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Language at Friends

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Beardmaster (2009), Lauren Simkin Berke ’97

Lauren Simkin Berke ’97 is a Brooklyn-based image maker and illustrator whose work appears in galleries, on book covers and in publications including the L.A. Times, The Boston Globe, and The New York Times. Beardmaster is part of a series of 61 small works titled Excavations and Adaptations, first exhibited at A.I.R. Gallery in 2009, and included in A FACE BOOK of Missed Connections, the magazine that combines a subset of these works with posts from Missed Connections section of Craigslist. The works in Excavations and Adaptations combine ink drawings, through the use of xerox transfer, with collage. The drawings are based on photographs, mostly found, some personal, with a few drawn from direct observation.

www.simkinberke.com

[ s p o t l i g h t o n a l u m n i a r t ]

Editor Ernie GriggAssistant Editor & Graphic Designer Anna Pipes

features departments

1 | Mission Statement

2 | A Message from the Principal

3 | Buzz on 16th Street

6 | Notes on Silence

29 | Class Notes

44 | Tributes

47 | Back in the Day

9 | Class of 2013 Commencement

13 | Found in Translation: Language at Friends

17 | Growing Old in the Ancient World at Friends Seminary by Philip Schwartz

20 | Alumni Profiles Meredith Rahn Oakes ’08 | Anthony Shore ’85 Alicia Rubin Yamin ’83 & Jeremy Yamin ’83

25 | Reunion 2013

News from Friends is published by the Development Office at Friends Seminary two times each year for alumni, parents, grandparents and friends of the School. The mission of News from Friends is to feature the accomplishments of alumni, while capturing the School’s remarkable history, values and culture. Each issue will have an underlying theme, such as (but not limited to) the sciences, the arts, athletics, history, literature and service. Additionally, the magazine gives insight into recent events at Friends Seminary.

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Photographers John Galayda, Johnathon Henninger, Chloe Aftel

Principal Robert “Bo” LauderDirector of Development Katherine PrechtDevelopment & Special Events Assistant Kate RadlauerDirector of Annual Giving Jenny Nichols

Director of Alumni Relations Katherine Farrell Database Manager Valerie DelaineDirector of Communications Ernie Grigg / John GalaydaGraphic Designer & Communications Assistant Anna Pipes

Friends Seminary educates students from kindergarten through twelfth grade, under the care of the New York Quarterly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. Through instruction and example, students follow their curiosity and exercise their imaginations as they develop as scholars, artists and athletes. In a community that cultivates the intellect through keen observation, critical thinking and coherent expression, we strive to respond to one another, valuing the single voice as well as the effort to reach consensus. The disciplines of silence, study and service provide the matrix for growth: silence opens us to change; study helps us to know the world; service challenges us to put our values into practice. At Friends Seminary, education occurs within the context of the Quaker belief in the Inner Light – that of God in every person. “Guided by the ideals of integrity, peace, equality and simplicity, and by our commitment to diversity, we do more than prepare students for the world that is: we help them bring about the world that ought to be.”*

ourmission

* This last sentence is adapted from Faith and Practice: The Book of Discipline of the New York Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (1974).

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a message from the principal

In essence, education is preparation. We teach our students to apply knowledge and experience outside of the classroom.

Even though we have a good idea about how they will use that knowledge, we can’t always predict how our lessons will serve students later in life. For me, that makes the learning process even more exciting. Encountering alumni and hearing how our School has impacted them is one of the signal pleasures of heading a school.

Flipping through the Found in Translation issue, I’m reminded that only our imaginations limit the possibilities of a good education. Our Modern and Classical Languages Department has added Mandarin to connect students with a culture that exists not just on the other side of the world, but a few blocks away in Chinatown. Additionally, Philip Schwartz writes about how studying the classics offers insights for a life-time.

Language can be a unifier —allowing us to communicate with and learn from a rich variety

of experiences and points of view. It can also serve as preparation for challenges and opportunities that we haven’t yet considered. That’s why we’ve committed so many institutional resources to language and culture in recent years.

Friends alumni are proof of the boundless possibilities that come from learning a new language. A Fulbright scholar picked up Turkish to help refugees in Istanbul. A professional “namer” plays with the meanings and roots of words to distinguish products and companies. A security expert learned Spanish because he fell in love and followed a career path that took his family from South America all the way to Tanzania.

On the following pages, you will also read about other members of the Friends community who have recently celebrated accomplishments and maybe even suf-fered a few setbacks. In every case, they have grown in some significant way, and I hope you join me in recognizing their milestones.

In every language, I wish you all the best,

Robert "Bo" LauderPrincipal

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VisitedApril 17 Vivian Rosenthal ’94 spoke to Upper School students about the expanding career opportunities in tech-nology and her own start-up SNAPS!, an app that allows users to add virtual content to photos. April 23 Children’s book author David A. Adler, best known for his Cam Jansen mystery series, paid a visit to Friends thanks to the Elizabeth Claster ’79 Library Fund. After an interview with a group of

Buzz on 16th Street

April 4 Alumni volunteers gathered at the Cosmopolitan Club for a “thank you” reception hosted by Edes Powell Gilbert ’49, Liz Peale Allen ’60 and Sandra Jelin Plouffe ’93. April 10 The Alumni Council partnered with Sidwell Friends School for a

Lower School students, he spoke in the Library about his writing process. Listen to the interview at http://bit.ly/123GLnK. MAy 15 After an introdution from Lizzy Weiss ’12, entrepreneur and activist Liz Suda spoke to Upper School students about founding peaceBOMB, a proj-ect that takes American bombs dropped during the Secret War in Laos, crafts the metal into handmade jewelry and uses the proceeds from sales to support the development of communities in Laos. MAy 15 Two education delegates from China, Dian Du, Coordinator of U.S. Exchange Programs and Daniel Wang, Management Committee Member at Beijing No. 4 High School Interna-tional Campus, visited Friends to research the development

top Friends faculty with education delegates from China, Dian Du, Coordinator of U.S. Exchange Programs and Daniel Wang bottom David A. Adler with Lower School students

Liz Suda

Gabriella Ansah ’09

Vivian Rosenthal ’94

of collaborative educational programs at the K-12 schools they represent in China. MAy 17 Gabriella Ansah ’09 gave a talk titled No Bed of Rhodan-thions: A Study of Roman Mar-riage through Inscription at the

Latin Colloquium at Reunion 2013. MAy 22 Finn Kelly ’91 shared with Upper School stu-dents his personal story and an introduction to The Go Game, a location-based team-building game.

professional networking session open to alumni from both schools. Alumni participated in a speed-networking activity with the Em-pire State Building as a backdrop thanks to host, Alumni Council Clerk Jordan Barowitz ’89. April 11 the Class of 2013 received a

Alumni Events

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DemonstratedMAy 9 Wylie Dufresne ’88, chef and owner of WD-50 on the Lower East Side and Alder in the East Village gave a hands-on demonstration of his chemistry-derived cooking methods to an audience of Upper School students and faculty in the School's new cafeteria. The audience then enjoyed a poached egg with an edible man-made shell created with an immersion circulator, balloons and a vacuum pressurizer. MAy 17 Paul Allersmeyer ’55 and Susan Allersmeyer Foster ’63 visited Judy Adams Anderson’s ’66 kindergarten classroom for balloon-designing fun.

April 3 Lower School teacher Courtney Retzler presented the 2013 Art of Teaching Lecture in the Library. In her talk, The Wonder of Metamorphosis: Monarch Butterflies and the Minds of Children, she discussed her curriculum which is based on the life cycle, metamorphosis and migration of the Monarch butterfly.

MArch 4 Author Susan Sachs Goldman visited the Friends library to read from her book, Friends in Deed: The Story of Quaker Social Reform in America. Susan, who is a parent of Sidwell Friends alumni, spoke to an audience of both Friends Seminary and Sidwell Friends community members.

April 24 Michael Bachrach ’92 visited Charlie Blank’s Law class to share his experience with capital defense cases. MAy 1 Heidi Reavis ’77, a partner at Reavis Parent Lehrer LLP, also visited Charlie's class to talk to students about discrimination in the workplace and employment law. She also lead a workshop for administrators earlier in the year. MAy 6 Peter Nichols ’74, an entertainment lawyer visiting from Los Angeles, took time to meet with students and offer advice about careers in the entertainment industry. MAy 21 Melissa Crane ’82, who was elected to the New York City Civil Court in November 2012, visited Charlie's class to talk about how she became a judge and her work on the bench.

Wylie Dufresne ’88 (center) with his former teachers Ben Frisch (left) and Faculty Emeritus Charlie Blank (right).

surprise celebration marking their remaining 60 days as students at Friends. A group of alumni spanning five decades welcomed them to the alumni community and shared red velvet cupcakes baked by Indira Wiegand ’89. April 20 Alumni and their families joined Upper School students for a day of service.

2013 Art of Teaching

Legal Lessons

Reading

Heidi Reavis ’77

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aCharles Blitzer ’44Rano Bourgeois ’44Suzanne Solomon de Brantes ’44Nina Ruth Mori ’44Frederick M. Peyser ’44Peter Rigney ’44Stephen Benjamin ’49Florence Stoneman Herd-Smith ’49Bradley L. Jacobs ’49Sally-Ann Palen Pontier ’49Barbara Barling Rangel ’49Phoebe Wolfe Vance ’49Rod Young ’49Sarah Cooke Burke ’54Roger N. Greene ’54Terry Stokes ’54Helen Schelkoff Strickler ’54Frederick Walz ’54Joan Arnold ’59Ann Bayer ’59Edwina Ross Besthoff ’59Cricket Cornell ’59Larry Hunt ’59Peter Laqueur ’59David Leidesdorf ’59Janet McVeigh ’59Ann Russell Sammis ’59Margaret Worthington ’59Peter Benet ’64Jonathan Cerf ’64Irene Chang ’64Michael Doyle ’64Elizabeth P. Eames ’64Jane Ellen Gelfand ’64Susan Hayes ’64Judith Hudson ’64Stephen Kende ’64

If you have any contact info for any of these alumnus, please call Katherine Farrell in the Alumni Office at 212.979.5035 ext. 106 email kfarrell@friendsseminary.org.

Jacqueline Lea ’64Philip Mendlow ’64Jonathan Prude ’64Paul S. Richardson ’64Nancy Sutherland ’64Douglas Wally ’64Mark Altemus ’69Frances Stead Braine ’69Gael Doar ’69Debbie Frame ’69Laurie Harth ’69Patrick R. Johnson ’69Jeanne Mahoney ’69Lynn Zeiger ’69Anthony Marc Abraham ’74Geoffrey H. Braine ’74Daniel Duchovny ’74Jonathan Duffy ’74Diane Perlmuth Gern ’74Laurence J. Parker ’74Linda Simmons ’74Margot Simmons ’74Daryl M. Turner ’74Richard P. Anthony ’79Megan Bucci Breuning ’79Matthew Kaufman ’79Tony Kono ’79Ilene Ng ’79Nicholas Philip ’79Adam Rodriguez ’79Kelly Ryan ’79Theodore Shulman ’79Kathleen Weaver ’79Susan Zimmerman ’79Gail E. Bain ’84Christopher Day ’84Nick Edelson ’84

Mark Koyama ’84Susan Tanenbaum Leon ’84April Lerner ’84Sara Flynn Murphy ’84Domingo Ramos ’84Philip Ross ’84Joanna Ross ’84Edward Smith ’84Ashley H. Vernon ’84Melissa Emily Zarem ’84Tracy L. Charters ’89Eniko S. Ferenc ’89Jonathan P. Flaum ’89Alison R. Friedman ’89Audrey B. Kasindorf ’89Jennifer Kochenthal ’89Jan E. Lethen ’89Jonathan C. Metzler ’89Joanna G. Morehead ’89Lisa Schottenfeld Pillette ’89Emily Poler ’89Matthew J. Reiss ’89Ariel J. Roland ’89Stacey A. Schaffer ’89Rebecca A. Schraffenberger ’89Mohm P. Sheehy ’89Aaron C. Traub ’89Deborah Wallis ’89Roxanne Wolanczyk ’89Elizabeth Berlinger ’94Rahim Bost ’94Rebecca Cohen ’94Rebecca Cross ’94Blake Elinson ’94Sara Michelle Elnahal ’94Sarah Jenny Goldoff ’94Erik Hartman ’94Cabell Hatfield ’94Anya Riva Hurwitz ’94Tysan Sara Lerner ’94Georgia Elizabeth Lindahl ’94Alexis Lucente ’94Cary-Paul McBee ’94Eleonor Lang Pigman ’94Mark Andrew Poons ’94Benjamin Aaron Roschke ’94Benjamin Tarr Rosenblum ’94Adina Soffer-Reihan ’94Julien Baumrin ’99

Joshua M. Bender ’99Lucy Childress ’99Erica N. Eber ’99Danielle Goldstein ’99Benjamin Golombek ’99Matthew Hedge ’99Colette James ’99Lindsay Key ’99Cerrone Lundy ’99Jeremy Lusk ’99Clementine Mallet ’99Christian Niedan ’99Katherine Schafer ’99Erik Schafer ’99Morgan Solomon ’99Jessica Wildman ’99Andrew Willmore ’99Jacob Wolper-Gosler ’99Deborah Aguirre ’04Philip Binioris ’04Hayley Blatte ’04Jake Bluttal ’04Jennifer Conrad ’04Alex Drlica-Wagner ’04Katharine Goldstein ’04Aidan Gould ’04Misha Greenberg ’04Chloe Guttridge ’04Tiffany Hickman ’04Moira Kerrigan ’04John Koenigsberg ’04Elizabeth Kolleeny ’04Eva Kuhn ’04Andre Mayers ’04Matt Monness ’04Christopher Perretta ’04Truan Savage ’04Jaya Saxena ’04Charlie Wood ’04Sarah Yesko ’04Nathaniel Black ’09Clayton Fujimura ’09Diego Laurenti ’09Misha Naiman ’09Schuyler Quinn ’09Stephen Rutishauser ’09Emma A. Weinstein ’09

Have youseen theselost alums?

Joshua M. Bender ’99Lucy Childress ’99Erica N. Eber ’99Danielle Goldstein ’99Benjamin Golombek ’99Matthew Hedge ’99Colette James ’99Lindsay Key ’99Cerrone Lundy ’99Jeremy Lusk ’99Clementine Mallet ’99Christian Niedan ’99Katherine Schafer ’99Erik Schafer ’99Morgan Solomon ’99Jessica Wildman ’99Andrew Willmore ’99Jacob Wolper-Gosler ’99Deborah Aguirre ’04Philip Binioris ’04Hayley Blatte ’04Jake Bluttal ’04Jennifer Conrad ’04Alex Drlica-Wagner ’04Katharine Goldstein ’04Aidan Gould ’04Misha Greenberg ’04Chloe Guttridge ’04Tiffany Hickman ’04Moira Kerrigan ’04John Koenigsberg ’04Elizabeth Kolleeny ’04Eva Kuhn ’04Andre Mayers ’04Matt Monness ’04Christopher Perretta ’04Truan Savage ’04Jaya Saxena ’04Charlie Wood ’04Sarah Yesko ’04Nathaniel Black ’09Clayton Fujimura ’09Diego Laurenti ’09Misha Naiman ’09Schuyler Quinn ’09Stephen Rutishauser ’09Emma A. Weinstein ’09

From my earliest days, silence has been far from the first word associated with me. I’ve

always been a talker; I talk with my closest friends over the phone, I talk to strangers on the street—I even talk to dogs and babies as if they can understand me. When I’m not talk-ing (which is rare), I’m most likely listening to or making music of some kind. This was true before my arrival at Friends Seminary in the seventh grade, and it has been mostly true since my graduation in 2006.

That said, attending something called Meeting for Worship consis-tently for the six years that I was a student at Friends has had subtle and profound effects on me. I was a com-muter in those days as I am now. My ride to school from Queens was long, but I was fortunate to be able to ride the trains (and bus) with a couple of my classmates from the same neigh-borhood. Needless to say, silence was not a big part of that routine. Home-work, yes. Jokes, always. We didn’t need to squeeze silence out of these moments, but then, we knew we had silence coming up once we reached the School building.

I’m by myself as I commute to the Upper East Side these mornings from Brooklyn, and every once in a while, I stop myself from pressing play on my mp3 player and think: Maybe this morning I will have my own little Meeting for Worship as I fortify my

mind and soul for another day’s work. Maybe I will close my eyes for just a second, and it will be as if I were back in the Meetinghouse taking a deep breath before AP Statistics or the inevitable not-so-surprise pop quiz on Shakespeare in John Byrne’s English class. Mass transit ought to be as perfect a place for Meet-ing for Worship as any. After all, Simon and Garfunkel did say in “The Sounds of Silence” that “the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls.”

In the Meetinghouse, just as on the subway, there is never absolute silence. Maybe there is a cough or a sneeze dur-ing allergy season, there is the sound of thumbs clicking buttons on a mobile device that goes undetected by faculty, and maybe someone will stand and be moved to say something insightful. These sounds remind us that we are not alone though we are free to perceive these moments in a personal and unique way, silently.

notes on silence

The Soundsof Silenceby NALEDI SEMELA ’06

As kids, some of us were anxious during Morning Meeting. Some of us wished we had the extra minutes to cram for tests or work on calculus problem sets. Others wished we just had the extra time to sleep before coming to school. But I think we can all appreciate, espe-cially looking back, that it was not time wasted. In silence, one has the opportu-nity to explore oneself. One may reflect on current events or on the architecture of the space one inhabits. One can, as many of us do, sit and watch without reproach as others engage in these same reflective exercises. That may be some-thing we miss, or it may be something that we take with us even after Morning Meetings are behind us.

I’m still a talker, a whistler, a constant iPod listener—I am all the things I have been since high school. But I am also still a Friends kid, and I cherish my little Meeting for Worships where I find time and space for them.

Naledi Sean Semela ’06 currently works at The Spence School as the Communications Coordinator. After graduating from Colgate University in 2010 with a Bachelor’s in Art History, he spent a year traveling in southern Africa. He briefly worked with the NBA and NBA Africa offices on the 2011 Basketball Without Borders camp in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is a Class Agent for the Class of 2006, continuing the work he started as an Ambassador while a student at Friends.

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2013

Congratulations, Class of

“Lifers” 2000-2013

June 10, 2013Commencement

Faculty Commencement Address

College Destinations

By the Numbers

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Student speakersIan Garland, Chelsea Ettlinger, Christian Hoyos, Rosa Shipley,Peter Frisch, Isabeaux Mitton

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Class of 2013

Christopher DoireFaculty commencement Address

There’s a section in Walden in which Henry David Thoreau discusses

the promise of formal education. You may remember that Thoreau’s book is about the two years he spent in the 1840s in a house he built himself by Walden Pond in Massachusetts. He built his own house and he eked out a living subsis-tence farming, and at the outset of his book he’s careful to show that he made a tiny profit in those years, even account-ing for the cost of the materials he used to build his house. Not that those ma-terials cost him much — about $28, or about $700 in today’s money. Thoreau goes on to consider the rooming cost at his alma mater, Harvard College, which was $30 a year then, and concludes that students would get a more comprehen-sive education for less money if they built their own residences!

The following is an excerpt from the English teacher’s commencement address:

Thoreau puts his reasoning thus:

The student who secures his coveted leisure and retirement by systematically shirking any labor necessary to man obtains but an ignoble and unprofitable lei-sure, defrauding himself of the experience which alone can make leisure fruitful. “But,” says one, “you do not mean that the students should go to work with their hands instead of their heads?” I do not mean that exactly, but I mean something which he might think a good deal like that; I mean that they should not play life, or study it merely, while the community supports them at this expensive game, but earnestly live it from beginning to end… Which would have advanced the most at the end of a month—the boy who had made his own jackknife from the ore which he had dug and smelted, reading as much as would be necessary for this—or the boy who had attended the lectures on metallurgy at the Institute in the mean while, and had received a Rogers’ penknife from his father?

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Not that Thoreau was against formal education; he asks only that education be useful. Thoreau’s practice of simplic-ity and the integrity of his way of life are examples that resonate with the values of a Quaker school community, particu-larly one with a commitment to experi-ential education.

The disconnection between formal education and living might not be whol-ly a thing of the past, however. Today, Thoreau’s alma mater offers 48 differ-ent areas of concentration, from African and African-American Studies to Visual and Environmental Studies. Students go there with a wide variety of interests. Yet before the economic crisis, as many as 40 percent of a single Harvard gradu-ating class (that of 2008) flocked to jobs in consulting or financial services. Only half of them would have made the same career choice if money were not an issue, but half wouldn’t, according to a survey of those graduates in the Crimson news-paper. But of course: the money is good! I myself was akin to that latter half, as I studied postmodern literature and literary theory in college and graduate school and then promptly found myself a job at a big hedge fund. I stayed in fi-nance for nearly a decade, much to the surprise of many people who knew me, especially to the surprise of the people who knew me better than I knew my-self; and who, when I at last resigned from my job to go into teaching, won-dered only, “what took you so long?” I know a lot of people who, on the recom-mendation of their degrees, very easily found jobs on career paths that, how-ever, didn’t bring them the happiness or deep satisfaction they were looking for. (I do also know some consultants and financiers who wouldn’t be happier doing any other work. My concern here is the way in which people often find themselves freely choosing to do things, whatever the field, that they might have known they wouldn’t ultimately find to be fulfilling.)

Thoreau’s two knife owners seem to have this in common, that they know

what they want, even if they have dif-ferent approaches to getting it. But else-where in Walden, Thoreau shows how deeply he understands that this kind of self-knowledge can be hard to come by. Bill McKibben, thinking about our contemporary way of life, says that Tho-reau “posed the two intensely practical questions that must come to dominate this age … How much is enough? and How do I know what I want?” The lat-ter question is echoed by the title character of Ellison’s In-visible Man, alone in the big city after his college years are over, when he enjoys, intense-ly and in a way that would have been anathema to his social aspirations, a baked yam with melted butter. He realizes that he doesn’t even know himself well enough to tell in some cases whether he really likes or dislikes some-thing or has been tricked into thinking he does. He wonders about all that he’s lost because he unthinkingly follows the paths prescribed for him by others. It’s no wonder that this novel resonates with so many teenagers who find themselves in the middle of their own journeys of self-discovery, acutely feeling the anxieties that come with it. One freshman expressed that anxiety recently with a portrait of herself as Sleeping Beauty, who, as this student pointed out, sleeps her way through the story that is supposed to be about her!

I trust that your Friends education has given you in plenitude the skills and knowledge that you will need to succeed in this world. I have witnessed the fruits of that gift in the four years you’ve been Upper Schoolers, writing papers, creating short films, songs, po-ems, and plays; performing the works of Shakespeare, Miller, Porter, and Mingus, among others, with passion, commitment, and excellence; paint-ing and sculpting; building robots and

competing in sports championships; conducting scientific studies and ex-periments; demonstrating social and po-litical engagement. You’re off to terrific schools and will be able to achieve great things. In the process you will at times be faced with the questions, “How much is enough, and how do I know what I want?” Part of the value of your Friends education lies in the way it will have giv-en you the mindfulness to ask, and the tools with which to answer, those ques-tions for yourselves. Only by answering them will you not sleepwalk through your own lives, but earnestly live them to the end.

Thoreau asks only that education be useful ... Simplicity and the integrity of his way of life are examples that resonate with the values of a Quaker school.

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collegedestinations

class of 2013

Kevin Alters | School of Visual Arts Emery Andrew | Gettysburg College

Brian Arroyo | Harvard CollegeAlexander Bactat | George Washington University

Kaleigh Balken | Skidmore CollegeQuinn Batten | Carleton College

Noah Beckwith | Rhode Island School of DesignNicole Bennett | Skidmore College

Sonia Brozak | Washington & Lee UniversityOlivia Creamer | New York University

Olivia Daddi | Smith CollegeAndy Deng | Princeton University

Hannah Eisner | Wesleyan UniversityAudrey Engelman | Elon University

Kevin Ensuncho | Baruch College, CUNYChelsea Ettlinger | Oberlin College

Gregory Fauerbach | New York UniversityLindsey Feinstein | Vanderbilt University

Eve Felsenthal | Reed CollegeElise Ferguson | Vassar College

Simone Fillion-Raff | McGill UniversityMax Friedlich | Wesleyan University

Peter Frisch | Brown University

64 seniors applied to college...

19will stay in New York State

15 will go to New England

12 will attend college in the Mid Atlantic

5 will head to the West Coast

Where in the world will they go?

3will leave the U.S. [Canada & Scotland]

from left to right

123 different colleges accepted them

5 will go to the Midwest

5will go down South

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Ian Garland | George Washington UniversityAlexander Gillah | University of St. AndrewsPerry Goodman | Cornell UniversityAntione Gray | University of PennsylvaniaAlexandra Hale | University of ChicagoPerri Haser | Dartmouth CollegeChristian Hoyos | Williams CollegeSophie Kasakove | Brown UniversityDevon Kasarjian | University of VermontJordan Kasarjian | University of VermontAren Lawton | Ithaca CollegeNoah Lesko-Kanowitz | Pomona CollegeEthan Levenson | Bard CollegeHeidi Loening | Reed CollegeAnna Mairs | Mount Allison UniversityMatthew Maitland | Dickinson CollegeEvelyn Mandel | Smith CollegeShivanii Manglani | Emory UniversityEmily Margolis | Franklin & Marshall CollegeRoss Mechanic | University of PennsylvaniaIsabeaux Mitton | New York UniversityAqil Nabi | Colgate UniversityJordan O’Neil | College at Geneseo, SUNYDeniz Oncu | New York UniversityAlexandra Pauly | Bennington CollegeCooper Pillot | Tulane UniversityMax Redinger | Syracuse UniversityMolly Revenson | New York UniversityJames Richardson | Bucknell UniversityBella Rubinton | Binghamton University, SUNYBenjamin Ruskin | Tufts UniversityMia Samuels | Franklin & Marshall CollegeLucas Sandtroen | Pitzer CollegeIsadora Schappell-Spillman | Wesleyan UniversityRosa Shipley | Kenyon CollegeStefanos Tai | Savannah College of Art & DesignAmina Theis | Skidmore CollegeDyulani Thomas | Case Western Reserve UniversityRuvianne Torres Fetsco | San Francisco Art InstituteMichaela Unger | Brandeis UniversityAja Watkins | Syracuse University

83% were admitted to their first, second or third choice college

55%of the class received merit scholarships ranging from $500 to total cost of attendance

Skidmore Collegereceived the most applications—15 in total

NYUaccepted the most Friends students—8 in total

39%will head off to college with at least one Friends peer

Brown University • Franklin & Marshall College • George Washington University

• New York University • University of Pennsylvania • Reed College • Skidmore

College • Syracuse University • University of Vermont • Wesleyan University

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IN TRANS·LA·TIONfound

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In the past decade, researchers have discovered that the benefits of speaking multiple languages extend far beyond enhancing your communication abilities. It turns out that being bilingual improves cognitive skills unrelated to language and even slows down the brain’s aging process.

For most of the 20th century, experts thought that a second language delayed a child’s academic and intellectual development. To some extent, this is true. Multiple languages can cause interference in the brain. However, researchers are finding that competing men-tal systems actually create positive results by helping the brain resolve internal conflicts. Think of it as learn-ing to swim against a strong current. You would swim in calm waters with relative ease.

Multilingual communication improves the brain’s executive function—the command system that ignores distractions and switches attention between tasks with-out forgetting important information. The positive effects appear from infancy to old age. While children develop complex problem-solving skills, elderly bilin-gual speakers show resistance to onset dementia and other symptoms of Alzheimer’s. The best part is that it doesn’t seem to matter when the speaker learns the second language.

At Friends, language has always been an important facet of the curriculum. Students not only build a cog-nitive intelligence, but they also learn to put value on the voices and views of every person. When communi-cation barriers break down, consensus will follow.

Study Spanish, and you can order coffee in Santo Domingo or Washington Heights. Chinese lessons will help you get directions in Beijing or Chinatown. Become fluent in Sanskrit, and raise your IQ … Hang on. What was that last part?

Students receive language instruction in every division. Lower Schoolers take Spanish beginning in Kindergarten. Fourth Graders have the opportunity to study Spanish, French, Arabic, and Chinese before choosing to pursue one language in depth in Middle School. Latin is a required course for Seventh and Eighth Graders, and students may continue through-out their Upper School careers.

Those learning the commonly used languages be-come fully immersed in the culture. “There is no better way to be a cultural ambassador than to learn the lan-guage spoken in a country other than one’s own,” said Micah Morris, Head ofthe Modern and Classical Lan-guages Department. “The acquisition of a second lan-guage is the ultimate gesture of friendship to the world.”

Latin scholars of all ages may not have many op-portunities to practice skills with street vendors or dry cleaners—except for maybe in the Vatican—but their ex-panded knowledge opens other doors almost every day.

“The Latin curriculum provides an opportunity to study both language and literature. Students read origi-nal literature, compose formal explications, and com-plete projects designed to draw connections between their lives and those of the lives of ancient peoples. The pleasure of studying a classical language is to penetrate a magnificent realm—to understand human thought and to discover the past in the present,” Micah said.

Regardless of whether you want to increase brain-power, visit a foreign country or immerse yourself in classic poetry and prose, studying languages will help you exercise your imagination and move us one step closer to “the world that ought to be.”

l a n g u a g e a t f r i e n d s

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Friends expanded its language offerings again with the introduction of Chinese language in the 2012–2013 school year. This new addition is part of the School’s continuing effort to give students a complete picture of the world outside of 16th Street.

Knowledge of Chinese does more than just allow communication with one-seventh of the world’s population (see sidebar on next page). “Chinese characters are still used in Korean and Japanese writing, so learning Chinese and Chinese culture is a great first step in understanding the whole of East Asian civilization, history and culture,” said Chinese teacher, Mia Huang.

Despite the benefits, native English

speakers typically find the transition to Chinese jarring. Rather than group together letters to form sounds, the written language is based on ideograms, which are characters that symbolize concepts. Lower and Middle School students enjoy this visual element to Chinese. They get to learn a new language by drawing pictures.

On top of the new approach to writing, Chinese students have to learn four different tones of pronunciation. Beginners tend to have trouble both picking out and making the tones, so students come prepared to train their ears and their tongues.

Upper School students practice their new language skills inside and outside

Chinese at Friends

The Modern & Classical Languages Department is expanding its vocabulary.

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By native speakers by percent of world population.

Anna Swank-Bothwell, ArabicIn the 2013-14 school year, Friends will expand its Arabic program into the Middle School. Having never taught students as young as Grade 5, Arabic teacher, Anna found that preparing a curriculum was not as easy as she had hoped. “There is a real paucity of pedagogical materials for that age,” she said. “So I decided, why not create them myself?” Anna used a Third Century Grant to travel to Lebanon for some initial work on her curriculum. She will try out her new materials this year, and with any luck, she’ll have an early draft of a textbook by summer 2014.

Christel Johnson, LatinChristel Johnson will be this year's Art of Teaching lecturer. During her 10-year tenure at Friends, Christel has completed her PhD while teaching full-time and

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the classroom. Working around a 12-hour time difference, Mia’s students use Skype to videoconference with native speakers in Taipei, Taiwan, where she grew up. Classes also have to use Chinese to shop and eat during an annual daytrip to Chinatown. Additionally, Mia holds karaoke sessions in her class. “Not only does it expose students to Chinese pop culture, but karaoke forces them to read and speak quickly,” she said.

As daunting as it may seem to study a language and culture that literally focuses on the other side of the world, Mia sees other value in studying Chinese. “For example, reading ideograms helps designers think visually, and hearing a tonal language helps with pitch in music,” she said. “You don’t have to excel in Chinese to train your brain in new ways.”

What’s an ideogram?

CHINESE 14.1%955 million

SPANISH 5.85 %407 million

ENGLISH 5.52%359 million

HINDI 4.46% 311 million

ARABIC 4.23%293 million

III

Chinese character for earth

土

Top 5 Languages

No smoking sign

Roman numeral for three

ideo·gram a written character symbolizing the idea of a thing without indicating the sounds used to say it.

Lifetime Learnershas presented at numerous professional conferences. She is also the architect of the annual Classics Colloquium here at Friends.

Eric Quiñones, SpanishEric is taking a sabbatical for the 2013-2014 School year to finish his PhD in Spanish Literature. His doctoral dissertation focuses mainly on the little-known Puerto Rican poet, José de Jesús Domínguez. “Some of the poetry had been lost for a very long time,” Eric said. “It was my job to find it.” The rediscovered works reflect different styles and provide a window into a similar phenomenon in the plastic arts and architecture of late 19th century Puerto Rico. Eric’s work on the artistic effects of new economic models and technologies should bring a new perspective to his work in the classroom.

Our faculty tackle ambitious language projects.

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A recently published remembrance of Calvert Watkins, (1933-2013), Friends Seminary Class of 1950 and the world’s most distinguished Indo-European linguist of the present century, traces his teachers all the way back to Ferdinand de Saussure, the most distinguished linguist of the 19th century.* This academic genealogy reminded me that education is a traditional craft. We “hand down” influences from our teachers and their teachers before them, and so on. We are the progeny then not only of our biological parents, but also of our academic “parents.” On the “English side” I can trace my ancestry back through Wayne Booth to R.S. Crane; in modern literature and in Anglo-Saxon to C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkein; on the Classical side, back to Cedric Whitman. When I think about it, it is exhilarating to teach not only Latin and Greek, but also these influences that stretch back into the past.

After 20 years of teaching English and another 16 teaching Latin and Greek, I thought it would be appropriate to be trained as a classicist. I applied to the

City University of New York. They made me take the “grad record” exams again—the first time was in 1958. Forty-seven years later, I earned the same score in the math section – 390. Somewhat higher, however, in the verbal. Then, taking one course a term, alternating between Latin and Greek topics, I spent eight years earning another degree. Curiously enough, I wrote my master’s essay about a man coming to terms with old age.

• • •Let’s set the chronological sequence

of prophecies in the Oedipus myth straight. First: Oedipus the King had a childhood with issues: because of the prophecy about marrying his mother and killing his father, his parents, the king and queen of Thebes, Laius and Jocasta, wanted him dead, etc., etc. Abandoned, he finds foster parents, who happen to be the king and queen of Corinth. He runs away from home again, fleeing the prophecy; road-rage at the intersection, then riddle-solving, winning throne and queen as rewards, learning identity, terrible deeds ending in eye-gouging, blindness and exile.

PHILIP SCHWARTZ

English and Latin teacher at Friends for 48 years reflects on the classics.

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Growing Old in the Ancient World

* Please see page 40 for a tribute to Calvert Watkins ’50.

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The second part of the sequence is Aeschylus’ account of the sons/half-brothers of Oedipus contending for the throne in Seven Against Thebes, and finally Sophocles’ Antigone, the daughter/half-sister, who defies the civic authorities to bury her renegade brother, after both her brothers, Eteocles and Polynices, die in the assault on Thebes.

The plot of Oedipus at Colonus is that Polynices and Eteocles, the sons and half-brothers, are more interested in acquiring temporal power than abiding by the nomos custom, that we have an obligation to care for aging parents. Now it turns out that the genesis of the Theban generational conflict is another Delphic prophecy: namely, that

the political party, either of Polynices or of Eteocles, that brings Oedipus back so he can be buried near Thebes will attain the throne. Each son, in effect, tries to “con” his father into returning to Thebes. However, Ismene, Oedipus’ other daughter/half-sister, has found her father and revealed the motives behind the feigned parental concern of Eteocles and Polynices.

The custom of caring for parents seems to go back to Homer. He has a word for this custom: threptra—repaying the nurture of your parents, a nurture that to the ancient world engendered a profound obligation. Hesiod, roughly a contemporary of Homer and a fairly cranky author, is concerned about people disregarding this nomos, but he is quite clear about its importance— “humans will dishonor their parents as they grow old, blame them with bitter words… they will not repay their parents for the cost of their nurture.” (Works and Days: 185-188). In Athens, however, this obligation was so important that it was the law from the time of the great lawgiver and poet, Solon.

For the Greeks, the proper geometry of life seems to dictate that children become the caretakers and nurturers of their aged parents. The persona/narrator of

the Iliad has this epitaph about a young warrior killed in battle: “but he could not repay again the care of his dear parents.” (Homer, Iliad: IV: 477; XVII: 302) There is a Sophoclean summation of this Greek ethos about the care of parents. It is the Ismene Rule: “If it is hard work to care for parents, we must not complain about it.” (Sophocles: Oedipus at Colonus: 508)

In this custom we discover the present in the past and the past in the present. Surely, the Greeks understood that, in fact, we do become the nurturers and caregivers for our parents. It is a universal obligation of life; all of us pass over this threshold.

In fact, old age generally was held in some reverence in the ancient world,

perhaps because the life expectancy was so short. Remember garrulous old Nestor in the Iliad speaking often to the Greek Joint Chiefs of Staff, usually geriatric autobiography, but always allowed to speak first and listened to attentively.

Cicero claims, taking his cue from the Greeks: “Sophocles composed tragedies to extreme old age; and when, because of his absorption in literary work, he was thought to be neglecting his business affairs, his sons hauled him into court in order to secure a verdict removing him from the control of his property on the ground of imbecility, under a law similar to ours, whereby it is customary to restrain heads of families from wasting their estates. Thereupon, it is said, the old man read to the jury his play, Oedipus at Colonus, which he had just written and was revising, and inquired: “Does that poem seem to you to be the work of an imbecile?” When he had finished, he was acquitted. (De Senectute: VII)

• • •So perhaps there is some palpable connection between my studying old age in Ancient Greece and growing old at Friends Seminary. I think it must have something to do with the Chorus of men too old for

war in Aeschylus’ Agamemnon. Here we have a Herald returning from a war in the Middle East, describing the intolerable conditions in which the soldiers had to live. And the Chorus of old men, after hearing the account, claims: “from youth to old age it is good to learn well.” (Agamemnon: 584). This is an account from an intolerable war in the Middle East that happened 2,700 years ago. Even if we don’t learn from it, the past does matter.

The Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs are sponsoring the Theater of War Project, which performs dramatic readings of classical tragedy to get combat veterans to talk about war and its horrors. Sophocles’

Ajax is an incredible account of what war does to a good man, even a hero.

That is part of what I have learned growing old at Friends Seminary. The ancient past speaks to the present. I have also learned that only the very young and the

very old hold on to the bannister when we walk up and down stairs. Little people have no idea of mass: that two physical objects do not easily occupy the same space at the same time. Walking through the halls, they will bump into you, and when they do, like a shark hitting into a piling at a pier, they simply back up and move around you, without noticing you at all. Every so often, I am invited into a Lower School class to read some Old English, or Latin or Greek. I do my presentation: and we talk about the funny letters and whether the students can recognize any word. They don’t know it, but this is their first lesson in Indo-European linguistics. Then a month or so later, a little person will pass by without bumping into me and say, “Hi, Mr. Schwartz.” For some reason, I value that recognition very much.

Of all the lessons I have learned, perhaps the most important have been handed down to me from my Greek and Latin “ancestry.” Cicero tells me, “An attentive farmer plants trees from which he will never see the fruit.” (Tuscan Disputations 1.14) and Aristotle adds, “Education is the best provision for old age.” (Aristotle from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers)

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O nly the very young and the very old hold on to the bannister when we walk up and down stairs.

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“Sorry I’m late, I forgot that my mom always tries to feed me breakfast when I’m home,” says Meredith Rahn Oakes ’08, only 21 years old and freshly graduated from Georgetown Univer-sity. Despite her tremendous accomplishments and her preco-cious talent (she graduated from Friends Seminary at age 16), she is down-to-earth and effortlessly humble.

Studying languages is a lifelong passion for Meredith, and her pursuit of multilinguality has taken her to places she never thought she’d go.

In September, Meredith will travel to Turkey on a Fulbright Scholarship to research immigration legislation. She’s looking for a way to grant greater access to healthcare, education and legal services to refugees and asylum-seekers. In Istanbul and Ankara, the capital city, she will work with the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR)—two non govern-mental organizations that work closely with UNHCR—and a migration research center, all while continuing her Turkish language studies.

Meredith had no idea that she would become so entrenched in Turkish culture and policy. She took up Turkish because her college Arabic courses concentrated too much on formal, writ-ten Arabic and not enough on the dialects actually spoken. “I never wanted to learn language in a vacuum,” says Meredith.

Meredith’s love of language started at the ripe old age of three.

“What I first liked most about speaking French was that I could speak it, and my parents couldn’t understand,” confesses Meredith, who has been speaking fluent French since attending

MEREDITH RAHN OAKES’08

ALUMNIPROFILES

Delighting in Turkey

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the French International School in Philadelphia before moving to New York. After transferring to the Upper School at Friends, she dabbled in Latin and Span-ish. Since then, she has found language useful for much more than foiling her parents.

At Friends, she learned how to be comfortable with less tan-gible ways of communicating. Silent Worship taught her to embrace her own wordlessness, and to become absorbed in the act of listening. In silence, she found commonality between seemingly disparate people and cultures.

“I love that my language skills have enabled me to have conver-sations with people from very different backgrounds than my own,” says Meredith. “Language allows you to emerge out of a tourist or expat bubble into lesser-known terrain.”

Getting to know different cultures from the inside out has been invaluable to her academic career and has formed her path in the world of foreign policy.

Her knowledge allows her to make insightful comparisons and make more subtle conclu-sions in argument.

On a personal level, Meredith enjoys hearing other languages even when she doesn't under-stand. She used to insist that her college roommate speak with family in their native Korean.

“If you listen to Korean, you can actually hear similar intona-tion patterns to that of Turkish, which makes sense since the Mongol invasion spread from East Asia and all the way to Turkey. The two languages are distantly related.”

In any situation, she has come to learn that language is as much about listening as it is about speaking.

ANTHONY SHOREWhat’s in a name?

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Anthony Shore ’85 director of Operative Words, a naming agency based in San Francisco, answers a few questions about his calling in life.

When did you realize that words were your passion?There were two points I re-member distinctly. My first memory of word-love was when I was a child and I received the American Heri-tage Dictionary as a birthday gift. The edition included a Dictionary of Proto-Indo-European Roots where I spent an inordinate amount of time discovering 5,000-year-old word parts. The first time I became self-aware of my logo-philia was in college at UC Santa Cruz. I was already in the linguistics program, but it wasn’t until I was interviewing a potential housemate who asked me, “What do you want to do with linguistics?” It was then that my mouth said, “I want to name things” and I suddenly noticed that that was what I was meant to do.

Which teachers at Friends inspired you?I transferred into 11th grade from another school where

I had been taking Latin and I continued on studying at Friends under Phil Schwartz. At my old school, I was ready to go into fifth year, but under Phil’s gauntlet. I was only ready for third-year Latin. I also took an Iliad class with Phil, which taught me some Greek. I con-tinued to study ancient Greek in college—and also took a trip to Greece for a month between Friends and college. The de-mand and rigor at Friends, and Phil in particular, inspired me. I also learned a great deal about English and writing from Friends teachers Ron Singer and Ann Sullivan, both of whom inspired me.

How did you transition from a major in linguistics to naming?At first, my professional ob-session with words took form visually. I was a typesetter for a magazine, then for an ad agen-cy. This was before desktop publishing, so I was working on photo-mechanical typesetting systems that required develop-ing rolls of set type in toxic, smelly, photographic chemi-cals. I then moved into desk-top-based typesetting, graphic production and advertising copywriting. My first taste of

Q&A

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The Namer in His Element

1 LYTRO A revolutionary “light field” camera that lets you shoot first and focus later. The name Lytro was inspired by the words “light” and “nitroglycerine.”2 SNAPDRAGON This microprocessor by Qualcomm helps create amazing devices like smartphones and tablets. The name

brings together two oppositional ideas: small/easy/fast (snap) and big/mythological/fantastic (dragon).3 SOYJOY Years ago, I was reviewing name candidates for a new line of soy-based protein bars. Off the cuff, I added the name Soyjoy into the mix. The client loved it.

4 LAUGHING GLASS A line of ready-to-drink cocktails. It’s a fun name that reflects a fun product. Laughing Glass margaritas can now be found in Northern California and will be rolling out nationwide in 2014.5 PAUSE A line of relaxation beverages for hard-working people. My company

created the name, the tagline (“Make Now Yours”), and directed the design of the bottle.6 VIBE A fruit-flavored malt beverage that Coors launched in 2002. I don’t think the product lasted in the market very long. It goes to show, there’s only so much a name—even a great one—can do.

Anthony gives a tour of some the greatest hits on his desktop.

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naming was at the ad agency, where I was tasked with naming cocktails for a local ho-tel. My first full-blown naming project was naming a Monterey, California, real estate development and all of the streets in the development. From there, I had a few other jobs, including wine list design, software marketing and software product manage-

ment. I began naming full-time in 1996 for a large branding agency called Landor As-sociates. Eventually, I became their Global Director of Naming and Writing. I also worked for a spell at Lexicon Branding, a well-regarding boutique naming firm.

Why did you decide to start your own company?After 13 years at Landor, I had accom-plished everything I could hope for. I was Landor’s first, and, to date, only Global Di-rector of Naming and Writing. I had codi-fied best practices in name development and helped create naming software, data-bases and training materials. I also person-ally created many names I was proud of, like Accenture, Yum Brands, Avaya, Qual-comm Snapdragon, Edy’s Slow-Churned Ice Cream, Photoshop Lightroom and Pan-orama Meats. I left Landor to start my own agency, which would give me an opportu-nity for quantum growth, not just incre-mental growth. My agency, named Opera-tive Words, specializes in anything that’s six words or fewer. Corporate and product naming is my bread and butter, but I also write taglines, develop nomenclature sys-tems, define brands, and direct visual iden-tity of new brands.

How do you use foreign language to come up with names? Every name has a unique set of objectives that must be accomplished. Sometimes, a name based on a foreign language can accomplish those objectives. For example, I named a line of authentic Mexican fro-

zen dinners Menu del Sol. That required looking at Spanish words that would be obvious to English speakers. I was inspired by the Sanskrit word for “unity,” ad-vaya, to name a unified communica-tions company,Avaya. Other classical languages I’ve drawn on include Latin for the names Alterra (ecological pest con-trol), Metris (financial services) and Sen-sata (Texas Instruments sensors spin-off company), and Greek for the names Lytro, a revolutionary new camera, and Xiam-eter, a division of Dow Corning. One client in the ‘knowledge management’ business wanted a name with a direct relationship to their category. The challenge was that English words like think, brain, mind, et al., and Greek and Latin roots were already prevalent in their category. My team and I looked at more exotic languages and discovered a lovely word, Kanisa, which means “you must think” in Lingala, a lan-guage of central Africa. The name has no obvious meaning to English speakers, but it helps the client tell a good story. Other companies do this; for example, Samsung (which I did not name) means nothing to English speakers, but Koreans recognize it means "three stars."

ALICIA RUBIN & JEREMY YAMIN’83Serving for JusticeSometimes it seems as though Jeremy Yamin ’83’s life is straight out of the Tintin comic strip. As an agent of the Diplomatic Security Service, he has investigated hu-man trafficking, international organized crime, terrorist incidents, and pretty much everything from traffic accidents to murder investigations.

He is now stationed in Tanzania where he manages about 500 personnel—Tanza-nian guards, U.S. Marines, federal agents, security engineers, and investigators—at the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam.

Moving to Tanzania meant that he and his family had to learn Swahili on the spot — not an easy feat when most Tanzanians you encounter want to practice their Eng-lish. His 12-year-old son, Sam, who is at ease communicating, negotiating and striking bargains in Swahili, often serves as the fam-ily translator “much like recent immigrants to the U.S. who rely on their kids.”

He and his wife, Alicia Rubin Yamin ’83 have had many stops on their world tour. Before Tanzania, they lived and worked in the major cities of the Spanish-speaking world. Since they both graduated from Harvard College in 1987, they have lived and worked in Argentina, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay.

Friends sparked Jeremy’s interest in Spanish. He was attracted to the language because of Señora Olga Maidique’s encour-aging attitude.

She may not have been the most conven-

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Kanisa means ‘you must think’ in Lingala, a language of central Africa. The name has no obvious meaning to English speakers, but it helps the client tell a good story.

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Photo by Jeremy and Alicia’s son, Sam Yamin

tional teacher—sometimes she would look the other way when students whispered to each other during tests—but she left stu-dents with the impression that language is about speaking and learning, not memori-zation.

“She was so pleased and excited that we were trying to speak her language that she made it fun. I wasn’t made to feel self-con-scious about my ability or lack thereof.”

Alicia, however, can be credited for Jeremy’s sustained commitment to the language. He continued his Spanish stud-ies in college, but when he re-met Alicia in 1985 during their sophomore year in col-lege, Jeremy decided to become fluent and focus his studies on Latin America.

“I was absolutely infatuated by this gorgeous American/Argentine who spoke such beautiful Spanish,” he said. Following this siren’s song, he became fascinated by Argentine culture and politics, and trav-eled with her to Argentina to conduct his

thesis research on the Dirty War.It should be noted that this was not the

first time they met—Alicia attended Friends from Kindergarten to Grade Two. How-ever, they had significantly less interest in one another as evidenced by their mutual absences from each other’s birthday party photos.

After college, Jeremy moved with Alicia to Buenos Aires to do consulting work. The next stop on their international “tour” was Mexico City—extremely different from Ar-gentina. Alicia brought the first case to the U.N. Committee Against Torture detailing a systematic pattern of impunity among the Mexican Federal Judicial Police—the equivalent of the FBI.

Their phones were tapped, their mail intercepted and she was followed, harassed and even detained by the police. The U.S. embassy strongly advised them to leave, but Alicia refused to abandon her case or her clients—many of whom had survived

horrendous tortures and some had family members killed for doing nothing wrong.

“For me, the constant harassment by the police and the corruption made me reflect on government, democracy and the rule of law,” said Jeremy. “In my mind you couldn’t have a democracy if you didn’t have the rule of law, and the rule of law requires trained and honest police and judiciary.” That reflection led him from his career in consulting and international mar-keting to the Diplomatic Security Service.

Jeremy thinks the globetrotting has benefitted his children, and he wants them to continue traveling long after the family has settled down. “I hope they can go even further than I have in the world, and in the world of languages. Despite the occasional headaches, it is a lot of fun.”

The views expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Department of State or the U.S. government.

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reunion 2013

1. Principal Bo Lauder and friends from the Class of 2008: Andrew Huson, Lex Singer, Rodger Sherman, Jackson Sinder2. Faculty Bob Rosen and An-Lo Yu ’033. Mark Wilcox ’88 and Cory Diamond ’884. Class of 1983: Susan Bronzaft Santoro, Jennifer Geldard, Keith Smith, Jim Infantino, Susan Lowen Maniatis, Martha Ehrenfeld, Julia Bates5. Martha Ehrenfeld ’83 flips through the Spring issue of NFF with Susan Bronzaft Santoro ’836. Max Frey ’93 and Jennifer Rudolph ’937. Emma Hayes ’02 and Alumni Council Clerk Joanna Hunter August ’028. Clockwise from top left: Sandy and John Schwartz ’57, Paul Chevigny ’53, Sally Christenberry Roth ’539. Class of 1978, from left: Elizabeth Steckman Bartlett, Andrew Owen, Alexandra Fingesten, Jack Moore, Amy Eppler-Epstein10. Class of 1968: Blair Fensterstock, Jonathan Beckerman, Patsy Myers Hayes, Penny Craven11. Class of 1973 and friends, clockwise from back left: Helene Abramowitz, former faculty Paul Supton, Barbara Michelson, Sabrina Hamilton, Dan Green ’72, David Hochman ’74, Robert Sheinbaum, Michael Varhol (husband of Alison Dale), Alison Dale, Julie Raskin and her husband, David Barnert12. Nathalie Pacheco, Michael Martinez ’91, Bella Breuer, Lute Breuer ’9313. Principal Bo Lauder and Principal Emeritus Rich Eldridge14. Dave Sellar ’91 and Chris Scianni ’88 (in the foreground) rock out on the Meeting-house steps

Cometogether!

Visit www.friendsseminaryphotos.com/alumni for more photos.

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50 Yearsfor the Class of 1963!

reunion 2013

The Class of 1963 celebrated their 50th reunion on May 17, 2013. After a private luncheon in the Alumni Room, they joined up with their Grade Four pen pals. As part of the Pen Pal Program, the Class of 1963 and Andy Doan’s fourth graders exchanged letters for three months. At their meeting, the students showed off their class projects and demonstrated how they use iPad technology in the classroom. The alumni showed students their yearbooks and chatted about what Friends was like in 1963.

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”

“

The faculty and staff at Friends Seminary are the School’s most treasured resources. They make up

the substance of the School and create lasting memories for the community. Each year, the Friends

Seminary Emeritus Program recognizes the legacy of an individual who exemplifies the giving and

passionate involvement of those who make this community unique.

faculty & staff emeritus

Year after year, Jennifer has awakened our faith in the transforming power of art and in the particularly communal power of the theater. Jennifer’s presence as teacher, colleague and friend has deepened and strengthened the community of Friends Seminary. Although we will miss her terribly, the worlds she has brought to life will linger here—the wood outside Athens, the streets of London, the Emerald City, an orchard in Verona, a Yorkshire fishing village, the plains of Oklahoma, the forest of Arden, to name only a few.

Toni Daly

Harriet Burnett, Director of Admissions Maria Fahey, English Teacher ”

“

Jennifer Fell HayesTeacher of Math & Environmental Studies Service to Friends 1989−2013

Teacher and Director of DramaService to Friends 1991−2013

When green was just a color and not yet a celebrated moral choice, before Al Gore wrote The Inconvenient Truth and before Clinton popularized his Global Initiative, Toni was already in a green state of mind... She is humble in her effect but fierce in her passion to make the world a safer, more enriched and joyfully sustainable place for all. Her gentle, kind demeanor belies an extraordinary moral sensibility which fortifies her personal strength.

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Friends for the Future, our Planned Giving Society, honors those members of our community who have arranged to support Friends Seminary through a planned or estate gift. These donors have helped provide for the School’s future through a variety of gift planning vehicles including bequest intentions, testamentary trusts, gifts of real estate, and other deferred gifts.

Friends Grandparent ’26• • •

Parent of Alumni ’86 ’89•••

Former Member of the School Committee

For more information on making a planned gift, please contact Katherine Precht, Director of Development, at 212.979.5035 ext. 180 or kprecht@friendsseminary.org. If you have made a provision for Friends in your estate plans, please share this information with us so that your generosity can be acknowledged.

A lot at Friends has changed since my first child enrolled in 1972. From a small, financially challenged school in a then-obscure part of Manhattan, it has grown into a widely-recognized leader among New York City independent schools, which draws a strong and diverse student body citywide and beyond.

But a lot has stayed the same, such as Friends’ uncompromising commitment to Quaker values, top-flight faculty deeply engaged with students and a profound and lifelong impact on its graduates.

It has been a privilege to watch Friends evolve and grow for 40 years. And the School is so worthy of our financial support through annual giving, capital funds, and bequests. I am excited about my bequest, and only sorry I won’t be around to see it in use!

Jonathan L. Cohen

Excerpted from Jonathan's speech at a luncheon (hosted by Edes Powell Gilbert ’49 and Frederic Buse ’59) honoring his 40 years of involvement at Friends Seminary, as well as the dedicated members of the Friends for the Future society.

f r i e n d s f o r t h e

future

FRIENDS SEMINARY222 EAST 16 TH STREET NEW YORK, NY 10003

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f r i e n d s f o r t h e

FRIENDS SEMINARY222 EAST 16 TH STREET NEW YORK, NY 10003

MAY 16 & MAY 17, 2014If your class year ends in a 4 or 9, your

reunion celebration is coming up!

We need YOU to get involved at Reunion!

To volunteer for reunion efforts, contact Katherine Farrell in the Alumni Office: kfarrell@friendsseminary.org or 212.979.5035 ext. 106.

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