Cate School 2018 Fall Bulletin

CATE Fall 2018

BULLETIN

2017-18

REPORT ON

Philanthropy

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, Ashleigh Mower, Sarah Preston, Ben Morris, Tim Smith, Tracey Calhoun, Troy Shapiro, Spencer Michaels '20, Dana Huston-Chen '20, Carin Yates 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 MARKETING & PUBLICATIONS COORDINATOR

Joe Gottwald '10 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 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.”

FIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIA:

CATE SCHOOL

@CATE_SCHOOL

@CATESCHOOL

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.

The Blue Crew revs up the crowd at a home volleyball match.

1

In this

Issue

28

30

34

Inclusion at Cate

Growth by Design

New Dining Commons & Student Center

A new position and revamped programs at Cate are designed to make every student, regardless of background, feel like they belong.

2

CATE BULLET IN / F ALL 2018

Life at boarding school is not without its own challenges, but Cate’s faculty and administration are thoughtful in their approach to keep students productive, healthy, and happy.

Three meals a day are served to 350 students and faculty in the Raymond Commons, originally built to serve just 50. The School’s new facilities, already underway, will go above and beyond a traditional dining hall.

In Every Issue 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.

106 CLASS NOTES

From garden parties in Ketchum, ID to gatherings in London, Cate alumni share their news, successes, meeting old friends, and welcoming new faces to the world.

120 IN MEMORIAM

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

124 FROM THE ARCHIVES

A brief look at several campus additions, all constructed in the service of enhancing the student experience.

Camerata singers are all smiles prior to their Fall Family Weekend performance.

Pictured: Claire Meehan '19, Cloe Tarlton '19, Joshua Gabbay '21, Avery Ransom '20, Dalton Phillips '20, Jackson Weinberger '20, Athena Von Bothmer '21, Ella Klaerner '21, and Emme Wright '20.

44

Report on Philanthropy Recognizing the School’s powerful Cate community give back year after year.

on their lives, members of the

3

4

CAT E BU LLET IN / F ALL 2018

From the Headmaster

The Concept of Change

O

ur inquiry question this year is not really a question. It’s a concept: change. That’s a tough one for schools and occasionally for the souls who populate schools. I remember an article from the 1990s in The Atlantic that suggested a person deposited in the modern world from the previous century would find only one thing familiar: classrooms.

That was probably an accurate statement then, but it wouldn’t be anymore. Much has changed in education and schools.

Some classrooms may look familiar – those in Schoolhouse, for instance. But what happens within them – the role of the teacher, the technological tools, the initiative of the student, the manner in which learning is accomplished and intelligence advanced – is decidedly modern. That’s fitting. Not only do we know more now about how young people learn than we did a century ago, but we are also preparing them for a rapidly changing world. The industrial revolution required certain kinds of training from the education system.

The requirements in the digital age are somewhat different.

So a Cate graduate from 1918, like William Shepard Biddle, would find Cate to be a very different place instructionally were he to wander into a classroom today. Having attended the School when the campus was at the bottom of the hill, he’d likely find the physical plant to be something of a revelation as well, as captivating perhaps as the composition of the student body, which was all white and all male in

And yet because we have been educated well and thoughtfully in such places, we know that they can’t remain unchanged.

What did not work for Gatsby also will not work for any of us. And so we press forward, in service not to an ancient set of rituals but to a new class of fresh-faced, high-aspiring students.

We change for them and for the communities of the world that they will ultimately shape. And in that evolution we find consistently the very best of this place: the spirit that endures, in Biddle’s own words, “the steadfast light in a troubled world.”

I hope you will find a celebration of that very evolution in the pages that Headmaster Ben Williams delivers a campus update during a follow, in the stories of new facilities and fall CPO meeting. new programs, in the generosity of our many supporters, and in the resolve that Biddle’s day. How he would assess such took us through a 2017-18 school year change is hard to know. I hope he would filled with unprecedented threats and be amazed and inspired, but who knows? challenges to yet another beginning.

Larry Ladd, an industry specialist in higher education, said recently, “The two greatest enemies of every college and university are complacency and nostalgia.” Surely the same could be said of secondary schools, and particularly boarding schools like ours. I, too, am an alumnus of a boarding school – one that has also evolved dramatically – and I appreciate the desire we all have to return to the familiar, to trust that certain things (especially places like our schools that matter so deeply to us) will remain as they were and seemingly have always been.

Change is here. It has always been here. And because we acknowledge and embrace the necessity of that truth, we can be sure that Cate too will always be here, serving each new generation of students as powerfully and purposefully, and with the same kind of agility, as it did the last.

Servons,

Benjamin D. Williams IV

5

On the

Mesa CSI camper takes part in the Design, Think, Build class.

6

CAT E BU LLET IN / F ALL 2018

Living, Learning, and Exploring: CSI, CSA, and a New Summer Offering at Cate Sometimes Cate feels more like camp than school, so it’s no surprise that during the summer months the Mesa bursts with laughter, community, and friendship. While the age range is a little younger and the dining hall during mealtimes is a little louder, the focus on creating a nurturing space where campers will learn to live and grow remains. Similar to our academic year, our summer programs are successful because of the people who choose to work at Cate during the summer.

We’re proud of the fact that over twenty Cate faculty stay at Cate during their summer break to support Cate Summer Institute and/or Cate Sports Academy, and we’re even prouder that just as many Cate alumni choose to spend their summer months back on the Mesa working in a community they continue to cherish. This love that our faculty and alumni feel for Cate School is the foundation of our summer program’s success and creates an inviting place for students and athletes from across the U.S., China, El Salvador, Mexico, France, Japan, Korea, and Canada to call home for a period of time.

Softball was a popular option during CSA.

As we continue to build upon the success of Cate Summer Institute and Cate Sports Academy, we’re excited to partner more seriously with Cate’s outdoor instructors in 2019 to offer Cate Summer Outdoors (CSO). Participants will have the opportunity to choose either a week of Outdoor Adventure (in which they will sleep in the dorms and enjoy the beauty of Santa Barbara County through day trips) or Backpacking Adventure (which consists of a night or two at Cate followed by a three-day trip into the backcountry).

Let the countdown begin. We’re already excited!

Magic on the Mesa: Harry Potter class leaves students spellbound.

7

ON THE MESA

Quality Time A New Year Brings a New Schedule The 2018-19 school year opened with seventy-six new students from around the world, welcomed with all the energy and warmth we have come to expect from our senior leaders. The seniors’ familiarity with campus and our program offers younger students wisdom and the comfort that they will quickly feel at home at Cate.

This year, however, all 294 students started the year with a new academic schedule, one that was three years in the making and that reflects our interest in offering students a distinctive and transformative academic experience.

There were many factors that led to the development of our current schedule.

Most importantly, our emphasis on inquiry and depth of study, particularly in advanced courses, required time and focused study that was not being fully realized in the academic day. We were also concerned about the global pressure on this generation of students to achieve at the highest level, sometimes at the expense of their health and well-being.

In 2015, a small group of faculty members initiated an examination of best practices, optimal learning environments, research on student health, and schedules at both public and independent schools. The initial conclusions were that we needed a schedule that asked students to take fewer classes each day so that they could focus on skill development and essential content; we also wanted them to have fewer homework assignments in a typical evening. And we were committed to offering students opportunities in the arts, outdoors, athletics, and service, while preserving the community time essential to Cate culture and the development of relationships.

The end result is a new academic schedule, implemented this August. In a letter to the community last spring, Headmaster Ben Williams explained the premise behind the schedule: “to maintain the commitment at Cate to shared experience and community time while building greater depth of study, increased opportunities for hands-on lab/studio/seminar work, and more focused and productive endeavor in the evenings.” Among the changes, the new schedule design includes: • 65-minute class periods with built-in flexibility for longer lab and inquiry classes • No more than four (and on average three) classes per day for each student • Augmented teaching, learning, and inquiry time • Enhanced student/faculty and support time In an article on educational reform that was published in The New York Times last spring, University of North Carolina history professor Molly Worthen wrote that one of the highest ideals of education is giving students “the chance for serious exploration of complicated intellectual problems, [and] the gift of time in an institution where curiosity and discovery are the source of meaning.”

At Cate, we have long had a commitment to scholarship and quiet study that gives students space to build their own questions, figure out what they think, and even change their minds. Ben Williams has said that by the time they graduate Cate students should be “the architects of their own learning.” It is our intention to create structures in all our programs that make this possible.

– Lisa Holmes, director of studies and history instructor 8

CAT E BU LLET IN / F ALL 2018

Sunset Ceremony When Cate’s new media coordinator, Aimee Stanchina, arrived on the Mesa this summer, she says, “I got a sense of the physical campus while photographing Cate Summer Institute and Cate Sports Academy.” In August, when preseason started and several dozen Cate athletes rolled in, things really began to click for Stanchina, who heard that the school year would be a different ballgame than summer on the Mesa.

“I didn’t really understand the essence of this place until the bell rang for the Sunset Ceremony” (on Monday, August 27). Stanchina pored over the video archive of Tuesday Talks during the summer and says that during the Sunset Ceremony, “It hit me that this place is as special as everyone says in their talks. It was then that I had the first sense of the intangible qualities of the Mesa.”

During the ceremony, Headmaster Ben Williams, as he does each year, read an excerpt from a letter written by one of the School’s earliest graduates, William Shepard Biddle, Class of 1918.

The excerpt appears at the beginning of the book School Days in California, written by founder Curtis Cate. Biddle contemplates his own experience as one of the “old boys.” He writes: “It was a wonderful life we led, rugged in a way, what with grooming horses and taking cold showers early on chilly mornings and studying in the evenings on sleeping porches with only canvas awnings to keep out the cold. But those things were good for us and, besides, we enjoyed many of the more gracious aspects of living as well. We were busy and interested, and young and full of health. We probably didn’t realize it at the time but those were the happiest years of our lives.”

Williams also read the essay “First Day,”

by Brian Doyle, about the author’s first day of college. After an uncertain welcome to school, and after playing basketball alone, the main character returns to his dorm: “On the way back, people on the pathways smiled and said ‘hey,’ and I smiled and mumbled, and when I got to my hall two older students on the steps said ‘hey,’ and asked me my

name and shook my hand, and one of the older students said, ‘Hey man, grab me tomorrow and we’ll get some guys and run full-court down by the lake.’ I said, ‘Okay, sure, thanks, great, thanks,’ and I walked down the hall to my room feeling some kind of different, like maybe just maybe things would be some kind of okay.”

When Macbeth (the School’s bell) rang, marking the start of the Sunset Ceremony – and also the new school year – Stanchina says filming the ceremony was an ideal start for her as well. She says, “The campus itself is a photographer’s playground – really old architecture, the way the light hits the buildings, and then you add in high school students trying things for the first time. Helping document that for kids is a great job.” Stanchina is eager to see “everything for the first time. So much happens on the Mesa, from Sunset Ceremony to Convocation to Lunar New Year. I want to see it with fresh eyes and capture it as best I can.”

View the Sunset Ceremony online: www.cate.org/sunset 9

ON THE MESA

Outings Week 2018

YOSEMITE The moment you step off the bus you ask yourself, Why are we here? What’s the point of spending a week in the wild? You soon learn – after all the miles of hiking, the breathtaking sights, the bonding at dinner, and the nights under glistening stars – that the wilderness holds a beauty you can’t get from being in a city. It’s more than just looking at the trees and rocks. It’s noticing the burnt, fallen trunks from past wildfires. It’s taking a few minutes just to sit down and listen to the natural silence as it speaks volumes. We spent a week of our Cate careers exploring nature – to get away from the distractions of everyday life and to appreciate the beauty of Yosemite National Park, if only for several days. A week of studying wouldn’t have given us the same experience that we got during Outings Week.

Yosemite photos taken by Tracey Calhoun and Troy Shapiro.

– Jay Hernandez '21 Rachel Wilkes '21, Shion Kato '21, Rae Fox '21, Katie Prudden '21, Will Deardorff '21, Jasmine Ross '21, Andrew Mabon '21, Frankie Nieman '21, Grace Johnson '21, Robyn Collins '19, Jay Hernandez '21 in front of the iconic Half Dome rock formation.

10

CATE BULLET IN / F ALL 2018

Troy Shapiro’s pod breaks for water in Yosemite.

KERN RIVER VALLEY Over Outings Week 70+ juniors, in addition to the faculty leaders and several seniors, traveled by foot through the Kern River Valley. Loaded up with backpacks that weighed about 30 pounds (packed to the brim with group gear and food), we set out to hike anywhere between five and fifteen miles every day. We spent each night in a beautiful riverside campsite, where two or three juniors from each pod would cook dinner on two camping stoves. After the meal, the pods spent time stargazing and playing camp games until everyone was too tired to think straight. In the mornings, we woke up early, filled our water bottles, ate another camp meal, and hit the trail for another long day of hiking. Luckily, we all got to take a well-earned rest in the middle of the trip at Henry’s Camp, a huge wilderness camp with ties to Cate School. The entire group spent two nights together in the meadow above the camp and a full day exploring the surrounding rivers and mountains and meadows. By the time we all returned to Cate, each pod had traveled roughly 40 miles, and everyone was looking forward to the hot shower and full meal that awaited.

Tesfa Asmara '20 generously applies sunscreen to brave the elements.

– Kimberly Rogers '20 Kern photos taken by Spencer Michaels '20 and Dana Huston-Chen '20

Juniors Izzy Dewell, Kenzie Davidson, and Dalton Phillips are camera-ready despite having spent days in the backcountry.

Kern offers challenging and beautiful hikes for the junior class.

11

ON THE MESA

PYLES During Outings Week all freshmen, along with a variety of seniors and faculty, traveled northeast to R. M. Pyles Boys Camp, run by a non-profit organization that has had a tightknit relationship with Cate since the 1980s. All of us packed duffle bags full of necessities, some more fully than others, and loaded them onto a couple of charter buses. We embarked on a six-hour ride into the wilderness, where we would hike from four to eight miles a day. For experienced campers, this trip presented little challenge; for others, it was their first time on any sort of camping trip. We spent each day on one of three hikes: Kern, Freeman, or Tea Cups. The hikes varied in difficulty but always seemed to balance out with rewards like butt slides and cliff jumps once we arrived at our destination.

Each afternoon, as we got back to the camp from our day hikes, I was able to realize the true purpose of Pyles.

I started to find connections not only to people in my grade but also to the seniors and faculty. I bonded with my classmates through games of knockout, got to uncover the personalities behind the faculty members I had only read about previously, and had the chance to meet some truly inspirational people among the Pyles staff and hear their stories.

I left Cate for Pyles feeling anxious and unsure. I didn’t know most people’s names, and was even reconsidering my decision to come to Cate. During the trip I came to realize that I was not alone, that other people too were feeling nervous and on edge.

I bonded with my classmates in ways I couldn’t have conceived upon my arrival on the Mesa. And by the conclusion of the trip, I felt truly at home.

– Jackson Molin '22

Pyles photos taken by Joe Gottwald '10

Bryan Rodriguez spotting climbers on Tea Cups.

Nili Silverman '22 takes the plunge at Tea Cups.

12

CAT E BU LLET IN / F ALL 2018

Maddie Denis '19, Rovenna Armi '19, and Alice Zhang '19 enjoy Santa Cruz Island.

Kaiser Ke '19 and Patrick Collins explore the trails.

SANTA CRUZ This past Outings Week, seven seniors and three faculty members headed across the Santa Barbara Channel to Santa Cruz Island, carrying tents, gear, and over ten coolers filled with food. Our days were spent kayaking in caves, snorkeling through kelp forests, and taking hikes around the island at dusk. After two nights at Scorpion’s Bay, the group headed to the UCSB research center in the middle of the island and spent the rest of the week going on day trips to different parts of the island. We spent one day on Christy’s Beach on the west coast of the island. The commute was a two-hour ride in the back of a pick-up truck, but it was completely worth it because we had the entire mile-long beach to ourselves. The day consisted of body-surfing, drawing, and suntanning on the sand. The trip was filled with playlists of country music, kelp forests, card games, bonfires, and late-night conversation. Our meals included Dr. Park’s amazing jambalaya, breakfast burritos, and a whole lot of smores. It was a perfect trip that allowed seniors to de-stress and appreciate nature before being flung into the whirlwind that is fall trimester of senior year. And Mr. Smith only asked us to run once!

– Maddie Denis '19

Santa Cruz photos taken by Tim Smith. Pictured here: Anthony DuPrau '19, Alice Zhang '19, Maddie Denis '19, Rovenna Armi ‘19, Kaiser Ke '19, Theo Mack '20, Carson Williams '19, and Drew Anastasio '19 13

ON THE MESA

Summer Reading Review Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven is an elaborate, cunning, thought-provoking, mischievous, and by that token slightly frustrating bait-and-switch. It assembles all the apparatus of dystopian literature – a decimating pandemic, a barren landscape of techno ruin strewn with roving bands of ragged survivors – but winds up defying most of the expectations we bring to such literature, by offering a story that operates at a far less urgent pace than readers of such books might be used to. Any forward progress the plot manages to generate is staggered by multiple points of view, varying styles, and sudden jumps of time and space that don’t fit into any discernible pattern.

This is by design. By consistently frustrating any momentum or sense of suspense her story might be building, Mandel effectively shifts our focus from the book we thought we were reading – a hero’s journey of survival, say, and resilience – to the book we are reading, which is less a yarn than a portrait really, a group portrait rendered mosaically through an array of contrasting scenes and scenarios all arranged around the catastrophic event, but connected to each other in ways that seems largely happenstantial – that is, up until the final pages, where (at least to judge by the appraisal of the Cate community) all threads are either pointlessly and open-endedly dropped, or are tied together into an overly contrived bow. Whichever side is correct, that’s an intriguing pair of complaints for any book’s ending to evoke.

My own misgivings, such as they were, had more to do with the characters, I’ll admit. They’d have been just perfect for the more plot-driven novel I wasn’t quite reading, but – for me – none of the principals ever quite attained the depth or distinctiveness to merit the level of attention they were receiving in Mandel’s alternate scheme.

That said, where I think Station Eleven succeeds wildly is in managing to plant such a fundamental question in the reader’s mind without ever actually pronouncing it. Specifically, by shuttling us back and forth between the two worlds of her concern – the pre- and the postapocalyptic – Mandel forces a comparison. The reader is compelled to ask: Do the emotions, appetites, and yearnings that animate the characters before the Georgian Flu seem palpably different than those driving the

14

CAT E BU LLET IN / F ALL 2018

characters after? Or are they pretty much the same?

Is the human condition essentially plastic – in other words, subject to the stamp of the circumstances in which it finds itself? Or are our identities and affections more deeply rooted than that, to a degree that circumstances – no matter how drastically they may change – don’t really matter that much?

Here again, I suspect our community was divided in its opinion, based upon the different values we bring, our developing sensibilities, and the sorts of details to which we are naturally attuned. Which is as it should be. After all, when we read good fiction, we tend to learn more about ourselves than we do the author’s intention. Better said, it is the intention of good fiction – and good authors – that readers should learn more about themselves. In that regard, Mandel clearly succeeded.

– Brooks Hansen, instructor in Humanities and Senior English at Cate, is a former Guggenheim Fellow in Fiction and author of multiple titles for readers young and old, fiction and non-, including The Chess Garden, John the Baptizer, Beastie, and The Brotherhood of Joseph.

McBean Adventures 2018

CECE SCHWENNSEN ZAMBIA Thanks to the McBean Fund, I was able to travel to Lusaka, Zambia with the group “Mothers without Borders” (MWB). The mission of MWB is to offer hope to orphaned and vulnerable children by nurturing and caring for them as if they were our own. We worked with children ranging in age from a few days old to eighteen years. The philosophy and motto was taught through a master class called “Love Works.” Each morning we had a session that focused on the principles of living in a love-based state. The classes included meditation, sharing stories, and setting intentions. We then spent our day in the field, at places like orphanages and crisis centers, the school owned and operated by MWB, and a remote village. In the evening we debriefed and focused on gratitude.

One of our primary roles was to give children a bit of time to be children. Our activities included reading and playing with them, but also providing other support. For example, we picked and hand-threshed corn for the meal they serve at the orphanage while others created a fire break at the edge of the property. The hardest day for me was one of our first.

We went to the impoverished compound of Chazanga. Here I met a young boy who will forever be the face of AIDS for me. He appeared to be about five, and was very, very sick. I know that had we not been there on that day, and been able to intervene, he would have died within a short period of time. He actually turned out to be twelve, had never been to school, and was suffering from AIDS. He had lost both his parents to the disease. He lived with his grandmother, who was unable to administer his medication according to the protocol. The program director and in-country social worker were able to provide this child with a place at their school, where they could manage his care. Within a couple of weeks of his moving to the boarding school, getting regular meals, and following the strict medication protocol, he was able to enter school and participate in normal activities, and he is now on his way to better health.

After our time in Lusaka, I spent three days sightseeing in Livingstone. I went on a safari in Botswana, walked a cheetah, stood at the top of Victoria Falls, and had time to process my emotional journey.

Photo Credit: Patti Judson 15

ON THE MESA

CRAIG BOUMA CHANNEL ISLANDS Craig Bouma is extremely grateful for his McBean grant; it gave him the opportunity to connect his personal interests to his classes at Cate and to the local environment. During the summer of 2018, he set sail for the Channel Islands to complete two sailing courses: Coastal Navigation and Advanced Coastal Cruising. These certifications, with emphasis on heavy weather and night sailing, allowed him to safely act as skipper and crew of a sailing vessel up to 50 feet in length in coastal and inland waters, in any conditions. With the knowledge and skills gained,

MIKE FERGUSON

TIM SMITH

ITALY Director of Technology Mike Ferguson wanted to spend time reconnecting with his daughter on a trip to Italy. “When my daughter was younger, we used to take father/daughter trips every year to connect on a deeper level. My hope was to take a father/daughter trip to Italy, for an immersion in Italian culture – something we both wanted to do now that she is older and living away from home,” said Mike.

FIJI After beginning his scuba training in Scotland, and after years of diving and snorkeling with Cate in the chilly waters off the Channel Islands, Tim Smith headed to the south Pacific to work on his Advanced Open Water scuba certification. Indeed, Fiji did not disappoint. From shark diving in the Yasawa Islands and Beqa Lagoon (while refreshing his open water skills) to completing his training on the garden island of Taveuni, Tim completed over fifteen dives. Diving the White Wall and the Cabbage Patch on the famed Rainbow Reef were the opportunities of a lifetime. In addition to diving, Tim and his wife, Peggy, spent time in Savusavu, Suva, and the island of Toberua, learning more about Fijian culture, politics, and the environmental challenges faced by the island nation. Highlights also included hiking in the Bouma National Heritage Park and seeing first hand the effects of Cyclone Winston from 2016.

As you can probably guess, technology never takes a break, especially at Cate, where post/pre-school year preparation occurs during the summer. This, along with the various summer programs (CSI & CSA), makes it hard to get away for any extended period of time. Finally, after years of trying, Mike was able to get away long enough for a trip to recharge. “Hanging out with Italian locals, eating Italian food, and marveling at the landscapes with my daughter were just the ticket to accomplish this. We did do some study in Italian prior to going, but, honestly, we relied way too much on Google Translate while there. Sorry, Modern Languages Department,” said Mike.

16

he hopes his experiences will further inform and impact his teaching in both his marine science and physics courses, and in the popular Physics of Sailing course at the Cate Summer Institute. In addition, with more experience, Craig imagines future sailing trips and exploring the School’s closest national park – “our very own Galapagos,” the Channel Islands – with his Cate students. As a husband, father, chair, teacher, and coach, it can be difficult for Craig to find a good balance between personal and professional time, and the McBean grant provided a way to combine both. As a result, he feels his interests explicitly connecting to his teaching and his desire to advance the science program and stretch it across the Channel.

CAT E BU LLET IN / F ALL 2018

LAUREN JARED SPAIN Arising from my love of medieval history and my annual teaching of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales in Humanities, I have long wanted to go on a pilgrimage.

More specifically, I had hoped to walk the Camino de Santiago de Compostela ever since the summer of 1999 when, accompanied by my good friend and legendary Cate English teacher, Gaby Edwards, I first set foot on this ancient path, in Conques, France. There, I imagined the millions of pilgrims who have traveled the Camino for over a thousand years. And I longed to share with them their lofty aspiration of arriving at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, not only to see the sights but also to render thanks to the patron St. James, whose remains are believed to have been rediscovered by a 9th-century hermit – and to reside under the altar to this day.

But work and family, indeed life in general, conspired to make me wait.

Finally this past June my husband Todd and I were able to walk the Spanish, 115-km home stretch from Sarria to the cathedral itself in Santiago de Compostela.

Mindful of the pilgrim custom, Todd and I happily mingled with all manner of folks along the way, many of whom had begun their own pilgrimages at the traditional departure point, much farther away and a full 770 km back on the French side of the border at St. Jean Pied de Port. Among them were a young Jesuit novice from Britain, taking up the path as an act of religious obedience, a middle-aged couple from Australia who walked in support of the wife’s sister who was fighting cancer, and two avid American hikers who, after having trekked the Pacific Crest and Appalachian Trails, drolly pronounced this one “rather unchallenging.”

But I was most impressed with the septuagenarian French couple who had in less than 60 days marched over 1500

km, all the way from Le Puy in central France. Their humble purpose was to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.

Although Todd and I had imagined this journey as a once-in-a-lifetime experience, in truth we feel as though we have only “dipped our toes” into this pilgrimage and hope to return once again to travel a longer stretch. Our heartfelt thanks to the McBean Fund for helping to make our first Camino possible.

17

ON THE MESA

New Faces on the Mesa

KATIE CONVOY

VANESSA CRUZ SANTANA '06

Cate Fund Director

Director of Financial Aid

Katie Convoy has had her eye on Cate since she competed on the soccer field here fifteen years ago. She is thrilled to join the Advancement Office and, more broadly, the Cate community.

Born and raised in the San Fernando Valley, Katie is a graduate of Loyola Marymount University, where she double-majored in communications and women’s studies. She was a resident assistant, which helped her to hone her skills in leadership and develop a deep understanding of campus life. Katie’s career path evolved rapidly at The Buckley School, a K-12 independent day school in Sherman Oaks, where she worked in advancement and admission, and as an advisor, outdoors chaperone, and guest lecturer on women in sports. She has extensive volunteer management and annual fund experience, and serves as an alumni council member at Chaminade, her alma mater. She has already brought great energy and enthusiasm to the Cate Fund, identifying opportunities for new achievement and growth.

Katie is not one to sit still. She is a 10K and half-marathon runner, a country and folk music fan, and a trivia and Travel Channel enthusiast. Katie enjoys hearing everyone’s Cate story. She seeks to meet members of the community individually and in group settings. And she does it all without coffee – but with a big smile.

18

CAT E BU LLET IN / F ALL 2018

It’s wonderful to welcome Vanessa Cruz Santana '06 to Cate School for the third time, in this case as our Director of Financial Assistance. Vanessa’s first life on the Mesa culminated in her graduation from the School in 2006. Her second stint found her back (after graduation from Hamilton College) in order to serve as the Admission Office Assistant. Now, after spending five years in New York City working in independent schools as a Spanish teacher, assistant director of admission, and director of admission, she has returned home to Cate – for the last time, we hope!

Bryan Rodriguez initially recruited her to the School. He describes her as a wide-eyed, soft-spoken eighth-grader who, by the time she left Cate, had become a wise, mature, vocal leader whose impact could be felt all over campus.

This summer, Vanessa moved into Long House with her fiancé Julio Monterosso. They have been busy adapting to abundant sunshine, relatively low humidity, and one step down to their apartment rather than five flights up. In their free time, Vanessa and Julio are serious sports fans, cheering on the “right” teams in New York: the Giants, Rangers, and Yankees! Sadly, the move to Cate meant they had to give up their Yankees season tickets.

FAIMIE KINGSLEY

JOHN MACFARLANE

Assistant Director of Admission

Advanced Computer Science Instructor

Director of Admission Lisa Spengler fondly recalls meeting Faimie Kingsley for the first time in September of 2017 at the Inspiring Young Minds High School Fair in New York City. Faimie attended the fair that day as an IYM board member and, between interviews, Lisa and Faimie struck up a conversation that Lisa characterizes as “one of the easiest, warmest, most thoughtful conversations I’ve ever had with a stranger. Hiring her six months later was a no-brainer!”

Prior to joining Cate, John MacFarlane founded and was the CEO of Sonos, a consumer electronics company. He also founded and was the CEO of Software.com. John holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical and electronics engineering from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a master’s degree in electrical and electronics engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Faimie is a graduate of Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, CT, and the University of Denver, where she was a member of the women’s varsity volleyball team. Her passion for the sport took her to a professional career in Poland and then back to New York City, as an assistant volleyball coach and associate professor of physical education at Columbia University. Faimie comes to Cate with extensive experience working with kids of all ages as both coach and mentor, and her impact is already being felt on the volleyball court, in her advisory, and in Schoolhouse, where she lives.

John is father to Ian '18 and Dylan '20. John joins Cate this year (while Jamie Kellogg is away on sabbatical) to shepherd and build upon our advanced computer science course, putting to work his years of experience in software development. John stepped down last year after fifteen years of leading Sonos and steps up this year to teach our students a thing or two about computer programming.

In her free time Faimie loves anything and everything related to sports, especially playing volleyball (of course) and working out. She is also very family oriented, so the chance to travel back to New York City this fall to represent Cate at the IYM fair – and see her family – was a wonderful gift.

Since his hire last spring, John has already collected ideas for apps that will streamline Cate life – and that students can develop themselves in his project-based course.

We are so excited for all that John brings to the Mesa to share with students and colleagues. His skills include a rare understanding of 21st-century skills, a love of the outdoors, and a deep appreciation of the spirit of this place.

19

NEW FACES ON THE MESA

JULIA MCCLENON

LAURA MOORE

Chinese Instructor

History Instructor

Julia McClenon received her BA in interdisciplinary studies (with a special focus on East Asia) before going on to become a civil servant at the Naval Postgraduate School, where she worked on an international educational project. She later served as a U.S. Foreign Service Officer for the Department of State. While assigned to China, she specialized in public diplomacy and consular affairs.

She is currently a full-time graduate fellow at UC Santa Barbara.

At Cate, she teaches Mandarin Chinese 4 and maintains an open door for Mandarin learners of all levels.

After studying Irish history in Dublin, Ireland and graduating from the University of California at San Diego, where she played intercollegiate basketball, Laura received her doctorate in history from the University of California, Santa Barbara. While completing her PhD, she taught a range of undergraduate courses in gender and women’s history, U.S. history, world history, Black studies, and writing. Most recently, she served as the Public History Fellow at UCSB. It was through her research and teaching at the university level that Laura discovered her passion for sharing with students the compelling and often-forgotten stories of the past. She loves incorporating primary sources and archival materials into daily class activities, with the intention of empowering students to reach their own informed historical interpretations. At Cate, Laura teaches U.S. and world history, coaches the girls varsity basketball and swim teams, and is an adjunct dorm parent in '25 House.

A motorcyclist, outdoors enthusiast, and spoken-word poet, Julia also loves to study dog behavior and is passionate about building bridges across divides – interdisciplinary, East-West, and otherwise.

In her free time, Laura enjoys traveling, hiking, camping, trips to the beach, working out, playing basketball, and walking her dogs. She lives in Montecito with her husband, Casey, and their two golden retrievers, Gracie and Charlie.

20

CAT E BU LLET IN / F ALL 2018

JOSE L. VEGA

TOBIN WHITE

Human Development Instructor

Math Instructor

José L. Vega is a native of Santa Barbara who came to Cate after almost fifteen years of teaching in California, Thailand, Mexico, and (most recently) Colombia. José earned his undergraduate interdisciplinary science degree from St. Mary’s College of California and received his masters in education from Dominican University. José has experience serving on various committees, as a science department head, and as an instructional coach. He is trained in and uses teaching methodologies such as project based learning, design thinking, and systems thinking, in order to maximize student learning and impact. José enjoys working with students to make progress on sustainability initiatives at the school and community levels. He lives at Cate with his wife Bianca and their two children, Santiago and Paloma. He is part of the Human Development Department at Cate, teaching both Freshman and Sophomore Seminars.

Tobin White joins the Cate Mathematics Department after fourteen years as a professor of secondary math education at the University of California at Davis, where his research focused on the use of technology in the teaching and learning of mathematics. Tobin grew up in Maine, went to Bates College, and taught at his alma mater, Hebron Academy, before heading west in 2000 for graduate school at Stanford. There he met his wife, Melissa, who is also deeply invested in education and is currently a senior research associate at WestEd, a research and development firm in P-16 education. Tobin and Melissa are parents to three boys (Zach, Ben, and Oliver) and live in Montecito.

Tobin will be teaching Honors Pre-Calculus and our PBL 3 Honors course this year, while helping the department to integrate more computational thinking into all of our core courses.

21

ON THE MESA

Convocation Series Opens with the Monk of Mokha Moktar Alkhanshali, community activist and coffee pioneer, shared his story with Cate students in the Hitchcock Theatre during the first Convocation of the year.

Striding back and forth across the stage and clicking through slides, Alkhanshali narrated his move from a young adult planning on law school to the man whose singular vision has revived a historical tradition of world-class coffee from Yemen.

It all started with a text. A friend steered Alkhanshali to a statue of a traditionally dressed Yemeni man drinking coffee, located near the building where Alkhanshali served as weekend doorman.

Although a history buff, Alkhanshali didn’t really know anything about Yemen’s role as the first place in the world where coffee was brewed. He began investigating the history of coffee, looking first at his own family of immigrants from Yemen.

Alkhanshali grew up as the eldest of seven children in a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco’s Tenderloin and came of age as a Muslim man after 9/11. He was working as a community organizer and liaison between the Arab community and San Francisco’s local government while moonlighting as a doorman, so Alkhanshali had the background to look for opportunities for social change. He began wondering about a coffee supply chain reaching from Yemen to the US that might be a force for justice in a povertystricken country. Alkhanshali dropped out of school and went to Yemen.

After several years of travelling all over Yemen and working with Yemeni coffee farmers on proper techniques for growing, harvesting, and shipping coffee, Alkhanshali’s plans were about to come to fruition with his entry of Yemeni coffee into the Specialty Coffee conference in Seattle, coffee’s World Cup. Then conflict broke out in Yemen. All the airports and

22

CATE BULLET IN / F ALL 2018

ports were bombed and closed.

As Alkhanshali attempted to make his way out of the country, clutching two suitcases of coffee samples, he was kidnapped and held blindfolded and bound. He escaped with his coffee, hired a fishing boat to take him to Somalia, and wended his way across Europe before finally arriving in Seattle. Alkhanshali’s coffee from Yemen earned the highest scores at the conference.

Having demonstrated not only the quality of his coffee but also the unshakeable nature of his determination, Alkhanshali uses his coffee company— Port of Mokha—as a force for good in Yemen. He insists that he work directly with the women coffee farmers and offers no-interest micro-loans. He characterizes his life as fulfilling a calling rather than as building a career. Alkhanshali now lives in the building where he worked as doorman when he took his first look at the statue of the Yemeni man of old, drinking coffee.

“You’ll only become successful when your passion is greater than your fear.”

Published in January, 2018, Dave Egger’s The Monk of Mokha follows Alkhanshali’s journey to share Yemeni coffee with the world.

Round Square International Conference 2018 The theme for this year’s Round Square International Conference was “Bring Your Difference.” At Ashbury College in Ottawa, Canada, this diversity was on full display as the conference attracted several hundred student and adult delegates from across the globe. The conference was constructed over the course of six days to highlight the Round Square IDEALS: internationalism, democracy, environmentalism, adventure, leadership, and service.

We arrived at Ashbury College on September 27 to our welcoming host families and some much-needed sleep before the official start of the conference.

The first day was Multicultural Day, to represent the massive impact that multiculturalism has had on Canada and the heavy role it plays in Canadian society. After the opening ceremonies, we were able to hear the names and locations of all the schools attending; then we listened to a series of intriguing

keynote speakers on the topic of multiculturalism, before watching a refugee simulation to help us visualize the true difficulty and pain that refugees experience. The next day was Indigenous Day, during which we focused on the history of Canada’s indigenous people and their culture. A “blanket exercise,” a traditional dance performance, and a moving speech brought us to a new understanding of Canada’s history and where the country stands today in its relations with the native people. We spent the rest of the day with our host families exploring Ottawa – and even attended an ice hockey game! The next two days were the blurriest – Adventure Day and Service Day. On Adventure Day, we had the choice of many different activities that helped facilitate the portrayal of the true meaning of adventure, as well as presenting Canada’s culture. Service Day took delegates to Christie Lake, where we built birdhouses and learned vital survival skills. Following this, Explore Ottawa

Students from around the world form the Round Square logo at Ashbury College in Ottawa.

Day brought us to the heart of the city; we traveled across the city Amazing Race style with our student-led Barazza groups, getting a true feel for the capital. The final day was full of teary goodbyes, but there was also happiness, as we considered the experiences we had enjoyed and the knowledge we had gained while attending this wonderful conference.

Overall, the culture, people, and Ashbury College itself were what made this conference so transformative. The Round Square IDEALS were subtly crafted into each day’s activities, and they left us reminiscing about how incredible our week had been. The people we met on the trip were extraordinary, and each person’s world perspective facilitated the spread of the true meaning of the conference – bring your difference, which should certainly be a cause for celebration in everyone’s life.

– Millie Todd '20

23

Fall Sports Roundup

Drew Anastasio '19 makes his way to the end zone against Lancaster Baptist.

24

CAT E BU LLET IN / F ALL 2018

A

s this year’s inquiry prompt, change, has been on everyone’s mind, Cate students have been mulling over what it means in an attempt to think outside the box in the classroom. The theme of change, however, could certainly be applied to all our athletic endeavors as well. There is the obvious, as each team is composed of different players from one year to the next. Coaches change too, and even leagues. One constant, however, is Cate’s athletic mission. Our goal is for our student-athletes not only to find success during competition but also to have fun and learn life lessons through sports. As we look toward the end of the regular season for our fall teams, we keep in mind the goals of our athletic program and push to be champions of both sports and character.

The term “good loss” might sound a bit strange, and even somewhat contradictory, but that’s exactly what the Cate boys’ water polo team experienced recently. Their last three contests all went the way of their opponents. However, the Rams battled in each match and kept the score close against some very tough competition. Two of those losses came at the hands of Foothill Tech. In the first matchup between the Dragons and Rams, Cate lost 8-7. The scoreboard, however, can’t take away from one particular Ram performance: co-captain Sebastian Sak '19 did it all for the Rams the first time the two sides met, scoring all seven of Cate’s goals.

Cullen Barber '19, Peter Firestone '19, Lukas Hendriks '22, Marcos Brasil '20, and Peter Bulkley Armas '20 have all been major impact players for the Rams. The team will look to keep its playoff hopes alive as it finishes the regular season against Villanova, Carpinteria, and Malibu.

The biggest change the Cate cross country team has seen this year, specifically the girls’ side, has been atop the leaderboards. Newcomer Anna DiSorbo '22 has been sensational since she stepped on campus. In her first race, the freshman set the home course record for freshman girls and has since been the girls’ top runner in every race this fall. Not far behind her has been fellow freshman Meena Baher '22. Co-captain Bella Hillyer '19 has been another steady presence for the Rams, while runners like Ari Sterling '21, Ava Weinstein '20, and Kennedy Simpson '22 have all been factors in the team’s success. The freshman trio of Baher, DiSorbo, and Simpson finished first, second, and third respectively in the underclass division of the Dos Pueblos Invitational recently, giving the Rams their firstever grade-level championship. The boys have been paced all year by the combination of Tesfa Asmara '20 and Josh Shields '19. The two have finished first or second for the Rams in every race. Nick Patrick '22 had a very nice day at

the Dos Pueblos Invitational, taking fifth place overall in the underclass race. Fellow co-captain Abnner Olivares '19 has also placed for Cate several times this season.

The Cate football team has seen no change in the loss column this fall. The Rams currently sit at 6-0 after the team’s most recent win (against Villanova). It has been quite the year for Cate, as the team has twice set a new high for most points scored in a game. Folks are starting to take notice, as Cate currently sits at #2 in the CIF Southern Section polls and #1 in the section and state in the calpreps.com polls. Jack Deardorff '19 has been a terrific signal caller for the Rams, tallying close to thirty touchdowns this season. Drew Anastasio '19 and Thomas Nettesheim '20 have been playmakers for Cate, while Callum Casey '20, Carson Williams '19, Jake Nelson '19, Will Anderson '20, and Dalton Phillips '20 have all contributed to a smothering Cate defense. The Rams have two games left in the regular season and will look to complete just the third-ever undefeated regular season in the program’s history.

On the volleyball court, the Rams have been nothing short of dominant. The team is currently riding an 11-game winning streak in league play. The Rams have not lost a contest since August 31. The biggest change for this team came in the scheduling format. The Rams have already finished their regular season and will now move to the CIF-SS Division 7 playoffs, where they were awarded the #7 seed. Cate will host Rosemead in the first round of the playoffs. The Rams have found strength in numbers as several different players have taken turns as offensive weapons. Maya Blattberg '20, Chidera Chukwumerije '22, and Kenzie Davidson '20 have all been forces at the net for the Rams, while Riley Borchardt '21 and Grace Blankenhorn '20 have been reliable passers and defenders.

The Cate girls’ varsity tennis team has played 11 contests this season. The team also has 11 victories. In fact, any sort of losing seems to be foreign to this team. In a recent win against Foothill Tech, the Rams’ doubles team combined for a perfect 6-0 set score on the afternoon.

Sarah Polowczak '19 and Fritze Mayer '21 led the way at #1 singles, while Carol Cai '20 and Ashi Kamra '22 were lights out at #2. Sydney Burton '19 and Jennifer Soh '19 flexed some muscle at the #3 doubles spot. In singles play, Grace Fuss '20 also seems immune to the loss bug; the top singles player for the team has lost just one match in league play this year. Kate Tunnell '19 has also been a big part of the Rams’ success, while Aminah Hill '22 has made a name for herself in just her first year.

25

Girls cross country is led by co-captain Bella Hillyer '19 (center).

Marcos Brasil '20 fires off a shot from outside.

Locked in, Grace Fuss '20 stares down the net.

Girls varsity volleyball huddles up before set point.

Josh Shields '19 powers up Heartbreak Hill.

26

CAT E BU LLET IN / F ALL 2018

CATE ATHLETIC HIGHLIGHTS 2017-18 LEAGUE CHAMPIONS

All-CIF Recognition

Girls Tennis (TVL) Girls Lacrosse (Channel League)

Elle Smith '19 – First Team Basketball Sarah Polowczak '19 – Second Team Basketball Christopher Bennett '18 – First Team Football Jack Deardorff '19 – First Team Football Drew Anastasio '19 – First Team Football Maddie Erickson '19 – CIF Champion for Character

CIF Qualifiers Football – CIF-SS Division 1 8-Man (Quarterfinals) Girls Tennis – CIF-SS Division 1 (First Round) Boys Basketball – CIF-SS Division 5 (First Round) Girls Basketball – CIF-SS Division 5 (Semifinals) Baseball – CIF-SS Division 7 (Second Round) Boys Track and Field – CIF Division 4 (Finals) Girls Track and Field – CIF Division 4 (Finals) Boys Volleyball – CIF Division 3 (Second Round) Boys Tennis – CIF-SS Division 2 (First Round) Girls Lacrosse – US Lacrosse Los Angeles Championships (Semifinals)

First Team All-League Jack Deardorff '19 – Baseball Patrick Armstrong '18 – Baseball Theo Mack '20 – Volleyball Celia Foster '19 – Water Polo Ella Hendriks '19 – Water Polo Grace Fuss '20 – Tennis Sarah Polowczak '19 – Tennis Janice Ng '18 – Tennis Sebastian Sak '19 – Water Polo Hailey Panzer '18 – Volleyball Patrick Armstrong '18 – Basketball Marko Pliso '18 – Basketball Elle Smith '19 – Basketball Isabela Montes de Oca '18 – Soccer Neema Mugofwah '20 – Soccer

Individual Champions Ethan Ha '20 – TVL Singles Champion Jackie Cai '18/ Carol Cai '20 – TVL Doubles Champions, CIF-SS Doubles Championships (Quarterfinalists) Elle Smith '19 – Track (100m, 200m, 400m relay, 1600m relay, All Around Frontier League Champion) Rovenna Armi '19 – Track (400m relay, 1600m relay) Sarah Polowczak '19 – Track (400m relay, 1600m relay) Isabela Montes de Oca '18 – Track (800m, 1600m, 400m relay, 1600m relay, Frontier League Distance Runner of the Year) Rivers Sheehan '19 – Track (Triple Jump)

School Records Broken Isabela Montes de Oca '18 – 800m

Santa Barbara County Medalists Marko Pliso '18 – 5th (Triple Jump) Elle Smith '19 – 4th (100m, 200m) Isabela Montes de Oca '18 – 2nd (800m,1600m), 4th (Cross Country Championships) Rivers Sheehan '19 – 2nd (Triple Jump), 3rd (Long Jump)

Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table Awards Sarah Polowczak '19 – Phil Womble Ethics in Sports Award Ian MacFarlane '18 – Cate Scholar Athlete of the Year Brie Walker '18 – Girls Lacrosse Player of the Year

The Running Rams of the Cate cross country team.

27

A Place for All

Inclusion at CATE

By Stephanie M. Yeung, Ph.D.

When our former Director of Multiculturalism and Diversity, JosÊ Powell, announced last winter that he would be returning to the East Coast to be nearer to family, the School took the opportunity to reimagine the role and restructure the institution’s work in regard to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. While Mr. Powell helped shepherd the Cate community through important conversations, data surveys, and the initial diversification of our curricular offerings, as a school community we realized it would take more than one person to achieve the goals we have for making Cate a place that is equally welcoming to all.

28

CATE BULLET IN / F ALL 2018

Accordingly, this year Cate’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts are now led by our newly constituted Inclusion Team. Given some of the tensions that have arisen in our world around identity, political beliefs, faith, and gender, we have renamed our roles and teams according to the end goal that we hope to achieve through our diversity and equity work – Inclusion. We believe that in order to create and maintain a school community that promotes a genuine sense of belonging, we need to affirm and respect the full range of human experiences while putting structures and procedures in place that ensure each individual student can achieve their greatest possible growth on the Mesa and beyond.

In the newly created role, Director of Inclusion, my work involves guiding a core group of four faculty members (Rebekah Barry, John Knecht, Kyle Mason, and Oscar Urízar) who are responsible for developing and implementing the School’s overarching strategy. The core team delegates specific initiatives to our two Inclusion work groups: the Inclusive Teaching Design Team and the Inclusive Community Design Team.

These two teams are tasked with the intentional development of inclusive practices and behaviors in and out of the classroom, and they work collaboratively with other departments to ensure that Cate’s programs are in alignment.

Much of the initial planning for these groups has been rooted in the data we were able to collect from the Assessment of Inclusivity and Multiculturalism (AIM) our community took in the spring, the 30 AIM discovery group meetings we held, and the student focus groups led by the Inclusive Teaching Design Team that occurred during the same time period. The AIM steering committee sorted through the feedback given in the survey and, while the survey responses demonstrated that there is much to be lauded about the work we do, we have clear areas for growth. Similarly, the feedback from the Inclusive Teaching Design Team’s focus groups showed that, while students feel that the experience of attending Cate is invaluable, the intersections of our teaching practices, personal values, and perspectives would benefit from thoughtful reflection and professional development to ensure that the learning process is equally welcoming for students regardless of their learning style, socioeconomic status, ethnic background, gender and sexual identity, or political affiliation.

When you ask your community to give you feedback, it is important to listen and reflect.

Given the quantity and thoroughness of the responses we received, we wanted to clearly communicate that we’ve heard what you said and are actively working to ensure that we are an inclusive community for all. Some of the clearest insights were that diversity and inclusion are a priority for the School and its people, and that there is a distinct identity associated with being a part of the Cate community. Notably, the aforementioned points have had disparate effects across our community. For example, although there has been quantifiable progress in increasing certain forms of diversity among students and faculty, increased diversity has not always led to greater inclusivity.

We have also learned that there is an opportunity to be clearer about how our inclusion work reflects, and is an expression of, Cate’s broader values. To do that, the Inclusion Team is working on an inclusion statement that will be easily locatable and transparent.

We’re taking a long, comprehensive look at what we do, and are reflecting on how we as administrators and faculty can continue growing and exhibiting best practices for making each member of our community (from current students to alumni) feel welcome.

To do that, the Inclusive Community Team is beginning preliminary discussions to establish norms for healthy conversations around tough topics. Given some of the tumult we have experienced within our community in response to shifting cultural and gender norms and the American political climate, we would be remiss in our preparatory endeavors if we did not help our students learn to listen to the perspectives of others and make their own voices heard in respectful ways.

It is our hope that, through the re-envisioning and amplification of this work, we will model first what we ask of our community; we will continue to listen actively, and we will articulate our institutional perspective – that “this place” is a place for all – through updated programs and practices that work to bring us together.

The only way for us to continue moving along the path of progress is to include everyone in the journey.

Stephanie M. Yeung is Cate School’s Director of Inclusion and an English instructor.

29

Growth by

Design

L

By Mercedes Maskalik

Cate introduces a number of new and expanded residential and human development programs.

ife on the Mesa can feel dreamlike – from the panoramic views of mountain peaks and the rippling waves of the Pacific Ocean to an active school life filled with myriad academic, social, and developmental opportunities. But the unique teenage experience of living and learning in a residential community can come with certain obstacles and emotional stressors.

It’s almost impossible not to dive in at Cate, especially when students are encouraged to do just that – to make the most out of this experience. To help mitigate potential overload and social-emotional stress, Cate attends to student health and wellness in an intentional way.

On many school campuses across the United States, health and wellness can be relegated to the Health Center, to counselors, or – on the occasion of poor choices – treated reactively in disciplinary hearings. At Cate, however, physical and emotional wellness, both key to academic success and personal growth, are ingrained in the curriculum and have been since the 1970s, when trailblazers and beloved faculty members Sandy “Mama” Ellis and Carol Hotchkiss created the Human Development Department.

The School strengthened its commitment to health and well-being in 2017 with the addition of the new administrative role of Assistant Head for Students, assumed

by Pete Mack, formerly Cate’s Director of Residential Life. The new structure ushered in a comprehensive umbrella model under

30

CAT E BU LLET IN / F ALL 2018

which residential life, student services, athletics, the Health Center, and the Dean’s Office now reside – all focusing on the whole picture of student wellness on the Mesa.

Today Student Services are building upon decades of Human Development work by re-envisioning the breadth, depth, and campus-wide integration of the School’s wellness program with a number of new and expanded residential and human development programs. The goal of the endeavor: to provide unprecedented care for Cate students. “We want to know that we’re providing the best care possible, and we want it to be over the four years and throughout all aspects of our program,” says Erin Hansen, director of Student Life.

From healthy relationships to body changes, teenagers experience a range of complicated feelings. “We’re making sure that students don’t have to navigate those emotions without education, without resources,” Hansen says. So the team stepped back and asked, “How do we care for the whole child? How are we doing it, and how can we improve upon it?”

Human development courses give students the opportunity to “lean in” to discomfort and “lean on” their peers for support.

31

Rooted in current research-based human development and linked to every aspect of a student’s four years at Cate, the new multi-tiered system of support relies upon coordinated efforts between human development, residential life, advisory, counseling, athletics, the health center, and the academic program to provide comprehensive care for students.

Multi-Tiered System of Support: Academic and Social Emotional

TIER III: FEW 3-5%

Meeting w/Director of ASC or School Counselor

The Tiers of Support The first tier of support caters to all students, ensuring the School provides education about issues relative to teenagers, issues that don’t necessarily arise in the classroom or at home.

Over four years, the program provides comprehensive social-emotional, health, sexuality, substance abuse, and personal development education at age-appropriate level. Intentionally nimble, the model touches upon topics multiple times as students get older and enables the learning to build as the student develops.

Freshman year is dubbed “Year of Me,” so called because it approaches personal responsibility, actions and the impact on others, boundaries, time management, identity, bullying and more. The sophomore “Year of We” focuses on building empathy, mindfulness, service leadership, gender roles, positive support, and other topics. In-dorm programs for freshman and sophomore boarders focus on healthy habits, healthy relationships,

Learning Labs/Study Hall

TIER II: FEW 15-20%

For juniors, a new human development course, Vision into Practice, explores authentic leadership and the ability to serve and lead according to the individual principles that govern each student. In the dorms, the junior program includes trimester visits from the school nurse and counselors with specific discussions 32

CATE BULLET IN / F ALL 2018

Academic: Skills Center Study Groups

Residential Programming

Class Advisors

TIER I: ALL Advisory

covering boundaries, women’s and men’s health, and healthy relationships. The annual Junior Retreat remains a capstone event where the class begins to picture themselves as leaders of the School and makes plans for their upcoming senior year.

Seniors set the tone for the school year at Cate, and service leadership is the cornerstone of their final year at the School. Among many opportunities from which to choose, seniors may take an active role in modeling wellbeing by

Inclusive Instructional Practices

Human Development

management support, and study groups to help with additional academic support.

The top tier assists a small percentage of students (3-5 percent) who require one-on-one meetings with the director of the Academic Student Center or a school counselor.

Student Feedback and Involvement

For Renee Mack, human development chair, student feedback plays a crucial role in the program’s success. “We’ve looked at what topics students need to explore over their four years at Cate and the issues students bring to our attention, and we find – PETE MACK the most appropriate place to introduce them.” When designing a unit of study, the partnering with the Human Development human development team reverse engineers department to serve as teaching assistants, its planning by starting with the goals and facilitating classes for the full academic year. objectives before moving on to determine the social-emotional skills and behaviors the team The second tier of the support, reserved will incorporate. “I love seeing the freshmen for students who require additional grow from … being middle schooler[s] to … assistance (about 15-20 percent of Cate’s independent young adult[s],” Mack reflects. student body), incorporates counseling “I think that their social-emotional growth within targeted small-group gatherings, and personal awareness over the course of learning labs and increased study hall their freshman year is at its greatest in their for those in need of additional timefour-year journey at Cate.”

“When you talk about health and well-being for our students, a sense of belonging is key.” social isolation, technology, and topics selected by the students.

Counseling: Targeted small group gatherings

The residential program’s feedback mechanism provides students the platform to ensure faculty are aware of dorm experiences and to submit topics for in-dorm programs and discussions with the school nurse and counselors. Student members of the Dorm Heads Committee provide direct insight on many of the decisions made in that setting.

Deep Connections Mr. Cate referred to the School as a shop full of apprentices learning how to live. It is a residential community first and foremost. Students may receive permission, and did even in Mr. Cate’s day, for a discretionary day off from school to go on an outdoors trip. Whether backpacking up into the Sespe Wilderness or scuba diving off the shores of the Channel Islands, these faculty-guided opportunities have always aimed to help students learn how to live, function, and thrive.

Faculty keep pace with the changing landscape of social-emotional wellness needs of students through professional development and presentations from visiting health and wellness specialists. “We invest in experts so that our students and faculty have access to the most current education on neuroscience, drugs and alcohol, and more,” says Hansen. Recent trainings include drug and alcohol use, transgender issues, talking to teenagers about their lives in empowering ways, the advent of vaping, and other issues essential to teen development today.

Within the residential program, the curriculum and the relationships go hand-in-hand. As equally important to the programming as the intentional curriculum are the faculty homes open to the students, the faculty children and pets students interact with daily, and the advisory dinners alongside their peers. “When you talk about health and well-being for our students, a sense of belonging is key,” Pete Mack says. “I think it’s fantastic for kids to have the freedom and opportunity to find people they gravitate toward and have different kinds of relationships with different adults. They will leave knowing they belonged here and there are people who genuinely care.”

At its core, Cate’s caring community relies on personal connections. The inclusive and thoughtful process that led to this integrated approach to wellness involved a school-wide collaboration that will prove vital as the School continues to introduce new programs to support the changing needs of students.

Underclassmen gather for an evening health and wellness presentation.

Health and Wellness, Convocation Style While the juniors and seniors visited with college representatives during three separate College Nights, the Cate underclassmen gathered in the Hitchcock Theatre for a series of Convocations that integrated with the health and wellness curriculum being explored in the Freshman and Sophomore Seminars.

The series opened with Dr. Stephanie Yeung, Cate’s director of inclusion, talking about the definitions of diversity and inclusion at Cate. Dr. Yeung’s emphasis was not only on shared values but especially on shared practices. She focused on how we, as a community, can turn words into deeds. As she noted, “Inclusion means change.” It is up to us as a community, working together, to discover how we will learn to welcome all people to our School.

The second Convocation dedicated to health and wellness was offered by Dr. Kathy Gruver, who focused more on individual health in her talk, entitled “Stress, Emotional Intelligence, and Success.” Dr. Gruver presented the idea of neuroplasticity; she discussed common triggers and stress responses, encouraging students to move towards positive affirmation as a way to rewire neural pathways into more successful directions. She concluded by having students practice a short, guided meditation.

Chloe Howard, founder of the Stand Beautiful movement, concluded the series on health and wellness. Ms. Howard recounted her story: born with a club foot, she was assaulted and bullied when a freshman in high school. However, a meeting with her music idol, Bono, sparked her determination to become an advocate rather than a victim. Ms. Howard declared, “The labels with which you arrived at Cate are not the labels you need to leave with.” Her upbeat enthusiasm for the capacity of all to change the world for the better left the students applauding loudly. In fact, one of Ms. Howard’s slogans might serve for this trio of Convocations. As she said, “You deserve to be loved. Rock those differences!”

33

NEW

A Dining Commons and Student Center for CATE

By Charlotte Brownlee '85

34

CATE BULLET IN / F ALL 2018

I

n the fall of 1929, Cate moved into its now-familiar facilities atop the Mesa. Included in these structures was a new dining hall designed to serve a student body of fifty boys. The Cate community has been eating in that space for almost a hundred years, yet today more than 350 students, faculty, and staff are served by the facility. Even the stately McIntosh Room has been conscripted into service to meet the growing demands of the expanded community.

35

View from the interior of the dining hall towards the Kirby Quad and Class of '81 Amphitheatre.

After more than ten years of review and preparation with the County of Santa Barbara, Cate embarked on a project to create a new community space for meals, breaking ground on July 30, 2018. Building a new Dining Commons and Community Center is the first allcommunity construction project since the Sprague Gym in 1999, in that every member of the local Cate community will benefit from this new project.

Sophomore Alexander Albrecht looks forward to the new upcoming changes.

“I’m excited that there will be more space. Right now, it’s a jumble at lunch time when we’re all eating at the same time. It’s so crowded.”

As described in a previous Bulletin, Cate alumnus Li Wen '78, of the architecture firm Gensler, is the lead on the project.

On July 30, 2018, Cate’s contractors, Hartigan Foley, broke ground on the construction, which is expected to be completed in the fall of 2019. Every structure on campus built since the late 1990s has been led by Hartigan Foley, who are known for excellence in innovative construction and green building practices.

36

CAT E BU LLET IN / F ALL 2018

Cate has already come a long way in terms of food variety and quality since the days of Saga Food in the 80’s.

Funding from Cate parents has allowed the School to procure more organic, sustainably grown seasonal produce as well as hormone-free and antibiotic-free protein. These funds, along with the annual support for the Food Initiative, have allowed Cate to fundamentally change the way the School considers our menus and our food sourcing. It has sparked a school-wide commitment to improving food quality and increasing the quantity of organics that we provide.

Menus have been redefined and strong working relationships have been established with organic food providers.

Limited food storage and cooking facilities in the Raymond Commons have slowed Cate’s ability to offer a completely organic menu, but the move to the new dining commons will enable the School to make further progress along the organic spectrum. Currently the School’s total food purchases are approximately 50% organic. Increased refrigeration space and improved cooking facilities in the new facility will allow the kitchen

to continue increasing that allocation.

In addition to being able to store more fresh foods, the new kitchen will enable kitchen staff to prepare more on-demand items at meal times. The entire School will be able to sit together comfortably as a community, rather than being split between two rooms. The hope is that a warm and inviting space with sufficient seating will encourage students and faculty to linger over meals and enjoy more time together.

Throughout the process, students have been actively involved in providing input into the designs. Most recently, a Food Committee with fifteen students has convened to solicit feedback on all elements of Cate’s food program. At a recent gathering, students expressed enthusiasm for a wider array of self-serve spices and condiments, and, of course, a smoothie bar. Junior Maya Fenelon attended the meeting, reporting that she appreciated being consulted: “I’m excited for more vegetarian options than just the salad bar.”

GREEN CONSTRUCTION

THE IMPACT

Every construction project at Cate since 2008 has achieved green building certification through LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), and the new dining commons will be no different. For years Cate has prioritized the three major areas of environmental conservation — energy, water, and waste.

Kevin Hartigan, the lead contractor on the dining commons project, described some of the environmental efficiencies and new technologies we can expect in the new building. “The dining commons will support all-electric heat pumps throughout [the facility]. Those will be well supported by the solar array and the efficiencies will be higher, so we will end up with far lower greenhouse gas emissions.”

Both the direct and indirect impacts of the new facility will be significant.

The addition of the new facility frees up thousands of square feet in which the School can reimagine how to use learning spaces on the Mesa. From creating a new library that meets the needs of today’s students, to opening up more space for performing arts, to creating new student gathering areas, the entire community will find something that impacts their own lives favorably and significantly. The new student center, with an outdoor fire pit, will surely be a hit, as will the new Blue Ewe store, recording studio, and theater tech workshop.

One of Hartigan’s innovative and unusual ideas will be a dramatic new water reclamation project. “We’ve received permission to detain up to 72,000 gallons of rainwater off the hard surfaces of the dining commons for irrigation purposes.”

In addition, we will collect the pool run-off water and treat it with vitamin C. According to Hartigan, vitamin C “treats the water in such a way that, if it reaches aquatic life, it’s non-toxic.” He continued, “That brought up the next idea: to settle out the dissolved solids and mix the treated pool water with the captured condensation that is generated through all the refrigeration in the new dining commons (which is a very pure water, because it’s made by distillation) and mix the two in order to create water that can be used for irrigation. So between the condensate, which will be about 300 to 400 gallons a day, and the pool water, we’re looking at 4,700 to 5,000 gallons a week.” The idea is to join these two water sources in a water feature on the patio below the dining hall, where it will circulate. It will feature a visual presentation with signage for kids and visitors to understand the science. “It’s going to the next level, because pretty much nobody’s doing this.” The overflow from that water feature will flow through the storm water filter and then to the cistern, where it will be mixed with the rain water, further improving its ability to be used for irrigation.

When asked to comment on the importance of this new building project, Headmaster Ben Williams wrote, “Everything and everyone on this Mesa teaches us something. That’s part of the magic of the Cate experience. And in the case of the new Dining Commons and Student Center, with its attention to energy efficiency, solar power, water reclamation, sustainable materials, and LEED standing, we are creating a living laboratory – a place where students can study the means by which we live responsibly within our environment while simultaneously enjoying and learning about the environment itself.

As William Shepard Biddle, Class of 1918, so aptly noted, '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.’ Even the buildings have much to teach us.”

The courtyard will blend indoor and outdoor spaces for dining and for community-building activities.

Upstairs, the Student Center will provide a space for entertainment and relaxation.

37

Dispatches In this issue of the Bulletin Joe Gottwald '10 interviews six current seniors about their time at Cate to find out how they’ve grown and changed.

JACK DEARDORFF Can you describe for me your first day at Cate?

I definitely remember coming up the hill and having a senior [Michael Nettesheim ’16] hop in the car. I remember the seniors I played football with showing me around campus. It was just a super-positive day.

Now that you are a Head Tour Guide, how have you changed in that role?

When I was first a tour guide my sophomore year, there were older tour guides I looked up to and those I was paired with who would help me out. I’d try and learn as much as I could from them. Now, this year I see the younger kids paired with me and it’s kind of like I’m giving back to the program. It’s a neat tradition.

How does touring impact your day?

It’s a cool way to meet people from all over the world.

Sometimes they pair me with kids who are similar to me, but who come from different places. Even though I’m giving the tour, I still learn about them and where they’re from and what they’re interested in, especially when we have a shared interest in Cate. I actually wrote one of my college essays about that – how it’s always fun to meet new people and have a shared interest in a place or a thing.

How are you approaching this senior year?

W

hile he is a three-sport captain with twelve varsity letters, Jack Deardorff has made plenty of impact off the fields, too. As Head Tour Guide, he plays a key role in shepherding prospective students around the Mesa and ensuring the younger tour guides are on-point.

The quintessential older brother, Jack is both role-model and trusted friend.

HOMETOWN: SANTA BARBARA, CA 38

CAT E BU LLET IN / F ALL 2018

Everyone told me my freshman year (but I brushed it off) that four years go by so fast. They said do everything you can when you’re young. It’s so true. I remember it all so clearly and it feels like it just happened. I’m definitely hoping to do a few outdoors trips – maybe even a play.

I’m trying to do everything I can this year and knock a few things off my list.

Is there a particular individual you’re particularly grateful for?

I’d say the person I’m most thankful for is probably my advisor, Mr. Collins. He’s done a lot to help guide me in the right direction, supporting me, encouraging me. I can’t say enough about how great Mr. Collins has been for me.

Do you have a favorite story that you share on your tours?

The one I always talk about is kinda funny since no one told me to do it. When we go to the dining hall, most people ask me if the food is good. I tell them that, since I’m a day student, I have the option to go home and eat, but I still eat here most days because I like the food.

TESSA DENISON

T

his “faculty kid” has more perspective on Cate than most people. Her home since birth, the Mesa was her playground when she was growing up. Now, as she finishes her final year as a student, Tessa looks back with fondness on her school and her home.

Do you have two different impressions of Cate? One as a faculty kid and one as a freshman?

I think my perspective changed being a kid growing up here versus a student. I think I thought of the campus as a playground, where I grew up not knowing the names of any of the buildings. I just knew them as where I would jump out and scare students. And then when I came here [as a freshman], everyone expected me to know everything about it. I think I was just as nervous as the other new students and didn’t know what to expect. I was like everyone else.

What do you remember about your first month or so as a student?

In the first couple of weeks at Cate, I think I was very nervous about making friends, and just that pressure to get to know everyone in only a few days, and building those first connections.

And I’m seeing them evolve throughout the years now.

Is there a particular person here, either a faculty member or another student, who has helped you grow as a person?

My advisor Taylor Wyatt has helped me throughout my years at Cate. I didn’t really use her as a resource until last year, but it has changed my life, knowing that I have someone like her here.

I feel like I can always reach out to her. I think that previous school advisors just dealt with academic problems. Just realizing that the advisors at Cate are here for everything means you can really open up to them.

HOMETOWN: CARPINTERIA, CA

life freshman year, but again, I think that relationships, stress, school – everything has changed for the better.

Can you tell me where you see yourself in ten years?

I want to be a nurse. So in ten years, I hope that I’m working in a hospital. I want to be an ER or pediatric nurse. I’m sure things will change. But that’s where I want to be right now.

Is there something that you would want to tell the freshman version of yourself?

Is there a moment during your time at Cate that you’re particularly grateful for?

Something I would tell my freshman self is to branch out more with my friends. They won’t necessarily be the ones you’ll make [an immediate] connection to, but they could be the ones you make for the rest of your life and come back to.

I think last year with all the things that happened with the fire and floods – just missing all the school. I think the school did a good job at providing time for everyone to grieve and deal with things. Even though it was probably the worst year in some people’s minds, it was my best year.

I’m not quite sure why, but I was very confident that the school would take care of things.

Can you think of one way, or maybe a couple of ways, that you’re different as a senior than you were as a freshman?

My perspective since freshman year has just completely changed.

And I think for the better. I can’t really say how I thought about

39

DISPATCHES

JOSH SHIELDS Can you describe your first impressions of Cate?

My first impressions mainly stem from revisit day. It was a little magical and surreal. I came on campus for the first time and I was taken aback by how open and kind everyone was. In middle school, especially during that last stretch of eighth grade, when I was trying to get into boarding school, it was a very competitive environment.

So coming here, where it seemed so much more nurturing and supportive, was a dream come true.

What was your first month like?

My first month at Cate was rocky. I definitely felt intimidated. Back in middle school I was easily among the top five kids in my class.

And then coming here, we have kids who go straight into calculus freshman year. That definitely scared me. By the end of the first month I started to gain back some confidence in myself. And even when I was still drifting I felt very confident in myself – at least I knew that I was comfortable with everyone, and that in itself gave me more motivation to keep actively seeking out new people.

Is there someone who has helped you grow as a person?

I would say my freshman prefects and maybe even my sophomore prefects. I’m sure Ajibola '16 and probably Jamie '16. Those two are the ones I saw the most, partly because we all lived on the same floor. They counterbalanced each other. Jamie was definitely much more sober and serious. Aji was more on the relaxed side and I could relate to his charisma and energy.

Can you tell me where you see yourself or where you want to be in ten years?

HOMETOWN: COLLEGE PARK, GA

J

osh is anything but one-dimensional.

From his masterful dancing, moving saxophone solos, and inspiring athletic performances, he’s contributed to Cate in a wide variety of ways. This introspective senior looks back at his time at Cate with pause and with candor.

40

CATE BULLET IN / F ALL 2018

In ten years, I’d like to either have a career or be in med school. I’m currently thinking of going to the UPenn School of Nursing; it’s a long shot, but if it were to turn out, then I’d get my nursing license in four years. I could maybe go to med school afterwards. If it turned out I didn’t want to be a physician, then I’d love to just head straight into a career out of college. And if it turned out that I wanted to go that longer route, then I’d be well prepared for it thanks to nursing school.

Is there something you would want to say to the freshman version of yourself?

If I could talk to the freshman me I’d tell him to relax. A lot of things that you’re going to stress about really aren’t worth stressing over. Apply yourself more. I know that procrastination was a big thing when I was younger. And it still is, sometimes. I’d say, don’t let homework scare you. Don’t let your classes scare you. If you need extra help, just go ask for help. There are more resources than you think. They’re here because people really do want to help you succeed. A final thing: be aware of your impact. Don’t always throw caution to the wind; consider how your actions affect others.

SEAN ZHAN

S

ean came to Cate as a gifted math and science student. But since freshman year he’s become a fantastic digital artist who stitches together beautiful and cinematic drone sequences of Cate’s campus.

What were your first impressions of campus?

First of all, it’s beautiful. It was kind of drizzling a bit. And when I was walking on campus, not only was my tour guide talking to me, but the people who were walking by me, other students here, were also talking to me and smiling and saying, “Hi” and “How’s your day going?”

Can you talk about what your your first month was like here?

My first month at Cate was a bit rough, because coming here was the first time I was immersed in American culture. I was really nervous and didn’t really know how to behave. Because first of all, it’s a different language here. And then second of all, I wasn’t used to how people can just express their ideas really easily. Like in class discussions, people might start with the sentence, “I’m not sure where I’m going with this….” In the culture I’m from, we think twice before saying anything, so it was a little bit hard to adjust to that.

Can you describe for me how you think you’ve changed since that first month.

So I’ve come a pretty long way. I was shy. I didn’t want to branch out at all. I just had a few friends that I hung out with all the time. But I feel like, over the years, I learned to take myself less seriously and just put myself out there and not be afraid of the possibility that I might get embarrassed.

Every year, I open up a lot more. And I talk to a lot more people. And it’s actually pretty fun, because every person here has his or her own story to tell. And it’s kind of like, I wouldn’t get the full experience here if I didn’t grab the opportunity to talk to more people. That’s kind of the whole point of Cate – bringing everybody together and learning about others.

Is there somebody at Cate that has helped you grow?

I think actually the most special part about Cate is how people here can teach you. Two of my friends, Lisa and Sharlene, helped me break out of my shell and learn how to express my feelings. Before, I kind of kept things to myself. But talking with people who are supporting you, who don’t judge you at all, makes it safe to just say what you want to say even if it’s goofy or silly.

HOMETOWN: BEIJING, CHINA

Is there something that you would want to say to the freshman version of yourself?

I’d say just leave my room more often, and that I don’t have to actively engage in conversations – like it’s even okay to just stand among a conversation and just listen and observe.

Can you tell me where you see yourself in 10 years?

As an entrepreneur, or an engineer. I’ll probably form my own company and see where I go from there. But I will say that I definitely won’t be staying in the lab the whole day.

41

BAILOR JALLOH Can you tell me about your your first impressions of Cate?

When I got to Cate it was just different – just super, super different from back home. I flew over a couple days before Cate started. My guardian in Carpinteria took me around and showed me some places. When I got to Cate there was a lot going on. That first couple of days were full of meetings you had to go to on time. Everything was scheduled and it was all new to me – like nice food, and sleeping alone. Everyone seemed really nice and everything moved pretty fast.

You were smiling while describing your experience; how was that experience?

Actually I did have a really good first experience. My first impression of Cate was just beyond what I expected. It was awesome. I fell in love with the place right away. I couldn’t help it.

Is there someone at Cate who has helped you grow?

HOMETOWN: KENEMA, SIERRA LEONE

B

ailor was determined to study in the United States. With that accomplishment under his belt, he has now set his sights on playing in the MLS. While soccer is his focus, Bailor wants to finish his studies eventually and give back to others in Sierra Leone in honor of the people who have changed his life for the better.

42

CATE BULLET IN / F ALL 2018

My freshman year I had awesome seniors like Justin, Ajibola, Clinton, and Joel. These are just a few people who really, really helped me progress. As I mentioned before, everything was new to me. They would come by my room and talk to me about stuff and what to do and how to spend my time and how to talk to other people. My advisor, John Swain, was always coming around and bringing me food. I remember during our first advisor dinner he cooked Jollof rice, which was to make me comfortable, and I ate a lot that day. It was good that he did that. All the faculty members who’ve taught me have been super understanding because I miss most Saturday classes for soccer games. A lot of people have had a hand in my life journey and I’m pretty grateful for that.

What is something you would tell your freshman self?

The one thing I would tell my freshman self is to take it slow and be myself. I’ve faced a lot of things at Cate that made me want to just call it a day and be like, “I’m going home because this is just not what I want to do.” I’d tell my freshman self it’s going to get better and I just have to be myself. I have to stay true to myself. That’s something I realize that I should have done from the beginning.

Is there something you see in yourself that’s different now?

Definitely. I feel like a lot has changed. But the one thing that I actually noticed recently is how comfortable I am with myself and with other people. Before, I would take a lot of time to speak in front of someone because I sounded different and I would have to repeat myself. People are used to the way I speak now, which is a huge change.

Can you tell me where you see yourself in ten years?

That’s a big question. I want to play professional soccer. I want to be in the MLS. There’s a chance that’s happening and there’s also a chance it’s not. I also want to go to college and finish school. In 10 years I’ll hopefully see myself done with college, playing professional soccer, or working at a job in the U.S. or back home in Sierra Leone, helping to bring change because a lot of people have changed my life, so I want to be that kind of person too.

KATE BRADLEY

F

rom working with refugees on the Myanmar border to cranking out an issue of El Batidor, Kate approaches everything she does with joy and remarkable grace. While she may have no idea where she will be in ten years, we are certain she will be making meaningful change.

What was your first impression of the Mesa?

When I first arrived on the Mesa I was taken aback by how relaxed everyone seemed. I think it was probably a combination of the weather, the warm smiles, and the eucalyptus trees. Everything just seemed to put me at ease right from the get-go.

How was your first month as a student?

To be honest it was pretty hard. I considered myself a really shy kid so I struggled to adapt to American social structures. The same was true for the academic culture here, since it seemed to me that extroverts were valued more than introverts in the classroom. It felt different than the customs I was used to and the customs I came to Cate with as a freshman.

Is there a particular individual on campus who has helped you grow as a person?

I joke sometimes that I pray in Mr. Barry’s direction five times a day. I joke that for a few reasons. He was my Humanities teacher freshman year and, right away, it seemed like history went from being my worst subject in school to the one I liked the most. It’s crazy to think that one person can inspire you to look at something differently and impact who you are in such a profound way. I don’t feel like I’m exaggerating when I say that his class, and Mr. Barry as a teacher, have altered my life’s course.

What are the biggest changes you see in yourself since coming to Cate?

That’s hard to say but I think Cate has brought out some parts of me that I’ve always wished I had more of, if that makes sense. The School has definitely amplified my love of learning, and also I feel like I’ve become more of a doer – you know, less of a person who talks about plans and more of a person who actually follows through on their dreams. I also see this change in big ambitions, like becoming a better advocate for human rights. I also really see it in small things,

HOMETOWN: HONG KONG

such as performing in public – for example, in overcoming stage fright to sing at a Coffee House.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

I think that in the past the more I’ve tried to predict my life’s course the less sure I became about it. I think that if you had asked me that question ten years ago I would have said that I would be in a women’s college somewhere in the English countryside. And look where I am now. Right now I think I want to be a human rights lawyer or maybe work in government. But for all I know I could end up being a fashion designer. It’s hard to make any statements with certainty about the life of 28-year-old Kate.

Is there something you’d like to tell your freshman self?

I think if I could tell my freshman self anything it would probably be something like, “Nothing turns out as expected.” I realize I had a lot of preconceived notions about what my life should have been like or could have been like and it’s not like that now, but I don’t feel bad for getting it wrong. I would also say, “Make the most of every silly moment. And keep dreaming.”

43

in Memoriam

DOHRMANN K. (DICK) PISCHEL '47 October 10, 1929 - August 7, 2018

Dick Pischel passed away peacefully at home on August 7, 2018. Dick was born in San Francisco on October 10, 1929. His early years were spent in San Francisco, Marin County, and Santa Barbara, California. Educated at Harvard University and the University of California at Davis, he spent his adult life in agriculture, real estate development, and landscape and irrigation contracting.

After owning and managing ranches in California and Nevada, he first came to the Rogue Valley (in Oregon) in 1963 to establish the C2 Cattle Company at Lake Creek for the Coonan family. He later moved to Medford, where he was the general partner for Rogue Valley Enterprises, which included in its activities the subdivision of Sky Crest on the east side of Medford and the creation of On the Spot Landscape and Supply. During the Korean War he served in the National Guard and the U. S. Army, honorably discharged after five years’ service as Sergeant E-5. In 1979 he married Lois Jean Riffe, who became his wife of thirty years, and who preceded him in death in March of 2009. He was a life member of the Elks, the Non-Commissioned Officers Association of the United States, the American Motorcyclist Association, and the Cal Aggie Alumni Association.

In his immediate family he was preceded in death by his first wife, Janet Kirk Pischel, and his eldest son Chip. He is survived by his children Kirk and Lisa; grandchildren Jennifer, Katharine, Lindsey, and Will; and great grandchildren Ella, Roman, and Wilhelmina. In his extended family he is also survived by his stepchildren Catherine, Linda, and Lisa; step-grandchildren Austin, Cassidy, Christopher, Connor, Dylan, Travis, and Tucker; and great-grandchildren Liv and Story. It is asked that in place of flowers or other remembrances, donations be made in Dick’s memory to the Southern Oregon Humane Society.

H.W. “WALLY” TRAPNELL '55 September, 26 1937 - July 19, 2018

H. W. “Wally” Trapnell grew up in San Francisco and began his teaching career at Dunsmuir High School in 1960, after graduating from the University of California at Berkeley. Wally primarily taught social studies and English, with history and civics being his passion. Over his career, he sponsored many clubs and organizations, including the National Honor Society and the California Scholarship Federation.

Wally was more than a teacher. He was also a friend. He took in a number of students over the years, helping them 120

CAT E BU LLET IN / F ALL 2018

get through high school and even college.

Wally also bought “first vehicles” and “first suits” and arranged for many students to obtain their first jobs. On weekend evenings, he could often be found with friends and former students at Railroad Park, Mike and Tony’s, or the Piemont.

Former Cate faculty member Bob Bonning says, “I had heard about Wally Trapnell several years ago, not by name but by reputation as a Cate alum who lived in Dunsmuir. A bit of a local legend for his teaching and educational support in the community of Dunsmuir.

In any case I thought that he might get a mention in the next Bulletin, and I would love it if that mention might include donations to the Dunsmuir Library!”

In 1961 Trapnell wrote to Francis Parkman (on stationery from Dunsmuir Joint Union High School): “With the approaching end of the school year, I look back on a very pleasant experience here. The type of student who confronts one in a school such as this represents quite a challenge – more so in some ways than students of a more uniformly high caliber do.” To which Parkman responded, “I am of course very glad that you see the challenge that confronts you. … I know you will be glad to have done work in this kind of school.”

Wally left Dunsmuir briefly in 1972 when he bought a small business in Coffee Creek, in Trinity County, then returned to DHS in 1976, where he taught until retiring in 1993. In 1977, because of his interest in railroad history, Wally purchased the “town” of Hambone, just outside McCloud, where he eventually built a small cabin. Over the years, he created several volumes of history about Bartle, Hambone, and Pondosa. His post-retirement time was divided between Dunsmuir, McCloud, Coffee Creek, Austin (NV), and Reno.

As a historian, Wally had a keen memory for names, numbers, dates, and events.

One could give him the name of a former student and he could recall when

they were in school. Give him the name of a railroad and he would know the years it operated. Wally was a member of the Board of the Siskiyou County Historical Society, serving as Editor of The Siskiyou Pioneer in 1968. He wrote a number of historical articles and published a couple of books related to both Siskiyou and Trinity County history. He was an avid narrow gauge railroad buff and helped write several railroad books by contributing photos and proofreading copy.

In his later years, Wally helped establish the Austin, NV Historical Society and spent much of his Nevada time volunteering in the Austin Museum and at the Austin Chamber of Commerce.

For many summers he also was a docent for the Scott Museum in Trinity Center.

His last few years were spent in Reno, where he built a home, and where he passed on July 19, 2018 at the age of 80.

BURTON SMITH '58 March 21, 1941 - April 2, 2018

life of the party.

Burton grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and Albuquerque, New Mexico.

A letter from his time at Cate said, “Burton has real intellectual curiosity and ability, especially in the scientific field, where his keenness and imagination lead him quickly to the solution of problems. ... Burton is certainly always on the go, intellectually and socially. He has a real interest in school affairs and has a good sense of responsibility.”

After Cate, he attended the University of New Mexico briefly, but was not captivated by school and failed all his classes, said Katherine P. Smith, his oldest daughter. Mr. Smith left to join the Navy, where he worked on nuclear submarines. He later returned to UNM, where this time around, he aced every class. He met his wife of more than 40 years, Dorothy “Dottie” Smith, at the university. The two had two children, Katherine and Julia J. Smith. Dottie died in 2015.

Burton’s career took the family from Boston – where he attended graduate school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, after turning down acceptances from both Stanford and Berkeley – to Denver, Washington, D.C., and eventually Seattle.

Burton Smith, a pioneer in the supercomputing industry and co-founder of Seattle-based Cray, died of complications from heart disease on April 2, 2018. He was 77.

Burton was the co-founder of Tera Computer, which later became supercomputer maker Cray, and he went on to become a technical fellow at Microsoft. He was known for deep technical expertise in the field of high-performance computers, but also for his love of singing, his sense of humor, and his penchant for being the

Burton was a longtime computer scientist, and was honored with the prestigious Seymour Cray Award in 2003. He was elected that same year as a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

He joined Microsoft as a technical fellow in 2005. There, he worked with teams on distributed services and quantum computing. While he excelled in computing, Burton was also the colleague people always wanted to hang out with. He was sociable and funny and could often be found in bars with friends, drinking wine and singing songs.

His sense of humor stretched throughout his entire life, extending even to joking with nurses while he was in the hospital 121

before he died, Katherine Smith said. His daughters are still struck by their father’s generosity, and have spent the last few days reading letters from students who received college scholarships from their parents.

Burton was the 2008 Cate School Distinguished Alumnus.

DON DUDLEY '74

July 29, 1956 – June 24, 2018

Don was first married to Patricia for seventeen years; they have two daughters, Megan and Melinda. He worked in the automobile industry in those early years.

He later met and married Michelle, at Disneyland, who was his wife for the past 21 years. They had a special love for this theme park and it became a significant part of their lives and their business. He and Michelle moved to Anaheim in 2008 and traded pins with the cast members and other guests, and even got together every Sunday as a social event. His other venture was Flame*O*Chist, which was an eBay website and animation is in the name – he helped a friend restore a burnt computer and was so proud that he named the business after that; the middle was made to look like Mickey ears!

Don’s other loves included cruises, and my wife and I joined him and Michelle on the first half of a month-long trip from Rome to Florida. We were lucky enough to get off the ship before the first major case of Norovirus hit the industry, and fortunately Don and his wife escaped Our good friend and classmate Don the outbreak. They also loved their Dudley has passed. Service was the dogs. He left behind five beloved pets: message Don always portrayed. His two St. Bernard’s, named Zappa, after time at Cate was always on his mind. his favorite musician, and Doofus, who Don entered Cate as a junior, which can loved to eat dirt; a Husky/Shepherd mix be difficult for a variety of social and named Iceberg; an American Eskimo academic reasons. But Don jumped right named Snow Monkey; and a Louisiana in. Our time as squash teammates forged Catahoula Leopard named VooDoo. our relationship. Stan Woodworth always They were all rescues, and of course, reminded us that our team never achieved ruled the household. big success, but Don’s competitiveness always gave us hope. On various occasions He developed a class pin for our special Don told me that he held dear to his heart 20th reunion. Our classmates responded the time when he took one game in the positively. That elevated Don to help Squash Cup finals from me in 1974.

Jim Wright and Bill Kennedy as a class agent and it was a very welcome addition.

Don was an accomplished pianist. He Through the years Don and I stayed in showed me this gift while visiting my contact. He offered advice and was always home. He sat down and played jazz from available, caring, easygoing, and faithful memory. My parents listened to his talent to Cate. Don was a lifelong friend. A for an hour. My view of him changed good friend who will be missed. immediately. Artistry like his can be a source of inspiration that reaches into –Neil Schroeder '74 your soul. He was most comfortable engulfed in music. Music was a source of salvation that elevated Don.

THOMAS EDWARD DUQUE '76 September 29, 1957 November 23, 2017

Tom Duque left this world gracefully and with dignity on the 23rd of November, 2017 after a 14-year battle with Polycystic Kidney Disease. He joins his parents, Marilyn and Gabriel Duque, and his equally courageous brother, Mark, in heaven. He will be deeply missed by his sisters Mary Duque Cohen (Jeff), Martha Duque MacEachern (Matt), Trish Taylor Duque (Mark), and nieces and nephews Brendan Kiggen (living kidney donor to Tom, 2004), Allison Cohen, Matthew Cohen, and Emma MacEachern.

Tom was proud of his family and its heritage. His concern for others, his joy in the natural world, along with his kind and gentle spirit, were reflected in his volunteer work with Big Brothers, Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, the National Audubon Society, and the Sierra Club. Tom was a graduate of Cate School, Santa Clara University, and Southwestern Law School, and was a fourth generation practicing attorney in Los Angeles for thirty years. Donations may be made to Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles.

BRUCE ALEXANDER WILSON '76

October 25, 1957 - October 25, 2014

Bruce Wilson passed away on October 25, 2014 and was interred in Hopewell, 122

CAT E BU LLET IN / F ALL 2018

Virginia. Bruce was born in Jenkintown, PA and graduated from Cate in 1976. In a letter to Bruce’s parents, Scott McLeod wrote in 1975, “Bruce continues to grow impressively as a leader – as a responsible spokesman and representative of his class. He is currently directing a muchneeded study of the system of student government at Cate, and he impressed a number of teachers with his mature and objective judgment in a very difficult and complex disciplinary meeting recently.

He is handling his extracurricular responsibilities well, developing visible personal strength, and contributing extensively to school life.”

Bruce attended UC Riverside, where he studied history, English, drama, and Russian literature. He founded the Art Lending Library at the school.

Bruce was many things to many people.

Being very creative, talented, and intelligent, he worked in many different jobs; for example, he started up a business in the recycling of architectural features, and he handcrafted gift boxes by recycling vintage labels from product information. Bruce was also politically active in support of gay rights and the reform of marijuana laws.

REMIGIO “REMY” VALIDO November 30, 1943 – June 7, 2018 Former Faculty

Remigio “Remy” Ezequiel Valido y Torres, of Tumalo, Oregon died on June 7, 2018, survived by his wife

Gretchen (Broman), children Alexander and Stephanie, and grandchildren Slater, Sophia, and Samantha. Born in Havana, Remy was the only child of Cuban senator and consul Remigio Valido y Rivero and architect Isabel Gage Torres y Diaz.

Upon his father’s death in 1959, he and his mother became the first Cuban refugees of that era.

Remy met Gretchen at the University of Washington and they married on December 30, 1967, in Palos Park, Illinois. He taught mathematics, biology, and marine biology and coached lacrosse at Cate from September 1967 to July 1969. At Cate, invitations to Valido Sunday brunches were prized by High House boys, fostering trusting, warm friendships. Reflecting on those years, Remy spoke fondly of the Mesa’s closeknit community of students, faculty, and staff; of unforgettable vistas; of row upon row of nursery flowers down the hill; of boys seeking counsel, and boys growing into young men. Remembered are lacrosse tournaments, dining hall conversations, bus trips to Camarillo State Mental Hospital followed by stops at a Sizzler steak house, frequent water fights on the lawn – and the 5.1 earthquake that shortened the Mesa’s perimeter, and a massive oil spill that tarred Carpinteria’s beaches.

first non-profit dedicated to marine conservation, characterized by San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen as the “next Sierra Club.” Like the “valiant oarsman” to which his name translates, he was a dedicated worker, tirelessly collaborating with state and federal agencies, the UN Seabed Committee, and Pacem in Maribus convocations. In 1970 he attended the Law of the Sea Conference in Malta, influenced Jacques Cousteau to form the Cousteau Society, and was instrumental in the passage of California’s Proposition One regulating ocean effluent, which he considered one of his most important achievements.

Remy went on to co-found Northwest Power Company, which developed run-of-river, fish-run-protecting, small hydroelectric plants in California, and he was also responsible for innovative policy on the wheeling of electricity over transmission lines.

In 1992, the family moved to Tumalo, where he formed Specialty Produce, a local greens and herbs business. He took great satisfaction from the natural environment and a simpler pace of life, and retired just last year.

We remember him for his wit, intellectual curiosity, unshakeable After Cate, Remy taught mathematics good humor, and culinary skill. He at the Cathedral School for Boys in San took an intense interest in the state of Francisco. There, in August of 1970, he our democracy, championing rights of became a naturalized citizen. The family everyday citizens. He enjoyed camping, resided in San Francisco until 1984 before 49er football, and especially time with moving across the Bay to Piedmont, CA. family and pets Heidi, Taco, and Daisy.

He is dearly missed by friends, former Frederick Clark wrote of Remy in students, and loved ones.

1968, “Mr. Valido is an unusually promising young teacher. Well trained A celebration of his life took place academically, he teaches outstanding September 22, at Hollinshead Park Barn, courses with excellent results and exhibits in Bend, Oregon. unusually deep interest in and concern for his students. He is tireless, mature, and effective.”

In San Francisco, Remy engaged in oceanographic work and was the prime organizer of the Oceanic Society, the

123

From The Archives

The More Things Change One hundred years ago Charles Voorhies, Class of 1919, addressed the tiny Santa Barbara School at its sixth Commencement, commenting on the new buildings to be constructed on top of the Mesa. “The reason I and the other graduates hope for a larger place for the arts in the new school — and too, a larger place for geography, chemistry, and all the sciences generally — is this: we wish that here you may acquire a well-rounded education, a love and appreciation of the best, in things both physical and spiritual, that will not only increase your own enjoyment of life but also make of you wiser, more understanding, and more useful citizens of the world.” His hopes then are no different from those we hold today — that our students graduate well prepared for whatever awaits them, with the very best education Cate can deliver. From the construction of the Katharine Thayer Cate Memorial Chapel in 1961 to the McBean Library in 1966 to the Cook House East dormitory in 1999 (to mention just a few of the many examples), new projects continue atop the Mesa, all in the service of enhancing the student experience.

As Jim Crutcher ’48 commented in a recent interview, “There were not as many buildings when we were here, but for me, the feeling is still quite a bit the same. … I think there are some improvements, certainly. It’s one of those things: the more it changes, the more it stays the same.” – Charlotte Brownlee '85 124

CAT E BU LLET IN / F ALL 2018

WAYS TO GIVE to CATE SCHOOL CREDIT CARD

Go to www.cate.org/donate to make a gift using Visa, MasterCard, or American Express. Credit card gifts are also accepted over the phone at (805) 684-4127 ext. 211.

CHECK

Gifts may be made payable to Cate School and mailed to: Cate School, Advancement Office Box 5005 Carpinteria, CA 93014

MATCHING GIFTS

Many companies will match gifts that their employees (and sometimes spouses of employees) make to secondary schools such as Cate. Please send your company’s matching gift form along with your gift. For questions, please contact Carolyn Frary at (805) 684-4127 ext. 211 or carolyn_frary@cate.org.

STOCK GIFTS & WIRE TRANSFERS

A gift to Cate of stock held more than one year entitles the donor to a charitable deduction for its full current market value (in most cases without paying the capital gains tax on the appreciation, which would be required if the securities were sold for personal gain). For more information on making a gift of appreciated securities, please contact Laura Jespersen by phone at (805) 684-4127 ext. 215, or by email at laura_jespersen@cate.org.

RE PO RT O N P HI L A N THRO P Y

125

CALENDAR HIGHLIGHTS 126

November 28 December 2 December 5 December 5 December 5 December 16 December 29 December 30 January 2 January 8 January 23 January 24 January 24

CAT E BU LLET IN / F ALL 2018

Washington D.C. Reception Claremont Reception Alumni Council Meeting (Los Angeles) Los Angeles Reception Founder’s Day Winter by Candlelight Vail Mountain Ski Day Aspen Mountain Ski Day Sugar Bowl Ski Day Phoenix Reception Palo Alto Reception Alumni Council Meeting (San Francisco) San Francisco Reception

January 26 January 28 February 22-23 March 1-31 April 7 April 25 April 26-28 May 4 May 25 May 26 June 7 June 7-9 June 8

New Haven Reception Philadelphia Reception Grandparents Weekend March Magic Walkathon/Bikeathon Mesa Association Dinner Family Weekend Vintners Picnic Awards/Baccalaureate Commencement Camp Cate Kick Off Party (open to all) Camp Cate Alumni Council Meeting (Johnson Library)