Spring 2020 Brooks Bulletin

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BROOKS BULLETIN • SPRING 2020

B OA R D OF T RU ST EES President Steven R. Gorham ’85, P’17, P’21 Andover, Mass.

Vice Presidents John R. Barker ’87, P’21, P’23 Wellesley, Mass.

Whitney Romoser Savignano ’87 Manchester, Mass.

Secretary Craig J. Ziady ’85, P’18, P’20, P’22 Winchester, Mass.

Treasurer Valentine Hollingsworth III ’72, P’17 Dover, Mass.

T R U STEES Cristina E. Antelo ’95 Washington, D.C. Peter J. Caldwell Morristown, N.J. W. J. Patrick Curley III ’69 New York, N.Y. Peter V. K. Doyle ’69 Sherborn, Mass.

Cheryl M. Duckworth P’22, P’23 Lynnfield, Mass.

Anthony H. Everets ’93 New York, N.Y. Nancy C. Ferry P’21 West Newton, Mass.

Jonathan F. Gibbons ’92 Needham, Mass.

Shawn Gorman ’84 Falmouth, Maine Paul L. Hallingby ’65 New York, N.Y. Booth D. Kyle ’89 Severna Park, Md. Zachary S. Martin P’15, P’17 Wellesley, Mass.

Brian McCabe P’18 Meredith, N.H. John R. Packard Jr. P’18, P’21 Head of School North Andover, Mass.

Daniel J. Riccio P’17, P’20 Los Gatos, Calif.

Belisario A. Rosas P’15, P’21 Andover, Mass.

Juliane Gardner Spencer ’93 New York, N.Y. Ramakrishna R. Sudireddy P’15 Andover, Mass.

Isabella Speakman Timon ’92 Chadds Ford, Pa. 2

Alessandro F. Uzielli ’85 Beverly Hills, Calif.

Meredith M. Verdone ’81, P’19 Newton Center, Mass.

ALUM NI TR USTEE William E. Collier ’11 Chapel Hill, N.C. TR USTEES EMER ITI William N. Booth ’67, P’05 Chestnut Hill, Mass.

Henry M. Buhl ’48 New York, N.Y. Steve Forbes ’66, P’91 Bedminster, N.J. James G. Hellmuth P’78 Lawrence, N.Y. H. Anthony Ittleson ’56, P’84, P’86 Green Pond, S.C. Michael B. Keating ’58, P’97 Boston, Mass.

Frank A. Kissel ’69, P’96, P’99 Far Hills, N.J. Peter A. Nadosy ’64 New York, N.Y. Peter W. Nash ’51, P’81, P’89 Nantucket, Mass.

Cera B. Robbins P’85, P’90 New York, N.Y. Eleanor R. Seaman P’86, P’88, P’91, GP’18 Hobe Sound, Fla.

Caroline Arriz ’21 tries her hand at ice climbing in January as part of the Winter Term class “The Great Outdoors.”

David R. Williams III ’67 Beverly Farms, Mass.

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20 Head of School John R. Packard Jr. P’18, P’21 Director of Institutional Advancement Gage S. Dobbins P’22, P’23 Associate Director of Alumni and Parent Programs Nicole Mallen Jackson ’95

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Associate Director of Alumni Relations Carly Churchill ’10

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Director of Admission and Financial Aid Bini W. Egertson P’12, P’15

Director of Communications and Marketing Dan Callahan P’19, P’20, P’23 Director of Publications Rebecca A. Binder Design Aldeia www.aldeia.design Alumni Communications Manager Emily Williams Director of Digital Communications Jennifer O’Neill

FEAT UR ES

D E PA RTM E N TS

20 J ourney Around the World

02 M essage from the Head of School

Hayden Lynch ’12 left his desk job to travel the world.

Here, he recounts his trip, reflects on lessons he learned about community, friendship and care, and discusses how those values were reflected in his time at Brooks.

03 News + Notes 45 Brooks Connections 52 Class Notes

Unsolicited manuscripts are welcome. Opinions expressed in the Bulletin are those of the authors and not necessarily of Brooks School.

Correspondence concerning the Bulletin should be sent to Editor Rebecca A. Binder: mail Editor, Brooks Bulletin 1160 Great Pond Road North Andover, MA 01845 email rbinder@brooksschool.org phone (978) 725-6326

© 2020 Brooks School

28 Anvil or Hammer

The school recently unearthed a transcript of the speech then-Senator John F. Kennedy Jr. gave at Brooks during his visit in May 1958. The speech, reproduced here, calls on Americans to have faith in America’s institutions and support them by remaining active in political life.

36 Teaching With Purpose

The Bulletin profiles eight members of the current Brooks faculty to learn more about their dream classes, what they love about their academic fields and what they see in Brooks students that stands out.

ON THE COVER: Ashburn Chapel at Brooks School.

A MESSAGE FROM JOHN R. PACKARD JR. HEAD OF SCHOOL

The First Spring of Its Kind There is a beautiful painting hanging in Frick Dining Hall of the school’s founding headmaster, Frank Ashburn, standing and gazing out the window of what was his study in the headmaster’s house. It is an imposing piece of art, perhaps 8 feet tall and 4 feet wide, and has always been my favorite painting of him. I like that it was created by a student, David Millar ’72, someone who knew and appreciated him. At the time it was done, Mr. Ashburn was well into his fifth decade as headmaster and near the end of his remarkable 46-year tenure. I have always had the distinct impression that standing and gazing out this particular window was something he did thousands of times during those years. He led the school through the Great Depression, World War II, the turbulence of the 1960s and so much more. I have always marveled at his staying power, leadership and stewardship of what is now an evolved version of his school, but still very much his creation.

In this 93rd Brooks School year, our students did not return to campus following spring vacation in the way they had over the previous 92. The COVID-19 tsunami began crashing over all of us while we were apart, and it became clear very quickly that being physically together again at the end of March would be impossible. When Governor Baker implemented an initial stay-at-home advisory for the state of Massachusetts during our time on break, I moved out of my office on the other side of Main Street and into our living room — Mr. Ashburn’s study. I positioned myself to be able to look at what he looked at through those 46 years, hopeful that some of what he found during challenging stretches of time might still be out there.

It is hard for me to imagine Mr. Ashburn could ever have grasped the concept of virtual classes, or Google Meets, or even the Internet and cell phones. The idea that we could continue to meet, work with and care for

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our students with them scattered all over the planet would likely have left him incredulous. Yet, he also surely knew many times what I have known in powerful ways since the onset of so much dramatic and sudden change to what we know and love about our life together on this magnificent 270-acre campus: the community’s collective resolve to continue.

Our faculty scrapped spring vacation plans and somehow managed to become virtual classroom experts in the span of two weeks. Our students moved through being staggered by profoundly unfair circumstances robbing them of cherished experiences they were looking forward to in April and May, and remained connected with one another while teaching the adults how to do the same. Our staff continued to keep the school’s wheels turning in ways that would have otherwise been out of reach. Our parents stepped up at every turn, made their support known and felt, and partnered with the school on a venture we never imagined taking on. Our board of trustees shared wisdom and expertise that helped us clear hurdles in time to think about how we might get over the next one. Our alums weighed in with support and encouragement that came from the heart. It has been overwhelming to bear witness to this resolve and feel the support, a far more powerful tsunami certain to overcome the challenge we are confronting. I have been as proud of our school during this first spring of its kind as I have ever been.

A time will come when I will move back to my office across Main Street and students will return to campus and give this place the life and purpose it has been missing without them. When that time comes, I believe I will bring with me a deeper understanding of what Mr. Ashburn found when standing and gazing at the most magnificent boarding school backyard anywhere in the world: a deeper understanding of this school community’s indomitable spirit.

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NEWS + NOTES

If you’ve been here long enough, you recognize that graduates never really leave Brooks.

We Brooksians reach out in times of joy and pain, offering help and support as needed, and accepting it, too. In the hardest moments, we instinctively come together. That is in our fiber; we learned it here.

IN THIS SECTION 04 News from Campus 08 Campus Scene 16 Athlete Spotlight 18 Athletics News

EN G LI SH FACULTY L EIGH PER KINS ’81, P ’ 14, P ’ 18, IN A N E MA IL TO A L L B RO O K S E MP LOY E E S IN L AT E MA RCH 2020

One of the many insidious things about our current plight is that it robs us of one of the great comforts in times like these: the ability to be close to one another.

So, what we lack in physical proximity, we will counter with empathy and optimism.

DEAN O F FACULTY JOHN MCVEIGH, IN A N EMA IL TO T H E B RO O K S FACU LT Y IN L AT E MA RCH 2020

I know we will do our best to support one another as we continue forward, and I am grateful to be part of a community that has that inclination in its DNA. I thank all of you for the part you will play in helping us find our way through this challenge together.

H EAD O F SCHOOL J OHN PACKA R D, IN A M A RCH 15 E MA IL TO T H E B RO O K S CO MMU NIT Y

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Responding to Coronavirus As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads across the globe, Brooks does its part to stem the tide by closing campus and introducing a temporary distance learning plan for students.

A new reality took hold at Brooks in mid-March while students and faculty were on Spring Break. As the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, continued, Brooks, along with other public and private schools, colleges and universities across the United States, closed its campus.

These closures were an attempt to halt gatherings, maintain social distance protocol, and lessen the spread and impact of the disease as much as possible. At press time, campus was still closed with no defined return date.

Campus was closed, but classes and community continued as the school pivoted to a distance learning plan that began on March 30.

In an email to students and faculty introducing the school’s Distance Learning Plan, Academic Dean Susanna Waters acknowledged that the school’s mission — seeking to provide the most meaningful educational experience students will have in their lives — is best executed when students and faculty are on campus. “We also believe,” she wrote, “that impactful learning can happen remotely when designed and facilitated by our faculty.”

Waters wrote that the Distance Learning Plan and its intention to continue to provide Brooks students with an excellent education is

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“built on the strength of our community and the dedication and resourcefulness of our teachers.”

“Above all,” Waters continued in her email, “student well-being is paramount. Our goal is to stay connected and draw inspiration from each other in uncertain times.” Faculty worked through Spring Break — independently, within departments and in larger faculty meetings — to move their courses online. The school relies on the Google suite of products, which Brooksians are already familiar with, to engage in live video classes and meetings, to work collaboratively in small groups, and to share documents, presentations, thoughts, ideas and time with each other. The school’s OnBrooks platform, which had already been in place as an online base camp for daily assignments, class webpages, teacher communications and other resources, has also proved an invaluable resource.

The New Schedule The Distance Learning Plan calls for students to continue to engage with each of their classes four times a week. One of those class meetings is synchronous: a live class with the teacher that takes place over video chat. Three of those class meetings are asynchronous: the teacher

provides students with a plan for self-directed learning that moves students through the course material and content on their own time.

All told, the plan is designed so that students spend a similar amount of time on their academic pursuits as they would on campus, are able to remain connected with their peers and teachers, and are able to learn in a flexible schedule that accommodates the vast variety of individual circumstances they are in.

In addition to classes, other important aspects of life at Brooks have gone virtual. Many of these points of connection are built into the distance learning schedule.

Teachers have designated office hours, during which teachers and students can connect to answer questions, review material in small groups, or just say hello to and check in with a friendly face from campus. Advisory continues to meet once a week. The daily schedule includes ample time for student clubs, faculty committees and other groups of Brooksians to continue to meet and do their work together.

College counseling sessions, Learning Center appointments and counseling sessions continue.

As has always been the case at Brooks, though, many of these points of connection are voluntary, and arise out of the genuine care, connectedness and familiarity that members of the Brooks community feel for each other. For example, coaches have held online gatherings with teams, and teams have engaged in group workout plans to maintain connection, morale and physical health. Dorm parents have

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STAY UPDATED! Please visit www.brooksschool. org/parents/coronavirus-updates for updated information on the school’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as to read details on the Distance Learning Plan and other aspects of the school’s academic and community continuity.

“ We thought of our core values of creativity and engagement, and wanting people to explore the possibilities offered by virtual learning tools.

We made choices that make sense for our school.”

Academic Dean SUSANNA WATERS

hosted online gatherings with their residents. At press time, Chapel was scheduled for Sunday nights online, and plans were even in the works for Senior Speeches to continue.

Why This Plan?

Waters tells the Bulletin that the Distance Learning Plan accommodates the broad needs of the farflung Brooks community and the diverse situations its individuals are

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currently in. It focuses on maintaining both the strong bonds between members of the Brooks community and the intellectual excitement that have always flourished here. When crafting the plan, Waters says, the school considered differences ranging from time zone (asking a student in Asia, for example, to connect to numerous live classes scheduled in Eastern Daylight Time), to family dynamics and other pulls

on a student’s time, attention and capacities, to whether all students had the necessary access to technology and the Internet at home.

“When creating the plan, the academic team thought of our Algebra I students, our AP Government students and everyone in between,” Waters says. “We thought of our students who might be older siblings caring for their younger siblings at home and of our teachers who are also caring for their own children.

Our schedule honors the uniqueness of each student’s home-based learning environment, whether 13 hours ahead in Seoul or three hours behind in California. We thought about a community that enjoys and celebrates learning, and wanting to keep that passion and enthusiasm alive. We thought of our core values of creativity and engagement, and wanting people to explore the possibilities offered by virtual learning tools. We made choices that make sense for our school. We feel good about the plan, and it’s been a strong start. That said, we fully expect to revise and learn as we go!”

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to dedicate more time to it. That was a big step for me, because I dropped a lot of activities that were prominent in my life to do this.

Juliana Cervizzi ’20 looks forward to her future in the music industry.

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You also auditioned for “American Idol” that summer, correct? Yes. I kind of changed my whole life around to pursue music. I made it to the second round. That December, I was also invited to audition for “The Voice,” which was really cool. Those experiences helped me realize that I enjoy the songwriting part much more than the singing part.

So that’s when I decided to start working with songwriters and photographers and creating a brand, and that’s when I started putting together my EP.

Fast 5 // Q+A Juliana Cervizzi ’20 has loved to perform since, she says, she was “really, really little.” Now, the budding singer-songwriter has released her first EP to critical acclaim. The Bulletin sat down with Cervizzi to learn more about her journey through music and her plans for the future.

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How did your interest in music develop? Well, music has been my thing since I was young. I did the normal stuff growing up, like singing lessons, piano lessons, that type of thing.

I sang in school choirs. Then, the summer going into my fifth-form year, it really picked up because I went to a two-week camp at Berklee College of Music in Boston. That’s when I realized I wanted to pursue this, and that’s when I really started

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Your EP, “Scared of Myself,” came out in October. What’s your songwriting process? When I find songs I like, the lyrics always jump out at me. I key in on the lyrics because I think they’re most important — I think they help other people relate to a song. Writing every song on this EP took hours and hours of editing to make sure I got the perfect words to describe what I was trying to say.

I prefer writing with other people because I enjoy the back-and-forth with them.

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Your EP is about your journey of finding ways to love and accept yourself, and put that out into the world.

What do you hope listeners learn about you? Throughout this whole process of creating a brand and looking a certain way and saying certain things so people will listen, what I’ve learned is that if you’re not telling the truth, nobody will really care. So what I’ve tried to do with my writing is take things that I would want to hear, or that would have helped me to hear. I’ve learned

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PHOTO COURTESY OF JULIANA CERVIZZI ’20

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that my imperfections are not flaws.

If other people can be inspired by my music to do something that they’ve wanted to do but were scared to, I think that would be the greatest.

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What are your plans for the future? Do they involve music? Well, I’m a sixthformer, so I’ve been investing a lot of time and focus on finding the right college and future for me. I’ve decided to attend Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, where I hope to major in music business. I love Nashville! They call it “Music City,” and it seems like the perfect place for a songwriter. I’m not exactly sure where I want to go in terms of my career path, but I know that I want to stay involved in music in some way, shape or form.

H EARD IN CH AP EL

“ I asked her to marry me one night in the autumn of 1993 after she drove up from Boston to New Hampshire, where I taught and coached at a boarding school.

I may or may not have been on dorm duty the night I proposed.”

English department chair DEAN CHARPENTIER, speaking in Chapel on February 6, 2020. He spoke with his wife, Associate Director of Admission Lori Charpentier. The duo talked movingly about the arc of their relationship, from chance meetings to first dates to parenthood. “Those around you are not just extras in the movie of your life,” Dean Charpentier concluded. “They have profound and meaningful lives of their own, and if you open yourself to those relationships, really listen to what others have to say… you never know what might happen.”

MODEL U.N. GETS HONORS The group of students Brooks sent to the annual Model U.N. conference in Boston stole the show over the threeday meetup. The conference, “BosMun,” was hosted by Boston University. It took place at Boston Marriott-Copley and brought together high school students from across the country.

The conference was a success for many reasons, but one stands out: Five of the 20 Brooks students in attendance won awards. Hongru Chen ’22 won Verbal Commendation, representing Lord Robin Arryn in the Game of Thrones crisis committee. Emily Choe ’20 won Best Position Paper, representing Japan in the ECOSOC conference on Alzheimer’s disease. Jayda Hayes ’22 won Verbal Commendation as Minister of Justice in House of Al Sabeh crisis committee. Tanay Kommareddi ’21 won Verbal Commendation as Thomas of Rotterdam in Richard III’s Cabinet crisis committee. And, Omolade Mebude ’21 won Honorable Mention representing Po Verty, the people’s representative in the Game of Thrones crisis committee.

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Wilder Speaking Competition The Wilder Speaking Competition kept Brooksians busy in February. For the second year, the competition began as a speechwriting assignment in each English class and moved into voluntary competition rounds as the month went on. This year’s prompt asked students to talk about an aspect of their life in a humorous and lighthearted way. The broad prompt allowed Brooksians to explore topics ranging from overcoming fears to the value of friendship to the impact reality television series have on a young person’s sense of social etiquette. Six students moved on to the final round and delivered their speeches in front of a packed Ashburn Chapel on March 3, 2020. Following an audience vote and careful deliberation by a panel of student and faculty judges, Zoe Maver ’21 (pictured above) won the competition with an entertaining speech about the sudden, unexpected removal of a couch that she had come to love from the Academic Building.

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PHOTO: AQUARELLA IMAGES

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NCEWS C AE M P US A M PFRO US SMCEN

The Brooks Winter Term class “The Art & Science of Scuba Diving” spent part of Winter Term diving in Cozumel, Mexico.

Here, from left to right, Alex Natalizio ’21, Taylor Charpentier ’20 and Jami O’Shea ’21 explore their surroundings.

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A Celebration of Sport Brooks held a celebration of National Girls & Women in Sport Day on February 22.

“Down the Drain,” by award-winner Amelia Kovacs ’20.

Art Awards Four Brooksians were named regional winners in the 2019–2020 Massachusetts Scholastic Art & Writing Awards contest: Luke Desmaison ’22, Nicole Jin ’22, Sam Kim ’20 and Amelia Kovacs ’20. The prestigious competition is open to artists in seventh grade through twelfth grade. This year, the competition received nearly 340,000 entries from across the country. Kovacs and Jin, who won “Silver Key” honors, were to be recognized at an awards ceremony at Tufts University on March 14, 2020.

“This recognition is a confirmation of our talented students’ work, and the breadth and depth of the visual arts at Brooks,” said Chair of the Arts Department Babs Wheelden.

“We are delighted to have four students with six silver key and five honorable mentions recognized this year, our first year of submitting works to Scholastic Art & Writing Awards as a school. These celebrated works share the voice of our students and a commitment to creativity, exploration and self-expression in a beautiful way.”

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Brooks welcomed four alumnae back to campus on Saturday, February 22, for a breakfast reception in celebration of National Girls & Women in Sport Day. The school also held events at home girls’ games throughout the day. Assistant Director of Athletics Kerry Baldwin spearheaded the school’s inaugural celebration.

The breakfast reception, held in the Bowers Room in the Center for the Arts, was open to all female athletes at the school — students, faculty and staff — as well as those who have coached a girls team. The morning brought an enthusiastic turnout of students, as well as faculty and staff who dressed for the occasion in the uniforms, warmup apparel and practice gear of teams they once played for.

The four alumnae were invited to sit on a panel and reflect on the ways in which sport has shaped their lives. Kate Donovan ’17, who currently plays for the women’s soccer team at Syracuse University, spoke movingly about the ways Brooks prepared her for the next level of competition.

“Brooks prepares you in the best way possible for that unique combination of structure and independence,” she said. “I’ve also been asked to get out of my comfort zone more, and Brooks prepares you for that also.” Donovan was joined by three colleagues: Brooke Robinson ’19, who currently plays women’s soccer at the College of the Holy Cross; Jen Russell ’06, a former player for the United States national women’s lacrosse team; and Millie Brady ’18, a current player for the Babson College field hockey team.

Following the breakfast and the academic day schedule, the girls 1st basketball and girls 1st ice hockey teams held community events at their games. The Brooks teams welcomed local girls teams to watch the games, the hockey team followed a win against Milton Academy with an open skate, and the basketball team followed a win against Thayer Academy with a shootaround. Each team also had a donation box set up to benefit the Boys and Girls Club of Lawrence, which gives more than 4,000 children a year a chance to participate in extensive sports and recreation programs.

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Being Your Authentic Self Brooks celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day in January with a day full of community engagement, student-led workshops and a chance to work toward a greater understanding of each other.

The theme of the day, says Dean of Community Life Ashley Johnston, was “Being Your Authentic Self.” The day was spent exploring this idea in different contexts.

Workshops ranging from exploring Latinx culture through dance to navigating the coming-out process to code-switching were planned and led by the student leaders of the school’s affinity groups. The workshops were well received, and Johnston reports that the day had an impact on the school.

“My hope for this day is that we as a community push ourselves to better understand one another,” Johnston told the school as it gathered that morning. “Today, I want us as a community to question who has the power to create the culture at Brooks, to consider why that power exists, and to consider how each of us may contribute to and benefit from that power.”

She continued: “In the spirit of celebrating Dr. King’s legacy, I hope we will spend some time today grappling with who we are, so that we may create change that will strengthen the Brooks community.”

The day kicked off with a keynote address delivered in Ashburn Chapel. The speaker was Dr. Jamila Lyiscott, a social justice education scholar, nationally renowned speaker, spoken word artist and educational consultant. Lyiscott spoke movingly about the ways in which, in the educational sphere, dialect and language bend toward traditionally European standards. She asked the congregation to consider individual histories and cultural backgrounds in language, and tried to create awareness around which groups historically hold power in language.

Q UOTAB L E

“ At Brooks School, we live and learn on land once of the Pennacook people, and we acknowledge their enduring presence.”

The third-form Winter Term class “How Did Massachusetts Get Its Name?” drafted the above land acknowledgment as part of its study of local Native American history and culture. History faculty Amanda Nasser, who co-taught the course, explains that a land acknowledgment is a statement that recognizes indigenous people’s presence and their connection with the land. “This shows respect and illuminates the all-too-often invisible history of Native people,” she says. “We believe it is very important to acknowledge the indigenous people who called this land home before we did.” Nasser explains that land acknowledgments are a small but necessary step toward honoring the original occupants of a place. “By developing a land acknowledgment, you begin to understand your place within the land’s history,” she says. “You may learn not only the history of the land here at Brooks, but also the present-day challenges many indigenous peoples are facing.”

Go Brooke!

Brooke Cordes ’20 (center, with her parents) nailed her 1,000th career point for the Brooks girls 1st basketball team on February 22, 2020. She joins three other alumnae in this rarefied category: all-time leading scorer Mary Hart ’04; 2005 Athletics Hall of Fame inductee Lamonique T. Collins ’95; and 2009 Athletics Hall of Fame inductee Sarah Broadhead Baird ’99. Cordes is also a team captain and this year’s senior prefect.

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A Bustling Winter Term Winter Term allows students and faculty to explore topics outside the realm of the normal academic curriculum at Brooks. This year, topics ranged from exploring potential career paths, to exploring the history and neighborhoods of Boston, to exploring the great outdoors.

Step-Up: Step, Stomp, & Slide was a studio- and seminar-based experience in which participants learned foundational dance styles of stepping and stomping with an occasional slide. They learned about dance both rhythmically and culturally, and they took off-campus trips to view performances, visit studios and meet with amateur and professional dancers. The course included a trip to New York, during which the group met Roz Mays ’02, a professional dancer. [1] The Complexity of War, co-taught

by Head of School John Packard, studied the Vietnam War and American involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan as a way to think about the incredibly complex challenges facing those who have authorized and waged these wars. The group worked to understand what war is like from the perspective of those who have experienced it firsthand.

The group interviewed veterans, read primary source accounts, reviewed films, and ultimately traveled to Washington, D.C., to visit museums and monuments and to meet with elected officials and other vital decisionmakers.

This year, the group connected with Nalia Medina ’18 while in Washington. Medina is currently an aide to United States Representative Lori Trahan, who

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represents Masachusetts’s third congressional district. Medina took the Winter Term course herself as a sixth-former, where she was inspired by meeting with United States Senator Ed Markey. [Ed. Note: For more on Medina’s own Winter Term experience, please see the feature piece “A Timeless Connection,” which begins on page 36 of the spring 2018 Brooks Bulletin.][2] A Taste of Ancient Greece: A Quest through Language, Culture, & Food explored ancient Greek culture and language, heroes, quests and gods. It surveyed the ancient civilization whose location made it a crossroads of cultures and set the foundation for what we now call Western culture. Students learned the basics of major philosophical developments, explored the “mystery religions” that predate Christianity, found out what makes a hero heroic, came to understand the beginnings of science, and saw how the ideas of comedy and tragedy were born. The group also took trips to Greek restaurants, a Greek Orthodox church and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.[3]

Brooks Is Cooking! taught participants basic cooking skills and also shed light on how food is used in cultures around the world. Students learned how to read cookbooks and analyze cooking shows, and then wrote their own cookbook and created their own cooking show.

The group also took their talents into the community by (pictured) assisting with meal service at Cor Unum Meal Center, a free community meal center in Lawrence, Massachusetts. [4] Mock Trial taught students the basics of the American legal process in preparation for their participation in a mock trial. The course utilized case materials provided by bar organizations and mock trial competitions across the country (including some actual cases), as well as readings from legal codes, handbooks, statutes and case law.

Sudents attended trial proceedings at a local courthouse, met with local attorneys and explored films about the law. The course culminated in a mock trial, in which groups of students acting as a prosecution team and a defense team examined witnesses, argued legal points and tried to convince a jury of the merits of its case. [5]

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[1] [2]

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[3] [5]

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The winter musical brought down the house again this year, as students collaborated to put on a fantastic production of “Beauty and the Beast.”

More than 30 Brooksians came together throughout the winter season to stage a three-day, four-performance run of the Disney classic musical “Beauty and the Beast” in February. The story, inspired by the Walt Disney Pictures 1991 film, follows the developing romance between Belle, a French village girl, and Beast, a prince who is cursed until he finds true love. With all the singing, dancing, detailed sets and grand costuming that fans expect from the story, the cast and crew were met with appreciative audiences and a successful run.

“Our approach to it will be pretty classically Disney in a lot of ways, because audiences and performers don’t tend to enjoy when you mess with it too much,” said Director of Theater Meghan Hill in December when the cast selected “Beauty and the Beast” as this year’s musical. “But, there is a little room for creative expression and places where we can make some choices that feel unique to Brooks.”

One creative decision that lent a unique flavor to the musical was the introduction of a “double cast.” Different actors played different roles for alternating performances.

This gave students the opportunity to imagine the tale in two different ways, and it also ensured that more actors got to experience both major and ensemble roles. The cast also included two young faculty children — Baylie Campbell and Giada Musto — who each ably and joyfully played Chip, a child-turned-enchanted-teacup.

Here’s Where She Meets Prince Charming

A double cast, in which actors alternated roles, gave more students a chance to play more roles. For example, Belle was played on alternating nights by Daniela Reyes ’20 (left photo) and Elizabeth Packard ’21 (right inset photo). Beast (both photos) was played throughout by Omolade Medube ’21.

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AT HL ET E S P OT L I G H T

Cam Riley ’20 Cam Riley ’20 came to Brooks as a third-former intent on trying a lot of different activities. He wasn’t focused on sports — he says he didn’t play sports much as a child and he’s never really been into sports — but he engaged in the school’s afternoon activities requirements and discovered a new love: wrestling.

“I played thirds soccer as a third-former, then I tried squash and then I rowed crew in the spring,” he says. “As a fourthformer, I did soccer and crew again. But, that’s when I also tried wrestling: [Former faculty Pat] Hitschler came in to coach, they were rebuilding the team, and they needed a 106-pound kid for that weight class.”

Riley says that Hitschler “tracked him down” and asked Riley if he wanted to pick up wrestling. “I told him I’d think about it because I really was down to try something new,” he says. “That’s what I’ve done here. I’ve tried sailing and tennis and community service, all kinds of stuff. I was pretty excited to wrestle also.”

Brooks gave Riley the support and environment he needed to branch out and try new things, and he’s quick to recognize that. “The coaches here really encourage you to try new stuff,” he says. “Look at this year’s wrestling team: Nobody’s wrestled before high school. This is the team where they need kids to be willing to try new things, and the

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coaches understand that. The entire community in general here, they all want students to try new things, and I think that’s really important at Brooks.”

Riley showed up to wrestling practice as a fourth-former and immediately found himself in a new world. “I honestly didn’t like it at first,” he says. “I thought it was super hard, and it’s not really like anything else you ever do. It’s not like playing sports with a ball.

You’re just running moves on someone. It’s the closest I’ve ever gotten to being in a fight.”

“But honestly, that was also the reason I stuck with it,” Riley continues. “I realized after my fourthform year that wrestling taught me to be tough. It got me in good shape.

In wrestling, you use all these muscles that you never really thought you’d use. My first year, I was sore in places I didn’t even know I could be sore!”

As he matured and learned more about the sport, Riley took away other lessons from wrestling.

“Through my fifth-form year and this year, wrestling has helped me a lot with life,” he says. “One thing I’ve found is that wrestling teaches you how to take responsibility for yourself,” he continues. “When you lose a basketball game, there are a lot of reasons why your team might have had a bad game. When you lose a wrestling match, it’s just you versus another human being, and on that day, they were tougher. Losing

a wrestling match is the worst feeling in the world. But winning a wrestling match is the best feeling in the world.”

Now, Riley is a sixth-form captain for the wrestling team, and he’s learned a lot about how to lead a team of athletes who are, as he once was, new to the sport. “It’s exciting for me, because for my entire life I wasn’t the most athletic kid, and now suddenly I’m captain of a team,” he begins. “I see it as a good opportunity: What I think I bring to the table as a captain is that I know how to help kids stick with the sport, to help them see that they’re

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PHOTO: JULIANNA FAMA

During his time at Brooks, Cam Riley ’20 found wrestling. Now he’s a captain, a title contender and someone who appreciates the sport’s lessons and sense of fraternity.

N E WS + N OT ES Cam Riley ’20 (in green) takes down a wrestler from St. Mark’s School.

going to learn something in the end that’s going to make them better athletes and, I think, better people.

I can help them be prepared for matches, and I can encourage them to keep working hard.”

He’s seen success in his own career, as he’s moved from the 106pound weight class to his current weight class of 132 pounds. “There’s this one kid from St. Mark’s School that I’ve wrestled four times now,” he says. “We’ve gone 2–2 in some crazy matches. My matches with him have definitely been intense.”

Last year at the Graves-Kelsey tournament, Riley took fourth place

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and qualified for the New England Championships. He ended up winning at 126 after bumping up two weight classes, and he also was awarded the fastest pin award that year. This year, he notched a thirdplace finish at the ISL championships after being seeded fourth, and ended up losing to the top-seeded wrestler at New Englands. An athlete who hadn’t even wrestled until his fourth-form year, Riley notes, ended up competing at the New England Championships and captaining the team.

Riley doesn’t just appreciate wrestling for what it’s taught him

and for the opportunity it gave him to lead. He also loves the sense of community and camaraderie that stretches throughout the sport. “You get a special connection with other people who wrestle,” he says. “Nobody really knows what wrestling is like besides wrestlers.

Even if I’m just walking around in my Brooks wrestling shirt, someone will come up to me. It helps form connections and conversation, and I love that aspect of the sport as well.”

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NEWS + NOTE S

AT HL ET I CS N EWS

The girls 1st basketball team won the New England championship this year. Brooks defended its top tournament seed and came away with the trophy following a 63–47 championship win over St. Luke’s School.

A Winter Storm The Brooks athletics program showed its might this winter: Girls basketball dominated for a New England championship, boys basketball continued its championship-contention run, girls hockey made waves and girls squash took home another national championship.

GIRLS BASKETBALL WINS IT ALL The girls 1st basketball team posted a 19–6 record, won tough games down the stretch and came away with the program’s first NEPSAC championship since 2006. Brooks was the top seed in the tournament and showed why in the final game:

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Brooks jumped out to an early 11–3 lead in the first quarter and never gave up the lead, winning 63–47 on the Nobles and Greenough School court. Brooks took hold of its destiny late in the third quarter when sixth-former Molly Madigan and fifth-former Emma Riley hit three consecutive three-point shots to

help Brooks stretch a seven-point lead to a 14-point lead headed into the fourth quarter.

“We set a goal to build up a program that embodies the mission of Brooks,” says head coach Ushearnda Reynolds. “It’s an outstanding feeling that we’ve been able to take the program to the New England

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championship win. This is something that the sixth-formers and I will cherish for a long time.”

Madigan, along with Sydney Robinson and co-captains Brooke Cordes and Jennifer Connolly, are members of a sixth-form class that remembers the program going 12–28 over the past two years and making its last playoff appearance in 2017, when the team was knocked out in the first round.

“Brooke and Jen, along with other sixth-formers, were tremendously impactful in ‘buying in’ to the philosophy that we would be competitive in practice and play hard,” Reynolds says. “They were great ambassadors to the rest of the team.

And, the additions of Taina Mair ’22 and Samantha Dewey ’22 absolutely changed how we could play.”

Newcomers Dewey and Mair gave Brooks the spark it needed this year: Dewey logged 18.0 points per game and was named the tournament MVP; Mair added 14.7 points per game. Third-former Kendall Eddy, meanwhile, was a nice option for Brooks off the bench.

“We’re excited to have brought a lot of positive attention to the girls basketball program,” Reynolds concludes. “We look forward to its continued growth and success.”

BOYS BASKETBALL IN THE HUNT The boys 1st basketball team made it to the championship game of the New England championship tournament this year before falling to eventual champion Canterbury School 68–57. Top-seeded Brooks didn’t go without a fight, though: Newcomer George Smith ’21, who picked up All-ISL honors, led a stellar second-half comeback to cut an 18-point halftime deficit to just four points before Canterbury pulled away again down the stretch.

Brooks ends its season at 24–3 and

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with another ISL championship and only one conference loss — a 71–84 loss to St. Sebastian’s School — under its belt.

Head coach John McVeigh reflects on the contributions of this year’s sixth-form class, composed of Matt Costantino, Gabe BarretoD’Silva, Olu Oladitan, Myles Foster and Sam Thomson. “There are five members of the class of 2020 on our team, and each provided something unique and critically important to our success,” he says.

Next year looks to be strong for Brooks, which has become a perennial contender for postseason glory. McVeigh points to Smith, fourth-former Darrel Yepdo and fourth-former Saul Iwowo as the backbone for next year. “We’ll return a lot of guards next year but will need to find a way to replace our forwards, all three of whom had terrific sixth-form seasons,” he says.

GIRLS SQUASH UPSETS THE BRACKET The Brooks girls 1st squash team went into the 2020 Division IV HEAD U. S. High School Team Squash Championships as the 15th and last seed, but defied all expectations on the way to the championship.

“It’s surreal,” head coach Kihak Nam ’99 said soon after the stunning upset. “We’re still in shock! It doesn’t seem real because we were seeded #15 out of 15 schools, so there was a slim chance of winning.

We went in thinking, ‘We are going to learn from this experience,’ as this team is young, having graduated six of our top eight players last year.”

The squad was successful, Nam continued, because they “really stepped up their games against players who are rated much higher than they are.”

GIRLS HOCKEY PL AYS STRONG

The girls 1st hockey team racked up a 17–6–1 record en route to the semifinal round of the New England championship tournament. Ultimately, Brooks fell to eventual champion Cushing Academy after getting past The Governor’s Academy in the quarterfinal round.

Brooks started its ethereal run on the Friday of the late February three-day weekend, upsetting the second seed, a team with players from Lower Merion and Harriton High Schools in Pennsylvania, 7–0.

The next day, Brooks stepped up again, beating The Hill School 5–2 to punch its ticket to the semifinals.

The Saturday night showdown against Kent School was a nailbiter.

The teams were 3–3 following wins from the fifth-form triumvirate of Christy Lau, Nina Rossbach and Brigid Woelfel. Finally, newcomer Brooke Semler ’23 also won her match, pushing Brooks to 4–3 and lodging it in the championship.

Sunday brought the final. Brooks battled St. Andrew’s School (Del.) for the national title starting at noon, and the competition lived up to the hype. Rossbach, Semler and Melanie Pestana ’20 staked Brooks to an early 3–1 lead, and Brooks ultimately took the title 5–2.

Nam says that winning the championship was the highlight of the season “because it was so unexpected. We played one match at a time not expecting to win, and we kept pulling it off!”

W MORE ONLINE: Please visit the Brooks athletics website at www. brooksschool.org/athletics for more information on your favorite Brooks team, including schedules, game recaps and upto-date news.

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Journey Around the Hayden Lynch ’12 sits on a cliff over Glymur Foss, a waterfall located in western Iceland.

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A Brooksian reflects on his year-long trip around the world, and on the familiar lessons of community, friendship and care he found in unfamiliar places.

BY

H AYD E N

LYN C H

’12

orld FAL L 2019

P H OT O G R A PH S

CO U RT ESY

O F

H AYD E N

LYN C H

’12

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We hiked through the thick rainforest of the Ko’olau mountain range, on what we believed to be the Ka’au Crater trail, in Oahu, Hawaii. Jimmy, my best friend since elementary school, who has curly brown hair and a large personality that can be heard in his booming laugh and seen in his big grin, was with me. We had been exploring the five main Hawaiian islands on our first stop around the world. From volcanoes to waterfalls to perfect waves that curled behind your surfboard, pushing you toward the white sandy beach, we had done it all. This day was to be no different.

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Below: From left to right: Hayden Lynch ’12, fellow traveler Luke Fowles and Jimmy Angell at the Treasury Room in Petra, Jordan. Right: Hayden Lynch ’12 on the edge of a cliff in Sa Pa, Vietnam, after a 15-kilometer trek.

We trekked for four hours before reaching the summit. Thick cumulus clouds rolled in, blocking out the view of Honolulu. After a brief rest we decided to climb down the back side of the mountain where a skinny trail sloped steep into the brush. We ducked down into the shade before the path opened onto a precipitous ridgeline covered in mud. I began to doubt our decision but carried on. With each step our pace slowed due to the wet conditions and precariously narrow trail; we were forced to scoot down on our behinds, legs straddling the ridge hundreds of feet off the ground.

With each gust of wind our hands gripped the leaves of grass tighter and tighter.

We reached the valley below and found ourselves stuck. The ridge was too narrow, steep and muddy to attempt a climb back up. Our only option was to venture into the unmarked rainforest toward Honolulu, praying we’d find a trail, road or fellow hiker to bring us to safety. For two hours we bushwhacked toward Honolulu. Foliage grabbed at us. Neither of us spoke.

We feared losing our way home.

We reached an impassable point.

A 200-foot waterfall roared over the edge of the rocks we stood on; the sound was as terrifying as the thought of being trapped. “I think I see a way down!” yelled Jimmy, looking over the edge. To say I was hesitant about the idea is an understatement. Nevertheless, I decided to attempt the descent.

The long strands of grass felt thin and fragile in my hands as I lowered my body over the edge. I kicked my boots into the soft mud to stabilize my weight against the vertical wall.

Rain had begun to fall, and night

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was fast approaching. Then it happened. The mud shifted and my feet slipped from their holds, dangling in the air. There was no time to calm the fear raging inside me as the blades of grass in my hands began to snap, gravity pulling me toward certain death. I screamed. The last few blades of grass broke and a shivering sense of slipping crept up my spine. I thought I would die.

I felt Jimmy’s fingers wrap around my wrist. Inch by inch he pulled me up, nearly yanking my shoulder from its socket. We sat on a rock in awe, exhausted and drenched, trying to digest what had just transpired. I checked my phone: one bar of service. I dialed 911.

The helicopter rocked like a dreidel wobbling to a halt as a man ripped open the door. All Jimmy and I could hear was the sound of the propeller. The man leapt from

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the open door and lowered himself down, landing inches from my feet. “Everyone okay?” he yelled.

We nodded though our bodies were shaking. I slipped both feet through the harness and prepared to be lifted up to the helicopter.

Our rescuer radioed to the pilot: “All set.” My hips raised a few inches off the rock then paused.

I looked back toward Jimmy; fear washed across his face. How had we put ourselves in this position?

Then the helicopter took off, launching my body over the waterfall’s edge. I dangled below as it cruised toward Honolulu.

“Gnarly view, huh?” my rescuer yelled over the wind. I nodded in acknowledgement and thought only of being on the ground. We landed on a suburban soccer pitch to a swarm of police officers and firefighters. When I was safe, the

For two hours we bushwhacked toward

H ON O LU LU.

Foliage grabbed at us. Neither of us spoke. We feared losing our way home. team left to rescue Jimmy. Once reunited, Jimmy gave me a big hug and with his usual closed-lipped grin asked, “What a way to start the trip, huh buddy?”

Leaving Home I quit my job in advertising two years ago. Data analytics was not my dream job, but I loved the people I worked with. The problem was the work. Hours on hours staring at a

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computer screen filled with endless spreadsheets, the sense of adventure and meaning in my life crippled by this routine. Then I found “Departures,” a series on Netflix created by three guys who quit their jobs and traveled the world, filming their experiences from every continent on Earth. I felt attached to these three guys. They were living out of backpacks, exploring the most beautiful landscapes and embracing local cultures — speaking their languages, indulging in their foods and enjoying their traditions. I saw this lifestyle as an education influenced by constant interaction with people far different than myself.

In July 2018, I decided to pursue a more deliberate life defined by new experiences and challenges.

I convinced Jimmy to come along for the ride (and planned for Alex Vozzella ’11 and Max Romanow ’12 to join later). Our packs were stuffed with a tent, sleeping bag, hiking boots, a first-aid kit and five pairs of clothes. We headed for the airport unsure how the next year of our lives would unfold.

After surviving a near-death experience in Hawaii, it seemed our need for adventure only increased.

We left with an acquired appreciation for life and landed in Fiji excited to explore and learn about this new place. We spent the next week on the remote island of Mana.

The accommodation was modest: a shared room in a weather-torn shack 20 feet from the ocean with a misspelled sign painted out front that read “RESTURANT.” Each day we’d head out to sea in a decrepit motorized canoe with the lone local fisherman in search of tuna to help provide for dinner. At night we indulged in kava, a root-based drink that relaxes the nerves, and listened to the never-ending stories told by locals of their days on the island.

These families welcomed Jimmy and me into their homes and lives

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like old friends. The desire to share their culture evoked a sense of purpose that hinted that I could enjoy this moment for a lifetime.

From Fiji we ventured up the east coast of Australia, meeting fellow backpackers, listening to their stories and learning of new places we never expected to visit. After Australia, we traveled through Southeast Asia. In Sa Pa, Vietnam, we stayed with Mimi, a short, elderly woman who always wore a pink sun hat that covered her wrinkled face and large hoop earrings that caused her earlobes to droop. Her nephew, Vi, a shy kid with a smooth face and an eagerness to learn English, took us on two 10-mile treks through the cascading rice terraces while local kids nipped at our heels hoping to sell bracelets for less than the change in our pockets; we each bought 10.

Then to Indonesia, where we scaled a volcano hours after an earthquake decimated the region, toppling our guide Gede’s home. His resilience and optimism seemed incomprehensible and opened my eyes to the ease and comfort of my life back home. “I’ll rebuild with bamboo, much safer next time,” he said nonchalantly, as if this devastating event was as common and inconvenient an occurrence as a flat tire.

A New Perspective After venturing into the jungle to face Komodo dragons, Jimmy and I split ways. He headed home to earn a bit more cash before rejoining me in Europe a few months later. Alex Vozzella ’11 and Peter McLaughlin (my roommate at Dartmouth College) met me in Kathmandu, Nepal. The three of us journeyed to the northern Himalayas in a Jeep, packed tight with eight Nepalese women and men, for a 15-hour ride along a precarious dusty dirt road winding through 10,000-foot mountains. We ventured toward

Rappcha, a small town carved into the side of a mountain where our guide, Sokol, lived. Sokol was a thin yet muscular man standing fivefoot-five with kind brown eyes and hands rough like a carpenter’s, and with him, we began our trek toward Mount Everest’s base camp.

For three days we climbed in pouring rain. On the fourth day I woke with chills and a throbbing headache. I had the flu. Lying in bed inside a cozy teahouse, I thought of heading home. I’d never get to see the beauty of Everest with my own eyes; I was devastated. Alex and Peter spent the morning hiking to

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From left to right: Hayden Lynch ’12, guide Sokol and Peter McLaughlin rest before completing that day’s hike to Lobouche, a small settlement in Nepal. Lobouche has an altitude of 17,000 feet and is known as one of the last stops with lodging on the way to Mount Everest’s base camp.

“

Lukla, a two-hour steep climb away, to acquire medication while Sokol stayed behind and took care of me, frequently bringing water and lentil soup. (I later learned he did not charge me for this food). Even as I slept, I never noticed the second pillow placed under my head.

When I woke, Sokol laid on the bed next to me, head propped up against his pack. Two weeks later, we shared stale crackers at the foot of Mount Everest, rejoicing in our accomplishment. I realized at that moment, as I glanced up toward the formidable peak, how fortunate I was to be there — not only because

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I saw this L I F E S T Y L E as an education influenced by constant interaction with people far different than myself.

I had the means to pay for this experience, but also because I was surrounded by people who cared for me like family.

The time we spent in Nepal changed my perspective on life. I began to appreciate the immense adversity many families in Nepal face. For example, Sokol lost two wives in childbirth because they didn’t have adequate medical care,

and he raises both kids alone. At the same time, I found the simplicity of their lives mesmerizing: Each family raises its own livestock, maintains a garden, and constructs its own homes and toilets. I was humbled living among these women and men who understood what it meant to live by their own hand daily.

From Nepal, Alex and I waved goodbye to Peter and traveled to

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Japan, discovering a culture defined by respect and discipline. From north to south we met kind-hearted people who showed genuine interest in our lives. Every night we went out for dinner and people would invite us over to their table. Whether they spoke English didn’t matter: Hand gestures sufficed in communicating and appreciating our different backgrounds and personalities.

On our last night in Tokyo, a young couple opened their home to us when we were lost in search of our Airbnb. They charged our phones and gave us apple juice while we watched Japanese cartoons with their 2-year-old daughter. Alex and I were overwhelmed with gratitude toward this family, though they told us they viewed this act as a responsibility rather than a favor. The differences in our cultures never felt more apparent as we pondered how a similar scenario might have gone had we been two Japanese kids lost in New York City. We left Japan full of hope in humanity after experiencing an entire society that showed us what it meant to treat everyone with respect.

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The Final Journey We journeyed west toward Europe; Alex returned home to rejoin the workforce while Max Romanow ’12 flew out to meet me in Italy for the last leg of this year-long adventure.

Max and I spent three weeks driving from the south of Italy through the Swiss Alps and into Munich, Germany. Magnificent museums and churches enhanced my appreciation for Renaissance art and the power of religion. Most of our time, however, was spent locked in our rental car, driving for as much as 10 hours a day as we traveled between cities. During those travel days, we would reminisce about our time as roommates in Russell House at Brooks, telling stories of the lows and highs, moments when we failed together and times when we thrived. I realized how important those years were to me; how important those relationships were.

It is no coincidence that nearly 10 years after graduating, two of my best friends from Brooks decided to take a risk and join me on a journey around the world.

I learned a lot about the importance of surrounding myself with good people during my time at Brooks — people who would sacrifice their own well-being for mine.

There were moments at Brooks when Max put my interests before his own, even though he risked hindering his success in the future.

Those moments taught me a great deal about what it meant to be a friend, a brother. During my travels I met great people who helped me in the same way Max had 10 years earlier. I realized that being vulnerable with others, even those you may not know yet, creates relationships built around trust. Max taught me that at Brooks.

The last week of my travels I ventured north into the Norwegian Arctic, alone for the first time in a year. Each night I slept beneath the stars, wrapped in my sub-zero

sleeping bag, trying to fend off the frigid air as I watched the northern lights dance across the sky glowing green and purple. On the last night I hiked deep into the mountains, per a recommendation from a local. For two hours, I climbed through tall grass soaked thick from rain the previous night.

I reached the vertical portion of the trail as darkness fell upon the sky. The trek up toward the summit exhausted the last of my energy.

My legs burned from the climb, slowing the pace of each step. My mind fogged from the focus it took to remain on the precipitous trail in the limited starlight. I reached the top to find a clear sky and flat ground on which to set my tent. My burner overcooked pasta as I read Jack London’s “Call of the Wild” and waited for the night’s lightshow.

Suddenly a faint streak of green shot out from behind a mountain in the distance, like a train emerging from a tunnel. Vertical stripes of

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“

Now, far removed from my T R AV E L S , I think back on the moments when I needed help the most and found solace in old and new friends alike.

green and purple sliced through the night sky, illuminating the valley below. My body warmed at the sight of the aurora borealis. “Wow, isn’t this beautiful?” I asked. I turned to my right and then left expecting to see Alex or Max sitting next to me, nodding in agreement, only to remember they had already traveled home. I felt alone. Though a perfect moment, I had no one to share it with.

A Look Back Now, far removed from my travels, I think back on the moments when I needed help the most and found solace in old and new friends alike.

When I was sick in Nepal, Sokol cared for me. When I doubted the purpose of my trip in Japan, Alex listened to me. When I was scared to return home to a life of routine, Max spoke of the positives I’d find in my future. And when I was falling off a cliff in Hawaii, Jimmy reached out a hand and grabbed my wrist.

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These are my fondest memories because, in those moments of despair, I was reminded of that lesson Max taught me so many years before: People who truly love you will always risk their own happiness for yours, knowing you would do the same for them. It is these people who you must always surround yourself with.

I was fortunate that my financial situation allowed me to have these experiences. I had saved a large chunk of the money I made working in data analytics, and my family helped me in a large way too. That is not to say, however, that people coming from less fortunate positions would never be able to have similar experiences. Alex spent an entire year saving money for this trip. He paid off tens of thousands of dollars in student loans and saved up nearly twenty thousand dollars to travel with me. He worked hard, picked up a second job driving for Uber and moved back home

Opposite: Jimmy Angell (left) and Hayden Lynch ’12 at Sintra Castle near Lisbon, Portugal. Left: Hayden Lynch ’12 perched on the basalt sea stacks called Reynisdrangar at Reynisfjara black sand beach on the southern coast of Iceland.

to save money because it was his dream to travel the world. And he accomplished it, traveling to nine countries, reaching Mount Everest’s base camp, scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef, riding motorcycles through the rolling hills of Tuscany and appreciating every day we had out there together because he had earned it himself.

It’s true that a trip like mine remains financially out of reach for many people. But I’ve realized that one does not need to spend a year traveling the world to have life-changing experiences.

Venturing outside your comfort zone, into an uncertain place where you meet people far different than yourself, will certainly provide a new perspective to anyone who is willing to take a risk, to try something new. This is what I loved most about traveling. Every day was a new experience filled with new interactions with new people in new places, always uncertain but never failing to be rewarding.

I hope my story inspires even just a few Brooksians to take a risk.

Dive into what makes you most uncomfortable and see what it might teach you when you surface. Brooks prepares us for this: It teaches us to make community where we find it, to extend a hand to others and to accept the extended hand of others. Brooks also equips us for this: The person who will be there when you need them most might be the one who sat next to you in class or the one who slept in the bunk above yours. I urge you to use these bonds for support as you reach out to create new ones across your adventures.

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ANVIL OR HAMMER

In May 1958, John F. Kennedy Jr. — the thenjunior senator from Massachusetts who would become president of the United States two years later — spent a day at Brooks. While on campus, Kennedy delivered impromptu remarks to the student and faculty body. A transcript of those remarks was recently found, and the contents reveal a call for Americans to have faith in institutions and remain active in political life.

John F. Kennedy Jr. (right) tours the Brooks campus in 1958 with Founding Headmaster Frank D. Ashburn.

DIRECTOR OF THE ARCHIVES Deanna Stuart and a group of community service students came across an unexpected find in January as they sorted boxes of letters between faculty emeritus Fessenden Wilder and Founding Headmaster Frank D. Ashburn: a transcript of the speech John F. Kennedy Jr. gave at Brooks in 1958 as he faced re-election in the United States Senate and was beginning to make his name as a national

BY REBECCA A. B IN DER

contender for the 1960 Democratic presidential nomination. The original transcript and a new transcript that incorporates the handwritten edits to the original are reproduced here.

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ANVIL OR HAMMER: JFK @ BROOKS

Gentlemen, Mr. Headmaster, Mr. Holmes: I know you are a custodian of Democracy, with both a large and a small D, and I appreciate your kind words.

I thought this morning I might talk to you for a few minutes and then would be glad to answer any questions you might have about what we might be doing in Washington. The purpose of my few words this morning is to talk to you about the possibility of participating sometime in your life in a political career. It is a fact, unfortunately, that I am a member of a profession that has fallen into disrepute, for quite understandable reasons, but which is at a most difficult crossroad in the life of our country. Mothers may still want their favorite sons to grow up to be President, but according to a famous Gallup Poll of some years ago they don’t want them to grow up to be politicians in the process. Over 73% of them did not want their boy to participate in the business of running their country. Successful politicians, said Walter Lippmann after about forty years of careful observation, are insecure and intimidated men who advance politically only as they placate, appease, bribe, seduce, bamboozle, or otherwise manage to manipulate the views and the votes of the people who elect them.

It was considered a great joke years ago when the humorist Artemus Ward declared, “I am not a politician and my other habits are good also.” At the turn of the century Finley Peter Dunne’s Mr. Dooley described our political leaders as “Fine, strong American citizens with their hands on the pulse of the people and their free forearm against the windpipe.” And in more recent times President Eisenhower, when asked at a news conference in his first term how he liked the game of politics, replied with a frown that his questioner was using a derogatory phrase. “Being President,” he said, “is a very fascinating experience. But as for the word ‘politics,’ I have no great liking for that.”

Politics, in short, has become a most abused, neglected and misunderstood profession. It ranks low on the occupational list of a large part of our population and its chief practitioners are rarely well or favorably known. Unfortunately this disdain for the political profession is not only shared but intensified in our academic institutions. Both students and teachers find it difficult to accept the differences between the laboratory and the legislature.

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The original transcript was made from a recording of Kennedy’s speech and includes handwritten edits. We believe that these edits were made by members of the 1958 Brooks faculty who were at the speech and felt equipped to edit the rough transcript.

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I would ask those of you who look with disdain upon the possibilities of a political career to remember that our nation’s first great politicians were our ablest intellectuals, our most respected leaders, men who moved from one field to another with amazing versatility and vitality.

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In the former the goal is truth, pure and simple, without regard to changing currents of opinion, majorities, procedural customs, a sense of things possible, all of the things that weigh so heavily in political life.

The mutual suspicion (and it is mutual) between politicians on the one hand and educated men and women and intellectuals on the other was not always the case. I would ask those of you who look with disdain upon the possibilities of a political career to remember that our nation’s first great politicians were our ablest intellectuals, our most respected leaders, men who moved from one field to another with amazing versatility and vitality. A contemporary described Thomas Jefferson as a gentleman of thirty-two who could calculate an eclipse, survey an estate, tie an artery, plan an edifice, try a cause, break a horse, dance a minuet, and play the violin. John Quincy Adams, a senator from Massachusetts, after being summarily dismissed from the Massachusetts legislature a year before his term was up for a notable display of independence, particularly for supporting Thomas Jefferson’s embargo against the British, became Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard, and then went on to become a great Secretary of State. Those were the happy days when Harvard professors had no difficulty getting Senate confirmation. Daniel Webster, on the other hand, senator from Massachusetts, could throw thunderbolts at Senator Hayne of South Carolina on the senate floor and then stroll a few steps down the corridor and dominate the Supreme Court with the foremost lawyers of his time. In other words, certainly early in our political life, perhaps more than today, our political leaders were also the leaders of intellectual thought and action in this country. In the presidential campaign of 1856 the Republicans sent three campaign orators around the campaign circuit — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, William Cullen Bryant, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

I therefore urge all of you with the advantages that you have of going to a fine school like Brooks and of getting into a university (which is a difficult job now, particularly for those who have not had your advantages) and commencing life with some marks to your credit, to consider getting into the field of government at some point in your career.

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ANVIL OR HAMMER: JFK @ BROOKS

I ask you to decide, as Goethe put it, whether you will be an anvil or a hammer. The fact is, that, as you finish this school and move on to the university, the anvil stage of your life is coming to a close. Although you certainly will continue to absorb education in much of the years ahead, nevertheless the time must come when you must decide whether for the rest of your life you are going to be an anvil or a hammer.

George William Curtis, who was a great figure in this area of the country about a century ago, said to a group of educators during the debate over the Kansas-Nebraska Act, “Would you have counted him a friend of ancient Greece who quietly discussed the theory of patriotism on that Greek summer day in whose hopeless and immortal hours Leonidas and his three hundred stood at Thermopylae for liberty?” In other words is a discussion of political problems, a discussion of freedom and liberty, is that enough? Or is participation essential in order to fulfill your commitment as an American citizen?

This school’s establishment and continued growth has required a great effort by a great many devoted people.

And the whole point of it is not, of course, to give its graduates merely an economic advantage in life’s struggle.

But instead, it is the hope of all of your teachers who devote their time and energies in training you that you who graduate and benefit from all that has been put into it will, in addition to developing your own talents, also put back into society some of the things that society has helped develop in you.

“A school,” said Professor Woodrow Wilson, before he became president, “should be an organ of memory for the state in the transmissions of its best traditions. Every man sent out from the university should be a man of his nation, as well as a man of his time.”

Prince [Bismarck] was even more specific: “One third of the students from German universities,” he once stated, “broke down from overwork. Another third broke down from dissipation, and the other third ruled Germany.” I leave it to each of you to decide which category you will fall into.

We do not need men in political life so timid or indecisive as the Congressman who went to the World’s Fair in Chicago in 1900 and looked at the [conjoined] twins and said to his guide,

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I ask you to decide, as Goethe put it, whether you will be an anvil or a hammer.

This speech appears to be one of several similar speeches that Kennedy gave at various educational institutions. Among other incidences, he gave similar speeches at the Syracuse University commencement in 1957 and at Harvard University in 1956.

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[I]s a discussion of political problems, a discussion of freedom and liberty, is that enough?

Or is participation essential in order to fulfill your commitment as an American citizen?

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“Brothers, I presume.” Nor do we need political scholars whose education has been so specialized as to exclude them from participation in current events: men like Lord Russell, of whom Queen Victoria once remarked, “He would be a better man if he knew a third subject.”

But he was interested in nothing but the constitution of 1688, and himself!

What we need, obviously, particularly in this age of specialization, particularly if you hope to play any part in the political life of this country, are men who are not experts in one branch of learning but who have some knowledge and are able to make some judgments in the broad field of knowledge, particularly judgments on men.

Now, I would not give this school a seat in the Congress (as William and Mary was in the Virginia House of Burgesses), nor would I give its graduates, or its college graduates, the provision that was in the Belgian constitution of 1893, which gave three votes instead of one to college graduates. At least not until more Democrats go to college!

But I would say that you are desperately needed; that this country, as I have stated in the beginning, is going through a difficult period in its history.

We have seen the extraordinary advances the Soviet Union has been able to make in one generation, moving up from being the most backward country, certainly in Europe, to being one of the most advanced technically. We saw last year where the Soviets increased their productivity about 11%, while ours decreased 11%. And that their rate of increase during the last seven or eight years percentage-wise is moving ahead of ours. And we all see this because they are able to concentrate all of the energies of the state, culturally, politically, economically — all of the efforts of the people of the state — to advance the interests of the Soviet Union. And we have seen throughout history the difficulties of a competition between a free society and an organized society; from the time of Sparta and Greece, from the time of the British and the Germans before World War II. And now those of the Soviet Union and the United States. When it becomes increasingly obvious that the possibilities of military action between the United States and the Soviet Union are getting less and less because of the ability of each to destroy the other, this competition between us is going to go on in other fields for the next decade, or

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ANVIL OR HAMMER: JFK @ BROOKS

two decades, or three decades. This is because they are able to organize their society. For example, there are four thousand students studying Hindu in Russia, a language which can only be used in India. Bulganin, speaking in Rangoon, said. “Our technicians and scientists are our gold reserve.� And because far more of them are being produced than their own economy can absorb, two thousand of them are now working throughout the underdeveloped countries; people in the underdeveloped areas need scientists and technicians and engineers. So long as Russia is able to produce these young men and women of talent (and they all, of course, have talent if they survive the system), she will pour them out, force them either by propaganda or by brute force, to go and work abroad or go work in any other place which advances the system of the Soviet Union and the system of the Communist Party.

We, on the other hand, exercising our free choice, following where we want to in order to satisfy our own private interests, must compete with them.

Well, ours is the more happy system, and I believe over the long run the more effective and efficient. But it is going to be tested: this theory of whether a free country of democracy, a free society, and a free economy, whether that can compete with an organized society over a long period of time. This is going to be the most exacting test, I think, that history has provided. And it is going to be in your time!

I hope that you will not feel, as you go into business or law or medicine, or whatever you do, that in doing your job well you have necessarily fulfilled your obligation. The fact of the matter is that we need better leadership than we ever have had before. We need men and women who are willing to make the hard decisions that are necessary; and we need not only those who are in positions of political responsibility to make those decisions but also those who can get the support of the people and all who contribute to the molding of public opinion. This is necessary if we are going to survive in order that the hard decisions which must be made can be made. And so I think that you at Brooks have great opportunities, and I hope that you will not feel that

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And so I think that you at Brooks have great opportunities, and I hope that you will not feel that in following and dedicating at least part of your life to political work that you are making an unwarranted sacrifice.

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in following and dedicating at least part of your life to political work that you are making an unwarranted sacrifice. I think that the opportunity to use your talents is perhaps greater in political life than in any other. Dean Acheson wrote a letter about six or seven weeks ago, which I hope you have all read, or will read. It was printed in the Sunday Times in Mr. Reston’s column. Someone had written Mr. Acheson saying that he wanted to urge his students to go into politics, that this was a calling, a religious duty and all the rest, for all young men and women. And he wrote back and said “Quite the reverse: it is an opportunity!” Mr. McElroy, who headed Proctor & Gamble, was getting nowhere near the exhilaration out of that job that he is now getting out of being Secretary of Defense, using all of his talents to the maximum in a work of importance. This is certainly the kind of thing that will bring you the most satisfaction.

I urge each of you on every count to participate in one form or another in this business of governing yourself and of each other.

I will be glad to take a few minutes, although I do not want to interfere with the advancement of your learning, to answer questions, say for about ten minutes, if you have any about what’s going on in Washington, or anything else that might be of interest.

REFLECTIONS “In reading Senator Kennedy’s speech, I was struck first by his facility in addressing a group of teenagers and meeting them on their level. He employed a familiar tone, almost conversational in nature, and explored the matters of their future without condescension. His anecdotes crossed continents and centuries and would have demonstrated to Brooksians that their learning proved useful and relevant, and would serve them well in a political career or otherwise. He championed the intellectual and celebrated the strength gained by diversity of experience and interest, as opposed to specialization. Kennedy also illustrated that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Many of his observations about the 1958 political landscape remain true today and reflect contemporary skepticisms. I would imagine Kennedy’s reminders that we are part of an American experiment, and that we can all play a role, helped encourage Brooks students to take the long view and not feel intimidated by the immediacy of the latest news cycle.”

Academic Dean and history faculty SUSANNA WATERS “This is such an interesting speech, and it feels as if it could be delivered in Chapel today and land with students in a way that feels relevant and personal. In my AP United States Government class, we often talk about what holds people back from participating in government (voting, protesting, running for office). Students are quick to point to all the negative press they consume. I think encouraging student voice and participation is still at the top of our list as faculty, and our most successful endeavors are a result of full engagement. I look forward to sharing this speech with my students as we continue to empower them to find their voice and ‘participate in one form or another.’”

Dean of Students and history faculty WILLIE WATE RS ’02 S P RING 2 02 0

If you have additional information about JFK’s visit to campus, please share it with Director of the Archives Deanna Stuart via email at dstuart@brooksschool. org or via telephone at (978) 7256300 x 3292.

8 HIGHLIGHTING

TEACHING WITH PURPOSE

B R O O K S FA C U LT Y

B Y

R E B E C C A

A .

B I N D E R

37 Randy Hesse

The Brooks faculty have always been a special group: Dedicated educators who love working with their students, who love engaging in campus life and who take great pride in their work and their colleagues’ work. The Bulletin sat down with eight members of the current faculty to highlight their interests, their aspirations and what they see in their students here at Brooks.

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38 Tess O’Brien 39 Kenneth Griffith 40 Laura Hajdukiewicz 41 Peter Neissa 42 Babs Wheelden 43 Michele Musto 44 Kihak Nam ’99

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❝ Having some understanding of how the physical universe functions can deepen our appreciation of that beauty.❞ Q&A What class that’s offered at Brooks would you like to audit?

Technically this class hasn’t been offered yet, but I would kill for a seat in a course on “Moby Dick” taught by John Haile. He is a great thinker and a master teacher, and he has thought so long and deeply about that book. I would love to see it through his eyes.

What’s something about you that people are surprised to learn? After 19 years here, I don’t have many secrets left! Maybe my performing career? I’ve done comedy at the Improv in Boston, and I had the lead in “Fiddler on the Roof” in high school — my rendition of “If I Were a Rich Man” brought the house down!

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❝ The students here are truly special.❞

RANDY HESSE SCIENCE DEPARTMENT CHAIR

Science department chair Randy Hesse came to Brooks almost two decades ago. He’s convinced that “the students here are truly special; it’s a privilege to work with them.” Hesse has taught at a number of independent schools, and he says that Brooks students “truly stand out.”

“They are curious, they have grit, they are passionate and they support one another’s passions,” he says. “This is the school where the football captain high-fives the skinny kid who won the Latin poetry prize. The students here understand what their teachers do for them, and they never take that for granted. I can give my AP students a test that makes them bleed from their ears, and they’ll still walk out the door saying ‘thank you!’”

There’s a practical side to teaching science, Hesse says: He could be training a future biophysicist or engineer. “But that’s not the core appeal to me,” he continues. “For me, science provides a lens through which to view the world around us. We live in a world, a universe, of breathtaking beauty; having some understanding of how the physical universe functions can deepen our appreciation of that beauty. Science changes the way I see a snowflake, a star, the rocks, the trees. A scientist sees the world the way a musician listens to a symphony: You see the patterns and appreciate the structure, and that enhances your enjoyment. That’s the gift I want to pass on to my students.”

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❝ I like the lightbulb moments kids have.❞

TESS O’BRIEN SPANISH AND DANCE FACULTY

“I love that I have a job that lets me do a little bit of everything I want to be doing in life,” says Tess O’Brien, who teaches Spanish and dance, and who is a dorm parent in Merriman Dormitory and head coach of the 1st field hockey team at Brooks. “I have different interests in dance, Spanish, teaching and field hockey, and it’s cool that I get to accommodate all those interests and then pass on my knowledge to kids who are also genuinely interested and who want to learn.”

O’Brien comes from a family of teachers and grew up wanting to enter a profession where she could help people. As a student at the University of Vermont, she was deciding between nursing and teaching. “The second I stepped into the classroom when I was student teaching at UVM, I knew that I belonged there,” she says. “I like the lightbulb moments kids have: those interactions in class when a student has that moment of realization and connection. You can see the light go on; you can see it in their eyes and in their expression. They’re excited. You can also see that you’re paving their way and giving them something that they’re interested in that they can pursue.”

Spanish and dance may not seem at first glance to be related subjects, but O’Brien sees both as a medium for connection to the larger world. “What I love about language, and what I love about dance, is that you’re connecting with multiple cultures. You’re connecting with the different people around you and also with the world around you. Speaking Spanish helps me connect with more people than I could otherwise; dance is a creative outlet that helps me know the cultures of the world around me.”

Q&A What class that’s offered at Brooks would you like to audit?John McVeigh’s oratory class. I can speak in front of a group of students, but when it comes to speaking in front of large groups, I don’t have the confidence, the tools or the resources to do that. And, John is not only a great teacher, he’s also a great coach.

He brings the two together and really inspires kids to speak from the heart.

What’s something about you that people are surprised to learn? From third grade through seventh grade, I was on a jump-rope team and unicycling team. We would perform at halftime of basketball games and go to different circus events. I hold a couple of New Hampshire state records for jump-roping!

❝ What I love about language, and what I love about dance, is that you’re connecting with multiple cultures. You’re connecting with the different people around you, and also with the world around you.❞

❝ Our Brooks kids bring a lot of joy to what they do.❞

KENNETH GRIFFITH

DIRECTOR OF CHORAL AND CHAMBER MUSIC AND ARTS FACULTY Director of Choral and Chamber Music and arts faculty Kenneth Griffith noticed “the beauty of the environment at Brooks” when he interviewed for a job here.

He means that he noticed the lake, the trees, the landscaping and the buildings, but he also noticed the ways in which Brooksians greeted and spoke with each other. “As I was walking down Main Street, everbody was friendly and kind and smiled,” he says. “The people were warm and welcoming. I was attracted to the beauty of the campus but also to the souls of the people here.”

Griffith has become a warm and welcoming presence himself at Brooks, and he heads up a vocal music program that attracts students from across the student body. “Even when I was in high school myself, when I found something I was passionate about, I liked to share that information and try to find ways to help others understand and connect with it in the same way I did,” he says. “I like being in front of people and helping them learn something and have something that they can carry away with them.”

Griffith has always been drawn to music, which he says was his refuge as a kid. “It was a space that warmed my heart all the time,” he says. “Music taught me a lot, I think, about the world. Being able to engage with music from around the world, and being able to connect with different cultures and spaces that were literally foreign to me, that I had never heard of before, opened my world a bit.”

Griffith loves the variety of talents and interests that Brooks students bring to his classroom and the school.

“Our Brooks kids bring a lot of joy to what they do,” he says. “You might have a person who is a cellist and who is working hard and cares to be a really great cellist, who also happens to be one of the best players on the girls hockey team. While some schools may see that as a disadvantage, I think that just adds another layer to our students. I appreciate students who have found their passions, who follow them, and who also leave room in their lives for music.”

Q&A What is your favorite spot on campus? The tree in the middle of the field, behind the flagpole.

It seems oddly placed, but also perfectly placed. From there, you can see the center of campus, and you can also look out onto the lake.

It’s one of my favorite views. When my husband and I got married here on campus last year, we had a yoga session with our wedding party under that tree.

❝ Being able to engage with music from around the world, and being able to connect with different cultures and spaces that were literally foreign to me, that I had never heard of before, opened my world a bit.❞

❝ Even when it’s not content-driven, teaching is also about trying to help our students become responsible, good adults.❞

LAURA HAJDUKIEWICZ SCIENCE FACULTY

“What I really love about teaching kids is that you have such an opportunity to connect with them and share your passion for something,” says science faculty Laura Hajdukiewicz. She cares about more than whether her students leave her class knowing the inner workings of the human skeleton, though. “Even when it’s not content-driven, teaching is also about trying to help our students become responsible, good adults,” she says. “I teach content and the skills for how to be a problem solver or critical thinker, but also how to be a good human.”

Hajdukiewicz fell into science: She was an international law major in college who took a biology class to fulfill a graduation requirement and fell in love. After a stint studying veterinary medicine, Hajdukiewicz headed to the front of the classroom and never looked back. “I thought it was so interesting to try to figure out why things are the way they are, and how we got here, and the idea of evolution and molecular biology,” she says. “All of that was so intriguing, to get to the why. And seeing that in my students is really exciting.”

Hajdukiewicz teaches a well-known course in human anatomy and physiology: “This is information the kids really need about their bodies,” she says, “and the kids are intrinsically interested in how their bodies work.”

Outside the classroom, Hajdukiewicz says she loves the school’s Chapel gatherings. “It’s time with students, with colleagues, outside the classroom. To hear people’s stories is always so powerful,” she says.

“I’ve found that some of the greatest learning I’ve done about other people in this community has happened in Chapel. It’s just time spent together outside of the classroom when people share their stories, and I’ve really enjoyed that.”

“Our students are very outgoing,” she concludes.

“I think they’re very caring and accepting of others. I don’t know if we get those types of kids or if we make those types of kids, but I think kids at Brooks tend to embrace and celebrate the quirkiness of each other.”

❝ To hear people’s stories is always so powerful.

I’ve found that some of the greatest learning I’ve done about other people in this community has happened in Chapel.❞

Q&A What class that’s offered at Brooks would you like to audit? Probably AP United States Government. As I’m becoming more educated about how our government works, I realize how little I know about it. I think our faculty are lifelong learners; my world is very science-oriented, and it’s interesting to learn about other subjects and to see how people in other departments teach and the techniques they use.

What’s something about you that people are surprised to learn? I sang in a band in college. Our name was “Access Denied.” We played, like, every weekend for two years in college. We played rock. This was the early 1990s, so I sang, like, Blondie, The Pretenders, Journey.

❝ Our students are hungry for knowledge and want to learn.❞

PETER NEISSA WORLD L ANGUAGES DEPARTMENT CHAIR

World languages chair Peter Neissa says his students at Brooks are intelligent, have a sense of humor and are practical.

“Our students are hungry for knowledge and want to learn,” he says. “Spanish is a language and a culture of beauty and intellectual brilliance, it represents some of the best aspects of what humanity has to offer: art, philosophy science and mathematics.”

Neissa brings a long teaching career to Brooks, and he’s committed to the school both inside and outside the classroom: He is also co-chair of the Diversity Leadership Council and coach of the girls 2nd soccer team.

He’s brought original courses to the school’s Spanish progression. For example, he teaches advanced Spanish sections a history of drug trafficking in the Americas, as well as Spanish for the business world.

Q&A What class that’s offered at Brooks would you like to audit? Physics teaches you how to think about problems and how to quantify data that seems impossible to calculate. For example, when the sun rises every morning, how long has the light from the sun been traveling so that I can see it with my eye? How much does Earth’s atmosphere slow the velocity of sunlight?

What’s something about you that people are surprised to learn? I have identical twin daughters who were born on Valentine’s day. How awesome is that?

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❝ Spanish is a language and a culture of beauty and intellectual brilliance, and it represents some of the best aspects of what humanity has to offer.❞

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❝ Our students want to try things, and they’re kind of fearless.❞

BABS WHEELDEN

ARTS DEPARTMENT CHAIR AND DIR ECTOR OF THE ROBERT LEHMAN ART CENTER Babs Wheelden, the arts department chair and director of the Robert Lehman Art Center, notices that her visual arts students love to experiment with techniques they’re unfamiliar with. “Brooks has really willing, curious kids,” she says. “A lot of students here are really into the process more than the detailed skill of rendering. This leaves them less limited. Our students want to try things, and they’re kind of fearless.”

Wheelden was drawn to Brooks, she says, because of “the vintage, the buildings, the lake, the access to Boston. I think our community is the perfect size,” she continues, “and it allows you to get to know everyone. The entire ‘Main Street’ philosophy makes sense to me.”

As a teacher, Wheelden loves the shared creativity that energizes both her and her students. “I have so many ideas in my head, and it’s fun to share them with the thought that someone else will be inspired to make something,” she says. “Teaching art is a way of staying creative and also being inspired by others. It’s a cyclical thing: When you’re in an art space and you’re working with others, it’s a collaborative, creative process. It fuels my soul to have that happen all the time.”

In addition to her classroom duties, Wheelden is also the director of the Robert Lehman Art Center, which hosts the Lehman gallery exhibit space. She calls this aspect of her job “truly, a dream come true,” and continues: “The programs we offer are representations of everything I love and all that brings me joy. Learning and sharing with so many talented and caring colleagues and students makes every day exciting and joyful, and I could not be more thrilled to have this opportunity to continue my growth as an educator here.”

Q&A What’s your dream class to teach? My dream class would be a street art exploration. We would travel the world and create purposeful, meaningful works of art in locations somehow connected to community.

I like the idea of making art accessible, raw and real. It’s not pretentious; it’s about making an impact and how you do that. I’d love to see a cool graffiti wall that was intentional and planned here at Brooks.

❝ When you’re in an art space and you’re working with others, it’s a collaborative, creative process.

It fuels my soul to have that happen all the time.❞

❝ Brooks students just really dive in and engage without taking themselves too seriously.❞

MICHELE MUSTO HISTORY DEPARTMENT CHAIR

History department chair Michele Musto was drawn to Brooks, she says, because of its community.

“Brooks has a wonderful way of expressing exactly who and what it is,” she says. “I found that really engaging, and it made me want to come here.”

Musto has significant teaching experience, and prior to entering the classroom, she worked as a museum curator. She worked at several museums, including one dedicated to the history of timekeeping. “I’d love to teach a class on the history of time,” she says. “I really like physics and the space-time continuum, and I really like the history of our understanding of time. I would develop a class that’s about how we keep time, what time is, how the way in which we define time has changed, and why that matters and how it affects society.”

Musto says that she enjoys teaching history because “it’s the subject where I can literally teach everything. If a kid’s interested in math, you can teach the history of math. If they’re interested in science, we can do some history of science. History is a subject where you can just do anything.”

Musto also loves working with Brooks students. “I love Brooks students because they work hard and they’ll stay with you as you try to help them through the process of learning, and then they have that ‘aha’ moment,” she says. Musto is the faculty advisor to the school’s Model UN cohort: “I love Model UN because it’s a whole weekend watching students voluntarily spend their time studying world politics and history, and there’s no better feeling than that,” she says. “Brooks students just really dive in and engage without taking themselves too seriously.”

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Q&A What class that’s offered at Brooks would you like to audit? I would like to take every visual arts class that we offer. I passed up the chance to take art in high school and I love art, so I would sign up for painting and drawing and ceramics classes.

What’s something about you that people are surprised to learn? My master’s thesis is on the design of the material culture of “Star Trek.” I studied the objects that were used in “Star Trek” and analyzed what that tells us about society.

❝ [History is] the subject where I can literally teach everything. If a kid’s interested in math, you can teach the history of math. If they’re interested in science, we can do some history of science. History is a subject where you can just do anything.❞ 43

❝ I find joy in guiding students to think more logically, critically and, hopefully, more creatively.❞ ❝ This sharing of our life with the students has been the highlight of our work at Brooks.❞

KIHAK NAM ’99 MATHEMATICS FACULTY

Mathematics faculty Kihak Nam ’99 teaches math, he says, because he loves “seeing how each student thinks.

I find joy in guiding students to think more logically, critically and, hopefully, more creatively.” Nam enjoys connecting with Brooks students on an academic level, but his work with students extends far beyond the walls of his classroom.

“I love the many long-lasting, close relationships that my family has been able to make with students in various contexts and settings,” he says, “whether in my advisee group, in Koinonia (the school’s Christian fellowship club), in the dorm, through the classes I teach or through the teams that I coach. This sharing of our life with the students has been the highlight of our work at Brooks.”

Nam holds master’s degrees in engineering and divinity, and he says his dream class would bring those two fields together. “I’d love to explore ways in which science, math and engineering interact with religion,” he says. “In many ways, I’m interested in studying the works of many founding fathers of mathematics and physics who were also theologians. In doing so, I’m hoping that students can address — or at least think about — life’s most important questions.”

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B R O O K S CONNEC T IO NS

BROOKS CONNECTIONS IN THIS SECTION 46 Alumni News 52 Class Notes 82 In Memoriam

The Brooks shield hangs in the window of the waiting room in the Brooks admission office.

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BROOKS CONNECT I O N S

A LUM N I N EWS

Hannah Latham ’17 (left) reunites with Moroccan exchange student Maria Huertas in the garden of Sara Erzini’s family home in Tangier, Morocco.

Exchange Reunion A recent Brooks grad reconnects with an old friend from Exchange.

Hannah Latham ’17 recently spent

time overseas as part of a study abroad program through Rhode Island School of Design. While Latham was abroad, she visited some old stomping grounds: Morocco, where she traveled through the Brooks Exchange Program. Latham visited Moroccan exchange student Maria Huertas and documented the reunion with a photo shoot.

“Studying abroad in Tangier was a life-changing experience for me,” Latham reflects, “and I am so incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to go back and pick up where we left off.”

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B R O O K S CONNEC T IO NS

A Great Success

HONORING THE PAST AND TODAY Charlie Walbridge ’66 wrote a moving reflection on faculty emeritus the Rev. Isaac Noyse Northup H’71, P’64, P’71 for this issue of the Bulletin. It begins on page 58 and details Walbridge’s journey through the written word under Northup’s care. Walbridge also recently made a gift to Brooks in honor of Northup, which he specified should be used to benefit the current Brooks faculty.

Did one of your Brooks teachers teach you lessons that have become invaluable in your own life? If you would like to make a gift in honor of a beloved teacher from your own days at Brooks, please contact Director of Institutional Advancement Gage Dobbins at (978) 725-6288 or at gdobbins@brooksschool.org.

February 11, 2020, saw Brooksians rally for their school once again, as alumni from across the generations — as well as current students, faculty, staff, parents and friends of the school — came together to support the Brooks Fund. The school’s annual fund accounts for roughly 12 percent of its operating budget. It funds every element of everyday life on campus, from classroom supplies to athletic equipment.

“For the fifth year in a row, the Brooks community came together with a remarkable show of philanthropic support on Giving Day,” says Director of Annual Giving and Donor Relations Mary Merrill. “This annual event provides a shared experience for our alumni, faculty, parents, students and friends to truly make an investment in Brooks. The Brooks Fund directly impacts the day to day experience of our students and teachers, and they are grateful for your generosity!”

THE FINAL TALLY Total number of gifts:

762

Total amount raised:

$194,072 THE P OWER OF SP ORTS Brooks hosted a celebration of National Girls & Women in Sports Day on February 22, 2020. The event featured a breakfast reception in honor of female athletes and their coaches. Four distinguished alumnae athletes — from left to right, Jen Russell ’06, Millie Brady ’18, Kate Donovan ’17 and Brooke Robinson ’19 — spoke at the reception. They each reflected movingly on the place of sports in their lives, and on the ways in which Brooks prepared them each to play sports at a higher level. For more on the event, please read the news story on page 10 of this issue.

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TOP CL ASSES

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(by participation):

(by total donors):

1975 (60%)

1985 (41)

1985 (47%)

2018 (40)

1973 (37%)

2019 (36)

2019 (35%)

1975 (34)

2018 (34%)

2010 (30)

Thank you!

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Brooksians made a strong showing at Lazarus House Ministries in Lawrence, Massachusetts.

Brooks Gives Back

Brooksians came together to volunteer their time to help local community organizations across the country.

In what has become a regular spring occurrence, Brooksians from around the country met up for a chance to perform community service in their local communities. This year’s gatherings took place in Washington, D.C., Chicago and, close to Brooks, in Lawrence, Massachusetts.

“Brooks Gives Back are opportunities across the nation for Brooks alumni to join together and make a difference where they live,” says Associate Director of Alumni Relations Carly Churchill ’10. “This year, the community service consisted of sorting children’s clothing and supplies at Cradles to Crayons; cleaning the shelter, soup kitchen and thrift store as well as sorting food and cooking at Lazarus House; and serving a meal at So Others Might Eat. Brooks alumni, parents, students and friends in Lawrence, Washington and Chicago came together this year.”

Churchill noted that, while the Brooks Gives Back locations can change from year to year, the mission is always the same: to bring Brooks folks together to do some good.

“A large thank you must be given to Nick Ziebarth ’95, organizer of this initiative as a whole and the Chicago host, as well as Sally Milliken ’88, P’22 and Kathy Palmer Smith ’88, P’18, P’20, P’22 who were the Lawrence hosts, and Jim O’Connor ’99, who led the effort in D.C.,” Churchill finishes.

HAVE YOU RECENTLY PUBLISHED A BOOK? Has your album just dropped? Tell us about it. We want to hear about your creative successes, and we want to highlight your work in an upcoming issue of the Bulletin.

To have your work considered for inclusion in a future installment of Brooks Works, please send a review copy to:

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Editor, Brooks Bulletin 1160 Great Pond Road North Andover, MA 01845

The magazine does not purchase the materials listed in Brooks Works. The materials we receive will be donated to the Luce Library or another appropriate outlet. The Bulletin reserves the right to reject works that, in the judgment of the editorial staff, do not promote the mission or values of Brooks School or the Bulletin.

BACK IN TH E RI N K December 21 brought Brooksians back to campus for the annual Alumni Hockey Game and Family Skate. Alumni and families from all different class years laced up their skates, put on their helmets and took to the ice at Brooks for a morning of memories, fun and friendly competition.

From left to right: Rob Whirty ’09, Brian Wilber ’09, Joe Napolitano ’09 and friend Walter Gillis.

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Alumni in Brief Ellie Tang ’04 was recently profiled on the website eco-business.com for her work prioritizing urban habitats that respect and teach about biodiversity. Recently, Tang guided the launch of Nature Discovery Park, Hong Kong’s urban biodiversity museum and education center. She also set a sustainability plan for her organization, New World Development.

Tang told the website that she accepted the challenge of demonstrating the value of sustainability to different stakeholders. “Everybody talks about integrating sustainability into the business,” she said. “But that could mean different things to different companies. We need to be adaptive, always listen and try to understand who our stakeholders are and what they’re saying, and provide responses that make sense and resonate with their expectations.” She works hard to define sustainability in a way that is broad enough to apply to all businesses within her conglomerate and to speak to different stakeholders in language that resonates.

Tang’s conglomerate has a 2030 sustainability vision — it plans to reduce its carbon intensity and energy intensity in half by then — and follows global best practices. “The process of setting targets, getting buy-in, doing technical audits and dealing with internal stakeholders of varying levels of awareness was extremely difficult,” Tang told eco-business.com. “But we managed to power through and come up with something aspirational at a group level.”

In January 2020, the widely read trade magazine “Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly” named Michael Keating ’58, P’97, a partner at Foley Hoag LLP, a 2019 Lawyer of the Year. Keating recently represented a district court judge pro bono; he successfully convinced the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to restore her salary while she was under federal indictment charging her with allegedly helping an undocumented immigrant evade federal immigration agents.

Keating has been a leading trial attorney at Foley Hoag for more than 35 years. He was previously honored as a 2011 Lawyer of the Year for his work representing another judge in his efforts to resist being removed from the bench, and he is one of only a few attorneys to receive the honor more than once. The decisions in each case are, according to the news release authored by Foley Hoag, the leading cases in Massachusetts on the importance of judicial independence to our citizens.

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In the Lehman Noted artist Jim Sperber ’87 has a signature technique that mirrors a path through life: He drips paint on canvas and over metal wires, which creates striking patterns. “You plan, but it’s not as easy to maintain control as it would be when using a brush,” he tells a group of gathered students. “The dripping is slightly more out of control, which is a lot like life.

You can have a plan. You can see it in front of you and know what you want to do… but it might not go exactly as planned.”

The “errors,” he continues, “are where you find your beauty.”

In February, Sperber spent a week on campus working with arts students in painting, 2D studio art and 3D studio art classes. Conversations ranged from painting technique to his career as an artist. He previously served as the school’s visiting artist in 2007, and he says it was “great to be back.”

“I teach three- and four-year olds — which is an amazing experience because of their creativity and that looseness — but it is really nice for me to be able to teach older kids,” he says. “I love that you can talk to them about [artistic confidence] and I can give them my metaphor for life with painting, which a four-year-old wouldn’t understand at all.”

Sperber believes in the power of art, even when it doesn’t blossom into a working career. He hopes he inspired Brooksians to find their own way to art in a way that resonates with them.

“Really, my only goal is to inspire kids A recent work by Jim Sperber ’87. to want to be artists,” he says. “I think it’s a great life and it’s valuable to many different careers: teaching, working in digital arts, working as an art director or in the art department of a film. So many things that we learn through art help you in so many ways.”

Sperber’s time on campus coincided with his exhibit in the Robert Lehman Art Center. “Directions” was a collection of Sperber’s paintings over the last 20 years. It further explored the idea that, although one might have a plan as they move through life, the unique collection of choices and unexpected turns we encounter along the way are what gives life its beauty.

March gave way to a Brooks employee art show. The varied exhibit ranged from painting to poetry, from sculpture to guitar-making. Following break, the Lehman had been scheduled to host a show of paintings from the collection of Henry Buhl ’48. The exhibit, titled “Show of Hands,” is an exhibition of framed photographs devoted to the subject of hands, all from Buhl’s collection given to Brooks by the Cygnet Foundation. For more than 20 years, Buhl has gathered a vast collection of images, eclectic furnishings, sculptures, books, and myriad curiosities and objects, all inspired by the hand.

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BOSTON RECEPTION REGIONAL RECEPTION

Brooksians congregated in early March in Boston for cocktails, hors d’oeuvres and a panel discussion on the Brooks classroom of today, featuring several prominent Brooks faculty.

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01 The assembled crowd at the Boston Reception. 02 Isabel Hancock ’13 comments during the presentation on the modern Brooks classroom. 03 Mathematics faculty Doug Burbank P’11 (left) chats with Wes Bernier ’10. 04 Chapin Duke Yates ’10 (center) greets Head of School John Packard H’87, P’18, P’21 (right). 05 From left to right: Andrew Bruno ’07, Katie Smith ’07, Andrew Peck ’11, George Demoulas ’12. 06 Head of School John Packard H’87, P’18, P’21 addresses the reception attendees.

07 Brandon Tabassi ’07 (left) and Assistant Director of Admission Alex Skinner ’08. 08 English faculty Leigh Perkins ’81, P’14, P’18 greets faculty emeritus Michael McCahill H’07, P’91, P’97. 09 From left to right: Carolina Rosas ’15, Alesandra Miller ’14, Jack Vailas ’13. 10 From left to right: Lexi Caffrey ’06, Sara Christopher ’06, Taylor DiGloria ’06, Jess Phelan ’06. 11 Barbara Ann McCahill P’91, P’97 (right).

12 Brian Wilber ’09 (right) with mother Jennifer. 13 Beej Das ’91 (left) catches up with classmate Jim Pettorelli.

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BY CH ARLIE WA L B R IDG E ’66

A Gift in Honor A Brooksian remembers his English teacher at Brooks, faculty emeritus the Rev. Isaac Noyse Northup H’71, P’64, P’71, as a teacher who demanded the best of his students and equipped them with the ability to write well.

Brooks faculty emeritus the Rev. Isaac Noyse Northup H’71, P’64, P’71, who taught Charlie Walbridge ’66 English at Brooks.

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At Brooks School almost every class requires good writing. But a few teachers did more than just assign papers: They taught us how to write.

And the one who taught me the most was the Rev. Isaac Noyse Northup.

Mr. Northup, or Noonie, as we called him behind his back, was a unique individual. He wore thick glasses, which gave him a slightly absent-minded appearance. But once you got in his class, you realized that a razor-sharp mind resided behind them. He was the school chaplain, and our discussions of literature sometimes took a surprisingly spiritual turn. But the real learning came with written answers to his questions about what we had read. By the fifth form we were all pretty good at churning out stuffy academic writing with lots of multisyllable words. Mr. Northup would change that.

Many classes started with Mr. Northup passing out blank exam books, the kind with the blue covers. He would ask a question about what we were reading. It was never a simple question, and it always demanded a long, thoughtful response. We would write furiously for about 15 minutes, then pass the books forward. As we got a head start on our assigned reading, Mr. Northup read our exam books, then called us up one by one to discuss what we had written.

He had no patience for pretentious verbosity. Sometimes our work

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was handed back to us with “TS” at the top of the page. That stood for Taurus Magnificens — magnificent bull! “What are you trying to say in this paragraph?” he asked. After I gave him a short explanation, he responded, “Well then, just say it!”

He also said things like, “Stay in the present tense; avoid the passive voice,” “There are three sentences in that sentence,” and “It looks like the ‘he’ in this sentence refers to several different people.” He taught us to write in our own voice and listen to it as we proofread. If our writing didn’t sound right to us, he said, we should keep working until it did!

One of his favorite exercises was to ask a question, and once we had scribbled the answer in the blue books, tell us that he now wanted an answer that was only one paragraph long, or only 200 words, or perhaps limited to a single sentence. Once, when the groans subsided, he said “Boys, boys! Perhaps one of you is a

“ Today I realize that my writing has amplified my modest skills, giving me an extensive reputation in my field.”

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Hemingway or a Faulkner, and no one will care how much you write.

But the rest of you will be writing to length all the time, and you had better get good at it.”

We each had to do a big term paper, and I chose to do it on his favorite poet, A. E. Housman. My friends told me that I probably wouldn’t get a very good grade because I could never measure up to Mr. Northup’s standards on that subject. They were right. My grade wasn’t as good as I’d hoped, but it was all right. I wanted the challenge of trying to meet his expectations!

I never became a Hemingway or a Faulkner, but I did a lot of writing in the years that followed. I wrote many books and magazine articles about my specialty, whitewater sport. I wrote instruction manuals and catalog copy. Later in life, I wrote letters to the editor and expert witness reports in my specialty. I loved word processing when it became mainstream, because it made it easy to proofread and polish what I’d written. When the web evolved from a curiosity to a necessity, I realized that it was a written medium and that someone who could write well had a huge advantage.

Today I realize that my writing has amplified my modest skills, giving me an extensive reputation in my field. As I write, I sometimes hear Mr. Northup, now dead for decades, urging me to “get to the point.” And when somebody tells me they like something I wrote, I sometimes say to myself, “Thank you, Mr. Northup.”

THE PAST AND THE FUTURE Brooks has always been a place where intelligent, driven and curious students can find teachers who inspire them in the classroom and into their lives beyond Brooks.

The school attracts — and has always attracted — teachers who take time to know their students, to meet them where they are and to help them reach their fullest potential as scholars and citizens of the Brooks community. That was true for Charlie Walbridge’s time with Mr. Northup; it’s true today across the Brooks campus.

Walbridge has recently made a gift to Brooks in honor of Northup. Walbridge specified that his gift should be used to benefit the current Brooks faculty.

His gift provides the current faculty with the ability to have a similar impact on today’s students that Northup had on him. Previously, Walbridge made a similar pledge to Brooks in honor of faculty emeritus Nick Evangelos.

If you would like to make a gift in honor of a beloved teacher from your own days at Brooks, please contact Director of Institutional Advancement Gage Dobbins at (978) 725-6288 or at gdobbins@brooksschool.org.

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KEVIN ADAM ’01

A Career With Purpose Brooks opened up Kevin Adam’s world to possibilities beyond a hockey career.

Now, he’s a budding star in the legal world who routinely handles multi-billion dollar litigations. But, his pro bono involvement in a civil rights suit on behalf of a wrongfully convicted man was, he says, the highlight of his career to date.

When Kevin Adam ’01 arrived at Brooks, he was focused on a future ice hockey career. He matriculated from a Catholic school in Lynnfield, Massachusetts, and he says he thought he’d go on to play big-time college hockey.

That’s not the story Adam’s life took, though. Adam is now a litigation associate in the New York and

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Boston offices of international law firm White & Case LLP. He’s a member of the firm’s global competition group, where he focuses his practice on large class-action and antitrust litigation cases. Typically, his cases reach into tens of billions of dollars at issue and litigate, for example, pharmaceutical companies

clashing over patent settlement agreements or allegedly anticompetitive conduct.

“It turns out that I ended up on a different path,” Adam reflects now, “and I think I owe almost all of it to Brooks.” He explains that his time at Brooks helped him realize his academic talents and helped him dream of a career beyond hockey.

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“When I started at Brooks, I was a handful,” he says. “I wanted to play sports, and academics were definitely second. But I had a lot of awesome teachers who kept steering me in the direction of writing, for example. [Former faculty] Kevin Breen, for example, would pull me aside to help me with my writing, and he’d encourage me to look into writing more.”

Adam credits his time at Brooks with helping him learn how to prioritize academics. “When I got to college, things really started to fall into place,” he says, “and I think a lot of that came from Brooks.

Coming from the North Shore, everyone felt very similar. Brooks was eye-opening. It certainly opened my eyes up to other things I could be doing, for sure.”

After Brooks, Adam played junior hockey before landing at Suffolk University, where he majored in sociology with a distinction in criminology and law. Again, one of his teachers saw promise and guided him toward his potential.

“I was taking a constitutional law class and I was working on some projects with the professor,” Adam says. “He pulled me aside and told me that I should think about law school. I started looking into it, and for me, that was this ‘a-ha!’ moment.”

Adam enrolled in Suffolk University Law School’s night program while working and interning at a local courthouse. He loves the law, he says, because of its combination of rules and creativity. “There are set guidelines,” he says. “Case law, statutes, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. But, within those guidelines, there’s this unlimited

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creativity. You can come up with different ideas for making different arguments, of doing different things that other people haven’t thought of or haven’t tried.”

A Meaningful Purpose “I wanted to be in court, I wanted to be on my feet, and I wanted to be writing,” Adam reflects.

He’s handled several large-scale litigations, but he says it was a pro bono matter that has been one of his most meaningful career highlights to date. Adam was part of a team of attorneys from White & Case that represented Mark Schand, a man who spent almost 27 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of murder in 1987. After criminal charges against Schand were dropped in 2013, White & Case helped Schand bring civil rights charges against four police detectives from the Springfield, Massachusetts, police department.

The suit alleged violations of Schand’s constitutional rights: New evidence had emerged in Schand’s criminal trial that revealed new witnesses, recanted testimony, and unduly suggestive photo arrays and lineups that predisposed witnesses to identify Schand as the perpetrator.

Adam felt humbled by the chance to represent Schand. And, he says, he jumped at the chance to take more of a leadership role at trial.

“To be able to get up and do those cross-examinations of the police officers, to do direct examinations of our expert witnesses,” he says. “I fell in love with trial work that day.”

In September 2019, the jury found in favor of Schand, finding

that his civil rights had been violated and awarding him damages of more than $27 million. Adam describes the moment in the courtroom when the verdict was announced as emotional. “I’ll never forget that moment,” he says. “I represent large pharmaceutical companies. When we’re trying cases, sure, the client is there, but it’s a lot different when you’re sitting next to Mark Schand for the entire trial. Everyone burst into tears, and a lot of people were hugging. You try to keep your composure, but it was difficult.”

Adam describes the reading of the jury verdict to another feeling that means a lot to him. “Those 30 seconds,” he says, “I could feel my chest pounding. It’s the same thing, the excitement I used to get from a big hockey game. It feels like stepping out on the ice in a big hockey game.”

Adam is proud of the pro bono efforts of his firm. “I think large firms like White & Case, these global, international law firms, I think we have an obligation to set a certain standard for pro bono work,” he says. “If we’re not doing it, then who’s doing it? We’re in a position where we can do that, and I think we have an obligation to do it at the level at which we do our billable work, and that’s what we did here.”

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KIKI GRAINGE R ’07

Creating a Community An alumna is hard at work building an intentional community in Denver, Colorado.

Kiki Grainger ’07 (right) with Brendan Fung. The two are the founders of Westbound Place + Co.

Kiki Grainger ’07 has always been attracted to strong communities.

She followed her older brother, J. T. Grainger ’05, to Brooks from her native Wyoming, and says she appreciated the school’s small size and friendly nature. “I loved the intimacy of Brooks,” she says.

“You’ve got this super down-toearth, welcoming, charming feel.

Everyone was super ambitious in their classes and their sports, but it was also a little more of a laidback place.”

Grainger did her fair share of activities at Brooks, including

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playing for the 1st field hockey team, but she speaks especially fondly of the “Fins and Feathers” club her brother, J. T., founded.

“We would go down by the boathouses,” she says, “and put on barbecues for people and bring fly fishing rods for people to learn how to fish. It was a fun activity on Friday night, or Saturday night after sports were over.”

Grainger wove herself into the fabric of the Brooks community, and she used it to pursue her interests, get outdoors, and meet, interact with and bond with people.

She also says she loved the beauty of the Brooks campus, and says that being in a beautiful place affects the way you feel. Those themes — small, community, friendly, beauty — took her to the University of Richmond, with its 3,000 students and idyllic location — and it has carried through her life into her work: After a stint at Deloitte in Washington, D.C., Grainger decamped out West.

“The big corporate lifestyle was not for me,” Grainger explains. “I wanted to get back out West for the lifestyle, being around people who were a bit more focused on personal

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wellness and adventures and getting outside.” Grainger engaged with a series of young companies that gave her valuable leadership experience while also playing to her love of community and the outdoors.

Grainger began with a spot at Boa Technology, which manufactures an increasingly popular dial-closure system for boots and outdoor gear.

“Boa has a super outdoor-focused, incredible culture,” Grainger continues. “I loved that it was a young company. It was small, and you could make pretty quick decisions.

The culture there is unmatched.

They treat it as more than just a job; they treat it as if we’re a community.

It’s a group of genuine people that helped each other out and did a lot of fun things outside of work.”

Grainger then moved on to Wayfinder Co-op, a coworking space for outdoor-inspired companies, where she served as director of strategic planning. She helped the company grow from its earliest stages — she describes herself and two friends helping the founders lay out the space and build desks — and she appreciates the experience she gained from helping a company grow from its infancy. “It was three people who had an idea,” she says.

“They had each started operational companies, but nothing that was a physical space. So, it was six of us just completely fumbling through it and figuring out the basics, which I think was hugely helpful.”

Now, Grainger has moved on to her current project, one that brings her love of community to the fore. She is the co-founder of Westbound Place + Co, a collaborative space located in Denver that bills itself as “a new kind of

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Now, Grainger has moved on to her current project, one that brings her love of community to the fore. She is the co-founder of Westbound Place + Co, a collaborative space located in Denver that bills itself as “a new kind of neighborhood.” neighborhood.” Westbound is set to open in late 2020. Grainger and her co-founder, Brendan Fung, recently purchased space for Westbound: a 1970s-era church to which they plan on adding a two-story addition. The indoor and outdoor space will offer amenities ranging from coworking space and exercise facilities to reading lofts and outdoor patios. Westbound, Grainger says, is more than just a space, though.

Grainger set out to build “a beautiful place where people want to spend their time,” she says; a place where people intentionally grow a community. She explains that the idea behind Westbound began as a coworking space, but soon Grainger and Fung became more interested

in attracting members to do more on the weekends or something that was more social than just working in a shared space. “People can do the things they want to do,” Grainger says. “They can connect with friends, both old and new; they can relax and completely unplug; they can play, and meet people through competition and activity; and they can grow.”

Westbound attracts members who are young and who are “pioneers,” Grainger says. “We call them experiential trailblazers. They’re someone who is always seeking new things, and taking risks and excited about exploring the unknown. The person who is always planning the ski trip, the person who is always doing things that are not part of the norm.” The name of the space — Westbound Place + Co — plays into that spirit. “I, having grown up in the West, care so much about the West and the pioneering spirit,” Grainger says. “I straight up tie it to the Oregon Trail, and people who wanted to try something new, to risk it, and thought there might be a reward. The meaning to us is in the people who moved west — who were westbound — who were bound for things they wanted to create, who carried a sense of independence, pioneering, risk and joy, who do their own thing and invite other people to go with them.”

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PARTING SHOT

The Robert Lehman Art Center hosted an employee art show in early March. The multimedia exhibit showcased works ranging from poetry to photography to guitar-making.

Pictured is one of a series of paintings contributed by arts faculty Lynn McLoughlin.

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A new Giving Day record!

$194,072 raised • 762 gifts Thank you to all of the alumni, parents, faculty, students and friends who participated in this year’s Giving Day. It was a record year, and we are grateful for your commitment to Brooks!

Thank you to the following alumni, faculty and student Giving Day 2020 volunteers.

Alumni: Chris Abbott ’75, P’10, P’14, Cristina Antelo ’95, Allie Barry ’13, Christy Bradley ’07, Lexi Caffrey ’06, Charlie Cornish ’06, Jen Guerin DiFranco ’95, Peter Doyle ’69, Madison Dunn ’18, Sam Eisenman ’09, Allison Ferlito ’06, Phil Field ’05, Geoff Fulgione ’77, P’14, P’19, Jess Kapadia ’04, Greta Lundeberg ’97, Joe Malarney ’06, Matt Mues ’04, Albert Nascimento ’10, Jim O’Connor ’99, Kailey O’Neill ’19, Ginger Pearson ’99, Peter Rathbone ’64, P’04, P’15, Delia Rissmiller ’03, Sathvik Sudireddy ’15, Rob Walker ’53, H’66, P’94, GP’18, Bill Werner ’73, Jenn Yuil-Steinberg ’91, Craig Ziady ’85, P’18, P’20, P’22 Faculty: Doug Burbank, Andy Campbell, Dean Charpentier, Deb Davies, Patrick Foley, Andrea Heinze, Randy Hesse, Steph Holmes, Maylo Keller, James Kelley, Leo Lafond, Lance Latham, John McVeigh, Lillian Miller, Kihak Nam ’99, John Packard, Leigh Perkins ’81, Jenelle Ries ’99, Alex Skinner ’08, Susanna Waters, Willie Waters ’02 Class of 2020: Madison Abraham, Anoosha Barua, Taylor Charpentier, Emily Choe, Taylor Denson, Elizabeth Desimone, John Fritz, Sam Kim, Kelsey Moody, Vanessa Shipley Class of 2021: Gardner Brown, Emma Fleischman, Jami O’Shea, Courtney Pappas, Andres Rosas, Jason Silverman, Tristan Witz

Easy ways to give: Credit Card — Check — Stock — Venmo (@Brooksschool) Visit www.brooksschool.org to make your gift.

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A view of Lake Cochichewick from the fire trail.

For the latest news on Brooks School, please visit our website at www.brooksschool.org.

We hope to see you all soon.

PH OTO : A LE X TOBI AS ’22