Mawrginalia
• November-December 2013 • Mawrginalia [mawr-juh-ney-lee-uh]: Latin, plural noun. Notes, commentary and similar material about or relating to The Bryn Mawr School.
Contents
22
6 REGULARS
PARENTS’ ASSOCIATION
4 | FROM THE HEADMISTRESS
38 | STATE OF THE SCHOOL INVITATION & BEST WISHES FOR 2014
5 | REMAWRKS 6 | PICTURES OF THE MONTH Jane Austen Tea Party, Lower School Diwali Assembly, Middle School Dance Company, Thanksgiving Convocation, K-2 Winter Concert, Winter Spirit Day 10 | MAWRTIAN MINUTES Bryn Mawr to Host STEM Career Fair; i2 Camp Coming to Bryn Mawr This Summer; Winter Arts Showcase Invitation; Bryn Mawr Honored Locally and Nationally; Middle School Teacher Founds EdCamp Baltimore; A Season of Giving and Thanks 14 | TEACHERS’ CORNER 15 | UPCOMING EVENTS CALENDAR
ALUMNAE 39 | ALUMNAE PHOTO OF THE MONTH 40 | IN HER OWN WORDS: ABBY SMITH ‘88 42 | YOUNG ALUMNAE RECEPTION 42 | ALUMNAE ASSOCIATION DRESS SALE 43 | CONNECT WITH THE ALUMNAE APP 43 | SAVE THE DATE FOR ALUMNAE WEEKEND 2014 43 | UPCOMING EVENTS
32 | SENIOR VOICES: THE CLASS OF 2014
CONNECT WITH BRYN MAWR! Want to be up-to-date on what’s happening at Bryn Mawr? Check us out on social media: facebook.com/BrynMawrSchool
twitter.com/BrynMawrSchool
27 FEATURES 16 | WORTHY INVESTMENTS A new financial literacy program at Bryn Mawr is educating girls to take charge of their economic futures. Here’s how. 22 | TREASURES OF THE CHESAPEAKE by Maddalena Blondell ’14 and Upper School English Teacher Leslie Jansen Twenty Bryn Mawr students and faculty spend a long weekend experiencing the wonders of the Chesapeake Bay firsthand. 27 | ONE DAY IN D.C. by Alexa Philippou ‘14 and Audrey Song ‘14 Seniors take learning beyond the classroom as they journey to D.C. for a behind-the-scenes look at our government and media in action. 30 | FUNDING THE FACULTY OF THE FUTURE Betsy and Shaw Wilgis (Betsy Strobel ‘58) establish the Betsy S. Wilgis Teaching Fellowship.
ON THE COVER Christine ‘17 and Christine ‘14 perform a duet to “Joyous the Love” at the annual Thanksgiving Convocation.
Editor’s Note: We hope you enjoy reading each issue of Mawrginalia. If you ever have any comments, or if there is a story you’d like to see in Mawrginalia, please email me! Laurel M-O Weijer Assistant Director of Communications weijerl@brynmawrschool.org
Regulars
FROM THE HEADMISTRESS My husband and I met recently for our final parent-teacher conference for our son, Tom, who is a senior in high school. He has worked closely with a learning specialist/advisor since his freshman year, and it was a moment for us to talk about Tom’s journey. For a boy who was diagnosed with all sorts of learning issues at a very young age, the reality that he is successfully finishing high school and preparing to attend college is a remarkable thing. He has succeeded because he had wonderful teachers throughout his elementary, middle and high school years, teachers who knew him and loved him and were dedicated to bringing out the best in him. Maureen E. Walsh Headmistress
“Truly, extraordinary teachers can transform our students in such important ways.”
I share this because I believe in the power of teachers to transform our kids. For teachers to have this sort of profound impact, we, as parents, need to let it happen. By “letting it happen,” I mean that we need to allow the relationships to develop, we need to be very clear with our children that we support their teachers’ demands and expectations, and we need to be in the background, cheering them on. Truly, the extraordinary teachers, the relatively ordinary teachers, and all those in between can transform our students in such important ways. Some of their work seems subtle; some of their teaching and guidance is only truly evident over time, but the accumulated impact of their teaching and coaching is remarkable. And we, as parents, must patiently let it happen. Examples of teachers’ transformational impact include encouraging a sense of independence, confidence, joy in learning, and genuine accomplishment and achievement. Certainly, each child plays a critical role in his or her own accomplishments. Along the way, however, there are many hands involved, and there are many professionals who have guided, prodded, inspired and appreciated our children. Yes, we parents have participated too—but credit is due, in my family’s experience, to these wonderfully generous and loving specialists who committed to our son fully and enthusiastically. We concluded the conference by expressing our deep appreciation for all that his teachers have done for Tom. Saying “thank you” seemed like a small token in exchange for all that they have given him.
4 / Mawrginalia / November-December 2013
REMAWRKS Last week, I was talking with a family that has an eighth grade daughter currently applying to Bryn Mawr’s Upper School. At the end of our conversation, the applicant’s mother asked my opinion about what type of girl thrives in our school environment. I already knew that her daughter is a bright student who is flourishing academically in her current school. Without hesitation, I responded that the girls who blossom the most at Bryn Mawr are girls that want to be actively involved in their school life, both inside and outside of the classroom. We know that a tremendous amount of skill and content development takes place in the Upper School during the academic day. Girls become accomplished analytical writers; they learn to solve complicated mathematical equations; they conduct sophisticated research in our science labs; they are taught how to develop strong, fact-based opinions; and most are nearly fluent in a foreign language by the time they graduate. These are immensely important skills that will greatly benefit girls as they move to college and beyond. However, it is the education that each girl receives outside of her classroom experience, in conjunction with her classroom learning, that is the true hallmark of the Bryn Mawr Upper School experience. There are, for example, hundreds of opportunities for girls to be leaders at Bryn Mawr. Girls direct clubs like Toxic Logic, Pink Ribbon and Students for Environmental Action, and school-wide organizations such as the Student Government Association, Community Alliance for Everyone, and Community Service Learning. While each club and organization has a faculty member on board, it is our students who truly take the reins. Outside of clubs and organizations, Bryn Mawr students develop their bold voices by participating in debate programs and applying to participate in Bryn Mawr’s global exchange trips to South Africa, England and the Czech Republic, and to a service trip in the Dominican Republic. We hope to add an exchange with a school in Istanbul, Turkey in the coming year. Finally, girls have the opportunity to continue their classroom learning in research settings through our math mentoring program and our STEM initiatives. Last summer alone, 15 Upper School students participated in STEM research opportunities in hospitals, labs and businesses.
Jennifer Galambos Upper School Director
“Girls who blossom the most at Bryn Mawr are girls that want to be actively involved in school life.”
The important work that students do inside the classroom provides our girls with an excellent foundation upon which to build. Coupled with the wealth of experiences that they have at Bryn Mawr outside of the classroom, we are preparing our students for their own remarkable futures.
November-December 2013 / Mawrginalia / 5
PICTURES OF THE MONTH JANE AUSTEN TEA PARTY On November 5, tenth graders took part in the annual Jane Austen Tea Party. Girls gathered for tea (pinkies out!), cucumber sandwiches and an Elizabeth Bennett-Mr. Darcy cake, followed by a screening of part of the BBC’s “Pride and Prejudice.”
DIWALI ASSEMBLY On November 1, Lower School girls were treated to a special assembly about the Hindu festival of Diwali, celebrated this year on November 3. The girls learned about the history and customs of Diwali, the “festival of lights,” and they were especially excited to watch Upper School girls Serena ‘16 and Vaidehi ‘17 dance!
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MIDDLE SCHOOL DANCE COMPANY The Middle School Dance Company presented their fall concert on November 15 to an appreciative audience. The girls showcased a range of styles including jazz, modern and hip hop. Congratulations to all of the performers!
Visit our Facebook page to see more great photos of Thanksgiving Convocation, Winter Concerts and other great school activities!
November-December 2013 / Mawrginalia / 7
THANKSGIVING CONVOCATION November 26, the day before Thanksgiving break, the school community gathered for the annual Thanksgiving Convocation, a much-loved Bryn Mawr tradition. Students from the Little through Upper Schools sang, danced, spoke and played for an audience of students, faculty, and special alumnae guests!
8 / Mawrginalia / November-December 2013
K-2 WINTER CONCERT On the morning of December 13, the girls in grades K-2 gave their annual Winter Concert. The festive seasonal music included songs from around the world in both French and English, and was a great demonstration of what the girls have been learning in their music classes. The concert featured a fun ending with parents jingling their keys to accompany the singers!
WINTER SPIRIT DAY Winter Spirit Day on December 11 featured recognition of winter athletes as well as the annual faculty-student basketball game, which the students won by a score of 9-8 (yes, in basketball).
November-December 2013 / Mawrginalia / 9
MAWRTIAN MINUTES Noteworthy news from around the school
Bryn Mawr to Host STEM Career Fair This February, The Bryn Mawr School will host the first-ever Bryn Mawr STEM Career Fair. This unique event will enable high school girls to meet with and learn from women in diverse STEM careers. Female representatives from more than 30 local STEM-related companies will be on hand to meet with Upper School students and answer questions about the various STEM career opportunities that are available to women. In addition to Bryn Mawr students, girls from 15 Baltimore-area all-girls schools will be in attendance. The event, which is free to student participants, promises to be a great opportunity for girls to learn more about the wide range of career opportunities available in the STEM fields!
Logo designed by Bethany Oh '15
i2 Camp Coming to Bryn Mawr This Summer i2 Camp offers innovative and inspiring summer camps that have been developed with the goal of engaging middle school children in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Partnering with some of the world’s leading STEM organizations, i2 Camp broadens a child’s exposure to STEM with a wide variety of courses not seen in traditional middle school education. The fun and intimate, hands-on activities included in the courses strive to excite and inspire campers about STEM, creating enthusiasm that will hopefully spill over to their schoolwork and school choices in the future. The award-winning programs that are part of i2 Camp have been developed by organizations like NASA and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Bryn Mawr is honored to have been chosen as a host location for i2 Camp summer programs. For more information, see the facing page. For a list of all sessions offered this summer, please visit i2camp.org.
10 / Mawrginalia / November-December 2013
Winter Arts Showcase Invitation Please join us on the evening of Friday, January 10, 2014 for the Bryn Mawr Winter Arts Showcase! This fun exploration of Bryn Mawr’s performing arts program will feature music and dance groups from the Lower, Middle and Upper Schools. The showcase is appropriate for all ages. The evening will begin at 6:00 p.m. with an art exhibition and reception in Centennial Hall Lobby. The Upper School Dance Company will follow at 6:30 p.m. in the Dance Studio. At 7:00 p.m., the concert will begin in Centennial Hall. For full details, see the invitation at left (click image to enlarge). To RSVP by Monday, January 6, 2014, please click here. > Click the image to enlarge!
Bryn Mawr Honored Locally and Nationally The Fall of 2013 has yielded several notable awards for Bryn Mawr. In November, Bryn Mawr was selected as an Apple Distinguished School for 2013-2015, a two-year designation. The program is designed to recognize schools and programs that exhibit innovation, leadership and educational excellence. To earn this award, schools are nominated by their Apple representative; nominees are evaluated on the basis of visionary leadership, innovative learning and teaching, ongoing professional learning, compelling evidence of success and a flexible learning environment. Also in November, both Mawrginalia and Communique received Platinum MarCom Awards, the organization’s highest award. Bryn Mawr’s infographic received an Honorable Mention. The MarCom Awards is a creative competition for any individual or company involved in the concept, writing and design of print, visual, audio and web materials and programs. It is one of the largest competitions of its kind, with more than 50,000 entries from around the world. Bryn Mawr is one of only three schools in the country to win a platinum award, and is the only school to win two platinum awards. This is the second time that Communique has been honored with a Platinum MarCom Award. Finally, in early December, Mawrginalia was selected by the Maryland Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America as the “Best in Maryland” in the category of electronic newsletters.
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Middle School Teacher Founds EdCamp Baltimore In 2010, the first EdCamp was held in Philadelphia. This unique professional development opportunity followed the format of an “unconference,” in which attendees steer the direction of the gathering. When Middle School Technology Integrator Shannon Montague attended her first unconference in 2011, she says that “the fact that it was participant driven really drew me in. The participants not only suggest what they are learning that day, but they are also in control of their learning.”
Middle School Technology Integrator Shannon Montague (left) with fellow EdCamp Baltimore committee members.
With this model in mind, Montague collaborated with Chris Shriver, a teacher at Garrison Forest School, to create EdCamp Baltimore, a free unconference for area teachers. The event began in 2012 and gained steam in 2013, with more than 100 local teachers attending, including several from Bryn Mawr. Montague says that participants love the unconference format. “Teachers in particular have so much expertise and so many interesting questions to ask that, as soon as they are offered the chance to do so, they jump at it.” Montague is looking forward to planning EdCamp Baltimore 2014, which she hopes will continue to build on the success of the last two years. In the meantime, she is working on creating additional opportunities for participants to get together for relaxed professional development gatherings.
A Season of Giving and Thanks In this season of generosity, giving and thanks, please consider making a gift to Bryn Mawr’s Annual Fund. Your donation will help to provide students with an unparalleled educational experience and to support our inspirational and dedicated teachers. If you have already contributed, thank you! To date, more than $775,000 has been committed. Every gift matters and will help achieve the goal of $1,390,000. All members of the Bryn Mawr community are encouraged to participate—visit www. brynmawrschool.org/donate to give today. Thank you for all that you do to advance Bryn Mawr’s mission! November-December 2013 / Mawrginalia / 13
TEACHERS’ CORNER Each month we profile three teachers to give them a chance to share, in their own words, their thoughts on Bryn Mawr and their teaching philosophies.
Chris Miskiewicz Little School
Jeannie Emala Fifth Grade
Jessica Bolz Upper School Math
Years at Bryn Mawr: 11 Years Teaching: 12
Years at Bryn Mawr: 13 Years Teaching: 20
Years at Bryn Mawr: 7 Years Teaching: 14
What do you like most about teaching at Bryn Mawr?
What do you like the most about teaching at Bryn Mawr?
What do you like the most about teaching at Bryn Mawr?
I like the school community. I love working with the Little School kids, and then also having the chance to introduce the Lower, Middle and Upper School students to things like astronomy. It is such an open, welcoming community—it feels like a giant family.
The girls are just terrific, and they love to be here. It’s also a great place to work because we have a lot of opportunities to try new things and take the girls in different directions. I think that I have grown a lot both as a teacher and as a person since I began working at Bryn Mawr.
The girls. They are so excited to be learning, across the board. Our girls love to be active and involved in the classroom, and they make teaching a lot of fun.
What is your teaching philosophy?
What is your teaching philosophy?
I want kids to experience everything that they possibly can. I think that children learn best when they have hands-on experience, so I try to give them that opportunity as much as possible. For example, I am very interested in astronomy, so that is something that I give the kids a chance to learn about as well.
I set the bar high, but I always help them to reach it. I want each girl to feel that I respect her as a person. I also want each girl to want to be at school, and to feel confident about her abilities. I ask all of my students to be kind and try hard, so that is what I try to do as well.
You have two daughters at the Little School. What is it like splitting the roles of parent and teacher? It involves a little bit of juggling. There are really great teachers here at the Little School, so I try to stand back and let them take the lead. I want both of my daughters to have their own classroom experience, and to see that school is a different environment than being at home. Then as soon as we leave, I can be just dad again. 14 / Mawrginalia / October 2013
Both of your daughters attended Bryn Mawr. As a parent, what made you choose Bryn Mawr? It was a great fit for both girls. What I really loved about the Bryn Mawr experience for them is that both of my daughters—and, I think, all Bryn Mawr girls—really learned to advocate for themselves. That is a skill that will stay with them for their entire lives. Also, everybody here cares so much about these girls. As a parent, what more could you ask for?
What is your teaching philosophy? In math, it is easy to get caught up in the specific skills. However, what I want to stick with them after they leave this class is the ability to problem solve. I often have the girls work in groups on problems that require a lot of analysis and explanation. Math teaches your brain to think a certain way, and I want them to understand that these are transferable skills. How has your Teach for America experience impacted your work at Bryn Mawr? While I was doing TFA, I was also completing my master’s degree through Hopkins as part of their joint teaching program. We talked a lot about what makes a great teacher— things like engaging, meaningful lessons and a classroom management system. This really helped me set up a classroom where learning is the number one priority and there is a culture of collaboration and support.
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UPCOMING EVENTS CALENDAR We are happy to provide a calendar of upcoming events between now and the next issue of Mawrginalia. Events are subject to change, and not all events are listed here. For the most up-to-date information, or to learn more about an event, refer to www.brynmawrschool.org/calendar and your divisional newsletter. For information about upcoming alumnae events, please see page 43.
JANUARY 6
Monday
Classes resume
10
Friday Winter Arts Showcase 6:00 p.m., Arts Exhibition 6:30 p.m., Dance Preview 7:00 p.m., Concert Dance Studio & Centennial Hall
22
Wednesday State of the School Presenta tion, 8:15 a.m., Mt. Washington
Kindergarten Winter Confer ences (by appointment)
23
Thursday Little School Parent Coffee, 7:45 a.m.
14
Kindergarten Winter Confer ences (by appointment)
16
24 Friday Middle School Exam Makeup Day (Middle School closed for students)
Tuesday Coffee with the Experts Series: Dr. James Dreese 8:00 a.m.
Thursday
17
Martin Luther King Jr. Assembly, 1:30 p.m., KVB Gym
Lower School Read-a-thon begins Friday
20 Monday
Upper School Reading Day
27 Martin Luther King Jr. Day school closed
21
Tuesday Upper School exams begin Middle School exams begin Sixth grade special project begins
Monday Upper School Exam Makeup Day (Upper School closed for students) Grade 1 Winter Conferences (by appointment; continuing to January 30)
31
Friday
Grade 4 China Day
Pre-first Winter Conferences (by appointment) November-December 2013 / Mawrginalia / 15
Features
16 / Mawrginalia / October 2013
Worthy Investments A new financial literacy program at Bryn Mawr is educating girls to take charge of their economic futures. Here’s how.
November-December 2013 / Mawrginalia / 17
On a brisk evening in mid-November,
the last vestiges of light are just fading from the sky as fifteen girls file into a classroom in the Howell Center. The smell of Pepe's Pizza fills the air, and cheery conversation flows easily as glistening slices of cheese and pepperoni are heaved onto paper plates. At the front of the room, Gabrielle Rosetti, an exuberant twenty-something with hints of a Boston accent, brings the meeting to order. "Alright, who wants to remind us of what we talked about last time?" Around the room, hands fly up. Rosetti points to Xiaoxiao Taoli '16. "We talked about some financial terms, what kind of money personality we have, and also about things that we like about ourselves," Taoli summarizes. "Okay, things you love about yourself, and why you're proud of yourself," Rosetti says, nodding. "Anyone want to share why you're awesome?" She pauses, scanning the room. Girls glance at each other and smile nervously, waiting for someone to make the first move. "C'mon, people!" Rosetti commands. One girl raises her hand. "Can I say it about someone else?" Rosetti laughs. "Sure." Quickly, the compliments start rolling. "Grace is an excellent basketball player," states one. "Serena is really good at studying," notes another. "Nya is a great sprinter," adds a third. The exercise continues until each girl in the room has been paid a compliment. "You're the first class I've ever had that flipped it around like that," Rosetti observes. "Didn't that feel good?" The atmosphere is fun and relaxed; the girls laugh easily as they praise their classmates. But Rosetti soon reminds them that the task at hand is an important one: they are here to learn about finances and fiscal responsibility. "Today is all about saving plans, discretionary income, delayed gratification and reaching your goals," Rosetti tells them emphatically. This is the second meeting of Invest in Girls (IIG), a financial literacy program in its inaugural year at Bryn Mawr. Founded in 2010, Invest in Girls is the brainchild of a team of women passionate about
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educating girls with regards to finance. The vision of the program is straightforward: to give all girls access to financial education and exposure to careers in finance and the financial services industry. Tonight, the Bryn Mawr attendees are focused on the first part of that mission: financial education, presented in a way that makes it applicable to a teenage girl’s life. At the chalkboard, Rosetti is in the process of drawing out a rough chart. The heading of the chart reads, “My awesome spending plan.” Rosetti smiles at her youthful audience as she glams it up with a few hearts and stars. “Okay. What do you think a spending plan is?” she challenges the attentive group. “Let’s put together the things we’ve been talking about—delayed gratification and opportunity cost.” Serena Patel ‘16 raises her hand. “I think it maps out how to spend your money so that you know how you are going to get from Point A to Point B,” she says. Rosetti nods. “Exactly. Map—I like that. If you go on a road trip, do you just get in the car, close your eyes and hope that you’ll get to your destination?” The girls giggle, shaking their heads. “No, of course not,” Rosetti asserts. “There’s a plan. In sports, in dance, when getting dressed, you always have plan. So when it comes to money, doesn’t it make sense that you would have a plan? A spending plan is a map to your future goals.” As the students dutifully begin to copy Rosetti’s chart, she is quick to remind them of one of the core tenets of the Invest in Girls program. “After we learn this, I want you to pay it forward, just like you did with the compliments at the beginning. Share this with someone who is important in your life. Pick a friend tomorrow at lunch, draw it out on a napkin and show them how to make a spending plan. Knowledge is power.”
LEARN, EARN, RETURN The Invest in Girls program is a three-year commitment that begins in the sophomore year. Girls meet with the IIG mentor four times throughout the course of the school year for 90-minute workshops. Each segment of the workshops has a particular focus. In their sophomore year, girls explore topics surrounding budgeting, becoming fluent in basic financial terms and concepts. In their junior year, students learn about investing, covering topics like the stock market and risk management. Finally, the senior year focuses on giving and the importance of philanthropy. Together, these three sections form the “B.I.G.” curriculum—Budgeting, Investing, Giving. November-December 2013 / Mawrginalia / 19 September 2013 17
Long-time Bryn Mawr advocate Howard “Pete” Colhoun has another expression for this progression of financial literacy: learn, earn, return. “I see life in these three phases,” Colhoun says. “In the last part of your life, you should be returning—giving to a worthy cause.” Colhoun’s generous “returning” was the driving force behind bringing the IIG program to Bryn Mawr. As the father of three alumnae (Lisa Colhoun Conner ‘82, Nina Colhoun Wilson ‘84 and Robin Colhoun Catlin ‘92), Colhoun knows well that Bryn Mawr girls are already receiving a world-class education in many respects. However, he worried that the topic of financial literacy was not something to which girls were gaining enough exposure. “In our personal lives, one of the biggest reasons that I have observed for families coming undone is that they live beyond their means,” Colhoun says. “Often, they don’t really know what their means are. So, financial literacy is, to me, key to understanding how the world works. The sooner that we can educate students about this, the better, but it really helps to see some necessity for it. As students get to high school, they begin to encounter things like credit cards, which people often use without understanding what they can afford.” With the background of a career spent in finance, Colhoun had been looking for a way to aid the installation of a financial literacy program at Bryn Mawr. When he happened to cross paths with Dune Thorne, one of the founders of Invest in Girls, he knew that the program would be a good fit for Bryn Mawr. “This partnership was rather serendipitous,” Colhoun relates. “The program was only running in one area but Dune wanted to expand, and she was willing to come to Baltimore. So, I agreed to fund the program for Bryn Mawr.” Thanks to Colhoun’s generosity, Bryn Mawr is able to offer the program free-of-charge. Members of the Class of 2016 were notified of the opportunity to participate in IIG at the end of their freshman year, and interested girls submitted applications. The program will continue to grow, with rising sophomores beginning the program each year as those who are already enrolled advance. Jessica Bolz, Upper School math teacher and IIG faculty advisor, says that she hopes that as the program expands the girls who are already involved will serve as advocates for the program, encouraging others to join. “There is a strong sense of community among the girls who are in the program,” Bolz notes. “They call themselves ‘IIG-ers.’ I think that they really like it, and many have said that this type of information is not something that they would necessarily get anywhere else.”
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KNOWLEDGE IS POWER Back in the classroom, the girls are working through the spending plan exercise. Their model is a month-long summer internship in Boston with IIG—”You can get paid to do work in the financial industry,” Rosetti emphasizes. The chart shows each component of the plan: income (less taxes), expenses for basic necessities like food, transit and housing, and a category entitled “pay yourself first.” “What do I mean by ‘pay yourself first?’” she quizzes the girls. A few guesses are thrown out, and Rosetti zeroes in on Maire Stierer ‘16. “Say that again.” “Putting money into savings?” Stierer offers. Rosetti nods. “So, if your discretionary income, after you’ve removed all of your expenses, is $300, we’re going to put $80 of that—that’s 10 percent of your post-tax income—in savings. That leaves us with $220 for the month. So, how much discretionary income are we left with per week, and then per day?” Girls gasp as finish their calculations: $55 per week, $7.85 per day. “That’s barely enough for lunch!” one girl exclaims, looking horrified. Rosetti laughs. “It’s not a lot. But that’s why you need to think about what’s important to you—your values and your goals—and then map out how you want to use the money you have.” Serena Patel says that the spending plan exercise was incredibly helpful for her. “I was amazed at how easy it was, and how clearly it displayed what you actually have to spend,” Patel explains. “I went home after the class and talked about it with my parents, and they said that knowing this when they were starting college would have been so helpful.”
"Think about your own future first." Six-word savings motto by Dima Zahan ‘16
Patel decided to apply for the IIG program because she felt that the knowledge would be useful and interesting. Although she has only had two classes so far, she says that she can easily see why tools like the spending plan, as simple as it is, can have a large impact on people’s lives. “Spending is something that a lot of people struggle with, and if you don’t have a good idea of what you can afford, that’s when you can get into trouble.” In the future, Patel anticipates being able to put her skills to good use, both for herself and for “paying it forward” by educating her friends. “Invest in Girls is a really inspiring program, and I really like that it is tailored to girls,” Patel says. “I can see how having these skills will influence the way that I approach money and finances in the future.” As the class wraps up, Rosetti issues a final challenge: come up with a six-word savings motto that summarizes the rewards of a spending plan. As girls post their mottoes to the online discussion board, the results show how the program’s goal of educating girls to have a successful financial future is already paying off. “Save now and get more later,” reads one. “Helping me plan for the future,” states another. Once they finish the program, girls will take this knowledge with them. As they pass it on to friends and family, they will have the power to shape their own corner of our economic world. Patel sums it up nicely, observing, “The more people that have these skills, the bigger an impact it can have on our society. It’s incredible to see how something so simple can make such a difference.” November-December 2013 / Mawrginalia / 21
Deep in eastern Maryland’s Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge sits the Karen Noonan Memorial Environmental Education Center. Nestled on 20 acres of marsh, the state-of-theart green building, housed in a former Chesapeake hunting lodge, is part of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s residential study program. In early November, 20 Bryn Mawr students and faculty members spent a long weekend at the Center investigating the wonders of the Chesapeake Bay firsthand. As they set crab pots, mucked about in the marsh and watched incredible sunsets, the group embraced the program’s philosophy: To care for the environment, you must love it. To love it, you must know it. To know it, you must experience it. By Maddalena Blondell ’14 and Upper School English Teacher Leslie Jansen
T
he first step off of the Bryn Mawr bus was enough to convince me that the weekend ahead was going to be life-changing. The air was cleaner, the earth purer, and the view incredible. The Karen Noonan Center resides on Bishops Head Island in Dorchester County, calling home an old hunting lodge only steps from the bay. The house itself was one of our teachers, filled with lessons on sustainability and conservation which would not only be taught but also put into practice by our group of Bryn Mawr students that weekend. We began our journey with a somewhat shocking debriefing, as we were told that our water use should be absolutely minimal and that plates must be licked clean after every meal. We learned that composting toilets, although ideal for sustainability, could quickly cause problems if not attended to properly. We are Bryn Mawr girls, however, and we embraced this radically different lifestyle with excitement and the desire to immerse ourselves in nature and connect with our Bay. Our first afternoon was spent on the water, setting crab pots, before we raced back to shore to grab canoes and paddle into the sunset. Watching the sunset from our canoes, I knew without question that there was something magical here—magic so brilliant and raw that even the colors of the setting sun were more vibrant. Photo by Eric Elton
Wonders of the
Chesapeake
November-December 2013 / Mawrginalia / 23
"The Karen Noonan Center ignited a passion in all of us for protecting our resources, protecting the Bay and loving our planet." The sun became another teacher at Karen Noonan. We were greeted the following morning by an urgent wake-up call and the promise that if we hurried out of bed we could see the solar eclipse as the sun ascended. That moment, that sunrise, summarized our entire purpose for being at the Center that weekend. Despite the cold wind that blew right through our bodies, our struggle to fully open our eyes so early in the morning, and the lack of commodities, we all came together to be taught by our earth, and to be taught how to help it. It was the perfect way to begin a day on the water, and within this one day we were brought closer to the Bay than we had been in our entire lives. We caught oysters, fish, shrimp and crabs, taking a few moments to study each before sending it back home. We explored a ghost island, abandoned years ago
Photo By Erin Moore '14
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because of rising water levels. We picked up the crabs caught in the pots we had set the previous day, and eagerly anticipated our dinner for the evening. We found ourselves captivated by the history of watermen and the life cycles of crabs, absorbing as much as we could during our time at the Center. Our last night at the Center was spent under the stars. As we walked in silence down the dirt road leading away from the house, the swells of the tides, hum of nature, and luminescent sky kept our minds off the cold. We were told to take a few moments to stare at the stars, a simple act, but one that was the culmination of the weekend. Looking up into the patterns and lights above, I found myself silently saying thank you to the universe, for allowing me the opportunity to be here, meet people who have the will and the heart to make a difference in our world, and connect with the environment and the Bay. That was why we came here: to learn, and to understand, not just about the Chesapeake Bay, but about how each one of us has an essential role in the preservation and appreciation of our ecosystem. The spirit of the Karen Noonan Center ignited a passion in all of us for protecting our resources, protecting the Bay and loving our planet that I believe will stay alive in each of us for the rest of our lives. -Maddalena Blondell ‘14
“Let’s gunwale up and watch the sunset,” said Jenny, one of the educators at the Karen Noonan Center. As the sun set on our first day in Bishops Head, we aligned our canoes side-by-side, holding tight to the edges of the canoes as we watched the sun descend and observed the passage of time without concerning ourselves with numbers on a clock. The first rule of the Center, as our instructors Jenny and Doug had explained, was that we would focus on the moment, not asking about what would happen next or fixating on the future. We would also remove ourselves from the business of our everyday lives by, in part, eliminating our connection to technology. In other words, students handed over their phones and watches. Anyone who came of age prior to the mid-1990s knows the freedom of a life lived without the constant disruption of a text, call, or email. If the students were bothered by giving up their phones for a couple days, they did not express it. Rather, they were eager to experience everything the weekend offered. On a trip that challenged everyone—with its non-flushing, composting toilets, wake-up calls before sunrise, falls into cold, thigh-high marsh mud, and a nausea-inducing boat ride while examining oysters—there was almost no complaining. The girls even embraced the "kiss and twist."
“The temporality of Holland Island is a reminder that we only have so many sunsets and sunrises; we only have this moment.” As the Karen N bounced over the waves into the open water on our first day, we prepared to drop crab pots. Captain Jessie, a Smith Island waterman since age 14, explained in his southern Maryland accent how crab pots work, how the state regulates the harvesting of crabs, and what a typical day is like for a waterman. With his close-cropped graying hair, prominent mustache, and skin weathered by a life spent mostly outdoors, the aptly named Jessie Marsh showed us the method for baiting the crab pots: first, we were to kiss a dead Atlantic menhaden, a type of fish; then, we were to twist its body in half—thus the "kiss and twist." There were not enough menhaden for all of the girls and all the teachers to participate in the kiss and twist, and I must confess that I was not
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disappointed. As I stood silently, celebrating my good fortune—I would not have to kiss a dead fish and rip it in half, scales flying, blood dripping—I watched the twelve Bryn Mawr girls eagerly line up for their turn. After one student baited her pot, she turned to me and said jokingly, “I just got my first kiss.” Nearly daily I am inspired by Bryn Mawr girls’ courage and openness to new experiences. As the girls cheerfully kissed and twisted the fish, I thought about the value of single-sex education. Although I can’t be certain that the girls would have shied away from the kiss and twist if the trip had been coed, I know that the dynamic would have been different. The next day we hauled fifteen crab pots from the floor of the Chesapeake Bay, and that night we ate the freshest, sweetest crabs we have ever had. On the same day that we retrieved the crab pots, Captain Jessie took us to Holland Island, a vanishing island on the Bay. Although the island was once inhabited, there are no longer any structures standing whatsoever. It is populated only by pelicans and other birds, and the deceased in the cemetery. Because of rising sea levels, this island will disappear within only a couple of decades. Stepping onto an island that is deserted and will vanish one day within my lifetime felt simultaneously like a magical trip back in time as well as a voyage into the future. The shoreline was strewn with sea glass and pottery shards, as if this island were the central depository of the Atlantic’s lost civilizations. Each of us came home with a handful of the past, traces of people long since departed. I found a piece of blue-green sea glass imprinted with fragments of a company’s name, “Baily & Son” and “—ore, MD.” It had once been an early 20th century medicine bottle. I couldn’t help but wonder who had owned the bottle, what medicine it had contained, and how it had found its way to this island. For centuries humans have been captivated by castaway stories that tap into our fear and wonder of the unknown, the unexplored, and the mystery of survival. I don’t know if I’ll make it back to Holland Island before it vanishes. Thus, its temporality made my time on that island a reminder that we only have so many sunsets and sunrises, and that we only have this moment; we cannot live in the past or the future. Our trip to the Karen Noonan Center enabled us to immerse ourselves in the Bay’s ecosystem, letting our daily rhythms align with nature. Our time there reminded us that there are treasures to be found in the simplest of things, and in a life lived simply. -Upper School English Teacher Leslie Jansen
Photo by Erin Moore '14
Photo by Jan Darrah
One Day in D.C. by Alexa Philippou '14 and Audrey Song '14
On November 21, fifteen of my peers and I embarked on a trip to Washington, D.C.
for the rare opportunity to visit both the State Department and CNN’s D.C. bureau. As part of Bryn Mawr’s senior elective America in the World, which examines America’s foreign policy decisions and global interactions since the end of the Cold War, our class had spent months discussing America’s changing role in the world. Finally, we had a chance to see our government in action. At the State Department we met with Marc Knapper, director of the Department of State’s Office of Japanese Affairs. Our discussion with Mr. Knapper provided us with valuable insight into many of the topics we have covered in our studies. Interconnectedness and conflict between countries are themes we have discussed throughout the semester, so it came as no surprise to us when Mr. Knapper explained the ways in which his job not only requires coordination with Japan, but also with neighboring countries such as China, South Korea, and Russia. His views on America’s role in the world gave us a fresh and expert perspective on an issue we have covered frequently in class. Our class also enjoyed seeing the State Department set up for an event that was to occur that afternoon and featured Secretary of State John Kerry and China’s Vice Premier, Liu Yandong. After discussing U.S.-China relations in class, we understand the complexity and importance of our relationship with China. We wished that we could have listened to the Secretary and Vice Premier’s dialogue in person, but we were thrilled to have such an exclusive look. November-December 2013 / Mawrginalia / 27
In America in the World, we have often discussed the media’s role in informing the public and influencing opinion. Our behind-the-scenes tour at CNN, led by production news assistant Becky Perlow and freelance news assistant Tara Kangarlou, showed us how that happens. It was fascinating to learn how news outlets initially receive leads, communicate with sources (including the White House), and determine the best way to present information. As we passed by the many different departments, we could easily see why journalists need to cooperate in order to effectively convey news to the public—photo-journalists, editors, producers, and anchors are only some of the people that must work together to produce a single segment, let alone an entire broadcast. Our tour also demonstrated how social media has changed the field of journalism, for journalists today scan Twitter for breaking news and will also tweet to share news. As someone who wants to be a journalist and/or foreign correspondent in the future, I felt like a kid in a candy store during this trip. The government and the media are perhaps the two most powerful institutions that affect our lives. It was fascinating to see how each one approaches our ever-changing world, and the role each plays in charting the trajectory of our country’s future. -Alexa Philippou ‘14
d media are perhaps "The government an l institutions that fu er w po t os m o tw e th fascinating to affect our lives. It was s in charting the see the role each play try's future." trajectory of our coun
On November 28, Ms. Cho's America in the World class took an adventure to Washington D.C., where we had the opportunity to tour the State Department and CNN. We arrived at Penn Station in Baltimore at 7:30 a.m. and took the MARC train to D.C. Arriving at the station in the capitol, we walked a few blocks to the State Department. After navigating through security, we were greeted warmly by Marc Knapper, director of the Office of Japanese Affairs. After walking through a maze of what seemed like top secret hallways, we reached a conference room, where we had a question and answer session with Mr. Knapper. Prior to moving to the Office of Japanese Affairs, Mr. Knapper was political counselor in the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq. He has also served as deputy chief of the political section in the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo and political counselor in Hanoi, Vietnam. Our group asked him questions like, "What kind of jobs are you working on now?", "What sparked your interest in Asian diplomacy?" and "What is the State Department currently doing about Benghazi?" We had a lively discussion. One response in particular stood out, after I asked him whether
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he believed that we live in a post-American world. He was ambivalent about the answer. "In some ways yes, but in many ways no," he responded. He said that when he worked in the Middle East, he could not believe his eyes when he spotted a Taco Bell on a drive in the middle of a desert. He believes America is the still the most influential country in the world, as we maintain an incredible amount of "soft power." However, the economic world is changing rapidly. After our roundtable discussion with Mr. Knapper, we toured the stunning Diplomatic Reception Rooms of the State Department. Within this venue, the secretary of state, vice president, and various cabinet members receive America's visitors. That day, Chinese diplomats were arriving to have a lunch meeting with Secretary of State John Kerry. The Hall was beautifully decorated and delicious food was being prepared. After departing the State Department, we began our journey to the Washington D.C. bureau of CNN. When we arrived, Becky Perlow, a production assistant for CNN's Reliable Sources, gave us an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of the high tech building. We got to see the HLN control room, and watch Wolf Blitzer in action. It was amazing to learn about all of the ins and outs of television production! The America in the World class field trip to Washington D.C. was an incredible experience. We saw firsthand how our own country hosts and interacts with guests from other nations, and how information from all of the events in D.C. is broadcast to the public. It was a very informative trip, and I enjoyed learning more about the topics that we have discussed in class. - Audrey Song ‘14
"We saw firsth and how our c ountry hosts and interacts from other nations, and h ow information from D.C. even ts is broadcast. "
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FUNDING THE FACULTY OF THE FUTURE Betsy and Shaw Wilgis (Betsy Strobel ‘58) establish the Betsy S. Wilgis Teaching Fellowship to fund the education of the next generation of incredible teachers. As a student at Bryn Mawr, Betsy Strobel Wilgis '58 had several teachers who made a great impact on her. “Miss Barnitz, Miss Sinclair, Miss Crane and Miss Van Bibber all stand out in my mind,” Betsy recalls. “They were very nurturing in their way and demanded that we give our best. We didn’t want to disappoint them! They were wonderful, strong people ahead of their time.” The impact of those teachers is one of the many reasons that Betsy and her husband, Shaw, decided to establish the Betsy S. Wilgis Teaching Fellowship at Bryn Mawr. The fellowship, which will offer a young teacher the chance to intern at Bryn Mawr for a year or two, will be funded through a generous gift recently given by the Wilgises. The Wilgises have an extensive history with Bryn Mawr. In addition to being an alumna, Betsy is a trustee emerita of the Board of Trustees, and served as the Chair of the Board in the late ‘70s. Shaw has also served on the Board. Their daughter, Claire Wilgis Gonder, graduated with the Bryn Mawr Class of 1987. “We are long-time supporters of the school, and we have kept abreast of the needs of the school,” Betsy says. “When [Headmistress] Maureen Walsh told us about her dream of having a teaching fellowship at Bryn Mawr, the idea caught our imagination and gave us the impetus and opportunity to think that we could really help the school.”
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The Betsy S. Wilgis Teaching Fellowship will build on the success of Independent School Teaching in the Twenty-First Century, a summer program for beginning independent school teachers offered through the Bryn Mawr Summer Teaching Institute. The goal of the Wilgis Teaching Fellowship is to offer either one or two years of extensive guidance and support for a new teacher that will prepare him or her to become a successful full-time teacher. Interns will have the opportunity to work with experienced Bryn Mawr faculty, steadily taking on increased teaching responsibilities as their education progresses. An additional goal of the fellowship is to possibly attract young Bryn Mawr alumnae into the teaching profession. “We are incredibly fortunate to have donors like Betsy and Shaw who have a deep understanding of and love for Bryn Mawr, and who are willing to provide the funding for us to offer opportunities like this fellowship,” says Headmistress Maureen E. Walsh. “In addition to allowing us to develop the teachers of tomorrow, the Betsy S. Wilgis Teaching Fellowship solidifies our reputation as the premier school in Baltimore for teaching excellence.” Betsy Wilgis says that in the future, she hopes that the Fellowship will enable Bryn Mawr to gain new faculty who have completed the program. “We feel strongly that the value of a Bryn Mawr education is dependent upon the strength of its faculty,” she reflects. “We believe in encouraging aspiring young teachers to come to Bryn Mawr to receive the mentoring and support of our outstanding faculty.” The Wilgises both feel particularly strongly about the value of mentoring. “Shaw was a hand surgeon, so we know the value of fellowships and mentoring in allowing people to develop their strengths,” Betsy explains. “It’s all about the future, and about bringing up the next generation of teachers. I think that Bryn Mawr is a fabulous place to learn.” The Wilgis Teaching Fellowship will be an instrumental part of expanding Bryn Mawr’s program for teacher education. “The Wilgis Teaching Fellowship responds to a desire to provide additional formalized teacher training for independent school teachers,” says Director of Development Julie Smith Marshall ‘89. “Betsy and Shaw Wilgis are donors with a passion and a vision. Their love for the school and for Bryn Mawr’s teachers is inspiring to everyone on our campus and within our community.” For her part, Betsy says that she and Shaw are honored to be able to support Bryn Mawr in this manner. “We believe in Bryn Mawr very strongly, and we want to be able to do our part to ensure its future for generations to come.”
“We feel strongly that the value of a Bryn Mawr education is dependent upon the strength of its faculty.” Betsy Strobel Wilgis ‘58 November-December 2013 / Mawrginalia / 31
Regulars
SENIOR VOICES: THE CLASS OF 2014 Each year, seniors have the opportunity to present issues that matter to them to their classmates. Most do this in the form of a Senior Convocation—a twentyminute speech on any topic. In every issue, we highlight excerpts from convocations given that month. Occasionally, we will also highlight other senior speeches given at special occasions, letting members of the Class of 2014 share, in their own words, what matters to them.
STEPHANIE HISTON “You don’t accept yourself,” the hairdresser quietly grumbled as I lay with my head tilted back into the sink at the salon. I was sure I must have misheard her. “I-I’m sorry?” I stuttered. “You heard me!” she repeated, loudly this time. “You don’t accept yourself. That’s why you wanna walk around with your hair straight—you’re ashamed of who you are.” She jerked the comb through the knots in my hair and I couldn’t help but wince—not just because of the pain of having my tightly coiled hair unwound, but because her words stung. There I was, just trying to relax and get my hair washed on a Saturday afternoon, and here she came trying to tell me how I feel about myself. I tried to process her words. Was this woman seriously confronting me and saying I don’t accept myself because I choose to straighten my hair? As if a hairstyle determines who you are, and as if I would base my identity around one trivial detail of who I am. What made her statement even more ridiculous was the fact that I had worn my hair natural for nearly all of my childhood. Braids, cornrows, the occasional afro—I had done it all. Unfortunately, my timid freshman self wasn’t able to articulate this, and it was all I could do to stammer out, “Umm, no I-I do.” “Uh-uh, no way, you do not accept yourself.” I wanted to tell her that she was wrong, but she beat down each attempt I made. Eventually I gave up and sat quietly. This had never happened to me before. I’ve been going to hair salons for most of my life, and no one had ever asked me why I wore my hair straight, or had the nerve to suggest that my hair style meant I didn’t accept my race. For anyone who’s unsure about exactly
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what race I’m referring to, I’m biracial—half black and half white. Many people who have met me weren’t sure exactly what category I belonged to, and they’ve made lots of guesses. I’ve gotten everything from Vietnamese, Japanese, Mexican and “white with a li’l something extra” to Malaysian.
was seen as amoral and deemed illegal for many years after emancipation, and interracial people were often shunned from both black and white communities. Anti-miscegenation laws have only recently been ruled unconstitutional—the state of Virginia finally got around to abolishing their laws in 1967. That word, “miscegenation,” has been around since 1863, when it was first coined to refer to the mixing of black and white races in America. This mixing threatened to upset the racial hierarchy that had been drilled into place. If a person looked white and his background was unknown, it would be pretty hard to dispute that he was not completely white.
However, not that many people immediately guess that I am part black. My skin is light and my hair appears straight, so my racial ambiguity keeps people guessing. I confess that I’ve often taken advantage of this ambiguity to blend into different situations. I’ve changed the way I speak to make myself seem more like one race or the other. In other words, I can “pass.” In a general sense, “passing” simply means appearing like someone different than yourself. In years past, MY RACE IS NOT A SWITCH however, when society was much less tolerant of THAT I CAN FLICK ON AND people of mixed races, this OFF TO MAKE MYSELF term aligned closely with looking like a white person. MORE OR LESS LIKE THE For mixed race people livPEOPLE AROUND ME. ing before and during the th th 18 , 19 , and beginning of the 20th centuries, looking white could mean the difference between life or death.
“”
“Desiree’s Baby,” written in 1892 by Kate Chopin, shows the impact that “passing” had on the lives of those who were mixed race. In the story, a baby found by the side of the road in Louisiana is taken in by a wealthy, white Creole woman who names the baby Desiree. As Desiree grows, she appears white, and because of this, she lives a good life. All is well until she marries a nobleman named Armand and bears a child—a child whose skin is darker than that of both his mother and father. Naturally, the blame falls upon Desiree, since her racial background is unknown, and Armand casts her from their home in disgrace. It is heavily implied that Desiree kills herself out of shame and sorrow. At the very end, Armand is depicted burning a letter written by his mother to his father which reveals that Armand himself is part black. This story serves as a cutting portrayal of race relations in the 19th century. Interracial marriage
As a result, many laws were put into place to maintain the segregation between blacks and whites. In 1865, Florida passed an act that outlawed miscegenation and defined the amount of black ancestry that a person needed to legally be a “person of color” as “every person who shall have one-eighth or more of Negro blood.” This meant that if one of your greatgrandparents was black, society considered you a black person, no matter what you looked like. This is an example of the “One-Drop Rule,” also known as “hypodescent,” which automatically considered people of mixed European and African descent as black, stripping them of basic civil rights. In the same year that Kate Chopin wrote “Desiree’s Baby,” Homer Plessy, a man who of mixed ancestry, bought a ticket and boarded a whites-only train car in Louisiana. In 1890, Louisiana had passed the Separate Car Act, which designated separate railway cars for black and white people. Not long after Plessy sat down, he was asked to go to the blacksonly car, and he refused. He was arrested and escorted from the car. Plessy took his case to the Supreme Court of Louisiana (a famous case known as Plessy v. Ferguson), and argued that his rights, guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment, were being violated. Unfortunately, as was the case for nearly all people of color in antebellum America, November-December 2013 / Mawrginalia / 33
STEPHANIE HISTON, CON’T. his pleas fell on deaf ears and he was fined for his violation of segregation laws. We’d like to think that we are past racism and that America has become significantly more enlightened. But if we are past all that racism, why must we still label some people as “other?” You know what I’m talking about—those boxes on the registration of every God-forsaken standardized test asking you to check one and only one: Black, White, Hispanic, Pacific Islander, Asian, Native American, or the infamous “Other.” Think about what it means to label a group of people “Other.” It sounds foreign, disassociated, isolated. It barely even sounds human. I have never liked this label, because to me it feels cold and miscellaneous. It’s not that racial identity is on my mind 24/7, but placing myself in a category that sounds so dismissive is something I don’t want to do. I understand that there can’t be a box for every single racial identity, but to use a term like “Other” to identify people reminds me of the xenophobia that polluted America for centuries, and still persists. So, checking “Other” is out of the question. Now all that’s left for me to choose from is black or white. That is another dilemma in itself. Why does one part of who I am have to overwhelm the other, when in reality I am a balance of the two? The race boxes on standardized tests are not the only places where our country shows its lingering issues with people of different or mixed races. When a Cheerios commercial featuring an interracial family was aired this summer, there was so much racist backlash that Cheerios had to close the comment section of the YouTube video. Some of you might have seen this commercial: a cute little girl in the kitchen with her parents dumps Cheerios on her father’s chest because they’re “good for his heart.” It just so happens that her mother is white, while her father is black. When I heard about the controversy surrounding this ad, I was confused. Did people not realize that interracial families ate breakfast? What was the big deal? I was grateful that this commercial acknowledged that interracial families do exist, something rarely seen in the media. However, the negative reactions 34 / Mawrginalia / November-December 2013
showed that racism is still alive in our country, and that some people aren’t ready to let go of their intolerance and ignorance. As a child growing up biracial, I looked different from my parents. When my mom would go out with me or pick me up from school, people would sometimes stop her and say, “Oh, she’s precious! Are you the nanny?” My mother, confused and annoyed, would say, “No, I’m her mother.” The person asking would then mutter something like “Oh...” and shuffle away awkwardly. There were also many unpleasant instances when someone asked me, “What are you?” and expected me to give a complete breakdown of my racial heritage on the spot. As far as I’m concerned, I’m human, and everything after that is irrelevant. Eventually, though, I also began to notice the differences between myself and other people, particularly the kids that I went to school with, nearly all of whom were white. Surrounded by a sea of faces that didn’t look quite like mine, I was clearly able to see the differences between myself and others, especially when my curly hair sprang from my head in all directions and refused to be tucked neatly into place like that of my classmates. However, it wasn’t only my white peers and relatives from whom I felt different. It’s kind of strange going to a family reunion on either side and looking like the odd one out. My family has always treated me well, but I could never blend in completely with the crowd. It took many years until I learned that it’s okay not to fit in completely on either side. I represent a group that has too often been ignored, dismissed, or simply grouped with one race or the other for the convenience of other people. But my race is not a switch that I can flick on and off to make myself more or less like the people around me. Of course, I still recognize the differences between myself and other people, but they don’t bother me, and I have never struggled with accepting who I am. I have learned how to be comfortable with not being entirely one race or the other. I exist in a state of “in-between,” but even so, the two races that make up my heritage are integrated within me, allowing me to live in a perfect racial harmony.
ZOE ZAWISA In the fifth grade, I read an article in “Time for Kids” about giant sequoia trees. After school, I rushed to my dad’s classroom, only a few doors down from my own, and burst in. I slid around the dollsized desks and chairs to notify him about my discovery. Practically throwing the magazine at him, I told him of the natural skyscrapers towering over the earth in California. Their canopies reached so high into the air that only birds could rest upon the branches. There were trees wide enough that you could drive through them. I tried to stretch my arms as wide as a sequoia, but my tiny reach extended only a fraction of a sequoia’s circumference.
“And the best part,” my squeaky fifth-grade voice exclaimed that day, “is that they’re only 2,763 miles away!” My dad replied, “What, two thousand miles? That’s nothing. We could probably even drive there.” That day, in his stuffy classroom, we promised each other that before I got my license, I would drive through a sequoia tree. The years passed and the promise lingered, untouched, until the summer of 2012. In June, my dad told me I would be driving through the tree in August. Soon, though, the rush of my AAU basketball season took over and August seemed as far away as the sequoia trees themselves. It crept up slowly, and, two days before we were scheduled to leave, I got my learner’s permit. Suddenly, we were off on our journey. I learned how to drive on a highway in the middle of Iowa. Even though there wasn’t the slightest curve in the road, I desperately clutched the steering wheel, trying to remember if the pedal I was touching was the gas or brake. My head was on a constant swivel even though peaceful green farmland bordered the road. I only November-December 2013 / Mawrginalia / 35
ZOE ZAWISA, CON’T. knee collapsed. As I fell, a stabbing feeling drove during the day, and at night, my father shot through my whole body. Fast forward took over. As I dozed in the passenger seat, he through some gruesome details and buckets would lead me through the darkness, and then of tears, and I learned that I had torn my ACL wake me for the next sunrise. Every mornfor the second time. Basketball courts were ing he tapped my shoulder and handed me a soon replaced with doctors’ offices, and physicoffee. I would rise from our car and look up cal therapists became my coaches. On Januat the sky. Usually, he woke me just as the first ary 2, I received my second ACL surgery. With light appeared. The sky twinkled with stars as nothing but eight to ten months of bed rest the sun began its ascension in the east. For and rehab in my future, I was going to miss the those five minutes each day, light and dark most important recruitblended to create a sky ing summer of my life. with the beauty of yesAnd without playing that terday and the hope of summer, there was little a tomorrow. The sun chance of playing baspushed us forward in DESTINATIONS ARE ketball in college. the morning, and we ONLY MOMENTS chased it until it disapAfter my surgery, darkpeared behind the earth WHERE WE STOP AND ness surrounded me. The at night. months inched by. Many REMEMBER HOW WE people, from doctors to The days crept by, and GOT THERE BEFORE family members, told me soon, my driver’s log that my dream of playing book was decorated with CONTINUING ON. college basketball would states I had driven in. not be fulfilled. I worMy hands slowly began ried that all of the hours to relax on the steering I had spent practicing in wheel. I looked out the the gym and my passion for the game would windows and saw a herd of wild buffalo in Yelbe meaningless at the end of my high school lowstone one day, and a beach in Oregon the career. next. When we reached the California border, excitement and anxiety filled my thoughts. I For the first few months after my surgery, my wondered if once we accomplished our goal dad never mentioned basketball. When he of driving through the sequoia, there would be came home from school, he would greet me any anticipation or excitement for the rest of with stories from his day. He gestured elaboour journey. rately as he described the reactions from his fourth graders when a mother brought in Last year, about four months after my dad donuts for a surprise party, or he showed me and I finished our journey to the sequoias, I a student’s doodles on the side of an English embarked on another journey. At the beginpaper. These moments gave me a glimpse of ning of winter break, the Bryn Mawr basketball light even when darkness enclosed me. As we team traveled to Pennsylvania for a tournasat and watched “Breaking Bad” together, my ment. During the first game of a three-day knee propped on a massive pile of pillows, event I made a cut to get the ball, and my
“”
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I thanked my dad for reminding me that the darkness I was experiencing would not last. My dad’s ray of light drove through the darkness and allowed other light to penetrate my life again. In time, I began bending my knee, then walking, and eventually running. Eventually, my dad and I reached Sequoia National Park. As we pulled into the “Drive -through Tree” station, the butterflies in my stomach threatened to suffocate me. I propelled the car forward with a single push of my foot. Slowly, I followed the twisting road until I reached the tree. There it was. After five years, 2,763 miles and 18 tanks of gas, we had reached our destination. Wood conspired to form a towering giant that reached to the heavens. When it was my turn to pull ahead, I stopped suddenly, causing us to lurch forward. I realized that I would have to squeeze the car between the giant legs of timber with only about two inches of leeway. Somehow, I managed to pilot the car forward, and the journey through the destination began. After a few feet, my father and I were enclosed in the tree. Everything felt still. I crept through, engrossing myself in every slash and ding in the pine. As I pulled the car out of the tree, I looked at my dad, wondering what to do now. He smiled and asked, “Well, are you ready to go through it again?” And together, my father and I drove through that tree five more times. Evening came, and once again my dad drove through the darkness as I slept soundly in the passenger seat. The next morning, I awoke to a hot coffee and my dad eagerly urging me out of the car. I stepped out to find us parked at a perfect vista point. The tops of a forest of sequoias gleamed below us. Birds nestled in their boughs as the sun began to peek over
the horizon, bringing warmth to them. That morning, my dad and I watched the sun rise over the forest as we ate pancakes and drank coffee together. At that moment, I realized that the destination was never driving through the tree. The destination was each sunrise my dad and I experienced together. And every day that the sun rises, I have reached the destination of my past, and can drive into my future. My journeys have had a common theme. Recovering from my injury and road-tripping across the country are both examples of paths on which my dad lit the way. I have had the opportunity to be my dad’s lifelong star pupil. He has taught me a countless number of things, but most importantly, during these journeys he taught me that there is no true destination. Every day that I drive, or walk on my knee, or wake up to see the sunrise, I continue my journeys. Destinations are only moments where we stop and remember how we got there before continuing on. He showed me that if you shed light into the darkness, more light is destined to follow. A few weeks ago, I drove home from my first basketball practice back after my surgery, the sun setting behind me. Darkness soon surrounded me as I twisted along the roads, but I met the darkness with a smile. As I pulled into my driveway, I sent a silent thank you to the journeys I’ve experienced during these past few years, and all that they have taught me. These journeys would not have been possible without my father. So thank you, Dad, for teaching me to drive through the darkness and wake up for the sunrise.
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Parents’ Association
STATE OF THE SCHOOL INVITATION Please join Headmistress Maureen E. Walsh, the Bryn Mawr Parents' Association and Board of Trustees Chair Julie R. Rubin '91 on Wednesday, January 22 for the annual State of the School Address. For details, see below (click the image to enlarge). We hope to see you there!
BEST WISHES FOR 2014! The Bryn Mawr Parents' Association would like to wish our community health and happiness in the new year. Enjoy the winter break and we’ll see you in 2014! 38 / Mawrginalia / November-December 2013
Alumnae
Cousins Morgan Rubin ‘11 and Emma Rubin ‘21 are all smiles before Thanksgiving Convocation 2007.
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As deputy mayor for education in Washington D.C., Abby Smith '88 is
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tackling the challenges of one of the nation's largest public school systems.
After graduating from Yale University, Abby Smith ’88 moved to North Carolina to work as a first grade teacher in the Teach for America program. The experience had a profound impact on her, cementing her interest in public education and setting her on a path that would eventually lead to her appointment as Deputy Mayor for Education in Washington, D.C. Here, Smith discusses her work and how Bryn Mawr shaped her view on the education that every child deserves.
learned, both as a teacher and a student, is the importance of a positive mindset. Since I took on the role of Deputy Mayor for Education, the thing that has surprised me the most is the extent to which some people are not able to separate their ideology from a situation at hand. We have immense challenges in D.C. with regards to our public education system, and my perspective is that we have to think pragmatically, creatively and broadly about what the possible solutions are. This attitude is something that Bryn Mawr nurtured in me. I learned how to write at Bryn Mawr, I learned how to present information in different ways, and I learned the notion of intellectual curiosity and how to exercise it.
My focus on public education is the confluence of my attractions to education and social justice, and my wish to combine these two interests into one profession. I always liked school and I had a very positive experience— something I definitely attribute to Bryn Mawr. I have also always been interested in teaching. I think that one of my biggest challenges In fact, my senior project was assisting in the in this position will come from the project Lower School with French instruction. That exwe have just launched to revise the perience was useful in college when student assignment policy, which I ran a program teaching French determines where children have a in a public elementary school in BRYN MAWR BIO right to attend school. D.C. has not New Haven. It was a very different revised this policy since 1968, and population of children, many comYears at Bryn Mawr: there are have been a lot of changing from low-income homes, and es since then! There are a number Thirteen, starting in yet, they were just as excited about of issues dealing with race, class learning French as the kids at Bryn kindergarten and equity that make this project Mawr were. particularly challenging. But, we are College destination: going to work on it as a community Being a teacher is both very chalYale University and see what we can figure out. lenging and very rewarding. I think that it is hard to find anyone Influential teachers: Overall, I think that Bryn Mawr who has been a first year teacher Bodie Brizendine, prepared me incredibly well, who does not describe that year as Cornelia Donner, both academically and socially. one of the most challenging expeBetsy Tomlinson and My work has been entirely in pubriences of their lives. Anyone who lic education, and often in schools Peter Warren is interested in teaching, and espethat serve high-need kids. What I cially in joining Teach for America, come back to again and again is needs to think about what it means Favorite tradition: that every kid deserves the kind of to persist in a situation where the “Cutting the bib off nurture, challenge and wide exstakes are really high for the peothe Lower School posure that Bryn Mawr provided ple around you. So much about beuniform at the end of me. For many kids, school is the ing successful in school and in life fifth grade and having only place where they can get that is about persisting through chalall of my friends and experience. I hold up my educalenges and learning to be resilient. teachers sign it. It was tion at Bryn Mawr as a model for The hard skills that one learns in a nice way of sharing what every child should receive. school are also very important, but that rite of passage.” the most important lesson I have
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YOUNG ALUMNAE RECEPTION
Left: Stuart Ferrell '13, Lindsay DeMuth '13, Molly Danko ‘13, Eliza Clemens ‘13, Ellie Knott ‘13. Right: Maddie Brightman ‘13, Brooke Baader ‘13, Jessica Berger ‘13, Chinyere Amanze ‘13, Liza Davis ‘13, Tate Johnson ‘13, Abbey Mendoza ‘13, Beth Ross ‘13.
The Young Alumnae Reception, held prior to Thanksgiving Convocation on Tuesday, November 26, was a great success. Thanks to all of the young alumnae who came back to visit, and to see their friends perform! It was wonderful to hear your stories of life after Bryn Mawr.
ALUMNAE ASSOCIATION DRESS SALE The Alumnae Association Dress Sale for the Class of 2014 on November 25 was a hit! Dozens of dresses were purchased, raising money for the Prom Fund. Thank you to all the alumnae who donated dresses for the sale! The Alumnae Association is still collecting both graduation and prom/formal dresses for future dress sales, so please bring any dresses you would like to donate to the second floor of the Gordon Building. Click here for more photos! 42 / Mawrginalia / November-December 2013
CONNECT WITH THE ALUMNAE APP
ALUMNAE WEEKEND 2014: SAVE THE DATE!
Did you know that 70% of jobs are found through networking? The Bryn Mawr Alumnae App can help you automatically connect with other Bryn Mawr women in your area! brynmawrschool. org/alumnaeapp
UPCOMING EVENTS Click here to view all upcoming events
Alumnae College Forum Tuesday, January 7, 2014
This special event for the classes of 2010-2013 will give Upper School students the opportunity to hear from recent graduates about their college experiences. For more details, please email alumnae@brynmawrschool.org.
Baltimore-area Alumnae Reception Thursday, January 23, 2014 The Bryn Mawr School
Gather with classmates and fellow alumnae for the first alumnae reception of 2014. Questions? Email alumnae@brynmawrschool.org.
Mark your calendar—more information on these events coming soon!
Alumnae Reception in Darien, CT Wednesday, April 3, 2014 6:00 - 7:30 p.m.
Alumnae Luncheon in New York City Thursday, April 4, 2014 12:00 p.m.
Alumnae Gathering in D.C. Monday, April 7, 2014 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.
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THE BRYN MAWR SCHOOL 109 W. Melrose Ave Baltimore, MD 21210 410-323-8800 www.brynmawrschool.org