2023 Winter Magazine

WINTER 2023

LINCOLN WINTER 2023

Creative Team

Lincoln Advancement Team

Molly Garrison

Sophia Theriault ’16

Emalyn Gordon

On the Cover: The Big and Little Sister tradition continues.

Brittanny Taylor, Photographer blazar design studio, Designer

Sarah Baldwin, Writer

Glenn Osmundson P’12, Additional Photography

Top Row: Ruby Ream ’28, Maddie Murton ’30, Juniper McKenna ’28

Bottom Row: Penelope Abiade-Ritter ’33, Anna Hottenstein ’33, and Vivian Coulombe ’33, Hania Szczerba ’30, and Tulsi Patel ’28

©2023 Lincoln School. All rights reserved. Please send change of address to advancement@lincolnschool.orgq

Courtney Boghosian ’23, who has committed to continue her athletic career and compete as a swimmer at Holy Cross, a Division I school next fall, practices her butterfly stroke.

Letter from the Head

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about journeys.

At Lincoln, we are proud of both our purposefully small size and our impressively broad offerings—one of which is Global Programs. By the time you receive this issue of our new magazine, I will be on March Break with Lincoln students and faculty in Morocco. There, in addition to visiting Marrakech, we will be working with—and learning from—Moroccan women at a women-owned cooperative in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains while staying with Moroccan families. This opportunity for cultural immersion and exchange, as well as exposure to geopolitics and economics, reflects Lincoln’s commitment to educating citizens of the world.

One of our school’s greatest assets is its vibrant alumnae network. The easing of the

COVID crisis has enabled me to resume traveling to meet with its members and see how a Lincoln education has served them. As I get to know these women, I am struck again and again by the diversity of their life journeys and the multitude of ways to define success.

And speaking of alumnae, Reunion Weekend this May will be here before we know it. While every reunion is exciting, this weekend will be especially meaningful for me as I celebrate my 35th. I invite all former students from class years ending in 3 or 8 to journey back to campus to celebrate the passion, purpose, creativity, and boldness that make us uniquely Lincoln.

Onward Together,

Sophie Glenn Lau ’88, Head of School

Seniors at Lumina

Butler Avenue Bulletin

ACCOLADES

After prevailing in the 16th round of the R.I. Senior Mock Trial Tournament in January, Lincoln’s Mock Trial players faced the quarter finals in February–their biggest match in a decade! They garnered high praise from the judges for their season. The Debate Team again proved that students find their voices at Lincoln: one team came in 5th out of 25, while a Lincoln-Smithfield pair came in 6th in the varsity competition.

INNOVATION

An abstract self-portrait based on the prompt “memory” by Sophie McCarthy ’24 has won a place in the highly competitive Emerging Young Artists 2023 Juried Exhibition, hosted annually by the College of Visual and Performing Arts at UMass Dartmouth. Her piece is one of 120 selected from almost 600 submissions.

This winter, girls in grades 5-8 have had their curiosity sparked by the STEAM department’s fun and innovative STEAMx Spark series of hands-on workshops, each of which focuses on a different element of STEAM. In the engineering workshop, students explored a range of topics, including the role data plays in their favorite apps and the intersection of math and nature. And their hands were as busy as their brains: they built a robotic arm, a rubber-band-powered helicopter, a cardboard catapult, and even a light bulb.

TALENT

The sounds of music filled the Ebner, Elson, Hart Music Center during January’s All-school Winter Concert. Students of all ages showcased their talent and creativity in a range of musical modes, from the Lower School chorus, to the Middle School ukulele and handchime players, to the Upper School handbell players, chamber ensemble, and Lambrequins. And did we mention the event included not one but four rock bands? It was an evening of “note!”

The varsity swim team swam with one goal in mind this season, winning a championship and raising a banner in the Boss Gym. The team clinched the DII Championship by edging out rivals including Narragansett, Classical High School, and Moses Brown. Many swimmers beat their top times and 9 swimmers qualified for States.

SOCIAL JUSTICE

In January, Lincoln held Morgan Stone Week , an annual commemoration of Morgan Stone ’00, who passed away in her freshman year at college. A founding member of 2B1 , a club focused on combating racial injustice , Morgan was dedicated to racial equity. The student-organized, event-filled week is an annual renewal of Lincoln’s commitment to creating a community of learners who celebrate diversity, inspire service, and foster peace . This year’s keynote speaker was Dr. Silas Otniel Rodrigues Pinto , inaugural director of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging for the City of Providence.

Leading

Ana Sofia De Brito ’08

“

When you grow up as an immigrant who’s trying to make it in this country, you’ve got three options: be a business person, a lawyer, or a doctor,” said Cape Verde native Ana Sofia De Brito ’08. “From a young age, to be successful, I thought I had to be a doctor.”

That was the plan when De Brito, who immigrated to the United States at the age of 6, came to Lincoln as a sophomore. And it was still the plan when she attended Dartmouth College, where she took mostly premed courses.

But then she began to delve into what she calls “the dark side” of the history of medicine

in this country (a history that includes grave mistreatment of people of color). Her research, coupled with a strong sense of social justice and the belief in a holistic approach to health care, caused De Brito to change course.

“Seeing the patient as a whole person as opposed to an illness really made me rethink going into medicine,” she said.

Rather than apply to medical school, De Brito interned in a maternity ward in Cape Verde, where she worked with a doctor but spent time with midwives. The experience, she said, introduced her to a model of “how to be with

A snapshot of a Lincoln alumna at the top of her game

birth” that resonated with her. It’s a model that “treats birth as something that happens, not necessarily something you have to fix. That was revolutionary,” she said.

De Brito decided to attend Yale School of Nursing, the oldest graduate-entry program in the country training people as nurse practitioners and nurse midwives. When she graduated, as a certified nurse midwife (CNM), she joined a long tradition of Black and Indigenous women who had for centuries been “thinking about a birthing person as a whole human being.”

She was entering a family tradition as well

as a professional one: both of De Brito’s grandparents were traveling nurses in Cape Verde, and her grandmother was one of the island nation’s few medically trained midwives. That tradition came full circle during De Brito’s work as a CNM at the Brockton Neighborhood Health Center, where she began to fulfill her goal of working in and for a community.

De Brito, who speaks Portuguese, Portuguese Creole, and Spanish in addition to English, was amazed to discover she was taking care of people whom her grandparents had “laid their hands on first” back in Cape Verde. “Your grandmother helped me have my baby,” several women told her.

Though De Brito loved the work, in 2021

Elisabeth Howard, PhD, recruited her to Women & Infants’ Hospital in Providence, where she directs the Academic Midwifery Service. The program is one of few in the country that integrates nurse midwives into resident education; De Brito and her colleagues provide educational support to residents in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

“You could say our ‘patients’ are the residents,” De Brito said. “We mentor them from year one through graduation and show them the midwifery model of care. We teach the basics of ob-gyn, from catching babies to shoulder dystocias to suturing. And we help them understand that although they’re doing this every day, the person having the baby has probably never done this before.”

Although she was there for only three years, De Brito considers Lincoln “the best educational experience of my life.” She intends to pursue her education with a doctorate in public health. Her main academic interests are trauma-informed care and anti-racism work in ob-gyn—an interest that was sparked at Lincoln, where she was very involved in 2B1, the student group started by Morgan Stone ’00.

Meet a multimedia artist and deep thinker

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT

Zosia Rosler ’23

Realized she was an artist: In sixth grade, when I came to Lincoln. My advisor was the Middle School art teacher, so I took the art elective. I’ve been taking art courses ever since—ceramics, oil painting, life drawing. I’m designing an outfit for STYLEWEEK Northeast, too!

Non-art course she’s enjoyed: Philosophy. It was a discussion-based class, which I loved. We could talk about anything, from God to Taylor Swift. It inspired a lot of thoughtfulness and introspection.

Type of friend she is: Loyal.

Type of friends she has at Lincoln: Nice, caring. Pretty much everyone at Lincoln is genuine to a degree you don’t find at a lot of coed schools. It’s a close, intimate community.

Something surprising about her: I love to play Dungeons & Dragons.

Loves Lincoln: Because of the small classes, amazing options, and teachers who are committed to helping students learn.

Advice to someone starting at Lincoln: Try new things! Have fun and learn new skills. There are so many cool classes. Try philosophy or handbells. And join clubs for fun, not just because they look good on college applications!

HANDS On with RUth Marris-Macaulay

A look at Lincoln’s signature approach to active learning

On a sunny day last October, 18 students traveled to the Murray Family Athletic Complex at Faxon Farm in Rehoboth and started digging in the dirt. This was no random treasure hunt, however. The juniors and seniors were applying the excavation skills they’d acquired in Ruth Marris-Macaulay’s history elective, Art & Archaeology of the Ancient World. Latin teacher Hazzard Bagg, who has excavation experience from his days at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, joined them.

Before a single shovel went in the dirt, though, Marris-Macaulay and her students researched the history of the place, a 1779 farmhouse built near the site of an even older dwelling. Town records revealed that the houses had been lived in by some of Rehoboth’s founding families. They also learned that in the 1700s, people mostly threw their trash out the back door. MarrisMacaulay sited two test pits accordingly, and the students unearthed nails, bones, even horse teeth.

“We found a tiny piece of English transferware,” Marris-Macaulay said. “We researched it and were able to find the exact pattern and plate size, and the company that made it.”

Over a picnic lunch that day, students shared what they most enjoyed about the course.

“Digging is exciting,” one girl said. “I felt at one with the world—part of now and the future and the past.” Others appreciated the collaborative aspect of the work; several said they liked using both their hands and their brain.

Their final projects were as varied and engaging as they were rigorously researched and produced, ranging from papers to podcasts, posters to museum exhibits.

In The Golden City, a podcast about the 2020 discovery of a 3400-year-old city at Luxor, Egypt, Andy McEnroe ’23 enthused, “While normal people would rather think about anything else than the dregs of everyday life, there is this rare strain of people called ‘archaeologists’ who study the routine for a living. And they are determined to make you just as interested in it. I am their propaganda tool!”

A self-described “dirt archeologist,” MarrisMacaulay trained in England with Sir Barry Cunliffe, one of Britain’s preeminent archeologists. She spent much of the late ’60s and early ’70s on digs, and even graced the cover of the first issue of Current Archeology

History department head for 31 years, MarrisMacaulay will retire at the end of this semester after teaching history for 34 years and the archeology elective for the past five. She’ll be plenty busy, though, as she transcribes the handwritten diaries of a 19th-century resident of Warren, RI, who sailed to Crimea at 15 before joining the California Gold Rush.

“A lot can be learned about the past from material culture,” she said. “Learning how to read and interpret things you can touch and feel is a different skill from researching and writing.”

Now & Later

Anabel Schiller ’24 + Stephanie Jones Landvater ’73

Lincoln students and alumnae with a shared purpose or passion

Orthopedic surgery is the least female of all medical specialties: women make up barely 10 percent of surgeons. One way to grow that number is through pipeline programs.

Anabel Schiller ’24 is attempting to do just that.

Last summer Schiller and her father, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon, conceived of an afterschool program at Lincoln that would expose girls to “real-world challenges” from the field, from scoliosis to bone fractures. Key to their idea was opening it up to girls from other schools in the community who might not have access to such a program. They presented their concept to John Diego Arango, director of the STEAM program, and to Sophie Glenn Lau ’88, head of school. Both loved it.

The result is Orthopedics in Action at Lincoln School. It’s built on a curriculum designed by the

Perry Initiative, an organization that aims to inspire young women to enter the fields of orthopedic surgery and engineering, and made possible in part thanks to a partnership with University Orthopedics, where Schiller’s father works.

This spring semester, 14 Lincoln students and four students from Providence’s Met School are gaining hands-on know-how from female medical students and University Orthopedics surgeons. The course comprises eight standalone lessons, complete with kits containing tools and 3D-printed bones.

Stephanie Jones Landvater ’73, who recently retired after a career as an orthopedic surgeon, believes the girls are in for a treat: “Orthopedics is fun!” she said.

While her excellent hand-eye coordination made for remarkable surgical skills, being one

of the only women in her profession was hard. At conferences, she was sometimes mistaken for the model on whom orthopedists would demonstrate different casts.

“I definitely paid my dues,” she said. “It was a rough road, but I just kept going. Having grown up with six brothers helped!”

Landvater, who was raised with 10 siblings (her sister is Lisa Jones ’76), recalled timing herself as she set the table for 13 people: “I always wanted to be better, faster, more precise,” she said. “I got really good at grabbing the right number of napkins from the stack every single time.”

Like Schiller, Landvater was also the daughter of a doctor—renowned thoracic surgeon Dr. Leland Jones, who performed the first successful open-heart operation in New England, in 1955. He never pressured her to go into medicine, however, and after coming to Lincoln in her junior year, Landvater spent more time on the gymnastics mat and the playing fields than in the science classroom. “I was on any team you could get on,” she said, but gymnastics was her thing. She became Rhode Island champion and was nationally ranked.

the Lincoln community, which she said is more supportive than any school she’s attended: “I’m never afraid to ask questions.”

The course is a trial run, but with freshmen and sophomores taking part, Schiller is confident there will be students to keep it going after she graduates. She also hopes that more girls from the Met School and other schools in the Providence area will continue to enroll.

When a vaulting injury led her to the office of Dr. Lyle Micheli, a spine surgeon at Boston Children’s Hospital, Landvater developed an interest in the profession. Dr. Micheli became an important mentor.

Schiller credits her father with helping her make the program happen. She also credits

Though she hasn’t decided on surgery, Schiller said she’s always been interested in science and is very open to a career in medicine. Whether it’s a question of gender or race, she said, “it’s important to see people [in orthopedics] who look like you, so you can believe this is a career you can pursue.”

It’s important to see people [in orthopedics] who look like you, so you can believe this is a career you can pursue.

Friends

Megan Hallan ’00

When Megan Hallan ’00 married Alberto Cornelio Rivera in Oaxaca, Mexico, last November, the food was Mexican, the music was a mix, and the flavor was distinctly Lincoln.

Not only did Sarah Conde ’00 officiate in English (the ceremony was in English and Spanish), but Jane Finn-Foley ’00 and Liza Aguiar ’00 served as bridesmaids. So did Katie Weisberg, whom Hallan met at Lincoln but who finished school

elsewhere, and Jessica Weaver ’00 Bronwyn Roberts Preston ’00 and Emily Vander Does ’00 were in attendance, as were the parents of some of Hallan’s classmates. Although they were unable to attend, Leticia Buonanno Burman ’00 and Molly Jacobs Robertson ’00 were there in spirit!

“Some of my husband’s friends were in the wedding too. They’re friends he’s had a long

time, but I’ve known some of mine since kindergarten and first grade. That impresses him,” Hallan noted. “Alberto loves my friends— they’re like our family.”

The bride walked down the aisle to the tune of “Simple Gifts,” and the three-day celebration also featured marimbas and mariachi bands. Guests took part in a calenda, a traditional Oaxacan parade through the town. The couple and their family members also constructed an ofrenda, or offering, an altar connected with Día de los Muertos commemorating departed loved ones. Part of the ofrenda was in memory of classmate Morgan Stone ’00

Family connections to Lincoln run deep for the recent bride. Her paternal grandfather was beloved choir director T. James Hallan Sr., who founded the Lambrequins. Her mother, Dorothea “Doro” Hallan, taught second grade there for 38 years. After a post-college stint in marketing and fundraising, Hallan returned to school and became a teacher herself, in Harlem and later in the South Bronx. She now works at the American School Foundation, a private school in Mexico City. Like Lincoln, the school dates back to the 19th century. Unlike Lincoln, “it’s huge.” Hallan is one of seven third-grade teachers.

“One of the things I loved about Lincoln was how small it was. I miss that sense of community,” she said. “Obviously, it’s where I found my people.”

Legacy

Alumnae reflections on a Lincoln education

Lydia Edes Jewell ’46

Intrepid sailor, mother, grandmother, native of Massachusetts and a happy resident of Southern California for 65 years, circumnavigated the globe from 1953 until 1955, after graduating from Wellesley College in 1950.

“I never saw any grade but an A until I got to Lincoln—and then it all went downhill!

I came as a boarder in my junior year. The standards were so much higher than in the public school system in Plymouth, MA, where I’d come from. I guess I’d been running on raw intelligence until then.

Miss Cole, the headmistress, knew I was struggling. (I’m pretty sure she knew exactly how every student was doing.) She took me aside and told me gently but firmly that every night after dinner, instead of going up to our rooms to study, I was to go to the chemistry lab by myself. I spent a couple hours there every night that first year and finally learned to settle down and concentrate.

Then, when I got to Wellesley, if I had a pile of reading I’d head right for the library stacks and study there. Miss Cole’s lesson got me through Lincoln, through college, and through my life ever since. It’s the greatest thing anyone ever did for me.

The best teachers I had were Miss Gifford, who taught science, and Betty Giangreco, former History Department Head. They were priceless people. Betty really lit a fire under me. It’s not that she taught me to love history. It’s the way she ran her classes that made me want to do more and do better.”

Lambrequins performing at the winter concert.

301 Butler Ave.

Members of the Class of 1981 hanging out on the front lawn; photo taken in 1979.