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T H TE H NE O NB OL B EL S E BS U BL U LL EL TE I N T I N

NOBLES Bulletin

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Households that receive more than one Nobles Bulletin are encouraged to call Kathy Johnson at 781.320.7001 to discontinue copies.

So much new to view at Nobles. See you on May 9th.

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N O NB OL B E L AE N AD N GD R GE R EE N EO NU OG UH G SH C H 2 0 20 05 0– 92 0 0 6 S CO HO OL O •L W • I SN PT RE IRN G

Look how much fun these folks had at the 2008 Nobles reunions last May. If it’s your turn this year, please plan to return to 10 Campus Drive, the Nobles campus, on Saturday, May 9, to catch up with your friends of yore, attend some mock classes, hear the Head of School answer questions about Nobles today, and so much more. Gala dinners for each class cap the festivities.

High-speed photography in Advanced Physics Projects captures the moment seconds after a water balloon’s “skin” ruptures from a high-speed pink paintball.

CAUGHT IN THE ACT

4/10/09 10:54:33 AM

The

NOBLES Bulletin Noble and Greenough School Spring 2009 Editor Joyce Leffler Eldridge DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS

Assistant Editors Julie Guptill ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS

Lauren Bergeron COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST

Design David Gerratt/DG Communications www.NonprofitDesign.com

Photography Lauren Bergeron Roger Boulay ’99 Tim Carey Joyce L. Eldridge Amanda Fiedler Julie Guptill Joel Haskell Leah Larricia Bob Moore Tony Rinaldo Joe Swayze

The Editorial Committee Brooke Asnis ’90 Kate Coon John Gifford ’86 Tilesy Harrington Bill Kehlenbeck Sarah Snyder

Letters to the Editor Appreciation for Bringing Back Memories have received my copy of the Winter Bulletin, and I just wanted to write to tell you how impressed and touched I am. I always love reading through the Bulletin to catch up on the goings-on at a very special and very vibrant Nobles. This particular issue hit close to my heart. I loved the description of JONATHAN KOZOL’s (’54) visit: he is a great hero of mine. I read the steamy Fume of Poppies in my First-Class year, 1959; and as a career-long educator, I have read his subsequent books with great pride and inspiration. Of course, your portrait of my dear friend and classmate JIM WOOD is excellent, and the picture of him on duty at the Getty (!) is perfect. Then there is your generous treatment of my novel The Little Book with the excellently written review by [Communications Specialist] LAUREN BERGERON. My classmate HENRY SCHWARZ’S (’59) “guide to” my book is so touching that it brings tears to my eyes.

What a beautiful way to celebrate my late-bloomer success. Thank you, thank you.

Of course, I look forward to my visit to Nobles during my 50th (I can’t believe it) Reunion in May.

I

For further information and up-to-theminute graduate news, visit our website at www.nobles.edu.

Letters and comments may be e-mailed to Joyce_Eldridge@nobles.edu, Julie_Guptill@ nobles.edu or Lauren_Bergeron@nobles.edu.

We also welcome old-fashioned mail sent c/o Noble and Greenough School, 10 Campus Drive, Dedham, MA 02026.

The office may be reached directly by dialing 781-320-7014, 7264, or 7267. © Noble & Greenough School 2008

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There’s never been a better time to consider a Charitable Gift Annuity at Nobles.

Selden Edwards ’59 History and Social Sciences Feedback wanted to take a moment to thank you for orchestrating such an insightful and well conceived representation of the History and Social Sciences Department (Fall–Winter 2008–’09 Bulletin). The articles were not only informative and interesting but beautifully written as well—overall a pleasure to read. I knew we were in good hands, so I was not at all surprised, but nonetheless still very pleased with the results.

I know the entire History and Social Sciences Department is grateful for the efforts of everyone on the Communications staff. On behalf of my colleagues, I thank you once again.

I

Louis Barassi, History Department Chair The Noble and Greenough Bulletin is published three times a year for graduates, past and current parents and grandparents, students and supporters of the Noble and Greenough School. Nobles is a co-educational, nonsectarian day and partial boarding school for students in grades seven (Class VI) through 12 (Class I). Noble and Greenough is a rigorous academic community that strives for excellence in its classroom teaching, intellectual growth in its students and commitment to the arts, athletics and service to others.

Peace of mind.

Guaranteed.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following two letters come from the Nobleman staff and are representative of several others received following the Winter Bulletin.

Representing the Entire Community have always loved the Nobles Bulletin. The articles and the pictures are always so interesting. It is evident you spend a lot of time producing this magazine in order to educate parents and outside sources. My mom gets so excited every time I show up in this magazine. I think you do such a great job at speaking to all members of this community.

I

With markets fluctuating and investments posting varied or negative returns, wouldn’t it be a relief to know that something guarantees you a competitive, fixed return? In exchange for your irrevocable gift of cash or securities, Nobles will pay you or you and a beneficiary a guaranteed return for the remainder of your lives.

Maria Montes ’09 Liked Obama Coverage e just want to congratulate you on your most recent Nobles Bulletin.

Specifically, we enjoyed the coverage on President-Elect Barack Obama. We just wanted to take this time to thank you for all of your hard work and for representing Nobles in the most positive manner possible. We wanted to let you know that your diligence does not go unnoticed.

W

Guaranteed return plus the peace of mind that your principle goes to support a great place: Noble and Greenough School.

Consider a Charitable Gift Annuity today.

Derick Beresford and Andrew LoRusso, both ’09

If you are interested in learning more about Charitable Gift Annuities at Nobles, please contact: Bea Trowbridge Sanders, Director of Capital Giving, Noble and Greenough School, 10 Campus Drive, Dedham, MA 02026 (781) 320-7011, bea_sanders@nobles.edu.

4/10/09 10:54:38 AM

CONTENTS SPRING 2009

8

18 FEATURES

2 LETTER FROM THE HEAD: THE THREE MOST FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Humor and candor pepper Head of School’s responses.

4 AN INSIDE LOOK INTO THE MATH, SCIENCE, INFORMATION/TECHNOLOGY/MEDIA DEPARTMENTS, FACULTY AND CLASSROOMS Veteran faculty and young thinkers, both with innovative ideas, abound.

23 MAKING HOLLYWOOD HOME Four talented grads reveal what it takes to “make it” in Hollywood.

30 DEPARTMENTS 28

Theatre Reviews

30

Foster Gallery Opening

31

Keeping You Up-to-Date

34

Window on Nobles

36

On the Playing Fields

38

Reunion Profiles

48

From the Upper School Head

49

Class Notes

ABOUT OUR COVER:

Physics teacher Chris Pasterczyk’s Advanced Projects class builds homemade electronic triggering circuits and uses old-fashioned manual SLR cameras to explore natural events otherwise imperceptible to the eye.

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4/13/09 6:57:31 AM

Three Questions That Come Up Again and Again

By R o b e rt H e n d e r s o n J r . ’ 7 6 P ’ 1 3 , H e a d o f Sch o o l

D

uring the first half of any given school year, I appear in several Admission forums, including question-and-answer sessions at the two open houses and several evening gatherings (working with a student panel) for prospective parents. These are always wide open, with guests encouraged to ask whatever is on their minds about Nobles or about independent schools in general. I enjoy these conversations (although I am always ready to stop come January) because they are genuinely intellectually stimulating. Some groups are easy to engage and entertain; in other groups, the tone seems to be deadly serious and my best humor elicits only nervous chuckles. Always, however, the range of interests is broad, from specific programmatic inquiries to far-ranging questions about the value of an independent school education.

There is an unpredictable element to this format, and I get some odd queries; the most notable I recall was, “What is your least favorite meal served in the cafeteria?” Answer: I’m not a fan of pasta Wednesdays. There are also folks who really work at trying to stump me or put me on the spot, asking things like, “What do you like least about Nobles?” which is actually a rather predictable question. Answer: Pasta Wednesdays in the cafeteria. I try to make it fun, keeping it light while responding candidly and directly. After an evening gathering this fall, a current parent serving as an Admission host said to me that she learned a lot and it might be valuable for me to try and write a piece

on some or all of the topics addressed.

So, forthwith, I picked three of the most common questions to answer.

The most common question I am asked is along the lines of “What makes Nobles distinct among all the fine schools, public and private, in this area?”

My response is that all good schools talk about relationships, as they should, but at Nobles this is the defining quality of the experience.

The notion of the critical importance

l the Nobles Bulletin l Spring 2009

of relationships is at the heart of our mission and pedagogy. My predecessor as Head, Dick Baker, commented on this magnificently, saying, “Students come to class from a myriad of backgrounds, possessed of a nearly infinite number of psychological needs. The role of a teacher is not to provide a cookie-cutter experience, but to understand those discrete, highly individual needs and minister to them: to push one student harder, to back off from

another, cajole a third, enter into a quiet contract with a fourth…teaching is the transmission of knowledge through personality. It’s a relational business.”

At Nobles we elevate the power and importance of mentoring relationships in every aspect of our program, from the classroom to the playing fields, from the stage to casual interactions in the hallways, to the center of our consciousness about what is most effective and of greatest worth to students after they leave Nobles. It is a matter of emphasis, and here the emphasis on relationships is of the greatest magnitude in our expectations for professional staff. To confirm this, I encourage folks to talk with students at the school or speak with graduates about the value of their experience here; my bet is that inspiring relationships with teachers will be the first thing articulated.

I usually also mention the importance of daily Assembly as part of my response to this question. I make the inextricable link between the importance of community in this school and the significance of our morning gatherings as the essential ritual that creates this appreciation. Assembly is where values are reinforced, and it is the critical place where shared experience creates bonds that tie together an increasingly diverse group of people. Few schools dedicate as much time as we do to daily community gatherings, but at Nobles it is impossible for us to imagine how to make school function optimally—in the best interest of kids and adults—without it. I point out that most Nobles graduates remember very few specific class experiences, but they remember a great deal about their teachers and a remarkable number of specific morning Assemblies.

The second most common question I am asked is, “What sorts of students are happiest and most successful at Nobles?”

My response is that there is an exceptionally broad range of happy and

successful students at Nobles in terms of backgrounds, interests and experiences. There are, however, two very general qualities that I think lead students to the most productive adjustment in this community. The first is that you need to like and be comfortable with adults; the adults in this place will be active and involved in your life. Among teachers, advisors, coaches, counselors,

At Nobles we elevate the power and importance of mentoring relationships in every aspect of our program, from the classroom to the playing fields, from the stage to casual interactions in the hallways… class deans, division heads and various and sundry others, it is virtually impossible during a career here to avoid having adults challenge, support, guide and confront you in the full range of your activities. It is not the case at every school that it works this way, nor is it the case that all adolescents welcome and thrive in this environment. But at Nobles it is inescapable, and we believe this symbiosis between students and teachers needs to be embraced on both sides of the equation.

The other quality common to students who are most comfortable here is a willingness to take risks and try new experiences. In a culture where specialization is pushed on more and more young people at ever-earlier ages, it is especially important that we ask students to step outside of what is familiar and common to seek challenges and explore possible interests in new areas, both academic and co-curricular. In this way adolescents have the opportunity to explore aspects of themselves of which they were unaware, or to discover new talents and skills. This is a critical part of healthy identity development and of embarking on the path to the “life well led.” This can be an

uncomfortable place for those who prefer to adhere only to areas of proven interest and accomplishment, but an exhilarating place for those who embrace a breadth of opportunity and challenge.

The list of regular questions is lengthy, but I will close with this one that I think cuts to the core of my view of the teaching profession and the real impact of this school, and which reinforces my answers to the two above questions. I am often asked, “How do you teach character?”

My response, albeit somewhat glib, is entirely sincere. I say succinctly that, “We hire well,” meaning that bringing admirable adults to this community is our most critical responsibility in character education. While daily Assemblies, personal development classes, the advisory system, and many other things are part of the process of character development at Nobles, nothing matters as much as the sorts of adults with whom young people interact on a daily basis.

Adolescents watch the adults around them intently, with astute hypocrisy detectors ever at the ready. They want to know if the people whom they admire and with whom they most closely interact “walk their talk.” And while this faculty is composed of human beings who sometimes err, it is more fundamentally defined by its excellence of character. Nothing is more important than to model, every day, what it means to be a successful adult whose life and interactions are shaped by integrity, empathy, intellect, motivation and determination to do good work in the world. The impact of this modeling is not always readily apparent to students as they leave here at the time of graduation, but it is much more clear to our graduates as they later enter the world of their own families and careers. Little, except perhaps parents, is more important in helping students to commit themselves to offering leadership for the public good over the course of their lifetimes than the example of the adults they encounter here every day.

Spring 2009 l the Nobles Bulletin l

The Grammar of Math, the Pedagogy of Science, the Impact of Digital Natives B y J o y c e L e f f l e r E l d r i dg e , J u l i e G u pt i l L , a n d L a u r e n B e r g e r o n

Think “math” and you think abstract equations and perhaps a graphing calculator.

Think “science” and you conjure up test tubes and beakers, Petri dishes, and energy experiments.

Think “computer science” and you envision a panoply of new technology and multimedia.

But what do the department chairs and math/science practitioners “see” when describing the disciplines to which they have dedicated their lives? l the Nobles Bulletin l Spring 2009

Ü Math Applicability

Transcends Math

S

enior Master Nick Nickerson of the Math department, who has taught at Nobles for 35 (!) years, sees math as a continuum of “pattern recognition.”

“Math involves teaching the ability to generalize procedures in order to solve more difficult procedures,” he said. To clarify this abstract concept, Nickerson suggested that early levels of math provide the building blocks of a conceptual tower to which higher levels of math can later be attached.

“If these early, isolated topics do not become attached properly, students have trouble later on,” he said.

Nickerson continues to speak of math using language from other disciplines. He describes the “grammar of math,” which allows the unconscious mind, after considerable repetition and symbolic manipulation, to know “what sounds right,” much as a grammarian winces when someone says, “To who am I speaking?”

What all math at Nobles—Middle or Upper School, quantitative or qualitative— transcends, according to Nickerson, is “checkbook math” or basic computation.

“Even in seventh grade, our students start recognizing patterns,” he noted, thus allowing them to recognize the extraordinary progress they have made [in this area] by senior year. They also learn to think more logically, he notes.

Math Chair Maura Sullivan, one of eight females out of 16 on the math faculty, said a major change since her arrival in 1989 has been a “willingness to meet kids ‘where they’re at’: there is a wider range of courses at both ends…more support, more awareness Nick Nickerson

Maura Sullivan, right, math chair, with (from left) Jake Greenstein, Zach Greenberg, and Danny Greenberg, all Class of '09

Spring 2009 l the Nobles Bulletin l

of the entire learning spectrum which calls for presenting materials in different ways.”

Nickerson also described the significant impact that computer technology has had on mathematics. “Technology has made math more visual, accessible and open to methods of solution other than algebra,” he pointed out.

Many faculty refer to the crossover elements from science to math to information technology and media (until last year, commonly known as computer science).

David Strasburger

The name change was made, according to Dan Weir, department head, because computer science is “a very narrow name that does not reflect all of the areas we cover and teach. It is an old name that mainly focuses on programming and hardware. We are now helping students learn about content, the application of technology, and the handling of digital media. Therefore ‘Information Technology and Media’ captures the area better.”

Middle School math teacher Eric Nguyen said, “In a lot of ways, the work we do in math provides students with tools so that they can pursue other subjects on a quantitative level. While we often find direct applications of math in the math classroom, we sometimes forget that students are using math in other classes as well! It’s important to realize that much of science relies on math, whether we’re talking about the physics of motion, rates of chemical reactions, graphi l the Nobles Bulletin l Spring 2009

cal representations of solubility, or even the statistics that allow biologists to think about their work.”

Ü Science Emphasizes

Pedagogy

When David Strasburger, department chair, arrived 15 years ago, only about 45 percent of the student body took physics.

Today the number is 85 percent…even though physics is classified as an elective. The science program offers multiple routes through the physics curriculum: conceptual/Advanced Projects, quantitative/AP Physics, and quantitative/Advanced Projects, thereby catering to different learning styles and different approaches to grasping scientific principles.

The only requirements in the Science curriculum are a year of natural science (biology) and a year of physical science (chemistry or physics). Most of the students exceed that requirement before graduation.

Strasburger’s next goals are to foster an even greater interest in project-based science and to help the top students in each class finish introductory science earlier. He anticipates more classes like chemistry teacher Jen Craft’s Research Topics in Biochemistry, given at the post-AP (Advanced Placement) level (See story page 8).

Science teacher Dominic Manzo (See Robotics story, page 12), who teaches Quantitative Chemistry and Conceptual Physics, believes that Nobles’ science department is distinctive from others in which he has taught because “we allow students to explore in order to figure out why and how things [e.g. solar cars, robots, Rube Goldberg devices] fail…I never taught classes like this before.”

In describing various members of the faculty in the Science department, Strasburger points out that “pedagogy is most important to them. This department spends a good deal of time thinking about how to stimulate kids intellectually.” Two projects that come to mind are the Great Machines Project and the Sumo Robotics exercise, both of which set up intense classroom competitions.

Chris Pasterczyk, described as a

“marquee teacher” by her colleagues, said it took her the first 15 years of her career “to figure out how to teach.” That encompasses six at Phillips Exeter Academy and nine (out of 15 total) at Nobles. “It takes quite a while to collect all the necessary data, to see the big picture,” she acknowledged.

Ü Information, Technology

and Media Department

In some ways, the Information Technology and Media department serves as the support system of math and science by teaching ways to manipulate or sustain the use of relevant data. “If we do our job right, we’re invisible,” Dan Weir said.

Over time, the department has adapted to the more advanced skills with which incoming sixies arrive. “Our department has recognized the arrival of the digital natives,” observed Academic Technology Advocate (ATA) Alycia Scott-Hiser. When the ATA program was first established, the idea was to hire bona fide teachers who were already excited about the possibilities of using technology in the classroom to improve teaching and learning.

This year, the department reversed that protocol. Now “techies,” such as Dawud Brown ’94, Marlon Henry ’00 and Andy Shumway, have been “programmed” to be the teachers. What this means, according to Weir, is that members of the Nobles faculty and the student body “have an unprecedented level of support.” The goal, at all times, is to balance academic and service needs.

Weir is the school’s first official Chief Information Officer, responsible for an overview of all technological needs and applications. Before him, the department chairs (including Steve Bergen and Michael Turner, now Director of Music) generally focused on academic computing. Turner was a part-time member of the Nobles faculty (directing choral groups and a chamber music ensemble) when he was tapped to run the one-person Computer department in 1989.

“We had six Macs (the old SE-plus), one hard drive and a large supply of floppy discs,” he recalled. The faculty computer was in the Memorial Room connected to a dot-matrix

Chris Smick

printer. Under his watch, Turner enabled the school to create its first ethernet network, including a rudimentary system for e-mail, which preceded FirstClass.

Turner speculates that he succeeded in this aspect of his job not because of the generally perceived [intellectual] link between music and the sciences but because “I was a common, everyday [computer] user facing the same problems as everyone else [in the school]. That made me empathic about solving their needs and curious enough to figure out ways to do it.”

For many, this is the basis of all mathematical and scientific principles.

Dan Weir

Spring 2009 l the Nobles Bulletin l

S

Scientists Emerge from the Classroom Ready for

cience is a discipline largely driven by curiosity.

We encourage students to ask questions and, using knowledge, methodology and theory, to find the answers for themselves. Although students often learn together as a class or work in pairs with their lab partners, it’s the element of individual curiosity that leads certain students to want to know more about the world around them and to pursue science well beyond the required classes.

Nobles addresses this approach to the sciences through its curriculum and the school’s Afternoon Program.

Science teachers foster a classroom experience that encourages student autonomy in all of their courses.

Classes follow a set curriculum which works together through chronological lesson plans. But some students find themselves asking questions outside the textbooks, and they are encouraged to find the answers scientifically.

“Once students have completed the required work, we support anyone who’s interested in delving deeper into the material to do so,” explains Science Department Chair David Strasburger. “Some students develop Independent Projects based on a subject that interests them. Others join or even start an Afternoon Program that explores something specific.”

Several years ago, science teacher Dr. Jennifer Craft approached Strasburger with the idea of introducing an advanced course that would play into the most independent students’ learning styles and abilities.

The course, “Research Topics in Biochemistry,” provides an intimate class environment that mimics the experience of authentic research and experimenta ll the theNobles Bulletin Nobles Bulletin ll Spring 2009 Spring 2009

Megan Bunnell (left) and Ally Geanacopoulos, both Class I, begin working on a lab experiment.

LEFT:

Teacher Jen Craft (left) instructs students Karan Lyons ’09 and Sophie Tyack ’09.

BELOW:

tion. “It is the most independent course a student can take in the science curriculum,” says Craft. “There are only five to seven students in each class, and each student works at his or her own pace. We are unique in that we have an unprecedented flexibility that far exceeds that of a traditional classroom experience. The students themselves drive the course.”

The course is divided in two; the first half of the semester, students get a

Anything feel for working autonomously on research topics and experiments that Craft lays out. “These students have demonstrated intense independence and capability during previous years of science classes, but even they are taken aback by how much freedom they have to experiment and explore,” says Craft. The second half of the semester, each student “designs and conducts original research on self-selected biochemical problems.” By mid-semester, she says, most have mastered a variety of experimental techniques. They then have the background, knowledge and confidence to work on their projects independently, utilizing Craft’s presence and expertise as a mentor rather than an instructor.

At the end of the semester, each student will present his or her project in a research paper and poster. The entire community is invited to an afternoon “poster session” so that each student can share his or her research. “What students learn is far greater when they’re given the time and sovereignty to design their own experience,” says Craft. “We learn from our mistakes as much as our successes. In this course, students have time to study their mistakes and correct them. It’s much closer to ‘real world’ research at a graduate, post-graduate or professional level.”

Of the small number of graduates who have taken the relatively new course, Craft says at least four are currently studying pre-medicine, while six are pursuing science in college. “It’s great to teach this course, because I get to witness their transformation into confident, capable researchers,” says Craft. As students continue to approach topics with such curiosity, Nobles intends to meet their needs, knowing it’s a lifelong investment.

—Julie Guptill

With New Teachers Come New Courses

W

Biology and Chemistry Teaching Fellow Mike Hoe

hile becoming comfortable as a member of the science department, Biology and Chemistry Teaching Fellow (TF), Mike Hoe, has taken on more than the usual workload for a new teacher. The schedule of a TF typically includes teaching one or two sections of the same course, with close mentorship from faculty advisors. The position also includes participation in school clubs, as well as the Afternoon and boarding programs.

Hoe’s classroom responsibilities, however, comprise teaching Biology, Chemistry, and most recently Nutritional Science. “It’s a lot of work planning for three courses, but I love that every day is different; they all offer variety, both in content and in student age groups,” said Hoe. While a student at Brown University, Hoe initially aspired to become a sports journalist, until he realized that he missed science. After a change of majors, Hoe eventually landed a teacher’s assistant (TA) position, teaching Intro to Biology. His true passion emerged after taking Neuroscience whereupon he was able to spread his TA responsibilities accordingly. He said, “I knew that [teaching science] was where I belonged. Who doesn’t love to teach what they’re passionate about?”

Hoe’s interest in Neuroscience, coupled with his previous teaching experience, has afforded him the opportunity to expand the science course offerings at Nobles.

Approached by two Class I students wishing to learn more about nutrition, Hoe ran with the idea of teaching Nutritional Science, saying, “By combining biochemistry with physiology and applying them to real-life applications, students seem to appreciate science more.” Hoe is also in the process of planning an advanced-level Neuroscience elective to be offered next year, which will be structured similarly to Brown’s course.

“It’ll be a great class for kids who like hands-on stuff,” he said. By ‘hands-on’, Hoe means, “We’ll be dissecting lots of brains. It’s going to be awesome!”

The “faux-hawk”-sporting Los Angeles native has also been diligently involved in Tae Kwon Do since the age of 10. Competing twice in the Junior Olympics, Hoe went on to compete for and become head instructor of Brown’s team, while also instructing local youth programs. He has found Tae Kwon Do instruction to be rather inspiring and applicable to his young teaching career: “Having to adapt to all levels of ability (ages 3 through 63), I learned an amazing amount of patience and discipline.” When asked if he had plans to bring Tae Kwon Do to Nobles, he replied, “If the opportunity were to present itself, I’d love to spearhead a Nobles team.”

On top of all of his academic and athletic endeavors, Hoe solidifies himself as a true Renaissance man with a strong fashion acumen. He is one tweed hat shy of resembling more a dapper Spanish gentleman meandering up Barcelona’s Las Ramblas than a science teacher. Adjusting his thick-framed Dolce and Gabbana eyeglasses, he said of his distinctive élan, “I’m young but I want to look professional. I guess I’m keeping it ‘old school’.” —Lauren Bergeron Spring 2009 l the Nobles Bulletin l

Authentic Learning

Andrew Shumway assists English teacher Julia Russell’s students in the computer lab.

L

ong before Facebook made it universally accessible, Nobles students were learning the HTML code needed to create and post websites featuring personal information and photographs. In early 2001, the popularity of social networking had yet to hit, and the practice seemed limited to the Computer Science curriculum. Along with other curriculum components, like programming, HTML coding wasn’t yet proving to be useful in the long-term success of students.

When Chief Information Officer and Director of Information Systems and Support (ISS) Dan Weir arrived in 2002, one of his first tasks was to reexamine the Computer Science curriculum. He immediately noted that an overhaul was appropriate, and suggested dropping the required courses, integrating the relevant curriculum with existing course requirements in other disciplines and offering students electives that could easily vary with changing technology. “Students weren’t really learning what was presented in those early computer classes, because the material was inauthentic,” says Weir. “We realized that those skills would have greater value to students if they were applied in a class.”

After a name change to reflect more accurately its identity, the Information Technology and Media Department was born. Other than the required Class VI Computer Proficiency course, which covers the fundamentals of technology use (See page 16 for more), students are not required to take any basic computer courses at Nobles. Instead, Weir and his team of Academic Technology Advocates (ATAs) work with other teachers to integrate pertinent

10 l the Nobles Bulletin l Spring 2009

in Technology-Integrated Classrooms computer skills into their courses. For example, many courses require proficiency in Web 2.0 knowledge. An ATA may meet with a faculty member to discuss the best ways in which to teach this skill-set in the classroom. By providing a context for the necessity of learning database and spreadsheets, the material is authenticated in a way that a computer course alone could not achieve.

“On average, there is an ATA entering a classroom at least one to two times a week…

We want to make it relevant for students.”

—Dan Weir

In addition to working directly with teachers to help them incorporate computer proficiency in their classrooms, the ATAs themselves often visit classes to offer instruction relevant to course material. “On average, there is an ATA entering a classroom at least one to two times a week,” explains Weir. “They might demonstrate blogging or academic iPod use for an assignment, or explain how to use Power Point or Keynote for a project. We want to make it relevant for students.”

The department also offers a handful of elective courses to those students interested in media and technology. “Systems and Simulations: Tools to Think With,” “Media Outrage: Communication Arts Practicum,” “AP Computer Science” and “Programming and Scripting” are offered each year. “Sometimes we get a group of students who are really eager to learn more about computers and technology in a classroom setting, and other years the interest germinates in other

Andrew Shumway

technologic ways,” says Weir. Either way, the department commits itself to staying on top of emerging technology, and bringing it to the forefront of academic use at Nobles.

—Julie Guptill

Spring 2009 l the Nobles Bulletin l 11

Beyond the Usual

By Joyce Leffler Eldridge

Advanced Topics in Mathematics: A Great Way to Finish Senior Year

F

or the first time in several years, Advanced Topics in Mathematics was taught this fall by a young female faculty member rather than a veteran male teacher (Bill Kehlenbeck had taught the subject for seven years until his schedule presented a conflict, requiring him to relinquish one of his favorite assignments).

Sue Kemalian, third-year member of a department known for its longevity (see story, page 14), graciously stepped into the breach and has never looked back.

“The seven students in the class entered with different interests and abilities, but all were prepared to do a wide spectrum of math,” Kemalian explains. Some had arrived at Nobles in Class IV, eligible to take Algebra II Honors as freshmen; others had entered in Class VI. During their senior year, many of the top math students close out their math career with Advanced Topics followed by AP Statistics.

As for the content of the course, Kemalian said she tried to achieve “a balance between their particular interests and mine.” To this end, she ended up focusing the fall-semester course on game theory, number theory, graph theory and competition problems. Competition problems are the easiest to present because they’re taken from national or international math examinations. Wikipedia defines game theory as mathematically capturing behavior in which an individual’s success in making choices depends on the choices of others. Kemalian's class studied decision-making in such applications as war strategies. Math chair Maura Sullivan described it as a course "rich with high levels of mathematics."

How did her first year turn out?

Kemalian was asked. “Because I included some topics that I had not taught before, there was a lot more prep time needed than I ever anticipated,” she said.

As for her students, Daniel Vinik ’09 enjoyed “exploring topics we were genuinely interested in: being able to study different math challenges or spend time figuring out various mathematical games and riddles; that was what made the class great.” Meghan Palmer ’09 cited “playing poker,” along with completing riddles and puzzles, as her favorite segments of Advanced Topics. “This class was much more fun than a traditional math class,” she said.

The Other-Directed Robot

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Manzo’s class on Robotics offers more than just a semester in which students learn to problem solve and “get something to work.” It also has become a lesson in gender differences as the eight girls and eight boys tend to treat their robots quite differently.

“After some of the girls built their robots, they promptly named them (the most memorable being ‘Bobo’) and took them for a walk down the hall. When it was time to disassemble them at the conclusion of the course, some virtually ominic

Sue Kemalian

12 12 l the the Nobles Bulletin Nobles Bulletin l Spring 2009 Spring 2009

Ellen Crowley (left) and Casey Griffin, both Class I, with their Robot

cried,” Manzo recalled about his female students.

One student, George Tall ’09, enjoyed the class so much that he elected to build a second robot for his Senior Project during his final semester at Nobles. This robot will be operated via a wireless router, much like the laptops throughout the school.

His challenge will be to direct the robot remotely from the Baker Building to the front desk of the school’s entryway. George seems up to the assignment, having been one of a few people, ever, to convert the Apple Operating System to work on an IBM Think Pad. For Manzo, teaching a course like Robotics has been a thrill beyond anything he imagined at the outset of his career at Nobles. The course is a result of a summer project in which Manzo bought 20 books on Robotics, learned the system, then drafted a proposal approved by Science Chair David Strasburger.

“In the last six or seven years, we’ve seen growing student interest in robotics vis-a-vis a couple of Senior Projects and a prospective Middle School club. Dominic’s timing was perfect and I was thrilled that he wanted to do this,” enthused Strasburger. “He has both the programming

experience and an infectious enthusiasm for this stuff—it’s impossible to talk with him about robotics without coming away convinced that robotics is incredibly ‘cool’.”

The Writing Connection

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ndrew Lamb ’98, who works as a programmer for a software startup company, Steve Toubman, a member of the Math department who also teaches AP Statistics, and Chris Pasterczyk, who teaches Quantitative Physics and Advanced Projects in Physics, all advocate learning to write clearly as one of the most important skills for their fields.

Lamb, who says he became proficient in writing while a student at Nobles, believes expressing ideas lucidly has allowed him to flourish, both at M.I.T. and at computer companies he represented before his current position at Vertica Systems. Along the way, he has also picked up strong analytical and problem-solving skills.

Toubman, who began teaching AP Statistics here in 1997, the first year it was offered by the College Board, said that the most successful AP Statistics students know how to describe the distribution of

Andrew Lamb ’98 at Vertica Systems

data, evaluate such data, then interpret it to draw a conclusion. All this requires not only precise measurements but also strong writing skills, according to Toubman.

“The healthy class size of the 12 Upper Schoolers currently enrolled in AP Statistics is a clear indication that Nobles students do not shy away from a mathematics course which emphasizes reading and writing as much as it does crunching and interpreting numbers,” Toubman observed.

“Get kids to be more critical of their own writing,” Pasterczyk recommended. “What I encourage here is peer editing, followed by rewriting. The students earn credit for completing each part of that equation, just as they might for a short quiz.”

Where Some of the Project-Based Science Curricula Began

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etired Science Head Fred Sculco, who began the Charles River Project, the Environmental Awareness Program and the Umbilicus during his 31 years here (15 as department head), is a lifelong

Fred Sculco believer in teaching science in a manner that demonstrates its ability to solve critical issues and problems. His passive, solarheated structure, the Umbilicus, was constructed during the first energy crisis in 1975. In this research-based facility, tilapia and catfish were grown in aquaculture tanks, and lettuce, tomato and swiss chard were grown in indoor gardens. Solar panels captured hot water to heat the aquaculture tanks while additional heat was stored in the 90 tons of rock under the floors. This structure was the forerunner of energyconservation projects found on virtually every campus today. Gov. Frank Sargent ’35 (R-Mass.) was among the graduates who returned here for the Umbilicus dedication of what Sculco described as “one of the most ambitious environmental, energyeducation projects of its time.”

Sculco spearheaded a strong belief at Nobles “that this school should be at the forefront of educating students to be leaders in a changing world… Science had been viewed as the cause of rather than the solution to human problems…

I wanted our students to see that it was not science that was at fault, but how knowledge was applied that was in question.” Sculco cited science teachers Deb Harrison and Bob Kern as two of his direct descendants.

Spring 2009 Spring 2009 l the the Nobles Bulletin Nobles Bulletin l 13 13

Adding Up 220-Plus Years of

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t would take a master mathematician to figure out how many graduates were taught by one (or more) of the current Math Department’s eight most veteran teachers, during their combined 220-plus years of teaching in Nobles classrooms. Add to that the number of graduates who may have had any of these venerable teachers as coaches, as advisors or as friends, and the figures begin to grow exponentially. For the elite eight – Doug Guy, Tilesy Harrington, Bill Kehlenbeck, Nick Marinaro, Richard Nickerson, Maura Sullivan, Steve Toubman, and Stacey Turner – the experience of teaching at Nobles has proved to be multifaceted over the years, both in and out of the classroom.

For several teachers, Nobles was their first job out of college, meaning these educators have spent their entire careers here. Harrington (at Nobles since 1977), Kehlenbeck (since 1975), Nickerson (since 1974) and Sullivan (since 1989) arrived at Nobles in their early 20s, after finishing college. Now, with the benefit of hindsight, most of them can look back at their first few years and understand the nuances of Nobles, some of which have taken decades to figure out. Senior Master Nickerson offers, “I didn’t understand parents very well in my first years at Nobles. Now that I am a parent myself, I have a better understanding of their anxieties, wishes and needs. I am not sure that I would have understood such advice even if it had been offered (and it probably was), but if I were able to digest such advice, it would have helped me build stronger bonds with the parents back then.”

When asked about the apparent “staying power” of Nobles, each teacher agreed on two distinct offerings he or she believes to be intrinsic to the school.

(Top row, left to right): Steve Toubman, Maura Sullivan, Bill Kehlenbeck. (Bottom row, left to right): Tilesy Harrington, Richard Nickerson, Stacey Turner. Not pictured: Doug Guy

First, Nobles hires well, not only providing capable and caring adults for the students, but also amazing colleagues.

Second, Nobles allows for diverse experience outside the classroom, encouraging adults to take risks alongside their students and try new things. Nickerson says, “This is a great place to work, and I have been given many wonderful opportunities to become involved with different things, such as coaching varsity sports, leading the Outdoor Program, serving as a dorm master, being department head, serving on various committees, etc.” During these non-classroom activities and responsibilities, many teachers have had the opportunity to build relationships with students, families and colleagues. Some of their most memorable life moments have happened within the Nobles community.

Many teacher-coaches regard their relationships with student-athletes as inspirational, and memories of coach-

14 l the Nobles Bulletin l Spring 2009

Longtime math teacher Nick Marinaro

ing as some of their most vivid moments at Nobles. There are many wrestlers whom Toubman proudly calls friends, and many field hockey players who name Sullivan as one of the most influential people in their lives during their Nobles days. As for specific moments, Marinaro says, “My favorite moment was in 1989, when I was crazy enough to schedule a football game against Middleboro High School when they were ranked number one in the state. It was a Friday night and we took 10 busloads of students to the game. We lost an incredibly close game in a driving rain storm that left about four inches of water on the field. Lightning hit a transformer and the game was held up for an hour. It was an amazing night

Teaching when the whole Nobles family came together.”

Although Kehlenbeck definitely notes the 2006 Varsity Baseball ISL Championship as a “top ten” moment, it’s one of many life experiences he has shared here. “My son David’s Nobles graduation in 2003 is high on my list.

Also, the surprise tribute from [Assistant Head of School and Middle School Head] John Gifford ’86 and Nobleonian alumni at the Awards Assembly in 2005, and the honor of the Coggeshall Award from the Class of 1983 at Reunion last May are two of my favorite memories.”

There are many teachers for whom Nobles is deeply entwined in their personal lives. Doug Guy, on sabbatical this semester, has lived with wife, Dean of Students Erika Guy (also on sabbatical), on campus for years. Stacey Turner, married to Music Director Michael Turner, is currently experiencing the joys of being a Nobles parent. Tilesy Harrington, who has called the iconic Castle home for more than 30 years, will always have a special place for Nobles in her heart, explaining, “I met my husband, [Classics teacher] Mark here! My children grew up here; the Castle and the campus are our home.”

Although Nobles has seen many changes during the past three decades, there still remain many constants, including the emphasis on relationships and community, which make the school an appealing place to spend a career. Maybe Marinaro put it best when he said, “While my knees and feet tell me every day that I am getting older, my longevity at Nobles has kept my mind young and fresh, because I get to work with wonderful young people every day. This is the greatest place I could ever have chosen.”

—Julie Guptill

Eric Nguyen Reminds His Students: The Calculator Is Only as Smart as You Are

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he math skills learned in Middle School create a foundation for every other math course students will ever take. Eric Nguyen, who teaches Pre-Algebra and Algebra I admitted, “I offer extra help to Upper Schoolers taking calculus who tell me that although they may understand calculus, they often get hung up on the algebra.”

It is for that reason, Nguyen believes, that Algebra I is the hardest and the most important math class students will take.

The Middle School math progression begins by teaching sixies to think Students follow along both logically and critically. Nguyen as Middle School math offers a statistics unit, during which teacher Eric Nguyen students have the opportunity to credemonstrates a calculator exercise on an ate their own data-driven survey. After interactive whiteboard. forming a hypothesis and distributing a survey, each student inputs data into Excel spreadsheets and presents his or her discoveries to the class. A crucial part of this unit is for students to be critical of the data they are shown on a daily basis.

“We read an article in which one school claimed that, because of a video game used to teach math, the number of students passing the state exam rose four percent. My students learned to ask: ‘How can we know that this increase is significant if we don’t know the sample size?’ and ‘Is the four percent increase directly related to the video game?’ My hope is that students recognize when values are manipulated through percentages because, a lot of the time, the reporter is trying to sell a point,” said Nguyen.

Once students reach Class V, they jump right into solving algebraic equations.

Because Algebra I sets the foundation for the Upper School curriculum, it is Nguyen’s goal to prevent his students from depending too heavily on their calculators. He said, “It’s so easy to rely on a tool—especially because the math is tough—but it’s harder to remember and apply those skills later on if you aren’t forcing yourself to practice.”

In preparation for tests and quizzes, Nguyen advises his students that calculator use will be limited to certain problems, urging them to learn the algebra skills by hand.

Once he feels as though the fifthies have a solid grasp of the basic algebraic skills, he demonstrates how technology could help them, but allows students to decide which method works better for them. He explains, “With the technology of interactive whiteboards and graphing calculators, we see how math can be presented visually.”

Nguyen recognized that there are two different types of math learners: visual and quantitative. Visual learners might benefit more from the calculator, whereas quantitative learners can actually solve the problems faster by hand.

After an exam, Nguyen is often approached by students who say: “I didn’t use my calculator at all,” or “I don’t think I could have solved number 10 without my calculator.” His answer to both, of course, is “That’s fine; you can do it either way.

And I bet you’re both right!” —Lauren Bergeron

Spring 2009 the Nobles Bulletin Nobles Bulletin l 15 15 Spring 2009 l the

Exploring Middle School Through a Digital

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or the past three years, Class VI students have enjoyed creating personal narrative videos that answer the question “Who Am I?” This year, the project is integrated into the curriculum of Academic Technology Advocate Alycia Scott-Hiser’s Computer Proficiency course. The interdisciplinary audio/video project allows sixies to share their identities with new classmates, while familiarizing themselves with Nobles’ extensive technology. “Who Am I?” also facilitates future technology-based assignments, such as this semester’s endangered species project.

The first portion of the project unfolds in the Class VI English via Latin course; students are asked to write a narrative from which an audio clip is recorded in Apple’s Garage Band ©.

Teachers encourage students to choose topics that have personal meaning and that would benefit from visual accompaniment. After deliberating over the best way to share a part of their identities with new classmates, sixies write scripts about several topics, the most popular including family heritage,

Can you solve this 8th-grade algebra problem? (answer on page 22)

A man is three times as old as his son was at the time when the father was twice as old as his son will be two years from now. Find the present age of each person if the sum of their ages is 55 years.

Sixie Maddie Cela watches her Who Am I? video.

holiday traditions, unique interests, and childhood memories.

The voice-over recording accompanies a photo slideshow created in Apple’s iMovie© program, illustrating each student’s story. Students use a combination of images from both home and photo-sharing websites,

16 l the Nobles Bulletin l Spring 2009

such as Flickr.com. Scott-Hiser teaches the copyright ethics of online materials and requires that students use only those photos legally permissible for copying. Students are also instructed to submit a bibliography citing the sources of all online materials used.

While she reveals transitioning

Lens

The Sludge Project Brings Out Big Thinkers and Leaders in Class V

H

ISS faculty member Alycia Scott-Hiser

techniques in iMovie©, such as fading from one photo into the next and the American documentarian “Ken Burns” effect, Scott-Hiser also encourages students to explore the program for creative ways to enhance their projects.

“These students are ‘digital natives’— they have grown up on computers.

They are willing to explore, pressing buttons just to see what happens, which most adults wouldn’t do,” she said.

On Grandparents’ Day, sixie Will Cary’s grandparents were delighted to see him building his video in iMovie©, and marveled at the level of technological intricacy involved in this project.

“My grandparents are pretty good with computers so they’ll have an appreciation for the final product when I show it to them,” Will said. Overall, students are very proud of their movies and enjoy showing them to family, friends, and during Middle School Assembly. To see some of this year’s eclectic “Who Am I?” projects, please visit www.nobles.edu/whoami.

—Lauren Bergeron

ands-on experimentation and lab work make up a central component of the Class V science curriculum. In the classes of Middle School science teachers Chris Averill, Theresa Evenson, and Teaching Fellow Amir François, students are introduced to more than 25 different experiments, covering the topics of solubility, fractional distillation, the law of conservation of mass and measurement, among others. By late February, students are prepared to tackle the ultimate challenge in experimentation. The notorious Sludge Project is a week-long endeavor during which students must combine everything they’ve learned thus far in the course to separate and identify the unknown substances—small solids submerged in orange, green and purple liquid-filled beakers—that make up the mystery “Sludge.”

In the six years that Averill (along with Evenson) has facilitated this project, which is portrayed like an unsolved mystery, he has realized the challenges facing the students. “It is difficult and complex,” Averill said. “But they always do so well.

The degree to which students apply their knowledge and understanding is amazing.”

There are many ways to determine a certain variable within a mixture but Averill teaches his students to be precise in their experiments. They work in lab teams and decide how best to decipher the contents of each container.

Alongside precision within the project’s content, Averill stresses the importance of successful teamwork. He said, “The more Middle Schoolers practice working collaboratively and managing team projects, the better off they’ll be in the Upper School.”

Each lab team distributes responsibilities among each of its four team members, the effectiveness of which Averill factors into grading. For example, on any given day, one student is responsible for making sure that his group is abiding by the lab-safety rules set forth by Averill, while a different student is responsible for encouraging all team members to contribute their ideas and suggestions. The Sludge Project’s commitment to teamwork and responsibility caters to the year-long goal of all Class V students, who are encouraged to serve as leaders in the Middle School. —Lauren Bergeron

Fifthies Alex Dunne and Will Burns work on a Sludge Project experiment.

Spring 2009 l the Nobles Bulletin l 17

“Dr. J.” Moves Effortlessly from DNA Dr. Jamileh Jemison performs at Assembly.

what isolated from the world. It’s surrounded and inhabited by many colleges so everyone takes [going on to] higher education somewhat for granted…and yet very seriously.

About 95 percent of my high school class graduated from college. Amherst reminds me of what Nobles would be like if our campus was incorporated as a town.”

“I loved the idea of finding a way to center, quiet and re-focus my students who often get distracted from re-entering their social world on the trek between classes.”

I

f you walk by Dr. Jamileh Jemison’s Introduction to Biology class at the outset, you’ll probably see an energetic, enthusiastic teacher leading her stu- dents in yoga exercises.

“I heard that Dan Matlack [Classics Chair/Asst. Director of Admission] has a full minute of silence at the beginning of his class. I loved the idea of finding a way to center, quiet and re-focus my students who often get distracted from re-entering their social world on the trek between classes,” Jemison said.

Jemison, popularly known as “Dr. J.”, came to Nobles in the fall of 2007, following in the footsteps of Admission Director Jen Hines and ISS team member Andrew Shumway, all of whom are graduates of Amherst (Mass.) Regional High School.

Asked if it was sheer coincidence that all three ended up at Nobles, Jemison acknowledged: “Amherst is an idyllic town, some18 l the Nobles Bulletin l Spring 2009

Because of her seemingly infinite array of interests, ranging from cooking to reading to dance, Jemison can find commonality with virtually all of her students, regardless of whether or not their fascination with DNA matches her own. Jemison is the only medical doctor on the faculty, having received her M.D. from UMass Medical School and then pursued a two-year residency at the National Institute of Health followed by a two-year internship at the Hartford (Conn.) Children’s Center.

Asked why she gave up her medical career to become a classroom teacher, she responded somewhat matter-of-factly, “I don’t like being around sick people. It works out better for me if the people I’m with are not sick. In addition, I’ve always liked teens. I had a great time in high school, very much liked my teachers, and could see myself becoming one of those people some day.”

Although she loves everything about the classroom, she singles out “those students taking responsibility for their own learning” as among her favorites to teach. Besides

Instruction to Samba Classes and Yoga teaching Introductory Biology and Advanced Topics: DNA, she is serving as co-advisor to Sister 2 Sister, the black female affinity group, and Students for the Treatment of AIDS Today (STAT). But that just scratches the surface. She has been enlisted twice now as a soloist with Doc Chanonhouse’s jazz band reprising her signature song, “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning.”

Even that doesn’t fill her dance card, so to speak. She is in the initial stages of reading all the Booker Prize-winning books (“Only 33 to go,” she said proudly). She also writes fiction and poetry and has taken writing courses at Grub Street in Boston.

On the weekends, whenever she finds herself with free time, she is likely to grab a drop-in class at the Dance Complex in Cambridge, perhaps a samba demonstration or whatever suits her mood on that particular day. Occasionally she’ll even dance a bit in the middle of an Intro to Biology class, while waiting for her students to clear their desks for a pop quiz. Minutes later she’s asking the class:

“I’ve always liked teens. I had a great time in high school, very much liked my teachers, and could see myself becoming one of those people some day.”

“Who discovered DNA?” Answer: James Watson, Francis Crick and Rosalind Watson; “How is DNA structured?”

Answer: as a double helix; “What four nucleotides comprise DNA?” Answer: Adenine, Thymine, Cytosine, Guanine;

“What three components constitute DNA?” Answer: Each nucleotide is made of a small molecular group called a phosphate, a sugar (ribose), and a nitrogen-containing molecule (a base) which gives the whole nucleotide its name (adenine, thymine, etc.)

It seems a Herculean feat to keep the rhythm of a samba going while reviewing answers to a pop quiz and figuring out which gourmet dinner to cook that evening, but if anyone can handle it, Dr. J. seems a likely candidate. —Joyce Leffler Eldridge

Starting her class off with a touch of yoga

Spring 2009 Spring 2009 l l the theNobles Bulletin Nobles Bulletin l l 19 19

Seaweed and Coral and Lobsters! Oh, My!

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hen Marine Biol- ogy teacher Ross Henderson P’13 accompanied her husband, Head of School Bob Henderson Jr. ’76 P’13, to Nobles in 2000, she had already lived the dream of any marine biologist. In addition to teaching on the California coast, Henderson has also taught in the ecosystems of Hawaii and Maine. Whether it is the Nobles’ March break scuba-diving trip to Honduras or simply a family vacation, Henderson uses every opportunity she can to record all of her findings with digital photos and slides; she even collects sand. These first-hand experiences allow Henderson to enrich each Nobles marine biology class with tangible applications. “As a teacher, it’s been great to have lived in some very different ecosystems. Students can see each specific location’s characteristics, such as Cape Cod’s cold-water seaweeds versus Maui’s warm-water coral reefs,” she said.

Henderson’s first science-teaching job was at the Stevenson School in Pebble Beach, Calif., whose proximity to the ocean catered to a biology curriculum based largely on marine and aquatic life. Although she became enamored with the impeccable facilities afforded to her class from the nearby Monterey Bay Aquarium—arguably the best aquarium in the world—it was not until one memorable experience that Henderson knew marine biology was the subject in which she wanted to specialize. Exploring the low-tide shore with a colleague, Henderson encountered a washed-up baby octopus and, recognizing its vulnerability in the wild, brought it back to her classroom, readied a tank, and began to care for it.

“That was a defining moment for me.”

Nobles’ marine biology course, a

Marine Biology teacher Ross Henderson under water on the Nobles Honduras trip.

one-semester elective for juniors and seniors, follows an interesting progression of studying animals and their specific habitats. “We start very close to shore and work our way deeper into the ocean. So we start with invertebrates and work through fish, sharks, marine mammals and end with the deep sea,” explained Henderson. When asked if she finds it challenging to teach a course in a school that doesn’t have an ocean view, she replied, “Not at all.

We have a huge tank which is great because I can bring the ocean inside the classroom.” The tank, constructed a few years ago as part of a Senior Project, proved to be a learning experience for Henderson and her students, as the daily management of the tank quickly became a hefty task. “Keeping 100 gallons of cold salt water clean of bacteria, with the correct nutrient cycle and pH balance, is a delicate process,” she said.

Tank management doesn’t look to get any easier in the coming months

20 l the 20 the Nobles Bulletin Nobles Bulletin l Spring 2009 Spring 2009

as the Nobles classroom may receive up to 100 baby lobsters from Woods Hole. “The Lobster Project,” slated to begin in the fall, will allow students to feed, raise, study and release the lobsters into the wild while cultivating data analysis and tracking specifics like growth and mortality rate. The enrichment will also help in assisting the Woods Hole scientists who created the experiment.

Caring for the lobsters should not be a problem for Henderson’s students who have already worked with an octopus, various fish, sea stars, sea urchins, hermit crabs and a cuttlefish named “Stuart.” Olivia Montgomery ’08, who worked closely with Stuart as her Senior Project, said of her Nobles marine biology experience, “Mrs. Henderson’s marine biology course interested me on a whim but ended up sparking my passion for ocean sciences which I am currently pursuing in college at the University of California, Santa Cruz.”

—Lauren Bergeron

M at h T e a c h e r s H a v e

“Exponential” Hobbies

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oesn’t it seem as though just about every Nobles math teacher excels at some hobby, passion, or other subject?—as if being a mathematician wasn’t enough! From a seamstress to an Ivy League oarswoman, the math faculty runs the gamut when it comes to extra-curricular activities.

The cherished student-teacher relationships fostered at Nobles are further enriched with the many gifts and talents of the faculty. Whether on the field or in a club, teachers further vitalize student relationships through mentorship outside the classroom. Outdoor Program leader and Senior Master Nick Nickerson embraces this flexibility: “I love that I get to teach and share my passion with others.” Math Department Chair Maura Sullivan added, “It’s nice to see the differences in students; a timid math student can sometimes be the most confident field hockey player.” Steve Toubman said that some of his closest friends are Nobles graduates whom he grew closer to through a shared interest in wrestling.

Math-teaching Coaches For Wrestling coach Toubman and Field Hockey coach Sullivan, giving up the sports they played in college was not an option when entering the working world. They saw the idea of participating in sports within the teaching realm as an essential bonus.

“I would be wrestling no matter what,” said Toubman. “But through Nobles, coaching the sport I love is a part of my job and it’s great.”

Both Sullivan and Toubman agree that coaching and teaching students are very different, yet equally rewarding. Toubman finds that while math

By L a ur e n B e rg e r o n

At the summit of New Hampshire’s Mount Monadnock, from left to right: Nick Nickerson, Marty Morris ‘10, Hannah Graham ‘10, Owen Minot ‘10, Karly Moore ‘11, and Yanelis Mestre ‘11.

Wrestling coaches Steve Toubman and Eric Nguyen look on as Nobles defeats Concord Academy.

teaches skills like logic and accuracy, wrestling “teaches hard work, discipline, honesty, integrity and how to win and lose.” Similarly, Sullivan affirms that, “Coaching has made me a better teacher; I think differently about how to teach math skills, and how to help

students deal with both successes and disappointments.”

Cross-divisional Teaching Ross Henderson, whose passion has led her to teach and study marine life throughout the U.S. (see page 20), has

Spring 2009 l the Nobles Bulletin l 21

Give Up?

Answer to the algebra word problem found on page 16, solved by Middle School math teacher Eric Nguyen Father now: x Son now: 55 – x Son in two years: (55 – x) + 2 = 57 – x Father in the past was twice as old as the son will be two years from now: 2(57 – x) = 114 – 2x To find son’s age in past, we need to figure out how long ago that was (time elapsed): (father now) – (father past) = x – (114 – 2x) = 3x – 114 Son in the past = (son’s age now) - (time elapsed): (55 - x) – (3x -114) = 169 – 4x Father now is three times the son’s past age: x = 3(169 – 4x) x = 507 – 12x 13x = 507 x = 39

almost always taught math concurrently with Marine Biology. “The schools in which I’ve taught have usually had a need for another math teacher and I am always glad to help out.” Henderson finds that the differences in her two Nobles courses—eighth-grade Algebra I and Marine Biology for juniors and seniors—diversify her day. “Algebra and Marine Biology are totally different which, for me, is a breath of fresh air. I enjoy the logical nature of math but I equally love the diversities and mysteries of all the creatures in the ocean,” she said.

But Henderson isn’t the only teacher double-dipping departmentally. While most would assume little correlation between math and foreign language, Ann Hsu finds a bevy of similarities, especially with geometry and Chinese. “Geometry is like a language,” Hsu said, “where students learn to solve problems with a vocabulary they have developed.” She even admitted that she refers back to geometry in her Girls’ JV Squash practices “because students can apply the geometric relationships of lines and angles to their squash shots.”

Teaching in two different departments, Hsu believes, is an exciting

Answer: The father is 39 and his son is 16.

Math and Chinese teacher Ann Hsu

22 l the Nobles Bulletin l Spring 2009

and rewarding opportunity. “I am honored to be teaching math while establishing and exploring the Chinese program. On top of this, I also get to coach squash! I could not have found a more perfect job.”

Afternoon Program Advising

For some teachers, an Afternoon Program-advising title can be virtually as prominent as the teaching title.

Such is true for Bill Kehlenbeck and Nick Nickerson, who for decades, have been the faces not only of the math department, but also of the Nobleonians and the Outdoor Program, respectively.

Kehlenbeck, who has performed in countless Assemblies, coffeehouses, talent shows, Auction dinners and even a few graduations, avowed, “As much as I love teaching math and coaching baseball, making music feeds my soul in ways that I can’t articulate. The opportunity to do so as part of my working life is a gift for which I am extremely grateful.”

Nickerson, the rock climber extraordinaire, said, “The Outdoor Program has kept me young.” Here’s something you might not know about Nickerson who, on any given weekend, vacation, class retreat or sabbatical, can usually be found hiking, kayaking, exploring or belaying: “I did not have strong outdoor skills when I first came to Nobles. In fact, it was Nobles students who taught me how to rock climb, canoe, whitewater and kayak.”

Encouraged by the spirited Nobles community, Nickerson tried something new and has since developed a second life’s passion, spending numerous hours outdoors, learning the newest techniques and safety regimens. He has even traveled during a sabbatical to New Zealand and Nepal, which he dedicated to “deepening my wilderness background.”

Talent and Timing Take Grads to Hollywood’s Highest Echelons te x t a n d p h o t o s B y J o y c e L effler E l d r i d g e

LOS ANGELES—They look, talk and live unlike the denizens of any movie, play or television show set in Hollywood. They don’t speak in the clipped cadence of David Mamet characters in Speed the Plow. Their offices are small or at home. Their dress is neither flashy nor form-fitting, nor do they sport $400 haircuts. They’re not reminiscent of the do-anything-at-all-cost types in Robert Altman’s epic, The Player, or the HBO hit Entourage. But the four Nobles graduates who have navigated their way, one by one, into the largest talent search agency in America (Creative Artists), one of the hottest television networks (MTV), and onto movie screenplay credits are all part of the warp and woof of the Hollywood landscape. Like Hollywood itself, their home bases stretch from the Avenue of the Stars to Santa Monica Boulevard.

Spring 2009 l the Nobles Bulletin l 23

J u st i n L ev y at M T V

J u st i n L ev y ’ 9 5

Even His Parents Get Lured into the Hollywood Lifestyle Justin Levy ’95 is 32 and already holds the title of vice president for scripted series at MTV (home of The Hills), having moved rapidly through five companies including FX, where he worked on Nip Tuck and The Shield.

From FX he was lured to NBC, where he left his indelible touch on The Office, My Name Is Earl and Heroes, then on to Studio 44, home of Friday Night Lights, which he co-produced as vice president of television, before landing with MTV last summer. FNL, as it became known, won the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award in 2006 and an Emmy for Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series in ’07.

In all these positions, “I always continue to fight for the stuff I believe in, but at the end of the day it’s a business,” he concedes. These days he spends the bulk of his time seeking out experienced writers who can work on a fast production scale, some of whom not only script pilot shows but also stay on as producers, even executive producers.

How does Levy’s typical day play out? He may start with a conference call with a writer, move on to a legal meeting about closing a deal with a writer, then it’s a “Hollywood lunch” where he’s either taken out and wooed or vice versa, often closing the day with a “relationship-driven” Hollywood dinner, again with a writer.

Where did these theatrical juices first begin to flow?

Mainly at Nobles, where he appeared in Into the Woods as the Narrator and the Mysterious Old Man. He later 24 l the Nobles Bulletin l Spring 2009

turned his Senior Project into a movie using the Class of ’95 as his cast. Pre-Nobles, he enjoyed considerable exposure to theatre thanks to his grandparents, who regularly took him to the Huntington Theatre in Boston.

Levy’s Nobles heritage continues to inform not only his career but his personal life.

His closest friends [Sam Bigelow, Doug McCracken, Kaveh Mojtabai, Evan Ouellette, Chris Page, Ben Walsh], who refer to themselves as “The Nobles Seven,” were all at his wedding (featured in all the Hollywood society pages) to actress Shea Curry of The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement. Every Thanksgiving he returns to Newton to have a Saturday night dinner with this Gang of Seven and their parents.

“We rotate homes every year,” he explained, “and at some point in the evening, we write down our predictions for ourselves and one another for the coming year.”

In a classic case of “the child being father of the man,” Levy headed to Hollywood 10 years ago, leaving his parents behind in Newton, but not for long. They moved west as well, following their only child professionally as well as geographically. His dad, Franklin Levy, just published a comedic mystery novel, Die, Decorator, Die; while his mother, a former interior decorator, sold her first screenplay, about a mother who follows her son to school.

car y b i c k le y ’ 7 8

Four Screen Credits and a Husband to Share Them With One of those many Hollywood

writers whom Levy might end up luring to MTV someday is Cary Bickley ’78, creator of such movies as Spinning Boris with Jeff Goldblum and Liev Schreiber, High Crimes with Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman, Kill Me Later and The Gun in Betty Lou’s Handbag, some co-written with her husband, Yuri Zeltser.

Bickley moved to Hollywood to give her passion for writing a serious outlet. From her earlier, sometimes abortive acting auditions in New York, she quickly realized that it’s easier to distance oneself from a writing rejection. Another problem she found with acting: “You have to stay so damned skinny…Your body is your destiny.”

A member of the first Nobles coeducational class to enter in Class IV and proceed through graduation, Bickley did tech

theatre at Nobles for Guys and Dolls, appeared as Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and won various parts in Harvey and Anything Goes. She also held a newly-created position on The Nobleman, that of head staff writer. One of her fondest memories is spearheading the creation of a National Enquirer spin-off for the paper. To this day she stays in fairly close touch with her Nobleman buddies, many of whom have gone on to illustrious careers in journalism.

At Wesleyan, Bickley broadened her dramatic interest to include playwriting; here she founded the Captain Partridge Theatre, exclusively for aspiring playwriters. When she graduated, she moved initially to New York to act. She also wrote a screenplay that was never produced and waitressed in New Mexico, all leading up to her 29th birthday when she sold The Gun in Betty Lou’s Handbag.

Bickley describes herself as a “joke writer gone awry…I particularly enjoy creating dialogue and mimicry.” Recently, she returned to some print writing, earning acceptances at Glamour, Wonder Time, Family Fun and The Christian Science Monitor. She particularly loves “the quick turnaround of stories in publications. To see these come out in my lifetime, in my world, it’s like the speed of light,” she said, contrasting this with the production time of a movie.

R oger B atchelder ’ 8 8

From Birdies and Bogeys to Back-End Financial

In addition to writing and talent-hunting, yet another connection to Hollywood is the business side. Here we find Roger Batchelder ’88 who took the most circuitous route of all to reach the gleaming glass and aluminum building that accommodates the largest talent agency in the United States, Creative Artists Agency (CAA). Batchelder has worked there for the past 10 years, analyzing and structuring “back-end” movie deals for CAA clients, who include Cameron Diaz, Nicole Kidman, Will Smith, Meryl Streep, Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt and hundreds more.

At his previous post, with MGM, he worked in a corollary position, there representing the studio versus “the talent.” Batchelder started his business career with Price Waterhouse as a consultant, then moved on as financial analyst for Metromedia Restaurant Group.

As a Nobles student, Batchelder’s primary extra-curricular interest was golf. But what remained more than his success on the golf course (topped by runner-up finish in his age group in the Massachusetts Junior Championships) was “the Nobles work ethic and the Nobles challenge…I was very blessed to go to a solid educational institution with really good teachers and great facilities,” he said.

He went on to a post-graduate year at Lawrenceville, then settled on Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where his roommates were C ar y B i c k le y i n H er H ome O f f i ce

Spring 2009 l the Nobles Bulletin l 25

R oger B atchelder i n Front o f C reat i ve A rt i sts A genc y

all movie buffs. They eventually convinced him to follow them to L.A. and share an apartment. That’s how Batchelder ended up melding his friends’ interest in movies with his own interest in financial modeling.

At CAA Batchelder works intimately with lawyers and agents in film negotiations, creating financial structures that enable the agency to make the best deals for their clients. He credits his initial studio experience at MGM plus his studio relationships with allowing him to be so successful at CAA. Of CAA he speaks only in superlatives. “It’s a great company to work for and the leadership is especially great. It’s very much a team agency. You can go as far as your motivation and ambition can take you.”

“Talent doesn’t leave here,” he said. “When clients get here, it’s a major career move. We’re dealing with talent at the top of their game like Will Ferrell (Editor’s Note: Ferrell is married to Viveca Paulin ’87) or Julia Roberts. Though I’m in talent evaluation, no one is stopping me from participating in other areas if I have the time and knowledge.”

sarah B o w man ’ 7 9

Creatively Opting Out, Entirely on Her Terms Yet another entry in Nobles’ Hollywood registry is Sarah Bowman ’79 who did what many do: she left her mark and moved on. Bowman made a meteoric start in Holly- wood, working for the likes of Stephen Spielberg while still in her 20s. But when she and her husband started a family, the amount of time spent outside the house began to disturb both of them. Going from success to success, she and a friend in the entertainment business created an online company, www.kidsoffthecouch.com (see sidebar, page 27), which offers ideas for media-based adventures for children and parents all over the country.

Like her close Nobles friend. Cary Bickley (page 25), Bowman gained her love for images and clarity of expression from the Nobleman under Joe Swayze. “Joe gave me my eyes,” she recalls. “And Nobles gave me even more… My world came alive when I went to Nobles,” she confided. Bowman and her two sisters, Margaret Bowman Hunter ’80 and Barbara Bowman ’82, all reaped the benefits of a Nobles education.

Sarah continued these passions at Brown where she majored in semiotics and was in classes with media luminaries such as Todd Haynes, Jeff Eugenides and Christine Varhon. After a brief stint in San Francisco, she moved to New York where she worked in the Chairman’s office of Tri-Star Pictures, eventually moving to Los Angeles as the company’s story editor. From there it was script-reading for Spielberg at Amblin Entertainment, where she became a vice president of production, working with writers and directors on the production of televised plays and the Robin Williams’ movie, Hook. While at Amblin, her creative group developed Jurassic Park, The Bridges of Madison County and How to Make an American Quilt.

What motivated Bowman to move on was the realization that the only job worth having on a set was that of director. With a baby on the way, she gave up the pursuit of production work and took up screenwriting, and soon sold a few scripts to Warner Brothers and Universal. Through friendships forged at her daughter’s preschool, she met a former CNN reporter who was having similar reservations about spending so much time away from her family.

26 l the Nobles Bulletin l Spring 2009

“We started a mother-daughter reading group together, which included reading The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler… On a lark, we decided to take the girls to the Getty Museum and pretend we had to stowaway there for a week, just like the characters in the book. None of us had ever had so much fun.” Diane Shakin and Bowman quickly decided to parlay their love of reading, writing and cultural exploration into a media-based series of adventures for families in addition to their own.

Bowman’s focus on her own children’s education (“They go to the Nobles of L.A.,” she says of their enrollment at Harvard Westlake) allows her to keep abreast of trends in the media and education fields, but she concedes that she and her husband have found it endlessly challenging to raise kids in keeping with New England values while living in “the splashy playground” of Los Angeles.

“I come from the Baker, Swayze, Hilary school where parents see teachers as their allies,” she said, professing her lifelong admiration for former Head of School Dick Baker, legendary photography teacher Joe Swayze and popular past English teacher and Co-Athletic Director Hilary Walker Gilmore.

What’s the secret to these four Hollywood veterans’ various successes? According to Bowman: “You should show up here with a sense of curiosity about the world, tempered by the confidence that your perspective is valuable.” She continued: “You can accomplish something if you not only develop your own voice, but also take time to observe and learn.”

Levy presented a slightly different perspective: “There’s no secret for survival in Hollywood. Just hang in and make friends plus come here with some skills, a good attitude and [it doesn’t hurt to] be at the right place at the right time.” And, when all else is said and done, he observed, you have to come to terms that “In the words of Michael Corleone [in The Godfather], ‘It’s just business.’”

Same Creativity and Talent, Different Venue: Sarah Bowman Establishes Business at Home After a Hollywood career that included working for Steven Spielberg and Kathy Kennedy, Sarah Bowman ’79 sought an alternative that would allow more time to raise her two children, Jamie and Jack Temko.

Her inspired idea arose from a mother-daughter book group with Jamie where she met another similarly oriented mother who ultimately became her business partner. The result: A website called Kids Off the Couch which begins with the recommendation of a book or movie, such as A Secret Garden, with follow-up activities that serve as a springboard to enjoy cultural activities in their community. In California, parents and children might visit the Descanso Gardens in Pasadena; in New York, the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens; in Miami, the Fairchild Tropical Gardens; in Boston, the Public Garden.

Examples of Kids off the Couch activities: pairing a trip to the local planetarium with watching E.T. or Apollo 13; working in a neighborhood soup kitchen after watching the musical Oliver; and following-up the classic Mr. Smith Goes to Washington by checking out your local polling place on election day, as Bowman’s son and daughter do with her, each election cycle.

And so it goes, across the country www.kidsoffthecouch.com currently attracts more than 8,000 subscribers who seek out family adventures that start with reading a well-known book or watching a pertinent movie, then continuing on to explore relevant cultural sites in their own state. Also provided on the “KOTC” website is a relevant bibliography for pre-school, elementary and middle-schoolers.

—Joyce Leffler Eldridge

S arah B o w man at H ome

Spring 2009 l the Nobles Bulletin l 27

´ ´ ´ ´ ´ ´ ´ ´ ´ ´ ´ ´ ´ Mainstage Play Brings Out Best in

T

Nobles Theatre Collaborative

ake a big bowl of contemporary playwrights like Christopher Durang (The Marriage of Bette and Boo) and John Guare (Six Degrees of Separation), lace it with some Freudian dream theory and Strindberg’s “Dream Plays,” add a dollop of Surrealism, then sit back to enjoy (and decode) the brilliant production of Reckless by Craig Lucas, produced by the Nobles Theatre Collective and directed by Todd Morton. If you missed it at the Vinik Theatre in February, keep this advice in mind the next time Reckless comes around.

Asked why he selected this particular play for the main drama of the year, Morton said: “It made me laugh often, it had a strong journey for a female character and I knew that it would be fun for a group of actors to work on in rehearsal. Compared to the many scripts I had come by, it was quick, fresh and startling.”

Because there were so many parts, not all of equal size, Morton worried (needlessly) that not everyone would stay on task. Instead, he found, “Everyone in the cast was a real pro at applying an enormous amount of discipline and enthusiasm to their work. We really learned a lot about the importance of an ensemble…. We all held it together for one another.”

The first few lines of the play suggest that reality may be blurred in this production. On Christmas Eve, in their bedroom, a young couple seems poised to celebrate one of the most festive holidays of the year…until the husband informs his wife that he has taken out a contract on her life…and the commissioned killer is due imminently.

From her hurried departure (clad only in a nightgown and slippers) to her numerous encounters with psycho-

Kaveh Veyssi ’10 tries to give a correct answer to TV host Chris Collins-Pisano ’12.

An unexpectedly cold,

snowy Christmas eve therapists, Rachel (a seasoned for Ava Geyer ’11 Ava Geyer ’11) embarks on a series of adventures, akin to those snippets of music that underscore of Odysseus…She is picked up by a or intimate the mood being conveyed. stranger (a compelling Kaveh Veyssi There’s “It’s Only a Paper Moon” fol’10) who brings her home to meet his lowed by Ella Fitzgerald’s “A-Tisket- mute (“pretend mute”), paraplegic wife a-Tasket,” “You’re Just Too Marvelous for Words,” “Dance Ballerina Dance” (delicately rendered by Alexandra (ironic with a paraplegic as a main Burns ’10), who later also plays his character), and “Straighten Up and mother on a popular game show called Fly Right.”

Your Wife or Your Mother (think Slumdog Lucas writes with a deft, sardonic Millionaire with the insanity factor touch and the NTC players delivered ratcheted up by a factor of 10). their lines with full respect for his Every scene, set on a multi-tiered timing and humor. When dark writstage that rises three levels to transcend ing and lighting collided, they landed time and reality, raises the question: heavily, perhaps because they contrast“Is this a dream or are we witnessing the denouement of a dysfunctional noned with some of the previous send-ups family posing as a family?” Co-scenic in this fast-paced play. When Rachel designers Jon Bonner, director of analyzed Santa’s name and rearranged it to spell “Satan,” she gave the audiTechnical Theatre, along with Will ence a chill that could carry over for Macrae and Jessica AndersonChristmases to come. The irony of the Nelson, both ’09, who did this as an last song, “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” Independent Study, deserve special praise provides the biggest chill…given that for the success of their ambitious vision. this waking nightmare began on Morton and his astute student Christmas Eve. compatriot, Kit Loomis ’11, separate the numerous scenes with spot-on —Joyce Leffler Eldridge

28 l the Nobles Bulletin l Spring 2009

´ ´ ´ ´ ´ ´ ´ ´ ´ ´ ´ ´ ´ “Anything Goes” with the Middle School Musical,

W

Red, Hot and Cole

hen the curtain rose in Lawrence Auditorium on February19, nine members of the 13-member Middle School cast made their theatrical debut at Nobles. As they marked one of many “firsts” at Nobles, they also helped mark an exciting “first” for the school: Nobles’ first-ever Middle School musical.

Together with Director Kelly-Jean Lynch, the 13 students researched which musical they wanted to perform and decided on Red, Hot and Cole, music and lyrics by Cole Porter, book by James Bianchi, Muriel McAuley and Randy Strawderman. The play, based on the life of composer and songwriter Cole Porter, is a blend of biography and song and incorporates a wide selection of Porter’s beloved music throughout the story. Playing the man of the hour, John DeVoy ’14 captured Porter’s rise to fame, while fellow cast members played friends and family, including wife Linda (Shanti Gonzales ’13) and longtime friend and assistant Paul (Maria Maier ’14).

After watching the cast navigate through dense dialogue and tricky song-and-dance numbers, it’s clear each of these students will take a lead from Cole Porter’s success on the stage. —Julie Guptill Cast

Cole Porter – John DeVoy ’14 Elsa Maxwell – Maya Getter ’13 Linda Porter – Shanti Gonazales ’13 Ethel Merman/Irene Castle – Emily London ’13 Monty Woolly – Diana Smith ’13 Bella Spewack/Chantale – Ava Brignol ’14 Bricktop – Anika Singh ’14 Paul – Maria Maier ’14 Clifton Web/Starlet – Maddy Cella ’14 Sara Murphy/George Kaufman – Abby Allen ’14 Dorothy Parker/Noel Coward – Claire Komyati ’14 Hedda Hopper/Moss Hart – Victoria Collins ’14 Sam Katz/Ray Goetz – Jean Zhou ’14

Clockwise from the top: The cast performs a song from Red, Hot and Cole; John DeVoy ’14 and Maria Maier ’14; John DeVoy ’14 and Shanti Gonazales ’13; and Victoria Collins ’14

Spring 2009 l the Nobles Bulletin l 29

Make Your Own Way

The Words and Work of Henry Horenstein

By B e t s y Va n O o t

W

hile the Foster Gallery often showcases the works of emerging artists, it also provides a forum for those who are more established. Such is the case with the 20 photographs that comprised the most recent exhibit, Animalia: the Photographs of Henry Horenstein. The works, some at left, taken from Horenstein’s monograph Animalia, transform creatures from land and sea. Large and grainy—and, in turn, dreamy, intimidating and mesmerizing— the photographs displayed both the technical virtuosity for which Horenstein is known and a deep respect for the intrinsic, often abstract beauty of the natural world.

Speaking to students and faculty before his opening reception Feb. 26, Horenstein offered insight into his working practice and the experiences that shaped his career. He discussed three recurring influences on his life and work: a love of history, the drive to record people and things that might otherwise be forgotten, and the struggle to find one’s own way, circling back repeatedly to the legacy of great teachers.

Textbooks allowed him to combine photography and history, and he went on to create one of the seminal texts on the photographic process, Black and White Photography: A Basic Manual. A long-time professor at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Horenstein was most eloquent when describing the impact of learning from great teachers such as E.P. Thompson and Harry Callahan. He described Callahan, his instructor at RISD, as “the most important teacher in my life.”

Throughout his career, he has pursued interests as varied as country music (HonkyTonk: Portraits of Country Music 1972–1981), thoroughbred racing (Racing Days), and dogs (Canine). The creation of Animalia followed in the same tradition. The photographs in Animalia represent more than a year of traveling to zoos and aquariums around the world, searching in each place not for specific animals, but for specific lighting situations that would allow Horenstein to shoot his subject with natural light and a 35mm camera. “I didn’t want to document or identify the animals,” he said. “I wanted to find what’s mysterious; what’s essential.” Of the link between good teaching and good photography, Horenstein said: “I think teachers give you who they are if they’re good teachers. Photographs are that way, too. You’ll know who I am after this.”

Animalia, originally curated by the Harvard Museum of Natural History, appeared courtesy of Robert Klein Gallery/Boston and art2arg.org. through April 6. For more information on upcoming shows, visit www.fostergallery.org

UPCOMING SHO WS IN FOSTER GALLERY Student Show 2009: Works from AP Studios April 13–May 1 Opening Reception: Friday, April 17, 4:30–6:30 p.m.

Continuum: Photography, Painting and Sculpture by Kate Blacklock May 4–June 12 Opening Reception: Thursday, May 7, 4:30–6:30 p.m.

For more information: www.fostergallery.org 30 30 Nobles Bulletin Nobles Bulletin Spring 2009 l the l the l Spring 2009

Keeping You Up-to-Date The Obama/Honest Tea Connection There are many connections between President Barack Obama and Nobles (see Winter Bulletin 2009, pages 12–19) but only one is worthy of Trivial Pursuit©.

What is the President’s favorite organic brew? The answer: Honest Tea (he prefers Black Forest Berry and Green Dragon).

And who created Honest Tea? Nobles graduate Seth Goldman, Class of 1983!

“The Fourth Estate” Comes Aboard at The Nobleman Nobleman Advisor Peter Raymond has announced The Nobleman staff for 2009–’10. They are as follows: Editor-in-Chief: Laura Kirk; Managing Editors: Gordie Baily, Catie Meyer;

From left, faculty members David Strasburger, Vicky Seelen, Sandi MacQuinn, Tim Carey Former artistin-residence Bob Freeman

Arts Writers: Alexandra Burns, Alexa Zilberfarb; Business Manager: Andrew Kouri; Community Service Writers: Holly Foster, Owen Minott; Copy Editors: Tori Goyette, Dori Rahbar; Feature Writers: Kirsten Karis, Will Shames; Layout Editors: Julia Hermann, Will Potter; News Writers: Sarah Kistner, JJ Pollack; Opinion Writers: Carly Rosenfield, Ian Trase; Senior Staff Writers: Hannah Birnbaum, Linda Paniszyn; Sports Writers: Darcy Banco, Scott Mahoney; Staff Artist: Annelise Baker. All are Class of 2010.

Well-Received National Presentation Faculty members Tim Carey, Sandi MacQuinn, David Strasburger and Vicky Seelen presented a workshop at the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) conference in Chicago in February. The title, “To Tell the Truth: Creating a Culture of Effective Evaluation,” encapsulates their presention regarding the ongoing Nobles Faculty Evaluation process. During the three-hour workshop, attended by 45 school Heads and administrators, the four faculty members explained and simulated Nobles’ evaluation process. Head Bob Henderson joined the discussion at the end, answering questions and reinforcing the philosophy behind Nobles’ unique program. In a followup communication with the Nobles faculty,

Henderson referred to the presentation as the “highlight of the [Nobles] visit to the NAIS conference in Chicago: They had a full house and delivered a wonderful, polished program, enthusiastically received.”

Quite a Game Noble and Greenough hosted students from the Cotting School in Lexington, America’s first day school for children with learning and physical disabilities. In January, Cotting played two friendly back-to-back basketball games with the Girls’ Varsity team in the Richardson Gymnasium. The Nora Kelly ’11 game was spearheaded once again by Will Randle ‘09, whose sister has been a Cotting School student for the past four years. Also working to arrange the game was Suzanne Sullivan ’09. Prior to the game, Randle led an Assembly to help educate the Nobles community about children with disabilities, sharing personal stories and a moving video clip featuring children at Cotting.

Moving onto the Maine Art Scene Retired Artist-in-Residence Bob Freeman was one of five African-American artists featured recently in a show at the University of New England Art Gallery in Portland, Maine. The exhibit, entitled “The Freedom of Place Collection,” contained 52 works, mainly from the collection of Ambassador Julia Chang Bloch and her husband. At the opening night reception, Freeman was invited to give the keynote talk.

Model U.N. Group Earns Its Stripes at Yale Four members of Nobles’ Model U.N. group were recognized as Honorable Delegates during this year’s competition.

Jessica Anderson-Nelson ’09, Sam Cheney ’11, Gene Robinson ’10 and Tyler Anderson ’11 all received special Spring 2009 l the Nobles Bulletin l 31

Keeping You Up-to-Date

"The Seed Before"

Tom Resor coaching recognition. Nobles was asked to represent Ghana. Faculty advisors were Amadou Seck and Ambrose Faturoti ’99.

Amy Zwanziger ’05, who was active in Model U.N. while at Nobles, continues to participate in it at Yale. This year she was the Director of Security for the conference.

Steven Tejada MS SOC Keynoter Steven Tejada, Director of Diversity Initiatives, was the keynote speaker at the Middle School Students of Color Conference at Newton Country Day School in February. The conference, sponsored by the Association of Independent Schools of New England (AISNE), was created in recognition of the unique needs, experiences, and issues students of color encounter in independent schools.

The annual conference seeks to raise self-confidence, build community and cultivate leadership among students of color. Tejada performed an excerpt from his one-man show, “Boogie Down Journeys,” following which he entertained a brief question and answer session with the students. The excerpt focused on a young man leaving his inner-city neighborhood, the South Bronx, to attend a private school in a different state.

Prior to joining Nobles in 2008 as the Director of Diversity Initiatives, Tejada spent five years as a full-time professional actor and writer. He has spoken and performed at numerous venues throughout the country including Yale University and The Museum of the City of New York. Tejada was also a featured speaker at the 2007 National Association of Independent Schools’ People of Color Conference.

Achieving Milestones Girls’ Varsity Hockey Coach Tom Resor recently won his 200th game as coach, achieving this feat in fewer than nine seasons. Also earning kudos was Kelsey Lawler ‘09 who reached 1,000 points in Girls’ Varsity Basketball competition. She joins the ranks of five other female high scorers, two of them former teammates: Chrissy Cadigan ‘86, LeWanda Elliot ‘95, Jenna Gomez ‘04, Ayla Brown ‘06 and Ana Rodriguez-Villa ‘08.

"Teapot" “Teapot from Honey You: Phase 1 of Autobiography,” both shown above. His personal statement revealed: “I am exploring the portion of my personal history which I have identified as Phase 1 of my life. My artistic goal is to create patterns of meaning from this personal history, and then communicate that meaning via a system of painted images.”

Great Things Come in All Sizes The 375 pairs of athletic footwear collected at Nobles this winter arrived in Kliptown, South Africa, in late February to hundreds of smiling and excited

Published in Studio Visit Magazine Two works by Visual Arts faculty member David H. Roane have been published in Studio Visit Magazine Vol. 3, following a juried selection of numerous submissions by artists from around the world. Roane’s work included “The Seed Before” and

32 l the Nobles Bulletin l Spring 2009

KYP members with their shoes, donated from Nobles

Keeping You Up-to-Date school-aged children and athletes who previously did not own shoes. Thulani Madondo of the Kliptown Youth Program is grateful for the outpouring of generosity from the Nobles community. He reports back that the members of the Kliptown Girls’ Netball team—the only team in the league that played barefoot —now have well-fitting sneakers to compete with. Special thanks to Darla Wynn’s ‘10 family for donating dozens of brand-new sneakers.

Hurley To Be Honored Linda Hurley, Coordinator of Service Activities, will be honored by the Single Parent Family Outreach (SPFO) group for the work that she and Nobles students have done over the years to help this often overlooked category of people in need. She and two other honorees will be feted at the SPFO annual banquet on Sunday, April 26. For Nobles’ work on SPFO’s behalf, the group cited the Thanksgiving turkey drive which raised money and delivered goods to more than 90 single-parent families each year for the past seven years.

with which Harrison and others will be dealing are on the cutting edge of current research. The committee includes representatives from senior administration, the Internal Review Board, scientists and public representatives such as Harrison.

Working Where His Heart Is Deb Harrison world, she said, “For me, it was a practice of letting go of my expectations and trying, to the best of my ability, to be truthful on all fronts…The original schedule was to cut the film in 12 months; I had no idea that we were beginning a process which would span 30 months and challenge every belief I had about documentary filmmaking.” In credits for the documentary, Churchill is described as “a filmmaker and a dedicated yoga practitioner who believes that yoga can transform anyone.” She has won awards for previous National Geographic and Nova documentaries on jaguars and evolution, respectively.

An Honor Bestowed on Harrison Biology teacher Deb Harrison was invited

by Children’s Hospital to become a public representative on an ethics committee which addresses ethical questions surrounding the hospital’s scientific experiments. The issues

Linda Hurley

Nick DiCarlo ’03, who worked assiduously on behalf of President Obama’s successful run for the White House (Winter 2009 Bulletin, page 17), has accepted a position as a Communications Specialist and New Media Lead for U.S. Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin.

DiCarlo describes his new boss as “a strong advocate for clean energy development and land conservation, embryonic stem cell research, and affordable healthcare for all. She is also a champion for and a role model within the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) community, having been the first openly gay female non-incumbent to gain election to Congress. She was recently re-elected for her sixth term and represents Madison and Beloit, Wis. DiCarlo is responsible for helping Baldwin’s communications office interact and engage with constituents in a world in which communication has been redefined by texting, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and YouTube.

—Joyce Leffler Eldridge

Nick DiCarlo ’03 (picture taken from 2003 Viewbook)

Not the Outcome She Expected Kate Churchill ’86 has moved her passion for yoga into the public realm of documentary-making. Her new work, Enlighten Up!, now playing at the International Film Center in Manhattan, follows a 29-year-old journalist around the world as he examines the good, the bad and the ugly of yoga. Ultimately her subject, Nick, rejects yoga’s “spirituality.” Of her experience tracking Nick around the

Spring 2009 l the Nobles Bulletin l 33

Window on

Nobles

By Joe Swayze

Contrasting Two Washington Events

I

t was 39 years ago, the last time Joanna and I participated in a mass gathering in Washington, D.C. It was the spring of 1970 and, like many others, we were drawn to an antiwar moratorium that was protesting the American invasion of Cambodia during the Vietnam War. At the time I was a reporter/photographer for The Bennington (Vt.) Banner, and I remember making a photograph of then New York Times columnist, Tom Wicker, who was covering the event. I had just come back from Vietnam a year before, so this was an emotional time for me, for everyone.

At the Inauguration, with a far larger crowd than at the moratorium, emotions were also high. This time, however, there was a wonderfully positive spirit. Squeezed in among the crowd of millions-plus people on the Mall, we felt a sense of community that we had never experienced before. We were freezing, but the warmth for Obama was overwhelming.

34 l the Nobles Bulletin l Spring 2009

Some flagtwirling entertainment

Several jumbotrons allowed for the masses to see Obama’s inauguration.

Families in attendance for the historical moment

Boston Globe’s Washington Bureau Chief Peter Canellos ‘80 and Joe Swayze

Wearing her Obama scarf with pride

A look of wonder

On every corner coffee shop in D.C., Obama took center stage.

Spring 2009 l the Nobles Bulletin l 35

ON the

Playing Fields

Winter Varsity Sports Results and Awards

Tory Cameron '09

Alpine Ski Girls’ Season Record: 29-0 ISL Champions (7th Consecutive) Class A NEPSAC Championships: 5th Place Boys’ Season Record: 30-3 ISL Co-Champions (2nd Consecutive) Class A NEPSAC Championships: 6th Place Awards: James H. Bride Ski Bowl (for passion, performance, and sportsmanship)—Tory Cameron ’09; Coaches’ Award (for selfless attitude and consistent effort)—Scott Kirschner ’09 and Will Randle ’09 ISL MVP and Globe All-Scholastic: Tory Cameron ’09 All-League: Tory Cameron ’09, Julie Daniels ’09, Alex Katz ’13, Ben Knott ’09, Henry Tomlinson ’14, Caroline Vietze ’11 All-New England: Tory Cameron ’09 and Alex Katz ’13 2010 Captains: Ellis Tonissi and Caroline Vietze, both ’11

Boys’ Varsity Basketball Overall Record: 18-7 ISL Record: 12-3 (3rd Place) NEPSAC Semi-finalist Awards: Clarke Bowl (for contribution to team spirit)—Derick Beresford ’09; 1983–’84 Basketball Award (given to the player who best exemplifies the spirit, dedication, determination, attitude and improvement of the 1983–’84 team)—Tucker Halpern ’09 All-League: Derick Beresford and Tucker Halpern, both ’09 Honorable Mention: McCallum Foote and Andrew LoRusso, both ’09 Boys’ Basketball Scoring Record for Most Points: Tucker Halpern ’09, 1,810 points 2010 Captains: TBA Girls’ Varsity Basketball Overall Record: 19-5 ISL Record: 12-0 ISL Champions (6th Consecutive Year) NEPSAC Division A Quarterfinalist Awards: Seadale Bowl (for overall contribution to the basketball program)— Suzanne Sullivan and Kelsey Lawler,

36 36 l the the Nobles Bulletin Nobles Bulletin l Spring 2009 Spring 2009

both ’09; Richard Nickerson Award (honors Nick Nickerson for his 21 years of coaching, awarded to a nonsenior for courage and determination) —Eliza Goode and Emily Wingrove, both ’10 All-League: Eliza Goode ’10, Kelsey Lawler ’09, and Emily Wingrove ’10 Honorable Mention: Reilly Foote and Nora Kelly, both ’11 NEPSAC All Stars: Kelsey Lawler ’09 and Emily Wingrove ’10 1,000th Point Scored: Kelsey Lawler ’09 (02/04/09) 2010 Captains: Dana Berlin, Eliza Goode, and Emily Wingrove, all ’10 Boys’ Varsity Hockey Overall Record: 19-9-1; ISL Record: 10-5-1 (3rd Place) 44th Annual Flood-Marr Holiday Tournament Champions Awards: Todd Flaman Award (For a JV player whose spirit, enthusiasm and love of hockey, exemplified by Todd Flaman ’97)—Scott Mahoney

Derick Beresford '09

Girls' Varsity Hockey, New England Division I Champions

and Will Potter, both ’10; ’74 Award (for improvement in hockey)— Gene Lane ’10; Sziklas Hockey Trophy (for contribution to the team)— Zach Greenberg ’09 All-League: Bill Arnold ’11, Kevin Hayes ’11, Mark Hourihan ’10 and Gus Young ’10 Honorable Mention: Matt Harlow ’11 and Ben Wiggins ’10 2010 Captains: Mark Hourihan and Gus Young, both ’10 Girls’ Varsity Hockey Overall Record: 26-1-1 ISL Record: 12-0-0 ISL Champions (10th Consecutive) NEPSAC Division I Champions (5th in 8 years) Awards: Anne Dudley Newell Hockey Cup (for dedication and excellence)—Alexandra Piersiak and Corey Stearns, both ’09; NEPSAC Tournament MVP— Kelly Cooke ’09 All-League: Corey Stearns ’09, Kelly Cooke ’09, Marissa Gedman ’10, and Jackie Young ’10 Honorable Mention: Alexandra Piersiak ’09 and Kaitlin Spurling ’09 2010 Captains: TBA

Boys’ Varsity Squash Overall Record: 8-7 ISL Record: 4-4 NEPSAC Class A Tournament participant: 6th Place Awards: Cutler Cup (awarded to the member of the team who has shown the greatest devotion to the sport)— Earl Smith ’09 All-League: Derek Chilvers ’10 and Conor McClintock ’11 2010 Captains: Derek Chilvers ’10 and Cam Rahbar ’11 Girls’ Varsity Squash Overall Record: 8-3 ISL Record: 5-2 (2nd Place) New England A Tournament— 9th Place Awards: Cutler Cup (for member of the team who has shown the greatest devotion to the sport)—Brooke Hammer ’09 All-League: Dori Rahbar ’10 2010 Captains: Dori Rahbar and Sharon Roth, both ’10 Varsity Wrestling Overall Record: 6-11 ISL Record: 4-8 Awards: Warren E. Storer Award (for hard work and improvement)— Zach Ellison and Adam Keally, both ’11;

Wilbur F. Storer Award (for the wrestler who best exemplifies devotion to the sport and team) —Dan Samost ’10 All-League: Dan Samost ’10 Honorable Mention: Clem Chanenchuk ’11 and Jackson Timm ’12 5 Graves Kelsey Medalists 2010 Captains: Jake Ezickson and Dan Samost, both ’10 Those Earning a Nobles Varsity Letter for the First Time: Alpine Skiing: Henry Tomlinson ’14 Basketball: Brian Edgerley ’11, Shabrina Guerrier ’09, Julie Monaghan ’10, Alli Parent ’12, Lauren Taiclet ’12, Darla Wynn ’11 Ice Hockey: Andrew Doane ’12, Lauren Fitzgerald ’11, Max Franklin ’12, Thomas Park ’11, Matt Whiting ’11 Squash: Elizabeth Ayoub ’12, Madeline Smith ’12 Wrestling: Ben Kirshner ’11, Jackson Timm ’12, Hans Vitzthum ’11

Spring 2009 Spring 2009 l the the Nobles Bulletin Nobles Bulletin l 37 37

R e u n io n P ro f i l e s 6 5 t h R e u n io n

Marching to the Beat of History Fred Richardson ’44

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“

id you know that Paul Revere was caught by the British regulars in Lincoln, before he finished the ride?” asked Fred Richardson ’44, who enjoys revealing the several historical fallacies perpetuated in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem about the famous patriot. Indeed, bringing enlightenment has been a lifetime calling of the loyal Nobles graduate, who returns to Dedham this May to celebrate his 65th Reunion.

Native to Massachusetts and born to a family of historical significance at Nobles (relatives include a former board chair, two distinguished graduates, several generations of Nobles graduates and even a Nobles teacher), Richardson did what most young men of his era did after graduating—he went to Harvard.

After one semester he was drafted. “I trained to be a combat tank operator, but since the theaters in Europe and Asia were closing down and the war with Japan had ended immediately after my 19th birthday, I spent a couple of months in the Philippines as a replacement for discharged veterans. Upon my return, I was sent to the 2nd Armored Division Base in Texas, headed for work in the motor pool (the ‘grease pits’) when I noticed a paper on the admitting officer’s desk saying the Army needed band members. I spoke up and said I was an experienced woodwind player and he stamped a form and handed me a piccolo. That’s how I escaped the ‘grease pits.’”

After being discharged from the Army “having achieved the venerable rank of Private, First Class,” Richardson

Fred Richardson ’44

returned to Harvard where he got his Bachelor’s degree and subsequently his Master’s Degree in Education. He then went on to six years of service in the Orford, N.H. public high school and the Trinity-Pawling School in Pawling, N.Y. There was something missing, however, from those positions that caused him to seek the advice of then-headmaster Eliot Putnam. “The relationships I had developed with my teachers and coaches at Nobles were very special to me,” he said, citing the importance of Richard Flood, Theodore Reese, Sidney Eaton and of course Mr. Putnam himself. “These were teachers who knew how to be supportive of the student I was and how I learned best. They never made me feel like I was anything but a terrific student. I knew that this was the kind of teacher I wanted to be.”

Having no open positions at Nobles to offer, Headmaster Putnam introduced Richardson to the headmaster at Belmont Hill School and the rest was history.

38 l the Nobles Bulletin l Spring 2009

In the classroom “nobody was looking over my shoulder. As long as the students were doing well, I was free to create my own relationship with them. That job lasted 30 satisfying years,” he said.

Richardson took on a string of subvarsity coaching positions, eventually becoming the “Commish” or “Intramural Czar” at Belmont Hill. “I was never the kind of athlete that some of my friends were while at school,” explained Richardson. “But I knew that the athletic experience was still important.

In fact, the most important lessons I learned from Mr. Putnam were passed on to me on the football field, and not in the French classroom.”

“I think often of what I learned from my teachers at Nobles,” says Richardson, whose other accomplishments have included being a Cape Cod

“These were teachers who knew how to be supportive of the student I was and how I learned best.”

National Seashore Ranger for 20 years, receiving a mid-career MS in chemistry from Simmons College, acting as drum major for the Lincoln Company of Minutemen for 30 years and even now, in his retire-ment, volunteering at the Lincoln schools as a teaching assistant for eighth-grade algebra. “I’ve always thought, as a teacher and as a person, that Mr. Wiggins’ definition of a gentleman was a great ideal to aim for.”

Our opinion—Mr. Wiggins would be incredibly proud.

—Barry Clifford ’87

6 0 t h R e u n io n

A Second Chance at Life Charlie Davis ’49

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s Charlie Davis ’49 approaches his 79th birthday this year, he reflects back on a brush with death that changed his outlook and altered the course of his life in profound ways.

After Nobles, Davis attended Bowdoin, where he majored in Russian History and participated in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC). After serving in the Korean War, he earned his MBA at Harvard and started a career in the highly competitive food business, beginning in the supermarket industry and later entering the food-processing arena.

Davis went on to become CEO of two frozen-food harvesting and processing companies. He was married, settled in Wellesley and later Weston, and welcomed three children, Linda ’76, Katherine and Chip ’84. The second assignment later brought him to Maine.

Davis’s life changed dramatically when he was 57 years old. Skiing with two younger friends and a guide in Courmayeur, Italy, on the back side of Chamonix, France, in the Alps, Davis suffered an accident that brought him face-to-face with death. Rounding a sharp turn on a steep slope, he lost both of his skis and tumbled, out of control, down the face of the mountain. “While I was falling, I was quite peaceful and felt no pain as yet. I was aware that I was about to go over the cliff and die, and I remember hearing a voice that told me what I needed to do in order to survive,” he recalls. As advised by this mysterious out-of-body voice, he elongated and used a camcorder that he had on his back to stop his body

and thus prevented himself from tumbling over a 2,000-foot-high cliff.

With fairly severe injuries, including a dislocated left forearm, he was evacuated by helicopter to a hospital in Aosta, Italy.

“When I returned to the business world after the accident, something had changed in me,” Davis recalls.

“My competitive nature was replaced with a strong desire to help others.”

Davis began his new journey as a member of a newly-elected governor’s task force for economic development in Maine. That sharpened an interest in providing counsel to small local businesses. He became the State Director of the Maine Small Business Development Centers, working with 12 other business counselors, dispersed throughout the state, all of whom had MBAs and extensive business experience.

Davis is also formerly an adjunct professor of business administration, having taught Strategy as a capstone course at the University of Southern Maine Business School in Portland.

Davis credits his time at Nobles with preparing him for a genuine interest in service, particularly in the last quarter of his professional life.

“I grew up as the son of a single mother. One person I adopted as a father figure was my Nobles classmate Jack Carney’s father. Jack was and is my best friend, and his father was an enormous help to me. Men like Eliot Putnam, Sid Eaton, Wilbur Storer, Tim Coggeshall, Jim Bird ’39 and Richard Flood ’23 were also enormous influences on me. Five years at Nobles taught me both competitiveness and kindness. As a student there, I internalized the importance of serving others.”

Charlie Davis ’49

The near-fatal accident gave Davis a unique opportunity: “I have been allowed to live two lives. When I wake up in the morning now, instead of thinking about how I can beat out others and compete in the business world, I think about how I have helped others in their small businesses and/or the classroom. The events on the mountaintop were spiritual and life-changing, but so also were those five critical years that I spent at Nobles.”

— Brooke Earley Asnis ’90

“Five years at Nobles taught me both competitiveness and kindness.

As a student here, I internalized the importance of serving others.”

Spring 2009 l the Nobles Bulletin l 39

R e u n io n P ro f i l e s 5 5 t h R e u n io n

Call Me Dr. Pain

This stamp, displaying Ted Reese '54, commemorates his participation in the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia.

Ted Reese ‘54

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“

verything I am today, I attribute to who I became while I was a student at Nobles,” proclaimed Ted Reese ’54. Hair cropped military short, dressed in his practice sweats, and wearing one of several “championship” coats he has acquired over the years as a wrestling coach, the 73-yearold “with several replaced body parts” looks supremely fit.

Born and raised in Dedham, Reese, the son of former Nobles teacher, Theodore I. Reese, entered the school as a Sixie. “I was a little pudgy, and in that first year I learned the hard way that I was not destined to be on the hockey team.” Instead, he was encouraged by Jim Bird to try out wrestling. In his Fifth Class season under the encouragement of Wilbur Storer and after months of hard work, he ended his first season as a wrestler with a jaw-dropping record of zero victories.

“Some of the most important lessons I ever learned at Nobles I learned in those first weeks on the mat, with Mr. Storer and the Upper School boys.

After every match, as I would walk, beaten and exhausted off the mat, Wilbur would ask me, ‘Did you try your best, Reese?’ and I would answer him ‘Yes,’ and those senior boys would clap me on the back and tell me to keep it up. After that, every week, in every practice and in every match, I tried my best, and would answer ‘yes’ to Mr. Storer’s simple question, until by the time I was a senior I had achieved an undefeated season. I have loved wrestling ever since, because it is a sport that rewards hard work and detailed study, and it showed me that I could achieve any goal to which I applied my energy and intellect.”

While his accomplishments read like a parent’s dream (B.A. at Yale, a stint in the U.S. Marines, a Master’s in education at Harvard and a Ph.D. at Brandeis, not to mention teaching jobs at Nobles, Milton and Tabor) it has always been the possibility of selfimprovement that wrestling provides that has brought him his most gratifying rewards. While enjoying the teaching opportunities he was given in independent schools, Reese felt that he could have a greater impact in the lives of individual students elsewhere, and so he sought employment in the Maine public school system.

“Discipline, focused hard work, and caring became my values because of both the teachers at Nobles and the overall atmosphere of the school. Those are the values that I taught to every boy who was willing to listen.”

As both a teacher and a coach, he set about consciously trying to influence the lives of youngsters as he himself was influenced. “Discipline, focused hard work, and caring became my values because of both the teachers at Nobles and the overall atmosphere of the school. Those are the values that I taught to every boy who was willing to listen,” he said about those years.

40 l the Nobles Bulletin l Spring 2009

He still laughs when he talks about the first time his team at Bonny-Eagle High School had an undefeated season.

“They bought these garish coats and wore them with such pride throughout the school. They even bought coats for me and my wife, embroidered with ‘Coach’ and ‘Mrs. Coach.’”

Wrestling brought Reese to schools where the buildings had no indoor plumbing, and the students had no books. “I really felt like I had the chance to change kids’ lives,” he said on a recent phone call. “Because somebody made a commitment to them, these kids can read. They can make themselves open to a whole world of ideas.

And—against all the odds and the conventional wisdom of their guidance counselors—some of these kids even got into Harvard and Yale and went on to get a great job.”

Approaching his 55th Reunion this year, Reese is still teaching English, now at a senior college where all the students are 55 years old or more. He still coaches wrestling at Mount Ararat High School (though he doesn’t hit the mats as much as he used to) and he has had the opportunity, through wrestling, to travel to several Olympic games, including the games in Guong-Xhou.

When the Chinese stopped him on the streets, Reese didn’t tell them to “hit the mat” at all; instead they were given an impromptu English lesson.

—Barry Clifford ’87

4 5 t h R e u n io n

From One Service Venture to Another Dr. David Brooks ’64

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hen Dr. David Brooks ’64 graduated from Nobles and later Harvard, he had no plans to become a surgeon. Instead, he and classmate Morris Gray enlisted in the Navy. Stationed in Guam, Brooks’ ship visited the remote Caroline Islands, where he witnessed Naval doctors working with native islanders in need.

“I saw that medicine was a rewarding career; the doctors derived a great deal of fulfillment from healing patients.”

After discharge from the Navy, Brooks completed the pre-med requirements and started medical school, receiving his M.D. from the Brown University School of Medicine. Brooks is now a senior surgeon at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, specializing in minimally invasive, gastrointestinal and general surgery. His most recent venture at Brigham and Women’s includes establishing a fellowship program for surgeons just out of residency.

Brooks said, “I wanted to create this fellowship because residency programs have been scaled back. There are young doctors emerging who still require at least a year of training, which I am glad to offer.”

His one- to two-year program includes extensive technical training, in which fellows learn all of the minimally invasive, or laparoscopic, procedures performed in the abdominal region. Fellows are also given emergency room on-call duties and are required to originate a clinical research project. Brooks adds, “Legally, the fellows are fully trained surgeons, so they gain independent experience, performing minor procedures on their own patients.” Brooks and other senior surgeons teach the fellows— by example—the delicate task of working with patients and deter-

Dr. David Brooks ’64 playing with three of his four grandchildren

mining when surgery is appropriate.

Brooks is hopeful for the fellows who participate in his program. Since he began his career, minimally invasive surgery has evolved tremendously; the possibilities seem endless for his young mentees. “In the last 20 years,” he said, “digital imaging systems have revolutionized minimally invasive surgery, allowing the development of dozens of new procedures.” His hopes are that his Fellows will feel, as he has, the gratification of seeing patients recover and return to their daily routines almost immediately.

Of Nobles he fondly remembers Headmaster Eliot Putnam and the entire faculty of highly-respected teachers from the ’60s who inspired (and sometimes terrified) him and his classmates. “We had a wonderful respect for the faculty and what they provided us,” Brooks said. Admitting that some of his most profound memories have to do with place, he remembers “walking down the Schoolhouse corridor and across the old creaking floorboards into study hall.”

—Lauren Bergeron

Spring 2009 l the Nobles Bulletin l 41

R e u n io n P ro f i l e s 4 0 t h R e u n io n

Solarizing Society Leigh Seddon ’69

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nvision 1978; for most people a blizzard might come to mind but Leigh Seddon ’69 mostly remembers waiting in long, frustrating lines at the gas station during the country’s second oil embargo. As soon as solar energy became economically practical via President Carter’s federal tax credits, Seddon purchased solar hot water panels for the roof of his Vermont home. By 1980, he was so pleased with their performance that he stopped his work as an environmental lobbyist, and created Solar Works, a small company which provided solar power and heating systems to homes, schools and businesses across the country.

In addition to creating clean, renewable energy and minimizing the nation’s dependence on foreign oil, Solar Works prided itself on spreading awareness about the benefits of solar energy. Seddon’s most recent business venture involved merging Solar Works with another leading solar energy company, creating Alteris Renewables in the fall of 2008. Now with more than 100 employees, “the merger has made us the largest solar provider on the east coast, and we are branching out into wind and other renewable technologies,” Seddon said.

Some of his more illustrious clients include the first Vermonter to drive a solar-charged electric car and United Natural Foods, grocery distributor for stores such as Whole Foods, whose 550 kilowatts of solar power—an entire football field’s worth of solar panels— helps power their refrigerated warehouse. Seddon seemed most proud of the educational projects he has participated in, explaining the recent completion of New York’s “School Power …Naturally” program. Taking about

Bank, the solar panels proved to be more cost effective than constructing power lines in such remote parts of the world. Seddon explains, “When you’re without electricity, you have no communication with the world and you’re probably illiterate because of a lack of

“Nobles helped to nurture a path of serving the community and caring for the environment, both of which were equally important to me when I graduated and when I went on to start a business.”

Leigh Seddon ’69

four years to complete, the project involved “solarizing” 50 New York schools with solar panels while incorporating the study of solar energy into course curricula.

Seddon hopes all of his school projects will create renewable energy awareness among students because environmentalism became very important to him during his last year at Nobles. “Nobles helped to nurture a path of serving the community and caring for the environment, both of which were equally important to me when I graduated and when I went on to start a business,” explained Seddon.

With values instilled, Seddon was able to see by the mid-’80s that “Solar technology can potentially eliminate poverty and transform all societies into something more egalitarian.”

He described a memorable experience in which he traveled to several villages in South Africa to install solar panels, providing each village with its first energy source. Donated by the World

42 42 l the the Nobles Bulletin Nobles Bulletin l Spring 2009 Spring 2009

reading lights.” As it turns out, Seddon and his team trained local technicians to maintain the equipment autonomously. He reflects, “The social impact was amazing to me; I could see how we were not only changing people’s lives but also empowering local communities.”

He sees an even greener opportunity to transform society in America.

Of Obama’s Presidency, Seddon said, “I’m thrilled with his election. It’s tremendous that the U.S. will revisit its focus to promote sustainable energy.

America can emerge as a leader, modeling the importance of renewable technology to the rest of the world.” Seddon believes that, if the country initiates an energy bill quickly, it could help to prevent the worst of global warming.

Anticipating President Obama’s impact on the solar industry, he predicts, “We’re going to see a great boost in solar energy. We certainly won’t be laying anyone off, and renewable energy is one of the few industries still hiring at the moment!” —Lauren Bergeron

2 5 t h R e u n io n

Building a Life In, About and For Community

3 5 t h R e u n io n

Searching for Solutions John Howe ’74

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he summer before his senior year at Nobles, John Howe ’74 was mostly concerned with getting his driver’s license and cruising around town with his buddies. “I was a car nut, like many other teenage boys,” he says. Around this time, however, conflict in the Middle East heated up, and the begining of the 1973 Arab-Israeli War led to an oil embargo against the United States.

Beyond derailing his dreams of a carefree senior year, the 1973 energy crisis spoke volumes to Howe. He realized John Howe ’74 that conventional oil supplies would deplete over time, and consumption patterns would have to change.

Thirty-five years later, Howe has built his career on that realization. He has worked in both business and public service to develop innovative solutions, in policy and technology, to meet our ongoing needs for energy. After a long “Indian summer” for conventional energy, Howe says, the recent convergence of economic, environmental and national security pressures has pushed clean energy back to the top of the nation’s agenda. His company, Cambridge-based Verenium Corporation, is a leading developer of cellulosic ethanol, a renewable liquid fuel made from abundant, inedible plant matter. “We now need to go beyond demonstrating the feasibility of making liquid fuel from biomass, and actually produce it for commercial use,” explains Howe. Verenium recently completed the nation’s first demonstration-scale cellulosic ethanol plant, and has announced plans for a first commercial-scale facility in partnership with oil giant BP. As the Vice President for Public Affairs at Verenium, Howe leads the company’s “government, legislative and industry advocacy efforts.” After earning degrees from Amherst College and the Fletcher School at Tufts University, where his studies focused on energy and resource economics, he has worked at several energy-related companies. He served as chairman of the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities in the mid-’90s, and has held numerous leadership positions in national trade associations along the way.

After speaking with Howe, it’s clear he draws from many life experiences to succeed professionally. With years of education and working experience to his name, Howe says he often tells people that the “single most important educational experience of my life was Class III English with Dick Baker. His class had nothing to do with energy, but everything to do with disciplined thinking and careful written expression.” Just as he once learned to see past the jarring red marks on a corrected weekly essay to the benefit of honing these skills and habits, Howe continues to see past the evident obstacles of fossil energy depletion to envision a global solution for sustainability. —Julie Guptill For 30th Reunion Profile, see Sarah Bowman ’79, pp. 26–27.

Lauren Petrini Hentschel ’84

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Petrini Hentschel’s ’84 interest in early childhood education began as a psychology major at Denison University, and continued to develop while she earned her Master’s in Education in Early Childhood from Lesley College. But as Hentschel worked at a Westwood child care facility throughout graduate school, she realized that she had a vision of her own. She wanted to open a child care center that would fill a clear need in her hometown of Needham, where she was also raising her own family.

Hentschel found the perfect location on Chestnut Street in Needham and designed the space herself. Before construction on the child care center was even completed, Hentschel had a waitlist for enrollment.

“I think that families took notice of the fact that we were creating a space for children, rather than retrofitting an existing space. We also offered extended hours, which appealed to many families with two working parents,” she explains. In the fall of 1995, when Hentschel was only 28 years old, she opened the Chestnut Children’s Center (CCC) at full capacity and welcomed 54 new children on the first day.

Fourteen years later, the CCC currently serves 175 children every day. The center has 14 sparkling classrooms and 35 full-time and 15 part-time employees. Hentschel’s four contionued on next page auren

Lauren Petrini Hentschel ’84

Spring 2009 l the Nobles Bulletin l 43

R e u n io n P ro f i l e s 2 0 t h R e u n io n

Paul Earle’s Entrepreneurship Began with The Guardian Paul Earle ’89

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Earle ’89 is a virtual Nobles groupie. Although 20 years out of his alma mater, he still talks with the relish of a newly admitted sixie. His proudest accomplishment from his time at Nobles, he says, is co-founding the Nobles Guardian, a newspaper positioned as a “rebel alternative” to the Nobleman. “We [Brian O’Neill, J.P. Plunkett and Earle, all ’89] had an idea we believed in, a willingness to take a chance and, in hindsight, maybe even a little bravado, to the extent that we felt we could produce something better than what was out there. In almost every way, the Guardian was a startup just like the ones in the real world.”

The newspaper rolled out eight issues in its first year; the effort won a prestigious award from the Columbia School of Journalism, as well as an official commendation from the Office of the Governor of Massachusetts.

Nobles has loomed more important in his life as he has matured, he believes, particularly in a down economy. “It’s tough out there right now and oftentimes I find that I am not summoning the lessons learned in business school or college, but rather those instilled at Nobles. Simple principles like ‘work hard,’ ‘don’t give up’ and ‘do the right thing’ were part of the culture at Nobles and can become incredibly important again when things all of a sudden aren’t so rosy.”

Former English teacher and Guardian advisor Jim Bride remembers Earle as “a very independent and competent person, excellent with words and people, who developed a very impressive student-fed and student-led enterprise.” Bride describes Earle as a “doer and visionary who probably had more influence on me than I on him.”

Earle finds that living in Chicago makes him yearn for New England and Nobles aul

continued from previous page children, Annie (11), Will (8), Jack (5) and Ned (3) have all enrolled at CCC; Ned is still there most days, laughing, learning and occasionally stealing a hug from mom in her office next to his classroom. The children of at least five other members of the Nobles Class of 1984 (John Stephenson, Whitney Connaughton, Liz Horgan, Michele Simeone Abrecht and Jim Michals) have also spent their preschool days at CCC. Stephenson remarks: “I loved having my kids at the CCC, mainly because I knew my kids loved it. Every day, they couldn’t wait to get to ‘school.’ My daughter and son both started attending CCC when they were 18 months old, and right from the start, you could see and feel that the Center offers an experience for young children that greatly facilitates their development… Parents couldn’t ask for a warmer, more loving and developmentally beneficial program for their children.”

Another Nobles graduate and CCC parent, Tom Welch ’82, describes the Center’s impact on his family’s life: “When I think of the CCC, I see Lauren’s smiling face greeting us each morning, the incredible, dedicated staff, the sense of community among parents there and the fun that we all had at events like graduation. But what I remember most about those days is racing off to work knowing that our two boys were safe and completely happy. This peace of mind is a gift that Lauren and her staff gave us and continue to give to hundreds of other local families.”

Hentschel describes the CCC as a “well-oiled machine” and credits her talented and loyal employees. Visitors to the Center will be struck by the clean and cheerful surroundings, committed, friendly employees and very happy kids. “As the Center has grown, my biggest challenge has been to uphold a commitment to really knowing all of our families,” Hentschel explains. “But when I go to the supermarket in Needham and know everyone there through the Center’s connections, I know that we are doing a good job. This is the town where I was raised and where I am raising my own family. As a working mother myself, nothing makes me happier than knowing that I am providing a service to the people of this community through my work.”

—Brooke Earley Asnis ’90 44 44 l the the Nobles Bulletin Nobles Bulletin l Spring 2009 Spring 2009

Paul Earle ’89

forms of intellectual property. Earle and his partners commercialize dormant or underutilized intellectual property, which can be up for grabs if no one has used it over time. “We bring brands back into the market with a metaphorically new set of tires and fresh paint,” he said. “The brands are your levers for product innovation.” For example, River West’s most recent project has been to revive “Bold,” a Proctor & Gamble laundry detergent brand. P&G is now working with Earle and his partners on an entirely new strategy, which Earle believes to be “really exciting as far as laundry detergent goes.” When he moves the refreshed intellectual

even more. For example, he misses those crisp fall mornings when he would get up early (he was a five-day boarder) to hit golf balls on the banks of the Charles River (Motley Pond).

1 5 t h R e u n io n “Nobles is a very special place and being in the Midwest has sometimes made my heart grow fonder.” Asked what was his legacy to Nobles, he added: “I suppose it was The Guardian.” Then he quipped: “I also left a number of Justin Alfond ’94 disciplinary infractions, all of which I deny to this day.” “ The Nobles newspaper venture he Senate is in session. The Senawould become the forerunner of his tor is in the Chamber. He will founding his own startup company return your call as soon as he is 15 years later. available.” If you want to reach Justin Earle’s post-Nobles career took Alfond ’94 these days, that’s the greethim to Hamilton College, Saatchi and ing you’re likely to receive.

Saatchi Advertising in New York, then Alfond was elected to the Maine Kellogg Graduate School of ManageState Senate on November 4, 2008, and ment at Northwestern University, sworn in December 4th. The Senate followed by a stint in brand manageofficially began its work on January 5, ment at Kraft Foods outside Chicago, 2009, when the Maine Legislature where he focused on Kraft’s flagship reconvened.

Kraft Macaroni & Cheese business.

The first of his siblings to attend As a factoid and a point of pride, he Nobles (sister Kenden ’95 lives in revealed that Kraft sells virtually one Geneva with her husband and writes million (!) boxes of mac and cheese grants for non-governmental organizaa day. tions that address AIDS prevention; Several years ago, Earle left Kraft brother Reis ’99 works for a boutique to form his own company, River West investment company in New York City Brands, which he describes as a “brand and is married to Nobles classmate revival firm or something of an orphanStefanie Noering ’99, both celebage for wayward products with potenrating their 10th Reunion this year), tial.” The company focuses mainly on Alfond did not take a straight shot, so trademarks, copyrights and other to speak, to a career in public service.

property to the next step, he occasionally works with inventors and research and development types on the product components.

Like many business people, Earle said he has been frustrated by “irrational behavior” and a “culture of fear” in the financial markets and elsewhere.

“This can make it difficult for entrepreneurial firms to access the capital they need…and harder to get partner companies to green-light new initiatives.” He said River West is hunkering down and surviving, however; in fact, Earle even alluded to the possibility of exploring a spin-off enterprise later this year! —Joyce Leffler Eldridge

Elected to Higher Office after Success in Community Organizing

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“Politics was not part of my upbringing; I did not take even a second glance at politics in high school or college. I was always a bit confused on what a political science major actually did,” Alfond said. In fact, after Nobles he continued on to Tulane University where he played golf, eventually turning pro and playing in tournaments throughout South Africa, Canada and along the East Coast of the United States. “If I had successfully made more putts, I’d still be playing,” he said.

But this proved to be a transitory phase. A call to community and public service consumed him, leading him, at age 27, back to Maine where the Alfond name is legendary for several generations of philanthropy to academic, civic and arts institutions and a thriving, multi-generational success in the shoe industry.

Alfond coincidentally followed the Obama formula: four years of commu-

Spring 2009 l the Nobles Bulletin l 45

R e u n io n P ro f i l e s

Justin Alfond ’94 being sworn in as a Maine State Senator

nity organizing in an effort to get young people in Maine involved in improving local and state government. To this end, he spearheaded the founding of the League of Young Voters in that state, an organization designed to “meet young people ‘where they are,’ work on issues that affect their lives, and provide them with tools, training, and support to become serious catalysts for change in their communities,” according to the League’s website.

Much of this public service interest he traces to his family, but some is definitely attributable to Nobles. “Nobles pushed me academically during my three years there. I also became involved in a community service program at Nobles [the Max Warburg Foundation that promotes the development of strong reading, writing and comprehension skills] that took me into the public schools to read to underprivileged children.”

Interestingly enough, one of the platforms on which he ran his recent Senate campaign also involved volunteering in the public schools. “We must encourage more volunteerism in our public schools,” he said on the League of Young Voters’ website. He elaborated on engaging in community service by adding, “Maine has a wonderful

opportunity for intergenerational learning. We are one of the oldest states [agewise] in the country,” he said, “and we should create more opportunities to engage retirees in the Greater Portland area.”

“Nobles pushed me academically.

I also became involved in a community service program [the Max Warburg Foundation that promotes the development of strong reading, writing and comprehension skills] that took me into the public schools to read to underprivileged children.”

These earlier experiences with the League prompted him to run for public office last year. “I love public service and felt my experience as an organizer and businessman would be an asset.

Portland voters wanted someone accountable who would work on the big issues and report back.” In addition to his Senatorial responsibilities, Alfond serves on numerous boards and is involved in real estate development that includes mixed-income housing.

At the time of this interview,

46 l the Nobles Bulletin l Spring 2009

Alfond had been in the Senate only five weeks. How had he enjoyed himself so far? “It’s been incredible and challenging. The learning curve as a new legislator is steep, then throw in being a chair of the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee (which accounts for more than 40 percent of Maine’s budget), and finally, to add some flair, we had to balance our budget in the first month by cutting more than $166 million.

On my second day in office, my committee had a joint meeting with the Appropriations Committee listening to proposals that would slash more than $40 million from the state’s education budget. The entire day, I kept wondering, ‘How can we create a world-class 21st-century pre-kindergarten-through-college pathway if we keep cutting education?’”

If anyone wants to determine just how much his Nobles education and family values impacted Alfond, just go to the Maine League of Young Voters website (http://theleague.com/me/ candidate-questionnaires/justin-alfond/) and check out Alfond’s numerous positions on a host of education-oriented issues. As an example, he was a founding member of the Opportunity Maine program which allows students who graduate from any Maine college or university, and continue to live, work and pay taxes in the state, to be reimbursed for student loan payments through a state income tax credit or an employer tax credit. This first-in- the-nation model is being replicated in Ohio and Minnesota.

What does Alfond predict over the next two years? “A ton of work is ahead! We must use these difficult times to look at doing things we never thought we could do. We have big educational issues in front of us, but in the end, it’s about setting priorities to create long-term plans that prepare, challenge and provide opportunities to every Maine student. Is this too much to ask?” he added rhetorically.

—Joyce Leffler Eldridge

5 t h R e u n io n 1 0 t h R e u n io n

Finding Fulfillment through Working with Children Amanda Tripp ’99

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’ve always been fascinated by humans and minds,” said behavioral therapist Amanda Tripp ’99 who will return to campus in May. In the 10 years since graduating from Nobles, however, the aspiring school psychologist hasn’t really left academia. “Eventually I will get my PsyD [Doctor of Psychology],” she laughs.

All joking aside, Tripp has dediAmanda Tripp ’99 cated her life to serving children with autism and other development disorders, a dedication which includes several years of classroom education and practicum experience. She credits Nobles for her deep-rooted “commitment to learning.” She currently studies at the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology (MSPP) after working at the New England Center for Children (NECC), a private school for autistic students.

Tripp’s work with autism began at Middlebury College, where, as a psychology major, she interned at a psychiatric hospital that housed several children, many of whom suffered from the disorder. But even before her college days, there were two Nobles courses—“Portrait Photography” and “Psychology and Literature”—which pointed her in the direction of her passion. “I learned to understand ‘the individual’,” she recalled. “I see the resiliency in a child and, in turn, I can be patient with my students.”

Talk about patience…many people wouldn’t last long in Tripp’s line of work, which involves teaching children who are struggling to perform fundamental skills, often exhibiting behavioral aggression. She sees it all as part of the job.

“The students all have strengths and weaknesses which manifest themselves in a myriad of ways,” she explains.

As part of her practicum work, Tripp creates behavior plans for the students she assists, and follows their progress on a monthly basis. The ultimate goal of “independence,” she said, “is a progressive, life-long struggle of children with autism.” Her most rewarding moments arise in “the small successes” of her students. “I worked with a little girl who couldn’t scan a group of pictures when I met her three months ago, but now she can look at a those same photos, and point to one. It’s special.”

One of Tripp’s most cherished memories of Nobles happened when she was awarded the Shillito Cup for Excellence in Photography. “I am still very proud of that and, of course, I still have my black and white camera,” she said. Former faculty member and artist-in-residence Joe Swayze said of Tripp: “I am delighted that Amanda has found a new profession—working with children. Whatever she does, she does it with such wonderful focus and passion. In our house in Rockport, we are lucky enough to have two striking children portraits she took while in South Africa on a Nobles trip.” —Lauren Bergeron

Work with a Purpose

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his winter, Jessica Baylor ’04 watch- ed as a young, Boston-area teacher stood in her newly purchased home in Newton, beam- Jessica Baylor ’04 ing as she signed closing papers. The teacher had been a renter for years, and never thought she’d be able to afford buying a home, given her low salary and the high price of the Boston housing market. With the help of a variety of state and local affordable housing programs, including B’nai B’rith Housing New England, where Baylor has recently jumpstarted her career, the young teacher now has a place to call home.

“Being a part of an affordable closing is a great experience,” says Baylor. “Knowing we’re helping people to realize that home ownership is attainable makes going to work an easy thing to do.”

After graduating from the College of Wooster in May 2008, Baylor found herself looking for work that combined her interests in urban planning and development with her commitment to service. “I thought I’d end up in a non-profit,” she said. “Regardless of where my career takes me, I think I’ll always stay connected to that sector. Helping people in such a direct way is really rewarding.” For now, her career has landed her at B’nai B’rith Housing New England, a non-profit organization with a mission to “produce non-sectarian housing, both affordable and mixed income, and to ease the housing crisis, particularly in the communities of Greater Boston.”

The drive to “work with a purpose,” says Baylor, comes from both of her parents, who instilled in Baylor and her two sisters the importance of volunteerism. While at Nobles, Baylor was heavily involved with the Big Sister/ Little Sister program. She says the message to serve others was delivered both directly and indirectly to her and her classmates. “We definitely talked about community service,” she explains. “But what I took away most from Nobles was the importance of being a well-rounded person. Part of being a well-rounded person involves volunteering or giving back in some way.”

—Julie Guptill

Spring 2009 l the Nobles Bulletin l 47

What It’s All About

By B e n S n yd e r , U pp e r s ch o o l h e a d

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n the life of a teacher there are moments each year (we hope) that remind us why we entered this profession in the first place.

Earlier this year a number of Nobles faculty members traveled to New York for an early evening reception with Nobles graduates. This is a gift for veteran teachers to reconnect with former students.

Sarah and I were separated for the evening, yet each of us discovered former students, players, advisees and friends who were doing all sorts of interesting things—and who, during their time at Nobles, represented a full array of interests, backgrounds and talents.

A few had taken leaves from their jobs to go work on political campaigns in the fall. One had been laid off from investment banking and landed at a research firm that is trying to measure the effectiveness of the Gates Foundation programs in the developing world that battle tuberculosis. Many in the financial world had survived the traumatic economic times and reported learning more (about themselves and the business) in the last four months than they had in their whole careers. Others were making their livings as musicians, actors and agents. A few more were teaching in New York City in public, private and charter schools. Some were working for social service agencies. But what they all shared was an incredible appreciation for the education they received at Nobles.

The gratitude expressed was often quite personal and involved memories of very specific moments in their middle or high school years that made a difference for them (and served as a good reminder to us about the power of every interaction with young people). While

gratifying on a personal level, what was even more impressive and heart warming was that each graduate had the confidence to pursue what she or he was interested in, believed that anything was possible, and each was clearly making a positive difference in a sphere of influence (be it directly through their jobs or through pro bono legal work or corporate sponsorships or a host of other things).

Clearly these young people believed that

48 l the Nobles Bulletin l Spring 2009

Nobles had prepared them not just to be successful in their careers but also to lead meaningful professional and personal lives that make a difference.

As we walked back to our hotel after having taken some young graduates out to dinner, we couldn’t help but feel lucky and gratified to be associated with these talented, hard working, empathic young people.