mawrginalia, january 2015

JANUARY 2015

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 7:00 PM • SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 3:00 PM$10 ADULTS • $5 STUDENTS

A Bryn Mawr UpperSchool Production

Cash, check, or credit card at the box office. To order tickets online visit bmstheater.tixato.com/buy

Presented with permission by Dramatic Publishing

A supernatural thriller set against the historic 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire

— By Laurie Brooks —

ContentsMawrginalia February 2015

MAWRGINALIA [mar-juh-nay-lee-uh]:

Latin, plural noun. Notes,

commentary and similar

material about or relating

to The Bryn Mawr School.

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twitter.com/BrynMawrSchool

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FEATURES

18 Creating a Solid FoundationFor Jackie Burr, the inaugural Wilgis

Teaching Fellow, education starts

at the front of the classroom.

20 We Are the Dream: Celebrating the Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.By Alexa Corse ’15Bryn Mawr celebrates Dr. King

with a visit from progressive

hip hop artist Christylez Bacon

and other special events.

24 The Robot WarsThe Bryn Mawrtian robot, designed and

built by Bryn Mawr’s new Upper School

robotics team, heads into battle.

30 Celebrate the SeasonUpper School students start

a new tradition to celebrate

the winter holiday season.

00 Senior Voices: The Class of 2015

NEWS & NOTES

04 From the Headmistress

05 Remawrks

06 Pictures of the Month

12 Teachers’ Corner

13 Upcoming Events Calendar

14 Mawrtian Minutes

PARENTS’ ASSOCIATION

36 The State of the School Address & Lower School Read-A-Thon

ALUMNAE

37 Alumnae Photo of the Month

38 In Her Own Words: Miranda Hall ’07

40 Alumna Appointed to Lead D.C. Department of Housing & Community Development

40 Upcoming Events

41 Stay in Touch with the Alumnae App

41 Alumnae College Forum

PAGE 18 Grammy-nominated progressive hip hop artist Christylez Bacon performs an original piece honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 7:00 PM • SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 3:00 PM$10 ADULTS • $5 STUDENTS

A Bryn Mawr UpperSchool Production

Cash, check, or credit card at the box office. To order tickets online visit bmstheater.tixato.com/buy

Presented with permission by Dramatic Publishing

A supernatural thriller set against the historic 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire

— By Laurie Brooks —

https://www.facebook.com/BrynMawrSchool

http://instagram.com/BrynMawrSchool/

https://twitter.com/BrynMawrSchool

4 Mawrginalia February 2015 brynmawrschool.org

NEWS & NOTES

From the HeadmistressJust as the President gives the State of the Union address every year, each January we gather for our annual State of the School, orga-nized by our wonderful Parents’ Association. I look forward to this address each year because it gives us a chance to highlight many of the exciting things that have happened at Bryn Mawr in the first months of the school year, as well as to hear from parents directly about any questions or concerns they have.

This year, there was (as always) a lot of good news to share. Here are some of the highlights:

• Computer programming instruc-tion is occurring throughout our Lower, Middle and Upper Schools. Enrollment is particularly high in our Upper School computer sci-ence offerings.

• In the Middle School, we are combining service learning with STEM for exciting projects such

as building insulated cat boxes for a local animal shelter and building robotic tools to assist develop-mentally disabled students at the Baer School.

• Our Winter Arts Showcase at the beginning of January was a huge success, with more than 200 student performers from the Lower, Middle and Upper Schools taking part

• Many of our sports teams had great fall seasons – the varsity tennis team finished third overall with Cameron Corse ’17 winning first singles; cross country fin-ished second overall with Sophie Gitlin ’18 winning the race

• Our Upper School Robotics Team, new this year, won the Judges Award at their very first compe-tition. The girls built a robot from scratch and competed against more than 20 other teams. Turn to page 22 to read more.

These are just a few of the exciting things that have been happening at Bryn Mawr this year – I encourage you to watch the video of the State of the School to hear all of our news.

As I said to those who attended the State of the School, it is a pleasure and an honor to work with our stu-dents each day. They inspire us, chal-lenge us and motivate us to be better educators. Thank you for helping to make our Bryn Mawr community a strong and vibrant one.

Maureen E. Walsh Headmistress

https://www.brynmawrschool.org/parents/sots2015



brynmawrschool.org February 2015 Mawrginalia 5

RemawrksTiny fingers reach out to grasp a Cheerio. Twice they miss, until finally the Cheerio is picked up and then dropped. The next try is from a different direction and – bingo! – the little “O” is in a firm grasp. Then comes the process of getting it to the mouth. The first try is a little off to the left, but the next is a success. We see a small look of satisfaction on the baby’s face. It is not unusual for an infant to make several tries before he gets a small piece of food from the table to the mouth. It is almost painful to watch, and the adult wants to help. The baby, however, does not want help. He wants to figure it out and do it himself.

As parents and teachers we watch children take on challenges every day. We want them to be success-ful. We want them to feel good and be happy. At Little School we watch children learn to walk with our hands outstretched, and we bend over to listen closely as they begin to talk. Sometimes we embellish their achievements, just a bit. We

are proud, but mostly we want them to experience the good feeling that accompanies their accomplishment.

Although it feels counterintuitive, we have to resist “helping” too much. The best learning involves explora-tion, challenge and the willingness to take risks. It requires persistence and sometimes failure. The blocks fall over and the last piece of the puzzle doesn’t seem to fit. I’m sure we can each recount our own suc-cesses, and our failures. Some stay with us longer, but the most signifi-cant memories likely come from the times when we worked hard and finally figured it out – by ourselves.

“Inquiry learning,” “maker spaces,” “design thinking,” “innovation labs” and “loose parts” are tag phrases today that describe a type of learn-ing that involves a lot of messy stuff. At Little School children have oppor-tunities to put materials together in unique ways. Teachers might provide tools to facilitate connecting parts or sticking together loose pieces to

form a construction or to represent an idea. Children try out various combinations that may or may not work, but amazingly, even in the midst of repeated failures, most chil-dren will persist until they get it the way they want. As they go through various trials and errors they learn – about balance, weight, texture, sym-metry, relative size, spatiality, shape, color and form. Best of all, they find meaning in their final product.

As children move on to more abstract learning, often, many small steps must be achieved before the goal is reached. It is important at this point that children have had experiences as learners that allow them to be confident in taking risks and making mistakes. If they have learned that, their willingness to continue the journey through the bumps and detours will eventually lead to meaningful learning and per-sonal success.

Pat Sheridan Little School Director


PICTURES OF THE MONTH

SIXTH GRADE COMMUNITY BUILDING SUMMIT

SEVENTH GRADE STEM PROJECT & COMMUNITY SERVICE

While the rest of the Middle School was busy with exams, sixth graders enjoyed a special Community Building Summit, where they worked with counselor Jill Jahries to define the aspects of a strong community and brainstorm ways to strengthen their own community.

Also during exam week, the seventh grade took part in community service at several local charities, and also undertook a STEM project that challenged them to build insulated feral cat boxes for a local animal shelter


“ALL DOLLED UP” – THIRD GRADE BOOK REPORTS

LITTLE SCHOOL BIRTHDAY BOOKS CELEBRATION

January is Birthday Book Month at the Little School, and festivites culminated on January 30 with a visit from Pam Minor, the original “Kindersinger,”

accompanied by her faithful puppet Rascal. The children loved singing and dancing with Pam and Rascal in celebration of all of their birthdays!

If you visited the Lower School recently, you may have run into some very famous people – like Elvis, Dolly Parton and Rosa Parks! Every month, the third graders are assigned to read and report on a different genre of books. Recently, the girls chose to read biographies about people who have made a positive contribution to the world. The project portion of this report, “All Dolled Up” showed off their amazing creativity.


PICTURES OF THE MONTH

READING BUDDIES

Each Friday the third graders choose a few books and visit the kindergarten to read with the younger girls. It is a great

experience for everyone. As one third grader wrote, “Reading to the kindergarteners makes me feel like a superstar, telling a story that makes their imaginations grow.” Another added,

“Reading to the kindergarten is my favorite part of the week!”


UPPER SCHOOL TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS

At the end of the first semester, students in Emerging Technology and iPhone Apps embarked on their final projects. Some

of the cool projects that resulted included (clockwise from top left) plants that spin and light up; a “cricket” that chirps

when it is dark; an iPhone app that gives meal suggestions; a Venus flytrap app; and a “build your own adventure” app.


NEWS & NOTES

Each month we profile two faculty members to give them a chance to share, in their own words,

their thoughts on teaching at Bryn Mawr.

TEACHERS’ CORNER

LUCY SHEPLEYLower School French

What brought you to Bryn Mawr?

It was a little serendipitous – I knew I was moving to Baltimore the following year, but I hadn’t even

started my job search yet when one of my friends, who is a Bryn Mawr

alumna, told me about a French opening here. Once I started looking at Bryn Mawr,

I fell in love. The people here are amazing – there is such a strong sense of community. Everyone is so warm, welcoming and supportive. And the students are just wonderful – so enthusiastic.

The French program here starts in kindergarten. How do you introduce them to the language, and then how does the program change as they grow?

It’s really interesting teaching the little girls because it is so natural for them. Their brains are predisposed to pick up languages. With the younger grades we do activities they love, just in French. We play games, we sing songs, we do art projects, and we speak French the whole time. As the girls get older, we still do a lot of that – we want the girls to be having fun in the classroom – but we do take a more overt look at grammar. We also start writing, and spelling comes into play.

With the Lower School’s 1:1 technology program, what role does technology play in your classroom?

Technology is wonderful. It allows us to make connec-tions with so many other cultures, and with that comes a need to communicate, because not everyone speaks English. It helps show the girls why learning languages is important. My favorite use of technology is giving the girls open-ended projects, like making up a story using whatever apps they want. This project led to comic books, recorded videos, cartoons – I always love seeing what they come up with.

ALYSON SHIRKDirector of Music

What is your teaching philosophy?

My teaching philosophy is about rigor, relevance and relationship. Rigor to me means delivering the highest level of academic instruction that your class can handle. It’s tied to the relationship aspect because you have to know what your stu-dents can handle and where they want to go. In the music curriculum there are certain concepts and skills that have to be taught, but there’s a lot of flexibility in that. We tie the curriculum to things that are relevant to their lives, which makes it invigorating and exciting.

How do the different divisions approach musical education?

Each division also has its own culture and its own pro-cess. In the Lower School we have teachers who are extraordinarily trained in the Orff process, so students are getting wonderful experience creating music. In the Middle School there’s a new element that comes as the girls mature. Often, there is something about that matu-rity that causes the girls to want to sing less. Mr. Twining is really well placed to help the girls grow their voices. The comprehensive choral program that I dreamed could happen at Bryn Mawr is happening, and not just on the choir risers – it’s also happening in the classroom.

You are also a Bryn Mawr parent. What is it like seeing the school from different perspectives?

I say this in public all the time, and it’s also true in private. This is a place that I choose to work, and it’s a place that I choose to send my child. It’s a pleasure to do that. Seeing the inner workings of the school makes me even more excited to be a public face and an ambas-sador for The Bryn Mawr School. I can speak well as a parent and as an educator.


DOWNLOAD A PDF

3 Tuesday Lower School Empty Bowls Group A Session II LS Art Room, 3:30 – 5:00 p.m.

5 Thursday Upper School Conference Day – no classes for Upper School students

6 Friday 7th & 8th Grade winter squads end

Middle School Communication Committee Gordon Building, 8:15 – 9:30 a.m.

10 Tuesday Lower School Communications Committee Meeting Gordon Building, 8:15 a.m.

11 Wednesday Lower School Read-A-Thon ends

12 Thursday Empty Bowls Dinner Cafeteria, 5:00 – 7:00 p.m.

Bryn Mawr Coffee House Commons Room, 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.

13 Friday Professional Day – school closed for students

16 Monday Presidents’ Day – school closed

17 Tuesday Upper School spring sports begin

19 Thursday College Counseling breakfast for par-ents of the Class of 2017 Edith Hamilton Library, 8:00 a.m.

20 Friday Middle School Dance Company Performance Centennial Hall, 7:00 – 8:00 p.m.

21 Saturday 10th Grade Ring Dance KVB Gymnasium, 8:00 – 10:30 p.m.

24 Tuesday Middle School spring squads begin

27 Friday Fifth Grade Newbery Luncheon Mt. Washington Campus, 12:00 p.m.

Upper School Winter Play: “Triangle” Centennial Hall, 7:00 p.m.

28 Saturday Upper School Winter Play: “Triangle” Centennial Hall, 3:00 p.m.

Upcoming EventsFEBRUARY 2015

Below is a calendar of upcoming events between now and the next issue of Mawrginalia. Events are subject to change, and not all events are listed here. For the most up-to-date information, or to learn more about an event, refer to www.brynmawrschool.org/calendar and/or your divisional newsletter. For information about upcoming alumnae events, please see page 38.

ABOVE LEFT Empty Bowls Dinner LEFT Middle School Dance Company

http://www.brynmawrschool.org/file/mawrginalia/Events-Calendar---February-2015.pdf

http://www.brynmawrschool.org/file/mawrginalia/Events-Calendar---February-2015.pdf

http://www.brynmawrschool.org/calendar


NEWS & NOTES

Noteworthy news from around the school

MAWRTIAN MINUTES

Summer at Bryn Mawr 2015

Summer at Bryn Mawr is back for 2015 with even more fun and enriching camps for boys and girls, age 3 through grade 10! This year, more than 40 camp options are available. Bryn Mawr is also excited to welcome the award-winning i2 Camp program back to campus after a very successful debut last year. Developed with the goal of engaging middle school children in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), i2 Camp offers a variety of hands-on, innovative courses in areas like robotics, nanotechnology, medi-cine and more (see facing page).

In addition the i2 Camp programs, Summer at Bryn Mawr features camps that emphasize creativity, discovery, sports and more! Camps begin in mid-June and run through mid-August. Extended Day care is available. For a complete listing of courses, dates and pricing, please visit www.brynmawrschool.org/summer or click on the picture to view the full camp catalogue.brynmawrschool.org/summer

http://www.brynmawrschool.org/summer

http://www.brynmawrschool.org/summer

http://www.brynmawrschool.org/file/Summer-Camps-Booklet-2015.pdf


NEWS & NOTES

15th and Final Sherry Shootout Raises Over $5,000

The fifteenth and final Sherry Shootout took place on Saturday, December 20, in the KVB Gymnasium, when the Bryn Mawr varsity basketball team took on Notre Dame Prep in a hard-fought match. Although NDP won the game, the real highlight of the event was welcom-ing back many Bryn Mawr and Sherry Shootout alums. Organizer Jan Sherry, along with children Theresa ’00, Laurie ’02, Valerie ’05 and son Jack (Boys’ Latin ’08), thanked the crowd for their support and generosity over the last decade and a half, and introduced a representa-tive from the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), this year’s beneficiary. In total, more than $5,000 was raised for NFTE.

The Sherry Shootout began 15 years ago when Jan Sherry was looking for a way to honor her late husband, Paul Sherry. For many years, Paul had volunteered with the Towson Recreation Council, giving countless hours of his time to help young athletes grow. At the sugges-tion of former Bryn Mawr coach Jim “Snuffy” Smith, the annual Sherry Shootout was born. Each year since 2000, the Bryn Mawr basketball team has helped to raise money for that year’s recipient by hosting clinics and raf-fles. The main event is the basketball game.

Over the course of the 15 years, the Sherry Shootout has raised a total of more than $115,000 for organizations including the Maryland 9/11 Victims and Survivors Fund, Greater Baltimore Medical Center Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Young Audiences of Maryland, Child First of Baltimore and Canine Companions for Independence. This year’s beneficiary, NFTE, allows young boys and girls the opportunity to tap into their creative senses and learn how to harness their ideas and surpass limitations early on.

The Sherry family thanks the crowd during halftime.

Sherry Shootout alumni, including many Bryn Mawr alumnae, with the 2014–2015 varsity basketball team.


Bryn Mawr Sophomore Wins STEM Research Grant

Katherine Nurminsky, a sophomore at Bryn Mawr, has been awarded a $599 STEM research grant by the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY). Nurminsky was one of only ten recipients nationwide to win a CTY Cogito Research Award. More than 185 student applications were submitted, according to CTY staff.

Nurminsky’s project, entitled “Evaluation of Water Barriers for Geothermal Pipes,” focuses on geother-mal heating, in which heat is extracted from the ground through a variety of methods including heat pumps. This source of energy can dramatically lower the cost of stay-ing warm and provide an alternative to fossil fuel-burn-ing furnaces. But if the ground mineral anhydrite comes in contact with groundwater during the drilling to install these systems, the ground will expand and cause build-ings to rise and crack. Nurminksy will compare several methods of waterproofing to find one best able to pre-vent the mineral from coming into contact with ground-water. She said that the idea for the project came from conversations with fellow Bryn Mawr student Blien Habtu ’17.

First awarded in 2014, the CTY Cogito Research Awards are part of Cogito.org’s mission to foster the develop-ment of promising young scientists and create a commu-nity that includes peers as well as working scientists and mathematicians. Membership is open to all students, 13 to 18, who are affiliated with CTY, and to other students by nomination from educators.

Thank You Year-End Donors!THANK YOU to donors who made a year-end gift to the Annual Fund! In total, 1,495 donors have commit-ted $1,121,000 toward the goal of $1,345,000. We are incredibly grateful to each and every contribution in sup-port of our students and teachers. The Annual Fund is the very best way to ensure that Bryn Mawr remains a place where young women receive an exceptional foundation.

The Annual Fund closes on May 31, 2015. If you have not yet contributed and would like to do so, you can make a gift online at www.brynmawrschool.org/donate.

Katherine Nurminsky ’17

http://www.brynmawrschool.org/donate


FEATURES

Sunlight filters into the cozy classroom as the

gaggle of pre-first graders gather on the carpet

in front of the dry-erase board. At the front of

the room, Jackie Burr, a first-year teacher with

a contagious smile, looks on as one of the girls,

with great concentration, starts to draw on the

board. “All right, you have 60 seconds – go,”

Burr tells the group on the floor. Immediately,

guesses begin to ring out.

“Fire!” one girl shouts.

“Oven!” yells another.

“Alien!” adds a third.

“Now is ‘alien’ a Magic E word?” Burr interjects. Several girls in the group shake their heads no. “Remember, we need to think of Magic E words,” she reminds gently. “Who can tell me what that means the ‘e’ does to the first vowel?”

“It makes it long,” a girl with blonde pigtails volunteers.

Creating a Solid FOUNDATION

For Jackie Burr, the inaugural Wilgis Teaching Fellow, education starts at the front of the classroom.


“Right!” Burr affirms, flashing an encouraging smile. “That’s why it’s a Magic E word – because the e makes the vowel say itself.”

This language arts activity is a fun game, but it is also an important learning experience – for both the girls and for Burr. As the inaugural Betsy S. Wilgis Teaching Fellow, Burr’s time in the classroom is her on-the-job training. Mentored by experienced co-teacher Meghann McMahon, Burr has spent the last five months gaining valuable classroom experience within a supportive envi-ronment. In addition to spending most of her days with the pre-first students, Burr teaches a section of fifth-grade math, giving her exposure to a different age group. Overall, the fellowship experience thus far has been “wonderful,” Burr says. “I have learned so much.”

The Wilgis Fellowship, established in 2014, is made pos-sible through a generous donation given by alumna Betsy Strobel Wilgis ’58 and her husband, Shaw. As a student at Bryn Mawr, Betsy had a number of extraordinary teach-ers who she remembers to this day. “Miss Barnitz, Miss Sinclair, Miss Crane and Miss Van Bibber all stand out in my mind,” Betsy says. “They were wonderful, strong people ahead of their time.”

The memory of these impactful teachers was one of the main reasons that the Wilgises established the teaching fellowship, which offers a young teacher the chance to intern at Bryn Mawr for a year or two. The goal of the fellowship is to offer extensive guidance and support that will prepare a young teacher to become a successful full-time teacher.

For Burr, teaching was always the goal. “It was the first thing that I was excited about waking up and doing every day,” Burr says. “It doesn’t feel like work – it’s something that I love to do.” Burr had just finished her master’s degree in teaching elementary education and was coach-ing in the Bryn Mawr Middle School when she heard about the Wilgis Fellowship. There was no question in her mind that she wanted to apply for a position at Bryn Mawr, she says. “The ideals of Bryn Mawr are wonderful. I really like the value system in the Lower School, and the all-girls environment.”

The match between Bryn Mawr and Burr is a good one. Meghann McMahon, now in her fifth year teaching pre-first at Bryn Mawr, says that Burr was a natural fit in the

classroom from the start. “I think Jackie just brought so much to the table to begin with,” says McMahon. “She was confident, she was great with the kids from the get-go, and I think she’s done a fabulous job.”

In the fall of 2014, Burr had the opportunity to meet the Wilgises in person when they visited the pre-first class-room for a morning. Burr was excited to have the chance to thank them in person for the opportunity that they have given her. “It’s very daunting as to what to say to someone who gives you this incredible opportunity, but they were very receptive of me,” she says. “They got to come into the classroom and see the girls in action, and me in action. They were very interested to hear about my experience here.”

One of the reasons that the Wilgises were especially attracted to the idea of setting up a fellowship, Betsy Wilgis says, is because of Shaw’s own professional expe-riences. “He was a hand surgeon, so we know the value of fellowships and mentoring in allowing people to develop their strengths,” she explains. “It’s all about the future, and about bringing up the next generation of teachers.”

This concept is one that Burr understands well, espe-cially as she considers the difference that even a few short months in the fellowship have made versus if she had started as a full-time teacher with only three months of student teaching behind her. “I kind of equate it to a doctor going to medical school, reading a textbook and seeing patients but never actually interacting with them,” Burr notes. “This year really gives me the confidence to feel like I can do this on my own, independently. I’m just very grateful for this opportunity.”

Betsy and Shaw Wilgis listen to a pre-first grader read a story she has written.


FEATURES

THE DReAM

WEARE

Celebrating the Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

By Alexa Corse ’15


What a difference a haircut can make.

Few people know this better than Christylez Bacon, the progressive hip-hop artist and 2010 Grammy nominee who performed at Bryn Mawr’s annual assembly hon-oring the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Bacon’s performance, along with a faculty rendition of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, celebrated the 1960s Civil Rights Movement and offered reflection on racial issues that persist.

At first Bacon’s song “Bowl Cut,” inspired by childhood memories of his mother giving less-than-ideal haircuts, may appear an unlikely highlight among the assembly’s powerful moments. “I tried to hide my mom’s clippers,” Bacon quipped to laughter, “She came outta the crib with some kindergarten scissors / And cut off the sides with your boys outside / With the Land o’ Lakes bowl on my head I can’t hide.”

Sprinkled among the wit, however, is a weightier story. Bacon grew up in southeast Washington, D.C., a part of the city rarely featured in popular, gilt-edged political dramas like “House of Cards,” “Homeland,” or “Scandal.” Bacon recalled that he developed his beatboxing talent

as a child because his voice was the only instrument available. Consider “Bowl Cut” more deeply, explained Bacon, and you will discover social awareness and an invitation for common ground that reflects King’s legacy.

“With a song like ‘Bowl Cut,’ it’s entertaining,” Bacon said. “At the core of it, we all have a bad haircut in common. But when you really look at the song and you think about the social situation, it’s a single parent raising three kids in the projects and you’ve got to save money.”

In late November, Bacon led a workshop in which a group of Bryn Mawr juniors and seniors helped him compose a song that incorporated quotations and imagery from speeches by King. The song celebrates King’s employ-ment of words instead of force and the lasting effects of his activism.

During the assembly, Bacon performed the piece on a djembe, a type of drum, and engaged the audience in a call-and-response of “M.L.K.” after each chorus. “Words can fuel the world with their inspiration,” he rapped in the chorus. “Break down the barriers of segregation / Unites us in song so together we sing / We are the chorus and the dream of Dr. King.”

Continued on next page

Grammy-nominated progressive hip hop artist Christylez Bacon performs an original

piece honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BM4qF8v6f5E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QelC-0FzYRM


FEATURES

Nya Hamlet ’16 said that she enjoyed learning from Bacon, an accomplished artist who has performed with the National Symphony Orchestra.

“We’ve never made a rap like that,” Hamlet said. “To see our hard work put into this big thing was cool.”

This was the second time Bacon has collaborated with Bryn Mawr students. He said the workshop demon-strated the best of collaboration: the opportunity for diverse groups to share knowledge and work together.

“People know different things about Dr. King,” Bacon said. “We come through at different points in time. We’re taking on different influences and resources and bringing them together.”

Such community-building is the foundation of Bacon’s genre-bending art. He has paired beatboxing and go-go music, a genre native to Washington, D.C., with styles as seemingly disparate as bluegrass, classical, Brazilian and Indian. Each collaboration presents its own challenges and insights.

“I have to find ways I can do that rhythm over beatbox,” said Bacon about his collaboration featuring Indian classical music. “So with that, it’s going to in one way sound funky. This is a gateway, an entry point into Indian classical music.”

Onstage, Bacon is an adroit multitasker. During the assembly he often rapped, beatboxed and played the guitar or drum within a single song. At one point he stepped away from the microphone to play the spoons, a pair of spoons joined along their curved backs. The spoons are a folk music staple that Bacon learned during the collaboration that produced his Grammy-nominated kids’ album, “Banjo to Beatbox.”

“Now I present to you my new school take on the old school spoons,” Bacon told the audience. He proceeded to tap the spoons on his hands, legs, elbows and shoes with dizzying speed. A few times he swung the spoons

– visible only as silver blurs – around his back. He even jumped for quick airborne spins which ended with the spoons rung precisely against his heel. Bacon had engaged the audience throughout the performance with his earnest stage presence, humor, and use of call-and-response. Now students clapped and cheered with each added twirl of the spoons.

During a question-and-answer session after the assem-bly, Bacon enthusiastically tackled questions ranging in topic from musical technique to his fashion sense. Along with his suit and light gray fedora he sported what he described as a modernized ascot tie, custom-tailored to fan out in short green and yellow layers.

“Not a lot of dudes rock them though,” he said of the unique tie. With a wry smile, he added facetiously, “Actually, I don’t rock them.”

Building further on the idea of collaboration, Bacon draws connections between the realms of music and aca-demia. A self-described “fan of encyclopedias,” he pep-pers descriptions of his creative process with terms like “research,” “concept-map,” and “thesis.”

“I approach it like a five-paragraph essay,” Bacon said. “The thesis statement is your chorus because it tells you what the whole song is talking about. The verses are the different points where you break down the dif-ferent paragraphs.”

Bacon’s ability to mix endearing humor with thoughtful reflection resonated. “I really enjoyed the part about the bowl cut, because that related back to his family and where he came from,” Mason Philippe-Auguste ’20 said after the assembly. “He wasn’t ashamed.”

Christylez Bacon joined students in the commons room after the assembly for a Q&A.

The workshop demonstrated the best of collaboration: the opportunity for diverse groups to share knowledge and work together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_kmcqbYKhI


Another highlight of Bryn Mawr’s MLK celebrations included the construction of a large banner on which students from all

divisions wrote and drew messages about what King’s dream meant to them, and how his legacy has affected their lives.

Honoring the “Dream”To honor the life and legacy of Dr. King, Bryn Mawr faculty and staff from all departments and divisions joined together to recite Dr. King’s most famous speech, “I Have a Dream.” Click on the image at left to watch the powerful video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyDWHKIspsk&list=UUsYtUHdQuB8eaK8bsaopnZw


FEATURES


The challenge seemed exciting, but also completely overwhelming: build a robot – from scratch – and program it to move on its own, pick up objects and respond to various commands. Oh, and do that all in three and a half months.This was the task that, in September of 2014, the seven members of the brand new Bryn Mawr Robotics Team – Christine Blackshaw ’17, Natasha Dada ’17, Myra Dada ’18, Sophia DeVito ’18, Blien Habtu ’17, Maggie Smith ’18 and Karolina Zieba ’17 – agreed to accept. A couple of the girls had previous experience with robotics, but for the majority, this was uncharted territory.

Bryn Mawr Upper School physics teacher Monia Cheikh encountered the robotics challenges run by the organization FIRST (an acronym: “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology”) before she began teaching at Bryn Mawr three years ago. Initially, she planned to start a robotics activ-ity that would run for a year before the girls competed in any challenges. But after a couple

The RobotWa rs



FEATURES

of false starts, she decided to take a different tack. “I thought, we’ll just go straight into the competitions and then catch up later,” Cheikh said, laughing. “It worked better than I ever expected!”

Now, on December 7, just a few short months after attending a FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) kick-off event, the girls were ready to compete in their very first FTC qualifier at River Hill High School in Clarksville, Maryland.

The school’s large gymnasium was the focal point of the event. On the bleachers, hundreds of spectators were gathered. Below them, 25 teams in brightly-colored t-shirts emblazoned with names like “Gear Grinders,” “Cubix” and “Bot Brigade” milled around the area sur-rounding the two “fields,” which were demarcated by Plexiglas enclosures.

Inside each field were two identical ramps – one red, one blue – several Plexiglas tubes of varying heights with red and blue bases (goals), and a two-sided structure about four feet tall that held a multitude of large and small plastic balls behind a sheet of clear plastic attached to a kickstand. Lines of red and blue tape on the floor differ-entiated the “parking areas” for each team.

The rules of play are quite complex, but boil down to a few simple ideas: each match is played with four teams, two on the red alliance and two on the blue alliance. Points may be scored in a variety of ways, including knocking the kickstand down to release the ball cascade, dragging the goals into the parking areas, and dropping balls into the goals. Teams may only score in their own color goals. Matches run two and a half minutes, with the first 30 seconds designated for “autonomous” mode, where the robot moves on its own. The remainder of the match the robots are controlled by two designated driv-ers working in tandem.

Bryn Mawr’s drivers, DeVito and Smith, had been prac-ticing for weeks on an exact replica of the field built for them by the Bryn Mawr Operations staff. But that didn’t assuage their rookie nerves. “I was really nervous I was going to knock the robot over or run it through a wall or something like that,” DeVito confessed.

Happily, pretty much the opposite happened. “It was actually really fun,” said DeVito. “Whenever we got a ball in the tube – or when I knocked over the kickstand – it was really exciting because we got something right and were able to get a point. We knew it was working, and the robot didn’t fall on its face.”


The morning ticked by quickly, and before they knew it the team had completed three of their five matches – and done amazingly well, especially for being the only rookie team at the event. Just before the break for lunch, Christine Blackshaw, the team’s designated scorekeeper, burst into the group’s seating area, grinning and breath-less, carrying some incredible news.

“We’re in fourth!”

* * *

They had worked hard to get to this point. Since the beginning of the school year, the seven team members had met for two hours every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon to work on building and programming the robot. They began with an FTC Starter Kit – a glorified conglomeration of metal parts – and a few ideas. “It was overwhelming,” team captain Blien Habtu said of the moment they first opened the kit and saw all the pieces inside. “The first few meetings we were just playing around with the parts, kind of like how you would give a little kid some Play Doh and see what they make.”

“We were getting used to working with the pieces, and with each other,” added Natasha Dada.

The girls divided into smaller teams, with each respon-sible for a different aspect of the design – the extend-able arm, the base and wheels, and the large gripping apparatus nicknamed “the claw” – in Cheikh’s words, “the coolest part of our robot.” Soon, the robot started to take shape.

As the competition drew nearer, the girls began stealing into the physics room whenever their schedules allowed to tinker with the different parts, iron out bugs in the programming code or modify design elements.

“The programming was the hardest part,” remembered Dada. For more than a month the team tried everything they could think of to get the robot to talk to the com-puter, and vice versa. Dada and DeVito watched numer-ous Internet tutorials and combed through the manual for the router, to no avail.

“It was insane,” DeVito said. “Session after session we just kept saying, let’s try something else.”

Then came the magic moment: they gave the robot a command through the computer program – and it responded. “Everyone screamed,” Dada said, grinning. “That was a really huge moment.”

OPPOSITE PAGE Mentor Blien Habtu ’17 directs drivers Sophia DeVito ’18 and Maggie Smith ’18 as they maneuver their robot around the playing field. ABOVE The team with faculty advisor Monia Cheikh and the Mawrtian.



FEATURES

Now, it seemed like they were poised on the precipice of another big moment: finishing in the top four at their very first competition.

They came back from lunch full of pizza and soda, and contagious energy. At the suggestion of her teammates Myra Dada donned the Mawrtian suit, complete with a Bryn Mawrtians Robotics t-shirt underneath the cape.

“I think they are doing great,” Cheikh said, watching from the bleachers with the rest of the team. “The robot is very consistent, very sturdy and very precise. They were worried about its size and functionality, after seeing the more experienced teams, but we’ve been doing really well.”

“And,” she noted, “we are the only team with a claw!”

The array of different designs was quite impres-sive. Some robots had conveyer belts or scooping

mechanisms, while another employed what looked to be a tiny street sweeper as its ball collector. The Bryn Mawrtian robot was not the largest, strongest or flash-iest, but it did seem remarkably well-adapted to the challenges that faced it, especially given how little expe-rience the team had in the world of robotics.

As the fourth match began, the girls moved to the second field, where they had not yet played. The match started promisingly. DeVito and Smith, instructed by Habtu, the driver mentor, steered the robot towards the blue kick-stand, intent on releasing the ball cascade. Just as they had done three times so far, they rammed it head on.

Nothing.

Adjusting, they came at it from the left side, hitting it twice. Still nothing. Seconds ticked off the clock.

On the bleachers, the rest of the team was growing anx-ious. Without balls, they had almost no way of scoring. Some teams – including one on the opposing alliance – had pre-loaded a couple of balls, in case of an event like this, but the Bryn Mawrtian robot had no cargo capacity. Nor did it have the kind of gripper needed to drag the goals and score points that way.

As the last 30 seconds of the match ticked away, they maneuvered the robot back on to the ramp, gaining at least a couple of points for that. But one look at the girls’ faces told the story. This was not good.

The team’s fifth and final match went well, but the damage was done – they had dropped to sixteenth place. They finished the day encouraged by their great success in the first part of the day, but disappointed that things had turned out so differently from what had seemed tan-talizingly possible.

However, there was one bright spot yet to come. The judges had taken notice of this promising young team, and decided to reward their hard work and tenacity with the Judges Award. Given for “a standout performance that might otherwise go unrecognized,” the award was both a reward for their work at the competition and a motivation for the next one. As the team packed up to head home, Natasha Dada summed up their thoughts: “We know exactly what we need to do in order to do better in the next competition.”

“The programming was the hardest part. It was insane. Session after session we just kept saying, let’s try something else.”


If At First You Suceed...

Only a day after returning from winter break, the team gathered in the lab, ready to get back to work preparing for the next round. Having now experienced a competi-tion, the team was clearly feeling optimistic. Although the sting of having been so close to the top was still there, time had helped them gain perspective about the successes they achieved in their rookie outing.

“I think we did really well,” said Habtu. “Our drivers did an amazing job – I was really proud of them.”

“It was pretty exciting, especially when we were in fourth for a while,” added Dada. Around the table, her team-mates nodded. “I want that to happen at the end this time, not in the middle!”

With the lessons of their first competition in mind, the girls had already completed a number of modifications to make their robot more competitive.

“We added a boundary on top of the claw to hold the balls during the autonomous round, and so that we can pre-load balls,” Zieba explained, pointing to a triangle of metal attached to each side of the claw.

Other improvements included a small hook on the back of the robot to drag the goals and a newly programmed autonomous mode for use in the first 30 seconds of the match. They had also put some thought into the less technical part of the competition, known as “gracious

professionalism”: networking with other teams so that, if they were not in the top four, another team would pick them as an alliance partner. Classmate Charlotte Simpson ’17 had even designed business cards for the girls to hand out to the other teams.

After weeks of preparation – not to mention exams and a weather delay – the day of the second competition, January 31, finally arrived. They were confident and pre-pared, and it showed. The other teams had improved, but so had the Bryn Mawrtians.

In the third round came a moment of déjà vu: the kick-stand would not fall. But this time, they had a back-up plan. DeVito and Smith adroitly maneuvered the robot, dropping the pre-loaded balls into a goal and dragging their goals into the parking zone. The excitement from the girls was palpable as their team claimed the victory.

They finished the day in sixth place, out of 24 teams – still not the result they want, but an impressive improve-ment from their first competition. Even better, they were given the Motivate Award, which “celebrates the team that exemplifies team building, team spirit and enthusi-asm.” They left buoyed by their success – and definitely ready for more.

“I’ve always liked science and problem-solving,” reflected Maggie Smith. “It’s awesome to be able to build our own robot from scratch and make up our own ideas. I’m so excited to keep going.”

ABOVE LEFT The Bryn Mawrtian robot knocks over the blue kickstand, releasing the ball cascade. ABOVE RIGHT The team is all smiles after receiving the Judges Award, given for “a standout performance that might otherwise go unrecognized,” at their first competition ever.


Artwork by the Lower School Student Council decorates the

windows in the Lower School

FEATURES


On a chilly afternoon in mid-December,

a group of students and faculty gathered

in the Howell Building commons room,

huddling close to the fire that hissed and

crackled in the hearth. Against the backdrop

of twinkling white lights and snowflakes

hanging from the ceiling – and under the

watchful eye of Frosty the giant inflatable

snowman – participants in this “Readings

& Eatings” event shared sweet treats and

stories of holidays, tradition and home.

Readings & Eatings is one part of a new approach that Bryn Mawr is taking this year to the winter season. Starting in November, Talia Busby Titus, Bryn Mawr’s director of global programs and diversity, invited all student leaders of cultural and religious groups to meet with her to discuss how – or if – Bryn Mawr should rec-ognize what, for many, is considered the holiday season. “[We wanted] to have an equitable platform for all of our religious groups,” said Titus. “It seemed prudent to start a new process to recognize the diverse faith communities within Bryn Mawr.”

The students met twice, focusing on the shared values that exist within their religions and cultures. “I think it’s really good that we’re talking about things that are the same in all religions and cultural groups,” said Kayla Scharfstein ’16, a leader of the Jewish Students

Association. “If we just talked about the majority, that we would be leaving a lot of people out.”

For many world religions and cultures, the darkest part of the year is also all about light. The girls quickly seized on this common thread. Their recommendation was that Bryn Mawr recognize the winter season with white lights and winter-themed decorations like snow-flakes and snowmen – hence the giant Frosty in the commons room.

But the group also wanted to extend celebrations past the visual and into something more meaningful. With this in mind, they chose three themes: hope, peace and new beginnings. “We wanted to create neutral themes throughout all types of religions, throughout all dif-ferent types of faith,” said Kyemah Clark ’15, a leader of Christian Fellowship and Black Student Union. “We wanted to create things that everybody could celebrate and everybody could identify with.”

At convocation, Fatima Chugtai ’15, a leader of Muslim Students Association, shared the themes with the Upper School and encouraged her peers to engage with the planned celebrations through putting up lights and snowflakes, sharing a story at Readings & Eatings or giving an inspirational quotation before convocation.

Celebrations continued through the end of January, and organizers hope that will not be the end. “I think the themes we chose can really be applied throughout the year,” Clark said. “We wanted to create something that could be followed up the rest of the year, and even in future years at Bryn Mawr.”


FEATURES

Each year, seniors have the opportunity to present issues that matter to them to their classmates. Most do this in the form of a Senior Convocation—a fifteen-minute speech on any topic. In every issue, we highlight excerpts from convocations given that month. Occasionally, we will also highlight other senior speeches given at special occasions, letting members of the Class of 2015 share, in their own words, what matters to them.

Senior VoicesCLASS OF 2015

Jenna Hong

We are taught to thrive. We are in an environment that guides us to success, an envi-ronment that is equipped with the most inspiring and intellectual adults that we

could ever know, and an environment that invigorates our drive to be exceptional. As the years pass, we gain strength in our goals, in our ideals, and we seek pros-perity through our challenges. We are in a place that acknowledges the ambigu-ity in the world around us, and we challenge ourselves to thrive first in a small community. We are taught to obtain our far-reaching aspirations.

But sometimes along the way, it is possible

that our drive to achieve becomes our only focus.

Everything else is forgotten as we seek to become “the best.” We plunge

into a deep abyss of competition, and we lose sight of ourselves. Now, we simply compare our strengths to one another, our appearances to one another. Life becomes a comparison of grades, scores, college admissions. Landing the right job. Buying the right car or house. Our happiness has become a result of where we stand on a measure of compared success. We no longer know the answer to, “Who am I?” because the question transforms into, “Who am I, to you?”

The more we immerse ourselves in this world, the easier it can be to lean into pleasing others. While we should

focus on what will make us proud of ourselves, our reflection becomes a representation of what others want us to look like. Are we achieving the real success? Is that the way that we want to thrive?

There is another choice. There are certain people I know who have sought a life lived well and who continue to guide me and shape the way that I want to live. Through them, I have come to know myself. So here is my story – my answer to the eternal question, “Who am I?”

I used to play the piano. But I didn’t just play because of the synchronized sounds that the instrument can make. Nor was it because of my fascination with the pound-ing of a key that released vibrations and wavelengths into the air, bringing chills through my body. I loved the piano because I loved my teacher. She provided warmth in the coldness of her veiny hands and she would smile


as she curtained her eyes and played songs from her memory. Her outrageously frizzy, dirty blond curls bounced as her body moved with a dramatic song. She brought in the sunlight in the sounds coming from her antique black Steinway.

I was fascinated with music, but I was more fascinated with her. And so, 30 minutes of lessons as a whiny, impa-tient five-year-old turned into 90 minutes of golden memories. Our relationship strengthened as she told me stories about her mother and as I spent hours learning songs just to see her smile and hear her contagious laugh. She showed me her life through melodies and chords and staccato notes. She taught me, whether that meant pick-ing up my hand as we played together or telling me to be grateful for the chair on which I sat – not just because of the music or because of her, but because of the oppor-tunity. As I grew, so did my playing, full with warmth, richness, happiness – and Ms. Goldstein was always right there next to me.

And then she left. Without a reason, leaving just a sign that read, “no longer teaching.” I was 13, stunned and heartbroken.

I learned in 2013, four years later, that she moved to Boston to be near her mother. When the piano was shut she was battling cancer, and she passed away that May. I was almost 17, at a loss for words, and absolutely shattered.

The last time I saw her, at my last recital, she had tears in her eyes – something I had never seen before. But as I approached her she simply told me that I had played beautifully and gave me a smile that shone through her tears. I assumed she was crying with pride, and maybe she was. She had guided and developed musical geniuses and wonderful people of all ages. But I understand now that she cried because she knew it would be her last recital. She did not want anyone to know, and she did not want anybody to feel bad for her because of her illness. She left silently, saturated with endless sincere smiles.

Ms. Goldstein did not chase the fortunes of the competi-tive world to which her education at Juilliard had exposed her. She radiated her selflessness, her compassion, and she thrived. Within her small, stone-floored house she created a place of expanding tenderness and welcome. She played the piano brilliantly and she changed people’s lives – and she lived the most successful life I could ever

seek. It took years to realize her place in me, but now her place in me has turned into a place in you – a place in all of us. She is going to live on. She thrived in living for herself, fighting through her weaknesses. She chose not to compete.

Ms. Goldstein is the kind of person I want to be, but my realization came overdue. While I considered her a second mother in my childhood, her songs no longer can be played her way, and I cannot seek her words. And although I miss her, she lives in my treasury of inspirations.

So now, “Who am I?” I know the difference between competition’s success and self-success. I am aware of the world around me, and I accept both my strengths and my weaknesses. I will spend my years not competing against my peers but cheering their successes. I’ll spend the time to be who I want to be.

I want to change people’s lives. I want to radiate warmth even when my hands become veiny and wrinkled. I want to care for others who will seek me for guidance. Along the way, I will discover more about myself that sets me apart. With kindness, direction, and motivation, I will suc-ceed. But not for you, or for her. For me. The clearer I am to myself, the more I will thrive. That is real success.

I hope you acknowledge others, seek others, and cele-brate others. That is how we find ourselves. Comparison does not have to weaken our identities if we seek to be somebody who lives well. Instead of racing the other seven billion people in the world for first place, let there be seven billion first places. We will take the hand of the person next to us, and together, we will be better than we were yesterday. We will exist in warm acknowledge-ment of a life lived well. We will not lose sight of our-selves, and together, we will thrive.

We will take the hand of the person next to us, and together, we will be better than we were yesterday.


FEATURES

Sarah Herman

Three white, rectangular note cards are carelessly plopped before me, stacked and strewn like Jenga blocks after a tumble. Each card is marked with a green “O,” but

the oblong shape is asymmetrical and the ends of the curves don’t quite intersect. I pick up the first card, running my fingers along the rough edges. I place the three cards in a row and carefully nudge each one, like an artist delicately perfecting her masterpiece, until their edges appear perfectly parallel. Finally satisfied with the orientation of the cards, I momentarily shift my focus to the Harkness discussion taking place in front of me. A few minutes pass until I notice that one of my cards

has shifted. With the tip of my pen, I again prod the card until it appears parallel once more. But no matter how carefully I poke its edge, the three cards never seem

to be perfectly parallel.

Was it even possible for me, with my imperfect human hands, to

possess the precision and control to make these four lines actually parallel? Were their edges even straight lines? My mind raced back to tenth grade chemistry, when I first learned about entropy, the gradual decline into disorder – a tendency in nature. So even if, for a moment, the cards looked amazingly and satisfyingly parallel and perfect, nature doesn’t want them to stay that way. Nature says “yes” to your neighbor’s grazing the card closest to her, throwing off the entire system; it says “yes” to the gust of wind that blows through, almost unnoticed, and slightly alters the cards’ orien-tation. Perfection is temporary, if it even exists. In that moment, sitting around a Harkness table alive with dis-cussion, where it is usually easy for me to speak, I found myself suffocated by the impending imperfection.

My English teacher, Mr. Metsopoulos, gave each member of the class three Harkness cards to help us keep track of how often we participated in class. Starting with all three cards facing the same way, each student turns over one card for each time she contributes to the discussion. I only flipped over one card during that class and I’m pretty sure it was only because I did not want to look at

the imperfect zero staring me straight in the eye, beckon-ing to distract me.

We are surrounded by imperfection. From the moment humans touched the earth, the natural way of things began to alter. Each step we take, the earth trembles beneath us, changing. Each touch, a ripple in the fabric of our once pristine earth. Our lives are like freshly pressed linens, pure and crisp, smelling of new beginnings. Yet the moment we lie down they take up new scents and stains. They wrinkle just like the skin draped over our once perfect faces. From the moment we enter the world, we never stop changing. Nothing is static.

Although the idea of a utopia means something differ-ent to everyone, my utopia includes peace. The idea of peace, however, is essentially one of a precipice high above a world of violence and imperfection. It takes so much more effort to climb the mountain then it does to descend into chaos. After all, you can only fall down, not up. With all the forces compelling our feet to slip, how can we ever reach the top? The word utopia itself even means “nowhere” in Greek, suggesting that this ideal can never be found. So peace might just be another word for perfection.


On the other hand, we have been taught that we are the culmination of everything – that we are the end prod-uct. In the book of Genesis it is written, “God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” But after that one moment of being, the dust must have begun floating away, out of man’s nostrils with every exhalation, back into the disorder from which it came. In the Qur’an, it is revealed that man is created from clay. But after the first man, did the clay start to melt? Gravity must have been slowly pulling down, dis-torting and disfiguring the human form. In Greek mythol-ogy it is said that Prometheus made man out of mud while Epimetheus gave us the ability to stand upright. Over and over again the idea appears that humans are molded and formed from nothing into these complex beings. From globs and clumps of clay we were care-fully sculpted into beings with limbs, eyeballs, nostrils, knuckles, tendons, ligaments, eyebrows, lungs, brains, cells, centrioles, ribosomes, and ourselves, stuffed into skin, stamped with a face. We entered the world as newly minted as we can ever be. But anyone who has ever played with clay knows that every perfect sculp-ture eventually ends up back in a plastic container to be reused, your work forgotten. With every second that passes, our clay loses its shape and moisture. With every second that passes, we are as young as we will ever be.

The idea that everything begins to unravel the moment control is beyond our reach has always perplexed me. From the smallest of actions to the most consequential, things never quite stay the way you want them to; nor do they return to the way the were. I cannot control how things unfold around me. The only option is to adapt.

I know I am not perfect. I am not even a perfectionist, but the endless quest for control is one I can never stray from. I find solace in imagining the future, playing out every moment in my head like a movie I wrote, shot and directed. It is mine. It is perfect and I control it. Until it leaves my head, nothing can smear the perfectly painted picture I have.

Rarely, however, does life follow the script I write. I copy and paste good scenes of past summers, hoping that when June rolls around I can just go back to those per-fect days. But as May turned into June and June into July, things unraveled. No matter how hard I held on to

the strings, they pulled against me, wrapping around my fingers until the tips turned hard and blue. So I let go and the strings slipped away with their frayed ends. I could never relive the past – it had turned to dust, disorder. I had been helplessly trying to reverse entropy, but the universe seemed to destroy things more quickly than I could rebuild them. The mud was dry and disintegrat-ing. The structure had deteriorated and the body was unrecognizable. But as July turned into August, I finally started to roll in the dust and remold my own clay.

It is hard for me to enjoy the now when I think the best is behind me. But although I have not been able to reach any definitive ranking of my life’s events to date, I can say that the best is definitely not behind me. Even though entropy is a law of thermodynamics, it is not a law of humanity. I have never been able to replicate the things I once perceived as perfect, but the good that has come out of the unexpected and different has shown me that there is no one thing that is the best thing, and there is no one way that is the best way.

The unknown future is a gift. After moving through the struggle to control the now, and learning to embrace the imperfection of the present, I can almost see that things are what they are. Even though nature has turned my script to ashes, this new movie is an adventure, with more happy endings than I saw coming. Each small feat has the potential to become everything.

After 17 years I have just begun to figure out what it means that things will not always make sense. It might seem unsettling that there are no perfect endings, but endings do not even have to exist. We can roll in the dust, smush clay and enjoy movies with plot twists, because things don’t always come full circle, just like the ends of the green circles on those three Harkness cards sitting before me in English class never quite meet.

Even though entropy is a law of thermodynamics, it is not a law of humanity.


PARENTS’ ASSOCIATION

Read-A-Thon Kickoff

This year’s Lower School Read-A-Thon is in full swing! Chaired by Mary Briggs, P’23 and Elena Thompson, P’24, the Read-A-Thon kicked off on January 23 at the Lower School Friday assembly. This year’s theme is “Girls Rock: Celebrating Groundbreaking Women.” The Lower School students are excited to show their love of reading by logging minutes and soliciting pledges for this program, which runs until February 6.

State of the School 2015The Parents’ Association is busy working on many events and programs to kick off 2015. We hope that many of you were able to attend the State of the School Meeting on January 22. Headmistress Maureen Walsh and Chair of the Board of Trustees Grace Pollack P’14, ’15,

presented the school’s strategic goals and initiatives for this year to parents and administrators. If you were not able to attend, we invite you to watch a video of the pre-sentation by clicking on the image below.

Ms. Strouss’ fourth grade class was the winner of the inaugural Lower School Read-A-Thon, held in 2013.




ALUMNAE

ALUMNAE PHOTO OF THE MONTH:

Elementary-age classes, called Primary 1, held in the Gordon Building circa 1945.


ALUMNAE


Miranda Hall ’07 After graduating from Bryn Mawr, Miranda Hall ’07 attended Georgetown University, where she was the recipient of the 2009 McTigh Prize, awarded each year to an outstanding undergrad-uate who has demonstrated superior achievement in scholarship and service to Georgetown and the community. A lifelong performer and artist, Hall interned at Center Stage in Baltimore before being accepted to the prestigious playwriting program at the Yale School of Drama – one of only three appli-cants, out of hundreds, to be admitted. She is currently working towards a mas-ter’s degree in playwriting.

The arts have always been an important part of my life. While I was at Bryn Mawr I was a singer, a dancer, a writer and an actress. I think my interest in playwriting stems from that intersection of writ-ing and performance. I also grew up in a household where the ability to make a beautiful thing mattered, and the arts were our vehicle for doing that. As I think about what other families pass along to each other, I consider a writer’s sensibility and sensitivity to be my strongest lin-eage and my strongest inheritance.

The program at Yale is amazing, and it is an extraordinary gift to be surrounded by people who care as much about this work as I do.

It’s very energizing to be in a place where everyone understands that you’re trying to do your best. Part of that is just the nature of an academic environment, where you’re invited to pursue what enriches you. I felt that at Bryn Mawr, being surrounded by really smart, motivated and ener-getic classmates and teachers. It also is surreal to be here. At the begin-ning of the year, the program kicks off with playwriting boot camp. They invite a legendary playwright and teacher named Paula Vogel, as well as commissioned writers connected to the Yale Reperatory Theatre. That first day, I looked around and realized that the people who got me

into playwriting because I read their work and wanted to be just like them were suddenly my neighbors at the table. It was unreal to think I had joined the circle.

It is a big challenge being a woman in this field, because there is a real dis-parity in theater culture. Women’s plays don’t get produced as often as men’s do, and it’s harder for women’s work to gain the attention and rec-ognition it deserves. Another chal-lenge – one that I’m really excited about – is reframing and reimagining the way that we see female charac-ters on the stage. I really care about creating opportunities for women to do things on stage that we’re not used to them doing. It’s about reframing a lot of our ingrained expectations.

Being at Bryn Mawr really affirmed for me how invigorating it is to think and live and operate across a broad spectrum of ideas and disci-plines. It gave me a love of curiosity and inquiry. It also taught me that women matter. Women can be great athletes, musicians, scientists, schol-ars, performers, historians. Seeking communities of strong women has remained a really important part of my life, and that’s directly due to the incredible people I was able to be around at Bryn Mawr.

BRYN MAWR BIO

Number of Years at Bryn Mawr: 6

College Destination: Georgetown University

Favorite Traditions: Gym Drill & Convocation

Influential Teachers: Amanda Mann, Bill Waters, Emily Tankersley, Josh Shoemaker, Arna Margolis, Liat Miller, Michael Robinson and Karen Coyne

in her own words


ALUMNAE

Alumna Appointed to Lead D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development

Congratulations to Polly Donaldson ’75, who was recently appointed by Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser to lead the D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development. In this role, Donaldson will focus on helping to alleviate rising housing prices and a recent growth in homelessness in the city. To learn more, click here.

Prior to her appointment, Donaldson served as the exec-utive director of the Transitional Housing Corporation since 2004. As executive director, she worked to provide housing and comprehensive support services to home-less and at-risk families in Washington, D.C.

Upcoming EventsD.C. Alumnae Reception

Wednesday, April 15, 6 - 7:30 p.m. At the home of Liz Dugan ’70 – details to follow.

Alumnae Weekend

Friday, May 2 and Saturday, May 3 Alumnae Weekend is on the horizon! If you are a member of classes ending in 0 or 5 we hope you will join us to celebrate your reunion. For a schedule of events, visit brynmawrschool.org/reunion. Registration will open on March 25.

New York Alumnae Event

May 2015 Stay tuned for details!

Alumnae Generations Tea

Wednesday, May 13, 3:30 - 5 p.m. For alumnae mothers and grandmothers and their daughters and granddaughters who are current Bryn Mawr students. Invitations coming soon!

For more information about any of these events, please email [email protected]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/mike-debonis/wp/2014/12/20/polly-donaldson-picked-by-bowser-to-lead-d-c-housing-department/

http://brynmawrschool.org/reunion

mailto:alumnae%40brynmawrschool.org?subject=


It’s a small world after all! Two alumnae living in Abu Dhabi, Lauren Marcus Ladenson ’90 (left) and Mimi Gatchell Rodgers ’82 (right) recently met for the first time.

Want to find other alumnae near you? Download the Alumnae App!

Version 3.2 of the Bryn Mawr Alumnae App is now available to download on Google Play and the App Store.

NEW FEATURES INCLUDE:• iOS 8 support• Improved name and networking search capabilities• Ability to hide your profile within the app• Private data now marked “not visible” on your profile

These changes build on major improvements in version 3.0, which was released over the summer. We hope you like version 3.2!

Best wishes from Melrose Avenue!

Kathie Guben Wachs ’90Alumnae Director

It was great to see our youngest alumnae on campus for the fifth annual Alumnae College Forum on Tuesday, January 6! These young women braved snow to join us for a wonderful morning that included breakfast with Headmistress Maureen Walsh and lunch with Upper School faculty.

Alumnae College Forum

109 West Melrose AvenueBaltimore, Maryland 21210

410 323 8800brynmawrschool.org

mawrginalia, january 2015

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