Class II boys concluded their school year with four days of RL@Work—visits to places of work, encounters with professionals, and reflections on what's possible for their own future careers. We are grateful to the more than 15 alumni and parents who offered their time and talent toward making this year's RL@Work program a success. (Photo by Austin Reid ’26)
Where Our Hearts Learned to Settle | Valedictory Address by Raj Saha ’25
Address by Amanda Cook P’20,’25
Under the Big Top: My Return to Campus | by Mike Pojman
Courageous Conversations
An educator, researcher, and strategic partner to more than 375 organizations, Dr. Liza Talusan leads with compassion and connection, even when conversations are challenging. In her work, she helps students and adults build knowledge, reflect, and move to action in meaningful and productive ways—even, and especially, when situations are complex. Over the course of the past school year, Dr. Talusan worked closely with a group of 19 boys in Classes I, II, and III, helping them develop the skills to lead and navigate difficult conversations courageously.
Before school several days throughout the year, this group of students gathered with Dr. Talusan and Jackie Salas, RL’s Director of Community and Culture. The main objective in these meetings was to give boys the tools to have difficult conversations and facilitate larger group discussions, while also taking care of
themselves. The school regularly hosts forums on various topics— current events, historical anniversaries, issues related to social responsibility or social justice—during which boys and adults come together to share their perspectives and respectfully debate differing points of view.
With their new skillset, these boys led a range of discussions on May 13, in the style of RL’s traditional community forums, but in smaller groups. The topics ranged from healthy masculinity to AI use in schools, identity and heritage to success and grades. The conversations involved boys in Classes II and III as well as faculty and staff participants. It was entirely the responsibility of those trained student leaders, however, to prepare for and facilitate the conversation, navigating differing opinions, emotional reactions, and potentially conflicting views in real time. These sessions and
WITH DR. LIZA TALUSAN
this experience provided boys not only with a leadership opportunity but also with some of the technical and interpersonal skills required in guiding difficult conversations effectively and meaningfully.
Additionally, Dr. Talusan led a workshop in January for Roxbury Latin’s adults, reflecting the school’s commitment to continued professional development for its faculty and staff. The workshop, titled Courageous Conversations Protocol, served as a helpful resource, further equipping adults with the tools and skills required to navigate difficult conversations, and to teach our students to do the same. Dr. Talusan not only reminded us of the importance of diverse experiences and perspectives, but also helped to bolster our collective aptitude for engaging with one another in ways that are civil, clear, and caring.
Athlete of the Year Award
Each year, The Boston Globe honors 18 seniors from seven Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association districts, the city of Boston, and Eastern Massachusetts private schools, recognizing excellence in athletic achievement, academics, and community service. In addition to this recognition, several additional awards are bestowed on select students from this group. This year, Noah Abdur Rahim ’25 received the prestigious Richard J. Phelps/NEPSAC Athlete of the Year award.
Noah was a three-season athlete for the duration of his time at Roxbury Latin. He was a two-time All-ISL and All-NEPSAC selection in track and field and broke the school’s 21-year record in the 400 meters. He also captained the football team, earning ISL Honorable Mention as a running back and safety. Noah also had a successful wrestling career at Roxbury Latin, placing four times in the GravesKelsey Tournament and twice in the New England Prep Tournament. Noah is playing football at Colby College this fall.
THE BOSTON GLOBE HONORS
NOAH ABDUR RAHIM ’25
In Elite Company
On April 14, Mrs. Carroll and Zach Heaton (I), Ameer Hasan (III), Aspen Johnson (II), and Eliot Park (I) attended the James Tufts Pener Conference at Thayer Academy. The boys who attended are all members of RL’s Environmentally Concerned Organization of Students (ECOS) Club, with Zach serving as president and Eliot as vice president. The conference brings together students from public and independent schools who are interested in environmental issues, for a full day of workshops and presentations. Participating schools and organizations this spring included Roxbury Latin, Belmont Hill, Brooks School, Chatham Harvesters, Cohasset Center for Student Coastal Research, Dana Hall, Mass Oyster Project, Milton, St. Mark’s, St. George’s, and Thayer.
Eliot was one of the student presenters this year. His talk, “Tackling Recycling with AI,” focused on his work in utilizing AI to support recycling efforts.
The National Merit Scholarship Program announced this summer 2,500 winners, chosen from a pool of 15,000 talented finalists nationwide. Raj Saha, a recent graduate in the Class of 2025, earned a $2,500 scholarship toward college, representing less than one percent of the initial entrants. He is attending Harvard College this fall.
The program’s selection process began in October 2023, when roughly 1.5 million juniors took the PSAT, or the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. In addition to Raj, 28 Roxbury Latin boys were recognized—seven as semifinalists and 21 earning commendations—equating to 50 percent of the class.
It is a great honor to have a National Merit Scholarship winner in a graduating senior class of 56. Congratulations to all RL boys who earned recognition this year.
Green Team
STUDENTS TAKE PART IN ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP CONFERENCE
RAJ SAHA ’25 NAMED NATIONAL MERIT SCHOLARSHIP WINNER
Words of Wisdom
SENIOR SPEAKERS
SHARE INSIGHTS FROM THE CLASSROOM
Roxbury Latin prides itself on teaching boys to communicate, not only interpersonally, but also to adequately and articulately express their thoughts and opinions—both in writing and in the form of public speaking. The English department begins a sequence in public speaking during an RL boy’s sixie year, with a classmate interview and informal presentation—a process that continues through the composition and delivery of a personal speech (in Class V), an informative speech (in Class IV), a persuasive speech (in Class III), and a speech of choice in the fall semester of senior year. The capstone project in public speaking then takes place during the English 12 midyear exam period, when students deliver to their classmates an original speech that offers valedictory “words of wisdom”—a unifying insight, or a collection of insights, gained from (or reflected in) one or more of the texts studied during a student’s time in the RL English classroom.
Each year, several seniors are selected to deliver their talks—their “senior speeches”—to the entirety of the school community in Rousmaniere Hall. During the 2024–2025 school year, six boys took to the lectern to present their speeches to their schoolmates and to the faculty and staff, covering topics such as maturity and responsibility, the wisdom of Frederick Douglass, and the lessons in family history and ancestry.
Paul Wilkinson and Eliot Park delivered the first pair of speeches on January 23. Both boys’ essays focused on family heritage, ancestry, and learning important lessons from those who came before us—a sentiment not dissimilar to the school’s ethos of learning from our past as we look toward the future: Mortui Vivos Docent.
On February 25, Omar Rahman and Alex Giordano shared their insights about wisdom derived from texts they explored through the RL English program. Omar drew upon “Marigolds” by Eugenia W. Collier, a short story taught in sixie year, and Alex on “Bartleby, the Scrivener,” a short story by Herman Melville that boys read during their junior year.
The series concluded on April 24 (the final day of classes for Class I!), when Isaac Frehywot and Aiden Theodore reflected on education and its meaning to them, drawing on the works of Frederick Douglass to inform their reflections. While both boys discussed education, their interpretations differed: Isaac explained how knowledge is power, and can be liberating. On the other hand, Aiden explained that having access to knowledge but not utilizing it leads to ignorance.
Paul Wilkinson (I)
“This story is one of many I’ve uncovered in my search to connect with my ancestry—a journey that has left a profound impact on me and one I hope to share with you all today... History isn’t just a record of events; it’s a source of strength, guidance, and purpose.”
Eliot Park (I)
“Our elders’ stories are more than just distant tales from the past. They are the threads that connect our families, our history, and—ultimately—ourselves. They offer us lessons for the present and the future.
Omar Rahman (I)
“Innocence is the first lie we tell ourselves... I’m realizing that growing up isn’t just about growing older—it’s about losing the ease of seeing the world as simple... Real wisdom only comes when we look past ourselves and embrace the complexities of others’ lives.”
Alex Giordano (I)
“From a very young age we are taught that empathy is an inherently good thing... Yet hopefully, when a boy expresses he is not doing okay, it prompts not only empathy, but also an urge to break free from complacency, take action, and talk to that boy.”
Isaac Frehywot (I)
“Education is not merely the gaining of knowledge; it is the foundation of self-discovery and growth. Through learning, we come to understand ourselves, our potential, and the world around us.”
Aiden Theodore (I)
“I’m asking that you choose to be educated rather than ignorant. Choosing education over ignorance will not only shape us into more thoughtful and compassionate individuals but also equip us to positively impact the lives of others.”
Hands-on History
May looms large on the Class IV calendar: It is when students turn in and present their Forces of Global Change projects (formerly Western Civ), long a component of the freshman curriculum in which students research, produce, and orally defend a model or reproduction of an artifact, building, or historical scene that is linked to their studies of the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific peoples, as well as global interactions of the late19th, 20th and 21st centuries.
Parameters dictate that the student must make his project with his own hands (no kits). Making use of technologies offered in the IDEA Lab is allowed, but plugging in a prefabricated design for something in a 3-D printer and presenting this as one’s project is not allowed. All work is done in school. In addition to being graded on the oral defense, each student is graded on his accuracy in representing the original, his workmanship, and the project’s degree of difficulty. Projects were on display in the Great Hall during the final weeks of the school year
RL Night of Scenes
A NEW TRADITION GRABS THE SPRING SPOTLIGHT
Roxbury Latin’s inaugural Night of Scenes, showing in the Smith Theater on May 16 and 17, had the audience laughing, thinking, and rooting for the characters on stage. This spring’s production came about conceptually from Director of Dramatics Matt Phillips, to provide more students access to the theater program at RL. While fall and winter productions were full-length plays, Night of Scenes showcased 76 boys throughout 16 different skits or scenes, with 10 faculty directors.
The evening included a wide range: humorous Saturday Night Live reenactments, a heartfelt cinematic snippet from The Sandlot, a dramatic dilemma from The Twilight Zone, original RL-inspired skits, and a musical number from Damn Yankees, to name a few. Many of the boys cast in this production had never participated in the RL theater
program before. The bite-sized scenes this spring allowed for less of a time commitment, so boys could take part in the program without committing to a full production.
The show was produced by Mr. Phillips, with musical direction from Rob Opdycke, technical direction from Dawson Hill, costumes and props by Erin Sutton, and choreography by Lisa Kostur. Due to the show’s overwhelming success, Night of Scenes will become a biennial event, alternating with a standard spring production every other year. RL’s dramatics program continues to grow and evolve, providing more opportunities and access to the theater arts for RL boys. (Production photos by Marcus Miller) scan to watch!
Prize Day
On May 30, the Class of 2025 took their rightful seats at the front of Hall for the last time. During the traditional and festive Prize Day Hall—which honors a range of prizewinning students and serves to wish ave atque vale to the year’s departing faculty and staff—songs such as Jerusalem and The Founder’s Song reverberated around Rousmaniere Hall. The annual Prize Day Hall is the formal conclusion of the school year for students in Class VI through Class II, during which an impressive roster of prize-winners— honored for academic, athletic, artistic, and extracurricular achievements—earn their plaudits. While some of the major Class I awards were announced at the concluding Closing Exercises, this year’s prize winners are as follows (lists on following pages):
academic awards
Joseph A. Sasserno French Deturs
Tomas Werning (V), Lucas Dolan (IV), Flynn Hall (III), Tom Pogorelec (II), Miles Baumal-Bardy (I)
Headmaster’s Spanish Deturs
Rowan Bush (V), Alessandro Frigerio (IV), Nishant Rajagopalan (III), Max Kesselheim (II), Levi Harrison (I)
Isabel M. Fowler History Prizes
Caleb Murphy (VI), Teddy LaFond (IV), Jayden Hall (III), Jordan Bornstein (II), Ben McVane (I)
Richard M. Whitney Science Deturs
Marcus Farzaneh-Far (VI), Solon Estes (V), Casey Chiang (III), Colin Bradley (II)
N. Henry Black Science Detur
Daniel Stepanyan (I)
Donald L. Whittle Math Deturs
Dylan Zhang (VI), Leone Seidel (V), Desmond Butler (IV), Eric Archerman (III), Avish Kumar (II)
Islay F. McCormick Mathematics Prize
Raj Saha (I)
Anna Cabot Lowell Deturs in English
Liam Coyle (VI), Peter Mohan (V), Joseph Raposo (IV), Nishant Rajagopalan (III), Liam Walsh (II), Paul Wilkinson (I)
Trustees’ Greek Deturs
Paul Tompros (III), Teddy Smith (II), Lucas Connors (I)
Anna Cabot Lowell Deturs in Latin
Theo Mashikian (VI), Sahaj Swaroop (V), Sid Chopra (IV), Casey Chiang (III), Marco Suri (II), Raj Saha (I)
extracurricular awards
Beginning Latin Declamation Prize
Bobby Beeston (VI)
Intermediate Latin Declamation Prize
Alan Archerman (V)
Advanced Latin Declamation Prize
Tom Pogorelec (II)
Greek Declamation Prize
Aspen Johnson (II)
Cameron A. Rylance Music Prize
Darian Estrada (I)
Ralph F.F. Brooks Art Prize
Aiden Theodore (I)
Joan M. Regan Service Prize
Devan Rajagopalan (I)
Class of 1976 Dramatics Prize
Brendan Reichard (I)
Rehder Prize in International Relations
Raj Saha (I)
Albert W. Kelsey Debate Prize
Lucas Connors (I)
Publications Award
Levi Harrison (I)
Class I Athletics Prize Winners
Class II Book Award Winners
Sportsmanship Award
Michael Strojny
Scholar-Athlete Award Cole Oberg
Best Athlete Award Tom Pender
ISL Award
Alex Giordano
Brown Award
Liam Walsh
Harvard Award Tom Pogorelec
Dartmouth Award Dylan Pan
Holy Cross Award Teddy Smith
Brown Award Avish Kumar
Valete
Prize Day is also the moment that the students, faculty, and staff recognize those adult members of the community who are leaving Roxbury Latin. Thanks to their endurance, loyalty, and commitment, very few adults move on from RL each year. We are the better for that continuity. This spring, however, we bid farewell to one member of the faculty who completed her Penn Fellowship. Below are the remarks delivered in her honor by Head of School Sam Schaffer on May 30.
Karen Buitrago
With a talent for languages and a passion for sharing them, Ms. Karen Buitrago arrived at RL in 2023 as one of two new Penn Fellows. In her two years here, teaching both French and Spanish, she has not only grown as a skilled educator but has also eagerly shared that passion for her subject with her students and colleagues. Ms. Buitrago’s classroom feels like her: thoughtful, culturally rich, and grounded. She often brings her Colombian background into her lessons, helping students make deeper, more authentic connections. And her linguistic talents and love of travel mean that she has been involved in RL’s immersion program since even before she officially began teaching here! We have been grateful for her contributions to that program as well as to our classrooms. Having thought deeply about pedagogy, culture, and relational teaching, Ms. Buitrago works hard to make sure that her pupils feel that they belong in the language classroom. A lifelong learner herself, in addition to her teaching load and earning her master’s in education from Penn, Ms. Buitrago has been spending her summers enrolled in Middlebury College’s Master’s in Translation Program. That drive, curiosity, and eagerness to refine her craft will serve her well as she begins an exciting new teaching position at Rye Country Day School in New York this fall.
Board of Trustees
2024–2025
Front Row: Chris Mitchell, Marlyn McGrath, Mike Giarla, Dennis Kanin, Ethan Berman, Anne McNay, Kent Sahin, Katherine Craven. Back Row: Soren Oberg, Justin Connolly, Matt Fruhan, Jay Mitchell, Matt Consigli, Jim Hamilton, Andy McElaney. Missing from photo: Derek Ho, Viva Hyatt, Ian Lane, Bo Menkiti, Monica Neuman, Paul Provost, Jim Quagliaroli, Paul Spinale.
Celebrating The Class of 2025
Closing Exercises
On May 31, the 380th year of The Roxbury Latin School culminated with Closing Exercises and the graduation of the Class of 2025. The traditional and intimate ceremony—which includes the seniors, their families, the faculty and trustees—took place in Rousmaniere Hall. Immediately after the ceremony, the 56 newest alumni of The Roxbury Latin School celebrated on the Senior Grass with classmates, family, and faculty members.
Beginning with opening remarks from Head of School Dr. Sam Schaffer—which acknowledged the triumphs of this particular group of boys, and also noted their many, worthy accomplishments— the ceremony included the singing of America The Beautiful, Commemoration Hymn, and The Founder’s Song. The ringing of the school bell, chiming 2-0-2-5, officially marked the end of the school year.
Where Our Hearts Learned to Settle
valedictory address raj saha ’25
Sweat. Cardboard boxes. Trolleys and trucks—all stationed outside my bedroom window. I had just turned seven, and the world as I knew it already seemed to be slipping away. I watched as movers—broad-shouldered and brusque— indiscriminately grabbed my beloved teddy bears and Lego sets, shoving them into boxes marked for another day. I saw a once-cozy home dissolve into a hollow shell, room by room, box by box. And I looked back, uneasy, as I, too, stepped out of our home in Leawood, Kansas, heading off on a one-way flight to Massachusetts.
The idea of moving out didn’t sit right in my seven-year-old heart. It felt disquieting, unnatural, and full of uncertainty that kindergarten had never prepared me for. Not even eyewatering pictures of Dunkin’ Donuts could ease the quiet dread of leaving behind the only home I had known.
As our final days at RL drew near, I couldn’t help but find those same feelings resurfacing. No, there were no teddy bears or Lego sets—but there certainly was that all-too-familiar feeling of departure. Many years later, I was moving out again. And with that realization came another, though all too often clichéd, revelation: that RL has truly become a home for all of us.
I recognize that likening RL to a home—a word brimming with connotations of comfort, rest, and relaxation—might not immediately resonate with my classmates. In fact, if you had posed the question to me just a few years ago, I might have instead characterized RL as an odyssey of sorts: a long, winding journey through tests and problem sets and practices and rehearsals, as we’d frequently count down to the weekend, summer vacation, or even graduation itself. But, with the benefit of hindsight and distance from those darker, most demanding days, I would wholeheartedly contend that it’s precisely those very struggles, the values imparted along the way, and the community of people who have walked beside us that make RL a home, in its truest sense. It feels only fitting, then, to look back on what RL has meant as a home in our lives and how it will stay with us long after this day of departure.
I’d be remiss, considering the great language school that is Roxbury Latin, if I didn’t begin with the word itself. “Home”
comes most recently from the Old English hām, meaning a gathering place of souls. Even earlier, its Indo-European root, tkei, meant “to settle” or “to dwell.” So together, the etymology suggests that a home simply refers to a place where our hearts and souls settle.
If that’s what home really means, what better illustration than a busy day at RL?
A 7:30 a.m. arrival in the Science Lecture Room for earlymorning rounds of Certamen in Classics Club. Next, a school day filled with small victories (like Ms. Salas’s munchkins after a tough Learning Experience), only to be balanced by unexpected setbacks (as Mr. Cervas pulled out his thin slips of paper for yet another pop reading quiz). And after making the trek up to Rappaport for practice, Coaches Dunn and Heaton draw up a brutal workout, leaving us exhausted and sore on the ride home. But it doesn’t stop there. For even after coming home, it seemed that RL had not yet said its goodbyes, as we’d look down at a pile of unfinished Latin translations and look up at our English essay, still untitled and untouched.
Our shared experiences at RL, of course, extended far beyond the daily routine. On the athletic fields, we celebrated countless victories, whether as members of the winning effort or onlookers cheering from the stands. In our extracurricular pursuits, we achieved international acclaim in Debate, Robotics, and Model UN; delivered showstopping performances in the Smith Theater and in this very Hall; and, most recently, served as leaders of these organizations, passing on what we have learned to the next generation of RL students. Through community service initiatives, we have extended our impact beyond the campus, helping dozens of senior citizens stay up-to-date with technology, cooking hundreds of meals at the Haley House Soup Kitchen, and packaging hundreds more at Community Servings. And just last year, we came together as a class to organize what I believe was one of the most memorable May Days in recent years— executed nearly flawlessly, from our comically crafted team introduction video to outstanding leadership by captains and volunteers alike.
But perhaps what unified us most were not these triumphs but the challenges we endured together. After the COVID pandemic cut short our sixie year and pushed much of our fifthie year behind Zoom windows and masks, we made the best of virtual IPS labs and exams on Google Forms. Just months later, 15 freshmen joined our already tight-knit class of 44. What could have disrupted our treasured class dynamic, however, only served to strengthen it, thanks to a collective effort. We organized scavenger hunts, mini-golf outings, and numerous other classwide events, transforming a fragmented group of boys into a cohesive band of brothers.
Still, RL’s role as home lies not just in our memories but through the values we carry with us. By this point, we’ve all been indoctrinated in the fundamental standards: honesty is expected in all dealings, diligent use of one’s talents, and so on. But while not explicitly inked in the handbook, I have come to cherish most of all RL’s quiet culture of support, sacrifice, and kindness.
For example, I’ll never forget the mix of comfort and mild terror in the faces of nearly half a dozen sixies at Beaverbrook this year as Strojny lifted them, one by one, through a tire hanging in the air to complete the infamous tire challenge. From that moment on, he was no longer a towering, intimidating figure in the hallways but an older boy whom they could trust to have their backs—literally, in this case. On other occasions, it’s as simple as enduring an awkward pause—and maybe even a few spots in the lunch line—to hold the Refectory door open for a desperate freshman who’s clearly forgotten his key card. Or perhaps the heroic deed of filling a tour guide vacancy, even when we had a Bio quiz to cram for. It’s these small moments that define the culture of our home and have, naturally, become a part of us.
But in the end, what gives these values life are the people who embody them, so it feels right to end here, with them.
To the Class of 2025: Reflecting back stirs many emotions, but none more strongly than deep admiration. The breadth and depth of talent packed into this class of 56 boys are
“ So here we are, standing on the threshold, boxes packed, and the door to this home slowly closing behind us. Will we ever again be in a place where we know everyone’s name, their quirks, and their stories?
Probably not. And that’s what made it so special.
nothing short of remarkable. Few can score a hat trick quite like Christo, sing a melody with Brendan’s clarity and charisma, craft an intricate math proof as elegantly as Nathan, dominate in the post like Jack Hynes, or smash a forehand winner like Cole. I could go on and on, of course, and still only scratch the surface of this class’s remarkable talent.
But while those achievements leave me in awe, it’s our unique idiosyncrasies that I’ll remember most fondly. Darian’s patented Patagonia sweater and jeans combo. The indecipherable noises that echo from Taylor and Noah down the hallway. Caleb Meredith’s uncanny ability to look completely serious while teetering on the edge of hysterical laughter at the same time. To say these quirks were merely minor footnotes would overlook their real importance, for they have defined the rhythm of our days and the closeness we built together.
To our teachers: the mentors who have taught, coached, advised, and believed in us, we offer our deepest gratitude. Your lessons and teachings have always extended far beyond the syllabus. M. Diop didn’t just teach us how to form the subjunctive, but he sparked fierce philosophical debates that ended long after the bell rang. Mr. Randall seamlessly intertwined our Latin readings with literature, art, and life, rendering the ancient language timeless. Mr. Bettendorf taught us more than how to evaluate an integral; he conveyed the beauty and elegance of mathematics itself. You have truly kept this home running and full of life.
To our families: thank you for your support, your guidance, and your love. Thank you for all the miles you drove, the late nights you stayed up, and the tirades you endured as you quietly absorbed our stress without complaint. And, most of all, we thank you for making the decision those years ago to send us here, to Roxbury Latin.
So here we are, standing on the threshold, boxes packed, and the door to this home slowly closing behind us. Will we ever again be in a place where we know everyone’s name, their quirks, and their stories? Probably not. And that’s what made it so special. But as I came to realize, years after what I thought was a final departure from Kansas, we never really walk away for good. The joy of brotherly friendship, the grit forged through our struggle, the curiosity to understand and examine our world, the everlasting commitment to service— they are the gifts of RL that have found a home in us just as much as we have found a home in RL. And though we may scatter to different cities and corners of the world, part of us will always remain here, in these red brick buildings, where our hearts first learned to settle.
The powerful and inspiring commencement address was delivered by Amanda Cook, Vice President and Editorial Director at Crown Publishing, and mother to graduating senior Oliver Cook and alumnus Aidan Cook ’20. Ms. Cook explored the power of stories and storytelling, reflecting on some beloved books and extolling the many benefits of reading, for our minds and our souls. She implored the audience to read, and insisted that in today’s world, in which technology demands so much of our attention, reading can be a radical act. (Read Ms. Cook’s full address on page 34.)
Following the ceremony’s addresses, Head of School Schaffer and President of the Board of Trustees Ethan Berman ’79 awarded diplomas to the 56 newest alumni of The Roxbury Latin School.
Class valedictorian, elected by his classmates, was Raj Saha, whose speech explored the everlasting community formed while being a student at RL. “The joy of brotherly friendship, the grit forged through our struggle, the curiosity to understand and examine our world, the everlasting commitment to service—they are the gifts of RL that have found a home in us just as much as we have found a home in RL.” (Read Raj’s complete address on page 22.)
The major Class I awards were presented to three seniors during Closing Exercises:
The Richard A. Berenberg Prize—commemorating generosity of spirit and concern for others—was awarded to Darian Estrada.
The Class of 1913 Award—given annually to a senior who has made significant contributions to the life of the school—was awarded to Brendan Reichard.
The William Coe Collar Prize—given annually to the senior whose achievements and contributions are deemed by the faculty as most deserving of recognition—was awarded to Raj Saha.
The Class of 2025
First Row: Caleb Meredith, Robbie Sun-Friedman, Noah Abdur Rahim, Benji Macharia, Joshua Hua, Raj Saha, Aiden Theodore, Eliot Park, Johnny Price, Tom Pender, Timmy Ryan, Bryce Ketchen, Matt Taglieri, Caleb Ganthier, Sam DiFiore, Zach Heaton. Second row: Lucas Numa, Logan McLaughlin, Ryan Conneely, Omar Rahman, Krish Muniappan, Alex Giordano, Ryan Miller, Miles Baumal-Bardy, Tucker Rose, Bruno Kim, Ezra Klauber, Nathan Zhang, Calvin Reid,
Isaac Frehywot. Third row: Marc Albrechtskirchinger, Darian Estrada, Michael Strojny, Justin Lim, Jaden Barrack-Anidi, Nick Makura, Brendan Reichard, Paul Wilkinson, Xavier Martin, Oliver van den Bosch, Lucas Connors, Ben McVane, Taylor Cotton. Fourth row: Ben Dearden, Jack Hynes, Sam Seaton, Oliver Cook, Jack Sweet, Daniel Stepanyan, Devan Rajagopalan, Quinn Thomson, Shane Bernazzani, Liam Russell, Levi Harrison, Christo Velikin, Cole Oberg.
Class of 2025 College Matriculations
Babson College (1)
Boston College (2)
Boston University (1)
Brown University (5)
Claremont McKenna College (1)
Clemson University (1)
Colby College (2)
College of the Holy Cross (2)
Columbia University (1)
Cornell University (1)
Dartmouth College (4)
Denison University (1)
Fairfield University (1)
Georgetown University (3)
Harvard College (7)
Marquette University (1)
St. Anselm College (1)
Trinity College (5)
Tufts University (4)
UMass Amherst (4)
University of California Berkeley (1)
University of Chicago (2)
University of Southern California (1)
Yale University (1)
Accurate as of August 28, 2025
Reading as a Radical Act
commencement address amanda cook p’20,’25, vice president and editorial director, penguin random house
I want to thank Dr. Schaffer for inviting me to speak to you today. It’s wonderful to be together on this happy occasion—to celebrate you, the Class of 2025, and this remarkable school, which has given you so many gifts.
I’d like to start with a story.
Once upon a time, there was a group of boys on the verge of adulthood. They had lived through a great plague, which had made some of them very sick—maybe their loved ones, too— but mostly just made them lonely and annoyed. They were trapped in their homes at the very moment they were trying to break free of their parents, make new friends, and test themselves in the real world. They survived this plague, but there were many other monsters to defeat, including Belmont Hill’s soccer team, lab reports, Glee Club lyrics, and college essays. And then when all of this was finally behind them, and the prize was in sight, they met three huge dragons, the biggest they’d ever seen…
We’ll come back to those dragons, but my point here is that stories are magical. As soon as I said once upon a time, I could see your body language change. You relaxed, you opened yourselves up, you were ready to travel. We are built for story; we crave it. I’m sure that over the last few months you all have been thinking in stories, reminiscing about that time in Rome, or in Zoom school, or play rehearsal.
But I want you to travel even further back in time. You’re five or six, you’re on your bed or maybe a couch and someone— your mom or dad or babysitter or sibling—is reading you a book. It might be Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things That Go (remember trying to find Goldbug?), The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Vacation, Curious George Goes to the Hospital, or maybe Thomas the Tank Engine. Anyway, try to remember that feeling of being absorbed in a book, of time disappearing, of inhabiting a different world or simply imagining yourself in a different body.
Katherine Rundell, who writes for both children and adults, says that children’s books tell us what it means to hope, to fear, to yearn. They are “packets of concentrated meaning.”
See if you remember which book starts this way: “The night Max wore his wolf suit and made mischief of one kind and another…his mother called him “Wild thing’! and Max said ‘I’ll eat you up!’ so he was sent to bed without eating anything.” Interesting, isn’t it, that so many children’s books are stories of abandonment? Rundell says we need to imagine being abandoned so that we can understand “certain elements of human experience—our ultimate solitude and our interconnectedness.” Our ultimate solitude and our interconnectedness.1
So you were read to, and then you started to read yourself (Magic Tree House, Calvin & Hobbes, Percy Jackson, Alex Rider) These are good memories, right? Then you went to school and reading began to feel more like work. You got a phone and reading really felt like work. It didn’t give you that same dopamine hit. It was easier to scroll. Also, you were never bored.
I get it, reading is hard. I read for a living, and even I am finding it more and more difficult to ignore this vibrating machine in my pocket. Everything in our world is forcing us to move faster, to become more efficient, to smooth all the rough edges. Reading is the opposite. “Poetry will not optimize,” novels do not aspire to a “seamless user experience.”2 They seek to jostle you, upset your assumptions, crack you open.
There’s a story I love by Leo Tolstoy called “Alyosha the Pot.” It’s very short, maybe six pages, and it’s easy to describe.
Alyosha is a simple-minded peasant boy who works hard and accepts punishment without complaint. He’s sent by his father to work as a servant for a merchant family, where he performs every task with great cheer. At first, the other servants make fun of him, but his unfailing good nature earns their respect, especially that of the cook Ustinia, with whom he falls in love, though his father forbids the marriage. During a harsh winter, Alyosha falls ill after clearing snow from the roof, develops a high fever, and dies. End of story.
(I was a Russian literature major, and I can tell you the Russians love this sort of ending.)
“ Don’t let AI read for you. Every time you outsource this task, you are chipping away at your own humanity. Maybe there are exceptions—a scientific paper or a Supreme Court case, where you really just need the gist. But the only way to truly understand something is to immerse yourself in it.
ChatGPT helped me summarize Alyosha’s tale—we’ll talk more about that—but for now, listen to the last two sentences of the actual story, when Alyosha is on his deathbed. Tolstoy writes: “He didn’t talk much. He just kept asking for water and looked like he was amazed at something. Then something
seemed to startle him and he stretched his legs and died.” Now, you can debate for days what that ending means. Was Alyosha startled to discover that someone, like Ustinia, loved him, not because of what he accomplished, but because of who he was? Was he just continuing his meek, cheerfully passive existence right to the end, surprised by his own contentment? Did he glimpse God and discover a more encompassing kind of love? The uncertainty is perhaps the point. Tolstoy didn’t want to give us a neat moral lesson. He wanted to invite wonder. 3
But wonder is demanding. It requires our attention, and attention is the very thing that’s being stolen from us. I know we all love our phones, but I think it’s important to be clear about what is happening. A handful of tech companies have designed addictive products that are extracting our most precious resource—and monetizing it. One of my authors, Graham Burnett, a professor at Princeton, refers to this as human fracking.4 Those of you who took Mrs. Carroll’s class will understand the metaphor at a deep level: Just as energy companies pump millions of gallons of high-pressure chemical detergent into the ground to force extremely valuable oil and gas up to the surface, so are the tech companies pumping vast quantities of high-volume (often toxic) slurry into our faces to extract our attention and sell it to the highest bidder.
You can feel it, right? You reach for your phone subconsciously, and your hand just makes that predictable swiping motion, and then an hour passes when you just wanted to check one thing. That’s the frackers winning the war for your attention. Not because you’re weak! But because they’ve put a ton of research and money into this effort to overpower our good intentions.
So what does all this have to do with reading? Well, reading is one of the great modes of human attention. The reason I asked you to try to remember curling up with a book was to help you recapture that feeling of giving your mind, your curiosity, your time to something of your choosing.
Books require patience, but in that patience there is power. I want to propose to you that in an age of human fracking, reading is a radical act—a tool of resistance in the battle to preserve our humanity.
Now, that may sound dramatic, but I truly believe it, for three reasons.
First, reading is how you learn about the world. Your teachers have taught you this. Have you ever wondered why this country devolved into civil war in 1861, with citizens brutally killing other citizens? You can skim a Wikipedia article or watch a YouTube video and get all the facts and the dates. But if you want to understand the feeling of the moment, what it was like to live through the five months between Lincoln’s election and the firing on Fort Sumter— and perhaps even imagine what you would have done during that tumultuous period—pick up a copy of Erik Larson’s The Demon of Unrest. (As a bonus, you’ll also learn which champagne cocktails were served at a Charleston dinner party on the eve of war, which is just an interesting thing to know.)
But this is one kind of knowing. And honestly, knowledge can be produced in all kinds of ways now: AI can comb through historical archives, write code, and analyze data. And yet… There are certain questions that machines can’t answer, questions that confront every one of us. How to live? What to value? How to face death?
Reading helps us to know ourselves.
You probably remember Sidik Fofana’s Stories from the Tenants Downstairs. (I’m so happy your teachers assigned this book—and introduced me to it. Fofana is an RL alum who I’m pretty sure has read his Tolstoy.) In “The Okiedoke” we meet Swan and his two friends, who all live in a low-income Harlem high-rise. One of them has just been released from prison, and they’ve all perfected the art of robbing the Chinese food delivery boy. Swan seems utterly trapped in his life of poverty, but after one of these robberies, he takes a walk and remembers the night that Obama got elected, when a cop who was driving by rolled down his window and just said, “He did it, he did it.” The memory shifts something inside of Swan. It’s subtle: In the final lines of the story, he keeps his jacket on while they’re eating the stolen food, as if he might just walk out of Apartment 6B and into a different life. But in that moment, we think about all the moments we were in a similar situation, feeling stuck, wanting to change, maybe even desperate to change, and we are suddenly connected with everyone else who has ever had that feeling. It’s not necessarily that Swan inspires us to change—maybe he does, maybe he doesn’t—it’s that he reminds us that change is possible.5 And this is also true about the world. These are difficult
times (that would have been a whole other speech!), and it’s very easy to feel powerless like you’re on a runaway train. Reading gives you access to other possibilities. Reading helps you imagine other futures. And in this sense, it makes you free.
Readers are harder to manipulate, and they’re harder to subjugate. I’ve been thinking a lot about all these attacks on universities, on schools, on libraries. There are many pretexts for these assaults, but consider what all these institutions have in common: They are full of readers—people who draw on many different sources and traditions and perspectives to come up with their own set of ideas and beliefs. This is dangerous, all this free thinking! It’s also necessary for a functioning democracy. In 1989, I lived and studied in what was then the Soviet Union, and there I met people who had risked their lives to pass illegal writing from hand to hand. It was an Underground Railroad for books. So read because you can, because even with the book bans, you live in a country
(and especially a state) where you can read anything you want, and that is worth fighting for.
Speeches like this are always full of advice. I’m not sure anyone remembers it. So instead, I’m going to issue three challenges, because if there’s one thing I’ve learned during my 11 years at Roxbury Latin, it’s that RL boys like a challenge. So consider these the three dragons you have to slay. Thankfully, not all at once.
But the first, I’m sorry to say, arrives this summer. You saw it coming, right?
Read a book! Totally nonrequired, no one’s going to be testing you. Do it because attention is like a muscle, and if you don’t exercise it, it will wither. Reading is your bench press. See if you can read for 15 minutes without picking up your phone. Do that a few times and then try for 30. Let yourself fall into the world the writer is trying to create. It’s not the same rush as TikTok, but it’s a deeper, more lasting kind of pleasure. Take
your book to the beach. Read a few pages at night before bed. Don’t know what to read? Ask your aunt or uncle what their favorite book is and why. Read it and then talk to them about it. That way, you’re not only paying attention to a book, you’re connecting with another person, which is the highest form of attention.
Second challenge, and this is about the next four years: Don’t let AI read for you. Every time you outsource this task, you are chipping away at your own humanity. Maybe there are exceptions—a scientific paper or a Supreme Court case, where you really just need the gist. But the only way to truly understand something is to immerse yourself in it. An LLM can tell you what happens in a story, as we saw, but it won’t tell you how the light filters into a room or the snow sparkles on a roof, or how a young peasant experiences the transcendent moment of death. Life is about noticing these things, and writers remind us what is worth noticing.
Other people are worth noticing, and reading helps you develop empathy. As the wonderful writer Jeanette Winterson says: “The Greek myths of Echo and Narcissus warn us of the dangers of recognizing no reality but our own. Art is a way into other realities, other personalities.” She says, “When I let myself be affected by a book, I let myself into new customs and new desires.”6
Whether you go on to become a banker, a software engineer, a doctor, a marine biologist, a lawyer, a filmmaker, or best of all, a teacher, thinking about the person or creature at the other end of your work will only make you better at what you do. RL has instilled so many good habits in you. Hang on to them.
Finally, this third challenge is one you’ll forget the minute you walk out of here, but I hope I’m planting a seed that will sprout in 10 or 20 years.
If you have a child, please read to them. I hate to call this a dragon, but who knows what childhood will look like in 2045? Reading might really be a radical act! So tell your parents to save a box of your favorite books and then take them out when the time comes. Take out Moo Baa La La
La and Make Way for Ducklings and Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel and Winnie the Pooh and Tacky the Penguin, and Where the Wild Things Are.
And when your child gets a little older, see if you can hook them with this opening line: “Mr. and Mrs. Dursley of Number 4 Privet Drive were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.”7 And then you and your child (and Harry and his friends) are off, confronting evil, but also growing up, aware of your “ultimate solitude and interconnectedness,” and realizing that just when you think you’re most alone, there’s an Order of the Phoenix at your side, ready to remind you of what is true and just and beautiful in this world.
We in this room are like that Order of the Phoenix. So, as you get ready to leave this extraordinary school and continue your journey to become better, fuller humans, lean on us. And keep reading
1 See “Why Children’s Books?” by Katherine Rundell, London Review of Books, February 6, 2025.
2 Michele Elam, “Poetry Will Not Optimize,” American Literature, Volume 95, Number 2, June 2023.
3 George Saunders discusses this story in his master class on Russian literature, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain.
4 I am indebted to D. Graham Burnett for this metaphor (and language) and for his writing on attention, which has profoundly shaped my thinking. See his book, Attensity! A Manifesto for the Attention Liberation Movement (forthcoming 2026).
5 Deep thanks to Oliver Cook ’25 for bringing this story to my attention and discussing it with me.
6 From Jeanette Winterson’s Art Objects: Essays on Ecstasy and Effrontery, 1997.
7 This is of course the opening line of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling.
An ISL Three-peat
VARSITY TENNIS WINS 2025 ISL TITLE AND FINISHES SECOND IN NEW ENGLAND CHAMPIONSHIPS
“We loved coaching this team because of its never lose attitude,” says Head Coach Ousmane Diop, on behalf of himself and Assistant Coach JB Gough ’13. “We had to win two road matches against our toughest competition to keep our ISL title, which shows the character of this team. One highlight from the season is the senior captains’ leadership and performances. Cole was undefeated at #1 singles the whole season, and Daniel did not lose a match at #3 singles in the ISL. Both played together in doubles as the #1 team and were undefeated in the ISL. They inspired us all to give our best throughout the season.”
Roxbury Latin’s Varsity Tennis team won its last regular season match against St. Mark’s School on May 16 to finish undefeated in the ISL (15-0) for the third year in a row. Their success this season also earned the team its tenth ISL title since 2011. Cole Oberg (I) (captain), Daniel Stepanyan (I)(captain), Xavier Martin (I), Tom Pogorelec (II), Avish Kumar (II), Tanner Oberg (III), Sid Chalamalasetty (III), Eric Archerman (III), and Nayan Patel (IV) had memorable performances. As a team, they had an incredible 84-6 record in singles in the ISL.
Their success in the ISL earned the team an invitation to play in the New England Tournament as the #2 seed. RL started strong, beating BB&N in the quarterfinals and Middlesex in the semifinals, each by a score of 4-0. The finals took place at Deerfield Academy on May 18. The team faced Greenwich Country Day, the #1 seed. The score was 1-0 after RL’s doubles #1 (Cole and Daniel) and doubles #2 (Tom and Tanner) played well and won their matches. The team needed three more points to win it all, and secured another point when Cole won his at #1 singles. Unfortunately, Greenwich Country Day players started making a comeback and won close matches against our remaining singles players, including down-to-the-wire super tiebreakers to decide it all. Despite the valiant effort of all players, Greenwich Country secured the win. “Losing always hurts in sports, but it’s also an opportunity to learn, improve, and come back stronger,” says Mr. Diop
Finishing Strong
TRACK AND FIELD EARNS SECOND PLACE FINISHES
ISL CHAMPIONSHIP AND NEW ENGLANDS
In the first 4x100m relay event, the team of Bruno Kim (I), co-captain Alex Giordano (I), Nate Kelly (IV), and Andrew Giordano (III) earned sixth place overall and second in their heat, earning one point for RL. In the next event, the 1500m run, James Kerr (III) finished in first place, securing ten points for the team and RL’s first win of the day. Additionally, James’s time of 3:58.70 set a new school record in this event. Ryan Miller (I) finished in third place in the 110m Hurdles, adding six more points to the team’s total. In the following event, the 400m dash, Noah Abdur Rahim (I) placed third overall, securing another six points for RL. RL’s second victory came in the 800m run when Levi Harrison (I) came in first place, earning ten points. Richie Federico (II) also added four points to the board for coming in fourth in this event.
The 4×400 relay race came down to the wire, with the team of Noah, Richie, Levi, and co-captain Benji Macharia (I) finishing first overall with a time of 3:39.01. This time earned the relay team the number four finish in RL’s history in this event. Nitin Muniappan (II) secured first place in the Javelin Throw, adding ten points to the team’s score, while Dante LaMonica (III) earned the team two points with his fifth-place finish. Alex and Drew Anderson (II) finished fourth and fifth in the Triple Jump, earning RL a crucial six points. In the day’s final event, Ryan secured ten points for the team with a first-place finish in the Pole Vault while setting a new school record with a mark of 14-1. With all the points tallied, RL earned a solid second-place finish with 92 points.
Roxbury Latin’s Varsity Track and Field team arrived at the ISL Championship on May 11, hoping to improve upon last year’s fifth-place overall finish. Not only did they do this, securing a second-place overall finish, but the day also included new school records, top-ten placements in the school’s history, and a group of boys leaving the meet as ISL Champions in their respective events. The meet was exciting from start to finish, with the points needed to surpass Milton for second being earned in the final three events. This finish was the team’s highest point total in 12 years, the last being when the team won the ISL Championship in 2013. “We had an amazing day,” said Head Coach Erin Dromgoole. “We left nothing out there on the track or in the fields.”
After the team’s success in the ISL Championships came the New England Championship meet, where the team once again earned second place overall. Ryan and James secured first-place finishes in their respective events and completed the difficult task of winning back-to-back championship competitions. Chase Sullivan (IV) set the freshman record in the long jump with a 20’ 4.5” leap, while Nate broke his own freshman record in the 200m dash
Flynn Hall (III) and Ryan finished in fourth and sixth, respectively, in the 300m hurdles, adding five points to the tally. Flynn’s time of 42.63 secured him the number ten spot in RL’s history in this event. In the 200m dash, Alex finished in fourth place overall, earning four points for the team and catapulting him to the number two all-time result for this event with a time of 22.48. In the 3000m run, James finished in third overall, adding six more points to the score.
c lass i varsity
athletic awards
Soccer
Jaden Barrack-Anidi
Lacrosse
Johnny Price
Hockey
Ben Dearden
Tennis
Cole Oberg
Football
Noah Abdur Rahim
Basketball
Jack Hynes
Track & Field
Ryan Miller
Cross Country
Levi Harrison
Wrestling
Justin Lim
Baseball
Matt Taglieri
Spring Family Day
AN AFTERNOON OF FUN, FAMILY, AND FOOD AS CROWDS TURN OUT TO CHEER ON VARSITY TEAMS
On May 3, crowds donned in Roxbury Latin red and black flocked to O’Keeffe Field, Chauncey Diamond, and the RL courts for Spring Family Day. Alumni, students, families, and faculty enjoyed a BBQ lunch under the arches of the IAF and cheered on members of RL’s Varsity Baseball, Lacrosse, and Tennis teams in contests through the afternoon. Varsity Lacrosse came up just short against Governor’s (10–12); Varsity Baseball defeated St. Mark’s (9–4); and Varsity Tennis was victorious over Brooks (7–0). Off campus, RL’s Varsity Track and Field team placed second in its meet against Milton, Belmont Hill, and BB&N.
As the spring season concluded, all four Varsity teams emerged with strong and successful seasons, including Varsity Baseball finishing the regular season seeded #1 in the ISL, and Varsity Lacrosse completing a winning 8-7 season record, besting both Middlesex and Groton as the league consolation tournament winners. Read about Varsity Tennis and Varsity Track and Field on pages 40-43.
Roll Foxes
THIRTY-THREE RL VARSITY
ATHLETES EARNED ISL AND NEPSAC HONORS DURING THE SPRING SEASON
Congratulations to our Varsity athletes who received ISL and NEPSAC recognition for their outstanding performance during the spring season:
Track and Field
Noah Abdur Rahim (I)
ISL All-League, All-NEPSAC
Drew Anderson (II)
ISL Honorable Mention
Richie Federico (II)
ISL All-League, All-NEPSAC
Alex Giordano (I)
ISL Honorable Mention, AllNEPSAC
Andrew Giordano (III)
ISL Honorable Mention, AllNEPSAC
Flynn Hall (III)
ISL Honorable Mention, AllNEPSAC
Levi Harrison (I)
ISL All-League, All-NEPSAC
Nathaniel Kelly (IV)
ISL Honorable Mention, AllNEPSAC
James Kerr (III)
ISL All-League, All-NEPSAC
Bruno Kim (I)
ISL Honorable Mention, AllNEPSAC
Ezra Klauber (I)
All-NEPSAC
Dante LaMonica (III)
ISL Honorable Mention, NEPSAC Honorable Mention
Benji Macharia (I)
ISL All-League, All-NEPSAC
Ryan Miller (I)
ISL All-League, All-NEPSAC
Nitin Muniappan (II)
ISL All-League, All-NEPSAC
Fin Reichard (II)
All-NEPSAC
Baseball
James Gibbons (II)
ISL All-League, NEPSAC Honorable Mention, ISL Underclassman AllStar Game
Tom Pender (I)
ISL MVP, Boston Globe/Herald All Scholastic, ISL Gold Glove Team Award, ISL All-League, All-NEPSAC
Patrick Long (III)
ISL Honorable Mention
Braden Place (II)
ISL All-League, All-NEPSAC, ISL Underclassman All-Star Game
Colin Roache (III)
ISL Underclassman All-Star Game
Liam Russell (I)
ISL Honorable Mention
Matt Taglieri (I)
ISL Honorable Mention, NEPSAC Honorable Mention
Lacrosse
Kevin Brennan (II)
ISL Honorable Mention, NEPSAC Honorable Mention
Taylor Cotton (I)
ISL Honorable Mention, AllNEPSAC
Michael DiLallo (II)
US Lacrosse Academic AllAmerican, ISL Honorable Mention, NEPSAC Honorable Mention
Mark Mattaliano (III)
ISL All-League, NEPSAC All-League
Thomas Mitchell (III) ISL Honorable Mention
Johnny Price (I)
ISL All-League, NEPSAC All-League
Marcus Rios (III) NEPSAC Honorable Mention
Tennis
Cole Oberg (I)
ISL MVP, Globe/Herald All Scholastic, ISL All-League, AllNEPSAC
Tanner Oberg (III)
ISL All-League, All-NEPSAC
Daniel Stepanyan (I)
ISL All-League, NEPSAC Honorable Mention
Spring Varsity Teams
Varsity Lacrosse — First row: Cole Gustie (Manager), Michael DiLallo, Luke Campanella, T.J. Thornton, Tucker Rose, Timmy Ryan, Taylor Cotton (Captain), Johnny Price (Captain), Michael Strojny, Lucas Numa, Jacob Strojny, Tommy Weber, Robby O’Shaughnessy, Teddy Smith (Manager), Thomas Stanton (Manager), Mateo Werner (Manager). Second row: Elliot Sawyer-Kaplan (Coach), Kyle Danehy (Coach), Tyler Dearborn, Koby Dalton, Finn Keohane, Will Erhard, Liam Millsom, Thomas Mitchell, Finn Leary, Ryan Molloy, Mark Mattaliano, Chris Lovett, Kevin Brennan, Matthew Young, Will Sutton, Thomas Mattera, Marcus Rios, Mike Higgins (Head Coach), Chris Brown (Coach).
Varsity Baseball — First row: Bryce Ketchen, Caleb Meredith, Sam Seaton, Matt Taglieri (Captain), Tom Pender (Captain), Liam Russell, Ryan Conneely, Ben McVane. Second row: Dave Cataruzolo (Head Coach), Cam Cataruzolo, Anthony Faletra, Andrew Plante, Patrick Long, James Gibbons, Braden Place, Iggy Robinson, Colin Roache, James Skeffington, Ben Samuels, Nolan Cahill, Shawn Heide ’11 (Coach).
Ryan
Chris
Chase Sullivan, Grayson Lee, Drew Anderson, Dante LaMonica, Zach Heaton, Calvin Reid, Logan McLaughlin, Richie Federico, Louie Baumal-Bardy, Chris Eaton, Andrew Giordano, Flynn Hall. Third row: Abdoulaye Bangura, Nate Kelly, Jack Kelly, Max Kesselheim, Nitin Muniappan, Liam Walsh, Auden Duda, Oliver Colbert, Simba Makura, Austin Reid, Navid Hodjat, Colin Bradley, Fin Reichard. Fourth row: Erin Dromgoole (Head Coach), Nicholas Galdo, J.P. Ward, Brian Weeks, Preston Bearce, Lincoln Hyatt, Kenneth Foster, Nicholas Glaeser, Brayden Gillespie, Jayden Hall, Paul Tompros, Tobias Harrison. Fifth row: Chris Heaton (Coach), Sam Ruscito, Tommy DiFiore, Caleb Frehywot, Romeo Borgida, James Kerr, Kolby Sahin, Temi Martins Dosumu, Arturo Solís (Coach), Jamie Morris-Kliment (Coach), Bruce Lynch (Coach). (Missing: Declan Bligh, Jon Doerer (Coach), Joshua Hua, Omar Rahman, Aiden Theodore.)
Varsity Tennis — JB Gough ’13 (Coach), Joe Meade (Manager), Nayan Patel, Avish Kumar, Tanner Oberg, Daniel Stepanyan (Captain), Cole Oberg (Captain), Xavier Martin, Tom Pogorelec, Eric Archerman, Sid Chalamalasetty, Ousmane Diop (Head Coach).
Varsity Track and Field — First row:
Miller, Levi Harrison, Darian Estrada, Robbie Sun-Friedman, Bruno Kim, Krish Muniappan, Benji Macharia (Captain), Alex Giordano (Captain), Paul Wilkinson, Nick Makura, Brendan Reichard, Miles Baumal-Bardy, Justin Lim, Lucas Connors. Second row:
Vlahos,
A Living Tribute
THE CLASS OF 1974 HONORS
RICHMOND MAYO-SMITH
On May 2, members of the Class of 1974 gathered in the Headmaster’s Garden to dedicate a newly planted Japanese maple tree in memory of former Headmaster Richmond Mayo-Smith. Class of 1974 representatives Dan Driscoll, Scott Schnapp, and Chris Dowd were joined by members of the Mayo-Smith and Palsang families, Head of School Sam Schaffer, Headmaster Emeritus Kerry Brennan, former faculty member Robert Ryan, members of the development team, and friends from other RLS classes for the dedication. A portrait of Richmond Mayo-Smith, which was commissioned by the school, was unveiled in the Refectory after the tree dedication.
During its 50th Reunion celebration in 2024, the Class of 1974 announced the establishment of the Class of 1974 Richmond MayoSmith Fund to provide financial aid for Roxbury Latin students. They established the fund with more than $500,000 in contributions. The class would like to see the fund and its impact continue to grow over time and is encouraging additional contributions from alumni who attended Roxbury Latin during the Mayo-Smith era. For further information on contributing to the fund, please contact Assistant Head of School for Advancement Tom Guden at thomas.guden@roxburylatin.org.
We Have the Word
TOM GAZIANO ’21 ADDRESSES FELLOW CLASSICS MAJORS AT NOTRE DAME GRADUATION
Engraved above the wooden doors of the main entrance to my high school rest in stone the words, Mortui Vivos Docent. “The dead teach the leaving.”
“I’ve spent the last 10 years of my life with the dead.” The latter is a line in a poem I recently wrote, and it refers to the last ten years of my life of which I have devoted to studying Latin and the Classics. A full decade ago, I sat as a seventh grader,
in a new school, aptly named Roxbury Latin, with an August midday hint of heat whispering through the windows and a fresh whiteboard waiting for dry erase ink, where I learned my first word in Latin: agricola, -ae, masculine, farmer. From then on, Latin has been the mainstay in my academic career, ever since the first sentence following that first word, which will be forever inscribed on the wall of my mind: Gallia est provincia, Gaul is a province. It was the first sentence of a language other
than English I was ever able to read and write. And I read it over and over and over, smiling while my tongue flicked behind my teeth. Language would forever transfix me.
But as the innocent bliss of those first syllables wore off, and I was confronted with the actual substance and syntax that is language, I became somewhat disillusioned. After committing to studying Classics for these last four years, I struggled to provide a profound or even authentic response to why I was majoring in the Classics. What made it worse was when my friends and roommates would ask “What even is Classics?” “Like, is that books and stuff?” “Oh is that Shakespeare?”, and I would smile. But when people asked for my ND intro, I would respond with Pre-Med, my other major, just to avoid the whole charade of having to explain what or why I studied Classics. I was confused, not with the language or the literature or the grammar, but why I was studying it at all. Like, why should I care that Gaul was a province? How does the Roman empire— and how often I think about it—do me any good? Why do I study Classics? Why do we study Classics?
The answer started to emerge from the fog of my own uncertainty in Prof. Grillo’s class on Virgil. Some of my classmates who struggled alongside me through the tortuous anxiety of who Prof. Grillo would cold-call on next may be questioning my sound judgment right now. But when our hearts weren’t palpitating with the fear of sight translation, Prof. Grillo beautifully visualized how Virgil’s poetry flowed: like a current of water, one that balanced the force, the gravitas, and the weight of Homer’s torrent of words with the delicate, light, ethereal stream of language that the Alexandrian poets championed. I was struck by Virgil’s mastery over the word, his incredible, sensitive, eternal ability to communicate the grief, the fraternity, the love, and the sacrifice that come with war, family, and loss. I never met the man, Virgil, but I met his words. And that’s when it hit me. It’s the Word that we study in Classics.
Words are humanity. They tell the tale of human history, written, sung, transmitted, translated, transcribed, transcended, descended, and revealed. Through them, literature and poetry become the Word made flesh. The Word translated from eternal
spirit and incarnated into the physical reality of ink, paper, sound, and concrete form.
The greatest gift I have received as a Classics major here at Notre Dame is an appreciation of this word, an appreciation of its weight, its complexity, its depth, of its precision within language, and the artistry behind its majesty. Words serve humanity. They communicate a Truth about us, about that sensitive, spiritual, emotional, visceral lived experience of being a human on which other disciplines, including my own other major of pre-medical science, are longingly silent. What does it feel like to graduate, leave home yet again, and start an entirely new life, in a new city, with few friends? Ask Aeneas. Seek him out across the page. Reflect on his faith in the future and his trust in his parents and his God. How am I called to balance individual career achievement with dutiful service to humanity? Turn to Plutarch’s Lives or talk to Tacitus’ Agricola—ironically the first word I learned but also a Roman statesman who lived a life of integrity and honor despite the tyranny of his own government. And what is virtue, what is love, what is truth? I believe Plato, Aristotle, and four Greek writers named Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John may have a bit of wisdom to offer.
So I think Classics is as much about personal growth as it is intellectual. By now, I know we are all critical thinkers, we are all essayists, and translators, and art critics, and datememorizers. But who are we as people? What do we have to offer our country and our world as Classics and Arabic majors and minors? We have the Word. We have the dignity of language. The ability, and the responsibility, to verbally communicate virtue, wisdom, and goodness. To share and tell the stories of the humanity we encounter around us so that we may advocate, sympathize, suffer, and rejoice with our families, our communities, and our world. Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ Λόγος. “In the beginning was the Word.” And we will always have the word, within us, and around us, on the tips of our tongues, on the white of our pages, in the music of our hearts, and in the songs of our tomorrows. There is a comfort and a peace in knowing that the Word is forever. So we can look with hope towards the new words, the new texts, and the new people wherever our tomorrows lead us next. Thank you.
Class Notes
1966
1 Members of the Class of 1966 gathered for a 59th reunion this August in Kittery, Maine. Pictured clockwise from the near left are Christine Cole, Mat Beck, Paul Kirshen, Jeff Goldbarg, Laurie Goldbarg, John Cole, Andy Gouse, Bob Powers, Jane Powers, Marilyn Tierney, and Phil Tierney.
1972
Jim Wolper retired as a full professor of mathematics at Idaho State University and relocated to the Portland, Oregon area, where he is devoting his time to writing.
He recently completed the first draft of his first novel. A poetry chapbook by Jim, titled Misdirections, will be published in October by Finishing Line Press. Jim also has a long-standing interest in Tai Chi, and one of his classmates is Marie Schram, who taught at Roxbury Latin in 2009–2010!
1974
2 Michael Astrue writes, “Laura and I are enjoying four grandchildren between the ages of 3 and 5. Not coincidentally, my first children’s book, Girlatee (Paul Dry Books, 2025), came out last March under my literary name; it received good
reviews from The Wall Street Journal and others. Next April will see the release of my thirteenth book, Petrarch’s Canzoniere (W.W. Norton, 2026), which will be the only translation that closely matches the rhyme and meter of the original.”
1998 & 2000
3 Jake Grossman ’00 bumped into Ryan Fitzgerald ’98 and Matt Fitzgerald ’00 on this year’s Pan-Mass Challenge: “They requested a pic to send into the Newsletter!! Between the three of us, we raised nearly $40,000 for Dana Farber to help fund cancer research.”
2005
4 Zack Ciccolo celebrated his marriage to Dalia Rivkin on June 29 at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville. In attendance were classmates Mike Ryan, Jared Rosenberg, Garrett Spitzer, Patrick Costello, and Steve Hepburn.
2015
5 Dario Zarrabian, Alan Balson, and Philip Balson snapped a photo after their last day of class at Stanford Graduate School of Business—10 years after their graduation from RL!
2021
Tom Gaziano recently graduated from
Notre Dame majoring in Classics and Pre-Health Studies. He was invited to deliver a convocation to his fellow graduates, their families, and the faculty for the Department of Classics ceremony. He wrote, “The opportunity to speak invited me to reflect back on my entire career in the Classics, taking me back to where I began, at an all-boys school in West Roxbury. I wanted to deliver a speech that was a tribute to the Classics as well as a personal testimony to my journey through them and how, ultimately, I have come to appreciate the weight of words. I wanted to share it with [the Roxbury Latin faculty] who first cultivated and inspired my love of this discipline.” (Read Tom’s full address on page 54.)
2023
6 This summer Harry Lonergan caught up with Tyler Duarte while representing O’Neill and Associates at the Massachusetts State House. Harry writes, “It was great to learn about Tyler’s experience in the office of Representative Bud Williams and talk about how both of our jobs have put us in the same room as policy makers in the Commonwealth. Always great to see a friend—especially one similarly interested in government and public service!”
In Memoriam
Fred Reis ’52 passed away peacefully on June 7, just shy of his 91st birthday, after a brief illness. A Navy Captain, professor, policy analyst, writer, and lifelong student of history and governance, Fred was above all a fiercely loyal and quietly generous friend, godfather, cousin, and correspondent. Born in Boston, Fred went on to attend Harvard University and Stanford University. He served with distinction in the U.S. Navy for over 30 years, both on active duty and in the Naval Reserves, ultimately retiring as a Captain. His work spanned naval intelligence, submarine salvage, medical readiness, and strategic planning for defense reform. He later taught political science and worked with organizations including the Library of Congress on leadership and systems development.
Fred’s intellect was matched by his humility. He approached life with a
scholar’s mind and a pastor’s heart— questioning systems, chronicling history, and always reaching out to others. His annual Christmas letters— often humorous, always thoughtful— offered a steady thread of connection across generations and geographies.
“I’m still a pretty fair tour guide,” he once wrote. And indeed, he was— offering perspective, insight, and care that anchored those lucky enough to know him.
Though unmarried and without children, Fred created a chosen family of cousins (near and far), goddaughters, Navy colleagues, and their children. He never missed a birthday or life event if he could help it, and he never stopped checking in—decades after most others had drifted. Friends and relatives describe him as the person who never forgot, never dropped the ball,
and never let distance weaken a bond. He always put others first, and never made any friendship about himself. He traveled widely, read voraciously, served honorably, and gave generously— supporting a number of causes and institutions close to his heart.
In his final days, Fred was fortunate to be visited by cousins from Canada, a gift of timing that brought peace and comfort in his last hours. Fred leaves behind his goddaughters, many cousins across the U.S. and Canada, and a wide circle of devoted friends, mentees, and former colleagues. His legacy is one of enduring loyalty, principled service, intellectual rigor, and a life lived with quiet grace.
Fred’s RL classmate and friend Ed McGowan offered this brief send off to Fred: “Bless, our dear Lord, our classmate, Fred Reis. Conduct him on his
voyage to bright Paradise, serene Peace. Lead him to Eternity’s gateway. You shall forever remain in our hearts. Godspeed, requescas in pace.”
Robert Holland ’56, of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, died August 25. Born in Waltham, Robert attended Dartmouth College, Harvard Graduate School of Education, and Indiana University as a student, and taught at The American School in Switzerland, Drexel University, and The University of Akron as director of English composition and master of the University Honors Program. Robert volunteered at Habitat for Humanity and WEYE Reading Service. He was an instrument-rated pilot, a classical pianist, and a student of Chinese language and culture. He is survived by his daughters Jessica Holland and Libby Kozak, and their husbands, as well as his three granddaughters and their partners.
Michael Lydon ’61 was born in Boston, the fifth of six children of Patrick
and Alice (Joyce) Lydon. His father was a foreman at the local telephone company. Michael earned a scholarship to Roxbury Latin and, after graduating, won another to attend Yale, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in American history in 1965. A founding editor of Rolling Stone and a long-time music journalist, Michael died on July 30 in New York City, at the age of 82, from complications of Parkinson’s disease.
Early in his journalism career, he turned his attention to writing about music— and, by the dawn of the 1970s, to writing and performing music himself, learning the trade with a flat-top Gibson guitar and a Bob Dylan songbook. With his eclectic musical tastes, he formed a cabaret act with Ellen Mandel, who played piano and sang, and whom he began dating in 1970 and married in 1981. Starting in the late 1990s, Michael released four albums of pop-jazz on Brite Records, a label he started with his wife. He also developed a nightclub
comedy act called “The Handsomest Man in the World.”
During his career, Michael wrote for publications such as Newsweek, The Boston Globe, and The New York Times, as well as Rolling Stone. His work documented the rock era of the 1960s and 70s, chronicling legends such the Grateful Dead, the Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin, and Jimi Hendrix. After attending Yale, Michael worked as a correspondent for Newsweek in London. John Lennon, of Beatles fame, was interviewed by Michael in 1966. Newsweek transferred Michael to San Francisco in 1967, and he recalled on his website, “The Fillmore and Avalon Ballrooms were my beat, Janis Joplin and Jerry Garcia my inside sources.”
As a New York Times obituary of Michael included, in his own words: “‘Exciting days—kids my own age beaming big ideas through electric music. At concerts and communes
Fred Reis ’52
Robert Holland ’56
Michael Lydon ’61
I heard friendly encouragement to be myself. I let my hair grow long and quit Newsweek.’ He also met Jann Wenner, who was starting a new magazine for and by the rock generation, to be called Rolling Stone, and soon offered Mr. Lydon a job as one of his top lieutenants.” Michael left his post at Rolling Stone after a few issues and moved to “a hippie hut near Mendocino… He nonetheless continued to write for Rolling Stone, including a 1969 Grateful Dead tour chronicle.” He never abandoned writing; he published nearly 20 books over the years, including Ray Charles: Man and Music (1998) and The Rolling Stones Discover America (1970), his account of the band’s star-crossed 1969 tour.
In addition to his wife, Michael is survived by his daughter, Shuna Lydon, from his first marriage, to Susan Gordon, and his two brothers, Peter and Christopher.
Yale Bohn ’68 of Yardley, Pennsylvania, passed away on July 13. Yale grew up in Newton, and attended Brandeis University after Roxbury Latin, earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology. Yale had a fascinating and fulfilling career centered around equity in healthcare. He earned an M.S. in population sciences at Harvard’s School of Public Health, performing research work in Haiti before transitioning to a J.D. from Boston University. During the process of becoming a lawyer, he met the love of his life, Lori Karp, whom he married in 1986. They had a son, Josh, and a daughter, Rachel, and built a home in Yardley.
Yale also achieved an L.L.M. in taxation from Boston University and began his career in a variety of law firms before finding his way back to his true passion: healthcare law. He worked for a decade as general counsel and vice president for the University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro. There, he served on the Biomedical Ethics
Committee, emblematic of his lifelong passion for healthcare ethics and privacy issues. He brought these passions with him to the law firms of Troutman Pepper and Goodwin Procter, where he continued his practice of health care law.
Yale was known for his deep appreciation for history, etymology, and science fiction, and was a lifelong fan of Star Wars and Star Trek. He cherished his time with his wife, children, and extended family, including his sonin-law Jason Diaz; his sister Ellen and brother-in-law Mark Gitlitz; and his beloved dogs Ginger, Milo, Remi, and Charly. He maintained a lifelong friendship with his best friend, Charlie Sidman.
Steven Ehrenberg ’74, an admired veteran of the theatre industry who worked for decades in technical and production management, passed away at age 69 from a heart attack on April 23 in Brooklyn, New York.
Yale Bohn ’68
Steven Ehrenberg ’74
David Mittell
Giving invaluable support to many of the important theatermakers, dancers, and musicians of the day, Steven was also instrumental in renovating and reviving some of the best-loved theatre venues across the U.S. and around the world.
Steven grew up in Newton; he worked and played at Camp Kabeyun in Alton Bay, New Hampshire, for many summers. As a counselor there, Steven—along with his brother, and their fellow camp counselor David Hyde Pierce—continued the tradition of putting on Gilbert and Sullivan shows. After Roxbury Latin, Steven attended Columbia University, and despite living in New York for more than fifty years, he remained a lifelong Red Sox fan who was not to be trusted in Yankee Stadium.
Steven had been involved in the arts— theatre, dancing, music—from a young age. He co-founded Stageright Inc. in 1986 and became a stalwart of the Off-Broadway scene, with such notable clients as Steve Reich, Martha Clarke, Twyla Tharp, Music Theatre Group, and Julie Taymor. Other career highlights included his theatrical consulting and production management firm Eberg Stage Solution, serving as production manager for Blue Man Group, as vice president of technical supervision at Live Nation, and director of production at Kings Theatre, Brooklyn.
Steven was instrumental in renovating many theatres across the country including the Boston Opera House and Emerson Colonial Theatre, Baltimore’s
Hippodrome, The Phantom of the Opera Las Vegas theatre at the Venetian, the Jersey Boys theatre at the Palazzo, the Kings Theatre in Brooklyn, and the Hudson Theatre on Broadway. Steven was also involved in the renovation and building of theatres as far from home as Singapore and Macau.
He enjoyed spending his time visiting the farmers’ market, cooking, baking and attending various shows with family and friends. He led with kindness and compassion in everything he did and was a fierce and loyal friend. He volunteered extensively, putting his cooking skills to good use for the Hurricane Sandy Relief Kitchen and many other charitable endeavors. Like his mother, he loved the ocean, both beaches and boats, and he loved to sing. Like his father, he had a passion for social justice and politics. He loved deeply and was deeply loved by his cats and many nieces, nephews, cousins, and close family friends.
Steven’s single greatest joy was being a true partner to his beloved wife, Temah Higgins, to whom he was married for more than 23 years. He is survived by Temah; his brothers Kurt and Chuck; his stepfather Donald; his Uncle Irwin; and his 16 nieces and nephews, to whom he was cool and clever Uncle Steven.
Longtime Roxbury Latin coach, David Mittell of Jamaica Plain, passed away peacefully on June 19, after a long illness. David was a graduate of Noble and Greenough School and Harvard College. At Roxbury Latin, he
was the son of longtime trustee David Mittell Sr. and was a perennial coach of lower team sports—including soccer, hockey, and tennis—throughout the 1980s and 90s. His joys in life were his friends, his travels, reading history and biography, historic preservation, and his participation in and commentary on the body politic. A man of opinions, his introduction to journalism was a column published in the inaugural edition of the Marshfield Mariner in April 1972. He later joined the Mariner chain as its chief editorial writer and began his signed opinion column “Politicus.” He became a columnist at the Patriot Ledger in 1996. In 1998, he joined the Providence Journal as a columnist and editorial writer, later serving on the editorial board. In 2008, the 1,000th column of “Politicus” was published. After leaving the Journal, he syndicated “Politicus” on a freelance basis, served as an unpaid senior fellow at the Pioneer Institute, and hosted the weekly “D.A. Mittell Show” on WATD in Marshfield. His many dear friends treasured his friendship, integrity, intelligence, humor, and style. They remained devoted during his last five years of hospital and nursing home care. David was a lifelong resident of Jamaica Plain and cared deeply for that community. At every station of his life and career, he mentored students and young writers and was instrumental in bringing several Ukrainian students to the U.S. for their studies. In addition to his friends, he leaves his brothers, Jonathan and Nicholas; his sister, Betsey Houghton; his nephew, Winslow Houghton; and niece, Haley Gentile.
Under the Big Top: My Return to Campus
by Mike Pojman
To some degree, every senior class, approaching graduation, believes that Roxbury Latin, greatly diminished by its departure, must inevitably face an uncertain future— something akin to the decline of Barnum & Bailey when they dropped their elephant act. While I will not confess to having similar apprehensions as I faced my own retirement, the thought did occur to me (admittedly ego-driven) that the school, while not exactly ready to fold its tent, would never be the same without me.
But now, a full two years hence, I can reassure you that my unease was unfounded. By all reports from those under the Big Top, the school is thriving (and so, in case you are wondering, am I). And after two months of temporary un-retirement last spring—subbing for the charismatic young Blake Sundel on paternity leave—I can now say with some authority that everything I saw at the post-Pojman RL confirmed everything I had heard: the One True School continues to prosper in every way, every day.
Upon my return to campus on that first day back from Spring Break, I had an argument with myself as to whether or not to park in a VISITOR space. (I won.) As I made my way past the cars of the early arrivers, I recognized those of my faculty friends parked in their usual slots, and that was reassuring. But there were also unfamiliar Hondas, Outbacks, and Broncos scattered throughout the lot, and that gave me pause. Could it be, I pondered as I walked toward the front doors, that contrary to the familiar adage, the more things change the more they actually do change?
Crossing my path were hordes of sixies (none of whom I recognized) and a gaggle of fifthies (a couple of whom I did, having taught their fathers), scurrying about like ants to get
to homeroom on time. The older boys—juniors and seniors particularly—moved more slowly, less concerned about arriving late, or perhaps more practiced at projecting an air of nonchalance. One now-sophomore, nearly a half-a-foot taller than when I’d taught him two years earlier, met me with a smile. “You’ve grown, John,” I greeted him back, with some amazement. “Thank you very much, Mr. Pojman,” he replied proudly, as if I had paid him a compliment for which he could take full credit. Throughout the day a trio of seniors expressed obvious surprise that I was back: Foregoing a more conventional greeting, the first asked abruptly, “What are you doing here?” Pointing out his unintended impertinence, I replied, “Let’s try that again, Connor. How about something like, ‘Hello, Mr. Pojman, it’s nice to see you.’” “Hello, Mr. Pojman, it’s nice to see you,” he corrected himself. “But what are you doing here?” he continued, this time with intentional cheekiness. A second boy offered his own assessment: “Apparently you are weaning yourself off Roxbury Latin very slowly.” A third summed it up thusly: “The greatest RL myth is that Mr. Pojman has actually retired.” Nonetheless, I concluded that all three were glad to see me.
Spending two and a half months teaching fifthie English was a delight. Not only did it allow me to work my magic in the
classroom once again (some of the old tricks still worked!) and to reconnect with former colleagues over lunch each day, it also gave me a welcomed opportunity to reengage with the school community from the inside out, rather than peering foggily from the outside in. I was thrilled to get to know a half dozen young teachers who had joined the faculty since I retired, all promising—dare I say exceptional—young men and women who are ably filling the voids left by revered departing veterans: Anthony D’Amato for Paul Sugg, Lisa Kostur for Hunter White, and Erin Sutton for Brian Buckley, each a rising star. Under the visionary guidance of show runner and Director of Dramatics Matt Phillips, 72 (!) aspiring thespians from grades seven through twelve took their bows at the closing curtain of last spring’s “Night of Scenes,” a highwater mark for the drama scene at the school. Energetic Penn Fellow Jon Doerer is helping the ever-upbeat Matt Golden to sustain a safe, vibrant football program in a challenging climate for contact sports. And they even co-directed a couple of skits for the “Night of Scenes.”
By all accounts Head of School Sam Schaffer has taken over the reins from the redoubtable Kerry Brennan with aplomb, meeting individually with each member of the faculty and staff during his first months on the job—listening and learning—
while tactfully rolling out his own plans for the present and future RL. He made it a point to learn the name of each boy within the first few weeks of school, all three hundred of them, and he engages with them comfortably as he moves throughout the school. Clearly, he is immersed to the gills in everyday school life, and loving it.
Of course, the present generation of veterans—John Lieb, Ousmane Diop, Rob Opdycke, Misty Beardsley, Josh Cervas, and Erin Dromgoole, to name but a few of the many— continue to do what Roxbury Latin does best: to know and love each boy, and in so doing to prod and inspire him to aim high and be his best self. Lest you had any doubt, Roxbury Latin is alive and doing very well, thank you.
I must admit that it was tough to make my exit for a second time in June, my temporary un-retirement completed, but as I backed my car out of that VISITOR space (I hope I never again feel I belong in one), I returned to my previous pondering, convinced and reassured that at Roxbury Latin the more things change the more they actually do stay the same— in all the right ways.
