Along School Street

A Banner Year Begins

The long-awaited year of celebration and proud Penguin history is officially underway, as we mark the start of our sesquicentennial year and honor our founding in 1865.

As this year unfolds, please visit our Sesquicentennial page at www.cushing.org/150 often for a calendar of events, the link to a timeline of Cushing’s history, a downloadable monthly calendar wallpaper for your desktop, and stories from 150 years. We look forward to hearing and showcasing your Cushing stories. In fact, you can share your stories with us right now using the form on our website at www.cushing.org/ alumni.

The year of celebration kicked off on Dec. 5, 2014, when nearly 200 people gathered at the Liberty Hotel in Boston. Board of Trustees member Robert Young ’69 welcomed the group to the event, and he was joined on stage by Brett Torrey ’85, Sylvia Lilienthal ’40, former Trustee and Board treasurer Don Irving, and faculty member Peggy Lee, who read excerpts from Thomas Parkman Cushing’s will and remarks from Cushing’s dedication. Norm Carey, who will finish his 34-year Cushing career in June, read two poems he wrote that capture the essence of life at the Academy. Headmaster Chris Torino also spoke, telling the guests about how Cushing’s traditions and past will inform its future.

There will be a number of sesquicentennial events throughout 2015, all of which can be found at www.cushing.org/150. We hope all of our parents, alumni, and members of our extended community will join us as we celebrate 150 years of this wonderful institution.

Note About the Fall Issue of

Parents for Cushing Hard at Work

Volunteers from the Academy’s parent group, Parents for Cushing (PFC), have been hard at work this year building relationships among Cushing’s families, sharing their ideas with the school’s administration, and giving generously of their time to support the Cushing community.

In February, they put together a wonderful Faculty Staff Appreciation Day, with yummy goodies and other treats, to acknowledge the hard work done by everyone who works for the Academy. Their thoughtfulness was much appreciated by all.

The PFC has also hosted several social gatherings, including a cocktail hour at the beginning of the school year and a coffee hour at the beginning of Winter Free Weekend. “It’s important to build connections among Cushing’s families,” says Kim Samson, the group’s chairperson and parent to Evan ’16. “Part of what makes Cushing so special is its sense of community, and we are committed to building that sense of community among the Academy’s parents.”

PFC is already looking ahead to next year. For 2015 Fall Family Weekend, scheduled for Oct. 23–24, the group is planning a live and silent auction event with Co-Chairs John and Barbara Kelly P’11,’13,’16 and Auctioneer John Terrio. They’re excited to get Cushing’s parents involved in this special event, so mark your calendars and keep an eye out for more information soon.

Parents for Cushing is an open group. Indeed, you’re a member just for being a Cushing parent. If you’d like to play a more active role in the group, however, your involvement is encouraged and welcomed. Contact parentprograms@cushing.org or call 978-827-7400.

To mark the Academy’s sesquicentennial, the fall issue of Cushing Today will be special, commemorating 150 years of Cushing excellence. We’ll look back on the people who made the Academy what it is today— Thomas Parkman Cushing, Hervey S. Cowell, Dr. Joseph Curry, and others. We’ll look at the ways the Academy has changed and the ways it has stayed the same.

Because of the content of this special issue, we will not be publishing a printed annual report in 2015, although we will publish the information online. Further, the campus news you look for in the magazine will also be found online, including information about the Academy’s 2015 commencement exercises, which took place on May 23, and the extra-special sesquicentennial Reunion Weekend, which was held June 5–7.

We encourage you to visit www.cushing. org for all the latest news about Cushing. If you have questions, please email: alumniprograms@cushing.org or call us at 978-827-7400.

Peter Clarke to Retire After a Decade at Cushing

Cushing has been fortunate to count some extremely talented teachers among its faculty. History teacher

Peter Clarke is one example of just such an educator and when he retires from the Academy at the end of the year, his commitment, wisdom, and leadership will be missed.

He got into teaching in part because of two excellent teachers he had in high school in Chappaqua, N.Y. One used Herodotus and the Greek Civil War to connect classroom learning to the very real challenge of the Vietnam War at a time when most schools and teachers refused to even discuss the subject. “The other,” Peter remembers, “held up a matchbox at the beginning of my AP history class and asked us what it was. When we said ‘a matchbox,’ he said ‘prove it.’ You’d be amazed how hard it is to prove that a matchbox is a matchbox. He was teaching us how to argue, which no one had ever taught us to do before. I thought then how wonderful it would be to be able to do that for other young people.”

Peter has gone on to spend 44 years as an educator. His first teaching job was at The Harvey School, a private boarding middle school, and although that was a short stint—just two years—he and his wife lived in a dorm and managed the lives of 15 seventh-grade boys. You can imagine the difficulty of getting those boys to brush their teeth and go to bed!

Although that job came with its challenges, it also taught Peter a good lesson about teaching. “It’s not about what you, the teacher, are going to do. It’s about what you are going to get the kids to do,” he says. “Teaching middle school taught me to be more student-centered and to really engage students in the work of the class.”

Eventually he decided he wanted to teach high school so that he could help his students ask—and answer—more intellectually challenging questions. Therefore, he earned a teaching license before heading to Reading High School, where he was a social studies teacher and the coach of the girls’ track team. He was such a successful coach there that one of his teams won the Massachusetts State Track Championship, and he was named the Massachusetts State Track Coach of the Year.

In 1983, the school needed to cut staff, which they did by seniority, so Peter once again found himself with a choice about his future. He used his savings to pay tuition at Harvard, where he earned his master’s degree in educational administration. Following Harvard, he spent 21 years as an educational administrator at both public and private schools in New York, Vermont, and Massachusetts. In 1995, his leadership in educational innovation resulted in his being named Vermont’s principal of the year.

From 2003 to 2005, Peter was Head of School at the Shackleton School in Ashby, Mass., just up the road from Cushing. The school was experimental and based on the Outward Bound program—the school took its students on threemonth learning expeditions across the USA designed to inspire self-discovery. The goal of the Shackleton School, according to Peter, was to challenge kids and help them build character through educational travel and community service. Although Peter is quite proud of the work he did there, the school was forced to close because it needed to expand and the location in Ashby limited that.

When Peter began at the Shackleton School, his son, David ’07, was already at Cushing. Not long after, his wife, Nicki, took a job as Cushing’s Director of Development. When the Ashby school closed in 2005, Peter decided to get back in the classroom by accepting a job at Cushing. “From the first day I walked into Cushing, I loved it here,” he says. “In the 10 years I’ve been here—from developing new curricula to Cushing Scholars to Model UN—Cushing has always put its students first. I’ve never been at a meeting at Cushing where we argued about whether we should find a creative way to meet a student’s needs. I’ve never had a conversation about giving one student an advantage over another. The conversation has always been about what each individual student needs to be successful here.”

Although he’s leaving Cushing this year, Peter won’t be leaving the educational realm, as he plans to return to Vermont, where he and his wife have a home, and work as an educational consultant. He doesn’t think of it as retiring, but rather going on to another set of challenges that will use his varied educational experience, hopefully to assist a new generation of educational leaders to figure out how to meet the needs of the next generation of Vermont students.

Special Learning Opportunity for Four Cushing Students

This year, four students represented Cushing at the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) Student Diversity Leadership Conference during the first week in December. This extraordinary event brings together nearly 1,500 students from independent schools across the country, engaging them in an intense curriculum that centers on cultural identifiers, promotes affinity group work, and creates connections with participants from our region. We know the students returned to Cushing prepared to open conversations, jump start regional efforts, and educate their peers.

Students Travel to Harvard for Global Health Symposium

In January, a group of Cushing students traveled to Boston to attend the Global Response to Emerging Infections Symposium at Harvard Medical School. This unique opportunity was made possible by Gregory Ciottone, MD, FACEP, Director of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Fellowship in Disaster Medicine and Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine, Harvard Medical School; and Amalia Voskanyan, RN, CoDirector BIDMC Fellowship in Disaster Medicine; parents of Vigen ’16 and Robert ’17 Ciottone.

The Cushing delegation, comprised of Cushing Scholars and students in ethics and select biology classes, joined top scholars and bootson-the-ground practitioners in the fields of crisis leadership, epidemiology, humanitarian, and disaster medicine. Guest speakers discussed such topics as technology and community engagement in the Ebola response, the ethical dilemmas in the Ebola crisis, and the challenges to global threats from an NGO perspective.

“It’s terrifying working with the Ebola virus,” said Dr. Gavin Macgregor-Skinner, Assistant Professor, Department of Public Health Sciences, Penn State University, on his experiences with response teams in Nigeria. “Ebola is the one that scares me.” Through firsthand experiences, he chronicled what it was like donning the personal protective equipment, how his team worked to establish communication response teams, and the major role that video conferencing has played in connecting health workers to one another and accessing data.

Following the lunch break, students were greeted by the Honorable Mr. Jeremiah C. Sulunteh, Liberia Ambassador to the United States. He shared with students his personal story as a child in Liberia with no running water, no electricity, and no roads. Through perseverance and discipline, he attended school and university, and then raised the money to build a school for children in his village. “I share this story with you to say this: everywhere you go in life and in the world, there are different challenges. Listen. Be disciplined. Always remember the opportunities you have.”

When asked to share their thoughts on the day’s experience, students were quick to respond. “This conference was an amazing opportunity to hear from people who have experienced the tragedy of Ebola firsthand and are making a difference,” said Caroline Fital ’17. For Breton Lorway ’17: “The biggest take-away was to never take anything for granted.”

Developing a Leadership Culture

In October, our Dean of Student Life, Mr. Chris Howes (left), headed to The Symposium in Pedagogy of Leadership sponsored by the Gardner Carney Leadership Institute in collaboration with the Klingenstein Center for Independent School Education. The central goal of the event: to learn and absorb the art and science by which an educator can systematically instill and develop in students the desire and capacity to lead.

Mr. Howes served as a presenter in a session called Transforming Culture Through Leadership Development. Drawing on his past experiences working at Severn School and his work at Cushing this year, he spoke about developing and building a pervasive and fully integrated culture of student leadership. “It is possible for every child to develop leadership skills,” he said. “It is our obligation to provide them with the avenues to exercise and practice these skills.”

He relayed that attendees were particularly interested in Cushing’s revised student handbook. “We went from rules and policies to expectations and values, and people were really excited about hearing how we did that. The lens through which I presented our student-centered approach was perhaps a different lens for them, and it clearly struck a chord as we discussed the conduct system, shared responsibilities, and leadership programming.”

As for his own take-aways from the symposium, Mr. Howes shared discussions on brain research and its relationship to education and children. “Working with kids, it’s important for us to understand where they are in the process of growth, and most important, to recognize that they aren’t ‘done’—they’re still ‘becoming.’”

Cushing Academy Performing Arts Series 2015

Last year, Cushing’s performing arts faculty and Headmaster Torino had an idea: to inaugurate an annual performing arts series, bringing professional artists to campus, enhancing the education that our students receive, and inviting residents of Ashburnham and the surrounding area to campus to enjoy the performances. In September, the Academy’s hard work toward that goal bore fruit when the first performance in Cushing’s Performing Arts Series took place.

It is safe to say that the first year was a wonderful success. Attendees at the events included local residents from Ashburnham, Westminster, Fitchburg, and Winchendon; Cushing alumni; current Cushing parents; others who have no particular affiliation with Cushing from southern New Hampshire, central Massachusetts, Worcester, and Greater Boston; as well as Cushing faculty, staff and students. All performances in the series this year were free of charge.

Nearly 300 people attended the first event, held in Cowell Chapel, featuring The Rebecca Rice Dance Company. Rebecca Rice is Cushing’s Director of Dance—as was her mother before her —and she is a resident of Ashburnham. Many of the guests were local and had connections to Rebecca, her family, or Cushing’s dance program.

In January, cellist Ning Tien and pianist Monica Tessitore (pictured below) of Cushing’s piano faculty, performed music of composers from three different eras and continents. This event was held in the Joseph R. Curry Academic Center’s performance space, which was filled to capacity. The intimacy of the venue added to the powerful music, and attendees were heard to whisper, “That was breathtaking!”

The final event was held on March 28 and featured Jerry Sabatini and his band, the Sonic Explorers Octet. An audience of nearly 250, including Jerry’s current students and the Oakmont Regional High School jazz band, enjoyed music composed by Sabatini and rooted in the history of American jazz, blues, funk, and rock, blended with Eastern European Gypsy and Middle Eastern flair. As we celebrate Cushing’s 150th anniversary and the Town of Ashburnham’s 250th anniversary, connections such as this event strengthen bonds between the Academy and its surrounding community.

“The feedback we have received on the series has been overwhelmingly positive,” noted Julia Ohm, Chair of Cushing’s Performing Arts Department. Julia indicated that some in attendance have lived in the vicinity for up to 35 years, but had never been on campus; another was astonished that performances of this caliber were offered free of charge. Desh Hindle, Cushing’s Director of Music, agrees. “The feedback has been extraordinary and heartfelt. We have received multiple emails and letters of appreciation from Cushing parents, local alumni, and others who have no affiliation with Cushing— not to mention personal sentiments of gratitude throughout the series.”

This professional series has no doubt benefited Cushing’s students as well. “I think our students have realized the power of the arts more intently because they have now seen it through the eyes of an adult audience,” noted Julia. “When you are surrounded by different generations, and especially those who are not related to you, you tend to view things through a different lens. Our public audience has helped even more to validate what we teach and direct during the year.” The students also had the opportunity to assist with a wide variety of tasks and production elements associated with these performances, giving them the chance to see firsthand how the administration of a performing arts series is executed. Cushing plans to expand the arts administration opportunities for students in future years.

The benefits to the Academy are multifold. Desh observed, “The series has provided our educational program with greater visibility because our performances have featured Cushing faculty as both creators and performers. In future seasons, we hope to include Cushing alumni as well. Our artistic community at Cushing is vibrant, active, and thriving, and we should be openly sharing that with the greater community, especially considering the communicative nature of our artistic disciplines.”

The professional Performing Arts Series has exceeded the Academy’s expectations by every possible measure. We have expanded our relationships with local and regional communities, reestablished contact with alumni who have a particular interest or career in the arts, and expanded educational opportunities for our current students, as well as potential students.

The series will continue in 2015–2016, and we are in the early stages of planning those performances.

Visit www.cushing.org/PASeries for more information.

Incredible Winter Musical

Congratulations to the cast and crew of this year’s winter musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat ! It was a super show from start to finish and we’re pleased that so many members of the Cushing community were able to enjoy the hard work and dedication that went in to creating such an enjoyable production.

Cushing Artist Named Gold Key Winner

Congratulations to Ja Youn “Bee” Lee ’16 for being named a Gold Key winner in this year’s Boston Globe Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, the regional division of a national program that awards honors, exhibit opportunities, and scholarships for students in grades 7 through 12. Presented by the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, the Globe competition is in its 65th year, and received over 20,000 entries this year from over 8,000 students. We’re quite proud of Bee’s good work!

Photography

Orchestra Honors for Cushing Student

For the eighth year in a row, Cushing was represented at the Massachusetts Central District Honors Festival. Yilin “Catherine” Zeng ’18 was admitted to the orchestra and performed with the honors orchestra at Mechanics Hall in Worcester.

Exhibit by Samantha Fuller ’15 Samantha Fuller ’15 began taking photography as an afternoon activity when she was a freshman and says it was “kind of a whim.” Some whim. During March, she presented her photography series, “It’s Written All Over Your Face,” in a monthlong exhibit in the Carter Gallery. The exhibit features portraits of Cushing poets with their own lines of poetry across their faces. She borrowed the idea from advanced photography teacher Rebecca Cinclair. Sam hopes to attend Ithaca College and plans to major in photography.

Samantha’s portraits of Brendan Miller ’15, above, and Breton Lorway ’17, below

Learning the Way of the World Taxes. Town budgets. Competing priorities. Funding schools or police? These are the issues that face mayors, town councils, and citizens around the globe. One teacher at Cushing Academy is teaching his students about them, too.

Each year, Bob Macioci—who teaches history, economics, and ethics—divides his classes up into groups and gives them a town budget with a deficit. Each group plays the role of a town council in an upper-middle-class town, and the students have to determine how best to balance the town’s budget. More than that, they have to present their budget to a mock town meeting, where the citizens are made up of their classmates and faculty and staff who join in the fun.

Issues facing each council? Health insurance for teachers, school vouchers, school staffing, fire and police stations, snow removal, road paving, tax rates on residents and businesses, public transportation, and more.

The groups come up with a number of good ideas—both to raise revenue and to decrease spending. One group proposes closing the town pool, saving the town $1 million per year. One group recommends asking teachers to pay a higher percentage of their health insurance premiums. One proposes bringing in a Walmart to increase the town’s tax base. Another suggests an increase in property taxes. Another, closing fire and police stations.

Of course, for every idea to increase revenue or reduce spending, there is a citizen who offers an opposing view. Classmates, playing the role of townspeople, ask each group hard questions. When a group proposes closing fire stations: “What about areas that are now farther away from the station?” When a group suggests closing a police station: “How can you cut police when our town is already seeing an increased crime rate?” Regarding school vouchers: “I don’t have kids, but I think our tax dollars should be spent in our town, not sent to other towns.” From a citizen without children: “The budget we have is more than enough to fund our schools. We should spend our budget on something else.”

Obviously, these are real-world issues playing out in a controlled space, but it’s a good lesson for Cushing’s young students, whether they’re playing the role of a member of town council or a citizen. Macioci hopes that the exercise will teach the students that solutions are rarely simple and that many of society’s challenges don’t have indisputable solutions, but are dilemmas to which we must bring—as Cushing’s Portrait of a Graduate reads—integrity, empathy, compassion, and courage.

Cushing Scholars Visit JFK Library

Last fall, the Cushing Scholars traveled to Boston to visit the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. The group began with a session in the museum’s classroom, where they explored events and issues of the early 1960s using primary source documents and audiovisual materials. Following the classroom session, the museum educator worked with students in the museum, helping them make connections between the museum exhibits and the classroom discussions.

Next, they explored the topic of “Launching into the Sixties.” Acting as members of President Kennedy’s Press Office, the group was given an assignment to prepare a briefing for the President on topics that may come up in a specific press conference. To fulfill this assignment, they explored the museum and used primary source documents.

According to Peter Clarke, one of the Cushing Scholars’ advisors, “This was one of the best trips we’ve taken with the Scholars, and the staff complimented us on how seriously our students took their work.”

Cushing Students are Serving Their Communities

Mahatma Gandhi once said, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” There are a number of ways Cushing students are learning that important life lesson at the Academy.

Each spring, our students participate in our annual Tony Fisher Day, during which groups of students go out into the surrounding community to perform various acts of service. In the last few years, our students have volunteered at food banks and state parks, as well as locations around Ashburnham like the senior center, town library, and town’s safety complex. They’ve even been as far afield as Walden Pond and the Greater Boston Food Bank. The day is in honor and memory of philanthropist and Cushing alumnus Tony Fisher ’69.

But the Academy’s contributions to community service happen more than just one day per year. In the fall, first-year Academic Support teacher Shawn Gebhardt (above left) began advising the Academy’s community service afternoon activity. He discussed with the students what they would like to do, and the kids told him they’d like to work with younger kids; so, Shawn reached out to J.R. Briggs Elementary

Day program welcomed the opportunity to have the Cushing students visit, and so they set up visits to take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3 to 5 pm. Each day, half of Shawn’s 15 students would visit the school, helping out with homework, playing games with the kids, supervising outside play, and doing arts and crafts. The Cushing students loved it, as did the kids from the elementary school.

Track coach and ESL teacher Stirling Ince (above right) got his students involved in a com munity service project as well. Stirling has been volunteering at the Cleghorn Neighborhood Center in Fitchburg for several years, and last winter he decided to get a few Cushing students involved. Three students signed up and they visited the center as part of their afternoon activity. Once at the center, the Cushing students help with homework, arts and crafts, science experiments, and other tasks that the staff at the center need help with. He continued the activity during this most recent winter term.

Stirling says it can be discouraging work because sometimes the kids at the center have trouble doing schoolwork that should be relatively simple for them, and sometimes there are kids at the center who clearly have the desire and ability to learn at a higher level, but

Even so, he acknowledges that the experience is beneficial both to the students at the center and for the Cushing students who help out. “It’s a reminder that not everyone has the same opportunities,” says Stirling. “It’s a reminder for our students that they have things to be thankful for.”

There’s a real need for this kind of support at the center. Sometimes they have as many as 40 kids at the center with very few staff members to help. And although he’d like to do it all year round, Stirling coaches in the fall and the spring, so it has to be just a winter activity. “I’d like to get more people involved,” he says, “but they need to be doing it for the right reasons.”

These community service efforts are a reminder that at Cushing we value education that includes action on behalf of others.

Rust Cup Champs

On Feb. 28, the Varsity B Boys’ Hockey Team won the Bob Rust Cup Memorial Tournament with some serious Penguin Pride. It was a hard-fought championship game vs. Avon Old Farms that needed overtime to decide the winner! Congrats to the coaches Mike Kowalenko and Matthew Tuller ’02 as well as every player on the team for a great season and an even better ending!

TEDx Cushing

In March, Cushing held its first ever TEDx Cushing, spearheaded by Jessica Kinsley ’16 (below) along with her committee (above): Myles Bonadie ’17, Rachel Guerriero ’16, Joanna James ’15, and Yashi Thakurani ’18.

Jessica was motivated to set up a TED talk at Cushing because of the diverse interests of Cushing students. “At first what motivated me to organize this was that I knew I could do it and that it could become something my committee and I received about this event was really inspiring and made us even more excited to organize this event.”

The committee held auditions where interested students had to fill out an outline of their talk and prepare a one-minute opener. In the end, four students were selected: Chyna Christman ’16, Gia Nghi “Jack” Chau ’17, Zara Tarter ’17, and Kylie Caouette ’15.

The students presented their thoughts on issues that affect them. Chyna talked about the power of language to affect how we view ourselves and each other; Jack talked about unpacking your self-confidence and not being afraid to take a risk, make new friends, or get involved with new activities; Zara talked about solving problems by looking at them from a new perspective; and Kylie talked about how our own expectations of ourselves can sometimes keep us from being honest about our feelings.

“The theme for the event is Changing Perspective, and that's exactly what I told the speakers to focus on with their TED talks,” said Jessica. “Sometimes living inside Cushing can make it seem like we all see things the same way, and my hope is that with these TED talks, people will be more open to different topics involving students today.”

Congratulations to the committee and the presenters on a job well done!

A Moby-Dick Whaling Dance

In November, Dr. Norm Carey’s Advanced Literature class was given a choice during their reading of Moby-Dick—write an essay, or replicate a tavern dance set to a 19th century whaling song featured in the 1956 film starring Gregory Peck. As one might guess, the group chose the dance. But there was a hitch: a panel of judges would decide if the performance was robust enough to warrant a passing grade. If not, the class would write the essay.

So, on an overcast day, the group headed to School Girl Square, where they were met by a group of faculty and staff judges, and student spectators. On went the music, and the group performed a jaunty dance around and around the statue. After the conferring of the judges, it was deemed that the dance was nicely choreographed in the spirit of the movie and deserving of a thumbs up all around.

Dr. Carey will retire this year after more than 30 years of service to the Academy. Read more about his career at Cushing on page 30.

No Dr. Carey event involving the great white whale would be complete without the harpoon, which he brought out for the occasion. The group later took a trip to the New Bedford Whaling Museum.