UHS Journal Fall 2019

UHS Journal

SAN FRANCISCO UNIVERSITY HIGH SCHOOL FALL 2019

UHS

SAN FRANCISCO UNIVERSITY HIGH SCHOOL FALL 2019 VOL. XXX, NO. 1

Journal

UNIVERSE from the Head; Meet 2 Letter Our New Faculty and Staff; Welcome, Alexandra Simmons: Dean of Students; At My Desk: Ozzie Nevarez By Cameron Ehsan �20; Record-Breaking Decorator Showcase Raises $1M for Financial Aid; PA Arts Auxiliary, Take a Bow!; Campus Roundup; Runway to Resilience By Micherice Tao �19; 2019 Alumni Honors Recipients Jaime Teevan, PhD, ’94 and Minh Tsai ’89/SB ’85; Graduation 2019: A Call to Action; Class of 2019 College Admission Statistics

FEATURES

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FRY ENTERPRISE OPTIMIZED Students Employ Strategies Learned at Entrepreurialism Boot Camp

By Roxie Miles ’19

THREE ALUMNI TRUSTEES WITNESS THE CHANGING WORKPLACE

By Devan Paul ’20

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THE FUTURE OF HOMEWORK IS HERE

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HIRING MANAGER’S POV: You Can Combine Your Passion with Your Profession

By Jack Segal ’14

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UHS ALUMNI ASSOCIATION CASE STUDY: Good Old-Fashioned Networking Still Works

By Taylor Lee ’14

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GERALD HUFF ’81, 1964–2018

By Stephen Kuhn ’80

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REMEMBERING ANN POGREL, 1945–2019; UHS Science Instructor, 1992–2009

By Nasif Iskander

ALUMNI

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Reunion at Showcase Holiday Party Class Notes What's Your One Degree Experience?

REBORN TO RUN

By Ella Shenkar ’19 Pizza Party!

Connect Online!

PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE OF WORK

By Yekaterina Savchuk

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IN MEMORIAM

Claire Espinosa ’21, Jiho Lee ’21, and Amelie Scheil ’21, co-presidents of the student Artivism Club, at the San Francisco Women's March on January 19, 2019.

2018-2019 ANNUAL REPORT

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Board Chair Letter Treasurer Letter Parents Association Letter Alumni Association Letter New Trustees Fundraising Donor Recognition Thank You to Our Volunteers Support UHS and Summerbridge

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HEADLINES

Letter from the Head of School

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have remained in the family business for the entirety of my career, but the era of being a company (wo)man may be over. No longer does the youngest cohort in our workforce “pay one’s dues” for the promise of stability, promotion, and a pension. The burgeoning gig economy, the growth of investment in startups, the rising cost of living, and profound questions about the role of artificial intelligence are making us all rethink the future of work.

In this issue of the UHS Journal, alumni and parents from across the decades and within various sectors of work share their perspectives on this ever-shifting landscape, and UHS administrators consider ways that we are responding.

No doubt, these questions nag at us as educators, but on top of augmenting and expanding our curriculum, UHS faculty find comfort in witnessing UHS students in action. They teach us, every day, about the value of authenticity, wholeness, and interconnection. We get to observe their capacity for complex problem solving and their commitment to social justice, and we know that their power can only exist in a context in which our students feel recognized and empowered in all aspects of school life.

An alumna from the Class of 2017 recently came by my office for a visit. A rising senior at Columbia—majoring in economics, with a minor in East Asian studies—she had served as student representative on our strategic design committee while she was at UHS. That experience augmented her academic experience in ways that continue

Julia Russell Eells, head of school

to inform her decision-making as she enters the work world.

In a follow-up email to me, she wrote, “I feel lucky to have been a student at this school and had the privilege to learn from a faculty so committed to crafting the best possible educational experience. I’m also grateful that you gave me a chance to be a part of this [committee] process during my junior and senior years—it has clearly evolved into much more than I could have imagined at the time, but I’m glad I was able to contribute what I could, and, as I mentioned, that experience has had a direct impact in shaping my current professional interests!”

Over the past several years, we have seen a huge uptick in students building upon their UHS education through their involvement in organizations and activities such as Model UN, Girls Who Code, Science Olympiad, and city youth councils. Our community engagement program provides our students with a keen

sense of the social issues that are affecting our neighborhoods and cities, and affinity spaces, leadership conferences, and clubs with causes have expanded on campus, showing us that our students are creating meaningful contexts in which they can leverage their classroom learning.

Members of this generation want more from their workplace— they want to contribute, feel valued, make an impact. In a recent study of our own workforce at UHS, we learned that faculty and staff feel firmly connected to the school’s mission and impact, and that they value their autonomy, flexibility, and permission for creativity. These components are foundational for a healthy workplace and for ensuring that we attract and retain the most diverse, talented, and experienced professionals.

The multi-generational family business that I was lucky enough to enter is education—and, from my perspective, work in schools

has the potential to be one of the most dynamic places for those seeking meaning and impact from their work. I feel grounded and fortunate every day to invest my work time in a field that is preparing the next generation to find the same sense of meaning and purpose in whatever lives and careers lie ahead for them.

This issue of the Journal is also the Annual Report issue, and I am happy to celebrate the fact that we surpassed all records of philanthropy in every giving category—the Annual Fund, Summerbridge, Decorator Showcase and capital giving—in the 2018–19 fiscal year. On behalf of our grateful students, faculty, and staff, I want to convey our heartfelt thanks for your belief in the promise of every UHS student and for your partnership in securing our transformational vision.

Julia Russell Eells 2

U H S J O U R N A L | FALL 2019

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WELCOME TO THE UHS TEAM! Meet Our New Faculty and Staff

Left to right, back row: Eric Johnson, Alexandra Simmons, Free Gary, Tim Sanders, Elena Hobden. Middle row: Cat Parmalee, Jenn Soult, Emma Hartmann, Daniel Crowell. Front row: Otelima Abraham, Adrian Acu, Tamara Foster, Carina Wang. (Not pictured: Alezja Metts, Joel Chapman.)

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his fall, University High School welcomes fifteen new employees. The beginning of a new school year brings a feeling of promise and anticipation for faculty and staff as well as for students, as we meet new members of our community and are exposed to new scholarship and practices.

New Faculty

Joining the English Department this fall is Adrian Acu. Adrian has taught a variety of courses at UC Berkeley, where he is a PhD candidate, and he is looking forward to connecting with UHS students and families. He received a BA in philosophy and English from the University

of Notre Dame and an MA in English from SUNY Buffalo.

Last year, we were fortunate to welcome Joel Chapman into the Music Department. This fall, we are pleased to have him on the faculty once again, as he takes on more music classes and expands his outreach to UHS students. Joel is an experienced conductor, bass-baritone, and songwriter. He sings professionally with Volti, a San Francisco– based choral ensemble that performs and animates new works, and he is the co-creator of Gravity, a new musical most recently staged at the Brava Theater in the Mission. Joel received a BA in music, with a focus on vocal performance and

conducting, and an MA in music, science, and technology, from Stanford University.

Tamara Foster joins UHS as assistant librarian during Nicole Hunter’s one-year sabbatical.

After receiving an MBA from Purdue University, Tamara was a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras and worked in nonprofit management at CrossCultural Solutions in New York, the Resurrection Project in Chicago, and, locally, at Brava Theater Center and First 5 San Francisco. She recently received a master of library and information science degree from San Jose State University and has been working at the San Francisco School and as an on-call librarian

for the San Francisco Unified School District.

Emma Hartmann joins UHS this fall as a biology teacher.

Emma comes to us from Annie Wright Schools in Tacoma, Washington. She is a graduate of Eckerd College, where she received a BA in biology and environmental studies, and Seattle Pacific University, where she earned a master’s degree in teaching math and science.

Eric Johnson joins UHS this fall as a new biology instructor.

Eric’s love for biology and community health began a an undergraduate at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he translated topics of life science

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UNIVERSE into real-world community outcomes. He continued his studies in graduate school at San Francisco State University, obtaining an MS in cell and molecular biology. At SFSU, Eric utilized his lens as a scientist to address health disparities in the Bay Area. Eric brings his love for science, education, and community health to UHS, with hopes of engaging young minds on the topics he is passionate about.

Also joining the Science Department this fall is Tim Sanders.Tim has been an educator for 10 years, teaching chemistry, engineering, physics, AP calculus, college math, and pre-calculus.

He received a BS in physics from Chicago State University and an MS in astrophysics from San Francisco State University, and gained teaching experience

as a PhysTECH Fellow at Chicago State University, where he focused on inquiry-based learning models and different pedagogy for teaching physics.

Carina Wang joins us as a Mandarin instructor this fall.

Carina has taught beginner to advanced Chinese language and literature classes at the French American International School, the Bay School of San Francisco, and St. Matthew’s Episcopal Day School in San Mateo, and was a Japanese language instructor in her hometown of Shanghai.

She enjoys sharing her Chinese cultural knowledge with students and helping them build confidence in their language learning.

She received an MA in East Asian studies from Columbia University and a BA from Shanghai International Studies University.

New Staff

Otelima Abraham joins the Technology Department as technology support analyst.

Otelima has been working in information technology for more than 15 years. For the past three years, she has been working at the Castilleja School in Palo Alto, where she gained familiarity with the technology and culture of independent schools. She has a BA in mass communication and computer science from the University of Maiduguri in Nigeria.

Daniel Crowell joins the Business Office as controller.

Dan has more than 20 years of accounting experience, and most recently worked at Sonoma Academy in Santa Rosa, where he spent nine years learning

the ins and outs of nonprofit accounting. He has a BS in Business Administration— Accounting from Sonoma State University, and is currently pursuing his CPA license. When he’s not crunching numbers or spending time with his family, Daniel enjoys listening to and composing music.

Geoff “Free” Gary joins UHS as associate director of admissions. Free comes to us from the admissions and athletics offices at Drew School. In addition to his six years in admissions at Drew, Free’s career has included being an English teacher, student activities director, advisor, and varsity boys’ basketball coach.

Free received a BA in psychology from the University of Maine, Orono.

Comtimued on page 6

WELCOME, ALEXANDRA SIMMONS Dean of Students

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he UHS community is excited to welcome Alexandra Simmons, who joins us this year as dean of students.

A fourth-generation graduate of Spelman College, Alexandra holds a BA in music, a passion she began cultivating as a young child.

“My mom is a total culture and arts nerd, and she instilled that in her children,” she says. “I have very early memories of playing music, of my mom taking us to museums and quizzing us—really instilling in us a love for and curiosity about music.”

Alexandra came to the Branson School in 2013, after receiving the Beth K. Gallard Fellowship, which enables Branson to bring a Morehouse College or Spelman College graduate to teach there each year. During her time there, she served as the dean of

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freshmen, director of student activities, admissions counselor, and taught both music and math.

Although she enjoys teaching, Alexandra knew from very early on at Branson that she was interested in school leadership: “I felt pulled in that direction; I realized that I could devote my energy full-time to student care and support and understanding students’ lives.”

Alexandra looks forward to learning from the UHS community and diving into and absorbing the UHS culture. “I’m drawn to leadership roles, but I also like being a leader who follows,” she says. “I don’t like just being in charge, but I like being able to bring people together and help them sort out their views and provide a vision.

This is something I’ve known I’ve wanted for a while.”

Comtimued on page 6

Alexandra Simmons, dean of students

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AT MY DESK: Ozzie Nevarez — Cameron Ehsan ’20

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zzie Nevarez has been a faculty member in the Science Department at UHS since 2007. Although his official desk is located on the third floor of South Campus, he spends most of his time in the uLab, University’s fabrication and design thinking space, where he supervises student projects and fosters creativity in Advanced Projects in Physics, Intro to Engineering, and Industrial Design classes. He is inspired by the growth he observes in his students as they learn what it takes to design and build things from scratch.The many tools, machines, and materials that surround him in the uLab allow him to bring his pedagogy to life. Here are some of the objects that are important to Ozzie in creating an inviting space where students can thrive.

SPEAKER One can always rely on music playing in the uLab. Ozzie uses music to shape the way in which the uLab functions acoustically, grounding and connecting him to the students through his playlist of the day (from Broadway show tunes to hip-hop). He finds it inspirational to have music playing while going through the creative process of designing, and he hopes it helps students as they create, invent, and design.

SKETCHBOOK Ozzie’s ideas for lessons, class design projects, and his own projects are conceived, developed, explored, and planned in his sketchbook (in his words, “the original CAD technology”), and some never make it off the page. He operates with an openness to fail and to learn from those failures—and students are expected to use their own sketchbooks in the same way.

LAPTOP Once Ozzie is satisfied with his designs, they must be digitized in order to use the fabrication tools, like the uLab’s 3D printers and laser cutter.

He uses Fusion 360 to render the parts of his design in a 3D environment—spending more hours than he’d like to in front of a screen. This process can be used to create virtual prototypes, which helps to reduce waste during the prototyping phase of a project.

Ozzie Nevarez (far right) in action with students in the uLab.

3D PRINTERS AND LASER CUTTER The 3D printers and laser cutter allow students to materialize their projects from the computer screen to a physical object.

When the uLab opened in 2016, students shared just one 3D printer, which quickly became the uLab’s most used tool; now there are four, which are used for different purposes, from “sketching” a general prototype to printing in fine detail.

HANDMADE SCULPTURE This sculpture of a pianist is a treasured gift from a friend (Ozzie is also an accomplished pianist). Ozzie values the care and creativity that go into making handmade gifts, from mugs to coasters, and he appreciates the process of making things, which gives the gifts more meaning. He hopes that his students will also gain this appreciation as they experience the full process of making things and taking pride in their final products.

NERD OUT, EVERYWHERE! Ozzie’s mugs, covered in scientific formulas, perfectly represent his love of physics, and his shirts show his interest in all things STEM. Out of all the things he wears, drinks from, and sees on his walls that make him proud of his self-proclaimed “nerdness,” he couldn’t pick just one as his favorite. n

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Meet Our New Faculty and Staff, continued from page 4 Elena Hobden has joined the UHS Development Team as annual giving manager. Before coming to UHS, Elena managed fundraising events at the St. Anthony Foundation, including its signature gala. She is a San Francisco native and a graduate of Mills College.

Alezja Metts joins the UHS community as development assistant. Alezja is a recent graduate of Texas A&M University, where she received a BA in international studies and minored in Chinese. Since graduating, she

has spent time studying in China, at Henan University and Xi’an International Studies University, and worked as an intern at the Carter Center in Atlanta, where she supported development efforts focused on Asian philanthropy.

After several months as a temporary employee, Cat Parmalee joins UHS as our accounts payable and human resources specialist.

Cat has six years of experience in both HR and accounting. She received associate degrees from Heald College (applied science in

accounting) and FIDM (fashion/ apparel design).

Alexandra Simmons joins UHS as our new dean of students.

Alexandra comes to us from the Branson School, where she served in many roles, including ninth grade dean, music and math instructor, admissions counselor, director of activities, and faculty advisor for multiple clubs and affinity groups. She is a graduate of Spelman College, where she earned a BA in music. See page 4 for more information on Alexandra.

As director of communications, Jenn Soult will work with all UHS departments on their communications and marketing needs. Jenn comes to UHS with vast experience from her work as communications and public relations manager at Apple, global director of public relations and events at Dolby Laboratories, and, most recently, marketing and communications director at Episcopal Community Services.

Jenn holds three advanced certificates from Cornell University. n

WELCOME, ALEXANDRA SIMMONS, continued from page 4 “I knew University,” Alexandra adds. “I had an idea of what the school was, and the more I dug into the strategic design, mission, and purpose, and the values that are instilled in kids, I felt drawn to the community. On the day of my interview, I felt so positive about my conversations with adults and kids. University is an environment that breeds agency, confidence, and self-awareness.The way everyone talked about care for one another made a strong impression on me. I went through that entire interview process feeling very genuine, which was new for me. I could tell this is the role of a lifetime.”

At Branson, Alexandra also served as the advisor to the school’s affinity group for women of color. She increased its membership and programming, piloted a leadership series, and received financial support from the school for Branson’s first Women of Color Retreat.

Alexandra hopes to connect Branson’s young women of color to UHS’s Riot Club, which provides an affinity space for self-identified young women of color to talk and connect, while uplifting the perspectives of women of color at private independent schools.

“The Riot Club leaders are amazing in terms of what they’re able to pull together,” Alexandra says. “Even as an adult, entering Branson, I felt my role as a woman of color shift all the time. I often thought, ‘Who am I in this community? How can I show up authentically?’

And as I started to come into myself in that way professionally, I was looking around at these young women, thinking they need a space, mentorship, and guidance. It was the hardest part about leaving Branson. And it’s an interesting group to mentor, because if you empower young

women, and especially young women of color, you’re empowering everybody. The entire community will be stronger if that group of young women is stronger. I look forward to learning more about Riot and to be as involved with their work as I can.”

Although she’s sad about leaving the students, families, faculty, and staff at Branson, Alexandra is passionate about University’s community and mission. Stop by and meet her in her office by the library! n

Record-Breaking Decorator Showcase Raises $1M for Financial Aid

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he 2019 Decorator Showcase house, “Le Petit Trianon” in Presidio Heights, led the Showcase to realize a record-breaking $1,000,000 in net revenue for the UHS financial aid program. The previous record of $713,000 was established just two years ago, at the 2017 Showcase, 2698 Pacific Avenue.

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The Decorator Showcase is the West Coast’s preeminent design event, featuring the work of the region’s top interior and landscape designers, who are tasked with transforming one incredible San Francisco home into a spectacular show house.

The historic 18,000-square-foot mansion at 3800 Washington Street, a San Francisco landmark listed with the National Register

of Historic Places, tied its own record as the largest Showcase house ever, first hosting the fundraiser in 1982. It was built Illustration by Christian Wignall P '18, '21 around 1902 for Marcus and year. That proved enticing to Cora Koshland, inspired by Cora design aficionados. Attendance Koshland’s recent trip to Europe, at the 2019 Showcase was and was designed by Frank S. record-breaking, with more than Van Trees as a modified replica 23,000 people buying tickets or of the garden façade of the Petit attending one of 21 fundraising Trianon château at Versailles. parties (also a record). The previous attendance record was just The large size of the house under 22,000 visitors in 2007 to required 44 designers to trans2901 Broadway. The gorgeous, form the rooms—roughly 50 percent more than in a typical Comtimued on page 7

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PA Arts Auxiliary, Take a Bow! — Liz Villegas (Jolie ’18, Mason ’21) Arts Auxiliary Chair

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he stellar arts program at UHS not only enhances the curriculum, but also showcases the myriad talents of students and instructors alike. Behind the scenes, the members and committee chairs (called “leads”) of the Parents Association Arts Auxiliary are stars in their own right.

The Arts Auxiliary supports the three main branches of the UHS Arts Department: musical arts (including jazz, orchestra, and UHS’s own a cappella group, the Satonics); theatre arts (including acting, technical theatre, and theatre-making); and visual arts (including ceramics, drawing, painting, and photography).

Examples of leads’ activities include:

• Jazz leads help arrange logistical details for field trips, such as trips to the Apollo Theater in New York City, the Santa Cruz Jazz Festival, and the College of San Mateo Jazz Festival.

• Theatre leads organize the Middle School Previews, which bring in sixth, seventh,

and eighth graders from all over San Francisco for lunchtime performances and talks with directors. Theatre leads also coordinate preshow parent potluck parties for each of the three theatre productions throughout the school year.

• Before the fall concert in November, music potluck leads coordinate a gargantuan effort to ensure enough food, drink, and dessert for all families of jazz and orchestra musicians to enjoy before the first recital of the year.

• The hospitality lead procures bouquets of appreciation for all graduating seniors involved in theatre, and for instructors in each of the arts disciplines.

The role of Arts Auxiliary chair is an umbrella role, supporting the parent leads and UHS arts instructors.

Arts Auxiliary volunteers promote performances and exhibitions at Back-to-School Night in September, participate in campus open-house receptions for prospective families during the

Student musicians enjoy potluck dinner before the fall concert, courtesy of the PA Arts Auxiliary.

fall, and welcome the incoming ninth-grade class at New Family Saturday in late April.

There are always impressive works of art to see, hear, and experience at UHS! If you're

interested in the ultimate backstage pass, consider joining the Arts Auxiliary, and contact Sheila Cuthbert, president of the Parents Association, to get involved. n

Decorator Showcase continued from page 18 coffee-table-worthy program book had its highest-ever page count, 240, and highest number of ad pages sold, 164, benefiting the UHS financial aid program.

Photo courtesy of James Bacchi #inthesky San Francisco

This massive event was fortunate to have three parents as co-chairs, instead of the traditional two, behind the scenes. Thanks to Amanda and Vince Hoenigman (Pierce ’21) and Donna Liu (Ethan ’20 and Arianna ’22 Schwartz), and to the legions of parent, student, and community volunteers they recruited and cheered on, who clocked in more than 8,500 hours.

Showcase co-chairs, left to right: Amanda Hoenigman, Vince Hoenigman, Donna Liu.

Thanks to generous support from its donors, the Decorator Showcase has raised more than $17 million for the UHS financial aid program since the first Showcase in 1977, providing a diverse group of students with an extraordinary education. In 2020,

the Showcase will be open from April 25 through May 25. Subscribe to the Showcase mailing list at decoratorshowcase.org, and save the date! n

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Campus Roundup

Books are collected for the student-led UHS book recycling program.

TEXTBOOKS DONATED AND REUSED The UHS Student Council VPs of Academics, Emily Lang ’21, Tyler Sisitsky ’21, and David Wignall ’21, conceived of and launched the UHS Book Recycling Program at the end of spring 2019. Shortly before finals week, they published a call for no-longer-needed textbooks, placed drop-off bins around campus, and worked with the Facilities team to find storage.

Then, when school resumed after summer, the team solicited customers by directing them to an online catalog, and distributed the free textbooks on a firstcome, first-serve basis. Students donated 70 copies of 21 unique titles of curriculum textbooks for the 2019–2020 academic year, and all were distributed at the start of the school year.

Additionally, around three dozen

Nine UHS students traveled to Zurich for three weeks in the summer of 2019.

non-curricular books were donated to Reading Round the Clock, a nonprofit founded by Mallika Saxena ’19 and Reese Johnson ’19 in 2016.

SWISS EXCHANGE Every fall for over a decade, University has hosted exchange students from Kantonsschule Enge high school in Zurich, Switzerland, who visit our campus for three weeks in November, immersing themselves in U.S. culture and the UHS experience. Over the summer, UHS students have the opportunity to travel to Switzerland, hosted by Kantonsschule Enge families.

On October 22, 2018, UHS students and our Swiss student visitors celebrated the 15th anniversary of the sister-city relationship between Zurich and San Francisco, along with Zurich Mayor Corine Mauch and San Francisco Mayor London Breed. Photo courtesy of James Bacchi #inthesky San Francisco.

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INDEPENDENT STUDY SYMPOSIUM Athletes have playoffs; artists participate in performances and exhibitions; and now there’s a vehicle for UHS students who follow their scholary passions to demonstrate their accomplishments. Begun in fall 2018, the Independent Study Symposium takes place at the end of the semester, and although most students who participate in independent study are juniors and seniors, the program is open to all grades.

During the symposium, presenters participate in panel talks to share their work, and then the scholars share a more in-depth review

with their fellow cluster members.

Fall 2019 independent study projects include Hip-Hop Production: Making Cross-Genre Beats; Kintsugi; Architectural Drawing and Modeling; Ethics of Wartime Journalism; Sikh History from 1469–1839; Constitutional Law and Jurisprudence; Tang Dynasty Poetry; Multivariable Calculus; Intersection of Mathematics, Sports, and Data Science: Daily Fantasy Sports; Healthcare in America; Energy from an (astro) Physical Science, Layman, Futuristic, and Environmental Standpoint; Pseudoscience of the Supernatural; Designing a Green Roof; and Nutrition and Cancer.

Aidan Boyle '20 sharing his independent study research on the classic orthography of Mayan languages.

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Left to right: UHS Peer Advisors Kheli Atluru '19, Micherice Tao '19, and Jasper Schutt '19, on stage with Louise Langheier '99, at the 2018 UHS Runway Lecture.

Runway to Resilience — Micherice Tao ’19

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ith the everincreasing presence of social media and technology in our lives, discussions about health and wellness among teenagers have adapted and expanded to include mental health. These conversations — partially spurred by the increasing pressures to conform to beauty standards perpetuated online and to present a more “perfect” self to one’s followers — have become important for the personal health of those growing up in the age of social media. At the fall 2018 UHS Alumni Association Runway Lecture, I had the opportunity to engage with Louise Langheier ’99, founder of Peer Health Exchange (PHE), in a discussion about youth health services, and about how she has seen the field change over time.

While Louise was an undergrad at Yale University in the early ’00s, she immersed herself in the New Haven community by teaching health workshops, primarily focusing on reproductive health and substance misuse, in local under-resourced public schools. Inspired by her rewarding experience increasing youth access to health resources, Louise cofounded Peer Health Exchange to bring this model to other communities. Today, PHE

trains college volunteers in major metropolitan areas around the country to teach an innovative health curriculum to high school students, with topics ranging from how to identify fragile mental health to what constitutes sexual consent.

Kheli Atluru ’19, Jasper Schutt ’19, and I greatly appreciated the opportunity to learn from Louise’s experience with PHE while in conversation on stage with her at Runway. As UHS Peer Advisors (PAs), we are matched with a cluster of about fifteen ninth graders and mentor them through their first two years of high school. We are also responsible for leading Human Development classes that guide our mentees on how to make informed decisions about various topics related to their own health and wellness, including handling academic stress and navigating substance use in social situations.

Our conversation with Louise was deeply inspiring. I enjoyed hearing Louise’s perspective, as a health educator, on such topics as the effects of social media on teen mental health and how to effectively engage students in serious health conversations. PHE and our PA program at UHS have many of the same objectives, and as older students who have also experienced the joys of being

Student speakers chat with Louise after the program. The lecture/ luncheon was held at the downtown Olympic Club. This year's Runway Lecture took place on November 1, 2019.

a new high school student and learned to build resilience against anxiety, UHS Peer Advisors balance the roles of being a mentor and being a friend, just like the college volunteers at PHE do.

With the expansion of UHS’s health curriculum in 2018– 2019—including the new position, the director of health, wellness, and leadership—it was particularly exhilarating for us to meet a UHS alumna doing

similar work with communities at large and making groundbreaking advancements in the field of health education. PHE’s approach to adolescent health on a national scale, making it a topic taught directly by youths to other youths and bringing these vital conversations to those who lack health education in their schools, validates the work of UHS PAs, making our work feel all the more worthwhile. n

The UHS Runway Lecture, sponsored by the Alumni Association, is designed to bring the energy and dialogue around social justice, equity, and inclusion on our campus directly to adult members of our community, providing you with runways to be change-makers at work, as volunteers, and at home with friends and family. Learn more at sfuhs.org/runwaylecture.

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2019

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n 2018, the UHS Alumni Association began a new tradition called Alumni Honors, designed to recognize and acknowledge the contributions of alumni who embody the core UHS values of inquiry, care, integrity, agency, and interconnection.

Each year, Alumni Honors celebrates alumnx who are leaders in their fields and who are making important contributions at a local, national, or international level through personal accomplishment, professional achievement, or humanitarian service.

Jaime Teevan , PhD, '94; photo courtesy of Microsoft.

JAIME TEEVAN, PhD ’94 Nominated by Eleanor Hicks ’94

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aime Teevan ’94 isn’t changing the world—she’s helping you do it. Her title is chief scientist at Microsoft, and she works with product leaders across all of Microsoft’s experiences and devices to shape the company’s bold ambitions for productivity. She’s using science to build the tools that make it easier for you to achieve your goals. She does this by drawing on her experience as a researcher at Microsoft Research, where, from 2006 to 2017, she invented, published, and patented novel approaches for applying artificial intelligence (AI) to web search

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and task management; studied machine learning and information retrieval using large-scale log analysis; and became a recognized world leader in computing research, with 220 publications, 12,263 citations, and an h-index of 52 (as of this writing). Jaime has a PhD in computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but, remarkably, did not take a single course in that field until her second year as an undergrad at Yale.

Jaime’s time at UHS was a time for exploration. Her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer

We are pleased to announce the 2019 Alumni Honors recipients: Jaime Teevan’94, chief scientist at Microsoft, and Minh Tsai ’89/SB ’85, founder and CEO of Hodo Foods.

We invite the entire UHS community—alumni, current students, current and past parents, and current and past faculty/ staff—to nominate candidates. Nominations are reviewed on a rolling basis, and recipients are honored at Reunion Weekend. See past honorees and make a nomination at sfuhs.org/alumnihonors.

— Lareina Yee ’91, P ’21, honorary chair of Alumni Honors

right before her ninth-grade year started, and, while she didn’t realize it at the time, she can now see that this deeply influenced her high school experience, by forcing her to focus on what really mattered to her. She fondly remembers taking a broad range of classes that interested her (versus being on a specific track), including art history with Prudy Kohler and physics with Tucker Hiatt. She spent her junior year in Barcelona with the School Year Abroad program, despite “not seeing myself as a languages person.” She remembers passionate student debate about the Gulf War, and receiving permission from the administration to attend an important anti-war protest off-campus. She credits UHS with instilling a growth mindset in her and giving her the courage to challenge boundaries. Now, as an expert in artificial intelligence, she describes these attributes as more important than ever, as people must increasingly teach, learn from, and challenge their tools.

At Yale, Jaime took courses on autonomous systems and learned how to build robots, “coaching” a robotic soccer team that participated in RoboCup, the robot complement to the World Cup. Web search was just starting to emerge, so, for her senior thesis, she developed an approach that used link analysis to help people find web pages. She then sold

that approach to one of the first internet search engines, Infoseek, and worked there for a year after graduating, to help them implement it.

Jaime went on to receive her master’s and her doctorate,, deepening her knowledge of computer science by conducting rigorous research, formulating problems, challenging assumptions, and adding new knowledge to the world. For her first eleven years at Microsoft, her role was to continue her research in an academic think-tank setting similar to Bell Labs, asking and answering questions about human behavior and technology, publishing award-winning papers, and contributing significantly to the field. Since 2012, she has also advised graduate students at the University of Washington in Seattle as an affiliate professor.

Much of Jaime’s research has focused on using AI to help people make productive use of their time, and, as a working mother of four boys aged eleven to fifteen (including thirteen-year-old twins), she benefits directly from that research. She developed ways to algorithmically break large tasks down into a series of microtasks, a process she calls “microproductivity.” Her research showed that this makes completing tasks easier and makes them more resilient to the barrage of interruptions we all experience.

UNIVERSE While microproductivity enables people to get big things done in small bits of time, she also found that microproductivity can help people engage in focused work: starting a task can be hard, but starting a simple microtask can lead into the larger task. Jaime draws on her experience as a mother, not only for her research, but also to support women pursuing computer science careers.

For example, she has worked with

academic conferences to help them implement better support for attendees with children.

Though research gave Jaime a lot of space to explore interesting topics, in 2017 she decided it was time to push herself to learn entirely new skills and ways of having impact, so she accepted a job as the technical adviser to Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella.

In that role, she was responsible

Minh Tsai '89/SB '85; photo courtesy of Hodo Foods.

MINH TSAI ’89/SB ’85 Nominated by Will Hartley ’89

M

inh Tsai ’89/SB ’85 is the founder and CEO of Hodo Foods, a manufacturer of organic plant-based products. Hodo has grown from a niche business into a thriving national brand in just fifteen years, and is about to double its manufacturing space—again.

Minh is making a lowcarbon-footprint, this diet a realistic alternative for everyone, by handcrafting excellent, delicious products and evangelizing for a low-carbon-footprint, plantbased diet. Hodo’s tofu- and yuba-based products are organic and non-GMO, using soybeans sourced from U.S. farms. Hodo products are used by Michelinstarred, trend-setting chefs around the country, and are available in thousands of grocery outlets and farmers’ markets.The Hodo factory in West Oakland has 180 employees, and the City of

Oakland workforce development program considers it a role model for its industry.

When Minh arrived in the United States from Saigon at age 11, he spoke Vietnamese and a few dialects of Chinese. His facility with languages helped him pick up English and find his way quickly. Compared to Saigon, San Francisco seemed small to him, and he saw it all on his hour-plus, two-bus ride across the city from Visitacion Valley Middle School to the Summerbridge after-school program at UHS. Minh credits Summerbridge with “giving me a safe space to blossom . . . giving me a roadmap, to navigate the educational system, I would not otherwise have had.

As Summerbridge co-founder and director Lois Loofbourrow would say, ‘You would have been successful regardless, but your

for helping him formulate technical strategy and track key industry and scientific trends. At first, she found that, although she was an expert on AI for productivity, she did not know much about actually building a company that uses AI to help people be productive. She spent a year learning about how Microsoft’s products are developed, sold, and delivered, before moving into her current position as chief scientist.

Jaime offers this advice to those who want to follow a career path similar to hers: “Don’t over-optimize for short-term rewards.

Following a career path is like orienteering or navigating in an unfamiliar landscape.You need to be responsive to the environment you’re in, but you can’t get distracted from finding your true north and making progress toward where you really want to get to.” n

path to success is a result of the expectations and exposure from Summerbridge.’

loves tofu, and,“from a practical standpoint, food is recession-proof.”

He also noticed that there was no premium, high-end purveyor of tofu competing in the artisanal food space (like Scharffen Berger, Blue Bottle, and Cowgirl Creamery in their respective categories). Because Hodo is the first company to make artisanal tofu at a commercial scale, there was no blueprint for manufacturing and marketing such innovative plantbased products. He’s figured it out as he goes, including designing his own manufacturing equipment.

Minh is a media darling, and the press is happy to feature him when telling the story of the evolution of vegetarianism since its first widespread popularity in the 1970s.

“At Summerbridge,” he adds, “I was required to meet the expectations of a challenging academic environment, which formed me for University High School. Expectations at UHS were equally high and, remarkably, came with guidance and a support system to allow every student to succeed in their own way.”

Minh went on to become a Summerbridge San Francisco teaching fellow, the director of Hong Kong Summerbridge (which just celebrated its twenty-year anniversary), and, in 2000, a board member of the national organization, now called Breakthrough Collaborative.

Minh matriculated at Columbia University, where he studied Asian American literature and political science as an undergraduate, and then received his master’s degree in economic development from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. In his twenties and early thirties, he worked as an investment banker and a management consultant, loving the intense international travel, coming full circle as a global citizen. Fifteen years ago, he left the corporate world, disillusioned by the politics of senior management, ready to go forward on his own terms.

He chose to start a specialty food company because, he says, he

Today, Hodo manufactures 50,000 pounds of 100% organic plant-based products per day.

The production line operates twenty-four hours per day, five days per week. Hodo products are sold wholesale for meal kits, restaurant chains such as Chipotle, Silicon Valley corporate cafeterias, and even the UC Berkeley dorms.You can find the Hodo brand in Target, Whole Foods, and other national chain supermarkets, and its products are listed as ingredients on the menus of Michelin-starred restaurants such as Daniel, State Bird Provisions, Greens, and the Slanted Door.

Minh believes that Hodo’s greatest strength is its employees, and he takes pride in fostering a feeling of extended family at the company. Ninety percent of the 180-person Comtimued on page 26 sfuhs.org

11

UNIVERSE

Graduation 2019: A Call to Action

Y

ear after year, UHS’s commencement ceremony speakers consistently avoid platitudes and authentically reflect the zeitgeist of the time. The Class of 2019 chose commencement speakers who followed and further amplified those traditions, issuing specific, urgent calls to action on multiple fronts.

Students chose history instructor Ezra Davidson to speak on behalf of the faculty. In his introduction of Ezra, Nasif Iskander, dean of faculty, said, “Students love learning from Ezra because he helps them to develop the tools and the discipline to see past their own assumptions and social conditioning. He doesn’t expect them to agree with him; he works with them to develop the capacity to make up their own minds about what happened in the past, how to best understand it, and how to weave what they learn into the way that they view the world today.”

Ezra often takes the mic at All School Meeting to question the status quo, use the lessons of history to extrapolate today’s urgent themes into the future, and challenge students to take action in ways uniquely available to them as youths. In spring 2019, inspired by Ezra’s clarion calls, one of his classes led a schoolwide effort to learn about, and raise money for, the Iraq Water Project, an international effort to make

12

U H S J O U R N A L | FALL 2019

clean drinking water available to schools, hospitals, and people in Iraq. One UHS student shared that “Ezra has empowered me to learn more about US foreign policy and to integrate what’s shared in a classroom with my own life and worldview. I think that’s history at its best.”

Ezra spoke to the graduating class not only as a history instructor, but as the father of two young children, looking ahead to the day when the Class of 2019 would be shaping society and in positions of power and influence.

Acknowledging that the Bay Area owes a debt to the Ohlone people for the land it is on, Ezra urged seniors to become climate change radicals, practice consent culture, and live intersectionality by considering others in every decision. He reflected on the great privilege and accident of birth that many graduation audience members do not fear for their safety daily, and are afforded freedom of movement, allowed to travel at will, unlike many refugees of today. He reminded the audience that meritocracy can work when the playing field is level, and asked the graduating class to do what they can to make systems and structures more just in their future roles.

The first of two elected student speakers, Miya Matsuishi-Elhardt, was introduced by outgoing dean of students Alex Lockett as a born teacher and an expert on semiotics and cultural criticism.

True to form, Miya used her time to educate

the audience on the universal wisdom of the Wu-Tang Clan rap collective. “The Wu-Tang Clan holds a special place in my heart,” she said, “because they borrow from Asian culture in a way that has always made me feel seen and valued.” She held up the Clan’s cooperative enterprise as a model for all to follow: regardless of how individually successful each member is, they always share the wealth, giving twenty percent of their solo earnings back to the collective. “Know your own worth,” Maya advised, “but always remember to give back to the people who made who you are.”

In closing, Miya implored the UHS board of trustees to increase their commitment to student financial aid “because there are kids in all types of neighborhoods and middle schools who are bright and hungry for classes like the ones at [University] . . .

UHS, I say this because I love you: admission should be need-blind, and we need more infrastructure for low-income students of color.

Find and fund those who will lead the change we need in our world.”

The second student speaker, Reed Schwartz, was warmly described by his cluster mentor, Jesse Berrett, as “sassy, hilarious, endlessly quotable, both widely and deeply informed about an astonishing array of things, and, beneath the irony, winningly sincere and heartfelt when you get to the things he’s actually devoted to.”

Reed invoked the values of his Quaker elementary school, San Francisco Friends School:

Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality, and Stewardship, abbreviated to the memorable acronym SPICES. He told the story of how the word “stewardship” was changed to “service” in a school banner by way of a graphic design accident.

“I understand that, to the casual observer, the difference between ‘stewardship’ and ‘service’ might not seem huge.” In Reed’s view, service is a reaction, while stewardship is performed for its own sake. “Stewardship is bettering your community and your world just because it is the right thing to do.”

Reed also urged UHS leadership to focus on issues of representation, access, and affordability: “I would like to suggest the board think beyond the stewardship of UHS, and about the stewardship of San Francisco. University is uniquely situated in a city filled with individuals who routinely think of changing the world . . .

Take bold steps: radically increase teacher compensation, add student representation on the board, set a goal to make UHS fully need-blind.”

Reed’s closing reinforced his theme and provided muchappreciated levity: “I want to remind all of us to be stewards, of our city and of the many communities the class of 2019 will inevitably invade. I ask not that we, in the words of our previous First Lady, ‘be better’; I ask that, in the words of our current First Lady, all of us ‘be best.’” n

CLASS OF 2019 COLLEGE ADMISSION STATISTICS COLLEGE Alfred University

ACCEPT 1

ATTEND 0

Amherst College

3

1

Eastman School of Music of the U. of Rochester

2

Emory University

1

Franklin & Marshall College

American University Barnard College Bates College

Boston College

Boston University

Bowdoin College

Bradley University

Brandeis University

University of British Columbia

2 1 3 6 7 1 1 1

2

0

COLLEGE Durham University

1

0

0

Fordham University

6

0

0 0 0

The George Washington University

Harvard College

0

Humboldt State University

California State University, Fresno

California State University, Sacramento

University of California, Berkeley University of California, Davis University of California, Irvine University of California, Los Angeles University of California, Merced University of California, Riverside University of California, San Diego University of California, Santa Barbara University of California, Santa Cruz Carnegie Mellon University

Case Western Reserve University

1

Hamilton College (NY)

0

Haverford College

2

0

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

1

0

Kenyon College

1

0

Lafayette College

10

3

13

0

2

0

17 6 3

4 0 0

10

0

13

0

14

0

1 3

0 0

Chapman University

1

0

Clarkson University

1

0

7

1

University of Chicago Colby College

Colgate University

University of Colorado at Boulder Colorado College

Columbia University

Connecticut College Cornell University

Dartmouth College Davidson College

Dickinson College Drexel University Duke University

9 4 4 1 4 2 4 1 2 1 1 4

0

8

2 0 1 4 0 2 0 0 0 1 3

1 2 2 2 1

Macalester College

University of Maryland, College Park

University of Massachusetts, Amherst McGill University

Miami University, Oxford

Michigan State University University of Michigan Middlebury College

University of Minnesota, Rochester New England Conservatory of Music New York University

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

2 1

Santa Clara University

1

0

Scripps College

3 2

1

1

0 0 0 0

0 0 2 2

University of the Pacific University of Pennsylvania

0 2

Spelman College

1

0

Stanford University

2

2

Stevens Institute of Technology

3 1

1 0

Suffolk University

1

0

Temple University

1

0

Swarthmore College Trinity College Dublin Trinity University Tufts University

Tulane University Union College (New York)

2 1 1 8 4 2

1 0 1 5 2 0

0

University of St Andrews Vanderbilt University

3

0

5

0

Vassar College

1 2

2

2

1

4 1 5

1 1 7 2 2

2 0 1 0 0 0 1 1

Pitzer College

4

2

University of Puget Sound

3

0

Princeton University

6

1

1

0

University of Oregon

1

0

0

1

Oregon State University

5

1

2

University of Notre Dame

Ohio Wesleyan University

4

0

The University of Edinburgh

2

Occidental College

1

0

1

3

Oberlin College of Arts and Sciences

Sonoma State University

St. Olaf College

Northeastern University

Northwestern University

Smith College

0

0

1

4

Skidmore College

0

1

7

Saint Mary's College of California

University of Southern California

1

1

0

0

San Jose State University

2

1

2

0

0

4

Rochester Institute of Technology

1

1

Loyola Marymount University

0

1

2

0

King's College London

3

1

University of San Francisco

2

3

Lewis & Clark College

Rice University

0

0

1

1

3

0

1

1

1

2

1

San Francisco State University

0

Johns Hopkins University

Lehigh University

7

2

0

1

Lawrence University

ATTEND 0

2

1

1

ACCEPT 1

University of Rochester

0

0

California State University, East Bay

4

1

2 3

University of Richmond

2

Gettysburg College

Reed College

0

4

Bucknell University

California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

1

University of Redlands

1

Georgetown University Goucher College

1

2

COLLEGE Purdue University

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

0 4

Butler University

0

Emerson College

5 5

1

ATTEND 0

0

Brown University

Bryn Mawr College

ACCEPT 1

2

1

Victoria University

University of Virginia

Wake Forest University

Washington University in St. Louis

1 2 1 7

University of Washington

4

Wesleyan University

5

Whitman College

2

Wellesley College

Wheaton College (MA) Willamette University College of William & Mary

1 0 0 0 2 0

2

1

1

1

1 1

2 1 0 0

Williams College

3

1

Worcester Polytechnic Institute

2

1

3

3

University of Wisconsin, Madison

Yale University

7

1

sfuhs.org

13

F E AT U R E S

Preparing for

the Future of WORK — Yekaterina Savchuk

W

hen today’s highschool students enter the workforce, chances are it’ll look quite different. Rapid technological advancement, globalization, and demographic shifts are transforming the global economy, eliminating millions of jobs while creating opportunities we can’t yet envision. Navigating this new landscape will require a different and evolving set of skills, compared to those that served past generations. UHS alums are working on the front lines to help society prepare for the changes to come, while UHS is ensuring that its students are set up for success in tomorrow’s labor market.

Automation and the advent of artificial intelligence are among the most powerful forces transforming the workplace.

According to a 2017 McKinsey report, up to 800 million people around the world could lose their jobs to automation by 2030, and up to 375 million of those displaced, or 14 percent of global workers, may need to learn new skills or switch fields altogether.

A 2019 McKinsey analysis found that rural areas and people without college or graduate degrees are likely to be hardest hit.

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U H S J O U R N A L | FALL 2019

Libby Reder ’95, a fellow at the Aspen Institute’s Future of Work Initiative, notes that repetitive and routinized jobs are the most likely to be eliminated in the future. This category includes manual jobs, such as driving, but also higher-skilled professions, such as accounting and computation. On the other hand, Libby predicts that new technologies will stimulate growth in some sectors and create brand-new job categories, and that an aging population will expand the demand for caregiving roles.

McKinsey predicts that health care, STEM fields, creative occupations, and business services are likely to see job growth. The consulting firm also expects new jobs to emerge in areas such as machine learning, data science, and design. Meanwhile, a growing number of workers are tapping into the “gig economy,” some taking advantage of flexible and lucrative opportunities, and others unwillingly settling for work that offers less security, lower pay, and fewer benefits.

Lande Ajose ’83 says the forces that are transforming work risk exacerbating divides that already exist in today’s labor market. Lande is the past executive director of California Competes, a nonpartisan research and advocacy group focused on improving the state’s higher education system; in January 2019, she was appointed Governor Newsom’s senior advisor on higher education. “You have a lot of hyper-mobility among those who are highly educated, and those that aren’t are bound to local labor markets that can be less financially rewarding,” Lande says. “Unfortunately, how opportunities are distributed tends to break down based on race and ethnicity, and it may only become more bifurcated.”

Preparing for the coming shifts, as a society and as individuals, is paramount, Libby says. “We’re sitting in a place today where we have the opportunity to make decisions about the type of world we want to live in and make sure profits from technology are shared.”

One way young people can ensure that they’re ready for tomorrow’s job market is to embrace technological literacy. “A lot of jobs will require at least basic digital skills—even if you’re manufacturing cars, you’re interacting with computers,” Libby notes. But the capabilities that young people will need in order to thrive professionally go far beyond the technical. “You don’t have to become a software programmer to survive the next 30 years,” says Morten Hansen, a management professor at UC Berkeley and the author of three books on leadership and career success. (He is also the father of Alexandra ’15 and Julia ’20.) “What can you become really good at that machines and robots are going to have a hard time with?” Morten’s answer to this question includes skills such as creativity, collaboration, leadership, communication, and strategic analytical thinking, as well as the more abstract sensibilities associated with liberal arts. “We’ll have technology that can do wonderful things, but we need people who can think of how it can be used to solve big

F E AT U R E S problems, whether it’s aesthetically pleasing, whether it’s useful.”

UHS trustee Julayne Virgil ’94 suggests two more essential competencies: a growth mindset and an ethical compass. As CEO of Girls Inc. of Alameda County, a nonprofit that empowers girls from underserved neighborhoods, she works to nurture these competencies. “Things are changing at lightning speed, and we have to be willing to continue to learn and help others embrace that change,” she says.

“Technology is not the answer to all our challenges—it has exacerbated differences that already exist, whether in salaries or in discrimination. We need humans to leverage ethical judgment and discernment.”

Both automation and outsourcing will make the workforce more competitive for young professionals in the U.S., predicts Ben Casnocha ’06, a venture investor in startups and the coauthor of two management and career-strategy books with LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman. Ben believes that dealing with those changes will require everyone to think like an entrepreneur.

“Think of yourself as a startup of you,” he says. “Startups are highly adaptive; they build networks around themselves; they are willing to take risks amid uncertainty; they learn about changes in their industry and technology; and they think about their competition and differentiate.”

And, just like a startup, people will need to do some marketing.

“We’re going to have to do a better job at personal advocacy and branding,” Libby says. “People are going to pivot a lot during their careers, so you need to be comfortable talking about how your experience is relevant, and building a personal narrative.”

Experts agree that, while individuals have important roles to play in preparing themselves for the future of work, institutions— including schools and universities, employers and community groups—also need to step up.

The traditional model of education as something that happens in the first 25 years of life will need to be overhauled, says Jay Banfield, chief officer of innovation and scale at Year Up, an organization that prepares young people to attain educational and career goals. (He is also a former UHS trustee, and the father of Grace ’16 and Dray ’20.) “There’s going to be a much greater emphasis on continuing to build skills throughout your life,” Jay says. “We’re going to have to change the way we think about a four-year degree and develop other signals for talent in the marketplace. There’s going to be a movement toward learning that is more skill-based and competency-based.”

Jay also argues that, as well as fostering a love of lifelong learning, educational institutions need to become more responsive to the demands of employers, so that they can better help students succeed in the evolving labor market.

“Right now, preparing the future workforce is seen as a by-product of education, and I think it should be more explicit,” he says.

Joel Vargas ’85/SB ’81, a vice president at JFF, a national nonprofit that drives change in the American workforce and education systems to achieve economic

advancement for all, also believes that schools need to shift their pedagogical models. “‘Soft skills’ aren’t soft—they’re core,” he says. “Schools need to create an environment in which young people can incorporate and rehearse these skills. Right now they’re weighted too heavily toward classroom-based and theory-based learning.”

Joel adds that innovative programs, such as those that provide low-income or first-generation college students with opportunities to graduate high school with an associate degree, can help ensure that the coming transformations don’t

further disadvantage low-income groups and people of color. At the same time, he points out that employers will need to increasingly take on retraining of their own employees. Or, as Julayne Virgil suggests, train them in the first place. “Employers are saying they can’t find enough people for skilled jobs,” Julayne points out, “but are they connecting with schools and the community and helping to teach those skills? They should question the assumption that they’re going to find people with the best skills through traditional methods and in traditional places.

The impact of the future of work on women is particularly stark, as women often face less access to technology, entrepreneurial capital, and workplace safety. Co-authors of the 2019 McKinsey report on the future of women at work, James Manyika (father of Julian ‘18, and co-author of the 2017 McKinsey report) and Lareina ee ‘91 (parent of Nicolas ‘21), look at how the future of work will look different for women and men over the next decade. This includes entrenched gender differences in occupations and sectors, impacting up to 160 million women globally who will see their jobs materially changed over the next decade. Find the full report at mckinsey.com/featured-insights/genderequality/the-future of-women-at-work-transitionsin-the-age-ofautomation.

Find more McKinsey resources at mckinsey.com/ featured-insights/future-of-work. sfuhs.org

15

F E AT U R E S Nonprofits can also play a role in how we make sure that those who are interested are prepared.”

Libby Reder and other experts suggest that insulating society from the worst consequences of job loss and insecurity might mean creating a stronger social safety net. Some point to universal basic income—most commonly defined as a fixed, unconditional cash payment that the government pays to all residents at regular intervals—as a potential solution. Libby and her colleagues have been working on “portable benefits” models that would allow workers to access health care, worker’s compensation, retirement plans, and other

benefits that aren’t tied to a specific employer.

UHS is already working to prepare students for the job market that they will encounter in the future. A key component of that preparation is ensuring that every student is technologically fluent, but UHS is also investing heavily in fostering the “soft skills” that experts agree will be critical in the future.

“Technical competence is a necessary, but not sufficient, skill,” says dean of teaching and learning Byron Philhour.

“The term ‘fluency’ suggests we can play with data—that we can

Three Alumni Trustees Witness the Changing Workplace —Devan Paul '20

MEDICINE Dr. Louise Greenspan ’86, P ’23, pediatric endocrinologist, has witnessed a humanizing of the medical workforce over the decades. Diversity has grown among doctors, and for patients, that’s a good thing. “There’s research that shows patients respond better to people who they can identify with,” she says. And Louise sees other positive changes, including an influx of compassion and a clearer, mutual recognition of humanity between patients and providers. A large body of research is emerging around social factors affecting health, such as trauma. “People who had more adverse childhood events have worse health outcomes.

Now that we’re aware of that, we can now focus on preventing those traumatic events and their negative effects in children,” she states. The field of pediatrics has expanded its scope to include ensuring healthy familial lives for children. During residency training, where absurdly long shifts for trainees had long been the norm, hours have been shortened to reduce fatigue, in an acknowledgment of people’s natural barriers. Medical schools such as UCSF are involving students in real-world clinical experience much earlier than before, allowing them to develop a deeper sense of how the science they are learning looks in the real world.

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U H S J O U R N A L | FALL 2019

interrogate it and discover and reveal new meaning. The systems [that students] use now will be yesterday’s news by the time their work begins in earnest.

What will remain? Tenacity, curiosity, ingenuity, and the ability to respond in elegant ways to new challenges.”

UHS students build up their comfort with technology through computational modeling to understand concepts in physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, and math.

Newer courses in modeling and

simulation and industrial design, as well as summer intensive courses in data science and game programming, allow interested students to explore advanced technology in cross-disciplinary contexts. Each year, dozens of UHS students establish their own independent study courses in STEM-aligned fields, presenting their findings at the recently established Independent Study Symposium (see page 8). In addition, virtually every course at UHS has an integrated online component to allow students to efficiently access information and communicate with teachers.

UHS has also seen an expansion of interdisciplinary courses.

BUSINESS Workplaces are filled with a new generation of young workers who prioritize shorter workdays, work-life balance, and less stressful environments. Public, online employee reviews, on sites such as Indeed and Glassdoor, can catalyze companies to change rapidly.

One response has been physical changes to the workplace. Sherief Meleis ’88, managing partner at Novantas, describes how “the [workplace] layout is now open-space, more collaborative, and that’s translated into the work process as well.” Impromptu, off-thecuff meetings are now common, a major shift away from formally scheduled sit-downs, and teams are seeing significant boosts in creativity and teamwork as a result of these new arrangements. Sherief has also seen remote work become a revolution against the traditional workweek, so that employees can now spend more time working from home.

Matt Farron ’98/SB ’94, partner at Gryphon Investments, encourages fellow hiring managers to consider: “How do we sell ourselves to applicants—not just during the recruiting process—[and] how do we then bring that culture to life in the office?” Matt also sees the importance of keeping a light-hearted element in company culture, and at times, to help create an environment where young workers feel inspired to put their best qualities to work.

Sherief sums up: “Unemployment’s at less than four percent, and there’s a war for talent out there, so the power’s definitely with the talent.”

F E AT U R E S “These courses are helping students make connections across traditional boundaries and develop new literacies and capacities they can apply in an increasingly complex world,” says Nasif Iskander, assistant head and dean of faculty.

“When we set out as a faculty to define our student growth

statements, none of them mentioned technology,” Byron says. “Instead, we look to grow the capacity of our students to connect to and with others, to take responsibility for their actions, and to interpret complex material with nuance and flexibility. Each student has a mentor committed to facilitating this growth—a navigator for a changing world. Paradoxically, the growth of automation and machine learning means that students’ ability to navigate the

messy and complex world of humans is even more central to the work they have ahead of them.”

UHS has also expanded its Human Development department, which helps students cultivate skills such as emotional intelligence, self-awareness, health and wellness, community engagement, self-advocacy, equity literacy, and cultural competency (sex and substance abuse education are also addressed as

part of the HD curriculum).

The school’s mentoring program works closely with the department to connect students with trusted adults and peers. “Socialemotional work in the classroom isn’t easy, but we know adolescents will form their worldview on these topics even in the absence of explicit education. It is better to practice these skills and make mistakes in a supportive, educative, and research-based context,” says Byron.

Comtimued on page 27

The Future of Homework is Here "In French III, we read a short story written by the French Nobel Prize winner J. M. G. Le Clézio. The story is based on a fait divers, two or three sentences about a sensational event, a genre unique to French newspapers. After discussing Le Clezio’s story, the class reviews two or three current faits divers together, taken from a French newspaper. For homework, students write an original story based on one of the faits divers from class, including new vocabulary and grammatical structures they have learned from Le Clezio’s story. They write their stories as journal articles, illustrate them with a picture or an original drawing, and present them in front of the class. This assignment allows me to assess their writing ability and their ease at presenting something personal to them in clear French in front of a group."

Andrew Galatas, physics instructor, describes how he uses a “flipped” teaching mode with his Honors Physics classes: students watch videos he has made as homework and then solve problems together in class. This approach is new to UHS, especially for the sciences.

“Homework usually consists of 20–30 minutes of online video instruction that I’ve recorded (applying my voiceover to slides and animations), replacing a traditional in-class lecture. Short segments can be paused and replayed, and are closed-captioned, all of which helps for accessibility and studying. For the second part of the homework, students take conceptual quizzes (also online) to check their understanding of basic equations and definitions from that night’s videos. The quizzes can be taken as many times as the student wants, for practice. The next day, students come to class understanding the basics from the night before, and we can dive into more difficult problem-solving and labs in the supportive environment of the classroom.”

Megan Storti, Math Department chair, shares how her colleagues use WebAssign, an online homework system that provides students with instant feedback and tools to help them learn, in upper-division classes.

"WebAssign allows students to view a problem’s solution, watch a video, and ask the teacher questions. It allows students who need more practice to receive extra support, while other students can delve into the more challenging questions and skip, or work quickly through, questions using the routine skills they already possess. Teachers can customize assignments to give all students the same problem or different versions of a problem, and the system allows students several tries to revise and refine their steps.

A bonus is that teachers receive detailed information about homework practices, such as when students started an assignment, how much time each student spent on an assignment, and which problems were commonly missed on the first try. As a result, teachers can give targeted feedback to individual students, based on real data, rather than on assumptions about study habits."

Roselyne Pilaar, French instructor, explains a multimedia approach that she uses at multiple language proficiency levels, modifying the difficulty as appropriate to the level.

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Hiring Manager's POV:

You Can Combine Your Passion with Your Profession — Jack Segal ’14

C

hanges in technology, and in society at large, have driven dramatic changes in the work we do and the ways we do it. UHS alumnae Linden Rees ’99 and Kimberly Fullerton ’81, both actively involved in recruiting qualified candidates for companies on the cutting edge of today’s shifting job market, offer perspectives from a hiring manager's point of view.

Linden is the head of business recruiting at Pinterest, while Kimberly is a talent advisory partner doing executive search and board recruitment at Spencer Stuart. Both were happy to share their thoughts on the nature of today’s work, and on how it will change in the years to come.

HOW HAS WORK CHANGED? Linden: “People are thinking a lot more about how they integrate their personal passions

and values into the work that they do every day. And they’re not separating their personal lives from the work that they do.”

Kimberly: “Companies are becoming more savvy.

The truly differentiated companies have a CEO and leadership team that are invested in the development and growth of their employees.

Employees want to be able to learn, to grow and be challenged at work. Alongside that runs a company’s culture and purpose.

There’s a reason that you get up in the morning and go to work at this company.”

IS THERE JOB-SEARCH ADVICE YOU AGREE OR DISAGREE WITH STRONGLY? Linden: “I think really well-prepared candidates share

their experiences and skills in an articulate way, and they also understand how those skills and experiences fit into the business and the team that they’re interviewing for; they can see where they fit into the bigger picture. This requires doing your homework and being able to communicate in a clear and concise way.”

Kimberly: “Forming the narrative and doing the research are the two key job-search strategies. It’s important to be proactive and think through: What is the job you want?

Where do you want to work?

What are the companies you are interested in? And what does the market look like? Use your resources to map out as much as you can. When you are earlier in your career, you can talk about what inspires you, what you have done and how you have done it—and make sure to be succinct.”

IN WHAT DIRECTION DO YOU SEE WORK HEADING? Linden: “The future of work is going to look really different. Values and lifestyles are changing, affecting the ways that candidates find jobs and make career decisions. Increasingly, the focus for candidates is on finding companies that align with personal values. The challenge for companies is in finding ways to embrace and celebrate those values.”

Kimberly: “Companies are increasingly focused on agility— people who are agile, who can pivot from one project or area to another, who are quick learners and can deal with ambiguity.

Flexibility is increasingly more important than deep project expertise.” n

UHS Alumni Association Case Study:

Good Old-Fashioned Networking Still Works — Taylor Lee ’14

A

fter upwards of fifty phone calls made to Reed College and UHS alumni, my network finally felt tangible. I began my job search in January of 2018 . . . four short months before graduation. I knew I was interested in working in the entertainment industry—possibly screenwriting for television—but had no idea where to start. How could I use my academic background in Hispanic film as a launching pad to find work in television?

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Taylor Lee '14 pounds the pavement in her new hometown of L.A.

I decided that a good place to start was through the UHS network. I had recently read an article in San Francisco magazine about Class of 2000 alumna Ali Wong’s recent strides in stand-up comedy and her work on Fresh Off the Boat. Perhaps she or other alumni could offer advice. Marianna Stark ’89, UHS director of alumni giving and engagement, helped me submit a short blurb to the e-newsletter.

I wrote a couple of sentences about being interested in TV

production and screenwriting.

Three helpful alumni reached out with suggestions on where to start. Next, I scoured the alumni database for people working in entertainment, and scheduled informational interviews. Talking over the phone helped me understand the diversity in career progressions.

When I started looking for jobs, it became obvious that connections were crucial. The more Comtimued on page 19

F E AT U R E S

Fry Enterprise

Optimized

Students Employ Strategies Learned at Entrepreurialism Incubator Program — Roxie Miles '19

T

he Fry Guys, a gourmet pop-up French-fry purveyor, was born when Maxx Kominowski ’19 and Chase Leffers ’19 were at lunch together one day over a break, getting ready to enjoy their favorite food. Despite feeling “hyped” for their burgers, it was the crispy, golden fries lying alongside the burger that they reached for first. Their minds were immediately drawn to the entrepreneurial potential of such a versatile food. Once they were back home, the duo teamed up with Sam Kominowski ’20, Maxx’s younger brother, making potato chips with a borrowed fryer, and quickly became enthralled with the possibilities of a business devoted to specialty fried food. (They could imagine the potential because both Maxx’s and Sam’s parents work in the specialty food business.)

Soon, they were experimentally frying mozzarella cheese sticks, Twinkies, Oreos, matzo balls, and chicken, before settling on selling the classic that first captured their attention—the French fry.

They got their start selling fries at events to raise money

for charities such as the Bread Project, based in Berkeley, which leverages the power of social enterprise to fight poverty. The three partners applied and were accepted to an incubator program called Quarter Zero, where they learned about branding, product image, financial modeling, and employee management. For the two fry guys, fries quickly became “less of a hobby, and more of a serious business.”

Through the University of San Francisco Law Clinic, Maxx and Chase formed an operating agreement and figured out their legal responsibilities as an active business. In their pursuit of the project, they uncovered a passion for running a business. Chase happily describes the necessity of making constant decisions as “a creative project on steroids.”

UHS hired the Fry Guys as a food vendor for the opening celebration of the school’s Athletic Complex at Paul Goode Field in the Presidio on August 27, 2017, and they encountered their first capacity issues when they were faced with more than 100 customers at once. From there, they found selling opportunities through word-of-mouth.

Implementing the strategies they’d learned at Quarter Zero,

The Fry Guys, left to right: Chase Leffers '19, Maxx Kominowski '19, and Sam Kominowski '20 serve fries at the opening celebration of the UHS Athletic Complex at Paul Goode Field in the Presidio on August 27, 2017.

the team invested in a second fryer and vastly improved their throughput, improving taste and quality in the process. Although they took “a hiatus from fry events” while school was in session, they were back in business once school got out for the summer. Maxx is proud that their business has grown to be “the real experience” and is operating the same way that professional food trucks do. Chase adds how much he appreciates “that event planners are taking us seriously, and that we are being hired back.” n

UHS Alumni Association Case Study continued from page 18 people you know, the more access to information you have, and information is treated like currency. In order to make myself a more attractive applicant, I read the trades, studied scripts, and spent too much time on Netflix.

I moved to L.A. by the end of the summer. Upon arrival, I reached out to UHS alumni to ask for informational interviews:

television writer Drew Vaupen ’81, film producer Mark Roybal ’90, and a few people whom film producer Robert Kessel ’88 introduced to me. Not only was it nice to put faces to names, but these meetings solidified the importance of building on new relationships. After a month of conversations, interviews, and many tanks of gas, I was offered a job at ICM (International

Creative Management) Partners—a talent and literary agency in Los Angeles—which came to me through the UHS network. I worked for the department head of TV production for eight months. It felt like grad school for the industry—I learned about the development process, staffing, and the production pipeline. Ultimately, I learned that I didn’t want to

stay in artist representation, so I left to find a more creative, project-oriented environment.

I anticipate encountering other UHS alumni down the road, and I’m appreciative of how supportive this community has proven to be. Thanks to Drew, Mark, and Robert for helping me get my foot in the door. n

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ALUMNI

Reunion at Showcase!

UHS’s reunion party honoring classes ending in 4 or 9 was held at Decorator Showcase for the second year in a row. Alumni from all classes, plus current and past faculty and significant others, are invited to this annual event. This year, more than two hundred alums and faculty members came out for the special event at 3800 Washington Street. For more on Decorator Showcase, see page 6.

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Classes ending in 0 or 5, save the date for your milestone reunion this spring! Events will take place on May 1 and 2, on campus and at the 2020 Showcase house. For details, watch your email inbox or go to sfuhs.org/ reunion.Want to help rally your class to attend the festivities? Send us an email at UHSalumni@sfuhs.org.

ALUMNI

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ALUMNI

2018 All-Class Holiday Party at SPUR Features Program on Urban Planning In 2018, the annual all-class alumni holiday party moved to a new venue: the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association, or SPUR. SPUR is a nonprofit that traces its origins back to 1910. Its mission is to promote good planning and good government in the San Francisco Bay Area, through research, education, and advocacy. The venue proved inspiring, and, for the first time ever, the Alumni Association organized a panel talk before the holiday party, featuring alumnx who work in urban planning.

Thanks to our speakers: Amelia Holmes Luna ’00, civil engineer specializing in wastewater

treatment and reuse, and focusing on ecological design; Libby Reder ’95, fellow with the Aspen Institute, who studies the future of work; Alan Mozaffari ’13, of the Global Research on Inclusion and Disability team at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis; and David Wu ’87, an expert in government transformation at the state level. And a big thank you to our moderator,Vince Hoenigman P ’21, who is a longtime board member of SPUR. After the program, held in the building’s secondfloor conference room, the party began in the ground-floor lobby. Once again, the last Thursday

before Christmas proved doable for members of our community coming into town for the winter break, with nearly 150 alumni, current and former faculty, and significant others attending. The Yerba Buena neighborhood location, close to BART and Muni, was easily accessible for those coming from all corners of the Bay Area. Thanks to our excellent photographer, Eva Krueger ’20!

This year’s Holiday Party will be held on Thursday, December 19, with a program featuring alumni changemakers. Check sfuhs.org/alumnicalendar for details.

Holiday party urban planning panel participants, left to right: Amelia Holmes Luna '00, Vince Hoenigman P '21, Libby Reder '95, head of school Julia Russell Eells, Alan Mozaffari '13, and David Wu '87.

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ALUMNI

Class Notes 1978 Correction: In the fall 2018 UHS Journal, we inadvertently attributed Brooke Joseph’s submission (below) to Derry Thorn Wisnom. Our apologies to Derry and Brooke!

Brooke Joseph reports: “In 2017, I founded an organization called Commit the Vote, with the goal of increasing the percentage of Americans who vote consistently. I am able to travel frequently with this job and remain an active member of Obama for America. I have two sons: Benjamin, 28, is a musician and Coby, 25, works in the field of urban planning and sustainability.

I have been happily married to Marc Joseph for 34 years and was thrilled to reconnect with pals from University at our reunion last year.”

Brooke Wentz shares: “My daughter is a college junior spending the year abroad at the London School of Economics.

I’m growing Seven Seas Music, a new platform for discovering, listening and licensing music from around the world. And I just completed music-supervising two films: Amazing Grace and Minding the Gap.” 1979 Doug Gorney has traded in his marketing portfolio for a sketchbook and has made a go of it as a full-time artist in San Francisco. See his work, and commission a watercolor sketch of your home or business, at www.gorney.studio.

Jennifer Hughes shares: “I have my own law practice in Los Angeles, with an emphasis on intellectual property, entertainment, and real estate. One might think these practice areas are unrelated, but they reflect our local obsessions. This month, one client’s life story will debut on Lifetime, while another client competes on America’s Got Talent.

In other news, last winter my skiing leveled up and I ventured onto the black diamonds and beginner park jumps with nary a whimper. My first ski trip was with UHS!” Keith McWilliams still lives on the Peninsula, and is now an empty nester, with twins graduating from college in May and twins who are freshmen. He’s still the managing partner for Evercore Wealth Management in San Francisco, and he plays keyboards in a “not-half-bad dad band.” Keith and Paul Chapman, past UHS history instructor, enjoyed seeing each other, after forty years, at a Stanford function recently.

Keith McWilliams (left) and Paul Chapman

Marc Zegans writes: “It’s been a busy year. A theatrical production of my project, the Typewriter Underground, premiered at the Henry Miller Library’s outdoor theater in Big Sur last June. A collection of my verse from the Typewriter Underground, La Commedia Sotterranea della Macchia da Scrivere,

was published by Pelekinesis Press in March, and my collection The Snow Dead was accepted for publication by Červená Barva Press and will be released next year. More importantly, I had a great time seeing and reconnecting with dear friends at the UHS reunion and the after-party at Mark Kushner’s house. I continue to enjoy life by the sea in Capitola.”

1981 Dr. Louise Aronson, geriatrician, writer, and UCSF professor, has been making appearances locally and nationwide, including CBS This Morning and Fresh Air, to promote her best-selling second book, Elderhood, published in June 2019.

For information about her future speaking dates, go to louisearonson.com/appearances.

1982 Holly Johnson and Carla Witt embarked on another adventure together last summer, paddleboarding from island to island off the coast of Belize.

1983 In January, Dr. Lande Ajose was appointed as California Governor Gavin Newsom’s senior advisor on higher education. In her previous role as executive director of California Competes, Lande developed and advocated for better policies and practices to equitably boost California’s postsecondary degree attainment while strengthening its economy. She also serves as Chair of the California Student Aid Commission, as well as on the Western Association of Schools and Colleges’s Senior College and University Commission.

Governor Gavin Newsom and Dr. Lande Ajose '83

1984 Giorgio Kulp shares: “Two of our chicks have left the nest and are attending Emory University: David, junior and pre-med, and Ariella, sophomore and pre-business. Our youngest, Ethan, is in his junior year of high school and singing in his a cappella group, just like his ‘old man’ did at UHS. My pediatric practice is busy in Bethesda, and we are looking forward to some entrepreneurial collaboration with other local practices. My wife, Debbie (social worker at NIH) and I continue to sing in our own alte kaker a cappella group, JewKvox, singing at different functions around the DC metro area: Nationals Park, bar mitzvahs, AIPAC, etc. We are not quitting our day jobs, but we enjoy performing and singing with friends.” Thanks to Giorgio for helping rally his classmates for a Class of ’84 party during the 2019 Reunion Weekend!

Elliot Mainzer writes: “I am living in Portland, OR, with my wife and twin 10-year-old sons, enjoying the beautiful Northwest and working in the electric utility industry.”

Photographer and book artist Colleen Mullins was an artist-in-residence at the Penland School of Craft in North Carolina and at In Cahoots Residency in Petaluma this spring. Her project Exposition was selected as the winner in the Best Series for Editorial

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ALUMNI and Current Affairs category of the 13th annual Julia Margaret Cameron Award for Women Photographers.

Green on the 43 Masonic on my way to UHS every day), and on my background as a political scientist interested in how institutions develop.”

1988

Alibi, 2018, by Colleen Mullins '84, from her award-winning series Exposition

1985 Andrew Lovett says: “I’m proud to say I got my start in education team-teaching at Summerbridge with 2019 Alumni Honors recipient Minh Tsai ’89/SB ’85!”

Lincoln Mitchell has published his fifth book.

Baseball Goes West:The Dodgers, the Giants, and the Shaping of the Major Leagues is an analysis of how the two teams that moved to California in 1958 helped make Major League Baseball the national, and ultimately global, institution we know today.

Lincoln says: “It’s a book about baseball that has a lot of fun baseball stories, but is also a book about urban politics, history, and how history is often misunderstood. This book draws on my obsession with baseball (which has not cooled since I used to study the box scores in the Sporting

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Craig Snellings was appointed as a commissioner of the California Worker’s Compensation Appeals Board (WCAB) in early January 2019, by outgoing Governor Jerry Brown. The seven-member WCAB hears cases after a judge has previously issued a ruling on a workers’ comp case and after the losing side files an appeal. Craig is a former workers’ comp defense attorney with the San Francisco Bay Area firm of Hartsuyker, Stratman & Williams-Abrego. He earned his bachelor’s degree in sociology from UCLA in 1993, then returned there to earn his J.D. in 1998.

1989 Alison Corning-Mulliken lives in Fairfax and is raising two sons with her husband, David. She is involved in impact and venture investment, as well as teaching yoga and meditation. She says she is “committed to the goal of creating the world we want to see and pass on through meaningful work and philanthropy.”

The Hollywood Reporter named Samantha Bley DeJean as one of Hollywood’s top divorce lawyers, after Angelina Jolie hired Samantha to represent her in her ongoing divorce and custody dispute with Brad Pitt.

Samantha has been quoted in conjunction with the JoliePitt case in major publications worldwide, most recently in the New York Times. She has practiced family law since 1996 in partnership with her father at their firm, Bley and Bley.

Marianna Stark and her family enjoyed their second summer at the Lair of the Bear, Camp Gold,

UC Berkeley’s family summer camp. “Our little extrovert is five!

Tay attends a Spanish-languageimmersion PK–8 school in our hometown of Oakland, and the head of school was recruited by [UHS founding head of school] Dennis Collins!”

1990

Marianna Stark '89 with husband Sam Perry; their daughter, Tay; and Oski

Dr. Monique W. Morris, founder of the National Black Women’s Justice Institute, continues to be recognized on the national stage for her important work. Her fourth book, Sing a Rhythm, Dance a Blues, published in August 2019, reimagines what education might look like if schools placed the flourishing of Black and Brown girls at their center. Her 2015 book, Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools, was made into a documentary film and has been screening around the country this fall.

1994 Danielle Bourhis’s fashion boutique in Presidio Heights, The Bar Code, celebrated its one-year anniversary in October 2019.

The space serves as a gallery for fine art, custom furniture, and vintage clothing; as a pop-up space for trunk shows by luxury brands; and a spot for chic streetwear. The Bar Code donates five percent of its sales to causes (such

as, currently, Planned Parenthood Northern California) that Danielle believes need shoppers’ attention and funding.

Ben Choi is “enjoying work and life in Palo Alto with my wife and three young boys. I am a managing director at Legacy Venture, where I manage investments in premier venture capital firms. My investors and I give the principal and gains from our Legacy investments (roughly $2 billion) to charity.”

Alexis Gallagher reports that he’s “been living in SF for the last five years, after a bit over a decade in the UK and Europe, working in consulting, finance, and research science (getting a PhD along the way), always with computers involved somehow.

These days I make eyeglasses for a living (like Spinoza)—but as the CTO of a startup (Topology Eyewear) where we do it with the iPhones and buzzwordy technology like machine learning and augmented reality to make 100% custom glasses. Still holding onto most of my hair, most of my hopes.” He and his spouse, Ringae Nuek, have two kids, Odysseus and Kallisto, who attend Grattan Elementary.

1995 Vanessa Louise Carter and her husband, Joseph James Ording III, welcomed their first child, Westley Carter Ording, on January 29, 2019.Vanessa and Joe were married in 2018 at her parents’ home. They moved to Tiburon to care for her parents, who were living with Alzheimer’s.Vanessa’s mother,Valda, passed away on July 10, 2019. Classmates Jessica (Criswell) Mitchell and Allison (Goodson) Klein attended the celebration of Valda’s life.Vanessa is the Alzheimer’s Association’s legislative ambassador to Rep. Jared Huffman, and is a member of the UCSF Memory and Aging Center’s Family Advisory Council. She works as the Environmental Literacy Director

ALUMNI for the San Francisco Unified School District.You can read her letter to the Marin Independent Journal, about her experiences caring for her parents, at bayareane.ws/2PJNnrK. Feel free to contact her at vanessalouisecarter@gmail.com if you are concerned about a loved one with Alzheimer’s or would like recommendations for volunteer opportunities related to the cause.

April 9, 2019. Caitlin and Aaron moved to Chicago in November 2018 to be closer to her family.

Aaron writes: “We are thrilled, and sleep-deprived! We saw Anthony Cheung ’00 and his wife, Lu, earlier this spring, and we hope to see more UHS folks who are here in the Midwest.”

Anthony and Lu also welcomed a baby, Mirabel Wang Cheung, in September 2018. Writes Anthony, “She spent the first year of her life divided equally between Chicago (where she braved some of the coldest temperatures on record), Berlin (where she charmed everyone at the American Academy in Berlin), and San Francisco (where she fell in love with the ocean).”

Vanessa Louise Carter '95 and her husband Joseph James Ording III at their wedding.

Jill Dyal resides in Greenwich, CT, with her husband, Gordon.

Graydon Hawthorne Dyal was born on June 15, 2018. His big sister, Tabitha, loves having a little brother. Tabitha started nursery school at Greenwich Country Day School this fall.

1999 Justin Christensen shares: “I’m enjoying life in San Jose with my wife and three sons.

I work as an assistant principal at Bellarmine College Preparatory.”

Ives Friend, on January 31, 2018. Rebecca and her family recently moved from Sacramento to Berkeley after she graduated from her pediatrics residency at UC Davis. Rebecca is now a general outpatient pediatrician at Kaiser Hayward–Sleepy Hollow.

(See page 29 for a photo of Rebecca and Winter!)

2002 Nick Fram and his wife, Victoria, welcomed their second child, Elliot, in October 2018.

2003 John Morris writes: “I am currently the education program administrator at the San Francisco Opera Guild, which serves 50,000 K–12 students in 200 Bay Area schools per year. I am still a professional voiceover actor. Hear me in my fourth Toy Story movie, released last summer, as the voice of the character Andy.”

Cooper Frank Fung

Melissa Holman-Kursky is living in SF with her husband and her four-year-old son.

After 15 years as a classroom teacher, she is now the communications and marketing manager at the San Francisco School. She and her husband run a nonprofit theater, the Un-Scripted Theater Company, in Union Square.

Jeff Hom graduated from the Presidential Leadership Scholars Program, a national leadership development program led by the foundations and centers of Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. Jeff is a policy advisor in the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, where he provides guidance to the Health Commissioner on programs and policies related to the well-being of all Philadelphians. A board-certified internist, Jeff ’s present focus is on substance use, particularly issues around access to treatment and harm reduction.

2000 Aaron Fung and his wife, Caitlin, welcomed their first child, Cooper Frank Fung, on

2001 Dr. Rebecca Ives and her husband, Nick Friend, welcomed their first child, Winter

2004 Matthew Thier writes: “I’ve left the tech world and the company I co-founded, Betabrand, and made the jump into education.

I currently run the alumni program at Cathedral School for Boys, and I couldn’t be enjoying the change more.”

2007 Michael Kremer shares: “I’m living in SF and working with several UHS alumni at a solar company. Outside of my day job, I’ve spent the past two years leading the inmate baseball program at San Quentin State Prison.”

2008 Nick Blum reports: “Two summers ago, I moved to Flagstaff, AZ, up in the high mountains

of Northern Arizona, quite close to the Grand Canyon. It’s a very cool mountain town. I moved here because it’s the home of Northern Arizona University, where Sara, my partner, is getting her PhD in biology/ecology. I also got a job working for the school, in the Institute for Human Development, writing and editing grant applications for programs supporting persons with disabilities. I’m not sure how long I’ll be in Flagstaff, but it’s nice to get out of the crowded Bay Area for a little while, and to have access to great skiing, hiking, biking, and geology.”

2012 Rob Lipton is living in LA and working in the aerospace industry as a thermal engineer with Virgin Orbit.

2013 Through the Disney Aspire education investment program, Joshua Kwan is pursuing a graduate degree in strategic industrial and organizational psychology from Bellevue University. Joshua says, “This program will prepare me to be a partner in organizational decision-making, problem solving, and strategy from a datadriven human capital perspective.

With this degree, I can bring a rigorous approach to employee engagement, personnel selection, and succession planning, skills that I plan to translate in a studio environment for production management in film.”

Alan Mozaffari moved back to St. Louis to work as a research assistant at Washington University’s Brown School of Social Work and Public Health. Alan is working on an applied research project with the Brown School’s Global Research on Inclusion and Disability team and the Social Systems Design Lab to use community-based system dynamics to improve education equity and quality for students (particularly students with disabilities) in Afghanistan

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ALUMNI and Pakistan. Alan says, “I’m happy to be back in St. Louis and at Wash U., and lucky to have landed on an opportunity that resonates with the systems-based, interdisciplinary work that I value and want to pursue, and building upon my Summerbridge experience and passion for education in working with students and incorporating my teaching skills into the trainings I will conduct with teachers, community leaders, and parents.”

Last spring, Cristina M. Ibarra was a lead in the play Sooner/ Later at Mosaic Theater in Washington, DC, and her performance received rave reviews from the Washington Post and DC Metro Theater Arts. Earlier this year, she assistantdirected Junk at Arena Stage, and last summer, her play about Filipinx-Americans in the zombie apocalypse, A Song by the Cranberries, premiered in San Diego at MaArte Theatre Collective. Landas, her play about her mother’s experience immigrating to the U.S., was performed at the Kennedy Center’s Page-to-Stage New Play Festival in spring 2017.

That year, Cristina graduated with honors from Georgetown University, with a BA in philosophy and in theater and performance studies, and was awarded the Davis Medal for academic and artistic excellence, creativity, and initiative in the field of theater and performance studies.

the business itself be the thing that ultimately makes that change?”

Christina M. Ibarra �13 (left foreground) onstage in Sooner/Later

2014 Mansoor Al-Shehail has combined his passion for wrestling and acting into a one-of-a-kind career: professional wrestling.

Now known professionally as “Mansoor,” he was one of eight participants selected for additional training under World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) coaches, following tryouts last April in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, that featured 50 Saudi athletes. He has since signed with WWE NXT, and has worked several matches on the NXT live circuit. In June, he prevailed in WWE’s 50-man Battle Royal. Mansoor began training to be a pro wrestler shortly after his 18th birthday and has worked with independent promoters such as Hoodslam and APW. Last year, in response to a question, during a press junket, about women being unable to perform in WWE shows in Saudi Arabia, he said, “I think some people hold the idea that unless a developing market shares the standards and principles of a Western country, a company like WWE shouldn’t do business with that market. But why can’t

Mansoor Al-Shehail �14

Stephen Nemy graduated from Syracuse University in May 2018 and is now working in the information technology consulting practice area of Ernst & Young in New York City.

2015 Magician Danny FishmanEngel, known professionally as Danny Roy, performed at two renowned venues last spring: the Magic Lounge in Chicago and the Magic Castle in Los Angeles.

He is also a regular at the Smoke and Mirrors Magic Theater in Philadelphia. In September 2018, he received the Close-Up Magician of the Year award from the Milbourne Christopher Foundation. “Close-up” refers to magic performed in an intimate setting, usually no more than ten feet from one’s (usually seated) audience.

2018 Marco da Cunha was recruited for cross-country and track and field at Carleton College, but when he arrived there in fall 2018, he decided to try soccer as a walk-on candidate. In the words of Jim Ketcham, UHS athletic director: “He made the team, he made the starting lineup, and he led the league in goals. He was one of three first-team selections for his team, which won its league title.

And he made first team for his Division III region—one of only five freshmen nationally who received this recognition.”

This past summer, Jolie Villegas was awarded a fellowship to scuba dive in Belize in order to research the climate change– induced decline of coral reefs.

During her freshman year at Wesleyan University, she portrayed the lead role of Elle Woods in the school production of Legally Blonde:The Musical. n

Jolie Villegas '18 (center) onstage in Legally Blonde, The Musical

Magician Danny Roy '15

Alumni Honors, continued from page 11 West Oakland factory workforce is made up of immigrants.

Minh encourages and supports employees in learning English and provides flexible work hours to support their families’ integration into the workforce.

Employees are cross-trained in multiple departments (including Minh’s own responsibilities) so that they can fill in for one

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another and understand the “big picture” of the business.

Hodo’s management is committed to helping all employees move up when they’re ready, either within the company, if there’s an opportunity, or with another company. Hodo provides 100% coverage of health, vision, and dental benefits, and offers a 401K program with

4% matching—unheard of in food manufacturing. Employee turnover is typically 150% for a food manufacturing business; at Hodo, it is less than 20%.

The City of Oakland Workforce Development Board has taken notice, recruiting Minh to promote the best practices that Hodo has pioneered.

In addition to Hodo, Minh has a consulting practice, working with food startups, and is a co-parent to two teenage boys.

In these capacities, he can share the secret ingredients to his success, inspired by his roots at Summerbridge and UHS: high expectations and a strong support system. n

ALUMNI

WHAT'S YOUR ONE DEGREE EXPERIENCE?

W

e asked alumni in our private LinkedIn group to share stories of working with and volunteering with fellow alums after graduation.What’s your One Degree experience? Send us the story at UHSalumni@sfuhs.org, and join our group at linkedin.com/groups/3823/, a great place to network, post job openings, and possibly find your next job, client, or new hire!

Bree Baccaglini ’11 + Pauline Ryan ’12 Bree Baccaglini ’11 and Pauline Ryan ’12 are co-presidents of the Stanford Law Association (SLA) for the 2019–2020 school year, but this wasn’t planned! The Stanford Law School (SLS) custom is that candidates run separately for student government leadership and the two top vote getters become co-presidents. According to Pauline, “Bree and I hadn't been in touch since UHS, but we immediately recognized each other at orientation.” As SLA presidents, they oversee seven committees working on issues across the academic,

social, and cultural spheres at SLS. They both look forward to advocating for increased affordability at Stanford; greater realization of diversity, inclusion, and equity principles in the classroom and in the institution; and increased resources for student mental health and wellness.

After graduation, both women plan to practice public interest law in the Bay Area. Pauline (SLS ’20) has secured a position clerking for Judge John Mendez in the Eastern District of California, beginning in summer 2020, and, long-term, hopes to be a civil-side Assistant U.S. Attorney. Bree (SLS ’21) will look for legal aid work in San Francisco next summer, before starting on her final year of law school, and then hopes to work in civil rights and voting rights.

three projects together since 2010, and have recently collaborated on three active projects. Clayton attributes their strong working relationship to being like-minded problem solvers, and to something even more practical—their offices are adjacent to each other. Clayton says, “This results in a day-to-day dialogue that covers many facets of our working relationship, project interests, project status updates, and more.”

after bumping into each other in the courtyard at their 15th/25th reunion! At Kaiser Permanente Northern California’s Regional Genetics Pediatric Lipid Multispecialty Program in Oakland, they bring their specialties of medical genetics and pediatric endocrinology together to care for children with genetic forms of high cholesterol.

Together they add a broad perspective to personalized plans

Dr. Leslie Brenman ’96 + Dr. Louise Greenspan ’86, P’23

for each patient, from teaching families about the biology of their children’s conditions to the dietary, exercise, and wellness components that complement medical management. n

Clayton Timbrell ’00 + Stephen Sutro ’92 Not only is there a building boom in San Francisco right now, there’s a remodeling boom, so odds were high that residential contractor Clayton Timbrell ’00 and residential architect Stephen Sutro ’92 would work together. Rather than meeting through the UHS Alumni Association, the two met through the building and architecture community, and they discovered their connection through normal course of conversation.

Clayton Timbrell & Company and Sutro Architects have completed

Leslie Brenman ’96 and Louise Greenspan ’86 worked together for years, but only discovered that they are both UHS alumnae

Preparing for the Future of Work, continued from page 17 The roles of teachers at UHS are evolving in ways that reflect the needs of the new economy. “We put a lot of energy and resources into professional development and assume a teacher is continually learning,” Nasif says. “We’ve also worked to create more flexibility in our job structure, so there are more ways for teachers to take on a leadership role and lead strategic change.” He adds that “students can now quickly access much more information

than their teachers have. The role of the teacher has shifted from being a source and gatekeeper of knowledge to being a coach and a guide to help students develop their relationships to the world.”

The school is also investing in hiring and cultivating teachers who have strong senses of compassion and interpersonal skills.

“We see this as an important part of the profile of a teacher: having a complex understanding

of adolescent development, intercultural skills, and humility, and a joy around working with people,” Nasif says. “It’s not enough to be excited about physics—you have to be excited about people engaging with physics.”

UHS is serious about preparing students for the vastly transformed economic landscape they will encounter. Despite the magnitude of the transformations to come, Morten Hansen, for one, finds

reason to be optimistic about humanity’s ability to adapt and the potential upside of change. “Every time there’s an enormous amount of change, there are always old jobs going away and new professions being created,” Morten says. “‘Data scientists’ didn’t exist 10 years ago, and now we have millions. We’ve seen this movie many times before.” n

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ALUMNI

REBORN TO RUN — Ella Shenkar ’19

2

018 was a remarkable year for Jenny Rosenthal Hitchings ’82. At age 55, she set four American running records for her age group (55–59) in four months. Her achievements were widely recognized: She was featured in Sports Illustrated’s “Faces in the Crowd” section; named USA Track & Field’s Masters Road Runner of the Year for her age division; and named USA Track & Field (Pacific)’s Female Road Runner of the Year. Unlike most athletic record holders, Jenny did not begin her path to stardom as a youth; rather, she gradually joined the complex world of competitive running later in life, reinventing herself as an award-winning athlete and finding her second career at the same time.

At UHS, Jenny played soccer and swam for the UHS Sea Snakes club team, but she never expected to compete in any sport beyond high school. She began running in college, using it as a way to stay fit. In 1987, she ran her first marathon, the Los Angeles Marathon, a race she describes as a “disaster.” New to the sport, she didn't know how to train properly and thought she could “wing it.” She says, “I didn’t run enough mileage, consume energy gels or drinks, or use a seamless bra (maybe because these didn’t

really exist in 1987—ouch!); I just pushed on through and finished in under four hours.”

In 1992, Jenny and her family moved to Sacramento, where she joined the Buffalo Chips Running Club. This organization would become the foundation for her running career and helped her become a stronger athlete and competitor. After years of training, racing, and dedication, in 2011, at age 47, she ran a personal-best marathon time of 2:46:10. Though she was proud of her achievement, it was a bittersweet moment for her, as her time was just 10 seconds off the qualifying standard for the Olympic marathon trials.

In 2015, Jenny won her age category (50–54), with a 2:52 time, in the Boston Marathon, and she ran the California International Marathon in 2:49, breaking an age-group course record that had stood for thirty years.Three years later, she returned to Boston and ran an especially grueling marathon. She powered through 30-mph winds, pelting rain, and frigid temperatures, remaining focused, even as elite athletes dropped out around her, before finally dropping out at mile 20 due to hypothermia. Six weeks after returning to California, she became the overall women’s winner at the Mountains to Beach (M2B) Marathon in Ventura.

After the M2B Marathon, Jenny began to focus on 5K and 10K paces, starting with the Wharf to Wharf six-miler in Santa Cruz, where she finished in the women’s top 25 with a time of 35:24. In 2018, Jenny broke four American records for the 55–59 age group in four months: the 5K record in August, in 18:05; the ten-mile record in September, in 1:01:20; the half-marathon record in October, in 1:21:17; and the 10K record Jenny coming in for the win at the in November, in 37:27 (53 seconds Mountains2Beach Marathon, May 2018 faster than the Sacramento’s California Middle previous record, School, and she directs and held by Joan Benoit Samuelson). coaches an after-school running In December, she broke another program at a local elementary long-standing age-group course school. She and her husband, record by running the California Andy Hitchings, have two International Marathon in 2:52. daughters, Molly and Maggie.

Jenny says, “Maggie will be Jenny has achieved a singular running her first marathon at type of success in the running world. To break so many different the New York City Marathon in November. I’ll be there cheering, records, to excel in such different and running as well!” races, after taking up competitive running later in life, reflects an Like all great runners, Jenny is unparalleled mental strength. focused on continuing to strive to Jenny partially attributes this be the best she can be. Even now, mental strength to University’s at age 56, with multiple records culture of excellence. She achieved, Jenny is constantly describes how, while her high looking for the next barrier to school friends have gone on to break, and she has her sights set lead fascinating careers and love on another American age-group the challenges of their work, marathon record. n she chose to individuate herself through running.

Jenny Hitchings '82, second from right, with husband Andy and daughters Molly and Maggie.

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She is also a mentor to others: as a Road Runners Club of America–certified running coach for individuals and groups, she is the cross-country coach at

Contact Jenny at runnerjen@surewest.net, or follow her on Instagram and Twitter at @jennyhitchings, and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/jenny .rosenthalhitchings.

ALUMNI

Pizza Party!

When you get three alums together for pizza or any other food, we’ll cover $50 (max) of the bill! Just send a copy of the restaurant check and group photo with PIZZA in the subject line to UHSalumni@sfuhs.org. One submission per alum per year, please, and a big shout-out to Linda Huang ’17 for her incredible school spirit!

“I love this pizza party program!! It really encourages the alumni to stay in touch and bond over some great food. My friends from Branson wish they had a program like this.

Go Devils!"

—Rachel Wu ‘17

Linda Huang '17, Sarah Ancheta '17, Isabella Hord '17

Claire Wilson '17, Ana Telfer '17, Simone Jacob '17, Lindsay Chung '17

Matt Wolfe '01, Tory Stewart '01, Rebecca Ives '01, Winter Ives Friend

Jessica Vapnek '81, Jeanne Miller '79, Leslie Kardos '81

Ottillia Ni '14, Tyler Leong '14, Hailey Galvin '14

Linda Huang '17, Emily Minus '17, Ian Browne '17

Linda Huang '17, Henry Hongo '17, Henry Wisniewski '17

Lindsey Chung '17, Artemisia Luk '17, Rachel Wu '17

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IN MEMORIAM

Remembering Gerald Huff ’81 — Stephen Kuhn ’80

erald Huff ’s path to technologist and futurist started in 1977, when he entered UHS as a thirteenyear-old freshman and I was a newly-minted sophomore.The year before, I had taken UHS’s first class in programming and wanted to share it with my new buddy. He too was quickly hooked, even though we had just a primitive and noisy teletype in the basement of the lower campus, connected by a 110 baud acoustic coupler to an HP 2000 minicomputer at the University of San Francisco. Yes, archaic by today’s standards, but it was so awesome.This was our own early universe, hyperexpanding the bounds of what we knew and the limits of our imaginations.We spent countless hours dreaming and scheming and programming— hacking, old style. It was a magical and wondrous time for us.

In the summer of 1979, we were hired by Frances ’80 and Roger ’82 Hochschild’s father, Alan, who had learned of our

programming shenanigans. That literally changed the courses of our lives. The platform was a 16-bit IBM Series/1, and the language was PXS, which neither of us had ever heard of before. I remember clearly that first day of work. Gerald wrote his first program. It compiled cleanly and ran flawlessly with no bugs the very first time.

After graduating from Harvard, Gerald excelled in the corporate world at Bain, but the tech bug had infected him, and he left to refocus on his lifelong passion: coding. From his startup, Avantos, to Intuit, and finally to Tesla, he resisted management positions (including chief architect at Intuit), always wanting to stay close to the code. And yet he was a highly respected leader amongst his peers, known for his mentorship and collegiality in addition to his analytical mind, incisive thinking, and enormous technical ability.

Despite his passion for technology and his conviction that it can be a powerful and

Gerald Huff (right) and Stephen Kuhn in 2012

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U H S J O U R N A L | FALL 2019

Gerald Huff: Universal Basic Income Activist Often discussed in conjunction with reductions in the numbers of repetitive and routinized jobs, Universal Basic Income (UBI) is most commonly defined as a stipend delivered as a periodic payment to all on an individual basis, without a means test or work requirement. Gerald Huff ’81’s novel Crisis 2038, published posthumously in late 2018, is a work of science fiction predicting high unemployment and civil unrest as increasingly intelligent AIs and robots replace more and more human labor.

UBI scholar Scott Santens says: “Gerald believed that the idea of an unconditional basic income is the key to getting us onto the right track towards a better future.

UBI is literally an investment in humanity itself, where everyone starts with something instead of nothing.

His novel takes place in a future that hasn’t made the decisions it needed to make in the here and now. It’s an important warning of the future we can expect, where, due to political gridlock and corporate greed, technology continues to not be used for the benefit of all, until the inevitable breaking point is reached.”

positive change agent, Gerald became very concerned about technology’s dark side.

Advancements in automation and AI, he became convinced, would likely lead to technological unemployment (TU)— unsustainably high levels of structural unemployment leading to serious social and economic disruption and inequality. As a result, he became an advocate for universal basic income (UBI).

Gerald wrote op-eds and went on speaking gigs. He collaborated with thought leaders, becoming one himself. But Gerald felt that the TU and UBI imperatives needed broader attention, needed to enter the popular consciousness. So he wrote Crisis: 2038, a suspense novel set in the near future. It was his brilliant

magnum opus—not merely by the standard of a first-time writer.

I'll never forget the memories we made together: writing our first lines of code, and the subsequent events that changed the courses of our careers and lives; double dates; our startup; freezing our butts off while camping; Santana rock concerts; his mother Gisèle’s porc à la prunneau dinners; serving as best man in each other’s weddings; and years of dinners, movies, walks, and so many other joyful quotidian events.

Gerald, I’m profoundly grateful for the gift of our friendship.You will always be one of the greatest people I’ve known. I miss you, my brother, but we will see each other again. n

IN MEMORIAM

Remembering Ann Pogrel UHS Science Instructor, 1992–2009

Ann Pogrel, as photographed for the 2013-2014 UHS Retrospect yearbook.

M

y first vivid memory of working at University High School was meeting Ann Pogrel in late September 1993. I was a reluctant, disoriented substitute teacher who hadn’t been in a high school since my own graduation, but when I walked into the math/ science office, Ann welcomed me with such genuine warmth that I immediately felt at ease. It was the care that Ann provided,

making sure that I had everything I needed to have a great teaching experience, that showed me, right from the start, that this was the kind of professional community that I had longed for, but never expected to find.

Ann worked in the UHS Science Department from 1992 to 2009, and she was an important role model for me in many ways: as a teacher, a department chair, and

— Nasif Iskander, UHS science instructor and dean of faculty

as a UHS parent (James ’89 and David ’91 had already graduated from UHS when Ann started teaching here, but I had the pleasure of teaching Helen ’94 in my first full year at the school). I followed Ann’s footsteps into each of those roles—now, finally, as a UHS parent myself—and after 26 years, I still aspire to strike the same balance of warmth, humor, clarity, and integrity that I saw in everything that she did.

I know that all of us who had the chance to work alongside Ann at UHS have the same admiration and fondness for her colleagueship that I have. And now that I am responsible for bringing new teachers into the school, I often find myself describing my first days at UHS. Ann’s generosity and kindness, so surprising to me at the time, is the central theme of that story. n

Editors’ note: For many years, UHS has had a tradition of remembering deceased immediate family members of our alumnx in this section, relying on the community to inform us of losses.We recognize that, over the years, we have been unable to ensure that we have fully and accurately maintained this tradition. Now our community is of considerable size, with forty-three graduating classes, including more than 4,000 alums, and we have made the difficult decision to end this practice.We will continue to remember alumni and past faculty and staff in this section, when requested by family members.

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Alums, Connect with Us Online!

Find your next job, new hire, or mentor through the UHS Alumni Association on LinkedIn. Be sure to include San Francisco University High School in the education section of your LinkedIn profile so you are officially connected to UHS on our school page.

1

Find career insights for fellow alums here:

You can only be "found" on LinkedIn if UHS is listed in the education section of your profile with our logo displayed.

Listing years of attendance is optional.

1996 – 2000

2

3

1996 – 2000

San Francisco University High School

linkedin.com/school/san-francisco-university-high-school/ people

Join the UHS Alumni Facebook Group:

San Francisco University High School

Join the UHS Alumni Group on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/groups/3823/

www.facebook.com/groups/sfuhsalumni

4 Log in to the UHS Alumni Directory and update your information at sfuhs.org/cf_directory/cp.cfm, search for classmates at sfuhs.org/alumni-portal/alumni-directory, and more!

5

Check out our community galleries (let us know who's missing!)

Join your UHS Class Facebook group: facebook.com/pg/SFUHSorg/groups

6

Alumni Authors

Alumni Entrepreneurs

sfuhs.org/alumniauthors

sfuhs.org/alumnimarketplace

Alumni Changemakers

Alumni on Stage, Screen, and Behind the Scenes

sfuhs.org/alumni/community/changemakers

sfuhs.org/alumsinentertainment

OPPORTUNITY COMMUNITY NIVERSITY

2019–2020 UHS AND SUMMERBRIDGE ANNUAL FUND In 2016, University High School adopted a strategic direction—one that demands we stay nimble— continuously assessing, reflecting, and adapting to the changing needs of our complex world and preparing our students to meet those challenges head-on.

The generous Annual Fund support of community members like you has enabled us to say

“YES”!

” YES ” T O O P P O R T U N I T Y !

From supporting new initiatives to sponsoring off-campus learning opportunities, UHS is proud to make empowering student exploration and leadership a priority.

By consistently and broadly ensuring that our students can attend conferences, build connections, and produce events, UHS has invested in a culture of possibility. This year UHS has already committed to hosting the student-led RIOT and LEARN conferences as well as building the second Alumni + Student Symposium around topics that are energizing our community.

” YES ” T O C O M M U N I T Y !

As the primary program through which UHS serves its public purpose, Summerbridge is deeply integrated into the fabric of our community. During its 40th anniversary year, Summerbridge researched and drafted a strategic plan that provides a roadmap for its work serving the broader San Francisco community.

”YES” TO BEING A LEADER

I N S H I F T I N G S C H O O L C U LT U R E !

In response to the school’s need to build capacity for informed decision-making, UHS has begun developing a self-assessment model that employs faculty and staff to form an internal research team. This not only provides professional growth opportunities, but also generates effective insights and recommendations from within our community.

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U H S J O U R N A L | FALL 2019

CONSIDER THE

OPPORTUNITY Y O U C A N C R E AT E with a gift to UHS & Summerbridge.

Go to sfuhs.org/giving For information about how to make a planned gift, matching gift or stock gift, please go to

sfuhs.org/waystogive Questions?

Contact the Development Office at development@sfuhs.org or 415-447-5829

NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION U.S. POSTAGE

PAID

PERMIT NO. 10748 SAN FRANCISCO, CA

3065 JACKSON STREET SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115 @SFUHSorg

See sfuhs.org/alumnicalendar for times and details, and additional events, including networking opportunities and Fireside Chats.

Current/past faculty & significant others welcome at all events.

All events are free unless otherwise noted.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 19

TUESDAY, MARCH 3

ALUMNI HOLIDAY PARTY 6:00–7:00 p.m.

Panel Talk: Equity in the Civic Space Featuring Alumni Changemakers

ALUMNI LEADERSHIP CIRCLE COCKTAIL PARTY 6:00–8:00 p.m.

Honoring alumni who give $1,000 or above annually Head of School’s Home

7:00–9:00 p.m.

All-Class Gathering San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR) 654 Mission Street San Francisco

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6 ALUMNI FILM SCREENING 6:30–9:00 p.m.

PUSHOUT: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools, a documentary film by Monique W. Morris, Ed.D., �90, P �19 Details to come.

ALUMNI GALLERIES:

NOW ACCEPTING NOMINATIONS FOR

Our distinguished alumnx award program All members of our community are invited to make nominations.

We review submissions on a rolling basis. Go to sfuhs.org/AlumniHonors

for more information.

REUNION WEEKEND (MAY 1 & 2)

Honoring classes ending in 0 or 5. All classes welcome.

For more details, go to sfuhs.org/reunion.

FRIDAY, MAY 1 ALUMNI ON CAMPUS

• 9:00 a.m.: Alumni+Student Symposium • 4:00-6:00 p.m.: Happy Reunion Gathering, Jackson Street Lounge • Noon: Join us for lunch in the Student Center

SATURDAY, MAY 2 ALUMNI OF COLOR AFFINITY GROUP MEETUP 4:00–5:30 p.m. Location TBA

ALUMNI VS. STUDENT SPORTS

Badminton Thurs: 12/19 | 6:00 p.m.

Boys Soccer Mon: 12/23 | 10:00 a.m.

Girls Soccer Mon: 12/23 | 11:30 a.m.

Boys Basketball Mon: 12/23 | 5:30 p.m.

Baseball Sat: 5/2 | 10:00 a.m.

See sfuhs.org/athleticscalendar for details.

REUNION AT SHOWCASE 6:00–8:00 p.m. $40 at the door* *Free admission for volunteers

ALUMNI CHANGEMAKERS sfuhs.org/alumnichangemakers ALUMNI ENTREPRENEURS sfuhs.org/alumnimarketplace ALUMNI AUTHORS sfuhs.org/alumniauthors ALUMNI ON STAGE, SCREEN AND BEHIND THE SCENES sfuhs.org/alumnicreatives