bulletin summer 2013
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Alumni magazine of St. George's SchoolTRANSCRIPT
ST. GEORGE’SSummer/Fall Bulletin2013
St. George’s SchoolP.O. Box 1910Newport, RI 02840-0190
Non-ProfitOrganizationU.S. Postage
PAID St. George’s School
St. G
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Sum
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in From China to Stanford: Joanna Xu ’13 finds SG a
gateway to new intellectual territory BY SUZANNE L. MCGRADY
Now everybody knows her name: Military childMegan Daknis ’14 is a St. George’s Scholar BY SUZANNE L. MCGRADY
Honoring John and Ramsay Scott: Founders hope totake Scott Scholarship to the next level BY SUZANNE L. MCGRADY
Developing students—and supportersBY ROBERT WESTON
Chapel talks:Lions and tigers—and dragons. Oh my! BY JACK COATY ’13
Silver lining BY KATE HAMRICK ’13
Post Hilltop: Alumni/ae in the news
Class Notes
In this issue:
Left: Senior Prefect Alec Goodrich ’13 and Prefect Alexa Santry ’13 walk
arm-in-arm, leading graduates to the Front Circle on Prize Day.
PHOTO BY LOUIS WALKER
St. George’s SchoolMission Statement
In 1896, the Rev. John Byron Diman, founder
of St. George’s School, wrote in his “Purposes of
the School” that “the specific objectives of St.
George’s are to give its students the opportunity
of developing to the fullest extent possible the
particular gifts that are theirs and to encourage
in them the desire to do so. Their immediate
job after leaving school is to handle successfully
the demands of college; later it is hoped that
their lives will be ones of constructive service to
the world and to God.”
In the 21st century, we continue to teach
young women and men the value of learning
and achievement, service to others, and respect
for the individual. We believe that these goals
can best be accomplished by exposing students
to a wide range of ideas and choices in the
context of a rigorous curriculum and a sup-
portive residential community.
Therefore, we welcome students and teach-
ers of various talents and backgrounds, and we
encourage their dedication to a multiplicity
of pursuits—intellectual, spiritual, and physi-
cal—that will enable them to succeed in and
contribute to a complex, changing world.
St. George’s Policy on Non-Discrimination
St. George’s School admits male and
female students of any religion, race, color,
sexual orientation, and national or ethnic
origin to all the programs and activities
generally accorded or made available to stu-
dents at the school. It does not discriminate
on the basis of religion, gender, race, color,
sexual orientation, gender identity, gender
expression, or national or ethnic origin in
the administration of its educational policies,
scholarship and loan programs, or athletic
and other school-administered programs.
In addition, the school welcomes visits from
disabled applicants.
Upcoming Events2 013Thurs., Sept. 5Convocation ChapelClasses beginFri., Oct. 11–Sun., Oct. 13Alumni/ae of Color ConferenceFri., Oct. 25–Sat., Oct. 26Parents WeekendFri., Dec. 13, 7:30 p.m.Lessons and CarolsTues., Dec. 17, 7:30 p.m.Christmas Festival
2 014Fri., Feb. 14–Sat., Feb. 15Fifth-Form Parents WeekendFri., May 16–Sun., May 18Reunion WeekendMon., May 26Prize Day
Receptions, Young Alumni/ae Get-togethers and Career Networking Events coming to:
BostonChicagoHoustonNew YorkNewport
Palm BeachSan FranciscoWashington
Locations, dates and times to be determined
For information on these and additional events, contact Events Coordinator Ann Weston at [email protected] or 401.842.6731. Details will also be available on our website at
www.stgeorges.edu and the St. George’s School Facebook page, www.facebook.com/stgeorgesschool.
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN 1
From the editor’s desk ........................................................................................................................................2Hilltop archives ....................................................................................................................................................3A note from the Head of School ......................................................................................................................4Now everybody knows her name: Megan Daknis ’14 BY SUZANNE L. MCGRADY ........................................5From China to Stanford: Joanna Xu ’13 BY SUZANNE L. MCGRADY ................................................................8Chapel talks:
Lions and tigers—and dragons. Oh, my! BY JACK COATY ’13 ..............................................................10Silver lining BY KATE HAMRICK ’13 ..............................................................................................................12
Fac Chat: Q&A with Scott Stachelhaus ........................................................................................................14Scott Scholarship: Honoring John and Ramsay Scott BY SUZANNE L. MCGRADY ....................................17Julie Butler retires as head coach of girls basketball BY SUZANNE L. MCGRADY ....................................19Out with a splash: Tom Evans retires as swim coach BY SUZANNE L. MCGRADY ....................................22New Students: 2013-14 ....................................................................................................................................25Prize Day: Graduation 2013 ............................................................................................................................26Next steps: News from the College Counseling office ............................................................................32Global outreach ..................................................................................................................................................33Developing students—and supporters BY ROBERT WESTON ........................................................................38Campus happenings ..........................................................................................................................................40Faculty/staff notes ..........................................................................................................................................44Arts ........................................................................................................................................................................49SG Zone – Athletics ..........................................................................................................................................52Community service ............................................................................................................................................56Board notes..........................................................................................................................................................59Geronimo ..............................................................................................................................................................60Highlights: Student achievements ................................................................................................................61Reunion Weekend 2013....................................................................................................................................64Development: News from the Alumni/ae Office ......................................................................................67Post Hilltop: Former community members, alumni/ae in the news ....................................................69Bookstore..............................................................................................................................................................74Class Notes ..........................................................................................................................................................75
Right:
Math teacher Doug Lewis and his wife,
Third Form Dean and math teacher
Melanie Lewis, celebrate with
graduate Alana McMahon ’13
on Prize Day.
PHOTO BY RAY GAO ’15
On the cover:
A view of St. George’s from
the skies above Second Beach.
PHOTO BY LOUIS WALKER
Suzanne L. McGrady, editor
Dianne Reed, communications associate
Toni Ciany, class notes manager
Jeremy Moreau, web manager
Copy editors:Members of the Alumni/ae Office
Contributing photographers:Andrea Hansen, Kate Whitney Lucey,
Jeremy Moreau, Len Rubenstein, Louis Walker
The St. George’s Bulletin is published bi-annually. Send correspondence to [email protected].
St. George’sB u l l e t i n
C o n t e n t s
The Alumni/ae Magazine ofSt. George’s School
Newport, R.I.
This magazine is printed on paper that is certifiedby SmartWood to meet the Forest StewardshipCouncil™ standards. FSC sets high standardsthat ensure forestry is practiced in an environ-mentally responsible, socially beneficial and economically viable way.
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN2
St. George’sF r o m t h e e d i t o r ’ s d e s k
With every cycle of the Bulletin comes a
chance to deliver the news of the
school from the last sixth months—
and to connect with a new group of St. George’s
community members who have a story to share.
What I love about working on the Bulletin is
that through every interview I do for an article I get
to hear a variety of perspectives on life, wisdom
gained from so many disparate
experiences. With each story can
come a nugget of inspiration, a
shared revelation—and almost
always, a memorable quote.
Joanna Xu ’13 , came to St.
George’s four years ago from
Hangzhou, China, and is now
heading to one of the most
selective universities in the
United States. “It’s actually quite
interesting to try something
new,” she told me when I talked
to her about her four years at St.
George’s—and the impressive
and diverse resume of talents
she amassed as a student. As the
mother of an only child, however, what will stay
with me in particular was her positive take on
growing up without siblings as a result of China’s
one-child policy. (“From China to Stanford,” p. 8.)
Megan Daknis ’14—one of the first partici-
pants in the SG Scholars Program for children of
active-duty military personnel—shares her story in
“Now everybody knows her name,” p. 5. The
daughter of two Army officers, Megan has moved
around a lot, but she’s OK with that. Anyone who
fears change should read her story—and perhaps
adopt her attitude: “A change of scenery is a good
thing,” she says.
The big news from the Athletic Department
this spring is word that Julie Butler and Tom Evans
will be retiring from longtime coaching assign-
ments, Tom as head swim coach (p.22) and Julie as
girls’ varsity basketball coach (p.19). What struck
me when interviewing them was knowing there are
legions of student athletes out there who will
always remember and value their mentoring—and
those little things that helped bond their teams,
like a Beatles tune played at practice—or those
shared words of inspiration before tip-off.
Chapel talks, as well, can elicit some truly
memorable lines. I’ve never met Jack Coaty’s dad,
but I think he’s the coolest guy ever for the line he
delivered after his son won a less-than-lead role in
an elementary school play. (“Lions and tigers—and
dragons … Oh my!,” p. 10.)
And Kate Hamrick, well, I just call her Kate the
Great. I have my own personal reasons, but you
may have yours after you read her chapel talk (“Sil-
ver lining,” p. 12).
With this edition, we also launch a new feature
we’re calling Fac Chat (p. 14). It’s a Q&A with a
faculty member—conversations we hope will reveal
and highlight our faculty’s unique set of personali-
ties and talents. We kick off the feature with a chat
with science teacher Scott Stachelhaus, who is now
up there with Tom Hanks as the guy I would most
want on my late night talk show if I ever had one.
Oh, yes, those teachers … each of them makes
connections every school day with students who
share their passions, admire their wisdom or who
feel comforted by their support.
That’s why Prize Day is always so poignant—
and this year’s was no exception (p.26). With every
graduation each of us often has to say goodbye to a
beloved colleague, a student whose work we espe-
cially appreciated at correcting time, a favorite
editor of the student newspaper.
But something they once told us once—a
memorable line, written or spoken—will stay with
us forever.
My son Connor and Iin Colorado Springs,Colo., this summer.
Suzanne McGrady
Bulletin Editor
Like our coverphoto? It’s on sale asa poster in the St.George’s Bookstore,and photographicprints are availablefrom photographerLouis Walker. Visitour web site atwww.stgeorges.edu/TheBulletin forpurchasing infor-mation.
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN 3
In May the Gilbert Y. Taverner Archives was the
beneficiary of a treasure trove of materials: the memo-
rabilia of former head-
master William
Ackerman Buell Sr. ’14.
The gift was a do-
nation of Buell’s son,
former English teacher,
theater director and
hockey coach Tom
Buell and his wife,Joan, who also was ac-
tive in the St. George’s
theater program, when
the two lived here from
1957 to 1962.
The elder Buell re-
turned to St. George’s
to teach from 1919 to 1921, founded Camp Ramleh in
1926, and returned again to teach from 1929 to 1951.
He then served as headmaster from 1951 to 1961. A
thespian to the core, Buell is credited in “St. George’s
School: A History,” by Taverner with helping to “bring
dramatics to a sophistication during the 1930s.” Tav-
erner also added: “Buell’s interpretation of Dickens’ ‘A
Christmas Carol’ added dramatic flavor to the already
stimulating Christmas Festival.” He was also described
as “optimistic” and “filled with faith.”
Among Buell’s many mementos of his time on the
Hilltop were several photo albums containing more
than 200 pictures taken during his years as a student,
1910-1914. Also included in the gift were a book, Bre-
varium Romanum Pars AutumnalisNo. 88, c.1919, in-
scribed by our founder, the Rev. John B. Diman; the
elder Buell’s Honorary Doctor of Letters Degree from
Princeton; a photographic studio portrait of Buell
thought to be taken in either 1914 or 1918; and a
number of photographs that appear to have been
taken by faculty member Norris Hoyt of assorted St.
George’s School faculty leisure activities such as sailing
aboard Revonoc.
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This 1914 photo was captioned “Supper at School Dance.”
A tennis match vs. St. Mark’s, circa 1914.
Also from 1914, this photo was titled “Looking for U-boats with [Paul T.] Christie.”
A memorable gift
R E M E M B E R W H E N ?Hilltop archives
An undated photo ofWilliam Ackerman Buell Sr. ’14.
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN4
St. George’sF r o m t h e H e a d o f S c h o o l
For nearly 80 years, our family gathered each
summer at Rosehill, a rambling summer cot-
tage on the Canadian lakeshore west of Buf-
falo, N.Y. But this summer marks the end of an era
for us, as distant and disinterested branches of the
family forced the sale of the house last year. For our
side of the family, the loss of Rosehill ached all
through the winter, the wound growing more tender,
not less, as summer approached. But, as winter gave
way to spring, we resolved to preserve our gathering
in a new spot if necessary. So, this summer, the whole
extended Montesano clan—four sisters, their hus-
bands, and 14 of the 16 cousins—met in Newport,
taking Rosehill on the road.
As it turns out, it was a wonderful week. The older
cousins spent time at the Folk Festival and downtown
in Newport, while the younger ones overran the lawn
around Merrick House. The annual all-cousin Wiffle
Ball game has continued, and after a 25-year homes-
tand in Canada, now begins an indefinite road trip. To-
gether once more, we’ve had beach time, tennis, a
“bonfire” in a fire pit, and have preserved or replicated
nearly all of our family summer traditions.
In reflecting on our time together as a family, and
the importance of preserving the connections we feel
among one another even as times and circumstances
change, I am naturally reminded of the work of St.
George’s. One of the great strengths of our school is the
way in which our traditions and history inform so
much of what we do. From the Middlesex bonfire, to
the Christmas Festival, from academic challenges and
innovative courses to athletic championships, the heart
of the St. George’s experience is anchored in the shared
histories of its students and teachers going back more
than a century. At the same time, the school has never
been afraid to change. In the same way that our family
was able to preserve our traditions even as we changed
them, St. George’s has been able to hold on to the best
of its history and traditions, even as they have evolved
and been shaped by the needs of today’s students and
tomorrow’s world.
The cover photo of this edition of the Bulletin is
another, more visual, representation of this quality.
Though most of us can recall instinctively the view
from the school looking southeast over Sachuest point,
the view to the west is nearly as remarkable. In the
foregound, and at the center, stand the enduring heart
of the school—Old School, the Chapel and Memorial
Schoolhouse. Around them you can see the Hamblet
Campus Center, the glass tower of the Hill Library, and
at far right, the soon-to-be-renovated DuPont Science
building, where an expanded academic center will be
built. These represent the evolving present and in time,
the future of the school. And though you cannot see
them in the photo, running throughout everything is
the lifeblood of the school, our students and the de-
voted faculty who teach and mentor them. Finally, at
the top of the image you can see the far horizon, which
suggests the larger world and limitless possibilities for
which we are preparing our students. Of all of the ele-
ments of the St. George’s experience, this one, the
preparation of young people for what John Diman
called “lives of constructive service to the world” is
the most enduring.
And so as it is with families, so it is for schools.
Years follow years, but some things carry on no matter
what changes. We hope you enjoy this edition of the
Bulletin, and that the rest of your summer is filled with
just the right mix of family and friends, tradition and
novelty. See you all back in Newport soon.
Sincerely,
Eric F. Peterson
Head of School
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN 5
It was after one of those particularly exhaustingruns for exercise this past spring—the end of her first
year at St. George’s—when Megan Daknis
knew she’d … well let’s say … arrived.
Daknis—one of the first two stu-
dents to attend St. George’s from our
new SG Scholars Program for children of active mil-
itary personnel—had turned the corner onto Kane
Avenue and was coming back to her dormitory,
Zane, when she saw Manning Coe—an artsy, older
sixth former—coming the other way.
“Now I know Manning,” Daknis recalled. “Well,
A younger MeganDaknis ’14 welcomes
home her father,Army Signal OfficerSteve Daknis, follow-ing his deployment.
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Now everybodyknows her nameAfter moving with her military family multiple times,Megan Daknis ’14 finds a home base at St. George’sBY SUZANNE MCGRADY
Note: The St. George’s Scholars
Program was created in 2011
in support of the unique de-
mands and sacrifices made by
military personnel and their
families and to recognize mem-
bers of the armed forces and
their service to the nation. It
offers fully funded scholarships
to children of active-duty mil-
itary personnel.
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN6
I know who Manning Coe is and I was like, ‘I won-
der if he knows my name …’ and he passed me and
he was like, ‘Hey, Megan!’ and I was like, ‘Hey there.
How’s it going?’”
“I had never talked to him, but he knew who I
was,” she added, “and that was cool.”
For Daknis, feeling at home is a luxury not to be
underestimated. The daughter of two Army officers,
Daknis lived in eight different places before arriving
at her ninth—the Hilltop—last fall. She learned about
the St. George’s Scholars program while she was at-
tending a Department of Defense school in Stuttgart,
Germany in 2011-12 and she said the chance to at-
tend “this really cool school in the States instead of
being a new junior in Korea,” where her parents are
currently stationed—was a very attractive offer.
Born in Seoul, Korea, where she said she lived
“for a whole five weeks,” Daknis and her parents
moved to Williamsburg, Va., where her parents at-
tended graduate school at William and Mary. At 3,
Daknis went to Washington, D.C., with her father
while her mother went to Tennessee and then the
year after that the two rejoined her mom in Ten-
nessee. After that it was Charlottesville, Va., Fayet-
teville, N.C., San Antonio, Texas, and Germany.
Daknis’ mother, Wendy, a colonel, is a military
judge. Her father is a signal officer, a member of
the Signal Corps, which is responsible for the
Army’s entire systems of communication—voice,
data and information systems. “If there was a
cyber-attack, he’d be part of the team in charge of
defending us against it,” Daknis explained.
Both her parents have been deployed. Her father
has been to Afghanistan three times and her mother
was in Iraq for a year working with the Iraqis to help
them build up a judicial system. The two met in
ROTC at Duke. Military service runs in the family:
Daknis’ grandfather on her father’s side also was a
colonel in the Army.
Asked about her transient lifestyle, Daknis said
she’s more positive about it than she used to be. “I
remember when I was little I always hated moving,
but that’s what I do, so if I were to be down about it,
I would just be sad all the time,” she said. “I’ve
learned to adapt to new circumstances. It’s a change
in scenery every few years. It’s been good—just
starting fresh.” Besides, her parents’ recent post in
Germany allowed for some outstanding vacations.
“We had a four-day weekend every single month and
we went everywhere,” she said, naming almost all the
major European cities. She spent one Spring Break
in Croatia, Montenegro and Bosnia, and two weeks
one summer in Scotland.
QAt St. George’s, Daknis said she realized right
away that being the child of two military officers
was “a novel thing.”
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ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN 7
Megan delivers herprefect-electionspeech in April.
“[Non-military kids] always get the impression
that my dad is like this drill sergeant who yells at
me all the time,” she said. “He’s not. He’s a pretty
cool dude.”
Mostly she sees Americans’ appreciation for her
parents’ service.
“I feel like patriotism is at an all-time high right
now,” she said. When she was flying home to Korea
over Spring Break she said she was sitting next to a
couple traveling to Thailand. “We were chatting and
I told them my parents were in the Army and that’s
why I was going to Korea and they were like, “Oh,
tell your parents, ‘Thank you.’”
The sentiment touches her, she said. “I guess
that I see it first hand. Like when we say prayers in
the chapel for people in the military, I think, ‘Yeah,
that’s my parents doing that. It’s cool.’”
The walls of Daknis’ dorm room in Zane last
year were covered with movie posters: “The Men
Who Stare at Goats,” “My Cousin Vinny,” “Say Any-
thing,” “Oceans 11,” “Notting Hill,” “Braveheart,”
“The Thomas Crowne Affair.”
“My dad sent them periodically throughout
the year so I would have these little packages and
I would remember when I saw that with [him],”
she said.
When she was little the two would play a game
where her dad would give her a line from a movie
and she would have to guess the movie. “I’ve never
seen Casablanca, but I could give you every single
quote from that movie. Every single one,” she said.
Back home, which right now means Korea, Dak-
nis’ has 10-year-old twin sisters, who attend a DOD
school in Seoul, waiting for her. At the end of the
school year she traveled back to Seoul, where she
had plans to go to Vietnam for two weeks, volunteer
at an animal hospital on the base—and learn how
to drive. “I have my Korean permit,” she said. “It’s
orange. And it lets me drive on the base.”
Among her highlights from last school year she
counts getting through BC Calculus and being on
the spring community garden crew—a community
service project in place of sports, which she said
she’s “dreadful at.” “Having an afternoon activity
where I could do some manual labor was perfect,”
she said. “And we would go for runs afterward, so I
was still getting exercise.”
Of Roy Williams’ math class, she said, “Oh my
gosh. At my old school you could take five APs and
you would be all right … but that class … I remem-
ber we had our first three tests. I did poorly. But as I
got used to it, it just kind of fell into place.
“I did not fail Roy’s class,” she said triumphantly.
“I rocked it.”
Still it will be tough to top last spring’s prefect-
election speech day. That was the day everyone at St.
George’s, including Manning Coe, got to know
Megan Daknis a little better.
Despite her friends’ warnings, she wasn’t all that
nervous about her speech. She wanted to run for a
student leadership post, she said. And with the
speech, it all came down to a good outline: “I had the
three basic parts,” she said, “… the part where I said
how quiet I was, the part when I was talking about
my name not rhyming with anything, and the part
where I was promising things that we already have.”
Delivered in her personable, deadpan style, the
speech elicited more than a few laughs.
For Daknis, most of all it was a huge feeling of
acceptance—and affection—from her peers.
“In between me talking about my name not
rhyming and the stuff we already have there was this
moment when I couldn’t talk because everyone was
clapping,” she said. “And I just stood there and
smiled. It was the greatest feeling in the entire world.”
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EORG
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ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN8
When Joanna Xu ’13 got word this springshe’d been accepted to one of the most se-
lective colleges in the U.S., she called her
parents back in Hangzhou, China. “I got into Stan-
ford,” she said. They were still sleeping—but it didn’t
take long for the news to sink in. “I could hear my dad
screaming,” Xu said. “He was so excited.”
Now, as she prepares to move onto the famed Palo
Alto, Calif., campus, Xu counts her close relationship
with her parents—likely born, she says, from China’s
one-child policy—as one of the keys to her success.
“One of the drawbacks of being an only child is I don’t
have any siblings to hang out with or share secrets
with—but that also contributes to my strong bond with
my parents,” she said. Her mother, a college German
professor, and father, who owns a high-tech company,
“could probably take credit for being my permanent
mentors and also my partners in exploring new worlds.”
A talented piano player, academic powerhouse and
ferocious junior varsity hockey player during her ca-
reer at SG, Xu’s journey from the capital city of China’s
Zhejiang Province to the Stanford campus has been fu-
eled by persistence, cultural adaptation—and an in-
tense desire to learn.
When she arrived on the Hilltop in 2009, Xu knew
only of what she’d seen on our web site. Mainly, she
said, she remembers the photo of Head of School Eric
Peterson and his, wife Krista. “They looked so friendly,”
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From China to StanfordJoanna Xu ’13 finds St. George’s the gateway to new intellectual territory BY SUZANNE MCGRADY
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN 9
she said. She was coming from a middle school in
China where there were 400 students in each grade and
teachers posted exam scores on a bulletin board in the
hallway. “I don’t think I appreciated that,” Xu said,
“even if I got a good score.”
At SG, she said, she found “a small and tight
community.”
“I think all the faculty and student relationships
are really close,” she added. “People are so nice and wel-
coming here, it makes me feel like it’s a family instead
of an institution.”
Freshman year, however, was a challenge. Though
she had learned English in elementary school, there
was still a language barrier. “At the beginning I would
try really hard to organize something that I wanted to
say, but by the time I was ready, [the class was] on to
the next subject.”
Likewise, there was some culture shock. “Just living
here …” she said. “I had no clue how to use a self-service
washing machine. I had no idea what to wear to the
freshman dances. And school spirit … I had never heard
of those things before. We didn’t do that back in China.”
Little by little, though, her musical talents and intel-
lectual prowess put her in the spotlight. A multiple aca-
demic award winner, she also played flute and piano in
numerous performances—skills honed back in China.
When Xu was little—5 or 6 years old—her mother
had just one rule for her: She must play piano one-
and-a-half to two hours a day. And her mom would sit
on the piano bench the whole time. “That was proba-
bly the only time that my mom really pushed me hard,”
she said, “but nowadays when I look back I just really
appreciate it.”
In 2010, varsity hockey captain Julia Rahill ’12, a
dorm mate, convinced her to try her sport. “I started
ice hockey my sophomore year winter and now it’s
crazy,” she said. “I’m completely in love with it.”
Xu’s advisor, English teacher Patricia Lothrop, said
it was sometimes hard to jibe the graceful, piano-play-
ing academic with the merciless defenseman on the ice.
“You’d see her in her filmy little outfits and fair skin
performing and you couldn’t put that together with the
absolute tiger … with the hair flying and the elbows,”
she said.
It was all part of the Xu enigma: Never one for
conforming, Xu would experiment with hair color the
same way she would experiment with a new piece of
music.
“She has what we wish for every one of our stu-
dents—and that is intellectual curiosity,” Lothrop said.
Assistant Head of School for Academic Affairs Pat
Moss, who taught Hu Latin, said what impressed her
about Hu was her transformation “… from a girl who
was almost neurotic about academics—to someone in
her senior year who absolutely embraced learning,”
Moss said. “St. George’s did that for her.”
The past few years Xu’s current interest in medical
research has fueled many of her pursuits outside class.
Last summer she spent three weeks in Paris interning
in the drug development division at the Curie Institute
as part of St. George’s Global Cultural Initiatives Pro-
gram directed by French teacher Allison de Horsey.
She’s worked at the University of Pennsylvania doing
research on a breast cancer-targeting drug, and at Mi-
cropoint Bioscience Inc. in Santa Clara, Calif., learning
about medical equipment for testing blood clotting.
Evidence of her persistence, she did research in a bio-
engineering lab at Washington University last summer
normally reserved for Ph.D. and medical students—an
assignment she lobbied for a year before the professor
in charge agreed to take the 17-year-old.
Among her many sources of inspiration, Xu counts
the late Apple founder Steve Jobs, author Malcolm
Gladwell, and the 19th century composer Franz Liszt.
Jobs, she said, thinks like her father. “‘Explore new
things,’ he would tell me. ‘You might be the only one
who will start doing this … but a lot of people will fol-
low you.’”
“It’s really important to do something different
and unique,” she said. “It’s a pretty important path
to success.”
Joanna Xu ’13 celebrates Prize Dayin May with her auntand uncle, who livein Massachusetts.
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ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN10
Following is the script of a chapel talk delivered on
April 30, 2013.
Afew days ago I confided in someone that I was
nervous to give this chapel talk, because I had
no idea what to talk about. I received the kind
of advice that one can only get from a best friend of
many years. “Skip it,” said Reid [Burns ’13]… it’s not
like anyone will notice.”
[Audience laughs.] …
When I was in the first grade, I was in “The Wiz-
ard of Oz.” If you don’t know the story, the Sparknotes
are as follows: a band of misfits each need some-
thing—be it a heart for the Tin Man, courage for the
Cowardly Lion, or a brain for the Scarecrow. They em-
bark on a journey to the Land of Oz to retrieve said
objects. The play was an enormous production, with
kids from all over the island and a prep time of about
six months, from the first meetings in November to
the performance in April. Though it’s quite some time
ago now, I can still remember one of our first re-
hearsals, where we were to learn our roles that we’d be
embracing owning over the next half year. It was hard
not to be excited. Would our director, Eddy, consider a
first-grader for a lead role? I had my heart set on the
Tin Man (no pun intended), but even I realized that it
was probably ambitious for a first-time actor. OK,
maybe a lesser role, someone who has their time to
shine but won’t have to memorize a million and one
lines? I decided worst-case scenario, I’d just take the
role of the actual Wizard of Oz—there’d be no prob-
lem reading lines from behind a curtain. When I fi-
Jack Coaty ’13 was awarded the Centennial Prize atgraduation in May.
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C H A P E L T A L K SDifferent Takes
Lions andtigers–anddragons.Oh, my!
BY JACK COATY ’13
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN 11
nally got there, I ran in to check the cast list. I looked
down near the J’s and found my name.
Jack Coaty … Flower Number Three.
It can be a crippling blow to a first grader’s confi-
dence when he isn’t even the most important flower
around. I mumbled my way through my three lines,
and when my dad came to pick me up, I told him I was
going to quit the play. He managed to convince me that
I should give it just a bit more time (funny how you
usually end up convinced when your dad is a lawyer),
and he decided we should go get Awful Awfuls to cheer
me up. Always witty and never hesitant to rub salt in a
wound, he added, “or we could grab some Miracle-Gro
if you’re feeling hungry too.” You know the rest of the
story … the rehearsals were fun and I became friends
with the rest of my garden. And so the legend of
Flower Number Three was born.
With three lines throughout the whole play, I got
to spend a lot of time watching the actual plot unfold.
When you experience something hundreds of times
over, it tends to stick with you, no matter how long ago
it was … which is precisely how I still know the lyrics
to every song on the original “Kidz Bop” CD (Thank
you, Santa), or that Angle Side Side is not a theorem
and should never be abbreviated … (Thank you, Mrs.
Evans). “The Wizard of Oz” stuck with me. The play
contains lessons that I’ve kept with me in the decade
plus since my time as Flower Nubmer Three, and the
characters’ searches can apply to us all as SG students.
“Wait…did he just say that we need to get a brain?”
Not exactly. Each character seeks something that can
come in handy at St. George’s. Let’s start with the Cow-
ardly Lion. Every day St. George’s peppers us with op-
portunities to engage in what we might never be able
to do anywhere else. Become a prefect and be a role
model for 30 impressionable freshmen? Do it. Talk to
about 400 people on a play with wicked witches and
ruby slippers? Hey, Ms. Tierney let me up here. Sail a
thousand nautical miles on a 69-foot boat and learn
how to be self sufficient? Sure, you’re going to end up
cleaning the head at some point, but it all becomes
worth it when you’re snorkeling with sea turtles or sail-
ing through the Bahamas when dawn breaks. Courage
is a must when attending St. George’s. We can make so
much of our experience here, and it’s all dependent on
taking the first step. Be bold enough to take a chance.
Then there’s the Tin Man. St. George’s has proved
it can be such an awesome place when people are ac-
tively compassionate. If the “SG Compliments” [page]
hasn’t at least once made you smile then … well you
must not have Facebook. The Community Service
Council members have done amazing things by being
willing to give up their time to help others. One of the
best things I experienced this winter was walking into
the Schoolhouse to be greeted with Post-it Notes telling
me: “You look good today” and “You’re gonna rock this
test!” Watching everyone rally behind Mr. Peterson’s
two-acts-of-kindness idea made it clear we have an
amazing student body. So my advice to the SG com-
munity in terms of the Tin Man would not be to find
your heart—it would be to keep using it.
Finally there’s my favorite character, the Scarecrow.
In this sense, find-your-brain is not meant to be taken
literally (though I’m sure some who teach seniors dur-
ing these last months would say it applies very liter-
ally), it just means learn. Learn all that there is to be
learned at a place like this. Talk to someone who lives
across the globe from you, just to see the world from
his or her point of view. Talk to your teacher about
what they know best, because you’ll discover so much.
Mr. Evans could make lint seem incredible if he ex-
plained it to you. Learn what you like to learn about,
and learn about it.
Those three aren’t the only ones looking for some-
thing. Dorothy, the main character, embarks on this
crazy journey only to find home. Luckily enough for us,
we’ve found it. The fact that we’re all here in this chapel
means we’ve made SG a home of ours in some way, a
home that I’m sure I and the rest of the Class of 2013
are going to miss dearly. Enjoy it. St. George’s has been
amazing for me, so much so that it has become my
home-away-from-home. All 1.7 miles of it.
To sum up how incredible it is, and how much you
can really achieve here, I have to borrow from “The
Wizard of Oz” one last time.
There’s no place like St. George’s.
Jack Coaty ’13 of Newport, R.I., will attend
Georgetown University this fall. He can be reached
C H A P E L T A L K S
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN12
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Silver liningA medical diagnosis prompts one student to findfulfillment in taking a new pathBY KATE HAMRICK ’13
C H A P E L T A L K SDifferent Takes
Kate Hamrick ’13and Suzanne
McGrady, facultyadvisor to the Red &White, on Prize Day.
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN 13
Following is the script of a chapel talk that was
delivered on April 30, 2013.
Describe a time when you were in a minor-ity,” read one of my college supplements.Looking at me, most would assume that I
have no experience being in a minority. In fact, dur-ing a history class debate one of my peers even saidto me, “You would say that. You’re like the face ofwhite America.” So what does the “face of whiteAmerica” know about being in a minority? Well Iam actually a part of one of the smallest minoritiesin our school. I am one of the few technically classi-fied, if not the only, physically disabled students atSt. George’s.
My freshman year, I was diagnosed with a typeof arthritis called Spondyloarthropathy. Arthritis isthe inflammation and deterioration of joints. The typeof arthritis I have is spread from my body attackingitself and occurs in only .03 percent of the popula-tion, and is more common in men. Basically, I’mpretty special.
The hardest part of my disease has been learninghow to adjust my perception of myself from an ath-lete to somebody who has trouble writing with a pen-cil, has difficulty walking, and in the past few weeksno longer has been able to do stairs without grippinga railing. Part of the problem was that I tried to hidethe severity of my condition from everybody exceptmy close friends. I just never wanted the pity fromanybody and I wanted to know that I had earnedeverything I achieved. But with only four weeks leftof my senior year, I needed to give this chapel talkfor me. I need to finally let go of that person I camehere as and solely focus on the person I am now. Andhonestly, I can’t describe how good it feels to knowwho you are and not want to be anybody else, evenwith all the challenges you face.
Being in a minority is more than having a differ-ent appearance than others; it’s about having a differ-ent experience. I look similar to a lot of myclassmates, but the way I experience each day is verydifferent. Because my disability is not apparent, peo-
ple don’t realize what I am going through, which attimes makes me feel very alone. Even my friends,who know all about my disease, can’t even under-stand the pain and emotional distress I experiencedaily. Being in a minority, I am able to recognize amultiplicity of perspectives. I now see the world froma different vantage point, and because of that I canrelate to others who feel different or alone.
A teacher once told me that freedom boosts cre-ativity and limitations inhibit creativity, but I dis-agree with that statement. I believe freedom providesmore options, but limitations force you to be creativeand look for alternatives. I would be lying to say Idon’t miss my old life, but my new life is more ful-filling. Being sick forced me to give up athletics andfind something else to love. Since becoming sick Ihave discovered my passion for design and I don’tknow if I would have ever discovered it otherwise.
Every day for me is a battle both physically andemotionally, but somehow I manage to find the willto get up every morning and just live my life. I haveabsolutely no control over my body, which can bevery scary, but I do have control over my spirit. Ichoose to push through every day with determina-tion, continually try new medications and alternativetherapies in an attempt to get better, and to pursuewhat I love even though it can be physically difficult.
The word ‘minority’ generally has an air of nega-tivity, as if being in a minority is a horrible thing, butI don’t think it has to be. Being different forced me tobe independent, strong willed, and confident in who Iam. Living with my disease has made me feel em-powered because I now know I can overcome anychallenge and achieve anything I put my mind to.
Although I am technically classified as physi-cally disabled, I spend every day trying to redefinewhat that means instead of letting it dictate what Ican do. I have a disability, but I’m not disabled. I’mnot broken; I’m just special.
Kate Hamrick ’13 of Princeton, N.J., will attend
Sarah Lawrence College this fall. She can be reached
“
C H A P E L T A L K S
PHOTO BY SUZANNE MCGRADY
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN 15
Q: You recently earned your doctorate from theUniversity of Rhode Island. What was the name of your thesis? A: “An Evaluation of the Efficacy of Radium Isotopes
as Tracers of Coastal Mixing and Submarine Ground-
water Discharge.” I used that title because “Harry
Potter and the Goblet of Fire” was already taken.
Q: Did you celebrate when you finished?A: I did, but not as much as I expected beforehand. More
than anything, I just felt an enormous sense of relief.
Q: Were you into science fairs as an elementaryschool student? Do you remember some inventionsyou created as a kid?A: I recall doing them, but I wasn’t overly enthusiastic
about it at the time. One of my science projects was
about evaluating dogs’ intelligence, which I remember
enjoying because I got to play with a bunch of dogs.
When I was in third grade, I created an invention called
“Scat, Cat!” that was designed to scare cats away from
your car. It was very much something conceived and
built by a third-grader. I think it essentially consisted of
a box with a bell in it. In retrospect, that invention
would probably attract more cats than it would scare,
but, at the time, I was pretty sure that it would make
me rich and famous.
Q: Was there a book you read more than once as a little kid?A: There was a book called “Whales and Sharks and
Other Creatures of the Deep” by Susanne Santoro
Miller that I must have read over a hundred times
when I was a kid. I skipped over the page about jelly-
fish a lot, though, because jellyfish creeped me out
(and, if I’m being honest, they still do).
Q: Who are your science heroes? A: I know this may sound dubious coming from a
teacher in a magazine about a high school, but my
science hero is actually my high school science
teacher, Ross McCurdy. A lot of what I do in my class
has been inspired by him in some way or another. He
was not only a great teacher, but he has also put to-
gether the world’s first hydrogen fuel cell-powered
rock band (that played at Lollapalooza, believe it or
not), and he recently became an aviation pioneer by
flying a biofuel-powered plane from Rhode Island to
Kitty Hawk, N.C.
Q: What is the subject in Trivial Pursuit (or category on “Jeopardy”) you’d ace that we wouldn’t necessarily guess?A: Geography, although that may not exactly be a
shocker. I suppose I also know a surprising amount
about hip-hop music. My working knowledge about
hip-hop is mostly about stuff more than five years old
though, so I’m a bit out of touch.
Q: What are you up to this summer?A: I plan on doing a lot of reading and relaxing.
I’m also attending an AP conference in Vermont
and I hope to take a couple of woodworking classes.
Fac Chat
Scott StachelhausQ&A with an SG faculty memberBY SUZANNE MCGRADY
Joined the faculty: 2011
Teaches: Chemistry & Environmental Sciences
Coaches: Football, Track
Dorm Assignment: Head of Diman Hall
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN16
Science teacher ScottStachelhaus workswith Alex Elron ’12and Elodie Germain’12 in the HillLibrary last year.
PHOTO BY LEN RUBENSTEIN PHOTOGRAPHY
Q: What’s your favorite SG tradition?A: I love the senior-faculty basketball game. It’s great
to have everyone out there having fun and supporting
each other, regardless of skill levels. Playing basketball
is one of my favorite things to do and, plus, it’s not
every day that I get to miss wide-open layups in front
of a large crowd.
Q: What do you miss most about being a highschool student?A: I always loved sports; I suppose I miss the competi-
tion, camaraderie and fun that is unique to being an
athlete on a high school sports team.
Q: What’s your favorite meal in King Hall?A: I look forward to the “McGeorge’s” burger night.
Q: What is one unit/subject, etc., that you are teach-ing this upcoming year that you’re pumped about?A: This will be my first year teaching Environmental
Science. I like the intersection of the more traditional
physics-chemistry-biology science with real-world
applications, so I’m really excited to teach this subject.
Q: If I weren’t a science teacher, I’d be a ...A: I’d likely be doing scientific research somewhere
or another.
Q: Best night in the dorm last year was when ...A: I had a fun time watching the end of the deciding
Bruins-Maple Leafs game 7 with the guys in Arden.
The common room was packed to the gills, and I en-
joyed the combination of celebration (by B’s fans)
and utter disgust (by everyone else) that was ex-
pressed after the Bruins scored the game-winning
goal in overtime.
Q: Some day I’d like to do scientific research in ...A: My graduate field research involved going to such
exotic locations as coastal Rhode Island and the North At-
lantic Ocean (in the winter, no less), so I’d love to do some
sort of field work in a warm and inviting location.
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN 17
While fundraising often joins people with similar
goals and interests, founders of the Ramsay and John Scott
’65, P’01 Scholarship say they’ve been over-
whelmed by the number of donors who have
come together to lend more than their money;
they want to lend their life experience.
Named in memory of John Scott ’65, a St. George’s
history teacher from 1991-94, and his wife, Ramsay—who
both died prematurely—the Scott Scholarship was created to
help bring a student to SG who has lost one or both parents
and who could not otherwise afford to attend and to provide
them with the services and support they may need. For
many—including the Scotts’ only son, ’01, the scholarship
also offers a chance to reach out to others who have experi-
enced the pain of losing a primary caregiver, or who know
someone who has.
“What I’m hoping we can do is make life easier for
the person who is going through a very difficult time in
their lives,” said Alexander Tuff ’93, who along with
Andrew, Charles Barzun ’93, Geoffrey Siebengartner ’93,Clay Rives ’93 and Briney (Dillon) Burley ’93 founded the
scholarship two years ago. “There’s no blueprint as to how
to work through these things. But just serving as a sup-
port system that the student can reach out to whenever
they need someone … that’s what we want to be.”
The Scott Scholarship has received donations totaling
$130,000 through what Tuff called “an amazing grass-
roots effort.” Overall more than 150 donors—a majority
of them alumni/ae from 10 classes from the 1960s to the
2000s—have made gifts to the Scott Scholarship Fund.
By all accounts, the Scotts were the quintessential
faculty couple. Kind-hearted and generous, the two
presided lovingly over a spirited group of boys in Auch-
incloss Dormitory, many of whom recall playing video
games or setting up miniature hockey or basketball
games in the hallways with Andrew, who was then in
elementary school.
“Their family was the
school,” Tuff said of the Scotts.
“They would always have
dorm dinners. Some families
like to have a little privacy, but
they were always very open,
very inviting,” he said.
John Scott had St.
George’s in his blood—both
his father, Robert Scott ’34,
and brother, Robert Scott Jr.
’63, graduated from St.
George’s. When he returned
to teach here, he approached
his job with gusto, playing
guitar to entertain the stu-
dents on Saturday nights and regaling the students in his
classes with stories from his boyhood and his experiences
as an accomplished sailor. A Harvard grad, Scott went on
to earn an advanced degree in maritime folklore from the
Memorial University of New Foundland in St. John’s—
and he told a good story, according to Tuff, who was in
what would be one of Scott’s last classes. “He couldn’t have
been any happier, but you also knew he was gravely sick,”
Tuff said. He remembers Scott as a teacher offering up
“nuggets of life that would capture everyone’s attention.”
“I felt like it was two classes, one in Chinese history
… and one in life,” he said.
Meanwhile Ramsay Scott, a passionate supporter of
the sports teams with a special fondness for lacrosse and a
dedicated summer school employee, found St. George’s
her ultimate home, according to Andrew Scott. Having
gone to boarding school herself, he said, “She always
dreamed of having her own family on a campus.”
When John Scott died of complications from a liver
transplant in 1994, Andrew was between sixth and
seventh grade at St. Michael’s Country Day School.
The Scott fam-ily—John ’65,his wife, Ram-say, and theirson, Andrew’01—in 1992.
PHOTO
COURTESY
OFTH
ELA
NCE1992
Honoring John and Ramsay Scott—and giving a student help in a time of needFounders hope to take Scott Scholarship ‘to the next level’
BY SUZANNE MCGRADY
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN18
Life was already challenging, but when Ramsay died of
cancer just a few years later, Andrew said, he needed his
St. George’s classmates more than ever. “I wouldn’t have
made it through those years without the love and sup-
port I received from so many incredible friends,” he
said. “So that bond is very strong. I consider those
friends my family and I know they will always be a large
part of my life.” Working on this effort, he added, is a
way to give back and to help others who have had a
similar experience.
As soon as word that the Scott Scholarship was being
formed, Tuff said people clamored to help. “The mission
of the scholarship has a lot of resonance with people,” he
said. “Many who have lost one or more of their own
parents have come forward—as well as many who knew
Andrew and the Scotts.”
Donors have told Tuff that they like knowing their
gift really makes a positive impact at a critical point in a
student’s life. “If you lose a parent, this experience could
actually reshape your life—academically, athletically,
socially. It really does make a difference.” To be able to
work closely with Andrew, reconnect with so many old
friends and give to something that is meaningful and
impactful is “hugely rewarding for me and really everyone
involved,” Tuff added. “The effort has given in so many
more ways than it ever intended to. It really doesn’t get
any better than that.”
Now Scott and Tuff have big plans. Their hope is to
raise a million dollars to make the scholarship a perma-
nent funding vehicle for a full-tuition scholarship. And
not only will future recipients gain funding to attend a
premier boarding school, they’ll get their own private
network of supporters as well. “Where the scholarship
differentiates itself is the idea that not only are we helping
financially, but we’re going to be there in a mentoring role
and help to pick up this person or help them make their
way through a challenging time,” Scott said. “Whether it’s
a recent loss or whether they’ve been without a parent for
some time, that student will have some unique hurdles
that I’m very familiar with and a few of my other friends
on the committee are familiar with—and that’s where we
can be of value.”
Next up, according to Tuff, will be to build a five-to-
seven-person Board of Advisors that will be tasked with
developing and executing a multiyear fundraising strategy
“to help raise enough money to provide a full scholarship
and to ensure that the integrity of the scholarship and our
mission remains intact.” The original 55-member Steering
Committee, Tuff added, will continue to serve as the core
community behind the new effort and be the stable of
mentors for future scholarship recipients.
The Scott Scholarship
was awarded for the first time
this past school year to Kemi
Richardson ’13, who lost her
father—a one-time Peace
Corps volunteer in Uganda
who received his master’s
degree in mathematics at
Harvard—when she was 10.
Kemi graduated in May and
will attend Claremont-
McKenna College in Califor-
nia this fall.
“I wish I had appreciated my dad’s presence in my life
so much more,” Richardson told the community in a
chapel talk earlier this year. She urged students to be
thankful for the adults around them. “Don’t walk these
halls and dorms not appreciating everyone all around
you,” she said. And while she
said she struggled mightily with the decision to leave
home—particularly to leave her mom and her sister—she
called attending St. George’s the “best decision” of her life.
Andrew Scott said he wants to give that same oppor-
tunity to more students—and that’s just what his parents
would’ve wished for. “They both had a lot of love for each
other,” he said, “and together they both had a love and a
passion for helping kids become the best people they
could be.”
PHOTO
BYANDREA
HANSEN
To donate to the Ramsay and John Scott ’65, P’01
Scholarship, go to www.stgeorges.edu/support/gift note
“For the Scott Scholarship” in the comment section.
Kemi Richardson ’13
A photo fromReunion Week-end in 2011shows AndrewScott ’01—sec-ond from theright in the backrow—celebratinghis 10th reunionwith classmates.
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN 19
Julie Butler has stepped down from the girls basket-
ball program after serving as head coach of the varsity
squad for the past 23 seasons. Winning more than 200
games throughout her Dragon career—the most of any
St. George’s basketball coach—she’s also posted a win-
ning record in nine of the past 11 seasons and taken her
team eight times to the New England independent
school playoffs during that time.
Assistant Head of School for Student Life Katie
Titus, who was one of Butler’s assistants for the past
eight seasons, will take over as head coach for the
2013-14 winter season.
Following is a Q & A with Butler following her
decision this spring.
Q. Can you tell me about some particularly memo-
rable games in your coaching career? They could be
wins or losses, but they stand out in your mind as a
time when your team just pulled together and played
with grit and determination.
A. At the time, I couldn’t imagine ever wanting to
recount to anyone our 1996 47-1 loss against Tabor,
but time has helped me to laugh about it and it was,
undeniably, a memorable game. A young and inexperi-
enced SG team got hit with our share of a campus-
wide virus, but we still took a small group down to
Marion in December to play a talented Tabor squad,
one that advanced to the Class A finals that year. After
going scoreless in the first half, one of my all-time
Julie Butler shares afinal day on thecourt with team co-captain OonaPritchard ’13 (inbackground).
Julie Butler retires as headcoach of girls basketballBY SUZANNE MCGRADY
PHOTO
BYJEREM
YMOREA
U
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN20
favorite assistant
coaches, Doug
Lewis, reassured me
that the ball would
drop for us in the
second half. It was
late in the game
when we hit our
first and only
field goal. A
heartless ref-
eree, however,
called travel-
ing on our
player, and
the field goal was
erased. With only a minute or so remain-
ing, freshman Kristen Olson ’00, thankfully put us on the
board by hitting one free throw.
The ’04-’05 NEPSAC Class B final game against
an older and bigger New Hampton team may be the
most memorable game of my coaching career. On
paper, we didn’t match up well. New Hampton, who
moved up to Class A the following year and made it
to the finals again, carried several post graduates and
started three players over 6 feet (our tallest player was
5-foot-8). A fan described it after the game as “a
David and Goliath match-up.” It was an electrifying
and emotional battle that went down to the wire,
simply due to the grit and determination of our play-
ers. We had an opportunity to win it with the last
shot, but unfortunately came up one point short in
an incredible team effort. I still haven’t had the stom-
ach to watch the film of that game (…maybe next
winter?!) That same year, we beat longtime Class B
opponent Brooks School for the first time in many
years: once in the regular season and again in the
NEPSAC semi-finals.
One of the most memorable wins against Middle-
sex came when the 1999 SG team was down by 7
points with 40 seconds left in the game and pulled out
the win in regulation up in Concord.
The 2013 team’s upset win against eventual Class B
runner-up Pomfret in February is our most recent
memorable win. We won 52-38.
The girls also have taken a lot of pride in dominat-
ing island rival Portsmouth Abbey and ISL rival Mid-
dlesex over the past 11 years.
It was always fun for our team to play in front of a
packed Van Beuren gym and we were fortunate to play
and win some exciting “Friday Night Lights” and home
playoff games over the years with the stands full of
loud and cheering fans.
Q: Did each of your teams have its own “slogan,”
song, routine, ritual or phrase—or has one such theme
existed across many of your teams? I’m thinking of the
Evanses’ “Pain can be fun,” for the swim team or the
football team’s habit of gathering to say the Lord’s
Prayer.
A. There hasn’t been a common slogan through 23
years, but this year’s theme was “concentrate on what
you can control.”
Every year since 1989, we have had a pre-Middle-
sex dinner at my house. Up until a few years ago, we
would watch the movie “Hoosiers” for inspiration.
We also recognize any player who takes an offensive
charge during a game. It started with my “I bit the dust
award” and consisted of a baggie filled with dust and
dirt and a typed “I bit the dust and took one for the
team” stapled to it. Assistant Coach Katie Titus gave this
award a big face-lift when she joined the coaching staff
in 2005, replacing the bag of dust with a delicious home-
made pie given to players at our end-of-season dinner.
When we began playing Miss Porter’s School three
years ago and learned that their mascot was the “Fight-
ing Daisies,” Veronica Scott ’12 began a tradition of
writing and reading an inspirational poem before the
game. Caroline Thompson ’13 successfully took over
Veronica’s duties this year.
Our players and coaches have a ritual of always
touching the wall above the team room door after our
pre-game talk and before every home game.
Although we were not able to fit it into the sched-
ule this year, I hope that the Perkins Swim Meet will
continue in the years ahead. The meet began in 2009
A No. 23 jersey—for Julie Butler’s 23seasons as headbasketball coach—was signed by the2012-13 team.
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN 21
after former basketball player Anna Mack ’09 and I met
during the summer to plan a community service proj-
ect for the team. At the time, Anna’s twin brother was a
student at Perkins School for the Blind. It has been a
powerful event to be a part of.
Q: Who are your own basketball heroes?
John Havlicek was probably my first basketball
hero. He was a classy player that I admired for always
doing what was needed for the good of the team and
he never sought the limelight. I had an opportunity to
meet him while coaching at Weston High School in
1984 and then had a chance to see him again when his
daughter, Jill, played basketball for Nobles during my
first two years at SG. Since I became a coach, I have fol-
lowed many college coaches and attended lots of
coaching clinics. I’m not sure that I would consider any
of them my heroes, but I certainly have tremendous re-
spect for many of them: Pat Summit, John Wooden, C.
Vivian Stringer, Tara Vanderveer, Vance Walberg—and
I have to add fellow Mainer Joanne Palombo-McCallie!
Q: Pat Summit said, “Most people get excited
about games, but I’ve got to be excited about practice,
because that’s my classroom.” Was it like that/differ-
ent for you?
A: I haven’t heard Coach Summit’s quote before,
but I think that would be an accurate description of
my philosophy as well. I loved practice, not only for the
opportunity to teach basketball, but because it was a
setting where you really got to know the players and
they got to know you.
Q: How will you direct your time now that you
won’t be coaching during the winter season?
A: I’m not exactly sure what next winter will look
like since I will be traveling through unknown terri-
tory. I think Higgins and Boo [Butler’s two golden re-
trievers] will be happy to see more of me during the
winter months! The plan right now is to spend some
time converting old VHS tapes to DVDs and to hand
over 23 years of game tapes to Val Simpson in the
archives. I’ll continue my volunteer work as statistician
for NEPSGBCA basketball. And I am looking forward
to supporting our current and former players. This will
be the first year that I will have the time to see our
most recent alums play: Laura Lowry ’10 (Middlebury),Mary O’Connor ’11 (Babson), D.J. Wilson (Roanoke) ’12,Jess Hom ’13 (Deerfield Academy) and Theresa Salud
’13 (Hamilton College).
Q: You played basketball yourself as a student. What
established your love of the game? What are your earli-
est memories of playing basketball/going to games?
A: From as far back as I can remember, I spent
countless hours playing basketball on a homemade
hoop at the end of our dead-end street in Maine. My
friends and I helped start a fifth- and sixth-grade girls’
league in the winter of 1973. The boys had a well-es-
tablished league and we worked with the athletic direc-
tor to get the girls side started for all 10 elementary
schools in our city. Little did I know that this was close
to the year that Title IX was passed. My mom and
grandfather, who had both played basketball, coached
our team. They were very influential in my early years
of playing and I don’t believe that they missed a game
from elementary through high school. They were huge
Celtics fans and I caught their passion for that team
somewhere along the way. Over the last 24 years, my
parents and other family members have supported St.
George’s girls’ basketball for several games each season
and also traveled with us on both trips to the K.S.A.
tournament at Disney World. My family has been an
incredible support system from my early playing days
to my final year coaching.
Q: How has your love of basketball affected your life?
A: Well, as maybe only other basketball coaches
might appreciate, basketball has made life a little nutty
at times … but mainly in a good way! I am thankful to
the sport for giving me the opportunity to work with
and learn from so many incredible people over the
years. I am enormously grateful for the support from
our players and their parents, assistant coaches, our
athletic department and my family. It has been a great
experience and I feel tremendously blessed.
A memento madefrom a floorboard
from the old gymnasium.
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN22
PHOTO
BYJEREM
YMOREA
U
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN 23
It was several weeks before this year’s unlikely first-place finish for the girls at the New England
Championships when Tom Evans decided to retire
as head coach of the varsity swim team. After 26 years,
Evans—who has served as head of the swim program
during most of the years since his arrival at St. George’s
in 1987—said it was time for a change. St. George’s
swim program has grown exponentially since he began
coaching, as is evidenced by the team’s recent impres-
sive performance, and he’s taken it where he wanted it
to go. A new coach, he said, will be able to continue to
help today’s swimmers maximize their talents.
“They deserve and need a program that’s com-
pletely dedicated to them,” said Evans of his swimmers.
Besides, the longtime teacher added, he’s eager to
spend more time working on his biology and microbi-
ology course curriculum and pursuing his eclectic slate
of hobbies—which include photography, Beatles trivia,
making golf clubs, and learning to play guitar.
OWhen Evans arrived at St. George’s more than two
decades ago, the swim program consisted of a few ded-
icated swimmers and many athletes who were taking
up swimming for the first time. Now, blessed with the
state-of-the-art Hoyt Pool since 2004, the program
draws many more athletes who’ve already trained for
years and who view swimming as their main sport.
With more and more gifted athletes entering the pool,
however, Evans said it might be time for more rigor.
“The evolution of the program over 20 years is such
that maybe it’s time for a different approach,” he said.
“I think the kids need it.”
Swimmers, like Aubrey Salmon ’14, will tell you
that when it comes to Evans’ coaching style, he’s no
easy touch. Evans, he said, is “a practitioner of the
‘tough love’ approach to coaching. He was famous
for telling his swimmers to ‘just swim it off ’—what-
ever the problem might be, from soreness to a bad
day in exams.”
Despite his “no-nonsense” reputation among
today’s swimmers, however, Evans readily admits that
inside he’s kind of a softie. “I always find something
positive to say to a swimmer after a competition,” he
said. “There might be some things to work on, but first
comes a high-five.”
His swimmers have always appreciated his support
and encouragement. “More than anything, Mr. Evans
was able to motivate his swimmers to do better and be
better,” Salmon said.
Evans’ feel-good coaching style is in line with his
general demeanor: glass half full. Still, the veteran coach
is ever so aware of what elite swimmers require to reach
higher levels of competition. An All-American at N.C.
State, Evans was featured on the March 1972 cover of
Swimming World magazine (see St. George’s Summer
Bulletin 2012, p.3) as one of the country’s top collegiate
athletes. Along with his parents, he credits his coaches
with bringing out the best from him in the pool.
The competition, however, wore him down. By the
time he reached the end of his senior year of college he
was calling it quits.
“Honestly, I didn’t want to end my [coaching] ca-
reer the way I ended my swimming career,” he said. “I
couldn’t wait for that last race. I couldn’t wait for it. I
just wanted to stop everything. I didn’t want to get to
that point. As a coach this year, I still felt connected to
Opposite page: Science teacher TomEvans, who steppeddown from his roleas varsity swim
coach this year, is onto new pursuits—like taking photosthrough a micro-
scope for a microbi-ology lab book he’s
designing.
Out with a splashLongtime coach Evans retires from swim programBY SUZANNE MCGRADY
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN24
my team, and that was a good feeling.”
And this year, Evans gets to leave on a high note.
In March, the girls swim team narrowly beat out the
heavily favored Kingswood-Oxford team to capture its
third Division II New England title in five years—evi-
dence of just how far the program has come under his
leadership. (The girls came in first in 2009, 2012 and 2013,
and the boys have been in the Top 5 the last four years.)
The meet was one of those full-team efforts, in-
spired by the camaraderie Evans said he lives for. The
girls did not win a single event, but with the team’s
depth and “never, never give up” attitude they had ac-
cumulated so many almost-top finishes in the events,
they prevailed.
Evans said he’ll never forget the look on the swim-
mers’ faces when Kingswood-Oxford was announced
as the second-place finisher.
“We all just froze,” he said. “It was that moment,
the shutter just stopped and I looked at my three cap-
tains and their faces just went [gasp]… and then the
winner was announced ‘St. George’s School’ and they
went crazy.”
It’s that feeling that made stepping down from
coaching more difficult, he said.
“I don’t remember any of the races in my swim-
ming career that I won or did well in that ever gave me
that kind of emotion. … I was so much more excited
in moments like that than I was in my own moments.
That’s what made coaching the kids so special.”
And, Evans said, while he relishes his time in the
classroom, he knows athletics offers unique rewards.
“Outside the classroom it’s total challenge. Every-
thing is challenged: your mind … your body … your
soul. And if you succeed—and what I mean by success
is that you get where you wanted to go, you improve—
your entire being is happy,” he said.
Admitting he’s still “a coach at heart,” he will help
out with both the cross-country and golf teams next year.
OThis summer Tom Evans has been spending al-
most every day in the lab taking photographs for a mi-
crobiology lab manual he’s creating: a two-year project
he’s completely immersed himself in. Tricking out his
camera with an adaptor for the microscope, he’s taking
all the photographs for the book himself. Photography
has been an interest of his since college. “I love to take
pictures,” he said grinning. “Oftentimes I don’t know
what I’m doing, but I see something I like and want to
capture it. I just got a book called ‘Understanding the
Canon 600D for Dummies.’”
Still on cloud nine two days after he and his wife,
Linda, had attended Paul McCartney’s record-breaking
sold-out concert in Fenway Park, Evans was feeling
nostalgic and inspired at the same time. The Beatles,
since he first heard “Twist and Shout” at a dance in
middle school, had “greatly impacted his life,” he said.
“We’d never seen or heard anything like that before.
The music was so different, so unique. The camaraderie
of the guys in the band … They became our friends.
And they only sang about friendship, love and fun.”
After the assassination of John F. Kennedy just
months before, the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan
Show Feb. 9, 1964, “It was cathartic.”
Throughout his coaching career, Evans always
played Beatles music at practices.
Like McCartney, who at 71 played solo for three
nonstop hours that night in Boston, Evans’ mindset is
to keep moving, to never stop evolving as a person.
In regard to this article, Evans had only one
special request.
“Write whatever you want,” he said. “But if you
have a photo, just don’t put in one of me from my
swimming career,” he requested. “That’s over.”
And with that, he headed over to the bio lab to
The St. George’sgirls’ swim teamwon first place at the Division IINew England SwimChampionships in March.
PHOTO
BYJO-ELLEN
MCMAHON
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN 25
John AgorosMidd l e town , R . I .
Toby AlmeidaCumbe r l and , R . I .
Andrew BaileyOs te r v i l l e , Mas s .
Ayla BarryB r i s t o l , R . I .
Caroline BillyardI n t e r l a ken , N . J .
Victoria BoatwrightNewpo r t , R . I .
Gregory BooneT i ve r t on , R . I .
Miles BoothRoxbu r y, Conn .
Aniyah BorgesTren ton , N . J .
Sarah BouleWes t Ba rn s t ab l e , Mas s .
Andrew BraffLocus t Va l l ey, N . Y.
William BuhseRed Bank , N . J .
Hannah BurdickYo r k town He igh t s , N . Y.
Kendall BurdickYo r k town He igh t s , N . Y.
Margaret CannellMat t apo i s e t t , Mas s .
Sebastien CarnotWash ing ton , D .C .
William ChenKaohs iung , Ta iwan
Ka Kiu, CheungHong Kong , Ch ina
Hull CollinsEs sex , Mas s .
John ConlonPa t t e r son , N . Y.
Frances CorridanPo r t smou th , R . I .
Christine DejouxLocus t Va l l ey, N . Y.
Mia Del RossoHingham , Mas s .
Emily DixonManhas se t , N . Y.
Hayley DonegheyNor th At t l ebo ro , Mas s .
Eric DurudoganPo r t smou th , R . I .
Luc DutranoitSm i th s , Be rmuda
Grace EberleMut ton town , N . Y.
Colin FelixAudubon , N . J .
Douglas GenslerWinche s t e r , Mas s .
Allan GilgeousB rook l yn , N . Y.
Olivia GonzalezTave rn i e r , F l a .
John GraceOys te r Bay, N . Y.
Frederic GregoireSaint-Lamber t, QC, Canada
Alden GrimesPo r t smou th , R . I .
Zhihao GuoShangha i , Ch ina
Charles HedlundNew Canaan , Conn .
Janna HedlundBe r r y v i l l e , Va .
Ceaser HolcombeBronx , N . Y.
Vivien HoughLake Fo re s t , I l l .
Somes HuwilerGlen Head , N . Y.
Luke IngallsL i t t l e Compton , R . I .
Nurzhan JandosovAlmaty, Ka zakhs t an
Georgia JohnsonWayza t a , M inn .
Adriana JonasSy ra cu se , N . Y.
Eliza KallfelzJames town , R . I .
MacLean Keene-ConnoleMidd l e town , R . I .
Sun Woo KimSeou l , Ko rea
Isabel KnottFo r t I r w in , Ca l i f .
Kaitlyn KozelkaWes t Che s t e r , Pa .
Jaewook KwonSeou l , Ko rea
Kirke LaShelleNew Canaan , Conn .
Victoria LeeS ingapo re , S i ngapo re
Tristan LewisSa l i sbu r y, Conn .
David LoTa ipe i , Ta iwan
Dixie MarrNewton , Mas s .
Erika MartinBe r k l ey, Mas s .
Daisy MayerGreenw i ch , Conn .
Isaac McCrayMidd l e town , R . I .
Nicholas McLaneSou th Hami l t on , Mas s .
Cyrus MedasB r idgepo r t , Conn .
Emily MedeirosL i t t l e Compton , R . I .
Joseph MilbankCha r l o t t e s v i l l e , Va .
Anna MolinariNewpo r t , R . I .
Caroline MoritaTokyo , J apan
George MossNew Yo r k , N . Y.
Rosamond MoylanSaunde r s town , R . I .
Francis MyersSwampsco t t , Mas s .
Kai NanfeltNewpo r t , R . I .
Svenja NanfeltNewpo r t , R . I .
Brooke NaylorSummi t , N . J .
Hao NiuShenzhen , Ch ina
Nathaniel NugnesWes t Ba rn s t ab l e , Mas s .
Victoria O’HeirNor th Ea s ton , Mas s .
Austin PageOrono , M inn .
Jiho ParkSeou l , Ko rea
Oliver ParsonsSton ing ton , Conn .
Timothy ReisingerP ine l l a s Pa r k , F l a .
Sarah RezendesPo r t smou th , R . I .
Alexandra RikerSm i th s , Be rmuda
Katherine RipaMidd l e town , R . I .
Anna RittenhouseE l l enwood , Ga .
Jared RogersLynn f i e l d , Mas s .
Emily RoutmanDa l l a s , Te xa s
Odom SamLowe l l , Mas s .
Henry SavageMarb l ehead , Mas s .
Isabelle SchmaltzBos ton , Mas s .
Colin SeeleyB ren twood , N .H .
Spencer SheltonPointe-Cla i re , QC, Canada
Sky SilversteinCa l ve r t on , N . Y.
Christia SimanskiMidd l e town , R . I .
Talia SimanskiMidd l e town , R . I .
Matthew SkerkowskiTampa , F l a .
Hadley SmithGlen Cove , N . Y.
Herrick SmithLondon , Un i t ed K ingdom
William SpearConco rd , N .H .
Sean SurberPo r t smou th , R . I .
Nicholas SwiftKe t chum , I daho
Nicole TempleSc i t ua te , Mas s .
Bailey ThranJames town , R . I .
Margaret ToddAus t i n , Te xa s
Berk TuralPo r t smou th , R . I .
Anthony von SteubenBaech , Sw i t z e r l and
Jacques von SteubenBaech , Sw i t z e r l and
Sophie VosNew Canaan , Conn .
Eugenia WallisKey B i s cayne , F l a .
Philip WolfPac i f i c Pa l i s ade s , Ca l i f .
Avis ZaneT i vo l i , N . Y.
Zi Xuan ZhenQingdao , Ch ina
Yibei ZhuShangha i , Ch ina
Chad ZiadieK ings ton 8 , J ama i ca
Sylvia Zobel de AyalaMaka t i C i t y, Ph i l i pp ine s
One hundred twelve new students will enter St. George’s this year—59 boys and 53 girls.
Hailing from 23 states and 11 countries, the new group brings to the Hilltop 91 new boarders
and 21 new day students.
PHOTO
BYDIANNERE
ED
C L A S S E S S T A R T S E P T . 5 A N D W E ’ L L W E L C O M E T H E S E N E W S T U D E N T SSchool Year 2013-14
Following is the address delivered on Prize Day—
May 17, 2013— by the head of school.
Growing up, I had an insatiable hunger for in-
formation. From a very early age, I read
everything I could get my hands on—books,
magazines, newspapers, cereal boxes, the dictionary,
and even the phone book. (I was looking for people
with funny names.) I am even more embarrassed to
admit that during one especially slow summer, I read
all 32 volumes of the 1978 World Book encyclopedia
… But, since encyclopedias don’t really exist today,
when I was looking for some information recently, I
did what most of us would, and I Googled my ques-
tion. In a reassuring replication of the way that I used
to use the encyclopedia, I quickly found what I was
looking for, and then, just as predictably, a few minutes
after that I had clicked several more links and wan-
dered off down an unexplored side street of the Inter-
net. Luckily for me, I found myself not in one of the
seedier, scarier neighborhoods of the web but rather on
the website for the space agency, NASA. The page I had
landed on was describing a phenomenon called “dark
energy,” which frankly sounded to me like something
out of a “Star Wars” movie. So, being a fan, I kept read-
ing, and then things really got weird.
It turns out that sometime in the late 1990s, about
the time most of you students were being born, astro-
physicists using the Hubble Space Telescope discovered
that one of their central organizing concepts of the
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN26
Rock,Paper,UniverseBY ERIC F. PETERSONPH
OTO
BYKATEW
HITNEYLU
CEY
G R A D U A T I O N 2 0 1 3 Prize Day
universe’s physics was wrong. Instead of slowing down
over time, as had been suggested by Einstein’s theories
and was commonly accepted as fact by the physics
community, the universe is behaving in exactly the op-
posite manner: Its expansion is speeding up, not slow-
ing down. Even more startling, based on the new data,
the scientists discovered that physical matter as we
know it makes up only about 5 percent of the universe,
with more than two-thirds of the universe being com-
posed of the aforementioned “dark energy.” So what is
this dark energy, and, since it makes up most of the
universe, what does it do? Here is the direct quote from
NASA’s website that provides their explanation: “…
[dark energy] is a complete mystery. But it is an impor-
tant mystery.” Seriously, NASA? That’s the best we can
do? With an $18 billion budget and the greatest scien-
tific minds in the nation, you can only offer that dark
energy is “a complete mystery”?
At first I was annoyed, but then moments later I
was delighted at this explanation. Putting aside the
fact that I had completely missed that there had been a
fundamental redefinition of the nature of the universe
(clearly, my attention was elsewhere) I love the idea
that the best minds in the history of the world, from
Einstein to Stephen Hawking, can’t figure this out. I
love the mystery and uncertainty embodied in the idea
that all we can see and measure adds up to less than
five percent of what’s really out there. And ultimately
I love when we discover a new truth about our exis-
tence, and conventional thinking is thereby over-
turned or dismantled.
The history of mankind is full of discarded theo-
ries, from the humanities to the arts to the sciences. In
government, the opposing political philosophies of fas-
cism and communism have both largely been aban-
doned, albeit after prompting the death and misery of
millions. In literature and the arts, endless organizing
movements have come and gone, from Romanticism,
to Modernism, to Post-Modernism, and on and on.
And of course, in the sciences, there are mountains of
now-discredited concepts, from the geocentric solar
system of Ptolemy, to the notion of a flat earth, to the
now debunked model of a slowing universe. Each of
these advances or developments represents a step for-
ward and every theory we disprove or discard brings us
closer to a true understanding of existence.
Since this idea of physical and philosophical under-
standing transcends astrophysics, I got to thinking
about the sixth form, and about the rapidly evolving
world you are entering. With that prospect in mind, I
began to wonder what other theories of knowledge will
be disproven for you, or perhaps by you, in the years
ahead. And though the possibilities are endless, I’d like
to offer my suggestion for three pseudo-scientific theo-
ries of my own invention that I’d like to see dismantled.
So in addition to being a reader, I am also some-
thing of a technology geek. I am intrigued by gadgets
of all sorts, and I love when some new device or inno-
vation arrives to make our lives easier or better. At the
same time, I also recognize that technology is a very
sharp, two-edged sword. It makes some things easier,
but often at a real cost to us as people. With that in
mind, the first model I’d like to see discarded is what I
would call the “Law of Pervasive Connectivity.” This is
the rather mistaken notion that it is essential to our ex-
istence to be online or digitally connected at all times
and in all places. I love my iPhone, and think it’s an ele-
gant, useful device, but I have come to view it with a
fair measure of suspicion as well. I’m not sure I like it
tracking my movements, and I find myself reacting in-
stinctively to its chirps and buzzes in a way that un-
nerves me. When a notification arrives, I am hard
pressed not to check it immediately, even sometimes in
the middle of the night. It’s a reaction ingrained
enough that I, like many of us I suspect, have been
tricked more than once by the entirely false, phantom
buzzing of my phone.
Head of School EricPeterson awards the
Choir Prize toSophie DenUyl ’13.
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN 27
PHOTO
BYKATEW
HITNEYLU
CEY
G R A D U A T I O N 2 0 1 3
I do take some comfort in knowing I am not alone
in my distraction. In fact, recent studies have suggested
that smartphone users check their devices an average
of 150 times a day. This is likely not a good thing mind
you, since the degree of distraction that our technology
is creating may actually be making us dumber. For
those who think you can effectively “multitask”—tex-
ting, listening to music, answering email, and writing a
paper all at once, I have bad news. Neurologists have
come to describe this practice not as multitasking, but
as “toggling,” as in flipping back and forth between
many functions, and it turns out toggling hurts your
brain. In fact, its been reported that students who en-
gaged in toggling performed 20 percent worse on a
cognitive test than those who focused on one task at a
time. So being “always on” with our technology may
not be such a good thing after all.
The problem is that it’s both tempting and easy to
be drawn into pervasive connectivity. I think in order
to overthrow this model, we need to make a conscious
effort to disconnect, and that is increasingly hard to
do. We need to remember that there is a quantum dif-
ference between our virtual, online lives and the physi-
cal world we actually inhabit. It may be fun to connect
online, and to keep up with each other, but we need to
remember it’s really just a sort of game. After all, no
number of Facebook “likes” can take the place of one
real friend to laugh with you in person or to support
you in an hour of need. Remember what I suggested
back on Parents Weekend, and acknowledge that if
human beings are indeed not insects, then we are also
surely more than a profile, or an avatar, or slaves to
our machines.
The second construct I’d like to see discarded is
what we can call the “Theory of General Materialism.”
Everyone likes to have nice things. Be it a new com-
puter, clothes, a house or a car, we are often drawn to
material goods. Some of this comes from our nature as
humans, but I fear much of it comes from a landscape
that cultivates our worst tendencies to greed and ac-
quisitiveness. I am further reminded that each of us,
even in our least materialistic moments, has more than
most people on Earth, and that even here in the United
States, there are many who lack basic necessities.
Though we would do well to be mindful of this per-
spective, it can still be hard to remember this at times,
as we so frequently desire more and “better” things. As
described in the line from the hymn we sang at Bac-
calaureate that cautions us against being “rich in things
and poor in soul,” there is real peril when our desire for
material goods clouds our view of the world and what
is truly important.
I was reminded of this in a small way recently
when I accidentally put my wallet through the wash.
There was no real harm done, though I lost a few re-
ceipts and business cards I had collected. In fact, the
only real loss was of three small photographs I had
kept in my wallet for years, one of Mrs. Peterson, and
two of our boys. They had survived more than one
other mishap, but in this most recent washing, they
were completely destroyed. At first I was really upset,
feeling keenly the loss of several small, but irreplaceable
items. Once I’d overcome my initial dismay however, I
quickly realized that no real harm had taken place, and
that the loss, while a shame, was ultimately quite trivial.
Besides, it had been a long time since I’d really looked
at the pictures anyway.
As I said, it’s a small, trivial example, but it was a
good reminder to me that it’s seductively easy to be-
come owned by the things we own, and that no matter
how much we love a house, a car, a photograph, they
will never love us back. Only our friends and families
do that, and our possessions need to remain a sideline
of our lives, not the focal point. As tempting as it is to
Head of School EricPeterson chats with2012-13 schoolprefects Becky Cut-ler, Ziye Hu, LisbeilyMena and TheresaSalud outside thechapel on Prize Day.
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN28
G R A D U A T I O N 2 0 1 3 Prize Day
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literally buy into the notion of “who dies with the most
toys wins” it’s a trap, one that is distracting to our real,
greater purpose as human beings.
Which brings me to the third and final theory I’d
like to see dismantled. “The Chicken Little Postulate” is
connected to the “Theory of General Materialism”
through what we can call the “Media Corollary.” This
connection is drawn from the fact that, as a generation,
you have been told again and again, mostly by a media-
industrial complex that wants to sell you things, that
the world is in trouble, and your future is one filled
with danger, doubt and disaster. This is, in a word,
nonsense. Is our world faced with significant and seri-
ous challenges, from hunger, to natural disaster, to po-
litical unrest and economic uncertainty? Of course it is,
but it always has been. Are today’s challenges any worse
than those faced during the Middle Ages, when igno-
rance and fear ruled the day? Are the dangers greater
than those faced by the world during World War II or
at the height of the Cold War, when nuclear apocalypse
threatened? Is the heartache we face more pervasive
than that present in the time before modern medicine
gave humanity tools to cure or improve the conditions
of the sick? Of course not. Don’t listen to the fear mon-
gers and wistful nostalgics. The “good old days” are
ahead of you, not behind us.
Just as in the story of Chicken Little, the sky is not
falling, the world is not about to end, and your future
is not a dark one. I know this because I know you. I
have seen your energy, your intelligence, your creativity
and your work ethic. I know how your families have
raised you, and I know how we have helped to train
you. You have been given a great gift, both before you
came here and during your time at St George’s. You’ve
been shown the wisdom and learning of the ages and
given the skills to apply them. You’ve been taught to
strive for excellence and to compete to be the best you
can be, and you’ve been shown how to live lives of
honor, faith and courage. Do not listen to advertising
that is meant to cultivate your insecurities; do not ac-
cept news stories built around the premise that “if it
bleeds, it leads.” You have been taught and trained and
raised to be agents of positive influence on the world.
This is what John Diman meant when he spoke of the
graduates of this school living “lives of constructive
service to the world and to God.” This is what we mean
when we offer in the school prayer our hope that as
graduates you will leave this school “well-equipped for
the battle of life.” In the end, your job as graduates of
St. George’s is to live your lives in ways that dismantle
and disprove the “Chicken Little Postulate” by demon-
strating and reinforcing the best of our nature as hu-
mans, and in so doing, improve the fate of the world.
In the event this whole extended astrophysical the-
ory metaphor is a little too confusing, let me offer a sim-
pler, parallel one. Rather than redefining the universe
and creating new “scientific” theories, think instead of
the hand game, “Rock, Paper, Scissors.” You know, the
one where rock breaks scissors, scissors cut paper, and
paper wraps rock. Only this time, instead of the neat,
circular logic of the game, consider the following linear
relationships: In our universe, hope breaks despair, free-
dom defeats tyranny, and always and forever, love over-
comes hate. Sometimes it’s hard to believe this, and
sometimes it takes a long time to be evident, but since
the beginning of the universe these things have always
been true. Keep that in mind, and you’ll be fine.
So Class of 2013, on behalf of the school, I offer
our fondest hopes and prayers that you will bring forth
in your lives all of the bounty and promise and success
you so richly deserve. May the Lord watch over you all,
and bring you safely and happily back to us someday.
Good luck, Godspeed and congratulations once more
on all you have achieved.
Eric F. Peterson has been the head of school since 2004.
He can be reached at [email protected].
Head of School EricPeterson awards theSamuel Powel Cupto Ryan Conlogue’13 on Prize Day.
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN 29
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G R A D U A T I O N 2 0 1 3
BINNEY PRIZE — For the highest scholarship in the Sixth Form:
JAI YOUNG SHIN
DRURY PRIZE — For excellence in graphic arts:
Alison Applewhite Ghriskey
HOWE PRIZE — For excellence in art:Bethany Lynn Fowler
ARCHITECTURE PRIZE:William Leatherman
CAMERA PRIZE:Oona Carolena Pritchard
THE CLASS OF 1978 MUSIC PRIZE —Awarded to the student who through personal effort has inspired the musical life of the school:
Ziye Hu
THE ST. GEORGE’S “TONY DUBOURG”INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PRIZE — Namedin memory of the founder and former direc-tor of St. George’s Brass Ensemble andawarded to the student whose talents, dedi-cation and leadership have contributed themost to the instrumental program of theschool:
William Russell Fleming
CHOIR PRIZE:Sophia Elisabeth DenUyl
WOOD DRAMATICS PRIZE — For thestudent whose abilities and efforts have con-tributed most to the theater at St. George’s:
Sophia Elisabeth DenUyl
LOGAN PRIZE FOR ENGLISH:Bethany Lynn Fowler
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE ALUMNIHISTORY PRIZE:Xingyan (Simon) Li
EDGAR PRIZE IN MATHEMATICS:Han (Joanna) Xu
EVANS SPANISH PRIZE:Sophia Elisabeth DenUyl
KING MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN LATIN:Rebecca Warren Cutler
RIVES FRENCH PRIZE:Ziye Hu
CHINESE PRIZE— Awarded to a student whohas demonstrated consistently high perform-ance in the study of Mandarin Chinese andshown a genuine interest in the Chinese lan-guage and culture while at St. George’s:
JAI YOUNG SHIN
THE RAMSING PRIZE — For excellence inMarine and Environmental Biology:
Sienna Warriner Turecamo
JACOBY BIOLOGY PRIZE:Han (Joanna) Xu
THE REAR ADMIRAL JOHN REMEYWADLEIGH MEMORIAL PRIZE —Awarded to a student whose enthusiasm forand interest in history and marine studiesare worthy of special recognition:
Sophia Elisabeth DenUyl
CENTENNIAL PRIZE — Inaugurated duringthe school’s centennial year. Awarded to aboy and girl of the graduating class who have demonstrated extraordinary and inspirational efforts on behalf of the school community:
Alana Claire McMahonJohn Garvoille Coaty
DEAN SCHOLARSHIP — In memory ofCharles Maitland Dean, Senior Prefect 1968,killed in Laos in 1974. Given by his familyand friends, and awarded for the Sixth Formyear to a boy or girl who has demonstrated aconcern for the community, the ability tolead, and a sense of civic responsibility:(Presented by trustee Bill Dean ’73 P’06)
Itohan Teni Orobator
HEADMASTER’S AWARD — To the SeniorPrefect for his faithful devotion to the manyduties of the past year:
William Russell Fleming
GEORGE D. DONNELLY ATHLETICAWARD — Awarded to a girl and boy who,in the opinion of the Headmaster and theAthletic Directors, possess a passion forathletics and who demonstrate the dedica-tion and the sportsmanship to succeed in a variety of athletic endeavors:
Tyshon Kyiem HendersonHannah Wise McCormack
(The next four prizes in athletics are awarded by vote of the coaches.)
MARY EUSTIS ZANE CUP — Awarded to agirl of the Sixth Form whose steady devotionto the high ideals of good sportsmanship hasbeen an inspiration to her fellow students:
Katherine Alice Bienkowski
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Left: Alex Gates ’13 showsoff his diploma to BethanyFowler ’13 on Prize Day.
Right (clockwise from top):2013 graduates Duncan
McGaan, Michael McGinnis,Hannah McCormack,
Allie McLane, Alana McMa-hon, Bobby Mey, Lisbeily
Mena, Drew Michaelis, AnnaMillar, and Jeremy Monk
celebrate on Prize Day; WillLeatherman ’13 accepts
the Architecture Prize; ItoOrobator ’14 is awarded theDean Scholarship; HannahMcCormack ’13, winner
of the Jefferys Prize, accepts her diploma.
G R A D U A T I O N 2 0 1 3 The Prizes
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN30
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN 31
THAYER CUP — Awarded to a boy of theSixth Form whose steady devotion to thehigh ideals of good sportsmanship has beenan inspiration to his fellow students:
Alexander Avery Gates
LOUISE ELLIOT CUP — Awarded to a SixthForm girl for excellence in athletics and forpromoting the spirit of hard, clean play:
Oona Carolena Pritchard
SAMUEL POWEL CUP — Awarded to aSixth Form boy for excellence in athleticsand for promoting the spirit of hard, clean play:
Richard Ryan Conlogue
(The following prizes are awarded by vote of the faculty.)
ALLEN PRIZE — To a member of theFourth Form who during the year, in theopinion of the faculty, has maintained a high standard in all departments of the lifeof the school:
Elizabeth Hale Scheibe
HARVARD AND RADCLIFFE CLUBS OFRHODE ISLAND PRIZE — For the studentof the Fifth Form whom the Headmaster andthe faculty deem most worthy in scholarship,effort and character:
Margaret Elizabeth Schroeder
THE JEFFERYS PRIZE — Given in memoryof Cham Jefferys to the Sixth Former who inthe opinion of the faculty has done the mostto enhance the moral and intellectual climateof the school:
Hannah Wise McCormack
PHELPS MONTGOMERY FRISSELL PRIZE— Awarded to the member of the Sixth Formwho, in the opinion of the faculty, has madethe best use of his or her talents:
Caroline Claire Thompson
ST. GEORGE’S MEDAL — Awarded to themember of the Sixth Form who, in the opin-ion of the faculty, through effort, character,athletics and scholarship during the year hasbest caught and expressed the ideals andspirit of St. George’s:
Theresa Anne Salud
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BYJERE
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BYRAY
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G R A D U A T I O N 2 0 1 3
Davidson College (2)Deerfield Academy (PG)Duke UniversityElon University (4)Emory UniversityFashion Institute of TechnologyFisk UniversityFlorida Institute of TechnologyFranklin & Marshall CollegeFurman UniversityGeorge Washington University (4)Georgetown University
Barnard College (2)Bates College (3)Berklee College of MusicBoston College (2)Boston UniversityBucknell University (3)Carleton University (Canada)Claremont McKenna College (2)College of CharlestonColorado CollegeConcordia University (Canada)Connecticut College
And they’re off ...Here’s where our graduates are heading:
Eadie Kremer ’13 will attend George Washington University and Duncan McGaan’13 heads to Davidson College this fall.
Gettysburg CollegeHamilton College-NYIthaca College (2)Johns Hopkins UniversityKenyon CollegeLehigh UniversityLouisiana State UniversityMarist CollegeMiddlebury CollegeMount Holyoke CollegeNew York University (3)Northeastern UniversityPitzer CollegeQueen's University (Canada)Reed CollegeRISDRice UniversityRutgers - New BrunswickSalve Regina UniversitySarah Lawrence CollegeSavannah College of Art & Design (2)Seton Hall UniversitySt Lawrence University St Olaf CollegeStanford UniversityTrinity College (5)Tufts UniversityTulane UniversityUnited States Coast Guard AcademyUniversity of Edinburgh (Scotland)University of FloridaUniversity of MaineUniversity of Massachusetts AmherstUniversity of MiamiUniversity of New HampshireUniversity of Pennsylvania (2)University of Puget SoundUniversity of Rhode IslandUniversity of Richmond (2)University of St. Andrews (Scotland)University of the South-SewaneeUniversity of Vermont (4)University of Virginia (2)Wake Forest University
N E W S F R O M T H E C O L L E G E C O U N S E L I N G O F F I C ENext steps
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ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN32
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN 33
Bobby Mey ’13,Becky Cutler ’13,Hannah McCor-mack ’13, AustinScheerer ’13 andAlex Medeiros ’14pose on the “law
rock” in Pingvellir,home to the largestnatural lake in
Iceland.
From Sept. 23-30, a group of students from the
Commercial College of Iceland in Reykjavík will visit St.
George’s, as part of a program organized by
Director of Global Programs Jeremy Gold-
stein following his Global Studies class’ visit
to the country in 2011. Also, a group of 25
teachers from Iceland will spend the day at St. George’s
on Oct. 19. The educators will tour the campus, visit
classes and meet with SG teachers, including the staff of
the Merck-Horton Center for Teaching and Learning,
directed by Tom Callahan. In a reciprocal program, Eng-
lish teacher Ali Glassie ’04 and Administrative Technol-
ogy Coordinator Ed McGinniswill lead a group of
students on a visit to the Commercial College of Iceland
in March 2014. Math teacher Warren Williams and Head
of the Science Department Holly Williams took Becky
Cutler ’13, Alex Medeiros ’14, Bobby Mey ’13, Austin
Scheerer ’13 and Hannah McCormack ’13 to
CCI and on a tour of Iceland this past March.
Art Depart-
ment Chair Mike
Hansel will travel to
Hong Kong in
March to take part
in an ongoing
teacher exchange
with the Chinese
International
School in Hong
Kong.
Three South African students will join the St.
George’s student body for several weeks this fall as
part of our exchange program with the all-boys
Bishop’s School and the all-girls St. Cyprian’s School
in Cape Town.
Assistant Director of Library Services Laura Weber
and science teacher Devon Ducharmewill accompany
Director of Global Programs Jeremy Goldstein and his
students on the Global Studies Seminar trip to the
Dominican Republic in March 2014.
Director of Library Services and Archives Holly
Nagib will travel to Jordan in March to take part
in a relatively new exchange with King’s Academy,
the independent school founded in 2007 and guided
by the vision of King Abdullah II, who studied at
Deerfield Academy as a high school student in
the 1970s. Latin teaching fellow Virginia Buckles
and Assistant Director of Admission and Athletic
Liaison Adam Choice ’06 were the first SG represen-
tatives to visit King’s this past March.
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BYADAMCHOICE
Exchanges keep teachers learning, students expanding horizons
C O M M U N I T Y M E M B E R S G E T A W O R L D V I E WGlobal outreach
Faculty members Adam Choice ’06 and VirginiaBuckles visited historic sites in Jordan (above) duringa March teacher exchange.
A BANNER SUMMER FOR THE CH INE SE DE PARTMENT
The Chinese Department launched its Summer
Immersion Program this year with a blockbuster trip
to multiple locations in China and Hong Kong. Stu-
dents participating in the program—Katelyn Hutchin-
son ’14, Amanda Warren ’15, Irene Luperon ’14, Andie
Plumeri ’14, Lilly Schopp ’15, Michaela Ahern ’15, Emily
Kallfelz ’15 and Will Hill ’14 (above) —left the States
June 14 and returned July 12. The students—led by
Chinese teacher Xiaoyu Chen and his wife, Zhongli—
visited the rapidly growing cities of Shanghai and Bei-
jing, the coastal city of Hangzhou, the ancient capital
city of Xi’an, “Asia’s World City” of Hong Kong, and
the vibrant city of Shenzhen located in the Special
Economic Zone. Of special note as well were visits to
our “sister school” in Shanghai, YK Pao, where former
Director of Global Studies Tony Jaccaci is head, visits
to Chinese companies including Alibaba Co. and Air-
time Sporting Goods Co. Ltd. (a kite factory), and a
service project at the Dandelion School.
GO I N G G L O B A LApril 8-12 was Global Week at SG and we cele-
brated diversity and global awareness with a number
of special events. On April 9 Sydney Jarrett ’16, Tyshon
Henderson ’13 and Dominique Samuel ’13 gave a spe-
cial presentation on the KIPP Charter School pro-
gram in New Jersey. A Spanish tertulia took place that
evening in the Hamblet Campus Center. On April 11,
French students organized a café, offering pain au
chocolate and other assorted pastries.
Wrapping up the week on April 12,
Zahra Arabzada ’15 (right) gave a spe-
cial talk in assembly outlining her ex-
perience as a young girl in Afghanistan
and her appreciation for the chance
to study and live at SG. At
lunchtime, alum Adolphe
Coulibaly ’04, a native of the
Ivory Coast, spoke to inter-
national students about his
experiences coming to the
United States for the first
time to study at St.
George’s.
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN34
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C O M M U N I T Y M E M B E R S G E T A W O R L D V I E WGlobal outreach
Photos and journal entries online at www.stgeorges.edu/china2013
webextra
As part of the Global Cultural Initiatives Pro-
gram, this summer French Department
Chair Allison de Horsey led groups of stu-
dents to Paris and London, while Spanish teacher Amy
Dorrien-Traisci led a group to Madrid. Both programs
featured both sightseeing, internships with local com-
panies and homestays with local families.
Taking part in the Paris program this year were
(right) Hayley Durudogan ’14, Maggie Maloy ’14, Lilly
Scheibe ’15, Mary Keith ’14, Maddie Parker ’13 and
Wendy Huang ’14. Now in its fourth year, the GCIP
program has established a strong relationship with
the prestigious Curie Institute, a boon to young sci-
ence students.
This year Wendy interned at the Intitute’s Géné-
tique de la Suppression Tumorale lab; Mary interned
in the Structural Motility lab; Maddie worked in the
Stem Cells and Tissue Homeostasis lab; and Lilly in-
terned in the Notch Signaling in Stem Cells and Tu-
mors lab.
Meanwhile, Maggie worked for the French com-
panies, NLB Conseil, an executive search and talent
management agency, and Hayley interned at Tg Com-
munications, a public relations firm. “Both compa-
nies have welcomed SG students into their offices in
the past and have graciously imparted their expertise
and professional wisdom to the interns,” de Horsey
said.
Taking part in the GCIP Madrid program for
three weeks this summer were Hannah Macaulay ’14,
Katherine Bauer ’14, Margaret Schroeder ’14, Tim Howe
’14, John DeLuca ’14 and Ito Orobator ’14. Now in its
second year, the Spanish Language immersion pro-
gram included visits to the ancient city of Toledo, the
city of Segovia, many museums and restaurants.
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN 35
GCIP students experience work, culturein Paris, London and Madrid
continued on page 36
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C O M M U N I T Y M E M B E R S G E T A W O R L D V I E W
S T UD E N T S V I S I T S G F R OM ‘ S I S T E R S C HOO L ’ I N S HAN GH A I
St. George’s hosted a group of 22 Chinese middle-
school students from the YK Pao School in Shanghai—
where former SG Director of Global Programs Tony Jaccaci
is head—for a special three-week program on campus July
8-26. The program was a joint venture with the Pennfield
School in Portsmouth, R.I. Recent alums Anna Millar ’13,Mary Behan ’10 and Ian Tigh ’10 were back on the Hilltop
to serve as teaching assistants and residential advisors in
Wheeler and Buell dormitories. The YK Pao students spent
each morning with science teacher Dr. Bob Wein, who
taught the STEM (science, technology, engineering and
math) course for the program while history teaching fel-
low Cassie Rudden taught English and humanities. Penn-
field hosted the students in the afternoon.
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Katherine, Ito and John
worked as interns in the
Hotel Santo Mauro, lo-
cated on the calle de
Zurbano. Hannah and
Margaret had intern-
ships at the Instituto de
Ciencias Materiales de
Madrid.
Working and sight-
seeing in London were
Lily Sanford ’14, Bailey
Clement ’13, Annabella
Doyle ’14, Aubrey Salmon
’14, Erick Lu ’15 and Hanni Chen ’13. Lily landed an
internship at the shoe company FitFlop; Bailey
worked at Little Dish, an organic baby food company;
Annabella interned in the International Herald Tri-
bune’s Conference Department; Aubrey worked at
Bowline Capital Partners, a financial firm; Erick
worked at Claranet Ltd., a managed services firm;
and Hanni spent her internship at Markham Rae
LTD, a financial firm.
A number of SG alums helped arrange the in-
ternships. A sincere thanks to Claranet Managing
Director Michel Robert ’84, Bowline Capital Manag-
ing Partner Lukas Kolff ’92 and Carol Whitaker ’85,
whose husband, Giles McClelland, is COO at
Markham Rae Ltd.
Top: John DeLuca’14, Ito Orobator ’14,Katherine Bauer ’14,Hannah Macaulay’14, MargaretSchroeder ’14 andTim Howe ’14 spentthree weeks thissummer in Madrid.
Above: BaileyClement ’13, LilySanford ’14,Annabella Doyle ’14and Aubrey Salmon’14 pose in front ofthe Tower of London.
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN36
continued from page 35
STUDY ING SC I ENCE IN SPA IN :
My internship at the Instituto de CienciasMateriales de MadridBY MARGARET SCHROEDER ’14
Following is one of several blog entries posted at
http://gcipmadrid.blogspot.com by the students in the
Global Cultural Initiatives Program who spent three
weeks in June in Madrid, Spain.
Prior to my arrival in Spain, and my arrival at the Uni-
versidad Autónoma of Madrid, the only information I had
about my practice for the next two weeks was this (quoted
from an email from the coordinator of our internships at
the Instituto de Ciencias Materiales de Madrid):
“The student will be at the laboratory preparing, with
the Ph.D. students, new materials. He/she will be involved
in the preparation and characterization of eutectic mix-
tures, the study of phase segregation processes in eutectic
mixtures and the use of eutectic mixtures in polycondensa-
tion reactions.”
Although I have learned a lot in my biology and chem-
istry classes at St. George’s, I had little idea what any of this
meant (in English, much less in Spanish). Therefore, I went
into my internship at the ICMM with an open mind, con-
tented with my high school level of preparation but fully
aware that I was not going to completely understand the
advanced concepts that the Ph.D.s were toying with. In-
deed, I was correct. My first day on the job, I received basic
explanations of the lab processes and the work that the
group does, which for me were far from basic. When I was
asked, in Spanish, of course, if I was familiar with the differ-
ent types of “enlaces” and shook my head, members of the
group went wide-eyed. I guess it would have helped to learn
some basic Spanish science vocab beforehand, particularly
“enlace,” the word for chemical bond.
Amongst many other things, I have learned many lab
vocab words, some of which I’m not even sure how to
translate to English, and some of which are cognates. Here
are a few: “Compuesto” is compound, “células” are cells
(another essential), “campaña” is hood (for experiments
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C O M M U N I T Y M E M B E R S G E T A W O R L D V I E WGlobal outreach
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN 37
that are dangerous or require a sterile environment), “con-
gelador” is freezer, “pipeta” for pipette, “cultivo” for culture,
“muestra” for slide/sample, and “tripsina” for “trypsin.”
From what I’ve gathered, there are two parts to the
Bioinspired Materials group. The larger part, which works
in the bigger lab, experiments with and creates the actual
bioinspired materials (I guess these would be the “eutectic
mixtures” mentioned above). In simpler terms, it looks a
lot like cooking plastic-looking substances. The basic
process I have observed is: chemicals are mixed, usually in
liquid form, and then placed in an oven or a burner to
cook, or solidify. Sometimes they are also frozen. The ma-
terials made in the lab are potentially used in both bio-
medical and energy-efficiency applications. The other part
of the group deals more with biology, using live cells in a
much smaller lab.
The majority of the work I’ve observed in the big lab
has been with “grafeno,” or graphene. Julian, the scientist
who works with graphene, has explained to me the basics
of what the material does and how it’s made. Graphene is
a form of carbon that can form a layer of hexagonal car-
bon atoms just one atom thick. As a material, it is also very
strong and a good conductor, giving it the potential to
make several products and devices, such as airplanes and
solar panels, lighter and more efficient. Graphene might
also facilitate the growth of cells, giving it the potential to
be used in processes like tissue regeneration in biomedical
fields. The process of making the graphene is quite inter-
esting, and surprisingly resembles baking a cake, with a
recipe to follow and everything. The process starts with an
oxidation reaction. First, Julian combines carbon and sul-
furic acid in this funky-shaped vial. Slowly, purple per-
manganate is added, and then water. While the water is
being added, purple permanganate fumes are emitted (my
favorite part—it resembles a witches’ brew). During the
whole reaction process, Julian is careful to keep the tem-
perature controlled (at times high, at times low), because
the reaction can be dangerous. After this reaction, the liq-
uid is “cleaned” with acid and placed in a centrifuge to
separate the desired carbon from other liquids. The
graphene is later frozen with a mechanical arm using
liquid nitrogen, creating the desired spaces between the
layers of graphene. Later, the ice in between the layers is
converted straight into gas in a process of sublimation,
and a spongy-looking solid remains. The whole process
takes about two days. Julian has
given me two vials of “my”
graphene to take home (one
liquid, one solid)! We’ll see how
the TSA feels about this.
In the smaller lab, I have worked with Maria Concep-
tion (Conchi, for short), a biologist who works with cell
cultures in order to test the synthetic materials on living
cells. Conchi’s lab is sterile, to prevent contamination,
complete with a hood that prevents air exchange and cre-
ates a sterile environment to work with the cells, and my
favorite part: a biohazard trash can. This, combined with
my lab coat, facemask, glasses and gloves, fulfilled my
nerdy dreams of working in a real-life science lab. I’ll
admit, I got a thrill out of working “under the hood” to
prevent contamination. Conchi works with mostly rat and
pig cells, and keeps them in an incubator or a freezer. Dur-
ing my days with Conchi, I helped (hands on) transfer,
plant, freeze and unfreeze cell cultures. To test synthetic
materials on cells, Conchi places a drop of cells into the
material (which looks like a white powder), and then
freezes the tiny droplet. Later, we unfreeze and view the
cells under the microscope to see how they are doing.
Conchi records everything in her notebook.
In the past two weeks, I have learned a lot of material,
received almost completely in Spanish. Though at times
my brain is overloaded, Bioinspired Materials is fascinat-
ing and engaging. Every day, I come away satisfied that I
have learned something new (and that I have dressed the
part of a scientist). I am extremely grateful to all of my
mentors for taking the time to pause and explain every
step of the process, answering my questions, and for being
patient with me and my level of knowledge (in both Span-
ish and science). After each day and each project, my men-
tor for that day almost always showed me photos to
explain what we had done that day, or a publication to give
me a bigger picture. I have discovered that the experimen-
tal work done in the lab, however small it might seem, is
part of a larger process with an important goal. I hope one
day I will be able to read about the developments resulting
from the use of bioinspired materials (and maybe under-
stand all of the jargon, too).
Margaret Schroeder ’14, of Palm Beach, Fla., can be
reached at [email protected].
C O M M U N I T Y M E M B E R S G E T A W O R L D V I E W
John DeLuca ’14, Ito Orobator ’14, MargaretSchroeder ’14, Hannah Macaulay ’14, Katherine
Bauer ’14 and Tim Howe ’14 in Madrid.
webextra
Read the GCIP-Madrid blog at http://gcipmadrid.blogspot.com/
PHOTO
COURTESY
OFAMYDORRIEN-TRAISCI
One of my favorite high school English teach-
ers was fond of saying that, “good teaching
doesn’t demand; it elicits.” I confess that
under the pressure of what seemed like never-ending
reading assignments, challenging essay topics and in-
tense class discussions, his teaching seemed plenty de-
manding, and I wondered if, perhaps, he wasn’t a good
teacher after all. As a high school junior struggling to
meet his demands, I didn’t quite understand what he
meant. But I remember that I liked the saying, in large
part, because I really liked him—his passion for the
subject, his lack of pretension, his humor, his willing-
ness to clear space for us to think and to talk, and his
unbridled enthusiasm for our possibilities and poten-
tial. In thinking about his meaning, I also needed to
make sure that I understood the difference between the
words “elicit” and “illicit,” (a stealth vocabulary exer-
cise, I now realize). He reminded us, with a wry smile,
that confusing the two words would be perilous. Once
I was comfortable with my understanding of the word
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN38
PHOTOSBYJEREM
YMOREAU
Developing students—and supportersBY ROBERT WESTON
“elicit,” I clearly remember thinking about how, exactly,
his teaching was achieving this. After all, he wasn’t
telling me anything, and I wasn’t sure I was giving him
anything, either.
Though I may never have been fully conscious of
it at the time, over the years, I have come to realize
that his teaching certainly was great, and that he did,
indeed, elicit something from me. Through his
teaching of literature, poetry and writing, he drew
me in and, in turn, drew me out—out of my aca-
demic tentativeness and insecurity and into a place
of belonging and confidence. By cultivating in me
curiosity and interest, he ignited my own passion for
the subject, and helped me recognize and appreciate
my abilities. Now, after 25 years as a classroom
teacher, I think I have a better understanding of what
he was talking about: development. He was demon-
strating that good teaching happened at the junction
of inspiration and support, a place where you could
work out an understanding for yourself and apply it
to your own experience. Specifically, he was helping
our development.
Since making the transition from teaching into the
Alumni/ae Development office, I’ve been thinking a lot
about that word—development (both the big “D” and
the small “d”)—and the vital role that it plays in the life
of St. George’s. Initially, it seemed a curious word to
apply to the work of fundraising and alumni/ae rela-
tions, but through the many conversations I’ve had re-
cently, I understand the word much better in the
context of my new role. I have come to realize that this
work isn’t much different from my teaching, and that
the goal has largely remained the same: to draw people
in, to spark their curiosity, to evolve their interest, and
to kindle (or, in some cases, to re-kindle) their passion
for the school that was so instrumental in nurturing
their own development.
Over the past several months, I have had the
good fortune to connect—and to re-connect—with a
host of alumni/ae, many of whom are former English
students, team members, dorm residents, and/or ad-
visees. While it’s been fun reminiscing and hearing
about a myriad of SG experiences, I have been struck
by one constant: the gratitude for the role that our
faculty has played in the lives of our alums. While I
have been delighted, humbled and, at times, sur-
prised to learn that my own teaching or coaching hit
the mark, eliciting a response or reaction that
planted a seed of growth, I have been overwhelmed
by the stories about our teachers and their uncanny
ability to nurture that development. Whether it’s
been Dan Hollins’ passion for American literature
and history, Beth Horton’s unwavering support and
patient guidance, Julie Butler’s thoughtful, impas-
sioned basketball coaching, Dick Grosvenor’s inspired
painting class, Jeff Simpson’s deft and poignant touch
in connecting literature to life, Rose Bugnet’s firm yet
compassionate care of her 20 House charges, or Tom
Evans’ intense and fascinating microbiology class,
just to name a few, our faculty’s ability to form
meaningful relationships and to elicit (there’s that
word) the best from each student has been the hall-
mark of our school.
The depth and quality of this connection are what
has made me proud to be a St. George’s faculty mem-
ber. I am honored in my role as Associate Head of
School to carry this connection forward to our alums,
and to remind us all of the power and significance of
good teaching. I realize as I never have before the im-
portance of Development (big “D”) in supporting the
development (“small d”) of generations of St. George’s
students. Given the stories I have heard over these past
months of the profound appreciation for the work of
our faculty, I’m thinking I may have the placement of
the “big D” all wrong!
Robert Weston is the Associate Head of School and leader
of the Alumni/ae and Development team. He can be
reached at [email protected].
The staff of theAlumni/ae and
Development Office(clockwise fromleft): Lesley
Thurston, QuentinWarren, Gale Boone,
Emmy Sullivan,Krista Sturtevant,Cindy Martin, AnnWeston, Susan Rus-sell, Bill Douglas,Natalia do Coutoand Bob Weston.Missing from thephoto is Linda
Michalek.
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN 39
Note: The Burnett
Lecture series, named in
honor of the
late Gilbert
Burnett—
Vincent Astor
’10 Chair in Science and
Head of the Science Department emeritus—was
established upon Mr. Burnett’s retirement in 1990 by
several of his former students. Its mission is to educate
students about threats to the health of the planet and
strategies for preserving the balance of nature. Environ-
ment science student Sophie DenUyl ’13 introduced this
year’s Burnett lecturer—environmental author, professor
and activist Bill McKibben—to the audience.
Professor Bill McKibben acknowledges he’s the
Debbie Downer of guest speakers. As the founder of
350.org, the international environmental organization
formed to bring attention to the issue of global warm-
ing, McKibben says his main role in life is to talk about
“the most depressing thing, really, that we’ve ever
known on this planet.”
But that doesn’t stop the Middlebury College profes-
sor and author from beating his environmentalist drum.
McKibben delivered the annual Gilbert Y. Burnett
Lecture in Madeira Hall on April 12—and his message
was both oddly familiar and passionately personal.
We’ve heard the story before: When you burn fossil
fuels—coal, oil and gas—you emit large amounts
of CO2 into the atmosphere. The CO2 traps heat in
the atmosphere, hence global warming. But for
McKibben—who along with just seven Middlebury
undergraduates orchestrated what has been called the
largest environmental demonstration on the planet
on Oct. 24, 2009—stemming global warming means
nothing short of saving civilization.
Because of climate change, he said, already the
cryosphere—the frozen sections of the earth—are
melting, the ocean is more acidic and there’s been a
dramatic increase in the moisture in the atmosphere,
causing both intense drought in warm areas and
storms like Superstorm Sandy in others. “But the scary
thing is not what’s happened so far,” he told the stu-
dents. “It’s what will happen in your lifetimes.
The same scientists who told us these things would
happen now tell us that unless we get off coal and gas and
oil quickly, temperature rise will be 4 or 5 degrees over the
course of your lifetimes—and if that happens then it be-
comes difficult to imagine civilizations on the scale that
we’re used to still being able to function effectively.”
350.org takes its name from a scientific paper pub-
lished in 2008 by climatologist and NASA scientist Jim
Hansen who said that any value of carbon dioxide in
the atmosphere greater than 350 parts per million is
not compatible with the planet on which civilization
developed and to which life on Earth is adapted.
Scientists, McKibben said, now predict that in-
creases in temperature, because of drought, will dimin-
ish grain yield and therefore world food supplies.
“Try to imagine what that means to development,
to public health, to war and peace, to hunger—to all
the things around this planet that we care about. It
would be not just a disaster, but by far the worst disas-
ter that human beings have ever had to deal with.
“We need to head it off. We need to quickly get off
coal and oil and gas and replace them with other things.”
Recounting his memories and showing photos of
some of the 5,200 demonstrations that took place in
181 countries in 2009, he urged students to get in-
volved in the movement. One of the reasons climate
change caught the attention of the media in 2009, he
said, was because the demonstrators didn’t look the
way people thought environmentalists should look.
“They didn’t look like members of the Sierra Club,
but their hearts were in the same place: They were not
thinking selfishly. They were thinking about the future.
They were thinking about other people.”
Middlebury CollegeProfessor and notedenvironmentalactivist Bill McKibben deliversthe Burnett Lecturein April.
PHOTO
BYJEREM
YMOREAU
Noted environmentalist delivers Burnett Lecture
Campus happenings
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN40
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN 41
Learning from VietnamAs part of our annual Dent Lecture Se-
ries, students listened to a very compelling,
emotional talk by the advocate for children of war Kim
Phuc on March 4. Phuc is the girl in the iconic photo-
graph taken during the Vietnam War that shows her
running naked from her village after a napalm attack.
Her message now is “to live with true love, hope and
forgiveness ...” She spent time after the talk signing
books and talking with interested students at a recep-
tion in the Morris Common Room. Students in Jim
Connor’s Vietnam history class—Tyshon Henderson
’13, Sasha Tory ’14, Luc Woodard ’14, Juan De La
Guardia ’13, Andrew Lynch ’14, Quang Hong ’14 and
Adam D’Angelo ’14—gave a special presentation pre-
viewing the talk in a Friday assembly. The event was
covered by the Newport Daily News.
PHOTO
BYJEREM
YMOREAU
PHOTO
BYJENNYJOHNSON
The 13th annual St. George’s School College Fair took place on April 26. Anumber of college representatives were on hand to provide admission infor-mation and answer questions. The annual fair is a required event for thefourth and fifth formers. Seniors often drop by to check in with reps fromcolleges they’ve been accepted to.
Web
extras
Red & White Editor-in-Chief Thomas Kits van Heyningen ’14 interviews Kim Phuc in March.
Photos from the Dent Lecture and an interview with Kim Phuc by Red & White
Editor-in-Chief Thomas Kits van Heyningen ’14, are at www.stgeorges.edu/girlinthepicture.
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN42
PHOTOSBYJEREM
YMOREAU
Left: Peter Carrellas ’14 and MargaretSchroeder ’14 present a talk on theGeronimo program during the SecondVisit Program.
Below left: JimCannell explains thescience behind hisorganic coffee.
Below right: AnnaMillar introducesher mother, Dr.Mary Ann Millar, ata science brown-baglunch discussion.
Campus happenings
DEPARTMENT ’ S BROWN-BAG LUNCHES EXAM INE SC I ENCE FROM AL L ANGL ES
From honey tastings to health care discussions, the
Science Department’s Brown-Bag Lunch series is
known for offering a diverse set of learning opportuni-
ties for those interested in the subject of science. This
spring’s calendar of events included a visit from Dr.
Mary Ann Millar (supermom of Anna Millar ’13 and
Elizabeth Millar ’15), who gave an enlightening talk
April 5 on human papillomaviruses and what she sees
as a physician (Ob-Gyn) in patients who have become
infected by the virus. Kevin Proft from EcoRI.org pre-
sented a talk on the new recycling rules in Rhode Is-
land on April 15. And on May 2, Jim Cannell, father of
Josephine Cannell ’13 and Alex Cannell ’15, and owner/
founder of Jim’s Organic Coffee, made a presentation
about organic and fair-trade coffee growing. The sci-
ence building smelled especially good that day.
SECOND V I S I T SA number of our students participated in the Sec-
ond Visit program April 2-6. The program included
performances by singer/songwriter Miriam Elhajli ’13
and our a cappella groups, the Snapdragons and Hill-
toppers; welcoming remarks by Phillip Young ’15, a talk
by school prefect Theresa Salud ’13; a student panel
discussion with Luc Woodard ’14, Sydney Jarrett ’16,Moudy Abdel-Maksoud ’15, Avery Dodd ’12, Lilly
Scheibe ’15, and Jack Coaty ’13; a presentation on
global programs by Reid Burns ’13 and Caroline Thomp-
son ’13; and a presentation on the Geronimo program
by Peter Carrellas ’14 and Margaret Schroeder ’14.
Activit ies calendar keptl ively by ‘Captain Fun’
Director of Student Activities Mary O’Connor is on a
mission to lighten us all up a bit. Whether it’s hunting
down a pinball machine for the
winter formal or arranging for
a wacky hypnotist on a Satur-
day night, O’Connor has stu-
dent entertainment at the top
of her priorities. Working
closely with the school prefects,
O’Connor orchestrated a slate
of games, special events and entertainment opportunities
this past year that would put most Newport party plan-
ners to shame. Following are just a few of the many
events that caught our special attention this spring.
Paint Dance 4.0 went off without a hitch on April
6. DJ Trademark spun the tunes. A messy, good time
was had by all.
Check out the video of a student limbo contest,
part of a year-long series of club games organized by
the school prefects, on our YouTube
channel.
A limbo contest May 3 and hula
hoop competition were just some of
the spirited highlights of the school
prefect-organized club competition that went on all
year long. Props to the flexible Amy Nuytkens ’15 and
an honorable mention to Harry Parker ’13 in the limbo
fest. Allison Williams ’15 and Ali Ghriskey ’13 held the
crowd rapt with their hula skills.
The All-School Barbecue on Second
Beach May 3 could not have been more
fun. Beautiful evening. Major community
spirit.
While alumni/ae partied down at the hockey rink
May 18, the prom for juniors and seniors and “morp”
(prom spelled backwards) for freshmen and sopho-
mores took place on campus. Pics are on our
Flickr.com site.
“Senior Week” activities included an ice cream social
with the Alumni Office and a picnic at Merrick House.
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN 43
Web
extra:
videos
PHOTOSBYMARYO’CONNOR
Paint Dance 4.0 featured DJ Trademark.
The first All-School Barbecue took place on Second Beach May 3.
Above left: Juan De La Guardia ’13 at the Merrick House Senior Picnic. Aboveright: Tory Cunningham ’13, Bethany Fowler ’13, Graham Cochrane ’11, KateHamrick ’13, Peter Durudogan ’13 and Raleigh Silvia ’13 at this year’s prom.
English teacher Patricia Lothrop was invited to
speak on “Literature of India” at the Groton (Mass.)
Public Library, on March 10,
as part of its spring series on
India.
Lothrop designed, and has
taught for the past 15 years, a
10th grade honors world litera-
ture course incorporating Ra-
mayana and contemporary
fiction from the sub-continent. She has taught a senior
elective on fiction and film from India, and another on
fiction and film from the Asian “big four” (India,
China, Japan and Korea). In 2011 she spent two
months on sabbatical in India, looking, listening, read-
ing, walking, and riding trains, planes, tuk-tuks, bicycle
rickshaws, jeeps, buses and the Delhi subway. Her re-
views (mainly nonfiction/reference) appear regularly
in Library Journal and School Library Journal. She
holds an A.B. degree from Columbia/Barnard, and a
Ph.D. from Yale University.
Colin Mort has been appointed the new head of
the English Department. He arrived at St. George’s in
2010 from Knoxville, Tenn.,
where he has been working on
his Ph.D. in Creative Writing
at the University of Tennessee.
While at the university, Mort
was both a teaching associate
and an instructor in the Eng-
lish Department. He also has
experience at the secondary level, having taught fic-
tion writing for the past three summers at the Univer-
sity of Tennessee’s Young Writers Institute, and having
spent two summers teaching writing and literature
classes at 4 Star Academic Camps. Mort also has been
an instructor at the University of Virginia, where he
earned an M.F.A. in creative writing. Mort holds a B.A.
in English from Colgate University. He is the dorm
head of Wheeler Dorm where lives with his wife,
Sarah and son, Brooks. Mort is head coach of the boys
varsity squash and assistant coach of the boys varsity
lacrosse teams.
Safietou Sagna has been appointed head of the
French Department, taking over from longtime head
Allison de Horsey, who moves
into a new position as Faculty
Liaison to Global Programs
and Merck-Horton Initiatives.
Sagna, a native of Senegal, re-
ceived her bachelor’s degree
from Mount Holyoke College
and her master’s degree from
the University of Massachu-
setts. She joined the St. George’s faculty in 2007. Mean-
while, de Horsey moves into her new role after having
been recognized as an innovator in developing new
curriculum units based on the latest educational re-
search. She has designed several curricular units in
conjunction with the Merck-Horton Center, recogniz-
ing different learning styles among her students. A
member of the faculty since 1994, she is also the
founder of St. George’s Global Cultural Initiatives Pro-
gram (GCIP), organizing summer cultural immersion
trips and internship opportunities for students in Paris.
The program recently expanded to Madrid and Lon-
don. Allison earned her bachelor’s degree from Rutgers
University and her A.L.M. degree from Harvard.
Catherine Rodero Scholhamer has been appointed
head of the Spanish Department, taking over from
longtime head Mafalda Nula,
who will continue to teach
Spanish classes. Catherine
holds a bachelor’s degree in
international studies with a
specialization in Spanish lan-
guage, literature and culture
from Middlebury College.
She spent her junior year
studying in Middlebury’s lan-
guage program in Madrid. Catherine arrived at St.
George’s in 2006 after having served as a sabbatical
replacement at Belmont Hill School, where she has
taught middle and upper school Spanish, served as
the sophomore class advisor, and assisted in coaching
the middle school soccer and lacrosse teams.
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN44
Faculty/Staff notesFaculty milestones and honors
Safietou Sagna
Catherine RoderoScholhamer
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN 45
PHOTO
BYMARGARETDIPALMA
Latin teaching fellow Virginia Buckles, science teacher Devon Ducharme andformer assistant director of admission and athletic liaison Sarah Dick ’07 (above)— along with Head of the Science Department Holly Williams, and math teach-ers Warren Williams and Abbie DiPalma— participated in the Tough Mudderevent in Boston in June.
Head of School EricPeterson presents
Donna Woishek witha retirement gift atPrize Day as hiswife, AssociateDirector of
Admission KristaPeterson, applauds.
Two faculty members recently earned postgradu-
ate degrees:
Dean of Faculty Lucy Goldstein graduated with an
M.Ed. from Teachers College, Columbia University, this
spring. She studied in the organization and leadership
program, which is offered through the Klingenstein
Center and focuses on independent school leadership.
Form dean and science teacher James Stevens re-
ceived his master’s degree in education from the Uni-
versity of Rhode Island in December.
A nonfiction book by religion teacher Kathleen
Troost-Cramer, titled “True Tales of Life & Death at
Fort Adams,” was published by
History Press in June. Troost-
Cramer, a longtime tour guide
at various sites in Newport,
said she wrote the book to
help people understand that
while the fort never saw any
wartime action, some 287
people lost their lives in tragic
ways there who should be remembered.
Donna Woishek, who served St. George’s as assis-
tant to the head of school for 17 years—eight with
the late Headmaster Charles A. Hamblet and nine
with current Head of School Eric F. Peterson—retired
at the end of the school year to spend more time with
her husband, Ray, her high school sweetheart, who
has been diagnosed with a serious illness.
“Donna has been the invaluable central cog at
the heart of the St. George’s machine,” Peterson
told the crowd during Prize Day services in May as
he presents a gift of appreciation. “She has managed
all aspects of the school: calendars, committees,
agendas—both literal and figurative—faculty,
the board, not to mention the peculiarities of two
different headmasters—and through it all, over
all the years, she has been a consummate, hard-
working professional.”
The mother of three St. George’s graduates—cur-
rent faculty member Ray Woishek Jr. ’89, Daniel
Woishek ’91 and Carolyn Woishek Hagist ’03—
Donna said she still remembers fondly the day she
came to the Hilltop for an Admission appointment
with Ray Jr., passing through the red front doors to
Old School.
“Donna has been part of this school since 1984,”
Peterson added on Prize Day, “and we will quite liter-
ally not be the same without her.”
PHOTO
BYKATEWHITNEYLU
CEY
Longtime head’sassistant and SG momDonna Woishek ret i res
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN46
Compiled by Dean of Faculty Lucy
Goldstein
Tony Arrow – Geronimo Captain Tony has more than 25 years of
experience as a professional mariner
and educator. As an expert in experi-
ential education, planning and logis-
tics in the maritime field, he has
been hired by organizations such as
the South Street Seaport Museum,
Mystic Seaport: the Museum of
America and the Sea, Ocean Class-
room Foundation, Virginia Mar-
itime Heritage Foundation and NY
40 Marilee Racing. With those or-
ganizations he has provided logistics
coordination, vessel surveys, educa-
tion plan evaluation and voyage
planning and event management.
From 2006 to 2009, he was the senior
captain with the South Carolina
Maritime Foundation for which he
delivered marine experiential educa-
tion for high school students in
South Carolina. Tony lives in Providence. He captained
Geronimo during its trip to Bermuda this summer.
George Briggs – English
George is no stranger to St. George’s, having
begun his teaching career here in 2004. Ever since his
departure two years ago, he has been teaching Latin
and coaching track at Greenwich Academy in Green-
wich, Conn., while living in Brooklyn, N.Y. The call of
the Hilltop proved too much for George to resist, and
we are pleased that he will be returning to us, this
time as an English teacher. George attended Wesleyan
University and received his M.A.L.S. degree from
Dartmouth College in the fall of 2011, with an im-
pressive thesis entitled “From Cowboy Hats to Capes:
Popular Conceptions of American Heroism.” In addi-
tion to his teaching, George will coach JV basketball
and track and serve as a dorm parent. George is mar-
ried to Becca Briggs, an attorney, and is a father to
their 6-month-old, Iris.
Adolphe Coulibaly – French
Adolphe, a very familiar face as a 2004 graduate of
St. George’s and former SG summer school teacher, will
join us as a French teacher this fall. Originally from the
Ivory Coast, he holds a B.A. in political science and
French from Amherst College and has been teaching
French and history and coaching soccer and basketball
at Rocky Hill School in East Greenwich, R.I., for the past
five years. In addition to teaching, Adolphe will serve as
a dorm parent, as well as assistant coach for the boys’
varsity soccer team and as a JV boys’ basketball coach.
Adolphe, his wife, Elise, who is a special education
teacher in North Attleboro, and 3-year-old son, Bran-
don, moved to campus from southern Massachusetts
this summer.
James Eberhart – Math
James will join SG as a math teacher, dorm parent,
and coach this fall, having just spent a year in New
York City completing his M.A. in private school leader-
ship from the Klingenstein Center at Teachers College,
Columbia University. Originally from Maine, James
holds a B.A. from Wheaton College and has served in
the Peace Corps in Bulgaria, worked as the mobile op-
New teachers jointhe SG Faculty
PHOTO
BYDIANNERE
ED
Captain Tony Arrow
PHOTO
BYJEREM
YMOREAU
Adolphe Coulibaly ’04 was back on campusthis spring to talk to students about hisexperience moving to the U.S. from theIvory Coast. He joins the faculty this fall.
Faculty/Staff notes
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN 47
erations manager at Outward Bound in Massachusetts,
and, most recently, served as a math teacher and out-
door education instructor at the Hyde School in Bath,
Maine, for five years. After a year in the city, he is eager
to get back to the boarding school world. At SG, he will
take on four sections of math, dorm parenting, and
coaching roles in soccer and swimming.
Holly Grosvenor ’75, P’11, ’15 – Art
Holly, an accomplished architect and LEED AP
project manager with Northeast Collaborative Archi-
tects Inc., will teach the architecture class this year
while Lisa Hansel is on sabbatical. Among many no-
table projects, her recent work includes the design of
the new Loeb Visitors Center at Touro Synagogue in
Newport. The daughter of former head of the Art De-
partment and renowned local painter Richard
Grosvenor and the mother of Rachel Asbel ’11 and
Joey Asbel ’15, Holly has had an intimate connection
with St. George’s for years. She is also active in the local
community, serving as chair of Friends of the Jane
Pickens Theater, a nonprofit working to save the his-
toric theater in the heart of Newport. She graduated
from Brown University in 1979 and from the Harvard
University Graduate School of Design with a master’s
degree in architecture in 1983.
Susie Keller – Assistant Director of Admission
Susie joins SG as an assistant director of admis-
sion from Nashoba Brooks School in Concord, Mass.,
where she has served for two years as the director of
constituent relations, as well as the interim director of
marketing and communications. An honors graduate
of Brown University with a concentration in history
and art history, as well as captain of the Brown
women’s lacrosse team, Susie also has experience
managing the Chazan Gallery at the Wheeler School
in Providence and working as the human resources
coordinator at Kate Spade/Jack Spade Co. in New
York. In addition to her work in admission, Susie will
serve as a dorm parent and help coach soccer and JV
lacrosse. She and her husband, incoming SG English
teacher Jake Westermann, were married this summer.
Jeff Lewis – Chaplain; Religious Studies
Jeff Lewis will join SG as our new chaplain and
head of the Religious Studies Department, a role he has
played at Salisbury School in Connecticut for the past
several years. Prior to his work at Salisbury, Jeff served
as a parish minister in Maine, as well as a captain of
Outward Bound’s experiential maritime programs. In
addition to his roles in ministry and teaching at SG,
Jeff will assist with the sailing team and will help super-
vise the campus in the evening. He will join SG this
summer with his wife, Susan, and their three boys
ranging from middle school to college-age, one of
whom will join the SG class of 2017.
Derry Mason – Dean of Students, English
Derry will join St. George’s as our new dean of stu-
dents, having served as the director of outdoor pro-
grams and as a dorm dean at
Mercersburg Academy in
Pennsylvania for the past nine
years. Prior to that experience,
he built and ran an outdoor
leadership program and
taught English at the
Lawrenceville School in New
Jersey for five years. Derry has used outdoor programs
to build student leadership, a focus he plans to bring
with him to St. George’s. In addition to his work as the
dean of students, Derry will teach one section of Eng-
lish and coach JV lacrosse. A graduate of Middlebury
College, he will move to campus with his wife, Sarah
Mason, who will serve as a dorm parent, and their two
young children, Mary and Quinn.
Sarah Matarese – Chemistry/Marine biology
Sarah joins SG as a chemistry and marine biology
teacher, having served as a professor at Salve Regina
University in Newport for the past 10 years. Though
she is accomplished in the world of university research
and publishing, she is excited to be making the move
to working with high school students in our boarding
school setting where she hopes to use her extensive
knowledge of local marine environments to enrich her
teaching. Sarah holds three
degrees from the University
of Rhode Island, the most
recent being her Ph.D. in
biology. In addition to her
teaching, Sarah will coach
thirds soccer and JV softball
and serve as a dorm parent.
She and her family moved
to campus this summer.
Sugi Min – Chemistry/Physics
Sugi joins SG as a chemistry and physics teaching fellow,
having just completed his four years at Williams College. A
chemistry major, Sugi has spent three of those years serving
as a T.A. for chemistry classes at Williams, and he also de-
voted his time as a Resident Advisor in the dorms and as a
member of the Springstreeters, an all-male a capella group.
Originally from South Korea, Sugi grew up with his parents
in Australia and attended high school in San Diego, Calif. At
St. George’s, he will teach three sections of chemistry and/or
physics, direct the Hilltoppers, work with the singers in the
winter musical, and do dorm duty.
Sarah Mongan – History
Sarah comes to SG to teach history from the Groton
School in Groton, Mass., where she has served as a history
teacher, dorm head, varsity soccer coach and assistant ath-
letic director for the past six years. Prior to her time at Gro-
ton, Sarah served as the athletic director and history teacher
at Dublin School in New Hampshire. She holds a B.A. in
history from Bates College, and an M.A. in private school
leadership from the Klingenstein Center at Teachers Col-
lege, Columbia University. In addition to teaching, Sarah
will serve as a dorm parent and coach, assisting the varsity
soccer team and heading up the JV squash squad.
Hannah O’Brien – History
Hannah will join SG as a history teaching fellow from
Taft School, where she has served as a teaching fellow this
year. A graduate of Colby College, where she majored in
history, captained the field hockey team and played for four
years on the ice hockey team, Hannah is originally from
New Hampshire. At Colby, Hannah spent time volunteering
to coach and mentor Waterville, Maine, youth. In addition
to teaching at SG, Hannah will serve as a dorm parent and
coach the JV field hockey team and varsity ice hockey team.
Sarah Ploskina – Theater, English
Sarah will head the Theater, Speech, and Dance
Department, direct the school play in the fall and the
musical in the winter, and teach theater and English classes.
She will also do dorm duty in Old School. Sara comes to St.
George’s from the Trinity Academy for the Performing Arts
in Providence, R.I., where she served as curriculum and in-
struction consultant. She also is the program director for
Providence (R.I.) CityArts for Youth.
From 2009 to 2012, she was a Theater teacher and
director at The Field School in Washington, D.C. Sarah
received her bachelor’s degree in English, with minors
in theater and education, from Manhattanville College
and her master’s degree in theater education from
Emerson College.
Karen Roarke P’14 – Art
Karen joins SG for the year as Lisa Hansel’s sabbatical re-
placement. No stranger to the Hilltop, Karen (the mother of
Cam Cluff ’14) has displayed her own artwork in the Hunter
Gallery and has taught workshops here with SG students,
and, previously, taught art at the college level in California.
Additionally, Karen has taught art in our local schools; ask
her about her experience with sixth graders building dragster
cars at Gaudet Middle School! Karen will teach two sections
of Visual Foundations, do evening duty in the art center, di-
rect the Hunter Gallery, and advise the yearbook.
Jake Westermann – English
Jake comes to SG to teach English, having served as
a history teacher at Shore Country Day School in Beverly,
Mass., for the past three years. Jake is a graduate
of Brown University with a concentration in American
history; he also studied education and did his student
teaching at a charter school in Pawtucket, R.I. In addition
to his experience in teaching, Jake has taught
woodworking to students at the Wheeler School in
Providence, was the captain of the Brown men’s lacrosse
team, and is currently enrolled in the M.A.L.S program at
Dartmouth College. Jake will serve as a dorm parent and
coach JV ice hockey and JV lacrosse, in addition to his
teaching duties in the English department here at SG. He
and his fiancée, Susie Keller, were set to be married in Au-
gust and move to campus together.
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN48
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Karen Roarke
Faculty/Staff notes
C R E A T I V I T Y O N T H E H I L L T O PArts
S uden t
Artwork
Clockwise from top left: Art by Catherine Farmer ’15,Catherine Farmer ’15, KatePesa ’13, Caroline Yerkes’14, Annie Kim ’16 and
Veronica Tsai ’15
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER BULLET IN 49
The final a cappella concert of the year by the
Snapdragons and the Hilltoppers took place in
Madeira Hall May 17. The concert featured male
soloists Jaewoo Kang ’15 (center left) Nico DeLuca-
Verley ’13, Duncan McGaan ’13, Ziye Hu ’13, Seung
Shin ’14 and Avery Dodd ’14—along with female
soloists Sophie DenUyl ’13, Nicole Young ’13, Hikari
Hasegawa ’13, Miriam Elhajli ’13, Rosie Mulholland ’13,
Keely Conway ’13, Josephine Cannell ’13, Dominique
Samuel ’13, Norah Hogan ’14 and Charlotte Dulay ’14.
Check out some of the video on our YouTube
Channel, www.youtube.com/sgdragon372.
The last regular Music Guild of the year May 10
featured pianist Teddy Carter ’14, vocalist Alexandra
Medeiros ’14, cellist Gage Walsh ’15,
the SG Orchestra and the Jazz
Ensemble. Miriam Elhajli ’13 per-
formed “The Girl from Ipanema”
with the jazz group. A video of the
performance is on our YouTube
Channel.
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN50
web
extra
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Performing in the Spring Dance Concert in May were: Veronica Tsai ’14, Laurie Germain ’15, Bessie Yan ’16,Tori Cunningham ’13, Nicole Young ’13 and Catherine Farmer ’15.
C R E A T I V I T Y O N T H E H I L L T O PArts
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Hilltoppers Jack-Henry Day ’15, Wyatt Dodd ’16, Jaewoo Kang ’15, Jae Choi ’14and Chris Fleming ’15 perform at the final a cappella concert of the school year.
videos
A spring special project that culminated in the
production of “Marry Me A Little,” starring Ziye Hu
’13 and Norah Hogan ’14, with musical accompani-
ment by Joanna Xu ’13, played to adoring crowds
May 11 and 12.
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN 51
The ever-popular Rock Guild, a feature of Spring Dance Weekend, was held May 19 and included performances by Hannah Macaulay ’14 (left), andThomas Kits van Heyningen ’14 and Nico DeLuca-Verley ’13 (right). T-shirt design by Manning Coe ’13.
C R E A T I V I T Y O N T H E H I L L T O P
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Ziye Hu ’13 and Norah Hogan ’14 perform in “MarryMe a Little” in May.
Artist Anne Lilly’s stainless-steel kinetic sculptures were on display in the Hunter
Gallery through April 27.
A T H L E T I C D E P A R T M E N T N E W S
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN52
SG ZoneBASEBALLTwitchell Baseball Cup (M.V.P.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ryan AndradeReynolds Baseball Cup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .James McClellandR.B.I. Cup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sam AlofsinAll-ISL, honorable mention . . . . . . . .Sam Alofsin, Ryan AndradeCaptains-elect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .TBA
GOLFGolf M.V.P. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Reid BurnsGolf Coaches’ Cup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Jack CoatyGolf M.I.P. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Nick LarsonCaptains-elect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Luc Woodard, Tim Howe
BOYS’ LACROSSEAlessi Lacrosse Bowl (M.V.P.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Dan PerryHerter (Coaches’) Cup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Alden PextonHollins-Sheehan Lacrosse Cup (M.I.P.) . . . . . . . . . .Carter MorganAll-ISL, honorable mention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Dan Perry,
Miles Matule, Avery DoddCaptains-elect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .TBA
GIRLS’ LACROSSELacrosse M.V.P. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Oona PritchardLacrosse Coaches’ Cup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Whitney ThomsonLacrosse M.I.P. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Lane DavisAll-ISL, honorable mention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Cecilia Masiello,
Charlotte O’HalloranISL Sportsmanship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .St. George’s SchoolNEPSWLA All-Stars . . . . . .Charlotte O’Halloran, Cecilia MasielloNLE selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Charlotte O’HalloranCaptains-elect . . . . . . . . . . . . .Annika Hedlund, Cecilia Masiello,
Charlotte O’Halloran
SAILINGWood Sailing Bowl (M.V.P.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Max SimmonsLeslie Sailing Bowl (Best Crew) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sophie DenUylCoaches’ Cup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Madeliene ParkerSailing M.I.P. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Will Logue
SOFTBALLSoftball M.V.P. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Caroline ThompsonHolly Williams (Coaches’) Cup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Becky CutlerSoftball M.I.P. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Hikari HasegawaAll-ISL, first team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Allison WilliamsAll-ISL, honorable mention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Libbie DesrosiersCaptains-elect . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Libbie Desrosiers, Andrea Suarez,
Emma Reed, Allison Williams
BOYS’ TENNISYork Tennis Bowl (M.V.P.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Stathi KyriakidesTrotter (Coaches’ Cup) Bowl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Harry ShepherdTennis M.I.P. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Scottie AbeelAll-ISL, first team . . . . . . . . . . .Stathi Kyriakides, Harry ShepherdAll-ISL, honorable mention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Drew MichaelisCaptains-elect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .TBA
GIRLS’ TENNISTennis M.V.P. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Lilly ScheibeTennis Coaches’ Cup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Colby BurdickTennis M.I.P. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Alexa SantryAll-ISL, first team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Lilly ScheibeAll-ISL, honorable mention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Alexa SantryCaptain-elect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Alexa Santry
BOYS’ TRACKHolmes Track Trophy (M.V.P.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Bobby MeyTrack Coaches’ Cup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ryan ConlogueTrack M.I.P. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sage HillAll-ISL, first team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Tyshon Henderson (Shot Put)All-New England . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sage Hill (100)Captains-elect . . . . .Sage Hill, Aubrey Salmon, George Melendez
GIRLS’ TRACKHubert C. Hersey Track Award (M.V.P.) . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sasha ToryTrack Coaches’ Cup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Maggie MaloyTrack M.I.P. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Amy NuytkensAll-New England . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sasha Tory (1500, 3000)All-ISL, first team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sasha Tory (1500, 3000)Captains-elect . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sasha Tory, Carly Mey, Cici HuyckVermillion Athletic Cups . . . . . . . . . .Beth Larcom, Tim BaumannElliot Cup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Oona PritchardZane Cup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Katherine BienkowskiPowel Cup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ryan ConlogueThayer Cup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Alex GatesDonnelly Athletic Cups . . .Tyshon Henderson, Hannah McCormack
JAMES RHODERICK KLOTZ ’75 LETTER AWARDSManager of the Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Billy Reed8-Letter Awards . . . . . . . . .Caroline Thompson, Alana McMahon,
Theresa Salud, Maddie Parker9-Letter Awards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Keely Conway, Alex Gates,
Tyshon Henderson, Shannon Leonard, Mike Reed,Kemi Richardson, Hannah McCormack
10-Letter Awards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Katherine Bienkowski, Ryan Conlogue, Jessica Hom
12-Letter Award . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Oona PritchardProJo Honor Roll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Oona Pritchard, Dan Perry
S P R I N G A T H L E T E S M A K E T H E I R M A R K2 013 S T . G E O R G E ’ S S P R I N G A T H L E T I C AW A R D S
A T H L E T I C D E P A R T M E N T N E W S
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN 53
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Will Fleming ’13 was named one of the state’s ‘Golden Dozen’ by the R.I. Chapterof the National Football Foundation.
Charlotte O’Halloran ’14 was a multiple awardwinner for the girls lacrosse team.
Sage Hill ’14 earned All New England honors for hisperformance on the track team.
PHOTO
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Girls’ varsity softball captain-elect Emma Reed ’14 winds up on the mound infront of fielders Maggie Mead ’14 and Vivianne Reynoso ’13.
NEW
PORTDAILYNEW
S
Our No. 1 boys tennis player, Stathi Kyriakides ’13, was the Newport Daily NewsAthlete of the Week at the end of April.
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Check out more athletic photos athttp://www.flickr.com/photos/stgeorgesschool/collections/
photos
A T H L E T I C D E P A R T M E N T N E W S
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN54
SG Zone
After winning four out of six games against
Portsmouth Abbey April 15, St. George’s officially won
the Diman Cup for the 15th year in a row (photo left).
Our stellar spring athletes were honored at an
awards assembly May 27. Named as MVPs were Ryan
Andrade ’13 (baseball), Reid Burns ’13 (golf), Dan Perry
’13 (lacrosse), Oona Pritchard ’13 (lacrosse), Max Sim-
mons ’13 (sailing), Caroline Thompson ’13 (softball),Stathi Kyriakides ’13 (tennis), Lilly Scheibe ’15 (tennis),Bobby Mey ’13 (track), and Sasha Tory ’14 (track). Pho-
tos from the assembly are on our Flickr.com page.
Senior prefect and football captain Will Fleming ’13
was recognized as one of the state’s top scholar-athletes
at the Rhode Island Chapter of the National Football
Foundation & College Hall of Fame’s Golden Dozen
dinner May 6. Will, an honor student as well as an All-
ISL football player, will attend Middlebury College and
play for the Panthers this fall.
The Providence Journal recently named a number
of standout spring athletes to its Independent All-State
list and our own Ryan Andrade ’13 (baseball), Sage Hill
’14 (track), Stathi Kyriakides ’13 (tennis), Dan Perry ’13
(lacrosse), Lilly Scheibe ’15 (tennis), Max Simmons ’13
(sailing), and Sasha Tory ’14 (track) and made the cut.
Meanwhile, seven of our star winter athletes also
earned Providence Journal Independent All-State recog-
nition in the April 30 edition: Basketball players Jess
Hom ’13 and Theresa Salud ’13, hockey player Timmy
Doherty ’14, squash players Vicky Arjoon ’15 and Moudy
Abdel-Maksoud ’15, and swimmers Michael McGinnis
’13 and Anna Millar ’13.
Cameron Cluff ’14, a center on the (Aquidneck) Is-
land Rugby team, was featured in a photo in the New-
port Daily News in April after scoring a goal in the Beast
of the East tournament against Bishop Hendricken.
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Allie Fuller ’14, Jillian Gates ’15, Natasha Zobel de Ayala ’15, Callie Randall ’14,Bud Fralick ’14, Cecilia Masiello ’14, Sacha Grahovac ’14, Jonathan Bayne ’14 andMiles Foy ’16 celebrate SG’s 2013 Diman Cup win against Portsmouth Abbey.
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Girls Varsity Tennis Coach Stuart Titus poses with tennis award winners ColbyBurdick ’13 , Lilly Scheibe ’15 and Alexa Santry ’14.
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN 55
A T H L E T I C D E P A R T M E N T N E W S
Recent alums makingsports news …
Leigh Archer ’09, who graduated from Cornell University this year,
was named a Division I All-American this spring for rowing, a CRCA
National Scholar Athlete and a Mid-Atlantic Region First Team selec-
tion. She also represented the United States at the World Rowing
Under 23 Championships in Austria in July.
Maddie Carrellas ’09, lit up the lacrosse field for the College of the
Holy Cross, from which she graduated this year. The senior captain
played in the 2013 Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Associa-
tion (IWLCA)/Under Armour North-South All-Star Game May 26 on
the campus of Cabrini College in Radnor, Pa. For her regular-season
play, she earned first team All-Patriot League honors and was selected
to the Patriot League All-Tournament team. Carrellas started in all 19
games with a career-best 24 goals and three assists for a career-best 27
points in 2013.
Also heading to the lacrosse all-star tournament in Pennsylvania
May 24 was senior defenseman Scott Chanelli ’09 of Haverford Col-
lege’s men’s lacrosse team. Chanelli was named a 2013 U.S. Intercolle-
giate Lacrosse Association (USILA) Division III honorable mention
All-American. He also was named a 2013 USILA Scholar All-Ameri-
can. Chanelli posted career-high numbers during his final season as a
Fords defender, forcing a league-best 47 caused turnovers and scoop-
ing up 86 ground balls, which was fourth most in the conference.
Playing for the Kenyon College Lords, Jake Dunn ’11, landed a
second-team spot on the 2013 All-North Coast Athletic Conference
baseball team.
Megan Leonhard ’09 and the Trinity College Women’s Lacrosse
team made it to the final game of the NCAA Championship in Ow-
ings Mills, Md., in May. Though they lost the May 19 game to Salis-
bury College, it was a stellar season for the Bantams, and Leonhard,
a tri-captain midfielder, was named to the all-tournament team
for Trinity.
Wentworth Institute of Technology pitcher Ben Lewis ’10 was
named honorable mention all-conference to the All-Commonwealth
Coast Baseball Conference this spring. Lewis made nine appearances
on the mound for the Leopards in 2013 and led the team with six
wins. Over his three-year career at Wentworth, Lewis has made 25 ap-
pearances (15 starts, three complete games) and is 10-7 with a 4.17
earned run average.
Sydney Mas ’10 secured her place in University of Vermont his-
tory in 2013, taking over first place on the women’s lacrosse team’s all-
time goals list. In May she also was named to the Intercollegiate
Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) Northeast Region
All-America Second Team. A three-time America East All-Conference
First Team selection, Mas, a UVM junior, earned her third straight ap-
pearance on the IWLCA Northeast Region All-America squad after
starting all 18 games for the Catamounts in 2013 and leading the team
with 50 goals and 60 points.
Johnny Norfleet ’09, who graduated from Hobart and William
Smith Colleges this year, was named a Coed All-American by the
Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association.
Jesse Pacheco ’10, now a rising senior at Cornell University, be-
came the first player from an urban squash program to earn All-
American honors this spring. Pacheco, who joined the City Squash
Program in New York
City as a sixth-grader,
won five consecutive
Urban Individual Na-
tional titles in her career
with the program. At St.
George’s, she captained
the varsity squash team
her junior and senior
years and won a New
England Interscholastic
title. This past season at
Cornell, she posted a 12-
4 record, notching wins
over two top-10 players and helping her team finish sixth in the na-
tion. Ever the hard-working, well-rounded student, she is working as
an analyst in the sales and trading division at Goldman Sachs this
summer.
Jeremy Phillips ’11, who just finished his sophomore year at
Rhodes College, ended an outstanding track & field season in May
with top-10 finishes in both the 200-meter dash and triple jump at the
North Central College Gregory Final Qualifier. In the 200, Phillips fin-
ished eighth with a time of 22.73 and finished ninth in the triple jump
with a mark of 13.16 meters.
A DAY TO FO CUS ON OTHERSIt was SG’s annual Day of Engagement April 22,
meaning students and teachers spent the day focusing
on helping others and discussing such topics as leader-
ship, cultural differences, equality and diversity. A big
thanks to Gail Lowney Alofsin—inspirational speaker,
director of corporate partnerships at Newport Harbor
Corp. and mom of Sam Alofsin ’14—for kicking off the
day with a great talk on finding a cause you’re passion-
ate about. Another key message: Do something every
day to make someone else’s day better.
Claire Yoon ’14 and Norah Hogan ’14 organized a
Run for Boston at the end of the day to raise money for
The One Fund, the charity set up to aid victims of the
Marathon bombings.
Photos from SG’s Day of Engagement are on our
Flickr.com site.
With the city of Boston on our minds in April,
community members signed cards for a student from
BB&N and a teacher from St. Sebastian’s who were
badly wounded in the Boston Marathon attacks.
The cards were designed by talented artist Hannah
Macaulay ’14.
Our annual Oxfam Hunger Banquet to make our
community more aware of food crises around the
world took place April 25. That
meant a small plate of rice and/or
beans were given as dinner in King
Hall to a random two-thirds of our
students, while the remaining students received a full
meal. (The World Health Organization estimates that
one-third of the world is well fed, one-third is under-
fed and one-third is starving.) Student organizers from
the Community Service Council were Norah Hogan ’14
and Hannah Todd ’14.
Bobby Mey ’13 organized
a dedicated band of runners
and volunteers to participate
in the “Run the Wave for
Dave” race April 6 at Second
Beach—a community event
held to honor and support
local resident David Leys Jr.,
who has been diagnosed
with ALS.
Above left: Gail Lowney AlofsinP’14 delivers theopening address atthe annual Day ofEngagement inApril.
Above right: Students sign cardsfor injured victims ofthe Boston Marathonbombings.
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN56
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Bobby Mey ’13The annual Pan-Massachusetts Kids Ride took place at Second Beach on Sunday,May 19, with Jess Hom ’13, Beth Larcom ’16 and Kemi Richardson ’13 serving asstudent organizers. Money raised each year goes to research and treatment at theDana Farber Institute.
R E A C H I N G O U T T O O T H E R SCommunity Service
Avery Dodd ’14, Annabella Doyle
’14, Tyshon Henderson ’13, Sage Hill
’14, Hannah Macaulay ’14, Sammie
Maltais ’14, Nick Mandor ’14, Lisbeily
Mena ’13, Anna Millar ’13, Gigi Moylan
’14, Vivianne Reynoso ’13, Raleigh Sil-
via ’13 and Natalie Sullivan ’14 —
along with math teacher Abbie
DiPalma and Director of OperationsGeorge Staples—spent part of spring
break building homes for Habitat for
Humanity in Santa Fe, N.M.
A number of students joined
Charleen Martins-Lopes ’15 for the
Annual Tomorrow Fund Stroll in
Cranston April 28 in honor of Mar-
tins-Lopes’ cousin, Henry Andrade,
who died of cancer in January.
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN 57
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Beth Larcom ’16 was honored as a Childhood Hero atFenway Park June 6 for the impact she has had on hercommunity as a volunteer. Beth helped organize thePan Massachusetts Challenge Kids Ride, a PMCHockey Night benefit game between her club hockeyteam and a team of doctors and nurses from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and a PMC Night at Car-dine’s Field with the Newport Gulls.
On April 7, a hearty group of Dragons splashed into the frigid waves of Second Beach in the Polar Plunge, to help raise money for Lucy’s Hearth, a local women’s shelter.Participants in the “Run the Wave for Dave” race
make their way down Second Beach.
Alex Gates ’13 participated in the “PMC HockeyNight” event to raise money for the Dana-FarberCancer Institute, where his father is a physician.
Tending to SG’s Community Garden this spring were: (sitting) Megan Daknis ’14and Up Punyagupta ’13, and (in the back row) Julian Turner ’14, Josephine Cannell’13, Anna Millar ’13, Hannah Todd ’14 and Lucas Campbell ’13.
Habitat for Humanity volunteers HannahMacaulay ’14, Nick Mandor ’14, AveryDodd ’14 and Sammie Maltais ’14.
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Charleen Martins-Lopes ’15
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ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN58
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R E A C H I N G O U T T O O T H E R SCommunity Service
Above: Student dona-tions to the 10th annualCamp Ramleh YardSale in June helpedraise more than $6,300for our summer campfor underprivilegedchildren in NewportCounty.
Right: This summer the2013 staff at CampRamleh included:(front row) DejaniaCotton-Samuel ’15,Emma Thompson ’15,Director Corrie Pratt,Margaret Schroeder’14, Nico DeLuca-Ver-ley ’13, Aaron Anane’14, Jorge Melendez ’14and (back row) EmmaSmith, HannahMacaulay ’14, DirectorAndrew Pratt, DirectorAdam Choice ’06,Thomas Kits vanHeyningen ’14, ItoOrobator ’14, DavidKehoe ’13 and Misha Rogers.
Compiled by Emmy Sullivan
The St. George’s Board of Trustees welcomed four
new members to its ranks last semester—all current
parents with a variety of professional credentials.
Timothy P. Burns P’13, ’16, joins the board while
continuing to serve with his wife, Lorrie, as a chair of
the St. George’s Parents Committee. Tim is the CEO
and a co-founder of bioprocessH2O, a leader in the de-
velopment of modular advanced biological and mem-
brane treatment systems. Prior to founding
bioprocessH2O, Tim served as president of the board of
Save The Bay in Providence. He continues to serve on
Save The Bay’s President’s Leadership Council, as well
as on the board of Bank Newport and Algae Biomass
Organization. He received his bachelor’s degree in
business from Providence College, and his master’s de-
gree in environmental science from Brown University.
Susan K. “Sisi” Gallagher ’82, P’16 joins the board as
a partner of Williams & Gallagher Investments LLC, a
private investment firm in Chevy Chase, Md. A gradu-
ate of St. George’s in 1982, Sisi received her bachelor’s
degree from Wellesley College and her M.B.A. from
Harvard Business School. She has served on the boards
of various portfolio companies, The Environmental
Enterprises Assistance Fund and the Board of Visitors
at Children’s National Medical Center. She currently
serves on the boards of TelStar Hosted Services Inc.
and Molecular Transfer Inc.
Arthur Lee P’15, ’16 is the chief executive officer
and member of the board of Tokio Marine Asia Pte
Ltd., the regional office of the Tokio Marine Group in
Asia, a life, non-life and reinsurance company. He
currently serves as chairman of Tokio Marine
Insurance Singapore Ltd. and is a member of the Board
of Tokio Marine and Fire Insurance Co. (Hong Kong)
Ltd., Tokio Marine Asset Management International
Pte. Ltd., Tokio Marine Life Insurance Singapore, Tokio
Marine Life Insurance Malaysia, Asia General
Holdings, Tokio Marine General Assets Pte Ltd. and
Asia General Assets Bhd. He holds a J.D. from Santa
Clara University and in addition to his business
involvements, he was awarded the Public Service Medal
by the president of Singapore in August 2008.
Robin Grace Warren P’15 has an abiding interest in
the arts. She decided to use her creativity in the venture
capital industry after graduating from UCLA’s Ander-
son Business School in 1981. After becoming a partner
of the Phoenix Partners in Seattle, Wash., she held sen-
ior management positions in two entrepreneurial ven-
tures until co-founding The Rainbow Fund L.P., a
private investment partnership, where she is a general
partner. Robin attended Prescott College and Madeira
School. She has served on the boards of various non-
profit organizations ranging from community devel-
opment near her home in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, to
The Newport Art Museum. Robin and her husband,
Fred, joined the SG Parents Committee in 2011.
Meanwhile, two members who served the board
generously for years have retired.
Laura de Ramel ’90, who was her class’s head agent
from 1990 to 2009, departs the board after having
served as a spirited, loyal member since 2007. She was a
member of the Development, Finance, Operations and
Awards Committees and served as Annual Giving
Chair from 2009 to 2013. In 2000, Laura received the
Philip Murray Reynolds Volunteer of the Year Award
and in 2007 she was the recipient of the Howard B.
Dean Service Award.
Laura F. Pedrick P’07, ’08 joined the board in 2007
and served on the Compensation, Development, Edu-
cation and Student Life Committees. As the mother of
two former day students, Laura was the day student
voice on the board. As Prize Day speaker in 2008, she
urged graduates to take chances and reap the rewards.
An enthusiastic supporter of the school, Laura also
notched one of the best trustee participation records
for Dragon Weeks calling.
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN 59
N E W S F R O M T H E B O A R D O F T R U S T E E SBoard notes
Tim Burns
Sisi Gallagher
Arthur Lee
Robin Grace Warren
Board welcomes newmembers, honors retirees
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN60
Above: Fourth formers Michaela Ahern, Sloan
Buhse, Sarah Braman, Caroline Dunn-Packer and Lilly
Schopp examine a sea turtle on board Geronimo this
spring.
Top right: Alana Ahern ’07 was able to meet her sis-
ter, spring Geronimo crew member Michaela Ahern ’15,
in Charleston, S.C., when Geronimo was coming back
up the East Coast home to Newport at the end of April.
At right: Sarah Braman ’15 stands at the helm of
Geronimo during the spring cruise. The boat landed in
the Bahamas April 1
At left: The summer 2013 crew of Geronimo—Sam
Ayvazian-Hancock ’15, Jiwoo Seo ’16, Billy Reed ’15, Anders McLeod ’14, Alexa Santry ’14 and Grace Polk
’14—traveled to Bermuda in June.
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ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN 61
S T U D E N T A C H I E V E M E N T SHighlights
III FORMLogan Holly AmaralTimothy John BaumannAshlyn Brooks BuffumTimothy Kyle BurnsLee Madison CardwellDejania Cotton-SamuelLuke William CrimminsJames McGee CunninghamLaura Elizabeth EdsonAnnabelle Blessing FischerConnor J. FitzgeraldPatrick Burton FordMiles Winslow FoyAnnabel Taylor GrunebaumEvan Xavier JacksonJee Seob JungIan Daniel KellerChaeyun KimTaylor Anne KirkpatrickDavid Hall LamarElizabeth LarcomAudrey S. LinWilliam Lindsay LogueCaroline Allen MacaulayLuc Poirier ParutaMargaret Whitney RogersJiwoo SeoJames Marshall StevensAndrea Grace SullivanJonathan C. TesoroOlivia Demary VittonJonathan Yutong WangSophie Genevieve WilliamsToni Lynn Woods Maignan, Jr.
IV FORMMichaela Kathryn AhernZahra ArabzadaGiovanni CarlosArmonies-AssaloneJoseph Burnett AsbelSamara Rebecca Ayvazian-HancockSophia Abby BarkerWilliam Vaughan Bemis
Sloan Alexandra BuhseSarah Stewart CarnwathOlivia Carson ConsoliLane Alexandra DavisJack-Henry Stockton DayReed de Bruhl de HorseySterling Victoria EtheridgeCatherine Bertrand FarmerChloe Amelia FarrickCamila FloresBlaise C. FoleyJing GaoLaurie Naitha GermainJulia C. GoinsOliver Ridgely GreenPiers Snowden Hill GuthrieAnnika Leigh HedlundSerena deWees HighleyRebecca Grace HoweCynthia Janette HuyckEmily Louise KallfelzJaewoo KangErin Marie KeatingYul Hee KimYou Jeong LeeEddie J. LiuRolf Benjamin LocherChenglin LuIrene C. LuperonChristina Rose MalinAnders Cassoday McLeodElizabeth Goodwin MillarCarter Young MorganSoravis NawbhanichHenry Stillman OrdwayJi Young ParkAlden Timothy PextonGriffin Michael PrescottMichael James Riordan, VRobert Carter RoseCameron Eugene RoyElizabeth Hale ScheibeMerrill Avery ScuraMargaret Muriel SmallPaget Grace SmithEmma Louise ThompsonAmanda Grace Warren
Thomas Hunter WesterbergAllison Vanier WilliamsYimin XiePhillip D. YoungLan ZhangNatasha S. Zobel de Ayala
V FORMSamuel Frederick AlofsinAaron S. AnaneChristian Robert AndersonWilliam Kelly Kerr AndersonTimothy Glimme ArcherMiranda Nicole BakosKatherine Elizabeth BauerJonathan Golden BayneHarrison Herbert BoehmKari Anna ByrnesCamilla Pepperell CabotMargaret Deane CardwellPeter Anthony CarrellasEdward Hill CarterYu Yao ChengJaeyoung ChoiWoo Won ChunCameron Roarke CluffKathryn Ann CoughlinMegan E. DaknisJohn Anthony DeLucaElizabeth Dewey DesrosiersAntonio Di LorenzoTimothy Andrews DohertyRoger James DorrHayley Elizabeth Lee DurudoganNicolas FloresJeffrey Paul FralickAllison Parks FullerAlexander James Maher GoodrichElizabeth Lipton GraceAlexandre Zvonimir GrahovacWilliam Christopher HillNorah Burke HoganQuang Nguyen Viet HongTimothy Michael HoweQinwen HuangKatelyn Nicole HutchinsonAmirah Keaton
Mary Olivia KeithMargaret Peyton KilvertJohn Jongmin KimThomas Edward Kits van HeyningenAlexandra Ann LaShelleEdgar Z.H. LeeSamuel Thompson LoomisAndrew Sloane LynchHannah Marie MacaulayPeyton Emily MacNaughtMargaret Tese MaloySamantha D. MaltaisNicholas Broderick MandorCecilia Christiane MasielloMiles Foley MatuleSophia Douglass McDonaldMargaret Anne MeadAlexandra Shaw MedeirosJorge L. MelendezVirginia Casey MoylanItohan Teni OrobatorGrace Connors PolkBrooke Elizabeth ReisWilson S. RubinoffAubrey Miles Fitzhugh SalmonLily Joy SanfordAlexa Olin SantryMargaret Elizabeth SchroederSeung Hyouk ShinWilliam Eberlein SimpsonAndrea SuarezNatalie Ann SullivanHannah Frances ToddAlexandra Anne ToryDian-Jung TsaiEmily Owens WalshRobert Loux WoodardCaroline Woodward YerkesJieun Yoon
VI FORMRyan James AndradeKatherine Alice BienkowskiColby O’Neil BurdickTerrence Reid BurnsJosephine Rose CannellBailey McKay Clement
John Garvoille CoatyRichard Ryan ConlogueEmma S. CozVictoria Elizabeth CunninghamRebecca Warren CutlerJuan Carlos De La GuardiaNico Cyril DeLuca-VerleySophia Elisabeth DenUylKelly Frances DugganRahil Karim Aliff FazelbhoyMarianne Casey Foss-SkiftesvikBethany Lynn FowlerJoseph Omar GrimehKathleen Elizabeth HamrickHikari HasegawaZiye HuDavid Larimer KehoeRowon KimPeter KohlerEfstathios KyriakidesNicholas King LarsonWilliam LeathermanXingyan LiHannah Wise McCormackAllison Armstrong McLaneAlana Claire McMahonLisbeily MenaRobert Walter MeyAnna Elizabeth MillarJeremy MonkMadeleine Emelia ParkerDaniel Perry, IIIKatarina PesaTyler Andrew PesekCallie Victoria ReisElizabeth Madison ReynoldsVivianne Renee ReynosoKemigisha Maria RichardsonDaniel Austin ScheererJae Young ShinWilliam Isaac SilversteinRaleigh Sheehan SilviaMaxwell Bardsley SimmonsCaroline Claire ThompsonWhitney Haskell ThomsonSienna Warriner TurecamoHan Xu
Honor Roll
Head of School Commendation for Academic ExcellenceThe Head of School Commendation for Academic Excellence is St. George’s highest bi-annual honor.
These students received no grade below an A- during the 2012-13 second semester:
Academic Honors for Second Semester 2012-13
Edward Hill CarterYu Yao ChengWoo Won ChunJohn Garvoille CoatyDejania Cotton-SamuelKelly Frances DugganHayley Elizabeth Lee DurudoganLaura Elizabeth EdsonBethany Lynn Fowler
Timothy Michael HoweQinwen HuangJaewoo KangErin Marie KeatingJohn Jongmin KimYul Hee KimTaylor Anne KirkpatrickThomas Edward Kits van HeyningenXingyan Li
Audrey S. LinHannah Marie MacaulayCaroline Allen MacaulayMargaret Anne MeadLuc Poirier ParutaDaniel Perry, IIIMargaret Whitney RogersRobert Carter RoseLily Joy Sanford
Elizabeth Hale ScheibeMargaret Elizabeth SchroederSeung Hyouk ShinJae Young ShinAmanda Grace WarrenSophie Genevieve WilliamsRobert Loux WoodardYimin XieHan XuJieun Yoon
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN62
S T U D E N T A C H I E V E M E N T SHighlights
It doesn’t get any better than summa cum laude in
the National Latin Exam, so hats off to Hall Lamar ’16,Rolf Locher ’15, Harry Shepherd ’16, Eddie Liu ’15 andAgnes Enochs ’15, who all earned the coveted gold
award in the 2013 contest. Overall 18 students earned
awards in the competition, including maxima cum
laude winners Allison Williams ’15, Maggie Small ’15,Patrick Ford ’16, Michael Riordan ’15 and Audrey Lin
’16; magna cum laude winners Ian Keller ’16, Evan
Jackson ’16, Julia Goins ’15, Erick Lu ’15, Sterling
Etheridge ’15; and cum laude winners Amy Nuytkens
’15, Serena Bancroft ’15 and Sloan Buhse ’15.
Earning Premio de Oro, or gold, awards in the Na-
tional Spanish Exam this year were: Level 1 students
Caroline Macaulay ’16 and Loomis Quillen ’16; Level 2
students Carter Rose ’15, Sophie Williams ’16, Sophia
Barker ’15, Cici Huyck ’15, Kari Bymes ’14, Wendy
Huang ’14, Jaewoo Kang ’15, and Luc Paruta ’16; Level
3 students Erin Keating ’15, Lilly Scheibe ’15, Becky
Howe ’15, Teddy Carter ’14, Maggie Mead ’14, William
Anderson ’14, and Joey Asbel ’15; and Level 4 studentZhou (Bessie) Yan ’16.
For her superior performance in the intermediate
level, Lilly Scheibe ’15 was the winner of the Spanish
Writing Competition sponsored by the R.I. Chapter of
the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and
Portuguese in January. Also recognized for their supe-
rior performance in the intermediate level were Maggie
Mead ’14, Ito Orobator ’14, Aubrey Salmon ’14, Alexa
Santry ’14 and Bessie Yan ’16. In the advanced level,Katherine Bauer ’14, Colby Burdick ’13, John DeLuca
’14, Hannah Todd ’14, Grace Polk ’14, Callie Reis ’13,
and Margaret Schroeder ’14 were recognized for their
superior performance.
Katelyn Hutchinson ’14, Anna Millar ’13, Samantha
Maltais ’14, Hikari Hasegawa ’13 and Seung Hyouk
Shin ’14 have been inducted into the Chinese Language
Honor Society. The Society recognizes high scholastic
achievement, good character, leadership
and service.
Hikari Hasegawa ’13 and Claire Yoon ’14 finished
in an impressive third place in the Advanced Group at
the Chinese Bridge National Speech Contest held April
7 at The University of Massachusetts Confucius Insti-
tute in Boston. The two girls were among just 24 final
contestants across the nation to compete in the annual
contest, which this year included applicants from U.S.
high schools in 18 states.
Language students shine
Allie Fuller ’14, who served as crucifer forchapel services this year, was named headchapel prefect for 2013-14.
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Ultra-talented artists Catherine Farmer ’15, Veron-
ica Tsai ’14, Caroline Yerkes ’14 and Claire Yoon ’14 will
serve as heads of the 2013-2014 Art Club.
The Red Key Society works with the Admission
Office to give tours and promote the school to
prospective students. Let’s just say they help us show
off really well. This year’s Red Key heads will be Han-
nah Macaulay ’14, Timmy Doherty ’14, Maggie Maloy
’14, Tim Howe ’14, Cecilia Masiello ’14, Andrew Lynch
’14, Callie Randall ’14, Miles Matule ’14, Emily Walsh
’14 and Luc Woodard ’14.
Peggy Kilvert ’14 and Nicolas Flores ’14 will be
the 2013-14 Spanish Club heads.
New members were appointed to the Health
Council this year: Lexi LaShelle ’14, Oliver Green ’15,Zurab Akirtava ’15, Natasha Zobel de Ayala ’15 andElizabeth Millar ’15 will join present members Johnny
Kim ’14 and Sasha Tory ’14 (Alexa Santry ’14 leaves to
serve as a school prefect).
Meggie O’Connor ’14 was appointed head verger
for chapel services for the 2013-14 year. Eliza Grace ’14
will be assistant head verger.
The new heads of the Insight Club will be: Irene
Luperon ’15, Andrea Suarez ’14 and Charleen Martins-
Lopes ’15.
After a stellar tenure as news editor, Margaret
Schroeder ’14 has been promoted to managing
editor of the student newspaper, the Red & White.
Thomas Kits van Heyningen ’14 will serve his second
year as editor-in-chief. (Side note: A literary essay
by former Red & White managing editor Kate Hamrick
’13 titled, “I Like Your Shoes,” was a featured work
on the well-regarded teen publishing site,
TeenInk.com, in May. Read the essay online at
http://teenink.com/hot_topics/health.)
The school prefects for the
2013-14 school year are Alexa
Santry, Teddy Carter, Alec
Goodrich, Peter Carrellas and Avery
Dodd. We broke the news of the
election results on our Facebook
page as they were revealed in
Madeira Hall, capturing this exu-
berant photo of the new Fab Five.
Alec (middle right holding the
keys to the school on Prize Day)
will head the student body as
senior prefect.
2014 classmates Quang Hong,Aubrey Salmon, Grace Polk, Han-
nah Todd and Annabella Doyle will
serve the school as Honor Board
representatives. Aubrey will chair
the group.
Bethany Fowler ’13 was the
featured local SG graduate in the
Newport Daily News May 28.
You can read the full article at
NewportDailyNews.com.
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN 63
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O’CONNOR
Top: Nick Larson ’15 passes onthe gavel to incoming Honor
Board head Aubrey Salmon ’14.
Middle: New Senior PrefectAlec Goodrich ’14 proudly displays the keys to the school on Prize Day.
Bottom: Bethany Fowler ’13appears in the local paper.
S T U D E N T A C H I E V E M E N T S
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S T U D EN T S TA K E O N L E A D E R S H I P R O L E S
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN64
Editor’s note: The John B. Diman Award is presented
annually during Reunion Weekend to an alumna
or alumnus whose personal accomplishments or
public service contributions are valued greatly
by St. George’s School. The complete text of
Mr. Wulsin’s acceptance speech is online at
www.stgeorges.edu/DimanAward2013.
Lucien Wulsin, a member of the St. George’s Class
of 1963, was presented with the John B. Diman
Award—the school’s highest alumni/ae honor—in
the Chapel on May 17.
Wulsin’s distinguished career as a longtime
champion of health-care reform and his advocacy for
those without adequate health insurance made him
the unanimous choice of the Board of Trustees and
an exemplary candidate for the Diman Award.
Wulsin and his family have a long history with
St. George’s. As an honorary member of the notably
rare “Four-SG-Community-Members-Who-Have-
the-Same-Name Club,” Wulsin arrived on the Hill-
top following in the steps of both his grandfather,
Lucien Wulsin, Class of 1906, and father, Lucien
Wulsin, Class of 1935. (Lucien Wulsin ’13, of Seattle,
is a cousin.) In all, 14 members of the Wulsin fam-
ily have attended St. George’s and the school is
proud to count them as a substantial part of our
alumni/ae family.
Growing up in Cincinnati, Wulsin was
surrounded by creativity and music: His father had
once been president of the famed Baldwin Piano Co.
and was a passionate supporter of the arts, along with
also being an exuberant parent who took his children
wandering in caves and riding in rafts along the
Kentucky/Tennessee border.
Top: Head of SchoolEric Peterson (right)congratulates LucienWulsin ’63, winnerof the 2013 John B.Diman Award.
Right: Members ofthe Wulsin clan—Bo’11 (left), Harry ’66(second from left)and Lucien ’13(second from right)gather in the Chapelfollowing the presentation of theDiman Award toLucien ’63 (right).
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MYMORE
AU
R E C O N N E C T I N G O N T H E H I L L T O PReunion Weekend ’13
Wulsin ’63earns covetedDiman Award
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN 65
Among his peers at St. George’s, Wulsin was
known for his enthusiastic support of the Cincinnati
Reds baseball team, his early arrival at breakfast in
King Hall—and his love for a good nap. Along with
noting his membership in the Rifle Club, the French
Club and the Library Association, the 1963 Lance
anoints him president of the S.G. Slumber Society,
(though his alarm clock before the start of classes was
in good working order).
A Midwesterner, Wulsin says he experienced a fair
amount of “culture shock” when he arrived in the
Northeast for boarding school. Yet still, because he
was roundly welcomed, Mr. Wulsin recalls most
fondly of his SG years his bonds with his classmates
and his relationships with his teachers—including the
venerable James Vermillion, who taught Latin to both
Wulsin and his father.
After St. George’s, Wulsin went on to earn a bach-
elor’s degree from Trinity College and a law degree
from the University of Virginia. He was an attorney
with the National Health Law Program, a senior attor-
ney with Greater Boston Legal Services, and a clinical
associate at Harvard Law School.
Years ago, a client walked into Wulsin’s office and
changed his career. The client was a Vietnam veteran
with a wife and two children who, after being on pub-
lic assistance, had recently found a job. Things were
looking up until he found out that because he had
started working, he had lost his Medicaid health bene-
fits. Wulsin said that tjis is when he knew something
had to be changed. A number of similar cases
prompted him to advocate publicly for policy changes
regarding the uninsured.
In 1994, the Center for Governmental Studies
published Wulsin’s “California at the Crossroads:
Choices for Health Care Reform,” a study on Califor-
nia’s options to redesign its health care system.
These days, as the director of the Insure the
Uninsured Project, Wulsin continues to partner
with numerous health care organizations through-
out California on efforts to increase funding, care
and coverage for the uninsured. “I got involved
thinking I could fix the problem quickly,” said
Wulsin. “That was 40 years ago. I guess I’m in it
for the long haul.”
R E C O N N E C T I N G O N T H E H I L L T O P
Retired Associate Director of Admission Betsy Leslie, Christopher Lee ’87 and retired Head of the Science Department Steve Leslie.
Alex Regan ’08, Ellie Myers ’08, Associate Director of Admission Krista Petersonand Kathryn Connor ’08.
Retired Art Department Chair Richard Grosvenor.
Nate Fletcher ’98 and Claire Abell.
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SBY
ANDRE
AHANSEN
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN66
Note: The Howard B. Dean Service Award
was established in 2001 by the Board of
Trustees to recognize members of the St.
George’s School community whose service
to the school has been exceptional.
Howard B. Dean was the father of four St.
George’s graduates: Howard ’66, Charlie ’68,
Jim ’72 and Bill ’73. He served on the St.
George’s Board of Trustees from 1976 to 1985,
was president of the board from 1980 to 1984,
and was board chair from 1984 to 1985. In
1985, Dean, known for his vast knowledge of fi-
nance and management, was appointed an
Honorary Trustee and served actively in that
role until his death in 2001.
Three dedicated St. George’s volunteers
were awarded Howard B. Dean Awards for
outstanding service to the school during Re-
union Weekend in May: John B. “Jay” John-
ston Jr. ’73, Rosemary “Rosie” Gaynor
Wiedenmayer ’93 and J. Philip “Phip” Lee.
Johnston, of Mill Valley, Calif., has been
an enthusiastic spokesperson and cheer-
leader for the school since hosting St.
George’s first West Coast phonathon in
1998. A loyal Dragon Weeks caller, he as-
sumed the role of head class agent in 2006
and has been a leadership donor on behalf
of the Annual Fund. His name is on one of
the Dragon’s scales in the Campus Center
and on more than one seat in the hockey
rink. A vice-president/financial advisor with
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in San Fran-
cisco, he has lent his support to our finan-
cial aid efforts over the years and is a
member of the founding Friends of the
St. George’s Chapel.
Wiedenmayer, of Denver, Colo., partici-
pated in no less than 13 Dragon Weeks be-
tween 1999 and 2007. She has been a head
agent for her class on the Annual Giving
Committee since 2000. A consistently loyal
donor to the Annual Fund herself, she also
extends that loyalty to capital enterprises with
the same sense of commitment. In 1993
shortly after her graduation from St. George’s,
the Gaynor Family Foundation, of which she
is a trustee, established the Gaynor Family
Fund Scholarship at SG to provide financial
aid to students from Ohio and the Midwest.
An honorary trustee, Lee, of Westport,
Mass., became an integral part of the marine
program at St. George’s during his tenure on
the board from 1991 to 2006. He was the sec-
retary of the Budget Committee for many
years and chaired the Marine Committee—
instrumental in the design and construction
of the “new” Geronimo— from 1991 to 2005.
Lee spearheaded the design process, oversaw
the construction and worked closely with for-
mer trustee Charlie Dana P’91, ’01, ’05, for-
mer faculty members Steve Connett and Steve
Leslie to play a major role in fundraising
efforts for the vessel, which was christened in
1998. Lee continues to be an ardent supporter
of all things St. George’s and his generosity is
reflected in yearly gifts to the Annual Fund
and for the endowment of Geronimo.
On hand to present the volunteer awards
May 18 were Board of Trustees Chair Francis
“Skip” Branin ’65, P’06, Head of School Eric
Peterson and the late Howard B. Dean’s son,Jim Dean ’72, P’11.
—Linda Michalek, Quentin Warren
and Krista Sturtevant
John B. Johnston Jr. ’73, Eric Peterson and Bill Dean ’73
Skip Branin ’65, P’06 and Rosemary GaynorWiedenmayer ’93
PHOTO
SBY
ANDREA
HANSEN
Skip Branin ’65, P’06 and J. Philip Lee
R E C O N N E C T I N G O N T H E H I L L T O PReunion Weekend ’13
Volunteers honored for service with Dean Awards
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN 67
N E W S F R O M T H E A L U M N I / A E O F F I C EDevelopment news
Help us breathe some fire into next year’s Annual Fund!
Scan to make your gift.
We did it!
$2.375M
Thank You!We made our
2012-13 Annual Fundgoal because of you!
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ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN68
Planned-giving opportunities are available toalumni/ae, parents and friends of St. George’s
OGDEN NASH SOCI ET Y MEMBER PROFI LE :John W. “Jack” Hornor ’73
Northampton, Mass.ONS member since 2013
Many St. George’s alumni/ae look back on their
experiences here and describe their years on the Hilltop
as formative ones. Jack Hornor is one such Dragon and
credits his four years at SG as shaping his character and
having a positive effect on his life ever since. In the
weeks following his visit to the campus for his 40th re-
union in May, Jack shared word that he intends to in-
clude St. George’s in his estate plan.
“It was here that I first heard the words ‘the larger life
of the world’ and here that I heard in our School Prayer
that we must be ‘always ready to help the unprotected
and helpless.’” Those introductions and the meaning he
attached to them have informed and inspired Jack’s own
“work with the homeless, those who hunger, and partic-
ularly with the gay & lesbian community.”
He cites his participation on the staffs of The Red
& White and The Lance as the beginning of his “life in-
volved with words—in public relations, in teaching,
and in much of my other work.” Working on these
publications, and in other school activities, also taught
Jack “how to get people to work together and how to
succeed in a project.” Those skills have served him well
and helped him to be a leader in his adopted town of
Northampton, Mass., where he has been involved with
civic life for almost 20 years.
“I came to the
Hilltop a shy and awk-
ward third former in
1969. I left with a belief
in myself, and a desire
to do what I could to
make the world a bet-
ter place. For that I
am always grateful to
St. George’s.”
Jack has asked that
his planned gift, a be-
quest, be used to honor faculty and staff—those who
made the St. George’s experience what it was for him
and those whose continued dedication and commit-
ment make SG the school that it is today.
To learn more about including the school in
your will please contact Bill Douglas at St. George’s
by telephone at 1-888-422-5574 or via email at
The Ogden Nash Society (ONS) recognizes and
honors alumni/ae, parents and friends of the school
who have made provisions to support St. George’s
in their estate plans. To date, the Society has 243
members.
John W. “Jack” Hornor ’73
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN 69
Ryan Vallaincourt ’02 (above with president of the
Los Angeles Press Club Jill Stewart), a reporter for the
Downtown Los Angeles News, this spring earned the
prestigious Print Journalist of the Year award for all
daily or weekly newspapers with a circulation less than
50,000 from the Los Angeles Press Association. The
judges called his pieces a “Good mix of stories on a
variety of topics, displaying strong reporting and writ-
ing.” Vallaincourt also won two first-place writing
awards in the competition, one in the News Feature
Under 1,000 Words category for his piece on a pair of
papier-mâché guerrilla street artists and another in the
Personality Profile category for his story on dancer and
choreographer Benjamin Millepied.
Former Red & White editor Alexandra Talty ’06
became the envy of all those prone to midday wander-
lust when she quit her day job at Forbes Media this
spring to try her hand at freelance journalism in
Beirut, Lebanon. She’s sending essays and articles back
to her old newsroom at Forbes.com through Senior
Editor Deborah L. Jacobs. Follow Alexandra on Twitter,
@TheMiddleOfTime.
Sylvester Monroe ’69 recently took a turn on the
other side of the reporter’s notebook for a story by Na-
tional Public Radio (NPR) correspondent Shereen
Meraji on the 50-year anniversary of the A Better
Chance program in June. Monroe, a freelance editor
for NPR’s “Marketplace” and a long-time journalist
who’s held reporting and editing positions at
Newsweek, Time, Ebony, the San Jose Mercury News
and Atlanta Journal-Constitution, told Meraji the pro-
gram that continues to help disadvantaged students get
into prestigious independent schools changed his life.
In fact it was a contribution to SG’s student-produced
magazine, The Dragon, which set the tone for his fu-
ture career success. “I met an alumnus who saw some-
thing I wrote in the literary magazine and asked if I
wanted to meet the editor at Newsweek,” Monroe told
Meraji. Six years later, and just one week after his grad-
uation from Harvard University, he was hired as a na-
tional correspondent for Newsweek. Monroe said that
because of A Better Chance his “world opened up. I
never looked at the world the same way, again.”
A L U M N I / A E I N T H E N E W SPost Hilltop
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Christine Mitchell’03 made the
Boston Globe’s listof most stylish
locals this spring.Check out her own style blog,N’East Style, atneaststyle.com.
continued on page 70
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ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN70
The Spring 2013 issue of the Rhode Island Episco-
pal community’s publication, Risen, reports that Attor-
ney Richard Sayer ’65, a parishioner, has been
appointed Chancellor, a legal advisor position, for the
Diocese for St. Mary’s Church in Portsmouth, R.I.
An essay written by Charles Barzun ’93 titled
“A Letter to My Grandfather” was published in the
May edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Read it online at http://chronicle.com/article/
A-Letter-to-My-Grandfather/139117. Barzun writes
the epistolary essay to his grandfather, Jacques Barzun,
the noted French-born writer/professor/historian/
philosopher who died in October 2012 at the age of 104.
The New York Post ran a two-page story on the
relationship of new art and new building development
featuring Derek Reist ’63 in April. (Google Derek Reist
NY Post) Reist was commissioned to do two abstract
paintings and one realistic painting for the lobby of a
new 180-unit rental building at 1214 Fifth Ave.
“Smart Power: Between Diplomacy and War” by
Christian Whiton ’92 will be published by Potomac
Books this September.
Whiton, who lives in L.A.,
is a former diplomat and
presidential campaign
advisor. He is a frequent
commentator on national
security issues, appearing
on the Fox News Channel,
CNBC, and other net-
works. From 2003 to 2009,
he was a senior advisor and
deputy special envoy in the State Department. He is
currently a principal at DC International Advisory, a
political risk-consulting firm.
Charles Pinning ’70 talks about being Catholic at St.
George’s and his schoolboy antics in an editorial pub-
lished in the Providence Journal this past spring. Need-
less to say there was some time spent in the Franklin
A song titled, “Hush, Baby” written by Lisbeth Garassino ’00 and being sold on iTunes,is helping to raise money for cancer research. The song was written as a tribute inmemory of her brother, Joe, 29, who was diagnosed with Stage IV cholangiocarcinoma(bile duct cancer), and who passed away on Jan. 20. All proceeds from the sale of thissong are going to the Cancer Research Institute of New York City to help find a cure forall types of cancer. Lis can be reached at [email protected].
Emma Scanlon ’12recently met U.S. Sen.McCain at a dinner inNew York featuringformer President BillClinton and benefittingthe McCain Institute forInternational Leadershipat ASU. Emma is work-ing with The ConcordiaSummit this summer, anonprofit dedicated topromoting effective andsustainable public-pri-vate partnerships byconvening global leadersand developing newmethods of research andintelligence.
A L U M N I / A E I N T H E N E W SPost Hilltop
continued from page 69
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN 71
Spa for breakfast rather than at St. Mary’s Church in
downtown Newport on Sunday mornings. Google
“With the Catholic boys (a.k.a. ‘The Young Lords’).”
Donna Myers ’88 received the Excellence in Philan-
thropy Award from the Oak Park and River Forest
Community Foundation in Illinois this spring. In addi-
tion to being one of the most active volunteers at the
Oak Park River Forest food pantry, Meyers has served
with the Chicago Zoological Society, Oak Park Temple,
Parenthesis Family Center, Women Leaders in Philan-
thropy, the Children’s Clinic and parent-teacher organ-
izations. As part of the award, she won a $1,000 grant,
which she has earmarked for the food pantry.
PHOTO
BYJEREM
YMOREA
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Linnie Gummo ’11 returned home from her fourthvisit to the Rift Valley Children's Village in Tanzaniathis summer. She reports the dining area built therewith donations from the St. George's community isgetting a ton of use. The kids love it!
Lucas Kolf ’92, (above left with his son, Charlie)served as a mentor for Aubrey Salmon ’14 duringAubrey’s internship this summer at Bowline CapitalPartners in London, where Kolf is a partner.
Let’s talkabout warVeteran Peter Hilgartner ’45recalls serving on the frontlines in Korea, Vietnam
BY SUZANNE MCGRADY
He hadn’t been back to St. George’s since he
graduated in 1945, but when Peter Hilgartner
’45 was introduced in assembly in Madeira
Hall on April 26 it was nothing short of a triumphant
return to the Hilltop. After a brief recitation of the
highly decorated Marine colonel’s resume, the students,
knowing that he had valiantly served his country for all
those years, gave him a standing ovation.
Hilgartner—widely recognized in the Marine
Corps as a successful combat leader—saw heavy action
in two wars. He served as a junior officer in Korea, and
later went on to earn both the Silver Star and the Le-
continued on page 72
A L U M N I / A E I N T H E N E W SPost Hilltop
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN72
gion of Merit Medal for command of the First Battal-
ion, Fifth Marines in Vietnam. He was on campus to
bring a real-world perspective on war to history stu-
dents in the department’s elective course
on Vietnam.
Hilgartner, the stepson of a Naval commander sta-
tioned in Newport, has seen a lot since his tenure on
the Hilltop more than 70 years ago. His recollections
are outlined in a memoir, “Highpocket’s War Stories”
(Xlibris Corp., 2004), available on Amazon, but in per-
son the 86-year-old Hilgartner still can recount the war
as if it were yesterday.
SA native Texan, Hilgartner said he always knew he
wanted to be a soldier. “From the time I ever heard of
them,” he said. In the rugged terrain around their
house, he and his brother, Fielding Hilgartner ’49, bat-
tled each other with the toy soldiers they bought for a
nickel apiece. “My mother would give us 25 cents a
week for allowance and I would usually spend part of it
on getting another toy soldier,” he said.
Hilgartner attributes his success on the real bat-
tlefield to his childhood pursuits, when he taught
himself how to study the terrain. “I would go out
and do walks in the woods and pretend the enemy
was out there somewhere and I’d look to see how I
might get through,” he said. “I developed some real
skills at that over time.”
The skills came in handy years later, he said, dur-
ing a mock war exercise 50 miles from Busan, Korea. It
was Marines against the Army and Hilgartner’s cun-
ning helped him prevail in a big way: His unit over-
came the opposing unit while they were all sleeping,
then piled up all their weapons so the men had to
spend hours sorting them back out. Though a com-
manding officer accused him of “ruining” the exercise
and made his unit walk the 50 miles to Busan to catch
a ship back to Okinawa, Hilgartner remembers it as
one of “the greatest feelings of camaraderie from the
Navy” that he ever had. “We made it in time for the
trip, but not before I and a lot of other Marines were
walking in our sleep and walking off the road and
falling in ditches—but we got there,” he said. When the
men walked up the gangway of the ship, the Navy had
lined up some sailors with a huge pot of split pea
soup—and told the Marines as they came up, “Get
your canteen out.” “And God, that was wonderful,” Hil-
gartner said. Later he was honored with an invitation
to the war room by the captain of the ship.
SAt St. George’s, the 6-foot-6-inch, 160-pound Hil-
gartner, known as Stretch, lettered in football, basketball
A L U M N I / A E I N T H E N E W SPost Hilltop
PHOTO
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continued from page 71
ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN 73
and soccer and was president of the Rifle Club and cap-
tain of the Rifle team. “Being from Texas, I knew how to
shoot,” he said. (Hilgartner’s younger brother, Lee Hil-
gartner ’53, nicknamed “Tex” also attended St. George’s.)
At 10 or 11 years old, he’d go out into the Texas
fields and look for skunks, groundhogs and rabbits. “I
never killed much of anything, but it sure was fun,” he
said. At an early age, he also learned how to bounce
back from adversity. A serious injury to his foot, when
his horse, Jimmy, fell and landed on his leg, left him
with life-long repercussions: one foot is two sizes
smaller than the other. Because of that he was denied a
spot in the infantry during the Korean War and as-
signed to the artillery instead.
After St. George’s, Hilgartner wanted to go to West
Point but failed the exam by two points in math, so he
enlisted in the Marines. From 1945-1947 he was as-
signed to guard duty at the Naval gun factory and the
Naval hospital in Bethesda, Md., which cared for sol-
diers after World War II.
He later passed the exam for the Naval Academy
and became an officer, leading a team of about seven
Marines on missions to destroy enemy bunkers with
artillery fire in Korea. “We were fighting the Chinese,”
he said. “They were good soldiers, too.”
In Korea, Hilgartner said he carried a 60-pound
pack, but still gained weight by eating leftover C-Ra-
tions. “Any Marine who didn’t want his C-Rations, he
could give them to me and I ate them,” he said. “I
didn’t care what it was.”
SSo what did Hilgartner want young people to
know about war?
“I’d like to focus on leadership,” he said before
meeting with the history class. “I’d like to tell them a
story or two about how to be a leader.”
“There are certain things that combat can create in
a human being—and that’s the fear factor,” he said.
“Some Marines don’t manifest that factor and some
do—and some officers do.
“One of the biggest problems I’ve seen and had to
deal with was an officer freezing and unable to make a
decision when he needed to.”
One of the worst days in his life, he said, was in
May 1967 during Operation Union—a search and de-
stroy mission in the Que Son Valley in Vietnam. Five of
his men were killed and 20 injured. He remembers a
fellow lieutenant colonel who was terrified and had lost
track of his troops.
When you’re in the midst of battle, you have to
turn that fear around, he said.
“I have been in real battles … and I usually ended
up walking along the lines and talking to my men
when they were fighting. I always felt like if I could see
the eyes of the enemy I could beat him.”
As Hilgartner thinks nostalgically about the past
he remembers the goals he made for himself as a bat-
talion commander during an airplane ride into the
war zone:
1. Always accomplish the mission
2. Look out for my men
3. Keep God in my mind.
S“I read the 27th psalm almost daily. The first five
verses were very meaningful to me.”
What kept him going throughout his military ca-
reer were the camaraderie with his fellow Marines—
and belief in the cause.
“I was doing something that I really wanted to do,”
he said. “I wanted to save lives.”
PHOTO
BYJEREM
YMOREA
U
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ST. GEORGE ’ S 2 0 1 3 SUMMER/FALL BULLET IN74
Call the bookstore at 401-842-6662 for these items and more, or visit our online store at www.stgeorges.edu.
‘Hot’ items for Dragons in the SG Bookstore
Sailing Burgee12” x 18” $2599
SG Rugby Stripe Knitted PillowRed & Whiteor Red & Black
$30
Vineyard Vines®Red tie with school shield
$60Vineyard Vines® Classic ToteBlue border with school shield
$85
Vineyard Vines® Mini ToteRed border with school shield
$65
St. George’s SchoolMission Statement
In 1896, the Rev. John Byron Diman, founder
of St. George’s School, wrote in his “Purposes of
the School” that “the specific objectives of St.
George’s are to give its students the opportunity
of developing to the fullest extent possible the
particular gifts that are theirs and to encourage
in them the desire to do so. Their immediate
job after leaving school is to handle successfully
the demands of college; later it is hoped that
their lives will be ones of constructive service to
the world and to God.”
In the 21st century, we continue to teach
young women and men the value of learning
and achievement, service to others, and respect
for the individual. We believe that these goals
can best be accomplished by exposing students
to a wide range of ideas and choices in the
context of a rigorous curriculum and a sup-
portive residential community.
Therefore, we welcome students and teach-
ers of various talents and backgrounds, and we
encourage their dedication to a multiplicity
of pursuits—intellectual, spiritual, and physi-
cal—that will enable them to succeed in and
contribute to a complex, changing world.
St. George’s Policy on Non-Discrimination
St. George’s School admits male and
female students of any religion, race, color,
sexual orientation, and national or ethnic
origin to all the programs and activities
generally accorded or made available to stu-
dents at the school. It does not discriminate
on the basis of religion, gender, race, color,
sexual orientation, gender identity, gender
expression, or national or ethnic origin in
the administration of its educational policies,
scholarship and loan programs, or athletic
and other school-administered programs.
In addition, the school welcomes visits from
disabled applicants.
Upcoming Events2 013Thurs., Sept. 5Convocation ChapelClasses beginFri., Oct. 11–Sun., Oct. 13Alumni/ae of Color ConferenceFri., Oct. 25–Sat., Oct. 26Parents WeekendFri., Dec. 13, 7:30 p.m.Lessons and CarolsTues., Dec. 17, 7:30 p.m.Christmas Festival
2 014Fri., Feb. 14–Sat., Feb. 15Fifth-Form Parents WeekendFri., May 16–Sun., May 18Reunion WeekendMon., May 26Prize Day
Receptions, Young Alumni/ae Get-togethers and Career Networking Events coming to:
BostonChicagoHoustonNew YorkNewport
Palm BeachSan FranciscoWashington
Locations, dates and times to be determined
For information on these and additional events, contact Events Coordinator Ann Weston at [email protected] or 401.842.6731. Details will also be available on our website at
www.stgeorges.edu and the St. George’s School Facebook page, www.facebook.com/stgeorgesschool.
ST. GEORGE’SSummer/Fall Bulletin2013
St. George’s SchoolP.O. Box 1910Newport, RI 02840-0190
Non-ProfitOrganizationU.S. Postage
PAID St. George’s School
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in From China to Stanford: Joanna Xu ’13 finds SG a
gateway to new intellectual territory BY SUZANNE L. MCGRADY
Now everybody knows her name: Military childMegan Daknis ’14 is a St. George’s Scholar BY SUZANNE L. MCGRADY
Honoring John and Ramsay Scott: Founders hope totake Scott Scholarship to the next level BY SUZANNE L. MCGRADY
Developing students—and supportersBY ROBERT WESTON
Chapel talks:Lions and tigers—and dragons. Oh my! BY JACK COATY ’13
Silver lining BY KATE HAMRICK ’13
Post Hilltop: Alumni/ae in the news
Class Notes
In this issue:
Left: Senior Prefect Alec Goodrich ’13 and Prefect Alexa Santry ’13 walk
arm-in-arm, leading graduates to the Front Circle on Prize Day.
PHOTO BY LOUIS WALKER