Harvard-Westlake Life Magazine, Winter 2017-2018

H A RVA RD -WEST LA KE WINTER 2017-2018 Daniel Högsta ’05, network coordinator for the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, which won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize

Letter from Ed Hu AN ILLUSTRIOUS PAST, A BRILLIANT FUTURE Dear Friends of Harvard-Westlake, Happy Holidays from everyone here at Harvard-Westlake!

In these pages, we are proud to highlight many of our notable alumni, including Tony Award–winning Broadway star Ben Platt ’11, women’s polo pioneer Sue Sally Jones Hale ’54, and Daniel Högsta ’05, network coordinator for the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), which won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize.

You’ll also find an account of Harvard School’s touch-and-go move to Coldwater Canyon 80 years ago.

Today, we’re celebrating another watershed moment for Harvard-Westlake: the recent purchase of Weddington Golf & Tennis, a 16-acre property less than a mile from the upper school campus, which nearly doubles the size of our campus in Studio City. Over the next few years, the school will use the land to develop the Harvard-Westlake Community Athletics Center, which will offer athletic and recreational opportunities to our students and the Studio City community. Look for more coverage of our plans for the property in upcoming issues.

We also recently relaunched our website, including a new online store and the events calendar, at www.hw.com. Please come say hello at an upcoming campus event! And all the best for a wonderful holiday season!

Cheers,

Ed Hu Head of External Relations

HW Legacy 2 Honoring Whiz Kid Charles B. “Tex” Thornton Chuck Thornton ’60 establishes the Charles B. Thornton President and Head of School Fund 4 The Move That Saved the School Remembering Harvard School’s move to Coldwater Canyon 80 years ago 8 Sue Sally Jones Hale ’54, Trailblazer World-class female polo player disguised herself as a man to play

HW Today 12 Ready, Set, Start How Fast Start helps new middle school students get acquainted with Harvard-Westlake 14 Culture Club Families explore their own heritage and others’ through Harvard-Westlake’s parent cultural affinity groups 16 Me and My Shadow Shadow a Student sheds light on the HW student experience

Faculty & Staff Profiles 19 Meet David Lee ’89, Director of Alumni Relations and Senior Advancement Officer 20 Makings of a Hero Director of Maintenance for Athletic Facilities Roberto Hernandez saves a jogger’s life

Alumni Profiles 22 Charting a New Course at LAUSD Former Watts schoolteacher Nick Melvoin ’04 joins the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education 26 Saving Lives, One Medical Technology Advance at a Time Physician, entrepreneur, advisor, and investor Alice Jacobs ’92 helps people get well with medical technology 28 ICAN, We Will The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, including Daniel HÖgsta ’05, wins this year’s Nobel Peace Prize 30 Dear Ben Platt Turning the spotlight on Broadway superstar Ben Platt ’11

Student Voices: From the Chronicle 32 #Detoxic Students share their opinions about social media’s influence on body image and eating disorders 34 Game. Set. Champs.

Harvard-Westlake wins the 2017 CIF Southern Section Division 1 championship in tennis

Notes 36 Class Notes 40 Habits of the Heart

By Senior Advancement Officer and Director of Major Gifts Jim Pattison

Last Look 42 Voice of the Girls: 1979-1989 From the new Westlake Staircase

WINTER 2017

HW LEGACY

Honoring Whiz Kid Charles B. “Tex” Thornton CHUCK THORNTON ’60 ESTABLISHES THE CHARLES B. THORNTON PRESIDENT AND HEAD OF SCHOOL FUND Harvard-Westlake’s endowment has now surpassed the $100 million mark for the first time, thanks to the school’s largest endowment gift ever from Charles B. “Chuck” Thornton, Jr. ’60.

A businessman and philanthropist, Chuck Thornton is also a longstanding member of Harvard-Westlake’s board. “Ever since I became a trustee of the school over 25 years ago, I have made annual contributions to a fund with the idea of naming something for my father someday,” he explains. Recently, “Rick [Commons] suggested naming the head of school position after my father, and I thought it sounded like a good idea.” With this gift, the title held by Commons and his successors will officially be known from now on as the Charles B. Thornton President and Head of School.

It’s not the first time Chuck’s father, Charles B. “Tex” Thornton, has had something at the school named after him. “The Thornton Science Center building was a gift my father made after I graduated. I assume he was so relieved I actually finished high school, he wanted to do something to commemorate it,” says Chuck with a laugh. “He didn’t tell me anything about it at the time.

The Harvard School trustees used to meet near the upper school chapel, and I just noticed the building one day as I walked up the hill to get to the meeting.” However, after the Munger Science Center was constructed in the early ’90s, the Feldman-Horn Center for the Arts was built where the Thornton Science Center once stood. “I remember standing in the parking lot at the side of the building after workers had taken down the Thornton Science Center letters—you could still just make out the outline of where they had been on the wall—and feeling very nostalgic.”

Chuck considered his father to be the most important person in his life. “My dad came from a very impoverished background in West Texas and brought himself to some prominence in the ’60s; in fact, he was on the cover of Time by himself once and again with others, which was a big deal in those days,” he says. “He was scrupulously honest and extremely hard-working, a tough guy before all this modern lovey-dovey stuff existed. As a traditional male role model, he was about as good as you could get. He got me through Harvard School and paid my way through Stanford and Harvard Business School, giving me as good a start as anyone could ask for.”

Chuck was born in Washington, DC, in 1942 and was followed by his brother three years later.

“As you may have read,” says Chuck wryly, “there was a war going on at the time.” A clerk in the Interior Department, Tex was recruited by the United States military to run the Army Air Forces Statistical Control Group, tasked with applying statistical analysis to make crucial decisions about managing resources, including aircraft, supplies, ammunition, fuel, and everything else necessary to conduct an air war. Tex and his team, including nine top management officers, slashed the military’s operational costs and were later dubbed the “Whiz Kids.”

After the war, Tex and the rest of the Whiz Kids moved to Detroit to work for Ford, instituting new systems to control costs and turn the then-faltering company around. A few years later, however, Tex was one of the first to leave. “My father wanted to get back to Texas,” remembers Chuck, so he interviewed for the Hughes Tool Company, which was headquartered in Houston. “Hughes had headhunters, or whatever the equivalent was back then, who identified Dad. They flew him

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out and put him up at the Beverly Hills Hotel. After Dad sat around the hotel for a couple of days, Howard Hughes finally picked him up outside the hotel at something like 10:00 in the evening and drove him around all night, dropping him off around 7:00 in the morning.”

After this meeting, according to Chuck, “Hughes says, ‘Okay, I’ll hire you to be the head of Hughes Tool, but I have this other company, Hughes Aircraft, and I’d like you to be VP and acting general manager of it for a while.

You’d just be here for six months getting it squared away, and then I’ll let you go head up Hughes Tool.’” But before long, Tex realized he’d be in LA for the long haul and moved the whole family here in the late ’40s.

The Thorntons lived in Rancho Park and Brentwood before building a house near Sunset and Sepulveda.

Tex worked for Hughes until 1953, when he cofounded a company that bought a small electronics company owned by Charles Litton. After acquiring the Litton name, Tex turned Litton Industries into a huge conglomerate. In 1981, Tex received the Presidential Medal of Honor from President Ronald Reagan, who called him “a man whose energy and enterprise are symbolic of America herself.”

Chuck originally went to boarding school at the Cate School in Carpenteria for a couple of years, but “fortunately for me, I wasn’t particularly happy there and my father didn’t like the headmaster,” he recalls. “They agreed to move me to Harvard, which was a military school back then. We all wore our khakis and dress uniforms, marched around, and attended military classes.

We studied reading, writing, arithmetic, all the basics, but it was a boys’ school, so there was no art, dance, chorale, any of that stuff in those days.”

Chuck recalls his Harvard School days fondly. “If you’ve seen American Graffiti, that was the era. It was rock-androll and hot rods. It was a fun place and a good time to grow up. But it was just another private school back then.

Now, thanks to [fellow trustee] Charlie Munger, [former Harvard-Westlake President and CEO] Tom Hudnut, and now Rick, it’s arguably the primo place to send your kid if you want them to get the best education possible.

Harvard-Westlake is incredibly well run, but it also takes a lot of money. A little extra endowment will be good for the school. It’s an extraordinary place.”

Thornton family portrait from the mid '60s, with Chuck Thornton in the seersucker jacket (LEFT) Charles B. "Tex" Thornton (ABOVE)

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HW LEGACY

The Move That Saved the School Remembering Harvard School’s relocation to Coldwater Canyon 80 years ago Over a decade after a new campus was planned, Harvard School moved to the upper school’s present location in 1937. This excerpt from the Harvard School 1900-1975 history book tells the story.

As Harvard School prospered from 1912 to 1926, Los Angeles was changing. In 1900 Harvard had been built in what was then virtually a country location. By 1932 it was surrounded by a rapidly growing business district and hampered by the development of an expanding city. Whereas near the turn of the century, a Harvard boy could look out onto barley fields, by 1926 the school echoed to the continuous noise of traffic on the streets and boulevards.

As the automobile developed, the city was altered—and not to the advantage of the school's original campus.

Harvard was at a crossroads: to remain as it was or to grow with the city.

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In 1926, a 25-acre site, ideal for school purposes, was acquired in the Westwood–Bel Air university district.

The area was becoming an educational center for Southern California. The hope was that in such surroundings Harvard would grow into a modern and progressive institution. It would again enjoy the advantages of a country boarding school as well as those advantages coming from its location within the city limits of Los Angeles.

Provisionally, the date set for the official opening of the new campus was September 1932. The building fund was estimated to need $500,000 in order to erect the new buildings and provide other capital requirements.

Elaborate plans were drawn up for a greatly enlarged and improved school to be built on the Westwood hillside.

It was expected that the prompt sale of the Western Avenue campus, together with a fundraising campaign, would finance development of the new campus.

Hollywood Country Club in the 1920s, looking north toward Ventura Boulevard

However, there was a delay in selecting the right architects, who then had to prepare drawings to put in front of prospective donors. By the time the fundraising campaign was ready to be launched, it was already 1930 and the effects of the Depression were being seriously felt. Most people were struggling to get by and had no money to donate, however good the cause might be.

As a result, the campaign failed. Moreover, the value of the Western Avenue campus declined greatly. Far from providing Harvard with a new campus, the entire project almost destroyed the school forever.

Directly because of the Depression, the Westwood property overnight became much less valuable than its purchase price. At the same time, Harvard's enrollment began to be seriously affected because many parents were withdrawing their sons and putting them into the public high school system in an effort to save money.

It quickly became clear that Harvard had a survival problem and was not going to be able to pay the taxes or interest on the mortgage on the new property, which was eventually foreclosed.

The gap between the school’s income and its expenditures widened and it became impossible to balance the budget. Harvard had fallen, like so many other schools at this time, victim to the financial squeeze of the Depression. Letters terminating the employment of the members of the faculty and staff were sent out along with the promise of help in finding teaching positions elsewhere. Parents were informed that Harvard would not be reopening in the following September and that they would have to find another school for their sons.

Despite the apparently hopeless prospects, there were some at Harvard who refused to accept what seemed inevitable and were determined to save the school. The first step was the termination of the corporate existence of the institution as then constituted, ending the service of all incumbent trustees. In due course a new board was selected.

The board organized a fundraising drive and managed to collect $3,000, which was used to pay the faculty for the summer months. Of course the most urgent

Original Harvard School campus at the corner of Venice Boulevard and Western Avenue

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Photo of the new campus in 1937, looking up the hill from what's now the track

Study hall in the former country club main lounge, 1937

business was to find a new location for Harvard, as the old campus was lost to foreclosure. Here help came from an entirely unexpected source. One of Harvard's former students controlled a mortgage loan business in Los Angeles. Earlier he had made a large loan to a private boys’ school in Carlsbad, California, which had not been able to ride out the Depression. The mortgage company was forced to foreclose and found itself with the school on its hands. It decided to approach [Harvard Headmaster] Kinter Hamilton, offering to reopen the school if he would accept the position of headmaster.

Hamilton loved Harvard School and was not greatly interested in this proposal, but he was excited by the incidental information that he received in the course of the discussion, namely that the Security First National Bank had just foreclosed on the Hollywood Country Club in North Hollywood and was anxious to find a buyer. [It was decided] that every effort be made to acquire that property for the relocation and reopening of Harvard.

spent most of their summer vacation moving furniture, painting, cleaning, and organizing classroom space.

Few of the fruits of victory would have been tasted had it not been for the loyalty of the faculty, many of whom continued to teach at Harvard during those first years in the San Fernando Valley with little or no pay.

The final purchase price was $60,000. According to the terms of the agreement, Harvard School was to make a down payment of $25,000 for the 22-acre site. The real problem was where to find that down payment. It was finally decided to approach Donald W. Douglas, Sr., president of Douglas Aircraft Corporation. He agreed to advance a loan sufficient to cover the amount of the down payment.

The practical task of preparing the former country club so that it would be suitable for school purposes was begun under the direction of the faculty members who

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Athletic facilities of the kind required by a secondary school were not available at first. It was, for example, necessary to hold football practice and games on the fairway of the second hole of the former golf course, which is now Goodland Avenue. Basketball games were played on the seventeenth green. Baseball games and military drills were held on the west side of Coldwater Canyon Avenue. Of course, it was easy and safe to cross the avenue in those days when it was only a narrow road with very little traffic.

The women's locker room became a dormitory and library. What had served the country club as a main lounge was converted into a study hall with business offices and the school store at the side.

An alumnus of the class of 1904 had the contract to remodel the main locker room of the former country club into ten classrooms. He and his men worked overtime until late at night. The work was finished on the Friday before school was to open and the paint was barely dry when the boys moved desks and chairs into the classrooms. Today nothing at all, except [Rugby] Tower, remains of the country club, whose building eventually gave way to new and larger school facilities.

Rugby Tower view looking north, 1937

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HW LEGACY

Sue Sally Jones Hale ’54, Trailblazer World-class female polo player disguised herself as a man to play

Even as a child, Sue Sally Jones Hale ’54 “spent a lot of time running around the hills on a horse, hitting rocks with a stick on the hillside,” says her daughter, Stormie Hale. From that vantage point, Sue Sally would often watch players at the Will Rogers Polo Club. Finally, says Stormie, “one of the best guys playing at the time told her they’d teach her for fun—but that she couldn’t play with them because she was a girl.”

Then one day when she was 13, says Stormie, someone didn’t show up to play, and they asked her to step in. She was a natural. “Afterward the club manager called her and said, ‘You want to play? Come next Sunday and we’ll do it again.’”

The daughter of ballerina Susan Avery and Oscar-nominated screenwriter Grover Jones, Sue Sally Jones grew up in Pacific Palisades and got her first horse at age three, the same year her father died. Her mother later dated—and eventually married—famed stuntman Richard Talmadge, who helped raise Sue Sally. “Dickie came from circus folk and taught Mom to throw knives and do tricks on horseback,” according to Stormie. “He told her she could do anything she wanted.”

Sue Sally was raised among the Hollywood elite, but according to Stormie, they were just family friends to her—“she didn’t have any use for people putting on airs.” Sue Sally and her mother often went to polo matches at the Riviera Country Club, where celebrities including Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy played. “She would sit on her horse on the sidelines and watch, then go home and write down and draw how they did certain swings,” says Stormie.

After attending elementary school at John Thomas Dye, Sue Sally went to Westlake. “She was always a straight-A student,” says Stormie, and aside from her uniform, “never in a dress.” She qualified for the Junior Olympics in swimming when she was 14 and played tennis as well.

But horses were her greatest love. “We rode bareback all over the hills around the Riviera Country Club and Will Rogers State Park,” says Chatty Collier ’55. “Anything with four legs that you could sit on, she’d ride it. She would have ridden a zebra or an elephant if she could have.”’

As Noel Ruhberg Moody ’54 remembers, “She’d invite me over to go riding. She could run and vault onto her horse up over the rump and land right in the saddle—that so impressed me! She even tried to teach me to play polo once, but I hit the horse with the mallet so hard I gave it up.”

Not Sue Sally. However, she had to play matches disguised as a man because women were not permitted in the sport. “She’d tape down her breasts, tuck her hair into her helmet, put on an oversized shirt and fake mustache from her stepdad, and play under the name S. Jones,” says Stormie. Afterward, she’d take off the disguise and go to the post-match party—and no one except her teammates ever knew who she was.

She started applying to join the United States Polo Association when she was 16. In fact, she applied every year—and was denied because of her gender 20 times. “Women were in such a box in those days,” says Stormie. “In the ’50s and ’60s, women were supposed to be in the kitchen and having babies.”

Of course, she had a family too. At 25, she married a writer named Alex Hale and moved to Carmel, where they raised five children before divorcing in 1976. “Ponies were our babysitters,” remembers Stormie. Sue Sally was “on a horse five days before she gave birth and three days after. She’d shove in everything possible to do in a day, and every activity had a horse involved.”

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Photo courtesy of sshale.com

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Photo courtesy of sshale.com

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Westlake’s graduating class of ’54; Sue Sally Jones is fourth from the left in the center row

Meanwhile, Sue Sally worked as a horse trainer and instructor, teaching players so she had someone to play with. Polo magazine, who later called her a “legend,” reported that she could “ride like a Comanche and hit the ball like a Mack truck.” Yet the USPA continued to bar women. According to Stormie, “she was teaching guys who became members, but she still wasn’t allowed in herself.” Finally, after decades of trying to join, she received her membership card to the USPA in 1972. She would later call opening that envelope the “greatest moment in my sports life.”

But the prejudice didn’t end there. “She faced everything you can imagine,” says Stormie. “She had her life threatened. Other players told her they’d run her over on the field.” But she was not to be intimidated. “She would reply, ‘Better boys than you have tried,’” says Stormie, and just keep playing.

“If you said a bad word, they wouldn’t ask you back.

You were on the line for every girl who came after you,” Stormie explains. “Once she played with a broken leg.

Another time she got a tooth knocked out, spit it out, and said ‘Let’s go.’ Once a mallet split her thumb in half and she just kept playing.” She was unstoppable because she had to be, says Stormie. “If she had cried, ‘I got hurt!’ she felt she would not have been asked back.

It would have proven that women couldn’t cut it.”

The ’70s was when women’s polo in the USPA really took off. In 1979, says Stormie, Sue Sally was the force behind the country’s first USPA women’s tournaments.

Ten years after that, she pushed for and won the first USPA Women’s Open Championship Tournament.

Her enthusiasm and drive followed her wherever she went. As Stormie remembers, “She’d meet someone at the market and say, ‘Come on, I’ll put you on a horse!’

It could be the guy who bagged her groceries, didn’t matter.” She just wanted more people to play.

“She was very inclusive and could find the best in anybody, on or off the field,” Stormie continues.

“People were always stopping by—she’d treat people from all walks of life according to the content of their character and nothing else. Her house was a gathering spot for people and animals.”

Chatty Collier agrees. “She was a fun, wonderful gal with a great sense of humor. She had eight million dogs—she’d take in any stray in the neighborhood. She even had part of the barn remodeled so she could be near the horses.” At 65, she died on her ten-acre ranch in Coachella of natural causes.

Today almost 40% of the 4,500 members of the USPA are women. Stormie and her sister Sunny became formidable competitive polo players in their own right. In fact, Sunny, who died in February, was the top ranking woman in the sport and the first woman to play on a team that won the US Open.

And Sue Sally Jones Hale, now considered the grande dame of polo, was the one who blazed the trail for them and so many other women. A year after her death, she became the first woman to be honored with the Iglehart Award, a lifetime achievement award from the Museum of Polo and Hall of Fame. “She worked her whole life to open doors for women polo players,” says Stormie. And she did.

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WINTER 2017

HW TODAY

Ready, Set, Start How Fast Start helps new middle school students get acquainted with Harvard-Westlake “I would have been so lost without Fast Start,” says Therese Enriquez ’22. Held two weeks before the first official day of school, Fast Start is Harvard-Westlake’s program to introduce incoming seventh and ninth graders to their new school.

“If you just show up on the first day of school, you’re one of 730 students, two-thirds of whom know exactly where they’re going,” notes Head of Middle School Jon Wimbish. “Meanwhile, you’re wondering, ‘What does SE stand for?’”* Getting acquainted with the campus is one reason 95% of new seventh and ninth graders opt to participate in Fast Start, according to Andrew Brabbée, world languages teacher and a faculty supervisor for Fast Start.

“Sometimes there’s even a scavenger hunt where kids have to find certain rooms and figure out which classes a teacher teaches,” adds Middle School Dean Department Head Kate Benton.

Students also get to do a trial run of their classes. “We don’t want kids to be penalized if they’re not here for Fast Start, so we’ll repeat things on the first day of school,” says Brabbée.

But Fast Start provides students who do participate an idea of what to expect. For example, says Wimbish, “Some kids have never been in a lab classroom before, so at Fast Start, we explain things like what a graduated cylinder is.”

They also get a taste of Harvard-Westlake culture with a class called HW Life, including “some of our traditions and why this is a special place,” according to Middle School Dean Jon Carroll.

HW Life introduces students to the honor code and cell phone policy, as well as school rules like “no walking on the lawn before 10:00, and don’t leave your backpack on the terrace,” says Brabbée.

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Finally, new kids get to meet other new kids. “It’s so hard being a new seventh grader, wandering around break by yourself, not knowing if you should talk to anyone,” remembers Brooke Stanford ’21, now a ninth grader and Fast Start student ambassador. Student ambassadors are on site during Fast Start to assist new students, introducing themselves and answering questions. “It feels good to help people,” says Stanford.

At Fast Start, she continues, ”people who all come from another school, like John Thomas Dye, tend to clump together. There are literally different circles at break.

It’s amazing how everything changes in a couple of years. Everyone knows everyone; it’s not five girls in one group and five guys in another. Harvard-Westlake is not very cliquey—everyone has different friends in different groups.”

At the end of Fast Start, students all join in a tradition started by former Vice President John Amato: the backpack relay. “Kids load up a backpack, run down the field, take something out, and put something else in,” says Brabbée “It’s a fun way to end the week.”

Amato used to give a speech at the end of the relay about the responsibility they now have as seventh graders, recalls Carroll. “They’re getting their first credit card, their school ID…. Starting seventh grade is a rite of passage.

Now [Cross Country and Track Program Head] Jonas [Koolsbergen ’83] gives that talk, and Kate [Benton] and I add a little spice too.”

According to Benton, “Kids really learn about the community, and the ones who come not knowing anybody definitely make some connections.” Wimbish agrees. “You can see a real difference in their comfort level by the end of Fast Start.” * For those playing at home, SE stands for Seaver Science Center.

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HW TODAY

Culture Club Families explore their own heritage and others’ through Harvard-Westlake’s parent cultural affinity clubs “Many of us don’t know much about other cultures, but learning about them makes it easier to connect,” says Padma Madhogarhia P’17 ’22 ’22. She should know; she and her husband Sushil have joined all six parent cultural affinity clubs at Harvard-Westlake. “You might see someone you’ve met ten times on campus, but in one or two club meetings outside school, you can get to know each other so well—and suddenly you have a community.”

Sushil agrees. “We’re all in our silos at school or work, but we trade with the whole world. It’s important to understand each other’s cultures; the world is becoming one. We need to embrace opportunities like this.”

Padma and Sushil began their involvement in parent cultural affinity clubs by joining CHAI, which stands for Cultural Heritage and Arts of India, though it has since expanded to include members with Sri Lankan, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and Nepalese heritage. “Chai means tea in every language throughout Southeastern Asia,” notes Padma. “We all share a similar culture,” adds Sushil.

Both born in India, Padma and Sushil learned about CHAI when their daughter Rachel ’17 became a Harvard-Westlake student in 2013. “We wanted our kids to learn about our cultural events and celebrate them within a bigger community, not just at home,” she says.

In part, CHAI is a way to underscore the connection to their own culture with their children. “Our mothers and grandmothers used to read the Gita [ancient Indian text and Hindu scripture]. The teachings were in our relatives’ homes, our friends’ homes; they were everywhere, in the air,” Sushil remembers.

“The message is very powerful. But our kids don’t get to experience that. They miss learning about that foundational part of our culture. We joined CHAI so that our children could experience some of their heritage.”

Padma nods. “During Holi in the spring, CHAI gets together not just to play colors, but to explain to the kids the meaning behind it—why we play. Holi represents the triumph of good over evil. It is an opportunity to play, laugh, forgive, and forget. With CHAI, we’re passing down not only the festivals and celebrations, but also the meaning and importance behind them.”

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And sometimes members discover existing bonds they never knew were there. “While celebrating Holi at our house,” Sushil remembers, “I found out another CHAI member, Rajive Bagrodia P’07 ’12 ’12, was from Calcutta. It turns out we went to the same high school!

We are now good friends, and we never would have met without CHAI.” After three years, Padma became CHAI’s chair. The chairs of all the parent affinity groups are invited to visit all the other groups, so she started getting invitations to other groups’ events. “At first, I felt out of my comfort zone,” she remembers. “I didn’t know anyone.”

But she tried out other groups anyway. One of the first events she went to outside of CHAI was a Chinese New Year celebration hosted by the Harvard-Westlake Chinese Cultural Club.

“I went just to represent CHAI and thought that I wouldn’t stay long,” reports Padma. “But I stayed for the whole meeting because of the warm welcome I received. The members explained the Chinese New Year traditions; for example, every small child was given a red envelope with a little money in it for good luck.

I learned so much that I started researching Chinese culture and traditions.”

Sushil laughs. “She kept talking about it. ‘I met this mom and this mom. Rachel, I wish you had been there, all your friends were there!’”

Next, Padma attended a Korean-American Parents Association event. Curious to find out more, Padma realized she could formally join all the groups. “I just want to keep learning. It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it,” she says. And, she notes, her kids learn from her, so it’s an opportunity to model her curiosity about and genuine interest in other cultures.

“Subconsciously, just joining the other groups affects us,” Sushil notes. “Even though we can’t attend every event, we feel part of each cultural group, which makes us feel more connected to the Harvard-Westlake community at large.”

Plus, “joining all these groups makes us more comfortable talking to all these parents, which is a great tool,” says Padma. “Otherwise, it’s ‘Hi, hello, how are you? What grade? What college?’ and that’s it.

I’d love to see all parents join at least two or three clubs. Each year they could join a different one!”

Padma continues, “These opportunities are here for the taking, you just have to make an effort. Even if you’re not a member, anyone is welcome at CHAI anytime. Just come, see what we’re doing. I’ll send you an invite!”

In fact, notes Harvard-Westlake Parents Activities Liaison Portia Collins P’97 ’97, “all our parents are welcome to come to all our groups. I don’t know of another independent high school in the area that has created the space for parents of different cultures to have a dialogue with their kids and other parents about their heritage. We’re very fortunate at HarvardWestlake—it’s a great gift. Let’s celebrate, share, and delight in all the cultural clubs available within our school community.”

Here’s the current list of parent cultural affinity clubs at HW. If you’re a Harvard-Westlake parent and would like to join (or start your own new parent cultural affinity group), contact Parents’ Activities Liaison Portia Collins at pcollins@hw.com.

CHAI (Cultural Heritage and Arts of India) KAPA (Korean-American Parents Association) LAPA (Latino-American Parents Association) HWCCC (Harvard-Westlake Chinese Cultural Club) PAAHWS (Parents of African-American HarvardWestlake Students) HWFC (Harvard-Westlake French Club)

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HW TODAY

Me and My Shadow Shadow a Student sheds light on the HW student experience This past spring, Head of Middle School Jon Wimbish invited teachers to embark on an empathy experiment. “I wanted them to get a sense of what a student’s whole day is like rather than just the slice that’s their class. What are their worries and concerns? How far did they have to travel to school?

What are they doing after school?”

So he gave teachers the chance to shadow students for a day, some meeting their student at the bus stop and riding home with them, others starting at first period and ending with their after-school activities, and the rest just following a student for the academic school day. Here’s what happened, as told by some of the faculty and staff and students who participated.

WHY THEY SIGNED UP science teacher tara eitner: Each time I put myself into a position to see what someone else goes through, I learn a lot. Shouldn’t a teacher know what students experience? ellie baron ’21: I felt that offering to share my day would be beneficial to not only teachers, but my classmates as well because the teachers would have more understanding of the different roadblocks we may encounter. Better understanding would lead to teachers being more flexible when, for example, we’re missing an assignment. james johnson-brown ’21: I thought if I could get a teacher to understand the life of a student, then they would be more sympathetic to the combined weight of eight classes, sports, arts commitments, and homework all in one day. world languages teacher heath wagerman: I thought it would be a fun way to see what it would be like to be a Harvard-Westlake student. I always kind of wished I could’ve come here, but I didn’t know of the school until adulthood. Of course, I also imagined it would serve to give perspective on the daily struggles of our students.

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WHAT IT WAS LIKE jon wimbish: It was fascinating. The other students were very surprised to see me on the bus, and probably not too keen on it [laughs]. My student’s day was appropriately challenging, and she didn’t have a tremendous amount of homework, maybe an hour.

Break period was spent with her friends having a snack and talking about politics, which she explained she does every day. My wife [English teacher Amanda Angle], on the other hand, shadowed a student who had eight classes, spent free time at a teacher’s office, had snacks between classes, and used his lunch period to start homework. She said things like, “He didn’t go to the bathroom! He went to the library for lunch, but I had to eat, so I went to lunch.” james johnson-brown: It felt like Ms. Angle was trying to mend that chasm of understanding between student and teacher, who, despite both engaging in academic pursuits, are pretty much on opposite ends of the spectrum. The schooling experience has changed so much since many of the teachers at Harvard-Westlake went to school, even if they’re alums themselves. It was interesting to see what they thought was different not only from their experiences as a teacher, but also as a former student. tara eitner: The day was hectic with little downtime.

I was constantly shifting gears, being focused and contemplative in one class and running around in another. Changing classes was a lot different than I thought. When a science teacher switches classes, they move a few doors down. When a student switches classes, they could be running from one end of the campus to another. Doing that once might not be a big deal, but do that seven times a day, and it’s exhausting by ninth period. heath wagerman: Billy’s day wasn’t as busy as I know it could have been. He X’ed his music class, so he had a good break in the morning. Even still, the pace was demanding, and the hardest part was how long of a day it was, including golf practice after school. He wouldn’t have gotten home until around dinnertime, so homework

would’ve probably taken up most of the rest of his night before bedtime. I also thought that my colleagues’ excitement for what they do and their close relationships with their students was noteworthy; I didn’t get much of that as a student in public school. middle school dean and history teacher matt cutler: I saw how much students have to deal with regarding different teaching styles, learning management systems, ways of posting homework... how different teachers use our hub page, lecture-based versus project-based learning, the way some lessons are more visually based…. Kids have to make these constant shifts. We don’t do that as adults. I also learned how extraordinary some of our teachers are, including a lot of surprises in terms of teaching stars. From a professional development point of view, it was one of the best days I’ve ever spent. I came away from it and wrote a history lab based on a science lab I’d seen in Alex Ras’s class.

It was modeled on an experiment, with an objective— comparing documents—and a conclusion. I shared it with Alex Ras and we talked about ideas for improving each other’s classes.

WHAT SURPRISED THEM maddie morrison ’21: It was a lot less awkward than I thought it would be. Having a teacher follow me around for most of the day was a little weird at first, but I got used to it. In the end it was really fun. I also enjoyed seeing my teachers react to having another teacher in the room.

tara eitner: I was surprised by how different every classroom environment was. Some classes were centered around group work, some around solo work, some were relaxed, some were very rigid. I found it startling that in one class students were encouraged to shout out answers, and in another they needed to raise hands to be called on or they were considered disruptive. I am not saying there is anything wrong with either class, it was just eye-opening to experience how different they all were. I was also surprised to feel how rushed it is to attend eight classes rather than the five I teach personally. I knew intellectually it would be busier, but it felt a lot crazier in person. We rest, relax, use the restroom, gather our thoughts, prepare for our classes in those precious frees that we have. Kids just go, go, go! matt cutler: I was pretty skeptical about what I would gain from the experience beforehand, but it was mindblowing. I thought I knew a student’s day pretty well, but until you walk in those shoes, you don’t know.

You can’t believe how quick that five-minute passing period is. If students are coming from one end of campus to the other with their bags, trying to go to the bathroom, the pace is intense. There was a lot of “We’re going to be late, hurry!” You see kids dashing around and leaving stuff behind. It also struck me how much the students have to switch gears from math to choir to science to athletics. I realized how much I appreciated a nonacademic class in the mix so I could let my brain cool off a bit. The day was utterly exhausting to me.

THE CHANGES INSPIRED BY SHADOWING james johnson-brown: I was definitely surprised by how hardworking Ms. Angle was. Some of my friends had mocked this opportunity as just a front for a teacher getting an extra day off, silently watching and barely engaging. However, in addition to observing, Ms. Angle was inquisitive and writing everything down, asking about the learning process in an effort to understand not only the student, but different teachers' teaching styles and the classroom dynamic between teacher and student. It seemed that she wasn't only trying to understand the student, but also better herself as a teacher by learning from the teachers.

heath wagerman: I’m more understanding of students not arriving exactly on time. I only give them a hard time if it’s clear that they were dilly-dallying and buying cookies between classes [laughs]. matt cutler: You realize you can’t go over class time by a minute—and I’ve done that. These kids have to run to their next class as it is.

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“I thought I knew a student’s day pretty well, but until you walk in those shoes, you don’t know. You can’t believe how quick that five-minute passing period is.”

MATT CUTLER, MIDDLE SCHOOL DEAN AND HISTORY TEACHER

tara eitner: I am more empathetic when a student forgets one of my classroom rules. They have so many, it makes sense they’d forget which teacher they belong to. For instance, they can’t write in red ink in one class, but they can in others. If they write in red, I just grade in green. It’s less for them to fret over and something I can easily address. I have tried to have fewer rules, period. I’m also taking time at the start of each class to talk to them calmly in an effort to hit the reset button and reduce a little stress. On occasion, when they seem frazzled, I even reduce the class lighting a bit and project a calming photo as I frame the lesson we are about to have. Talking about where we have been and where we are headed next with our course material seems to help ease them back into our class. It seems to be working. It might sound ridiculous to some, but shadow a student for a day and then see if you agree. I encourage everyone to try it at least once—it will be eye-opening. jon wimbish: We gathered at the end to share experiences. As we find patterns and issues that keep coming to the forefront, there could be some policy change in the future, but the main change so far is increased understanding and empathy when a student asks for an extension, say, or seems tired or worn down.

It was really helpful for teachers to get a more holistic view of what students go through. In fact, going forward we’re mandating it. For the next three years, we’re going to split the faculty in thirds so every faculty member will get a chance to do it. And staff—clerical, admission, everyone—is welcome to take part as well.

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FACULTY & STAFF PROFILES

Meet David Lee ’89, Director of Alumni Relations and Senior Advancement Officer

This fall, David Lee ’89, formerly Harvard-Westlake’s director of advancement, stepped into his new role as director of alumni relations and senior advancement officer. “Because I’m an alum and have advancement experience,” says Lee, “it was an easy transition.”

According to Lee, the heart of Harvard-Westlake’s alumni relations is to provide value for being part of the Harvard-Westlake community.

Affinity group programming presents a good example. “Our goal is not to just create a social event. Most alums are in touch with the alums they want to be in touch with. So we focus on a commonality beyond just Harvard-Westlake, whether it’s industry related like real estate or arts and entertainment, or cultural groups, like African-American or LGBT+.”

Lee sees his role as engaging the alums who love Harvard-Westlake and helping them connect with each other and support the school. “We just want them to get involved, whether it’s by mentoring younger alums to help them find jobs or giving to the school financially.”

Thinking back to his own days as a student at Harvard School, Lee recalls “making great friendships with a lot of alums I’m still friends with today.

And it was a great experience academically, which I think is still true. I went to Brown, and college was easier than high school for me.”

Some things have changed, however, including the approach to athletics.

“I played football and baseball, but now you can’t do that. We have such a competitive program, you have to specialize.”

Today, of course, it’s also a coed school on two campuses, which Lee sees as a positive development. “The middle school is a great age-appropriate community, while the upper school campus is more collegiate and independent. When I was in seventh grade, interactions with older kids could be pleasant, but they could also be intimidating. The two campuses let you be the age you are. Kids generally seem happier and have a more consistent experience across the board.”

What would Lee be doing if he’d gone down a different path? “I’d be Alan Homan, who runs Didax [Harvard-Westlake’s proprietary administrative software, which Homan also helped develop before its launch in 1991],” Lee replies without missing a beat. “If you care about managing data, Didax is amazing. Hats off to him.”

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WINTER 2017

Makings of a Hero Director of Maintenance for Athletic Facilities Roberto Hernandez saves a jogger’s life At the beginning-of-the-year assembly for faculty and staff on August 28, Roberto Hernandez was given the Marion Hays Award. “When the headmaster called my name, I was like, ‘What?!’” Hernandez remembers. “I didn’t get up because I didn’t believe it. The guy next to me was saying, ‘Get up, it’s you!’ Oh my God, it was so nice to see how much people care about me. I still can’t believe it.” Eight days later, Hernandez proved himself more than worthy of the award when a jogger collapsed on the Harvard-Westlake track.

Here, he tells that story and how he came to be there that morning.

I love working outside. When I was a kid in El Salvador, I worked on a farm. That’s why I enjoy cutting grass and working in the field. It makes me feel free to be outdoors.

I came to California in 1988, when I was 17. We had big problems back home, and I didn’t want to fight and get killed for no reason [in the Salvadoran Civil War, which raged from 1979 until 1992]. Life was difficult then—there were gangs everywhere. If I’d stayed, I might not be alive now.

I had a phone number for some family here who would give me a place to stay. I was little when they left El Salvador, so they didn’t know me. A friend of the aunt I stayed with got me a job in the Harvard-Westlake cafeteria. I thought, “Wow, this is luck!” My original plan was to go all the way to Boston, but I knew it could take a long time to get a job, and I had work here. After a few years, I started working at another school for a while before coming back to Harvard-Westlake, but I never left California.

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I’ve worked here for 20 years. I take care of the fields, the gym, the pool—fix things that are broken, put the numbers on the field for football, get the goals together for soccer, run the camera cable for HWTV—whatever’s needed. It’s a lot of work, but I’m happy to do it. This is the best place to work. They treat people the right way here. Coaches and students come to me and say "Thank you for all your hard work," which always makes me feel good.

A lot of people come to the track to jog early in the morning.

Sometimes I’m here at five in the morning and they’re here.

The day it happened, I came in at 6:00 a.m. I was waiting for a company to come check one of the carts to make sure it was running properly, so I headed over to the security kiosk to tell [Security Officer Sanders] Jackson to let them in when they got here. I saw a runner by the long jump and said good morning, and he said good morning back. Jackson was outside putting cones on the street.

Coming back, I saw the runner on the ground. At first I thought he was stretching, but then I saw that his glasses were broken on the ground and he was bleeding from near his eye. He wasn’t breathing, so I called 911 and said, “This guy is dying!” The operator told me to turn him over and do CPR. I was nervous, but I knew I had to do it. I’d taken the CPR class here, and the operator guided me through it. I started CPR, and he came back, but then he stopped breathing again. When the paramedics arrived, they were able to revive him for a minute, but then he was gone again. So they gave him an injection, used the AED [automatic external defibrillator], and got him to the hospital.

I didn’t feel anything when it happened, but three hours later, I started shaking. I’ve seen a lot of people die for no reason in my country. One night during the war I remember hearing somebody knock on a neighbor’s door, trying to beat it down to get the people out and kill them. It was right in front of our house, but you couldn’t look. You had to wait for the sun to come up. There was so much fighting in the war, but nothing ever changed. The first night after the rescue, I slept really well. But for five days after that, I barely slept at all. My body felt hot and numb on one side. I got shingles. Doctors say it was the stress.

A few weeks later, the runner came to see me. He’s totally fine now. He and his wife invited me to their house. I can’t explain how it felt when I saw him. I’ve never had an experience like this before. It touched me [Hernandez touches his heart, tearing up]. Especially when he told me, “You are good people.”

After it happened, a lot of people thanked me and called me a hero. People joke around with me about it now. Jackson will yell “Hey!” and hold up a package of Life Savers. Faculty ask me how I’m feeling. I feel normal. Anyone could do the same thing.

Somebody had to help him.

WALTER HILL SHARES HIS SIDE OF THE STORY Walter Hill, CEO of brand marketing firm Icon Blue, had been jogging at Harvard-Westlake for 15 years, ever since moving to a gated community at the top of the hill just north of Mulholland. On that sunny day in September, despite being athletic and healthy, he went into sudden cardiac arrest. Only 7% of those who suffer cardiac arrest outside a hospital survive, but Hill has made a full recovery.

I have no memory of what happened on September 5—only what others have related to me.

Within the past six months, I’d had a complete physical, and everything came back perfect.

There were no issues with my heart, but that morning at the Harvard-Westlake track, it just stopped. As I understand it, the electrical charge that causes the heart to beat failed without warning and I went into cardiac arrest.

Because of Roberto’s quick action, I’m here today. I’m grateful to him and so many others who helped me that day, including the paramedics, the chaplain who received me with prayer at the hospital, and the outstanding medical team at Providence Saint Joseph who determined that my best chance for survival and recovery would be through nearly freezing me. I was in perfect health, and next thing you know I’m on ice in the hospital. The third day in the ICU, still not fully conscious, I kept asking my wife, “Where am I? What happened? Is this real?”

My recovery was pretty quick. Within five days I was up and walking around the halls of the ICU, exercising with my IV. The doctors tell me it’s very unusual to survive such a severe cardiac arrest. It truly humbles you and teaches you to appreciate life. You also find out what people really think about you and reassess what’s important in life.

I don’t take life for granted, but I never imagined it being taken away like that in seconds. Now my priorities have changed. Things I was about to do to expand my business are now off the table.

I’m not working the pace and schedule I did for so many years. Enough is enough. I’m increasing a lot of my philanthropic efforts. I’m more focused on my wife, family, and friends. I want to live a fuller life, which I believe can be achieved through what you do for others rather than what you might gain for yourself.

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WINTER 2017

ALUMNI PROFILES

Charting a New Course at LAUSD Former Watts schoolteacher Nick Melvoin ’04 joins the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education

After a contentious runoff election and the most expensive school board campaign in U.S. history, 32-year-old Nick Melvoin ’04 was elected to the LAUSD school board in June and has since become LAUSD Board of Education Vice President. Shortly after he took office in September, he talked to us about his past—and LAUSD’s future.

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WHY DID YOU RUN FOR SCHOOL BOARD? I first started getting passionate about social justice and inequity at Harvard-Westlake and at Camp Harmony.

I had some incredible Harvard-Westlake teachers who really opened up my world: Mr. Maddock for AP History and Mr. Zwemer, who made arcane European history just come alive. Mr. Michaelson, Ms. Medawar. Ms. Neumeyer, who was the advisor for the Chronicle when I was editor in chief. So many more.

When I was a sophomore, I started volunteering at Camp Harmony [a camp for homeless and underserved kids].

I had an incredible time working with the kids. I was 15 and they were only a few years younger, but they had had a really different life experience. I was fortunate to grow up in a progressive household through family and faith as part of the Jewish community. I was still a kid myself, but these kids would come talk to me about trauma, child abuse…heavy stuff for a teenager. It opened my eyes.

Years later, I started teaching in South LA, 10 or 15 miles away from where I grew up in Brentwood. I thought I would have a career as a teacher, but I ran into problems at the classroom and school level and started a new journey, including law school, a fellowship, and time in DC. I realized we needed reform in leadership.

YOU WERE A TEACHER FOR TEACH FOR AMERICA. WHAT WAS THAT LIKE? I’d always been interested in teaching, but Teach for America expedited my path to the classroom. I wanted to come back to LA after college, and Teach for America placed me in Edwin Markham Middle School, a school right by Watts Towers, after a 30-second interview by a principal who wasn’t there a few days later. I was a rambunctious boy in middle school, but in contrast to my own experience, the kids at Markham who had trouble focusing in class had no outlets—no sports programs or extracurriculars. So I started a soccer team and a baseball team and a school newspaper. But I started teaching at the height of the recession and got laid off at the end of the year. Then I was hired back as the school’s English as a second language chair and principal—and then laid off at the end of the next year.

I teamed up with Mark Rosenbaum, a Harvard-Westlake dad, to end discriminating layoff practices in the courtroom instead of the classroom because of the gross inequities I wasn’t able to solve as a teacher. He became a mentor who ultimately made me think about law school as a solution.

Eighty-four percent of LAUSD students are living in poverty.

We realize we can’t just focus on kids from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. A lot of schools offer health clinics and three free meals a day because their kids won't get these things otherwise. If a parent is getting deported, or a kid isn’t getting fed, or they have to walk through violence just to get to school, their education will suffer. At its core, education reform is an antipoverty program.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO FIX LA SCHOOLS? For starters, we’re making sure LAUSD is viable and transparent with the budget. We’re also trying to move beyond the divide between charters and other schools. How do we coalesce? How do we get people to volunteer, adopt schools and repaint, plant gardens, tutor? We make it too difficult to get involved with bureaucratic red tape.

Good governance also means being more responsive. I get hundreds of emails a day and respond to every one, even if it’s just “I’m looping in so-and-so.” I get a lot of “Wow, I’ve never an email response from LAUSD” replies.

The challenge is to focus. We get tons of calls asking us to fix certain problems. What’s LAUSD’s internal process for responding to concerns? There is none. When a parent calls about the A/C being broken, or a bad teacher—how do we monitor that? There’s literally nothing in place to track it. Instead of responding to one-offs, why don’t we invest in longer term solutions? We need to be strategic.

That’s why my first resolution in office is the T.E.C.H. Resolution (Transforming Engagement through Community Hubs). We are digitizing district communications to facilitate easy two-way communications and move from robocalls to push notifications. We are bringing the District into the 21st century. I would ultimately like this app to be a one-stop shop for all district communications, including reporting and tracking problems at a school. This will streamline the process to get parents and community members involved and informed.

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WINTER 2017

HOW DO CHARTER SCHOOLS FIT INTO YOUR VISION FOR LAUSD? Charter schools are a symptom of a larger problem—the district not meeting the needs of parents. The purpose of charter schools is not just to provide choice, but also to act as R&D for the school district: Let’s do things differently and then scale. That hasn’t happened because of bureaucracy. What could we be doing differently to improve outcomes for all kids? I want us to learn from charters, but my job is to bring that level of innovation to the district.

We as a district should give choices and make it easier to navigate the different deadlines and different lotteries. As you choose the best school for your child, LAUSD schools should be a really strong option. Affluent families have had choice forever.

Charter, magnet, pilot schools, among other models, offer even lower income communities choice.

WHAT’S A TYPICAL DAY FOR YOU LIKE? I’ve been trying to balance time in the community with time downtown. There used to be monthly board meetings that were 12-hour affairs; parents had to line up at 5 a.m. Now we have weekly board meetings, and once a month they are around the community, so if you live in Tujunga you don’t have to drive to downtown LA. Three days a week I’m downtown to prioritize policy and drive change. Today I’m off to an elementary school in Westchester, an art fair, and a visit to Westchester High School. I want to get to every school in District 4 in the next few months. I want to meet parents, hear what’s on their minds, and start to fix problems.

HOW DID YOUR TIME AT HARVARD-WESTLAKE AFFECT THE PATH YOU’VE TAKEN? I’m grateful to Rick Commons for the Harvard-Westlake mission of purpose beyond ourselves, from community service to discussions about the broader world. Attending

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a school like Harvard-Westlake was a great opportunity.

A lot of Harvard-Westlake kids have pressure to choose the private sector because of how we grew up, but I believe that Harvard-Westlake helped launch many of us, including the mayor [Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti ’88] and myself, on the path to public service. With power comes the responsibility to help others.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO HARVARD-WESTLAKE STUDENTS? Take opportunities to learn about the world beyond yourself. As cliché as it sounds, understand the privilege you have and engage with what’s going on in the country. There are lots of ways to get involved. Help on campaigns. Volunteer. It’s also important to maintain a community. Another benefit of my involvement with Camp Harmony was the bonding and support network it provided. I know how stressful and anxiety provoking high school can be. If you feel overwhelmed, remember, this too shall pass. The hardest I ever worked was junior year of high school. Dedicate time to other things, whether it’s Camp Harmony, Peer Support, Teen Line….

It’s so critical in high school.

I really love this position, but the campaign was crazy—the politics of politics. Do I want to do that again? Do I want to run a nonprofit? Start a school?

My superlatives at HarvardWestlake were “most likely to be president” or “most likely to work at Harvard-Westlake.” Right now, I’m trying to do something in between those two things: improve schools.

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WINTER 2017

ALUMNI PROFILES

Saving Lives, One Medical Technology Advance at a Time Physician, entrepreneur, advisor, and investor Alice Jacobs ’92 helps people get well with medical technology

After graduating from Harvard-Westlake, Alice Jacobs ’92 double-majored in biological sciences and art history at Stanford (picking up honors in developmental neurobiology along the way) and then went on to medical school at Harvard. She thought she would become a doctor—but instead ended up cofounding a diagnostic testing company while still a student. She’s been named one of the top 50 innovators by Scientific American and a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. She’s now the Entrepreneur in Residence at Caltech and an advisor to a handful of venture capital firms, drawing on her expertise in cutting-edge digital-health disciplines, including artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, and gene editing.

WHAT DO YOU DO IN YOUR ROLE AS CALTECH ENTREPRENEUR IN RESIDENCE?

I get to spend time with some of the most brilliant scientists on earth who are working on bleeding-edge science in a broad range of game-changing areas—everything from bioengineering to AI and machine learning to autonomous vehicles. My responsibility is to help turn science into commercial applications. I work alongside faculty, postdocs, and students to help think through everything from new company concepts to actual launches. We are also exploring developing an incubator and a fund to launch technology companies.

YOU STARTED INTELLIGENTMDX WHILE YOU WERE STILL A STUDENT. WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO WORK IN THE MEDICAL BUSINESS WORLD INSTEAD OF JUST PRACTICING MEDICINE?

There are two ways you can save lives in medicine. One is direct: You can work in the ER, for example, and do chest compressions and physically save a life. The other is indirect but has a more scalable impact: You can develop life-saving medical products. I started off thinking I wanted the direct ER-type experience, but the more I experienced the healthcare system, the more I realized how essential the need was for developing tools with scalable impact.

While a student in medical school, I witnessed a patient die unnecessarily from a staph infection in the hospital. It was a defining moment for me. I couldn’t believe that we were diagnosing this patient by relying on techniques from 100 years ago (the Pasteur method of culture), which took multiple days, when I was aware of more rapid, precise technologies being used on the human genome project. Why weren’t we using these technologies on sick people? I made it my mission to bring genomic testing of hospital

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infections into routine clinical lab testing, and we did! Our products at IntelligentMDx reduced the turnaround time for hospital infection testing from a few days to a few hours. To accomplish this, we employed bioinformatics/big-data analytics to design tests for highly mutating pathogens, identifying both the species of the infectious cause and sometimes also the resistance markers that would make the bug resistant to treatment with certain drugs. In sum, we designed, developed, obtained FDA and other international regulatory clearances for, and served as the legal manufacturer for hospital infection genomic test kits. Our products were made available on five continents through two global partners prior to exit a few years ago.

WHY DID YOU PURSUE A BACHELOR OF ARTS DEGREE IN ART HISTORY?

My first introduction to art was through my mother, who took me behind the scenes of a Monet exhibit when we lived in New York City; she was a journalist for WNET for major local art exhibitions. Then when I was 19, my father took me on a trip to Italy, where I was so moved by the art I saw in Florence that I returned to Stanford committed to studying it. I found myself drawn toward the fin de siècle period when Sigmund Freud and Jean-Martin Charcot were alive and teaching. I was especially interested in Charcot, who is considered the father of modern neurology. I was doing research in developmental neurobiology at the time, so his work particularly resonated with me. Charcot walked the line between physician and art historian, making wax models of many of his patients’ pathologies that he used as teaching tools. He also employed one of the first slide projectors, which he used to convey images of his patients to his students.

YOU’RE A FEMALE WHO HAS ACCOMPLISHED A GREAT DEAL AT A YOUNG AGE. HAVE YOU FACED DISCRIMINATION IN THE WORKPLACE?

I’ve held leadership positions including CEO and chair since I was 25, so most of my experience in business occurred as a young woman. It isn’t easy to be a woman in business, especially when you’re young. You are definitely fighting to be taken seriously. But I realized the most important thing is to take yourself seriously and then to demand others follow and not allow yourself to be treated any other way.

HOW DID YOUR TIME AT HARVARD-WESTLAKE AFFECT WHAT YOU'VE ENDED UP PURSUING AS A CAREER?

I am forever grateful for the outstanding teachers I had at Harvard-Westlake. I fondly remember Dr. Deutsche, my seventh grade science teacher and one of my cross-country coaches. Both Dr. Huybrechts and Mr. Marsden were incredible chemistry teachers.

Thanks to Dr. Huybrechts’s great teaching, I almost become a chemistry major in college. I absolutely loved AP biology as well with Mr. Werner. I really enjoyed the biology camping trip to the deserts of Joshua Tree and Anza-Borrego. Those amazing images and experiences in nature continue to inspire me to this day. The HW science curriculum was very strong and helped me prepare for the premedical curriculum at Stanford.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE CURRENT HARVARD-WESTLAKE STUDENTS?

Follow your dreams, but also be practical about them. It turns out the American dream is born out of a combination of brilliant blue-sky dreaming and ambition and practical, grounded project-management skills. Be fearless, be compassionate, be bold, be brave to the world, but also don’t ever forget to be deeply humble when it comes to those less fortunate than you. Harvard-Westlake provided me with a great advantage and solid foundation, which has helped pave the way for my career trajectory. And for that I will always be grateful.

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WINTER 2017

ALUMNI PROFILES

ICAN, We Will The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, including Daniel Högsta ’05, wins this year’s Nobel Peace Prize

How does it feel to cross the Nobel Peace Prize off your bucket list by the time you’re 30? “Pretty wild,” says Daniel Högsta ’05, the network coordinator for the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), which was awarded the 2017 prize. “We were floored.”

The Nobel Committee recognized ICAN, a coalition of nongovernmental organizations in more than 100 countries, for its work in drawing attention to the humanitarian consequences of nuclear arms and promoting the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. On July 7, a conference of the United Nations General Assembly voted to adopt the treaty with the support of 122 nations. “In the shadow of rising tensions in the world, this treaty provides hope for nuclear disarmament,” says Högsta.

As ICAN’s network coordinator, Högsta is responsible for mobilizing ICAN’s worldwide partner base of NGOs by coordinating lobbying efforts and providing partners with the education and tools to target their governments.

Unfortunately, he says, “the nuclear weapons issue has long been mired in apathy. It’s been around for so many years and the thought of it is so horrifying that people tend to shut themselves off from it.” But Högsta says the Nobel Peace Prize win has attracted a welcome flood of attention— attention ICAN wants to use to change the conversation about nuclear weapons in a fundamental way.

“There are three kinds of weapons of mass destruction— chemical, biological, and nuclear,” Högsta explains.

“We have treaties that make chemical and biological weapons illegal, but until now, there hasn’t been one for nuclear weapons. About 50 years ago, chemical weapons were seen as the weapons of the future. Now they are seen as abhorrent and disgusting. When Syria used chemical weapons [this past spring], it was universally condemned.”

Once you accept that nuclear weapons have horrific humanitarian consequences, says Högsta, “the next

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logical step is to ban them. Changing international norms is worth doing even without the support of nations who already have nuclear weapons. Then NGOs can say, for example, ‘Germany, you’re supposed to be a champion for humanitarian causes—why haven’t you signed this treaty to make nuclear weapons illegal?’”

The most common argument against nuclear disarmament is the idea that nuclear weapons protect us from the worst actors who have them. “But if you’re always waiting for the most irresponsible actor to go first and disarm, you’ll be waiting forever,” says Högsta.

“Meanwhile, those in positions of power will do nothing to relinquish that power. States with nuclear weapons like to promote the concept of deterrence, but as long as you have a situation of Haves and Have Nots, it only encourages more countries to develop nuclear arms. If North Korea can do it, other states will likely do it too,” ultimately creating another arms race.

“Of course we hope that nuclear weapon states will join the treaty,” says Högsta. “But we are under no illusions about their motivations. Their actions reveal that they are not interested in making progress on nuclear disarmament, despite their obligation to do so under international law.”

Instead, ICAN aims to “stigmatize nuclear weapons, shifting the concept of nuclear arms from being seen as essential to security to being seen as politically too costly to possess,” Högsta explains. “Fortunately, our strategy and the power of the prohibition treaty doesn't depend on the cooperation of the nuclear weapon states.

That’s why we’re also concentrating on so-called nuclearumbrella countries such as Japan, South Korea, and Australia, as well as NATO countries, who are complicit

in the continued possession and deployment of nuclear weapons, but are also quite vulnerable to public pressure on this issue. If we can crack those states, we can make inroads to a blanket rejection of nuclear weapons.”

And intentional use of nuclear arms isn’t the only danger, Högsta points out. According to an NGO called the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, 2.4 million people worldwide are expected to die from cancers caused by nuclear tests conducted between 1945 and 1980. Nuclear testing continues today, including a test in September of what North Korea claims was a hydrogen bomb.

In addition, there is the risk of a nuclear weapons accident. “In fact, there have already been several near-misses that Eric Schlosser, the author of Fast Food Nation, covers in a book called Command and Control,” says Högsta. “There was an incident where a plane full of nukes was accidentally flown to another base and left on an unsecured runway for an entire day. In another case, someone dropped a tool down a nuclear missile silo, which punctured the fuel tank—it’s sheer luck it didn’t cause a nuclear disaster. If the world doesn’t get rid of nuclear weapons, it’s inevitable that eventually the worst will happen.”

Indeed, the Doomsday Clock is now at two and a half minutes to midnight, the closest it’s been since the hydrogen bomb tests the United States and Soviet Union conducted in 1953. What does Högsta advise those worried about nuclear arms to do? “Educate yourself about the consequences of nuclear weapons, contact your local representatives and senators—they rarely hear about this issue from the American public—and get involved in organizations that partner with ICAN.” The Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, an ICAN partner and antinuclear organization, for example, provides sample emails on its site for contacting elected officials and other guidelines for taking action.

Born in Sweden, Högsta is now based in Geneva and travels the world to spread ICAN’s message. A global lifestyle is nothing new for him: Högsta grew up in Indonesia, Singapore, and Russia. When he was 10, he moved to Los Angeles, where he attended Carlthorp School and Harvard-Westlake.

“On the day we won, I thought about Harvard-Westlake a lot,” recalls Högsta. “Harvard-Westlake was very competitive and there was a lot of pressure, but I had some amazing friends and teachers there. Mr. Maddock was tough but funny and inspiring. Dr. Coombs was so passionate about history. And Larry Klein is going to want me to say Larry Klein, so I have to say Larry Klein.

You can tell him I said that,” Högsta laughs. “Maddock, Coombs, Klein—they all challenged me and encouraged my interest in history and political science.”

After high school, Högsta studied at the University of Michigan and the University of St Andrews in Scotland before going to law school at the University of Edinburgh.

He wasn’t sure what he’d end up doing as a career. “I got lucky,” he says. “I kind of fell into this job about five years ago after applying for an ICAN internship via Idealist. org.” In fact, he says, it was only his experience as an ICAN intern that made him so passionate about nuclear disarmament.

“We haven’t solved anything just by winning the prize,” he says. But it does give him hope that ICAN’s work is making a difference. “Twenty years ago, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines won the Nobel Peace Prize,” he says. “A lot of those same people are now involved in the ICAN campaign.

The United States was once the biggest producer of landmines—and they still haven’t signed the landmines treaty. But today, the US no longer actively deploys mines. It’s all about changing the norms.”

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WINTER 2017

ALUMNI PROFILES

dear Ben Platt Turning the spotlight on Broadway superstar Ben Platt ’11

Since last December, Ben Platt ’11 has been wowing critics and audiences alike in the title role in Dear Evan Hansen, a Broadway musical about a high school outcast who gets caught up in a social media maelstrom that simultaneously builds him up and tears him down.

The New York Times called the performance “breakout” and the actor “marvelous,” while Time Out New York swooned that this is “what it looks like when a star is born.” The son of producer Marc Platt, whose credits include Wicked, the 24-year-old Ben already has an impressive resume of his own, including roles in Pitch Perfect, Pitch Perfect 2 and the Book of Mormon. After winning the Tony for best lead actor in a musical in June, he left Dear Evan Hansen in November to pursue other opportunities. We talked to Ben Platt about his own high school experience and what’s next for Broadway’s new It Boy. YOU ' V E B E E N I N TO M US I C AL T HEATER SINCE YOU WER E A L ITTL E KID .

WHAT ' S T H E FI RST T I M E YO U REMEMB ER TH INKING TH IS IS WH AT YOU WA NT E D TO D O ?

It's hard for me to pinpoint when I knew this is what I wanted to do, mostly because I can't remember a time when that wasn't the case. I started doing musical theater at six years old as the prince in Cinderella, and got my first job at nine years old playing Winthrop in the Music Man at the Hollywood Bowl. I was bitten by the bug immediately and never felt as fulfilled, joyful, and purposeful as I did when inundated in a musical.

C A N YO U S H ARE A FAVO RI T E M E MORY FR OM TH E SH OWS YOU D ID AT HA RVARD -W E ST LAKE ?

My first real meaty role at Harvard-Westlake was the Baker in my tenth grade production of Into the Woods, directed by [Ted] Walch and [Michele] Spears in tandem. It was an absolute joy of an experience, especially because my best friends were all scattered throughout the cast, among them Beanie Feldstein ’11 as Little Red Riding Hood. She’s now performing on Broadway half a block away from me in Hello Dolly!

HOW D I D YO UR T I M E AT H ARVARD -WESTLA KE PR EPA R E YOU FOR WH AT YOU ' RE D O I NG NO W ?

Doing theater at HW prepared me for life as a professional. It taught me to take my work ethic as an actor seriously and give my passion the focus and devotion it deserves. I also learned, particularly in my experience as a Scene Monkey [an on-campus improvisation group], that reckless abandon is a hugely important thing as an artist. That slightly scary and vulnerable feeling of being completely visible onstage without a safety net is where you set yourself apart. You can't be truly great without jumping off the cliff.

HOW D O E S E VAN H AN S E N ' S H I G H SCH OOL EXPER IENCE COMPA R E TO YO UR O W N ?

Thankfully I had a far easier go of it in high school than my character Evan, thanks to Harvard-Westlake. At HW it's cool to have a passion and take yourself seriously. I was incredibly fortunate to find a loving group of friends who were all fellow artists, many of whom remain my best friends in the world. Evan unfortunately doesn't find such like-minded individuals.

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HEA D L I NI N G O N B ROAD W AY H AS A LWAYS B EEN YOUR D R EA M. WH AT' S IT LIK E TO L I V E A D RE AM CO M E T RUE? IS TH ER E A D OWNSID E TO B EING A H UGE B R OAD W AY STAR?

It's completely surreal to have a dream come true without a caveat. There's an element that is frightening, because a part of you feels you have to start at square one and find new dreams. But there is also something incredibly exciting and freeing in that challenge.

There's not so much a downside to being on Broadway as there are challenges. It requires that you sacrifice many other aspects of your life in order to make eight shows a week happen. Your social life has to take a backseat to your commitment to your health and well-being.

N OW T H AT YO U ' RE F I N I S H I N G YOUR R UN A S EVA N H A NSEN, WHAT ' S YO UR N E XT M OV E ?

I am making an original album at Atlantic Records, about which I am both very nervous and very excited. Additionally there are several television and film projects in the works.

I am very much looking forward to taking a break from the eight-show-a-week lifestyle and gaining more confidence on camera. But theater is my greatest love and I will never stay away for too long.

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WINTER 2017

STUDENT VOICES: FROM THE CHRONICLE

#Detoxic

Students share their opinions about social media’s influence on body image and eating disorders

by Kristin Kuwada ’18

After an exhausting afternoon of multiple sports practices, Jessica’s* exercise had only just begun.

She felt as though she needed to work out until she was physically unable to continue.

As on most days, she went through her routine with barely any food in her system. “I was going on my run, very light-headed, everything was kind of blurring, but my eating disorder kept telling me to keep pushing through,” Jessica said.

She noticed that her vision was deteriorating because she was so exhausted while running that she couldn’t keep her eyes open. “I was in my head thinking about nothing and thinking about everything, just sort of daydreaming while I was running,” she said. She remembers she was overexerting herself to the point where she no longer knew where she was, and suddenly she smashed, headfirst, into a pole.

Jessica said she is currently recovering from anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder associated with a significantly low body weight and an intense fear of gaining weight. She describes that period in her life, from ninth grade until only recently, as physically and mentally draining.

Although Jessica now recognizes the severity of her condition, she recalls that this incident did not stand out to her as abnormal at the time. “I wish I could say it was a wake-up call to what I was doing to myself, but it really did take me a while after that to get the proper help,” Jessica said.

Jessica is not alone. In a recent Chronicle survey of 265 students, 11 percent of students reported that they have had or are currently struggling with an eating disorder.

Former Harvard-Westlake psychologist Kavita Ajmere said that as the reach of social media has become almost inescapable, teenagers are becoming increasingly exposed to idealized body standards. Out of 265 students surveyed in a Chronicle poll, 54 percent reported that exposure to social media made them insecure about their own bodies.

Sally*, who recently recovered from anorexia nervosa, said that social media influenced the development of her negative body image. “For me, it’s more subconscious,” Sally said. “I don’t find myself staring at Instagram models, but I think over time after seeing a lot of the same body type, I felt that was the right body type and that mine was wrong.”

A study by the Royal Society for Public Health found that Instagram was associated with high levels of anxiety and depression.

“I think that society’s dieting mentality is what traps young girls and young boys because it doesn’t start as an eating disorder,” Jessica said. “They start one diet and all of a sudden they can’t get out.”

According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, men are less likely to look for treatment options because of the cultural stigma that pathologizes eating disorders as a women’s issue.

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The National Eating Disorder Information Center explains that the lack of discussion among men is often due to the pressure to conform to their gender role. In many cases, it’s not that males are not exposed to the same problems or do not feel the same insecurities, but that there is stigma that males do not have or should not have a problem that is stereotyped as a female issue.

“In general, women are conditioned to be very concerned about their body image and how they eat, whereas guys aren’t really held to the same standard,” Dylan Faulcon ’18 said. “Guys can sometimes be a little hesitant to talk about how they’re struggling with something.”

Ajmere said that aside from issues of misdiagnosing, health and nutrition have become a great source of confusion and misconception, especially due to the greater prevalence of fad and unhealthy diets.

“These are conversations that families should be having with their children about the unrealistic aspects of media in general,” Ajmere said. “The best part about living in a country where we really are paying more attention to mental health is that there are a lot of different places and resources where people can get help.” **Names have been changed.

Photo illustration: Kate Schrage ’18 and Kristin Kuwada ’18

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WINTER 2017

STUDENT VOICES: FROM THE CHRONICLE

Game. Set. Champs.

Harvard-Westlake wins the 2017 CIF Southern Section Division 1 championiship in tennis

By Mathew Yam ’18 In 2010, an 11-year-old Adam Sraberg ’17 approached Harvard-Westlake boys tennis program head Chris Simpson and Stanford tennis star Ryan Thacher ’08.

“I want to be a star tennis player,” Sraberg said.

“That requires a lot of hard work, Adam,” Simpson told him.

“I’m up for it. I want to come play for you and I’m going to quit baseball to be a tennis star.”

Fast-forward seven years: Sraberg is a captain of Simpson’s program, which has become one of the best tennis teams in Southern California. The squad completes a near-perfect season, goes 28-3 overall, remains undefeated in Mission League for the 16th year in a row and is crowned CIF champions.

After losing in the CIF championship in 2014 and 2015, and being eliminated in the second round of CIF in 2016, the senior captains were all too familiar with the sting of defeat and were determined not to feel it again. Despite injuries to key players like Stanley Morris ’18 , the squad started the season firing on all cylinders, dominating its first 14 opponents by at least 13 of a maximum 18 sets in each match.

Simpson spoke highly of his squad’s top three seniors: Sraberg, Jed Kronenberg ’17, and Jacob Tucker ’17.

Sraberg, the former baseball player turned Vanderbilt tennis recruit, is ranked 60th best senior in the nation per tennisrecuirting.net. “[Sraberg] is our best singles player and a fantastic doubles player,” Simpson said. “He believes in himself and has weapons to beat pretty much anybody out there.”

Ranked 173rd in the nation, Pomona-Pitzer commit Kronenberg has never lost an individual mission league match in his high school tennis career. “He’s a fantastic doubles player,” Simpson said. “A really good team guy, doesn’t have an ego, is easily my second best player, and on any given day can be my number-one too. He’s super fit and he’ll make you run [after] every ball, and if you’re tired or lacking confidence, I’ll put my money on Jed every time.”

The final senior is captain Jacob Tucker ’17. He's the one teammates and coaches rely on to energize the team with his quality play and enthusiasm. While his ranking of 448 isn’t as high as some of his teammates’, the value his charismatic presence brings to the team is immeasurable. “Tucker stopped tournaments,” Simpson said. “He’s the loudest guy on the team. He likes to be the center of attention. He is just charged and full of energy when the team needs it. He is also all the laughs, even if it’s at his own expense.”

The first loss of the season didn’t come until March 25 against Palisades Charter in the All-American Invitational Tournament in Newport Beach. However, the boys did not let the loss demoralize them, and instead used it to add fuel to the fire. The squad proceeded to win its next three matches, including an 18-0 shutout of Notre Dame, before going on spring break.

In their first match after spring break, the Wolverines faced defending CIF champions Peninsula. Peninsula led 9-8 heading into the 18th and final match of the day. The Wolverines seem poised to win (Harvard-Westlake held the tiebreaker had it finished 9-9), with Sraberg leading UC Davis commit Dariush Jalali (ranked 106th) five games to three. It was match point for Sraberg, who led the game 40-0. He collapsed. Jalali rallied to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, and Peninsula won 10-8.

“The Peninsula loss was a huge wake-up call for us. We had been destroying every team, but now we knew we had to improve again," Kronenberg said. “Our next few practices were beyond intense. We were determined to play better."

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The boys did just that, delivering an 18-0 shutout against crosstown rival Loyola and two more dominant wins to close out the regular season, remaining undefeated in the Mission League.

The tennis program has not lost a Mission League match since Simpson took over the program 16 years ago. His record is 188-0, three wins shy of the state record, a fact not lost upon the players.

“The amazing thing is so many teams year after year never want to be that team or those guys that broke the run, so we always play with the same type of pressure,” Simpson said. “In our minds we are confident and we know there’s a good chance we are going to continue the run and keep it going every year.”

The Wolverines continued their dominance in the playoffs.

They trounced Santa Barbara 16-2, and then followed up with a 14-4 win over Northwood.

In the quarterfinals, they faced a familiar foe in Los Alamitos, who had eliminated the Wolverines in each of the past two years. In 2015, the Griffins beat the Wolverines in a dramatic CIF final. After knocking out the Wolverines in the second round in 2016 the Griffins’ players added insult to injury by wearing their 2015 championship rings in the handshake line to press the cold rubies into Wolverine palms. This time around, a Wolverines side determined to have rings of their own defeated Los Alamitos 10-8.

After getting their retribution, the Wolverines delivered a more decisive performance in the semifinals, routing University in the semifinals by a score of 15-3. “[Our win against University] was without a doubt the best display of our abilities as tennis players,” Sraberg said after the match.

“I can attribute that to the mental lessons we learned and the huge fanatic support. If we are on as a team, we can beat anyone in the country.”

Having made it to the finals for the third time in four years, the seniors were determined to end their high school tennis careers with a victory. Prior to the match, Tucker reflected upon what getting his first CIF championship ring would mean to him.

“Winning CIF would mean that all the hours I’ve put in since I started tennis at four years old, that my fellow seniors have put in since freshman year, and that the team has trained this year, would be so freaking worth it,” he said.

The CIF-SS DI finals against defending champions Peninsula played out like a dream for the Wolverines. They traded points back and forth all day, neither team able to acquire the 10 match points required to clinch the victory. Prior to

the final match of the day, the score was 9-8 Wolverines.

A 9-9 result would’ve meant a win for Peninsula, as they had won more games.

So here they were again, Sraberg and Jalali in the 18th and decisive match. Sraberg led five sets to three, and led the game 40-0.

All eyes were on Sraberg. The fate of the tennis team’s season and the seniors’ last chance at a championship ring lay in his hands. The Wolverines’ ace was determined to make good on his second chance at Jalali and Peninsula. “I told myself I was the better player. I knew how much I wanted to win and I owed it to myself and my teammates to fight my tail off,” Sraberg said. “And that’s exactly what I did.”

Indeed, in the biggest moment of his tennis career, Sraberg delivered a 6-3 win for the Wolverines. As he watched his final forehand whiz past Jalali, Sraberg fell down to the court in elation, as his teammates hopped the fence and stormed the court. The final match score was 10-8. The blood, sweat, and tears of this season all became worth it. The Wolverines had won CIF. “I have dreamed of clinching like that since I was a little kid,” Sraberg said.

Simpson expressed that he couldn’t have been any prouder of his team, especially his seniors. “It was a fantastic performance full of fight and grit when needed,” Simpson said. “I wouldn’t have wanted to play against our seniors today. They wanted it more than anything: a ring in their senior year.”

It was a storybook ending for the players. They were able to win, and win on their own terms. “We won with class, style, and by having to fight it out until the sweet end,” Tucker said. “We proved today not just who we are as athletes, but who we are as people. We are determined and tenacious. We are winners.”

Although they had achieved their goal of winning a CIF ring, the Wolverines’ season didn’t end there. They advanced to the CIF State regionals, where they fell 5-2 to the heavily favored Torrey Pines in the finals.

Although they didn’t win, the team’s camaraderie was on full display. The runners-up could be seen smiling and laughing as they enjoyed their final moments of their magical season together. “Win or lose, we fought for each other, which is all I could want for my last high school match,” Kronenberg said.

“I’ll miss these guys.”

Photo of Jacob Tucker ’17 by Matthew Yam ’18

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WINTER 2017

NOTES

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 a decade/class year is not included in the notes, this means alumni from those years did not submit any updates.

If you have news you’d like to share with the alumni community, submit it via the alumni website, www.alumni.hw.com, in the password-protected Alumni Community section.

If you need help with your user name or password, please contact Hannah Platt ’08 at hplatt@hw.com.

HARVARD CLASS NOTES

1950s TONY MOISO ’57 writes, “The Harvard School class of ’57 held a Last Roundup Reunion organized

by Bill Horton, Mike Bonesteel, and me at the Bel-Air Bay Club on September 16, 2017. We had a really good turnout, a tribute to the blessing of our years at Harvard School, now long, long ago, and collected $6,000 for the Father Gill Scholarship Fund. It was very special that Rick Commons came by and shared much about the Harvard-Westlake of today; all of us remain honored and grateful that Rick made the time to join us.”

1960s GRANT FRASER ’61 writes, “I am retiring from full-time work at Cal State LA in August. I will continue to teach at the university on a half-time basis in the fall of each year and travel in the spring.

My daughter, Juliet Fraser ’05, is a resident in dermatology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. My son, Adam, is getting married in October. So among my children and their spouses, there will be two lawyers and two doctors.”

1970s STEVEN ALCOM ’73 writes, “My company, Alcom McBride Inc., continues to design and make most of the audio and video equipment used at Disney, Universal, and other theme parks around the world. As a side project, I started a writing school called WritingAcademy.com that

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has helped about 30,000 aspiring authors structure their manuscripts. My wife, Linda McBride (Marlborough ’74) and I celebrated our 39th anniversary this year. For the past few years, we’ve been splitting our time between Orlando and Chicago, where our daughter works as a medical writer. I’ve published a few more books; the latest is Write Your Life Story.”

CSULB. Mike, my oldest son, is on a 15-month world tour with West Side Story. When his wife Barbara joins him on tour, my husband Kevin and I stay in their Manhattan apartment. We enrich our lives there by visiting museums and taking walks in Central Park. Blessed with a positive attitude and good health, life grows better with each passing year.”

BRADFORD PEPPARD ’73 writes, “I moved to Geneva last May and am loving it!”

LISA KNOX BURNS ’70 writes, “Gone too soon. Classmates of Francia Gaunt gathered in Santa Barbara at my home to celebrate what would have been her 65th birthday on May 6.”

1980s LANCE CHANG ’83 writes, “In May 2017, my artwork was featured in the group exhibit ElectriCAL Colors at AC Gallery in Hollywood. The collection featured a curated selection of national and international contemporary artists.”

JIM GLANTZ ’85 writes, “I just launched a new company that offers executive coaching and leadership training services.”

In Memoriam WILLIAM FISHER ’62 SHAUN BROGAN ’63 RICHARD EALY ’63 WILLIAM KECK ’86

WESTLAKE CLASS NOTES

1950s PENELOPE BANKS DOHERTY ’54 writes, “Having acquired a love of learning, I continue to enroll in a wide variety of classes at

1970s

JENNIFER SHIRLEY HAZEN ’72 writes “Second careers can sometimes be a better fit than first careers, and in my case this is so true. I’m just starting my 11th year in the training and behavior department at the Oregon Humane Society.

If there’s a dog struggling with shelter life, I just bring him into my office to hang out with me for the day. It’s the best! Interestingly enough, as a certified dog trainer I find that it’s the training and behavior of humans that’s generally the trickiest. If you ever find yourself in Portland and are in need of a fur fix, stop by for a tour; it’s a beautiful facility. And I might just persuade you to go home with a sweet new dog or cat!”

1980s KAREN MCBRIDE ’80 writes,“We are loving our new home in Anacortes, Washington, on Fidalgo Island. We are in a rain shadow.

Our only traffic is ferry traffic.

Harvard School ’57 class reunion at the Bel-Air Bay Club in September

Marcello and I continue to work in space exploration and at home. We love being involved with the local schools and flight space projects.

I enjoy seeing my friends from Westlake, such as Elizabeth Hall ’80. Would love to see more of my classmates. Come and visit!”

CARRIE PANAMA REQUIST ’83 writes, “I am cofounder (along with my husband) and CEO of U Grok It, an RFID startup founded in 2011.

I was recently issued a US Patent as the coinventor of a ‘method for connecting a portable RFID reader to a handheld computing device via an audio connection.’ U Grok It was recently acquired by Turk, Inc.” LISA NIVER ’85 writes, “I am an adventure correspondent on The Jet Set, a Travel TV talk show. I founded We Said Go Travel, which now has over one million video views on Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and YouTube. My latest project is ‘50 new things before I turn 50,’ which include riding the Olympic bobsled in Utah, skiing with the

blind for Sierra magazine, scubadiving with bull sharks in Mexico, and exploring the Solomon Islands for Smithsonian magazine. You can find me on the Internet at www.wesaidgotravel.com.”

NINA TAKESH RIOJA ’89 writes, “As the cofounder of Petit Tresor, I have just celebrated our 15th year of selling luxury baby products, not only in our boutique in West Hollywood, but also across the country at stores including Target, buybuy Baby, and Babies "R" Us. My family and I (including our son Max Rioja ’19) plan on meeting up with Melissa Hill Gorup ’89 for a group family vacation to the Bahamas, as our children are great friends!”

In Memoriam FRANCIA GAUNT ’70

In the last issue of HW Life, Jo Ann Schaaf Ganz's name was spelled incorrectly. Additionally, exhibit work at the California Science Center and LACMA was inaccurately attributed to the Scenic Route. We apologize for the errors.

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WINTER 2017

NOTES HARVARD-WESTLAKE CLASS NOTES

1994

getting up close and personal with the inner workings of the federal government.”

1996 SAMUEL PLOTKIN writes, “I was recently promoted to director of the Passman Group. Our son Noa is thriving, having turned two years old this April.”

DANIEL TARICA writes, "At a recent Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs celebration recognizing the artists of the city's master artist fellowship program, it was great to see Cheri Gaulke, a past fellow herself. As part of the Department's leadership team in my role as assistant general manager, I am proud to support and promote arts and culture for LA's residents and visitors. When I'm not working, our twin fouryear-old daughters keep me and my husband, Joshua, quite busy."

1997 CHRISTINE BOHLE BOYD writes, “My husband, Peter, and I are living in Washington, DC, with our two children (Devon, three, and Ryan, two), where I am currently heading up marketing for Upskill, an emerging growth company and industry leader in augmented reality software for industrial settings.”

1998 CARY CLARKE writes, “Meri Dunn ’98 and I are living happily in Portland, Oregon, soon to celebrate our 22nd anniversary after meeting at HW in seventh grade Russian class. We enjoy music, nature, travel, art, pizza, and community involvement. Meri is a pediatrician and I am the executive director of Young Audiences of Oregon & SW Washington.”

1999 ALBERLYNNE HARRIS WOODS writes, “I married James Woods, Jr., at the Harvard-Westlake Upper School Chapel on July 1, 2017.”

1995 CATHERINE HUYBRECHTS BURTON writes, “I moved with my family to the Washington, DC, area in Summer 2016 to take a job as a senior account manager for a geospatial mapping software company. As a Northern Virginia resident, I have been enjoying all four seasons, the lush scenery, and

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MELISSA KAHN WILKENFELD writes, “Last fall, my husband Adam and three-year-old daughter Lacey welcomed our second daughter, Elizabeth Rae Wilkenfeld, to the world. I love being a fulltime mommy, and continue to work part-time as a teen life coach in Sherman Oaks.”

2000 LUKE HORNBLOWER writes, “In 2016, I returned from three years living abroad in Russia and Switzerland after completing law school and settled in Newark, NJ, where I purchased and am

currently renovating a home. I just completed my first year at a law and compliance consulting firm in New Jersey that helps brokers transition from employment at financial institutions to establishing themselves as independent registered investment advisors. Recently I have been learning to garden and playing golf on public courses in Essex County.”

2001 NATASHA CASE writes, “I love being a part of HW Inc and mentoring emerging entrepreneurs.”

2003 GINGER HEALY writes, “I am happy to continue teaching fifth grade at the Curtis School.”

JEFFREY LOH-DOYLE writes, “I just completed a fellowship in genitourinary reconstructive surgery at USC and am now an

assistant professor of urology at USC as of August 1.”

2007 MATTHEW BOGGAN writes, “I am currently a lead software engineer at Under Armour Connected Fitness and live in San Francisco.”

2008 EMILY LAWSON writes, “I received my MS in higher education administration and policy from Northwestern University.”

2013

MICHAEL WAGMEISTER writes, “I graduated summa cum laude from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania on May 14, 2017.”

In Memoriam BRIAN BEZONSKY ’98 GINA CHANG ’09

Part of the Harvard School Class of 1968

Westlake School in the 1980s

Harvard-Westlake School in the 1990s

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WINTER 2017

NOTES

Habits Of The Heart

By Jim Pattison Senior Advancement Officer and Director of Major Gifts Alexis de Tocqueville had a number of insights about our country that he eloquently expressed in Democracy in America. Among them were two specific “habits of the heart” he recognized in our emerging national identity.

One is the value placed on individual effort. The pioneer who pushes the frontier, the settler hewing out a home in a wilderness, the lonesome cowboy exploring the new country, and the underdog overcoming difficult circumstances are legendary images in our culture. Among the first 10 amendments to our country’s Constitution are guarantees enshrining our individual rights.

The second observation made by de Tocqueville is the value of community. Those pioneers and settlers quickly discovered the mutual benefits of pooling their efforts in barn-raising and creating towns with services. It is worth noting that in the recent Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma disasters, neighbors counted on one another, helping one another. Many of the displaced residents missed their neighbors and friends and looked forward to getting back to the normalcy of their homes and communities.

The emphasis on the individual and the desire for community—two habits of the heart—are in tension with one another yet necessarily intertwined. There are many examples of how these two habits of the heart surface.

I was recently reminded of this visiting the Space Center in Houston. I thought about how successful space missions involve the complex teamwork of many, many people even while our attention focuses on the individual heroism of an astronaut.

I also went to a Houston Astros baseball game and thought about historian Jacques Barzun, who may have been thinking of de Tocqueville’s observation when he stated, “To understand America, you must understand baseball.” To be sure, there are many individual confrontations in baseball: pitcher vs. batter, base stealer vs. catcher, fielder vs. runner; yet there are also situations when there has to be coordinated team effort: a double play, a relay throw, a squeeze bunt.

There are many individuals associated with Harvard-Westlake who are singular in their achievements within their professional areas. There is a high value placed on individual accomplishment and it is duly recognized: individuals receiving awards, jerseys being retired, profiles written for our information and edification. And the school excels at having each student realize passions and talents that may have been previously undiscovered.

But the school’s motto, Possunt Quia Posse Videntur, means “They can because they think they can.” If it were only about the individual, it would be “I can” or possum. Individuals thrive because there is a community that supports them. We recognize the importance of acting together, being mindful of one another, and finding the common denominator of values that can and do unite us and make us stronger.

The collective vision requires, at times, each of us to think of the common good rather than just our individual benefit. It means putting ourselves in others’ shoes and thinking about how our actions may impact others for good or bad. The gift planning process helps identify what our individual abilities and assets may be, and how and where they can be used for the common wealth.

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If you’re interested in exploring ways to make this vision a reality, please contact me at 818.487.5471 or jpattison@hw.com.

MAKE A TAX-FREE GIFT FROM YOUR IRA SEE YOUR GENEROSITY IN ACTION If you are 70½ years old or older, you can make a tax-free gift from your individual retirement account (IRA) directly to Harvard-Westlake.

This law no longer has an expiration date, so you are free to make annual gifts to qualified charitable organizations from your IRA this year and well into the future.

HOW IT WORKS • You must be 70½ or older at the time of your gift.

• You may transfer any amount up to $100,000 directly from your IRA to a qualified charitable organization.

• The transfer is not considered to be taxable income, and therefore does not generate an income tax deduction, so you benefit even if you do not itemize your tax deductions.

• If you have not yet taken your required minimum distribution for the year, your IRA charitable rollover gift can satisfy all or part of that requirement.

MAKE AN IMPACT TODAY By making a gift this year, you can make an immediate impact on our work while putting the wheels in motion to create a philanthropic legacy.

WE CAN HELP Contact Jim Pattison (818.487.5471; jpattison@hw.com) to learn more about this tax-smart way to support Harvard-Westlake School.

The information in this publication is not intended as legal or tax advice. For such advice, please consult an attorney or tax advisor. Figures cited in examples are for hypothetical purposes only and are subject to change. References to estate and income taxes include federal taxes only. State income/estate taxes or state law may impact your results.

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Last Look

VOICE OF THE GIRLS: LEARNING FOR MODERN WOMEN 1979-1989 The 1980s at Westlake were marked by an increasingly progressive curriculum, diversification of the student body, competitive athletic teams, and a focus on self-curated education. New classes such as film, modern dance, humanities, and women’s studies were offered by gifted faculty, and a speaker program presented women’s activists Shirley Chisholm, Gloria Steinem, and NASA astronaut Sally K. Ride ’68. Academic robes were worn for graduation rather than formal white gowns, and student life was enriched by retreats and clubs. The Westlake experience developed thoughtful women who left the school as leaders.

This display is part of the newly opened Westlake Staircase.

Come see it for yourself in the Hazy Academic Center on Harvard-Westlake’s middle school campus.

Amanda Offor '18, Self-Portrait

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