a news magazine for the carey school community volume four
TRANSCRIPT
Carey ConnectionA News Magazine for The Carey School Community
Volume Four – Spring 2013
A very special thank you to the following individuals for their dedication and support in this edition of the Carey Connection.
Co-EditorsKitsana SalyphoneMarla Levy
Official School PhotographerVeronica Riedel
Other Photographs Taken byRaymond DifleyLisa FowlerDana GoldbergMichael HildrethDaisy HsiaoHelen LewErika Silk
ContributorsLaura AgarwalZita AgazziLydia AlexanderJulie AntupitKristy CowanMel DuBoisJoe EandiMary FolsomMason FordLisa FowlerSaul GerryDevon GoldDana GoldbergTracy Gray-HairDaisy HsiaoJane KolmodinSteve LoDuncan Lyon Cameron MoredockNeely NorrisCarol PereiraKitsana SalyphoneHenry SohnHilary SomorjaiCathleen ThomasBill Thompson
Designer Eddie Lee, Square Two Design, www.square2.com
Production Manager/ Director of Advancement Lisa Fowler
Production Assistant/ Advancement Associate Daisy Hsiao
“A lamp can never light another lamp unless it continues to burn its own flame.”–Rabindranath Tagore
Faculty participate in a team building cooking exercise during Faculty In-Service Week
In This Issue
• Welcome
• Letter from the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees
• Our Mission: The Essence of Carey
• New Instructional Reading Books
• Beyond the Numbers: The Path, Process and Progress of Bringing a New Math Program to Carey
• Inspiring Curious Learners
• Literature Week with Tomie dePaola
• Professional Development Highlights
Mel DuBois Learns Techniques for Assessing Bats and Their Habitats
This edition of the Carey Connection is dedicated to those who are dedicated to us: our teachers. Thank you for illuminating the minds of our young and for igniting their passions. Your commitment to the betterment of your craft models well for the students in your care and we salute the positive growth you effect every day.
Zita Travels to Puerto Rico
New Teacher Websites
• Creating a Safer Carey
• Celebrating 85 Years of All Things Carey!
• Celebrating Our Past, Present and Future
• Milkshakes and Middle School
• Carey’s Parent Community: Supporting Each Other and Making a Difference
• Class Notes/Alumni Highlights
• The Graduates, Middle School Acceptances, Colleges/Universities Attended
The Carey Connection lends itself to browsing, but rewards await for those who take it in cover to cover. This edition of the Carey Connection honors our distinguished past, describes the vitality of our present, and touches on the promising future of this fine school. At the center of it all is our new mission statement. On page 4, Director of Admission, Dana Goldberg, describes the process of creating our new mission statement, which is well-crafted and captures the essence of the Carey experience. I especially like how the verbs in the mission (specialize, inspire, celebrate, nurture) describe our campus life. In the
pages that follow, evidence of these words in action abound. Here are a few examples:
• Part of the Carey magic is that every resource, human and material, is in service of elementary education. Professional development allows teacher specialization in subject areas and developmental stages. Read about Spanish teacher Zita Agazzi’s takeaways from a conference in Puerto Rico and Science teacher Mel DuBois’s study of bat species.
• Enclosed are several engaging, humorous, and inspirational profiles of our alumni. These articles affirm that many of our graduates trace success in their adult lives to the strong foundation of their Carey years.
• The vibrant traditions of Literature Week, Virginia Taylor’s Spaghetti Dinner, and alumni reunions keep current students, parents, and alumni in touch with the distinctive joy a Carey education provides. These celebrations of childhood and community make meaningful memories for all who are part of them.
• In an article describing his teaching philosophy, Math Enrichment Specialist Saul Gerry writes that his job is to “model humility, to have a sense of humor and be flexible. I am not only teaching math, but I am teaching life skills, and how to stay positive and hopeful.” Mr. Gerry‘s nurturing approach is one shared widely by his colleagues and in line with the sentiments of our mission statement.
Of course, there are many more features worth reading in this fourth edition of the publication. Of particular interest to many readers is an article on our new History Wall, which graphically depicts key school events and initiatives over the past 85 years. Happily, one of the items on the wall is the Carey Connection itself. Happy reading!
Sincerely,
Duncan Lyon Head of School
The Carey School
WelcomeFaculty, Staff and
AdministrationZita AgazziRichard AndersonBetty AngellKathy AngellSherry AnoushJulie AntupitAndre BenjaminMark BevanSharon BloomAudra CarliIrene CecilianoElizabeth ConsidineCarl CoyleSarah DasKyle DayJennifer de SousaBarney DesrochesRaymond DifleyMelissa DuBoisLinda DugoniDaniel FernandezMario FloresLisa FowlerSaul GerryDana GoldbergTracy Gray-HairShelley GulloMadeleine HellerDaisy HsiaoTasha HudickJane KolmodinJessica LawsonHelen LewWesty LitzDuncan LyonKarena MartinCarol MillerCameron MoredockNeely NorrisSuzie QuineyLauren RhizorVeronica RiedelAmelia RowlandKitsana SalyphoneLauren ScottKatie SemienErika SilkJamie TrierweilerLinda UnderwoodJennifer WallenMichele Zirelli
State of the School 2012-2013
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As The Carey School celebrates its 85th year, I am pleased to tell you that the school is on very sound footing. Carey is a school of choice for many, enrollment is strong and demand continues to grow. The
administration’s focus on improving the program and the child experience resulted in Carey’s reputation as the gold standard for elementary education on the Peninsula and even beyond. The faculty and administration know elementary education and they do it very well. The school is also financially strong with a balanced budget each year and the school’s reserves continue to grow in a steady and deliberate manner to give the school a safety cushion. There is a lot to be proud of at Carey.
I encourage you to take a look at our History Wall that pictorially lays out the key elements of the school’s storied history. It is fascinating to see how certain key moments and decisions lay the groundwork for the institution we know today. Although the school has continually adapted to its changing environment over the past 85 years, much of the core remains the same. The Board of Trustees, while working on developing the school’s new five-year strategic plan, recently revisited and updated the school’s mission statement and, although the new version is modern in its language, it still contains the core values first introduced by the Carey family 85 years ago – an emphasis on kindness, respect and personal responsibility. As the saying goes, “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose (the more things change, the more they remain the same).”
So what is a QR Code?
Have you seen the little square boxes that look
like this on publications?
It is a QR code – a two-dimensional “quick
response” code readable by barcode readers
and most smartphones. QR codes are
commonly used by businesses large and small
and when they are scanned with a QR Reader
(available as a free app on your smartphone)
they often lead to the businesses’ website. If you
have a smartphone you have probably seen
and used this feature. But for those of you who
are new to this, just scan the code with your
smartphone or QR reader to see where it takes
you on your phone. Point your phone camera at
the few images in the magazine and you will be
able to capture a more in-depth look at some of
the different activities and events on campus.
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Board of Trustees
Executive Committee Carol Pereira, President Devon Gold, Vice President Betsy Berman, Secretary Mark Moore, Treasurer
Kristy Cowan Brian Dowd Joe Eandi Mary Folsom Maria Frantz Bobbie Gates Diane Isola Steve Lo Sarah Murphy Katie Raab Erich Sengelmann Bill Silver Henry Sohn John Somorjai Bill Thompson
Ex-Officio Duncan Lyon, Head of School Cathleen Thomas, CSPA President
In addition to the strategic planning and mission work, the Board is working hard to ensure the continued financial stability and strength of the school. The results are stunning! The Annual Fund grew almost four times since 2000. The school’s reserves increased from virtually zero to over $3 million over that same timeframe. Carey’s previous Raise the Roof capital campaign was over four times as large as its first campaign, only 10 years earlier.
The school has come a long way but there are still major projects to accomplish. The Board continues to pursue a master facilities plan and find ways to provide the school with the appropriate physical plant to enrich and enhance the educational experience for the students at all levels. This effort is taking shape in our Carey Forward campaign that will renovate and expand our school starting in 2013-14. More to come on this exciting campaign in the months ahead. The Board is also looking for ways to continue to grow the endowment to provide greater financial stability for the school.
All of these accomplishments, as great as they are, pale in comparison to Carey’s greatest trait – smiling students! The most noted comment that we hear about Carey is how happy the students look and sound every day while they are learning. Even while offering a challenging curriculum in the core and specialty subjects, the school recognizes the importance of making learning fun as a means to develop a lifelong hunger for knowledge. This core characteristic of Carey has remained through change and growth – a true testament to the school’s outstanding faculty and administration.
These are exciting times at The Carey School. As we celebrate 85 years of excellence in elementary school education, we can be proud of the achievements. We continue to work together within the Carey tradition to improve this storied and beloved institution that will always hold a special place in our hearts.
Sincerely,
Carol Pereira Board of Trustees, Chairperson
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Here is homework for you: Describe your entire essence, who YOU are, in five sentences or less.
(You may email, text, tweet, post, dictate, or use good old-fashioned paper and pen!)
A school’s mission statement aims to do just that.
A good mission clearly reflects a school’s culture, purpose and core values, while driving strategic thinking and planning processes. It speaks to all constituencies of the institution including students, parents, faculty, staff, administration and alumni. Its language is clear and concise.
A good mission statement is also timeless – like the value of a Carey education. It describes who we are now and what we aspire to be. The life of a mission should be reflective of the passage through time, with relevance yesterday, today and tomorrow.
I recently used the image of a tree – a symbol contained within our environment that spans generations – to explain the purpose of a mission statement. Think of the mission as the trunk of the tree, or its foundation. The trunk is long, textured and protected by layers of bark. From its branches grow rich, beautiful, diverse leaves. And, as a tree grows it needs tending, as does a mission.
During this past school year a committee comprised of trustees, parents, alumni and alumni parents, and faculty came together to review The Carey School’s mission statement. Our mission review process included clarifying questions such as: Is our mission an accurate reflection of who we are today? Does it describe
the learning community we strive to be many years from now? Is it sustainable? Does it reflect the uniqueness of Carey and differentiate our program from other independent schools locally or nationwide?
Our charge was to assess the school’s current mission and commitments and determine whether a revision was necessary. The National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) suggests that it is healthy for a school’s Board to review its mission every three to five years.
After a year long, inclusive process the Board of Trustees is pleased to present to you The Carey School’s revised mission statement. It informs policy development, decision-making and curriculum implementation, and provides a common goal for all constituents. We are excited for our new mission. It captures what makes Carey such a special place for our children today as well as for our graduates of tomorrow.
Our Mission: The Essence of Carey
By Dana Goldberg, Director of Admission
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Carey students live the values of kindness, respect, and responsibility
Specializing in elementary education, The Carey School inspires curious, confident and joyful learners and
celebrates childhood in an inclusive, diverse community that nurtures kindness, respect and personal responsibility.
Our Mission
To fulfill our mission, we commit to:
• Educate each child through an academically challenging and balanced Pre-Kindergarten to Fifth Grade educational curriculum based on the fundamentals of reading, language arts, and math.
• Advance our curriculum with integrated studies in science, music, art, world languages, technology, library studies, physical education and other enrichment programs.
• Enable students to reach their fullest potential by providing a developmentally appropriate curriculum that nurtures cognitive, creative, social-emotional and physical growth.
• Sustain a culture of teaching excellence through passionate faculty, curriculum reviews, collaboration and professional development.
• Partner with families to maintain our inclusive community and build student awareness of self as well as the world beyond.
• Graduate enthusiastic, life-long learners who are prepared with the skills for a successful educational journey.
If you are interested in reading further about school mission statements, please refer to Independent School Magazine and the following articles:
Missions, Mantras and Meaning by Peter Gow http://www.nais.org/Magazines-Newsletters/ISMagazine/Pages/Missions-Mantras-and-Meaning.aspx
Mission Impossible? by Michael Hirschfeld http://www.nais.org/Magazines-Newsletters/ISMagazine/Pages/Mission-Impossible.aspx
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New Instructional Reading Books in Kindergarten and First Grade!
By Julie Antupit, Learning Specialist
Kindergarten and first grade teachers are thrilled to have a wonderful new collection of books to use in their instructional reading groups. After carefully reviewing many series of books, Kindergarten and First Grade supplemented their collections with 220 new book titles! These books are a part of the Good Habits, Great Readers Program. This is a comprehensive literature-based program, which is organized around research-based strategies that proficient readers use. This new collection provides multicultural and authentic literature that helps children build a strong literacy foundation.
These new books are a central part of the kindergarten and first grade reading programs. They coordinate directly with the reading assessments (DRA-2) we use, and permit teachers to tailor their small group instruction to specific student needs. Reading research supports the importance of matching students to texts at their instructional levels (National Reading Panel, 2000). Our updated guided reading collection now provides
a wonderful variety of leveled books to use in supporting our students in becoming great readers.
From reading research, we also know that students benefit from direct, explicit instruction in decoding skills and comprehension strategies, and that students need guided practice in learning to use reading strategies flexibly (Gambrell, Malloy and Mazzoni, 2007). These new books provide teachers with the text needed to explicitly teach reading strategies by modeling and talking through how they use strategies to decode and understand a new text. These books also provide students with the fiction and non-fiction text needed for guided practice in using multiple reading strategies. It is through this guided practice that students develop proficiency and independence in reading increasingly complex text.
Along with building reading strategies, these books also provide opportunities to engage with texts in meaningful ways, and to develop a love of reading. They lead to exciting discussions and activities that extend students’ literacy skills and understanding. For example, after one group read a story about the discovery of ancient cave drawings in Spain, students acted as newspaper reporters and wrote articles about this important archeological find. Another group turned the story of The Little Red Hen into a reader’s theater, which they created into an iMovie to share with the class. A third group wrote
and illustrated detailed books about the moon using facts they learned from the informational book they had read. The Kindergarten and first grade teachers are delighted to have these new materials to help their students become passionate, confident readers.
Second grade teachers will embark on a similar journey to find just the right books to supplement their instructional reading collections. We will keep you posted!
Gambrell, L. B., Malloy, J. A., & Mazzoni, S. A. (2007). “Evidence-based best practices for comprehensive literacy instruction.” In L. B. Gambrell, L. M. Morrow & M. Pressley (Eds.), Best Practices in Literacy Instruction (pp. 11-29). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
National Reading Panel, (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching children to read. Washington, DC: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
Reading Program in Action
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Beyond the Numbers: The Path, Process and Progress of Bringing a New Math Program to CareyBy Neely Norris, third grade teacher and incoming Director of Studies
Collaboration is KeyEducators reflect regularly. We focus on students’ understanding, as well as their engagement, interest, and connections. We reflect on where students are developmentally, and how we can best scaffold learning experiences to bridge new understanding, gain broader perspectives, and utilize what they have learned independently. When teachers collaborate in an effort to impact the curriculum of an entire content area across the school, it benefits all constituents in the school. It is with this spirit that the math committee was formed by a group of faculty members to investigate the past, present and future of math at Carey.
The ProcessAt the beginning of the 2011-2012 school year, the math committee reviewed the math curriculum at Carey. The faculty examined each content area on a rotation, looked at best practices and curriculum needs, as well as identified whether there were best materials and tools at hand. The goals were to reflect on the strong teaching practices in math and to consider the benefits of implementing a new program. During the 2011-2012 school year, the math committee gathered from teachers the effectiveness and usability of the current program, Everyday Math, developed a needs-assessment for math, and discussed key characteristics of a strong math program.
At the end of the year, it was apparent that the math curriculum needed to be examined closely. There was a need to increase conversation about what math looks like throughout the grade levels and how to bolster the great math instruction already happening. With the guidance of Head of School, Duncan Lyon, the math committee recommended a specific review of math curricula and the creation of a Math Enrichment Specialist position. As a result, Saul Gerry was hired in 2012.
The adage goes that two heads are better than one. In education, collaboration among teachers is key, and common planning times and cross-grade conversations are important. Committed to this approach, the math committee regrouped in the 2012-2013 school year to select a math program that best fit Carey’s needs. We sought a program that would provide strong skill development and catalyze conversations about math for students and faculty. We also looked for a program that would focus on deepening student understanding and communication with parents about math. The committee spent the year researching math programs by surveying different schools, working with curriculum samples and tools created for comparing curricula, visiting schools, and having regular conversations about math. Feedback was also sought from the rest of the faculty to meet the needs of all grade levels. After narrowing down various math programs, the math committee led the entire faculty in a review of different curricula to determine which one would best allow both our students and teachers to grow. The math committee is now ready to share the results of a two-year effort.
A Math Program that Prepares Students for the FutureThe new program, Math Expressions, supports the new Common Core guidelines for student learning. Teachers will be able to employ online practice, iPad applications, and targeted resources for differentiating instruction. Distinctive
features of Math Expressions include using “math drawings” and “math talks” to reinforce conceptual understandings and topic fluency. Looking to the future, Carey students today will need different skills than what students from the past were raised to exhibit. The innovators, inventors and leaders of tomorrow need to have contemporary skills like collaboration, critical thinking and problem solving. Math Expressions requires students to think on their feet, to know what to do when there is no clear path, and to form constructive working relationships with others. As an elementary school, we are laying the foundation for these skills and paving the way for our students to continue to develop these abilities long after they leave Carey.
A Carey graduate ready to enter middle school is not only able to know things and solve problems using algorithms, but is able to work with others, share and articulate ideas, reflect on what they are learning, and apply knowledge to real world situations. This means that in our classrooms we must find a balance between skill building and making meaning, teaching algorithms and deepening the understanding of number relationships. Math Expressions will do more to enable teachers to find this balance.
As we have learned, opportunities for teachers to converse and collaborate within grade levels greatly benefit the school. We start a new chapter by re-focusing on professional collaboration, parent education, and support for teachers in developing students’ abilities to “mathematize their world.” The math committee looks forward to helping The Carey School implement this exciting program, which promises to give Carey students the tools necessary to navigate the academic challenges and real world situations that they will face in the future.
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Inspiring Curious LearnersBy Saul Gerry, Math Enrichment Specialist
Thinking about all of the possible topics that I could write about, I found myself falling back on a guiding question that has helped me problem solve and gain perspective time and again. I ask it on the way to school. I ask it when I am planning curriculum. I ask it when I am worried. I ask it when I am sad, scared or not feeling well. I ask it when I am not sure how to proceed. I ask it when someone needs help. It is a simple question really:
Saul Gerry in action with fifth grade students
What is important?
It is an easy question to ask, but not an easy question to answer. Or is it?
At The Carey School, it is important that I build a strong relationship with each student. It is important that we build mutual trust and that I provide a learning environment that is safe physically, socially, emotionally, and creatively. It is important that I build confidence in children and cultivate a relationship where the kids are encouraged and willing to take intellectual risks. It is important to challenge students to think and to do so deeply. It is also important to show my passion for knowledge and learning, and just as important to encourage and support the student’s passions no matter what they are. It is important to be honest, authentic, sincere, and consistent. It is important to be “congruent” as well.
It is important to model humility, to have a sense of humor, and be flexible. I am not only teaching math, but I am teaching life skills, and how to stay positive and hopeful. Toward this end, it is important to teach students to look for patterns and understand
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relationships, how to find perspective, and appreciate the simple as well as the complicated.
Here is a question for you: Did you ever wish you asked a question when you wanted to know something, but you did not ask for some reason? It happens to all of us. Clearly it is important to foster curiosity, foster a thirst for knowledge, and help develop the habit of asking questions.
A few years ago, I went to a Bat Mitzvah for one of my middle school students. As I was reading through the beautifully written booklet that she and her parents had put together, I came across a thoughtful little story.
Ever since I was a little girl, my mother was training me to become a scientist. When the other kids would come home from school, their mothers would ask, “Did you learn anything today?”
My mother was different! She would ask, “Did you ask any good questions today?”
I love the value that the mother in this passage places on inquiry and curiosity. I like that she is not so concerned with what the child was told or required to absorb, but is more concerned with the child’s process of discovery and intellectual exploration. I wonder if I encourage my students to ask enough questions.
Each year, in the first week or two of school I point out to my students that those students who tend to ask for help, ask for clarification, or ask to see more examples, in an effort to clear up any confusion, tend to learn more effectively than if they don’t ask. It’s not always easy to ask a question, because it points out that you don’t know something. But isn’t that what we’re in school for in the first place, because we don’t know something? “Be brave!” I tell them! Ask away and learn!
I recall my late father often saying, if you give a person a fish, he or she will eat for a day; but if you teach a person to fish, he or she will eat for life. As I became a teacher I took that saying to
heart. But since then I have toyed with that idea a bit and I have come up with a variation I’d like to offer for your consideration:
If you ask a person a question, he or she will think for a day; but if you teach a person to question, he or she will think for life.
This seems important. Thanks Dad!
Imagine my great fortune of getting to go to work each day at The Carey School, where I get to inspire young minds to discover and appreciate the world we live in. To expand their consciousness and encourage them to investigate, ponder and explore. This is my job. I am proud and honored to be The Carey School’s first Math Enrichment Specialist. As the days turn to weeks, weeks turn to months, I find myself enjoying becoming part of the Carey community more and more, collaborating with our dedicated teachers, engaging our amazing students and watching them grow, learn and develop as mathematicians, thinkers, and citizens of the world. I could be doing many other things with my life, but you know, I can’t seem to find anything more satisfying, and that not only brings me joy and fulfillment, but also reminds me everyday . . . what is important.
Saul problem solving with students
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Literature Week with Tomie dePaolaBy Tracy Gray-Hair, Director of Studies
This year, Literature Week was devoted to world-renowned author and illustrator, Tomie dePaola, who tells personal stories, legends, and great fictional children’s stories.
The Literature Week committee (Linda Underwood, Michele Zirelli, Carol Miller, Sharon Bloom, and Julie Antupit) chose Tomie dePaola
because he is one of the most gifted writers in the field and his writing is accessible to all grade levels. Mr. dePaola uses different genres and folktales from around the world. Some of his most popular stories feature family themes, including stories from his own childhood, which work well with elementary school readers.
Faculty, staff, and administrators participated in Literature Week by reading a favorite book to individual classes. As one staff member noted, “It’s great to read to the students. Spending time with them gives us a special connection.”
Strega Nona and the Magical Pasta Pot was presented as a reader’s theater with Liz Considine, as Strega Nona, and Carey parent, Jeff Green, as Big Anthony. Both participants used their best Italian accents to the great enjoyment of the audience. Pancakes for Breakfast was read with great hilarity as each class contributed text to this wordless book that has a wonderful comical flow.
The fifth graders conducted a reader’s theater of The Legend of the Bluebonnet. This book portrays She-Who-Is-Alone, the main character, who sacrifices her most cherished possession so that the spirits will forgive the tribe for their selfishness. The morning after her sacrifice, bluebonnets grow on the hill and rain begins to fall. During that moment of the story, all the Carey students raised their bluebonnets and sang the song, “The Bluebonnet of Texas.”
The culminating event of Literature Week, the time honored tradition of Drop Everything and Read (D.E.A.R.), saw every
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student quietly read a book on the courtyard right before lunch. Chef Jaime Barillas and members of the CSPA served pasta, grilled vegetables, garlic bread, Italian cookies, and gelato!
Finally, in the spirit of Service Learning, students participated in a book donation drive and every student who donated a book had a picture taken inside a Strega Nona or Big Anthony picture frame. Here’s to another successful Literature Week!
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2012 – 2013Professional Development Highlights
Lisa Fowler, Director of Advancement, sits down and talks to Zita
Agazzi and Mel DuBois about the wonderful professional develop-
ment opportunities they had last summer. Additionally, Cameron
Moredock, Director of Technology, introduces teacher websites.
By Lisa Fowler
Small bat resting comfortably
Mel viewing the bat’s wing through a flashlight
Mel DuBois Learns Techniques for Assessing Bats and Their Habitats
Mel had the opportunity to go to the Sierra Nevada for three nights to encounter a few of California’s twenty-three bat species. She learned various contact and non-contact survey methods, including mist netting,
acoustic surveys, roost recognition, and evaluation. Habitat requirements and special considerations for individual species were presented with an emphasis on conversation of management strategies.
Discovering more about native California bat species, their biology, and how and why to detect bat species, allows Mel to enhance the bat unit taught in the first grade curriculum. This year, she created an identification lesson for the First Grade entitled, “What Bat Am I?” This lesson teaches first graders how to identify different species of bats based on what type of food they eat, their habitat, and various field marks such as size and color.
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The following is a partial list of The Carey School’s professional development from July 2012- May 2013
Institute for Social Emotional LearningAmerican Association of Teachers of Spanish
and Portuguese (AATSP) 94th Annual Conference:
Exploring Heritage Languages and Cultures: Challenges and Opportunities
Bay Area Independent School LibrariansBay Area Teacher Development CollaborativeCalifornia Association for Health, Physical
Education, Recreation and Dance State Conference
California Association of Independent Schools Head of School Conference
California Advancement Partnership for Schools Conference
College of Holy NamesCommon Sense Media Teacher TrainingConservation of Bats CourseContexts for Learning Mathematics by
Catherine FosnotCommunity School of Music and Arts - Art 4 KidsScholastic Reading SummitDebbie Freed & AssociatesEssex and Drake Round Table WorkshopsGoogle Apps for Educators SummitHarassment PreventionIndependent School ManagementinResonance UniversityiPad in the K-5 Classroom Summit, Head-RoyceJoffe Emergency ServicesKinsley & Associates - Educational Records
Bureau Conference Learning & The BrainLibrary Summer CampLindamood Bell ConferenceLiteracy & Thinking WorkshopMAC IT WorldMaster Gardener WorkshopMIT Scratch ConferenceNational Association for the Education of Young
Children Annual ConferenceNational Association of Independent Schools
Annual ConferenceNational Business Officers Association Annual
ConferenceNational Council of Teachers of Mathematics
ConferenceSchool Gardening WorkshopsSierra Nevada Field CampusStanford Continuing StudiesVista Higher Learning
Zita Agazzi Travels to Puerto Rico By Zita Agazzi
Honored as the recipient of the Mary T. Carey Grant in 2012, I had an amazing opportunity to participate at the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese 94th Annual Conference
in Puerto Rico. I explored and learned more about Puerto Rico first-hand, attended innovative workshops, and listened to keynote speaker, Laura Terrill.
The conference highlights included sessions such as: Focus on Communication: Reading and Writing, which dealt with striking a balance between what students “have to know” in a World Language class (but they will never use) and real life content and application; The Third Root: Afro-Latino Culture in the Spanish Classroom, which focused on Afro-descendants in various Latin American countries, and provided resources to incorporate multiculturalism and cross-curricular activities; Teaching Spanish as a Second Language Through Film, which proposed using snippets of real films to focus on authentic language and language variations in different Spanish-speaking countries; and Tai: El Pequeño Tayno, which provided a standards-based thematic unit based on a children’s book that depicts the life of a Taíno boy, and the rich culture and customs of the Taíno people of Puerto Rico.
All of these sessions, and others I attended, are highly relevant to my Spanish classes. The focus on communication will help strengthen the curriculum, while the study of Afro-Latino culture will enrich our students’ multicultural education. The inclusion of authentic language through film will help students notice regional variations of Spanish language; and the study of the Taíno people and Puerto Rico will familiarize Carey students with a very beautiful, mostly Spanish-speaking, U.S. territory.
I appreciate the opportunity to learn more about current best practices, obtain a plethora of resources about Puerto Rico for my students, and expand my network of educators who teach Spanish to collaborate with.
Zita’s travel video
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New Teacher WebsitesBy Cameron Moredock, Director of Technology
This past summer, while waiting for the arrival of iPads for the kindergarten through second grade (K-2) classrooms and a new laptop cart with both Google ChromeBooks and Apple MacBooks, a few teachers engaged in various professional training opportunities to learn how to get the most out of these
new devices. A group of K-2 teachers attended the iPad in the K-5 Classroom Summit at the Head Royce School in Oakland, and returned energized to try out some new applications with their students in the fall.
Another group of teachers and I attended the Google Apps for Education Summit in Mountain View. The event provided experience with using ChromeBooks in the classroom, and more
broadly, using Google Apps as a collaboration tool between teachers and students, and between teachers and teachers.
As a result of some of our work at the Google Apps for Education Summit, The Carey School Technology Committee undertook a quiet campaign to introduce teacher websites this fall using a Google Sites template with The Carey School color theme and banner. We have a group of “early adopters” and are excited to move out into the broader Carey teaching community to share the benefits of a website as not only a classroom management tool, but also an effective communication tool for parents and extended family of Carey students.
Within a few short months, the number of teachers with a self-maintained website increased to nearly every grade level and many specialist teachers. We are excited by the traction that these websites are getting, and hope to improve the overall use of the sites, as well as help teachers find new and different ways they can add to the Carey experience.
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Safety is always at the top of our priority list at The Carey School. Over the past two years, we have worked consistently to improve our plans, practices, and policies to make sure that we are doing all that we can to keep the Carey environment a safe and happy place. During the three years that I have been part of the
Carey community, the development and improvement of safety practices have come a long way.
One of my first tasks upon arriving at Carey in July 2010, was to implement an emergency broadcast system that would allow us to communicate quickly and efficiently with all parents and staff in the event of an emergency. By the fall 2010, The Carey School implemented the ALERT NOW system, which allows us to contact parents via cell phones and emails about emergency situations instantaneously. The ALERT NOW database holds all relevant contact information parents provide to the school. We simply send one email into ALERT NOW, and the communication is sent to those contacts. We test this system annually to make sure our communication channels are functional.
In the fall of 2011, the responsibility for overall school safety planning migrated from the Assistant Head of School to me as Chief Financial Officer. Knowing that every other year the entire staff needs to be recertified in CPR, I searched for a firm that could provide on-site training. A rather serendipitous phone call to Joffe Emergency Services (Joffe) ultimately resulted in a fortuitous partnership. Joffe is an all-in-one service provider of emergency response training and disaster supplies. Joffe operates throughout the country and the team has extensive experience responding to some of the most unimaginable emergency situations. We are indeed fortunate to have their guidance on best practices for safety protocols as we continue to grow Carey into a safer and more aware environment.
Joffe and the school quickly worked on the emergency storage shed by replacing outdated materials, and crafted a plan for continual monitoring of supplies for viability. Then we worked on the Emergency Plan to reorganize the emergency organizational structure and reassign personnel to various emergency response teams. These revisions were put into practice with last spring’s “moulage” drill. A moulage drill is a simulation of a full-on emergency in which the various emergency response teams practice given charges. Selected students simulate injuries that challenge our first aid team. There are “missing” students and staff who require the search and rescue team to spring into action. By far the most exciting challenge – one that involves parents – is the reunification effort at the end of the drill. In this phase of the drill,
Creating a Safer CareyBy Jane Kolmodin, Chief Financial Officer
we practice matching students with those authorized to escort them from campus.
Practice makes perfect, and when it comes to safety, we all want to be as close to perfect as possible. Throughout the year, students and staff practice a drill each month – fire drills, earthquake drills, and even lock-down drills. All of this is important preparation for both students and staff so that response to emergency situations becomes very much second nature. We also practice drills during our extended care sessions. By this time of the year, we are proficient at responding to the emergency signals.
Best practices for safety are not restricted to drills alone. At the beginning of this school year, we implemented a campus-wide two-way radio system that allows faculty and administrative staff to communicate live. While the intent was for emergency situations, actual use expanded to include recesses, drop-off/pick-up, and calls for classroom clean-up. Recently, we installed surveillance cameras to monitor visitors at both the pedestrian and drive-in gates. These cameras are monitored by administrators charged with the responsibility of “buzzing” guests onto campus.
For this year’s moulage drill, we implemented our newest development – an electronically organized, database-driven emergency response record system that supports the care of students during emergencies and facilitates the reunification process. This system draws on the information parents enter into our FAM database and allows us to access the most current medical information for each student, as well as emergency contact and authorized release information. While systems such as these can potentially cost tens of thousands of dollars, our system was built completely in-house by Director of Technology Cameron Moredock and is regarded by professionals, like Chris Joffe, as a potential new industry standard.
As part of our planning for the upcoming renovation of school facilities, safety and security are important. We are working with our project manager and general contractor to implement policies and procedures to know who is on campus at all times during construction, and to know that all such workers are legally able to work around young children.
One is never finished training and planning for emergency situations. There is always more work that can be done to increase school safety for our students. We look forward to our continued partnership with Joffe and Carey families in safety efforts.
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SPECIALIZE
INSPIRE
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NURTURE
CELEBRATE
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Celebrating 85 Years of All Things Carey!By Lisa Fowler, Director of Advancement
In honor of 85 years of excellence in edu-cation, The Carey School hosted special events capturing lessons and accomplish-ments from the near present and distant past. Kicking off the celebrations, our current students selected a logo com-memorating Carey’s 85th year, which was highlighted at Generations Day, 85th Birthday Celebration, and Faculty Appre-ciation Week.
In addition, The Carey School commu-nity embarked on creating a History Wall that “tracks where [the school] has been in order to define where it is headed,” according to The Grove, an international consulting firm that specializes in stra-tegic visualization. The creation of this project was a wonderful opportunity to engage our different constituents in school life today, orient new members
of our community, celebrate milestones throughout the school’s journey, and identify core values furthering the mis-sion of the school. The History Wall was displayed at numerous times this year, culminating in this edition of the Carey Connection. Going forward, our plan is to have a permanent History Wall prominently displayed on campus in the multipurpose room.
85 year celebration with students and faculty
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In many ways, the story of The Carey School is the story of a successful startup. Founded by Mary and James Carey in 1928, Carey started out strictly as a pre-school for the founders’ two daughters, Mary Therese and Clare, and a few family friends. As with all startups, the path to maturing into a successful organization had its highs and lows. However, what has remained true throughout has been a real commitment to creating a uniquely nurturing environment of joyful learners. Something that has stayed true as families, heads of school and trustees have come through over the years.
In March, the Board of Trustees hosted a cocktail evening at the home of Suzanne Juptner and Mark Frappier (Mark was a board president from 2003-2005) celebrating Carey’s
Celebrating Our Past, Present And FutureBy Henry Sohn
We thank everyone involved in this year’s activities, especially Kim Bottoms, Erin Crocker, Patty Macy and Lexi Slavet for their amazing work on events this year.
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85 Years of History
Milkshakes and Middle SchoolBy Mary Folsom
Carey fifth graders shook- up a warm February night by participating in our traditional Middle School Alumni Night. Sixth grade alumni returned from their various middle schools to mix and mingle, share a 50’s inspired dinner of sliders, fries, chicken fingers and milkshakes, answer questions, and this year, learn a presentation skill!
85th year. In attendance were current and prior heads of school (Duncan Lyon and Eric Temple), current and previous board members, and alumni parents. It was a way for us to reach out and stay connected to our rich heritage.
Much of the history of Carey is “tribal knowledge.” Recorded only in the memories of individuals, shared with just those who experienced it. The Carey History Wall is our attempt to begin recording some of this knowledge and share it with the broader community. The History Wall was on display that evening and many of the attendees contributed facts and ideas to it. The evening was abuzz with the sights and sounds of warm reunions, delicious hors d’oeuvres, and the exchange of some great stories. It is a new tradition that we hope to offer in the years to come.
Our many thanks to Mark and Suzanne for offering their home for the evening. Also our thanks to Stephanie Lucas (also an alumni parent and board alumnus) for catering the event, Devon Gold for helping to organize the evening, Kristy Cowan and Mark Moore for a great job providing refreshments, and of course, we could not have made this event work without the tireless efforts of Lisa Fowler, Daisy Hsiao, Kitsana Salyphone, and Mario Flores. Many thanks to all!
Fifth and sixth graders in a Question and Answer Session at Middle School Alumni Night
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Sharon Bloom and Jessica Lawson moderated the Question and Answer Session where sixth grade alumni happily provided the inside scoop to all questions and eased fears about the pending entrance to middle school. The fifth graders asked great questions that showed, while the applications are in, they still have
a lot on their minds ; “How well did you fit into your school?” ; “Were the teachers and students nice?” ; “What was the biggest surprise in the transition?” ; “Is it difficult to use a locker?” ; “Is the schedule
different schools along with some reassuring words: “Be yourself and you’ll be fine,” said James Holmes. Caroline Frantz assured, “All the students opened up to each other because no one knew each other.” Holland Sutton tipped, “Don’t worry about the locks on the lockers, just practice until you get it.” And finally, Antarah Chopra encouraged, “It’s fun to have a fresh start at a new school and make some new friends.”
The evening finished up with a short creative exercise led by Lisa Fowler, who showed the students how to use visual display to tell a story in presentations – a skill they can all use in middle school. That . . . and a few more of those delicious milkshakes!
packed?” ; “Is making friends easy or hard?” ; “What happens if you come late to school?” ; and “What is the first week like?”
The sixth graders provided a lot of facts and examples from all of the
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Carey’s Parent Community: Supporting Each Other and Making a Difference
By Cathleen Thomas, CSPA President
Carey parents are passionate about many things. This year, Carey parents harnessed their energy and enthusiasm into some new and exciting parent interest groups, supported through The Carey School Parents Association. These committees, in concert with our faculty and administration, reflect both the diversity of our own community and our families’ commitments to the diverse world outside Carey’s borders. Here is a sampling of some of the groups that are making a difference on our campus and beyond:
The Biped Club
Inspired, in part, by our bicycle-riding Head of School, the Biped Club raises awareness about alternative commuting and creates a fun community of families who want to incorporate more “biped options” into their lives. Once a month, parents and students ride bikes or scooters to school together and then ride over to Beresford Park after school for a playdate and snacks.
In addition to the rides, the Biped Club hosted many visitors and events, including a visit from the San Mateo Police Department to talk about bicycle safety. Our Carey cyclists even received a police escort to Beresford Park after school! Additionally, a local bike mechanic conducted a hands-on workshop teaching students how to oil a chain, fix a flat, and other basic bike maintenance. In February, the club conducted a bike drive to get bikes into the hands of less fortunate children and adults in the community by partnering with Silicon Valley Bike Coalition, collecting over a dozen bikes, trikes and scooters.
GOLD The Carey Parents Group on Learning Diversity (GOLD) was initiated in the fall of 2011 to support and educate parents of students with mild to moderate learning differences. Similar to other Independent schools, 20-25% of Carey students will likely exhibit a learning difference in reading, writing, speaking or performing math calculations. Working with the school’s Learning Specialist, GOLD is a forum for all Carey parents to learn about teaching techniques, assistive technology, advocacy skills and other topics of interest to parents of children who may be struggling with academic subjects.
The goal of the group is to allow students with learning differences to thrive at Carey, not just survive. In addition to meeting to discuss the achievements of their students, the GOLD group sponsored outside speakers on assistive technology, procured funding for low tech “tool boxes,” and provided alternative middle school choices in a presentation to the Carey community.
Caring at Carey The Carey School develops students who are kind, respectful, and responsible, and the Caring at Carey committee makes it easier for Carey students, families and faculty/staff to engage in community service (out of school hours) and service learning (during school hours) with the ultimate goal of fostering a stronger culture of service at The Carey School.
The group’s first program supported our own school community through a “Garden Day” at Carey. Over 70 people worked on a Sunday to build a new greenhouse, install new planters, plant over 350 seeds, and install a California native (and water wise!) plant garden. In November, 80 Carey family members joined together at the San Francisco Food Bank to sort food for a school lunch program and package over 2,100 pounds of rice to feed 6,000 people.
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At holiday time, our community helped make dinner for and played games with families living in a local shelter. Also, a large group led by music teacher Ms. Linda brought holiday cheer to seniors living in Burlingame. In the spring, Carey families partnered with Rebuilding Together to work at Hatch Elementary School, an economically-disadvantaged school in Half Moon Bay.
Finally, the Caring at Carey team put together a “Spotlight on Service” bulletin board in the school’s entry breezeway. The board highlights Carey students, faculty/staff and families who are serving their community and inspire children and parents everyday to have an impact.
Health & Wellness The mission of the Health and Wellness Committee is to create and ensure a school environment that promotes the health and well-being of students, parents, faculty and administration through physical activity, healthy eating habits, mindfulness and a green and verdant campus. The committee aims to foster life-long healthy lifestyles to benefit the entire community and develop the whole child.
In partnership with the administration, the Health & Wellness Committee helped introduce the concept of mindfulness in education to the Carey community through parent-education sessions with Dr. Amy Saltzman, a visionary in the fields of holistic medicine and mindfulness for youth. Mindfulness teaches students how to focus, manage their emotions, handle their stress, and resolve conflicts. In February 2013, the group helped sponsor a visit by Rene Bibaud, professional jump roper and fitness motivator, to kick off the school’s “Jump Rope for Heart” program. The team also introduced a basket for students to bring home-grown fruits and vegetables to be used by the school lunch provider, Epicurean, in meal preparation.
Enrichment Days Liaisons: Jennifer Idema, Helen Carris and Andrea Irvin
Escrip: Warrick Taylor
Faculty Appreciation: Kim Bottoms, Patty Macy and Kim Pepper
Library Liaison: Fiona Taylor
Mentoring Program: Leslie Kramer, Dorothy French, Binna Kim and Tami Lahl
Parent Education: Heidi Cotton
Pumpkin Patch: Karina Dykes, Kelly Rierson and Claudia Renert
Spaghetti Dinner: Damaris Avila and Alice Akahoshi
Supplies Coordinator: Danielle Kling and Amy Vinther
Volunteer Tracking: Vanessa Lo
Walkfest: Sandy Moore and Angela Espinosa
Executive Committee
President : Cathleen Thomas
Co-Vice-Presidents: Laura Agarwal and Susan Faris
Treasurer : Maria Gorelik
Secretary: Robbie Fang
Committee Chairpersons
Art Liaison: Kristy Cowan, Charles Forrester and Robbie Fang
Auction: Janae Corley & The CSPA Executive Team
Bi-ped Club: Binna Kim and Veronica Agosta
Camp Fair: Leslie Kramer, Stacy Fung and Nkia Richardson
Caring at Carey/Community Service: Susie Hodges
Community Events: Bob Lahl, Tami Lahl, Lydia Alexander, Laurie Kowalski and Maxine Tse
Carey School Parent Association
Pre-Kindergarten Veronica Agosta, Amy Schwartz, Melissa Ansari
Kindergarten D Bridget Kenevan, Alice Akahoshi, Lori Jabagchourian
Kindergarten W Meaghan Schaefer, Lindsay Folk, Susan Faris
First Grade M Cecile Chang, Helen Carris, Karina Dykes
First Grade Z Andrea Irvin, Kim Pepper, Angela Espinosa
Second Grade B Amanda Chao, Letizia Pileggi, Amy Gartner
Second Grade C Betsy Berman, Henry Sohn, Melissa Saberi
Third Grade N Patty Macy, Carolyn Luedtke, Claudia Renert
Third Grade R Kim Bottoms, Lisa Keyhani, Julie Gregory
Fourth Grade L Stacy Fung, Gabriele Schaefer, Laurie Kowalski
Fourth Grade R Sandy Moore, Lydia Alexander, Regina Cheng
Fifth Grade B Jill Andrews, Kristina Israelski, Hilary Somorjai
Fifth Grade L Beth Dowd, Cathleen Thomas, Jean Barbagelata, Tammy Tompkins
Room Parents
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1982George Cresson’s favorite memory of Carey is outdoor education with his classmates.
Derek Gibbs recently celebrated his 20th anniversary with his wife, Suzanne; he has two sons, Colby and Jeffrey. He resides in Southern California and is Corporate Director of Strategic Services at
Class NotesSt. Joseph Health Care System. After Carey, he graduated from Woodside Priory School, earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Economics at St. Mary’s and Master of Healthcare Administration from the University of Southern California.
Philip Levy fondest memories of Carey included “playing handball on the upper playground for hours
at a time,” and tasting banana dipped in liquid nitrogen after a science demonstration in Ms. Scotchmoor’s class. He went to San Mateo High School and then to UCSB, majoring in Business Economics and Accounting. He was always interested in the financial markets when he was growing up and thought the easiest way to learn about the business world was to focus on accounting. He passed the CPA Exam his senior year of college, but with auditing or tax positions hard to come by, he went to Franklin
Templeton Funds for his first job. He completed his CPA auditing requirements at a Big-6 accounting firm. His mom quickly advised him to get out of the accounting profession and focus on attaining a Chartered Financial Analyst position. He spent eight years at American Century Investments in Mountain View as a buy-side credit analyst before moving to his current position as a Senior Credit Analyst at HighMark Capital Management (Union Bank) in San Francisco. He really enjoys working on a small team where they buy
Susie Hearn These days, Sue “Susie” Hearn, Class of 1982, is busy leading Public Relations at Clif Bar, an organic sports nutrition and food company based in the Bay Area, but she still often thinks back on her years at Carey and how they influenced and helped shape her into the successful professional she is today. “Any grammar school will shape you in these early formative years but I think what stands out most about Carey is the true interest teachers took in getting to know every student at the school. You were more than a number. The genuinely warm and accepting environment helped build a strong sense of self that has served me well over the years.”
A multitude of fun and unforgettable moments perco-late to the forefront of Sue’s mind when asked about her Carey experience including Science Day, Pioneer Day, Operetta, and the talent show. The talent show is still one of Sue’s most cherished memories from her days at the school.” She notes that anyone in any grade could participate in this optional production. “Students with superior musical, singing, and dancing talent performed as well as those with more niche skills. No one was excluded. My friend, Judy Stolte Young, and I covered our tennis rackets in aluminum foil, donned blue satin jackets (fashionable at the time) and played air guitar while lip-syncing to Le Freak. It was so embarrassing and fun at the same time. I will never forget it.”
Some of the one-of-a-kind Carey experiences Sue recounts are straight out of Richard Scarry’s Busytown books including a field trip to the airport where she and fellow classmates really simulated air travel. Students were issued tickets, passed security, and boarded an airplane, which flew from San Francisco International Airport to Oakland. Other real
world experiences remembered were a trip to the post office for a behind-the-scenes look at how the U.S. Postal system works.
Much of what made The Carey School so special was, of course, the faculty. “I never felt I had an average teacher but I have to say that Mrs. Swanson in the Fifth Grade was a real standout as was our P.E. teacher, Mr. Calonico. He was a huge inspiration and taught us as much with his words as actions.” Another little known fact was that Dana Carvey’s mom taught Pre-K and used to have students over to her house to make spaghetti in those pre-Spa-ghetti Dinner years.
After graduating from Carey, Sue attended Aragon High School and then UC Santa Barbara majoring in Political Science and Environmental Science. Sue has traveled extensively throughout Europe as well as Costa Rica, Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam, Laos, Mexico, Alaska, Canada and the United States doing PR for celebrity events and for pleasure. She is now settled in North Beach with her husband, John, her Corgi dog, and a parakeet who speaks 50 words.
By Lydia Alexander
Susie and her brothers, Mark and Bruce
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and sell bonds, decide how to position portfolios, monitor the financial markets and discuss the merits of individual companies.
On a personal note, he married his wife, Laurie, in 2003 and lives in Palo Alto with two boys, Nathan (almost 6) and Eli (3). Laurie is a fifth grade elementary school teacher in Palo Alto.
Molly McCahan went to San Mateo High School; then UCLA, where she graduated with a degree in English. After living and working in France for eight months (to further the great language skills she acquired at Carey), she moved back home
to the Bay Area and has lived in San Francisco ever since, where she has been employed for roughly 20 years in a variety of communications-based jobs. Most recently, she worked part-time as a freelance writer/editor, and also hosts travel seminars based on her extensive journeys around the globe. She met her husband, David, at the end of 2000, and after trying
unsuccessfully to buy a house in 2006, they ended up using their down payment money to backpack around the world through 27 countries for 14 months in 2007-08. They got so hooked on travel that they saved up to do it again and are currently exploring more of the world for 18 months, with a deeper focus on Asia this time around. They plan to return to the Bay Area in early 2014.
Molly’s favorite memory of Carey is the fourth grade Operetta photo of all of the girls surrounding Barry Bonds.
Philip de Monet’s favorite memories of Carey are trips to Dodge Ridge, Yosemite, and Marin Headlands!
Mother and Daughter: Tracy and Grace Powers Pre-K student, Grace Powers, sprints into school at morn-ing drop-off like so many other students at Carey. She gets big hugs from a second grader when she walks in the gate. She cannot wait to hit the playground to see the great friends that she has made. Her parents share smiles at the “nice Carey moments” that happen so frequently on campus.
At Tracy Powers’ (née DeLano) Operetta performed in 1983, under the direction of Clare Carey Willard, she thought it was super cool to walk over to Serra High School for rehearsals with her classmates. On the night of the show, she had tremendous fun with her friends hang-ing out in the classrooms at Serra before her class per-formed. She could not understand why her Mom thought Operetta was so long.
When Tracy came back to the school as a prospective parent, she observed that Carey was remarkably the same. She remembers climbing up the hill to the upper playground, though that hill seems a bit smaller now. She remembers hanging out in the courtyard with her friends. She also fondly remembers Betty Angell and is thrilled to have Grace get to know Betty as well.
Tracy was at Carey through Eighth Grade. From Carey she went to Menlo School and then on to USC where she majored in Communication and minored in French. (Those years at Carey studying French paid off!) She has been at
Apple in the Marketing Communica-tions group for the last eleven years.
Besides the great French skills, Tracy can look back at Carey as bolstering some lifetime values. At Carey, the small campus and the single class size en-abled Tracy and her class to build deep relationships and great friendships. Tracy experienced wonderful teachers who helped build confidence in a nurturing environment. Tracy also benefited from differentiated learning that al-lowed her to run ahead in some areas.
As a Pre-K parent, Tracy is still getting to know the school from the front seat of the car. She enjoys all the school activities that provide opportunities to meet more Carey families. So far, her favorites are Walkfest and the Auction evening. This year she was an Annual Fund Ambassador for Pre-K and is excited to start volunteering more.
Tracy says it is serendipity that when she moved to San Mateo that Grace follows her footsteps as a Carey student. The Carey School is happy to celebrate the multigenera-tional family of Tracy and Grace Powers.
By Joe Eandi
Eighth grade Girls’ Graduation
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Community Benefit programs. Prior to Cedars-Sinai, Jonathan founded a boutique marketing/ad agency focused exclusively on the nonprofit sector where he partnered with over 350 organizations across North America. Jonathan is married and has two children ages 13 and 11.
Ingrid Sutton loves hearing from her classmates and learned over the years that “life and what you make of it, is merely ‘your choice.’ It is neither good nor bad and definitely not better or worse than another. It’s a journey you make memories of – so make them good ones and don’t waste your days wishing for another path or complaining about what you ‘could have done’!” She graduated from Burlingame High and UC Davis with a degree in Agriculture Economics/Business. Ingrid invented a product called K9Spa and helps people start their own self-service dog washes.
Currently residing in Washington state and part-time in Portland, Oregon, Ingrid is working on “being a snowbird and enjoying diving for fresh Dungeness crabs
Tom Saberi went to Junípero Serra High School after Carey. He attended UC Berkeley and majored in Legal Studies. After graduating from Berkeley, he went to a small law school – New College of Law – in San Francisco that specialized in Public Interest Law; the school no longer exists. There were only twenty people in his graduating class! After he passed the bar, he worked in criminal defense for the first five years. During that time, he concurrently worked on civil litigation and trials. Eventually, he switched to civil litigation full time. Now he spends most of his time supervising attorneys and developing legal strategies for others.
He married Melissa in 2000. He has two sons, Josiah who is in First Grade at Carey, and Zaiden who is 4. In his spare time, Tom keeps busy coaching his sons’ soccer, baseball and basketball teams in San Carlos, where they now live.
Jonathan Schreiber is the Director of Community Engagement at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles where he manages strategy for the medical center’s
and chasing cows (yee haw)!” Her travels have taken her to Australia, England, Mexico, Canada and Hawaii – the kid in her sure knows to have fun along the way!
Judy Stolte’s favorite memories of Carey are Sports Day, Science Day, and Operetta.
1983Roslyn Benjamin is in her second year as Assistant Head of School at Live Oak School. She is proud of her daughter who graduated from Carey School in 2012. Her two favorite memories of Carey are Mrs. Willard teaching songs that celebrate being an American (Star-Spangled Banner, My Country ‘Tis of Thee, etc.) and all of the opportunities to perform on stage (holiday program, the talent show, Operetta, etc.).
1988Nathan Don appreciates the positive and safe environment Carey provided for his sister and him. His classmates were all great, and it was fun growing up with a lot of them. After Carey, he graduated from Hillsdale High School, UC Davis with a BS
in Physiology, and Golden Gate University with a MS in Enterprise Management. Today he lives in Foster City with his wife, Leida, and two beautiful children, Brooke (8), Landon (5) and one more on the way in August! He works at Google as Strategic Account Manager in Sales.
Terri Ellis graduated from Carey in the Eighth Grade and went on to Crystal Springs Uplands School for high school. He graduated from Duke University with a BS in Biology and UC Davis with a PhD in Microbiology. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor in the Biology department at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville. He credits his science career to Carey’s Science Day, which was school-wide and included first graders!
Through the Voice of Hooman Khalili
When asked if he ever thought he would be an on-air celebrity in the entertainment industry, Hooman answers, “Well, the high-light of my middle school years was starring in the Operetta. I will never forget that. It was a great and life-changing experience to be up on that stage. I don’t exactly remem-ber the theme that year, but I was the lead, Monsieur So-so. I later majored in Opera during college and now find myself mak-ing a living from my voice and well, stage presence. In retrospect, I greatly credit Ms. Carey-Willard with giving me a solid foun-dation in music and the performing arts. It’s great to hear traditions like this continue on at the school.”
Other fond Carey memories include the old school bus parked on the playground where foreign language was taught. “It was better than any classroom.” Hooman recalls Carey’s commitment to community service even 25 years ago with thoughts of its recycling program. “My best friend at school, Alan Azem, collected the most cans one year. He was the can-man. That was a really fun endeavor. As eighth graders, we also really looked forward to leaving our collec-tive mark on the school by contributing to the big mural on campus. I was sad to see it had disappeared when I came back for Ms. Donar’s retirement party but glad the school is creating a History Wall for Carey’s 85th year celebration.Hooman and Lydia at Alice 97.3 radio station
Class of 1988’s Reunion
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On recounting his childhood: “My mother emigrated from Iran. Education was the most important priority for us so attending Carey was a great privilege for me. Even at a young age, I knew it was an exceptional school and enjoyed being a part of this amazing community.” In fact, Hooman still keeps in contact with many of his former sixteen classmates; half of them got together for a small reunion this last December!
After graduating Eighth Grade, Hooman attended Junipero Serra High School and later, California State University, Hayward. For the last thirteen years, he has been a fixture on the highly rated Bay Area morning talk show Radio Alice, KLLC 97.3 FM, where he reviews movies
and has interviewed celebrities such as Sting, John Travolta and Julianne Moore. Hooman’s engagement in community outreach and the arts are still strong today and, he thinks, harken back to those formative years at Carey. “I believe in empowering youth and reminding them they have a voice.”
To that end, Hooman has inspired young people to use their collective voices. During the 2008 Presidential elections, he created the #1 most-viewed non-partisan video encouraging youth to vote. It received 5.1 million views on YouTube and ended up in the Museum of Radio and Television in New York City: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYnfhFlS6U8&feature=youtu.be.
Additionally, his voice may be recognized as one of the on-screen personalities in Pixar’s original Cars movie.
These days, Hooman is forging new ground with a full-length film, “Olive,” shot entirely on a cell phone and by using his radio persona to raise money for charities benefiting youth including the YMCA, SF Symphonix (SF Symphony), Bravo (SF Opera), and Encore (SF Ballet) to name a few. Carey is very proud to have alumni, like Hooman, using their lifelong love of learning to make a difference in the community.
By Lydia Alexander
Erika Leydig: Inspired By Teachers To Become A Teacher Erika Leydig, Class of 1992, was inspired by her favorite teachers including Miss Pat-terson and Ms. Donar to become a teacher herself. She will gradu-ate from Notre Dame de Namur with a Masters of Education in Curriculum and Development this May. During a portion of her master’s program, she interned with Mrs. Zirelli, who she noted has a “larger than life energy.” Erika comments that Mrs. Zirelli is “great with connecting with kids. These are the qualities she wants to give to the children with whom she interacts.”
Erika feels that the small classes, which The Carey School offers, allowed her to develop rapport with her teachers. These close relationships allowed her teachers to support her, seeing that she achieved her potential. She mentioned that Betty Angell is “the pillar of the con-nections.” Betty has seen the school’s
transitions; she really knows the school and the community, past and present.
After graduating from Carlmont High School, Erika attended UC Davis and majored in Music Composition. Currently, Erika is using her aca-demic background and passion for music at the forefront of her mas-ter’s research project.
Her research highlights the correla-tion between musical aptitudes (the ability to discriminate subtle nuances in pitch, melody, timbre, and rhythm) and phonemic awareness (the ability to hear different letter sounds in words). As a second component, Erika wants to show how music integration can increase beginning literacy skills.
Erika reflects on her memories at The Carey School. She recalls Operetta, a time of excitement as the year came to a close, where she could sing and dance—two of Erika’s favorite pastimes. Erika also remembers her third grade teacher, Mr. Clary, and his ridiculous an-
tics; he would pretend that his students were puppets and make them do silly things. Everyone would laugh uncon-trollably. Above all, the most memorable was the Scarey Fests, which were put on by the Carey community and was a major fundraising activity. Halloween at Carey was filled with fun and the entire Carey community worked together. Scarey Fest had the most terrifying haunted house, the most charming Make Believe Land, the best games, and the most wonderful raffle auction. Times like these at The Carey School impressed upon Erika that dedication, hard work, and passion have an impact on a community.
The community at Carey is incredibly strong; Erika believes this is why The Carey School is here today. “The con-nections made at Carey stay with each student,” confirms Erika. Even today, Erika stays in touch with several families whose friendship was started during her years at The Carey School.
By Hilary Somorjai
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If there is one thing we know for certain, grass does not grow under the feet of Victoria Pa-terson, Class of 2004. The middle of three siblings, Victoria at-tended Menlo School after graduating from Carey. In Sixth Grade, a year that can be a challenging transition,
she fondly remembers that all the Carey alums fared well both academically and socially.
Victoria is now a sophomore at USC, with a major in Neuroscience and a minor in Art History, simultaneous-ly fulfilling her pre-med requirements to boot. Further, she has already taken the opportunity to study abroad in Switzerland! Community Service also plays a big role in Victoria’s busy calendar. She is a Workshop Leader for Peer Health Exchange, teaching Health to ninth graders in the LA public school system three to four times per week. She also volunteers with USC Interaxon, teaching science in a fun and informative way to local middle-school students. Despite her busy schedule, Victoria does squeeze in time for fun. She is a member of the Delta Gamma sorority and tries to take advantage of all that Los Angeles has to offer from the beach to Down-town and from the glitz and glam to the culture.
After graduating Carey, Victoria attended several Spaghetti Dinners, as well as the Class Reunion. She remains friends with numerous Carey alumni, who are attending colleges across the country. If that were not enough, she recently bumped into another Carey alum at USC that she had not seen since Fifth Grade – small world!
By Mason Ford
Victoria PatersonSo Much To Do, So Little Time …
Lisa Howard works for Forest Pharmaceuticals in sales as a medical representative and lives in San Francisco. After Carey, she graduated from Aragon High School and University of Colorado at Boulder with a degree in Psychology.
1992Emily Gluck is certified to practice law in California, New York, Florida and District of Columbia. After graduating Carey, she attended Crystal Springs Uplands School, UCLA for undergraduate, and University of Miami for Law; she practices law in New York.
1993Libby Gluck graduated Carey in Fifth Grade, Crystal Springs Uplands School and UC Santa Barbara. Currently, she works for Stella & Dot in New York and sits on the Board of the East Africa Center empowering Women and Children, a non-profit organization that helps communities achieve empowerment by increasing literacy for women and children, improving health status, and eradicating poverty. See website: www.eastafricacenter.org
2006
Jordan Fowler is a Senior at Castilleja School and has thoroughly enjoyed her last year of high school serving on government starting as Secretary and ending as President of her class. When Jordan isn’t in school you can find her filming her 5th season as a television host for FOX on Eco-Company or the numerous other print model and commercial projects (www.jordan-fowler.com). Additionally, this year Jordan was awarded a scholarship from Sequoia Awards sponsored by Facebook for her dedication to a variety of volunteer service projects in her community over the last 4 years. Jordan is thrilled to be attending USC in the fall pursuing a degree and career in Broadcast and Digital Journalism.
2008Miles Fowler is a Sophomore at Menlo School and when he is not on stage in the plays, singing for the chamber choir or on the basketball court at school you can find him volunteering at Riekes Center for Human
Enhancement or working as an actor for Study Sync. This year he had the opportunity to travel to New York for a one-week intensive class studying theatre on and off Broadway.
Christopher Louie attends Summit Prep and plays a Korean rhythm game called “osu” really well. His most recent accomplishments are achieving 72 hours of community service in one summer and getting an internship at Flipgigs.com as a sophomore in high school. His favorite memory of Carey is Mrs. Zirelli’s class and Friday Fun Day.
2009
Sam Levy attends Carlmont High School. His favorite memory of Carey is playing soccer against the teachers in Fifth Grade.
Lauren Scampavia is at Crystal Spring Uplands School. Her recent accomplishments include graduating middle school and giving the graduation speech. Her favorite memories of Carey are her friends and the memories they created together.
Ally Solorzano, who attends Crystal Springs Uplands School, remembers all of her wonderful friends and spectacular teachers.
Bella Solorzano attends Hillsdale High School. Her recent accomplishment is making it through middle school (Yay!) Her fondest memories of Carey are her friends and the loving community!
Justin Wei’s favorite memory of Carey is outdoor education
High School Alumni Continue Strong Friendships
High School Alumni at Prom
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Alexander Katsis: Coast to Coast
A San Mateo native, Alexander Katsis graduated from Carey in 2005 before heading off to Menlo School. He emphasizes that Carey prepared him extremely well aca-demically for this transition. He also cannot help but note that he had a blast with his friends during elementary school: “Carey was a GREAT time!”
Alexander is finishing his freshman year at Duke and is incredibly busy. He is major-ing in Biomedical Engineering, fulfilling pre-med requirements on the side. One of his favorite extra-curricular activities is the Duke Motor Sports club, which builds real race cars from scratch every year (last year’s model went from 0 to 60 mph in 3.6 seconds!). In addition, he is an active member of the Sailing team, which com-petes up and down the eastern seaboard. Of course, it is impossible to attend Duke without being a Duke basketball fan – Alexander often joins the throngs of other undergrads to sleep out in tents to get prime hoops seats! Go Blue Devils!
When he gets back to the Bay Area for holidays, Alexander still reconnects with his friends from Carey twice a year. The saying may be true: “Deep friendships do indeed stand the passage of time and distance.”
By Mason Ford
Thomas Altmann: It All Goes By So Quickly Thomas Altmann, Class of 2004, recalls that some of his fondest memories of The Carey School involved the excellent teachers. “I loved being in First Grade with Mrs. Zirelli. And I remember Mr. Sullivan, a talented Kinder-garten teacher, who also taught computers and guest-lectured in Fifth Grade on the Civil War. All of the teachers were really great.”
Thomas enjoys thinking back on his close friendships from Carey. In and around his neighborhood in Burlin-game, many families attended The Carey School. The kids would pal around the neighborhood together and share the same carpool to school. To this day when Thomas gets together with these friends from Carey, they still share that special bond forged among elementary school friends.
Thomas explains that the tight knit parent community at Carey was very important to his entire family. His mother, Stephanie Lucas, served on the Carey Board of Trustees while Thomas was at Carey, and she continues to be very involved with the Carey community, lending her impressive culinary talents to various Carey occasions and participating in events for former trustees.
After attending Burlingame Intermediate School and St. Ignatius High School, Thomas enrolled at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, where he is now a sophomore. Thomas loves college life, balancing chal-lenging academics with a busy athletic commitment to the Crew team and an active social life with his fraternity. Thomas is studying Biological Engineering and hopes to intern with a major company this summer.
Thomas counsels current Carey students to enjoy their time at Carey while they have the chance. “It all goes by so quickly.”
By Kristy Cowan
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school presentation about Human Effects on Wildlife and getting straight A’s. Her favorite memory of Carey is outdoor education. She is at Menlo School.
2011Felix Chen attends Ralston Middle School. His favorite memory of Carey is Kindergarten.
James Kaplan goes to Crystal Spring Uplands School. His recent accomplishment is winning a soccer award even though he never played before. His favorite
memory of Carey is Mrs. Bloom’s history class.
Parsa Khosravi had parts in Shakespeare’s musical, “The Beauty and the Beast,” and “Starmites” at Sacred Heart Schools. He plays tennis, football, basketball, and water polo. He also participates in community service, specifically Street Church Outreach Program. You can catch him in a few features of SHS videos and interviews, as well. His favorite memories of Carey are the Operettas, Pauline Murray Day,
and the turf field; he is at Crystal Springs Uplands School.
2010Phoebe Doell is attending Keys Middle School and enjoying sports, music and travels. The Doell family misses The Carey School and wishes everyone the best.
P.J. Frantz plays water polo at Menlo School and often performs with his band, Aftermath. He will travel to South Korea this summer with the Ragazzi Boys Chorus. He loves to stay connected to Carey
through his little sister, Tessa, who is in Third Grade.
Jack Gold is in Eighth Grade at Menlo. He enjoys playing football, basketball and soccer at school and participating in Menlo’s chorus and percussion programs. He also plays soccer for Peninsula Soccer Club and basketball with the AAU Mavericks. Jack’s favorite memories of Carey include Pauline Murray Sports Day and Operetta.
Ashley Zhang’s recent accomplishments include her
In 1977, Steve Fisher was a Carey eighth grader. He loved playing basketball, handball, kickball and even football on the school’s concrete playground with his Carey classmates, especially Barry Bonds, who in one yearbook inscription com-mented to Steve, “You’re not very smart, but you’re good at sports.” Steve took the “compliment,” but didn’t let it deter him from his academic pursuits. In fact, his interest in and pas-sion for math grew exponentially that year as he completed the entire year’s curriculum in a matter of months. In an early attempt at differentiated instruction, Steve’s teacher, Mr. Michael Krivit, gave him an algebra book and supported him through a course of independent math study. Apparently, Mr. Krivit was a good teacher. When Steve reached Aragon High School in San Mateo as a freshman, he was placed directly in geometry, never having officially taken algebra. Steve went on to become high school valedictorian, received degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science with high honors, and pursued a career of distinction in the technology field. It looks like Barry was mistaken, at least about the “smart” part.
Steve recalls (with incredible clarity and detail!) much of his Carey experience from Grades One through Eight as char-acterized by many of the values we still hold dear today. “It was an amazingly nurturing, caring and personal experience. Everyone knew everyone by name,” Steve recounts. Carey was a happy place where students truly wanted to be, and there was no tolerance for meanness or unkindness, accord-ing to Steve. Although Clare Carey was “a strict disciplinarian who everyone was terrified of,” he remembers most fondly her “larger-than-life presence directing the entire school in the huge culminating deal that was Operetta.” He remembers playing sports for Carey with P.E. teacher Mr. Calonico even though they were too small to be competitive with other teams in the league, his sugar-cube Mission Santa Barbara model being devoured by ants overnight, and feeling “a bit badly about giving [Spanish teacher] Señora Morris a hard time.” One of Steve’s most poignant Carey memories was receiving the Lou Ellen Test Perpetual Trophy for Academic Excellence at graduation. According to Steve, “It was such a genuine surprise. I had no idea I was going to get it. Actually, it remains one of my life’s biggest surprises.”
After Carey, Steve went on to Aragon High School. As the only one from his Carey class, Steve recalls being nervous and intimidated at first. Steve went on to become Student Body President at Aragon, and he credits that early leadership experience with the growth in his confidence that allowed him much of his later success. Steve had an innate desire from an early age to build things and was always tinkering, taking things apart to see if he could rebuild them better. He re-members the Carey Science Days as an outlet for this passion,
From Frogs to Force.com with Steve Fisher
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where students pursued, conducted and presented independently designed science projects. (His personal favorite: constructing a maze, then shock-ing frogs with electrical currents until they could find their way through the maze efficiently!) At Aragon, he befriended Marc Benioff and together they started learning simple computer programming as a hobby. They programmed video games together and hung out with other “computer nerds” at the People’s Computer Center in Menlo Park. Little did they know, this friendship would lead to a professional partnership decades after.
Today, Steve is a proud father of two children, a college-aged daughter and third grade son, and lives in Los Altos. Steve is currently Executive Vice President, Technology at Salesforce.com where he leads a team of 1,600 employees, who are responsible for the development, quality, service delivery, and operations of Salesforce.com’s Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and collaboration applications, and the force.com cloud platform. With more than 22 years in the technology industry, Steve held positions at Apple Computer and AT&T Labs, and also founded NotifyMe Networks, an in-teractive voice-alerting platform application service provider and served as the company’s first CEO. He has been named an inventor on 18 patents.
Steve attended Stanford University, graduating with a BS degree in Mathematical and Computational Science in 1986 and a MS in Computer Science in 1987. During graduate school and for the first two years thereafter, Steve worked at what he describes as the “hardest job of his life,” lecturing and
teaching at Stanford in advanced Computer Sci-ence. At the time, Computer Science was a new undergraduate program, Steve was allowed “total independence and no oversight” in devising curriculum and lecturing. He even co-authored an introductory computer science textbook
for use in the courses he taught. Steve remembers never working harder than he did preparing for lectures and the complex questions the undergrads posed to him. He loved it. Since then, his proudest professional accomplishments have derived from opportunities to solve problems, to build something from nothing, to innovate and reinvent, and “to be part of a growth company that requires me to push my thinking every day.”
Steve recently returned to campus at One Carey School Lane. He was especially impressed with the turf field, as well as the computer lab and the opportunities Carey students have to learn programming and computer science. He even had his picture taken with the Lou Ellen Test Perpetual Trophy that bears his name as the 1987 winner. Guess Steve is pretty smart, after all.
By Devon Gold
Spaghetti Dinner, teachers, friends, and Carol Roper.
Makena Reynolds is a seventh grader at Borel Middle School and is having a great time. She played volleyball and basketball, and is now on the track team. She plays Alto Saxophone and Flute for the Jazz Band, which competed in several Jazz Festivals this year. She is getting ready to perform in Borel’s upcoming musical production of Grease, where she plays the over gregarious and enthusiastic cheerleader, Patty Simcox.
2012Maya Benjamin starred in six local plays and musicals recently! Her favorite memory of Carey is the 2012 Operetta where she had so much fun singing with her classmates! (“Thank you so much Ms. Linda!”) Maya attends Live Oak School in San Francisco.
Kate Folsom is loving Girls’ Middle School in Palo Alto. She plays on the school’s basketball and volleyball teams and recently had lots of fun performing in the school’s talent show.
Caroline Frantz attends Menlo School. She continues to dance, play multiple sports and stay connected to her Carey friends.
Andy Giles memorized 83 digits of Pi and performed in the 2012 Operetta. His favorite memory of Carey is playing Jeopardy in the Third Grade. He recently built a 3D Printer with former Carey classmate, Callum Welsh, over the summer. He goes to Keys School.
Jordan Gold enjoys Sixth Grade at Menlo where she competes on
the cross-country, soccer, basketball and track teams. She enjoys singing for the Menlo Girls Chorus, as well as outside school for the Peninsula Girls Chorus. She plays soccer for the Burlingame Soccer Club and studies tap and jazz at Kirkpatrick’s School of Dance. Her favorite memories of Carey are Ms. Donar’s fourth grade and Mrs. Bloom’s fifth grade classes and the California Walkthrough.
Parker Isaacson attends Sacred Heart and is active in football, baseball, soccer and basketball; he
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As we sit looking out over the Pacific Ocean with migrat-ing whales a stone’s throw away, it occurs to me that Rick Tramontin is a long way from The Carey School — both literally and figuratively.
Today, Rick is the General Manager of Kukio Golf and Beach Club – a private club/resort on Hawaii’s Big Island. I met Rick a year ago while on a family Spring Break. During a rare night out without our kids, my wife and I were ap-proached by Rick, who came over to check in on our visit. Small talk transitioned to conversation, and while chatting about kids, we mentioned that our children went to The Carey School in San Mateo. Rick’s face lit up – no need for us to explain how special it was, he knew first hand – Rick attended Carey himself!
Although it has been a number of years since “Ricky” at-tended Carey, his memories of the school run deep and remain vivid. Rick grew up in Portola Valley, but his parents owned a store in San Mateo, so the commute worked for everyone. Rick attended Carey from Kindergarten through Eighth Grade, during the mid-1970’s through mid-1980’s. At that time, there was only one class per grade, and as such, he describes the school as “a real family.” He credits the school with teaching him important values that remain with him today – to treat people with dignity and respect, and to be a good, kind person.
As soon as we established our connection with Carey, Rick rifled off questions: Do kids still play on the “upper playground”? Are foreign language classes still held in the old school bus that was permanently parked on campus? Is the backboard with the large American flag painted on it still there? Were any of his old teachers still there? Was Betty Angell still keeping the place together?
He chuckled recalling visions of the bench outside of Betty’s office (home to the same repeat offenders who
could not seem to follow the rules). Rick made it clear the Carey sisters were the rule “enforcers,” but they, along with all of the faculty and administrators, were loved by all and treated with the utmost respect.
Rick remembers nearly every one of his teachers. His fond-est memories are of his P.E. teacher Dennis “Mr. C” Colonico. Mr. C lived larger than life in the eyes of the children he taught. Rick established a close relationship with Mr. C, par-ticularly around the game of golf. The two of them would often share rounds at Shoreline or San Mateo Muni.
Golf played a role in Rick’s life for many years to come. After graduating from Carey, Rick attended St. Francis High School in Mountain View, and went on to the University of Arizona, where he competed on the golf team. After graduation, Rick received a sponsorship that helped launch his professional golf career. He competed for several years on tour and eventually transitioned to the hospitality busi-ness, first working for Hyatt and then moving to Scottsdale, Arizona to serve as Director, Food & Beverage for The Boul-ders, a luxury resort owned by The Waldorf Astoria.
While at The Boulders, Rick was approached by Discov-ery Land Company to run their Iron Horse property in Montana. (Discovery is a Scottsdale based developer and operator of high end resort communities and private clubs in North America.) Rick accepted the offer and soon called Montana home. While at Iron Horse, Discovery asked Rick to assist with running a golf tournament at their exclusive Kukio property. It didn’t take long for Rick and his wife, Chrissie, to fall in love with the island lifestyle. When Dis-covery offered Rick the GM role at Kukio it was a no-brainer.
Today, Rick, Chrissie and their nine year-old son, Max-well, call Hawaii home. (They are also currently hosting a German exchange student, Marlon.) While talking with me about the transition from mainland to island life, Rick highlighted the importance of finding a school for their son. He remembers telling Chrissie he wanted to find a school for Max that most resembled The Carey School – a small, intimate school that would instill the same values in Max as Carey had done for him.
While The Carey School seems a long way from where Rick sits today, Rick cherishes the fond memories of his days at Carey and recognizes how the values helped shape who he is today. He is eager to return to campus for a visit with his family soon and share this special place with his wife and son.
By Bill Thompson
A Long Way From Home with Rick Tramontin
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Team Stayner always has some exciting news to report. These Carey graduates recently shared their memories, successes and some new pursuits. John, Grace and Don feel very connected to The Carey School and when asked about their strongest memory, their first answer was the people – the warm Carey community.
Twins John and Grace graduated in 2006, and Don in 2004. All three went on to St. Matthew’s Episcopal Day School for middle school and Crystal Springs Uplands high school. Recently, both John and Grace were ac-cepted and are going to Stanford University; the univer-sity recruited John for fencing, too.
While at Carey, Grace remembers all of the amazing faculty who are not only teachers, but mentors. She loved her Spanish class with Señorita Elena Pacheco, who incorporated both the culture of the country and a great foundation of the language. John’s fondest memories were of recess – the kickball games, tire swings, old four square courts, and of course, climbing up the hill! One unforgettable recollection was of Mr. Simpson (past Head of School) flying around campus on roller skates, dressed as a chicken after summer reading goals were reached. Don recalls many great memories, including Fifth Grade with Ms. Bloom and kickball with Ms. Trierweiler.
John’s interests lie in math, sciences, and energy. He attended a camp hosted by Chevron that provided him with a wealth of material to feed his passion for making a difference in sustainable living for humans. In addition, last year he worked for a company called Verious, which produces mobile app components.
Grace’s academic interests lie in biology, science and medicine. She has some interesting work experiences as well. Over the summer, she worked for the Gladstone Institute where she interned for a plastic surgeon. She recently followed up on two case reports with a co-worker and their findings will be published in scientific journals. Grace is interested in how the brain works and for her Senior Project, she researched the neurobiology of criminals. She wants to go into medicine and is excited to take a class at Stanford, which will provide an EMT certifi-cation. She would like to work as an EMT during the first summer after her freshman year of college. Grace loves to cook as a hobby and recently volunteered in India.
As a sophomore at Hamilton College in Clinton, NY, older brother Don is in an Engineering/Physics dual degree program and will be attending Dartmouth College for his junior year. When he graduates from Hamilton, he will earn a BE in General Engineering from Dartmouth and a BA in physics from Hamilton. Don is passionate about technology, flying, and experimental (lab-based) physics. He is interested in not only the mechanical aspects, but also the human, creative, liberal-arts aspects that make engineering so much more than the sum of its parts. Last summer, Don worked for Wildfire (now a subsidiary of Google) in Business Operations.
Look for these three at upcoming events as they make an extra effort to attend every alumni gathering and stay in close touch with many Carey classmates. As Grace said, “The best thing about Carey was the awe-some people. Everyone really gets along.” Who could miss a chance to come back to that?
By Mary Folsom
Team Stayner: John, Grace and Don
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Donna Greenberg has a long history with The Carey School. A native Californian, Donna was born in Berke-ley and raised in the Oakland Hills. After meeting her husband at school in Southern California, she came back to the Bay Area to raise her two girls, who are both Carey graduates. Donna’s granddaughter is a current Carey student, too!
An advocate of public schools, Donna valued a good education and appreciated the community and neigh-borhood-building benefits that public school brought. However, California public schools were changing at the time her girls were in school. When Donna and her hus-
band looked at the public options for their daughter, they did not see a good fit. After seeing Carey, their decision was made. As Donna remembers, “The Carey sisters were just old-fashioned enough to believe in the whole kid. It was clear that academics were important, but it wasn’t an overly structured environment.”
Of her daughters’ time at Carey, Donna remembers several Carey traditions that we still hold dear today: The Operetta, Holiday Sing, Science Fair and field trips. Donna pointed out that Operetta is something that supported the whole child philosophy. It gave the outgoing children a chance to shine and gave the shier kids an opportunity to perform in a comfortable venue. “The kids felt bigger than life,” Donna said.
Donna is thrilled that her granddaughter gets a chance to experience the same school she identified for her daugh-ters years ago. Lucky to live close by, Donna attends every Carey event she can: Walkfest, Operetta, Generations Day and more!
By Laura Agarwal
Two Generations at Carey: An Interview with Donna Greenberg
plays a mean ping pong game at school recesses, too!
Jaya Kapoor is having a fantastic sixth grade year at Keys Middle School in Palo Alto. Highlights include the high ropes course at outdoor education, performing on African drums for the Winter
concert, building and testing wood bridges as part of a multidisciplinary grade-wide team project. She is looking forward to her upcoming performance in “Guys and Dolls” this May at Keys.
Jacob Kowalski loved the Spaghetti Dinner at Carey. He is at Ralston Middle School.
Moritz Langner relished the Operetta in Fifth Grade and attends Borel Middle School.
Shay Levy attends Keys. Her favorite memories of Carey are Rainbow Day, Operetta, bake sales, and outdoor education.
Marcella Meneguzzi enjoys Crystal Spring Uplands School as a sixth grader; she plays volleyball and just completed a season of softball, soccer and basketball. She loves her science and history classes the best and likes her new classmates. Her best memories of Carey are Ms. Donar, Mrs. Bloom, and the Science Fair.
Jacob Pearlman attends Burlingame Intermediate School. He is having a great year in middle school, which he credits to the excellent preparation he received at Carey. Jacob’s favorite memory of Carey is Operetta. Go Eagles!
Hannah Renert was proud to be a part of the Operetta as well as the club soccer and volleyball teams. Her favorite memory of Carey is waiting back stage for her time to shine at Operetta. She was so excited! She is at Crystal Springs Uplands School.
Teagan Reynolds is a sixth grader at Borel Middle School and having a total blast. She was on the volleyball and basketball teams, and is now running track. She plays clarinet and electric bass and is trying out for the Jazz Band, which competes in several Jazz Festivals. She is getting ready to perform in Borel’s upcoming musical
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“Mom, I am hungry!” How many of you hear that every day? For grandparent, Ida Saberi, some of her greatest memories of The Carey School revolve around food. Her two sons, Theodore and Tom Saberi both attended Carey back in the 1970’s. Now her grandson, Josiah, is a second grader at Carey. She remembers back then that the school had a great lunch program but there were times when her grow-ing boys wanted some home cooking for lunch. She would drop off food right before lunch to make sure Theodore and Tom had what they needed. However, the rewarding part for Ida was that she could chat with the teachers and experience the school. She even offered some cooking lessons to the faculty and staff.
Ida remembers how the school, at the time, fostered a sense of teamwork and community with the ski trips, basketball and baseball teams. When her sons had friends over for play dates (often times a whole group of boys), they always got hungry. Ida’s home cooking was a “hit” or instant connection with the Carey boys who came over. They always thanked her and wanted more of her home cooking.
When Ida was looking for a school for her sons, she had an instant connection with Mary Therese Carey and Clare Willard. She describes the two as “beautiful
people I can trust my kids to.” She knew that with Mary Therese and Clare in charge along with the proximity to Serra High School (the future high school of her sons), she found the right place. She recalls that the teachers provided good discipline and a great education for her sons and believes that is true today at Carey with her grandson, Josiah. In fact, one of her sons had to sit out an afternoon for “teasing girls.” She is confident that if boys today teased girls at The Carey School, the same would happen.
Ida is proud that two generations of the Saberi family are with The Carey School. She says, “it’s a little more loud at the school than what I remember when Theodore and Tom were there.” The Carey spirit must be getting louder (or Feathers is in the house).
By Steve Lo
Carey Then and Now – ‘Food for Thought’
production of Grease, where she plays a cheerleader, specialty hand jive dancer and vocal soloist.
Holland Sutton is thriving at Sacred Heart Schools! He has been playing on all the sports teams and just started baseball this month. He says Language Arts is a breeze since Ms. Bloom prepared him so well; it’s his highest grade so far. He loves riding the train and being a part of a new and larger community. He still has fond memories of Carey and was thrilled to spend his spring break with Charlie Berman in Mexico.
Alexander Wei is very proud of winning a soccer tournament held in Tracy. His favorite memory of Carey is the Operetta, “All The Places You’ll Go.” He is having fun at Crystal Springs Uplands School.
Callum Welsh remembers the outdoor education program fondly. He attends Crystal Springs Uplands School.
Ethan Zhang attends Menlo School and recalls the Operetta as his favorite memory at Carey.
Alumni enjoying an evening of mingling, music, and each other at the Alumni Family Holiday Party
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Maya BenjaminCharlie BermanAntarah ChopraMeredith ConeJordan CorleyThomas DiGioacchinoJackson DoellKate FolsomCaroline FrantzAndrew GilesJordan Gold
James HolmesJohn HuskinsParker IsaacsonJaya KapoorJacob KowalskiMoritz LangnerShay LevyJustin LimMelinda MaMarcella MeneguzziGabriella Nightingale
Jacob PearlmanHannah RenertTeagan ReynoldsLilly RichartHenry SengelmannAndrew StoddardHolland SuttonElise ThompsonAlexander WeiCallum WelshEthan Zhang
Justin AllgoodLisha Hira
2012 Middle School Acceptances
Abbott Middle School Borel Middle SchoolBurlingame Intermediate SchoolCastilleja SchoolCrystal Springs Uplands SchoolGirls’ Middle SchoolKeys SchoolLive Oak SchoolMenlo SchoolNuevaOdysseyRalston Middle SchoolSacred HeartWoodside Priory
* Bold indicates multiple acceptances/attendees
Class of 2012 Graduates
Lost Graduates from 2005
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The Carey Connection is published annually for students and their families, alumni, alumni parents, faculty, staff, administration, and friends of The Carey School. Addresses and changes should be mailed to:Advancement OfficeThe Carey SchoolOne Carey School LaneSan Mateo, CA 94403
Phone: (650)345-3410Fax: (650)345-2528Email: [email protected]
Join us in the Annual Fund and be counted.
Support the areas of Carey that are most meaningful to you: Faculty Support, Tuition Assistance, Endowment, Academic Program, or Unrestricted (whatever The Carey School needs most).
For those who have given, thank you. For those who are still considering a donation please know that every donor, every gift, every dollar counts.
Donate online by going to.: http://www.careyschool.org/advancement/online-giving/
Class of 2004 Colleges/Universities Attended
Boston UniversityCal Polytechnic State UniversityColgateColumbia University Drexel UniversityDukeGeorge Washington UniversityGonzaga UniversityRenssellaer Polytechnic InstituteUniversity of California, BerkeleyUniversity of California, RiversideUniversity of California, Santa BarbaraUniversity of California, Santa CruzUniversity of WashingtonUniversity of WisconsinWashington University, St. Louis
*Bold Indicates multiple graduates attending
Many thanks to all of The Carey School faculty, students, families and special friends who make Carey such an incredible school! Every effort has been made to present accurate information in this magazine. Please contact Carey’s Advancement Office if you know of any discrepancies or errors at [email protected] or (650)345-3410.
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