SPA Magazine - Spring 2025

SPRING 2025

The Magazine of St. Paul Academy and Summit School

THE MIDDLE SCHOOL TURNS 25

Scott Streble

>> LETTER FROM THE HEAD

THE MIDDLE SCHOOL TURNS 25 The first time I learned about the Grade 7 trip to Camp Widjiwagan was the summer before my official start as Head of School at SPA. I recall unpacking boxes and putting books on bookshelves in my new office when Virigina Andres, our Middle School Principal, stopped by to say hello. As we were chatting, she mentioned something called “Widji.”

“Widji?” I asked, and she explained that every year, the entire seventh grade traveled to the YMCA’s Camp Widjiwagan for a week-long experience that included a robust outdoor-education curriculum as well as winter activities like cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and something called a “dip-saunadip.” When she also explained that this experience took place in far northern Minnesota, in January, this Panamanian-born, recent transplant from Atlanta had to pick up his jaw from the floor.

I have since learned, of course, that Widji is one of the most beloved and valuable experiences of a student’s time in the Middle School, which observes its 25th anniversary as a division this year. Our cover story in this issue of SPA Magazine is a celebration of that milestone and all the ways in which our Middle School has been built around the needs of students in Grades 6-8, both in and out of the classroom.

As you’ll read in the story, starting on page 22, our Middle School curriculum and culture has been carefully designed to address those needs. You’ll also hear from the people who make that curriculum and

culture possible: the teachers and administrators who work with our Middle School students every day with extraordinary care, compassion, and humanity. As Middle School Principal Virginia Andres says in the piece, “...it’s an honor to get to work with kids at this moment, as they are really starting to figure out who they are and who they want to be.”

In many ways both literal and metaphorical, the Middle School stands at the very center of the SPA experience. That dynamic is reflected in this issue of SPA Magazine, which also notes the many new initiatives and innovations currently underway in our Lower School as well as the numerous remarkable accomplishments of our Upper School students. For 25 years, our Middle School has served as both the bridge and the connective tissue in the joyful middle, and I hope you’ll join me in celebrating the people and programs that make that possible.

With gratitude,

Dr. Luis Ottley Head of School

The Magazine of St. Paul Academy and Summit School

2024-2025 BOARD OF TRUSTEES OFFICERS Tim O’Brien ’77, President

Contents SPRING 2025

David A. Kristal, President-Elect Philip McKoy, Secretary

SPRING 2025

Lit Field, Jr. ’75, Treasurer The Magazine of St. Paul Academy and Summit School

Let’s be friends.

Follow us at facebook.com/ StPaulAcademySS

THE MIDDLE SCHOOL TURNS 25

MEMBERS Mark W. Addicks Cristina Arellano Bake Baker ’71 Jennifer Coates ’96 Bruce A. Lilly ’70 Barbara L. Naramore Chip Pearson

Features 2 Letter from the Head 16 Homecoming 2024 18 Celebrating the Class of 2024

Tony Sanneh ’90 Sarah Pennie Thompson ’03 Bob Verhey ’86

Follow us on instagram.com/ spa_spartans

22 On the cover The Middle School Turns 25

In the Fall of 2000, St. Paul Academy and Summit School welcomed Middle Schoolers to a brand-new building and curriculum built specifically around the needs of students in Grades 6-8. As the Middle School observes its twenty-fifth anniversary in 2025, we celebrate this extraordinary program’s past, present, and future.

COVER STORY, PAGE 22

Departments 4 Through the Doors 10 Spartan Sports 30 Alumni/ae News 32 Philanthropy 34 Class Notes 41 In Memoriam

St. Paul Academy and Summit School 1712 Randolph Avenue St. Paul, MN 55105 651-698-2451 info@spa.edu www.spa.edu

Keep up with the Spartans on Threads. @SPASpartan Athletics

SPA Magazine is published twice annually by St. Paul Academy and Summit School for alumni/ae, parents, and friends of the school.

Head of School >> Dr. Luis Ottley

We welcome your comments and thoughts. Please contact us at spamag@spa.edu with suggestions for stories, news, and photos, or write us at SPA Magazine, 1712 Randolph Avenue, St. Paul, MN, 55105.

Principal Photographer >> Scott Streble

Check out our photo galleries at stpaulacademy. smugmug.com

Editor and Principal Writer >> Ami Berger

Design and Layout >> Kimberlea Weeks

Read SPA Magazine online at spa.edu/ SPA_Magazine

>> THROUGH THE DOORS

Lower School Christopher Center Pathways Program has “magical” first year “This year has been magical,” says Lower School faculty member Jill Chang of her first year teaching in SPA’s new Christopher Center Pathways Program. Chang, along with colleagues Andrew Currie and Kristen Leppones, has spent the last year in a new role at the Lower School: teaching a small cohort of 4-6 students with dyslexia as part of the Pathways program, which the school launched in the fall of 2024.

Designed for students with high academic potential and a primary diagnosis of dyslexia, Pathways teachers use the Orton-Gillingham

Imagining Our Future: Christopher Center Pathways Program

Amy and Chip Pearson

The Christopher Center Pathways Program was made possible in part by current SPA parents Chip and Amy Pearson, whose $1 million gift helped support the creation of the three Pathways classrooms during the renovation of the Goodrich Campus over the summer of 2024.

The Pearson’s gift was inspired in part by Chip’s experience with his own learning differences as a student. “School was never easy for me, and I didn’t understand why,” says Chip, who was diagnosed with dyslexia as a junior in high school. “By then, I didn’t like going to school,” he remembers. “Had a program like Pathways been available to me in elementary school, I think my journey as a student would have been very different.” Amy also remembers friends from her childhood, who were brilliant and creative, but always struggled with school. “I imagine at least some of them were dyslexic and undiagnosed,” she says. “We love SPA, and want as many students as possible to benefit from the opportunity this program will provide.”

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Andrew Currie works with a student in his Grade 3 Pathways classroom.

approach to support students in their acquisition of skills in reading, spelling, writing, and math. Orton-Gillingham is a highly structured approach that breaks reading and spelling down into smaller skills involving letters and sounds, and then builds on these skills over time.

The OG approach uses explicit, direct, sequential, systematic, multisensory instruction to teach reading, which is essential for teaching students with dyslexia.

Chang, Currie, and Leppones, along with Lower School learning specialist Laura Duke, went through the Orton-Gillingham certification process during the 2023-24 school year in preparation for the program’s first student cohorts in Grades 3, 4, and 5. Pathways students spend half their school day in their Pathways classroom in cohorts of four to six students and their OG-trained teacher for instruction in language arts, social studies, and math. For the rest of the school day, they join with classmates in their grade-level homerooms in a “best of both worlds” approach.

Andrew Currie, who has taught in the Lower School since 2010, teaches the Grade 3 Pathways cohort. “We’ve always had students with language-based learning differences at SPA,” he says, “but with the Orton-Gillingham approach, we are able to teach these kids in a way that connects to their learning styles.” In the first few months of the program, Currie is already seeing growth in his students’ reading and writing, “but maybe more importantly, we are seeing growth in their self-esteem, confidence, and sense of belonging,” he says. Kristen Leppones, who teaches the Grade 5 Pathways cohort, agrees. “In this first year, I’ve watched my students gain academic skills, exhibit greater confidence in their abilities, and learn how to be an advocate for their learning needs,” Leppones says.

“Watching these kids come in with so many learned avoidance behaviors and transform before my eyes into more confident and active classroom participants has been a real highlight,” says Jill Chang of her Grade 4 Pathways students. “They view their dyslexia as a superpower,” Chang says, “and can often verbalize the role that dyslexia plays in how they think about the world. Hearing them say things like, ‘oh, that was a dyslexia moment’ and ‘just because I have dyslexia doesn’t mean I am not smart’ validates that what we are doing in this program is right for kids.” Given this success, SPA will add a Lower School Pathways

Pathway teachers Jill Chang (left) and Kristen Leppones

classroom in Grade 2. The program will also expand to the Middle School next year, with a dedicated OG instructor who will work with the current Grade 5 Pathways students when they move to Grade 6.

Megan Namowicz is the parent of one of those current Grade 5 Pathways students; she remembers how her family struggled to meet the needs of their son Archie, who was diagnosed with dyslexia in Grade 3 and was falling behind at his previous school even with the support of weekly tutoring sessions. “He was frustrated, exhausted, and losing confidence trying to keep up,” she says. Archie is now a

Grade 5 student in Leppones’ Pathways classroom, and Namowicz says that their experience so far at SPA has been transformational. “He felt part of the school community immediately, and takes a lot of pride in his participation in Pathways.” She says that Archie has made huge gains academically and is motivated to keep working hard, but just as important has been his emotional growth. “One year ago, we were anxious that the defeat our son felt would permanently impact his life as a learner,” Namowicz says. “Today, I am so grateful because his mindset has changed, and he knows he is bright.”

Summer 2025 Marks Second Phase of Goodrich Campus Renovation Over the summer of 2025, SPA’s Goodrich Campus will undergo the second phase of an extensive two-part renovation project. The project will eventually touch almost every part of the historic building on Goodrich Avenue, which originally housed the Summit School and is now the home of SPA’s Lower School. The school’s Imagining Our Future Campaign, which has now raised more than $17 million, is funding the renovation.

The work planned for summer 2025 will renovate the spaces on the building’s lower two floors, including classrooms, administrative offices, restrooms, and the iconic main-floor entryway and gathering space known as the Living Room. Several spaces throughout the building will also be reconfigured as part of this phase; on the main level, the reconfiguration will include the creation of additional classroom and office space for the Christopher Center Pathways Program, a new suite of offices for enrollment management staff, and a dedicated office for safety and security personnel.

The first phase of the project was completed over the summer and early fall of 2024 and focused primarily on the second floor of the Goodrich Campus. All second-floor classroom spaces were renovated and updated, and some spaces were reconfigured to create additional classrooms for the

Renovated Goodrich Campus Classroom

new Pathways program. The Library was also reimagined into a single large continuous space, replacing the previous configuration of two smaller rooms across a corridor from each other. Several infrastructural projects were also addressed in phase one, including reroofing of the main building, tuckpointing along the exterior on the east side, and improvements to safety systems. www. spa.e du

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>> THROUGH THE DOORS

Student-artists Honored in 2025 Minnesota Scholastic Art Awards Eighteen SPA students in grades 9-12 were recognized in the 2025 Minnesota Scholastic Art Awards (MSAA) program. Established to ensure that artistic talent was recognized in schools and communities across the country, the MSAAs offer recognition in a wide range of categories including Painting, Photography, Printmaking, Ceramics, Fashion, and Mixed Media. This year’s 18 MSAA winners earned 4 Gold Key, 4 Silver Key, and 10 Honorable Mention awards: Gold Key: Francis Hanna ’28, Annika Kim ’26, Rowan Moore ’26, Gwen Uhlhorn ’28 Silver Key: Iris Bergad ’28, Mia Collins ’25, Olivia Fox ’28, Anneli Wilson ’27 Honorable Mention: June Dalton ’25, William Drake ’27, Maeve Duncan ’26, Thomas Ferguson ’26, Humza Jameel ’25, Eva Johnson ’27, Annika Kim ’26, Rowan Moore ’26, Elliot Sjaastad ’26, Jesse Wussler ’26 In addition, three students received awards in the 2025 Scholastic Writing Awards for the Minnesota Writing Region:

William Drake ’27

• Aarushi Bahadur ’25 received four Gold Keys in Critical Essay (2), Short Story, and Journalism; and four Honorable Mentions in Critical Essay, Short Story, Journalism, and Poetry.

• Aksel Isler ’29 received a Silver Key in Short Story.

• Annika Kim ’26 received a Silver Key in Journalism and an Honorable Mention in Editorial Cartoon.

Francis Hanna ’28

Gwen Uhlhorn ’28

Rowan Moore ’26

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Anneli Wilson ’27

Maeve Duncan ’26

June Dalton ’25

SPA Launches New PreKindergarten Program in Fall 2025 Trustees and the school’s academic and administrative leadership teams.

This included a market research study, a thorough examination of the competitive landscape in the Twin Cities, and the creation of a PK task force made up of Trustees and administrative leadership. The Board of Trustees unanimously approved the addition of a PreKindergarten program at the end of October.

Beginning in the 2025-26 school year, St. Paul Academy and Summit School will offer a PreKindergarten program as part of its Lower School division. Dr. Luis Ottley, Head of School, announced the initiative to the SPA community in November 2024. “This is an enormously exciting time for the school,” Ottley says. “Our families will be well-served by a PK program that aligns with our Lower School curriculum and provides a wonderful entry point into the SPA experience for our youngest learners.”

The decision to open a PreKindergarten came after more than eighteen months of investigation and conversation on the part of SPA’s Board of

Although the school’s long-term goal is to locate the PK program on the Goodrich Campus, the PK program initially will be located in the space that formerly housed the St. Catherine University Early Childhood Center (ECC). St. Kate’s ECC, which closed in May 2024 after more than 90 years serving families, is on the St. Kate’s campus across Fairview Avenue from SPA’s Randolph Campus. “We are glad to be collaborating on this initiative with St. Kate’s, which has been looking for a partner to utilize their ECC space since their program closed,” says Ottley. The site includes two large classrooms and plentiful outdoor space, including a new playground designed especially for preschoolers, in addition to administrative offices and storage.

SPA’s first PK class will begin school in the fall of 2025 and will follow the SPA Lower School calendar in terms of school days, vacations, and days off. Before- and after-school care and summer programming will also be available for PK students, who must be age four by September 1 in order to attend the program.

Deling Chen ’25 Named a 2025 Regeneron Science Talent Search Scholar The original research of SPA senior Deling Chen ’25 is making waves in the world of science. Chen’s project, entitled A Novel ElectrocardiogramBased Model for Prediction of Dementia—the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study, proposes a new model for predicting dementia. Chen’s work on the project was conducted as part of SPA’s Advanced Science Research course during the 2023-24 school year.

In January 2025, the Society for Science announced that Chen was one of 300 scholars named in the Regeneron Science Talent Search (RSTS) 2025, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious science and math competition for high school seniors. The press release from the Society for Science notes that scholars were chosen based on their outstanding research, leadership skills, community involvement, commitment to academics, creativity in asking scientific questions and exceptional promise as STEM leaders demonstrated through the submission of their original, independent research projects, essays and recommendations.

Chen was supported in her research by SPA science faculty member Karissa Baker, who teaches the ASR course. “I am so proud of Deling and the work she has put in over the last two years towards her project,” says Baker. “It has been exciting to watch her grow in her understanding of her topic and in her ability to communicate the nuances and the

importance of her research. The Science Talent Search competition is recognizing her immense potential to make big impacts on our collective future.” Baker also notes that in November 2024, Chen’s paper was published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Electrocardiology—a huge honor for a high-school scientist. www. spa.e du

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>> THROUGH THE DOORS

Sawyer Danielson ’25 Signs to Play Division I Soccer at the University of Minnesota On Wednesday, November 13, St. Paul Academy and Summit School senior Sawyer Danielson signed a national letter of intent to play Division 1 soccer for the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers. The letter-signing ceremony was held at SPA in a room filled with classmates, friends, family, SPA coaches, teachers, and staff. Danielson was a three-year varsity player for the Spartans. A 2023 Class A State Champion, she ends her career with 58 career goals, 24 career assists, and 45 games played. She was also a three-time First Team All-State Honoree, a two-time All-Conference player, and appeared on the All-Tournament team at the State Tournament her sophomore and junior seasons.

Sawyer Danielson (#7)

RubicOnline’s Rita Li ’24 Named Minnesota Journalist of the Year In spring 2024, the Journalism Education Association selected SPA senior Rita Li ’24, as the Minnesota Journalist of the Year. The Journalist of the Year (JOY) program recognizes the top high school journalists in the country.

Li was selected among nominated student journalists from around the state. Candidates for the award submit a portfolio of journalistic work and a personal statement, and demonstrate an understanding of press law and ethics and a commitment to diversity. The JEA judges wrote that Rita “is a leader, in many ways, in your newsroom: a fantastic sports photojournalist who provides meaningful workshops for her staff… above all, Rita Li is a journalist who makes a difference.”

Upper School Director of Publications and Rubicon adviser Kathryn Campbell is delighted to see Li honored in this way. “Anyone who has met Rita knows she is special: confident, hardworking, talented, generous, inclusive, humble,” Campbell says. “Our staff is better because of Rita; she possesses an uncontained desire to discover more. Her 8

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motivation is deeply rooted in care for others.” Campbell also notes that Li now joins two Rubicon alumnae–Elizabeth Trevathan ’22 and Mimi Geller ’19–as the third Minnesota Journalist of the Year winner from SPA in the last five years.

Seventeen Members of the SPA Class of 2025 Honored in National Merit Competition

Congratulations to the seventeen members of the SPA Class of 2025 who have earned national recognition in this year’s National Merit competition. Five seniors have been named National Merit Semifinalists, and another twelve have been named Commended Students. The 17 seniors represent 18% of the Class of 2025.

The five Semifinalists are Jacob Colton, Amir Dahm, Rohan Kharbanda, Madeline Kim, and Arlo Zirps. They are among the top 16,000 high scorers on the PSAT from the fall of the student’s junior

year. Semifinalists complete an application to move on to the Finalist competition; Finalists will be announced in spring 2025.

The twelve Commended Students are Aarushi Bahadur, Caden Burns, Andrew Evens, Raven Glaser, Humza Jameel, Nicholas McCarthy, Saurin Patel, Theodore Su, Oliver Thompson, Helen Townley, Belle Weng, and Aidan Williams. They are among the next 34,000 high scorers nationwide on the Junior fall PSAT.

Bora Mandic ’25 Wins Statewide Entrepreneurship Competition Carlson School of Management. The MN Cup is an annual competition that reaches emerging entrepreneurs from across the state and connects them with education, mentorship, and resources to launch and accelerate the development of their new ventures. Mandic won the competition with his SignalGrab app, a machine-learning-powered mobile app for drivers that audibly alerts users of the traffic signals ahead. The award carried a $10,000 prize that he will use to continue work on his project, which he originally developed during the 2023-24 school year as part of SPA’s Advanced Technology Projects (ATP) course.

In September 2024, SPA senior Bora Mandic ’25 was named the winner of the Youth Division of this year’s MN Cup, a program of the Holmes Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Minnesota’s

Dr. Kate Lockwood, SPA’s Director of Computer Science and Engineering, was Mandic’s teacher for the ATP course. “Bora did such a fantastic job on every step of developing SignalGrab: constructing a training set of images, the final app design, evaluation, and presenting in multiple public forums,” says Lockwood. She notes that his project required a wide range of technical, research, and communication skills “and Bora excelled at all of them. To see him win this award with the MN Cup is a huge accomplishment and so well deserved.” www. spa.e du

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>> SPARTAN SPORTS SPRING 2024 SEASON RECAP

BOYS’ TENNIS – STATE CHAMPIONSHIP THREEPEAT! SEASON HIGHLIGHTS: Boys’ tennis capped off another strong regular season by clinching the Section 4A team title with a 7-0 win over MPA and earning a return ticket to the State tournament for the third year in a row. At State, the boys dominated the tournament once again, going 20-1 and earning Class A State team championship for the third straight year after defeating Breck 6-1. Spartan tennis also dominated individual play, with the doubles team of Leo Benson ’24/Maik Nguyen ’24 qualifying for the State doubles tournament for the third straight year along with Allan Wang ’26/Isaak Senaratna ’27. Joining them were Zahir Hassan ’27 and Winston Arvidson ’28, who both qualified for State in singles competition. After a remarkable run at State, Benson and Nguyen won the doubles Class A State Championship for the second straight year after defeating a duo from Mound-Westonka 6-1, 6-2; and Allan and Isaak captured third place. In an All-SPA singles final, Hassan and Arvidson faced off for the title: Zahir finished first and Winston finished second.

ALL-CONFERENCE: Winston Arvidson ’28, Leo Benson ’24, Baasit Mahmood ’24 and Maik Nguyen ’24

ALL-CONFERENCE HONORABLE MENTION: Jacob Colton ’25 and David Schumacher ’25

TRACK AND FIELD SEASON HIGHLIGHTS: At the section track and field championship meet, multiple Spartans ran their best times of the year, and nine Spartans qualified for the State meet in the following events: Sophie Kannapiran ’28, Clare Ryan Bradley ’26, Paloma Good ’27, and Maren Overgaard ’26 (Girls 4x800 Relay); Roman Hozalski ’27, Langston Thompson ’27, Nico Martin ’27, and Oliver Thompson ’25 (Boys 4x400 Relay); Paloma Good ’27 (800m), Clare Ryan Bradley ’26 (long jump); Elizabeth Tuttle ’26 (100 & 300m hurdles) and Oliver Thompson ’25 (400m). At State, Tuttle and Thompson were State Champions after finishing first in the 300m hurdles and 400m respectively, and Tuttle also took home second place in the 100m hurdles.

ALL-CONFERENCE: Clare Ryan Bradley ’26, Oliver Thompson ’25 and Elizabeth Tuttle ’26

ALL-CONFERENCE HONORABLE MENTION: Paloma Good ’27, Roman Hozalski ’27, Bridget Keel ’24, Nico Martin ’27, Hazel McCarthy ’26, Julia Taylor ’25 and Langston Thompson ’27

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Oliver Thompson ’25

Alyda Overgaard ’28

Will Fenlon ’25

GIRLS’ GOLF SEASON HIGHLIGHTS: Girls golf improved in every competition over the course of the season. In Section 4AA competition, Alyda Overgaard ’28 and Peony Steele ’27 advanced to the second round of section competition after shooting 110 and 92 respectively.

ALL-CONFERENCE HONORABLE MENTION: Millie Farrington ’26 and Alyda Overgaard ’28

BOYS’ GOLF SEASON HIGHLIGHTS: Boys’ golf finished second in the conference after a solid regular season on the links. In section play, Will Black ’24, Henri Peltier ’24, Will Fenlon ’25, and Lukas Hembre ’24 all advanced after shooting 72, 76, 81, 82 respectively on opening day. In the second round team members were very competitive and fell just short of a State tournament appearance.

Symbol denotes team or athlete competed at the State level

ALL-CONFERENCE: Will Black ’24, Will Fenlon ’25 and Connor Overgaard ’24

BASEBALL SEASON HIGHLIGHTS: Developing their individual skills and improving team chemistry was the focus for the 2024 baseball season. The team posted exciting wins over Mounds Park Academy, Blake, and Zimmerman.

In postseason play, they received the tenth seed in Section 4AA and defeated seventh seed Nova in the opening round. In the second round, they lost to the two-seed St. Agnes and then MPA in the elimination bracket.

ALL-CONFERENCE: Isak Bildtsen ’24

ALL-CONFERENCE HONORABLE MENTION: Liam Huddleston ’25 and Griffin Schwab-Mahoney ’24

Isak Bildtsen ’24

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>> SPARTAN SPORTS SPRING 2024 SEASON RECAP

Henry Hartllyn ’25

BOYS’ LACROSSE SEASON HIGHLIGHTS: TrIMAC lacrosse, a cooperative program with Concordia Academy, DeLaSalle, Minnehaha Academy, St. Agnes, South St. Paul and St. Croix Lutheran, had another solid season, finishing 8-4 in the regular season and capturing the IMAC conference championship for the second year in a row.

In postseason play, the team received the seventh seed in Section 3A and defeated the tenth seed, Simley, in the opening round. In the second round, they fell to the two seed, Woodbury.

GIRLS’ LACROSSE SEASON HIGHLIGHTS: Girls’ lacrosse spent the 2024 season mastering their skills individually and improved collectively as a team each game. In the postseason, they received the tenth seed in Section 3A and lost to the seventh seed Visitation in the opening round.

ALL-CONFERENCE: Henry Hartllyn ’25

ALL-CONFERENCE: Dia Chaney ’26 and Charlotte Goings ’24

ACADEMIC ALL STATE: Charlotte Goings ’24

ACADEMIC ALL STATE GOLD/SECTION 3A ACADEMIC CHAMPIONS:

Symbol denotes team or athlete competed at the State level

Girls’ Varsity Team

SECTION 3A COACH OF THE YEAR: Charlotte Goings ’24

SOFTBALL SEASON HIGHLIGHTS: In a new co-op with Minnehaha Academy, the team had an impressive season. Highlights included season sweeps over IMAC rivals Blake, Breck and Providence Academy; the team ended the regular season by capturing the IMAC Conference Championship. The team earned the fifth seed in section 4AAA play, and lost in the opening round to the fourth seed, Mahtomedi. In the elimination round, they defeated St. Paul Johnson 19-0 before falling to Hill-Murray.

ALL-CONFERENCE: Tamari Christopher ’27 and Helen Frost ’26

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Taylor Tvedt

Helen Frost ’26

>> SPARTAN SPORTS FALL 2024 SEASON RECAP

CROSS COUNTRY SEASON HIGHLIGHTS: Cross Country had another strong season capped off by solid performances at the IMAC conference championship: the girls’ team finished third overall and Taylor Barkwell ’25 and Maren Overgaard ’26 finished in the top 15, finishing second and twelfth overall. At the Section 4A meet, Barkwell finished third overall and clinched a ticket to the State meet, where she finished fifteenth overall and earned All-State honors.

ALL-STATE: Taylor Barkwell ’25

ALL-CONFERENCE: Taylor Barkwell ’25 and Maren Overgaard ’26 Taylor Barkwell ’25

ALL-CONFERENCE HONORABLE MENTION: Alyda Overgaard ’28

GIRLS’ SWIM AND DIVE SEASON HIGHLIGHTS: The Sparks swimming and diving team, a co-op between SPA and Highland Park, had another solid season, finishing second in the St. Paul City Conference. At the conference championships, Adele Gjerde ’25 took home the conference title in the 100-yard butterfly and finished second in the 200-yard freestyle, and Avi Coleman ’27 brought home the conference title in Diving. Gjerde and Coleman both advanced to their respective State meets in the 100-yard fly and in diving.

Adele Gjerde ’25

ALL-CONFERENCE: Avi Coleman ’27 and Adele Gjerde ’25

GIRLS’ TENNIS SEASON HIGHLIGHTS: After a strong regular season featuring big wins over St. Paul Central, Cretin-Derham, and Breck, girls’ tennis defeated MPA in the opening round of postseason competition in Section 4A. In the semifinals, they fell to Blake 7-0. In individual section competition, Nellie Larson ’26 advanced to the singles semifinals and Nabeeha Qadri ’27/Elle Williams ’26 advanced to the doubles semifinals. Larson placed third overall in Section 4A and Qadri/Williams placed fourth overall in Section 4A.

ALL-CONFERENCE: Nellie Larson ’26, Georgia Ross ’25, and Elle Williams ’26

ALL-CONFERENCE HONORABLE MENTION: Nabeeha Qadri ’27 and Liza Rose Thomas ’25 Georgia Ross ’25

ACADEMIC ALL-STATE: Harper Glass ’25, Georgia Ross ’25, and Liza Thomas ’25

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>> SPARTAN SPORTS FALL 2024 SEASON RECAP

BOYS’ SOCCER — STATE CHAMPIONS! SEASON HIGHLIGHTS:

MSHSL ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM:

High expectations from State soccer titles in 2022 and 2023 were fulfilled when the Spartans were crowned Class 1A State Champions for the third consecutive year. After the team’s 11-1-3 regular season and 7-2 conference record, they earned the #1 seed in Section 3A, where they defeated Twin Cities Academy/Great River 2-1 in the quarterfinals and Hiawatha Collegiate 1-0 in double overtime in the semifinals. In the section title game against IMAC rival Minnehaha, the Spartans came out on top 1-0 and advanced to the State tournament for the third year in a row. At State, the #1-seeded Spartans defeated St. Croix Preparatory Academy 2-1 in a shootout in the quarterfinals and Pine Island/Zumbrota-Mazeppa 1-0 in yet another shootout in the semis. In the State title match, a scoreless first half was followed by two goals from Ezra Straub ’25 in the second half to win 2-0 over Rochester to capture the program’s third title in as many years and seventh championship overall.

Rowan McLean ’25, Ezra Straub ’25, Liam Sullivan ’25, and Arlo Zirps ’25

ALL-STATE: Liam Sullivan ’25 and Ezra Straub ’25

ALL-CONFERENCE: Rowan McLean ’25, Ezra Straub ’25, Liam Sullivan ’25 and Arlo Zirps ’25

ALL-CONFERENCE HONORABLE MENTION: Carson Granberg ‘25 and Lucas Granja ’25

STAR TRIBUNE ALL-MINNESOTA BOYS’ SOCCER TEAM AND ALL MIDWEST REGION TEAM: Ezra Straub ’25

SECTION 3A COACH OF THE YEAR and SINGLE A STATE COACH OF THE YEAR: Max Lipset

FOOTBALL SEASON HIGHLIGHTS: The SMB Wolfpack, a cooperative program between SPA, Minnehaha Academy, and The Blake School, had a challenging season, finishing with a 1-8 record. In the postseason, the Wolfpack received the #6 seed in Section 5AAAA and fell to a talented DeLaSalle team 33-32 in the quarterfinals.

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GIRLS’ SOCCER SEASON HIGHLIGHTS:

Olympia Wolff ’25

After finishing the regular season with a 7-2-7 record, girls’ soccer peaked at exactly the right time to power through the postseason. The Spartans earned the #2 seed in Section 3A and marched through section competition, defeating Minnehaha Academy 4-0 in the quarterfinals and St. Croix Lutheran 1-0 in the semifinals. The section final match was a nailbiter against #1 seed Visitation, but the Spartans came out on top with a 1-0 win to earn a spot at the State tournament for the third year in a row. At State, the girls were unseeded and fell 1-0 in the opening round in overtime to St. Charles.

MSHSL ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM: Elizabeth Tuttle ’26

ALL-STATE: Lucia Gonzalez ’26, Clare Ryan Bradley ’26 and Elizabeth Tuttle ’26

ALL-CONFERENCE: Lucia Gonzalez ’26, Clare Ryan Bradley ’26 and Elizabeth Tuttle ’26

VOLLEYBALL SEASON HIGHLIGHTS: Spartan Volleyball took big victories over St. Paul Johnson, St. Paul Humboldt, and IMAC rivals Blake and Breck this season. In the postseason, the Spartans received the #5 seed in Section 4AA and faced off against Mounds Park Academy in the opening round of section play, winning 3-1 before falling in the second round 2-3 to a talented Minnehaha Academy squad.

ALL-CONFERENCE: Louise Mahoney ’28 and Olympia Wolff ’25

ALL-CONFERENCE HONORABLE MENTION:

ALL-CONFERENCE HONORABLE MENTION: Sofia Johnson ’27 and Annie Zhang ’25

SECTION 3A COACH OF THE YEAR: Aileen Guiney

Symbol denotes team or athlete competed at the State level

Murphy Miltner ’27 and Lucy Thomas ’25

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Homecoming 2024

No Homecoming Carnival is complete without the jumpy house.

Lower Schoolers get a high-five from the SPA Spartan at the All School Assembly, held on the Wednesday of Homecoming Week.

Head of School Dr. Ottley with a strong backhand in the Homecoming Ping Pong tournament.

The Captains Challenge pits the captains of Spartan teams against each other in a race to collect items from the Pep Fest crowd.

Lower Schoolers show off their Spartan colors on Blue and Gold Day, the highlight of Homecoming Week.

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The Lower School Blue and Gold Assembly features a visit from Upper Schoolers, including the SPA Spartan, to kick off Blue and Gold Day.

The Spartan leads the crowd down the hill in the traditional Storming of the Field before the Homecoming soccer game.

With the Homecoming crowd cheering them on, the Spartans won the Homecoming game 6-2 over Hiawatha Academy.

Seniors cheer on their classmates in the friendly class competitions during the Pep Fest.

The most ferocious competition of Pep Fest: students vs. faculty dodge ball game.

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CELEBRATING THE CLASS OF 2024

COMMENCEMENT 2024 On Sunday, June 9, 2024, SPA celebrated the 96 members of the Class of 2024 at the school’s 124rd Commencement ceremony, held on the North Lawn of the Randolph Campus.

Ceremony highlights included remarks from Senior Speakers Siri Pattison and Sam Zakaib and Commencement Speaker and Upper School faculty member Dr. Jon Peterson, all of whom were selected by the senior class to speak at Commencement. The ceremony also featured the traditional awarding of the school Bowl honors, given this year to Rishi Bhargava (Faculty Bowl), Rita Li (Alumni/ae Bowl), and Henry Hilton and Audrey Senaratna (Head of School Bowls). Final remarks were offered by Head of School Dr. Luis Ottley, who concluded the proceedings by inviting friends and family to celebrate the graduates at a reception in the Lilly Courtyard.

Student Speakers Sam Zakaib and Siri Pattison were selected by their classmates.

Commencement Speaker Dr. Jon Peterson, Upper School History teacher, addresses the graduates.

2024 BOWL RECIPIENTS

Rishi Bhargava received the 2024 Faculty Bowl, awarded to that senior who has shown unusual breadth and depth of intellectual interest and outstanding commitment to academic excellence.

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Rita Li received the 2024 Alumni/ ae Bowl, which is presented to an individual elected by the faculty from nominations made by the senior class.

It is given each year to that member of the class deemed to be most outstanding in many areas of school life.

Henry Hilton (left) and Audrey Senaratna (right) were the recipients of the 2024 Head of School Bowl, awarded to those members of the senior class who have been recognized by their peers and teachers for significant contributions to the school.

Malachi Gross, Ethan Carter, Sam Zakaib, Mikkel Rawdon, Tysen Hayes, Sam Murphy

Annie Hlavka, Charlotte Goings, Aurelia Meza, Poppy Ploen, Jane Higgins

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CLASS OF 2024 COLLEGE CHOICES

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“A JOYFUL CHALLENGE”:

THE MIDDLE SCHOOL AT 25

BY LAURA BILLINGS COLEMAN | PHOTOGRAPHS BY SCOTT STREBLE

Virginia Andres and Ellen Shulman

When SPA Middle School Principal Virginia Andres talks with parents about their pre-teen students, she hears a lot of heavy sighing from those who remember the challenges, heartaches, and hormones of their own middle school years. But for Andres, who has led the division since 2019, helping young people and their families navigate this dynamic period of physical changes, emotional growth, and cognitive gains is primarily what she calls “a joyful challenge.”

“The transformation that these kids go through from sixth to eighth grade is absolutely remarkable,” says Andres, noting that only the period from birth to age two competes when it comes to brain growth and development. “That’s one reason I feel like it’s an honor

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to get to work with kids at this moment, as they are really starting to figure out who they are and who they want to be.”

This year, St. Paul Academy and Summit School is marking the 25th anniversary of its Middle School division for Grades 6, 7, and 8. The Middle School opened in the fall of 2000 in a significant programmatic evolution driven primarily by a growing body of research that began emerging in the 1990s about the unique strengths and needs of students in early adolescence. Prior to 2000, SPA had only two divisions: the Lower School, serving Grades K-6 on the Goodrich Campus; and the Upper School, which encompassed Grades 7-12.

The highlight of the SPA Middle School experience is the Grade 7 trip to Camp Widjiwagan.

See more photos from this year’s Widji trip on pages 28-29.

“Creating a separate Middle School really came about because of a shift in understanding at a time when new information about the brain was exploding,” says Dr. Jill Romans, SPA’s Assistant Head of School, who served as principal of the Middle School from 2004 to 2019. Instead of seeing the early teens as an awkward phase to get through, Romans says, “we began recognizing that this is an age of enormous opportunity. As educators, we needed to lean into what cognitive neuroscience was telling us about how kids learn.

The growth spurt that takes place in the brain during puberty has enormous implications and opportunities for intellectual, social, and emotional growth,” Romans says, “and our program for the middle school years needed to reflect that.”

In creating a new Middle School curriculum specifically designed for preadolescents (including Grade 6, which was brought over from the Lower School into the new division), academic leaders eventually embraced a pedagogy called Developmental Design for Middle Schoolers. According to Romans, the Developmental Design philosophy is rooted in the idea that the pre-teenage years are the perfect inflection point for teaching and modeling the social and emotional skills that build self-esteem, stronger connections between students and their teachers, and greater academic success

as students grow. The approach is focused on building relationships between students, their teachers, and their peers, and engaging the entire community in a set of shared values and goals. The result is a classroom and social environment where students feel known, cared for, and as a result, ready and able to learn.

Ellen Shulman, a long-time educator who has served as a Developmental Design consultant and trainer, joined SPA as Assistant Principal of the Middle School in fall 2024. She remembers being impressed by the faculty’s commitment to the pedagogy during her interview process. “This program is near and dear to my heart, so finding a school that makes Developmental Design the cornerstone of everything they do really drew me in,” Shulman says. “You’ve got to get it right with this age group,” she adds, “because it’s critical for these students to feel a sense of belonging. I could see that the Middle School division was striving to make this a place where all students feel not only that they can learn, but that it’s safe to explore who they are and let their peers do that same exploration.”

That sense of community, belonging, and safety was at the center of the new Middle School curriculum, and it also infused the design of the building itself. School leaders recognized in the 1990s that

THEN AND NOW: at left, a photo of the Middle School construction project in progress during the 1999-2000 school year; at right, the current Middle School building, which now encompasses almost 80,000 square feet on the south side of the Randolph Campus.

THEN

NOW

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each grade level, took place over the 1999-2000 school year. In the fall of 2000, the Middle School opened with 238 students and a sense of celebration for the biggest institutional leap forward since Summit School and St. Paul Academy merged in 1969.

Paul Magee

the physical spaces for Grades 7 and 8 were less than ideal for both learning and community-building. At the time, the seventh- and eighth-grade hallways were notable mostly as high-traffic areas for Upper Schoolers moving from class to class; it was clear that Middle Schoolers needed their own space. In 1998-99, Boston architect Graham Gund was tapped to design a new space on the Randolph Campus’ south side that would give the new division a building as innovative and flexible as the learning that would take place there.

Construction on the three-story addition, with a floor dedicated to

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Spanish teacher Paul Magee remembers taking a hard-hat tour of the new space while it was still under construction when he interviewed for his teaching role in early 2000. Magee, who also served as the Middle School’s Assistant Principal from 2011-2024, loved the fact that each grade would have its own floor, with classrooms all grouped around central community spaces. “But even more than being in a shiny, brand new building,” he says, “was the opportunity to be part of a brand new division, to work with a team of professionals that had done some pretty deep thinking about their vision for what a middle school could be.”

That vision has remained remarkably consistent over the past 25 years, although the Middle School has always embraced new ideas. One of the most profound changes took place in 2007, when the division abandoned the traditional schedule of seven 45-minute class periods per day in favor of an innovative block schedule, with three 80-minute class blocks per day spread over a six-day rotation. The block schedule

Middle School Advisory

Stacy Overgaard

gives teachers the flexibility to incorporate both collaborative projects and individualized instruction into their courses, and the longer class meetings gives students more time to better absorb complex material. “One of the best things we’ve done was move to the block schedule,” says Middle School science teacher Stacy Overgaard.

“The days of 45-minute periods were nuts,” she says. “Now, we have the time to do teaching and learning really well, and not worry about rushing to the next class.”

The block schedule allows for the breadth and depth of the Middle School’s rigorous academic program, and it also includes built-in time for quiet study, all-division assemblies, and communitybased activities such as affinity groups and clubs. It also allows

for daily outdoor recess–an element of the school day that often disappears after the elementary years, but one that Andres believes is absolutely critical for Middle Schoolers. “Movement and time for play is so important for kids in this age range,” Andres says, even for Grade 8 students who are engaged in demanding academic work. Andres recalls a recent conversation with three eighthgraders about their current social studies project: “They spent ten minutes lecturing me about the differences between the philosophies of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois, and then immediately ran off to play tag at recess,” she says with a laugh. “They have these growing brains and larger bodies, but they’re still children, and we need to make sure we’re always meeting them where they are.”

Meeting students where they are is at the heart of the Middle School’s advisory curriculum, one of the most important building blocks for the Middle School’s academically rigorous program.

Advisory is a twice-daily gathering for cohorts of 10 to 12 students in the same grade under the guidance of a grade-level faculty advisor; time in advisory is used to discuss everything from managing homework to how to disagree with classmates respectfully. A signature element of the Developmental Design approach, the advisory curriculum is designed to nurture students’ social and emotional skills and the health of the community as a whole.

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Middle School Science

A SHARED LANGUAGE: GRADE-LEVEL NORMS At the beginning of every school year, each Middle School grade (and the entire MS faculty) comes together to create the shared norms that serve as community guidelines as students and adults navigate the inevitable ups and downs of the year.

Below are the norms created by each Middle School grade in 2024-25: Grade 6 Bring Joy & Have Fun | Take Your Turn | Ask For & Offer Help | Think Before You Act | Be Yourself & Respect Others For Doing The Same

Advisory is often referred to as a student’s “family” within the Middle School.

“I see my advisees first thing in the morning, again before lunch, and at the end of the day for our quiet study time, so you’re never too far from your family across a seven-hour day,” says Middle School social studies teacher Bobak Razavi. “Having a trusted adult in close quarters with a small group of students in a non-academic space creates a bond,” he says. “It’s a bond that serves our students–and their parents–well as they go from navigating just a few teachers in elementary school to half a dozen when they get to sixth grade.” Advisory encompasses roughly 20 percent of a Middle School teacher’s instructional time–a testament to the program’s value for teachers, students, and parents.

Advisory demands just as much commitment from students. In fact, one of the first assignments of the school year for Middle School students is coming together in advisories and then as an entire grade to decide on a set of norms for their grade level, engaging their growing sense of independence by developing a collective rulebook for how they want to be treated and how they

Grade 7 Be Your Own Judge | Be Mindful & Inclusive | Respect What Is Around You Grade 8 Strive To Be Your Best Self | Respect Everyone & Everything | Communicate To Understand & Expand Your Thinking | Act On Awareness Towards Yourself & Others Faculty Bring Joy | Strive For Balance | Communicate Generously | Listen With Empathy | Embrace New Perspectives Middle School Band

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Tami Brass

“

“There’s a narrative that [adolescence] is just a stage that we have to get kids through, but that’s not fair to them—this is where they live. When we approach the work more joyfully, there’s a tremendous opportunity to guide them.”

– Virginia Andres, Middle School Principal

intend to treat others in a safe and thriving classroom setting. “Class norms are different every year and for every set of students, though there’s often something about respect, kindness, and taking care of each other,” says Andres. “But what’s really important is the process, because it gives students the chance to all talk about what they want and why they want it. And so when there’s a mishap in the community, it allows us to then refer to those norms, reflect on what we had all said about how we want to be, and then move into that repair stage.”

“The term ‘adolescent’ is often used disparagingly to belittle someone or point out their lack of maturity, but honestly, I find middle schoolers to be honorable, empathic, generous, creative, and inclusive, even if, like all humans, they are also capable of the opposite in any given moment,” says English teacher Carrie Clark. “It is lovely to walk through this time with them, to help them trust themselves, to give them space while stepping in when they truly need direction or coaching.”

With an age group well known for mood swings, wide differences in maturity, and daily dramas, advisory is an important part of a teacher’s ability to understand what’s really happening in a student’s life.

“Advisory gives us a common language and a set of community norms that everyone understands,” says Tami Brass, who has taught Middle School computer science since 2006. “When everyone has the same expectations, it helps prevent issues in and out of the classroom, and it helps us address issues when they do arise.”

Having a deep interest in this developmental stage and a well-tuned sense of humor is critical to being a successful Middle School teacher, says Andres, who reports that laughter is a common denominator in both Middle School classrooms and faculty meetings. “There’s a narrative about being an adolescent, as though it’s just a stage that we just have to get kids through, but that’s not fair to them–this is where they live,” she says. “When we approach the work more joyfully, there’s a tremendous opportunity to guide them.”

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MAKING MEMORIES:

WIDJI 2025 Every year in January, the entire seventh grade embarks on what many think

of as the highlight of the Middle School experience at SPA: the trip to Camp Widjiwagan in Ely, Minnesota. Timed to take place at the midpoint of a student’s Middle School journey, the trip features a week-long outdoor education course led by Widji instructors, but it is much more than just a curriculum. Widji is a chance for the entire grade to come together as a community, break down walls and build new relationships, and return to school with a greater appreciation for the collective, individual peers, and the self. Widji is one of the most memorable experiences of a student’s time at SPA, one that students and alumni/ae take with them as they move through the Middle School, the Upper School, and life after SPA.

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>> ALUMNI/AE NEWS

ALUMNI/AE EVENT CALENDAR June 2025 COMMENCEMENT FOR THE CLASS OF 2025 Sunday, June 8, 2025, 4 p.m.

Randolph Campus

September 2025 REUNION WEEKEND 2025 Friday and Saturday, September 5-6, 2025

2025 ATHLETICS HALL OF FAME CEREMONY

Friday, September 5, 2025 5-6:30 p.m.

Huss Center, Randolph Campus

Athletics Hall of Fame Welcomes 13 New Inductees During Reunion Weekend 2024, SPA proudly inducted 12 individuals and one team into the St. Paul Academy and Summit School Athletics Hall of Fame. The event, which was emceed by retired teacher and coach Jim McVeety and current teacher and alumna Kris Flom ’80, featured remarks by Head of School Dr. Luis Ottley and Director of Athletics Paul Moyer as a prelude to the formal induction ceremony. The 2024 inductees honored at the ceremony were Mark Paper ’50, W.T. “Tom” Doar III ’69, Lassie Stout Ford ’61, Michael Thomas ’73, Thomas Gorence ’75, Toni Lagos Cainkar ’78, Juliette Brynteson Nelson ’76, Elizabeth Lilly ’81, Jonathan Burgwald ’84, Gerard Lagos ’88, Eliot Foster Donahue ’94, hockey coach Mike Foley, and the members of the 1974 Boys Hockey State Championship Team.

November 2025 YOUNG ALUMNI/AE REUNIONS: CELEBRATING THE CLASSES OF 2010, 2015, AND 2020

Spartans on the Road: DC Regional Event

Friday, November 28, 2025

Various times and locations Contact Kate Bogdan, Assistant Director of Alumni/ae Engagement and Annual Giving, at kbogdan@spa.edu for more information

For more information about events listed on this calendar, please reach out to Kate Bogdan, Assistant Director of Alumni/ae Engagement and Annual Giving, at kbogdan@spa.edu

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Alumni/ae and friends in the Washington D.C. area gathered on February 5, 2025 for a reception with Head of School Dr. Luis Ottley, hosted by Ceallach Gibbons ’12 and Charlie Dickinson ’99. A lively group of alums from the 1960s through 2022 enjoyed connecting and brief remarks from Dr. Ottley on life at SPA.

REUNION WEEKEND 2024 Reunion 2024 welcomed hundreds of SPA alumni/ ae and friends back to campus. The Friday evening festivities began with the Athletics Hall of Fame ceremony (see p. 30) followed by the opening of the Alumni/ae Art Show and the Blue & Gold Bash. At Saturday morning’s Heritage Brunch we welcomed the Class of 1974 into the Heritage Society, which celebrates classes who have graduated fifty years or more, and on Saturday evening, alumni/ae classes ending in “4” and “9” gathered for class parties. See pages 36-37 for photos from class parties.

Make sure to save the date for Reunion Weekend 2025 on September 5-6, 2025!

We will be honoring classes ending in 5 and 0 this year, and the entire alumni/ae community is invited to the Blue & Gold Bash, Athletics Hall of Fame Ceremony, Heritage Brunch, and more. For our young alumni/ae who graduated in 2015 or 2020, your class parties will take place Friday, November 28. Invitations will be mailed in June, or visit https://www.spa.edu/alumni for updates.

ALUMNI/AE COUNCIL SPEAKER SERIES: MINNESOTA SOCCER’S PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE In December 2024, Alumni/ae Council president Walt Lehmann ’81 welcomed nearly 100 alumni/ae, parents, students, faculty, staff, and community members to the SPA Alumni/ae Council Speaker Series program “All-Access: Minnesota United FC”. Ana Panone Baker ’06 led an insightful conversation with Buzz Lagos, Manny Lagos ’90, and Amos Magee ’89 as they discussed their careers in soccer, the history and future of the sport in Minnesota, and their roles with the Minnesota United, Minnesota’s MLS team.

2024-25 ST. PAUL ACADEMY AND SUMMIT SCHOOL ALUMNI/AE COUNCIL Walt Lehmann ’81 President Elena Averbakh ’02 Mercedes Henderson Clark ’88 Jim Delaney ’93 Jamie Forman ’77 Maura Hamilton ’07 Stephanie Hill ’11 Emily Gleason ’03 Ali Hussain ’07 Reid Kett ’13 John Moore ’95 Dorothy Munholland ’07 Mara Schanfield ’98 Courtney Vincent ’92

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>> PHILANTHROPHY

A rendering of the re-imagined Goodrich living room.

Capital Campaign Update: Imagining Our Future

Lower School Principal Beth Melin has seen a lot of changes during her twenty-seven years at St. Paul Academy and Summit School. She joined the Lower School faculty as a music and movement teacher in 1998 and served as Assistant Principal before moving into the Principal role in 2021. Along the way, she became the parent of two SPA students, now alumni in their thirties. But in all that time, Melin says, she has never seen as remarkable a transformation to the Goodrich Campus as has taken place in the last year--a transformation made possible by the Imagining Our Future Campaign.

“This beautiful old building has been an amazing place for children for a century,” Melin says of the Goodrich Campus, which was built in 1924 as the original home of the Summit School. “A lot of wonderful learning and teaching has taken place in these walls, and in my time, we have used every corner of it in every possible way we can.” But as with all hundredyear-old buildings, there comes a point when updates are both necessary and costly.

Enter the Imagining Our Future capital and endowment campaign. The campaign’s two priorities--renovations to the Goodrich Campus and endowing a permanent fund for faculty

Campaign Timeline

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compensation--have resonated strongly with an exceptionally generous group of leadership-level donors. Led by a Campaign Cabinet made up of alumni/ae, parents, parents of alumni/ae, and former faculty, the Imagining Our Future Campaign has raised $17.3 million to date.

Although the campaign will continue at least through the fall of 2025, its success has already transformed the Lower School.

Over the summer of 2024, the first phase of renovations to the Goodrich Campus were completed, bringing to life the vision of the Imagining Our Future campaign. Some of the updates were infrastructural, including important physical plant maintenance like a new roof, exterior tuckpointing, and interior safety and security upgrades. But as Beth Melin notes, it was the interior renovations that were the most exciting for Lower School teachers, students, and families.

“We came back this fall to an entirely new third floor,” says Melin, who says that the new classrooms, wider hallways, renovated library, and new community spaces on the top floor have had a huge and positive impact on day-to-day life in the Lower School. “Before, our teachers were often forced to work around the various quirks and inefficiencies of their classrooms,”

January 2023

May 2023

August 2023

Campaign Feasibility Study Begins

Campaign Planning Begins With $12.5 Million Goal for Goodrich Campus Renovation and Faculty Endowment

Quiet Phase Fundraising Begins

she says. “Now, our third-floor homerooms are laid out in much more logical ways for the kind of flexible learning that we do here in multiage classrooms. There’s space for doing a project, or reading a book, or sitting together at tables that can be shifted into different configurations.

That flexibility is not only built into the physical structure of the rooms,” Melin adds, “but also into the furniture and materials within the room.”

In addition to reimagined classrooms, the renovation transformed the beloved Lower School library from an awkward configuration with two rooms separated by a hallway into a single expanded area with a natural flow, plenty of light, and the architectural elements of the original library maintained. The renovation also created three new classrooms that now house SPA’s groundbreaking Christopher Center Pathways Program for students with dyslexia, which debuted in fall 2024.

Melin loves giving visitors tours around the newly-renovated spaces.

“I love walking guests upstairs so they can see these beautiful renovated spaces, wide open hallways, and all the wonderful natural light shining into our classrooms,” says Melin, “and then when we come back down to the main and ground floors, I can say ‘and there’s more to come for these floors too!’”

That second phase of renovations, planned for summer 2025, will include renovations to the entire main and lower floors of the Goodrich Campus.

On the main floor, all classrooms, offices, bathrooms, hallways, and the beloved Living Room inside the main entrance will be renovated. On the lower level, the Kindergarten homerooms, Grade 1/2 homerooms, and bathrooms will be renovated. The main level will also include the addition of a Pathways classroom, new Enrollment Management Suite, a dedicated security office, and Pathways/learning specialist suite.

Even as the next phase of renovations is completed, the Imagining Our Future Campaign will continue, says SPA Director of Institutional Advancement Sarah Johnson. “The success of this campaign is a testament to the generosity of our community, and the way in which the opportunity to reimagine the Goodrich Campus has resonated,” says Johnson, who notes that the many capital improvements to the Randolph Campus in the last decade have naturally turned attention to needs on the Goodrich Campus. “The Huss Center [for Performing Arts], the Schilling Center [for Math and Science], and the new Upper School Humanities wing have completely transformed learning spaces on the Randolph Campus,” Johnson says. “Now, we are transforming the Goodrich Campus in the same way, to ensure that our youngest learners and their teachers have the best, most innovative and thoughtfullyplanned spaces to support them as they begin their SPA experience.”

For more information about the Imagining Our Future Campaign, please contact Director of Institutional Advancement Sarah Johnson at sjohnson@spa.edu or 651-696-1422.

Be Social With Us!

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/groups/1949775 or search on “St. Paul Academy & Summit School Alumni”.

SPA Online Directory: spa.edu > Alumni/ae > Directory to search for classmates, local alumni/ae, or alumni/ae in a particular field or industry.

SmugMug photo galleries: stpaulacademy.smugmug.com > Alumni/ae to view photo galleries from all events.

Annual Report 2024-25: Updates and Corrections Please note the following updates and corrections to the 2024-25 Annual Report. We extend our apologies for these errors and thank these donors for their generosity.

Heide Mairs, missing from the Class of 1978 donor list Nancy L. Fulton, missing from the Class of 1967 donor list Brad Johnson and Nicole Nader, missing from the Grade 10 parents donor list Joel Aslanian, missing from the list of gifts in memory of John Boulware

May 2024

June-September 2024

June-September 2025

Fall 2025

Campaign Goal Raised to $17.5 Million

Phase I of Goodrich Campus Renovation Completed

Phase II of Goodrich Campus Renovation Completed (expected)

Imagining Our Future Campaign Concludes (expected)

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>> CLASS NOTES

Have news to share?

Email your news to alumni@spa.edu or send it to Class Notes: St. Paul Academy and Summit School 1712 Randolph Avenue, St. Paul, MN, 55105

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Class Agent

Class Agent

The Class of 1953 is looking for a Class Agent. Please contact alumni@spa.edu or 651-696-1308.

The Class of 1963 is looking for a Class Agent. Please contact alumni@spa.edu or 651-696-1308.

After seven years of living in Florida, Warren Olson moved back north to Saratoga Springs,

We look forward to hearing from you!

Become a Class Agent!

Class Agents keep in touch with their classmates and provide updates on SPA happenings.

Class Agents also help with special events and reunions.

All classes welcome additional volunteers and multiple Class Agents are encouraged.

To become a Class Agent, please contact alumni@spa.edu or 651-696-1308.

Contact Your Class Agent Please visit our website at www.spa.edu/alumni/connect or reach out to Kate Bogdan, Assistant Director of Alumni/ae Engagement and Annual Giving, at kbogdan@spa.edu.

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s Charlie Hauser was featured in a Wall Street Journal article entitled “The Secrets to Still Ruling the Ski Slopes at 100.” Charlie is pictured in the photo that ran with the piece, with the caption “Charlie Hauser, now 88, competed in a giant slalom race during the FIS Masters Western Regional Championships in Big Sky, Mont., in 2021.” At age 72, Charlie joined the Rocky Mountain Masters ski racing league and started training, competing, and winning, and reports that he doesn’t let a day go by without exercise.

’54 Class Agents Bill Kansas Bonnie Mairs

Bill Kansas was inducted into the Minnesota Senior Sports Association in 2024 for his many athletic accomplishments as a swimmer.

He broke 30 Minnesota state swim records and currently holds 20 state records. He has appeared in the National Top Ten 59 times and the World Top Ten four times for individual races, and in the National Top Ten 49 times and the World Top Ten 18 times in relay events.

He also holds All-American status for both individual and relay swims and was “best in the nation” 10 times.

New York. For the first time in years, he and his wife were able to attend the running of the Belmont and enjoy a four-season climate this past year. Warren reports that they are enjoying “Toga”–”a wonderful place to live and enjoy life.”

Todd Otis recently published Sparks of the Revolution: James Otis and the Birth of American Democracy, a compelling look at the life and influence of James Otis, one of the early voices of the American Revolution. The book explores James Otis’s passionate fight against the British Writs of Assistance—court orders that allowed British officials to conduct warrantless searches and helped ignite the movement for independence. A Twin Cities resident, Todd’s prior works include A Review of Nuclear Energy in the United States: Hidden Power.

Sheila ffolliott, Professor Emerita of History and Art History at George Mason University, was named the recipient of the Paul Oskar Kristeller Lifetime Achievement Award for 2025. This award, given by The Renaissance Society of America, honors a lifetime commitment to excellence in scholarship, specifically within the field of Renaissance studies. Professor ffolliott “has provided an outstanding example of how to apply rigorous scholarship and impeccable methodology to the analysis of important but understudied works in early modern art history,” and “has demonstrated a remarkable capacity to inspire.”

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Class Agents

Class Agent

John Maher

Charlie Greenman

’80 Class Agent

Cindy Schuneman Piper

Tom Kayser

s

As Director of Teaching, Innovation, and Research,

Artemis Preeshl

s In the fall of 2024, twelve members of the Summit School Class of 1964 gathered to celebrate their 60-year reunion. They toured the Goodrich Campus, the original home of Summit School and the current home of SPA’s Lower School. Sally Wood Duback and Susan Herr Hopwood produced a fantastic biography of the entire class that was presented in handmade paper portfolios. It was nostalgic for all, as class members tried to resurrect the location of the old Senior Room, where many bridge games took place. To wrap up the weekend, all gathered with the combined SPA Class of 1964 at W.A. Frost. Class members are now looking forward to their 65th reunion.

s Members of the Class of 1970 have planned several informal gatherings to enjoy the outdoors around the Twin Cities. Pictured above are (back row) Bruce Lilly, Gates Blodgett, Chris Downey, Bill James, (front row) Charlie Greenman, Barry Ross, and Bob Adair. Below, Chip Lindeke (center) joined Bob, Bruce, Bill, and Charlie for coffee and skating on Lake of the Isles.

leads AI initiatives, professional development, ACUE’s Effective Teaching Practices, and mentoring at Adams State University in the Rockies. Routledge published her fourth book, Consent in Shakespeare’s Classical Mediterranean (2025). At the first Hispanic-serving Institution in Colorado, she advocates for diversity and inclusion and AI literacy on-site and at national conferences. During the 2023-24 school year, Artemis served as assistant director of Buena Vista University’s Center of Diversity & Inclusion and co-led BVU’s Volunteers in Education in Cape Town & Conservation at Kwantu Game Reserve in South Africa. While in Iowa, she also taught ESL at Iowa Central Community College, delivered several keynote addresses on diversity, culture, and inclusion, including at a conference in India as part of her fourth Fulbright grant.

Mike Brown ’66 Inducted into the Minnesota State High School Baseball Coaches Association In January 2025, Mike Brown was inducted into the Minnesota State High School Baseball Coaches Association. A number of friends, classmates, colleagues, and former studentathletes attended the induction ceremony to celebrate Coach Brown’s long and distinguished coaching career. Pictured are (back row, left to right): Bob Larson ’90, Dave Belde ’90 and Bob Prunty. (front row, left to right): Mike O’Halloran ’00, Dave Montgomery, Darren Strafelda ’90, Dominic Fragomeni ’88, Mike, John Bradford ’90, Jason Burgwald ’89, and Mike Brown ’94. (Not Pictured): Lisa Brown Fenton ’89

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Reunion Weekend 2024: Class Parties SUMMIT SCHOOL CLASS OF 1964: Standing, left to right: Andy Power, Tom Patterson, Susu Owens Bracco, Tad Piper, Allan Klein, Cindy Schuneman Piper, Rick Moore, Susan Herr Hopwood, Bill Owens ‘65, Sheila Owens, John Bradford, Ann Geery, Bill Geery, Ward Johnson, Shotsy Johnson, Martha Sullivan, Tom Skinner, Jack Goldenberg, Val Moore. Seated, left to right: Jean Bradford, Carol Patterson, Gady Cyr Blake, Doug Green, Janet Green, Liz Wilde Berkenkamp, Sally Wood Duback, Robin Platt Roderick, Susan Stierwald LaRosa, Linda Power

SPA CLASS OF 1969: Front row,

SPA/SUMMIT SCHOOL CLASS OF 1959: Bottom row, left to right: Susan Cross, George May, Steve Asbury, Next rows up, left to right: Peter Burgwald and Tom Roe, Andy Holt and Jim Gardner, Hilary Raudenbush Magnuson and Sandra Roe, Connie Kunin and Ginny Magnuson, Mary Lou Schreiner and Lucy Jones

left to right: Craig O’Brien ‘70, Scott Johnson, Edward Gill, Dar Reedy’68, Middle row: Bill Burg ‘67, Phil Villiaume, George Tesar, Top row, left to right: Huck Cammack, Tom Doar, Chuck Griggs, Bob Slattery, Tom Vangsness, Andrews Allen

CLASS OF 1979: Back row, left to right: Tom CLASS OF 1974: Back row, left to right: Tom Herbst, Gary Plotke, Paul Nahurski, Bruce Minea, Jim McNair, David Godolphin, Bill O’Brien, Roger Johnson, John Gilkeson, Middle row, left to right: Doug Gelb, Bill Bollenbach, Betsy Bockstruck Erlien, Phil Poullada, Diane Tiffany, Jim Flom, Eric Kallas, Nick Janecky, Front row, left to right: Debra Reuben, Muffey Fuchs, Terry Hite, Doug Habermann, Sarah Wright, Shannon Kelley, Eric Mohring

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Rasmussen, Liz Bouchard Penning, Monica Herk, Bill Larson, Carol Kayser, Front row, left to right: Steve Buscher, Dawn Errede, Charlotte Lehmann, In attendance but not shown: Karen Butler and Karen Flom Holbert

CLASS OF 1984: Back row, left to right: Beth Jordan, Rip Burgwald, Andrew Barker, Sarah Bullard, Joe Bagnoli, Tim Commers, Brian Ingle, Steve Preus, Kal Grant. Middle row, left to right: Emily Greenberg, Kirsten Hall Long, Brian Lipschultz, Julie McGirl McGlincey, Christine Redko Madson, Front row, left to right: Lisa Pope Neary, Karin Swisher Barnes, Benita Schnasse Dieperink

CLASS OF 1989: Front row, left to right: Alec Callahan, Nicole Putzel, Heather Berg, Lisa Cass, Isaac Rischall, Leslie Iyer, Betsy Kiernat Zakrajsheck, Jessica Kelty, Susie Kyle, Julie Duckstad and Steve Rice, Back row, left to right: Theo Allison, Anne Morgan Plichta, Elise Gudeman, Husam Ansari, Wait Harris, Heather Gardner, Joe Levitt, Chris Bond, Josh Lipschultz, Brian Lucas, Jean Kim, Jessica Blue, and Thad Ingersoll, Also present, but not pictured: Kathleen Delaney, Jim Dickinson, Anupam Kharbanda, Alicia Kunin-Batson, Sara Maruska

CLASS OF 1994: Back row, left to right: Maren Eggert Hilton, Molly Burke, Brendan Kramp, Mickey Tierney, Dan Price, Katie Viemeister Otto, Reena Singh, Isabelle Lang, Alice Asher, Travis Meldahl, Colin Rusch, Kate Willis Ladell, and Declan Mumford, Front row, left to right: Megan Kaplan Collins, Clare Sorman, Bryan Smith, Keren Gudeman, Elie Foster Donahue, Sarah Swartz Brown, Rachel Garrett Scobie, and Shef Otis

CLASS OF 1999: Left to right: Tyler Montgomery, Raj Vatassery, Sara Ehrlich Friedman, Jessica Cohen Rollin, Beth Whitaker, Ty Thompson, Abby Meyers Caperton, Tom Marlow, Marin Nelson, Ben Kremenak, Meaghan Moriarty, Lauren Hartzell Nichols, Mark Heinert, Katy Gehrig, Mike Davis, Ellen Osthus, Hans Grinager, Monisha Mitra De La Rocha, Lesley Gerberding De Paz, Hannah Phipps-Yonus, Kathryn Grande Kremenak, and Dru Donovan, Present but not pictured: Peter Skrief and Harel Perez

CLASS OF 2004: Left to right: Charlie Scott, Kate Logan, Sam McVeety, Laura Martini, Jeff Weiss, Claire Wahmanholm, Mills Turner, Noah Hauser, Andrew Bennett, Clayton Hottinger, Mike Brunnquell, Paul Rotilie, and Kai Miller

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’81

’85

Class Agent

Class Agent

Walt Lehmann

Dave Kansas

s Magic & Monsters, a documentary film by Norah Shapiro, was named runner-up for the

’89 Class Agent Dan Citron

s

Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film in September 2024. The film chronicles the history of decades of sexual abuse at the Minnesota Children’s Theatre Company and follows a group of former child actors as they seek justice and healing from the trauma of these events in the 1970s and 1980s. The Prize for Film honors documentaries that exceptionally portray compelling stories about American history. Norah’s film was selected as a finalist by a national jury of leading documentary filmmakers, historians, and storytellers, and then chosen for the runner-up honor by Librarian of Congress Dr. Carla Hayden and award-winning filmmaker Ken Burns.

Peter Butler led the successful citizen ballot initiative to change the timing of St. Paul’s municipal elections from odd years to even years, a project that was many years in the making.

In the November 2024 election, St. Paul voters overwhelmingly approved the change 61%-39%.

SPA classmates and friends Rick Sutherland, Kristen Hoeschler O’Brien ’87, Jack O’Brien ’23, and William O’Brien ’27 supported the effort by assisting with signature collection and promoting the initiative.

After a lifetime of publishing individual poems and chapbooks,

Robert van Vliet

has published his first book of poetry through Unsolicited Press. Vessels was written during a time

of disquiet, isolation, and absences. To keep working, he challenged himself to build a tenline poem each day that needed to include five words and a line or fragment from a book, all chosen randomly through chance operations.

The result is a collection of three suites, each “seeking a path beyond the polarity of either willfully ignoring the appalling spectacle of those pandemic years or being angrily transfixed by it.” Three paths out of mute heartbreak and toward a third space of hope, presence, spirit.

Robert reports that Vessels is available directly from Unsolicited Press or your favorite local bookseller.

’94 Class Agent Bryan Smith Devin Colman and his family have been living

in Burlington, VT since 2004. After working in the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation for 18 years, most recently as State Architectural Historian, Devin began a new position in 2024 as the Director of the Historic Preservation Program at the University of Vermont.

A Third Tony for Sean Patrick Flahaven ’91

Sean Patrick Flahaven won his third Tony Award in June 2024, as a co-producer of Stereophonic by David Adjmi, which was named Best Play. Stereophonic was the most Tony-nominated play in history and most award-winning show of the season. Flahaven’s previous Tony Awards were for co-producing Company (2002) and Hadestown (2019). He has also won three Grammy Awards as an album producer.

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’97

’98

Class Agents

Class Agent

Dena Citron Larson Jeff Jarosch

Mara Schanfield

room with fellow SPA alum and Tufts medical student Amodhya Samarakoon ’17 last spring in Boston.

’02 Class Agent Sarah Crandall Lauren Nuffort was named a 2024 Minnesota

s

’00 Class Agents Jesse Markman Noah Mehlan Ann Marie Miller Winskowski

s

In January 2025, Dr. Mayme Hostetter was named the President of Hamline University after a nationwide search for the Saint Paul institution’s twenty-second leader. Dr. Hostetter currently serves as president of the Relay Graduate School of Education in New York City, an independent graduate school of education which she helped found in 2011. “I had not looked at another job in 17 years because I am very proud of Relay, but Hamline is special,” Dr. Hostetter said in the press release announcing her appointment.

She will begin her term as President of Hamline on July 1, 2025.

Dr. Zafeer Baber, a

’03 Class Agents Tom Christ Brenden Goetz Aleks Sims

s

s Laura Coates, the host of CNN’s Laura Coates Live, served as one of the keynotes for the MinnPost Festival, held in Minneapolis in September 2024. Coates joined Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison to discuss their experiences as prosecutors and the biggest legal issues shaping the news. In addition to hosting her own show, Coates is CNN’s chief legal analyst and anchor, leading the network’s extensive legal programming and filling in as an anchor across CNN programming. A former federal prosecutor, Coates is the author of two bestselling books: Just Pursuit: A Black Prosecutor’s Fight For Fairness and You Have the Right: A Constitutional Guide to Policing the Police.

s During SPA’s opening meetings for faculty in August 2024, youth development researcher and education consultant Mara Schanfield partnered with SPA faculty to explore ways of modeling and upholding inclusive conditions where all students can thrive. She also worked with 48 Upper School students serving as Student Ambassadors to design and administer a school climate survey. “Student and faculty alignment demonstrates an encouraging readiness for change,” says Mara, who notes that she learned how much student agency mattered when she was a student at SPA. “It was heartwarming to reconnect with several of my own teachers who continue to serve SPA,” she says. “By involving students in both defining the challenges and designing the solutions, SPA is demonstrating its commitment to fostering supportive relationships, providing opportunities for skill-building, and honoring students’ perspectives.” Mara is pictured with SPA faculty members Eric “Sal” Salverda, Kris Flom ’80, and Rolando Castellanos.

Rising Star by SuperLawyers. Nuffort works for Minneapolis law firm Lommen Abdo, specializing in civil litigation.

Elizabeth Bentley was

appointed to the Minnesota Court of Appeals by Governor Tim Walz in August 2024. In selecting Bentley for the state’s intermediate appellate court, Walz cited her appellate experience in state and federal courts and her work advancing and promoting Minnesotans’ civil rights. Judge Bentley holds a B.A. from Northwestern University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School; prior to her judicial appointment, she served as Visiting Assistant Professor and Director of the Civil Rights Appellate Clinic at the University of Minnesota Law School; as Special Counsel, U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee for Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar; as an Associate at Jones Day; and as Clerk to the Honorable Sonia Sotomayor, U.S. Supreme Court. Her term on the Court of Appeals runs until January 2027.

Clinical Assistant Professor at Tufts University School of Medicine, shared the operating

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>> CLASS NOTES

Tim Sheehy ’04 elected to US Senate

’04 Class Agents Ashley Anton Andria Mann Tyler Olson Sarah Raisch

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In November 2024, Tim Sheehy ’04 was elected to the United States Senate from Montana. Sheehy, a resident of Bozeman, Montana, was the first Republican to formally announce a challenge to Democratic Senator Jon Tester; Sheehy defeated Tester in the general election 52%-45%. Prior to winning his Senate seat, Sheehy served as the Chief Executive Officer of Bridger Aerospace, an aerial firefighting company headquartered in Belgrade, MT; he founded the company in 2014 after six years serving as a Navy SEAL officer and team leader with deployments in Iraq, Afghanistan, South America, and the Pacific region. A recipient of multiple combat decorations, including the Bronze Star with Valor for Heroism in Combat and the Purple Heart Medal, Sheehy earned his Bachelor of Science in history from the United States Naval Academy. He was sworn in as the junior Senator from Montana on January 3, 2025.

The law firm of Romanucci & Blandin announced that Senior Attorney Sarah Raisch has been appointed by Illinois Governor Pritzker as a Member of the Illinois Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission. Sarah handles cases in civil rights, police misconduct, sexual abuse and medical malpractice. She is a committed advocate for human rights and justice for those harmed by systemic abuse with more than a decade of experience as an Assistant Public Defender in Lake County, Illinois.

Claire Wahmanholm’s most

recent book of poetry, entitled Meltwater, was published by Milkweed in 2023. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly called Meltwater “a dynamic collection of poems in which parenthood, nature, reverie, and anticipation intersect…a hypnotic and devastating maelstrom of introspection.” Meltwater was named a National Book Foundation Science + Literature Selection, was a Finalist for the 2024 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award and the 2024 Minnesota Book Award, and was longlisted for the Julie Suk Award.

’05 Class Agents Jack Adams Lindsay Giese Nikki James Hannah Lewine Sarah Wald

After traveling across all seven continents, Lindsay Giese has started a travel business specializing in customized itineraries for both domestic and international travel. Lindsay reports that she started her company to provide

unforgettable experiences and share her knowledge and extensive research with her communities. She invites the SPA community to reach out to lindsaygiese+spatravel@gmail. com to learn more about her services.

’17 Class Agent Katie Brunell Mari Knudson received a Fulbright Scholarship in July 2024 from the University of Chicago to study in Finland.

’21 Class Agent The Class of 2021 is looking for a Class Agent. Please contact alumni@spa.edu or 651-696-1308.

s Anthony Chen received the Terman Award from the Stanford School of Engineering this spring. This award is given to the top 5% of graduates of the engineering school each year.

As part of the award, each recipient invites a teacher who was pivotal to their high school experience to the awards luncheon; Anthony invited Upper School science teacher Karissa Baker, who was given the opportunity to speak about Anthony during the luncheon. During the weekend, Baker also attended a minireunion dinner with several alumni/ae that included Anthony, Ben Chen ’23, Bridget Keel ’24, Nikolas Liepens ’21, and Nathan Sobotka ’20. Congratulations to Anthony on being one of only 30 Terman Award recipients this year!

Pictured are Anthony and Ms. Baker at the awards luncheon.

>> IN MEMORIAM

Our condolences are with the family and friends of those we have lost.

1941

1955

1964

1989

Elizabeth Herrmann Cowie

Kerstin Pedersen Warner

Caroline “Nina” Hannaford Pillsbury

Ellen M. Murphy

Passed away November 12, 2024

Passed away June 28, 2024

G. Geoffrey Morton

Passed away Spring 2024

1942 Patricia Bratnober Saunders

1958

John Brimhall Brainard

Virginia “Ginny” Raymond Sall

Passed away December 16, 2024 Passed away December 6, 2012

Passed away February 22, 2024

Passed away October 10, 2024

Passed away December 24, 2024

1999

1965

Wesley Dopkins

Carl Brown

Passed away June 15, 2024

Passed away November 13, 2024

Robert F. Works

Andrea Halverson

Passed away July 2024

Passed away May 28, 2025

Anthony Krawetz

Passed away September 21, 2023

1946

1959

1966

Werner Pitzen

Jim Gardner

Charles Sommers Otto

Passed away December 23, 2019

Passed away April 26, 2025

2000

Passed away July 2024

Evan C. Berquist

Duke McCloud

Passed away November 23, 2021

1948 Frances “Dee” Holmes Gladish

Passed away October 28, 2024

Martha “Martie” Holman Norton

1960

1973

FORMER FACULTY/STAFF AND FRIENDS

James H. Leonard

Passed away May 7, 2024

Raleigh Ormerod III

Passed away March 29, 2025

Passed away May 29, 2024

1963 1949

Marian Dean Bullock

Jean Carlton Whitaker Ambler

Joan Drury

Passed away April 26, 2024

Passed away April 24, 2025

Passed away May 9, 2025

Passed away November 9, 2020

Robert Ward

Passed away January 12, 2025

1954 Ellen Van Ness Seymour Passed away June 19, 2024

1976

Joel Barker, former faculty Passed away January 4, 2025

Kathryn Kusske Floyd

Passed away July 19, 2024

Catherine Gately, former Lower School Principal Passed away July 5, 2024

1979

Ran Miner, former faculty and administrator

Bruce Moynagh

Passed away March 12, 2025

1988 Alexander Gregoret

Passed away May 1, 2025

Cynthia Stuck, former music teacher and accompanist

Passed away October 21, 2023

Passed away February 15, 2025

Syb Woutat, former Development Office staff Passed away July 9, 2024

Full remembrances are available on the SPA alumni/ae website or by scanning the QR code at left. www. spa.e du

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>> PERFORMANCES

Middle/Upper School Jazz Cabaret, April 2024

Upper School Spring Musical, May 2024: The Logic Pit

Middle School Spring Showcase, May 2024 Middle School Fall Play,

October 2024: Murder on the 518

Upper School Fall Play,

November 2024: Our Town For more photos from SPA’s student performances, visit stpaulacademy.smugmug.com

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Upper School Pops Concert, December 2024

Middle School Winter Choral Concert, December 2024

Middle School Winter Instrumental Concert, December 2024

Upper School One-Acts, January 2025: The Little Prince

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Non Profit Org. U.S. Postage

PA ID

Twin Cities, MN Permit No. 3400 1712 Randolph Avenue St. Paul, MN 55105-2194

TO PARENTS OF ALUMNI/AE: If this is no longer the current mailing address for your alumni/ae child, please let us know at alumni@spa.edu or 651-696-1308.

In November 2024, SPA held Young Alumni/ae Reunion parties for the Classes of 2009, 2014 and 2019.

For more photos from Reunion 2024, see pages 36-37.

CLASS OF 2014: Back row, left to right: Charlotte Hughes, Eduardo Flores, Nate Truman, Eddy Sharifkhani, Frank Nahurski, Emma Chang, Alida Mitau, Noah Parker, Jack Reich, Harrison Egly, Charlie Southwick.

Front row, left to right: Chloe White, Alex Miller, Cynthia Zheng, Jared Mosher, Jessica Wen, Sharon Sethna, Ellen Samuelson, Katrina Farese, Kaia Findlay, Emily Ross, Kristen Datta

CLASS OF 2009: Back row, left to right: Alex Van Orsow, Alex Whitman, Eóin Small, Joseph Merrill. Front row, left to right: Jackson Smith, Andrew Dougherty, Eliana Socha, Isabella Dougherty ‘11, Guest of Eóin Small

CLASS OF 2019: Back row, left to right: Justin Hla, Henry Hallaway, Jasper Green, Lucie Hoeschen, Andrew Johnson, Isabel Dieperink, Mashal Naqvi, Nora Povejsil, Jenny Sogin, Abby Lanz, Gemma Yoo, Koji Gutzman. Middle row, left to right: Annie Bottern, Emily Schlinger, Tessah Green, Claire Hallaway, Sammy Ries, Krista Schlinger, Kenzie Giese. Front row, left to right: Emma Sampson, Nik Lehtinen, Adam Zukowski, Gabriel Konar-Steenberg