MAY 31, 2017
HWCHRONICLE.COM/NEWS
Math teacher to retire
By SABA NIA
PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF BELLA HEDLEY
FEUL OF LOVE: Feulner’s eighth period class held a party to cel-
ebrate her retirement after 34 years of teaching math at the school.
Completing her 34 year tenure with the school, math teacher Beverly Feulner will retire at the end of the school year to return to her roots in Pennsylvania with her husband, science teacher John Feulner. “I’ve done my duty, I think,” Feulner said. “My husband and I are both from Pennsylvania, and we’re moving back to Pennsylvania to be close to family.” Feulner said she’s looking forward to retirement because of the time it will provide for her to pursue her interests. She said she’s excited about sewing, playing the piano and spending a lot of time with her family. She added that she will still miss the school and cherish all the memories she made here. “I’m not sure you can find
another school in the country that has everything that this school has to offer: the higher level mathematics I was able to teach, the really motivated, bright students and the great colleagues and other faculty members,” she said. “And the school values the faculty. I know a lot of other people who teach, and their conditions are nothing like what we have here. There are just so many things that make this wonderful place to be. And again, I didn’t particularly like California, but the only reason I stayed here was because of this job.” After graduating from Drexel University, Feulner taught at a boarding school before pursuing geophysical research. She also worked at an oil company and for small defense contractors before taking up a teaching job at Harvard School for Boys, where she met her husband.
School psychologist to work at Curtis School By JACKIE GREENBERG
Upper School Psychologist Kavita Ajmere will leave the school at the end of this year to work at Curtis School next year. Ajmere specializes in mental health and in helping students prosper academically, emotionally and socially. While Ajmere said she was excited to begin something new at Curtis, she is still going to miss helping students at HarvardWestlake. “My favorite part about Harvard-Westlake was working
with students that are bright, motivated and industrious,” Ajmere said. Ajmere teaches Choices & Challenges to sophomores, which is an extended class of Human Development. The class helps students develop life skills. “I had Choices & Challenges class with her this year, and it was always nice seeing a friendly face in the hallway,” Catherine Crouch ’19 said. “She really cares about all of us.” Ajmere is excited to begin work at the Curtis School at
the start of the next school year. “The exciting thing about working at an elementary school is that I’m hoping I can infuse change earlier,” Ajmere said. “One of the things that I will be doing there is bringing mindfulness to the classrooms. I think I’ll be able to help students regulate their emotions, not just with themselves but with other people.” Students said Ajmere promotes positive behavior, health and change throughout the campus. Ajmere is also the co-director of Peer Support, a
student run wellness program. She deals with training lead’ ers, organizKavita Ajmere ing retreats and making sure the program runs smoothly. “As someone who is so significant to the Peer Support program, I am going to miss her guidance and contributions to it,y” Oceania Eshraghi ’18 said. “She is definitely someone that I could always turn to if I ever needed.”
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Spanish teacher to leave World Language department for retirement after 17 years By SOPHIE HABER
life with hopefully new things to do.” During her time at the After 17 years at the school, spanish teacher Roser Gelida school, Gelida has taught a variety of Spanish will retire at classes includthe end of this I’m very sad ing AP Spanish year. Language and “I am a little because she cares Culture and young to retire, so much about her but that is [alSpanish IV. students, and it is right],” Gelida Prior to coming said. “[My husto the school, always really fun to be band and I] Gelida taught in her class.” just want to enFrench as well joy our healthy —Michael Gaven ’18 as Japanese. lifestyle and Over the just continue course of her doing different things. I’m not years here, Gelida said she has sure what [we will do], but it is learned a lot about herself progoing to be a new period of my fessionally.
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“I have grown professionally. I am definitely not the same teacher I was. I hope I’m much better,” Gelida said. “Not only because I have more years but because of the things I learned. The school is so great to provide great opportunities for the teachers to learn, to go to conferences, to get degrees, to travel, so in that sense, I have grown.” Gelida also said she will miss many aspects of the school. “[I will miss] the students,” Gelida said. “Not only teaching classes but those moments [when] I go outside and I get to know students that have
Performing arts teacher Eric Gault will depart the school after teaching for one year. Gault oversaw the choir program, including Chamber Singers, Bel Canto and Wolverine Chorus. Since Gault was in a transitioning period after the departure of Rodger Guerrero, he had help with managing the choir to help make the change in leadership smoother for the program, Bel Canto member Alexa Frandzel ’18 said.
“I think a lot of the performing arts department was involved in choir this year because he was transitioning into the school and then out of the school, so I think it was a year where a lot of the department was involved in choir,” Frandzel said. Wolverine Choir member Jack Shane ’18 said Gault opened his eyes to a different style of music. “He has definitely given us more foreign language pieces than before,” Shane said. “We had a lot of German and some
Italian pieces, and our pieces were 20 minutes instead of the five minutes we were used to.” Gault also showed his students his love of singing and made the whole experience a joyful one, Bel Canto member Sam Radlovic ’18 said. “I learned that singing is so much more than just saying words. There’s a lot of passion behind it, and he really used his own to inspire us,” Radlovic said. “What I’ll miss most about him is his humor and how he made us all laugh and have fun.”
in brief A Far East feast: ASIA club hosts culture day
The Asian Students in Action club set up tables with Asian snacks, clothing and instruments for Asian Culture Day on Friday during fourth and fifth periods. The club held the day to celebrate May, which is AsianAmerican heritage month. “The purpose of the Culture Day was not only to celebrate the diverse Asian cultures on campus but also to let students know that there is an Asian affinity group at school as we were founded late and thus did not have a chance to publicize the club,” ASIA club leader Lucy Kim ’19 said. Students founded the ASIA club to provide a space in which Asian American students could celebrate their culture by discussing topics of culture and organizing diversity events. —Emory Kim
Voice of the people: Yearbook published Vox Populi staff distributed yearbooks to seniors Thursday during Senior Transition Day and to all other grade levels Friday. All seniors will receive new yearbooks after initial copies omitted eight seniors from their class page. “It’s really cool to see everyone carrying around and enjoying the yearbooks, especially after all the hard work that the staff has put into making the books,” Vox staffer Brooke Kawana ’18 said. —Indu Pandey
Club sells smoothies for literacy programs
their lockers around here. I’ll miss the ’ Roser Gelida classes, of course, seeing the students eager to learn or to do better. This kind of spark in their eye, I think this is what is so rewarding for a teacher. Seeing a young person learning and wanting to learn, that will be something I will miss.” Her students said they are sad about her departure. “I’m very sad because she cares so much about her students, and it is always really fun to be in her class,” Michael Gaven ’18 said.
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Performing arts teacher to depart from school after a year of managing choir programs By MADDY DAUM
NEWS A7
Bel Canto member Sarah Con’ way ’18 said Eric Gault Gault didn’t allow his departure to affect his teaching toward the end of the year “Despite him knowing that he was going to be leaving, he continued to be positive and put 100 percent of his effort into making sure we sounded good,” Conway said. Frandzel wishes him the best of luck in all of his future endeavors as a choir teacher.
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Students sold Jamba Juice smoothies to support the nonprofit Pencils of Promise today on the quad. According to its website, the organization aims to increase literacy rates around the world by building schools and providing educational resources to teachers and students. The charity is currently working in Ghana, Guatemala, Laos and Nicaragua with programs that train teachers, build educational facilities, and teach students about water and hygiene. —Saba Nia
Debaters participate in Kentucky tournament Eight debate students participated in the Tournament of Champions in Lexington, Kentucky. Evan Engel ’17 and Spencer Paul ’19 both reached octafinals, the round of 16, and Connor Engel ’17 made it to the round of 32. Connor Engel also won the eight speaker award out of 86 participants in the event. The annual event was hosted at the University of Kentucky. The Tournament of Champions requires two qualifying bids to participate, making it the most exclusive tournament in the nation. —Lucas Gelfond