Milton Magazine, Fall 2017

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Nina Riggs Speaks in Prose A lifelong poet, Nina Riggs ’95 became a memoirist just in time to craft an invaluable gift for her family, friends, and the many, many people who would have liked to know her.

12 Promoting Stories That Need to Be Heard and Seen Building on her artistic childhood experiences in Jamaica, Chloe Walters-Wallace ’03 devotes herself to amplifying the voices of marginalized people.

16 Writing with Light Amanda Weil ’78 creates photographic art glass installations on an architectural scale that define public spaces in cities around the world.

20 Defying Gravity on the World’s Stages

Across the Quad

46 Mr. Millet Turns 100

In creating a way for “the rest of us” to host chamber music in our living rooms, Sam Bodkin ’07 tapped an unmet need.

28 Milton Artists Speak Their Minds Focused student artists build on classical principles with advanced design, technology and materials—counting on myriad roles in today’s cultural and economic marketplace.

34 The 2017 Middle School Speechies Middle Schoolers let us in on what competing in the National Speech and Debate Association’s annual tournament is all about.

38 Leveraging Applause 40 Commencement 2017 44 Reunion Weekend

Raneem el Torky ’17 66 Classroom Anatomy of an

52 Head of School

Exam Project

Listen. Learn. Apologize.

Love. Never Turn Away.

68 Milton Mural

by Todd B. Bland 72 Messages 53 Retiring Faculty and Staff

79 Class Notes

58 On Centre

86 Board of Trustees

62 In Sight

92 Post Script

Photograph by

A Brief Moment at Milton

John Gillooly

During the Vietnam Years (1969–1970)

A spellbinding soloist for the National Ballet of Canada, Dylan Tedaldi ’09 relentlessly pushes himself to discover the most expressive dancer he can be.

24 Log in to Groupmuse

64 Sports

Who’s Singing Now?

by Robert Baldwin ’72

Editor Cathleen Everett Associate Editors Erin Berg Marisa Donelan Liz Matson Design Stoltze Design

Photography Claire Bangser Anthony Cunanan Michael Dwyer John Gillooly Karolina Kuras Kjeld Mahoney Photography

Brian Mullaney Museum of the City of New York Ilene Squires Weil Studio Greg White

Milton Magazine is published twice a year by Milton Academy. Editorial and business offices are located at Milton Academy, where change-ofaddress notifications should be sent.

As an institution committed to diversity, Milton Academy welcomes the opportunity to admit academically qualified students of any gender, race, color, disability status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, national or ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs and activities generally available to its students. It does not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, color, disability status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, national or ethnic origin in the administration of its educational policies, admission policies, scholarship programs, and athletic or other School-administered activities.

Printed on recycled paper.

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Art Works Artists move mountains: shifting perspectives, opening hearts and minds, instructing us quietly, revealing difficult truths. Over the ages, we have been grateful to artists, or angry with them, or astounded, or affirmed.

In the most difficult times, we rely on artists to wrestle with the most complicated issues, take us to unfamiliar places, and burrow into spaces that need light. They connect us powerfully to beauty and transcendence. Artists help us reach for our deepest selves and for each other.

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acro s s t h e qua d

Who’s Singing Now? From “Ave Verum Corpus” to “The Storm is Passing Over,” from Beyoncé to Bach, singing at Milton has deep roots. Singing thrives at Milton, and the groups that gather to practice and perform are robust and varied. You’ll recognize many that are decades old, others were just launched this year. On a typical day, voices sing out at morning assemblies, in rehearsals, in classrooms, in formal performances or simply in hallways, dorm rooms and common rooms. Some songs are throwbacks to different eras and others are the latest summer jams. Nearly everyone singing is very happy about it.

the groups

Chamber Singers

Gospel Choir

A scheduled course, students study and

Gospel Choir began as a student club in

perform great choral literature from every

2004. It grew out of a conversation between

period, especially literature written for

Lori Dow, associate director of admission,

smaller choral groups. Membership in Glee

and Louise Mundinger, music faculty, about

Club and an audition are required. Every

what was missing in the music department.

other year, Chamber Singers travel to perform

Today, Gospel Choir performances are highly

in places such as Vienna, Prague and Italy.

popular campus events. Ms. Dow directs the choir, along with Vaughn Brathwaite as

Glee Club

music director. Ms. Dow welcomes all students

The oldest music group at the School, Glee

interested in singing gospel.

Club dates back well over a century and includes Class IV students and Chamber

“It is so great just seeing the kids of all back-

Singers. They sing a standard choral

grounds perform. We have kids who joined

repertoire and perform at assemblies

because they love performing and others who

and concerts throughout the year.

have never sung before. I’ve heard kids say rehearsal is the best part of their day. I want them to enjoy the music, but I also want

“My experience at Milton was transformative for me as a musician. In my a cappella group, I was introduced to different types of music and in Gospel Choir, I sang the music I grew up listening to. Both groups helped me to learn how to be a leader in a field I’m passionate about.”

— oladunni oladipo ’17 4

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them to understand the message and the meaning of the lyrics.” lori dow, Choir Director

“I had such a variety of singing experiences at Milton. I love the instrument of the voice because it is so organic and expressive. I sang solos and duets with my friends at Beatnik open mic nights.

I was a member of Chamber Singers, Gospel Choir, annual musicals, and co-founded REZON8, the largest coed a cappella group at Milton.

We started REZON8 to increase vocal performance opportunities for students so the talent of the student body could be better included and displayed. The memories of sharing my love of music and voice with so many fellow peers and faculty are ones that I’ll cherish forever.”

— dalton letorney ’17 Lori Dow leads the Gospel Choir, 2017

Singing A Cappella

The Miltones

Octet — all girls

The Miltones are the oldest boys’ singing

Miltones — all boys

group. Ted Whalen, music faculty, has

3 For Each of Us — coed

led the group for 22 years. The group ranges

Epic — all girls

from eight to 12 members and their songs

REZON8 — coed

are typically quite current. One of Milton’s

The Octet

a cappella night showcasing Milton’s a cappella

The Octet is Milton’s oldest girls’ singing group.

singers, as well as groups from other high

According to Kitty Benton ’52, the group was

schools and colleges, that often include many

the “brainchild” of Lynn Erdman ’52. In keeping

Milton alumni. It draws a packed house in

with tradition, today’s students audition for

King Theatre.

most popular night events is an annual

one of eight spots. But in a nod to current

Miltones, 1963–1964

times, a beat boxer has joined the group to bring the total to nine members.

“I used to write out their arrangements, but today’s students are really good at making these arrangements on their own, so now I act as their coach. I listen to their arrangements and make sure what they intend is coming out.

The easier it looks, the harder they worked!” louise mundinger, music faculty member who has led the group for 15 years

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studio one

NINA RIGGS ’95

Nina Riggs ’95 In her newly released memoir, The Bright Hour, Nina Riggs ’95 sets up the terms of engagement right at the outset. “Dying isn’t the end of the world,” Nina reports her mother joking in the months before she died. Shortly thereafter, Nina had to reckon with the truth in her mother’s cryptic humor. While she was still undergoing treatment for breast cancer that had been diagnosed 11 months earlier, Nina’s cancer became metastatic and incurable. She was 38. “There are so many things that are worse than death,” Nina writes, “old grudges, a lack of self-awareness, severe constipation, no sense of humor, the grimace on your husband’s face as he empties your surgical drain into the measuring cup.”

Nina was an accomplished poet—well published, a winner of awards. Her habits of mind and heart served her art form: she was an astute observer, interested in the largest ideas and most trivial of details, a committed listener, a deep thinker. Nina’s sister-in-law and fellow poet, Amelia Wilbur Riggs ’03, says that she “appreciates a generosity in Nina’s poetry and a delight in the world she knows. It’s not all centered in her need for self-explication. It has a lovely groundedness.

You can feel her reverence for the real world: what she sees, emotionally, aesthetically. She is clear, witty, imaginative.”

Also front of mind for her family and friends—those from Milton and across Massachusetts, down the East Coast and in her hometown of Greensboro, North Carolina—is Nina the consummate storyteller. “Her stories were vibrant, amazing, hysterical,” says her close friend and Milton roommate Eliza Harrington Myers ’95. “The astonishing thing is that having heard Nina tell them, I’d read them later, and they were even better.”

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ninariggs.com

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In The Bright Hour, the storyteller who is a poet or the

in late January, just a couple of weeks before her death on

crystal-clear, memorable images to conjure up a situation

February 26, 2017. She wrote with vision and the intention to

or to distill an idea, to deftly highlight an irony, to soothe,

finish. Her pages warmly welcome us into the intimate rela­-

to rationalize, to share fear and summon courage.

Nina hadn’t planned to write a memoir until her essay, “When a Couch is More Than a Couch,” appeared in the New York Times weekly column and podcast, “Modern Love.”

In the essay, Nina searches relentlessly for the perfect “grown-up” couch, after 16 wedded years living with “well-

tionships that mattered during a highly con­scious journey, one that purposefully includes humor, beauty and magic.

“Nina’s images are salient, real, and even recent,” says John.

She writes, for example, of her next-door neighbor’s pristine dark-purple house with the hot-pink columns, where constant yard work tidies and perfects, especially

loved misfits.” She’s “propped in bed, on a dozen pillows

with a leaf blower. “When I was spending a lot of time bald

with her laptop.” An internet fiend, she calls herself, home-

on our back deck—in the throes of chemo and buzzed out

bound but inspecting every option the most hip furniture

of my mind by the steroids, thinking, gardening, breathing,

stores have to offer, getting to the bottom of the minutiae of

trying to get my footing in a world where I suddenly didn’t

construction and fabric and variances of period and style.

feel at home—I would often spend the day next to the sounds

The couch project is an irresistible, wry entrée into her own

of Dan’s labor on the other side of the fence. . . . At one point,

and her family’s life: the humorous tenderness with which

as he walked up the back steps to his house, he paused and

her husband, John, defers to Nina the decision about whether

looked over at me sweeping, he who does not make easy

custom upholstery would be a good idea in a household

eye contact even when someone is not bald in their pajamas—

with two young boys; the pretty comfortable viewing those

and we nodded to each other, as though acknowledging

boys are doing right now on an old futon; the invitation from

that the thing rattling loose in both of us was the same.”

her husband to lie quietly and “stare at the ceiling” together on the dusk side of a short, gray January afternoon; the

She recounts digging holes together, hiding, laying out identical clothes for the first day of kindergarten with

silences and what might be happening behind them. As Nina

her cousin Bonnie Dundee (also Milton ’95) in Concord,

considers contemporary versus midcentury modern, she

Massachusetts at their ancestor Ralph Waldo Emerson’s

slips us the facts about the stakes in their lives, the journey

family estate. She takes us with her and John, and their

looming ahead.

boys, Freddy and Benny, to visit Universal Studio’s Portofino

The day after “When a Couch” was published, Brettne Bloom of the Book Group called Nina to inquire about a fulllength memoir. Two weeks later, Nina signed a book contract

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September 2016, and completed the roughly 300-page book

poet who is telling stories creates and weaves together

Bay in Orlando—two months before her death. “It’s hard to keep track of the different levels of artifice here,” Nina says, “and in some ways it reminds me of my own body. It looks

to write the manuscript with Marysue Rucci, her editor

intact—lovely, even, on the outside—but you can sense that

at Simon & Schuster. Nina began working on the project in

on the inside something is not right.”

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ninariggs.com

A meaningful gathering place for Nina is Naushon—the island off the Massachusetts coast, northwest of Martha’s Vineyard, where Nina spent all her summers. On a Labor Day when the “ocean has shifted from hazy gray-green to chilly navy,” to distribute her mother’s ashes, Nina describes the frenetic surviving guinea hen—one of a flock at the start of summer, the others victims of osprey and a fox. “She weaves in and out of the grasses. She does not stop moving until she returns to the roost on her own before dusk each

“Her images convey unifying themes and intersect with universal themes. She was rigorous about self-editing, and didn’t abandon any of her long-held standards, regardless of being sick.” — John

evening. It seems it is not easy to find peace as the last living member of your species at the end of summer on an island in the chilly Atlantic. What must she be thinking? There is no fear as great as her fear. From time to time she lets loose a great squawk, standing at the highest spot on the hill . . . ” “It was not just the compressed time frame of this under-

Nina makes no secret of her anxieties—she had always been a worrier. For example, she was never in a bed other than her own without a plan for escape, just in case, she con-

taking,” John says. “It’s that she never did a project remotely

fesses. Whereas John, she says, with smoke in the hallways,

like this. Writing in this style, rather than poetry, might

alarms ringing and flames licking under the door would

actually have freed her up. She could be much funnier, and

finally acknowledge that they might need to leave. Nina

yet you still have the lyricism of her language. Her images

relates that a therapist once told her that the only thing that

convey unifying themes and intersect with universal themes.

would satisfy her on the internet was finding the website:

She was rigorous about self-editing, and didn’t abandon any

www.heyninariggseverythingisgoingtobeok.com.

of her long-held standards, regardless of being sick.”

At every turn, The Bright Hour offers stunning ironies that could be parsed forever, but one at the center is the bold,

“The physical places in our lives,” John explains, like Naushon, “were stunningly beautiful and also inherently dangerous. The other side of that pervasive sense of absolute

dogged courage Nina shows as she resolutely addresses our

beauty was the equally strong awareness that there was

collective vulnerability, and hers in particular—now that

no safety net. With the ocean surrounding you, you never

she is living “with death in the room.”

forgot that life there is precarious. Existence doesn’t just

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cruise along. Fragility is a part of anyone’s existence and you have to have it constantly on your mind.”

Nina found solace in a favorite volume of John’s during

without understanding,” and “always do what we are afraid to do.” Ultimately, a phrase of Montaigne’s came closest to a mantra for Nina: “‘We have to learn that what

her two years with breast cancer, Michel de Montaigne’s

cannot be cured must be endured,’” Nina says. “You see

Essays. Montaigne was no stranger to death during his life

why I talk to him all day.”

in 16th-century France. His younger brother died suddenly at age 23; only one of his six daughters survived infancy;

Nina’s characters are authentic, flawed and heroic. She draws herself, family members and friends so completely

his best friend died “in his arms at the hands of the plague,”

that we fully relate to them; we’re intensely aware of the

writes Nina. Montaigne himself suffered a lifetime of

particular roles they play in the reality of Nina’s drama.

debilitating kidney stone attacks.

Throughout the book, Nina refers to her oncologist as “the

“I love about Montaigne,” Nina writes, “that despite

Queen,” for instance:

roving bands of thieves and constant political upheaval, he reportedly never kept his castle guarded. He left all his doors

The Queen of Triple Negative Breast Cancer: that’s

unlocked. He acknowledged the terror that could come. But

the doctor I have the great fortune of being squeezed

by considering it and allowing it in, he resolved to live with

in to see for how to treat this aggressive-seeming,

its presence. ‘I want death to find me planting my cabbages,

hormone-negative tumor, the clinic coordinator at

not concerned about it—still less—my unfinished garden.’”

Duke Cancer Center tells me. . . . Dr. Cavanaugh is

Montaigne was Nina’s muse as she responded to what

smart like a switchblade and wears knee-high black

life turned up, and wrote about it. “She, too, chose to live

boots with her white coat. She looks completely

a life that was exposed,” John notes. “As for the metaphor

together. She might be my polar opposite.

of his castle, Montaigne lived with the prospect of death by dint of circumstances and also by choice. Nina opened herself up to existential threat at every turn.”

As she makes her way, Nina also weighs the opinions

the disease determinedly followed its own confounding

of her great-great-great grandfather, Ralph Waldo

course—refusing to meet any expectation and continually

Emerson, and the written conversations Emerson had with

delivering blows.

Montaigne’s writings. Emerson cautions that “life is an apprenticeship to the truth,” that “we must try to see,

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The Queen’s judgment and care, we learn over time, is a critical, trusted source of clarity for Nina, even when

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ninariggs.com

Nina uses perfectly crafted, lively dialogue, family events of the past and future, just the right amount of

history, and events within the book’s time frame, to draw

time she passes this landmark of the roadway from Durham

the full measure of her characters with relatively short

(Duke) to home in Greensboro. “Lyla,” she names the

strokes. Working toward the core of what makes her Dad

scooter’s owner, and naturally there is intrigue in Lyla’s

tick, Nina shares key notes about his childhood and

life. Amelia tells that even when she had to struggle to

then says, “Somehow he grew up into the most competent

breathe, Nina had to share the back story of the wonderful

person I know. He can: ride a horse, head a soccer ball,

EMT who drove her from Duke to the hospice where

fry a chicken, fix a washing machine, fix an engine, tether

she died two days later.

a boat in a storm, dance the foxtrot, build a tree house,

“There was no sharp division between Nina’s domestic

work out a tune on the piano, calm a baby, win at rummy.

self and her artistic self,” John says. “Nina chose to prioritize

He never complains about anything, even though in my

our voice, our marriage, her boys, her family and friends

lifetime so far he’s been struck by lightning, been bitten by

by design. Nina crafted the role she had as a writer. So she’s

a brown recluse and lost his life partner.” As so frequently

left the most amazing legacy anyone could have, for me,

happens in Nina’s writing, this tight little paragraph is

for her boys. I think people who read The Bright Hour will

more than a clever list: it’s rife with soon-to-emerge meta-

get a really true picture of Nina, as an artist and as a person.

phors, foreshadowing, insight and irony.

I’m really glad about that.”

Nina could never resist a story—either ferreting one out from people around her, like medical techs and

by Cathleen Everett

shoppers at Target—or imagining what would fill in the gaps. She describes her colleague patients in the waiting

Author’s note: In addition to Nina’s Milton friends quoted in this

room at Duke as “The Feeling Pretty Poorlies.” She

article, I would like to thank Christy Plotner ’95. After Nina’s

tracks the presence or absence of a white motor scooter

death, Christy helped me understand her own and Nina’s closely

outside the door of a room at the Embers Lodge each

allied experience with breast cancer.

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C H L O E W A LT E R S - W A L L A C E ’ 0 3

Promoting Stories That Need to Be Heard and Seen Chloe Walters-Wallace ’03 Chloe Walters-Wallace grew up watching stories unfold on film sets in Jamaica where her mother is a line producer. Childhood was adventurous and colorful in her eclectic community that Chloe describes as “sort of middle-class hippies who, to this day, are wonderful creative, open, free-spirited people.” Today, she lives in New Orleans, where she multitasks projects and numerous roles centered on amplifying the voices of marginalized people.

“There’s more awareness about the lack of diversity in film,

a society,” says Chloe. “Their work either puts a mirror

Chloe, “a lack of women filmmakers, filmmakers of color,

up to ourselves or explores a different viewpoint to show

and LGBTQ voices. My little slice of this work, which is

life from a different perspective.”

needed in many other industries across the United States, is to push this industry to diversify, because it hasn’t been working so well for these particular filmmakers.”

Chloe is program director for the Emerging Voices

New Orleans lacks the direct connection to an industry that is heavily rooted in New York and California, and that’s a challenge. Chloe previously worked for the Tribeca Film Institute as a program coordinator for Tribeca All

Mentorship program at the New Orleans Film Society

Access, which connects filmmakers of color, women and

(NOFS), which helps expand career opportunities by

LGBTQ groups with industry gatekeepers. The location

connecting six local filmmakers of color with industry

in the center of New York City made her task easier.

gatekeepers each year. Many applicants for the program come from New Orleans, but also from Baton Rouge and

“Here, this North-South prejudice is still going on. We haven’t had a ton of investment here. I don’t know why

Lafayette. Their work includes documentary projects,

that is or what that means, exactly. However, there is a new

experimental films and music videos.

push for a geographic diversity. It’s the new buzzword.

“I love reviewing the applications and seeing how filmmakers use their experiences or the experiences

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around them to tell us stories that we can all connect to as

especially with the debate about #OscarsSoWhite,” says

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It hasn’t really siphoned to New Orleans. but we’re trying to do our best.”

stu dio t wo

DY L A N T E DA LD I ’ X X

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Every October, the NOFS brings East and West Coast film industry leaders to the New Orleans Film Festival, where they are paired off as mentors to the selected filmmakers. In addition to one-on-one meetings, mentees participate in intensive meetings and workshops with other industry professionals to pitch their projects and build further connections. Sundance and Time Warner 150, in addition to smaller organizations like Firelight Media and

in theater, but minoring in anthropology started to shift

Seed & Spark, have participated.

Chloe’s direction. It fostered a love of learning about people’s

New Orleans location may be a challenging work location, but Chloe loves living there. “New Orleans has its own

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After college, she became a research production assistant

distinct culture, but it also reminds me of home: the weather,

for the award-winning director Jonathan Demme, who

the people, the music. People just play music out of their

was working on a film about Bob Marley. She earned a

homes and out on the street. Even New Orleans’ potholes,

certificate in documentary media studies from the Schools

politics and ideas of class—they’re very similar.”

of Public Engagement at the New School in 2008, followed

Chloe’s love of documentary filmmaking loosely goes

All photos by Claire Bangser

lives that led to a passion for documentary filmmaking.

up with a master’s in material and visual anthropology

back to her time at Milton, when she was cast in a 1212 Play

at the University College, London, in 2012. She directed and

production of Medea. She was hooked, and jokes that she

shot her own short documentary, Owning the Oasis, about

could see her name in lights above Broadway. As a Mellon

a secluded street of row houses in New York City.

Mays Undergraduate Fellow at Barnard College, she majored

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“My true love is documentaries and creating films. I love

talking to people and learning about how they see them­-

On the side, Chloe’s labor of love is Tsunami Scarecrow,

selves, or delving into characters and seeing through their

a portrait documentary she is creating about the Jamaican

worldview, and how that precipitated their actions and

artist David Marchand. He was a self-taught mixed-media

their relationships, all of those things.”

artist, who recently passed away unexpectedly. “I really

Chloe actually came to New Orleans five years ago

love complex characters, in life, in art, and David was the

for her other job, media and communications manager

ultimate. To me, he’s also a sign of cultural resistance. He

at the Institute of Women in Ethnic Studies, a public

was a self-declared Dadaist and always knew his worth

health nonprofit. This group does programming and

even when the Jamaican art industry didn’t.”

media outreach on sex education and mental health education that is targeted toward New Orleans youth.

Looking toward the future, Chloe is drawn to the digital media landscape. She is particularly interested in producing

Their most common format is public service announce-

programming like the work of the New York Times Op-Docs

ments on local television, social media, billboards and

or Field of Vision. Chloe is hopeful that diversifying the film

bus ads.

industry will happen, albeit slowly.

“We did a campaign that advocated for quality mental

“I think more voices are getting out there. There’s a long

health resources across the city, and we’re doing a

way to go, and that has to do with the systems in place.

campaign now that addresses the harassment and social

Some of this is changing because of companies like Amazon

marginalization of youth of color, LGBTQ youth, and

and Netflix. But a lot of the people selecting the films are

religious minorities. We want this campaign to reflect New

not people of color. The barrier is that they just don’t connect

Orleans as a more inclusive New Orleans, and push for

with stories from people of color, so they don’t think they

better school climates.”

are important. But the landscape is changing. Social media

She’s also involved in a group called NOW, LOVE,

is bringing so much to the table. No one wants to be talked

which is New Orleans Women, Living Our Values Everyday.

about on social media anymore. It’s a fascinating method

Chloe is helping this anti-Trump, all-women’s action

to get people to change or think differently.”

network coordinate a screening series of films that address issues relevant to each of the group’s action teams.

by Liz Matson

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studio three

AMANDA WEIL ’78

‘Photography Means Writing with

’

Amanda Weil ’78 When she was 10 years old, Amanda Weil discovered a darkroom in the basement of her rambling family home in Mt. Kisco, New York. Her father had built it before she was born. “I have vivid memories about figuring out how to use the darkroom,” says Amanda. She didn’t have a camera, she just made photograms. These are images made by placing an object directly onto the surface of a light-sensitive material such as photographic paper and then exposing it to light. An adult clearly supplied the photographic paper and developing chemicals, “but nobody particularly noticed what was going on,” she says. In fact, the area was wet and she got an electrical shock every time she turned on the enlarger; she quickly learned to wear sneakers to ground that shock. She was free to experiment.

When she did get a camera, she continued teaching herself.

reports, “and in ninth grade I went off to a French school

have a photography program after school, so at 10 years old,

in Switzerland, where I basically single-handedly did the

Amanda marched around the corner to the Spence School

yearbook for the school that year.” In retrospect, Amanda

and asked to take part in theirs. Spence agreed.

muses, overload from that year affected her choosing to

The matters of light and transparency that fired up

years. They roared back to the foreground at Harvard,

child consume her today. Amanda’s studio creates photo-

where she got involved in the Visual and Environmental Studies Department. “My parents were very perturbed.

(www.weilstudio.com). “The glass is transformed by the

‘What? Why are you doing that at Harvard?’ Nobody in

photograph, and the image is transformed by light,” she

my family had any interest in creativity as a life endeavor.

says. Her work references the power of stained glass, which

I was expected to do something far more mainstream—

depends upon transmitted light for the full visual experi-

become a lawyer, or marry one, at least.”

ence. In public and residential locations across the United

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move away from photography and art during her Milton

Amanda’s curiosity and fascination when she was a graphic art-glass installations on an architectural scale

All photos © Weil Studio

“I had a strong identity as a photographer,” Amanda

Nightingale-Bamford, her school in New York City, didn’t

“Clearly I had found something very relevant to me.

States and abroad, Amanda’s large, translucent images

I began using transparencies—photographs printed on

create the look, feel and experience of a space.

a clear background—because they make the viewer more

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weilstudio.com

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conscious of light. Then I started to work with scale because I started thinking about how to keep a viewer’s attention. I found that when you scale up to the size of the body, people begin to have a visceral relationship with what they’re looking at.”

For example, Amanda’s senior art thesis, called “Hanging Around,” was composed of large-scale transparencies of her friends that she hung on a wire grid. “So when

are collage constructions, created from aerial photographs.

In a chair, peering closely at those trees, the visitor comes

you walked by them they would all kind of move. You would feel like you were

to realize that the aerial views are local. He may be able to

mingling among translucent beings.”

locate his own farm. Inside a building on San Francisco’s

After graduating and a fellowship with the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program in New York, Amanda dipped into “the 1980s art world, before realizing that

Mission Street, abstract collections of squares in multiple greens lend light, calm and beauty to a large lobby. Even-

it wasn’t how I wanted to make my way.” She launched her own company, making

tually the squares sort themselves out—when your eyes

furniture using her imagery, and continued pursuing her ideas about photography,

scan upward and drift along the horizon—as a grove of

light and translucence.

California oak trees. Teak benches invite you to stay and

Advancing technology drove the next transformative changes in Amanda’s work.

listen for the birds! Lit against a dark Los Angeles block

A glass manufacturer who’d seen her work in a magazine approached her. He told

at night, translucent pink shapes with delicate, darker-pink

Amanda that he could “do what she was doing with glass,” as she put it, “but at an

veins define themselves as bougainvillea blossoms on vines

architectural scale. ‘Why don’t you sell your ideas to architects,’ he suggested, ‘and

winding over the two-story exterior atrium of a restaurant.

In another restaurant, as you climb an open staircase,

I’ll produce them.’”

“I did that,” Amanda says. “That became the work of my studio. It’s been successful.

you imagine that you’re inside an Etruscan ruin—heavy,

I’m a classic example of an artist with a business, much more an artist than a business

singular, hand-hewn stone blocks surround you. Closer

person.” You’ll find Amanda’s installations in hotels, restaurants and apartment

inspection, as you divert from your menu, reveals that they

buildings from New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles through Ottawa,

are intensely detailed photographs of ancient stones: a

Berlin, Geneva and Tokyo; medical centers in New York, Pennsylvania and California;

glass wall illuminated from behind.

memorials (such as the 9/11 Memorial in New York) and parks.

Typically an architect or designer proposes a space to Amanda that awaits a spec-

Amanda’s work relies on high-resolution digital files.

To capture images she wants, Amanda uses a GigaPan

tacular light-filled focal spot. She generally brings a light designer onboard. With

system, which works by mounting a camera and lens on top

the client, the team considers issues of context, scale and location as well as the client’s

of a robotic head. This system was developed for NASA

vision. The studio creates imagery specifically for each project.

prior to appearing on the consumer market. The robot is

Amanda’s imagery ultimately interacts with its viewers. Sometimes, it simply

programmed to take a grid of pictures in a scene. Using

provides an encompassing tone or a spirit, as do the enormous scans of sea glass that

software to stitch together the captured images into a single

set apart the Weill Cornell GI Oncology Infusion Unit in New York. Other times

photograph—Amanda is able to create an image exponen-

it’s a complex trompe l’oeil, as in an emergency services waiting area in Lancaster,

tially larger than the resolution of a standard image. Expertly

Pennsylvania: from outside at night, the waiting area looks like it’s bordered by a

using the software, she can layer and juxtapose and create

grove of winter trees. Inside, at close range, viewers come to realize that the “trees”

complex views from the visual data. That’s how the lobby

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of the Atlas Building in New York came to be framed by a massive image of the woven, dissembling strands of a textile fragment from the Garment District just outside the building’s doors, juxtaposed against an image of sea and sky.

Only recently, having relinquished her lifelong Manhattan roots and moved to Berkeley, has Amanda been able to “find the psychic space to expand my personal artistic ideas.”

It’s public art that draws her head and heart. For nine years, ending in 2013, Amanda chaired the board of Creative Time, a vigorous New York-based organization that for decades has commissioned and presented ambitious public arts projects, such as the Tribute in Light, the twin beacons

real impact. Creative Time has brought socially engaged art

of light that illuminated Lower Manhattan six months after

into the forefront of arts discourse. Now lots of organizations

9/11. “That involvement has been the most profoundly

are working within that domain, but we were at the leading

satisfying part of my life, really,” she acknowledges. One

edge. I believe we still are.”

extraordinary experience, Amanda says, was being

The project that may end up tapping Amanda’s newly

present for Paul Chan’s staging of Waiting for Godot, with

found psychic space is one she started in 1987 when she was

the Classical Theatre of Harlem, in the desolated streets

at the Whitney Museum Program. “I took a picture every

of the Ninth Ward in New Orleans, after Katrina. “You could

hour for the month of September, every waking hour, and

see that shining a light on that overlooked community was

this is my 30th year. The idea was that pictures accrue

so relevant. That’s where social change starts.”

Creative Time pioneered bold ideas about mobilizing and organizing artists to show that “art matters, artists’ voices are important in shaping society, and public spaces

fascination over time, so I’d take the pictures—wherever I was, in the city—and just put them away.

“I was very idealistic, and I felt in my youth that if you could change the way people see things, you could change

are places for free and creative expression.” Creative

the world. I started out from a very idealistic position.”

Time’s annual Summits, which occur throughout the United

Now that she’s looking at this decades-long series of images

States and increasingly in international locations, gather

she’s created and digitized, Amanda finds it interesting

artists to address explicitly the intersection of art with social

to think that while memory is not linear, these photos create

and political issues.

a linear memory, a way of looking at things and people

Anne Pasternak, currently director of the Brooklyn

over time. She is hopeful that ultimately it will reflect not

Museum of Art, was the executive director of Creative Time

only a chronology, a series of life moments, but also insight

from 1994 through 2015, during Amanda’s tenure as chair.

about our culture. “Because if this project is, in the end,

“My role,” Amanda says, “was to help her realize her extra-

culturally relevant, then I’ll believe that the magic I sensed

ordinary vision over those years. She’s a force of nature—

as a child will have helped me to create meaning. And what

brilliant.”

more could one want out of one’s work in life?”

“I do believe in what Creative Time is doing. Socially engaged art takes culture as its material, and it can have a

by Cathleen Everett

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studio four

DY L A N T E DA LD I ’0 9

Dylan Tedaldi ’09 on the artist he is, and the artist he would be.

Dylan Tedaldi ’09 First soloist for the National Ballet of Canada, Dylan Tedaldi has been dancing since age 6. Early on, he studied jazz, tumbling and hip-hop at a small studio near his home in Boston. Teachers identified his talent, encouraging him to audition for Boston Ballet School, where he studied for many years; he honed his skills through summer courses with the School of American Ballet and San Francisco Ballet School. During Dylan’s Class II year at Milton, he was one of a handful of young dancers in the world invited to compete at the prestigious Prix de Lausanne in Switzerland. There, he particularly excelled in his contemporary solo by Hamburg Ballet director John Neumeier. At Neumeier’s invitation, 17-year-old Dylan spent a year training with the Hamburg Ballet, in a program designed to prepare dancers for professional company life. In 2009, Dylan joined the National Ballet and was promoted to first soloist in 2015.

His roles with the company include playing Florizel in The

Why is the work that you do important?

Winter’s Tale, and dancing the title role in Le Petit Prince. His

Classical ballet shows people what can be created with

repertoire has range, including central roles in Alice’s Adven-

dedication to something highly specialized. The perfor­

tures in Wonderland, Romeo and Juliet, Nijinsky, The Nutcracker,

mances that we share with people are beautiful to see,

West Side Story, Swan Lake, Hamlet and Russian Seasons. Dylan

and at their best they make people think. Maybe the

earned the Rolex Dancers First Award for his performance in

dedication they require translates for the audience and

Spectre de la Rose in 2014 and the Patron Award of Merit in 2011. inspires people to work hard at their own endeavors.

After eight years with the National Ballet, Dylan All photos by Karolina Kuras

For me, working for so long and hard on a single thing,

talks about the challenges, rewards and surprises of being

and being able to realize that, is gratifying. Not every

a professional ballet dancer, and his vision ahead.

single day is gratifying. I’m an artist, but I also work for

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an organization. I have to do things that are not what

because though I want to prioritize myself, I’ll have more

I dreamt of doing when I signed up to be a ballet dancer.

opportunity if I’m satisfying the company and individuals

Reminding myself that this role is the product of a lot

working with me. There’s more stability in working with a

of hard work—sticking with something, getting better

larger artistic organization, and that’s important for me, too.

at it and setting new goals for myself—is important.

I have to be persistent at valuing my artistic pride, because that priority is not in my job description. I could

What is most challenging for you?

easily get away with working to satisfy the artists around

Managing the goals I have for myself, alongside what’s

me, and I’m sure that would lead to a lot of success. But I

expected and required of me by my colleagues and the

wouldn’t be proud of the artist I became.

people who manage the organization, can be hard. As an What’s most rewarding?

I’m most rewarded when I find something new in my perfor-

“I constantly want to challenge what is comfortable for me. I look at every role and every performance as a way of progressing and making myself into a dancer who tells a story and who moves in ways that affect people emotionally.”

mance, and it translates to the people around me. The ultimate success for me is when I’m learning and am proud of what I’m achieving, and that’s confirmed through feedback. In some shows, I’ve performed as I was told and done exactly what was required of me. And that’s led to feedback like, “You really took these corrections. Great show. I could see you were doing what I asked.” In training as a ballet dancer—especially when you’re young—everyone assumes that you’ll do what you’re told, so that you always feel like a student, even when it’s your job.

I feel good about satisfying those people, but not necessarily like I’m dancing the way I want. The ultimate winning

artist, I want to use my work to grow artistically. But I

situation is when I’m able to do what’s asked of me and still

don’t just work for myself. I’m working alongside other

stay true to the way I want to perform something.

dancers, and my personal artistic priorities are not

22

I’ve also had a couple of rehearsal experiences working

necessarily theirs. I have to maintain my artistic integrity

with choreographers who allow us to be very personal;

and be proud of my own work while also satisfying the

their feedback is not so much, “You need to do the steps

artists around me. Achieving that balance can be hard,

this way,” but more, “You need to look within yourself and

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national.ballet.ca

/nationalballet

@nationalballet @nationalballet

feel this way while you’re doing that step.” When I have

tale stories. Many dancers I admire are very technical,

taken choreography to that new place, and found something

wonderful movers. But it’s not fair to me to set a goal

within myself, that’s satisfying. That’s when I’m learning

that has nothing to do with who I am as an artist. I want

more about myself as an artist.

to be versatile, to be able to put myself into any work I perform—to share something unexpected that’s really “me”

What has surprised you?

with the audience. I want to be a well-rounded artist,

I’m not the dancer I expected to become 10 years ago.

an open artist, an honest artist. When I can see who other

I assumed that I would dance the works that I wanted to

dancers are through their dancing, that affects me most.

dance all the time, and I would always be able to grow

I’ve always been a bit shy, and the more I can show who

artistically. I’ve tried to keep pushing myself throughout

I am through my dancing, the more satisfied I am.

my career, but a lot of the growth I’ve experienced has been unexpected. That’s surprising in a great way. It leaves

Interview by Erin E. Berg

room for me to try to achieve some of the goals I had set for myself when I was younger. You shouldn’t limit yourself with expectations, but it’s always good to have goals.

I’ve danced a lot of works that are not the ones I love watching, but it’s all helped me grow, because I’ve been pushed to find something satisfying in each one of those works. That way, when we do works I’m really invested in, I grow that much more, because I’m coming at it from a different—more appreciative—perspective.

What is your relationship with the audience?

When I speak to our audience members, their commentary often falls in line with my feelings about a piece. But sometimes I have a totally different opinion, and I wonder whether the people who should have seen a piece are even in the room. In my art form, you do what you’re told and don’t complain. That’s great discipline. But when I watch a performance myself, the elements I admire most are the windows into each of the individual dancers.

When I listen to my own direction and am proud of the art that I created, the audience members whose opinions I value often enjoy the piece most. The people you admire will respect your being true to yourself. Figuring out what kind of artist you are and not deviating from that for the wrong reasons is important.

What kind of dancer do you want to be?

Within the dance world my position is very hierarchical.

We have principal dancers and soloists. All ballet dancers in a large, classical company set goals for themselves: Most want to rise through the ranks and become a principal dancer. Initially, I wanted to be that kind of dancer—to have lots of large, fancy roles under my belt, to have my name mean something in the ballet world.

But the people who become principal dancers are very specific dancers with a look well suited to these fairy

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studio five

SAM BODKIN ’07

You, too, can have your own, cozy classical music party.

Just log in to Groupmuse Sam Bodkin ’07

Seven stories above West 57th Street, the acrobatic notes of centuries-old piano music nearly drown the Manhattan symphony of sirens, car horns and bus brakes. About 30 people—some strangers, some friends—give their rapt attention to what is happening on the keys.

Sitting cross-legged at the heel of the piano is Sam Bodkin ’07, who closes his eyes and taps his fingers in sync as Jeremy Jordan plays Chopin’s Polonaise in A, Op. 40. Sam is the founder of Groupmuse, a social network connecting classical musicians with audiences at intimate, informal gatherings, typically in the living rooms of apartments and homes.

On this April night, the crowd’s ages range from 21 to about 70. They’ve come to hear Mr. Jordan, a Juilliardtrained soloist and chamber musician. He begins with Saint-Saëns and moves on to Bach and Chopin. Later, he’s joined by jazz musicians to improvise versions of Debussy’s Clair de Lune and the waltz from the video game “Zelda.”

Between sets, guests mingle with the musicians and each other. One woman, a first-time Groupmuser, explains that she enjoys classical music, but is not “the type who’d look forward to getting dolled-up and going to Lincoln Center or Carnegie Hall.” She read a newspaper article about Group-

Sam says of Couchsurfing. “It was eye-opening to see what

muse and was sold.

the internet had made possible in terms of a cultural

People have different motivations when they RSVP, Sam says. It’s a great way to explore a city and meet new people— Sam now lives with his partner, Emily, who was a “solo roller” at Groupmuses when they met; he has built close

exchange and how willingly generous people were with their spaces in the name of that cultural exchange.”

Sam plays the piano but is not a Groupmuse musician— and at Milton, he played in bands and participated in an

friendships and attended weddings of fellow Groupmusers.

album club. He didn’t know anything about classical music

It’s an inexpensive and casual way to hear live classical

until his freshman year of college, when a friend asked him

music, and it’s a venue for performers to connect with audi-

to listen to a cello piece he was working on.

ences that may become fans.

“These are chamber music concerts. Chamber music

“I became an overnight evangelist,” Sam says. “Within six months, I was so obsessed that I went to the Newton

was originally intended for small, intimate performance,”

Free Library and was yanking everything off the shelves

says Sam. “I think the music is a real draw, but there’s

indiscriminately, just packing my brain with as much of

also an overarching sense of the mission, which is to bring

this stuff as I possibly could. I decided, pretty definitively,

people together to experience something with beauty,

that I was going to devote my life to expanding listenership

depth, substance and spiritual significance, these sounds

for this art form.”

that have been inspiring people for centuries. It’s a way to imbue everyday life with great beauty.”

After graduating from Milton, Sam spent a year traveling

Classical music added “richness” to Sam’s life. He began making mixes for “anyone who would express even the faintest whiff of interest in classical music.” After two years

Europe with a friend before entering college. During that

at Colby College, Sam transferred to Columbia, where

time, they used the social network Couchsurfing to find local

he majored in political science, even though, he says, “this

hosts who opened their homes for free to travelers. The

obses­sion with classical music quickly became the focal

spirit of sharing would plant the seed for Groupmuse a few

point of my entire intellectual, creative energy.”

years later.

“That was how we made our friends, and how we visited all of the countries we stayed in, and it was revelatory,”

On breaks during his junior year at Columbia, Sam started hanging out with friends who were studying at the New England Conservatory. Parties in Boston’s

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student-packed Allston neighborhood came with a classical music soundtrack.

“The light went off for me. I could be at an awesome party, with artists who really know how to throw down, and take the moment to listen to something so beautiful. I realized it had infinite potential as a way to get more people into classical music, and also as a way to bring communities together around something meaningful,” Sam says. “Essentially, anyone who has a floor can host a party like this.”

The problem with broadening the audience for traditional classical music performances, Sam says, is environmental. Outsiders might see it as art of the elite, with impersonal concert halls and the formality of the concerts keeping the audience separated from the musicians and the music itself. Although more traditional classical forums often try to bridge the gap by offering discounted tickets to students and The first Groupmuse was hosted by Milton

young people, the assumption remains that classical performance is rigid and stuffy.

“The revelation that led to Groupmuse was

alumnus Jonathan Coravos ’06 in Somerville, Massachusetts. John and Sam each brought

my realizing that providing live classical

friends, and at the end of the performance,

music in a more relaxed, social setting could

Sam asked “Who’s going to host the next one?”

make it a great asset in a moment that seems

Six people raised their hands.

Soon, there were nightly Groupmuses in

so desperately lacking in positive and meaningful social opportunities,” Sam says. “People

Boston. They have since expanded to New

need a reason to be around one another, and

York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle,

to connect to each other.”

with plans to launch in Washington, D.C., Chicago, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Detroit and Cleveland. Nearly 3,000 Groupmuses have been held so far. Performers interested in joining Groupmuse can submit links to audio or video demos through its website, which are then reviewed by the company. If they are of professional caliber, they’ll be approved.

The musicians are matched with hosts based on ensemble size and guest capacity.

Thanks to some “very lucky connections,” Sam developed a rudimentary website in early 2013. By June of that year, he had his first co-founder on-board, a childhood friend and musician named Ezra Weller. Three months later, Sam recruited his friend and second co-founder, Kyle Schmolze, who brought startup experience and Web devel­opment skills.

After a few lean years, Groupmuse stabilized financially. The founders’ first priority was paying the musicians: guests at every

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/groupmuse

@groupmuse @groupmuse

Groupmuse are expected to give at least $10, all of which goes to the performers. To stay in operation, the three raised money through private capital and the crowdfunding website Kickstarter. In 2016, they decided to charge $3 for guests to reserve spots. “That created some much-needed revenue for us,” Sam says, “and it ensured that people would actually show up.” Groupmuse has been profitable since late 2016.

“Overwhelming mistakes” plagued the business as it struggled toward profitability, such as hiring more people than the operation needed.

Now cooperatively owned, any new hires will have a stake in the company’s future.

In addition to its home parties, the company works with other classical music organizations to help sell tickets to young fans through its Groupmuse Nights Out program. They now also offer Massivemuses, larger performances that can accommodate bigger audiences.

Sam’s ambition for the company is nothing short of global.

“I want Groupmuse to be a resource available to musicians in every major city on Earth,” he says. “I want musicians to be able to use it as a tool to cultivate and be supported by local listenership, and I want it to be used as a tool for communities to get to know each other.

If we’re building sustainable relationships that have a positive impact within the places we serve, I will consider it a success.”

by Marisa Donelan

All photos by Ilene Squires

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at milton

B Y C AT H L E E N E V E R E T T

Moving on, with Skills, Insight and Power Milton Artists Speak Their Minds

Some student artists come to Milton hungry to try various media, already tech savvy, aware of the power of design. Perhaps they started tinkering in an elementary after-school art class or got a Flip video camera (now-defunct) as a birthday gift, and kept experimenting. Other teens wake up to an exciting experience in the arts for the first time through one of Milton’s foundational arts program courses, and simply dive in. Ultimately, a number of boys and girls grow toward the particular challenge and reward in the arts. Today, their skills and expectations are likely to be integrative: They easily build on classical principles with advanced design, technology, and materials, and can count on myriad roles in today’s cultural and economic marketplace. At Milton Magazine’s invitation, five seniors selected works of importance to them, and we share those, along with statements about their intent, the technical issues they managed and insightful perspectives on their own creative processes.

Joy Lee ’17 I question what’s around me in day-to-day life, what

shadows it created. Outside the classroom, I began

I have yet to see and to understand. I’m drawn

a journey in publication design that carried through

to narratives in my external environment—used

to industrial design. Now, I’ve learned that social

materials, untold stories of cultures and people.

impact design is the intersection between my desire

I present these ideas and details both conceptually

to help people and my passion for sustainable design.

and viscerally. Spontaneous and physically

While my journey has only begun, I want to assist

connected to my work, I can as easily cover a note-

communities facing challenges through delivering

book with calligraphy as shape an architectural

good design and creative approaches. I dream

form study with mesh window screening and wire.

of being on an international frontline, researching

For this self-portrait, I photographed myself with

social and health issues, and designing creative

my camera set atop a stack of books, fiddling with

solutions that will affect populations and help them

the neck of my small LED study lamp and the

to be independently sustainable.

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a t m i l t o n

Matt Magann ’17 Photography, more than most media, is intrinsically tied to the visible world. A photograph is a literal depiction of something that exists, yet the photographer’s interpretation of that reality is what makes a photograph art. In my work, I like to explore that dynamic. I don’t pretend that my photos are an objective documentation; they hinge on my own experience of the scene. Yet of course they also depict something that physically exists. A photograph is a kind of collaboration between the scene and the photographer: The final product is a synthesis of vision and reality. Photography highlights, celebrates and challenges the ways in which we perceive the world.

Each of these images that are among my favorites depicts a location I found moving. In these photographs, I haven’t tried to minimize the subject. By acknowledging the nature of the image, I let my vision work with the scene to create a final photograph.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP

Bedouin Herders, Wadi Araba, Jordan Al-Hashemi Street, Amman, Jordan The Narrows, Zion National Park, Utah

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@Milton_Academy @miltonacademy

Sam Oldshue ’17 My style can be described as between classic and modern, creating form out of a combination of line and value. Influenced by Impressionists such as Degas, Cassatt, Sargent and Van Gogh, as well as more contemporary artists such as Freud, my expres­sive strokes of intense color and un­balanced composition give each work a distinct psychological mood. Between graphic and tonal, the work, whether painted or drawn, focuses on intense minute details that come together to create form. This attention to detail some­-

to find a tension be­tween photo

and photographs of my own com­-

times distracts from overall form,

realism and realis­tic abstraction.

po­sition, I try to let my emotions

but when balanced, it draws the

I spent years teaching myself to

and my model’s life exper­ience

focus of the viewer to the areas of

capture a subject, to observe and

influence how I express them. Art

the work that most clearly express

copy it onto a page. Since I started

allows me to show an interpreta-

the subject. Oil paints have become

paint­ing seriously, I have been

tion, both physical and emotional,

my preferred medi­um because

figuring out how to balance reality

of a moment, person, or a situation

they challenge me to be both tech­-

with interpretation, struggling to

that is deeply per­sonal. I want

nically sure and expressive, to

paint both a person’s jaw line and

my audience to be able to feel that

escape the confines of form. I try

his personality. Working from life

connection.

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a t m i l t o n

Te Palandjian ’17 “Too Deep” is the second piece in my “Network of Dreams” multi-media painting series. The series depicts girls in surrealistic nature landscapes, Edens that I have explored in my own dreams. The first in my series depicts a girl cannonballing into an ocean of pink jellyfish, only to learn that trees and the White Mountains are beneath the surface. “Too Deep” follows that narrative, depicting what the girl encounters as she sinks into the depths of the ocean. Though she is fearful about the darkness and pressure against her ears, a paradise awaits her—an underwater galaxy of stars, playful manta rays, and streams of light from above. Each time I look at “Too Deep,” I feel the fear, excitement and appreciation for nature that I experienced in my dreams.

From a stylistic standpoint, “Too Deep” characterizes my work. I like to use bright colors (blues and pinks here), gestural and visible brush strokes, and moving forms. I used colored India ink, acrylic paint and spray paint for the streams of light.

I am proud of the chaotic lawlessness of my lines, colors and media. These techniques represent not only my messy passion in the studio, but also my natural approach to life.

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@Milton_Academy @miltonacademy

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP

A great example of using a remote camera. This remote was hidden in the set of the play, right onstage. I used a remote trigger to get the photo of the hairspray with the lights coming down.

Shot this over the Maine coast in the dead of winter, peering down from a couple thousand feet out of a doorless helicopter. Nothing compares with that experience.

One of my favorites, this photo was the moment—in no more than a second, the boy turned away. I love the combination of the perfect pose and the lack of any symmetry in the scene. It’s the perfect candid.

Evan Scales ’17 Having worked for a number of years off campus

right. Before a viewer even reads your text copy, he

in video and marketing, I approach my photography

or she is going to judge the visual appeal of the ad.

with a large emphasis on viewer engagement and

If the image doesn’t draw them in, they’ll never read

entertainment. In many photography classes the

your call to action. This is not to say that my photo-

phrase “because it looks cool” would be frowned upon

graphy is just meant to look “cool”; I also strive to

as a rationale, but I believe that if you can describe

move the viewer with emotion and a message. I hope

your work using that phrase, you’re doing something

you enjoy!

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@Milton_Academy @miltonacademy

at milton

When the Middle School Speechies Took Over Birmingham The early signs were easy to spot in the airport: young teenagers muttering to themselves with animated hand gestures; a lanky kid whose hoodie read “It’s Debatable,” waiting for a chaperone to collect a rental car; young people in matching T-shirts volleying foreign policy factoids.

They were headed to the National Speech and Debate Association’s annual tournament in the third week of June, which brings together middle- and high-school teams from across the country—and from some international schools— to wage a war of wits and words.

Fourteen Milton eighth graders, all Class of

School—a massive building in northeast

extemporaneous speaking in 2016; this year,

2021, represented the Middle School. Milton

Birmingham, Alabama, the modern anchor of

Alexandra Upton ’18 represented the Upper

Magazine followed them for a few days, and

a neighborhood dotted with churches and strip

School and placed within the top 60 in

devised a guide to an often-misunderstood

malls—pockets of cheering popped up; some

dramatic interpretation. Coach Debbie Simon,

tradition.

teams erupted with chants and clapping, as

the tournament’s 2016 Middle School Coach

others fought back tears. Someone suggested

of the Year, will retire in June 2018 after nearly

No. 1: There’s a time and a place for celebration.

that Milton start a chant; after all, sending four

four decades at Milton.

After the preliminaries, after the quarter- and

competitors to the national finals was nothing

semifinal rounds, after the tornado (we’ll get to

to sneeze at.

that in a bit), after they’d spent nearly 24 hours navigating a sweaty, fortress-like building and eating maybe too much candy, the last breaks were announced: The top six competitors in

“We’re not going to do that,” outgoing team co-captain Ben Simpson said gently.

“We’re not that team. That’s not what we do.”

Some Milton speechies were at nationals for

Debbie stated her expectations for this last team early and often: They would be prepared and professional; they would support each other unconditionally, in victory and defeat; instead of focusing on winning, they would “speak their truth.”

each category would advance to the finals, and

the first time, but Milton’s competitive speech

new national champions would soon emerge.

tradition stretches back generations.

work ethic, team spirit and collaboration,”

Marshall Sloane ’17 won the national title in

Debbie told the team the night before

Throughout the cafeteria of Huffman High

“I am so proud of this group in terms of

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a choice of three prompts, then seven minutes to prepare and deliver a speech on that topic; and so on.

Carli Gilson’s dramatic interpretation piece was adapted from While the World Watched, a book by Carolyn Maull McKinstry, who survived the Ku Klux Klan bombing of Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church, which killed four of her friends. Carli had practiced the piece long before the tournament, and a coach at Lexington High School in

but a visit to the church when the Milton

Massachusetts.

team arrived in the city lent power and depth

Speechies learn early that both their words and delivery matter, Chris says. At nationals, competitors range in age and maturity, as well

to her performance.

Jana wrote an original oratory piece on living in a “post-truth society” that swung from

as levels of comfort in their business-formal

lighthearted to heart-wrenching, as she

attire. Some of the youngest kids looked as if

described a sensational headline extolling the

they’d raided their parents’ closets. Most looked

virtues of eating ice cream, and later delved

polished and poised, like slightly miniature

into her own fears about being a Muslim girl

executives at ease in an unusual environment.

in the face of lies and misunderstandings

The documentary Figures of Speech, co-produced by Sami Kreigstein ’04, captures

about her community. The grave danger caused by mass dissemination of false information

the nervous energy of four high-school duo

became clear to Jana during a visit to the

interpretation teams—including one from

Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.

Milton—as they compete in nationals. They’re “competitive acting”: “Imagine you took a

“We all need to realize that our post-truth habit could lead us down a path that history has

theater geek and a varsity athlete and put them

already recorded. So, I invite you to join me in

preliminary rounds started. “I know how hard

together.” Contestants are self-assured,

campaigning for the truth,” she says.

you’ve all worked, and that you care about what

high-achieving and outgoing. In conversation,

you’re doing. And all I want to hear, if I ask you

they’re measured and thoughtful.

how the tournament went, is: ‘I did my best.’”

Ben described the team as a family: “We love

“In speech, you gain the confidence that comes from putting yourself out there and

No. 3: Be ready for anything, even an act of God.

“How tall are you, man?” a judge asked Milton co-captain Garvin McLaughlin when he

and support each other, even if we don’t all

knowing you have mastery of your topic,” Chris

stepped in the room before a storytelling round.

hang out together all the time.” In their text

says. “Some kids come to it shy and nervous,

All eyes were suddenly on Garvin—who is

messaging group, students lobbed encourage-

and others are naturally great speakers. What

taller than this judge—and the other students

ment and inside jokes to each other, birthday

those naturally talented speakers know by

literally sized up their competition. The

wishes and silly videos.

instinct, anyone can learn to do if they put in

question added a perfect twist to Garvin’s story,

the time and effort.”

which required him to transform into Charlie

“Going into every single round, you feel a huge amount of support, because we’re all

Each speech category has strict rules: Duo

the Caterpillar, a character from a 1993

rooting for each other,” said co-captain Jana

interpretation requires the participants to

children’s book who is “very, very small.” He

Amin. Thea Chung, another co-captain,

perform a piece of published literature—they

pulled it off, advancing to the quarter-finals.

added, “It’s not just during the tournaments.

cannot use original material, make physical

Going into the rounds, the speechies had

Speech is such a positive environment that

or direct eye contact, or use costumes or props;

even if you don’t end up winning, it’s hard to

they have to tell a complete story through

might wind up with one who asked abrupt

be sad for very long at all.”

carefully choreographed movements and

personal questions, or the judge who kept his

sounds. People who choose declamation deliver

face parallel to the desk, never looking up

No. 2: When you get it, you really get it.

“Speech is a profound educational experience

no idea what kind of judge they’d meet—they

an excerpt of a speech that was delivered in

from his notes—nor could they count on consist-

public. Original oratory requires the speaker

ency in setting. Events were held in classrooms,

that’s really difficult to explain to someone who

to deliver their own speech, written to educate

computer labs, conference rooms, closets

hasn’t gone through it,” says Chris Palmer ’96,

or persuade the audience on a topic of their

and even open, adjoining rooms, which required

who is a technology contractor with the NSDA

choosing. Impromptu speech gives competitors

competitors to perform as if they were

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unruffled by the simultaneous speeches happening 20 feet away.

They knew to expect the unexpected, and to stay focused through minor distractions, and so an announcement on Thursday afternoon took a few minutes to settle in: All competitors and adults must report to the school’s practice gym immediately, even if they were in the middle of a round. With nearly 1,000 students and hordes of parents, coaches and volunteers packed in and trying to guess the cause of the lockdown, the gym instantly became uncomfortably tight.

Tropical storm Cindy had dropped an EF-1 tornado in Birmingham’s Fairfield neighborhood, leveling a small shopping center and collapsing the roof on at least one home. The only injuries reported were minor, but tornado warnings are taken very seriously in Birmingham, especially after a deadly storm blew through the city in 2011. Huffman High School’s practice gym is windowless and

declamation, for her performance of

fortified by foot-thick walls—it was a safe,

Rita Pierson’s speech “Every Kid Needs

if steamy, place to wait out the weather.

a Champion.”

The tornado arrived just before breaks were

In the original oratory ceremony, Jana

announced. When a competitor breaks, they’ve

stood onstage with her fellow finalists.

moved to the next level of competition. The

Each of the top six would be recognized in

atmosphere before the announcements is tense,

the category. The team buzzed with excite-

even without the interruption of a natural

ment when there were three left, then two,

disaster. “This is what speech tournaments are

and finally erupted in cheers: Jana was the

all about. Waiting, performing, and waiting,”

new national champion.

Thea had said the day before. The students

The Middle School team was also recog­

watched for any sign of official word; any adult

nized as one of the five “Teams of Excellence,”

carrying a piece of paper into the cafeteria

a designation Debbie said recognizes every

could set off dozens of “are they posting the

member.

breaks!?” inquiries. Then, almost as soon

Then it was over. Hugs and cheers of

as the categories were announced, they were off,

congratulations and a fancy team dinner

scattering to classrooms for their next rounds.

followed. On Saturday they explored

Of the 14 Milton students competing, 12 broke beyond the preliminaries.

Birmingham’s historical district, learning more about the city’s pivotal role in the civil rights movement, before flying home

Finally: There’s a time and a place

and dispersing for summer vacation. The

for celebration.

text messages kept coming: “Thank you all

On the last day, the middle school competitors

for everything!!! <3” “Thank you so much

were in downtown Birmingham for the finals,

Ms. Simon . . . these past two years have been

followed by an awards ceremony at the

amazing.” “Oh my lord everyone quiet on

Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Center. Ben

the plane!”

and Garvin’s duo performance, “Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me,” about two hostages

Illustrations by Kyle Nelson

They did their best, and their best was very good.

held in Beirut in 1992, earned them a thirdplace trophy. Sam Bevins took fifth place in

by Marisa Donelan

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a t m i l t o n

Leveraging Applause In Pierre Young’s music class, his second graders are “wiggly,” that combination of tired and giddy that can spell chaos even for the most experienced teachers.

But Pierre, nearing the end of his first year teaching music

sing and dance, stomping their feet and waving their hands

in the Lower School, has a plan. He puts on a high-energy

in sync. Pierre teaches dance moves along with choral and

song and the kids are on their feet instantly, dancing as fast

instrumental music. This summer, Greenleaf Hall’s music

as they can. It’s a chance to re-focus the students before they

room will acquire dance-studio mirrors so kids will be

settle into the rapid-fire pace of Pierre’s class.

aware of their movement as they learn music.

Next, the room fills with a recording of Owl City’s “Good Time,” which the students are preparing for Grandfriends’ Day. Nobody does just one thing in Pierre’s class—so they

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“These kids are ready, they are on fire,” Pierre says.

“They have these gifts and talents, you just tap into where they are and pull them out. It’s my greatest joy.”

@Milton_Academy @miltonacademy

Performance—enthusiastic, early and often—is the chief ingredient in making a lifelong musician or music lover, according to Pierre. The right instruction and encouragement can give students the confidence to enjoy the spotlight, rather than run from it. To that end, it’s not enough to be proficient in scales and rhythm exercises, he believes.

Pierre arrived at Milton from the Boston Renaissance

their self-conscious preteen years, some students withdraw, worried about being embarrassed onstage.

The switch from uninhibited to shy can start as early as third or fourth grade, Racheal says.

“There’s definitely a turning point,” she says. “It seems that they’re aware of the outer world looking at them, and aware of feeling shame and awkwardness. They pull back a little bit,

Charter Public School. From a military family, he was raised

sometimes without the words to describe what they’re feeling.

all over the South. His first exposure to music education

They’ll just say: ‘I don’t want to do it.’”

was through church. At 7, he sang in quartets, and by 13,

Pierre believes that the affirmation of applause and the

he was the director of music in a church. He is a classically

completeness of preparing for and accomplishing a show are

trained pianist and professional jazz musician.

so rewarding, they can help stave off those feelings.

“Lower School teachers told me,” says Principal Racheal

“If you keep performing music, singing or doing other

Adriko, “that in a new music program, they wanted joy.

kinds of theater, whatever it is that keeps you out there, you

‘We want children to understand that music is self-soothing

won’t be afraid to keep going,” Pierre says. “Everybody

and it’s something that will be with them for life,’ they said.”

“In Pierre,” Racheal says, “we have found the Pied Piper

has a voice, and we have to nurture that at the youngest ages.

Even if you can’t play an instrument, you have a voice. You

of Milton. He is more than magical. He is a gift to these

can always sing. If you have the proper tools and the training

children. They adore him. He is a transformative force.”

to get there, the sky is the limit.”

The force was on display at the all-school holiday assem-

“Pierre has brought to our children the permission to

bly before winter vacation last year: As the Lower School

ex­press themselves,” Racheal says. “It’s not just about song.

chorus moved onto the stage—led by Pierre, dressed head-

It’s about appearance and projection. It’s about movement, it’s

to-toe as an elf—the expected clumsy cuteness seemed

about connecting with the people who see the show from begin­

imminent, until they launched into a choreographed step

ning to end. He says, ‘Even when we have a big show, the stage

routine and sang Kool & the Gang’s “Celebration.” The

is still my classroom, so if we don’t get it right, we can start

whole room exploded in cheers.

again.’ He’s helping our children see that mistakes are OK.”

Pierre hopes to preserve the interest in performance among children for as long as he can. As they grow toward

by Marisa Donelan

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c o m m e n c e m e n t 2 0 1 7

Tze’s Fail-Safe Plan for Meaningful Success Tze Chun ’98

This feels like I’m coming home. I was the valedictorian of my own graduating class in 1998. But at Milton, being valedictorian isn’t based

How do you go about doing what you love, every day, for the rest of your life?

on grades. It’s something the class votes on. So, I wasn’t the best student.

Just the most popular. It’s been 19 years since the last time I stood up

1. just do it. I feel like maybe I’m not the first one to say these words.

here. And for those of you in the graduating class who are also blessed

But the truth is, for the most part, it costs you nothing to do what you

with Asian genes, in 19 years you might look like this, too.

love. When I was at Milton, I spent my time outside of class painting, or

I remember standing up here on my graduation day, in a very

making movies. My backpack was filled with paintbrushes, camera

unfortunate, ’90s-style sports jacket and a ponytail, and looking out

equipment, and stage blood. It was weird. But guess what, when you do

at my classmates. I remember the joy and excitement of being able

what you love, things get weird.

to speak to them about the next step in their lives. And I remember

You want to make music, or create an app, or dance? Just do it. (I’m

thinking, wow—I am totally unqualified for this job. I didn’t have

going to trademark that.) You’re growing up in a different age than I did.

all the answers then, and almost 20 years later, I still don’t. First off,

There’s never been more information at your fingertips, but with that also

I don’t feel that I’ve accomplished nearly enough to be your graduation

come the tools to practice doing what you love. Paint, read, take photos,

speaker. And if you feel that way, you should definitely contact Todd

take selfies (don’t do that). If you’re into business, read about startups.

Bland when this is all over. But, since I’m up here, I’ll try. One member

If you’re a scientist, I know that equipment’s kind of expensive, so break

of the Milton family to another.

into a lab and experiment after hours. Then, study law and represent

The last thing I said in my graduation speech in ’98 was this: “In a few moments, one by one, we’ll take our diplomas, then we’ll file

yourself during your trial for breaking and entering. The most important thing is to practice what you love doing, every single day. People generally

down that aisle, past our parents and teachers, and out into the world.

love doing what they’re good at. And finding that out only happens by

It’s a step I’m willing to take, because I know it is time to do so. But I also

practicing. Also, if we’re talking about a generation gap, stop looking at

know that when I take that diploma, I will be paying for it with a piece

your phones. Look at your iPads, the resolution is so much better.

of my heart that can never be replaced.”

Right? So earnest! But what I’ve come to learn is, this has held 100

2. surround yourself with people who help you do what

percent true. I haven’t ever felt as at home, as welcome, as nurtured, as

you love, and help them do what they love. I’m going to get

I did when I was here. I love this school. Here, I found out what I really

real for a second. (Which is, by the way, only something that people my

loved. Which is making art, and telling stories.

age say to people your age before they ask you if you’re on drugs.) I grew

Here at Milton I gained the confidence to believe that I could do those

up with a single mom. She’s out there in the audience right now. My

things, like, for my life. It’s where I met my wife, Cara McKenney, with

sister and I were financial aid kids when we were at Milton. But there

whom I have two wonderful children and who’s out there in the audience

was one thing my mom never spared an expense for and that was helping

right now. Just so you guys know, at Milton, Cara was a jock, and I was

me pursue my interests. She’d buy me books, take me to art shows. Most

an artsy kid. When people ask Cara what I was like in high school, she

weekends when I was at Milton, she drove my friends and me around to

remembers me as, “the emo kid who was always painting and crying

make movies. She rented me a camera. She rented me a gun. Sure, it was

into his ponytail.” So there’s nothing that love cannot overcome.

Since leaving Milton, as I’m sure all of you will experience, I’ve had

a prop gun. But I’ve just always wanted to say to my mom: Thank you for getting me that gun. I really needed it.

good days and bad days. I’ve had good years, and bad years. But through

Look. You may not be in this situation now, because Milton is a

it all, I’ve felt very lucky to have lived a life where I get to do what I love.

special place. But the world is filled with people who want to tell you why

It started at Milton, and it continued. And to me, that’s the greatest gift

you can’t do the things that interest you. People who tell you there’s too

you can give yourself: To do what you love, every day, for the rest of your life.

So, you may ask, how do you go about this? Well, I have a “Four-Point

much competition. You’re not smart enough, not driven enough, or what you want to do has already been done. Those people are only trying to

Plan.” It’s a list, sorry. It’s the simplest way of organizing information.

justify why they can’t do the things they love. Don’t listen to those people.

It’s like a critical essay, except it takes no skill and nobody’s grading you.

(Especially Greg. He’s the worst.) Only you know what you’re capable of.

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3 . don’t let rejection break you. This seems intuitive, but it’s

the easiest thing to forget. Rejections suck. And when you’re starting out, you’re going to get a lot of them. And not to be a jerk, but you probably deserve them. We all do. I didn’t start out as the best writer or director. When I graduated from college, I made 10 short films before getting noticed. That’s 10 films that I begged my friends to work on. Ten films I arduously wrote, cast, shot, edited and submitted to festivals.

Not one of those 10 films was accepted to a single film festival. Sometimes my mailbox would have two or three rejections, back when rejections were, like, mailed to you. They’d just be sitting one on top of the other like some kind of parfait of disappointment. But all that time, I was learning. I was getting better. Most importantly, I didn’t stop. My 11th short film was accepted into Sundance, which opened up doors for me and started my career.

Doing anything worth doing is an uphill battle. The number of rejections you get doesn’t matter, nor does how many people say no to you. What matters is that one person says yes. Don’t give up.

4 . this last thing might be the hardest. embrace your contradictions. Each of you is a unique human being, with your own

interests that may not traditionally go together. Finding your place in the world means exploring those contradictions. Confuse people. You might be a nerd who loves golf. Or an athlete who finds particle accelerators

you are. Dare to be True to your contradictions and your strengths.

super-sweet. Putting yourself in a box so people can understand you

Dare to be True to your dreams. Dare to be True to the pursuit of those

better is not your responsibility. Embrace your contradictions. That

dreams. That is the greatest gift you can ever give yourself.

combination of conflicting elements of who you are? That’s what makes you different from everyone else. And that’s your strength.

And I know I speak for everyone here when I say: We can’t wait to see what you do.

Looking at you guys right now, I’m transported to the last time I was up here. A lifetime ago. I’m so excited for you, about this next step in your

Tze Chun ’98 is an acclaimed artist and filmmaker who began making

lives, about the friendships, and the strengths you’ve developed here.

movies as a Milton student. Tze graduated from Columbia University, where

In two hours, the Quad will be empty. So I just want you to savor this moment.

Look into the audience, at your teachers, your parents, your

he majored in film studies. His film Windowbreaker was accepted at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007. He wrote and directed the 2009 film Children of Invention, a critically lauded story about two young children left

grandparents, your siblings. Then look at each other. Know that

to fend for themselves after their mother is arrested for her involvement in

everyone here is so very proud of you. As you should be with yourself.

a pyramid scheme. Children of Invention, an official selection at the 2009

Milton’s motto is “Dare to be True,” and, as a teenager, that was just

Sundance Festival, earned more than a dozen festival prizes, including the

something that I’d see on plaques, or that adults would say—I didn’t know

Grand Jury Prizes at the Boston and Newport International Film Festivals.

why. But I’ve come back to it, again and again. Dare to be True has meant

Tze, named one of “25 New Faces of Independent Film” by Filmmaker

many things to me over the years. But one way I’ve interpreted it has

Magazine, has also written for television, most recently for “Once Upon a

stayed with me. And if I can leave you with anything, it’s this:

Time” and “Gotham.” His wife, Cara McKenney ’98, is a Creative Arts Emmy

Dare to be True to yourself. Dare to be True to your instincts of who

Award winner for her part in the title design of the television show “Mad Men.”

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c om m e nc e m e n t 2 017, c on t.

College Matriculation, Class of 2017

Amherst College 1

University of Chicago 8

Assumption College 1

Clark University 1

Babson College 3

Colby College 6

Bard College 1

Colgate University 1

Barnard College 2

Colorado College 1

Bates College 1

Columbia University 6

Baylor University 1

Connecticut College 2

Bennington College 1

Cornell University 4

Boston College 4

Dartmouth College 3

Boston University 2

Dickinson College 1

Bowdoin College 4

Elon University 4

Brandeis University 2

Fordham University 1

Brown University 7

George Washington University 2

Bucknell University 1

Georgetown University 4

Carleton College 3

Gettysburg College 1

Carnegie Mellon University 1

Grinnell College 1

Case Western Reserve University 1

Hamilton College 1

College of Charleston 1

Harvard College 16

the talbot baker award On the day before graduation, at the spring prize assembly, three faculty members were honored with the Talbot Baker Award, recognizing excellence in teaching. Created in 1968 to honor Talbot “Bake” Baker ’25, this award “provides a living memorial based on a confidence in the humanity of teachers and the quality of teaching” that Mr. Baker experienced as a student at the Academy and as parent to Nick ’51, Toby ’53 and Ben ’57.

Katie Collins (Director of Academic Skills Center / Goodwin House) Liz West (Middle School Learning Specialist) Sarah Wooten ’04 (Admission Office / Millet House)

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Hobart & William Smith Colleges 2 College of the Holy Cross 1

Sewanee: The University of the South 1

Ithaca College 1

Skidmore College 2

Kenyon College 2

Smith College 1

King’s College London 1

University of South Florida 1

University of Massachusetts, Amherst 2

University of Southern California 1

Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1

Stanford University 5

University of Miami 2

Swarthmore College 1

University of Michigan 1

Trinity College 1

Middlebury College 1

Tufts University 1

Mount Holyoke College 1

Tulane University 1

New York University 8

Union College 1

Northeastern University 1

Vanderbilt University 1

Northwestern University 1

Vassar College 1

Oberlin College 1

Villanova University 2

Occidental College 2

University of Virginia 1

University of Pennsylvania 3

Wake Forest University 1

Pitzer College 2

Washington College 1

Pomona College 1

Wellesley College 1

Princeton University 3

Wesleyan University 4

Providence College 1

Williams College 7

Purdue University 1

University of Wisconsin, Madison 1

University of San Francisco 1

Yale University 7

Sciences Po / Columbia University Dual Program 1

Accurate as of July 6, 2017

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reunion weekend

by the numbers

822

alumni and guests came to campusâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; many traveling from as far as Hong Kong.

â&#x20AC;&#x160;a lumni making class gifts contributed

$

5.8m

including more than $776k to the Milton Fund.

611

alumni made a gift to the Milton Fund in honor of Reunion.

The Class of 1997 led the way with 70 donors. the class of 1982 raised

$

1.93m

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66

committee volunteers contributed time, talent and treasures to make Reunion a success.

54% of the Class of 1967 made a class gift.

stu dio t wo

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r eu n ion w eek en d, con t.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Millet!

On May 25, 2017, Milton’s beloved teacher, advisor and squash program founder, Mr. Frank Millet celebrated his 100th birthday. On campus this spring, during Reunion weekend, 600 family, friends and fans honored his 75 years of service and countless contributions to this School. With words of wisdom and wit from Marshall Schwarz ’54, Yuleissy Ramirez ’11, Will Speers ’75 (standing in for Deval Patrick ’74), James Taylor ’66 and J.B. Pritzker ’82, Milletdevotees from all decades sang and smiled and honored their beloved mentor and friend.

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r eu n ion w eek en d, con t.

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head of school

BY TODD B . BL AND

Listen. Learn. Apologize. Love.

Never Turn Away.

At Milton’s Commencement ceremony on June 9, 2017, Head of School Todd Bland delivered this welcome address to the hundreds of family and friends celebrating Milton’s newest alumni.

I have a conflicted relationship with this day, and perhaps I’m not alone. This is one of the most joyous days of the year and also one of the saddest—a moment to celebrate an amazing class while also saying farewell. I want to use these precious minutes to effectively honor—and appropriately thank—the 190 individuals sitting on either side of me.

I have shared with many of you an internal struggle that is certainly not mine alone: I wonder, is this world . . .

Is Milton . . . Am I getting worse or better with the passage of time? Depending on the day or the moment, I can be absolutely convinced of either.

Never has this question felt more poignant than two weeks ago, when the Upper School came to a standstill of pain, frustration, anger, confusion and need. For me, and for many others, it was one of the most difficult weeks in

Apologize, and forgive. People have hurt you, and

memory, and also one of the most important. We were

will hurt you, and you have done the same. This is a reality

forced to confront some realities about the Milton experi­

of life. Apology and forgiveness are hard—and critically

ence that we must change. Because we are such an

important. You have done it for each other, and I urge you

incredibly diverse place, we have to care for that diversity

to keep doing it for the rest of your lives.

and support it in meaningful ways, and that requires hard

Never turn away. Do the work. Stay the course in your

work. I am sorry that the situation reached such a boiling

relationships, even (and especially) during the bumpy

point, but it was an awakening for which I am grateful.

parts. Resist what you see happening in the world today—

How does a community resolve such deep emotion and challenge? Not easily, not neatly, and certainly not separately.

In committing to this work, we must be in it together. Mean-

people turning away from each other. Dig in, and do the work, particularly when it gets hard.

Finally, love. Love with everything in you. Love when

­ing­ful change requires awareness and understanding,

you feel it in your heart, but more importantly, love when

resolve and resilience. These qualities, these skills, are alive

you sense love’s absence.

and well in Milton students, and certainly in the members

To the Class of 2017, you have learned so much and still (like all of us!) have so much to learn. We all know, as sure

of this graduating class.

Twenty-five years ago this month, Mrs. Bland and I

as you are standing before us today, that you will take the

were married. Just prior to that, someone I respect shared

best of what you are and the best of what you have to make

with me his “cornerstones” of a healthy marriage. I believe

your relationships, your communities, your colleges, your

they are the cornerstones of all productive relationships.

country, your world better. You’re prepared, and you’re

They’re simple, elemental. This morning, I share them

willing—you have proven that. You have inspired all of us,

as lessons that the Class of 2017 has demonstrated for us—

and Milton will be better because of your example.

And so, family and friends: I present to you the 190

in moments big and small.

First, listen. Listen, particularly to those with whom

extraordinary candidates to receive their Milton Academy

you vehemently disagree. Listen to see each other. Listen

diplomas: the loving, listen­ing, learning, apologizing,

to understand, and to learn. Listen to know one another.

forgiving, never turning away, Class of 2017.

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r e t i r i n g f a c u l t y a n d s t a f f Dr. Don Dregalla Music Department Chair Member of the Faculty, 1980–2017 Over his 37 years at Milton, Don has worn many hats: maestro, teacher, department chair, dorm staff member, class dean, tour leader, interim Middle School co-head, baseball coach, hockey timekeeper, president of Massachusetts Music Educators, Ph.D., Talbot Baker recipient. Each speaks to his deep care and commitment.

When Don came to Milton Academy in 1980, the School had one orchestra, with eight stu­dents. Through his dedication and advo­cacy, Milton now has more than 130 students par­ti­cipating in four different orchestras. At Don’s lead, these groups have served students who went on to successful music careers and those who played for their own enjoyment. All were well nurtured under Don’s baton; he has a fine ability to both instill an appreciation of trad­i­tion­al orchestral music and guide his students in exploring new music.

On the walls of the Orchestra room hang flags of the 18 countries that Don and his students have toured. A chaperone observed, “Don’s complete enjoyment of the cultural and

Let us also recognize Kathy Dregalla, Don’s

musical experience is only matched by his

wife of 42 years. In addition to her 36 years

enjoyment of his students’ reactions. His desire

of teaching music in the Newton Public Schools,

for them to have the best possible experience

she has been a loyal and vital member of

is one of his strongest gifts.”

Milton Academy’s Orchestra, playing and

Put all of this together and you have a good sense of Don’s dedication to the young people

teaching bassoon since 1985. She has also taught Milton’s Grade 6 General Music classes

in his care, giving them opportunities to

for the last three years. Her visual attention

per­form and grow. As impressive as his list of

with flowers and posters have brightened

accomplishments is, we all know him best as

Orchestra performances.

a kind friend and colleague. A former Milton

We will miss Don and Kathy’s generosity,

teacher noted, “Don’s unflappable nature

warmth, talents and positivity as they return to

taught me a lot about keeping perspective in

Cleveland—Don’s childhood home. We thank

the tensest situations. He always had a quip

both of them for their long and fruitful service

ready to keep us from taking ourselves too

to Milton Academy, and we wish them happi­-

seriously. I am so grateful to have overlapped

ness as they begin the next chapter of their lives.

with him in my nine years at Milton, and I am thankful for his wisdom, his generosity and

Bob Sinicrope

his friendship.”

Music Department

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Bryan Cheney Visual Arts Department Member of the Faculty, 1968–2017 Forty-nine years of service to Milton does call out for celebration.

When Bryan arrived at Milton in the fall of 1968, he came with “an

Connects.” Though wrestling was new to Bryan, he became “an integral part of the program,” according to Dick Griffin. Griff

embarrassment of riches,” enough talent and energy to power several

remembers a particular photo of Bryan leaping, fist in the air, after

full-time careers. His mind, observed one friend, “whirls everywhere,

we eked out a victory against Governor Dummer (back when it

an idea a minute.” In Bryan’s open way of looking at life, everything is

was called Governor Dummer). Always total commitment.

possible. He has never found a problem he didn’t want to solve, and he

Bryan created the photography program; inaugurated the Wood

is always working on at least one. Some friends suspect Bryan never

Studio course; helped formulate the concept of semester courses;

sleeps; lifelong friend Clay Hutchison ’76 claims that Bryan sleeps with

developed the living floral display seniors build at graduation; and

his eyes open: an apt metaphor, perhaps, for Bryan’s approach.

performed in a number of faculty plays, including Measure for Measure

Gordon Chase thinks Bryan’s signature collection of hats is the perfect metaphor for the roles Bryan has served. A brief sampling of the

and Fiddler on the Roof.

Bryan crossbreeds lilies for fun, and his Christmas tree decorations,

things Bryan has done during his years at Milton includes: Advising the

which require more than a little bit of tree climbing (tree-climbing

yearbook staff forever. Winning a nationwide photo contest sponsored

and wall-climbing have played roles in Bryan’s various personae),

by J&B and serving as photographic editor for a book on Israel. Joining

are legendary.

Kay Herzog and John Torney as the trio of creators of Milton’s pictorial

Back in the early ’80s, when Milton hosted the Ralph Bradley

history: Visions and Revisions. Creating an “installation”: a room-sized

Arts Festival, Bryan organized a famous Arts Parade, which included

timeline for Milton’s Bicentennial, called “Milton Creates, Milton

horses, fire trucks, and a live elephant named Ruth.

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A skilled and visionary architect who has designed homes from Idaho to Florida, New Hampshire to Nantucket, Bryan has helped with every master plan project Milton undertook in the past 50 years. Bryan,

Newton South High School (and then the Park School). By December she and Bryan were married.

Life as a faculty spouse presented its own challenges. Faculty Wife

for instance, suggested moving the arts department to its present

Teas were still a part of School culture in the ’ 70s. At her first tea,

location. As Milton re-sited the baseball field, and it became clear that

Marilyn, engrossed in conversation, sat down in the nearest available

the third-base line would run right through the Cheney garage at Voses

chair. Soon after, the wife of a longtime Latin teacher plopped in

House, Bryan picked up a chain saw and reduced the garage by half so

Marilyn’s lap: Didn’t Mrs. Cheney know that this was her chair?

the third-base line could proceed unimpeded, and Milton didn’t have to destroy a perfectly good garage.

In 1978, when son Colin was born, Marilyn turned her full attention to growing a family, with Ian and Claire arriving in ’80 and ’83,

Ensconced in his basement classroom (his son Colin likened it to a

respectively. Eventually she resumed coaching, increasingly drawn to

mad scientist’s lair), Bryan can claim to have spent more time underground than any other Milton employee. Even so, as one student wrote, “The photo classroom was a place where we all wanted to be because of Mr. Cheney. He gave us a space to laugh, to explore, and to share our evolving vision of the world.”

Bryan has resisted being categorized as a photography or arts teacher. As his wife Marilyn observed, “Forget cameras and architecture. His greatest gift has been giving kids freedom, the ability to see the possibilities in front of them.” In addition to exemplifying “Dare to Be True” in his own life, Bryan has always dared his students to

“A single, powerful theme threads through the many notes of appreciation that Bryan has received: “Thank you for helping me see the world—and, as a consequence, myself—in full.”

see true. A single, powerful theme threads through the many notes of appreciation that Bryan has received: “Thank you for helping me see the world—and, as a consequence, myself—in full.” A 1970 note credited

the younger, novice athletes. “My downfall as a coach was that I didn’t

Bryan with “speeding me forward down the path of becoming a more

care if we won; I cared about how kids learn and how they grow.” One

‘together’ photographer” and others continued through the five-page

drizzly afternoon, Colin came home to find the whole thirds field hockey

letter from a recent grad that concluded, “I do not want to stop talking

squad having a tea party in the kitchen and making brownies.

with someone who has shaped me into who I am today.”

Marilyn has been Bryan’s partner through all those years and

In 1986, Marilyn began directing Christian education at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church and tending to students as dorm mother in Voses

adventures. After a year of coaching and teaching physical education at

House. She continued those roles for 25 years, and expanded her work at

the Milton Academy Girls’ School, Marilyn decided that Milton was not

St. Mike’s to include head of healing ministry.

for her and accepted a position at La Jolla

Next year, for the first time since 1979, someone other than Marilyn will arrange the flowers for Chapel and the two big podium

Country Day. A first

arrangements for Graduation. Reflects Marilyn, “I will miss all the

date between Marilyn

lovely flowers and having quiet time in our Chapel on those Sundays. I

and Bryan happened

am so grateful for this satisfying work.” Marilyn has brought that same

the night after

sense of serenity and happiness to so many students and adults over the

graduation in Bryan’s

years. As one former parent proclaimed, “That lady walks on water!”

apartment in Robbins.

Remembers Marilyn, “The meal was very

Bryan and Marilyn will move to the home in Maine they have been working on since Bryan began his time at Milton. They better have lots of beds and brownies given how many former students hope to visit. It

mediocre. But then he

is a moment of Bryan’s cherished “pure recognition” for us to see all that

showed slides of his

he and Marilyn have done these many years—their partnership; their

trip to Spain. By the

modeling of rich, full, joyful lives; their uncanny instincts as teachers,

third slide of ice

as mentors, as caregivers—and know that we have been blessed.

dripping off the orange

Marilyn and Bryan leave us with an indelible and inspired legacy, and

trees, I thought, ‘Yup,

we are so much the better for it.

that’s it.’” So Marilyn turned down La Jolla

Rod Skinner ’72

and started teaching at

Director of College Counseling

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r e t i r i n g fac u lt y a n d s ta f f, c o n t.

Paul Menneg Visual Arts Department Member of the Faculty, 1980–2017 Inspired by the social change sweeping college

available to his students. He has stayed close to

In the 1980s, the visual arts department

them and to the School’s graduates. And those

initiated the process that led to the construction

students-turned-alumni have experienced the

of the Kellner Center and ultimately to the

laughter, sense of inner calm, and love of the

department’s current home. Paul embraced this

absurd that animates Paul’s everyday life. They

long effort and believed as much as anyone in

know him as a kind man.

the commitment to creativity that this project

Paul helped Milton progress from its

campuses in the late ’60s, Paul Menneg first

groundbreaking Arts Program diploma

taught at the Verde Valley School in Arizona

requirement to a full complement of semester

before coming to Milton. From his first moment

electives. He established a challenging standard

would mean. In the politics that sometimes came into play, Paul remained dedicated to the “cause of art,” understanding that something precious was always at stake: enabling students

in the ceramics area of Warren Hall, Paul

as the department’s primary teacher of

to find their expressive voices, as an essential

personalized his spaces and made himself

ceramics and sculpture. Over time, his students

part of growing up. His students did grow—

won first prizes in New England competitions

many still creating in the ways this dedicated

and demonstrated that they could create

teacher showed them how to do.

works of art that could be called professional.

Informed by Paul’s love of surrealism, these

Paul shared his 37 years at Milton with his spouse and fellow art instructor Maggie

pieces were a surprise and delight to all, as a

Stark, and with their two children, Emilie and

life-sized torso acquired a bird’s nest and tree

Edie. We will remember Paul on campus for

branches for a head, as sculptors transformed

his warm sense of humor and his clear-eyed

found objects into “windows of vulnerability,”

honesty—affirming what Nobel Laureate Bob

and as others created metamorphoses of one

Dylan once said: “You don’t need a weatherman

form into another. Paul’s students embraced

to know which way the wind blows.”

“creative process” in numerous ways, as they constructed cardboard boats to achieve a “Victory at Sea” in Milton’s swimming pool.

Susan Marianelli Performing Arts Department and Upper School Speech Coach Member of the Faculty, 2004–2017

a tie. If I recall correctly, this required multiple sessions for some of our most accomplished students.

Deemed a capable

Gordon Chase Former Visual Arts Department Chair

knows each one as an individual person.

When students enter Susan’s classroom, they are there to give 110 percent—in part because they want to do well at speech competitions, but more significantly because

instructor on how to tie

their relationship with Susan motivates them

a Windsor knot, I soon

to give their all to the craft of speech. When

received another invitation

Susan’s students speak about the speech team,

My friendship with Susan began 13 years ago,

from Susan—a promotion, really, from

it is always in the context of what an amazing

in the fall of our first year at Milton. I received

sartorial consultant to economic and historical

teacher Susan is and how she has helped

an email from Susan, asking if I could help with

consultant. Over the years, I have spent many

them to better understand and to reach their

the speech team. Susan noted her asser­tion that

an afternoon posing current events questions to

potential as students and as people.

Susan is not only a passionate teacher, but

academic excellence should be matched with

Susan’s students, and critiquing their responses.

knowledge of the practical. In keeping with

I have come to enjoy these afternoons with

also an avid student of history and economics.

Susan’s philosophy on educating the whole

the speech team—a window into the world of

A couple of years ago, Susan asked if she could

student, I unexpectedly found myself in the

speech, but also a window into the world of

sit in on my classes, and do the reading but

dance studio standing in front of the mirrored

Susan as a teacher. What I have observed is that

not write the papers. She promised not to

wall with all of the young men on the speech

Susan is not only passionate about her craft,

participate in the discussion, as she felt that

team. I was educating them on the art of tying

but she also cares deeply for her students and

would distract from the students’ learning.

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Maggie Stark Visual Arts Department Member of the Faculty, 1986–2017

into a suite of murals for the town library. Older students in the 3-D Studio Art course would progress from building a func­tional chair out of cardboard to designing a conceptual clock

Practicing artist, gallery director, parent and

based on Alan Lightman’s novel

innovative teacher, Maggie Stark has had to

Einstein’s Dreams.

be a proficient juggler during her 37 years at Milton. Like all the best jugglers, she managed

Maggie’s professional work as an artist and designer animated her teaching. Her

commemorated when grateful colleagues inscribed her name in the concrete apron there.

Looking back, Maggie thanks Milton for the freedom it gave her as a teacher. The

that skill so self-effacingly that after a while the

classroom doubled as her studio space and

eggs seemed to be circling of their own accord.

was filled with silver mirror balls, glowing

School should be at least equally grateful for

glass tubes, and light boxes. As with her

the energy, inventiveness and dedication she

recent “Timelock” series, her many “high-

brought to the challenges freedom presents.

Years before the creation of innovation labs and “maker spaces,” Maggie was already connecting art and science through design.

tech” exhibits, contem­porary in all respects,

She feels that since she came to Milton,

Her 3-D Studio Art course was groundbreak­

have captured human struggles in meta­

students’ attitudes toward art have evolved in

ing for Milton and for secondary education.

physical terms. Her reach as an artist and

positive ways—that, particularly, there is a

Maggie provided an important role model,

educator extended to fellowships that took

stronger sense of the thrill of making things. If

especially for girls in a traditionally male

her to Germany and to South Korea.

this is so, much of the credit belongs to her.

realm. Often using books as triggers, Maggie

Maggie’s commitment to Milton extended Gordon Chase, Former Visual Arts

connected the designer’s world of space

beyond the classroom. Her 11 years as director

and form to the world of ideas. Eighth graders

of the Nesto Gallery produced a stream of

Department Chair

would channel what they’d read into tile

memorable shows. Her leadership in designing

Ian Torney ’82, Visual Arts Department Chair

designs for the Middle School common room.

and installing the playground at the Milton

David Smith, Former English

Ninth graders would transmute fairy tales

Academy Children’s Center was permanently

Department Chair

True to her word, once I started class, Susan focused on taking notes and tried her best not to join the class discussion. Though, the highlights of the semester for both me and my class of eight students were the moments when Susan could not contain herself and would dive into the discussion. Despite her best intentions, Susan became a valuable member of our class.

Susan, your practical, holistic, empathetic and humored approach to both teaching and learning are characteristics that have not only endeared you to your students, but that will also serve you well as you move into the next chapter of your life. We wish you all the best in the next part of your journey, but we will miss you here at Milton.

Joshua Emmott History Department and Wolcott House Head

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on centre Sailing Team Caps Undefeated Season with Third-Place Finish at Two National Events

An epic sailing season ended on a high note when Milton placed third in the ISSA Baker Team Race Championship held in Norfolk, Virginia.

The national race consisted of the top 12 teams from around the country.

Milton qualified for the race after placing second at the New England team racing championship held at Bowdoin College.

The team also had great success in fleet racing—placing third in both the New England championships and the national ISSA Mallory Doublehanded Championship. The number-one-ranked team also won the Massachusetts State High School Champion­ship. These accomplish­ ments capped off an undefeated regular season in which the team went 20–0, losing only four races the entire season and winning every meet.

“Going undefeated was my proudest moment,” says Eli Burnes ’17, one of the co-captains of the team. “We had to be very focused all season, because every race counted.” Co-captain Ginny Alex ’17 said their biggest meet win was against St. George’s School.

The appearance at the Baker race was the first time for Milton Academy since 2007. The weather was not ideal, with low wind and intermittent storms. “We were disappointed that wind wasn’t better, but we have strong skills so that it didn’t hold us back too much,” says Ginny. “We all went in really wanting to win, but coming out of it we were still happy with our third-place finish. We’ve grown so much as a team. During our freshman year, our goal was to make it to New Englands by the time we were seniors, and now as seniors, we made it to team racing nationals once and to fleet racing nationals twice.”

Robotics Team Competes in First National Championship For the first time, the Robotics Team competed in a national champion­ ship, traveling to Council Bluffs, Iowa, for the CREATE U.S. Open of Robotics, one of the largest robotics tournaments in the world. Chris Hales, math and computer programming faculty member, accompanied six students from the team and said it was a great experience. Milton’s team came in 70th out of 250.

Senior co-heads Anne Bailey ’17 and Isabel Basow ’17 said one of the biggest surprises was the team spirit and enthusiasm displayed by all the attendees. “I expected it to be very serious. You work on your robot, compete, and just get it done,” says Isabel.

“But everyone was really into it,” says Anne. “They decorated their areas, hung state flags. There were ‘spirit bots,’ robots that were just for fun and would high-five you or throw candy as you walked by.”

The team competed with their robot “Tokyo Lift,” and despite a few technical issues that cropped up during competition, the team was happy with their performance. Anne and Isabel said they also took away some inspiration for the future.

M I LT O N M A G A Z I N E

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and help rookies.”

Junior co-heads Truman Marshall ’18 and Carson Prindle ’18, along with Thomas Elliott ’18 and Sarah Hsu ’19, were the other members of

“We got a lot of ideas for robot design,” says Anne. “And for the team

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in general. We learned a lot about team dynamics by observing how other teams work together. We saw different ways to distribute tasks

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the team at the championship.

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stu dio t wo

DY L A N T E DA LD I ’ X X

Students Earn State and National Honors in the Economics Challenge This spring, four students represented Milton for the first time in the

grew up learning about economics from his parents. For Jaime, the

National Economics Challenge, after winning their division in the statewide competition. Class of 2018 students Jaime Moore-Carrillo,

subject is the perfect combination of math, history and social science.

“I’m interested in the decisions people make, and the factors that play

Dhruv Jain, Quincy Hughes and Jeffrey Cao were invited to the Massachusetts State House to be recognized as state champions. The

into why they make them,” says Jaime.

Math faculty members Michael Wood and Susan Karp, along with

first Milton students to compete in the challenge, they also placed

history faculty member Mark Heath, helped the students prepare for and

16th out of 35 teams in the semifinals of the David Ricardo Division in

enter the competition. The team developed a study guide and worked

the national challenge.

together to prepare for the broad range of topics.

Questions in the competition focused on economic theory, micro-

The study of economics “simplifies life,” says Quincy. “It’s an

and macroeconomics, and current events. Only one member of the team

interesting study of how the world functions. It helps you understand and

has taken a formal economics course at Milton so far. Jaime, for example,

predict things that should happen under a certain set of circumstances.”

John McEvoy ’82—Alumnus and Parent—Joins the Board Americas Executive Board and Sustainability

John McEvoy ’82 is the managing partner of

Lehman Brothers Communication Fund. He

Neponset Bay Capital LP, a private investment

previously served as principal and partner

Initiative Advisory Board of MIT Sloan School

fund. From 2003 to 2016, John managed

of Soros Fund Management, after holding

of Management. He also serves on the board of

corporate and asset-based investments in the

several credit-related positions at Prudential

directors and as a trustee of the Boys and Girls

aviation, shipping and paper industries for

Investment Corporation.

Clubs of the Twin Cities and Boston.

John earned his bachelor’s degree from

Father to Alex ’19, Leydn ’20 and James ’25,

was a founding partner. Prior to that, John was

Brown University and his master’s in man-

John and his wife, Aedie, live with their family

managing director and London group head of

agement from MIT. He currently sits on the

in Milton.

Wayzata Investment Partners, of which he

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on cen t r e , con t.

Milton’s Ski Teams Win NEPSACs Championships Both the boys’ and girls’ varsity ski teams emerged victorious in the Class B NEPSAC Alpine Skiing Championship held in February 2017 on Okemo Mountain in Vermont. The last time a Milton team won the NEPSACs was 2002, when both teams swept the championships.

The teams competed in the Slalom and Giant Slalom (GS) events. Chris Matthews ’17, captain of the boys’ team, said, “I think a change in mindset definitely lent itself to

Lydia Hill ’17, Katarina Stephan ’19, Sophie

’20 finished second in both Slalom and GS;

our performance at NEPSACs.” Girls’ team

Kylander ’18 and Shayla Kelley ’19. Lydia

Beck Kendig ’20 finished eighth in both Slalom

captain Emily Bell ’17 praised the depth on

finished first in Slalom and second in GS;

and GS; Ben Pratt ’19 finished 18th in Slalom;

both the boys’ and girls’ teams that was

Katarina finished second in Slalom and fifth

and Chuck Leonetti ’19 finished 20th in GS.

crucial to the victory. “The talent runs really

in GS; Sophie finished 15th in Slalom; and

far down our roster,” she said.

Shayla finished 11th for GS. The boys’ team

we all root for each other, so it’s a really nice

accomplished a similar feat, with all four of

support system. Winning both was so exciting,

their scorers finishing in the top 20. Matt Ryan

and we all got to celebrate together,” said Emily.

All five of the skiers scoring points on the girls’ team finished in the top 15, including

Everyone “watches each other’s races and

Tackling Food Waste and a Culture Shift, Two Students Lead the Way Patrick Huang ’18, of Wolcott House, and Daniel Xiao ’18, who lives in

Compost, a residential and commercial “food scrap pickup service”

Forbes House, noticed a problem that irked them: When their friends

operating in Greater Boston. Science faculty member Joel Moore met

and dorm mates took food back to their rooms from the dining hall, the

with the two students regularly to discuss their plans and to work

food waste was discarded into regular trash cans, for lack of a more

on a presentation to School administrators. “Daniel’s and Patrick’s

sustainable alternative. The two boys wanted to do something about

commitment was excellent. They showed patience, grit and diplomacy

it. Last spring they led a pilot composting project in both Wolcott and

throughout the process,” says Joel.

Forbes houses. They’ve launched this program in the same year that

plan, and the two began a trial run of the initiative in February. They

implemented a composting

placed one Bootstrap composting bucket on each floor of the dorm

system in the dining halls

to collect vegetables, fruits, grains, and the dining hall’s compostable

as part of the School’s

paper plates and utensils. Each week, Patrick and Daniel move the

broader sustainability

buckets to a designated pickup location for collection by Bootstrap. A

initiatives.

long-term goal is to receive composted soil back from Bootstrap for the

“We started thinking about how we could

M I LT O N M A G A Z I N E

School’s gardens.

The pilot project ran through the end of the school year. Bootstrap’s

harvest what was being

founder says that it “typically takes two to three months for people

thrown away in the

to fully embrace the service. Over time, compost skeptics will

dorms and give it back to

buy into the process.” Daniel and Patrick are working harder on

the earth,” says Daniel.

communicating about the project to their peers. They hope the project

The boys researched

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Facilities Services and Milton’s Business Office approved their

Milton’s dining services

leads to brainstorming of other sustainability ideas on campus

composting companies

for students to be involved in, including adding more dorms to the

and decided on Bootstrap

compost project.

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Milton’s Artists and Writers Recognized for Outstanding Work Thirty-eight Milton students received recognition—Gold Key, Silver Key or Honorable Mention—in the Massachusetts Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards began in 1923 and are considered the most prestigious arts awards for teenagers in the country.

All Gold Key award work is submitted to the national scholastic competition.

Aditya Gandhi ’18 won a Gold Key and Honorable Mention in poetry. “My interest in writing comes mostly from reading literature. I owe thanks to all my English teachers, but especially to Mr. Connolly.

The two poems of mine that were recognized deal largely with identity and how it is shaped by culture and society.”

Tony Xu ’17 won a Gold Key award for his painting titled “Fish Guts.” “My interest

Hannah Neri ’18 won an Honorable

art. “I’ve taken photography at Milton since my sophomore year and fell in love with

Mention, Silver Key and Gold Key for her photography as well. “My family likes to

in painting, specifically this type of realism

the medium. Working with photography

painting, was inspired by visits to the fresh food

gives me an appreciation for and fascination

travel a lot, so photography is a great,

markets in China as a kid, and also by my own

with people and light, and these two things

portable way to document our trips and

interest in exploring grotesque and detailed

ultimately became the main focus of my work.

the different cultures, in a way that is unique to me. My photography is inspired

images using oils. Brian Kim’s (’16) works last

‘Eleanor,’ my Gold Key photo, is a picture of my

year were also an inspiration. I created this

cousin Eleanor sitting in a pool with her head

by the people and places around me. All

painting from a photograph of a real model that

tilted upside down toward the camera. My

three recognized photographs were taken

I made after purchasing a fish from the market.”

cousin is my favorite subject to photograph—

on trips—two of them when I was in

Caroline Massey ’18 won Silver and Gold

she’s always a very enthusiastic, cooperative

Malawi visiting an orphan school and one

and goofy model!”

of them in Bologna, Italy.”

Keys for photography and a Silver Key in

Students Host Independent School Sustainability Conference at Milton

up of 21 schools from all over New England. Seven schools attended the conference.

“When I’m working on sustainability issues at Milton, I sometimes feel like it’s always me and the same 15 students,” says Ariane. “I was

The student-run Independent School Sustainability Coalition (ISSC)

happy to see so many other students who are working on and saying

held its first one-day conference at Milton to discuss sustainability

the same things I’m doing and saying. It was nice to hear these similar

issues and exchange ideas and initiatives. The coalition was the idea

voices. I also loved learning what other schools are doing and different

of Ariane DesRosiers ’19, who was inspired by the online literary

ways to get the community involved.”

publication The Tavern, a collaborative effort among independent-

Pierce was instrumental in arranging the keynote speaker, Chantelle

school students. Pierce Wilson ’19, Patrick Huang ’18, Max Hui ’18 and

Mendonsa, who works for the Center for Policy Advocacy at the Natural

Jennifer Chen ’19 also played roles in forming the ISSC, which is made

Resources Defense Council.

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in sight

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sports

B Y L I Z M AT S O N

Raneem el Torky ’17

she was 8 years old. In Egypt, schools are for education and clubs are for sports. Raneem spent hours in the city’s snarled traffic traveling

An accomplished squash player from Alexandria, Egypt, finds her footing as a scholar-athlete

between the two. She left school at 3 p.m. and started playing squash around 4 p.m., until courts closed at 10 p.m.: six hours of playing every day except Fridays.

“Literally, I used to live in our car! It was hard work—just school and squash, school, squash, school, squash. That was my whole life. I spent

On the squash court, three-time All-American Raneem Mohamed

every minute during the school year in Egypt either in school, doing

el Torky ’17 is relentless, attacking the ball with tremendous power.

homework, or on the courts.”

That year at Milton, she adjusted to training less and balancing

Unaccustomed to losing, she plays to win every single match. Off the court, however, the aggressive demeanor switches off; Raneem

her academic workload. French and math came easily, but English

is charming, friendly and outgoing. As a sophomore, Raneem was

and science classes were more difficult as she worked to improve

introduced to Milton by meeting other students, moving into her dorm

her English-language skills. Her first big match and for her, the most memorable, was against Deerfield, a traditionally strong team that

and adjusting to American food. One of the biggest culture shocks?

Milton had not beaten in some time. The game was at home and Milton

“I couldn’t play squash because the courts were closed! There were so

fans crowded the benches in the Williams Squash Courts.

many rules that you could play only at certain times and that was hard

“At first, our team felt there was no way to beat them,” says Raneem.

for me. That first weekend I asked another squash player if he wanted to go play and he texted back: ‘Ha, ha, Raneem. It’s Friday night. There are

“Then we were winning matches, and a team win against Deerfield became dependent on my match. When I won, I was so happy. It was

fun activities here. Just go out!’”

Following in the steps of her two older sisters, Raneem had played squash at a sporting club in her hometown of Alexandria, Egypt, since

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such a good experience for me to know that so many people from the school were there watching the team, and we won.”

@Milton_Academy @miltonacademy

“I know Raneem was already feeling at home at Milton,” says Coach Chris Kane, “but walking into the dining hall that night after that

really ended on a real high note, both in terms of her play, but more importantly, to shrug off the previous loss. She played incredibly,

match, I think she felt celebrated in a way that was helpful to her feeling

tactically sharp and intelligently, she didn’t give her opponent any

appreciated here. It was a great moment.”

openings, and, in so doing, she helped us finish sixth. In some ways, she

Raneem’s path to Milton began when her sisters (both professional

hasn’t had as much practice with losing, and here she had to show the

squash players) hosted a Milton squash player, Cece Cortes ’07, who

resilience that is so essential to her growth as an athlete and as a person.

spent time in Egypt improving her game. As a 13-year-old, Raneem

To me, it was quite fitting, even though it wasn’t the storybook ending

encountered Coach Kane at the U.S. Juniors Squash Open. She was

with the title that she wanted.”

traveling with family members and they put her on a bus, alone, to go

This fall, Raneem is excited to be attending Princeton University,

visit the Milton campus. At that time, Egypt was in upheaval; schools

playing squash and considering an engineering major. She hopes one

were shutting down for weeks at a time and daily life was disrupted.

day to return to Egypt, possibly playing a role in helping her country.

Raneem’s family slowly came around to the idea that it would be better for her to attend school at Milton.

Raneem’s junior year at Milton brought challenges—on the courts and in the classroom. She was seeded number one in the U.S. Juniors Squash Open tournament. Having placed second and third in previous years, her goal was to win. Her mother traveled from home to watch.

But Raneem lost in the second round, a stunning upset for her.

“I was really sad and depressed for a while, because it had been my dream, always, to win the U.S. Open. I realized I was not training enough. I wasn’t getting enough sleep. I was struggling in biology, my hardest class. I felt like giving up on all of it.”

Raneem went home for winter break and was unsure if she wanted to come back. Family, friends and Coach Kane convinced her not to give up. “I love Milton; coming here was the best thing that happened to me.

I realized I was just sad that I lost the tournament, not about the school.

When I came back after break, I changed my strategy and a lot of people helped me.”

With the help from teachers and peers, and even a friend’s mother, Raneem immersed herself in tackling biology and succeeded. “I am so thankful for the people who took the time to help me and were there for me.” By senior year, Raneem was on top of her academics and captain of the squash team.

“In Egypt, we play individually, not as a team, and I was kind of crazy on the court. Not like mean or having a bad attitude, but I would get nervous and yell stuff and it was embarrassing. At Milton, playing on a team, I learned to care about the team’s reputation and upholding the school’s name. I really grew up here and became more mature. Being captain of the team taught me how to be responsible and to be a role model for the freshmen. I learned to give the advice that seniors were giving me when I was a sophomore.”

After posting two personal undefeated seasons at Milton, one of her goals senior year was to win the New Englands, but in the semifinals she lost a close match to a Deerfield player, and in the first few moments afterward, she was devastated.

“One of the things we worked on so much over her time here is how you respond to these things,” says Coach Kane. “Well, she came back two hours later, and played, arguably, the cleanest match she’s played in her Milton career and beat a player who is phenomenal. She

Matt Tabor ’17 is an Arizona Diamondback Matt Tabor’s senior year pitching stats explain why Major League Baseball scouts were standing on the sidelines of Nash Field this past spring.

■

6–0 RECORD

■

42 INNINGS PITCHED

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0.60 ERA

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75 STRIKEOUTS, 8 WALKS

At the end of the season, Matt was drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the third round. He made the “hardest decision of my life”—choosing to forgo college and give profes­sional baseball a shot. “This is a once in a lifetime oppor­tunity that I would regret my whole life if I didn’t do,” Matt says.

Matt came to Milton in Class III and lived in Goodwin House.

“My time at Milton was the best three years of my life. When I stepped foot into the dorm, I felt like I had 28 brothers instantly.”

The two-time ISL MVP said he loved the baseball team and playing for Coaches Matt Petherick and Jeff Natale. “All the guys are my lifelong friends and we all laid everything on the line for each other. When the scouts would come out to the games, I never felt like I was being treated differently. I can’t thank everyone at Milton enough for how good they were to me; it was just the best experience!”

Matt’s spent the summer training at the Diamondbacks’ facility from 1 to 11 p.m. every day. Keep an eye out for him!

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c l a s s r o o m

Anatomy of an Exam Project Creating a Digital Self Portrait

The project started with a straight photo: Take a portrait that shows command of particular aspects of the DSLR (digital camera). Frame the photo and select the strongest image using a software program called Bridge. Edit the photo image roughly in Photoshop, and import it into Illustrator. Use the tools in Illustrator to create the full piece.

Exploring identity, which is the real work of adolescence,

Color was one of the strongest features in their portraits,

has always been a major aspect of Milton’s arts programs.

Nicole explains, because they were composed of geometric

Articulating and validating identity was a particularly

shapes filled with single colors. “We dealt a lot with color,

fraught process for the teenagers at Milton during this past

and earlier on in that semester, we had a color blog. The

year’s election and post-election environment. Its impor­

students were able to return to color and consider its impact

tance as a shared endeavor across campus only grew as the

and function in this project.”

Using a tool called Eyedropper in Photoshop, students

months evolved.

created color palettes based on their photos. They could

Nicole Darling, Milton Class of 1997, teaches Technology | Media + Design in the visual arts department.

create a background any way they wanted, and several

The exam project that Nicole developed for her class asked

students chose color as a way of accenting and reinforcing

students to render a visual sense of self, relying on some

their expressions (captured in the DSLR). Making

newly acquired technological skills (January 2017). “There

decisions about the background reflected a whole other

were four pieces in terms of their methodology review,”

level of creativity. How would the image interact with

Nicole says, “but the task was to create a self-portrait that

the background? Ultimately, what Nicole wanted to see

conveys emotion, that explores one aspect of their identity

students achieve was an excellent integration of figure,

and how they see themselves in the world. In doing so, they’d

graphic or text and background—“how all those things

necessarily return to ideas iterated in other formats, and

came together and worked.”

build on the skills they’d gained to create something new.”

Zoe Camaya’s work (Class II) is a particularly successful execution of the challenges Nicole incorporated into the self-portrait. Zoe was patient and demanding during the first phase—working with the DSLR to capture the image and emotion she wanted. She surrounded her image with William Ernest Henley’s bold lines from his poem “Invictus”—“I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul,” lines with particular contemporary relevance.

Zoe searched online for the brushes that would render the effect she wanted with her calligraphy. In Illustrator, she fulfilled her vision: like hovering, smoky ephemera—those words set up a stark tension with the fear and uncertainty evident in her face.

Learning basic principles and practices of design using contemporary and rising technologies is the subject matter of Nicole’s Technology | Media + Design course.

Incorporating these technologies, evolving internet-based resources and basic design principles into Milton’s strong, traditional courses is a leading driver of innovation for the arts faculty. Visual arts department chair Ian Torney sees the connection between these newer capabilities and traditional artistic competencies as essential requirements for successful artists and entrepreneurs in today’s busy art and design environment.

by Cathleen Everett

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milton mur al

A C U R A T E D G A L L E R Y O F A R T S , L E T T E R S A N D D E S I G N B Y M I LT O N A L U M N I

sarah colt ’88 Director, The Gilded Age The Gilded Age is a two-hour program for PBS’ awardwinning series American Experience that explores the dynamic and fluid final decades of the 19th century. The narrative depends largely on the hopes and dreams, and the triumphs and failures, of men and women who took big personal risks to change the direction of the United States. They shared a belief in the promise of the American future, faith in the technological wonders of the age, and confidence that their country could reach for its economic potential while holding onto its most cherished democratic ideals. They were all bullish on America.

The industrialist steel maker and champion of laissez faire capitalism Andrew Carnegie; trend-setting socialite Alva Vanderbilt; white-shoe banker J.P. Morgan; political activist Henry George; and Populist leader Mary Elizabeth Lease all wanted particular outcomes, both for themselves and for their country. Coming up short of their goals, they refused to resign themselves to failure. It is their personal and heartfelt efforts that animate this compelling, complex and urgently relevant story of one of the most convulsive and transformative eras in American history. National broadcast of The Gilded Age is slated for winter 2018.

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tetsu higuchi ’12 and devaughn holliday ’12 Co-founders, Cypher League Media A Brooklyn-based media company and arts collective, Cypher League Media’s vision is to “create platforms for sharing the arts and ideas of our generation.” Today, Cypher League (established in 2012) runs a digital and physical publication; event production; a record label called Dojo; and a music-sharing and collaboration app. The company celebrates young creators—artists, activists, and entrepreneurs who embody the inventive, inclusive, and ambitious spirit of hip-hop. Cypher League, with several Milton alumni as founding members, employs students and recent graduates from universities, including New York University, Northeastern and Cornell. The company profiles individuals who are building by connecting— who seize and provide opportunities for education, expression, and expansion of consciousness. The company’s tagline is “Culture is Yours to Create”—which is also the name of their recent tour that promoted “free-expression, good music, and an empowering mindset” at universities like Middlebury, Wesleyan and Amherst.

In the vanguard of a new movement in hip-hop music and culture, their goal is to provoke curious people into taking positive action, to invigorate a generation of youthful cultural participants, and to be the leading independent media platform for the millennial generation through a dedication to original and relevant content.

Learn more at cypherleague.com.

bill hilgendorf ’98 Co-founder, Uhuru Design Uhuru Design, a multidisciplinary design

the products they use and the spaces they

firm based in Red Hook, Brooklyn, was

inhabit. This is evident in their creative

founded in 2004 by Bill Hilgendorf and his

reuse and repurpose in the creation of fine

business partner, Jason Horvath. Uhuru

furniture and interior spaces.

began as a high-end custom furniture design

Bill and Jason were recognized by the

and build company with a focus on timeless,

Smithsonian, featured as part of the museum’s

sustainable design. Over the past 10 years,

40 Under 40: Craft Futures for innovation

the company has built a full interior-design

in their field. Uhuru’s original Cyclone

division with high-profile projects in the

Lounger, fabricated from reclaimed Coney

commercial, resi­den­tial and hospitality sectors.

Island Boardwalk ipe, was acquired by

A leading innovator in New American Design,

the Smithsonian for its permanent collection.

Uhuru has pieces selected for display in

The company was featured in a 2016 New

the Smithsonian’s and Brooklyn Museum’s

York Times piece titled “The Rise of the

permanent collections. Uhuru offers clients

Locavore Designer.” Bill’s designs will be

and partners access to an influential global

featured on campus in Milton’s Nesto

audience seeking a deeper connection with

Gallery in spring 2018.

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murray “mac” dewart ’66 Editor, Poems About Sculpture Poems About Sculpture is an anthology of poetry—from around the world and across the ages—about humanity’s most enduring art form. Inspired by the ideas embodied in monumental temples and fragmented statues of ancient civilizations, poets over the centuries have converted their reactions to physical materials—clay, wood, glass, marble, granite, bronze—into poetic verse. This anthology, with foreword by Robert Pinsky, ranges from Keats’ Grecian urn and Shelley’s “Ozymandias,” to contemporary works about Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial and Janet Echelman’s wind-borne hovering nets. Sculptures commemorating love or war, objects or apparitions, forms human or divine, have evoked responses from poets, including Homer, Ovid, Shakespeare, Baudelaire, Rilke, Dickinson, Yeats, Auden and Plath. A compendium of one art form reflecting on another, Poems About Sculpture is a treat for art lovers of all kinds.

Mac Dewart has been creating sculptures for decades. His largescale works have been on display in museums and exhibition spaces from as nearby as Harvard’s Fogg Art Museum and Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, to places as far as China, Peru and Russia.

jenny slate ’00 Actress, Landline Landline follows the lives and relationships of the Jacobs family — played by Jenny Slate, Edie Falco, Abby Quinn and John Turturro — in 1995 Manhattan. The film is set in an era when people called from pay phones, relied on answering machines, made mix tapes for their friends, and shared one family PC connected to a dot-matrix printer. Technology is a focal point when sisters Dana and Ali Jacobs discover a floppy disk containing erotic poetry written by their father and intended for someone other than his wife. Infidelity seems a family trait, bemoans Ali, as she learns about her father’s extramarital transgressions and watches her older sister cheat on her live-in fiancé with a guy she knew in college. Dana and Ali’s relationship — and its evolution — is a central thread in the film.

Director Gillian Robespierre and co-writer Elizabeth Holm collaborated on the 2014 film Obvious Child, also starring Jenny Slate. Landline premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2017 and was purchased by Amazon Studios.

One critic nods to the film’s talented cast and “a fast-paced approach from director and co-writer Gillian Robespierre” to developing this “charming, multi-generational dramedy.”

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claire cheney ’02 Founder, Curio Spice Company Founded in 2015, Curio Spice Company introduces customers to the rich world of organic spices from around the globe.

Offering top-quality, flavorful spices sourced directly from farmers and producers, Curio Spice Co. uses the highest standards in organic and fair-trade agriculture. Whether you’re a professional chef, an adventurous home cook, or just trying to get something

jason spingarn-koff ’92 Executive Producer, Daughters of Destiny

quick and tasty on the table, you’ll enjoy how

Daughters of Destiny is a four-part Netflix original

nutrition. The company also provides recipes

these unique spice blends make familiar foods and drinks taste special. Spices are toasted whole, ground and packaged by hand to ensure maximum freshness and

documentary series chronicling the lives of five girls

and stories that introduce customers to the

raised at Shanti Bhavan, a unique coed residential school

people, geography, and cultures behind the

in Tamil Nadu, India. These girls are from families

food. Claire Cheney founded and owns Curio

of the so-called “Dalit” caste and are among the most

Spice Co., a local, independent, Public Benefit

impoverished communities in the world. Directed by

Corporation working to provide a better life

Academy Award-winning filmmaker Vanessa Roth, the

for farmers, protect the environment, and

series witnesses the girls come of age at Shanti Bhavan,

unite people around food. As a Public Benefit

where the expectation is that they must grow up to

Corporation, Curio Spice Co. is focused

support themselves, lift their families and commu­nities

on business that’s fair for all, as well as on

out of poverty, and contribute to the larger world. The

sourcing many herbs and spices locally to

series highlights the struggle of students as they strive to

save energy and improve the local economy.

define themselves, re-define gender and class, and create a new future for the generations that will come after them.

The strength and power of the girls’ own storytelling

To learn more, visit Claire’s blog, Aromatum, at aromatum.blogspot.com.

and dramatic experiences over seven years of filming from the gates of Shanti Bhavan into their homes brings viewers through their stories of family, love, loss, hard work and courage. An original music score by Academy Award- and Emmy Award-winning composer A.R. Rahman (Slumdog Millionaire) punctuates the emotional journey. The series launched globally in July 2017.

For more information about the Shanti Bhavan Children’s Project, visit shantibhavanchildren.org.

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m e s s a g e s Rodney Glasgow

A noted educator, speaker and facilitator on issues of diversity and equity, Rodney Glasgow visited campus to work with students, faculty, staff and administrators on issues of race and identity this spring.

Milton’s administration engaged Mr. Glasgow in response to events in which many Upper School students demonstrated through peaceful sit-ins—a result of rising tensions and incidents of what students viewed as insufficient disciplinary response. Chair of the National Diversity Practitioners Institute, Mr. Glasgow has a long and distinguished career in this work. He serves today as chief diversity officer and head of middle school at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Maryland. Mr. Glasgow earned degrees in Afro-American studies and psychology at Harvard University and holds a master of arts in organization and leadership from Columbia. He is an independent-school alum, having graduated from Gilman School. He is also president of The Glasgow Group, a consortium of dynamic and innovative consultants.

“The privilege of being in this community is that you can make the community what you want it to be.”

Annie Jean-Baptiste ’06

Annie Jean-Baptiste ’06, diversity programs manager for Google’s Global Diversity and

“At Google we talk about ‘building for all,’ and in order to do that, people

Inclusion Team, works to diversify the next

with different perspectives and

generation of technology professionals and

backgrounds need to be at the table,

promote inclusion programs among the tech

with equal agency to voice opinions

giant’s 60,000 employees. She returned to

and get things done. Research shows

Milton as the 2017 Martin Luther King Jr. Day speaker, asking students to honor other people’s

that teams with more diversity and

perspectives, and sharing her beliefs about

deeper inclusion are more innovative

what people can do to be more inclusive and follow

and successful. We can extend that

the life and lessons of Dr. King. Students have

to Milton—we need the diversity of

the power to effect change when they check their privilege, love harder, take risks, break rules,

experience and backgrounds to foster

experience discomfort, and take an empathetic

the creativity and genius that Milton

approach to disagreement, Annie says.

is known for.”

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Kimberly Cheng

All history is global history, says Kimberly Cheng, this year’s Hong Kong Distinguished Speaker. Ms. Cheng presented an overview of her research on Jewish refugees living in China during World War II, explaining the confluence of world events that led 20,000 migrants to flee persecution in Europe. Ms. Cheng is a doctoral student in the joint Ph.D. program in Hebrew and Judaic Studies and History at New York University. She was a Penn Teaching Fellow in the history and social sciences department at Milton. She has also previously worked at the Roman Vishniac Archive at the International Center

“The study of German Jewish refugees in

of Photography in New York City and the archives at the

Shanghai teaches us that history is always global,

History Center of Tompkins County in Ithaca, New York.

always transnational. We tend to isolate studies

She holds a Master’s of the Science of Education from the University of Pennsylvania and an A.B. from Cornell University in history, Jewish studies, and German studies.

of history, but we cannot think of it as bound by national borders, nor can we think of current events that way.”

Chris Waddell

Thirteen-time Paralympic medalist and monoskiing world champion Chris Waddell asked Upper and Middle School students to shift their perspectives of people with disabilities and to push beyond the limits of the labels placed on them. Mr. Waddell became the first paraplegic person to summit Mount Kilimanjaro. He wants his climb, along with his One Revolution Foundation, to improve visibility and opportunities for people with disabilities. Mr. Waddell was inducted into the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame and the Paralympics Hall of Fame.

The Dalai Lama honored him as an “Unsung Hero of Compassion.”

People Magazine named him one of the “Fifty Most Beautiful People in the World.” Skiing Magazine placed him among the “25 Greatest Skiers in North America.” Middlebury College presented him with a Doctorate in Humane Letters. National Public Radio (NPR) named his 2011 commencement address to Middlebury as one of “The Best Commencement Speeches, Ever.”

“Not being able to walk was the worst thing that I could imagine happening, but it was also the most powerful thing that ever happened to me, because I had to get better. I always had to find some sort of solution to every problem.”

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“When I first came to America, feminism was a topic of great debate.

I don’t know why it was resisted. I don’t know why we have to make the case for ourselves.”

Jamaica Kincaid

“A lot of young people are using

Speaking with students as the spring’s

Bingham Visiting Writer, award-winning author Jamaica Kincaid urged young writers

social media to present a view of themselves that isn’t real, just to

to throw off the restraints of convention.

feel like they’re enough. In a lot of

During her time on campus, which coincided

cases, it’s not cruelty or outright

with International Women’s Day, Ms. Kincaid

bullying that makes for a negative

reflected on her career and on womanhood.

Born in Antigua, Ms. Kincaid came to the

social media experience. It’s a low-

United States at age 16. In her first writing job

grade, constant reminder of what

at the teen magazine Ingénue, Ms. Kincaid

you could be, should be, or would be.”

interviewed Gloria Steinem about her teenage years. Soon, she joined the staff of The New Yorker. Her works of fiction frequently examine topics of race, gender and sexuality, and colonialism, along with complicated mother-

Cindy Pierce

Knowing and being consistently yourself—in private and in public—is the key to making

daughter relationships. Ms. Kincaid is a

healthy choices, says Cindy Pierce, this year’s Margo Johnson Endowed Speaker.

member of the American Academy of Arts

Ms. Pierce, a social sexuality educator and comic storyteller, discussed the pressures

and Letters and she teaches at Harvard. Her

that come with “hookup culture” on high school and college campuses, telling students

works include At the Bottom of the River,

they have the power to set boundaries and build healthy relationships that fit their

Annie John, Lucy, The Autobiography of My

lives, instead of focusing on meeting external expectations. Ms. Pierce is the author

Mother, and Mr. Potter. See Now Then, her most

of Sex, College and Social Media: A Commonsense Guide to Navigating the Hookup Culture;

recent novel, won the Before Columbus

Sexploitation: Helping Kids Develop Healthy Sexuality in a Porn-Driven World; and the co-

Foundation’s American Book Award in 2014.

author of Finding the Doorbell: Sexual Satisfaction for the Long Haul.

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“Savagery we were unaccustomed to seeing was put on camera. The Islamic State wanted us to see, in

Graeme Wood

Graeme Wood, last spring’s Class of 1952 Speaker for Religious

Understanding, is a national correspondent for The Atlantic and lecturer in political science at Yale University. His Atlantic cover story, “What ISIS

high definition, and show the

Really Wants,” was the most-read piece on the internet in 2015. Mr. Wood

entire world. This was disarming

spent the last few years reading and analyzing Islamic State propaganda

to many in my profession. For

and speaking with its followers from around the world. Mr. Wood is the

media and journalists there has been a learning curve in how we

author of The Way of the Strangers: Encounters With the Islamic State. He has been a Turkey and Kurdistan analyst for Jane’s, a contributing editor to The New Republic, and books editor of Pacific Standard. His work has

approach this story, this content,

appeared in The New Yorker, The American Scholar, Bloomberg Businessweek,

and how we cover it as news.”

The Wall Street Journal, and the International Herald Tribune.

Franny Choi

Exploring the intersections of race, gender, sexuality and immigration, poet and activist Franny Choi read several of her poems at an assembly

“Our liberation is all

sponsored by the Asian Society and GASP student groups. Ms. Choi,

tied up in the same

the author of Floating, Brilliant, Gone, shared work about life as the queer

thing. If one of us is

daughter of Korean immigrants. Ms. Choi has received awards from

not free, then none

the Poetry Foundation and the Kentucky Women Writers’ Conference for her work, which has been published in Poetry Magazine, The Poetry

of us is free.”

Review, Indiana Review, Margins, New England Review, and others.

Her work has been featured by the Huffington Post, PBS NewsHour, Feministing, and Angry Asian Man. She was a 2016 Rhode Island State Council on the Arts Fellow and former co-director of the Providence Poetry Slam, one of the most highly regarded spoken-word poetry

“Every person is as original

communities in the nation. As a Project VOICE teaching artist, she

as they allow themselves to be.

has taught students of all ages and experience levels.

To look at something that’s happened in your life, and to

Matt Trammell ’09

When you find something you love, you’ll never be bored, Matt Trammell ’09 told students this spring. Matt is a music writer and the nightlife editor for The New Yorker. His work includes following both

draw meaning from it that hasn’t already been assigned to you, is work you’re going to have to do, regardless of

rising and well-known artists through New York City’s concert scene;

whether you’re writing a

reviewing new albums; connecting good music to the culture that it

memoir. It’s going to help you

reflects; and sharing that perspective with the world. During a visit to

find out what you want and

campus, coordinated by English department chair Tarim Chung, Matt

what you have to contribute.”

attended classes and met with student groups and publication leaders.

Milton was the first place he learned that he could write well, he says.

At New York University, Matt realized that he could marry his lifelong love of music and his skill for writing into a career, taking a freelance job writing album reviews for Rolling Stone. After NYU, Matt worked at FADER magazine, prior to his role at The New Yorker.

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Dr. Angelika Fretzen

Bob Ryan

Victories in pharmaceutical research may be life-changing, or they

Well-known sports journalist Bob Ryan made the case that sports play

may be very small, says Dr. Angelika Fretzen, senior vice president

an important role in people’s lives, whether they are athletes or fans.

of product development at Catabasis Pharmaceuticals. This year’s

Along with other “leisure pursuits” such as books, movies and the arts,

Science Assembly speaker, Dr. Fretzen discussed Catabasis’ research

Mr. Ryan said sports fill a gap, enriching lives with a competitive and

into a drug to regenerate muscle and lessen the effects of Duchenne

unifying spirit. Mr. Ryan is a retired columnist for the Boston Globe’s

muscular dystrophy. Prior to joining Catabasis, Dr. Fretzen was vice

sports section, where his work still appears semi-regularly. He has been

president of pharmaceutical chemistry and development at Ironwood

writing for the Globe since 1968, covering all of Boston’s sports teams.

Pharmaceuticals, where she led the development and approval process

Mr. Ryan is also a regular panelist on ESPN’s Sunday morning

for the irritable bowel syndrome drug Linzess. She was an Alexander

roundtable, “The Sports Reporters.”

von Humboldt Fellow in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University. She holds a Diploma (M.S.) in chemistry from the University of Würzburg in Germany and her Ph.D. in organometallic and synthetic organic chemistry from the University of Geneva, Switzerland. Dr. Fretzen also has an MBA from Suffolk University in Boston.

“If you are open to finding what fascinates you, what will grow into a passion over the years of your life, the next steps will come to you. You don’t know exactly what those next steps are going to be, but discovering that passion is perhaps the most important thing you could do at this stage

“Some people say sports are just entertainment. But sports are unscripted, which is what makes them different from just entertainment. When you go to a concert, you don’t want to be surprised; you want to hear the music you expect. With sports, there is a good chance for surprises.”

in your life.”

Doris Edwards

To better understand humanity and where we are today, young people should seek out the stories of older relatives and loved ones, Holocaust survivor Doris Edwards told students.

Born in southern Germany in 1929, as a young girl, Ms. Edwards witnessed the rise of the Nazi party. She and her older brother were

“If you have an older person in your family, ask them to share their life with you.

Once they are gone, those stories disappear.”

evacuated to the Netherlands through the Kindertransport rescue program, while her parents fled to the United States. Her grandmother, along with her aunt and cousins, died in concentration camps. After a dangerous journey through Europe, Ms. Edwards and her brother reunited with their parents in New York City. Ms. Edwards now shares her story through the Facing History and Ourselves nonprofit, an educational program that asks students to examine topics of racism, prejudice and anti-Semitism. Her visit to campus was sponsored by the Jewish Student Union.

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M I LT O N M A G A Z I N E

3Peat

Beginning with a single suggested word from the audience, the 3Peat improv troupe rolled

out a series of hilarious scenes for students in King Theatre. Five members of 3Peat, an acclaimed part of Chicago’s vibrant improv comedy scene, came to Milton as Melissa Gold Visiting Artists. They performed for and with students, held a master class in the basics of improv, and visited several classes, including improvisation and public speaking.

3Peat, which plays every Monday at Chicago’s legendary iO Theater, formed in 2012. The performers, who are all black, were friends and improv teachers involved in Chicago comedy but felt pressured to compete with one another for a limited number of parts in theater and television, which inspired them

“The student performers were way

to form 3Peat.

ahead of where I was expecting them to be. They didn’t hesitate to get up and participate. As a group, we don’t judge

“There are people who say that humans aren’t responsible for changes in the climate, but

one another. It’s a space where you can

that is contradicted by the research and opinions

feel safe to be silly and just have fun.”

of 97 percent of climate scientists. Frankly,

— Torian Miller

we’d better hope that climate change is humancaused. If it’s human-caused, we can do something about it. If it’s not, we’re hosed.”

Bob Inglis

A revenue-neutral reduction in carbon emissions is within reach for the United States, former U.S. Representative Bob Inglis told students.

He says that achieving it, however, will require politicians who deny mankind’s effects on the climate to change their tune. Mr. Inglis is the founder of RepublicEn—a network of Republicans acknowledging humankind’s impact on climate change. He proposes a carbon tax that would provide financial incentive for manufacturers to lower carbondioxide emissions. When he publicly acknowledged the human influence on climate change, Mr. Inglis lost his congressional seat in a primary to Trey Gowdy, the Tea Party Republican currently representing South Carolina’s 4th district. Mr. Inglis was this year’s Earth Day speaker, sponsored by the student environmental group Lorax and the Sustainability Board.

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“My hometown is not very diverse, and it’s easy to get stuck in a mindset. Moving into Hathaway House, I was immediately surrounded by people from around the world. For many of them, giving back is a life orientation, not an obligation, and that mentality was new to me. It started me thinking about my own place in the world. Last summer, I volunteered with several Milton graduates teaching English in Myanmar—that decision came from a lot of reflection. I am indebted to the people who have given to Milton—people who made my scholarship possible.

I’m a stronger thinker, student, friend and leader because of Milton. Now I want to carry that opportunity forward for others.”

Ailsa Beggs ’18 Hathaway House Sandpoint, Idaho

Dare is a campaign about people: our faculty, our students, and the power of their experiences together. Learn more about how you can support Milton today, and for decades to come. milton.edu/campaign • 617-898-2447 katie_connolly@milton.edu

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milton.edu

/MiltonAcademy1798

@Milton_Academy @miltonacademy

class notes 1937 Eleanor Gleason Bleakie is proud

Office, Hugh Marlow is still living

Lisa Wardlaw continues to look

to have reached the age of 97. She

in Middlebury, Vermont. His

back on her K–12 years at Milton

lives by herself on the Gulf River in

wife joined him in retirement his

with great fondness and appreci­

Scituate. She has four kids, two of

past spring. They have traveled

ation. She lives year-round at

them Milton alums, and a total of

together to Istanbul, London,

Squam Lake, still selling real estate.

six grandchildren. Eleanor remem­

Bosnia, Slovenia, Croatia and more.

She catches up with her three children and six grand­children

bers the days at Milton when the

They have a daughter who lives

only way girls were allowed to

less than an hour away, two sons in

in Utah and New York whenever

meet boys was to join the Glee Club

Texas, and a third son in Colorado.

possible. She also recently made

or take a science class.

a trip to Taos, New Mexico, for

Sidney Walker was one of the 28

1957

students from the girls’ school

After graduating Milton, Benjamin

some awesome skiing! She feels fortunate to be in good health.

who graduated in ’37. As one of

Baker made it through college in

only two girls who had come from

five years, spending one year in the

1961

public schools, she experienced

United States Coast Guard. He

Dr. Barbara K. Lawrence has

some culture shock during her

made his way back to Massachu-

recently released her latest book,

first few years at Milton.

setts and eventually became the

The Other Island: Ben’s Story, the

City and Regional Planning

sequel to Islands of Time, publish­

1947

Assistant Director of New Bedford.

ed in 2013. Award-winning and

Nowadays, he’s a bookseller at

best-selling author Paul Doiron

After selling his Milton home,

Baker Books.

calls it “ . . . a moving and beauti­

Judy Robbins continues her liter-

coastal fishing communities.”

Fred Eustis moved to Westport,

Massachusetts, to build a house.

Eleanor Gleason Bleakie ’37 remembers when the only way girls were allowed to meet boys was to join Glee Club or take a science class.

fully written novel of Maine

He has one child, Edith ’03, in

ary pursuits on the board of the

Best-selling author Christina

New York, and one child, Peter

local library, and by editing A

Baker Kline adds: “ . . . a beautiful

’06, in North Carolina. All of the

Lifetime of Genesis, a combined

love story set in Maine.”

Eustis alums were greatly helped

memoir and biblical reflection, by

by Mr. Millet and remember

Rabbi Henry Zoob. Judy’s son is

▼ Nate Barbour was meeting

him fondly.

back in the Boston area, having

family from Australia in Spain

returned from years as a professor

last August when he ran into an

1952

at the University of Pennsylvania

old friend and Milton classmate

to become dean of Boston College’s

Tom Haigh at the Plaza de Mayer

Steve Endlar and his wife

School of Education. Judy has two

in Madrid.

Alberta recently moved to

grand­children, one a college junior

Belmont, Massachusetts, after 43

and another just graduated.

Dr. Barbara K. Lawrence ’61

years in Brookline. Avid skiers,

published The Other Island:

they enjoy the winter and

Ben’s Story, a sequel to

summer at Sugarbush with their

Islands of Time.

children and grandchildren.

Steve and Alberta spend March in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. ▲ Rev. John D. Sussesell was

1953

sorry to miss his 50th Reunion

Having retired after 28 years in

friendships and gets in contact

Middlebury College’s Alumni

whenever he can. He is doing well.

in June, but treasures his old

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cl a s s no t e s, con t.

1962

1980

After enjoying two years of

complications due to Parkinson’s

The short film, Symposium,

retirement, David Fuller was

disease. Donald leaves his adoring

written and co-directed by Tom Grady, premiered at the Boston

lured back to sit as family court

wife, Laura; his beloved children

judge in Western Massachusetts

Sarah, Samuel and Georgia; his

International Film Festival April

for several months, beginning in

stepsons Andrew and Oliver, and

2017. It is also an Official Selection

December 2016, to alleviate a

their wives Bethany and Jocelyn.

of the 2017 Newport Beach Film

judicial shortage. On another

Festival. The film stars Academy-

court, he is on a team of 65+ tennis players who represented New

1967

Award nominee Margaret Avery

England in the 8.0 Nationals in

A breast cancer scare since the

Surprise, Arizona, in early May.

last Milton Reunion changed

Warren Koehler would be proud.

everything for Geraldine Mason

(star of The Color Purple).

1981

Bryant. She also became a cyclist

David Smalley just celebrated

and an athlete at age 65, cycling

30 years of marriage to Cecilia.

David Fuller ’62 sat as

through the five boroughs of

Their daughter, Kate, is a nurse

family court judge for a

New York, the Loire Valley in

practitioner and was married

France, and the Connemara

July 2015; she expects their first

Coast in Ireland. She continues

grandchild in March. Their son

to channel her expertise in

Nick is an officer in the United

few months after retirement to alleviate a judicial shortage.

musical composition and docu­-

States Navy and was married in

mentary filmmaking.

October 2016.

1970

1984

Joel Davidson is currently

▼ This year, Christopher Walsh

working as an organist at a church,

completed a long project of

▲ Pam Sebastian was thrilled

a high holiday cantor, and a social

com­piling, restoring, photo­

by the arrival of her newest

security lawyer—winding down

graph­ing and exhibition of art by

grandchild, Bear.

1963

but not stopping. He relaxes in

his late father Kenneth B. Walsh.

Naples, Florida, as he ponders the

Along with two exhibitions on

transition to retirement. Hello to

the South Fork of Long Island,

Glenn Spear ’69!

where his father lived and painted, Christopher created a book of

While keeping up with a 2 ½-yearold granddaughter in northern Rose Kernochan ’77 is pursuing a degree in library and information science, with a focus on social media.

his father’s work and a website,

Vermont, wood hauling and

1977

tutoring, Jenny Hamlin Russell

Rose Kernochan is married and

book and website feature essays

is back in the classroom, teaching

living in NYC with one daughter

written by Christopher and his

two classes of extraordinary

at Milton, Anya Wiggins ’18.

brother, Jonathan Walsh ’82.

ESL students from Russia, Haiti,

After a career in publishing—

Ecuador, Mexico, Nepal and

and then motherhood—she is

beyond.

pursuing a degree in library and

KennethBWalshArt.com. The

infor­mation science, with a focus on social media. So far, she has

1964

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enjoyed doing internships at NYU

Donald Gibby Paige passed away

and the International Culinary

February 12, 2016, while in the

Center. Next term, she will be at

loving embrace of his family, from

Columbia studying social media.

milton.edu

/MiltonAcademy1798

@Milton_Academy @miltonacademy

1985 outdoor guide with NOLS, the Chewonki Foundation, the University of Maine’s Maine Bound and Plymouth State University. ▲ More than 30 years after

graduating from Milton, John Cutler still keeps Milton’s motto

1988

close at hand. He is married to

Alexandra “Alixe” Callen became

classmate Rebecca Cutler (née

the first woman to lead the

Lipman). They have two children,

120-year-old St. George’s School

a son, 22, just graduated Trinity

when she began her tenure on

College, and a daughter, 19,

July 1, 2017.

James “Jaime” Hannon ’85

attending Washington University.

recently authored the

▲ Joey Chase and his wife, Clara,

James “Jaime” Hannon recently

1989

are happy to announce the birth

authored the Appalachian Mountain

Leia Roza Portnoy, born January

Club’s Mountain Skills

of their third child, Wesley Forest

Club’s Mountain Skills Manual,

31, 2014, in Bulgaria, was adopted

Manual, an essential guide

Chase, on June 2, 2016. Wesley’s

an essential guide for every hiker,

by Adam Portnoy and Elika

for every hiker, backpacker

proud grandmother is Nancy

backpacker and explorer. Jaime

Portnoy on July 18, 2016, joining

Burley Chase ’50.

has worked as a teacher and

big brother Axel.

Appalachian Mountain

and explorer.

Science at Milton goes well beyond beakers and Bunsen burners. The discipline comes to life through innovative faculty who bring real-world experiences to the classroom; curious students pursuing the field’s most perplexing questions with determination; experiences beyond the classroom and lab— field trips, clubs and organizations—that fuel passions. Your annual gift to the Milton Fund makes this possible.

www.milton.edu/donate 617-898-2447

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cl a s s no t e s, con t.

1996

1990 Her brother Matt Corey ’97 is a

Jayna Zweiman founded the

world traveler, peacemaker and

Pussyhat Project to produce the

now entrepreneur, starting an

pink hats worn by millions of

asset management company in

protesters at the Women’s March,

the United Kingdom. Her brother

and at many other demonstrations

Jeff ’91 and his wife have two

since. Recently, she has started a

children and live in Wellesley,

new project: Welcome Blanket.

Massachusetts.

Volunteer knitters will send

▲ Meika Neblett married Rich

handmade blankets to immigrant

Cronin on May 27, 2017, at the

families, along with a note from

Beacon XV hotel in Boston. In

the knitter.

attendance were friends and Jayna Zweiman ’96

fellow Milton alums Sarah

founded the Pussyhat

Bynum, Emma Jacobson-Sive,

1997

Project, a volunteer-based

Touré, Lily Batchelder, Roxana

On December 17, 2016, Cameron

knit hat project, producing

(Alger) Geffen, and (there in

pink hats worn by millions of

spirit) Dierdre Reber.

demonstrators at the 2017 Women’s March.

Robert Margarite was born to ▲ Andrew Shultz was married

Audrey Beaton Margarite and

to Judith Yu in May 2016.

Michael Margarite.

1991

The wedding was officiated by

▼ Hannah Lerman, along with her

were Tom Giordano and Edgar

1998

husband Kendall and son

Ngwenya, and Megan McCallion

TJ Hynes was born November 3,

Marcus Sarofim, groomsmen

’91 attended.

2016. His birthday is just two

daughter, Piper, on April 26, 2017.

days before that of his father,

They are thrilled she’s here!

1993

Tod Hynes.

Spencer, welcomed her new

2000 ▼ On June 17, 2016, Mark Angeloni

and his wife Allison welcomed their son Ryan Luca Angeloni.

Amy Kurzweil’s ’05 debut Flying Couch: A Graphic Memoir was published in October 2016.

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M I LT O N M A G A Z I N E

1992 Since being back in Boston after

▲ Lindsey Ollman Huebner and

time in New York and Los

her husband, Daniel, are excited

Angeles, Lisa Duggan has

to announce the birth of their

reconnected with many Milton

daughter, Elsa Georgia, in March

friends. She and her husband

2017. Elsa joins her older half-

Kevin welcomed their daughter,

siblings, Emery, 15, and Greta, 13.

Leila, in 2013, and her little

Lindsey and her family live in

brother, Jack, in September 2016.

Marin County, California.

milton.edu

/MiltonAcademy1798

@Milton_Academy @miltonacademy

In Memoriam 2002

2005

Ryan Sebastian ’06

▼ Marc A. Pitman’s third book,

Amy Kurzweil’s debut Flying

Milton Magazine of Spring 2015 features the exciting,

Ask Without Fear for Christian

Couch: A Graphic Memoir was

boundary-shifting work of classmates Harry

Ministry, was published this

published in October 2016.

O’Hanley and Ryan Sebastian, engineers at SpaceX

March. The book provides a

Through illustrations, Amy

in Hawthorne, California. We now note with

jargon-free guide to fundraising

works through her own identity

great sadness, Ryan Sebastian’s death (June 15, 2017)

for ministry leaders.

as an artist, as well as her family’s

of bone cancer. Ryan led Milton’s Rocketry Team

history after surviving the

and he credited Milton and Tom Gagnon (Science)

Holocaust. Kirkus has praised

with fostering and developing his love of rocket

Amy’s work as “a debut that

engineering. Ryan was my gracious and erudite

enriches and extends the

guide to the remarkable SpaceX manufacturing

potential of graphic narrative.”

facility. He was comprehensive, clear and patient, sharing the energy and creativity of his engineering role at SpaceX and explaining the company’s culture and goals. His company’s founder, Elon Musk, believes that the United States will get to Mars; at that moment in time, Ryan did as well. We are grateful to Ryan and will miss his contribution to science, to his family, and to his many friends.

Cathleen Everett

2004 ▼ Jordan Raphel married Jessica

▲ Young Government Leaders–

Murphy in San Francisco in the

Atlanta Chapter selected

fall of 2016 in the company of

Elise Lockamy to the cohort

many Milton friends and former

of inaugural honorees of its

faculty. Guests included Jordan’s mother Annette Raphel and his

“YoungGov40” Award. The award highlights the metro-Atlanta

brother Aaron Raphel ’96, and

region’s top government

2004 classmates Jelena

employees under the age of 40.

Djordjevic, DJ Mauch, Nathaniel

She is currently a health scientist

Naddaff-Hafrey, Jon Simpson

at the U.S. Centers for Disease

and Jesse Drummond, along

Control and Prevention.

with former faculty members Bob and Weez Gilpin.

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cl a s s no t e s, con t.

2007

2013

▼ Class of 2007 Head Monitors

Jordan Quintin received a

and Class Monitors Steve Sando,

Fulbright scholarship to teach

Adit Basheer, Samantha Yu and

English in Kenya next year. When

Jane Suh met up at Reunion this

she returns, she will continue her

past summer and re-created a

teaching career with Teach for

photo from back in the day!

America. She and her family are grateful for the time she spent at Milton, the teachers who gave her the tools and educational experience required to fulfill her dreams, and financial aid that made her Milton experience

2006

possible.

▲ Alex Rodman and Jeff Marr ’04

were married on September 17, 2016. They were joined by many

2014

Milton classmates, including

▼ Sydney Park was given the

Stephanie Richards, DJ Mauch ’04, Bennet Hayes ’04, Armeen

Health and Wellness Award by top photo: Steve Sando,

Columbia College and Columbia

Poor ’04, Ned Samuelson ’04,

Adit Basheer, Samantha Yu

Fu Foundation School of

Jim Frantz, Andrew Baird ’04,

and Jane Suh

Engineering and Applied Science

Mark Motejunas, Yi Li ’05, Justin

bottom photo: Steve Sando,

on April 17, 2017. The award

McIntosh ’04, Ilana Krieger ’04,

Jane Suh, Adit Basheer and

recognizes a spirit of caring for

Bailey Carroll, Jessalyn Gale,

Samantha Yu

community and the ability to

Katherine Marr, Emily Tsanotelis

establish an example of a healthy

’04, Stacey Harris, Elizabeth

balance of responsibilities, duties,

Katz ’04, Josh Krieger ’04,

and activities through leadership.

Annie Jean-Baptiste, Zoe Jick, Nick Lazares ’04, and Scott Motejunas ’04.

Claire Opel ’06 founded Summer Youth Corporation in New Mexico, a summer camp for children on and around Navajo Nation.

Claire Opel is preparing for the

third season of the nonprofit summer camp she started with a former teacher colleague. Their camp, Summer Youth Corporation, works with children on and around Navajo Nation. ▲ Three Miltonites in the

Chicago area are starting their first year at the Kellogg School of Management together: Julian Fu, Brooke Kingsland and James Frantz ’06 proudly displayed the

Faulkner House coat of arms and a Milton Academy pennant.

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M I LT O N M A G A Z I N E

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/MiltonAcademy1798

@Milton_Academy @miltonacademy

Alumni Athletics soccer

Last Fall, alumni and parents came together to compete for the annual Blackman-Hays Alumni Cup. They hope to see more old friends at this year’s Cup! ▲ 40 and over milton alumni team (milton players in orange):

standing: Kem Poston ’93, John Cuming ’77, Chris Trakas ’77, Seth Handy ’85 (white jersey), Chris Churchill ’85, Bruce Chafee (friend), Kent Lamere ’73 front: Bill Atwood (parent), Swing Robertson ’81, David Walker (parent), Chris Robertson ’83, Bill Hanson ’89 ◀ milton class of

2016 alumni players Gavin Baker-Greene, Luis Viceira, Adam Branson, Jerry Ozor

▲ alumni cup milton team

back: Chris Robertson ’83, Charles Gill ’05, Gavin Baker-Greene ’16, Luis Viceira ’16, Adam Branson ’16, Jerry Ozor ’16, Matt Enright ’05 front: Daniel Sibor ’01, Andrew Stachiw ’05, Doug

lacrosse

Sibor ’05, David Walker (parent), Seth Reynolds ’94,

During Reunion Weekend 2017,

Jacob Garfinkle ’03

alums gathered for a game of lacrosse. ◀ back: Tom Gagnon (faculty),

Corey Simonson (faculty), Mark Harrington ’72, Geordie Dunnington (faculty), Orhan Gazelle ’07, Rich Gedney ’15, Zac Trudeau ’05, Matt Enright ’05, Jack Cahill ’14, Rob Hawkins ’04, Chris Karlson ’14, Miles Bailey (faculty) front: Eddie Richardson ’12, Nicholas Gagnon ’12, Benjamin Gagnon ’15, Harry Pearce ’12, Owen Martinson ’17, Matt Sullivan ’13, Whit Harrison ’02

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boa r d of trustee s Robert Azeke ’87

Margaret Jewett Greer ’47

Stephen Lebovitz P ’10 ’12 ’14 ’17

Dune Thorne ’94

New York, New York

P ’77 ’84 G ’09 ’13 ’14

Weston, Massachusetts

Lincoln, Massachusetts

Bradley M. Bloom P ’06 ’08

Chevy Chase, Maryland

Emerita Emeritus

Yunli Lou ’87

Erick Tseng ’97

Shanghai, China

San Francisco, California

Wellesley, Massachusetts

Eleanor Tabi Haller-Jorden ’75 P ’09

Stuart Mathews P ’13 ’17 ’17

Kimberly Steimle Vaughan ’92

Charles Cheever ’86

Wädenswil, Switzerland

Vice President and Secretary

Boston, Massachusetts

Concord, Massachusetts

Waban, Massachusetts Franklin W. Hobbs IV ’65 P ’98

Luis Viceira P ’16 ’19

Douglas Crocker II ’58

Emeritus

John McEvoy ’82 P ’19 ’20 ’25

Delray Beach, Florida

New York, New York

Milton, Massachusetts

Mark Denneen ’84

Harold W. Janeway ’54

Chris McKown P ’13

Boston, Massachusetts

P ’79 ’81 ’87 G ’12 ’14

Milton, Massachusetts

Elisabeth Donohue ’83

Webster, New Hampshire

Belmont, Massachusetts Dorothy Altman Weber ’60 P ’04

Ted Wendell ’58 P ’94 ’98 ’01

Emeritus Wendy Nicholson ’86

Claire Hughes Johnson ’90

New York, New York

Sylvia Westphal

Caterina Papoulias-Sakellaris

Boston, Massachusetts

P ’18 ’21 ’25 ’27 ’27

Menlo Park, California Randall Dunn ’83 Chicago, Illinois

Peter Kagan ’86

P ’17 ’19

New York, New York

Milton, Massachusetts

James M. Fitzgibbons ’52 P ’87 ’90 ’93

William Knowlton P ’23

Liping Qiu P ’17

Boston, Massachusetts

Beijing, China

Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts John B. Fitzgibbons ’87

Emeritus

Treasurer

Lakeville, Connecticut

M I LT O N M A G A Z I N E

Kevin Yip ’83 P ’16 Hong Kong

H. Marshall Schwarz ’54 P ’84

86

Ronnell Wilson ’93 West Orange, New Jersey

Emeritus

Bronxville, New York

Milton, Massachusetts

Vice President

President New York, New York

Boston, Massachusetts

◀ CL A SS O F 1942 (75TH R E U N I O N) John Carey.

▼ C L A S S O F 1 9 5 2 (6 5 T H R E U N I O N) Tim Gates and his wife, Katerina.

▼ C L A S S O F 1 9 5 7 (6 0 T H R E U N I O N)

front row: William Driver, Helen Wilmerding, Penelope Hull, Toni Stackpole Russin, James Bowditch, Patty Potter Anderson, Frank Yeomans, Steve Anderson. back row: Nick Estabrook, Charles Lutz, Daniel Oliver, Peter Moore, Henry Fuller, Robert Hubby, Ephron Catlin, Gerry Flynn, John de Neufville.

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▶ CL A SS O F 19 62 (55T H R E U N I O N)

front row: Pam Watson Sebastian, Dina Roberts, Bet Ladd Cecill, Amy Bright Unfried, Julie Cheever. back row: Wilson Pile, Bill Rogerson, Diana Pappas Hamilton, Bob Rugo, David Millet, Arthur Perry, Polly Abell Jimenez.

▼ CLASS OF 1972 (4 5 T H R E U N I O N )

Dave Evans, Mark Harrington, Rod Skinner, Mark Buckbinder.

▲ CL A SS O F 19 67 (5 0T H R E U N I O N)

first row: William Quinby, David Condliffe, Frances Yerkes, Anne Slichter, Holly Cheever, Jean MacDonald, Gretchen Wagner Feero, Meredith Davis, J. Maxwell Bleakie, Harrison Drinkwater. second row: Carolyn Stetson, James Hivnor, John Ballantine, Margaret Hunnewell, Geraldine Bryant, Sally Walker Helwig, Jana Palfreyman Porter. third row: John Robbart, Timothy Marsters, John McCutcheon, Lindsay Murphy, John Sheldon, Peter Tenney, Marion Paolilli, Betsy Hurd, Edith Stevenson, Mimi Drummond, Nora Morgenstern, Stephen MacAusland. fourth row: Charles Hewitt, Stephen Silman, Lyn Wheeler Anderson, William Hobbs, William Fitz, Edward LeBreton, James Sargent, Robert Armstrong, Phoebe Armstrong, Tucker Drummond.

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M I LT O N M A G A Z I N E

▶ C L A S S O F 1 9 7 7 (4 0 T H R E U N I O N )

first row: Lina Waingortin, Ellen Sibley, David Giandomenico, Arnold MacDonald, Elizabeth Bisbee, Lisa Simpson, Tim Sommerfield, Jennifer Evans Lussier. second row: John Cuming, Chris Trakas, Becky Greenleaf, Chris West, Heather Crocker Faris, Rick Smith. third row: Morris Tyler, Bill Roslansky, Grace Evans, Danny Evans, Laura Spence-Ash, Ben Procter, Susan Twitchell. fourth row: Charlie Truslow, Betsy Prout Lefler. fifth row: Mike Ryan, Joe Merrill, Rose Kernochan, Susan Rogers Moehlman.

▶ C L A S S O F 19 82 (35 T H R E U N I O N)

front row: Ed Sneiderman, Bonnie MacDonald, John Feldman, Anne-Marie Aldous, Katie Robbins, Michelle Villegas, Nick Gray, Wally Kemp, Margie Talcott, Julia Shepherd, Diana Manchester Barrett. second row: Paul Schofield, John McEvoy, Bradford Daley, Rich Stetson, Phil Robertson, Fred Nangle, Toni Chute, Mike Kinnealey. top rows: Eric Howard, Steve Kylander, Mark Robinson, John Ohlson, John DeMatteo, Fran McLean, Steve Georgaklis.

◀ C L A S S O F 19 87 (3 0T H R E U N I O N)

front row: Jennifer Goldberg, Marin Street, Christine Turner White, Chris Dusseault, Kate McNay Koch, Abby Smith Davis, Megan Teare, Skip Wiemeyer, Jay Wilkins, Nancy Joyce, Rupa Mitra, Lori Dandridge Cunningham, Katie Zilla-Ba. second row: Catharine MacLaren, Kiersten Wendell Blest, Darrell Kirton, Nick Schmid, Terrance McGuire, Ashley Mattoon, Bryant Urstadt, Sarah Crittenden, Alethia Jones, Jason Peckham. back row: Jared Eigerman, Stewart McDowell, Jeffrey Breen, Tom Lowenstein, Michael D’Esopo, Rob Azeke, Lex Mathews, Robert Young.

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cl a s s no t e s, con t.

◀ CL A SS O F 19 92 (25T H R E U N I O N)

front row: Yeng Felipe Butler, Jhoanna Aberia Belfer, Laura Wood, Diane Popeo, Tina Courey, Molly Merrill Ladd, Phoebe Knowles, Enrique Colbert, Peter Scoblic. second row: Lee DuBose, Kendra Motley Demopoulos, Phil Belfer, Laura Chauncey Westmoreland, Pat Dundas, Reed Johnstone, David Kahan, Jonathan Rein. third row: Jeff Kirkman, Stan Szeto, Kimberly Steimle Vaughan, Eliza Erikson, Kathleen Lintz Rein, Tim Dempsey, Justin Blumenstiel, Molly Wheat. back row: Adam Burr, Tyler Langlois, Emily Lloyd, Meg Aldrich, Max Clendenning, Amanda Filley, John Mitchell.

◀ CL A SS O F 19 97 (20T H R E U N I O N)

front row: Drew Hendrickson, Lucy Flood, Heather McGhee, Cassim Shepard, Jackie Barton Pomahac, Lauren Whatera, Carmen Rijo, Meg Riley, Nathaniel Callahan, Laura Ford, Patty Murphy, Sarah Case, Nicole Darling, Samuel Cox, Brian Haley, David Bihldorff, Michelle Buckley. second row: Samuel Lester, Jared Miller, Scott Golding, Jill Brewer, Lisa Puglisi, Alyssa Friedman-Yan, Annie Moyer Martinez, Sara Shaughnessy, Will Gardner, Jess Phifer, Debbie Accetta Pedersen, Esther Freeman, Katie Wade, Jeff Cooper, Will Hutchinson, Ethan Kurzweil, Peter Curran, Matt Courey, Jon Crafts. third row: Kyle Quinn, Hilary Sargent, Lily Davis, Alex DePalo, Tyler Schiff, Sarah Kenney, Josh Olken, Mufi Taher, Francesca Texidor, Kurt Collins, Jack Donahue, David Rand. back row: Abraham Role, John Camera, Jamie Haverty, Jay Haverty, Eve Manz, Emily Murphy, Aisha Woodman, Elizabeth Ward, Jenny Shoukimas, Lucas Crowley, Ted Noon, Nima Safabakhsh, Josh Frank, Meroe Morse.

▶ CL A SS O F 2002 (15TH R E U N I O N)

front row: Anne Duggan, Adrian RosselloCornier, Kyle (Kennedy) Kerr, Caroline Sterne Falzone, Ellie Berens, Hays Golden, Caroline Donovan, Tze Chun. second row: Mona Safabakhsh Joss, Chloe Dugger, Ian Pegg, Fazal Yameen, Hilary Frankel Tsibris, Dave Forbes, Yvona Trnka-Amrhein, Sarah Shea, Jen Ragus Saarbach. third row: Emily Cutrell Mahoney, Nick Kojucharov, Momoko Hirose, Collin Davis, Sara Perkins Jones, Caroline Curtis Hayes, Brittany Beale Hampton, Mike Carthas. back row: Sam Burke, Miguel Williams, Pablo Ros, Jill Kruskall, Sarah Ceglarski, Alison Quandt Westgate.

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In Memoriam Class of 1943 Lorna Owen Morehouse Class of 1944 Jean MacDill Dougherty Class of 1945 Louis Cloutier Janet Cook Krache Clinton Townsend Class of 1946 Kathleen Harris Anderson Class of 1951 Morgan Palmer Class of 1953 Jenepher Rice Lingelbach ▲ CL A SS O F 2007 (10TH R E U N I O N)

front row: Caitlin O’Malley, Teresa Curtis, Sarah Ebert, Cecelia Cortes, Samantha Yu, Lauren Alliegro, Neha Wadekar, Samantha Lee, Alex Place, Alex Desaulniers, Tina Nguyen, Hanna Tonegawa, Meredith Ruhl, Emily Kemper, Rachel Konowitz, John Ghublikian, Adit Basheer, Erica Bibby, Veronika Sykorova, Stephanie Wye, Tim Corkum, Lauren Cohen, Beau Cohen, Mike Cohen. second row: Orhan Gazelle, Jacquie MacDonald, Aiyana Ryan, Elle Davis, Nina Monfredo, Chandler Sherman, Elizabeth Whitman, Nick Makinster, John Shepard, Phil Keefe, Tim Walsh, Alice Bator, Sarah Paige. back row: Charlie Posner, Justin Kahn, Rueben Banalagay, Jono Forbes, Zubin Thomas, Kenzie Bok, Korei Klein, Steve Sando, Ivan Kozyryev, Alex Bean, Frank Smith, AJ Harris, Eskor Johnson, Will Driscoll, Emeka Kanu, Sam Bodkin, John Don, Mike Matczak, Andy Giandomenico, Clare Choi, Elsie Kenyon, Kelsey Hudson, Jane Suh.

Class of 1954 Henry H. Thayer Class of 1958 Philip Stockton Class of 1960 Charlotte Goodhue John B. Millet Jr. Class of 1963

▼ CL A SS O F 2012 (5T H R E U N I O N)

front row: Darryl Bobbie, Brian Yip, Gordon Batchelder, Eric Davis, Travis Sheldon, Walton Lee, Merilin Castillo, Shannon Reilly, Henry Arndt, Patrick Burke, Jackson Walsh, Hannah Auerbach, Tiffany Nguyen, Bright Osajie, Babafunso Akinwunmi. second row: Louis McWilliams, Josh Ruder, Tori Cabot, Megan Kim, Kate Ballinger, Elly Day, Molly Gilmore, Natasha Bhasin, Kamyra Edokpolor, Sarah Evans, Erin Martin, Zach Belnavis, McKean Tompkins, Catharine Leffel, Liz Stanfield, Ben Scharfstein, Tom Schnoor. back row: Mackenzie O’Neil, Shauna Yuan, Vince Kennedy, Jessica Carlson, Christian Castillo, Jared Friedberg, Jack Platts, Harry Pearce, Brandon Daly, Curtis Hyman, Tetsu Higuchi, Eric Nesto, Paul In, Thomas Englis, Rob O’Gara, Tyler Starks, Jon Franco, Nick Gagnon, Keyon Vafa, Matt Lebovitz, Deema Dahleh, Max Bennett.

Jane Cheever Talbot Class of 1976 Ann Bisbee Scheffler Class of 1980 Jennifer Fernald Link Class of 1981 John W. Bergan Class of 1988 Kurt R. Griffin Class of 1995 Nina E. Riggs Class of 2006 Ryan O. Sebastian Former staff Reverend Richard Buckner III

To notify us of the death of an alum, please contact the Development and Alumni Relations Office at alumni@milton.edu or 617-898-2447.

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post script

BY ROBERT BALDWIN ’72

A Brief Moment at Milton During the Vietnam Years (1969–1970)

favorite teacher. At the end of the year, we showed up at his house with two whipped cream pies and coated him and Milton Smith.

I still have a fuzzy black-and-white photo.

Immediately after the Kent State massacre

Although known principally as an attorney

For the many students who admired and

with a strong sense of social justice, Miles

loved him, Gersh was far more than a brilliant

and colleges went on strike for the remainder

Gersh also served as a remarkable English

speaker with an interest in big issues and

of the semester. That night, some 30 Milton

teacher at Milton Academy in 1969–1970. Fresh

ideas. He was humble, soft-spoken and a great

students met secretly in the Chapel to plan

from Harvard Law School, he took a “gap

listener. He displayed unusual kindness

a strike for our campus as well. Over the next

year” teaching at Milton while transitioning

and compassion. These personal qualities

few days, liberal students and some younger

to his first job in the law as a public defender

informed his teaching, which drew not on

faculty organized an all-campus meeting where

in Washington, D.C.

any specialized academic knowledge but on a

we voted to suspend classes and concentrate

in early May of 1970, hundreds of universities

lifetime of wide and close reading. He taught

on political discussions, racial and gender

Faulkner and Bellow, among others, and was

awareness, and anti-war efforts. This strike

students. In part, we admired him for his

equally adept at traditional and contemporary

was resisted by the headmaster and many

remarkable intelligence, his breadth of

fiction. His emotional intelligence made him

but not all of the older faculty. But it enjoyed

knowledge, his interest in the larger, public

a natural teacher in the old-fashioned sense of

strong support among the student body

sphere, his integrity, and his amazing

a mentor, advisor and friend. Gersh also had

and many of the younger teachers. Among

I was in 10th grade when Gersh arrived.

He quickly made a big impression on his

eloquence. He spoke in paragraphs without

a dry sense of humor, which expressed itself

these was Gersh, who spoke up at the all-

pauses or filler words. Most of his students

in commentary on absurd social and political

campus assembly about the need to suspend

also responded to his strong liberal politics

trends delivered with an incredulous tone

at a time when the anti-Vietnam War move-

punctuated by sudden bursts of laughter. Those

popularity and because he dared to speak up

ment swept higher education and many

explosions and the radiant smile which

publicly, Gersh became a convenient scape-

secondary schools.

accom­panied them did as much to endear

goat for some who blamed him for “inflaming”

Gersh was beyond cool. He drove a green MG sports car and showed a sophisticated,

us to him as anything else.

While Gersh was never a manic performer

“business as usual.” Largely because of his

the students. Nothing of the sort took place.

The more activist students met privately on

broad taste in music encompassing the Band,

like the boarding school teacher played by

their own within 10 hours of the Kent State

the Byrds, Beethoven and Bach. It was

Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society, he was

massacre and planned the strike in the dead

Gersh who introduced me to the Brandenburg

just as beloved by his students, just as charis-

of night without faculty input. The fact that

Concertos on period instruments and to

matic (in his more subdued manner), and

the younger teachers eventually supported this

Deutsche Grammophon. By the end of his

left just as much of an impact despite his short

plan was a separate development and com-

first semester, he was one of the most popular

time with us.

pletely expected given the liberal politics of

teachers among his students in grades 10–11.

It was easy back then to stop by your favorite teacher’s place, uninvited, and hang out ”shooting the breeze.” With one of my

radical, Gersh’s characteristic manner was mod-

friends, I was a regular visitor at Gersh’s

eration, restraint, and mildness of temperament.

faculty house, which he shared with Milton

At the same time, his strong sense of social

Smith. We would ask him questions about

justice informed much of who he was—a socially

all manner of subjects just to elicit his marvel-

engaged intellectual.

ous, impromptu summaries of complex issues.

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many younger, upper-middle-class, educated elites at that time. Far from a rabble-rousing

When I was hospitalized in the infirmary

We had him play his favorite music so that

for four days after an acute appendicitis, one

it might become ours as well. By ourselves, we

teacher came to visit me—Miles Gersh. This

competed with imitations of Gersh, recited

simple act of charity left a deep impression

his brilliant summary of Kennedy’s handling

because it was so characteristic. Having been

of the Cuban Missile Crisis (which we had

sent off to boarding school at 13, I missed the

transcribed and memorized), and swapped

two people in my family whom I worshipped:

stories about our latest encounters with our

my doctor father and my older brother. Only

decades later did I realize why Gersh had been

as a Milton teacher extended far beyond his

alive. When Gersh’s email went silent at my

so important back when I was a socially awk-

employment or our graduation. When I

most recent communication in March 2017,

ward 16-year-old a thousand miles from home.

attended a wedding in Colorado in June 2013,

I Googled him and found that he had passed

Born 10 years earlier, Gersh was young enough

I finally had a chance to see him after almost

away in January 2014, just six months after

to be like a cool and kind, older brother but

40 years. (See attached photo.) I was proud to

our get-together. In the immediate aftermath

old enough to be a father figure. He replaced

introduce my wonderful wife and son and

of that shock, I have written this tribute in

both of my mentors. I’m sure I was not alone.

to show him that I had done right by myself

the hope that death will not swallow up his

After Gersh moved on from Milton, I kept in good touch as long as he remained in D.C. I

as a professor. In return, he gave me the

brief but important contribution to the

approval and affection he knew I had come

Milton community. My remarks are too late

camped out a number of times in his apartment

to receive. His kindness, emotional nuance,

for Miles . . . but not for his daughter, Maris,

when passing through and did my best to

and humor were unchanged. I told him I would

or for his other students.

show him that I had turned out OK after the

write him a long letter explaining why he

worst angst of the teen years at Milton. After

had been so important to me at a time of great

Robert Baldwin ’72

he moved to Denver, I would call or email out of

personal uncertainty.

Associate Professor of Art History

the blue every five years. He always replied promptly, as if he understood his duties

Over the next two years, I kept reminding

Connecticut College

myself to write that letter while we were both

rwbal@conncoll.edu

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