alumni EvEnts

Alumni enjoyed a guided tour of The Revers Center with faculty members Sequoyah Reynoso, Nicole Winters, Tim Clark, and Doc Meropol. Callie Bullion ’10, Max Maguire ’07, and Dave Donohue ’03 were part of a Veterans Day panel.

Staying Close while Staying Distant

It takes more than a global pandemic to keep Rivers alumni apart. This year, despite all the challenges, the alumni office presented a full slate of remote opportunities to connect, engage, and catch up with classmates and the latest news from campus. Here’s a rundown of some of the highlights.

Veterans Day, November 11. Veterans Day at Rivers is typically a solemn observance welcoming to campus members of the community who have served in our armed forces. This year, for our virtual event, we had well over 300 alumni and members of the Rivers community join us. Our keynote speaker was Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Tom Kelley, who spoke with Head of School Ned Parsons about his military service. In addition, an alumni panel including Dave Donahue ’03, Max Maguire ’07, and Callie Bullion ’10 discussed the day as seen through the younger generation’s eyes. Maguire and Bullion are both currently serving, and Donahue is a former Marine. (See page 36 for more on Bullion, a recipient of our Young Alumni Achievement Award.)

Young alumni trivia Night, De-

cember 17. More than 40 alumni gathered to take on one another and eight of their former teachers in a fastpaced virtual trivia contest. Hats off to our winners from the Class of 2007!

Book Club with mac and meghan,

January 14. The first virtual Rivers book club event took place over the winter. More than 15 alumni joined veteran English faculty members Mac Caplan and Meghan Regan-Loomis as they chatted about the book Open by Andre Agassi. The event was so well received that a follow-up event was scheduled for late April, with Caplan and Julian Willard discussing Aravind Adaga’s The White Tiger.

art history: an evening with Jack

and Ben, January 21. Close to 150 alumni tuned in to hear Jack Jarzavek and Ben Leeming take a trip down memory lane. The fabled art history course turned 50 back in 2018, and Jack and Ben have been the only two teachers to teach this course. The two veteran educators took people back in time and discussed the scope of the class today.

rivers Connect: Life Beyond

Winter Street, February 4. The alumni office hosted this virtual event for the senior class. Twenty-eight alumni joined us that evening to share stories of how their Rivers education influenced their life experiences, career aspirations, and pursuits. They offered valuable advice on the transition to college, developing and articulating a personal brand, creating an effective job search strategy, making the most of your network, and life after Rivers in general. This is an opportunity for seniors to start building their Rivers networks and connecting with alumni who can make a difference in their lives. The keynote for the event this year was Ali Grabler Stein ‘01.

the revers Center: a Year Later,

February 25. During this live-streamed conversation, science department chair “Doc” Meropol P’03 and visual arts department chair Tim Clark, along with two of their newest faculty members, Nicole Winters and Sequoyah Reynoso, shared thoughts and anecdotes about what it’s been like to teach and learn in this impressive new facility. The opening of The Revers Center marked an important milestone in the ongoing evolution of our school. This program provided a compelling look at how that evolution is reshaping and enhancing the Rivers experience.

In addition to these events, alumni groups met several times over the course of the year to discuss racial justice at Rivers and beyond. Dozens of alumni welcomed this opportunity to join the conversation and make their voices heard. � R

alumni Council: Rising to the occasion

In every crisis, it is said, there is opportunity. That has proven to be true for the Rivers Alumni Council over the course of the pandemic. Initially, COVID looked like a stumbling block for an organization whose work depends on holding regular in-person meetings. “Some of our tasks were put on hold, while the whole world was up in the air,” said council president Lisa Raftery ’93. But it soon became evident that this could be a chance to expand the group’s work and bring in even greater numbers of alumni. We sat down with Raftery and Director of Alumni Engagement Marc Stroum ’98 to discuss how the organization continued to build on making connections even within the constraints of social distancing.

Lisa raftery: In the fall, we had a Zoom meeting for everyone, and it was the highest participation we’ve had in years. People joined from the West Coast, from New York, and from all over. People who are in Boston but have young kids were able to attend. It was the best turnout, and a fantastic way to see everyone. We saw a way to reinvent ourselves as an Alumni Council. From the fall meeting on, Marc and the development team worked on ways to bring people back with virtual events, from a trivia night to a book group to an evening with Jack Jarzavek and Ben Leeming.

marc Stroum: The reach this has given our team is amazing. We had over 120 people on Zoom for the art history event. And the winning team for trivia was in New York; that could never have happened if we’d held it at a bar in Boston.

It took us a little while to find our footing. We talked a lot last spring, when we weren’t sure how to proceed. But we saw this had a chance of being successful when David Burzillo did a virtual event comparing the current pandemic with the 1918 flu outbreak. It was a cool presentation, and I knew that if I took time over the summer to think this through, I could come up with a slew of virtual events.

Lr: Moving ahead, I think we’ll have a hybrid or mix of live and online events. Even when we’re back on campus, there will be an extension of coming back to Rivers virtually. I love what we’ve done in the past, but this shook everything

Marc Stroum ’98, director of alumni engagement

Alumni Council President Lisa Raftery ’93

up and turned everything upside down. The silver lining of this entire year is seeing how we can take advantage of our extended reach. Give Rivers credit: Of all the institutions I’m involved with, it was one of the first that pushed for engagement early on. When everyone was taking a step back, Rivers said, “We’re going to try this.” And they continued to push events out to alumni, which was key to re-engaging the community.

mS: We’ve been proactive with programming and with getting the alumni newsletter out there. We’re sharing more news from campus.

Lr: Teachers are really the crown jewel of Rivers, and to be able to bring them into people’s homes to talk about books or art history has been fantastic. These faculty members are too special not to share.

What makes me happy is to see people re-engaged with the school that meant so much to them. It’s a strange thing to say, but I’m glad this opportunity came along. Rivers was able to reach people at a time we all wanted to connect. � R

To connect with Marc or get involved with the Alumni Council, email m.stroum@rivers.org.