Priorities #16: Winter 2001

PRI RITIES A Magazine of Woodside Priory School

Let the revelry begin!

Auction 2001 is an elegant Renaissance celebration. Story on page 6.

Tom Carter on Performing Arts, page 8 A Learning Community for the New Century

February 2001

Woodside Priory School A Learning Community for the New Century

In This Issue Little Taylor Trujillo celebrated her first birthday in her new home on the WPS campus thanks to a gift from Alvin and Suzanne Maas. Priory has met roughly half of its faculty housing goal and more construction will begin soon.

See Headmaster’s Letter, page 2.

Bishop Gassis visits, Page 15

Grandparents Day, service with retired nuns, serious science and serious clowning around on Red Square—all part of that balanced life St. Benedict advocates in the Rule. See Fall at A Glance, page 4.

Mingle with magicians, acrobats and jesters! Enjoy the most sumptuous foods and wines since the 1400s! Revel at “Venetian Flights of Fancy,” a party with all the trappings of a Renaissance Carnival. See Auction, page 6.

Performing Arts are a springboard for personal growth and an important element in an academically excellent education. Plus, a good show can bring a community together. Priory’s performing arts are thriving but need more time and better facilites, says Department Chair Tom Carter. See Conversation With... page 8.

Auction 2001, Page 6

Mums of Alums received antique roses while college-age alums feasted on pizza at their reunions. Father Martin is hosting an informal gathering at Loyola Marymount in Southern California in April. See Alumni News & Notes, page 13.

The Girls Volleyball team brought home Priory’s first state championship trophy. Ten Priory players triumphed over a San Diego school that had four previous statelevel wins. Teams of younger players have records that bode well for the future. See Athletics, page 14.

Athletics, Page 14

Bishop Gassis brings the story of human suffering and human rights abuse in the Sudan. Priory students met this revered leader in small groups and at a schoolwide assembly in the Chapel. See Benedictine Letter, page 15.

Board of Directors Abbott Matthew Leavy, OSB Rev. Mark Cooper, OSB Brother Edward Englund, OSB Father Martin Mager, OSB Father William Sullivan, OSB Board of Trustees Mrs. Linda Andreini Ms. Janet Brownstone Mrs. Liz Cirino Mr. Wayne Davison Mr. Al Ebneter Mr. Gene Flath Mrs. Anne Hannigan Mrs. Dotty Hayes Father Pius Horvath Mr. George Huertas Mr. Craig Johnson Mr. Robert Klein Mrs. Kathie Maxfield Mrs. Sandra McCarthy Mr. Ray Rothrock Mr. Andy Schilling Mr. Art Schultz Mr. Bob Simon Mr. Bob Ward Mrs. Donna Wengert-Neff Priorities magazine is published in September, April and July by Woodside Priory School for its alumni, parents, students, neighbors and friends.

Editor: Carolyn Dobervich Design: Jim Kirkland, Copperline Multimedia Contributing Writer: LeeAnn McDermott Photos: Jim Kirkland, Father Martin Mager, Carolyn Dobervich, Gail Kimball

From the Headmaster Dear Priory Community,

O

ne of the benefits of our ongoing planning process is seeing that our core values and philosophy— the Priory experience we have in common here—are translating into contemporary educational activities on a daily basis. Educating the mind, heart, body and spirit of every student in our charge is what our daily life is about.

The trick, of course, is to maintain a strong faculty and give them adequate space and tools, so that the vision can come to life. We know from all of our recent studies and planning exercises that we are facing some significant needs.

Our needs can be briefly defined as: • Housing for our on-campus community • Space for our larger student body and broader curriculum • Endowment resources to help us successfully weather the current teacher crisis and to protect us from decimating programs in future economic downturns.

The photo on this page tells a wonderful story, related to the first bullet point. This is the on-campus home of Chris and Shawna Trujillo and their daughter Taylor. Chris is director of residential life, Shawna is dean of the middle school, and Taylor-well, she just celebrated her first birthday and is doing pretty well as little sister to the thirty-eight boys in the dorms.

To bring the Trujillos here from Wuoming, we needed to provide them with a home, and we had none. The good fairy in this story is the Maas family— Suzanne and Alvin, with their children Miranda, a tenth grader, and Ryan, a freshman at Stevens Institute of Technology. Their generosity made it possible to refurbish this home for the Trujillos and to fund roughly half of the other projects we need to meet our on-campus housing goals.

Campus housing now includes eight family units plus two small units suitable for a single individual.

In February we started the addition of apartment units at the front of each of our dorms. These

individual apartments will give our house masters a more normal adult home, while keeping their closeness to the students.

Currently, the house masters have the same rooms as the students.

We hope to add seven more housing units on the south edge of the campus, along the private access road leading to the Gambetta Ranch property. The master plan committee envisions wood-frame units — four 2-bedroom, two 3-bedroom, and one one-bedroom apartment.

With this housing addition, significantly more of our faculty could join the on-campus community.

Briefly, the on-campus housing is essential for two reasons. As every local school community knows and the newspapers keep stressing, teachers can’t afford to live in this area. A second reason, unique to the Priory, is the importance of that “core community” of students and adults who call 302 Portola Road home. They bring a sense of calm and stability to campus life that can’t be re-created in other ways.

We also must look at ways to enhance the physical plant of the Priory.

As we look ahead, we see a number of priorities for us, starting with enhancements of our performing arts department. I hope you will enjoy reading the Conversation with Tom Carter, performing arts department chair, in this issue. And to refresh your memory of that educational mission we seek to deliver every day, check www. woodsidepriory.com, and click on Academics:philosophy.

Chris, Shawna and baby Taylor

Trujillo with Suzanne Maas. The Maas family made it possible to

refurbish an older, uninhabitable home on the campus.

Sincerely,

Tim Molak Headmaster

To bring the Trujillos here from Wyoming, we needed to provide them with a home and we had none. The good fairy in this story is the Maas family.

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Fall/ Winter at Highlights • Summer grants for faculty development are being felt in every grade this year. Results include new physics equipment and training, a digital editing studio in visual arts, access to a vast online data base of full-text articles, and a wide variety of other technology and training opportunities.

• The daily e-bulletin is now the most commonly used way for parents to keep in touch with what’s going on at school.

• Participants at the third annual golf tournament, always held on Columbus Day, had a great time in fine weather and earned about $20,000 for the athletics department.

• Rebecca Harper, director of technology, received the St. Benedict Medal, honoring her fifteenth year on the faculty. St. Benedict Medals were also awarded at a special dinner to alumni parent Pete Hammond and trustee Bob Ward.

• Nine Priory students earned recognition in the National Merit Scholarship program, and 15 students received awards from The College Board for their achievement in Advanced Placement courses.

• National Honor Society and Model United Nations pooled forces this fall and raised $1,660 at the Family Picnic car wash; $750 will be used to help pay MUN’s conference participation costs, and the rest was or will be distributed to charity. The campus community again broke its record in collecting food and funds for local people in need over the holidays.

Hands-on experiments are the way to learn science at The Exploratorium, where Priory freshmen Ashley Kustu (left) and Alexis Smith and classmates spent most of a day. WPS teacher, Paul Trudelle, who has attended the San Francisco museum’s science inservice workshops for the past 12 years, won a (not-too-serious) “Iron Science Teacher” award last summer.

Grandparents Day—one of the nicest of the campus “special days”—was celebrated with more than 100 guests this past October. Following a morning reception and meeting with the headmaster, the guests met their grandchildren, headed for chapel, had family photos taken, and then were off to visit some classrooms. Then, grandparents and kids had lunch. Here, sixth grader Ian Brent and his grandmother Anne go through the buffet line with other grandparent guests.

4 Haley Hafkenschiel made a double hit with two grandpas on the scene— Joseph Hafkenschiel, center, and Fred Hassett .

a Glance Just when you thought it was safe to come out of the classrooms...it was Priory Spirit Week and three faculty members were definitely in the spirit on costume day. In their regular lives (and clothes), Joel Murillo (ski hat and clown shirt) teaches a mean Spanish class, Steve Marsheck is a math teacher extraordinaire, and Josh Bookin (of the unmatched sox) has his sixth graders amazingly organized for their campuswide recycling project. Spirit Week is the time when each class has a day to go visually crazy decorating the campus in its class color. The middle school grades pool their effort in a single day with a blast of yellow.

Students at the winter middle school dance had a great time spoofing the high school prom photo tradition.

Behind the big-kid façade above are Kendall Bell (left) and Kelsey Moore. Even the chaperones couldn’t resist. From top left, clockwise, are Father Martin Mager, Mitch Neuger, Shawna Trujillo, Hiroko Takano (just barely there), Annette Angulo and Al Zappelli.

Among WPS’s Millard Fillmore Trivia Team members present for judging at the end of an exhausting weekend are (from left) Helene Nguyen, Aaren Mandle, team leader Ross Anderson (who presented and defended Priory’s answers), faculty sponsor Nancy Newman, and Hobie Thompson. The heads are those of Kit Newman and Kendall Holland. Some 15 students, parents and faculty helped collect answers for the annual Bay Area event.

Laura Hurlbut (l), Sara Gundell and Ayari Diaz, seniors, helped with the polishing and fixing up at Laboure Sisters retirement home in Los Altos. The Class of 2001 spent the morning working, then relaxed with pizza for lunch at a nearby park.

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It’s a Merrymaker’s Dream:

Auction 2001:

Enchanting

I Auction chairs Bob and Connie Klein (front) relax at a pre-auction party with Bill Petkoupoulos and Doug Basegio.

Doug’s Parkside Grille Restaurant has been a favorite place for Priory festivities and Bill, the new owner, kindly agreed to continue the tradition.

t’s Carnival—a time of revelry! In Venice, the palaces throw open their courtyards to merrymakers. There are musicians, fortunetellers, clowns and acrobats in the streets. Everybody, from the crown prince to the cook, dons a mask and dresses to the nines. They crowd the narrow streets of Venice, pour into the city courtyards, and then go off to a sumptuous dinner and wonderful theater.

This was the Venetian Carnival of the Renaissance years. Revelers at Woodside Priory’s “Venetian Flights of Fancy,” this year’s auction fund-raiser, will share a taste of this glamour and excitement.

The party starts at the elegant, full-size gondola at the Hotel Sofitel in Redwood City, 6:00 p.m. on March 24. Silent Auction and cocktails are at 6:00 p.m., dinner at 7:45, Grand Auction at 9 with dancing and general merriment until midnight.

“The committee members have outdone themselves in creating a Venetian revelry. I know people are going to love it. Walking into the Grand Ballroom, people are going to be just enchanted with the

feeling of being in Renaissance Italy. The color, the glitter, the masks are all there,” said Connie Klein, who co-chairs the event with her husband, Robert.

“Dozens of volunteers have devoted hundreds of hours making this a really memorable time everyone and I can’t them enough,” Connie

f o r thank said.

In the main courtyard, Priory guests chatting over their wine-glasses can mingle with servers holding trays of delicacies, laugh with the court jester and the lady magician, and enjoy the irresistible airs of the Renaissance musicians, Connie said.

“One magician’s trick, making live doves appear and disappear, is quite an authentic touch, and it seemed preferable to some of the other Renaissance traditions, such as releasing live bulls in the streets,” she added.

The Grand Ballroom is a vision of a Renaissance masquerade with costumes and masks and colorful trappings.

The food doesn’t get any more sumptuous than the Sofitel’s—warm puff pastry filled with shrimp and scallops in a light dill sauce, followed by a salad of goat cheese, mixed greens, walnuts and vinaigrette. Choose baked braid of salmon and seabass served with dill and roasted tomato velouté sauce, or sauced filet mignon, or penne pasta with a medley of fresh vegetables, garlic and olive oil. Then comes the pastry with fresh strawberries and cream atop strawberry coulis.

And the theater! It’s hilarious, live, audience-participation theater with paddles and bidding creating the

Online Auction Preview!

Go to www.woodsidepriory. com and click on “auction” under the “events” banner for auction items and event details.

development; if Barbara isn’t suspense and the laughter as auction internationally famous for her catering, master Tim Molak (Headmaster Molak she should be.) in his non-Renaissance life) directs the

• Take the family for a week on live auction bidding. the lake at Tahoe with facilities for A sampling of special auction items Win the Raffle! eight. Or, take a week’s vacation in a include the following, said Michelle Only 300 raffle tickets wonderful Nantucket cottage on the Green, Solicitations Chair: Massachusetts coast. will be sold.

• Three nights at Venice’s most

If you have entertaining to do, Call Virginia Taylor, (650) renowned hotel, the historic Danielli. you can’t beat Father Martin and Al 598-9181 or buy This fin de siècle hostelry’s guestbook Ebneter’s cioppino dinner for 24, at school. includes such names as Dickens, Father Maurus’s duck dinner for 20, or Ruskin, Wagner, Debussy, Proust, Father Martin’s lobster dinner for 20.

Fund a Project!

George Sand and Alfred de Musset. In

As always, there will be treats in addition to the history and ideal Support a special need. every price range, with items for every location, its rooftop restaurant provides Cards will be at the need and every taste. Everybody will what may be the ideal view of the dinner tables. find treasures to bid on and take home.

Venetian lagoon. Could this be the Computers and high-tech gear; tickets perfect spot to enjoy Carnival 2002? to everything; sports equipment and • Attend a retreat to deepen one’s lessons; certificates to restaurants and relationship with nature and self. A clubs and spas; baskets of goodies; party of four will spend three days and family portraits and driving lessons; precious jewels two nights on the incomparable Marin coast, hiking and an heirloom quilt; consulting services of every and exploring by day and sleeping in a yurt or tent kind—they’re all there among the hundreds of items overlooking the lights of Santa Rosa to the east and listed in the auction program and supplement. the ocean to the west. The retreat is led by Michael People can spend without pangs of conscience Eller, a noted outdoor leadership trainer and expert because the cause is close to everyone’s heart. photographer, who blends contemporary Western Excellent faculty and small class size make a counseling and Native American traditions. difference in every student’s life.

• Go on an African safari-a fantastic overnight Auction proceeds go directly into the school’s in Southern California. Actress Tippi Hedren’s operating budget and are essential Shambala Preserve shelters lions, tigers and income. Last year, 15% of Woodside elephants. You will enjoy a feather bed in a safari Priory’s school budget was funded tent, a romantic dinner and a midnight walk with by gifts, including auction profits. your hostess.

“This is our one big fund • Enjoy a tasting of monastic cheeses and raiser and our biggest social international wines—a party for 20 guests. The event. It is a time to see specially selected treats are from the US, Canada and alumni and their families Europe, and your hosts will be Father Pius, and again and a time for us Doug and Barbara Ayer. (Doug is director of all to come together for a great celebration. I’m really looking forward to seeing everyone there,” says Tim Molak, headmaster.

Father Martin’s seventeenth Tall Clock, in the traditional grandfather clock style, is a one-of-a kind masterpiece in black walnut.

The Grand Ballroom is a vision of a Renaissance masquerade with costumes and masks and colorful trappings.

Tom CARTER Conversation with Performing Arts Chair

When Woodside Priory decided to expand its performing arts department a few years ago, Tom Carter was tailor-made for the job of department chair. He is a creative dynamo whose teenage love of music led to musical theater and acting and whose passion for teaching and directing was more compelling than the alternative choice of an acting career.

As a young child, Tom and his parents moved frequently with his father’s academic career. The experience of being the “new guy” gave Tom perhaps more opportunity than most kids have at sizing up other people, understanding their motivations, and reflecting on himself in different situations.

These are not bad skills for an actor/director, but Tom didn’t know he was headed in that direction.

Being part of an outstanding high school choir (with 75 performances per year) led to the rest.

Now, about 20 years later, he has acted in, directed, and designed lights and sets at all levels from children’s theater to adult professional theater. His credits include West Side Story, Anne Frank and Me, Dracula, Anything Goes, David and Lisa, Fiddler on the Roof, Nicholas Nickleby, Grease, Side by Side by Sondheim, Guys and Dolls, Big River and even the world premiere of Footloose. He’s taught high school English and studied the teaching of Shakespeare in Ashland.

One might expect a talented actor and vocalist to want a stage career but after three seasons of summer stock , Tom, says he, chose “working at something he loved (teaching and directing) rather than waiting tables.” He holds a BA in drama education, an MA in music theater, and two teaching credentials—one in English and one in theater arts and related technologies.

He is single-handedly the Priory’s drama department, producing three open-audition plays, and three drama class plays, as well as teaching all the drama courses. The performing arts staff also includes orchestral and vocal music, led by colleagues Kris Yenney and Daniel Hughes. The final members of the Performing Arts creative team (although the department is separate) are Visual Arts teachers Cayewah and Reed Easley, who have among their talents a background in designing and building stage sets with their father.

In this “Conversation with” Tom talks about his own love of performing arts, what they bring to a student’s life and what we can expect in the performing arts at Woodside Priory in the near future.

—C. Dobervich

Drama is a very personal experience.

Students gain in s elf-confidence, self-knowledge, self-discipline, empathy, and the ability to understand human behavior.

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Tom, you had plenty of acting experience but didn’t pursue that career. What do you love about teaching and directing?

I use more of my creative and analytical self in directing. Performing is a totally different kind of experience—almost a physical rush of aliveness in the moment, but then it’s over. The passions in directing are much wider and longer lasting. There is nothing that compares with the satisfaction of knowing your intense efforts paid off—when the audience is transported by the actors’ work.

I love the opportunity to bring in history, design, psychology, philosophy, and intellectual themes when I start working on a play. Being in charge of “the big picture” means I can help the students grow as artists and as human beings. As an actor, the experience is more directly about you, or the show.

We require a semester of theater arts in middle school—one quarter in seventh and one quarter in eighth grade. The elective high school courses and the after school play productions are very popular.

What do you think students get from this?

Drama is a very personal experience. Students gain in self-confidence, self-knowledge, selfdiscipline, empathy, and the ability to understand human behavior. Each one of these things is a big, personal experience for each kid—they don’t just get a little bit.

Students learn different things at different ages.

Seventh graders are really able to tap into their creativity and imagination, and help themselves grow in self-confidence. Eighth graders learn the importance of self-discipline and cooperation. The classes are very supportive. People start from a safe space and go ahead at a reasonable comfort level. At the same time, students are challenged to push past discomfort and engage themselves unselfconsciously.

Personal growth happens when you confront fears—if you don’t take a chance, you won’t grow.

Drama gives students the chance to get past these natural fears and shows them the value of supporting others. I am absolutely convinced these skills are transferable to all other areas of life.

You have written three of the plays produced by your drama classes. Do you have to write things yourself to get suitable material?

I wrote them for a specific group of students and the Priory audience. It is hard to find good material for young actors, because much of it is boring and trite, with stilted conversation. At the other extreme, there are plays that aren’t boring and trite but may use language and themes that aren’t right for us either.

There isn’t a lot in the middle.

Priory students are getting much more instruction and experience in performing arts now than they were five years ago, when you came. Have we reached the school’s goal, do you think?

I hope not! The current offerings are good but they do not give students the opportunity to achieve beyond a certain level. We are limited by time to practice and facilities to practice in, especially in music. Time and good tools are basic to achieving in performing arts.

The Priory’s choirs and orchestras joined forces to belt out the beloved “Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s Messiah at their winter concert. The grand acoustics and adequate seating at Valley Presbyterian Church enhanced the audience enjoyment and the quality of the school’s second professionally recorded CD.

We are limited by time to practice and facilities to practice in, especially in music.

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Academically talented students these days usually expect to achieve in an academic field and in the arts. You can’t escape the talk these days about the crossover skills between arts and academics.

Briefly, what else would students do if we had more time and better tools?

I would like to give our students chances to perform bigger plays for larger audiences and to do musical theater. I would like to see student musical ensembles performing off campus and reaching the level of expertise that will count in college applications.

The new advanced vocal ensemble is a great example of what some of our students want to do.

They are coming at 7:15 a.m. three days a week to get in more practice time, and the difference in their performances is obvious. The students are so much happier with what they can do as a result of just that one extra opportunity.

Our other music students only get 11/2 hours of class time a week. You simply can’t develop a voice that will impress a college or a quality ensemble off the campus with that limited amount of time to practice and learn. If you check schools with established programs, they offer three or four times as much rehearsal and training.

Let’s talk about the facilities. The “little theater” effect you create with the Visual Arts department is charming. Why isn’t it enough?

There are a few reasons. The multi-purpose room, the space where we create the little theater, is used first as a classroom and second as meeting room. It is used for literally everything requiring a large space.

Setting up the little theater is monumentally disruptive to these other uses, and the resulting space is too small to seat the audiences we have, let alone a larger audience for a bigger production such as a musical.

Since the room wasn’t designed to be either a classroom or a theater, it’s just not equipped as it optimally should be. And our music room was designed for seminars and receptions, not optimal music instruction.

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I think most people here don’t know what the students are missing, because this campus has never had “real” performing arts facilities. There would be an amazing difference in productive use of time if we stopped “making do” and were able to focus all our energies on great work in a great space.

It sounds as though you are saying better facilities are necessary, not just desirable. Is that accurate?

To me, the most obvious reason they are a “need” is that I want the students to have the quality of music and drama they should expect at a school of the Priory’s caliber. Academically talented students these days usually expect to achieve in an academic field and in one or more of the arts. You can’t escape the talk these days about the crossover skills between arts and academics.

Colleges know the importance of arts—they appreciate high-quality arts experience in student applications. Students who can produce impressive videotapes or CDs have a competitive advantage.

Finally, from the Priory’s point of view, we are compared with schools that have well-established performing arts departments. I think we probably lose some applicants who may like our work but don’t see us offering the experiences they want for themselves.

Would you describe what you think we need?

First, it would be great if we had a space big enough for the whole Priory community to meet. The assembly hall no longer fits that description. It would also be helpful to have classroom space more conducive to teaching the subject matter - with practice rooms where the music students can work in smaller groups, and with space to store instruments.

The theater space could use a larger stage, more storage, a shop, a legitimate dance floor that could also be used for school dances, and an orchestra pit.

It would be wonderful to have a lobby where people could get tickets, meet during the intermission, view

art, get refreshments, and so forth.

There are plenty of examples of multi-use facilities like this that are well designed for performing arts-I would love to see the Priory move in this direction -I think it is a vision worth striving for.

You’ve mentioned musical theater a few times. Why? Everything that our students are now getting from their drama and music performances, they would gain in greater proportion through musical theater because it is that much bigger an experience.

It draws in everything about the arts—dance, choreography, voice, orchestra, acting, community audience as well as parents and students. A good musical can bring a community together in much the same way sports sometimes do.

It was exciting to have our own students doing live, original music for our last show, even though it was a very small group and they were behind a screen. This is just a small beginning, but it shows where our students can go.

What plans are in the works?

Priory now mounts six annual drama productions, including one for an allmiddle school cast. “Imaginary Actors” was a medley of three vignettes ranging from classic French comedy to contemporary family themes.

But drama isn’t only about acting, especially at middle school. Students develop self-knowledge, self-confidence and organizational skills in class and in productions.

Things have been improving yearly. We’re offering more classes and more performances in both music and theater. This reflects the strong support of the faculty and administration as well as many students and dedicated parent volunteers. The new visual arts building makes a huge positive difference for students. The administration has been planning how best to reorganize space on the campus and create better performing arts space. I’m not directly involved in the timeline or the financial considerations so I can’t comment on that. But I am involved in designing what we need in performing arts and I’m optimistic.

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Trustee Profile

P

Bob Ward received a St. Benedict

Medal from Headmaster Tim Molak

(left) at the fall Appreciation Banquet.

Bob believes corporate professionals have much to offer educational boards of trustees.

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offer educational boards at the riory Trustee Bob Ward level of daily services as well as in came west in search of the bigger, long-term picture. The opportunity in 1957, and Lives in Portola Valley, CA professionals’ experience enables the burgeoning Silicon Valley was Wife: Charlene them to assist operating the place to find it.

Family: five children, four management by “giving guidance A Cleveland native and grandchildren (interesting note: and response to problems that graduate of Case Western Reserve son David won an Oscar for the arise,” as well the kind of University (CWRU), Bob wanted screenplay of “The Sting”) economic expertise that schools to get involved in high tech. He Favorite activities: woodworking, can’t hire high-priced consultants came to California to head a reading, walking in the “wonderful to provide. division for Beckman Industries hills of Portola Valley” and playing Bob sees many strengths at the and spent the next 24 years tennis (temporarily postponed by Priory, including the excellent working in the valley at Beckman, knee replacement surgery). student/teacher ratio, the and then as president of both Professional field: Corporate incredibly strong faculty and staff, Ultek Corporation and Shafer technology then career re-entry the current popularity of the Electronics.

WPS Board of Trustees Assignment: Priory’s program and the beautiful It was a “wonderful and Development Committee. campus. He feels challenges that exciting time” to be working in lie ahead include the need to find high tech as the Silicon Valley ways to provide faculty and staff developed and took shape, he said. with adequate compensation, In 1981, at the age of 62, Bob launched an entirely especially housing, in order to ensure that the Priory new career in a different arena when he founded can both attract and keep excellent faculty. Bob also Ward Associates, which “helped unemployed stresses the need to raise the necessary funds to professionals to become successfully re-employed.” maintain and improve the Priory’s existing facilities.

In an era of downsizing and increasing job mobility, In addition to his work with the Priory, Bob is a Ward Associates was hired by firms like Levi Strauss, trustee for CWRU and administers two endowment Hewlett-Packard, and Bank of America. funds he founded at CWRU’s School of Engineering.

“People who’ve lost their jobs are often in a state The funds provide scholarships for undergraduate of shock at having to start all over again. Helping and graduate students in engineering at CWRU. Bob people to reassess their skills and to figure out what notes how crucial scholarship efforts are, especially they’re really good at doing, and what they like for graduate students, who often leave school with doing, is an art form,” says Bob. He says he found the debts as high as $100,000. work tremendously rewarding.

Perhaps closest to his heart these days, though, is Although Ward Associates wasn’t pioneers in the his work at Priory and CWRU. Of Priory he says, “It’s field, it was tremendously successful. The company a real labor of love. It’s fun! Somehow or other I feel a eventually had offices in Seattle, Portland, Menlo Park real kind of kinship with everyone at Priory. They’re and San Francisco and operated for 12 years until Bob good people and they’re really pursuing some was forced to give it up after a cardiac bypass in 1993. worthwhile objectives. I really feel a part of it, even The Priory has been lucky enough to benefit from though I’m not a student or a member of the faculty. I Bob’s expertise on the board for the last six years. A feel as closely involved with it as you can get as a friend and fellow Priory trustee told Bob about the trustee.”

Priory and its work. Interested, he agreed to serve and

-LeeAnne McDermott was elected to the board in 1996.

Bob Ward

Bob believes corporate professionals have much to

Alumni News & Notes

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crackling fire and Father Martin’s familiar pizza made a warm welcome for alumni in the Classes of 1997-2000 attending the annual post-Christmas reunion in the Father Christopher Room.

Some 36 students and a sprinkling of monks and staff gathered to share stories and generally have a good time.

Southern California Reunion Alumni and friends are invited to join Father Martin Mager at Loyola Maryount University for an informal get-together in April. Father Martin will be attending WPS Alumna Nicola Hancock’s senior recital in music at the college.

Email mmager@woodsidepriory.com for details.

Headmaster Tim Molak and grad Brian Labar, Stanislaus State University, catch up on news.

Students with first-semester college stories to share are (from left) Joe Daly, now at UC San Diego; Michelle Ogren, University of Oregon; Marcello Centofanti, Santa Clara University; Adrianna Martin, Claremont McKenna College; Brittany Voelker, Chapman University; and Lindsay Matheu, University of Nevada, Reno.

Among those returning from far away are Eric Perret (standing), now at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York, and Jonathan Morgan (seated on the floor), St John’s College in Santa Fe, New Mexico .

Alejandro Gomez, center, is at UC Santa Cruz.

S

ingle antique roses tied with silk ribbons were at each place setting to greet guests at the first annual Mums of Alums luncheon, held at the lovely Allied Arts tearoom in Menlo Park last October. Mothers of graduates from every decade shared tables and filled the room. Headmaster Tim Molak and Father Martin Mager, Director of Alumni Affairs, brought everyone up to date on Priory 2001.

“As our children are growing up, we become good friends with the other parents, and we don’t want to lose that connection. Our hope is that we all can get in touch again, at least once a year... One mother, whose child graduated two decades before mine, told me that she really enjoyed talking with younger moms,” commented Gail Kimball, Associate Director of Development. Gail organized the event and is also the “mum” of Alumna Julie Kimball, now at UCLA. Mums of Alums Reunite

Among the guests at the first annual reunion for mothers of graduates are Sandy McCarthy, Rosalia O’Grady, Josephine V. Lee, Pearlasia, and Gail Kimball.

See the group reunion photo and other individual photos online at http://www. Woodsidepriory.com.

Click on Online Community.

CHAMPIONS!

Athletics The Team

Cassie Perret, Tournament MVP and CIF Sportsmanship Award Francesca Centofanti, All-Tournament Player Lisa Flagg, All-Tournament Player Kit Newman Kendall Holland Helene Nguyen Emily Kirkland Claudia Meyer Anjuli Curia Mandy Hafleigh Coach Dustin Moore

Girls Varsity Volleyball repeated as the Division 5 Central Coast Section Volleyball champions, and were the first Priory team in history to bring home a State Championship. Shown here with coach Dustin Moore moments after the victory, the girls celebrated their victory the next day with a trip to Disneyland. The team finished the season with a record of 33 wins and 3 losses, winning its second straight league and CCS titles. They won the championship over Francis Parker, a strong San Diego team with four state championships, with a 15-13 score in the fifth game.

PSAL All-League Athletes

Fall Sports Boys Varsity Cross Country

Ross Anderson, PSAL Boys Champion, Qualified California State Meet

Boys Soccer All League

Pablo Avalos, First Team Henry Arrendondo, First Team Alex Mills, Second Team Brad Ehikian, Honorable Mention

Girls Varsity Cross Country

Laura Hurlbut, PSAL Girls Champion, Qualified California State Meet

Girls Varsity Tennis

Alexis Smith, Second Team Sammy Nuttal, Honorable Mention

Girls Varsity Volleyball 14

Francesca Centofanti, First Team Lisa Flagg, First Team Cassie Peret, First Team, PSAL MVP Kendall Holland, Honorable Mention The winter sports season is still in progress.

Season Highlights • Boys Varsity Basketball’s Bobby Christian is leading the PSAL and San Mateo County in scoring. The team came close to achieving the school’s first-ever CCS victory.

• At press time, the Sixth Grade Girls Basketball team is undefeated in the Menlo Park League and the Eighth Grade Girls team won the Small Schools Intermediate League championship. They finished their season 10-0.

Benedictine Letter

B

ishop Macram Max Gassis, a highly respected human rights advocate for Sudan, visited Woodside Priory with a message of serious suffering and need in his native country. He met with small groups of students and made a presentation in the Chapel to the entire campus community.

He illustrated his points with a videotape of the conditions in the Nuba Mountain region, where he is striving to improve health conditions and maintain a school.

Bombing has left the school damaged and children injured. The church is caring for some 1,200 children at this facility, many of them orphans and many of them victims of enslavement.

A civil war has divided the country, with the Muslim Northern troops having control of the government and attacking and persecuting the Catholic and other non-Muslim native people of the South, the bishop said. The situation is widely recognized as an attempt at genocide and the Catholic church’s effort is the only help available for some of these people, the bishop said.

The regime does not permit the World Food Program of the United Nation and the Red Cross to do rescue work in the area, he said.

The bishop airlifts in food and such supplies as used clothes, seeds, tools, scholastic materials, bibles and medical supplies. The usual cost per trip is $18,000 per flight carrying 2.5 tons of goods. The program to support the children costs $120 per child per year, or $144,000.

Equipment to produce clean water, ground transportation vehicles, and pay for teachers and catechists are among other needs listed on Bishop Gassis’ website.

Bishop Gassis became a spokesperson for his country by testifying before a committee of Congress in 1988. In 1990, when he came to the United States for treatment of cancer, the Sudanese government barred his return because of his criticism of its human rights record.

Realizing that he could not go home, he turned instead to publicizing the Sudanese dilemma around the world.

More information is available at the Bishop’s website, www.petersvoice.org/bishop.htm

Bishop Gassis has become a spokesperson for the persecuted in his native country, Sudan.

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Woodside Priory School Board of Trustees and Board of Directors Front row from left Donna Wengert-Neff, Parent Dotty Hayes, Parent Linda Andreini, Co-President, Parent Association Anne Hannigan, Alumni Parent Kathie Maxfield, Friend Wayne Davison, Alumni Parent Father Pius Horvath, Benedictine Community

Second row from left Rev. Mark Cooper, Board of Directors Craig Johnson, Friend Gene Flath, Friend Andy Schilling, Alumnus Janet Brownstone, Co-President, Parent Association Bob Simon, Friend Ray Rothrock, Friend Al Ebneter, Friend Art Schultz, Parent Father Martin Mager, Board of Directors Abbot Matthew Leavy, Board of Directors George Huertas, Alumnus Robert Klein, Parent Brother Edward Englund, Board of Directors Not pictured: Bob Ward, Friend (see Trustee Profile in this issue); Sandra McCarthhy, Parent and Alumni Parent; Father William Sullivan, Board of Directors; and Liz Cirino, Alumni Parent.

Woodside Priory School is governed by a

Woodside Priory School 302 Portola Road Portola Valley, CA 94028 (650) 851-8221 fax (650) 851-2839

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Board of Trustees, which deals with planning and policy matters; and a Board of Directors, which deals with fiduciary matters and oversees the philosophical principles of the school. Members of the Board of Directors include monks from Woodside Priory and St. Anselm Abbey, with which WPS has been affiliated for more than 20 years. All of the members of the Board of Directors have also been members of the WPS Benedictine community. Profiles of many trustees and directors are on the WPS Outline Community website.

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