Athenian Magazine 2024 by The Athenian School

In This Issue

Message from the Interim Head of School

Managing Editors

Elizabeth Weaver

Communicatons Manager

Shoshana Ziblat ’92

Director of Strategic Communicatons

Editors & Contributors

Dora Benavides

Kanitha Crisolo

Erin Fredrick

Eliot Grover, Writer

Francesca Molina

Cover image: Sixth graders learning about honey bees and pollinaton during their Earth Day Focus Day.

Lef: 3D Art students spending tme in the Carter Innovaton Studio to make chairs out of cardboard.

The Athenian Magazine is published annually in the fall. We welcome your comments, suggestons, and mailing address changes at communicatons@athenian.org Or send us mail to: The Athenian School

2100 Mt. Diablo Scenic Blvd. Danville, CA 94506

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2024 The Athenian School

Photography

Naoko Akiyama

Lindsay Baloun ’25

Erin Fredrick

Latai Photography

Kenneth Prabhakar

Elizabeth Weaver

Lisa Winner Photography

Shoshana Ziblat ’92

Design

Julie Contreras, UrbanBirdDesign.com

Walnut Creek, CA

Printng

Greenerprinter, Richmond, CA

Printed on paper that has the lowest footprint in North America's paper industry. Paper is comprised of 100% post-consumer waste, is FSC certfed and chlorine/acid free. Ink is soy/ vegetable based.

“It is so reassuring to walk through this campus at the base of Mount Diablo and appreciate how this learning environment is already well designed and structured to support adolescent students and their learning.”

I am so excited to rejoin this community of learners and to be here now, in a school known for the balance of support it strikes while it cares for and challenges students to fourish at one of the most complex and fuid moments in our country’s history. Athenian, as evidenced throughout this Magazine, is well atuned to the unique educatonal landscape of this tme and few schools are as well positoned to guide their students through it. A founding member of the network of Round Square schools, we can all recognize the extraordinary relevance of the pillars of Round Square—internatonalism, democracy, environmentalism, adventure, leadership, and service—and we are prepared to greet this moment like few other schools can. Our programs are built to do just this, preparing young people to thrive, connect, and collaborate, locally and globally. We’ve been doing this work since our founding.

While it is joyful and rewarding to support adolescents and their learning, it is not easy work. Today’s teens live in a rapidly changing world. Afer a long pandemic period of disrupted learning, the churn of wars and historic events in US politcs, and a steady drumbeat of news and infuencers through their phones, it is no surprise that teen’s mental and emotonal health is under strain. While Athenian is not immune to this, what I observed frst from afar, then in 2022, has been afrmed in my second frst few months as Interim Head of School: the deep connectons between our students and adults are one of the most salient and protectve features of our community. Dr. Lisa Damour reminds us that during this busy, joyful, and challenging period of developmental growth, adolescents are best served when the adults around them provide a steady presence, characterized by curiosity and empathy. Faculty and staf at Athenian know this intuitvely. It’s how they show up for our students.

Message from Interim Head of School Quincy McLaughlin

During our opening of the year meetngs with faculty and staf and before students arrive, we recommit to our purpose and design. Reviewing and refning the way we do the work of educatng our students is a contnuous process and ensures alignment with our mission and the needs of the young people we serve today. In additon to the talented and creatve faculty, staf, and coaches at Athenian, we are so lucky for this special locaton and expansive campus. We know so much more now about the importance of the physical spaces where we learn and work, and partcularly the role nature plays in a student’s growing capacity to self-regulate. In Annie Murphy Paul’s, “The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain,” she highlights research about our neurocentric model of thinking that ofen overlooks the ways that physical spaces and our practces around actvites and engagement impact the way students learn and play. Paul reminds us to create structures that allow for “environmental self-regulaton.” Her ideas have important implicatons for how we do things in our schools, from arranging our learning spaces to the ways we cue belonging and care for our students. It is so reassuring to walk through this campus at the base of Mount Diablo and appreciate how this learning environment is already well designed and structured to support adolescent students and their learning. If it’s been a while since you have been here and miss the impact the campus has on your own sense of belonging, come back and visit.

I am honored to help steward a school that is so well-positoned to support its young people through the days ahead and I look forward to getng to know many of you this academic year.

Thank you for your ongoing support and partnership.

Environmentalism in Action

In and out of the classroom, students and teachers are bringing Athenian’s environmental pillar to life

In 1970, fve years afer he opened Athenian School, Dyke Brown reafrmed his founding vision in a message to the school community. “It is not enough to be concerned with the scholarly excellence of our students alone,” he wrote. “The values and purposes to which their welltrained minds will be commited are of equal importance. The major decisions and actons of their lives will be based on ideals and goals which take fundamental form during adolescence.”

Dyke ended his leter by impartng wisdom he had received from a member of Athenian’s Advisory Board. “In judging a school, I would want to know frst what its graduates care most about,” the board member said. “For what a school values, its graduates will tend to believe is important.”

The growing number of alumni who have gone on to pursue climate and sustainability-related careers is a testament to the impact of Athenian’s environmental pillar, which has instlled a strong environmental consciousness in generatons of graduates (see alumni spotlights on pages 14-15). Today, there is visible momentum that is bringing the environmental pillar to life throughout grades 6-12.

Curricular Momentum

In the sixth grade, where every student is new to Athenian, science faculty Rachel Halliday strives to get everyone on the same page by combining observatonal skill building with experiental learning. Rachel’s background is in outdoor educaton and she is constantly fnding ways to utlize Athenian’s campus as a classroom. During a unit on the water cycle and watersheds, she took her students on a hike up Mt. Diablo. By gaining a litle elevaton, they could see the basin at the botom of the mountain. Watersheds can be difcult to understand, but this allowed students to easily visualize how water fows and why there is a creek that runs through campus.

“I can do that in a one hour lesson, which is really unique,” Rachel says. “It’s why environmental science and educaton can be so diferent at Athenian.”

To help students appreciate the real world signifcance of watersheds, Rachel ended the unit with a mock debate. Students were assigned diferent roles to argue whether or not a river should be dammed to make way for a real estate development.

“What we’re all about is giving students experiences to make them more aware of the environment and highlightng some of the challenges,” says Rachel. The hope, she adds, is that by introducing these ideas and having open discussions in the Middle School, students will see contnued on page 6

Middle schoolers partcipatng in a water lab as part of their unit on the water cycle and watersheds.

LEFT: Sixth graders plantng lavender in the school orchard as part of a lesson on pollinaton.

“We’re considering the science of how things are, but we also look at the implications on society and global and local populations.”

connectons to what they are learning in other subjects, be inspired to learn more on their own and realize the opportunites to take acton as they move into the Upper School.

In the Upper School, students in Brit SchlaeGuada’s environmental science course learn about climate change with an emphasis on environmental justce. “We’re obviously considering the science of how things are,” Brit says, “but we also look at the implicatons on society and global and local populatons.”

Case studies play a prominent role in their work. Students examine the Flint Michigan water crisis, which ofers a window to learn about water polluton and environmental racism. Brit pairs the case study with a feld trip to a local water treatment facility. Another unit on “Cancer Alley,” an 85-mile stretch of petro-chemical plants in

Louisiana, allows students to study the efects of air polluton. As part of their case study work, students research the demographics of the areas they are studying. They use databases to look at income and educaton levels as well as gender and racial breakdowns.

“I think the zoom out helps them contextualize what we’re going to be looking at in the case study,” Brit says. “A lot of the tme, they’re shocked to be hearing about some of the things that are going unchecked in these communites.”

Similar to the mock debate Rachel does with her Middle School students, Brit stages a CoP Climate Conference with their class. Using En-ROADS, a global climate simulator created by MIT’s Sloan Sustainability Initatve and Ventana Systems, students are assigned diferent roles to prepare for the conference. “We have everything

Environmental Science guest teacher Kavi Reddi ’12 draws on their real-world experience to co-teach a unit with Brit SchlaeGuada on climate change solutons. contnued from page 5

from climate actvists to fossil fuel industry lobbyists to the United States government to the governments of island natons,” says Brit, who assumes the role of UN Secretary General. “We kind of fgure out how difcult it is for these conferences to even occur and for people to see eye to eye because of the diverse perspectves they’re coming from.”

Throughout the course, students learn about the science and causes of climate change. The goal is that they become more informed citzens. “There’s a lot of misconceptons out there,” Brit says. “I want them to walk away with a solid foundaton so that in the future, when they hear misinformaton, they can rectfy that.”

For the last several years, Brit has collaborated with Kavi Reddy ’12 to coteach an experiental-based unit with a focus on climate change solutons.

Kavi works at Actvate, a climate-tech startup based in Berkeley. In the past, they’ve done projects relatng to permaculture and water movement. This year, they taught students about the three diferent models for climate change solutons: mitgaton, adaptaton, and reversal. “The idea is that they’ll learn about these diferent climate perspectves and think about what solutons would be proposed in each sector,” Brit says.

For students who don’t take environmental science, other classes stll fnd ways to have meaningful conversatons about sustainability. “All of our teachers are passionate about the environment,” says Elizabeth Wright, chair of the Upper School Science Department. “We’re constantly talking to our students about how we can decrease our carbon footprint and the amount of waste we produce.”

Elizabeth, who retred in June afer 15 years at Athenian, shares an anecdote that illuminates how these discussions afect students. Her Advanced Biology course does a lot of work with DNA manipulaton, which requires the use of small plastc test tubes that can’t be re-used due to sterilizaton concerns. “The students are horrifed that we use them once and throw them away,” Elizabeth says. “I’m so happy that they’re horrifed!” She notes that the science department has reduced its use of heavy metals such as copper and lead, which are efectve for demonstraton experiments but produce a lot of hazardous waste.

Science lends itself to exploring topics related to environmental stewardship, conservaton and environment justce, but the environmental pillar shows up throughout the curriculum. For example, soon afer their unit on the water cycle, sixth graders started

Sudents on the High Sierra Athenian Wilderness Experience (AWE) are taught Leave No Trace practces throughout their tme in the wilderness.

“What better place to be learning than in a place where you can see the impacts?”

contnued from page 8

Immersive Experiences

Beyond the daily curricular exposure to environmental themes, a renewed commitment to experiental programming has created more opportunites for students to engage with the environmental pillar. As the Dean of Experiental Educaton, Beth Spencer is tasked with helping to support experiental educaton school-wide both in and out of the classroom. In her frst year in the role, Beth has worked closely with Middle School faculty on many of their Focus Days, which take place every Friday and bring students out of the typical classroom setng to contnue their learning through hands-on projects and actvites.

Focus Days are designed to align with the diferent academic subjects while connectng to Athenian’s pillars. In January, sixth graders had a Focus Day dedicated to recycling. “They did a lab on campus ted to being aware of

the waste stream, and then we visited a recycling center in the Bay Area to see how that actually works and what happens to the things we send away in the blue dumpsters,” Beth says.

Seventh and eighth graders have had multple Focus Days relatng to environmental justce. Working with diferent community organizatons such as Urban Tilth, a Richmond-based nonproft that empowers residents to cultvate agriculture, students have visited urban farms to assist with plantng while learning about vital food access issues. “It’s a crossover between community engagement and environmentalism,” says Beth. “It’s a really nice blend of multple pillars.”

For a special Earth Day Focus Day, sixth grade art faculty Jaci Kildare taught students about bees and the importance of pollinaton. Jaci, a longtme beekeeper, brought a number of her bees to school in a transparent “observaton hive,” which gave students an intmate look at the

contnued on page 10 working on a research project in their English class. Inspired by what they were learning in science, many chose to focus on climate change. The Environmental Justce Movement is something that surfaces in many Upper School history classes such as Food on Your Plate, an 11th and 12th grade history seminar that explores how humankind’s relatonship to food has evolved from subsistence to an industrial complex. In Upper School Micro and Macroeconomics, environmental justce is part of the discussion on unregulated markets and the concept of externalites. A seminar on environmental literature is ofered in alternatng years and is another popular way for students to explore combined interests. Even our ninth graders touch on the Environmental Justce Movement in their World History class. Likewise, art classes explore environmental topics including creatons of coral-like sculptures that paralleled learning about the destructon of coral reefs.

Sixth graders visitng the recycling center as part of a Focus Day.

LEFT: Eighth graders spent tme on Mt. Diablo as they learned more about the mountain (Ohlone name Tuyshtak), the plants, and people of the land.

contnued from page 9

“That sense of accomplishment when they do something to help the campus is pretty great.”

ofen misunderstood insects. As the students studied the bees in wideeyed wonder, Jaci taught them about her hive. “The goal was to make kids hopefully less fearful of bees while appreciatng their importance,” Rachel says.

Afer learning about the bees, the sixth graders visited Athenian’s orchard and planted lavender, a pollinator plant, between the fruit trees. (As a student-led project, the orchard itself is a symbol of the school’s environmental commitment. The two seniors who oversaw the orchard this year worked to implement a permaculture program.) For the sixth graders, plantng the lavender was a fun and meaningful experience. “They love taking care of their place,” Rachel says. “That sense of accomplishment when they do something to help the campus is prety great.”

While for Upper School students the Athenian Wilderness Experience (AWE) contnues to be a frequently cited program having a profound impact on students and their relatonship with the environment, a more recent program evoluton, March Term gives upper schoolers a chance to take a break from their classes and pursue a deep dive on a subject of their choice. This year, the intensive two-week program featured several environmental-themed oferings including “California Water” and “California Fire,” two courses that have become a staple of the March Term catalog, remained popular.

The California Fire group took a number of feld trips, including a guided hike up Mt. Diablo with a Park Ranger who showed them the impact of past fres. They also visited Henry Coe State Park, a remote park 90 minutes south of campus, where they

Upper School students in the California Water March Term traveled to key locatons throughout the state as they learned about the complexity of providing fresh water to California’s 40 million residents.

spent two days hiking and camping while inspectng signs of more recent fres. “What beter place to be learning than in a place where you can see the impacts?” Beth says.

In a course called “Upcycled: Designing and Creatng Clothing and Accessories,” students acquired the lifelong skill of sewing as they learned about the environmental impact of fabric producton. They watched and discussed River Blue, a documentary about the ills of the denim industry, before devotng tme to making and altering their own clothes. “It makes them think twice about whether they need to buy something new,” says Elizabeth Wright, who co-taught the course. “They’re really empowered by learning to sew and how to fx their own clothes.”

“Saving Coral Reefs with Science’’ was a new March Term ofering inspired

contnued on page 12

Students in the California Fire March Term got hands-on experience using a frehose as they learned about how wildfre has impacted California.

Students in the Saving Coral Reefs with Science March Term spent tme in the Carter Innovaton Studio building and programming sensors for collectng ocean data related to coral reef health.

by the work Athenian students have been doing to restore coral reefs of the island of Bonaire for many years. Working with the nonproft Whalefall (formerly Blue Endeavors), students have traveled to the Caribbean every other year to learn how to scuba dive and record scientfc measurements underwater. This was a non-travel year, but students stll made an impact through this innovatve new course. Collaboratng with Sofar, a company that manufactures buoys that feed ocean data to an open source network, students worked to design their own buoy sensors.

“The goal was to try to fgure out ways to measure physical propertes of the ocean that currently are not being measured in relaton to coral reef health,” says science and engineering faculty Dave Oten, who co-taught the course with Bruce Hamren. Students worked to develop sensors for a number of propertes including turbidity, pH, conductvity, and dissolved nitrogen, which helps gauge how fertlizer and other sewage output is impactng the reefs. The ultmate objectve is that data from these buoys can give local communites the evidence they need to pass laws to protect their reefs. “By making it visible, you can then create legislaton, which can actually cause change,” Dave says.

Building and testng individual sensors and connectng them to Sofar’s network was an ambitous undertaking for an 11-day term. To streamline the efort, students were split into diferent teams. One group focused entrely on the communicaton link, which involved using programming and coding skills to sync the data with Sofar’s proprietary interface. Another team specialized in electronics. Their job was to connect the sensors to a circuit board that could take a physical property, such as temperature, and

turn it into a signal that could then be sent through Sofar’s communicaton tree. Several other teams designed individual sensors. “It was a mix of mechanical design, computer-aided design, electronic prototyping, and coding,” Dave says. “Those are all things we teach in our engineering classes.”

Despite the tme crunch, the class achieved its objectve. “I think it was really eye opening,” Dave says. “For the frst tme for many students, they saw design and engineering as actvist work.” Afer March Term, three students inquired about pursuing internships with Sofar.

Preparing for the Future

As Athenian contnues to think about how best to instll pillar-aligned values in today’s students, the idea of career-oriented opportunites seems to be a natural progression and consistent with the school’s hands-on approach to learning. “The climate and sustainability felds are some of the felds that are growing the fastest and have the least people genuinely prepared to enter the workforce,” says Beth. “There’s a gap between how

college prepares students for those careers and the level they want people entering the feld.”

One new program aimed at flling this gap is a partnership with the Villars Insttute, a Swiss foundaton seeking to accelerate the transiton to a net zero economy. Villars prioritzes intergeneratonal collaboraton as a means for achieving systemic change. As a founding member of Round Square, now a worldwide network of schools, Athenian was one of a handful of American schools selected by Villars to partcipate in its fellowship program.

Through an intensive applicaton process, six Athenian students, including one eighth grader, were selected as inaugural Villars Fellows. They met throughout the year to take a course on systems leadership and prepare for the Villars Symposium, which was held in Switzerland at the end of June (see student refecton on the Symposium, page 13). At the Symposium, students met and networked with leading climate scientsts and experts from across the world, whom they will be able to keep in touch with through the Villars online platorm. Next year, the fellows will

Upper School students created coral-like sculptures in art.

build on this work by designing and implementng a sustainability project that impacts the Athenian campus or the greater community.

“For the ﬁrst time for many students, they saw design and engineering as activist work.”

It’s a goal that aligns with Athenian’s founding ethos. “The curious thing about modern educaton,” Dyke Brown wrote in 1974, “is how far the learning process has been separated from frsthand experience of the subject being learned about.”

At Athenian, learning and experience have always gone hand in hand. Perhaps this is why Athenian alumni are so passionate and prepared to meet the challenges of their tme.

Throughout the year student leaders Cecilia Bersamin ’24 and Ben Lin ’24 organized community-wide weekend Orchard Partes where adults and students helped tend the school’s fruit trees. They were able to donate over 500 pounds of fruit in just one year!

“Every year, I have at least one to fve students who end up going into some sort of environmental policy or studies or engineering work,” says Brit SchlaeGuada, who adds that these students ofen say their environmental science class was the spark that lit

their fre. “It feels really great. Because if I can get one every year I teach, and I’ve been teaching for ten years, that’s ten new people going into the feld of environmentalism. That’s going to help!”

Refections on the Villars Symposium

by Violet O’Leary-Liu ’25

Atending the Villars Insttute Symposium was truly a life-changing experience. Surrounded by the natural beauty of the Swiss Alps and the company of intelligent people from around the world, my classmates and I explored the distnct systems behind our world’s growing environmental crisis through the lenses of business, AI, STEM, social sciences, flm-making, and more. We interacted with experts within these felds who have made an impact on our planet. What struck me most was the call to acton that these experts brought. It was alarming to hear the science behind the climate crisis, but also inspiring to see the many ways we have made progress towards a greener, healthier world. Moving forward, I am commited to an environmentally conscious lifestyle. I urge those around me to be the change they wish to see. This can be as small as choosing to ride public transportaton, or not using plastc bags at the grocery store. If we all come together to create these changes, the future of our planet will be beter protected and more sustainable. I urge you to think about what you can do; because, afer all, we only have one Earth. I want to help keep it alive.

Athenian Villars Fellows atended the Villars Symposium in Switzerland this summer along with a select group of students and climate soluton leaders from around the world. Lef to right: Haven ’24, Chris ’27, Christna ’25, Violet ’25, Nate ’27 and Florencia (Flo) ’28

Alumni Spotlight Haley Leslie-Bole

’12

During her freshman year at Colorado College, Haley Leslie-Bole ’12 took a course that shook her worldview to its core. It was a class about the science of climate change. “I was aware of environmental issues,” Haley says, “but having all of the science right there front and center was a wakeup call.”

Rather than feeling defeated, Haley resolved to become part of the soluton. She graduated and became a wilderness guide, a decision that she says was inspired by her Athenian Wilderness Experience (AWE). Four years later, wantng to confront climate change more directly, she pivoted from outdoor educaton to focus on environmental policy and justce. Afer earning a master’s degree from the Yale School of the Environment, she accepted a positon at the World Resources Insttute (WRI), a global think tank that operates at the intersecton of people, nature, and climate.

Today, Haley leads the WRI team tasked with identfying natural climate solutons within the United States. “We work on everything from land use to sustainable development, and we’re doing a lot on the clean energy transiton,” she says. A key part of her job is to produce policy-relevant research that her team can share with lawmakers on Capitol Hill. “Our goal is to try to get our research into the hands of people who can use it to make beter decisions,” she says.

The current politcal landscape may be polarized, but Haley is optmistc about the directon of environmental legislaton. “In this day and age there’s a lot that we’re divided on,” she says. “Something to be hopeful for is that we’re seeing more and more policymakers prioritze climate issues in the US because they know their voter base cares deeply about that.”

Haley’s family has strong tes to the green science community. Both her parents have worked in the feld––her father, Ben, helped develop the curriculum for and taught California Water, now a regular March Term ofering at Athenian––and her brother, Holden ’14, is currently studying sea level rise as he pursues his PhD in physical oceanography. While Haley’s environmental consciousness traces to her earliest years, her convictons and

skills were sharpened during her tme at Athenian.

“There are so many diferent ways to tackle the climate problem,” she says. “It requires thinking out of the box and thinking of creatve solutons. Athenian prepared me really well for interdisciplinary thinking. I had so many teachers who encouraged us to push the boundaries of conventonal thinking to come up with new ways of solving problems.”

Athenian also helped her develop a strong sense of equity. During open discussions with peers and teachers, she refected on the disparate ways that policy interventons can afect diferent groups of people. Through numerous opportunites to contribute to Athenian’s environmental and service pillars, she learned how to turn ideals into meaningful acton.

“What’s unique about Athenian is the hands-on opportunity to not just talk about an issue, but to experience actually jumping in and helping and doing something. That has really served me well.”

The road that led Karen Hinh ’19 to her job as an engineer at Lunar Energy, an innovatve startup in the ’19 climate tech space, is lined with impressive milestones. She interned with Apple’s Special Projects Group and was the lead mechanic for her college’s electric motorsports team. Before all of this,, she was an Athenian student determined to develop skills she could apply to her passion for addressing climate change.

She credits Athenian with nurturing her enthusiasm and providing meaningful opportunites to take acton. “Athenian gave me a lot of space to explore environmentalism and learn about its real world impacts,” Karen says. “I encountered so many sustainability-minded peers and teachers, and I learned a lot from them.”

Her Athenian Wilderness Experience (AWE) in the High Sierra was a formatve event that shaped her views on the importance of stewardship. “It was my frst tme being out in the country and learning the principle of ’leave no trace’ and understanding why that’s important,” Karen says. “When you’re out in the backcountry, you see the consequences of your actons.”

Faculty members notced Karen’s passion for environmentalism and encouraged her to pursue leadership opportunites on campus. Karen reinvigorated the environmental club to advocate for community-wide

’19

Alumni Spotlight Karen Hinh

sustainability initatves, and. as a senior, she and a classmate conducted a year-long independent study. Their research culminated in a proposal for how to make Athenian a zero-waste, net-zero energy campus. While their plan was never fully realized by the school, the opportunity to engage with faculty and school leadership––past and present––provided an invaluable learning opportunity.

While Athenian’s environmental pillar played a defning role in Karen’s experience, it wasn’t what frst atracted her to the school. “When I was looking at schools, I was looking at what kind of advanced science and math programs they had, and if they had hands-on learning opportunites,” Karen recalls.

Visitng the Carter Innovaton Studio and learning about Athenian’s robotcs program infuenced her decision to atend. She had never before considered robotcs as a possible actvity, but she had a general interest in pursuing engineering as a career. “I thought [robotcs] could be cool to explore down the line since Athenian has a lot of hands-on oferings and I like working with my hands instead of just learning from a textbook,” Karen says.

She spent four years on the robotcs team, eventually moving into diferent leadership roles. “Through robotcs I was able to learn some of the fundamentals of engineering,” Karen says. “How to CAD [computer-aided

design], how to design things, and how to integrate systems together.”

As she developed an apttude for these skills, she saw a path for how she could apply them to a future career that connected to her passion for environmentalism.

At Olin College of Engineering, she joined the electric motorsports team, colloquially known as Formula SAE. She loved collaboratng with her peers to build electric race cars, and she gravitated towards working with bateries because she saw how relevant they were to sustainability. “I learned a lot about how bateries work and how to design them,” Karen says. “That’s a big part of how I got my current job.”

She is currently a mechanical design engineer at Lunar Energy, a company that builds home batery systems and ofers a range of sustainable energy products. “Everything in my career is driven by the goal of helping mitgate or adapt to climate change,” Karen says. Many of the skills she uses on a daily basis––such as communicaton, project management, and critcal thinking ––are skills that she honed at Athenian.

“Athenian broadened my horizon for how to perceive the world and how to take acton,” Karen says. “If there’s one thing I could tell students right now, it’s that I hope they fnd something in the world they really care about.”

MemorableMOMENTS

Enjoy these highlights from an incredible year!

High Sierra Run In

Students returning from the High Sierra AWE course ending their 26-day journey with Run In. Dropped of miles away from campus, they ran or walked their way “home” and were welcomed by the Athenian community, family and friends.

Brazil Young Round Square

Six 8th graders journeyed to Sao Paulo, Brazil to atend a Young Round Square Conference. They stayed with host families, and met students from nine other schools from around the world.

AUGUST SEPTEMBER

Convocaton

The start of school begins with a week of orientatons and Convocaton, where the entre school gathers for speeches and the signing of class banners that are woven together to create a single fag in celebraton of community.

Fall

Nest Night

Fall Spirit Week culminated in a neon-themed Nest Night and fans cheering on Men’s Varsity Soccer and Women’s JV and Varsity Volleyball!

East Africa Round Square Trip

Seven students and two adults traveled to East Africa visitng schools and a women’s shelter in Tanzania. They also enjoyed a safari near the Ngorongoro Crater and atended a Round Square Internatonal Conference in Nairobi, Kenya at the Brookhouse School.

New Olive Press Middle School students were the frst to try out our new olive press during the 13th Annual Olive Harvest.

Women's XC Wins BCL East and Goes to State Meet

The Women's Cross Country team had an outstanding season. They took the overall team win at the BCL East Championships, fnished 4th at NCS, and went on to earn a 7th place team fnish in Division 5 at the State Championships.

OCTOBER NOVEMBER

Breast Cancer Awareness

Middle School students and adult community members wore pink in recogniton of Breast Cancer Awareness Month and those in our community that have been personally impacted.

Middle School Music

Every student in the Middle School takes an art class each year, visual or performing. Many students try new instruments while others hone their existng skills!

Fall Drama Producton

The talented and dedicated theater students presented Clue as their fall drama performance.

Memorable

MOMENTS

Winter Concert

Two concert nights highlighted the hard work and talent of our Middle and Upper School musicians, singers, and dancers.

DECEMBER

Residental Life

Residental students enjoyed many of campus “FABs” (Fun Actvites for Boarders) this year, but the on campus Laser tag was a favorite.

Equity & Inclusion Day

Our Upper School E&I Day focused on understanding and combatng bias and included two guest speakers/educators with Jewish and Muslim/Arab identtes who spoke about Islamophobia and antsemitsm historically and in the context of world events.

JANUARY

Alumni Day

As part of our annual Alumni Day, alumni returned to campus to speak to our Upper School students about their lives post-Athenian. They also stayed to play in an alumni-faculty soccer game!

ISEEN Winter Insttute

160 educators joined us on campus as we hosted the 19th annual ISEEN (Independent Schools Experiental Educaton Network): Winter Insttute. It was four days of incredible sharing, learning, exploring the Bay Area, and our campus.

Black Joy Parade

The Black Student Union and other members of the Athenian community marched in Oakland’s 7th annual Black Joy Parade.

hOWLers

The hOWLers performed beautfully at February’s Internatonal Championship of High School A Cappella West Quarterfnals! Two of our singers also won a special award for Outstanding Arrangement for their original song Chasing Sunsets.

March Term

Upper School March Term embodies the core elements of Athenian’s commitment to experiental educaton and engaged learning. In 2024 there were 16 on campus courses, and four travel courses. The Hip Hop students featured here learned about Hip Hop culture in the Bay Area, race and social class in the US, and completed visual and performing arts projects.

FEBRUARY MARCH

Men’s Varsity Basketball State Champions

The Men's Varsity Basketball team had an incredibly successful season culminatng in a State Championship Division 5 win! The championship was played on March 8 in the Golden 1 Center, home of the Sacramento Kings.

Class Trips

While the Upper School is in March Term, Middle School students enjoy of campus adventure tme as well. The 8th graders traveled to Washington D.C. and Getysburg, the 7th grade (pictured) camped on Catalina, and the 6th graders spent tme in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

MemorableMOMENTS

Track and Field

Our women’s Track & Field team won the BCL East Championship with some outstanding individual performances as well.

APRIL

Bounty Garden

As part of the 9th grade Community Service Program, 9th grade students worked in the Bounty Garden in Hap Magee Park in Danville. The garden grows fresh produce that is donated to food banks in Contra Costa County. The Bounty Garden was founded by Amelia Abramson ’12 and her mother, and Athenian students have been helping in the garden for years.

A Focus Day favorite 8th graders demonstrate Newton's laws of of moton in the Newtonian Olympics.

SPRING into the Arts

We celebrated the hard work and creatvity of our students with an on campus art exhibiton, flm festval, and performances.

Graduaton

The Class of 2024 celebrated their graduaton on June 7, 2024 and ofcially transitoned to alumni!

MAY

Design Faire

The Athenian Design Faire was full of incredible inventons and creatons from Engineering, Robotcs, and Applied Science including a model roller coaster, an automatc card shufer, single player Rock, Paper, Scissors, and a Rubix Cube solving robot.

8th Grade Promoton

JUNE

The Class of 2028 celebrated their promoton to high school on the morning of June 7, 2024.

Graduation

Leaving the Nest

The Class of 2024

Wishing our graduates all the best as they leave the nest.

Class of 2024 College Matriculation

Amherst College

Boston University ***

BYU

Case Western Reserve University

Chabot College

Colorado School of Mines

Constructor University

Cornell University

Dartmouth College

Emory University **

Emory UniversityOxford College

George Washington University

Harvey Mudd College

Lafayete College

Las Positas College

Lawrence University

Lehigh University

Lewis & Clark College

Middlebury College

New Jersey Insttute of Technology

New York University

Northeastern University**

Northern Arizona University

Occidental College**

Ohio State University

Main Campus

Purdue University

Main Campus ****

Quinnipiac University

Reed College

Rensselaer Polytechnic Insttute

Rice University

San Diego State University

Santa Clara University ****

Southern Methodist

University

Stanford University

The New School

The University of Texas At Austn

Tulane University of Louisiana**

University of Arizona

University of California

Berkeley ***

University of California Davis ******

University of California Irvine *****

University of California Los Angeles ***

University of California

Santa Barbara

University of California

Santa Cruz *

University of Chicago **

University of Colorado

Boulder

University of Connectcut

University of Edinburgh

University of Hawaii At Manoa

University of Illinois

Urbana-Champaign **

University of Miami **

University of Pennsylvania **

University of Redlands

University of Rochester

University of the Pacifc

University of Washington

Washington University In St Louis *****

Worcester Polytechnic Insttute **

Yale University

*Asterisks note how many students if more than one will atend

Bidding Farewell to Head of School

Eric F. Niles

We ended the year with several farewell events in honor of Eric Niles and his 15 years of impactul school leadership. We were able to publicly recognize and refect on Eric’s legacy as Head of School, including his unwavering commitment to bringing our students back to in-person learning during COVID, and his eforts to improve our campus facilites during the Make it Meaningful Campaign. Wishing Eric all the best in his next endeavor!

capton needed Eric teaching Consttutonal Law in 2024. Eric enjoying tme with students and families at a home game in 2018.

Class Notes

1973

Lisa Feintech ’73 is a volunteer physician at Homeboy Industries, where she removes tatoos from incarcerated and recently released gang members. Outside of the clinic, she can be found cooking, baking, taking language classes, or in her cabin in Humboldt.

1974

Maggie Burnete Stogner aka Margaret Barnett ’74 is the Executve Director of the Center for Environmental Filmmaking and a professor of Film and Fine arts at American University in Washington, D.C.. Previously, she was on staf for nearly a decade at Natonal Geographic where she produced, directed and wrote a number of documentaries. She founded her producton company Blue Bear Films afer leaving Natonal Geographic, and has produced media

Gray Owls

A group of alumni from ’68, ’69, and ’70—who dubbed themselves the "Grey Owls"— reconnected at the Class of ’69 50th Reunion in 2019. Since then, they’ve kept in touch via email and, when the pandemic struck, contnued their meetngs via Zoom. The group of more than 70 alumni has a steady 12 to 20 people joining the Zoom each month. During their wide ranging conversatons, the Grey Owls discovered that, among other things, their tme at Athenian had imbued them with a strong afnity for nature and the environment. Afer many months of sharing stories and history, insights and values, the group’s atenton turned towards giving back. Recently, Susan "Heather" Swif ’69 reached out

for world touring museum exhibits such as “Tutankhamen,” “Real Pirates,” Roads of Arabia,” “Afghan Gold,” and “Indiana Jones and the Adventure of Archaeology.” Her recent independent flms are focused on environmental issues, such as "Unbreathable - The Fight for Healthy Air" (2020) and “Upstream Downriver" (2022). As a professor, she carries on her love for experiental learning in her teaching through high-impact creatve producton labs that embrace diversity and inclusion.

Find Don Dennis ’74 on the Isle of Gigha in the Inner Hebrides on Scotland’s west coast where he’s lived the last 20 years making orchid essences, and afer marrying a local dairy farmer he learned to make award-winning ice cream! You can purchase his Wee Isle dairy products

to let us know what they had been up to and to coordinate a collectve gif to the school’s environmental pillar endeavors. The Grey Owls have helped to ofset the cost of bringing goats to campus to

throughout Scotland, or stop by his cafe for a scoop of ice cream. His ice cream won 7 Bronze awards at the Royal Highland Show. If you are in Scotland, be sure to try his ice cream and share your Athenian connecton!

1976

"Radioactve: The Women of Three Mile Island", writen, produced and directed by Dr. Heidi Hutner ’76, with Associate Producer Suzanne Kay ’81 is now available to stream on Apple TV and Prime Video. The documentary featuring never-before-told stories of the worst commercial nuclear accident in US history has been circulatng in screenings across the country. The flm premiered in Los Angeles at the Leammle Theatres, and has since won four awards: best director, best documentary, audience award for best documentary, and best investgatve documentary. The flm features Jane Fonda. Heidi is now at work on a new

(literally) eat away at the grasses and weeds as an environmentally friendly fre preventon strategy. See Magazine back cover for a glimpse of the goats! Thank you, Grey Owls!

A meetng of the Grey Owls, featuring (From top lef:) Chris Henny ’69, Al Haas ’69, Joyce Bernheim ’70, Simki Matern Kuznick ’69, (Middle row): Lisa Yeter ’70, Susan (Heather) Swif ’69, Dan Valens ’69, Mark Cullen ’70, (Botom row): Jim Haber ’70, Leslie Peterson ’70, Larry Janss ’69, Nancy Watkins ’69]

Margaret Barnet

Don Dennis

flm: "Decolonizing The Grand Canyon", while teaching Environmental Humanites at Stony Brook University, New York.

Merie Weismiller Wallace ’76 recently published her frst book ttled Building Your Best Life, which includes an inspiring foreword by coach, author and entrepreneur Jack Canfeld. In it, Merie ofers words of advice to young adults, largely inspired by the realizaton that the stress and uncertainty of her own unknown path and abilites at Athenian and her early college days was universal, problematc, and ofen unnecessary. She has much to share on what led to the fulflling and successful life she leads today, and ofers ideas and techniques for young adults fguring out life for themselves. Merie says the book is for everyone who wants to create a meaningful life for themselves, and the companion workbook is for the custom exploraton of each unique individual towards that goal.

1990

If you read Daniel Ziblatt’s previous New York Times bestseller, How Democracies Die, you’ll want to read the follow up book from Daniel ’90 and his co-author and fellow Harvard Professor, Steve Levitsky, enttled Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point. Using real world events, they analyze the role of democracy and governments today, and ofer both warning and call to acton to those who wish for a more vibrant democracy in our future.

1997

We’ve caught up with Rebecca Walker ’97 during alumni events on campus this year. She’s been hard at work running Cambiat Wellness for the past 12 years, and was recently voted Lafayete’s businessperson of the year. Her newest venture is Heuristc Healing Nutriton, a line of products featuring their fagship protein powder called Whatever It Shakes. Outside of business, Rebecca will soon marry her partner of 16 years. She welcomes fellow alums and classmates to pop by her ofce!

1998

We had a delightul campus visit from Tatsuto Nakajima ’98 and his family from Japan. Tatsuto found special moments of nostalgia visitng the baseball feld, seeing his old dorm (now Bradford Library), and watching the Color Competton relays. Outside of family life, he’s working as an architectural designer and consultant, adding California touches to Japanese spaces.

2001

We caught up with Chris Baxter ’01 when he visited campus in December with his wife, Nameeta Kamath Baxter. Last year, he completed his Masters in Extension Studies in Finance at Harvard University with Dean’s List standing. In his LinkedIn announcement upon graduatng from that program, he acknowledged Athenian and A Beter Chance for giving him the foundaton that resulted in his lifelong pursuit of educaton. In his professional life, he made a big move in June of this year to a new role as Head of Wealth Management Investment Solutons in Mumbai, India, where he is leading the setup and expansion of Morgan Stanley’s Wealth Management presence there.

Mat Okazaki ’06, Tess Shotland ’22, Nick Rhind ’84, Ben McGuire ’18, Adit Shah ’21, Greg Osha ’20, Brian Li ’18, Mathew Ambrose ’22, and Sydney Resendez ’84 met up in Boston and found connectons around art, college life, and a modern Athenian special interest: robotcs!

Tatsuto Nakajima

Chris Baxter

2003

Emily Liebowitz ’03 published But Will You Love Me Tomorrow: An Oral History of 60s Girl Groups and included an accompanying playlist to enjoy as you read. The book, which she wrote with co-author Laura Flam, was the culminaton of four years of work. Emily and Laura were featured on NPR, in People magazine, Vulture, Brooklyn Magazine, Lithub and more! It was named one of the best books of 2023 by NPR, Rollingstone, and Variety Magazine. They hope that the book reaches everyone who has been touched by the music of the girl groups, or is ready to learn about their magic.

2006

Sara Nitz Nolan ’06 began her latest role as Director of Policy & Advocacy at Mercy Corps in Washington DC, an org that provides humanitarian aid,

development and peace assistance in more than 40 countries around the world. Mercy Corps supports communites–and the most marginalized within them–to emerge from crises and build towards a more inclusive, resilient future.

In June 2023, Ashley Olson Cargo ’06 married Joseph Cargo in Chicago, where Ashley works for JP Morgan. Sara (Olson) Moussa ’02 was a bridesmaid and Sophie Levis ’07 atended too!

2007

Since January 2020, Daniel Marcus ’07 has been working as an Atorney specializing in general liability at Clapp Moroney. During law school, Daniel served as a Symposium Editor for the Santa Clara Law Review, where he

planned and organized the 2016 Race and the Criminal Justce System Symposium.

2008

Pantea Faed ’08 is back in the Bay Area working for Brunswick Group in San Francisco. She previously worked in the White House and graduated from Harvard Law School in 2020.

2009

In the fall of 2023, Mac Muir ’09 was selected as the Executve Director of the Community Police Review Agency for the City of Oakland, the department responsible for investgatng allegatons of police misconduct. It was great to see him at Reunion this year!

2011

Congratulatons to Aaron Wiener ’11 and partner Adam on their nuptals in May!

Our alumni meetup in DC brought together Jordan Moyes ’17, Mark Schroeder ’93, Mat Chabala ’16, Bobby Stearns ’16, Monica Streifer ’05, Cassandra Ryan ’08, Andrew Glass ’09, Maddy Gold ’10, Michaela Lee ’10, Henry Ball ’20, Esther Akinsanya ’21, Essenia-Satya Robinson ’20, and Michael Salako ’21.

Aaron Wiener

Mac Muir

Ashley Olson Cargo

2012

Congrats to Broncos Senior Director of Executve Operatons Zohere Tabrez ’12! In his second year with the Broncos, Zohere has been named one of Sports Business Journal’s “New Voices Under 30.”

2013

Quin BottomJohnson ’13 is in Phoenix, studying for an MD/MPH at University of Arizona College of Medicine.

We’ve been fortunate to have Steph Jump ’13 back on campus! The founder of Alytca, a start-up increasing girls’ STEM partcipaton through spatal skill training, Steph is a recent graduate of The Royal College of Art and Imperial College London, where she earned a dual MA/MSc in Innovaton Design Engineering. Her research on the importance of spatal reasoning in STEM was supported by both the Royal

Commission for 1851 and the Pokémon Company. Steph joined the Middle School Career Day alumni panel, spoke with students in a Women’s Actvism course, and is connectng with middle/high school students and families to inform her product development. You can learn more about her and her work at www.StephJump.com.

Congratulatons to Joe Zovickian ’13 for being selected to showcase his work in marble, “Mask of Camilla’’ at the 2024 Young Sculptor’s Exhibiton at the Natonal Sculpture Society Gallery in New York City! The show featured 23 fguratve works by 16 contemporary sculptors 30 years or younger. His limestone portrait bust "Iphigenia" won the Seagal/ Lorieo Award for Carving at the 91st Natonal Juried Exhibiton through the Hudson Valley Art Associaton. He was also selected as one of the naton’s ten best emerging sculptors under thirty to compete in the Natonal Sculpture Society’s tmed portrait competton in Indianapolis.

2017

Sophie Bales ’17 began a new role at the Salk Insttute for Biological Studies as the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Analyst.

2019

Jake Horban ’19 is back in the Bay afer graduatng from Northeastern! He is working as a sofware engineer, alongside his brother Vlad, to launch Portal.ai, a tool for small and medium sized businesses to harness the power of AI for their operatonal efciency. They were featured in Axios and other techforward publicatons for their work to raise $5 million in preseed support. Jake (second from the right) with brother Vlad and team.

2015

Hayden Craig ’15 passed the July 2023 California Bar Exam and has been working as a Deputy District Atorney for Contra Costa County.

Cailin Plunkett ’19 is a physics PhD student at MIT, where she studies the formaton of black holes and how their propertes have changed over cosmic tme. She earned a BA in physics and mathematcs from Amherst College in 2023. When not doing physics, she can be found baking, biking, skiing or hiking.

Quin Botom-Johnson

Zohere Tabrez

Sophie Bales

Steph Jump

Cailin Plunket

2020

Songwriter, Audio Engineer, and Entrepreneur Luke Girzadas ’20 graduated from the Clive Davis Insttute of Recorded Music at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Ananya Goel ’20 and her twin sister Samika Goel ’20 graduated in May from Pomona College. Ananya completed majors in Art History and Art and plans to pursue a masters program in Art History. Samika is applying her majors in Economics and Media Studies to work in marketng.

Senta Hackman ’20 graduated from Saint Mary’s College with a BS in General Psychology. She’ll be startng her MA in Forensic and Legal Psychology at Marymount in the fall.

Matthew Ye ’20 and Maxwell Ye ’20 returned to campus for Reunion, having just graduated from Cornell and NYU (respectvely). Next up, Maxwell plans to move to LA and Mathew is moving to Boston to begin his career at Wayfair.

2021

Michael Salako ’21 is piling on the accolades: he made Howard University’s Dean’s List for the College of Arts and Sciences, became a member of the Natonal Society of Leadership and Success, and joined Psi Chi, the Internatonal Honor Society in Psychology.

2022

We’re thankful he made tme to speak to Athenian 8th graders who visited Howard during their DC trip.

Hudson Scott ’21 is studying at Tufs and took this past year to study abroad in Rome.

BU student Jeslyn Baraceros ’22 spent the spring semester studying abroad in Grenoble, France. We got to see her back on campus for her sister Mimi’s graduaton.

Have you checked out the Athenian Blog? Catch up on interviews with Victoria Akinsanya ’18, Will Carey ’19, Julia Borchers ’20, Micah Ross ’20, Esther Akinsanya ’21, Anthony Guan ’21, Ayush Bakhandi ’22, Chad McElroy ’22, and Emily von Zedtwitz ’22 at athenian.org/athenian-blog-and-news.

Ananya and Samika Goel

Mathew Ye and Maxwell Ye

Michael Salako

We caught up with Vikram Gokli ’22 in Austn, who is studying economics and fnance at UT.

Tess Shotland ’22 completed her fourth semester at Boston University, as well as an internship with the Massachusets Department of Conservaton and Recreaton where she created the frst draf of the 2022 Drought Retrospectve Report for the state. She contnues her dedicaton to sustainability on campus through her work with BU Sustainability and BU Spark Lab. Her next adventure is a summer internship at Bluefeld Research, and untl then is flling her tme performing with Liquid Fun, BU’s improv comedy group, who raised almost $1000 for the Greater Boston Food Banks via a 24 hour Comedy Marathon that Tess helped organize.

Singer/Songwriter Sophia Zamani ’22 performed at the 2024 Botle Rock Napa Music

Festval, appearing on the set list the same day as Ed Sheeran and Stephen Marley!

2023

Tavi Greenfeld ’23 set out to solve the problem of navigatng our expansive campus, and did just that with the FlightPath, Athenian Maps app. It’s straightorward and easy to use–just plug in your current locaton, choose where you want to go on campus, and the app will give you a visual route, estmated arrival tme, trip duraton and distance. Download it today for your next campus visit!

Inspired to pick up running with a focus afer jumping into the graduaton morning Summit Run run, Ryan Kang ’23 decided to train for a marathon over the summer of 2023. He completed the Santa Rosa Marathon in 3:06 just before heading to college at Northwestern University. Since then, he’s been working with a start-up and building his

own in the health and wellness space at Northwestern.

2024

The morning afer graduaton, Mark Zhao ’24, Margot Velthoen ’24, Miu Miu Tai ’24, Crystal Luo ’24, Aiden Jun ’24, Callan Huang ’24, Andrew Ekren ’24, Neal Chohan ’24, and Kat Berg ’24 traveled together to China, where boarding students got to share some of their favorite sites with Athenian friends. During their trip, they met up with Harry Qian ’22 and explored Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou, Yunnan, and Guangzhou. Some from the group visited Yulong snow mountain while Callan, Kat, and Aiden contnued on to South Korea. Lifelong friends around the world!

New Alumni Advisory Trustee

Priya Canzius ’16 joins the Board as an Alumni Advisory Trustee afer years as a student leader at Athenian and an engaged alum. Professionally, Priya currently teaches English at YES Prep Northwest, a public charter in Houston, where she began as a Teach for America fellow. In 2022-2023, she taught English in Morocco as a Fulbright Scholar. Priya spends her summers as a program director for the Natonal Student Leadership Conference, where she creates week-long academic and leadership-focused curriculum for middle school students whose interests include health/medicine, engineering, animal science, and government.

Sophia Zamani

Vikram Gokli

Ryan Kang

Refections and Gratitude

Message from Jon Nickens, Board Chair

Dear Athenian Community,

I hope you have enjoyed reading about the year’s highlights and the amazing work our incredible teachers are doing to bring Athenian’s environmental pillar to life in and outside of the classroom. As Board Chair and a current parent, I am fortunate to have a front-row seat to many of the wonderful happenings at our school. I see frsthand how Athenian prepares its students exceptonally well for college and beyond, as I witness my oldest child, an Athenian alum, prepare for his junior year in college.

I can recall my frst Athenian school tour like it was yesterday, sitng in the old Main Hall about a decade ago, inspired by how Eric Niles spoke about the profound impact of an Athenian educaton. In additon to the outstanding academics, Eric eloquently described how Athenian shapes young people to take on the world as mature, productve, thoughtul and kind citzens. His message resonated deeply with us, and in that moment, my wife and I knew that this place was the ideal school for our children. We stll feel this way to this day.

As I write this message in mid-summer, Quincy McLaughlin has just moved across the country and rejoined the Athenian community to serve as the Interim Head of School. She is joining Athenian at a pivotal moment in the school’s history. Our past two Heads of School served a cumulatve of 30 years, providing incredible stability and growth for the school. We had the opportunity to celebrate Eric’s 15 years of service at the end of the school year and wish him all the best in his next adventure. His contributons were many, and we will undoubtedly beneft from his legacy in the years ahead.

As we navigate through transiton, it is important to remember the enduring threads that bind the Athenian community’s past and present. Our founding pillars (Pillars of Round Square or Athenian IDEALS) are the bedrock of who we are. This is why our Annual Fund is built around these unifying school commitments. Last year, our community—parents, alumni, grandparents, faculty, staf, students, and friends- came together in impressive numbers. More than $1 million was raised in the Annual Fund alone, and interest in securing the school’s future through endowment giving contnues to grow. In fact, the Class of 2024 families created a powerful legacy by establishing a new endowed fund in honor of their graduates which will contnue to support our environmental pillar. The pages that follow recognize the outstanding generosity of our community and their unwavering belief in and commitment to Athenian.

This community truly inspires me, and it is an honor to be of service to this remarkable school.

2024-2025 Board of Trustees

Thank you to the Board of Trustees for your leadership and many meaningful contributons to Athenian. We are grateful for the incredible service of Ruth Winchell-Moyes ’89 and Mat Okazaki ’06 who served their fnal board term this past year.

Nancy Anderson

Colete Ankenman ’11

Musadiq Bidar ’10

Alex Bly

Dana Brown

Chaz Giles

Pavan Gill ’92

Ginna Girzadas

Geetka Goel

Guy Henshaw

Hansol Hong ’06

Jefrey Iwasaki

Angel Lewis ’92

Chris McGarry

Jill Miller

Tina Murphy

Jon Nickens

Russell Paton ’07

Philomel Peña

Leny Riebli

Monica Streifer ’05

Jeannine Bell Whitaker ’98

Rob Yau

Catherine Yewell

New in 2024-2025

Alumni Advisory Trustees

Simone Batste ’15

Priya Canzius ’16

Honorary Trustees

Kathy Torru

Lifetme Honorary Trustees

Judy Carter

Steve Davenport

Susan Nebesar

Ex-Ofcio

Quincy McLaughlin

Financial Summary 2023-2024

The primary sources of revenue that ofset the school’s annual operatng expenses are tuiton, the Annual Fund, and the annual harvest of our Endowment. Philanthropy to the school provides critcal non-tuiton revenue that helps balance our budget and delivers on our mission.

REVENUE (Sources of Operating Cash)

EXPENSES (Uses of Operating Cash)

*Note: Not all funds raised this year are accounted for in the operatng revenue above.

Unaudited numbers as of June 30, 2024

*Percentages are rounded up to the closest whole number

*The school maintains cash reserves to help balance the budget when needed.

Middle School students enjoy their break tme on the sports feld.

Alumni Reunion

It was wonderful to see so many alumni from all years come to campus for Reunion in June, and catch up virtually with those who joined the next day online. Your stories are a welcome bridge between the past and present. Thanks for making the trip, taking the tme and for sending warm wishes from a distance.

Return to campus and reconnectng with classmates, friends, and teachers. Reunion is open to everyone, every year. See you next year!