Andover, the magazine of Phillips Academy - Fall 2019

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FALL 2019

Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts 01810-4161

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FALL 2019

THE HEART OF CAMPUS How PA’s library is reconnecting community

Pot Pourri Photos The Circle

E D I TO R ’S N O TE

Reconnect

GREAT FOOD INTERVALE THE HILL

Campus News Class Notes Curriculum Students Faculty Alumni

The magazine staff has been thinking about and repeating these words—like a mantra—over and over these past few months as we’ve sifted through hundreds of responses to our recent survey.

Though we will continue to analyze this data as part of our upcoming redesign, trends are already emerging. For example, we’ve learned that you are deeply curious and excited to learn more about one another—through career profiles, Class Notes, and stories about “big name” graduates as well as those working quietly behind the scenes.

You also are interested in students and faculty.

What are they learning? What do they do for fun?

What do they teach students—and how? What do they like best about Andover? What do they struggle with?

Although our first redesigned issue will not hit mailboxes until next fall, we decided not to wait to make some changes.

In this issue, you will find more stories about alumni including: a feature on Lolita Taub ’04, who is shaking up the business world with a focus on gender and racial diversity in the AI industry; an interview with author William D. Cohan ’77 about his new book chronicling the lives of four Andover graduates; and Close-Ups on Margot Kent Timbel ’75’s yoga class for veterans and egaming pro Brian “Dragonmaster” Kibler ’99.

Other stories provide insights on new athletic director Lisa Joel, biology instructor Jerry Hagler’s stunning photos taken as part of a campus field guide project, and the expert management of Andover’s endowment. To cap it off, our cover feature on the newly renovated Oliver Wendell Holmes Library provides rich detail on the many ways in which students and faculty are using this tremendous resource.

The magazine team is excited to begin work on the next chapter of Andover magazine, and we thank you for your continued feedback.

Allyson Irish Editor airish@andover.edu magazine@andover.edu @andovermagazine

Smiles DORMS Andover Classes Fun Pot Pourri MERRILL GATE 5s & 0s Chapel Abbot Surprises TEACHERS MUSIC Fun SECRET GARDEN Reconnect GREAT FOOD The Circle GREAT LAWN #ANDOVERFORLIFE Photos Friends

Memories

Samuel Phillips Hall DORMS Dining Hall INTERVALE Abbot Hall THE HILL Smiles MUSIC Pot Pourri DANCING Photos Abbot Classes Andover MERRILL GATE 5s & 0s Chapel Fun MUSI Surprises DORMS Dining Hall TEACHE Save the Date

Reconnect SECRET GARDE REUNION The Circle GREAT LAWN GREAT F #ANDOVERFORLIFE Frien WEEKEND Samuel Phillips Hall DA ANDOVER Abbot Hall INTERVA June 12–14, 2020

If you would like to join your class’s reunion committee, please contact the Office of Alumni Engagement at reunions@andover.edu.

THE HILL

Smiles

Memorie 5s & 0s Dining

An

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FEATURES 14 OWHL: The Next Chapter

Library renovations create new spaces to teach and learn.

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22 An Ever-Present Influence

A look under the hood to see what it takes to manage one of Andover’s most important resources—its endowment.

26 An Interview with William D. Cohan ’77

The author talks about his latest book, which focuses on four Andover friends.

28 Decoding Bias in AI

With expertise in business and venture capital, Lolita Taub ’04 is now tackling the diversity crisis in artificial intelligence.

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11 DEPARTMENTS: From the Interim Head of School 3| Dateline Andover 6| The World Comes to Andover 11| Sports Talk 12| The Buzz 34| Alumni Calendar 35| Andover Bookshelf 36| Class Notes 37| In Memoriam 81| End Note 86|

30 A Lesson in Grace

Richard B. Weinberg ’67 recalls 1960s campus hijinks and the even-tempered Rev. A. Graham Baldwin.

CLOSE-UPS: Margot Kent Timbel ’75: Veterans Find Healing and Hope in Yoga 64| Brian Kibbler ‘99: Magic of Games 74|

32 Inside Need-Blind Admission

Interim Head of School Jim Ventre ’79 shares why financial aid truly matters.

Access these sites at www.andover.edu

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Andover | Fall 2019

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

FALL 2019 Volume 113, Number 1 PUBLISHER Tracy M. Sweet EDITOR Allyson Irish DESIGNER Ken Puleo ASSOCIATE EDITOR Rita Savard CONTRIBUTORS Writers: Matthew Bellico, Nancy Hitchcock, Christine Yu ’94 CLASS NOTES DESIGN INDUSTRY11 ©2019 Phillips Academy, Andover, MA All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Andover, the magazine of Phillips Academy, is published four times a year by the Office of Communication at Phillips Academy, 180 Main Street, Andover, MA 01810-4161.

Main PA phone: 978-749-4000 Changes of address and death notices: 978-749-4269 alumni-records@andover.edu Phillips Academy website: www.andover.edu Andover magazine phone: 978-749-4677 Email: magazine@andover.edu Postmasters: Send address changes to Phillips Academy 180 Main Street Andover MA 01810-4161 ISSN-0735-5718

Favorite Place on Campus

Some Things Never Change

To the Editor:

To the Editor:

I was reading Andover magazine and saw your note about our favorite places at PA. I thought I would pass along some of my favorites:

“Your Dutiful Son” (summer 2019) reminds me that young people in boarding schools have written the same messages home for more than two millennia. The words might be different, but the messages remain the same.

In the artist’s apartment at Abbot Hall there is an old observatory that has been converted into a kind of sitting room. When the sky is dark and clear the room has a really nice view of the stars and it is very peaceful. The entire artist’s apartment is very nice, but that room is my absolute favorite.

The Brace Center in Abbot Hall also holds a very special place in my heart. Apart from being one of the coziest rooms on campus, the Brace Center has always been a very safe and encouraging space to tackle issues that others may shy away from, and it continues to foster young feminism on our campus.

Emma Slibeck ’20 Appreciation for GSA To the Editor: Please extend my thanks to Sharon Tentarelli ’90 for her article “Points of Pride” in the summer 2019 issue of Andover magazine. Kudos to PA for being one of the first high schools with a GSA, [Gay, Straight Alliance] and huge appreciation to faculty, staff, and students who were part of the organization in those early years.

Alison Mitchell ’91

More than 2,000 years ago, Alexandria, Egypt, was a center of inquiry and education that included boarding schools where wealthy families sent their sons.

Their sons wrote home, letters that are still readable in several American libraries, including the Smithsonian.

One boy wrote, “Dear Mother. School is going very well. I like my teachers and I am making friends. When I left, you gave me 500 drachmas. I bought a donkey cart. Send more money.”

Another wrote, “Dear Father. Last year you promised you would come to visit but you never did. Before I left, you promised again you would come this year. Everyone else’s father has come, but you aren’t. When are you coming?”

As every school financial manager would appreciate, he concluded, “the headmaster wants to know when you will pay the bill.”

Parents have changed little as well.

Several thousand years earlier, one father wrote on a clay tablet, “Why do you walk down the main street with your hands in your pockets? Why do you hang around doing nothing? Go to school. Study with your tutor. Recite your lessons…I am very worried about you.”

Donkey carts instead of Mustangs.

Parental visits. Term bills. Parents who worry. Not much has changed.

Harris C. Faigel, MD, ’52 Letters to the Editor Policy

Andover magazine welcomes letters of 200 or fewer words from members of the Andover and Abbot communities addressing topics that have been discussed in the magazine. Letters will be edited for clarity, length, and civility. Opinions expressed in the Letters to the Editor section do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of the editorial staff or of Phillips Academy.

On The Cover Melanie Garcia ’22, from Lawrence, Mass., says what she loves most about the newly renovated OWHL is that “It’s a big, comfortable, all-purpose space to interact with other students...reminding you that you have a support system all around.” How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, written by Abbot alumna Julia Alvarez ’67, is one her favorite books because, “Through it, I was able to find characters that had similar experiences to mine.”

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Andover | Fall 2019

F R O M THE IN TER IM HEAD OF SCHOOL

A YEAR OF TREMENDOUS POTENTIAL

Gil Talbot

W

hen I accepted the Eliphalet Pearson gavel from John Palfrey P’21, ’23, in July, I did so with equal measures of excitement and humility. I remain buoyed by the support of the community and the confidence and trust of the Board of Trustees.

Andover continues to navigate from strength to greater strength, as it has done so effectively before. Building on previous leadership and guided by Andover’s strategic priorities, we are embracing a year of transformative milestones and tremendous potential.

It has been an energizing and enriching start to the school year.

In September, we welcomed alumni back to campus for Volunteer Summit. From class agents to class secretaries to alumni admission representatives, it was a display of non sibi at its finest. The engagement of Andover’s alumni is second to none; it elevates our pursuit of excellence and reminds us why #AndoverForLife begins with the experience of students today.

We opened school with 1,146 students, including 320 new students. They represent 43 U.S. states and 52 countries.

Students were awestruck when they first set eyes on a transformed Oliver Wendell Holmes Library.

Not only is the OWHL state of the art and functionally designed, it is proving to be an epicenter of intellectual activity and social buzz (see story on page 14).

When visitors enter, they are greeted by a quote from Holmes emblazoned on the wall: “A mind that is stretched by a new experience will never go back to its original dimensions.”

This phrase not only illustrates the expansive power of knowledge, it speaks to our hope that students will relish the intellectual journey and challenge themselves in new ways. Embracing their own growth mindset, our faculty are expert guides on this journey.

When I accepted the board’s invitation to serve, I did so with the understanding that my priorities would be those of the Board of Trustees, shared by senior leadership, and inspired by the studentcentered, faculty-endorsed strategic plan. Students remain our top priority; their joy and well-being remain our focus.

Placing excellence at the heart of our work, we are focused on initiatives around student support, grading and assessment, and equity and inclusion. We are eager to fulfill our commitment to need-blind admission by significantly strengthening our financial aid endowment. On this front, the Knowledge & Goodness campaign remains crucial to delivering on our promise of a world-class education that is open to all qualified students. In fact, every initiative named in this letter depends on support generated by the campaign. The OWHL is our most recent example of a philanthropic win!

Our collective enterprise is more significant than any one individual. Students are counting on us, just as we counted on alumni to support us years and decades ago. We are the Big Blue!

Sincerely,

Jim Ventre ’79 Interim Head of School

Andover | Fall 2019

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Sophie Liu ’20 takes in the view from atop the Cruz de Loma mountain in Quito, Ecuador this past June. Liu was one of 15 students who took part in Andover’s Learning in the World Yachana Ecuador summer program. “Yachana” is an indigenous Kichwa word that means “a place for learning.” Students traveled to three distinct geographical areas of the country to learn about globalization and sustainability, and how Ecuador has adapted throughout its history.

Photo by Carmen Muñoz-Fernández Director, Learning in the World

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Andover | Fall 2019

A View to Remember

Andover | Fall 2019

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D ATE L I N E AN DO V ER

We Are the Big Blue!

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Andover | Fall 2019

“We are preparing our students for a world in which they must engage those with identities, views, and perspectives different from their own.”

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identities, views, and perspectives different from their own.”

The next morning, all employees were invited to the chapel for a community welcome, perhaps starting a new tradition. “The idea to gather all faculty, staff, and administrators,” he said, “serves as a persuasive symbol and a powerful visual reminder of our consolidated strength as a community.”

Frick

Jim Ventre ’79 has experienced Andover as a student, an alumnus, a faculty member, and administrator. But has he ever danced with Gunga on Main Street?

The interim head of school can now check that off his Andover bucket list after joining the Blue Key brigade to cheer the arrival of new students in late August. Days later he gathered with the senior class for the annual Vista Walk (pictured), a tradition initiated by 14th head of school Barbara Landis Chase.

During his interim year, Ventre has led with reverence for tradition and a desire to try some new things. At Faculty Convocation, a tradition that sets the academic year in motion, Ventre credited the faculty and the relationships they nurture as the most compelling reasons why students choose Andover.

“We hope to teach a good many things,” he said, “how to work hard, how to write clearly, how to think critically, how to speak effectively, how to think about art, music, dance, and theatre, how to engage with multiple cultural traditions and perspectives…We are preparing our students for a world in which they must engage those with

David

Neil Evans

Something Old, Something New

Andover’s 21 interscholastic sports recently moved to a new online home. The redesigned athletics website (andover.edu/athletics) launched this fall and features responsive navigation, streamlined game schedules, and updated branding.

The homepage also highlights action on social media with the hashtag #AndoverAthletics. We invite alumni, families, and all fans to use the hashtag with your own posts when you cheer on Big Blue!

L

Submitted

ani Silversides’ new book, A Strong Girls’ Guide to Being, provides easy-to-use mental prompts and written exercises to help elementaryand-middle-school-age girls develop self-confidence.

The book is the latest endeavor by the math instructor to highlight the positive impact of strong mental and physical health for girls.

Silversides had previously self-published My Strong Is Beautiful, a book that focused on the important aspects of physical activity for girls.

That philosophy was at the core of her Strong Girls afterschool program, which launched in 2015. Strong Girls is now a nationwide nonprofit called SG United Foundation and includes eight programs at three different sites, including Hamilton College in New York, that was started by Katie Kreider ’14.

Silversides not only promotes the benefits of a positive attitude; she is proof that it can make a difference. Shortly after finishing her latest book while on sabbatical in Australia, she found a lump on her breast and was subsequently diagnosed with breast cancer.

Before her diagnosis was confirmed, Silversides told her husband, “If this turns out to be cancer, it will be ok, because we have the tools to handle this.” And she did. Throughout the months of treatment and chemo, she wrote about her experiences in a blog called—what else— “The Silver Side.”

Now back on campus and teaching, Silversides has ramped up her focus on the program and is hoping to increase the number of Strong Girls locations by the end of the school year.

Anyone interested in creating a Strong Girls program in their community or school can reach out to Lani Silversides at lsilversides@andover.edu.

RECENTLY PUBLISHED FACULTY AUTHORS Lani Silversides and Kate McQuade have more in common than teaching at PA. The two colleagues each released a new book in 2019 and are in the process of promoting their work through readings and book signings.

I

Chris Conti

Kate McQuade has written about her experiences teaching a trauma literature class in two recent blogs featured on Literary Hub and Time magazine.

n her collection of short stories Tell Me Who We Were, Kate McQuade, an English instructor, explores themes of womanhood, mythology, and trauma through the lives of six girls who met in boarding school. McQuade is no stranger to trauma literature—she became interested in the genre in graduate school and teaches the course Rememories: Trauma and Survival in Contemporary Literature.

For those who think that issues of trauma—genocide, war, suicide, and the like—may be too difficult for teens to handle, McQuade says it’s quite the opposite.

“I think the reason that my students tend to be at least as good at analyzing this literature as adults I know—if not better—is because they are living in this world where truth is sort of under attack,” she says.

“Storytelling now is more aware of itself as a story is being told. And all of these books that I teach are about that. They are about the ways that trauma is something that the mind doesn’t register in the first place. And so it poses this really interesting problem for writers, because how you tell a story that you don’t fully understand is always at stake in these books.”

McQuade spent nearly eight years writing the book, completing it during her spring 2018 sabbatical. Though this latest book begins at a boarding school, McQuade said the stories have little to do with Andover or Abbot, although her experience managing a dormitory of 14-year-olds in Nathan Hale provided rich fodder. “I had a firsthand lens into this world to see the intensity of friendships at that age—and the amplification of friendships at boarding school.”

Andover | Fall 2019

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D ATE LI N E ANDO V ER

2019 Distinguished Service Awards

Things About…

2019–2020 Student Body

3,233 completed applications

1,146

total students

862 boarding students

52

284

day students

countries represented, based on student citizenship

Andrew

is the most popular name in the junior class Data gathered as of October 2019

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Andover | Fall 2019

Tyler Wei ’21

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Darryl T. Cohen; Donald N. Fawcett and Bridget Fawcett; Mistina Muscatel Davis; and Robert C. Barber Congratulations to five alumni and parents who were acknowledged in September with Andover’s Distinguished Service Award. Held during Alumni Council weekend, this award acknowledges volunteers who help the Academy in a variety of capacities.

Darryl T. Cohen ’92 was a key leader in the Af-Lat-Am@50 event and regularly attends the annual Todd Isaac Memorial Basketball game, serving as DJ. He is currently serving as a member of the Class Secretaries Committee.

Bridget and Donald N. Fawcett P’18 have been steadfast members of the Parent Fund Committee, with Donald helping to create the Parent Advancement Council. Under their leadership, the council has grown from 55 to 93 members and nearly doubled its gifts.

Serving as Alumni Council president from 2015 to 2018, Mistina Muscatel Davis ’01 was a vocal advocate of service to Andover and a proponent of alumni giving to the library renovation. She continues her work with Andover as a class agent.

As chair of the Class of 1968 50th Reunion Committee, Robert C. Barber ’68, P’03, helped develop meaningful programming and a feeling of inclusivity among classmates.

Stephen H. Frank ’81, P’09 (not pictured) served as the inaugural chair of the Institute for Recruitment of Teachers (IRT) Advisory Board, helping to secure important resources for the outreach program, which embodies the Academy’s mission to serve as “a private school with a public purpose.”

ONLINE PLATFORM CONNECTS ALUMNI Looking to connect with an Andover alum during your business trip to Spokane?

Need to update your address with Andover? We have a tool for that.

The Academy recently transferred its online alumni directory from Evertrue to Graduway, a company that aims to support institutions’ engagement with and among alumni. Through a secure opt-in structure, the site offers alumni the opportunity to search for other alumni and to inform the school of updates to contact information.

“We are very pleased to be able to offer these resources for Phillips Academy and Abbot Academy alumni,” says Jenny Savino P’21, director of alumni engagement. “Alumni have been consistently asking the Academy to help them connect with one another, and we believe this tool is the answer.”

Savino says plans are underway for the Academy to roll out a complementary resource next year. Switchboard will provide alumni with the opportunity to create custom “asks” and “offers” to other alumni, enabling them to search for everything from professional advice, internships, and career guidance to vacation rentals, restaurant recommendations, and mini-reunion planning.

BUG’S EYE VIEW

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Photos by Jerry Hagler

erry Hagler has a unique perspective of the PA campus. Some might call it a bug’s eye view.

Combining his love of photography and ecology, the biology instructor has been taking up-close-andpersonal photos of plants, flowers, bugs, and animals for the past few years in the hopes of creating a digital field guide.

Hagler posts images intermittently on Instagram and Facebook, chronicling the daily activities of campus critters like frogs, dragonflies, bees, and spiders. He’s also captured the beauty of various wildflowers, plants, and grasses.

“I’m amazed at the diversity of creatures I find when I go off on my photographing forays,” says Hagler, who has recently involved students with his research.

Last spring, students in his advanced biology class identified and cataloged lichens found on gravestones in the cemetery; another group of students characterized three clusters of pink lady’s slippers, an orchid that is on the list of endangered and threatened plant species in Massachusetts.

Hagler says he enjoys getting kids out of the classroom and introducing them to field work. It requires a different, more active set of skills and is something he thinks would appeal to potential new students as well.

“I know if I were a future high school student and I saw this kind of thing on a website associated with the school, it would have been very attractive to me,” Hagler says. “I figure there are a lot of kids out there who are like I was at that age. These kinds of projects help illustrate that there are all sorts of interesting things growing here, right outside our door.”

Andover | Fall 2019

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D ATE L I N E AN DO V ER

Sculpture Relocated

1979 Pot Pourri

Visitors to campus this fall may notice something missing from the Greener Quad. The Bicentennial Sculpture, created by former faculty member Gerry Shertzer, was recently removed in an effort to return the landscape to its original early 20th-century plan as developed by Charles Platt and Frederick Law Olmsted, renowned American landscape designers.

The decision was made by the Campus Design Review Committee with the approval of the artist.

In an email to the community August 27, Larry Muench, director of facilities, explained that the current Campus Master Plan “affirms the importance of protecting the historic character of Phillips Academy’s landscape and buildings.”

Muench cited other examples of recent changes on the Greener Quad including removal of existing plantings and replacing them with more historically accurate flora to “align the campus landscape with the simplicity of those plans.”

Added to the quad in 1978, the sculpture will be relocated to Pine Knoll.

The latest educational endeavor at the Tang Institute will push the boundaries of what it means to take a class, learn a subject, and receive a grade. Beginning in spring 2020, the Tang will pilot a new kind of learning experience for a group of 20 seniors.

Called “The Workshop at Andover,” this interdisciplinary single-term class will explore the topic Community, Class, and Carbon.

Andy Housiaux, the Currie Family Director of the Tang, is excited for this first-of-its-kind project at PA, saying, “Innovation is nothing new at the Tang Institute or at Phillips Academy, but this will definitely stretch both teachers and students in many ways.”

In a blog written earlier this year, Housiaux referred to the class as “reimagining the grammar of schooling,” discussing how the program will question and rethink some of the longstanding educational building blocks such as student learning, grades, the physical classroom, and time.

“In doing so, we will reimagine what teaching and learning can be,” says Housiaux, “both at Andover and beyond.”

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Andover | Fall 2019

A singular thematic focus will enable students and faculty to develop collaborative research processes and take part in experiential learning with opportunities for on- and off-campus exploration. Faculty includes Andrea Bailey (biology), Chris Jones (history and social science), Rafael Kelman (art), Corrie Martin (English), Nicholas Zufelt (mathematics, statistics, and computer science), LaShawn Springer (director of Community and Multicultural Development), and Monique Cueto-Potts (director of Community Engagement).

“When I think about transformative educational experiences in my life, from elementary through graduate school, what stands out are those moments when I realized that my teachers and mentors really saw me, understood me, and were inviting me to join them in thinking, creating, and doing on even deeper levels,” says Martin.

“I’m excited about this pilot program because we have the opportunity to dream big, together.”

Interested in learning more about The Workshop and other Tang projects? Follow their blog at tanginstitute.andover.edu/blog.

ISTOCK: DESK, BET_NOIRE

NOT YOUR AVERAGE CLASS

TH E WO R LD C O MES TO A NDOVER

A

sampling of the authors, activists, poets, and professors who’ve engaged the campus community in wide-ranging conversations this fall.

Byron Hurt

An award-winning documentary filmmaker, a published writer, and activist, Hurt is passionate about ending gender-based violence.

During a four-day campus residency, Hurt spoke to students and was the All-School Meeting speaker. “There is a lot of talk about what toxic masculinity looks like and not enough on what healthy masculinity looks like,” Hurt said. A former Northeastern University quarterback, Hurt is a founding member of the Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) program for college and professional athletes, a program that has been implemented at Andover.

Bruce Anderson ’90

As part of a new Climate Café series sponsored by the Oliver Wendell Holmes Library, Anderson presented a talk on “The Global Warming Gamble.” A professor and associate chair of the Department of Geography and Environment at Boston University, Anderson noted that although we have had ample warnings about the detrimental effects of climate change, “we continue to roll the dice with our future. If we want to limit human-induced warming, the time to quit is now,” he said.

Megan Phelps-Roper

A former member of the Westboro Baptist Church, which espouses inflammatory hate speech against groups such as Catholics and LGBTQ individuals, Phelps-Roper has since denounced her church and is a nationally recognized speaker encouraging respect for all, despite political and/or religious differences. “I was raised from birth to fear and hate others,” she said at All-School Meeting, explaining that she slowly started to understand the “poisonous ideology” of her church as she got older. Phelps-Roper left the church in 2012 and recently published the book Unfollow: A Memoir of Loving and Leaving the Westboro Baptist Church.

David Weinberger

Discussing his new book, Everyday Chaos: Technology, Complexity, and How We're Thriving in a New World of Possibility, Weinberger spoke about the onset of unexpected challenges and opportunities born from new technology. Using the example of the 2014 Ice Bucket Challenge for ALS, Weinberger talked about how no one could have predicted its remarkable success—raising more than $220 million for research. “As much as anyone…would like to replicate the results of the Ice Bucket Challenge, the results are completely unpredictable,” he said.

Adrienne Keene

In recognition of Indigenous People’s Day October 14, Keene was on campus to discuss “Native Representations, Pop Culture, and Cultural Resistance in Cyberspace” with a focus on contemporary issues of Native and Indigenous concerns. Keene is an educator and activist who challenges stereotypes and misrepresentations of Native peoples.

An assistant professor of American Studies and Ethnic Studies at Brown University, and a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, Keene’s areas of research include college access, transition, and persistence for American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian students and representations of Native peoples in popular culture.

Po’ai Lincoln

Helping to bring alive the history and music of Hawaii, Lincoln—an educator, artist, and musician—took part in a week-long exploration of Andover’s involvement with the Hawaii Mission 200 years ago. Events included a walking tour noting campus sites associated with the Andover Theological Seminary (which sponsored some of the missions), a panel discussion, and a theatrical performance. Lincoln provided a hula workshop and gave a presentation and ukulele demonstration. Lincoln is the cultural programs coordinator for the Hawaiian Missions Houses Historic Site.

Jamele Adams

A spoken-word poet, educator, and dean of students at Brandeis University, Adams uses poetry to build community. Known in New York and Boston slam poetry circles as Harlym 1two5 (and called “the human highlight of poetry and eduactivism”), Adams urges his audience to “get LIT,” an acronym, for love, inclusion, and trust. Adams geared his presentation to teachers and how they can learn strategies and practices for sustaining well-being and fostering creativity.

—Nancy Hitchcock Andover | Fall 2019

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SP O RTS TALK

TEAM

WOR K S

Gil Talbot

by Rita Savard

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ew athletic director Lisa Joel is motivated by “the power of we.”

A standout multisport athlete and coach, Joel arrived at Andover in 1993 as a teaching fellow in the athletics department. And never left.

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Andover | Fall 2019

How tough was it to plant roots somewhere so early in her career?

“From the start it felt like home,” Joel says. “I love having an immersive experience in a residential community. I think making a commitment to a place like Andover is a calling, a passion, and it’s something I feel very strongly about—the ‘360-degree experience’ of living where you work.”

A graduate of Amherst College, where she captained the women’s soccer, basketball, and lacrosse teams, Joel is known by students as a mentor and friend, and the ultimate motivator capable of cultivating a championship culture in which the sting of loss is just as significant to learning as the glory of a win. During her 26 years as a PA coach, teacher, and administrator, Joel has played an integral role in transforming girls’ varsity soccer into a successful, highly respected New England Preparatory School Athletic Council (NEPSAC) team.

As she embraces her new role of athletic director, Joel is confident that the notion of we, not me—a hallmark of the PA community—will continue to carve out a path to success for Andover athletics.

What is the first sport you ever learned to play and who taught you how to play it?

Soccer was the first formal sport I played, on a coed team, followed by Catholic Youth Organization basketball. My first coach was my dad, Manny. I was more inclined to sports than my older brother. And my dad was an athlete so sports was a natural connection between the two of us. When I was younger, I did a little of everything and it was really all about playing outside and having fun with the neighborhood kids.

How did you end up pursuing a career path in education/athletics?

Timing and chance. Athletics was such an important, formative part of my college experience as well as my childhood. Sports were all around me, and I was fortunate to play three sports in college at a time when club sports weren’t prevalent and you didn’t miss preseasons if you were playing a different sport.

Sports were a part of my daily experience. It was what I knew and what I loved. My coaches and my teammates were as important to me and as influential as my classroom teachers. I was eager to figure out what came next [after graduation], and an opportunity to be a teaching fellow in the athletic department opened up at Andover. It seemed like a perfect fit and transition, and was a place where I could, in the afternoons, still go and do what I love.

Favorite Sport Soccer. “But the truth is, basketball was my first true love.”

20 years coaching PA Varsity Soccer

Favorite Place on Campus Graves Soccer Field.

“To be out with the soccer team on Graves in the fall is just really special.”

4 number of NEPSAC championships as head coach

How does your experience as an athlete and coach help you as athletic director?

I understand the power of team, my team became my best friends, my family. I tell the GVS girls all the time that the girls around them will likely still be around them in the years to come. My former teammates are the godmothers to my daughters, the friends whom I lean on all these years after, and all of that is because of our experience coming together on playing fields. But all that we took away off the playing field is important too. I understand the impact that teammates and team can have on your life, and it’s transformative.

I also believe that being part of teams—whether it’s sports, workplace, family—you understand how everyone works together in pursuit of a goal. We do nothing alone in this life and our strength comes from the sum of all the people in our group—all of us are greater because of that sum. That informs me significantly in coaching. We’re in a time where we idolize athletic superstars, but the reality is we all need each other to meet with success and achievement.

Are there any changes you’d like to make to the program moving forward?

I am so lucky to inherit this athletic program following in the footsteps of Leon Modeste, Mike Kuta, and Martha Fenton.

They’ve built such an incredible athletic program grounded

in a philosophy of athletics for all. I think what’s most exciting is the upcoming Pan Athletic Center. Being involved in the design and vision of a new athletic facility is one of the most exciting things about my job right now. Andover will have facilities that will be unmatched by peer schools. But it is more about the people and the program than the facilities. Athletics is a space that is seen as inclusive in its programming and in its daily execution of showing students—who might not have imagined themselves engaged in an athletic world—how they can thrive in these spaces.

What’s one thing that would surprise people about your job?

How broadly defined athletics might be. We have this unbelievable dance program that is under the umbrella of athletics, and those dancers are some of our best athletes. Kids can meet their athletic requirement at Andover by taking four years of dance.

Half of our students are involved in the interscholastic program and over 500 students will never participate in interscholastic sports here but will find great joy in dance, life sports, intramural sports, and Outdoor Pursuits.

Who inspires you?

I couldn’t do any of this without my family.

I have an awesome family. My husband [Chris Joel ’88, PA’s director of business services and risk management] has been supportive of every path I’ve wanted to travel, personally and professionally, and tells me to go for it. I never forget that to be raising three daughters and committing myself to a job—I can’t do that alone—and my family has always encouraged me to follow what I love to do.

What’s the best advice you ever received?

My college coach Michelle Morgan, who was a pioneer as a female coach and who was a real role model to me, used to say, “Control the controllables.” That was her mantra to us and I have adapted that in different ways. It’s important how we react to the things we can’t control. Life is tricky in big and small ways, and trying to stay balanced in the face of it all is really important to me.

You do what you do at Andover because…

I love it and it brings me joy. That’s really all that should drive us. We all should love what we do because it makes it fun to get up in the morning. I feel really lucky to have the life I live and get to do something I love. 

Read the full Q&A at www.andover.edu/news.

Andover | Fall 2019

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NEXT CHAPTER

by Rita Savard

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Andover | Fall 2019

You might think the growth of digital resources has made the Oliver Wendell Holmes Library less relevant to student life. Think again.

A

Photos by Chris Conti, Gil Talbot, Jessie Wallner

Located outside the Doran Innovation Center, this 10’ x 6’ screen is one of the OWHL’s most striking elements. The touchscreen displays videos, interactive data visualizations, and livestreams of campus events.

library has long been at the heart of Andover.

When Thomas Cochran, Class of 1890, was reimagining a campus that merged aesthetic and historical vision with academic programming, he placed a library—rather than a church, which was common practice at the time—in the center.

“Why not let [students] see around them the very best in architecture and art?” Cochran asked. “Why not let them have an attractive sanctuary for birds and wildlife, a large and well-chosen library…why not broad vistas, spreading lawns and terraces, alluring lectures and concerts—all the material of culture?”

In 1929, the Oliver Wendell Holmes Library, named after the renowned physician, poet, and innovator from the Class of 1825, opened its doors, adding to Cochran’s vision of a campus that is itself an instrument of education. In a 1929 article written for The Phillips Bulletin, Headmaster Claude Moore Fuess said the modern educational program utilizes playing fields, classrooms, lecture halls, and laboratories for the transformation of its raw human material; and, with these tools, teachers attempt to shape the minds and bodies of a newer generation.

“Many factors undoubtedly contribute to the moulding process, but the greatest single force is the library,” Fuess said. “Here should be the true heart of the school, where the intellectual activities find their focal center.”

Some things haven’t changed. The OWHL remains a place for students to explore the unfamiliar and dive deep into different points of view. But nearly a century ago, Cochran had the foresight to understand changing times would also call for an “elastic building” that could continuously meet students’ needs along their academic journey.

Last year, the Academy broke ground on a landmark $21 million renovation project—the first significant change to the OWHL’s interior footprint since 1988—resulting in new classrooms, meeting spaces, learning labs, and technology upgrades that have transformed the library from a building designed to store content to a place where community is front and center.

“We put a lot of thought into how kids work together and what they need when they’re working,” said Mike Barker, director of Academy research, information, and library services. “The end result is an investment in the PA student’s imagination and the strength of their ideas.”

Andover | Fall 2019

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Turning the Page: The Virtual Future

I

magine a place where lives collide, ideas are born, and people are transformed.

Step inside the newly renovated Oliver Wendell Holmes Library and you’re there— a campus hub where students, teachers, makers, innovators, artists and activists, seekers of community, and, yes, readers in the traditional sense, learn from the past and think of the future.

When the OWHL reopened its doors in September following a year of construction, the Andover community saw more than expanded classroom space and study areas, a new robotics lab, and a 5,500-square-foot makerspace spread among the stacks. The OWHL also has become the first high school in the country to unlock its analog collections for a new generation of learners.

Thanks to a generous gift from Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle, whose mother, Margaret Mary Lurton Kahle graduated from Abbot Academy in 1950, approximately 75,000 volumes—nearly the library’s entire collection—are available to students around the world. The OWHL’s books were carefully packaged and sent to the Philippines over the summer, where they were scanned and curated for the Internet Archive digital library.

Broadening access to knowledge for public good was a project bonus for library director Barker.

“Libraries are fundamentally about sharing,” Barker said. “We’re fortunate to have one of the most comprehensive high school library collections in the nation.

We should share, and with technology we can. Through this effort we’re sharing a unique collection with students around the globe. That’s the most non sibi thing our library can do, and it aligns with Andover’s values of being a private school with a public purpose.”

Building a great library starts with great books. Since it was founded in San Francisco in 1996, the Internet Archive has worked with authors, publishers, and more than 1,000 libraries—including the Library of Congress and the Boston Public Library—to grow its collaborative digital collection. But the OWHL, said Kahle, is the first secondary school library to join.

Partnering with the OWHL was particularly meaningful to Kahle. Along with his mother, Kahle’s aunt, Grace Elizabeth Lurton Miller ’45, was also an Abbot alumna.

Borrowing a Digital Book Through controlled digital lending, a library can digitize a book and lend the digital copy in place of the print— provided the print copy is not simultaneously used (so if a print copy of the book is checked out, the digital copy cannot be borrowed and vice versa).

When the time limit for borrowing expires, digital copies are erased from the borrower’s electronic platform.

Students and others outside of Andover who wish to access the OWHL’s collection will be able to search, browse, and borrow through the Internet Archive’s website: archive.org.

Some of the library’s familiar book stacks remain, though many of the physical books are in climatecontrolled storage with easy retrieval for students.

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How it Works

Andover | Fall 2019

“I want to live in a world where libraries want to share beyond their walls, to offer to help anyone wanting to learn,” Kahle said. “PA’s leadership in this effort warms my heart and gives me reason to be optimistic in a time that is full of pessimism.”

The wide-eyed dream of bringing universal access to all books largely remains a work in progress. Money, technology, and legal clarity pose hurdles for libraries along the way.

Copyright law continues to challenge the idea of access for all, with opponents, including the Authors Guild, arguing that digitization violates copyrights. Proponents, such as the Authors Alliance, have described the measure as good-faith interpretation of copyright law for libraries, in which digitized works are circulated in the same fashion as print copies.

As libraries shift from the analog to the digital era, the OWHL, said Barker, is proud to be an example of leadership in sharing. The move is especially important now as school districts across the country struggle with library closures and layoffs. According to a 2019 report released by the American Library Association, only 61 percent of school libraries have a full-time librarian.

“Libraries have always been spaces to explore human potential,” Barker said. “And at Andover, speaking of the future always means speaking about the collective future—one in which all are included and sharing knowledge.”

From Commons to Classroom: The Evolution of Learning Spaces

F

or generations of students seeking a quiet spot for study and reflection, the OWHL has been a favorite refuge. The Freeman and Garver rooms feel timeless, with their rich, intricately carved woodwork, rows of books, and soft shaded lights.

But just outside the library’s beautifully preserved historic reading rooms, a new energy is brewing. The reimagined OWHL features an enhanced 5,500-square-foot makerspace, robotics lab, three floors of expanded study space, new programming and social experiences, a centralized Archives and Special Collections, and Tang Institute’s new office suite, classrooms, and workshop.

“Wow!” said Abbot alumna Blake Hazzard Allen ’66, after visiting the OWHL in September. “This is such a vital hub of student life and learning.”

The Nest makerspace and Doran Innovation Center is six times the size of the original makerspace and now includes specialty robotics and data labs.

More than 50 courses— from computer science to history to mathematics— leverage this unique student hub, which is unmatched for a secondary school.

On the lower level of the OWHL, a student tries his hand at sewing, while another tackles building a skateboard and others construct circuit boards and create objects using 3-D printers. The joy in the brightly lit room is both palpable and contagious. When you add art, innovation, and the physical act of creating, said makerspace coordinator Claudia Wessner, a new wave of color washes over the room.

“The makerspace is an incredibly engaging and inspiring space,” Wessner said. “As soon as students walk through the doors, they are motivated to create and explore.”

Affectionately referred to as The Nest, the library’s makerspace has hosted a steady stream of budding builders since it opened in 2015, including furniture makers, robotics enthusiasts, clothing designers—even a group of student volunteers who helped design and create a life-changing prosthetic leg for a 20-year-old amputee from Mongolia.

Andover | Fall 2019

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Such examples of immersive education paved the way for The Nest’s evolution as the Doran Innovation Center. Built for collaboration and personal instruction, this new student hub is six times the size of the library’s original makerspace and now includes specialty robotics and data labs. More than 50 courses—from computer science to history to mathematics—leverage the unique space, which is unmatched for a secondary school.

Tessa Conrardy ’20, a self-described “proud makerspace nerd,” said it’s no surprise that when looking up Phillips Academy on Google Maps, it points to the OWHL. “It’s the heart of our learning, our thinking, our creating, and even our friendships,” she said. “Sure, we do homework there. I wrote some of my strongest essays in the OWHL. But it’s more than just a space to hunker down—it’s a space to grow.”

Also president of The Phillipian, Conrardy said it was at the library where she read her first Phillipian, met some of her closest friends, and “had many a revelation about who I am and who I want to be.”

Since her first year at Andover, Conrardy set a goal to learn how to use every machine in The Nest, starting with 3-D printers and working her way through everything from laser cutters to vinyl cutters to sewing machines.

“The renovation isn’t making my goal any easier,” she admitted. “But that’s not a bad problem to have. Now there’s all sorts of brand new equipment for me to tackle, and I can’t wait to get started.”

Archives Alive

I

n this age of lightning-quick access to information through the tap of a mobile device, there’s something special about holding a 141-year-old manuscript in your hands.

The School-Boy, a poem Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. wrote for and delivered at the Phillips Academy Centennial in 1878, is the kind of up-close and personal encounter with history that students, faculty, and scholars can experience inside the Kelly Wise Archives and Special Collections Suite.

Now occupying a home on the OWHL’s main floor, archival resources have become fully integrated into the educational experience.

“Having a prominent location makes the archives more welcoming and active, attracting more students to use the collections,” said Paige Roberts, director of the Archives.

Next door to the library’s welcome desk, the glass façade of the archives’ offices, embellished with an early American map inspired by the Academy’s own

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Andover | Fall 2019

Treasures in the Archives Rare Books The renovation has brought rare and special collections books together in a single space for the first time. Among them, students can discover one of the most comprehensive Virgil collections in the world—incunable (printed in Europe before the year 1501) to 20th-century—as well as Audubon’s Birds of America (pictured above) in the original elephant folio edition (1827– 1838), the Doré illustrations of Dante’s Divine Comedy, a complete set of books by Charles Dickens in both first edition and original serialized editions, and every major edition of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass—including the author’s signed personal copy.

Knafel Map Collection, is a nod to Andover’s historical treasures. Given to Phillips Academy in 2011 by Sidney Knafel ’48, charter trustee emeritus, an assortment of rare atlases, maps, and globes from 1434 well into the 19th century are now part of special collections and stored in a secure, climate-controlled room.

Reading letters, academic papers, scrapbooks, and more written by students from different periods in history connects today’s students and alumni to the past in unique and exciting ways, added Roberts.

Joe Kahn ’67, a journalist who worked at the Boston Globe for 26 years, said having the ability to hold primary sources in one’s hands helps bring history alive.

When digging through archival copies of the former Bulletin, Kahn found a passage referring to the library as the “soul” of the institution.

“The new building clearly has many more features to offer, from the handson workspaces and tech features to the study spaces that are far more conducive to group work,” Kahn said. “The overall vibe of the place is lighter, more welcoming, more student-centric—that to me is the most impressive feature.

The renovated OWHL has thus taken its rightful place as the soul of an evolving Andover.”

Breaking the Mold

W

hen you put people in a place to unleash their imaginations, it’s a good idea to leave a little space so they can fill it with their own stories.

Enter the Tang Institute. Launched in 2014, thanks to generous donors including Board President Emeritus Oscar Tang ’56, the institute is shaping the future of secondary education by exploring new possibilities for teaching and learning. So how does a collective body of educators and students encourage change in teaching practices that are more than 200 years old? By being a center of activity for new ideas.

Of course, having a space that helps foster the mission is key. And the OWHL’s second floor is now providing the Tang with more opportunities to enhance its programming—including filling the space with even more student stories.

“Our new location has helped us connect with many more students and collaborate more closely with the library team,” said Andy Housiaux, Currie Family Director of the Tang. “One of the meeting rooms has become a classroom, where English, German, history, and theatre classes are taught. This means that on any given day, 50 to 75 students are coming to the Tang Institute for a class.”

The Tang exists to support student learning. The institute also funds faculty fellowships to learn about and engage with central questions in education and it connects those ideas and practices with other educators in local and global communities.

With seating for more than 50 students, the Trustee Gallery offers a dynamic yet relaxed space for study and conversation.

Community engagement is the pulse point of the Tang’s new space, which will also be used for professional development, educational workshops and pilot programs, and hosting speakers and interdisciplinary pedagogy discussions.

“I love how the space embodies a free and imaginative spirit, representing more than the traditional library,” said Tyren Bynum, who teaches English 200 in the Tang classroom. “With spaces such as Tang, the makerspace, and the open layout, the building naturally leads to students thinking more broadly and creatively about their endeavors.”

The positive school culture is something you can see and feel as soon as you enter the OWHL. It’s evident in the rooms, in the students and staff. The energy reminds English instructor Corrie Martin of a fellow library enthusiast— philanthropist Andrew Carnegie—who called libraries “places for the people” and brought more than 1,600 libraries to the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

“The most meaningful libraries have always been about more than shelves of books,” Martin said. “The new OWHL seems to have been designed with this role in mind: creating communities of learning with easy access to maps, archives, databases, tools, computers, and yes…books! It is still a library, after all.” 

Andover | Fall 2019

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“A mind that is stretched by a new experience will never go back to its original dimensions.”

This quote by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (1809–1894) sums up the power of libraries—and their ability to connect the past with the future.

An American physician, professor, and author who contributed to the advancement of medicine and literature, Holmes was known for his poetry and prose, including the famous “Old Ironsides.” At age 15, Holmes attended Phillips Academy; he was instantly popular with his teachers when, during his first year, he translated Virgil’s Aeneid from Latin into English.

It is possible that Holmes’s father thought the Calvinist focus at PA would make a minister out of his son, but Holmes later wrote in Life and Letters, “I might have been a minister myself, if a [certain] clergyman had not looked and talked so like an undertaker.”

See a visual history of the library at www.andover.edu/news.

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Andover | Fall 2019

Abbot History Etched in Glass Symbolizing the legacy of Abbot Academy on campus, the Abbot Glass now has a prominent new location in the front seating area of the OWHL. Created by artist Frank Close, the glass was commissioned in 1987 through a grant from the Abbot Academy Fund, which seeks to “preserve the spirit, dignity, and high standards of the Abbot Academy tradition.” The glass was previously part of the library entrance.

Iconic Spaces for Study & Community Embodying the school’s rich history and architectural beauty, the three heritage spaces—the Garver, Dole, and Freeman rooms—have been carefully preserved.

The Garver Room (pictured) remains an iconic quiet study area, while the Freeman Room—with its fully restored Stuart Travis mural—hosts debates, poetry slams, and other lively gatherings. The Dole Room’s modular space can be utilized for seminars, group discussions, and project work.

An Ever-Present Influence Andover’s endowment has the power to advance or disrupt Story by Tracy Sweet Photos by Kezi Barry ’02

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Andover | Fall 2019

Andover’s NYC investment team: Bridget Melvin, Kirsten Glantz, Xue Yang, and Andrew Jaffoni

Andover | Fall 2019

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O

ne of Andover’s hardest working resources doesn’t teach or coach; it doesn’t run a dorm, impart wisdom or advice. But this silent contributor has enormous potential to influence the student experience and to make waves, both positive and negative, that affect the school’s aspirational future.

Andover’s endowment, valued at approximately $1.13 billion at the close of last fiscal year (June 30, 2019), provides funds that support about 40 percent of Andover’s $135 million gross annual budget. The endowment fuels a diverse range of priorities, including financial aid and faculty compensation.

A portfolio that tops $1 billion might signal extraordinary wealth. On the surface, that would be true: generations of philanthropy and prudent management have nurtured this resource to record levels. But those closest to the numbers have a more nuanced point of view.

“I say with a straight face that we probably have half the balance sheet that we really need to fully execute on what we want to be doing,” says Trustee Gil Caffray ’71, who chairs the Investment Committee and draws on four decades of experience in finance.

“Andover wants to be paramount and excellent in everything it does; we absolutely support those aspirations—teaching excellence, superb facilities, access for the brightest young minds—but that comes with enormous expense.”

Among peer schools, Andover’s endowment ranks second to Exeter’s; it ranks fourth, however, when comparing endowment size per student. Why is that data point especially important? It speaks to the endowment’s horsepower, relative to the size and needs of the school, says Chief Investment Officer Kirsten Glantz.

“Our long-term objective is to maximize the real purchasing power of the endowment over time. That’s no small matter,” she says. “If we spend too much, have outsized losses in a down year, or don’t earn enough through the cycle, we erode capital available for

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Andover | Fall 2019

future generations.”

Each year, the Academy targets a draw of 5 percent of its trailing 12 quarter value. In FY 2019 the gross draw, before any incoming gifts, was $54 million. Real purchasing power is also driven by the Higher Education Price Index, a measure of inflation that has outpaced the Consumer Price Index and hovered just under 3 percent in recent years.

“When you think about those factors and running a portfolio,” says Caffray, “it’s as if you start each year by paying an 8 percent preferred dividend before you can even think about anything accretive.”

Build the Investment Office Those most keenly aware of that perennial challenge are Glantz and her New York-based team. Bridget Melvin, Andrew Jaffoni, and Xue Yang all were hired within the past year for their strong quantitative capabilities, team approach, and desire to broaden their skills. Each also brings complementary expertise in hedge fund and private equity data analysis, portfolio analytics, and asset allocation modeling. Staff veteran Karen Allen joined as office manager in 2005.

2% 1%

Their tethers to campus are Ferd Alonso, assistant head of school for business and administration, and Linda Dennison, director of finance. Members of their team also provide operational support. Weekly calls to Andover, trustee presentations, and Investment Committee meetings ensure that strategies remain well vetted and solidly executed.

Andover stands out for its in-house CIO and investment office. Typically, schools enlist a consultant in partnership with board members and finance staff.

Tom Israel ’62, trustee emeritus and initial chair of the Investment Committee, was one of the architects of the office in 2005, when now-trustee and board president-elect Amy Falls ’82 was appointed the school’s first CIO. It had become apparent that Andover needed to evolve its heavy reliance on consultants and volunteer board members.

“Our approach had run its course— and served us well—in a market that was heavily weighted in stocks and bonds,” Israel recalls. “Investing had grown more complex to include asset classes like hedge funds, real estate, and private

Financial Aid

5%

General Purposes

8%

Faculty Compensation and Development

6%

30% Museums Other Campus Beautification and Maintenance

22% 26%

Outreach Programs Annual Fund Total endowment support: $54 million

Endowment Support by Academy Priority In fiscal year 2019, the endowment continued to fund a diverse range of priorities that enabled Andover to provide essential support across the Academy.

Karen Allen, Xue Yang, Kirsten Glantz, Bridget Melvin, and Andrew Jaffoni

equity. I believed it was well worth the experiment to establish a team of professionals whose only job was to manage the endowment.”

Exploit the Network Appointed CIO in 2017, Glantz recalls one of the first pieces of advice she received: Tap the Andover network to jumpstart getting valuable insights on different asset classes as quickly as possible. In addition to alumni being generous with their time and wisdom, they have also opened some doors to highprofile managers or funds that would otherwise be inaccessible or closed to new investors.

The network was on full display at the Harvard Club last winter during Andover’s Future of the Endowment Conference in New York City. In this eighth gathering of its kind—similar events have taken place in London and Asia—alumni in finance spanning decades from 1950 to 2010—workshopped ideas that might benefit Andover’s portfolio.

A series of questions helped spur conversation: What are important trends that will either create significant investment opportunity or eradicate wealth over the next three to five years? Where and how should we spend our valuable liquidity?

Roundtable discussions centered on global issues including, at the time, a percolating trade war with China and speculation on the 2020 presidential election. Opportunities in 5G networks,

T

he NYC team analyzes data across PA's portfolio and tracks the performance of over 150 funds and more than 70 managers. crypto currency, block chain technology, clean energy, and genomics were discussed. Debates surfaced around opportunities and risks associated with private equity and emerging markets.

Glantz, along with Falls, who initiated these events as CIO in 2007, acknowledges that Andover doesn’t typically emerge with a silver bullet solution. But surfacing new areas for deeper analysis and leveraging contacts who can share unique insights and help gain access is exactly what they hope for.

“The point is not necessarily to identify the elusive asset X on the spot,” says Glantz, “but to extend our network of human capital and build on one another’s expertise.”

Endow an Ideal Andover stands out in a number of ways, but its commitment to need-blind admission requires the endowment to work at a higher capacity than that of any other

school. “The board made an absolutely heroic decision to go need blind [in 2008],” says Caffray.

Perhaps even more heroic was the board’s courage and conviction to sustain the policy as markets imploded and volatility ensued just months later.

During that sobering period, as markets wavered then slowly regained their footing, financial aid was a cornerstone of PA’s fundraising efforts. It is once again paramount in the Knowledge & Goodness campaign, which aims to raise $110 million for scholarships and increase from 60 to 80 percent the portion of aid that is fully endowed.

If successful, this could be a game changer. To endow an ideal, youth from every quarter, would be a dream realized for many, including Interim Head of School Jim Ventre ’79. The former assistant head of school for admission and financial aid helped draft the need-blind policy and has witnessed its transformational effect.

Most notably it has changed the complexion of the student body to include a wider range of socioeconomic, geographic, and racial diversity. For the past two years, the campus has reflected 50 percent students of color. And this year Andover received applications from every U.S. state and 90 countries.

“Need-blind admission allows us to create a community that mirrors the world our students will enter,” says Ventre, “one in which students open their minds to ideas and experiences unlike their own.”

A graduate of Phillips Exeter, Glantz believes deeply in this caliber of a residential education. With every market fluctuation, she remains motivated by Andover’s mission. “Being immersed in a community where you are learning from the best teachers and brightest students around the table, where you are expected to contribute as a citizen around that table… this is where seeds are planted. Managing an endowment that materially supports access to this experience—there is no other mission as compelling to me.”  Andover | Fall 2019

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william d.

COHAN ’77 Submitted

An Interview with

Author Turns Investigative Eye Toward Lives of Four Classmates

by Allyson Irish It’s a helluva good story. One I’m sure that William D. Cohan and fellow classmates recount with humor and delight.

During his upper spring, Cohan, business manager for The Phillipian, secured so many ads for the student newspaper that they had surplus funds. As he explains in his latest book, Four Friends: Promising Lives Cut Short, the newspaper gave half of the money back to the Academy and then Cohan determined that “a nice celebratory dinner was very much in order.”

So I decided we would celebrate at Locke-Ober, once upon a time the most expensive restaurant in downtown Boston. I reserved a private room, with an open bar, and arranged to pay for our meal with a check drawn on the Phillipian account. The 15 or so members of the outgoing board showed up on time, and in some form of respectable attire. We ate and drank to our hearts’ content. Anything anyone wanted, and as much again, was provided. At the end of the evening, I wrote out a check to the restaurant for something like $1,250.

Although Fred Stott ’36, secretary of the Academy, had OK’d Cohan’s plan for “adequate but not excessive” dining, there may have been a difference of interpretation.

Cohan admits he exhibited some chutzpah in choosing one of Boston’s fanciest restaurants.

“By the time I showed up at Headmaster Sizer’s house the next morning, nursing a considerable hangover (I am certain I was not alone in my condition), the meal at LockeOber had already become legendary,” he writes. “Sizer pulled me aside. ‘I heard you had quite the dinner last night,’ he said.”

Cohan shares this tale not to emphasize any special privilege or prep school entitlement, but to underline something he feels is fundamental and unique to his and others’ experience at Andover—the expectation and encouragement of youth to successfully navigate the adult world.

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Andover | Fall 2019

“No question that my Andover experience has helped me in my career,” says Cohan. “I would not have survived Wall Street for 17 years without it.”

In Four Friends, Cohan turns the lens inward, delving into the Andover and post-Andover experiences of Jack Berman ’75, a lawyer who was gunned down in a California law office in 1993; Will Daniel ’77, the free-spirited grandson of President Harry Truman who was struck and killed in 2000 by a taxi in NYC; Harry Bull ’77, who died in 1999 with his two young daughters on a Lake Michigan boating trip; and John F. Kennedy Jr. ’79, who died with his wife and sister-in-law—one month before Bull—while piloting his own plane to a family wedding in Hyannis Port, Mass.

Four Friends is a departure of sorts for Cohan, who previously worked as a journalist and as a Wall Street investment banker. The author has penned five other books that take a hard-nosed approach to Wall Street banking behemoths as well as to the Duke University men’s lacrosse team.

Why the pivot?

“From a professional point of view, I wanted to have the same kind of reporting challenge that I had writing those other books, while also doing something much more personal and reflective of the vicissitudes of life,” Cohan says.

A common thread in his books has been personal experience. Cohan worked at Lazard Frères & Co. and Merrill Lynch and competed against Bear Stearns; he graduated from Duke.

“I’ve drifted toward subjects where I already had a sense of the culture and the community—the ethos and gestalt of the place,” Cohan says. “[In Four

Friends] I also really wanted to explore the fragility of life and friendship, how it evolves over time, and how people’s lives take their course and then sometimes seemingly innocuous decisions can become existential and fatal. I think we all can relate. We don’t often think so much of the fragility of life, but of course life is incredibly fragile.”

Cohan admits that writing about Andover contemporaries whose lives ended so tragically—and surprisingly— sometimes left him a bit paranoid.

Cohan says his new book, Four Friends, underlines something that is fundamental and unique to his and others’ experience at Andover—the expectation and encouragement of youth to successfully navigate the adult world.

“There were times when I wondered—absurdly—whether or not I was going to live to see the book published,” he says. “It’s the way your mind can play tricks on you.”

Although he’s used to tackling tough subjects and asking difficult questions, Cohan says this book offered a different set of challenges. He was interviewing classmates, widows, and parents about people they loved who had died.

Those he interviewed for the book were generous with their time and memories and overall, Cohan says the response from alumni and family members has been positive.

“A lot of people were quite moved by it and found the book very relatable to their own experiences,” Cohan says.

“Everybody knows people who died young and tragically—this book just brings that back for people.”

But not all reviewers have agreed.

Some have questioned Cohan’s lack of a unifying theme in the book and his inclusion of details, including high school drinking and drug use, as a celebration of “privilege on display.”

Cohan defends his approach, saying the book is a window into a different era; a time when the drinking age was 18 and when social norms were being challenged throughout the country and on the Andover campus.

“I could have sugar-coated it more,” he says. “Yes, obviously Andover is quite wealthy in terms of resources and endowment. I felt privileged to be at Andover, but never felt I was in a uniquely privileged environment. I think my experience at Andover was very typical. This book was more a desire to remember my friends of that time in a different era.” 

Andover | Fall 2019

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Decoding Bias in AI

by Rita Savard

•

How Lolita Taub ’04 is championing diversity in artificial intelligence

Taub was born in South Central Los Angeles to Mexican parents who immigrated to the United States with no money and no family to go to for support. They did this, Taub says, so that their children could achieve the American Dream.

Her father found jobs as a migrant farm worker, in a door manufacturing factory, and as a truck driver. Her mother babysat and cleaned houses. “We grew up poor,” Taub says of her childhood. “People used to tell me that I’d be a high school dropout and go on welfare.”

At age 34, she has a bachelor’s degree, an MBA, and 12 years of experience working in the tech industry—including high-profile positions at venture funds built on investing in women, people of color, and the LGBTQ+ community. In July, Taub joined the Baltimore-based workforce data science company Catalyte as its chief of staff.

“I’m working on my dream,” she says.

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ISTOCK: DOLL HEADS, SVETLANA MOKROVA

Flying cars. Jet packs. And Rosie the Robot—a housekeeper who does it all, including helping the kids with homework.

The futuristic world of the animated sitcom, The Jetsons, piqued Lolita Taub’s interest as a young girl. Taub’s vision of the future was one informed by smart machines like Rosie. But for Taub, a Latina who has built her career on advocacy and support for gender and diversity in the artificial intelligence industry, the conversation is no longer about convincing people that the future is AI. It’s about the danger in leaving women and people of color out of the equation.

Catalyte’s novel workforce development model uses artificial intelligence to identify individuals, regardless of background, who have the innate potential and cognitive ability to be great software developers—a mission that aligns with Taub’s vision of a world “where tech is pioneered by the diversity of our population.”

The company’s blind recruitment process measures how candidates think about problems and how quickly they can learn. Factors like education level and past experience are not considered. Those who are identified with the aptitude and ability to become great software developers are invited to join a free software engineering training program to become junior developers. Catalyte is now making its AI platform—which has succeeded in making lucrative tech jobs more accessible to those who may not otherwise find a foothold in the industry—available to large companies across the nation to create more productive and diverse tech workforces.

But before Taub was in a position to break down barriers in an industry dominated by white men, she needed to confront and conquer her own set of challenges.

In 2009, as Taub sat by her father’s deathbed, he told her he wanted her to be happy. To live the life she wanted. She was 23 when he died, and her focus was set on becoming the breadwinner for her mother and two siblings. Unable to earn enough money on her sales executive salary, the family lost their car and their house, and went through bankruptcy. Soon after, Taub was diagnosed with pre-stage cancer. Something had to give.

On her doctor’s advice, Taub redirected her energy on her health and well-being. A year later, the cancer cells had disap-

“I’m working on my dream …

A world where tech is created and led by our population’s diversity.” peared, but it was a wake-up call.

In 2013, she was hired by Cisco Systems to lead the first internet of things (IoT) Connected Cities Project for Southern California’s Native American tribes. It was a tipping point, igniting a spark in Taub to empower and enable people to make a difference in the world through technology. She left Cisco to travel around the globe, meeting and interviewing more than 80 inspiring female millennial entrepreneurs in over 20 countries whom she featured on The F Show, a YouTube mini-series Taub created that combined both her passion for tech and women’s empowerment.

“I’ve interviewed investors, founders, and experts in the AI field—folks from startups and big companies like IBM, Microsoft, and Google,” Taub explains. “The biggest side effect has been an increased excitement about how AI can be raised to help people.”

From finding what you need on Google to getting from point A to point B in an Uber, AI is part of daily life.

“Now imagine how AI could be used to help address our biggest challenges, like hunger, poor health, and unemployment,” Taub says. “We need to raise AI to address human challenges—and it can address those challenges—but before it solves problems, we need to raise AI to be good.”

•

A 2019 report from New York University’s AI Institute highlights the problems that occur when the humans training AI largely account for a single segment of society.

At leading AI companies like Facebook, women compose only 15 percent of the research staff while at Google, women account for only 10 percent. Meanwhile, at colleges and universities, NYU’s research also revealed that 80 percent of professors who specialize in AI are men.

Examples of bias in AI algorithms resulting from a predominantly white male coding workforce have been found in Amazon’s controversial facial recognition that has struggled with images of dark-skinned females and non-white males;

in resume scanning that downgraded people who included “women’s” in their resume or who attended women’s colleges; and in a Microsoft bot that learned to tweet anti-Semitic messages on Twitter.

Report authors Sarah Myers West, Meredith Whittaker, and Kate Crawford wrote: “To date, the diversity problems of the AI industry and the issue of bias in the systems it builds have tended to be considered separately. We suggest that these are two versions of the same problem—issues of discrimination in the workforce and in system building are deeply intertwined.”

Because no government agency exists to address the issue, Taub says companies developing AI need to take a hard look at addressing workplace cultures that are lacking gender and racial diversity.

She wishes Catalyte’s technology was around when her father was alive. But the workforce data science company is helping others like him realize their American Dream—and providing them with the tech training to become engineers of the future.

“They are building-out careers,” Taub explains, “and getting paid a salary that can help them achieve a better life for their families, social mobility, and everything else that comes with that.”

Yes, machines can discriminate in harmful ways, but Taub also believes in their power to do good when they are programmed by a truly diverse group of humans.

“AI can augment our personal lives and be good for all people if a diverse population works on its development and training data sets,” Taub says. “If we have diversity in the creators and leaders of AI, most—and not just the elite few—will be able to leverage tech to uplevel their lives, work, and play.” 

• Follow Taub on her tech journey at lolitataub.co.

Andover | Fall 2019

29

GRACE A LESSON IN

Courtesy of Phillips Academy Archives

by Richard B. Weinberg, M.D., ’67

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C

ochran Chapel is an iconic presence at the edge of the Great Lawn. Built in 1932, it has since been the venue of religious services and major campus events.

During my time at Andover, it was also where we had short, but compulsory, morning chapel services.

Students were assigned alphabetical seating in the pews and attendance was taken. Twice a week the chapel bell would begin to peal slowly at 7:45 a.m., five minutes before services began. If you stood on the steps, you would see throngs of boys converging across the lawn from every corner of campus, many tying their neckties as they ran. With one minute to go, the ringing pace accelerated, and then culminated in a frantic paroxysm. This was the signal for the senior deacons to close and lock the chapel doors; anyone not already inside would be marked absent.

Three absences in a term would result in one being “posted,” a two-week period of sharply limited privileges.

Presiding over these services was Rev. A. Graham Baldwin.

School minister for over 30 years, he was a gray-haired, avuncular man whose sermons emphasized kindness, fellowship, and God’s love.

Early one spring, the campus began to witness a rash of audacious pranks. Detergent was poured into a fountain, covering the lawn with foam; a large picture of Mickey Mouse was inserted into the Armillary Sphere; toilet paper decorated the trees along the Elm Arch. At our Wednesday morning assemblies in George Washington Hall, Dean G. Grenville Benedict issued dire warnings that the perpetrators would face severe consequences if the pranks continued.

Headmaster John Kemper admonished us that we were honor bound to report the identity of the culprits. But these threats only served to spur the mischief-makers on to ever more outrageous antics. The cables in the Bell Tower carillon were switched around, causing a very bizarre bell-ringing recital. A faculty member’s prized Mustang was stolen and parked in the Copley wing of the Oliver Wendell Holmes Library. An even larger picture of Mickey was placed over the face of the clock on Samuel Phillips Hall, turning it into a huge Mickey Mouse watch.

It seemed as if the culprits were deliberately mocking the administration by targeting Andover’s most iconic symbols.

What would they do next? we wondered with anticipation.

On the last day of classes before Spring Break we found out. We entered Cochran Chapel for morning services to find that someone had let loose hundreds of helium-filled balloons that now blanketed the ceiling in a multicolored mass. We laughed and chattered with glee as we took our seats, but as the organ processional ended, a nervous silence descended, because we now feared that retribution would surely be coming for this latest outrage—possibly to us all.

Rev. Baldwin rose and slowly walked to the pulpit carrying a small book. He set it on the lectern and stood there, looking out over us for what seemed like an eternity. Was he about to bring down upon us the wrath of the administration for this irreverent desecration of a holy space? Would he announce Draconian punishments? All eyes rested on him.

Then, at last, without any introduction or commentary, he began to recite e.e. cummings’s poem “in Just–“: in Just– spring when the world is mud– luscious the little lame balloonman whistles far and wee It is a poem that expresses the untrammeled joy of winter’s end and the arrival of spring; of the happiness of children at play; of wonders that even a lame balloon man shares as he whistles abroad to announce the arrival of the season. In less than a minute he reached the last verse: it’s spring and the goat-footed balloonMan whistles far and wee Then he gently closed the book and, bearing himself with quiet dignity, returned to his seat.

We sat in stunned silence for the remaining 10 minutes.

The only sound in the chapel was the gentle rustling of the balloons high above our heads. I had never experienced such serenity in my life. We filed out in silence; there was no organ recessional, and no one spoke.

We didn’t talk about it much afterward. When we returned from Spring Break the balloons were gone, shot down by a groundsman with a BB gun. The pranks abruptly ceased.

They never caught the perpetrators, but it did not matter. Rev. Baldwin had accomplished with wisdom and humor what the administration could not with anger and threats.

Andover taught me many things, but more than 50 years later—particularly in the springtime—I still vividly remember this amazing lesson in forgiveness and grace. 

Andover | Fall 2019

31

KNOWL E DG E & GOODNESS : T HE ANDOVER CAMPAI G N

“The campaign represents an aspirational moment for needblind admission, a time for Andover to say with certainty that this is a promise we will proudly uphold.”

– Jim Ventre ’79

Gil Talbot

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EVER EQUALLY OPEN Inside Need-Blind Admission at Andover

A

Andover’s need-blind pledge has been an unwavering force for more than a decade.

But it’s not guaranteed.

Currently, only 60 percent of the financial aid budget is supported by the endowment, and each year the Board of Trustees must reevaluate whether the Academy can afford to continue the policy. It’s gone away before, in the 1960s and again in the 1980s. But Knowledge & Goodness can change that—with the aim to raise $110.5 million and endow a record 80 percent of our student aid program.

How have you seen this distinctive pledge influence campus culture?

Need-blind admission enables us to break down financial barriers and create an intentionally diverse community. Along with a student’s record of academic achievement, character and kindness count in our admission process. The most powerful stories of transformation are from both full-pay and full-scholarship students whose lives are enriched by peers with backgrounds and experiences unlike their own.

So the relationship between financial aid and “youth from every quarter” is becoming all the stronger?

Most definitely. There’s a fundamental connection between our founding ideals and our goals in this campaign, especially regarding financial aid. We want to continually create a positive and rigorous academic experience. And that’s best achieved when we welcome bright, intellectually curious students from across the world. Today, 47 percent of our kids receive financial aid. It’s remarkable. But it’s only sustainable when our community gives back—and gifts of all sizes help make this collective impact.

What does the future of need-blind admission look like to you?

Jim Ventre ’79, interim head of school, has held leadership roles in admissions for three decades. Andover has worked extremely hard to secure He shares his uniquely Andover perspective here: need-blind admission in the modern era. During the 2009 economic recession, for example, the Board of Trustees did not back down. The board How do prospective students respond to pledged to continue the policy, and our alumni Andover’s need-blind policy? and families responded with generous support.

Our applicant families view this policy as a My dream is a future in which Andover does defining characteristic of Andover. Students are not have to annually wrestle with the question encouraged to know that their application will of whether or not we can afford our need-blind be evaluated on the basis of their talents and their ability to pursue excellence in our academic admission program. We must make certain that program. Admission based solely on the merit of our admission decisions reflect our values.  the student’s application and not on their family’s ability to afford tuition—that is such a powerful To support financial aid today, please visit message in today’s society. andover.edu/ForStudents.

Andover | Fall 2019

33

TH E BU ZZ

the Buzzzzz

z

Twin Cities Business magazine recently honored Dan Adler ’05 in its list of “100 People to Know in 2019.” Adler is the director of baseball operations for the Minnesota Twins and is increasingly using data analytics as part of the decision-making process for the MLB team.

Congratulations to Ming Doyle ’03, whose graphic novel recently came to life on the big screen in The Kitchen. Starring Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish, and Elisabeth Moss, the movie follows the three wives of New York gangsters as they take over their husbands’ illicit business after the men are in jail.

The International Waterski & Wakeboard Federation inducted James H. Grew Jr. ’65 into the International Water Ski Hall of Fame. Grew was one of six inductees recognized during a ceremony in Putrajaya, Malaysia. Grew has served as an official for the organization for 30 years.

Molly Magnell ’14 was the illustrator and designer for a new book, Bao Bao Learns Chinese.

The bilingual nursery rhyme book was created to help babies get a head start learning Mandarin Chinese.

Working alongside fellow chef José Andrés and World Central Kitchen, celebrity chef Ming Tsai ’80 brought his culinary skills to Nassau, Bahamas this fall to help survivors of Hurricane Dorian. In an interview with National Public Radio, Tsai said, “…the only thing we can do is not thoughts and prayers, [it’s] food and water, and just give them some hope.”

Randall Batinkoff’s ’86 new film Inside Game highlights the 2007 NBA betting scandal that involved a referee. This is the second feature film that Batinkoff has directed, after having appeared in multiple TV shows and movies, including School Ties and For Keeps.

Kira Nurieli ’92, CEO of Harmony Strategies Group, was recently interviewed for a Fast Company article about the complexities of workplace disagreements among friends. Having a conflict with your “work spouse” can be difficult, Nurieli says, providing several ways to address the problem, including cooling off and confronting the situation.

Duncan L. MacFarlane ’80, an expert in engineering entrepreneurship and a pioneer in the field of photonics, has been appointed the first executive director of the Linda and Mitch Hart Institute for Technology, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship at Southern Methodist University. MacFarlane’s areas of research include micro-optics, semiconductor lasers, and advanced displays.

Representing Big Blue crew, Jacob Hudgins ’19 and Mia Levy ’21 competed at the 2019 World Rowing Junior Championships in Tokyo.

Hudgins took silver with the men’s eight, while Levy helped the women’s eight to a fourth-place finish.

The Buzz features recent notable accomplishments by Andover and Abbot alums and faculty. Please email suggestions to magazine@andover.edu.

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ISTOCK: BIG BEN, SIRAANAMWONG

Across the pond, Sandra Wagg ’81 was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant, or DL, by Her Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London.

According to the Greater London Lieutenancy website, a DL is a “distinguished resident who either has served the local community, or has a history of service in other fields.” Wagg is also chair of the Feathers Association, a charity that assists youth in London.

AL UMNI CAL E N DA R

Cambridge, MA Andover, MA

NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL EVENTS

Oakland, CA

Jan. 13

Hong Kong

Alumni and Parent Reception

Jan. 15

Shanghai

Alumni and Parent Reception

Jan. 16

Seoul

Alumni and Parent Reception

Jan. 18

Dubai

Alumni and Parent Reception

Jan. 21

Los Angeles

An Evening with Jim Ventre ’79

Jan. 22

San Francisco

An Evening with Jim Ventre ’79

Jan. 23

Oakland, CA

Andover LGBTQ+ Social Gathering

Jan. 29

New York, NY

Andover LGBTQ+ Social Gathering

March 13

Hong Kong

Alumni and Parent Reception

March 16

Seoul

Alumni and Parent Reception

March 17

Taipei

Alumni and Parent Reception

CAMPUS EVENTS Singapore

Jan. 10

Recital at Graves Hall with Sara Su Jones ’91

Feb. 29

Alumni Hockey and Basketball Games

June 7

Commencement Exercises for the 242nd Graduating Class

June 12–14 Reunion Weekend 2020

For the most up-to-date alumni listings, visit www.andover.edu/alumnievents.

New York, NY

New York, NY

San Francisco, CA

Andover | Fall 2019

35

A N D OV ER BO O KS HELF

The Cloud of Unknowing

by David T. Hanson ’66 Taverner Press Photographer David T. Hanson is widely acclaimed for his photographs of an American landscape laid waste by industry and the military. Extensively exhibited and published, his work has also been used to support environmental legislation. Between 1998 and 2011, Hanson traveled throughout the United States and South Asia photographing sacred spaces representing a diversity of cultures and faiths. In his new book, The Cloud of Unknowing, Hanson offers a counterpoint to toxic modern culture.

It’s Hot in the Hamptons

by Holly Peterson ’83 HarperCollins In best-selling author Holly Peterson’s seventh novel, a plan is hatched to get even with wayward spouses. Although having a summer tryst sounds scandalously fun in theory, Caroline isn’t sure if revenge is for her.

But what starts as a light breezy conversation with a friend quickly turns serious when Caroline begins to confront the man her husband has become.

If she changes direction in her life, she might fall flat on her face—or discover who she has wanted to become all along.

The Curious World of Seaweed

by Josie Iselin ’80 Heyday Books In this adventure through art and science, author Josie Iselin explores marine algae as the supreme eco-engineers of life: they oxygenate the waters, create habitats for countless other organisms, and form the base of a food chain that keeps our planet unique in the universe. Sixteen species of seaweed and kelps that live in the thin region where the Pacific Ocean converges with North America are featured through writings, historical botanical illustrations, and Iselin’s signature, Marimekko-like portraits. Here we learn not only about seaweed, but also from them—their resilience, resourcefulness, poetry, and magic.

Baby Grand

by Bob Bachner ’51 Black Rose Writing Bob Bachner’s poetically written family tragedy examines love and loss when actress Lila Grand faces an unbearable choice: Willie Burke, the love of her life, tells her that her baby daughter, Gloria, can’t live with them in Manhattan after they are married. Pressured

by Willie, her family, and her priest, Lila gives in and Gloria is taken away by Lila’s mother across the river in Brooklyn. Eight years later, Lila enters a harrowing legal battle to take Gloria back as her own, but can she win back her daughter’s love?

Bridging Silos: Collaborating for Environmental Health and Justice in Urban Communities

by Katrina Smith Korfmacher ’85 MIT Press At a time of federal inaction on pressing environmental and public health issues, Bridging Silos has been hailed by critics as “hope” for setting our country on a path forward. Explaining how the once integrated environmental and public health systems have become separated into self-contained “silos,” Kofmacher provides practical examples to show how smart collaboration can turn the tides.

We Got This: Solo Mom Stories of Grit, Heart, and Humor

by Domenica Ruta ’97 She Writes Press With editor Domenica Ruta and other contributors of this anthology on solo motherhood, We Got This features essays, poems, and inspirational quotes from moms connected by a conscious coalition despite age, race, culture, sexual orientation, economic circumstances, and routes to single motherhood. This book reminds solo moms they are powerful and important— and that there’s a whole community of women out there who understand what they are going through.

Column Monuments: Commemorative and Memorial Column Monuments from Ancient Times to the 21st Century

by Daniel Reiff ’59 Mellen Press In this one-of-a-kind, five-volume set, readers take a journey through the ages with background and photographs of commemorative and memorial column monuments from ancient times to the 21st century. Investigating the meaning, message, and style of more than 400 columns, Reiff helps us rediscover an aspect of art and architectural history that speaks to the human condition and reveals a desire for the imperishable memory that transcends time.

Citizen Outlaw: One Man’s Journey From Gangleader to Peacekeeper

by Charles Barber ’80 HarperCollins When he was in his early twenties, William Juneboy Outlaw III was sentenced to 85 years in prison for homicide and armed assault. Then everything changed. Barber’s dramatic narrative account of Outlaw’s journey from housing-project youth to ruthless gangland kingpin to change-making community advocate represents a vital next chapter in the ongoing conversation about race and social justice in America.

If you would like your book to be considered for publication, please email a high-resolution image of the book cover and a 75-word summary of your book to rsavard@andover.edu. Books will be included at the discretion of the editor.

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E N D N O TE

architect, a photographer, and a project manager An

walk into a bar.

Well, a library, actually.

Peter Vanderwarker ’65

Josh Aisenberg ’00, Peter Vanderwarker ’65, and Ryan Gaiss ’11 have the shared experience of working on the recent renovation of the Oliver Wendell Holmes Library, an experience that brought back memories of school days and studying.

While driving to campus for the job, Aisenberg says he felt nostalgic as he saw the Memorial Bell Tower appear in the distance. “It brought back the same sensation of excited anticipation that I felt as a student.”

An associate with Ann Beha Architects, Aisenberg worked closely with Gaiss, a project manager at Consigli Construction. The two alums spent many late nights in the construction trailer laboring over minute details of the project.

“The building means a lot to me and Josh and so many other alumni,” Gaiss says. “I’m so fortunate to have worked on this project.”

One of the challenges they faced was how to renovate the interior while maintaining the external structure and preserving the historic aspects of the building. Because of their affiliation with Andover, the two were in a unique position to consider the options and discuss the best approaches.

They also had some fun. At one point, the pair found a box of report cards from the 1930s. They also discovered an 1850s-era issue of the Atlantic Monthly that included an article written by Oliver Wendell Holmes.

“This is something we will always remember,” says Gaiss. “It was cool to see so much history and to be a part of restoring it for future students.”

A Boston-based architectural photographer, Vanderwarker was hired at the end of the project to photograph the final result. Vanderwarker admits that his personal experience with the library was mixed. He was not a particularly good student and said studying there was not pleasant.

His perspective on the renovations are completely opposite. “The new library is democratic, welcoming, spacious, not stodgy, and still loaded with books.” 

Peter Vanderwarker ’65 is especially fond of the makerspace, which he says he would have appreciated as a student.

—Allyson Irish 86

Andover | Fall 2019

Pot Pourri Photos The Circle

E D I TO R ’S N O TE

Reconnect

GREAT FOOD INTERVALE THE HILL

Campus News Class Notes Curriculum Students Faculty Alumni

The magazine staff has been thinking about and repeating these words—like a mantra—over and over these past few months as we’ve sifted through hundreds of responses to our recent survey.

Though we will continue to analyze this data as part of our upcoming redesign, trends are already emerging. For example, we’ve learned that you are deeply curious and excited to learn more about one another—through career profiles, Class Notes, and stories about “big name” graduates as well as those working quietly behind the scenes.

You also are interested in students and faculty.

What are they learning? What do they do for fun?

What do they teach students—and how? What do they like best about Andover? What do they struggle with?

Although our first redesigned issue will not hit mailboxes until next fall, we decided not to wait to make some changes.

In this issue, you will find more stories about alumni including: a feature on Lolita Taub ’04, who is shaking up the business world with a focus on gender and racial diversity in the AI industry; an interview with author William D. Cohan ’77 about his new book chronicling the lives of four Andover graduates; and Close-Ups on Margot Kent Timbel ’75’s yoga class for veterans and egaming pro Brian “Dragonmaster” Kibler ’99.

Other stories provide insights on new athletic director Lisa Joel, biology instructor Jerry Hagler’s stunning photos taken as part of a campus field guide project, and the expert management of Andover’s endowment. To cap it off, our cover feature on the newly renovated Oliver Wendell Holmes Library provides rich detail on the many ways in which students and faculty are using this tremendous resource.

The magazine team is excited to begin work on the next chapter of Andover magazine, and we thank you for your continued feedback.

Allyson Irish Editor airish@andover.edu magazine@andover.edu @andovermagazine

Smiles DORMS Andover Classes Fun Pot Pourri MERRILL GATE 5s & 0s Chapel Abbot Surprises TEACHERS MUSIC Fun SECRET GARDEN Reconnect GREAT FOOD The Circle GREAT LAWN #ANDOVERFORLIFE Photos Friends

Memories

Samuel Phillips Hall DORMS Dining Hall INTERVALE Abbot Hall THE HILL Smiles MUSIC Pot Pourri DANCING Photos Abbot Classes Andover MERRILL GATE 5s & 0s Chapel Fun MUSI Surprises DORMS Dining Hall TEACHE Save the Date

Reconnect SECRET GARDE REUNION The Circle GREAT LAWN GREAT F #ANDOVERFORLIFE Frien WEEKEND Samuel Phillips Hall DA ANDOVER Abbot Hall INTERVA June 12–14, 2020

If you would like to join your class’s reunion committee, please contact the Office of Alumni Engagement at reunions@andover.edu.

THE HILL

Smiles

Memorie 5s & 0s Dining

An

THINK BIG for ANDOVER Because every gift—of every size—is huge for our students.

When we give together, we have an exponential impact on everything that matters. andover.edu/together

FALL 2019

Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts 01810-4161

Periodicals postage paid at Andover, MA and additional mailing offices

FALL 2019

THE HEART OF CAMPUS How PA’s library is reconnecting community