THE ROEPER SCHOOL COMMUNITY MAGAZINE
Keeping In Touch
IS ROEPER STILL ROEPER? VOLUME 11: 3 SPRING 2018
KIT
TABLE OF CONTENTS David Feldman Head of School david.feldman@roeper.org Denita Banks-Sims Director of Development denita.banks-sims@roeper.org Keeping in Touch Editorial Committee Katie Buchmann Editor Bonnie Schemm Art Director
Contributors Denita Banks-Sims David Feldman Jonathan Gardner ’19 Cori Hatcher Leslie Hosey Karen Johnson Juliette Olejnik Marcia Ruff Janeá Wilson
THE ROEPER SCHOOL 41190 Woodward Avenue Bloomfield Hills Michigan 48304 248/203.7300 www.roeper.org
FEATURES IS ROEPER STILL ROEPER? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 David Feldman, Head of School INTENSIVES AT THE LOWER SCHOOL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Leslie Hosey, Lower School Director THE ARCHITECTURE OF A ROEPER EDUCATION . . . . . . . . . Karen Johnson, Upper School Director
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ORDER OF THE FIGHTING TUNA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Janeá Wilson ’18, Editor/Tuna Talk
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THE MacARTHUR FELLOWS VISITS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 ALUMNI UPDATES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Juliette Olejnik, Director /Alumni Relations & Annual Fund
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PASSINGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Marcia Ruff, School Historian PARTING THOUGHTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Denita Banks-Sims, Director of Development
ON THE COVER Clockwise from upper left: Alexis Firek, Stage II; Hannah Bolton, Stage III; Oliver Diemer, Stage II; Zander McEvoy, Stage II
The Roeper School is an independent coeducational day school for gifted and talented students preschool through grade 12 and an equal-opportunity institution
EDUCATING AND INSPIRING GIFTED STUDENTS TO THINK AS INDIVIDUALS AND TO ENGAGE AS A COMMUNITY WITH COMPASSION FOR EACH OTHER AND THIS WORLD
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KIT
David Feldman Head of School
IS ROEPER STILL ROEPER?
Alumni visiting the school will often stop and ask me, “David, is Roeper still Roeper? Is this still the school that I remember?” Walking across the two campuses and seeing the new buildings and redesigned spaces, it might be easy to conclude that because the brick and mortar look different that Roeper is a different school. Indeed, physically, Roeper will look very different to many of our graduates and their families; the physical changes to our property have been numerous. Whether it’s the Steward Building, the Community Center Building, the Swimming Pool, or talk of a second campus in Birmingham with a new interior courtyard — it seems outlandish to some and inconceivable to others. Where’s the Big Field? Where do they play six square? What happened to the SLC? Alums come for a visit, walk around, look at the space, and think, is this my City and Country School? Buildings come and go; great faculty members spend full careers and retire; even our founders have completed rich careers and passed on. Seventy-six years of history fill our archives, and still alums want to know — “is Roeper still Roeper?” As George reminded us, change is always a constant. Good educators recognize the needs of their students; good educators continuously seek to find the right methods to reach the students in their charge. Great teachers build lasting relationships around core institutional values — tenets contained within our philosophical documents — the legacy of our founders. The spaces may look different, the faces may look different, but the core values that guide our school remain. We argue and debate about the application of the philosophy; we question and seek understanding around decision-making; and we continue to take the time to stop when the harshness of the day makes its way into our classroom or our campus. We firmly believe that the social and emotional health of our community continues to be at the core of our humanistic ideals.
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Alumni will be pleased to know that the Town Hall Meeting is alive and well and living on the Birmingham Campus. It is a forum that has been used on multiple occasions this year to have a Middle and Upper School conversation about the content of, and how we live the philosophy; discussions about the #MeToo movement, sexual harassment, and how we treat each other; and to bring us together to discuss the sad use of hate speech in a penciled graffiti message on a bathroom stall. As a school, we continue to lean into difficult topics and conversations; we don’t ignore problems, challenges, or topics that make us uncomfortable. We are not perfect — perfectionism freezes you and inhibits growth. We strive to be excellent, knowing we will make mistakes and seeking ways to grow as we learn. As Golden Apple recipient and MacArthur Fellow Bryan Stevenson reminded us, “In order to change the narrative, you have to be willing to be uncomfortable.” Discussions about social justice, inclusion, and cultural competencies are not new to Roeper, nor is our willingness to engage in a manner that is empathetic and respectful. Our philosophy is filled with the wisdom of experiences taken from days of earlier challenge, and the adults in our community are keenly aware of their responsibilities as guides. Roeper continues to be a place where students engage in discourse that pushes us to see multiple points of view. We know that we cannot find empathy, we cannot be respectful, if we do not first seek to understand. The concept behind our growth mindset was best described by an alum visiting campus and participating in our Philumni Day panel discussion. A student asked, do you think Roeper is a bubble? And if so, how do you work through challenges in the real world if all you know is this bubble? The alum said you can learn how to swim by being thrown into the deep end of the swimming pool. You will struggle, you will gasp for air, and if you are fortunate, you will make it to the side of the pool having learned enough about swimming to survive. If you do this, you will likely spend
MARK WRIGHT
To do things the way they were done in the past will not help our youngsters face our changing times. The ability to recognize, choose, and invent options, the ability to decide, to learn how to learn — all this will better equip our youngsters for the future … George Roeper
Roeper continues to be a place where students engage in discourse that pushes us to see multiple points of view. We know that we cannot find empathy, we cannot be respectful, if we do not first seek to understand.
We continue to make sure that learners never have to jump into the deep end of life without the skills they need to not just survive — but to thrive in this constantly changing world.
your life hating and being afraid of swimming. There is, of course, another way. You can start your swimming experience in the shallow end of the pool and gradually make your way to deeper and deeper water as you gain confidence and experience with the various techniques of swimming. Roeper allows students to start in the shallow end and to build the life skills essential for living a thoughtful life where education is appreciated and valued. The alum finished with one qualifying statement. He said, “You have a responsibility to push yourself into the deeper parts of the pool. It is not enough to be content with basic skills, a Roeper education comes with a responsibility to make a difference in the broader outside world.” Change continues; buildings are built and redesigned. New amazing educators join our ranks. Incredible new students challenge us to see
problems differently. The outside world pounds at the door of our school, challenging us to succumb to values and tenets that are not in keeping with the humanistic ideals of our founders. And we continue to make sure that learners never have to jump into the deep end of life without the skills they need to not just survive — but to thrive in this constantly changing world. Roeper is still Roeper because of the continued efforts we make to keep our philosophy a living and breathing document. Roeper is still Roeper because the people in this special place understand the legacy they have been called upon to steward and the need that exists in our world for gifted young people. As Mariann Hoag reminded us, it is our responsibility as Roeperians to, “take care of ourselves, take care of each other, and take care of this special place.” F
WITH HEARTFELT GRATITUDE TO RETIRING BOARD CHAIR, BUCK BAKER (reprinted from the Winter 2018 Keeping in Touch: Annual Report for 2016/17) I want to take a moment to offer my most sincere thanks to Buck Baker, Chair of our Board of Trustees. Buck will be ending his term as chair in August of this year, and after 10 years of service as a trustee, he will be cycling off of our Board. It has been my privilege to have Buck as my partner in shepherding our school. The partnership between a school head and board chair is one that is based on communication, care and trust. I could not have asked for a more engaged and thoughtful partner. Buck has been a mentor, a friend, and the leader Roeper has needed these past four years on the Board. He’s an alumni parent, so I know he will not be too far from us, but I hope you will join me in offering a very special thank you to Buck for his service, his guidance, and his care — he is a true Roeperian! F
Incoming Board Chair Ashley Lowe with retiring Chair Buck Baker and Head of School David Feldman at the recent Board dinner honoring all this year’s retiring trustees. PHOTO BY ANTHONY MORROW
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KIT
Leslie Hosey
Lower School Director
Throughout last school year and the summer, including professional development with eminent gifted expert Joyce Van Tassel-Baska, teachers collaborated to develop a structure to provide project-based learning opportunities in all stages. Themes for the four-week Intensives were the following: > STAGE I — WATER: Domes teachers and Hill House teachers planned an intensive around water in all forms, interweaving a social justice theme. They focused on water-related events such as Flint and the recent hurricanes. > STAGE II — FOOD: All teachers planned an intensive around food, which included how food is acquired, health/nutrition, and food and culture around the world. Each homeroom created a different inquiry around food and invited parents and local chefs in to prepare food and share culture, with the goal of developing understanding of how food brings people together. > STAGE III — COMMUNITY CHANGE: Teachers wrote units of study around the theme of community change. For their Intensive, Stage III sought to expand student understanding of what real help looks like and how to make meaningful and impactful change. Students voted to explore homelessness and looked at political, economic, and mental health impacts that contribute to homelessness. This intensive connected with several local organizations, brought in several of our alums, offered field trips to provide service to organizations that support the homeless, as well as a morning in our cold and snowy woods to experience homelessness. > STAGE IV — FOOD JUSTICE: With the guidance of two teachers who met throughout the summer, the Food Justice Intensive focused on four central themes: 1) culture; 2) environment/food sourcing; 3) health/nutrition; 4) politics/legislation. Students engaged in cross-disciplinary work to understand food justice issues around the world, created food-related art, participated in several field trips to better understand issues related to food scarcity. Their culminating event combined with “Empy Bowls,” where money raised by the art work was donated to a local organization that collects usable food from grocery stores to provide to those who are hungry.
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Paula Romano, Deb Veillette, and Lisa Bottesi devoted their expertise to create a schedule for all stages that allowed students to maintain the scope and sequence of core classes while integrating the skills and expertise of our specialist teachers. Goals of the Intensives, held in the weeks between Thanksgiving and the Winter Break, were to provide real world, authentic learning opportunities that have meaning and relevance to our students’ lives. Throughout the course of the Intensives, students engaged in observation, developing questions, research, non-fiction reading, and social studies that included economics, history, and political science. Music, art, science, computer science, physical education, and dance teachers all integrated their content within the Intensives. Student voice was highly present as these units of study unfolded, while each stage built enduring understandings and asked essential questions around their themes. We were thrilled to launch these Intensives as they provided authentic opportunities to build 21st Century skills (e.g., multiple literacies in technology, visual arts, knowledge of the natural world, creative and divergent thinking, collaborative skills, etc.), connect with experts throughout the area, and allow for integrated learning opportunities. The highly collaborative nature of the Intensives presented challenges to our current structure of classes, which required teachers to devote time during the summer to develop curriculum. Additional opportunities were created during the school year by foregoing regular faculty meetings in the weeks leading up to the Intensives. Response to the Intensives was highly favorable, with push-back occurring primarily around the lack of time for purposeful planning. As we move into the 2018/19 school year, we have created a common theme for the year around Relationships/ Community which will allow teachers to jumpstart curriculum planning. Despite the challenges in planning, we believe that the Intensives allow for the kind of integrated curriculum work that gifted students crave, and that allows our students to more fully live our Mission of “Educating and inspiring gifted students to think as individuals and to engage as a community with compassion for each other and this world.” At the conclusion of the Stage III Intensive one of our students excitedly commented, “I feel like I have just graduated!”
MARK WRIGHT
INTENSIVES AT THE LOWER SCHOOL
Goals of the Intensives were to provide real world, authentic learning opportunities that have meaning and relevance to our students’ lives.
KIT
Karen Johnson
Upper School Director
THE ARCHITECTURE OF A ROEPER EDUCATION
ANTHONY MORROW
I have a not-so-secret fascination with anthropology. To be sure, my training in the humanities and social sciences has inspired in me an everlasting curiosity about people — how we think, believe, form identities, behave, and sustain practices based on our social and cultural environments. The Roeper community is indeed an enchanting ecosystem of its own with George and Annemarie having granted to us the philosophical landscape and educational features which we continually aspire to hold in careful balance.
Our cultural history matters, for it gives both shape and meaning to the learning and teaching that have happened at Roeper for more than 75 years now.
I have spent a not insignificant amount of time over the past ten years searching for a way to articulate the cultural story that I have come to know for Roeper. Fortunately, having conversations this year with David Feldman, Leslie Hosey, and Brian Corley has been especially important in my own reflections and has also yielded a collaborative presentation that seems to capture and communicate the singular nature of a Roeper education. Our cultural history matters, for it gives both shape and meaning to the learning and teaching that have happened at Roeper for more than 75 years now. I am reminded of an observation shared with me not long ago: if we don’t tell our story, someone else will tell it for us. What follows is an abridged version of the presentation that we have built, auditioned, and shared over the course of this school year. It is one way to tell our own story. It represents a kind of ethnographic narrative collected from years of field notes and interviews and hopefully it does justice to the awesome legacy left to us by George and Annemarie. PART ONE: GIFTEDNESS In America today, there are as many definitions of gifted as there are states in the country. Giftedness is commonly regarded as a constellation of characteristics expressing themselves variously in school-age individuals. A study by McClain and Pfeiffer (2012) notes that about one-third of states include leadership in their definition and about half include creativity. The overwhelming majority of definitions, however, focus on intelligence and high achievement, something that is unsurprising given the prevailing popular notions of gifted students as bookish kids who easily attain high marks. Most states will use an IQ score (and sometimes that alone) to identify kids for gifted programs,
and very often this score is used in tandem with high achievement on standardized tests. Less frequently, public schools will rely on teacher nominations and rating scales as well as measures of creativity. Only two states consider a behavior checklist as a component for selection into gifted programs. This all seems misguided, for an IQ score and performance on a standardized test reveal at best a high level of intellectual promise and a certain savvy with test-taking. Moreover, these means for determining giftedness are fixed upon measures that describe what gifted might look like from the outside and not at all what it is like to experience it from the inside — what appears to be a gift to others may in fact be a great personal struggle. Finally, it is inherent in such common notions of giftedness that once someone graduates from high school, they cease to be gifted; in other words, there is no meaningful sense of giftedness across the lifespan. We know that George and Annemarie thought differently. Two quotes are of particular importance here: The truly gifted person is one who is capable of revising what is known, exploring the unknown and constructing new forms.” — G.A.R., “Changing Concepts of Giftedness,” 1962. In short, giftedness is a greater awareness, a greater sensitivity, and a greater ability to understand and transform perceptions into intellectual and emotional experiences.” — A.M.R. “How the Gifted Cope with Their Emotions,” 1982. It is a striking departure from today’s currents in gifted education to give such prominence to the inner experience of the individual, whether that be intellectual or emotional or some combination of both. The emphasis on creative thought is also conspicuous here. But perhaps most significantly, the Roepers promoted a causal model of giftedness that runs deep and seeks to explain how the gifted personality attempts to make sense of and build theories about the world around them. Building on the work of the Roepers and including Annemarie herself, a group of psychologists and school professionals convened in the late 1980s to
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redefine giftedness in light of the inner experience of the gifted person. The cohort came to be known as The Columbus Group, and it published a definition of giftedness that maintains a close alliance with the scholarship and beliefs of our founders: Giftedness is the asynchronous development in which advanced cognitive ability and heightened intensity combine to create an inner experience and awareness that are different from the norm. — The Columbus Group, 1991. Today, this definition has been promoted on the Roeper website and among those scholars and professionals who have sought to move away from the talent development model and achievement model of giftedness that still have a stronghold among the vast majority of gifted programs in the United States. Jim Delisle, former Roeper School Trustee and a prominent scholar on giftedness today, has expressed that “gifted is not what you do, it’s who you are.” The Columbus Group definition endures because it speaks to this notion — giftedness is not something that can be turned on and off; it is inherent to the nature of the individual. Over the last couple of years, we have had the privilege of bringing in and working with another prominent scholar on the topic of gifted education: Joyce VanTassel-Baska, Professor Emerita And Founding Director of the Center for Gifted Education at The College of William and Mary. During the first summer our faculty and staff had the chance to pick her brain, the question was raised about Joyce’s preference for explaining giftedness. Joyce was both candid and clear — giftedness can be largely defined by three distinct elements: precocity, complexity, and intensity. It is, to be sure, a somewhat different approach to giftedness, yet it dovetails nicely with the work of The Columbus Group. Joyce is responsible for the genesis of the Integrated Curriculum Model (ICM) for gifted learners (1986). Applicable to any subject matter, it seeks to nurture the gifted individual’s desire for advanced content, create a framework for that content based on broad interdisciplinary themes, and develop and refine the skills that are exercised with such content. This curricular model does well to accommodate for the asynchronous nature of the gifted intellect
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and it capitalizes on the ability of gifted learners to function at a highly abstract and complex level. The combination of these two elements — precocity and complexity — translates into a cognitive profile that is especially adept at making interdisciplinary connections, applying critical thinking skills (analysis, synthesis, evaluation), and coping with real-world problems. This is the kind of powerful mind that can change worlds: the capacity for generating creative, outof-the-box solutions is precisely the resource that the Roepers believed could stave off humanitarian crises and catastrophes, like the one that they themselves experienced. Inasmuch as the ICM expresses the same values that George and Annemarie held with regard to the intellectual needs of the gifted learner, it decidedly does not attend to the equally important dimension of intensity, which Annemarie in particular sought to understand. Here, her family’s passion and connection with the development of the personality school in psychology led her to study intimately the work of Kazimierz Dabrowski (Polish psychologist, 1902-1980). In Dabrowski’s theory of personality development, he describes a set of “overexcitabilities” (OEs) from various domains that are present in all individuals, but which can become particularly intense for gifted individuals. Whether it be a heightened ability to engage in pretense/imagination or overwhelming tendency to have strong and complex emotions, the gifted individual has concentrations of certain personality characteristics which result in intense responses to the environment. One might even assert that these overexcitabilities, while they do tend to fall within the upper reaches of average human experience, can extend beyond and become disorderly. The jury is out as to whether gifted children are in fact more at-risk for psychological/emotional disorders (Neihart 2011), but one thing is clear: when a gifted child displays a certain level of intensity or overexcitability, it can be misunderstood and even pathologized because it does not fall within the average range of human experience. George and especially Annemarie understood that gifted children need
“Gifted is not what you do, it’s who you are.” — Jim Delisle
George and especially Annemarie understood that gifted children need an educational environment that respects their intensities for all that they are and does not seek to quiet them for the sake of normalizing such characteristics.
an educational environment that respects their intensities for all that they are and does not seek to quiet them for the sake of normalizing such characteristics — just as these overexcitabilities could be seen as abnormal, they too could be seen as advantageous for divergent thinking and problem-solving. When we take the characteristics of precocity, complexity, and intensity for gifted students and translate them into a curricular experience that capitalizes on their strengths and passion for learning, there are six main areas that can be the focus for educational practices: advanced content, higher-order thinking skills, conceptual and interdisciplinary learning, multicultural and multiperspective approaches, expressions of creativity, and inquiry-based instruction. These are the pedagogical rafters that gird our gifted education program, and they are aligned well with the Integrated Curriculum Model that Joyce VanTasselBaska has outlined in her research and scholarship. Our faculty is adept at working within these areas to bring the most meaningful and challenging experience to our students. A Roeper education does, however, go far beyond these best practices for gifted students — our philosophy provides added dimension and a scaffolding for our program that is unique among gifted schools in America today. PART TWO: THE ROEPER PHILOSOPHY It was not until 1956 that The Roeper School began to focus on gifted education. With the launch of Sputnik and a desire to be at the intellectual fore on the global stage, trends in American education at that time were aiming to tap into our nation’s high-potential students. Annemarie and George were keen to maintain the philosophical framework that was roughed out for The Roeper School in 1941. Constructed out of their personal and intellectual experiences, the Roeper philosophy provided and continues today to
provide a unique scaffolding for gifted education. The Roepers were concerned about the social and emotional toll on gifted children that came with the initiative to draw on the nation’s intellectual resources. It was they who recognized the responsibility to maintain a humanistic orientation in an approach to education. The beliefs codified at the beginning of the 1981 Philosophy Statement — our core tenets — are those that capture the essence of this humanistic orientation. To prepare this future generation to deal with the unknown Further into the 1981 Philosophy Statement, George and Annemarie explain that this future should be regarded as that “which will not be anything like the future which is now our present and past and for which we were so woefully unprepared in many ways.” These are the words of witnesses to genocide and human complacency. Preparing each generation to negotiate the future is both a simple statement and a visionary one, and it can be interpreted along a couple of different dimensions. On the one hand, a preparation for the future will require a set of practical skills and real-world knowledge; on the other hand, preparing for the future also requires an emphasis on moral and ethical values that uphold humanistic principles. Don Ambrose, Professor of Graduate Education at Rider University and current Editor of the Roeper Review, authored a comprehensive examination of the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed for the 21st century, including: multimodal literacy, panoramic scanning, altruism and empathy, as well as interpersonal acumen. He further explains how many of these skills and mindsets are natural inclinations for gifted students — in particular, their creative, divergent, interdisciplinary, and nuanced critical thinking, and their capacity for solving fluid, emerging problems. In other words, gifted students are uniquely poised with a Roeper education to be amply prepared for the 21st century. As much as practical and problem-solving skills can equip students for a satisfying and successful life path, one can also interpret this philosophical tenet in terms of the humanistic orientation needed for a respectful and peaceful existence in this world — one that the Roepers watched go awry with the rise of Nazism in Germany. It is perhaps
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best summarized by George’s own words shared at the Junior-Senior Dinner in 1981: “I hope you leave this school with a mission. Beware of the enemies of humanism. Try to defend this school and its philosophy as a fortress of humanism. Do not only defend it, but fight for it.” For me, this suggests that when there are unknowns on the horizon, humanistic principles will give grounding; they will guide choices and help solve problems when the forecast is cloudy and uncertain. To make equal human rights for all people a priority The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) by the United Nations was made in December of 1948 as a goal for all people everywhere. The first three articles of the UDHR state that: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights …. Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind …. Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person.” Annemarie and George indeed would agree with these inalienable rights. The balance of a community rests on its capacity for recognizing the inherent value of each individual within. Further on in the UDHR, Article 26 explains that everyone has the right to education and that “education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.” This was written as if channeling George and Annemarie, for it is easy to imagine them describing how the ability to govern one’s own thinking produces dignity and how all people have a right to access their own abilities through education.
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A fundamental part of making equal human rights for all people a priority for the Roepers was their emphasis on making the school and its resources accessible to all children who would benefit from the program, regardless of circumstance. Their firm belief in the value of multiple perspectives permeated the whole community, such that the Roepers took both financial risks and risks to their reputation to hire on a diverse faculty and staff as well. Today, The Roeper School continues to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in its practices and actively seeks out ways to increase access to historically underrepresented populations in gifted education — the sizable portion of our annual budget dedicated to financial aid and scholarship is testimony to our commitment. Moreover, public-private partnerships — such as the one greatly facilitated by the 2018 award of the E.E. Ford Foundation Educational Leadership Grant to The Roeper Institute with the Detroit Public Community School District — are key measures to raise awareness around gifted students from diverse backgrounds and to develop the spectrum of best practices among a community of educators. Through such initiatives of the School and Institute, we remain faithful to this core tenet of the philosophy and fulfill the mission of our founders. To commit to justice rather than power Power differentials exist in virtually every human relationship — assessing the authority one has in a particular human interaction is a natural, if highly imperfect, way to negotiate the social world. When we acknowledge, however, that what we bring to the table is a product of our experiences and status with all its biases and truths and/or when we deliberately construct a platform for equality in interaction, it is only then that we are committing to justice rather than power. School is precisely one of those constructed spaces. At Roeper, this core tenet pervades school culture and decision-making: from students and teachers on a first-name basis to discussions of fairness around who gets to sit on the homeroom couch. Whether it is characterized as student-teacher, child-adult, or novice-expert, it is essential to be mindful of the flow of authority in the relationship and to keep it in check, when necessary.
Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. — UDHR, Article 26
One of the best and surest ways to prepare children for their destiny is to help them discover their capacity for performing or initiating action. — Abraham Maslow
In 1969, George and Annemarie noted that “in order to believe in justice, the child must be raised with justice.” This is a crucial practice for social activism that is alive and well today at Roeper. Justice, for many, is counterintuitive — it takes hard work, and one needs to be intentional about practicing it. By teaching children the value of justice from young ages, we are enculturating them into a world where change can happen more readily. Here the Roeperian sentiment comes to mind of educating students for the world as it should be. If we teach children that the world cannot change and that there is rarely justice, they will grow to believe this is the case. If, however, we teach kids that we can do and be more than the status quo, they will act upon this world to that end and for the better. To be willing to allow children to participate in the shaping of their own destiny and to consciously prepare them for it Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is a wellknown paradigm in education and psychology circles. If physiological needs such as food, water, shelter (by no means guaranteed) are being met, then it is possible for a person to achieve selfactualization and achieve their full potential as human beings, provided that their affective needs are being met along the way. These include a sense of safety and security, a sense of belonging, and a positive sense of self. One of the best and surest ways to prepare children for their destiny is to help them discover their capacity for performing or initiating action — that is, their agency in this world. From there it becomes a matter of encouraging self-actualization by performing acts that satisfy each person’s own potential. It is in those acts where school becomes especially important, for it is a rehearsal space. By giving kids a voice in how that space is constructed, we are in fact promoting self-advocacy and the process by which one learns how to learn. School is a playground, in the truest sense of the word, where one practices in safety and security the skill of self-advocacy needed to fulfill one’s potential. It is a skill that has a recursive appearance: in Lower School, it might look like a child learning how to express their emotions; in Middle School, it could be learning how to seek assistance; and in Upper School, it manifests in the satisfying completion
of a senior project, designed and executed fully by the student. When we allow students to participate in the shaping of their own education, we are helping to instill a self-image that includes active engagement and ownership that will carry them through life and bring them satisfaction. Roeper teachers know this process well, and it is very much akin to learning that takes place within the “zone of proximal development,” as described by Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky. This is the sweet spot in pedagogy, where an expert deftly positions a novice into a problem-solving space that is just within reach and stealthily guides them through achieving a new understanding. For a teacher, this is magical, and for a student, it can be sea-changing. For Annemarie, agency and self-advocacy became crucial elements in her Self-Actualization and Interdependence (SAI) model for education, seen in the later years of her scholarship. Elevating the interdependence piece to such prominence is especially notable for it acknowledges that one does not act in a vacuum and that the pursuit of one’s destiny requires balance with and compassion for the larger community. To view the needs of each child independently This foundational belief goes hand-in-hand with the previous, in that it is necessary to personalize education in order to promote agency, selfactualization, and self-advocacy. A positive, emotional attachment to learning must be forged, which comes from an individual’s personal interests and preferences. In Stage III, passion projects are an excellent demonstration of this as a child learns for learning’s sake and develops inner motivation. Or, it could be the Middle or Upper School student with such a tremendous
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verbal fluency and appreciation for language that they pursue independent study work in Egyptian hieroglyphics, Japanese, or Basque. Because children learn best when they are learning outwards from their strengths and taking risks from there into uncharted territory, George and Annemarie were keenly attuned to the affective needs in the pedagogical relationship and the role that personalizing the educational experience accelerates growth. There may be, however, a more philosophical take on this core tenet. This concerns the ontology of independence: that is, being in state where one’s needs are free from another’s authority or control. When we accord this meaning to the notion of viewing each child’s needs as independent, we provide for the child to become self-governing, in other words, autonomous. It is telling that the 1969 version of this core belief read, “to view the needs of each child independently of preconceived notions of educational methods” (emphasis mine). The Roepers seem to say here that when the pedagogical scaffolding is peeled away, it is the autonomy of the learner that endures and sustains them. At the end of the first year of Roeper as a gifted school in 1957, George addressed the PTA and explained: The philosophy of the school will remain the same. We still try to see in every child the human being first as we always did. Personality education and the emphasis on human values still has priority above everything else because we know that also in gifted child education the adjustment to the realities of life itself is a greater determining factor for success than the talent or intelligence itself. The psychological understanding of children, gaining insight of the motivation of their behavior, is still paramount in our approach. As much as currents in gifted education may shift and change, the Roeper philosophy remains the heart and soul of the school and our educational practices; we may sometimes need reminders to return to our roots, but the priority of the philosophy in a Roeper education cannot be denied.
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PART THREE: PEDAGOGY With the Roepers’ perspective of giftedness as well as their philosophy, our story of the architecture of a Roeper education looks complete: there is a visible infrastructure of humanistic principles supporting a canopy of best practices for gifted students. What we see less often, however, is the foundation for this edifice — the nature of The Roeper School’s historical substructure contributes the vital ground-work needed to sustain the educational experience we offer today. We must travel back to the youth of George and Annemarie and immerse ourselves in the educational philosophy of her parents, Max and Gertrud Bondy, for it is in this context — and that of their school at Marienau in Germany — that we can experience the influence of the educational beliefs and practices of our historical past. The history of education in America and Germany is strikingly similar in terms of the philosophy behind it, perhaps due in large measure to a Prussian influence. Under the Prussian Kingdom of the 18th century, free and compulsory primary education was introduced, and a system of schools began to populate the country. The goal was to provide basic skills instruction and character education. In the 19th century in America, Horace Mann brought the Prussian school model to Massachusetts and initiated the Common School movement. This movement also focused on basic skills and moral education; the former was to facilitate a workforce in an age of nascent industrialization, the latter was to produce an upright citizenry. It was about this time that the emergence of grade-levels by age and the delivery of direct instruction appeared, as they were means for the efficient schooling of a large number of students. Yet this kind of manufacturing of citizens, while noble in its pursuit, was seen as unsatisfying to many educators in terms of a child-centered approach. The response to the Common School movement in America came in the form of a model for education, advocated by John Dewey, that blended the emotional and intellectual, the individual and society. As Dewey himself wrote in My Pedagogical Creed (1897),
As much as currents in gifted education may shift and change, the Roeper philosophy remains the heart and soul of the school and our educational practices; we may sometimes need reminders to return to our roots, but the priority of the philosophy in a Roeper education cannot be denied.
In sum, I believe that the individual who is to be educated is a social individual, and that society is an organic union of individuals. If we eliminate the social factor from the child, we are left only with an abstraction; if we eliminate the individual factor from society, we are left only with an inert and lifeless mass. Education, therefore, must begin with a psychological insight into the child’s capacities, interests, and habits.
Education must begin with a psychological insight into the child’s capacities, interests, and habits. — John Dewey
Given the common ancestor of the Prussian Volksschule, it is not surprising that a similar movement was happening in education in Germany at the turn of the 20th century. This was the milieu in which Max and Gertrud Bondy began to develop their beliefs around a fulfilling education for children. Although the philosophy of Max and Gertrud Bondy might not technically be regarded as one of progressive education as Dewey’s would be, both share a number of central tenets that did represent a departure from the traditional model of schooling that dominated their respective national landscapes. For Max and Gertrud, their beliefs led them to become educators after the First World War. Beginning in 1920, they founded a series of schools where George and Annemarie enjoyed their youth. In 1929, they moved their school to Marienau, where many of their beliefs about the ideal education came to fruition. It is a notable coincidence that Max and Gertrud elevated on high the same kinds of democratic principles that John Dewey championed in his efforts to reform American education. In her memoir of Marienau, Annemarie writes: The students truly owned the school. They participated in the decision-making, including whom to admit …. It was a real, working democracy. — Roeper and Mireau, 2012: 64 As one of foundational pieces of an education at Marienau, one can see how the emphasis on a democratic community shaped the philosophical beliefs that George and Annemarie would later use as a model for interactions and decision-making at The Roeper School. In addition to promoting governance by the people, a focus on the psychological development of children characterized the approach of the Bondys as well as that of other progressive
educators in the early 20th century. For Gertrud, this meant the application of psychoanalytic techniques to foster the healthy emotional growth of children. Getrud’s training with Sigmund Freud himself inspired her to become an early adopter, as it were, of psychoanalysis in a developmental context. Moreover, with the emerging work of Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget (1896 – 1980) and Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky (1896 – 1934), the cognitive and emotional needs of developing children came to have greater significance in educational settings. The importance of a child’s emotional security was central to the developmental methods and educational practice of the Bondys: Gertrud was known to offer an unconditional love to students that Annemarie believed, “saved a whole generation of young people” (Roeper and Mireau 2012: 69). Life and school were intertwined at Marienau. It was a holistic, or whole-child, environment that would later become an essential component of a Roeper education as well as an ingredient for other schools — such as Reggio Emilia, Montessori, Quaker, and Steiner — that also shared a progressive heritage. To be sure, a whole-child approach meant attending to the different needs of a learner — social, emotional, intellectual, physical, psychological. It also entailed an investment in the individual through a focus on “learning how to be yourself and developing your own identity” (Roeper and Mireau 2012: 63-4). A holistic education did not stop, however, with the fulfillment of one’s individual path, but rather it was equally dependent on a child’s sense of being part of a community — for Annemarie and George, the community at Marienau left a lasting impression that indeed nurtured a sense of belonging that they later sought to reproduce at their own school. It is curious how Annemarie recalls that “despite my parents’ radical educational methods and philosophy, the school curriculum at Marienau was in some ways very traditional — emphasizing reading, writing and, of course, arithmetic” (Roeper and Mireau 2012: 8). Even so, physical activity/ athletics along with music, dance, and art were essential parts of a Bondy education. Although not nearly as robust as the integrated curricula of American progressive educator Francis Parker (1837 – 1902), the program at Marienau, through its “morning-talks” or “America evenings,” undeniably fostered discussion and experiences that crossed
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disciplines and sought a broader understanding of the world around. For the Bondys, and later for George and Annemarie, covering specific, discrete units of content was less important than instilling a love of learning that could tackle any subject matter: “the goal was to reach graduation, but it wasn’t the curriculum that made it different (Roeper and Mireau 2012: 67).”
Being afforded the freedom to govern one’s own learning and experience plays a major role in the creation of a student’s inner motivation, and it is this autonomy that Annemarie recalled in her memoir over and above any one teacher or class.
Of all these progressive educational values, perhaps those with the greatest visibility and significance at Marienau were the merits of a child-centered and experiential approach. Even with Annemarie’s impressions of a traditional curriculum, Max and Gertrud departed from teacher-focused direct instruction by promoting collaborative learning and the benefit of one’s personal experiences, particularly in informal settings beyond the classroom.
This is the Roeper educational history as I have come to know it — a foundation of values that progressed beyond a traditional educational model; a humanistic philosophy for the scaffolding; and a program for gifted students as the roof. While there are many schools for gifted students out there, none share our philosophy or progressive roots. Likewise, the many progressive schools in existence lack a focus on gifted education or a humanistic orientation. The Roeper School is truly unique. While I never had the chance to meet George or Annemarie, my intellectual excursions into their personal and professional histories have only brought a deeper appreciation for their legacy. Their expectations and hopes for children were simple but hardly simplistic — to come to know one’s self and to understand one’s contributions to this world are enduring beliefs that continue to sustain our educational practices 75 years later. F
It was really what happened after school that made Marienau truly unique. The school day ended at two o’clock, and after that there would be sports activities … Then, everyone would be totally on one’s own. There was no tight supervision ... You could go anywhere and do anything you wanted as long as you came back by dinnertime … I had a great deal of freedom … — Roeper and Mireau 2012: 70
EPILOGUE
WORKS CITED Ambrose, D. 2013 “The Roeper School in the 21st Century: Trends, Issues, Challenges, and Opportunities.” In D. Ambrose, B. Sriraman, and T. L. Cross (eds), The Roeper School: A Model of Holistic Development for High Ability, Sense Publishers: pp. 293-316. McClain, M.-C. and S. Pfeiffer. 2012 “Identification of Gifted Students in the United States Today: A Look at State Definitions, Policies, and Practices.” Journal of Applied School Psychology 28: 59-88. Neihart, M. 2011 “The Impact of Giftedness on Psychological Well-Being.” Retrieved from sengifted.org, 1 June 2018. Roeper, A. M. and K. Mireau 2012 Marienau: A Daughter’s Reflections. Azalea Art Press. VanTassel-Baska, J. 1986 “Effective curriculum and instructional models for talented students.” Gifted Child Quarterly 30: 164-169.
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The Roeper School is truly unique.
Special thanks, also, for the considerable contributions of Head of School David Feldman, Lower School Director Leslie Hosey, Middle School Director Brian Corley, and School Historian Marcia Ruff.
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Janeá Wilson ’18 Editor/Tuna Talk
THE ORDER OF THE FIGHTING TUNA: THE JOKE THAT BECAME A TRADITION
Reprinted from the January 2018 issue of Tuna Talk.
DAN DINNEWETH
If you’ve ever attended a Roeper sports game, you’ve certainly seen the Fighting Tuna. It’s nearly impossible to miss a high school senior dressed in the unique costume holding a shuffleboard scepter conducting a cheer. The Fighting Tuna has been a presence at the Birmingham campus for more than 31 years. It is even the inspiration for the name of this publication. But does anyone really know how — and why — the Fighting Tuna tradition started?
“The Tuna is someone for the group to look to in order to bring everyone together.” Charlie Uchno ’18, 25th Knight of the Order of the Fighting Tuna
“This was all done as a joke,” 2nd Knight of the Roeperian Order of the Fighting Tuna Chris Bradley ‘86 says. The Order of the Fighting Tuna was established by Bradley’s good friend Brian Felder ‘85. “He and I had worked together on the school newspaper that — at the time — we called The Fighting Tuna,” Bradley said. “There was this shuffleboard stick that [Felder] had in a little room we used to hang out in. It was at the end-of-school assembly, and he had the shuffleboard stick, and he got up and started talking about how we should believe in honor and integrity. He called me up and had me kneel before him, and he did the whole dubbing on the shoulder with the shuffleboard stick, and he proclaimed me the 2nd Knight of the Order of the Fighting Tuna,” Bradley recalls. Felder was the 1st Knight, since he established the Order. When the Fighting Tuna was established, it was not a mascot, and there was no costume. The only accessory that has remained the same is the shuffleboard stick. Signing the shuffleboard scepter is also a tradition that Tunas continue today. One tradition that has fallen by the wayside is The Fighting Tuna Scholarship. Sixth Knight Jeremy Schemm ‘92 says that each Tuna would add a dollar at the end of the school year and sign the back of it. After the total fund of $8 went missing, another attempt was made to restart the fund, but that ultimately failed. A tradition that still continues is one where each Tuna contributes “something meaningful” to a box of Tuna artifacts at the end of their reign. “I used to wear red Chuck Taylor All Stars,” 18th Knight Ned Baker ‘08 says. “I wore them from 7th grade until 12th grade. So I threw my last pair of Converse All Stars into the box.” “I remember
there was a CD. It had DMX, “The Roughrider Anthem” and a bunch of other energetic songs,” 24th Knight Ethan Rosenberg ‘15 adds. “That was really cool, and I ordered it to my iTunes, and I still listen to it on occasion.” Along with the Tunas, the costume is also everchanging. “I had this hat with horns,” Bradley says. “Every once in awhile, I would put that on, carry the shuffleboard stick and walk around the halls.” Seventeenth Knight Nick George ‘06 remembers that after he was selected, “We brought this box out where all the past Fighting Tunas offered up stuff that became a collage of a uniform of some sort. I remember going through the whole thing and putting each garment on.” By the end of George’s senior year, the costume was an oversized fleece masterpiece. Soon after, a tail was added. The suit was modified to what it is today in 2015. “I was fortunate enough to have a friend in Karen Johnson who updated the Tuna suit for me,” Rosenberg says. “Before, it was hot and gross. It was a cool design, but it was gnarly. But when Karen updated the suit, it was breathable, and it was easier to move around.” The Tuna suit now consists of a helmet with a tuna face and the shuffleboard scepter. Much like its costume, the meaning of the Fighting Tuna has evolved. Since its establishment in ‘85, it has grown into an instrument of spirit in the Roeper community. But the tradition of the knighting of the next Tuna has remained unchanged. The knighting of the newest Tuna usually happens at the end-of-school assembly. But not always. Schemm remembers that when he was knighted, it “was kind of a weird situation because the person who knighted me was not going to be there on the last day of school. So he did it on the bus on the way back from Kensington. We were all crowded in the back of the bus waiting to go, and there was just a small group of us waiting back there.” Other knighting ceremonies have been more elaborate. “I had tiki torches and a drummer for when I did [the knighting],” Baker says. “I liked the more theatrical aspect.” All Tunas see this is a privilege. “It’s an experience that makes you feel good,” Rosenberg says. “You’re there in front of everyone at the school, and
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you’re singled out for a good thing. It’s an honor.” Schemm agrees. “I thought it was a pretty cool honor because I always looked up to those kids, and I was [now] one of them,” he says. The Fighting Tuna is something who younger students look up to. “Being able to be in my Tuna costume and hang out mainly with the little kids was the most fun I’ve had so far,” current Tuna Charlie Uchno ’18 says. “It’s pretty amusing just to hang out with the Stage I kids and see them laugh at me and have a good time just because of something I was doing was really cool.” “I hadn’t gone to a lot of sports games before I was the Tuna, but I ended up going more as the Tuna, and I discovered how fun going to sports games was,” Rosenberg says. “I loved Roeper, and I wanted it to succeed in any way that it could. Watching teams and cheering teams on is part of that.” As Uchno and Rosenberg say, the role of the Tuna comes with great responsibility. That doesn’t mean just being a spirited Tuna, it also means choosing someone who will uphold Roeperian values. Choosing the next Tuna is sometimes a difficult decision to make. “You just think about the junior and who’s there and whoever upholds whatever values you think the Tuna upholds,” Schemm says. “There are people who are spirited and get into fist fights, and I didn’t want that type of person. [I wanted] someone with a good spirit, good energy and was very positive,” he adds. “I gave it to Bailey Scieszka ‘07, who I thought was a product of the free-thinking environment that Roeper embodies,” George says. “Her demeanor made me think, ‘Wow.’ This person really flourished and is someone I think of when I think of Roeper,” he says. Since the responsibility of selecting the next Tuna is left to the current Tuna, the question of whether their choice is objective is raised. The current Tuna usually runs their decision by Student Life Coordinator Linda Vernon before they announce the newest Tuna. “Usually, the Fighting Tuna will come to me and share the names of a few juniors they are considering,” Vernon says. “I’m always very impressed by the thought that goes into making their choice.”
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To date, 31 Tunas have been chosen, and of that total, only seven are females. “I’m proud that I was a Dame Commander,” 3rd Dame Commander Sara Puzey Mendez ‘96 says. “I would like there to be more Dame Commanders.” Though there have been significantly more males knighted, Mendez doesn’t think that gender affects the Tuna’s role. “Our jobs were to be upstanding and quirky members of the Roeper Community. I don’t think that was really changed by gender,” Mendez says. Even though gender is not important, the junior who is picked to be the Fighting Tuna is ultimately remembered for keeping the tradition alive. “Any time a community has the opportunity to single someone out, it takes a new role and gives that person a new duty,” Uchno says. “The Tuna is someone for the group to look to in order to bring everyone together.” Although the Tuna is a very important part of the community, it also stands as a reminder to just have fun. “I think that a danger in high school and middle school is that everything seems so deeply serious,” Baker says. “I think that the Tuna tradition is a goofy and weird thing, which is part of my impression of the Roeper identity.” F
TOP: 10th Knight of the Order of the Fighting Tuna Andrew Short ‘97 MIDDLE: [L-R] 8th Knight Kamal Bennoune ‘94 and 3rd Dame Commander Sara Puzey Mendez ‘96 BOTTOM: 2nd Knight Chris Bradley ‘86, Founder and 1st Knight Brian Felder ‘85, and 6th Knight Jeremy Schemm ‘92. PHOTO COURTESY OF 1996 YEARBOOK
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THE MacARTHUR FELLOWS VISITS BRYAN STEVENSON
by David Feldman, Head of School
Thanks to a generous alumni donation, we have brought three MacArthur Fellows to meet with students. These extraordinary exchanges have opened students’ eyes to the richness of the world that awaits them.
PHOTOS BY DAN DINNEWETH
Bryan Stevenson extended the privilege of connecting to a core Roeper tenet, as he embodied our mission to “educate and inspire gifted students to think as individuals and to engage as a community with compassion for each other and this world.” We focused on some of the profound ways inequality and injustice limit us as a society and what that means for each of us as individuals as we engage with these issues. In both demeanor and depth, Bryan Stevenson exceeded our expectations — and they were considerably high — and guided us through a full day of how to connect our humanity to the world.
In the afternoon, my “Changing the Narrative” class (an upper-level English elective) had the chance to meet with her for an hour. Her session with them was (not to sound hyperbolic) lifechanging for those students involved. They were all rather enamored with her after our intensive study of Twilight, but they kept their star-struck selves in check and had a terrific hour with her. They met immediately after the larger performance to revise their questions and consider new topics they wanted to bring up with her. It was wonderful to see her slide so easily into “professor mode” in that small section — truly hearing them, asking them challenging questions, not letting even our Head of School (who stayed for the class) off the hook in moment of talking about race-blind casting in particular performances. That class had actually crafted a book-length narrative of their own in the style of Twilight, and they were set on presenting it to her. She received it and said, “This is a better gift than chocolate!” : )
ANNA DEVEARE SMITH
by Susannah Nichols, Upper School English Faculty Having Anna Deavere Smith come to Roeper was a natural extension of our time with Bryan Stevenson the previous year. His visit made us think deeply about the element of humanity in social justice endeavors, and Smith encourages us to do the same, by portraying a myriad of voices around a certain situation. Her address to the Upper School student body was centered around race in America, and she portrayed three different characters in addition to sharing a number of personal stories reflecting on her experiences as a young woman of color in segregated Baltimore and a professional interviewer navigating all kinds of emotionally challenging situations. She spent time dialoging with students and addressed their questions in an incredibly candid, disarming, and detailed way — even inviting one student, who’d asked about her methods in perfecting the accents of others, onto the stage to look at her notes!
GENE LUEN YANG
by Brian Corley, Middle School Director Gene’s visit was much anticipated — and for good reason. Gene challenged us to explore our personal and collective identities through storytelling. In an age so convoluted with messages about who early adolescents should be, it was refreshing to hear a message about who they can become. Gene reminded us that we all have superpowers, strong enough to change the world. It’s been a month since his visit, and students are still talking about the impact of his visit. F
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Juliette Olejnik
Director of Alumni Relaitons & Annual Fund
ALUMNI UPDATES
Three Roeper alumni were named “36 under 36” by The Well and Detroit Jewish News!
^ JOSEPH SALATINO ’12 was named Graduate
Student of the Year in Michigan State's Biomedical Engineering Program. Awards were presented to recognize the most outstanding graduate student in each program, as selected by the department and faculty. Recently, Joe's research with Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering Erin Purcell was published in Nature Biomedical Engineering Journal and was selected among its Top 10 articles addressing outstanding health challenges. JENNY HANSELL ’82 has been appointed President of the Berkshire Natural Resources Council. Jenny will take the helm of an organization that has had only two chief executives in its 50-year history. BNRC was founded in 1967. Today the organization stewards nearly 22,000 acres of conservation land, including approximately 50 miles of hiking trails. SHARON LaFRANIERE ’73 was on the New York Times reporting team that won the Pulitzer Prize this year for national reporting on the Donald Trump team’s connections with Russia.
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AARON APPEL ’12 coordinates volunteer engagement and grant writing at Brilliant Detroit, and has a background in youth engagement and community organizing. Aaron also co-chairs a water campaign with Detroit Jews for Justice (DJJ) in solidarity with the People’s Water Board. The campaign seeks to mobilize networks of synagogues and other statewide affiliates to ensure that the Michigan House of Representatives passes bills addressing the water shutoff crisis in Detroit. ELEANOR GAMALSKI ’11 was recently named the Director of Organizing for Detroit Jews for Justice. She works to build a progressive voice in the Metro Detroit Jewish community and a Jewish voice in the progressive community. Eleanor is most passionate about the need for clean and affordable water. She is an active leader in the People’s Water Board Coalition, which works to educate on water justice and mobilize for policy solutions. ARIELLA LIS RAVIV ’04 is the Director of Business Development for the WW Group, a Weight Watchers franchise in Michigan and Ontario. She is founder of the Emerging Leaders Micro-Loan Fund through the Michigan Women’s Foundation, which provides loans to local female entrepreneurs. She is also an executive board member of the NEXTGen Board of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, a board member of Adat Shalom Synagogue and a co-founder of JACII Detroit — the local branch of JACPAC — a political action committee that encourages young adults to support political candidates who are pro-Israel, pro-choice and pro-separation of church and state. She is also a trustee of the Jewish Women’s Foundation of Metro Detroit. F
If you have some good news to share, whether it’s a new job, a promotion, a book release, an upcoming wedding or the birth of a baby, please send a short narrative and photo to: juliette. olejnik @ roeper.org
ALUMNI INTERVIEW: ALI ROSE VAN OVERBEKE ’08 In the wake of the Flint water crisis, Roeper alumna Ali Rose VanOverbeke ’08 co-founded an emerging eyewear brand with a mission to do good for people and the planet by manufacturing eyewear from recycled plastic water bottles. Ali believes in using fashion and design to advocate for social and environmental justice. JULIETTE: How long did you attend Roeper and in what year did you graduate? ALI ROSE: I went to Roeper starting my sophomore year of high school and graduated in 2008. REBECCA ALANIZ
J: Where did you go to college? What is your degree in? A: I have a BFA in Fashion Design from Parsons The New School for Design in NYC.
Employing a circular economy through the use of both a buy-back program and subscription/ membership business model, Genusee makes eyewear made from surplus plastic waste in Flint. Genusee’s first frame style, THE ROEPER, is now available for order via genusee.com
J: What is your current job position and title, current place of work, or current passion project? A: I am a co-founder of Genusee eyewear — a startup making eyeglasses in Flint, Michigan, from recycled plastic water bottles in response to the Flint Water Crisis. Our main goals are to reduce plastic waste, create living-wage jobs in Flint, encourage a circular economy and closed-loop manufacturing, and give back to kids and adults affected by lead poisoning. J: A:
What led you to pursue the profession you are in? I have been pursuing a career in fashion since I was a child. I am lucky to say I have had the chance to live out my childhood dreams, and then some. I have worked in the fashion industry in NYC since 2008 as a stylist and designer. I always wanted to use design as a platform for addressing social issues but was never sure what that would look like until a few years ago. In early 2016 I was back in Michigan and started volunteering with the American Red Cross during the Flint Water Crisis. I was so shocked to see firsthand the social and environmental injustice that was happening in my own backyard. My eyes were opened to injustice, and I couldn’t turn a blind eye — I knew I had to use my skill set to help in some way. It started as a casual conversation between me and one of my friends (and now business partner), Jack Burns, who I graduated from Parsons with. We never set out with the intention of starting a business, but when we began engaging with the Flint community, asking people what they needed and what the city needed, everyone kept telling us JOBS — so Jack and I knew we needed to start a business that could scale and simultaneously address issues of plastic waste and create living wage jobs in the city. The result is Genusee eyewear.
J: Has your life taken any interesting or surprising turns? A: Everything about my life surprises me, to be honest. I failed (and had to repeat) TWO full semesters at Parsons; it took me six years to get my BFA in fashion design. I was a good student during high school but struggled with the intensity and rigidity of the curriculum during college. (The perks of being an alternative learner/Roeper Kid. Lol.) I had professors tell me at one point that I should do something else with my life, but I never gave up, and when I finally graduated I was nominated for a Designer of the Year Award and numerous other honors. I have since participated in fellowship and education programs with the CFDA and even spoken at last year’s Fashion Education Summit in NYC. The irony of ALMOST being a college dropout and having the opportunity to speak at an education summit (with some of the teachers who failed me in the audience) gives me a good laugh. I never let other people’s perception stop me from pursuing my dreams. Now I embrace failure; it isn’t a negative thing. Failure is a tool that redirects and aligns you with the path you are suppose to be on. J: A:
What impact has Roeper had on your life? Roeper reinforced deep-rooted values in social justice and the mentality of working for the good of ALL that I think it has been a North Star in how I live my life every day and the business decisions I make. Without even realizing it, the Roeper Philosophy has been a blueprint for the business and work culture we are developing at Genusee. F
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ALUMNI ON THE ROAD: HERE AND THERE ings held in the space. Howard is CEO of Iron Laboratories, a comprehensive laboratory testing medical cannabis products.
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Michelle Munde ‘80 had breakfast with Denita Banks-Sims, Director of Development & Publications during Denita’s visit to California in January. Michelle is the Director of Quality and Compliance for the Stars Behavioral Health Group in Long Beach, California, and would be delighted to connect with other Roeper alums in the Long Beach area.
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Ken Elman, Brandon Raitt ‘07, Pam RaittGoelz ‘79*, Rachel Elman ‘81* visited and walked around campus, reliving all of their old memories. Rachel and her husband Ken now live in southern California. It’s amazing how much Roeper has stayed the same. We had a blast visiting all of the special places on campus that hold incredible memories for us. Thanks for letting us “capture” our youth on camera and remember the amazing teachers and staff that played important roles in our education. — Rachel Darrell Swift ‘76* a was a featured guest at the Daisy-Brownie Girl Scout bridging ceremony held on the Bloomfield Hills Campus in May. Darrell is a professional sketch artist in the Detroit area and shared his talent with the troop by drawing individuals caricatures of each Girl Scout.
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Howard Lutz ’77 stopped by to visit his sister Lori Lutz ’75 at her office on the third floor of the Hill House. He posed for this photo in George Roeper’s old office as he recollected memories of classes and parent/teacher meet-
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From Heather Joy Thompson ’95 — Tim Rosser ’91 and I had a mini reunion at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Tim lives in Honolulu, and I [was] in town for work; I gave a presentation on careers at the Department of State at UofH’s Law School. It was great to see Tim. We are friends on FB, and he reached out to me after I posted that I’d be in Hawaii for work. I’m so glad he came out to support my event! I hadn’t seen him since he graduated in 1991! I visited his school the following day to chat with his third graders. d
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Stacy and Jarie’s Stage IV class was so happy to welcome Scott Burnstein ‘95 for a visit as part of their study of Detroit. Scott shared his knowledge of organized crime in Detroit along with his work in sports reporting. He also reminisced about his Lower School years. Students were mesmerized by his stories and had many questions!
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Madeline Stano ‘05 visited Roeper on April 16th in honor of Earth Day and shared an inspirational presentation with Upper School students. She emphasized how growing up at Roeper taught her the importance of standing up for what is right. She offered highlights from her career in litigation and work experience in anti-discrimination, land use, climate change, extreme energy extraction, and environmental and racial justice. Maddie is currently working as Energy Legal Counsel for The Greenlining Institute in Oakland, California, ensuring that low income Americans and communities of color benefit from a just transition away from fossil fuels. F
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ALUMNI & THE 9TH GRADE The Roeper 9th Grade class embarked on their annual educational field trip to Washington, DC, the week of March 19 – 23. Even though a snowstorm caused most of the city to shut down for an entire day during their trip, they still had a blast! Special thanks to Roeper alumni Jacob Courville ’00, Brian Forest ’03, Alex Dickinson ’04 and Emi Ruff ’09 for welcoming students to visit and tour their workplaces, as well as Christine Curry ’05, Emi Ruff ’09, Peyton Kinchen-Reed ’17 and Miranda Beebe ’84* for joining students for dinner to talk about what it’s like to live and work in Washington, DC.
Christine
Miranda Alex Emi
Peyton
Alex Dickinson ’04 leading an exciting walking monument tour
The 9th grade travelers with alumnae Christine Curry ’05, Emi Ruff ’09, Peyton Kinchen-Reed ’17 and Miranda Beebe ’84*
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Students waiting outside the Supreme Court before witnessing an oral argument
Juliette Students and Juliette Olejnik touring Palantir Technologies with Emi Ruff ’09
Kelly
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Chaperone Kelly Piontek and her students visiting Brian Forest ’03 at the National Association of Manufacturers
Several students stayed an additional day in order to participate in the historic Washington, DC March for Our Lives
ALUMNI HOST “MARIANN DINNERS” On April 21, 2018, Roeper alumni gathered in support of the Mariann Hoag Financial Aid Grant Award Program and raised nearly $4,000 for financial aid and scholarships! Special thanks to our alumni hosts:
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Alana Glass ’97 with Sara Puzey Mendez ’96 & Luis Mendez in Detroit Miranda Beebe ’84*, Nina Beebe ’87 & Mike Tilchin ’72 in Washington, DC Alexandra Kambouris Alberstadt ’84, Eric Peterson ’95 & Roscoe Boyd ’98 in New York City
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7 WASHINGTON, DC: 1) Miranda Beebe ‘84*, Janice Haines, Mike Tilchin ‘72. 2) Jon Wilcox ‘03, Alex Dickinson ‘04, Erin Milbeck Wilcox ‘04. 3) Mike Tilchin ’72 & Art Luby ‘71. 4) Olacoy Robinson Lawyer ‘95 & Shekinah Hockenhull ‘12. 5) Mary Margaret Bailer Hill ‘63* & Mary Wilcox ‘06. 6) Jocelyn Beer ‘86, Ari Schartman BenAissa ‘89, Vivian Chang Freiheit ‘88, Aaron Goldstein ‘88, Jonathan Grossman ‘88 & Bill Schmittel ‘86. 7) Janice Haines & Emily Citkowski ‘93. DETROIT: 8) Eddie Glass ’97, Alana Glass ’98, Sosha Haynes ’96 & Sara Puzey Mendez ’96. NEW YORK CITY: 9) David Glazek ’95, Beth Zick ’95, Wally Nowinski ’03, Bruce Fleischer ’78, Alex Kambouris Alberstadt ’83, Eric Peterson ’95 & Emily Cohen ’76.
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ALUMNAE HONORED AT HALL OF FAME INDUCTION 2018 Inductees AMBER JOINER-HILL ’06 and CHAZARA CLARK-SMITH ’94
JIM WATRY
The Roeper Hall of Fame was established in the early ’80s as a means of recognizing outstanding athletic accomplishments and/or contributions to the Roeper Athletic Program.
From top, L to R: Head of School David Feldman, inductees Amber Joiner-Hill ’06 and Chazara Clark-Smith ’94, Athletic Director Ed Sack*. Board Trustee Eric Peterson ’95, Admissions Director and alumni parent Lori Zinser, Morgan Elliott Andahazy ’95* and Chaz. Chaz with Coach Deb Veillette*. Coach Mike Ruddy* and Amber. Alumni and friends Erik Zinser ’06, Lindsey Scarlett ’06, Amber ’06, Kalin Sellers ’09, Bridghette Parker, Victoria Moore ‘08 and Alena Hickman ’07. * Denotes other members of the Roeper Hall of Fame.
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THE ALEX FRANK POETRY COLLECTIVE The annual Alex Frank Poetry Collective, in honor of Roeper alumnus Alex Frank ’95, was held on February 28th. Students, teachers and alumni presented their own work as well as several of Alex's poems. Tom Hickey ’08 visited the Upper School prior to the event to work with students who were preparing to present their work. Tom was an avid poet during his years at Roeper and came back to share his knowledge and insight through one-on-one coaching sessions with student presenters.
Tom
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3 1) Tom Hickey ’08 (3rd from right) during his visit with a 9th Grade American Literature Class 2) Current Lower School Science Teacher Michelle Lane 3) Alumna Jennifer Martin ’03 4) Current student Sean Moss ’18 5) Current student Jada Coburn ’21
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PHILUMNI DAY 2018 1
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1) Emery Pence posed questions for the panel and other alumni guests about their biggest lessons learned at Roeper and the ways those affected their lives. Laura Beth Scales Ashlock ’02 (Theatre); Navid SerajiBozorgzad ’88, MD; Attorney Anessa Owen Kramer ’89; Robert Jones ’98 (Real Estate & Finance); Aaron Appel ’12 (Community Development) and Danielle Steinberg ’06 (Broadcasting) and Emery Pence. 2) Anna Kohn ‘02, Chief Impact Officer for Recovery Park, explained her work providing wraparound services for people with barriers to employment. 3) Students received special T-shirts designed and donated by Jonathan Gardner ’19 for the day. 4) Professional Chef Aaron Egan ‘05 led a workshop on life in the Detroit culinary world. 5) Alex Scharg ’10, coFounder of Visioned Media (Marketing and Digital Space). 6) Attorney Jocelyn Beer ’86, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. 7) Kate Abbey-Lambertz ’05, Freelance Journalist. 8) Lauren Stein ’95, MD, Beaumont Hospital.
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On April 25th a group of 15 Roeper Alumni returned to the Upper School campus for Philumni Day. They graciously shared stories about their time at the school and conducted a series of workshops focusing on their careers beyond Roeper. The event continues to build community and connect Roeper's past, present, and future.
ALUMNI GROW THE ROEPER FAMILY BRADEN RUDDY '98 & ROBIN RUDDY welcomed a daughter
LUNA MARYAM RUDDY December 11, 2017 Likes NYC radio dance parties with her Mom, Peppa Pig, lamps, & watching soccer with her Dad.
RYAN DAVIS ‘97 & AMANDA DAVIS & Big Brother Wesley welcomed
OLIVIA JAMES DAVIS March 27, 2018 1:30am 7 Lbs 15 Oz 20.5”
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Marcia Ruff
School Historian
PASSINGS
SANDY LAWSON SHORT
“Sandy was amazing with children,” commented former teacher and board member Pat Hurd. “I loved observing her in class, so gentle and patient.” Nancy Ronayne Webster, another former teacher and alumni parent, recalled that Sandy had a stage in her classroom because “sometimes children need a stage.” It was a small space, but “when the children stood on it, they felt the warmth of the spotlight,” she added. Emily Lardner ’06, who was Editor of The Muse at Roeper and earned a degree in poetry from the University of Michigan, was grateful to Sandy for being her first writing teacher. “Sandy introduced me to poetry, and her encouragement was the reason I thought I was a good poet as a young child,” she said.
DONNA HAMMOND Donna Andrea Hammond passed away on March 23, 2018, from complications related to COPD. Donna worked at Roeper between 1974 and 1978 as a Stage II Team Teacher. She had a close relationship with George and Annemarie, who had a huge impact on her life philosophy, focused on love, justice, and equality. Throughout her life Donna built strong and lasting friendships. She was an open and caring person to whom people gravitated. Her big smile, her laugh, and her willingness to help made it easy for people to like Donna and want to be with her. Donna is survived by her son, Jason ’89, among other family members. “Like many people, she had some tough times in her life and learned some tough lessons along the way,” said Jason. “At her memorial I shared the following lessons I learned from my mom. I’d like to share them with my fellow Roeperians here as well. • • • • • • • • • • • •
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Always be yourself. Even when you don’t have much, you can be generous. Always be a good friend to your friends. A smile can make a day better. Be impeccable with your word. Take responsibility for your actions. It’s never too late to apologize. You can always help yourself by helping others. Be the best bubbe you can be. Cherish family traditions. Through them you will keep your family close. Never give up on your family. Love!
LARRY TRINKAUS
Sandy was a gentle, constant presence in the Roeper Lower School for more than 40 years, as a parent, teacher, librarian and close friend of Annemarie. Sandy’s oldest son started at Roeper in 1966, and Sandy began teaching in 1970. She was a Team Teacher and then a Head Teacher in Stage II until 1993, when she became the Lower School Librarian until she retired in 2008. Sandy also assisted in Admissions. Sandy passed away on April 23, 2018, in West Bloomfield, Michigan. She is survived by her children, Rich ‘80, Karl ’82, and Karsten ’84; her stepson, Andrew Short ’97; her husband, Michael Short, whom she married in 1996; and her first husband, Rich Lawson, who was a Stage III Head Teacher and now lives in California.
SUZANNE LA CROIX Suzanne La Croix, a former Music and Drama teacher at Roeper, passed away on April 16, 2018, in New York City at the age of 78 after a battle with multiple myeloma. It wouldn’t overstate her impact to say that Suzanne, who taught here from 1968-1973, created the modern Drama Department at Roeper. She set standards of excellence and ambition that put the school on a trajectory that has shaped the program ever since. Roeper students from her time have profound memories of her impact. A fierce and demanding teacher, Suzanne had high expectations but gave all the support needed for students to go farther than they thought they could. Many students developed a lifelong love for the music they sang with Suzanne. “She taught me not only to sing, but to believe I could sing, which has been one of the great blessings of my life,” said Rod Johnson ‘73*.
ABRAHAM ELLENBERG ’72 August 3, 1956 – February 27, 2018
Abe passed away in Manhattan Beach, California, at the age of 61, after a long battle with multiple myeloma. Abe was retired from his position as head of R&D at Sun Microsystems. He is survived by his wife, Cindy, his sons, Jason and Michael, as well as a sister and a brother.
DANIEL BROMSEN ‘98’ Dan passed away earlier this year. He and is survived by his parents Amy Bromsen and Bill Parker, as well as his sister Laurel Bromsen Parker, alumna from the Class of 2005.
CLIFF RUSSELL Class of 1974
It’s still hard to believe that a larger-than-life figure like Cliff Russell is no longer with us. Cliff passed away suddenly at age 61 on February 19, 2018, in Chicago, where he was preparing to announce the University of Detroit Mercy Titans basketball game. During his lifetime, Cliff broke many barriers, but he treasured especially his accomplishments as a family man and father to his six children, two step-children, eight grandchildren and his nieces and nephews. Cliff’s daughter, Kristen, attended Roeper and Akilah graduated in the Class of 2011.
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Upon graduation from Roeper, where Cliff played football, basketball, and baseball, and was selected multiple times to the Michigan All-State Basketball team, Cliff received an athletic scholarship to the University of Texas El Paso. After two seasons there under Hall of Fame Coach Don Haskins, Cliff transferred to Wayne State University, where he graduated as a communications major. In 1994, he became the press secretary for Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer, the first African-American to hold that position. In 2002, he became the Senior Director of Communications for the Detroit Tigers, the first African-American to hold that position in Major League Baseball history. Cliff was a pioneer on a number of Detroit radio stations, and at the time of his death was hosting a top-rated talk show on 910 AM Superstation. He was the host of Detroit Black Journal on PBS, a frequent guest on CBS’s Michigan Matters, and Let It Rip on Fox. Over his career, he did play-by-play for University of Michigan basketball, WSU football and basketball, and the University of Detroit Mercy. Cliff was a charter inductee of the Roeper Athletic Hall of Fame and a 2007 inductee of the WSU Athletic Hall of Fame. He also coached basketball at Roeper. While sports were his passion, Cliff was also a historian and regularly shared on social media the historic markers related to African-American history he sought out. He always thought beyond himself. After suffering a heart attack in 2017, Cliff’s first instinct was to go public with his experience as a way to encourage other African-American men to take better care of their health. Roeper classmates and friends mourned the unexpected loss of such an energetic and generous member of the community. Classmate Rand Barthel ’74 spoke for many when he said, “I always looked up to him, quite literally, because he was the biggest guy in the school. A big man with a big, golden heart. I am so sorry.” F
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Denita Banks-Sims
Director of Development & Publications
PARTING THOUGHTS Grandparents and Special Friends Day remains one of most treasured occasions of The Roeper School year!
MARK WRIGHT
So, in recognition of our 27th presentation of the multi-generational celebration, we introduced a special “storytelling” feature led by Roeper Alumni Parent Pat Judd. Her thoughtful presentation highlighted an enriching tradition that is shared around the globe and by countless families and groups eager to embrace their origin stories. The focus proved timely and timeless with a continuing appreciation for universal experiences. Pat encouraged current Roeper students to pose these simple questions to “get the storytelling ball rolling:” Upper right: Pat Roan Judd shares a “first home” memory. Lower right: Great Grandmother Joan Brawer with her daughter, Carolyn Borman, who, with Roeper students Hannah and Ella Bolton, span four generations. Below: Stage IV student Ren Yamamoto with his grandparents. PHOTOS BY ANTHONY MORROW
• Tell me about the first “home” you remember. • Who was your first best friend, and can you share a story about your friendship? On reflection, the first presentation of Roeper’s Grandparent and Special Person’s Day in 1991 began with the modest intention to bridge community members in a deliberate celebration of this vital familial relationship. Consequently, I thought our version of a first “home” story was in order! Today, we can boast of a grand gathering at the Bloomfield Hill Campus with plans to expand the story to the Birmingham Campus next year. As well … • We regularly have nearly 400 Grandparents and Special Friends in attendance each year. • Guests come from all over the country and several have made arrangements to be with us from Canada, Guam, England and Japan! • We now enjoy the privilege of legacy Grandparents in attendance. Roeper alumni who were once student participants themselves, now drop off their own children to join their grandparents. (We even have several great grandparents who joined us in those early years who come back and further extend our commemorative salute). We have shared and made memories for nearly three decades. And as my own Dad remarked when my children were in the Lower School and he made his then yearly trek for the occasion, “I drove nine hours from Washington, DC for a two-hour program, and I would do it again tomorrow if I could.” Please Keep In Touch and have a wonderful summer! Yours,
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THE ROEPER SCHOOL
NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION
U.S. POSTAGE
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MONDAY, AUGUST 13, 2018 • FIELDSTONE GOLF CLUB
Auburn Hills ~ between Giddings & Taylor Roads, north of Walton 9:45am Shotgun Start/Scramble Format ~ all levels welcome BOX LUNCH, DINNER BUFFET, RAFFLE, GIFTS & PRIZES!
REGISTER: roepergolfouting.cbo.io
Join us for a day of fun in support of our Student Athletes!