Spring 2018 Magazine

INDIAN SPRINGS A M AG A Z I N E F O R A LU M N I A N D F R I E N DS O F I N D I A N S P R I N G S S C H O O L

SPRING 2018

STRENGTH IN WORDS

Since the school’s founding, Springs has inspired young people to write with purpose, clarity, and courage.

PAG E 2 0

‘ONE STEP CLOSER’ TO A CURE page 16

NEW APPROACH TO ADVISING page 18

MEET OUR 2018 O U T S TA N D I N G A L U M page 48

INDIAN SPRINGS MAGAZINE

HEAD OF SCHOOL

DR. SHARON HOWELL DIRECTOR OF FINANCE & OPERATIONS

MISSION STATEMENT Guided by our motto, Learning through Living,

Indian Springs School fosters a love of learning and creativity, a sense of integrity and moral courage, and an ethic of participatory citizenship with respect for individuality and independent thought.

Tanya Yeager DIRECTOR OF ADVANCEMENT

Loren Gary ’76 DIRECTOR OF ADMISSION

Claire Cassady DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS

Mindy Keyes Black DIRECTOR OF SPECIAL PROJECTS & STRATEGY

Lauren Wainwright ’88 DEAN OF ACADEMICS

EDITOR

Mindy Keyes Black GRAPHIC DESIGNER

Ellen S. Padgett CONTRIBUTORS

Susan Emack Alison Claire Cassady Kathryn D’Arcy

Dr. Tanya Hyatt

Sunny Dong ’17

DEAN OF STUDENT DEVELOPMENT & COMMUNITY LIFE

Stewart Edmonds

Janae Peters DEAN OF STUDENT LIFE

Dr. Bill Engel ’75 Loren Gary ’76

Jan Fortson

Hal Jones

DIRECTOR OF COLLEGE ADVISING

Art Meripol

Amelia Johnson ATHLETIC DIRECTOR

Greg Van Horn

Peter Moss Steven Ross Michael Sheehan Jaye Vlachos ’18 Rachel Wallace Graham Yelton

BOARD OF GOVERNORS 2017-18

Libby Pantazis P ’03, ’06, ’09, Chairman Robert Aland ’80, Gail Andrews P ’03 Janet Perry Book P ’04, ’09, Myla Calhoun P ’11, ’13 Clara Chung P ’13, ’16, Emma Embry ’05, P ’20 Alan Engel ’73, P ’03, ’12, Joe Farley ’81, P ’14, ’16 Rob Henrikson ’65, Ben Hunt ’82, Leo Kayser III ’62 Ellen McElroy ’78, Catherine McLean P ’03, ’06, ’11 Eli Phillips, Scott Pulliam ’85, P ’16, ’17 Rusty Rushton ’74, P ’09, ’11, John Simmons ’65, P ’96 Hanson Slaughter ’90, P ’20, ’22, Fergus Tuohy ’96 Annie Damsky ’98, Ex Officio, Alumni Council Michele Reisner P ’18, Ex Officio, Parents Association

At Indian Springs School, we are committed to reducing our carbon footprint. If you would prefer to receive Indian Springs magazine or other school communications electronically, please let us know by emailing us at indiansprings@indiansprings.org.

COVER PHOTO Graham Yelton INDIAN SPRINGS SCHOOL publishes Indian Springs magazine twice a year, in fall/winter and spring/summer. Printed by Craftsman Printing, Birmingham, Alabama.

CLASS NOTES classnotes@indiansprings.org ADDRESS CHANGES Indian Springs School • 190 Woodward Drive • Indian Springs, AL 35124 • 205.988.3350 indiansprings@indiansprings.org

©2018 Indian Springs School. All rights reserved. 190 Woodward Drive, Indian Springs, AL 35124 | Phone: 205.988.3350 Website: www.indiansprings.org

NOTICE OF NONDISCIMINATORY POLICY AS TO STUDENTS Indian Springs School, an independent school nationally recognized as a leader in boarding and day

education for grades 8-12, serves a talented and diverse student body and offers its admission to qualified students regardless of race, gender, religion, national origin, ethnicity, or sexual orientation. Located in Indian Springs, Alabama, just south of Birmingham, the school does not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, religion, national origin, ethnicity, or sexual orientation in administration of its educational policies, admission policies, scholarship and loan programs, or athletic and other school-administered programs.

F E AT U R E D

INDIAN SPRINGS {CONTENTS}

SPRING 2018

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VOLUME SIXTEEN, ISSUE ONE

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Contributing to a Cure Driven by his own mother’s breast cancer scare and wanting “to make an impact on the world through medicine,” Ken Jiao ’18 decided as a sophomore to take on an area of research that few others had explored. Three years later, experts say his award-winning work could bring scientists one step closer to finding a cure.

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A New Approach to Advising For new Dean of Student Development and Community Life Janae Peters, mentoring during her teen years helped her see opportunities she had never dreamed possible.

Peters is now laying the groundwork for Indian Springs’ advising program to offer the same potential for our students.

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2016–2017 Annual Report Students, faculty, staff, parents, friends—Indian Springs stretches us all to become our best selves and to share our gifts fully with the communities to which we belong. Thank you for your deep commitment to Springs and the heartfelt ways that you give back, year after year.

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Meet Our 2018 Outstanding Alum

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COVER STORY

Strength in Words

Since our founding, Springs has inspired young people to write with purpose, clarity, and courage. As notable alumni and passionate students continue to share important narratives through skilled storytelling, we look at the art of writing—and why it’s more important than ever to practice it.

Photos by Graham Yelton

Get to know clinical psychologist and social activist Lara Embry ’87, who will receive Indian Springs’ 2018 Outstanding Alum Award on April 20 for her achievements in her field and her efforts to promote and protect LGBTQ+ rights.

IN EVERY ISSUE

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WELCOME LETTERS

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CAMPUS NEWS

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HIGH MARKS

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NOTEWORTHY

WELCOME

FROM BOARD CHAIR LIBBY PANTAZIS

LIBBY PANTAZIS Chair, Indian Springs School Board of Governors

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CAME TO INDIAN SPRINGS AS A PARENT 20 years ago and immediately appreciated why my children wanted to attend: This is a remarkable school, fueled by exceptional students and teachers, passionate alumni, and dedicated families. As our specially appointed Mission Review Committee highlighted last fall (more on this in the pages ahead!), Springs teaches young people to view themselves not only as individual learners but also as members of a respectful, creative community.

Creativity has become the mantra of Head of School Dr. Sharon Howell as she works with faculty and staff to promote a Creative Campus, Curriculum, and Community.

During my 17 years of service on the Board of Governors, I have also recognized creativity in the work of Board members—both past and present—who give back to the school tirelessly as they safeguard its mission for future generations.

My three immediate predecessors as Chairman of the Board—Bill Slaughter ’56, Gray Plosser ’63, and Donald Hess ’66—exhibited incredible creativity as they shepherded Springs through pivotal times in its history. From Bill’s creation of the school’s endowment, to Gray’s raising of our iconic Town Hall, to Donald’s preservation of Springs’ resources during a time of international economic turmoil—creative solutions have sustained us and paved the way for a bright future. The vision of Henry Goodrich and son Mike Goodrich ’63 connected us with the Malone Family Foundation, which led to our participation in two superb initiatives: the prestigious Malone Scholars Program and the Malone Schools Online Network.

The list goes on…. Kip Porter ’60, Jeff Cohn ’64, Peggy Monaghan, Muff Johnston: I am incredibly grateful to these painters, poets, and prophets who came before me. During my tenure as Chairman, because of the incredible generosity of alumni, parents, and friends, we have updated our infrastructure, opened three beautiful new classroom buildings, and dedicated the Armstrong Administration building, Kayser Academic Center, and Samford Way. These milestones—the first phase of our campus master plan—have allowed the school to focus on excellent programming and to continue to attract top students, faculty, and our forward-thinking Head of School—individuals who serve as brilliant colors on Springs’ canvas.

In May, my second term as Chairman will draw to a close. I will pass the torch to my successor, Alan Engel ’73. Alan is equally passionate about education and Springs’ mission; I can assure you that the future is bright as he takes the helm. Before I go, I urge you to do your part to make Springs the very best it can be. Give—and give often. Visit this inspiring campus regularly. Tell friends and family about Springs. Your commitment is vital to this creative community.

Spring 2018

Warmest regards,

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FROM TOP TO BOTTOM: Libby in August 2015 at a special preview commemorating the opening of Springs’ new classrooms, Armstrong Administration building, and newly renovated Kayser Academic Center. Speaking to students, alumni, and faculty at the presentation of the 2017 Outstanding Alum Award. Libby with fellow Board members at the September 2017 Board meeting. Celebrating the appointment of Head of School Dr. Sharon Howell at Springs’ February 2016 reception for New York-area alumni and friends.

FROM HEAD OF SCHOOL DR. SHARON HOWELL

WELCOME

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RITING IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE THINGS TO TALK ABOUT. So I was delighted when we decided to devote our Spring 2018 magazine to the importance of writing to an Indian Springs education. Many worthy things compel us as educators—and I will mention some of these in a moment. But let’s be clear, as we talk about the exciting educational innovation and rigorous creativity that will define the future of Springs, that one of the few indispensable tools we must commit to giving our students remains the ability to form and communicate their ideas in writing.

So I can happily forecast that sending excellent writers into the world will continue to be one of our priorities. But I also want to take this chance to share a little more about my vision for Springs for the coming years, and what we are beginning to do to advance it.

My hope is that Springs will become a truly creative school—meaning that our minds are open, our approach is flexible and inclusive, and we are willing and eager to create new, original paths for students as they show us what they need in order to be challenged and stimulated.

We will be creative in our community: making the most of our boarding program; teaching critical social and emotional skills; finding, and funding, students with rich and various backgrounds; and developing an extraordinary faculty to teach them. We will be creative in our curriculum: encouraging independent study and special seminars; exploring opportunities for original research and projects; challenging students to make connections among the things they learn; and collaborating with our peer schools to expand our students’ range of curricular options. And we will be creative with our campus: using it as a living laboratory; making campus projects learning opportunities; and building the facilities we need for an inspiring environment.

The Planning Committee of our Board has begun the process—with a recent survey you should have received—of listening to the community to make sure that our strategy for the coming years will allow us to realize these goals in ways that are true to our roots.

In the next few months they will be talking with constituent groups and helping us synthesize what I hope you will come to see as our best strategy for Indian Springs. So we will have much more to say about our new strategic plan soon. Whatever steps we decide to take to reach our goals, I can say for sure that your support will be vital to taking them sure-footedly. Please know how grateful we are to be able to count on the generosity of this alumni community to help move us forward.

I cannot close without noting that so much of what is happening at Springs right now— the new buildings, the record enrollment, the alumni outreach, the creative spirit—has been made possible by the leadership of our Chairman of the Board, Libby Pantazis, whose term ends this May. Libby has been an inspiration to me, as she has guided and challenged the Board of Governors to be its best and held all of us to her high standard.

Without her openness to progress and incredible devotion to this school, it would not be where it is—poised to become one of the best independent schools in the country. We will miss her very much, and look forward to celebrating her properly later this spring.

DR. SHARON HOWELL Head of School, Indian Springs School

Indian Springs

Yours Gratefully,

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CAMPUS NEWS

SITE FEATURES • Responsive design • Fresh photography • Stunning drone footage by Springs senior Carter Gaché ’18 • New Boarding tab highlighting Springs’ residential life program • Faculty bios and photos • Search and Google Translate • Student, faculty, and alumni news • Visual timeline of school history • Notable alumni page • Best of Birmingham page • New Springs: Unscripted video series featuring candid student interviews

SPRINGS LAUNCHES DYNAMIC NEW WEBSITE

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minisite to promote our distinctive Summer@ Springs program, which offers students in grades 4-12 a wide variety of academic enrichment courses. Explore the new sites at IndianSprings.org

and SummeratSprings.org.

Photos by Graham Yelton

Spring 2018

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NDIAN SPRINGS LAUNCHED a newly redesigned, user-friendly website in November to showcase the school’s diverse community, broad curriculum, beautiful setting, cutting-edge classrooms, and important mission.

“The new website captures the essence of Springs,” says Head of School Dr. Sharon Howell. “We are delighted to have this inviting new digital front door, which is already attracting prospective families from across the country and around the world and giving us a fantastic medium for celebrating the very best of Springs student, faculty, and alumni accomplishments.”

In January, Springs released a companion

SPRINGS INTRODUCES NEW LOGO

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T THE START of the 2017-18 school year, Indian Springs celebrated the launch of a new bell logo designed to move the symbol of the bell and all that it represents forward by capturing the modern look of the school’s new buildings while also honoring Springs’ important past.

The culmination of a yearlong process that included a school-wide survey and focus groups throughout the year, the new logo was created by Birmingham-based designer Graham Yelton. Like its predecessors, it represents the bronze bell atop Springs’ dining hall. The bell was a gift to the school from Southern Railway, which was retiring its steam locomotives just as Indian Springs was preparing to open its doors in 1952.

“Over the years, the bell has come to symbolize the importance of gathering to build community, listen to one another, deepen friendships, and continue conversations—the very core of Learning through Living,” says Head of School Dr. Sharon Howell. “The new logo is an emblem of our freedom to choose and follow our individual, open-ended paths while also being called to learn together.”

BEFORE 1966

MID-’60S TO MID-’70S

MID-’70S TO MID-’80S

SPRINGSREVEAL.ORG

Indian Springs introduced its new logo through a short animated video that celebrates both the school’s new visual identity and this extraordinary community of learners. See the video at SpringsReveal.org.

MID-’80S TO 2017

CURRENT

Niche ‘Best Private High School’ for 5th Year Indian Springs is honored to be recognized as No. 1 on Niche’s list of Best Private High Schools in Alabama for 2018. Rankings, which were released for the start of the 2017-18 school year, are determined by average SAT/ ACT scores; rankings of the colleges that graduates attend; the percent of seniors who go to four-year colleges; student culture and diversity; the ratio of students to full-time teachers; and parent and student experiences.

This is the fifth consecutive year that Indian Springs has topped the Niche.com list.

‘Best Private School’ in Birmingham Birmingham magazine readers named Indian Springs School the winner of the Best Private School category in the magazine’s 2018 Best of Birmingham Family & Kids poll! The results were announced in the March issue.

Thank you, Birmingham!

Cast your vote for Indian Springs as “Favorite Private School” in the Birmingham Parent 2018 Family Favorite awards and be entered to win a family trip to the Sandestin Beach & Golf Resort! Visit BirminghamParent.com/ directory/family-favorites-survey. Voting will remain open until midnight on April 25; winners will be announced in the June 2018 issue. We thank you!

Indian Springs

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Vote for Springs!

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CAMPUS NEWS

SPRINGS UPDATES MISSION STATEMENT TO INCLUDE CREATIVITY, INDIVIDUALITY, AND INDEPENDENT THOUGHT

By Mindy Keyes Black

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OLLOWING A YEARLONG REVIEW

by a specially appointed committee of alumni, students, faculty, parents, and community and Board members, Indian Springs’ Board of Governors has approved an updated mission statement to guide the school in strategic decision-making and to articulate Springs’ philosophy and core values: Guided by our motto, Learning through Living, Indian Springs School fosters a love of learning and creativity, a sense of integrity and moral courage, and an ethic of participatory citizenship with respect for individuality and independent thought.

The statement, which went from 77 words to 37 words in length, maintains the heart of the school’s previous statement while also emphasizing two equally vital aspects of Indian Springs School culture: creativity, and respect for individuality and independent thought.

“These values, as we discussed in our Mission Review Committee meetings throughout the 2016-17 school year, help define and differentiate us, and the Board believes that their inclusion adds depth and strength to Springs’ important mission,” says Planning Committee Chair Janet Perry Book P ’04, ’09, who led the ad hoc committee. “We also applaud committee members for thinking carefully about word choice and for recommending revisions that capture the essence of the previous statement while also making it easy to remember.”

HONORING THE PAST, SIGNALING THE FUTURE Board member, alumnus, and Mission Review

Committee member Rusty Rushton ’74 believes that the updated statement “honors past articulations of itself while leaning confidently toward the years and changes to come.”

“It was great getting input from several corners of the known world of Springs—current students and teachers, variously aged alumni, administrators—and reinforcing to discover what one might have supposed but couldn’t know for sure until the conversation got going: that Springs has held on to virtually the same core values over all these years,” he says.

“There were debates over what to specify versus what to leave general, but I think we all got to recognize, in each other’s lists of essential Springs traits, the same school as the one we’d each gone to, been hired by, or chosen for our children,” he adds.

For many committee members, the review process reflected those qualities that the newly revised statement affirms.

“When I was offered the chance to be on the committee, I was so excited,” says senior Liz Jones ’18. “We hoped to take a new look at what the mission statement portrayed about our core values. In the end we felt that we needed to update the statement to represent more accurately what Springs embodies: We are creative in the way we problem solve. We are independent in the way we time manage. We are all individuals and admire the differences and similarities among us. With the addition of these three qualities, our mission statement accurately represents who we are as a community, and I could not be more proud to have been a part of it.”

WHO WE ARE English teacher D’Anthony Allen feels that the review process signaled Springs’ desires “to be inclusive and intentional in creating spaces for dialogue and to be flexible in looking at ideas and terminology and the way that language reveals who we are presently and who we want to become.”

“It’s so unique to have Board members, teachers, alums, administrators, current students, and even future parents who happen to be Board members and alums—all these different levels of connectivity to the school—involved,” he says.

“We all had a vested interest in preserving the intangibles of Springs but also in positioning ourselves to be attractive to new generations through the wording of the statement, which we hope will intrigue and entice them to want to know more about this place.”

The Board of Governors convened the Mission Review Committee in fall 2016 in accordance with National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) best practice guidelines, which encourage regular review to ensure that the mission statement is relevant and vital to the community it serves. Springs’ previous mission statement dates to fourth Director Mel MacKay’s tenure (2002-07).

“The passion, thoughtfulness, and attention to detail of our dedicated committee members ensured that the statement reflects a broad range of voices within our community and presents an eloquent, memorable assertion of who we are as a school,” says Board Chair Libby Pantazis. “Indian Springs’ mission informs all that we do, and the

“Guided by our motto, Learning through Living, Indian Springs School fosters a Spring 2018

love of learning and creativity, a sense of integrity and moral courage, and an ethic of

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participatory citizenship with respect for individuality and independent thought.”

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Max Klapow ’17, Nomiah Keyton ’17, and Liz Jones ’18 shared student perspectives as part of Springs’ specially appointed Mission Review Committee.

SHARED EXPERIENCES For committee member Lawrence Katz ’82, the experience confirmed that new and longtime members of the Springs community share an affinity for the precepts of Springs’ mission statement. “It was through the lens of student and staff perspectives and our shared experiences that we were able to coalesce around the need to add the primacy of mu-

Max, Nomiah, and Liz talk about Springs’ distinctive mission review process: www.

IndianSprings.org/ mission

tual respect for individual creativity, thought, and achievement. I for one am pleased with the result. It rings true today not only for our students, staff, and parents but also for those of us who must rely on now-distant memories of coming of age in this very special community.”

For English teacher and committee member Lauren Cole, the review process provided “a greater appreciation and awareness of the ‘Springs tradition.’ I want to continue to honor these important traditions and core values as I work with today’s learners,” she says.

The updated statement has also created numerous teachable moments. Cole recently presented the revised statement to her 10th grade Critical Reading & Analytical Writing class and explained how the new statement was constructed.

“Students tend to think that good writing is some sort of instantaneous magic, when, in fact, it is a difficult process, even for people who are

proficient writers,” she says. “Even for just one sentence: Each word is weighed and measured.”

Cole encouraged her students to start by considering the statement’s structure. “One thing I always stress with my students is understanding the relationship between form and function,” she says. “We examined how the statement was built, digging into the syntax and diction of the sentence.”

They then moved on to its meaning. “They discussed ways we see each of the ideas in the statement manifested on campus,” says Cole. “How, for instance, do we see a love of learning, or a sense of integrity and moral courage?

“We discussed what these ideas mean on a practical level, and ways we can encourage and promote these values on campus,” she says. “They liked that the statement is broad enough to apply to both students and faculty, and that we are all one community aspiring to these goals together.”

Indian Springs

Board is excited to reaffirm its commitment to the important ideas that it articulates.”

“The mission statement is crucially operative for me,” says Head of School Dr. Sharon Howell.

“I go back to it as a touchstone when making decisions to ensure that we are genuinely adhering to who we are and want to be. That’s why it felt especially important to me to preserve our emphasis on participatory citizenship, independence, individuality, and courage, and to add a new emphasis on creativity.”

STUDENTS ON A MISSION

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CAMPUS NEWS

HIGH MARKS

Honney , who w named as Grand P of the 2 rize Win 017 Lois ner Pickard Competi Scholars tion, pe hip rf movem ent of th ormed the firs t e Tchaik Concert ovsky oo soloist o n March 18 as fe Violin n the AS atured O & ASY Side Co O Side b ncert. H y ear her play at a recent M usical Fri www.in dianspr day: ings.org / honney

SIX STUDENTS NAMED NATIONAL MERIT FINALISTS

Kim ’19 Selected for New York String Seminar

Six Indian Springs seniors have been named finalists in the 63rd annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Sam St. John ’18, Peter Scalise ’18, Henry Goff ’18, Danielle Wu ’18, Amy Li ’18, and Ken Jiao ’18 were among about 15,000 students nationwide (representing less than 1 percent of graduating seniors) who were selected based on their achievements on the 2016 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, high SAT scores, strong academic performance in grades 9–12, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, and honors and awards received. Also recognized by the 2018 NMSP were Lauren Jones ’18 (semifinalist) and Rachael Murdock ’18, Grace O’Malley ’18, Delaney Porter ’18, and Mark Romero ’18 (commended students).

AFTER MAKING HER DEBUT at Carnegie Hall in summer 2017, Springs violinist Honney Kim ’19 once again took the stage as one of the youngest players in the 49th New York String Orchestra Seminar. Kim spent 10 days in late December in New York City playing under the direction of top ensemble instructors. On the evenings of Dec. 24 and 28, she and fellow instrumentalists, ages 16 to 23, performed in concerts presented

by Carnegie Hall. In late fall, Kim was also awarded an honorable mention in the Classical Music category of the Young Arts National Arts Competition.

SIMMONS ’19 ATTENDS 2018 COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN SPRINGS JUNIOR Sarah Niles Simmons ’19 was one of 12 Girl Scouts nationwide selected to take part in the 62nd Commission on the Status of Women held March 12–23 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. The session focused on the challenges of achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in rural communities. A secondary discussion looked at ways to improve women’s access to news media and technology.

As a participant, Simmons had the opportunity to talk with women from all over the world. “I heard stories about issues I never knew existed,” she says, “and I was able to put names and faces with the global issues I always knew were

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out there but had never personally experienced. One of the most impactful things I heard came from a 14-yearold girl from a small town in Mexico who said, ‘We don’t need you to come in and solve all our problems for us. We just need you to listen and support us while we work.’ I’ve never felt more inspired to make a positive change in my community, and despite the fact that I can’t fix everything, I’ve never been more sure that I can make some change.”

Simmons, a Girl Scout since the first grade, was selected to represent the Girl Scouts of North Central Alabama through an application process requiring essays, letters of recommendation, and an interview.

The Indian Springs School Choir has been named a Youth & High School Division semifinalist for the 2017-18 American Prize in Choral Performance. Director of Choral Music Andrew Dibble has also been named as one of only two Youth & School Chorus Division semifinalists for the 2017-18 American Prize in Conducting.

The American Prize, founded in 2009, invites choral, musical, and theatrical soloists, ensembles, and directors to compete nationally for cash awards and professional recognition. Competitors submit video recordings of their performances to be judged by a panel of accomplished musicians and educators from around the country. Judging criteria include overall effect, musicality, rhythmic incisiveness, tone quality, accuracy, intonation, and knowledge of style.

Finalists will be announced this spring.

BELOW: Katie Wiatrak ’18 at Smart Party 6.0; Delaney Porter ’18, Head of School Dr. Sharon Howell, and Wiatrak at a recent Gender Equality Club movie screening.

WIATRAK ’18 HONORED BY WOMEN’S FUND OF GREATER BIRMINGHAM SPRINGS SENIOR Katie Wiatrak ’18 was one of 11 women recognized by The Women’s Fund of Greater Birmingham at Smart Party 6.0, the organization’s annual fundraiser that celebrates some of Birmingham’s most innovative and accomplished women while raising money to open doors for women to succeed. Wiatrak, the first recipient to be honored in the new “Next Generation” category for current students (high school or college), was chosen for her efforts to promote gender equality at Indian Springs and beyond.

Alongside Springs’ first female head of school, Dr. Sharon Howell, and classmate Delaney Porter ’18, Wiatrak founded Indian Springs’ Gender Equality Club in 2016 in an effort to highlight the importance of equal rights and opportunities for all, regardless of gender. In less than a year, the club, which hosts movie screenings, after-school discussions, and fundraisers to highlight gender equality issues, has grown into the school’s largest student-run club, with more than 70 members.

Indian Springs

Photos by Michael Sheehan, Rachel Wallace, and Sunny Dong ’17

Springs Choir, Choral Director Named American Prize Semifinalists

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ONSTAGE

PERFORMING ARTS

SPRINGS ONSTAGE

Throughout the year, Springs students take the stage to entertain, inspire, and share their talents through the performing arts.

THEATER

Spring 2018

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NDIAN SPRINGS THEATRE tackled the themes of justice, prejudice, and perceptions of reality through the school’s fall play, Twelve Angry Jurors. Directed and staged by Theatre Director Dane Peterson, the play allowed students to explore the story of a jury that has retired to deliberate the fate of an urban teen accused of the fatal stabbing of his father. Eleven jurors believe he is guilty, but it takes 12 to convict. Is he guilty, or is he not?

TOP: The cast of Twelve Angry Jurors takes its final bow.

ABOVE: Eliza Black ’18, Juror No. 8, faces down Bennett Atkins ’18, Juror

No. 10, during a heated debate.

CONTEMPORARY MUSIC

S CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: At Springs’ November Student Concert, Tate

Shuttlesworth ’18 takes lead vocals on a lighthearted cover of “Casimir Pulaski Day” by Sufjan Stevens, with Max Simon ’19 on guitar and Will Davis ’19 on keys/backup vocals; Rikki Palmer ’18 sings the disco hit “Stomp”

by Brothers Johnson; Hyo In Park ’19 and Kadie Jacobs ’19 belt out the Radiohead showstopper “Creep,” with Luke Molbak ’19 on guitar, Sarah Wammack ’19 on drums, and Haden Ryan-Embry ’20 on bass.

PRINGS’ RAPIDLY GROWING “Contemp” program gives students a chance to learn skills in vocals, guitar, drums, and keyboards and to perform popular songs for the school community. Led by Contemporary Music and Recording Arts teacher Clint Jacobs, the program offered nine sections in 2017-18 to meet rising student demand and hired audio engineer Penn Robertson, who has worked with a number of high-profile Southern rock bands, to assist with audio, production, and rehearsing.

“While popular and commercial music studies are becoming more common in colleges and universities, few high schools have followed suit. Indian Springs, on the other hand, has recognized an opportunity to provide music education to more students by giving them options to pick what they enjoy.”

CHOIR

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OR CHOIR TOUR 2018, Springs’ Concert Choir traveled in February to New York City, where students sang at The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine and St. Bart’s. Led by Director of Choral Music Andrew Dibble and accompanied by Director of Instrumental Music Dr. Hye-Sook Jung, the Chamber Choir also performed for more than 3,000 educators in March at the general session of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) Annual Conference in Atlanta.

THE ARTS AT SPRINGS

Learn more about these programs, as well as our instrumental and visual art offerings, at www.IndianSprings.org/arts

Indian Springs

Photos by Steven Ross (theater), Michael Sheehan (contemporary music), Hal Jones (choir)

—Contemporary Music and Recording Arts teacher Clint Jacobs

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AT H L E T I C S

GO SPRINGS!

CAMPUS NEWS

BUZZER BEATER!

See our video of Logan’s winning goal at Facebook. com/experiencesprings.

SPRINGS’ MEN’S BASKETBALL TEAM claimed seven impressive victories during its 2017–18 season, securing an important area win.

The highlight of the season was a buzzer-beating layup by Logan Mercer ’19 in the 47–46 defeat of Fultondale High School. Logan averaged 12 points per game, and teammate Evan Dascher ’18 averaged 13 points. Congratulations to the Men’s Basketball Team!

WOMEN’S BOWLING THREE YEARS AFTER Springs’ Women’s Bowling Team

Spring 2018

began competing, the determination of its founding members—Brianna Jones ’19, Chloe Miller ’18, Juliet Wiatrak ’18, and Katie Wiatrak ’18—has paid off. The team beat out Spain Park, Vestavia Hills, and Oak Mountain to place second in the area, then went on to play at the regional tournament. During the 2017–18 season, Brianna bowled a high game of 137; Juliet, 150; Katie, 157; and Chloe, 183, which set the high game record for Springs’ Women’s Bowling.

Congratulations to the team!

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WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL SPRINGS’ VARSITY VOLLEYBALL TEAM—led by eight seniors who finished their career with four area championships—closed out its 2017–18 season with an overall record of 18–14 and an Area 7 record of 6–0. Ava Davis ’18 was the team leader in assists, Sonia Gueye ’18 and Caroline Baker ’18 were the team leaders in kills, Madei Davis ’18 was the team leader in defensive digs, and Danielle Wu ’18 was the team leader in service points. Congratulations to the Women’s Volleyball Team!

Photos by Jaye Vlachos ’18, Christina Tetzlaff, Michael Sheehan, Mindy Keyes Black, Rachel Wallace, Gary Clark

MEN’S BASKETBALL

1. Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Springs’ Women’s Cross Country Team qualified for state after a great performance at sectionals. Carolyn Calvert-Grimes ’18 came in fifth place in Class 3A, and Isabella Yaghmai ’21 finished 11th place for 3A. Four individual runners from Springs’ Men’s Team (Mark Romero ’18, Ian Huh ’19, Ken Jiao ’18, and Henry Goff ’18) also qualified for state. Congratulations to the Women’s Team and to the qualifying members of the Men’s Team!

2. Karle ’19 Wraps Up Great Swim Season

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Springs swimmer Mia Karle ’19 finished eighth place in the state in the 100-yard breaststroke and 15th in the state in the 500-yard freestyle at the AHSAA State Championship Meet in December.

Karle claimed second place in the 100-yard breaststroke and fifth in the 500-yard freestyle at the Central Alabama Sectional Meet. Prior to sectionals, she placed first in both the 100-yard breaststroke and the 500-yard freestyle at the Warriors/Knight Autumn Invitational.

Congratulations, Mia!

3. Max Hull ’22 To Attend Elite Summer Lacrosse Camps Springs lacrosse player Max Hull ’22, who plays with the Vestavia Hills High School team and an Atlanta-based travel team, has received an invitation to the 2018 National Lacrosse Elite 100 Recruiting Camp in Beverly, Massachusetts, where he will play for UPenn’s head coach.

Max will also participate in the invitation-only 2018 STX Rising Division I Showcase in Columbia, Maryland, and travel to tournaments in Baltimore, Denver, and North Carolina this summer. Congratulations, Max!

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4. Mason Inducted into Alabama

Tennis Hall of Fame

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Varsity Men’s and Women’s Tennis Coach Boo Mason has been named to the 2018 Alabama Tennis Foundation Hall of Fame. Mason has served as the teams’ head coach since 1980. He was named Southern United States Professional Tennis Association Pro of the Year in 2011 and United States Tennis Association of Alabama (USTA) Pro of the Year in 2007, 1999, and 1992. In addition to coaching at Springs, he teaches private lessons through Boo Mason Tennis, which hosts five USTA-sanctioned junior tennis tournaments each year and is the home of the USTA Alabama Competitive Training Center. He is also Director of Tennis at Hoover Country Club. Congratulations, Coach Mason!

5. Tozzi Named Alabama Men’s Soccer

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Indian Springs

Coach of the Year

Varsity Men’s Soccer Coach Rik Tozzi has been named the 2017–18 Alabama Coach of the Year for Boys Soccer by the National Federation of State High School Associations. Tozzi has served as the team’s head coach since 2002. During his tenure, the team has won three state championships, played for two others, and finished in the top four 10 other times. The team has also won several Lakeshore Shootout and Birmingham Metro tournaments. Under his direction, Springs players have also set state records for scoring and defense. Multiple team alumni have gone on to play at Division I, II, and III colleges. Congratulations, Coach Tozzi!

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CAMPUS NEWS

STUDENTS IN THE COMMUNITY

AN EARLY DEVELOPMENT DAY AT SPRINGS

CODY ZHOU ’19:

SAVING THE WILD

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SPRINGS SERVES Since we opened our doors in 1952, Springs students and faculty have devoted time to working together to better our campus and community.

Committed to the ideal of participatory citizenship and the importance of engaging in community-minded efforts to shape and improve the world around us, students since 1955 have devoted a full class day each fall and spring to service, both on and off campus.

Our culture of service extends far beyond Springs’ all-school Development Days. On their own time, students find meaningful ways to serve in their neighborhoods—and far beyond. Here, we showcase the recent efforts of four students seeking to make a difference.

Spring 2018

By Rachel Wallace

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XCITED TO EXPERIENCE his first African safari while visiting his father’s Ugandan mining business, Springs junior Cody Zhou ’19 imagined a “vast land … removed from urbanization and untouched by man.” What he found instead was an ecosystem in danger, with habitats shrinking due to human activity and many animals “struggling to keep up.”

Wanting to do his part, Cody founded the Save the Wild Fund (SWF). He invited high school and college students from China and Uganda to join his team, and in 2017, SWF became the first local conservation organization to be qualified by the Ugandan government to accept donations.

Last June, the Save the Wild Fund received its first major gift: $15,000—the joint effort of seven local mining companies. SWF used the money to purchase 10,000 saplings to plant along the banks of Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest reservoir.

SWF now also funds care for injured and sick animals at the Uganda Wildlife Education Center.

(Two birds and an elephant have been “adopted.”)

In January, in an effort to expand awareness and partner with other interested citizens and companies worldwide, Cody launched a new website: SavetheWildFund.org. Future projects include a documentary about endangered animals.

“We all know that reversing the course of climate change will not be easy, but the tools are in our hands—if we apply them before it is too late,” says Cody. “We, as a whole community, should consider ourselves the guardians of our [planet]. Across any religious or political tie, we are together bound to protect our home.”

EVAN BRANDON ’18:

BUILDING A SHELTER

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Portrait photos by Rachel Wallace

FTER NOTICING PEOPLE standing in the heat and rain to catch the bus along Georgia Road in Birmingham’s Woodlawn neighborhood, Springs senior and longtime Girl Scout Ava Davis ’18 came up with a plan to build them a shelter.

Ava’s idea came to fruition in June when she received a $1,000 grant from the Birmingham chapter of The Awesome Foundation—a global organization that supports local projects in arts, technology, community development, and more through one-time microgrants. With funding secured, she created an original design for the openair, wooden shelter.

She presented it to the City of Birmingham, which issued her a building permit, and to the Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority, which granted her building permissions.

The application and approval processes took five months, but the hands-on construction process was completed in just two days. Ava, excited to learn about using power tools, recruited her parents, twin sister, and a small group of friends to help. (She has written a guide, including costs of materials, for others interested in re-creating her model.)

“The community was my main reason for doing this,” says Ava, “but I have been overwhelmed and surprised by the outpouring of support and appreciation. At a Woodlawn meeting, a community member hugged me and told me how helpful and meaningful my project was.”

On her way to Springs each morning, Davis is greeted by a humbling and rewarding sight—bus riders waiting in the new shelter.

CARTER GACHÉ ’18:

CLEANING UP TRAILS

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URING A RECENT VISIT to Tennessee’s Long Hunter State Park, Springs senior Evan Brandon ’18 found the hiking trails along Percy Priest Lake—where he has spent many carefree hours with his Scout troop—to be strewn with litter. Not only was the litter an unsightly distraction for locals and tourists who flock to the park (located just southeast of Nashville) for a breath of fresh air; it was also polluting a major water source for local communities.

“I knew something should be done about it,” Evan says. “Even though the water is filtered, chemical pollutants can still get through.” So when it came time to choose an Eagle Scout project, Evan decided to organize a cleanup of the trails. He submitted a proposal to the Nashville Troop Committee Chairman, who granted the necessary approvals in less than three weeks.

With help from the local Friends of Long Hunter State Park preservation society and other members of his troop, he and 20 volunteers together cleaned up more than two square miles of ground over the course of a day.

“Everyone wants the world to be a better place, but it’s always hard to think about how you can make it a better place until you have an opportunity like this,” Evan says.

At the completion of his project, he created a guide for others who might be interested in organizing a cleanup at the park. He hopes it will provide them with the same opportunity he had, and that conditions in the park will continue to improve.

MINING FOR GOOD

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RIVEN BY HIS FAITH and his mission to “employ technology to empower others,” tech-savvy senior Carter Gaché ’18 has drawn on his social networking and digital marketing skills and his experiences as a missionary in Cuba and the Dominican Republic to create a new nonprofit, LifeTab. Through his website GiveaTab.org, which Carter launched in March with help from fellow senior Valentino Lim ’18 and mentoring from Springs parent Dr. Franz Lohrke, LifeTab harnesses cutting-edge cryptocurrency technology to fund child-focused services of the faith-based humanitarian organization Holt International.

GiveaTab.org borrows the computational power of a donor’s computer browser to “mine” the cryptocurrency Monero. “You’re not actually donating money,” explains Carter. “No information is collected, and we don’t gain access to any of your computer’s information. You’re simply lending us your computer’s processing power in an anonymous and safe way to solve complex computer algorithms. The market value of the solutions varies but can be used to benefit charities.”

Carter, who in 2017 founded WayPoint Pilots, an aerial photography and videography company (see his beautiful aerials of Springs at IndianSprings.org), hopes to continue to find creative ways to serve.

“My goals are to continue to pursue my passions of innovative engineering and business and move into the tech entrepreneurship scene. It is a dream of mine to plant and grow start-up companies. I hope to do that for the rest of my life, Lord willing.

We will see what God has in store for me.”

LIM ’18, GACHÉ ’18

Indian Springs

AVA DAVIS ’18:

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CAMPUS NEWS

S T U D E N T S P OT L I G H T

CONTRIBUTING TO A CURE

By Mindy Keyes Black

Driven by his own mother’s breast cancer scare and wanting “to make an impact on the world through medicine,” Ken Jiao ’18 decided as a sophomore to take on an area of research that few others had explored. Three years later, experts say his award-winning work could bring scientists one step closer to finding a cure.

K

EN JIAO ’18 was looking for a research project the summer before 10th grade when his mentor, Dr. Lizhong Wang, an associate professor at UAB, asked if he would be interested in looking at epigenetics—changes in the regulation of gene activity and expression— related to invasive breast cancer. “He described epigenetic regulators as being understudied,” recalls Ken, “and I was immediately captivated.”

The son of two UAB researchers, Ken had recently suffered a scare when his mother was diagnosed with a breast tumor. “While I was waiting for the results to come back, I understood patients’ vulnerability, and the desperation their families feel,” recalls Ken. Fortunately, his mother’s tumor was benign, but the experience motivated him: He devoted summers and school holidays to his research at Wang’s lab, and within months knew that his study showed potential.

“I looked at a protein called CHD7 and where it is located within different cells,” explains Ken. “I found that in normal cells, it is located in the nucleus, where it needs to be to function.

However, in metastatic [malignant] breast cancer cells, this protein is located in the cytoplasm of the cell [outside the nucleus], unable to function.

I then found that forcing the CHD7 protein into the nucleus of metastatic breast cancer cells reduces their invasiveness.”

The research could be important to developing a new biomarker for invasive breast cancer, says

Ken, allowing doctors to identify and target cancerous cells. Retaining the protein CHD7 in the nucleus could also serve as a potential drug target for inhibiting breast cancer metastasis.

It didn’t take scientists long to recognize the value of Ken’s findings. In spring of 10th grade, when he was named 1st place winner in the Health and Medicine category at the Central Alabama Regional Science and Engineering Fair, Ken was introduced as “the young man who is going to cure cancer.” He advanced to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair both in 2016 and in 2017, when he earned 3rd place— and a $1,000 award—in the category of Cellular and Molecular Biology for his project.

In December, Ken also advanced to the national finals of the 2017 Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology, where he won a

$25,000 scholarship after earning top individual honors and an additional $3,000 scholarship at one of six regional competitions earlier in the fall.

“It’s a huge honor to make it to the final round of this competition, which is like the Olympics of Science,” says Head of School Dr. Sharon Howell.

“He has worked incredibly hard to get here, and we’re excited for him and for us, since we will likely benefit from his research in the future.”

In January, Ken was also named a Top 300 Scholar in the 77th Regeneron Science Talent Search, winning $2,000 for himself and $2,000 for Indian Springs to use toward STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) activities.

“Kenneth’s research could bring scientists one step closer to developing a new biomarker for breast cancer metastasis and saving lives,” says Siemens Competition regional judge Dr. Z. Jeffrey Chen, who serves as D.J. Sibley Centennial Professor of Molecular Biosciences at The University of Texas at Austin. “It’s rare to see this level of progress achieved in an independent project. Kenneth’s work is phenomenal, and could help reveal the underlying mechanisms in breast cancer metastasis.”

In the fall, Ken will join UPenn’s dual-degree Life Sciences and Management program, where he hopes to continue his research while also studying the business side of health care. “Breast cancer metastasis is a fascinating topic, and I can’t wait to see what lies in store.”

“I found that in normal cells, CHD7 is located in the nucleus, where it needs to be to function.

However, in metastatic [malignant] breast cancer cells, this protein is located in the cytoplasm of Spring 2018

the cell [outside the nucleus], unable to function. I then found that forcing the CHD7 protein into

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the nucleus of metastatic breast cancer cells reduces their invasiveness.” ­—Ken Jiao ’18

IN THE LAB WITH KEN Q: What part of your research have you enjoyed most?

A: My favorite part of my research was planning out the next steps I would take. Whenever experiments are completed, and results are analyzed, there are countless directions to go. Sitting down and working through possibilities (with assistance from my mentor) to determine where I wanted to take it was so fun.

Q: How has your understanding of research grown?

A: I think one of the biggest things I have learned is patience.

I have begun to appreciate the immense effort and time it takes to perform research—this is not a clear-cut process. Finding exciting results (as in my case) is awesome, but there is so much more that needs to be done before the basic research becomes a tangible, lifesaving product. But at the same time, I have learned not to become discouraged by this or other setbacks I face in research (for example, going in the wrong direction). Because there are millions of researchers trying to solve the same problem as me, and I know that by making a contribution—any contribution— humanity gets closer to the cure.

Indian Springs

Photo by Graham Yelton

Q: What do you do when you feel stuck in the process?

A: Getting frustrating (inconclusive, mistake in procedure, etc.) results in research can be a pain, but for me I just focused on keeping cool in the lab. Making one small mistake tends to cause an even worse one in the haste to atone for the small mistake.

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CAMPUS NEWS

A DV I S I N G

PAVING THE WAY FOR IMPORTANT CONNECTIONS:

A NEW APPROACH TO ADVISING

By Mindy Keyes Black

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Spring 2018

S A GIRL in inner-city Cleveland, Janae Peters felt that achieving her dream of becoming a professor was about as likely as vacationing on the moon. To Peters, she was clearly the wrong race, gender, and age—until Kevin Britz, a teacher at a Kenyon College summer program for teens, showed her that professors come in all sizes, shapes, and colors, including her own.

“He asked us all on the first day of class

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For new Dean of Student Development and Community Life Janae Peters, mentoring during her teen years helped her see opportunities she had never dreamed possible. Peters is now laying the groundwork for Indian Springs’ advising program to offer the same potential for our students.

what we wanted to be when we grow up, and because I was 16 at the time and thought I knew it all, I said, ‘I want to be a professor, but all professors are old white men, so that’s not going to happen.’

“My answer was brave, accusatory, and full of limited understanding,” she says. “He just nodded and moved on, but for the rest of the week, he brought in at least two professors every day who challenged my perception.

At the end of the program, he voted me most likely to become a Ph.D. That was an important moment for me.”

For Peters, who went on to earn her bachelor’s in English from Kenyon and a master’s in Clinical Social Work from Smith, it was the first of many experiences with mentors who have supported her and held her accountable “with unconditional positive regard and mutual respect,” and it impacted both her

approach to education and her choice of career.

“Mentoring enabled me to challenge ideas, ask as many questions as I needed to, grow in ways that made sense for me, and make connections like never before. I learned the power of using your voice and making it count. I learned to trust that people outside of my family could have my best interests at heart.”

She teases that she spent more time at Kenyon researching mentors than choosing courses. The summer after her freshman year, she interned at the academic advising office, helping assign first-year students to advisors. After graduation, a longtime mentor on the faculty of Northfield Mount Hermon suggested that she pursue a boarding school career path, and she joined him there as teacher, coach, and dorm head.

Inspired by the culture of faculty accessibility and approachability—and students’ positive response— she launched a personal initiative she termed “Project Care,” to encourage caring for students in ways that made sure they knew that teachers valued them as individuals and as a collective.

Wanting to delve deeper into teens’ social and emotional identity development, she used her graduate studies for long-term learning, with internships at a crisis center and an outpatient health clinic and a master’s thesis focused on adolescent identity development in the educational environment and what happens when adolescents aren’t able to develop a positive, cohesive sense of self. When she finished the degree, she integrated her clinical skills with her experience as an educator to take on the role of Director of Advising at NMH. Since joining Springs’ administrative team last July, she has worked to expand advising from quick, post-report card check-ins to biweekly, 75-minute small group meetings designed to help students explore meaningful discussion topics, from ethics to goal setting to dealing with stress.

“I’ve been developing the curriculum from scratch—getting a sense of what Springs needs and creating the curriculum around that,” says Peters. “This takes advising up a few levels and

gives students dedicated blocks of time with a trusted group of 8–10 fellow students and an adult committed to having critical conversations about important issues. It also allows our faculty to know, hear, and see their advisees. It’s hard to track how they’re doing if you’re touching base with them only every four-and-a-half weeks. If you see them every other week, you know when something’s off.

You’re able to value them differently for the simple fact that they’re on your radar.”

“We’re so fortunate to have Janae here to lead this effort,” says Head of School Dr. Sharon Howell.

“We know how important mentors are for student success, and Janae’s work will help us be the best mentors we can be.”

“Not only has advising given me someone to talk to when something was going on, but also I have become closer with the students in my advising group than I probably would have if we weren’t in the same group,” says eighth grader Rebekah Dale ’22, who has particularly liked talking as a group about students’ future plans. “I’ve enjoyed hearing about what my peers want to do and how they’ve been doing.”

In the fall, Peters plans to move Springs’ advising program up another level by allowing students to select their advisors and be a part of mixed-grade advisee groups. “Empowering them to choose their advisors and advisee groups will give our students yet another opportunity to connect with an adult with whom they feel comfortable and also get to know one another across grades,” she says.

She hopes as well to put together a student advisory group to ensure that advising discussion topics are addressing students’ concerns and interests.

At its best, says Peters, faculty-student advising serves as that “extra something” that students can’t find in their friends or their parents. “It’s an additional sweet spot for teens,” she says. “When all these components work together—friends, parents, mentors—it’s the ideal support network that gives students the chance to build connections and have critical conversations in a world that thrives on collaboration and exchange.”

PEER MENTORING:

BY STUDENTS, FOR STUDENTS While meeting with Springs students when she interviewed for her new position, Janae Peters heard a recurring theme: Students wished that they, as incoming students, had had an older student to go to for advice and guidance. Over the summer, rising senior Cece Reisner ’18, volunteered to lead the effort, and together Peters and Reisner developed a new Peer Mentoring program that launched last fall. Through the program, 12 juniors and seniors are selected through an application process to serve as peer mentors to an assigned eighth or ninth grade advisee group. Once a month, these upperclassmen and -women spend 30 minutes with their advisees, listening, talking, and sharing wisdom.

“We have had a wonderful experience connecting with the eighth and ninth graders and guiding them as they are getting to know who they are at Springs,” says Reisner.

grow in ways that made sense for me, and make connections like never before.

I learned the power of using your voice and making it count. I learned to trust that people outside of my family could have my best interests at heart.” — ­ Janae Peters

Indian Springs

Photos by Graham Yelton

“Mentoring enabled me to challenge ideas, ask as many questions as I needed to,

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ISS_W18_Advising_FINAL_esp.indd 19

4/12/18 9:44 AM

Photos by Art Meripol, Graham Yelton

IN WORDS Purpose, Clarity, and Courage: Since its founding, Indian Springs has inspired students to write with all of these. “I was in a writing group at Springs where we read stories and poems to each other in the cafeteria,” says bestselling author John Green ’95.

“I suppose that was the first time I thought of myself as a writer.” For Green’s classmate, award-winning author and journalist Daniel Alarcon ’95, Springs was a place where teachers “noticed that I was serious about writing and fed that interest.” Springs’ curriculum and culture continue to empower young people to find their distinctive voices and express themselves with confidence. In the pages ahead, alumni, students, and faculty share what they have learned about the art of writing, and Head of School Dr. Sharon Howell reflects on why it’s more important than ever to practice it. ] Indian Springs

Photos by Graham Yelton, Q&A Interviews by Mindy Keyes Black and Rachel Wallace

STRENGTH

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IN

By SHARON HOWELL

1644, in a short and vivid tract called Of Education, the English poet John Milton lamented the “many mistakes” made by those trying to teach young people—mistakes he thought “made learning generally so unpleasing and unsuccessful.”

Chief among these mistakes was the practice of making children write too early, before they had studied enough good literature and digested enough ideas actually to have something to say:

“ . . . forcing the empty wits of children to compose themes, verses, and orations, which are the acts of ripest judgment and the final work of a head filled by long reading and observing. . . .

These are not matters to be wrung from poor striplings, like blood out of the nose. . . .”

“ . . . they having but newly left those grammatic flats and shallows where they stuck unreasonably to learn a few words with lamentable construction, and now on the sudden . . . to be tossed and turmoiled with their unballasted wits in fathomless and unquiet deeps of controversy. . . .”

I think of Milton’s essay often, in many contexts, but was reminded of it particularly by this feature. The alumni writers we spoke with all suggest that practicing writing—“write and revise for as long as it takes,” as Bill Engel ’75 puts it—is essential to becoming good at it. But they also insist, as Milton does, that reading comes first. “Read widely, first of all,” says Daniel Alarcon ’95; “ . . . reading is the best apprenticeship we have,” says John Green ’95. The key to strong writing for Cam Robertson ’94 of The New York Times is to “Read books. . . . Read books. . . . Read books.” The message is clear . . . the voices you hear and internalize when you read will echo in your own; so the better and more varied your reading, the more agile and versatile your own voice will be.

We’ve all spent time in the grammatic flats and shallows, and known what it felt like to have a composition wrung from us like blood out of the nose. It may indeed be an inevitable part of growing as a student. But we hope that more often our students will discover what Sally Nemeth ’77 did: that writing is “exciting,” because in doing it you’re “building a world.” For senior Ada Cohen ’18, that was experiencing what “sparks the thought”; for Emma Wang ’20, it was finding that in writing “one is only limited by one’s imagination.” Of course, we hope we will help our students—as R.J. Stegner helped Bill Engel and so many others—to discover the power of writing, to find their own voices, and to “keep fighting” to achieve that clearest and best expression of their ideas.

Because without its writers, our culture is mute. Springs has given our shared culture important voices that resonate widely and variously, and we thank those extraordinary people for sharing their thoughts about writing here. It is a privilege to be part of teaching the next generation to follow those leads, to imagine they might find similar success in their careers, and to follow Milton’s hopeful scheme from so long ago:

Spring 2018

“ . . . now will be the right season of forming them to be able writers and composers in every excellent matter, when they shall be thus fraught with an universal insight into things.” ]

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Without its writers, our culture is mute.

­—SHARON HOWELL

Photos by Graham Yelton

Head of School Dr. Sharon Howell, a published poet who has taught history and literature at Harvard University, talks with Abigail Shepherd ’19, Delaney Porter ’18, and students from across the country for her spring semester course, “American Voice, American Speech,” Springs’ first online class available through the Malone Schools Online Network.

As he goes on to propose the ideal order in which we should teach arts, sciences, languages, and literatures, Milton reserves his choicest language to insist that we hold off on forcing students write with their “young unmatriculated voices” before maturing them by wide reading. It was as unfair to make them argue or persuade as it would be to send too light a boat out to sea:

Indian Springs

Photos by Graham Yelton

In her “American Voice, American Speech” course, Howell asks students to consider what it means to have an “American” voice.

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Learning to read critically helped me begin to think about what kind of stories I might want to tell.

—JOHN GREEN

John and his wife, Springs alum Sarah Urist Green ’98, with Head of School Dr. Sharon Howell on a visit to campus last September OPPOSITE:

Strolling Rogers Plaza with children Alice and Henry and in-laws Connie and Marshall Urist

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JOHN GREEN ’95 Bestselling Author and Vlogger

What features of Springs inspired you to write?

I learned so much about writing as a Springs student. It began for me in my English classes. Reading work like Angels in America and Song of Solomon helped me understand that literature was not some cold, dead relic of the past but a presence in contemporary life, and learning to read critically helped me begin to think about what kind of stories I might want to tell. I also learned so much about writing in other classes; Dr. Cooper and Mr. Fleming, for instance, both taught writing and critical reading as well as history.

But I was also lucky to be surrounded by wonderful storytellers—telling stories with my friends, written and otherwise, was one of our chief pastimes as Springs students.

(This all makes me sound like I was a good student and tremendously intellectually engaged or whatever, which of course I wasn’t. I was a poor student, but I benefited

so much from having teachers and friends who nonetheless took me seriously.)

What qualities would you say good writing possesses?

I think Emily Dickinson put it quite well when she wrote, “Tell all the truth but tell it slant.”

Do you have writing tips or advice for current students?

Read broadly and enthusiastically. I think reading is the best apprenticeship we have.

Do you write every day?

I don’t. I love writing, but I love it partly because I still have a day job (making educational videos on the Crash Course YouTube channel). I try to write for a few hours early in the morning, but many days I get no writing done, and over the years I’ve become OK with that. ]

Indian Springs

Photos by Mindy Keyes Black

John Green ’95 is the award-winning, No. 1 bestselling author of Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, Paper Towns, The Fault in Our Stars, and other works. His latest book, Turtles All the Way Down, about a teen girl struggling with anxiety, has been on The New York Times young adult bestseller list since its release last October.

Green’s accolades include the Printz Medal, a Printz Honor, and the Edgar Award. He has twice been a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize and was selected by TIME magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. He and his brother, Hank, created the YouTube video blog Vlogbrothers and the online educational series Crash Course.

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ADA COHEN ’18 Editor, The Woodward Post

Ada Cohen ’18 decided to revive The Woodward Post as an 11th grader after discovering the concept of literary nonfiction in Cal Woodruff’s AP Language and Composition class.

“I always thought that creative writing and research stories meant two separate styles; I never understood that you could combine the two, which is what turned me onto the concepts of journalism and narrative journalism—being able to tell a story using factual evidence and real-life details. I became obsessed with journalism last semester and wanted to do more.” She will attend Pitzer College in the fall.

What do you enjoy most about working on The Post?

Writing the Letter from the Editor is the most fun part for me. A lot of my topics have come from my misunderstanding something that I’ve read in another publication, and running with the idea. For example, I read an article in The Atlantic on teenagers in the digital age in which some points made sense and others didn’t. I decided to combine this baseline with further research and personal experience to write the article. In another editorial, an article in Pitchfork reminded me of a conversation I had with a friend a couple months back, so I decided to run with the idea and write an editorial on the psychological benefits of attending concerts.

How has The Woodward Post evolved under your helm?

I really wanted to take the paper to another level, so we decided to publish it online.

There was an incredible response from students. It is honestly more cost-efficient than printing physical copies, and I think people now are much more likely to read it on their phone, tablet, or laptop. It also seemed easier to share with parents and alums. We’ve never turned a student submission down. As long as their article is appropriate and authentic, we will make sure it finds a spot in the paper. We feature more traditional articles, like cooking and music reviews, almost every month, but we

also encourage students to write on quirky topics, for example a review of the Chinese New Year at Springs and the WWE from a comical point of view.

What are your goals as a writer?

I’m torn between investigative journalism— focusing on social justice issues—and music journalism. Hopefully there will be a way I can do both. I think the digital age has impacted the industry: There aren’t as many editors, and important steps have been lost.

But I think within the next 5–10 years, we’ll see journalism make a 180. I’m hoping my generation will be able to come in and say, “Hey, look, guys: We can do this, and it needs to be done.”

How have you grown as a writer over the past five years?

At Springs, we have the freedom to write about what we’re interested in and passionate about, and I think that sparks the writing culture here. I also write poetry, which gives me a chance to explore a different form.

When I look at my writing over the past four years, I’m able to connect my thoughts more easily—and I’m not afraid to break some of the rules, which I think is very important: knowing when to insert your own voice and style and when that’s going to be more impactful than textbook, grammatically correct punctuation and sentence structure.

It’s important to know that stuff, but it can also be powerful to bend those rules.

At Springs, we have the freedom to write about what we’re interested in and passionate about, and I think that sparks the writing culture here.

Spring 2018

go to www.TheWoodwardPost.com.

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—ADA COHEN Photo by Graham Yelton

To read Ada’s Letters from the Editor,

Cam on assignment in Iraq in 2008

Life can be tragic and hilarious and stunning and magical and unpredictable, and it’s one of the greatest joys to share that with people through writing. But it takes hard work. I’ve never found a place that was as open to that as Springs.

—CAM ROBERTSON

CAM ROBERTSON ’94 National Correspondent, The New York Times

What part of the writing process is most challenging for you? Most rewarding?

Hard facts assert a discipline over journalism writing; it’s like poetry in meter rather than free verse. I like that, but it also leads to one of the big frustrations: There will always be more you don’t know. Deciding to do some more reporting before you write is the most justifiable form of procrastination. You can’t report forever, but you do need some degree of mastery to put together a story in a way that makes sense of the messy reality, makes it intelligible and even compelling. Ideally, someone who knows things firsthand, even someone who really didn’t want you writing about it, reads what you wrote and says: “Yeah, that’s really how it is.”

What qualities does strong writing possess?

Confidence, though one thing clear: This is the opposite of cockiness. You have to be willing to be a big-eyed rube, to see and hear and learn things for yourself, even the

things everybody supposedly already knows.

Borrowing from others—other writers, conventional wisdom, etc.—often means getting defective goods. If you go into a situation with a real openness to surprises and details and nuances, to unexpected causes and effects, you can write with conviction, with precise descriptors, brawny verbs, and sharp insights. You don’t get that awful moment where you ask yourself, “Wait, do I really know this or did I just assume I knew this?”

Were there features of Springs that inspired you to write as a student?

At Springs, the know-it-alls generally took a back seat to the want-to-know-it-alls. This was big. It was OK to be hungry, in a way that probably wouldn’t have been terribly cool in other places. I wrote a one-act play at Springs.

It wasn’t very good! But I worked hard at it and it was worth a try. There was praise at Springs but it didn’t come cheap. Still, if you worked your tail off, I learned, you could create something genuinely good.

Not long after joining The New York Times as a newsroom clerk in 2001, Cam Robertson ’94 moved into beat reporting for the paper, covering crime, penning a gossip column, and writing about theater. In 2008, while stationed in Iraq, he wrote a front-page story about the shrinking of the Euphrates River and its impact on the Iraqi people. The next year, he was assigned to New Orleans, where he has covered a broad range of topics—including the recent Alabama Senate race—as a national correspondent. He now lives in Pittsburgh.

What writing tips or advice would you share with current Springs students?

Read books. Be honest about what you don’t know. Go see for yourself. Go down rabbit holes. Read books. Notice things. Sweat the small stuff. Take notes. Be precise. Have fun.

Read books. ] Cam in the 1994 Khalas yearbook

Indian Springs

Photo courtesy Cam Robertson

What drew you to a career in journalism?

I completely backed into journalism, taking a job answering phones at The New York Times when I was unemployed and living in Brooklyn. But I just kept saying “yes” when they asked me to do things. Not sure I’ve even figured out how it happened. My goal is to keep doing some version of this.

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I can’t tell you how many people have said to me, ‘I’ve always wanted to write.’ And I say to them, ‘Well then, write!’ ... You can’t not do it—you’re compelled to do it. Because by writing your stories and your characters and these journeys, it’s how you make sense of the world.

—SALLY NEMETH Sally at work in her dining room “office”

SALLY NEMETH ’77 Author, Playwight, Screenwriter

Spring 2018

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Sally Nemeth ’77 is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter whose plays—Holy Days, Mill Fire, Water Play, and Sally’s Shorts—have been produced worldwide. Since starting her TV career writing for the hit NBC show Law & Order, she has written for every major network and produced the documentary film Long Story Short. Author of The Heights, the Depths and Everything in Between, a novel for young adults, she is currently working on a book and two TV pilots. She also teaches screenwriting at Loyola Marymount University and does grant work pro bono for a nonprofit animal rescue.

What inspires you?

Sometimes it’s just a snippet of information that I come across. Sometimes it’s an image that just comes into my head. I tend to be very visual in my work, in that I can’t write a scene unless I can see it in my head.

Tell us about your process.

With writing, you’re looking down the barrel of a really, really long trip. It’s exciting—you get to tell yourself a story, build a world. Even if you’re not world-building in the sense of sci-fi or a dystopia (which I like to do as well), anytime you write a book, you’re building a world. It’s fun and amazing, but it’s also quite a responsibility. Sitting down to initially face all that is sometimes daunting. I find that once I launch in, without expectations, parts of it are like flying, and parts are like you’re [the mythological Greek king] Sisyphus [rolling an immense boulder up a hill]. When you get to that, it’s like pain; but once you’ve

experienced the pain, it goes away. You forget the pain and mostly remember the joy.

When did you first identify yourself as a writer?

To some degree, I always thought in story.

When I was [at Northwestern], I was a theater major, and like many theater majors, I initially gravitated toward acting. As actors, we were asked to keep journals. Part of our journals were observational—you were to go out, ride the buses, take the El, look at people, and think about what it was about them that told you their story. Did they have worn shoes? Were their hands calloused? What if their hands were calloused, but their hair and makeup were perfectly done? What does that say about a person? I found I had actually been doing that all my life. So in college, they finally offered a playwriting class, and I wrote a play. Northwestern produced it; it went through the American College Theatre Festival and was given a production at the Kennedy Center. At that point, I thought, “Oh, who wants to act? This is so much better!” With story writing, I finally realized this was my means of expression.

How did you transition to screenwriting and novels?

After college, I had my first professional play produced in London, Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. I got a National

Photos by Suzanne Plunkett

How do you approach your writing projects?

Because I write plays, screenplays, and novels, it’s kind of different for everything.

First off, most of the time a writer spends writing is time spent thinking, not time at the keyboard. By the time you sit down to write a story, you have at least a general idea not only of the story you’re going to tell, but of how you’re going to tell it.

EMMA WANG ’20 2018 Silver Key Recipient, Scholastic Art & Writing Competition Endowment for the Arts grant, and a New York Foundation for the Arts grant. But unless you also teach, playwriting is not a living. My agent at the time suggested I write a speculative script for a television show. Off that work sample I got my first job in television on Law & Order. It was like being paid to go to graduate school.

After years of writing for television, I had some downtime. I had always said that if I have the time and money, I’d like to try to write a novel, so I did. I have since written three novels, one of which I’m rewriting right now before it goes out to editors for publishing.

Where do you get writing ideas?

I get ideas everywhere—when I’m walking, when I’m sitting in class— and these ideas all magically fade away when I finally sit down at my computer, so I stare at the blank screen for a good half an hour.

Has it been difficult to move from form to form?

In playwriting, you don’t offer a lot of parentheticals. You don’t say, “do it angrily or ruefully” or tell actors how to say their lines. You don’t supply a great deal of stage direction, because that’s the director’s job. You don’t supply a great deal of description; you say “Kitchen 1936 Kansas.” You say what’s in the kitchen, and you figure that the set designers are going to take care of the research and do their job. When you get into screenplays, you have to describe a lot more. Not only emotional moments; you write a lot of description, staging, inner thought. Had I gone straight from plays to prose, I think I would have written really dialogue-heavy novels.

The intermediary step of screenwriting allowed me to learn how to write all the descriptions, all the inner thoughts, all of that.

Photo by Rachel Wallace

Is there a key to strong writing?

We are human, and we look for the human connection. If your characters are slaves to your plot, we are not going to be emotionally invested. If your plot springs from your characters, then we’re going to feel what they feel and we’re going to be along for the ride with them. That’s key. You’ve really got to be able to inhabit your characters. When I read work where they are ticking off plot points, I’m not engaged. When I’m reading a work that has deep, fully realized characters, there may not have to be a lot of plot, but I’m with them.

Why do you think writing is important for young students (like yourself )?

Whether it’s a piece of poetry or an essay for AP Euro, writing helps them find their personal voice. In order to process the jumbled thoughts and turn them into words, writers have to reflect upon their own experiences and ideas, evaluate them, and finally write them down in their own words.

How do you think being a part of the Springs community has influenced your writing?

I am extremely lucky that Indian Springs has an amazing English faculty, all of whom have continued to encourage me and help me better my writing. (I am also inspired by the knowledge that John Green used to go to Springs. I jumped up and down when I found the Smoking Hole.)

What would be a writer’s dream come true for you?

My biggest dream would be to walk into Barnes and Noble and see my book on the bookshelves. I hope that one day someone will stumble upon my novel, and it will inspire them as so many books have inspired me. ]

For her creative selfreflection on tension in family relationships, Emma Wang ’20 was awarded a Silver Key distinction in the Personal Essay & Memoir category of the 2018 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, presented by the Alliance for Young Artists through the Southeast Writing Region-at-Large. A boarding student from Xi’an, China, Wang considers herself a John Green afficionado and is currently working on her first full-length novel.

When I’m writing, whether it’s a novel or a short story, I find out things about myself that I never knew.

—EMMA WANG

Indian Springs

Why do you like writing, and what’s your favorite thing about it?

Writing has helped me to figure out my thoughts and values. When I’m writing, whether it’s a novel or a short story, I find out things about myself that I never knew. What I love most about writing is that one is only limited by one’s imagination. If a writer wanted to write about a psychotic cook who likes tap dancing and goes on an adventure with a depressed lawyer to help retrieve the tumba that will save the world, he is completely entitled to do so.

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DANIEL ALARCÓN ’95 Author and Journalist

Spring 2018

Award-winning novelist and journalist Daniel Alarcón ’95 is the author of four books and producer of the groundbreaking Spanishlanguage podcast Radio Ambulante, distributed by NPR. His novel At Night We Walk in Circles was a finalist for the 2014 PEN/ Faulkner Foundation Award; his latest book, The King Is Always Above the People, was named to the “longlist” of 10 nominees for the 2017 National Book Award for Fiction. As a journalist, he often reports on his native Peru and has been published in Harper’s, The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, and other publications worldwide.

An alumnus of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he now teaches broadcast journalism at the Columbia University School of Journalism in New York.

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What about Springs inspired you to write?

I had the good fortune to be taught by great teachers who noticed that I was serious about writing and fed me intellectually. I was lucky to be in a class with John Green. The fact that there were two of us who were pretty serious about writing helped a lot. We had interesting conversations about books at a very early age, and that continued. My junior year, I was really interested in Russian literature.

With two other students and a teacher, I wrote a syllabus for a class about classics of Russian literature—Pushkin, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Dostoevsky. It was such a pleasure and a dream to be able to do that.

I was an angsty kid, and I always felt like there were big questions out there I needed to wrestle with. A lot of these Russian writers had great philosophical questions front and center, and that made it really intellectual for me.

What part of the writing process do you enjoy the most?

I quite enjoy the relationship between editor and journalist. I am the editor-in-chief—or executive producer, as we call it—of Radio Ambulante; I edit everything that comes through. In fiction, I rely on my editor and other friends. I am a careful writer and careful of what writing I share with people, but I’m also a big fan of the editorial conversation. I think that work inevitably gets better when it’s discussed, and when there are other voices and eyes on the text.

What attracts you to a story?

I try to challenge myself and embrace the unknown. To me, it’s about what I’m interested in—the stories that I find fascinating, or places of curiosity—that’s what I’m drawn to. Things that I don’t know about, or questions that I have— there are so many times when I don’t know what I think about an issue or a question until I write about it. Right now I’ve been asked to make comparisons between the political situations in Peru and America. I said yes, in part, out of curiosity, because I don’t know what I think. In the process of writing this and talking to smart people about it, I’ll probably figure it out.

What are your predictions for the future of journalism?

You can’t teach at a place like Columbia Journalism School and not feel optimistic.

The quality of the students, their talents, and their dedication—it’s invigorating, it’s inspiring. It pushes me to do better work. In my experience, if you create something that people respond to, and you’re rigorous, and you do your homework, and you have high standards, then audiences will respond and you’ll find a way to make it grow.

What qualities does great writing possess?

I always appreciate writing that has a voice, an identity. There are times when you feel like you don’t notice who the writer is because the writing itself has no defining characteristics or voice. I try to teach my students that it’s OK to have personality, particularly when you do radio. I don’t have much patience for purple prose, and I don’t have much patience for prose that’s showing off for the sake of showing off. It can be really off-putting that someone is paying more attention to the form than they are to the story they are trying to tell.

Are there tricks to learning to write?

Read widely, first of all—in the same way that an athlete wouldn’t have any realistic ambitions of being a professional athlete without training and going to the gym.

Writing is about how you glean lessons from the stuff that inspires you. There’s no substitute for reading, and there’s no substitute for writing. The next major piece of advice I give my students is always: Don’t over-edit. Your editorial voice has to come after your creative voice; the voice that says no has to come after the voice that says yes.

What writing tips do you have for current Springs students?

In our culture now, everything is criticized.

So many things are assumed to come from a place of ill will or bad faith. People can be embarrassed to have opinions and be shy about being sincere because there is so much snarkiness out there. Writing with heart— whether it’s fiction or nonfiction—requires that you put your heart out there. ]

—DANIEL ALARCÓN

Indian Springs

Photo by Sueddeutsche Zeitung / Alamy

There should not be anything called writer’s block. Writer’s block is when you have told yourself no before you’ve let yourself say yes. It’s easy to say no, not to try, not to put yourself out there. That’s a dramatic thing you have to overcome with bravery.

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HOW DO YOU TEACH GOOD WRITING?

We asked three members of our faculty to reflect on the tools and reminders they employ most in their classrooms as they nurture strong writing at Springs.

Spring 2018

Because all writing—indeed, all communication—is specific to situation, successful writers adapt.

While I do introduce students to certain formal conventions such as organization, mechanics, and genre, what matters most is an ability to define each occasion: what audience and circumstance require for a writer to achieve a given purpose. Only then can a writer begin to craft, to compose. More than anything, then, I stress situational, contextual awareness and a process that can lead students from a rough sketch to a polished product.

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D’ANTHONY ALLEN

The ideas the students bring with them into the classroom are just as important as those that we intend to introduce. One of the things I find easiest to help motivate students to write is challenging them to consider their own individual dreams and aspirations. They come to the classrooms knowing more about themselves than anything else. So, when we initially engage in the writing process, we focus on how we can package ourselves in a way that relates to an audience of our peers. I like to teach because, honestly, I love to learn. I love challenging people to adopt new perspectives while I constantly adjust the way I think, as well. Writing is a very helpful tool in doing that. Students in my class must be able to assert themselves and back up their opinions with logical patterns of thought. If I can prepare a safe learning environment for my students and encourage them to create dialogue with themselves and their peers, their writing flourishes.

Becoming conscientious consumers of diverse forms of media translates into developing one’s own critical voice as well.

LAUREN COLE

“How so? In what way?” I can still hear the voice of the teacher across the hall from my own senior English class; she was known for quietly listening to students’ comments, then slowly pushing her glasses up, a signal that the students were about to be asked at least one of these questions. Making an assertion was never enough; she required them to defend their claims by providing textual evidence. Over the years, I internalized questions from other teachers that shaped my writing and, later, my writing instruction. “So what? To what extent?” One teacher cautioned me to avoid “fluff” in my AP History essays, and my Freshman Composition professor assured me that “nobody cares what you think— they care what you can prove.” As my own students wrestle with the writing process, I share these stories to let them know I empathize, and I repeat these mantras frequently with the hope that the students will internalize them as well.

Photos by Graham Yelton, Mindy Keyes Black

CAL WOODRUFF

STEGNER

DR. BILL ENGEL ’75: REFLECTIONS ON A LIFE IN WRITING

A Tribute to Springs’ Longtime English Teacher R.J. Stegner No one would be more surprised than Mr. Stegner that I have become a writing teacher.

Even more surprised that I have written six books of literary criticism and been a regular contributor to The Sewanee Review. I came to his class the worst writer of my cohort. “Engel, your writing is baroque—and the baroque is dead.” He did not mince words. With wit and clarity he made us better stylists.

In groups we worked on “Error Sheets,” the gaffs he’d taken from our papers (with our names after each offending sentence). We learned what mistakes to avoid and how to self-correct. I have retained and modified somewhat Mr. Stegner’s “capers,” spirited group exercises in reasoning and writing. You won’t know everything, so working with others gets you farther than you could on your own. Sometimes his capers were grammar questions with jaunty multiple-choice answers. A lesson learned with laughter is a lesson learned.

When I was a Ph.D. student and teaching my first classes I visited Mr. Stegner and asked him how he came up with his crafty and effective pedagogical aids. He opened up his metal

filing cabinet and pulled out folder after folder of decades of blue and white mimeographed exercises. What I take away from Mr. Stegner’s backlog of capers is consistent with Indian Springs School’s motto: discere vivendo [learning through living]. It is only through practice and self-examination that one can become a better, more effective—because more cogent—writer.

That is why he had us write draft after draft . . . after draft. I do the same with my students today, allowing them to revise and rewrite for as long as it takes. The goal: to express original and wellreasoned ideas clearly and with a sense of purpose.

If Mr. Stegner could help me learn what I needed to know to be understood, then my life in writing is as much a tribute to him as it is to my own perseverance. That is why his catchphrase, written in red ink at the bottom of our papers, “Keep Fighting,” has become my own motto for my students. Good writing is the result of re-writing. Give students the tools and help them make something that stands on its own. Mr. Stegner helped us find our own voices. Mindful of his legacy, this is what I strive to do for my own students. g

Indian Springs

Photo by Buck Butler (Sewanee Marketing and Communications)

Dr. Bill Engel ’75 serves as the Nick B. Williams Professor of English at Sewanee: The University of the South. A specialist in medieval and Renaissance literature, he has written encyclopedia entries and chapters in collections and authored five books.

He recently co-edited The Memory Arts in Renaissance England: A Critical Anthology (Cambridge, 2016). In 2015, as part of the Campaign for Springs Eternal, Engel named Springs’ Classroom 9 in memory of R.J. Stegner, who taught here from 1965 to 1992.

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Photo by Art Meripol

Spring 2018

ANNUAL REPORT

2016–2017

A N N U A L R E P O RT 2016–2017

“Learning through Living is an accurate description of the way Indian Springs operates, but when the search itself becomes a source of joy, the process goes further. It is not only that we learn through living, but more importantly, that we live through learning.”

—Henry McHenry ’68

Indian Springs

35

ANNUAL REPORT

2016–2017

A N N U A L R E P O RT 2016–2017

The Levine family: Violet, 8, Bob, Emily Hess ’01, and Zoe, 6

ONE OF THE DELIGHTS about being back at Indian Springs full-

Spring 2018

time after a 41-year hiatus has been the occasional need to comb through the archives with Mac Fleming as my Vergil. During one of those errands this fall, I came across a few lines penned by Henry McHenry ’68. “Perhaps the most important thing Indian Springs teaches,” he wrote, “is that education is not simply a means to a desirable end. It is a desirable pursuit in itself; in the broadest sense, education is the continual, self-initiated process of learning how to live. Indian Springs brings us to realize that the active pursuit of learning is the same as the process of growing in life.

“Learning through Living is an accurate description of the way Indian Springs operates,” McHenry continued, “but when the search itself becomes a source of joy, the process goes further.

It is not only that we learn through living, but more importantly, that we live through learning.”

When the search itself becomes a source of joy, the process goes further. As Sharon Howell has so powerfully reaffirmed in her first 18 months as Head of School, Springs always has been and will be about teaching students not only how to think for themselves but also how to think deeply, broadly, and empathetically. Minds that are able to think in such a manner live through learning. They continually look out on the world

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with curiosity and empathy, which tends to lead to a deeper connection to widening circles of endeavor.

Students, faculty, staff, parents, friends—Springs stretches us all, pushes us to become our best selves and to share our gifts more fully with the communities to which we belong. Behind the names of individuals, families (including, in a number of instances, multiple generations of a family), corporations, and foundations listed in this year’s Annual Report, behind the wide range of activities supported, is a story of the naturally flowing aquifer of joy created by deepening connections and widening circles of engagement.

Case in point: the letter the school received recently from 8-yearold Violet Levine, daughter of Emily Hess ’01 and Bob Levine, reproduced above.

Thank you for being a member of the Springs community.

Thank you for sharing your energy, your ideas, your abiding care and concern, as well as your time and treasure with us. Thank you for being willing to be stretched, and for encouraging other community members to do the same. Working alongside you has given me a deep sense of connection and gratitude. I hope you feel it, too: When our shared mission “becomes a source of joy, the process goes further,” and our impact is more profound. ­—Loren Gary ’76, Director of Advancement

“Students, faculty, staff, parents, friends—Springs stretches us all, pushes us to become our best selves and to share our gifts more fully with the communities to which we belong.”

—LOREN GARY ’76

F I N A N C I A L S T AT E M E N T S July 1, 2016–June 30, 2017

SOURCES OF O P E R AT I N G F U N D S

FUNDRAISING SPRINGS ETERNAL

Building Endowment

$16.5 million 3.9 million

Total Committed to Springs Eternal $20.4 million ANNUAL FUND & ANNUAL FUND R E ST RICT E D 2 016 – 2 017

Annual Fund – Unrestricted

$552,224

Annual Fund – Restricted

48,670

Annual Fund Total

$600,894

RESTRICTE D & OTH E R G IFTS 2 016 – 2 017

Total

$92,650

O P E R AT I N G S T AT E M E N T INCOME

Tuition and Fees

g

Tuition and Fees

g

Annual Fund and Other Gifts

g

Endowment Draw

USES OF O P E R AT I N G F U N D S

$9,119,365

Annual Fund and Other Gifts (adjusted for multiyear pledges) 644,495 Total Income Endowment Draw

$9,763,860 $380,523

EXPENSES

Financial Aid Instructional and Student Activities

$4,711,425 1,674,878

g

Salaries and Benefits

g

Financial Aid

459,289 g

Dining, Transportation, and Other Services

949,063

Operations and Maintenance

1,271,606

g

General and Administrative Total Expenses

815,964 $9,882,225

Instructional and Student Activities Dining, Transportation, and Other Services

g

Operations and Maintenance

g

General and Administrative

Indian Springs

Salaries and Benefits

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ANNUAL REPORT

2016–2017

ANNUAL FUND IN MEMORY OF Gifts to Indian Springs School were given in memory of the following people in 2016–2017.

Dr. Louis Armstrong Marvin Balch Pamela Nordean Cezayirli Elizabeth Brooks Cox Brett D’Arcy James Davis Gary H. Dobbs III Glenn Donald Mason Donovan Gordon H. Doss ’56 Dorrie Fuchs Pamela Furnas Ray V. Hartwell III ’65 Bill Israel ’73 James C. Lewis Randy Marks ’65 Brandy Martin ’92

Gabriella Comer White

IN HONOR OF

www.IndianSprings.org/annual report2017.

Gifts in honor of the following

LEADERSHIP LEVEL

people were made to Indian

$25,000+

Springs School in 2016–2017.

Christine Clark

Thomas Adrian ’21

Gillian and Mike Goodrich ’63

Bennett ’18, Drew ’19 and Trey ’20 Atkins Kay and Frank Carter Kathryn D’Arcy

Mary and Rob Henrikson ’65 Leo Kayser ’62 Sharon and Frank Samford ’62 Strain Foundation

FOUNDERS LEVEL $5,000+ Susan and John Abbot ’80 AJIN USA Julia and John Badham ’57 Elizabeth and Mike Goodrich ’90 Mary and Braxton Goodrich ’93 Lee Hollis Lauren and Glen Howard ’67

John Green ’95

Teresa Strain

Nan Hollis ’19 to the

ARMSTRONG SOCIETY

Ellen McElroy ’78

$10,000+

Margaret and Kip Porter ’60

Acworth Foundation

Ronne & Donald Hess

Art Department Kelly and Clint Jacobs Mac Lacasse Mike Lantrip Mattilene Rose Lawrence ’19 Michael H. Routman ’72 Elma Tuohy Dr. Alina Voicu Zhengcong “Isaac” Zhou ’19

Elizabeth and Bob Athey ’59 Pilar Kohl Childs ’92 and Jared Dostal Lisa and Alan Engel ’73 Mike and Gillian Goodrich Foundation

Cynthia and Ben McDaniel ’84 Catherine and Emmett McLean

Foundation Schwab Charitable Young Ju Sung and Jung Ho Sea Rene and John Simmons ’65 Anna Jacobs Singer Diana and Bill Slaughter ’56

Lawrence Matthews ’64

DONORS

Kyung Han ’85 Ronne and Donald Hess ’66

Deborah Kayser Strauss

Clay Newsome ’65

Unrestricted Annual Fund

Sharon and Tom Howell

Keiko and Kayser Strauss ’96

Charles S. Northen ’55

gifts of $100 or more received

Heather and Daniel Mosley ’74

The Community

Joe Robinson

between July 1, 2016, and June

Pinkerton Foundation

Shirley Bajer Sievers

30, 2017, are listed below.

Patti and Ed Rogers

Kate ’93 and Diane Stewart

Listings by constituency and

Blake Van Horn ’02

by class can be found at

Rik Tozzi

Foundation of Greater Birmingham The John & Julia Badham Family Trust Nancy and Jim Tyrone ’73

G OV E R N O R S ’ C I R C L E $2,500+ Margaret and Bruce Alexander Pris and Eddie Ashworth ’67 Ginny and Joe Farley ’81 Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund Sarah Urist ’98 and John Green ’95 Mary and Cutter Hughes ’61 Jimmie and Emil Hess Jennifer and Ben Hunt ’82 Young Duk Kim Michael Levine ’74 Sam Moorer ’59 Spring 2018

Molly Myers ’92 and

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Rick Hatfield Susanna Myers ’90 and Gerry Pampaloni

Photo by Graham Yelton

Seung Jae Lee and

Susan Pizitz ’80

Carol Dewar and Larry

Lia and Rusty Rushton ’74

Dana and Jeff Gale ’92

Melissa and Hanson

Alice and Paul Goepfert

Slaughter ’90 Ann and David Tharpe Vanguard Charitable

Janet and Morton Goldfarb Rachel Krantz and Edward Goldstein ’67

Richard Whitley

Sydney and Michael Green

Youhong Wang and Yang Xu

Sally and Greg Hawley ’75

TOW N M E E T I N G LEVEL $1,000+ Judy and Hal Abroms Erin and Adam Adrian Kelly and Robert Aland ’80

Nancy and Tommy Healey ’62 Jean and Fred Heath ’62 Ryan Henderson ’07 Heidi Hess ’89 and James Rucker Martha Diefendorf and Robert Hogan ’68

Candi and C.P. Bagby ’63

Mary and Jay Holekamp ’63

Kelly Bodnar ’85 and

Nyya and John Hudson

Brett Battles Mary Jane and Robert Black ’61 Mindy and Dylan Black Shay and John Michael Bodnar ’88 Janet Perry Book and Jeff Book

David Huggin ’59 J.E. and Marjorie B. Pittman Foundation, Inc. Qin Wang and Kai Jiao Pamela and Prescott Kelly ’61 Kha Youn Kim Sheri and James Krell

Elizabeth and John Breyer ’71

Wendy and Bruce Kuhnel ’84

Caroline and E.T. Brown ’74

Emily Hess ’01 and Bob Levine

Julie and Scott Bryant ’82

Hilton Locke ’98 and

Myla Calhoun

Christian Anthony

Patricia and Ehney Camp ’60

Mrs. John A. Lockett, Jr.

Jill and Rusty Caranto

Cynthia Frownfelter-

Liz and John Carraway

Lohrke and Franz Lohrke

Elquis Castillo

Fang Yao and Minfang Lu

Myung Ju Kim and Chang Cho

Elaine Luria ’93 and

Caroline Clark ’82 Connie and Doug Clark Leigh and Bobby Collier Community Foundation

JOHN SLAUGHTER ’20 AND HANSON SLAUGHTER ’90

Futrell ’64

Kathy and Eli Phillips

Gail and Deak Rushton ’78

Tonya and Bartley Pickron ’91

Tong Zhang and Xiaojun Shao

Cathy and Caldwell Marks ’93

Don Pittman ’78

Joy and Perry Shuttlesworth

Scotty and Sam McAliley ’70

Emily and Jerry Pittman ’76

Lesly and Robert Simon

Sidney and Michel

Janet and Craig Pittman ’74

Patti and Scott Simpson

Robert Blondin

McCullers ’89

Kathy and Bill Pittman ’70

Blakeley and Bill Smith

Allan Cruse ’59

Allen Meighen ’78

Marjorie and John Pittman

Judy and M. D. Smith ’59

Heidi and Martin Damsky ’68

Yvonne Jiang Miao and

Nancy and John Poynor ’58

Tom Smith ’72

Stacy and Scott Pulliam ’85

Marty Stallings

of Northeast Alabama

Susan and Mitchell Dascher

Dickens Miao

Missy and Chip Dawson

Microsoft

Regions Financial Corporation

Janet and David Standaert

John Dixon ’72

Carole and Matt Miller

Michele and Rod Reisner ’84

Merrill H. Stewart, Jr.

Lee and Mac Moncus ’60

Amy and Keith Richards

Linda and Leo

Sharonda Childs ’03 and

Ann and Richard Monk ’57

Jennifer and Matthew Riha

Lori and Richard Feist

Christy and David Nelson ’93

Laura Schiele ’86 and

Barbara and Jim Flowers

Hilary and Stuart Nelson ’95

Candi and Mallory Forbes

Julie and Mark Nelson ’88

Mary and Burns Roensch

Robert Friedel ’67

Martha and Bill Nickell ’56

Mary Rose Santiago and

Elise May ’88 and Hank Frohsin

Sean and Janis O’Malley

Yan Zhang and Xiaobin Fu

Jinsook Won and Rae Kil Park

Eric Fancher, Jr.

Steven Robinson

Cesar Romero Charlotte and Bill Rose ’63

Sullivan-Bashinsky ’64 Jane and Kevin Tavakoli ’98 The Community Foundation of Western North Carolina, Inc. The J. Michael Bodnar Foundation The San Francisco Foundation

Indian Springs

Libby and Dennis Pantazis

39

ANNUAL REPORT

2016–2017

Judy and Arthur Toole ’58

Birmingham Jewish Foundation

Anya and Andrew Keller ’92

Publix Super Markets

Susan and Carlisle Towery ’55

Jody Klip ’78 and Jeffrey Black

Yang Suck and Richard Kim

Katrina Armstrong ’82

Fergus Tuohy ’96 and

Kathryn and Mark Brandon

Caroline and Roy Knight ’59

and Tom Randall

Denise and David Bryant

Beth Folmar Krueger ’91

Michael Barnett U.S. Charitable Gift Trust

Lynn and Ed Cassady ’76

Aye Unnoppet ’88 and

Jonette and Kenneth

Maria Byars

Christian ’67

and Bill Krueger Janice and Tim Laney Elizabeth and Alan Lasseter

Ginger Grainger ’86 and Steve Rueve ’84 Mary Helmer and Mark Sabel ’84

Gareth Vaughan

Anna and Chandler Cox

Hoa Nguyen and Anh Le

Beth and James Scott ’75

Bucky Weaver ’68

Charles DeBardeleben ’79

Alison Goldstein ’88 and

Jerry Shadix ’68

Ryan Webb ’02

Rima and Larry Deep

Marjorie and Jim White ’60

Kathy and Larry DeLucas

Malinda and Jimmy Lewis ’75

Kathryn and Richard Shimota

Theresa and Raleigh

Patty B. and David Driscoll

Shuqui Lin and Suming Zhang

Cathy and Sam Simon

Elizabeth and Drew Edge ’84

Erin and John Lockett ’95

Kate and Charles Simpson

Tom Whitehurst ’68

Bill Engel ’75

Ji Liu and Xiaoqing Lu

Beverly VonDer Pool

Deborah and Brian Wiatrak

Ilana Engel ’12

Tommy Maddox ’69

Amy McDaniel ’80 and

Jan and Chip Feazel ’63

June and Joe Mays ’63

Dorothy and Jodie Smith

Whitehurst ’77

Alan Lebovitz

Margaret Shepherd

and Phillip Smith

Jerolyn and Kevin Ferrari

Edith and Henry McHenry ’68

Leslie and Rocky Smith

Rowan and Russ Williams ’73

Jan Fortson

Cheryl and Burk McWilliams ’65

Smith Paving Inc.

Lu Shen and Wei Zhang

Loren Gary ’76

Tisha Sklenar Morris ’79

The Community Foundation of

Jian Guo and Quan Zhou

Paola and Fernando Garza

Helen Zhou and Mike Mu

Song Yin and Wen Zhou

Ingrid Straeter and

Susan Brand and

Steve Williams

M AYO R ’ S L E V E L $500+ Joanna and Al Adams ’62 Adobe Systems Incorporated American Endowment Foundation Anonymous Jennifer Bain ’84

Christopher Giattina

Harry Mueller ’62

Greater Chattanooga, Inc. The Laney Charitable Fund of the Ayco Charitable

Sylvia Goldberg

Network for Good

Lola Elfman and Greg

Frances Ross ’77 and Bill Nolan

The Prudential Foundation

Gail and Tom Nolen ’66

Cathy and Rune Toms

Jo Anderson and Will Oliver ’81

Beba and Tasos Touloupis

Melissa and John Oliver ’60

Bonnie and Ken Vines ’56

Mary and Victor Hanson ’74

Jeff Pettus ’73

Ellen and Jim Walker ’80

Leslie and Dabney

Susan Dillard ’80 and

Hua Yang and Yu Wei

Greene ’90 Wendy Mills and Mark Habeeb ’74

Hofammann ’72

David Phillips

Roger Baldwin ’87

Mitch Ives ’70

Dana and Dick Pigford ’65

Elliott Bell ’10

Maria and Lawrence Katz ’82

Alison Pool-Crane ’79

Foundation

Heather White ’92 and Mukesh Patel David Williams

COMMISSIONER’S LEVEL $250+ David Abroms ‘01 Cathy and Tom Adams ’63 Thornton Anderson ’80 Bonny Forrest and Stephen Armstrong Jill and Vikram Arora Barbara and Spencer Atkins Sharon and Jim Bailey ’79 Jen Spears ’96 and David Bashford W. C. Bass ’97 Spring 2018

John Beckman ’90

40

Liat and Amit Berger Anne and Bill Blackerby Wendi and Richard Boyen

Photos by Graham Yelton

Kitty and Ronnie Barrow

Suzanne and Lewis Brodnax ’63

Amy and Kevin Hill

Cardiac Evaluations, Inc.

Kristin Harper and

Frank Carter ’62 Clara Chung Fleisig and Glenn Fleisig Teri and Emmett Cloud ’95 Cason Benton and Stuart Cohen Community Foundation of Greater Memphis

Reggie Holder Day and Scott Hull Ann and David Hunt ’84 Fran Hutchins ’95 and Laura Kalba Susie and Peter Jander Jennifer Shen and Frank Jiang Jessica and Ben Johnson ’71 Katy and David Killion ’00

June Conerly

Rebecca and Brandon Kirby ’92

ConocoPhillips Petroleum

Yoshiki and Hiromi Kubagawa

Foundation Caryn and Steven Corenblum ’75 Sheri and John Corey ’75 Lisa Singer and Tim Davis Susan Swider and Colin Davis

Scottie and Bruce Lanier Kay and Jing Li Sharon Kean and Bob Lipson ’68 Alice Hawley ’03 and Henry Long ’01

Katie and Michael DeSocio

Gina and Hank Long ’70

William Dickerson ‘02

Michelle Luo ’10

Amy and Clint Dillard ’84

Qianying Wang and

Kristi and Chris Dobelbower

Jianbing Luo

Suzette and Chris Doucet

Lelie and David MacLeod

Claire Maples ’89 and

Karen and Harry Maring ’72

Heath Edwards

Priscilla and Tony Marzoni ’64

Anne and Rick Finch ’60

Angie and Chad Mathis

Amy Finkelstein ’95 and

Virginia Bledsoe ’86 and

Myles Steiner

Phillip Mattox

Peggy and Michael Fleetwood

Glendora and Andrew Mayo

Mac Fleming

Julie McDonald and

Patricia and Danner Frazer ’62 Lindsay Frost ’97 and Sam Bhasin Dana and Russell Gache Gail and Chip Gamble ’58 Chris Genry ’78 Natalie and Jed Gordon ’67 Anita Jayagopal ’96 and Brian Gouri Greg Groover Kim and Scott Grumley Cassandra Glasco-Gueye and Abdoulaye Gueye Caroline and Chip Hall ’78 Stacey and Charlie Hall Linda Harrington Susan and Wyatt Haskell ’57 Beth and Kirk Hawley ’66 Carla and Larry Hawley ’68 Will Hebson ’06 Pat and Billy Hiden ’71

Josh Klapow Liz and Brendan McGuire Rebecca and Thomas McWilliams ’97

Give the Ultimate Gift: Join the Legacy Society.

LEAVE A LASTING LEGACY by including Indian Springs in your planned giving. Springs’ Legacy Society honors alumni, parents, and friends who remember the school in their estates or who give assets now with deferred benefits to Indian Springs School.

PLANNED GIVING TOOLS range from bequests, life insurance

policies, and retirement plans to remainder interests and charitable remainder trusts. Many types of planned gifts provide tax benefits for you and your loved ones. Contact Director of Advancement Loren Gary at loren.gary@indiansprings.org or 205.332.0591 to learn more.

YOUR GIFT WILL PROVIDE important support for dedicated faculty and a bright future for Springs’ exceptional students.

Robin and Jim Meador-Woodruff Merck Partnership For Giving Melinda and Pete Mistr ’69 Kathy and Mark Myatt ’55 Anil Nanda ’92 Naomi Nelson ’93 and Louis Doench Beth Mulvey and David Noone Betty and Charles Northen ’55 Northrop Grumman Foundation Matching Gifts Joyce Addo and Kofi Nuako Sarah and D. G. Pantazis ’03 Hina and Rakesh Patel Camille and Tyrone Perkins

Stacy Donohue ’86 and Chris Perrone

Lisa and Erik Schwiebert Barbara and Waid Shelton

Carrie and Richard Pizitz ’75

Christina and Keck Shepard ’78

Stacy and Timothy Price ’01

Linda and Robert Sherman ’58

Aileen and Randy Redmon ’84

Susanne and Jim Shine ’77

Sara and Forest Reid

Mona Singh ’85 and Trevor Jim

Lynda and Joe Robinson ’56

Karen and Sean Sovacool

Charles Rossmann

Patricia and Rick Sprague ’66

Nirmal Roy ’02

Linda and Ed Stephenson ’65

Jamie and Marc Samuelson ’91

Cameron Wells Thoma ’95

Kiki and Pierre Scalise

Irene and Dorion Thomas ’90

Lisa and Bob Schilli

Valerie Morrison ’87 and

Bentley Turner ’04 and Brian Schoening

Clark Thompson Martin Tobias ’95

Indian Springs

Kay Armstrong and

41

ANNUAL REPORT

2016–2017

Caroline Choy ’11 Genevieve and Samuel Cohn ’67 Sumter and Steve Coleman ’59 Caroline Wingo ’95 and Clay Colvin ’95 Pam and Bob Cooper Christine and Darryl Copeland Dorothy Crawford Trae Crocker ’11 Gisèle and Steve Crowe Hanelle Culpepper ’88 and Jeff Meier Mary Lee and David Darby ’61 Bill Dawson Radhika Patil ’96 and Matt DeLaire Amy and Andrew Dibble Chip Dillard ’81 David Doggett ’68 Tim Donaldson April Preston and Kyran Dowling ’72 Sherry and Andy Driggers Starr Turner ’02 and David Drum Eva and Jiri Dubovsky Monica Shovlin and

Belinda and Bryson Waldo ’70 Janet and Peter Waldo ’77

$100+

Anne and James Bell ’92

Jenny and Billy Walker

Barbara and Jack Aland ’75

Carol and Bill Bell ’73

Julia and James England ’96

Betsy and William Belser ’80

Nedra and Joey Fetterman ’74

Laura Aland ’06

Lisa Billings

Sharonda Fifer

Judy and David Allgood ’67

Kristin and William

Lynn and Ken Fisher

Joel Walker ’87 Robin Greene ’03 and Michael Wall Kate and Howard Walthall ’90 Emily Sims ’82 and Wes Westbrook Andrea and Goodloe White ’90 Andrea and Larry Whitehead Kathryn and David Wiencek Amy and Chris Williams Julie and Scott Wilson Dee and Barry Woodham Lane and Brian Woodke Mary and Terry Woodrow ’63 Ham Inn and Shih Bin Wu Spring 2018

Yabing Chen and Hui Wu Timi and Carlton Young Han Gong and Long Zhen

Judith Lee Aland

Allstate - The Giving Campaign

Chris Baxley ’79

Blackerby ’05

Jane and Charles Ellis Emma Dinsmore ’05 and Lara Embry ’87

Anne and Alston Fitts

Marie and Duncan Blair ’75

Ruth Fitts ’96

Lynn Bledsoe and Bill Ryan

Amber and Chris Flint

Anonymous

David Bloom ’08

Sarah Frazier ’90 and

Steve Apolinsky ’80

Casey and Garrett Bradford ’96

Misty Appling

Joseph Bradley ’02

Constance Frey

Sara and Pete Arner

Chris Breyer ’75

Allison and Jeff Fuller

Anne Knox Morton ’04

Adrienne and Julian Brook

Diane and Tom Gamble ’60

Holly Brown ’96

Sarah and Reese Ganster ’63

Phyllis and Earl Bailey

Anne and Don Brunson ’64

Terri and David Glasgow

Sanjiv Bajaj ’98

Carol and Harry Caldwell

Reena Glazer ’87

Lisa and Rob Balazs

Judy and Bill Cardwell

Shira and Matthew Goldberg

Quinn Balazs ’14

Brooke and Tom Carruthers ’78

Ann and Richard Goldstein ’69

Medha and Amol Bapat ’88

Masako Shimamura and

Frances and Miller Gorrie

Patrick Anderson ’92 and Robert Morales

and Austin Averitt

Lisa Barnard ’85

Kevin Cassady

Marc Sennewald

Kathleen and Jesse Graham ’56

Steve Batson ’60

Jane and David Chaplin

Anna and Jon Gray

Marie and Bill Baxley

Sienna Chen ’14

Barbara and Mike Harper

Photos by Graham Yelton

Kira Druyan and

42

Anne and John Durward ’90

D E V E LO P M E N T D AY L E V E L

Kris and Andre Toffel ’72

Natalie Platt and Arnold Jones

Herb Martin ’62

Carrie Hatfield

Hye-Sook Jung and

Laura Payne ’86 and

Kate Hawley ’09

Jinchul Kim

Rich Martinez

Elizabeth Morrison and Susan Watterson Stephanie Mullen

Judy and Buddy Heacock ’58

Ellen Stern Kelsch ’01

Nancy and Michael Matte ’74

Sarah Mills ’03 and Jon Nee

Kathy and Gary Heacock

Cathy Bekooy and

Judy and Gerson May

Christie and Richard Neely

Carole and Michael Mazer

Blossom and Randy Nelson

Jesse Kieve ’15

Cheryl and Richard McAliley ’77

Lisa Rueve ’82 and

Kathryn and Bryan Hix

Melanie and Jay Kieve

Dawn and Joe McCarty

Liz and Greg Hodges ’66

Sawyer Klein ’12

Brandi and Jeff McCormack

Kristi Kimberly and

Kim and Barry Komisar

Paul McGee

Michelle Kuba ’94

Cheryl Killingsworth

Britta Brott and William Hillegass

Rob Hodson Howard Holley ’72 Aisha Holmes Thorn ’90

Sanjay Khare ’85

Sarah Abroms ’04 and Abraham Kunin

and James McMinn Ruth Ann and Jack

Jeffrey Nelson ’82 Susan Hazlett and Ed Norman ’79 Francesca and Richard Novak ’03 Lea Novakova and Jan Novak

Frannie and Randolph Horn ’83

Elizabeth Kvale

Jonathan Horn ’75

Mac LaCasse

Sabina Lee and Billy Huh

Susan and Billy Lapidus

Doug Hunter ’73

Joy and Martin Ledvina

Tejal and Yogesh Mehta

Anne and David Ovson ’69

Tondra and Vince Hutchinson

Janet and Adam

Brenda and Wayne

Justin Ovson ’01

Kelly and Clint Jacobs

Lichtenstein ’91

McSpadden ’64 Callan Childs ’91 and Vaughn McWilliams ’92

Meshejian ’63

Dragana and Mak Obradovic Jamie and Greg Odrezin Leslie and Peter O’Neil

Libba and John Owen ’70

Brett Janich ’06

Patricia and Tom Lloyd ’59

Carol and B. G. Minisman ’63

Norton Owen ’72

Dr. Robert W. Johns, Ph.D.

Terri and Charles Lorant ’75

Laina and Egon Molbak

Vicki and Keith Owens

Amelia Johnson and

Melodie and Greer Mallette ’89

Sara and Tommy Moody ’64

Jocelyn Bradley ’77

Nobuchika Mamine ’93

Pam and Steve Moore

Muff and Gilbert Johnston ’63

Laili and Jim Markert

Jenny Morgan ’96

Evan Pantazis ’09

Laurie and Frank Jones ’58

Tameeka Marshall

Morgan Stanley

Lee Pantazis ’06

Tony Diliberto

and Jim Palmer

Indian Springs

Travis Harrell ’08

43

2016–2017

George Ann and Alton Parker

Betsy and Daniel Russakoff ’92

Lee and Sam Stayer

Alison and Rhett Walker ’83

Arrtie Pisaturo ’00

Charlotte and

Janet and Walter Stephens ’67

Lissa Waldo ’01 and

Paula Purse Pointer

Allan Waller

Jill Russell ’94

Elizabeth Sztul

Jill and Thomas Walton

Trish Powell Crain

Judy and Ed Rutsky

Sarah and Jim Tanner ’64

Amy and Tim Wammack

Deborah and Larry Quan ’68

Susan Moore ’86 and

John Tanquary ’74

Lucy and Elias Watson ’58

Ameer Tavakoli ’91

Eva-Maria Wedig

Betsy and John Saxon

John Terry ’63

Tina and Brent West

Laura and Erskine Ramsay ’64

Kelly and Scott Schell

Christina Tetzlaff

Holly Ellis ’84 and

Brian Reilly ’95

Lane and John Schmitt

The Coca Cola Company

Sherrie and Bruce Richards ’73

The Estate of William S.

Callen Bair ’01 and Will Thistle

Marjorie Lee White ’88

Carol and Tim Thomas ’67

Rebecca Rutsky ’91 and

Quillen ’96

Ginny and Grady

Jesse Santos

Schuler ’66 Josie and Clark Scott ’71

Stephanie and Dan Thomas

Jan and Dick Richardson ’70

Alan Seigel ’77

Whitney Sprague ’01

Shannon Riffe ’00 and

Karen Shepard ’81 and

Richardson ’57

Matt Burton

Keith Thomson

and Tyler Thomas

Prince Whatley

Hal White Chris Whitley ’99 Darci and Brian Willis ’96

Jill and Chip Thuss ’74

Karima Wilson ’99

David Rinald ’59

Katherine and Jim Shepherd

Cynthia and Raymond Tobias

Greg Yaghmai

Lynn and Alan Ritchie

Diane Sheppard and Stan Fuller

Elma and Jim Tuohy

Rachael Mills ’01 and

Charles Robinson ’59

Ed Smith ’63

Connie Hill and Doug Turner

Holly and Brian Rodgers

Rita and Carl Smith

Ferdinand Urthaler

Tanya and Scott Yeager

Cheska Romero ’16

Ruth and Jim Smith ’56

Cindy and Greg Van Horn

Dawn and Jobey York

Kathleen Rossmann

Virginia and David Smith

Missy and StewartWaddell

Alton Young

Ramsey Rossmann ’15

Sue and Allan Solomon ’68

Angela and Sam Waldo ’69

Ivey Lewis ’85 and Peter Young

Cindi and Michael Routman ’72

Southern Carpet &

Ashley Waldron ’89 and

Yuya Zhuo and Ruoying Zhang

Jamie and Justin Routman ’02

Hardwood, Inc.

Neil Roy ’96

Spring 2018

Martha and Richard Storm

Dave Porter

Tory Stella and Henry

44

Robert Russell ’76

Rita and Clifford Spencer ’58

Jim Yarbrough ’01

Adolfo Vargas Heather and Ronald Waldron

Photos by Graham Yelton, Art Meripol

ANNUAL REPORT

SHARON AND FRANK SAMFORD ’62

SAMFORD WAY

VISIT OUR NEW SAMFORD WAY The opening of three state-of-the-art, Silver LEED-certified classroom buildings, Armstrong Administration Building, and Kayser Academic Center concluded the first phase of our campaign for Springs Eternal. Gifts toward these important capital improvements are celebrated across campus on plaques, medallions, Gabion benches, and bricks and pavers along Samford Way, which runs from the south entrance of the Armstrong Administration building to the front of the Kayser Academic Center. Samford Way is named in honor of Sharon and Frank Samford ’62, whose vision and devotion to Springs helped turn our campus master plan into a reality.

Thanks to the remarkable generosity of more than 500 alumni, parents, grandparents, faculty, and friends from April 2014 through December 2016, more than $20 million was committed to Springs Eternal, the largest capital campaign in Indian Springs School history. Because everyone

Report, only those who made additional gifts in 2016–2017 beyond what they had already pledged and paid, or those who asked for their partners also to be recognized, are acknowledged here. Thank you for joining us in making Springs Eternal!

PA S S I O N $50,000+ Jim Burke ‘69

who made a pledge of $1,000

COMMUNITY

or more to the Springs Eternal

$10,000+

campaign was acknowledged

ConocoPhillips Petroleum Foundation

in our 2015–2016 Annual

HONOR $2,500+ Brenda and Doral Atkins Wendy and Hunter Gray Andy Sperling ’79 Vicky and Peter Sperling ’77

L OYA LT Y $1,000+ Ilene and Dan Berman ’82 Suzanne and Lewis Brodnax ’63 Cardiac Evaluations, Inc. Liz and John Carraway Ilene Engel David Garcia ’85 and Lawrence Garcia ’88

Jonathan Horn ’75 Sharon and Tom Howell Mary and Cutter Hughes ’61 Jacqueline and Mark Jamroz Kat Martin Sam Pointer ’81 Trish Powell Crain Diane Sheppard and Stan Fuller The Walt Disney Company Foundation Venkatesh Yerramsetti

Indian Springs

campaign for springs eternal

45

2016–2017

annual fund restricted gifts

Baseball

Merck Partnership for Giving

Patti and Scott Simpson

Microsoft

Confucius Program/Chang

Morgan Stanley

Pinkie and Bryan Chace ’74

Northrop Grumman

Gil Coutin

Gifts for the following initiatives

Troy University

Foundation

Hanelle Culpepper ’88

selected by the school were

Director’s Purse Fund

Regions Financial Corporation

received in 2016–2017.

Anonymous

The Prudential Foundation

Heidi and Martin Damsky ’68

Lara Hoggard

The Walt Disney Company

Cathy and Mell Duggan ’76

Acworth Scholarship Art Department Baseball Program Chess Program Choir Discretionary Funds Faculty Continuing Education History Department Iain Alexander Scholarship Learning through Living Piano Ray Hartwell Memorial Mock Trial Robotics Program Scholars Bowl Program Scholarships Fund Science Soccer Program Theater Program Varsity Girls Soccer Program

RESTRICTED GIFTS

Discretionary Fund

Music Scholarship Dottie and Jeffrey Smith ’61 Technology Emma Dinsmore ’05 and Lara Embry ’87 Ginny and Joe Farley ’81 In Memory of Blake Van Horn ’02 Anonymous Lynn Balch

Nancy and John Poynor ’58

services are also a significant help to Indian Springs through the year. Gifts-in-kind from the following people were contributed in 2016–2017.

Howard Furnas Gertrude Gildea Sylvia Goldberg Rachel Krantz and Edward Goldstein ’67 Gillian and Mike Goodrich ’63 Eugenia and Larry Greer ’63 Ronne and Donald Hess ’66

Bentley Turner ’04 and

Patti and Ed Rogers

Dr. Robert W. Johns, Ph.D.

Melissa and Hanson

George Johnston ’65

Brian Schoening Judy Shepura Nathan Shepura ’98 Marsha and Samuel Tilden Cindy and Greg Van Horn

M AT C H I N G G I F T S

Slaughter ’90

L E G ACY SOCIETY The Legacy Society honors individuals who share a com-

The following employers

mitment to the future of Indian

matched their employees’ gifts

Springs School by including

to Indian Springs School in

Springs in their estate plans.

Allstate - The Giving Campaign ConocoPhillips Petroleum Foundation Eli Lilly and Company Foundation

These individuals have included the school in their wills, established a charitable trust while maintaining a life income, or named the school as the beneficiary of a life insurance policy or retirement plan. If you have taken similar steps to Advancement Office know your plans. More information can be found at www.IndianSprings. org/planned giving.

Judy and Hal Abroms Steve Apolinsky ’80

Spring 2018

Robert Friedel ’67

Joan and Preston Haskell ’56

benefit Springs, please let the

46

Ginny and Joe Farley ’81

Douglas Ray

Adobe Systems Incorporation

Art Building

Gifts of tangible property and

David Faber ’66

Blossom and Randy Nelson

were made for the following

Kathy Jones

GIFTS-IN-KIND

and Jeff Meier

Anne and James Bell ’92

2016–2017.

Amnesty International

Vulcan Materials Company

Frank Carter ’62

Christie and Richard Neely

In 2016–2017 restricted gifts purposes.

Foundation

Kay Armstrong and

Muff and Gilbert Johnston ’63 Judy and Philippe Lathrop ’73 Kristine Billmyer and Russell Maulitz ’62 June and Joe Mays ’63 Susan and Tennant McWilliams ’61 Margaret R. Monaghan Bob Montgomery ’74 Frances Ross ’77 and Bill Nolan Joe Nonidez ’62 Jocelyn Bradley ’77 and Jim Palmer Margaret and Kip Porter ’60 Nancy and John Poynor ’58 Carol and Wilmer Poynor ’56 Cindi and Michael Routman ’72 Sharon and Frank Samford ’62 Cooper Schley ’64 Jane and Kevin Tavakoli ’98 Ann and David Tharpe Jill and Chip Thuss ’74 Fergus Tuohy ’96 and Michael Barnett

Pris and Eddie Ashworth ’67

Nancy and Jim Tyrone ’73

Julia and John Badham ’57

Marjorie and Jim White ’60

Candi and C.P. Bagby ’63

Allison and J.P. Williams ’77

Lois Blackwell Karen and Bill Boyle ’62

Photos by Graham Yelton, Casey Dunn

ANNUAL REPORT

THANKS TO YOU

Springs Today INDIAN SPRINGS

I

A N N U A L F U N D, 2 0 1 7 - 2 0 1 8

YOUR SUPPORT MEANS EVERYTHING. The financial support of the Springs community, year in and year out, is essential, and not simply to our current health and well-being. Your unrestricted gift to Springs Today, our Annual Fund, exponentially increases our ability to • attract and retain excellent faculty members who genuinely care about their students’ lives; • continue our distinguished legacy of providing experiential learning opportunities, pedagogical innovation, and classroom enhancements; and • offer the financial aid that enables us to assemble a learning community of students with a diversity of backgrounds, talents, and interests.

SPRINGS FLOURI SHES TH ANKS TO YOU.

“With your support, Springs can be one of the most creative and dynamic catalysts for enlightened, inclusive, holistic, and data-driven education in the country.”

HELP US REACH OUR GOAL OF $675,000 FOR 2017–2018

BY JUNE 30. EVERY GIFT MAKES A DIFFERENCE. www.SpringsToday.com

Indian Springs

—Dr. Sharon L. Howell, Head of School

47

N OT E WO R T H Y

to an unasked question was always “no,” and I started asking for more things that I thought could make a difference. That is what you see in this list of accomplishments— someone who just keeps asking myself, “How can I make a difference now?” and then actually following through on a few of those.

MEET 2018 OUTSTANDING ALUM

LARA EMBRY ’87

Spring 2018

ON APRIL 20, Indian Springs’ Alumni Council will present clinical psychologist and social activist Lara Embry ’87 with the 2018 Outstanding Alum Award for her achievements in her field and her efforts to promote and protect LGBTQ+ rights. In addition to maintaining a private clinical psychology practice, Embry is a Clinical Assistant Professor in UAB’s Department of Pediatrics; a lecturer at professional conferences and community events; the published author of a children’s book about a girl that learns to stop bullying (Marlene, Marlene, Queen of Mean); the co-director and co-producer of an award-winning documentary about the fight for LGBTQ+ family rights in the South (Alabama Bound, currently running on PBS). Alumnae Starr Drum ’02 and Callen Bair Thistle ’01 asked Embry about her work and what inspires her.

48

Q: How did you develop and nurture such a robust professional life?

A: Pretty much all of these activities are along a similar theme, that of pushing the conversation forward for LGBTQ+ rights. I find it unconscionable that some people oppress other people, and this is my way of working out that sense of injustice. I was also born into a family with enough means to allow for me to become really educated and entitled. I used that sense of entitlement to feel confident enough to challenge the status quo, as well as to open doors for myself. I learned sometime in my thirties that the answer

Q: Tell us about some experiences from your time at Indian Springs that shaped who you are today.

A: I feel I had so many shaping experiences at Springs. First, those years are like dog years, packing about seven years of change into one compared to the rest of your life. On top of that, my sister died, and I realized I was gay (during the Reagan years). Maybe more than anything, it taught me that I could get through anything, and the world keeps spinning out new days. I wrote my dissertation on resilience, and I don’t think it’s an accident that I got a Ph.D. in Adolescent Clinical Psychology.

Q: You moved back to Alabama while filming Alabama Bound.

Have you found the state has changed since your time growing up here?

A: Filming Alabama Bound gave me a window into what living here would be like, as I spent the first year returning to Alabama to interview lesbian families. I found people, like [State Rep.] Patricia Todd, who were standing up for themselves in ways that would not have been possible before. At that point, I knew I wanted to come back to help this be a better place for the next generation of kids coming up. In addition to setting up a private practice, I’ve been lucky to get to work with the Magic City Acceptance Center as well as Children’s Hospital to establish services for our queer youth. I’ve been volunteering as the psychologist for the gender clinic at Children’s for the past two years, and it has really been an educative experience.

Q: Your daughter Haden RyanEmbry ’20 is a sophomore at Springs. What has it been like to engage with the school as a parent, rather than as a student?

A: A part of why I moved back to Alabama was so that Haden could attend Springs; this was absolutely intentional. When I told Haden we were going to move from L.A. to Alabama, her first response was “Does that mean I can go to Indian Springs?” There is something unique about the overall experience of Indian Springs, and it is wonderful to be able to share that with her. I see her coming to so many realizations and working through so many important concerns, and I remember my thought process being challenged on a regular basis when I was a student. It all just makes me really happy that she gets to have such a fertile ground for thought during this period of her life. I’ve also been so happy that she gets to go to Springs when we finally have a woman as Head of School. I have been so impressed with the quality of Sharon’s leadership, as well as her genuine concern for the students. I am just delighted that my daughter gets to see a strong woman in charge every day, making her school a better place.

Q: What advice would you offer to Haden and other current Springs students?

A: My best advice to anyone is to pay attention to their feelings, learn about them, and use them, as they are there for a reason. There isn’t a right way to feel about anything, but it is important to understand what your feelings are saying about your experience. So many of life’s demands pull you away from your feelings, drawing your attention to whether you are being approved of, to the pursuit of perfection, or to noise—like video games, media, or drugs.

Our culture is so pervasive, and it is insistent that we be constantly unsettled and oriented toward acquiring things in order to find happiness. During adolescence,

Portrait photos by Rachel Wallace and Mindy Keyes Black; Khalas photo by Bill Oliver ’86

ALUMNI & FRIENDS

Q: What’s next for you?

A: I am really focused on improving the quality of life of local transgender kids right now.

As I see it, these are the queer folks who are in the most peril,

and to whom I have the most to offer. I plan to continue working at the Gender Clinic at Children’s Hospital, and to help train more providers in Alabama to work competently with this group of people to improve services overall.

I also want to enjoy my family time before both of my kids go off to start their own families, and it seems like that time is running shorter by the day. —Starr Drum and Callen Bair Thistle

GAIL ANDREWS

Conversation Continued: Visit IndianSprings.org/alumni to read more from Starr and Callen’s Q&A with Lara.

You Are Invited!

The Alumni Council will present the Outstanding Alum Award to Lara at 9:20 a.m. on Friday, April 20—during Alumni Weekend 2018—in the Indian Springs Concert Hall. Please join us for this special event!

LEFT TOP: Lara, Chase, Emma, and Haden on a trip to Prague in summer 2017 LEFT BOTTOM: Lara in the 1986 Khalas yearbook, which she edited with Bill Oliver ’86

Alabam a Boun docume ntary ab d, a couples out lesb living in ian double Alabam winner a, was a at the 20 Festival, 17 Side award fo receiving the a walk Film u r Best A labama dience jury priz Film and e for Be st SHOU the SHO T LGBTQ the UT Film Film in lesbian film festi Festival, the ga y and val that with Sid ran con ewa currentl y the film lk. Lara co-dire cted with fell o w Alabam native C a arolyn S herer.

EMMA EMBRY ’05

Springs Welcomes Two New Board Members INDIAN SPRINGS IS EXCITED TO WELCOME

two new members to the school’s Board of Governors.

Emma Embry ’05 is a real estate developer in Birmingham. Prior to this, she worked as CEO of an investment firm and in various other corporate finance and financial regulation positions. She graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University in 2009 with an A.B. in History and Urban Studies. She married Lara Embry ’87 in April 2017.

Gail Andrews, parent of alumna Julia Trechsel Davis ’03, was, upon her retirement last fall, named Director Emerita, having served as director from 1996 to 2017. She also served as President of her peer organization, the Association of Art Museum Directors.

She is a member of the Alabama Academy of Honor and the Rotary Club of Birmingham and a Board member of First Commercial Bank. She attended the College of William & Mary and the Cooperstown Graduate Program and has written numerous articles and catalogues on folk art and textiles.

Both were approved at the Board’s Dec. 1 Board meeting, and their terms are effective immediately.

Embry will serve on the Finance Committee and Investment Subcommittee. Andrews will serve on the Governance and Planning Committees. Thank you for your important service!

Indian Springs

your brain massively reorganizes, and you emerge with the networks that will largely govern your behavior for the rest of your life.

The habits of attention that you form now will influence how you are able to think in the future.

Having easy access to and a good understanding of your feelings can really increase your confidence in decision-making now and in the future. Being present and knowing yourself are incredibly valuable in being able to make decisions you feel good about, and in trusting yourself and others. No matter what, avoid feeling ashamed of things—it’s a distracting waste of time. Feel guilty if you have to feel bad and do something to fix it, but there is nothing wrong with who you are just because you mess up.

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ALUMNI & FRIENDS

N OT E WO R T H Y

LEFT: In October, John Badham

’57 spoke at a special 40th anniversary screening hosted by the Directors Guild of America. ABOVE: Badham on the set of Saturday Night Fever

JOHN BADHAM ’57

Spring 2018

SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER TURNS 40

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FORTY YEARS AFTER ITS INITIAL RELEASE, director John Badham ’57 reignited the disco inferno lit by his legendary 1977 film, Saturday Night Fever, by teaming up with Paramount Pictures to produce a special 40th Anniversary Director’s Cut. The new edition, which features never-before-seen outtakes, 4K resolution, and enhanced audio quality, was released in Blu-Ray last May and screened at about 700 theaters worldwide. In October, the Directors Guild of America continued the celebration by hosting an evening with Badham in the Guild’s Los Angeles Theater. A DGA member since 1970, Badham received Emmy nominations for his directing on the 1970s series The Bold Ones: The Senator and The Law before his Saturday Night Fever became a worldwide hit. His 1983 feature films, Blue Thunder and WarGames, received four Academy Award nominations. His credits also include the features American Flyers, Short Circuit, Stakeout, Point of No Return, Drop Zone and Nick of Time; the movies for television The Jack Bull and The Last Debate; and episodes of the series Blind Justice, Psych, Rush Hour, The Shield, and Supernatural. In addition to his directing work, Badham is

a professor of film and media arts at Chapman University. He has written two books on film directing, John Badham on Directing and I’ll Be In My Trailer, which are used in film schools around the world. He has also served on the DGA National Board and currently sits on its Western Directors Council.

He served as mayor of Indian Springs School in 1957, and received Indian Springs’ Outstanding Alum Award in 1984. He established the General Henry Badham Scholarship in 1985, and served on the Indian Springs School Board of Governors for 16 years, between 1983 and 2003. “Indian Springs is so close to my heart that not a day goes by that I don’t appreciate the philosophies and the skills for self-starting, self-reliance and openness to new experiences that I learned at Springs. Things that came not only from the legendary Doc Armstrong but the whole culture of the school. Not just a high school in the woods, but a whole way of looking at life.”

See Badham’s Director’s Reel at JohnBadham.com.

—Rachel Wallace

LEFT TOP: Caryn and Steven Corenblum ’75 LEFT BOTTOM: Stephen Dorsky ’71, Martin Damsky ’68,

Maury Shevin ’70, Steven Corenblum ’75, and Jack Aland ’75

SPRINGS AT THE MACCABI GAMES THE 2017 JCC MACCABI GAMES were a significant milestone for Birmingham’s Jewish community and greater metropolitan area. Not only was Birmingham the second smallest city ever to host the event; this was also the first time the games have come to Alabama, and Springs alums played a significant role in the event’s success.

Sponsored by the Jewish Community Centers of North America for the past 36 years, the Maccabi Games brought more than 1,200 athletes and coaches to the Magic City from July 30 to Aug. 4 for five days of athletic competitions that took place at venues including Birmingham-Southern College, Birmingham CrossPlex, Bartow Arena, and the Jewish Community Center. The athletes, aged 13 to 16, hailed from more than 26 cities in the United States and also from Birmingham’s sister cities in Ukraine (Vinnytsia) and Israel (Rosh Ha’Ayin).

“It was great that the games were in Birmingham,” said Clara Lapidus ’21. “I got the chance to meet kids from all over the country and even the world. It was like I was a host and these people all came to our party!” Leading the Birmingham delegation during the opening ceremonies was the high point for Clara. “I got to hold the banner in the front, along with three of my best friends who had participated with me in the Maccabi games in St. Louis last year,” she explained.

“Being in that big arena with all those people in the stands, I felt really special, kind of like I was in the Olympic Games!”

Some 250 Jewish families—including those of Heidi and Martin Damsky ’68, Joyce and Maury Shevin ’70, Lori and Stephen Dorsky ’71, Lisa and Alan Engel ’73, Barbara and Jack Aland ’75, Caryn and Steven Corenblum ’75, and Stephanie and Steve Steinmetz ’75—hosted athletes.

Max Rykov ’07 was among the more than 1,200 volunteers who assisted with other event logistics.

—Loren Gary and Peter Moss

CARTOON CROSSROADS COLUMBUS (CXC) presented cartoonist Howard Cruse ’62

with the “CXC Transformative Work Award” at the nonprofit organization’s annual convention in September. The award honors Cruse for his groundbreaking 1995 graphic novel, Stuck Rubber Baby, which highlights a gay man’s struggle with personal identity during the Civil Rights movement.In January, Comic-Con International announced that Cruse has also been nominated for the Will Eisner Comic Awards Hall of Fame.

Cruse is one of 16 nominees from whom voters (professionals working in the comics or related industries) will choose four to be inducted in the Hall of Fame this summer. Named for the pioneering comics creator and graphic novelist Will Eisner, the awards are considered the Oscars of the comics world.

Cruse was incorrectly identified as a member of the Class of ’59—his brother Allan’s graduating class— in our summer issue. Indian Springs magazine regrets the error and is delighted to set the record straight!

Indian Springs

Photos by Shane Karns, Courtesy of DGA (Badham); Susan Lapidus (basketball)

HOWARD CRUSE ’62 HONORED FOR GROUNDBREAKING GRAPHIC NOVEL

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ALUMNI & FRIENDS

N OT E WO R T H Y

BABY BENJAMIN EPSTEIN FAMILY

CLASS OF 1967 William A. Edmundson ’67, who serves as Regents’ Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy at Georgia State University College of Law, has published a new book, John Rawls: Reticent Socialist (Cambridge University Press, 2017). Released in July, the book is the first detailed reconstruction of the late work of John Rawls, who was perhaps the most influential philosopher of the 20th century.

CLASS OF 1973 Dr. Hubert van Tuyll ’73, Professor of History at Augusta University, writes, “Just wanted to share the good news about my two most recent publications: Small Countries in a Big Power World: The Belgian-Dutch Conflict at Versailles, 1919 (Leiden: Brill, 2016) and In Their Own Words: Augusta and Aiken Area Veterans Remember World War II (Augusta, Ga.: ARCHS, 2017; co-editor).

More importantly—my daughter Laura is getting married this October!”

Spring 2018

CLASS OF 1974 Greg Yates ’74 recently joined the staff at the Emory University School of Law’s Center for Professional Development and Career Strategy. Writes Greg: “Looking forward to a new chapter in my career story.”

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CLASS OF 1992 James J. Bell ’92 was installed on Jan. 23 as 2018 President of the Indianapolis

CALLEN BAIR THISTLE ’01

BABY MILO WES VAN HORN ’05

Bar Association. Bell is a criminal defense and legal ethics lawyer with the Paganelli Law Group.

CLASS OF 1993 Jonathan Epstein ’93 and his wife, Laura, celebrated the arrival of a beautiful baby girl, Isla Henry Epstein, on Feb. 22, 2017.

Epstein was also recently named to Travel + Leisure’s “A-List” as one of the world’s most elite travel advisors and to Conde Nast Traveler’s list of the world’s “Top Travel Specialists.”

Elaine Luria ’93 announced on Jan. 8 that she is running for Congress to represent Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District.

Owner of two Mermaid Factory locations in Virginia’s Hampton Roads area, Luria retired in 2017 from a 20-year Navy career that included six deployments to the Middle East and the Western Pacific and command of an assault craft unit. Her goal in running for Congress, says Luria, ELAINE LURIA ’93

MEGAN FRY ’00

is “to help engage in meaningful debates across the aisle.”

CLASS OF 1998 Alumni Council President Annie Damsky ’98 was awarded a 2017 Alabama Retailer’s Association Gold Award for outstanding sales and service at her Mountain Brook yoga studio, Villager Yoga. Since 2012, Villager Yoga has provided fitness classes and wellness workshops for community members of all ages and levels of experience, as well as a boutique for yoga clothing and gifts. Namaste, Annie!

CLASS OF 1999 William Barclift ’99 married Samantha Oliver on Nov. 11 at The Vineyard in Scaly Mountain, N.C. CLASS OF 2000 Megan F. Fry ’00 has been selected to join Leadership Florida Connect, a platform for Florida’s emerging leaders to focus on key issues and opportunities facing residents. Fry, an attorney at Clark Partington Attorneys at Law in Pensacola, specializes in representing title insurers, real estate owners, individuals, and financial institutions in all types of litigation matters. When she is not advocating for clients, she serves on the Board of Directors for the Western Division of the Children’s Home Society of Florida and the NAIOP of Northwest Florida.

CLASS OF 2001 Callen Bair Thistle ’01 and her husband, Will, welcomed a son, Benjamin Allen Thistle, on Jan. 6.

CLASS OF 2002 Lauren Simpson ’02 celebrated the release of her latest contemporary fantasy novel, Stranger Magic (HarperCollins Voyager, 2017), in November. Written under the pseudonym Ash Fitzsimmons, Stranger Magic is the tale of an 800-year-old faerie who joins forces with three unlikely heroes to save the world of magic. It’s available for purchase as an ebook online and as a paperback at major retailers.

“Indian Springs offered me the perfect combination of rigorous academics and the freedom to explore my interests outside of class. I was fortunate to have several excellent English teachers, and somewhere between the literary analysis and poetry recitation, I began to experiment with extracurricular writing. (Having a teacher who didn’t bat an eye when I turned in my first short novella was a gift I only truly appreciated after the fact.) Of course, it didn’t hurt that Springs is the sort of place that encourages creativity--I mean, when your Mayor speaks through Mr. Sock Puppet, an ill-tempered swan stalks students around the lake, and bewildered hikers wander in from the woods in the middle of the night, you almost can’t help but start to tell stories.”

—LAUREN SIMPSON ‘02 (AKA ASH FITZSIMMONS)

BARCLIFT WEDDING

REESE FEIST ’06 WEDDING

CLASS OF 2003 L.A. Weekly reports that Mia Swier ’03 has opened a retro piano bar on Los Angeles’ North Cahuenga Boulevard near the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The centerpiece of Tramp Stamp Granny’s, named in tribute to Swier’s “saucy” grandmother, is a stage for show tune performers. Swier envisions the bar as a “raucous outpost” of Hollywood’s musical scene—something she’s been a part of as a rock/punk singer for years. Her family also operates the celebrated Bowery Ballroom and Mercury Lounge live music venues in New York City. Swier says it’s been her lifelong dream to own a venue like Tramp Stamp Granny’s, continuing her family’s legacy.

founder and creative director of Loose Leaves Showcase, a twice-annual dance showcase in Charlotte that helps new and emerging choreographers put their work before an audience. Davin is an architect at Cluck Designs, an architecture firm that recently won the AIA Charlotte Firm of the Year Award.

CLASS OF 2005 Kassandra Mable Costa ’05 and Dick Costa were married on April 1, 2017, at the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher. Her twin sister, Salena Mable Stamp ’05 served as the Maid of Honor and Officiant for the wedding, and her husband, Davin Stamp ’05, was in attendance.

The Costas and Stamps live in Charlotte. Kassandra is the Marketing Manager for U.S. lab sales at Dentsply Sirona, the world’s largest manufacturer of professional dental products and technologies. Dick is the Creative Director for Ultimate Performance Marketing, a firm that specializes in marketing for the motorsports industry. Salena is the

Jay Kim ’06 received his M.A. in Earth Sciences in December from Western Michigan University and has accepted a position as a Field Geologist at Somat Engineering in Taylor, Mich.

Wes Van Horn ’05 and his wife, Kristin, were delighted to welcome a son, Milo Blake Van Horn, on July 17. Milo is the first grandson of longtime faculty members Greg and Cindy Van Horn.

CLASS OF 2006 Reese Feist ’06 married Stephanie Schick on June 24 in Merced, Ca. Members of the wedding party included Springs alums Jane Feist ’08 and Jack Feist ’10.

Al.com reports that Lee Pantazis ’06 is the proud new owner of Gus’s Hot Dogs in downtown Birmingham. Pantazis, whose grandfather immigrated to Birmingham from Greece and co-owned the Hickory Hut and Coffee Cup restaurants, has been eating at Gus’s since he was a young boy. Pantazis is excited to continue his grandfather’s legacy.

Indian Springs

COSTA WEDDING

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N OT E WO R T H Y

JACK FEIST ’10 WEDDING

CLASS OF 2009 Emily Bell ’09 recently received her M.A. in international affairs with a focus in finance and trade from the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin, Germany. She moved to the Netherlands in June 2017 to take a job at the Dutch Central Bank in Amsterdam. She is enjoying discovering her new home, speaking Dutch, and riding bikes everywhere!

Casey Stewart ’09 (now Case Watson) will be releasing her debut album in New York this summer! The art rock EP, Banshee, will combine Case’s Southern folk roots with a handful of influences she’s discovered since her student concert days at Springs. Special thanks and shoutout to her fellow alums who have helped fund the project! Produced by Willie Green at GreenHouse Studio. Sounds like St. Vincent, Lana Del Rey, Fiona Apple. For more info or to pre-order your copy, visit www. casewatson.com/music.

Spring 2018

CLASS OF 2010 Jack Feist ’10 married Hannah Ponders Feist on Dec. 16 at Christ Church Frederica in St. Simons Island, Ga. Members of the wedding party included Springs alums Reese Feist ’06, Jane Feist ’08, Jake Woodham ’10, Daniel Woodall ’10, Everett Smith ’10, Kevin Lee ’10, and Keith Marson ’10.

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Yedoye Travis ’10 is celebrating the Jan. 12 release of his debut comedy album, OK. Travis’ career in writing, acting, and stand-up comedy has earned him appearances on the 2017 TV series Search

CASE WATSON ’09

Party and Coming to the Stage, the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and Comedy Central. He was named a New Face at the 2017 Montreal Just For Laughs Festival, during which he opened for W. Kamau Bell and taped for Kevin Hart’s Youtube channel, the LOL Network. He has also performed in multiple comedy festivals and contributed content to MTV. CLASS OF 2013 In addition to being named 2017 Pitcher of the Year by the Southern Athletic Association, former Birmingham-Southern baseball player Stephen Himic ’13 was named to the 2017 Rawlings First AllAmerican Team in the South Region and the 2017 First All-Conference Team.

Himic graduated with a B.S. in mathematics and is now pursuing his Master of Civil Engineering (MCE) at Auburn University.

CLASS OF 2015 Lourdes University’s Riley Hogan ’15 was named a 2017 Daktronics-NAIA Scholar Athlete for men’s soccer, the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) announced in December. Hogan, a junior, appeared in 12 matches, making 11 starts for the Gray Wolves last fall. A defender, he handed out three assists on the season, earning his first three collegiate points. He was also named to the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference All-Academic Team in 2017.

YEDOYE TRAVIS ’10

IN MEMORIAM ALUMNI Charles Swift Northen III ’55, a member of Indian Springs’ first graduating class, passed away on July 1. He was a Presbyterian Elder, member of Independent Presbyterian Church, and former president of the congregation. An Eagle Scout, he was a member of several civic and social organizations. He was an honors graduate of Vanderbilt University, where he studied investment management. He retired as Senior Investment Officer of Regions Financial Corporation and later served as a Managing Director of Sterne, Agee & Leach. Survivors include his wife, Betty; daughter, Margaret Allen Northen; sons, Charles S. Northen IV and Bryce R. Northen (Andrea Dent ’96); stepdaughter, Vicki Lee Taylor; stepsister, Elizabeth McDavid Farnsworth; and five grandchildren.

Eston Harmon Stead Jr. ’58 passed away on Nov. 16 after a long illness. He was a graduate of Birmingham-Southern College and former member of the Alabama Air National Guard. He retired from Eastern State Hospital, where he was Director of Operations, and was a former member of Maxwell Street Presbyterian Church. He is survived by his son, Michael E. Stead of Lexington; daughter, Laura E. (Bill) Lochen of Minneapolis; brother, Walter Edward (Jean) Stead of Unicoi, Tenn.; niece, Garner Lee (Mike) Green, and family of Morgan Hill, Calif.; ex-wife and best friend, Barbara Lewis Stead, and cousins; and two grandchildren. continued on page 56

Feist wedding photo by Allison Pedigo

ALUMNI & FRIENDS

REMEMBERING RICHARD JONES:

CREATOR OF THE TRUTH HOUSE Former faculty member Richard N. Jones dreamed of a way to bring principles of physics to life for Indian Springs students, and in 1960 he found a solution through the design and construction of Springs’ legendary Truth House. The House, styled after an “Ames Room” often found at carnivals and museums, had a tilted floor that caused balls to roll “uphill” and water to drip “sideways.” According to Jones, the House allowed him to demonstrate complex concepts such as gravitational force and frame of reference. “We feel that the room will have a definite educational value. Not only will it be valuable in science and physics, it will be an important tool in the teaching of social science as well,” Jones told The Florence Times in October 1960. Built as a $400 addition to an existing classroom, the House stood until 1994.

BUZZARD

Clyde Ernest Buzzard, Jr., former Basic Studies teacher, died peacefully in Columbia, Mo., on Oct. 18, 2017. Born in Neosho, Mo., Clyde earned a B.A. in journalism from Tulane University, where he also studied law for a year, then taught at Springs from 1962–1966. After getting a master’s in counseling from Washington University in St. Louis, he returned to Indian Springs from 1971–1978. A gifted writer, photographer, printer, and graphic designer, Clyde used these skills to enhance the extracurricular life of the school. Not only did he oversee the print shop and serve as adviser for the yearbook (several of the most compelling and technically brilliant Khalases in the school’s history were produced under his guidance), he also coached the debate team.

The name of the Missouri town in which Clyde was born, Neosho, is generally believed to derive from an Osage word meaning “clear, cold water,” in reference to local freshwater springs. The same word aptly describes Clyde’s effect on the students who revered him. “He taught us how to think,” remembers Dick Crocker ’65. “He was an even better debate coach, and I was lucky to be on his team. He himself had been an excellent college debater at Tulane, and he took us there every year for their high school tournament. Being a debater meant that you had to be able to appreciate and argue for both sides of a question—there was no escaping it. Clyde Buzzard trained us well to be able to do that. I remember an exercise he gave us in class—one typical of many. After we had settled into our seats in the classroom, he wrote on the board: ‘Out of sight, out of mind,’ and ‘Absence makes the heart gown fonder.’ Then he gave us thirty minutes to write an essay. He gave no further instruction.

I still think about that assignment. Ambiguity has been a central fact of my intellectual life. I got it from him.”

“Like Doc Armstrong, Clyde drank deeply from American philosopher John Dewey’s well,” remembers Mac Fleming. “Clyde and I cotaught a few classes over the years. I was impressed by the way that he would challenge students to think more cogently, and more deeply—to take responsibility for their own learning. His influence on students and the curriculum was so significant that he was given strong consideration to succeed Doc as director after he retired.”

Following his career in education, Clyde started his own printing business, served as a manager at Vulcan Bindery, and owned a résumé writing business. He also wrote poetry, short stories, and books, as well as “Circling,” a Birmingham News column devoted to observances of daily life.

Clyde was predeceased by his sister, Beverly Norris. He is survived by his three sisters, Shirley, Karen, and Sharon Buzzard; his children, Regan Harwell, John Buzzard, and Suzanne Dulin; and his grandchildren, Austin Velotas, Madeline LaForest, Chase Velotas, Peyton Harwell, and Vivian, Caroline, and Gideon Buzzard, as well as his former wife Linda Feinberg Miller.

Condolences may be posted on Clyde’s Facebook wall or sent to the Buzzard family, 4700 Roemer Road, Columbia, MO 65202. Donations in his memory may be sent to Indian Springs School. —Loren Gary

Indian Springs

IN MEMORIAM: CLYDE

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ALUMNI & FRIENDS

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IN MEMORIAM continued from page 54

Randy Marks ’65, whose ties to Indian Springs school school ran deep, passed away unexpectedly on June 26 at his home on Lake Martin. Marks served two terms on the Indian Springs School Alumni Council, and his father, C. Caldwell Marks, was a member of the Board of Governors. After graduating from the University of the South, he attended Officer Candidate School in Newport, R.I., and as a Lieutenant Junior Grade in the U.S. Navy served three years in the National Security Agency working on classified projects. After completing his service, he earned a master’s in architecture at Georgia Tech. His career focused on luxury residential, light commercial, and historic preservation design. Survivors include his wife, Buffie; sons, Randolph Caldwell Marks, Jr. ’93 (Cathy), William Brooks Marks (Louisa), Cary Bolling Pollard Marks; sister, Margaret (Kip Porter ’60); brother, Charles Pollard Marks; three grandchildren; and stepmother, Alice Scott Marks.

Spring 2018

William B. Israel ’73 passed away on July 21. He graduated with distinction from Rhodes College and is best known for becoming the youngest car dealer in the nation after acquiring Adamson Ford in 1982. During his career, he served as president of the Better Business Bureau and the Birmingham Auto Dealer’s Association. He had a passion for mentoring young people in business and coaching them in sports, from Little League T-Ball to High School AAU Basketball. He was also an avid sportsman and co-owner of the Byron Hill Show Jumpers. Survivors include his wife, Linnea; daughters Sarah Rochelle Israel Levey (Jordan), Julia Robinson Israel Vaughn (Cory), and Christian Austin Linnea Israel; brothers, John Roy Israel III (Miko) and Charles Wesley Israel (Linda); sister, Sarah Elizabeth Israel Ratliff (Bill); and stepmother, Edna Riddle Israel.

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Koliwe Moyo Stephens ’94 passed away on Dec. 21. After completing her undergraduate degree in English at the Catholic University of America and her law degree at Howard University, she dedicated her life to the causes of child welfare and education while working in the D.C. and Maryland state governments.

A proud member of the Indian Springs School Glee Club, she enjoyed listening to music and reading African-American literature in her free time. Friends and family remember most her warm spirit, brilliant intellect, and whimsical sense of humor. Survivors include her husband, Geoffrey Stephens; mother, Regina Moyo; sisters, Sipiwe Moyo ’01 (Leeroy) and Zandile Moyo; brother, Artwell Moyo (Emily); and nieces and nephews.

FAMILY & FRIENDS James Earl Bailey APRIL 9, 2017

Father of Dr. James E. Bailey, Jr. ’79 (Sharon) and grandfather of Claire ’09 and Spence ’13 Bailey Clyde Buzzard OCTOBER 18, 2017

Faculty member from 1960 to 1980 and father of Regan Harwell ’83 (James), Suzanne Dulin ’87 (Charles), and John Buzzard ’88 Taylor Harsh AUGUST 27, 2017

Son of Carter ’76 and Cindy Harsh, grandson of Dr. and Mrs. Griffith R. Harsh, and nephew of Griff Harsh ’71 and Meg Whitman and Milton ’72 and Allison Harsh John Spencer Howell SEPTEMBER 5, 2017

Father of Tom Howell (Dr. Sharon Howell) and grandfather of Ethan ’21 and Maggie Howell Richard “Dick” Jones JUNE 2017

Faculty member during the 1960s, designer of Indian Springs’ Truth House, and father of Richard Jones ’67 Carol Jemison Lacy JULY 18, 2017

Mother of John “Jack” Blakeway Lacy ’72 (Elizabeth) and Alexander Shelton Lacy Jr. ’79 (Tabitha) and grandparent of Elizabeth Blakeway Chancey ’10 Joseph William Mathews, Sr. DECEMBER 12, 2016

Grandfather of Joe Bill Mathews ’86 (Kathy ’86) Dr. Edwin Moyo OCTOBER 25, 2017

Father of Koliwe Moyo Stephens ’94 (Geoff Stephens) and Sipiwe Moyo ’01 (Leeroy)

Marion Alton Pool MAY 12, 2017

Parent of Alison Pool-Crane ’79 (Rev. Lee) and grandparent of Marion Kirby Pool ’07 Richard B. Siegel, M.D. JULY 26, 2017

Father of Robin Siegel ’12 Margaret H. Tauxe JULY 24, 2017

Mother of Dr. Caroline S. Tauxe ’76 and Dr. John D. Tauxe ’79 Jerry Scott Van Horn NOVEMBER 6, 2017

Father of Greg Van Horn (Cindy) and grandfather of Wes Van Horn ’05 (Kristin)

New York City Reception 2018 THE INDIAN SPRINGS School Board of Governors and Head of School Dr. Sharon Howell were delighted to welcome New York-area alumni and friends for a special reception on Feb. 15—the eve of Springs’ February Board meeting—at The Michelangelo Hotel. It is always lovely to see you—thank you for your abiding commitment to Springs!

Director of Special Projects & Strategy Lauren Wainwright ’88 and Head of School Dr. Sharon Howell with Joey and Jana Mestecky ’91 Kreutziger

ABOVE LEFT: Dean of Student Development & Community Life Janae Peters, Sara Lowery ’09, and Adam Trodd ’08

Stephen Cockrell ’02, Chairman of the Board Libby Pantazis, Kyung Han ’85

ABOVE: Kelly and Robert Aland ’80 LEFT: Loren Gary ’76, Harry Kartus ’76

NEW YORK CITY RECEPTION PHOTO GALLERY See all photos from our reception at https://IndianSpringsSchool.smugmug.com/ Alumni/New-York-2018 1 of 254 Leo Kayser III ’62, Tom Howell

Thank you for your commitment to Springs!

Indian Springs

Photos by Wendy Barrows

Russ Maulitz ’62, Sandy Petrey ’59, Lem Coley ’62

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Holiday Party 2017 MORE THAN 300 ALUMNI, alumni parents, and their family members gathered for Alumni Holiday Party 2017, held Dec. 26 at Iron City. Thanks so much to String Theory (featuring alumna violinist Niamh Tuohy Fields ’89) for providing musical entertainment and to the Alumni Council for helping to plan a fantastic event!

Adrienne James Carter ’94, Ericka Williams ’95

Ginny, Mac ’14, Virginia ’16, and Joe ’81 Farley

Snehal, Shivani, and Sanjiv Bajaj ’98, Nirmal Roy ’02, Felicia Yu ’01, William Wainscott ’00

HOLIDAY PARTY PHOTO GALLERY See all photos from our 2017 Alumni Holiday Party at https://IndianSpringsSchool. smugmug.com/Alumni/ Holiday-Party-2017

Spring 2018

ABOVE LEFT: Niamh Tuohy Fields ’89

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ABOVE: Martin, Scarlett, and Leslie Theibert ’02 Cooles LEFT: Larry Brook ’87, Dr. Bob Cooper

1 of 81

Thank you for celebrating the season with Springs!

Photos by Stewart Edmonds

Donald Hess ’66, Bob and Emily Hess ’01 Levine, Rachael Mills ’02

CLASS OF ’68

Come Home to Springs!

JOIN US FOR ALUMNI WEEKEND

I

APRIL 19–22

Reconnect with friends and family, discover what's new on campus, and meet the next generation of Springs students during Alumni Weekend 2018!

Highlights of the weekend will include the 2018 Directors’ Dinner (for those who give $1,000 or more to the 2017–18 Annual Fund), a performance by the Concert Choir, class reunion parties for class years ending in “8” and “3,” the presentation of the Outstanding Alum Award, and celebration of the

www.IndianSprings.org/ AlumniWeekend2018

Indian Springs

50th reunion Class of 1968.

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Spring 2018

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D’ARIA LANE ’21

IN THE GREENHOUSE

u n iq u e l y sp r i n gs

190 Woodward Drive Indian Springs, AL 35124 205.988.3350 www.IndianSprings.org