The Tartan: Summer 2016

THE TARTAN A MAGAZINE OF GLEN URQUHART SCHOOL

SUMMER 2016

Click on me to show more content and photos!

GUS Chariot Races A GUS Tradition Since 2005 Summer 2016 The Tartan a

Message from David Liebmann New Head of School

Dear GUS Community, Before I considered applying to be head of school, I heard about GUS’s reputation as “the school with values.” As I learned more about Glen Urquhart’s theme and place-based academic program, I knew I could wholeheartedly embrace the mission and goals of this school.

As is true of many schools, GUS has a commitment to academic excellence, a track record of well-matched secondary school placement, and an impressive alumni body. What distinguishes GUS is the overwhelming kindness, warmth, and dedication of the community, and the philosophy put into action that children learn best in the context of the world around them, that children learn with both their heads and their hands, that learning becomes deep and personal when there is room to explore and high expectations to guide them, and that time in the natural world provides for reflection and growth of the soul.

Next year, GUS will celebrate its fortieth anniversary. A school at forty knows its strengths; it is well established, yet it can remain dynamic and respond to relevant changes in the educational sphere as well as in the broader world. I am thrilled to join GUS at this pivotal time in its history, and I am eager to meet each current student and family, as well as alumni and past parents, as we work together to provide an exemplary education for children.

Trust and Go Forward,

David Liebmann Head of School

ANNUAL FUND

NURTURING ACADEMIC GROWTH AND SUPPORTING ACHIEVEMENT Follow @gustartan on Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, and like us on Facebook!

b The Tartan Summer 2016

THANK YOU TO ALL OF OUR FAMILIES FOR A GREAT YEAR!

Summer 2016 The Tartan 1

Evening with the

Graduates

and Go Forward:

2016

GRADUATION 2016

PHOTOS BY TOM UNDERWOOD

PHOTOS BY LISA KENT AND FADEANDFOCUS

There is perhaps no occasion more memorable for GUS eighth graders than Evening With the Graduates, and EWTG 2016 was no exception. n, soon-to-bealumni each presented an earnest “What I believe” address to the assembled audience of family, teachers, administrators, and seventh graders, sharing hopes, dreams, reflections, and even foibles, in narratives laced with humor and insight. The students expressed beliefs in—and, yes, passions for—everything from family and music to equality and imagination, from the perfect pair of shoes to international community service, from celebrating individuality to appreciating introversion, from sports and kindness to humor and friendship, from living 2 The Tartan Summer 2016

in the moment to having courage to tackle challenges, from the GUS motto to being open to change, from being “passionate about passion” to leveling the educational playing field for all students. And so much more.

The speeches, both inspired and inspiring, were interspersed with vocal, instrumental, and dance performances by students, followed by the dedication of the yearbook, the presentation of the class gift, the traditional lighting of candles, and the “Passing of the Tartan” to next fall’s eighth graders.

Glen Urquhart’s 34th graduation ceremonies commenced under blue skies with warm breezes carrying just a hint of the nearby ocean’s scent. On this perfect June 16th, 35 boys and girls, 12 of whom started GUS in kindergarten, received diplomas to mark their completion of middle school and transition to high school.

After a band of bagpipes and drums led them into the tent following trustees and faculty, the eighth graders received words of encouragement and wisdom from two alumni, Quinn Bokor and Sam Rich, who graduated eight years ago. The two were chosen as graduation speakers, Interim Head of School Raymond Nance explained, because they embody the traits most valued

by GUS. (See their speeches on nearby pages.)

Next, Mr. Nance introduced the graduating students in the order in which they entered GUS, offering testimonials that recognized each student’s unique gifts and contributions to the school, often noting particular achievements and projects in the classroom or studio, on the stage or the playing field. The boys and girls stood facing the audience of family and friends as Mr. Nance made clear that they were not only valued and appreciated, but also understood and known by him and their teachers.

The fourth and fifth grade chorus and the faculty chorus performed several vocal numbers during the ceremony.

A reception afterwards in Braemar included many delights, among them boar-shaped sugar cookies!

Trust and go forward, Class of 2016!

Summer 2016 The Tartan 3

PHOTO BY TOM UNDERWOOD

PHOTO BY TOM UNDERWOOD

Graduation Speeches:

Sam Rich ’08 Encourages Grads to Seize Opportunities I’d like to tell you about who I was when I entered Glen Urquhart in sixth grade. Frankly, I was a stubborn kid. I was just starting to develop a friend group at the public school system, and now I was expected to get up and leave. Change didn’t seem like it had my best interest in mind. And as I began sixth grade, I felt like an outsider. I wore a fake silver chain, baggy jeans and an oversized t-shirt with Biggie Smalls on the front.

Quinn Bokor ’08 Urges Grads to Trust Themselves

My time at Glen Urquhart was wonderful and inspiring, but it was also the time when I felt my most vulnerable. Being a teenager is just flat out hard, and it is difficult to realize how important it is to be true to yourself. But if there is one thing I wish I could have told eighth grade Quinn about to go into high school, it is to trust yourself. There will be times in your future, I guarantee, that you will want to be like someone else or do something that isn’t true to yourself. In order to please others, I pretended to be someone I was not many times throughout high school and even the beginning of college. It is an easy habit to fall into. What is difficult is realizing that the people in your life like you far better when you are true to yourself while following your own dreams and ambitions instead of trying to follow what you believe you should be dreaming. And I can tell you, firsthand, that when you make that switch, you feel the most confident you possibly can. Though Glen Urquhart knew me at some of my most awkward times, it allowed for me to grow from my mistakes, and it taught me to trust in myself and go forward.

Quinn Bokor, GUS ’08, is a graduate of Waring School and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC).

She plans to move to Los Angeles in August where she will pursue a career in in the film industry in art or production.

I was truly put to the test two summers ago when I was working preproduction in the costume department for the film Tulip Fever coming out next month. I was part of the team that, through distressing the fabric, makes the garment look used. The day that I arrived, the team gathered around for an introduction, and the costume supervisor asked me to go on set for the day to be in charge of the final touch-ups before the actors go on camera. I had no time to think as I was immediately asked to breakdown Judi Dench’s entire costume, on the actress, while she was learning her lines, in 15 minutes, a task that would normally take three hours. I had no chance to doubt myself or my capabilities. I forced myself to trust what I knew that I was capable of, and it worked. I managed to pull it off and have one of the greatest days of my life.

Each and every one of you has the ability to do anything you want to do in your future, but the single most important thing you need in order to do that is to trust yourself, to trust your capabilities and potential, to trust your voice and your intentions, and to even trust your gut at the hardest of times. Don’t feel as though you need to show up the first day of high school with 100% trust in yourself. I would be surprised if in the next three months you were able to master that, but just keep that piece of advice in the back of your mind and put a little trust in yourself a little at a time and you will eventually get there. I sure did. Thank you.

With the personal encouragement from my teachers and getting to really know my classmates over time, I slowly began to trust. I started to disarm myself and began to feel a true part of the GUS learning community. People started noticing that my clothes were less baggy as I shed the gangsta persona. Having the assurance that I belonged to a greater whole helped me strive, to embrace change, and to begin to live outside of my comfort zone.

Sam Rich, GUS ’08, graduated from St. John’s Prep, and then studied and traveled in Chile during a gap year as a Rotary International Youth Ambassador. He will graduate from Tulane University next spring with a degree in Political Science and Economics.

When I went to high school, I continued to take risks and try new sports and activities. Years prior, I never would have begun to imagine I would join and solo with an a cappella group that performed throughout the year or give trainings and speeches to volunteer organizations at my job with The Food Project.

These experiences led me to apply for a program sponsored by Rotary International. I was awarded an amazing gap year opportunity to repeat senior year living in the Patagonia region of Chile in a small town called Coyahique. For a year I lived with a family, attended school, made friends, and was immersed in this culture, where speaking English was not an option.

I became more confident as my Spanish improved, especially learning slang from friends at the local skateboard park. I went skiing down the mountains during the winter and rock climbing on the massive boulders during the summer. I backpacked up the Chilean coast with locals, and truly became a part of the small Chilean town in Patagonia. When I sat in your seat as an eighth grade kid, I would have never imagined the diverse communities that I would become a part of.

There’s a quote from one of my favorite books, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, that I encourage each of you to read before starting high school next year. In it, the author writes, “Making a decision was only the beginning of things. When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision.” Take a risk and dive into the current toward your passions; life is a lot more fun that way.

So, as you leave GUS and move on to the unchartered territory of high school, follow your academic and extracurricular passions. Take chances and say yes to opportunities to join new people in your wake, and find yourself along the way. You won’t know how far you will go until you look back at all the currents of your life that helped you become who you are today, and who you will be in the future.

This speech has been edited and abridged from the original.

This speech is abridged from the original.

4 The Tartan Summer 2016

Summer 2016 The Tartan 5

d

ssi c

Wi l

r a Cl o B a

Alumni Profiles: Oh, The Places They’ve Been!

GLEN URQUHART SCHOOL 16th ANNUAL WILD BOAR CLASSIC GOLF TOURNAMENT

THURSDAY OCTOBER 6, 2016 12 PM Shotgun Start Essex County Club Manchester, MA For more information or to register go to gus.org or contact Annie Barton at abarton@gus.org

The Wild Boar Golf Tournament supports financial aid, professional development, and other important program initiatives at Glen Urquhart School.

6 The Tartan Summer 2016

Anna Cabot ’95 Anna Cabot ’95 is the William R. Davis Clinical Teaching Fellow in the Asylum and Human Rights Clinic at University of Connecticut School of Law where her students represent refugees who have fled from persecution and are seeking asylum in the United States.

Anna (on left) on a trip with students to assist asylum seekers at York County Prison in PA.

As Anna describes her initial post-college plans, she envisioned a very different life, one pursuing theoretical physics as a professor at a liberal arts school in a “cute” college town. In fact, after graduating from Amherst College, she was awarded a Fulbright to pursue her studies for a year in the south of India, in Chennai (also known as Madras), at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences. She worked under a professor on a project that involved a lot of matrix algebra, and while it was theoretical, as she’d hoped, and not experimental, she found it less than fascinating. The grad school culture was also a disappointment, and Anna found her interest in a life in academic physics waning.

At the same time, she was “confronted with a lot more poverty, suffering, and environmental degradation than I ever had been before and it abruptly made me feel that the work I was doing was meaningless.” Anna is quick to point out that she doesn’t believe that physics is unimportant but rather that what she witnessed in India made her feel that she wanted the work she did “to have a much more direct effect on people.” Her focus changed to human rights work, but not before she met her now-fiance, who is, yes, a theoretical physicist whose work Anna is glad to have the vocabulary to understand!

After her year in India, Anna returned to the United States and interned at various human rights organizations in the Boston area. Eventually, she decided that law school would provide the tools and leverage she wanted to be effective as a human rights advocate, so she studied for the LSAT and applied to law schools. Before entering American University Washington Law School in Washington, DC, Anna returned to India for a year to work in Kerala and Delhi on a broad spectrum of human rights issues. An example was a suit against a Coca Cola plant for poisoning people by dumping waste

Summer 2016 The Tartan 7

Alumni Profiles (Continued)

David Blatt ’00

Katherine “Kate” Wolkoff ’90

Anyone who attended a GUS dance DJ’d by David Blatt and his brother, Josh, won’t be surprised to learn that David has pursued a life in business and entrepreneurship. Even as an eighth grader, David was buying sound equipment and scheduling gigs, first at GUS, then at Pingree, launching his first business when barely 14 years old.

Kate Wolkoff ’90 is both an art photographer and a commercial photographer. Her work has been in shows at Sasha Wolf Gallery, Danziger Projects, the New York Photo Festival and Women in Photography. Her photographs are included in the collections of the Addison Gallery of Art, the Norton Museum of Art and the Yale University Library, and have been featured in Aperture, Twice, and Frieze. Her advertising clients include Novartis, Nuepro, Dell, Gold Peak Tea, Steuben Glass, Sharp, Black Rock and Jack Spade. Her editorial work includes assignments for The New York Times Magazine, Real Simple, More, New York, The New Yorker, Newsweek, Time, Bon Appetit, Travel and Leisure, Martha Stewart, Paper, and Monocle, among many others.

These days, David owns several income properties around Boston and is the CFO of Summit Series, an organization that hosts conferences and events for young entrepreneurs, artists and activists.

David Blatt on the slopes

After GUS and Pingree, David attended the Honors College in the School of Management at UMass Amherst.

“It was a program with 60 students,” says David. “We studied finance and operations; the dean of the School of Management was our adviser. It was a smaller community within the UMass community.”

Following up on his first entrepreneurial venture, David started a painting business during summers in college, with crews of up to 15 working for him.

At the same time, he kept up the DJ business. Then, after graduation, he purchased his first property in Boston and rented out a couple of rooms to friends. Inspired by an uncle who taught him to tinker and solve problems, he added to his portfolio and now has half a dozen properties in Boston and Salem. With his real estate license in tow, he was doing sales and leasing, and finding deals “that were flowing.” All this in addition to a day job, of course, first at KPMG accounting firm and then at CohnReznick, a consulting firm focused on helping developers acquire and renovate multi-family buildings using a low-income housing tax credit, thereby encouraging the development of low-income housing.

Things were going well when a new opportunity appeared that had irresistible appeal. David had always wanted to be a developer and “build something from nothing.” Two friends from Pingree called him with a proposition.

Brett Leve and Jeremy Schwartz had started Summit Series, an opportunity for like-minded entrepreneurs and other innovators to connect, collaborate, and share ideas at events around the world. Think TED talks meets Burning

8 The Tartan Summer 2016

Katherine Wokloff

Though she did a little photography in high school at Concord Academy and during summers on Block Island, Kate didn’t really discover her passion for the art until her senior year in college at Barnard when she signed up for a photo class. Suddenly, it “opened up a world for me,” she explains. “It was much easier for me to express myself through photography than any other way. It was a natural way for me to look at the world.” Until then, she had been a major in American History, focused on the scholarship in that discipline.

Following college graduation, Kate spent a year at Maine Photo Workshop, then two years in New York assisting photographers before pursuing an MFA at Yale in photography. At first, she photographed her family, something she continues to do with her brand of what is called “lifestyle photography.”

She describes her work as authentic and natural with no artificial lighting.

Though she does many kinds of photography, “most of my work is about the natural world at this point, mostly on Block Island and in the Georgia Outer Banks where I spent time growing up.” Though she doesn’t do family portraits or events, people see her work and want a similar piece. “For me it’s been a journey of making my own work and then people responding to it,” Kate explains. “People love to feel connected to the work. People hire me because they want me to make work that looks like the work they see.

They want the work to have something specific to say about the world around them. My own work is about the ephemeral nature of life.” It is important as

Summer 2016 The Tartan 9

Alumni Profiles (Continued)

Ben Glickstein ’01 Ben Glickstein ’01 jokingly sees bagpipes and kilts as the “through line” in his education. From GUS to Waring to Macalester College, both Scottish traditions were prominent at his commencements. While that may be true, the truly important through line for Ben was what each school taught him about the importance of learning about people, contributing to the public good, and building sustainable cities.

Ben on the job, explaining bridge engineering to event-goers in San Jose

In college, Ben majored in cultural anthropology, studying in Cape Town, South Africa during his junior year. It was there he decided he was most interested in museums, archeology, and “the politics that surround how you tell the story behind something old.” As he explains, “whether it’s intended or not,” how you present an exhibit or artifact “talks about the country in a certain way.” In Cape Town, he saw the uncovering of remains from the Colonial era and realized how everyone had a stake in how that story was told. There were racial, ethnic, and political issues, with strong feelings on every side. Ben ended up writing his senior thesis about this microcosm of South African history and how it was emblematic of the different points of view of people who tell the stories of history and ethnography. At that time, he imagined embarking on a career working in museums.

After college, Ben pursued the idea of working in a museum, first interning at the DeYoung in San Francisco where he helped high school students learn about exhibits on King Tut and the Pacific Islands. He then landed a position at a small Oakland, California museum, the Peralta House Museum, where he remained for three years. The Peralta House is an example of an early home built by Spanish Mexican settlers before the area was part of the United States in a neighborhood that is now becomming Hispanic again. The museum defies the image of house museums as “stodgy,” says Ben. Instead, he and the staff collected oral histories and put them on display, blending them with the old history of Antonio Peralta, demonstrating that history is ever evolving and includes everyone.

While Ben felt that the museum was a great place to work (he’s still on the Board of Directors, its small size meant there were few mentors to learn from.

into the local water. She was the only foreigner working in the area and didn’t speak the language. As Anna describes the experience with her typical humility, she isn’t sure she was much help, “but I learned a lot and a lot about myself.”

Anna entered law school upon her return from India. She chose American “because of its amazing set of international human rights programs.” Though the first year was full of courses on property, civil procedure, torts, contracts - “stuff it was hard to convince myself I wanted to know because I never wanted to use the law for that”- the following year allowed Anna to participate in the human rights clinic similar to what she now teaches at UConn. The Law School Dean was president of the United Nations Committee Against Torture and took Anna and five other students to Geneva for one of the UN sessions on the topic.

Her first post-law school job was a fellowship at the National Prison Project of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in Washington. The Prison Project litigates class action suits against state and federal departments of correction for inadequate medical and mental health care. “It was fascinating and important work,”says Anna, “but I found that even though I believed in the mission of the project, I missed working directly with people.”

After a year, Anna made an abrupt change and moved to Tanzania to work for Asylum Access, helping refugees access their rights to work, education, and refuge in the first country where they seek it. Asylum Access is a US-based organization and Anna worked for them during their first year of operation. Her task was to set up the legal services program. While the work was challenging and exciting, it was also frustrating because Tanzania “does not have a functioning asylum process” and “wants all its refugees to remain in camps,” Anna explains. Thus, refugees from wars such as in the Democratic Republic of Congo arrive in Tanzania and are mistreated because they have no legal status. After a year, Anna decided to return to the United States to use her law degree for human rights work here.

She became the Managing Attorney at Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center in El Paso, a small non

10 The Tartan Summer 2016

profit providing legal services to those seeking asylum, domestic violence victims, and those with immigration status issues. Anna supervised and trained attorneys, paralegals, student law clerks, and volunteers.

Responding to a wide-ranging problem, she undertook a study on the challenges faced by Mexican asylumseekers for the Center for Migration Studies.

All these roads led to Anna’s current position at UConn where she teaches and supervises students in the law school clinic program when they take asylum cases. She describes her job as “awesome,” “the best job,” and one she loves. Asked for an example of a challenging case, she describes a female client from Haiti who suffered considerable abuse, along with her mother, at the hands of her father. She and her mother and other siblings eventually left their town for Port au Prince to start a new life. A few years later, the young woman went to college and met other women who believed that domestic violence is wrong and women should be able to escape such situations. They created a feminist, anti-domestic violence organization that met periodically and made statements. Then, the two other female students who started the group were murdered and the client was abducted and almost killed, all because of their activism. She fled the country for the U.S. and two of Anna’s students represented her in an appeal for asylum on the basis of persecution for her political beliefs. And they won.

Not all law schools have clinic programs, though they are becoming more popular, according to Anna. Since only ten students can participate in a clinic at any one time, they are an expensive undertaking for a school. “It is an amazing experience for students,” contends Anna.

“It prepares students better than anything for actually practicing law.”

Looking back on her years at GUS, Anna says, “I have memories of times at Glen Urquhart when confronting how you feel was something that was valued, and that is something that is really important when you work with people who have suffered trauma. That is something that is not commonly taught, and it so important with the kind of work I do.”

Summer 2016 The Tartan 11

Man, says David as way of explanation. In 2013, Summit acquired Powder Mountain in Utah with a plan to build a permanent home for this community of game changers to gather. It was then that David’s former classmates contacted him and asked him to lead finances and operations for the company. “I fell in love with the place and the vision,” David says. He moved out there in August of 2013 to “build a town on top of a mountain,” his dream of a total raw land development project. When it is complete, there will be hotels, stores, conference sites, and homes, as well as a ski resort and all the infrastructure needed for a community of 15,000 people. Already, 100 home sites have been sold, all marketed to people who attend Summit Series conferences and events. The first homes will go up this summer.

Who attends Summit Series events and conferences?

Founders of companies such as Virgin Airlines, Netflix, DropBox, TOMS Shoes, Warby Parker, Google, and Uber, to name a few. “People doing amazing things in their fields,” says David, “innovative things in food and food technology, in science, in health, a whole mix and mashup, amazing ideas and points of view.” According to an April 2015 article in The New York Times, “some 10,000 people have attended Summit Series events, from founders of digital media start-ups to professional athletes, clothing designers to scientists. The company Qwiki, maker of an iPhone video sharing app, was hatched at a Summit event and acquired last year

by Yahoo for $50 million; Basis, a company that makes wristwatch health trackers, secured its first major investment at Summit and was sold to Intel last year for over $100 million.” And it’s not just for-profit big companies who benefit from the contacts. People in nonprofits have hooked up with philanthropists, the Times article noted, and musicians have discovered collaborators.

an artist to work hard and stay true to what you want to express, Kate believes.

Kate’s assignments often take her to faraway places.

“I love going to exotic places,” she says, “and I also love going to the small places in the United States and meeting people and hearing stories that I otherwise wouldn’t know that are outside my normal life.”

In addition to her art and commercial work, Kate is also an assistant professor at Parsons School of Design at the New School in New York.

What nurtured Kate’s creativity and confidence? “Glen Urquhart and the combination of my parents who listened to me and took me seriously and taught me how to think, to observe and analyze.” She credits GUS with being “such a creative place” and feels it is vitally important for children to be where they are encouraged to be excited and curious and want to know more about the world.

Kate is married to Stephen Hilger, Chair of Photography at Pratt Institute, and they have two sons, Henry, age 6, and Charlie, age 3. She is still close friends with GUS classmate Becca Feldman who lives in Israel with her husband and children.

12 The Tartan Summer 2016

Fortunately, he found a middle ground, a place where he could use his skills and apply them to solve problems that were important to him. Ben is now doing public relations and marketing for East Bay Municipal Utilities District (EBMUD), the water department and wastewater agency for Oakland, California and other cities in the East Bay. He is in charge of anything and everything that has to do with interfacing with the community. He was hired to focus on recycled water, that is, highly treated wastewater, that can be used again for purposes such as irrigation. “It is a cool program,” says Ben. “I get to talk to people about sustainability and the science behind it. I try to get people interested in it.”

To recycle water requires building an infrastructure of new pipes in the road that can bring the treated wastewater to parks or city buildings so that drinking water can stop being used for irrigation. The public needs to understand why this is good, why their roads are being torn up, and that there are strict regulations that make it safe, Ben explains. “We are now out of the drought, but we need to get people to understand that drought is the new regular, to educate people in the community about the future of water in California.” To do this, Ben speaks to people at community meetings, gives media interviews, creates mailers, and writes for the website. “We are reminding people that water is a basic human need, but it is not going to be flowing freely every day. It takes work and innovation.”

Just as he did as an anthropologist, Ben focuses on learning about different communities—a city or a neighborhood or government agency - and their needs and how best to communicate with the various people. “It is what I learned in my ethnography classes,” he says. “I’ve always wanted to be learning about people and their needs and finding the mutual benefits.”

In his current work, Ben recalls the conversations at GUS about environmentalism and sustainability and feels he has come full circle. “Outside of work, in my personal life, in my continuing passion for literature and learning about culture and art, I have a lot to owe to my teachers, especially Penny Randolph and Chris Draper. Some of my teachers really helped inform my inquiring mind as someone who wants to read, and read between the lines, and enjoy a variety of art and culture.”

It’s no surprise that David loves his job. “There is amazing flexibility to travel and meet amazing people doing inspiring work,” he says. And he gets to realize his dream of building something from scratch—a whole town!

David keeps up with some GUS classmates. “Greg Curtin and I are still best friends. I was the best man at his wedding in July 2013. Morgan Baird and I are still close friends as well.”

He decided to take the marketing skills he’d acquired at the museum to work in the corporate and start-up world for a while, but that soon seemed too far afield from his interests.

Ben is still close to several GUS classmates, particularly Eliza Jarrett, Evan Dec, and Hunter Wallingford.

Black and yellow cuckoo, 2007, by Kate Wolkoff. To see more of her work, go to KatherineWolkoff.com.

Summer 2016 The Tartan 13

Farewell, Linda Bowden!

“Look at that sea...all silver and shadow and vision of things not seen. We couldn’t enjoy its loveliness any more if we had millions of dollars and ropes of diamonds.”

STORM CASTLE

FRIENDS OF GUS

the

– L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

Linda Bowden retired this spring after 36 years at Glen Urquhart. As one of our “Old Guard,” Linda guided hundreds of children through our classrooms and halls, opening their eyes and minds to the wonders of the sea and more.

As she moves to the land-locked wonders of Kansas to be near her daughter Whitney ’00 and her grandchild, we wish her well and thank her for all the gifts she shared with the students at GUS for so many years.

“I have been motivated every day by the curiosity of young children and by the incredible questions they ask. For me it is all about helping children discover what excites and challenges them and then working to give them the tools to become independent learners. Most of my classroom experience has involved co-teaching, and I have worked with some excellent teaching partners. I believe it has provided a richer learning environment for the students because when two teachers have a genuine collaborative style and commitment, the students can see and feel it.

When I first began teaching at Glen Urquhart in 1980, it was only in its third year, and I had the unique opportunity to learn and grow under the guidance of its founder, Lynne Warren. I will be forever grateful to her and to the many colleagues, families, and students who have made my teaching career so rewarding.”

14 The Tartan Summer 2016

“Storm the Castle,” our April fundraising event at Willowdale Estate in Topsfield, truly celebrated the pride of GUS, with bagpipes, a knight, and auctioneer David Coffin P’11 clad in a kilt and full Scottish attire.

The festivities included a live auction that featured gifts from each class, including a handcrafted lemonade stand, a Highland Games weekend getaway, a trip to a Red Sox game with Mr. E., and a highly anticipated “Boarhol” mural. This project, created by the second grade, was inspired by the GUS logo and the work of Andy Warhol, and was the item most fiercely bid on.

The evening culminated with a paddle raise to support Glen Urquhart’s commitment to invest in leading edge technology in order to teach the whole child. Ramping up in advance of the event, EBSCO Information Services made a considerable and generous gift to the school the week before the auction, pledging continued access

to its academic online databases and donating its eBook online K-8 collection to the GUS library as further technology enhancements for our students. GUS families responded to the call to provide funds to propel the school’s technology program forward by donating $43,000 during the paddle raise. The funds will help support continued and improved STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics) and robotics programs at the school, designed to teach coding, estimation, and problem solving. The money raised will also provide individual Chromebooks for all upper school students.

Thank you to all who “stormed the castle” to show your support for our very special citadel of education! The evening was “pure dead brilliant.”* *Scottish slang for “exceptionally good.”

Summer 2016 The Tartan 15

Rosenthals Host Leadership Gathering Joan and Steve Rosenthal P’12 hosted a gathering in May at their home in Marblehead for a group of current and past parents, as well as current and past trustees, to thank them for their leadership roles in support of GUS. The Rosenthals’ hospitality included great food in a beautiful venue, along with an opportunity to revisit Glen Urquhart’s enduring mission and celebrated traditions as the school looks toward its upcoming 40th anniversary.

“Glen Urquhart cultivates an early and enduring intellectual curiosity and gives kids the tools to pursue that curiosity. It’s really remarkable, I’ve been in school for a total of about 25 years, and many of my most important academic moments took place in my two years at GUS.” –Glen Urquhart Alumna ‘00, Harvard ‘09, Penn State Ph.D. candidate ‘18

RAYMOND, How fortunate for us that you agreed to return to Glen Urquhart School to serve as our Interim Head of School. Your choice to put a well-deserved and enjoyable retirement on hold demonstrated your great dedication to GUS and your fondness for our community. So many times during the past year and a half, we’ve been thankful for your presence. Your guidance and advice full of wisdom and honesty have been a constant, not to mention your encyclopedic institutional memory and understanding of the GUS culture. Thank you for everything you have done for Glen Urquhart. We are all indebted to you!

Best wishes to you and Debby as you (again) embark on retirement. May it be happy and full of adventure!

THANK YOU With much appreciation and admiration, Martha Burnham President, GUS Board of Trustees

MEET OUR NEW HEAD OF SCHOOL DAVID LIEBMANN AT AN ADMISSIONS OPEN HOUSE

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17 SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 20 For a personal tour or to learn more about how to afford an independent school education for your child, please contact Leslie Marchesseault, Director of Admission, at 978-927-1064, ext. 115, or lmarchesseault@gus.org.

LEARN MORE AT GUS.ORG

FINANCIAL AID AVAILABLE • BUS TRANSPORTATION 74 HART STREET • BEVERLY FARMS, MA 01915

GUS

EDUCATION

Summer 2016 The Tartan 17

“

FROM THE DAY THAT I STEPPED INTO GUS, I KNEW THAT THIS SCHOOL WAS WAS ONEOF-A-KIND. I KNEW THAT THIS WAS GOING TO BE DIFFERENT. I HAVE NEVER KNOWN BETTER FRIENDS IN ONE PLACE.” GUS STUDENT

“I am continuously impressed by the richness of the curriculum and the depth of meaning embedded in each lesson. My child is being challenged and supported.”

GUS FIRST GRADE PARENT

“Kindergarten at GUS was transformative for my child.

Missing out on that experience would have meant missing out on something crucial for her development.”

GUS KINDERGARTEN PARENT

FOR GUS

“

As they look back on their elementary, secondary, and college years, my three children value above all the time at Glen Urquhart when they were encouraged to discover their individual voices, explore the world around them, and apply themselves with diligence.”

GAIN.

PARENT OF THREE ALUMNI

“

AS SOON AS I WALKED INTO OUR THIRD GRADE CLASSROOM ALL MY WORRIES LEFT ME LIKE THOUSANDS OF TINY BUTTERFLIES FLUTTERING AWAY.”

GAIN@GUS

GAIN@GUS CELEBRATES 7 YEARS OF PROVIDING ACCESS TO SUMMER ACADEMIC ENRICHMENT FOR STUDENTS IN THE CITIES OF BEVERLY AND LYNN.

L E A R N M O R E AT G U S . O R G

GUS STUDENT EDITOR: Judith Klein | ART EDITOR: Lisa Kent | DESIGN: Graphic Details, Inc. | COVER PHOTO: Kristen Weber