Cate School 2019 Spring Bulletin

CATE Spring 2019

BULLETIN

CATE B U L L E T I N EDITOR

Mercedes Maskalik COPY EDITOR Jeff Barton GRAPHIC DESIGNER

Mya Cubero PHOTOGRAPHERS

Aimee Stanchina, Joe Gottwald '10, Daniele Huerta, Ashleigh Mower, Kaori Photo, David Soto '08, Rivers Sheehan '19 HEADMASTER

Benjamin D. Williams IV ASSISTANT HEAD OF SCHOOL FOR EXTERNAL AFFAIRS

Charlotte Brownlee '85 DIRECTOR OF MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS

Mercedes Maskalik MULTIMEDIA COORDINATOR

Aimee Stanchina ARCHIVIST

Judy Savage DIRECTOR OF ADVANCEMENT

Lindsay Newlove CATE FUND DIRECTOR

Katie Convoy ALUMNI DIRECTOR

Andrew MacDonnell DIRECTOR OF MAJOR GIFTS AND PLANNED GIVING

Chris Giles DIRECTOR OF SPECIAL EVENTS & GIFTS

Sarah Preston ON THE COVER

“Stones of Hope” Cate’s MLK Day program concluded with an art project based on the MLK Memorial in Washington, D.C. “Stones of Hope” were painted vibrant colors with inspiring messages and placed in what is now a semipermanent art display outside Hitchcock Theatre.

MISSION STATEMENT

Through commitment, scholarship, companionship, and service, each member of the Cate community contributes to what our founder called “... the spirit of this place ... all compounded of beauty and virtue, quiet study, vigorous play, and hard work.”

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The Cate Bulletin is published three times a year by Cate School and is distrubuted free of charge to alumni, parents, and friends of the School. Send correspondence and address changes to: communications@cate.org The Cate Bulletin is printed by V3 on Topkote paper.

Koko Wing '20 and Jess Yang '20 share a moment of humor during their work clearing the Santa Barbara Zoo railroad tracks for Public Service Day.

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In this

issue

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Servons Speaker Spotlight

The Old School and the New

Changing Course in a Changing World

Anna Fortner on kindness, goodness, and why juniors hate the Transcendentalists.

Headmaster Ben Williams reflects on change, growth, and preserving what matters most.

How four faculty made their way to Cate through unusual career pivots.

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In Every Issue 4 FROM THE ARCHIVES What a difference 50 years make! It’s no surprise that the composition of the Cate faculty has changed over the years.

5 FROM THE HEADMASTER Ben Williams says that a changing educational landscape is necessary to prepare students for the future they will shape.

6 ON THE MESA The stories in this section take place here, on the Mesa, of course, but also around the world.

62 CLASS NOTES From receptions in Hong Kong and Palo Alto to gatherings in Washington, D.C., Cate alumni share recent news about their lives.

72 IN MEMORIAM We honor alumni and community members who have passed with reflections on their time at Cate.

Students take a break from their Stream Team responsibilities to enjoy a favorite childhood game on the beach.

54 Dispatches Tiffany Eskilson '04 and Mercedes Maskalik returned news from five of our recent graduates.

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From the Archives

Teach Your Children Well While the composition and size of Cate’s faculty – along with the range of support and services that a boarding school must provide – have certainly changed over time, its devotion to students remains a constant. As Dimitri Konstantinidis '71 memorably noted in his Commencement address, “We find people, namely the faculty members – who are primarily interested in our development as human beings, and sometimes we forget that we will never find such people in our lives again….” Of particular note in the 2018-19 school year is that Cate’s teaching faculty is 50% female. While this evolution began in earnest with the advent of co-education in the fall of 1981, it took fifty years since this 1969 photo to achieve parity.

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1969 Faculty Left to Right: Allan Gunther, Stanley Woodworth, Fred Clark, Curtis Crawford, Joseph Caldwell, Hans Summers; Left to Right: Paul Denison '52, Stewart Graham, Andrew Lapidus, Scott McLeod, Sanderson Smith, Sheldon Hickok, Paul Ruoff; Richard Macres, Roberto Olivera, Frank Light, William Kerstetter, Robert Bowler, Jim Durham

From the Headmaster

Change Revisited Dear Friends, A year ago, as I sat down to compose my letter to introduce the Spring Bulletin, the landscape surrounding our campus was charred and battered.

Even the entrance to Cate was conspicuous because of the piled-up debris and jury-rigged power lines adorning Lillingston Canyon Road, the by-products of clean-up remaining to be done after the fire and the floods.

Twice we evacuated our campus, the last time on the eve of Spring Break when an arriving storm threatened to strand students on the Mesa, prohibiting travel to homes far and wide. Last year was an exercise in adaptation, resilience, and resolve.

This year has been quite different.

Our campus that was so threatened is now being augmented with critically important facilities focused on community living, academic endeavor, and the arts. The drought that has gripped the Central Coast for nearly a decade is suddenly and inexplicably a memory, as the water table and our reservoirs are rapidly rising. Our rainfall totals over the last few months are among the highest in many years in Santa Barbara County. The Mesa is lush and green again and Carpinteria Creek is flowing steadily. My son asked recently if the steelhead might appear again given the generous flows.

Wouldn’t that be something?

But this bounty is not a signal that we can return to past patterns or behaviors. We have learned a good

“Change” is our inquiry prompt this year and a commitment we intend to keep. That very truth is addressed broadly in the pages that follow. But “change” is also a great descriptor for this moment in the school year, when Commencement looms and the human composition of our community prepares to evolve. There is great joy in these moments as classmates— particularly seniors—cherish their last moments together as students, remember the long road that has brought them here, and imagine the new journey that lies ahead.

Headmaster Ben Williams prepares to greet families during Cate’s March Revisit Day program.

deal in the years since the water went away and the fires ravaged our state. We know the value better now of the precipitation that we depend upon and the Mesa we must sustain. So our efforts to care for our resources—to re-use and conserve our water, to derive power from the sun, to eliminate impediments like Arizona crossings from our creeks so that, should the steelhead actually return, they might make their way unimpeded upstream to spawn— these will only be augmented in the years ahead. For if these last years have taught us anything, it is that we cannot and should not rely on forces so far beyond our control. Beyond the irresponsibility of such a posture is the arrogance of it. And we will not stoop to such a level of conceit.

Much like the Central Coast this year, our seniors face a new bounty of opportunity and growth in the communities they will inhabit next year. Even in that leap forward, though, we imagine they will be mindful of all that they have learned over these last years on our Mesa. In that knowledge and experience lies the foundation they can push off of as they and we propel ourselves ever forward in this remarkable changing world.

Servons,

Benjamin D. Williams IV

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On the

Mesa

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Seniors Sarah Polowczak, Sean Zhan, Brad Gordon, and Drew Anastasio (standing) paint their rocks on MLK Day.

This year’s two-day celebration of the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. encouraged students, faculty, and staff to be vulnerable and to bring their voices together in a series of group discussions and activities.

Seeking Common Ground The theme of the 2019 MLK Day celebration was “Seeking Common Ground.”

In our community’s annual opportunity to spend an entire day thinking about issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), this year’s students asked for a day that would allow them to connect their own individual backgrounds to Dr. King’s philosophy and work. Consequently, for this year’s celebration we took a different approach.

The holiday was inaugurated in 1983, but more than simply honoring Dr. King’s life, “in 1994 congress designated the day as a national day of service.”

In thinking about how we might make Cate’s program a day of service, our own motto, Servons, came to mind.

What does real service look like in the context of Dr. King’s work? How could we use our MLK Day program as an anchor point in the School’s plans to continue transforming diversity, equity, and inclusion from goals we hope to achieve to goals we actively

work towards each day? What actions, behaviors, and language did we need to recommit ourselves to in order to ensure that our actions would align with our goals? Put simply, how could we go from a day of lip service to a day of real service? Our response was to create a program that asked all of us to think about the individual steps we need to take to move forward. In addition, the individual elements of the program integrated the other DEI work done so far this year by both students and faculty (through professional development and in the Inclusive Teaching and Inclusive Community working groups).

“You cannot change any society unless you take responsibility for it, unless you see yourself as belonging to it, and responsible for changing it.”

Our program opened with a convocation talk by Zachary Wood, who challenged our community to “ask questions first” as a way of approaching difficult conversations. We used his message to prompt discussions about the need to speak up and speak out if we are to find common ground. The next activity emphasized “All that we Share.” Students who attended the Student Diversity Leadership Conference and Pollyanna Conference helped construct a list of occurrences that members of our community may or may not have experienced. If they had experienced the statement, they were to stand up. Taking the time to do this activity showed that, even in a small community like ours, we withhold things about ourselves as often as we share them. After, we asked, What do we need to be able to trust in order to show our fullest selves at Cate?

Far from being a question that focused too much on individual needs, it was a question of how we live together – a question of sharing ourselves so that we are able to strengthen the common bonds that stretch between us.

After the morning activity, our community spent the remainder of the day in discussion and instructional sessions, concluding the event with an art project based on the MLK Memorial in Washington, D.C., entitled “Stones of Hope.” In addition to the writings of Dr. King, we also referenced the words of Dr. Grace Lee Boggs, a Chinese American woman who spent her life fighting for civil rights in Detroit. In particular, we noted that she once said, “You cannot change any society unless you take responsibility for it, unless you see yourself as belonging to it and responsible for changing it.” The work we did on MLK Day this year was a commitment to our community and to the fact that we are all responsible for whatever change, growth, and progress we hope to manifest upon this Mesa.

DR. GRACE LEE BOGGS

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ON THE MESA

People of Color

CONFERENCE

The People of Color Conference, now in its 30th year, is an annual gathering designated to bring together independent schools from across the country to discuss diversity in a supportive and empowering environment. Each year a handful of Cate students are given the amazing opportunity to attend the People of Color Conference, which was located in Nashville, Tennessee, this time around. The conference was divided into two sections: the People of Color Conference (POCC), for all the faculty and other adults; and the Student Diversity Leadership Conference (SDLC), for the students. Through workshops, lectures, in-depth discussions, and other enlightening activities, everyone in attendance gained a better understanding of the concept of diversity in independent schools.

To craft a thorough overview of the conference, I interviewed Cate’s Director of Inclusion (and English teacher) Dr. Stephanie Yeung, as well as Jennifer Soh '19, who attended the 2018 session. Dr. Yeung noted that many of the faculty members at the conference (including her) had come into it with prior knowledge about diversity in independent schools. However, a main goal of the faculty discussion groups was to gain new tips and strategies for all participants to take back to their respective communities.

She stated, “Attending the discussion groups was not just for my own benefit but for the purpose of taking what I learned and applying it to Cate.” When asked about the most impactful

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More than 6,400 educators and students attended the 30th annual POCC conference in Nashville, TN. The Cate contingent from left: Amy Venditta, Alicia Hammond, Cullen Barber ’19, Jennifer Soh ’19, Emely Villatoro ’19, Carol Cai ’20, Oscar Vasquez ’20, Maya Blattberg ’20, Stephanie Yeung, and Mamadou Pouye.

part of the conference, Dr. Yeung brought up how great it was to get to know other teachers who are working in inclusion programs at their own schools. She also mentioned how open all the other teachers were, since everyone had a common goal: “I realized that diversity and inclusion is not a competitive field but rather a supportive one; everyone in my group has a shared interest in wanting all students to do well.”

Jennifer Soh '19 attended the SDLC part of the conference, at which students were very integrated from the start; the conference separated all the students from a given school and put them in what were called “family groups.”

Jennifer thrived in the story-sharing component.

“I felt very comfortable sharing everything,” she said, “despite being a stranger to everyone.

However, I wanted to make sure I was listening more than I was speaking.” For the affinity group portion of the conference, students were able to go to the specific affinity group they identified with for a productive discussion.

Jennifer went to the Asian affinity group and explained how powerful it was to talk to people with a shared passion for Asian representation in independent schools.

Overall, The People of Color Conference was an amazing opportunity to learn about diversity, share stories, and bring knowledge back to share with the community.

– Sydney Burton '19

In the Spirit of Servons In late February, Cate students and faculty embraced the spirit of Servons by venturing off the Mesa to lend a helping hand at more than 35 organizations up and down the Central Coast for the annual Public Service Day.

Arranged by advisory, the groups spent a productive day assisting organizations with various needs – helping in the classroom at area schools, gardening and landscaping, sorting food, cleaning, and restocking supplies at local nonprofits. One advisory group helped the staff at the Sea Center in Santa Barbara remove more than 350 pieces of trash from West Beach. And at Carpinteria’s Tar Pits Park three advisories spent the morning learning to identify and remove invasive weeds and restore the coastal bluffs with seeds and transplants from local native plants. “It was wonderful being able to help a community so far from where I’m from,” Round Square exchange student Camila Calderon remarked. “Even though it was a physically demanding job and it was very hard to carry it out during the early morning, it was an extremely enriching experience. Additionally, I got closer to my advisory, which I’ll miss when I leave.”

Bob Mancuso from Food Share in Ventura praised the students’ work in Food Share’s senior nutritional garden. “These students represented some of the hardest working volunteers we have ever had,” he wrote.

“They understood what the garden was all about and gave 100%.

They represented [Cate] in an outstanding manner.”

Lisa O’Shea from Carpinteria Middle School wrote an appreciative letter thanking Cate volunteers for participating in the classroom.

“Their help in the science lab experiments and in support of our special education population was greatly appreciated,” she wrote.

Thomas Naem '22 and his advisory wash windows at the Carpinteria Library as part of Public Service Day.

Will Holmes, director of public service, took his advisory to Catholic Charities of Ventura and was impressed with the students’ engagement.

“I loved the work as we stocked the pantry shelves with food that had been donated from a number of businesses. An added bonus was when we were given the opportunity to help serve lunch at Family to Family, which is a service that provides the homeless with five meals per week,” Will said. “So many public servants doing things to help others in need!”

Jay Dorion and his advisee Zoe Hale '19 share a smile as they prepare food at P.A.T.H. in Santa Barbara.

Renee and Pete Mack’s advisories maintain the Santa Barbara Zoo’s 1.5 miles of railroad track.

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ON THE MESA

Mark Metherell '87 Service Challenge

Members of the Carpinteria Flames practice holding on to the ball while running.

MADDIE ERICKSON My sophomore year, as a part of my independent PE program, Brie Walker '18 and I decided that we wanted to make the short trip down the hill to Canalino Elementary School to coach lacrosse. On our first day we introduced the sport to seven girls in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades, and we now have over 120 girls across Carpinteria who participate in our program.

When I heard about the Mark Metherell '87 Service Challenge, I thought it would be a great opportunity to raise money for my program because lacrosse equipment

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can be expensive and, at the time, we were cramming hand-me-down sticks and balls into – and strapping goals on top of – Mr. MacDonnell’s Subaru, which usually resulted in us pulling over ten times on the five-minute drive to Canalino to make sure everything was secure. I thought that applying for the grant would be a great chance for us to make it easier to expand to other locations.

When I began writing my application, I realized that Metherell would do a lot more for our team than just provide equipment. It also had the potential to strengthen our relationship with the city of Carpinteria. Yes, we do public service in Carp, but for the most part we just run down Linden on Saturday and Sunday to get food and we don’t really bother getting to know the people in the town we live in. When I began going to Canalino – and eventually Girls Inc., Aliso, and Carp Middle School – I

noticed that when I went into Carp on the weekends it made me feel a lot more connected to the town.

When it came time to present my idea to the committee, I was very nervous because I knew that my project was different from those of the past. To start with, I wasn’t going thousands of miles away. However, I would be able to see my progress every week. And I think that gave me a little bit of confidence because it was so easy for me to create something and make an actual change, and I could measure the effects by observing them every week.

When I came to Cate my idea of service was going to a foreign country and mixing cement to build a school or selling crafts to raise money for a natural disaster. Both are great examples of service, but my sophomore year my idea of what service could be changed a bit. I realized that you can make an impact on

in your own community can sometimes be more effective and meaningful than traveling to a new place.

The Carpinteria Flames came into existence because I loved lacrosse and wanted to share it with the people of the town. When we showed them a lacrosse stick on the first day, no one knew what it was. We didn’t really know what we were doing either, but seeing the girls get so excited about having something to look forward to each week made our worries fade. Before getting involved in our program, these girls tended to wait after school for hours until their parents got off work, often just staying in the classroom. We wanted to create a safe after-school environment for them – to learn a new sport, exercise, and be around older girls.

A question I was asked in my interview was How will this project be sustained?

This was easy to answer because I knew that the lacrosse team was easily sustainable. The money I would receive would ensure that we had equipment for many years to come, and by getting people from the Cate community involved, I knew we would have coaches every week for years to come.

With the money I received from the Metherell family, I was able to make every Carp Flames location completely self-sustaining by purchasing lacrosse sticks, balls, goals, pinnies, and storage units for each group. Now coaches can simply drive directly to the locations and maximize the amount of time spent with the girls. The progress made with the Metherell funding also allowed us to attract the attention of Cate families and various lacrosse companies, since people saw the value in what we were doing after school. It also gave an opportunity to over fifteen Cate girls to interact and build relationships with the girls of Carpinteria. I never would have thought that people would notice what we were doing, but I am very grateful because it has created even more opportunities for the girls I care about so much.

LUCA KIM '19 Combining a passion for music with his Spanish language skills, for his Mark Metherell '87 Service Challenge Luca Kim '19 created a music program at the Hogar Casa de Angel orphanage in San Jose Piñula, Guatemala, right next to the country’s capital, Guatemala City. The orphanage acts as an elementary school and healing center, created by the Asociación Mirine of the Catholic Archdiocese of Guatemala to preserve the human rights of women and children. During a previous stay at the orphanage in 2017, Luca had the opportunity to teach music, art (origami), and English to the orphans. Of all these subjects, the orphans seemed to love music best, and they especially enjoyed being able to experiment with new instruments. Luca found music to be a source of healing for these abused orphans, and it seemed to be a way for them to cope with their feelings and express their pain and struggle. However, there was a problem: there was no established music space in the orphanage. So Luca used his Metherell grant to improve and expand the musical offerings in the orphanage.

The Metherell grant made it possible for Luca to convert an unused classroom into a robust music studio. He outfitted the classroom with a variety of wind instruments and then taught preliminary lessons, such as reading and producing notes on instruments and playing short tunes. He developed a music curriculum for the middle school, emphasizing basic music theory. He first taught the orphans how to read the basic notes of a C Major scale on music staff paper before moving on to more complex lessons. In addition, Luca worked with the orphanage’s choral group, Luciente, on a new piece, Dona Nobis Pacem (Give Us Peace). An orphanage employee, Oscar, worked with Luca to design and build special storage cases for the 27 instruments, modeled after the storage system John Knecht designed at Cate.

One key to a successful Metherell grant application is providing for the sustainability of the project. After Luca’s departure, the music lessons will continue with a new band teacher, a volunteer who is a professor at a university in Guatemala City. After spending several weeks in Guatemala last summer putting his project in place, Luca feels that he accomplished his goals and believes that the enhanced music program will enrich the lives of all the students at Hogar Casa de Angel.

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ON THE MESA

Los Niños Los Niños is a trip like no other. Cate students have the opportunity twice a year to venture down to Mexicali, Mexico, to participate in a hands-on service learning experience. Led by Director of Public Service Will Holmes, Los Niños gives interested students the opportunity to learn and grow while helping others in a setting very different from Cate. Los Niños has a trip in December and another in February, each lasting from Thursday to Sunday.

A handful of students and faculty drive to Mexicali in Yukons and cross the border together. Electronics-free, Los Niños fosters inter-grade bonding as well as inter-community bonding between Cate students and the children at the school in Mexicali. Cate students help out there by mixing cement, gardening, and performing other physical tasks; however, the most cherished experiences come from the meaningful interactions between Cate students and the children at the school. Though looking at the trip in a general context is helpful, personal stories from students who have participated in the trip are especially affecting.

Students from different grades, including six freshmen, attended the trip this past February. I interviewed Diamond Head '22 and Taylor Kane '21, both of whom participated, to talk about their first Los Niños experience. When asked about the highlight of the trip, “connection” was the word that first came to mind for Taylor, “not just with the children we were with, but with the other Cate students who were there.”

Said Diamond, “Everyone was a stranger to me at first, but by the end of the trip, we had all become close.” The school in Mexicali is small, with just over 400 kids, so for the first full day of of the trip, the Cate students utilized the outdoors by playing a big game of street soccer with the children. Soccer, however, is just one of the many activities that helped bond everyone. When asked about the most

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surprising part of the trip, Diamond said, “I thought it would be more of my teaching them, but I was wrong. The most important part was what I learned from the people there. Their stories were so meaningful to all of us.” The children shared their stories with a smile, illustrating just how happy kids can be even in the midst of hardship. “The trip also made me develop a stronger sense of gratitude,” said Taylor. “It was an experience of true empathy and of really putting yourself in someone else’s shoes.”

Thinking about the big picture, I asked, “How can you remain engaged with your Los Niños experience while at Cate?”

Apart from sharing unforgettable stories to encourage awareness, Taylor and Diamond talked about an idea that Will Holmes had for the future of Los Niños.

Diamond explained, “Even though we’re not there, we can still do a lot for them, like raise money or possibly figure out a way to integrate Los Niños more fully into the Cate community. We’re thinking about helping to teach English to the teachers at the school on the next Los Niños trip.”

Los Niños is an experience that truly incorporates all of Cate’s values. Servons!

– Sydney Burton '19

Los Niños and Servons are about more than just giving your physical self to a project. Scott Holmes '20 bonded with a young boy almost instantly after arriving in Mexico. When Scott wasn’t mixing concrete, you could find him playing football, giving piggyback rides, and spreading joy to a group of kids.

“ It was an experience of true empathy and of really putting yourself in someone else’s shoes.”

TAYLOR KANE '21

Jeffrey Kim '19 takes a break from mixing concrete to share his love of music. Jeffrey carried his guitar with him to Mexico and gave it as a gift to the orphanage.

After hand mixing bags of concrete, students carefully pour a new slab of sidewalk, built to connect classrooms and the dining facilities at the orphanage.

Beekeeping and honey harvesting have become one of the sweetest ways local economies support themselves. Cate students suit up to learn about the hives, bees, and honeycomb.

Kern offers challenging and beautiful hikes for the junior class.

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ON THE MESA

Exploring the African American Experience

By Rivers Sheehan '19 Before our visit to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, our 20th-Century African American Experience class spent the last few hours of the night chatting excitedly in a terminal at the airport in Phoenix. We were hardly prepared for what awaited us in Washington, D.C., the next morning, but with our copies of Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns in hand, we spoke in earnest about our study of the Great Migration.

As we awaited our 1 a.m. connecting flight, we remembered the exodus of one of the main characters of the novel, Robert Joseph Pershing Foster, on his epic drive from Phoenix to San Diego – with no chance of booking a room to rest. Although we could not imagine the struggle he went through to make his way West, we now had a better understanding of his long journey, having just flown over his path. We boarded a flight to Cate School’s first cross-country field trip with high hopes, and we would not be disappointed.

After arriving in D.C, students and faculty alike caught up on muchneeded food and rest in preparation for our appointment. On our walk to the museum, we were flanked on either side by the cream-colored stone of hulking government buildings until we arrived at the Mall and were greeted by the stunning three-tiered, browntiled architecture of the museum, overshadowing even the Washington Monument in the background. I was thrilled by the museum’s structure, especially its striking angles, which contrasted so dramatically with the surrounding monuments. Without even entering the museum, my classmates and I felt impacted by the beauty of the building.

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We entered the main lobby, and after shedding a few layers, were escorted to an elevator that would drop us off underground, in the history section of the museum. We watched as the years on a timeline on the wall ticked backward, all the way until 1400 at the bottom floor, one of many purposeful details that made our tour through the museum so emotionally and intellectually stimulating. Indeed, these details were scattered everywhere, from the increasing amount of light on each level to the wooden floors of a simulated slave ship.

Our group dispersed to take in the vast collection of artifacts and archives at our own speed, as is necessary for this museum, which holds so many stirring stories. Through the floors, we saw artifacts like minstrel dolls from the eras we had studied, which made concrete the history we had been reading about.

For many of us, visiting the memorial for Emmett Till was unforgettable, and so much more emotional than reading about the brutal murder in class. We were thankful to Till’s family and all the other families that had donated artifacts to the museum as we made our way through the artfully curated halls.

Having explored half a century’s worth of history in far too little time, we returned to the lobby to dine on soul food before moving to the culture section of the museum. The soul food restaurant was a treat for my classmates and me, especially those of us from the South, as we often find ourselves homesick for collard greens and sweet tea while in Southern California. I tried the restaurant’s take on Hoppin’ John, a comfort food for me, being from North Carolina, and I was not let down.

With full stomachs, we climbed the stairs to experience the culture levels of the museum. I spent over an hour exploring the music history room and was particularly enthralled by the vast amount of artifacts on display, including Chuck Berry’s cherry-red Cadillac convertible and a signed pair of James Brown’s shoes. The room highlighted black artists across the genres, from punk

Juarez Newsome (second from left) and his students share a laugh in front of the National Museum of African American History.

rock to jazz to folk music, underscoring the huge impact African Americans have made on music, not only in America but also worldwide.

My classmates and our faculty chaperones each had our favorite sections, and that night, many of us shared those moments when the museum had elicited the strongest emotional responses from us. While we had come to the museum with an understanding of the history of African Americans in the United States, many of us found that the museum helped us begin to understand the historical experience of African Americans. The trip to the museum was the cornerstone of our class this trimester, aptly named The 20th-Century African American Experience, but I would argue it was also a pillar of our Cate education.

Our four years at Cate have been spent in small classes, on remote trails, and at diverse dinner tables in pursuit of the same empathy and inquiry demanded of us in the halls of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Ultimately, it is these qualities that embody what Curtis Cate called “the spirit of this place.”

From left to right: Abnner Olivares, Sean Zhan, Esther Whang, Charles Xie, and Kate Bradley are all smiles in front of the Capitol Building.

“ The trip to the museum was the cornerstone of our class this trimester, aptly named The 20th-Century African American Experience, but I would argue it was also a pillar of our Cate education.”

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ON THE MESA

Scholastic Writing

awards Gold Key Winners

Over the past four years, Cate’s participation in the Scholastic Writing Awards has grown from just a single student submitting her work (and earning two awards) to 21 students submitting poetry, personal narratives, short stories, and portfolios. This year, 17 Cate students were recognized in the Western Region at Large, earning a total of 24 awards. Six of them are Gold Key recipients, earning the highest award given. The following is a sampling of Gold Key winning pieces.

Cloe Tarlton '19

Control

Eliminate 10 paces.

Don’t strain yourself.

Have a life of luxury.

This mystical invention, mobile and miraculous, granting newfound idlen ess.

Bewildering, rectangular and manufac tured.

Swapping newscasters for MTV with the spasm of a thumb .

Your spine arced, every vertebra imprinted into the doughy recliner.

Your shoulders rolled tow ards the entrancing screen, displaying garish products for moderate prices.

Your eyelids unblinking, parched and bloodshot.

Your face static and emoti ons suspended.

Your stout belly, bulging through stained fab ric, and musty bare feet, propped on an overstuffed pillow.

Your calves of cellulite advertising the hours spent draped over your cou ch.

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Your lap tray standing ne arby, blurred by a layer of dry cans and wrinkled ch ip bags.

Your crusty TV dinners sta cked, plastic compartments gla zed with coagulated gravy and dusty peas.

The candid air surrounding you, foul and dim.

It straps you to the chair, stifling movement, suffocating thought.

No lively flowers in ornate vases, no plush throw pillows, or stacks of scholarly texts.

Your only movement is the occasional crunch of crumby fingers on opaque channel butto ns.

Tuning the volume, the station, the episode, the game.

Lying lifeless in your pasty palm, the dark contoured plastic

.

You are habituated, addicted, governed, controlled.

Lina Infante '20

Grace Johnson '21

of I Lived in a World Glass People out of sight of othen,rs, desperate to ss people.

I lived in a world of gla ins of clear, tucked away behind sk smooth glass. d to our Our souls were confine fragile bodies t of our being displaying every aspec to the world. ed, but only We wanted to be notic d good. for what was right, an I was afraid.

We were all afraid.

our We were prisoners of own obsessions, rld of that of which our wo was built off of. up, The bars that locked us those of fear, mingly and mistake, were see irrelevant. rough the We proudly strode th streets as though our every we weren’t calculating move. tiful, Our steps timed, beau in rhythm.

Clink.

Clink.

Clink.

All was short lived.

At the slightest ounce skittered of distrust we quickly across floors,

escape humiliatio h time like blindly dodging throug g in sh droplets of water ru aping the esc over rocks and stones, river’s strong grasp, er a cliff into tumbling aimlessly ov fall. an angry, raging water .

We were easily broken le could bb So fragile, even a pe shatter us. re Our tenuous bodies we t. transparen ought, every Every breath, every th feeling was a risk. . For you A risk of being broken us. h could see right throug display, Each of us an object on shelf in the waiting solemnly on a back of a store, me and went, watching as people ca g at the floor their glass heels scrapin Clink.

Clink.

Clink. w, rro As their grey eyes na strategically g, laughing, peering at us, pointin stare at leaving one to forlornly , their unmoving limbs set to ne eo longing for som them free.

Teacup: For My Closeted Sister When the weight of hiding crashes upon your shoulders like bitter coffee on taste buds at 7 A.M. I will flood my body with scalding water In hopes that you’ll hold me between your calloused fingers, Set my balmy porcelain against your lips and use me as a vessel of warmth, Sip away at my sugar and cream until your conscience feels sweet again.

What I wouldn’t give to make it easier for you Reach for me on your nights of sullen inquietude When the humming of synapses reverbs within the marrow of your skull and Awakens that all-too-familiar Tinnitus orchestra of poison-ivy thoughts, Hold my pearlescent body within your palms, Let me lull you into a slumber of lavender lullabies and Cheshire cats.

What I wouldn’t give to take away your restlessness When your cries for acceptance turn into bourbon biscuit crumbs, When they lodge themselves within the hollows of your throat I will wash them down with jasmine and chamomile I will be your home when the Ma and Pa lock the front door.

And even when hairline cracks spread throughout my bones of china I will muster the strength of a thousand tree roots to hold you tight.

What I wouldn’t give to make you feel loved

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2018-19 Scholastic Writing Awards HONORABLE MENTIONS Liza Borghesani '20 “Body” • Personal Essay/Memoir Kate Bradley '19 “One Girl Growing Up” • Writing Portfolio Biba Duffy-Boscagli '19 “Going to be an Astronaut” • Poetry Ella Klaerner '21 “Clay Figurine” • Poetry Elizabeth Li '19 “Fragile” • Poetry Jennifer Soh '19 “American Girl” • Personal Essay/Memoir Caroline Son '19 “I Was Taught” • Personal Essay/Memoir Cloe Tarlton '19 “Magnified” • Personal Essay/Memoir SILVER KEY Liza Borghesani '20 “Playback” • Poetry Kate Bradley '19 “Role Models” • Personal Essay/Memoir Georgia Douglas '19 “Chicken Guillotine” • Personal Essay/ Memoir Kaiser Ke '19 “The Power to Trace Mountains” • Personal Essay/Memoir

Clare Meehan '19 “Descent” • Poetry “Water” • Poetry Alice Qin '20 “Walrus” • Personal Essay/Memoir Kimberley Rogers '20 “Family” • Personal Essay/Memoir Cloe Tarlton '19 “More” • Poetry Finnian Whelan '20 “As a Paedomorph: A Lifetime of Juvenescence” • Short Story GOLD KEY Lina Infante '20 “Teacup” • Poetry Grace Johnson '21 “I Lived in a World of Glass People” • Poetry Kaiser Ke '19 “Open Letter to Guernica” • Personal Essay/ Memoir Clare Meehan '19 “Pokemon Cards and an Open Bottle of Grape Juice” • Short Story Alyssa Queensborough '20 “Looking Back on Pigtails” • Poetry

Megan Wong '20

Kirby Quad

Cloe Tarlton '19 “Control” • Poetry

Rovenna Armi '19 18

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Scholastic Art

awards

For almost 100 years, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards have identified students with exceptional creative ability. Approximately half a million pieces are submitted each year to be evaluated on their originality, technical skill, and personal voice or vision.

There are three honors awarded on the regional level: Gold Key – The very best works submitted. Gold

Key works are automatically considered for national-level recognition.

Silver Key – Stand-out

exceptional ability.

works that demonstrate

Honorable Mention – Accomplished

great skill and potential.

works showing

The following is a sampling of winning pieces.

Elizabeth Li '19

Fruit for Dessert

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Flora Troy '19

Friendship Bracelets

Jennifer Soh '19

Portrait of a Laughing Girl Elisabetta Duffy-Boscagli '19

Looks

Grace Johnson '21

A Fortune Luke Laurence '19

Milkweed

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Georgia Douglas '19

Fabricated Kenneth Liou '20

Crown of Ice

Rovenna Armi '19

Violet

Natasha Weiss '20

Three-faced Girl

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2018-19 Scholastic Art Awards Jennifer Soh '19 Portrait of a Laughing Girl • Printmaking

Flora Troy '19 Friendship Bracelets • Drawing & Illustration

Megan Wong '20 Lady With A Red Necklace • Painting

Megan Wong '20 Kirby Quad • Drawing & Illustration

Timothy Zhang '22 Pop-out USB Cryptex • Architecture & Industrial Design

Alice Zhang '19 Santa Cruz • Painting Lotus • Drawing & Illustration GOLD KEY

Grace Johnson '21 A Fortune • Drawing & Illustration

Alice Zhang '19 Influx • Painting Bougainvillea • Printmaking Rivers • Painting

Bryce Kim '21 Apple Town • Drawing & Illustration

Jason Zhao '19 Hands • Drawing & Illustration

Hunter King '19 Venus • Ceramics & Glass

SILVER KEY

Emily Calkins '20 Beach Day • Photography

Georgia Douglas '19 Fabricated • Drawing & Illustration

Luke Laurence '19 Milkweed • Digital Art

Dawson Fuss '22 Chicago • Photography

Elizabeth Li '19 Fruit for Dessert • Mixed Media

Ella Hendriks '19 For JoJo • Digital Art

Kenneth Liou '20 Hard Work Shows • Photography Warped • Photography

HONORABLE MENTIONS Rovenna Armi '19 Violet • Drawing & Illustration 3 Figures in Ink • Drawing & Illustration Elisabetta Duffy-Boscagli '19 Looks • Drawing & Illustration Ella Hendriks '19 Walk Through America • Film & Animation

Elizabeth Li '19 Wake Up, Girl • Drawing & Illustration Calla Lillies • Film & Animation Kenneth Liou '20 Sandhill Cranes • Drawing & Illustration Dylan MacFarlane '20 Fairy Tale Castle • Photography Pygmy Forest • Photography Spencer Michaels '20 On the Corner of Buxton St. • Photography Art by Proxy • Photography Raja Promige '20 Rapt • Drawing & Illustration Dylan MacFarlane '20 Fairy Tale Castle • Photography Pygmy Forest • Photography Kenneth Liou '20

Sandhill Cranes

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Scott Holmes '20 Close-neck Vase • Ceramics & Glass Bryce Kim '21 MacBook City • Drawing & Illustration Kenneth Liou '20 Essence of the City • Photography Crown of Ice • Photography Spencer Michaels '20 Love from London • Photography

Rovenna Armi '19 Mutation • Drawing & Illustration Self Prtrait: Acne • Drawing & Illustration Birdie • Drawing & Illustration

Asen Kim Ou '22 Gyro Wheelchair Concept Design Architecture & Industrial Design Natasha Weiss '20 Three-faced Girl • Printmaking

Alice Zhang '19

Influx

Dawson Fuss '22

Chicago

Elizabeth Li '19

Wake Up, Girl

caption

Raja Promige '20

Rapt

caption Jason Zhao '19

Hunter King '19

Hands

Venus

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Convocation Roundup Vote! Vote! Vote!

The message rang out loud and clear in the Hitchcock Theatre, as Dr. Tom Knecht, a political science professor from Westmont College, spoke to Cate students in October about the upcoming midterm elections.

Dr. Knecht’s presentation was divided into two parts: How Things Work and 10 Big Points. In just a few minutes, he managed to explain the significance of the midterm elections and sort out the complexities of the various races for the House and the Senate, as well as mentioning gubernatorial races, state propositions, and city and county measures.

For the 10 Big Points, Dr. Knecht slowed down a bit, diving deeply into voting trends and patterns and using state propositions as a way to illustrate the complexity of voting in the United States. Carefully non-partisan, Dr. Knecht never told the students for whom they should vote.

However, he was very clear on HOW voting should take place—in the context of civil discourse, in the realm of civic responsibility. Junior Jacob Wu pressed Knecht on this point. “As an individual,” asked Wu, “why should I vote?”

According to Dr. Knecht, everyone should vote as part of their civic duty. Although an individual’s vote will probably not be instrumental in bringing about a certain outcome,

it is certainly expressive of a person’s opinion and will lead to better government. Senior Sarah Polowczak questioned the professor, as well. Referencing the well-known polling errors of the 2016 presidential election, she asked whether we, as voters, should trust the effectiveness of polls. Dr. Knecht recommended healthy skepticism and discernment for reliable sources. He also noted that answering calls from polling organizations is a way to maximize one’s political influence.

Dr. Knecht’s convocation presentation set the stage for the community’s response to the upcoming midterm elections.

By his words and his example, Dr. Knecht modelled political discussion that is engaged, educated, and open to deliberation.

His persuasive enthusiasm will surely get all eligible Cate voters to the polls.

Baroness Caroline Cox and HART Baroness Caroline Cox stirred up the Cate community on a Monday evening in February with her impassioned presentation on HART: Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust. Baroness Cox received her title when she became a member of the House of Lords, Britain’s appointed Parliamentary House. She was an engaging and down-to-earth speaker; as she quipped, “I was the first Baroness I ever met!” Cox is the founder and CEO of HART, a humanitarian agency that provides both advocacy and aid for peoples whom she characterizes as “unreached, unhealed, and unheard.”

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Living Out Loud Henry Rollins is ruggedly optimistic because of YOU. For 45 unbroken minutes one evening in November, Rollins stood alone on the Hitchcock Theatre stage, tattoos flashing, and riffed on life, the world, and how to claim a place on the planet. Former singer for the punk band Black Flag, current spoken word artist and world traveler, Rollins enthralled his audience with tales from his life. Revved up by manic energy and a need for independence, Rollins has spent his time driving forward with the gas pedal to the metal. From touring the world as a musician to telling stories for money; from auditioning for a movie by lunch with Al Pacino to hopping all over the world with a smile and a camera: Rollins has done more than most in his life. He has no intention of slowing down.

Rollins has few rules in his life, but he shared them with Cate students: Read more than you text. Remember that you have more options than you think. Know that people are generous and kind everywhere. Rollins thinks this century is going to end better than it started because “You!” he shouted out to the audience, “will be voting and rejecting the misogyny, racism, and homophobia of previous generations.” He has high hopes for what he calls “my beautiful America” and even higher hopes for students. As Rollins announced in conclusion, “You can do whatever you want. That’s what I do every damn day.”

human rights abuses in order to inform their advocacy and to supply aid to those who are in desperate need.

With emotionally compelling slides to accompany her words, Cox showed the Cate community images from Burma

“ Pity weeps and turns away. Compassion weeps and puts out a hand... I cannot do everything, but I must not do nothing.”

(Myanmar), Armenia, South Sudan, and the Republic of Sudan, all places she has personally visited dozens of times.

The travel is rugged; in these areas, roads are few, life is desperate, and the possibility of violence is ever-present. For Cox, this is all the more reason to go. She explained HART’s protocol, which is always to work with local partners. In this way, HART maintains the dignity of choice for local people, who have the best idea of their community priorities. By working through local partners, HART also avoids upsetting the local economy, prevents aid dependency, and enhances local leadership.

Although Cox was very direct about the suffering of the people with whom she works, she also celebrated the triumphs in which HART has been able to participate. Some of the “points of light” mentioned by Cox included Dr. Sasa, who runs the Health and Hope Clinic in the Chin State of Burma and has trained over 1,000 community health workers in an area that previously had no health care at all.

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in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. Run by founder Vardan Tadevosyan, the clinic has become a global center for excellence in reducing the stigma and providing medical care and therapy for people of all ages who are disabled. Cox was even able to find achievement in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan, where the local people are under constant aerial bombardment from the government of President al-Bashir, who has already been indicted for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court. After emergency medical aid, the Nuba people cited education as their community’s first priority. Showcasing her ability to find the humor in almost any situation, Cox told Cate students a story about their peers in Sudan.

As the government in Khartoum particularly targets schools, markets, and other gathering places, students are educated on the mountainside. When instructors from Kenya arrive to administer standard exams, the students come prepared with large rocks. If and when bombs begin to fall, the students place their exam papers under their rocks, run to caves for cover, and can return to undamaged exams when the bombardment is over. As Cox joked, “Talk about taking exams under pressure!”

Although there was little time for questions, Cate students were clearly moved by what they learned from Baroness Cox. Frankie Nieman wondered whether HART, founded on Christian principles, gave aid only to Christian sufferers. Cox affirmed that Christian doctrine informed their work, especially St. Francis; “Pity weeps and turns away. Compassion weeps and puts out a hand.” As HART lives this creed, the group reaches out a hand to groups of any faith. Jackson Weinberger voiced the question that the whole audience seemed to be thinking: “What can we do from here?” Noting that HARTUSA was established in February of this year, Cox encouraged Cate students to write their representatives, give money if possible, and continue the good work of service that she has seen from her friend Kate Bradley’s Metherell Challenge grant. Cox acknowledged the overwhelming need in a desperate world. However, looking back on the accomplishments of the six-person HART team, she gave the audience the mantra by which she lives: “I cannot do everything, but I must not do nothing.”

Be Human for a Change Worried about the right major to choose in college? Worried about how to make a career plan? Worried about technology eroding available jobs? Don’t worry! Focus on what makes you human, and all will be well.

Cate students gathered in the Hitchcock Theatre on a Monday night in December to hear from Jenny Dearborn, Executive Vice President of Human Resources at SAP, the world’s largest business-to-business software firm. Ms. Dearborn is also mom to senior Cloe Tarlton and her brothers, sophomore Cooke Tarlton and Jack Tarlton '16. Once labelled “mentally retarded” for her long-undiagnosed dyslexia, Ms. Dearborn now spends her days driving around in a Tesla, advising executives and heads of government, and receiving awards, like being named one of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Technology. What shaped this trajectory?

After sharing some of her journey with the audience of students, Ms. Dearborn led them through a brief history of industry through the Industrial Revolution, the Digital Revolution, and up to our own place on the timeline, the Cyber-Physical Revolution. She cited Big Data, technology, our socially connected world, rapidly shifting markets, and changing demographics as the five forces that are completely reshaping the future of work. The statistics were alarming: jobs or parts of jobs eliminated by technology, swift obsolescence of content learned in college, 60-year careers before retirement.

But Ms. Dearborn has an ultimately hopeful message. As she noted, what will increasingly be demanded of the workforce are what she referred to as “foundational human skills”: creativity, innovation, problem-solving, and the like. She also insisted on the absolute value of multiple perspectives to decide the answers to the ethical questions that technology must pose.

To bring this abstract idea to life, Ms. Dearborn posed a striking example that circled back to her Tesla: in a crash, will the car’s steering algorithms be set to run over several people in order to save the driver or be set to save the many at the expense of the one? As she commented, she wants as many different kinds of people as possible to collaborate on this decision.

Ms. Dearborn ended her lecture with three points of emphasis: be tech literate, celebrate diversity, and focus on your human skills. Standing before the students as a living example of the power of life-long learning and adaptability, she embodied a persuasive argument. Then she got back in her Tesla and zoomed off to her next gig, preaching the power of the human.

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“ What will increasingly be demanded of the workforce are what Ms. Dearborn referred to as “foundational human skills”: creativity, innovation, problem-solving, and the like.”

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without his voice. The casting director for Star Wars was in the Stomp audience one night, and she invited Best to audition for the movement role in a new CGI character who became Jar Jar Binks. Best found himself at a table read and ended up getting the voice part as well. Jar Jar was Best’s first movie part; he invited the audience to imagine the experience of learning the movie business with partners like Liam Neeson and Natalie Portman.

Get out there and MAKE SOME NOISE! Ahmed Best delighted the audience in Hitchcock Theatre on a Monday night in January. Actor, director, and drummer, among other creative roles, Best is most well-known for his role in Star Wars: Episode 1—The Phantom Menace as the often-hated character Jar Jar Binks.

However, Best’s story is much more than just that of a Gungan from the planet Naboo.

Best learned how to play African drums from his mother, and he pursued music throughout his life. High school saw him sitting next to John Knecht, Cate’s Music Director, thus leading to Best’s turn on the Hitchcock stage. Best talked a bit

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But when the movie came out, everyone hated Jar Jar. Best didn’t dwell on the depression that resulted from being 24 years old and thinking his career was over. Instead, he shared the wisdom that came from the experience. “Everyone,” he stated, “has a point of view.” Best realized that the point of view he was trying to communicate with his portrayal of Jar Jar was not the point of view the audience received. “Their judgement was fair, even if it was not what I wanted.” And Best moved on. He is currently involved in a number of projects, including as creator and host of The Afrofuturist Podcast, and his YouTube channel reveals “Field Notes” on the process of creating a oneman show about being Jar Jar Binks.

Best concluded the evening with an exhortation. “Get out there,” he declared.

“Make noise, play loud and wrong, but have a point of view.”

about his journey, which took him from high school to a gap year in New York City and a short stint at the Manhattan School of Music. However, as he said, “My music wasn’t there.”

Best became a cast member of Stomp, an avant-garde theater group that uses the body, along with brooms, trash can lids, and a host of other objects, to create music. When he was there, he realized Stomp was actually about language.

Tapping on stage in an impromptu rhythm, but otherwise silent, Best led his enthusiastic audience in calland-response clapping to demonstrate how much he could communicate

Following his presentation, Ahmed Best took time to speak with students in the Johnson Library. Here he talks with Esteban Paulino '21.

A Night AT THE Museum Cate’s recent Dance Convocation was a dazzling display of creativity from the conception of the performance as “A Night at the Museum” through the choreography to the wide variety of dances performed by solo dancers and ensembles. The first curtain opened with a projection of the well-known Andy Warhol painting “Queen Elizabeth II 336.” With flowing satin skirts that reflected Warhol’s bright pink background, Cate’s dance ensemble swooped and darted across the stage to the music of Vivaldi and Billie Eilish. This major ensemble piece was followed by a solo choreographed and danced by Alice Qin '20. Her graceful ribbon dance reflected a painting by Daquian Zhang. Just as Zhang is known for using traditional Eastern techniques to explore Western expressionist modes, so Alice’s contemporary dance reflected both the traditional and the new.

Anna Sung Park '22 and Ashi Kamra '22 combine synchronized dance with strength and discipline during their aerial ring performance.

Alice Qin '20 captivates the audience with ribbons and choreography, all precisely synchronized to form vibrant patterns and designs.

The evening unfolded with one delight after another. Projected art ranged across the spectrum: there were paintings from van Gogh to Munch and street art from Banksy and Bollee Patino. The music was as varied as the dance. Student choreographers included Rae Fox '20, Kalia Lopez '22, Georgina Omaboe '20, Alice Qin '20, Avery Ransom '20, Josh Shields '19, and Athena von Bothmer '21. Cate alum Jamie Jared '15 choreographed a piece. Dance teacher Brooke Melton created several of the numbers, along with outside professionals like aerial specialist Katelyn Carano. The audience was drawn into intensely emotional solos like Kalia Lopez’ “Rose” and entranced by the stunning ensemble piece “Flower Thrower,” which had Cate dancers twisting in silk ropes hanging from the ceiling and spinning on suspended aerial hoops. Bold, creative, and highly accomplished, “A Night at the Museum” was a bravura performance.

Athena von Bothmer '21 reaches new heights in her choreography and dance.

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Round Square

Exchange Students

(interviewed in January 2019) Lya is a sophomore at Dainfern College in Johannesburg, South Africa. But through a Round Square exchange she will spend the next eight weeks living and studying as a Cate student. Lya says that she had wanted to visit the U.S. since she was little, but it was the stories of her classmates who had gone on exchanges in other countries that convinced her to come to Cate. “One girl went to Peru, another to Australia, and then another to Spain,” says Lya.

Lya says a Round Square conference she attended in South Africa brought students from around the world to her home. “Meeting people from different cultures and religions is what I like best about Round Square.”

When she’s at Dainfern, Lya’s schedule looks quite similar to that of a typical Cate student. “So we have academic days that start at 7:30 a.m. and go to about 2:00 p.m. And we’re encouraged to do sports every single day.” Lya competes in swimming, water polo, and field hockey, and she plays the piano too.

While she’s here Lya says she’d like to see as much of California as possible, including famous tourist destinations like Hollywood. She’s also looking forward to all the outdoor opportunities Cate offers. But most of all Lya says she wants to “experience how you guys run compared to us.”

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LYA BINOS

CAMILA CALDERÓN (interviewed in February 2019)

This time last year you could find Camila Calderón, our most recent Round Square exchange student, exploring the many cathedrals in her hometown of Lima, Peru, or diving into a warm plate of lomo saltado – a Peruvian dish of sliced steak, onions, tomatoes, fries, cilantro, and brown rice. When she wasn’t satisfying her appetite for cuisine and culture, Camila frequently enjoyed the sun and surf of Lima. “But the beaches in California have way softer tides,” she says. “And the sunsets are amazing!”

Camila’s hometown school, Markham College, is set in the middle of bustling downtown Lima, so she knew she was in for a change when she got to Cate.

In late January, Camila joined the Cate community as the second exchange student this year to call the Mesa home.

One of more than 190 Round Square schools, Cate connects with other member schools to create opportunities for students and teachers to develop international understanding, greater selfconfidence, and a range of interpersonal skills through studying on host campuses.

For Camila, the move away from her home school’s IGCSE and IB curricula was a welcome change. “We have way more homework here [at Cate],” Camila commented. “But at home, I don’t get to experience my courses as students get to do here. What you choose is what you get. At Cate, I’m able to explore different opportunities to test myself and figure out what I like and don’t like.”

Camila participated in the exchange to challenge herself to be an active student in a different environment, to gain knowledge from her new surroundings, and to live and study with people from around the world. So far, Camila has

found plenty of joy in her studies and in her work with Learning Center, where she visits different after-school programs in Carpinteria to help younger children with their homework and in arts and crafts.

“ When you go on an exchange in a new place you expect to feel somewhat lost. But that’s something really nice about Cate. There wasn’t one moment when I felt like I didn’t fit in here.”

The weekly Servons speaker series has made an indelible impact on Camila’s Cate experience. “So much sharing! Being able to be comfortable with yourself, instead of trying to be something else, is great. That’s how you should be remembered. I love Cate’s student talks.”

The transition to Cate and the U.S. was perfectly smooth for Camila. “When you go on an exchange in a new place you expect to feel somewhat lost. But that’s something really nice about Cate. There wasn’t one moment when I felt like I didn’t fit in here,” Camila states, smiling.

“My hosts, Grace Johnson ['21] and her family, have been really great. And Emily [Calkins '20] makes sure that I’m never alone.”

Camila and Emily have a unique connection beyond being campus buddies. This summer, Camila and her family will play host to Emily on her exchange to Peru.

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Rachel Ma '22 drives to the goal, hoping to find the back of the net for the Rams.

Winter

sports

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Parker May '20 wins the tip to start the CIF quarterfinal playoff game against Carpinteria.

Spring has sprung here on the Mesa and spring sports are in full swing around campus. Now that the soccer cleats and basketballs have given way to lacrosse sticks and baseballs, it’s important to recognize the success Cate teams had this winter. Three of the five programs that were eligible for the CIF playoffs advanced in the postseason, and two of those squads moved past the first round.

Beyond the wins they achieved, our students learned lessons about themselves and made memories and connections that will last a lifetime.

season came to an end in the first round, however, as the Rams fell to Marshall High School by a 3-2 score. The Rams were paced offensively by Buba Fofanah '20, Daniel Boateng '22, and William Deardorff '21. There’s no doubt the senior leadership for this team played a big part in keeping spirits up when times were tough. Jack Deardorff '19, Cullen Barber '19, Cal Sinclair '19, Adlai Hester '19, Peter Firestone '19, and Bailor Jalloh '19 were all great representatives and role models and they will certainly be missed on the field next season.

BOYS’ SOCCER

SQUASH

One of those playoff teams was boys’ varsity soccer. The Rams were short handed all year, missing several players for long stretches of the season. But the squad never used that as an excuse and constantly battled each time they set foot on the pitch. In the team’s final regular season game, the Rams needed to win to extend their season. The pressurepacked situation didn’t faze them and they knocked off Grace Brethren 5-2 to advance to the CIF playoffs. The Rams’

The Cate squash team competed in the SoCal High School League this season, traveling to Pasadena most weekends to take on other teams in the area. The squad was separated into an A team and a B team, and both fared quite well in the championship tournament. The A team was paced by Stefan Suh '19, who had a solid tournament, while Ophelia Ke '22 showed poise in some pressure-packed situations against talented players. Ryan Suh '20 played very well in his match as

Ryan Lack '21 looks to complete a backdoor pass to a teammate.

well. The B team also made a successful showing, reaching the finals of their tournament. Cloris Cheng '21 picked up a big win, as did Abhi Bangaru '21, Mark Huerta '20, and Alex Elrington '21. The team’s depth showed in the final “interschool” tournament, as Stefan Suh '19 was named boys’ champion and Ophelia Ke '23 was chosen as girls’ champion.

WATER POLO

No team on campus faced a bigger challenge than the girls’ water polo team.

With a squad full of young players, including some absolute newcomers to the game, the Rams had their work cut out for them in a tough league filled with experienced and talented athletes.

For the Rams, success wasn’t going to be measured by the scoreboard, but rather in the growth of each player as the season went on. The team leaned on its three senior leaders. Ella Hendriks '19, Celia Foster '19, and Cloe Tarlton '19 showed the way throughout the season, even when it wasn’t easy. With just three seniors and tons of playing time for

younger players, there’s reason to be excited about this program moving forward.

GIRLS’ BASKETBALL

Like the girls’ water polo team, the girls’ basketball team also faced a daunting league schedule. In fact, the league consisted of three teams all ranked in the CIF top 10 polls in playoff divisions higher than the one Cate played in. The team’s record wasn’t indicative of how talented they were. Maya Blattberg '20 was strong inside for Cate, while Meena Baher '22 and Piper Brooks '20 helped the Rams on the perimeter. All season long, Elle Smith '19 and Sarah Polowczak '19 brought leadership and energy to each and every practice; this program is better for having those two in uniform.

GIRLS’ SOCCER

The Cate girls’ soccer team had one of its best seasons in recent memory. Led by first-year head coach Taylor Wyatt, the Rams were champions of the Frontier League, going undefeated in league play this winter. In the first round of the

CIF playoffs, the Cate Rams dominated Pilibos School to the tune of a 7-0 score.

There was plenty of offensive firepower in that game, as four different players found the back of the net, including Tali Nam '21 with a hat trick. The victory pushed the Rams into the second round of the playoffs, where they fell to the division’s top seed, 1-0. The Rams saw major contributions from several young players this season. Olivia Dorion '22, Ali Istanbullu '22, Charlotte Weis '22, and Rachel Ma '22 were just of a few of the newcomers who made an impact on this team, while sophomores Taylor Kane '21, Maddy Tunnell '21, Jolea Moes '21, and Lilly Riehl '21 made big plays all season long. The team will say goodbye to five seniors next year, as Maddie Erickson '19, Tessa Denison '19, Emely Villatoro '19, Phoebe Hurwitz '19, and Kate Tunnell '19 wrapped up their Cate soccer careers with an exciting season.

They have helped lay the groundwork for what will no doubt be more success in the near future.

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BOYS’ BASKETBALL

After dropping their regular season finale against Villanova, the Cate boys’ basketball team knew they were going to be awarded a #2 seed in the CIF playoffs.

As soon as the brackets were released, all eyes went to the potential quarter-final match-up against local rival Carpinteria High School. In order to get there, however, Cate had to make it through some tough competition. The Rams started their playoff run with a home victory over a hot-shooting team from St. Michael’s Prep. The next round saw Cate travel deep into the desert to take on San Jacinto Valley Academy, where the Rams managed to grind out a 61-52 victory.

The showdown was set and, on Valentine’s Day, Carpinteria High School’s gym became a sea of red and blue as the two sides united Carpinteria in what turned out to be a hard-fought game. Cate went into the fourth quarter with a lead, but was unable to hang on and eventually fell to Carpinteria, 51-46. While losing to a rival can be a tough pill to swallow, the Rams have a lot to be proud of. Seniors Carson Williams '19, Ethan Cassulo '19, Jake Nelson '19, and Sebastian Richardson '19 will all be missed next season. Despite their departure, the Rams will have several key returners. Khadim Pouye '20, Scott Holmes '20, Thomas Nettesheim '20, Parker May '20, Nkemka Chukwumerije '21, Tega Umukoro '21, and Mason Oetgen '22 all played well this season and will look to improve when they take to the court again in November.

Buba Fofonah '20 slips the ball past the goalkeeper during the annual College Cup.

Elle Smith '19 stays calm and focused while shooting a free throw.

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Sarah Polowczak '19 pushes the ball up the floor for the Rams.

Maddie Erickson '19 fights off a defender as she makes her way up the field.

Ella Hendriks '19 rips a shot from the outside.

Nkemka Chukwumerije '21 glides to the bucket in Cate’s CIF first round playoff win against St. Michael’s Prep.

Maddie Denis '19 smacks a backhand on the squash court.

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Servons Speaker

spotlight

By Anna Fortner

I collected a set of junior essays just before winter break. In place of a literary analysis essay, I asked my juniors to respond to an argument on a topic of interest to the writers we just studied, the Transcendentalists.

The Transcendentalists were writing in the mid-19th century and at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.

Around them they saw more and more factories dotting the landscape, people clamoring to cities in pursuit of the American dream – developments they believed were corrupting society and harming man, distancing him from the only thing that could remind him of his humanity – the natural world.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, the father of Transcendentalism, writes in his famous essay “Nature”: “Standing on the bare ground – my head bathed by blithe air,

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and uplifted to infinite space – all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball . . . I am part or particle of God.” That excerpt alone tells you something about the difficulty of reading the Transcendentalists and explains, at least in part, why juniors – juniors with a work ethic and intellectual drive I couldn’t have fathomed when I was their age, and that as an adult I deeply respect and admire – when faced with reading the Transcendentalists, go belly up. I certainly don’t blame them for it. And I actually find it a little sweet and a bit funny when, after their first night reading the Transcendentalists, students return

to class and play it cool for the first few minutes, not wanting to offend me or find out they are alone in their confusion; but once someone is finally willing to admit how much they hated the reading, frustration spills out of them. It happens every year, like clockwork.

For those of you who haven’t yet had the pleasure, I’d say reading the Transcendentalists is a lot like reading Shakespeare, if Shakespeare were a nature lover who wrote self-help books. But amongst the dense verbiage and endless figurative language there are gems.

Emerson’s description of transcendence

Sarah Polowczak '19, Rovenna Armi '19, and Baker Fox '19 have fun during an exercise on figurative language in the fall of 2017.

resonates with me. In nature, man is stripped to his essence – no ego, all eye ball, and so capable of seeing what he couldn’t see before. I have felt this transcendence at different times in my life – most recently on a crisp December morning when suddenly the sky was filled with hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Snow Geese. Or in Yosemite when I’d wake well before dawn to sit under a sky bursting with stars. Perhaps most viscerally, I felt transcended when, at 18, I kayaked my first stretch of Class V whitewater. The sensory experience of transcendence is wildly wonderful – like the fizz just before a laugh, or the roar of the fiercest love you have ever known. The senses silencing the intellect. Seconds spinning into minutes of delight/exultation/joy/awe. The Transcendentalists defined transcendence as accessing the current of goodness that runs through the world . . . and through me . . . and through all of you. And I think that sounds about right.

In the stack of essays I’ve collected and that I read over break there are celebrations of juniors’ recent life experiences – experiences the Transcendentalists similarly valued – of beauty, virtue, and hard work: the respite found at the top of a peak on Kern, of connections made on weekly trips to Transition House, of summers full of manual labor, or of the success found after a difficult trimester in an advanced course. There is also a lot of frustration, especially in response to the prompt that asked students to consider the concern, expressed by a Princeton admissions officer, that students increasingly see their education “as a means to an end” – just a few rungs on a very tall ladder.

I read in these essays about a lifelong pressure to do it all and do it well, about competition and the need to be the best, about transcripts, about SAT prep courses that teach students to game the system, about a deep-rooted fear of failure, even failure that is only temporary. It is a thread that has arisen a number of times this year, expressed by some on this very stage.

Long after I’ve graded and returned these essays, I find myself thinking about them, crafting different responses in my head, responses I hope might ameliorate my juniors’ frustrations.

I come to see these frustrations as manifestations of Emerson’s “mean egotism” – a modern incarnation of what the Transcendentalists saw rising just as dark and dirty as smoke from the factories, the self that society perpetrates upon us, the self that, as one student wrote in her essay, “prioritizes success over character.”

I begin to wonder why, if this is how students feel, they aren’t more drawn to the Transcendentalists they have just read. In the second paragraph of Walden, the Transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau’s record of his experiment in living a simple life in the woods, he writes, “Perhaps these pages are more particularly addressed to poor students.”

And isn’t that what my students are telling me they sometimes feel they

are? Poor in the way Thoreau believed was most detrimental, poor in spirit?

Aren’t my students telling me that, like Emerson and Thoreau, they want “to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life.”

Don’t we all?

What I realize is that students are identifying a force in their lives that feels omnipresent and unmovable, that for some students this may be one force of many, for others the first with real power.

In either case, I know for certain this will not be the last one they encounter.

And I know how sinister these forces can be. Sinister because they convince us that what we have to offer the world is something less than or other than our best selves.

And I think for the first time I get why in my twelve years of teaching them, the Transcendentalists have been almost universally reviled – why, in their own time, they garnered similar responses. It’s partly the language, sure. But it’s more than that, too. What people, adults and 37

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students alike, find so frustrating about a group of writers who say the way to deal with these forces is to keep society at arms length, to do only what we think is right, to – as Thoreau put it – live a heroic life . . . is simply that it doesn’t seem possible.

The sinister forces that concern me have changed over time; currently those I am battling stem largely from the fact that I am the mother of two young daughters, three and five years old. You learn early in the parenting of a daughter that the “be pretty” refrain is a force like none other – in the greetings and compliments they receive; in the protagonists they encounter on TV and in movies, and even in the most progressive children’s books; in the princess dresses, tiaras, and clacky shoes that work their way into their lives. The force is so strong that sometimes in that hour of night when my eyes flit open under a surge of anxiety, I want to grab my girls and run deep into the woods, to give them the time and space to connect so deeply with their innate goodness that they are themselves a kind of force. But running into the woods isn’t a long-term solution, so I find other ways to push back on these forces that ask my girls to give so little of themselves to the world.

So when my eldest says of a character in a movie something like, “I like her, she’s pretty,” Mr. Caditz or I will be quick to say, “Yeah, but is she courageous and kind?”

Now, I just want to say that you may recognize the “courageous and kind” bit from the most recent Disney remake of Cinderella, and as an English teacher, it pains me to think that the quote I repeat to my daughters over and over again is not from a great work of literature, but from a Disney movie, Disney who only just realized there are damsels capable of dealing with their own distress.

About this, I’ll say two things. First, our daughters have diverse interests, including princesses, and we’ve come to terms with that. (Moana helped. A lot.)

And we know that if we want to talk about big abstract ideas, princesses are a great way of making those ideas concrete.

Second, the magic of fairy tales is that their tropes and themes adapt well to the times, just the slightest change making them resonate today, and in 2015, Disney nailed that change. In 1812 Cinderella’s mother tells her to “be pious and good,” in 2015 to “have courage and be kind.”

“ We, all of us, want to engage with the world, no matter how mercurial, even those cranky Transcendentalists. The beauty of courage and kindness is that they are a way of engaging that ensures amazing things will happen.”

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Of course, we want courage and kindness to be qualities our daughters not only look for in others but also embrace in themselves. And so we sign them up for soccer and have discussions about the value of doing things that are hard, about supporting teammates when they do well and when they struggle. We go for bike rides and talk about muscles and fueling them, about the importance of “healthy fats.” We take them to science and natural history museums and talk about big discoveries and scientific practices and caring for the planet. We get them into the woods any time and way we can and set them free to do as they please. And if they choose to do any or all of this in a pink tutu, or diamond tiara, or Elsa dress, Caditz and I say “more power to ‘em.”

In the Brothers Grimm and Disney versions of Cinderella, it is on her deathbed that Cinderella’s mother gives her daughter this final piece of advice. Consider that for a moment.

Knowing full well that with the loss of her mother (and with her father’s travel schedule) Cinderella is about to be thrust into an adult world full of sinister forces she must navigate with a degree of self-reliance well beyond her years, Cinderella’s mother tells her to “have courage and be kind.”

What did she fear Cinderella might do?

Hide from a world made newly scary?

Avoid relationships and the risk of loss they posed? Lash out in anger? Wait for her beauty to attract a man who could steer her life? Perhaps what she feared is the same thing the Transcendentalists feared, that when the forces arrived, Cinderella would allow them to devalue, reduce, or erase her. And consequently live what Thoreau called a life “of quiet desperation.”

An unfortunate and pervasive misunderstanding of the Transcendentalists is that they supported a life lived away from society.

But Emerson believed the ideal man was he who could be his true self in society.

Thoreau’s two years in a cabin at Walden Pond were always and only ever intended to be an experiment, a “sojourn” he calls it – a chance to engage his moral imagination and see the full range of possibilities in a life. Nature’s value to the Transcendentalists wasn’t as an escape but as a place to temporarily lift one’s head above the din of society to reconnect with the innate goodness that exists within all of us.

But if, as one of my students wrote, “this generation cannot relate to Transcendentalism because nature is not as much a part of our lives as it was Emerson’s and Thoreau’s,” I hope you’ll listen to Cinderella’s mom instead because what she’s doing when she tells Cinderella to “have courage and be kind” is naming the innate goodness that’s in all of us. It is courage. And it is kindness.

because she saw her writing as part of the thread begun so long ago by Thoreau and Emerson, depends, I suppose, on how you feel about those guys. But she was all over my Instagram feed, her poems posted by celebrities, professional athletes, photographers, vegan chefs, and bloggers of every ilk. But lest I suggest my Instagram feed is representative of any reality, even my own, I’ll add that after I listened to one of the rare interviews Oliver did, I looked up the title of her collected essays and discovered that every book she wrote – poetry or prose – was sold out on Amazon. What more concrete – and modern – proof can there be of the resonance of her poetry? Oliver was challenged by many sinister forces – what she calls, with great understatement, “an insufficient childhood,” and extreme poverty – and her response to it all was to

spend as much time as possible in the natural world and to write about what she saw and what she thought. Like her predecessors, it is clear in her poetry that Oliver always believed that what is dark and ugly is a part of this world, but it isn’t the whole of this world. Light and beauty are here, too.

Indeed, she asks in her essay, “Long Life,” “What does it mean . . . that the earth is so beautiful and what shall I do about it? What is the gift that I should bring the world? What is the life that I should live?”

I say be a modern-day Transcendentalist.

Be the beauty and the light in this world.

Have courage and be kind. That is your gift to yourself and to the world.

Thank you.

We, all of us, want to engage with the world, no matter how mercurial, even those cranky Transcendentalists. The beauty of courage and kindness is that they are a way of engaging that ensures amazing things will happen.

Certainly that’s true for our heroine.

Cinderella hasn’t eradicated evil stepmothers or jealous step sisters – or the pervasive gender norms that make them so – but because of her courage and kindness the universe is, quite literally, on her side, turning pumpkins to carriages, and lizards to footmen. And when she meets Prince Charming and ultimately becomes the fairy tale equivalent of First Lady, Cinderella’s mom has already empowered her daughter and taught her the skills essential to good leadership: courage and kindness.

As I was writing the conclusion of this talk, the poet Mary Oliver passed away. If you haven’t read her poetry, I encourage you to do so. She’s in rarefied air for a host of reasons, but the one that struck me most upon her passing is how widely read she is; whether her popularity is despite the fact that or

Anna Fortner is in her twelfth year as a member of the English Department at Cate.

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The Old School

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,

and the NEW

By Benjamin D. Williams IV

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“Actually, no,” I said. “I haven’t.”

I remember that admittedly insignificant conversation like it was yesterday. It was my first interaction with Isobel, who is wonderful and memorable. Plus, surrounded by so many long-serving teachers and administrators, I was painfully aware of my own lack of longevity at Cate.

Isobel’s erroneous assumption happily changed that.

And finally, the exchange remains a cogent reminder of the dynamics that surround change, or the resistance to it. Why was Isobel so sure I was going to tell her “no”? And why did she assume my resistance would be based on my history at the School?

Is history an implicit impediment to change?

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n my second year as headmaster, I had a conversation with a recently arrived student named Isobel Lincoln '01. She was concerned about the kitchen in the Community Center, which wasn’t in use. Isobel had lots of ideas. When I tried to concur with a particularly good one, Isobel cut me off. “I know,” she said, “You’ve probably been here forever and seen all of this tried before….”

That seems an important question for all schools now, not just ours.

The pace of change in the digital age can be dizzying, and phrases like “the new normal” are everywhere. I came across it just this morning in a magazine article about the declining turkey populations in the Eastern U.S. In that particular case, the new normal isn’t good.

For schools, there’s a host of challenges and opportunities presented by the evolving environment. Some of them are obvious. With technology’s ascendance in the economy and the job market, the focus on certain quantitative academic disciplines is growing dramatically. I took an impromptu survey with last year’s seniors concerning possible career plans. Only one member of the group I queried planned to do something outside of science and technology.

Our students applying to college are showing that priority even more conspicuously, with applications to

engineering, business, and computer science programs up dramatically. Even at the secondary level, curriculum has evolved in response to that interest among students. At Cate, in addition to influencing new offerings, the digital revolution is causing us to look at broadbased, school-wide pedagogies.

We did that very thing five years ago when we re-conceived our Humanities program around the pedagogical principle of “inquiry.” That initiative, which is focused on the capacity of students to drive learning by the strategic construction of compelling questions, has since been adopted and put into practice by every academic department. Long-time math teacher Frank Griffin, who is leading the inquiry effort, met with department heads recently. There, in an effort to continue to focus energy on full immersion in the pedagogy, he quoted legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden, who famously said, “Never mistake activity for achievement.”

Surely the same spirit has to galvanize any school’s efforts to evolve and change.

It is no accident that the inquiry model which has been so effective at Cate will be followed by an initiative that we will germinate in our math and science departments on computational thinking.

This approach to problem solving complements nicely the focus on inquiry and allows us to build competencies in techniques that, while grounded in the quantitative disciplines, have applications in every area of academic endeavor. In this day and age, and given the character of the world our graduates will enter, that seems a no-brainer.

But therein lies the rub. If we go back to the questions that my interaction with Ms. Lincoln catalyzed, it seems clear that even the need to meet evolving trends and patterns in the world is not always compelling enough to propel significant programmatic change.

Schools are not agile entities. We don’t

adapt quickly— if at all—for several very good reasons, many of which are connected to history.

First and most obviously, most schools—Cate included—are founded on principles and practices that are presumably timeless. Look, for instance, at the focus on writing at Cate, begun by originals like the Parsons brothers and followed by luminaries such as Jim Durham, Frank Sykes, and Gaby Edwards. Even in mathematics we still hear the echoes of Allan Gunther and Sanderson Smith and their oftarticulated, “Math is a language.”

Such articulations matter at Cate. They always have mattered. And the timeless character of our intentions—from Mr. Cate onward—is conspicuous.

“Commitment” is never going to become unnecessary. Neither is scholarship, companionship, or service.

The practices that support that mission do change, but not dramatically, and always along a continuum. That is why I read those famous lines from William Shepard Biddle '18 at the Sunset Ceremony each year, about the move from the bottom of Lillingston Canyon to the current home of the School: “There is a kinship, a fundamental continuity of tradition, between the old school and the new, whose roots go deeper than a few feet into the Mesa soil.”

But even as we evolve, we are tethered necessarily to what we have always been.

That is as conspicuous in an examination of program evolution as it is in examining the composition of the student body or the role of religion at the School. In all cases there is change—the most dramatic and important of which was the decision to become co-educational—but even that decision was reached after three separate studies taken up by the Board of Trustees over nearly a decade.

Is history an impediment at such moments? By some measures, absolutely.

It is easier to commit to a new path if the old one seems somehow flawed or insufficient to the fulfillment of a school’s mission. But that has never been the case at Cate. No path has ever been an implicit rejection of what came before.

Each move is rather a logical next step.

For the impatient, the consideration required to inform each advance can be excruciating. And we can “committee” issues for years at Cate, prompting one trustee to say, “Let me know when you’re done… and then I’ll rejoin the Board.”

But there’s a more important end than a quick turn or a sudden shift. Mr. Cate noted this very truth in one of the last chapters he wrote in School Days in California. Looking back on his decision to retire, the King wrote, “Certainly many a boy was started on the way he should go, and all were good soldiers in the first two wars of the twentieth century. Whether I prepared them for the second half, I do not know.

I could not undertake that task with today’s schoolboys.”

He wrote those lines in 1960, on the eve of the dramatic social, political, and cultural upheaval that would fundamentally change this country. My father was the head of a boarding school in the Northeast during that period, and even though I was just a boy I can recall the struggles he faced as the relevance of the very institutions that meant to advance culture and learning—including his own—were doubted, disrupted, and cast into turmoil. At the age of six I encountered my first sit-in, organized by students at my father’s school to protest an action by the dean. Several of the boys who participated I knew well; they lived in the dormitory connected to our house. Suddenly, the world seemed different.

It is different now, too, though the character of the present change seems unique in history. Maybe that’s why schools like ours maintain such an important tether to the past. It helps us

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know how to adapt without somehow losing touch with who we are. And while that serves as a governor of sorts on the pace of change, it also sees to it that the evolution is sustainable, distinct to this place and our aims, as well as responsive to the needs of our students.

reimagination and renovation of McBean Library and Raymond Commons. In such projects we can find the continuing expression of the School’s own identity.

In that sense, we are no different from the students who come to us, for we are also becoming perpetually a different, and hopefully better, version of ourselves.

It would be easy, certainly, to see changing practices and pedagogies as a threat to well-known and well-loved principles or practices or beliefs. But that would be at best inaccurate and at worst an ill-advised concession to those who assume the past was always a better time.

I was listening recently to a lecture by

Such growth is not easy, either for a school or for the individuals who call it home. But it is vital and powerful. Mr. Cate wrote on the eve of his retirement of his tenure as headmaster, “Forty years have made me humble.” Indeed, the more we learn, the more we recognize all

"Indeed, the more we learn, the

more we recognize all the knowledge we do not yet possess. But su rely

these 21 years at Cate have shown me the remarkable character of that continuing search, the

possibilities of it, and the challenges." presidential historian Jon Meacham, who challenged an audience that was wringing its collective hands about the current state of affairs in the world. “Name me a time,” he said, “when there was nothing to worry about?” Life is complex.

So is education … and growing up.

Our inquiry prompt, “Change,” makes us focus on the tangible character of our evolution as a community. Indeed, our Mesa itself is changing with the construction of a new dining commons and student center, followed by the

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the knowledge we do not yet possess. But surely these 21 years at Cate have shown me the remarkable character of that continuing search, the possibilities of it, and the challenges. On this single point I hope Isobel Lincoln was wrong. History is not an impediment to change. Better to see it as the foundation on which we perpetually build and a record of sorts for how it can be done thoughtfully and well.

Surely the present and the future, at Cate and elsewhere, bear that out.

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How four Cate faculty members stayed true to themselves through pivots in early, middle, and later careers.

B

ack in the day, you went to school, graduated from college (maybe), decided upon a career, and – more often than not – stayed on the same path, often within the confines of the same organization, until it was time to retire.

Things don’t work that way anymore.

Cate graduates of the past thirty years or so – the so-called Gen-X and Millennials – are 60% more likely than alumni of previous generations to change jobs within five years of graduating. They will probably shift again, and even again, after that.

And as for retirement?

Nope. At least, not as we know it.

WORLD

BY LESLIE TURNBULL '85

Caties of a certain age who might once have been deemed “ready to retire” are balking at the notion of being put out to pasture. Folks are working well into their seventies and eighties. Second (even third) careers are becoming the norm.

By the time this year’s graduates are ready even to consider retirement, they will most likely have changed jobs several times, pursued two careers at once, and/ or navigated personal and professional waters that haven’t even been charted yet.

The cultural, geopolitical, and economic changes ushered in by the Fourth Industrial Revolution show no sign of slowing down, so it would be fruitless to claim we know what the future holds for the Cate Class of 2019 … or indeed for any of us.

So how do we prepare today’s Cate students for so many unknowns?

By teaching them to adapt to – even embrace and initiate – thoughtful, purposeful change. To navigate uncertain seas by holding true to certain ideals. By being courageous, open, and willing to try something new.

As has always been the case, these lessons begin with the men and women who serve as mentors and guides on the Mesa: the Cate Faculty. Following are four examples of Cate adults who have set examples for our students by successfully executing pivots in their own life journeys.

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from there go on to great things as a broadcast journalist.”

the Mesa. Vanessa called her former Cate advisor, Bryan Rodriguez.

Highly intelligent and focused, Vanessa seemed well on her way to achieving that dream, especially after a chance introduction during her sophomore year at Hamilton landed her a choice summer job back home as an intern at an earlymorning news show in Orange County.

“The advisor-advisee relationship is so close, almost familial,” Vanessa explains.

“It’s just natural to stay in touch, because they know you so well. There are things you don’t even need to explain.”

Cue the sound of squealing brakes.

Hitting the Reset Button, with an Assist:

VANESSA CRUZ SANTANA '06

Vanessa Cruz Santana proved early on she was not afraid to try something new.

After coming to the attention of Cate School as a standout student in the A Better Chance program, Vanessa packed her bags and enrolled at the School as a freshman boarder in the fall of 2002.

Although geographically close to her home in Santa Ana, California, the Mesa was in other ways a world apart; Vanessa’s classmates hailed from across the country and around the globe. Accustomed to academic rigor, Vanessa discovered at Cate that such rigor could include “so much more” than classwork. She loved the Mesa’s serene beauty, the tight-knit community, and the vast array of extracurricular opportunities, especially in athletics.

“I was such a jock,” she says today.

“I enjoyed standing out as an athlete, especially as a female.” The late Stuart Scott of ESPN was a role model for her.

When Vanessa graduated and left Cate for New York’s Hamilton College, she knew exactly where she was going to go from there: “I dreamed of being a sports journalist! I figured after graduating from Hamilton, I would go to Syracuse, well known for its sports communication program, and

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“It was grueling,” Vanessa recalls.

Although inured to hard work and long hours, she quickly realized broadcast journalism took these to an unhealthy (at least for her) extreme. Vanessa’s dream was proving to be more of a nightmare, and everything she had taken for granted about her future was now a question mark.

“You think you have it all figured out, and then realize it’s not what you want to do!”

To make matters worse, Vanessa was set to graduate in 2010, and the effects of the recent recession were still very evident in the job market. Vanessa, like so many other people her age, faced limited early-career options.

During Vanessa’s time on the Mesa, Bryan had teased her by saying he could imagine her, “just like him” … becoming an educator. At the time, however, young Vanessa had her sights set on other things.

Slightly more experienced Vanessa realized that “Mr. Rodriguez” may just have been right. As fortune would have it, there was an opening on the Mesa, in the Admission Office. Bryan encouraged Vanessa to apply, and she got the job.

After that, things just seemed to fall into place. Vanessa became enthralled with the world of education. In 2016, she enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania to pursue a master’s degree in educational leadership. Now back in Cate’s Admission Office as Director of Financial Assistance, Vanessa is helping a new generation of young people navigate their way to the Mesa. Engaged to her college

“ We will walk this journey together and I will always be there for them as they put themselves out there and explore the possibilities.”

“The whole job paradigm was shifting under our feet. Only we didn’t even know what the new paradigm looked like! We were told to ‘get ourselves out there,’ to go out and ‘hit the pavement,’ so I did that,” Vanessa says. The pavement proved unyielding. Vanessa was frustrated.

So she did what many Cate alumni with questions do, even well after they leave

partner Julio, she is also a Long House dormitory parent and an enthusiastic, compassionate student advisor.

“I tell my advisees to expect change, but not to worry about it,” Vanessa says.

“They know we will walk this journey together and I will always be there for them as they put themselves out there and explore the possibilities.”

1997. Having acquired strong liberal arts skills that she still espouses as extremely valuable, Rebekah was offered an internship with a Washington, D.C., defense consulting company.

About Face!:

REBEKAH BARRY How does a Cultural Anthropologist with a minor in women’s studies who “always imagined” she’d stay in academia end up working for the United States Department of Defense?

Cate School faculty member Rebekah Barry can tell you. She can also explain how such an “unexpected landing” led her to be in the Pentagon on September 11, 2001; how she subsequently used her training as an anthropologist to develop cultural awareness curricula used by the U.S. military around the world; how she learned to love teaching, moved to California, and ended up joining the history faculty at a small residential school, where she now instructs highly regarded courses in history, anthropology, and gender studies.

“Being able to think critically, and to read, write, and edit well ... these essential skills opened doors for me early on,” Rebekah recalls. She started working on projects for the Africa Affairs Office of the Secretary of Defense, where her abilities were soon recognized. She was tapped to coordinate and draft a Joint Handbook on Urban Operations.

Because her work exposed her to all branches of the Armed Services – and because she was often the only civilian (and only woman) in rooms full of highranking male military officers – Rebekah was noticed. Her career advanced.

She worked on the Quadrennial Defense Review.

“Very interesting,” Rebekah now recalls. This led to an invitation to the Pentagon, and the Air Force Strategic and Long-Range Planning Office. There, Rebekah found herself surrounded by “great military minds” – people who not only appreciated but demanded her perspective as a non-military academic as they decided short- and long-term national security policy.

Oh, and she also became a wife (married to fellow Cate faculty member and Humanities Chair Ivan Barry), mother (to two young sons), and certified yoga instructor.

Rebekah remembers the work as “creative, strategic, and demanding,” all of which she enjoyed. Nonetheless, by 2001, “I was ready to do something different.” Rebekah had already applied to graduate schools to pursue further studies in international relations when terrorists struck multiple U.S. targets, including the Pentagon.

“I suppose my adult life has been all about pivots,” Rebekah laughingly concedes when asked to reflect upon the path that led her to Cate.

Rebekah was in her office in that building when the attack occurred.

Although unhurt, she knew people who were killed and injured.

Rebekah’s first important change of course happened right after she graduated from Fort Lewis College in

“An intense experience,” she somberly describes. And not just because of the human tragedy. “It was a fascinating

moment to be there,” she now recalls.

“I was able to witness the Pentagon change. We were evacuated; we came back almost immediately, and everything converted, instantaneously it seemed, to a war footing.”

Rebekah held positions at both the National Defense University and later the Center for Strategic Education while she earned her master’s degree in international relations and economics at Johns Hopkins University’s School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

It seemed Rebekah was well entrenched in what she calls “the D.C. Arena.”

“But then I made another pivot: I met Ivan.”

Having connected with the man who would become her husband – a scholar who loved to travel as much as she did – Rebekah sought out a National Security Education Program fellowship to pursue research in Turkey. “Then Ivan got a Fulbright. We were there for almost two years doing research, and during that time I realized I really wanted to refocus on anthropology.

“When we got back, we moved to Boston, and I commuted to Brown University and began my new graduate studies.

It was at Brown I discovered teaching,” Rebekah says.

Another pivot – but with a twist.

Rebekah explains: “Going back to anthropology seemed like a way of moving away from national security work, but because of my background, I was drawn again into research of military understanding of culture.”

The times were perfectly ripe for such a melding of interests. The U.S. military was deployed in areas of the world with histories and cultures completely unfamiliar to most American troops.

Understanding of and sensitivity to these differences were essential to the work of defense and nation building.

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Called to teaching, Rebekah left Brown after completing her master’s to become a faculty advisor and creator of curricula for the Air Force’s Air University’s “Introduction to Culture” program.

Rebekah and Ivan’s sons, Kiyan and Aydin, were born.

and took her up on her offer to begin teaching on the Mesa – another pivot, this time into “bricks and mortar” teaching.

“The rest is history,” she exclaims.

“I love teaching at Cate, and try to incorporate as much of my ‘real-life’

“ I love teaching at Cate, and try to incorporate as much of my ‘real-life’ experience as possible into my classes.

The students here are definitely up to the challenge; I can’t believe their energy and engagement.”

Not long after, the couple decided to make yet another shift. Wanting to balance professional and family pursuits, they decided to explore a life for which they were both highly qualified and which Ivan, having grown up as a faculty child on the campus of Phillips Academy, Andover, knew well: residential education.

Ivan was quickly recruited by Cate School, and the family moved to the Mesa in 2010. Rebekah continued her work at Air University, overseeing and mentoring a team of instructors and managing an online curriculum taken by military students around the world.

Before long, the Cate administration realized that her unique combination of skills and experience in anthropology, international relations, history, and teaching would make Rebekah an invaluable addition to the Cate faculty

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experience as possible into my classes.

The students here are definitely up to the challenge; I can’t believe their energy and engagement.

“All of this was so unexpected, but I have always embraced the unexpected.

Trying on something new can be such a valuable experience.”

Rebekah continues to model this enthusiasm for experience for her beloved Cate students both in and out of the classroom. A believer in the power of yoga and meditation, she became a yoga teacher while living in Boston and still enjoys practicing on the Mesa. Rebekah is also chair of Cate’s Inclusive Teaching Design Team, which looks at issues of inclusion, access, and equity in the classroom.

Pivoting Full Circle:

JOSHUA CADITZ Imagine if your high school biology teacher could talk as passionately about his work to reduce the human health impacts of groundwater contaminated with tetrachloroethylene as his onthe-ground experience researching the expanding deserts in northern Rajasthan.

Or discuss his first-hand experience wrestling with the constitutional implications of how the Clean Air Act pollutant controls relate to Native American sovereignty. Cate students get this and more in science teacher Joshua Caditz.

Joshua’s unique path to the classroom is the reason for the breadth of knowledge and experience he brings to his teaching. As a trained science educator, with a graduate science degree and both laboratory and field research experience, he guides his students from an introductory to an advanced understanding of biology. And as a former environmental attorney, he can take his courses farther, helping his students explore the policy implications and decisions that extend from their studies.

Students are as inspired by his circuitous career path as they are by his classes, which include a microbiology course where students contribute to active research in the quest for new antibiotics, a course digging deep into the data

and research of Earth’s climate, and an environmental-toxicology course where students observe sea urchin embryological development and design controlled experiments to test how pollutants affect sea life.

“That time teaching in ‘troubled’ schools got me thinking about issues of policy and access. At the same time, I had also trained through CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) to support foster kids in the legal system.”

Not surprisingly, Joshua Caditz has always loved science. Biology in particular. He can recall the names of science teachers – and their work – from his days as an undergraduate in college, and even earlier.

These interests – coupled with a longstanding concern for environmental stewardship and policy based on Joshua’s experience as an outdoorsman – led him to consider a career in public policy and to wonder if law school might not be a better choice for him.

“In high school, I read an article on human pheromones and the research into how these chemicals might influence human behavior. I found that fascinating,” he recalls. It was one of the reasons he was drawn to the University of Chicago. “I had read about the groundbreaking research of Dr. Martha McClintock into human pheromones, and one of the first things I did after arriving at the university was to find a way to start working in her lab.”

Joshua uses those years of experience in experiments with human subjects to further his students’ experience, explaining how his experience with a “double-blind controlled experiment with human subjects” allows him to help his students relate their own challenges in experimental design to the real world.

It was during his undergraduate years that a foray into volunteer teaching took him someplace completely unexpected and opened his eyes to something equally compelling: teaching.

“Near the end of my college career I took part in a program called ‘Neighborhood Schools,’ developed to support public schools in Chicago that had lost or recently regained accreditation. College and graduate students were recruited to assist in classrooms. I was placed in a school in Hyde Park,” Joshua recalls. “It was my first real taste of teaching. It was also a crash-course in the issue of access to education stemming from poverty as well as social challenges that go far beyond the classroom.

Joshua sought out the renowned public interest law program at Hastings School of Law. While there he volunteered with the GAAP project as an advocate for homeless veterans (representing them in a legal proceeding to secure Section 8 housing), served on the school’s Law Review, and volunteered with local environmental advocacy groups.

“This is an area that my current Cate students regularly seek to discuss.

Whether they’re looking for ideas for independent inquiry projects or simply staying after class because they’re interested in how biology, chemistry, and physics relate to major public policy, they get to see the real-life applications of science.”

In the course of his legal career, Joshua aided non-profits in establishing endangered species protections; worked on hazardous waste remediations and clean air and clean water regulation; and worked in private practice with landowners working to clean contaminated properties.

It was satisfying work, but a 2008 move to California to be with his then-fiancée, Cate English instructor Anna Fortner, offered an opportunity to pivot back toward his true calling in education.

“ Working with Cate students rejuvenated me! Within a few Mock Trial sessions, I was hooked on working with young people again. Living and working in Cate’s educational community ignited a spark I hadn’t realized I’d lost.”

After law school, Joshua continued to be drawn to public service.

“My first job out of law school was with the Environmental Protection Agency in Boston,” Joshua recounts. “The intellectual puzzles of law combined with the rich science of environmental law really resonated with me.

Joshua was working in private practice in Santa Barbara when another Cate faculty member, math instructor Tim Smith, approached him about coaching Mock Trial at Cate.

“I volunteered right away, and that threw my practice of law into context. Being a lawyer was sapping my energy. Working with Cate students rejuvenated me!

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Within a few Mock Trial sessions, I was hooked on working with young people again.

Along the way, Frank has attended and led professional seminars around the nation and met colleagues with whom he still maintains close ties … in some cases, even thirty-four years after sharing a month-long fellowship at Princeton University in the Summer of 1985.

“Living and working in Cate’s educational community ignited a spark I hadn’t realized I’d lost,” Joshua says.

He recalls enlightening pedagogical conversations which lasted well into the night – not just with Anna but with other Cate faculty such as Cheryl Powers, Jamie Kellogg, Paul Denison, and Lauren Jared, all of whom Joshua credits as inspirations.

Joshua began guest teaching on the Mesa, and was eventually offered his own courses to lead. The work was no sinecure; Joshua had to prove himself on the Mesa.

Surrounded by nationally recognized classroom instructors and educational experts, “The bar was pretty high,” he remembers. Eager to learn, Joshua engaged in a wide array of professional development opportunities and returned to school for a master’s in science education.

Surrounded by talented, knowledgeable colleagues and bright, highly motivated students, Joshua threw himself into the latest educational research and became one of the Mesa’s most passionate advocates of project-based and experiential learning. In 2012 the School awarded Joshua the Circumspice Fellowship to recognize his exceptional teaching and commitment to the Cate community. In 2015 the School appointed Joshua to the Colin Day Teaching Chair for Cross-Curricular Studies. In 2017, he was named a Fellow on the Cate Inquiry Collaborative.

Today, Joshua continues to enjoy his newfound passion for education and sees his foray into a different career before pivoting back as yet another experience to inform and improve his own instructional practice.

Joshua and Anna are raising two daughters, Wren and Willa, on the Mesa.

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“I’m still learning from those same people,” he says. “Much of what I’m currently teaching I’ve learned along the way – at Cate, at workshops, and during summers.”

Always Evolving; Never Boring:

FRANK GRIFFIN “Never boring!”

That is how Frank Griffin, currently in his fortieth year as a member of the Cate School faculty, describes his life as an educator. It’s a life that has taken him from the classrooms, dorms, and athletic courts of the Mesa in the years just before the advent of co-education to the national stage as an expert in both his subject (math – he is co-author of a calculus textbook published in multiple editions and winner of the prestigious Edyth May Sliffe Award for Distinguished Mathematics Teaching) and the newer field of Technology in Education.

In 1987-88, Frank spent a sabbatical year from Cate earning his master’s degree in educational technology from Boston College and is a Tandy Technology Scholar.

As modest as he is accomplished, Frank is willing to share his own “evolution” (as he prefers to call it) only if allowed to give equal credit to the “brilliant Old Guard” who preceded him on the Mesa and after acknowledging the energy and commitment of the “amazing newer faculty” with whom he works today.

Frank’s evolution – a sort of protracted pivot – has taken him from conventional classroom teacher to educational risk-taker and trusted senior faculty member who has fulfilled a variety of leadership roles on the Mesa. Today he is a Teacher’s Teacher; in the past year and half, Frank estimates, he and Head of School Ben Williams have together visited over forty Cate classrooms … and they like what they see.

“Our view of teaching and learning has certainly changed over the decades,” Frank explains. “We’ve moved well past the old ‘sage on the stage’ model and even the idea of the ‘guide on the side’ to a truly studentcentered, project-based methodology.

“There’s been a fundamental shift from walking into a classroom and immediately explaining something to the trickier business of motivating students through a project or experience that will truly stick with them, and that has real, practical applications for the kind of future Cate students are facing today.”

Frank offers up an example of such experiential learning.

Frank fondly recalls a recent class where this animation led one student, who had been relatively quiet in the classroom, to take the visual back to his dorm room and transform the animation into a file that he subsequently sent back to Frank: “Mr. Griffin, maybe this is procrastinating, but look what I just did.”

Procrastinating – no. Learning – yes.

“ It’s our job to give them skills and practice, to make them safely uncomfortable and then comfortable with what they don’t know. In order to do that, we as teachers have to experience the same thing. There has never been a more exciting time to teach.”

“Recently, I started class with a calculator visual animation that grabbed my students’ attention. I didn’t have to say anything but just waited, asking them, ‘What did you observe? What did you think?’

“I let them generate the questions that led to the math behind the animation, where the shapes came from, and why the graph looks the way it does.

“I might offer a few leading questions, but ultimately it’s up to the students to take what’s offered – in this case, the visuals – and push beyond the obvious: Where does this come from? and What does this do? to What can I do with this? and Why?”

The student presented his own version in class the next day.

“That’s a lesson that’s going to stick with that student; something that will help him use tools that haven’t even been invented yet to solve problems that haven’t even presented themselves yet.”

whatever comes after that … and then after that.”

Frank Griffin sees his new role as mentor and guide as focused on getting Cate students ready to face whatever life may throw their way.

“It’s our job to give them skills and practice, to make them safely uncomfortable and then comfortable with what they don’t know. In order to do that, we as teachers have to experience the same thing.

“There has never been a more exciting time to teach,” he says.

Conclusion Cate School – founded over a hundred years ago by a man who wasn’t content with the status quo of education as he observed it – has curiosity, flexibility, and a can-do, adventurous spirit built into its DNA. Caties have always been open to new ideas even as we remain steadfast to the ideals that bind us across generations: inquiry, integrity, and Servons.

These ideals – and an ability to change course when times call for such change – have always served, and will continue to serve, our community well.

And that, says Frank Griffin, is the essential crux of education today. It’s what keeps the field exciting and fresh for him, even as he stares down his fifth decade as an educator and leads the next generation of great Cate teachers into the future.

“We’re going to prepare you for the SAT subject test, sure, but we’re also going to prepare you to be ready for

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Dispatches

By Tiffany Eskilson '04 As noted by the Class of 2018’s Commencement speaker, Julia Farner, the ambiguity of the transition to life after the Mesa is a daunting change for most. In an effort to explore the immediate effects of change, we asked a few correspondents to check in with some recent graduates and report back on life after the Mesa.

Tiffany Eskilson '04 and Mercedes Maskalik returned news from five of our recent graduates. While each of these students has experienced new challenges and environments, it seems that the spirit of Cate has provided each of them with the stability to weather change.

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“ We are all now in one of the most ambiguous parts of life we’ve had to face for a while, and even though I’m really talking to my class here, I don’t think that’s a crazy thing to say even globally. But regardless of what’s happening in the broader world, as soon as this ceremony ends, everything will be a little stranger and a little more off-kilter, and it’s gonna be different.”

J ULIA FARNER '18, COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS, MAY 27, 2018

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Transitioning from Cate to a college with 300 students in a classroom can be overwhelming and intimidating, but Jazmín '18 has found her niche at the University of Pennsylvania and looks forward to the opportunities ahead. In her early days on campus, she found herself adjusting to a new concept – seasons – while daydreaming about the sunsets off her balcony at Cate, which makes us wonder, Do soon-to-be Cate freshmen know how good they’re about to have it?

Jazmín quickly realized that Cate prepared her well for this new experience, where she loves meeting people with different backgrounds and values her ability to balance academics and extracurriculars. She attributes this to Cate cultivating an environment that values well-rounded students. Also important for Jazmín is to honor her culture by engaging with Latino groups on campus, as she did by joining a group to nurture her passion for Latin dance. Though only a freshman, she shadowed a medical school course on kidney disease research. She is excited for her major in biology and for her minor in urban education.

Her advice to current Cate students is to enjoy their time at Cate and to realize that the memories and relationships will last, as she casually mentions she had a Friendsgiving with one of her best friends – also featured in this edition of the Bulletin – Farida Tahiry '18, in November.

Jazmín offers additional advice to Cate students: “When you get to college, it’s okay to be confused, and it’s even okay to fail, because Cate gives you the skills to carry through. Don’t feel you need to pile everything onto your plate; find a balance mentally, academically, and physically to get the most out of your years at college.”

Even though she might find herself occasionally missing Denison’s genetics class, Jazmín is clearly happy and is making a strong impact on the UPenn campus, just as she did at Cate.

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Jazmín

ESTÉVEZ-ROSAS CLASS OF 2018 UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

As an epicenter for training future leaders of America, the U.S. Military Academy has a reputation as being elite and intensely challenging. When you talk with Andre Pincot '18, his composure and self-awareness remind you of what type of individual joins these ranks.

In many ways, Cate prepared him for this life, instilling discipline, imposing a structured way of life, and offering competitive athletics. He also credits his colleagues and mentors at Cate for helping him realize his full potential and a belief in something larger than himself.

Andre PINCOT

CLASS OF 2018 U.S. MILITARY ACADEMY

He felt West Point was the natural next step, where he would join one of the most powerful institutions in the world after college – the U.S. military – and in doing so, continue trying to make a positive impact on the world. It can be difficult to find an environment of deep connection after leaving the Mesa. As a result, Andre has an appreciation for those around him and plans to take advantage of opportunities that might not come around again, such as studying in France, his father’s homeland.

Andre is immensely grateful for the tools Cate School provided him, and advises soon-to-be graduates to be aware of time management, to balance commitments, and to adapt to the larger environments they will find themselves in after Cate. As for those just starting out on the Mesa, he says, “Appreciate your classmates and take the time to develop those close relationships because they will benefit you for a lifetime. The exceptional people you meet at Cate, along with the world class academics, will help carry you through your college years.” We’re glad to count you among our future leaders, Andre.

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Upon first visiting Wellesley, Farida '18 felt like it was a natural next step after attending an all-girls boarding school in Afghanistan and then the small liberal arts home of Cate School. She has enjoyed exploring new extracurriculars in college, including frisbee and horseback riding. While she sometimes misses the scheduled routine of her Cate days, she enjoys having the freedom to pursue new interests and cultivate her passions. She has mentored at a nearby elementary school and volunteered at Boston Health Care for the Homeless. She has also stayed active by joining international students’ associations and clubs.

As a first-generation U.S. college student, Farida is grateful for the opportunities ahead and looks forward to studying or interning abroad, along with taking courses at nearby M.I.T. and at Bowdoin, where she hopes to continue learning more about math and science.

Farida TAHIRY

CLASS OF 2018 WELLESLEY COLLEGE

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Cate prepared her well academically for her college life and Farida has found it second nature to go to office hours and visit with faculty. Unlike many of her classmates, she already knew what it was like to be away from home and take care of herself. She credits the Cate faculty with giving her great advice to prepare her for her college years. While, like most of us, she is still working to find a balance between staying busy and enjoying downtime, she is happily embracing the unknown.

Farida urges current Cate students to go to college with an open mind, knowing that there will be challenges, but remembering that everyone is going through the same thing. In fact, she says, “If you’re a boarder at Cate, you already know how to do your own laundry, so you have a leg up from the start! Cate will always be there, and you will have your friends as a support system even though they are now farther away. Use Cate as an opportunity to start exploring what you like, so you can begin to foster an openminded attitude that will serve you well into college.”

Life at Claremont McKenna College (CMC) parallels many aspects of Cate School, which is exactly why Laura '18 chose to study there. Her goal was to find a college with people who would inspire, encourage, and support her as much as those she had found at Cate. After all, it was her history and English teachers (Ms. Jared, Mr. Newsome, Mr. Dorion, and Dr. Yeung, to name a few) who inspired her to follow a path in government and immigration law, which is a popular field of study offered at CMC. She also plans to spend a semester in Washington, D.C., to further her goal of working in the public sector post-college.

Laura sought the same resources she had at Cate as she began her college years, including making a point to get to know her teachers and attending office hours. Her professors are top notch, and she thanks Cate for setting the bar so high when it comes to academic expectations. The Cate way was so established in Laura’s blood that when she first got to CMC she found herself starting homework at 8 p.m. every night, which is when study hours begin at Cate. However, she soon embraced the independence college offered while building upon the foundation she brought from the Mesa.

She admits that at first college was intimidating, but she soon began to immerse herself in her new environment and found several activities to join, including mentoring opportunities that helped her navigate her new home. She looks back fondly at her Cate experience, including going to Japan with Mr. Wood the summer after her sophomore year, and all the nights with her friends in the dorm. As she reflects happily on those days, her goal through college is to continue to follow her passions.

Laura

VENCES

CLASS OF 2018 CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

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Kyril

VAN SCHENDEL CLASS OF 2018 CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE Interviewed by Mercedes Maskalik

When Kyril van Schendel '18 began his college search, he had two requirements: first, the school had to be on the West Coast; and second, he had to be able to run on its cross country and track teams. His advisor and cross country coach, Tim Smith, offered sage advice on one of their regular runs together. “He suggested that I should consider looking at the Claremont Colleges,” Kyril recalls. After getting in contact with Head Coach John Goldhammer of the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps track team (the three schools combine to form one squad, as do the other two Claremont colleges – Pomona and Pitzer) and visiting Claremont McKenna, his choice was made. “I decided that I really enjoyed the team culture and the ambitious atmosphere at CMC. These two aspects were enough to get me to apply to CMC for Early Decision 1.”

How did you manage the campus culture adjustments that come with the transition to college?

The transition into college culture was a much harder one than I had imagined. Although I had friends on the cross country team before school even started, I found it very difficult to come to terms with the idea that most people have no idea who you are, what you do, and where you’re from. Coming from Cate, where almost everyone knows your name and something about you, CMC was definitely a cultural shift.

At Cate, you earned recognition as being the second-best distance runner in school history [behind Henry Hagenbuch '02]. What are the similarities and differences you’ve encountered while running at CMC?

After a season of cross country and part of a track season, I can say that running in college is much more competitive. Although I may have been the second-best runner in the Cate record books, I can count off at least three guys on the CMS team who are as fast as, if 60

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not faster than, I am. This is probably my favorite part though, because it’s pushed me into healthier eating, sleeping, and training habits. Including getting at least eight hours of sleep every night – no exceptions.

Have you declared a major? If not, have you narrowed it down to a few options?

On paper my declared major is biology.

However, after a somewhat challenging semester of chemistry, I’ve decided to spend more time exploring other disciplines before making a final decision.

Although I’m still passionate about nutrition and other aspects of health, I’ve recently developed an interest in economics. I’ve found that the principles that have been taught in my economics class have numerous applications to how we manage our daily lives.

What do you enjoy most about your classes, your living arrangements, and the campus community?

The thing I enjoy most about CMC is the constant discourse that’s taking place.

Almost every day, the school invites speakers to talk about various topics in the Athenaeum. Although the talks themselves are very interesting, I find that the dozens of questions that come after the talk are even more interesting. In fact, I’ve been to 45-minute presentations when the questions afterward went on for over an hour!

Do you have a roommate? If so, tell us about that experience.

Yes, I do have a roommate, which for the first week was definitely hard to come to terms with, after spending four years without one. However, after having had a roommate for almost five months now, I can say that I prefer sharing a room to having my own. Since college is a place full of many unfamiliar people doing many different things, it can be tough to make friends. However, with a roommate, you have in many ways an immediate friend. Although this depends on your roommate, my roommate is the reason why I now have friends besides those on the cross country and track teams.

What academic challenges have you faced in your first year and how have you overcome them? And what about social challenges?

Academically, my first semester was especially hard. Between two-hour practices, classes, socializing, and trying to get at least eight hours of sleep a night, doing five hours’ worth of quality school work during any given day was extremely difficult. Having thought about how I could do better in my classes, I’ve realized that you have to use your weekends to get ahead, and, I hate to be blunt, avoid drinking, even when everybody around you seems to be doing it.

Your interests at Cate included videography and environmentalism and personal health. Have you explored any new interests since starting college?

Yes, since I started school at CMC, I’ve definitely developed an interest in both psychology and economics. I’ve found that trying to understand how people act and make decisions in our society and economy is especially applicable to the interests you mentioned. Since an understanding of people is necessary if you want to persuade them to eat healthier or make environmentally conscious decisions, I’ve found that psychology and economics are good foundations for doing just that.

What has been the greatest change you’ve experienced between being a senior at Cate and a freshman in college?

And how did you navigate that change?

The biggest change I experienced in my transition was my level of comfort. As a senior at Cate, you know everybody, and everybody knows you. And in my experience, it was this dynamic that made me comfortable while I was making assembly announcements and experimenting with my film projects.

However, as a freshman in college, you don’t know anyone, and nobody knows you; it’s as if you’re back at square one all over again. Although I’ve gotten to know more people around me, I still feel like it will be at least another year before I feel truly comfortable with expressing my full self.

Do you have any interesting summer plans?

Yes, I do! Although I’m still waiting for my school’s approval, I plan to spend a part of my summer filming a documentary about my attempt to improve my running performance through altitude training and dietary modifications. If this idea gets approved, I’ll be spending the month of June traveling around the southwestern United States in a van.

How did Cate prepare you for Claremont?

Overall, I think that Cate prepared me too well for college, which in all honestly made me feel a little resentful at times.

For most college students, college is the first time they’re away from their parents, and many students respond to their new freedom by partying a lot. Although this has definitely subsided on campus, being surrounded by people who seemed overly stimulated by their freedom made me feel like I was operating under a different set of values than everybody else.

Did I miss anything?

Although these questions do a very good job of getting me to summarize my college experience thus far, I’d like to take a moment to talk about death. As CMC experienced the deaths of two students in the same week earlier this semester, I’ve thought a lot about why people kill themselves, and what to do to prevent it. I’ve realized that every single person has the responsibility to try to prevent such tragedies from happening. Whether it’s taking five minutes to ask somebody about their day or offering to talk over dinner, relatively small things can make an incredible difference to somebody who’s struggling. As suicide is ultimately a decision, one small gesture of kindness or friendship could be the difference between life and death. Further, as college is a particularly stressful time, in which you face moments of rejection and solitude, it’s easy to fall into the trap of believing that you’re worthless. If you ever find yourself in this situation, my best piece of advice is to smile and laugh. Even if you have to fake it, I’ve found that smiling at others is the best way to take yourself less seriously and feel some positive acceptance from others. The next time you walk down your dorm hall, smile at the people you see, and I promise they’ll smile back!

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In memoriam However, Sandy’s bottom-line strength lay in his uncanny ability to be a friend to a wide variety of classmates. He crossed the aisle with ease. When he picked up his breakfast tray, he could be comfortable at any table: with the jocks, surfers, heads, musicians, academics, even at a faculty table. Within minutes he’d have his listeners engaged, animated, and laughing. When somebody spoke with him, Sandy listened to the individual intensely, with his blue eyes sparkling and rosy cheeks glowing. He knew many of us well – our lives, our loves, as well as our faults (which he often joined us in during the Cate years). He had a wild, bohemian spirit of well-refined excess and a kind, welcoming soul.

ALEXANDER HAMILTON

April 26, 1957 – September 19, 2017

A

fter reading Alexander Hamilton’s brief obituary last year in the Cate Bulletin, we wanted to submit a more complete picture of our warm, gregarious friend.

Sandy, a.k.a. Dougie Douglebrone, was loved dearly by many of his classmates for myriad reasons. His larger-than-life personality kept him in the limelight at Cate.

As a varsity athlete in soccer, lacrosse, and track, he led the charge against our rivals in the Condor League with intense passion and complete abandon. His enthusiasm and energy on the playing fields helped his teammates raise their games to new levels. He was respected as a humble yet effective prefect. On the stage he consumed leading roles with a vigor and skill set that awed his audiences. His singing and guitar strumming were the backbone of the Class of '74’s R&B Ragtime Jug Band. We can still hear him gently crooning Jesse Colin Young’s “This is a song for … Ju-li-a….”

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After Cate and college, his full-throttle life led him to travels in South America and Europe, a deployment as an armed attaché for the Army Rangers, and finally to software development with Oracle in the Bay Area.

He was a voracious reader with a spirit of adventure, grounded with a wide circle of friends. Whether he was on the road for fun or duty, or coding in cloud, Sandy performed and served with gusto, touching all around him with his spontaneous and contagious laughter. He is sadly missed, and will forever remain a spark for The Phoenix, The Class of '74.

Rest in peace, old friend.

Zack Crane '74 and Greg Smith '74

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IN MEMORIAM

Trips with our classmates at the end of the school year became annual events: to Laguna Beach, where Russell Penniman '47 invited us to his parents’ summer home; to Tijuana and beyond to camp on the endless beaches of Baja California, to swim and snorkel for lobsters.

Mike invited me to join his older brother and his wife on a ten-day pack trip in Kings Canyon in the Sierras.

Pack mules led by a wrangler carried the provisions, but we hiked. Years later Mike and I drove in my old truck to explore the north coast of California and Oregon – the beautiful wild beaches and magnificent groves of redwoods.

Mike was modest; there was a sense of nobility about him. I never saw him slouch; I never saw him lose his temper.

We became lifelong friends. We were groomsmen in each other’s weddings.

I recall that at the end of my reception the groomsmen, including Dick Pischel '47 and Bill Beckner '47, crowded into a bedroom. There were toasts as they all helped me pack. A photograph exists suggestive of Mike’s sense of humor as he solemnly lent a hand packing a stuffed bunny rabbit into my suitcase for the wedding trip.

ALEXANDER HAMILTON SCHILLING

November 26, 1929 – November 30, 2018

K

nown as “Mike” to his family and friends, he was born in San Francisco, the youngest son of Rudolph and Alexandra Schilling, and grew up in San Francisco and Woodside. Our seventy-eight-year friendship began when we met at Town School in San Francisco. The next year, in the fall of 1941, we went off to Cate School to start the seventh grade. Six years later, nine of us graduated together in the Class of 1947.

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Mike’s interests were primarily scientific.

He was outstanding in math and physics, bents which led him to MIT. Later he served in the Army Counterintelligence Corps in Germany.

Mike married Barbara Hall, from Rhode Island, in 1957. He returned to California and raised two sons in Atherton. In 1958 he joined Ampex, where he pursued a career of Engineering Administration and Marketing before he became president of a family investment company founded by his grandfather.

The Third Ridge from Cate School Mesa, 1997 Oil on board by Ian White, '47 Collection of Dianne and Alexander H. Schilling '47

He was widowed in 1992. The following year he married Dianne Pitts of Atherton and they moved to a beautiful house in Portola Valley. Mike enjoyed being a jack-of-all-trades as he improved their property. I can see him now on his Bobcat tilling the orchard. He also served on the town’s Architectural and Site Commission and was a longtime supporter of Woodside Priory School.

Mike with his wife Dianne, and Dick Pischel and I with my wife, attended our 50th class reunion. For our 70th, in 2017, I was the only one able to get to the Mesa. On the way home to Maine, however, I laid over a day in

San Francisco. Dick Pischel drove his motorhome from Ashland, Oregon, to join us for dinner, hosted by Mike and Dianne at a restaurant in Burlingame.

This mini-reunion for the three classmates was the last time we saw each other.

Mike lived to see his 89th birthday before succumbing to cancer just days later. He is survived by Dianne, his wife of twentyfive years; his son Alexander (Andy), wife Leslie, and three granddaughters; his son Robert; and Dianne’s two children and two grandchildren.

Family and friends gathered to say goodbye to Mike at a memorial service in

the Priory School Chapel on January 19th. Portola Valley was green with the first signs of spring in sunlight following a week of rain. We heard stories from family members about what a friend Mike had been to his nieces and grandkids as well as a beloved member of his community.

At the reception that followed, his son Andy told me that Mike wrote his own obituary for the newspaper. He insisted that it be exactly half a page typed, not a word longer. This piece draws on it in part, but I’m afraid it exceeds his half-page limit.

Ian M. White '47

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ica

Open Letter to Guern Dear Guernica, .

To be frank, you terrify me

all 140 inches tall and r sickly, iridescent skin – you of y ph gra geo ing nothing more laid eyes on you, the harrow future nightmares. I am sorry. I’m sure you want From the very first time I my sse all that we cro d paths. It tly became the source of wasn’t either of our faults it , ore erm bedroom rth 300 inches wide – instan Fu s. ng nti nt of you on my baby-blue e lines e all the other pai pri lik et t ark jus -m ful flea uti a g bea be han to to n tha riate s onto canvas, scribbled som ents thought it was approp urgitated his inner demon reg r wasn’t my fault that my par ato cre r you t tha lt fau s your wall. Nor do I believe it wa and called it a finished work of art. ity, ros nst mo ing rgl gu you could on that semblance of any subject any d on bey ed orm def are tures age. I just wish that ked in the mirror? Your fea bombing of a Basque vill e rtim wa a ut abo I mean, have you ever loo are er of my ict. Now, I know that you peering at you from the cov sed, I possibly be intended to dep had seen. I will forever remember the nights spent ocu ref y the me of grey and black. But as scene was all five-year-old see only the vague shapes ic creatures — with uld on wo s dem eye ose ed Th int ls. squ ma ani my t, m far firs ed At . rifi eld pet shi etand nk ns ir melting bla ma lent ballet of screaming hu ysically should not, and their eyes dripping from the ph would be slammed by a vio y joints that buckle where the tame in comparison. their scarred limbs, their m iest description of Hell see faces — made Dante’s gor , am I writing to er to my favorite painting lett a ite wr to y nit rtu po op hues of a Titian or why then, when given the Why not praise the gentle al? ion dit tra or e, tiv You must be wondering — rac a psychological att ething more agreeable, developmental years taken you? Why not settle for som ? Has your nightly presence during my important o be confused. als uld you, I wo elli s my tormentor? If I were ard tow me the sensual lines of a Bottic dro Syn olm developed Stockh toll on my tastes? Have I my favorite painting. you l cal to I never expected ore. It was a blazing hot t we’ve met in person bef bu , me ber em way past rem n’t do l you. You probably seo Reina Sofia. I made my That was until I saw the rea had decided to find refuge from the heat in the Mu ers. The onlookers, stretched from I mb summer day in Madrid, and ngs until I finally found myself in your dim-lit cha room until I was standing with my nti the pai of d nt ran fro e-b the maze of nam wly, I moved to the in oppressing silence. Slo oth. doorway to doorway, stood ny knight being towered over by a colossal behem aw scr a e lik ist, wa r you face to ath. I stared, gorging on the r musty, synthetic-resin bre you in ed ath bre wed to a muffled I as sly itched nervou heartbeat unwittingly slo my As . r, see ld cou s My eyelids tensed and tw eye a band of monsters. Rathe c stretching as wide as my Your creator did not paint . t saw I tha . r ally rro rich monochromatic mosai ho Fin . the yed All pla . the tune your colors invisible, omniscient enemy Forever trapped in murmur, I began to hear midst of an attack from an the in ns ilia civ o tragedy and loss. ss ele ens ayed was now translated int heart to just stand by and watch; I he drew innocent, def rtr po ly ect orr inc had n of you agony and fear. It hurt my the flea-market print versio ilians cried out silently in civ the n, ski e hit -w and your blackp it all. wanted to reach in and sto rld of color and I stepped back into the wo As e. eri rev my of t ou me y, had forever til, finally, a docent tapped r’s rawness and intentionalit ato cre r you by ned I devoured every detail un defi Your savage beauty, equally light, I remained shaken. changed my worldview. death. Finally. helming forces of war and rw ove the t ins aga ion ert an ass critique of the nightmare, you were now deliver a visually arresting you as ts jec sub r you of Rather than a childhood n unpredictability intact. r viewers to share the pai its messiness, violence, and all h wit is, life I understood. You force you ay t-d sen body everything pre human condition. You em like the other to be simple and beautiful ed ign des er nev re we wall, you will teach have also realized that you er of the past. From your ind rem ing row har l, Sorry Guernica. I think you tfu wis civilians who were no re conceived to serve as a morial to all the nameless me a ere are u Yo paintings. Rather, you we y. nit ma hu t human suffering anywh the universality of You shout and proclaim tha n. you me generations to come about ore ger bef big by nd t sta gh to fou in the battles sadist ought to be forced more than cannon fodder warmonger, belligerent, and ng, pain, and terror will man finally realize his ery Ev e. her ryw eve ion ent sored sufferi demands our att us to scrutinize our fatal Only in the face of uncen r. we po r you of t igh ece, holding a mirror for we rpi ste ma t ien and bear the ven on inc stand strong as an wrongdoings. Forever, you pathy, love, and peace. em s ard flaws and work tow With indignant love,

Kaiser Ke

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Scholastic Writing Award • Gold Key Kaiser Ke '19 “Open Letter to Guernica” • Personal Essay/Memoir

Scholastic Art Award • Silver Key Alice Zhang '19 Santa Cruz • Painting

BOARD of TRUSTEES 2018-19 Officers of the Board Monique F. Parsons '84 Chair Glencoe, IL J. Wyatt Gruber '93 Vice Chair, President San Francisco, CA

Life Trustees Richard D. Baum '64 Kenwood, CA Dan A. Emmett '99 Santa Monica, CA Nelson D. Jones '48 San Marino, CA

Kate C. Firestone Solvang, CA

Casey McCann '97 Santa Barbara, CA

Stephen J. Giusto '80 Laguna Beach, CA

Leone Price '02 Santa Monica, CA

Peter Given '99 Alumni Council President Redwood City, CA

Edward R. Simpson '86 Santa Monica, CA

Sheila Marmon Heuer '90 Sherman Oaks, CA

Marianne Sprague Santa Barbara, CA

Henry F. Burroughs '68 Vice President Jackson, WY

Greg H. Kubicek '74 Life Trustee Vancouver, WA

The Honorable Eric C. Taylor '80 Vice President Los Angeles, CA

Trustees

David Horowitz Irvine, CA

Calgary Avansino '93 San Francisco, CA

Frank A. Huerta '85 Santa Barbara, CA

David Tunnell San Francisco, CA

Chris Maloney '80 Treasurer San Diego, CA

Jessica Bowlin Pacific Palisades, CA

Palmer Jackson, Jr. '82 Santa Barbara, CA

Mimi Brown '92 Hong Kong

Ellis Jones '72 Los Angeles, CA

Traci Young-Hillyer CPO President Pacific Palisades, CA

Rosalind Emmett Nieman '89 Pacific Palisades, CA

Janet C. Jones Santa Monica, CA

John Swain Faculty/Ceramics

Sebastian Man '76 Hong Kong

Stephanie Yeung Faculty/English

Benjamin D. Williams IV Secretary/Headmaster Carpinteria, CA

Lisa B. Stanson '92 Newport Beach, CA

Faculty Advisory Trustees

RE PORT O N P HI L A N THRO P Y

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HIGHLIGHTS

SUMMER

Cate Summer Institute

Cate Sports Academy

Cate Summer Outdoors

Cate School offers an exciting and fun residential academic camp for current 6th and 7th graders to experience boarding school, a different kind of academic experience, leadership, and the outdoors.

CSI is taught by Cate faculty only and they get very creative in their course offerings!

Cate Sports Academy offers day and overnight camp options for current 6th through 11th graders and half day camp options for current 3rd through 5th graders. CSA places an emphasis on both athletic advancement and personal development.

The landscape of California is vast and varied, and you’ll find a little bit of everything in Cate’s backyard.

From the rugged coastline along the Pacific Ocean to the mountainous regions of the Los Padres National Forest, Cate Summer Outdoors campers are in close proximity to some of the best backpacking, surfing, and rock climbing in the nation.

Three Sessions June 16 - 22 June 23 - 29 July 28 - August 3

Four Sessions July 8 – August 2

Outdoor Adventure July 22 - 26 and July 29 - August 2 Backpacking Adventure July 29 - August 3 Urban Hiking July 22 - 26

Learn more online: www.cate.org/summer

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