KayDeeBee Spring 2019

KAY DEE BEE MAGAZINE The Alumnae & Community Publication of Katherine Delmar Burke School

BREAKING WALLS Celebrating a new era on campus

SPRING 2019

Burke’s mission is to educate, encourage, and empower girls. Our school combines academic excellence with an appreciation for childhood so that students thrive as learners, develop a strong sense of self, contribute to community, and fulfill their potential, now and throughout life.

KAY DEE BEE MAGAZINE

ON THE COVER Flex those muscles! At a symbolic “wall-breaking” on June 12, Head of School Michele Williams kicked off Burke’s biggest building project in a decade with the help of Youth Voice leaders. Read more on page 26.

Table of

CONTENTS IN THIS ISSUE

KayDeeBee is produced by Burke’s Advancement Office SELENA SHADLE Director of Advancement selena@kdbs.org MONICA HERNANDEZ Advancement and Database Associate monica@kdbs.org DIANA KAW Associate Director of Advancement diana@kdbs.org ERICA OBANDO Communications and Advancement Associate erica@kdbs.org

CHRISTINE PREZIOSI Special Events and Parent Relations Manager christine@kdbs.org ALLISON ROST Editor-at-Large allison@kdbs.org

Opening Shots..............................................2 Snapshots from Burke’s Greetings from the Head of School...........10 A Message from Michele Williams Buzz at Burke’s............................................12 Events and Happenings on Campus Traditions.................................................... 24 DASH Feature....................................................... 26 Breaking Walls!

DIANA SCHNEIDER Director of Communications diana.s@kdbs.org

Pansy Day....................................................30

BRIANNA FEBO Communications Intern communications@kdbs.org

Greetings from the Alumnae Association...33 A Message from Laurie Hanna Carrade ’92

Commencement.......................................... 31

Alumnae Q&A............................................ 34 Corinne Rocca ’89 and Lauren Markham ’97 Designed by Bacio Design & Marketing

Alumnae Events .........................................36 Alumnae Reunion Weekend Distinctions................................................42 Mary Shen O’Carroll ’90 Alumnae Updates.......................................44 Class Notes and In Memoriam From the Archives...................................... 48 For the Record Tracing Burke’s Roots................................ 50 The Visser Family

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The Sound of Silence 02

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t was pouring at Burke’s on the morning of Wednesday, March 14, 2018, but that didn’t stop dozens of empowered Burke’s girls from peacefully and quietly walking out of class to the Lincoln Park Steps. The resulting protest, part of the National School Walkout, was a powerful 17 minutes of silence

as students, teachers, parents, and board members paused to remember the 17 lives taken in May 2018 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., and to ask for action from lawmakers on gun violence in schools.

MORE PHOTOS: KDBS.ORG/NATIONAL-SCHOOL-WALKOUT18.

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ยกFiesta Mexicana!

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ust before Spring Break, second, third, and fourth graders brought the rich traditions of a full array of Mexican music

to the Gym for the Spring Concert.

Students did everything from play musical games to perform traditional dances to show off their skills on the guitar, violin, and recorder — all while wearing self-made paper flowers.

MORE PHOTOS: KDBS.ORG/SPRING-CONCERT18.

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Paper OPENING SHOTS

Microscopes

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ere these fifth graders practicing for the next solar eclipse? No, they were learning about the mechanics of microscopes with these paper

versions — courtesy of their teacher, Dr. Tone Rawlings, and Stanford University — that they assembled themselves.

MORE PHOTOS: KDBS.ORG/PAPER-MICROSCOPES18.

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Might as well... ! ...Jump!

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oth Lower and Upper School P.E. classes took part in a May 2018 schoolwide event thanks to a collaboration between the fourth grade, eighth grade, Upper School Art, and P.E. team. Students completed as many jumps with a jump rope as they wanted and added their totals

to a “tally bucket.� The eighth grade turned rope for kindergarteners to jump, the fourth grade counted the total number of jumps done by everyone who participated, and Upper School art students created a collage with photos from the day.

MORE PHOTOS: KDBS.ORG/JUMP-ROPE-CHALLENGE18.

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KATHERINE DELMAR BURKE SCHOOL

Greetings

from the Head of School A MESSAGE FROM MICHELE WILLIAMS

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nd so it begins!

As you can see from the cover of this issue of the KayDeeBee, we have leapt into the next phase of the Burke’s story. Thanks to the fundraising efforts of the team behind Many Voices. Many Hands. All Burke’s.: The Campaign for Girls, we have started to see the physical manifestation of our efforts to become the best K-8 girls’ school in the country. The thrilling “wall-breaking” that kicked off our Campus Center construction project paved the way for extensive renovations over summer 2018 — all part of our efforts to make our program and curriculum as nimble and flexible as possible for our 21st-century learners.

Meanwhile, construction continues apace on our Campus Center, and our Lower School teachers are conducting classes in spaces that have been retrofitted with new windows and courtyards to bring the outside in and supplied with furnishings that support project-based learning and differentiated instruction. What we’re seeing on campus now is the culmination of a dream that started nearly five years ago. I can’t find a better way to describe it than what one Lower School teacher said this fall: I am truly amazed by my new classroom! Our new Lower School spaces are the physical embodiment of what it means to educate, encourage, and empower girls.

We can’t wait until the new Campus Center is finished later this spring and our students can enjoy lunch in the space — right now, they’re dining in a tent on the back court! The new space will be home to wonderful performances and engaging student collaborations — all overlooking views of Lincoln Park. Keep an eye out for more information on our big celebration, coming soon.

However, what’s equally as important is that all of this launched as we graduated 47 members of the Class of 2018, held important annual events such as Burke’s Benefit and Grandparents’ & Special Friends’ Day, and — most importantly — provided our 400 girls with a superlative education. It’s a testament to our dedicated faculty and staff members for their flexibility during an unusual time in our history, as well as to our greater community for its unwavering support.

Now, as we look toward the completion of these projects, I’m so excited about the sense of promise and possibility. Our current construction is a tangible example of how this community takes what is possible and moves it into action. I can’t thank all of you enough for making this possible, as well as making sure that Burke’s stays strong and continues the deeply meaningful work of creating tomorrow’s leaders.

Sincerely,

MICHELE WILLIAMS Head of School

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Keep up with all the happenings at Burke’s in real time on our social media accounts!

KATHERINE DELMAR BURKE SCHOOL

facebook.com/katherine.delmar.burke.school twitter.com/burkesschool instagram.com/burkesschool youtube.com/user/burkeschool

WORD? WORD! In January 2018, grammar met songwriting in several entertaining sessions of seventh-grade English. Students took what they learned about parts of speech (nouns, adjectives, verbs, etc.) and created melodies, stories, and raps that explicated their assigned topics for their fellow students. (Example: “Pronouns, pronouns, OMG!”) The collaborations resulted in some brilliant wordplay that had audiences — kids and adults alike — laughing out loud.

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SEE VIDEO OF ONE SUCH PERFORMANCE AT KDBS.ORG/PARTS-OF-SPEECH.

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TO ALL THE LITTLE GIRLS After the 2016 election, 13-year-old Isolde Fair put the words of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s concession speech to music.

At the Winter Sing on January 24, 2018, fifth graders sang that song, titled “To All the Little Girls.” To watch their performance, go to kdbs.org/winter-sing18, and stay tuned for a rendition of “How Far I’ll Go” from Moana as sung by the fifth grade, sixth grade, and seventh-grade Glee class.

BURKE’S TEACHERS SPREAD KNOWLEDGE Last spring, two Burke’s educators led sessions at national and international conferences!

While attending the International Conference on Education in Honolulu in January 2018, Upper School P.E. Teacher Drew Hetzel led a session on an instructional technique called EPIC (for Engaged Play Inspiring Creativity). EPIC blends a variety of techniques and strategies — including design thinking, SEL, and group dynamic theory — to create lessons that bolster social interaction and encourage innovative ideas and taking risks.

In late 2017, Mr. Hetzel joined with Lower School P.E. Teacher Jonathan Portero-Brown for an EPIC shared session on the front field, where fifth graders designed games and obstacle courses for the first grade to complete using hula hoops, balls, and field markers (pictured).

Two months later, Burke’s Director of Curriculum & Program Innovation Mike Matthews took the stage at the annual conference of the National Association of Independent Schools, which was held in Atlanta on March 7-9.

He was presenting a short “PechaKucha” talk (20 slides at 20 seconds each) about a topic near and dear to the Burke’s mission: “Does Making Matter?” (Spoiler alert: YES! See more on page 20.)

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A VERY LITERARY PARTY At Burke’s, students across all grade levels experience the Writer’s and Reader’s Workshop teaching model, which is designed to help students become lifelong readers and writers. The model follows a very specific sequence: First, the teacher presents an 8- to 10-minute mini-lesson to introduce a new reading or writing skill or strategy, and then together the class explores how it can be used. “Every lesson starts with a ’connection’ to information that the student has already learned,” says third-grade teacher and devotee Emily Banks.

Next, students go off to do their reading or writing while the teacher circulates to confer or offer coaching as needed. For writing lessons, students may have the opportunity to read their work aloud and provide each other with feedback. Several grades at Burke’s have implemented that idea through “publishing parties,” which also serve as an opportunity to celebrate a finished product. In addition to the fourth grade’s spring 2018 event (bottom photo), the second grade held a Poetry Cafe in which students read their finished pieces to their parents and enjoyed refreshments afterward (top photo).

The model and curriculum are presented together by the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project (TCRWP) at Columbia University in New York City thanks to program founder/director and children’s literature professor Lucy Caulkins, whose intensive one-week summer trainings are described as nothing less than transformative. Currently, more than half of all Burke’s teachers have received TCRWP training during the summer thanks to Burke’s robust professional-development funds, and even more are slated to do so. “Once teachers go, it’s like drinking the Kool-Aid, and it isn’t hard to keep that flame burning,” says Lower School Director Alice Moore. “Also, teachers who have gone share with other teachers to keep the excitement going.”

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VISITORS WITH ALOHA On March 20, 2018, Burke’s hosted four visitors from the Kamehameha Schools in Hawaii, who toured campus and learned more about what makes a Burke’s education so unique.

The Kamehameha Schools are a set of three K-12 independent schools across three different islands (Oahu, Maui, Hawaii) that specialize in teaching students of native Hawaiian heritage and preserving Hawaiian culture. The visitors started the day with a traditional Hawaiian welcoming ceremony, which they performed in the 3B classroom with teachers Emily Banks and Caroline Carr.

Go to kdbs.org/welcoming-ceremony to watch and hear their beautiful chanting.

That wasn’t where the exchange of information ended, however. Our visitors joined 3B for the morning meeting, sitting with students on the carpet for the daily welcome to school and a brief game before heading off to other parts of campus. They also dropped in on the sixth grade’s Medieval Museum in Makery Down, toured classrooms, and met with teachers and students during lunch.

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VISUAL & PERFORMING ARTS 01. ARTS FESTIVAL - More photos: kdbs.org/arts-festival18 02. SIXTH-GRADE CABARET - More photos: kdbs.org/cabaret18 03. EIGHTH-GRADE MUSICAL: “MULAN” - More photos: kdbs.org/eighth-grade-musical18 04. GREEK PLAYS - More photos: kdbs.org/greek-plays18 05. VOCAL SPOTLIGHT - More photos: kdbs.org/vocal-spotlight18

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GRACEFULLY RAE As one of their last projects in eighth-grade English over the last few years, students have been reading the book Gracefully Grayson, the story of a transgender girl as she discovers her true identity.

In April 2018, eighth graders heard from Rae Sweet, a transgender activist and student at San Francisco State University, who spoke about their experience in making their transition. Students took careful notes of what they heard and asked thought-provoking questions.

To finish out the unit, eighth graders did a deep dive into the topic of transgender rights in the United States, eventually writing letters to local and national leaders and compiling posters with factoids and statistics that were then displayed around the Upper School.

Students also made available pins that said “I Am a Supporter of Transgender Rights” for those classmates and faculty/staff members who were interested in wearing one.

STUDENTS PAST AND PRESENT FACE PRESIDIO NATURE CHALLENGE TOGETHER On the last Saturday in April 2018, Burke’s students, parents, and alumnae teamed up for a service project in the Presidio. Ten Burke’s students, eight parents, and five alumnae came together for the Presidio Nature Challenge to document the biodiversity of the national park. Presidio Trust staff led our group to Crissy Field to curate and catalog digital photos of plants and wildlife using iNaturalist, a tool that promotes citizen science and environmental conservation. It was a fun and educational morning — and the first of what will hopefully become a tradition that brings different generations of Burke’s girls together.

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MUSEUM IN A BOX During the last month of the 2017-18 school year, Burke’s partnered with the Smithsonian Libraries to test a new interactive learning resource. “Unstacked,” powered by Museum in a Box, shares a collection of intriguing images from the Smithsonian Libraries’ catalog. When placed on a small, digitally powered box, the stories behind these images are brought to life via audio narration. Users are then invited to further explore the image via the “Unstacked” resource website.

Fifth graders experienced “Unstacked” when George Oates, the London-based CEO of Museum in a Box, stopped by the Library during advisory to unpack the device and show off how it works.

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WHAT A SCIENTIST LOOKS LIKE Finding inspiration in a recent article about 50 years of the Drawa-Scientist test, Lower School science teacher Elizabeth McDonald asked her students to draw their own interpretation of a scientist on the backs of their year-end reflections.

The results — both overall and drawing-by-drawing — were fascinating! For example, in the second grade, 36 drawings were submitted. Of those 36:

• 29 drew a feminine figure • 3 drew a masculine figure • 3 drew an ambiguous figure • 1 drew a dog ( “Did you know a dog was the first on the moon?” she asked Ms. McDonald. “I guess they wanted to make sure it was safe. I think her name was Gracie.”) ● • 1 had “mad scientist” hair • 1 was described as “Myself!”

• 6 had a peach-colored/Caucasian skin tone ● • 4 had a darker skin tone Fourth graders also took part in the exercise and produced similarly diverse drawings, with one student telling Ms. McDonald that she “drew an African-American scientist because I think people don’t show them enough in pictures.”

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I don’t at all claim that this one was an academically rigorous implementation of the test, but I still think the results are interesting.”

- MS. MCDONALD

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Several projects were more abstract, such as a marble obstacle course. Users dropped the marble into a dark, enclosed tube, which led it to a circular route through water that purposely spilled out over the edges of the track. Amelia B. ’22 compared it to the making process: “When you think of making, it’s like you don’t know what you’re doing,” she said.

WHY DOES MAKING MATTER? The Class of 2022 holds a unique position in Burke’s history — it’s the first whose members were able to experience the Makery throughout all five years of their time in Lower School.

To celebrate, Makery Facilitator Jenny Howland came up with a project for fourth graders to complete in the waning days of the 2017-18 school year: using whatever materials and tools in Makery Up they wanted in order to demonstrate Why Making Matters. Students showed off their creations to parents and teachers on Friday, June 8, 2018.

Some projects were quite literal — one exhibit incorporated videos of student interviews about why making matters to them and gave guests the opportunity to submit their thoughts on small scraps of paper. Other students remade familiar objects, such as an iPhone or a plate of sushi, using entirely non-digital components.

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Another fourth grader made a necklace with three charms, each of which represented an element she found valuable in the Makery: joy, creativity, and working together.

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Making can help you interact with your creative side.”

I f there was no such thing as making, the future wouldn’t exist.”

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TEACHER PROFILE: Tammi Abad Tammi Abad is on a mission to create mathematicians. For the past four years, she has worked as the math and social studies teacher during the bridge year of fourth grade to prepare her students for the Upper School. “I believe the mathematician we are creating here is more empowered,” she says. “I see these girls taking many more risks and becoming increasingly receptive to the idea that anyone can be a mathematician.” She attributes this growth to the school culture of empowerment along with Burke’s emphasis on social and emotional learning. “It’s especially important for math education as we try to shift more girls into STEM jobs,” Tammi says. “We really push the message that ’no one is born with a math brain’ and ’mistakes grow the brain.’ The girls love that message, and it lowers student anxiety and encourages them to attempt any math problem.”

Prior to coming to Burke’s, Tammi had a 10-year teaching career in Bay Area public schools before moving to New Orleans to teach at her first all-girls independent school. The day she started, she went to a staff social gathering and her co-teacher asked her, “When are you going to be evacuated?”

It turned out that she wouldn’t be starting school on schedule and instead found herself headed to Texas with a stranger and three dogs while Hurricane Katrina bore down. In the aftermath, the students returned in small groups and the population changed from day-to-day while people rebuilt their lives. She had been hired to teach second grade, but for some time she was the only math teacher and the school operated as a one-room school house. “It was all about being flexible and fitting in where you could,” Tammi remembers.

Tammi took one more detour on her way back to the Bay Area with a move to a New York all-girls school where she spent eight years as the Lower School Math Specialist and spearheaded an Associate Teacher program. She loves being back in the Bay Area and completely believes in Burke’s mission to educate, empower, and encourage girls. In her free time, she enjoys exploring San Francisco with her son. “I love experiencing our city through the lens of a 5-year old,” she says.

Along with her Burke’s teaching responsibilities, she is also the Associate Teacher Institute Coordinator. There’s a rotating group of 11 Associate Teachers who sign on for two-year tenures. The program provides them with important classroom management experience and professional development opportunities. Tammi focuses on ensuring their success while they are at Burke’s, as well as getting them ready for masters or credential programs.

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KATHERINE DELMAR BURKE SCHOOL

BAY AREA TEACHERS LEARN AT BURKE’S

administered by experts in G Suite for Education on the many ways in which we can utilize the tools offered by Google in the classroom and across campus.

Since the Professional Development Institute began in 2014, Burke’s teachers have enjoyed nearly a full week of time spent expanding their knowledge after classes end for the summer.

For the fourth edition, Burke’s PDI welcomed educators from across the region!

About 100 teachers took part in Burke’s EdTech Summit, which included about two dozen guests from schools across the region. (The furthest was Sonoma Country Day School, which sent four educators to Burke’s.) Organizer Mike Matthews publicized the summit on Twitter and through postcards sent to schools across the Bay Area.

This year, one day of the PDI (Tuesday, June 19, 2018) was dedicated to an EdTech Summit, a day-long series of seminars

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MAKERY MINDSET 01. K-6 BOOK SHARING - More photos: kdbs.org/book-sharing18 02. FIFTH-GRADE BREAKERY - More photos: kdbs.org/breakery18 03. CIRCUIT CIRCUS - More photos: kdbs.org/circus-circus18 04. CULTURAL HERITAGE FAIR - More photos: kdbs.org/cultural-heritage-fair18 05. EGYPTIAN MUSEUM - More photos: kdbs.org/egyptian-museum18 06. INTERTIDAL AQUARIUM - More photos: kdbs.org/intertidal-aquarium18 07. MEDIEVAL MUSEUM - More photos: kdbs.org/medieval-museum18

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traditions

Recognize any (or all?) of these renowned events?

Visit the links to see more photos!

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01. INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY More photos: kdbs.org/international-womens-day18

04. COLOR DAY More photos: kdbs.org/color-day18

07. STEPPING UP CEREMONY More photos: kdbs.org/stepping-up18

02. BURKE’S BENEFIT More photos: kdbs.org/burkes-benefit18

05. GRANDPARENTS’ & SPECIAL FRIENDS’ DAY More photos: kdbs.org/gp-sf-day18

08. MAYPOLE More photos: kdbs.org/maypole18

03. CHALLENGE DAY More photos: kdbs.org/challenge-day18

06. BOOK EXCHANGE More photos: kdbs.org/book-exchange18

09. LION DANCE More photos:kdbs.org/lion-dance18

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DASH

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A chilly, foggy Saturday morning in May doesn’t usually sound like the ideal time for getting outside to exercise — or, at least, to be excited about it! But once a year, there’s one event on the Burke’s calendar that embraces the early hour.

DASH is a family fun run/fundraiser that celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2018. Families gather together in Golden Gate Park or in Crissy Field to run (or walk) either a 5K or 2.5K route, both to celebrate physical fitness and also to raise money for Burke’s athletics and physical education programs.

On May 5, 2018, students, parents, and staff gathered near the Pioneer Log Cabin in Golden Gate Park on what was the gloomiest DASH day in years. But that didn’t stop the enthusiasm as Burke’s girls and their siblings gathered before the race. Dance music provided by DJ Dave got everyone pumped before lining up at the start, and as the countdown wound closer to one, the excitement reached a fever pitch!

But then they were off on their route down JFK Drive, weaving in and out of other Saturday-morning joggers and cyclists. Per usual, some very motivated runners moved to the front of the pack, while others with dogs on leashes or strollers ambled along toward the back. Athletic Director Ashling Bryant clocked the first arrivals, then enlisted her cross-country runners to serve as finish-line judges.

Even as the runners were out on the course, volunteers were preparing pancakes and other breakfast foods for the athletes after they crossed the finish line, which students and parents alike gobbled down when they returned. Then, the crowd gathered around Head of School Michele Williams as she announced the top three finishers in several divisions: Upper School students, Lower School students, siblings, and adults.

Thank you to last year’s event chairs: Bill Wheeler, Doug Bourgon, Jenn Leary, Johanna Calabria, Justin Renaudin, and George Vidalakis!

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The day before Pansy Day, the Burke’s community celebrated the beginning of our summer 2018 construction project with a “wallbreaking” that brought together students, teachers, parents, alumnae, and special guests in the Upper School courtyard.

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hy a “wall-breaking”? The biggest change taking place in this campus transformation is the reworking of the Lunchroom into a Campus Center, which involves the removal of the back wall behind the stage to bring views from Lincoln Park into the new space. Thanks to the efforts of Event Chair Yvonne Blaxter, the Burke’s community had the opportunity to celebrate this tremendous change with big fanfare!

For a few weeks leading up to the wall-breaking, students and teachers were invited to say their goodbyes to the Lunchroom (and share favorite memories) on a large swath of butcher paper on the back wall. Lower School Head Alice Moore and Upper School Head Rebekah Wolman shared several of those contributions at the ceremony. Ms. Moore

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then started a countdown, and with the help of two fourth graders, pushed down on an old-fashioned “detonator” to break down a wall of paper bricks to reveal Head of School Michele Williams and the eighth-grade Youth Voice moderators!

As they headed back to class, students and teachers filed through the Lunchroom to see a video installation. With the help of Burke’s parent Jesse Moss, a high-resolution video of Lincoln Park was projected onto the back wall to mimic how the Lunchroom will look post-transformation.

Remaining guests then heard remarks from the co-chairs and the Community Phase Chairs of Many Voices. Many Hands. All Burke’s., the capital campaign that is making the new Campus Center and the Lower School classroom renovations possible.

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ince its construction in the late 1940s, the Lunchroom had been used for assemblies, performances, classroom space, and — of course — lunch for thousands of alumnae.

They had the chance to bid a fond farewell to the space with a luncheon on May 4, 2018, at which some old favorites such as pierogis were served, and table assignments were handed out via lunch punch cards!

These Burke’s grads also had the opportunity to hear from Head of School Michele Williams and Board of Trustees Vice President Kimberly Fullerton ’77e about the plans for the space and to try out the types of furniture coming to the Lower School classrooms.

After classes were done for the year several days later, Lower School teachers scrambled to clear out their rooms into a series of storage pods set up on the bluetop. Construction on those classrooms proceeded over the summer months — with a few bumps here and there — but the structural upgrades were in place before the start of the 2018-19 school year. First through fourth grades were outfitted with updated utilities, state-of-theart windows, and flexible furnishings before instruction began in September. Work on the new Campus Center continued into the new school year, with completion expected in spring 2019.

Want to Help?

Donations are still being accepted for Many Voices.

Many Hands. All Burke’s. through the end of the 2018-19 school year, with funds going to the Campus Center building project as well as a larger endowment and greater classroom innovation.

Visit allburkes.org to learn more and make a gift!

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Pansy Day Congratulations to this year’s Pansy Day award winners: Georgia Malan Award Francesca Dizon Carissa Satuito May Hickey Award Arya Duggal Patricia Swanson Franklin Writing Award Amelia Skarupski Sophie Garcia Sarah Babcock Award Visual Arts Christina Chanchu Isabel Kong Performing Arts Orrie Rindal Jennifer Surjadi

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Julie Song Award Adeline Blaxter Head’s Award Arya Duggal Reilly French Head’s Cup Sonia Banker Outstanding Athlete Award Arya Duggal

VIEW MORE PHOTOS AT kdbs.org/pansy-day18

Wednesday, June 13 marked the annual tossing of pansies to fête our outgoing eighth graders.

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Commencement We bade a fond farewell to the 47 members of the Class of 2018 on Thursday, June 14.

Good luck to them as they head off to high school.

CLASS OF 2018 HIGH SCHOOL DESTINATIONS The Bay School of San Francisco Cate School Convent High School Drew School Dunn School George School International High School Lick-Wilmerding High School Marin Academy The Nueva School Phillips Exeter Academy Polytechnic School Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts Saint Ignatius College Preparatory

San Francisco University High School Santa Catalina School Stevenson School The Urban School

Congratulations as well to the members of Burke’s Class of 2014, who wrapped up four years of high school this spring and are heading to the institutions listed below.

CLASS OF 2014 COLLEGE DESTINATIONS Boston College Brown University Carleton College Chapman University Colorado School of Mines Elon College Georgetown University

VIEW MORE PHOTOS AT kdbs.org/ commencement18

Harvard University Ithaca College Middlebury College New York University Northeastern University Princeton University San Diego State University Stanford University Southern Methodist University Trinity College Tulane University United States Military Academy University of California, Berkeley University of California, Santa Barbara University of Colorado Boulder University of Pennsylvania University of St. Andrews University of Southern California University of Washington University of Wisconsin Wesleyan College Washington University

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KATHERINE DELMAR BURKE SCHOOL

At Burke’s, we teach our students to learn by making. They make their own inventions. They make works of art. They make connections between what they’re studying and real life.

With a donation to Burke’s Annual Fund, you can make magic happen.

MAKE a gift to Burke’s.

MAKE a difference for current and future students.

MAKE sure that the legacy of your Burke’s experience lives on.

Support your alma mater, fellow alumnae, beloved faculty and staff, and generations of Burke’s girls. Donate to the Annual Fund now at kdbs.org/give.

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Every gift, of any size, makes an impact.

MAKE yours today.

KAY DEE BEE MAGAZINE

Alumnae Updates

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s I write this, I learned that International Day of the Girl was just a few days ago! What a fitting time to introduce myself to you as your new President of our Burke’s Alumnae Association. I’m honored to take on this role, and I look forward to further strengthening our incredible alumnae community over the next two years.

One of my goals this year is to expand our Alumnae Mentorship Network — both in programming and in membership — with the help of your previous Alumnae Board President Katy Congdon Williams ’96, who is now serving as your VP of Mentorship. I know how important it is for women to lift each other up, even and perhaps especially now, and I feel passionately about connecting the amazing alumnae of Burke’s to help all of you do so.

Another goal is to support our alumnae’s continued efforts to give back to Burke’s. It’s an exciting time with the school’s ongoing capital campaign and the new Campus Center being built, and I’m enthusiastic about helping all alumnae get involved. And while this campaign effort is truly momentous, I’m also committed to continuing our support of Burke’s day-to-day activities via the Annual Fund. As your VP of Development for the last two years, last year we worked together to reach a new record high of 14% alumnae participation in Burke’s Annual Fund, making us a leader in alumni giving among our Bay Area peer schools — congrats, and thank you for your support last year!

While working towards these goals, I look forward to a fun, engaging year with all of you! I also welcome your feedback anytime — you can reach me at lauriecarrade@gmail.com.

Happy Day of the Girl,

LAURIE HANNA CARRADE ’92 President of the Alumnae Board

2018-19 Burke’s Alumnae Board Laurie Hanna Carrade ’92 President Max Boyer Glynn ’94 Vice President, Development Katy Congdon Williams ’96 Vice President, Mentorship Cary Cronholm Rose ’92 Vice President, Events Darby Gaynor Glickman ’98 Vice President, Events Danielle Broude Yokell ’96 Vice President, Governance Rachel Adam Rogers ’97 Vice President, Governance Clara Abecassis ’92 Aimee Fowler Carlson ’85 Kendel Qvale Duford ’97 Allison Broude Friedberg ’00 Bella Shen Garnett ’89 Lisa Harada ’03 Natalie Jamison ’98 Callie Ranahan ’06

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Corinne Rocca ’89

Corinne Rocca ’89 has spent her professional life empowering other women to make informed decisions about their health. As an epidemiologist and Associate Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, she researches the many facets of pregnancy and contraception around the world. She has also examined abortion access and effects in the United States and in Nepal in order to bring well-researched, scientific data to the political discussion and standards of care. After earning a bachelor’s degree in biology from Stanford University, she went on to Columbia University for her master’s in public health, and then came back to the Bay Area for her Ph.D. in epidemiology at the University of California, Berkeley. She and her family live in San Francisco.

What is your favorite memory from Burke’s?

Certainly the amazing teachers, strong academics, and the fostering of students’ creativity and athleticism are cornerstone memories of my time at Burke’s. My favorite memories, however, stem from the wonderful, lifelong friendships started there. To this day, my dearest friends are the strong and loving women I met there as a child. I remember reading together in the old library’s “pit”; creating and modeling fashions together in the sewing room; encouraging one another on crosscountry team runs out to Lands End. And, I remember sneaking behind the tennis courts and piercing one another’s ears (the misplaced holes remain, unfortunately!).

Burke’s girls were and are still who I rely on to support me through hard times, and also with whom I laugh the most. A Burke’s girl was with me when I gave birth to my son, and I even met my partner at a Burke’s girl’s wedding. Thirty years after graduating, the memories I make now are still frequently rooted in my Burke’s experience.

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What is something you learned at Burke’s that you still carry with you today?

The lyrics of some of the songs our Burke’s teachers wrote to help us remember the material they were teaching remain embedded in my memory decades later.

To make learning the Greek gods fun, Ms. Barton (fifth grade) wrote a song to the tune of “Jamaica Farewell” with lines including “Hephaestus forges lovely gifts for Aphrodite his wife, the goddess of love…” which she sang while strumming her guitar. Also forever etched into my brain is Mrs. Reb’s (Upper School Science) repetitive chant: “Xylem takes the water up, phloem brings the food down…” And anyone at Burke’s in the ’80s will remember Ms. Cameron’s (first grade) “Baby wants a cake, ay, ay, ay…” lyrics, designed to be sung while playing on a minipiano and to instill an understanding of long and short vowels.

What Burke’s experiences do you attribute to your personal or professional success?

Over nine years in green plaid and blue middies, I learned everything from addition to calculus, spelling to essay writing, from observing to the scientific method. Burke’s taught me to question what seems obvious, to try new ways to approach problems, and that the thrill of success can sometimes only be felt after weeks or months of effort.

Burke’s inspired me to choose a career in women’s reproductive health research, where I investigate the social causes of unintended pregnancy and how pregnancy affects women’s lives. Driven by the fundamental belief that the best way to change the world is to invest in and empower young women, I believe there is no more fundamental way to do that than to help them decide whether, when, and with whom to have their own children. Burke’s instilled in me a love of learning and the scientific method, and a sense of self-efficacy and responsibility toward my community and world.

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Lauren Markham ’97

When it comes to empowered Burke’s alumnae, there may not be anyone who fits the bill better than Lauren Markham ’97. An accomplished writer, Lauren has taken on such tough topics as climate change and migration in publications from Harper’s and The Atlantic to VICE and Mother Jones. Her book, The Far Away Brothers: Two Young Migrants and the Making of an American Life, was published by Crown in 2017 and, among a number of accolades, earned a Northern California Book Award and a place on the New York Times Book Critics’ Top Books of 2017 list. A graduate of Middlebury College, Lauren lives in the Bay Area, where she also teaches writing on the collegiate level and works at a high school for immigrant youth.

What three words or phrases come to mind when you hear “Katherine Delmar Burke School”?

I think of a commitment to friendship, a relishing of learning for learning’s sake, and to the belief that girls’ voices should be heard.

What would you tell incoming kindergarten families about the journey ahead?

If Burke’s today is anything like it once was, your child is attending a school that values learning and friendship; a place that supports girls to be and become themselves, to figure out what they believe in so they can manifest those beliefs into the world.

What is your favorite memory from Burke’s?

It’s nearly impossible to name a favorite memory from such a long, rich, and rewarding time in my life and schooling. But I have a particular memory of sitting in a circle on the floor in Mr. Johnston’s eighth-grade classroom, talking about the Holocaust and the nature of human morality — are people inherently good or bad? Do we learn evil, or

are we born with it within us? How do good people turn toward evil, and can they be redeemed? These were questions we posed to our teacher and one another. Mr. Johnston said, “Well, what do you think?” He showed us — like so many teachers at Burke’s did — that we were smart and worthy. We weren’t just receptacles for information, but agents of our own learning and discovery.

What is something you learned at Burke’s that you still carry with you today?

I learned so much from Burke’s — the order of the planets in the solar system, how to jump rope and do an isometric leg squat, the mathematical order of operations, the ecosystems of the rainforest and the coral reef, the injustices of history and the present day. I learned how to think for myself, how to print a photograph in the darkroom and watch it come to life, how to be considerate of others, how to read books with relish (and, for that matter, how to read at all!).

But I think most of all I learned the value of friendships — friendships that are deep,

committed, supportive, inspiring, and lifelong, friendships that inspire a person to manifest her best self in the world, knowing she has excellent people at her back.

What Burke’s experiences do you attribute to your personal or professional success?

I am quite sure that I owe the fact that I became a writer, in large part, to Burke’s. At Burke’s, storytelling and the written word were valued; we wrote stories about ourselves and the historical characters we researched; we read and relished books; we illustrated the myths we read in order to better understand them; we read primary source narratives from the Holocaust to give a human face to the brutal facts; in Mrs. Mosheim’s second-grade class, we were encouraged to memorize Emily Dickenson and other poems (“I’m Nobody/Who are you?”). It wasn’t enough just to learn the facts of something, but rather to put them into context; what did the facts of history or science or the words on a page mean to us, and mean for the world?

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alumnae

EVENTS

Top row, from left: Muriel Wolverton ’53, Grace Herrington Richard ’53, Mary Jones Kelley ’50, and Louise DeMartini Vejar ’50. Bottom row, from left: Jane Fortune Hickerson ’53, Lois Arnstein Roth ’53, Patricia Campbell Callender ’53, and Patricia Landis Hulting ’53.

Alumnae Reunion Weekend

For the first time in recent memory, the annual Alumnae Luncheon was joined by several new events in 2018 to create an Alumnae Reunion Weekend! The Luncheon is such a beautiful event every year, thanks to our Luncheon Chair Aimee Fowler Carlson ’85, so we expanded our celebration across two days and the additional events were met with great enthusiasm. The Estate Planning Seminar with Danielle Broude Yokell ’96 provided food for thought (and mimosas!) for alumnae across generations before the return of the annual luncheon at the Metropolitan Club in San Francisco, which featured remarks from Head of School Michele Williams and 2018 Distinguished Alumna Mary Shen O’Carroll ’90. Mary’s remarks at the Luncheon were moving, as she shared about her challenges growing up and how the environment at Burke’s and the values she learned helped to shape her into someone who asks questions, questions answers, and acts courageously to make things happen. (Read more on page 39.)

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Top row, from left: Nano Visser-Klein ’78, Ann McLeod Murphy ’78, Carol Rosenberg Berluti ’78, Robin Hauser ’78e, Laura Funsten Cornish ’78e, and Louisa Moore Consagra ’78e. Bottom row, from left: Head of School Michele Williams, Kimberly Fullerton ’77e, Amy Deneheim Dean ’77e, Jaimie Sanford ’77e, and Leslie Burke Dicke ’78e. (top right) The Class of 1983. Top row, from left: Carolyn Mannon Kryger, Heidi Temkin, Katherine Gundlach, and Libby Garrison.

Bottom row, from left: Jennifer Sampson, Julia Wong, Jennifer Baxter, and Rebecca Szeto. (top left)

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The Class of 1988. Top row, from left: Judy Hanna Cuneo, Leah Tolson Reichley, Ashley Celler Kennedy, Jennifer Mobley, Mimi Gannon, Annabel Wong, Katie Hultquist, Holly Johnson Williamson, Renee Sharp, Rachel Skiffer, and Betina Suessman Baumgarten. Bottom row, from left: Sara Rothenberg Hauck, Andrea Harcourt, June Kitagawa Sakamoto, Susan Peirce Thompson, Samantha Ching, Monique Rocca, and Cristina Tinio.

Top row, from left: Alice Galvin Chambers ’98, Emma Wosolowski ’98, Darby Gaynor Glickman ’98, Amanda Dowell ’98, and Chelsea Swank Rossman ’98. Bottom row, from left: Natalie Jamison ’98, Simona Khersonsky Barker ’98, Natalie Fuchs ’98, Tiffanie Tse ’99, and Katie Innes ’98.

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The Class of 1958. Top row, from left: Judith B. Martine, Ann Walker, Lynn Arias Bornstein, Nancy Bouton, Constance Biaggini Guittard, Susie Colomb Pfau, and Joan Sutton. Bottom row, from left: Virginia Hand Gaffney, Judith Glenda Pawsey, Joan Walkup Corrigan, Ann Edmiston Johnson, and Mary Shenk. (top) From left: Tracy Coss Green ’63, Ronda Calef ’63, Kathe Hardy ’63, Marjorie Pease Wilson ’63, and Ruthann Ballou Conway ’62. (right)

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Head of School Michele Williams leads attendees through a tour of Makery Up.

And the next day, Saturday’s Reunion Picnic brought members of milestone reunion years back to Burke’s with partners, children, and parents for a student-led campus tour and a picnic on the front lawn. This casual, sunny Saturday also served as a final alumnae farewell to the Lower School classrooms and the Lunchroom, as construction was about to begin on the revitalized classrooms and our forthcoming Campus Center.

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A few alumnae relived P.E. tests on the Utility Court.

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The Class of 2003. From left: Chiara Kuryan, Lianna Leal, Katherine Abbey Prill, Caroline Qvale Marshall, and Lisa Harada. (right) Families enjoyed a lunch catered by Tacolicious on the front field. (bottom)

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2018 DISTINGUISHED ALUMNA AWARD:

MARY SHEN O’CARROLL ’90

The Katherine Delmar Burke School Distinguished Alumna Award is given each year to an alumna who embodies the value at the heart of the school’s mission to educate, encourage, and empower girls. The recipient exemplifies a life of learning, service to community, individuality, and the ability to make a difference in the world. The awardees are nominated by the alumnae community and voted on by the Alumnae Board.

Mary Shen O’Carroll ’90 is Head of the Legal Operations, Technology and Strategy team at Google, where she is responsible for overseeing key aspects of law firm management, systems/tools, and internal operations.

During her tenure at Google, Mary has been recognized by the American Bar Association as Legal Rebel in 2016, by LegalTech News as Legal Department Operations Director of the Year in 2016, by The Recorder as leading the Legal Operations Department

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of the Year in 2015, and by the International Legal Technology Association for Innovative Legal Department of the Year in 2015.

Mary is also a passionate leader pushing forward disruptive technology and processes designed to change the future of the legal industry. To support that agenda, she is a Leader of CLOC (Corporate Legal Operations Consortium), whose mission is to help legal operations professionals and other core corporate legal industry players optimize the legal service delivery model.

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something if you just put your head down and powered through it. Burke’s mission is to educate, encourage, and empower girls.

They did just that with me, and I felt armed and ready to take on the world.

The following is excerpted from the speech Mary Shen O’Carroll delivered at the Alumnae Reunion Luncheon on June 1, 2018:

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am truly honored to have been named Burke’s Distinguished Alumna. I’ve sat in your seats for years and admired many of the accomplished women who have stood up here and inspired me with their leadership and words.

I remember many of them as Burke’s girls — often, girls older than me who I looked up to; girls who were popular, smart, athletic; the girls who you knew were going to be successful, were going to be somebody someday. Well, I can tell you how surprised I was when I got the letter letting me know I’d been chosen this year. I wish I could tell you that I was one of those girls, but let me paint you a picture of my very different reality. After kindergarten at Burke’s, I moved to Hong Kong for a few years and returned for fifth grade. I was an outsider and experienced major culture shock when moving back. I wore my socks pulled up because that’s what it said to do in the handbook.

I returned with braces — and at times, neck gear. And at the beginning of sixth grade, I was diagnosed with severe triple curve scoliosis, a curvature of the spine. As a result, I had to wear a rigid body brace made of thick, hard plastic from underarm to hip, 23 hours a day for the next six years. In addition to being uncomfortable and limiting mobility, the brace caused my muscles to atrophy, so needless to say I wasn’t an athlete, and you can forget about any attention from boys.

You can imagine the joy I felt at 18 when I was about to go off to college and was told I could finally live free of that brace. Instead of being traumatized, shy, and quiet, I felt like a butterfly emerging from this tight, rigid cocoon. I had learned so much about myself and, interestingly, about others. Now, I won’t sugarcoat it and say that everyone treated me with kindness and respect through the years, because there were definitely the kids (who I can’t blame for just being kids) who hurt my feelings. But at a place like Burke’s, I felt so fortunate that there were also amazing people: true friends, wonderful teachers, and a supportive community who never let me feel like I was any different from anyone else. While I was never super smart, pretty, or athletic in my youth, I was accepted, and this allowed me to grow up surprisingly confident. And I learned very quickly to stop caring so much about what others thought, and that it was OK to be different, and that it was possible to overcome

Burke’s was a place that embraced diversity of thought, that focused on intellectual curiosity and the desire to learn and stick with things. Those qualities have stuck with me through my career. I studied business and finance and had a few roles in banking and consulting before I accidentally fell into a role at an international law firm in business operations working for the COO. I had no background in law, but from my very first day there, I started challenging the firm to think differently and to innovate in an industry that felt frozen in time. I later joined Google in a newly created area called legal operations. I continued to be an industry disruptor and pioneered this role that no one had ever heard of to a point where every legal department around the world was scrambling to hire for it. We are collectively demanding that legal services be delivered more efficiently and effectively, and this has resulted in a major uptick in legal technology development and investment, in firms creating innovation centers to rethink their existing business models, and in law schools working to change their curricula to better prepare for lawyers of the future. I’m often called innovative and disruptive — two words I frankly disagree with and really don’t understand, because to me, being innovative or disruptive just means taking something that currently exists and trying to do it a little differently. I don’t think I’ve done anything to warrant recognition: I’ve simply tried to solve problems that I encounter. I’m a fixer.

I have always admired those people who learn about something they feel is broken and then become so fixated on it that finding a solution becomes their passion. Take the teenage boy who learned about the floating island of plastic garbage in the Pacific Ocean the size of Texas. People said that there was nothing we could do about this, that we could only stop it from getting worse. He didn’t find that acceptable, and now he has created a machine that will clean up 50 percent of it in just five years. Or how about the folks who started ride-sharing app Lyft because they thought there must be a better way to get from point A to point B? And it doesn’t have to be about technology. The biggest medical advancement in improving birth survival rates was recognizing the need for hand-washing. It simply takes someone with initiative and an act of courage to step out and make something happen. You should know that they’ll call you crazy and rebellious and a misfit. But you should also know that if have passion and perseverance, anything is possible — and they’ll be calling you “innovative” and “disruptive” in no time.

So thank you to Burke’s, for all that you did to educate and mold me and for all that you are continuing to do for our future generations. Every time I set foot on campus or at an alumnae event, I am reminded of the power of our timeless shared experiences and of the positive impact that Burke’s core values continue to have on all of us. Thank you for granting me this Distinguished Alumna award; I couldn’t be more proud and humbled to receive it.

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CLASS NOTES

Alumnae Updates From Burke’s CLASS OF 1948 DIANE NICKERSON HOWARD reports that her grandson, Cory Howard, graduated from medical school and is doing his residency in the ER in Syracuse, N.Y., at the State University of New York.

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CLASS OF 1964 KATHERINE MERRILL COOPMAN writes in to let us know that she has finally retired from her position as executive director at Nancy Buck Ransom Foundation in Monterey, which grants $2 million a year to youth programs and education.

CLASS OF 1967 SHERRY MAILLIARD KAMMERER: “It was great fun to come to San Francisco for my 50th reunion and reunite with ladies I haven’t seen in 30 years since our 20th reunion!”

From L-R: Terrel Hutton (getting a kiss from Emily’s dog Rocket), Emily Hobin Janowsky, and Lisa Guggenhime Hauswirth, Vaughan Woodson and Benicia Gantner standing behind.

CLASS OF 1968 GAY FRENCH-OTTAVIANI says, “We still live in our house in Pound Ridge, N.Y. Lorenzo commutes to New York City for his job with the architect Peter Marino. Lorenzo is behind all the books and the logo of a recent restaurant design. I am semi-retired, working three days a week at the domestic violence agency Hope’s Door, counseling and advocating for survivors. I work with a task force in my community to create services in our northeast corner of Westchester.

I still have my SAG card and go to conservatory classes considering an alternate way to earn.

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We have a few neighbors and friends we see in the area, but mostly we live a quiet country life watching the birds at the bird feeder and the squirrels muscle in. Not sure what my next adventure will be. I would welcome emails from former Burke’s classmates and friends.”

CLASS OF 1978

CLASS OF 1971

SHERYL T. ISHIZAKI is currently the Director of Food and Beverage at The Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel.

CARY MATTHEWS NOWELL has moved back to San Francisco from Marin County, and she stages

homes for real estate market, many of which are in Pacific Heights. “It’s fun to come full circle,” she says.

HOLLY A. JOHNSON: “I work at Berkeley Law now. It was so wonderful to see my classmates

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CLASS OF 1992 MONIQUE PHILLIPS-PFLAGER: “Hi all! We are happy to welcome Quinn Annabella Pflager, born August 18, 2018! Three girls! Big sisters Cecilia Ann (Class of 2020) and Piper Rose are thrilled to welcome their baby sister — future Burke’s girl Class of 2032.”

CLASS OF 1996 CATHERINE “KATE” SANGER writes in to say that she and her husband Brandon Yoder became parents in 2017 to their “sparkling” daughter Cendana Evelyn Sanger-Yoder, otherwise known as Dani. The family lives in Singapore where Kate continues to work as a professor and academic administrator at Yale-NUS College.

at a dinner in May. I see KATHERINE “KATHY” WRIGHT a lot in Colorado.”

LESLIE MAYER is still working in international commercial real estate in Los Angeles and has a successful second business breeding and selling jumping horses in the Netherlands.

CLASS OF 1984 EMILY HOBIN JANOWSKY: “Several of us got together in July, and as always, we talked and laughed for hours!” (01) ANNE TOLPEGIN: “I’m a professional actress and have lived in NYC for about 20 years, with lots of travel in between. I primarily work on stage, in Broadway and off-Broadway musicals and plays, and do some TV work as well. I just shot an episode for Marvel’s “Iron First” on Netflix, and I’m currently a standby for Mrs. Lovett in “Sweeney Todd” off-Broadway at the Barrow Street Theatre.”

CLASS OF 1988 RACHEL SKIFFER has returned to the West Coast to take the position of Head of School at Khan Lab School in Mountain View. She had been the Dean of Policy and Strategic Planning at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass.

SUSAN PEIRCE THOMPSON reports that she handed back tenure in 2016 and “is on a mission to get one million people living in a right-sized body by 2030.” Her first book, Bright Line Eating: The Science of Living Happy, Thin, and Free, was published in 2017 and became a New York Times bestseller.

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CLASS OF 2004 PIPER CONNOLLY lets us know that she graduated from Santa Clara University with a degree in mechanical engineering, and she is currently project managing construction of terminals at San Francisco International Airport.

CLASS OF 2007 LAUREN ARNOLD was spotted performing in “My Fair Lady” as a member of the Pacifica Spindrift Players in Pacifica. “She’s finishing up training to be a kindergarten teacher, while also continuing with her love for theater,” says Upper School math teacher Joy Cooper, who caught the second-to-last performance in September 2018. (02)

CLASS OF 2010 GEORGIA ARNAUTOU says, “I graduated from University of Portland on May 6, 2018. I took a few weeks off to spend time with my family and friends in San Francisco. I returned to Portland in June to start a graduate school program. It’s called PACE. I’ll take classes at the University of Portland in the summer for the next three summers, and I’ll be teaching first grade during the school year in Yakima, Washington!”

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JULIA NEMY graduated in May 2018 from Bates College in Maine with degrees in French and environmental studies. Her proud dad Jeff lets us know that she earned a Fulbright Student award to spend a year in Rwanda helping students improve their English skills as the country transitions its official language from French to English. Her senior thesis at Bates involved the creation of an oral history project for the Djiboutian community in Lewiston, ME. (03)

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CLASS OF 2011 JAELAH HUTCHISON is a junior at Colgate University and member of the women’s volleyball team.

CLASS OF 2013 MAYA COWAN: “I just joined Delta Gamma sorority!”

ELEONOR WOLF: “After graduating from Groton School in June, I spent my fall semester of college studying in London, and am now at Hamilton College, on the club soccer team, Campus Activities Board, involved in volunteer organizations, and will be joining the varsity squash team next winter. Sending love to all my Burke’s girls across the country!”

Thanks to the alumnae who met up with us at the Cosmopolitan Club in NYC on the night of Thursday, April 12, 2018. We had a lovely time chatting with you all — including graduates from the Class of 1959 up to 2009!

BLYTHE ENGEL: “I am currently studying psychology and possibly doing an interdisciplinary [degree] in kinesiology. This summer, I plan to get EMT certified, and I’m having a ton of fun!”

CLASS OF 2014 GILLIAN KELLEY writes in to say that she will be studying History and International Relations at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland!

Top row, left to right: Isabella Hutchinson ’77e, Heather Fullerton ’80, Anne Tolpegin ’84, Sarah Stephens ’82, Head of School Michele Williams, Arielle Sacks ’09, Maggie Stack Sprenger ’94, Rachel Kirwan Hickey ’95, Stina Skewes-Cox Trainor ’96, Director of Advancement Selena Shadle. Bottom row, left to right: Associate Director of Advancement Diana Kaw, Samantha Kaplan ’09, Camille

Jonathan Erb, the father of ALEJANDRA ERB, writes with the news that Alejandra has received a grant from Swarthmore College to go on a medical mission to Guatemala as a translator. (04, previous page)

GENEVIEVE MCCLOY graduated from St. Ignatius College Preparatory.

Marcon ’08, Sinclaire O’Grady ’09, and Meena Bolourchi ’00. (left)

CHARLOTTE LEHMANN: “Heading off to college with two other Burke’s girls, and I still miss that place so much! Will always be my second home.”

Sarah Stephens ’82, Rachel Kirwan Hickey ’95, Jennifer Egan ’76e, and Stina Skewes-Cox Trainor ’96. (top right)

CATHERINE DANA is currently rowing for Duke University’s women’s rowing team.

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CASEY SCHRYER reports that she is making her collegiate theatre debut as Cinderella in “Into the Woods”!

SARAH MAHNKE-BAUM says that she is taking her freshman year in college to study fashion design in Florence, Italy.

Anne Tolpegin ’84 and Marjorie Kahn Reed Gordon ’59 (bottom right)

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In Memoriam Burke’s is proud of its long legacy of graduating strong, confident women.

We sadly report and mourn the loss of these members of our alumnae family.

Berte Alden Olson ’42

Harriett Hills Stinson ’43

Alice McAllister Wright ’48

Georgiana Peters Borroughs ’48

Noel Shoemaker Norton ’48

Nini Charles McCone ’51

Audrey Lederer Wells ’77

*As of October 23, 2018

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KATHERINE DELMAR BURKE SCHOOL

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FROM THE ARCHIVES

FOR THE RECORD

O

ver the decades, many a yearbook or middy have been returned to the alumnae office at Burke’s after the unfortunate passing of the alumna to whom they once belonged. But once in a while, we’ll receive a whole package of mementos, including this memory book, which now resides in the Archive Room.

Labeled “My Graduation Journal,” this leather-bound volume belonged to Eleanor Wild ’34, who – at the time – lived at 3535 Clay Street. It does contain many of the usual artifacts, including photos and green-and-gold ribbons. But Eleanor went a step beyond, going so far as to press blooms from Pansy Day onto a page labeled for “Interesting Events and Frolics.”

All in all, the journal illustrates a vivid portrait of one of the many Burke’s girls who have walked under those pansies over the decades.

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The Visser sisters. From left: Maura Visser ’79, Briana Visser ’83, Deirdre Visser ’84, Maeve Visser Knoth ’77e, Granya Visser O’Neill ’75e, and Nano Visser-Klein ’78

Tracing Burke’s

ROOTS THE VISSER FAMILY

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f you’ve set foot on the Burke’s campus at any point in the last 50 years, you’ve more than likely shared space with a member or two of the Visser family. Not only did six daughters and three granddaughters graduate (or are in the process of graduating) from Burke’s, but several in that first generation — including a brother — returned to campus to work and volunteer multiple times over the decades.

Aislinn Klein ’97

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The first four Visser girls who went to Burke’s: Nano, Granya, Maura, and Maeve.

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The story of how those nine Visser women received an education at Burke’s has a fairly unusual beginning. When the oldest of the Visser girls were attending their local elementary school in the 1970s, the school was reconfigured from a K-6 school to K-3, so their parents began looking for other options. “David Fleishhacker calls things like he sees them, and my dad really likes his directness,” Maeve says. “My parents also appreciated Ms. Malan in the Lower School and felt that each of us was seen as an individual by everyone at the school.”

Her mother, Eleanor, was a dedicated volunteer at that K-3 school, so the younger Visser girls enrolled at Burke’s starting in their fourth-grade years. In 1972, Nano started at Burke’s as a seventh grader and Maeve as a fourth grader, with Maura and Granya beginning their time at Burke’s the year after that. “I had wonderful teachers who taught me a love of learning and showed me that I could choose my own path and be a strong, independent woman,” Nano says. In fact, a couple of the sisters gravitated toward women’s colleges thanks to their Burke’s experience.

The story of how several of those daughters ended up returning in a variety of positions is a little more traditional. Maeve began working for Bobbie Meyer’s summer day camp while in high school, later teaching at Burke’s in a “jack-of-all-trades position” that included P.E. and the newspaper. When Nano became a professional photographer, she took a part-time position as a bookkeeper with Nan Bouton. “It was like coming home — although many things had changed, there were familiar faces (Joan Taylor Ashley, for example), but the dedication to making Burke’s the best possible place to educate and empower girls was still firmly in place,” she says.

The next generation of Vissers at Burke’s started quite early, as Nano brought her newborn daughter, Aislinn, to the office several times in a porta crib. “When our daughter was born, I wanted to give her the gift my parents had given me, so we sent her to Burke’s too,” Nano says. “I was so thrilled when Aislinn started at the school — and I was delighted to be involved in the community again.” Aislinn graduated in 2005, several years before her cousins Grace and Nora enrolled.

Aislinn Klein ’05

Nano Visser-Klein ’78

Maeve Visser Knoth ’77e

Right: Grace ’18 and Nora ’20, the most recent Visser girls

Their dad, Sean, may not have been a Burke’s boy, but he spent plenty of time on campus. On the poster bidding farewell to the Lunchroom (see page 28), he wrote: “I remember as a boy watching my sisters perform their class plays on this stage. I remember working for Bobbie Meyer here at Club EarthTrek (my first real job) and playing with the campers in here.” Today, he is often seen on campus as a volunteer, including as Festival chair over multiple years, and his wife Kate is the lead teacher in Tree House.

The family attributes its dedication to Burke’s not just to the student experience, but to Eleanor, the Visser matriarch, who died in 2014: “Throughout her lifetime, she modeled curiosity and engagement in our vast, fascinating, and complex world, and I’ve no doubt she championed Burke’s for its culture of learning as well as its educational resources,” Deirdre says.

Grace Visser ’18

The Visser Family Tree Granya Visser O’Neill ’75e

Above: Head of School Michele Williams and Upper School Director Rebekah Wolman with Festival Chair Sean Visser in 2015

Maura Visser ’79

Sean Visser

J. Hugh Visser

Eleanor Visser

Nora Visser ’20

Briana Kate McQuillen Visser ’83 Visser

Deirdre Visser ’84

Brendan Visser

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BA R BA R A B U R K E LE G AC Y S O C I E T Y

Planned Giving

at Katherine Delmar Burke School The lessons I learned and the relationships I built during my time at Burke’s motivate me to make sure Katherine Delmar Burke School continues to have the resources necessary to carry out its same critical mission to educate, encourage, and empower girls for years to come.

— KIMBERLY FULLERTON ’77e member of the Barbara Burke Legacy Society

For more information about making a gift through your estate plans or another type of or

Burke’s is grateful for the many gifts it has received over the years through estate plans. These gifts are a way to ensure that our mission not only continues, but thrives for years to come. By including Katherine Delmar Burke School in your estate planning, your gift has a long-lasting impact on the school — just as Burke’s has made an impact on you.

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planned gift, please contact Selena Shadle at 415.666.3204 or selena@ kdbs.org. You can also visit our Planned Giving website at kdbs.org/ plannedgiving.

KAY DEE BEE MAGAZINE

Ways to Give CASH, CHECK, OR CREDIT CARD

PLANNED GIVING

OTHER DEFERRED GIFTS

Gifts of cash, typically payable by check, and credit card gifts are tax deductible and provide immediate funds to the school. The easiest way to give is online at www.kdbs.org/give.

The Barbara Burke Legacy Society honors alumnae, past parents, grandparents, current parents, and friends who have remembered Burke’s by bequest in their estate plans or who have made a life income gift or other type of planned gift. You can become a member by:

It is possible to make gifts of property that may allow income tax benefits for the donor during his or her lifetime, may be used during the lifetime of the donor, and which would revert to Burke’s, with possible estate tax savings. Institutions can achieve stability and growth through planned giving. Contact your tax adviser for specific advice that relates to your particular circumstances.

You can also send a check to: Katherine Delmar Burke School Advancement Office 7070 California Street San Francisco, CA 94121

MATCHING GIFTS Many companies offer their employees the opportunity to double or, in some cases, triple their gifts to certain programs or organizations by matching them. Please check with your employer about their Matching Gift Program.

SECURITIES & PROPERTY Gifts of stocks, other securities, or property have two significant advantages to the donor — they are tax deductible for the full fair market value of the gift when it is made, and the donor does not pay capital gains on the appreciated value of the stock or property. Contact the Advancement Office for more information on making a gift of securities or property.

• placing Burke’s in your will • making Burke’s the beneficiary of a retirement account • making a gift of a life insurance policy (a gift of life insurance can result in tax savings and can be made through an existing or a new life insurance policy) • establishing a charitable trust • making a gift of real estate or other tangible property Each of these gifts can result in substantial tax savings for the donor. Please consult the Advancement Office or your tax adviser for more information.

Please notify the Advancement Office if you have made a deferred or planned gift to Burke’s so that you will be included in The Barbara Burke Legacy Society.

GIFTS IN KIND Burke’s welcomes donations such as classroom supplies, athletic equipment, and other items related to the educational program, as well as donations of auction items to the annual Burke’s Benefit. Gift value is determined by the donor through appraisal or a record of purchase. Please contact the Advancement Office if you would like to make a gift in kind.

For more information about making a gift of any type, please contact Selena Shadle, Director of Advancement, at 415.666.3204 or selena@kdbs.org. To make a gift online, please visit www.kdbs.org/give.

SPRING 2019

Nonprofit Org. U.S. Postage Paid San Francisco, CA Permit No. 1734

KATHERINE DELMAR BURKE SCHOOL 7070 CALIFORNIA STREET SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121 WWW.KDBS.ORG