Roxbury Latin Newsletter: Spring 2019 by Marcus Miller

T HE N EWS LET TER

SPR ING 2019

Penn Fellows Are Equal Parts Teachers and Learners

headmaster

Kerry P. Brennan assistant headmaster

Michael T. Pojman director of external relations

Erin E. Berg director of development

Thomas R. Guden ’96 photography

Gretchen Ertl, John Gillooly, Mike Pojman, Adam Richins, Evan Scales, John Werner design & editorial

Erin E. Berg Marcus C. Miller the newsletter

The Roxbury Latin School publishes The Newsletter quarterly for alumni, current and former parents, and friends of the school. contact information

The Roxbury Latin School 101 St. Theresa Avenue West Roxbury, MA 02132 Phone: 617-325-4920 change of address?

Send updated information to julie.garvey@roxburylatin.org. alumni news

Send notes and correspondence to alumni@roxburylatin.org. cover photo

The Newsletter

Senior Will Greer (right) is saluted by his teammates after hitting a grand slam— cementing a 7–0 victory over Brooks during Reunion Weekend on May 4. Photo by Evan Scales

SPRING 2019 | VOLUME 92 | NUMBER 3

Contents 4

Does Practice Make Perfect? Is Perfection Even the Goal? | Headmaster Kerry P. Brennan opens the spring term.

Who am I? Whose am I? Who am I called to be? | Dr. Yohuru Williams is this year’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Hall Speaker

A Grit and Growth Mindset | A Q&A with Head Basketball Coach Sean Spellman ’08

More Than a Master’s Program | Penn Fellows are Equal Parts Learning and Teaching

Exelauno Day 2019

Departments 12

RL News

Arts News

Class Notes

Alumni Gatherings

In Memoriam

Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Ernesto Guerra

Varsity Teams

Practice Make Perfect? Does

(is perfection even the goal?)

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hen I was 8 or 9, I remember my mother telling a friend that my pediatrician had been practicing medicine for over 20 years. I was puzzled by this revelation, and admittedly a little concerned. You see, I had heard something about practicing before: For example, I was encouraged to practice the piano. I prided myself on practicing my lay-ups and free throws in basketball. I knew that I practiced the piano and playing basketball because I wasn’t yet very good at either. This conflation of two different situations caused me to ask my mother, with some concern, “Did you say something about Dr. Marting practicing medicine? Why are you taking me to someone who needs to practice medicine? Shouldn’t I be going to someone who already knows it?” I expect you occasionally hear that “Practice makes perfect”—a seemingly innocuous statement, one that I’ll bet everyone in the room feels he or she understands. Today, with a little help from my friends*, I intend to explore this seemingly incontrovertible statement, and challenge our assumptions about what it means, or if it’s valid. My example of the pediatrician “practicing medicine” was intended to remind us that there are a few ways to interpret the term practice, taken as most words we know are from the Latin practicus, related to practical, and the Greek praktikos meaning to pass through or over, to experience, transact, negotiate. These origins suggest a certain amount of malleability in how the word practice has come to be. For doctors and lawyers and even teachers the “practicing” they do has to do with the actual application of knowledge as opposed to the mere possession of knowledge. In the use of “practice” concerning these professions there is also implicitly a suggestion of repeated or customary action. In the phrase with which I started, however, “Practice makes perfect,” there is another implication—one that my 8-year-old self understood—which has to do almost exclusively with repetition and reassessment. Whether

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I was practicing piano, or organ, or trombone, or foul shooting, or my handwriting (!), what I understood practice to be was a repetitive action leading to getting better at something. For many of us who study an instrument, for example, there is plenty of work associated with practicing. In too many circumstances, a rudimentary teacher requires us to spend what would seem to be an inordinate amount of time playing scales, arpeggios, and the like before we get the bonus of actually learning a piece. Over time, the pieces begin to occupy more of the time, but the scales and arpeggios continue. What one learns from the act of practicing is that to get good at anything requires plenty of work. This work is often airless and punishing. It’s repetitive and dull. But if done right, the “work” of practicing becomes less arduous because we get better at it. We get more fluid and physically coordinated. In the case of playing piano, our hands and our head become better connected. It takes a leap of faith to imagine that the hard work will pay off. Sometimes we have to fool ourselves into practicing—to make a game of it. I lived across the street from a playground (a schoolboy’s dream!). Almost every evening I would shoot baskets. It didn’t matter much if others were there and wanted to play; I ended every session with a certain ritual involving right lay-up, center lay-up, left lay-up and reverse ten times without missing or I would have to start it all again. And then there were ten foul shots that had to be made in a row, 50 all told. I couldn’t leave until I had achieved these self-imposed rigors. Often the streetlights came on and my mother was calling me home before I had achieved my basic workout, my practice. It’s fair to say that the goal for any passion—athletic, academic, artistic, personal—should not be to become perfect at it. The goal should be to improve, to get better, to pursue excellence. Several of my friends—students and colleagues—will generously share their own responses to the “practice makes perfect” prompt. In their testimonials you will hear much that is similar—a deep commitment to their work, for example. But you will also hear variations on how the improvement is realized. What are your rituals? How do you get psyched to put in the time? Where does the discipline come from? How can one endure the deferred gratification that is implicit in all this? Where does criticism come from—internally or from revered mentors or various audiences? How can one measure success?

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How much practice is enough? Most practitioners commit themselves to regular, extensive work at their craft. How much, though, is necessary to get really good, to become a master? Malcolm Gladwell, a wellknown commentator on the current human condition, offered his assessment of what it takes in his book Outliers. Citing extensive research, he asserts that a certain level of elite performance is realized once an individual has committed 10,000 hours of practice to his or her particular passion. “The emerging picture from studies is that ten thousand hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert—in anything,” writes the neurologist Daniel Levitin. “In study after study— of composers, basketball players, fiction writers, ice skaters, concert pianists, chess players, master criminals—this number comes up again and again. Of course, this doesn’t address why some people get more out of their practice sessions than others do. But no one has yet found a case in which true world-class expertise was accomplished in less time. It seems that it takes the brain this long to assimilate all that it needs to know to achieve true mastery.” “The striking thing about [this] study,” Gladwell writes “is that Ericsson and his colleagues couldn’t find any ‘naturals,’ musicians who floated effortlessly to the top while practicing a fraction of the time their peers did. Nor could they find any ‘grinds,’ people who worked harder than everyone else, yet just didn’t have what it takes to break the top ranks. Their research suggests that once a musician has enough ability to get into the top music school, the thing that distinguishes one performer from another is how hard he or she works. That’s it. And what’s more, the people at the very top don’t work just harder or even much harder than everyone else. They work much, much harder.”

Failure Is A Great Teacher We have talked often both about the need to seek help in any number of situations, and we have consistently underscored the value of failure. Developing humility is not a bad thing, and we often learn a great deal from instances in which we have failed. For example, imagine the poor character of whom

“Too often we shy away from challenges, and even potentially great joys, because we are convinced we won’t be excellent, or certainly not the best. As we know from the way we operate in our school, all kinds of contributors are necessary for a class, a play, a chorus, a team to fly. Each of us has something distinctive to offer... Be wary of many external markers of your worth. Be your own best critic. Measure yourself by your own standards... And go for it.”

I speak: Defeated for his state legislature, failed in business, two years later his girlfriend died; a year later he had a nervous breakdown; two years later he was defeated to be speaker of his state legislature, and five years later he was defeated for his party’s nomination for Congress; three years later he was elected to Congress, but chose not to run for a second term according to the philosophy of his party; six years later he was defeated for the U.S. Senate, and two years after that he was defeated for the nomination for vice president; two years after that he was again defeated for the U.S. Senate. (This was in 1858.) Two years later, in 1860, he was elected President of the United States. This man, as you might have guessed by now, was Abraham Lincoln. Did Lincoln learn anything from all this adversity? For sure he did. And he ended up being the United States’ most admired President. The best among us have often been shaped and burnished thanks to plenty of disappointments, the gut check and analysis that comes with defeats, and the grit that propels one to give it another try. You might know that the greatest basketball player ever to play the game (apologies Clevelanders, but that’s Michael Jordan) was cut from his high school varsity squad in both his freshman and sophomore years. He grew up, got stronger, and learned from his disappointments. In his case, it also turned out all right.

Don’t Let Perfection be the Enemy of Good In many cases, what was begun when someone was younger, smaller, more naïve persists throughout one’s life. The work, the focus, the incipient passion flowers fully as one gets older. Usually, the foundational elements of what one has learned and practiced become important habits—not just the habits of a particular passion, but the habits of trying hard, committing, benefitting from feedback, continuing to find challenges, and discovering new outlets for expression that inspire us anew. I thank my friends for their willingness to disclose important, personal, aspects of who they are, and, especially, how they practice in order not to achieve perfection, but to improve, and to know the satisfaction and joy of doing something really well. Over time much of what these boys and our

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teachers have described informs their relationships with others as they participate on teams, as part of ensembles, and in other settings where the team benefits from the good work of individuals; we often find important new partners for our efforts. Each of us is capable of great things. We may not always concede this is true. We have bad days. We have unproductive stretches. We have failed attempts. We become discouraged. We wonder if all the work is worth it. When we have these doubts, when we feel like throwing in the towel and receding into easy mediocrity, I want you to access a deep wellspring of support that is within you. I want you to resort to common techniques—repetition, imitation, routine—a muscle memory established often over many years. I want you to seek out role models—paragons of the passion you’re pursuing—great artists, athletes, scholars, people. I want you to study them and discover how they’ve gotten to be so good at what they do and, especially, what makes them distinctive—not just another high scoring hockey player but someone with flair, with personality, with style. I want you to hold close a sense of the ideal and strive for it. I want you to rely on your own judgments, and to tolerate and pursue self-criticism. I want you to take on new challenges. I want you to take on harder tasks. I want you to befriend more accomplished colleagues. Finally, I want to be sure that none of us lets the perfect be the enemy of the good. Too often we shy away from challenges, and even potentially great joys, because we are convinced we won’t be excellent, or certainly not the best. As we know from the way we operate in our school, all kinds of contributors are necessary for a class, a play, a chorus, a team to fly. Each of us has something distinctive to offer. And that remains true and inherently valued regardless of whether someone is the best or even just excellent. Be wary of many external markers of your worth: the SAT scores, the college admission, the place on the all-star team, the lead in the play, the solo in the concert, the A+ in the class. Be your own best critic. Measure yourself by your own standards and appropriate, but achievable, goals. And go for it. Each of us stands ready for you to be the best you can be, to pursue your passion, to know the satisfaction of getting really good at one thing even as you are already quite good at many. And always remember, regardless of some admirable standard, that whatever you do is plenty good enough. //

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Our Friends’ Passionate Pursuits *Reflections from faculty and students, on improving at their various passions (Editor’s note: The following are excerpted remarks).

On Teaching

Daniel Bettendorf, Mathematics and English Faculty “Teaching is really all about learning: If my students aren’t learning, can I really claim to be teaching? For me, this principle dictates that I try always to keep learning, because understanding how people learn means I need to be learning, too. Whether it’s struggling with French, practicing the piano, or taking up bridge, I try to stay in good form as a learner. I’m also always learning from other teachers. You might think I would be embarrassed to admit to borrowing my best material, but I subscribe to C.S. Lewis’s maxim that no man who seeks to be original will ever be so. My goal is to do the best I can to teach the material to that group of students, and the uniqueness of each of us—teacher and student—will make it new.”

On Watercolor Painting Jim Ryan, Spanish and Art Faculty “People ask me if I paint in other media besides watercolor, and I always say, ‘No, because I haven’t finished with watercolor yet.’ I fell in love with watercolor when I was 16. I had no experience, no formal training. I quickly reached a ceiling and got frustrated that I wasn’t progressing. As providence would have it, I was connected with an artist from whom I took weekly lessons for three years. It was humbling to watch a ‘master’ at work, and I learned so much from him by asking countless questions, by parroting him, by following him step-by-step. What I realized later was that I was internalizing lessons, approaches, strategies that helped me produce my own paintings with confidence. One of his pieces of wisdom was to ask myself, ‘What made me stop and look at this? What captured my eye about this scene?’ And then to focus on that and paint my response. I’ve had

the most success as a painter when I have stayed true to that wisdom and surrendered myself to the medium, indulging my passion for watercolor and letting the excitement of creating dispel the fear of failure.”

On Playing the Cello Eric Zaks, Class I

“I started taking cello lessons when I was four years old. Over the years I have put more time into my instrument than any other single thing. Over the course of learning a piece, I will spend hours tuning the same chords and repeating the same passages. Repetition is an unavoidable aspect of improving at any task, but repetition means nothing if you cannot tell what you are doing wrong. What distinguishes great musicians from ordinary ones is their ability to observe their own playing and understand what they can do better. Being able to listen closely and implement changes quickly is crucial. Every musician strives for perfection, but this goal is impossible to achieve. You could play every note exactly in tune but feel unsatisfied with a performance. A musician plays a piece the way he or she wants it to sound, and there is always something that can be changed.”

On Making Art Erik Zou, Class I

“When I was younger, I worked on my artistic skills by repetition—by drawing whenever I had the chance. But at a certain point, I wanted to bring myself to a higher level of artmaking. I began to observe my own art and other art more seriously. I began to criticize my own art more. When I visited museums or galleries, I studied the artwork and compared it to my own pieces, discovering new approaches that I could apply. Since creating art is very personal and involves contemplation and deep thought, examining yourself and your work can elevate your artwork to a new level of sophistication. One cannot improve with mindless repetition. Analyzing and criticizing your own work, and then implementing changes, is the way to improve. Although I know I’ll never be ‘perfect’ at art, creating something that illustrates my state of mind or my worldview is fulfilling. When I finish a work,

I’m even more excited to know that I can approach my next work differently and experiment with ways in which to improve my skills and express myself in new and better ways.”

On Pole Vaulting Milan Rosen, Class I “The more you practice, the better you get, but you have to practice the right way. If you do something the wrong way 1,000 times, you’ll only be able to do the wrong action really well. The need to practice well is especially relevant in pole vaulting, one of the world’s most technique-oriented sports. Natural athleticism alone doesn’t get you very far. A million different, little, technique-based elements go into a perfect vault, and they are crammed into a 5-second period. In order to succeed, you need to break the complicated process down. When I first started pole vaulting, my coach didn’t let me jump onto the mat for the first month. Once I started to jump up, it was another month before I was allowed to try to swing up, another few months after that before I started to turn, and then about four months more before going over an actual bar. I hated my coach at times, and was at times bored out of my mind, but now I don’t have to focus on those little things I spent so much time practicing. Starting small, and building up slowly, gives you the necessary foundation. Now, four years later, I still follow the same process in order to improve.”

On Shooting Free Throws

James Henshon, Class VI

“When I watch basketball on TV, I’m always surprised when a player misses a free throw. They are supposed to be ‘free’ right? But, when I am the one in a clutch situation, too often I miss. Though shooting 100% on free throws might not be possible, the only way to improve your percentage is to practice a lot. You have to practice until the proper motion is completely muscle memory. This means repetition and more repetition. Dribble, dribble, spin, focus on where the rim meets the backboard, dribble once more, shoot. Doing this thousands and thousands of times is the only way to improve my chances in those clutch moments.”

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On Playing Tennis

Walker Oberg, Class III “I play tennis knowing that I will never play a perfect match, and I am in good company. Even Roger Federer, with twenty grand slam titles, loses about 20% of the time. In what many people consider his greatest victory—the 2008 Wimbledon championship against Rafael Nadal—he won fewer total points than Rafa did, 204 to 209! And although he loses 20% of the time, he uses these losses to learn and improve, which enables him to win 80% of the time. Repeatedly accepting and learning from failure is the fastest way to improve. For me, giving 100% effort in practice, and learning from failure in matches, are the most important steps. Sometimes I experience success, but mostly I continue to practice, learn, and improve. The best part about tennis for me is that I practice and play only as much as I want—no more, no less. If I was focused only on tennis and had no other demands on my time, tennis would become a job. There’s a fine line between a passion and a job. Passions inspire us to keep practicing and improving even when we are staring failure in the eye, because we are choosing to pursue them. If you’re like me, and your passion only lets you succeed half the time or less, know that you, like me, should be perfectly fine being imperfect.”

On Fly Fishing Phil Kokotailo, Dean of Faculty, English Department Chair “In fly fishing, practice does indeed make perfect, but perfection doesn’t equal success. Effective technique has more to do with rhythm and sensitivity than with strength and power. You have to cast the fly so that it lands naturally on the surface of the water. If you thrash the water with the line, the trout will be startled and dart away. Many times, while fly fishing, I know that I have made a perfect cast, but no trout has risen to the fly. ‘How can that be?’ I’ve said in frustration. ‘That cast was perfect! It deserves a trout!’ But the trout, unlike the cast, is out of my control. Perhaps it wasn’t hungry; perhaps it wasn’t there. Either way, the magical moment didn’t happen, when a camouflaged trout rises unseen until the last second and breaks the surface

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of the water, occasionally propelled by its strike into the air above, its colors reflected in the light for just an instant. There’s a difference, then, between perfection and success. Perfection depends on you and your willingness to practice. Success depends on something else and its own needs and desires. Perfection is an accomplishment, but success is magical.”

On Golfing

Max Hutter, Class III “When I entered RL, I knew it would be hard to play a school sport, have time for homework, and find time to practice and compete in golf. I had to be more efficient with my practice time. As a national/international competitor, I am at a disadvantage due to long New England winters. This means I play indoors during the winter, hitting off of turf mats in a simulator. I have maximized shorter practice sessions by setting swing-focused goals that are smaller and very specific. At each practice, I use videos of my swing to help me adjust and refine a precise aspect, like swing plane. It means I am not mindlessly hitting balls on the range, which fits both my schedule and personality. I prefer a game, a drill, a competition—something on which to focus, or I soon become bored. As I have changed my game, and continued to improve, figuring out the optimal practice has become its own goal.”

On Running

Erin Dromgoole, History Faculty,Track and Field Coach

“In pursuing my passion for running over the past 25 years, I’ve learned that an appreciative mindset is a significant factor that drives improvement. This appreciation boils down to appreciating yourself and your body, and appreciating others… Value the people who contribute to your success: the parents who drive you to practice; the coaches who spend hours building a training program for you; the Refectory workers who relieve you of the need to cook and clean up after your meals; the trainers who tape you up; the Buildings & Grounds crew who prepare your playing surface; and especially the opponents who drive you to succeed. Appreciating the work that others do to help you gives

you ‘teammates’ in your pursuit of excellence… Appreciating my rivals’ hard work is one way that I motivate myself. If you don’t truly respect the efforts of your opponents, then you are not doing all that you can to prepare to defeat them. And if you don’t respect your opponents, can you even respect your own victory after the fact?”

On Singing

Rob Opdycke, Director of Music “When I was young, attending church gave me the opportunity to practice sight reading by trying out the alto, tenor, and bass parts on successive verses of hymns. After church on Sundays my brother

and I would hold tennis rackets— pretending they were guitars—and sing along to the harmonyrich songs of the Beach Boys, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, Simon and Garfunkel, and Chicago. In middle and high school, I practiced intentional observation: I would study my conductors, trying to discern the priorities and methods they employed to evoke a good choral sound. Picking up a variety of rehearsal techniques not only provided the essential preparation for the work I do with many of you today, but it also made me a better choral singer—more tuned-in to my part’s contribution to the overall sound. Another practice tool I’ve employed is imitation, which for me was always focused on pop-rock piano men, such as Billy Joel and Elton John. I realized the best way to make use of my modest keyboard skills was in support of my love of singing. Learning to play and sing pop and rock songs was certainly a favorite form of play for me as a teenager, and it also forced me to develop and practice vocal techniques that would stretch my range—adding more tenor to ‘bari-tenor.’”

On Writing Poetry

Kate Stearns, English Faculty and Writer-in-Residence “When I’m working on a new poem, the original gift of creative energy seems to arise spontaneously. It’s energizing and super fun: a process of discovery, of being in the zone.

Language is wonderfully tricky; we can hear and say in it more than we intend to, especially when we attend to it. You always pay close attention to details in anything that really matters, and in poetry those details have to do with things like rhythm and syntax and imagery, things I learned about by reading and imitating. Reading and re-reading, especially, have helped me work out what I want my own tone of voice to sound like, what balance I want to strike between public and private. Every working poet I know has over time created a personal anthology of most influential work. I also have a few good readers, writer-friends who help me see when my words have been faithful to a thought or feeling and when they go awry. How do I know when I get a new poem right? Well, right never means perfect; it only means I understand my intentions more as I explore a fuller response of senses, feeling, thinking. The work takes a certain amount of self-trust that I’ll get there—especially when ‘there’ is what is most real in my heart and mind.”

On Acting

Derek Nelson, Director of Dramatics “In graduate school for theatre, along with all the technical training—voice work, movement, dance improvisation—it really all comes down to scene work. In a way, you do all the practice, all the training, so that you can let go of all that practice and training and just play the scene. No one ever talks about rehearsing a scene until it’s ‘perfect,’ especially since your focus as an actor in a scene is on two things: the other actor/character, and listening. So much of the daily technical training one takes part in feels very focused on oneself: your voice, your physicality, your imagination, your openness. But, then, there you are rehearsing or performing a scene and you are turning all your attention to the other person. You let go of that self-focused ‘practice’ and listen with your ears, body, emotions for what the other actor is giving you. The paradox is: you train and train, practice and practice, so that you can let go of it all and be fully present with the other actor in the scene.”

But there’s also a tension between that gift and re-visioning, where I try to pay close attention to details and leave room for surprises.

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rl news

Mohamad Hafez Unpacks during Hall on Refugees On January 24, MOHAMAD HAFEZ joined students and faculty in the Smith Theater aiming to break down generalizations about refugees— sharing the humanity of these individuals and imploring the boys to look beyond labels and to find what binds us.

Mohamad Hafez

Mr. Hafez is a professional architect, born in Damascus, Syria, and raised in Saudi Arabia. One winter break, as a student in the United States, he found himself unable to return to his home because of the limitations of his Syrian passport. Homesick, he decided that if he couldn’t return home, he would recreate it. Mr. Hafez’s decision formed the foundation of his powerful body of work—art composed of found objects, paint, and scrap metal that depicts the destruction and atrocities of the Syrian civil war and communicates the very personal stories of refugees around the world. In Hall, Mr. Hafez presented several of his installation pieces and introduced the audience to his most recent project titled UNPACKED: Refugee Baggage. The series incorporates actual suitcases refugees used to immigrate to the United States, as well as audio loops of their stories, in their own words, to immerse viewers into their harrowing and hopeful experiences. After Hall, Mr. Hafez spent the morning meeting with students, including those in Mr. Buckley’s Applied Art class and Dr. McCrory’s AP Art History class. Mr. Hafez’s art has been the subject of high acclaim, as part of exhibits profiled by NPR, The New York Times, and The New Yorker. Mr. Hafez is the recipient of a 2018 Connecticut Arts Hero Award for his extensive and continuous body of work on issues such as the Syrian Civil War, the worldwide refugee crisis, and a persistent desire to counter hate speech. He serves as a 2018 Yale University Silliman College Fellow. // Baggage #1 by M. Hafez (photo: Maher Mahmood)

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Alex Myers Doevy Estimphile (I)

Alex Myers discusses Gender Identity, Language, and Expression On January 29, ALEX MYERS spoke to students about gender identity on both a personal and societal level. His presentation was one in a series of guest lectures this year, focused on health and wellness, in a new program for students in Classes I-IV. Born Alice Myers in Paris, Maine, Alex knew from a very young age that despite being raised as a girl, he was, deep down, a boy. Through childhood and through most of his time as a student at Phillips Exeter Academy, he searched for an identity that fit; he clung to the word “tomboy” and entertained the idea of “lesbian,” though he knew these terms weren’t quite right. Finally, as a teenager, Alex met other transgender people, and he gained the courage to come out to the world. He returned for his senior year at Exeter as a boy in 1995. In telling his story, Alex shined a light on the many ways in which our world sorts by gender. Upon returning to Exeter for his senior year, for example, Alex was faced with countless complicated decisions: In which dorm would he live? Which bathrooms would he use? On which sports teams would he play? At the same time, he was going through the process of amending countless government forms, including his birth certificate, passport, and driver’s license. Throughout the process, he was struck by how pervasive gender is in our everyday lives, and just how often we divide ourselves into these two categories: male and female.

RL Wrestlers Earn Second Place in ISL Championship On February 9, members of the varsity wrestling team competed in the prestigious Graves-Kelsey Tournament (the ISL championship tournament), earning a second-place finish from a field of 13 teams. RL’s wrestlers achieved this accomplishment through a collective effort, with 10 of 13 wrestlers placing. DOEVY ESTIMPHILE (I) earned first place in his weight class. Earning second place finishes were seniors MAKOTO KOBAYASHI (captain), LIAM RIMAS, and ERIC ZAKS. Coming in third place in his weight class was MAT CEFAIL (II). Earning fifth-place finishes were senior captains NATE LOPES and ALVIN MASSENAT, and sophomores MIGUEL RINCON and KEATON SAHIN. PETE LEVANGIE (II) placed sixth in his weight class. Led by head coach Josh Wildes, tournament representatives from RL were rounded out by AJ GUTIERREZ (III), DANIEL MCELROY (I), and ELIAS SIMEONOV (I). //

Alex teaches English at Exeter and travels the country sharing his story, and the myths and realities of being transgender. // N e w s l e t t e r o f Th e R o x b u r y L at i n S c h o o l

Andrew Zhang (II), Hari Narayanan (II), and Daniel Berk (III)

Three RL Boys Earn 17 Scholastic Writing Awards Colson Ganthier (III), Theo Teng (IV), Teddy Glaeser (IV), and Avi Attar (II)

Top Public Speaking Honors, and the Googins Cup! On February 10, four Roxbury Latin students traveled to West Hartford, Connecticut, to compete in the Kingswood-Oxford School’s annual public speaking competition. For the fourth year in a row, RL’s contingent returned with the Googins Cup, awarded to the team that places first overall in four categories of competition: Persuasive Speaking, After Dinner Speaking, Impromptu Speaking, and Ethical Dilemmas. The four RL boys came from three different classes: AVI ATTAR from Class II, COLSON GANTHIER from Class III, and TEDDY GLAESER and THEO TENG from Class IV. Each competed in two rounds of two different events, with two boys achieving individual recognition. In Impromptu, Avi placed second, speaking on the topics of “ocean” and “summer jobs.” In Persuasive, Colson placed first with a speech about the importance of second language acquisition, and Avi placed third with a speech about the dangers of cutting weight in wrestling. //

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Each year, the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers, along with more than 100 visual and literary arts organizations across the country, accept submissions from teens in grades 7-12 for their Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. Hundreds of thousands of writing submissions across 11 categories are judged based on originality, technical skill, and the emergence of a personal voice. Regional winners receive a Gold Key and move on to the national competition. This year, Roxbury Latin writers collected 17 medals and honorable mentions in the regional Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. DANIEL BERK (III) received Honorable Mention in the Critical Essay category. ANDREW ZHANG (II) received two Honorable Mentions in Critical Essay as well as a Silver Key in Poetry. HARI NARAYANAN (II) received recognition for 13 out of his 22 submissions across five categories, more individual awards and recognitions than any other individual in the state. Two of Hari’s awards were Gold Keys, making him one of only five juniors in the state to win multiple Gold Keys. Hari’s two winning submissions were in the Journalism and Critical Essay categories. His journalism submission covered a panel of school shooting survivors from Parkland, Florida, at Harvard’s Kennedy School last spring. His critical essay explored the relationship between Gene and Phineas in A Separate Peace. This essay was a selection Hari had originally written for Mr. Randall’s English class in ninth grade. It was the second year Hari had submitted this particular essay; when it did not win any awards last year, Hari worked with Mr. Lawler to refine it—and the work paid off. //

Katie Koestner

Activist Katie Koestner Shares Her Story With RL Boys In 1990, when KATIE KOESTNER told her parents, peers, and college administrators that she had been raped by a fellow classmate, she was met with the following questions: “What were you wearing?” “Well, did he pay for dinner?” “Why did you invite him back to your dorm?” “Are you sure you want to make that accusation? You could ruin his life.” Ms. Koestner heard that she should stay quiet so people would not think of her as “damaged goods.” She was even encouraged by her Dean to get back together with the classmate who raped her since they looked like such a cute couple. Ms. Koestner can take a good deal of credit for a significant shift in mindset, between the responses she received then and what the responses of trusted adults might be today. Before her case nearly 30 years ago, “date rape” was not a recognized concept; rapists were menacing strangers—never known and trusted peers. Ms. Koestner’s activism changed the landscape. Her courage in speaking out about her experience at William

and Mary landed her on the cover of TIME; since then she has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, CNN, Good Morning America, and many other national television programs. She founded the international non-profit Take Back the Night to combat sexual, relationship, and domestic violence in all forms and has spoken all over the world on the topic of sexual violence, women’s safety, and healthy relationships. On February 14, Ms. Koestner addressed Roxbury Latin faculty, staff, and students in Class IV through Class I, as part of a series of presentations dedicated to topics of health and wellness. In the course of recounting her sobering story, Ms. Koestner defined terms and policies surrounding sexual misconduct, explored the concept of consent, and emphasized the importance of bystander engagement. Ms. Koestner asked everyone to imagine his or her own reaction upon witnessing a possibly dangerous situation at a party or bar. She asked, “Would you intervene if you sensed that a friend or stranger was too drunk to be going home with someone else? It could take three minutes to save someone from a dangerous situation and help change the course of that person’s life forever.” So often when it comes to sexual violence, silence can feel like the way out—for victims and for bystanders. It could be the way out of public shame, or strained friendships, or questions like “Why did you invite him back to your dorm?” But ultimately Katie Koestner chose to speak out, and her hope is that others, upon hearing her tell her story, will do the same. //

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Jonathan Weiss (II), David Leach ’09, and Julia Connor

David Leach ’09 and Julia Connor Offer Room to Spare On February 21, the violin and piano duo Room to Spare— DAVID LEACH ’09 and JULIA CONNOR—performed in Rousmaniere Hall as this year’s Daland Concert, established in memory of Andrew Daland ’46. In Hall, the duo performed not only original compositions, but also the world premier of The Strongest Tree Bends in the Wind, a piece written by JONATHAN WEISS (II). Julia and David are graduates of the double degree program at the Oberlin College and Conservatory. David studied there with pianist Dan Wall, legendary drummer Billy Hart, and saxophonist Gary Bartz. In 2013, Downbeat Magazine recognized David as a member of The Little Big Band, named one of the best undergraduate jazz ensembles in the country. He has performed with various jazz and blues groups in New York, Boston, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., as a pianist, composer, and arranger. David currently serves as the music director for Grace Community Boston, where he produces and performs a weekly jazz service. David is also a poet, holding an MFA in creative writing from Boston University, where he studied with former U.S. poet Laureate, Robert Pinsky.

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A violinist, Julia enjoys creating music that blurs the lines between classical, jazz, folk traditions, and free improvisation— performing everything from baroque music on period instruments to new works by living composers. She has collaborated on several recording projects with musicians at the Berklee Global Jazz Institute, and recently joined the faculty of the Intercambio de Musica—a Classical Music exchange program—at the world-renowned Panama Jazz Festival. An advocate for new music and female composers, Julia has commissioned several pieces, including Dana Kaufman’s Scratch the Surface for solo violin, which she premiered at New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall and went on to perform as part of the Hartford Women Composers Festival. Julia holds a master’s degree from the New England Conservatory in Boston. The Andrew Daland ’46 Memorial Concert Fund was established by Andrew’s wife, Pamela Worden, and his family and friends, with the purpose of bringing a musical concert to Roxbury Latin boys each year in Andrew’s memory. Mr. Daland was himself a fine musician. Since the Fund’s establishment, the school has been privileged to hear guitarist Jason Vieaux; the a cappella group Cantus; Elijah Rock; Roxbury Latin’s own, violinist Stefan Jackiw ’03; Yale’s Whiffenpoofs; and last year, iconic singer-songwriter Jonathan Edwards. //

RL, Winsor, and Pine Street Inn: Helping Create Homes On February 24, seniors from Roxbury Latin and The Winsor School teamed up for a joint service initiative in collaboration with the Pine Street Inn, which has been assisting Boston’s homeless population for 50 years. RL’s senior boys hosted their Winsor counterparts for an evening on campus; first students heard from Matt Ferrer of Pine Street Inn in the Evans Choral Room, where Mr. Ferrer presented on the organization’s housing initiatives. Afterward students broke into small groups and spent an hour putting together welcome baskets with home goods that they had been collecting for several weeks prior—items including bedding and cleaning supplies, toiletries and cooking utensils, ironing boards and shower curtains, bath towels and coffee mugs—all things that newly-housed residents could use to set up their new apartments and feel at home. The students collected enough items to fill 30 welcome baskets; they also created cards and posters welcoming residents to their new homes. The evening concluded with dinner in the Bernstein Tea Room. //

Luca Breaks Varsity Hockey Points Record On January 9, JACK LUCA (I) made RL history as the school’s all-time leading hockey scorer with 122 points, surpassing the record set by former teammate JIMMY DUFFY ’18.

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History Students Visit WWII Museum U.S. History students ventured to the International World War II Museum in Natick, where they were able to view — and hold, in many cases — more than 8,000 relics from around the world. //

Columbia SHARP Comes to Campus On January 15, EVAN LIM ’18 returned to campus for a Rousmaniere Hall performance with his Columbia University a cappella group Columbia SHARP. //

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Sixies Make Annual Venture to the Pequot Museum On January 16, as part of their “Roots and Shoots” history course, Sixies and their history teachers embarked on the annual trip to the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center. At the world’s largest museum dedicated to Native Americans, students visited a recreated 17th-century village, viewed artifacts, and read and heard about daily life for the Pequots and their cultural interactions with the Dutch and English in the early 17th century. As a concluding exercise, boys watched the film Witness to a Genocide, which chronicles the massacre of the Pequots in 1637, in which 600 Pequots were killed and the survivors were enslaved. Roxbury Latin’s founder, John Eliot, who arrived in Massachusetts in 1631, preached against the enslavement of Native Americans throughout his time in North America. Sixie history master Erin Dromgoole said the field trip is a worthwhile venture. She noted that “because the Pequot Museum enables the boys to get a visual representation of 17th-century Native life, they are better able to understand the Native American perspective as we begin our study of John Eliot and his missionary work.” //

Building, and Buckling, Bridges In January, Class III students in Robert Moore’s Physics class tested homemade balsa wood bridges in RL’s IDEA Lab. This project culminates a study in statics—structures that are to remain in equilibrium. The bridges are weighed in grams and loaded in pounds until they fail. This year’s top three bridges were designed and built by WILL COTE, ROHIL DHALIWAL, and PETER FRATES. //

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Juuling and Schooling: The Facts from Dr. Jonathan Winickoff ’88 On March 5, Roxbury Latin students, faculty, and staff heard from DR. JON WINICKOFF ’88 on the topic of e-cigarettes. Dr. Winickoff shared worrying information about trends in middle and high schools across the country, but also highlighted the important advocacy surrounding enforcement of the new Tobacco 21 law and banning e-cigarette flavors. Dr. Winickoff’s presentation was part of a series of Halls dedicated to addressing the health and wellness of our boys. Dr. Winickoff is a pediatrician at Mass General Hospital and a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. His research has led to the creation of the Clinical and Community Effort Against Secondhand Smoke Exposure program, now freely available in all 50 states, as well as smoke-free public housing in the city of Boston and the state of Maine. It was his work, too, that facilitated HUD’s successful national effort to make all public housing buildings smoke-free in 2018. During Hall, Dr. Winickoff made clear the health consequences of e-cigarette use in youth under the age of 21, as well as its prevalence. Nearly half of all high school students have tried e-cigarettes, and 25 percent of high school seniors in Massachusetts are regular e-cigarette users. These statistics have health professionals deeply concerned about addiction; 95 percent of adult smokers in the U.S. start before the age of 21. Getting youth to age 21 without cigarette or e-cigarette use is critical, Dr. Winickoff explained, because the risk of becoming addicted to nicotine plummets for first-time smokers after the age of 21. Beyond nicotine dependence, using e-cigarettes raises concern for worsened asthma, increased anxiety, heart disease, and risk of cancer. When Dr. Winickoff asked students to raise their hands if they knew someone who used Juul e-cigarettes, nearly everyone in the Smith Theater put a hand in the air. As he laid out the health risks and statistics surrounding nicotine addiction, that fact became all the more sobering. We are grateful that Dr. Winickoff could return to alma mater to educate us all on this important topic. //

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At RL, Robots Have a Season, Too On March 13, members of RL’s VEX Robotics Club turned the Smith Theater stage into a field of competition to demonstrate its creations. Team captain KALYAN PALEPU (I) took the podium to explain one of RL’s more mysterious team activities. “Each year our season starts when VEX, which is the robotics league we compete in, releases a new competition,” said Kalyan, “which consists of a field...and a set of tasks teams can complete during a match to score points—such as shooting balls or stacking objects.” From December through January, the Robotics Club builds robots from scratch to compete in tournaments across New England.

Honors Bio Projects The culmination of months of investigation into questions of their own interest, seniors in Dr. Hyde’s AP Bio class exhibited their Independent Research Project findings on March 11. //

“We build these entirely by ourselves,” added Kalyan. “There are no instruction manuals...and we write all the code for these ourselves.” During the past four seasons, the team has designed, built, and coded 12 robots, eight of which qualified for the Southern New England Championships, with one advancing to the VEX World Championships. // N e w s l e t t e r o f Th e R o x b u r y L at i n S c h o o l

Who am I? Whose am I? Who am I called to be? Dr. Yohuru Williams poses essential questions as this year’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Hall Speaker.

Last evening, I had dinner with your history teachers Chris Heaton and Tim Kelly, two good friends of mine, and in sitting with them it struck me that so many years removed from our experience at the University of Scranton—a mission-driven, Ignatian Jesuit institution—I could still see the familiar core values we learned there expressing themselves in the lives of these two gentlemen. At the University of Scranton, when we think about Ignatian pedagogy and talk about social justice, we ask ourselves three questions that every great figure in history has had to answer: Who am I? Whose am I? Who am I called to be? The way you answer those questions is a powerful testament to who you are as a person and what you value. In those moments when your life is threatened, or when you’ve failed and don’t think you can go on, you have to go back to those questions and ask yourself, “What’s driving my commitment here?” One of Dr. King’s best books, to me, is Strength to Love. In that book Dr. King recognized that it takes strength to address inequality, and to recognize our shared humanity, and not to vilify or come to hate those with whom we disagree. It takes strength to appreciate that in loving someone, in loving the other, in trying to appreciate people from different cultures, in looking past racial difference, and in celebrating what makes us special as human beings, our shared humanity, we become something better than we could ever hope to be: We become fully human.

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Every Black History Month, when I’m asked to address young people, inevitably someone will stand up and tell you that you stand on the shoulders of giants. I want to be very clear with you today: You do not stand on the shoulders of giants. You are the giants. The secret that no one will share with you—though if you study history it’s very evident—is that the people who have made a difference have been young people who overcame their fear, showed tremendous courage, and in love made a difference because they didn’t fear making a commitment to something that was greater than themselves. We celebrate Martin Luther King for his courage, for his commitment to nonviolence, but many people forget that when the Montgomery Bus Boycott began someone placed a bomb at the King home, and Dr. King bought a pistol. The gentlemen that were protecting the home for Dr. King said, we recognize what this struggle means. We know the history of the South. We know what the consequences for speaking out are. We know how dangerous this is. Only a fool would lead a movement and not be armed. But Bayard Rustin, a prominent member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, said to Dr. King, ‘If you stoop to the tactics of those whom you challenge, you are no better than them. You fight indifference and violence with love, because in so doing you demonstrate to those with whom you disagree your compassion to be infinitely better, and you invite them to do the same.’ I share that with you because Dr. King wasn’t perfect. We

have to get away from talking about people in history as if they were giants—as if they weren’t human beings with feet of clay. In fact, if you read Dr. King’s book, he talks constantly about those moments in which he felt compelled to revisit what was driving his commitment to this movement. One of my favorite stories about Dr. King is something that happened in Harlem in 1959. He’d gone to a bookstore to sign copies of his first book, and a woman suffering from mental illness came up to him as if she wanted to purchase a book; as Dr. King went to sign her book, she jabbed him in the chest with a letter opener. They rushed Dr. King to Harlem Hospital and doctors later told him that if he had as much as sneezed, he would have perished. That evening a parade of people came to Dr. King’s bedside: his wife, Coretta Scott King, his best friend Ralph Abernathy, the governor of New York. There Abernathy said to King, “You know Martin, if you were to walk away at this point, no one would blame you. At this point, if you were to say, ‘I’ve done enough,’ no one would blame you. You have four little kids and a beautiful wife and this incredible gift, and you’ve spent the last six years giving of yourself for this? If you were to walk away, no one would blame you.” Dr. King said, “Ralph, is there still segregation? Is there still inequality? Is there still economic injustice? The mission’s not done. I can’t walk away. I have a responsibility to stay in this fight.” I say that because I think it’s important that when we celebrate Dr. King we recognize that we’re celebrating a man not with any superhuman qualities, but just a fundamental commitment to justice, which we all can manifest. It’s actually not Dr. King that I want to share with you today, but rather Pedro Arrupe. In his meditation on service Arrupe stated that, first and foremost, we all must maintain a basic respect for all people, which forbids us ever to use them as instruments of our own profit. Arrupe said, second, that we need to develop a firm resolve never to profit from or allow ourselves to be suborn by positions of power deriving from privilege, for to do so, even passively, is equivalent to active oppression. To be drugged by the comforts of privilege is to become contributors to injustice as silent beneficiaries of the fruits of injustice. On your school’s documents, gentlemen, it says that with great power, with great privilege, comes great responsibility. But if you’re not meditating on the deeper meaning of those questions

that I’ve posed, you won’t be able to distinguish between what is driving you that is centered on justice, and what is leading you to assume that something is good because it’s good for you.

“The people we celebrate most in history are those who served, who gave of themselves, whose commitment to justice didn’t end, because their moral fiber was rooted in making the world better.” On February 4, 1968, Dr. King delivered his Drum Major speech. In it he said, it’s nice to be important. Everybody wants to be important. The assumption is that when we’re important, people listen to us. I will tell you that it’s great being Dr. Williams some days: people automatically listen to me because I’ve got “Doctor” in front of my name. But if you’re waiting for the moment that you have a title, or a degree, in order to fight injustice, if you’re waiting for that time when people should listen to you because you have the exalted title of boss or teacher or policeman or fireman, you’ve waited too long. We all have the capacity now to stand for what’s right. Our attention has become so diffused by information that we forget we are in the midst of a national Black Lives Matter movement, a national #MeToo movement, a movement against guns, when people are questioning whether we need a minimum wage that meets people’s basic needs. Dr. King spoke

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to every one of those issues in his lifetime—not because Dr. King was better than everybody else, but because Dr. King was committed to social justice. Dr. King wrote: “On some positions, cowardice asks the question, is it safe? Expedience asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? But conscience asks the question, is it right? There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, because conscience tells him it is right.” In the Drum Major Instinct, King riffed on a passage from the New Testament about the apostles debating with Jesus who would have the privilege of sitting on the left and the right hand of the Messiah. Where are we going to sit in Heaven? We’re happy to do your work here, but what’s at the end of this journey, for me? What do I get out of this? Where’s my title? Am I going to get to lead a legion of angels? Will they blow the trumpets for me because I’m special by being close to you? Jesus said, you’re asking the wrong question: Whoever among you shall be great shall be your servant. The people we celebrate most in history are those who served, who gave of themselves, whose commitment to justice didn’t end, because their moral fiber was rooted in making the world better; they understood that when moments come along that challenge what we think we know about our universe, which compel us to think deeply about how those very things create injustice, we be prepared to act. Historian Jason Sokol wrote a book titled There Goes My Everything: White Southerners in the Age of Civil Rights. Sokol has a very simple thesis: White Southerners went to bed in 1945 and the world looked one way—no black people playing baseball, no Jackie Robinson, no Civil Rights plank in the Democratic Party, no national campaign for Civil Rights for African-Americans. Then they woke up and, literally, there goes my everything—everything that I’ve thought about my place in society has come under assault because this group of people who have been denied basic equality are now contesting for full citizenship. Where do you stand when a marginalized group, or when injustice, faces you and you have an opportunity to say, “I recognize it.” Are you the person who says, There goes my everything? Are you the person who says, I’m going to fight

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this? Are you going to be Piers Morgan reacting to the Gillette ad and say, “Why is Gillette talking about toxic masculinity? I just want to cut my beard?” Or are you going to recognize that Gillette is asking us to be better men, because in this moment we are being challenged not to be wedded to the past, but to see the promise of the future, when we can fulfill and live our values to the fullest extent.

“Where you stand and what you do in these spaces will ultimately determine where we are 20 years from now.” People ask, where would Dr. King stand on the #MeToo movement? Dr. King was a womanizer. Notorious. But I submit to you today, if Dr. King lived in our moment and was confronted with this overwhelming evidence about the damaging nature of toxic masculinity in our society, Dr. King would have been a frontline leader of the assault against it. Where would Dr. King stand on the minimum wage debate? In his final book, Where Do We Go from Here, Chaos or Community?, he writes that Civil Rights without economic justice are dead rights. What good is it to have the right to eat in a restaurant if you can’t afford anything on the menu? What good is it to have the right to go to school if you can’t afford tuition? A commitment to justice says, find the way to negate the costs, and in the process help to elevate all. People ask, where would Dr. King be on the question of immigration? It’s not an issue that Dr. King talked about a lot in his lifetime, but I would submit that if you look at what Dr. King said when he went to the Berlin Wall, he would assert that we have a responsibility and a duty to the least of our

brothers, because King consistently asked: What are we doing for those on the margins? Our answers to these questions—Who am I? Whose am I? Who am I called to be?—should always be in relation to those on the margins. We derive much of our sense of who we are from our titles, from where we went to college. I’ll tell you right now, whether you go to Harvard or Williams or Connecticut College, or whether you go to Robinson Community College in Monroe, Louisiana: It’s not where you go, it’s what you do when you get there that distinguishes you. What will define you is not what degree you get, or what you study, or who you study under, or how many books you write. What will define you is what you do with the power and privilege that’s been extended to you. That is what will bring honor to the institution where you studied, what will honor your parents, what will define you for generations to come. That’s why it’s so exciting for me to be here at Roxbury Latin today, because you have a legacy of producing men who do exactly that. But let me be clear: You don’t stand on their shoulders. You stand on your own. John Lewis, a congressman from Georgia, was 15 years old when he got involved in Civil Rights activity. Diane Nash was 15 years old when she got involved in the Civil Rights movement. Stokely Carmichael, who became a prominent member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, was 14 years old when he got involved in the struggle. These individuals were not waiting around for some messiah to uplift them. These people were committed to social justice, and they didn’t allow their age or their lack of a degree to slow them down. Stokely Carmichael dropped out of Harvard University on a full scholarship to go south and register people to vote, because he said otherwise his degree would be meaningless… Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, immigration: Young men, if you study the history of our country, you’ll know that we have been struggling with these issues since its inception. Where you stand and what you do in these spaces will ultimately determine where we are 20 years from now. Hopefully, you can look back and say you were helping to do a little bit more than bend that arc toward justice—hopefully you can say you were tugging on it with all your might.

Cardinal Newman wrote in The Second Spring, “We can’t logically suppose that the work that’s gone before us has been in vain.” Today people constantly believe that they’re reinventing a movement. The Civil Rights movement is unfinished business. The women’s movement is unfinished business. The movement for human dignity is unfinished business. Gentlemen, you have the power, the capacity, the intelligence, the training to be on the frontline in that movement. How are you going to bend your efforts in the next couple of years to do that? The reality is that we each get two sets of gifts: spiritual gifts, which you’re born with and did nothing to earn, and those strengths that you have because you’ve worked at them. If you are committed to justice, to living your values, you’ve bent both your spiritual gifts and those you have to work at in a way that will allow you to make the maximum contribution. I am not a phenomenal writer; in fact, I struggle. Writing is a labor for me, but it’s my way to contribute and stay engaged. Whatever gifts you have, you can contribute right now to this movement, right now to this moment, and that’s all, really, Dr. King’s example asks of us… Let the example of Dr. King liberate you from the fear that you’ve got to be important or “somebody” to make a contribution… If you study the biographies of the people who are helping to shape you, what you’ll quickly discover are lives of service… You have a responsibility to give back, and a life of service, a commitment to social justice, manifests itself not in some distant moment in the future, but right now. Gentlemen, let this be day one in considering yourself in relation to gender equity, racial injustice, economic inequality, because your playing small doesn’t serve anyone. Your recognizing that you can be giants and make a difference helps to elevate us all. //

Dr. Yohuru Williams is the Dean and McQuinn Distinguished Chair of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of St. Thomas. Previously he was a professor of history and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Fairfield University. He also served for many years as chief historian of the Jackie Robinson Foundation. In 2009, Diverse magazine named him a Top 10 Emerging Scholar Under 40. He earned his BS and MA from the University of Scranton and his PhD from Howard University.

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A Grit and Growth Mindset Basketball Head Coach Sean Spellman ’08 emphasizes Mens Sana In Corpore Sano with a 21st-century spin. Interview by Erin E. Berg

Sean Spellman ’08 has basketball in his blood. While a student at Roxbury Latin he played on the varsity team for four years, captaining the team for his senior season. His father was head coach at Framingham State University for 10 years. Sean played a managerial role for the University of Miami team when he was student there, and he played for a stint at Springfield College. After graduating with a degree in sports management, Sean was a member of the MIT basketball staff for three years. As RL’s assistant athletic director, Sean has served as assistant coach to the varsity team for three years, under longtime coach and athletic director Tony Teixeira ’93. Sean is studying now for his master’s in sports leadership at Northeastern University. Having just completed his first year as head coach of RL’s varsity basketball team, Sean talked a bit about the season, his coaching philosophy, and his hopes for the future of RL basketball.

What do you love about basketball? What I love about sports in general is giving kids the ability to learn life lessons through an avenue that they didn’t initially expect that they would. When you can help make those connections for a group of young men or women, you not only create some special relationships, but you also help kids form a strong values system. I understand that it’s all relative; as a 29-year-old man, I know there are more important things in life than a sports competition, but when I was 15 years old, there wasn’t much more important to me than a Friday night basketball game. If, as a coach, you can

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leverage that teenage perspective, and help instill values that are translatable and applicable to other areas of life, you’re doing something important.

At its best, what are some of the life lessons that emerge in sports? Being an effective part of a team is critical. Self-identification and recognition of your own strengths and weaknesses, the opportunity to be vulnerable. Ultimately, sports’ values system as a whole: You learn how to be a good leader, but you also must learn how to be a good follower. Understanding that there are more important things than results, but also understanding that results matter. Most important, I think, is learning to control what you can control, and creating a better understanding of what actually is and is not within your control.

What are you proud of in your first season as head coach? I’m proud of the cohesiveness of the group. We’re in a special place here, with only 300 boys in the school. It allows us to really get to know the students very well. When you then take a subset of that, just 12 guys, you grow really close to those individuals. That closeness can make it easy to connect with each other, but it also means things can go sour pretty quickly. I’m proudest of the fact that every member of this team—guy one through guy 12—felt like he had an important role and purpose on the team. The boys also just liked each other.

Maybe that occurred organically, but I’d like to think it also happened through some of the challenges I put before them.

What do you rely on most as a coach? I spend a lot of time reading and researching. I take a lot of pride in the craft of coaching, so it comes down to a lot of conscious study and, ultimately, the formation of my own coaching philosophy.

Which is what? Essentially, this is my classroom. Especially in a place like RL, I try to take the tenets of what a teacher tries to implement with his or her students and do that with my athletes. Results matter here. When I think back on my own RL experience, and the classes that resonated most with me, I probably could not tell you much about the specific subject matter, but I can tell you about the approach to tackling that subject matter, the confidence the teacher instilled in me, the challenges that the teacher presented to me that forced me to take it to another level—ultimately being pushed outside my comfort zone in adopting a growth mindset. That’s the biggest piece of my philosophy: introducing, implementing, and boys ultimately adopting a growth mindset, whether they pick up a basketball once they leave this place or not. My goal is that—starting in November and by the time they step off the court in February—they saw the implementation of the growth mindset because they stepped outside their comfort zones and experienced some level of growth.

You’ve worked with Tony Teixeira for many years—first as a player on his team, then as his assistant coach, and now as his head coach: What do you appreciate in him as a coach? It’s a uniquely special experience to have your high school coach as your right hand man. Forever a teacher, Tony implemented a fine balance between providing critical suggestions while also allowing me to make my own mistakes. Through those mistakes, learning moments form and resonate. I also admire the way that Tony is able to get guys to truly compete on a day-to-day basis. On a Tuesday afternoon in January, it’s difficult to get guys to put forth their best effort in practice. Even this year, for instance, Tony would step in and get the group to bring it to another level when we were in need of that motivation. He created an environment of daily competition.

What are your goals for next year? What would you do the same, or differently? I was drawn to coaching because I’m an empathetic person—I feel that I am always able to get a good read on an individual. I feel that the messages that I send, or the style that I have, appeals to the athlete that I was. At the end of the day, I try to be the coach that I needed. But, in reality, not everybody is me—not every player needs what I needed. I do believe I made meaningful connections with all my players this year, but I’d

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“MYLES DAVIS (I)—who captained the team for two years—is a fundamentally sound and skilled basketball player, but it required work to take him there. Passionately committed to improving his game, Myles holds himself to a standard few could hope to reach. Hitting a countless number of big shots in critical game situations, Myles was consistently one of the last in the gym. Hitting a big-time shot in front of RL Nation is glamorous. Chasing a long rebound across an empty gym at the end of a two-hour practice is gritty. You will remember Myles for the former, and I will remember Myles for the latter. RL’s all-time leader in charges is the honor that appropriately speaks to Myles’s commitment to his teammates and goals. A charge requires a player to establish position and stand his ground in front of a moving offensive player, typically barrelling out of control. One of my highlights of the season was watching four teammates fight to pick up their leader after he laid his body on the line. Regret in sport often spawns from a reflection upon wasted effort in one’s preparation, not a failure in the heat of competition. Myles Davis will have no regrets from the basketball court.” >>

Coach Spellman, excerpted from his remarks at this year’s Winter Athletics Closing Hall

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like to make even more strides toward being the kind of coach that each player needs. And, as a tactician, you can never be stagnant. You have to continue to grow from a tactical point of view with Xs and Os.

You mentioned you read a lot and do lots of research. What are some of your favorite books or articles? Mindset, by Carol Dweck, is the real introduction of the growth mindset. The idea is that as a society we laud the individual who is gifted, the person who just gets it, the person who has the God-given talent—and yes, there are savants— but extensive research shows that results are spawned off the back of hard work and, more importantly, the understanding that you can improve. For instance, when your kid comes home with a spelling test, one of the worst things you can say is, “You got a great grade because you’re so smart.” It’s more helpful—and frankly, truer—to say, “You must have worked really hard to do that.” Before I came to RL, I always got A’s and B’s, easily. But when I arrived here, and was met with my first real challenges, I almost cowered away—I was afraid of undermining or risking that identity of being smart. Failure is important. It’s certainly not a destination—if anything, it’s a means to a destination, which is hopefully success. Angela Duckworth’s book Grit is a branch of that growth mindset approach, as well. I actually gave that book to all of the seniors this season, and that kind of defined our group this year—the idea that grit is the most important characteristic in determining success. The catch is, it’s not easy to define grit. There are characteristics of grit, and we discussed what grit meant to us nearly on a daily basis. I also enjoy reading about mindfulness, which applies in important ways to everything we do.

What haven’t I asked you about, that you want people to know? It’s important that we’re starting to bridge this gap between what is purely mental, and what is purely physical. In reality, it’s all intertwined, especially in a place where we have so many kids who have so many different strengths. My approach to coaching would likely be different if I was somewhere else. My goal is to create a program that feeds off the ideas and goals of our overall academic curriculum. Ultimately, I strive to be the basketball coach who melds with Roxbury Latin’s overall philosophy.

tanding in front of the bleachers of the Belmont Hill gymnasium on December 29, I stared at a group that looked dejected. Having just dropped our second game in as many days, during our annual holiday tournament, the excited hopes and promises of an optimistic preseason seemed far removed. As far as I’m concerned, that’s the day our season started. That afternoon the team began to forge its identity. We were failing to practice the standards that we had determined were essential to our development as a team. The nodding of heads, pre-game speeches, animated huddles, and confident warm-ups were hollow if our minds and bodies did not commit to our goals, in particular our commitment to define and display grit. On that afternoon we set out to define together what grit meant for us. There is no denying the grit that this year’s varsity basketball team possessed. The team finished 15-7—fourth overall in the ISL. For their performance on the court, MYLES DAVIS (I) and CHARLIE WEITZEL (II) were named All-League selections, while SEB BORGARD (I) was name ISL Honorable Mention. Led from within, this team comprised multiple leaders, four of whom—SEAN RUSSELL, and tri-captains SEB BORGARD, MYLES DAVIS, and WILL GREER— completed their high-school basketball careers this winter. In an effort to define grit this team lived it. I love them, and I was honored to help lead such a committed group.”

Coach Spellman, excerpted from his remarks at this year’s Winter Athletics Closing Hall

N e w s l e t t e r o f Th e R o x b u r y L at i n S c h o o l

More Than a Master’s Program Penn Fellows are Equal Parts Learning and Teaching | by Meredith H. Reynolds

“The oldest school in continuous existence

in North America.” At Roxbury Latin, we celebrate this identity often. Annual events like Founder’s Day, hallways lined with portraits from the 1600s, and classical precepts like mens sana in corpore sano are consistent reminders that the school’s history is long, significant, and worth an admiring look. Yet equally important to the longstanding success of RL is an eye to the future. In its constant pursuit of excellence, the school must always strike a balance between history and innovation, tradition and flexibility. There is no better example of this balancing act, perhaps, than the incorporation of the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education’s Independent School Teaching Residency program two years ago. With the adoption of this program, RL is contributing meaningfully to the future of the field of education while remaining true to its founding ideals. Since 2012, UPenn’s Graduate School of Education has partnered with independent schools throughout the northeast to allow early career teachers to earn their master’s degrees while simultaneously gaining classroom experience. At the program’s founding, Penn placed their teaching fellows exclusively in boarding schools. Over the years, Headmaster Kerry Brennan advocated for Roxbury Latin to be part of this program, and eventually he convinced

Spring 2019

the program’s director that there was value in expanding to day schools. “At our instigation, the day school opportunity evolved,” says Kerry. RL was one of ten schools in the first day school cohort in 2017. With two Penn Fellows joining the faculty each year for their two-year degree program, RL will now consistently employ four early-career teachers working toward a master’s in education. Kerry is confident that the Penn program has much to offer RL, and the school has much to offer new educators—even beyond the significant investment of financially supporting their master’s degrees. “I have found throughout my career that most people who teach are not prepared to teach,” he says. “I wasn’t sure there was a program in the country that married theory to practice in this critical and productive way.” The Penn program allows RL to offer budding teachers this approach to learning, along with structured support. Kerry felt this foundation was missing in his own experience as a new teacher, when he was thrown into an English class with little more than a stack of books. He also sees the benefit of an annual infusion of energetic talent at the school, as well as a positive impact beyond the walls of RL. “I think that Roxbury Latin owes it to the broader Boston community and the broader educational community to be much more open and generous about who we are, and what we do, and why,” he says. Of course, Kerry’s choice of the Penn program was a purposeful one, made with RL’s values in mind. Part of what made this program an excellent fit at Roxbury

Visaury Moreta, Modern Languages Department

Latin is a shared commitment to shaping gifted generalists. The teaching fellows—like all RL boys and faculty—fill many roles here: Of course, they are primarily graduate students. They take online courses, attend weekly classes led by on-site administrators, and travel to four weekend or week-long sessions each year at Penn or a partner school. But because the Penn program is grounded in both theory and practice, fellows are simultaneously coaching, advising, and teaching their own classes at RL. Fellows agree that this component of the program is instrumental in facilitating their professional growth. “This is my first experience of having immediate feedback from school playing out in real time,” said Chris Brown, a first-year teaching fellow in the history department. When class discussions about diversity and inclusion, use of technology, or effective assessments can be applied to the classroom the very next day, he pointed out, theory can more meaningfully influence practice. Penn courses prompt classroom changes both big and small—from differentiating lesson plans and assessment formats, to rearranging desks to better fit the day’s goals. The program’s heavy emphasis on

Kyle Layne-Allen ’09, Classics Department

teaching is also ideologically in line with RL’s culture of trust, and allows fellows the space to grow as teachers and build professional confidence. Of course, ownership of a class wouldn’t be productive without proper support and guidance. Because of Penn’s focus on mentorship, each of RL’s four fellows is paired with an experienced teacher within each’s department. Because RL’s foundation is rooted in authentic, strong relationships, our faculty are already committed advisors, well-versed in offering hands-on mentorship and unwavering support. Faculty mentors sit in on the fellows’ classes to offer feedback; welcome fellows into their own classrooms for observation; and collaborate to create lesson plans and evaluations. “Very few programs offer that experience— especially from someone who is on-site every day,” says VISAURY MORETA, a first-year fellow teaching Spanish. With an experienced eye, mentors offer objective answers to important questions: Is every student in the class speaking enough, or is someone being overlooked? Is it time to switch

N e w s l e t t e r o f Th e R o x b u r y L at i n S c h o o l

Chris Brown, History Department

up the daily lesson format to re-engage students? Are any key concepts getting lost? “Observations from a professional, veteran Latin teacher have helped me tremendously as I transition into my own classroom and my own class space,” says KYLE LAYNE-ALLEN ’09, a second-year fellow in the Classics department. His mentor, Andy Chappell—also dean of the Penn Fellows program at RL—has taught Kyle in formal and informal ways over the last two years. “He’s been crucial in my development here,” Kyle says. Andy, along with Associate Director Mike Lawler ’06, gather fellows for weekly on-site classes—another important component of the Penn program. In this way, too, Penn and RL are ideologically aligned: Penn looks to integrate the expertise of professional educators into their program, while RL is constantly drawing on varied perspectives as a democratically gathered institution. Andy and Mike have designed a wide-ranging curriculum for this weekly class in the hopes of creating a space for reflection and creative thinking. Topics range from incorporating Diversity, Equity,

Spring 2019

Andrew Kingsley ’12, English Department

and Inclusion work in class lessons to the effective use of PowerPoint. Penn Fellows, veteran faculty, and school staff are invited to present as part of these classes, ensuring that fellows are benefitting from the many, varied voices and perspectives of RL’s people. Those important voices also belong to the fellows themselves! Their energy, insight, and propensity to question the status quo offer much to the school. “As mentors we are learning as much—if not more—from the fellows,” says Andy. “Their role and presence has helped jumpstart our own careers. The program forces all of us to be purposeful about collaborating, reflecting, and asking ourselves ‘Why am I teaching what I’m teaching?’” History Department Chair Stewart Thomsen, who serves as mentor to CHRIS BROWN, has embraced the opportunity to learn from Penn’s innovative curriculum. “Stewart will do the [Penn] readings with me,” says Chris. “He’s genuinely interested in what he can gain as a teacher from it.” Other mentors are quick to harness the fellows’ objective eyes and creative energy to rethink their

“Teaching is traditionally labeled as an isolated profession, but the Penn Fellows Program encourages us all to push back against that norm.” curriculum. When ANDREW KINGSLEY ’12, a secondyear fellow in the English department, expressed an interest in rewriting the ninth-grade vocabulary book, his mentor, Josh Cervas, encouraged him to do it. “I’ve been really thankful for his collaborative spirit, and his willingness to change the curriculum and create new curriculum from scratch,” says Andrew. This greater impact on RL’s veteran faculty is just what Kerry Brennan hoped the Penn program would bring to the school: new ideas, inspiring energy, and creative collaboration for the community at large. As the first pair of Penn Fellows prepare to graduate, and Roxbury Latin looks to hire the next cohort of fellows, everyone is reflecting on how this influence can continue and broaden. “I think that everyone should see Penn Fellows as a resource,” says Andrew. “[Each fellow] is a conduit and a vessel for new pedagogical theory, and they might have a few things to teach people who have been here for a long time.” To that end, one of the school’s hiring goals is to spread the wealth across academic departments, to get new mentors across disciplines involved. School leadership is also eager to create new spaces in which the fellows can make an impact: “I’d like for the fellows to present to the whole faculty on certain topics,” says Kerry with an eye toward next year.

In April, Mike and Andy launched the program’s first “Lunch and Learn” offered to all RL faculty and staff, in which Andrew and Kyle presented their culminating inquiry projects. “We have a lot of wonderful resources here,” says Andy, “so, how can we help people share what they’re doing and learn from one another—perhaps be inspired to go do something different?” Meanwhile, the Penn Fellows prepare for their own next steps. Andrew and Kyle have both accepted English teaching positions for next year: Andrew at Riverdale Country School in New York, and Kyle at Worcester Academy in central Massachusetts. Kerry is hopeful that both will take a bit of Roxbury Latin with them: “I hope that what they have come to value about us is translatable in those new settings, and that we’re able to have a broader impact in independent schools at large.” Both Andrew and Kyle are grateful for how RL and Penn have prepared them for this next step. “If you can do the work that Roxbury Latin asks of you,” laughs Kyle, “you can do the work almost anywhere. I’m grateful to this school for instilling this Renaissance nature in me.” Chris and Visaury are also looking forward to next year, when they will each teach an additional class and tackle their in-depth inquiry projects. In schools across the country—particularly independent schools with rich histories and strong reputations— complacency threatens to hinder progress. A school that rests on its laurels ceases to serve its students. In taking the risk to try something new, Roxbury Latin has chosen to look forward without compromising its longstanding ideals. While remaining true to its core values, the school is reinvigorating its faculty and curriculum with fresh perspectives and new voices. Perhaps more important, RL’s incorporation of early-career faculty has provided a platform for more sharing of ideas and a reexamination of what we teach and why. “Teaching is traditionally labeled as an isolated profession,” Mike reflects, “but the Penn Fellows Program encourages us all to push back against that norm, making the profession more collaborative, consequently improving our teaching methods and—most important— outcomes for students.” //

N e w s l e t t e r o f Th e R o x b u r y L at i n S c h o o l

the arts

Peter and the Starcatcher

ach winter, RL’s youngest, budding actors and crew—from Class VI through Class IV—come together with their girls’ school counterparts for the production of the annual Junior Play. On March 1, Peter and the Starcatcher opened with magic and adventure, and with much laughter from a delighted audience. Director Paul Valley described the play as not Disney’s Peter Pan, but as the prequel: “In this superhero origin story,” Mr. Valley said, “we’ll learn how Peter Pan got his powers—how he learned to fly.” Playwright Rick Elice sets the scene of the Tony Awardwinning play: “A young orphan and his mates are shipped off from Victorian England to a distant island ruled by the evil King Zarboff. They know nothing of the mysterious trunk in the captain’s cabin, which contains a precious, otherworldly cargo. At sea the boys are discovered by a precocious young girl named Molly, a Starcatcher-in-training, who realizes that

Spring 2019

the trunk’s precious cargo is starstuff, a celestial substance so powerful that it must never fall into the wrong hands. When the ship is taken over by pirates—led by the fearsome Black Stache, a villain determined to claim the trunk and its treasure for his own—the journey quickly becomes a thrilling adventure. “Peter and the Starcatcher upends the century-old story of how a miserable orphan comes to be The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up (or, Peter Pan). An adaptation of Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson’s best-selling novel, the play was conceived for the stage by directors Roger Rees (former Berman Artist-inResidence) and Alex Timbers, and written by Rick Elice, with music by Wayne Barker. From marauding pirates and island tyrants, to unwilling comrades and unlikely heroes, this play playfully explores the depths of greed and despair, and the bonds of friendship, duty, and love.” // Production photos by Mike Pojman

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RL-Winsor Concert On March 3, the Glee Club and Latonics joined the Chorale and Small Chorus at The Winsor School for their annual joint concert. This year the group tackled an ambitious set: three movements from Brahms’ Requiem accompanied by a full orchestra. The Latonics also paired up with Winsor’s Senior Small Chorus for an a cappella performance of Two Door Cinema Club’s What You Know (Photos by John Werner). //

Jazz Band Hall On March 12, RL’s Jazz Band performed on the Smith Theater stage, playing songs including “This I Dig of You” by Hank Mobley, “In a Sentimental Mood” by Duke Ellington, and “September” by Earth, Wind & Fire. // 36

Spring 2019

Winter Recitalists In Rousmaniere Hall on January 22, RL’s student musicians treated their classmates to a variety of performances, including a John Williams Star Wars medley, Franz Liszt’s Un Sospiro, Allemande by Bach, Kol Nidrei by Max Bruch, and Carnatic music from Southern India. Front row: Inesh Vytheswaran (Wellesley High School), Vishnu Emani (IV), and Hari Narayanan (II); back row: Eric Zaks (I), Justin Shaw (V), Rafi Deykin (I), Dennis Jin (VI), Theodore Coben (VI), Eric Zhu (VI), Eli Mamuya (V), Cameron Estrada (II), and Heshi Liebowitz (IV). //

Art History at Harvard On March 7, Dr. Sue McCrory’s AP Art History students visited the Art Study Center at Harvard, where they viewed 14 works, from early modern Italian drawings, to Northern European woodcut prints, to Islamic painted folios. // N e w s l e t t e r o f Th e R o x b u r y L at i n S c h o o l

Western Civ Projects Class IV students brought an impressive variety of Western Civ projects to the Great Hall in late February. Their homemade artifactsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;relics, machinery, monuments, historical scenes linked to Western Civilizationâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; are each meticulously researched, crafted, and then orally defended. Frankie Gutierrez (IV)

Zak Bashir (IV)

Chris Weitzel (IV)

Will Callewaert (IV)

Parker Collins (IV)

Theo Teng (IV)

Erik Zou (I)

Erik Zou (I), Award-Winning Artist, Exhibits Work in the Great Hall by MEREDITH H. REYNOLDS When ERIK ZOU (I) was young, he had a fish tank. Fascinated by the beauty of the fish it contained, but not yet possessing the fine motor skills to capture it, he asked his dad to draw the fish as he watched, completely rapt. When he was still too young to hold a paint brush, he would tag along to his older brother’s art classes. Not long after, when he was gifted a book full of images of fish and some tracing paper, he went from appreciating to creating. Today, Erik has won many national art awards and scholarships, including National Gold and Silver Medals in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. This winter, he presented a show of selected works in Roxbury Latin’s Great Hall, the first current student to receive such an honor in recent history. More than 60 of Erik’s pieces were on display from January 8 through February 12. The collection actually contained some fish—a nod to his childhood subject of choice and a fun scavenger hunt for exhibit goers—but what immediately greeted you upon entering the Hall was a collection of watercolor portraits. Erik has gravitated toward watercolor in recent years. He calls the medium “exciting” and “relaxed”; he loves how it allows him to blend colors in interesting ways and create large, sweeping brush strokes. It doesn’t hurt that watercolor is fast, he says; it provides instant gratification that is a refreshing change from

the slow pace of oil painting. By nature a fastidious worker, Erik initially struggled to adapt to the unpredictability of watercolor. But adapt he has; the renditions of his grandparents are ethereal and authentic. He chooses to paint people he knows well, he says, because he believes a portrait reveals more than just what a person looks like; knowing someone deeply adds an important element to each piece. He also often chooses to paint himself, though his reason for this is mostly humility: “I feel OK if I mess myself up!” he says. Erik is a versatile artist: his watercolor portraits hung opposite large oil landscapes and smaller ink cityscapes. An entire wall was even dedicated to Roxbury Latin itself. Visitors recognized the organ and the lectern from Rousmaniere Hall and the Headmaster’s residence among these pieces. Of particular note, though, is his watercolor depicting the façade of the Perry and Ernst buildings. Erik painted this piece in an hour; it may seem fast, but keep in mind it was snowing at the time, and Erik was wearing one glove on his non-dominant hand. His watercolors kept freezing as he worked, and much of the paint was in fact slush as it met the canvas. Erik says seeing the show come together made him feel proud. “It looks so official to see your work hanging in the Great Hall like that,” he says. The show represents years of work, and putting it together was no small undertaking. Erik is grateful for his parents, who spent hours helping him hang each piece—his dad even matted and framed most of it!—and to the many friends he enlisted to help. //

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Exelauno Day

As the sun rose on March 4, Greater Boston stood beneath more than a foot of snow. But it was March fourth, after all, and so Roxbury Latin did (…march forth, that is). As the snow fell outside, Rousmaniere Hall was filled with exclamations of “Triumphales O sodales” in celebration of Exelauno Day, a uniquely Roxbury Latin event. >>

This year’s judges were Emily Greenwood (pictured), Chair and Professor of Classics at Yale University; Kenneth Burke ’89, Foreign Language and English Teacher at Thayer Academy; and Ned Ligon, Roxbury Latin’s own Arthur Vining Davis Professor Emeritus of Greek and Latin. >>

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Classics Department Chair Jameson Morris-Kliment served as master of ceremonies, and this year’s winners were Rami Hayes-Messinger of Class IV (Lower School Latin), Daniel Sun-Friedman of Class III (Upper School Latin), and Austin Manning of Class II (Greek). >> Jameson Morris-Kliment, Rami Hayes-Messinger, Austin Manning, Daniel Sun-Friedman, Kenneth Burke’89, Emily Greenwood, Ned Ligon.

Seventeen boys in Classes VI through I competed in this year’s David Taggart Clark Competition in Greek and Latin Declamation. Throughout the morning, they questioned the motives of Agamemnon, prosecuted Verres, slayed Turnus, competed in discus, and even tried to win a girl—unwittingly played by Classics master Mr. Reid—at the races. >> N e w s l e t t e r o f Th e R o x b u r y L at i n S c h o o l

class notes

1956

Paul Silverstein reports that despite a battle with pancreatic cancer he is “still vertical,” aiming to keep his exercise and activity levels close to normal. “My wonderful wife, Amalia, makes me eat healthy food and keep my weight up— though nothing can keep me from my afternoon cigar and Bourbon!”

1959

Avi Nelson retired recently from a 43-year career in television and radio. He’s now spending more time on music composition and various business interests, as well as attending cultural events and playing baseball in tournaments and leagues.

1966

Stuart Cohen has moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Stuart’s photo of Headmaster Emeritus Tony Jarvis working at his desk was a poignant and arresting visual on display during Tony’s memorial service on May 5.

1974

Jonathan Cohen is entering his 37th year in the architectural profession, as a principal with the firm Tsoi Kobus Design in Boston: “All are welcome for a visit to the office and a tour!” Jonathan and his wife, Christy, are based in Stoneham, but they spend as a much time as possible in Camden, Maine—sailing, kayaking, and gardening—and with their four-year-old granddaughter, Katelyn. “Life is good!” he reports.

1983

George Malley and his wife, Iwona, welcomed Gregory Thomas Malley, born on January 15, 2019. Gregory joins older brothers Charles, Joseph, and James, and sister Mary Katherine. George continues to work at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority where he is involved in the regulation of the securities industry.

2003

Violinist Stefan Jackiw will perform at Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood on July 25. The concert will be an all-Charles Ives program also featuring Jeremy Denk on piano and Hudson Shad as vocal quartet. Stefan and fellow musicians will perform Ives’s Violin Sonatas one through four, as well as hymns, patriotic songs, and marches that inspired these sonatas.

2005

Emil Pitkin is living and working in Washington, D.C., where he is CEO of GovPredict. His work helps to bridge the gap between politics and technology innovation and regulation. In a recent profile on TheBridge, Emil said, “The relationship between innovators and regulators can and should be collaborative. What’s most important is to develop relationships early on, plead your case, and in doing so educate regulators whose sphere of knowledge might not overlap with the rapidly accelerating innovation being born in Silicon Valley.”

2016 Bowdoin Polar Bears Jimmy Duffy ’18, Max Ginsberg, and Ronny Lestan prepared to take on the Colby hockey team in the schools’ annual rivalry game on January 26.

2007

Jack McGeary recently joined the San Francisco Giants as a full-time data analyst. In 2007, Jack was one of the top high school pitching prospects in the

2005 Alex Weinstein and his wife, Jessica, welcomed daughter, Zoe Bayla, on February 10, during a rare snowstorm in

Wi n t e r 2 0 1 9

Seattle.

1961

1981

1982

2003

On January 6, at a Navy versus

John Kenney, author of the

Jeff Weaver and Charles

Corey Cofield, his wife,

Holy Cross basketball game in

New York Times bestseller,

Pinck unexpectedly met up

Krystal, and their two

Annapolis, Maryland, Navy

Love Poems for Married

at a Goldman Sachs Client

children, Corey Jr. (4) and

alumnus Phil Ferrara met and

People, and the Thurber

Symposium in New York

Aubrey (1) now reside on

exchanged some RL stories

Prize-winner Truth in

City after having not seen one

the Belmont Hill School

with Holy Cross starter Patrick

Advertising, published his

another since June 1982 at their

campus where Corey

Benzan ’15.

newest novel, Talk to Me, in

graduation. Sandra Schubert,

enjoys teaching middle

January 2019. The publisher

Jeff’s Investment Advisor,

school Latin, Greek, and

describes the book as “a wry

facilitated their reacquaintance.

history, and coaching

yet tenderhearted look at

“Our serendipity was the talk

football and basketball.

how one man’s public fall

of the conference and great

from grace leads him back

advertising on the vastness of

to his family, and back to the

the Roxbury Latin network!”

man he used to be.”

says Jeff.

2007 Remy Cofield, after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania and earning his MBA from Bentley University,

2018

has settled in Boston with his

Manager of the Davidson

wife, Tori, and their two-year-

College basketball team, Joe

old son, Mason. Remy is a college scout for the Boston Celtics and the general manager for the Celtics D League team, the Maine Red Claws.

2006 Members of the Class of 2006 organized their own miniature New York City reunion this winter. Pictured left to right are Matt Driscoll, Ayushman Ghosh, Jeffrey Kirchick, Kaleb Rollins, and Julian Patterson.

Nero hung out with NBA star Steph Curry in the locker room following a home team win. (Rumor has it Joe even got a signed pair of sneakers!)

country. He was drafted by the Washington Nationals and pitched in the minors through 2014. Jack has a degree from Stanford and will be in the Giants’ clubhouse providing advanced data on things like opponents’ tendencies and pitch sequencing.

2010

Mike Dodakian is happily working at The Cambridge Montessori School at the elementary school level— grades 4 through 6—a shift from his previous work teaching older students.

2014

Aryeh Lieber is currently a teaching fellow in the English department at Université Paris-Est Créteil.

2018

Ben Lafond was one of eight district-level winners in the 2018 national Cum Laude Society Paper Competition. His essay, titled “Petronius’s Vorpal Sword: My Journey with ‘Matauitatau,’” was originally submitted for an open-ended assignment in Mo Randall’s Latin 6 class last year. In it, Ben pursues the possible provenance and meanings of a single unusual word, one that’s neither Greek nor Latin in form. English faculty member Josh Cervas says, “The essay is everything you would want a high-level student paper to be—terrifically written, incredibly informed, detailed, original, and—perhaps best of all—marked by the voice of someone who clearly loves advanced academic work. From the first paragraph of Ben’s award-winning essay: “Since I first encountered this word [Matauitatau] I have been fascinated by it doubly: as a linguist, wondering what possible chain of events could have produced this bizarre form; as a Classicist, determined to understand the word’s place in this passage and in the work. My search for understanding has brought me ‘down the rabbit hole,’ through two dead and three living languages, and into the darkest corners of the Internet. What I present is a sort of journal of my travels, documenting my search to understand the meanings of ‘matauitatau,’ both linguistic and literary.” // 44

Spring 2019

Annual Fund Update A sincere thank you to all who have contributed to the school through the 2018–2019 Annual Fund. As of April 26 we raised $3,626,748 in gifts and pledges—98 percent of this year’s $3,700,000 Annual Fund goal. The Annual Fund is critical to the financial health of the school, contributing more than 22 percent of the operating budget. The remarkable generosity of our parents and alumni in support of the Annual Fund has made a dramatic difference in our ability to be a distinctive school. Lest there be any doubt, we need you to continue to give what you can to Roxbury Latin. If you would like to make your gift to this year’s Annual Fund, go to www.roxburylatin.org/giving and make your gift securely online. Remember, the Annual Fund closes on May 31. Thank you for your continued support and commitment to Roxbury Latin.

Be (An Accurate!) Part of RL History In 2020, Roxbury Latin will celebrate 375 years since the school’s founding—a momentous anniversary about which you will hear much in the year ahead. We are taking this occasion to create an updated version of the school’s printed alumni directory, which will also serve as a historical compendium. For this project, we are partnering with data publishing experts PCI, to ensure that the information included in the directory is as accurate as possible. Alumni will hear from PCI, on the school’s behalf, in the coming months, as they endeavor to help us update our alumni records for this project. We hope you will play a willing part in helping us ensure that the information we include in this anniversary publication is correct—and we thank you, in advance.

More than $250,000, from 870 gifts, in 24 hours. Thank you. Thank you for helping us make Roxbury Latin’s first Giving Day a resounding success. With your help, we raised more than $250,000 for the Annual Fund—including $50,000 in challenge money from trustee donors— with 870 gifts, in 24 hours. Your generosity nearly tripled our goal and exceeded all of our expectations. More important, your gifts will preserve the school’s core values, while ensuring that students are equipped to lead and serve, taught by a talented, passionate, and dedicated faculty, who are committed to the boys in their care. For your excitement, for your generosity—for your love of, and belief in, this school—we are deeply grateful. On this year’s Exelauno Day, thank you for marching forth with us.

Make a lasting impact while accomplishing your charitable goals. Consider naming Roxbury Latin in your long term plans. Bank investments, retirement accounts, insurance, stock, or mutual-funds can be transferred to Roxbury Latin without legal expense or any negative impact on your cash flow or lifestyle. Designating and donating any of these assets is easy. Just ask your bank for a POD (Pay on Death) form, or your retirement plan, investment account, or insurance company for a TOD (Transfer on Death) form to instruct the account custodian what to do with the account after your passing.

The benefits of naming Roxbury Latin in your long-term plans: • Make a gift that costs you nothing during your lifetime and leaves your cash flow and current financial planning unchanged. • Save on taxes when you make a gift with appreciated assets. • Experience the life-enhancing benefits of giving. To learn more about making a planned gift to Roxbury Latin, contact Dave Cataruzolo, Director of Alumni Affairs and Planned Giving, at: david.cataruzolo@roxburylatin.org or 617-477-6314. If you have already named Roxbury Latin as a beneficiary, please be sure to let us know. N e w s l e t t e r o f Th e R o x b u r y L at i n S c h o o l

alumni gatherings

Exelauno Day Pub Night March 7: Clery’s Pub, Boston

thanks to those who joined us at recent alumni events EAST COMES WEST! JANUARY 15, JONATHAN CLUB, LOS ANGELES EXELAUNO DAY PUB NIGHT MARCH 7, CLERY’S BOSTON LAWYERS NETWORKING GROUP APRIL 4, GOODWIN PROCTER, BOSTON INVESTORS NETWORKING GROUP APRIL 5, BAIN CAPITAL, BOSTON SPRING ALUMNI LUNCHEON APRIL 10, DEL FRISCO’S, BOSTON ENTREPRENEURS NETWORKING GROUP MAY 16, EVERTRUE, BOSTON SPRING REAL ESTATE ROUNDTABLEFRIDAY, MAY 17 @

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in memoriam

Robert Peter Smith ’58

ROBERT PETER SMITH ’58 of Boston died suddenly on January 7, 2019. Born in Boston on February 18, 1940, Robert grew up in Brookline and went to the Devotion School before joining Roxbury Latin in the fall of 1952. At RL, he developed passions for history, politics, current affairs, and foreign policy—interests that became evident early in his RL career, when in Class IV he wrote a letter to the editor of The Tripod asking the school for permission to have a World Federalist Movement chapter, a “nonprofit, nonpartisan organization committed to the realization of global peace and justice through the development of democratic institutions and the application of international law.” Reflecting on his days as a student, Robert noted that masters Kelsey, Whitney, and Bridgess had the greatest influence on his life at school. Outside of the classroom, he participated broadly as his senior Yearbook stated: “There are few members of the class who are more active than Bob Smith.” He was a three-season athlete, starring on

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the soccer pitch in the fall, wrestling in the winter (team record of 35–7 during his varsity years), and playing tennis in the spring. In addition to his participation in the athletic program, he wrote many book reviews and class news for The Tripod. He was a member of Model United Nations and the Dance Committee, while contributing much time to the Junior Red Cross. He went on to Bowdoin College, graduating with a degree in government; he then earned his JD from Boston University School of Law in 1965. After law school, Robert joined the State Department’s United States Agency for International Development (USAID) during the Vietnam War, working for the U.S. government in Saigon and in the Dominican Republic. He met his beloved wife, Salua, while working in Brazil. In 1978 he founded Turan Corporation, which traded, bartered, and invested in emerging market debt of developing countries. He was a pioneer in investing in those markets and achieved great success. From El

Salvador to Nigeria, as these countries developed and transformed, the foreign corporations and banks who had lent them money had no easy way of cashing out when borrowers were unable to pay. Robert would travel to these countries, sometimes in the midst of civil war, and involve himself in the local business community. A financial matchmaker, he would pair individuals and businesses who needed to sell their bonds with entities interested in buying them. Trades were frequently performed faceto-face, with Robert walking the streets of major Latin American, African, and Middle Eastern cities with briefcases full of bonds on his way to meet his next client. Thanks to his vision and efforts, every major financial institution now has what is called an “Emerging Markets” division, a critical part of global finance. In his 2009 memoir titled Riches Among the Ruins, Robert reflected with pride on “a lifetime of unforgettable experiences in some of the most exotic and remote corners of the world.” For Robert, his involvement in the financial sector was compatible with

his commitment to social justice and mentorship. At the time of his death, he was slated to volunteer as an Executivein-Residence, teaching at South Carolina State University. Robert was committed to supporting his communities in Boston and around New England. At Roxbury Latin, he and Salua donated the Robert P. and Salua J.A. Smith Arts Center and Theater. At the dedication of the Arts Center, Robert gave a humorous and poignant speech about the difference RL made in his life. He called Roxbury Latin the best school in the country, joking that it “was so good that even I have been able to succeed, and I graduated in the bottom of the class.” He also reiterated the words of his classmate, Chris Lydon, who said that “after Roxbury Latin, the rest of life was easy.” Robert felt that RL taught him valuable lessons about hard work and perseverance. He went on to praise several teachers, highlighting a specific course taught by Warden Dilworth, which taught students about current events and political philosophy. It was a transformative experience and opened Robert’s eyes to the larger world. Robert wanted to ensure that future RL students had a better grasp of global affairs, so he and Salua also established the Robert P. Smith ’58 International Fellowship. This benefaction has allowed Roxbury Latin to bring visiting scholars to campus each year, enhancing our curricula with their insightful perspectives on our increasingly complex world. Over the years, these scholars have educated students and faculty on such topics as economic globalization in Africa; modernization in China and India; the modern Middle East; Latin American literature; and the legacy of World War I.

In addition to his philanthropy, he devoted his time and talent to Alma Mater by serving two terms on the Board of Trustees and working on the Investment and Strategic Planning Committees. He was a faithful attendee at RL events and athletic contests. In short, he loved the school. He also was committed to Bowdoin College throughout his life, donating the David Saul Smith Union, a student center on campus, and served as a trustee for local organizations including Plimoth Plantation and the Fessenden School. He leaves behind his wife and two children, Fiona and Edward, as well as two grandchildren, Gemma and Eliana. JEREMY COLEMAN ULIN ’46 passed away in May 2018 shortly after moving to Scotts Valley, California, from Washington, D. C. Born in Boston on December 7, 1927, Jeremy grew up in Chestnut Hill and attended the John Wingate Weeks Junior High School in Newton before coming to RL in 1941. In the spring of 1945, Headmaster George Northrop remarked, “Ulin has a keen mind… He has charm and a pleasant sense of humor.” Jeremy demonstrated a love for languages during his student days, excelling in Latin, French, and German, as well as math and history. Outside of the classroom, he participated in football and baseball. After graduating from RL a year early, he went on to Harvard College and earned an AB in government with cum laude distinction in 1950. While at Harvard, he took time off to serve with the U.S. Army Air Corps from April 1946 to May 1947; he later worked in the Department of the Interior from 1951 to 1954. He earned graduate degrees from the

University of California at Berkeley and American University. Jeremy became a transport economist, working around the world on projects involving ports, highways, and major public investment programs. His work took him to Asia, Africa, and Latin America. He also gave time and attention to studying, appreciating, and acquiring art and antiques. He owned his own antiques business, Coleman and May. He was married to his beloved wife, Jessie, for more than 50 years and was a devoted stepfather to her children, Elizabeth and Joshua Gasster. THOMAS CLIFFORD ATWOOD ’69 of Clifton, Virginia, passed away peacefully on April 25, 2018. Born in Hyannis on July 20, 1951, one of six children, Tom entered Roxbury Latin in 1963, following in his father’s footsteps (Douglas ’40), along with brothers Steven ’66, James ’71, Frederick ’73, and Daniel ’75. Assistant Headmaster Warden Dilworth described Tom as “a sensitive person with a good deal of concern for people and an ability to see himself honestly and with good nature.” At RL, Tom was a class officer his sophomore year and became vicepresident his junior year. He contributed broadly at RL, participating in football and baseball, playing the piano and trumpet, assisting with the Yearbook, tutoring younger students, and singing in the Glee Club. His interest in public service was apparent early on, as he worked for a candidate for the Boston City Council while a student here. He earned his degree in psychology from Brandeis and then managed a successful natural foods market in Boston, where he met his wife-to-be,

N e w s l e t t e r o f Th e R o x b u r y L at i n S c h o o l

Eileen. The couple moved to Virginia Beach where Tom earned his master’s in public policy and MBA from Regent University. Tom’s professional life continued at The Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., where he served as Executive Editor of the foundation’s Policy Review. While at Heritage, he became Director of Coalition Relations, where he served as liaison to hundreds of diverse nonprofits, successfully strengthening their collaboration and effectiveness. In 1998, he became Vice President for Policy and Programs at the Family Research Council, where he spearheaded key initiatives in government and media relations, and edited research and publications as an advocate for healthy families. Tom then served as President and CEO of the National Council for Adoption. Throughout his adult life, Tom fought tirelessly for adoption and family rights. In 2005, he served as an NGO Delegate to the Special Commission of The Hague Commission on Intercountry Adoption, and in 2008, he co-authored The Whole Life Adoption Book. After several years as a consultant, he became Vice President of Institutional Advancement for The Institute of World Politics, where he led fundraising campaigns to purchase the campus, fund programs, and support the Institute’s strategic priorities. Tom’s professional and personal advocacy for families mirrored an ardent devotion to his own family—to his beloved wife and son, but also to his extended family. He relished cooking and grilling,

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cheering on Boston sports teams, and avidly supporting his son’s passion for robotics. A deeply committed Christian, he was an equally faithful member of his church family, including serving on the vestry and various committees, and volunteering in many capacities as a 30year member of Truro Anglican Church. He is survived by his wife, Eileen; and his son, Christopher, and his wife, Brittany. He is also survived by his brothers Steven of Chatham; James and wife, Shelley, of Newton; Frederick of Oakton, Virginia; Daniel and wife, Mary, of Woodstock, Connecticut; and his sister Laura

to Harvard, earning an AB in classics. After graduation, he worked at Wellesley Music Center for a year and then moved to San Francisco and worked for Mariedi-Anders Artists Management Inc., a company that managed classical musicians. In 1978, he married Anne Macaire and moved to the Yukon Territory. The two had met 10 years earlier in Greece on a student travel program. They made a home in the wilderness at Frances Lake and raised their two sons, Charles and William. Eric made a living trapping and gold mining and eventually working for the

Duran, and her husband, Angel Felix, of Chatham, as well as numerous nieces and nephews.

Yukon Government’s Department of Education in Whitehorse. After retiring, Eric moved back to Frances Lake, where he spent most of his last six years, content to live a quiet life in nature while continuing to pursue his love of music.

ERIC JOHN HEGSTED ’69 of Yukon Territory, Canada, died in a snowmobile accident on February 27, 2019. Born on June 20, 1951, Eric grew up in Wellesley and attended Tenacre Country Day School before enrolling at RL in the fall of 1963 as a Sixie. During his time at RL, his teachers were impressed by his intellectual faculties and his original, deep-thinking approach to his work. Eric was fondest of music, and his music teacher found him, “amiable, possessing an analytical mind, and responsible.” He was in a small band, played guitar, drums, sitar, and dulcimer, which he made himself, and sang solos in the Glee Club. In addition to his love of music, he enjoyed reading, composing poetry, and drawing. Contributing broadly to the extracurricular program, Eric also played soccer, was The Tripod editor, participated in the Drama Club and Yearbook, and gave back to the community beyond RL by tutoring a child in Jamaica Plain his junior year. After graduating from RL, Eric went

Friends and family gathered to celebrate Eric’s life at his family’s home in Whitehorse on March 10. His ashes will rest under a bench by the cabin he and his family built on Frances Lake, amid the water, woods and mountains that he loved so deeply. JAMES DAVID SIDMAN ’72 of Wayzata, Minnesota, passed away from prostate cancer at his home on July 4, 2018. Born in Washington, D.C., on August 23, 1954, Jim grew up in the Back Bay and Newton. Before following in his brother’s footsteps (Charles ’68) and enrolling at RL as a Sixie in the fall of 1966, James attended the Memorial School in Newton. Jim excelled academically at RL, especially in English and Greek, a course in which he posted an “A” record in his senior year. Headmaster Mayo-Smith, who taught Jim anthropology, remarked that “Jim

is capable of making major intellectual and emotional commitments to projects that interest him… I have found him to be a thoughtful, appreciative person. He has a good mind, capable of generating penetrating questions. He is sensitive and imaginative and was a valuable member of the course.” Outside of the classroom, Jim enjoyed the Outing Club, helping to lead three white water canoeing excursions. He served on the school’s Library Committee, played tennis and squash, was a class representative to the Student Council, and became one of the best debaters in

Children’s Surgery International, a nonprofit group that provides surgical care (cleft, otolaryngology, urology, general surgery) to children around the world.

the school. As a preview of his lifelong commitment to others, Jim helped teach a course on drugs for younger boys.

(Bueno); son, Gabriel; siblings, Charles Sidman and Judith Huober; father, Murray; and many nieces and nephews. He is preceded by his mother, Jean.

While attending Vassar College and earning his BA in economics, he served a two-year Peace Corps stint as a medic in Micronesia, where his interest in medicine was kindled. After completing Dartmouth Medical School, he spent several years as a general practitioner in rural Maine before entering otolaryngology residency at the University of North Carolina. Once he moved to Minneapolis, he established a pediatric academic practice and soon after started his fellowship at Children’s of Minnesota/University of Minnesota. As a practicing surgeon in Minnesota, Jim loved to train young doctors, always hoping they would surpass him. Even when weakened by a 10-year struggle with his disease, he continued to mentor and dispense fatherly advice with abandon. He was a tireless advocate for children, positively affecting the lives of thousands of young patients both at Children’s Hospitals of Minnesota and on many world-wide medical missions. He was a founding member of

A devoted husband and father, Jim was imbued with a blunt wit (often skewering himself), a strong sense of fairness, and the drive to make the world a better place. His happiest moments were at home or adventuring with his cherished wife and two sons, of whom he was extremely proud, and his beloved dog. He is survived by his wife, Joyce; son and daughter-in-law, Eli and Marta

BRIAN JOHN CUMMINGS ’79 of Brentwood, Tennessee, passed away unexpectedly on February 6, 2019, at the home of his loving mother, Noreen McSweeney Cummings of Milton, Massachusetts. Born on October 30, 1961, Brian grew up in Milton and attended St. Agatha School before entering RL in the fall of 1975. His faculty advisor, John Davey, described Brian as “a caring, considerate person. He has many friends and is fun to be with, always pleasant, smiling, and positive.” Academically, Brian showed a special interest in art, and his art teacher noted Brian’s “steady and consistent fine effort and work.” Another teacher remarked that Brian had “a quick wit and can really offer substance to a class.” Brian displayed varied interests outside of the academic arena, working on the stage crew for several dramatic productions, singing in the Glee Club, acting as an artist and reporter for the school paper, and running cross-country.

Brian went on to earn his bachelor’s degree in English with summa cum laude distinction from UMass Amherst. Brian’s life was characterized by the length and depth of his many friendships; the friends he made at both Roxbury Latin and in college remained important parts of his life throughout. He worked for decades as an auditor, editor, and finally managing editor for the State Auditor’s Office in Boston, where he developed another set of lifelong friends. Brian met his wife, Sandra Bielawa Cummings, in Amherst, Massachusetts, and they were married in 1989. They bought their first house in Dedham, and their family grew to include children Elizabeth, Tynan, and Conor. The family later moved to Acton, Massachusetts, and then to Brentwood, Tennessee. In addition to his mother, wife, and children, Brian is survived by his siblings Eileen Stoller and her husband, David; and Michael Cummings, Jr., and Karen Gillis; father-in-law Henry Bielawa; brothers-in-law Peter Bielawa and wife, Jeanne, and Daniel Bielawa and wife, Susan; as well as many loving nieces, nephews, cousins, aunts, and uncles. //

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spotlight: dr. ernesto guerra by ERIN E. BERG Ernesto Guerra grew up in Puerto Rico, where he attended an all-boys’ Catholic school. It wasn’t until many years later—after a move to the United States, receiving his bachelor’s degree from Brown, and earning his master’s and PhD at Harvard—that he even knew private schools like Roxbury Latin existed. Prior to joining RL as the school’s first Spanish language teacher, Ernesto taught for seven years as a preceptor in Harvard’s Romance Languages department, where he fell in love with teaching language and literature. When he learned about Roxbury Latin, and that the school was seeking a teacher to begin a Spanish language program, he decided the role would be a great challenge and a great opportunity. Ernesto came to RL in 2008; in that first year he taught one introductory course, an accelerated course for ninth graders with prior exposure to the language, and a Latin-American history course in English. In the 11 years since the start of the program, the department has grown to include faculty members Jim Ryan (2009), Arturo Solís (2015), and Penn Fellow Visaury Moreta, who joined RL last fall. “When I arrived to RL, I didn’t see much difference between Harvard undergraduates and RL students in terms of talent and intellectual ability. But dealing with a different maturity level and harnessing all that adolescent energy was very challenging at first. Achieving a close relationship with my students and a relaxed classroom setting, while also establishing clear limits became a tough balancing act. After 11 years, I feel I’ve almost struck the right balance,” he laughs. “To teach on a daily basis these spirited boys, who are ready to absorb everything at a very high speed, has been an extraordinary adventure.” Ernesto says his main goal in the classroom is “to give students the language skills to understand and appreciate Spanish and Spanish-American culture, and to communicate, and establish personal and professional bonds with people from Spanish-speaking

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countries and communities. But I also want them to write at a sophisticated level—about art, literature, film, politics—and also to express themselves creatively through different literary genres. I also think it’s my responsibility to make my students critically aware of the complicated relationships between the United States and Latin-America. I want to instill in my students a sense of empathy toward the people of the region. In that way, I suppose I feel like an ambassador of my culture.” In addition to teaching every level of Spanish, Ernesto helped to design and establish—and now chaperones each June—the immersion program in Cadiz, Spain.

“It’s my responsibility to make my students critically aware of the complicated relationships between the United States and Latin-America. I want to instill in my students a sense of empathy toward the people of the region. In that way, I suppose I feel like an ambassador of my culture.”

Like most good teachers, Ernesto is also a committed learner, and a disciplined student. His daily routine includes practice on the guitar (he studied classical guitar when he was younger); language learning (he’s presently working on his Italian); a sunset run (“It’s a good way to end the day”); and research for his current writing project. Ernesto has published three works to date—two children’s books, and one short story titled “Las Marías,” published this winter in a commemorative literary anthology for Hurricane Maria. Proceeds from the book go to relief efforts on the island. “With my writing, I usually start with a problem—a personal issue, or a social dilemma,” says Ernesto. “My first book delves into our relationship with the ‘other,’ and I conceived it during the Iraq War. It explores how we could effectively connect with other human beings, how we could find our common humanity. I wrote it for my daughters, who are now 21 and 17.” The result was an allegorical book titled Tú, ellos y los otros (2006).” Ernesto’s second book, Las palabras perdidas (2016), examines the relationship between language, power, and truth in an imaginary kingdom during the Renaissance of the 12th century. The book he’s finishing now involves human history, science, and Medieval and Renaissance art (as inspired by recent trips to Spain, Italy and Turkey). “To prepare for it, I read textbooks on biology and astronomy, books on space travel and exploration, Dante’s Divine Comedy, Petrarch’s lyric poetry, and biographies of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. I find teaching in this small intellectual community a luxury, because my colleagues are experts in their fields—a wealth of knowledge when it comes to inspiring my teaching and informing my research.” //

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varsity baseball

First Row: Aidan Lovett, Taalin RaoShah, John Frates (Captain), Ben Rounds (Captain), Will Greer (Captain), Ethan Kee (Captain), Sean Russell, Jack Luca, Kyle Cloherty, Timothy Smith; Second Row: Coach Andy Chappell, Head Coach Dave Cataruzolo, Frankie Lonergan, Malcolm Whitfield, Brady Chappell, Will Murphy, Joey Ryan, James Gillespie, Bobby Luca, Mark Henshon, James Lomuscio, Coach Heide.

varsity lacrosse

First Row: Will Cote, George Madison, Beau Keough, Declan Murphy, Kevin Demore, Cam Keough, Jackson Roberts (Captain), Deven Varney (Captain), Cam Croce, Jere Rose, Collin Bergstrom; Second Row: Coach Chris Brown, Will Specht, J.P. Buckley, Nolan Walsh, Keaton Sahin, Kieran McCabe, Sam Ginsberg, Peter Frates, Kevin Swan, Charlie Weitzel, Chris Weitzel, Drew Streckenbach, Bryan Anderson, Javi Werner, Dante Cuzzi, Ryan Williamson, Head Coach Scott Singer, Coach Brian Martin

varsity track and field

Front Row: Rami Hayes-Messinger, Zak Bashir, David Sullivan, Armando Walters, José Flores, Ale Philippides, Heshie Liebowitz, Andrew Sparks, Kayden Miller, Jed Nelson, Theo Teng, Liam Finn, James De Vito; Second Row: Ryan Lim, Alex Messier, Alejandro Denis, Sunil Rosen, James Harrington, Ben Brasher, Thomas Gaziano, Quinn Donovan, Alex Fuqua, Eric Auguste, Esteban Tarazona, Aydan Gedeon-Hope, Daniel Berk, Edozie Umunna, Conor Downey, Miguel Rincon, Alex Uek; Third Row: Coach Bruce Lynch, Rijs Johansongordet, Coach Erin Dromgoole, Josh Morris, Brendan Gibbons, Rohan Sheth, Erik Zou, Gil Rosenthal, Colin Miller, Reid Corless, Adam Berk, Tomas Gustafsson, Milan Rosen (Captain), Alvin Massenat (Captain), David Meneses Ontiveros (Captain), Sebastian Borgard, Trey Sullivan, Nate Ukoha, Ejiro Egodogbare, Liam Rimas, Kam Miller, Ian Balaguera, John Harrington, Liam O’Connor, Christian Landry, Pete Levangie, Coach Chris Heaton, Coach Arturo Solís, Coach Nick Poles; Missing: Aidan Bowen, Daniel Gillis, Ben Kelly, Nate Lopes, Sam Morris-Kliment, Coach Jamie Morris-Kliment.

Spring 2019

varsity tennis

Coach Ousmane Diop, JJ Demarco, Tait Oberg, John Fazli, Brendan Jimenez (Captain), Joey Barrett (Captain), AJ Gutierrez, Ben Chang-Holt, Walker Oberg, Andrew Zhang. Missing: Anton Rabkin and managers Nick Chehwan and Johnny Ryan

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The Roxbury Latin School 101 St. Theresa Avenue West Roxbury, MA 02132-3496 www.roxburylatin.org Change Service Requested

Senior Erik Zou’s award-winning artwork—from oil paintings to ink drawings—captivated visitors to his Great Hall exhibit, which ran from January 6 to February 12. Photo by Mike Pojman