BULLETIN | FALL 2017 51
CLASSNOTES | Profile
’03 3
Allison Kessler Vear
RESILIENCE AND RESOLVE by kim hastings p ’15, ’18
At age 13, Allison Kessler knew Choate Rosemary Hall was the school for her. She recalls, “Choate had a nice balance: it was big enough to have a diverse population of students, so I would have a chance to engage with and get to know students from a lot of different backgrounds, yet small enough to feel like a true community and a home.” That initial sense of connection and the belief that she can accomplish whatever she sets her mind to have come to define Allison’s journey. Always a sports aficionado, Allison got involved with athletics from the get-go, joining Choate’s soccer, diving, and lacrosse teams. But over winter break of her fourth form year, she was thrown a curveball. She suffered a skiing accident that damaged her spinal cord and required her to use a wheelchair. The daughter of two physicians and the youngest of four children, Allison grew up in a nurturing family environment. When her father, a neurologist and stem cell researcher, took a new position in Chicago, her mother remained east, in Connecticut, an additional six months so Allison could stay in her childhood home until she matriculated at Choate. Her parents’ support was instrumental in Allison’s recovery, as were her own resilience and resolve. Determined to return not only to Choate but as a member of her class (not graduating with the community of peers she had built was “unfathomable,” she says), she arranged to complete coursework remotely as she underwent intensive outpatient therapy at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (now called the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab). “I read all the same books, wrote papers about them, and had discussions with the teachers over the phone, to do some more of the in-depth critical thinking. Math I returned to campus to take during the summer.”
By fall of her fifth form year, she was settled in Archbold and navigating new ground at Choate. For her, there was never a question of whether she’d be back; the School had made it clear that if that was her goal, Choate would support her. Adamant that she continue to meet all expectations (and then some!), Allison declined waiver of the athletic requirement. An avid equestrian preChoate, she resumed horseback riding, because hippotherapy was deemed beneficial for both her physical and mental well-being. Although the facility was 30 minutes away, a faculty member volunteered to drive her each week. In the winter, Allison managed the girls ice hockey team – a positive experience, but one that went against her nature: she’s not one to sit on the sidelines. A friend who rowed suggested becoming a coxswain. Allison knew little about crew (“What is this coxswain you speak of?”) but description of this key role piqued her interest: “My friend said, ‘A coxswain doesn’t have to be able to walk; you sit in the boat. Your job is really to be a team leader and steer the boat, to help us all work together. The coxswain is integral to the sport itself.’” Allison made first boat her first season and competed with Choate at the Head of the Charles. She was cox of the men’s team at Harvard, where she did her undergraduate work, and later met Ben Vear, her future husband (St. Paul’s ’00, now an entrepreneur and partner at The Chicago Group, which works with universities and companies to commercialize intellectual property), on a Chicago club rowing team. Allison went on to earn a master’s degree in biomedicine, bioscience, and society from the London School of Economics and an M.D. from Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. Today, she is an attending physiatrist, specializing in spinal cord injuries, at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, the same facility where she herself underwent rehabilitation. Allison’s injury provided her with perspective and a sense of direction: “Not only did I have the drive and interest in science and medicine, but I was in the unique position of being on both sides of the coin, both a physician and a patient,” she says. “It’s something I have that other people may not have experienced so I knew I should do something good with that rather than squander it.” Although she has little time to participate in competitive sports these days, Allison continues to rely on skills she honed as a cox in her work as a physician: “You have to able to connect with [people], impart information and … motivate them to either change or fix something, but you can’t do it in a way that crushes their will to want to do it,” she says. “So, just like with crew, I can’t say, ‘Well, that boat’s 10 strokes ahead,’ because then you’re sitting there going, ‘There’s no way I can make that up,’ the same way you don’t tell someone, ‘You’re 20 pounds overweight, you need to do something about it’; that’s not how it works.” If her full-time job at a teaching hospital and ongoing research weren’t enough, Allison is also a new mom. Brooke Taylor Vear was born last Easter Sunday and, by her proud parents’ account, is “the happiest, smiliest, most easygoing baby.” The family also has a 100-pound rescue dog, Bruce Wayne Vear. Fifteen years after graduating from Choate, Allison acknowledges that her life is “nothing that I would have pictured, but everything I could hope for.” To today’s students, she says: “Be accepting. Things don’t always turn out the way we plan or envision, but continue along the path, keep going. Be open to new experiences, and new things.… Although I wouldn’t have wished for a spinal cord injury, it has led me to where I am now. Had it not been for my injury, and had I not joined the crew team, I would never have met my husband, and I wouldn’t have my amazing daughter.” Kim Hastings P ’15, ’18 is a freelance writer, editor, and translator.
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