Bishop's Magazine Winter 2022

BISHOP’S A MAGAZINE FOR THE BISHOP’S SCHOOL FAMILY AND FRIENDS WINTER 2022

The Bishop’s School

Non-Profit Organization U.S. Postage PAID The Bishop’s School

7607 La Jolla Boulevard La Jolla, California 92037-4799

Alumni from the classes of 2005–2018 and 2019–2021 gathered for holiday alumni events in December 2021.

Student Well-Being Basketball Champions Reunite Teaching the Way Students Learn Best Parents of alumni, if your child no longer maintains an address at your home, please provide an updated address to the alumni office. (858) 875-0505 • Fax (858) 456-2681 • tbsalumni@bishops.com

table of contents

BISHOP’S

$1 Million Gift Will Help Bring the School’s Values to Life

Winter 2022 • Vol. 19, No. 1

By Keri Peckham

A magazine for The Bishop’s School community

FEATURES

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Credits

Well Informed

Editor Keri Peckham

Strategic plan puts well-being at its core.

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Teaching the Way Students Learn Best Brain-based learning in Bishop’s Learning Center

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Managing Editor Cathy Morrison Assistant Editor Jen Jordan

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Contributing Writers Zach Jones ’01 Cathy Morrison Keri Peckham Sarah Pruitt Trisha J. Ratledge

New Faces and Fast Friends in Bishop’s Administration

Contributing Photographers istockphoto Jen Jordan Cathy Morrison Anneke Roy Dave Siccardi Michael Spengler

Playing for Peanuts 20 years since girls’ basketball’s state title

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2021 Reunion Weekend Fun

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Family Matters

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s this issue highlights, The Bishop’s School is at a unique place in its trajectory—implementing a new strategic plan. As excitement around the plan and the School’s future builds, Head of School Ron Kim shares, “We have so many important goals, and I wonder sometimes how we will accomplish them all.”

Graphic Design Design Perspective, Inc.

New directors of admissions, athletics and college counseling

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priorities. Though an inherent tension exists among these priorities, particularly access and affordability and recruiting and retaining outstanding faculty and staff, “We need to emphasize both without one coming at the expense of the other,” acknowledges Ron. “The significance of this gift is that it supports our ability to do both.”

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Class Notes and transitions

The Bishop’s School Head of School Ron Kim

Interim Chief Advancement Officer Jim Osterholt Director of Alumni Relations Lori Boyle

HONOR ROLL OF DONORS 2019 – 2021

Bishop’s is published two times a year

by The Bishop’s School.

We welcome your feedback.

Please send story ideas to news@bishops.com or contact us at (858) 875-0790.

The Bishop’s School 7607 La Jolla Boulevard La Jolla, CA 92037-4799

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Phone: (858) 459-4021 Fax: (858) 459-3914 www.bishops.com Mission Statement Bishop’s is an Episcopal school that nurtures students of intellect and character to think independently, learn collaboratively, grow their sense of self and act with greater purpose.

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Front Cover Lauren Forgrave ’25, Sierra Lever ’25 and Adelaide Kessler ’25 enjoy Bish Bowl on the Quad.

Photo by Jen Jordan

A recent gift to the School helps answer that question for Ron and fills him with hope for the future. In December the School received a call from a family in the Bishop’s community wishing to provide financial support for faculty and staff. This anonymous gift of $1 million will provide additional funding for salaries for the people the donors say “are bringing the vision of the School to life.”

The donors add, “The best schools have teachers who love the lifelong journey of learning, and, most importantly, love taking the journey alongside young people. We hope that this gift will allow Bishop’s to continue to recruit and retain the best.”

Ron agrees, saying, “When we think of the impact that faculty and staff have on students, we might think reflexively about the classroom and academics. That’s part of it, but research shows that the most profound impact on students comes from teachers knowing and caring about their students and creating a feeling of belonging.

When students have that relationship with their teachers, incredible learning can happen. Put simply, students learn most from people they love and trust. Teachers who create that bond with students are at the core of what makes Bishop’s special.”

As the School evaluates its needs in relation to the strategic plan, Ron and the advancement team are thinking about ways to support the core of the plan centered around the Bishop’s learner. Student well-being and belonging, access and affordability, recruiting and retaining an outstanding faculty and staff, and campus enhancements that optimize students’ learning experience are top fundraising

The donors hope to encourage others to think about the impact they, too, could have on the future of the School. “Bishop’s is embarking on a new vision, shining a light on how students learn and grow best. It is a unique approach that we find intriguing and forward thinking, and we are excited to witness its implementation. Investing in education is an investment in the future— inspiring young people to reach their potential and do good in the world. We cannot think of anything more important!”

If you would like to discuss giving opportunities at Bishop’s, please contact Interim Chief Advancement Officer Jim Osterholt at jim.osterholt@bishops.com.

on the quad with RK

How do our students learn and grow best? This is the question posed by the new vision statement for The Bishop’s School. To my knowledge, we are the only school with a vision that invites a community to answer a challenging question. Framing our vision as a question means that we approach this work with humility, knowing that this will be hard work and that we will be open to discovery and re-examination. It is also a reminder that the growth and development of the students in our care is at the core of what we do.

As we pursue this question, we do so knowing firmly that there are fundamental principles for adolescent development. Bishop’s has affirmed its core Episcopal values of integrity, inclusion, compassion and justice, along with the academic principles of excellence and intellect. We also have a model for the Bishop’s learner. Sometimes referred to as the “Bishop’s egg” (see page 4), it has at its core the layers of well-being and belonging. We know that for any of us, it is difficult to do well if we are not well. For students to reach their potential, to achieve a level of excellence in any endeavor, a foundation of well-being and a sense of belonging are essential.

In these pages you will learn how Bishop’s Student Services Team has begun to focus its work on our commitment to student well-being. Adolescents are at a crucial point of development when they seek greater independence and at the same time desire the guidance of trusted adults. You will read about how we provide both a structure of support and a network of personal relationships that lets students know that the teachers and staff at Bishop’s know them and care about them.

After well-being and belonging, the third layer of our “Bishop’s egg” is adolescent learning and development.

Our goal is to ensure that we teach in the way that students learn best at different stages. Often called mind/brain education, we recognize the potential to tap the neuroscience of learning and adolescent development to teach, advise and care for students in ways that respond to their needs in a unique and transformative period in their lives. I invite you to read about what we are doing and plan to do in the future in this promising area.

As always, ideas only come to fruition with great people, and I am so pleased to introduce a dynamic trio to Bishop’s—our new directors of admissions, athletics and college counseling. As we emphasize development and the continuity of support for students, we have energetic and visionary new leaders who will guide our students from before they enter, through their growth and then on to their next stage of life.

I invite you to join us in this next phase of The Bishop’s School, and to follow along as we work with our students to learn, grow and become their fullest selves.

Ron Kim Head of School

WELL INFORMED In a wholesale look at The Bishop’s School, leadership has placed student well-being at the core of the new strategic plan in support of excellence.

Well Informed 2

By Trisha J. Ratledge

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n October 2021, Megan Cooper Broderick ’98 and Jasmyn Kandel Tanner ’98 stood in St. Mary’s Chapel and shared the story of their 30-year friendship that began as seventh-grade students on Bishop’s campus. Megan, director of counseling, and Jasmyn, English teacher and director of middle school student life, described the unwavering support they have received from each other through serious challenges as well as the inevitable ups and downs of life.

They demonstrated how authenticity, strength, honesty, empathy, whimsy and acceptance have fed their friendship for decades, cementing their connection

3 Well Informed

about the growth of our friendship.

It was a really nice moment for both of us.”

Megan and Jasmyn’s chapel talk about a healthy friendship was a profound moment of connection that emerged from the School’s new strategic Megan Cooper Broderick ’98 and Jasmyn Kandel Tanner ’98 as students plan, which focuses (above, left) and now as colleagues (above, right) on well-being at its with the knowledge that together, each core to support student achievement. The is better for it. introduction of well-being blocks in the The response was immediate. schedule—in place of enrichment blocks— “We hadn’t really ever reflected on our marked the initial step of integrating friendship in that way, and it brought us regular conversations and lessons about so much joy to be able to share that with well-being into the school day. others,” Jasmyn says. “We got emails Well-being and its relationship to from students about how much it meant academic success is a topic that has been to them. The teachers who knew us as addressed over the years at Bishop’s, most kids said how beautiful it was to hear recently and significantly when the

Well Informed 4

School’s Balance of Life committee explored the issue of wellness and its connection to sleep deprivation among students. The result was a series of committee recommendations implemented in 2017, including a shift to a later school start time, standardized class lengths, and an overhaul of the academic calendar and daily schedule.

When the time came for Head of School Ron Kim, the board of trustees and administrators to plan for the longterm future of The Bishop’s School, it was a natural step to look at well-being from a deeper perspective.

Together, they considered a question: What if we thought about our school and our future strategy with well-being at the center?

“For me, the strategic plan had to be about students,” Ron explains. “It had to be about what makes students successful and at the core of that was well-being.

If they are struggling with stress and anxiety, they can’t perform at the level that we would hope they would want.

In a very simple formulation, if they are not well, they can’t do well.

“We do our best work when we feel great, when the work feels meaningful, when the people we’re with give us energy and when we feel like we’re driven by some purpose beyond an external requirement.”

That placed well-being at the center of a strategic plan that includes three additional concentric goals in the development of a Bishop’s learner: a community of inclusion and belonging, adolescent learning and development

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The “Bishop’s egg”

and purpose. Just as important, instead of considering only the strategic plan, administrators and trustees reviewed all of the School’s guiding documents at once.

“It was a rethinking of the School in a very holistic way,” Ron says. “We came out of it with a new mission, a new vision, a revised diversity and inclusion statement, affirmation of some of our core values and inclusion of a few others and ultimately, the strategic plan.”

The vision—phrased as a question—is at the nucleus of each element: How do our students learn and grow best?

Everything we do must return to this fundamental question.

The new well-being blocks are planned by Megan and Jasmyn, along with Michelle Shea, dean of students, and Stephanie Ramos, learning resource specialist, who together manage the health curriculum; the Rev. Nicole Simopoulos-Pigato, chaplain, who manages chapel programming; and David Thompson, director of diversity, equity, inclusion and justice, who manages DEIJ programming.

“I think it’s very important and meaningful to demonstrate a willingness to talk to students about tough stuff that we know they are experiencing,” says Megan. “Over the years, I’ve tried to think outside the box about how we can inject those moments of learning that the kids need to have, whether it’s around stress and anxiety, substance abuse, healthy relationships, coping strategies … all those things that aren’t necessarily taught in the classroom, aside from our semester-long health class in the ninth grade.”

The health lessons make their home within the advisories. Well-being exercises include explorations of selfcompassion, making comparisons, positive vs. negative coping mechanisms, exercises in gratitude, empathy for others, relational well-being and more.

Facilitated topics feature guided questions for small group discussions with an overall goal of everyone feeling a sense of belonging and of being heard.

Michelle did an early check-in with her advisees to gauge how the well-being

Sixth grade chapel

Dean of Students Michelle Shea leads a well-being exercise with her advisory.

blocks are being received to date. “They said they have really enjoyed them,” she says. “They know the people in their advisory better than they did before, they feel comfortable talking about these things, they feel better known by us, and they feel supported in that space. That’s our goal.”

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Katelyn Wang ’23 with a mural she painted on campus

Coordinating topics among chapel, health and DEIJ programming makes each discussion more robust, says Natalie Goldwasser ’22.

“Chapel focuses a lot on what we talk about in both DEIJ and the health periods,” she says. “If we talk about compassion as a theme, it’s not just one day talking about compassion. It’s a lot of different aspects, like how we feel about our relationship with others and how we take care of ourselves. It’s nice to have the topics dispersed throughout our activities.”

DEIJ, the third partner in well-being programming, covers sensitive and thought-provoking topics with the aim of creating an environment of belonging and inclusion. Some themes have included racial issues, stereotypes, bullying and joke-making.

The DEIJ programming has been helpful for students’ awareness of certain topics. Many students have shared that they feel the program has brought them together as a community, knowing that they’re in a safe space with people who value and respect their opinion.

DEIJ topics have a history of creating unique moments of connection in the chapel space, such as in March 2021, when a series of high-profile attacks were waged against Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders, prompting protests nationally as well as a rise in discrimination and violence. A few students reached out to Nicole because they wanted to speak in chapel about the discrimination they experienced as

5 Well Informed

Often, the lessons are interconnected between health, chapel and DEIJ, reflecting the complementary associations among the many components of well-being.

“For me, the core of well-being is knowing the truth that you are beautiful and loved and perfect just as you are,” says Nicole. “I want kids to know that.

If they don’t have that sense of self love and knowledge about who they are, they ultimately won’t be well in the world.”

Nicole plans lessons for the academic year with the help of a chapel compass that includes the four segments of heart, soul, mind and strength as well as two well-being topics within each of those segments. She works with the health curriculum committee and David to pair themes from the chapel compass with a DEIJ or health lesson. Megan and Jasmyn, for example, told their friendship story as an extension of a chapel theme and a health lesson on healthy relationships.

Students step up to the podium as well. In the fall, clinical social worker

and psychotherapist Lynn Lyons led forums on emotional wellness with students, faculty and parents. Following those presentations, a health lesson on managing stress and anxiety was combined with grade-level chapel talks

by Maddie Keck ’22 on resilience and the coping strategies she uses for anxiety.

“I felt like it was such an important conversation to have that it was more important to overlook the selfconsciousness of telling my own story,” Maddie says. “I realized that I could help other people if I tell the story.”

The lessons she shared with students included prioritizing their mental health by concentrating on the journey in life rather than the destination. “If you get to your destination but the journey makes you miserable, was it really worth it?” she asked in her talk.

Well Informed 6

Peer Support lunch conversation with Lynn Lyons, Stephanie Ramos and Megan Cooper Broderick ’98

Asian-Americans in La Jolla during the pandemic.

“To be able to share those experiences was empowering because they found their voices,” Nicole says. “There are few other opportunities in our daily schedule where students can share something important like that. They were seen and heard, and others were able to listen to their story and offer compassion, empathy and kindness.”

y As the well-being blocks continue to evolve, other elements of the strategic plan will be incorporated into the academic structure. For example, Janice Murabayashi, academic dean, is already leading early work on expanding campuswide expertise in adolescent learning and development.

“We want the faculty to have a baseline knowledge of scientificallyresearched (topics) related to learning,” says Janice. “Neuroscience and cognitive breakthroughs have been so significant in the last 20 years that, depending on when you started your teaching career, you wouldn’t necessarily have had access to some of this information.”

With the help of the Learning Center staff and others, Janice is developing a comprehensive Learning 101 experience incorporating workshops, mini-classes and group activities that will inform teaching across campus with the neuroscience, cognitive science and

psychology of adolescent learning.

“What’s exciting to me is that it gets us away from jumping on trends,” she adds.

“We’re going to be focusing on things that are backed by scientific research.”

y This work on the science of learning will help shape the Bishop’s learner for the 21st century, along with strengthened efforts to foster inclusion and belonging, a sense of purpose and well-being among the students.

“The way that we can get to academic excellence or athletic excellence or artistic excellence is by ensuring that our students are healthy, feel as though they belong here and are surrounded by adults who really understand adolescents,” says Michael Beamer, assistant head of school. “This is not a question of rigor vs. well-being. Rather, the way to get students to reach their academic potential is through well-being and through inclusion and belonging.

Those are necessary conditions for them to be their best selves.”

“Sometimes the thought is that we as humans are compartmentalized, where there’s a social part, an intellectual part, an emotional part and a spiritual part.

The fact of the matter is that if one of those is off, all of them are off,” adds Shane Walton ’98, associate dean of students. “What we’re trying to address is the whole student and to make sure that all those areas can be fulfilled.”

While it’s early in the process of rolling out the entire strategic plan, students are responding positively to the new well-being blocks.

“It’s a really good way to foster discussion,” says Seiji Ayala-Sekiguchi ’22.

“Hearing different perspectives and understanding that everyone goes through similar things is one of the most impactful things about making the health curriculum part of the advisory with DEIJ and chapel.”

“I think the goal is to make students mindful about their well-being, and it is a really good way of doing that,” agrees Marcus Buu-Hoan ’24. “The main thing is that you’re not alone in the struggle and that it’s OK to ask for help. I think that’s important.”

The new suite of guiding documents at Bishop’s—from the mission to the strategic plan—started with the simple premise of placing well-being at the center of a strategy that supports excellence. That premise now maps out the future for Bishop’s.

“Understanding well-being as an essential complement to academic achievement leads to a different way of thinking about how students learn and how our school can support them,” Ron says. “We are much more at the beginning than at the end of our thinking of what that would mean.

But if we organize ourselves around that key foundation, we are on the right path.”

Teaching the way students learn best

By Sarah Pruitt

7 Teaching the Way Students Learn Best

Stephanie Ramos

Teaching the Way Students Learn Best 8

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hen Head of School Ron Kim and others completed the new strategic plan for The Bishop’s School in the spring of 2021, they built it around the model of a Bishop’s learner, with student well-being as the heart of that model. As the School works to put the plan into practice, a crucial piece of the puzzle is focusing not just on the heart, but on the brain.

Over the past two decades, advances in neuroscience research have suggested that many traditional educational methods just don’t line up with the way students’ brains work. By contrast, the approach known as brain-based learning is grounded in the latest findings about neuroplasticity—the way the brain reshapes itself through learning—and cognitive development. With strategies such as limited lecture time, peer teaching and regular movement breaks, brain-based learning aims to reduce students’ stress, stimulate their attention and help them better absorb and understand what they’re learning.

“Brain-based learning is essentially taking the information that we have about how the brain works and using it to our advantage,” says Stephanie Ramos, Bishop’s Learning Resource Specialist and head of the Learning Center, which celebrates its 15th anniversary this year.

Already established as a valuable resource for students who need academic support, the center will play a pivotal role in supporting students, teachers and parents in making brain-based learning work at Bishop’s.

“‘What would it look like if we taught the way students learn best?’ is a question that we don’t ask often enough in schools,” Ron says. “I think the way a great school can be even better in the future is by focusing really intensely on the students that we have and how they learn.”

How the Learning Center supports students Though Stephanie has considerable experience working with students with learning differences such as ADD/ ADHD and dyslexia, she stresses that all students have different needs when it comes to learning, as well as managing their day-to-day lives at school and home. “Part of your wellbeing has to do with how you learn and how you teach yourself the different strategies to learn best,” Stephanie says.

The Learning Center offers support to all middle and upper school students, regardless of whether or not they have a diagnosed learning difference. Students who use the center may be new to Bishop’s, or they may be catching up on work after missing classes due to athletics, illness or other reasons. They may also simply need strategies to become better organized, manage their time or study better.

Alexandra (Alex) Scafidi ’22 has been using the Learning Center since she came to Bishop’s in the ninth

grade. “I was a little stressed being at a new school and also starting high school,” Alex recalls. “I was kind of all over the place.”

She began meeting weekly with Jane Mattox, longtime academic support coordinator at Bishop’s, to improve her time management, as well as figure out how to connect with her teachers during office hours and other skills to aid in her learning. When Alex had to repeatedly miss physics—her hardest subject— during freshman year due to her water polo schedule, Jane helped her work with her teacher to arrange meetings to catch up.

As she started putting the strategies she had learned into practice, Alex met only periodically with Jane to check in.

Like many Bishop’s students, she sought out additional support while adjusting to the challenges of remote learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic. “The isolation and the stress really created problems for some of our students, even those who hadn’t previously had issues,” Jane says.

Alex, who has dyslexia, has also worked with Stephanie to develop strategies that make reading and writing easier for her, including finding audio versions of readings or textbooks, as well as to seek accommodations if she needs longer to write assignments or take tests.

“They really helped me find different things I can do to help me learn best,” Alex says. “Senior year has been the year I’ve been the best prepared, and I feel confident going to college next year.”

Putting brain-based learning into practice

Expanding the role of the Learning Center In addition to supporting students and their parents, the Learning Center aims to provide guidance for teachers seeking to implement more brain-based learning strategies in their classrooms.

“The Learning Center is meant to be a resource for everyone on campus, not just students who are struggling academically,” says Academic Dean Janice Murabayashi.

In Brain Matters, a new monthly newsletter, Stephanie provides faculty and students with information about advances in neuroscience, along with practical hands-on approaches to try.

Past issues include advice on soothing

test anxiety and how to take better notes, along with links to an app to block distracting websites and a calming instrumental playlist on YouTube.

“There’s just so much research out there,” Stephanie says. “Very few teachers have time to sit down and read the information and then incorporate it into their classroom. So I’m trying to be the middleman, share this stuff with them and give them ways that they could immediately implement it.”

Stephanie also works with teachers directly when needed, both to provide ad hoc support when dealing with accommodations or other issues with students, as well as to review curriculum and lessons to incorporate more brainbased learning strategies. Going forward, Ron hopes Stephanie’s work with teachers will expand, so that every Bishop’s teacher will have an understanding of how adolescents learn best and what brain-based learning looks like in the classroom.

“I want the Learning Center to be more central to how we think about everything,” Ron says. “We can put the tools of brain-based learning into teachers’ hands, so they can figure out— now that they know how students actually learn—how best to teach the subjects they love.”

“The Learning Center is meant to be a resource for everyone on campus, not just students who are struggling academically,” —Academic Dean Janice Murabayashi

9 Teaching the Way Students Learn Best

When working with Alex and other students, the Learning Center team tries to incorporate brain-based learning whenever possible. “A lot of the strategies based on this research are not necessarily things that we’ve historically told students to do,” Jane points out. As an example, she mentions the concept of interleaving, or mixing together different topics or forms of practice rather than focusing on a single topic or skill at a time. By forcing the brain to work harder, interleaving has been shown to have positive benefits for learning math, among other subjects.

Knowing this, Jane sometimes suggests that students try switching between homework assignments at shorter intervals, rather than force themselves to keep working on one assignment for a long period. “That’s not something I would have necessarily advised students to do prior to knowing this information about brain-based learning,” she says.

As coordinator of the peer tutoring organization SAGE (Students As Grassroots Educators), Jane often encourages students to sign up as tutors as a way of strengthening their own learning. “It’s mutually beneficial,

because the best way to learn something is to teach it to someone else,” she says, echoing the key brain-based learning method of peer teaching.

Jane and her colleagues also communicate with Bishop’s parents and serve as collaborators in their efforts to support their kids. “The more parents can understand how optimal learning happens and the more they can work in collaboration with the School, the better off the students will be,” Ron says.

New Faces and Fast Friends in Bishop’s Administration

By Zach Jones ’01

New Faces and Fast Friends 10

What is The Bishop’s School? That’s a question with as many answers as the School has students and alumni, but common to almost all is a journey that began with an application, ended with the graduation to college and likely included some form of athletics in concert with academic rigor. Those are the tent poles of the Bishop’s experience over which three new administrators now preside.

VIVIEN VALENZUELA MALLICK Director of Admissions and Financial Aid

PAULA CONWAY Director of Athletics

WENDY CHANG Director of College Counseling

“Are you going to ask me about the dynamic trio??!!”

served as the de facto San Diego welcoming committee.

“Paula started it before we even moved—we were still on the East Coast,” Wendy says. “At my previous schools, I never had that same dynamic of support.”

But more than restaurant recommendations or tips for good running trails, these three share a mission to shape the Bishop’s experience from start to finish. That begins with making that experience accessible to families living far from the School’s La Jolla footprint.

“For people who haven’t had friends and neighbors send their kids here, we need to get the message out that yes, Bishop’s is an accessible place to you,” Vivien says. “If you have a kid who loves to learn and wants to be part of an awesome community, then this place can be for you as well.”

A lifelong public school student herself, Vivien is focused on creating a sense of belonging for students who are new to the manicured independent school campuses where she’s worked.

Knocking down barriers to potential applicants is a big part of that mission.

From offering both in-person and Zoom interviews (to cut down on travel), to formulating student-friendly application questions and making standardized entrance exams such as the ISEE optional, she hopes to cast an everwider net across the San Diego area.

“Having gone through the independent school application process multiple times with my own children, it’s a hard thing and an intimidating thing,” she says. “We want people to be interested in our school, and we don’t want the application—in and of itself— to trip them up.”

Once that new student arrives, so do

That’s Vivien Valenzuela Mallick, the School’s new director of admissions and financial aid, and she’s referring to fellow newcomers Paula Conway (director of athletics) and Wendy Chang (director of college counseling).

The three formed a quick bond last winter over Zoom—as well as a group text entitled “Bishop’s Newbies.” Since then, Paula has helped Vivien scout out her new condo (“I was literally FaceTiming her from the ground taking pictures of the shag carpet to make sure it looked OK”) and brought crutches from the School’s training room to Wendy after an ankle injury.

The three share Boston-area roots in both their educational and working lives, but Paula—with her seven years as athletic director at La Jolla High—has

Bish Bowl 2021

“It seems like such a silly thing, but especially with these kids, at such an academic school, it’s good to mix in a little bit of fun, where everybody can be included.”

While high school sports can be an important part of a student’s college application, they can also be a critical balance to the other stresses of life.

“So many of our students play club [sports], where the coach doesn’t know anything about your academics or your friends or your struggles,” Paula says.

“Here, we have a good percentage of teacher-coaches. [Football and boys’ soccer coach] Shane Walton ’98 is milling around at lunch and really

connecting with the kids, and I think that piece is what really fills their cup athletically—they feel part of a family.”

Wendy says the sky-high competition at the most selective colleges makes it important to maintain perspective on what “success” looks like for a student’s high school career: “You could be someone who ‘does everything right’ and still not get into your tippy-top choice school.”

It points all the more to Paula’s dream of an athletics program with a full-time mental skills coach—to prepare students to grapple with everything from on-field challenges to mental wellness and leadership development.

“Even if you’re not going to play in college, all of these things still help so much,” Paula says. “What if you’re taking a bar exam? You might use some of the strategies you learned in high school on how to meditate, relax, have positive self-talk and put yourself in a position to perform better.”

So what is this place? At its best, maybe it can be a home. For these Bishop’s newbies, it already is.

11 New Faces and Fast Friends

a host of new questions, chief among them: What are these years for, exactly?

The trip from sixth grade to the perfect college can be filled with pressures and a variety of expectations—nobody knows that better than Wendy, who’s in her 18th year of college counseling.

“There are ways that it feels really high-stakes,” she says, particularly in light of rising costs for independent schools and colleges alike. “How do you take advantage of the rich experience that Bishop’s has to offer without feeling like college is the be-all, end-all? How do we respect [the importance of college] while allowing kids to be themselves and not try to be a product that’s attractive to schools?”

Part of that answer lies in creating a place where students can belong and learn life skills that will be with them forever.

That’s why Paula’s first big purchase as athletic director was a giant, inflatable tunnel. The “spirit tunnel”—the kind with smoke and music and a football team running out of it—was a sign post for the kind of community she hopes to create.

PLAYING FOR PEANUTS

By Cathy Morrison

“When you break a record, somebody else is going to break that record sometime. But when you’re a champion, you’re a champion for the rest of your life. Your kids’ kids and their kids could come back here in 40 years, and it’s going to say ‘state champions.’ I still draw energy from what we did here.”

—Coach Fentriss Winn

“Show ’em the shirt!”

“You wore the shirt!”

“Mine’s in my T-shirt quilt!”

“I made those in Mr. Lowe’s art class!”

At any reunion, you can count on sharing and reconnecting over fond memories. The breakfast gathering of the members of Bishop’s 2001 State Champion Girls’ Basketball Team during Reunion Weekend was filled with stories, connection and abundant laughter.

Amy Dieckmann Sullivan ’01 made those T-shirts for her teammates in a

screen printing unit in her art class senior year.

“We decided about three years prior when we knew we wanted to go to the state championship tournament, we didn’t focus on the state tournament, we focused on peanuts. Because we knew that we would take a Southwest Airlines flight to the tournament, and they would give us peanuts when we got on the plane.

We’d always say, ‘C’mon! PEANUTS! Let’s go! Don’t let ‘em take away our peanuts!’

And I remember when they went to the state championship, Southwest found out

Then-seniors Cheka, Lindsay, Amy and Brianna

sort of amazing treat for us to eat. It was so nice in building that community, particularly for those of us who couldn’t drive all the way home in between school and practice, it was awesome.”

The women and their families agree that the combination of basketball and Bishop’s was a life-changing experience.

“We had no idea what private school was before we met Coach Winn. He’s the one who introduced us to this opportunity. We were—and ARE— in awe that we were able to do this.

We had no idea what we were getting into, until we got on campus and saw what the School had to offer, the doors it was going to open and how it was going to prepare us to move through those doors in the future. We’re so thankful we were given that opportunity and we chose to do it. I had known Bree and Mallorie [Winn] since I was nine and to be able to continue to play with them and go to school with them was a huge added benefit,” shares Lindsay Killus Etchegaray ’01.

Amy and Cheka Gage ’01 arrived in

seventh grade, with Amy’s family thinking it would be Bishop’s for middle school and then on to Torrey Pines for high school. Cheka says, “I had just always thought, ‘That’s where I’m going to go. I always wanted to go to Bishop’s.’”

For Amy, “finding a home on the basketball team” meant that staying at Bishop’s for high school “was a no-brainer.”

Kirsten Grimm ’00 carries the experience forward in her professional life as an educator and administrator, saying, “Basketball was probably the biggest part of my life. I work for San Diego County Office of Education, in the equity department. We often have to tell our ‘why.’ Why we do the work we do. I always start with Coach Winn and basketball—you guys are in the first three slides! My ‘why’ is for our students to expect excellence and support with unconditional love. I got that from Coach Winn. We had the widest range of girls in our club experience and then in high school, I came to Bishop’s, and it changed the whole trajectory. Coach always expected excellence of each individual person, and he supported us all differently with a lot of love. He always expected us to win, we knew that.

So that’s what I expect of all the students I’ve ever had—you’re going to win, I don’t care who you are, where your

13 Playing for Peanuts

about it and brought all these peanuts on the flight,” relates Coach Winn.

“You always did a great job setting that vision for us. I remember before ninth grade, we went on a road trip— you took us to Arco Arena to watch a women’s basketball game—and you said, ‘This is where the state championships are won, and we’re going to win a state championship while you’re in high school,’” responds Amy. The team’s origin goes as far back as when some of the women were only six or seven years old, playing in Coach Winn’s Future Stars program. Others joined in middle school. Over time, the players, coaches and parents became a close-knit band of travelers on summer journeys to far-flung Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) tournaments across the country and eventually to in-season interscholastic games across the county.

The ultimate destination: The 2001 State Championship.

Teammates came from as far as Fallbrook to La Jolla, so nearby families hosted the girls in their homes for meals and rest on long school days that culminated in either a late practice or game. Amy shares, “I remember many naps in the afternoons at the Gage’s house before coming back to school for practice and at the Grimm’s house, Kirsten’s mom would always have some

Playing for Peanuts 14

family’s from, we’re going to win! That’s what we do. We win here. It’s really shaped my entire life.”

Coach Winn points out the girls’ basketball program was already strong when he arrived on campus, they just didn’t play against bigger schools. He reminisces, “I remember being told, ‘You can’t schedule the big schools.” I asked, ‘What are big schools?’ ‘Rancho Bernardo, El Camino, Uni.’ I said, ‘Why wouldn’t we schedule them?’ and they said, ‘Because they’d kill us!’ The first three calls I made were to Rancho Bernardo, El Camino and Uni. We had to find out who we wanted to be, and what level we wanted to get to.”

The team’s AAU play gave them experience going against bigger, older and stronger teams. His philosophy was, “If you want to be the best, you have to play the best. One thing Bishop’s kids have that I didn’t bring, you can’t come here academically and not be disciplined to be successful. We had to take that same energy and culture they had toward academics and apply that in our basketball program. We tested ourselves every year. Those seniors won four CIF championships. We’d been to two regional finals. We’d won more than any team in San Diego County in the history of girls’ basketball except for Point Loma at that time. We’d won four league titles; if you get to a regional final, that’s one game away from the state championship.

We did that twice, and we could just taste it. This was the last opportunity to win it.

We played probably one of the toughest schedules in the country that year.”

Local and national events impacted

Reunion Weekend basketball and family time

their senior season, too. As the first generation of students to experience the now too-familiar phenomenon of school shootings, the March 5, 2001 mass shooting at Santana High School in Santee occurred as CIF playoffs were underway.

“Santana voted not to go to the playoffs because their classmates had passed. So, their girls’ team, who was no. 3 in the county, won all these games and didn’t get to go. We decided, ‘Let’s invite these girls to our game. Then we took it a step further and said, ‘We’d like to wear their warm-ups out for our game.’

The team came, and we met upstairs in the health room; they got to hear our pregame, and they gave us their warm-ups.

Our girls ran out in Santana warm-ups, and it was just so heartfelt. People picked up on it, and everybody started cheering when they saw it was Santana, knowing they couldn’t play anymore and knowing that kids at their school passed away because of the shooting,” recalls Winn.

Spirited support was key to their performance. Lindsay recalls, “We would pack the gym with people. The boys’ team would dress up for us and be our cheerleaders, and we would do the same for them. From friends to faculty, even Mr. Teitelman (head of school). We had so much support which was so nice.”

Cheka adds, “It was so cool as a player on the team. Everyone loved coming.

I think we were fun to watch. It was exciting, there was lots of camaraderie, we got really into it, and we had this whole warm up thing we used to do.

We would lock ourselves in the closet, then bang on the door [before running

out onto the court]. It was really fun—we had a good time.”

“And that’s not the culture in women’s sports—I would argue anywhere. In college, men’s and women’s sports are very separate. But we had boys from all sports—everyone would come. To be seen and taken so seriously as an athlete was an exceptional experience,” recalls Brianna Winn ’01.

There’s an adage—teamwork makes the dream work—and this team was exemplary. “The best part of our team— we all played our roles and each of us playing our roles made the other person the best player that they could be. We couldn’t do it without each other. We played together so much both in-season and off-season, we could predict, work together and know how to move the ball around the court,” says Amy. “Cheka was a shooter, and she knew she was ready to play at the point or wing if she needed to. Lindsay was very smart, taking the ball out and making the right decision and ready to be a shooter on the outside when needed.

You had to trust that all the people on the floor were going to do their job. The reason we won a championship is that everyone was really good at what they did. We knew each other well, what everyone’s strengths were. We studied basketball, scouting reports, it was a lot.

We had to know every position and every single play. We were so stacked that year before, too. It was just one more year of doing that. None of us wanted to leave Bishop’s without what we were trying to get to. “‘PEANUTS!’” exclaims Brianna.

2021 Reunion WeekendFridayFun Night

15 2021 Reunion Weekend Fun

2021 Reunion Weekend Fun 16

Saturday Festivities

table of contents

BISHOP’S

$1 Million Gift Will Help Bring the School’s Values to Life

Winter 2022 • Vol. 19, No. 1

By Keri Peckham

A magazine for The Bishop’s School community

FEATURES

2

Credits

Well Informed

Editor Keri Peckham

Strategic plan puts well-being at its core.

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Teaching the Way Students Learn Best Brain-based learning in Bishop’s Learning Center

10

Managing Editor Cathy Morrison Assistant Editor Jen Jordan

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Contributing Writers Zach Jones ’01 Cathy Morrison Keri Peckham Sarah Pruitt Trisha J. Ratledge

New Faces and Fast Friends in Bishop’s Administration

Contributing Photographers istockphoto Jen Jordan Cathy Morrison Anneke Roy Dave Siccardi Michael Spengler

athletics and college counseling

Playing for Peanuts 20 years since girls’ basketball’s state title

15

2021 Reunion Weekend Fun

17

Family Matters

A

s this issue highlights, The Bishop’s School is at a unique place in its trajectory—implementing a new strategic plan. As excitement around the plan and the School’s future builds, Head of School Ron Kim shares, “We have so many important goals, and I wonder sometimes how we will accomplish them all.”

Graphic Design Design Perspective, Inc.

New directors of admissions,

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priorities. Though an inherent tension exists among these priorities, particularly access and affordability and recruiting and retaining outstanding faculty and staff, “We need to emphasize both without one coming at the expense of the other,” acknowledges Ron. “The significance of this gift is that it supports our ability to do both.”

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Class Notes and transitions

The Bishop’s School Head of School Ron Kim

Interim Chief Advancement Officer Jim Osterholt Director of Alumni Relations Lori Boyle

HONOR ROLL OF DONORS 2019 – 2021

Bishop’s is published two times a year

by The Bishop’s School.

We welcome your feedback.

Please send story ideas to news@bishops.com or contact us at (858) 875-0790.

The Bishop’s School 7607 La Jolla Boulevard La Jolla, CA 92037-4799

10

Phone: (858) 459-4021 Fax: (858) 459-3914 www.bishops.com Mission Statement Bishop’s is an Episcopal school that nurtures students of intellect and character to think independently, learn collaboratively, grow their sense of self and act with greater purpose.

12 Neyenesch— will new paper qualify or should this be deleted?

Front Cover Lauren Forgrave ’25, Sierra Lever ’25 and Adelaide Kessler ’25 enjoy Bish Bowl on the Quad.

Photo by Jen Jordan

A recent gift to the School helps answer that question for Ron and fills him with hope for the future. In December the School received a call from a family in the Bishop’s community wishing to provide financial support for faculty and staff. This anonymous gift of $1 million will provide additional funding for salaries for the people the donors say “are bringing the vision of the School to life.”

The donors add, “The best schools have teachers who love the lifelong journey of learning, and, most importantly, love taking the journey alongside young people. We hope that this gift will allow Bishop’s to continue to recruit and retain the best.”

Ron agrees, saying, “When we think of the impact that faculty and staff have on students, we might think reflexively about the classroom and academics. That’s part of it, but research shows that the most profound impact on students comes from teachers knowing and caring about their students and creating a feeling of belonging.

When students have that relationship with their teachers, incredible learning can happen. Put simply, students learn most from people they love and trust. Teachers who create that bond with students are at the core of what makes Bishop’s special.”

As the School evaluates its needs in relation to the strategic plan, Ron and the advancement team are thinking about ways to support the core of the plan centered around the Bishop’s learner. Student well-being and belonging, access and affordability, recruiting and retaining an outstanding faculty and staff, and campus enhancements that optimize students’ learning experience are top fundraising

The donors hope to encourage others to think about the impact they, too, could have on the future of the School. “Bishop’s is embarking on a new vision, shining a light on how students learn and grow best. It is a unique approach that we find intriguing and forward thinking, and we are excited to witness its implementation. Investing in education is an investment in the future— inspiring young people to reach their potential and do good in the world. We cannot think of anything more important!”

If you would like to discuss giving opportunities at Bishop’s, please contact Interim Chief Advancement Officer Jim Osterholt at jim.osterholt@bishops.com.

BISHOP’S A MAGAZINE FOR THE BISHOP’S SCHOOL FAMILY AND FRIENDS WINTER 2022

The Bishop’s School

Non-Profit Organization U.S. Postage PAID The Bishop’s School

7607 La Jolla Boulevard La Jolla, California 92037-4799

Alumni from the classes of 2005–2018 and 2019–2021 gathered for holiday alumni events in December 2021.

Student Well-Being Basketball Champions Reunite Teaching the Way Students Learn Best Parents of alumni, if your child no longer maintains an address at your home, please provide an updated address to the alumni office. (858) 875-0505 • Fax (858) 456-2681 • tbsalumni@bishops.com