Spring 2007Milton Magazine

Public Problem SolvingMany Milton alumni have crafted careers of activism,within the non-profit sector, in public service, andthrough political action. With a steady focus on long-term change, they have taken responsibility forimproving our lives and those of our neighbors, nearby and around the world.

Front Cover:Changing PerspectivesOil bar, 42" x 52" by Samantha Lee ’07

Back Cover:February Morningby Greg White

3 Bringing Management Expertise toPhilanthropyIdentifying effective, long-term waysto solve complex problemsCathleen Everett

6 Collaboration Aims at CorporateSocial ResponsibilityWorking with corporations interestedin addressing the well-being of communitiesCathleen Everett

8 Marketing to Underserved AudiencesSusan Clark’s communications andsocial change organization, CommonKnowledge, has an unusual trackrecord and unique niche.Cathleen Everett

10 Making Good Ideas UsefulSally Bowles has lived her remarkableprofessional life at the intersection of big, bold ideas that would affectmillions of people, and the challengeof implementation.Cathleen Everett

12 “Get Engaged”Three Milton graduates of the ’90swere staffers in Deval Patrick’s cam-paign for governor who put their lifeplans on hold and took up crucialroles at the core of the campaign.Cathleen Everett

Contents

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16 Our Clients Are Among the Hardest to ServeFrom policy and program develop-ment to implementation of newstrategies and initiatives, RandyQuezada “connects the dots” for NewYork’s homeless.Cathleen Everett

18 From Distressed Neighborhoods,Building Healthy CommunitiesLISC brings a holistic view to commu-nity development, helping transformdistressed neighborhoods into healthycommunities where people haveaccess to affordable homes, jobs, reliable places to shop, and high-quality schools.Cathleen EverettErin Hoodlet

22 Stewardship of the Earth: A Matter ofFairness and ResponibilitySeeking to establish sustainability and good stewardship of the earth ascentral ethical imperatives of humansocietyErin Hoodlet

25 William C. Janeway Earns the 2006Advocate Award from EnvironmentalAdvocates of New York

26 Citizen SchoolsImproving student achievement byblending real-world learning projectsand rigorous academics after schoolErin Hoodlet

Features: Public Problem Solving

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EditorCathleen Everett

Associate EditorErin Hoodlet

PhotographyRalph Alswang, Wiqan Ang, Bryan Cheney,Dennis Curran, Michael Dwyer, RobertoFabro, John Horner, Nicki Pardo, JD Sloan,Martha Stewart, Greg White

DesignMoore & Associates

Milton Magazine is published twice a year by Milton Academy. Editorial and businessoffices are located at Milton Academy wherechange-of-address notifications should besent.

As an institution committed to diversity,Milton Academy welcomes the opportunity toadmit academically qualified students of anygender, race, color, handicapped status, sexu-al orientation, religion, national or ethnic ori-gin to all the rights, privileges, programs andactivities generally available to its students. Itdoes not discriminate on the basis of gender,race, color, handicapped status, sexual orien-tation, religion, national or ethnic origin inthe administration of its educational policies,admission policies, scholarship programs,and athletic or other school-administeredactivities.

Printed on Recycled Paper

28 “Lights-On” in Denver After SchoolOpenWorld Learning (OWL) is anafter-school program for children ingrades 3 through 5 that combineslearning about computer program-ming with peer teaching.Erin Hoodlet

30 Faculty Advisors Shepherd Young StrategistsAt Milton, commitments outside ofclass help define the individual.Cathleen Everett

35 “That energy clearly paid off.”The countless hours Milton studentsdevoted to all aspects of campaigningproved to be a crucial force forGovernor Patrick.Kenzie Bok ’07Tara Venkatraman ’07

37 What Is Amnesty International?This year’s heads, who adoptedHuman Rights and Poverty as theircampaign, strategized to find a morepowerful way for students to connectwith human rights problems.Cathleen Everett

38 Faculty PerspectiveSelf EducationSuzanne Y. DeBuhr

40 Post ScriptSocial Venture Partners: New philanthropy that includes thinking about, acting on and investing in social changeJenna Bertocchi Stapleton ’92

42 Post ScriptMilton at the Midpoint of the Last Century: One Collection ofMemoriesOakes Ames Plimpton ’50

44 Post ScriptA Milton Reconnect: A family history,intertwined with Milton over decades,leads to a 21st century commitmentAndy Ward ’51

45 The Head of SchoolLearning How to DisagreeRobin Robertson

46 In•Sight

48 On CentreNews and notes from the campus and beyond

55 SportsFrank Millet is the inspiration for a national squash tournament

56 Class Notes

35

Departments

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Katherine Fulton, president of the Monitor Institute, used the term

“public problem solving” to describe today’s environment of philan-

thropy—“new players, new tools and new pressures that add up to a

new time”—she asserted. These philanthropists have publicly named

and embraced problems that affect our lives every day, problems that

seem intractable.

In addition to philanthropists, many others, including consultants,

visionary founders, and professionals who work in the public interest,

are engaged in public problem solving. While many think of this

moment in our history as a dark time, we do see around us creativity,

energy, optimism, cooperation, and far sighted commitment to social

and environmental benefit.

Many Milton alumni have crafted careers of activism, within the non-

profit sector, in public service, and through political action. With a

steady focus on long-term change, they have taken responsibility for

trying to improve our lives and those of our neighbors, nearby and

around the world.

Through leadership in companies, organizations, and governmental

agencies, they strive to meet subsistence needs, stem disease, empow-

er citizens, educate children and care for the planet. Read about them,

and about how Milton prepares students to follow their lead.

Cathleen Everett

Public Problem SolvingTaking on our most complex problems

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Bringing ManagementExpertise to Philanthropy: New approaches to long-standing problems

Owen Stearns ’89

“Lots of movement is happening quickly allover the world. Our job [at Monitor] is to facil-itate good thinking and growth in a healthy,connected, cohesive way, and we’ve got signalsthat other organizations implementingchange want that, too.”

Fast Company (the magazine and Web site)and Monitor Group named “Forty-threeentrepreneurs who are changing theworld” in their 2006 joint ranking. Theseentrepreneurs have “found a better way todo good: They’re using the disciplines ofthe corporate world to tackle dauntingsocial problems.” If you, the individualdonor, want to maximize the impact ofyour philanthropic dollar, give to one ofthese organizations, the article urges.

The scale of philanthropy today is unprece-dented and growing. According to MonitorGroup data, total giving in 2006 reached$260 billion; the number of billionaires in the world exceeded 400 this year, com-pared to roughly 170 in 1997; in theUnited States, from 2001 to 2004, thenumber of households with a net worth of$100 million or more increased from7,000 to 10,000. Sophisticated donorswant to find effective, long-term ways tosolve complex problems, and their outlookis not only local, but global. Pakistani villagers are in search of water after a severe heat wave which dried up their wells in Badin,

250 kilometers southeast of Karachi, Pakistan, June 2005. The temperature in some regions crossed 118˚F.

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The most powerful philanthropists areaffecting the social and political order,worldwide: Bono and Bill Clinton use per-sonal influence to galvanize world actionto treat and contain the HIV/AIDS virus.George Soros has linked some of his fund-ing projects directly to demonstrations ofopen, transparent governments. TheRockefeller Foundation is partnering withthe Gates Foundation to move lessonslearned about improving agricultural pro-ductivity from South America to Africa.

Leveraging Donors’ Dollars

The opportunity to be an influentialactivist is not limited to Warren Buffett,Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google, orPierre Omidyar of eBay, however. Thegrowth of aggregated funds (nonprofitsstructured like mutual funds except thattheir purpose is to invest in problem-solving ideas) allows donors at all levels toleverage their dollars. Individuals can giveto one of the many aggregated fundswhere full-time staffers with M.B.A.s andPh.D.s help identify, evaluate and supportenterprises meant to accomplish systemicchange.

A consultant with the Monitor Institute,Owen figures in this new environment ofphilanthropy—bringing managementexpertise to foundations, nonprofit organi-zations or philanthropic venture-capitalfunds, ensuring that they have solid busi-ness plans with rigorous and relevant performance metrics that make themaccountable for results.

Owen’s firm, which operates within theumbrella of the international managementconsulting company, Monitor Group,wants to be a leader in anticipatingchanges and applying new approaches toaddressing complex social challenges.

The Acumen Fund was Owen’s latestmajor project. Acumen Fund is a non-profit investment fund that operates some-what like a venture-capital firm. They lookfor market-based approaches that providebasic services to populations makingunder $4 a day. Jennifer Lee wrote in theNew York Times recently that AcumenFund’s vision responds to “a desire to rein-vent philanthropy and push the bound-aries of how people who had done wellcould also do good.” One of AcumenFund’s tenets is that markets work for thepoor, not just the rich. Philanthropy hasalways addressed immediate needs; thenew philanthropic models try to couplemeeting needs with creating sustainableprojects that contribute to broad, economicand social progress.

“Small amounts of philanthropic capital,combined with large doses of businessacumen, can build thriving enterprisesthat serve vast numbers of the poor,” theAcumen Fund Web site claims. “Ourinvestments focus on delivering afford-able, critical goods and services—likehealth, water and housing—through inno-vative, market-oriented approaches.”

A representative project, for instance, combats malaria, which kills at least onemillion people each year. Acumen Fundcreated a public-private partnership withWHO, UNICEF, Sumitomo, ExxonMobiland an African bed-net maker to manufac-ture an anti-malarial bed net. Typical bednets must be treated every six months andare prone to tearing. The new bed net pro-duced by A–Z Textiles Mills—althoughmore expensive than the old bed nets—kills mosquitoes on contact for five yearsand is non-tearable. The nets are selling,and making them has created more than100 jobs. Instead of the traditionalapproach of buying several thousand bednets and distributing them to the poor,Acumen Fund’s investment and manage-ment assistance allowed A–Z to expand itsoperations dramatically—their bed netsnow protect over 6 million Tanzaniansfrom malaria.

Acumen Fund has also invested in a new drip irrigation system engineered byInternational Development Enterprises inIndia. Subsistence farmers can buy thesystem for $30, far less than the price oftypical irrigation systems. With increasedland productivity, the system pays for itselfquickly. Incomes increase and farmers buya second and third system, ultimatelybeginning to accumulate wealth.

Other investments help urban squatters inPakistan build cinderblock homes andachieve tenure security and legal title tothem; or provide small capital loans to

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women entrepreneurs; or work with a localIndian company to produce, market anddistribute Mytry De-flouridation Filters,which give families access to clean, safedrinking water.

Some ventures are disappointing, as with those in any investment fund, andAcumen Fund is learning important les-sons and adding expertise as they go.Acumen Fund has 27 full-time staff, manywith M.B.A.s and other specialized degreeswho do the evaluation, decision-making,and bring hands-on operations expertise to the projects Acumen backs.

Uncovering sustainable solutions

Over the past six months, Owen and histeam from Monitor worked with AcumenFund to develop a strategy for the next fiveyears—one that will expand AcumenFund’s current investments from $20 mil-lion to over $150 million. “Acumen Fund isreally at the cutting edge of a few differenttrends in the social sector, all of whichcould really change the way we think aboutcreating change in the world in the com-ing years,” Owen says. “If this reallyworks, they will have uncovered a muchmore sustainable way to address issues ofglobal poverty. And so, being centrallyinvolved in helping them figure out how toactually make this work feels great.”

Prior to the Acumen Fund project, muchof Owen’s work for Monitor Instituteinvolved education enterprises. He has

worked with an inner-city boarding schoolin Washington, D.C., that wanted to repli-cate its model in other cities. For the GatesFoundation, he developed a business planon behalf of a network of charter andchoice schools in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,to help the foundation evaluate and strate-gize possible support. Owen’s current project is back in the international devel-opment space—helping a publicly fundedorganization based in Latin Americadesign a transition plan, as its funding willbe eliminated and it will need to find anew business model with different sourcesof revenue.

The recent evolutions within philanthro-py—and approaches to social change morebroadly—have created jobs and evencareers that did not exist even a decadeago. When Owen graduated from AmherstCollege in 1994, he had been heavilyinvolved in community service activities,including doing a City Year and supportingthe creation of AmeriCorps. He then spentseveral years with the Monitor Group, aglobal strategy consulting firm, beforeleaving to co-direct The City School, a non-profit leadership development program forhigh school students in Boston founded byMilton Academy former faculty Todd Fry.Owen was a charter board member for theCity School and as co-director led the fund-raising strategy, and then the search forthe next director, as well as the transitionto new leadership.

With these two early experiences at leadingfor-profit and nonprofit organizations, hefound himself searching for somethingthat was a hybrid of the two. The mostinteresting learning and activity in theworld was actually in the space betweenthe two sectors, where social change wasbeing pursued without regard to the IRSdesignation. He was fortunate to find the Foundation Strategy Group, a newlyformed firm that provides strategic adviceto private, corporate, and community foun-dations. After four years there, he returnedto Monitor to help launch the MonitorInstitute, its social change practice, whichworks with many of the leading actors con-tinuing to create new approaches to long-standing problems.

Improving education for urban students isone of Owen’s core commitments: he isfounding board chair of Excel Academy, anEast Boston charter school serving middleschool students. As with Owen’s otherprojects, results matter: Students in Excel’sfirst eighth-grade graduating class outper-formed students from nearly every districtin the state, scoring in the top 9 percentstatewide on the 2006 English MCASexam and in the top 6 percent statewide onthe 2006 math MCAS exam.

Cathleen Everett

Owen Stearns ’89

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Yeng Felipe Butler ’92

“Business for Social Responsibility helps com-panies develop responsible business practices.We proactively work with our member compa-nies on a diverse set of issues related to corpo-rate social responsibility; How do we do this?We encourage cross-sector collaborationbetween business and civil society. ObviouslyI’d rather work with companies that try tointegrate these practices with overall corporatestrategies, rather than with those for whomthese are simply a part of PR strategy.”

Business for Social Responsibility (BSR)today is a unique hybrid organization thatevolved in the early ’90s out of an advoca-cy organization started by former StrideRite CEO Arnold Hiatt, who has longargued in numerous public pulpits that“the well-being of business cannot be sepa-rated from the well-being of the communi-ty and the nation.”

Global trade has brought many multina-tional corporations to the realization thatto sustain business growth they have topay attention to the environment, econom-ic development and human rights. Main-stream business must worry about theimpact of problems such as climatechange, access to clean water, reducingconflict and promoting the rule of law.

“BSR is a membership organization,” Yengexplains, “with a consulting practice and aresearch and development group.” Compa-nies from several sectors in particular joinBSR: consumer goods; information andcommunication technology; energy andmining; pharmaceuticals and biotechnolo-gy; food and agriculture; transportation. AsYeng notes, these sectors are heavily scruti-nized by media, investors and the public.They look to BSR for help, for instance,with stakeholder engagement to further

inform their decision-making process. Inturn, BSR helps them map out a plan andthen implement it. “One of our recentprojects involved a large U.S.–based agri-cultural company thinking about sourcingbananas from Africa,” says Yeng. “We’rehelping them identify the various risksrelated to this possible business venture—and that includes defining sustainablepractices, relaying and teaching theserequirements to the growers, as well asmonitoring their progress.”

Members (AstraZeneca, Chevron, CiscoSystems, IKEA International, Intel andUnited Parcel Service, are examples) getissue expertise, consultative help, trainingand up-to-date research on trends andinnovations. BSR has, for instance, justpublished a Report on Corporate ClimateStrategy, reviewing a range of businessreactions to climate change.

Perhaps most important, BSR membersconnect with a network: industry peers,partners, stakeholders and thought leadersinterested in dealing with the environmen-tal challenges and social inequities that areunsustainable.

What are socially responsible businesspractices? Can they be defined, measuredand reported? “That’s a hot debate,” Yengsays. “It’s hard to apply metrics to workthat is qualitative, and the link betweenusing socially and environmentally respon-sible practices and the bottom line hasn’tbeen firmly established yet.” The BSR Website announces that social research ana-lysts from 23 investment firms havereleased a brief that explains how compa-nies “can use the Global ReportingInitiative (GRI) to increase the credibility,comparability and utility of social and envi-ronmental reporting.” “Reliable and com-monly used metrics are important,” Yengsays. “They’re part of how companiesshould be reviewed by investors, investors

who look at a triple bottom line: economicimpact, environmental impact, and socialimpact.”

Yeng’s next project for BSR will be leadingtheir own first corporate social responsibil-ity (CSR) report. She will need to help theorganization come up with the right met-rics, take a close internal look at what isworking and what isn’t, and measure howthey model what they promote. There aregood examples of CSR reporting, done bypeer organization, Accountability, and inother sectors by British Telecommunica-tions, GE, Shell, and Starbucks. “The BTreport is best in class,” Yeng says, “for correlating internal strategy with CSRpractices.”

Last November, Yeng managed the annualBSR conference in New York—the largestforum for corporate social responsibilitypractitioners. More than 1,000 businessleaders came from more than 50 countriesand joined colleagues in the independentand public sectors. She took on directingthe conference, having only joined BSRthe previous summer. Arnold Hiatt, infact, was the person who suggested thatworking at BSR would give Yeng the expe-rience she was seeking—learning the prac-tices of a top-rate nonprofit organization.

When she spoke with Arnold, Yeng hadcompleted a mid-career master’s programin public administration from the KennedySchool at Harvard. While at Harvard, Yengwas interested in social entrepreneurshipand public and private sector partnerships.She helped found a nonprofit that set upbusiness-plan competitions to increase thenumber and quality of new business ven-tures in developing countries. Her non-profit, Global Entrepreneurship Network(GEN), awards prizes to the most innova-tive ideas, that is, those with significant

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Collaborationaims at corporate social responsibility

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growth potential to serve local or globalmarkets. Besides cash prizes, GEN helpstop teams get advice from experienced pro-fessionals, introduces them to potentialinvestors, and sends them to the HarvardBattle of the Business Plan competition inCambridge.

Prior to her master’s program, Yeng wasHead of Strategic Marketing and VicePresident of Sales and Marketing at the Institutional Investment Services business unit at Merrill Lynch InvestmentManagers. At Merrill, she founded theResponsible Citizenship Board, whichenabled and encouraged employees to getinvolved in local community service. Hereight years at Merrill Lynch began immedi-ately after her graduation from Dartmouth,where she majored in government andAsian studies.

Part of Yeng’s diverse experience includesa Rockefeller Grant, which she used topursue an internship with the PhilippineCommission on Human Rights, where shefacilitated an empowerment training pro-gram for students. Just prior to Harvard,she volunteered for three months asSenior Project Advisor to the South PacificBusiness Development in Apia, Samoa, amicrofinance institution modeled after theGrameen Bank in Bangladesh.

Looking out and looking forward, as Yengcharacteristically does, she sees her nextarea of interest as socially responsibleinvesting—perhaps further developing afinancial services practice for BSR. “It’s animportant and growing field, not quitemainstream yet, but just about to experi-ence some real growth,” she says.

www.bsr.org

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Yeng Felipe Butler ’92

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Susan Clark ’76

“Forty percent of people in the United Statesread at an eighth-grade level or less. TheVoting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed literacytests for voter registration, but if the onlysource of nonpartisan information aboutCalifornia ballot measures is a state-issuedballot pamphlet written at a twelfth gradelevel, that functions as a de facto literacy test.”

Susan Clark’s communications and socialchange organization, Common Knowledge,has an unusual track record and uniqueniche. Common Knowledge offers itsclients traditional marketing expertise—strategic planning, campaign develop-ment, qualitative and quantitative research,training and technical assistance. What’sdifferent is their emphasis on developingcommunity and civic engagement, espe-cially the participation of lesser-heard voic-es. Combining these elements yields thepractice they call “community marketing.”

Susan transitioned to her current workfrom a successful career in corporate mar-keting. She served as vice president ofplanning and new products at Del MonteFoods, director of marketing at theCalifornia State Lottery and as a brandmanager at Procter & Gamble. In her

heart, however, her real interest was in theneeds and concerns of underserved audi-ences, and throughout these years she felta pull toward working for a cause.

Susan points to one achievement,California’s “Easy Voter Guide,” as anexample of the projects she finds mostgratifying. “The Easy Voter Guide,” sup-ported by state agency and foundationfunding, has a circulation of three to fourmillion for each statewide election inCalifornia. Available in five languages, theguide is distributed by over 2,000 organi-zations and more than 40 newspapers.The print guide and its companion Website, easyvoter.org, help “new and busy vot-ers make sense of California elections andgovernment.”

The project began when Susan was anadult literacy volunteer, as well as a mem-ber of the League of Women Voters. Shewas frustrated that people with limitededucation are shut out of most civic dis-course. The League, historically a providerof nonpartisan information about the how,what and why of voting, did not have thecapacity to reach out beyond the savvyreaders who are their typical clients.

The ability to negotiate a ballot is particu-larly important in California, where rou-tinely, voters are asked to make “30 to 40

decisions about elected offices and ballotmeasures, many of a highly technicalnature,” reports www.easyvoter.org. “Despite(or because of?) record levels of partisanadvertising, many voters report feelingoverwhelmed by the long ballots they face.In a recent survey by the Public PolicyInstitute of California, 77 percent said thatthe language of the propositions was toocomplicated and confusing.”

“We institutionalized non-participation,”Susan says. “We say we believe that every-one in a democracy has to participate, butwhat if they don’t have access?” To explorehow to open up access to the process, shesecured funding from the California statelibrary to work with adult literacy studentsand other community members to co-cre-ate a voting engagement program.

“To really understand what will work for thecommunity, we create working groups oftarget audience members. Every project wedo is audience-designed,” Susan says. “Theusers describe the need, define the scope ofthe communications and help with theactual implementation. As a result, what wecome up with together is more effectivethan having used just a focus group at thefront or end of the project.”

Marketing to Underserved AudiencesDeveloping Civic Engagement

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“One quarter of California residents arefrom another country; another one quarterare from another state,” Susan explains.“We found out that the image many newvoters had in their mind was that votingwould be like a trip to the Department ofMotor Vehicles: long lines, taking a test,and no one to ask for help. Many peopleassume that non-voters are turned off bypolitics, but we found that ‘performanceanxiety,’ fear of being embarrassed, is abigger barrier.” Susan’s team of communi-ty members created a three-part engage-ment model that was shown to doublevoter turnout. “The Easy Voter Guide” isthe most visible element of the programand has become popular with mainstreamaudiences as well.

Susan says Common Knowledge is fortu-nate to work with organizations that arewilling to fund projects at a level thatallows her to do research and involve the

community they’re serving. “We have abroad range of clients,” says Susan. “Theycome to us; and an essential part of ourwork is the network of ‘distribution part-ners,’ such as the California State Library,community colleges, and a variety of com-munity organizations. We have ongoingrelationships with people who serve otherpeople.”

Susan is now working on projects aboutmaking climate change and energy reduc-tion relevant for more of the general pub-lic. Some of her other projects includeProjectMoney.org—co-designed by adultlearners—a free service that helps peoplewho might have been intimidated learnabout using a bank, saving money, usingcredit cards, filing tax forms, and findingother financial resources. For MerrillLynch, Common Knowledge managedtraining and message and materials devel-opment for reaching new 401(k) investors,

especially in lower-income and less-educated audiences. Common Knowledgespearheaded a successful multiyear CivicEngagement Project for Children andFamilies and assisted the CommonGround Project in framing and facilitatingcommunity dialogues on welfare reformand affirmative action, in partnership withthe San Jose Mercury News.

Susan’s organization is flexible: It can staff up or use interns if necessary. Shedescribes herself as a generalist. “I lovedeconomics and art history equally at the University of Michigan,” she says. She feels that her work with CommonKnowledge is far from finished. She loves learning about new fields and work-ing with organizations that are committedto helping people improve their quality of life.

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Susan Clark ’76 (foreground) with a working group including target audience members

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Sally Bowles ’56

Sally Bowles has lived her remarkable professional life atthe intersection of big, bold ideas that would affect millionsof people, and the challenge of implementation. She hasfocused on making change happen. She was a member ofthe small team that worked with Sargent Shriver to developthe Peace Corps. She worked with John Lindsay to decen-tralize New York City public schools. She was the directorof Medicaid and then in charge of welfare programs for thestate of Connecticut. Sally left the public sector in 1990 toassist the president of the Rockefeller Foundation on amajor initiative with Nelson Mandela in South Africa andlater served as a consultant to the Rockefeller Foundationon its $45 million program to build international leadershipconcerning the global environment and sustainable devel-opment. She now is a director of the Charles & HelenSchwab Foundation and a consultant to several nationalnonprofits. Prior to that, she was president of the EmilyHall Tremaine Foundation. The Tremaine Foundation initi-ated the Coordinated Campaign for Learning Disabilities,the first national public-education campaign to informAmericans about learning disabilities. Sally has prolongedand enriched the legacy of public service established by her family.

“When I entered Milton, we had been living in India fortwo years; my father (Chester Bowles) was PresidentTruman’s ambassador to India, right after Indian independ-ence. Living there at that time was a pivotal experience. Myfather had left the business world in his mid-thirties to takeup public service; so for me, it was public sector all the way.

“He was governor of Connecticut when I was 10, ambassa-dor when I was 12, and he went on to serve in Congress. I decided early on against running for elected office; I thought that what you had to do to get elected sort of dis-tracted you from the things you cared about getting done.

“I have always been most gratified working at the junctionof vision and implementation. There are lots of great ideaslining the shelves. My strong suit has been not so muchdeveloping or researching more ideas as taking some of thegood ones off the shelf and making them useful for people.I particularly like start-ups, when all of the big, basic ques-tions have to be asked and answered—clarifying goals, pick-ing plausible strategies, determining how the organizationwill be structured, financed and staffed.

“Six people began building the Peace Corps, and there were many huge choices that were made by brilliant people,talking to one another about volunteers’ roles, and selec-tion, and training—so many other things. Watching thatorganization grow was a fabulous education. Then Kennedydied, and I was looking around for the next ‘new frontier.’ I thought it had to be John Lindsay in New York City.

“That was hardly a start-up, but decentralizing the schoolswas a huge change in a large-scale operation. It was anentirely new experience to work with an established, highlyregulated bureaucracy with lots of history [New York Cityschool system, Connecticut Medicaid, then ConnecticutAFDC]. You had to ask the question: ‘How do you changewithout starting over?’ That’s a whole different set of chal-lenges. I gravitate to the early stages of implementing animportant, big idea.

Making good ideas usefulBeginning with building the Peace Corps

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“I’ve sometimes thought that the period when I’m at mybest is when I know the least. That’s when you ask dumbquestions, but they’re often good questions, because you’renot inhibited by what you know.

“I think lots of people underestimate the power of theirgeneric capacities; they shortchange their own native abili-ties, their intuition, their gut, their questions. I’ve said tothem, ‘Now hold on, vision doesn’t spring from a spread-sheet; analysis only gets you so far.’ You need judgment,good antennae—to know why something is important, whocares about making a change, and who cares about the sta-tus quo. And you need to get into the shoes of other peoplewithout losing your own grounding. That’s not manipula-tive; it informs the process.

“It’s too bad when the emphasis on higher degrees and spe-cialization overshadows the importance of basic liberal arts.That process of how you grow at school is so mysterious—which inherent capacities you brought and which were cul-tivated once you got there.

“I decided to leave government in 1990 (I’d been theresince 1960), to see how it would be in a less regulated envi-ronment. I thought about foundations, where you couldstand back, identify and seize opportunities to be thebridge, to fill the gap between an idea and its implementa-tion. I realized that I am not fussy about subject matter—education, health care, another field—as long as it squares

with my values, is large in scope, and is important. Allalong, I found I thrived on new situations, new environ-ments, new relationships, and on learning an entirely new field.

“My friend Peter Goldmark, who also worked with JohnLindsay and had led such large governmental organizationsas the welfare department in Massachusetts and the NewYork/New Jersey Port Authority, was then head of theRockefeller Foundation. Lots of people can’t see the widerapplicability of government experience or that the chal-lenges are as tough as any in the private sector. It was fortu-nate that he did, and that he invited me to help him inSouth Africa.

“The foundation world enables important change but canbe pretty far removed from implementation. I have towatch out, because many times I’d rather be the grantee,making change happen, working where the tough andinteresting decisions have to be made.

“I figured out when I was a child that the person who hadthe most influence in my father’s daily work was his secre-tary. I didn’t care about title. I wanted four things: to workwith strong people I respect, to be engaged with big ideas,to have influence, and to have fun. For my first job out ofcollege, I decided to work for a congressman rather than asenator, because the office would be smaller, and I’d beexposed to the whole thing. That began a pattern of work-ing with the whole picture.”

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Nelson Mandela, Sally Bowles ’56 and Oliver Tambo, African National Congress president at the time. London, 1990.

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Deval Patrick, Milton Academy Class of1974, was inaugurated as the 71st Governorof Massachusetts on January 4, 2007.

He is Milton Academy’s first governor; he is the state’s first,and the nation’s second, African-American governor.

While his leadership has already earned historic markers,Deval’s journey to office broke new political ground as well.Marked by creativity and innovation, dogged optimism, andrelentless grass-roots work, Deval and his core campaignstaff galvanized a remarkably diverse group of volunteersand supporters.

Pundits across the country marveled that a candidate withlittle name recognition, little money, and (in the early days) a message from the party regulars that he should wait histurn (and his turn was not now) could come up with the ele-ments of success. It was 56 percent worth of success, in arace that included the now-typical retinue of screenedinsults and innuendoes.

His themes struck home:

• “I’ve learned how to build bridges across different worlds;how to take the time to listen, as I have to people all overthis state; and how not to put people in an ideological box,just as I insist that you not put me in one. And I’velearned one other thing: I’ve learned about the power ofhope, the power of saying, ‘yes, we can.’”

• “Standing on the brink of an uncertain future, with all thechallenges we face today in Massachusetts, all I know howto do is to hope for the best and work for it.”

• “What we need today is a spirit of active collaboration,between government, business, universities, nonprofits,community groups. We need a new spirit of civic respon-sibility, less about party politics and more about problemsolving. And we had better start by being clear-eyed andcandid about our challenges—and creative and collabora-tive in finding solutions. ”

• “Our cause succeeds only if you see this not as my cam-paign, but as yours. Not just my chance to be governor,but yours to rebuild our community, to reclaim your stakein your neighbors’ dreams and struggles as well as yourown.”

While great numbers of Miltonians were volunteers,donors, partisans and celebrants, three Milton graduates ofthe ’90s were staffers who put their life plans on hold andtook up crucial roles at the core of the campaign. Two knewDeval well from their student days—Doug Chavez andSteven Clarke, both Class of 1993; Doug and Steven were,early and often, among the many people—friends and fam-ily, professional colleagues, political cognoscenti—withwhom Deval tested the idea of running for office. The third,Janet Lin, Class of 1997, was already a local legend, a com-munity organizer and affordable housing advocate, withtested skills and the courage to take on challenges.

“GET ENGAGED”

P O L I T I C A L A C T I V I S M

13 Milton Magazine

Three who made a difference

Steven Clarke ’93

“I had committed to a Ph.D. program inpolitical science and was on my way toCalifornia,” Steven said. “Doug and I hadbeen talking with Deval about his candida-cy, and after he announced, he asked me tobe part of the team to get him started.”

Steven had completed a master’s in archi-tecture at Columbia and was working inNew York, but several important experi-ences working in Africa—in Namibia,Ghana, and Tanzania—led him to want toadd policy development to his hands-onarchitectural skills.

“I have known Deval and Diane [Patrick]since my Milton years, and have alwaysadmired their compassion for others andsharp minds. They took Doug, me, andour other friends under their wings andhave been like parents to us ever since,”says Steven. “I knew that if enough peoplehad access to Deval, he would succeed.Most of the staff recognized that the issuewas access; Deval’s personal charisma andideas about policy were a winning combi-nation. I wanted to help.”

Steven deferred Stanford for one year,joined the campaign, and served as deputyfinance director (although the campaignportfolios for all the staff were muchbroader than the title indicated) for a criti-cal eight months; even after he joined hisgirlfriend, who had preceded him toCalifornia, he stayed involved in the cam-paign and worked on fund raising in SanFrancisco.

“Deval’s finance director, Liz Morningstar(wife of Tim Morningstar, Milton Academy’93), taught me everything about our viralfund raising strategy and was a great men-tor and colleague—she is, in short, a fund-raising genius. Liz fostered camaraderieamongst the finance staff that was essen-tial to meeting the challenges of grass-roots fund raising. We grew into a tightteam that grew even tighter and moreeffective with the addition of Janet [Lin],who was a joy to work with.

“Building from the few people who agreedto host the first fund-raisers, we workedwith those who surfaced and were thenwilling to hold their own events. I spenttime on fund-raising strategy and on calen-daring out the milestones. I learned a lotand was happy that the fund-raising strate-gy complemented the overall campaignstrategy,” says Steven.

“Deval made a personal commitment torun the campaign in a certain way. Hewanted direct connection to the votingpopulation—as opposed to trying to figureout what people were looking for and talk-ing to that,” Steven explained. “I felt, alongwith Deval and other people in his person-al circles, disappointed with the state’s tra-jectory. We heard people complain abouthow distant government felt from the peo-ple it served.

“Deval stayed true to his values, many ofwhich he attributed to his education andhis life experiences. He had learned thatgovernment could play a significant role in people’s lives, and he wanted people tore-engage in government. Deval was inSudan after Harvard, and what he saw wasemblematic of a developing country:

a government so weak that people hadnothing; its weakness was the source ofmany problems, especially a weak econo-my without the capacity to grow. He saw adirect connection between a weak govern-ment and the lack of progress people were experiencing.

“Deval came from a background of civilrights activism; my parents were active inthat, too. That movement utilized people,citizens; people changed government and changed lives. Lately, we have seendramatic examples of incompetence in government, like after HurricaneKatrina—government by cronies, inatten-tive to people’s needs. Deval was interestedin changing that.

“To his immense credit, Deval refused thesound bite technique. He was adamantand diligent about making sure issueswere not dumbed down or oversimplified.His was less ideological than most races inthe nation. He elevated the dialogue andfocused on the problem. His supportersgrew steadily over time. There wereRepublicans for Deval—all kinds of peoplefor Deval. Many of the people in his cam-paign were not career political people.

“The people I’ve met here in California arevery interested in this campaign; it wasone of the most grass-roots campaigns inthe history of Massachusetts. People werecoming forward who were displeased withthe direction of the state. For me, that’simportant, to see people making decisionswhere the party affiliation is less impor-tant, and they’re paying more attention toissues. I ended up with tremendousrespect for the amount of work and sacri-fice that people who run for office gothrough. It was fascinating to see howmuch power is involved in the machina-tions of a state.”

Doug Chavez ’93

Back in New York, catching up on sleepafter a campaign’s worth of deprivation,Doug said that the full historic importanceof the election gradually dawned on him.He found that Black EntertainmentTelevision had named Deval one of fivefinalists for person of the year in 2006; aprofessor at Long Island University, whereDoug’s sister is a student, asked Doug tospeak to his political science class; and hewas asked to speak on a New York radioprogram as well.

Doug Chavez ’93, left, and Steven Clarke ’93, right,with a Deval Patrick supporter, Anne Umphrey

Governor Deval Patrick ’74, Doug Chavez ’93,Senator Barack Obama, and MassachusettsLieutenant Governor Timothy Murray

14 Milton Magazine

Reflection is a luxury that requires somedistance, and Doug was immersed inDeval’s candidacy from when it was mere-ly an idea to when he became governor-elect. “It’s hard to fund raise for someonewho hasn’t officially declared yet,” Dougremembers. He did, however, and then lefthis job as a financial analyst with SeanJohn Menswear to work with other mem-bers of the earliest campaign team.

Doug was the utility infielder, with special-ty areas that included connecting with and rallying minority and religious con-stituencies, but which also included fundraising—the task he found most difficult—especially after Steven transitioned toCalifornia.

“At the beginning of the campaign, Iworked on getting the minority communi-ty behind Deval,” Doug says. “I’d beenaway from Massachusetts for 11 years, butI started meeting with political activistsand community leaders. One of Deval’smajor challenges was lack of name recog-nition; the other was lack of money.”

Doug had worked hard during the Kerrycampaign, registering Latino voters inPhiladelphia and Allentown, Pennsylvania.“My number one goal is to improve theLatino community in this country,” Dougmakes clear. The Latino community inMassachusetts didn’t know Doug: “‘You’rea New Yorker,’ they said,” Doug recalls.“But I didn’t have any baggage, either.Why should Latinos care? Latinos havebeen ignored by Democrats, becauseDemocrats think they have us, and courtedby Republicans, who forget about us assoon as they win.”

Doug found the people he met tired ofRomney and hungry for fresh air—achange. With the emotional power of per-sonal experience, Doug introduced Devalto them: “Deval was a father to me, a men-tor to me, he was hard on me. He caresabout everyone. He cares about justice—he’s proved that in his work. He isn’t per-fect, but he’s amazing, brilliant, the kindof person any state and this countryneeds.”

The June 2005 “issues convention” of delegates was the beginning of the break-through in name recognition. “Campaignleaders Nancy Stoleberg and John Walshdid a great job getting political activistsfrom around the state to know Deval,”

Doug claims. “We already had hundreds ofstudent volunteers and campaign leaders,and those two had them all wear neongreen tee shirts with Deval Patrick acrossthe front. They were everywhere”; Dougsays, “they were the buzz. Deval’s speechwas electrifying. By the end of it the wholeconvention was screaming with him ‘Yes,we can.’”

The campaign viewed its flotilla of collegeinterns as a key resource, and made effortsto make sure they were valued and felt likea part of something big, including settingup speakers for them, like MichaelDukakis. They put the students to work onvisibility, at intersections, on bridges, incenters of towns. “We were a year and ahalf away from an election, and still theywere out there,” says Doug. “Nancy andJohn wanted to build name recognition,and they were right. Deval has always beengreat at getting skilled people around him.”

People were energized; still, the summerof 2005, particularly September, was diffi-cult: Spending threatened to outpace fund-raising. Money eventually began to comein and the campaign was able to opensatellite offices in Dorchester and inSpringfield, which has a large communityof color. “That made it easier for me tobring in volunteers of color,” Doug says.“Although some came, going to the mainheadquarters in Charlestown was a chal-lenge for many.”

After the convention, Doug added twoother constituencies to his list: unionactivists (not the elected leaders) and thefaith community (clerics). “I don’t agreewith Deval on this or on that,” Doug saysthey responded, “but overall I like what hesays.” He continued with the Latino com-munities, especially in Worcester,Lawrence and Fall River, and worked withthe African-American community, too.

“Many white progressive liberals, and evensome white conservatives, were onboardright away,” Doug remembers. “It took theAfrican-Americans and Latinos longer.African-Americans didn’t know him andasked, like others, what Deval had done forthem. They were skeptical that the whitecommunity would elect a black governor.My answer to them was ‘we need yourhelp. Get involved.’”

“‘Go to the Web site,’ I said, ‘go to anevent; meet the man; give him a chance.’”Deval, John Walsh and strategist DougRubin were responsible for the campaigntone; race wasn’t going to be the centralissue. “Deval was glad when someone inthe audience brought the race questionup,” Doug recalls. “‘I am a black man,’ hewould say. ‘If people have a problem withthat, it’s their problem, not my problem.’”

Between the primary and the general elec-tion, Doug focused on the Spanish-speak-ing media, newspapers and radio stations,going on for interviews after an initialinterview with Deval. “Almost all endorsedDeval—Siglo 21, El Planeta, El Vocero,” saysDoug. El Mundo, a traditionally conserva-tive paper, did not officially endorse him,but clearly stated that the Republican can-didate did not deserve the Latino commu-nity’s vote.

“Besides getting good, smart peoplearound him, Deval is a great listener,”according to Doug. “Being a great listeneris the key to being a great leader. He lis-tens to everyone. Usually I like to talk—ata meeting, or any kind of gathering—butnow I find myself listening a lot more, andI learn so much. I was humbled by thewhole experience.”

Janet Lin ’97

“Well, I’m excited about this job and terri-fied, but the two people I work for areextraordinary leaders and mentors, DanO’Connell and Deval Patrick,” says JanetLin. She’s in her second day as chief ofstaff for Mr. O’Connell, the newly appoint-ed secretary of housing and economicdevelopment.

“The governor has elevated the status ofaffordable housing and economic develop-ment by combining them both in this newsecretariat. Labor and workforce issues,typically folded in to housing and econom-ic development, are another secretariat.This is revolutionary thinking and struc-ture, to define economic development interms of the quality of life that skilledworkers in Massachusetts should expect,including being able to afford housing,”Janet explains.

“I staffed fund-raisers along with StevenClarke, and people would ask, ‘What areyou going to do about population loss inMassachusetts?’ This secretariat is a directresponse to that concern.

15 Milton Magazine

“Going to fund-raisers, I used to think that the purpose of the question-and-answer session was that people who camedeserved to have their questions answered.Then I realized that this exchange was much more about an approach to governance.”

Janet was more than an observer of politi-cal activism when she was asked to jointhe Patrick campaign. At Brown shemajored both in history and computer science, and began her work life first atRaytheon and then on an emerging tech-nology at a start-up hatched in an MIT lab.

The daughter of two immigrants, Janethad always been serious about hergrades—both at Milton and Brown—butshe says “your outside-of-class life isalmost more important; that’s where youfind out who you are, where you defineyourself as distinct from your peers.” Sheknew that her life would always involveactivism, and while working she alwaysvolunteered. She was a community organ-izer working on affordable housing, ten-ants’ organizations, and youth activities.Over time she began to feel like that workshould be her full-time work.

When Sam Yoon, an affordable housingadvocate and developer in Chinatown,decided to run for the Boston CityCouncil—the first Asian-American to runfor office in Boston—Janet volunteered forhis campaign. After a month, CouncilorYoon asked Janet to be his campaign man-ager. “Thrilled and honored,” Janet agreedto be his interim until he found an experi-enced campaign manager.

She learned the Boston political landscapequickly and realized that the black hole inCouncilor Yoon’s campaign organizationwas fund raising. “There’s a direct correla-tion between dollars and success; you can’tavoid it,” Janet says. “Well, that’s how Ilearned to be a grass-roots fund-raiser. Thedonation cap was $500, so you had to havea broad reach to achieve volume. I realizedthat I had to set up and work with multi-ple, and often disparate, constituencies if we were going to raise the funds weneeded.

“Sam Yoon had popped up on Deval’sradar scan, apparently, because he con-tributed to the campaign. Later, when Iwas about to go to the issues convention inJune 2005, as a delegate, Deval made a callto introduce himself to me as a candidate.”

Not surprisingly, Janet’s résumé attractedthe attention of Liz Morningstar, the Patrickcampaign’s finance director, who askedJanet to join the staff as deputy financedirector in the fall of 2005. “At the time, I thought I had sacrificed a year of careerbuilding to work for Sam Yoon, and now I needed to think about sacrificing again.On the other hand, [Deval] is the same guythat had so excited and inspired me atMilton, when I was a freshman and he wasappointed assistant attorney general.

“When I began, Steven Clarke and LizMorningstar were my mentors; theytaught me so much. The campaign reallythought, without any polls or research, thatDeval would do well with female voters.We all had portfolios beyond fund raising,and I was asked to build the ‘women forDeval’ constituency. I worked closely withDiane Patrick to do that, and she wasremarkable. I am so taken with Diane.Building this group was new terrain forboth of us, and I really enjoyed that workwith her. She and Deval have a model partnership.

“During the campaign, the governoralways wanted to know, from people,‘What is on your mind?’ He led us byexample. His staff understood that theywere extensions of him, of his approach.We had to be excellent listeners. The waywe interacted with people had to meet hisown high standards.”

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Milton election victoriesbeyond Massachusetts

Harold Janeway, Milton AcademyClass of 1954, former president of theboard of trustees, and now trusteeemeritus, was elected to the NewHampshire Senate on November 7,beating the three-term incumbent 58percent to 42 percent. Harold joinsMartha Fuller Clark ’60 and PeterBurling ’63 in the 24-person body.“Three Milties” in the Granite StateSenate “may well be something of arecord,” as Harold noted.

“I believe that we must bring balanceto the New Hampshire Senate tomake the legislature work for the peo-ple of the state,” Harold said duringhis campaign. “Governor Lynch’s non-partisan approach deserves andrequires a Senate that will work col-laboratively to do what is best for NewHampshire. As your senator, I willmake my top priorities affordable andaccessible health care, a superior edu-cation system, fiscal discipline, and asustainable environment.”

Dan O’Connell, Massachusetts secretary of housing and economic development, and his chief of staff,Janet Lin ’97, greeting office workers right after the gubernatorial inauguration.

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16 Milton Magazine

Randy Quezada ’97

Nearly 35,000 individuals in New YorkCity are homeless. That number repre-sents 23 percent fewer children and 10 percent fewer families than in June 2004when Mayor Michael R. Bloombergannounced his commitment to reducingthe number of homeless New Yorkers bytwo-thirds in five years (2009). Just thispast December, Robert V. Hess, commis-sioner of the city’s Department of Home-less Services (DHS), announced animportant initiative geared toward achieve-ment of the mayor’s goal: “In an historicagreement between the City of New Yorkand the Veterans Administration to helpend veteran homelessness in the City…theCity will place 100 veterans into perma-nent housing in 100 days. Veterans Affairsand the City will also convene a Task Forcethat will report back in 100 days with astrategic plan to end veteran homelessnessin New York City.”

As special assistant to CommissionerHess, Randy’s job is to “make sure whatthe Commissioner wants to happen, hap-pens.” From policy and program develop-ment to implementation of new strategiesand initiatives, Randy “connects the dots.”His challenge is to achieve real progressthrough “informal” management; that is,to get things done through DHS stafferswho actually report to other leaders, suchas deputy and assistant commissioners ofthe agency.

OUR CLIENTS ARE AMONG THE

HARDEST TO SERVE

S E R V I C E

17 Milton Magazine

ted to public service. “Public service workis challenging—it’s important work and itis good work,” he says. Randy’s commit-ment grew out of his experience with Prepfor Prep and was reinforced at Milton, hesaid, “where the emphasis was on how youfit into a community, and what you bringto the community to make it a better place.

“I’ve always envisioned a career in the public sector as giving back, taking care ofothers and not simply myself. I’ve alwaysbeen very fortunate. School came easier tome than to some others and I had lots ofopportunities. That fueled my desire toprovide opportunities to people less fortu-nate than I am and to make sure that com-munities were not marginalized as a resultof poverty and homelessness.”

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Before he came to DHS, Randy worked onimmigration issues, such as immigrants’voting rights, where the subjects of hisactivism and advocacy were policy-makersand the public at large. Now he must usethe same skills to motivate DHS staff, rallythem around agency and program goals,and motivate them to act outside of well-established comfort zones in order to meetnew challenges.

“This public service work does not attractmuch press attention but I feel stronglythat we must be there—in the trencheswith our clients who are poor and home-less or at risk of losing their home,” Randysays. “The daunting social issues that theymust struggle with on a daily basis makethem the most challenging population toserve.

“DHS’ mission is two-pronged: to preventhomelessness wherever possible and pro-vide short-term emergency shelter and re-housing whenever needed. On any givennight we shelter 35,000 people. They havefallen off an unstable platform and requireemergency shelter. We are about what itwill take to get them back on their feet.

“I believe DHS is on the right track withrespect to priorities; we’re working hard tomeet the mayor’s goal of reducing home-lessness by two-thirds by 2009. To meetthis mandate, the agency is developingnew strategies and new initiatives. We areworking closely with many other city agen-cies to achieve this goal and to ensure thebest outcome for our clients, which is per-manent housing.”

How do ideas surface? Ideas come frommanagement, and most managers moveup through the ranks. Randy is happy tobe among the “idea people,” with directaccess to DHS executives who are going tolisten to his ideas. In fact, Randy’s mainreason for leaving his prior position with anonprofit organization was that the issueshe worked on were not a priority for thatorganization.

Randy majored in philosophy and politicalscience at Penn. He was a New YorkUrban Fellow and earned a master’sdegree in public policy at the KennedySchool of Government [at HarvardUniversity]. He has always been commit-

DHS, like similar agencies in other cities,strives to “overcome” homelessness, a morecomprehensive and strategy-dependentgoal than managing homelessness throughthe provision of short-term, emergencyshelter. Randy’s work involves manage-ment, qualitative analysis, and policy rec-ommendation and formation. Recently he has been particularly involved in twospecial projects: the first is to end encamp-ments on the city’s streets by movinghomeless individuals into shelters or moresuitable housing alternatives; the second isthe campaign focused on homeless veter-ans. In the former case, an interagencytask force meets regularly to coordinatehow best to address the issues presentedby encampments and their take-downwhile ensuring that clients are engagedand placed in safe and decent housing.

Randy Quezada ’97

18 Milton Magazine

From DistressedNeighborhoods,Building HealthyCommunities

S E R V I C E

19 Milton Magazine

Kate Grossman Sutliff ’91Director of Housing, LISC New York

Jennie Bartlett ’00 Assistant Program Officer, Office of the ChiefOperating Officer, LISC Washington, D.C.

Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC)has generated $7.1 billion in communitybuilding investments, which in turn leveraged$16.7 billion in total development. Thesefunds have helped build or rehabilitate196,000 affordable homes and nearly 27 mil-lion square feet of retail, community and education space across the country.

In New York, Kate works with LISCwhere the concept was born

After the nation viewed the 1977 devasta-tion and arson in the South Bronx, theneed to regenerate the country’s pooresturban neighborhoods was brought intourgent focus. To support the resident-ledcommunity groups on the frontlines com-bating the increasing blight, the FordFoundation helped found a new type oforganization in 1979: the Local InitiativesSupport Corporation, more commonlyknown as LISC.

While LISC began as a very targeted effortto help combat the major abandonment,arson, crime and disinvestment that wasplaguing the South Bronx in the 1960sand ’70s, it has since grown into a nationalleader in community development, work-ing in both urban and rural locationsaround the country. Today, LISC brings aholistic view to community development,helping transform distressed neighbor-hoods into healthy communities wherepeople have access to affordable homes,jobs, reliable places to shop, and high-quality schools.

Kate Grossman Sutliff ’91 is the director ofhousing at LISC’s New York City office,which works with community develop-ment corporations (CDCs) in low-incomeneighborhoods primarily in Brooklyn,Harlem and the South Bronx. “CDCs typi-cally begin as local, grass-roots, nonprofitorganizations,” says Kate, “that were will-ing to step up and take responsibility foradvocating for local residents and rebuild-ing their neighborhoods.”

New York City CDCs have faced a remark-able shift in the development landscapeover the years, according to Kate. In the1980s, the city had a huge inventory of tax-foreclosed properties, which they decidedto sell to community developers for onedollar, and in exchange, the developer builtaffordable homes and apartments. Due tothe huge success of the program, this low-cost inventory is now nearly depleted, andnew challenges abound. “It’s hard enoughto develop affordable housing with today’srising construction costs; imagine addingNew York City’s high acquisition prices tothe cost of development,” Kate says.

“In today’s environment, CDCs have to beextremely entrepreneurial,” explains Kate.“The Fifth Avenue Committee, a BrooklynCDC we work with, recently launched aninitiative to build affordable housing in theunderutilized space on top of publiclibraries. This innovative approach solvestwo problems at once. Outdated and dete-riorating libraries are modernized andrejuvenated, and much-needed affordablehousing is brought to a neighborhoodwhere space for new housing is at a premi-um. Putting a project like this togetherrequires a whole new approach to doingbusiness; CDCs are redefining as theyadapt to this changing environment.”

Kate started at LISC as a community devel-opment officer (CDO), responsible for abroad portfolio of CDCs, working on what-ever deals her CDCs were developing.

“You build a broader array of skills work-ing with multiple partners on a wide vari-ety of projects—an approach that alsohelps keep you interested and challengedday-to-day. This structure also benefits theCDCs; with a single point person, a groupgets a true advocate for its organization.”

Currently, as director of housing, Kateoversees the CDOs and her primary focushas shifted to management: training, trou-bleshooting, supervising, as well as spend-ing time outside the office making surethe work CDCs are doing is visible.

Kate’s path to LISC led her through severaldifferent states and disciplines. After shegraduated from Amherst College, shemoved to San Francisco and began work atthe Federal Reserve Bank. She then earnedher MBA at Wharton, which was “a greatcomplement to my liberal arts education,”Kate says. “I’ve always been committed topublic interest work, but believe that non-profits should function just as entrepre-neurially, creatively, and efficiently asfor-profit companies, with the same levelof accountability to their stakeholders.”

After graduating, Kate moved to New Yorkto continue work she had started withEdison Schools during the previous sum-mer—helping open a charter school on the South Side of Chicago, and leadingEdison’s national principal-recruitmentefforts. From Edison, Kate joined LISC,where she has been for the past five and ahalf years. She continues her commitmentto bringing quality education to low-income communities by serving on theboard of trustees of the Harlem LinkCharter School.

“I am wired to seek out challenges in mywork, and this work is certainly challeng-ing,” Kate notes. “A job like this feeds allparts of me. I love numbers, and I get tospend a lot of time on financial modelingand underwriting. Relationship building is another critical facet of each day, and I enjoy the strong team environment hereat LISC. Finally, I’m constantly energizedby being part of the citywide effort tostrengthen New York City’s most vulnera-ble families and communities.”

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Kate Grossman Sutliff ’91

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In Washington, Jennie concen-trates on LISC’s strategic direction

Over its 25-year history, LISC has opened32 offices in cities across the country. At its national center in Washington, D.C.,Jennie Bartlett ’00 focuses on the broadorganizational view of this communitydevelopment corporation.

“For the last two and a half years my workhas involved supporting and strengtheningour local offices,” Jennie explains, “whichincludes brokering partnerships, workingwith them on developing their programplans, and managing internal processes tofacilitate an efficient and fluid relationshipbetween local operations and nationaloversight.”

During her senior year at Trinity College(Hartford, Connecticut)—where shedesigned a major in international urbanstudies with a minor in architecture—Jennie took a community organizing class,through which she discovered LISC. Shewas drawn to the organization’s missionand its work in Hartford on homeowner-ship and community development.Working with LISC as an intern, shefocused her senior thesis on measuringthe impact of homeownership on the revi-talization of two Hartford neighborhoods.After graduation, she stayed with LISC atthe national level.

Since 2005, Jennie has worked at a corpo-rate-wide strategic plan. “Assessing the his-tory of the company over its 25 years ofexistence—determining what’s still rele-

vant, how the environment has changed,how to add more value—has been anincredible experience,” she says. LISC’sinternal committee began with big ques-tions: Can we achieve something locally wheneconomic forces are increasingly regional,national and international? Can communitydevelopment corporations (CDCs) accomplishsomething significant enough to affect the fundamentals of local life?

The metrics of success (noted at the startof this article) measure the organization’ssuccess. “We saw how far we’d come, butwe needed to address whether we couldsustain a lasting impact, rather than justinjecting short-term support,” Jennie says.“We found that we can achieve a lastingimpact, but the question remains, ‘How dowe know these benefits will continue togrow?’”

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From these discussions emerged five pro-gram objectives that, taken together, con-tribute to comprehensive communityhealth and sustainability: expanding capi-tal investment in housing and other realestate; increasing family income andwealth; stimulating economic activity—connecting to regional economy; improv-ing access to quality education; andsupporting healthy environments andlifestyles.

“We began as an affordable housing com-pany, so we don’t want to move too farfrom our core competency, but we don’twant to limit ourselves either,” Jennieexplains. “You need more than affordablehousing to build and sustain a thrivingcommunity. You need to develop the entireneighborhood—environmental and child-care development, business and educa-

tion.” An example of this comprehensivedevelopment is in LISC’s affiliation withthe National Football League GrassrootsProgram, which has donated $2.5 millionso that 16 cities around the country—from Seattle, Washington, to Jacksonville,Florida, to Brookline, Massachusetts—canbuild or improve upon existing commu-nity football fields.

“LISC is best at organizing and buildingpartnerships at the local level,” Jennie says,“and we bring to the table our ability toprovide national loan capital to help fundlocal initiatives. Choosing 11 pilot sites forthe new sustainable plan was complicated,but we worked hard to choose the localoffices that were already engaged in com-prehensive community development andcould successfully achieve the sustainablecommunities goals in five years. One ofthe greatest challenges of initiating thestrategic plan is communicating its mes-sage and its vision, both nationally andlocally. I am excited to be a part of thisongoing process.”

Jennie’s path to LISC started with Milton.“I left Milton with the idea that I wascharged with being an active, contributingmember of society. Milton really instilled asense of obligation in me, as well as asense of capability.

“Our work at LISC demands fluency in arange of components—real estate, com-munity development, finance, partnershipbuilding, strategic management. I love thatthis work combines so many fields ofstudy and areas of interest. LISC hasextremely high intellectual capital; similarto my experience at Milton, the companybrings together smart, diverse, sociallyaware people who are dedicated to a mis-sion. Addressing, on a daily basis, the eco-nomic and social dilemma of distressedurban and rural communities has been aprofoundly grounding and educationalexperience.”

Erin Hoodlet

“THE ARC”: Brand-new community facility in Northeast Washington, D.C., that includes a full theatre stadi-um, dance studio, music and arts rooms, and rental space for CDCs (among other things); supported byWashington, D.C., LISC.

Jennie Bartlett ’00

22 Milton Magazine

Stewardship of the Earth:A Matter of Fairness and Responsibility

E N V I R O N M E N T

Theo Spencer ’84

“People tend to think of global warming as ahuge, overwhelming problem. The truth isthat there are common-sense solutions that wecan adopt to solve the problem—solutions thatare both good for the economy and good forthe health of our environment. We need tothink and act optimistically. We need to looktoward new technologies rather than relyingon the old ones.”

The National Resources Defense Council(NRDC) defines its work as maintainingthe integrity of nature’s resources. It“seeks to establish sustainability and goodstewardship of the earth as central ethicalimperatives of human society.”

This sense of responsibility for the earthdrew Theo Spencer ’84 to work withNRDC’s Climate Center, one of the organi-zation’s several program areas. TheClimate Center works to establish policieswithin the United States that help dimin-ish the major causes of global warming.Headquartered in New York, with othermain offices in Washington, D.C., LosAngeles, San Francisco, Chicago, andBeijing, the NRDC and its Climate Centeradvocates passing legislation that wouldreduce emission of heat-trapping gasessuch as carbon dioxide (CO2). One part ofan emissions policy promoting globalwarming solutions is a cap-and-trade sys-tem. It creates a financial incentive forcleaning up dirty power plants and manu-facturing emission-reducing vehicles byappointing a cost to polluting.

“One of my focuses has been on New YorkState vehicle laws,” Theo explains. “Toreduce emissions, I’ve worked to enact theCalifornia tailpipe CO2 standards andmake them apply in New York. Recently,my focus has been mainly on the interiorWest—states like New Mexico, Colorado,

23 Milton Magazine

Montana, Arizona, Nevada—and I amworking on clean energy policies in thoseareas as well.”

Before Theo joined the NRDC, he studiedjournalism and wrote for various newspa-pers and magazines, including Fortune.During that time, he served on the boardof the New York State EnvironmentalGroup. “As I became more interested inthis, I became less interested in my otherwork,” Theo says. He left his job at Fortunethe same time that the NRDC was given alarge gift allowing them to start a new pro-gram area focused exclusively on globalwarming. Theo began by handling com-munications for the organization, butmade his way to the campaign and policywork full-time, where his passion is.

“I got into this work not because I am outcamping all the time, but out of a sense of justice and injustice,” Theo explains.“People are doing things to the environ-ment that are just outrageous. It’s an issueof fairness and responsibility. I’m not look-ing for everyone to be conscious of this outof altruism necessarily, but I want to makesure that people are doing what is right ina larger sense—that there are laws in placeand that these laws are being followed.

“Right now I am working on fighting aproposal in Texas; TXU is looking to build11 or so coal-fired power plants using oldand highly polluting technology. Coal-fired

power plants are the single largest cause ofglobal warming pollution in the UnitedStates. I am spending time speaking withlocal officials and other environmentalgroups to fight the building of theseplants. For my work in the interior West, I work with governors’ offices, state agen-cies, and other interest groups.”

While tackling the larger issues that con-tribute to global warming, Theo points outthat each of us can do our part to diminishour carbon footprints. “My advice is to buyefficient appliances, use compact fluores-cent lightbulbs, pay attention to the type ofcar that you buy. Most importantly, payattention to local and state politics. Bevocal about the candidates who approachthe idea of energy and the environment ina responsible way.”

www.nrdc.org

Lafcadio Cortesi ’79

Using the marketplace to protect borealforests, key regulators of climate change

Lafcadio Cortesi ’79 remembers spendingsummers during high school doing volun-teer work on the behavior of temple mon-keys in Nepal—an adventure that “turned[his] world on its head.” These experiencesprecipitated his professional life’s trajecto-ry and purpose. For the past 20 years,Lafcadio has worked in North America andthe Asia Pacific—from Indonesia to Papua,New Guinea, to Micronesia—facilitatingenvironmental sustainability and justice.

Fascinated by the intersection of culture,ecology and economics, Lafcadio is basedin the San Francisco Bay Area, where heworks with Forest Ethics as the director of Boreal Markets and Solutions. Mostrecently he has focused on market-basedapproaches to transforming business mod-els. “It’s fertile ground for growing the

Theo Spencer ’84

24 Milton Magazine

seeds of a new way of being for humans on our planet,” he explains. “I have beenfortunate in planting some seeds that have blossomed over the years workingwith Volunteers in Asia, Greenpeace and the U.S. Agency for InternationalDevelopment–funded Biodiversity SupportProgram.”

Founded in 1994, Forest Ethics is a non-profit environmental organization withstaff in Canada, the United States andChile. Its mission is to “protect endan-gered forests by transforming the paperand wood industries in North America andby supporting forest communities in thedevelopment of conservation-basedeconomies.”

A boreal forest ecosystem, as described on Borealnet.org, is “the contiguous greenbelt of conifer and deciduous trees thatencircles a large portion of the NorthernHemisphere. In North America, the borealforest stretches across most of northernCanada and into Alaska. It has long beenidentified as one of the world’s three greatforest ecosystems.” According to Lafcadio,boreal forest accounts for about 25 percentof the world’s remaining intact or roadlessforest ecosystems and is one of the planet’skey regulators of global climate change.

To protect boreal forest ecosystems andothers like them, Forest Ethics determineswhich companies purchase the productsthat hasten the destruction of these forests.“We run market campaigns that identifylarge branded customers of forest productsand work collaboratively with them to

change what they’re buying,” Lafcadioexplains. The organization also teachesthese corporations “how to leverage theirpurchases and influence into new protect-ed areas, better forest management poli-cies, and conservation economies in keyendangered forest regions.”

Large companies such as Staples, HomeDepot and Dell use these trees for paper,lumber or furniture. Victoria’s Secret, forinstance, mails nearly one million cata-logues each day, catalogues that are print-ed on paper created from the trees of thisendangered area. From Forest Ethics’ perspective, this practice was a ripe oppor-tunity for intervention. “We used publiccampaigning to expose the effects of [thecompany’s] consumption and negotiatedsolutions,” Lafcadio says. “We then con-vinced them to adopt a leadership policy

with regard to procurement. They agreedto take action and reduce consumption, tobegin using 10 percent recycled fiber intheir paper, and to ensure that the remain-ing virgin fiber does not come from eco-logically significant areas that requireprotection.” An article in the December 7,2006, issue of the Wall Street Journal high-lighted Forest Ethics’ work on this cam-paign and the agreement of LimitedBrands Incorporated (Victoria’s Secret’sparent company)—as well as similar agree-ments Forest Ethics has secured with Delland Williams-Sonoma—to shift the cata-logue industry and help it “go green.”

“If a corporation refuses to change its prac-tices, we hold it publicly accountable—with media stories, street demonstrations,online strategies and paid media or adver-tisements,” Lafcadio explains. “When com-panies recognize their impact and takeresponsibility, we help them find alterna-tives, invent new ways of doing businessand implement sound policies throughour Corporate Action Program. Either way,we work to turn potential corporate adver-saries into allies. Logging companies listento their largest customers. Many of thesecustomers, in turn, recognize that theircompany values, and those of their owncustomer base, call for demonstratingenvironmental and social leadership.”

To date, Forest Ethics has led initiativesthat have resulted in the protection of overseven million acres of endangered forest inBritish Columbia and Chile.

www.forestethics.org

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Lafcadio Cortesi ’79

25 Milton Magazine

E N V I R O N M E N T

“…during the last decade the environmental chal-lenges that face us have taken on an exponentiallyhigher order of urgency and complexity. We mustrespond to climate change, threats to our cleanwater, air and health, and the loss of working farm-land and open space. We need support for energyindependence, stewardship of public lands, cultur-al institutions and urban, minority, wilderness andsuburban parks and communities.”

—Willie Janeway ’81

William C. Janeway Earns the 2006 Advocate Award from

Environmental Advocates of New York

As director of New YorkGovernment Relations for TheNature Conservancy, Willie is apowerful and respected voice onconservation issues, helping tobuild coalitions such as theFriends of New York’s Environ-ment and leading, with others,the charge for state funding toprotect New York’s endangeredlands and waters.

His distinguished environmentalcareer includes service as execu-tive director of the GreenwayConservancy for the HudsonRiver Valley, executive director ofthe Albany Pine Bush PreserveCommission, and director ofNorth Country operations for theAdirondack Mountain Club.

“Willie is, without question, oneof the most impressive, success-ful and respected advocates

working in our state, and there isno better example of this thanwhat was accomplished this yearby Friends of New York’s Envi-ronment under his leadership,”says Andy Beers, The NatureConservancy of New York’s act-ing state director. Friends of NewYork’s Environment, a coalitionof more than 200 organizationsspeaking with one voice, suc-ceeded in persuading theGovernor and State Legislatureto increase the EnvironmentalProtection Fund from $125 mil-lion to $225 million in the shortspan of two years.

“…New York is blessed withsome of the most diverse andbeautiful places in NorthAmerica, from the beaches ofLong Island Sound, to the HighPeaks of the Adirondacks and the shores of the Great Lakes.

“Because of Willie’s efforts weare all able to enjoy the naturalsplendor and abundant wildlifeliving in these remarkableareas,” says Rob Moore, execu-tive director of EnvironmentalAdvocates and a close collabora-tor in the effort to increase theEnvironmental Protection Fund.“He is a rare individual andsomeone who understands theintrinsic value of building strongcoalitions.”

Willie Janeway is an indefatiga-ble champion for the cause ofland preservation who hasearned the admiration andappreciation of his colleagues.We are proud to honor his manyaccomplishments with our 2006Advocate Award.

From the awards program, courtesyof Environmental Advocates of New York

Environmental Advocates of NewYork is the state’s governmentwatchdog, holding lawmakers andagencies accountable for enactingand enforcing laws that protect nat-ural resources and safeguard publichealth. Environmental Advocatesworks alone and in coalitions, andhas more than 7,000 individualand 130 organizational members.The tax-exempt 501(c)(3) is alsothe New York affiliate of theNational Wildlife Federation.

Willie Janeway ’81 (right) explains to New York officials the need to protect ecologically important lands.

26 Milton Magazine

Citizen SchoolsE D U C A T I O N

“Although we, as a country, are working toward bettering ourschool systems, school reform alone is not enough to lift allstudents. Citizen Schools is a new paradigm in the way ofeducating and strengthening students’ education. It enablesmore time for learning and the presence of more caringadults in children’s lives.” —Eric Schwarz ’79

27 Milton Magazine

Eric Schwarz ’79

Co-founder and CEO of Boston-based educational program, Citizen Schools

Citizen Schools began in Dorchester,Massachusetts, in 1995 with a vision ofhelping to improve student achievementby blending real-world learning projectsand rigorous academics after school. Thename comes from the idea that citizenswithin the community—lawyers, chefs,reporters, architects—would donate theirtime to working with a group of studentsin an apprenticeship relationship, sharingtheir strengths and teaching children someof the skills necessary to succeed in thatparticular career.

The teaching model of Citizen Schools, co-founded by Eric Schwarz ’79, took itscue from Howard Gardner of HarvardUniversity, who described the power ofapprenticeship learning in his book TheUnschooled Mind. Gardner—along withJohn Dewey, described by Eric as “thepatron saint of progressive education”—points to learning through doing as theroot of great education. Eric notes that“Milton classrooms do that very well, butmost students don’t get much exposure toit. At Citizen Schools we set students upwith the best architects, for instance, andthey have a model of success and someonewho wants to share his or her knowledge.The students have the chance to realizethat math and geometry are not onlyimportant because their teachers say theyare, but because they need those skills to,say, create the playground that they areactually planning and building.”

What started small, with Eric and co-founder Ned Rimer teaching journalismand firstaid, respectively, has developedinto a national organization reaching over3,000 middle-school-aged students in 15cities across five states and engaging 2,400volunteers. Outreach for volunteers beganwith Eric and Ned turning to their personalnetwork of friends and co-workers. As theprogram developed, larger companiesbecame involved as a way to support theiremployees. “There is a hunger in a lot ofpeople to connect with children,” Eric says,“and many have been involved with BigBrothers, Big Sisters or some other similarorganization. What we offer, though, is the

chance for mentoring with a purpose andplaying to your strengths, and then passingthat on to kids who are so eager to learnfrom you.

“The program gives students the chance toexperience the joy of work and the fun inlearning; it gives meaning to their academ-ics and gives them a real-world context forlearning. It provides them with aspirations,role models and a reason to work hard withan experience of success. The belief fromthe beginning has been focused on results,on tangible outcome gains.”

Although apprenticeship is a major part ofthe program, with each student participat-ing in four apprenticeships each year,there is also a more traditional and com-prehensive curriculum that provideshomework help, study skills, tutoring, andfield trips to colleges and museums. AsEric explains, the organization attracts abroad group of students—those who arereally motivated, those who fall toward themiddle of the pack, and those who are twoto four grade levels behind where theyshould be. Ninety-one percent of partici-pants are low-income.

“Low-income urban children have a 50percent chance of graduating from highschool,” Eric reports. “Yet alumni ofCitizen Schools have gone on to Smith,Wesleyan, Boston College, MIT. We havefour to five years’ worth of reliable datafrom a longitudinal study to support the success of our programs. The studycompared 1,000 middle-school studentsinvolved in Citizen Schools for at least afull year against a matched comparisongroup of similar students of the same age.Our students outperformed the compari-son students on six out of seven academicmetrics, including test scores, attendance,and promotion rates, and graduates weremore than two times as likely to go on to atop-tier college preparatory high school.”

And what are the challenges of such aninnovative and comprehensive program?“Because this is a new paradigm, one ofthe first things we have to do is change theway people think of learning and educa-tion,” Eric says. “The common notion isthat [teaching and learning] are limited tothe school day and the classroom, yet thereis so much room, and desire, for learningoutside of the classroom. Students spendup to 80 percent of their waking hours

outside of school. Another major and con-stant challenge of any nonprofit organiza-tion is raising funding and cultivating partnerships.”

About 20 percent of Citizen Schools’ fund-ing comes from government grants underthe federal No Child Left Behind Act. Theorganization also receives funding fromAmeriCorps and from individual and cor-porate donors. As the program grows, itcontinues to build up connections withlarger corporations and supporters such as Goldman Sachs, Fidelity, the EdnaMcConnell Clark Foundation and Bank ofAmerica. With plans to increase the num-ber of students served fourfold over thenext five years, the organization also hopesto increase funding from $11 million lastyear to $35 million by 2011–12.

Citizen Schools has received several presti-gious awards since its inception, includingthe MassINC Commonwealth Medal, threeconsecutive four-star ratings from CharityNavigator and, most recently, its thirdSocial Capitalist Award from Fast CompanyMagazine, a partner of Monitor Group,which names organizations for donors“who want the highest possible socialreturn for their charitable gifts.” This win-ter, the organization was also profiled onthe front page of Education Week.

www.citizenschools.org

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Eric Schwarz ’79

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28 Milton Magazine

Chris Myers ’80

Founder and CEO, OpenWorld Learning

“The children keep exceeding our expectationsof what’s possible. They keep pushing us todevelop a more advanced and more challeng-ing curriculum in order to keep up with them.”

When Chris Myers ’80 describesOpenWorld Learning, the education non-profit that he founded seven years ago, his smile and excitement are infectious.OpenWorld Learning (OWL) is an after-school program for children in grades 3through 5 that combines learning aboutcomputer programming with peer teach-ing. Chris launched the program “to giveback for what [he] was given, by givingsomething important to other children.”

A scholarship student at Milton comingfrom a Boston elementary school, Chrisobserved that “At [his] previous school, con-centrating on learning while dealing withthe challenging social environment was difficult. At Milton the intellectual stimula-tion, the peer culture, and the social andemotional components of learning made ita wonderful, influential place.”

More than 500 children in the DenverPublic Schools experience creativity, leader-ship and ownership through OWL. “I wantto make the fun and challenging educationthat I’ve seen available for affluent childrenavailable for low-income children.” Over 80percent of OWL students qualify for the

federal free and reduced-price lunch pro-gram, and over 90 percent of OWL’s stu-dents are Latino, “the most appreciativegroup of students and parents you couldever dream up,” Chris says. “They arethirsty for knowledge, excited to learn, andgrateful for an opportunity to be part of agood learning environment.”

Chris graduated from Harvard with adegree in Latin American history, eager toapply his enthusiasm for Latin Americanlanguage and culture to a career. In 1989 he moved to Denver, Colorado, and beganteaching elementary school, which he admits “is not a common career path forsomeone with a Milton and Harvarddegree.”

Chris taught at the Stanridge BritishPrimary School: a progressive privateschool “based in the belief that educationshould tap into children’s creativity andimagination and give students ownershipand choices in their own learning.” Christhen taught fourth grade at a traditional,wealthy private school called Graland.“There again,” he explains, “I was facedwith the stark differences between privateand public educations.” With this in mind,Chris led the establishment of the BritishPrimary Program in the Denver PublicSchools, teaching the British Primarymodel to Latino children in an inner-cityDenver neighborhood.

While teaching, Chris was introduced to abook called Mindstorms, written by MITprofessor and now OWL national advisoryboard member, Seymour Papert. Chrisbelieves that the book, written in 1980, andPapert’s vision were 30 years ahead of theirtime. “Papert explains how personal com-puters can enhance the way children learn.He writes about LOGO—the computer pro-gram that he invented to help childrenlearn math—but also about what consti-tutes an ideal learning environment. I start-ed teaching his computer programminglanguage in my classrooms, and the chil-dren always responded.”

In June 1999, volunteering in a Boys andGirls Club computer lab that was equippedbut not fully used stimulated some ideasfor Chris. He began to think about a scenario where low-income children came to learn voluntarily, where he was notabsorbed in discipline issues, and where hecould use Papert’s model and LOGO in acomputer-filled classroom.

Within six months, Chris had foundedOWL and recruited Denver venture capital-ist Steve Halsted as his board chair. OWLhas since grown to include work in nineDenver public schools. “The program has a‘lights-on’ effect,” Chris says. “We’re turn-ing the lights on to all this existing infra-structure. We’re working with children 12hours a week in school buildings withouthaving to pay for the space, and our publicschool partners contribute $10,000 eachyear to the $40,000 operating cost. Our

“Lights-on” in Denver after school

E D U C A T I O N

Chris Myers ’80

29 Milton Magazine

pitch to foundations and corporate donorsis that their dollars are being efficientlyinvested in leveraging existing resources.”

OWL’s teaching environment relies on dis-covery learning. “Few of our teachers havea background in computer programming,but they’re brave and they’re learners,”Chris says. “Our program involves makingmistakes and noodling things out. Some-one asked me once, ‘How do you develop aculture where the students aren’t afraid toadmit they don’t know what’s going on?’and I said, ‘Well, they see their teachers lostsome of the time, too.’ But children knowthat a peer or adult teacher in the programcan answer their questions.

“Most schools use computers as communi-cation tools, but they don’t teach computerprogramming, most often because theydon’t know how. We’ve learned you canteach computer programming by putting9- and 10-year-olds in charge of the teach-ing, with teachers learning alongside them.With LOGO, students invent, design, build,create, problem solve. They make mistakesthroughout the process, they get error mes-sages, they scratch their heads becausewhat happened doesn’t match what theythought would happen, and they have torevise their theory and test something else.

“Watching our students learning from andteaching their peers is a wonderful thingfor us. In selecting our student leaders welook for curiosity, determination, creativity,a love of learning, and a passion for helpingothers—the same qualities that employerslook for, that we all look for in trying tosolve the problems of our country and ourworld.”

With OWL thriving in nine Denver publicschools, and plans to expand to 15 in 2007,the program’s leadership dreams of itsbecoming a national and international pro-gram. “We have a lot to do to realize thatdream. We need more great leaders, greatteachers and great funders, but we believein the program, and we’re getting startlingresults. Our students are learning thingsthat I wish I knew at their age. I hope thatwith help from our organization and oth-ers, our students will find themselves ableto take advantage of other equally positivelearning environments.”

www.openworldlearning.org

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30 Milton Magazine

According to Janet Lin ’97, the 28-year-old chief of staff for MassachusettsSecretary of Housing and EconomicDevelopment Dan O’Connell, activitiesoutside of class are what help you definewho you are; they help you come to anunderstanding of yourself as a distinct per-son. At Milton today, announcements andexhortations positioned to catch the pass-ing eye crowd the walls as they alwayshave. Add to that email conferences ladenwith debate, information, schedules,assignments and deadlines. Opportunitiesoutside of class, say faculty who advise themany organizations and projects, seem tobe multiplying.

Sixteen student organizations are devotedto service, national and international politi-cal activity, and fund raising—these areapart from groups that focus on cultureand identity, journalism, and the arts.Several of the 16 include subgroups thatact as clubs on their own. The twenty fac-ulty members who advise those groupsmet to help describe the public life atMilton today: the students they work with,the goals students set, the challenges theyencounter, and what they learn.

Advising high schoolers eager to take on(or change) the world is a specialized craftin itself and no single template works uni-versally. Students are crossing a develop-mental threshold during these years. As engaged, idealistic teenagers theyencounter everything from bureaucraticred tape, sensitive political turf and lack-luster response to outsized success andcommunity exaltation.

Faculty are often amazed at the compe-tence of even the younger students. “Somecome,” says Community Service advisorAndrea Geyling, “deeply committed, eagerto involve their peers, and gifted at logis-tics.” Then, of course, others need a lot of“support,” as Andrea gently puts it, tounderstand the responsibility they take onwhen they commit to something.

“I’m always surprised by how big andambitiously they dream, how strategicallythey think,” says Ann Foster (HistoryDepartment) who advises AmnestyInternational. Her chairs this year wantedto heighten the visibility of Amnesty andthe awareness of Amnesty’s issues, whichthe student leaders called “abstract andsomewhat distant issues for high schoolstudents to really care about.” So, buildingon JAMNESTY, their hugely successful

A T M I L T O N

Faculty Advisors Shepherd Young Strategists

31 Milton Magazine

fund-raising concert of last spring, theyproposed and pulled off “Human RightsWeek” this fall, with an activity every day,ending with a Friday-night discussion witha Darfur survivor. “I’m happy when theyprogress from designing and selling teeshirts to holding open meetings on thingslike the treatment of prisoners,” Ann says,“and they do.”

So much happens through email, the faculty said, with some amazement. Con-necting, explaining, organizing, assigning,marketing, signing up, reporting results—email speeds functions up, and perhapscontributes to students taking on morethan they should. It’s more of a tool than asubstitution for personal contact. BellAthayu (Class III), from Thailand, sentthis response to a question about thegroup she started:

Hello Ms. Everett,

I am one of the student leaders of the Free theChildren club. We started the group this yearas a fund-raising club, hence our main goalthis year is to fund raise for improvements inthe lives of children around the world. We areofficially registered as a high school chapter ofFree the Children (for more information onthe organization, please visit www.freethechil-dren.org). Right now, we have about 10–15committed members who attend our meetingsregularly on Fridays.

Our first fund-raising event is coming up thisTuesday. We will hold a sale for people to buybags of holiday treats for themselves, friends,or teachers. We will then deliver the candybags to people’s mailboxes the following week.Another upcoming sale that we have sched-uled is in January. We will be sellingStarbucks’ bottled Frappuccinos during examweek. All of the money we raise will be donat-

ed to Free the Children and will be puttowards building schools, buying school sup-plies, and sponsoring clean water and healthcare for children in Asia and Africa. We areaiming to raise $1,000 from the two fund-raising events.

We also have many fund-raising eventsplanned for the spring, such as a sticker saleand “mini swap-it.”

I hope the information was helpful. If youhave any more questions about our club,please feel free to email me.

Thank you,

Bell

Milton’s connection with Boston is anoth-er defining feature of extracurricular activi-ties; it changes the character of whatstudents can do to further their interests.The Community Service program con-

Continued on page 34

Among the faculty advisors who help guide Milton’s student organizations are (row one) Leya Tseng Jones, Dar Anastas, Christine Savini; and (row two) JoshuaEmmott, Heather Flewelling, Andrea Geyling and James Mills. Missing from the photo are Sally Dey, Ann Foster, Marie-Annick Schram, Rod Skinner, David Smithand Heather Sugrue.

32 Milton Magazine

Free the Children was found-ed this year and is an officiallyregistered chapter of the parentorganization. The club beganwith the goal of fund raising forthe well-being of childrenaround the world, particularlyin the area of education andhealth care. The organization isalso very involved in stoppingchild abuse and child labor. Fora recent fund-raiser, the groupsold about 250 bags of choco-late truffles and candies, mak-ing nearly $700, which thegroup donated to Free theChildren’s project in Sri Lanka.The money will cover theexpenses of building a newwashroom for a school in theAmpara District in Sri Lanka,where 40 schools weredestroyed by the tsunami in2004. Any remaining moneywill buy backpacks full ofschool supplies for 10 students.The group is now organizing amini swap-it and working onthe Clean Water project.

LORAX, named for the Dr.Seuss character who “speaksfor the trees,” was establishedin 1987 and is an environmen-tal group working toward raising awareness of the envi-ronment in a time when theseissues are especially serious forglobal well-being. The first toinitiate organized recycling on campus, and having hadmembers attend internationalenvironmental summits, themembers of Lorax this year arehosting an environmental filmseries, planning a garden andcompost system on west cam-pus, and trying to eliminateMilton’s use of Styrofoam whileselling mugs made from recy-cled plastic.

World Health Organization(WHO) club is a place for dis-cussion about medical issuesaround the globe, raisingawareness about these issuesand funds for people affectedby them. Having donated$1,750 last year to the MapendoClinic in Kenya, which cares forHIV-infected refugees, MiltonWHO has officially establisheda fund-raising bridge with theorganization, donating all prof-its to its cause. The group hassponsored field trips to med-ical-related sites such as TheBody World 2 exhibit at theMuseum of Science, Boston,and hosted prominent speak-ers, including the former HongKong representative of WHO’sinternational organization.

Young Republicans promotesopen thought and encouragespolitical activism, providing ahaven and support network forconservatives on campus whileattempting to break down polit-ical stereotypes. The groupcampaigned for Kerry Healeyduring the 2006 Massachusettsgubernatorial campaign and isnow planning a fund-raiser andletter-writing campaign in sup-port of the USO. This year thegroup has also raised moneyfor Iraqi schoolchildren, the vic-tims of the 2004 tsunami, andfor a house that treats woundedsoldiers.

Model UN, as an organizedprogram, began in 2003 when12 students attended theNHSMUN conference, which isa national conference for highschool students held in NewYork City. Since then, ModelUN at Milton has grown toinclude about 40 students eachyear, who attend at least one oftwo conferences—the nationalhigh school conference and theHarvard Model UN conference.The goal is to get studentsinvolved in current affairs byresearching and representing aspecific nation’s position on anissue such as AIDS, climatechange, women in politics, orthe situation in Iraq. Throughpreparation, discussion anddebate, the students who partic-ipate in Model UN gain a morecomplete picture of the impor-tance of the United Nations anddifficulty of drafting resolu-tions, which allow each nationto maintain sovereignty whilestill coming to a compromise.

Common Ground is a multi-cultural, action-oriented stu-dent association working tohelp Milton Academy fullyembrace all of its diversity. Itsunderlying principle is to edu-cate the community about eth-nic, racial, religious, gender,sexual, physical, class, familyand geographic differences,while celebrating the “commonground” that brings all groupstogether at the School.Focusing on a particular themeeach month, the group hostsspeakers, discussions and apopular film series to provide aforum for open discourse. Thegroup aims at debunkingstereotypes, challengingassumptions, and involving stu-dents in social justice issuesand facilitating action.

Free Tibet Club is an officialchapter of Students for a FreeTibet, a grass-roots organiza-tion that includes studentsfrom all over the world.Milton’s chapter was officiallystarted last year and since thenhas held conversations with theAsian Society to debate theChinese occupation of Tibetand held numerous fundrais-ers. One such fund-raiserincluded selling “FreedomBracelets”—bracelets wovenwith yak hair by Tibetan nunsliving in exile—and “FreeTibet” tee-shirts. The moneyraised goes toward sponsoringa child living in Tibet.

Self-Governing Association(SGA) includes every memberof the Upper School studentbody, a membership formalizedat the Class IV Book SigningCeremony. Its membershipexpresses an awareness of andresponsibility for upholding allSchool standards. The SGA isled by Milton’s two co-headmonitors and elected membersof Council, representing everyclass, every campus house, andboth boarding and day stu-dents. In addition to partakingin all student disciplinary deci-sions, the SGA undertakesmany Schoolwide projects eachyear to better the School as awhole and to facilitate relationsbetween students and theadministration. This year, theSGA has successfully begun torefurbish and clean up theStudent Center by challengingstudents on ‘Blue’ and ‘Orange’teams to compete in a year-longcleaning competition.

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33 Milton Magazine

Amnesty International wasnationally established in 1961.Milton’s chapter is dedicated tofreeing prisoners of conscience,gaining fair trials for politicalprisoners, and ending politicalkillings throughout the world.The group hosts letter-writingcampaigns, discussions, andvarious event speakers on cam-pus. This year’s Amnesty groupfocused on the Human Rightsand Poverty campaigns, hold-ing a Human Rights Week inearly November that raisedawareness about these issues.Amnesty is now working on itssecond annual springJAMNESTY concert, all pro-ceeds of which go to their cam-paigns. The group also hostsStraus Desserts with facultyspeakers and debates concern-ing Amnesty’s global issues.

Animal Rights Club’s generalgoal is to educate the Miltoncommunity about issues in ani-mal welfare, with a focus onsmall changes each person canmake to benefit animals andpromote ethical practices. Thegroup raises money to supportvarious animal welfare causes,including the local animal shel-ter. In past years they havemade and sold hemp braceletsto raise money for the shelter;they were also involved in theeffort to determine the numberof vegetarians on campus sothat dining services could planits menu with sufficient nutri-tional options.

F.L.A.G. (Forward-LookingLiberal Action Group) is devot-ed to promoting progressiveideas and causes through dis-cussion and action, working toeducate the School communityabout these issues and showstudents how they can getinvolved with politics.Stemming from Students forKerry, the group supports andworks toward electingDemocratic candidates for localand national office. Spendingmost of the fall working onDeval Patrick’s campaign, thegroup is now running an envi-ronmental action campaignwhich includes getting compactfluorescent lightbulbs in dormsand other campus buildings;running educational meetingsabout bio-energy; organizing aletter-writing campaign toGovernor Patrick and SenatorsKerry and Kennedy about theissue; and voicing their supportfor environmentally friendlyMilton buildings.

Public Issues Board is a non-partisan organization aiming toraise the level of discourse atMilton and promote studentengagement of political issueson the local, national, and glob-al scale. The board is focusedon encouraging students toexpress their opinions of worldand local news in an effectiveway, and it strives to meet theseobjectives by writing The Issue,its online newspaper; sponsor-ing debates about timely issues;organizing visiting speakers forits Straus Dessert series; andoganizing the bi-annualSeminar Day. The group alsosponsored a mock election forstudents during the 2006Massachusetts gubernatorialelections.

Community Service Boardbegan serving the communityin an organized fashion in the1950s. It engages participants inresponsible action for the short-and long-term well-being of thecommunity, on campus andbeyond. Through service, theprogram encourages respectfulconnections with others, per-sonal responsibility and com-mitment. It invites thoughtfulexploration of the issues thatshape our communities, inhopes that students learn frominteraction with the surround-ing world. Through Milton’sCommunity Service program,students volunteer with 28organizations in and aroundBoston including Rosie’s Place(shelter for women), the GreaterBoston Food Bank, MujeresUnidas (ESL tutoring), SpecialOlympics and Boston Home(for adults with multiple sclerosis).

Children for Children raisesawareness within the Miltoncommunity to promote thehealth and education of chil-dren in underdeveloped coun-tries. In October, the groupheld a “Trick or Treat forUNICEF” fund-raiser whichenlisted members of the Lower,Middle and Upper School toparticipate in a drive collectingsmall change. Proceeds fromthis and various food salesenabled the group to donateapproximately $5,000 toUNICEF at the end ofDecember. Plans for a silentauction to benefit an underpriv-ileged school in South Africa,known as the Christel HouseSchool, are now in process.

O N C A M P U S

Habitat for Humanity wasestablished at Milton in 2005,and though not an officialHabitat campus chapter, thegroup does community servicein keeping with the spirit of theorganization. They aim not onlyto help build houses, but also toeducate the Milton communityabout the causes and effects ofhomelessness. This year theyhave helped construct a homefor a family in Brockton,Massachusetts, and are plan-ning more local building proj-ects and further fund raising tosupport future construction.Members of the group havealso participated in two trips tothe Mississippi Gulf Coast torepair communities devastatedby Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

AIDS Board raises awarenessof AIDS and HIV and raisesfunds to help those affected bythe disease. This year, the boardraised money for orphans at the Center for Poor and LessPrivileged in Lesotho, Africa,an area with the fourth-highestprevalence of HIV in the world.For World AIDS Day the boarddistributed fliers, hung postersand spoke at assembly aboutthe statistics and effects ofAIDS and HIV. Future eventsinclude addressing Class IVHealth classes, hosting childrenfrom Mattapan’s SPARKCenter, and bringing speakersto campus.

34 Milton Magazine

nects 200 students in weekly service at 28 sites, including the Milton area andBoston. Every student on the CommunityService Board manages the relationshipswith the adults at one or two sites. Thatmeans—with Andrea Geyling’s training—they determine the site’s needs, check inperiodically about how the Milton studentsare doing there, and help evaluate whatwent well and what might be changed.

Through parents, local graduates and Web sites, students find—among Boston’sriches—the speakers, experts in a field,practitioners or advocates who will come to campus to engage with students atdebates, Straus Desserts, club meetings orfundraisers. “They find the speakers, theyinvite them, they make the arrangements,do the promoting, and then introducethem to the crowd when they come,” saysSally Dey of the History Department, advi-sor for students on the Public Issues Boardwho plan Straus Desserts.

Of course, guiding students who like to act as independent agents provides some“teaching moments” for the advisors, aswell. The email that wasn’t appropriatelycrafted, the follow-up that wasn’t defini-tive, the details that might have been morehelpful, the assumptions that were faulty,the conversation that needed morefinesse—these are “effective” mistakes:that is, you must own them, they stick inyour memory, they change how you dosomething the next time.

Another area that advisors watch carefullyat Milton is students’ intense desire toengage each other and the adults inwrestling with the complex ideas andevents of our time. The debates that surgethrough online conferences, whether theystart in the Young Republicans conferenceor class conference (each Class, IVthrough I, has its own conference), some-times erupt into the campus mainstreamconversation. Lessons about honest dia-logue, respect for others’ points of view,the effects of carelessly written opinions,understanding your role in a community:these are frequently difficult, but if han-dled well, by skilled teachers, coaches andstudent leaders, these can turn into lifeskills that seem rare enough in the adultworld. Involved students make gains inpolitical sensitivity and savvy, communica-tion skills, and resilience (learning not totake everything personally).

Students want to talk about things.Common Ground, the group that pro-motes cross-cultural dialogues and activi-ties, is running the second year of asuccessful film series. Students pick filmsthat involve issues like class, gender, sexu-al orientation, physical ability and disabili-ty, and race—Real Women Have Curves,School Ties and Good Will Hunting. Theyarrange the couches in Straus to promotecomfortable group viewing, thinking anddiscussing. They market the series, attractthe group and then facilitate the conversa-tion. Typically, 50 students participate inthese Friday-night events. THIN, theaward-winning film of recent visiting artistand photographer Lauren Greenfield, drew a full house.

The groups’ leaders moderate difficult con-versations, and students often teach theirpeers more directly. Under the umbrella ofthe Public Issues board, a smaller group(80 students) work on the Model UN pro-gram. This group participates in threemajor weekend-long conferences eachyear. The first is at Harvard, where 2,300students participate from around theworld; the second is the New York NationalHigh School Model UN (NHSMUN), heldat the UN building, and the third is a Mayconference in Boston, sponsored by theUN Association of Greater Boston andheld at Northeastern University. Studentsmeet nearly weekly to prepare one anotherfor these conferences. They do researchand develop position papers, which theboard meets to review. Two students, AliciaDriscoll and Olivia Greene, teach thenewer students techniques involved indeveloping excellent position papers forthe model UN meetings.

In many ways, these students are likethose of earlier generations: energetic, car-ing, and curious. They are quite differentin one significant way, however. They aredigital children. Unfazed by what may beunfamiliar, they know exactly how to findand use information. Part of their wiringtells them that whatever they need is with-in their reach, that there are many ways tothink about solving problems, that thereare people around the world they can seeand “talk to” about anything at all. TheInternet is a source of knowledge andpower, and they are familiar with usingboth.

Students may start out ahead of faculty intechnological fluency, but they have roomto grow in many areas. These activities

give students a chance to get their handsdirty (literally, if they’re active in Habitatfor Humanity), work side-by-side withother socioeconomic groups, witness theimpact of their decisions, and learn how toreflect on what they’ve observed. Othermore complex and subtle learning oppor-tunities come their way as well. DavidSmith (English Department) mentionsthat the leaders learn to cultivate succes-sors; Heather Flewelling (Director ofStudent Multicultural Programs) notesthat they can learn how to generate buy-infrom the rest of the community. Heatherhas also observed that students learn to lis-ten to other positions, not “solely for thepurpose of gaining the counterpoint. Theyneed to understand different perspectivesto design a successful strategy.”

Elected leadership has its own learningcurve. Students in the Self-GoverningAssociation find that having power is notalways easy. Knowing more, being on theinside track, becoming aware of a picturebigger than most students see, has a down-side. Students have to absorb flak, forinstance, for not delivering on a promise,or for understanding why a promise can’tbe fulfilled. They are accountable, as well,for disciplinary decisions, because they sitas equals in a committee evenly dividedbetween faculty and students—an experi-ence they particularly value.

If working with students in these manyways seems very time-consuming, it is.Helping students achieve a balancebetween what they’d like to do, what theyneed to do, and what they can do, is oftendifficult. When students are passionateabout their interests, helping them see theneed to pull back from something is atough sell. Faculty need to insist uponaccountability, physical presence, and theidea that they’re not in this alone: theirfriends and the community depend uponthem.

The dominant experience, as one facultymember put it, is “amazing relationshipsbetween students and adults all over cam-pus.” Undertaking all these projects andprograms is consistent with Milton values.“We have a high-powered intellectual com-munity here,” Heather sums up, “and thisoutside-of-class activity is a normal part oftrying on identity—finding out who I am.”

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35 Milton Magazine

The students fanned out across the sta-dium to distribute pamphlets about little-known gubernatorial long shot DevalPatrick. Even from across the arena, theycould identify each other by the neon greentee-shirts they had received from the cam-paign that morning. Despite the long trainrides to and from the Paul A. Tsongasarena in Lowell, the group of high schoolstudents had given up a sunny Saturday inMay to work the annual Democratic StatePlatform Convention. They knew that, inthe man who gave his speech that after-noon to a standing ovation, they had founda candidate who was an inspiration, notjust an alternative. As Eliza Heath, Class II,a F.L.A.G. member who heard Deval speak

for the first time that day, reported, “Hear-ing Patrick speak won me over complete-ly…When he didn’t agree with a view thatsomeone brought up, he said so, but healso explained how he had gotten to hisdecision and how he planned to work withpeople who disagreed with him.” ZacharySchwab, Class I, agrees, saying, “After get-ting to know him, you feel like you caninvest absolute trust in him…I hooked onto his campaign [in May 2005] because Itrusted him, and he ran his campaign inthe way I would have hoped he would.”

The students were all members of Forward-looking Liberal Action Group (F.L.A.G.) ofMilton Academy, the campus group found-ed by Tara Venkatraman, Class I, in the fall

of 2004 as Students for Kerry. Early in2005, the group had split into subcommit-tees to investigate each of the potential can-didates for the Massachusetts gubernatorialelection in 2006. Based on an analysis ofwhere the candidates stood on variousissues, the club membership had ended upvoting to back Deval Patrick. Now the Plat-form Convention represented F.L.A.G.’sfirst volunteer work for the candidate.

Over the next 18 months, the students whohad volunteered at the Platform Conven-tion, along with many other F.L.A.G. mem-bers, spent countless hours collatingmailings, stuffing envelopes, and phonebanking for Deval Patrick at his campaign

A T M I L T O N

“That energy clearly paid off.”The countless hours Milton students devoted to all aspectsof campaigning proved to bea crucial force for Governor Patrick.

Tara Venkatraman and Kenzie Bok, Class I

36 Milton Magazine

headquarters in Charlestown. Theirturnout on Saturdays and Sundays duringthe school year made them the most con-sistent group of student volunteers of anyage, a notable achievement in a campaignfueled by youth volunteerism. Many ofthem heard the candidate speak on numer-ous occasions—at the College Democratsconvention in Somerville, on the UMassBoston campus, at the Holiday Inn inBrookline—and with numerous other dig-nitaries, including Senator Barack Obama,Senator Ted Kennedy, and Fomer PresidentBill Clinton. They held signs, cheeredfamiliar lines, and observed the subtlechanges in the stump speech as the cam-paign wore on. Eliza remembered: “Forme, the best moment on the campaignhappened during my Class III year…It wasrainy and there were only about 50 peoplethere, but he spoke with as much intensityas he did later in front of thousands of peo-ple. At that point, the campaign had nomoney, people were talking about [the cam-paign] collapsing, and about half of all thestudent volunteering was being done byF.L.A.G. members, but Patrick spoke as ifwe were leading the polls no contest. Iremember thinking that, even if the cam-paign never got out of the parking lot, myeffort wasn’t being wasted.”

Some students took their support forPatrick a step further and became internsin his campaign; among them were AliciaDriscoll in the summer of 2005 andHannah Lauber and Tina Nguyen (all Class I) in the summer of 2006. Asinterns, Hannah said, “we sent out hun-dreds of mailings, made phone calls, set upcanvass packets for people from all over thestate and went canvassing ourselves. Wemade what the campaign managers talkedabout a reality.”

Both the interns and the many MiltonAcademy volunteers had the opportunity tosee a remarkable campaign take shape andto participate every step of the way. Aliciaremembers that, “One of my favorite expe-riences on the campaign was watching oneof Governor Patrick’s first televised inter-views along with the other interns and get-ting to share my thoughts and reactions. At that point, I really felt as though my per-spective mattered.” F.L.A.G. members

gathered signatures, sent their parents totown caucuses, staffed the polls the day ofthe primary, discussed the gubernatorialdebates with friends and neighbors, andmade final Get-Out-The-Vote phone callson Election Day. As the grass-roots cam-paign grew from that small group in theparking lot to a statewide movement, so didthe students’ sense of accomplishment andachievement. “It made me nervous to seeso many commercials on TV for Gabrieli orKerry [Healey], but none for Deval. But atthe same time, I knew that I was part ofwhat was keeping him in the game,”reported Zach.

Echoing Zach’s remarks, all of the stu-dents—about 30 all told—experienced ela-tion at every Patrick success and evenredoubled their efforts for a final victory as

the race got closer. Eliza revealed that, “Myfavorite campaign activity was phone bank-ing in the last stretch of the race. Cominginto a room full of mostly teenagers andcollege students, finding a little corner towork in, and praying that I had enough freeminutes on my cell phone to keep mymom from killing me for making five hun-dred phone calls in one afternoon—that’swhen I knew I was part of somethinghuge.” Gail Waterhouse, Class II, alsoremembered the last weeks of the cam-paign as a highlight, saying, “The bestmoment of the campaign was going downto Worcester a couple weeks before theelection for a rally. President Clinton andSenator Kennedy, two very inspirationalspeakers, were there…So many peopleshowed up to give support to Deval Patrickand Tim Murray—I think we filled theentire Worcester DCU Center. I came awayfrom that experience completely reener-gized and ready to finish out the campaignstrong.”

That energy clearly paid off. On theevening of Tuesday, November 7, 2006,several of the Milton Academy studentswho trickled into the Hynes ConventionCenter were wearing their neon green tee-shirts from the 2005 Platform Convention.Many arrived straight from headquarters;other students had volunteered to staff theElection Night event, while still othersarrived directly from after-school commit-ments. As the group gathered in the Centerof the packed convention Center andrumors that the TV news stations hadcalled the election for Patrick began to fly,the students exchanged high-fives andhugs, feeling as though this victory wastheir victory. They had experienced—andcontributed to—the rare case of a politicalunderdog’s come-from-behind win. As Gailput it, “Everyone complains about how apa-thetic teens are toward current events, andI think that students getting involved in agubernatorial campaign really turned headsand made people realize that what Devalhad to say was important and that his ideaswere innovative and exciting.”

Kenzie Bok ’07Tara Venkatraman ’07

Massachusetts Governor Deval L. Patrick, Milton Academy Class of 1974

Their turnout on Saturdaysand Sundays during theschool year made them themost consistent group of student volunteers of anyage, a notable achievement ina campaign fueled by youthvolunteerism.

37 Milton Magazine

“Our main challenge is to get students to lookoutside their busy world, to help them under-stand something they’ve never experiencedand can’t imagine.”

—Will Newman-Wise, Class II

Will Newman-Wise, Class II, andHanna Tonegawa, Class I, head Milton’sAmnesty International chapter, and thisyear put their efforts to the dual challengeof raising awareness about issues and raising the profile of the organization oncampus.

“Amnesty International is a worldwidemovement of people who campaign forhuman rights. [Amnesty’s] work is basedon careful research and on the standardsagreed by the international community.We are independent of any government,political ideology, economic interest or reli-gion.” (www.amnesty.org)

Hundreds of students over the years haveparticipated in Amnesty’s letter-writingcampaigns—demonstrably effective globalcampaigns to alert the public to humanrights abuses that put individuals or com-munities at risk. This year’s heads, whoadopted Human Rights and Poverty astheir campaign, strategized to find a morepowerful way for students to connect withhuman rights problems.

“Why not a whole week of daily focus onhuman rights?” their group thought.Amnesty’s “Human Rights Week” pre-miered this November and attracted plentyof participation: “new information and

great discussions,” the leaders reported.Will and Hanna hope Human RightsWeek will become an annual tradition atMilton, just as the group’s spring event,JAMNESTY, has become.

JAMNESTY, an April outdoor musicextravaganza, with student bands and per-formers from Milton and other schools,drew hundreds of students last year andnetted $1,000 for Amnesty International’sfreedom campaign. Students are workingalready to reach that success this spring: 75percent of the funds raised go to AmnestyInternational; 25 percent seeds the Miltonchapter’s activities for the following year.

Hanna, who is from Chestnut Hill,Massachusetts, was inspired to get to knowthe “outside” political world by studentsjust ahead of her: Alice Tin (Hong Kong),Seohyung Kim (South Korea), and LauraYeo (Canada), all Class of 2006. Will came to Milton from Singapore; in his former school, students were engaged ininternational concerns and he wanted tocontinue that.

Will says, “Students may think theseissues are irrelevant, but they don’t realizethat they’ll be the leaders making the deci-sions, making the choices, very soon.”

CDE

What is Amnesty International?

A T M I L T O NHuman Rights Week

November 6–10, 2006

Events

The Voice Mural, a public forum for individuals to speak their minds(photos, quotes, thoughts, etc.)

Tuesday Activities Period (Wigg 214): Open Discussion on Guantánamo Bay

Wednesday, 6:00 p.m. (Straus): Human Rights Speaker SifaNsengimana, Massachusetts Coordi-nator for the Coalition to Save Darfur;a survivor of the genocide in Rwanda

Friday Activities Period (Wigg): JAMNESTY 2007 Brainstorm

Friday, 7:00 p.m. (Straus): Born into Brothels: Calcutta’s Red Light Kids (http://www.kids-with-cameras.org/home/)

Hanna Tonegawa and Will Newman-Wise

38 Milton Magazine

Self Education

Faculty Perspective

Education either functions as an instrument which is used tofacilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic ofthe present system and bring about conformity or it becomes thepractice of freedom, the means by which men and women dealcritically and creatively with reality and discover how to partici-pate in the transformation of the world.

—Paulo Freire

I have always believed that education is a process of ques-tioning and that a teacher’s job is to challenge her students,widening their vision to a broader perspective, as well asdeepening their awareness. Education is about acknowledg-ing our preconceptions and allowing them to be brokendown in order to reconstruct a worldview out of greaterunderstanding. When I moved to Dallas five and a halfyears ago, I took this fundamental intuition about educa-tion with me. I knew Dallas was more conservative than theCambridge I had grown accustomed to, but I also knew thatI was prepared for a wholesome fight, the kind of intellectu-al wrangling that is native to the world of academia.

For the five years of my tenure in Dallas, I was defined overand against the culture of the school and its administration.I was branded the “radical feminist liberal” who questionedthe Bible, who criticized the patriarchal representation ofGod, and who identified herself as culturally Christian andspiritually Buddhist. Needless to say, all of this was unac-ceptable, and I quickly learned that my view of educationwas quite different from the school’s objectives. There is alot to learn from being the “troublemaker” in a place. It wasan opportunity for me to reflect seriously on my own values

and principles, as well as articulate them to an audiencethat often embraced an opposing view. I also learned toappreciate the conflict that exists in a place where peoplehave different opinions or ways of seeing the world. What I didn’t recognize at the time, however, was the negativeimpact of the school’s pressure against my perspective.

On October 11, 2006, Milton Academy hosted its fourthreligious speaker since the 1952 Endowment for ReligiousUnderstanding had been established. I was pleased to hearthat it would be Bishop John Shelby Spong, the retiredbishop from the Episcopal Diocese in New Jersey. I had metJack Spong during my academic studies at Harvard DivinitySchool and remembered him as decidedly controversial, yethe was also overtly faithful. He proposes a very modernunderstanding of the biblical tradition to correspond to ourpostmodern society and sensibility. Bishop Spong rejectsreligious fundamentalism as divisive and contrary to thecore message of scripture, to love one another. The bishop’smessage is one of social justice, of standing with those atthe margins of society and struggling with them to guaran-tee that their voices are heard. While Bishop Spong illus-trated the dark side of religion, expressed through violenceand hurtful speech, he simultaneously asserted the opti-mistic ideal of religion: “Live fully, love wastefully, and beall that you can be.”

Bishop Spong’s visit was an early turning point for me atMilton. First, his speech was a vocalization of my own intel-lectual and spiritual understanding, which had been inhibernation for some significant time. Second, just listen-ing to the Bishop’s expression of his own theology reignitedmy passion for theological thinking and reflection. JackSpong’s presence on the Milton campus provided me witha certain sense of freedom—free to speak my own mindwhen necessary, free to bring a critical theological perspec-

39 Milton Magazine

tive to the Milton community, and free to fully embrace theaspects of my character, which in Dallas had been used todismiss my observations of that community.

Bishop Spong’s presentation also catapulted me into thedynamic, open exchange of ideas that is inherent to theMilton community. Controversy tends to follow Jack Spong,and Milton was no exception. In the conversations that fol-lowed Bishop Spong’s talk, I was able to assess the currentperception of religion within the Milton community. Manystudents were intrigued by the bishop’s talk, agreeing withhis insights that the Bible must continue to be reinterpret-ed to have legitimacy in our modern world. In a sense,Bishop Spong’s speech was an invitation for some to rejointhe debate over Christianity in American society from botha modern and critical perspective. On the other hand, a significant group of students felt offended by the bishop’sanalysis of fundamentalist Christianity. They questionedhis faith and wondered if characterizing the Bible, as wellas some of Christianity’s doctrinal statements, as merelysymbolic, compromised his position as a representative ofmainline Christianity.

Whether one agreed with the bishop or not, what becamevery clear is that he got everyone talking and thinking andreflecting on our own individual faith perspectives. Whatalso became clear to me, in my official position as chaplain,was the need for a theological foundation in the conversa-tions that followed the bishop’s visit. Jack Spong’s theologyand his understanding of the Bible, although new conceptsto our students, were inspired by post-Enlightenment scholars, such as Rudolf Bultmann, who developed the concept of demythologizing biblical stories, and FriedrichSchleiermacher, who constructed a Christology in which

Jesus’ divinity corresponded to the fulfillment of humanpotential. Overall, Jack Spong demonstrated for this com-munity the meaning of engaged education—of venturinginto uncharted waters, broadening our vision, and allowingdiscoveries to unfold with each new piece of knowledge.

Being at Milton for the past few months has revitalized myfaith in the educational process. I admire this community’scourage and willingness to invite and listen to diverse voic-es, among them Jack Spong’s, not because they promotethe correct agenda or the right way of thinking, but becausethey challenge us to discover our own truths and becomeactive participants in our own education. I am grateful to bein a place where I am welcomed into the fold and encour-aged to express my most genuine self. I believe that trueeducation takes place only by engaging critically and cre-atively with the questions that affect our deepest sense ofself and perception of reality. Education is about the trans-formation of the world—one individual at a time.

Suzanne Y. DeBuhr, Interfaith Chaplain

Suzanne DeBuhr

40 Milton Magazine

Post Script is a department that opens windows into the lives and experiences of your fellow Milton alumni.Graduates may author the pieces, or they may react to our interview questions. Opinions, memories, explo-rations, reactions to political or educational issues are all fair game. We believe you will find your Miltonpeers informative, provocative and entertaining. Please email us with your reactions and your ideas atcathy_everett@milton.edu.

Post Script

Social Venture PartnersNew philanthropy that includes thinking about, acting on and investing in social change

Ayear ago when I moved to Denver toget married, I wanted to volunteer beforepursuing my master’s degree in socialwork. My husband suggested SocialVenture Partners Denver (SVP), an organi-zation that matches business-minded pro-fessionals with Denver-area nonprofitsneeding their expertise. My husband wasalready involved with SVP and was hopingthat I, too, would become inspired by theorganization. In meeting with the organi-zation’s executive director, I immediatelydecided to become a partner. Whatintrigued me most was that each year SVPworks with three local youth-focused non-profits that are in varying stages of devel-opment. These nonprofits are selectedannually by a special grantmaking com-mittee made up of partners who decidewhich organizations to fund. At the time,SVP’s three beneficiaries were ColoradoMESA, which provides opportunities forminority and female students to becomemore familiar with math, engineering andscience in the hope that they will pursueone of these disciplines in college;OpenWorld Learning (OWL; www.open-worldlearning.org), which supports chil-dren’s school success by tapping into thepower of digital technology and peer teach-ing to ignite learning after school, duringsummers, and at home; and YouthBiz,Inc., a social enterprise that teaches leader-

ship and business skills to inner-city teens.My dilemma became choosing amongthese organizations.

Being a partner at SVP means making aminimum financial contribution each yearof $2,500. Funds from all the partners—SVP Denver currently has 48—are pooledand invested as grants to local nonprofitorganizations that have been selected bySVP’s Grantmaking Committee. Once agrant is made, SVP works with the non-profit to improve its ability to deliver effec-tive programs by appointing partners withspecific expertise—from fund raising tomarketing to technology—to help theorganization succeed and grow. Accordingto SVP, “The combination of financial con-tributions with ‘time and expertise’ is pri-marily a response to needs expressed bymany nonprofits and mirrors the practicesof investors in start-up businesses andentrepreneurs in the for-profit world.” SVPlooks to invest in organizations that will beaffected by the contribution of its fundsand skills.

Partners can attend SVP lunches every fewmonths to hear grantees talk about theirorganizations and goals. During the firstlunch group, I met Christopher Myers, thefounder and CEO of OpenWorld Learning,also a Milton Academy alumnus, whospoke passionately about his organization.I learned that Chris’ experience at Miltoninspired him to start OWL, now an award-

winning after-school and summer pro-gram for primarily low-income children inthe Denver Public Schools. OWL developsleadership skills through creative use ofdigital technology and peer teaching. Itsstudents design their own software using acomputer program called MicroWorlds,which is a child-friendly computer pro-gramming language that was first devel-oped at MIT. Those of you who attendedMilton’s Lower School may rememberworking on a crude LOGO-based programwhere you could command a “turtle” tomove right, left, up or down. MicroWorldsis also LOGO-based and uses turtles, onlyMicroWorlds is much more sophisticatedand graphics rich. After speaking withChris about OWL and about Milton, Idecided to make OWL my focus throughSVP. I volunteered once a week during thesummer at one of the elementary-schoolsites and also joined the OWL CommunityOutreach Team, whose goal is to help theorganization with public relations throughorganizing benefits and other events.

The year I joined SVP, I had the opportu-nity to be a part of the 2007 GrantmakingCommittee, which was a rewarding andvaluable experience. By using criteriaestablished by SVP, the 2007 committeenarrowed down approximately 35 propos-als from Denver-area organizations, even-tually selecting one new grantee called

41 Milton Magazine

Smart-Girl. Smart-Girl is a research-basedproven program of prevention and enrich-ment that uses positive peer influence tosupport and inspire middle-school girls tomake smart choices and become confi-dent, capable and self-reliant women.Colorado MESA and OWL will also contin-ue as 2007 grantees. Not only was it unfor-gettable to become involved with selectinga grantee, but having the chance to discov-er so many fabulous Denver-area organiza-tions was astounding. I have kept eachproposal to use as future social workresources from groups such as DenverUrban Gardens, which helps low-incomefamilies supplement their diet with pro-

duce grown in nearby public gardens, andHorseback Miracles, which provides thera-peutic horseback riding for high-riskteens. An additional bonus to joining SVPis that most partners are young profession-als in their 30s and 40s, so it has been achance to meet other young people inter-ested in philanthropy.

SVP Denver was started in 2000 and sincethen has contributed more than $450,000to local charities and thousands of commu-nity service hours to grantees. SVP Denverhas supported 11 nonprofits whose focus isK–12 education and youth development. In2007, the committee will also accept pro-posals focused on early childhood educa-tion. For those of you interested in SVP

but live elsewhere, there are 20 SVPorganizations in cities including Boston(617-338-2590 ext. 270), Rhode Island(401-274-4564 ext. 3399), Dallas (214-855-5520), Seattle (206-374-8757), and LosAngeles (310-281-7509). To find an SVPnear you, visit www.svpi.org/whoweare/affiliates.asp. Most affiliates focus on chil-dren and education in some capacity andI’m sure would love your help. For moreinformation, visit www.svpi.org.

Jenna Bertocchi Stapleton ’92

Jenna Bertocchi Stapleton ’92, Christopher Myers ’80 and OpenWorld Learning (OWL) students and teachers in Denver, Colorado

42 Milton Magazine

Post Script

My doctor—whose two sons went to Milton—recentlyhad a copy of Milton Magazine on the table in his officewaiting room. Ruminating on it, it came to me that Ishould submit a story. I wrote up a tale about taking a sub-way ride to my 55th reunion dinner with my classmate, AlfBigelow. I had talked him into it, to walk the walk fromMilton Village like old times. The Red Line was not quitelike old times. We opened up a conversation with someolder teenage girls. One, pausing, thoughtful, leaned for-ward to ask us, “Are you married?” “No, no, we’re just onour way to Milton Academy,” we rejoined.

Editors at the Milton Magazine seemed more interested intales of the past than the present.

Milton memories: Of course, the alcoves. My first night atMilton it occurred to me that I could stand on my bed andlook over into the next alcove. One thing led to another and,before you know it, I became acquainted with my newneighbor through the medium of a pillow fight. Soon webecame further acquainted with Mr. Pocock, the floor mas-ter. Later he told me he counted on at least a night or twobefore having to discipline his charges. Do they still haveimaginative punishments at Milton? I well remember (isn’tmemory incredible) being supervised by Mr. Millet while I cleaned all the windows of Warren Hall, each windowhuge, 20 panes large.

Once, in the late fall of 1947, on my way to dinner on a darknight, I hit a fellow student on the back with my book bag,only it wasn’t a boy, it was the housemaster’s wife. F. AllenSherk sentenced me to shoveling the sidewalk of WolcottHouse that entire winter. Well, the winter of 1948 turnedout to be the snowiest winter of all—four or five straightweekends it snowed ten inches, so at the end of the winterthere was four feet of snow. I was shown no mercy. Add to

that being on the hockey team, for which I had to take part in shoveling off Lake O’Hare (That marshy pond outthere— is it still called a lake?) where we played hockey.

Ping-Pong. I took up the game again not too long ago, res-urrecting an abandoned table in our basement. I am play-ing less chess, though. I remember one year I played 56games against my roommate Harry Coulter—the samewith whom I pillow fought. We also played roof ball off themany dormers and corners of the dormitories, finding thatForbes House was best for that. I later introduced the gameto my son when he was ten or so, playing off the roof of our own house.

I was in the Milton Bird Club. Mr. Morrison drove us downDorchester Avenue through Boston to Route 1 to go toPlum Island. David Perry, the headmaster’s son, was mybirding buddy. Early one morning I broke into his house,tiptoeing around to wake him up to go birding. A couple ofyears ago, I helped found a bird club in our town—theMenotomy Bird Club. I’m still at it, and I often take thatsame trip up Route 1.

One of my fondest memories was rock climbing with AdCarter. The Quincy Quarries, Rattlesnake Cliff in the BlueHills, Crow Cliff out there somewhere, camping out at thePawtuckaways. He took us skiing in the Blue Hills, too,with cable bindings that you could switch according towhether you were skiing cross-country or downhill. Thenhe took us to Cannon Mountain on winter break where Iruined my knee and used crutches for six months. I stillski, but almost entirely cross-country, and that is typicallyout my door to the neighboring park.

I was a tennis player in my days at Milton; Warren Koehlerwas our coach, Al Norris having just retired. No Westerngrip and two-handed backhand. I still play tennis occasion-

Milton at the Midpoint of the Last Century:One Collection of Memories

43 Milton Magazine

ally with my son, but I gave up the game of squash, whichFrank Millet taught me at the Milton Club. Did I ever beathim? I can’t remember. So there are memory gaps.

I remember becoming first interested in politics my firstyear at Milton with the headline, “Mayor Curley in Jail!”Later, my schoolmates and I were graced with talks by John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy. The first was aboutthe war and PT boats, and the latter was about being districtattorney. Ted Kennedy was in our class; he ran the cam-paign of Ed Reed for President in our school mock elec-tions. Joe Kennedy, their father, gave our commencementaddress, but I recall his talk not quite measuring up to thepower of his sons’. Other visitors included Dame MyraHess, who played a piano concert in the library. T. S. Eliot,who attended Milton for one postgraduate year, was a visit-ing lecturer. I cannot remember the content of his talk, butI do remember the anomaly of our literary headmaster,Arthur B. Perry, leading a Milton cheer for him.

So many vivid memories to share of my Milton days. Icould go on.

Oakes Ames Plimpton ’50

Oakes is retired and living in Arlington, Massachusetts. As heexplains, the “back-to-the-earth movement of the 1970s inspired[him] to join an organic communal farm,” and he has followedfarming since. He now manages the Arlington Farmers’ Marketand coordinates the Boston Area Farm Gleaning Project. Hehas self-published a book about the farms and farmers thatattend the Arlington Market, and is working on the third edi-tion of Robbins Farm Park: A Local History. He is married toPat Magee, a Drumlin Farm teacher-naturalist, and has a son,Robin. Reach Oakes at plimag@rcn.com.

Oakes Ames Plimpton working in his cabbage patch

44 Milton Magazine

Now comfortably postured in my sep-tuagenarian years in the relaxed style ofSavannah, Georgia, I thought it might betime to re-read my late grandmother’smemoirs; reflect on what Milton Academywas like back in the beginning of the 20thcentury; and consider what Milton meantto our family.

My grandfather graduated from HarvardCollege in 1885, and upon graduationtaught school for a short time before theallure of higher financial rewards attractedhim to enroll in Harvard Law School. After graduating and joining a law firm, it did not take long before he developed an unpleasant distaste in suing people. He then realized that the most satisfyingemployment for him was teaching classics.Thus began his Milton Academy career.

By the early 20th century, grandfatherWard was happily married, enjoying anexpanding family, when tragedy struck. My namesake and father, Andrew H.Ward, was only two weeks old in 1907when his mother died. Over the next fiveyears, three little girls and their youngerbrother were cared for by a gray-haired,stately German lady, affectionately nick-named Mini, who served as housekeeper,hostess, nurse, governess, seamstress andmusic teacher. This kindly, competent ladydid a good job under the prevailing cir-cumstances, but the pressure of grandfa-ther’s teaching job, his many services tothe town of Milton, coupled with his con-scientious efforts to uphold his duties by

his four children, were becoming a severestrain. Near the end of those five difficultand lonely years after his wife’s death, hisown health began to suffer.

In 1912, Emily Locke, the lifelong collegefriend of the children’s mother and fre-quent visitor to the household, marriedgrandfather Ward, realizing full well thather new husband’s days were marked.Shortly thereafter, little Andy summed upthe situation pretty well as he climbed intohis new stepmother’s lap one day whenshe was receiving a caller, patting hercheek and explaining to the visitor, “This isour new little mother. We haven’t had hervery long. Now I have three mothers—Mother-in-Heaven, Mini and you.”

A Milton ReconnectA family history, intertwined with Milton over decades, leads to a 21st century commitment

When grandfather Ward’s illness becamemore pronounced, a group of MiltonAcademy trustees headed by P. E. Forbesand N. P. Hallowell raised a trust fund andexplained that it was mainly for the futureeducation of the children. As a crowningblessing, the trustees granted free educa-tion to the children and upgraded the 127Centre Street house on school grounds foruse until such time as the children becameself-supporting. The kindness and generosi-ty of grandfather’s friends was overwhelm-ing and greatly appreciated.

Milton Academy was also very consideratewith scholarships to our family’s next generation that attended this wonderfulMilton institution. Accordingly, at thispoint in my life, the very least that I can dois fund a day school scholarship. One thirdof the funds have already been supplied tothe School, while the balance is in a segre-gated portion of my IRA. I will managethose IRA assets over the next three yearsbefore depositing the balance with theSchool endowment.

I believe in an active, individualistic lifewhere learning is a daily adventure.Hopefully, this scholarship will providesomeone else with the same opportunity.Change is constant, but Milton Academyhas adapted without sacrificing principlesor values.

Andy Ward ’51

Post Script

Andy Ward ’51 and his wife, Elizabeth

45 Milton Magazine

The Head of School

When I came to Milton, an admissionvideo for prospective students included aprophetic clip. Students from Class I werediscussing the culture of the School. AbdiSoltani ’94, looking intently into the cam-era, said, “We disagree all the time. That’s alot of what we learn here—how to disagree.”

During my first year, I realized that Abdi’scomment reflected not only a cultural reali-ty at Milton but a philosophical imperative.At Milton we believe that learning how todisagree with one another is essentiallyrelated to developing a passion for learningand a respect for others. Curiosity, thedesire to know and understand, expressesitself in great questions and also in newlyminted opinions. The hands-on environ-ment at Milton is a perfect incubator forinsatiably curious adolescents to learnabout differences.

Learning how to disagree—to do it withoutending the conversation or poisoning theatmosphere—is difficult, however. Peopleoften talk glibly about the merits of mean-ingful conversations with those who holddifferent points of view. Do they see manyadults who model this skill? Does today’spublic discourse offer any examples? Arethe college campuses across the countrysupporting open intellectual inquiry? Eachof us knows individuals who feel that any-one who disagrees with them is adversarial,or prejudiced, or misguided, or ignorant oreven evil. Adults have clearly not succeededin following through on what, theoretically,they believe. How many of us even recog-nize and acknowledge our own perceptualbiases?

The Milton community is replete with self-starters; being involved is endemic andexciting. Students think, talk, write and act.They eagerly take up issues that are com-

plex, and often sensitive: affirmative action,the war in Iraq, the rights of Palestinians,the true nature of Christianity or Islam,Israel’s role in the world, the impact of slav-ery, the affect of class in America and intheir School, contemporary images ofwomen, individual rights and the Internet.Those form the tip of the iceberg.

The tools they use to research a point ofview, or promote an idea or conduct a con-versation, have changed the game. To saythat the technology of their era has changedhow they lead their lives and develop theirrelationships is an understatement.

While they care deeply and express them-selves energetically, they are young, stilllearning, and often not aware of the poten-tial impact of their comments. They arecapable of enlightening their peers, star-tling them into new questions, as well asangering or hurting them. The new phraseto indicate someone’s line has been crossedis “I’m offended.” One person’s sense ofoffense, however, is another person’sproclamation of “the truth.”

We rely on faculty to help direct and man-age this aspect of growing up—along withall the other challenges we assign them.They stimulate students to think, and try tohelp refine their ideas by adding historyand context. Once the conversation begins,they must observe the to-and-fro, weighingthe pitch and tone and impact. They mustjudge when or whether to intervene andhow to shift the situation to capture itsmaximal teaching benefit. That’s a tallorder, requiring wisdom and skill.

This fall, having read the business best-seller Difficult Conversations, facultyexplored with Vantage Partners, a consult-ing group that developed out of theHarvard Negotiation Project, the dynamics

of how (and why) to discuss what mattersmost. We learned how to parse a verbalexchange, becoming more accurate in judg-ing what the messages are. We worked atthe art of changing conversations fromstand-offs to learning opportunities.Having accepted responsibility for engag-ing with young people, and with one another, we are committed to makingprogress in doing it well.

To better prepare students, we launched—after a year of study—a curriculumdesigned to name and describe crucial val-ues, and help students understand how toapply them in their lives. As a result,Milton students now have a continuous,multi-faceted four-year program—a sus-tained conversation with adults and peersabout how to understand themselves andothers in a community and a broaderworld, and how to make good decisions.The teaching schedule for this curriculumis purposefully flexible, so that the weeklycourse meetings can respond to any issuethat arises on campus that needs adult-stu-dent conversation in groups where the par-ticipants are comfortable with one another.

We embrace diversity at Milton, as well asthe corollary need to build a communitywhere individuals feel support for who theyare and what they believe. Intellectual hon-esty is a value that needs to be defined andpracticed in a diverse environment, onethat resembles the world in which we live,and an environment committed to teachingand learning. If we can successfully makethe connection between the art of dialogueand the growth of knowledge and identity,we will be helping students develop criticallife skills. Learning how to disagree is avaluable work in progress.

Robin Robertson

Learning How to Disagree

46 Milton Magazine

In•Sight

“The Edge of One of Many Circles,”a sculpture by Sarah Sze ’87, alightin the Schwarz Student Center.

47 Milton Magazine

Joh

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48 Milton Magazine

OnCentre

Ideas about helping others beginat an early age. Milton’s thirdgraders embrace the charge to“do good” with a project thatcombines curriculum work in allareas of study. The love of abook, a butterfly and a sunflowergave rise to the third-grade phi-lanthropy project this year.

The Book: Over the summer, ris-ing students in Jane McGuinness’and Susan Wheelwright’s third-grade classes read the book Owenand Mzee: The True Story of aRemarkable Friendship, whichchronicles the experience of ayoung hippopotamus orphanedby Southeast Asia’s tsunami of2004. Rescued by the membersof a small town in Kenya, “Owen”is sent to a sanctuary, where he

becomes the unlikely friend of a130-year-old tortoise namedMzee. The Haller Park Sanctuaryin Kenya is still home to this pairof friends whom Milton’s thirdgraders have come to adore andcheck in on regularly through thesanctuary’s Web site. Owen andMzee also helped kick off thethird-grade social studies unit onAfrica.

The Butterfly: In a science unit,students study the life cycle of themonarch butterfly, learning abouteach stage of development andtracking the colorful creatures’journey to Mexico. Studentsraised monarch butterflies in theclassroom and let them go fortheir migration. While learningabout this migration, third

graders also learned about theoxymel trees of Mexico being cutdown for building and firewood.These trees host the monarchbutterflies for a few months eachwinter in the generational migra-tion south. Without these trees,the migration, and birth of thenext generation of butterflies, isfatally interrupted.

The Sunflower: As part of lastyear’s third-grade “planting andgrowing” science unit, studentsplanted sunflower seeds, one ofwhich took root and grew to beover 12 feet tall, producing over1,500 seeds. In this year’s mathunit, students counted and divid-ed the seeds into three groups:one for planting, one for theclassroom’s bird feeder, and one

to sell in support of the HallerPark Sanctuary in Kenya and foran organization that supports themigration of the monarch butter-fly called Journey North.

“Susan and I are here for guid-ance,” Jane says, “but the stu-dents decide what they want todo. They’re creative and theyunderstand how everything tiesin. They’re aware that they’reworking for a worthy cause. Weask together, ‘What can 8- and 9-year-olds do as an altruisticdeed?’ and they come up withgreat ideas.”

Students designed seed packetsand decorated them with water-color paintings and original poetry. After much discussion,the class decided upon a price of$4 per packet, and sold the pack-ets to parents, friends and otherMilton Academy communitymembers.

“The students understand thatthe money supports both the ani-mals that we have come to loveand the butterflies we have fol-lowed, to keep them alive and fly-ing,” Jane says. “It’s a great wayto teach children about giving toorganizations that aren’t neces-sarily the popular names thatyou know. It’s the fruit of theirown work that benefits thesecauses. The whole project is con-nected to our curriculum inmany ways.”

EEH

Doing Good: Third Graders Give a Little Help to Their Friends

A Sunflower FieldI woke up one morning.I looked outside.I stepped out of bedwith my shoelaces tied.I looked at those flowersthat looked like the sunor a golden blanket beautifully spun.

Sunflowers will help you if you have a bad day.They cheer you up in every way.—Tara Sharma, Grade 3

49 Milton Magazine

Artist Sarah Sze’s “The Edge of One of Many Circles”A Gift of Lisa and Richard Perry ’73, and Tracy Pun Palandjian ’89

The GiftWhat looks fragile, whimsical,spun of thread, filled withlight—and at the same time isshaped of steel, designed tohold—balanced in the air, severalstories high—more than 800pounds of visual intricacy?

What is complex, multidimen-sional, chock full of shapes, col-ors, objects and ideas, and at thesame time affirms the grace,simplicity and openness of anextraordinary building?

Sarah Sze’s work, “The Edge ofOne of Many Circles” in theSchwarz Student Center bondssculpture and architecture to yieldan extraordinary artistic experi-ence. The experience is new eachday, because her piece beckonsyou in from different startingpoints and draws you toward thecenter along different routes.

Sarah Sze, Milton AcademyClass of 1987, has created instal-lations and permanent sculp-tures in august museums andcultural landmarks all over theUnited States and the world,including Paris, London, Milan,Leipzig, Kanazawa (Japan), NewYork, Chicago, San Francisco,Boston, San Diego and Seattle.

The DedicationOn September 29, 2007, MiltonAcademy dedicated “The Edge ofOne of Many Circles.” Trustees,faculty and students gathered tocelebrate the sculpture and thanktrustee Richard Perry and hiswife, Lisa. A collector of contem-porary art, Richard told studentsthat he felt they should be able,at Milton, to experience and beinspired by the work of thisextraordinarily accomplishedgraduate. Richard used theWizard of Oz story, replete withenergy and creativity, as inspira-tion for his own speech. Onbehalf of the students, SamanthaYu and Aditya Basheer, co-headmonitors, accepted the sculpturethat distinguishes their StudentCenter.

Sarah’s Words on Her Work“I begin by coming to the site,seeing the nature of the building,who uses it, how they use it, howthe space works,” Sarah says.“The Student Center is aboutflow. You move from a low, darkentrance to an immense open-ness. I wanted to emphasize thedrawing in. When you enter thebuilding you see a part of thesculpture, and then as you comein it opens up to a full struc-ture—in the part of the buildingthat is all about light and open-ness. I wanted the sculpture tocome cascading down from thehighest corner, and hover over abroken plane (the StudentCenter staircase being the ‘cut inthe flat plane’). You can view thepiece from all around it. It’s likethe piece at the San FranciscoMOMA (Museum of ModernArt) in that respect: You can seeit from above, from directlybelow and from all sorts ofangles. People will live with thepiece—rediscover it all the time.During the day it’s backlit andhas a skeletal quality. At night,looking from the outside, it’s litup. So it has a day life and anight life.”

Ladders and trusses disguise thesteel cables that hold the sculp-ture from the ceiling struts, sothe work seems suspended in air.“It doesn’t look like a mari-onette,” Sarah says. “I wanted apiece where the structural andthe aesthetic are confusing: youdon’t know where one stops andthe other begins. The piece isabout building, and you can rec-ognize elements about build-ing—bridges, towers, levels,building tools. As you look, theidea of fragile delicacy is sus-tained, but it’s pushed to thelimit by the strength implied inthe building elements. Experien-tially, I want people to be lost (inexploring), and then find a recog-nizable moment, like the stairs.

Continued on page 50

Sarah Sze ’87 at work in August 2006 with a member of her staff

Sarah’s sculpture cascades from the highest point in the Schwarz StudentCenter ceiling, to hover above the staircase.

50 Milton Magazine

Historians, writers, artists, religious and scientific thinkers are among Milton’s fall visitors to campus

Bill McKibbenEnvironmentalist and best-selling

author of The End of Nature and

Enough

Mr. McKibben visited campusSeptember 13 as a guest of thescience department. He is ascholar in environmental studiesat Middlebury College, has beena staff writer at The New Yorkerand is a contributor to manypublications, including The NewYork Review of Books, Outside andThe New York Times. His majorconcerns include global warm-ing, alternative energy andhuman genetic engineering.

In his book The End of Nature,McKibben writes, “In the past,we spoiled and polluted partsof…nature, inflicted environmen-tal ‘damage.’ But…deep down, wenever really thought we could[wreck nature]: it was too big andtoo old; its forces…were toostrong, too elemental. But, quiteby accident, it turned out that thecarbon dioxide and other gaseswe were producing in our pur-suit of a better life could alter thepower of the sun, could increaseits heat. And that increase couldchange the patterns of moistureand dryness, breed storms innew places, breed deserts...Wehave produced the carbon diox-ide—we are ending nature.” Mr. McKibben’s new book, Deep Economy: The Wealth ofCommunities and the DurableFuture, is due to be released thisMarch.

Paul WatanabeUniversity of Massachusetts

Department of Political Science

Dr. Paul Watanabe knows first-hand of the Japanese internmentthat took place in the UnitedStates following the Pearl Harborbombing. He recalls that hisbrother, only five days old at thetime, and mother were sent to anassembly center—essentially aformer horse stall at the SantaAna racetrack in California—andlater to an internment camp inthe early 1940s. For Milton stu-dents, he traced the history ofthe internment initiative. Thequestion of that time is the ques-tion of today, he said. “What isthe right balance between preserv-ing civil rights and protectingnational security?”

Dr. Watanabe, Milton’s ninthannual speaker in the HongKong Distinguished LectureSeries, visited campus onOctober 4 and posed that ques-tion. He compared Americans’response to Arab Americans fol-lowing the September 11 tragedyto the response toward JapaneseAmericans during World War II.

“When someone, because of his race, religion, or ethnicity isheld in suspicion,” Dr. Watanabeconcluded, “we all potentiallybecome the victims of suspicionsourselves. Aren’t we all dimin-ished and damaged in some sig-nificant way when other people’ssense of self, identity and dignityare compromised?”

Lorrie MoorePrize-winning author of Birds of

America and other works;

University of Wisconsin’s

Delmore Schwartz Professor in

the Humanities

Lorrie Moore visited campus onNovember 1 as this year’sBingham Visiting Writer. Ms.Moore read her story “Dance inAmerica,” answered students’questions, and continued herconversation in Straus Library.

David Smith, English depart-ment chair, introduced Ms.Moore by imploring students tolisten intently to her words.“…What I don’t want you to over-look…is the richness, whether ofhumor or of compassion or ofnuanced insight.” Ms. Mooreexplained that the parent/childbond—which is one subjectbroached in “Dance in America”and throughout her work—issomething that she has “beeninterested in from the begin-ning.” She explained, “It’s such abasic plot line in our lives thatit’s hard to write about peoplewithout at least a little of that.”

Ms. Moore’s fiction, reviews andessays have appeared in suchpublications as The New Yorker,The Paris Review and BestAmerican Short Stories.

Those moments draw you in,like the first line or last line of anovel.

“The piece seems alive. It imi-tates something that is moving,growing. All the things includedare gestural: for example, theblue cups are spinning up andspinning down. The work looksat ‘behavior’ in objects. At thebottom, for instance, the circlesgather like bees around trash.It’s as if the objects have somemotivation.

“The white structure is all fabri-cated. I could have left it thatway, I suppose, but to the fabri-cated things I added real objects.The piece is more complexbecause of the interplay of thetwo.

“The interplay between fabricat-ed and real relates to that ques-tion: What is the line betweenreal life and art? Why is thisobject valuable to us—because of its aesthetic importance or itspractical value? The levels, forinstance, are both decorative andpractical. I want to blur the lines.

“In terms of sculptural proper-ties, I’m interested in instability.When you’re doing art as yourlife’s work, your major ideashave to come from some person-al space and from reflectingupon your time. In our time, theonslaught of information and thespeed of change create a sense of constant instability. We can belulled into a sense of safetybecause of things like theprogress in medicine, but thensomething we couldn’t be pre-pared to handle happens, rein-forcing the lack of predictabilityor stability in our world.”

CDE

Perry Gift, continued

51 Milton Magazine

Lauren GreenfieldNoted by American Photo

Magazine as one of today’s top 25

photographers; documentary

filmmaker of the award-winning

film, THIN

Lauren Greenfield was on cam-pus November 29 throughDecember 1 as this year’s MelissaDilworth Gold Visiting Artist.Ms. Greenfield was one of onlythree females chosen byAmerican Photo Magazine, alongwith Mary Ellen Mark and AnnieLeibovitz. She is the creator of“Girl Culture” and many relatedprojects that deal with the influ-ence of popular culture on howwe live. Her photography dealsmost specifically with issues ofgender identity, body image andeating disorders. Her photo-graphs have been published reg-ularly in magazines includingthe New York Times Magazine,Time, The New Yorker, ELLE, andHarper’s Bazaar.

Her recent documentary film,THIN, delves into the lives offour women struggling withanorexia and bulimia. The filmwas met with internationalacclaim and premiered at the2006 Sundance Film Festival.

John Shelby SpongEpiscopal Bishop of Newark,

retired; pastor, professor, author,

national critic and commentator

Bishop John Shelby Spong visit-ed Milton on October 11 as thefourth speaker for the Class of1952 Endowment for ReligiousUnderstanding. With his mod-ern interpretation of the Bibleand advocacy for social justiceand acceptance across religions,Bishop Spong’s message sparkedmuch discussion, in StrausLibrary, where he met with stu-dents, and in classrooms acrosscampus. Overtly faithful andcommitted to the Christian tradi-tion, he claims that by “adheringto the spirit of the Bible, and notto the letter of the Bible [wemight help] build a world wherewe all have the opportunity tolive fully, love wastefully and beall that [we are called to] be.”

Serving as a member of the cler-gy for nearly 50 years, BishopSpong now spends much of histime writing and speaking, hav-ing lectured at many theologicalinstitutions, including HarvardDivinity School.

James Meeks ’97 Milton alumnus and decorated

veteran of the Iraq War

As part of Milton’s Veterans’ Dayprogram on November 8, alum-nus Jim Meeks ’97 returned tocampus and spoke with studentsabout his experience as a firstlieutenant in the United StatesArmy, stationed overseas as partof Operation Iraqi Freedom. Afterearning a bachelor’s degree fromHarvard, Jim spent the better partof three years in Ramadi andBaqubah, Iraq, in the 34 ArmorBattalion. As the officer in chargeof Task Force Centurion’s deten-tion facility in Ramadi, he wasresponsible for the supervision,health and welfare of sevenprison guards, four interrogatorsand up to 90 Iraqi detainees, anexperience that he described as“eye-opening.”

Injured by a roadside bomb dur-ing his first tour of duty, Jim wassent back to the U.S. to recoverand decided to return to Iraq tocontinue the mission alongsidehis fellow soldiers. He impressedstudents with his sense of theethical challenges involved inimplementing any war, the com-plexity of this particular initiative,and the enormity and scale of theoperation. He left them with theidea that any single soldier knowsonly his experience, and knowingthe “situation” in its entirety is anear impossibility. Jim receivedthe Bronze Star Medal and aPurple Heart for his work in Iraqand is now an M.B.A. candidateat Stanford University.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr.W. E. B. Du Bois Professor of the

Humanities, Harvard University;

Director of the W. E. B. Du Bois

Institute for African and African

American Research

Dr. Gates of Harvard Universitytalked with students on January10 as the 2007 Martin LutherKing Speaker. One of the mostinfluential American culturalcritics, he is widely acknowl-edged for moving AfricanAmerican studies from the ideo-logical positioning of the 1970sand ’80s to a scholarly sphere.

Dr. Gates has authored and edit-ed several books and writtennumerous articles for The NewYorker, Time Magazine, The NewRepublic and The New York Times.He is also the editor of Transitionmagazine, an internationalreview of African, Caribbean, and African-American politics.Through scholarly efforts such aspublishing bibliographies ofnoted writers—Nigeria’s WoleSoyinka, for example—andrepublishing historical texts likeHarriet Wilson’s Our Nig, or,Sketches from the Life of a FreeBlack, written in 1854, Dr. Gateshas defined an African-Americanliterary and cultural tradition. Healso authenticated and facilitatedthe publication of The Bondwom-an’s Narrative by Hannah Crafts,the only known novel by a femaleAfrican American slave and pos-sibly the first novel by an AfricanAmerican woman. In 1997, Dr.Gates was named one of TimeMagazine’s most influentialAmericans.

52 Milton Magazine

Alumni AuthorRecently Published Work

Cell of Cells: The Global Race toCapture and Control the Stem Cell

By Cynthia Fox ’79

The three-word title of this time-ly book by Cynthia Fox ’79 cap-tures the essence of stem cells;that is, a stem cell is just a singlecell but it also might, under theright conditions, give rise to celldynasties, an extraordinary featthat normal differentiated cellsof vertebrates seem unable toaccomplish.

Within over 400 pages ofexplanatory text (and supportedby detailed sourcing notes at theend of the book), Cynthia treats

the reader to the personalities,politics and places involved insome major stem-cell advancesin the past half decade. Based onher end notes, it appears that shetraveled the world to speak toleading researchers in locationsincluding Egypt, Israel, SouthKorea, Singapore, Australia,Japan and the United States.Cynthia weaves together notesfrom those interviews with sto-ries taken from newspapers, sci-entific journals, conversationswith stem-cell recipient patients,and politicians, creating a type ofscientific whodunit. She takesthe reader on the cloning roller-coaster of successes and set-backs, describing this globalscientific race as it has unfoldedso far.

She does not just list what weknow (or believe we know) todayabout stem cells; instead, shetraces growth of our knowledgethrough a series of laborious butcreative and intriguing experi-ments conducted around theworld from about 1998 to 2006.She clarifies motivations, sepa-rates genuine breakthroughsfrom deceits, and identifies psy-chological as well as political andfinancial restraints to progress inlocating and understanding stemcells of all types. For example,even after the first normal adultstem cell (a blood stem cell) wassuccessfully cultured (in 1988, inmice), continuing psychologicalconstraints delayed discoveringadult neural stem cells. Shewrites, “…the vast majority [of sci-entists] believed the adult braincould not contain stem cells. Ifthe brain were constantly replac-ing neurons, where would thememory go?” Once the shockingdiscovery of neural (brain) stemcells was reported (in 1992, inmice), scientists began to lookmore carefully for stem cells inall types of tissues, includingcancerous tissues.

Cynthia also points to the role of politics that has encouragedglobalization of embryonic stem-cell research. In Chapter 1, titled“Unmade in America,” shedescribes how religious beliefs of President Bush have drivenresearch on human embryonicstem cells to other countries andgreatly slowed American progressin learning how to culture and toinduce differentiation in thesetotipotent cells.

When human embryos developnaturally, the stem cells “know”what to do to produce all of theessential tissues and organs,from heart to kidney to skin topancreas. Outside of a body, or inlaboratory culture dishes, howcan we tell these very same cellsto do what we would like them todo? For example, how do wecommunicate chemically to stem

cells to say, “Become functionalpancreas cells, please”? This is a hugely challenging question,but one whose answer holds somuch promise for millions ofhumans suffering from diabetes,neurological disorders, cardio-vascular problems, cancer, or, literally, degeneration of anybody part.

Later in her book, Cynthia walksthe reader through state-of-the-art blood cancer treatments andkidney transplantations. She alsointroduces research suggestingblood stem cells from a youngsource might help rejuvenateage-damaged tissues.

It takes time for humans to con-sider and then to accept or rejectsome technological advances thatare products of scientific humanminds (e.g., in vitro fertilizationor genetic modification of foodcrops). Today, about 50 yearssince the deliberate productionof the first mammalian chimera,many humans are comfortablewith the idea of saving a lifethrough transfer of body parts(e.g., kidney, skin, heart, liver)from donors.

A key impediment to progresson human embryonic stem cells(hES) has been our inability toreach consensus on one keyissue: “When does meaningfulhuman life begin?” In scatteredchapters, Cynthia addressesunderstandings from a variety ofcultures. For example, she writesthat “…the Koran says the souldoesn’t enter the body until 120 days.” Many Jews believe“human life is a process…with‘ensoulment’ only starting totake root around the fortieth dayafter conception.

“Much of the Western world, inthe 1980s, had codified into lawthe notion that meaningfulhuman life ends when the braingoes.” And “therefore, many sci-entists by 2003…believed that

53 Milton Magazine

40meaningful human life beginsthe moment the human brainbegins to form…approximately14 days after conception. (TheUnited Kingdom, among othernations, codified this.) Thatmoment occurs long afterhuman ES (hES) are formed,around day five. This, added tothe fact that a full 70 percent of[human] embryos never make itto birth naturally, should renderhES cells “moral” for use, byPresident Bush’s own standards,many scientists believed.” Thisvariety of religious beliefs hasclearly slowed the developmentof global guidelines on stem-cellresearch.

What might be some productiveuses of stem cells? Can stemcells be injected and used torebuild breast tissue of post-mas-tectomized women? Can stemcells be precisely injected intodamaged heart muscle to repairand rejuvenate those areas? Candonor bone-marrow cells be usedto stimulate attack of host cancercells? And what about seriousproblems? Can injection of stemcells lead to cancer or atheroscle-rosis if injected in the wrongplace or at the wrong time?Cynthia has made these possibil-ities understandable to any read-er intrigued by this scientificfrontier.

Linde EysterScience DepartmentFaculty Advisor to Helix, Milton

Academy’s Science Writers’ Club

Alumni Named Great Minds of the Business World

Two Milton alumni—KimberlySteimle Gori ’92 and Miltontrustee Austan Goolsbee ’87—were each named one of the “TopForty Under Forty” businessexecutives in their respectivecities, Boston and Chicago, thispast fall.

Kim, who is the vice president ofmarketing and business develop-ment for Suffolk Construction,was honored as one of the city’stop young business executives bythe Boston Business Journal inits annual “40 Under 40” listing,which bases its selection on “pro-fessional, civic and personalaccomplishments.” A recentSuffolk press release announcingKim’s honor explained that she“has been with SuffolkConstruction since 2002, whenCEO John Fish hired her to leadthe company’s marketing andcommunications operations.[Kim] made an immediateimpact at Suffolk assembling anexpert team of creative and pub-lic relations professionals to pro-mote the Suffolk brand. Shequickly became a trusted advisorfor Fish, counseling him on a

wide range of communicationsendeavors including brandingand business development initia-tives, media and public relations,event planning, speechwriting,and website design.”

After graduating from MiltonAcademy, Kim attended theCollege of the Holy Cross andthen embarked on her profes-sional career in marketing withMcDermott & O’Neill Associates.In addition to her businessfocus, Kim is committed to giv-ing back to the community. Sheoversees Suffolk’s charitable

programs and, among other philanthropic undertakings,serves on the board of Habitatfor Humanity.

Austan Goolsbee ’87, Robert P.Gwinn Professor of Economicsat the University of ChicagoGraduate School of Business,was named one of Chicago’sbright young businesspeople in a similar listing compiled byChicago Business. Austan spe-cializes in the application of economics to new technologyfields, especially the Internet. Heattended Yale University, wherehe earned both his bachelor’sand master’s degrees. He earnedhis doctorate in economics atMIT.

Among Austan’s several dozenpublished papers in economic,tax and technology-related jour-nals, he has had regular columnson Slate.com, owned by TheWashington Post, and The NewYork Times. He has written oneverything from online versusretail competition in the comput-er industry through state incomeapportionment. Austan was alsothe economic advisor to Illinoissenator Barack Obama duringhis 2002 campaign.

Austan Goolsbee ’87

Kimberly Steimle Gori ’92

54 Milton Magazine

Sixth graders are their own kettleof fish. They need support andattention and, at the same time,increasing independence. Theyneed space of their own, chancesto express plenty of physicalenergy, and constant intellectualstimulation.

Within a program that meetsthese developmental needs andprepares sixth graders for theculture and academic challengesof the Upper School, Wednesdaycommunity meetings are a week-ly highlight.

dents walked in: Why did youchoose ______ ? What do youthink about ______ ? What’s goingto happen in ______ ?

Next up on the agenda was theProblem of the Week. The meet-ing leaders gave the answer tolast week’s problem and posedthe problem for the upcomingweek, a problem they had creat-ed, which is then posted on thecommunity board for all to solve.

For “word of the week,” they had chosen trigonometry. Neverhaving lived a moment withoutWikipedia, that’s where theystarted with their definition, butnot where they ended.

Next, the two students selectedslips of paper from the KindnessBox to read out loud. Studentsfill the box during the week, withcitations of small kindnessesthey have experienced from theirpeers. This is a favorite exercise,and the two boys could continuefor quite some time: “Nina gaveme some Laffy Taffy.” “Jasonfound my index cards.” “When Iwas really parched, John gave mesome water.” “Emma saved aseat for me.”

Faculty members are allowedonto the program near the end ofthe meeting. Along with stu-dents who have announcements

to make about upcoming activi-ties, athletic events, and projects,faculty members let studentsknow what to expect in the weekahead.

Carrie Ellis, sixth-grade dean,says, “Developmental levels real-ly inform the sixth-grade year.[The students] are on the cusp ofchildhood and adolescence.Working with younger stu-dents—we have reading buddiesin the first and second grade andwe run field day for the LowerSchool—we have opportunitiesfor leadership, and we discusstheir roles, asking, ‘How do youwant to be known as sixthgraders?’ The community meet-ing is an opportunity for leader-ship among their peers.”

Students look forward to it; per-haps that’s because students runthe meeting. Wednesday com-munity meetings are carefullystructured to provide opportuni-ties for leadership, connectionand expression.

Two students lead the meetingeach week. For five to seven min-utes, they present two thingsabout themselves that they’d liketo share. At one meeting, forexample, two boys presented anin-depth PowerPoint presenta-tion about how much they lovedHarry Potter books, why theywere worth loving, and how theywould rank each of the volumesrelative to the whole series. Theyopened the door, and all the stu-

When all the components of themeeting wrap up, students havepraised one another and rein-forced the themes faculty areworking to stress in the life ofthe School. They have laughedout loud, shared interests, beenchallenged, applauded and start-ed the day on an upbeat note.

CDEEEH

Who’s in charge? And why?On Wednesday mornings, the students are.

55 Milton Magazine

Sports

Over Martin Luther King week-end, the top junior squash play-ers from across the countrygathered at the Murr Center,Harvard University, to competein the inaugural Frank MilletChampionship Tournament. TheUnited States Squash RacquetsAssociation (USSRA) selectionevent generated intense competi-tion from 178 of the nation’s bestyoung squash players.

The Massachusetts SquashRacquets Association (MSRA)Junior Committee, which organ-ized the event, named the com-petition after Milton Academyfaculty member and squashcoach Frank D. Millet.

The top 32 rated players in eightdivisions, including 114 boys and64 girls, competed in 368 match-es over the three-day weekend.Will Sullivan, John Nimmo,Casey Cortes, Alli Rubin andSarah Loucks, all Class III, wereamong the Milton Academy students selected to play in the tournament. Casey Cortes took

Frank Millet is the inspiration for a national squash tournament

first place in her division, whileWill Sullivan and Alli Rubin both advanced as far as the quarterfinals.

When asked about the honor,Mr. Millet replied, “It’s rathernice,” and changed the topic tothe good work of all thoseinvolved in the tournament.

Frank Millet shares a word Frank Millet, Casey Cortes ’09 and Tom Poor

Will Sullivan ’09 advanced to the Boys 17 and Under QuarterfinalsAlli Rubin ’09 advanced to the Girls 17 and Under Quarterfinals

“It was a most pleasant threedays,” said Mr. Millet. “The tournament was well-run byNortheastern squash coach ChrisSmith, aided ably by Tom Poor,Lenny Bernheimer and the newMSRA Committee members,including Bill Nimmo, JimSullivan and Gary Rubin. Players,both boys and girls of all ages,

came from as far as the WestCoast, Philadelphia and Chicago.They displayed excellent sports-manship and it seemed thateveryone had a good time.”

Greg WhitePhotos courtesy of JD Sloan

56 Milton Magazine

Class Notes

1936Rosemary Crocker Kempreports that she is living in a niceretirement home in Meredith,New Hampshire. Her daughteris nearby and gets her out andabout often. Rosemary sees hergrandsons and their wives fre-quently, as well. She writes, “My job as class secretary lasteda long time and I enjoyed hearing from many classmates,including Louise IrelandHumphrey ’37.”

1939Our sympathies go to HenryWalcott, who lost his wife thispast April.

Stephen Wellington has been liv-ing in Pike, New Hampshire, forthe last 33 years. He and his wife,in addition to having had a veryfull married life of 60 years,have five children and eightgrandchildren.

1940Mary Bottomly writes, “I’mpleased to say I’m living down bythe creek at the same address. Ihave much interaction with mychildren and grandchildren—it’swonderful! I’m fortunate to havea large backyard and a vegetablegarden to complete the scene.”

1945Philip Dickson writes, “Afterstanding our ground and fight-ing two hurricane seasons inVero Beach, Florida, we finallymoved back to Bethesda,Maryland. We have decidedFlorida is for visiting, not own-ing.” Phil reports that he hadthree stents inserted in Februaryand is slowing down, but that hiswife, Suzzi, is very active, asalways.

1947Henry Lauterstein reports, “Atage 77 I’m in reasonably goodhealth and have enjoyed myretirement, particularly timespent with friends and family(two daughters and sons-in-lawplus four grandchildren). As forour beloved country, the recentelection in November provedencouraging.”

1948Martha Wiencke has moved toKendal Hanover, a retirementcommunity.

1949Cynthia Wright LasserreDeVezeron writes that she was delighted by two class get-togethers in 2006. The first wasa mini reunion in Switzerlandwith Coleman Norris, June andJack Robinson, Micheline andBernard Florin, Shirley and Dave Jenkins, Peter Runton

and Linda Squires. The secondgathering was a weekend inMaine with Lele Hall in August.Cynthia writes, “I extend theinvitation to classmates wantingto come to Provence. I have alarge house and unlimited roséwine!”

1954Liz Biddle Barrett writes, “Ourlittle house in Dover and nearbyfamily and friends are a continu-ing joy. Our lovely sun-drenchedacre is surrounded by the woods,walls and an active bridle path onone side. Rud and I delight inplanting trees and shrubs to feedand shelter birds. Yardwork, horticulture and tennis keep uslimber. We’ve lost our belovedOratorio Society of New York,but have resumed piano andcello, a fine substitute.”

On November 18, 2006, BenWilliams dropped the ceremoni-al first puck onto the ice in thenew Williams Hockey Center at

the CSC Rink at Trinity College(pictured). The Williams HockeyCenter is named for Ben’s brother, Albert “Bert” C.Williams ’60, who died in a caraccident while a student atTrinity. Here at Milton, theWilliams Family Squash Courtshonor the life of Bert’s and Ben’s other brother, Ralph B.Williams III ’51. Four genera-tions of this athletic family havemade their mark in Miltonrecord books and can boast threeRobert Saltonstall Medal win-ners: Bert Williams ’60, Ben“Banjo” Williams ’78, and David“Tiger” Williams ’80.

1955Paul Robinson reports that hehad a good visit in Decemberwith Whip Filoon, Bob Crookand Al Scullin.

Ben Williams ’54 drops the ceremonial first puck onto the ice in the new Williams Hockey Center at Trinity College.

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1956Rupert Hitzig is the president of Bizazz Media, a new mediaproduction company. They haveproduced an award-winning documentary on Danica Patrickand the Indy 500.

1957Anne Wyatt-Brown is editing anew journal, the Journal of Aging,Humanities, and the Arts. Sheurges anyone with an article thatwould be of interest to an inter-disciplinary audience to send ither way.

1958Lisa Hartmann Blake writes,“Baha’i is, as ever, my top priori-ty. I’m making pottery for Ito gal-leries here and there and I amloving being a grandma.”

Joan Corbett Dine writes, “ZingySan Francisco has supersededPrague as our new home.” Joan’shusband, Tom, is CEO of theJewish Community Federation.She writes that she is “re-invent-ing [her] musical self”—singing,whether in solo performance orchoir, taking voice lessons, andworking at sight-reading brush-up and greater mastery. She isreverting to ballet as exercise. “Ifone cannot retrieve the body inSan Francisco (I hate the defec-tions from service by previouslyloyal body parts), it’s all over! It’sgreat to be back.”

Ruth Cheever Drake reports thatshe is still living in Burlington,Vermont, but that she and herhusband have chosen to skip thewinters. They camp south andwest, spend lots of time inMexico, and this year spent timein California and Vieques, PuertoRico. When they’re home theytake classes at the University ofVermont, volunteer, and spendas much time outdoors as possi-ble: birding, kayaking, sailingand biking.

1959 Sam Taylor writes in from HoodRiver, Oregon, where he is prac-ticing a little medical oncology in“The Gorge” between windsurf-ing sessions. He has started bik-ing and skiing in the off-season.Sam comments, “It’s awesomeout here.”

1960Robert Norris is dividing histime among nonprofit endeav-ors, a suburban law practice andtending to his garden and hisgrandchildren. He and his wifecelebrate four children, now allmarried, five grandchildren, andreason to believe that numbermight increase. He notes, “Whileit is true that my experience atMilton is not the same as thatexperienced by today’s students,it is encouraging to see similarlessons learned: aiming high,importance of public service anda sense of curiosity and funplay.”

1963Bill Beyer writes in, “I’m veryproud to have received the“William Booth Award” from the Salvation Army for helpingthe Army help others. My best to all.”

1965Trinkett Clark, the wife of NickClark, passed away on October29, 2006, after a brief but coura-geous battle with liver cancer.Bay Bigelow, Ralph Hamill andBen Taylor, three of Nick’s dear-est Milton classmates, attendedher service.

1969Eliza Kimball reports that herson, Arthur, graduated from theUniversity of Chicago in 2004and is a staff writer for theProvidence Journal. Her otherson, David, is a sophomore atTrinity College. Eliza works as aSenior Political Affairs Officer inthe Department of PeacekeepingOperations at the UnitedNations, covering Iraq, Nepal,Kashmir and the WesternSahara.

Class of 1974 celebrates Patrick victory

In the statehouse, from left, Anna Waring, Cassandra Perry, Deval Patrick,David Moir, and Annette Buchanan, all Class of 1974

At the inauguration, Mrs. Aubrey (Smith) Carter, former faculty, Anna Waring,Annette Buchanan, Cassandra Perry, and Peter Smith ’77

At the gala, Cassandra Perry, Robin Lynch (also 1974), Annette Buchanan,David Moir

58 Milton Magazine

Bitter Ocean: The Battle of theAtlantic, 1939–45, David F.White’s second book, has justgone into a second printing inBritain and continues to sell wellin the United States. His daugh-ter, Margaret, is a senior atBrearley School preparing forcollege. David would love to seeany classmates passing throughNew York.

1971Congratulations to Lorna Role,Ph.D., professor of anatomy andcell biology at Columbia Univer-sity, who was the recipient of the Sidney R. Baer Jr. Prize fromthe Mental Health ResearchAssociation for her significantcontribution to the field of psy-chiatric research. The $40,000prize honors a psychiatric investi-gator who is conducting particu-larly promising research. Lorna’sresearch is on the mechanisms ofcentral nervous system develop-ment and synaptic plasticity relat-ed to neuropsychiatric disorders.

1974Sarah Smith Ferguson writesthat she is still in the Chicagoarea working as a clinical nursespecialist in diabetes, and herhusband, Rick, is still flying forUnited Airlines. Her older son,James (21), is serving in theArmy and is currently stationedin South Baghdad. Her youngerson, Brian (18), is going to col-lege and playing bass guitar. Sheurges folks to, “come and visitus—we’re on the train line toChicago.”

1975Foerd Ames is working with theOcean Wave Energy Company.The group’s Web site iswww.owec.com, for those interest-ed in learning more.

1976Margaret Davis reports that shehas been appointed the AssociateDean for Advancement at theWashington National Cathedral.She writes, “I have merged myhead, heart and skill set to work

on global justice and reconcilia-tion, and I proclaim a tolerant,intellectually probing, generous-spirited Christianity and inter-faith mission. It all started atMilton.”

1978Steve Heckscher continues toenjoy running his own busi-ness—selling grocery storereceipt tape advertising—whilehis wife, Oksana, has just startedworking at Monegram Interna-tional as a bilingual rep. Steve isstudying Russian in order to beready for his next conversationwith Oksana’s mom and pop.

1979Bryan Austin writes, “…went tothe Patriots/Dolphins game withTad Walker and his five boys…allthe boys are Miami fans.”

1980James Scullin shares, “I enjoyedthe 25th reunion. We are nowwith our fourth child, workingand enjoying life in Geneva,Switzerland.”

1981Anne Myers Brandt is living inCambridge with her husband,Cameron, daughter, Charlotte(3-), and son, Sebastian, whoturned two in January. Anne ispracticing residential architec-ture part-time in Boston.

1982All is well for Chris Papageorge,wife, Marianne, and their two sons, Stephen (3) andNicholas (8).

Wrenn Flemer Compere recentlyopened a “Music Together” cen-ter near her home in the MadRiver Valley of Vermont—“It’s somuch fun, and I actually get paidfor it!” She also started chippingaway at a degree in music thera-py. Her family is well, and herchildren, Anna (13) and Pierre(11), are growing fast.

Catharine MacLaren ’87 married Eric Baldwin on September 16, 2006, at Tyrone Farm in Pomfret, Connecticut. In atten-dance at the celebration were Milton alumni Tom Clayton ’85, Cassie Robbins ’87, Chloe Breyer ’87 and daughter ClaraScholl, Stewart McDowell ’87, Anne Davis ’85, Melissa Coleman ’87, Ian MacLaren ’93, Catharine MacLaren ’87, AnneBridges ’86, Lori (Dandridge) Cunningham ’87, Connie Pendleton ’88, Alethia Jones ’87, Kate Zilla-Ba ’87, WilliamMacLaren ’63 and Nicholas Burger ’93.

1972Thomas Exton has joinedWildlife Trust as the ExecutiveVice President for ExternalRelations. Wildlife Trust, based inNew York City, is a conservationorganization that empowers localconservation scientists worldwideto protect nature and safeguardecosystems and human health.In his new role, Thomas will leadthe development and communi-cations initiatives as well asimplement the organization’smultimillion-dollar major giftsfor endowment building and pro-gram support. He directs anyoneinterested in learning more aboutWildlife Trust to its Web site,www.wildlifetrust.org.

1973Amanda Cannell is teaching artto seventh- and eighth-graders atNorwood School in Bethesda,Maryland. She also notes,“Miranda Wheeler ’08, whosebeautiful design is on the coverof this fall’s Milton Magazine,was a student of mine.”

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1985David Schore and his familyhave moved from Manhattan toOld Westbury, New York, onLong Island. He and his wiferecently welcomed their daugh-ter, Summer, who joins Hunter(6-) and Tyler (4-). David hasalso moved his company fromManhattan to Jericho, New York.

Tom Trigg and his wife, Sara,welcomed a baby boy in August.Tobias Reid Trigg, born onAugust 18, joins big brother,Tucker.

1988Mike Kobb recently returnedfrom a business trip to China,which he hopes will not be hislast. Pictures of the trip, includ-ing a brief vacation in Tokyo, canbe found at www.mjkobb.com.Mike reports that he is “neck-deep in home renovation proj-ects” after buying a house in2004. He writes, “I can see thelight at the end of the tunnel, butI’m still wondering whether thismight be an oncoming train…”He is looking forward to the20th reunion and hopes to seesome folks who have beenunable to make it to previousreunions. (“This means you,Sam Prud’homme, EthanDeSilvey and John Pierce!”)

Congratulations to JennaMoskowitz and Jacob Farmer,who were married this pastOctober in Cambridge,Massachusetts.

1989Louise Armstrong Barton andher husband welcomed theirthird child on Christmas Eve of2005 and named her Katharine,after her grandmother, KatharineCortesi Armstrong ’63.

Abbott Fenn writes in: “Havingearned a Ph.D. in economics ontop of his law degree, both fromthe University of Chicago, EthanFenn has opened a law practicein Burlington, Vermont, which,according to www.fennlaw.com,maintains a widely varied gener-al practice, but is most distinc-tive for service in the field of lawand economics.”

Emily Fenster reports, “I am liv-ing in Oakland, California, withmy partner and our 3-year-olddaughter who really, objectively,is the most amazing humanbeing.” Emily works part-time asa clinical supervisor at SenecaCenter, a nonprofit that serveschildren and families.

Zachary Meisel writes, “My family and I moved back toPhiladelphia last year where I have returned to Penn asAssistant Professor ofEmergency Medicine. In addi-tion to conducting research in

reducing errors in care forambulance patients, I have beenwriting for Slate on contempo-rary issues in medicine.”

1990Ellen Casey Boyd and her hus-band, Stephen, welcomed a son,Bronley Stephen Boyd III, onNovember 3, 2006.

Sean Nagle and Sachie Kozawaare happy to announce their mar-riage on September 10, 2005, inPalos Verdes, California. Theylive in Sherman Oaks, and Seanwill complete his master’s incomputer science at CaliforniaState University, Northridge, this year.

Amy Saltonstall Isaac and herhusband, Johnathan, welcome adaughter, Georgia SaltonstallIsaac, born on August 6, 2006.

Rudolph Reyes just had histhree-year anniversary workingas a regulatory policy lawyer forVerizon and loves it. He and hispartner, Brody, bought a turn-of-the-century Victorian house inthe Potrero Hill district of SanFrancisco and are in the longprocess of renovating. Rudy isalso singing in the San FranciscoCity Chorus and its smallerchamber group “Vox Dilecti.”

He also reports that he andAdam Wolff recently formed aMountain Biking Club, whichallows them “to explore theunbelievable wonders of the BayArea while getting some much-needed exercise.”

1991Brad Critchell continues as aninvestment banker at CreditSuisse in New York City. Histwin boys are about to turn oneyear old.

Henry Morales and his wife,Sandra, welcomed a baby girl onOctober 5, 2006. Madison TaylorMorales-Warken was born 8 lbs,1 oz, and 21 inches long. Henryand his family live in Carlsbad,California.

Mark and Shannon McGlame Pinson’89 welcomed Tyler Bray Pinson intothe world on January 4, 2006.

Taylor Clayton, age 4, son of Tom ’85and Cassie Clayton ’87

Sandra and Henry Morales ’91 wel-comed their baby girl, Madison TaylorMorales-Warken, on October 5, 2006.

With his fiance Martha Noel, Peter Kellner '87 visited Galen Chase '87, atGalen's Wyoming ranch. Martha is a medical student at Stanford; she and Peterwill marry in Carmel, California, this August.

60 Milton Magazine

Darren Ross, Jon Cope and André Heard, all class of 1993, are pictured here with their daughters Phoebe Ross, AdelaideCope and Zöe Heard after a raucous 4th of July barbeque in Manchester, Massachusetts, at the Ross homestead.

1992Sharon Sears writes, “Greetingsfrom Durango, Colorado! I am inthe thick of my first year as a fac-ulty member in the Departmentof Psychology at Fort LewisCollege. Durango is a really cooltown surrounded by the RockyMountains with excellent art,music, food and outdoor activi-ties. Fort Lewis is a small, liberalarts college. I am excited to beteaching courses includinghealth psychology and researchmethods. In addition, I am expe-riencing the joys of studentadvising, committees, and mak-ing research connections in thecommunity. My appreciation formy own teachers grows each dayas I experience all of the thingsthat go into this academic adven-ture. If any alumni or facultyhave the opportunity to visitDurango, let me know!”

1993C. Dana Critchell continues herresidency at Thomas JeffersonHospital in Philadelphia.

Graham Goodkin and his wife,Laura, recently welcomed a babygirl named Emma Livingston.

Gigi Saltonstall writes, “Ali(Burnes) Balster’s baby, Katie, isabout to turn one. I see them aswell as Ali’s husband, Nick,often. Kate (McGuinn) Motley isliving in Louisville, Kentucky,with her husband, Matt. I amheading down for a visit laterthis month. My sister Amy(Saltonstall) Isaac ’90 is enjoyingthe latest addition to her family,Georgia, born in August.

Darren Ross reports that he, JonCope and André Heard havesomehow found women tomarry them and bear them chil-dren. This past summer thegroup got together for a raucous4th of July party at the Rosshomestead in Manchester,Massachusetts.

1995Brad Anderson received hisPh.D. from Yale in 2005. He isnow teaching at the TrinitySchool in Manhattan and at Yalein the summer. In December, hejudged a poetry competitionorganized by another Miltonian.

Laura Snydman will finish herresidency in internal medicine atTufts-New England MedicalCenter this spring. She will bestaying on another year at T-NEMC as the Teaching andResearch Scholar in Medicine.

1998Monica McKenney, mother ofCara McKenney, passed alongthe good news that Cara’sboyfriend Tze Chun’s film,Windbreaker, was recently select-ed for the Sundance FilmFestival. The film is somewhatautobiographical, 11 minuteslong, and was created on a $600budget.

Greg Marsh was married to hiswife, Julie, on September 16,2006, on Cape Cod. He recentlyaccepted a position at Google asa University Programs Specialist.

This past fall, Jessica Resnick-Ault married Peter Gimbel,whom she met while at BrownUniversity. Jessica and Pete weremarried at Endicott House inDedham, Massachusetts. It was afabulous celebration with manyfriends and family members.The couple is living in Houston,Texas, where Jessica is a staff reporter for Dow JonesNewswires/the Wall StreetJournal, covering energy, andPeter is a graduate student.Jessica would love to hear fromany classmates visiting Houston.

2000Will Connors writes in, “Despitedaily heckling, a night in jail, torrential rains, and frequentfailed attempts to talk to beautifulEthiopian women in Amharic, I am thoroughly enjoying livingin Ethiopia as a freelance writer/editor. If anyone is in the area,look me up. I’ll be the awkward,balding white guy in jeans.”

2001Hayden Jaques is living andworking in Kansas City,Missouri. He works at LouisDreyfuss Commodities, tradingwheat and corn. Hayden wasable to take some time off beforehe started work to attend hisMilton five-year reunion, as wellas to travel to Brazil with hisfour-year Milton roommate,Gates Sanford.

2003Congratulations to TomColeman, who was crownedTemple University’s 2006–2007Homecoming King.

2004Colleen Leth reports that she isin her third year at BarnardCollege, where she’s majoring inart history with a minor in archi-tecture. She is busy participatingin a lot of campus and New YorkCity art initiatives, as well as row-ing crew at Columbia and work-ing part-time for the curator atthe Whitney Museum. Thisspring she is headed to Paris tostudy abroad.

61 Milton Magazine

2005 William Faulkner writes, “I abso-lutely love Tulane and could notimagine a better place to go tocollege than New Orleans, post-Katrina and all.” Will is a linguis-tics and Latin American studiesmajor with an architectureminor. He is looking forward tospending his senior year atPontifícia Universidade Católicado Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

2006Alice Minkoff, mother of SamMinkoff, reports that Sam isattending Boston University,where he is majoring in engi-neering. He is currently the president of his residence hall of over 400 students.

Daniel Charness is enjoying hisfreshman year at Wesleyan,where he plays varsity squash andis continuing his cello studies.

Deaths1927 Eleanor Snelling1929 David Howland1928 Charles Mason, Jr.1934 Morris Earle1935 John R. Bemis

Peter Greenough1936 P. Hickox Beall

Jean Richmond Stone1937 Elizabeth Hurd1940 C. Snelling Robinson II

Francis Houston1941 John T. Potter1943 Margaret Skinner

Armistead 1945 Charlotte Crocker

Cleveland1946 William W. Worcester1948 Joseph W. Powell III1950 Leslie Jones Jackson 1952 Giancarlo Uzielli1953 Conrad Nobili

Herbert Parker II1955 Edward W. Weld1956 Ruth Baker Ursul1962 Joseph Mattison III1968 Marion Cajori1971 Jay W. Tracey III

Milton alumnus DavidHowland, Class of 1929,passed away February 27,2006, following a lengthy ill-ness. In his time at Milton,David was a boarder inRobbins House and a recipientof the Robert Saltonstall Medal.Coached by Milton’s belovedand departed Herbert G.Stokinger ’24, David wouldvisit “Stoky” and his wife,Esther, at every chance. Davidwas the son of former Miltontrustee Charles P. Howland.He is survived by his wife,Nancy (Moller) Howland ’33,and two children, FaithHowland ’61 and Charles P.Howland ’63.

From Concord Journal,March 16, 2006

[David Howland] was born inNew York City on Jan. 13, 1911,the son of the late Charles P. andVirginia (Lazarus) Howland.Mr. Howland was raised in New

York, New Haven, Conn., andWalpole N.H. He graduatedfrom Milton Academy and YaleUniversity. A talented schoolboyand college athlete, he was amember of the Yale varsity foot-ball team.

Mr. Howland enlisted in theU.S. Navy in 1941 and served asa lieutenant commander duringWorld War II. He marriedNancy in 1937, and after the warthey settled in New Canaan,Conn., where they raised theirtwo children. In 1993 they movedto Carleton-Willard Village inBedford.

He worked as business manager for a small plastics company inStamford, Conn. As an avocationhe was an active old-book dealer,continually adding to his fine col-lection of early children’s booksand jigsaw puzzles and delightedin finding out-of-print books forothers.

David Howland ’29

Class of 1961; row 1 (left to right): George Cushing, Steven White, CharlesHowland, Gorham Brigham; row 2 (left to right): Dan Bergfeld, Paul Harrison,John Cooper, Peter Wilder, Bill McKenna; row 3 (left to right): Nat Barbour, PeterTalbot, David Lewis

Graduates’ Weekend 2006; (left to right) Paul Harrison '61, Nat Barbour '61,and Claudette Harrison, Paul's wife

ErrataMilton Magazine regrets errors in captions printed in the 2006 fall Milton Magazine. Correct captions appear below.

62 Milton Magazine

Julia W. Bennett ’79Norwell, Massachusetts

Bradley BloomWellesley, Massachusetts

William T. Burgin ’61 Dover, Massachusetts

James M. Fitzgibbons ’52 Emeritus Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts

John B. Fitzgibbons ’87 Bronxville, New York

Austan D. Goolsbee ’87 Chicago, Illinois

Catherine GordanNew York, New York

Victoria Hall Graham ’81 New York, New York

Margaret Jewett Greer ’47 Emerita Chevy Chase, Maryland

Antonia Monroe Grumbach ’61 SecretaryNew York, New York

Franklin W. Hobbs IV ’65President New York, New York

Ogden M. Hunnewell ’70 Vice PresidentBrookline, Massachusetts

Harold W. Janeway ’54 Emeritus Webster, New Hampshire

Lisa A. Jones ’84Newton, Massachusetts

George A. Kellner Vice PresidentNew York, New York

F. Warren McFarlan ’55Belmont, Massachusetts

Carol Smith MillerBoston, Massachusetts

Tracy Pun Palandjian ’89Belmont, Massachusetts

Richard C. Perry ’73 New York, New York

John P. Reardon ’56Vice PresidentCohasset, Massachusetts

Kevin Reilly Jr. ’73 Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Robin RobertsonMilton, Massachusetts

H. Marshall Schwarz ’54 EmeritusNew York, New York

Karan Sheldon ’74Milton, Massachusetts

Frederick G. Sykes ’65 Rye, New York

Jide J. Zeitlin ’81 Treasurer New York, New York

Milton AcademyBoard of Trustees,2007

63 Milton Magazine

You can count on:

• Catching up at Friday-evening class parties on campus

• Connecting with Milton faculty in classes they teach

• Treating yourself to music and dramaperformed by talented students

• Exploring the old, the new and therestored spaces with student guides

• Reliving your Milton days by stayingovernight in the Milton houses

• Resurrecting old favorites at the AlumniGlee Club Sing

• Honoring graduates at the MemorialChapel Service

• Sharing in Milton’s plans with Head ofSchool Robin Robertson

Join us for

Graduates’ Weekend 2007June 15 and 16

And just this year, not-to-be-missed events on Saturday, June 16:

• The Dare to Be True Luncheon cele-brates Mr. Frank D. Millet in honor ofhis 90th birthday

• The all-class reunion party Saturdaynight celebrates the ethnic neighbor-hoods of Boston

For the latest reunion information or to register, go to the “Alumni” pages atwww.milton.edu, or call Nika Thayer Mone ’94 in the alumni relations office, at 617-898-2394.

64 Milton Magazine

Susan Hall ’57

Today, when I play tennis within sight ofa basketball court, I can’t wait to finishmy match and go shoot hoops. This ripelymiddle-aged woman sinking the ball fromthe center line is jaw-dropping to theyoung African-Americans from whomI’ve scrounged a ball. Of course, I neverlearned the lay-up, because in my day weplayed on the half court and it was saferto shoot from outside. Drilled into mestill are the muscle memories developedby Miss Sullivan and Miss Bailey in theMilton boys’ gym.

Just as firmly etched in my mind is thearchitecture of sentences Ms. Pundywould construct on her blackboard. Whenshe called on me, she would search formy name: Katherine? Alice? Marion?Florence? Susan?—names of my auntsand mother, whom she had also taught.The Punderson sentence structure wascentral to our understanding of excel-lence, a standard we confronted at eachturn on the campus. So, too, was thesense that we were not in a hothouse, butrather an incubator, getting fattened upintellectually and morally for the rigors of the tough outside world in which wewere to engage.

Still Fired Up

“…we were not in a hothouse, but rather an incubator, getting fattened up intellectually and morally for the rigors of the tough outside world…”

Milton today scours the mean streets anddistant countries to ferret out deservingtalent. In widening its embrace, theschool has remained remarkably vibrantand relevant. Now, late in life, I, too, havewidened my embrace, teaching (for the first time) foster children in their foster homes throughout New YorkCity—in Brownsville, Bushwick, Bedford-Stuyvesant and the South Bronx. Inbringing to these fragile children thatsame fired-up enthusiasm for learning I osmosed at Milton, I am giving back ina tangible way what I was so privileged to have been given. In my last act, it isgive-back time for sure, and for this rea-son I have made a provision for Milton in my estate.

Milton students perform in A Chorus Line, December 2006.

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