Commonwealth Magazine Summer 2019

CM Commonwealth School Magazine Summer 2019

DECODING HPV

For the firstever Capstone Project in biology, two students learned to think like scientists

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WHY I MADE IT

by Pamina Falk ’20

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hen I filmed Famine, a stop motion animation made with paper cutouts, I was at Art on the Farm in Ireland. The camp offered film and audio, and though I’d planned to do painting, I was intrigued. No one else was going for it, and I thought this might be a good opportunity to expand my horizons (and have the teacher to myself).

Famine is about a recently deceased woman who awakes to find herself alone and lost in the middle of nowhere. She meets Famine, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, who asks her to take over his job but doesn’t explain why or how. As she wanders, she meets Pestilence and War, who give her an introduction to her new responsibilities and lifestyle. The story ends with her first “job.”

Famine began with an exercise in character design, when I came upon a collection of skulls from around the farm and decided to base my characters on them. There were skulls from a bird, a rat or mouse, and a canine that might have been a fox. I wanted to show them not as monsters, but as regular people who had somehow been recruited for a job that carried immense responsibility. For this reason, I chose to have them wear suits, which helps give them the formality that one would expect from someone working in a business (perhaps a funeral service), and the humanity that keeps them from fading into beings of mindless destruction.

Though I didn’t have a fleshed-out plot for this stream of consciousness story, I relied on my perception of the characters and how they interact with each other to keep me on a fairly clear path. The emotion I wanted to express was that of being stuck in a pretty grim situation and trying to adjust. The other horsemen react to the arrival of the new Famine in different ways.

Pestilence is a little bitter that the old Famine has left, but they all do their best to help the new Famine. The adjustment is difficult for everyone.

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Commonwealth School Alumni/ae Magazine

FROM THE HEADMASTER

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teacher never really knows which lessons or words will sink in and make a difference to the students. Every year we hear student speakers and visiting alums tell of how a teacher’s expectations, encouragement, or belief in them opened their eyes to new ways of seeing themselves or a subject. I remember one senior building his graduation speech around a comment I’d written next to a turgid passage on his ninth-grade history paper, “Beware of trying to sound scholarly.” We sow and sow, but see only some of the seeds that have come to fruit.

As with a teacher, so with a school. We steadily strive to live up to the intellectual and social commitments that shape this place. We pour great care into our work with the kids, but it’s often not clear what will take root in their hearts and minds. When we do hear back from our alumni/ae, it’s gratifying to learn that they have held onto the deeper lessons from Commonwealth as they’ve pursued a variety of paths and professions.

Charles Merrill decided to become a teacher while helping his daughter understand a poem. He founded a school that would bring attentive care not only to young people from the more privileged zip codes of Boston, Brookline, Newton, and Cambridge who sought more depth and engagement, but also to students from neighborhoods that were neglected in the 1950s and ’60s. He wanted a school that would give the best that education has to offer to eager young minds whose options are limited.

With the inauguration this month of our Dive In Commonwealth summer program, Commonwealth is working to strengthen that commitment to bringing a wide array of voices into the school. And we take particular pride in our graduates who, inspired by what they saw of the possibilities of education here, carry the lessons and ideals of this place into the larger world of education, especially to serve those facing learning challenges or far longer odds than most Commonwealth kids. The stories here tell of a rich harvest.

Issue 16 Summer 2019 Editor Melody Komyerov Assistant Editor Sasha Eskelund ’92 Contributing Writers Alla Katsnelson ’92 Catherine O’Neill Grace Grace Talusan Design Jeanne Abboud Photography Jared Charney Tia Ann Chapman Nicole Craine Melody Komyerov Dana Rene Tony Rinaldo Class Notes Editor Carly Renshaw Printing Hannaford and Dumas CM is published twice a year by Commonwealth School, 151 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02116, and distributed without charge to alumni/ae, current and former parents, and other members of the Commonwealth community. Opinions expressed in CM are those of the authors and subjects, and do not necessarily represent the views of the School or its faculty and students.

We welcome your comments and news at communications@commschool.org. Letters and notes may be edited for style, length, clarity, and grammar.

Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle.

Bill Wharton Headmaster @commonwealthalumniae commonwealthschool commonwealtschool commonwealtschool

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CONTENTS

Commonwealth School Magazine Summer 2019

Why I Made It

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Famine by Pamina Falk ’20

From the Headmaster

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News

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6

Graduation and Faculty Farewells

A Commonwealth Conversation

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The Promise of Reading

By Catherine O’Neill Grace

Decoding HPV

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By Alla Katsnelson ’92

Power of a Vision: a Campaign for Commonwealth

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The Paci Family Campaign Challenge

From Commonwealth Classrooms to Education’s Front Lines

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By Grace Talusan

Alumni/ae

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Reunions and Alumni/ae Gatherings

Class Notes

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On the cover: Two Commonwealth seniors spend the year researching how and why human papillomavirus (HPV) causes cancer.

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Graduation 2019

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n Friday, June 7, the Commonwealth community gathered to celebrate forty-one graduates for its fifty-ninth graduation at the First Church of Boston. We enjoyed the senior addresses and performance by Henry Bassett, Maya Driggers, Joy Ding, and Xander Séguin and honored departing faculty and staff for their years of service.

Left page, first row, left to right: Jonah Fried ’19, Bouchra Danielkebir ’11 and Nadin Suliman ’19. Second row: Nina Wattenberg ’19. Third row, left to right: Elise Requadt ’19, Xander Séguin ’19 and Joy Ding ’19, and headmaster Bill Wharton. Bottom row: Maya Williams ’19 and Joy Ding ’19. Right page, first row, left to right: Maia Driggers ’19, and Kaila Pelton-Flavin ’19, Nathan Le ’20 and Josiah Thompson ’20, Maia Driggers ’19, August Kane ’19, Omari Blackman ’19, Matteo Ryan ’19, and Eric Liu ’19. Bottom, clockwise from left, Alexey Boyko ’19, Aly Yanishevsky ’19, and Anay Mehta ’19 and mother Viraj Shroff-Mehta.

Photos by Tia Ann Chapman.

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NEWS | Of Commonwealth

Class of 2019 Colleges and Universities 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 2 4 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 3 1 1 1 1 2

Amherst College Barnard College Boston College Brandeis University Brown University Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Columbia University Cornell University Duke University Emory University Harvard College Haverford College Macalester College Massachusetts Institute of Technology Northeastern University New York University Oberlin College Reed College Smith College Syracuse University Tufts University University of Massachusetts, Amherst University of California, Berkeley University of Chicago University of Michigan University of Pennsylvania University of Wisconsin-Madison Waseda University Washington University St. Louis

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FACULTY re tirement

Rusty Crump

ART DEPARTMENT | PHOTOGRAPHY For 47 years, Rusty’s teaching, as any of his students will attest, has been of equal distinction.

He teaches his students to care deeply about craft and technique, but also to be open to surprise. So much of the work of Rusty’s students is, like his own work, powerfully striking. But the images and styles are as varied as the students. From good teachers students learn what their teachers know; from great teachers students learn to draw out the best in themselves. In his easygoing, informal way, Rusty has been great.

Rusty’s teaching has reached beyond the confines of Commonwealth. He has shown his students how to see the world in new ways and then how to express what they see, and their work in turn opens the eyes, minds, and hearts of others.

—Bill Wharton

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Faculty Farewells

NEWS | Of Commonwealth

I think he will never lose his youthful readiness to play— an attitude not at odds with serious, meaningful creation and essential to his teaching, his art, and generally his approach to life.

Rusty’s art featured cloaked figures in dreamscapes. His Russian wolfhound was named Merlin. He taught a bunch of highstrung kids to sketch freely and then to look again. That was kind of magical, wasn’t it?

—Sarah Brownsberger ’76 n

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An act of creation—that is what he’d let me in on. Unforeseen, unplanned. A risky business!

And he was risking it, then and there, right before my eyes. Lights and darks, colors, shapes and absence. A whole language, really. Thanks to Rusty, I see it now.

—Judith Siporin, former faculty, P’08

—Eric Davis, former faculty, P’89, ’90, ’08 n

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Rusty presided over an oasis of true calm and creativity and humor into which so many of us stepped each week as if into a warm spring. His gentleness and his laugh and his remarkable talent inspired us even while also reassuring us that we didn’t have to impress anyone and could instead just enjoy.

—Jeremy Creelan ’87 n

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Congratulations, Rusty!! I still remember printmaking at Commonwealth and even the smell of the acid.

—Joshua Hauser ’85 n

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Rusty would invite faculty to visit his studio on occasion, and I just loved to rifle through his prints until an amazing image caught my eye: forlorn and rusting lawn tables and chairs; a ruin of an Indian monument caught in a double exposure with parched earth; a brightly decorated Pakistani truck caught in a monumental traffic jam. His work is supremely unique, and his humor divine.

—Barbara Grant, faculty, P’05, ’09 n

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PHOTO BY TIA ANN CHAPMAN

Rusty is so skilled, patient, funny and creative; he always encouraged me to try something new, something outside of my comfort zone, and beautiful prints came out of it.

—Amanda Dai ’15

for more tributes visit: www.commschool.org/retirements 7

FACULTY re tirement

Jackie Curry

PERFORMING ARTS DEPARTMENT | DANCE

Dance is a demanding art form. Unlike in a choral or orchestral performance, the dancer is exposed up on stage, especially in a solo dance. It takes courage for a 16-year-old to get up there for all to see. Years of occasional visits to Jackie’s studio and of dance recitals have left me marveling at her talent in both getting the more experienced and accomplished dancers to push themselves to a new level, and her ability to bring the beginners and less accomplished along, giving them not only the skills, but also the confidence to stand up, to perform, and to enjoy it. Key ingredients here are the discipline she demands and the steady dose of “I love yous” she gives her students.

Jackie

And in a school that puts so much emphasis on the life of the intellect, Jackie’s studio has been a place where generations of Commonwealth students found refuge from the academic pressures in the physical discipline of dance.

Students found a sympathetic ear, as well as counsel and reassurance rooted in good sense and a generous heart.

We are grateful for the 44 years of leadership.

—Bill Wharton

for more tributes visit: www.commschool.org/retirements

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PHOTO BY TIA ANN CHAPMAN

It is in your studio that I first understood that the body speaks in ways that the mind does not, and that the body sings in ways that the mind can only marvel at.

—Yung Yung “Nicole” Liu ’17

Jackie believed in my ability to both master skills and create my own choreography and made me feel proud of every accomplishment, even small ones.

I think that her class is part of why I have the confidence to take on new challenges today.

—Irene Miriam Kaplow ’06

NEWS | Of Commonwealth

FACULTY departure

Wendy Mechaber BIOLOGY DEPARTMENT | STUDENT LIFE

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ince 2004 Wendy Mechaber’s roles at Commonwealth have ranged from teaching biology to coordinating academic support for students. The precision of her observations about the habits of mind of her ninth-grade biologists, and her sense of what exactly they needed to learn in order to think clearly, to think like scientists, made her a natural for the latter role. Wendy’s ability to discern a student’s needs made her an effective advocate and ally for students who needed tutoring or testing.

She has managed this role with thoughtfulness, tact, and characteristic commitment.

As an advisor and more recently a co-director of student life, Wendy provided the students she advised with calm, steady counsel, and for some her belief in their ability and her talent for marshaling the right academic or emotional support proved critical to their success at Commonwealth and beyond.

We are grateful to Wendy for all that she has done for Commonwealth these past 15 years.

—Bill Wharton

PHOTO BY TONY RINALDO

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A C O M M O N W E A LT H C O N V E R S AT I O N

The Promise of Reading

BY CATHERINE O’NEILL GRACE

The simple act of reading has been at the heart of a Commonwealth education from the beginning, and it remains so today. At school and beyond, reading remains a fundamental skill not only for learning, but for taking one’s place in the world, and yet a 2018 Pew Research Center survey reported that nearly one in four adults in the United States had not read a book in the last year.

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PHOTO BY DEVLO

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Janique Parrott-Gaffney ’04

riting in the Times Literary Supplement on June 4, 2019, Canadian essayist Stephen Marche deplored this decline. “[T]he [U.S.] is losing the craft of understanding, losing its capacity for citizenship,” he wrote. “Even educated people are increasingly unable and unwilling to distinguish between fake and real information, becoming a community that cannot understand itself as anything more than a circulation of figures. …. And the cure for all these problems is the same: read widely, read deeply, read.”

Yet reading eludes some learners—as much as 15 to 20 percent of the U.S. population, according to the International Dyslexia Association. This learning challenge separates people from the knowledge they need to move freely in the world of work and of ideas.

Not surprisingly, among Commonwealth alumni/ae are those seeking to decode dyslexia and unlock the power of reading for students. They also worry about how to deliver their labor-intensive, often one-on-one interventions equitably. This spring, Head of school Bill Wharton spoke with two of these educators about their particular mission in teaching.

Janique Parrott-Gaffney ’04 committed to her calling during her senior project as a teacher’s assistant at a middle school in her Dorchester neighborhood. For Joshua Berlin ’82, the process began when his frustration with resistance to change from schools caused him to set out on his own.

Since 1988, Berlin has been a Boston-based education consultant, leading a business that provides individualized tutoring that aims to arm students with the skills to move forward independently.

Commonwealth has been among his clients since 1994.

Parrott-Gaffney, a dyslexia therapist and literacy consultant, founded her Washington, D.C. business, Literacy Without Limits, in 2018 after spending a decade as a middle- and high-school special education teacher in Washington, D.C., charter schools.

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How did Parrott-Gaffney end up going out on her own? During her tenure in the classroom, she said, “I became increasingly frustrated and disillusioned by the number of students I was seeing who were in middle school and high school but who had just not mastered the basics in terms of being able to read the words that were in front of them on the page. That really got me thinking about how kids can spend so many years in school and progress so far, and still not have the basics. I wondered, ‘How can I pursue training that will allow me to intervene and help them?’”

Parrott-Gaffney, who earned a B.A. at Bryn Mawr College and a master’s in teaching at Brown University after she graduated from Commonwealth, trained at the Maryland-based Atlantic Seaboard Dyslexia Education Center—and decided to leave teaching to found her own consulting business.

“I am a one-person shop,” she said. She serves students in D.C. and Maryland, contracting directly with parents and schools for one-on-one and small-group reading instruction.

Berlin said, “I went to Amherst College and majored in English, with the idea that I was going to be a tweedy professor. About threequarters of the way through, I became less interested in what I was learning and more and more interested in the ways in which people gain interest in things.” After Amherst, he went on to do a selfdesigned independent degree at Harvard based around psychology, reading, and teaching and learning.

Berlin started working one-on-one with Massachusetts students in the 1980s. Teaching in the Cambridge public schools, he saw the learning issues that students struggled with, and made suggestions for change. “I was deeply frustrated by the lack of responsiveness to my complaints, ideas, and input, so I started a one-on-one tutoring service, first working with adult ed students around Harvard Extension and Bunker Hill Community College,” he said.

He went on to work with public school referrals from school psychologists, and with independent school and college students.

“I see some of the most learning-disabled and special-ed level kids that there are,” Berlin said. “But I also work with Harvard students.

And the interesting thing for me is that a core concern for both is reading—the fundamentals of reading.”

Parrott-Gaffney said, “I’m working with students who have average to above average IQ. But they still struggle with reading.

These are kids who are highly creative and, oftentimes, highly verbal. That can be really confusing for their parents and for teachers, who think, ‘Okay, how can someone be so bright, but yet struggle with basic words? It’s so important to remember that it’s not about intelligence.’”

Wharton observed, “Both of you are running businesses where you’re working with kids pretty much one-on-one. That’s a very labor intensive and a very expensive proposition. What can you say about the equitability of providing those services across the socioeconomic spectrum?”

“That is something I have struggled with and continue to struggle with, because I’ve always been invested in working and serving in low income communities,” says Parrott-Gaffney.

“And now that I am a business owner I recognize that not everyone can afford my services and so I’m always thinking about, well, what are the ways that I can still work in those communities but make it work for myself as well?”

One solution she has found is to offer instruction to small groups whose needs may not be so severe.

“That tends to be more economical for parents or for schools. Public schools tend to be wary of one-to-one. The small group is much more palatable.”

Berlin said, “Kids who have parents who have access to resources can pay a dyslexia therapist like me to work with their child three to four times a week in addition to paying private school tuition.

If the student is in public school, they can pay for an attorney who will argue that the student needs a special education school paid for by the public school district. It’s heartbreaking for me, because there are so many students who need this type of intervention, but because it’s something that people have to pay for, a certain group of kids don’t get it.”

He addresses this challenge with differential fees, he said, “which was something that was taught to me by my father, who was a lawyer and did a lot of pro bono work.” He says, “about 20 to 25 percent of my practice is either pro bono or sliding scale. My idea is to run a business that makes enough of a margin to be able to do that and give back. That’s the ideal for a business owner.”

Parrott-Gaffney said, “I’ve been working with a tenth grader from my previous school. I’ve been working with him on his reading for three years. When I first started, he was in eighth grade and reading on a kindergarten level. He’s severely dyslexic, and I started working with him pro bono. It’s been an amazing experience for me, because I know that had I not honed in on this student, he never would have learned. And now he’s finally learning how to read.”

“How does the development of the ability to read change a student’s sense of himself?” Wharton wondered.

“They see not only that they are able to decode and read, but that they’re able to understand,” Berlin said. “It opens up a whole new dimension of experience for them.”

Berlin recalled his own early struggles with reading. Once they were conquered, he said, “reading became a way of extending imagination. It always offered some kind of promise, the promise of an imaginative world and later the promise of competency, the ability to frame things and to use language to negotiate the culture.”

Parrott-Gaffney added, “I’ve worked with many students who, sadly, have been beaten down by the system because they have low

skills. They’re sitting in classes where they really can’t access what’s in front of them. That can be demoralizing. With [the dyslexic tenth-grader], I asked, ‘If you saw another student struggling, what would you say?’ And he said, ‘I’d tell them to stick with it because it’ll pay off in the long run.’ He understands that this is important, because he’s finally at a point where he can look at something and read it, versus looking at it and just completely guessing or making it up.”

Berlin added, “Doing this work, I realized that not every kid is going to love reading, but I want them to read well enough to do the things that they want to do and to be able to pursue their own path. Kids who know they cannot read walk around feeling like imposters. Reading is the first order of business, and it leads to the capacity to work on other kinds of learning. I see kids who are either a mismatch for the school they’re in or need a specialized school or a slower pace so that they can develop skills. You don’t take your swimming lessons in a fast-moving river.

You develop your strokes first, and then you hit the river with the full confidence of your abilities.”

’Okay, how can someone be so bright, but yet struggle with basic words? It’s so important to remember that it’s not about intelligence.’”

Catherine O’Neill Grace is a Boston-area freelance writer and the co-author of Best Friends, Worst Enemies: Understanding the Social Lives of Children (Ballantine).

Joshua Berlin ’82

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DECODING HPV For the firstever Capstone Project in biology, two students learned to think like scientists

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B Y A L L A K AT S N E L S O N ’ 9 2

iruses may be tiny, but they live large. These rogue scraps of genetic material roam the world like zombies, hijacking living cells to reproduce and keep their kind alive. Sometimes, in doing so, they cause cancer. Take human papillomavirus (HPV): When this widespread virus shoves its own genes into the DNA of human cells, it can cause those cells to grow and divide with unusual vigor.

“It’s such an intricate set of processes,” says Sophia Weil ’19, a combination of awe and excitement in her voice. Or maybe Lizzie McGarry ’19 says it; when they talk about HPV, the subject of their joint Senior Capstone project, the two friends tend to finish each other’s sentences.

McGarry and Weil spent almost a year reading deeply about how exactly HPV causes cancer — or at least, what scientists know about this question to date. They learned how to decode the dense jargon of scientific research papers and to envision the types of experiments biologists do in the lab to get at the molecular details defining how the virus interacts with host cells. Then, they synthesized what they had learned into a review paper summarizing the state of the field.

They also delved into the sociomedical dimensions of HPV. To do that, they interviewed a gynecologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, discussing the fact that the rate of cervical cancer, which the virus causes, is much higher in poorer communities and countries. “It is one of the only cancers that is almost 100% preventable, because we do have very effective vaccines against all the strains that are oncogenic,” says McGarry.

“Especially as we continued doing the research, the fact that there was this social justice aspect really interested us,” says Weil.

All in all, McGarry and Weil agree that their Capstone work has been a transformative experience, one that has allowed them not only to delve deeply into a topic they find captivating, but also to gain a sophisticated understanding of professional-grade biomedical science, which both students plan to pursue in college.

“We wanted to learn about HPV and cancer, but we also wanted to learn about scientific research and what it takes to write a scientific paper and collaborate with other scientists,” says McGarry. “That was one of our big goals.”

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Commonwealth’s Capstone Program provides the opportunity for motivated seniors to take on a yearlong, self-directed project that takes them beyond what they can learn in the classroom. It’s a rigorous road to travel: In the spring of junior year, interested students develop a proposal and present it to a committee of individuals who are associated with the school but are not on the faculty. If the committee gives the green light, students work closely with a faculty mentor during their senior year to produce a substantial written project, and to give a presentation on their work at an all-school assembly in May.

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From left to right, capstone mentor and biology teacher Samantha Burke, and capstone project partners Lizzie McGarry ’19 and Sophia Weil ’19. Photo by Tony Rinaldo.

They learned how to decode the dense jargon of scientific research papers and to envision the types of experiments biologists do in the lab to get at the molecular details defining how the virus interacts with host cells.

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Since the program launched in 2014, Commonwealth students have completed 13 projects, in which they’ve melded historical research with theatrical performance, written philosophical treatises, and created comic books and works of fiction. Two projects had a computer science and engineering focus — building a robot and creating a video game — but Weil and McGarry’s joint project is the first in the life sciences.

It is not surprising that biology doesn’t lend itself naturally to the work that a Capstone project entails, explains biology teacher Samantha Burke, who served as Weil and McGarry’s Capstone mentor.

“We don’t have the space or the resources for students to go off and do their own biological research,” she says, so it’s not immediately obvious what meaningful output such a project could have.

What Weil and McGarry ultimately settled on was meaningful indeed. “It’s something you would do as a graduate student, working through the literature and getting yourself up to date on a field before taking it a step further into your own research project,” says Burke.

The two seniors met at an orientation for incoming ninth graders—a bowling party in the summer before they started at Commonwealth—but their friendship blossomed over their shared interest in the life sciences in Burke’s Bio 2 class last year. So it was only natural that they decided to join forces for a Capstone project.

“We had pretty similar ideas of what we wanted to do, and it seemed like too much work for one person,” says Weil. Plus, she says, “It’s really fun to do a project like this with a friend.”

Their initial proposal was not about HPV, but about the race to discover the structure of DNA in the early 1950s. The Capstone

DECODING HPV Committee approved the project in principle, but asked the pair to redefine their topic so as to cover less well-trodden ground. So, with Burke’s guidance, they went back to the drawing board, moving from a general interest in viruses and cancer to a specific cancer-causing virus, HPV and, finally, as they began to delve into the literature, to the proteins within the virus that spark cancer in the human cervix.

“They landed on this topic themselves,” Burke says, emphasizing the initial challenge of defining the project.

They dug into PubMed, the national database for biomedical research, using key words to identify a lineup of the most relevant research papers. Burke, who did a PhD in molecular biology, had plenty of practical advice. One crucial suggestion: To create a spreadsheet for entering the reference for every paper they read, along with a brief summary of what it said, to keep them from blurring with one another.

Initially they read just one article per week, wending their way through tangles of academic prose, molecular acronyms, and technical descriptions of cellular events and experimental procedures.

“It’s almost like a different language,” Weil says. Especially at the beginning, they leaned heavily on each other to figure it out, and took their remaining questions to Burke.

Those early meetings largely involved her explaining biological concepts and lab methods, Burke says. But after a few months, the dynamic shifted and the new language began to click into place. In one December meeting, she recalls the students tearing into a paper with hard-earned pairs of sharp eyes. “They were like, this is not a good paper, it’s not well-written, or well planned, and the experiments

HPV VIRUSES

“We wanted to learn about HPV and cancer, but we also wanted to learn about scientific research and what it takes to write a scientific paper and collaborate with other scientists,” says McGarry.

“That was one of our big goals.” are a little suspect,” she recalls. “They were kind in their assessment, but I thought, ‘Okay, you’re real scientists now.’”

Mastering a topic is a worthy goal, Burke says, but even more important is teaching yourself how to use the resources available to you. “It’s one thing to understand and master material from a textbook,” she says, “but the question is, where do you go when there’s not a textbook? Navigating that is an impressive skill for high school students to learn, and it’s going to serve them well, no matter what they end up doing.”

In May, McGarry and Weil submitted the final draft of their written project: a review paper synthesizing what’s known about how HPV causes cancer. In the end, says McGarry, what they produced was the article they wished they could find when they were first delving into the literature. In a second article, written in less technical language, they describe the societal dimensions of the HPV vaccine and the disparities in its availability. They hope to publish one or both in some format, and are exploring the possibilities to make that happen.

McGarry notes that despite the difference in subject matter, her and Weil’s Capstone process was not so different from that of their non-science-focused peers. “We found something we were really passionate about, and a faculty member who would really support us, and then we really had to work at it,” she says. “I think the most important thing for people who want to do this is, choose something you find really interesting, and as you’re doing it, find ways to make it even more interesting.”

For her part, Burke had no doubt that their Capstone would be a success. “Considering how well I knew Lizzie and Sophia, how much they love biology, and how dedicated they were to this project, I was never worried about whether this project would work,” says Burke.

And in completing it, they have lit the way for future students who share their passion for the life sciences.

“They’ve certainly proved that you can have a successful biology Capstone Project, where you’re not necessarily doing research,” Burke says. “Not every project will follow the same path, but they’ve shown that a biology project can be done.”

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The

Paci Family Campaign Challenge

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ommonwealth School became part of the Paci family’s life in 1974, when Chris entered the tenth grade. Mary and Piero Paci sought a school for their children that combined a strong sense of community with the highest intellectual aspirations. As a boy, Piero attended the academically rigorous, local liceo classico in his hometown of Assisi, Italy.

In Commonwealth he recognized a familiar commitment to excellence in education.

Over forty-five years later, Commonwealth remains important to the family. Chris graduated in 1977, followed by sister Myra in 1983. In 1989, Piero passed away after a short battle with cancer. Moved to honor his commitment to education, Mary and her children, Chris ’77, Stefano (Concord Academy, 1980), and Myra ’83, established a scholarship fund at Commonwealth in Piero’s name.

Over the last thirty years, nineteen students have attended Commonwealth thanks to support from the Pierfranco Paci Scholarship Fund.

The Power of a Vision: A Campaign for Commonwealth will ensure that future generations of students have the opportunity that inspired Piero and Mary to choose Commonwealth almost half a century ago.

“With this pledge we hope to inspire fellow members of the Commonwealth community to join us in supporting students who otherwise would not have the means to attend this unique and special school, thereby providing them a first-rate foundation for college and for the passionate pursuit of their life paths.”

2:1 Matching Challenge Give Now and Triple Your Support The Paci Family has generously pledged to match all new gifts of $25,000 or more to The Power of a Vision at a rate of 2:1 up to $800,000.

MARY, C H RIS , S TEFA N O, A N D M YRA PAC I

This matching challenge will triple all new gifts of $25,000 or more to the Campaign.

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Thanks to the generosity of our community, we have raised $9,000,000 from more than 200 alumni/ae, parents, and friends.

We invite you to join your peers in supporting this important effort and learn how your gift can be tripled by joining the Paci Family Campaign Challenge.

72+28+z

$3,500,000 28%

Campaign Goal $12,500,000

Stefano, Mary, Chris, and Myra Paci.

Below: Headmaster Bill Wharton P’06, Mary Paci, and Eric Davis P’08

n Raised to Date

n Remaining to Goal

$9,000,000 72%

Commonwealth is fortunate to have a dedicated community of alumni/ae, parents, faculty and staff, and friends. Many supporters choose to fulfill their commitment over five years.

To learn more and to support

The Power of a Vision: a Campaign for Commonwealth C O N TAC T

Alisha Elliott ’01 | Director of Advancement aelliott@commschool.org | 617-266-7525, ext 293 19

FROM COMMONWEALTH CLASSROOMS TO EDUCATION’S

front lines

BY G R AC E TA LU SA N P O R T R A I T S BY M E LO DY KO M Y E R OV

A commitment to educational equity began in the classrooms of Commonwealth School for these four alumni/ae. They have taken the passion for learning they experienced in high school and used it to power their efforts with underserved students. Whether engaging in college admissions, public school teaching, summer enrichment, or empowering firstgeneration students in college, these young educators are keeping social justice at the center of their work.

20 CM Summer 2019

Helen Mayer ’13 Building

social capital

for first-generation students

W

hen Helen Mayer ’13 founder and CEO at Forward F1rst, was applying to college, she found the application and admission experience more challenging than many of her classmates did. Everyone around her seemed to have parents who had graduated from college, and Mayer didn’t.

Mayer’s path to Commonwealth began with a friend of the family who suggested she and her parents attend an open house at the school. “I loved being there,” Mayer says. “I really liked the students I met and I fell in love with the academic environment.” Despite her love for Commonwealth, she felt different from her fellow students. Although no one talked about it, Mayer felt uneasy as she became aware that she did not have access to the resources and knowledge that many her friends had in their families.

21

At the end of her time at Commonwealth, Mayer navigated the college admissions process and accepted an offer from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, where she would participate in a research program for first generation college students and students of color. She joined a cohort of students with similar experiences to hers and, together, they learned the skills that would help them get the most out of college. “First generation students benefit when we have open, explicit conversations about what it takes to succeed,” Mayer says.

At Smith, she founded the First Generation Student Alliance of Smith College (F1GS). Mayer’s work with F1GS soon extended beyond the Smith campus to reach the thousands of students in the Five College Consortium (Smith College, Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst), as she organized the inaugural Five College First Generation Conference. After graduation, she went on to found Forward F1rst in January 2018 with the mission “to empower first generation students to thrive on the road to graduation and beyond.” The tools and approach Forward F1rst takes is built on research into how better to serve this population. Currently, the organization is in the midst of a two-year pilot program serving fifty thousand students on fifty different college campuses.

“Often, first generation students don’t understand what office hours are for, even if the professor explains it,” Mayer says.

“It’s really an opportunity to connect with professors.”

Forward F1rst provides students with pointers on how to have conversations with professors and how to ask for support and advice. “We know from existing research that sending students to office hours early and often can increase their grade in that course from a C to an A, which is a huge jump,” Mayer says. Forward F1rst not only encourages students to attend a professor’s office hours within the first two weeks of a semester, but also helps students understand why and how relationship development can benefit them. “Often, first generation students don’t understand what office hours are for, even if the professor explains it,” Mayer says. “It’s really an opportunity to connect with professors.”

Perhaps students whose parents attended college in the U.S. could relay these tips to them, but for those students whose parents didn’t go to college or to college in the US, there’s often a knowledge gap that Forward F1rst can close. 6.8 million current college students are first generation and only 56% of these first-generation students will graduate within six years, compared to 74% of their continuing generation peers.

Mayer credits Commonwealth with helping her to develop the study skills, time management, and leadership that prepared her for the work she does today. “So much of my organizing work at Smith was helped by Commonwealth. I had a huge head start academically over those who did not have the privilege of attending a school like Commonwealth,” she says, adding, “At Commonwealth I got access to social capital that I would never have had otherwise.”

As a high school student, Mayer may not have had the words to describe the ways her own experiences differed from those of many of her classmates, but through her work to support other first-generation college students, Mayer has found not only the words, but the data, the research, and the practices that can close the gap in educational equity.

22 CM Summer 2019

EDUCATIONS’S FRONT LINES

Katherine (Reed) Bruno ’06 Paying it forward in public school

I

only went to private schools, which is a big part of why I teach in public schools,” says Katherine Bruno ’06. “I had really amazing educational experiences. I felt smart, I felt like I could take risks, and I had exciting, fulfilling, creative experiences at school.”

During one Project Week in her time at Commonwealth, Bruno explored her interest in education and how people learn by working in a public preschool in Needham, where half the student population was mainstream and half were living with disabilities. Another Project Week found her shadowing in a neuroscience lab that studied how people think and learn. All of this exploration pointed her towards her true passion: education. By the end of high school, she recalls, “I was pretty sure I was going to be a teacher.”

After Commonwealth, Bruno attended Carleton College in Minnesota and then proceeded to earn a graduate degree from Brandeis University. As much as Bruno loved and benefitted from her education, she understood how privileged she was to have attended private schools. “As I became more aware of the world around me, I realized that school was not a place where everyone felt safe,” she remembers. As she deepened her interest in teaching and education through coursework, she also visited charter schools, public schools, and private schools in order to understand their distinct approaches. These learning experiences made her feel even more committed to the idea that all children, no matter their socioeconomic conditions, should have access to an education that is fulfilling, exciting, and creative. The only place Bruno felt she could address the

problem of educational equity was in a public school setting.

After earning her Master of Arts in Teaching from Brandeis University, Bruno began to teach elementary school in Cambridge, where she continues to teach today. “All kinds of students come to us and our job is to provide a wonderful school experience for them,” she says.

The Cambridgeport School, where Bruno teaches, is a project-based school and the students in her elementary school classroom come from diverse backgrounds, religions, identities, and economic situations. “Because this is the norm, the kids are used to being around people who are different from them. It’s really nice to be in a group of people where it’s not assumed that people are all the same as you,” Bruno says. She describes a recent class canoe trip, which happened to fall on a rainy stretch of days. Students problem-solved collaboratively to find rain-gear for those who did not have it. Her students inspire hope, she says, especially when she sees them work together to find solutions to problems they see in their own community.

“It’s good to recognize that difference isn’t bad,” she remarks. “I am inspired by so many little things every day at school. I’m inspired by those kids who try incredibly hard, especially those who try even when they’re having a difficult time.”

23

Armani White ’10 Better serving the under-served

“I had to leave my community in order to access resources.”

It’s an idea that is still on his mind in the work he does today, back in the community where he grew up.

24 CM Summer 2019

EDUCATIONS’S FRONT LINES

T

hough it’s been over a decade since Armani White began ninth grade at Commonwealth, his memories from that time remain strong. He recalls traveling from Roxbury into the Back Bay on the Orange Line each day, considering the distance between his home and his school.

“I saw a big difference between those riding the Orange Line and those getting off the Commuter Rail in Back Bay Station,” he says.

What became clear to him on his commute was this: “I had to leave my community in order to access resources.” It’s an idea that is still on his mind in the work he does today, back in the community where he grew up. “If we bring resources to the community, then poorer parents can participate at their children’s schools,” he says, adding, “I’ve been committed to this work for a long time.”

Today White is a School and Community Engagement Coordinator at Summer Search, a national youth development organization that mentors youth from high school through college and beyond. White first encountered Summer Search when a teacher at Commonwealth suggested he apply for one of their summer enrichment programs.

The organization connects students with a range of summer activities, including wilderness leadership trips, funded internships, and service trips abroad. These summer experiences challenge students as they expand their understanding of the world and their place in it. During one of his summers, White traveled abroad. This immersive experience was a game-changer: “I was a poor Spanish student before I left for my trip, but I lived abroad for two months and returned as one of the best speakers in class.”

After graduating from Wesleyan University with a BA in Anthropology in 2015, White worked with young black and Latino men in a leadership program at Southern Jamaica Plain Health Center. He wanted to continue to work toward racial justice and equity so he then returned to Summer Search, this time as a mentor to high-school students from schools with fewer resources than Commonwealth.

Summer Search uses an approach called critical mentoring, which White describes as a way of supporting students’ potential, while also helping them to understand the world they inhabit. He helps students to develop

the social, emotional, and professional skills that allow them to thrive in the adult world, so that later, they can challenge the system that creates the conditions they see around them. In a fall 2018 Longreads article about Philadelphia Eagles Chris Long’s philanthropic support of educational equity, one of White’s mentees highlighted his impact on his life. Dhruval Thakkar, an immigrant from India, credited White as being “like another parent in the times when I needed a parent,” and described White as “the coolest person I’ve ever met.”

Educational equity is at the heart of Summer Search. Since opening its doors in Boston in 1996, the organization has served over two thousand students, 96% of them first generation college students. With 32% black and 38% Latino participants, Summer Search focuses on populations underserved in higher education. Recent classes of Summer Search show that 68% earned a four-year college degree within six years, as compared to 21% of their peers. “We need more than equality,” says White. “We need equity,” and that means thinking about the young people who require the most resources to succeed.

Because Summer Search’s nine-year intervention program is funded privately, White encourages people to donate. “Every little bit helps. It’s important that people as committed as we are to social justice and educational equity support this work,” he says.

“This includes racial and economic equity.

If folks want to more information, they can reach out to me.”

While the physical distance between students in Boston is only a matter of miles, the gap between those who have and those who do not have access to educational opportunities can seem insurmountable. Many years ago, there were people who created a bridge for Armani White to cross that seemingly impossible divide, and now he has returned home to Roxbury to do that same work in service to others.

25

Hannah Kaplan-Hartlaub ’11 Fighting for

educational opportunity

one student at a time

E

ducational equity is about more than educational access,” says Hannah Kaplan-Hartlaub ’11. “It’s about building community and making students feel passion and excitement.”

Before she began a graduate program for secondary teachers at Brandeis University in summer 2018, Kaplan-Hartlaub worked for two years as a college access counselor in the Boston regional offices of Bottom Line, a national college access and success program serving first-generation and low-income students through individualized mentorship and guidance. Over 80% of Bottom Line’s recent cohort earned a college degree in six years or less. Through her work at Bottom Line, Kaplan-Hartlaub tutored and mentored low-income students one-on-one, bearing witness to their experiences and their struggles as she helped them access a range of educational opportunities.

As a high school student, Kaplan-Hartlaub was a member of the Diversity Committee, where she heard the stories of students from marginalized communities whose experiences were very different from her own. It was in Diversity that Kaplan-Hartlaub first became aware of the unequal distribution of society’s resources and began to build her awareness of inequality. Still, back then, she says, “I thought about issues of educational equity and access on an individual, but not a systemic, level. It was only when I went to college and took a course in the sociology of education that I started thinking about this and wondering what I could do to help.”

After graduating from Commonwealth, Kaplan-Hartlaub pursued her interest in educational equity as an undergraduate student at Smith College, where she double majored in Sociology and Spanish. After she graduated from Smith, she gained experiences in teaching diverse and under-resourced populations as a fellow in the Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship Program where she taught at a diverse bilingual secondary school in Madrid, Spain, for a year. KaplanHartlaub noted that this high school “was one of the most meaningfully diverse places” she’s worked. One third of the students at the school were wards of the state while the majority were recent immigrants from China and Latin America. “Only a smattering of the students were of Spanish descent and from the neighborhood,” she said.

Kaplan-Hartlaub saw her work at Bottom Line as a way to address educational equity, but recently she decided to make a career change. “There are so many ways to advocate for 26 CM Summer 2019

children,” she says. “After two years at Bottom Line, I realized that I wanted to do that as a teacher in a classroom.”

As a graduate student in the yearlong Master of Arts in Teaching program at Brandeis, she holds a student-teaching position at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School in English Language Arts. There, she collaborates with a mentor teacher to build a productive and meaningful learning environment and, over time, has taken on more and more teaching responsibility in the classroom. “As a teacher, I think a lot about what happens to kids who grow up in a society thinking that everyone gets what they deserve. We need to equip kids with the tools to understand and think through complex societal problems.” While she loved her work at Bottom Line, she feels a different kind of energy and excitement as a classroom teacher. “I know that a good life is rooted in community, and classrooms are communities,” she says. “My role as a teacher is to help create a community where young people can help each other with school and with the difficulties of being an adolescent in the world.”

Kaplan-Hartlaub recalls a recent high school student who couldn’t connect with the texts he read in English class. When his English teacher adopted a book written by a contemporary author with a similar ethnic Latinx and socioeconomic background as the student, it changed everything. Kaplan-Hartlaub says, “That one book opened up reading to him in a way that no other could. He went on to college for engineering, but he is still a voracious reader. Teaching is hard, but I think of that student often and how I, as a teacher, can create opportunities for students to connect with reading and writing.”

Kaplan-Hartlaub identifies her unique experiences at Commonwealth as sparking her interest in education and equity. “I have never felt as challenged intellectually and academically as I did when I was at Commonwealth. I’ve also never felt as supported as I did there.” Although the academic work was difficult at times, she saw how devoted her teachers were to her success. She says, “As much as I loved high school, I also knew how lucky I was to be at a place like Commonwealth. When I heard about other people’s high school experiences, I wished more had access to the wonderful experience I had.”

EDUCATIONS’S FRONT LINES

“I know that a good life is rooted in community, and classrooms are communities,” she says. “My role as a teacher is to help create a community where young people can help each other with school and with the difficulties of being an adolescent in the world.”

27

ALUMNI/AE EVENTS Commonwealth alumni/ae gathered for three wonderfully attended events across the country in Washington D.C., New York City, and San Francisco.

San Francisco Back row, left to right: Leo Sommaripa ’89, Christina Erickson, Reilly Grant ’05, Jason Beers ’92, Duncan Eddy ’09, Ian Tenney ’09, Headmaster Bill Wharton P’06; Middle row, left to right: Jeremy Maitin-Shepard ’04, Helen Loeser ’65, Ben Copans ’05, Zach Perlo ’16, Yonah Borns-Weil ’14, Eliza Block ’95, Dianne McCutcheon; Front Row: Saskia Salm, Kate Alper ’05, Rebecca Perlo P’16, Deirdre Donovan ’70, Jeff Siegel ’71.

Washington D.C. Back row, left to right: Jeffrey Sutherland ’88, David Raevsky ’11, Nathan Kohlenberg ’07, Adam Weingarten ’01, Kenneth Hughes ’73, Eli Kohlenberg ’10.

Front row, left to right: Associate Director of Development, Carly Renshaw, Tanya Riseman ’81, Jennifer Davis ’93, Jen Bluestein ’90, Jenny Oberholtzer ’07, Ilya Bourtman ’02 (and Clara), Emily Kremer-McNeil ’12, Eva Bozewicz ’12.

Left to right: Jeffrey Sutherland ’88, Rory Macfarquhar ’88, David Raevsky ’11, Emily Kremer-McNeill ’12, Eva Bozewicz ’12.

Left to right: Azania Heyward-James ’82, Tanya Riseman ’81, Associate Director of Development Carly Renshaw, Adam Weingarten ’01.

28 CM Summer 2019

New York City Top photo, left to right: Jess Francois ’10, Camille Inge ’10, Tina deVaron ’73, Kat Aaron ’95, Ishah Janssen-Faith ’95.

Bottom right photo, left to right: Rebecca Wright ’84, David Moo ’89, Headmaster Bill Wharton, Diantha Parker ’90.

Bottom left photo, left to right: Hugh Chatfield ’79, Alice Gleason ’81, Jonathan Sapers ’79, Cynthia Swartz ’80.

TRIVIA NIGHT Commonwealth’s first annual Trivia Night was a huge success!

Congratulations to our winning team, Danny Albert-Rozenberg ’15, Eloise Wheeler ’12, Melissa Glenn Haber ’87, Ezra Haber Glenn ’87, and Rachel Salzman ’87.

Photos by Carly Renshaw

29

REUNIONS 2019 1980s Reunion

The alumni/ae of the 1980s returned to Commonwealth School on Saturday, June 15, for dinner, drinks, and reminiscing.

Top photo, back row, left to right: Bob Neer ’82, director of advancement Alisha Elliott ’01, Associate Director of Development Carly Renshaw, Luke Walden ’88, Mindy Sobota ’89, David Kravitz ’82, David Stone ’84, Henry Robb ’80, Jonathan Rotenberg ’80; Front row, left to right: Don MacDonald ’90 P’19 ’21, Headmaster Bill Wharton P’06, Matthias Ferber ’90, Cristina Coletta Blau ’83, Steve Hanna ’82 P’13, Frank Steinfield ’82, Rebecca Steinfield ’84.

Photos by Tia Ann Chapman

Top photo: Matthias Ferber ’90 and Mindy Sobota ’89.

Bottom photo, left to right: Bob Neer ’82, Frank Steinfield ’82, Rebecca Steinfeld ’82, and Cristina Coletta Blau ’83.

30 CM Summer 2019

5th and 10th reunion classes

Our 5th and 10th reunion classes joined together at Back Bay Social Club on Saturday, June 8, for a wonderful gathering of old friends and teachers.

Class of 2009 Back row from left to right: Michael Behr, Ariel Kraakman, Ned Carson, Ian Tenney, Sam Keezell, Joseph Taff Front row from left to right: Kate Potter, Kelton Artuso, Charlie Natoli, Lucy Ehrenfield.

Photos by Tia Ann Chapman

Sam Keezell ’09 and Ariel Kraakman ’09.

Class of 2014 From left to right: Ari Saksonov, Eliza Passell, Jonah Piscitelli, Nayab Ajaz, Lydia Symchych.

Ned Carson ’09 and Lucy Ehrenfield ’09.

31

CLASS NOTES Summer 2019 1964

1965

Amy Merrill: “Since leaving, in 2015, many

Edward Abelson: “After seventy years of

years of teaching English Composition and

mostly good health, I was diagnosed with

Literature at Berklee College of Music, I

cancer of the tonsil in November 2018. I

have been busily writing plays and pursuing

received treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering

development opportunities. In addition, I am

Cancer Center in New York for almost eight

a planner and featured artist with Her Story

weeks. I went home in March and am feeling

Is, a program of dialogue and collaboration

pretty good. I was tremendously impressed

between women in Iraq and the US. For more

with Memorial Sloan Kettering. The staff were

information, go to: amymerrillplays.com.”

always helpful, accommodating, and professional. I have resumed my practice as a

Ron Carver curated an exhibit for the War

psychologist and am working to rebuild that.

Remnants Museum in Vietnam, which opened

My two daughters (adopted at separate times)

in March 2018. The exhibit focuses on U.S.

are 16 years old and in 10th grade. We are

soldiers and veterans who opposed the

gearing up for the college application process,

Vietnam war and will also open in Indiana,

which is not easy, especially since neither have

Boston, Amherst, New York City, and

a particular concentration or type of college in

Washington, D.C., throughout 2019. The com-

mind. If anyone visits Ithaca, NY, let me know!”

panion book will be available in September.

See www.wagingpeaceinvietnam.com for

Peter Laursen retired from medicine in 2017

more information.

and lives on Martha’s Vineyard. His daughter, Emily, is married with two children in Arlington, MA. Peter writes: “children really are closer to god than adults, as per Fred Rogers.” Peter’s oldest son, Tim, is an artist on the Vineyard.

His younger son, Chris, passed away from a

OSED THE WAR VETERANS WHO OPP THE US SOLDIERS AND

non-responsive sarcoma in February 2019.

Peter describes Chris as “the most gentle soul, loved by many.”

1966

for something better for ourselves and loved ones. I did a national book tour this winter, which included a stop at the Harvard Coop. I started a Facebook group, “Slow Medicine,” which is part of an international medical reform movement analogous to the Slow Food movement. I speak at medical centers on how to improve doctor-patient communication and restore sacredness and humanity to our overly medicalized approach to death.

I turned 70 this year and am benefitting from the advice of my own book: get at least half an hour of exercise a day. I’ve also rediscovered my passion for Zen Buddhism and meditate every morning. I appreciate deeply the intellectual and spiritual foundation I received at Commonwealth.”

Katherine “Katy” Anne Butler: “In February 2019, Scribner (Simon and Schuster) pub-

Waging Peace in Vietnam , David Cortright, and Edited by Ron Carver

Barbara Doherty

William Short and and oral histories by Includes photographs ce newspapers and underground resistan

Willa Seidenberg

lished my second book, The Art of Dying Well: A Practical Guide to a Good End of Life. It was featured in the Boston Globe and The Washington Post called it “surprisingly comforting...belongs on the same shelf as Atul Gawande’s bestselling Being Mortal.” There’s a fierce interest in death now that I didn’t find when I published my first book, Knocking on Heaven’s Door (2013). Many of us saw difficult deaths in our parents’ generations and hope

32 CM Summer 2019

Katy Butler ’66

John Zalewski: “My wife, Sally, and I cel-

Paul Gifford: “In October 2017, I left the

is supervising repairs and maintenance at a

ebrated forty years of marriage last August.

world of retirement to work for Swinerton

nonprofit running six affordable housing build-

Our eldest son, Alexander, will be marrying

Builders on a $2 billion project in San

ings in the Bronx, NY.”

his long-term partner, Jennifer, in September.

Francisco. It’s been both interesting and chal-

My niece, Olivia, my brother Michel’s (’64)

lenging. I also dealt with some health scares—

youngest child, will also be getting married in

gallbladder removal and liver abscess—in

September. Nothing in the cards though for

2018 and 2019, but I am now okay. I am

our three youngest: Laura, Mark, and Juliet.

grateful to my wife, Carla, for getting me

Sally and I have lived in North Devon, England,

through. The less dramatic and more fun news

for the past four years and enjoy every minute

is that I am still living in San Francisco and so

of the wind and rain that lashes these parts.”

glad to be here. Carla and I love our house and our two little dogs. Our grandchildren are

1968 James Stone: “I am Assistant Governor for our district of Rotary International. Two years ago I went to Zambia to attend the graduation of teachers whose training was sponsored by Rotary. We stayed with a local family and attended their District Conference

Steven Bloomstein: “I continue directing

now 10 and live in Redondo Beach, CA. We

the Turimiquire Foundation in Venezuela

wish they were closer.”

at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. Last year I was a

The country is collapsing into a humanitarian

Daniel Wallace: “I am caring for my two

the Philippines where our team performed over

crisis, which is now well-documented in the

grandchildren (1 and 4 years old) one day a

international press. Our Foundation’s work is

week, delving into metaphysics and medi-

in desperate demand, which is both stressful

tation, and delighting in my ever-deepening

and gratifying. I wrote an article, Slowing the

relationship with my wife, Judith. I re-read

“Reproductive Treadmill” in Rural Venezuela:

Cervantes recently (Grossman translation) and

The Turimiquire Foundation Story, about our

was utterly astonished by his mind and impact

on-the-ground experience with the severe

on literature. I thought he was good fifty years

reproductive health crisis. At times I feel like I

ago, but either he or I have developed quite a

am living in a dramatic and tragic movie but

bit since!”

maybe more!”

After twenty-two years as General Counsel

1971

under increasingly difficult circumstances.

without knowing if there is going to be a nice Hollywood ending.”

and then Chief of Staff at the AFL-CIO, Jon Hiatt is now Of Counsel at Solidarity Center, the international arm of the US labor movement. He has helped start a global network of international union and worker rights lawyers, International Lawyers Assisting Workers (ILAW).

The network aims to facilitate information exchange and effective collaboration among worker rights practitioners around the world, as workers face an increasingly transnational set of related issues (migrant worker rights, the informal economy, supply chain accountability, employment discrimination, etc.). For more information, visit ilawnetwork.com.”

Steven Bloomstein ’66 (right) with Dr. Silvia Quijada, Turimiquire Foundation surgery coordinator, holding a Population Connection envelope, used for distributing contraceptives to adolescents concerned with privacy.

Joe Spivack: “I am completing my second year of retirement and still loving it! I spend about half my time on angel investing and mentoring startups, which is very interesting and rewarding. I also volunteer building trails on the Appalachian Trail and I love moving rocks and digging in the dirt! My wife, Lynn Appelbaum, is still teaching public relations

Charles S. Finch III retired from clinical

at The City College of New York. She loves

medicine in April. He writes: “after 42 years in

helping her students get jobs. Lynn and I

medicine it is time or maybe even past time.”

recently spent two weeks in Buenos Aires

Charles’ focus right now is on his ten grand-

and Patagonia. Our daughter, Elana (23),

children. His son, Kemit ’01, an aerospace

is looking for a job in publishing or online

engineer, is father to two of those children.

branded content. Our daughter, Shosha (30),

non-medical volunteer on a Rotary project in 100 operations to correct cleft lips and palates. I supervised the pre- and post-op wards and work with local nurses. I’m also a member of the local Conservation Commission, and (this will surprise classmates) a member of the local Democratic Town Committee. I hope to be a delegate to the next State Convention.

Retirement is at least as much fun as working,

Stephen Cohn: “In 2011, I retired after thirty years in high-tech R&D and executive management. I’ve enjoyed months of travel and camping in the mountains and canyons I came to love as I pursued my degrees in geophysics before zig-zagging off to computer networking. Several years ago, my son Dylan ’11, proposed we work together on a tech startup motivated by needs in our own family. It offers peace of mind to seniors and their loved ones via a simple check-in service. We’re having fun working together on the technical and business challenges as well as learning a lot in the process. We’ve now launched our fledgling company, Steady Watch, and hope we can get it to fly.”

Chris Havens: “After earning an English Literature Doctorate from the UK’s Durham University, my daughter, Hazel, is now a Narrative Designer on a team creating a new video game for ARKANE in Austin, Texas. The way of the world today…”

33

1972

say about grandparenthood are indeed true!

done writing a book on the roles of prayer

After many years working as a Dean at a char-

and poetry in the public sphere as means of

ter school in San Diego, I am retiring so I can

debate after the revolution in Iran. I am the

travel more often to Leverett, MA, to see the

Chair of the Department of Anthropology and

baby. A side benefit is that I might get to more

Director of the Program in Islamic Studies at

reunions, as I loved seeing Holliday Kane,

Johns Hopkins University. I hope soon I can

Kiki Lind Seal, Chris Chitouras, and others

step down from both soon and not worry

1973

at our 40th reunion. I always enjoy reading

about administrative work!”

G.A. Finch published a book, The Savvy

colleagues.”

1978

Employment Contracts, Compensation,

Kirsten Lind Seal: “Things are going great

Anne McCabe is currently editing A Beautiful

Executive Skills, and Much More. He writes: “a

with my career change from performing/

long writing/publishing journey, but well worth it.

teaching artist to professor/psychotherapist/

Of course buyers are always welcome!”

public presenter. I recently presented my work

Clara Peters Simon is happy to report that she earned her Master of Social Work from SUNY School of Social Welfare in May 2018.

She is now working in the field of aging.

the student writing in the CM and often share with my high school teacher and director

Executive: The Handbook Covering

on cross-cultural couples in Washington, D.C. I also presented at the American University of Paris on my article, “TAKE MY PRESIDENT, PLEASE! A Former Stand-Up Comic Turned Psychotherapist Examines Why Trump Is Not Funny,” published in a special issue of Contemporary French and Francophone Studies: SITES called “Traduire Trump” or “Translating Trump.” I am finishing my fourth year as a “Relationship Guru” on the local CBS station doing a biweekly segment called “Relationship Reboot.” I also have a private Janet Kagan: “I am transitioning between

practice and am a professor of Marriage and

North Carolina and Massachusetts and looking

Family Therapy at Saint Mary’s University of

for a small pied-à-terre in Back Bay. Looking

Minnesota. Family life is good. My husband

forward to this next chapter, reigniting dear

is a pastor at a left-wing Presbyterian church

friendships, enrolling new design projects, and

and works with families struggling with home-

finding my tribe.”

lessness. Our son, Jake, is a junior at Lesley

Day in the Neighborhood, a movie about a journalist who encounters Mr. Rogers.

Directed by Marielle Heller, the film stars Matthew Rhys and Tom Hanks. It comes out this Thanksgiving.

David Hershey-Webb: Our daughter Lilly finished her first year at embattled Hampshire College, an innovative and vibrant college which Charles Merrill had a role in founding.

One of the dorms is called Merrill! Like so many small liberal arts colleges throughout the country, Hampshire is facing financial challenges.

With the help of dedicated alums like filmmaker Ken Burns, it will meet the challenge. Lilly has developed a passion for linguistics and is looking forward to year two.

University’s College of Art and Design, dou-

1976 Jean Kluver: “My big news is that I’ve become a grandmother this year. I can attest that all the ridiculous Hallmark-y things they

ble-majoring in animation and illustration. He is living with my dad in the old house on Upland Road where I spent my teenage years. Those of you near me in age may remember an infamous party at that house where there were so many people on the front porch that it sank a few feet while the party was in full swing very exciting for us and highly irritating for my parents. Sending love and gratitude for all that Commonwealth helped me manage during some oftentimes tough adolescent years.”

1977 Niloofar Haeri: “I visited Commonwealth last November with my son and we attended the Thanksgiving Assembly and ate lunch with alumni/ae and faculty. It was wonderful to Jean Kluver ’76

34 CM Summer 2019

see everyone, although, Rusty Crump is the only familiar face from my days. I am almost

David Hershey-Webb’s ’78 daughter, Lilly.

1979 Janna O’Laughlin is working as a real estate agent on Martha’s Vineyard. She writes: “with a background in banking, running a successful

1981 Jane Cutter: “I transitioned from substitute teaching to being a full time teacher in the daycare toddler room. I had wanted to work in daycare long ago but was discouraged from this ambition by the adults around me. I have a PhD in Education and I do not feel “overqualified” for this work. I observe the toddlers and present them with activities and materials that engage Janna O’Laughlin ’79

and challenge them. The work is physical and sometimes emotionally draining, but I am still

Corinna Snyder ’82

happier than I was at the end of my time as a construction company, photography, traveling, and meeting new people, I have a job that uses most of my passions.”

Gregory Fried started a new position in the Philosophy Department at Boston College in the fall of 2018. His son, Jonah ’19, graduated from Commonwealth in June.

Jonathan Sapers: “For the last two years, I have gone back to school, literally but not actually, spending my days working in Avery library — Columbia’s architectural library — focusing on my fiction. I published a short story in Glimmer Train in November and I am finalizing my novel. I also moved out of the office I rented in lower Manhattan for fifteen years. I thought I would work from home now that one daughter graduated and the other is in college. Instead I found myself a new home in the library and was adopted by a group of PhD students who organized my work life and made me drink better coffee. It turns out that people working towards PhD’s and people writing novels are in similar trenches. My colleagues’ work focuses on Muslim women creating sharia courts in India, philosophical questions facing immigrants, the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, architectural history, and the lives of obscure 70’s artists. They explore our city and know it better and from a new perspective compared to the one I have from living here for thirty years. They also teach, which is something I have been wanting to do and may try for the first time this summer. There was one seismic change during the last year—my Dad died last July after a

quasi-administrator at a prep school. In other news, my daughter, Rachel, is in her second year

resurgence of interest in my grandfather’s writ-

of working as a cook for the Skillet Restaurant

ing brought me to Lithuania twice this year to

Group in Seattle and my husband, Andrew, is

support publication of his work and stagings

part of the Alexa group at Amazon. In addition to

of his plays. Izaokas, a film based on his last

socialist and anti-war organizing in my copious

novella, set in the beginning of the Holocaust

spare time, I am also engaged in community

in Lithuania, is in post production and I’m

organizing in the 55+ manufactured home park

excited to see it come to fruition. The friend-

where we live.”

ships I built at Commonwealth are still some of the closest ones I have, which I’m very

Timothy Gilligan: “Greetings from Cleveland!

thankful for. See the picture of me for my 50th

We’re still midwesterners enjoying the benefits of

birthday parade five years ago. I can’t wait to

cheap housing, little traffic, and strong schools

top that at my upcoming 55th.”

coupled with one of the world’s best symphony orchestras and other strong cultural institutions.

I’ve become a soccer dad, which is way more fun than I had expected. Helping my son see how far

1987

his passion for the game can take him has been a

Nick Campbell is still living in LA managing

rich bonding experience. My wife, Heather, and I

the careers of actors. Velocity Entertainment

are bracing ourselves for the idea of our daughter

Partners, the company he helped found

going to college. I’m still in the denial phase but

six years ago, is growing. His clients are on

we have two and a half years to prepare. The idea

numerous television series on broadcast,

of her not living with us is shocking. My interest

cable, and streaming networks (see facebook.

and efforts in teaching healthcare communication,

com/velocityentertainmentpartners for more

team building, and conflict engagement have

information). Nick loves living in LA. He writes:

found an additional garden to grow in as I’ll be

“no snow! no ice! no freezing rain! no freezing

serving as the co-director of the faculty training

at all!” He stopped by the school in 2018 and

program for the Academy on Communication in

got to have lunch with Melissa Glenn Haber

Healthcare for the next three years. I’m still an

and Ezra Haber Glenn. He reports: “the

oncologist at Cleveland Clinic. I find rich meaning

school renovations look great!”

in caring for people with cancer. I send my warmest regards to the Commonwealth community. I

In January, David Allen and his wife,

continue to feel deeply grateful for all I gained from

Ana-Karina, had their third baby, Theodore

my time at the school and the relationships that

Elliot de Paula Allen. Theodore’s older

grew there.”

brother Robert (4) and sister Karelina (3) were excited. David writes: “we all live in London

1982

and are enjoying life in Europe. The kids have

a new gorgeous black lab, Korra. She is, as

Corinna Snyder: “Music continues to be a big

they say about most of the Knicks, a project.

Boston soon to see the Public Garden and

part of my life. I sing and play Balkan music and

But with a ton of potential.”

recently started singing traditional Lithuanian

short illness. We memorialized him at Memorial Church at Harvard in September. And we have

heard the story Make Way for Ducklings dozens of times and look forward to visiting Swan Boats.”

music, which is even more microtonal. A

35

some getting used to, but it’s nice to be near the

2009

ocean again.”

Duncan Eddy is a spacecraft operations

1999

lead at Capella Space, a San Francisco

Jesse Karlsberg is teaching at Emory

space. Duncan is also completing his PhD in

University and working on American music and

Aerospace Engineering at Stanford University.

Diego is very different from Boston, and takes

startup developing a constellation of small satellites that will provide reliable data from

digital publishing projects. He received two grants from the National Endowment for the

Ben Safran completed his PhD in music at

Humanities (NEH) in 2018 supporting this work.

Temple University. His dissertation is titled

One supports Sounding Spirit, a collection of

Sounding Strategy: Composers’ Uses of

digital and print editions of important books

Social Justice and Political Themes in

of gospel, spirituals, shape-note music, and

Contemporary Classical Music. Ben writes: “it

hymn singing from the vernacular southern

is very much indebted to my Commonwealth

music diaspora. The second grant supports

education, both to the music faculty and also

the development of a platform geared towards

very much to my English and history teachers

1993

older users for submission of digitized mate-

who contributed to the development of my

rials documenting rural history. Jesse taught

writing style and analytical lens.”

Dina Gregg lives in Los Angeles and is a

mostly on music in Atlanta. This year, he hopes

successful makeup artist working in fashion,

to develop a course that involves students in

advertising, and entertainment. She married

the critical editing work involved in Sounding

comedic actor Jason Murphy in 2016, only to

Spirit. Jesse’s daughter turned two in February.

be widowed two weeks after their honeymoon.

He writes: “we’re enjoying life in Atlanta, but it’s

Commonwealth sends its deepest condolences

hard to be so far from family.”

David Allen’s ’87 4-year-old son, Robert and newborn son, Theodore.

an American music course last fall focusing

to Dina and Jason’s family. Friends are invited to reach out to Dina at dinagregg@gmail.com.

Gavi Kohlberg is moving to Seattle.

2015 Amanda Dai: “I was honored to top my four years off at Harvard having Professor Lawrence Summers as an advisor for my Economics thesis about the effects of college extracurriculars on occupational success for Harvard graduates. Hint: they’re strongly

2001

correlated. It was definitely the highlight of my

In January, Alisha Elliott (Atlas-Corbett) and

reality!”

academic career. Thank you, Commonwealth, for building the foundation that made this a

her husband, Matt, welcomed their first child, Natalie Atlas Elliott. Alisha shares, “she is wonderfully curious and happy. We are smitten!”

Dina Gregg ’93 (right) and late husband, Jason Murphy.

1998

2006 In March, Avery Morrow, married Astia Rizki Safitri, who he met at the University of Tokyo.

In 2017, Aaron J. Dinkin started a ten-

Avery was accepted by Brown University as

ure-track job in the linguistics department at

a PhD candidate in religious studies and will

San Diego State University. He writes: “San

start there in September.

36 CM Summer 2019

Amanda Dai ’15 (right) pictured with her thesis advisor, Professor Lawrence Summers.

The COMMONWEALTH FUND Thank you for your support!

This year, your generosity ensured that Commonwealth could provide financial aid to 30% of families, fund international trips to Italy, France, and Spain for fifteen students, offer professional development grants to eleven faculty members through the John Hughes Fund for Faculty Development, and much more.

This year, physics teacher Chris Barsi, one of Commonwealth’s Hughes Grant recipients, will use his grant to create a Thermodynamics elective. He is excited to help students gain deep insight into the evolution of the universe through the study of this fundamental subject. This course complements the School’s robust physics offerings, including electives in waves and relativity, and will lead students in drawing important connections across all of Commonwealth’s science curriculum.

Your support makes this innovative course development possible.

To make a gift to The Commonwealth Fund, visit commschool.org/makeagift.

For more information, contact: Carly Renshaw Associate Director of Development crenshaw@commschool.org 617-266-7525 ext. 291

NonProfit Org. U.S. Postage Paid

151 Commonwealth Avenue Boston, Massachusetts 02116

N. Reading, MA Permit #211

www.commschool.org

Congratulations to the Class of 2019!

Back row from left to right: Jonah Fried, Emma Wickline, Sophia Weil, Elise Requadt, Alexey Boyko, Omari Blackman, Nathaniel Gardiner, Siddarth Simon, Samuel Gruber, Max Sunog, Runming Wang, Anay Mehta, Matteo Ryan, August Kane, Evan Meyer, Jonah Boardman, Huck Stepanyants. Middle row, left to right, Wesley Curl, Andrew McGuire, Tobit Glenhaber, Henry Bassett, Miriam Boardman, Kaila Pelton-Flavin, Nina Wattenberg, Molly Jones, Linus Glenhaber, Rowan Heneghan, Maya Williams, Eric Zhou, Xander SĂŠguin.

Front row, left to right: Adrianna Brusie, Aly Yanishevsky, Elizabeth McGarry, Emily Hart, Nadin Suliman, Joy Ding, Maia Driggers, Asha Shetty, Sarah MacDonald, Elizabeth Huebner, Bridget Corcoran.