Hopkins School 986 Forest Road New Haven, CT
Vol LXV, no. 7
June 6, 2019
www.therazoronline.com
English Legend Canny Cahn Retires after 17 Years on The Hill Katie Broun '19 Managing Editor Emeritus
After teaching at Hopkins for seventeen years, Canny Cahn, Psychology and English Teacher and former Razor Advisor, will retire at the conclusion of the 2018-2019 school year. Cahn worked with students in both the Junior and Upper Schools, and she touched many lives in the Hopkins Community as, described by Saira Munshani '20, “a teacher, friend and mentor.” After attending Colgate University, double-majoring in English and Psychology, Cahn attended the Colgate Masters in Teaching (MAT) program. Although Cahn came to Hopkins in 2002, she taught for 44 years. When describing her journey to Hopkins, Cahn recounted, “I worked in my MAT internship at a very rural school in central New York where the kids milked the cows before they came to school and set fur traps early in the morning." Afterwards, Cahn taught in Greenwich, Connecticut for two years. Cahn and her husband, Tom Iampietro, also an educator, eventually landed at a boarding school in western Massachusetts that, "was all female and probably did what we all hoped a single sex school would do at that time. After twenty five years, we decided either we’re going to be 'lifers' and stay
another gazillion more [years] in one place, or come down here [and] have a new kind of experience ... and that’s what we chose.”
It was the Psych and English double major, and everything else that followed, that kept me going [at Hopkins].”
Canny Cahn enjoying her last year with her final advisory group.
Cahn explained the heart of her career path: “I really liked being around young people. That merged with my interest in Psych. I actually started teaching Psych earlier than teaching English.
Cahn's work affected the lives of many Hopkins students. The Razor Features Editor Emeritus Zander Blitzer ’18 commented on Cahn’s positive spirit: “I love [Canny]’s unequivocal positiv-
ity. She is the most supportive person to everyone she comes in contact with, especially on The Razor. Interacting with her always brightened my day.” After having Cahn for Writing Semester, Sarah Lopez ’19 got to know Cahn both as a teacher and a person: “I’ve had her for one semester only! Just one, yet she makes it a point to greet me any time she sees me. She asks about things mentioned to her during the fall of junior year. She’s truly a legend. She is an extremely patient teacher even if she is a tough grader. She wants to see her students improve.” English teacher Brad Czepiel noticed Cahn's impact when her students came into his classroom. “Those students write with an economy and flare she helped them find with her broad tip green pen. Syntax and reasoning must be perfect with Canny, but she leaves zero room for pretension. That combination helps bring out individual student writing style.” Cahn was able to bring some of her favorite stories into the teaching curriculum, and was also introduced to new novels because of Hopkins. “I am so happy Hopkins introduced me to Things Fall Apart, which I love. I get to do Shakespeare every year, and Jane Austen and I were never apart.” Continued on page 3...
Stephen "Sparky" Clark's Departure From The Hill Sparks Nostalgia cessing did not exist, meaning all documents were written by hand. From that point forward, Sparky watched and helped Hopkins grow into the institution it is today. Stephen Clark, better known as “Sparky,” will As the surroundings evolved, in particular with be retiring from Hopkins after nearly 33 years on The the implementation of more technology on campus, Hill. During his tenure, Sparky taught a wide array of Sparky remained a constant source of authentic teaching. math classes, watched Hopkins grow, and offered an Head of the Math Department Jeannine Minort-Kale said, honest voice to faculty and students alike. Sparky’s first “Sparky's math classes have occasionally been referred to days were when Hopkins was a smaller institution, just as some of the most challenging at Hopkins. What some beginning to make bigger developments. The Walter miss about this 'challenge' is that it is rooted in his high Camp Athletic Center (WCAC) was completed, but it expectations for students. He believes that they are capawas really “before we had any nice academic buildings ble of rigorous mathematics and has shown over and over again that he is willing to do whatever he can Jemma Williams to help them achieve at that level.” Although he dabbled in teaching English and Economics, Sparky is known for his work in the Math Department. He has taught almost all of the Upper School Math classes. Despite the many years he spent teaching mathematics, Sparky still found joy in it each day, “Every time I go back to a course that I haven’t taught for a few years, I am just as excited to teach it as I was the first time, perhaps even more, because I usually have a better feel and a different perspective on how the concepts fit together and connect to other courses. The beauty of math just never gets old.” Sparky always took the opportunity to learn something new, especially if it is related to math. He often spent his summers taking Stephen Clark poses with his family at the 2019 Cum Laude Society classes at Wesleyan University, where he took induction for which his son, Ted Clark '09, served as the guest speaker. 25 courses in the Wesleyan Graduate Liberal Studies program and earned a Master of Arts in at Hopkins and we had many more trees,” Sparky said. Liberal Studies with a concentration in math. He laughed He describes the time as one when graphing calculators and said, “I’ve actually run out of math classes to take,” but were just beginning to make their debut and word pro- added how learning in the summer “provides just enough Saira Munshani '20 Senior Op-Ed Editor
Inside: News...........1-3 Features.......4-5 Op/ED.........6-7 Arts.............8-9 Sports..........10 Prizes..........11 Seniors........12
Features Page 4: Seniors Present Endof-Year Projects
Arts Page 9: Songs of the Issue - A Musical Year in Review
Highpoint Pictures
Stephen Clark retires after 33 years of service at Hopkins. structure to the day while still allowing plenty of time to relax.” Sparky strove to convey the joy of math to his students, and added “I hope I helped hundreds of Hopkins students find a way to enjoy learning challenging mathematics; good thinking is hard work, but it is also very satisfying.” The correlation between hard work and satisfaction is not a foreign one to Sparky. The same attitude he Continued on page 3...
Seniors Page 12: A Celebration of the Class of 2019