BB&N Bulletin Spring 2016

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A New Era Begins for the Middle School

Inside this issue:

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Talene Monahon ’09 Earns Her Place in the Spotlight

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Dads Who Rock: Keith Gilbert ’80, Josh Klein ’80, and Ethan Rossiter ’93

64 Former Faculty News

Letter From the Head 2 Head of School Rebecca T. Upham on the

Events Calendar 2016

Ap ri l Thursday, April 7 BB&N in New York City The Redeye Grill 890 7th Avenue, New York, NY 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.

Saturday, May 7 BB&N Circus Lower School Campus

Spring 2016

Please send updates to: alumni_programs@bbns.org or Alumni/ae Programs Buckingham Browne & Nichols School 80 Gerry’s Landing Road Cambridge, MA 02138

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See www.bbns.org/strawberry for more details.

NOTE TO PARENTS OF ALUMNI/AE: If this Bulletin was sent to your daughter or son and they have updated contact information, please send us their new address and email. Thank you!

Alumni/ae Programs Named, Grade Five Novel Project, Upper School Musical, One School One World, MLK Luncheon, Spotlight on the Arts, and more

Features 12 A New Era Begins at the

Friday, May 20 – Sunday, May 22 Strawberry Night/Reunion Weekend BB&N Upper School Gerry’s Landing Road, Cambridge

Middle School BB&N completes transformative Middle School renovation

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Talene Monahon ’09

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Dads Who Rock Moonlight musicians Keith Gilbert ’80, Josh Klein ’80, and Ethan Rossiter ’93

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Associate Director of Communications Andrew Fletcher, Senior Editor

Officers Bracebridge Young, Jr., Chair Charles A. Brizius, Vice Chair Shelly Nemirovsky, Vice Chair/Secretary D. Randolph Peeler, Vice Chair/Treasurer

Contributing Writers Tanzila Ahad ’10 Morgan Baker ’76 Betsy Canaday Joe Clifford Andrew Fletcher Kelly Greene Sharon Krauss Janet Rosen Rebecca T. Upham Kim Ablon Whitney ’91 Contributing Editors Cecily Craighill Sherwood C. Haskins Jr. Janet Rosen Tracy Rosette

Actress earns her place in the spotlight

Former Faculty Profile: Dick Gill

Advancing Our Mission 34 Renovated Middle School opens with a flourish;

Board of Trustees, 2015-2016

Communications and Website Coordinator Hadley Kyle, Editor

Community News 4 Winter Sports Snapshots, New Director of

May

For a complete listing of School events including athletic games, performances, and exhibitions on campus, please visit the events calendar at: www.bbns.org/calendar

transformed Middle School, Lower School Thinker Lab, and the future of financial aid at BB&N

Director of Communications Joe Clifford, Editor

Save the date for the Alumni/ae 1974 Leadership Society Reunion Weekend Reception; Strawberry Night reunites alumna with mentor

Alumni/ae News & Notes 36 Alumni/ae News and Notes 47 BB&N in Los Angeles 53 BB&N in San Francisco 64 Former Faculty News 66 Milestones

Alumni/ae News & Notes Tracy Rosette Katie Small Caity Sprague Design & Production Nanci Booth www.nancibooth.com 781-301-1733 Photography/Artwork/Design Cindy Chew Raj Das Andrew Fletcher Brian Galford Debra Gerson Eric Nordberg ’88 Shawn Read Andrew Snow Caity Sprague Joshua Touster Grace Vincent ’20

Members Leslie Ahlstrand ’08 Jeff Barber James T. Berylson ’00 Agnes Bundy Scanlan Joseph Chung Gregory Clark Thomas Dingman Diala Ezzeddine Katie Gayman Mary Beth Gordon Janice Gould Jason P. Hafler ’00 Bob Higgins Jim Honan Karen J. Kalina ’81 Kenneth W. Lang Peter K. Levitt ’84 Erica Gervais Pappendick Agnes Bundy Scanlan Clay V. Stites Janet M. Storella ’74 David J. Thompson ’85 Frederica C. Turner ’91 Charlotte Wagner Fan Wu ’98 David Williams ’78 Head of School Rebecca T. Upham

Front Cover:

The newly renovated Middle School stands glistening and ready to serve generations of students.

(Photograph by Shawn Read)

Correspondence may be sent to: Office of Alumni/ae Programs (alumni_programs@bbns.org or 617-800-2721) or the Office of Communications (communications@bbns.org or 617-800-2403), 80 Gerry’s Landing Road Cambridge, MA 02138-5512

: FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT

:

www.bbns.org

A Letter from Head of School Rebecca T. Upham As I write this letter in early March, we are amid the stretch of the school calendar in which classrooms across all three campuses reach peak, full-throttle horsepower. The beckoning of Spring Break is a motivating force, for sure. At the Upper School, seniors are balancing the excitement of receiving college news, and supporting each other through that nerve-wracking process, with the nose-to-grindstone process of completing their final days in BB&N classrooms with a flourish. It’s also during this time of year that our three Admission Offices enter the final throes of deciding the next 160 or so outstanding girls and boys who will be invited to join our community this fall. It’s an exhilarating though difficult task for our admission team.

For me, it’s a good time to take stock of the year so far. As a matter of fact, I happen to think that this has been one of the most exciting years for the School in recent memory.

A big contributor to that, of course, was the re-opening of the renovated Middle School in late January, truly a milestone event for the entire BB&N community. The students and faculty have been back at 80 Sparks Street for several weeks now, and that has been more than enough time to recognize how dramatically the renovated space is impacting our students’ experiences.

Grades Seven and Eight are such critical years for young adolescents as they become confident learners, engaged collaborators, and compassionate friends. The renovated facility is chockfull of details and facets that honor these bedrock needs of our students.

Walking up the new boardwalk, beneath the canopy of the majestic copper beeches, and then through the captivating, new glass-encased entrance, the transformations unfurl themselves every direction you turn: • the light-splashed communal spaces on all three levels; • enhanced technology infrastructure throughout the campus; • seven brand-new or completely refurbished classrooms; • a bold-stroke reimagining of what a collaborative learning environment looks like with our Learning Commons; • offices to hold one-on-one conferences; • study rooms where you can work in teams and quirky nooks where you can enjoy quiet contemplation.

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With each week that passes, we’ve watched the engaging minds and crackling energy of our Middle School students and faculty start to put their distinctive stamp on the new space. It’s been such a blast to watch.

This winter a smaller-scale—though impactful in its own right— transformation also took place in the Lower School’s Markham House with the opening of the Thinker Lab. In one sense, the lab marks BB&N’s entry into the increasingly popular realm of maker spaces. But even more than that, the Thinker Lab dovetails beautifully with the Lower School’s passionate belief in an inquiry-based learning model, in the sheer fun of discovery, in the joy and rewards that abound when young learners synthesize the acts of imagining, thinking, and doing.

As the Thinker Lab and its equipment and materials were coming into shape over the fall and winter, Lower School teachers worked in teams to explore the lab and investigate ways in which its STEAM-focused methodologies could be integrated into the curriculum at all grade levels.

Since the lab opened its doors to students, we have seen activities that include fourth graders building generators, a Family Science Saturday session which featured the fabrication of Starfinder tools, and at the risk of blowing the cover off a top-secret mission, several 5th and 6th grade students on their own time have been teaming up to convert scads of leftover business cards into a seven-foot-tall, pixel-based behemoth knight named Sir Pixelot.

This early activity and excitement around the Thinker Lab exemplifies one of its most potent characteristics: its very existence provides a powerful catalyst for innovation. This is true not only at the student level, but also in the way it inspires teachers toward new, creative, interdisciplinary approaches to curriculum and pedagogy. Indeed, a fundamental tenet of the lab is the way in which it fosters meaningful learning experiences by encouraging students to generate creative ideas, to implement and realize those concepts, and finally, to improve them through effective feedback and perseverance.

Another remarkable event that took place this year was the Upper School Community Day held on January 12th. A grassroots initiative proposed by student leaders, Community Day carved out an entire school day to discuss issues of identity, gender,

sexual orientation, race, and class. The guiding principle was kids talking to kids around these important topics; they broke out into 30 small groups for the bulk of the day, with faculty members present in each room as listeners and supporters. I think most participants would agree that the day was not one of pre-packaged, pristine perfection. Rather, it was a day animated by a unique spirit of honesty, engagement, curiosity, occasional discomfort, and discovery. In other words, Community Day was quintessential BB&N. One of the most important initiatives that has been taking place at the School over the past year and a half reached a significant milestone in early March when the Financial Aid Summit members presented a report to the Board of Trustees, which summarized their key findings and short-term and long-term recommendations. The summit team, made up of 45 members from throughout the BB&N community, met several times during the past 18 months to share ideas and forge consensus on this crucial matter.

more effectively we fulfill the promise we make to students in our mission statement: that we will prepare them for lives of principled engagement in their communities and the world. When our students on all three campuses come from different walks of life, the impact on the educational experience for every child is enormous. It enriches classroom conversations and co-curricular involvements; it deepens friendship circles; it punctures bubbles and instead genuinely immerses our students in a community that mirrors the world into which they will eventually graduate.

The most common refrain I hear whenever I talk with young alumni/ae is their appreciation for the role that their BB&N journey played in helping them become better citizens, better leaders. They tie this success quite directly to the diversity of perspectives to which they were exposed during their BB&N years.

“I happen to think that this has been one of most exciting years for the school in recent memory.”

A couple of key findings presented in the group’s report shine a bright light not only on the fierce commitment to financial aid that BB&N has demonstrated over the past decade, but also on the frustrating lack of progress this commitment has generated in respect to how many students have been able to benefit from financial aid. In the past ten years, the school’s financial budget has seen impressive increases, doubling from $3.8 million in 2006 to $7.6 million this year. Despite these robust surges, however, the percentage of students receiving financial aid grants over that same time frame has grown only marginally: from 21.6 percent in 2006 to 22.7 percent this year.

Underlying all of this is a core set of beliefs that the summit members, trustees, and I endorse unequivocally. Foremost among these is the belief that all BB&N students will benefit greatly from being part of a school that is unrestrained from accepting the region’s most talented boys and girls, regardless of their family’s means to afford the cost.

“Transformational” is a word that gets bandied about somewhat freely by leaders of schools…and, in fact, I probably have done a bit of bandying already in this letter. But this I can assure you: there is no strategic direction this school could take in the course of the next 10 to 20 years that would be more transformational, more supportive of our teaching mission, more a guarantor of BB&N’s excellence over the coming generations, than to strengthen substantially our commitment to financial aid.

We face some critical questions. How appropriate are our grants, vis-à-vis the true cost of attending? Who’s missing in the mix in BB&N’s student body? What should be our short-term and long-term goals around financial aid, and how do we proceed from here to realize them?

BB&N has a long tradition of resisting pie-in-the-sky proclamations—it’s one of my favorite traits of this community. So, I can say with confidence that none of this will be easy. I can also tell you with equal assurance that all of this will be worth it. I thank the members of the Financial Aid Summit for their fine work in getting us to this point in the process. And I look forward to keeping you informed as we decide on the next steps we will take with this lifeblood-vital initiative.

This does not imply an institutional sense of noblesse oblige.

On the contrary, it acknowledges that the more diverse our community is—culturally, racially, socioeconomically—the 3

Community News 1

Upper School Actors Give Their All in Sweet Charity

BB&N Community Celebrates Diversity at One School One World

BB&N’s theater was filled with music and song this winter as the annual Upper School musical delighted audiences in Neil Simon’s Sweet Charity.

The BB&N community gathered at the Nicholas Athletic Center on November 21st for One School One World (OSOW), the School’s celebration of multiculturalism and diversity.

PICTURED: x 1 x Daniel Strodel ’16 and Phoebe Tsao ’16 x 2 x Sophia Attie ’16, Adria Alexander ’16, Talia Curhan ’16, Sarah Nissenbaum ’16, Samantha Wong ’17, and Sofia Sulikowski ’17 x 3 x Katie Massie ’16 and Zack Horwitz ’16

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Held bi-annually, the fifth OSOW highlighted BB&N’s various initiatives, programs, clubs, and curricula. The event also provided a venue for School families to promote understanding of cultures and countries.

The festival featured countless tables of exhibits, “main stage” student performances, and artwork from all three campuses. In addition, BB&N teachers from all three campuses were out in force to show off the student work and the multifaceted activities taking place in their respective classrooms.

PICTURED: x 1 x Rabia Kassim ’18, Alia Rizvi ’18, and Demetra Vernet ’16 x 2 x Sahaj Swaroop ’29 x 3 x Kaveri Bhargava ’19 and Samiha Datta ’19 x 4 x Smiling faces from the event say it all!

2 2 3 BB&N Commemorates the Legacy of Dr. King with Annual MLK Luncheon The BB&N community came together on January 18th to celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. with the School’s annual MLK Luncheon. Now in its 32nd year, the event allows for reflection on the impact of Dr. King’s legacy through speakers, musical performances, and thoughtful discussion.

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The theme of this year’s gathering, “keeping it in the family,” was captured by guest speakers Janine Cozier P’15, ’17, ’19, ’21 and Freddie Jacobs P’15, P’17, both of whom spoke to the idea of “the American dream and my family, BB&N and beyond.”

Head of School Rebecca T. Upham and Director of Multicultural Services Lewis Bryant also spoke at the event alongside a handful of students performances. Among those students bringing their unique perspectives and talents to the event were Chongyuan (Alex) Hong ’20, Cordiana Cozier ’19, and Annabel Kiley ’19.

Upper School Integration Bee Putting their math skills to the test this spring, 19 Upper School students participated in that most daunting of competitions, the 2016 Integration Bee. Racing each other and the math gods at large, students furiously solved equations in the name of fun, personal glory, and Ben & Jerry’s gift cards.

“The competitors sweated it out and left everything they had on the white boards of room 183,” says math chair Chip Rollinson. “There were many valiant efforts and a few costly sign errors…but ultimately Elisa Tabor ’18 and Aurash Vatan ’19 battled it out for the 2016 BB&N Grand Integrator prize.”

In a neck-and-neck finals, Vatan eked out a narrow victory to earn this year’s crown, followed closely by Tabor and Gabe DeSantis ’16. Congratulations to all of the participants for a lively and exciting competition.

Elisa Tabor ’18 and Aurash Vatan ’19 proudly display their winning gift certificates from the Integration Bee 5

Community News Burgeoning Fifth Grade Novelists Create Charity with Words Feverishly writing on the whiteboard in her fifth grade classroom, BB&N teacher Louisa Connaughton is slightly overwhelmed by the growing list of charities being suggested by her students. The desks are abuzz with chatter about the most deserving causes to support. Connaughton pauses, succinctly claps her hands a few times, and the students echo her claps before silence falls on the sun-dappled room.

“The publishing cost of our books is about $8 each,” Connaughton says.

“Last year students decided to sell each book for $20, so what was the profit margin? Yes, about $12. So we’ll need to decide how much we want to charge and where the money should go.”

This may sound like a math lesson, but in fact Connaughton is speaking to her 20 students about their novel writing project, specifically the published book that will mark the end of a long journey. The class is fervently engaged in choosing a charity to which to donate the proceeds, and lost in the debate to the casual observer is just how much work has gone into the project to get to this point.

Now in her fourth year at BB&N, Connaughton initiated the novel writing idea three years ago, and with the help of fifth grade teacher Gabby Mbeki, she has been refining it ever since. The impetus came from National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), an online collaborative project that encourages adults and kids alike to write at length in a creative vein. The goal stated on the NaNoWriMo website is for participants to start writing on November 1st and complete a 50,000-word novel by November 30th, but using the website as a rough curriculum and deadline guide, Connaughton has modified the experience for her students with a goal of 5,000 words.

“Kids come into fifth grade as competent writers,” says Connaughton. “But their stamina is not there, so this is a great introduction into a long-term project.”

The topic of each story is completely up to the students, an essential point as it allows them space to make the project their own, as opposed to writing on assignment. “One of the best parts was finding out that you could write about whatever you want,” recalls Alisa Ishii ’23. “You could just kind of let your brain go crazy.”

The process begins in October when Connaughton asks each student to start developing a character around which to base a story. “This allows them a chance to think about the narrative structure of good writing; crafting a beginning, middle, and end, and what we call a ‘plot roller coaster.’”

PICTURED: x 1 x Fifth grade student book covers x 2 x Clockwise from left: Alex Sandell, Tait Oberg, Katie Worthington, Madera Lipson, Alisa Ishii, and Caroline White x 3 x Fifth grade teacher Louisa Connaughton looks over a list of potential charities.

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Over the course of two months, the students refine and write their stories, turning in final drafts just before Thanksgiving break. December is spent editing the novels, a crucial part of the project which Connaughton and Mbeki have worked hard to turn into a collaborative, peer-based process.

“Peer-to-peer critique is a really important part of this,” says Connaughton.

“Throughout the entire project students are giving feedback to each other. Each student reads an entire story of somebody else’s. They edit them and work with each other to improve their writing.”

This approach encourages students to look critically and carefully at writing, and in addition to honing their grammar and style skills, it also opens up the assignment to a more collaborative feel. Connaughton recalls one student who arrived at school wide eyed after having edited a story the night before. “Angie’s story is sooo good!” he raved to Connaughton. She still beams at the memory—that sort of excitement and positive energy is a teacher’s nirvana.

If 5,000 words seem a bit much for ten-and eleven-year-olds, the students might agree…at least initially.

“They are a little daunted at first,” Connaughton acknowledges. “But every year I’m surprised by the overwhelming sense of excitement that quickly prevails…even kids who might not be the strongest writers get really involved. You mean I can write about whatever I want?!’ they say.”

One boy who continuously and vociferously professed his distaste for writing shocked Connaughton in his embrace of the idea. “He discovered to even his own surprise, I think, that he really enjoyed the project,” she recalls. “So much so that he was the first to reach 3,000 words.”

The word count is a fun measuring stick, and a useful device for goal setting and motivation, but Connaughton is quick to rein in unruly or overly ambitious stories. “There is still a quality over quantity equation in the end.

We try to keep the process moving slowly and on track so that kids aren’t just writing to reach a word count, but are really thinking about each piece of their stories as they go.”

Of course, writing a novel improves your writing, but the value of the project to her students has been manifold and is evident to Connaughton in a number of ways.

“One benefit of having students write so much about a topic they are genuinely invested in is that any later writing assignments that are more academic in nature seem easy by comparison and much less scary.”

Another benefit is that the students really become part of a writing community. On the NaNoWriMo website, users are able to catalog their progress and get inspiration and feedback from other students. “Famous writers (Dave Eggers, John Green, Neil Gaiman, Jonathan Lethem, Lois Lowry, to name a handful) often blog on the site with inspirational messages,” says Connaughton. “It really makes students feel like they are part of something bigger than just a school assignment.”

In editing the stories, Connaughton and Mbeki have also found a hidden bonus to the project. “It really helps us to diagnose shortcomings and issues that students are having with writing,” Connaughton says. “Then we know what to focus on in our next mini-lesson in the classroom.”

And with the hard work completed, the final step is one of the most fun: choosing the charity that will receive the proceeds of the book sales. As Connaughton takes suggestions from her burgeoning novelists, the list on the whiteboard continues to grow.

Never mind writing a 5,000-word novel in one month. “The hardest part of this might be choosing a charity,” comments one boy. It’s a great problem to have, and a win-win scenario for everyone involved. This year the Make-a-Wish organization prevailed in the class vote as the selected charity.

BB&N Welcomes Cecily Craighill as Director of Alumni/ae Programs For those wondering whom to thank for the unseasonably mild winter, look no further than BB&N’s new director of alumni/ae programs, Cecily Craighill. Having spent the past decades in southern climes, Cecily laughingly takes credit for bringing the early spring with her as she settles in at BB&N. Cecily is a graduate of Davidson College, and received her master’s degree from Saint John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland. Having spent seven years in alumni/ae relations at the Wharton Business School, then managing Wake Forest University’s regional D.C. alumni/ae office, and most recently working as the director of alumni/ae relations at Emory University’s law school, Cecily looks forward to a new chapter with BB&N. “I want to ensure that our alumni/ae have rewarding experiences in their interactions with the School and with each other,” she says.

“There is a great community here at BB&N, and there are unique benefits that come with being part of it…it’s not a scenario you find everywhere.”

In addition to supporting the local alumni/ae community, Cecily hopes to further the School’s already active engagement in other cities such as Los Angeles, Washington D.C., New York City, and San Francisco.

“Our alums have been uniformly so warm and welcoming, and fantastically interesting,” she notes. “I’m really looking forward to getting to know them and hear their stories.”

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Community News 1

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BB&N Winter Sports BB&N athletes hit the courts, mats, and ice again this winter for another exciting season. See below for some of the highlights.

Co-Ed Varsity Fencing (Boys Record: 2-6; Girls Record: 5-3) •

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This squad completed a productive season with an excellent fourth-place finish in the state championship.

Lei Chen ’19 nabbed first place in the men’s foil event at the state championship.

Girls Varsity Basketball (Record: 5-18) •

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After jumping out to a 5-2 start and winning the Williston Northampton Holiday Tournament, this talented squad watched in dismay as four of its five starting players succumbed to season-ending injuries in the span of one week.

Kayla Kaloostian ’18 won MVP honors in the Williston Northampton Holiday Tournament.

Cup Winners: Spencer Kuldell ’18 and Julie Peng ’17

Boys Varsity Basketball (Record: 10-14) •

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All League: James O’Regan ’16 Honorable Mention: Adam Buchanan ’17 and Andrew Taliaferro ’16 Cup Winners: James O’Regan ’16 and Andrew Taliaferro ’16

Boys Varsity Hockey (Record: 5-18-3) •

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This tenacious team fought to a well-earned first-place finish in the annual BB&N holiday tournament.

Other season highlights included a mid-season five-game winning streak, and thrilling last-second win over Groton.

With a young roster, an influx of young players, and a nagging injury bug that plagued them all year, this team continued to improve every day despite the challenges faced.

Highlights included a rousing 7-1 victory in the team’s season opener.

All League: Christopher Butler ’16 Honorable Mention: Michael Bibbey ’16 Cup Winner: Christopher Butler ’16 and Joseph DeSimone ’16

Girls Varsity Hockey (Record: 15-10-2) •

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Recording their third straight season with 14 or more wins, girls varsity hockey battled to a third-place finish in the ISL this year despite the devastating mid-season loss of their mascot, a good luck soccer ball named “Stan.”

Among the many highlights, one standout was scoring three goals in 90 seconds to force overtime against a tough Loomis Chaffee squad.

All League: Kayla Kaloostian ’18 Honorable Mention: Annie Barrett ’16, Olivia O’Regan ’17 Cup Winners: Annie Barrett ’16 and Kayla Kaloostian ’18

Varsity Wrestling (Record: 1-13) •

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Despite a deceiving record, this young squad received most improved accolades in the ISL, placing 18th in the end-of-year tournament—a monumental jump from their 50th-place finish last year.

Brad Basham ’18 won the ISL tournament, placed second in the New Englands, and qualified for Nationals.

All League: Bradley Basham ’18 Honorable Mention: Alexander Frank ’16 and Will Jarrell ’19 Cup Winner: Bradley Basham ’18

Varsity Co-Ed Squash (Boys Record: 5-7; Girls Record: 2-9) •

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At the New Englands, Max Wiegand ’17, Gautam Mitra ’17, and James Allan ’16 all advanced to the C division finals in their respective draws.

Ellie Gozigian ’17 and Natalie Madden ’17 each placed first in their respective draws at the New Englands B division.

All League: Ellie Gozigian ’17 and Natalie Madden ’17 Honorable Mention: Max Wiegand ’17 Cup Winners: James Allan ’16 and Homa Gharagozlou ’16

All League: Nell Fusco ’17, Molly Griffin ’20, and Shannon Griffin ’17 Honorable Mention: Mia Fusco ’19 and Julianna Kennedy ’17 Cup Winner: Lily Santonelli ’16

PICTURED: x 1 x Will Jarrell ’19 overwhelms an opponent. x 2 x Trevor Donovan ’18 gets up for a scoop shot. x 3 x Lei Chen ’19 on the attack x 4 x Kayla Kaloostian ’18 pushes the ball up the court. x 5 x Anna Nicholas ’19 breaks for the ball during a match. x 6 x Kate Piacenza ’17 unleashes a shot. x 7 x Mark Addonizio ’16 prepares for a faceoff.

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Alumni/ae Spotlight on the Arts Film • Video • Theater • Photography • Books • Ceramics • Music • Design • Sculpture • Drawing • Painting • Architecture

Julia Powell ‘97 x 1&2 x At BB&N, Julia Powell ’97 was known as a student-athlete. She excelled in lacrosse and soccer, playing on the varsity teams as a freshman. Then came junior year when she tried out for basketball and, for once, didn’t make varsity. “At the time I was pretty upset but it turned out to be a very lucky thing that happened to me,” she explains. Instead, Powell stepped outside her comfort zone, signing on to participate in the school play.

Now an artist quickly gaining notice for her bold, colorful paintings, Powell believes being in the play let her see a whole other side of herself she might not have otherwise discovered.

Still, for a long time, her identity was focused around classes and sports, as she continued playing through her first year in college.

“My artistic side was always a more private, secret thing,” she says. “I was always doodling and watercoloring.”

After graduating from Yale, Powell moved to the West Coast to attend Stanford Law School. For a time after law school, she worked for a large corporate law firm. In 2010, she moved back to Cambridge and refocused on painting with watercolors in the evenings after she finished her days at a smaller, local law firm.

It was her brother who pushed her to take her painting to the next level. “For Christmas he gave me an easel and oil paints,” she says. “He told me that real, successful painters do large oil paintings and that I should go for it.” With that added encouragement, Powell started painting four hours a day, while still managing her case load at work.

Powell undoubtedly had raw talent, but knew she needed more of a basic education in painting. She hired a teacher from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts who taught her many of the skills she’d missed out on since she had never studied visual arts in school. “I took lessons on things like preparing your canvas, not on things like light, shade, or perspective,” she explains.

Next came an unexpected lucky break when her old friend, Hollywood actress Mindy Kaling ’97, came to speak at Harvard.

(Kaling and Powell had become close while doing the play junior year.) Kaling stopped by Powell’s house and was impressed by her work. “She said she wanted to buy one of my paintings for the set of her show,” Powell recalls. “It was the first piece I sold to a non-family member and it gave me a lot of confidence.”

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It also boosted her visibility. Powell’s painting of a yellow barn hangs in the office of Kaling’s character, Dr. Mindy Lahiri, on The Mindy Project. Later, Kaling bought a second painting for her character’s office. When Kaling tweeted about Powell’s paintings, Powell’s website crashed due to the increased traffic.

Powell started submitting her work to juried art shows, earning some acceptances. Next came commissioned projects. “Every time someone purchases a painting or reacts positively to my art I get a little more affirmation and I push myself to be a little more serious about my craft,” she says. “I started to feel like this wasn’t a hobby anymore and like I might be a real artist.”

She gained representation by a gallery in Boston, Abigail Ogilvy, and Powell has also made prints of some of her paintings. She realizes she’s still new to the world of painting and the business of painting, and is looking forward to slowly “moving up the ladder.” Powell has noticed that male painters seem to dominate the top rungs of that ladder and she would like to see that hierarchy change. Gender equity is something she and Kaling have bonded over as Kaling has faced the same biases in Hollywood.

With all her success, Powell is in no rush to quit her day job, finding it a nice complement to the often insular nature of painting. The fact that painting hasn’t always been her entire life also helps her keep a healthy perspective. “I’m always trying to push myself to get better like I did when I was playing competitive sports, but I’m much less hard on myself if I don’t get into a certain gallery or art show,” she says. www.juliaspowell.com David McCann ‘62 x 3&4 x David McCann ’62’s first published poem came out of a class in graduate school where the assignment was to write about a work of art. He chose the Statue of David and wrote what he described as a “slightly naughty and whimsical” poem called David.

That poem was accepted by Poetry Magazine and awarded a Pushcart Prize. “I thought, wow, this poetry thing is so easy,” he explains of his nearly immediate success. McCann continued to write poetry throughout his career as a professor of Korean Literature, first at Cornell and later at Harvard.

His initial exposure to Korea came after college when he served in the first Peace Corps group to go to the country. There he

Please send submissions to alumni_programs@bbns.org or mail to BB&N Alumni/ae Programs Office

learned the language and also became enchanted with Korean poetry—in particular a form of poetry called sijo.

Sijo, a poem of 43-45 syllables with a twist on the theme in the last line, could be considered haiku’s long-lost cousin. “Nearly everyone remembers learning about and writing haiku in elementary school,” says McCann. “I always thought we should have a sijo day just like we have a haiku day.”

In 2007, McCann wrote his first sijo at Charlie’s Kitchen in Harvard Square. “Charlie’s Kitchen was one of my favorite places and I was there one day and I just grabbed a napkin and wrote out a sijo,” he says. That first sijo led to many more, and in 2010 McCann published a collection of original sijo poems titled Urban Temple. The collection was published in English and also in a dual-language Korean-English edition.

In addition to writing his own poetry, McCann has translated many volumes of Korean poetry including Azaleas: Poems by Kim Sowol (Columbia University Press, 2007), The Columbia Anthology of Modern Korean Poetry (Columbia University Press, 2004), and Unforgettable Things by So Chongju (Si-sa-yong-o-sa Publishers, Seoul, 1986).

“I had always just thought of a language as something one used to speak to other people. Soon I was learning how to get at the structure of a language and analyze that structure.”

x1x

In March, Moon Pie Press will release Same Bird, a four-part collection of McCann’s poems. Included are haiku, sijo, and free verse poetry. McCann describes the poems as mostly “about people and places I’ve known.” x2x

McCann retired in 2014 and meets with a local poetry group called The Every Other Thursday Group to workshop their poems. “The last few years have been about getting back to my own work,” he says.

PICTURED: x 1 x Julia Powell ’97 stands in front of her painting, Winter Thaw. x 2 x Afternoon Barn Shadows, done in pastel on paper x 3 x Davis McCann ’62 x 4 x Same Bird, McCann’s new poetry book

x3x

x4x

McCann traces his love of language back to classes at BB&N, particularly Latin. He fondly remembers taking German in ninth grade with Craig Stonestreet. “The whole process of learning a new language was amazing to me,” he says.

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W E N

A R E

S N I G E E B H T R FO DLE D I M OOL H C S

CAMPUS REOPENS IN JANUARY TO RAVE REVIEWS FOLLOWING MASSIVE RENOVATION The Middle School community held its collective breath for eight months—from June 2015 to late January 2016—as construction workers labored non-stop at 80 Sparks Street. On January 27th there was a loud, joyous exhale as students and teachers moved back in to their home base. And, wow, how that home had transformed!

Two months after moving back in, teachers and students are realizing how much the newly imagined space has enhanced the experience of being a BB&N Middle School student. As Head of School Rebecca T. Upham has written, “Grades Seven and Eight are such critical years for young adolescents as they become confident learners, engaged collaborators, and compassionate friends. The renovated facility is chock-full of details and facets that honor these bedrock needs of our students.”

Join us for a brief tour of the new space and how our students are enjoying it.

Photos by Joshua Touster

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A PERFECT UNION As students file into the entryway during a chilly March morning, on display is the wonderful union between the old-world, stately charm of the brick Musgrave mansion (left) and the gleaming, welcoming modernity of the brand-new “Link” building.

ALL TOGETHER NOW The common areas on all three levels represent the hub of the Middle School campus. The newly renovated facility features appealing environments for kids to be kids.

LEARNING, 21ST-CENTURY STYLE The brand-new Learning Commons is spacious, spanning almost the entire length of the Vaillant Wing’s terrace level. Combining a traditional, book-based library approach with technology-enhanced workspaces for both individuals and groups, the Commons has already become the signature space of the newly renovated Middle School.

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ELBOW ROOM There are times for collaboration, and then there are times when a student needs a place for some quiet contemplation. The Middle School is now able to accommodate both ends of that spectrum.

MECCA OF COLLABORATION One of the hallmarks of the BB&N Middle School education is its emphasis on cultivating collaborative, team-based learning skills. The renovated campus abounds with spaces and furniture which foster that collaborative energy—including small study rooms, common-area benches and high-top tables, math classrooms with rolling chairs, and Learning Commons tables which link together like jigsaw pieces when teamwork is required.

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PERSONALITY POINTS The Middle School campus will never have a huge physical footprint, but it is rich in quirky, welcoming, warm spaces for kids to learn, grow, and laugh.

WHERE THE MAGIC HAPPENS In addition to new offices, study rooms, common spaces, and the Learning Commons, seven new or totally refurbished classrooms were also part of the renovation project.

LET THERE BE LIGHT!

ON THE BOARDWALK

Since the day 80 Sparks Street reopened, one of the most common, and joyful, refrains heard among students and teachers is how much natural light streams into the building throughout the course of the school day.

Students stream down the boardwalk, beneath the canopy of the beloved beech trees, to collect their sports gear from the athletic storage shed before busing over to the Nicholas Athletic Center for afternoon games and practices. The boardwalk was carefully designed and constructed so as to not disrupt the trees’ root structure.

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WORK IN PROGRESS This beautiful construction progress photo, taken on the evening of August 3rd, shows the renovation project at a key stage. The previous "link" building had been demolished a few days prior, leaving a void between the Musgrave mansion (left) and the Vaillant Wing (right). The basement of the Musgrave mansion is beautifully lit as it begins its transformation to usable space for the first time in its history, and the middle floor of the Vaillant Wing shows the gutted areas where four beautifully built classrooms would be installed. Austin Architects, LLC, of Cambridge, Mass., and Consigli Construction, of Milford, Mass., both performed superbly over the course of this incredibly complicated renovation project. (Raj Das Photography)

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Photo by Grace Vincent ’20

MY FAVORITE PLACE ON CAMPUS The planning for the Middle School renovation took years. Throughout the process the research, designs and drawings, the lists of must-haves and want-to-haves remained abstractions in the minds of professionals, the adults who were planning on behalf of the students. On January 27th, however, the day the Middle School students entered their new building, these abstractions became tested by the concrete reality of daily life.

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Photo by Joshua Touster

On move-in day spirits were high.

Students toured and navigated an almost entirely new layout of classrooms and workspaces. There was plenty of “wow factor” in those first days back at 80 Sparks Street. But now students have settled in and claimed this space for themselves. They know their way around. They have their own pathways and retreats. Their artwork covers the walls and is on display in the public spaces. And most important, they have found places on this campus where they feel most at home, whether it’s a classroom or somewhere to relax with friends or in relative quiet.

These six students describe their own favorite places.

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Photo by Joshua Touster

HENRY GODDARD – 8TH GRADE [1]

CLIO QUILTER-VAGTS – 7TH GRADE [4]

I really like hanging out in the upper foyer area. I love the awesome view through the windows out onto the green and how there’s a lot of natural light. I also think it’s really cool that it’s right next to the staircase so you get to see everyone passing by. There are a ton of places to sit, so it never really fills up too much, and it’s a great spot to chat with friends. I usually spend my E-blocks there, and it’s the place in the building where I can get the most work done because it usually stays pretty quiet during that time.

I really like the new space because it is very comfortable, but my favorite space on campus is the 3-D Art room in the Carriage House. I really like the room because it has a very calming aura. There is artwork and pottery on all of the walls and in every corner of the room. It has a very nice feel, almost like a studio that would be used professionally, and for a person interested in art like me, it is exciting to see a place like it.

ALEX BERHANE – 7TH GRADE [2] I love the math room because it has these chairs with wheels on them so that you can roll around the classroom and it’s a much easier way to get from one side of the room to the other. The wheels are also useful if you are a fidgety person who likes to move around a lot while they do work. They have these built-in little desks on the side of the chair that can move around in any position that you like, so you can be more comfortable and relaxed while you’re writing down a problem or jotting down notes. Under the chair there are also little crannies that are used for placing your bags and binders so that you aren’t disorganized with where you place your things. The way I best enjoy the chairs is by rolling around in them during our breaks after classes and just having fun with them and hanging out with my friends.

VERONICA CHOULGA – 7TH GRADE [3] I love the English room. I feel like it is a really open space where I can concentrate very easily. The large windows in the back allow the sunlight to come through so that I don’t feel cramped, and they help bring me back to reality whenever it is necessary. There is something about the room, I don’t know how to describe it, but it manages to wake me up whenever I study or have a class there.

MAIA PANDEY – 8TH GRADE I really like the versatility of the conference room just off the downstairs foyer. My friends and I have claimed it as a regular spot. Sometimes we’ll spend a free period holed up playing everything from Hangman to blindfolded drawing contests on the whiteboard, or we’ll keep it quiet and productive, working through a scene in A Midsummer Night’s Dream or a math worksheet. There is a lot of freedom here, in that there isn’t a teacher telling you to quiet down or a list of rules tacked to the wall. I love the windows into the foyer because they keep the room connected to rest of the school. I don’t feel trapped or boxed in ever because I can see the bustle of life outside, as students and teachers walk by and people gather in clusters on the terrace outside. To me, this room is the hub of the entire Middle School. (See photo on page 16.)

WILL PAPPENDICK – 8TH GRADE My favorite part of the new Middle School is the new Learning Commons located on the admissions floor where the English classrooms once were. Back in the far right corner is a smaller nook-like room that is in a way disconnected from the rest of the open library.

Before school and during E-block, my friends and I go down there to do homework and hang out. This is a place where I can work and talk with friends away from a lot of the distractions outside of the nook. (See photo on page 16.)

Photo by Joshua Touster

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TALENE MONAHON ’09 EARNS HER PLACE IN THE

by Sharon Krauss

Monahon between Nick Offerman and Anita Gillette in the Huntington Theatre’s 2015 world-premiere run of A Confederacy of Dunces

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In the Huntington Theatre’s world-premiere run of A Confederacy of Dunces late last fall, Talene Monahon ’09 played wide-eyed Darlene, a Night of Joy Bar B-girl whose “professional aspiration,” the character fervently declares, “is to become a stripper.”

Unlike the actor who portrayed her, though, Darlene is not a talent in her chosen field. “I would never be cast as a good stripper,” Monahon said, laughing.

the playwright seeing what the other actors and I are doing and writing more based on that. It’s a really exhilarating process.”

Darlene’s debut act as Miss Harlot O’Hara, featuring a see-through hoop skirt replete with tabs for timely lifting, a plantation-sized hat, and her pet cockatoo, goes horribly, hilariously awry, thanks to the antics of larger-than-life Ignatius J. Reilly, played by Nick Offerman of TV’s Parks and Recreation fame. For the production as a whole, Boston was considered an out-of-town tryout for a Broadway run, and for Monahon, it was an opportunity to show her home city what the New York theater scene has already witnessed: against the odds, this 25-year-old is successfully establishing her onstage footing in a famously rocky field.

Monahon was next cast in the chorus of The Wild Party, a revival of a Broadway musical, but early in rehearsals when Kumiko Glenn of TV’s Orange is the New Black dropped out because of scheduling conflicts, she got bumped up to a featured role. Suddenly, she had a dressing room next door to her childhood idol, Sutton Foster, a two-time Tony-award winner. “It was one of those pinch-myself moments,” she said. “I thought, how did I get here?!” As a newcomer to that starry landscape, Monahon is heartened to find that most established actors are very pleasant. “Sutton and Nick [Offerman] are lovely people; they’re so open, generous, kind. No airs—they’re really team players.”

“I’m the first person ever to play this role in Confederacy, which is exciting, and that’s been true for most of the things I’ve done,” Monahon told an audience of BB&N students and faculty on a visit during the show’s run. Going into the Confederacy gig with the experience already of four off-Broadway plays, several regional theater credits, and her highly acclaimed United Solo Festival performances of the one-woman show she created as a Senior Fellow at Dartmouth, Monahon said, “I seem to be regarded as someone who does new work. I like that. Creating work with people who inspire me is really thrilling. I’ve learned so much from them.”

Following her 2013 graduation from Dartmouth and three months of summer stock work, Monahon moved to New York City, signed with an agent two weeks later, and was soon cast in a musical review called The Chocolate Show!.

“I went from playing Masha in The Seagull (with the Peterborough Players),” she said, “to playing a vanilla cupcake— a complete 180! And just as valid! I needed to apply myself just as much to that project. It’s part of being an actor—being able to switch gears and not take myself too seriously.” As icing on the (cup)cake, that show earned Monahon a photo and a complimentary mention in The New York Times, along with her actors’ equity card, but after that, she had a taste of the profession’s vagaries. “I had six months when I really didn’t work, and it was kind of scary,” she said.

But then she tipped the domino that triggered a succession of compelling projects. Booked for what she deemed a “quirky, wonderful” new musical called Here’s Hoover!, Monahon thrived in a fruitful working relationship with the well-regarded director Alex Timbers, who went on to cast her in the premiere of Permission, a five-character play written

by Tony-nominated Robert Askins and starring some wellknown TV actors. That play got a lot of attention and provided Monahon’s first experience with a red carpet and press interviews. Even more thrilling, she found, was the fresh, dew-on-the-grass creation experience of collaborating on a new role. “Rob was writing new scenes for my character, and it was so cool to be with very talented people, to see how they work, to help a character come to life. Part of it is what I’m bringing to the table, part is the director’s vision, part is 26

During her first Confederacy rehearsal in Darlene’s stripper outfit, wearing essentially her underwear, Monahon said she was feeling a bit vulnerable, not to mention cold, when Offerman approached. He asked how she was doing and shared his experience of being naked on stage. “Nick said, ‘Is this the first time you’ve done this? It’s weird at first, and then it goes away.’ I really appreciated his doing that.”

Monahon noted that Offerman “leads the cast in a way that’s very subtle. He’s a constant force of energy and humor, and he’s very kind.” On opening night, in fact, he doled out gift bags containing a t-shirt he designed for the show, food items from the play’s setting of New Orleans, and, from the Offerman Woodshop, a piece of red oak he inscribed personally for each cast member.

While the Confederacy run in Boston ended without a New York booking—though Monahon reports that it still could happen—it earned the distinctions of being the second-highest-grossing and the fastest-selling show in the Huntington’s 33-year history. Monahon returned to New York delighted to have made “a new crew of buddies” and thrilled to be in callbacks for four projects. She landed her first lead role in the City, in George Bernard Shaw’s earliest staged play, the rarely performed Widowers’ Houses, which ran throughout March at the off-Broadway Beckett Theater. “Very grateful to be working again,” Monahon played Blanche Sartorius, whom she described as “clever and pretty and charming— and also a high-functioning sociopath capable of relentless ferocity and rage. She’s great!” The New York Times agreed, spotlighting Blanche as the show’s most interesting character while hailing the “take-no-prisoners ferocity” of Monahon’s performance.

Back in the Upper School Theatre where she frequently performed, Monahon said she knew she wanted to act when she left BB&N. “I grew a lot as an actor here. The variety of roles I played in high school has really stuck with me.”

Barrows Family Master Teacher Chair and drama teacher Mark Lindberg first saw her in a Middle School performance of Guys and Dolls and vowed at that point to expand her repertoire by casting her early on in a “scruffy male role,”

[1]

[3]

[2] he said, “and as a tenth-grader she did it really beautifully in A Servant of Two Masters.” Lindberg knew he also had an extraordinarily gifted singer on his hands. There were times at the end of a trying rehearsal, when, he confessed, “I just had to reward myself. It was ten minutes of five, and I’d have them run a scene where Talene had a song ‘to fine tune it,’ but there was no need to fine tune it. I just didn’t want to walk home in the snow without hearing her sing again.”

Monahon, in turn, calls Lindberg “instrumental” in her decision to pursue an acting career. Even though she always loved acting—“it’s part of how I make sense of things”—she believed as a teenager that it was not a viable career option and thought she’d end up being a lawyer. But then Lindberg entered her in a national Shakespeare competition, and she won. “It was like a sign from the universe,” she said, “—here, you can do it—you can be an actor.” In choosing a notoriously unstable career, Monahon feels fortunate to have her family’s support, but, she said with a laugh, “we’re all still worried about it. I’m really lucky to have worked a fair amount since I graduated, but it’s not for the faint of heart. I realized no one was going to make my career for me. You have to make your own opportunities, find ways to be seen.”

At this point, Monahon has established herself as “part of the community,” she said, and is called to audition for most late-teens to early-20s theater roles that haven’t pre-cast a star. Lindberg is quick to point out that “to be on the we-wantto-call-you list in New York when you’re not yet three years

[1] With drama teacher Mark Lindberg, Monahon talked with BB&N students in December 2015. [2,3] Monahon starred in BB&N productions of A Servant of Two Masters (2007), with Miranda Pool ’07, and All’s Well That Ends Well (2008).

out of college is very unusual,” which Monahon has also heard from her agent. She’s amassed enough credits now that she can afford to be a bit choosier. “I don’t have to go out for something that doesn’t resonate with me in any way,” she said, such as the audition she went to a year ago for Duck Dynasty: The Musical, in Las Vegas. “I was wondering, and I’m sure they were wondering, what are we all doing in the same room?”

At the other end of the spectrum, though, Monahon said, “There are roles that I’d kill, like, small rodents to play”—among them, Eliza Doolittle and Medium Alison in Fun Home. And as much as she loves theater’s immediacy, she is also eager for a TV or film role, including commercial and voiceover work, “something that isn’t so transient, that reaches so many more people,” and that would pay enough to finance a career in theater. “I think it’s all part of the package of being an actor. I want to do everything.”

Speaking with her trademark verve, composure, and grace, Monahon makes it hard to imagine that she won’t do everything. While she dreams of bringing to life characters penned by playwrights as varied as Anton Chekov and Christopher Durang, the ground-breaking pioneer in her has only a hopeful inkling of the roles she would most like to play. “Increasingly,” she said, pausing as if to savor the prospect, “I’m thinking they haven’t been written yet.” v 27

FROM THE MIDDLE OF THE DANCE FLOOR, YOU CAN TELL KEITH GILBERT ’80 IS HAVING FUN SINGING ON STAGE WITH HIS BAND VERSION-5 AT THE LAKESIDE INN IN WAKEFIELD, MASS.,

Dads Rock

by Morgan Baker ’76

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ON A RAINY JANUARY NIGHT. GILBERT IS SINGING TO A LESS THAN PACKED ROOM, BUT HE DOESN’T CARE, HE’S HAVING A BLAST. HIS DEEP VOICE CARRIES ACROSS THE ROOM. Patrons watch football on the half-dozen TVs in the bar, and play pool in the corner, but two die-hards are out on the dance floor keeping the energy level of the band going. As the night progresses, more people join the couple on the floor and the evening gets underway.

When he’s not working at one of the hotels he owns in Waltham, Gilbert, 53, is the lead singer with Version-5.

“When you’re singing, you’re out there front and center,” he says. “It’s exhilarating and scary.”

“You get to be in a different role in life than your average day,” says Gilbert. “You get all this affirmation. People dance.”

While you might be hard pressed to call it a trend, Gilbert is not the only BB&N dad who is part of a band. Josh Klein, Class of ’80 as well, and Ethan Rossiter ’93 are also members of this elite group of dads, who have day jobs but on the weekends and at nights rock out with their buddies.

Gilbert and Klein, who once paired up as the Blues Brothers in high school, both sing in cover bands.

Version-5 covers mostly ’50s and ’60s music, along with songs from artists such as the O’Jays and the Eagles, and Klein’s band, The Hip Replacements covers mostly ’80s and into the present, as well as songs from legends including Johnny Cash and Smokey Robinson. Rossiter, 41, who writes songs and music, is lead singer, guitar player, and kick drummer for the Jamberries, a trio that performs music for the younger set—2-to-6 year-olds, who are not shy on the dance floor as they run around in a large gym in Charlestown. His songs include “Cake in a Cup,” “Kyle’s Raincoat,” and “Candy Shop.”

right thing, everybody is playing the right tempo, the right notes, and suddenly you’re playing something you’ve listened to on the radio and it’s really come together, that’s really exciting.”

Rossiter agrees. “It’s great to see families having fun with you, excited to be there, singing along,” he says. He can tell they’ve listened to his recently released CD, A Story Is Told. “And, that it’s had a positive impact on them,” he says.

“When we hit harmonies, that’s really gratifying.

That’s something Keith’s band does really well,” says Klein, who counts Gilbert as one of his core group of friends from BB&N, with whom he stays in touch through weekly emails and yearly Thanksgiving football games.

All the dads credit BB&N with giving them the opportunity to sing and perform and for instilling a love of music in them. Besides his experience singing with Klein as a Blues Brother, Gilbert was in Kiss Me, Kate and Fiddler on the Roof at BB&N and went on to sing with the a cappella group, the SOBs, at Yale. He currently works with a voice coach to help hone his deep, throaty voice. Klein sang with a hillbilly group at BB&N with Ken ’79 and Keith Moskow ’79, and at Middlebury he played sports and did the musicals.

Rossiter, whose biggest fans are his sons, 8 and 5, says the concept behind his music is that it’s family friendly. “Parents like it too,” he says. “They’re more musically into it.”

Rossiter sang with Joe Horning and the Knightingales at BB&N and taught himself the guitar as a senior.

When he arrived at Connecticut College he was tapped to play soccer as a freshman and then cut as a sophomore. This encouraged him to focus more on his music. After college he went to New York where he played in several bands and wrote music. In 2007, back in Boston, and teaching at BB&N’s Middle School, his first son was born and Rossiter was inspired to write new music. In 2008, the Jamberries were born. Since then, the band’s cut three CDs, all of which are available through him or on iTunes.

Regardless of whether they’re playing for the older or younger set, these dads agree, it’s just fun. Klein says, “There’s a real rush about being able to sing with a band. That’s really cool. Everyone thinks they sound pretty good when they’re singing by themselves.

But when it comes together, when the band hits the

When Klein isn’t singing with his band or playing football, he works as a consultant for EMC, which takes him on the road, where he often visits his two older children, both BB&N lifers, now at college on the other side of the country. His two younger children are still at BB&N. 29

“YOU GET UP THERE AND YOU SORT OF FAKE IT ’TIL YOU MAKE IT. YOU HAVE TO HAVE A LITTLE BIT OF FEAR. YOU’RE PERFORMING.” Both Gilbert and Klein play fewer gigs now than they have in the past due to unforseen circumstances. Version-5 lost their bass player which put them on hiatus for a year, but are now back to booking gigs. The six members of The Hip Replacements, however, are religious about their practice sessions once a week on the second floor of the garage of the guitar player’s home in Carlisle, where they all are from. There, they make loud music, laugh, give each other a hard time, and drink a little scotch. In the past the band played as many as ten gigs a year; now they play about five.

Gigs, however, as hard as they are to come by, are not high-paying enterprises. Version-5 splits their take after each show, while The Hip Replacements pool theirs to help sponsor a barn party they play at every fall in Carlisle for 400 of their closest friends.

Klein appreciates the number of people who think it’s incredibly cool that he’s in a band and the number of people who, he says, “are surprised we don’t really suck.”

“I count myself incredibly lucky. Whether we play out a lot or not, just being able to make music with other people is really, really fun. And the icing on the cake is when you play out and you see people look at you…and you fill up a dance floor and everybody’s smiling and everybody’s laughing and singing along. That’s one of the things we actually do really well. And, it’s fun,” says Klein.

“Developing new songs is one of the most fun things,” says Rossiter, who gets inspiration for his songs from random places. “Some go nowhere,” he says. Other ideas, however, turn into songs about pancakes on a Saturday, riding your horse to school, and stoplights, all of which can be found on his CD. His songs, he says, have strong visuals with a clear story in them.

Gilbert, whose two daughters went to BB&N through 9th grade, one of whom had Rossiter for an English teacher, says, “That’s how you get validation. You get people dancing and that’s really fun.”

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“It doesn’t hurt to be a little more outgoing than shy,” says Gilbert. “That being said, I’m not the back-slapping, life of the party kind of guy…. You get up there and you sort of fake it ’til you make it.

You have to have a little bit of fear. You’re performing.”

Rossiter says you have to be engaging with kids, something he works at. Getting the kids to interact with the music can be challenging.

While Gilbert and Klein are performing in bars and inns, Rossiter is mostly in churches, libraries, and theaters. Both Klein and Rossiter were fortunate to play at Johnny D’s in Somerville before it closed.

Gilbert enjoyed coming home to Harvard Square in spring ’15 and playing at John Harvard’s.

TOP: Keith Gilbert ’80 performs with his band, Version-5.

MIDDLE: Josh Klein ’80 belts it out with The Hip Replacements.

BOTTOM: Ethan Rossiter ’93 fronts the Jamberries.

The three dads agree that getting gigs is one of the most challenging aspects of this business. Gilbert says at the high-water mark, Verision-5 got 15 gigs a year by walking into establishments like the Lakeside Inn and asking for a gig. Rossiter says some of his gigs come through word of mouth.

Rossiter isn’t done writing songs. Despite the fact that his most recent CD was released independently in January 2016, he’s still at it, creating new songs all the time.

Klein hopes to play more weddings in the future with The Hip Replacements and he jokes, “at assisted living facilities…. The name will come to be more prophetic.”

Gilbert would also like to play more private parties.

“Everyone is primed to have fun and dance. And, the pay is better.”

Playing in the Jamberries is a perfect fit for Rossiter, he says, because he has summers off. He plays eight to nine gigs in the summer compared to one every six weeks during the school year. “I’m creative all the time,” he says. “I was a creative kid, writing all the time.” He adds he doesn’t have the added pressure of having to make a living from his music.

“I do it because I like doing it. I’m blessed. I’m happy with the balance.”

Gilbert is also content with how his life is balanced.

“Absolutely. It’s a manageable amount of time.

It’s outside the sphere of what I do and it’s fun….

I would like to continue doing this while we still sound good, while we still push ourselves.” b

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F O R M E R FAC U LT Y P R O F I L E :

by Roger F. Stacey, Faculty Emeritus

Dick Gill, former Middle School Latin teacher and Assistant Head, recently took time from his many commitments to talk with the Bulletin. This edited and highly condensed transcript, while unable to convey Gill’s gentle, Winthrop-accented voice and profound humility, conveys something of his distinctive and lasting effect at BB&N and elsewhere.

I went to the Winthrop public schools for the first eight years.

The Catholic elementary school opened up after my cohort would have gone through it, and I don’t know if I would have gone there anyway. I had a great experience in the public schools.

My father did not push BC High on us, but he made it available. It was something I needed. I was not a strongly motivated kid, and the Jesuits had a nice way of patting you on the back and encouraging you—saying, “Nice job,” then kicking you in the pants and saying, “Keep going.”

The Jesuits have a term —magis or “more.” Whatever they want, they want more. They want people to strive for more.

They are quite a crew.

Through an engaging mix of humor, energy, high expectations, story-telling, and passion for his subjects, Mr. Gill brought out the best in his Middle School Latin and Massachusetts Politics students. Decades later, I still analyze words based on Latin roots. I also remember with great fondness my first introduction to state politics and the political system from a man who has loved, studied, and engaged in local politics for his entire career.

– BETH MYERS AZANO ’95

By 1963, I had spent five years in the seminary preparing for the priesthood but eventually decided it wasn’t for me.

I got a call one day from a classmate who happened to see an advertisement for a Latin teacher at Browne & Nichols. There weren’t a whole bunch of teaching jobs— 32

particularly in the mid-’60s—for Latin. That was the age of “relevance,” and Latin was totally irrelevant. At my interview, Bill Elliott and I talked for quite a while, and I made very clear to him my intention to teach in public school.

Eventually, I got a letter from Bill—which I still have— stating my first year’s salary and that he was sure B&N would be a good place for me to gain some experience before moving on to a public school. So, 28 years later—you know, being the slow learner that I am—I figured it was time to move. But not, as it turned out, to public school. I never really did get to public school, except to substitute.

I was very happy teaching at BB&N. And then, at a time in my life, in ’92 when I was 51 and it seemed to make some sense, I had an opportunity to go to back to my alma mater, BC High, in a different role: admissions. I found that homecoming just beautiful. I later did advancement work at Newman School in the Back Bay, then a little more admissions work, and I’ve always enjoyed what I was doing.

I’m still substituting at BB&N, and also at BC High, in the middle school. November was pretty busy—probably four or five times in November—usually for people who are going to workshops. It’s nice to see people I used to teach with, to reconnect with them and the current breed of students.

I am tired of people my age saying, “You know, this modern generation...kids today.... ” The trouble with those people is that they never interact with kids.

D ick Gill

Middle School Latin Teacher and Assistant Head

1 [1] Gill, circa 1968 [2] Dick Gill, 2016

Whether at the Middle School or on Bivouac or in a myriad of other places, Dick has always been an active, caring, thoughtful, and integral part of whatever he chooses to do.

Hundreds of students from BB&N and, more recently, BC High have fond memories of Dick’s kind, compassionate, yet firm handle on the process of education.

– HUNT DOWSE, FORMER MIDDLE SCHOOL MATH TEACHER

My older daughter Kristen eventually came to BB&N as a 9th grader, and then Keri came in 7th grade. Kristen’s older child, Kathrine, came here, graduated in 2013, and is a junior at BC. She writes beautifully. I think she was served very well by BB&N. Church is an important part of family life. We go to Mass as a family on Sundays. I help out on the altar when we have funerals at church and perhaps do the readings. And I’m also on the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council, which meets every couple of months to discuss what’s going in the larger church, the efforts being made. Social justice issues are going to be on the next agenda, and we’re asked to go out to various parishes in our area to see what they’re doing geographically with social justice.

I am delighted that Dick has returned to BB&N to help us out.

When he takes over a class, he handles the students with firm kindness. His assumption that all will be fine helps make it so.

He improvises when the lesson plans don’t totally work and handles students who push the envelope with firm good humor. We could all still learn from the way he interacts with the students.

2 I would like to think that I modeled myself on my loving parents. My mother was more fun than a barrel of monkeys—had to be with six men in the house, you know?

We would gather around the piano and sing silly things.

My father was a man of deep faith, as was my mother, and they brought us up in that. My father was also quite active in Winthrop politics, as I have been. That’s how I want to model myself; that’s what I hope I am.

I’ve had a very happy life. I’d like to get across what a special place BB&N was to me and how I think it serves kids and families very well. It’s an integral part, of course, of 02138 in the larger world. In my somewhat advanced years I really appreciate going to Strawberry Night, meeting kids that I had in 8th grade and finding out that, despite being in my class, they’ve turned out pretty darn well. It’s nice to renew that acquaintance and to see that they’ve not only done well, but they’re doing good things.

Dick is the consummate gentleman. Like Jack Etter, he seldom needed to raise his voice. Dick taught an elective called Massachusetts Politics and brought in people actively involved in politics to speak to the kids, and we all loved that! He is one of the mentors who most shaped my own approach to parents and colleagues at BB&N. – BILL ROGERS, MIDDLE SCHOOL HISTORY, PAIDEIA MASTER TEACHER CHAIR

- MARGARET HARDY ’61, MIDDLE SCHOOL WORLD LANGUAGES 33

Advancing Our Mission

You Never Know Who “You’ll” See at Strawberry Night

by Tanzila Ahad ’10 Dr. Joseph McKeigue ’64 was my principal at The Martin Luther King Jr. School in Cambridge, where I attended K-5th grade before I started BB&N in 6th grade.

Dr. McKeigue raved about BB&N! He wrote me a letter of recommendation, and was a huge advocate for me in the application process. I hadn't seen him since elementary school and was so excited to reconnect with him at our Strawberry Night Reunion last year!

1998

2015

1 Renovated Middle School Opens With a Flourish

“I hadn’t seen him since elementary school and was so excited to reconnect...”

Save the Date for the Alumni/ae 1974 Leadership Society Reunion Weekend Reception All alumni/ae members of the 1974 Leadership Society are invited to a reception hosted

by Head of School Rebecca T. Upham at her home on Friday, May 20, 2016. Invitations to the 1974 Leadership Society Reception will be mailed to members in early April.

1974 Leadership Society members are a critical component of maintaining BB&N’s mission to promote scholarship, integrity, and kindness in diverse, curious, and motivated students while preparing them for lives of principled engagement in their communities and the world.

The Society recognizes the leadership support of our most generous and loyal donors who contribute $2,500 or more to BB&N in a fiscal year (July 1 - June 30) for either annual or capital purposes. The Society also recognizes our Young Alumni/ae Leadership donors. Support by 1974 Leadership Society members is deeply appreciated.

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At the official dedication and ribbon-cutting on January 21, Middle School Director Mary Dolbear formally opened the building to a gathering of trustees, school administrators, representatives of the architectural team, and leadership donors, without whose commitment the building would not have been possible.

The 1974 Leadership Society Gift Levels Renaissance Associates: $100,000 and above Cantabrigian Associates: $50,000 - $99,999 Comitas Associates: $25,000 - $49,999 Litterae Associates: $10,000 - $24,999 Honestas Associates: $5,000 - $9,999 Founders: $2,500 - $4,999

Nearly $8.3 million in private philanthropic support was received over the past three years to support this initiative, including funding from Buckingham alumnae to name the Buckingham Terrace in recognition of their former campus (from 1949 – 1974); and from Class of 2020 and 2021 parents through their Sixth Grade Gift Program to name the new Athletic Shed (Class of 2020) and the Learning Commons Study Room (Class of 2021).

Young Alumni/ae Leadership Society 20th Reunion: $1,000 15th Reunion - 19th Year Out: $500 10th Reunion - 14th Year Out: $250 5th Reunion - 9th Year Out: $100 College Years: $50

If you have not yet made your leadership contribution this year, or for more information, please contact Kelly Greene, Director of The BB&N Fund, at 617-800-2723 or kgreene@bbns.org.

Thanks to the extraordinary generosity of many members of the BB&N community including parents, alumni/ae, and trustees, the transformation of the Middle School campus at 80 Sparks Street was completed on schedule and on budget after more than four years of planning, fundraising, relocations, and construction.

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[1] Middle School Director Mary Dolbear cuts the ribbon in the Student Foyer to officially open the renovated Middle School campus. From left: Head of School Rebecca T. Upham, Board Chair Brace Young P'14, '14, '17, Trustee Joe Chung P '09, '11, '14, '15, '18, '19, '22. Rear: Jonathan Austin and Sisia Daglian, Austin Architects [2] Athletic Shed given by Parents of the Class of 2020. [3] Buckingham Terrace, recognizing the legacy of the Buckingham School campus from 1949 – 1974.

[4] Learning Commons Study Room given by Parents of the Class of 2021.

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Kate De Normandie McCarey ’81, P’13, ’15, ’18

Jacqueline Modica ’05, Mike Abrams ’05, and Ross Kukulinski ’05

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6 Things About BB&N:

[1] Shoring up the Musgrave mansion proved to be quite a feat; the entire structure was temporarily supported while more than two feet of dirt, stone, and debris were excavated and two full foundation walls were replaced.

Remembering Craig B. Stonestreet ’49 and Honoring the 25th Anniversary of the Stonestreet Financial Aid and Prize Fund For generations of Browne & Nichols and BB&N alumni/ae, the Stonestreet name brings back memories of a true legend who touched many aspects of life at B&N and BB&N for 35 years.

A distinguished member of the B&N Class of 1949, Craig Stonestreet was a talented student-athlete and recipient of the Nichols Prize.

[2] The storage athletic shed beside the parking lot boasts several unusual architectural features: a unique shape that mirrors the curve of the boardwalk entryway, and copper plating along the roof sides to match the look of the main building.

Notable Nuggets from the Middle School Renovation Project

After graduating from Harvard, completing a tour with the U.S. Navy, and earning a Master’s degree in English literature, he was hired as a B&N faculty member in 1956 by Headmaster Edwin Pratt to teach Latin, history, mechanical drawing, and German. Later he also taught American literature and economics. As he once noted, “Being a good teacher… brings with it a satisfaction and sense of accomplishment found nowhere else. If I had it to do over again, I wouldn’t change a thing.”

[3] During the excavation of the Vaillant Wing basement, workers discovered a trove of old athletic sneakers from the 1950s beneath the mechanical room.

While his first love was clearly teaching, Mr. Stonestreet served the School in multiple capacities over the years including director of the Upper School (1970-1988), assistant headmaster, director of admission, director of studies, director of scheduling, and college counselor. Equally at home in the athletic arena, he also coached multiple teams including soccer, tennis, and football. But basketball (both boys and girls) was where he shone brightest, with his boys teams capturing seven ISL championships in the 1960s and his girls team winning the 1979 New England Prep School title with a record of 18-0. Although leisure time was scarce, he found time to enjoy classical music and run several marathons.

Mr. Stonestreet was an accomplished educator but his greatest contribution to BB&N may have been his ability to work with colleagues and students as individuals. Through his uniquely personal approach, he strengthened the institution by making BB&N a welcoming community for students and teachers of all backgrounds, skills, and talents.

[4] ) In keeping with the desire to protect the historic beech trees that overlook the campus, a professional arborist spent more than 100 hours onsite consulting and coordinating the limit of activity in the trees’ critical root zone.

Craig Stonestreet was a part of BB&N for four decades, so it is no surprise that his family was deeply connected with the School. His wife Wilma taught Upper School history, anthropology, and German from 1972 to 1998; his son John is a member of the Class of 1984; and his granddaughter Christina Uhrig is a member of the Class of 2013.

[5] Old planks from the timber construction in the Musgrave house were salvaged and milled to create the paneling in the hallway leading to the new Learning Commons.

[6] During replacement of Musgrave’s foundation walls, much of the stone was saved and repurposed to build the retaining wall outside of the Carriage House and a new wall east of the beech trees, next to the Buckingham Terrace.

When Mr. Stonestreet passed away prematurely from cancer in 1991, his family, colleagues, alumni/ae, and friends chose to honor his memory and distinguished career by establishing the Craig B. Stonestreet ’49 Prize, which is awarded annually to a member of the junior class to recognize high scholarship, excellence in athletics, and constructive influence within the School. Several years later, the Prize Fund was expanded to create the Stonestreet Financial Aid Fund, which provides financial support each year to a talented Upper School scholar-athlete.

Through his uniquely personal approach, he strengthened the institution by making BB&N a welcoming community for students and teachers of all backgrounds, skills, and talents.

Thanks to the generosity of alumni/ae, family, and friends, the Stonestreet Financial Aid and Prize Fund has grown considerably over the years. To honor the Stonestreet legacy and mark the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Fund, we invite additional contributions to the Fund to enable BB&N to continue supporting talented and deserving students for generations to come. For further information or to make a contribution, please contact Janet Rosen at 617-800-2729 or jrosen@bbns.org.