Summer 2019
Giving Day 2019
S F
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Thank You! On April 18, our first Giving Day was an overwhelming success! The entire CFS community — alumni, alumni families, current families, current and past staff and board members, grandparents, and others who love CFS and its students — came out in support of our School. Join us on March 5, 2020 for our next Giving Day!
$52,016
Total Raised
226
44
Donors from 23 states and 5 countries
First-time donors
$31,500
65
Board members’ matching and challenge gifts
Alumni donors from 30 class years
Alumni, Share Your News! Beginning with the next issue of We & Thee, we will be publishing alumni announcements (births, marriages, professional news). You may submit your announcement online:
www.cfsnc.org/alumnotes P.S. We’d also love to send a token of love to those newly married or for the newborns in your life!
We & Thee Summer 2019
4 A Note from the Head of School 6 Building a Bridge through Partnership 8 Taking a Deep Dive 10 Challenging Students, Opening Doors 12 Making Connections 14 Creating Peace, One Letter at a Time 15 Helping Shape the Schools We Need 16 Securing Our Future Together 18 Alum Spotlight: Planting Seeds 20 Teaching and Learning Together 21 Meet the Next Head of the Upper School 22 Alumni Welcome Class of 2019 23 Athletics Spotlight
Belief in the spirituality of life Which implies: effort to instill a sense of awe and reverence for nature; responsible stewardship of all our resources; intentional teaching of a humble interaction with, rather than an arrogant attitude toward, living things; commitment to serve and empower others; celebration of the inner life of persons; respect for the harmony of mind, body, and spirit. — TENET OF THE SCHOOL PHILOSOPHY
We & Thee is published by
Carolina Friends School 4809 Friends School Road Durham, NC 27705 919.383.6602 | www.cfsnc.org
Karen Cumberbatch, Head of School Katherine Scott, Communications Coordinator Cover illustrations by ImageThink Copy editing by Emily Bowles Interior photo credits: Huafa Education Group, Anthony L. Clay, Chris Grochowski, Kathy Lucente, Carmen Raynor, Amelia Shull, Katherine Scott, Jenni Scoggin, Sunshine Scoville, and Williette Zigbuo We & Thee | Summer 2019
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A Note from the Head of School Service has been embedded in the work of Carolina Friends School since its inception, and is deeply connected to the importance of community and the ability to see and nurture a divine Light in everyone we meet. Over the years, the call to serve has manifested in many ways. From parents building elements of the Lower School playground with their own hands to the students who once chopped the wood to fuel the Middle School’s wood stove, a can-do attitude and deep commitment to create this space for teaching and learning have been vital to our creation and growth. That growth is driven equally by reflection and a constant desire to more fully live out our guiding principles. If you look to our School’s mission statement, there is a summary of the Quaker values that continue to root us: “pursuit of truth, respect for all, peaceful resolution of conflict, simplicity, the call to service.” Just as the truth is continually revealed, so too are ways to refine our craft, and we constantly seek new, innovative opportunities to teach our children. Our desire to serve is not just inward-facing. Part of teaching our children that “it is possible to change the world” is through demonstration — to be agents for equity and justice together. Just as we build experiences for them to engage with the world with inquiry and curiosity, we also encourage them to explore problems and use their passionate creativity to find solutions for them. My experience with Upper School students in Trinidad this spring vividly highlighted the intrinsic and extrinsic value of service. Working alongside 4
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our Trinidadian partners to improve the quality of life for the children and elderly residents of the facilities in which we worked was transformational for our students. And in a global and digitally connected age, we recognize that it is just as important that they build active relationships with those in their immediate community as it is to provide the tools for them to become ethical world citizens. As a result, we constantly look to inform our students about local issues and provide them with opportunities to engage in resolving them. Maintaining the vibrancy and efficacy of our program remains central to all that we do. And with the very recent approval by the Board of Trustees of our new strategic plan, we are excitedly anticipating the public sharing of the many ways we will continue to extend the work highlighted in this We & Thee issue as well as other important initiatives this fall. Please stay tuned! Thinking CFS,
Karen Cumberbatch, Head of School
Campus Early Schoolers collected donations for the food pantry of Orange Congregations in Mission (OCIM). They then worked together to transport their goods and helped volunteers stock their items on the shelves.
Students in Lower School’s Forest Class were motivated to help out with relief efforts after Hurricane Florence and decided to collect donations for Diaper Bank of NC. At the organization’s warehouse, the students then helped package around 24,000 diapers.
For the twelfth year in a row, a group of Upper School students traveled to Trinidad during this year’s End of Year Experience. In addition to working with long-term community partners, the students worked with Habitat for Humanity Trinidad & Tobago to help build new homes.
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Building a Bridge through Partnership A blossoming cross-global partnership In 2016, an electrifying email came through to CFS — would we be interested in partnering to open a school in China? The email came from an educator with the Huafa Education group who had visited CFS over two years prior. In China’s southern Guangdong province, Huafa operates a group of progressive schools (similar to our independent schools) and manages several public schools (roughly akin to a charter school here). While more constrained by curricular requirements than CFS, these dozen or so schools are incredibly innovative. They are rooted in the life and work of Yung Wing, who in 1854 became the first Chinese person to graduate from an American university (Yale) and was a lifetime cross-cultural educational advocate. When that email came through in 2016, School leaders were
very skeptical. A visit by Huafa parents and students a couple of years earlier hadn’t led to much. But an exploration of possible collaboration was definitely intriguing. In November 2017, another high-ranking Zhuhai delegation visited CFS. During a tour, meetings, and dinner, common values and ideals were discovered, and interest was renewed in how to connect our work. The Huafa leaders were eager to share with their teachers more information about our Quaker education model, particularly the value of peace education. In June 2018, three CFS educators traveled to Zhuhai for an early education conference: Lisa Carboni (Lower School Head) and Brad Kershner (Chapel Hill Early School Head) both presented, and Renee Prillaman (Assistant Head of School for Teaching and Learning) gave
the conference’s keynote address. They also did evening presentations for parents. Last fall, five Huafa educators came to CFS for a month-long immersion in Quaker education in the Early and Lower Schools. Two of them began action research projects, a successful model for professional development and growth in teaching we have been offering to our own teachers for years. In addition to exploring ways in which our mission and values are aligned with elements of traditional Chinese culture and Confucian teachings, each side has been able to observe ways to learn from one another. Anthony L. Clay, Director of Extended Learning at CFS, spent two weeks this spring in China meeting with Huafa leaders and educators and touring 10 of Huafa’s schools.
Renee Prillaman and Lisa Wilson Carboni speak with CHU Zhiyuan, Manager of International Education Development with Huafa Education, at the 2018 Early Childhood Educators Conference hosted at Yung Wing International Kindergarten in Zhuhai, China. Chu also joined us for a month-long immersion in Quaker education last fall.
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WANG Sujun, one of five Huafa teachers we hosted for a month-long immersion experience last fall, teaching the Chinese cultural tradition of and symbolic meaning behind knot-tying with Lower School students.
Anthony L. CLay, Director of Extended Learning at CFS, poses with Sujun and her class at Hengqin New Area Primary School this spring. In addition to classroom observations, Anthony was warmly welcomed by Huafa leadership and invited to participate in activities ranging from judging a staff cooking contest to presenting to 240 grade seven students on the CFS experience.
“The education I saw was multi-modal and multi-media,” Anthony noted, “with students working both individually and as a whole class. There is an impressive use of technology in the classroom, tied with dynamic teaching.” He also observed a shared importance of integrating the natural world into learning spaces and a strong presence for the visual and musical arts. The commit-
ment to education on American and Western history and culture was also in clear evidence. One of the most touching discoveries he reported was in Yung Wing Primary school, which organizes students into a system of four houses, named for Leonardo da Vinci, Confucius, Marie Curie, and Rosa Parks. “To see Rosa Parks featured so prominently was so reassuring that our shared values could
lead to a strong, long-term collaboration,” Anthony reflected. Looking forward, possible next steps include potential Summer Program opportunities for Huafa students, a residential immersion program, and even a curriculum development partnership for a set of new Huafa schools being developed for 2021. — Katherine Scott We & Thee | Summer 2019
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Taking a Deep Dive
Encouraging citizen scholars in the Upper School
Through the End of Year program, Upper School students engage in purposeful action and reflection, and grow as global citizens, by venturing beyond the boundaries of campus and exploring the wider world. Typically spanning two weeks, program offerings explore issues of civil rights, environmental education, science, arts, and language for a mix of research, service, and adventure. Each year, the entire ninth grade class embarks on a shared experience. Students in tenth through twelfth grade choose from a selfdesigned internship or guided opportunities that are local, national, and international, all within the last three weeks of the school year. Global, co-curricular learning experiences are fairly common in the higher education landscape, and are increasingly being incorporated into independent high school curriculum. Even when rooted in service, there many potential pitfalls to these experiences, particularly when it comes to engaging with cultural 8
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traditions new to students and persons in under-resourced communities. As Interim Upper School Head Joe McHugh noted in a letter to parents this winter, “CFS is not in the recreational tourism business.” The strength of community partnerships and time taken before and after a trip to prepare and reflect, as well as thoughtful, careful design on the part of the teaching staff are crucial to providing a positive experience for students and those with whom they interact.
Throughout the years, the program has been continually reshaped and rethought. This year, a group of Upper School staff took on a project to lead their peers in a deep examination of the program. As part of those discussions, some changes were put into effect this year to provide clarity on the purpose of the program, increase transparency in the process for matching students to their selections, and address issues of inequity, particularly around international travel.
“Our staff see this program as a real-world extension of our classrooms,” Joe observed, “particularly as a way of teaching, as we say in the CFS mission statement, ‘that it is possible to change the world.’ Our End of Year Experience program takes learning beyond books and exposes our students to carefully selected experiences designed to catalyze the intersection of principles and reality under the reflective guidance of CFS staff.”
Beginning this year, only eleventh and twelfth grade students are eligible to participate in one of the international trips. Preference for this year’s international selections was given to seniors and to students who had not previously participated in an international experience. The two international offerings for this year’s students included returning to Trinidad for the thirteenth year in a row, working with established community partners, as well as a new excursion to Liberia, Costa Rica, for
Spanish immersion, hands-on ecological study, and service. Upper School staff will continue their examination of the current program and other potential models next year as Lauren Brownlee steps into the helm as Upper School Head and John Utz joins us as Upper School Dean of Students. Our staff is driven by a desire to make the experiences as equitable and sustainable as possible (for all involved), and are exploring ways to ensure that all opportunities are driven by service-learning principles and are more deeply connected to learning done during the academic year. — Katherine Scott
Above: An unexpected hurdle for the Episcopal Farmworkers Ministry meant that a new experience was planned for our ninth graders this year, retaining key components of service, exploration of diversity, and communitybuilding. At left: In addition to work with Toco Senior Home and Habitat for Humanity, students who traveled to Trinidad this year also conducted a beach cleanup to assist newly hatched sea turtles.
Opposite: A group traveled through the Deep South this spring, visiting memorials, museums, and sites where key events in the struggle for Civil Rights took place.
Since 2007, End of Year Experience students and staff have traveled to Trinidad to work with and learn from community leaders Chad Allâin and Adrian James. A frequent collaborator on the trip was beloved Upper School teacher Jamie Hysjulien, whom we lost this spring to cancer. Of Chad and Adrian, Jamie said, “They really think of themselves and of their work (because it is true) as an extension of CFS into the wider world.”
For over twenty years, Chad and Adrian have been dedicated to alleviating situations of hardship experienced by the young, the elderly, the terminally ill, and vulnerable persons from the LGBTQI community. Inspired by Jamie and the CFS service work and volunteerism, Chad and Adrian are forming a center — the Manzanilla House Community of Friends in Service (MHCFS) — to continue and expand upon this work.
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Challenging Students, Opening Doors A reassessment of service opportunities in the Middle School
Above: Middle School students during a fall Service Day cleaning up around campus, reading with Lower Schoolers, and volunteering at the Duke Campus Farm across the road. At right: Diversity & Inclusivity consultant Vivette Jeffries-Logan speaks to Middle School students about the history of the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation and introduces her son, who later performed a dance of the Sioux.
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When we engage in our commitment to “serve and empower others,” whose needs are we really serving? How do we reflect and improve on this mission-driven work? These are questions taken to heart by a working group of Middle School staff beginning in fall 2017. Over the course of a year, the group examined existing opportunities in our Middle School program and researched current best practices. The group was excited to name the wide range of service opportunities made available to students, including serving on search committees, hosting prospective students and rising Lower Schoolers, and taking advantage of service electives and Exploratoria. They also identified ways to rethink and improve this educational experience. The group created a new set of guiding principles to help strengthen current and future efforts. The group started by reframing the conversation, shifting away from using the word “service” to terms like “civic engagement” and “service-learning,” more fully capturing a meaningful, pedagogical approach. Additional training in servicelearning for staff was identified as a means to better inform ways to create the kinds of educational opportunities we aspire to. Another key component to good service learning is being sure to incorporate the work into the curriculum. The group recommended adding new classes designed to learn about and address specific needs in the community, and to ensure that these types of courses are offered each trimester throughout the year. This creates an opportunity to help deepen students’ relationships to their community in a more meaningful way through both learning and doing.
Guiding Principles for Middle School Service Learning • Be reciprocal - We should listen first, ask what the needs are, make a plan for how to help meet those needs, process what we’ve learned • Model relationships with community partners • Integrate into curriculum whenever possible
One of the most visible examples of service in the Middle School is “Service Day,” a long-standing tradition where advisee groups spend a day on campus or off engaged in community service. There was critical inquiry as to whether a model of one-off projects was a successful one. One means to improve the program that was put into place this year was to build in time to debrief on the day to help students see the connections between what they do and whom they are serving. This also helps mitigate an underlying sense of privilege, or that students are better than those in the community they are serving. The staff discovered that when done with care, this avenue to service affords a good opportunity for advisors to connect with their advisee groups and have conversations about different types of service and why it is valued at our School. — Katherine Scott
This year, a new curricular point of community connection was a year-long exploration of local indigenous communities in consultation with Vivette Jeffries-Logan, a member of the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation (OBSN). At times throughout the year, members of the OBSN came to campus to conduct workshops and share the history and symbolic significance behind traditional visual and performing arts. All sixth graders also attended the American Indian Heritage Celebration at the NC Museum of History in Raleigh. We & Thee | Summer 2019
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Durham Early Schoolers with First Responder Erik Nystrom
Making Connections This year, the older children at Durham Early School have been researching connections. Specifically, the children have been interested in studying places where people connect in the community, how people (and animals) connect, and ways they can connect with each other and the broader community. During the School’s celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the children were particularly inspired by King’s statement that “The time is always right to do what is right.” They began to think about ways that they could continue his work of making the world a better place, particularly through their lens of connections. They started to notice the people around them and what they needed. They saw a need for food 12
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expressed by people they met on the street with their families. The children decided to connect with people who were hungry by collecting food to donate to Urban Ministries of Durham. Our group of 4-5 year-olds heard from their Duke University teacher assistants that college students were worried about finals. Wanting to provide comfort to a larger number of exam-frazzled friends, they wrote personalized love notes and well wishes on an adventure to West Campus. The Duke students they met shared that connecting with the children was a breath of fresh air, and grounded them back to “reality” in a difficult time. The 5-6 year-olds admired the work of their young er friends, and were similarly driven to expressing comfort to people in downtown Durham who were
affected by the gas explosion this spring. The children stood by Major the Bull handing out personalized sticky notes of love to everyone who passed by. One of those passers-by was a first responder to the explosion, and he told the children that they made his week! Children have powerful potential to fill important needs in our society. One of the gifts of childhood is
an openness to sharing love and embracing others in their time of suffering or stress. When space is made to enable children to share their gifts, the whole community benefits. The children, too, benefit as their sense of usefulness and empowerment grows. — Sara Orphanides and Carmen Raynor, Durham Early School Teachers
Left: Students hand love notes to passersby in downtown Durham; Right: Delivering collected food donations and decorated lunch bags with encouraging notes to Urban Ministries of Durham.
Middle School student Ben Goldberg recently combined his passion for environmental stewardship with his love of coding to create a mobile app, “Water Jotter,” to track personal water use. It is designed to increase consciousness about water usage by allowing users to input and track approximate water use in many everyday activities. Ben hopes this motivates more people to “be nice to their home,” motivated by urgent predictions on the impacts of climate change to life on earth.
Service Spotlight
Ben is currently working on a second app, “JotWatt,” that would track electricity usage. Around age nine, Ben began working with the robotics club at Research Triangle High School, where his father teaches. He is an active member of the Eco Chicos environmental club in the Middle School and enjoys geocaching, playing Ultimate, and being outside. The Water Jotter app is available at the Google App Store.
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A CFS Middle Schooler helps young students at Forest View Elementary practice their writing skills.
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More than fifteen years ago, nearby Forest View Elmentary took a gamble on our Middle School students. An elective was created in which CFS students would work one-on-one with K-2 students at the public school on reading, writing, and math games. While some Forest View administrators were reluctant at first to have independent school adolescents in their classrooms, the teachers were delighted to have the help. As relationships were formed, the younger students looked forward to their time with their older mentors, and the CFS students enjoyed feeling useful and getting to know the younger children. The partnership has only strengthened through the years.
Helping Shape the Schools We Need Providing educators with the tools for peace education First begun in 2007, Peaceful Schools NC (PSNC) is a community partnership program hosted by Carolina Friends School with a mission to “support a healthy school climate in which all students can thrive socially and academically; the effects of which positively impact families, local communities, society, and the world.” It does this through individualized support for partner schools including teacher training and consultation; through a biennial education conference, “School to Peace Pipeline;” and through work with future educators through partnerships with higher education institutions.
In 2018, Peaceful Schools NC: • Engaged 270 preservice teachers • Reached 1,120 students and 137 educators at five partner schools • Initiated an early childhood think-tank • Sponsored and participated in the March For Our Lives student activist movement • Celebrated a 200% increase in revenue
Since PSNC was last highlighted in this publication in late 2016, the program has experienced remarkable growth. In addition to existing school partnerships with Central Park School for Children and Carter Community Charter School (Durham), we now partner with the Susie King Taylor Community School (Savannah, GA), The Experiential School of Greensboro, and have recently begun work with our first public school, Durham’s Jordan High School. Another way in which our work’s impact has been broadened is through training opportunities for pre-service educators
through partnerships with the education schools and departments at UNC Chapel Hill, Duke University, and Appalachian State University. We’re also excited to announce that we have launched a research project in collaboration with Dr. Cheryl Bolick (Professor of Education at UNC and CFS parent) to study the impact of our work on individual schools and their students and teachers. Our hope is that this evidencebased research will further indicate to the larger educational community the value of the tools and programs we provide. — Ida Trisolini
CFS Middle School students join peers from partner schools at a workshop during the 2019 Peaceful Schools NC Student Day.
PSNC Chair and CFS Middle School teacher Christel Greiner Butchart leads a group of UNC education students in an exercise they can use in their classrooms.
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Securing Our Future Together
Hugh Meriwether and Renee Prillaman first came to CFS as parents of Caitlin (‘05) and Andrew (‘10). Several years later, Renee left her faculty position in the UNC School of Education to teach at CFS. She is now the Assistant Head of School for Teaching and Learning. Hugh served on the Board for nine years and has served on the School Life Committee. Why was CFS a good fit for your children? Hugh: CFS is a wonderful, oneof-a kind place. Our children learned to be part of a community grounded in Quaker 16
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values. They were intellectually challenged and inspired. They learned to have the courage to speak their truth and the humility to listen to others. Renee: Our children graduated with their hearts fully open and their minds actively engaged. That was our highest aspiration. They and their CFS peers move through life differently than many young adults I see: the greater good is a priority in their lives. Plus, CFS had a positive impact on our whole family. The school helped us be the parents we aspired to be and to live our own values more fully.
What impact have you seen CFS have on students other than your own? Renee: As a teacher, I appreciate that we teach our students how to face failure with a willingness to recover from it, figure out how to fix it, and decide what to do next. And our alumni are actively engaged in trying to make the world better in small and large ways. Hugh: They are doing amazing things in the world, so the more alumni out there, the better. Renee: Our alumni give me hope that we can resolve genera-
tions of global conflicts, reverse climate change, and create a just and equitable world. CFS provides the education every child should have. If we could ensure that every child had a CFS education, we would do it. We don’t have the resources to do that, but we can do our part by including a gift to CFS in our will. We’re happy knowing our donation, even with our modest means, will pave the way for more children to have access to a CFS education. And we feel as though we owe the school for the well being and richness
of our family life and for what phenomenal human beings our children are. How do you give back enough for that? Hugh: Including CFS in our will was easy. We knew we wanted to include a gift to CFS. We feel great about making a gift to the school. Renee: It was really simple. I sleep better at night knowing that it’s taken care of. And I feel optimistic imagining CFS extending into the future a hundred years and longer. Even with a gift of limited size like
ours, we will help make that happen. I hope others think about making a planned gift so future generations of children and families will have the CFS experience, too. — John Ladd
To learn more about including CFS in your will, contact Jan Zink at 919.383.6602 x *243 or dev@cfsnc.org.
The Buzz On Campus This April, we welcomed two hives of honey bees to our campus. Students have already begun observational visits to and proper-care training for the bees through Lower School Interest Groups (led by teacher Jenni Scoggin) and a Middle School elective (led by teacher Tommy Johnson). In addition to learning how to care for the bees, students are learning about the crucial role that the bees play in the pollination of our food chain. Additionally, observing the bees and the way the hive works together illustrates the importance of community. The Bee Project was made possible in part with the support of a Bright Ideas Education Grant from Piedmont Electric.
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Planting Seeds
Alex Proztman (‘95), by his own admission, was a wild kid when he was in 10th grade in Chapel Hill. He hated being cooped up in classrooms, was passionate about skateboarding, and was painfully aware of the disjunction between what was taught in school and the world he saw around him. “I was ready to drop out of school and become a professional skateboarder,” he says. “But my Dad had other ideas.” One of those ideas was Carolina Friends School.
“CFS got me through those last two years of high school,” he says, shaking his head in wonder. He remembers service activities such as visiting Raleigh’s food banks and helping to build a Habitat house, but mostly because they weren’t taking place in the classroom. “I didn’t take service all that seriously because at that age I didn’t take much of anything seriously,” he says. “But it planted a seed that you should be committed to your community, committed to people who have less power than you.”
After a multi-year hiatus, we were excited to host FriendsFest April 26-April 28. Originally designed to showcase alumni talent, it now celebrates the enormous artistic contributions of our entire learning community, including current and former staff, students, and alumni.
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FriendsFest was reimagined this year as a weekend festival, including an Alumni Music Showcase at Cat’s Cradle, a Community Festival in Durham Central Park, and the Grand Opening event for our Performing Arts Center. View more photos online at www.cfsnc.org/friendsfest
Alum Spotlight Nationally, about 40% of youth leaving foster care experience homelessness before they turn 26, and 25% spend time in jail. “It is an overlooked, underserved population, and I love working with them during this critical time of transition,” Alex says. Alex is particularly excited that LIFE Skills is expanding their career support options, especially through internships. “So much of education is about exposing people to new things,” he says.
Alex and the LIFE Skills Team
Now, nearly 25 years later, that seed has found fertile ground in Alex’s work with LIFE Skills Foundation. He created this non-profit in 2014 to better support young people navigating the transition to independent living. LIFE Skills has apartment-style housing for up to 17 youth. They also work with around 25 youth in the community through mental health, rent assistance, and other wraparound supports The eight employees provide counseling and academic support, and teach skills like banking, shopping, accessing government services, and anything else youth require to find and maintain stable housing, decent jobs, good health, and nourishing relationships. [The acronym in “LIFE Skills” stands for “Living Independently and Seeking Empowerment” – a name chosen by the youth being served.] “Many of these youth are aging out of foster care,” Alex says. “When they turn 18, they are suddenly completely on their own.”
Looking back, he can see this is another seed planted at CFS. During his time there he read books such as Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, an exposé about the dangers of DDT, and delved into authors such as Charles Bukowski, whose poetry and prose focuses on the downtrodden. To his delight, his teachers seemed as excited as he was about his explorations. “I was allowed to play with and experiment with ideas,” he says, “It was such a wonderful gift.” The critical thinking that he learned at CFS served him well as he went on to Antioch College and later completed his Master’s in Social Work at New York (after indulging in a few years of travelling and skateboarding). “I probably wasn’t the easiest student CFS has had, but I am thankful for the trust, support, and flexibility CFS showed me as I figured out who I was,” he says. “It allowed me lay the foundation to become a productive, engaged, thoughtful member of my community.” And to plant those seeds in the next generation. — Marsha A. Green
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Teaching and Learning Together Visitors from across the globe are drawn to CFS
For many years, budding educators from the education programs at UNC Chapel Hill, Duke University, and Meredith College have come through our campuses, either through program site visits, internships, or student teaching placements. Our relationships with those institutions are strengthened by the faculty roles of some of our teaching staff as well as the number of current parents on faculty in those institutions.
Interest in learning about our progressive educational model, including peace education, has not only increased, but drawn on ever-wider global connections. Just this year, educators from Ecuador (pictured above left), Germany (above right), Bolivia, and China traveled to observe our teaching in action.
Last March, The National Danish Performance Team (NDPT) held a threeday residency at CFS, capped by a public performance. During their stay, they engaged students in physical education workshops and answered small group questions on life in Denmark and experiences on their world tour.
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Community News
Meet the Next Head of the Upper School This spring, we announced to families that our search for Upper School Head Teacher had come to a conclusion, with Lauren Brownlee accepting our enthusiastic offer.
Lauren has enjoyed an impressive career in independent schools as a dedicated teacher and visionary administrator. For the past six years, she has served as the Director of Social Action at Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart in Bethesda, Maryland. In 2015 the program was named a best-practice social justice and service program by the Center for Spiritual and Ethical Education (CSEE). Lauren was a visiting scholar for CSEE last year, providing professional development in service and ethical education. Her classroom experience includes teaching upper school history at Stone Ridge, Sidwell Friends (Washington, DC), and Georgetown Day School (Washington, DC). A long-time diversity and equity advocate, Lauren initiated and co-led Stone Ridge’s Diversity and Social Justice Team and has been both a diversity consultant and presenter at a number of schools and conferences. She is a practicing Quaker and has worked with several Quaker organizations including Friends Council on Education, Friends Council on National Legislation, American Friends Service Committee, and Baltimore Yearly Meeting. A product of Quaker education herself, Lauren graduated from Sidwell Friends School, earned her B.A. from Wellesley College with a double major in Classical Civilization and Greek, and received her M.A. in Global, International, and Comparative History from Georgetown University.
How has your experience with Quaker education shaped your views on service and community? The Quaker belief in “answering that of God in every one” calls us to community and solidarity. If we are truly recognizing and honoring the light in everyone we encounter, how can we not nurture community and serve joyfully? How do we best teach our students to be mindful citizens, from the local to global levels? It is important to build scaffolding for students so that they have the tools to understand news from multiple perspectives and engage in respectful dialogue about it. We want to model maintaining open hearts and minds. We also want to empower students to speak out and stand up for what they believe in. What most excites you about your new role with CFS? Returning to Friends education feels like coming home. CFS is clearly a school that lives out its mission and a place where everyone understands that we’re all in this together. — Katherine Scott
We asked for Lauren’s reflection on a few queries as she prepares to join our learning community: We & Thee | Summer 2019
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Community News
Alumni Community Welcomes Class of 2019
Oluwaseun Temidayo Ajasa Sarah Aidel Meihui Bernstein Leo Gilliom Bird Christopher Board Devin Frank Brader-Araje Madison Brook Chandler Jonah Soule Chapman Duncan Thomas Charboneau Tal Chatterjee Alexander Parr Chilton Matthew Goodwin Costello Simon Harper Covington Elise Nicole Cumberbatch Elly Blue Cummins Razak Dhesi
Lucy Rosales Dixon Annika Emerson Chloe Faith Gillespie Emma Jane Hales Benjamin Roderic Hodgins Hallie Grace Huls Isabelle May Huntington Lukas William Irwin Benjamin Bedier Kairys Ahrianna Suran Keefe Bennett Wheaton King Sydney Deborah Kirsch Jason Manning Viviana Erika Martin Gennarose Hersh McDermed
Jackson Douglass Meisner Daniel Michael Nevius Georgia Rui Paulig Kevin Anthony Pignone Hannah Ellington Porterfield-Winstead Isabella Ann Pratico Anderson Kyl Proescholdbell Mia Rose Pungello Mateo Luis Rimer-Surles Jiatong (Joanna) Song Eliot Peter Dugan St. Clair Paul Samuel Youngblood Anna Olivia Zuiker
North Carolina State University (8) Pace University Pacific Northwest College of Art Santa Monica College Stanford University Swarthmore College University of Colorado at Boulder (2) University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (5) University of North Carolina at
Greensboro University of North Carolina at Wilmington (3) University of Pennsylvania University of Rochester University of Toronto University of Virginia Virginia Commonwealth University Wake Forest University Washington University in St. Louis
Where They’re Headed American University Appalachian State University (2) Berry College Brevard College Carleton College Davidson College Earlham College Grinnell College Louisburg College New York University
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We & Thee | Summer 2019
Athletics Spotlight This spring, CFS fielded a baseball team for the first time in six years. The Middle School squad combined our students with a group from Duke School. WINTER AND SPRING HIGHLIGHTS Basketball: Temidayo Ajasa, All-Conference Emma Hales, All-Conference, All-State Zoe Kramer, Honorable Mention Devin Brader-Araje, Honorable Mention Swimming Duncan Charboneau, All-Conference, All-State (State Champion, 50 freestyle and 100 freestyle) Soccer: Elise Cumberbatch, All-Conference Chloe Gillespie, All-Conference, All-State Gigi Paulig, All-Conference Hannah Potthoff, All-Conference Alex Rauwald, All-Conference Birdy Lomax, Honorable Mention Track: Lukas Irwin, All-Conference Haley Kramer, All-Conference Samantha Wilson, All-Conference
We & Thee | Summer 2019
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Carolina Friends School
4809 Friends School Road Durham, NC 27705 919.383.6602 ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED
Families joined together in adding to the Durham Early School garden during Grandparents and Family Friends Day. Our learning community is greatly enriched by these opportunities for shared service!
NONPROFIT ORG U.S. Postage
PAID
Durham, NC Permit No. 783