alumni who are being admitted to or graduating from medical schools or studying engineering — in some cases, with full scholarships or research grants.

Fine Arts The recent inclusion of the new University of California fine arts eligibility requirement has meant that every student now takes one full year of study in a particular artistic discipline somewhere in their 10th or 11th grade years. The upside of this requirement has been that every student is now trying their hand in a 2D art, 3D art, photography, drama, music or dance for an entire year.

Among some of the new year-long courses, we have added Visual Design, taught by new Athenian instructor, Marisa Vitiello. In addition to this course, which includes elements of computer graphics, Marisa offers an elective in Media Arts and is the advisor for the yearbook. Each of these courses will now be taught in the new “Center for Innovation Learning,” where art, technology and science will interact, in anticipation of a creativity born of yet another stride in Athenian’s interdisciplinary synergy.

We have added a second section of the ever popular photography course, taught by Athenian legend, Tom Swope. Moreover, other popular standards remain, especially in the area of Art and Society, one of the distinctive features of our Fine Arts required curriculum. The Art of Architecture, Voices in Theatre (once called Social Drama) and Humanitas remain as perennial Art and Society courses, where students look at the relationship between artistic expression and human spirit.

Anyone who has been away from the campus for more than two years should see the new Center for the Arts, which is becoming more and more of a campus gathering point, not only for drama produc-

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tions and concerts, but also for Symposia, social gatherings, special campus events, art exhibits, special class meetings and more. Everyone in the department agrees that it has made a significant difference to have a dedicated space for drama, dance and the visual arts. While the music program continues to thrive in a location closer to the center of campus (Middlefield 1), the hope is that before too long, music, too, will have more of a dedicated space designed specifically for that discipline.

Co-Curricular Programs: Athletics, Community Service and AWE While certainly Athletics, Community Service and AWE (Athenian Wilderness Experience) are not extra-curricular programs (which would be to suggest they lie outside of the curriculum), there can be a hesitation even to use the phrase co-curricular when talking about them, as this could almost imply that these programs have been designed just to go side-by-side the academic curriculum. Instead, these programs are understood to be integral parts of the entire Athenian curriculum, for without any one of them, the distinctive mission and character of the school would be different. Indeed, those programs that speak specifically to developing the “moral virtue” of young people are just as important as those that speak specifically to students’ “intellectual fitness”. This realization, which often happens just after a student’s participation in AWE, is usually the pivotal point in an Athenian student’s successful experience here.

When students understand that the life lessons available to them while on a field of competition, or while serving lunch to a homeless family in a community dining hall, or while facing their fears on a mountain rock face can stay with them forever (and that these are just introductions to lessons that will continue to present themselves), they have invaluable tools that will serve them for the rest of their lives. There can be no greater testament to an educational experience than that which remains forever, and these programs allow for just that experience.

We are proud of our athletic program, which consistently fields competitive, and in some cases, championship teams and individuals. Our recent successes in boys’ soccer, girls’ basketball, wrestling and golf, just to name a few, speak to how the pursuit of excellence in physical performance (yet another kind of “virtue”) can manifest itself in competitive achievement. It is our philosophy that, if athletes understand the value of hard work, team spirit and actually enjoying play, then victories will eventually follow as a natural result.

This is why literally anyone of any skill is welcome to join any of our teams. A number of students often unearth a talent that they might never have otherwise discovered had they been required to already be “good at a sport”, prior to joining a team.

Our Physical Education program, too, with its variety of offerings, from Yoga to Ultimate Frisbee, Hiking to Fencing, encourages students to expand the ways in which their bodies can work and provides the necessary balance between excellence of mind and body. Again, promoting the health of the body is understood to be a necessary element in whole person education. This is why Physical Education is required of every student for four years.

Community Service requirements have become a recent enthusiasm in education. At Athenian, service has been at the core of the curriculum from its inception. If, at the end of their time here, students have begun to discover the gifts they have and how they can use those gifts to make a better world, then we have been successful in our enterprise with them.

Sometimes there is controversy about whether service should be required; that somehow obliging someone to serve discounts the spirit of the work.

We have always understood that the development of good habits only happens by actually practicing them. We learn to play the piano by playing the piano; we learn to hit a curveball by having curveballs thrown at us; we learn to serve by serving.

It may be true that some may have more of a natural penchant for helping than others, but it is our contention that nobody is beyond learning how to do so. It is our hope that as students recycle or garden on campus, work on trails or rescue animals, they will eventually discover the satisfaction in making a positive difference in someone else’s life.

Every year, seniors in their exit interviews will talk about the transformational effects of AWE— the Athenian Wilderness Experience. While a number might not do it again, almost everyone is glad they did it. Modeled after Outward Bound, which itself was invented by Kurt Hahn (whose vision of education FA LL 2 0 05

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infuses its life in our school), AWE offers students the opportunity to learn that “there is more” in them than they realize.

There is an ancient aphorism that states that the worst thing that parents can do is to keep their children from suffering. As a program of controlled adversity, AWE embodies that notion in challenging environs with ever safe parameters.

Students learn the difference between difficult and bad in that the former will come in life often without their permission, while the latter most often lies in how they approach and what they say about that difficulty.

Again, outdoor challenge programs are becoming an enthusiasm at other schools. At Athenian, Dyke Brown’s forward thinking imagined more than just an isolated experience for students but an introduction to a new way of looking at the world, their community and themselves.

Life Preparation is College Preparation Typically, articles on the quality of a secondary curriculum emphasize test scores, college admission statistics and stories about “successful” careers — in other words, an appeal to a typical perception about what it is to be educated.

In fact, as is the case each year, we have graduates attending schools from Stanford to Dartmouth, and it is typical for alumni to report that their college academic experience is considerably easier than that of their peers, as they have already developed skills that prepare them to manage time well, work hard and work efficiently. The last thing most of our students need to be concerned with is being successful in a post-secondary academic setting — much less being admitted to one.

But only to emphasize what in some ways we take for granted about our curriculum — college preparation — would be to miss that for which it was truly designed: an introduction to living as full a human life as possible. This is no mere platitude; it is a vision bigger than any one of us

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who participates in the life of this school, even bigger than the ones who declared it, supported it and brought it to life.

For the past forty years, The Athenian School has dedicated itself to the vision that an education worth the investment of time and resources we ask of all involved in it — parents, teachers, staff and students — must address every aspect of the human being, lest it be incomplete. Were we only good at promoting students who could compete academically, but were morally empty, our efforts would truly be a failure.

As it stands, however, we are proud of forty years of an authentic pursuit of intellectual excellence and the development of habits that guide mindful, conscientious living. It is our hope that each of our students, really, each of our community members, embodies this pursuit both at Athenian and in the world. We are truly a model for education, and our graduates are models of human living.

Indeed, as Dyke said forty years ago, “Who would not want that for their children?”

Gabe Del Real joined the Athenian community in March of 994. In addition to being a faculty member, Gabe is the parent of an Athenian Middle School graduate, who begins her Upper School career this academic year. Since the fall of 998, he has served as the Curriculum Coordinator for the Upper School, while also teaching upper division humanities seminars. Gabe is also a member of the faculty at the University of San Francisco, where he has taught since 992. Teacher, administrator and parent, Gabe brings a variety of perspectives to conversations on curriculum.

Living in AWE

by Sarah Day ’05 photography by Monica Streifer ’05, Death Valley

T WICE A YE AR , the sleepy suburb of Blackhawk

stops and stares at the grimy, sweat-stained teenagers running through the main intersection and toward the foothills of Mount Diablo. Few of them understand what puts the smiles and tears of joy on the faces of these footsore runners in the eighty-degree heat. Little do they know that they’re witnessing the continuation of a decadesold high school tradition.

The Athenian Wilderness Experience, or AWE, was a groundbreaking program at its inception in the mid-sixties, and to this day, every class of juniors at the Athenian School goes to Death Valley or the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Once there, they spend twenty-six days backpacking in the wilderness, culminating in the eight-mile run back to the school that shocks the Blackhawk shopkeepers.

AWE is a graduation requirement at Athenian, and one that shapes Athenian life from the youngest sixth grader to the most experienced senior. For most students, AWE is the most physically and emotionally intense experience in their high school career. In the time spent on the course, they do everything from learning to cook to rock climbing to spending three days in complete solitude.

The roots of AWE lie in the Outward Bound program, which is designed to build self-confidence, physical

strength, teamwork, and an appreciation for nature through experiences such as backpacking, rock climbing, rafting, and mountaineering. The philosophy of Outward Bound focuses on four areas of human development: Challenge and Adventure, Compassion and Service, Character Development, and Social and Environmental Responsibility.

Outward Bound was founded by German educator, Kurt Hahn, who also co-founded and directed the high school that Athenian’s founder, Dyke Brown, attended. Kurt Hahn was one of the twentieth century’s most influential educators. He said, “I regard it as the foremost task of education to insure the survival of these qualities: an enterprising curiosity, an undefeatable spirit, tenacity in pursuit, readiness for sensible self denial, and above all, compassion.” He believed that outdoor education offered opportunities to teach and develop all of these qualities.

Hahn’s belief in the individual’s abilities are summed up in one simple phrase: “There is more in you than you think.” His motivation to help his students realize that every boundary or goal they had set for themselves could be surpassed is still a crucial part of Athenian’s philosophy today — one manifest clearly by AWE. To be honest, as a recent Athenian graduate, I didn’t know that much about the early days of AWE. FA LL 2 0 05

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I had a mental picture of flower children wandering fresh food, gear, and letters from home to the through Death Valley in bell-bottoms, but that was students. “I wanted to know more about it,” Ellis about all. My interview with Arlene Ustin, AWE’s said when asked why he volunteered to run resupDirector, cleared up my misconceptions right away. plies. “I didn’t know much about Outward Bound at She told me it all began in 1965, at the school’s the time.” inception. Dyke Brown knew he wanted to have a Not simply a curious volunteer, Ellis was instruprogram based on Outward Bound from the start, mental in making some of the earliest changes but when he proposed such a course to the Board to the course. He recalls having a difficult time of Trustees, they worried about insurance, liability convincing the Outward Bound instructors that and funding. an injured student should be taken off the course Then, in 1969, a pair of female students took an to see a doctor. When the doctor agreed that the Outward Bound course in Oregon and returned to student’s injuries would prevent her from completAthenian with rave reviews. The Trustees were con- ing the course safely, Ellis spoke to other Athenian vinced, and AWE was born. For the first few years, administrators and the current Program Director there was a contract between Outward Bound and about how much authority Outward Bound should Athenian that sent Athenian students on AWE under have over the welfare of injured students. Today’s the direct supervision of Outward Bound staff. evacuation policies reflect the utmost care for Later, Athenian hired a Program Director to superthe safety, health and well-being of each student vise the quality and safety management aspects involved with AWE. When Ellis stopped running of the program — including designing the course; supplies, he volunteered as one of the on-call hiring instructors and logisticians; planning routes, administrators — the school staff with whom the itineraries and curricula; and making arrangements AWE Director speaks when reporting an evacuated for food, water, equipment and transportation. student or any other unforeseen change.

Ustin, the current director, came to Athenian in 1978, making this her twenty-eighth year running the program. When I asked Ustin about the connection between Outward Bound, AWE, and Athenian, she explained, “AWE is a distillation of the school values and the school mission. AWE is not set apart ... it’s central, core.” When asked about what inspired the most change, Ustin cited everything from new National Park and National Forest

Ellis’ AWE experiences include an unexpected visitor once while running supplies for the High Sierras course. He awoke in the middle of the night to lots of noise in the camp. “I heard [my co-driver] John yelling ‘Whoa whoa whoa!’ A bear had just gone through our camp. It tried to get into the resupply van where the food was, but it couldn’t. It went on down the hill and took apart someone else’s camp instead.”

His memories align closely with those of the students, from the frustration of dealing with “AWE is a distillation of the unexpected problems to the joy of the truly absurd school values and the school quirks of fate. Ellis shared, “One time, some of the groups got into base camp at the end of the course mission. AWE is not set apart… early. John and I had brought a bunch of steaks, and we ended up giving the instructors a steak dinit’s central, core.” ner.” Ellis says that his memories and his opinion of AWE are very positive. “It took some educating to regulations to student suggestions to changes in the policies of the school itself. For example, when get comfortable with all these students out in the Ustin had concerns about the ability of students to wilderness, but we realized it was the best thing meet the physical demands and rigor of the course, that could be done.” an AWE Conditioning P.E. course was added and is The first AWE Program Director, Miles Becker, was instrumental in shaping the program. He trannow required of students before they go on AWE. sitioned from working for Outward Bound, the Additionally, as the school calendar evolved, the program that oversaw AWE, to running the program duration of the course was shortened from thirty half-time, then full-time. During his four-year tento twenty-six days, without compromising the ure, the supplies used for AWE (backpacks, maps, integrity of the program. etc.) were very limited and were also used for Retired Dean of Students Ed Ellis, who worked at shorter outdoor educational trips sponsored by the Athenian from 1966 to 1992, has his own memoschool. At first, due to the reluctance of the Board ries of the early years of AWE. During the first AWE of Trustees to fund what was still an experiment, it course, he drove the resupply van, which carried took the persuasion of dedicated students, alumni, 22

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that AWE is “about pushing people, encouraging them, inviting them to go beyond their comfort zones. It’s not about traumatizing them. I’ve never believed in that. I always believe you need to start where the student is and guide them further in their individual path of personal growth and social maturity.” It’s this theory that makes AWE a unique experience for every student — one that gives to students as much as they bring to it.

and faculty members — such as Tom Swope, who was an early advocate. As student enthusiasm about AWE began to grow, funding became more available. The result of the Board’s support was an immediate increase in public awareness about AWE and Athenian. “I was talking to a friend of mine at the Urban School,” Becker said, “and he was saying ‘Oh, Athenian. That’s the place with the great outdoor education program.’ It’s really affected how the school is viewed.”

Today’s students have a myriad of experiences on AWE. From cooking to bouldering, each student has a unique set of challenges to overcome and talents to develop. Their memories vary from the hysterical to the terrifying, but at the mention of the course, smiles cross nearly all of their faces. “I remember making slushies out of hot chocolate powder and ice in the middle of a hailstorm!” says Beth Heinen of the class of 2005.

Other students have stories about driving their groups crazy by talking in their sleep, getting up early to make their entire group hot chocolate, and singing hymns in the middle of a lightning storm.

“There were some days when it seemed like I was going to be out there for ninety days,” Monica Streifer ’05 reminisced. “But there were way more when the inside jokes and laughing made it seem like five.”

Miles Becker was followed by Connie Lewis, a biol- Head of School Eleanor Dase mentioned how ogy teacher, who directed AWE until 1978, when impressed she was by students’ tenacity in the Ustin took over as Director. Although the course face of the uncertain challenges of AWE — espeitself has undergone many changes over the years, cially those students with health concerns such the mission remains the same. Ustin says one as diabetes, tendonitis, unstable body chemistry of the most important aspects of AWE is in the due to transplanted organs, and even missing unfamiliarity of the situations in which students limbs. These students often face not only their own find themselves. “This is meant to cut through the fears, but those their peers and parents have for social facades as fast as possible, so that students them. Dase laughed, quoting some of the students: can discover, figure out ways to thrive, and keep “You’re not telling me there’s more in me than I raising their standards for authentic, respectful think, I’m telling you!” and genuine interactions.”

Truly, a quote that sums up the soul and the spirit Ustin adds that while students are certainly able of Athenian. to be as intensely moved by a poem or a piece of Sarah Day graduated from Athenian in 2005. She intends music, a completely new experience like AWE can to major in Literature at the College of Creative Studies at help students learn to work with the new changes University of California, Santa Barbara. they’ve discovered in themselves. She explains

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Men of Many Hats

ED ELLIS A N D TOM SWOPE

THE DEAN OF STUDENTS role at Athenian has been graced by remarkable leadership over the years.

For 37 of the school’s 40-year history, two individuals fulfilled the responsibilities of this position in the Upper School. In June 2005, Tom Swope left his role as Dean of Students — which he had held for  years.

He will continue as part of the Athenian faculty and campus life in the new school year. Tom’s tenure is only exceeded by that of Ed Ellis, who served as Dean of Students from 966 to 992. These two men brought to the role great compassion for students, commitment to Athenian’s mission, and the ability to wear many hats over the years. We are pleased to recognize their contributions and talents through stories written about each of them by two colleagues who know them well.

ED ELLIS

DE A N OF ST U DEN TS from 966 –992

By Eleanor Dase, Head of School

WHEN I BEGAN TE ACHING at Athenian 31 years ago, I must confess that I was a little confused about Ed’s role at the school. My first morning arriving on campus, I passed him driving the school bus, and later that same day I saw him cheering on the soccer team. Throughout the day, I most commonly heard students and faculty make one of three comments: “Ask Ed.” “Where’s Ed?” “What would Ed do?”

As I began to get to know Ed Ellis, I quickly realized that he was an amazing person who could be two places at a time, wear three hats simultaneously, and read the minds of both faculty and students. Although his official title was Dean of Students from 1966 to 1992, he was also Athletic Director, Director of Residential Life, Director of Transportation, and Coordinator of Social Life. In his spare time, he taught Algebra, provided logistical support to AWE, planted trees, and oversaw student life for the boarding students.

knew he would be sitting in his office at 5 a.m., grabbing a few minutes of quiet time for reflection and organization. When I left in the evenings, I knew he would be visiting with students in the dorm, counseling parents by phone, or listening patiently to a colleague’s concerns.

At graduation each year, when students choose faculty members they particularly admire to present them their diplomas, Ed was a favorite. Although he was neither teacher nor coach, Ed was always surprised by the number of students who would choose him. He was respected and liked by both students and colleagues, and that contributed to his being honored as Contra Costa County’s “Schoolmaster of the Year” in 1980.

Ed had that old fashioned reputation of “having eyes in the back of his head,” but when students mentioned this fact, they said it with love and admiration. Whatever precocious scheme they had up their sleeves, they knew he would know the plan almost before they did, and they learned to anticipate his casual visits to the dorms at 10 p.m., midnight and 2 a.m.

While fearful of the disciplinary role of “Mr. Ellis,” they also had faith in his unconditional loyalty to them. Ed committed himself fully to the process of growth and opportunity in each student, and he never gave up on their potential. He could reprimand and listen, punish and hug. He was more than the coach, bus driver, plumber, teacher and dean. He was the father away from home to hundreds of students for 26 years.

By the time Ed retired in 1992, he had spent more than 50 years in education, including teaching at the Chadwick School in Rolling Hills, California, where he also established the physical education program.

In 1942, he joined the faculty of Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, Ohio, teaching algebra, physics and physical education, while also serving as assistant And now, when alumni return to campus each year, athletic director, head wrestling coach and assistant their first question is, “How’s Ed?” football coach. When he returned to Chadwick School in 1949, he was in charge of all student activities there, as well as serving as Dean of Students, Director of Athletics, supervisor of the building program, and teacher of mathematics. Seemingly, Ed’s ability to wear many hats is a career-long talent.

Former Dean Maybe that has something to do with the fact that Ed doesn’t sleep. When we worked closely together as Academic Dean and Dean of Students, respectively, I

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of Students Ed Ellis with Merie Weismiller Wallace ’76 at Reunion 2005.

TOM SWOPE

DE A N OF ST U DEN TS from 994–2005

By Dick Bradford, Head of Upper School

lined from floor to ceiling with books. I used to love to teach in his classroom, as there were potential moments of literary serendipity — as I led discussions and walked around the room, a poem or a passage might spring to mind half remembered and the book would often be there at my fingertips to add clarity and texture to the discussion. Tom admires the eloquence of insight that literature can bring — whether he is addressing students in a Morning Meeting or faculty in the afternoon, he invariably peppers his thoughts with references from his favorite authors.

ON THE WALLS of his kitchen and his office are the caps — reflecting all kinds of baseball teams from all kinds of places.

Certainly the Red Sox are featured, but you also see the old Boston Braves, or dipping into the minor leagues, there’s the Toledo Mud Hens, the Portland Beavers, and the Long Island Ducks. There is a story behind And, of course, there is the lifelong interest in the each one, for they are part not only of the development of high school students. There is no one panoply of baseball, but of the way Tom kind of student that interests him, just as the stuSwope views the world: to understand an institution, dents who are drawn to him come from all over the one must have an intimate knowledge of its history school. Tom long ago realized that for Athenian to fuland a passion for all of its parts in order to be able to fill its mission, we must work to ensure the success pass on the truths behind its nuances to others. of all of our students’ individual potentials. He does this through teaching, through thoughtful conversaYou can see this approach in other aspects of Tom’s tions, through admonition, through gentle kidding life as well. Photography is right up there with baseball — and judging by the photos he has taken of and through a downright wacky sense of humor.

the players and their ballparks, the two complement each other in his mind’s eye. There are photographs, books of photographs, books on how to take and make photographs, and all types of cameras nestled into the nooks and crannies of wherever Tom works or lives. To go to a baseball game with him is to cede part of the contest to the camera — you will need to arrive early to watch batting practice and to prowl the stadium looking for the light and angle of a shot that will capture the essence of the place and moment. On the Athenian campus, to speak with Tom is to expect to be interrupted as he fixes a broken camera for a student, gives advice on developing or mounting pictures to students and faculty alike.

He is always encouraging students to find out who they are and who they want to become. For Tom, this is the most important role for any adult on the Athenian campus. College and adulthood, like the big leagues, lie in wait — but for here and now “there are no larger fields than these, no worthier games than may here be played.” We are a better campus for his presence and look forward to his transition back from dean to teacher — and the continuing Tom also has a passion for the written word. When he warmth his wit and wisdom bring to taught literature a number of years ago in the classroom attached to his house, the classroom walls were our lives.

Making a Planned Gift to Athenian Through planned gifts — such as CRTs, CLTs and more — a donor can make a meaningful gift to The Athenian School for the future, and benefit personally in the present. Families who wish to preserve their wealth for their children and grandchildren, without paying excessive estate taxes, may take advantage of a host of charitable vehicles to accomplish their goals. The key is finding the right planned gift to suit that family’s needs.

The staff at Athenian, along with a family’s tax attorney, can structure a gift that will help both the school and the family now and in the future. Please contact Director of Development and Alumni Relations, Sue Newman, at 925.362.7204, or sue.newman@athenian.org for further details. She can help guide you toward a gift that will complete your vital estate plan.

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Athenian Parent Association — The Year in Review to current information about school and APA activities of interest to parents.

THE ATHENIAN PARENT A SSOCIATION

(APA) is a critically important group, whose work supports and enhances each family’s experience at Athenian.

The APA helps to inform parents of campus happenings, offers volunteer opportunities, and raises money to support the school’s mission. During the 2004–05 school year, the APA hosted parent welcome events, faculty appreciation luncheons, the March Madness auction, the Garden Faire and Tour, and much more. By orchestrating events and activities to nurture the community of families, students and faculty, the APA provides parents with an important means of participating in their child’s education.

Under the leadership of Co-Presidents, Julie Nejedly and Kathy Urbelis, the APA grew parent volunteer involvement and financial support. The progress in three key areas — volunteerism, fundraising and communication — is summarized here. The entire Athenian community is especially grateful to those who have provided leadership to the APA though their volunteerism, attending events, and generously supporting the fundraising goals that make a positive difference in the classroom experience each student enjoys.

VOLU N T EER ISM

Community service is at the heart of Athenian’s philosophy. The APA offers parents opportunities to model this important value. The APA’s goal this past year has been to reach out to more parents, providing many and varied alternatives for volunteering time. Through email and a well-run volunteer database, the APA was able to easily connect with parents, and they stepped up to the task — an overwhelming 65% of parents helped out when called upon!

F U N DR A ISI NG

Fundraising is critical to funding important programs that benefit learning at the school, and it represented the majority of the APA’s work. Through the incredible commitments of the parent

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The Athenian School benefits greatly from the vision, leadership and dedication of the APA Board and committees.

The APA had a tremendous year, thanks to the involvement of so many commitAPA Co-Presidents Kathy Urbelis & Julie Nejedly ted family members, who offered their time and talents to create a robust and dynamic Parent Association. The entire community — in volunteering, in atschool community — faculty, staff, tending events like the auction and the Garden Faire and Tour, and in participat- administration and students — is most grateful for the special efforts of every ing in eScrip and other programs — the parent involved with the Parent APA exceeded their fundraising goal of Association, a remarkable team of $136,500 by almost $27,000, bringing generous volunteers. the total available for funding projects to more than $163,000!

In September 2004, parents established priorities for use of fundraising proceeds. The top priority was funding to enhance the gym ventilation, including work to insulate and replace the central exhaust system. Funds were also directed to improve technology for classrooms, with the APA funding permanently mounted overhead projectors in classrooms to be used with faculty members’ laptops in both Middle and Upper School classrooms. The third priority was financial aid, and the APA allocated $10,000 to this important program. Funds raised were also directed to renovation of the student gathering place on campus — the Commons; as well as partially funding professional development for faculty; and supporting the addition of an athletic trainer.

COM M U N ICAT ION

The APA worked hand-in-hand with Athenian’s Development Department, which publishes the All-School News, emailed each month of the school year to parents. It is the primary vehicle for information about and from Athenian.

The Friday Flash was introduced to be distributed on Fridays, targeting timesensitive news that occurs between issues of the All-School News. Parent information on Athenian’s website also received a facelift — with an easy access tab for parents, which links the reader

AT H EN I A N PA R EN T A SSOC I AT ION

2004–05 Volunteer Leadership Co-Presidents Julie Nejedly Kathy Urbelis Secretary Sue Sumner-Moore Treasurer Jan Bauman Auction Chair Amy Phillips Auction Acquisitions Chair Theresa Bain Garden Faire Faire Co-Chairs Toni Garrett-Farb Carol McKenzie-Wilson Garden Faire Tour Co-Chairs Maria Streifer Monika Witte Upper School Grade Representative Coordinator Susan Chapman Middle School Grade Representative Coordinator Hilary Holden

The Class of 2005 off to College Nearly all of Athenian’s recent graduates gained admission to an outstanding array of four-year colleges or universities, the majority to their first-choice school. Below is the list of colleges and universities that the Class of 2005 are attending.

Bard College Brown University California State University, East Bay Chapman University Clark Atlanta University Colorado College Colorado State University Columbia University Columbia College Cornell University Dartmouth College Franklin College Switzerland The George Washington University Hawaii PaciďŹ c University Howard University Indiana University at Bloomington Las Positas College Lewis & Clark College Michigan State University

New York University Northeastern University Northwestern University Otis College of Art and Design Parsons, The New School of Design Prescott College Purdue University Reed College Santa Clara University Sarah Lawrence College Scripps College Stanford University Tufts University University of British Columbia University of California, Berkeley University of California, Davis University of California, Irvine University of California, Los Angeles University of California, San Diego

University of California, Santa Barbara University of California, Santa Cruz University of Colorado at Boulder University of Mary Washington University of Maryland, College Park University of Minnesota, Morris University of Rochester University of San Francisco University of Washington Vassar College Wellesley College Willamette University Xavier University

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Turning Kids into Citizens TH E FOU N DER OF DA N V ILLE’S ATH EN I A N SCHOOL M A RKS 4 0 Y EA RS OF N U RT U RI NG LEA DERS

by Susan E. Davis Excerpted from the August 2005 issue of Diablo magazine

ON SEPTEMBER 12, 1965 , Dyke Brown brought the noble ideals of an ancient Greek classroom into the 20th century. He opened the Athenian School, a pioneering private school at the base of Mount Diablo in Danville. Speaking to the 65 entering ninth and tenth grade students, the East Bay-bred Brown shared his bold vision for the school.

“Our goal,” declared the gently charismatic sixfoot-five-inch Brown, “is to prepare the leaders of tomorrow.”

Back then, his ideas were considered radical.

Besides making the boarding school racially integrated and coeducational — unusual for a private school in the 1960s — he stressed the ancient values of intellectual rigor, civic duty, and fitness of mind and body. Brown believed that adolescents, especially those from privileged backgrounds, tended to be spoiled and self-absorbed, and that they needed to be nudged out of their complacency.

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Dyke Brown with Upper School Head and Academic Dean Dick Bradford, at on-campus celebration of Dyke’s 90th birthday in spring 2005.

Brown knew a thing or two about teen self-absorption. Born in 1915, he came of age in Alameda and spent two years at high school in the “fairly laissezfaire community” of Piedmont, where, he admits, “the kids...ran a little rampant.” After a year at UC Berkeley, Brown’s parents sent him off to Europe to broaden his horizons.

He found his way to the Salem School in Germany, created by Kurt Hahn, who later founded Outward Bound. Hahn’s school promoted character through physical fitness — including crack-of-dawn exercises in the garden — and by having students do chores such as chopping wood or mucking out horse stalls.

raw material is excellent.” Brown was soon sold on what Hahn was trying to do, and, after ultimately graduating from UC Berkeley with a degree in social philosophy, he struck out on a path toward civic and educational leadership.

He attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, got a law degree from Yale Law School, and worked briefly with John Francis Neylan, one of San Francisco’s great trial attorneys. But he quit after three years to join the nascent Ford Foundation, whose mission included strengthening democratic values and reducing poverty and injustice around the world. After watching his own three children develop in public, private and Quaker schools, Brown decided to establish a school inspired by the Salem School model.

The young Brown found the discipline and chores onerous. He had such trouble adapting, in fact, that at the end of his first semester, Hahn told him, “I wanted to do something that would come more “Brown, I think that you are one of the three most directly to grips with my interest in how you replenish spoiled people that I’ve ever met, but I think the good citizens and leaders in each generation,” he says.

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He got to work, traveling all over the country, touting his idea to powerful individuals and foundations. Pretty soon, Brown had a faculty lined up, a board of wealthy San Franciscan trustees, and enough money in grants and private donations to buy the land for the school and to allow 25 percent of students to come on scholarship.

He was able to attract students like Andrew Wistrich, who, back in the 1960s, was a smart Orinda teen bored at his public high school. “[My parents] thought it was risky to go to a school that was just started,” says Wistrich, who is now a federal court judge. “Looking back, I think the decision to go to the Athenian School was one of the best decisions I ever made. The faculty was very demanding. They made me think about what I wanted to do next with my life.”

Today, with 450 students in grades six through 12, Athenian is much larger and carries an Ivy League price tag — for grades nine through 12, annual tuition is $36,846 for boarding students and

$23,202 for day students — but it remains devoted to the same ideals. Students face a challenging curriculum and must contribute to campus upkeep by participating in regular Town Hall meetings or cleaning up in the kitchen.

They also do service projects around the world.

Athenian students have helped build a water-supply system in a Thai village and establish a reading program for farm laborers’ children in South Africa.

And juniors participate in a 30-day wilderness trip to Death Valley or the Sierra Nevada mountains that is, by all accounts, life changing.

In an era when public schools are increasingly pressed to perform on standardized tests, Athenian offers a strikingly alternative vision. The school values moral, social, and artistic development as much as it does academic achievement. Said Brown at a 90th birthday party thrown by the school in April, “The whole of what you do, 24 hours a day, is your curriculum.”

Dyke Brown’s family today has many other continuing relationships to Athenian, including five alumni and a trustee, all pictured here at the 2002 wedding of his granddaughter Darren Nebesar ’9. Back row (left to right): Eric Sprague ’86, Jack Campbell, Alex Nebesar ’96, Charlie Nebesar, Darren Nebesar Gross ’9, Brian Gross, Dyke Brown, Cullen Sprague ’92, Chris Brown, Elizabeth Black Brown. Front row (left to right): Connor Sprague, Jack Sprague, Michelle Sprague with daughter Shelby Sprague, Susan Brown Nebesar (trustee), Tish Brown Campbell, Jessica Ratcliff Sprague with daughter Georgia Sprague, Ethan Sprague ’87, Kevin Brown. Since this photo, new additions to Dyke Brown’s family include Lauren Kate Sprague (daughter of Eric and Michelle Sprague) and Theo Sprague (son of Ethan and Jessica Sprague).

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Round Square

E M POW ER I NG ST U DEN TS TO BECOM E T H E L E A DERS A N D GUA R DI A NS OF TOMOR ROW ’S WOR LD

Kate McFarland, Noble Freeman, Alexandra ROUND SQUARE is a worldwide consorof the Solidarity movement, 1983 Nobel tium of 52 schools in England, Scotland, Peace Prize laureate and former president Dunn and Chris Jorde traveled to Hungary Germany, Switzerland, Kenya, Botswana, of Poland (1990 – 1995), visited Athenian to join Germans and Canadians on an South Africa, India, Oman, Canada, in late September 2004 to meet with stuenvironmental service project at Boronka.

Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and dents, parents, faculty and staff. He spoke In the spring, several Canadians joined Peru — working together and sharing am- about his current work to start The Goetz our students on the annual Interim trip to bitious goals. It is based on the theories Academy, which will be the first college Baja. Other international trips including of experiential educational philosopher preparatory, residential school of its kind service were Ghana and Vietnam. Prior Kurt Hahn, who believed that schools in all of Central and Eastern Europe. The to the conference this fall, delegates should have a greater purpose — becurriculum will combine the educational will volunteer for tsunami relief work in yond preparing students for college and philosophy of Dr. Kurt Hahn, the creator of Thailand or learn about Central Australia in university. His beliefs, which influenced Schule Schloss Salem, Gordonstoun School, Alice Springs.

Dyke Brown’s vision in founding The Atlantic College and other well known Athenian School, shaped an educational Our Middle School, an active leader in preparatory schools in Western Europe. commitment to preparing young people Young Round Square, participated in the The school will be influenced strongly by for life by having them face it directly and Hahn’s emphasis on developing a whole, conference at Bayview Glen, outside of experience it in ways that would demand “A square that’s round?” you ask. “A round square?” courage, generosity, imagination, principle and resolution.

Yes, it exists. A round square is about believing in your mind what appears to be impossible. It is about understanding. Once you can understand people, you can Round Square schools are built on pillars understand the Round Square. — Athenian Student Delegate to Round Square that can be summed up by the word “ideals” — International and Multicultural Charlie Nejedly, Understanding, Environmental Awareness, Niki Stefanelli, Community Service, Outdoor Adventure Jeremy Sasson, and Education for Democracy. The goal is Lech Walesa, Laura MacArthur, Emily to ensure the full and individual develZalewski and Eleanor opment of each student and to provide Dase during Lech a strong framework for young leaders Walesa’s September looking to respond to global challenges.

2004 visit to The Athenian School.

Students are empowered through community service, work projects, exchange programs and adventure, which can take them halfway around the globe.

This year, Round Square experienced an exciting year of growth and opportunity.

Hotchkiss joined Athenian, Deerfield and Baylor as American members, and the addition of Peru created the first opportunity for exchange to a Spanish speaking country. Emily Zalewski, Charlie Nejedly, Jeremy Sasson and Laura MacArthur joined Niki Stefanelli, Eleanor Dase and trustee Mary Bianco for the conference in October 2004, hosted by Deerfield Academy. Students immersed themselves in global discussions as they visited one of the oldest boarding schools in America.

President Lech Walesa, following a fall visit to Athenian, also spoke at Deerfield during the annual international conference. Lech Walesa, the legendary leader 32

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intelligent, involved and responsible person with the principles of internationalism and global citizenship. The Academy also plans to cooperate closely with other Hahninspired organizations, such as Round Square and Outward Bound.

Toronto, in spring 2005. Stefani Wilkens, Brian Licht and faculty member Stephen Marotti enjoyed time with other students from North American schools as they explored internationalism and the culture of Toronto.

Additionally, Athenian benefited from the exchanges of students from New Zealand, South Africa and Oman this year. Their contributions to the Athenian residential community enriched the lives of all students. Jontae Clapp traveled to New Zealand on exchange, and several Athenians are looking forward to venturing out on exchanges in the coming year.

During this past summer, Cody Johnson,

As a founding member of Round Square, Dyke Brown envisioned the ways in which this organization could foster personal development and international understanding among our students. Athenian is proud to be a leader among secondary schools in these extraordinary efforts to develop leadership skills and deepen an understanding of humanity.

Scholarship Recipients

TH A N KS TO GEN EROUS DONORS, THE SCHOOL’S SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAMS THRIVE

DY K E BROW N SCHOL A RSH IP

COU R IC SCHOL A RS

The Dyke Brown Scholarship honors an Athenian student who embodies Athenian’s philosophy through service, leadership and active participation in the life of the Athenian community.

Monica Streifer, selected by the faculty as this year’s recipient, exemplifies the ideals of Athenian with her enthusiastic and endearing dedication to community values, her active leadership in Round Square, and her investment in community service.

Monica now attends Scripps College.

K AT E BROW N SCHOL A RSH IP

The Kate Brown Scholarship sustains Kate’s memory through honoring and supporting an Athenian scholarship student who is a strong community member and enters wholeheartedly into life at Athenian. This year’s recipient, Carmen Jimenez-Robbins, is an outstanding student, dynamic member of the community, and a leader in sports and students of color. Carmen now attends Brown University.

ED ELLIS SCHOL A RSH IP

Ed Ellis, Dean of Students from 1966 to 1992, was honored by alumni and colleagues with a scholarship in his name.

This fund provides financial aid to a student who promotes Athenian’s values and is a strong community member. Ngozi Ojukwu was selected for her scholarship, leadership in community service, and positive role modeling for students of color.

Ngozi now attends Cornell University.

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Each year, Karen and Charles Couric generously sponsor a few Athenian students in order to provide them with an outstanding independent school education at Athenian. Without the Courics’ scholarship support, these students would not be able to attend Athenian. Last year’s Couric Scholars were Xavier Hooper, Dakiem Ellis and Gabriel Mebratu. Xavier, a senior, has been very involved in clubs on campus and attended AWE in August. Gabriel, class of 2005, was active in sports at Athenian and now attends Xavier University. Dakiem, a junior, is a great asset to the music program.

N ICOL A J E A N PL AC E SCHOL A RSH IP

The Nicola Jean Place Scholarship fund was established in 1997

by Virgil A. Place, M.D., with the encouragement of his daughter , Nicola Place ’76. As a generous donor herself, Nicola hopes that others who have the ability to give will join with her in making an Athenian education available to those students who would otherwise be unable to attend the school. Athenian is grateful to Virgil and Nicola Place for their generosity and for the opportunity they have provided. In fall 2005, two new students will be named as recipients of this scholarship.

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1 Carmen Jimenez-Robbins, Dyke Brown, Ngozi Ojukwu,

Ed Ellis and Monica Streifer, recipients of the Kate Brown Scholarship, Ed Ellis Scholarship and Dyke Brown Scholarship

2 Gabriel Mebratu and Xavier Hooper, Karen and Charles

Couric Scholars

3 Charles and Karen Couric

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Athenian Alumni ALUMNI ARE RECONNECTING , networking and catching up with current students, former classmates and younger alumni, and they’re finding lots of ways to do so with the alumni organization. Each year, the list of events and alumni attendance grows, with Reunion 2005 welcoming back a big crowd of Athenians from far and wide.

R EGIONA L E V EN TS

The year began with Sydney Resendez ’84 and Nick Rhind ’84, hosting a Massachusetts event in October 2004.

Also in the Northeast, Michael Connolly ’71 and his wife, Jamie Stern, welcomed New York Athenians to their Tribeca home in March 2005.

CA M PUS A N D LOCA L E V EN TS

And alumnus Deary Duffie ’73 met with Athenian’s students of color to talk about issues of diversity on campus and off. He shared with them this advice, “Learn to value and appreciate diverse languages and cultures, and enable yourself to participate in solving global challenges.”

Several Class of 2004 alumni returned in January for “Back to School” day, sharing their post-graduation experiences with the senior class. And another group of alumni returned to campus in May to welcome the Class of 2005 as our newest alumni at a special New Alumni Induction event during morning meeting.

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Bay Area and Athenian campus events continue to connect local alumni in a great variety of ways. Alumni joined current students in community service at St. Anthony’s Dining Room in San Francisco’s Tenderloin. Alumnus Ferd Thieriot ’85 returned to campus for an artist-in-residence fellowship in the spring, which was funded

by Andy Wistrich ’69.

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1 Deary Duffie ’73 and Athenian students on campus/winter 2005 2 Alumni Council Meeting/spring 2005 (Pictured: Douglas Perednia ’75, Christina Lee ’95,

Holly Stewart ’04, Becky Potter ’02, Suzanne Gulick ’80, Sheryl Petersen, Eleanor Dase, Lindsay Firth ’95, Shoshana Ziblatt ’92, Patty Sorensen ’85, Wes Daniels ’86, Mark Feuer ’75, Ed Ellis, Colleen Logan Cassettari ’79, Steve Davenport and Rob Steller ’75)

3 Alumni from the Class of 975, joined by friends from the Class of 976, at Reunion 2005 4 Alumni from the Class of 2000 at Reunion 2005 5 Alumni from the Class of 995 at Reunion 2005 6 Bay Area alumni and current Athenian students and faculty pitch in for a community

service project at St. Anthony’s dining room in winter 2005

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In June, reunion events included a morning meeting of the Alumni Council to begin plans for next year’s alumni activities.

Thirteen alumni attended the morning alumni meeting, joining Ed Ellis, former Dean of Students; Steve Davenport, former Head of School and current Trustee; and Sheryl Petersen, former faculty member and administrator.

Reunion continued with a fun barbeque poolside on-campus well into the afternoon. Head of School Eleanor Dase hosted an early evening reception at her home

for all visiting alumni, who then enjoyed dinner in Kate and Dyke Brown Hall — a familiar favorite at the base of Mt. Diablo.

The Class of 1975 enjoyed the largest turnout, along with several former classmates from 1976 that joined in on the fun. The Class of 1976 has already started planning for their 30th Reunion in June 2006.

With over a dozen alumni events this year, the alumni organization is all about you, Athenians — celebrating the incredible variety of interests, talents, and passions you’ve cultivated along the paths your lives have taken.

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ALUMNI NEWS GETS WIRED

REUNION 2006 :: JUNE 3

In keeping with Athenian’s Environmental Conservation Pillar, fall 2005 marks the launch of a new alumni E-News.

Don’t miss your alumni E-News (and tell your Athenian friends to sign up, too). Send your e-mail address to alumni@athenian.org.

You will receive information about reunion event plans in early spring. If you have any questions or you would like to help plan the event, please e-mail alumni@athenian.org.

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Alumni Notes 1969 Io V. Feigen :: When I read that Athenian is turning 40, I felt compelled to be a part of that milestone, even though I live in Colorado and haven’t been back since the 70s. I can Io V. Feigen ’69 in Hawaii still smell the muson recent honeymoon. tard flowers outside my dorm window, and they still evoke that same poignant kaleidoscope of ideas and feelings.

Now I’m a psychiatric nurse at the state hospital in Denver. It’s rewarding, complex, and often amusing. But this is a fairly recent career. First, I had to go backpacking through Europe to “find” myself. Then I set out for Hollywood to pursue my acting dream. But the people there seemed crazier than the ones I now work with (I mean the patients)! So I headed home to Colorado in search of the “Leave it to Beaver” lifestyle and found it for about 10 years. I have a son, Jarred, now at Cornell University, and a daughter, Rebecca, who is at Brandeis. After my marriage ended, I found myself in need of a good job. I decided to go back to school and become a nurse.

This was a bit challenging since I had cleverly avoided taking any science or math classes during the first round of college (ask Munzer Affifi — he would know why!). I got my RN at the tender age of 45.

And now for the happily-ever-after: I met my soul mate just before my 50th birthday. I knew he was out there, but I had to look very hard to find him. He’s an attorney named Niels, and our combined family members include his son, 4 cats, a Collie and a large turtle.

I often think of my classmates and wish I could know where and how you are. I’d be happy to hear from you at ivf@eazy.net.

When I read that Athenian is turning 40, I felt compelled to be a part of that milestone… I can still smell the mustard flowers outside my dorm window, and they still evoke that same poignant kaleidoscope of ideas and feelings.

— Io V. Feigen ’69

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1970 Carol Gray Marger :: My husband and children enjoyed a visit to former Athenian teachers Ekkehart and Gudrun Guenther in Ueberlingen, in the south of Germany. Ekkehart retired recently from teaching, and Gudrun helps to run a Third World shop in their town on Lake Constance. We all had a great time together, some of it talking about Athenian friends, early morning soccer, and field trips away from school.

It was a very special kind of 35th reunion!

nonstop adventure in travel, fun and new business developments. I published my first book in fall 2004, Tourism Marketing Success to provide marketing communication, guidance and information for tourism professionals globally.

Sales of the book are mostly online and through speaking engagements. I just love it when I get an online book sale when someone downloads a digital version of my book from some remote part of the planet.

1976 Kevin Conlogue :: I now live with my brother (class of ’79) in Escondido, CA. I am single with no children. Calm these days and leading a simple life.

Every year, I am overlooked for a Macarthur Fellowship, I manage to lose my keys, and something sags a little further. I haven’t traveled enough, done enough field work, danced in the street enough, or written a novel. But neither have we experienced any divorce, disaster, or death in the family. — Anne H. Walton ’76 Anne H. Walton :: Middle age finds me in Amherst, Massachusetts, with husband Mario and two lively boys, ages 9 and 5. We live on the second floor of a three-family house with grandparents on the first floor. This makes me the only American I know who lives with her mother-inlaw voluntarily, and enjoys it! For the past few years I have spent my days herding children and managing this large, complex household.

On the side, I do some teaching and continue to produce research papers in paleontology, though at a slow pace. As my sons become more independent, I can look down the road towards seeking part-time work, and, eventually, the next career.

Tim Warren ’76 shows his business venture into Baja Eco-Adventure resorts, including a private yurt with ocean and nature views for miles.

In addition, my brother and I have co-developed Las Animas Wilderness Retreat, a new multisports soft eco adventure destination in the Midriff Island region of the Sea of Cortez in Baja, Mexico that we have dreamed of for years. We are using yurts as lodging and provide an all-inclusive nature, activities and relaxation-focused vacations. Las Animas is only boat accessible and has a maximum capacity of 18 people. It is a something we’re both very proud of — you can check out the cool photo of a private yurt overlooking pristine ocean and nature here and at www.BajaAirVentures.com.

Summer ’05 finds me finishing another Eco Adventure resort pre-development in Virginia and heading to the Dominican Republic for an Eco Tourism assessment and marketing plan funded by USAID. Sabrina and I just celebrated our 12th anniversary and love our life in the wine country — Sonoma County, California. Come visit, have some fun and share a glass of wine (timsells4u@direcway.com).

1977

The decades have been kind to us. Every year, I am overlooked for a Macarthur Fellowship, I manage to lose my keys, and something sags a little further. I haven’t traveled enough, done enough field work, danced in the street enough, or written a novel. But neither have we experienced any divorce, disaster, or death in the family.

Nora Lucci McIntire ’77 moved aboard “Q,” So far, so good.

Tim Warren :: Life in Northern California and the tourism business has been good — much of the outdoor and business roots nourished at Athenian. The last six months have been a

a 55 foot sloop.

Nora Lucci McIntire :: My husband Mark and I have sold our L.A. home and moved aboard our 55 foot sloop in preparation for an extended cruise. It’ll either turn out to be great or a disaster! David Porter ’76 is joining us for the July

4th holiday with his daughter, Zoe, and Barbara Laing ’76 is planning to bring her kids, Memma and Henry, for a sail shortly thereafter. I’m really looking forward to seeing everybody. My sister, Claire Lucci Stovesand ’79 recently moved to San Francisco and would love to hear from friends at cstovesand@aol.com.

Scott Keeler :: I’m living in San Antonio, Texas with my wife Ruth and daughters Rachel (19) and Sarah (15). I work for ABC Radio Networks Hispanic division (scott.r.keeler@abc.com).

1978 Jon Richardson :: I was married to Marilyn Greenberg on July 17, 2005 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. We were going to have the wedding in March of 2006, but I couldn’t wait that long. No matter what Marilyn says, I’m the lucky one!

1981 Khorshied Nusratty (Samad) :: I met my husband in Kabul, Afghanistan, and we were married in 2004. Now we are living in Ottawa, Canada, where he is the Afghan Ambassador to Canada.

1982 Rachael Stegner Sheedy :: I have been living in Truckee, California for 11 years, married to my husband for 16 years. We have two children, Emma 9 and Dillon 11. Both are very involved in sports and love the outdoors. I am teaching as a Resource Specialist at our neighborhood elementary school and have been there for seven years.

My husband started Truckee Bagel Company 11 years ago, and it has been very successful so far.

Life is good! I’d love to hear from any old friends from the class of ’82 at KRSheedy@aol.com.

Life is good!

— Rachael Stegner Sheedy ’82

1984 Claire Solot :: More than twenty years since graduating, I am still in San Francisco and often at Athenian, where I currently serve as the Chair of the Board of Trustees. When not helping out

Athenian trustees and alumni pictured at spring 2005 reception (L–R: Jackie Thomas ’82, Steve Podell ’77, Bea Stark Winslow ’75, Claire Solot ’84 and Dave Buchanan ’72).

at school, I balance my time between my kids Carrie (14), Griffin (8) and Tess (4), running two non-profit foundations, my law career, and serving on a variety of boards.

Nick Rhind :: I’ll be marrying Lucienne Ronco this October in Pennsylvania.

We met last fall at an election night Nick Rhind ’84 at Joshua party, so at Tree National Park. least one good thing came out of the evening. Lu is a biologist at AstraZeneca in Waltham, just outside Boston, and I’m still at U. Mass. Med School in Worcester. We’re buying a house in Wellesley to split the commute, and by coincidence, find our new home is three blocks from classmate Sydney Resendez ’84.

We are expecting a son in November. I am working as a Family Medicine doctor in Hayward.

— Shannon McCune Fink ’85

1985 Shannon McCune Fink :: I was so sorry to miss the reunion this year, but we were out of town. My husband Dan, our daughter Laurel, and I are living in the house I grew up in on Claremont Boulevard in Berkeley — some may remember cast parties there! We are expecting a son in November. I am working as a Family Medicine doctor in Hayward two days a week and otherwise playing at home. I’d love to hear from anyone who is still in the area at slmccune@yahoo.com.

1987

1988 Jennifer Klein :: My husband Brian Trager and I just celebrated our first anniversary living in Laguna Niguel, California with two dogs and a cat. I’m the Vice President, Investor Relations, for Autobytel, and Brian is launching his company, Underdog Racing Development. I just completed my MBA at University of California, Irvine. We are planning a trip to India in December.

1991 Nozomi Matsumoto :: I have moved onto a new career where my heart belongs — the hotel business. I am now at the Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel as Director of Revenue Management. I am very happy with my new job!

1992 Libby Hruska :: I was married to Frank Fletcher on April 2, 2005 at my grandparents’ home in Columbus, Nebraska, and was thrilled that Cullen Sprague ’92 and Darren Nebesar ’91 could be in attendance. I’m still an editor at The Museum of Modern Art where I work on exhibition catalogues. I love living in Brooklyn, fixing up the brownstone we purchased last year, and tending to my small “backyard”!

1992 Shoshana Ziblatt :: I was married under the Founder’s Oak in June. My husband’s name is Mac Heebner, and we enjoyed a very relaxing week in Hawaii following the wedding.

I was married under the Founder’s Oak in June.

— Shoshana Ziblatt ’92

1994 Serena Brewer :: Hi all! I’m happy to say I’m back in Northern California and loving it! I graduated from med school this June and am just settling into a Family Practice Residency Program in Santa Rosa. If you’re in the area, please say “hi” at serenabrewer@hotmail.com.

Jamie Comer :: It was great to work with faculty, current students and alums over at St. Anthony’s Dining Room this past January. There is an instant connection that happens with others and with self in a service project that is different Sara Jean Tosetti :: On a professional note, I’ve from other experiences. There is an utter lack of been working as a Costume Designer in and complication in giving this way. The simplicity around New York City. I just opened my first of service infuses that time spent with ease and off-Broadway Manuscript, directed by Bob with joy because the labor is not self referenBalaban, for which I received a scathing review tial — it’s not for me, and it’s not for money. The in The New York Times (hey, any press is good ease and joy and autonomy of the day was press!). I also collaborated with Mr. Balaban on heightened by being in a group of alums and the many incarnations of The Exonerated (offcurrent students that may have very little in off-Broadway, the national Tour and the Court common but share a value around service and TV movie). I have designed many seasons of the share the experience of being invested in a com- Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, including munity. To me, this feels like the truest bond that The Tempest, Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing and Antony & Cleopatra. I am an MFA connects Athenian past and present.

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Alumni Profile Ferdinand Thieriot ’85 / Visiting Artist I HAD THE GRE AT PLE A SURE of returning to Athenian, this past spring, as their first visiting artist. Since graduating 20 years ago, I have only returned to the school for short periods of time and during those visits heard only from faculty about the developments and changes that were taking place.

The most special aspect of my recent extended visit at the school was to talk with the students, meet new faculty and take in the new energy and stories at a place which played such an important role in my life. I came to realize the developments and progress at Athenian are pretty terrific — building airplanes, winning robotics contests and a proliferating music department.

I learned that many stories and concerns about the school have perpetuated throughout the last 20 years, although “the progressive 60s”

Candidate for 2006 from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts Design for Stage and Film and just received the Princess Grace Award in Theater. On a personal note, lots of cancer recently — since 2001, I have lost my grandfather, my father and my uncle, and I am in remission from Hodgkin’s Disease. On a happier note, I now live with my wonderful boyfriend, Sound Designer Chris Meade and our cat, Newton (named after the apple tree incident, not the cookie) in Brooklyn, right behind BAM.

1996

feel is definitely over. In spite of the differences from “back in the day,” Athenian still offers a great environment in which to learn, as well as serenity, a culture for new thought, and above all — great people.

As for me, I am a glass artist who began working with stained glass under the tutelage of Virginia Mack in 1984. This recent visit gave me an opportunity to further the development of some new work that I have been trying to make progress with for the last several months. While at the school, I focused on mold-making and the processes for recreating objects in glass, called kiln-casting. The final products I am working toward are tables, chairs, lamps and various elements of architectural design.

Ferdinand Thieriot ’85 returns to campus classroom as Artist in Residence in spring 2005.

The visiting artist program was sponsored by Andrew Wistrich ’69.

I am very grateful to Athenian Andy Wistrich ’69 for hosting the visiting artist program.

at CSU Northridge, with plans to complete an Elementary Education teaching credential. She is watching a lot of baseball. Ellie graduated from USF and worked as an ER nurse in San Francisco, during which time she met her husband. Ellie became Ellie Maher in 2002. She and her husband Mark welcomed their first child in November, and the family is moving to Hawaii this fall to finish Mark’s service as an army dentist.

December 3, 2004 wedding of Lenore Greenan Craven ’99 with Greenan family and friends.

Francisco seems to be the place to go, but we are open to options. Please write to the club at theathenianschoolbaac@yahoo.com if you have questions, comments, or suggestions. We encourage all alums to attend!

I graduated from UCLA and have been teaching seventh grade English at an urban school in South Central Los Angeles for the past two years. On this last New Year’s Eve, we celebrated another wedding — mine! While my husband Dax is working on the California BAR this summer, I am preparing for our move to London this fall, where I will be working on a Master’s Degree in Shakespeare at King’s College. Our parents have all of our contact information, and they are still “The Greenans” in Danville. You can reach me at norface5@yahoo.com.

Allison Fletcher :: The Athenian School Bay Area Alumni Club’s inaugural year was successful!

Aundra Urban ’99 and I formed the club after last June’s Alumni Council Meeting, holding our first event just a few short weeks later at a crowded San Francisco bar — and drawing students from several classes. The second event Lenore Greenan Craven :: Hi, Athenian Alumni! was held two months later in the more sedate The following is a note from me, Lenore Greenan Palomino Restaurant in San Francisco. Once Craven ’99, and my siblings Ellie Greenan Maher Aundra Urban :: I attended Reunion in June as our class rep to the annual Alumni Council again, a diverse group of students attended the ’96, Valerie Greenan ’02, and Phil Greenan ’05.

Meeting. This year, over 65 alumni returned to event, representing all years. In fact, Palomino Just checking in to report on the goings on of attend events throughout the day and into the proved to be such a great choice, we reconvened “Gang Greenan.” evening. I joined the planning meeting in the there for the March event. In January, we took Phil is serving a full-time mission for the Church morning, and just in classroom A for an hour, I a break from dining and drinks and got back to of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Mexico City. met a whole new group of Athenian alumni. I’d our Athenian roots — we volunteered as a group Val is finishing her B.A. in Child Development like to share some news with you from that at St. Anthony’s soup kitchen in the Tenderloin, joining current Athenian students and faculty member Stephen Herrick. Alums found it incredibly rewarding and the Bay Area Alumni Club I graduated from UCLA and have been teaching seventh plans to integrate service into one of next year’s grade English at an urban school in South Central Los Angeles events. Part of the year’s success is attributed to the variety of alums who attended each event; for the past two years. — Lenore Greenan Craven ’99 a new face appeared every time. Thus far, San

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meeting. First, about these e-mails — I’m here to share information on classmates, so if you have something interesting or exciting happening in your life, please email me. I’m also looking for more e-mails, particularly Damian’s. On a sadder note, Kathy Hodson, the Alumni Coordinator, has left to follow a personal path for a while. I know I will miss her; she has been such a help with the Bay Area Alumni Group, and just a supportive person in my life.

If you are in town on October 15, 2005, you’ll want to be a part of Athenian’s 40th Anniversary Celebration. They are planning a fantastic event for the entire Athenian community — alumni and students. This year was also Dyke Brown’s 90th Birthday, and Athenian threw him a big party — Eleanor said it was a very touching day.

Here’s a run-down on what I’ve heard about people. Mark F. was recently engaged to his girlfriend of almost 6 years, Anne Beeler. He’s currently studying civil engineering at the Cooper Union in New York City. Congratulations! Katy L. is living in Oakland. She just finished getting her teaching credential and is working at Athenian this summer. She is still happily with Jordan Miller.

Jordan M. is living in Danville and is a full fledged pilot. He’s working for a shipping company and flying out of the Oakland Airport. Tim is living in Washington D.C., playing professional poker online. He’s also working at a cognitive research laboratory at Georgetown University and will be applying to Ph.D. programs in Cognitive Science this fall. I’m still in the endless search for a teaching job, having gotten my credential in December. I have recently sold my horse, but I’m off in a few days to Holland to buy another. I just can’t seem to shake horses.

Hope all is well with you. Please send me a note to share what’s going on to aundraurban@ hotmail.com.

2000 Adam Kosich :: So I’ve been in San Diego since October, and I am slowly but surely acclimating to the SoCal lifestyle. Seasons, as I have known them for the past 4 years in Colorado, do not exist in San Diego, a.k.a. SUN DIEGO. Flip-flops and tank tops are now a staple to my closet.

I really do like San Diego, but there are things I miss about Colorado — burying myself under my down comforter and feeling the cold, winter air on my face at night with the window open; taking a drive into the mountains to escape everyone/ everything; the perfect layout of Boulder with all the good restaurants; and of course, MY FRIENDS. I am now working for a stock investment company called M.L. Stern. The office is in downtown San Diego, in the tallest building, and the company is similar to Merrill Lynch, but on a smaller, more intimate scale. I am the assistant to the V.P. and the Senior V.P./Branch Manager.

After 6 long months of bad “first dates,” I finally caught a KEEPER! Kyle and I actually met at a house party in February, but didn’t cross paths again until late April. He’s a great guy with a good head on his shoulders and someone I totally feel comfortable with — I’m so glad he’s in my life!

I LOVE having friends visit. Let me know what’s been going on in your life, and write when you have a chance at aksting421@hotmail.com.

After 6 long months of bad “first dates,” I finally caught a KEEPER! — Adam Kosich ’00

Is Athenian Named in Your Will or Trust?

If you have named Athenian as a beneficiary in any of your estate planning, please let us know. You will be honored with charter membership in our new legacy society to be announced in the 2005 – 2006 school year.

Contact Director of Development and Alumni Relations, Sue Newman, at 925.362.7204, or sue.newman@athenian.org.

Creating trusts can benefit both your family and Athenian now. If you’re interested in learning more about ways to make a deferred gift to Athenian, please contact Sue Newman, as well. Special literature is available through the Development Office to aid you and your estate planning attorney in choosing the best way to make these gifts. We can also refer you to an attorney should you need assistance.

IN MEMORIUM The Athenian School mourns the loss of two alumni, Juliana Marie Aleva ’89 and Christopher Olszewski ’90.

JULIE ALEVA ’89 passed on

after a long illness in November 2004. Born in Boston, she spent most of her life in the Bay Area.

After graduating from Athenian, she continued her education at the University of Oregon, University of the Pacific, and John F. Kennedy University, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in business. She worked for Ford Motor Company, PETA and the SPCA. Julie is survived by her parents, Donna and David, her maternal grandmother, Marie Balog and her longtime partner, Ryan Holmboe. Donations in her memory may be made to PETA, 50 Front Street, Norfolk, VA 2350 or Feral Cat Foundation, P.O. Box 73, Alamo, CA 94507 or Raphael House, 065 Sutter Street, San Francisco, CA 9409.

CHRIS OLSZEWSKI ’90 passed

away on March 5, 2005 after losing his battle with Bipolar Disorder, a life-long disease caused by chemical imbalances in the brain. After Athenian, Chris graduated from the University of Oregon, after which he worked at Walgreen’s in management positions and met his wife of almost three years, Monika.

Chris is survived by his wife, as well as his parents, Joseph and Rosemary, who would like to hear from classmates who knew him.

You may email his father Joe at MorroJosephBay @ aol.com.

Send your news, photos and greetings for future publication, and make sure we have your e-mail address so you receive alumni updates.

Send all alumni correspondence to alumni@athenian.org.

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FORMER

a lot of smiles. I have two apartments — one in deep conversations as Mad is perched on the Adana and one down on the Mediterranean coast. back of my bicycle, cutting through Paris traffic It is right on the beach, and when you look out over the Seine to her school. So this is what my living room window, you see two castles. The keeps us hopping: The Alesian Literary Salon, which was a crazy idea I had a year ago at a din- pace of life is incredibly slow, and I love that.

Ruth Beames :: Upper School Dance and ner party when a guest was bemoaning the lack My electricity goes out daily and the water gets Humanities, 969–70 :: I don’t think I have ever felt as alive as I did in the two years I taught of good intellectual conversation in Paris. So now cut off frequently but you just go with it. I love listening to the call to prayer that occurs 5 times I run 3 Salons, teaching one text to a very interat Athenian. It was as if the round world had a day. All the mosques go off together. It’s quite national group of adults. I can’t believe my good circled and come to rest under my feet, as if fortune- getting to do what I love, getting paid for beautiful and peaceful. We dress conservatively everything I loved — freedom and exploration out of respect for the Muslim culture, but it is it and meeting some amazing folks. If anyone and immediacy and risk and intense relationeasy to do so. My boy friend, Nigel, is an engiis interested, check out literarysalon@free.fr. ship – surrounded me. We lived out the Blake neer for British Petroleum, and we met in Incirlik Also, raising Madeline, biking her back and forth quote, “Energy is eternal delight.” Ann Futhey Village.

If anyone had told me I would meet that to school, getting her to play dates, museums, and I taught a women’s studies course together special someone in a tiny village in eastern dance classes and keeping the flagrant images (lit and anthro), even though no one had heard Turkey, I would have said “Yeah, right!” You can of women in lingerie that cover every billboard of that discipline yet. We held poetry readings by candlelight with students coming and leaving from influencing her self-image. She still loves to email me at cunninghamkelley@yahoo.com or mail to PSC 94 Box 1846, APO AE, 09824. loll about in mud puddles and requires frequent in Benedictine silence. My War class enacted trips “to places with lots of tree and no cars” so the Iliad in a trench in the hills with the gods Joanna Davenport :: Upper School Art, 977– we get to spend weekends in the countryside. on the edges and the heroes below. My women 997 :: I am currently taking painting classes I’m also enjoying Andy and making the most dancers in their Isadora Duncan tunics and and singing with Berkeley Chorus and Orchestra, of our travel opportunities. This past summer garlands took my breath away, and the young as well as working out, reading and traveling. men in their red sweat pants doing the kazatske we spent time in Croatia, England, the South of France (visiting another former Faculty Julia Arthur Davis :: History, Photography :: It’s and the Russian leaps, or in drag as cheerlead& Paul Carnine) and Belle Ille, an island of the been 19 years since I came to Arizona from ers at the soccer games. We danced everything Breton Coast. And finally, hosting folks that pass Athenian. I became Headmaster of The Fenster from Handel’s Messiah to Copeland to Cage, and this way. I have been lucky to see several faculty School, a co-ed boarding high school in 1986. there was always a wonderful pianist to play and former students and welcome any visitors I’m now retired and have been doing counselfor us. Everywhere there was music, invento Paris to check in. I do miss the amazing folks ing and serving on various non-profit Boards, tion, brilliance. I don’t see any way to list all at Athenian. I continue to be inspired by the traveling to the Caribbean, England, Paris and the students I knew, know and love, and their teaching and caring that is so essential to the the Mediterranean and still playing tennis (I’m individual wonders, or the wonderful teachers, community. À bientôt. looking for a rematch with Steve Davenport). I’m and I am sure that I sound as if I have a form of engaged to Judy Robertson and planning to be Alzheimer’s called “Can’t remember anything Crystal Calvin :: Upper School French, married this year. The kids are fine and doing negative at all,” but so be it. And here’s where 2002–03 :: I am currently working at Loma Vista well. I have nine grandchildren that live all over I’ve been since — right here in Berkeley where Adult Center in Concord teaching Advanced Level the country, so they’ve given me great reasons I came from, getting divorced, teaching at U.C. ESL classes and finishing my Master’s Degree at to travel.

My best to all those at Athenian. You in Comparative Literature and Rhetoric, at the USF. I’ve been very busy creating ESL materials can reach me at AHDTucson@msn.com San Francisco Art Institute, working as a jeweler, for my job and for my classes as well as working dancing and teaching dance, sending my kids closely with an ESL author, Dr. Stephen Cary, on Neal Davis :: Middle School English, back to Athenian and then off to college, making my Master’s Project: “Using Film and Technology 990–995 :: I am currently the video producer sculpture, writing poetry, traveling to Ireland and to teach Contemporary History in the ESL classfor an organization called Developmental Studies Italy and Bali (where I now live part of the year), room”. My best to everyone! Would love to hear Center. We are a non-profit educational organizaraising many animals, having three grandchildren, from students at crystalforest@sbcglobal.net. tion founded with a lot of help from Dyke Brown, putting up with several kinds of cancer, being believe it or not. The organization writes and Kelley Cunningham :: Upper School Math, politically active (we’ve still got to change the publishes curriculum for elementary schools Girls’ Volleyball, 999–200 :: I have been world), walking the Camino de Santiago, and still (although we have just begun branching into looking for all those things I loved at Athenian, the living in eastern Turkey for the past three years middle school and high school) that has a strong and love it. I teach on Incirlik Air Base and live deep life of the spirit, the joy of art and thought, social development component embedded in in Adana. Incirlik Air Base is a Turkish NATO base and the love of my fellow sojourners here on this reading and writing lessons. My job is to write, and the United States Air Force is also here. We beautiful, threatened planet. produce, and direct the videos that are used by were the base that you saw in the news every schools to train their staff members to use our Tobin Brothers :: U.S. Humanities, 994– day leading up to Operation Iraqi Freedom. I programs. I got started there writing curriculum, 2003 :: Athenian sits, quietly pulsing in the teach at the high school on base, and my stubut then they discovered that my career prior to back of my mind through my days here in Paris, dents are the dependents of the men and women teaching was video production and asked me if somewhere between nostalgia and yearning. serving in the military. The high school consists I would take over this job. On the personal front, Will I ever get to go back? Perhaps, someday. But of grades 7-12, and we have 147 students. I love we now have two children (Emma is six and until then, our lives here are full and rich — apthis country and plan on staying at least one Riley is three) and still live in Berkeley. My email parently the pace I most enjoy is a bit faster more year. It is the cradle of civilization, and I am is neal_davis@sbcglobal.net. than what is healthy as I have found that pace constantly amazed at what is right outside my here after thinking our move to Paris would be door. There is a Roman bridge in the middle of Christine Dillemuth :: 987–990 :: We are now an opportunity to slow down — you know, hang Adana that Christ walked across. I giggle every retired and living in Stockton, enjoying a quiet out in cafes, wander through the Luxembourg time I cross it because I can’t believe it! I have life on a little man-made lake. We fish, paddle Gardens with Madeline softly murmuring witty been studying Turkish and do a lot of traveling. boat and feed the ducks. We travel some and just French phrases, but instead we tend to have our I get by with my bad Turkish, a dictionary, and made a huge trip back to our Peace Corps roots

Faculty Notes

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in Palau (the location of the next “Survivor”) we do volunteer work for the Peace and Justice Network and for the Western Farm workers Association. Jamie went to Athenian for grades 5 through 8, and she is a Special Ed teacher (grades 5–8) and head of the department at a charter school (KIPP) in Houston, Texas. She loves rugby and soccer and has a partner (her name is Baby) and a rescued dog, Emma, and rescued cat, Miss Cleo.

moved to Davis, and a few years later enrolled in what has turned out to be a very long and very enjoyable graduate program, which has included an M.S. in Ecology and a Ph.D. in U.S. Environmental History. I’m now in the last year of that program at U.C. Davis, and my doctoral dissertation is a historical and ecological study of the wetlands of the Central Valley of California from Native American times to the present. I’ll be applying for jobs as a professor in the fall, and hope to land somewhere in the West, although I’m open to most possibilities. I’ve been writing my dissertation up in Chico for the past year and a half, where I live with my partner, Teresa, a professor in the Communications Department at Chico State. We’re both enjoying the challenging, but rewarding, academic life, and spend as much of our time off as possible traveling and enjoying the wilderness. I continue to have fond memories of Athenian, and send my regards to all my former students and colleagues.

Contractor. My wife and I also have recently purchased a flower shop located here in our home town of Livermore, known as Helen’s Blossom Shop. Our children: Ryan, 21 is a chef at a local restaurant and is doing very well. Matt, 18, was the homecoming King at Granada High School and is ready to graduate and go to college, and Ashley just turned 13 and is ready to do whatever teenagers do! I had a wonderful experience at Athenian while I was there, and the only thing that I regret is not being able to do the Athenian Wilderness Experience.

Sally Eberhart :: Faculty, Dorm Parent, 993–200 :: I love living on the seacoast in Sam Howe :: Upper School Humanities, New Hampshire. We are just a few minutes Boys’ Dorm Parent, 975–985 :: It was great away from the ocean, the mountains and the to see Czarina Dase again and to see some old lakes region. I have been working for Preferred and recent students. My dull tale — I moved back Mortgage as a Loan Originator for the past three to the Boston area in 1986 in a new marriage years and really like it. I job-share with my sister, and with a new career in clinical psych, both of so the hours are flexible and I can spend time which lasted about another decade. Now I’m in with Nicole and Erika (and drive them everycareer and marriage #3, very happy to hang up where they need to be!), not to mention that the spurs of restlessness on both and to feel my colleagues are almost as great as the ones settled — as much as one can with a 6-year-old I worked with at Athenian! I am meeting a lot of Cassandra Glasco Gueye :: 99–992 :: I live daughter, “Hurricane” Carter, and life on an wonderful people, most who don’t know the ins in Brooklyn, NY, which has been home for about and outs of financing a house — so I still feel like 13 years. I guess I am officially a New Yorker now, airplane fundraising for Wellesley College. My middle daughter, Merra, 16, is equally delightful I’m teaching in many ways. I really love working and believe it or not, I run into a few Athenians and challenging — an academic tiger. Emily, 29, with first time homebuyers because they get every now and again (on the subway, in the an Athenian Middle School grad, is now teaching so excited when they get the keys to their new children’s park, etc.). I was very sad to hear first grade at the Archway School in Oakland. home! Last month, we went skiing with Kristin, about Jodie Lane, one of my former students.

Julie, my mate and a chronic comedienne, keeps David, Nico and Zachary Barragan and had a I heard about her on the news, and I am still everything sassy. Among staff contacts, I great time. Nicole and Erika are doing well. Nicole stunned and saddened by our loss of a wonderregularly see Olive for Long lunches in Wellesley, just turned 13, and she’s having a great time ful spirit. I am married and have a daughter who and am always in touch with Dan Mitchell. My snowboarding, singing, acting and doing gymis 5. My husband and I are in the midst of trying new friendship with David Oliver grew over many nastics. Erika will be 10 this February, and she to open a restaurant in Brooklyn — hopefully, by months before we stumbled on the fact that enjoys skiing, gymnastics and horseback riding. March we will be up and running. It has been a he once taught at Athenian too (1977?). I’ll be They both love to swim in the summer. They long and drawn out process. My daughter is a bit back on campus next year at some point to see had a great time when they visited Athenian of a pistol, like I was. She is so much fun. I have the changes, including Dick Bradford’s probably last year. They saw that while many things had to give a major shout out to Sheryl Petersen, for scruffier beard. changed, such as the library and the arts cenher retirement. I wish I could have been there to ter, some friends had moved away, and getting give her a bear hug. My memories of Sheryl keep Ethel Delgado Ilmanen :: Admissions Director, food at the dining hall — a lot has remained the me going sometimes. I had such a nice time 975–982 :: I enjoy reading about the great same as well. They loved finding their tiles in reconnecting with a few folks after the reunion alumni of those years. After Athenian, I was the memory garden. last year, by email. It was so wonderful reconDirector of Admission at the White Mountain necting with Matt Broyles, Sydney Resendez, School in New Hampshire. Now I live near Santa John Galloway :: Director of Admissions, Nick Rhind, Sherry Jackson, Janay Richardson, Barbara with my husband William Ilmanen. We Director of Studies; Director of College Placement; Humanities, 972–978 :: I left Athenian to work for NOBS in Portland; then was a small-time contractor building houses; then grad school at University of Oregon for M.ARCH. Since 1985, I have been practicing architecture; currently living on a small ranch in the Rockies; wife (we married in ‘88) Susie, is — Ruth Beames, Upper School Dance and Humanities, 969–970 teaching locally; 3 kids (both boys, Munro and Alex, lived at Athenian). Munro is an artist living and others. I do wonder what has happened to often exchange visits with daughter Laura in Brooklyn, NY and showing internationally; Alex some of my students. If Violet will get in touch Delgado Behenna and her family, who has a pasis on faculty at NYU teaching Culture and Media; with me at mamacass9@yahoo.com, I know she sion for playing, coaching, and refereeing soccer. my daughter, Tamsen, is mom of 3 and works can fill me in on everybody! Smooches and lots It was fun to visit with Ed Ellis at an academic in her husband’s law firm in Vancouver. Anyone of love to all! ceremony at Chadwick School recently. My email who is passing through Colorado on I70, we are is e.larrabee@verizon.net. about 30 minutes off the freeway, east of Grand Dennis Hentschel :: Although I was only a part Junction, and would love to see friends. of the Athenian family for a couple of years, I Alice Leader :: Humanities, 983–84 :: I have sure do miss it.

Since leaving Athenian, I have been teaching at The American School I London Phil Garone :: Upper School History, become a very successful General Building and have published two historical novels for 989–994 :: After leaving Athenian in ’94, I

I am sure that I sound as if I have a form of Alzheimer’s called “Can’t remember anything negative at all,” but so be it.

FA LL 2 0 05

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Sarah Dickenson Snyder :: Middle School Head, English, 986–989 :: Since leaving Athenian, I have been teaching English, being a mom and occasional poet at Noble and Greenough School in Dedham, Massachusetts.

I remember students and faculty fondly from my three years at Athenian. I miss the lovely weather and dramatic beauty of the northern California quite a bit! My daughter Abby, born while I was at Athenian, is almost 16 and a John LoRe :: Counselor, 989–99 :: Since sophomore at Nobles, and my son, David, is a I left Athenian, I have enjoyed a full-time psyfreshman here. Ben, my husband, is the head chotherapy practice in Oakland, where I deliver of the upper school. Five years ago, through treatment to individuals, couples and families.

Dan Rolfs :: Upper School Spanish, 2002– the sabbatical program at Nobles, we took a I still seem to attract a lot of adolescents into 2003 :: I am enjoying semi-retirement while six-month trip around the world, home-schoolmy practice. I also do a lot of work for I.N.S. atteaching evening classes in Italian at the torneys, helping their clients stay in the country, Acalanes Adult Education Center in Walnut Creek. ing our children and living from one adventure to the next. This June, we are traveling back to delivering testimony in court. Personally, I am Debby Schauffler :: 978–990 :: I am teaching South Africa with 18 Nobles students to do some also father to two beautiful daughters, Sophia ninth grade Humanities, which I learned to teach, community service in the northern part of the (age 5 1/2), and Laila (21 months). I still praccountry and in Johannesburg, along with some tice yoga and meditation, do still DJ on occasion, and to love, at Athenian. I also am 9th Grade Dean at Oregon Episcopal School. My daughter sight seeing in Cape Town and a safari in Kruger and I have been working on audition tapes for Robin, who had many lovely boarding students National Park. I have kept in touch with David voiceover work. I think about Athenian now and as babysitters, graduates from University of Ellenberg, who was a science and social studies again, delight in the knowledge that the “lifers” Puget Sound in May. She is a theater major — a teacher in the Middle School. David, his wife and are a constant at Athenian, while contemplating love fostered by hours spent at rehearsals and two sweet daughters spent some time with us an opportunity to visit. I hope this finds you all performances in the Great Hall when we lived on last summer. in the best of health and spirits. campus. Alex is a junior in high school, and his Jo Wayles :: Director of Counseling, 979– Virginia and John Mack :: Art, John 966–200 hair no longer stands straight up. 995 :: Alan and I moved to Ashland in the spring and Virginia 976–200 :: We are continuing of 2003 in search of a somewhat quieter life in a to enjoy the central coast and try to get to Morro Lin Silva :: Middle School Social Studies and English, coach, 983–989 :: I have beautiful area. We’ve not been disappointed with Bay every weekend. We continue to interact with our local art centers and enter their shows. published seven novels and continue to write. our decision though we miss our family and good Virginia is teaching at Allan Hancock College part- I have an agent who is now sending my work friends in the Bay Area. Emily has been teaching to the big guns like Bantam and Simon and time and works also for The Literacy Council 1st grade in Oakland now for five years! Ashland Schuster. I write daily from a sun room. Next to for San Luis Obispo County as their program has proven to be a wonderful, welcoming place me is my Blue and Gold Macaw named CJ. He’s coordinator. John is retired and is pursuing his to develop a warm community. I’ve opened a been with me for almost nine years, and I also loves of art and gardening. therapy practice in town. Tennis continues to be have two red ear slider turtles and an epileptic my almost-daily habit, though I’ve also enjoyed Paul Miller :: Upper School Technology Beagle to keep me company. I taught at Mills rafting, hiking and snow-shoeing up here. I’ve Director and Teacher, 998–200 :: After a College Department of Education, which was many warm memories of my Athenian days and heart attack shortly after Athenian’s graduation a great experience for me. After traveling all would love to hear from alums and former colin 2001 and three subsequent trips to the operover the world, I fell in love with Thailand. I then leagues at jowayles@charter.net. ating room and four stints later, I have recovered moved to Oregon because I wanted a slowerquite well. I took a job with Butte County as an paced life. I fell in love with a parent of one of my Larry Wolfley :: Upper School Math Employment Case Manager in the Cal WORKS Department Chair/wife Mary Lue was students. Our daughters are 15 and 17, and the program, and I also own a small business, Dorm Head, 987–998 :: We have been oldest is preparing for college. She is looking at Pinegrove Enterprises. My wife, Jean, has retired University of North Carolina on a crew scholarretired three years and have spent the last three and stays busy with her art and her friends. We winters in a different place. We spent our first ship. I traded my Harley for a ‘66 Mustang, my had both of our children and six grandchildren coaches’ whistle for a tennis racket. I fell in love winter in La Conner, Washington; the second here for Christmas. Jean and I have decided to winter was spent in Spain, to a place called with Caribbean cruises, met Amy Tan, James travel, so we’re trading our truck and trailer for Estepona. Our apartment was on the beach, and Earl Jones, Dr. Ruth, Jonathan Kellerman, and a motor home. We plan to sell our house here in we had a beautiful view of the Mediterranean, Caroline Kennedy, to name a few. I’m currently the mountains and buy something smaller when home schooling two trust fund children, teaching along with the Rock of Gibralter, and on a clear we settle down. I would love to here from folks, them for five years and will take them all through day we could see the hills of North Africa. Last especially students, at paul@oilking.biz. One of high school. It was great seeing Jackie Thomas on winter, we were in St. George, Utah. I think next the highlights of my life was being at Athenian winter we are going to stay in Wyoming and the big screen, as well as visiting with her at an and working with the great students there. I still brave the snow. It has been 30 years since we Athenian alumni event last year. Also saw Mary hear from Steven Lyuee and his family. He and last spent a winter there. During the summer, Constantino who is just like she was as a kid, his dad were at our house on 9/11. we spend our time in Wyoming except for some only older and wiser. What a treat that was to see these women as women. Athenian should be very traveling. Two summers ago, we went to the Toni Pass :: Middle School Administrative Philippines Island for the month of June. Last proud. Life is wonderful—never been happier. I Assistant, Business Office Manager, would love to hear from students that I taught or summer, we spent another month in Southeast 993–2002 :: I have been retired for a couple coached at iamstorm@yahoo.com, or they can of years and keep myself very busy. I walk my Asia with an old high school friend, who had check me out at www.lindakaysilva.com. dogs about three miles daily — good exercise never been out of the United States. adolescents, with Penguin: “Power and Stone” and “Shield of Fire” (e-mail amazon.co.uk to order). My husband, Max, is working on the authorized biography of the British novelist, recently deceased, Kingsley Amis, and my son Nick is a journalist in London, and Max is a music tour agent. I often think of Athenian and the beautiful setting, the kind people I met there and my former students.

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for them and me. We remodeled our kitchen, so since I have this wonderful Viking Range, it was time to attend cooking classes. I enjoyed these very much. I am still playing golf and am very involved with my ladies golf group – still working on my game. The best part of being retired is being “Grandma Toni” for at least one day a week.

My daughter-in-law does her thing, and I have a great time spoiling and bonding with our first grandchild, Kyle James, who arrived in August 2004. We spend about six weeks at our home in Scottsdale, playing golf and soaking up the sun.

Putting My Money Where My Mouth Is W H Y I LOV E, A ND THEREFORE GI V E, TO ATHENI A N

by Allison Fletcher ’96

I love Athenian. I credit it for preparing me for the colorful world and for forming my ability and desire to be thoughtful and curious. I love that we HAD to backpack in the wilderness for three weeks. I love that we saw “Malcom X” and “Schindler’s List” as an entire school and talked about it afterwards. I love that I could take any type of English and History class being offered once I reached Junior status. I love that we had International Day and ate yummy, non-American cuisine.

I love that students actively pushed for more recycling because the already environmentally conscious Athenian community was just not doing enough. I love that every class seems to develop a proprietary interest in Athenian and to claim that it was “the last good class.” I love that some of my closest friends are from my Athenian years.

More than anything, though, I love that I was lucky and fortunate enough to have such a positive, fulfilling, and unique high school experience, which we all know is quite rare because most people don’t have such an opportunity and most schools don’t educate the whole person.

But, I also realize the above list represents an anomaly compared to the traditional American educational experience, and I realize the life and future of Athenian depends on dedicated, thankful alums, who give back to the school; therefore, I continue my love affair with the school by donating what I can every year. I am sure I am not the only alum who can create a list of wonderful things about Athenian. I know many of you love it as much as I do. So, I’m urging other alums to step up, put your money where your mouth is, and give back to the school that gave us so much.

THE ATHENIAN S CHOOL 2100 MOUNT DIABLO SC E NI C BOU LE VA R D DANV ILLE, C ALIFORNIA 9450 6–20 02

Non-profit Org. US Postage

PA I D

Permit No 818 San Francisco · CA

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