The Riparian - Spring 2020

Riparian The Rivers School | spring 2020

The Revers Center Comes Alive

When you make a gift to The Rivers Fund, you give our faculty the resources to adapt and innovate.

Vol. XXXV

Number 1

Editor

Jane Dornbusch, Senior Assistant Director of Communications De s i g n e r

David Gerratt

NonprofitDesign.com contributing Photographers

Katie Harrigan, John Hurley, Stephen Porter, Adam Richins Contributing writers

Marissa Birne ’15, David Burzillo P’11,’13,’16 Printer

Signature Printing & Consulting Brian Maranian ’96

He a d o f S c h o o l

Edward V. Parsons P’17 Director of Advancement

Krissie Kelleher P’22 D i r e c t o r o f C o m m u n i c at i o n s

Stephen Porter

The Rivers School 333 Winter Street Weston, MA 02493-1040 781-235-9300 www.rivers.org

Riparian: “One that lives or has property on the bank of a river or lake.”

The Riparian is published twice a year for The Rivers School alumni, parents, students, faculty, and friends. To conserve resources, Rivers has consolidated multiple mailings addressed to the same household so that your home will receive only one copy.

If you have reason to receive additional copies at your address, please call Jane Dornbusch at 339-686-2230.

Your gift helps support Excellence with Humanity, this year and every year.

The 2019–2020 Rivers Fund July 1, 2019–June 30, 2020 www.rivers.org/giving

Photo (above): Organic Serenity, by Anna Monaghan ’22 ON the COVER

The Revers Center lobby (photo by Adam Richins)

Riparian T h e R i v e r s S c h o o l • s p r i ng 2020

2 The Value of Volunteers 3

From the Head of School

Campus News

14 Making the Future at Rivers philanthropic impact

Coping with a Crisis; 50 Years of The Rivers Edge; Focus on Faculty: Elizabeth Wendorf; and more

Features

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32

postcard from campus

Alumni Events

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12

NOTeS FROM THE RSC

RED WING REPORT

Catching Up with Alumni Athletes

Veterans Day; Holiday Tournament; Thanksgiving Social; Rivers Connect; Alumni Athletes Return to Campus

35 Stephen Lable ’90: Alumni profiles

Citizen of the World Evon Burroughs ’98: Uniformly Great

37 Alumni News and Notes;

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The Revers Center Comes Alive

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Senior Speeches

From our inbox

In Memoriam—Bruce Amsbary P’05, Caroline Grape ’18, Dan McCartney P’08,’15

13 Five Questions for . . .

RIVERSIDE CHAT

Jon Wasserman ’88, P’18,’21

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Co-Education at 30

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A Fond Farewell to Retiring Faculty

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Message from the Head of School

The Value of Volunteers

By Edward V. Parsons P’17

Communities like ours are bound to be tested from time to time, our values and core tenets laid bare against the blows of the outside world. It’s an unfortunate reality, but one that can also serve to reveal the strength of those core tenets. Even before the coronavirus hit, we faced our share of tests this year. (Please see the facing page for details on our response to the COVID-19 crisis.)

I’m proud to say that we have more than risen to the challenge.

The loss of former CFO Bruce Amsbary P’05 in November, of young alumna Caroline Grape ’18 in December, and of math faculty member Dan McCartney P’08, ’15 in January threw into sharp relief our core philosophy of Excellence with Humanity. Watching the community rally and come together brought hope to a challenging time on our campus and truly illustrated the resonance of that philosophy.

I wasn’t surprised. After all, it’s the spirit of this place that makes it special. It informs all we do here and all we speak of in connection with Rivers; it is what differentiates us as an institution. It is fueled by passionate students, faculty, staff, trustees, and parents who, drawn to Rivers by our commitment to the common good, serve our community as a matter of course. Rivers is a place driven by a volunteer spirit, and

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coming together is simply what we do. In good times and bad, we step up.

The power and commitment of all our volunteers is on display throughout the year, every year. It is our volunteers who put in countless hours behind the scenes to make sure that our events run smoothly and that our community is well cared-for. Parent volunteers staff the pop-up shop at Homecoming, help raise thousands of dollars at the annual Parents’ League Auction, organize participants for the Sages and Seekers program, sell merchandise at the Holiday Tournament, provide a monthly breakfast for the faculty, help disseminate information, and foster community by hosting social gatherings for fellow parents.

Their efforts are not always visible, but the impact is powerful, creating extraordinary experiences that resonate for our community all year long.

Never was the value of our volunteers more evident than during the sad events of our winter season. From the moment that word of our losses spread throughout the community, this extraordinary group made sure that all of us were nourished and supported through difficult times.

The Parents’ League supplied food, supportive emails, and notes, therapy dogs and hugs and simple kindness.

They rose up around us—students, faculty, and staff—and held us in

place, creating a shelter while the harsh winds blew.

The students responded in kind, their own volunteerism coming to the fore as they stepped into leadership opportunities or leaned into the supports offered to them, and the faculty stood tall for the children before them, putting their own pain on the shelf in order to serve the students. Alumni drew strength from one another, as they met to mourn and to celebrate the lives of those we lost. We came together in the extended moment of grief, and together we made it through.

No community wants to be tested in this way. I hope we never travel this road again, but experience tells us that other challenges surely lie ahead.

As I write these words, the nation itself is facing a great test, as we grapple with the coronavirus pandemic.

And the Rivers community is responding as it always does: thoughtfully, compassionately, capably, and with the utmost kindness and respect for one another.

At press time, the way forward was unclear, the outcome uncertain.

But we do know this: While we cannot avoid life’s tests, we can take comfort in knowing that we do not face them alone. Our burdens are lessened when they are shared. In joy and in sorrow, I am grateful to be a part of this extraordinary community.

campus news

Coping with a Crisis

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he coronavirus outbreak, and all the attendant disruptions to our daily lives, hit just before this issue of the Riparian was scheduled to go to press. We paused the process briefly to create this quick review of our response to the virus, as of press time. Given this rapidly evolving situation, the outlook may be different by the time this magazine is in your hands.

Early on in the crisis, during the first week of March, the school made the difficult but necessary decision to cancel planned spring break trips. Also canceled as of this writing were the annual Parents’ League Auction, the Alumni Golf Tournament, and Alumni Day. More cancellations seem likely to follow.

As spring break progressed, over the second and third weeks of March, it became increasingly clear that students and faculty would be unable to return to campus. What initially looked like a two-week suspension of on-campus classes soon became a much longer period, extended as of this writing to May 4 by order of Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker.

With astonishing alacrity and well-coordinated teamwork, faculty and administrators pulled together to create Rivers Remote, a robust and comprehensive online-learning program. Rivers Remote is still a work in progress. But its successful launch on Wednesday, March 25—just a day after classes had been scheduled to restart after break—was at least partly attributable to two factors.

The first was that the school started laying the groundwork early. “[Dean of Faculty] Leslie Fraser and I began talking about two weeks prior to break,” explained Director of Academic Technology John Adams.

Fortunately, when students left for spring break, they were told to take home all their materials, including their iPads.

That left the tech team confident that students would have the necessary tools to access virtual classrooms.

What would those classrooms look like? Faculty had to tackle every aspect of that, from the nuts-and-bolts of choosing technologies to the mastering of those technologies to factoring in important non-academic considerations. Adams quickly created a series of Zoom tutorials and compiled a wealth of online training sites and resources for teachers.

Early preparedness was one key factor. The second was timing. The fact that the need to ramp up Rivers Remote coincided with spring break turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as faculty members put vacation plans on hold and jumped into teaching in a whole new way. They attended daily training

While campus remained closed this spring, faculty and staff worked to provide a virtual learning experience for students.

sessions, and some took a course through the nonprofit Global Online Academy on best practices for teaching remotely; those who did the course in turn shared what they’d learned with their colleagues.

“You’re asking them to design new courses, learn new technologies, and remain calm and confident,” said Adams.

“And they are just nailing it, keeping relationships with students in the front of their minds.”

Upper School Dean of Students Will Mills was instrumental in making sure Rivers Remote addressed issues of student life and community. Said Mills, “We’re spending a lot of time making sure the channels of communication are clear. Using existing student life teams, we’re keeping an eye on how kids are doing on a regular basis.”

In a video message shared with students and parents on the eve of launching Rivers Remote, Head of School Ned Parsons voiced his hopes and aspirations for the program. “We know that we can do the job of delivering content, but delivering content is only part of what we do,” said Parsons. He continued, “I want you to know that we are stepping into a space still guided by our philosophy. Excellence with Humanity is about starting with relationships first. Even though we will not be in a room together for a little while, we’re going to do everything we can to be there, to be connected with you. It will be more challenging, but it’s still at the core of everything we do.”

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campus news

John Bower

The girls’ field hockey team celebrated its NEPSAC championship.

Fall, Winter Sports Seasons Bring Big Wins

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he fall and winter seasons at Rivers brought athletic success at the highest levels. Winter saw four teams— boys’ and girls’ basketball and hockey— in the NEPSAC tourney, with girls’ hockey reaching the final game before falling to Cushing Academy.

But the fall season shone especially bright, with Rivers teams and athletes turning in an array of amazing performances. Again, four teams—field hockey, girls’ and boys’ soccer, and girls’ volleyball—qualified for the NEPSAC playoffs.

Two of those four—field hockey and girls’ soccer—succeeded in taking home the championship trophy. In addition, both the field hockey team and the girls’ volleyball team earned ISL championship honors.

Playoff runs are almost de rigueur for the girls’ soccer team, which has made it into the playoffs for 17 of the past 18 years. During that time, the team has won an impressive five NEPSAC championships, the most recent one coming in 2016. This year, they once again brought the championship trophy back to Rivers.

For field hockey, this year’s title represented its first championship since

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moving up to Class B two years ago. Rivers beat Brooks School in an overtime thriller semifinal, which set up its championship match against Governor’s Academy.

The victory was made sweeter by the fact that Rivers was able to play the game on its home field. This was the first year NEPSAC chose Rivers to host a championship game, a decision driven by the quality of the school’s new athletic complex.

“Playing the championship game on our home turf was definitely a nice advantage,” said Coach Janna Anctil.

“But overall, what made the season so successful was the leadership displayed by our seven seniors, as well the overall team chemistry.”

John Bower to Serve as Interim Head of the Middle School

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n July 1, 2020, John Bower, now assistant head of the Middle School, will become interim head of the Middle School. He replaces Mike Kris ’87, who is leaving Rivers at the end of this school year to pursue an entrepreneurial opportunity in the fields of education and parenting.

Bower joined Rivers in 2008. Just prior to being named assistant head of the Middle School last fall, Bower served as director of diversity, equity, and inclusion for Rivers, and he has been Middle School DEI coordinator for the past year.

He has taught Middle and Upper School French, served as music director for the Middle School and Upper School musicals, and advised the a cappella groups. He also currently serves as Middle School chorus director.

In announcing the move, Head of School Ned Parsons commented, “John has a deep understanding of Rivers, and he models at all times our community values of integritas et sedulitas. He will bring to his new role a student-centered approach to teaching and learning.”

Bower is excited about the opportunities that come along with his new role. “Middle schoolers are incredibly dynamic,” he says. “There’s a tremendous amount of brain development in those years, and it’s a time when we have the opportunity to marry the social with the academic.”

As for the notion that middle schoolers are notoriously challenging, Bower admits with a laugh that students in this age group “definitely keep you on your toes.” But the veteran middle school teacher adds, “They’re also hilarious— just really fun.”

Bower looks forward to expanding the interdisciplinary aspects of the curriculum, supporting faculty growth, and enhancing opportunities to see the classroom through the lens of diversity, equity, and inclusion. First and foremost, though, it’s about the kids: “At the end of the day,” says Bower, “middle school students love to learn.”

Legally Blonde Showcases Talent, Energy, and Heart

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egally Blonde: The Musical is a show that demands strong lead performances, crackerjack ensemble work, and unflagging energy on the part of cast and crew. Fortunately, the Rivers School Nonesuch Players possess all those qualities in abundance, and they were on display in the Upper School musical performed in February at the Eleanor Welch Casey Theater at Regis College.

The musical tells the story of Elle Woods, a blonde UCLA sorority girl who follows her ex-boyfriend to Harvard Law School, hoping to win him back. Once enrolled at Harvard, however, Elle learns

to aspire way beyond the role of trophy wife. At the same time, she teaches the stuffy East Coast establishment types some important lessons about living your truth, pursuing your dreams, and wearing pink.

This inverted fairytale has timeless appeal, and the Nonesuch Players threw themselves into it, body and soul. From the opening signature tune, “Omigod You Guys,” to the “Find My Way” finale, the performers’ energy never let up.

Zoë Kassay, new to Rivers this year, was the show’s director. “I could not have asked for a better introduction to the Rivers winter musical process,” she said. “Our cast and crew truly embodied the Rivers motto of integrity and perseverance. I am so proud of the work of the entire team. They made this an experience I will never forget.”

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Photos: John Hurley

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campus news

Student Artwork and Writing Recognized

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ivers made a strong showing at this year’s Massachusetts Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, announced in February.

In total, students earned 20 awards in the prestigious competition: six Gold Keys, six Silver Keys, and eight Honorable Mentions.

David Saul, art department chair, was particularly pleased by the breadth of the chosen artwork and by the wide age range of the recipients. “It’s wonderful that both Middle School and Upper School students were recognized for their creative talents in a range of media spanning ceramics, drawing, painting, photography, and digital art. This demonstrates the inclusive nature of our visual arts program.”

Aleisha Campbell ’20, ceramics, Super Predator

Gold Key Winners

Apsara Balamurugan ’20, personal essay/memoir Aliesha Campbell ’20, ceramics Kate Eselius ’20, ceramics Phoebe Fogel ’24, photography George Reinhardt ’20, photography Caralyn Schmidlein ’21, drawing

Abigail Weiss ’21, ceramics, Fading Loudly Oliver Carswell ’22, painting, Distortion

Silver Key Awards

Oliver Carswell ’22, painting Gavin MacIssac ’20, ceramics Madison McShane ’20, ceramics Anna Monaghan ’22, photography Sylvie Pingeon ’21, poetry and flash fiction (two awards) Honorable Mention

Henry Johnson ’24, photography Jenna MacDonald ’21, painting Dylan Mentis ’20, ceramics Sylvie Pingeon ’21, flash fiction Evelyn Thomajan ’20, drawing Abigail Weiss ’21, ceramics Chelsea Yan ’25, digital art Mulan Zhang ’25, painting

Caralyn Schmidlein ’21, drawing, Intense

Phoebe Fogel ’24, photography, Unbeleafable 6

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Martin Luther King Jr. Celebrated in Song

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he legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is broad and deep, and there many ways to honor that legacy: Solemnly, thoughtfully, sadly, hopefully. At this year’s annual Rivers MLK Day assembly, held in January, student organizers chose to do it joyfully, commemorating the slain civil rights leader through music.

As Kalifa and Koliba—a seven-piece band that plays an irresistible blend of jazz, Afro-pop, and traditional West African music—took to the stage, it proved to be nearly impossible not to get up and dance. The group, led by percussionist and singer Mohamed Kalifa Kamara, played several upbeat songs, at one point inspiring a conga line of students and faculty members that snaked through Kraft Dining Hall to whoops, cheers, and applause from onlookers. Kamara spoke of King and his emphasis on love and respect, but he also exhorted the crowd

Delta Talks Highlight Social Change

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delta is many things: a Greek letter, a symbol for change, a place where a river meets the ocean. At Rivers, it’s now taken on one more meaning.

Alumni Delta Talks, launched in late September as a joint effort by the Center for Community and Civic Engagement and the Rivers alumni office, celebrate the many ways Rivers alumni are creating positive change in the world.

The idea is simple but powerful.

Once a month, a Rivers graduate returns to campus for lunch and conversation, hosted by the CCCE. Events are limited to about a dozen attendees. The guest speaks for about 20 minutes about their involvement, either personal or professional, in activism and social change.

Then the floor is open for dialogue and student questions.

to have fun, and it appeared that both messages were received.

Before the band’s set, several student leaders who helped organize the event shared remarks. Rayha McPherson ’20 noted that King “aimed to change minds by appealing to hearts,” adding that, after last year’s MLK Day assembly, she “realized that progress is really only achieved if everyone is not complacent.” Aliesha Campbell ’20 and Adebiye Oyaronbi ’21 addressed the crowd, noting that

celebrating music has always been an important part of African-American culture.

The assembly brought uplift both through music and through the commemoration of King’s words and deeds.

McPherson, in her remarks, quoted King’s belief that “unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.” And she then appended to it her own words: “I hope that we can come to see this as well.”

Kalifa and Koliba performed at the annual MLK Day assembly.

“We thought it was a great way to connect current students with recent alumni who are working in the arena of social change,” says Marc Stroum ’98, director of alumni engagement. “The students have really enjoyed hearing about the varied paths taken by these Rivers grads.”

Chris Whittier ’07 addresses students during his Delta Talk.

At the inaugural talk in September, students listened attentively as Chris Whittier ’07 described his post-Rivers path, journeying from consulting to urban planning and real estate development. In subsequent sessions, Marissa Birne ’15 talked about music and social justice, Ryan Littman-Quinn ’05 discussed mobile health in Botswana, and Maria Burzillo ’16 described her work in Rwanda with social enterprise EarthEnable.

Whittier, in his initial talk, may have set the tone for the entire program. He told the students, “To some extent my generation, and certainly your generation, represent—for the first time—people willing to forego profit if it doesn’t align with their values.” He added that the push for social change in the business world will only intensify. “It’s an interesting time to be out in the world working,” he said. “When you arrive in that world, it will be even more so.”

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campus news

Power of the Press: 50 Years of The Rivers Edge

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ewspapers have been in steady decline in recent years, but you wouldn’t know it at Rivers. The Rivers Edge, the school’s award-winning student newspaper, is alive and kicking.

The inaugural edition of the paper came out in 1970. Today, 50 years later, students produce five or six jam-packed editions per year that are a must-read for community members. The Edge has long been recognized by professional journalism organizations for its quality and content. In 2019, the American Scholastic Press Association honored The Edge with a first place with special merit award.

The Edge had a precursor of sorts.

For much of Rivers’s early history, The Current, first published in 1924, served as a combination newspaper, literary magazine, and yearbook. It was not until 1966 that students published a stand-alone yearbook, and The Edge followed a few years later. Rick Kurson ’71 served as the paper’s first

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editor. Looking back on the birth of The Edge, he says, “I was totally proud of this, as I imagine anyone involved in it was.”

Al Gordon ’72, a prolific contributor during the publication’s first two years and the editor for its second, says the early years had a self-reliant quality: “It just sort of happened. It evolved very quickly.

We didn’t talk a lot about things; we just did it.”

The first issue explained that the purpose of The Edge would be to publicize “important news events. Topics of articles will range from school events to debates and discussions.” Then as now, there was no shortage of stories worth presenting.

But the paper’s production and processes have undergone a dramatic change.

From its modest beginnings as a four-page publication printed on 8 ½by-11 paper, The Edge now averages 16 tabloid-sized pages per issue. In the paper’s earliest days, students typed up their articles, and the editors then drove the material from Weston to Brookline, where the stories were set up in columns at the Brookline Chronicle Publishing Company. The editors retrieved these reformatted articles, laid them out, and then drove them back to Brookline for printing. Today, students

type and proofread the articles. Alex Stephens ’83, the paper’s faculty advisor, uses a desktop computer to lay out each issue. Electronic files are sent to the printer, and then the papers are delivered to campus—no student road trips required.

Early issues of The Edge included profiles of faculty and staff, campus news stories, and sports updates. Some meatier subjects, like the building of a hockey rink, coeducation, and the proper focus of a prep school, were presented in the form of debates.

The legacy of that early editorial team’s work is an outstanding publication that continues to provide students with an excellent introduction to journalism.

“People perceive it as a good paper,” says Stephens. “When an editorial calls a person or policy out, it’s usually backed with good evidence. And we’ve tackled some controversial subjects, like vaping and drinking.” The fact that the paper isn’t simply a mouthpiece for the adminis- tration, he says, lends it credibility.

After 50 years, the paper remains a source of pride—and news—to this day.

For the students involved, the thrill of having a byline never gets old. “There’s nothing better than seeing your name in print,” says Stephens. “People are pretty psyched when it comes out.”

— David Burzillo P’11,’13,’16

f o c u s o n fa c u lt y

El i z ab e t h We n dorf

Fun with Numbers

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hink you’re not a math person? Elizabeth Wendorf would like to have a word with you. That word is “wins”—and the feeling of success that wins engender, says the math faculty member and department chair. “Every student is a math person, but sometimes it takes a few wins to help them believe it,” says Wendorf.

The challenge and the joy of teaching math is that, while all students can reach the point of mastering the subject, they don’t all take the same path. “One thing teaching math has forced me to do is to see the subject from 360 degrees,” says Wendorf. “Every year students show me a new perspective, a new angle, a question that forces me to think about what we’re doing. Every time I teach something, it adds another layer to the material, and every year, it gets richer.”

If math people are born as well as made, Wendorf was surely born to it. “I have wanted to be a math teacher since high school,” says Wendorf. For her senior project at Noble and Greenough School, she taught a math class and discovered her passion. At Wesleyan, she earned both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in math. “In retrospect, it would have been useful to take computer science or applied math. It was indulgent, but I pursued my passion—pure math.” That choice, says Wendorf half-jokingly, left her with two career options after graduation: code breaker at the NSA or teacher.

She briefly pursued a third route: working for a green energy firm in New York. “It was really interesting, and I enjoyed the work—but I had to sit at a desk. I was itching to get up and walk around and talk to people.” After a “mid-20s break” spent picking olives in Italy, Wendorf felt ready to pursue her true calling.

Wendorf spent two years at the Kent School (“I like to think of that as my grad school for teaching”) before landing a position at Rivers in 2011. It was here, she says, that she truly became the teacher she’d always wanted to be—thanks to the mentoring she received from Leslie Fraser P’10,’14 and former department chair Dan McCartney P’08,’15, whose unexpected death shook the community this past winter.

Says Wendorf, “Dan taught me what excellent teaching looked like. He helped me realize that the playfulness that is part of my personality is also part of my passion for math, and that it is something to lean into. He’d say, ‘Let’s have fun, let’s enjoy this.’” And, she says, McCartney taught her the importance of holding students to a high standard. “It’s a gift to them,” says Wendorf. “You can be a nice teacher and a tough teacher. You set the bar high, and you are right there with them every step of the way. ” As department head, Wendorf also serves in a mentoring capacity. McCartney left big shoes to fill, but Wendorf keeps him close to her head and heart. “As a mentor, I’m trying to pass on some of his wisdom. It’s tough, but unbelievably fun and fulfilling.” The math department is a “dream team,” says Wendorf. “We all teach each other.”

In a sense, it’s much like learning math itself: “All of us are having wins and fails, and we try to figure it out together.” sprin spr ingg 22020 020

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n o t e s f r o m t h e c o n s e r v at o r y

RSC Names New String Department Chair

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or Rivers School Conservatory faculty member Jin-Kyung Joen, musical excellence is about more than feeling personal satisfaction or receiving accolades. In Joen’s teaching philosophy, “Excellence takes on greater meaning when it is applied to the service of others.”

The longtime violin instructor will soon have a chance to share that philosophy more broadly, as she steps into the role of string department chair—an opening created by the departure of Magdalena Richter this past winter.

Joen recalls her experience of performing for schoolchildren near Piacenza, Italy, while working toward her bachelor of music degree at the Conservatorio G. Nicolini.

After the performance, Joen received heart-warming thank-you notes and drawings from the children in the audience. Now, as a music

educator, she views connecting her students with similarly meaningful opportunities as an important part of her job.

She aims to “provide students with outlets to be seen and heard in a way that benefits both them and the community,” she says.

After graduating from the Conservatorio, Joen earned a master of music degree from the Longy School of Music and a doctor of musical arts degree from Boston University. She has served as a violin instructor at New England Conservatory for more than 20 years and as artistic director of Project STEP, a string training and education program for students from underrepresented communities in Boston. At Project STEP, she enjoyed building relationships with students and helping to manage their schedules, plan their music education, and navigate resources such as summer camp and study options.

Joen looks forward to advising students at RSC, as she transitions to the post of string department chair in the fall of 2020. She plans to take a hands-on, individualized approach, and she is eagerly anticipating “meeting every one of the violin, viola, and cello students at The Rivers School Conservatory and getting to know their unique needs,” she says. “Whatever their skill and experience level, I look forward to finding ways to challenge them and support their musical growth.”

— Marissa Birne ’15

All That Jazz: Summer Programs Lead to Opportunities

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he Summer Jazz program—one of several summer offerings at The Rivers School Conservatory—provides participants with two weeks of daily combo rehearsals, improvisation classes, and electives with the Boston area’s finest jazz instructors. For some, it can also serve as a pathway to the Conservatory Program, a Rivers School offering that provides talented students with a way to spend their high school years immersed in both rigorous academics and music instruction at the highest level.

For Ian Behrstock ’22, participation in Summer Jazz between sixth and seventh grades was the first step toward pursuing intensive jazz studies at Rivers. Behrstock found himself pleasantly surprised by the enthusiasm and skill level of his peers. “It was a great opportunity to meet new 10

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people and be with other jazz musicians who were my age,” he recalls. “This was my first time working with kids of different levels in an organized setting and benefiting from master classes, music theory, and exposure to different types of jazz music.”

Connecting and collaborating with like-minded peers, he says, was one of the most inspiring and motivating elements of the program.

His private lesson instructor, jazz trumpet player Tony D’Aveni, echoes this sentiment. (All Summer Jazz students are paired with an RSC faculty member who provides four 60-minute lessons over the two-week session.) “I like Summer Jazz because it attracts students who genuinely love jazz and want to play it, even if it means missing out on fun, sun, and swimming. It’s very satisfying for

Faculty members lead a Summer Jazz master class.

Ian Behrstock ’22 found his way to Rivers through the Summer Jazz program.

Conservatory Program Alumni Thrive in College

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e checked in with a few of our recent Conservatory Program graduates to hear how their college experiences are playing out. These Class of 2019 alumni updated us on their musical lives post-Rivers.

someone who likes jazz to be with other people who like jazz,” says D’Aveni.

After the summer program ended, Behrstock chose to continue his lessons with D’Aveni. It was D’Aveni who suggested that Behrstock apply to The Rivers School, where he would have access to a broad range of resources, including the Rivers Honors Big Band and the Conservatory Program, all within his school community. D’Aveni says that Behrstock’s decision to attend Rivers and join the Conservatory Program was one of his proudest moments as his teacher: “I knew it was the best thing for him musically.”

Behrstock confirms that this has indeed been the case.

He reflects, “Coming to Rivers has opened up so many doors for me as a musician. I remember playing with Rivers students for the first time at my revisit day and being completely blown away because they were much more skilled than anyone I’d ever played with before. I think back to that memory, and I feel like I’ve made significant leaps and bounds in my ability and my knowledge since then.”

To learn more about Summer Jazz, as well as Summer Music, Summer Percussion Workshop, and Summer Orchestra at RSC, visit www.riversschoolconservatory. org/summer. — MB

“The music education that I received at Rivers has allowed me to connect the artistic and academic worlds at college. What I’ve learned during my time in college is that music, in general, is an intellectual discipline, and its applications are not limited to a performance. For example, I’m currently in a writing class that is music-themed. I’m reading articles that break down the way that society listens to and understands music and studies how artists express themselves through music.”

— Michael Manasseh, Columbia University “Even though I am not majoring in anything musicrelated, I have stayed pretty involved in music so far.

I take piano lessons every Friday, I go to concerts regularly, and this winter, I had the opportunity to learn a whole new instrument (the organ).”

— Simonida Spasojevic, Oberlin College “I love how accessible music has been at college.

Whether it be finding a chamber ensemble to join, courses to take, or live performances to attend, there are always tons of opportunities across campus and the surrounding area.

“I have continued to take piano lessons and participate in chamber ensembles, and I am taking a class on piano literature that chronologically studies various composers and their works that are significant to the classical piano repertoire.”

— Emilia DeJesus, Stanford University

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red wing report

Catching Up with College Athletes

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ach year, in November, a handful (or more) of Rivers student-athletes make their college plans public by signing National Letters of Intent, committing themselves to Division I athletic programs. For these seniors, it’s the culmination of years of hard work, practice, and dedication. But signing that letter, of course, is just the beginning. We checked in with a couple of DI alumni athletes about their transition to the big stage, the trials and triumphs of college sports, and more.

Trevor Davock ’15 It’s not typical for an athlete to play at two different Division I colleges, but Trevor Davock’s entire career has been far from typical. The soccer standout was recruited by Boston College and spent his first two years at the Heights playing a key role on the team.

But Davock had long had an issue with his ankles, dating back to his Rivers days. “It had gotten to the point where I couldn’t even play without having them taped,” he recalls.

After exhausting every non-surgical remedy, Davock went under the knife his junior year. Both ankles were operated on, leaving him in a wheelchair for several weeks and on crutches for months beyond that. He missed his entire junior season.

Sounds disastrous, but, says Davock, “It was a blessing in disguise.”

The upshot was that he had one more year of eligibility after graduating from BC, and he ended up at Providence College, where he earned an MBA and had a successful final collegiate season. It was so successful, in fact, that he was invited to the

Maren Durant ’19

Trevor Davock ’15

combine for the New England Revolution. But on his second day there, he reinjured an ankle, effectively ending his dreams of playing professionally.

But Davock is taking it in stride.

He’s in the hunt for a job in financial services following graduation in May. And he’s ready to take on the challenge of moving to a new city.

“I’ve been in Boston my whole life.

I want to go to New York, and see how that is,” he says.

Maren Durant ’19 After making a verbal commitment during her junior year to play basketball at Boston University after Rivers, Maren Durant figured she was all set. But then came a twist she didn’t foresee. “I was recruited by a coach at BU who was let go. So when the new coach came in, I was nervous.”

Despite having been recruited, she hadn’t yet signed that letter and the commitment was non-binding.

Fortunately, and unsurprisingly, the new coaching staff still saw

plenty to like in the 6’3” forward.

In spite of her worries, Durant ended up at BU after all. “Coach Pipe walked me through the process.

I still get chills thinking about how things worked out in my favor,” says Durant.

They certainly did. As a first-year student, Durant initially saw limited playing time, but as the season wore on, she impressed coaches and played more and more minutes.

A highlight, she says, was an overtime win against Holy Cross, in which she scored a career-high 14 points.

Playing at the college level is a whole new ball game, Durant acknowledges. And balancing basketball and academics is its own skill set, she says, though she credits Rivers for giving her good time-management skills. But after just one season, she’s already grown by leaps and bounds, so to speak. “My awareness and overall basketball IQ have grown immensely,” she says. “I’m making constant improvement.”

—Stephen Porter

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r i v e r s i d e c h at

Five Questions for. . .

Jon Wasserman Jon Wasserman ’88 entered Rivers as a ninth grader. In a sense, he’s never left. He came back to work at the school in 1996 and, except for a two-year hiatus, has been here ever since. Along the way, he also became a Rivers parent. The director of finance and operations keeps the lights on, metaphorically speaking, but he also does everything from overseeing construction projects to sending out snow-day announcements.

What is it like to have a hand in so many vital areas of the school’s operation?

An independent school is a business to some extent, and we have to do all the things that other businesses have to do. Everyone who’s in my position does myriad things every day. Personally, I love the variety of the job. Every day is different, and the varied nature of the stuff that comes across my desk keeps it fresh.

The Revers Center project was your baby, in some senses.

What was your role in that?

It was definitely not my baby. It comes from the vision of the faculty, head of school, and board of trustees. They came up with the programmatic needs that manifest themselves in the new science and visual arts building. Our job is to take the vision and the program needs, and turn that into a physical reality—always from the perspective of “What tools do our teachers need to deliver the program we want them to deliver?”

What is it like to work at your high school alma mater?

In a lot of ways, it feels like the same place it was back in the ’80s. It’s comfortable and friendly. But in other ways, it’s changed a lot. It’s co-ed now; it’s bigger; the facilities have really changed.

When I started at Rivers, the Campus Center wasn’t there, the building it replaced wasn’t there, the MacDowell Athletic Center wasn’t there. It was just physically a completely different place.

You’ve experienced Rivers as a student, a parent, and an employee. How have those various roles affected your view of the school?

I think being a parent has had the biggest impact. It’s been really helpful to see the school from a parent’s eye view, to get a parent perspective on how our offering works. We’re thrilled with what our kids (Maya ’18 and Eli ’21) have gotten out of Rivers, and it’s been a side benefit to see firsthand what a parent sees.

What do you do when you’re not here?

I play guitar. I just started learning a couple of years ago. I picked it up as an adult because I think it’s important to always be a beginner at something. It just broadens your mindset a bit and exercises your brain.

— Jane Dornbusch

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F U T U R E M A K E R S : PHI L ANTHROPIC IMPACT

Rivers Celebrates the Dedication of The Revers Center On the evening of Thursday, January 16, The Revers Center for Science and Visual Arts opened its doors for an official dedication event. Leadership donors to FutureMakers: The Campaign for Rivers, lifetime donors, trustees, and specific faculty members gathered for music, presentations, and a glimpse of the vast potential for learning, creating, and collaborating found within The Rev’s walls.

Head of School Ned Parsons, addressing the assembled crowd, noted that the project began with a dream and a vision. Parsons held a Q&A session with lead donor Dan Revers P’15 and campaign chair Dan Kraft P’12,’15,’21, whose leadership was instrumental. It was a moment to celebrate the realization of the entire team’s vision and to thank the many supporters in the Rivers community who made it all possible.

Dan and Katy Revers standing in the two-story atrium of The Revers Center.

For the Korffs, Giving is a Family Affair Amanda Korff ’07 and Dan Korff ’10

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hen you talk to siblings Amanda Korff ’07 and Dan Korff ’10 about Rivers, the word “family” comes up frequently—not their own family, necessarily, but the family they found at Rivers when they enrolled here, each as seventh graders in their turn.

Amanda, speaking of her tight-knit group of high-school classmates, says, “At some point, you stop being friends and start being family. That’s what Rivers is—it’s just family.”

The Korffs have fond memories of their connections with teachers at Rivers, as well as with friends. “When I come back, it still feels so comfortable,” says Dan. “Just seeing the same teachers, saying hi to them—you feel like you never really left.” Knowing that she can return to campus and still be recognized by her former teachers, says Amanda, speaks volumes about the school.

Both siblings went on to competitive colleges after Rivers—Amanda to NYU and Dan to Lehigh.

And both report that the solid academic grounding they received at Rivers, along with the good work habits and study skills emphasized here, made college a comparative breeze. “The academic rigor of Rivers prepared me so well,” says Amanda, who is working toward a doctoral degree in clinical psychology. “Even now, in grad school, those skills stay with you.” Says Dan, “Rivers teaches you how to work hard; it teaches you how to prepare.” That has come in handy in his professional life, as a development associate in the family business, Mark Development.

Though sister and brother are comparatively recent graduates of Rivers, both have made donating to Rivers a priority for many years. “How can you not give back to something that felt like home?” asks Amanda. She earmarks her donations for financial aid, with the aim of giving more students the opportunity to have the Rivers experience.

And Dan is even more succinct when it comes to his reasons for donating to Rivers.

“I give back to Rivers,” he says, “because I love Rivers.”

Fund-A-Need: It’s Fundamental

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hat do the Black Box Theater reno- vations, the Center for Community and Civic Engagement (CCCE), the upgrades to the fitness center, certain diversity initiatives, and the 1:1 iPad program at Rivers all have in common?

If you knew that all were paid for by the Fund-ANeed arm of the annual Parents’ League auction, you may also recognize the importance and impact of that particular effort. Much of the money raised at the auction goes to student technology and professional development for faculty—important programs, to be sure, but ongoing and foreseeable needs that are part of the budget.

Fund-A-Need is different. It’s a way to pay for critical initiatives that are entrepreneurial in nature, requiring a nimble turnaround, and to innovate and to address areas of need that might otherwise fly under the radar—in short, to make the Rivers experience that much fuller and more rewarding for students and faculty alike.

Coming at the end of an evening of bidding, Fund-A-Need is a testament to the generosity of the Rivers community. Attendees kick in a lot or a little, and the dollars quickly add up: At last May’s auction, it seemed to take no time at all for the community to come up with the $182,100 needed to renovate the Black Box Theater.

The Fund-A-Need projects are intentionally broad in scope; the goal is wide impact across campus. “Everyone was excited about the fitness center renovation,” says Jenn Lemley, co-chair of this year’s auction along with Allison Abrams.

“Whether your child is an athlete or a Conser- vatory student, who doesn’t want their kid to be healthy?” Likewise, she added, the Black Box Theater renovations touch the lives of many students, not just those with an interest in performing.

Drama teacher Juliet Bailey says the impact of the theater renovations is far-reaching and immediate, and not just because it enhances the

performance space. “It opens up our program dramatically,” she says, allowing for more and larger theater classes, tech classes, and, down the road, playwriting and advanced drama courses where students can do small scene work, direct, create costumes, and generally raise the level of the school’s theater offerings.

Assistant Head of the Middle School John Bower, who serves as music director for the school’s theatrical productions, proposed the project, making the argument that “if we’re not going to have a full-scale theater, the performance space we do have needs to be top-notch.” He’s particularly pleased that the renovated theater has supported the revitalization of the coffeehouse program. “They’ve turned into community evenings,” Bower says, where even the most reserved students can take to the stage in a supportive setting.

Faculty member Amy Enright says she had just signed on to be the CCCE’s first director when she learned that it would be made possible by Fund-ANeed. “It was the fundamental launching pad,” she says. The CCCE has since become a vital campus center promoting civic engagement; the Fund-ANeed money not only helped build the physical space, it’s also supported student fellowships, visiting speakers, and videoconferencing equipment.

Faculty members who’ve seen their projects supported by Fund-A-Need report that witnessing the entire community unite behind a particular project is powerful. Says Enright, “It was incredible to be in the room that night during the Fund-A-Need and to see, within 20 minutes, more than 70 people support the vision in such a concrete way and give us the mandate and the means for this project.”

“I was so moved, personally, by how many colleagues offered 50 and 100 dollar donations,” says Bailey. “It was a wonderful moment. It’s spontaneous; it shows how they feel. And you don’t have to be a big donor to make a difference.” � R —Jane Dornbusch

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Photos by Adam Richins, Jane Dornbusch, and Steve Porter

The Revers Center Comes Alive The bulldozers and cranes are gone.

The paint is dry.

The pottery wheels and 3D printers, the lab equipment, and the laser printers are all in place.

The living wall is stocked with plants.

And though The Revers Center for Science and Visual Arts only opened for classes in January, the entire Rivers community can already see the kind of far-reaching pedagogical impact that the building will have on the school. Not surprisingly, the 16-month construction process brought some inevitable disruption to campus, but those moments already feel like a distant memory. Today, The Revers Center is a source of pride and joy, and no one is more excited about the building than the faculty members who teach, create, and innovate there every day. Here, in their own words, are their thoughts about what The Revers Center means to their work at Rivers.

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“By having additional enlarging stations and pottery wheels, we can now not only teach classes of a certain size but also have kids come back in freely to work outside of class. Before, it was frustrating, because we had to turn them away. Now we have the flexibility to welcome kids back in. And with the larger spaces, students can do bigger and more ambitious projects.

“We also have a much greater sense of community. We have these things called ‘windows,’ and you now want to spend time in the department office because it’s comfortable and you have daylight. And having 2D, 3D, and sculpture all near each other, we will naturally have more of a sense of community.”

Dav i d Sau l , V i s ua l A r ts

“I love the building. We really have the space to immerse ourselves. The students are much more positive about being in class—because we have more time and space to do hands-on activities, they’re more engaged. Fall trimester next year, I’ll be taking advantage of this space to teach an elective on the human microbiome, where the kids are going to use their own microbiomes and experiment on themselves. It’s great to be able to use the new space for research.”

Ca r i n a C h i t t i m , S c i e n c e

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“In ceramics, the addition of the glaze spray booth has made it possible for any student, beginning through advanced, to safely apply glaze to their work using a spray gun. This can be used to create a gradation effect with the glazes, as well as to glaze larger pieces easily. The glaze lab and 3D clay printer allow students to use chemistry and engineering, respectively, in their artwork.”

T i m C l a r k , V i s ua l A rts

“I’m so excited to come to work here every day. There’s a buzz of excitement with the kids, a sense of new and different opportunities.

And there’s a little jump in your heartbeat as you walk into the building. It isn’t just the space; we’re all excited about the opportunities yet to come.

“A huge thing I’m wicked psyched about is that now I’m with the rest of my colleagues. And it’s so great to have more interactions with students, more engagement with them, as they find places here to hang out outside of classes.”

R i n dy G a r n e r , V i s ua l A rts

“It’s almost like a mixed-use development. I’ll be setting up a test here, go into a classroom and bump into kids doing a puzzle there, see some other kids holding a club meeting elsewhere. Classes, studentled research, and socializing are all right next to each other. That’s been really cool. But where it will really shine is in the development of new curriculum. Going into next year and beyond, teachers will come up with new things to do that weren’t possible in the past.”

N i c h o l as J o r da n , S c i e n c e

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“I’ve barely scratched the surface with the new equipment; I’m really looking forward to next year. We’ve more than doubled our capacity for what students can make. Students used to have to wait in line to get on a particular tool or machine, and now they don’t. The new 3D printers and new laser cutter are going to transform the way the kids are going to be able to make stuff. Rather than just learning how things work, they’ll be able to make them work, to get their hands on a project and really develop an intuitive sense of how things work.

“The space is allowing the robotics and engineering programs to be what we’ve wanted them to be for a while.

Throughout the whole process of designing the new building, I felt very listened to. The school believes in us enough to give us this new facility, to support what we want to achieve. This is the culmination of that process.”

Yo s h i F uj i ta , S c i e n c e

“For the humanities spaces, it’s like going from having a car that doesn’t start regularly to driving a luxury SUV. It’s so light-filled, with beautiful spaces and reliable technology. I’m a big believer that the classroom space can determine the quality of what takes place within it. The building is primarily for visual arts and sciences, but it’s been a huge boon to the humanities, too.”

M ac Ca p l a n , E n g l i s h

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“First of all, with the space being so bright and airy, it’s a happier place to be. Kids and faculty just want to be here; it has a good feel to it. I knew that with the larger rooms there would be more room for collaborative work and more space for experiments, but I didn’t realize that the space itself would lead to more positive excitement about the work.

“We’ve already added new courses this year—two research electives that we couldn’t have done in the old building. We’re running a neuropsychology course and expanding the research part of the curriculum in AP environmental studies.

“In the days before it opened, I would walk through the building and say, ‘This is great.’

But as soon as it opened and the students were in it, it became 10 times greater. It came alive, became more spectacular and more exciting and more… give me a thesaurus.”

J e ff r e y “ D o c ” M e r o p o l , S c i e n c e

“The atrium is always filled with people, and we’re not sequestered. That opens up a lot of potential for interdisciplinary learning and just makes the arts a little more visible. I see a lot of potential for really great things to happen, especially in the new gallery space. To have an additional space we can populate with works is very exciting. We can start a visiting artist program and have professional artists here who work in an interdisciplinary way, using engineering or technology, or who make work connected to larger themes that are part of the curriculum.”

N i c o l e W i n t e r s , V i s ua l A r ts

“I think it lends importance to the arts, which rubs off on the kids’ attitude about what they’re doing. Having a nice space sends a message that the arts are important at Rivers.”

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S enior S peeches

A Rivers Rite of Passage

By Jane Dornbusch

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magine being required, as a high school senior, to deliver a speech in front of the entire school, on a topic of your choosing. For some, perhaps, it’s the stuff of nightmares.

But at Rivers, where all seniors must write and deliver such a speech, the word mentioned most frequently in connection with the experience is “opportunity.”

That’s not just wishful thinking on the part of the faculty members and advisors who oversee the program. “I thought of my speech as a powerful and unique opportunity,” says Kate Longfield ’15, whose speech described her time at a semester program in rural Maine during her junior year.

“I had been given the chance to address our community about an experience I knew was important.”

Other alumni echo her sentiment. Colette Meier ’19, who used her senior speech to come out as gay, says, “Though it would have been less complicated or anxiety-inducing to approach that podium with words that carried far less weight, I am so very glad I spoke my truth.”

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Dylan Keusch ’19 addressed his anxiety disorder in his senior speech. “For me, it was the ultimate test of overcoming it—being able to stand up there and talk about it,” he says.

For these alumni and many others, senior speeches were indeed an opportunity, a chance to express themselves in front of their peers, without judgment. That’s pretty much what Assistant Head of School Jim Long P’19,’21 had in mind when he launched the program, back in the fall of 2001. “Connecting with your audience is a powerful reminder that you have valuable insights to share with your school community. The senior speech program encourages risk-taking at its finest,” says Long. He adds that there are benefits for the audience, as well.

After spearheading a similar initiative for eighth graders while serving as head of the Middle School, says Long, “I realized how transformational public speaking could be, not only for the student giving the talk, but for the community as well.”

The compulsory nature of the experience gives it a certain power. English department chair Mac Caplan, who now

oversees the program, says, “The fact that it’s a graduation requirement says that the institution and faculty believe all students deserve to have the opportunity to address the school, and that it’s an important part of their experience to do so.”

Other schools, he notes, have optional programs or give prizes for best speech, but those approaches would “undermine the spirit of the program.” Senior speeches at Rivers, he says, are “symbolic of the value we place on student voice.”

That said, Caplan readily acknowledges that the public speaking aspect can be daunting for some students. But, he notes, students are guided, supported, and coached at every step of the way, such that in the end, “some of the most nervous kids will surprise themselves by feeling comfortable at the podium.”

To make sure that the entire senior class gets a turn, the speeches are scheduled each week throughout the school year, usually on Tuesdays at Upper School assembly. By custom, the senior class presidents go first; other students are assigned dates at random, though they are free to swap with classmates.

About three weeks before their designated dates, students get an email reminder from Caplan, their cue to sit down with their advisor and discuss potential speech topics.

That’s key, says Caplan, because the “number-one determinant” of a successful speech is the choice of subject. “We call on the advisors to encourage students to do a creative, unique topic.” Over time, he says, “We’ve gotten a lot better at getting students to go to more interesting places. When I started, we had a lot of ‘I love my family member, I love my dog, I love my team’ speeches. We still have those, but students have been able to take more creative approaches.”

senior W ill M ulder

As soon as I put the microphone down, I laughed at myself for having felt so apprehensive, because at the end of the day, Rivers is a place where everyone supports one another.

Speeches should take about four minutes to deliver, which translates to about 750 to 900 words, says Caplan. It perhaps should go without saying—but certainly doesn’t—that the topics and content need to be appropriate to the setting.

That’s been an occasional challenge, as when a student made the choice to include criticism of several teachers. “We had a lot of conversations about that,” Caplan recalls. “I told him that if this is what you want to say, you can say it, but recognize the impact it might have.” The student went ahead with it; in the end, students own this experience and have wide latitude in what they’re permitted to express. “It needs to be appropriate, not offensive, and fall within our core values,” says Caplan.

E n g lish Department C hair M ac Caplan

The fact that it’s a graduation requirement says that the institution and faculty believe all students deserve to have the opportunity to address the school, and that it’s an important part of their experience to do so.

“But beyond that, we recognize that young adults are sometimes going to push the boundaries.”

About a week out from delivering the speech, students meet with Caplan to go over their drafts. He may make suggestions for changes or improvements, and then, by the Sunday before speech day, the final draft should be ready. Most students spend time rehearsing the speech on their own, and on the morning they’re scheduled to speak, they meet with a faculty member beforehand to rehearse once more and review tips for a successful delivery: speaking slowly and clearly, projecting, paying attention to pace and pausing, making eye contact.

Nathalie Ahn ’19, who spoke about her struggles with an eating disorder, says she was concerned about keeping her composure while delivering her speech. The speech grew out of an essay she’d written in class, and when she’d shared it in that setting, she says, “I was bawling my eyes out. I knew it would be a challenge to do it in front of the school; I didn’t know if I was going to cry.” But, she says, “It was important to do it.

I was glad I did it.” Not only did she learn that “being vulnerable with people brings you closer to them,” she also believes that hearing her story gave others the courage to speak of their own similar challenges.

Keusch, too, says that speaking about his struggles helped enable others to do so. “I remember very clearly a kid from my grade came up to me crying afterwards, saying, ‘Thank you for showing me the light at the end of the tunnel.’ I won’t ever forget that. I don’t want to say I did it for the response, but it absolutely made it worth it.”

Will Mulder ’19 was a veteran performer—he delivered his speech as standup comedy, based on his experiences of doing just that in local clubs—so he was surprised to find himself feeling nervous as he stood on stage. “But as soon as I put the microphone down, I laughed at myself for having felt so apprehensive, because at the end of the day, Rivers is a place where everyone supports one another,” he says. Keusch goes even further: “It’s a place where differences are celebrated and not torn down.”

Throughout their time at Rivers, students are urged to find and use their unique voices, and in some ways, the senior speech is a culmination of that approach—a final opportunity.

And it’s a powerful reminder that all voices are valued. “It is hard for a lot of students to get up there, but they do it. They R all do it,” says Caplan. “That in and of itself is important.” � sprin g 20 20

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Co-Education at 30 A School Transformed

By Jane Dornbusch

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n 1989, change was in the air—around the world and on the Rivers campus. Protestors demonstrated in Tiananmen Square, the Berlin Wall came down, and, for the first time in the school’s history, girls were enrolled at Rivers.

Thirty-six female students arrived at Rivers in September of 1989. That first cohort was known as the pioneers, and like most pioneers, they were by all accounts a bright, brave, and plucky bunch. The plan had been to integrate female students gradually into the school, with a handful joining the junior class and a slightly larger number entering as freshmen and sophomores; the Class of 1990 was to be the last all-boys’ graduating class.

But as so often happens, the change didn’t play out precisely as planned. A pioneer among pioneers, Lisa Ward Sandoval transferred from all-girls’ Ursuline Academy to enter Rivers as the lone female senior in the fall of ’89, thus becoming Rivers’s first female graduate in June 1990.

Perhaps that unexpected outcome was emblematic of how co-education changed Rivers in ways both intended and unforeseeable. In a profound sense that few predicted at the time, co-education helped ring in a cultural shift that truly made the school what it is today. Those who lived through that change— teachers, students, administrators—say the transition was both notably seamless and utterly transformative.

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In a profound sense that few predicted at the time, co-education helped ring in a cultural shift that truly made the school what it is today.

Sandoval, now living in Las Vegas and working as a leadership consultant after a career in the hospitality industry, seems to have taken her groundbreaking role in stride. “I chalk it up to being naive,” she says today, with a laugh. “I just didn’t think being in a classroom with boys would be that different from what I already knew.”

Call it naive, or call it the wisdom of hindsight. Today, says Sandoval, “I now see it was a case study on the ability to adapt to change.”

The push for co-education had been a long time coming, of course. “The ’80s were difficult demographically for the school,” says Stephen Delinsky P’87,’93, who served as a trustee and board president during the time of the transition. Various factors—the economy, the general shift toward co-education, and, not least of all, the perception that Rivers struggled with its identity—had led to declining enrollment.

But even beyond those considerations, says Delinsky, headmaster Richard Bradley made a compelling case that the way forward in a changing world was to go co-ed and that the school would be transformed for the better as a result. “That’s what motivated it,” he says, “more so than economics.”

“People weren’t choosing Rivers as a traditional rah-rah boys’ school; they were choosing it for other reasons and tolerating it as a boys’ school,” says Tom Walsh, who served as Rivers’s director of admissions at the time (and who is now director of college guidance for his alma mater, all-male Roxbury Latin School). Then as now, says Walsh, “Rivers was endorsing, embracing, and celebrating studentteacher relationships, collaboration, and a wide range of learning styles.” Ultimately, those qualities—which contained the seeds of the school’s current credo, Excellence with Humanity—came to seem incompatible with the culture of a boys’ school.

“It was a school that was pedagogically yearning to be co-ed,” Walsh continues. “It was not a hard-edged macho place. It was not jockish. The vote to go co-ed seemed to be the next natural step in the evolution of the institution.”

But though most agree that the transition was remarkably smooth, that’s not to say there were no growing pains.

Julia Russell, now an English teacher at Noble and Greenough School, was hired by Rivers in 1989 to serve as director of co-education. “My first impression,” recalls Russell, who arrived at Rivers after a stint teaching at Groton, “was that Rivers was a cool school that wasn’t trying hard to be something it’s not. It seemed like it had a good heart.”

Given that, she was surprised by certain behaviors and attitudes she encountered at Rivers—things like bad language and roughhousing, fueled by a general sense of low morale among students and faculty alike. “The girls brought an infusion of positivity,” she says. “They knew they were pioneers. They were brave.” But it soon became clear to her, she says, that the behavior and discipline problems “weren’t a gender issue but a school culture issue.”

As Russell later wrote in an article in the journal Feminist Teacher, an educational consultant was brought in to help develop strategies for “creating an environment which promoted self-respect in the students as well as respect for adults and for the community itself.” For Russell and many on the faculty, she says, the consultant’s work led to candid selfexamination, an understanding of the need for a cultural change, and the necessary broad buy-in to create such change. It wasn’t enough, the community realized, just to add girls’locker rooms, update the dress code, and call it co-education.

From this experience came a new mission and core values statement, which was voted in by the trustees. The statement spoke of excellence, of taking an active role in

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learning, of working cooperatively, accepting responsibility, and treating one another and the school environment with respect, open-mindedness, empathy, and care—foreshadowing, in short, the school’s current core values.

Russell says there was a buoyant sense of optimism and change in the air as the new core values were forged. “That was going to be our big defining statement,” she says. But as Russell later outlined in her article, the effort to shift the culture hit some roadblocks after Bradley departed in 1991. With him went some of the momentum for change. Russell wrote that initiatives that initially earned broad acceptance started to meet some resistance from a growing number of faculty members. The newly adopted core values became “minimalized as part of the ‘women’s movement,’ ” she wrote. Russell left Rivers soon after the change in leadership, feeling that progress toward real transformation had stalled.

Nonetheless, the cultural shift had been set in motion and was, by that point, inevitable. In hindsight, says Delinsky, the move to co-education “looks easy, because it’s an accomplished fact.” But make no mistake, he adds: “Change is not easy.

Change is hard and frustrating.”

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“As girls became more accepted, that tended to bring out the best in the boys—their ability to communicate, to consider different perspectives, to honor other voices, to understand on a wider level.”

—M elinda Ryan The transition that many students, both male and female, experienced as seamless (see sidebar) was only made possible by the tireless behind-the-scenes work of faculty and administration. Yes, there were simple logistical concerns around topics like dress codes and locker rooms. There were new sports teams to field and new social norms to manage. But perhaps most important, there were consistent, deliberate efforts to make sure that female students’ voices were heard, in the classroom and in positions of leadership.

“We were very aware of making them comfortable,” recalls longtime faculty member Melinda Ryan. Not all at once, but gradually and subtly, she says, the community began to change.

“As girls became more accepted, that tended to bring out the best in the boys—their ability to communicate, to consider different perspectives, to honor other voices, to understand on a wider level.”

“The girls helped broaden the experience in the classroom,” says Rick Rizoli P’05,’07, who was Rivers’s college counselor and a math teacher at the time of the transition. “Having the perspective of young women there helped broaden the conversation and made the classrooms a little more civilized.

We weren’t teaching Neanderthals, by any means, but I’m confident there was a little less grunting.”

Some of the credit for that, say those who witnessed the transition, goes to the girls who belonged to that early group.

“They were self-directed, with gumption and self-confidence,” recalls Walsh. “And they knew they were going to be part of laying the foundation for future girls to follow. There were some real self-starters, go-getters.”

For Sandoval, having an older brother who had graduated from Rivers not long before she arrived made all the difference.

The school was a known and familiar quantity, as were many of the students.

Even so, a few members of the class, Sandoval recalls, were initially put off by her presence. “There were some who said, ‘Oh, we were going to be the last all-boys’ class.’ Some students dug in their heels and said, ‘Why are we changing?’ But that dissipated quickly. I became friends with them; that was my social circle.” An athlete, a strong student, and the kid sister of a popular recent alumnus, Sandoval says she never felt intimidated by her role or limited by her gender. “I think the school went out of its way to make opportunities

Pioneers (and Their Classmates) I n T heir O wn W ords Many students who attended Rivers in the early days of co-educaion say that the experience was positive and relatively easy. Today, they reflect back on being part of a remarkable time in Rivers history.

“When I think about the whole thing, it was a rare opportunity. I learned leadership skills, how to advocate for myself and be fearless.

Two-thirds of the class were boys, and in order to compete, you had to speak up; you had to raise your hand and take a chance. And the teachers were nothing but encouraging of that. Rivers is where I developed a deep love of learning, which has followed me throughout my life.”

—Michelle Ellis Malet ’92

available to me. I think they did everything they could to anticipate having female students.”

Being able to recruit and admit bright, dynamic female students was, of course, an absolute boon from a marketing perspective, says Walsh. Enrollment at Rivers had been slumping; with the advent of co-education, says Walsh, “It still felt like we were building, but it didn’t feel like a Sisyphean rock. There was an infusion of energy and exhilaration and excitement. It’s a big plus to a marketer to suddenly have a whole new market that can hear the gospel.” Critically, he says, the school was able to “maintain the best of what made Rivers special, while broadening the marketplace.”

Today, female students are so much a part of the fabric of Rivers that it’s sometimes surprising to recall that their presence here is relatively recent. In many ways, the transformation Russell sought has occurred, albeit more slowly than some might have hoped. Institutional change, after all, is rarely a straight trajectory.

Ryan, a Spanish teacher at Rivers since 1975, is in a good position to compare the before-and-after versions of the school. She admits to having had some initial misgivings about the transformation. “If you had asked me before it happened whether something would be lost in the process of going co-ed, I would have said yes,” says Ryan. “But now, I’d say absolutely not. The culture of the school is richer and better in every way.”

Ryan notes that the decision to go co-ed—so seemingly inevitable in hindsight—was a leap into the unknown.

“Nobody knew what would happen. It was an experiment.”

“And,” she adds, “one that has worked out beautifully.” � R

“I always questioned my parents: You guys are going to let me go to an all-boys’ school? But I took over the family construction business, in a field that’s all men, and I jokingly say they were grooming me.

“Rivers was good at allowing people to find what they were passionate about and allowing people to try new things, even if you weren’t great at them. There was this encouragement to find out who you were and to pursue your passions and interests.”

—CJ Fraser ’92

“I took a lot of advanced classes, and there weren’t a lot of boys in them. Rivers was good for me academically but challenging socially; there were so few girls that it was challenging to find people you really clicked with. But I never felt like I didn’t belong.”

— N a o mi W e r ni c k ’ 9 3

“My mother had gotten a feeling that, because they were just going co-ed, they were going to put a lot of emphasis on female students, and that we might not find that at other schools. Having girls there had to have changed the culture, but from day one, I felt like I was part of the culture.”

—Rebecca Reed ’93

“I think the general response was two-pronged: Socially, people were pretty excited to have a co-ed situation, but I definitely recall—not an anti-coed feeling, but a sense of loyalty to the traditional aspects of being an all-boys’ school and concerns about what would change. . . .

But I can’t think of any contemporaries who maintained, at the time or later, that going co-ed was a mistake.”

— M at t T o bin ’ 9 0

“In looking back, it strikes me as incredibly courageous on many fronts. For the parents sending their girls, and for the faculty members who joined the team, it was kind of a courageous move to jump into that.”

— An d y D e l in s k y ’ 9 3

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A Fond Farewell This spring, three long-serving faculty members are retiring from Rivers. Among them, they represent 90 years of teaching at the school. All look forward to the next chapter in their lives—and all depart with gratitude, appreciation, and a touch of wistfulness about the classrooms they are leaving behind.

Susan Emmanouilidis | Music If a great teacher meets students where they are, then Susan Emmanouilidis qualifies for the designation. “When you teach a large class—and chorus is kind of a large class—you still want to reach every individual, from the ones who can already read music all the way to the novice student who has never sung in a chorus,” she says. “To see each one of them have growth is amazing.”

In her 23 years at Rivers, Emmanouilidis has also helped oversee growth of a different kind. Initially brought in to start a children’s chorus at the Conservatory, she soon became a Rivers School faculty member, helping to build the Middle School chorus program, steer the Upper School chorus (and the key decision to create separate men’s and women’s choruses), and, along with RSC colleagues, create the Rivers School Conservatory Program at Rivers.

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Her gifts as a teacher were obvious even to the youngest students. Marissa Birne ’15 says, “I met Susan as a first- or second-grader in her children’s choral program at RSC. I looked up to her from the start, and I developed my musical foundation under her leadership. This experience led me to apply to the Conservatory Program at Rivers, so that I could keep singing with and learning from her.”

Emmanouilidis will continue to serve as director of Brookline A Cappella, a group she founded in 2011. And she looks forward to spending more time with her three young grandchildren. She’ll still attend Rivers chorus performances, she says, but from a different vantage point: “I’ll be supportive of them from the audience—not standing in front of them waving my arms.”

John McVey | Latin It might come as no surprise to learn that Goodbye, Mr. Chips is a favorite movie of John McVey P’95, ’03,’05. The classic story of a long-serving Latin teacher at a boys’ prep school resonates with McVey because, he says, “I love [the title character’s] passion for teaching.”

He could as easily be describing himself, as he winds up his 35th year at Rivers. For most of his career here, his subject was Latin, though he also taught English and history and coached JV baseball, middle school wrestling, and intramural soccer.

McVey says he clicked with Rivers from the moment he set foot on campus, in 1984. “When I walked over the threshold of the office, I felt uplifted by the vibe of this school.” And he thought—correctly, as it happened—it would one day be a good fit for his sons, Jeff ’95, Ian ’03, and Evan ’05.

Liza (Warshaver) Cohen ’09, who took AP Latin with McVey during her senior year, says, “He truly cared about all of his students, making sure we succeeded in his class. He was a motivating and inspiring teacher. I still remember his friendly smile every time we walked into the classroom, greeting us with ‘Salve discipuli.’ And we’d chime back, “Salvete Magister McVey!” To call McVey’s next chapter a retirement is certainly a misnomer. He plans to devote his time to completing his second master’s degree; his thesis is a work of historical fiction set in early Rome. And then? He thinks it’s more likely than not that he’ll go back to teaching. Like Mr. Chips, “I’m in the right field for me,” he says.

Jeremy Harrison | Visual Arts Jeremy Harrison P’05,’07,’07,’11,’13, who came to Rivers in 1987, is able to give students something he never had at their age: art lessons. “I never took art in high school,” says Harrison, who has taught beginning drawing and printmaking, advanced art, and more. But in college, Harrison took a beginning-level art class, and then all the beginning-level art classes. Eventually, he went on to earn an MFA in printmaking.

Harrison shares this story with students in part to counter the narrative he calls the “misguided attitude about art.”

He says, “It’s that attitude you run into: ‘Oh, you’re so talented, I couldn’t do that’—as if some people were just born with the art gene, which would mean teaching art would be futile.” One of the most rewarding aspects of teaching, he says, is “seeing a student come in at the beginning level and realize that they can actually learn how to draw.”

Students respond to Harrison’s encouraging approach.

Sophia Janowitz ’06 recalls, “His classroom always felt like an environment for exploration, from our projects to the unexpected conversations that accompanied them. I loved that he guided us through techniques and structured assignments but also gave us the opportunity to follow our own ideas and helped us learn skills that we were particularly excited about. I use Mr. Harrison’s lessons of observation and creative independence in my daily work as a graphic designer and illustrator.”

Harrison, who plans to spend more time on his own art and on community service work, says he will miss teaching.

But with strong ties to Rivers—including his five alumni children—he expects to find himself on campus from time to time. “I’ll definitely come back and visit,” he says. sprin g 20 20

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postcard from campus

“There is nothing more musical than a sunset.”

— Claude Debussy

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Bradley Hall at the Rivers School Conservatory, dusk, October 23 Photo by John Hurley

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alumni events

Veterans Day: Honoring Those Who Serve

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eynote speaker U.S. Navy Lt. Mary Kaye P’20 had an important message for the students assembled at a Veterans Day gathering to honor those who have served their country in the military.

Recalling her own unexpected entry into military service, while a student at Villanova, she knew there was just one word that made all the difference.

The word was “Yes.” Soldiers, first responders, and others on the front lines were the ones, she said, “who are willing to say yes, to serve—even though they don’t know what’s on the other side of that yes.” In Kaye’s case, it wasn’t combat duty but rather training to be a naval pilot who was deployed to 23 countries, flying military scientists around the globe to conduct oceanographic research in support of anti-submarine warfare.

The Veterans Day assembly is a decades-old Rivers tradition. Other schools may take the day off, noted Head of School Ned Parsons, but Rivers “takes the day on.” It’s an opportunity for the entire community to recognize and express gratitude for the sacrifices of those who serve in the military. Rivers veterans— comprising parents, alumni, grandparents, and friends—come to campus to help mark the day. � R

Veterans in the Rivers community gathered on campus to help commemorate the day.

Navy Lt. Mary Kaye, right, was the keynote speaker.

She was joined by son Brendan ’20, husband David, and mother Larisa McCue. Jim Brinson shared a moment with his granddaughter, Katherine Sopko ’23.

Alumni Breakfast Series Features Panel on Athletics

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Frank ’80 and nSteve October, a group of more than 35 alumni gathered at Bain Capital in Boston Andy Ferguson ’82 for breakfast, networking, and a panel discussion featuring Jamie Rice ’85 (head hockey coach, Babson College), James Greenslit ’02 (head soccer coach, Roger Williams University), ​and Dana Trivigno (formers girls’ hockey coach at Rivers).

The Sports Hub’s Tony Massarotti P’23,’25 served as moderator. The panel discussed the ever-changing high school sports landscape, the impact of sports specialization, how club programs affect high school teams, and what coaches look for in athletes who want to play at the college level. The event was hosted by Jared Perry ’95. � R

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Front: Kevin Hurley ’85.

Back: Bill Stewart ’85, Jon Michael Baker ’85, John Lynch ’85, Mike Hoban ’85, Jamie Rice ’85, Tony Massarotti P’23,’25

alumni events

Traditional Tourney Turns 50

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n December, campus celebrated the 50th annual Rivers Holiday Basketball Tournament. This longstanding tourney brings back alumni young and old to cheer for both boys’ and girls’ teams as they take on several area independent schools. On the opening day of this 50th edition of the cherished tradition, a special reception was held for alumni. In addition, a center-court ceremony recognized past players from several decades along with Nick Marinaro, the former Rivers coach who founded the tournament. That ceremony was sandwiched between the girls’ 58–28 pummeling of Northfield Mount Hermon and the boys’ decisive 74–50 victory over Dexter. � R Monty Lovejoy ’76, Bob Berkman ’76, Jeffrey Miller ’76, Bradway Widing ’76

Brenna Pipe ’19, Maren Durant ‘19, Brooke Allen ’97, Heather Ganitsky ’98, Brooke Evershed ’98

Thanksgiving Social in Boston

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Former coach Nick Marinaro returned to campus for the tournament.

early 100 young alumni in Boston for the holiday kicked off the Thanksgiving weekend at the annual Wednesday night get-together at Lir. It was a great opportunity to chat, catch up, and share Rivers memories. � R

Stephen Richlen ’15, Tom Corcoran ’15, Liz Webber ’16, Sarah Baker ’16 Jenna Jasinski ’12, Alex Bunick ’11, Andy Gelb ’11, Allison Brustowicz ’11, Caroline Brustowicz ’11, Amanda McGuinness ’12, Jack Lawrence ’12

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alumni events

Alumni Athletes Come Back to Campus

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ver the winter, alumni athletes returned to MacDowell to practice with current teams. Later in the season, Rivers hosted the annual alumni hockey game and a lunch in Hutton Commons to celebrate the 1985 championship team. � R Veterans of the boys’ basketball team joined the current team for practice.

Girls’ hockey alums took to the ice to practice with current players.

Member of the 1985 championship hockey team came back to relive old times.

Rivers Connect: Life Beyond Winter Street

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he annual event, held in February, brought about 20 alumni back to campus to spend time with this year’s senior class. At a dinner in Kraft Dining Hall, trustee Alan Rose ’87 delivered welcome remarks, and Chris Whittier ’07 served as the keynote speaker.

Afterward, small groups of seniors met with pairs of alumni in breakout discussions.

This year, the focus was on experience rather than industries or career paths, as alumni described how their Rivers education influenced their life journeys, professional aspirations, and pursuits. Alumni of varying ages shared valuable advice their transition into college and beyond. For the students, who will soon be alumni themselves, it was an opportunity to start building their Rivers network now and to learn that graduates who came before them can make a difference in their lives. � R 34

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Lenny Bautista ’09 and Cathleen Connors ’09 met with students at Rivers Connect.

alumni profile

S tep h e n L ab l e ’ 9 0

Citizen of the World

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he distance from Weston to Hong Kong may be 7,949 miles, but that didn’t stop Stephen Lable from finding a bit of Rivers in his adopted hometown. One day last fall, while at his WeWork office on the 23rd floor of a Hong Kong high-rise, Lable fell into conversation with a work neighbor, who hails from Cincinnati. When the neighbor found out that Lable was from Boston, he introduced him to his business partner, also a Bostonian.

Lable soon learned that his new acquaintance was also a Rivers alumnus—Will Corkin ’11. Given that only a handful of Rivers grads work and live in Asia, the coincidence was remarkable.

Or was it? Lable is a lawyer by training, but even to his analytical mind, some greater force seemed to be at play. “I very much believe everything happens for a reason,” he says.

He might be describing the journey that brought him and his family to Hong Kong, back in 2014. The decision made sense from a personal and career standpoint, but there was also an element of kismet to it. “Our philosophy is that you only live once, and life should be full of adventures,” says Lable. “This was a unique opportunity to live on the other side of the world.”

To back the story up, Lable and his wife, Cori, were both practicing law at large firms in Boston when their oldest child, Ben, now 13, was born. (The couple has a 10-year-old daughter, Dara, as well.) It soon became clear that something had to give. “You just can’t have a family where both spouses are traveling all the time,” says Lable. “So we made the decision that I would move into law firm administration.” That not only allowed for a better work-life

balance but sent him in a professional direction that felt more like a fit. Says Lable, “What motivates me is the opportunity to help people in their lives and careers and to see them reach their highest potential.”

The new role, he says, enabled him to do just that, as he supported lawyers and staff at all levels.

Lable’s wife, meanwhile, had become a partner in her firm, with many clients in Asia. “We decided to move for my wife’s career,” he says— and to pursue adventure.

The relocation was a success—so much so that the family has no plans to return to the U.S. They’ve come to love Hong Kong and to treasure the opportunities it’s brought them.

“Hong Kong is incredibly beautiful,” says Lable. “People think of it as a big urban center, but it has beautiful mountains and hiking; it’s absolutely stunning.”

These are interesting times in Hong Kong, Lable acknowledges.

Recent protests, not to mention the coronavirus, have made international

headlines. The protests have hit close to home for Lable; he and his wife inhaled teargas (“it was very mild”) as they walked home from the business district one day, and they’ve seen protestors smashing store windows with bricks. “It’s incredible to witness history firsthand,” he says. Hong Kong has taken a one-two punch in recent months, says Lable, but “we’re con- fident that the Hong Kong we know and love will return. The people here are strong and resilient.”

For all the city’s troubles, he says, it also feels very safe. “It’s a city where there’s no street crime and no guns.

We’ve allowed our son to take taxis alone around Hong Kong since he was 11.” And perhaps the greatest benefit of all, he says, has been exposing his children to wider horizons. “It’s turned them from U.S. citizens to citizens of the world,” says Lable.

Lable has recently taken yet another professional turn by launching The Lable Group, focusing on legal recruitment, executive coaching, and outplacement services. “I’m working with people who are changing jobs and often struggling with next steps,” Lable explains. “I feel privileged that I get to have a positive impact on people’s lives.”

The seeds for that focus were sown at Rivers, he says. “What Rivers teaches you is the importance of helping other people and making contributions to your community.”

Understandably, Lable doesn’t get back to campus often. But the distance hasn’t diminished his ties to the school. “I attribute so much of my academic and professional success to my time at Rivers and to the faculty that nurtured me as a teenager,” he says. “I am truly grateful for my Rivers experience.” — JD

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alumni profile

E von B u r r o u g h s ’ 9 8

Uniformly Great

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rofessionally, Evon Burroughs ’98 wears two hats. Well, neither is exactly a hat: one is actually a helmet, and the other is a referee’s jersey.

As a Boston police officer and a certified NCAA basketball ref who has officiated Division I games at the top echelon, Burroughs juggles two demanding jobs that have a surprising amount in common.

“They’re very similar in nature,” says Burroughs, who serves in the Boston Police Department’s motorcycle unit and SWAT team. “Corny as it sounds, if someone commits the foul [in basketball], you have to ‘arrest’ them.” And each job has informed the other: “My work in law enforcement has made me a better communicator,” he says, giving him the perspective to be less emotional about what happens on the court.

What happens on the court isn’t always pretty. “You have to have intestinal fortitude,” says Burroughs.

“Crowds can get crazy, coaches can get crazy, you have to make calls that are not popular, and even when tempers flare up, you have to do your job.”

Burroughs became interested in officiating as a high school athlete.

While attending a summer football camp during his freshman and sophomore years, he got involved in a basketball tournament that the players put together in their down time.

“One of the kids asked me to ref,” he recalls, “and I got hooked.” He took classes at Tufts to become certified to call high school games and made it official during his senior year at Rivers.

Burroughs recalls Rivers as “an amazing place.” Beyond the classrooms and the playing fields, he says,

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Rivers emphasized “how to respect and treat people, and how to listen to people.” The school, he says, “put me in a lot of leadership positions, which is not something I would have sought had I gone to a different school.”

Later, as a student at Clark University, he continued to ref high school basketball, eventually moving on to officiate at the college level. He says he’ll never forget his first Big East League game, several years ago. It was at Notre Dame, and in that basketball bastion’s storied arena, it suddenly hit him that this was indeed the big stage. “There I was, officiating for the greatest basketball league in the nation. It was an exciting moment to be living my dream.”

Serving as a ref was one side of Burroughs’s dream; serving as a police officer was another. He explains, “I thought about being an English teacher or a fire fighter, but law enforce-

ment just fit with my personality.”

As a motorcycle officer, he does parades and traffic enforcement, and escorts dignitaries; as a SWAT team member, he executes search warrants, deals with barricaded suspects, and works with the gang and drug units.

It’s challenging work, made possible by the camaraderie he shares with his fellow officers. “We can’t do what we do without trusting each other and being there for each other,” he says.

Basketball officiating also presents plenty of challenges, physical and mental. Burroughs says he once heard that an official makes something like 1,000 decisions in the course of a game. “It’s exhausting,” he says, especially at the highest levels, where so much is riding on the outcome. No one—not players or coaches, and certainly not fans— possesses the same encyclopedic knowledge of the rules that a referee must, he says. And a ref must bring his or her A game at every moment.

“When there’s a timeout, you check in with your partners; you might have to have a conversation with the assistant coach; you have to make sure the clock is right and the book is right.

There’s no break until the game is over. Then you can take a shower and breathe—and talk about it on the way back to the hotel.”

Despite the sacrifices it requires, Burroughs says, “The whole ride has been exciting,” adding, “No one knows how long their ride is going to be at this level.” That precariousness makes the experience more precious, he says. “You’ve got to be out there and excited about every game, because you’re just one blown knee from ending it. But if it were over tomorrow, I’d have no regrets.” —JD

news from our inbox

Robert Tremblay ’74 writes, “A short film I co-wrote, The 6th Amendment, can be seen on Amazon Prime. If anyone knows anyone who would be interested in one of my feature-length scripts, I would be eternally grateful.

Yes, that’s a shameless request, but anyone who knows me knows I’m shameless. And that would be a compliment.”

Thomas Kealy ’84 reports, “After 20 years of teaching literature and writing, I have transitioned from the job of department chair and professor of humanities to the role of dean of the school of business and social sciences at Colby-Sawyer College in New Hampshire.”

Marissa (Moskowitz) Goldstein ’03 sent along this note, along with a photo: “We just got back from Vietnam two weeks ago, and we’re back in Needham.

I’m launching a new company, Rafi Nova, a fair-trade and sustainable fashion brand on a mission to equip adventurous families with quality bags that align with their values, meet their ever-changing needs, and support the artisans behind the seams. Our entire family, two sets of twins under four years old, spent the past year building our company and meeting with the artisans who make the textile for our brand.”

Marissa Goldstein ’03 and her family in Vietnam.

Gary Satow ’01 writes, “My wife, Cory, and I welcomed our second child, Miles, to our family on January 4. I also completed my MEd at Vanderbilt University this past August.”

In Memoriam Theodore O. Alcaide ’54, August 8, 2019 Robert C. Wood ’65, June 30, 2019 David Rose ’93, January 19, 2020 Felipe Estrela ’03, October 20, 2019

Please submit Class Notes to Marc Stroum, Director of Alumni Engagement at m.stroum@rivers.org.

i N m e m o r i am

Daniel Joseph McCartney January 4, 2020

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he Rivers School community was stunned and saddened by the unexpected death of longtime faculty member Daniel McCartney P’08,’15, who died of complications due to a chronic illness. He was 60 years old and had taught at Rivers since 2004.

Dan graduated from Medford High School in 1977 and went on to earn a degree in electrical engineering from Tufts University. He began his career as a sales engineer at Tektronix before joining BBG New Media as president. BBG grew to be a preeminent regional agency and was eventually sold to Think New Ideas Inc. The sale resulted in Dan’s retirement from the business world, giving him the opportunity to pursue a lifelong dream: teaching and coaching.

At Rivers, it soon became clear that Dan was a gifted teacher and mentor. Said Upper School Dean of Faculty Leslie Fraser, “Dan was an absolute natural at teaching who channeled his joyful engagement with others into loving, patient attention to students and colleagues alike.”

Among his many students were two of his three children,

Stephanie ’08 and Joseph ’15. He led the math department for eight years and recently stepped into the newly created role of director of new faculty development, hiring and mentoring new teachers across all departments.

In addition to his teaching, advising, and mentoring roles, Dan wore numerous hats at Rivers: head coach of the Middle School football team and faculty director of the math club, stock market club, DECA club, and business summer internship program.

He stayed closely connected to countless Rivers alumni and frequently worked with the admissions office to promote the benefits of a Rivers education to prospective students. No one could have been a better advertisement for Excellence with Humanity. Said Head of School Ned Parsons, “His positivity and exuberance in working with young people are legendary here, and we will miss him desperately.”

Dan leaves his wife of 36 years, Angela (Graziadei) McCartney, and their three children, Stephanie, Jaclyn, and Joseph. � R

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Bruce T. Amsbary November 14, 2019

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ast fall, Rivers lost a steadfast friend with the passing of Bruce Amsbary P’05, who served as the school’s chief financial officer for 28 years until his retirement in 2015. Bruce died after a long and courageous battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 68.

A graduate of Belmont Hill School and Hobart College, Bruce earned an MBA at Babson College. Before joining Rivers, he served as assistant to the treasurer at the Harvard Club of Boston and as assistant business manager at the Dana Hall School. Bruce’s influence at Rivers extended far beyond the expected reach of a CFO. Head of School Ned Parsons noted, “It’s rare that a positive school culture is driven from inside the business office at schools like ours, but Bruce did just that.

His work was always exemplary, disciplined, smart, and reliable. But Bruce was so much more than his work. His caring approach to the people here and to the life of the

community came first.” Last spring, Rivers showed its appreciation for Bruce’s contributions by naming the Amsbary Conference Room in his honor. At the dedication ceremony, dozens of well-wishers turned out to welcome Bruce back to campus and to thank him for his tireless service to the school. Jon Wasserman ’88, P’18,’21, Bruce’s successor as CFO and one of many who considered him a mentor, recalled some of Bruce’s abiding principles— perhaps most memorably, his frequently evoked observation Pecunia non crescent in arboribus (“Money doesn’t grow on trees”). “Bruce personified the concept that our school has limited resources and that we should deploy them ever so carefully in the service of the school’s mission,” said Wasserman.

Bruce leaves his wife of 43 years, Elizabeth “Betsy” Gibney Amsbary, and his children, Robert, Sarah, and Dana ’05. � R

i n m e m o ria m

Caroline Oldham Grape ’18 December 10, 2019

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he Rivers community mourns the loss of Caroline Grape, Class of 2018, who succumbed to a rare and aggressive form of cancer. She was 20 years old.

Caroline spent most of her childhood in Weston. She graduated from the Meadowbrook School before attending Rivers. After Rivers, she matriculated at Connecticut College and spent the fall semester of her freshman year there.

During her time at Rivers, Caroline excelled in both academics and athletics.

She served as captain of both the track and cross-country teams and was recruited to run at Connecticut College.

At Rivers, she also volunteered as a teaching assistant and Middle School tutor. She received numerous prizes and recognitions for her achievements, including the Track Integritas award, given to the athlete who “best demonstrates the attributes of integrity.” Later, she was named Cross Country Team Rookie of the Year at Connecticut College.

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Wedding of

Those who knew Caroline remember Brendan Harty ’04 her as a kind, caring young woman who made friends easily and had a generous heart.

Faculty member Meghan Regan-Loomis, who oversaw Caroline’s work as a teaching assistant, recalled that she was beloved by the younger students she worked with. Said Regan-Loomis, “She was a talented English student whose continual thoughtfulness and depth found beautiful expression in her writing. Complementing that was her gift for connecting with others.” Caroline was also a gifted singer who memorably performed the song Burning House, along with a classmate, at the student coffeehouse during her senior year.

Caroline leaves her mother, Anne Grape; her father and stepmother, Tom and Mary Grape; her sister, Emily; and numerous members of her extended family. � R

Planned Giving

Sandy Northrop Honoring a Commitment to Rivers As a foreign correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, David Lamb ’58 covered the fall of Saigon during the Vietnam War, dodged bombs in Lebanon, and served as bureau chief in Cairo, Nairobi, Sydney, and Hanoi. Along with his wife, documentary filmmaker Sandy Northrop, Lamb packed in several lifetimes’ worth of adventure before he passed away in 2016. And it was Rivers, says Northrop, that laid the groundwork for their shared life of accomplishment, travel, and exploration.

“Dave didn’t have many gripes about life,” says Northrop. “He loved life, and if Rivers was his introduction to how life could be, it was a good introduction.”

David Lamb and Sandy Northrop in a holiday greeting card from 1995

Rivers extended to the primary grades back then, and Lamb, says Northrop, entered as a kindergartener. He attended the school for several years and made lifelong connections with classmates. Post-college, Lamb took several journalism jobs, eventually falling into the glamorous existence of a foreign correspondent. Lamb and Northrop, who was working as a filmmaker, met on a blind date and soon became inseparable partners in life and work. They were married in their Nairobi backyard as the sun set over Kilimanjaro, Northrop recalls.

(By that point, Lamb had been named East Africa bureau chief for the paper.) In Kenya, where she says she “suddenly had nothing to do,” Northrop found herself slightly at loose ends—until National Geographic asked her to be the production manager and editor on a film based on the relocation of elephants in Kenya.

Thus her filmmaking career was relaunched, ultimately leading to her involvement in dozens of productions. Lamb served as narrator on several of Northrop’s film projects, perhaps most notably a three-part series about postwar Vietnam that aired on PBS. Northrop says that Lamb always made an annual gift to Rivers, and she will include Rivers in her estate plans—indicative, she says, of the “strength of his commitment.” She adds, “I didn’t veer away from that commitment when Dave died. I think Rivers was a catalyst for his life.”

The Nonesuch Society was established to recognize the generosity of alumni, parents, and friends who have made provisions for Rivers in their estate plans. Its members have each made a commitment to ensure the continuation of excellence in teaching that is so critical to the education of future generations.

When you include Rivers in your will, you play a significant role in helping future generations of Rivers students.

At the same time, by taking advantage of tax laws that encourage philanthropy, making a bequest to Rivers can significantly reduce estate-tax burdens.

For more information about gifts to Rivers, such as bequests, living trusts, and gifts of life insurance or retirement plans, or if you would like more information about the Nonesuch Society, please contact Senior Associate Director of Advancement Mike Ebner at m.ebner@rivers.org or 339-686-2233.

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Please notify us if your phone number, mailing address, or email address changes so that Rivers can stay in touch with you and your family. Contact Ashley McGlone at 339-686-2239 or a.mcglone@rivers.org.

That’s Gratitude: Ribbon-Cutting Day at The Revers Center

Photo: Stephen Porter