Harvard-Westlake Life Magazine, Spring 2019

H A RVA R D-W ESTLAKE SPRING 2019 Daniel Kinzer ’99 Chilling out in Antarctica

Inside Dodgeball Exploring Social Media Addiction in Teens: Kara Bagot ’00 Pitch Perfect: St. Louis Cardinal Jack Flaherty ’14

Artwork by Madison Wolf ’20

Dear Friends of Harvard-Westlake, This is my 25th year at Harvard-Westlake School. I consider myself a “merger baby,” having come on board just two years after Harvard and Westlake joined forces. As a new school, Harvard-Westlake sought to retain some longstanding traditions of each institution—for example, Harvard’s prefect robes and Westlake’s senior ring ceremony—but when I arrived in the fall of 1994, there weren’t many new HW traditions yet.

Fast-forward to 2005, when eighth graders Max Eliot ’09 and Harry Botwick ’09 came up with the idea for the middle school’s dodgeball tournament [page 26]—part friendly competition, all beloved celebration. Ever since, as soon as I hear that familiar roar coming up from the lower court, I know it’s officially spring.

Now graduation is upon us. This June, like every one before it, I’m struck by the vibrancy and diversity of the talents, interests, and experiences that Harvard-Westlake is sending out into the world. I’m also fascinated to see how and what our graduates will contribute to the world in years to come. Just consider three of the graduates featured in this issue: Dr. Kara Bagot ’00, a psychiatrist conducting groundbreaking research on teens and social media [page 48]; Daniel Kinzer ’99, a National Geographic Grosvenor Teacher Fellow from Hawaii who journeyed to Antarctica to explore climate change [page 36]; and Jack Flaherty ’14, who was named Gatorade Player of the Year in baseball for the state of California while at HW and is now in the starting rotation for the St. Louis Cardinals after an impressive rookie year in 2018 [page 64].

You can also catch up on many other HW alums in this issue’s newly expanded class notes [page 68]. Let us know what you’re up to by submitting your own class note in the alumni portal via hw.com/alumni, or drop me a line at ehu@hw.com.

Cheers,

Ed Hu Head of External Relations ehu@hw.com

SPRING 2019 HW LIFE HW Legacy

4 Remembering Liz Resnick

By President and Head of School Rick Commons 8 Retiring Faculty & Staff In the words of their colleagues 16 Dearest Mother & Daddy Letter home from Westlake boarding student Audree Brown ’25

HW Today 20 Best Wishes Make-A-Wish and Harvard-Westlake bring one six-year-old’s dreams to life 26 Dodgeball 101 The tournament, the myth, the legend 32 Grace Brown and Jenn Gabrail: Neuro-Hacking Your Brain Learning resource specialists help students work smarter

Alumni Profiles

36 Daniel Kinzer ’99: Antarctic Aloha Going to the ends of the earth for the planet 48 Dr. Kara Bagot ’00: The Digital Drug Investigating social media addiction in teens

Faculty & Staff Profiles 52 Jesse Cabezas Vazquez: Field of Dreams Harvard-Westlake maintenance staff member 58 Melissa Zimmerman: Finding Fun in Every Little Thing Executive assistant to the head of school and the new dean of faculty and staff

Student Voices 18 Reconciling the Past Former Nazi and Holocaust survivor share their experiences during World War II

By Casey Kim ’20 and Lindsay Wu ’20 in the Harvard-Westlake Chronicle 44 People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA): Quarterly Statement Poem by CC Mesa ’22 64 Looking at a Legend Tracing the baseball career of Cardinals pitcher Jack Flaherty ’14

By Keila McCabe ’20 in the Harvard-Westlake Chronicle

Notes 68 Class Notes 76 Faculty & Staff Notes 82 The Name’s Young. James Young.

Father J. on joining the FBI 84 Student Notes 86 It’s About Time

By Senior Advancement Officer and Director of Major Gifts Jim Pattison

Last Look 90 Mazelle Etessami ’14 in Port-au-Prince, 2013

By Archivist Alexis Sherman Arinsburg ’98

HW LEGACY

Remembering Liz Resnick A tribute to HW’s associate head of school

After Associate Head of School Liz Resnick passed away in March, President and Head of School Rick Commons gave a eulogy at her memorial service, which is excerpted here.

Our hearts are heavy with sadness, especially for Liz’s family—her wife, their children, her father, sister, and brother. But our hearts are also full of love and appreciation for Liz and all she gave to all of us—her family, her extraordinary number of friends, and the many, many people she touched through her remarkable career as a teacher, coach, mentor, and school leader.

I had the privilege of working side by side with Liz in the leadership of Harvard-Westlake School. Our partnership was much too brief, but both as a professional colleague and as a loving friend, Liz was a gift.

Right out of Harvard [University], Liz took a one-year post at St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire, teaching history, coaching field hockey, basketball, and softball, and running a dorm. After St. Paul’s, she went to Northfield Mount Hermon in Western Massachusetts, where, still in her mid 20s, Liz was made Assistant to the Head of School. After two years in that post, she became the founding academic dean at Sage Hill School in Newport.

Liz spent four years building Sage Hill and then moved to Crossroads in Santa Monica, where she led that community as Director of the Upper School for eight years. Then Liz decided that, in addition to her M.A. in Liberal Studies, which she had earned from Dartmouth over a series of summers, it was time to add an M.B.A. to her quiver, which she would do at UCLA.

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True to her calling, however, she didn’t want her education in business to stop her important work in school leadership. This is how, thanks to my predecessors, [former Headmaster of Harvard School and former President of Harvard-Westlake] Tom Hudnut and [former Head of School] Jeanne Huybrechts, Liz came to Harvard-Westlake, first as Director of Studies and then as Associate Head of School. It was three years ago that I asked her to partner with me in leading Harvard-Westlake.

As we have been remembering Liz here at HW, we have been thinking of all the ways she made us better— not only in doing what we are meant to do in schools, but also in doing what we are meant to do as people.

We have taken comfort in knowing that Liz’s extraordinary presence will endure in part through her vast repertoire of perfect maxims, which will be repeated for years to come in our offices, classrooms, and moments when we ask ourselves, “What would Liz say?”

[Head of Middle School] Jon Wimbish aptly dubbed these pithy proverbs “Liz-isms.” For instance, if one of us got impatient or frustrated with slow progress of some sort, Liz would reassure us with, “Inch by inch, grow the bananas.” If someone’s expectations were too optimistic, her gentle dose of reality would be, “If wishes were fishes….” When a bad situation was about to get worse, she’d say, “Okay, now we’re in deep yogurt.”

“Students won’t care what you think…until they think that you care.” “We need to do more talking to people, and less talking about people.”

Other more serious things I will always hear in Liz’s voice:

And one of her more complex maxims: “Never deprive a family of a crisis they need.”

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[Upper School Dean] Beth Slattery and I were talking about this last one, and Beth remarked that Liz taught her that it wasn’t her job to solve a family’s crisis. Often a teenager and her parents really need to have it, and work through it to discover how to understand and love each other better. Liz would advise that it’s our job to lean in to that crisis, empathize with the family, and help them to process and grow.

Jon Wimbish’s favorite Liz-ism? “No need to coach every free throw.” As an accomplished basketball player and coach, and as a gifted instructor of students and teachers, Liz knew that it’s counterproductive to offer instruction on every single attempt at anything—shooting a foul shot, learning or teaching history, or leading a middle school.

We all need teaching and coaching, but we also need to get into a rhythm, to feel the flow that comes from combining instinct with instruction. She’d let us miss a few—no problem. And then after we made one, she’d smile and tell us what we needed to hear: a lot of praise…with one small suggestion.

My own favorite Liz-ism was one she applied to herself. When we were working together on something particularly challenging, and she knew that between the two of us she had the best chance of success, rather than saying, “Listen, I think I’m going to be better at this than you,” she would turn things around, as if I’d suggested she do it, and say, “Well, I guess it’s time for me to put on my big girl pants.” I was never fooled by that line, but I knew her big girl pants were better than anything I could put on.

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Liz had the invaluable talent of being direct and yet profoundly empathetic at the very same time. [Head of Upper School] Laura Ross remembers when a prickly colleague needed to be called on the carpet. Of course Liz volunteered to put on her big girl pants and say what needed to be said. But the meeting ended with Liz and the person she had reprimanded hugging and crying together.

You always knew where Liz stood. Only Liz would dare say to [Head of Athletics] Terry Barnum, “Football makes no sense—you know that, right? Running into people on purpose?” Coming from her, it was okay. Not only because of her tone, but also because Liz was the consummate teammate. Whatever her feelings about the sport, she would cheer for the team. As Terry puts it, “Liz was an intellectual heavyweight who knew how to walk around the gym.”

A year ago, I had the honor of conferring on Liz the Thomas C. Hudnut Leadership Chair, and I was searching for a simple way to express what she is to Harvard-Westlake. It was Terry who gave me the right words: “When I think about what we want Harvard-Westlake students to be when they grow up, one person comes to mind—Liz Resnick.”

Every day I worked with Liz, even on the worst days of her illness, she found ways to laugh…heartily, joyfully, irrepressibly. Working with Liz was not just a delight; it was an education. And having her as a friend was a daily gift…and a lasting blessing. We will miss you, Liz. But we won’t forget what you taught us. We won’t forget what you would say. And we won’t forget your wisdom, your humor, and your heart.

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In the words of their colleagues

RETIRING FACULTY & STAFF HW LEGACY

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Harvard-Westlake would also like to thank John Corsello for his many years of service to the school. After John announced his retirement in 2018, HW asked John to stay on one more year, and with his characteristic generosity of spirit, John stepped up to the plate, for which the school will forever be grateful.

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HW LEGACY

Francine Werner ’68

BY KATHERINE HOLMES-CHUBA

Francine’s fierce devotion to helping her students understand the world around them is something to witness. For 28 years, I have seen firsthand how Francine will talk with a student for hours about critical Supreme Court cases or key moments in American history.

Her knowledge and understanding of politics, current events, and so many other subjects is vast. Francine will always somehow bring the West Wing into conversation—as Dave Waterhouse notes, “her love of West Wing should be mentioned, because it shows her optimism that someday the reality of politics could match the idealism of the show.” Francine truly loves her students. She will have long conversations with them and ask questions about their lives, genuinely interested in what they are doing, what they hope to do, and how they plan on getting there. This applies to everyone in the department too: Francine is the first to ask how a colleague’s sick child or parent is, what she can do to help out; anyone lucky enough to be in her orbit knows what a warm and nurturing person she is. We will miss both Francine and Walt because their love for each other, the school, and the thousands of students they have taught is a legacy to be honored and a bright spot in our lives.

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Walt Werner

BY THE SCIENCE DEPARTMENT

Forty years ago, stepping to the beat of Beethoven and the Grateful Dead, Walt first shared his eclectic good cheer and love for teaching with the folks at Westlake School. Twelve years later, he entered into a 28-year commitment with the newly formed Harvard-Westlake School, and the rest is history. A look back over those four decades reveals a legacy of contributions in support of students, faculty, staff, and school. Curriculum development, senior class dean, class advisor, mentor for new teachers, dean of faculty, recipient of the Garrett Hardin Distinguished Service Award, and leader for senior expeditions and AP biology desert trips are among the headlines. But the real story is read in the lives of the students he has touched over the years and, in some cases, in the lives of the children of those students.

When you stick around long enough, everything comes full circle. If we were to use one word to describe Walt, it would be avuncular. He is a delightful, caring fellow, easy to talk to, full of great stories and wisdom. He’s been a gift for generations of Harvard-Westlake students, and those of us in the science department especially value what a great teacher and thoughtful friend he is, always quick to offer encouragement, advice, and, if needed, a big bear hug.

Walt, thank you so much for all the good you have done for the past 40 years.

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HW LEGACY

Charles Berezin

BY LARRY WEBER

When I interviewed Chuck, he reminded me of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi master. He was transitioning from a successful career in business consulting, helping companies become more egalitarian in their relationships between management and their workforce. I was struck by the breadth of his knowledge about literature, philosophy, history, and political theory, as well as by the clarity and depth of his insights. I thought, we could do worse than to bring a brilliant, learned human being into the English department with some chops in helping groups work more mindfully together. Anyone in a room with him would learn a lot, and well.

Obviously, many fortunate students and colleagues have. At the end of our interview, he looked at me and said, using the old Jedi mind trick, “That went well. I think we have a fit.�

What could I do but agree? The guy was right.

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Karen Stern

BY SANDY WOLCHOK

Karen has had a dual role here at Harvard-Westlake. She has been a parent of two outstanding students, Ari ’98 and Ilana ’01, and a teacher here for 19 years. She started at Harvard-Westlake by volunteering at the upper school computer lab, which led to full-time employment as a middle school math teacher and computer tech liaison. Karen’s students have always come first, as she completes her grading as quickly as humanly possible and has given up many hours of her personal time ensuring that her students understand difficult math concepts. Karen became a longtime personal friend of mine almost immediately upon my joining Harvard-Westlake, and I am grateful for the 15 years we have spent together here.

She is the best retreat partner anyone could have, as she has boundless energy and a strong sense of duty. Karen is also the best end-of-the year Disneyland pal—we have had so much fun! We are all happy for Karen to be able to retire and spend more time with her partner, Ron; her children; and her darling grandchildren. She will likely continue making amazing knitted garments with her newfound time as well as read or listen to many books, something she currently struggles to find time to do. Harvard-Westlake is losing a loyal, kind, caring, and talented employee, and we will all miss her terribly and wish her many happy and healthy years to come.

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HW LEGACY

Cheri Gaulke

BY TED WALCH

Cheri Gaulke is a prodigiously gifted artist, teacher, leader, visionary, colleague, parent, spouse, and friend. There’s warmth in everything she does, whether seeing a department through tough times or holding your feet to the fire. She’s a taskmaster to all who work with her, but first and foremost, she’s her own taskmaster. She never shirks from a problem or a challenge. As an artist she’s fiercely original. She’s a stubborn visionary. She takes no prisoners. Her motto would seem to be this is how I see it. That’s what all great artists feel.

But although she does not compromise, she always collaborates. To work with her is to walk with a steady companion. She is as strong a friend as I have at Harvard-Westlake. I have loved working with her. I will miss her like crazy. To paraphrase Shakespeare: “Why she doth bestride this world like a colossus…” (She would say colossa.) We’ll not meet her like again.

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Clare Lawler

BY SHANNON ACEDO

Clare Lawler came to Harvard-Westlake in 1998 to work as coordinator in the deans’ office, where she worked with deans, colleges, and hundreds of students on the college application process. During that time, she went to library school at UCLA, and starting in 2006, Clare came to work as a librarian in Mudd Library, where she has worked ever since. Clare has provided a tranquil center in the often super busy atmosphere of research season. A welcoming presence at the library front desk, she is able to sort out the most complicated bibliographic citation with grace and ease. Clare has also always taken an interest in the life of HW, volunteering for committees and ad-hoc projects whenever needed. Ever reliable and steady, Clare will miss the cafeteria and her colleagues, but most of all she will miss the smart, curious, funny, and kind students at HW, and they will miss her.

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HW LEGACY

Dearest Mother & Daddy Letter home from Audree Brown ’25

Harvard-Westlake’s archives recently received a stack of correspondence from sisters Adelle Brown ’23 and Audree Brown ’25, who were boarding students at Westlake School for Girls, to their parents in Minneapolis. Letters like this one offer an intimate look at life at Westlake almost a hundred years ago.

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If you have letters, photos, or other memorabilia to donate to the Harvard-Westlake archives, we would love to hear from you. At the moment, we are particularly looking for information on the Harvard alumni who lost their lives in World War II, including: Harlow Alabaster ’25, Robert Varty ’28, Jack Ford ’27, Edwin Stanton ’35, John Scott ’35, Gerald Fitzgerald ’42, Frederick Brennan ’42, Tomlinson Pinckney ’31, Preston Briggs ’25, Harold Pulliam ’42, Paul Tobelman ’21, John Palmer ’43, William Murphy ’24, James Clune ’42, Raymond Ford ’39 If you have anything to share regarding these alums (photos, letters, articles, or simply family lore), please help us capture their stories before it’s too late. For all archive-related matters, please contact our archivist, Alexis Arinsburg ’98, at aarinsburg@hw.com.

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STUDENT VOICES

FROM THE HARVARD-WESTLAKE CHRONICLE

RECONCILING THE PAST

Former Nazi and Holocaust survivor share their experiences during World War II

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Film stills from Hold the Sun in Your Hands: The Erika Jacoby Story

SPRING 2019

By Casey Kim ’20 and Lindsay Wu ’20

In an effort to inspire future change, former German Nazi Ursula Martens and Holocaust survivor Erika Jacoby shared their different experiences during World War II at an allschool assembly Wednesday. Xenia Bernal ’19 hosted the speakers in partnership with the Righteous Conversations Project, a program of the nonprofit organization Remember Us. Bernal said that, in addition to facilitating conversation about difficult subjects, she invited Jacoby and Martens in order to connect individuals with such contrasting backgrounds.

“I have always been in love with the idea of focusing on the similarities we have as human beings rather than the differences because people often think that the differences are much larger than they actually are,” Bernal said. “I think that it’s important for not only Harvard-Westlake students, but all students and young people to find their similarities in order to create this kind of progressive change.”

Bernal then mediated the question-and-answer-style conversation by asking the two speakers to recall their memories from the war.

Martens, who joined the Hitler Youth before she turned 10 years old, said she was indoctrinated to fully support the Nazi regime.

“It’s very hard to explain, but it was almost like Hitler was a father to us,” Martens said. “What he said was what he wanted us to do and what we wanted to do. It wasn’t bad at the time, but in the meantime we were fed all this Nazi stuff, which I now see is terrible.”

taken away if we didn’t do what Hitler wanted us to do.

And we did it willingly, with all our heart, but that was the start of my guilt. It’s taken me this long to process what I felt I had done, just like anybody else who had actually killed a person.”

Upon her release from Auschwitz, Jacoby said she was able to express her anger by destroying Nazis’ possessions.

“After the war when I was liberated, I took some kind of a stick and went into a Nazi house,” Jacoby said. “I broke all the porcelain that I could see. There was no leadership, nobody to tell us what to do. When you’re angry, you don’t ask permission for anything. You do what you have to do to release. So the day after we were liberated, that’s what we did. We destroyed. And after the day was over, we sat down and cried.”

Martens and Jacoby concluded their stories by urging students to actively participate in their communities to prevent the possibility of similar atrocities from recurring in the future.

“I want you all to remember that you are all responsible for each other,” Jacoby said. “You are not responsible for what happened, but you’re responsible now for your behavior. You are responsible to know that [a similar At a young age, Jacoby was forced to leave her home in atrocity] can happen if you close your eyes, if you don’t Hungary and enter Auschwitz concentration camp with want to see what is happening in this world. But you other members of her family, where she was forced to cannot isolate yourselves because you think you are complete physical work for the Nazis. not like that. You are part of the people around you, “If I didn’t do exactly what I was asked to do, [the and you are as responsible as I am for human behavior. leaders of the camp] would just hit,” Jacoby said. “I was So, it is your job to remember. Remember what you probably the lucky one because I wasn’t killed by the heard from me and from Ursula. It is my hope that guns or the gas, but there were these Germans who had your generation will never allow what happened to my clubs in their hands, and if they didn’t like something, generation to happen again.” they would just hit you on the head. Maybe that’s why I The assembly also included a screening of Hold the have a problem with my head now.”

Sun in Your Hands: The Erika Jacoby Story, an animated After the invasion of Germany, Martens and her family film that recounted Jacoby’s experience during the fled her hometown. She said the end of the war was the Holocaust. Bernal and other students created the film first time she realized the extent to which Hitler had over the summer through the Righteous Conversations controlled the state.

Project, an initiative to bring Holocaust survivors and teens together.

“It took me a long time to make peace with myself,” Martens said. “I blamed myself too because I believed what Hitler had said, even though I was just a child. We didn’t know what really went on, and that we would be

To watch the eight-minute animated film Hold the Sun in Your Hands: The Erika Jacoby Story, directed by Talia Abel, Xenia Bernal ’19, Ian Kim ’24, Alejandro Moses, Hank Schoen ’24, India Spencer ’21, Eva Suissa, and Michael Zambrano, go to tinyurl.y6620lf7.

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BEST WISHES Make-A-Wish and Harvard-Westlake bring one six-year-old’s dreams to life

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With his long hair, captain’s garb, and inflatable sword, six-year-old Henry looks every bit the commander of his ship. A first grader who’s into Disney and pirates, Henry was diagnosed with leukemia two years ago—but one day in February, he left his suburban Los Angeles home behind to set sail for the seven seas in a vessel on wheels in the upper school’s Taper Gym. Blue balloons rose like waves from each chair in the audience, and Henry had to navigate rocks and battle a shark before facing off against a band of student pirates attacking his boat. But after a whole lot of sword fighting and a cannon finale firing red and white confetti over the crowd, the Make-A-Wish Foundation presented Captain Henry and his entire family with tickets for a Disney cruise to the Bahamas.

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community council member caitlin chung ’20: We did an event with Make-A-Wish a couple of years ago that made a big impact on the whole campus. Now I understand why everyone loves these events so much. They’re visually appealing and it’s fun to see your friends up there as actors, but beyond that, coming together to support one cause as a community truly engages everyone and gives us all a real feeling of connection. It makes a big impact on your heart. elizabeth espinoza, make-a-wish greater los angeles’ development coordinator: Make-A-Wish grants life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses.

The biggest misconception about Make-A-Wish is that we only serve children who are terminally ill, but in fact, more than 70% of our kids grow up to adulthood. We partnered with HarvardWestlake a couple of years ago, so we knew this wish reveal would be phenomenal, but I’m completely blown away by what the school has done for Henry. I’m not a crier, but this brought me to tears. This was an amazing day that Henry and his family will never forget. upper school dean of students jordan church: I love the example this sets. It aligns with the school’s mission to promote purpose beyond ourselves. When you invest the time and energy to care for someone else, you can create miracles and bring joy to what can feel like a hopeless situation. interdisciplinary studies and independent research teacher and counselor michelle bracken: We only had 21 days to pull the whole thing together, so it was a mad dash. [Associate director of communications] Shauna Altieri helped us with costumes, [upper school performing arts teacher] Aaron Martin with lighting, and [upper school dean] Sharon Cuseo with casting. And we couldn’t have done it without [upper school plant manager] Dave Mintz [’87] and the maintenance crew: they’re the unsung heroes, putting together all the props, setting up the chairs and the balloons, cleaning up the confetti. We did all this because it’s so meaningful to our community. Our kids will talk about this for a very long time.

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henry: My favorite part was fighting the shark! henry’s dad charles: We can’t thank Harvard-Westlake enough for going out of their way to make this so amazing for us. This has brought so much joy to our family. Harvard-Westlake and Make-A-Wish will always have a special place in our hearts.

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DODGEB 26

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Since 2005, the middle school dodgeball tournament has become one of Harvard-Westlake’s most cherished traditions—a chance to show off your athletic prowess or your flair for wowing the crowd. Or both: after all, who could forget the back-to-back mid-air splits pulled off by head of the middle school Jon Wimbish and Kenneth Lee ’19 in 2015? “Harvard-Westlake can feel competitive at times, but this event has always been just for fun,” says Harry Botwick ’09, one of the tournament’s founders. “There’s no grade in dodgeball, and you won’t be judged for your performance; it’s just a chance to build community in a super low-pressure way.”

BALL 101 The tournament, the myth, the legend

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the origin story MAX ELIOT ’09: After Dodgeball came out, Harry and I started talking about how much we loved the movie

and how zany and awesome it would be if we had something ridiculous and fun like a dodgeball tournament during break. Our dean, Mr. [Paul] Mastin, offered to mentor us and show up at break with the whistle. There were probably only 12 or 16 teams the first year. Harry and I put up posters everywhere.

HARRY BOTWICK: Max and I were big Dodgeball fans and quoted it all the time—“nobody makes me bleed

my own blood!” We printed sign-up forms at the library and handed them out to everybody. Back then, we held all the games in the gym. That first year, Max was a referee. I played, but my team got eliminated pretty early on.

The next year the tournament really took off. The championship was legit: bleachers out, lights down, spotlight on, Mr. Mastin—who could have been a televangelist, he had such a great announcer voice—calling out who was on each team.

the gameplay REFEREE AND MIDDLE SCHOOL MATHEMATICS DEPARTMENT HEAD BOB PAVICH: It’s Harvard-

Westlake’s March Madness. There are 32 teams, seven players each, any grade, single or mixed gender—all students or six students and a teacher or staff member. Win or go home.

JASON THOMPSON ’22, THE ONLY STUDENT TO PLAY ON BACK-TO-BACK CHAMPIONSHIP TEAMS:

Dodgeball brings lots of fun—and bragging rights!—to our community. The championship is live-streamed

by HWTV, and there are plaques listing the winners along with a giant printout of the current bracket on the walls of Hazy. Dodgeball brings students, faculty, and staff together to have a great time and compete with each other in a sport where people don’t have the advantage of formal training.

MIDDLE SCHOOL DEAN JON CARROLL: Being in the tournament is very exciting. It is the activity during

break, and when you’re playing on the lower court, surrounded on the court and up above by spectators, you feel the adrenaline of the crowd.

FORMER MIDDLE SCHOOL DEAN AND ASSISTANT HEAD OF THE MIDDLE SCHOOL PAUL MASTIN:

The fans would go wild watching Freddie [Federico Martinez] from the cafeteria play. He was like antimatter: he would just stand there and the ball would avoid him.

MIDDLE SCHOOL DEAN COLBY PLATH: It’s a ton of fun, but as the one adult member on a team, you

also feel a bit of pressure to help your team advance. Sometimes I’ve contributed significantly, and other times, it’s been a little embarrassing. The first year I played was the year my son was born, and I was an out-of-shape, sleep-deprived new father at a new school just trying to get through the day. Relying on my high school athletic background, I assumed I’d go out and throw bombs and catch our way to a victory, but I pulled out my right lat muscle after my very first throw. Needless to say, I was no help that year, and my team was eliminated early on. Every year since, I’ve done some sort of exercise year-round to avoid that ever happening again.

JON WIMBISH: Dodgeball is a phenomenon—pure joy. I’ve never been on a team that won the tournament,

but I was in the finals once and it didn’t go well. That said, it was so thrilling to be on ESPN [which picked up the clip of the back-to-back midair splits], I have to admit.

KENNETH LEE ’19: My team wasn’t expected to go far in the tournament, so making it to the semifinals

was a big deal. As I saw Mr. Wimbish advancing to peg my teammate, I quickly hid behind another player and popped out to hit him while his attention wasn’t focused on me. As the ball left my fingertips, I thought I would hit him for sure and was surprised to see him jump over the ball. About five feet from Mr. Wimbish and completely defenseless, I was prepared to be nailed by his ball, but jumped over it as a last resort. I was shocked that I wasn’t hit as the crowd of classmates and friends erupted around me.

Opposite page, from top left to bottom left: Lola Kim ’24, Leo Saperstein ’23, Zion Atano ’24, Anna Ames ’24 and Noel Kim ’24, and Savannah Mashian ’24 show off their moves Opposite page, bottom right: Refs Bob Pavich and Geoff Robertson share a moment on the court

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the spirit of the game MAX ELIOT: Anyone can play dodgeball, and we wanted everyone to participate. We were happy to have

some teams with hilarious names or wearing wacky wigs just playing as a joke.

PAUL MASTIN: It could be like Mardi Gras. Some kids would wear costumes that would interfere with play—

they’d show up on the court dressed as superheroes with flowing capes, for example—or try to sneak by a name with some innuendo, so we had to add some rules.

BOB PAVICH: Some of the refs have fictitious names on our jerseys—mine is Rufus, [middle school math teacher]

Dan [Reeves ’94]’s is Otis, and [middle school science teacher] Geoff [Robertson]’s is Mr. E. Coli. Last year, when the match got down to one person left against seven, the kids invented a throw named the tetradactyl, where the one person left would throw two dodgeballs, one in each hand. Not effective, but entertaining.

HARRY BOTWICK: I remember some ridiculous moves, like trying to do a cartwheel with a dodgeball in your

hand and ending it in a throw, or trying to dodge like The Matrix and not caring if your team got out.

having a ball PAUL MASTIN: There were so many thrilling moments in dodgeball. Sometimes you’d get an upset where

a younger team would beat a ninth grade team of water polo players. It’s the biggest event in the school’s history as far as the number of participants and fans. If you want to go to the cafeteria when there’s no line, go during the tournament.

HARRY BOTWICK: Dodgeball is a way for students and teachers to interact outside the classroom.

Anytime you can view your teacher as a human being, that’s a good thing.

COLBY PLATH: It’s an opportunity for students to throw balls at their teachers without fear of receiving a

detention. It’s the only opportunity for that.

MAX ELIOT: The tournament is approachable for anybody, whether you compete or just watch. It’s not only

an athletic match—it’s silly too.

Opposite page: Ariana Azarbal ’22 and Daniela Quintero ’22 of We Dodge More in a Week Than You Do in a Year (photo by Sandra Koretz ’22 for the Harvard-Westlake Spectrum) Top left: Jon Wimbish’s legendary split, featured on ESPN’s Sports Center Top right: Jacob Lutsky ’24, Sam Pulaski ’24, and Ian Kim ’24 of the Mangoes (photo by Sandra Koretz ’22 for the Harvard-Westlake Spectrum)

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Grace Brown and Jenn Gabrail:

Neuro-Hacking Your Brain Learning resource specialists help students work smarter

In 2017, Harvard-Westlake hired its first learning resource specialist, Grace Brown, to help students struggling with learning challenges. This year, the program has grown; Brown now focuses on the upper school while learning resource specialist Jenn Gabrail sees students at the middle school. In this interview, they debunk some common myths about learning differences and explain why supporting all learners matters.

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why is this program important?

GRACE BROWN:

Establishing a learning resource specialist program is the administration saying yes, bring your whole self to school. It’s a huge culture change to say we want to hear if you’re having emotional or academic challenges—but supporting students in an individualized way is part of welcoming and honoring diversity. It’s about becoming inclusive, not just being nice.

Six or seven years ago, if your kid needed more help, we might have told you this isn’t the right school for you; this school is for kids who just make it on their own. Some worry that offering learning resource specialists will change the draw of a school’s population and the school will look less rigorous: Will we become a special education school? Will our students get in to top colleges?

Yet 10% of the population of every top college is made up of students with learning differences.

We’re just here to help the kids who are here and always will be here. I’m starting to hear from alums who say, “Yeah, I had a learning disability and I was on the spectrum and no one was here to support me.” We are just acknowledging that these students exist and helping them walk out as successful students and whole humans.

JENN GABRAIL: Everyone doesn’t think, learn, or do things in the same way. We want to normalize

neurodiversity and let students know that it’s okay. We’re here to help them pinpoint exactly what’s going on in their brains and achieve what they want to achieve.

what do you do for students who need help?

GABRAIL: It’s about problem solving. Sometimes the students I see are identified by deans or

teachers, and sometimes by the students themselves. They may be struggling with organization or having trouble on tests, for example. We get to the bottom of what’s happening, and create an action plan for next time.

BROWN: Let’s say a student failed a language test. They might say, “I knew the words, but I just

blanked!” I’ll ask, “How did you study?” Just looking at something is the most passive way to learn.

GABRAIL: Engaging with the material in different ways—saying something out loud, writing it

down, using flash cards—makes it much more likely that you’ll be able to retain the information.

why do some kids get special accommodations?

BROWN: Kids whose learning disabilities, physical conditions, or psychological conditions slow

down their processing speed and/or their ability to read, write, or do math fluently are eligible for accommodations. For example, some students have trouble with handwritten essays and do better if they’re typing, so instead of taking a test in the gym, we give them the test in another room. Some kids don’t do well with Scantron testing because of visual tracking difficulties from anxiety or a traumatic brain injury like a concussion. Others need a computer or calculator during a math test because they can’t recall math facts like multiplication, even though they’re in the superior range for how to solve a problem. There are also temporary accommodations. If a student is in a cast, for example, we might have someone else take notes for them.

In fact, over 50% of the kids we serve don’t have a learning disability diagnosis—they just have an academic challenge. There are a whole host of documented issues—not just learning disabilities— that can call for accommodations. Just like we all have our own fingerprint, every person learns a little differently.

Artwork by Agnes Pierscieniak

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There’s a common misunderstanding that students who get accommodations must not be as bright, but that’s usually not true. In fact, they’re usually very bright—that’s how they’ve been able to achieve at a high enough level to get here.

GABRAIL:

BROWN: Parents whose kids need accommodations

tend to be very concerned about how the child will be perceived. The truth is their child is often incredibly gifted; there’s just this one area that’s slowing them down. For example, a kid with ADHD has a creativity and awareness that a traditional student doesn’t have. And many geniuses, artists, and athletes are dyslexic; their brains tend to be visually strong.

There are rumors about kids seeking out false diagnoses to get accommodations allowing them extended time for tests, but paying experts to get accommodations at Harvard-Westlake is an urban legend. In order to qualify for extended time, students must submit an evaluation from a psychologist or neuropsychologist including 12 to 35 pages of data that numerically prove they need that extended time. If the numbers are questionable, their teachers have to verify that there’s an issue.

The resistance to students with accommodations comes from a lack of knowledge as to why accommodations are necessary. On the surface, it may not seem fair that some kids get more time on tests—but there’s science behind it.

GABRAIL: It’s also important to remember that kids who

get extra time on timed assessments don’t get extra time on papers or projects. They just have to stay up later— even though it might take them twice as long to finish each assignment.

BROWN: Our goal is to create a culture where kids

are being strategic about how they learn. If we can help students learn to be more efficient, they can get more sleep and have more time for things besides just academics. We are trained to help students neuro-hack their own brains.

GABRAIL: I haven’t met a Harvard-Westlake student who

doesn’t work hard. But if they’re doing homework for seven hours a night, that’s not healthy. We want to help those outliers.

some worry that helping students with learning challenges in school means you aren’t preparing them for the real world. how do you respond to that?

GABRAIL: Students who need accommodations will

continue to get them in college. Once they graduate, they can choose a profession that works well with their strengths. We also teach kids how to work in a system 34

that doesn’t work for them. Hopefully they’ll extend that knowledge to the real world. If they know time management isn’t their strength, for example, they can get help with strategies here and then transfer those skills to their careers. We also help students become advocates for themselves and ask, “Can I do this a different way?”

what’s the biggest issue you work on with students?

We focus on social-emotional learning a lot. It’s probably 80% of the job. Students don’t expect space for their identity or emotions, but sometimes that’s all they need. If they have a personal problem, I don’t give them a note card strategy. Instead, I’ll ask, “What state are you in as a human being? Let’s forget studying right now. Whatever you need help with, that’s what I’m here for.” We meet them where they are.

BROWN:

GABRAIL: We have to help students get their social

and emotional components in line before we can touch academics. If a student’s been arguing with their parents all weekend, they’re not ready to focus on learning. So we look at how we can make that situation better first, then shift into “Let’s make a plan for studying.”

BROWN: If students don’t feel safe and connected, they

can’t learn. For example, race, sexual and gender identity, and socieconomic status all affect how a student shows up—and if a student isn’t doing well academically, it may well be because there’s anxiety around one of those issues. The more that teachers understand how students’ differences affect them, get to know kids on that deeper level, and work with them as a team, the more effective we are as educators and the more healthy and whole students who graduate from here will be.

how do you reframe failure for kids?

Just saying, “It’s okay, you didn’t make the grade this time, but next time you will,” is really important for kids to hear, and I don’t think they’re hearing it often. We don’t dwell on failure. We tell kids, “It’s a one-time snapshot, don’t let it define who you are.”

GABRAIL:

We often work with kids to develop meditation strategies.

We may also refer them to the school psychologist; I’ll tell kids to come meet me and we’ll go together.

BROWN: If a kid has ADHD, say, there’s an

unpredictability to their own neurological function.

Maybe their brain couldn’t focus that day even though they knew the material. Something beyond their control got in the way, which isn’t their fault, but they’re still held accountable. We have to help those students be resilient

SPRING 2019 and separate their self-worth from their performance.

We are trained in practical applied psychology and neuroscience, so we can help kids sit with what is and challenge the narrative they’re assigning to an event like a test.

At another school, I had a student in my algebra class who was failing, but I always treated her with dignity and let her know that “it’s okay that you’re not passing my class right now.” She went to a therapeutic school and became a stellar math student. I never created bad blood for her with math. She came back and said I was her favorite teacher. It just wasn’t the right time for her. No one is a hopeless case, so it’s best to keep that window open. They’re kids; they have their whole lives to accomplish things. It’s important to keep their morale and sense of self strong. Every defeat is an opportunity to grow and be better than you were before.

We also need to challenge ourselves: Is the way we’ve always done things the best, most effective way to teach?

Aren’t we obligated to learn and grow as educators because we know more now? Let’s let students work to their strengths and optimize every student’s potential.

Maybe that means more time for art or other passions, not just the academic piece.

This work is empowering students. I’ve seen kids who were about to bomb out of school become honor roll students within weeks.

I have students who weren’t going to make it and now they’re engineers who are shining. It’s emotional; it’s profound. It’s changing lives.

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ALUMNI PROFILES

Daniel Kinzer ’99: Antarctic Aloha Going to the ends of the earth for the planet

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From left to right: National Geographic Grosvenor Teacher Fellows Daniel Kinzer, Justin Kaput, and Donnie Piercey (photo by Jonathan Zaccaria)

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As director of the Luke Center for Public Service at Punahou School in Honolulu, Daniel Kinzer focuses on social purpose and furthering students’ environmental awareness. Kinzer is a pioneer in experiential education; in fact, as part of Planetwalk: China, he walked more than 500 miles over southeastern China with small groups of students over the course of three years.

But nothing quite prepared him for the journey to Antarctica he took in December as a National Geographic Grosvenor Teacher Fellow.

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Top: Studying seals in Mikkelsen Harbor, off the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula (photo by Jen Raworth) Bottom: Near Almirante Brown Antarctic Base, an Argentine research center

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As we’re pulling out from the docks in Patagonia, the expedition leaders welcome all of us and then tell us that the previous night coming back through 40-foot seas, a freak rogue wave hit the back of the ship and knocked out two cabin windows at four in the morning. No one was hurt, just rattled, and although a lot of water came into the ship, we’ve boarded up those windows and the seas are calming down now. This is all as we’re leaving the dock. People start looking around like, is this a joke? Oh, wait...this is a place humans aren’t supposed to go.

The expedition lasted two weeks, including three days crossing the Drake Passage, with 20-foot seas on the way there and back. You’d go from being on the crest of a wave, looking out on the raging ocean and seabirds tormented by the wind, then dip down into the trough, like Moses parting the Red Sea, a wall of water on your left and right. It’s not easy to keep your stomach in those conditions; a lot of us had to lie down. I had a seasickness patch and it worked well, but still. When it was time to eat you didn’t feel like it. But that was the right introduction to the place. Once you get to Antarctica, the waters are protected by the outer islands, so most of the time the waves were flat or just a slight chop. Other than crossing the Drake Passage, it was a very comfortable trip. But you have to pass through purgatory to get there. I was out on deck with a big smile on the return voyage, super excited to make it back.

A COMMUNITY OF CONSERVATIONISTS There were 40 of us traveling with National Geographic and Lindblad Expeditions. Over half of the people on board were paying travelers crossing Antarctica off their bucket list, and the rest were the incredible crew, scientists, photographers, naturalists, and teachers.

National Geographic awards grants to a community of explorers who have been recognized for doing outstanding work in science and humanitarian work related to sustainability. National Geographic Explorers are doing this conservation work in a hundred countries and on every continent.

Thirteen years ago, they introduced the Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship to invite educators to join this community. It’s a two-year fellowship. The capstone is the expedition they bring you on, but you also get workshops on storytelling and science, events showcasing the cool work National Geographic is doing to promote conservation, and partners who can come into the classroom. In return, the teachers act as curriculum developers and mentors, writing blog posts, creating videos, and presenting at conferences and National Geographic events, sharing not only the expedition experience but also what we can do to address environmental challenges in innovative ways. Our job is to engage and empower a generation of explorers and conservationists who want to take care of the planet. It’s a network of preschool to high school teachers, even educators from zoos and botanical gardens, all thinking about how to bring this research and expedition back into students’ lives.

FROM HAWAII TO ANTARCTICA Since I moved to Hawaii two and a half years ago, I’ve spent some time tracking the health of shark populations, whales, sea turtles, monk seals…. I’ve been an amateur wildlife biologist since I was a kid. I love the ocean. That’s why I went; I thought, we need to care for the southern oceans and set up marine protection areas like we have in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands. But seeing the interconnectedness of this planet, and how what’s happening in Antarctica is being affected by what’s happening elsewhere and being able to dive into those conversations? The trip was life changing in a way I didn’t expect.

In Antarctica, I almost felt like I had to ask the place forgiveness to be there. It’s a Hawaiian thing, to introduce yourself and ask permission to enter. There’s a cultural legacy and isolation in Hawaii that fosters a deeper awareness, an island world view. People originally moved to Hawaii in traditional voyaging canoes with no modern navigational equipment. They were like the astronauts of their time. In Hawaii it’s easy to see that Carl Sagan was right, we’re this little marble. There’s no Planet B. We need to relearn those old ways of thinking.

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Before the trip, I worked with students at Punahou and SEEQS, the School for Examining Essential Questions of Sustainability in Honolulu, to think about the big questions we should be asking about Antarctica.

The Oahu coastline on the windward side sees all kinds of marine debris wash up, from microplastics to huge industrial fishing nets. The students wanted to make sure plastics weren’t also making their way to Antarctica.

So on the trip, we trawled for plastics and zooplankton, which are the bottom of the food chain. We were doing citizen science—we weren’t taking enough samples and we weren’t out there for enough time to come to meaningful conclusions on our own. But we did share the results with scientists at universities back in the United States also looking for plastics and studying Antarctic ecology, so our findings will be entered into their data.

LOOKING FOR ANSWERS I also spent a lot of time on the trip out with scientists collecting data. I walked out on pack ice looking for tags on seals. I visited penguin colonies of 120,000 dotting the rocky coastline to see how many penguins had eggs and if their chicks were hatching. We operated a submersible drone and listened to massive amounts of ice coming off the glaciers with a hydrophone. A big focus was learning from nature, sketching and taking notes for lessons on the innovations in penguin feathers, Antarctic toothfish, orcas, diatoms.

I’m actually finishing a master’s in biomimicry, which is all about innovation inspired by nature. As a field, we’re looking for evolution-tested strategies to create balance conducive to life. It’s about looking for ways to move into a zero-waste economy, producing renewable energy locally, and bringing the human species back into alignment with nature rather than seeing it as a separate operating system.

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One of the coolest things about the trip was building my understanding of climate change. Divers were going down every day to collect data, and there were experts there on seals, whales, birds…. Antarctica seems like a thriving ecosystem, but this year may indicate challenges because of the rate of sea ice melt early in the season. It was just on the verge of summer, but we traveled pretty easily through areas that should have been difficult to pass. That has a pretty major effect on the food web. When sea ice melts, it releases nutrients that support phytoplankton, which feed krill, which feed penguins, seals, and whales. It looks amazing, but the fundamentals may not be so healthy. One of the possibilities scientists on the trip talked about is that an early start to the summer season will have consequences at the end of the Antarctic summer. With higher temperatures and changing weather patterns, it’s possible that summer will not only start earlier but also last longer—what might happen to migrating animals like humpback whales and sea birds going into their long journeys? Most penguins winter out at sea, swimming for months. Will they be able to sustain themselves?

When times are good and there’s plenty to eat, we’re not too worried about a year from now. We live in an age of relative abundance. Some Hawaiian beaches are being washed away by king tides, but the impact hasn’t really set in yet. Meanwhile, in Antarctica, an albatross with a 12-foot wingspan was trailing the ship. Now my hair is on fire—we have to figure this out.

THE TROUBLE WITH SCIENCE The project was an interesting lesson for me on what doing science on a day-to-day basis really entails—how committed and detailed you have to be in collecting data. What if your GPS device freezes up or your trawling device breaks? The things I learned weren’t so much about the data as they were insights into the scientific process. The way we approach science makes it difficult to take meaningful action because scientific research takes years, maybe decades, to collect and then publish. And then almost nobody looks at it except other scientists. Maybe it gets into popular media but reported incorrectly or too late; after all, you collected that data 12 years ago.

Most kids don’t think of themselves as scientists because it feels like you have to spend your whole life collecting data and have a Ph.D. My six-year-old daughter says, “Daddy, I want to be marine biologist when I grow up!” And I say, “Why not be a marine biologist today? Let’s go count how many turtles we see!”

I need to make myself and others more scientifically literate and advance the commitment to citizen science.

We need to engage more people in paying attention and not always wait on the whole process to play out before moving forward.

CHANGING THE WORLD In fact, I’m starting an entrepreneurial endeavor focused on fostering a healthy planet and community for all of us: Pacific Blue School. We’re creating a curated learning experience grounded in indigenous values and nature-inspired innovation with Hawaii as the campus. It could be intergenerational or even have tie-ins with the tourist industry. Instead of traditional ways of approaching education—learning in a school building— envision learning adventures facilitated by technology. Think Pokémon Go, but with a purpose, where you’re nudged and invited to connect with people and places rooted to your own questions. I’m hoping schools will change eventually, but they tend to be slow moving and reluctant to stray too far away from “Let’s get kids into the most selective colleges we can.”

I’ve been to the other six continents and lived outside the country in China and other parts of Asia for a long time, but when I crossed the Drake Passage it made me wonder how much longer we can keep passing things down the line and waiting for others to address a real environmental moment.

The Black Friday climate report gives us maybe a dozen years to change the way we operate or we won’t be able to sustain human life on this planet. It’s pushing me to rethink how I’m spending my time and leading my own life and stepping into leadership in the community. There’s an opportunity here to radically transform the way we live.

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Antarctica is a place of immense scale and proportion. On the flight to South America, I took a photo of the screen on the seat in front of me showing the plane as it crossed the equator. The shades were down, we were 40,000 feet in the sky, and I felt huge; I’m 6’8” and crammed into my seat. In Antarctica, you’re on this ship in a monochromatic landscape in a world you don’t belong in and you feel tiny. It’s a place that seems untouched by humans, but actually it is touched by humans in significant ways.

Photo by Justin Kaput

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Top: Brown Bluff, a volcano formed from lava erupting through a glacier Bottom: Port Lockroy, a British base with the southernmost post office in the world

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STUDENT VOICES

It has come to our attention That an epidemic has spread Of our own children Making threats Against one of the most Endangered animals on this planet We can assure you Tigers do not like to be caught by their toes It is harsh and unusual cruelty To want to submit such a beautiful creature To such ugly circumstances These tigers’ toes are being Wrangled, mangled Twisted up until they can no longer walk Leaving these poor, sick animals Defenseless against the further toe-catching to later come And the terms Under which these animals are held Have just gone too far They must “holler” for their freedom “Holler” implies that the tigers Being tortured and held against their will Are in pain Are suffering They “holler” To escape the grimy, sticky clutches Of children’s evil and domineering hands Why must we stand aside Ignoring the fact that these endangered animals Are suffering Just so we humans can Choose who is “it” We must stand up for the tigers who are not able to stand Now that their toes have been caught We must stop this exploitation of tigers and their toes DONATE NOW AT WWW.PETA.ORG/EENIE-MEENIE-MINIE-NO

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POEM BY CC MESA ’22

PEOPLE FOR THE ETHICAL TREATMENT OF ANIMALS (PETA): QUARTERLY STATEMENT

Artwork by Bronwen Roosa ’22

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STUDENT VOICES

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Artwork by Ava Tran ’22

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Artwork by Grace Ma ’22

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ALUMNI PROFILES

Dr. Kara Bagot ’00: The Digital Drug Investigating social media addiction in teens

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Artwork by Anna Gong ’18

SPRING 2019

It’s 10 PM. Do you know where your children are?

More than likely, they’re in their rooms glued to their phones. Ninety-five percent of American teens now have smart phones, and they’re spending an average of four and a half hours a day on them.

Kara Bagot, MD, is a co-investigator in the National Institute of Health’s Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, which has just begun tracking more than 11,000 children from ages 9 or 10 until age 20. The $300 million study is being conducted at 21 research institutions across the United States, including the University of California, San Diego, where Bagot is a child psychiatrist and assistant professor. It aims to look at the effects of genetic and environmental factors, including screen time and drug use, on adolescent brains.

Bagot is also the principal investigator in two NIH studies of her own, both on 14- to 18-year-olds. One involves developing an app to help teens reduce their dependence on marijuana. The other is comparing the effects of social media use to drug use on teens’ brains. “From the addiction literature, we know what substances do to the brain,” says Bagot. “When kids with cannabis use disorders are exposed to cannabis-related cues— cannabis itself or cannabis paraphenalia—parts of their brains light up. And when we show them a post on their Instagram account and change the number of likes it got, we expect to see their brains light up in the same way.”

In this Q&A, Bagot shares some of her early findings and how she’s raising her own kids in a world where screen time is so ubiquitous. what made you interested in doing your own social media studies?

I’ve done a lot of prior research on teen cannabis use. Teens have poor access to substance abuse treatment, and what is available tends to be costly. So I wanted to translate established behavioral interventions to a platform kids use by developing an app to help teens with cannabis use disorders. In the process, I’ve been working with focus groups of kids in and out of treatment, asking them what apps they’re on, how they use them, and why. Kids like gamification, so we’re building in rewards on our app for aspects of treatment, like showing up to appointments, keeping in touch with your clinician, negative pharmacology tests, etc.

Sometimes the rewards are things like Groupons for a concert or movie in their area, and sometimes they’re things like surprise emojis.

The social media study came out of my work on this app. Once I realized how much time and energy social media takes up in these kids’ lives—they’re checking it constantly, at home, at school, in bed—and started talking with kids about what was rewarding about it, it made me think about it within an addiction framework. Using social media is fundamentally different than smoking a joint, but what we expect to see in both cases is that maintenance drives behavior. The classic definition of addiction is continuing to engage in substance abuse even though it’s causing negative consequences. In the same way, some kids continue to engage in social media use even though they’re bullied or depressed or experiencing FOMO. It may make them feel more socially isolated, but they keep going back and doing it anyway.

We don’t know what makes them keep doing it. The hypothesis is it’s social reward—studies done at UCLA suggest it’s the likes or how people perceive you—but I think it may also be your emotional attachment to the content you post.

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what are the risks associated with kids spending more time on social media?

Teens use social media when they’re bored. It’s a time filler—and a proxy for connecting. Historically, smoking has been something teens do with their peers. Teens typically don’t get drunk or smoke out by themselves.

Well, social media is peer driven too. They’re posting and their peers are commenting on what they’re doing. When teens want social contact, they go right back to it.

It’s interesting—as kids spend more time online, we actually see a decrease in risky behaviors across the board. Vaping has increased, but smoking overall is down. Cannabis use has stabilized, but substance use overall is declining. Kids are getting in accidents less because they’re home more spending time online.

They’re getting in trouble less. But this doesn’t mean there aren’t negative consequences—the negative consequences are just mental.

And kids are particularly vulnerable. Research shows that kids with earlier and greater exposure to the internet are engaging in earlier and riskier sex with multiple partners.

Is it because they’re more exposed to sexier, riskier content? We don’t know. But we do know it’s dangerous.

There is often little policing of online content, and kids are sexting and posting pictures of themselves and seeking approval. These photos can be easily propagated without their knowledge or consent.

There are also cross-sectional studies that look at cyberbullying and increased rates of suicidality and their association with increased rates of social media use, video gaming, and mobile phone use. One may influence

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the other, but we can’t say for sure if there’s a causal relationship, and we don’t know which kids it affects most. It may be that it worsens things for kids who are already depressed and being bullied, or it may be that it’s truly causing it.

That said, it’s not all doom and gloom; the literature shows there are positive aspects too. For example, many autistic kids miss social cues, but they can connect via video games in a way they may not be able to in person.

are there better and worse kinds of screen time?

We don’t know. It’s almost scarier because we don’t know. I believe there are differences across different kinds of screen time—video gaming, going online, streaming, social media—and the content across these different digital platforms matters. But we don’t know how it matters.

At the end of the day, I think it depends on the kid. If your kid is using a lot of social media and they’re wrapped up in peer conflicts and it makes them depressed, then social media is not good for your child. Other kids who aren’t being bullied may use it as a way to connect with friends and family, and it may be good for those children. For some kids who are into video gaming, it’s innocuous—a way to connect with friends and play games together. If there are no negative consequences— if they’re not staying up all night and not sleeping, for example—then it’s probably okay.

Artwork by Samantha Ko ’19

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is there really such a thing as a screen time addiction?

The only behavioral addiction in the DSM-5 [the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders] is internet gaming. But there’s growing interest in studying evidence-based behavioral addiction.

For some kids, whether it’s video games or social media, it’s their entire life. There are consequences for kids who spend so much time on social media that it interferes with their lives—maybe they don’t graduate or they never develop intimate relationships or have a family, even if they truly wanted those things. It helps to think about their behavior in the same way we think about substance abuse disorders. It’s hard to give up—not only because it feels good, but because the brain has changed in some way. These kids don’t feel normal when they’re not using.

To feel normal, they must be high. They’ve reset their baseline. It’s the new normal. It’s hard to take that away from someone.

how do you help teens struggling with addiction?

I think the evidence and the field is shifting toward harm reduction, no matter what the addiction is. Can you reduce your use to a level where you can get to school and you’re not losing your job and your parent isn’t grounding you? Can you be okay with that level?

Once you’ve maintained that for a while, do you really still need this at all? What is it doing for you at this point? Then you can think about the abstinence model.

It’s easier for addicts to think about things that way; reduction feels more manageable for a lot of people. Of course, when it comes to screen time, it’s not feasible to be totally abstinent in the world we live in—we’re all engaged in screen time, even if it’s just doing homework online, answering emails, or writing on the computer— but we can reduce it to a minimum.

what restrictions do you put on your own kids’ screen time?

Most of my screen time is for work. I watch very little TV and I’m not on social media at all. When I was at HarvardWestlake in the ’90s, my dad got a car phone you had to plug in, and AOL Instant Messenger came out when I was a junior, but that was about the extent of my exposure to this sort of thing growing up.

Today, I have two boys, five and two years old, and I am already super strict with their screen time. My five-yearold isn’t allowed to stream except on weekends while his little brother is napping. The little one is allowed virtually no screen time—if he wakes up early from his nap, he can finish watching a show with his brother, but that’s it. My

husband thinks we should be less restrictive. The older brother knows other kids watch things, but he also knows it’s a privilege that he even gets to watch Dinosaur Train or Paw Patrol on weekends.

When my boys get to the age when they’re asking for phones, they’re going to want to be on social media, but we will monitor it.

what guidelines do you suggest other parents set for their kids?

It’s hard for teens to think long-term about what’s in their best interest, but you can remind them that social media isn’t the be-all, end-all. You can also warn them to be smart: What they post matters—it can stay around for a long time and affect their job, college, relationship prospects.

Set ground rules around when and where they can use phones, tablets, and games. Face-to-face interaction is still important, so no screens at the table. It’s difficult, I know—I check my phone constantly. But dinnertime is off limits. And no screens in bed. Using smart phones in bed has been shown to be really, really disruptful for sleep.

So at night, put the phone away, and turn off any sounds so it doesn’t wake you up. Make sure you have some no-screen-time times as a family: Maybe hike or walk somewhere for an hour on the weekend. Some kids can do these things fine, others are a mess.

When you’re a teen, friends are your number-one thing.

Those relationships help you form your identity and become autonomous from your parents. And teens’ entire social network is through these social media platforms. So there has to be a balance.

Parents always want to know what to do for their own kids, but I mainly work with teens, and it’s almost too late at 15, 16. At that point, the ship has sailed, and once you’ve given kids everything, it’s very hard to take it away. Some parents just cut off kids from their phones altogether, and that can be traumatic.

At nine or ten with a kid’s first phone, ideally you have a conversation, including how much time they’re going to spend online. You can say, “If I see bullying, if it’s affecting your mood or your taking care of yourself, we will pull back.” Ideally, there’s constant engagement with someone who is monitoring their use. Kids are uninhibited when they can be anonymous, but if they know parents are watching they won’t be as likely to post stupid stuff. They may have fake accounts, but parents should at least try to stay on top of what their children are doing online. If you know what’s going on, good and bad, that keeps kids responsible. If parents of young kids establish that early, it doesn’t feel intrusive later.

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FACULTY & STAFF PROFILES

JESSE CABEZAS VAZQUEZ:

FIELD OF DREAMS Harvard-Westlake maintenance staff member

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SPRING 2019

Recently I wrote a letter of recommendation for Cameron Schiller [’19] as he was applying to college. I wrote about how he’s always on campus early and sometimes the last student to leave school, really polite, always asking “How are you doing?” or “Do you need help carrying that?” One day he introduced himself and sat down next to me as I was eating lunch, and we became friends. He’s a great human being.

Other students talk to me about what they’re studying, the sports they’re playing, what they’re thinking about doing after they graduate. Sometimes they tell me they’re having a hard time making a decision about their major or what to do, so I try to give them a little advice. I always tell the students here that they’re in a position to change the world. It’s a privilege for them to be in this school full of opportunities and to get the knowledge they get here. I always tell kids whatever you choose to do in life, make sure it’s something you love and that will make you happy. Follow your heart, then work hard to accomplish your dreams.

I’ve been working at the upper school for four years, mowing the fields, drawing lines on the fields for games, fixing broken sprinklers and leaks, moving equipment, emptying trash cans, blowing leaves and debris, making sure everything is nice and clean.... Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I start my day cleaning the tennis courts at 6 a.m. Sometimes we work overtime, like when there’s a jazz concert, play, or football game.

Those are long days, but I enjoy them.

Homecoming is one of our hardest days of the year, but we’re there to help people with directions, pick up the trash, restock the restrooms, and deal with any power outages. We get some breaks to go enjoy the games and food too. Then we come the following day to hose down all the candy stuck to the track [laughs] and make sure everything looks neat for the next school day.

My last job, I had no benefits, but this one came with medical insurance and a retirement plan. And I love the interaction I get with students here. There are kids who see me collecting trash and they ask me, “Do you need some help?” I tell them, “No, but thank you!” Another student, Caitlin [Chung ’19], stays and helps us with the chairs after assemblies. We tell her, “You don’t have to do that!” But she’s so nice, she does it anyway.

I grew up in a small town in Mexico called Zamora. When I finished high school, I told my dad I wanted to be a professional soccer player. My dad said, “It’s up to you. But that’s only good when you’re young. What will you do after that?” I thought, well, maybe he’s right, but it’s my dream. I had a friend who made it to the professional level playing soccer for the Barcelona team in Spain, and everyone wanted to be like him—he was our hero. “Get ready,” he told me. “I want to take you to the trials to get on the team.” I thought, if I go to the tryouts, it’ll be great if I make it, but if I don’t, my dad will be so disappointed. I would have had to miss a year of college because I would have had training camp for a month and wouldn’t be allowed to miss that much school. My dad wanted me to be an accountant; he used to work for Frito-Lay and told me he could hook me up with work there. I didn’t know what to do.

I also wanted to be a dermatologist. I have a disorder called vitiligo and wanted to find out why people get it. But my brother and sisters were studying at the same time, so my parents couldn’t afford to send us all to college and then pay for me to go to medical school. My mom always said, “We don’t have a lot. The only way we can help you is to prepare you for college and a profession. We will work hard so you can get a degree and succeed.”

So I went to ITJ (Instituto Tecnológico de Jiquilpan) to get a bachelor’s degree. When I enrolled, the only opening they had was in computer science. I was like, “Oh, great.” The first semester, I almost dropped out because my high school background was in chemistry and biology, not programming. But the guys I lived with were doing the same degree and helped me out a lot. Eventually I got familiar with programming and learned the logic.

Opposite page: Photo by Caitlin Chung ’19

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FACULTY & STAFF PROFILES

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SPRING 2019

While I’m working, I like to take pictures of the flowers, or a lizard, or a rubber ball I found decomposed in a ditch. I have a passion for photography—it’s a way to stop time.

Blowing leaves behind the chapel, seeing the dust come up through the trees with the sun shining down— I like to capture moments like that.

Photos by Jesse Cabezas Vazquez

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FACULTY & STAFF PROFILES

In 1998 I was about to finish my bachelor’s degree in computer science and was looking for a job to help pay for tuition. A friend knew a principal at a nearby school, and he asked if I’d like to teach there. I put together a sample class presentation, which was supposed to last an hour, but I was nervous and finished in half an hour. I had no experience, but luckily, they loved my presentation and I still got the job. So my last year at college, I taught too. I’d never thought about being a teacher, but I had a good relationship with my students and loved it.

Then I moved away and started working as a computer technician. As part of the job, I also taught Office and Excel to small groups from companies. I worked there for a year, but they kept telling me, “Sorry, Jesse, there is no money; can you wait?” Every payday, same issue. So I thought, I’ll go to the U.S. to try to learn English and see if I can get a better job at another company, exporting strawberries or vegetables, for example. I knew those jobs paid well, but you had to speak English.

So I moved to the USA and I went to LA Mission College in Sylmar to take English lessons for a year. At the same time, I also worked at a retirement home as a caregiver. That’s where I met my ex-wife and everything changed. So I didn’t go back to Mexico as I’d planned—I stayed.

After we got married, I went back to being a computer technician, where I made minimum wage, even though they were charging clients $80/hour. The owner told me he’d give me a raise, but then he kept saying he couldn’t afford it. One of my clients had a landscaping company and offered me a job only five minutes away from where I lived at the time in Santa Clarita, making almost twice as much money. He liked that I was bilingual because he needed someone who could communicate with homeowners. I didn’t have experience, but he said he’d start me from the beginning and if I liked it, he’d make me the main foreman.

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SPRING 2019

Once I’d worked there for a while, he asked me if I was ready to be in charge. He said he’d meet with the guys and notify them that I’d be the new main foreman. Well, everyone was upset—the newest guy with no experience being made foreman—and they all quit. But the owner just said, “Okay, now I want you to go out and find your own crew.” So I called a friend, and he called friends, and that’s how we built the crew. I worked for them for 11 years, until I found out about Harvard-Westlake.

I also run a gardening business on weekends. One of my clients had a talking parrot named Mac. When the original owner’s wife tried to pet the bird, it bit her and damaged her finger, so she told him, “You gotta get rid of that bird or I’m leaving!” So he asked if I wanted it. I said no, but the next weekend when I went to his house, the bird was in the garage with a bunch of boxes. I said, “Okay, I’ll give it a try.” It wasn’t friendly at all, but I thought I’d see if the bird could get attached to me. At first, it bit me too, but then I started wearing a leather glove. He’d still bite, but it didn’t hurt. Now I can scratch his head and cheeks. He says hello when the phone rings, or when I’m cooking, he’ll say, “Hello, hello, HELLO!” if I don’t pay attention. When I feed him, he purrs like a cat. Now I am pretty attached to him.

When my parents come visit me in the U.S., sometimes I’ll have just gotten back from gardening and I’m filthy, and my mom will say, “You went to college and got a bachelor’s degree in computer science!” She remembers when I first finished my degree seeing me in an office wearing a tie. But I tell her, “Mom, don’t feel sorry for me—I love what I do!”

After I got into landscaping, I realized it was more relaxing to be outside than inside stressed over a computer.

Sometimes I take a little break when I’m out in the field, and there’s a squirrel who climbs on my lap and eats food from my hand. Sometimes I feel like going back into computer work, but I love the interaction with the kids here and being outdoors in nature, seeing the beauty of the flowers and the landscape.

Photo by Jesse Cabezas Vazquez

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FACULTY & STAFF PROFILES

MELISSA ZIMMERMAN

Executive assistant to the head of school and the new dean of faculty and staff

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SPRING 2019

People gravitate toward Melissa Zimmerman. When asked why she thinks that is—halfway through this interview, as if on cue—a teacher upset about a struggling student burst into Zimmerman’s office looking for a sympathetic ear. This past fall, Zimmerman became the first staffer ever elected dean of middle school faculty and staff, so she is now officially in charge of listening to their interests. But perhaps closest to Zimmerman’s heart are all the students who have wandered into her office, including a bunch of boys from the class of 2012, which she talks about in this interview and wrote about in a past alumni newsletter essay excerpted here.

I moved here from Indiana and needed a job. In the fall of 1990, I got hired in the front office as a receptionist.

The girls were still in uniforms, but we were answering the phones “Harvard-Westlake.” Legally, we were Harvard-Westlake, but the boys weren’t here yet.

The next year, they showed up. My office was basically in the middle of a hallway, a faux room with couches as “walls,” and there was a gaggle of ninth grade boys who would cut through and climb over the couches.

You could do a really good backflip roll over those Ikea denim overstuffed couches. These boys had signed up to come to one school and ended up coming to the other campus. I let them congregate in the reception area, so my office became a place for them to get used to making the middle school their home.

I was 23. I thought, I’m gonna take this job and then figure out what I’m doing. Meanwhile, I kept finding interesting things to do here, and 29 years later, here I am. And I’m not bored ever. I don’t understand boring.

I worked in the maintenance office, then for John Amato. I was put in charge of the master calendar for the middle school, which I still am today. Technology has changed the way we do many things. I remember how we used to do grades: the clerical staff in an assembly line collating each student’s grades—which were in triplicate handwritten by the teachers, then sticking them in envelopes and mailing them, struggling to get it all done in time so we could go on Thanksgiving break.

I taught some human development classes, which is related to my psychology degree, but ultimately I’m better outside of the classroom. I don’t like being the center of attention. So I’ll help teachers do what they do well and stay in my lane behind the desk.

In 2012, I started working for the current head of the middle school in an office near the seventh grade deans.

Middle school students can find fun in every little thing. I appreciate their ability to seamlessly segue from a discussion of the impending zombie apocalypse one minute, to which are the cutest rose gold tennis shoes the next.

A couple of years ago I had a young man spend time in my office because he had been in a little trouble. His parents were in with the deans and he would be joining them. He was taller than last I had seen him, and his voice slightly deeper, but when he swiped away a few secret tears I could see how young he still was. We chatted about his favorite activities, and I just tried to keep him distracted. When he was called into the meeting, he leaned back into my office and asked if he could maybe come hang out with me sometimes.

I was touched; it’s really a great honor to be seen as a safe haven to a young person.

This year, I was nominated to be dean of faculty and staff. This is the first time the role has ever been filled by a staff person and not a teacher. The job is like a union rep—you listen to the cries of the people and take them to the administration. I’m interested in people; I have fun with them. One person who nominated me said, “You’ve been here long enough and you listen to us anyway—why not do it in an official capacity? It’d be great to have someone already on our side.” Putting myself forward for the role felt a little vulnerable, but I felt flattered that people would vote for me and feel confidence in me.

Opposite page: Melissa Zimmerman surrounded by seventh graders

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HW TODAY FACULTY & STAFF PROFILES

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This page: Photos by Melissa Zimmerman Opposite page, left: In her office in 2018 Opposite page, right: With associate director of communications Shauna Altieri, Halloween 2016

SPRING 2019

It’s hard to have different 29 years in, but this role is different. I feel like I’ve already made all the mistakes possible, but this has been a nice shot in the arm. I’ve always tried to be organized, but I’m even more on top of things now because I have to be. As dean of faculty and staff, I run the middle school standup meetings for faculty and staff announcements and work on approving faculty and staff grants. I’m also part of the leadership team committee and assembly committee. And I rep my constituency on the faculty academic committee: department chairs talk about new policies and new classes, and my ear is attuned to how faculty and staff will feel about them. Are there repercussions maybe people haven’t thought about?

People can get frustrated when dealing with other human beings. Sometimes they need help with next steps in discussing those frustrations. Sometimes supervisors want ideas on how to approach someone who works for them. Sometimes personal things happen in people’s lives and they just need someone to talk to.

Sometimes people’s frustration is at administration—and that’s okay. [Head of the middle school] Jon [Wimbish] and I sit in close proximity, I’ve known him since he was a teacher, I think he’s dynamic and delightful—and he’s my boss. So some people may have questioned whether I could hear them and share their concerns confidentially. But I’m the intermediary; I am comfortable advocating for others. I’d like to think I can champion their concern even if I don’t agree with it myself—it’s not about what I think.

For example, when I first started in this role, some people were feeling like admin didn’t really know who they were or see all the extra things they were doing. One person who’s been here a long time, for example— I thought he knew that I knew that he did all those things, but he didn’t know. So I had those conversations with admin—sort of “this is the temperature”—and we started several initiatives to show appreciation and are working on many more. At the end of the day, we all just want to be known and be enough as humans.

Meanwhile, I have a lot of creative projects started, lying there untouched. I’ve got three YA novels I’m trying to write, a blog I just started—and I bullet-journal like an eighth grade girl. For a while I was more of a photographer than a writer. I actually sold some photos, which ruined my photography. I’m super attracted to color and have taken shots that people have hung on their wall, which is a nice compliment, but once people start telling you “I want something for above my fireplace,” it changes everything.

Even if I won the lottery, it would be hard to leave this job. My Monday morning commute keeps getting longer and longer, but I look forward to the energy I get from here. Just to get from my office to the coffee, it’s like a slalom of golden retriever puppies. Total innocent, ridiculous silliness—all these middle school kids trying on new personalities and very old jokes for their first time. I enjoy being a part of their lives.

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HW TODAY

THE BOYS OF 2012 An excerpt from Melissa Zimmerman’s essay previously published in the alumni newsletter

I hadn’t intended to work in education and certainly never considered I would be back in middle school. I find I love working in an environment where nonsequiturs are the through line, it is accepted that big decisions are made with a Magic 8 Ball, and a day is unlikely to pass without a random Monty Python reference. Well, I am still not certain if “I wave my fanny at you!” was in fact uttered by John Cleese from the castle turret, but one doesn’t want to think that an eighth grader would come up with that on his own.

I have taught on and off through the years and enjoy that role, but I have found a love for the relationships you can build with students as a staff member. Since they are not receiving a grade from you, they choose to be around you based on your personality and accept you, peccadillos and all. For instance, I do not high-five, it’s one of my “things,” and I remember one seventh grader intercepting another mid-air slap by saying “Hey, man, she doesn’t do that…. Here, I’ll high-five you!”

One September, every time I came back to my office I would find this tiny kid with a big smile hiding under my desk. He didn’t speak, he would just giggle and run away once found. I yelled, “Next time I catch you, you are going to have to speak to me!” And he did: “My name is Anders, and I like cats,” as he pointed to a picture of my cats on my desk and ran out. While I would on occasion still find him hiding, he did also start sitting in the chairs, and sometimes he would even speak. By ninth grade he was too tall to fit under that desk and was well on his way to becoming the sweet man he is today.

I had a beta fish on my desk named Howie, may he rest in peace, when I first met Adam. Adam saw the signs of ichthe...somethingorother from the hallway and came in and told me all about it. We talked about Howie, then fish in general, and then all creatures great and small. Adam loved animals in seventh grade, and was very knowledgeable about endangered species specifically. A little later he would be more prone to talking politics and taking over Denmark, but we will get back to that.

About the same time an inordinately polite young man named Nick came to my office, stood in front of my desk, and looked like he wanted to chat. I introduced him to Howie, we talked about animals who were endangered...I had recently learned a great deal about that topic…I peppered him with thoughtful questions about his day, his classes, his life goals. When I finally took a breath, he slowly pointed to my candy jar and asked if he could have one. “On one condition,” I said, “next time you want candy, just ask, don’t let me rattle at you for half an hour?!”

By October it was standing room only as friends started seeing each other hanging in my office and joined the melee. The boys decided out of the blue and as a group that they would be my retirement plan. Nick decided he would be the first Jewish president, and Julius would be his vice president. A lot of debate ensued about cabinet positions and party affiliations, but I was to be special advisor in a ridiculously overpaid position because, as they said, I would be “way too old to do anything real.” I was okay with that if I could be not in DC, but perhaps a cute house in Santa Barbara, and taken out for sushi a couple of times a year by the pres and VP. There was even talk of my being ambassador to Tahiti. They assured me this plan would work and that the taxpayers would not mind at all. I, for one, really hope they are right!

There are moments from that year that I will remember when I actually am too old to do anything real, and many feature the Pyrenean ibex, Celia. Adam had educated us all, daily, about the death of Celia the Pyrenean ibex (yes, he always said it all the way out like that), who was the last of her kind. He pleaded with us to understand the gravity of the fact that she had died and now there were no more. He would talk about her so often that even the boys immersed in doing homework would chant, “We know, she was the last one, they tried to clone her!” One day I decided I was really going to listen and as he spoke I began to feel quite upset about poor Celia, or really was trying to, when I mistakenly asked how she died.

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SPRING 2019

Apparently, she was found crushed by a tree. I am not sure why that was the most hilarious thing I had ever heard, or why, even now, I am smiling at the visual of this poor old goat smooshed under a tree, but that day...poor Adam, I laughed so hard I cried. Then, because it was the year Evita came out, by way of apology, I bleated, “Don’t cry for me, Adam Last Name, the truth is I never left you!” The room sang with me, he laughed, and I am thankful that he was a confident and strong young man who was not warped by my sick humor. Right after that, he gave up on Celia and decided to be king of Denmark!

These guys stayed glued to my office for nearly three years, strengthening their friendships with each other, entertaining me greatly, and hopefully better for having had a place to hang out where someone genuinely liked the people they were and would become. I have heard from a few. Adam got into the college he wanted and bounded to the middle school to tell me about it that day. Anders is an amazing artist and his drawings still adorn my bulletin board, not sure if he has a cat. Julius taught debate in summer school here and last summer collected the four-foot-tall yellow crayon I had promised him back in seventh grade as his graduation present. And Nick just friended me on Facebook and says he is loving life.

I couldn’t be happier for all of them and I couldn’t feel more honored to have been chosen to be part of the lives of so many silly, fun, and truly wonderful young people.

Photo by Melissa Zimmerman

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STUDENT VOICES

LOOKING AT A LEGEND FROM THE HARVARD-WESTLAKE CHRONICLE

Tracing the baseball career of Cardinals pitcher Jack Flaherty ’14

BY KEILA MCCABE ’20

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SPRING 2019

Cardinals pitcher Jack Flaherty ’14 stood in Dodger Stadium, looking out at 50,000 empty seats waiting to be filled for his upcoming game against the Dodgers. He excused himself; Flaherty needed a moment alone to process his memories of his last game there. In 2013, the HarvardWestlake baseball program secured its only CIF title with a victory over Marina High School, 1-0. Flaherty pitched a complete shutout and drove in the only run of the game.

Flaherty said that he will remember and cherish the CIF final and entire 2013 season for the rest of his life. “We had the best night of our lives,” Flaherty said. “I’m still close with every single one of those guys.”

Athletic director Matt LaCour, the Wolverines’ baseball program head from 2007 to 2015, said that Flaherty’s performance was a key factor in the Wolverines’ victory. “[Flaherty] was the best player on the field,” LaCour said. “He was dominant on the mound and dominant at the plate. [The CIF final] was a special night, and you could see the makings of a professional athlete down the road.”

Flaherty’s 2013 season was unprecedented. He pitched 89 innings, struck out 112 batters, and had a record of 13-0. In addition, he played both shortstop and third base, batting .360 for the year. He earned a place on All-CIF Division I First-Team and Gatorade named him its Gatorade Player of the Year.

Flaherty committed to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill during his sophomore year, but was selected 34th overall in the 2014 Major League Baseball draft soon after graduating high school.

Opposite: Photo by Joe Lester Top: Photo by Taka Yanagimoto/St. Louis Cardinals

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STUDENT VOICES

“He got thrown into the professional baseball world really early, so he had to rely on skills he learned in high school—not just physically, but mentally,” LaCour said. “His maturation process as a professional athlete needed to happen fast, so it’s especially rewarding for the people who coached him because a lot of things that he’s doing he got from them.”

Flaherty credited LaCour for shaping him into the player he is today. “LaCour brought me out of my shell, allowing me to be more aggressive and have a better mentality on the field.”

After he was drafted in 2014, Flaherty spent three seasons playing in the St. Louis Cardinals’ Minor League system. In 2017, he had his Major League debut.

In his rookie season, Flaherty pitched 21.1 innings and had a 6.33 ERA. This season, he was in the starting rotation for the Cardinals and pitched 151 innings with a 3.34 ERA. He finished fifth in the voting for National League Rookie of the Year, gaining the most recognition for his Dodger Stadium outing. He pitched six innings, allowed one hit and struck out ten.

“Dodger Stadium was my ‘made it to the big leagues’ moment because that was the moment that I fell in love with the game,” Flaherty said. “For me, that was something so special.”

One of Flaherty’s mentors, visual arts teacher Ted Walch said he was incredibly proud of Flaherty.

“As a teacher, there is nothing that makes a teacher happier than when one of your students achieves success or happiness, preferably both, in doing what they want to,” Walch said. “This is what Jack was put on this Earth to do. He adds a lot of luster by not ever telling us how important he is. That’s what I love about Jack.”

As Flaherty looks to the future, he said his goal is to put in consistent hard work.

“I want to be the best version of myself that I can be,” said Flaherty.

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Photo by Joe Lester

SPRING 2019

Photo by Joe Lester

Photo by Taka Yanagimoto/St. Louis Cardinals

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NOTES HW LEGACY

Class Notes Class Notes is a regular feature in the semiannual HW Life magazine.

Notes are submitted by alumni, and each magazine includes submissions received in the previous six months.

If you have news you’d like to share with the alumni community, submit it via the alumni website (hw.com/ alumni) in the password-protected Alumni Portal or by emailing alumni@hw.com.

HARVARD CLASS NOTES

1950s

TONY THOMPSON ’51 writes, “Welcome to our 85th year on earth; our 68th as Harvard School graduates. I’m proud of the turnout at the last reunion; less proud of our giving record (4%). Go back and reread the ’51 Sentinel. We had fun growing up together. We all benefited. The school is doing great. Any conversation about Los Angeles schools will surely include recognizing HW as among the very best if you can get in and stay in.

Not a bad place to be from! Hope you are all well.”

ANDREW MACAOIDH JERGENS ’53 writes, “Many in the class of 1953 knew me as Andrew Nicholas Jergens Jr., a name given me by my adoptive father. In 1989 I found my birth mother and had my name legally changed to include a name from her history. My wife Linda and I are now officially ’old people,’ as we have moved to an Episcopal retirement community after 40 years in a condominium. It is a very good move on our part. I have two sons who live in my neighborhood: Andrew Wm, born 1966, and Peter Hawn Dine-Jergens, born 1968, whose wife has four children, the youngest being 25. Time marches on relentlessly. Peace and greetings to all.”

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1970s

STEVE ALCORN ’73 writes, “My wife Linda McBride (Marlborough ’74) and I recently celebrated our 41st wedding anniversary. Our daughter, Dani, is now COO of her Writing Academy online learning company. My company, Alcorn McBride Inc., just purchased a larger building for the Orlando HQ, and we are having fun building in features such as a full tiki bar! If classmates are in Orlando, stop by for a Zombie!”

1980s

MICHAEL LORD ’85 writes, “I composed the themes and underscore for a new game show, Spin the Wheel. The show premieres on Fox on June 20 at 9 p.m. ET and is hosted by Dax Shepard and cocreated by Justin Timberlake. For its 2019 Screen Music Awards, ASCAP is presenting me with an award for Top Network Television Series for my themes and underscore for The Wall on NBC, which returns for Season 3 on June 20.”

ALEX OLMEDO II ’85 writes, “I just moved back to Encino from Dallas after 23 years and continue raising Alex III, who is finishing up his freshman year at San Diego State University.”

CHRIS TREGILLIS ’85 writes, “Last year Phil Sweeney and I were both inducted into the Oxy (Occidental) Track Hall of Fame, as we were both steeplechasers at Oxy, 11 years apart. It was a memorable evening and an honor to be inducted with my coach and friend.”

Remembering LES JOSEPHSON ’79

After graduating from Harvard School in 1979, Les Josephson was planning to attend Harvard University and then go to medical school. Les had a “good sense of humor and was always smiling, always up,” says his father, Marty Josephson.

His mother, Rose Lee Josephson Polster, remembers Les as “part of a close-knit, intellectual, fun group, including his sister and her friends from Westlake. There were always a lot of kids at our house.”

Shaun Samuels ’79 was one of those kids. He describes Les as “gregarious, charming, and an academic standout without much apparent effort.”

In his spare time, Les enjoyed photography, art, word games, scuba diving, soccer, and hiking. In fact, Les was on a backpacking trip in Northern California with three classmates and the head of Harvard School’s history department, Phil Berk, when he died. A natural leader, Les was in front when the mountain path just fell away, taking Les with it.

When Mr. Berk tried to go down the slope to save him, he was killed as well. The aftermath was a “bonding time for our crew and Les’s family,” says Brian Wright ’79, recalling the way that friends gravitated to Les’s house as they always had, only this time to mourn and celebrate his life together in the weeks before they left for college.

In honor of Les, his parents set up the Les Josephson ’79 Scholar Endowment to fund financial aid scholarships for future generations of Harvard-Westlake students. Likewise, Phil Berk’s parents, Dr. and Mrs. J. Edward Berk, established the Philip H. Berk Memorial Scholar Endowment, also to support financial aid.

SPRING 2019 CLASS AGENT GEORGE WRIGHT ’85 writes, “The Harvard School Class of 1985 continues shakin’ and bakin’ its way down this court of play we call ’life’ with the following partial list of life events from recent years: “In August 2016, Peter Sickle ’85 announced the special delivery of Daniel William Sickle, and just a few weeks later in September, Robert Wright ’85 announced the joyful arrival of Finley Elizabeth Newman Wright.

“Jim Glantz ’85 recently cofounded the Academy for Leadership and Training, a firm dedicated to developing corporate leaders. Jim also wrote his first book, entitled Worst Practices in Corporate Training: Spectacular Disasters...What We Learned, on the failures of project management. Michael Kananack ’85 leverages his travel experience with Let’s Go Travel, a boutique travel concierge custom designed for executives in the entertainment, media, and luxury industries.

“Amongst others, Darrin Kennedy ’85, Dan O’Leary ’85, Chris Silbermann ’85, and Jon Weisman ’85 all continue the tradition with their own kids at Harvard-Westlake.

While Gavin prepares to graduate in June, his dad Dan resides in Cheviot Hills and practices law in Westwood. Chris reports that son Josh is in the ninth grade and ‘enjoying the experience.’ Jon has just returned from college tours with his daughter and recently authored Brothers in Arms: Koufax, Kershaw and the Dodgers’ Extraordinary Pitching Tradition. Go Dodgers!

“The rest of the Class of 1985 keeps on moving and generally eschewing the benefits of newfound eligibility for AARP membership. Half of the members of our class are also members of our semiactive group page on Facebook.”

JOSH RESNIK ’88 writes, “I recently joined DC tech company FiscalNote as Chief Content Officer and SVP/Publisher. In my role I oversee publications CQ and Roll Call, which FiscalNote recently acquired from the Economist. CQ and Roll Call have been covering U.S. gov-

ernment policy and politics for 75 years. Our hallmark is increasingly rare: nonpartisan, in-depth coverage of fast-changing policy issues.

We will be leveraging FiscalNote’s advanced artificial intelligence technology platform to increase our coverage, and we are currently building out new TV and podcasting studios to add to our multimedia capabilities. Love to hear from any alumni in the world of media, journalism, technology, or politics—or anyone just interested in catching up.”

WESTLAKE CLASS NOTES

1950s SYLVIA ELWOOD OSTRONIK ’53 writes, “Last October, I met up with classmate Virginia Ruhberg Golenski ’53 when my husband Dick and I were visiting San Antonio to attend the annual WWII reunion of P-38 pilots. Virginia and her husband Ron arranged a private visit to see the Glacier Girl, the lost P-38 plane that was recovered from Greenland in 1992. It was a memorable day for all; especially P-38 pilot Dick Ostronik, who will be 95 in June.”

1960s

YVONNE POWELL DUNBAR ’63 writes, “Happily retired in Gig Harbor, Washington, after a 33-year career in hospital administration.

My work took me to the remote island hospitals of Micronesia (after Peace Corps service there), then 20 years at Kapiolani Hospital in Honolulu, and finally Seattle and Portland before I retired in beautiful Gig Harbor, south of Seattle. I sit on two management boards at our local Franciscan hospital and enjoy yearly travel to Europe with an occasional return cruise to the Caribbean.

My children, LeeAnn (48) and Roman (42), and their families (four grandchildren) reside nearby in Oregon and Washington. Would love to hear from any classmates: yvonnedunbar530@comcast.net.”

PATTI WILLIS ’63 writes, “I am published in Dancing in Gumboots (Caitlin Press, 2018), a book of memoirs by women who came to the Comox Valley, British Columbia, in the 1970s.”

SUSAN SAMUELS-FUNG ’69 writes, “Hi—it’s been 50 years! I went for one year to Westlake. I was known as Alex. I live with my husband, Kevin, in Seattle. I have two adult children who live in the area. I went to Pitzer College for one year but graduated from Hunter College in NYC. I worked in the computer field for a while, but when I moved to Seattle in 1986, I quit to raise my kids (old-fashioned, I guess). I like gardening and herbs, so I take online herbal classes now. Always like to keep learning!”

1970s KIM COLIN ’79 writes, “I have lived in London for 20 years and became a Royal Designer for Industry in 2015. I trained as an architect in Los Angeles (BA in art history from UCLA; M.Arch from SCI-Arc in 1994) and in 2002 cofounded Industrial Facility in London with my British industrial designer husband Sam Hecht. The recent Phaidon monograph Industrial Facility covers the breadth of our design work for international clients including Herman Miller, Muji, Emeco, Wästberg, and Mattiazzi. I plan to see Kat McCabe ’79 in Boston and Andi Weissman Thompson ’79 this year to celebrate our 40-year Westlake reunion. Unfortunately I won’t be in LA for our class celebration.”

1980s

KAREN MCBRIDE ’80 writes, “I love living in Anacortes, Washington, on Fidalgo Island. Marcello and I enjoy traveling to Europe. After doing the Camino de Santiago walking pilgrimage in Spain in May (at least 265 miles), we will explore Italy and then Greece. I received membership to the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) and flew to Paris, where the ceremony occurred. I enjoyed meeting so many amazing people

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from all over the world. I keep in touch with Anna Martin ’80 and Elizabeth Hall ’80 and frequently get together. Elizabeth’s son, Ethan, is my godson. Anna has three daughters and three grandchildren.

Marcello and I love having company, so feel free to reach out if you are in the Northwest at Space.mcbride@gmail.com. He is a fantastic chef.”

LISA NIVER ’85 writes, “I founded We Said Go Travel in 2010, and it was read in 212 countries in 2018.

In both February and March 2019, I was named #3 and the top female travel blogger on rise.global’s Top 1,000 Travel Blogs list. I have been invited to share travel segments on KTLA-TV in Los Angeles and was part of the Critics’ Choice Awards and the ‘Countdown to Gold’ Oscars coverage. We Said Go Travel videos have nearly one million views on YouTube. I am an awardwinning travel expert who has been to 101 countries and six continents.

I have written for AARP, American Way, Jewish Journal, Smithsonian, and Wharton Magazine. I am now writing for Ms. Magazine and want to thank Joannie Parker for all of the inspiration at Westlake School for Girls. I would love to connect with classmates! Find all of my articles, videos, social media, and TV segments at lisaniver.com/onepage/.”

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LISA-BETH HARRIS ’87 writes, “1) I had an acting career milestone this year. I am featured in a documentary feature film that is streaming on Amazon and iTunes entitled The Remarkable Life of John Weld. I play Weld’s mother, Debbie Lewis. Debbie Lewis was a real person who went on to become Nancy Reagan’s astrologist (LOL). 2) I run a writing consulting company called Maverick Consulting. Prior to that, I worked in presidential politics in DC/NYC/ LA. I worked for Clinton/Gore/ Obama/Hillary—all campaign staff jobs. 3) I was a caregiver for my mom, Paula Harris, for five years.

She passed away in 2015. Many people at Westlake knew her well. I started my business at this time as I could not work full-time.

It has been quite an odyssey, but I credit Westlake with giving me the tools to succeed, even in the face of difficulty.”

LAURA SCHUMAN ’87 writes, “Class of 1987 alums Michelle Sauber Monieson ’87 (who lives in Glencoe, IL), Adrienne Salick ’87, and I recently reconnected in Los Angeles, and it took over two hours of hiking the Fryman Canyon/Tree People trail TWICE to catch up!

Westlake-girl bonds run deep.”

HARVARD-WESTLAKE CLASS NOTES

1993

SARAH COLMAIRE writes, “I am currently the dean of academics at an independent school in Los Angeles. I am starting an Ed.D. program at UCLA and looking forward to the challenge of balancing work, school, and my life as an improvisor. I am a member of three improv teams and have performed at locations including Westside Comedy Theater, Improv Space, ACME Theater, and the Pack Theater.”

DENISE DALLMAN writes, “I recently accepted a position as dean for the Center for Teaching & Learning at the University of Western States in Portland, Oregon. My department serves as the professional development hub for 80+ chiropractic, nutrition, sport psychology, and counseling faculty members.

My team also manages the integration of all educational software programs for the university and provides support to all institutional academic assessment activities. I enjoy spending time with my threeyear-old daughter Katie and husband Randy. I’m currently training for an open-water swim across the Columbia River this summer.”

MARISA GOLDSTEIN writes, “I’ve been at the WTO in Geneva since 2006, helping members settle their trade disputes. In past years I have focused on cases involving safe trade in food and agricultural products, so I can tell you all about chicken, beef, fish, and pork! Last year, I took six months off to travel around Asia and have some downtime back home in Encino. It was great meeting up with Neha Wickramasekaran ’93, and I look forward to seeing other HW alums when they pass through Geneva.”

GREG KIM writes, “I was promoted to chief marketing officer and head of corporate development at Slickdeals, overseeing all marketing, sales, ad operations, partnerships, and M&A. I’ve been at Slickdeals for over six years.

I joined in 2012 as chief revenue officer in conjunction with a control investment from Warburg Pincus. The deal was led by Vishnu Menon ’93. Last summer we sold to Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division and Hearst Communications Inc. I live in Newport Beach with my wife, Lily, and 10-year-old daughter.

SPRING 2019 LEAH ROSENBLATT LEHMBECK writes, “I was named department head of European painting and sculpture and American art at LACMA. I joined LACMA in 2014 and have served as acting department head since 2017. I live in Los Angeles with my husband, Jason, and our three boys.”

CASEY MASSMAN writes, “I am married to Sean Morris ’93, and we just welcomed our third daughter, Aria Morris, last August. Aria joins her big sisters, Sienna and Stella.

VISHNU MENON writes, “I’m very excited to be getting married in August to Heather Scott, the love of my life! I moved back to LA after 20 years away and am very happy to be back in this great city. I run the West Coast for Warburg Pincus, a $60B private equity fund.”

DAN MING writes, “I have been working as a camera assistant on various movies for the last 20 years. My wife, Desiree, and I are saving up to put our two daughters (three and six years old) through HW!” JADE SASSER writes, “I recently received tenure and promotion to associate professor of gender and sexuality studies at the University of California, Riverside, where I currently direct the sustainability studies major. My recent book, On Infertile Ground: Population Control and Women’s Rights in the Era of Climate Change, was published by NYU Press in November 2018.”

DORIE WEISS writes, “I am a clinical psychologist in private practice in West Los Angeles. I conduct neuropsychological and educational assessments for children, adolescents, and adults and see clients in therapy for anxiety, depression, postpartum mood disorders, ADHD, and autism. I specialize in working with gifted students who have learning differences. I am married to Ryan Weinstein and we have two children: Lacey Weinstein (seven) and Dylan Weinstein (two).”

NEHA WICKRAMASEKARAN writes, “My husband, Sean, and I live in Encino. Occasionally, you might find me working at our store, called the mailroom & more, in Sherman Oaks, where we get to run into members of the HW community who are regular customers, including Dov Engelberg ’93. I am currently at Industrial Light & Magic, where I started my visual effects career over 20 years ago.

When Sean broke his clavicle last summer, we happened to choose HW alum Brian Lee ’00 at KerlanJobe as his orthopedic surgeon. I was referred to the Raines Feldman law firm by a friend to consult on a project and found out the partner helping her, David Schwartz ’90, was also an HW alum. We’re everywhere! Recently while on vacation in Switzerland, we met up with Marisa Goldstein ’93 and had fun catching up over a delicious smoothie.”

1997

MARIA CAMACHO writes, “Enjoying the start to my 40s, surrounded by an incredible family (amazing husband, two-year-old son, and three-year-old Labradoodle) and supportive parents, brothers, sisters-in-law, and dear HW friends! I’m also loving my fourth season with the Los Angeles Rams as director of government affairs. #Blessed”

Remembering

MICHAEL BROWNSTEIN ’99 Michael Brownstein was a “well-rounded, smart, hard-working young man” with a “sunny disposition,” according to the letter of recommendation that Michael’s dean, Ed Hu, wrote in 1999.

Fluent in four languages, Michael went on to graduate from Princeton with a degree in comparative literature before returning to LA for a brief stint as an actor and model. In June 2007, while working for a real estate development firm in China, he suffered a fatal rock-climbing injury in Beijing.

“The things I remember most about Michael are his smile, his hugs, and his love of life, family, and friends,” says his mother, Troas Brownstein. “He had an insatiable curiosity and made friends everywhere he went.”

According to one of his closest friends, Scott Messer ’99, “Michael cared deeply, listened hard, and always gave you a straight answer. His passion for life lifted the spirits of those around him.”

Anna Nesser ’01 agrees. “Michael was kind—he was funny and loved a good laugh, but never at anyone’s expense.

He was seriously brilliant, but never took himself too seriously. He was an optimist, challenging those around him to choose happiness.”

In 2007, Michael’s family and friends created the Michael Brownstein ’99 Memorial Gap Year Fellowship Fund to honor Michael’s memory and create awareness of the transformative benefits of a gap year experience between Harvard-Westlake and college. To date, 17 HW students have been awarded the fellowship.

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NOTES DANNY KARUBIAN writes, “I got married in 2017. My wife Ashley and I live in San Francisco, and we are expecting our first child this September.”

KIT TAMKIN writes, “After nine years in corporate banking, I became director of entertainment finance at MidCap, a specialty finance firm managed by Apollo Global Management. I arrange financing for companies in the various entertainment subsectors, ranging from film and television to sports and music. I also have a black Labrador named Cooper.”

1998

JONATHAN NEYER writes, “My wife Cassandra Seto and I welcomed our third child, baby boy Dean Stillwater Neyer on April 2, 2019.”

JENNIFER TABER writes, “After two years of hard work, I am a licensed CPA in the state of California.”

2000

JESSICA KRONSTADT TURNER writes, “I was honored as a Distinguished Young Alumna by Washington University School of Law. The award ceremony was held in St. Louis on April 11. Each year, Wash. U. Law honors a small group of alumni to receive this award.

I graduated from Wash. U. Law in 2009, and I currently serve as a Deputy District Attorney at the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.”

2001

JUSTIN BARAD writes, “I started a company, Osso VR, that trains surgeons with virtual reality. We were selected as Fast Company’s #2 most innovative company in healthcare. I credit Ms. Harding.”

WHITNEY WASHINGTON BOLES writes, “I currently live in Baltimore, Maryland, with my husband Brian. I work at Constellation Energy, where I focus on Constellation’s off-site renewable energy solutions.”

LIZY DASTIN writes, “I teach at SMC and cohost an art history podcast called Art Attack. I’m also working on a book exploring the intersectionality of street art and art history. I still live in LA and wistfully drive past HarvardWestlake wishing I worked there.”

JORDAN FRIEDMAN writes, “I launched a real estate investment firm in Detroit that’s focused on stabilizing the residential market.

To date, we have deployed roughly $100M in Detroit neighborhoods, and we are just getting started!

Detroit is undergoing a renaissance and I’m extending an open invite to any Wolverines who want to come for a fun visit.”

LIZ GOLDSTEIN writes, “Chris Franjola and I were married in August of 2018 and are expecting a baby girl this August. I was recently promoted to director of product creative strategy—LATAM & EMEA (Latin America and Europe, Middle East, and Africa) at Netflix.”

KRISTIN BOYD HARRINGTON writes, “I just had my second baby, Astrid, in December. She joins big brother Cullen, who is two.”

ALYSSA RAND HOLDRIDGE writes, “I’m a psychotherapist (LMFT) in private practice in Los Angeles. John Holdridge ’02 and I are married and had a daughter in August 2018.”

MATTHEW KNEE writes, “At this year’s annual conference of the American Association of Political

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Consultants, I was honored with their 40 Under 40 Award. My work also won a Best Use of Analytics Pollie Award. In the past three election years, my work has been honored with four out of the eight such awards given in this category.

Find out more at https://theaapc. org/40-under-40-winners-classof-2019.”

SARA MANGEL writes, “I am finishing my pediatric nurse practitioner coursework at Columbia University School of Nursing. I am hoping to return to Los Angeles for my DNP residency.”

TINA GRDAN MCGRAW writes, “I have two children: Iva, who is six, and Tessa, who is three. My husband Andrew McGraw ’01 and I live in Thousand Oaks. I work at Harvard-Westlake as the head of the peer support program and as a psychology teacher. I’m also working on my doctorate in psychology.”

JESSICA RICHMAN writes, “I am still living in San Francisco and currently work for the Australian government. My role is to assist American tech companies in their expansion to Australia and vice versa. In addition to my job, I recently launched the Visible Collective, a market research and strategic consulting firm focused on helping companies better understand how they can market to and create products for the 71% of adults who, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), are overweight or obese in the United States— what we call the invisible majority.”

MICHAEL RIMOIN writes, “My wife and I are expecting our first child this Labor Day.” ALEX SEGGERMAN writes, “Last September, I was appointed assistant professor of Islamic art history at Rutgers UniversityNewark and moved to Maplewood, New Jersey, with my husband, Steve, and our five-year-old daughter, Lucy. My first book, Modernism on the Nile: Art in

SPRING 2019 Egypt Between the Islamic and the Contemporary, comes out in September 2019 from the University of North Carolina Press.”

BRIAN SHAFA writes, “I am finishing up my plastic surgery fellowship in Chicago, then moving back home in 2020 to start my practice. My wife is due with our first baby next month.”

SUSAN SHIN writes, “I live in NYC with my husband and four-year-old son, and I run my own business, a video production company called Stories In Focus LLC (www. storiesinfocus.com). If anyone is in the NYC area, reach out!”

JON VENICK writes, “I just made partner at my law firm, DLA Piper.

I have two kids. My son, Lincoln, is four, and my daughter, Willa, will be three in April.”

JAKE WHITE writes, “In September 2018, I left Sullivan & Cromwell to become the office administrator at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld here in Los Angeles. My wife and I are expecting our second child, a boy, in June. I continue to root for the Dodgers, and I remain convinced that the Grateful Dead did it the best that it will ever be done.”

KELVIN WONG writes, “I have a private practice with a focus on robotic urological cancer surgery.

I split my time between Ventura County and Irvine. My wife and I have three kids.”

COURTNEY QUINN WYMAN writes, “Dylan (Ryan Harter ’94), Caroline (Courtney ’01) and Vivienne (Jennifer Paulson Devkar ’97) enjoy their preschool playground together! Not pictured, but in the same class, are the son of Steve Durbin ’97 and the son of Sarah Seo Peterson ’98.”

2002

DEBORAH STOKOL writes, “I recently spoke and performed at SXSW EDU. I gave a lecture titled ‘Teaching the Bardic Tradition,’ in which I explained and demonstrated how to make literature, specifically works arising from the oral tradition, like the Odyssey and Beowulf, come alive for readers, listeners, and students in new (and very old!) ways. I teach these works using the original medium they would have employed, voice and harp, composing music to put to the words of these pieces in order to help students further connect with them. I have sung, played, and written music for 30 years, worked as a journalist for 5 years, and taught middle and high school English and journalism for the past 10. I am currently at Brentwood School. You can find some of my music at soundcloud. com/deborahstokol and the audio recording of the SXSW talk at https://soundcloud.com/ officialsxsw/sxsw-2019-teachingthe-bardic-tradition-as-a-bard.”

2007

NICK GREIF AND CAT STEVENS write, “We kept our HW friendship going and kicked it up a notch, getting hitched last year with a lot of our HW family and friends.

Since then, Nick has become chief of staff for LA City Councilmember David Ryu, helping push paid parental leave and ethics reform in the City. Cat has started Cub Rally, a business forging new ground in the neighborhood childcare sharing space.”

DEENA MARGOLIN writes, “I got married to my amazing husband last year with so many HarvardWestlake friends attending, like Ally Furie ’07, Denise Hasson ’05, Jen Gal ’05, and Kristin Gallant ’05. I’m a child therapist here in LA who specializes in helping parents and children four years and older experiencing anxiety, depression, OCD, social skill challenges, and emotional regulation difficulties.

There’s nothing else I’d rather do than help families become more resilient—a passion I started to cultivate while at HW!”

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NOTES REBECCA NEUBAUER writes, “I am currently living and working in Santa Monica. I have a psychotherapy private practice and specialize in working with adolescents and young adults experiencing anxiety, depression, and trauma. In addition to my psychotherapy private practice, I work as a clinical social worker at the UCLA Rape Treatment Center.”

COREY SCHWARTZ writes, “I recently moved back to Los Angeles after eight years in New York and am looking forward to reconnecting with LA-based HW alumni. I am an investment professional at BlackRock focused on private direct lending and special situations credit strategies. I also got married in June 2018 in Big Sur, California, with many Harvard-Westlake alumni in attendance: Isabella Morton ’06, Jillian Ressler ’06, Sam de Castro Abeger ’07, Bennett Givens ’07, Joseph Haldeman ’07, Harris Letter ’07, Brian Pingree ’07, Jason Vahn ’07, Matt Graziano ’08, and Max Lubin ’08.”

ADAM SIEFF writes, “Happy to share that I’m marrying my girlfriend Madeleine McKenna this upcoming September in Malibu.

We met in law school, and we’re looking forward to celebrating with a number of HW 2007 classmates including best man Lucas Shaw ’07, groomsmen Jason Gold ’07 and Ethan Levitt ’07, and probably a dozen or more additional Wolverines.

Instead of a wedding registry, we’re accepting advance donations toward HW tuition for the class of 2040!

(Kidding—sort of).

I’m a commercial and constitutional litigator with Latham & Watkins LLP in Los Angeles, where I handle antitrust and intellectual property matters for technology companies and digital media platforms as well as impact civil rights cases for nonprofit organizations like Equality California and the NAACP. This winter, I had the privilege of representing the transgender soldiers challenging President Trump’s ban on transgender military service before the U.S. Supreme Court. We are continuing to litigate their claims in a federal court in Riverside. I’m also in my second semester as a lecturer in law at USC Gould School of Law, where I’m teaching a course to first-year law students and doing my best to channel all of the wonderful HW teachers I’ve had—I’m shooting for a combination of Kathy Neumeyer, Paul Mastin, and Steve Chan— hopefully with some success. Much love to you all, and be in touch.”

2008

CATHRYN QUINN writes, “I married Keenan McCarthy on March 17, 2018, at Corpus Christi Church. The bridal party included Wolverines Courtney Quinn Wyman ’01, Kristin Quinn Canon ’03, Sarah McMahon ’08, K.C. Kanoff ’08, Katherine Sebastian ’08, and Alexa Bagnard ’08. The ceremony highlights included a beautiful rendition of ‘Stand By Me’ by Sarah McMahon ’08 and a reading by Marin Dennis ’08.

Keenan and I reside in New York City.”

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALUMNI WITH GRADUATES IN THE CLASS OF ’19!

Mike Riordan ’73 Kristina Riordan Robert Maloney ’76 Pierce Maloney Duane Clark ’80 Anja Clark Michael Daniels ’80 Liam Daniels Howard Sunkin ’81 Emma Sunkin Gary Burdorf ’82 Carly Burdorf Debbie Weiss Haber ’82 Sophie Haber Rachel Terner Vogel ’82 Asher Vogel Jenny Mintz Eidinger ’83 Maddy Eidinger David Golob ’83 Mikey Golob Jaynee Strickstein Beckman ’84 Ben Beckman Deborah Davidson ’84 Jake Davidson Felicia Paik Kim ’84 Ryan Kim Sheryl Kanter Lyons ’84 Lucas Lyons Sarah Bott ’85 Owen Fahey Marlena Schoenberg Fejzo ’85 Kala Fejzo Mila Fejzo Daniel O’Leary ’85 Gavin O’Leary David Sunkin ’85 Michael Sunkin Jeryl Bowers ’86 Kaelyn Bowers Pamela Heller ’86 Sofia Heller Ingrid Brau-Girod ’87 Isabel Girod Dominic Sandifer ’87 Jack Sandifer Anessa Karney ’88 Alex Goldstein Jennifer Friedman Lechter ’89 Zack Lechter Nina Takesh Rioja ’89 Max Rioja Jeremy Rosen ’89 Ethan Rosen

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Jennifer Mahendra Yogakumar ’91 Sanjay Yogakumar

SPRING 2019

In Memoriam

FROM TOP, LEFT TO RIGHT ROW 1

Ian Small ’62 Stephen Stepanian ’59 ROW 2

Georgia Cavanaugh Owen’39 Charles Hadenfeldt’59 Peter Truex’ 72 ROW 3

Tina Bradbury Karapetian’73 George Robinson’43 Richard Robbins ’54 ROW 4

William Rule ’42 Film teacher Philip diFranco

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Faculty & Staff Notes Faculty & Staff Notes is a new feature in HW Life. Teachers and staff members can share their news by emailing Elizabeth Hurchalla at ehurchalla@hw.com.

DIRECTOR OF PUBLICATIONS AND MIDDLE SCHOOL PUBLIC SPEAKING TEACHER TERRY BARIS writes, “On New Year’s Day, 2019, I set foot on the continent of Antarctica. I wish to express appreciation to Harvard-Westlake for supporting and subsidizing this trip with a personal growth grant. It enabled the dream of traveling to all seven continents to become a reality.

For anyone who has a similar goal, an adventure with Quark Expeditions is highly recommended.”

UPPER SCHOOL VISUAL ARTS DEPARTMENT HEAD GUSTAVO GODOY writes, “In January I opened a sculptural exhibition at the Bakersfield Museum of Art called ‘The Prototype.’ The exhibition consists of a large-scale abstract construction that speaks to the issues we are currently grappling with surrounding immigration and border walls. The big red sculpture has been quite the dialogue starter in a community that often avoids public discussion of complex political issues.”

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UPPER SCHOOL SPANISH TEACHER MARGOT RIEMER writes, “In October, my friend Sue Biales (the world languages department head at Oakwood School) and I presented at a conference in Anaheim. In late March, we took that presentation (on Breakout EDU) on the road to the Southwest Conference on Language Teaching in Texas. We shared a breakout activity that we created together: Our level 3 students worked collaboratively to read chapters of a story to help them decipher clues. The clues, in turn, allowed students to open each of five locks on a box—some traditional padlocks, others with directions or words on them. Our students read a lot about Mexico City’s cultural highlights and opened all the locks together while using Spanish! The kids really enjoyed it and the feedback I got was very positive.”

UPPER SCHOOL CINEMA STUDIES TEACHER TED WALCH writes, “After five years of research and writing, I have finished my book What Are We Going to Do About the Kid?: François Truffaut, Jean-Pierre Léaud, and the Making of The 400 Blows. Truffaut’s movie helped launch the French New Wave and is perhaps the wisest and most dispassionate look at adolescence on film. My day-to-day account of the making of the film is interlaced with several stories: the research itself (which involved a number of Harvard-Westlake alumni who worked with me in Paris and at the Cinémathèque Française), my experience teaching the film, and my thoughts on adolescence (my own and my students’). The exhilaration of finishing the book has now given way to the arduous and humbling search for an agent and a publisher.”

UPPER SCHOOL PERFORMING ARTS TEACHER ZANAIDA ROBLES writes, “Last July I sang on a recording session for an album entitled Sing About It, featuring the dynamic new choral ensemble Tonality (ourtonality.org). The album includes two of my original compositions, ‘Can You See’ and ‘Lady in Blue.’ The album was released in February and is available on Amazon and iTunes.

Last summer, I also lectured and facilitated a round-table discussion on ‘The Radical Implications of Singing “Lift Every Voice and Sing”’ during the National Association of Negro Musicians National Conference in Las Vegas.”

NEW UPPER SCHOOL HISTORY AND SOCIAL STUDIES TEACHER PAT MCCULLOUGH writes, “I finished my Ph.D. in the History of Religion at UCLA over the summer of 2018, so that felt like a big deal :).”

UPPER SCHOOL VISUAL ARTS TEACHER CHERI GAULKE writes, “Over spring break I traveled to four film festivals with my film Gloria’s Call. It won best documentary at the 57th annual Ann Arbor Film Festival. Upcoming screenings in LA include June 11 at the ArcLight Hollywood and November 16 at the Marciano Art Foundation. At our own Westflix festival in March, I was very surprised when a new award was announced: the Gaulke Award for Visual Storytelling. Ted Walch gave a wonderful speech. The award will be given every year from now on!”

SPRING 2019

DIRECTOR OF ADVANCEMENT ELI GOLDSMITH writes, “My wife, Heather, and I welcomed a daughter, Grace Elizabeth Goldsmith, on October 26, 2018.

She is happy and healthy and beautiful and just the best.”

UPPER SCHOOL CHINESE TEACHER KUN LI writes, “Baby Yukai was born on September 12, 2018.

Yukai’s sister, Kemi, is happy to have him. Our family feels blessed.”

MIDDLE SCHOOL VISUAL ARTS TEACHER MEGAN COTTS writes, “On January 24th, we welcomed Nyima Lucia Glaholt into our family. Weighing seven pounds, one ounce and measuring 20 inches, she entered the world with a full head of hair and healthy set of lungs. Mom, dad, and big sister Esmé adore her and dote on her constantly.”

UPPER SCHOOL PERFORMING ARTS DEPARTMENT HEAD SHAWN COSTANTINO writes, “My wife, Chloe, and I welcomed baby Nora Grace on June 15, 2018. Just like her saxophone-playing dad, Nora loves to swing!”

MIDDLE SCHOOL CHINESE TEACHER CHEN CHEN WRITES, “I got married in Los Angeles in June 2018. My husband is very kind and smart. I feel so lucky!”

OPPOSITE PAGE, FROM LEFT TO RIGHT

Terry Baris “The Prototype,” by Gustav Godoy Zanaida Robles

MIDDLE SCHOOL SCIENCE DEPARTMENT HEAD AND DEBATE TEACHER ALEX RAS writes, “Both Krista McClain (upper school science teacher, scheduler, and upper school faculty academic committee chair) and I had babies in November: Zoe Annabelle Ras, born on November 17, 2018, and Emmy Ann Henningsen, born on November 5, 2018. They’re best friends!”

MIDDLE SCHOOL SPANISH TEACHER EDGAR JURADO writes, “My wife and I had our first baby, William Flynn Jurado, in July 2018.

We love him to pieces, even though he reminds us every day that learning never stops.”

CREATIVE DIRECTOR AGNES PIERSCIENIAK “On December 17, I adopted Reba, an 18.5-pound chihuahua mix from Marley’s Mutts Pawsitive Change program in Bakersfield. This amazing organization pairs dogs with prison inmates who train them to become Canine Good Citizens ready for adoption. Reba is loved by all and enjoying life not on the streets.”

THIS PAGE, FROM TOP

Eli and Grace Elizabeth Goldsmith Nyima Lucia Glaholt Kun Li and family Zoe Annabelle Ras (in blue) and Emmy Ann Henningsen (in white and purple) Agnes Pierscieniak and Reba Shawn and Nora Grace Costantino William Flynn Jurado

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NOTES UPPER SCHOOL SCIENCE TEACHER AND UPPER SCHOOL COORDINATOR OF DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION NATE CARDIN WRITES, “Last spring, I organized and edited Queer Qrosswords (QQ), a collection of 22 LGBTQ+themed crossword puzzles written by folks from across the LGBTQ+ spectrum. For a $10+ donation to an LGBTQ+ charity, people can get their very own copy of the packet, which celebrates queerness through fun themes and LGBTQ+centric puzzle answers. To date, QQ has raised over $23,000 for charities like the Trevor Project, Immigration Equality, Trans Women of Color Collective, and Keshet. QQ was such a success that we’re in the middle of making a sequel packet, with over 35 puzzle writers contributing! Watch for QQ2, coming soon. For now, find out more at www.queerqrosswords.com!”

STATEMENT PIECE

By Nate Cardin Can you solve this crossword puzzle inspired by Harvard-Westlake’s mission statement?

For the solution, please see next page.

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Across 1. Genre for Kid Cudi or Cardi B 4. Female sheep 7. Direction opposite NNW on a compass 10. Website page with answers to common queries 13. Genre for Panic! at the Disco or Fall Out Boy 14. Once around the track 15. Finish 16. Closely monitored hosp. areas 18. “The ___ of our lives is to be happy.” - Dalai Lama 20. Biological order that contains mice 22. Word on an eight-sided traffic sign 23. TV “Bam!” chef Lagasse 25. Allow 26. Athletic attire 28. “Real ___ is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s

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going to know whether you did it or not.” - Oprah Winfrey 30. “If ___ be so bold...”

31. US meat inspection agency 33. Person gathering leaves 34. “Crazy in Love” singer, to fans 35. Canyon sound rebound 36. Old folks, to young folks 38. “___ is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.” Booker T. Washington 40. Remark of the unimpressed 43. “Do ___ others...”

44. Car tire pressure units (or the letter before omega) 47. Newton or Asimov 48. At any time 49. Tehran’s country 50. “We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress and prosperity for our ___...

Our ambitions must be broad enough to include

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the aspirations and needs of others.” - Cesar Chavez 53. Alpine warbles 55. French summer 56. Headgear for a WWI solider ... or a conspiracy theorist 58. Pixar clownfish 59. Type of stove or pig 61. Institutional statement of aims and goals ... which is most prominently informed at Harvard-Westlake by the answers to 18-, 28-, 38-, and 50-Across 64. Blueprint detail, briefly 65. PC-to-PC linking system 66. When doubled, a 2014 hiphop dance craze 67. Card game that makes you say the name of the game to win 68. Letter before tee 69. Amaze and astound 70. Explosive initials 71. KFC flavor enhancer

Down 1. Talent agent, for short 2. “Make me laugh!”

3. Depict 4. Run away to get married 5. Used to be 6. Fencing sword 7. Tennis all-star Williams 8. Show contempt nasally 9. Actor Redmayne 10. Shark part visible above the water 11. Impersonate 12. Less loud 17. Mythical man-goats 19. Ring-around-the-rosy flower 21. “View of Toledo” painter 24. Cramp-relieving pill 26. “I like the cut of your ___!”

27. State flower of New Mexico that sounds disgusting 29. Level, like an old building 32. Poet Silverstein 35. Accomplish, as a task

36. Hereditary unit 37. Access point 38. Dutch soft cheese 39. Candy heart message 40. Arm muscles 41. Carbon-14 or uranium-235 42. Reproductive cells 44. Insurance payment 45. Western taverns 46. Networking connections 48. Flammable gas used in welding 49. “Beware the ___ of March!”

51. ___ Wafers 52. Relative by marriage 54. Starting point 57. Leonardo, Raphael, Michaelangelo, and Donatello, initially 60. Coll. football ranking format 62. Author Fleming or actor Somerhalder 63. Yuletide beverage

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R A P E M O P U R S T J E R I M A B E Y B I C E P S

I S O T O P E

G A M E T E S

E L P O O P S E Y E E X D E A C M U T B E C S

W E A P S E E

I N L A W

N I L L A

S H E L

Y U C C A

S S E N R O M E R I N T D A O G L L E U N E V E T Y H A T Y M N N E T

E F D I D E N I L E G R R A E E Z N C E T O R I Y O D N E I S S A E N T

A C T L I K E P R E M I U M

Q U I E T E R S A L O O N S

S A T Y R S I N S N O G

In February, Harvard-Westlake faculty and staff volunteered at Los Angeles Regional Food Bank to pack thousands of boxes of food for needy children, seniors, and families.

SPRING 2019

NOTES

Faculty & Staff Milestones Harvard-Westlake would like to recognize these faculty and staff members for their many years of service.

Thank you!

40 years Harry Salamandra SENIOR ALUMNI OFFICER

30 years Antonio Nassar UPPER SCHOOL SCIENCE TEACHER

Elliott Parivar MIDDLE SCHOOL SCIENCE TEACHER

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SPRING 2019

20 years Andrew Brabbée MIDDLE SCHOOL SPANISH TEACHER

Paul Chenier MIDDLE SCHOOL HISTORY AND SOCIAL STUDIES TEACHER

Melissa Hearlihy GIRLS’ BASKETBALL PROGRAM HEAD

Silvia Jalomo MAINTENANCE ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT

Jeannette Rodriguez MIDDLE SCHOOL LIBRARY, TECHNOLOGY, AND SPANISH TEACHER

10 years Annie Abrams ’99 ADVANCEMENT ASSISTANT

Geoff Robertson MIDDLE SCHOOL SCIENCE TEACHER

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NOTES

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SPRING 2019

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

“THE NAME’S YOUNG. JAMES YOUNG.” There are 150 FBI chaplains in the nation and two in LA; former Harvard-Westlake chaplain Father J. Young is one of them.

I stumbled on the FBI thing on the internet about six months before retiring and thought, “Oh! That’s interesting.” After going through an intensive background check—I’m not directly involved in top-secret stuff myself, but the agents I’m dealing with are, and they have to be able to talk to me about anything— they took me on.

If nothing’s going on, I work maybe a half day a week. If something big happens, on the other hand, I could be called out for a week working 12-hour days. For example, I was one of the chaplains who met with the agents who’d been on the scene of the Thousand Oaks shooting.

Evidence Response Technicians (ERT) go into crime scenes before anything is touched to take measurements and photos and collect bullet fragments, things like that. The victims are still there at that point. It’s a traumatic job; in fact, the impetus for bringing chaplains on board at the FBI in the first place 20 or 30 years ago was a high rate of stress-related behavior. So there’s a tent set up like 50 yards away from the crime scene staffed with FBI psychologists and chaplains. As agents come off the scene, they’re required to check in at the tent. Ninety percent of the time, you hand them a bottle of water and they’re on their way.

But ten percent of the time, they’ve reached their limit and need someone to talk to.

I always used to say my job at Harvard-Westlake was like a fireman’s—I spent most of the week playing cards waiting for the alarm to go off. At school, that translated to hanging out with kids in my office, building relationships so they’d feel comfortable coming in to talk to me if they needed to. Well, if you take away the 17-year-olds and plug in 32-year-olds, it’s actually pretty similar at the FBI. During a slow week, I make the rounds at the office, introducing myself to people I’ve never met. Honestly it drove me crazy at first: “Man, I’ve given out 150 business cards. How long is it it going to take for me to get a call?” But law enforcement people can be slow to trust those outside the organization, which applies to me too, even though I’m kind of an insider, kind of not. After two-plus years at the FBI, now people are finally calling. It’s often about things not even related to the office, like someone lost his wife, or they’re having trouble with their teenage kid. It appeals to me to deal with the hard stuff of life.

One surprise was how well the bureau cares for its employees. For example, they’ve done studies to calculate how long after people have been exposed to a crime scene they’re likely to exhibit post-traumatic stress symptoms; at that point, they’re required to come in and meet with the chaplains and psychologists again. My stereotype of a big bureaucratic organization is that it’s cold, but shockingly the FBI is not. We absolutely watch out for our people.

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NOTES

Student Notes Student Notes is a new feature highlighting recent student accomplishments. Students can share their news by emailing HW Life editor Elizabeth Hurchalla at ehurchalla@hw.com.

BENJAMIN BECKMAN ’19 writes, “As one of two apprentice composers appointed to the National Youth Orchestra of the USA this summer, I get to write a short piece the orchestra will play on a concert tour of Europe. Also, a recording of a piano quartet I wrote will be broadcast on NPR on the national radio show From the Top! Find out more about my music at benjaminbeckmanmusic.com.”

WILLA FOGELSON ’22 writes, “On March 22, my first single, ‘Trampled Flowers,’ came out. I wrote it a few months ago, and it was produced by Linda Perry. It was so amazing to be a part of the whole process of creating what you hear, from writing to playing to production. It’s about losing someone, whatever that may mean to you. It’s on Apple Music, Spotify, and SoundCloud under the name Willa Amai (my middle name). I hope everybody enjoys!”

CATE GREENMAN ’22 writes, “After studying classical ballet for many years, I was excited to be selected to compete in Tanzolymp Berlin in February. Tanzolymp is a fiveday ballet competition that draws pre-professional dancers from Russia, Korea, China, Portugal, and many other countries. I am also awaiting news on an Arabic immersion summer program funded by the U.S. Department of State that will allow me to reach my goal of becoming fluent in both spoken modern standard Arabic and written Quranic Arabic.

Always fascinated by the culture, I began studying the (beautiful, but seriously challenging!) language about two and half years ago.”

ALEC KATZ ’19 writes, “Last year, as recipients of HW Venture’s inaugural Social Entrepreneurship Fellowship, Amaan Irfan ’21 and I started Soles4Good.org.

Soles4Good provides gently worn footwear to Senegal’s street youth to help them build a sustainable future through small-scale entrepreneurship selling shoes.

After traveling to Senegal and seeing the wonderful opportunities this fellowship has made possible, Amaan and I wanted to pay it forward by starting HW Venture Impact. In February, we hosted an Impact event with social entrepreneur alumni speakers at the upper school and received 13 impressive applications for the HW Impact Fellowship. The resources that HW provided us to start Soles4Good inspired us to encourage other students to pursue social entrepreneurial ventures.”

LUCY KIM ’19 writes, “As student ambassador co-chair for the 2018-2019 school year, I started a foreign language service that pairs students fluent in another language

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with families who primarily communicate in that language.

The inspiration was my own admission process—I was worried my parents wouldn’t be able to understand their interviewer—and our mission statement, which speaks to our efforts to create a diverse and inclusive community.

By providing translation services to families who speak Chinese, Korean, and Spanish, HarvardWestlake students can apply and test their own foreign language skills, and prospective parents need no longer fear the language barrier.

I hope that I was able to ease the admission process for at least one other prospective student!”

GRACE MA ’22 writes, “As part of a research camp last summer, I joined a few students from all over California in studying the effects of climate change on the Earth’s oceans and atmosphere at the University of California San Diego. We attended lectures and worked in labs with world-famous climate change chemists and biologists. I researched the creation of medicines, biodegradable plastics, and fuel from algae, and got to create algae oil plastics in the chemistry lab firsthand. I also studied the effects of increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere on ocean temperatures and marine biodiversity. Finally, I designed and carried out my own experiment on how rising ocean temperature was affecting the oxygen consumption of marine animals and presented my research to scientists, professors, and other students. More recently, my still life painting ‘Melangecholy’ was awarded an honorable mention in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards.”

SPRING 2019 CHARLIE MEENAGHAN ’19 writes, “Over the past few months, my music compositions have won awards in a number of national and international competitions, including the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, National YoungArts Competition, and the Robert Avalon International Competition for Composers. In February, my music was performed by the LA Phil as part of the Symphonies for Schools concerts for thousands of schoolchildren from across LA. This month, a brand-new work of mine for string quartet and electronics called ‘Somatic’ premiered at Lincoln Center.”

MICHAEL MIYAJIMA ’22 writes, “I created a free, open-source iOS app called My Formula that allows you to store mathematical formulas, by keyboard or by visual recognition AI, and call on them whenever you want. In 2018, My Formula won the top award in the Shinshu Future Apps Contest Zero 2018 U15 division and was awarded the outstanding performance award and the Yahoo! JAPAN Award in the Ibaraki Digital Contents and Software Awards. My Formula is available on the Apple App Store for free.”

LILY NEUMANN ’24 writes, “In March, I went to the swimming Junior Olympics for my fifth year. I swam the 50 freestyle and 100 breaststroke and took third and sixth in those events with a personal best time in the 100 breaststroke. I got 15th and 6th in the 200 freestyle and 400 IM with a personal best in the 400 IM. I also swam the 100 freestyle and 100 backstroke, finishing 4th and 8th with a personal best time in the 100 freestyle. Finally, I swam in three relays that all placed in the top 10.”

SOPHIA RASCOFF ’23 writes, “During the school year I worked with the character committee to help everyone on campus recognize the extent of comments intended as jokes that could have negative connotations. Our year culminated in an interesting and exciting visit for the whole community from guest speaker, educator, and diversity consultant Rosetta Lee.” CASEY ROSS ’23 writes, “These last two climbing seasons I have qualified for regional, divisional, and national championships. At the most recent regional competition, I got first place in my category for having the fastest time climbing up the wall. I have really enjoyed becoming a good rock climber as well as meeting new people through the climbing community!”

HANK SCHOEN ’24 writes, “At last year’s Righteous Conversations Project summer camp at HarvardWestlake, I worked with other teens to create the animated short film Hold the Sun in Your Hands: The Erika Jacoby Story. Making a film about a Holocaust survivor was a deeply meaningful experience for me because there are not very many survivors left. I am grateful to my fellow filmmakers and to Samara Hutman and Cheri Gaulke for making this documentary possible. I am especially grateful to Erika Jacoby for sharing her story with us and being so open and willing to answer our questions.”

Ian Kim ’24 adds, “Hold the Sun in Your Hands was the first film I ever worked on, and I was super excited to learn to do stop-motion animation using sand, paper cutouts, and other tools. From interviewing to storyboarding to sound editing, we collaborated to transform a gripping narrative into an artistic piece. Hold the Sun in Your Hands won best documentary at the Screen Student Film Festival, was awarded best overall film at Westflix, screened at the LA Student Film Festival and the Newport Beach Film Festival, and was featured at the Cannes Film Festival as part of the the American Pavilion Emerging Filmmaker Showcase.”

CLAY SKAGGS ’20 writes, “This year I have performed shows for USC, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, and the Girl Scouts of America. I also released my original trick ‘Unleaded’ for sale on penguinmagic.com. This summer, I hope to spend more time performing at the Magic Castle and will perform alongside Magicians Without Borders in underprivileged areas. Find out more at clayskaggsmagic.com or @clays_magic on Instagram.”

SIJI SMOLEV ’22 writes, “In early February, I was chosen to play the viola in an honors orchestra at Carnegie Hall. I met so many talented high school musicians from all over the world and got to work with our amazing conductor, Steven Davis. We performed Dvorák’s Slavonic Dances, Chaconne in E Minor by Buxtehude, and the finale of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4. Stepping on the stage of Carnegie Hall was surreal and made me feel like I was on top of the musical world. It was an experience I will never forget.”

LEFT TO RIGHT

Willa Fogelson Cate Greenman “Melangecholy,” by Grace Ma Lily Neumann Clay Skaggs Siji Smolev

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NOTES

IT’S ABOUT TIME

By Jim Pattison

One Christmas, the four kids in our family decided that the rule about not opening presents before 7 a.m. was absurdly unreasonable. We held a “council meeting” upstairs, and I, as the oldest, was commissioned to sneak downstairs and move the clocks ahead. I went into the living room, the kitchen, even crawled G.I. Joe-style under my parents’ bed, eventually moving time forward—in three forays—by one hour and 45 minutes! So, when the alarm rang, the clock said 7 a.m., but in reality, it was 5:15. As we tore into the presents, my father and mother came out, rubbing their eyes and remarking on how dark it was outside.

Then my father said, “Where’s my watch?” and I—to my chagrin— realized that I had forgotten completely about that timepiece … and the jig was up.

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SPRING 2019

Nowadays, it seems that time whizzes by too quickly. And we’re always trying to use the latest time-saving gadget or find ways to take care of responsibilities quickly, so as to have time for more important matters in life. People shop for cars, mortgage rates, clothes, flights—all online and on their own schedule because time is so valuable and so scarce.

How do I use my time? What do I do to make more time available for the people and things that are important to me? Do I get swallowed up in the busy-ness of the daily routine and wind up, at the end of the day, frustrated by things not done, people not seen...and the gnawing feeling that what is truly important—knowing my children, knowing my spouse, knowing myself, knowing others around me—just keeps skipping by in a blur? A New Yorker cartoon exaggerates (but only slightly) a common issue for many of us: a father, sitting at his kitchen table with his wife and children, says, “Before we begin this family meeting, how about we go around and say our names and a little something about ourselves.”

What we need to realize is that busy-ness can be productive but not terribly fruitful, it can fill our days with important but not meaningful things, and we can wind up successful but lacking significance.

Although it seems counterintuitive, I’m fortunate to live in Goleta (just north of Santa Barbara) with a 100-mile commute that takes 90 to 120 minutes each way. I appreciate the chance to have some quiet time each day to consider what’s really important and what I’m going to do to make it happen.

Many times, my simple resolution (especially coming home at night) is to make sure I’m a reasonable facsimile of an adult who will listen to my wife. But it’s also a chance to think beyond “when the dog dies and the kids are out of college” and reflect on how I can help make the world a better place.

I know a Harvard-Westlake graduate who has an incredibly full day replete with meetings, schoolrelated activities, and a business he runs that requires a great amount of his attention. He’s a busy person. No doubt. But he also takes time, while he jogs and at other quiet moments, to think beyond his day’s to-do list. How does he ensure he leaves the world better than he found it? One way is by giving back to Harvard-Westlake.

Life isn’t just about making a living. It’s also about making a difference. It’s something many of us are fortunate to talk about at school with our friends, and not an uncommon conversation in our Office of Advancement. If it’s something you’re thinking about too, please contact me.

Jim Pattison is the senior advancement officer at Harvard-Westlake and spearheads the school’s gift planning efforts. For more information on making a gift to the school, he may be reached at jpattison@hw.com or 818-487-5471.

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HW LEGACY

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Artwork by Caitlin Chung ’20

SPRING 2019

Glass shard vessel by Vanessa Payne ’19

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Last Look

MAZELLE ETESSAMI ’14 IN PORT-AU-PRINCE, 2013

By Alexis Sherman Arinsburg ’98

As a recipient of the Harvard-Westlake Junior Summer Fellowship, Etessami traveled to Haiti to teach at a school for orphans and assist at a dental clinic just three years after the 2010 earthquake that devastated the island. “I look back on the experience with a mix of profound gratitude and sadness, insofar as I was surrounded by an insurmountable level of suffering,” Etessami recalls. “The lessons I learned in Haiti led me to pursue more long-term, community-centered volunteer opportunities in places where I could have more of an impact.” After co-founding Fenix Humanitarian Legal Aid in Greece last fall, she is now developing Amnesty International’s Digital Verification Corps Program at the University of Hong Kong School of Law. Photo courtesy of Mazelle Etessami and originally published in the August 2013 Harvard-Westlake Chronicle

Tensile form by Brian Hartman ’20

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Parents of alumni: If the graduate to whom this magazine is addressed no longer maintains a permanent address at your home, please notify the Office of Advancement of the new mailing address.

REQUEST FOR FEEDBACK We want to hear from you! Let us know what you thought of this issue and what you’d like to see in future HW Life issues. Please send your comments to Elizabeth Hurchalla at ehurchalla@hw.com.

CREATIVE DIRECTOR & DESIGNER: AGNES PIERSCIENIAK CONTENT DIRECTOR & WRITER: ELIZABETH HURCHALLA PHOTOGRAPHY PRODUCTION MANAGER: SHAUNA ALTIERI PHOTOGRAPHERS: MATT SAYLES ’00, UTKAN KOCATURK, JESSE CHEHAK ’97, ELYSE FRELINGER FRONT COVER PHOTO: ADAM BRITTON

Artwork by Scarlet Heyes ’21

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