2020 Summer Bulletin

Summer Bulletin 2020

BOARD OF TRUSTE E S 2 019 – 2020

ALU M N I COM M I T T E E 2 01 9 – 2 02 0

Summer Bulletin 2020

Officers

Alumni Committee Co-Chairs

Seth Brennan, Chair Polly Crozier, Vice Chair Peter Barkan ’86, Secretary Sam Wilderman, Treasurer

David Glynn ’91 Eliza Drachman-Jones Quincy ’98

Editor Kate LaPine

Neeraj Agrawal Rahul Ballal Seth Brennan Nicole Danforth Mark Dolins Sara Leventhal Fleiss ’95 Ken Frieze Abigail Ross Goodman ’91 Gregory Kadetsky ’96 Heeten Kalan Heena K. Lee Jessica Lutzker Todd MacLean Amy Lloyd McCarthy ’86 Lesley Ryan Miller Rebecca Nordhaus Neela Pal Young Ju Rhee Joseph Robbins Mary Skelton Roberts Anna Sinaiko Shadé Solomon Christina W. Vest Emily Lubin Woods

Ex Officio Scott Young Head of School Eric Chapman Assistant Head of School for Academics & Program

Kathrene Tiffany Bell ’96 Bob Bray ’53 Aldel Brown ’04 Astrid Levis-Thorne Burns ’98 Emily Potts Callejas ’89 Nick Cary ’09 Carlos Castillo ’97 Rodger Cohen ’74 Alexandra Connors Craig ’99 McCall Cruz ’06 Stephen Davis ’97 Melissa Deland ’95 Margaret Gormley Donahue ’99 Sara Leventhal Fleiss ’95 Daly Franco ’05 Anne Collins Goodyear ’84 Greg Kadetsky ’96 Bob Kenerson ’53 Amy Lampert ’63 Abbott Lawrence ’85 Nia Lutch ’97 William Maness ’07 Maddie Mitchell ’06 Jim O’Keefe ’91 Chip Pierce ’81 Miriam Posner ’03 Kate Gormley Saeli ’02 Jordan Scott ’89 Rebecca Lewin Scott ’89 Mimi Stubbe ’03 Brian Swett ’94 Susanna Whitaker Waters ’99 Cary Williams ’09 Elizabeth Wilsker ’04 Rebecca Wilsker ’00

Kimberly Boyd Assistant Head of School for Finance & Operations

Board Chairs Emeriti Kennett F. Burnes Vincent Chiang David D. Croll Charles C. Cunningham, Jr. George P. Denny III David G. Fubini M. Dozier Gardner John L. Hall II Kevin J. Maroni J. Michael Maynard Anne Worthington Prescott Suzie Tapson Deborah Jackson Weiss

Headmaster Emeritus Robert S. Hurlbut, Jr.

Head of School Emeritus Jerrold I. Katz

Cover artwork Bedroom Scene Mia SanClemente, Grade 6 Sixth grade art students create onepoint perspective drawings using pencil, sharpie, and watercolor. The subject of this piece from the Fall of 2019 is more significant with the context of distance learning this Spring. In this issue, you'll read how Park students embraced their online journey from home—yes, often from their bedrooms!

Design Robert Beerman, Onward Upward Photography Flo Farrell John Gilloolly Kate LaPine Bob Little John Rich Photo + Video Tony Rinaldo Photography Jerilyn Willig Printing Puritan Capital The Bulletin is published twice yearly for the alumni, parents, and friends of The Park School.

We welcome your comments and ideas.

The Park School 171 Goddard Avenue Brookline, Massachusetts 02445 To contact The Bulletin: Kate LaPine Director of Communications 617-274-6009 lapinek@parkschool.org To report alumni news: Jamie Byron Director of Alumni Relations 617-274-6022 alumni@parkschool.org To make a gift to Park: Beatrix Sanders Director of Development 617-274-6020 sandersb@parkschool.org To report address changes: Audrey James Development Coordinator 617-274-6018 development@parkschool.org The Park School admits qualified students without regard to race, color, religion, national or ethnic origin, ancestry, sex, disabilities, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, or family composition to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the School. Park does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national or ethnic origin, ancestry, sex, disabilities, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, or family composition or any other status protected by applicable law in the administration of its educational, admissions, financial aid, athletic and other policies and programs.

Errata Randy Stone and Jim Hahn made a generous matching gift to the Jessica Stone Baker ’89 Scholarship Fund, in honor of the Class of 1989’s 30th Reunion last spring.

We regret that this gift was omitted from the 2018 – 19 Annual Report in error.

Summer Bulletin 2020

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Dear Park School Friends, I hope that the arrival of this magazine finds you well in these unprecedented times. This pandemic and all of the associated social distancing measures, guidelines, and modifications to our normal lives have been very challenging, and yet the experience of the last few months has shown us how well the Park community embraces the values of resilience, flexibility, and collaboration. We are grateful to our families, our students, and our teachers who all rolled into the unknown, working together, to keep driving Park’s mission forward.

This Summer Bulletin shares the story of Park amidst COVID-19 and how it has affected us all. In this issue, we share how Park adopted “distance learning” this spring—from the shift of classrooms to Zoom screens at all grade levels to the eighth grade’s unique graduation!

We also tapped our alumni database and connected with ten Park graduates whose work was directly affected by the pandemic. If we missed you in our outreach, please let us know what you’re up to by contacting alumni@parkschool.org.

Best wishes,

Kate LaPine Editor

PA RK A LUMNI RESPOND T O COVI D-19

Wigs Frank ’66 Vanessa Kerry ’92 Amanda Mitchell ’96 Amanda Burrage ’97 Caitlin Taylor Reiche ’01 Ashley Sharp ’05 Emma Tiedemann ’08 Nick Cary ’09 Sam Feibel ’13 Rebecca Isaacson ’15

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Curt Miller Mary Russell Laurie Turner

FA CULT Y FA REWELLS

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G RA DUAT I ON 2020

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Partnership in Pandemic Student Art Show at the MFA Winter Sports Highlights Winter Musical: Honk!

A ROUND PA RK

A LUMNI NOT ES

inside back cover Young Alumni Achievement Award Visit: Shamsud Bery ’04

Park’s online journey this spring took many forms— from synchronous online classes, maker challenges and our own versions of artworks for the Getty Museum art challenge, not to mention a lively Zoom Bingo game—all part of keeping the Park community connected while being away from campus.

PA R K’ S

ON L I N E JOU R N EY COVID-19 presented many challenges, yet it also presented many lessons. Foremost among these is the affirmation that, as Head of School Scott Young noted in June, “Park is more than a place.” We love being together at 171 Goddard Avenue, and we did miss many of our traditional spring rituals. Still, what resonates most strongly is the ways in which the Park community has remained “Park”—tight, connected, mutually supportive—right through to summer.

The first impact came in February as the coronavirus forced the School to cancel five international and domestic student trips scheduled for March— first China, France, Italy, and Spain for the eighth graders, then Washington, D.C. for Grade 7. Then, when news of the Boston BioGen conference and the first confirmed COVID-19 cases were diagnosed in Boston, Park prioritized health and safety, and closed the campus on Thursday, March 12, sending students home for Spring Break with ten days of school work for a “just in case” scenario.

As we began to understand the severity and implications of this disease, it became clear that school closure would be longer term, and Park’s academic team dove into planning our approach to distance learning.

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When classes resumed after break on March 30, students worked for three days from their “just in case” homework packets while faculty and staff received critical professional development on Zoom, QuickTime movie maker, Screencastomatic, and other key tools required for delivering distance learning to students ages 4 – 14.

Without question, distance learning is challenging. There is no easy way to replicate at home all that happens in school. Eric Chapman, Assistant Head of School for Academics & Program, acknowledges that the pandemic “has forced all schools to envision working with students in a whole new manner. As a lifelong educator, I am proud of how quickly we all have adjusted to a new way of learning and teaching.” During the crisis, Eric notes,

Park’s teachers “balanced the competing demands of their own personal identities as parents, partners, and adult children along with the professional shifting demands as educators. As they have rewritten curricula and found new technologies to innovate their work with students, my respect for them has grown by leaps and bounds.”

Three days after the return from break, we launched PARK+: Our Online Journey, a website that not only combines useful guidance for distance learning, but creates ways for the community to continue to connect, even though we could not be together. It offers stories and galleries showing the ways in which Park continued learning, leading, playing, and caring during distance learning. The website also offers a wealth of important technology resources, access and guidance to great books in the library, family and student wellness opportunities, and even a wonderful series in which faculty read favorite books aloud to students. Soon, and surprisingly, the online classroom became a place of laughter and conversation, and the heart of Park—our community—remains strong.

This form of education is new to all of us, and the grace and tenacity with which Park teachers

adjusted is a testament to their dedication to students and their families. Along with the faculty, however, Park parents play an essential role in sustaining the community. Creative minds from the Parents’ Association found a way to deliver the spirit of community commensurate with our beloved Springfest in a virtual fashion, complete with a scavenger hunt and homemade Springfest rides. The PA also mounted a “Wicked Awesome Letter Writing Campaign” as a way for students to reach out to another Park family in an old-fashioned way and stay connected. The phrase “it takes a village” took on new meaning for us as we realized the potential of connections and collaborations that happen through new and unanticipated channels and formats.

Structurally, the School sought to balance asynchronous and synchronous teaching and learning, a student-centered blended approach that research and experience support as the most effective means to further learning in a distance setting. “Knowing that a Park education cherishes academic excellence and social-emotional development,” Scott Young explains, “we aimed to create an approach that fostered engagement, provided

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flexibility, and encouraged connectivity. Our approach asked students to put their pencils to paper, their voices to recordings, and their thoughts to action.”

Distance learning evolved and improved over the course of the spring through an iterative process informed by faculty, families, and students in Grades 5–8. Following the first four weeks of distance learning, the School asked for feedback through a survey, which resulted in more frequent face-to-face classes and additional offerings by specialists including the Makerspace, recess for Lower Division students, and PE drop-in classes.

One teacher remarked these additions “rounded out a wonderful program for students in a stimulating, fun, and non-stressful way.” A second survey at the end of May yielded positive comments from all three groups. Scott Young observed, “Our entire community—students, faculty, staff, and parents— has innovated, adjusted, evolved, and persevered in the face of great uncertainty. I have been so impressed by their determination, compassion, and resilience, and as we finish this year and prepare for next, I am more confident than ever that, despite our challenges, we will be able to deliver on our mission while remaining true to our principles.”

We loved watching distance learning play out at different grade levels. For example, who would have expected a PreK dance contest or how 13 fearless, creative, and innovative Grade 8 drama students

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put on A MidQuarantine Night’s Dream! With major edits and adaptations, they made this classic play fit into the confines of their individual homes, Zoom screens, and personal capabilities. Online learning even gave teachers and families opportunities to engage in ways that might not have been possible in Park’s usual day to day. To help keep spirits up, Scott Young sent a weekly video message to parents, students, and faculty that included an optional Instagram challenge. The community responded enthusiastically with impressive rainbows, maker creations, and stunning Getty Museum challenges.

Recognizing the social-emotional toll that the quarantine was taking on everyone, Tahira WilsonGuillermo, Olivia Moorehead-Slaughter, Julie Mumford, Tina Fox, and Connie Yepez provided virtual mindfulness and wellness forums for parents. Families were also invited to participate in weekly “Distance Learning Coffees”—informal conversations over Zoom with Scott and the division heads.

A Lower Division parent commented, “Park is doing an excellent job in a very difficult situation.

My child misses both the live social and academic interaction with his peers and teachers, but he is making the best of this time.” Another wrote, “I think PARK+ 2.0 found a very good balance for the entire Park community. My kids are engaged, curious, and happy! I liked having more Zooms as it helps structure the day a bit more, and adding the

D I S TAN CE L E ARN I N G FAQ S What is distance learning?

Park’s approach to distance learning is designed to balance asynchronous and synchronous teaching and learning techniques with a significant portion of the work happening asynchronously.

We will use synchronous techniques to deliver content, provide connectivity and community, and allow for interactive engagement between teachers and students and amongst students. We will use asynchronous techniques to deliver content and provide flexibility in terms of student/family schedule and student engagement time.

What are asynchronous and synchronous learning?

Asynchronous (or independent learning) consists of prepared materials such as reading and writing assignments, problem sets and projects, and prerecorded lessons that allow content to be delivered on a flexible schedule.

Synchronous (or face-to-face learning) consists of real-time video conferencing, group chat, and other face-to-face means that encourage connection and engagement.

What are the daily expectations for my child?

Students should expect to be engaged in school from 8:15 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day.

specialty classes was a big improvement to the weekly schedule.” And one Upper Division student said, “I like how we have more synchronous classes and how we have a bit more school (with slightly longer classes). The workload on average is OK and I am very happy with the improvement.”

Even with the challenges of this spring and COVID-19, Scott and Eric feel positively about Park’s first foray into distance learning. “Our teachers have become masters of a new craft that will inform how we view teaching and learning and student-centered instruction going forward,” Scott explains. “I think about the brilliant examples of asynchronous instruction at every grade-level from early childhood literacy lessons to guided mindfulness meditations to first-rate video math instruction.

Teachers created new worlds of connection through Zoom, putting students and peer-to-peer interaction front and center. No matter the format, the skills developed this spring will have a lasting impact on how we teach and what we teach.” Eric agreed, adding, “Until the COVID-19 virus pandemic is abated, our educational model will likely continue to be affected by new challenges and we will continue to adjust in order to support our students, teachers, and families.”

What does attendance look like during the closure? What if someone becomes sick and cannot complete school work?

Students are expected to be present for synchronous classes which will be provided through Zoom. However, during these extraordinary times, care for self and for children far outweigh the care for the curriculum. Park will strive to deliver great learning, and we know that families and faculty may need to press pause to prioritize health and safety. Students who are feeling unwell should contact their homeroom teacher or advisor.

How will social-emotional needs be met during the closure period?

Park’s counseling team is available for families and students during the closure. To schedule time to meet, contact Olivia Moorehead Slaughter, PhD or Julie Mumford, LICSW. What should I do if my child asks me a question about schoolwork that I can’t answer?

You are not expected to become an expert educator just because of distance learning. Please have your child connect with their teacher with questions.

I don’t have a lot of time in my schedule to help my kids with this work. What should I do?

We recognize that each family is faced with different circumstances at home. Teachers will design learning experiences that can be completed as independently as possible. If challenges arise, please have your child communicate directly with their teacher for support.

If this schoolwork doesn’t fill up all of my child’s day, what else should I be doing with them?

Your child’s teachers will provide many learning experiences, resources, and activities for students, but distance learning will be different than being physically present at school. You will find many creative suggestions on the PARK+ site as well.

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A LU M N I PROF I LES

Park Alumni Respond to COVID-19 Wigs Frank '66 History Teacher at the Agnes Irvin School Vanessa Kerry ’92 Critical Care Physician and Founder of Seed Global Health Amanda Mitchell ’96 Assistant Director of Nursing at a Long-term Care Facility and Emergency Department Nurse Amanda Burrage ’97 Pediatrician on Navajo Nation Caitlin Taylor Reiche '01 Chief Operating Officer for Buoy Health Ashley Sharp '05 Anesthesiology Fellow at University of California, San Francisco Emma Tiedemann '08 Nurse at Faulkner Hospital Nick Cary '09 History Teacher at Berwick Academy Sam Feibel '13 Mechanical Engineer for The Ventilator Project Rebecca Isaacson '15 Volunteer for The FarmLink Project

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W IG S F R A N K ’66 History Teacher at the Agnes Irvin School Edward D. Frank II (“Wigs”) attended Park from “3-year olds” through sixth grade (1954-1963). He went on to Nobles, Yale (where he was a history major), and N.Y.U. School of Law. Later, he earned an MA in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania. He currently lives outside of Philadelphia with his wife, Susan G. Lea, Ed.D, and is the Chair of the History Department at the Agnes Irwin School, a PreK-Grade 12 school for girls.

M

y teaching career did not begin in a traditional way. Having attended Yale during the turbulent years of 1969 to 1973, I came away “wanting to make a difference.” I went directly from college to law school. After seven years working as a lawyer, I still did not love it. Thus, in 1985, I changed careers and began teaching at The Agnes Irwin School in Rosemont, PA (in the Philadelphia suburbs), where I have been History Department Chair for over 20 years and 12th Grade Dean for over 30.

Like other teachers, my hope is that my students will use their education to work to improve the world around them,

to help achieve the greater good. My wish is that each will, in her own way, be an advocate for positive change both while in high school and in the years beyond, and that each will learn how to persist with courage and tenacity even when obstacles lie in the way.

While over the years I have taught different grade levels and different history courses, for the last 25 years or so I have taught 11th grade Advanced Placement United States History—now reconfigured as “Honors United States History” at Agnes Irwin because we decided as a school to move away from APs several years ago—and 12th grade Middle Eastern History. I have been asked “how do I keep it fresh” after all these years. For me, that is not hard, because every year is unique.

The classroom is filled in September with new students who come with different experiences and varying ways of looking at the world. Further, the way I approach the course material is never exactly the same. In the Middle East course, while I teach the first week every fall in a consistent manner, week two always varies as I incorporate current events. Demonstrating the relevance of historical issues to my students’ current lives has been one

of my consistent goals over the years.

For example, in U.S. History, as I write this in early April, 2020 my students (through on-line teaching) are seeing in real time the pluses and minuses of the arguments Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson had in the 1790s as to how government in our country should function. Hamilton believed that the United States should have a strong central government and that the states should be reduced to, essentially, “administrative units.” Jefferson, on the other hand, thought that the country should have a weak central government, with most powers reserved to the states. At the moment, every day we are witnessing in action this tension between the powers of “Washington” and that of the states as our different levels of government try to cope with the coronavirus pandemic.

This March brought a new challenge when we went to on-line teaching as a result of the COVID19 pandemic. I used a combination of synchronous and asynchronous methods. Some days students were assigned pre-recorded lectures which they could listen to at their convenience. This was helpful, for example, for those students who were spending some of their time looking after younger siblings. Other days I held on-line discussions of the assigned materials, which seemed to work well.

Interestingly, several of my students seemed more comfortable speaking in this setting as compared to when sitting in the physical classroom. Overall, this spring provided unusual insights and useful experience for my teaching practice.

My early interest in education was certainly fostered at home and by my teachers at Park. My father, Howard A. Frank M.D., was an internationally known professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School who co-developed the heart pacemaker. Besides his brilliance, I always admired him for his wisdom

and kindness of spirit. My mother, Sally B. Frank, was a “working mom”—even in the 1950s—who held important positions on the business side at several hospitals, eventually for many years at Children’s Hospital.

She fostered in me a love of history, a subject she had majored in at Smith College.

I loved my time at Park, which I attended with my older sister, Anne (Greene), and my younger brother, John. The teachers were great. I think I can still name most of them. Given the limited space here, I shall mention just two: Miss Matsis/Mrs. Touhey (Grade 4) and Miss Ellis (Grade 5). Both of them noticed my interest in history and supported my desire to learn as much as possible. One of them—I am not sure which—even allowed me to skip out on some sort of elective class each week to go to the library where I would independently write research papers on various historical figures!

I made many good friends at Park with whom I played lots of sports, including, among others, Robby Briggs, Jimmy Bayley, Timmy Emerson, Appy Chandler, Britt Hall, Monty Montgomery, and David Zeitz.

I also spent every day with classmates like Katy Homans, Emmy Burrows, Anne St. Goar, Marion Fenno, Emily Burr, Andi Browne, Harriet Bering, Lisa Kennedy, and Sally Sullivan who could outrun the fastest and outthink the smartest of us boys. I thus learned from a very young age about gender equality.

I will always be grateful for the great start I received at Park, where wonderful teachers taught me how to think critically, where I formed great friendships, and where I came to understand the concept of social justice.

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became a doctor in part because of my seventh grade biology class at Park and my teacher, Prabha (Papali) Nambiar. Her enthusiasm for science and discovery was infectious; I remember vividly how she transformed a frog dissection into discovering a wonder of the world.

As an eighth grader, I had the incredible privilege to travel to Vietnam, which was still heavily sanctioned following the Vietnam War. The country was frozen in time and had been robbed of any meaningful

development since the 1970s. Vietnam remained in an extraordinary poverty that was shocking to see. At 14 years old, I had no idea how to process what I was seeing, but I held onto it nonetheless. The experience was ultimately amplified by months traveling during a gap year before medical school. I visited a number of countries that were also terribly resource-constrained; the expanded viewpoint solidified my burgeoning desire to merge my interest in policy, international relations, and social science with my love of medicine.

When I entered medical school, I began a career in global health, working first in Ghana and later in Rwanda and Uganda. Throughout my training, I remained troubled by how so many could have been left so behind in abject poverty and sentenced to such a risk of poor health. Additionally, I noticed that many who hoped to help improve health outcomes in these settings would simply fly in, deliver care and then leave. Nothing seemed

VA N E S SA K E R RY ’ 92 Critical Care Physician and Founder of Seed Global Health Vanessa attended Park from PreK and graduated from the ninth grade in 1992. After Phillips Academy, Andover, she studied Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology at Yale University before graduating from Harvard Medical School and earning her master’s in Health Policy Planning & Financing from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the London School of Economics. She currently lives in Boston with her husband and two children where she works in critical care at Massachusetts General Hospital and founded and runs a non-profit that builds health care capacity in Africa, Seed Global Health.

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to be invested to fundamentally build capacity in the places where I was working.

I was inspired to start Seed Global Health (Seed) to change health outcomes in countries-ofneed and direct energy and resources towards a collective goal of building stronger, more resilient health systems over time. Seed partners with local governments to train a rising generation of doctors, nurses, and midwives who can deliver care, train their successors, and be advocates for change. We also help change policy to promote the importance of health for development, security and wellbeing.

We work currently in partnership with governments in Malawi, Sierra Leone, Uganda, and Zambia. Since 2013, we have trained over 17,000 health professionals and helped build a global advocacy campaign about the importance of health for economic, social, and individual security.

COVID has been a transformative challenge globally, let alone for Seed.

The pandemic is a serious threat to every individual around the world. As a critical care physician at Mass General in Boston, I have treated directly many on the brink of death from the virus. In addition to the severity of my patients’ illness, the predilection of the virus for poor and urban communities has also been profoundly striking. My COVID patients have often been patients of color, limited by language barriers, or put at risk by social structures that limit their ability to protect themselves.

As an example, many of my patients have not had the luxury to socially distance or work from home because they serve as essential workers.

The threat of COVID is terrifying also for our work at Seed Global Health. In Africa there are already crushing burdens of HIV, TB, malaria, maternal mortality, and many noncommunicable diseases. Unfortunately, there are not the resources or infrastructure to help respond to existing burdens of disease let alone the new pandemic. Africa already suffers

from some of the worst shortages of doctors, nurses, and midwives in the world with only one doctor for every 100,000 people in some countries, for example. Current estimates predict that without an influx of unprecedented support, COVID will lead to hundreds of thousands of deaths on the continent and will further disrupt essential healthcare services leading to more indirect suffering and death.

Despite the deep challenges of this moment, I hold onto hope.

I believe that from tough times, we can emerge stronger, more connected, more empathic, and fair. I am inspired by the belief that collectively, through participation, open conversation, listening, accountability and service to our communities we can help solve big problems including COVID and poor health outcomes in Africa. We have no choice.

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A M A N DA M I TC H E L L ’ 96 Assistant Director of Nursing at a Long-term Care Facility and Emergency Department Nurse Upon graduating from Grade 9 at Park, Amanda was filled with ambition, an eagerness to do her best, and the knowledge that she could conquer anything she set out to do. She attended The Woodward School for Girls in Quincy, earned a BA in communications and management from Regis College, and her BSN from UMass Boston College of Nursing and Health Sciences. Since becoming a nurse, Amanda has gained experience working on an Alzheimer’s unit, providing subacute care at Eastpointe Rehab, and managing the Alzheimer’s Dementia Unit at Care-One in Randolph. She now serves as the assistant director of nursing at Care-One in Newton during the week, and works in the emergency department at MGH on the weekends. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Amanda has found herself working 18-hour days, sometimes seven days a week, to serve the patients under her care.

W

hen I was a student at Park, and throughout high school, I couldn’t have envisioned becoming a healthcare professional.

That changed when my Aunt Margo’s cancer re-emerged and she found herself in a battle with aggressive breast cancer.

I was in college when my family made the decision to bring her home, and I became her caregiver. I had such an admiration for her fight, and caring for her brought me a sense of reassurance: I enjoyed being able to see her smile, and know that even small actions on my part could help to bring her peace.

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During this time, I was working as the administrative assistant to the Director of Nursing at Boston Medical Center, and my colleagues there encouraged me to go to nursing school.

Between my work at Care-One and at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), it felt as though I was working 24/7 during the height of the pandemic.

As a manager at Care-One, I’m conscious of the example that I set for my staff, who are devoted to caring for our patients. My days are long, usually beginning between 6 and 7 a.m., and ending around 9 p.m. As we continue to understand more about the disease,

the Board of Public Health’s regulations are constantly evolving, and part of my role is ensuring that we keep up with new procedures and protocols. At the height of the pandemic, staff shortages necessitated that managers roll up their sleeves and jump into direct care for our patients, while also maintaining all of our administrative duties. New protocols mandate that some healthcare providers can no longer come into our building, so we’re also working with those providers to make telehealth visits possible. Because Care-One is a long-term care facility, we have the opportunity to get to know our patients and their families well, and we can help to keep them in touch with each other.

Since it’s unsafe for family members to visit, we have a window where patients can look out and see their family, and we’re able to connect them through technology. When a patient is close to death, we work with a family member

to facilitate a safe visit for them to see each other one more time. Our team is committed to doing everything that we can to care for our residents.

On the weekends, I work at the MGH Emergency Department. Since March, the vast majority of patients coming into the ER are being tested for COVID-19, which changed many of our routines to protect ourselves from the coronavirus. When patients are admitted in an acute condition, they are intubated and moved to another floor for further care.

I’ve heard that 2020 is the “Year of the Nurse,” and I believe that’s true—the dedication of the staff that I work with has often made me cry. My colleagues and I work long hours, and many nurses came out of retirement to fight this virus. In the middle of April, I felt like I was doing CPR every day. As nurses, we put patients before ourselves—none of us want to

put ourselves at risk, and I’m open with my staff that I’m scared, too.

Although there have been low points, like when some of my co-workers became sick and needed to be put on ventilators themselves, when you’re dedicated to your profession and have a heart for what you do, you do it without thinking twice. The highpoints help balance it out. When a patient recovers from COVID-19 and is able to go home, we lay out a red carpet, and make signs and cheer for them as they make their way outside. It’s exhilarating for both the patients and the staff!

This spring, one of the biggest challenges that I’ve faced personally is not being able to live with my 13-yearold daughter, Nevaeh. Because I have such close contact with COVID-19 patients, she is currently living with my sister. We communicate every day through Facetime, and while it has been difficult, my daughter understands that I am following my calling and need to be helping my patients. Even though we’re not physically together during the pandemic, I tried to help Nevaeh with schoolwork as she finished up the year and instill in her the value in education that I first learned at Park.

This experience has taught me that, as nurses, we need to be ready for anything. Teachers like Mr. Miller, Ms. Cabot, Mrs. Papali, and Mr. Kellogg helped to make me the person I am today, instilling diligence and a strong work ethic, which I carry with me throughout my career.

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A M A N DA BU R R AGE ’ 97 Pediatrician on Navajo Nation Amanda Burrage attended Park from Nursery through eighth grade. She went to Milton Academy and Bowdoin College, and earned a medical degree from University of Massachusetts Medical School and a masters from Harvard School of Public Health. Amanda completed her residency in pediatrics at the Oregon Health and Science University and fellowship in applied epidemiology in the Epidemic Intelligence Service at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For the past two years, she has been a pediatrician on Navajo Nation, a territory of 17.5 million acres which straddles Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico. She lives in Tuba City, a small town on the western side of the reservation, with her husband, Jarred McAteer, and daughter, Clara.

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I

always loved science, math, and problem-solving but I did not consider becoming a doctor until college. I ran to do Quizzles in Mrs. Lelon’s fifth grade and math in Mrs. Connelly’s Upper Division classes, but initially, I imagined a career in education or social justice.

In college, I took advantage of Bowdoin’s liberal arts education and took classes across many departments.

While studying abroad in Chile, I realized I could combine my interest in science with social justice. I was interning with midwives and went out on a home visit to a 14-year-old who had just delivered a baby. Seeing the array of medical, public health, socio-economic challenges facing this girl, I realized I wanted the skills to not only provide medical care but also give young women greater ability to choose the course of their lives. At that moment, I decided I wanted to pursue medicine and public health.

Before medical school, I worked at Partners in Health and learned about using health to target social inequities. When I finished my residency in pediatrics, I joined the CDC as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer where I worked on disease outbreak investigations, specifically related

to HIV, tuberculosis and the newly emerging Zika virus. My husband, who is also a physician, and I decided to move to Navajo Nation to practice medicine where we felt there was ample need for medical care and public health.

We did not realize that we would encounter the COVID pandemic, one of the greatest public health challenges of the century, within one of the most at-risk communities.

As part of our hospital’s Epidemic Response Team, I started planning for COVID in February. We heard from former CDC colleagues that the virus was spreading rapidly. Given the reservation’s limited international exposure, we initially assumed we had some time to prepare. Our team pushed to set up changes, including a centralized triage system, but initially there was concern these changes would unnecessarily disrupt hospital services.

Unfortunately, we had less time than we had estimated. The first case on the Navajo Nation was identified on March 17th. Within an hour, our leadership was resolute that we had to act immediately. We soon learned that the virus was circulating in the community. Today, two months later, we now know Navajo Nation has one of the highest rates of COVID

in the country, surpassing New York’s per capita rate in May: 2,304 cases/100,000 vs 1,806/100,000.

The county’s public health system does not cover the reservation. Our small rural hospital and the Epidemic Response Team has to lead infection prevention, including how to allocate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) with limited supplies, clinical case management, contact tracing, and epidemiology.

In the face of a tidal wave of tragic outcomes and stories, I have been fortunate to work with a collaborative and unified team. Throughout elementary, high school, and college, I was always drawn to team sports— starting with fourth grade field hockey and lacrosse with Ms. Zifcak and Ms. Knight, through to Bowdoin’s varsity teams. Teamwork is key to medicine and public health. I am fortunate to have built a team structure in the hospital that is fighting together against this virus. Communication is essential— and while it’s different from on-field communication with teammates—the principles are the same.

Uncertainty has been one of the most challenging parts of the pandemic.

We don’t know how long this virus will threaten us and how long our day-to-day lives will need to account for fighting the spread. All of us bring strengths and limitations to this challenge and the emotional, physical, and financial stresses are different for every family. I work to control what I can and give myself and my family the things we need to remain happy, focused, and energized.

Staying connected with my siblings (who all attended Park: Alyssa ’92, Katharine ’95, Christopher ’01, Susannah ’04) and close friends has been crucial. And, while I am at a center of this crisis, I am also in a beautiful part of the country where we can get outside, stay active, and see nature. We have found a balance of virtual socializing, routine, and lots of time outdoors to help us manage the stress and ambiguity of the time. For each person and family the mix will be different, but I encourage everyone to prioritize their physical and mental health.

My journey from Goddard Avenue has taken me to many unexpected places. I could not have guessed I would end up on the Navajo Nation during a pandemic, however the values and ways of thinking that began at Park taught me to explore my interests in order to continue learning about and contributing to the world.

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H

ow do we improve the healthcare system overall?

That question has been guiding me since I was a grad student at the Harvard School of Public Health. This pandemic and its decimating effects on our country have brought that question to the forefront for all of us.

The last weekend of January, as the coronavirus was beginning to dominate the news cycle, our CEO called me on Saturday. He knew our company could do something to help. “Let’s leverage our AI tool to help people understand whether they have COVID and what they should do about it” So, we mobilized. We pulled together a team of six software engineers, a product manager, a user experience designer, and a clinician, to dig into the project.

At a startup, human resources are

precious and we were allocating a large percentage of our staff for this. But it paid off—in one week, we had built a CDC-based COVID assessment and triage tool!

Buoy Health (www.buoy.com) was founded in 2015, and I joined in early 2019. The heart of Buoy Health is Buoy Assistant, an artificial intelligence (AI) and machine-learning (ML) care navigation tool. This online symptom checker—which is available to anyone—has had over 10 million users and gets better as it learns from every user. Originally, we wanted to create an accessible, online symptom checker as a counterpoint to the decision-tree based tools available online, like WebMD and Google, that tend to feed worst-case scenarios every time someone types in a question. Now, our product assesses symptoms and offers recommendations

C A I T L I N TAY LOR R E IC H E ’01 Chief Operating Officer for Buoy Health Following her four years in Park’s Upper Division, Caitlin attended Milton Academy for Grades 10-12. As a student at Middlebury she studied psychology and upon graduating, Caitlin worked at Mass General Hospital, running clinical psychology research studies on obsessive compulsive behavior disorders. Caitlin earned a master’s in health policy and management from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) in 2012. Her graduate studies coincided with the implementation of Obamacare and Caitlin recalls many discussions about medical records and how technology could improve the delivery of healthcare in the United States. In particular, one class about healthcare IT taught by Ashish Jha sparked Caitlin’s imagination. As as clinical research director at MGH, much of Caitlin’s work had involved filling out forms with a pen and paper. “Everything,” she remembers, “advertising for studies, recruitment, and participant management were all on paper and were very cumbersome.” At HSPH, Caitlin began looking at healthcare on a larger scale and considering how technology could improve healthcare outcomes, which laid the path for her career. Last year, she joined Buoy Health as the Chief Operating Officer and now oversees the technology, product, administrative, legal, finance and medical departments of the Boston-based startup. She lives in Chestnut HIll with her husband Sam, and family Ali (5) and Lucy (2.5) and brand new son, Ford, born on June 19.

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for care based on the user’s location and health insurance options. Describe your knee injury, and we can offer suggestions for treatment or direct you to the closest urgent care center. Health insurers and large employers rely on Buoy Health to provide a customized experience that offers specific care resources to employees.

Our COVID-symptom checker is based on the same principle and is designed to help people determine if they have the virus and then navigate to appropriate care. The tool asks users a series of questions about their symptoms, as well as if they are worried about a specific diagnosis. If they enter coronavirus, users are asked about risk factors such as travel or

possible contacts. Actually, my mom was the first user! She had just returned from a trip to Asia in February and was feeling sick. Based on her symptoms, our tool recommended that she visit an urgent care center for testing, which proved to be negative, she just had the flu.

The tool has proven to be very helpful in identifying hot spots before the public realizes there is a problem. Based on users typing in their symptoms, we could see there was a problem in Washington State as early as February. Since then, we’ve partnered with Boston Children’s Hospital Health Map team to track the cases.

On March 29, we launched an online assessment tool for the Commonwealth

of Massachusetts which required herculean efforts from our young company! We agreed to the deal on Thursday, and had to be ready by Monday, including a translation of the whole site into Spanish so that it would be accessible to more residents.

We are keeping the tool up-to-date and have added Massachusettsspecific test centers. In April, we made a similar arrangement with the Commonwealth of Virginia. So far, we’ve had 700,000 users, and their information is incredibly helpful as state governments and the CDC track the spread of the disease.

It’s been wonderful to be part of Buoy Health, which is making a real difference during this pandemic. And as the COO, it’s been so inspiring to see the way our team has rallied and worked incredibly hard to contribute to making our product successful during this crisis.

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A SH L EY SH A R P ’05 Anesthesiology Fellow at University of California, San Francisco Ashley spent nine years at The Park School before attending Deerfield Academy.

She completed her undergraduate studies and medical school at Georgetown University with a major in Biology of Global Health, a minor in French, and a certificate in African Studies. She moved to the West Coast in 2016, to complete her intern year in Los Angeles, followed by her residency in anesthesiology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). She currently lives in San Francisco with her fiancée as well as with her sister, Else Sharp ’07, and will start her last year of medical training in August 2020 as a Fellow in Regional Anesthesia & Acute Pain Medicine at UCSF.

F

or as long as I can remember, I wanted to be a doctor.

Having grown up listening to stories about being a psychiatrist from my dad (John Sharp, Class of 1975), I had a window into the world of medicine from a young age.

However, I wanted to be a surgeon.

Looking back, I was always shy and technical. I could express myself better on the soccer field and hockey rink than I could with words. Working with my hands in the operating room felt like a better fit for me, at least compared to sitting in an outpatient psychiatry office. Don’t get me wrong, I have the utmost respect for Psychiatry and mental health, I just happened to have chosen the different line of work.

While I was interested in surgery, I ultimately found my calling in anesthesiology. As an athlete, I have always been drawn toward experiences grounded in collaboration and teamwork. The preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative areas are fast-paced, precisely organized and efficient, and the anesthesiologist has a unique role in each setting. During my medical school rotations, I felt truly comfortable with, and inspired by, the anesthesiologists: their attitude,

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their work ethic, their modesty, their curiosity, and their technical skills.

It became immediately clear that the rooms I entered as part of the anesthesia team were the ones in which I felt the most exhilarated and inspired; I knew that this was where I belonged!

While most people know anesthesiologists as “the doctors who put people to sleep,” we also serve as critical care physicians in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). At UCSF, Anesthesia residents spend six months training in the ICU. I distinctly remember my last ICU shift (or so I thought) at UCSF on March 5, 2020. I skipped out of the unit, just down the hall from where much of the original research on Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) was performed. I remember we had very few confirmed cases of COVID-19 in our hospital at the time, but were just starting to see increasing numbers of patients under investigation (or PUIs). I had donned personal protective equipment (PPE) for the first time the night before for an emergency

intubation in the ICU for a PUI. I called the family (as they were not allowed to visit in person) and explained that intubation was both necessary and also highly dangerous. The patient’s son told me, amidst tears that he was fighting to suppress, “please take care of her as if she were your own mom; she’s all I’ve got.” That call would be the first of many that I’ve made to terrified family members suffering alone during the COVID-19 pandemic.

While my four years of residency have given me plenty of exposure to caring for critically ill patients, there is something innately different about watching someone fight for their life alone. But even in the darkest moments, I am inspired by human resilience.

From the patients, to the nurses, to the staff, to the families cheering from home via Facetime, the will to work together to fight for the best possible outcome, despite the circumstances, is unmistakable. When I think about my own path, persistence and resilience have been key to my success. It was a

privilege to attend The Park School where these traits were engrained within me; a determination to keep going, to fight through difficult times knowing it would ultimately lead to greater strength. Park provided me with the supportive community to challenge myself; Mr. Amershadian, Ms. Seeley, Ms. Nambiar, amongst many others served as important mentors and teachers who pushed me to succeed. It is an honor to be a physician—and I have The Park School to thank.

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W

hen I was six years old, my life changed. After experiencing a seizure, I was diagnosed with epilepsy which meant frequent doctor visits and hospitalizations. Early on, I knew that I wanted to give back to my own caregivers by pursuing a career in healthcare. With an undergraduate degree in psychology, I began working in pediatric mental healthcare but found myself hoping for something more “hands-on” that provided direct interaction with patients. Reflecting back on my own chronic illness, I recognized that it was the nurses who had spent the most time caring for me.

E M M A T I E DE M A N N ’08 Nurse at Faulkner Hospital A Park lifer, Emma graduated from Grade 9 in 2008 and attended The Newman School in the Back Bay for high school. After earning a BA in psychology from Hobart and William Smith Colleges, she spent several years as a mental health counselor at McClean Hospital and at Franciscan Hospital for Children. In 2018, she enrolled in an accelerated program at the MGH Institute of Health Professions, to earn a second bachelor’s degree in nursing. During her nursing school courses, Emma found herself thinking about three special Park teachers: Anita Brush, her tutor in Grades 3-9, who imparted the essential skills of good note taking and self advocacy; Alison Connolly, who taught geometry and created an oral exam to accommodate Emma’s learning style; and crying in Mr. Beaver’s biology class. ”Little did I know I would need bio for this career!”

She completed the 16-month program in 2019 with a BSN and after passing the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX exam), Emma joined the nursing staff at Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital in January 2020, just as the global pandemic was emerging.

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The same is true with the COVID19 patients on 7-North at the Faulkner.

I work in a medical/surgical unit with 34 beds. Each of the single rooms has been full every day since March 15th, since Massachusetts began experiencing a surge in coronavirus cases. Normally, nurses are expected to care for four patients at a time. But now, because COVID patients are much sicker, we are responsible for two or three patients. Most of our COVID patients are either on respirators or require supplemental oxygen. On a typical shift, before even entering my floor, I have to be screened for symptoms.

Once cleared, we are given a surgical mask for the day. I then will go to the PPE distribution center where I receive one N95 per shift and a face shield and finally make my way up to the unit.

We are to wear our masks at all times and every patient should be treated as if COVID positive. Every time I enter a patient’s room, I must “gown up”in PPE to minimize exposure and prevent the spread of the virus and while doing so there is a protocol that we must follow when entering and leaving. To manage the shortage of PPE, we must cluster our care such as medication administration, obtaining vital signs and providing assistance with activities of daily living including bathing, eating, and toileting. In addition to playing the role of caregiver, I have recently had to become the main support system for my patients.

I certainly learned about caring for patients like these in nursing school, but I was mentally unprepared for what a pandemic like COVID-19 would mean for me as a caregiver. The volume and intensity has shaken me. To help reduce the spread of this disease, the hospital has a no visitor policy. Of course we facilitate phone calls and

facetime calls with their families, but, really, our patients are so alone. We have implemented the use of iPads so families can FaceTime with their loved ones but we nurses are the ones to hold their hands and be with them during their final moments. I could never have been prepared for that or the high number of deaths.

The uncertainty around the coronavirus presents a challenge that I did not anticipate. Not only don’t we know when this will all end, we are constantly tweaking our treatment protocols. Keeping up with all the changes is exhausting.

Normally, doctors and case managers would be leading that process, but to limit exposure, they aren’t visiting the patients on the floors—we are!

Therefore we have a lot more of a say in designing the protocols because we can see what is working and what isn’t.

I love how nursing is a team effort!

As much as I care about the patients on our floor, it’s my colleagues who get me out of bed to come to work each day. We utilize each other for emotional support—and feel like our patients are part of the team. When we discharge a COVID patient, the hospital plays a special tune on the chimes to celebrate.

If we happen to be free at that time, all the nurses come out in the hallway to wave goodbye. With most elective surgeries postponed, Faulkner has pulled nurses from the OR and other outpatient departments onto the inpatient floors and use them as “runners” and provide assistance on the floor.

I certainly could not have predicted that my new career as a nurse would correspond with the COVID-19 pandemic. I have surprised myself by my own level of confidence and competence. As a new nurse, I had expected to require more handholding but as I care for hundreds of COVID patients, it turns out I actually know a lot! I am so lucky to be able to witness the power of nursing and how my peers care for patients even when faced with numerous obstacles.

Everyone is out of their comfort zone and we have been forced to adapt to the current situation. The best thing that we can do is rise up and take down any barriers to providing high quality care.

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N IC K C A RY ’09 History Teacher at Berwick Academy Nick attended Park from Kindergarten to Grade 8 and then went to Belmont Hill School for high school.

At Tufts University, he studied political science and sociology and captained the tennis team his senior year before graduating in 2016. Nick spent a year as a Humanities Fellow at Culver Academies in Indiana and then returned to Boston to coach tennis for Tufts and Belmont Hill. This year, he is working as a History Teaching Apprentice at Berwick Academy in Maine while completing a master’s in education at Lesley University.

In August, Nick will move to Connecticut, where he will be teaching, coaching, and supervising a dorm at the Westminster School.

T

he summer before my senior year at Tufts, my cousin Natalie listened to me outline some potential career plans and remarked, “You should teach!” I’ll remember her tone more than the comment itself, reflecting her genuine surprise that I hadn’t come to this recognition on my own. I’d spent countless summers as a camp counselor at Park, then went on to devote months to teaching tennis. Working with young campers and highly ranked players, coaching. and guiding these many lessons all came naturally to me.

I realized I could bring these tactics into classrooms, and help students think about academic subjects as fun and interesting challenges to be taken on and mastered. I believe in positive reinforcement and the value of practice and repetition. I also knew that the teaching profession would allow me to

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build sustaining relationships similar to those I still have with many of my former players and their families.

When I think back to Park classes and homerooms with my English teacher, Kathy Coen, I remember how it felt to be acknowledged for my efforts, rather than singled out for my often less-than-stellar final products. The title I gave my sixth grade Midsummer Night’s Dream anthology project still makes us laugh. Teachers like Kathy, who were as meticulous about working with me through my mistakes as they were lauding my successes, were the ones who drove me to push through courses and curricula that initially challenged me. This dynamic impacted my performance throughout high school and college. Whether studying comparative government in a large lecture hall or in smaller seminars discussing U.S. foreign relations, my

drive to excel was a consequence of my teachers’ and professors’ investment in my outcomes.

Without question, I consider my coaching and teaching roles to be some of the more important responsibilities in my life. The past few months for teachers have been a challenge that has forced many to embrace new technologies while also relying happily and confidently on approaches that work under all circumstances. Dan Eberle, a former Park teacher of mine, recently shared with me that, “teaching is the most infinite profession out there.” Throughout this past school year, whether through Zoom or live classes, there were countless moments of reinvention where I needed to go back to the drawing board and find ways to better cultivate student learning. I know I will change my practice many times, but always with consistent goals of learning

collaboratively with students and demonstrating how much stake I have in their future goals and aspirations.

I think that my teaching style, and those from whom I have drawn inspiration, remains more crucial now in this virtual landscape than ever before. In early March, the Berwick faculty started conversations on how to manage Zoom, handle grading, and what end of year assessments should look like. Now, just two short months later, we are at the end of our academic year, and are able to start evaluating which of our many necessary adjustments were the most effective and impactful from the student perspective.

As an additional teacher for four upper school classes, I had the opportunity to keep better tabs on student work, communicate directly with them through email, schedule one-on-one meetings throughout the day, and work to convey that our students’ wellbeing was of equal concern to meeting academic objectives. I recorded myself talking through presentations, lectures, and steps on how to conduct research, and took many takes before sending out a final version to my classes. In our advisory meetings, we encouraged students to share stories, play a little trivia, anything that would resemble the more informal atmosphere of school, as we all prepared for the day ahead. Connecting with these students in virtual space reflected the importance I place on establishing and maintaining relationships with them.

Another focus in the switch to virtual learning was determining how to equip students to submit the best work they could under the new circumstances. My mentor and I made dozens of early changes to our syllabus, spaced out the due dates on larger assignments, and delegated more responsibility to the students in taking control of their learning. We compiled material on Google Classroom and implemented discussion boards, shared

presentations for taking notes, and offered up other online tools like Padlet and Screencast for students to collaborate and demonstrate their work. In the four different classes that I helped manage, I was encouraged to see how each one took advantage of what was offered, often in incredibly thoughtful and creative ways. Our two U.S. History classes impressed us with a shared presentation on the New Deal and Post-WWII social life; our 9th grade World Civilization class put Genghis Khan on trial; our 11th grade Pinnacle class––where the focus has been Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail” and Jonathan Rieder’s book Gospel of Freedom––has organized small group work sessions to research articles for their capstone project. It was inspiring for us to locate resources for our students and see them respond and rise to the occasion, again and again.

Outside of Zoom classrooms and advisory meetings, there were dozens of events organized by both students and teachers. Whether these included assemblies, coffee houses, or athletic meetings, it was reassuring to see Berwick respond to virtual learning with a drive to keep the community connected. I am regretful I could not coach the Boys’ Varsity tennis team this spring, but still sent along self-made training videos––which my mother was able to film––that may have inspired some outdoor time and team workouts.

When I say my final goodbyes, I want the kids to know that throughout this difficult time, I was impressed by their work ethic, patience, and resilience. If they finish the year with one takeaway from the last few months, it is that they are experiencing as unique and significant a historical time as any, and through all the uncertainty and turbulence ahead, that all their teachers care deeply for their intellectual and emotional growth.

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SA M F E I BE L ’13 Mechanical Engineer for The Ventilator Project Sam, who attended The Neighborhood School in Jamaica Plain through sixth grade, joined Park’s Class of 2013 to spend three years in the Upper Division. After Park, Sam attended Concord Academy and is now studying physics and engineering at Cornell, where he has been involved with CUAir, a project team that designs, builds, and operates autonomous aircraft. He received his BS this spring, and is simultaneously pursuing his master’s in aerospace engineering. Sam’s five weeks at the Ventilator Project this spring were a fascinating detour from his goal of working in the aerospace industry.

Currently, he is in Hawthorne, California, completing an internship at SpaceX before he returns to Cornell.

W

hen Cornell cancelled classes in March, I reluctantly headed home to Boston, knowing I was going to miss out on my senior spring. Reading articles about COVID-19 on Reddit was making me feel antsy. On the news, I kept seeing doctors and medical staff working non-stop and I wanted to help, but engineers aren’t typically front-line workers. That’s when a friend of a friend sent a message to a group chat saying they were seeking engineers for a project in Boston.

Just a week earlier, two robotics entrepreneurs had formed a new nonprofit startup focused on providing a solution to the growing ventilator shortage due to the coronavirus. The brand-new Ventilator Project had two goals: to create a simpler and less expensive machine, and make sure that they sourced materials outside of

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the biomedical supply chain. Typically, ventilators are extremely complex and capable machines but they are also very expensive, often costing more than $30,000. The founders, Tyler Mantel and Alex Frost, wanted to create a new machine that would help COVID-19 patients around the world.

So, I reached out to Tyler Mantel.

After interviewing over the phone, I told him I could be on site in South Boston as soon as I finished my laundry!

Three hours later, I discovered that I was one of two engineers who had been hired for the project. When I arrived, The Ventilator Project was in startup infancy. I had taken a course on startups at Cornell and even worked at two before this but was not prepared for what met me when I arrived. For a few days, I slept on a couch in the lab, using my mom’s homemade face mask as eye shades because the lights never shut off at night! But the team was growing all the time and was attracting a great group of engineers. Eventually, about 20 of us moved into a hostel near the work site.

Within a couple of weeks, I became the hardware lead for the project, tasked with designing the mechanical components of our first prototype.

I quickly learned that core needs of our patients came from three specific functions: pressure control, volume control, and pressure assist. For COVID patients who are sedated, doctors will set

the pressure and volume; once patients are able to breathe on their own, they use the “assist” function. We set out to build our machine using parts not normally found in medical supply chains.

A key example of this was instead of using Ambu bags like EMTs do in ambulances, we chose bee bellows used for smoking out bee hives.

My career has truly been one where I’ve used seventh-grade algebra every day. As I was working on this project, instead of using complicated engineering tools, I would often sit down and use fundamental physics and algebra to size the ventilator bellows. Through this, I look back fondly on the math and science classes I took at Park with Mr. Young, Ms. Hamilton, and Mr. Beaver where I began much of this experience.

Fortunately, most of my hardware experience has been in prototyping. I make no claims for the quality of my designs but something I’ve gotten fairly good at is getting something working.

At a startup like this, where the pace is measured in changes per hour instead of weeks, getting through iterations and finding out what doesn’t work as fast as possible was the name of the game. My days were filled with organizing tasks and communication, designing specific parts, and iterating our general flow model. Looking back on this experience, I know that if the hours I spent and the work I did could contribute to helping one person, or one family, then it would have been enough.

I left the Ventilator Project after five weeks, just as we finished the first prototype: a single box containing nearly everything needed for ventilating

life support. That last week was probably the longest one of my life— culminating in a 24-hour straight work session where we only took a break to watch the sun rise. The project was growing and continues to grow. When I left there were nine engineers and about 30-40 people on site. Since then, the team has grown to over 200 volunteers, working remotely from across the country, as well as the individuals working in the lab in Southie.

Since my time, the engineers have iterated the fourth prototype, naming the ventilator “AIRA.” Under the FDA’s Emergency Use Authorization (EUA), organizations can move faster to develop products that combat the COVID-19 crisis. The Ventilator Project is waiting to receive EUA for AIRA, and then plans to mobilize sourcing and manufacturing partners to begin production.

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R E BEC C A I SA AC SON ’15 Volunteer for The FarmLink Project Rebecca attended Park from Kindergarten through eighth grade, and went on to graduate from Buckingham Browne & Nichols School.

Now a rising junior at Colby College, she returned home in March when Colby closed due to COVID-19. Rebecca is studying government and computer science, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, she has become an active volunteer at The FarmLink Project, a grassroots movement that transports surplus produce from farms to food banks, while restoring the jobs of farmers and truckers. She invites Park alumni to visit farmlinkproject.org to learn more about this important initiative and ways to get involved.

O

n a Thursday in March, COVID-19 necessitated the closure of Colby, and I returned home to Boston to live with my family for the rest of the semester. A few weeks into the quarantine, I learned about FarmLink from a friend who attends Stanford.

The nonprofit began in mid-April when our co-founder, James Kanoff, read an article about an onion farmer in Oregon who was forced to dump millions of pounds of onions that couldn’t be sold to restaurants due to the coronavirus.

Seeing this produce go to waste while food banks are facing their highest demand since the Great Depression

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Rebecca, left, completing FarmLink's first delivery in Massachusetts—12,100 pounds of salad greens from a farm in Hadley, MA to four food banks in the Greater Boston area. Rebecca helped unload the produce from the truck into the food storage facilities and shared news of the delivery on their website and social media.

inspired James to take action. He and our other co-founder, Aidan Reilly, contacted the farmer directly to try to prevent his produce from going to waste, and soon FarmLink was born—moving onions, eggs, lettuce, and potatoes to food banks in Southern California. Since then, this initiative that started with a group of friends from Stanford University and Brown University has expanded across the country. FarmLink is run entirely by volunteers, most of whom are college students seeking a way to help bridge the gap in the American food supply chain and get excess produce to those who need it. As FarmLink is a volunteer-based organization, 100 percent of donations go directly towards purchasing produce and paying the wages of farmers and transportation workers.

I joined FarmLink about three weeks after it was founded and am

now a member of the Impact Team, which is responsible for discovering, quantifying, and broadcasting the impact that we are having on farms, food banks, and the transportation system. Our team meets on Zoom every few days, and in between I write feature articles on our farms and food banks and how their communities have been impacted, as well as compile and analyze the data from the deals and deliveries that FarmLink facilitates.

In addition to writing feature articles, we use metrics to demonstrate our impact, and as of mid-June, FarmLink has moved over four million pounds of produce! I’ve also had the opportunity to work with the Deals Team, which handles the logistics of connecting farms to food banks, and I recently joined the Fundraising Team as well.

It’s been exciting to get involved so early in such a new start-up organization, especially as we figure out more efficient ways to get food from farms to food banks and represent our impact on those

communities. We’re constantly creating new teams, formulating responsibilities, and coordinating deals with farms and food banks across the country.

For some of the farms we work with, we provide financial support for the produce and transportation, and for others, we simply aid in coordinating the logistics and connecting the farms to food banks in need. I’m so impressed that this many college students have been able to come together in such an organized way, particularly given this time of remote working!

For me, it’s been a powerful experience to be part of an organization that is doing such good work, has so much potential, and is run by people my own age. I remember reading the same article that the FarmLink co-founder read about the farmer who was going to lose his onion crops and wishing that I could do something to help. Knowing that FarmLink is helping to keep farms in business and transportation workers employed while getting fresh

produce to food-insecure communities makes me so proud to be a part of this organization. About one-third of produce was going to waste even before the coronavirus, and it gives me hope that our organization, created to address the impact of COVID-19, could also have a long-term impact. At FarmLink, we are doing everything we can to eliminate food waste, support farmers, and get fresh produce to those in need. We may not be able to entirely solve this problem of food insecurity and waste in America, but this experience has taught me that just because you can’t do everything, doesn’t mean you have to do nothing.

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FAC U LT Y The Park School celebrates the careers of three remarkable individuals who retired from Park at the end of this school year. Each of these educators have been an integral part of the Park community for more than two decades, and will be greatly missed by their students and colleagues.

FAREWELLS A C U RT M I L L E R Upper Division English and Social Studies Teacher 1989

Please take a moment to write a memory or tribute

to any or all of our honorees on the special cards you’ll find on the insert. Photos, poems, scrapbook mementos, funny stories—all welcome! Please return your cards in the enclosed envelope and we will make sure that Curt, Laurie, and Mary receive your good wishes.

We also invite you to make a gift in honor of these or any of Park's dedicated educators for the impact they have had on you or your family. Please feel free to enclose a check (payable to The Park School and indicating whom you wish to honor) as well. We will share word of your tribute with each teacher as appropriate, and recognize your generosity in the Annual Report. THANK YOU!

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THE PARK SCHOOL

fter 31 years of teaching English and social studies to Upper Division students, Curt Miller is retiring from Park’s 4th Floor. Innumerable Park alumni will remember Mr. Miller as the teacher who opened the world of poetry, drama, and Edgar Allan Poe to them.

With an MFA in Acting/Directing, Curt worked in the theater before beginning his journey as a teacher. He earned a Master’s in Middle School Education from Lesley University in 1989. That spring, it just so happened that Park’s Head of School Bob Hurlbut had an opening for the Upper Division drama director and English teacher, and contacted Curt. “Fortunately Bob took a chance on me. He changed my life, and I remain so grateful to him for his belief in me.”

Curt has worn multiple hats at Park, a testament to his wide influence on Park students and the community. His roles over 31 years have included: Grade 7 and 8 English Teacher and Advisor; Grade 8 Head Advisor; Grade 8 Social Studies Teacher; Upper Division Drama Director (for 50+ productions!); Growth Education Teacher for Grades 7 and 8; Faculty Advisor to Model UN Club, Mentor to Apprentices; three summers as a counselor at Creative Arts at Park, and Chaperone to four Grade IX Foreign Language Trips.

“Over the years,” Curt says, “the close teacher/student relationship at Park has remained central, and the camaraderie of the faculty and staff is truly special. More recently, I have valued the work toward greater diversity, equity, and inclusion at Park as well as the appreciation of diverse learning styles and differentiated instruction.”

Curt is excited to build a tutoring practice and to resume a part-time massage therapy practice. Curt and Colin Dockrill, his husband/partner of 28 years, are looking forward to having more time to connect with family in Nova Scotia, the Carolinas and Texas, and to visiting exotic locales like Sri Lanka.

E M A RY RUS SE L L Director of External Programs 2000

very June, as Park students and teachers clear out their desks and lockers, the beautiful 34-acre campus comes alive with hundreds of campers under the skilled leadership of Mary Russell, AKA “Queen Mary,” who is retiring this summer.

In 2000, following a 20-year corporate career, Mary began a new chapter leading Summer at Park, and later expanded her role in becoming Park's Director of External Programs.

In her 20 years at the helm of Summer at Park, Mary grew Park’s family of general and specialty camps to a wide assortment of more than 35 programs for over 200 children in PreK through tenth grade. Now, in conjunction with Creative Arts at Park, the two summer auxiliary programs generate approximately three percent of the School’s operating budget. The Summer Programs’ impact on the Park community is even more significant than the bottom line, however.

Countless Park alumni and teachers have thrived as Summer at Park counselors, and dozens of families have applied for admission having first experienced Park’s welcoming community in the summer.

Many of Summer at Park’s signature programs are a result of Mary’s knack for launching

creative partnerships with the Town of Brookline, Chestnut HIll Sports Club, DROBOTS, Build It Yourself, and both the Brookline and Norfolk County Sheriff Departments. Each year during the CSI science program, squad cars arrive on campus, sirens blazing, usually with a hardworking K9 dog in tow. Mary has strengthened Park’s relationships with the Town of Brookline through her many personal connections and her 20-year commitment to Brookline’s underserved student population through the Steps to Success program. Over the years, Summer at Park has awarded more than $300,000 in camp scholarships in exchange for the use of town fields, tennis courts, baseball fields, and town park space at no cost to the School. Mary is leaving Summer Programs in the capable hands of Nick Sama who will steer the program going forward.

Mary is looking forward to enjoying her retirement with her husband, Dan Lyons, and to spending more time at their family’s home in Maine, near where her daughter, Cat Lyons, lives. No doubt Mary will stay connected with Park through updates from Nick and from her son, Will Lyons, who started as a five-yearold camper is now a PreK teacher in Park’s Lower Division.

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his June, Laurie retired from her role as Academic Support Learning Specialist.

Decades of Park students have benefited from her excellence as an educator, her patience and empathy for a wide range of learning profiles, and her persistent dedication to her students.

Laurie began her career as a Shady Hill Apprentice, worked at Hanscom Field Air Force Base Elementary School in Lincoln, and spent ten years at The Learning Project teaching Grades 3 and 4. She arrived at Park in 1986 to provide support in math, literacy, and writing. Over the years her role has shifted exclusively to math, Upper Division science, and executive functioning coaching for students across the School.

Laurie notes that over her 28 years at Park, in addition to the Academic Support Services Department becoming physically connected to the Main Building and gaining a bathroom, she and her colleagues are now more fully integrated in the daily work of teachers and students. “The School has provided significant professional development funds for our team to become highly trained and skilled as learning specialists.”

Her three decades of teaching are marked by a wonderful lapping of time. One of Laurie’s first students at Park grew up to become her son's eighth grade teacher at Shady Hill, and in her final year at Park, Laurie taught another of her first student's daughters!

She values so many lovely relationships with families and cherishes relationships with colleagues.

Laurie will continue to see students in private practice, and will be adding travel, cooking, reading, ballroom dancing, and the gift of time to her retirement schedule.

L AU R I E T U R N E R Academic Support Learning Specialist 1986

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Park’s 131st annual graduation took on a new format this year! Instead of the traditional gathering under a big tent on the playing fields, Graduation 2020 was split into two distinct parts.

G RADUATION CL A SS of 2020 Part I: The morning’s virtual ceremony featured speeches by two classmates as well as the alumni graduation speaker, Robert Crawford ’14. While the Class of 2020 had already received their diplomas (along with some other celebratory goodies) in the mail, each student had a moment to shine as their picture flashed on the screen, narrated by a personal sketch that captured the essence of the graduate. (You can read these on the following pages.) The online event concluded with a “morphing video” showing the remarkable transformation of the 46 members of the Class of 2020 from their earliest Park School student photo on through to eighth grade.

Part II: At 2 p.m, eighth graders and their families took part in a festive drive-through of the Park campus to celebrate the important milestone of completing their Park journey. Members of the faculty and staff lined the car parade route to cheer on the graduates in a socially-distanced receiving line. By all reports, the eighth graders had a wonderful send-off!

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THE PARK SCHOOL

Each year, a Park School alum with six years of post-Park experience is the featured speaker at Graduation.

At the School’s 131st graduation exercises in June, Robert Crawford ’14 delivered the address virtually.

Robert began his 10-year tenure at Park as a kindergartener afraid of fire drills and fearful of performing at Yule Festival. He finished as a member of Student Council, a veteran Red Sox intern via Park’s Work Study project, and a world traveller—with Park’s language trip to Spain marking his first journey abroad. He maintained his leadership role throughout high school as Roxbury Latin’s class vice president, and is now majoring in government modified with economics and minoring in Spanish at Dartmouth. Robert saw his spring plans abruptly interrupted and he spent his sophomore spring at home with his family instead of in Hanover.

2020 GR A DUAT ION A DDR E SS:

Robert Crawford ’14

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hank you, Mr. Young, for that kind introduction. I’m so honored to be back at Park to speak to this year’s graduates. Class of 2020, when I met you all this past Friday, your maturity, poise, and resiliency stood out to me. While you described your class as “rambunctious” and sometimes a bit “mischievous”... (does that sixth grade field trip ring a bell?) ... it was clear you all are much more than that.

I saw a group that enjoys each other’s company; a group that faced distance learning with their heads up; a group loved by teachers and younger students; a group sad to be ending their time together; a group that this school will miss dearly as you all go your separate ways. I saw—as one of you put it—a family.

While I was not surprised by your impressiveness, I was a bit discouraged. What am I going to say to these kids that they don’t already know? In attempting to answer this question, I thought back to my time at Park. I thought about my trip to Spain in ninth grade. I thought about the Catalog Cancelling Challenge with Mr. Wells in fourth grade. I thought about May Day preparation in third grade and the devastation I felt over losing two months of gym class for rehearsals. I thought about my fear of those frightfully loud fire alarms in Kindergarten.

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I also thought about the last speech I gave at Park, when I was running for head of Student Council. I hadn’t intended to be funny that day—but for some reason, everyone found my speech hilarious.

Today, I have actually tried to include a few moments of humor in my speech—and, I hope, some bits of valuable wisdom too. So guys, close those other browsers—because we’re about to dive right in. Here are my three “Hall of Fame Lessons”—the lessons I try to follow everyday.

Lesson Number One: The “Go For It” Mentality.

If there’s one thing Park taught me, it’s to go for it. There’s not a more supportive environment to grow up in than Park. And that supportiveness, along with plenty of opportunities to go for it, allowed me to learn this lesson over and over. Perhaps the

best example of “going for it” at Park comes from the winter of my ninth grade year.

For some background, I. Love. Sports—especially playing them. I’ve played plenty in my life, but every winter at Park, I played basketball.

Flash forward to the next winter to the winter of my ninth grade year. I decide to do something crazy: play ice hockey. And not just play, but play goalie. Having never played organized hockey in my life, I decided to lace up the skates, put on the pads, and join the Park School Hockey Team. Why? Well first of all, it was clear that my hardcourt talents weren’t appreciated by the powers-that-be at Park. But secondly, the hockey team didn’t have a goalie. They needed someone to step up. They needed me to step up. Plus, it looked like fun. Why not?

I decided to go for it.

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With Park’s small graduating classes, each child is well-known by their classmates and teachers. Typically, these short character sketches are read aloud as the eighth grade graduates approach the podium to receive their diplomas. In this unusual year, the descriptions were read during the online ceremony.

Miriam, with your graceful self-awareness, you strike the perfect balance between gentle empathy and a fiery enthusiasm to do what is just and right. You have developed a powerful and encouraging voice that supports classmates and inspires action.

Delphine, with your exceptional work ethic and exemplary

organizational skills, you are a most impactful academic and social leader. You consistently impress peers and teachers alike with the depth of your thinking and the quality of your work.

Sharvil, with your unabashed enthusiasm for intellectual challenge, you have been a noticeable presence in the Park community. You have left a most positive mark on Park because of your inquisitive spirit, thought-provoking perspective, and earnest desire to excel.

Brianna, peers and teachers alike are drawn to your charisma,

organized, can-do approach and infectious positivity. Beyond your impressive grades, documented achievements, and leadership positions, you are a kind and powerful role model.

Sam, you command the respect of your peers and teammates.

Your unwavering work ethic and strong personal code extend to your athletic teams, to academic work, and to your deep, genuine relationships. In classes, you are the voice of reason and steer learning with your confident kindness.

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Julia, you are gracious, positive, organized, and determined. You conduct yourself with an understated grace, yet your powerful leadership abilities are unquestioned. In classes, as field hockey co-captain, or among friends, you are the glue that holds a group or team together.

So picture this: Practice. Every morning at 6 a.m. in a frozen barn at Dexter. The team—which was co-ed and made up of sixth to ninth graders—got on the ice, did drills, skated around, and then scored on me at will for an hour and ten minutes straight every practice. Goal after goal, novices and experts alike found places to sneak pucks through. During games, it was even worse. 12–3. 15–6. On a good day, 7–5. We lost almost every game that season—due in no small part to my goaltending. But my teammates always boosted me up and never made me feel bad about my weak performances. “Keep it up, Robert!” “My bad defense!” “Good save, kid!” “Stand up, Robert! Stop the bleepin’ puck!” (Oops, that last one was our coach, Mr. Tisi. You eighth graders may not know him, but let’s just say we all learned a few new words that season.)

Seriously, though, I got so much out of that experience.

• It taught me to take risks.

• It taught me resilience.

• I t taught me that there is a little spot in between your wrist and your elbow where hockey goalies actually have no padding.

• And it taught me tons of other things.

So, graduates: • Try out for that team.

• Run for that elected position.

• Audition for that part.

It doesn’t have to make sense why. You don’t even have to be good at the thing you’re pursuing. Seriously, it would be hard for you to be worse at something than I was at hockey goalie. The bottom line is: Go for it. You may find a lifelong passion. You may even get a hall of fame lesson out of it.

Ashton, you are the consummate team player. From academics to varsity

sports teams, you are poised, determined, and unfailingly polite. You participate in class discussions and debates with genuine interest and a collaborative spirit. You are the first to help a peer or teacher, and you arrive at every class ready to excel.

Eli, you show a daily commitment to be a most positive school citizen, stellar student and an athletic leader. On and off the field, you are helpful, collaborative, and unfailingly polite. The first to say “thank you” or to lend an extra hand, Eli, you always follow your strong moral compass.

Will, you have tremendous academic acumen and an insatiable curiosity. You care deeply about the why; and you willingly grapple with underlying concepts and theories. Regardless of the setting, from Model UN to the MakerSpace, you are admired and appreciated for your wit, wisdom, and authenticity.

Henry, you approach all aspects of school with enthusiasm and heart. Peers gravitate toward your generous spirit and good-natured attitude, and you are a community leader whether serving as a soccer co-captain, leading a school-wide service initiative, or rallying friends to “do the right thing.”

Hannah, you are humble, gracious, and unfailingly responsible, and you tend to assignments and relationships with utmost care and unwavering integrity.

Your curiosity and palpable love of learning, day in and day out, have elevated learning for all.

Eason, you have earned the respect and affection

of peers and teachers alike with your delightfully upbeat sense of humor and your tenacious approach to schoolwork. You are a true friend to all, you excel across Park’s curriculum, and you share your talents with confident generosity.

Caroline, you are a deep thinker, a passionate artist, and a true friend.

Your humor, imaginative creativity, and outside-the-box thinking have improved our art studio, classrooms and community spaces. We notice and applaud your tremendous daily efforts.

Jenny, you are a powerful and dedicated communityminded eighth-grader. You lead by example whether co-captaining the volleyball team, managing a service project or working with peers to start the Asian Student Affinity Alliance. You daily embody the highest levels of academic drive and personal responsibility.

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Every day and in every class, Sophie, you approach academic work with grit, intellectual curiosity, and purpose. A true academic leader, you unfailingly set the tone for class discussions and buoy the quality of abstract analysis.

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An adroit thinker and conversationalist, Milan, you positively impact school culture by generously and confidently sharing your many artistic, athletic and academic interests and talents. Peers and teachers alike are drawn to your humor, curiosity, and creative approach.

In your classes, on the soccer field, and in the many clubs of which you are a part, Ella, you conduct yourself with confidence, skill, and generosity. A most mature and sophisticated school citizen, your teamfirst leadership style elevates learning for all.

In all ways, academically, athletically and socially, Amos, you are a role model and a true leader at Park. You intuitively and brilliantly navigate the times and places to be a focused learner, a determined athlete, or a social and upbeat community member.

Sam, you exemplify extraordinary

Anthony, the lighthearted energy you bring to every class belies your deep intellectual horsepower. This year, you captained sports teams, led Student Council, and earned the highest caliber grades while conducting yourself with unwavering authenticity and kindness.

resilience, good humor, and optimism.

Daily, you share your commitment to learning. At Park, you are known as a passionate actor, super-fast Rubik’s Cube solver, and remarkable friend.

Your delightful wit and intellectual curiosity buoy every classroom.

Justin, beyond your affable demeanor and noteworthy athleticism is a talented student and exceptional school citizen. Your teachers unanimously describe you as an adept problem solver and a sought after partner. At your core, you are a humble and authentic friend.

Lesson Number Two: Make Time for Fun. I’d like to preface this by saying I was a little bit of a troublemaker in third grade. Ms. Rubenstein, I’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate you on Charlie’s and Max’s graduation. I’d also like to take this opportunity to officially apologize for all those blurts in third grade. It may have taken 13 years, but now I see I messed up. I should’ve raised my hand a lot more that year. I should’ve demonstrated more self-control.

(Maybe I just had some pent up energy from all those canceled PE classes?)

Anyway, despite my mischief, I may have actually been wise beyond my years. The following is an excerpt from an email my parents received from Ms. Rubinstein, one of many updates she sent that year on little Robert’s concerning behavior.

Dear Meg and Rob, Monday afternoon, during reading workshop, I looked up

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Ella, you are a collaborative and creative thinker and doer. You explore and share your interests with confidence and authenticity. Beyond your intellectualism and self-motivation, your passion for social justice has inspired us all.

Clara, your outspoken advocacy and heartfelt empathy have inspired us all. Diplomatic and aware, you lead with sophisticated enthusiasm. Wherever you are, be it the stage, the art studio or any classroom, you showcase your clear, conscientious work ethic, good humor and honed abstract thinking skills.

from working with one student and saw Robert across the room playing pickup sticks. When I asked him if he was reading, he said, “No, I’m playing pickup sticks.” Later, I asked him one-on-one what his parents would think if they knew he was playing when he was supposed to be reading, and he said that you would think: it was good to have fun.

Best, Jill I may have been a pain in third grade, but it appears I had learned this important lesson early on: make time for fun.

It’s also clear that, as a third grader, I hadn’t yet mastered the three corollaries to the “have fun” rule: 1. Don’t blatantly seek fun when the whole class is supposed to be engaged in a serious academic activity; 2. Have a good excuse ready when you’re pursuing fun and your teacher asks you, “What the heck are you are doing?” and

Alex, you are a powerhouse student who thrives on academic or athletic challenges.

With quiet confidence and unassuming ease, you systematically master new concepts and refine skills, yet your warm collaborative spirit best distinguishes you.

Mae, you are a reader, writer, actor, and singer;

and you are in your element in an English class, performing on stage, or speaking publicly at a Model UN conference. You embody determined grit, and you face challenges with your signature smile and a clear voice of reason.

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Will, you hunger for challenge and thrive on opportunities to explore underlying concepts and build understanding. As importantly, you approach relationships, with both peers and teachers, with incredible respect and thoughtfulness.

Ana, you observe the world around you, soaking in all you can.

You are a deep and perceptive thinker who understands multiple perspectives. Wise beyond your years, you connect head and heart in ways that are truly profound.

Willow,

Juni, you possess a blend of vivacity, humility, and

sincerity. You are always kind and inclusive. A soughtafter friend, a willing classmate, a highly-skilled artist, and impressive athlete, you will be dearly missed at Park.

Xavier, in conversations about citizenship, friendship, and ethics, you always articulate a strong moral code, and you welcome opportunities to discuss, debate, and lea rn with peers. In all that you do, from sports to arts, you exemplify a team-first approach.

3. In your excuse-making, don’t throw your parents under the bus.

The “have fun” rule has manifested itself in my life in many ways. Here are a couple of examples.

First, if my siblings ask me to play outside with them, no matter what—even if I’m tired or busy—I say yes. No questions asked. And I am sometimes okay sacrificing an A on an assignment in favor of an A- if it gives me time to do something else I love, like play guitar, watch a movie with my family, or play basketball in my driveway.

Ultimately, life is simply a series of moments, and while it’s important to tend to one’s responsibilities with our full focus, doing so without a pause for fun every once in a while will make you less happy, and will make your life less meaningful.

It will also make you less refreshed and less energetic while

you are an exemplary school citizen and role model. Your moral compass guides you to be unfailingly honest, warm, and kind. Whether singing, acting, playing volleyball, or exploring new academic concepts, you demonstrate inclusivity and an impressive growth mindset.

Dahlia, you are a dynamic and accomplished

student, singer, actress, and sports captain. With your signature charisma, you juggle your various school responsibilities with a commitment to building school spirit and positively impacting the Park community.

handling your important life responsibilities. Remember, every opportunity for fun that is not heeded is a life-moment that won’t come back to you.

As Ferris Bueller famously said, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around every once and a while, you might miss it.”

Now, the parents out there are probably rolling their eyes: this kid barely passed third grade and now he’s quoting a fictional character famous for skipping school. This is true.

But graduates, no matter what—even long after you learn how to raise your hand—make time for fun. Prioritize doing things that you love. Play pickup sticks. You will rarely regret it. (Just make sure you get to the quiet reading, too.)

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Lesson Number Three: Don’t Be Afraid To Challenge the Status Quo. Now I know some of you do not struggle with this. A member of the Class of 2020 told me, “We are not afraid to speak our minds, even when we’re wrong.” However, I believe, for most, challenging the status quo is difficult.

As you all progress past Park, into high school, college, and even the working world, you may be tempted to go along with the crowd. It’s often easiest to just agree with our peers, our teachers, our parents, our superiors. Many of us are afraid of challenging the status quo in one way or another; this is natural.

My most prominent memories of challenging the status quo are from countless classrooms—from Park to high school to college. I recall class discussions where everyone agreed on one viewpoint. Even the teacher, after sensing agreement among the students, would often concede that the class had figured out the “right” answer. Many times, in these situations, I would

speak up. I wasn’t always sure I was right; I didn’t know what people would think. I would say, “I disagree and here’s why.”

And the best part was, most of the time, other students would perk up—classmates whose voices had not yet been heard— and either agree with me, or express their unique opinions.

Sometimes the consensus would swing completely away from the old point of view, towards this new one. And at other times, everyone would disagree with me, explaining in more even detail than before why, in fact, I was wrong. Either way, speaking my mind has always had important benefits. Most of all, it helps uncover truth. In learning, truth is the goal. In life, uncovering the truth can lead to making the right decision.

Every decision you are part of making, whether it be deciding what a passage from a novel means, deciding to stick up for a friend, or deciding to question your boss’s opinion in a staff meeting, has consequences. And if you do not speak your mind, even when it challenges the status quo, you are surrendering your right and your responsibility to pursue

Henry, you bring palpable optimism to all areas of school life. You lead with your warmth of personality, your stellar academic approach, and your impressive athleticism. Always the consummate gentleman, you will leave a powerful and positive legacy.

Cece, just as you display natural athletic talent and impressive sportsmanship, you daily model the academic and citizenship values we hope to engender in all students at Park. Your teachers and coaches consistently highlight your growth mindset, unwavering dedication, cheerful optimism, and kindness to all.

and research. Whether digging into a social studies assignment, working through a lab experiment, or puzzling through challenges in coding, you show a commitment to unpack, understand, and explore.

Rebecca, you are a truly devoted student and

community member, and you lead with an unflappable optimism and commitment to others. A friend to all and a determined student, you best exemplify the character ideals of The Park School. You have helped to build an intellectual and inclusive school culture.

Equal parts confident, gregarious, humble, and capable, Zain, you systematically elevate all parts of Park. Thank you for sharing your genuine curiosity, desire to debate and discuss, and your incredible work ethic every day.

THE PARK SCHOOL

In your conscientious and down-toearth way, you rally classmates and teammates to be their best, to trust in the process, and to persist in the face of challenges. You exemplify Park’s motto of “simplicity and sincerity” as you possess depth of character and clear intellect.

Charlie, you have a penchant for rich discussion, debate,

Max, you are a voracious reader, a brilliant thinker, and entertaining conversationalist. Never satisfied with a surface-level answer, you are drawn to the depth and complexity found in both literature and history. In all classes, including the art studio, you are unafraid to experiment and push boundaries.

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Holden, you are a force for good.

Savannah, you are an exemplary school citizen and an accomplished student. You approach every task from building community to tackling challenging academic assignments with a mature seriousness of purpose, a bright smile and respectful, kind approach.

truth. And by extension, you are letting down everyone who is affected by the decision that this truth will influence.

By becoming the person who challenges the status quo, you not only gain the respect and admiration of your peers; you also become a role model for truth-seeking good decisionmaking and justice-upholding—for everyone around you.

The protests we’ve seen around the world over the last two weeks are perfect examples of the fact that sometimes the status quo is not rooted in what is “right.” You are—we are— the future. It is our duty to be these role models; these truthseekers; these justice-upholders; these status-quo challengers.

Turn accepted beliefs upside down; swing that consensus view.

Succumbing to the comfort of silence has never been more dangerous.

So there are my three Hall of Fame lessons: Go for it.

Make time for fun. Challenge the status quo.

And you know what’s amazing? I had learned all of these

important lessons before I graduated from The Park School.

Graduates, you have so much to look forward to; high school and college will bring you new challenges, joy, and meaning. But take heart in the knowledge that, when I was sitting in your seats, six years ago, the guiding principles of my life had already been established. They were formed by my teachers, my peers, and the indescribably nurturing culture that exists within the walls of Park School. My Hall of Fame Lessons—the things that make up who I am—were already ingrained in me when I graduated.

Likewise, your Hall of Fame Lessons are within you right now. I hope that, today and in these summer months before you start high school, you will take time to think about the lessons you have learned from your Park School experience.

And also to reflect on how fortunate all of us have been to grow up in this wonderful school, where we all learn life’s most important lessons.

David, you approach life with earnest effort and unflappable good humor. You are a community builder and a resilient and engaged student-athlete. From leading Events Council to captaining the wrestling team, you have been a collaborator, leader, and visionary at Park.

Luke, your exuberant spirit, insatiable curiosity, and exceptional

personal responsibility are contagious! You always look for ways to leave a positive mark when interacting with peers, teachers, and even younger students. Your good-natured intensity will serve you so well in high school and beyond.

Finn, you dive into most everything from morning

meeting announcements to academic debates with authenticity and zest. We see you as a true scholar and successful peacekeeper. These qualities, when combined with your kind and gentle nature, position you as a most impactful class leader.

Naomi, because you are compassionate,

bright, and sincere, you are a grounding and positive force among your peers. Your natural leadership is well-documented, and your exceptional forethought and altruistic ambition improve the community for all.

An incisive student and enthusiastic community member, Seth, you have enlivened Park’s classrooms with your quick perceptions, analytical approach, and linguistic talents. From Model UN to Mandarin, you thrive on opportunities to exercise intellect.

Sadie, whether you are acting on Park’s stage or playing your violin in front of Park’s Upper Division, you are passionate and focused on the task at hand. You show artistic dedication and true academic enthusiasm, yet you are best distinguished for your exceptional personality.

Keira, you seize every opportunity to grow as a scholar, passionate community activist, club leader, and determined volleyball player. In all of your endeavors, you blend true academic talent with humor and a no-nonsense approach.

Above all, you are a dependable voice of reason, a capable abstract thinker and talented problem-solver.

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class graduation speaker: Brianna Cadet ’20

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ood morning! My fellow eighthgraders, congratulations! We finally made it! We have all accomplished this important milestone in our lives. And although it won't be the last, it is definitely worth celebrating. We’ve all been pushed academically, intellectually, and socially and have come out victorious. And even if our graduation is on Zoom, our achievements have the same amount of value.

I like to think of graduation as a sunset because it is the end of one day and the beginning of the next. This graduation is the end of our middle school and Park experience and the beginning of our high school experience. A sunset’s colors blend together to create a beautiful work of art different than any other before. We, the graduating Class of 2020 are this work of art. Our years have been jam-packed with stressful times full of struggles but also packed with moments where we would laugh until our stomachs hurt.

These little snapshots have all blended together to create the sunset which is our Park experience. We couldn't be the sunset that we are without experiences where we were drowning with no one to save us like when we turned MIT into a playground in sixth grade and times when we were on cloud nine just like when we were amazing representatives for Park at the ICA Museum this year. Hidden in these blended colors of the sunset, you will still find the original hues that shaped it. Our sunset’s original colors are the different members of the class. They also are the people who gave

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us a second chance, the advisory parties, the smiles exchanged in the hallway, the winning point at the end of the big game, and the bows at the end of the play.

Without even realizing it, everything we have done has shaped us into the amazing people we are and the masterpiece that is our Park experience.

All the memories we’ve all shared with one another cannot be replicated even to the slightest degree ever again. I remember the pride and joy in completing our routines at May Day in third grade, cheering for our teams until we lost our voices on Olympic Day in fourth grade, having a blast ice skating in fifth grade, and entering middle school with all the challenges and excitement that brought in sixth grade. I remember hiking in Merrowvista and siteseeing in D.C last year in seventh grade and now, being the leaders and graduates of the school during a global pandemic that turned our world completely upside-down in eighth grade. I encourage you to remember these snapshots in our lives because just like all moments, they pass, and hopefully we can look back on this moment just as we have for all our years at Park.

Also like a sunset, this time in our lives cannot be perfectly replicated. You only see a sunset once, blink and you miss it. So cherish it.

Our class has grown so much together over the years. In fact, I remember when we were all at Boda Borg with our advisories this year and my advisory was trying to complete Alcatraz, a room in Boda Borg requiring physical and mental strengths.

In the beginning, I saw the sixth-grade versions of us because we struggled so much but, after we regrouped, I saw our communication, organization, collaboration, and focus greatly increase and soon we completed the room! Just like at Boda

Borg, we turned around and changed and ultimately came out successful. This was the last moment our class had all together before the global pandemic and it truly was a beautiful sunset.

Lastly, I would like to say that today is a day for celebration and happiness and I can't wait to see what life throws at us next.

Now, if you didn't get anything from my speech, I would love for you to remember two things. Stay in the moment! And cherish every sunset that you build and experience. I believe that the colors of our sunset make us one of the most beautiful ones Park has ever seen. If we keep these simple concepts in mind just like we’ve done at Park, we will be great. Good luck and happy summer! Thank you.

class graduation speaker: Charlie Rubinstein ’20

T

he first thing I thought when I sat down to write this speech was “this is not where I thought I would write this speech.”

I didn’t think I’d write it sitting in my bed at home, I didn’t think I’d practice it alone in my room, and I certainly didn’t expect to deliver it staring into a computer screen.

But that’s where we are. The second thing I thought was “I have no clue how to write a graduation speech.”

I mean, it’s a tall order. I’ve been going to this wonderful school for ten years. To be honest, where do I even start? Do I start on the old PreK playground, where I met my friends for the first time? Do I start in my third grade classroom, where my biggest concern was keeping track of my favorite stick on the playground? Or maybe I should start on my first May Day where I saw my whole school together for one of the first times, or on the athletic fields during my first track meet where I learned what it means to represent the School as a competitor? Do I start on Park’s stage, where I honed my acting talents, its classrooms, where I sharpened my mind, its fields where I exercised my body?

So I thought I didn’t know where to begin. Too many choices, too much I want to say goodbye to and thank you for. I spent a while sitting on my couch, watching my mom talk to her third graders, thinking about what to say to you all. It brought me back to my own third grade experience, my own afternoons with my teachers almost six years ago.

And then I realized that of course I know where to begin! Of course I know what to say to my classmates, my teachers, and my school.

I’ve known what I want to say since those days on the old PreK playground.

I’ve known what I want to say all along, and so has everyone here. We’ve been saying it this whole time, in our actions, our conversations, all the experiences and emotions connected to this place.

So what do I want to say? Well, it’s two things.

First, I want to say thank you. I want to say thank you for everything, and I mean everything. I mean the books Ms. Wilmerding recommended to me in third grade, the help Mr. Perry gave me with my homework, the reassuring words Dr. O

gave me on our flight to DC. I want to say thank you for the long rehearsals and the cross country races and the rainy library afternoons.

Second, I want to say that we’re ready.

We’re ready for what our next opportunities will be, because we have come from a school of teachers and peers and family members and friends who have spent their careers at Park making sure that we have the tools to excel. We have spent the last year, or two years, or four or six or even ten years, looking forward to what lies beyond today, and it has been this school’s job to get us to a place where we can succeed.

This is that place. We are ready because our time here has been dedicated to achieving, to building relationships and tools and skills and all the knowledge required. We are leaving Park but we are ready in the sense that we take the learning that Park has given with us.

On my first cross country meet, Mr. Savage gave me a very useful piece of advice: “Pretend the finish line is ahead of where it is, so you’ll always finish running.”

This is what we have done. I have seen in these strange, uncertain past few weeks the dedication and work ethic in my grade that this school has given us, and it is for this reason I tell you that we are indeed ready. We face, as so many adults have told us, unprecedented times. We have been handed the world’s greatest excuse to not show up, to not complete our school year.

But here we are. We have continued to do our jobs as students and as eighth grade leaders and it is this that shows to me that our school has made us ready for whatever the next phase of our lives will throw at us.

So to Park, the school that’s been my home for a decade, I say thank you, and to my grade, my peers, my friends, I say good luck.

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NOTES FOR THE CL ASS OF 2020 This spring, the Alumni Office encouraged Park alumni to send notes of congratulations to the Class of 2020. Here are a few of the messages for this very special Grade 8 class!

Congratulations! Park was an awesome experience for me and has set us all up extremely well for high school and better days after quarantine! Fear the freaking tree!!

GEORGE FULTON ’18

Dear Class of 2020, We have been through challenges in our lives.

When I was in 2nd grade at Park I fell on the street while I was wearing my ice skates. I had to learn to write with my left hand! I did.

When I was in high school at Newton High in the 70s we had our finals cancelled because of trash can bombings in Boston. There is always a challenge in our lives and these challenges are what make us stronger. Hopefully you are all well and your families are safe. So take this time to evaluate your priorities and continue on with the Park spirit. We will get through this together and we will be better off for having experienced this in our lives. I wish you all health and perseverance.

My Best, MARGIE DELL ’69

Congratulations!! Even though this is such an uncertain time, make sure to celebrate with your family (and friends, once it’s safe) on this accomplishment. You have so many great years ahead of you and they move so fast—so keep in touch with Park friends and teachers, stop and look around to appreciate the moment, and get excited for everything to come!

GABRIELLA CASAGRANDE ’16

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Hello Park Eighth Graders!

A HUGE congratulations as you near the next step of your life and finish up at Park School. I went to Park from 1981 – 1992, and completed ninth grade there before going to Winsor. I got to celebrate my 25th anniversary a few years ago with some very old friends.

I know right now things are so unclear and hard. Missing your friends, being stuck at home, and not knowing what will happen is really scary. But I promise, one day you will be telling the story of how you and your families went through the COVID-19 epidemic. One of you will return to a Park graduation ten years from now to tell that very story.

Keep track of your feelings in a journal, on your phone, in a collage, on an easel, or however else you like to express yourself. Talk to your friends, talk to your parents, talk to your teachers, talk to you dog. Name your feelings, it makes them more manageable. Hang in there.

Get creative, paint a picture, listen to music, make music, move your body.

You’ve GOT THIS. ELIZABETH SANDMAN NORIAN ’92

N E X T SC HOOL S FOR T H E C L A S S OF 2020 MIRIAM ALTMAN

BEAVER COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL

DELPHINE ARMAND

BROOKLINE HIGH SCHOOL

SHARVIL BIJUMALLA

BOSTON UNIVERSITY ACADEMY

BRIANNA CADET

MILTON ACADEMY

SAMANTHA CHAPPELL

THE RIVERS SCHOOLS

JULIA CONN

TABOR ACADEMY

ASHTON CRUZ

BELMONT HILL SCHOOL

ELI FALKSON

DEXTER SOUTHFIELD SCHOOL

WILL GLICK

MILTON ACADEMY

HENRY GOOD

MILTON ACADEMY

EASON GU

NOBLE AND GREENOUGH SCHOOL

HANNAH HADDADI

DANA HALL SCHOOL

CAROLINE HUANG

BEAVER COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL

JENNY JIN

WESTMINSTER SCHOOL

MILAN JOSHI

THE RIVERS SCHOOL

ELLA KAUFMAN

THE RIVERS SCHOOL

SOPHIA LAURENCE

CONCORD ACADEMY

AMOS LAWRENCE

GROTON SCHOOL

ANTHONY LEE

MILTON ACADEMY

SAM LI

NOBLE AND GREENOUGH SCHOOL

ELLA LIPSITCH

CAMBRIDGE SCHOOL OF WESTON

JUSTIN LOO

ROXBURY LATIN SCHOOL

CLARA MARTIN-BRENNER

CONCORD ACADEMY

ALEXANDER MIN

MILTON ACADEMY

MAE MYERS

WINSOR SCHOOL

WILL NARASIMHAN

COMMONWEALTH SCHOOL

ANA PAPADIMITRIOU

BROOKLINE HIGH SCHOOL

WILLOW PERRY

HOLLISTON HIGH SCHOOL

JUNIPER PINCHERA

BEAVER COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL

XAVIER RIZK

DEXTER SOUTHFIELD SCHOOL

DAHLIA ROBERTS

BUCKINGHAM BROWNE & NICHOLS SCHOOL

CECILLE ROBINSON

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL

HENRY ROME

BUCKINGHAM BROWNE & NICHOLS SCHOOL

HOLDEN ROSENBERG

BEAVER COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL

CHARLIE RUBINSTEIN

BOSTON LATIN SCHOOL

MAX RUBINSTEIN

BOSTON LATIN SCHOOL

REBECCA SAMUELS

THE RIVERS SCHOOL

ZAIN SHEIKH

MILTON ACADEMY

SAVANNAH WARRINGTON

CONCORD ACADEMY

DAVID WIBIRALSKE

WILBRAHAM & MONSON ACADEMY

LUKE WITKOWSKI

MILTON ACADEMY

SETH WOLPOWITZ

PHILLIPS ACADEMY ANDOVER

FINN WOODMAN

BROOKLINE HIGH SCHOOL

SADIE YOUNG

BOSTON ARTS ACADEMY

NAOMI YU

MILTON ACADEMY

KEIRA ZHUO

MILTON ACADEMY

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AROU N D PAR K

PARTNERSHIP IN PANDEMIC When news of the coronavirus’s spread in China became a global concern, Park students responded as compassionate collaborators and creative problem solvers (two attributes of The Park Portrait, see Winter 2019 issue and parkschool.org/why-park/the-park-portrait).

Our Upper Division Asian Student Affinity Alliance began a medical supply drive for our partner school in Hangzhou, sending a box full of N95 masks, gloves, touch-free thermometers, and safety goggles, with videos, notes, and artwork from our students. Our friends at the Greentown Yuhua QinQuin School expressed their disappointment in not being able to send exchange students to Park this year because of the pandemic, and their encouragement that the children at both schools had strengthened their friendship and taken responsibility as global citizens.

STUDENT ART SHOW AT THE MFA On Friday, March 6, Park families and faculty flocked to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston for the first-ever student art show. This special exhibit featured a wide array of work by every student in Grades 5-8. Park families received free admission to the Museum, and could mingle with the artists in the special gallery. Thanks to the Art Department (Nancy Popper, Melody Bartlett ’95, Dean Laabs, Sophie Steck, and Raewyn Fairless, apprentice) for carefully packing and transporting hundreds of pieces of artwork to the Museum, and to the Parents’ Association for sponsoring the show.

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A RO U N D PA R K

WINTER SPORTS HIGHLIGHTS Park’s winter athletes finished up their seasons with a strong showing. Both the Varsity Boys and Girls basketball teams won the 22nd annual Park Hoopfest, held at Park on Leap Day! This tournament showcases athletes from Park, Applewild School, Bancroft School, and Meadowbrook School. At Meadowbrook’s Middle School Hoopfest, Park’s Sixth Grade Boys basketball team took first place, while the Grade 6 Girls won second place. And, at Fessenden’s New England Middle School Championships, two of Park’s wrestlers placed second and third!

Congratulations, Park!

WINTER MUSICAL: HONK! This winter, over 40 students in Grades 6 – 8 worked tirelessly to perform this musical retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s classic, “The Ugly Duckling.” In addition to singing and acting, the actors learned choreography, made props, and generally had a grand collaborative, creative adventure.

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Last fall, members of the Class of 1953 reconnected over a special lunch at The Country Club in Brookline. Looks like it was a great time!

1953 classmates (L-R) Bob Kenerson, Jean Snedeker Hughes, Elson Blunt, Bob Bray, Peter Wetherbee, Dick Chute, Posy Faulkner, Julie Broderick O’Brien, and Brownie Swartwood.

A Note About Park’s Class Year Designations Over Park’s 131-year history, the number of grades offered and the graduation or final year have varied. The School had a ninth grade program for nearly 50 years (1967 – 2016) and, for all classes that graduated prior to 2016, we assigned our alumni a class year based on their ninth grade year. Therefore, all members of pre-2016 classes are listed by their Grade 9 designation, whether or not there was a Grade 9 during their time at Park.

The Class of 2016 includes both the Grade 8 and the Grade 9 classes who graduated that year. Beginning with the Class of 2017, Park began assigning a class year based on the date of their Grade 8 graduation.

1944

Jerri Godfrey Paul writes from Florida: “My husband, Harry, and I sold our house in Port St. John and moved down the highway a few miles to Crescent Wood Independent Living in Titusville. Here we are keeping fit with exercises and walking club. My only community service now is reading to and reminiscing with seniors in assisted living and this is fun!”

1945

Class Representative Natalie Park Schultz

1948

Renny Little tells us that his granddaughter, Erin—daughter of Director of Athletics Bob Little—was an All Scholastic field hockey player last fall, and will captain the Acton-Boxborough team in the fall of 2020.

1953

Class Representative Bob Bray

1955

Class Representative Buzz Gagnebin

We were thrilled to see three Park generations on a holiday card from the Burrage Family this year! Pictured (L to R) are Jarred McAteer (Amanda’s husband), Christopher Burrage ’01, Lindsey Bruett (Christopher’s wife), Ellie the dog, Dan Hornung (Susannah’s fiancé), Susannah Burrage ’04, Alyssa Burrage Scott ’92 (children Alden and Cameron Scott in front), Amanda Burrage ’97 (holding daughter Clara McAteer), Helen & Buzz Burrage ’57 (Chapin, Sabrina, and Hayden Schmitt in front), Katharine Burrage Schmitt ’95, Brian Schmitt (Katharine’s husband), Douglas Scott (Alyssa’s husband, holding Milly Scott).

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A L U M N I N OT E S

1978

Class Representative Needed!

1979

Class Representatives Lalla Carothers Sally Solomon

The Class of 1970’s Zoom Reunion this spring! Top Row: Nick Nyhart, Anne Singer, Molly Prescott Porter, Carey Peabody; Second Row: Henry Richardson, Robert Butler, Susan Boruchoff, Daphne Howland Kalmar; Third Row: Chris Impey, Aaron Fink, Barbara Storey McGrath, Molly Butler Whitney; Bottom Row: Mitchell Steir, Mary Woodwoth

Erica Robb Thaler writes, “I draw on my formative years at Park a lot; Mr. Hurlbut’s constitutional interpretation; Mr. Planchon’s passionate teaching of Carmen; Project Reason; sportsmanship on the playing field; community fostered by Morning Meeting. I am immensely grateful for having had such a rich school life free of so many of the stressors our children face today.”

1980

Class Representative Needed!

1963

Class Representative Amy Lampert We were excited to learn that Amy Lampert has earned the designation of Five Star Wealth Manager. An article in the Brookline Patch profiling Amy’s accomplishment stated that this “award is annually given to financial managers who are identified through research conducted with peers and firms; the program analyzes internal and external research data, including a survey to more than 3,000 registered financial services professionals and all local financial service companies registered with FINRA or the SEC, to select each year’s winners.

Nominated wealth managers who satisfied a total of ten objective eligibility and evaluation criteria are awarded this prestigious title. Amy is the founder of WomensWorth®, dedicated to the financial literacy of consumers, with a special emphasis on women and youth.” Congratulations, Amy!

1966

1970

Class Representative Anne Singer Though the Class of 1970 was unable to gather in person this spring for their 50th Reunion, it was wonderful to see that they got together through a Zoom Reunion (photo above). We look forward to seeing you next year!

1971

Class Representatives Needed!

1972

We were thrilled to learn that Saul Weiner’s new book, On Becoming a Healer: The Journey from Patient Care to Caring about Your Patients, was published in April 2020 by Johns Hopkins University Press. Congratulations, Saul!

Andres Hurwitz shared that he has now lived in Los Angeles for 30 years, where he continues to practice law and enjoy the sunshine.

1981

Class Representatives Matt Carothers Alex Mehlman

1982

Class Representative Allison Nash Mael

1983

Class Representatives Lisa Livens Freeman Elise Mott

1984

Class Representative Anne Collins Goodyear

1985

Class Representative Katrina Newbury

1986

Class Representative Mark Epker Jay Livens

Class Representatives Needed!

1973

Class Representative Rick Berenson

1974

Class Representatives Margaret Smith Bell Rodger Cohen

1975

B E CO M E A CL AS S RE P RE S E NTAT I V E Cla sses of

1960, 1961, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1978, 1980, 1992

á Stay in touch with friends! á Gather class news for the Bulletin! á Help to plan your reunion!

Class Representative Wigs Frank

Class Representatives Colin McNay Bill Sullivan

1967

1976

Want to learn more?

1968

1977

Please contact Jamie Byron, Director of Alumni Relations, at 617-274-6022 or alumni@parkschool.org

Class Representative Davis Rowley

Class Representative Vicky Hall Kehlenbeck

Class Representative Tenney Mead Cover

Class Representative Sam Solomon

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From left to right: Mary Sarah Baker Fairweather ’87 and her new pup!

L-R: Thomas Livens, Peter McGinnes, Leyton McCormick, Finlay McCormick and Teddy Livens, children of Christina McGinnes McCormick ’87, Matt McGinnes’86 and Jay Livens ’86; Kate Milliken Vaughey ’87 and French bulldog, Izzo!; Annie Burton Lankford ’87 and family

1987

Class Representatives Mary Sarah Baker Fairweather Geoffrey Glick Mary Sarah Baker Fairweather shares, “Sam and I enjoy living on Cape Cod where I work as director of the MSPCA-Cape Cod animal shelter. We adopted an olde English bulldogge from the shelter in May 2019, almost immediately after she was surrendered. She’s the apple of my eye and definitely a mama’s girl.” Christina McGinnes McCormick writes,“Nothing really new to report for us except that Leyton started at The Charles River School this past fall and is loving it while Finlay continues to love Newton Country Day School. We spent New Year’s Day in New Hampshire with my brother, Matt McGinnes ’86, and his son, Peter, along with Jay Livens ’86 and his boys, Teddy and Thomas, hiking Rattlesnake Mountain.” We were thrilled to learn of Kate Milliken Vaughey’s new film, Beneath the Surface. Kate shared, “it’s a collaboration between me, Novartis and the Nantucket Project (who produced the film). It’s a wonderful look at a range of people all living with MS. Seven of the film’s characters met through an online community I created called MyCounterpane.com. They are all certifiable rock stars and the power of connection is a main message of the film which makes me very happy, as I fully believe in people healing each other through the story of them. To see the film, visit beneaththesurfacefilm.com” Congratulations, Kate—we look forward

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to seeing it! We also learned that Kate had recently become a parent to a rescue dog named Izzo, a French bulldog who spent five years in a cage giving birth to puppies.

She shared that it has been a joy watching her explore a new reality, and she wanted to thank classmate Mary Sarah Baker Fairweather for guiding her through the rescue process to find the right dog. From Little Rock, Annie Burton Lankford shares, “I am in my second year of seminary at Iliff School of Theology in Denver after finally answering my call to ordained ministry.

I am a local licensed pastor and currently serving as the associate pastor at North Little Rock First UMC. Last winter, my 16-year-old son attempted suicide twice. Since then, he has received wonderful care and I am committed to making sure people understand the importance of suicide prevention awareness.”

1988

Class Representative Liza Cohen Gates Nick Tarlov is an interventional radiologist in Ventura, California.

1989

Class Representatives Dahlia Aronson Ehrenfried Ian Glick Rebecca Lewin Scott

1990

Class Representatives Zachary Cherry Alexander Rabinsky Kate Tarlov is a painter in Brooklyn, New York.

1991

1992

Class Representative Needed!

1993

Class Representatives Jessica Ko Beck Jaime Quiros Alison Ross

Class Representative Jim O’Keefe

SAVE THE DATE !

Saturday May 15 Classes ending in ’0 and ’5, and ’1 and ’6: We look forward to welcoming your classes back to Park on May 15, 2021 for a very special Reunion—there will be double the Park connection, and double the fun. Please mark this date on your calendars, as we can’t wait to see you back on campus!

Holly Dando ’79 and her mom celebrating midsummer in Sweden.

A L U M N I N OT E S

Alumni Service Award

Kathrene Tiffany Bell ’96

I

n December in front of an overflowing West Gym at Yule Festival, Park was honored to present the Alumni Service Award to Kathrene Tiffany Bell ’96. This award is given by the School to an alumna or alumnus for dedicated service to the Park community. Kathrene attended Park from Kindergarten – Grade 9 and, since her graduation, has remained a steadfast leader in the alumni community. She joined the Alumni Committee in 2008 and, only a few years later, enthusiastically led the fundraising efforts of the Committee as Alumni Annual Fund Co-Chair. She soon stepped into the role of Alumni Committee Co-Chair, leading her peers from 2011 – 2013. She has assisted in reunion-planning for her class, and has served on both the February Fête Hosting Committee and the Alumni Achievement Award Sub-Committee.

Kathrene has also served the Alumni Committee and the alumni community in less official, but no less meaningful, ways. When a call for volunteers goes out, Kathrene’s hand is the first to go up, truly modeling what it means to serve one’s community.

Kathrene has exemplified selfless and quiet service to The Park School—she leads without fanfare, and is genuinely eager to serve Park whenever asked. We are grateful to Kathrene for her service to Park, and for the welcoming point of contact that she has been between the School and her fellow alumni. Thank you, Kathrene!

Above: Kathrene Tiffany Bell ’96 and Head of School Scott Young, Right: Kathrene with children Wyatt and Alden, and parents Ed and Joan

1994

Class Representatives Alan Bern Aba Taylor Jake Peters shared that he and his wife Cécile were expecting their first child in May. To make room for their new roommate, they were leaving their Manhattan apartment and moving to Brooklyn.

1995

Class Representatives Lilla Curran Nelson Matthew Stahl

1996

Class Representatives Kathrene Tiffany Bell Nick Brescia Merrill Hawkins Katayoun Shahrokhi We were thrilled to learn about a new cookbook co-authored by Andrew Taylor!

You may want to get your own copy of Eventide: Recipes for Clambakes, Oysters, Lobster Rolls, and More from a Modern Maine Seafood Shack this summer. And congratulations, Andrew!

1997

Class Representatives Sarah Conway Suzy McManmon Sarah Robbat Primavera

1998

Class Representatives Meg Lloyd Sarah Swettberg

Following the February Fête, Astrid Levis-Thorne Burns ’98 and Margaret Gormley Donahue ’99 continued the celebration with other Parkies later that evening!

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EVENTS

2

YOU NG A LUM N I BAGE L BR E A K FA ST 1

It was great to see so many members of the Classes of 2016-2019 back at Park for this year’s Young Alumni Bagel Breakfast! Alumni connected with their classmates and former teachers over breakfast in the Dining Room, and then joined the entire Park community for Yule Festival in the West Gym. Attendees enjoyed performances by all grade levels, and the special morning served as an opportunity to experience both the common values and the many traditions that contribute to the rich diversity at Park. And, of course, alumni, current students, and faculty and staff ushered in Winter Break with a rousing rendition of “Children, Go Where I Send Thee!”

3

5 1 Molly Isaac ’19 and Octavia Reohr ’19 2 Alumni joined eighth graders on the risers for the grand finale of Yule Festival: “Children Go Where I Send Thee” 3 Ben Fleishman ’19, Head of School Scott Young, and Justin Lowry ’19

6 4 Clara Martin-Brenner ’20 and Katie Tran ’19 5 Kathy Come and Cece Robinson ’20 6 Jamie Byron and Ainsley Bonang ’17 7 Melody Bartlett, Joey Potter ’19, Charley Potter ’19, Matthew Allaire ’19, and Nancy Popper

4

7

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A L U M N I N OT E S

A LUM N I COM M I T T E E R EU N ION For several decades, Park’s Alumni Committee members have served as some of the School’s most dedicated volunteers, and as a strong connection between alumni and present-day Park. In March, Head of School Scott Young invited all current and former members of Park’s Alumni Committee to his home for a special evening. Scott shared with attendees a bit about what life is like for current Park students, and enjoyed learning from Park alumni about what made their experience so special. Interested in learning more about Park’s Alumni Committee? Please contact Jamie Byron, Director of Alumni Relations, at 617-274-6022 or alumni@parkschool.org. We would love for you to join us!

1

1 Scott Young provides current and former Alumni Committee members with a Head of School update 2 Alumni joined Scott in small groups to share a bit about their own Park experience

2

A LUM N I PE C L A S S

1

On a Friday evening in January, Park alumni beat the winter blues by joining their fellow alumni and former teachers for Park’s very first Alumni PE Class! Joined by current and former coaches and PE teachers—including Bob Little, Dana Welshman-Studley ’85, Dean Conway, Merrill Hawkins ’96, Steve Kellogg, Tim O’Brien, Heather Offen, Beth Perry, John Sullivan, Bob Tisi, and Pat Zifcak—alumni enjoyed reliving some of their Park PE memories! Favorite games included Park classics like Snowballs, Nuclear Knockout, and Simplicity and Sincerity. We hope to see more alumni and their families back at Park again for this event in the future!

1 Kids and adults alike get in on the PE Class fun!

2 Rebecca Lewin Scott ’89, Jordan Scott ’89, Char Scott ’23, and Sophie Gates ’27 3 Parachute fun with Pat Zifcak!

4 Alumni and their families gather in the West Gym for Park’s first Alumni PE Class!

2

3

4

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A LUM N I AU T HOR TA L K We always love learning about the incredible work that Park alumni are doing, and this winter had the pleasure of welcoming Katharine Smyth ’96 back to Park to share her work with alumni, current and former faculty, and Park parents. Katharine shared passages from her criticallyacclaimed debut book, All the Lives We Ever Lived: Seeking Solace in Virginia Woolf, told us a bit about her process as a writer, and answered questions from attendees—including a few of her own Park teachers!

1

If you would be interested in sharing your work with the Park community, please let us know by reaching out to Jamie Byron, Director of Alumni Relations, at 617-274-6022 or alumni@parkschool.org.

2

3 1 Katharine shares a passage from All the Lives We Ever Lived: Seeking Solace in Virginia Woolf 2 Former Park Parents and Faculty joined Katharine in the Library for this special event 3 It was a full house of classmates, teachers, and friends!

4 Jamie Byron, Alice Perera Lucey ’77, and Katharine 5 Our special thanks to English teacher and fellow alumna Alice Perera Lucey ’77, who was Katharine’s wonderful conversation partner for the evening!

4

5

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A L U M N I N OT E S

1

2

T H E 11 T H A N N UA L F E BRUA RY F ÊT E

3

Each February, we are excited to connect with alumni at Park’s premiere Boston event, the February Fête! Now in its 11th year, this year’s Fête at The Hawthorne was attended by alumni from classes in the 1950’s to those who graduated in 2011. And for the second year in a row, it was a pleasure to have four Park Heads of School in attendance!

EVENTS

4

5

6 7

8

1 Caitlin Tierney Hurley ’99, Margaret Gormley Donahue ’99, Alexandra Connors Craig ’99, Susanna Whitaker Waters ’99, Astrid Levis-Thorne Burns ’98, Sam Plimpton ’98, and Eliza Drachman-Jones Quincy ’98 2 Brian Swett ’94 and Dean Conway 3 Sam Frick ’05 and Daly Franco ’05 4 Diana Walcott ’85, Julie Deland, Melissa Deland ’95 and Kimberly Formisano

5 Grace Donnell-Kilmer ’11, Sophia Griffith-Gorgati ’11, Pat McKenna, Amy Simpson ’11, Erik Reed ’11, and Carl Lewenhaupt 6 Four Heads of School! Cynthia Harmon, Scott Young, Jerry Katz, and Bob Hurlbut 7 1985 classmates Katrina Newbury, Diana Walcott, Abbott Lawrence, David Ball, and Stephanie Stamatos 8 1974 classmates Allene Russell Pierson, Beth Haffenreffer Scholle, and Polly Hoppin

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STAY CONNECTED WITH PARK ONLINE Facebook

www.facebook.com/ParkSchoolAlums

Instagram

ParkSchoolBrookline

LinkedIn

Request to join our group “Park School Alums”

Twitter

@TheParkSchoolMA

FOLLOW US AND STAY CONNECTED WITH PARK!

1999

Class Representatives Colin Arnold Susanna Whitaker Waters Elizabeth Weyman Keep an eye out for Dave Cavell!

He’s running for Congress as a Democrat in Massachusetts’ 4th District (which includes The Park School, Brookline, Newton, Wellesley, all the way down to Fall River!) Dave is no stranger to politics—he served as a speechwriter for President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, and for Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick.

He also worked alongside Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey to sue Purdue Pharma for their contribution to the opioid crisis, and to protect the environment against regulatory rollbacks.

To learn more about Dave’s campaign go to davecavell.com and follow him on Twitter @DavidFCavell. Best of luck, Dave!

2000

Class Representative Jessica Whitman Seney

2001

Class Representative Ben Bullitt In May 2019, Becca Spiro launched her own business called The Frosted Flamingo, a mobile art studio that offers a variety of craft projects for local venues and private events. Projects are tailored for all ages and interests, and everything on the craft menu is designed

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to be worn or used. Follow the Frosted Flamingo on Instagram at @the_frostedflamingo.

2002

Class Representatives Alejandro Alvarado Alexander Lebow Congratulations to Courtney Stock who was married to Tim Callanan on October 13, 2019. In attendance were Peter Boskey ’05, Franklin Ross ’99, Rachel Kay ’05, Farrell Frankel ’00, and 2002 classmates Matt Weinberg, Molly Boskey, and Amy Kurzweil. Alejandro Alvarado, Alex Lebow, James Remeika, Nathan Kellogg, Sam Hawkins and Matt Weinberg toasted soon-tobe-married Alex King in Boulder, Colorado, where the guys enjoyed outdoor activities along with a delicious meal from Jeremy Kellogg ’99 and his wife, Jane.

2003

Class Representative Diana Rutherford

2004

Many Park friends celebrated with Courtney Stock ’02 at her wedding last fall. L-R: Peter Boskey ’05, Franklin Ross ’99, Rachel Kay ’05, Tim Callanan, Courtney Stock ’02, Farrell Frankel ’00, Matt Weinberg ’02, Molly Boskey ’02, and Amy Kurzweil ’02

2007

2012

2008

Jimmy Bell graduated from Trinity in May 2019 and is working for a business that renovates houses in the Boston area.

Class Representatives Thomas Cope Benjamin Schwartz Mollie Cunningham Young

Class Representatives Manizeh Afridi Marielle Rabins Last winter, Rebecca Fine wrote in as a third-year student at BU Dental School, where she was enjoying the program's public health aspect. “It is always fun to run into friends and reminisce on our special Park School community.” George Bell is attending law school at Miami University and Moira McCrave Carragee is a student at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, and was expecting to receive her Master’s in Urban Planning this spring.

2009

Class Representatives Mercedes Garcia Cary Williams

2010

Henry Bell is in his second year in preservation carpentry at North Bennet Street School in Boston.

2005

2011

2006

Class Representative McCall Cruz

2013

Class Representatives Justine Hatton Katherine Mitchell

2014

Class Representatives Ellie Formisano Olivia Mills While studying abroad, Pen Hallowell attended the Wind Europe 2019 Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. He shared, “Most of my interest in science started with Mr. Cassie, Mr. Beaver, and Ms. Manning and the Park School fields and everything that I saw walking around on them in my free time. Mr. Cassie taught me to look closely and I am eternally grateful.”

Class Representatives Gilad Seckler Michela Thomsen

Class Representatives Steven Fox Molly Lebow

Class Representative Lily Bullitt

Class Representatives Enya Meade Jaleel Williams

Class Representatives Grace Donnell-Kilmer Eliza Thomas Pen Hallowell ’14 at the Wind Europe 2019 Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.

A L U M N I N OT E S

2015

Class Representatives Caroline Beecher Jonathan DeJesus

PARK FRIENDS ARE THE BEST FRIENDS

2016

THIS WINTER, it was Park’s pleasure

to feature Sophia Clarke and Eliza Perry in a social media tribute to Park friends.

Sophia contacted us saying, “Eliza Perry and I would like to be your model for #parkfriendsarethebestfriends. Eliza and I have been best-friends since seventh grade, it could have been sixth grade, but she thought I was weird and didn’t invest in our potential.

However, I really convinced her that I was soul-sister material during Stump Sprouts when we were placed in Ms. Barre’s advisory and were forced to share a small tent. We may have been temporarily rendered insane due to the lack of showering, but during those few days stuck in New Hampshire we became best friends. Our friendship has weathered some crazy storms: high-stakes inter-scholastic dances (ahem, Beaver), failed math tests, and extreme turbulence while flying to the Grand Canyon. We’ve been there for each-other through divorce, loss, first-breakups, and first kisses. We’ve cried together and danced in the moonlight. We’ve traveled the world and New England, survived long-distance, made up a language, laughed more than is healthy, and have found home in each-other. Our friendship and sisterhood would not exist without Park.

A place which is an extension of ourselves and has taught us how to love unabashedly, with intention, and unbridled celebration.

This year, we’re going on 10 years of kinship, and for this we are so incredibly grateful.” #parkfriendsarethebestfriends

Class Representatives John Joseph DeMarco Charlotte Ketterson Gage McWeeny River Studley Noa Fay took a gap year after graduating high last spring, and will be attending Barnard College of Columbia this fall. Congratulations, Noa!

2017

Class Representatives Ainsley Bonang Priya Devavaram Nina Kathiresan

2018

Class Representatives Molly Brenner Brie Doherty Theo Goldman Jonah Paquette Sofia Samuels Adele Spitz

2019

Class Representatives Annabelle Brennan Isaiah Solomon

The Young Alumni Panel As this year’s eighth graders were looking ahead to Graduation and thinking about next schools they were joined by a panel of young alumni, who shared with them about their experiences at a variety of secondary schools. Eighth graders and their families enjoyed this glimpse into the exciting years ahead! A special thanks to this year’s panelists for sharing their experience: Grace Chiang ’16 (Milton Academy), Bill Eugene ’17 (Milton Academy), Simon Grossman ’16 (Brookline High School), Abigail Kaufman ’17 (Concord Academy), Gage McWeeny ’16 (Belmont Hill School), and Camila Salcedo (Boston Latin School). Wishing the Class of 2020 all the best in high school!

S u m m e r B ull e ti n 2 0 2 0

51

I N M E MOR I A M Doriot Anthony Dwyer March 14, 2020 Mother of Arienne Dwyer ’75 H. Bruce Ehrmann ’32 December 3, 2019 Brother of Bob Erhmann ’37+; Grandfather of Ben Ehrmann ’96 H. Kimball (Kim) Faulkner ’45 April 25, 2020 Husband of Nancy Faulkner+ (Park School Faculty 1972 – 2009), Father of Molly Faulkner ’76, Annie Faulkner ’78, and Apple Faulkner ’80; Brother of Elise Faulkner Jones ’46, Emily Faulkner Stevens ’48+, Charles Faulkner ’50, Rosemary Faulkner ’53, Henry Faulkner ’56, and Andrew Faulkner ’58+ Nancy Faulkner June 27, 2020 (Director of Admission, Development, Publications, and Archivist 1972 – 2009) Wife of Kim Faulkner ’45+, Mother of Emily Faulkner ’76, Annie Faulkner ’78, and Apple Faulkner ’80 Philip Goldsmith December 13, 2019 Father of Caroline Goldsmith ’00, William Goldsmith ’03

Hank Hornblower ’60 January 31, 2019 Irving Hurwitz April 17, 2020 Father of Andres Hurwitz ’80 Nicholas Cole Kern ’14 November 19, 2019 Tamsin Knox ’70 April 29, 2020 Mother of Morgan Yucel ’08, Brendan Yucel ’10, and Simon Yucel ’10; Sister of Eugene Knox ’71 Jan Spaulding April 29, 2020 Lower School Head 1965 – 1998 Walter Van Dorn February 1, 2020 Father of Will Van Dorn ’94 and Peter Van Dorn ’92 + deceased

Nancy Faulkner Nancy began working at Park in 1972, once her three daughters (Emily ’76, Annie ’78, and Apple ’80) were all enrolled in the School. Her long career in independent school administration began with serving as Park’s Director of Admission, a role she continued at Milton Academy (Girls' School). She returned to Park as a Trustee, then served as Director of Development, later crafting new roles as Director of Publications and Archivist, retiring at age 76. In her 30+ years, she and her late husband Kim Faulkner ‘45 were true pillars of the Park community, and the School’s closest neighbors. When Nancy and Kim moved to RiverMead in Peterborough, NH, in 2013, Park acquired their home to serve as a residence for the Head of School. Nancy remained an avid Park booster, returning frequently to Brookline to attend special events and visit with former colleagues. Nancy touched many facets of the School’s life with her joie de vivre, wit, wisdom, and unparalleled knowledge of Park trivia.

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THE PARK SCHOOL

Jan Spaulding Jan was a long-standing and beloved member of the Park faculty from 1965 to 1998. Born in West Hartford, Jan moved to Boston to attend Wheelock College.

She joined the Park community as a Grade 3 teacher before becoming the assistant to Lower School Head Ellie Judkins. In 1976, Jan became the School’s first full-time Lower School Head. When she retired in 1998, her celebration was attended by many former students, teachers, parents, staff, and friends. Following her retirement from Park, she assisted with Boston University’s teaching program and made regular appearances at Park alumni events. Jan will be deeply missed by her former colleagues, students, and the entire Park community.

Yo u n g A l u m n i A c h i e v e m e n t Aw a r d Vi s i t

Shamsud Bery ’04

I

n March, it was Park’s distinct pleasure to welcome Shamsud Bery ’04 back to Park as the recipient of this year’s Young Alumni Achievement Award. Shami graduated from Park in 2004, and went on to Concord Academy. Following his graduation from Concord, he took a gap semester in New Orleans, where he worked as a creative designer for a startup clothing brand (Flight School Clothing, LLC) and contributed to the grassroots economic development taking place in Post-Katrina New Orleans.

During this time, he also travelled to India to work on sustainable environmental development in New Delhi and the Western Himalayas. He went on to study Sociology at Brandeis and, immediately after completing his degree, founded an environmentally focused clothing brand (Tree House Threads, LLC).

While striving for environmental sustainability through his creative endeavors, Shami also worked to improve the lives of young people in his local community. For four years, he served as the Entrepreneurship Education Associate at the Possible Project (TPP), an after-school program in Boston and Cambridge that helps students to develop the skills and entrepreneurial mindset necessary to work collaboratively to solve problems in a high-level career path.

Last year, Shami’s entrepreneurship took him in a new direction, and he made an exciting transition into the culinary field, cooking at Zuma in the Four Seasons. Still active in his creative ventures, Shami is working to gain high level experience in the culinary field with the goal of opening his own restaurant in the near future.

During his visit, Shami spoke to Upper Division students and faculty in a special Morning Meeting, and joined several Lower Division classes to share his work as an entrepreneur.

Ms. Willig’s Grade 1 class shared some original recipes with Shami—in hopes that they might be of use some day in his own restaurant!—and Ms. Callard’s Grade 2 class learned about the important work that Shami did in India. Shami also enjoyed a visit to Park’s Makerspace, where Ms. Armour and Ms. Fogarty led students in a design project. Through his leadership, creativity, and entrepreneurship, Shami exemplifies Park’s commitment to encouraging today’s students to pursue their curiosities towards making the world a better place.

Jamie Byron (Director of Alumni Relations), Scott Young (Head of School), and Shami Bery ’04

Do you know a Park graduate who deserves recognition?

Nominations sought for Alumni Achievement Awards. Since 2008, Park has honored alumni who exemplify Park’s values and educational mission through exceptional work in their career or field of endeavor. We seek to recognize alumni whose leadership and contributions have made a meaningful impact and inspire our current students and alumni.

Alumni Achievement Award for alumni in Classes 2004 and older Young Alumni Achievement Award for alumni in Classes 2005 – 2020 Send nominations to alumni@parkschool.org, or The Park School Alumni Office, 171 Goddard Avenue, Brookline, MA 02445

The Park School 171 Goddard Avenue Brookline, Massachusetts 02445

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