16 minute read
Alumni
Educators in Service
Hey alumni! As we begin the 2021 - 2022 school year, we wanted to take a moment to look back and honor our amazing educators for their dedication to Cannon School!
Our faculty, staff, coaches, bus drivers, and administrators have always made Cannon an incredible community. If you are interested in honoring one, simply scan the QR code to leave a message of thanks and make a gift in their name.
And to make it fun, why not donate an amount that matches their number of years of service listed below? For example, if you loved what Dr. Rebecca Eury taught you, donate $16, representative of the number of years she has served the school. You’ll be able to leave her a message of thanks!
FACULTY
Name, Years of Service Tim Aldridge, 14 Sabrina Amann, 4 Jady Arriaga-Arango, 4 Logan Arthur, 8 Wendy Benz, 16 Jamie Bolton, 2 Tom Booker, 16 Paul Borowicz, 8 Courtney Brayboy, 1 Jennifer Brooks, 6 Kaitlin Bumgarner, 2 Rob Burlington, 10 Claire Cabellos, 2 Emily Carney, 2 Ashley F Cherry, 5 Stuart Coale, 14 Christiana Colacion, 2 Amanda Connell, 13 John Cooke, 26 Melanie Coughlin, 5 Kay Craven, 9 Joe Dally, 6 Brad Davis, 16 Cathy Diehl, 10 Deanna Dobbins, 11 Lori Dorfman, 20 Lauren Downs, 3 Kelvin Drakeford, 10 Sara Dreiman, 4 Mark Dunn, 21 Becca Eury, 16 Olivia Pettigrew-Fanzo, 3 Julia Finneyfrock, 7 Solomon Fleckman, 2 Kevin Fox, 8 Melissa Fox, 15 Claire Gardin, 4 Molly Kennedy Garvey, 3 Melissa Gates, 5 Lidia Calles-Gholdston, 4 Amy Hall, 10 Megan Hartley, 4 Donnie Hayes, 14 Brandon Herder, 11 Angela Hernandez, 4 Anne Hoffman, 14 Mike Hoffman, 24 Jennifer Holston, 2 Christiana Holyer, 6 Laura Huffman, 16 Megan Hughes, 6 Mush Hughes, 5 Teresita Hurtado, 14 Kelly Hutchinson, 3 Paula Hylton, 14 Krista Johns, 15 Catherine Jones, 12 Lu Jones, 10 Nisa Kalambaheti, 4 Megan Kelly, 4 Judy Killam, 13 Mark Kmidowski, 17 Jessica Kulp, 8 Bev Kungl, 9 Natalie Legra, 7 Beth Lineberger, 15 Ellen Loflin, 8 Lori Macdonald, 6
Andrew Macdonald, 10 Russell Marks, 15 Kenan Mattsson, 8 Jeremy Mattsson, 14 Yarissa Maxey, 10 Kristin McClanahan, 11 Debbie Mckinsey, 12 Jeanette Milam, 10 Sarah Miller, 9 Marlin Mogusu, 4 Marie Morgann, 16 Sylvia Newman, 23 Elizabeth Northrup, 18 Leigh Northrup, 21 Chase O'Brien, 4 Heather Oswald, 6 Aimee Pfitzner, 24 Rendi Powers, 10 Brandon Powers, 20 Sue Ramsey, 7 Julie Reulbach, 8 Jennifer Ridenhour, 9 Kathy Riley, 23 Danielle Robinson, 9 Nathaniel Rogers, 10 Erin Ross, 5 Jennifer Ross, 9 Eric Ruddy, 9 Anne Marie Samuel, 12 Danielle Sandlof, 8 Teresa Schmitt, 11 Danny Scurlock, 19 Michelle Shanahan, 4 William Sinden, 3 Richard Smith, 6 Hilary Smith (US/MS), 6 Hilary Smith (LS), 7 Connie Stavrakas, 10 Kristen Stephens, 21 Xiaozhao Sun, 11 Annalee Taylor, 6 Chris Taylor, 15 Emily Thompson, 9 Megan Thompson, 14 Joe Trojan, 15 Sally Trufant, 13 Kyle Tsuchiyama, 2 Claudia Velandia, 14 Tracy Wade, 20 Heidi Waibel, 1 Kelli Waller, 6 Lirong Wang, 13 Kim Watt, 7 Jennifer Weakland, 5 Keith West, 20 Stephen Wildfeuer, 7 Christopher Williams, 3 Josh Zebracki, 3 Michelle Zelaya, 10
STAFF
Name, Years of Service Marygrace Blubaugh, 6 Damon Bostick, 10 Kelly Brattain, 4 Whit Brown, 14 Dennis Buchanan, 15 Pamela Bullard, 5 Laurie Burlington, 5 Gail Camp, 11 Boyce Chapman, 4 Christina Coffield, 2 Mandy Craft, 9 Emily Davis, 11 Daniel Diorio, 8 Katherine Diorio, 20 Bill Diskin, 15 Bill Donovan, 6 Bernadette Eaton, 2 Shelly Edwards, 14 Mark Ferguson, 7 Tanya Galla, 2 Jerrylyn Hyman-Green, 10 Todd Hartung, 11 Hannah Holliway, 3 Stacie Hopes, 6 Suzanne Howard, 19 Karen Hulin, 4 Fabio Hurtado, 13 David P. Ibsen, 5 Kyle Jacksic, 2 Christoper Jones, 3 Lee Jones, 3 Stephen Kahn, 3 Katie LaRue, 2 Andrew Legra, 4 Beth Levanti, 9 Teresa Magaha, 12 Dan Maples, 3 Gordon Maxfield, 4 Jennifer Mcqueen, 10 Ken Mcqueen, 20 Laura Morgan, 2 Carla Moyer, 21 Regina Nixon, 2 Kathy Olson, 4 Debra Otey, 11 Darryl Overcash, 9 Shawn Powell, 8 Rod Rachal, 19 John Reeves, 2
Our faculty and staff have always made Cannon School an incredible community . If you are an alum and interested in honoring one of the educators listed above, simply scan the QR code to leave a message and make a gift in their name . Amy Reiss, 7 Robin Riemersma, 11 Sydney Ross, 3 Lindsey Ross, 3 Mikayla Ross, 3 Che Roth, 9 Lisa Scurlock, 8 Jenna Smith, 2 Jason Storr, 7 Patrice Thompson, 14 Tram Tran, 4 Andrea Trembath, 9 Noah Wells, 3 Luke Wells, 8 Beth Wilner, 5 Danny Wyke, 11 Alice Yow, 5
Hillary Gruce
Creativity in Action
Through academics, athletics, arts, and more, Cannon School allows students to create and develop a strong foundation for their future. This journey includes learning to step outside of our comfort zones and thinking critically, but also creatively. As we venture into the world as alumni, we steadily build upon this foundation. As we hone our passions and talents, we also continue to think beyond their boundaries.
This creativity in action is showcased in this issue of the magazine. In the alumni section, you will read about two alumnae who have taken their artistic abilities and branched out in creative new ways. You will also read about those alumni who have earned the inaugural Distinguished Alumni Awards for their commitment and creativity in their fields. The Class Notes section highlights the accomplishments and milestones of our alumni over the past few months.
As alumni, we are continuously growing and building upon the foundation established at Cannon in unique and creative ways. We look forward to sharing the continued accomplishments of all our Cannon alumni!
Sincerely,
Hillary Gruce ‘08 Alumni Board President Cannon School Alumni Association
Alumni
Alumni SPOTLIGHTS
Cannon has always treasured our love for the arts and celebrated our students’ artistic accomplishments, encouraging them to step outside of the box. To celebrate Cannon’s creativity and our alumni achieving their goals in their artistic fields, we are highlighting two alumnae who have taken their creativity and grown their dreams beyond expectations, from incorporating fine art skills into a unique area of design and creatively using materials for unexpected beauty.
Hanna Klein ’09
Bringing Art into Packaging Hanna’s artistic roots are based in the fine arts, and she credits a lot of her skills to the investment by Cannon’s faculty. When reflecting on her time at Cannon, Hanna shared, “It was so nice to have Ms. Armstrong as a consistent art teacher who watched me develop my creative eye and assisted in my progress. She got to know me so well and that is what I love about Cannon. With Ms. Armstrong, she was the consistent person I felt comfortable with. She would push but also inspire and help us figure out our artistic route. This was great in helping me build my confidence in my creative ability.”
During her time in the Upper School, Hanna’s graphic design class allowed her to narrow her focus while still harnessing all of her fine art skills. “Graphics was something that pushed me and used my creative mindset while also incorporating my leadership and management skills,” she recalled.
Hanna went on to graduate from The Ohio State University with a degree in visual communications. It was there she discovered her love of packaging. “I was so fascinated by packaging and color theory—the concept that different colors can make you feel a certain way. This exposure made me realize I had always gravitated towards packaging but never really knew it. When I was younger, I collected unique packages that stood out, but it just seemed like a strange hobby. So, in essence, I was always working towards this area of design.”
Flash forward to today and Hanna is working as the Design Director of Packaging for Keys Soulcare in New York City. The Keys brand is owned by e.l.f. Cosmetics and was co-created with singer-songwriter Alicia Keys. “I find it cool that I’m actually doing what I want to do, using my degree and the things I’ve learned. Everything I’ve experienced has led up to working in packaging and I love that what I’ve created is actually being picked up and experienced throughout the world. Knowing people may be choosing the products based on the designs I’m creating? I love that part of it.”
Hanna Klein and Belinda Armstrong, former arts director at Cannon
The Keys Soulcare product line. All packaging design was created by Hanna in collaboration with Alicia Keys.
Hannah Stewart Yanetsko ’16
Conventional Materials in Unconventional Ways For Hannah, art has always been her passion, starting from an early age when she used whatever she could get her hands on. “I started painting when I was 11 and I used whatever I could find in my garage. We had this plastic toolbox, and it was full of random little things. I would use the nuts and bolts and paint them and put them on things. I have to say that roofing tar is probably one of the oddest things that I found in that garage toolbox, and I still use it today. I also have to give credit to my mother for the coffee grounds.”
Hannah’s process to bring her pieces to life is to melt beeswax down and then paint a layer over top. She then creates a mixture of coffee grounds and tar to exfoliate the piece to bring out the different textures within the wax. It’s a process she still uses today but enjoys reminiscing about how she took her creative materials from the garage into the classroom at Cannon. “Mr. Rogers can attest to all this, but I would come in with a Tupperware full of my mom’s coffee grounds, tar, and wax. I remember bringing this double boiler I found at Goodwill that I would use to melt the wax and use it at school. It would smoke up the whole art room and it has this really distinct smell, so I vividly remember that, and yes, I still do that today.”
It was during the pandemic that Hannah found her love for painting again. “While I was home all day, every day, with my newborn daughter, I just started having that creative itch again and wanted to start painting. So, I went back to my mom's house and found some old panels and just started painting. I posted a painting that I did on Instagram, just kind of doing it for me, and someone reached out and asked if a painting that I had sitting in my laundry room was still available. I decided to basically sell it for nothing, and it just took off from there.”
“This has been a ten-year pursuit, but I’ve really kind of been rediscovering and redefining. I think all these years that I've painted off and on, especially at Cannon, was so exploratory. I really had my style, from what I've always done, but I feel like now I really found my voice and that was a huge step. I think the part of finding your voice as an artist is so amazing. I love the work I'm creating now because it's so authentic. So, crossing into that is really great and when it comes to my daughter, I don’t know that I would have returned to my first love without her!”
Painting from Hannah’s new body of work, Return To My First Love
Hannah’s first art sale, reigniting her love for painting
Hannah and her daughter, Adeline, delivering her new body of work to Art & Light Gallery in Greenville, SC.
Distinguished A L U M N I A W A R D S
The Distinguished Alumni Awards were established in 2020 to honor Cannon School alumni and faculty who have distinguished themselves through outstanding achievements in their profession, leadership to others, philanthropy and service to others, and the arts while exemplifying the core values of Cannon School.
The nomination process for this inaugural year was highly competitive, with many Cannon alumni and faculty members submitted for consideration. We are grateful to the members of our Cannon community who shared compelling nominations and to the members of our Selection Committee whose thoughtful deliberations selected this distinctive and deserving group.
I N A U G U R A L A W A R D R E C I P I E N T S
Jess Ekstrom ’09
Distinguished Alumni Award After graduating from Cannon School, Jess went on to North Carolina State University to earn a degree in communications and media studies. While at NC State, Jess interned at a wish-granting organization for kids with life-threatening illnesses where she discovered that kids loved wearing headbands after treatments causing hair loss. This sparked her imagination and lead to the creation of her business Headbands of Hope, which she launched during her junior year. Since its inception, Headbands of Hope has donated one headband for every one purchased, allowing her to donate to every children’s hospital in America and fifteen other countries. Jess is also the author of two books, The Freshman Fabulous: The Girl’s Guide to College, published in 2015, and Chasing the Bright Side in 2019. She is an acclaimed public speaker focused on themes of leadership, philanthropy, social entrepreneurship, millennial engagement, and work empowerment. She has used her public speaking experience to focus on elevating and promoting more female speakers through her Mic Drop Workshop, helping them find their mission and perfect their skills.
Patrick Murphy ’11
Young Alumni Award For Patrick, food is his life and passion, and after graduating from Cannon, he earned his degree in culinary arts from Johnson & Wales University in 2013. Patrick started his career in the roles of sous chef and executive chef with several well-known restaurants, including P.F. Chang’s, Red Rocks, and Famous Toastery. He also started his own catering business, Chef Patrick Presents, with which he provides catered culinary experiences or private chef services in the Charlotte area. Patrick has had the privilege of working at The Masters Tournament in Augusta, Georgia, for several years. In 2019, he and his family acquired the locally renowned, farm-to-fork restaurant, Heirloom, where he now carries on the restaurant’s legacy by conceiving culinary creations with locally sourced foods from sixty area farms. Patrick has since moved the restaurant to its new location in Belmont, North Carolina, with plans to add a bakery, butcher shop, and breakfast joint.
Jacquelin Harris ’10
Distinguished Alumni in the Arts Jacquelin began her dance career at Dance Productions Studios when she was two years old and has since found her way to the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater company stage in New York City. She has studied at Joffrey Ballet School and The School at Jacob’s Pillow, and graduated with honors from The Ailey School/Fordham University BFA Program in 2014. While earning her degree, Jacquelin joined Ailey II and moved up to the main company in 2014. She was named one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” in 2016 as a breakout star. In 2017, she received a dance fellowship from the Princess Grace Foundation-USA. Most recently, she was one of seventy-five dancers across the world to perform in Merce Cunningham's “Night of 100 Solos: A Centennial Event,” which won a New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award.
I N A U G U R A L A W A R D R E C I P I E N T S
Meredith Frazier ’09
Alumni Service Award
Meredith has a strong passion and desire to make a difference in the world as she strives to make scientific discoveries that can bring positive change to our lives in ways that may go unnoticed by most. After Cannon, Meredith graduated summa cum laude from Elon University in 2013 with a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and minors in neuroscience, psychology, and Spanish. She went on to earn her Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University in 2018 in biological sciences. Meredith, currently employed with the National Institute of Health (NIH), has had her research published in scientific journals on nine occasions, including five times as the primary (top-contributing) author or co-primary author. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit last spring, Meredith played a vital role. She was one of very few selected to present, alongside Dr. Anthony Fauci, at a recent COVID-19 symposium that drew over 1,000 scientists from the NIH and the Federal Drug Administration. She was also selected to lead the COVID-19 research her group launched and continues to move forward. Outside of the pandemic, Meredith is also passionate about advocating for science in the lives of young students through teaching and mentorship.
John Riley
Alumni Association Distinguished Faculty Award John was a beloved member of the Cannon community and family for seventeen years. He impacted many lives during his tenure and is remembered for the genuine relationships he developed with his students throughout the years. Not only did John serve as our Middle School science teacher from 2002 to 2019, but he also shared his joy for exploring, traveling, and service with countless Cannon students through numerous international trips, a token of his character that was honored with The John Riley Endowed Fund for Science, Service, and Travel. This fund makes travel for trips or projects that incorporate science or service more accessible to Cannon students and/or faculty so they may learn from the intriguing people they meet, see the beauty in our world, and marvel at the surprises that await them on their journeys. Whether he was in the classroom, leading students abroad, announcing another sporting event, or launching students’ homemade hot air balloons, the community always understood John was someone special they could learn from, admire, and trust. John’s wife, Kathie, will accept this award in his memory.
S E L E C T I O N C O M M I T T E E
Non-Voting Members: Todd Hartung Director of Advancement Sydney Ross Manager of Alumni and Alumni Parent Relations Voting Members: Rob Burlington Director of Music Arts Hailey Foreman ’13 Alumni Board Member Hillary Gruce ’08 Alumni Board President Laura Huffman Department Chair, Upper School Social Studies Christopher Jones Head of School Matthew Leonard ’21 Senior Class Member Deb Otey Head of Upper School Alex Segura Former Associate Director of College Counseling
Alumni Events
Homecoming
Friday, October 1, 2021 at Cannon School
Alumni Jazz Jam
Tuesday, December 28, 2021 at Cabarrus Brewing
Class Reunions
Saturday, June 11, 2022
To accommodate the reunions missed during the pandemic, we are excited to welcome the following classes to celebrate their reunions together.
Twenty Years Class of 2002
Fifteen Years Class of 2005, 2006, 2007
Ten Years Class of 2010, 2011, 2012
Five Years Class of 2015, 2016, 2017
To learn more about each event and to register, visit alumni.cannonschool.org
