Waynflete Magazine – Winter 2020

WINTER 2020 MAGAZINE

Contents All Things Being Relative 02 Experiential Learning in a Pandemic

Home: The Role a School Can Play in Bringing an End to Racism

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Social + Distance Learning at the Hub

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Curiosity, Care, and Courage 16

This is a New Kind of Growing Up 10

Into the Fire 22 The Perspective Project 24

360 Spring Street, Portland, Maine 04102 | 207.774.5721 | waynflete.org

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Welcome The Best You 26 Community Highlights

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IN A TYPICAL YEAR, we would find ourselves contending with one challenge here and another one there, but never would we be contending with so many different ones at the same time. Over the past twelve months, we all have experienced a level of dissonance remarkable in its breadth and scope, including a public health calamity, a racial reckoning, and a challenge to the core of our democratic society.

Through this torrent of crises, Waynflete has carried on its mission to educate, inspire, and support the children in our care. This work has only happened because of the dedication, perseverance, and ingenuity of our faculty and staff. We have had to overcome our own fears and anxieties about working during a pandemic. We have had to create systems and protocols without a guide or precedent. We have had to improvise and adjust constantly as the situation demands.

We also have had to come to terms with our own complicity on matters of race, bias, and discrimination. In the midst of this public health crisis, we have opened ourselves up to the fact that while Waynflete strives to be a place of equity and inclusion, we have yet to achieve our goal of being a school where everyone feels affirmed and safe—and that they belong.

In the articles that follow, you will read the stories and reflections of those who seek a better future for Waynflete as well as those who are guiding us through this period of crisis. Taken together, they reveal the complexity of the work and the commitment to success. You will read about what it is like to teach during a pandemic and how we have created a hub for students who are learning remotely. You will read about our efforts to ensure an anti-racist future as well as how we can bring perspective to the political challenges we face. The stories are inspiring and humbling to read.

Waynflete Magazine

Waynflete is successfully navigating this time because of the dedication of our entire community and the support we provide each other.

Managing Editor Rand Ardell Photography Editor Lee Warner Alumni Relations Juanita Nichols Design Springtide Studio Printing Edison Press

COVER: Brian Beard

Geoff Wagg Head of School

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All Things Being Relative...

By Dr. John Radway, English Department Chair, 6–12 English Teacher IT HAS BEEN QUITE A YEAR—though as I write this, I realize it hasn’t even been a year yet. Time doesn’t flow the way it used to. I also realize that we’ve entered an age in which a culture can more or less safely assume a shared understanding of what “it” means, a development that often spells trouble. I’ve started to hear people unironically refer to “the before times,” assuming that we have a shared understanding of what that means, too.

Which we do. Regardless of what we’ve been up to since the middle of March last year, we’ve all been weathering the same storm as best we can, and no one has been more resilient through all of this (“this” being more or less synonymous with “it”) than the under-20 crowd. Our children and students have risen to the challenge of a world in which nothing quite makes sense, and they’ve done it with so much self-assurance that it’s tempting just to hand the world over to them. Adaptable, creative, resilient, and deeply ethical, they remind us daily that what is to come is probably better than anything we’ve bothered dreaming about. The future is on its way, and it just might be a good one.

But first we have to get there. The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged us all in ways we could not have foreseen. There have been (and are) worse global crises, but none has been this one exactly, and it has caught each of us off guard in our own particular way. For our students, online learning has created social, emotional, and intellectual challenges that we may not fully understand until Generation Z begins publishing their memoirs. Issues of equity, access, and labor color the day-to-day experience of students across the country, and an act as simple and intrinsic as visiting a friend is now subject to the calculus of risk and responsibility. It’s tempting to say that nothing about our present moment is easy or good.

Yet amid the panic and the heroism, a humble light glints from time to time. I’m hesitant to call it a bright side; to do so would risk downplaying the sacrifice, the suffering, and the loss of so many thousands. But when the world forces us to slow down, to go to ground, to tend our roots, to rethink our rhythms, to try to learn to breathe again, then there is maybe, occasionally, something like light among the deeper shadows.

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Many students I work with have mentioned, once or often, that attending school from the familiar spaces of home isn’t the worst thing that has ever happened to them. For some of our quieter students, online learning can provide the cloak they’ve always craved. Some have found old anxieties flee; others have discovered new and unexpected ways to speak up, whether through the chat window or from the safety of an otherwise empty room. For our chattier students, the pace of online learning But when the world forces us to slow down, to go can be a reminder to pause, to conto ground, to tend our roots, to rethink our rhythms, template. Students who have wondered for years what their place is in to try to learn to breathe again, then there is maybe, the classroom have found the space to ask that question in earnest—and occasionally, something like light among the sometimes even to answer it. And deeper shadows. for the dreamers among us, online learning has created a space where delicate seeds of thought can germinate away from the pressures of the hallway and the atrium. Solitude can be hard on the human heart, but it can be strong medicine, too.

Our modern understanding of the universe—not just the moral dimension of a species confronting the challenges of a new century, but the nature of space-time itself—rests on nothing more or less profound than a teenager’s daydream. At the age of 16, Albert Einstein, a notoriously distractible student, imagined what it would be like to race alongside a wave of light, keeping pace with its crests and troughs on a swift and impossible jaunt across the vacuum of space. The theory of relativity has its roots in that daydream and the paradoxes it opened. Nothing less than the mysteries of the cosmos offered themselves to a kid who had the space and the time and the audacity just to sit and wonder. Looking at our students as they gaze into webcams across Maine—and thinking of them as they log out, lean back, stare at the wall, and tune out the voices in the next room—I can’t help but wonder which pairs of eyes are already beginning to see the world in a new way, and what our students will teach each other. I’m happy to be along for the ride.

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Experiential Learning in a Pandemic

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Waynflete students find masks and social distancing requirements do not get in the way of hands-on, in-person learning. All photos by Brian Beard.

ACROSS THE COUNTRY, schools are struggling to adapt to the new learning environment necessitated by the pandemic.

Waynflete is no different. As COVID-19 spread last spring, the school shifted entirely to remote instruction. Last fall, the community moved to a hybrid model in which students alternate between attending classes in person and remotely.

Teaching and learning in these circumstances is undeniably different, and it’s particularly challenging in experiential disciplines such as the performing arts, the visual arts, and science.

Yet as the following conversations show, Waynflete students and faculty are rising to the challenge. continued

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In the performing arts, passion outstrips pandemic

Tiki Fuhro, Theater Arts

Last spring, as the virus began to spread more rapidly across the country, Waynflete’s theater arts faculty and students were forced to face a sad reality: their production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream would have to be canceled. It was a disappointing blow and, unfortunately, not one limited to theater arts. All the performing arts classes had to be taught remotely, and the content and pedagogy had to change dramatically as a result. Starting this fall, “because of the virus, all of our singers and wind and brass players had to rehearse outdoors, 14 feet apart, and the singers had to wear masks as well,” explains Director of Performing Arts and Choral Music Mary Jane Pagenstecher. “Last fall, our choral students practiced in a tent and the band rehearsed in a parking lot, but with the onset of winter, that ended.” The restrictions also meant that a virtual Zoom recital for students in the Enrichment Music Instruction Program and a demonstration by the Enrichment Dance Program could be presented, but the winter music concerts had to be canceled.

But all was not lost. Theater Arts Teacher Tiki Fuhro, Theater Manager & Technical Director Chris Fitze, and Costume Design Teacher Barbara Kelly determined that with a little ingenuity, students could safely mount a fall play, which ran November 6-7. “The students had to perform with masks on, remain six feet apart, refrain from physical contact, and use very few props, but Tiki figured out a way to make it work,” says Pagenstecher. “She is masterful at selecting works for the time, place, and company that she has.”

Fuhro’s choice for the moment was Metamorphoses

by Mary Zimmerman, a play based on Ovid’s transformation myths. “The play has stand-alone scenes that are tied together thematically,” she explains. “There’s lots of physical storytelling and strong visuals and a considerable amount that the actors can do with their bodies while the narration is taking place.” The cast of 11 actors, each one portraying different characters in every scene, was divided into two smaller groups.

This enabled each group to come together safely in the theater to rehearse on the days the students attended in-person classes. In the final production, the casts switched after each scene, and the two stage crews, one for each cast, did the same. “Despite the constraints, it was a good experience for everyone involved,” Fuhro enthuses. “The students who showed up really wanted to do a play, and having a smaller cast brought our actors and stage crew closer together. The students didn’t care what the play was or what part they had; their attitude was simply, ‘we’re here, let’s do this.’”

Fitze concurs. “The kids are so adaptable—they wanted to do a show, so they were willing to have a weird rehearsal schedule, wear masks on stage, that sort of thing.” Although the logistics of mounting a production during a pandemic were somewhat unconventional, Fitze remains grateful. “We’re lucky to have a strong performing arts program in the first place, and we’re especially lucky to have done a show under the current circumstances,” he observes. “Our primary goal was to allow the students to have the experience of doing a show while also keeping them safe.”

Pagenstecher is incredibly proud of everyone involved, students and faculty alike. “We made something happen, and the students rose to the challenge in the most extraordinary ways,” she observes.

“Staging this play was a lesson in courage, tenacity, patience, flexibility, and adaptability—for everyone.

But when you acknowledge you’re passionate about something and you’re given the opportunity to share that passion, it’s a pretty great experience.”

Cast member and Grade 12 student Grace Nowacki was delighted simply to be on stage again. “Acting is a nice escape; I love pretending to be other people,” she says. “Because of COVID-19 restrictions, we lost some of our spontaneity of movement—we couldn’t go around touching the props and other actors—but that forced us to focus more on the words and language, which was rewarding in its own way. Art survives all the bad things that happen,” she concludes. “It wasn’t a traditional production, but I’m so grateful we could do it at all.”

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Grade 11 student and fellow cast member Jack Hagan agrees. “We had to do a lot of things differently, but it was still really nice to be back in the theater,” he says. “I was afraid we wouldn’t be able to do a play this year at all, but this experience has shown me that no matter the circumstances, there’s a community that will always be there for me.”

In the sciences, ‘learning by doing’ continues apace

Neil Rice, Environmental Science

Whether the learning environment is conventional or hybrid, walk into chemistry teacher Carol Titterton’s lab on any given day and you’re going to hear laughter and lively conversation. “Science isn’t quiet,” she observes with a chuckle. “I use humor and tell stories to engage students. It doesn’t matter whether the students are on-site or working remotely—things are active in my classroom.”

A teacher for over 35 years and the current chair of Waynflete’s science department, Titterton concedes the pandemic has altered the way in which information is delivered across the department. For example, with students split between home and school, it takes twice as long for Titterton’s entire chemistry class to run lab experiments. Yet the learning and doing continue. Those on campus do lab work, and those at home solve problems, watch course-related videos, and work collaboratively in breakout groups on Zoom.

If questions arise, Titterton is just a click away.

And while she admits the range of content covered has narrowed somewhat, Titterton isn’t concerned.

“It’s the learning and doing that matters,” she asserts.

Nor has Titterton experienced difficulties in keeping

her students engaged within the new format. “The kids love to learn—it sells itself,” she observes.

There’s also been a happy, unforeseen consequence of the hybrid model, Titterton continues. It has allowed faculty to strengthen relationships with students. “Our classes aren’t big to begin with—20 students would be a lot—but now they’re even smaller. It’s quieter and calmer in the lab, and there’s something kind of sweet about it all. We’ve developed even more personal relationships with the kids, which is really nice.”

Environmental science teacher Neil Rice is similarly enthusiastic on this point. “We’ve always been a relationship-centered school,” he observes, “but since the pandemic began, I’ve spent more time than normal creating a sense of comfort for my students.

Everyone’s anxious right now, so it’s doubly important to me that the kids feel as safe as possible and have a sense of some control over their lives.” It’s a win-win, says Rice, because research shows that the stronger the teacher-student relationship, the better the educational outcomes. “The more time I spend, the more dividends it pays,” he observes.

Like other faculty, Rice has been forced to adapt to the new split classroom, which he admits has increased the complexity of conducting lab work and field studies. But when he reduced the volume of material to be covered, he made a happy discovery: students found it easier to get their arms around the concentrated subject matter and made a deeper dive into the material.

For example, when teaching students about cellular metabolism, Rice employed the real-life example of decomposition of organic matter in a compost bin, personalizing the scenario by asking students what they would have to do if they were in the bin—e.g., formulate a way to take in food, use oxygen, and release carbon dioxide, water and other wastes, just as the worms, fungi, and bacteria are doing. “By slowing down and taking the extra time, students gained a greater understanding of the process.”

The new hybrid learning environment has created some classroom challenges for marine science teacher David Vaughan as well, but it hasn’t dampened his commitment to experiential learning. This fall he led students on two field trips and made additional trips himself to collect samples that students could study in the classroom. “We’re still doing a lot of inquiry-based activities,” he explains. “Students in the lab are looking at specimens under the microscope, and students at home are looking at photos we’ve taken of the specimens—that way they have access to the continued

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same data.” The kids discuss their findings in Zoom breakout groups. “We’re using technology to carry out some of the same kinds of thinking tasks that would normally be done at the bench,” says Vaughan.

Grade 11 student Blythe Thompson says the approach is working. She’s found her marine biology and physics coursework engaging, despite having to adjust to a split schedule. “On the days we’re on-site, we continue to do lab work, and when we’re remote, we work on other assignments,” she explains. “Our science classes have always been very collaborative; they’re rigorous and fast-paced, so we’re used to helping each other. It’s just doubly important in these times.”

Thompson credits Waynflete faculty for making the hybrid experience both positive and productive. “After being fully remote in the spring, I was nervous about fall classes,” she admits, “but everything went really well.” She cites the use of Swivl—a tool that employs a stand and tethered iPad to enable students working remotely to see and hear teachers as they move around the classroom—as a game changer. “It’s really enhanced remote learning and made classroom time more engaging,” she enthuses.

This is just the type of feedback science faculty like to hear. “At its core, science is about teaching the art and science of thinking,” says Vaughan. “Even though we’ve had to split classes and decrease the volume of content covered, the heart and endeavor of teaching science here is still intact and at the center of our work. Our students are incredibly fluent with technology and we continue to enjoy an engaged, collaborative learning environment.”

Jona Rice, Visual Arts

In the visual arts, the process becomes the goal “The medium is the message—that’s how the visual arts work,” observes longtime visual arts teacher Judy Novey. Or at least it was in pre-pandemic times, she adds ruefully. In today’s hybrid learning environment, arts faculty and students have lost considerable access to the medium, but they still must find the message.

“When creating age-appropriate curriculum in the visual arts, we start with the ‘why and what’ of an assignment, which leads us to the pragmatics of ‘how’: what materials, techniques, and processes will allow a student to better understand the conceptual ‘what,’” Novey explains. “With COVID-19, much of this has had to happen in reverse. We find ourselves asking, ‘What can students do? What materials do they have at home? What projects and supplies can they carry back and forth to school?’”

Nevertheless, Novey and fellow arts faculty have found a way forward, allowing students to tackle projects at home and in the studio at a slower pace and with whatever materials faculty can provide.

“Once you accept that it’s a crazy situation, it goes better,” she says.

Novey has also recognized opportunities in the situation. “After we suddenly went fully remote last spring, I quickly realized that the pandemic could be the ‘why’ of an assignment for my Upper School class, so I had students examine images of the virus in the bloodstream and create works (on the back of paper grocery bags) in response. We compiled these into a book titled ‘United by Vulnerability’ to underscore how an invisible virus can bring the whole world to a standstill. It was a creative way to acknowledge the challenges we’re all facing at the moment.”

Finding ways to bring students together right now is top of mind for Novey. “There’s an important synergy created within the studio that’s hindered by the hybrid environment,” she explains. “So much learning happens when the kids react to one another.

There’s an organic contagion of ideas, techniques, and aspirations within the studio that can’t be replicated when kids are working independently from a remote location.” Nevertheless, Novey says the students consistently meet her halfway. “The kids are dying to use their hands and get some time away from their screens, so they’ve been incredibly flexible.”

Visual arts teacher Leslie Murray has also been challenged by the move to hybrid learning. She teaches seventh grade art, the foundations class, and advanced studio and painting classes, so in-studio

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time is precious. And now it is cut in half. Yet surprisingly, Murray says the hybrid environment has been oddly freeing. “We don’t have the students live in class nearly as much as we used to, so it’s difficult to think about end results because we’re not sure how far we’ll get on any given project. So, you begin to look at the process as the goal and embrace the idea that the making is what it’s all about.”

At its heart, teaching art is about making discoveries and embracing failures, Murray continues, and it’s easy to lose sight of that when sharply focused on end results. “I’ve been thinking about process and letting it lead my teaching, and I’ve also been enjoying the sense of connection and community that the smaller classes foster.” Murray insists her students have made the process easy. “They’ve exhibited a grace, acceptance, and willingness to do the right thing so that we can continue to hold classes. As teachers, we’re really lucky.”

Novey agrees. “Even though we would rather have the kids together in person full time, using the hybrid model is worth it. The kids are much more flexible than the adults—they’re simply happy to see each other and get out of the house,” she confesses with a laugh.

“We’re trying to remain flexible and at the same time retain the soul of the program,” agrees Visual Arts Department Chair Jona Rice. For instance, Rice recently assigned his photography students a “masked/ unmasked” portrait project that required them to take self-portraits in a mirror. Students then compiled their photos into a montage and wrote an essay on things they’ve learned and things they’ve lost during the pandemic. “For me, what’s paramount is helping the kids maintain a feeling of stability, a sense of humor, and a positive outlook in the moment,” says Rice. “If I can provide them with a calm space in which to relax and focus on something creative for 40 minutes twice a week, I feel I’ve succeeded.”

In Helen Hornor’s eyes, faculty are realizing their goals. “I applaud Jona and Judy for all their efforts in this difficult time,” says the twelfth grader, who is currently taking Rice’s course on alternative photographic processes. “I know it’s a struggle to teach art under these conditions, yet they have been flexible, kind, and understanding throughout.” Hornor admits that completing art assignments while alternating between home and school workspaces has forced her to think outside the box. “You don’t always have the supplies you need at home, so sometimes you have to get creative,” she confesses with a chuckle. But, she continues, the unconventional learning situation has also prompted an exciting shift in perspective.

“I’d love to be in class full time, but since we’ve been

Leslie Murray, Visual Arts

forced to work remotely part of the time, I’ve discovered that I’m finding opportunities for photographs everywhere. Because our class has been transferred to the outside world, I’m thinking about the world outside of class and looking at everything in a different way.”

During these unusual times, the entire Waynflete community is looking at things differently, but all evince a happiness in doing so collectively. “The feeling between all of us—students, faculty, and staff—is that we’re in this together,” concludes Titterton.

“We’re all doing our earnest best to make this work— we want to be here.”

Rice agrees. “In the spring when we went fully remote, there was a terrific sense of loss and a pall hung over the school,” he says. “Now there’s a shift in focus—we’re all looking at what we have and what we can do rather than what we’ve lost.”

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This is a New Kind of Growing Up Poem by Elizabeth Dakers ’22 Artwork by Dylan Randall-Newberg ’21

While you were wondering what it’s like to grow up the tension in the air turned sour.

You realized how simple it is to just take care of yourself.

How much easier it is to be divided than united.

Look at you on your own, all grown up.

You are ready for

closed its doors.

This apocalyptic virus tears through the population.

A venture back to Eden where we start anew.

Come with me, We have to do this together.

Our mosaic of cells are all the same to the invisible killer, to the dewdrops of viruses speckled on cold stone.

The world has been brought to a standstill.

Natural order, caving in on us.

the world as you know it

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CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT Artworks by Katherine (Grace) Devine ’20, Sabrina Kenny ’22, Ella Hannaford ’20, and Elizabeth Dakers ’22

United by Vulnerability THIS REMOTE VISUAL ARTS ASSIGNMENT was made last spring when COVID-19 first upended everyone’s life. It was part of a series of assignments that used the virus and its effects on society as content for artistic expression. Students were asked to think about the title United by Vulnerability— how the virus travels from person to person and within a single body, making us all aware of the “even playing field” that is the vulnerability of our physical selves. Although destructive, the virus (and the pandemic in general) lays bare the mutual connection of all peoples. More concretely, students responded to photographic images of microbiology in general and of the virus specifically by making cut-paper collages on the backs of paper grocery bags. Each student interpreted their resource material differently, but all suggested the sense of flow and web-like exponential spread.

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HOME Nicole Bradeen, Anti-Racism Task Force Chair and Global Community Scholars Coordinator Lowell W. Libby, Upper School Director

THIS PAST SUMMER, in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd and during the national racial reckoning that followed, Head of School Geoff Wagg declared Waynflete’s intention to be an anti-racist institution and acknowledged that the school needed to “do more” for that intention to be realized. For those of us—faculty, staff, and administrators—who are charged with carrying out the mission of the school, Geoff’s declaration was a call to action that raised an essential question: What would it mean for Waynflete to be an anti-racist school?

Certainly, Waynflete’s long-standing commitment to creating a culture of belonging is a necessary condition for being an anti-racist school. In the words of the school’s mission, “it is out of respect for each individual that true community arises.”

That respect for the individual has long been manifest in the sustained efforts by faculty and staff to know and be known by each student. So, too, is the school’s effort to serve as diverse a student body as possible. Over the past two decades, Waynflete has devoted considerable resources to making the student body—particularly in the Upper School— more racially and ethnically diverse.

The combination of greater diversity and ongoing respect for the individual has in turn been the catalyst for various initiatives intended to

make Waynflete a learning environment in which all students can thrive. Such initiatives include efforts to increase representation of marginalized people in the curriculum, efforts to promote dialogue and understanding across differences, and efforts to connect our students to the larger community. Without a doubt, Waynflete is a better school as a result.

However, a letter sent this summer to Geoff and the Board of Trustees from current and recently graduated Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) students made clear that the benefits of a Waynflete education have not been experienced equally (see wf-link.org/blm-letter). Rather than recounting how they experienced a sense of belonging as the school intended, the students described the numerous ways that racially insensitive comments and actions by their peers and teachers make BIPOC students feel “othered” and how “our individual and collective struggle to belong...makes our Waynflete experience painful, laborious, and mentally exhausting.” Moreover, “the general climate and lack of structural and institutional support” can affect the academic success of BIPOC students. Given all that their presence in the student body means for the school, the signatories of the letter wondered whom their presence in the school was really meant to benefit. continued

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“We love Waynflete and we want our school to be our home,” students wrote.

At the same time, the signatories of the letter did not seem to want Waynflete to be a different school. They expressed an appreciation for the “solicitude and support” they regularly receive from the school inside and outside of the classroom.

They expressed affection for their teachers and classmates. “We recognize that Waynflete is trying,” they wrote. They explained that they reached out with suggestions that “will promote equity, ensure our mental safety, support our personal and academic growth, strengthen our relationship with our community, and ultimately make Waynflete a place where we, and future Black students and students of color, can thrive equitably.”

“We love Waynflete and we want our school to be our home,” students wrote. Our charge as a school could not be expressed more succinctly or clearly than that.

We had already recognized many of the concerns raised in the letter prior to receiving it, and were working to address them. Primarily out of concern for the experiences of our BIPOC students, we had dedicated one of the three program committees in our New England Association of Schools and Colleges reaccreditation process to issues of belonging. However, we had not fully understood the extent of the concerns, hence the need to do more.

Realizing that we needed to learn more in order to do more, we enlisted Dr. Jackson Collins to host focus groups with BIPOC students and alums. Dr. Collins is a Black educator who— through professional training, academic research, and personal experience—possesses a deep understanding of the experiences of BIPOC students in independent schools. After hosting four

sessions in August, he issued preliminary findings in the fall and is now consulting with us to help guide and assess our progress.

Dr. Collins’s preliminary findings helped set the priorities of the Anti-Racist Task Force, which was formed over the summer and is chaired by Nicole Bradeen. The priorities include: Raising the cultural competence of faculty, staff, and students Training all faculty, staff, and students to be allies and upstanders Building on existing student affinity and ally groups to support BIPOC students Enlisting students, faculty, and parents to build awareness of the impacts of racism including through the 21-day anti-racism course developed last summer Creating a process to address racial transgressions and support BIPOC students, based on restorative justice principles and practices Continuing to evolve the curriculum to center the experiences of Black and other marginalized people Training the faculty in pedagogical practices that promote inclusive excellence Attracting an administration, faculty, and staff that are at least as diverse as the student body Continuing to raise student voices and empower those who have been marginalized historically to share their ideas and experiences as they wish So, what would it mean for Waynflete to be an anti-racist school?

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It would mean that students of all backgrounds would be a part of a community that feels like home because they would know for certain that they belong and that their voices matter. It would mean that all students would experience learning from teachers and mentors from various backgrounds and would feel supported as they strive to reach their academic and personal potential. It would mean that all students would understand the roots of inequality and feel empowered and motivated to address injustices when they encounter them, including at school. It would mean that all faculty and staff would appreciate what each student brings to school each day in terms of gifts and burdens and be able to provide for them what they need in order to flourish. It would mean that every member of the community would have the experience of co-creating a loving community that is fully committed to equity and justice.

In its simplest form, being an anti-racist school would mean that we are more fully living out our mission by becoming a better version of ourselves.

Such a prospect should inspire anyone who loves Waynflete and believes that the school has considerable potential to be a powerful force for good in the world.

Nicole Bradeen, Anti-Racism Task Force Chair and Global Community Scholars Coordinator and Lowell W. Libby, Upper School Director

Parents Are Engaging in the Work As Well The Parents Association’s Equity & Inclusion Committee shares information and resources—both at Waynflete and in the community—related to equity and inclusion.

Committee members recently led Waynflete parents through the 21-Day Anti-Racism Challenge, which was developed in 2020 by Nicole Bradeen and David Vaughan. Take the challenge at wf-link.org/arc.

NAMEDetail OF ARTWORK from artwork by Media/materials, Kate Bramley-Simmons date ’22 Student Artist Name and Class Year

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Curiosity, Care, and Courage Middle School Director Divya Muralidhara leads by example A BOOK GROUP changed the course of Divya Muralidhara’s life.

Recently graduated from Wellesley College, and fresh from an internship at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, Divya had been hired at Politics and Prose—one of DC’s best-known bookstores—where one of her roles was leading the institution’s book groups. At the conclusion of one of the meetings, where she had moderated a complex discussion of Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man,” she was approached by a stranger. Impressed with how she had managed the assembled crowd, he wondered: had she ever considered teaching?

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Teaching, in fact, had very much been on Divya’s mind. During summers off from Wellesley, she had worked at the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth program as a resident assistant (it was here where she met her future husband, Ed Knoll, who worked as the site’s counselor and today serves as an associate dean of admission at Waynflete). Divya lived in the dormitory with high school students and was responsible for all program FROM TOP: Final year teaching at activities apart from academics; by her eighth summer, she was The Field School; first year teaching; managing the entire residential program. The experience of age 8 in Fair Haven, NJ; with college classmates in Mexico. serving as an advocate for young people had been illuminating.

“I really wanted to understand how their minds worked and to help them,” she recalls. The program had also provided an initial exposure to the independent school environment in which many of her summer colleagues taught.

The book group attendee turned out to be a history teacher and college counselor at The Field School, a grade 7–12 educational institution founded in Washington in the early 70’s. After a series of interviews and a few trial classes, Divya found herself teaching English and art history in Field’s Upper School. Divya served in many roles over the course of her decade at the school, ranging from dean of students to middle school basketball coach. During this time, she also earned an MA in educational leadership from the Klingenstein Center, a training initiative for future independent school leaders that has been credited with contributing to the professionalization of the field. (The Center was founded The experience of serving as an advocate for

by Waynflete alumna Patricia young people had been illuminating. “I really Davis Klingenstein ’47 and her late husband John in the late wanted to understand how their minds worked 1970s.) Participants engage in to help them,” she recalls. remote study and project work over a two-year period; they also attend an intensive seven-week program hosted at Teachers College at Columbia University. “I was inspired by the connection between the Teachers College and John Dewey,” she recalls. “His philosophy had a lot to do with interdisciplinary learning and ‘learning by doing.’”

New Jersey roots Divya’s parents were part of a wave of migration from India to the United States in the late 1960s (earlier in the decade, her father had been a student at Kent State University when the infamous campus shooting occurred). Both parents were scientists. In India, her mother had specialized in entomology while her father became a flavor chemist after arriving in the US. The family settled in the borough of Fair Haven, New Jersey.

Today’s Fair Haven is a commuter town for residents who work in New York City. But it continues to be a fairly homogeneous community, as it was 50 years ago—of the roughly 6,000 inhabitants at the time, the Muralidharas were one of the few families of color. The scale of the town, and the investment of the teachers in the community’s schools today remind Divya of Waynflete. continued

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“It’s hard for me to imagine supporting and supervising my colleagues without teaching and advising myself. It keeps me rooted in what is important about our program. It’s humbling, inspiring, energizing, and challenging.”

“Education was a priority. Parents showed up to district meetings, and they wanted to invest in their schools. These values have stuck with me throughout my life, both at Waynflete and the other school communities I’ve been part of,” she says.

In high school, Divya’s interests turned to both the performing and the visual arts (she was recruited to the theater, she recalls with a smile, because of her “natural projection”). The art room became a sanctuary. Taking advantage of the school’s printing press, she explored batik and other printmaking.

Divya matriculated to Wellesley to pursue an anthropology degree. As a freshman, she joined an interdisciplinary cluster program whose focus that year was race and ethnicity in the United States. It was an intense undertaking, with the cohort living together in the same dormitory. “The professors who ran the program were much like independent school teachers,” she says. “They collaborated and cotaught courses together. They were memorable and dynamic people who were committed to ensuring that we had a tremendous experience.”

Divya joined Wellesley’s student government in the newly created role of multicultural affairs coordinator. The position provided frequent opportunities to work with Diana Chapman Walsh, the college’s new president; they remain connected to this day. “We had a dynamic, racially diverse cabinet,” she recalls. “It was a challenging role, and it gave me my first taste of what it was like to work on an administrative team.”

Chance encounter In 2006, while attending the weeklong Milton Diversity Institute, Divya met a group of Waynflete faculty members, including Laurel Daly, Nancy Tabb, and Kate Ziminsky. As they got to know each other over dinner, Divya noted that Waynflete and The Field School seemed to share similar philosophical underpinnings. A few months later, when Waynflete launched a search to replace retiring Middle School Director Kathy Remmel, she jumped at the opportunity. Waynflete had a much longer

history and drew a wider age range of students from a broader geographic area. “At some point, you outgrow the pot you’ve been planted in,” Divya says. The time had come for a bigger pot.

Divya is now in her 14th year as Waynflete’s Middle School director. During her tenure, the roles of teacher and advisor have remained just as important to her as leading the division. “It’s hard for me to imagine supporting and supervising my colleagues without teaching and advising myself,” she says. “It keeps me rooted in what is important about our program. It’s humbling, inspiring, energizing, and challenging.”

Middle School faculty members appreciate Divya’s management style and quick wit. “She prefers to hear from everyone at the table before weighing in or making her final decisions,” says one colleague.

“She is always willing to try any initiative she is forwarding and models what she hopes to see in her staff.” “She is a special kind of leader, with a well-balanced approach of being professional and strong while still showing vulnerability and being her authentic self,” says another. “She is always demonstrating the traits of curiosity, care, and courage to students, whether it’s in her role as student government activity leader, helping students organize the annual food drive, or teaching about civic engagement.”

What draws Divya to working with middle schoolers are their immediacy, honesty, humor, and energy. “So much growth, so many questions, so many challenges, and so much self-realization takes place in such a short period of time,” she says. “I love watching the rapid development over a threeyear period. Our faculty hasn’t forgotten what those years felt like, and they want to make them as great as they can be for today’s kids.” Divya is also moved by the passion for social justice that emerges for many students in their middle school years. “Gender identity is an interesting example,” she observes.

“This generation is so well beyond even the previous generation. There are more resources and shared stories and just a different kind of openness compared to when I first began teaching.”

Smartphones were just starting to enter the marketplace when Divya joined Waynflete’s faculty. The effects of this technology are perhaps experienced most dramatically by middle schoolers, as this is the time when many acquire their own devices for the

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first time. Divya and her colleagues engage regularly memoir. Writing goes hand in hand with her passion with parents about technology, its effect on the develfor travel. “I came to realize some years ago that the oping brain, and the negative issues that can stem from times I write most fluidly are when I’m on trains and interacting with social media from a handheld device. planes,” she says. Paris is a favorite destination, due “Understanding the middle school brain” was, in part to its writing culture. “I write the whole time I in fact, part of the rationale for the Middle School am there. I discover something new in every moSeminar program, which is now a component of the ment—in the alleyways, in the cafés. There is just a curriculum in all three grade levels. In Seminar, studifferent pace of life there,” she says. dents explore a wide range of social-emotional topics, ... from the importance of sleep to learning how “prunFrom time to time, Upper School Director Lowell ing” works in the brain. The Seminar classroom is a Libby finds himself in a situation that requires deeper safe space, where students are free to discuss difficult insight into the traits of a particular student. When subjects without feeling vulnerable. Middle school is these situations arise, he can confer with the student’s often the first time that students begin to grapple with advisor or the faculty member who taught them in complex and abstract moral issues—a new awareness ninth grade seminar. But if that student also attended that leads to a deeper shared understanding when Waynflete’s Middle School—even two or three years interacting with teachers and advisors. The Seminar earlier—Lowell can be confident that one of his best curriculum is complemented by the faculty’s use of resources will be Divya. “She has made it her mission the “responsive classroom” approach. This method to know every student and their families incredibly acknowledges that in order to be successful, students well, and she maintains those relationships even after must learn a set of social and emotional competencies, a student has moved on to the Upper School,” he says. including cooperation, assertiveness, responsibility, “She has an understanding about these young people, and self-control, along with a set of academic compewith astute insights into their strengths and struggles. tencies, including an academic mindset, perseverance, This commitment goes to the very heart of who we learning strategies, and academic behavior. are as a school.”

COVID-19 has presented a wide range of chal­ lenges this year, including the critical issue of how to successfully integrate new students “The centrality of relationships at Waynflete has and their families into the school community. But Divya has no doubt been an essential factor in maintaining an intimate that the pandemic has strengthened school culture during a time when half of the essential life skills like resilience student body attends classes remotely.” and empathy in students. The centrality of relationships at Waynflete has been a critical factor in maintaining an intimate school culture during a time when half of the student body attends classes remotely.

Divya’s creative side, which began to emerge in earnest when she was in high school, continues to be an important part of her life. She is thoughtful about how physical spaces can inform and deepen relationships—one look around her office reveals her interest in color, design, and texture. Writing also occupies much of her personal time. One of Divya’s colleagues calls her “a storyteller and an interested inquirer,” while another says, “Sometimes we are lucky enough Divya Muralidhara in the classroom, still one of her favorite places to be. to get a glimpse of her work in the form of a thoughtful card or when she is honoring a departing colleague.” While she is a fan of creative nonfiction, most of Divya’s work centers on personal narrative and

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Social + Distance

By John Holdridge, Director of Remote Learning Hubs EARLY IN MY CAREER as an educator, I worked for a project that promoted the concept of the “third space” in school settings. Broadly defined, the third space is that other place: not home, not school or work, but the place in between. When considered in the context of relationships—the foundation of the Waynflete community—the third space is where the magic happens. This space is not quite you and not quite me; it’s something we create and share together.

This year the pandemic is doing its best to keep us apart. One of the school’s responses has been the creation of the Hub, a place where we can bring students together on the days they’ve been asked to be apart.

The basics of the Hub are this: Grade 7-12 students are invited to reserve one of 46 workstations at the Hub at One Canal Plaza and attend on a space-available basis on their off-campus rotation days (students in these grades currently attend classes on campus two days a week and every other Wednesday). In addition to offering small offices and cubicles for individual work, we have fast internet, a Waynflete Cafe snack shop, games like pinball, ping-pong, and Xbox for break times, and a staff of incredible mentors who bring their best game every day.

Here are some of the voices of those who inhabit our “space in between.”

STUDENT VOICES The Hub is an excellent way to be with friends even when you’re remote. There is enough space to have fun during breaks while not disturbing others who are in class.—Kineo

Photo of the Thompson’s Point Hub by Brian Beard

What do I like about the Hub? Social interactions. What is needed is provided.

I just like the vibe. I can have my own little section and still be a part of the community.

It’s fun, casual, productive, and easy— kind of like you’ve been here the whole time.—Sylvette

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HUB MENTORS The partnership that I have fostered with middle school teachers has been integral in helping students with accountability, time management, and self-regulation during independent work times. —Katrina The Hub is a place where positive energy and creativity abound. We all come together for a common purpose: safely educating students in the time of COVID-19. Their academic and social-emotional growth is beautiful to see.

We value speaking “your truth,” learning something new about each other, and radiating positive vibes—even while you learn. The synergy here is creating lasting memories and friendships. —Megan

Our mentors solve a lot of problems every day, ranging from my frequent charging emergencies or making sure that all students have lunch and a ride home. They should all wear superhero capes. —Khalil

I like the Hub mostly because of its relaxed nature. When I’m there, I feel the satisfaction of being among others while still learning outside of school. This is crucial right now. I have always loved talking with people at the Hub, whoever they may be.

Everyone is friendly, understanding, and easy to talk to.—Max

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Into the Fire

Now an essential member of Waynflete’s COVID-19 response team, Health Coordinator Dalit Gulak ’01 got more than she bargained for after joining the school’s staff in early 2020.

PHOTO CREDIT: Brian Beard

DALIT GULAK RELISHES A CHALLENGE. In the fall of 2001, when most of her former Waynflete classmates were heading off to attend their freshman year at college, Dalit was on a flight to Costa Rica where she would live with a family on an isolated coffee plantation while participating in community service work. “I loved the time I had spent in Spanish-speaking countries and was really fond of the language and culture,” she says. “I wanted to experience a different part of the world and not go right to college just because it seemed to be the next logical step.”

As winter arrived, Dalit moved to Cusco, Peru, once the capital of the Inca Empire. Situated at an elevation of 11,000 feet, she encountered “a cold I’d never experienced before, where you sleep in everything you own.” Volunteering in the oncology and pediatric wards of a local hospital, she interviewed patients to learn what they missed most during their long hospital stays. The unanimous response: watching their beloved national soccer team. Dalit raised funds to purchase televisions.

Growing up, Dalit had heard stories about the close relationships her grandfather, a physician, had forged with his patients (including the times he had operated free vaccination clinics in Haiti and Guatemala). But these experiences in Dalit’s first year after Waynflete were perhaps the first to spark her interest in community healthcare. While she didn’t know the precise details, she knew her future career lay in medicine.

Dalit had deferred acceptance to the University of Delaware for a year to work in South America. She had been looking for “something a bit bigger” in a college—a change of pace from Waynflete’s intimate educational environment (a gridiron fan, she also wanted a school that was large enough to field its own football team). Back in the United States, Dalit created a unique major in Hispanic culture and medicine at Delaware. In her spare time, she played club lacrosse and became certified as an EMT, working on both campus and city emergency calls.

In her junior year, Dalit won a Truman Scholarship, an award that funds graduate studies for individuals who show potential as future leaders in public service and social justice. After spending a summer in Nicaragua, where she worked with indigenous midwives, she began to focus on midwifery as a potential career.

Dalit’s experiences in Central and South America had taught her that the process of getting to know patients’ families was essential to positive health outcomes. “Midwifery appeared to be the all-encompassing thing: women’s health, delivering babies, and looking at the whole family,” she recalls. She com-

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pleted an accelerated 14-month nursing program at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, where her capstone research project examined distressingly high infant mortality rates in some of the city’s wards.

Dalit worked in the labor and delivery ward of Washington Hospital Center for two years. Many mothers at the facility had had little interaction with the healthcare system—a rushed trip to the emergency room for delivery meant it was too late to address serious health issues, including addiction. Dalit eventually concluded that a better way to prevent poor outcomes was to focus her efforts on early public health interventions. School beckoned again, this time a master’s in public health with a dual concentration in international health and maternal and child health from Boston University. To finish her graduate work, she returned again to Central America, completing a study of indigenous midwives and maternal mortality rates in the western highlands of Guatemala.

After returning home to Maine, Dalit was hired by Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention as the state’s tuberculosis coordinator. “I had a wonderful boss who is now deeply involved in the COVID-19 crisis in Maine,” she says. “I also got to know an incredible group of epidemiologists, many of whom I’m still close with. These connections—and my work experiences at Maine CDC—have turned out to be very important over the past year.”

But Dalit wasn’t done with maternal health. After several years at Maine CDC, she left for Mid Coast Hospital, where she ran a unique prenatal care program called CenteringPregnancy. Instead of typical one-on-one meetings with midwives or obstetricians, expectant mothers would follow their prenatal care schedules in groups of ten, along with support people, for the duration of their pregnancies. The program resulted in improved outcomes, including fewer emergency room visits, lower Caesarean section rates, and better postpartum experiences.

Six years later, Dalit was again ready for a change.

Waynflete’s health coordinator role had been advertised as a part-time position, which would have given her the opportunity to continue at Mid Coast on a per diem basis. The school’s “part-time” role ended up being anything but, however—Dalit quickly became one of Waynflete’s most essential workers. “Dalit is an indispensable part of our team,” says Head of School Geoff Wagg. “I cannot imagine navigating this crisis without her expertise, supportive disposition, and ability to articulate policy to everyone. She is truly a gift to the school.” Dalit’s years of experience at Maine CDC, which included tuberculosis contact-trac-

“Things have all gone very smoothly, thanks to the work of our incredible team.” ing programs involving hundreds of individuals, have proven to be invaluable in the time of COVID-19.

(There are similarities between tuberculosis and COVID-19, with the primary difference being that individuals infected with latent TB cannot spread the disease to others.)

In the early months of 2020, members of Waynflete’s pandemic response team recognized that preparations were in order. Dalit brought together a team of contact tracers in advance of the school’s first COVID-19 case. In the handful of positive cases that subsequently emerged on campus, the school immediately initiated its own contact tracing protocol without having to rely on Maine CDC, which has been inundated with requests for help from across the state. “We knew this was coming,” says Dalit. “We did all we could from a systems standpoint to be ready for rollout when the first case occurred. Things have all gone very smoothly, thanks to the work of our incredible team.”

Returning to Waynflete after two decades has felt like a natural move for Dalit. “The community here is not replicable anywhere,” she says. Stepping back on campus has resurfaced memories of the contributions she made as an athlete during her high school years.

Dalit was a freshman starter for Waynflete’s varsity lacrosse and soccer teams, coached by Cathie Connors and Drew Dubuque, respectively. Both teams were undefeated in her freshman year and took the state championships (the lacrosse team went on to win two more championships during Dalit’s time as a student athlete). But the lessons she learned at the school extended far beyond its athletic fields. “I found that no matter where I ended up in life, I kept coming back to the pearls of wisdom that I learned at Waynflete,” she says. “The close relationships, the confidence to advocate for oneself, having a positive attitude, and fostering a sense of fearlessness—it’s all a part of who I am now, and much of it started here.”

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The Perspective Project

By Sylvette Dupe-Vete-Congolo ’21, Bessy Dushime ’23, and Sam Yankee ’21 THE PERSPECTIVE PROJECT was born out of the idea that there is always more to a thought or a story than what one simply hears or sees. We reached this conclusion through varied experiences. Sam spent a semester at the School for Ethics and Global Leadership in Washington, DC, digging into the issues of domestic politics, global affairs, and the challenges of leadership and ethics that these present. He was inspired by the sheer diversity of perspectives afforded by incredible guest speakers, faculty, and classmates. Bessy incorporated knowledge from the youth conference “NAACP Youth and College Black Civics Summer: The Shit You Should’ve Learned In School” into her reflection on her experience as a black girl in her academic environment. Sylvette, who attended multiple conferences of the Caribbean Philosophical Association with her mother, used different cultural paradigms to reflect on historical and current racial tensions in her local communities and in the United States. From these diverse experiences and backgrounds, we came together around a common goal: to help community members think in new, broader and more complex ways and bridge divides by introducing different perspectives and understandings of today’s issues.

Since the school year began in September, The Perspective Project has taken off. We have hosted guest speakers such as former Secretary of Defense William Cohen, former U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Pa-

mela White, U.S. Senator Angus King, author Ishmael Beah, and journalist Frank Sesno. Held as webinars over Zoom, these events have brought new voices into our community with wonderful results. Secretary Cohen’s insight into bipartisanship informed a greater conversation at Waynflete ahead of the last election, and Ambassador White opened a window into the personal challenges and joys of being a woman leader in the field of diplomacy. Ishmael Beah shared thought-provoking perspectives on foreign aid to developing countries, and on his experience of racism as a black man in the United States. Finally, Frank Sesno’s remarks on the state of journalism within the social media paradigm were enlightening.

We plan to continue sharing with our community and our guests through meaningful programming that allows us to discuss the environment, journalism, social justice, global affairs, and more topics of relevance to the greater Waynflete community. Panels of local leaders will complement our programming to further explore the ties with national and global issues. We look forward to multifaceted growth within The Perspective Project, and we hope that you will join us in this process.

Visit wf-link.org/pp to learn more about The Perspective Project, including future events.

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Josef Powers ’22

“The Perspective Project is the embodiment of what we believe in as a school and what as Americans we must all strive to do to navigate these challenging times—come together around a common principle of understanding, integrity, and the agency of community members to create positive change. We are very proud of how these students have worked hard to promote understanding of the complex world in which we live, which in turn will be the catalyst for the kinds of change we need.”

Lowell W. Libby Upper School Director

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The Best You In her roles as schoolteacher and pediatrician, Emily Frank ’04 puts lessons learned at Waynflete to good use.

Emily Frank in the 6M Pediatric Clinic at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital in San Francisco where her clinic was held during residency.

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SPEAK WITH EMILY FRANK and you will quickly learn this: she likes to wear many hats.

After four years in the orbit of teachers including Wendy Curtis, Carol Titterton, and David Vaughan, Emily had become passionate about science. During the summer before her freshman year in college, a scholarship at the Maine Medical Center Research Institute provided her with an initial taste of medicine. It was a thrilling experience—“I couldn’t believe that people got paid to do research for a living,” she recalls. After considering a degree in astronomy, Emily chose to major in cell biology after matriculating to Dartmouth College. But as she progressed through the program, she found herself increasingly drawn to the school’s education department. Emily was attracted by the idea of a career that was “somewhere on the science-education spectrum,” and that path began to coalesce into a plan: she would start out as a high school science teacher (to learn effective teaching skills) with the hope of someday becoming a college biology professor.

Emily restructured her junior year at Dartmouth to participate in a mentored teaching program in the Marshall Islands during the winter semester. “It was a life-changing experience,” she recalls, adding that it included “some of the most purposeful and happiest days of my life.” She employed a pedagogical method that will be familiar to most Waynflete faculty members: if a teacher concludes that some aspects of the curriculum are no longer relevant to the students, the teacher can change it. In their science class, students wanted to learn about reproductive issues, diabetes, and the effects of drugs on the brain. “That was what was relevant to them, so that’s what I taught them about,” she says.

Back at college, Emily’s experiences in Dartmouth’s science labs had led her to become disillusioned with academia. She still wanted to teach science, but not at the college level. “I knew my education at Waynflete had been special,” she says. “It was the standard for the quality of education that all kids should receive, regardless of race, income, or life circumstances. What I was coming to better understand, though, was how much a child’s education can depend on their zip code.” After graduating, she resolved to shore up her teaching skills by working with Teach For America (TFA).

During her two-year tenure at TFA, Emily taught middle school life sciences in Vallejo, a community in San Francisco’s North Bay area. Vallejo had been a thriving port city in the 1970s before undergoing economic collapse (around the time that Emily arrived, the municipality had declared bankruptcy due to rising personnel costs and declining revenue from a housing slump). It was a jarring transition for a 23-year-old who had spent most of her life in Brunswick, Portland, and Hanover, but she continued to build confidence in her ability to connect with children. “I just loved getting kids excited about science and seeing the light bulb go on,” she says. School administration didn’t appeal as a career path—she wanted to influence children’s lives in a hands-on way, particularly when she had the opportunity to design curriculum—but she felt she still needed additional tools. Her education journey was to continue in an unorthodox way: she would train to become a medical doctor.

Emily Frank at the UCSF Kanbar Simulation Center, where students practiced disclosing genetic testing results for a school project with feedback and mentoring from practicing medical professionals.

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Emily earned her MD from Tufts University. Tufts’ “Maine Track” program is grounded in a community-based curriculum that enables future physicians to work at clinical sites throughout the state (students spend the majority of their time in Maine). “From the very beginning, I was so impressed with their philosophy of education,” she says. “Although my degree is from Tufts, I really learned how to be a doctor from physicians throughout the state of Maine.”

Partway through her training—a period she recalls as “drowning in biochemistry”—Emily was still driven by the desire to work with students. Along with two TFA alumni, she co-founded Health Impact Partnership in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood in Boston.

“When I was in Vallejo, I had really wanted to start a program where kids could identify the health issues that mattered to them and feel supported in taking action to bring about change,” she says. “This was the way to do it.”

There are many programs around the country in which medical school students visit local communities and educate residents on a variety of topics.

Emily’s unique idea was to build her new program on a foundation of participatory action research, an approach that, according to the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, “aims to improve health and reduce health inequities through involving the people who, in turn, take actions to improve their own health.” Emily and her team worked in a diverse school district that was home to many new immigrants. “We wanted to create something that lifted students up by encouraging them to identify what mattered to them,” she says. “The high school students developed a needs assessment and interpreted the data. Our contribution as medical school students was to support them each step of the way.” The program also provided valuable opportunities for future doctors to strengthen their communication skills in different cultural environments.

Nutrition was top of mind for students in the community. While many were eating healthily at home, few knew how to cook. The students in the program identified high school seniors as a group that was particularly at the risk of suffering from poor nutrition after leaving school. The kids in Emily’s program designed, printed, and distributed a healthy-eating cookbook. “This was a beautiful example of how students’ voices and opinions are so valuable,” she says.

Returning to California Although Emily was interested in psychiatry and emergency medicine, she decided to specialize in

pediatrics. “Pediatricians have a real focus on prevention and advocacy, which resonated with the type of work I wanted to do,” she says. She returned to the Bay Area to complete her residency, which focused on leadership for advancing health equity. As before, Emily helped launch a youth participatory action research project in the Oakland Unified School District, building a series of student lessons that highlighted careers in the healthcare industry. “What was the most fun for me was wearing so many hats,” Emily says. “Designing the curriculum, training adult facilitators, guest teaching, supporting students—I was using all my skill sets, and I loved that feeling.”

Emily became a near-full-time teacher and a parttime physician. Working as a clinical pediatrician in the evenings, on weekends, and during the summer, she began teaching at Life Academy, an Oakland public school serving students in grades 6–12. Founded in 2001, Life Academy seeks to “dramatically interrupt patterns of injustice and inequity for underserved communities in Oakland” by preparing students for challenging careers in health and bioscience. Over the course of their studies, students build an indepth understanding of public health, health literacy, and health advocacy. It’s a hands-on, experiential program, with kids doing everything from creating educational videos on the Covered California healthcare exchange to establishing bone marrow registration drives in an effort to decrease racial disparities in the registry. Early in the pandemic, COVID-19 infection rates rose rapidly in the neighborhood. In response, students created infographics in a variety of languages to encourage mask use. “To see students feel empowered in the face of national bewilderment, and to provide them with a sense of agency, was really gratifying,” Emily says. “Many of the problems that stem from lack of health literacy or investment are fixable if we enlist our young people to help solve them. Adults don’t have all the answers.”

Diversity in the healthcare industry It is an unfortunate fact that in many healthcare institutions, racial diversity exists only in lower-level positions. The more education is required, the more homogeneous the workforce becomes. The cycle can be self-reinforcing. When students in predominantly Black and Hispanic communities interact with primarily white doctors, it is difficult for those students to imagine a future career in advanced healthcare.

Emily sees this effect come into play as the seniors in her classes begin to consider colleges. “I ask them whether they’ve considered applying to CalTech,

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MIT,” she says. “They tell me, ‘Oh, I can’t get in.’ I tell them that it’s not for them to decide. That’s for the schools to decide.” Life lessons from Waynflete—finding the courage to knock on what appear to be closed doors and, in the face of rejection, learning to get back up and try again.

There are industry pipeline programs, but most start at the college level—too late, in Emily’s estimation. The high school programs that do exist often target the same small group of students who are clearly performing at a high level. “So many kids just need the flame to be ignited,” she says. “That’s what interests and excites me—to go below the surface and reach out to those students. There are many kids who walk the fine line between tremendous success and awful consequences. They have so much potential— how much of that potential gets used depends on the support they get in middle and high school. I’m really interested in exposing young people who are at risk to opportunities and helping them use their tremendous potential for whatever they want.”

That exposure includes inviting as many guests of color as possible into the classroom, including doctors, scientists, and other healthcare professionals. “I know that as a white teacher, I can never have the same impact on kids as a teacher of color in their community,” Emily observes. “There are all kinds of cultural nuances that I am oblivious to. Every young person should grow up believing that they are agents of their own future. So I try to ask myself: ‘What I can do, in an ally position, to make sure that my students see the full range of opportunities that can be open to them?’”

Dreaming it Emily’s belief in the importance of listening to kids and lifting up their voices is rooted in her memories of Waynflete. “Two of the most important things I learned are that your voice matters and that you can do anything,” she says. “If you can dream it, and if you can identify resources you can draw on, you can ultimately do it.” Waynflete teachers are often the standard by which she judges her success in the classroom today. They also inspire specific pedagogical approaches. Debba Curtis, one of Emily’s favorite teachers, had students complete “SARs” (summary, analysis, reaction) for every primary document and article read in class. “I now teach my ninth graders how to SAR,” she says. “How do you take a piece of literature or something in the news and determine what it’s about, why it matters, and how you feel about it?”

Effective time management is essential for someone balancing two demanding professions. “It starts with

being clear about what you value—what matters most to you—and what you’re willing to compromise on or let go of,” she says. “While there are some things I have to give up, doing so lets me do the work I value most.” Emily loves to hike, cook, dance, and do yoga. Even when her schedule becomes extreme, exercise is non negotiable. “I couldn’t manage without it,” she says.

Like those of most doctors and teachers, Emily’s working life over the past year has been dominated by the pandemic. Looking longer term, she plans to continue working on what has emerged as a specialty for her: creating high-impact experiences that have positive effects on both students and the healthcare industry. She hopes to expand her work at Life Academy to the entire Oakland school district (the pandemic has demonstrated that it is possible to conduct the program virtually) and get greater buy-in from hospitals and other organizations that are eager to diversify their workforces and build pools of future talent.

When asked what counsel she would give to today’s high school students, Emily reflects on advice that she received from a friend years ago: explore as much as you can, and in the process of doing so, observe what brings out “the best you.” “While pediatrics allows me to wear my preventative and advocacy hats, it also gives me the opportunity to make silly faces, or sing a song, or be ridiculous with a child,” she says. “I love that pediatrics brings this out in me. It’s the same with teaching. The people who know me best have spent time in my classroom. This is where ‘me’ comes out to the maximum.”

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Our community is closer than ever

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Waynflete Connect, our online networking platform, has almost 700 registered users! Join today to: • Advance your career and professional interests with help from other alumni • Advise and mentor others in the Waynflete community • Stay in touch with Waynflete Visit waynfleteconnect.org to join our global network or update your profile.

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2020 Came Together for a Commencement Like No Other In the midst of a global pandemic with all the associated and necessary restrictions, we held a beautiful, inspiring, thoughtprovoking live graduation for our seniors on June 12, 2020. They were able to sit sideby-side for the first time in three months and renew their sense of community after being remote for so long.

The parade that followed was the perfect culmination to the day. Our faculty, trustees, and friends who were not able to attend commencement due to social distancing restrictions, lined the streets around Waynflete’s campus. A parade of seniors in their cars were greeted with cheers and expressions of love.

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Fighting Climate Change, Between Classes EARLY IN 2020, as reports about a novel coronavirus began to appear in the media, senior Wyatt Kern was looking to take on a new project—something, he hoped, that would have a positive impact in the world but wouldn’t interrupt his schoolwork or require travel. He was interested in reforestation, but there didn’t seem to be a way to pursue the idea on a meaningful scale. So during his free periods, and after homework and sports, Wyatt embarked on the process of writing a book. “When he sets his mind to something, nothing can get in his way,” says former advisor Blake Keogh.

The result is the e-book A Beginners Guide to Carbon Neutrality. Rather than focusing on government and industry efforts to address global warming, Wyatt instead spotlights simple actions that families and individuals can take. “I always hear people talking about the need to protect the environment,” Wyatt says. “But for the most part, we all just go about our lives, skipping even the little things that we could be doing that would make a difference.” The book focuses on these little things that, if everyone were to make an effort, could add up.

“If we don’t feel hope and believe that we have a fighting chance, then we’re not going to do anything.

Hope is what inspires action.”

A Beginners Guide to Carbon Neutrality explores consumerism (industries ranging from fashion to cement production are massive producers of carbon, according to Wyatt), transportation, household habits, and the more intricate topics of carbon offsetting and socially responsible investing. Wyatt aims to make his readers more aware, to encourage them to develop new habits, to spread the word to friends and family—and to feel hopeful. “If we don’t feel hope and believe that we have a fighting chance, then we’re not going to do anything,” he observes. “Hope is what inspires action.” Wyatt envisions citizens around the world uniting in an effort to pressure their governments to make changes. “We make the economy. If we become more aware of what’s going on with global warming and want to act, we can do so through the demands we make of our government,” he says.

Blake isn’t surprised that Wyatt managed to write a book while immersed in studies during the school year. “If there is anyone who could complete a book during their spare time in high school, it’s Wyatt,” he says. “He has a deep and authentic compassion for others and our environment, and his attention to detail is second to none. I am really impressed with his accomplishment.”

Learn more about Wyatt’s book at wf-link.org/kern

PHOTO CREDIT: Brian Beard

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Josie Spencer ’26

Luna Soley ’18 Reflects on a Summer on the Water for Outside Magazine During her college break, the author went all in on solitude—living alone on a Down East island and working for one of the area’s few female skippers.

Luna Soley reflects on a time of loneliness, hard work, and natural beauty.

Read more at wf-link.org/soley-outside

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We value the individuality of our students ...

Zoe Sobol ’09 Khatmandu, Nepal

Grace Bukowski-Thall ’16

Ukay Ajike ’80

Susana Hancock ’03

I went to Bowdoin, where I majored in Biology and minored in German.

After graduation, I was awarded a Fulbright research fellowship to study the gut-brain axis in Graz, Austria. I decided to defer this opportunity a year due to the pandemic. In the meantime, I am serving with the Maine Energy Americorps Program for the Environment back home in Portland.

My favorite memories of Waynflete are being on the swim and crew teams, learning Latin, and hanging out with my friends in the back room behind the cafe to get first dibs on free food at the end of the day. Throughout college, I enjoyed coming back to campus to see my younger siblings Henry, Nathan, and Rose perform in the Upper School plays and musicals.

After earning my BS in Chemical Engineering at Northeastern University, I worked for Cabot Corporation, Lucent Technology/ Agere Systems, and Cree Inc. prior to founding UDM Systems in my garage in 2007 in Raleigh, North Carolina. My goal was to develop products to improve yields in wafer-die separation and to ensure that these products were eco-friendly and globally available.

At Waynflete, my science teacher Dr. Mitchell convinced me that I was a more gifted science student compared to the liberal arts, so a lot of credit for my accomplishments goes to him. I am very grateful for his advice and encouragement.

I studied astrophysics, linguistics, and several languages at Connecticut College, then spent time as a linguist in the Arctic and pursued a few degrees at the University of Oxford in England. I was also on the elite rowing circuit until a persistent injury returned me to my doctoral studies. I graduated last year.

I’m now working in environmental geopolitics focusing on both intractable global conflict and climate change in the Arctic, co-chairing an Arctic climate working group for the UN’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission while finishing a few books about my own research and spending my spare time coaching Waynflete crew.

I am most grateful for Waynflete teaching me to write. Classes like Lorry Stillman and Judy Novey’s Word and Image instilled in me a love for multidisciplinary approaches that underlines my everyday.

recognizing that each will take a

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David Terrien ’86 London, U.K.

Louisa Smith ’07

Alison End Fineberg ’99

This September, I temporarily moved from Boston to Maine to finish my PhD and do a lot of hiking. After graduating from Waynflete, I majored in comparative literature and public health at Brown, taught third grade in South Dakota, earned my MS at UC Berkeley, and nearly completed my doctorate in epidemiology at Harvard. The silver lining to the pandemic is that now everyone understands what I do! I’ve been interested in epidemiology ever since writing my eighth-grade term paper on the HIV epidemic in Ben Mini’s class. It is the calculus I learned from David Neilan that I’ve used most often in my work. Right now I’m working on a large, international study of COVID-19 during pregnancy and looking forward to the time when epidemiology is no longer front-page news!

I attended Dartmouth College where I majored in Biology, modified with Psychological and Brain Sciences while competing internationally and instructing in Dressage. After a clinical research job in Boston, I spent more than seven years with the Clinton Health Access Initiative, living in Nigeria, Eswatini, and Lao PDR. Most recently, I was hired to set up a new global partnership to address the huge gap in access to assistive technology (e.g., wheelchairs, hearing aids, prostheses) globally.

This role with ATscale has brought me on a new adventure to Geneva with my husband, Tao, and my children, Tate and Nova.

Waynflete fostered my love of learning through its incredible teachers and helped me develop confidence to take on whatever really excites me.

different path through life.

Waynflete Virtual Reunion May 14–15, 2021 You can still connect, discover, and learn with your classmates— no travel required.

Now more than ever, let’s take advantage of every chance to be together.

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A Personal Trainer for Trying Times DURING THIS QUARANTINE it is so important— maybe even most important—to stay active,” says Ralph Nelson, Lower School Physical Education teacher. “Elevating your heart rate for just 20 or 30 minutes can improve fitness and help you feel better.”

During the sudden shutdown in the spring of 2020, Ralph’s fun and challenging video workouts, designed for remote learning, kept spirits (and heart rates) high. Students and their parents tuned in to try a wide range of exercises and to enjoy Ralph’s laugh-out-loud comedy, all filmed in his garage, home, and neighborhood.

Anytime you or your family need a quick pickme-up, log on to the link below and select one of Ralph’s Workouts of the Day (WOD), or a Workout of the Week (WOW) challenges. wf-link.org/ralph-wods

Making A Big Goal: 300 Wins Congratulations to boys soccer coach Brandon Salway for netting his 300th win in a match against Sacopee Valley High School on October 30, 2020!

As Waynflete Athletic Director Ross Burdick explained, “To reach this milestone, coaches need to have a long tenure and be a contender every year. Brandon would say the success comes from having great players who buy in. But it is coach Salway who creates the environment and tradition of success. Decades of alumni look back on their time playing Waynflete soccer fondly. I hope that Brandon will stay on the sidelines long enough to see 400 wins.”

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A Fond Farewell Waynflete said a fond farewell to the following faculty members at the close of the 2019–2020 school year. Drew Dubuque, Bob Olney, and Nancy “Mrs. T” Tetrault had an immeasurable impact on the lives of their students.

Drew Dubuque wf-link.org/dubuque

Bob Olney wf-link.org/olney

Nancy Tetrault (Mrs. T) wf-link.org/tetrault

40 Rose Bukowski-Thall ’24

In Memoriam THE WAYNFLETE COMMUNITY extends its sincere condolences to the families of the following alumni and faculty members, whose passing was shared with us between December 2019 and January 2021.

Alumni Joan Thurston Spear ’44 Dorothy Rich Andersen ’50 Fraley Denton Wright ’50 Carol Copeland Pratt ’57 Terri Holmes Kemp ’63 Christopher Monkhouse ’65 William Moody ’70 Suzannah McWilliams ’89 Gabe Rousseau ’96 Jacob Woods ’16 Spencer Sprague ’19

Faculty Katrina Rich

To send obituaries or remembrances of classmates, please email alumni@waynflete.org.

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Every gift is an opportunity to stay connected and stay safe.

Ways to give to the Waynflete Fund Gifts can be made via check, cash, securities, or credit card. Donors can also pledge their support and fulfill it later—anytime before June 30, 2021.

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Give online at waynflete.org/give.

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Give by mail to 360 Spring Street, Portland, Maine 04102.

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Give by phone at 207.774.7863, ext. 1120.

Every gift—of any size—makes a difference.

Parents of Alumni: If this magazine is addressed to a family member who no longer maintains a permanent address at your home, please email us (alumni@waynflete.org) with their new mailing address. Thank you.