e Blue Doors Nightingale-Bamford SchoolVolume 10Issue 2 · defending city champion tennis team plays Chapin. Today is the day that we pull the curtains on our spring musical, The

SPRING 2016 1

÷e Blue Doors TheNightingale-Bamford SchoolVolume 10Issue 2Spring 2016

2 THE BLUE DOORS SPRING 2016 1

The Anonymous ProjectNightingale girls honor historically overlooked female leaders

ForewordA note from Head of School Paul A. Burke

Nightingale students find many different ways to give back to their community.

42

Contents6 10

The Teaching of WritingJohn Loughery’s take on the art of the essay

22 | HallwaysStories and photographs from around the schoolhouse

12 | Design Thinking Sparks InnovationTechnology and creativity come together in student projects

16 | Spaces Taking ShapeExcitement is building on 92nd Street

34 | Class Notes

40 | Voices

Our Moment in TimeWhat will the Nightingale community of 2120 know about the Nightingale of today?

THE BLUE DOORSVolume 10, Issue 2Spring 2016

A biannual publication of The Nightingale-Bamford School20 East 92nd StreetNew York, New York 10128nightingale.org

We would like to hear from you! Letters to the editor, story suggestions, corrections, and questions may be directed to [email protected]. If you have a class note to share, please submit it via our online form at nightingale.org/sharenews.

DESIGNPentagram

LAYOUTCZ Design

PRINTING AND MAIL INGAllied Printing Services

PHOTOGRAPHYAll photography courtesy of subject, unless otherwise noted:

Cover by Matthew Septimus

Foreword, Design Thinking, Feig Lecture, Mark Doty, Cooking in the Archives, Family Events (except ping pong), Cameron Russell, MLK Peace March, Thelma Golden, Eric Foner, Constitution Works, Young Alumnae Assembly, Paloma Rossell, NCGS, Mini-Mesters, and Alice Jokela by Susan Tilson

Girls at window by Christie Guevara

New spaces by Fran Parente

Nightingale Dance Collective, Cultural Night, and Fathers Who Cook by Victoria Jackson

H.M.S. Pinafore by Sandra Coudert

Anna Jacobs by David Byrnes

Middle School Ping Pong Night by Amanda Goodwin

Forensics mini-mester by Kate Janover ’14

Zoe Weil ’79 by Jo-Anne McArthur

On the cover: Colette Beeby Pierre ’19

On the table of contents page: Portrait of Alicia Alonso by Beatrice Arellano ’17, Vivian Cordon ’17, and Katia Taylor ’17

2 THE BLUE DOORS SPRING 2016 34 THE BLUE DOORS

FOREWORD

Today is the Day

Today is the day.

Today is the day that close to 600 students will arrive at Nightingale’s blue doors. Today is the day that Class IV will travel with their classmates downtown to experience what life was like for New York City immigrants at the turn of the century. Today is the day that the debate team will travel to the state championships and come back with second place, earning more points than schools five times our size.

Today is the day that Class III students submit their castle projects for all to see. Today is the day—thanks to excellent teaching, collaboration with peers, and the wonders of 3D printing—that Class VIII students will produce actual models of monuments they designed themselves. Today is the day that Nightingale’s defending city champion tennis team plays Chapin. Today is the day that we pull the curtains on our spring musical, The Music Man.

Today is the day that members of our senior class decide which college or university will be the best place for them to continue their education after Nightingale. Today is the day that Lower School teachers welcome next year’s Kindergarten—the Class of 2029—with a balloon party. Today is Founder’s Day, when we welcome returning alumnae and celebrate the lasting impact of Miss Nightingale and Miss Bamford.

For each of our 600 girls, today is my day.

Today is the day that I am making my speech. In front of my class. In front of my division. In front of my school.

Today is the day that an anonymous woman has become less so thanks to the Open Doors program. Thanks to a partnership with the 92nd Street Y. Thanks to my research and hard work.

Today is the day that I submit my essay.

Today is the day that I return from Andalucía after a week of exploring and performing in Spain with other members of Nightingale’s Chamber Chorus.

Today is the day that I am going to try all the food that is served to me. My teacher insists I take two bites, but, today, I am going to try it all!

Today is the day that I will see my friend who studied last term at the Maine Coast Semester.

Today is the day that my Class II friends and I will showcase all that we learned about New York City. Today is the day my parents will see how much we have learned.

When tomorrow comes at Nightingale, it will bring with it a much celebrated and eagerly anticipated schoolhouse. It will bring a new way of experiencing the day as we move to a new eight-day schedule designed specifically for Nightingale girls. It will bring innovative new programming in all three divisions and in every department. Tomorrow we will sharpen and embolden our definition of global citizenship at Nightingale, coupling it in a forward-thinking strategic plan with a heightened emphasis on the health and wellness of girls. Tomorrow will come, and when it comes it will bring great promise.

Until then we have today.

This issue of The Blue Doors aspires to capture the wonder of a school uniquely committed to the hearts and minds of every girl. It offers you a glimpse into a community that is resolute in our dedication to the girls of today.

Paul A. BurkeHead of School


Every girl from Kindergarten through Class XII participated this year in the Anonymous Project, an initiative of Open Doors, Nightingale’s K–XII leadership program. Led by Director of Open Doors Rebecca Strauss and inspired by Virginia Woolf’s famous line “For most of history, anonymous was a woman,” the girls crafted multi-platform projects that celebrated historically overlooked female leaders. Lower and Middle School girls worked in groups, while Upper School girls worked individually or in small groups to select and research an overlooked female leader of their choice. Student creativity abounded throughout the building, as the projects could—and did—take many forms, from three-dimensional works and video presentations to paintings, drawings, and mosaics. For their research, girls drew upon Nightingale’s extensive library collection and also (in the case of Upper School girls) from offsite visits to museums and archives around the city.

A very exciting aspect of the Anonymous Project was its connection to the 92nd Street Y’s “Seven Days of Genius” festival, held from March 5–12. Digital projects composed by Class IV were exhibited in the Milton J. Weill Art Gallery at the 92Y throughout the festival, and work by students from all grade levels was displayed on the 92Y’s Tumblr, as well as the Seven Days of Genius blog, with further promotion through the 92Y’s social media feeds on Twitter and Facebook. By capitalizing on the digital reach of the festival and collaborating with the 92Y’s media partners, the Anonymous Project allowed students to become teachers, leading a global audience to discover historically overlooked female leaders in politics, science, literature, art, sports, business, and more.

At right: Agent 355 by Ms. Seibert’s Class VIII advisory group.Opposite page, clockwise from top left: Vera Rubin by Blythe Chace ’19; Alia Muhammed Baker by Lily Takian ’27; Wangari Maathai by Ms. Shen’s Class I reading group; Julie Dash by Danielle Louis ’18.

The AnonymousProject


MUSIc DEPARTMENT: PROGRAMS AND PERFORMANcE REcORDINGS

The best encapsulation of music at Nightingale is in the voices and playing of the girls. Contained in this capsule you will find the programs from eight performances by girls in grades K–12 from 2014–2016. Also included are audio and video recordings of each of these events. Please enjoy the sights and sounds of active music-making at Nightingale!

—Mary Beth Alexander, Head of the Music Departmentin Time Our Moment

With a new building under construction and an expanding schoolhouse, now seemed like the perfect opportunity to create and bury a time capsule at Nightingale. The time capsule would not only provide the new space with a historical context and narrative, but it would also give students, teachers, and administrators the chance to consider who they are at this moment in time, what defines Nightingale, and who the Nightingale girl is in 2016. Every grade has contributed at least one item that is important to them, and several department heads have done the same for their departments. The time capsule will be opened in 2120 on what will then be the Nightingale-Bamford School’s 200th anniversary.

When Ms. Alexander submitted music files of student performances for the time capsule, it became immediately evident that we had no idea what, if any, existing technology would be relevant in another 104 years. What would the best format be for 2120? Was an iPod Nano with all its cables better than a USB drive, which could be obsolete in even one year’s time? (We chose the USB drive since batteries are highly corrosive and would not likely endure over 104 years, even in ideal conditions.)

Preservation is a prime concern here, as we want to ensure that these items endure over time. Each item needs to be preserved and treated in its own specific way and stored in its own sleeve or envelope to ensure longevity. Moisture and acids destroy materials. In addition, each item needs to be as clean and oil- and moisture-free as possible. After each item is cleaned and put into its own airtight sleeve, the entire capsule will be sealed in an airtight vessel and buried in a wall space in the new building. A plaque will demarcate its place.

Of course, the best part of the project has been seeing the items that have been contributed. Some unexpected treasures have popped up among the various uniform garments,

yearbooks, and play programs. The fifth grade submitted a pair of Riley Sandler’s bunny ears and a bracelet in memory of their beloved classmate; the seventh grade dropped off their student council suggestion box. Mr. Travanti, head of the art department, put together a toolbox with various supplies and materials and included the question, “Will people be painting with paint in 2120?” And Mr. Whitehurst brought the timely idea of gender, language, and pronouns. At this time when the use of the pronoun “they” is in flux, Mr. Whitehurst writes,

“If a teacher asks students to continue using ’they’ only in the plural form (and I would be one of those, at least for the time being), that teacher better have a good explanation at the ready, unless he or she wishes to be perceived as the most offensive of pedagogues, the dogmatic dinosaur whose teaching is no longer relevant to the real world.” He goes on to say that one of the tasks of the English department is to teach grammatical concepts in present usage and to help students understand that language and usage changes over time.

The Nightingale time capsule will be registered with the International Time Capsule Society (ITCS), an organization established in 1990 to promote the study of time capsules. The ITCS strives to document all types of time capsules throughout the world. The group is headquartered at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, Georgia.

The pages that follow contain just a few examples of what the Nightingale-Bamford School community of 2120 will find when they open the time capsule.

—Jayne Sosland P’20

The Nightingale-Bamford School is grateful to Jayne Sosland P’20 and Kristen Durkin P’26 for their leadership of the time capsule project.


ENGLISH DEPARTMENT: THE LITTLE, BROWN HANDBOOk, 13TH ED.

This 13th edition of The Little, Brown Handbook, the grammar text distributed to every ninth-grade student when she enters Nightingale-Bamford’s Upper School, is included here so that it might provide a perspective on Standard English at a particular moment in time.

As our language continues to evolve, so, too, does grammar. We English teachers thus try to strike a balance between teaching grammar prescriptively and teaching it descriptively. One example may be provided regarding pronoun-antecedent agreement (see chapter 15 in this book). In our era, the pronoun they is in flux: it is used increasingly as an alternative to the third-person singular form—as in, “everyone should hand in their homework” (as opposed to the historically acceptable usage, “everyone should hand in his or her homework”). Although this use of they in the singular form has probably grown out of sloppiness and a desire to avoid the cumbersome his or her construction, common practice does eventually dictate correct usage. In fact, most Americans today would not even think to question such usage, so widespread is the singular they in everyday parlance. If everyone is using they in the singular form, then they (those who use they in the singular form) will win out in time—as is the case in this very sentence. If a teacher asks students to continue using they only in the plural form (and I would be one of those, at least for the time being), that teacher better have a good explanation at the ready, unless he or she wishes to be perceived as that most offensive of pedagogues, the dogmatic dinosaur whose teaching is no longer relevant to the real world.

Our task as a department—in addition to teaching the arts of reading, writing, and speaking—is to teach the grammatical concepts that lie behind current usage so that students may enter their adult lives knowing not only that usage will change, but also that it may be navigated by applying flexible concepts to new contexts.

—Brad Whitehurst, Head of the English Department

cLASSIcS DEPARTMENT: EccE ROMANI

The members of the classics department and I found it very challenging to come up with one item that would best represent our teaching and the experience of our students, but we ultimately opted for a copy of the first installment of our textbook series, Ecce Romani. This book is undoubtedly a quintessential component of our Latin curriculum, and our students vividly remember its characters and stories long after they leave the blue doors (fyi—Nightingale’s front doors are painted blue in 2016). Ecce Romani stands out among all other Latin book series in that some of its central characters are females, including two teenage girls. It is also a series that teaches not only the Latin language, but also the history, art, and civilization of the ancient Romans, and in that sense, it will be a good ambassador of Latin instruction at Nightingale. Will the people of 2120 know what Latin is?

—Panayotes Dakouras, Head of the Classics Department

cLASS VII I : PHOTO OF THE cLASS IN WASHINGTON, D.c.

The Class of 2020 decided to submit a photo of themselves on the annual Class VIII trip to Washington, D.C. This annual trip builds upon and enriches students’ work in American history and aims to bring the class closer through leadership activities. Highlights of the trip for the Class of 2020 included meetings with Senator Cory Booker (NJ) and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (NY), as well as special tours of the Capitol and White House. The girls also did a wonderful job guiding their classmates through six memorials—Lincoln, Jefferson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, Jr., Vietnam, and Korea—examining the intersection of history, memory, and legacy. In the evenings, the girls engaged in group activities that allowed them to consider their roles as leaders of their class.


The Teaching of WritingFAcULTY REFLEcTION

By John Loughery There are two theories concerning the teaching of writing. (By “writing,” I mean, of course, not the construction of intelligible sentences and paragraphs, but the creation of meaningful, interesting analytical essays.) One approach to the matter implies that writing is a skill that can be mastered by anyone who knows how to read and follow instructions, rather like double-digit subtraction or making model airplanes or texting.

This theory comes with a formula, like all of the above skills. It suggests that there is such a thing as a well-shaped essay, easily identifiable and worth an immediate pat on the back, and there is such a thing as an essay lacking that shape, or structure, from which the pat on the back is to be firmly withheld. Structure is all-important in this context, and it comes ready-made like those model airplane instructions. Indeed, by this theory, a tidy structure is the starting point of the whole business. At its most extreme, this structure would be the classic five-paragraph essay: an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

The teacher of this camp usually explains that an introduction can be used for three purposes: as a means to provide background information for the essay, as a slow lead-in to the topic (“introducing” it in a way that withholds anything major or disruptive in the conversation…we just met, after all), or as the place to state one’s thesis, which is preferably situated in the last sentence of that first paragraph. At its most doctrinaire, a “thesis sentence” would be spoken of, implying that any idea a student has is necessarily reducible to one sentence. When a Class IX girl asked in my first semester at Nightingale, “Well, what if your thesis can’t be summarized in one sentence, or what if your thesis is a question that isn’t fully answered because you don’t think it can be?”—I knew I had come to the right school. (By the way, she went on to the University of Chicago, debating whether to major in classics or pre-med, and recently came to lecture to my American Studies class about her current PhD fellowship work at the Metropolitan Museum. But I digress.)

The “body paragraphs” of the essay, as the name implies, are the meat of the essay—the important stuff, the “proof,” the weighty evidence and argument. (By implication, that level of weight must not be present in the introduction or conclusion: they are separate from the crux of the “body,” they are the appendages—useful, needed, but not of the torso.) The Internet even offers a related visual metaphor: the essay as hamburger. The top and bottom bun are the introduction and conclusion; the carnivore’s real focus is what is in-between the buns. The metaphor works if you believe in it, and it also tells you how expendable the

more sense than it would if our art teachers affirmed, “We do paint-by-numbers first in the lower grades, and then later, when the girls are adolescents, they want to go outside the lines and use colors of their own choosing, and it all works out so well.” I can guarantee that if we began teaching art with paint-by-numbers, the equivalent of the grid approach to writing, the dazzling visual work we see on our school walls from all classes and divisions would look very different.

But what if we began from a different starting point, entirely? What if the discussion and the process had nothing to do with “Can I find your thesis in your first paragraph?” or “What are you putting in your conclusion?” What if the questions boiled down to two very different queries: 1) “What do you have to say about this topic, what are your real thoughts?” and 2) “How do you want to begin, what would draw the reader into the essay, and then what do you think should follow from that, and then what should come next?” and so on. Most student essays founder because the student has few or no ideas to develop and argue; for good reason, she spends more time fixated on structure than content. Her next misstep, often through no fault of her own, is that she does not know “what to do next” because she believes there is a hidden agenda of right and wrong next steps. An essay can’t end when she is done arguing what she wants to argue, the way her observations in class discussions end. It has to have something else—a “conclusion.”

Members of my department meet with students for one-on-one conferences for a certain number of essays during the year. (To meet for every essay would be to circumvent our own concern with risk-taking and independence. No one becomes independent by being watched over every step of the way.) And, at those conferences, they don’t talk about introductions and conclusions or developing a thesis at the outset; they zero in on content—they brainstorm with the student, watch the student work her way through an idea, ask probing questions (gently pulling the rug out from under her, if necessary), focus on the fullness of what she has to say—long before the structure of the essay is ever considered an issue.

Only when it is clear that there are good questions, potential deductions, things we could call “ideas,” out there on the table—and not a minute before—does the conversation turn to the next step: Okay, so—given what you are telling me that you think about this topic—what would be an interesting start and where would you want to go from there? Do you want to begin with your thesis? Fine. Do you want to begin with your anti-thesis, the argument you want to tear down? Fine. Do you want playfully to mislead the reader and make him think you believe X only to show later—the true thesis being in the last paragraph—that X is not in the long run workable? Do you want to begin with a pertinent anecdote? Do you want to begin with background information or a statement about why this is a vital issue? The possibilities could go on and on. But at this point, we should be a long way from any prepackaged notions of what an “introduction” must be. We are into the realm of writing as thinking.

introduction and conclusion are. I mean, you could order a hamburger and ask the waitperson at the coffee shop to hold the bun. No one yet has ordered a hamburger and said,

“just the bun, please.” What counts, what you’re paying for, is the meat, i.e., the body paragraphs. One consequence of this in student essays is a lot of soggy buns.

The devotees of this system—this grid form of writing, as I think of it—are too clever these days to invoke it in all its former glory. Few teachers assign an essay and mandate a certain number of paragraphs. They don’t even call for a minimum of three examples by way of proof as often as they used to (though I suspect they still regard three as a magic number). They are apt to say, “I would never tell my students they have to put their thesis sentence at the end of the first paragraph. That would be too rigid. But it does have to be somewhere in the first paragraph.” As to “conclusions,” they wax—confused. Restate your thesis or “sum it all up” (as if the reader had memory issues and didn’t pick the main idea up two paragraphs back?). Think of something new to say (as if new points weren’t being made all along?). Relate your topic to your life (what if it doesn’t?) or to modern life (shouldn’t that have been implicit from the start?). Students know what “filler” is when we bring up that ugly topic, and you will never encounter more filler than in the so-called conclusions of most student essays.

In my ideal world, a student would never have heard of the terms “introduction,” “body paragraph,” and “conclusion.” At all levels, the English department avoids them. Writing an essay should involve the same plausibility and evoke the same delight that creating a painting or drawing does from any student in K–XII. Indeed, the art studio is my perfect metaphor: the place where what you think and feel about the subject is crucial and is known to you (indeed, it is the starting point of the whole endeavor), though you have the right to change your mind as you progress; where trial-and-error is the norm; where no one’s picture has to look like everyone else’s; and where the key question is not “Is this how you want me to do it?” but, rather, “Does what I’m doing work? Am I conveying what I mean to—because I do have an idea, a feeling, about what I want to say here?” The rubrics lock students into a mindset that is very hard to shed.

The question is often asked, “Isn’t it sensible to begin by giving students a definite model to follow (giving them strict parameters, telling them what to put where) and then, later, when they are ready and able to, they will soar off into more adventurous modes on their own?” No. In my experience, that almost never happens. Why would anyone abandon a serviceable model that’s worked for years, earned her stars and A+’s, for the now-unknown? Believing that makes no

The process is not necessarily quick and is highly personal and developmental. I once heard a teacher say that her goal was, by the end of the academic year, to see that everyone in her section of Class VII was able to write a good essay. A tidy grid-essay that didn’t have all that much to say, possibly. A real essay with fresh thoughts and a fresh manner of expression? Loaves and fishes time, that one. The reality would depend, rather, on where her students were in their lives—in their love of reading, in their openness to debate and independent thought, in their appreciation of language, in their comfort with risk-taking, and—above all—in their aversion to being told what to do. The playfulness vs. the uptightness factor is significant here. Does this mean I believe in a Calvinist elect, in the idea that some students have this capacity and others don’t and maybe never will. Not at all. (In my 17 years here, I have rarely if ever met a Nightingale student who seemed to me utterly incapable of having an opinion or an idea about any topic with which she was truly familiar.) I come from a family of non-readers. I was a resolute non-reader in middle

school and a desultory reader in high school. I’d have been a B-/C+ student at Nightingale. At 21, I became a voracious reader; it was like turning on the tap overnight, and I was ready to be a published writer in my 30s. Inner need determines everything. Outlook and motivation are the individual student’s highly personal province, though teachers and parents (parents in particular, I would say) play a role in awakening or stifling those needs.

A painter friend of mine and I were talking once about a mutual acquaintance, another painter who

had decided to change his style of art entirely. His career as a representational painter had never really taken off, had never moved beyond that frustrating level of not-negligible but still very modest success. He was going to paint color abstractions now, he had told us. I asked my friend if he thought Gary was going to be able to pull this off. He shrugged and answered,

“You can only paint what you are.” I think that simple statement applies to writing as well. You can only write what you are.

If the student in question is a person of limited reading experience, limited curiosity, limited exposure to smart, word-savvy conversations at home, limited ideas, and a preoccupation with “getting a better grade on this essay” and figuring out “what the teacher wants,” the odds of her becoming a good essay writer are much longer. If the student in question could not care less about grids, rubrics, paragraph-counting, and “Are we allowed to…?” and burns to share her responses to what she has just read or experienced, the odds are excellent. I’d even be surprised if, on a level commensurate with her age, she wasn’t there already. In that case, the teacher’s and the parent’s job is to applaud her good sense of priorities, keep those freewheeling, word-savvy conversations going, carry on with those dinner-table debates, and never cease asking that all-important question: “Oh, and why do you think that?” All good prose springs from that starting point.

A longtime member of Nightingale’s faculty, John Loughery served as head of the English department from 2002–2015.

In my ideal world, a student would never have heard of the terms “introduction,” “body paragraph,” and “conclusion.”


Throughout the year, Academic Technology Coordinator Nicole Blandford and Lower School Technology Integrator Bryan Rosen have been working with their students to apply the principles of “design thinking” to a variety of creative projects. Design thinking challenges students to employ a human-centric approach to problem solving and innovation. As Ms. Blandford notes, “Design thinking focuses on the abilities that are innate in every girl, but often are overlooked in traditional problem solving—asking her to be creative, collaborative and cooperative, intuitive, and empathetic; to think outside the box and construct ideas that are personally meaningful; and to find a way to express herself through prototyping and fabrication. It also reinforces the idea that meaningful work is never truly finished and that failure—and the ability to both learn and move forward from it—is a critical component to eventual success.”

The innovative projects shown on the pages that follow are just a few examples of the high level of creativity and engineering savvy that students throughout the schoolhouse have brought to their work this year.

Design Thinking Sparks Innovation In All ThreeDivisions

Lower School Do you remember the Operation board game? In computer science class, Class IV students worked in groups—using cardboard pizza boxes, chopsticks, and conductive materials such as aluminum foil and copper tape—to build their own digital Operation games. Each group of students programmed their game using Scratch, a visual programming language for children, and then used a Makey Makey invention kit to connect their board to the computer. After their hard work, the girls had created functional games incorporating their favorite characters and learned a great deal about programming and circuitry in the process.


Upper School A group of Class X students were challenged to invent a product for their demographic that does not yet exist. The girls came up with “The Party Box”—a box to hold everything you need for a party in one place. Their invention included hand-cut confetti, circuits to make music play when the box opens, and a strobe light that turns on when the party starts.

Middle SchoolClass VIII girls worked in pairs of two to engineer a boat constructed out of cardboard and duct tape for the first-ever

“Hope it Floats” design challenge. The project came to an exciting conclusion in February when the girls brought their boats to the 92Y pool to test their designs. Many girls successfully crossed the entire length of the pool in their boats, and all of them had a fabulous time in the attempt!


Spaces TakingShape

Construction in the townhouses has continued throughout the year, and what was once a dream of a fully integrated and expanded schoolhouse is now becoming a reality.

The large picture window in the student center has provided students and faculty the perfect spot for viewing the construction’s progress.


Top and inset: The tree feature in the Lower School library is beginning to take shape. Right: The glass walls of the new art studio will allow the beautiful northern light to flood the large space, providing an ideal environment for girls to create art and explore their artistic sensibilities.

With photographic proof of floors and walls and wiring comes excitement for the completion of the first major renovation and expansion of our schoolhouse in 25 years. As Head of School Paul A. Burke has stated many times, this project has been motivated from the very beginning by “the promise that every girl will have every chance—at every moment, in every space—to become the best version of herself.” Now, as new spaces come into view, the girls are beginning to understand just what that means and to imagine the impact the new schoolhouse will have on their learning, as well as their sense of community.

For Sofia Rodriguez ’22, the maker space has already piqued her interest: “We’re going to be able to use that space to do programming, to do computer science, to do 3D printing, and so much more.” Sari Dashefsky ’21, on the other hand, is excited about the Hub, a new common space just for Middle School students: “When we found out there was going to be a Middle School lounge, everybody was very excited because Upper Schoolers have the Upper School Commons and seniors have the senior lounge, and we are all excited to have our own space.” And Summer Cody ’16 sees great potential in the greenhouse and the blackbox theater. “I think the greenhouse is going to play a major role in science at Nightingale,” she says, “and I think it’s going to be really interesting for the students to experience science—and especially biology and ecological sciences—outside of the classroom.” “Having the blackbox theater,” she adds,

“is going to allow all of the music groups to have time to go through more music and even add more to their repertoire because they have more room.”

One goal of the schoolhouse expansion and renovation has been to provide flexible spaces that allow students to develop their own uses, their own projects, and their own voices. As the construction moves closer to its conclusion, Summer sees that goal as being met: “I think these new spaces are going to be really beneficial for the future generations here at Nightingale because it’s going to allow them to explore all of their interests with a lot more agency.”

To support this ambitious project, in January 2016 Nightingale publicly launched the $45 million Every Girl campaign—the largest in the school’s history. Led by campaign chairs Blair Pillsbury Enders ’88 P’22, Elena Hahn Kiam ’81 PP’14, P’17, and Greg Palm P’23, the campaign is off to a strong start, with $30.3 million in commitments raised in the quiet phase, including the largest gift in the history of the school. Bringing the campaign to a successful conclusion will require the support of the entire Nightingale community. For information on how you can participate in the Every Girl campaign, visit nightingale.org/everygirl.

A Space forEvery Girl

T H E c A M PA I G N FO R N I G H T I N G A L E ’ S F U T U R E


VARSITy DANCe ReNAMeD NIghTINgALe DANCe COLLeCTIVe

At their annual dance concert in February, Nightingale’s Upper School dance group announced that after nearly 20 years, their name would be changed from Varsity Dance to Nightingale Dance Collective. The new name, which was chosen by the girls after a nomination and voting process, reflects the fact that Nightingale’s dance program is no longer part of the physical education department and is now its own entity, chaired by dance faculty member Allison Trotta. As Nightingale Dance Collective Artistic Director Jeanne Finnigan-John explains, “We wanted the new name to represent what makes Nightingale’s dance program truly unique: the work, the opportunity to create, the space to take risks, and the opportunity to collaborate and work collectively to create a night of dance that is uniquely different every year.” Following suit, Middle School Dance Club has been renamed Middle School Dance Collective.


defiant requiem is subject of 2016 werner feig lecture

At the 17th annual Werner Feig Holocaust Memorial Lecture on January 29, girls in Classes VIII–XII, together with guests from the greater Nightingale community, were privileged to hear from conductor Murry Sidlin and artist (and Holocaust survivor) Fred Terna. Maestro Sidlin is the founder and president of the Defiant Requiem Foundation, which is dedicated to preserving the memory of the prisoners in the Theresienstadt concentration camp (also known as Terezín) during World War II who—despite monumental suffering, disease, and the constant presence of death—found hope and inspiration in the arts and humanities. At the lecture, Maestro Sidlin showed a portion of the film Defiant Requiem, which relates how prisoners at the camp maintained their humanity during the Holocaust in 1943 and 1944

by learning and performing the Verdi Requiem as an act of defiance toward their Nazi captors. The film also documents Mr. Sidlin’s return 60 years later to recreate the concert on the grounds of the camp. After showing scenes from the film, Maestro Sidlin interviewed Mr. Terna, who was a prisoner at Theresienstadt when he was 20 years old and an eyewitness to all that happened there. He stressed the critical role that the prisoners’ unrelenting interest in—and love of—art, music, and education played in their retention of a strong sense of self; they never lost sight of who they were. To this day, Terna says, he is constantly learning and growing. Following the lecture, guests had the opportunity to speak personally with Maestro Sidlin and Mr. Terna at a reception in the library. Featured in photo, from left: Head of School Paul A. Burke, Rebecca Feig (daughter of Werner Feig), former trustee Patti Kenner PP’94, Fred Terna, and Murry Sidlin.

After the rehearsal, the girls met and chatted with Richard O’Neill, regarded as one of the great violists of his generation.

upper school students visit chamber music society

Last fall, strings teacher Gregory Harrington took a small group of Upper School instrumentalists to hear some of the greatest chamber musicians in the world practice and rehearse the Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 in preparation for their week of performances at Lincoln Center. In addition to listening to the beautiful music, the girls had the opportunity to learn about the history and significance of the piece. Mr. Harrington commented: “I was delighted as the girls were really so fascinated and inspired by seeing the rehearsal process and how these musicians interacted with such precision and virtuosity.”

Ha l l w a y s

Stories and photographs from around the schoolhouse

Anne Seiler ’21 and gabriella Khan ’21 portrayed Little Buttercup and Captain Corcoran, respectively, in the Class VII production of gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore on March 17.


composer anna jacobs visits middle school chorus

Composer Anna Jacobs visited with the members of Middle School Chorus on December 15 to discuss her career and answer questions from the girls. As the composer of “Our Menorah,” the 2015 Nightingale Chanukah commission, Ms. Jacobs was eager to meet the girls who performed her work at this year’s Middle and Upper School Winter Concert, which she also attended. During her visit, Ms. Jacobs discussed her journey to becoming a professional composer, which began in her middle school music class at the Ascham School in Sydney, Australia. (Coincidentally, Ascham is the very same school with which Nightingale has a longstanding exchange program.) She also described her creative process and worked with the girls to experiment with a few alternate arrangements of her piece.

poet mark doty addresses upper school

National Book Award–winning poet Mark Doty was the guest speaker at this year’s Christine Schutt Visiting Writer Assembly on December 11, 2015. He gave a reading of his work during Upper School assembly and also led two seminars with small groups of Upper School students. The girls clearly relished the opportunity to learn more about Mr. Doty and his writing process.

cooking in the archives

At an assembly earlier this year, Upper School girls heard from Alyssa Connell and Marissa Nicosia, founders of a public food history project called

“Cooking in the Archives: Updating Early Modern Recipes (1600–1800) in a Modern Kitchen.” Both women hold PhDs in English from the University of Pennsylvania and developed an interest in this area when they came upon old recipes in their research of British literature from the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries. As stated on their website, their project is “situated at the intersection between the practice of modern cooking and the history of early modern manuscript and printed recipe books,” and, therefore, “uniquely able to address contemporary public interest in food cultures (proliferating on food blogs and websites, for instance) and contribute to the study of early modern culture.” Drs. Connell and Nicosia walked the students through their process, which involves finding and deciphering old recipes by using the tools of book history and bibliography, as well as testing the recipes in their modern kitchens and sharing their results with the public. They then led the girls through an interactive exercise to help them hone their own research skills in anticipation of their Anonymous Project work. For more information on Cooking in the Archives, visit rarecooking.com.

family events at nightingale

Winter was the season for fun family events at Nightingale. Lower School girls and their families had a blast at a winter-themed Bingo Night, while Middle School students enjoyed some friendly competition at their second annual Ping Pong Night. And the entire community came together to cheer for the Nighthawks at Winter Carnival, which culminated in an exciting 35–32 varsity basketball win over the Brearley Beavers before a capacity crowd.


cameron russell speaks at social justice assembly

Model and activist Cameron Russell spoke to girls in Classes VII–XII about power and privilege at the Upper School Social Justice Assembly on February 19. Russell is well known for her activism thanks to a widely viewed TED talk she gave in October 2012 entitled “Looks aren’t everything. Believe me, I’m a model.” In that talk, she discusses how winning the “genetic lottery” in terms of her race and body type has opened doors for her, and she explores both the concrete and abstract benefits she has received as a result of the fact that her physical appearance conforms

nightingale represented at diversity conference

A group of Nightingale students and faculty traveled to Tampa, Florida, last December to attend the 2015 National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) People of Color Conference and Student Diversity Leadership Conference. According to NAIS, the mission of the People of Color Conference (PoCC) is “to provide a safe space for leadership and professional development and networking for people of color and allies of all backgrounds in independent schools.” The conference includes general sessions with keynote speakers, practitioner-led workshops, affinity group work, and dialogue sessions. Run concurrently with the PoCC, the Student Diversity Leadership Conference is a multiracial, multicultural gathering of independent school student leaders of high school age from across the country; it focuses

on self-reflecting, forming allies, and building community. Nightingale’s delegation included students Ariana Bustos ‘16, Carlexa Fevry ‘16, Danielle Louis ‘18, Zora Ilunga-Reed ‘18, Nicaurys Rodriguez ‘17, and Kim Sotomayor ‘16; and faculty members Amanda Goodwin, Marquis Scott, Johara Sealy, Allison Trotta, and Nikki Willis.

to a societal standard of beauty.Russell is also the creator of Interrupt, a

magazine that lets marginalized communities tell their own stories; it came to fruition in large part because of her TED talk’s success. During her presentation at Nightingale, she encouraged the girls to educate themselves on important issues and to be aware of the benefits that their privilege brings them. Ms. Russell was introduced by Ridley Rochell ’15, who flew in from Northwestern University to do the honors. When Ridley was a senior, she initiated the idea to invite Ms. Russell to speak at Nightingale after the two of them met during Ridley’s internship for photographer Mei Tao P’21 in the summer of 2014.

ms debate takes home first place trophy

The Nightingale Middle School Debate team had an especially strong showing at a tournament on January 30, taking home—for the first time ever—the trophy for first place school, which is determined by the percentage of rounds won by each school’s teams. Congratulations to all of the competitors, as well as their coach, English faculty member Candi Deschamps!

lower school honors dr. martin luther king, jr.

In celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in January, Lower School students completed a number of different activities. Kindergarten and Class I read Martin’s Big Words and collaborated on making placards reflective of meaningful words important to MLK’s legacy. Class II read informational texts about Martin Luther King, Jr. and reflected on and shared how they, too, are peacemakers like MLK. Classes III and IV watched clips of Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech and created their own “I Have a Dream” speeches, using striking words and phrases from his texts. All of these diverse projects, though thematic in nature, complemented this year’s Lower School theme of peace building and peace awareness. As a culmination of their study, Kindergarten and Class I students held a peace march around the schoolhouse, celebrating and highlighting their collective and collaborative efforts in the successful completion of this peace-building project.

students start first middle school newspaper

Earlier this year, CeCe Clairmont ‘20 and Tutu Jereissati ‘20 decided to create the Nighthawk Squawk, a uniquely Middle School digital publication. Under the supervision of faculty advisor Amanda Goodwin, they recruited a staff of reporters, writers, editors, photographers, and layout gurus from Classes V–VIII and developed a website to display their content. The newspaper includes news and current events from within the schoolhouse and beyond. It officially launched in February and is updated frequently. Check it out for yourself at nighthawkmsnews.wordpress.com!


cafe cultural night 2016

The schoolhouse auditorium was once again filled to capacity for CAFe Cultural Night, the annual celebration of diversity within our community, held this year on February 19. Showcasing their heritage through dance, vocal, and instrumental performances, students from all three divisions took to the stage to share part of their family’s culture. Following the performance portion of the evening, attendees had the opportunity to play games from different countries, participate in craft activities, and enjoy a delicious international potluck supper featuring foods from around the world.

thelma golden addresses upper school

Thelma Golden, the director and chief curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem, was the featured speaker at Upper School assembly on February 26. She shared with the students how she developed a passion for art when she was quite young: as a child who grew up in Queens and went to high school in Manhattan, she took advantage of the many museums available to her and cited the 1981 and 1983 Bienniale exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art as instrumental in her choice of career and direction. (A mere 10 years later, she curated the 1993 Bienniale.) Clearly passionate not just about art, but also about its role in the world, Ms. Golden discussed her interest in supporting living artists, especially women, by exposing the public to their work through exhibitions at the museum, as well as social media (you can follow her on Instagram at @thelmagolden). In addition to her work at the Studio Museum, Ms. Golden serves on a White House art committee chaired by First Lady Michelle Obama and is also on the board of the recently created Obama Foundation, which means that she will be directly involved in planning the presidential library to be built in Chicago—a role she feels both privileged and excited to have. To get a sense of this dynamic speaker and her understanding of art’s importance in society, you may wish to take a few moments to view her TED talk, “How Art Gives Rise to Cultural Change,” which she gave in 2009. Many thanks to Isabelle Wood ‘18 and her family for bringing Ms. Golden to Nightingale!

historian eric foner speaks to upper school students

On March 4, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Eric Foner, the DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University and one of the most prominent historians in the United States, was the featured speaker at the annual Joan Stitt McMenamin Memorial Lecture, presented in conjunction with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. A specialist in American history of the nineteenth century, especially the Civil War, Reconstruction, slavery, and race relations, Professor Foner told stories of fugitive slaves and antislavery activism that he uncovered in a detailed record of slave escapes secretly kept by Sydney Howard Gay, one of the key organizers of the Underground Railroad. (These stories are also the focus of his most recent book, Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad.) Following the lecture, Upper School American history students had the opportunity to join Professor Foner in the library to ask him questions on a wide variety of topics.


class viii goes to court

Last December, Class VIII girls traveled to Brooklyn to take on the roles of lawyers and justices at the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of New York, arguing constitutional cases as part of Constitution Works, a program for middle and high school students run out of the Justice Resource Center. Their experience in the courtroom was the culmination of weeks of work in history class: the girls learned how to develop First Amendment arguments and craft legal briefs, and also had the opportunity to meet United States District Judge Jed S. Rakoff, who visited the class to discuss the U.S. court process, give some tips on opinion writing, share stories from the bench, and answer questions. When their day in court arrived, the girls wore professional attire and thoroughly embraced the entire experience.

upper school students learn from young alumnae

Upper School students had the opportunity to hear from alumnae who have pursued their education beyond college at the annual Young Alumnae Assembly in February. Young Alumnae Committee chairs Siena Kissel ‘06 and Gaby Santana ‘06 moderated a panel of three Nightingale alumnae—Susan Crile ‘03, Laura Salibello ‘07, and Olivia Colson ‘05—who shared their stories of what led them to attend law school, business school, and a graduate program at the Cooper Hewitt, respectively, and the beneficial impact that graduate school has had on their careers. They encouraged the girls to allow themselves time to figure out their career path and credited Nightingale with giving them the tools they have needed to succeed in college and beyond.

upper school girls take part in disney workshop

On November 4, 2015, a group of Upper School girls had the opportunity to participate in a special

“Disney on Broadway” workshop. Taught by a team of professional Disney teaching artists at a Broadway rehearsal studio, the workshop was created to take a closer look at the songs of The Lion King and examine their role in storytelling while exploring all three elements of musical theater (singing, acting, and dancing). Drama Department Head Diane Davis accompanied the students and commented that the teaching artists

“were so impressed with our girls and their singing and dancing abilities. It was truly an amazing experience.”

paloma rossell ’26 is head of school for the day

The lucky winner of last year’s Spring Benefit “Head of School for a Day” raffle, Paloma Rossell ‘26 spent the morning of November 19, 2015, filling Mr. Burke’s shoes. She began the day shaking the hands of Nightingale girls entering the blue doors, after which she met with key administrators (including Director of Facilities Susie Heller ’69, with whom she reviewed the schoolhouse expansion plans), discussed the lunch menu with Chef Hinds-Ortiz, introduced Middle School morning meeting, and chatted with seniors during her visit to the US Commons and senior lounge. After a wrap-up meeting with Mr. Burke, Ms. Rossell met with her class over lunch to go over all of the important decisions she made throughout the morning.


fathers who cook 2016

On March 11, Nightingale dads took center stage at Fathers Who Cook, the beloved biennial event featuring delicious food and drink prepared by more than 60 fathers serving as chefs and sommeliers. The jazz-themed evening began with cocktails (served up by a spirited group of Nightingale dads behind the bar) and a terrific one-night-only performance by the six brave members of the ad hoc singing group, Fathers Who Sing. At the festive seated dinner that followed the cocktail hour, guests at each table enjoyed sumptuous meals that showcased the unique talents of their chef and sommelier hosts. Many thanks to music faculty members Deadra hart and Sarah Taylor ellis for their work with Fathers Who Sing, and to Fathers Who Cook chairs Celia Nichols Najar P’26 and Josef Najar P’26 and Allison Wiener P’20 and Jeffrey Schackner P’20 for their leadership of this delectable event!

middle school enjoys first mini-mester week

When Middle School students returned to Nightingale after the winter vacation, they spent one week in regular classes before taking a break from their routine to explore different interests during the first-ever mini-mester program, which ran from January 11–15. The girls chose from nine different course options, with offerings in a variety of disciplines, including science, design thinking, musical theater, and political science. Students in Forensic Science learned how to evaluate a crime scene, while those in Making the Block created a cardboard replica of the south side of 92nd Street between Fifth and Madison, complete with working lights. In the Elections mini-mester, girls researched the positions of the leading Democratic and Republican presidential candidates on a number of issues and consolidated what they learned into an informative election guide, which is posted on their blog at mselectionguide.wordpress.com. The special programming culminated with presentations by the girls in each mini-mester course to share all that they had learned over the course of a very productive week.

nightingale participates in ncgs global forum

In February, the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools (NCGS) held its first-ever Global Forum on Girls’ Education, Creating a World of Possibilities, which was hosted here in New York. Members of the Nightingale administration and faculty joined over 800 delegates from more than 20 countries to exchange best practices and innovative approaches for academic excellence and the healthy development of girls. Featured speakers included (among many others) Gloria Steinem, Arianna Huffington, and Rachel Simmons. In addition to internationally recognized keynote speakers, there were a range of breakout sessions addressing eight themes that are universal in pre-K–12 education: leadership; health, wellness, and inclusion; STEAM; civic/community engagement; classroom innovation; strategic school advancement; testing and assessment; and teaching and curriculum. Head of School Paul A. Burke (who is also a member of the NCGS board of trustees) and Director of Open Doors Rebecca Strauss led one such session, entitled “Local Partners, Global Ambitions: How a Community Center and a Girls’ School Collaborate to Change the World Together,” during which they discussed Nightingale’s partnership with the 92Y on initiatives such as #GivingTuesday and the Anonymous Project.

In conjunction with the conference, Nightingale also hosted several roundtable discussions with girls’ school leaders from across the United States and around the world, including delegations from South Africa and the United Kingdom. It was an exciting opportunity to share what is special about Nightingale and develop new relationships with schools across the globe.

SPRING 2016 35

Cornelia Wadsworth Robart ’57 writes: “I’ve taken on a volunteer job at the Bryn Mawr Bookstore in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Hauling, triaging, pricing, [and] shelving donations keeps me busy and active, as do weekly aquatics exercise, PT for spinal stenosis, massage for rotator cuff damage, and three book groups. Family visits to and from Delaware, Zurich, California, and beaches around the U.S. punctuate the calendar. Warm greetings to classmates!”

Penelope Reed Putnam ’48 wrote in early February: “Last fall I wrote that my husband, Chris, was in hospice care. Surprisingly, his health made an unexpected and unexplained turnaround. He is off hospice, having lived longer than his allotted six months. We will celebrate his presence with us with family for our 65th wedding anniversary on February 6. We have much to be thankful for.”

Rosemary Waley Sassoon ’48 is now living with one of her daughters in Gelorup, Australia. She writes: “I would love to hear from any old girls living nearby. Now to other things: The Blue Doors stirs so many happy memories. The last issue had pictures of the two classes I was in: 1948 and 1949. This issue was special too. You had that wonderful picture of Miss Wade, who imbued everyone she taught with a lasting love of Latin. The last lessons I had with her were when I was age 12, but I could still help my own daughters with their homework so many years later. I hear from my sister, Joyce Waley Morton ’46, that you are asking for memories and tales from very old pupils. I can truly say that I had the only real three years of education at Nightingale, and they have served me well ever after. Miss Vicary, who I was able to see when she retired back to the UK, was so kind to a wartime visitor, and made all the difference to my

Leslie hanifen Martin ’61 reports that she is still living in Mexico and spends most of her time there and in England. She writes: “My husband passed away a few years ago. [I] live a very active life...great community not to mention weather.”

Renne Jarrett Bilson ’63 wrote in February: “My son and his wife are expecting a baby girl, Bowie, at the end of March. Although I have two step granddaughters whom I adore, this will be my first biological grandchild. I am thrilled!”

first year in New York. After that it was Miss Hill, Mrs. Keyser, and the lovely French teacher whose name I forget, and eventually Miss Ball who influenced my life. When we returned to England it all went wrong. I knew the wrong things and was not even allowed in the science lab—the only thing to do was to memorize the curriculum so that I could matriculate at 15. Then, that was nearly enough to get into University. Instead I chose art school and after a brief time started my career as a designer, a decision I never regretted. What I did regret was any academic study, but even that came with time, and I managed to get a PhD at the age of 50! It’s a long story, well documented in some of the 30 or so books I have written in the meantime. I did come back to Nightingale some 20 years ago to give a talk about my work into handwriting problems. Now the thing that I feel might interest the school if they have not already heard about it is the research I did into what kind of letters young children could read most easily. This resulted in a family of fonts, the first of which is called Sassoon Primary (easily found on the Internet) and now widely used all over the world.”

Marion Birdsall Rendon ’56 reports that she has moved permanently to Florida “to enjoy the beautiful magnolia and palm trees.”

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c l a s s n o t e s

Class notes are published twice a year in each issue of The Blue Doors. If you have any updates

you would like to share with your classmates, please complete our online form at nightingale.org/sharenews.

Dana Dauterman Ricciardi ’63 sent in this photo of six women with Nightingale connections who gathered (with many others) in Gloucestershire, England to celebrate the 50th wedding anniversary of her sister eunice Dauterman Maguire ’60 and brother-in-law Henry Maguire. [In photo, from L to R:] Dana Dauterman Ricciardi ’63, Charlotte Roueché (who did not attend Nightingale but is a board member at St. Paul’s Girls’ School in London, with which Nightingale has an exchange program), Karen Wheeler hubbard ’91 (Dana’s niece who attended Nightingale briefly when her family was in New York in 1981–82), Merrill Dauterman Wheeler ’67, Serena Borges (who attended Nightingale briefly), and eunice Dauterman Maguire ’60.

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34 THE BLUE DOORS

Addison Kelly ’68 writes: “I’m still in lighting design, working on projects here and abroad. [I’m] currently working on an oceanarium in Moscow.” Addison also teaches and, in late February, she gave a talk in Rio entitled

“Architectural Illumination: Our Past, Present & Future.” She adds,

“Wouldn’t Mrs. McMenamin laugh to know that I teach history?”

Kate Koch Willens ’74 writes: “Have you noticed the changes in our skies? In California our skies have changed dramatically, filled with persistent contrails. I’ve become active in the movement to expose the grave realities of geoengineering and its effects on our environment. I’ve written protest songs, which you can hear on soundcloud.com/katewillens and on YouTube. To learn more, check out the archives of my radio show, “The Blue Sky Report,” on AmericanFreedomRadio.com. I’m just completing my MDiv degree, as well as my hospital residency in clinical pastoral education, and will soon be endorsed by the Orthodox Church of America as a chaplain. My daughter, Charlotte (25), is traveling the world, and my son, Daniel (22), is graduating

Susan Platt ’63 writes: “I am currently organizing art exhibitions that invite artists to address immigration, detention, and deportation. I write as an art critic for local and national publications, including a monthly newspaper column. I also have a blog (artandpoliticsnow.com) in which I address marginalized artists and topics. My most recent book was Art and Politics Now, Cultural Activism in a Time of Crisis (Midmarch Arts Press, 2011). Finally, I am a political activist supporting environmental and immigration causes, as well as Palestine Solidarity.”

The work of artist Dove Bradshaw ’67 was featured in two recent solo exhibitions in New York City: Unintended Consequences at the Danese Corey Gallery and Angles at Sandra Gering Inc. Dove’s work is also in the permanent collection at the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. Her piece entitled “Nest” is on display through June 19, 2016, at the Katonah Museum of Art in Katonah, New York. To see examples of Dove’s work, visit dovebradshaw.com.

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legislators, social entrepreneurs, and media who can help spread their ideas. I look forward to Nightingale students participating and helping to bring about a more just, healthy, and peaceful world.”

Blair Pillsbury enders ’88 was an organizer of the 2016 MAKERS Conference, which was held in Los Angeles in early February. The theme of the three-day conference was #TheTimeIsNow, with sessions focusing on tangible solutions and calls to action around gender equality. The photo above is of Blair with internationally renowned American soccer player and two-time Olympic Gold Medalist Abby Wambach, who was just one of nearly 50 high-profile speakers at the conference.

Robin Schafer ’88 reports: “I am currently a pediatric nurse practitioner at Iona College. I am finishing my psychiatric nurse practitioner degree this May with a focus on adolescent psych. I hope to eventually have a private practice and aid in the evaluation and medication management of teens and kids in my area.”

from Vassar this spring. My husband, Randall, and I live in Sebastopol, California, in Sonoma County. Lots of busyness now, but much to be grateful for.”

georgette Couloucoundis Mallory ’78 writes: “Facing the reality of [being an] empty nester, I am back at school as an MFA candidate in Columbia’s non-fiction program. Still pulling on all that Mrs. Wien drilled into us. Tied for life with Julie Wright Ziv, Isabelle Walker, and Nancy hendrickson. Was delighted to find my second grade yearbook online. Thank you Nightingale.”

Kim Jordan-Nass ’78 writes: “I am currently employed by Norwegian Creative, a production company that produces Broadway and Broadway-type shows for the cruise industry. It is amazingly rewarding and allows me to travel the world by sea. I continue to be the second VP of Actors Equity, a performing arts union advocating for stage performers, and, most excitingly, I recently came back from Chicago after seeing my daughter Marin Nass ’13 perform in Titus Andronicus in the role of Tamora.”

Zoe Weil ’79 writes: “My new book, The World Becomes What We Teach: Educating a Generation of Solutionaries, was published, and our organization—The Institute for Humane Education—launched a Solutionary Congress Program in which middle and high school students identify real-world problems that concern them; learn about the systems that perpetuate them; develop and implement viable solutions, and present their work at Solutionary Congresses comprised of school and community members,

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Jennifer Wilder Belew ’90 writes: “I live in Chappaqua, New York, with my husband, Greg, and two daughters, Alexandra (11) and Victoria (9). I am a realtor with Houlihan Lawrence and would love to help any alumnae and their families who may be thinking of moving to Westchester.”

Alison Miller ’92 was nominated by the Unitarian Universalist Association’s presidential search committee as a candidate for that organization’s presidency. Learn more about her personal story and her current campaign at alisonforuuapresident.org.

Margaret gordon Schloegel ’92 is living in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with her husband, Kirk; daughter, Ramona (5); and Kirk’s daughter, Ashley (13). She practices emergency and critical care small animal medicine, and volunteers with a busy wildlife rehabilitation center and a non-profit in North Minneapolis that is confronting injustice and working to close the racial jobs gap.

Naomi White Randolph ’93 reunited with her Nightingale mentee Maria Trivino ’14 at the ECAC swim championships in Annapolis in February. Naomi is the interim head coach for the John Jay College women’s swimming team and was at the ECAC tournament to accompany her swimmer, Heather Chrisman, who has been an assistant swim coach at Nightingale. Maria swims for SUNY Binghamton, where she is a sophomore, and was at the ECAC tournament to support Binghamton’s men’s team.

Anna Sobel ’97 writes: “I guess this is a little belated—Ezra is already nine months old! Born May 31, 2015. Here he is sledding with big brother Milo, who is two and a half.”

Nelly Ward Merkel ’00 writes: “Frederick Charles Merkel IV, who’s known as Teddy, was born on February 16, 2016, weighing 6 lbs 11 ozs. We are so thrilled to have him around, and I am lucky to be on maternity leave with him until June!”

emily Smith Wilson ’00 writes: “My husband Neil and I welcomed our first child, Jamie Wilson, just after Christmas and are loving getting to know him! I am on maternity leave for a few months from my job as a capital markets lawyer at Barclays. I think of all my Nightingale friends often and would love to see anyone who finds themselves in London.”

Megan Kilzy ’02 writes: “This year has been super exciting for me so far. [On] New Year’s Eve I got engaged to my boyfriend George Remennik, and we are to be married [in] February of 2017. My maid of honor is my fellow 2002 NBS grad, and my best friend, Ingrid Deming! I also had a significant trial in my office (which I second chaired) that got local press! I’ve been an ADA in Jersey City, New Jersey, for about five years now. Looking forward to what the rest of 2016 brings!”

Alexandra Kreps ’05 reports that she will soon graduate from medical school.

Melanie Kimmelman ’06 has been working at David Zwirner Gallery since 2013 as press and promotion coordinator, where she oversees events and special marketing projects. She recently traveled to London for Frieze Art Fair and Miami for Art Basel. She also took a trip to Los Angeles to visit the new Broad Museum, which acquired and displayed many works by the gallery’s artists for its inaugural exhibition.

elizabeth Metzger ’07 married Daniel Attanasio in Ojai, California, on March 19, 2016. The wedding party included Allie Samowitz ’07 as maid of honor and Milena Bednarz ’07 as a bridesmaid. Former English faculty members Julie Whitaker and Christine Schutt also participated in the festivities.

Maya Popa ’07 (see faculty and staff notes)

Moraiah Luna ’08 writes: “I began teaching at Kingsley Montessori School in Boston’s Back Bay in August. I am currently teaching first to third grade, primarily, but I also teach a specialized studio art class for older students. I will begin my Montessori training this summer to acquire my early childhood certification. My partner and I also started a vintage clothing brand, Pandamonium Vintage, which has been growing almost too fast to keep up!”

Angela Mellon ’08 is slowly learning the homesteading arts as they start their second year living off the grid in a rural queer community.

Olivia Stovicek ’13 writes: “This year, I was one of 38 students from across the nation to receive an Astronaut Scholarship. The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, created by the Mercury 7 astronauts, aims to promote American leadership in science and technology by awarding scholarships to students who display imagination, leadership, and excellence in STEM fields. I am majoring in biochemistry and chemistry, and my recent research at UChicago has focused on regulatory proteins in freshwater bacteria, as well as microbial community genetics. I spent last summer doing research at Peking University in Beijing, exploring the workings of an enzyme that fixes DNA as part of the base excision repair process (not to mention making good use of my Mandarin Chinese, which I began studying as a freshman at Nightingale).”

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00sreaching your goals

expanding your perspective

building friendships

finding your voice

developing a passion

thinking creatively

Nightingale is...

Nightingale is a community of generous individuals who support the hearts and minds of every girl.

The Nightingale-Bamford School Annual Fund • nightingale.org/giving

38 THE BLUE DOORS

This winter, English faculty member Maya Popa ’07 placed second in the Magma International Poetry Competition for her prose poem on the Tbilisi flood. She gave a reading of her work at the London Review of Books bookstore in March while she was in London chaperoning the Upper School St. Paul’s Girls’ School exchange. Her prize-winning poem is below.

you Always Wished the Animals Would Leaveafter the 2015 Tbilisi flood

Half the zoo mislaid, the reporter calls them residents, as though they lived in a gracious, gated community. Twelve Georgian men push one perplexed hippo: no Russell Crowe as Noah, no sidekick with a checklist. How to convince a lion to return to its cage when it’s seen the Narikala lit at night? The things you wished would happen in this life have you caught in old affection, fresh confusion. In your version, the animals were never hungry or afraid. They climbed the trees of Tbilisi for a better view. The wolves returned to forests in the Trialeti Mountains. The fate of birds was ambiguous as the founding legend of King Gorgasali who, hunting, shot a pheasant that fell into a spring, cooked or healed, accounts differ. So the literal king named the place “Tpili” meaning warm. Three brown bears lie limp in mud as police, in the ultimate video game sequence, big-game hunt the square at night. Your wish, succumbed to its alterations. At mass, the priest reminds the congregation that bells and crosses melted down by communists became the bars of cages, the ticket operator’s chair. You always wished the animals would leave, their problem-solving spirits put to use, lifting fruits from markets, befriending lonely citizens. But time twists your childhood dream until it’s nothing but a game of telephone, just as the bird, or was it a deer, or the king himself, fell into the waters and was spared.

maya popa ’07 places second in poetry competition

Recent photographs by former Middle and Upper School photography teacher Shelley Seccombe were exhibited at the Westbeth Gallery in New York for several weeks in April. Her photo “Seal on Swinburne Island Shore” is above. To view more examples of her beautiful work, visit shelleyseccombe.com.

Human Resources Manager Kate Totino gave birth to a son, Thomas Joseph Totino, on February 12, 2016. Kate and Thomas are doing well, as are big sisters Noelle and Caitlyn, who love looking at him!

PE faculty member Chimé Wangdu discovered a talent for ceramics this year. He writes: “I have always enjoyed doing art, whether it is making designs, pencil sketching, drawing portraits, or painting. [A few months ago,] I had my first opportunity to work with clay during a faculty After Hours session. It was a lot of fun creating a ‘mini-mandala’ with clay and working alongside colleagues in an easy, relaxed atmosphere. Since then I have been working on a bigger and more challenging project during my free time after school. I have finished my piece and it’s waiting to be fired in the kiln.”

Former French teacher and Director of Community Service Krissie Mulvoy Williams writes:

“My family and I just moved to Franklin, Tennessee, which is about 20 minutes outside of Nashville. Robert took a job in Nashville, so I left my job as a French teacher at Newark Academy, and we packed up the kids and got here just in time to ring in 2016 in our new home! Josephine (8) is in third grade, and Rhys and Flynn (6) are in first grade. I won’t mention how old I am, but I do miss Nightingale a lot! The family photo [above] was taken at my younger brother’s wedding in June 2015. I was the (Internet ordained) minister for the event. Please be in touch if you are in the Nashville area!”

Anne harvey gerli ’41 passed away on March 3, 2016. She is survived by daughters Anne gram Shean ’66, Mary gram Clarke ’68, and Carol gram Deane ’70, as well as six grandchildren and one great-granddaughter.

Wendy Lee Katz ’66 passed away on August 29, 2015. Former faculty member and past trustee Marcia Nielsen died peacefully at home on March 27, 2016. She is survived by her daughter, Signe Nielsen ’68.

Margaret Odlum ’42 died on March 10, 2016. She was a niece of school co-founder and former Headmistress Maya Stevens Bamford.

Vera Richard Wood ’39 died on December 20, 2015. She was 94 years old.

in memoriam

SPRING 2015 39

Former Lower School music teacher yvette Louise Canizares writes: “Alive and well and now living in Graz, Austria! I teach music at the Graz International Bilingual School, a rigorous public ‘gymnasium’ (middle/high school), where my 12-year-old son also attends. My husband, Renato Chicco, is the professor for jazz improvisation at the Künst Universität in Graz. We traded the vibrancy of the NYC cultural scene for more modest offerings, but in return got the beautiful alps and a plethora of different languages and cultures on our doorstep. My former NBS students are all grown up now, and I wonder if they remember how much we laughed together all those years ago. I do miss those days; I have such great memories of my time at NBS.”

Modern languages faculty member Susan Cohen-Nicole writes: "Another set of interviews that I conducted with the author

Marguerite Duras has just been published, in a beautiful book, which has already received significant positive press reviews. My part is small, but my name is, I believe, the only one mentioned on the back cover, and one of two mentioned in a recent review in Le monde des livres. I wanted to thank the school for the partial summer grant that enabled me to meet with the editor of this book.”

Former science faculty member Thu-Nga ho crossed paths with two of her former Nightingale colleagues last December. Now the academic dean and director of curriculum at St. Edmund’s Academy in Pittsburgh, Thu-Nga had taken a group of faculty members to hear former faculty member Derrick gay give a keynote presentation on the double-edged sword of diversity at Shady Side Academy (also in Pittsburgh) and discovered that English Department Head Brad Whitehurst just happened to be auditing their English program on the same day!

Former Lower School teacher and Assistant Director of Admissions Araina Jewell has moved to Tampa, FL, and is now head of the lower division at St. John’s Episcopal Parish Day School there. She has a two-year-old daughter, Cassidy.

Former Head of Upper School Marcy Mann writes: “I remain inspired and informed by my Nightingale students and colleagues in my current work as associate head for academic affairs at Professional Children’s School. Just like my Nighthawks did, I learned so much at NBS and I carry it with me everyday. I still see Mrs. McChord, Ms. Heller, and Mrs. Radovich regularly, and they fill me in on all the news from the east side!)

Former Director of Institutional Advancement Sue Mathews has moved to Santa Monica, California, with her twins, Hadley and Deegan. Sue writes:

“We are loving the west coast life! We miss our NBS friends, but plan to visit often.”

Kitchen staff member Mazzie Mejia gave birth to a baby girl, Leah Skai Malave, on January 5, 2016. Leah weighed 5 lbs 14 oz at birth and measured 19” long.

Former Director of College Advising Joyce Slayton Mitchell writes: “In 2009 I took my Nightingale experience to Beijing and currently work for start-up companies to help Chinese students learn the U.S. college admissions process. My third Chinese college admissions guide is in press... [the] publisher (not I!) translates it into Mandarin.”

Former Head of Upper School David Murphy writes: “I’m busy editing the speeches in ancient Greek of two Athenian orators, Antiphon and Andocides, for Oxford University Press, as well as contributing to journals and collections of essays. Friendships that began at Nightingale are among my greatest joys.”

Former music faculty member Alexandra Ottaway writes:

“Greetings to my long lost students and colleagues at Nightingale! Hope you are thriving! I was so sorry to hear of Mrs. Schwalbe’s passing. What a terrific woman. Her son’s book, The End of Your Life, is a must-read! ...I released a CD, Tetrahedron Dreams, in April 2014 (available on Amazon/iTunes/etc.) and have recently made a GarageBand album called The Sound that’s on Apple Music, but perhaps only the titular song is ready for primetime (the rest my family has actually found fun). I am also counseling people on their pets. I know! I can hardly believe it either! I wish you all a happy summer 2016!”

Former database manager Andrew Peterson married Sophie Harris on October 3, 2015, in Cohasset, MA. The wedding was beautifully photographed by former Director of Digital Communications Nicki Sebastian.

Former English faculty member Christine Schutt and current English faculty member Maya Popa ’07 both had works published in the winter 2016 issue of Fence, a biannual journal of poetry, fiction, art, and criticism. Included in the issue were Maya’s poem “Elegy” and Christine’s short story “Family Man.”

faculty and staff notes


Voic

es

At a Middle School assembly last December, a number of students in Classes VII and VIII shared their outside interests and passions, covering a wide range of activities from geocaching and Bengali dance to Korean pop music and karate. Among the speakers was Alice Jokela ’21, whose eloquent remarks about her love of writing and journaling are below.

About a year or two ago, I started journaling. I had some experience writing fiction, but also a consistent habit of giving up once I was unsatisfied with my work. It was just an ongoing cycle of me starting something and being really excited about it, getting a few pages in and realizing that I was no longer excited about it, and then just scrapping the whole thing and doing it all over again.

Eventually, I discovered that the reason I was doing this was that I was feeling pressured to write something that would be considered well-written in someone else’s opinion. Frustrated, I decided to start writing something that I wouldn’t have to worry about being judged. Something that would be for my eyes only—private. So, I started writing in a journal that I continue to write in today. By writing without the pressure of making it so-called

“good,” I hoped to improve my writing skills and to practice doing what I love. Every evening, before I went to bed, I would write out everything that was bothering me that day, something that I accomplished, something that I was thankful for, and every morning, when I woke up, I would write down everything I was excited about for the next day, all the dreams that I could remember from the previous night—that kind of thing. I would read you some of these entries, but they’re all pretty embarrassing.

At the beginning of fifth grade, I decided to start writing fiction again. Now, as you all are probably aware, fiction is very different from autobiographical writing because it involves a lot more creativity. You have to draw up a whole world for your characters, whom you probably had to create as well, and everything relies on the styles and techniques you use to present this world. But, I found that I could apply the same concept of expressing my own emotions (which I used with journaling) to create a world that was believable and interesting to read about in my stories.

So now, whenever I write, my goal is to make the reader feel something, whether the reader is a friend, a teacher, or a parent. One of the ways I can achieve this goal is by conveying my own emotions through words, something that I had lots of practice with when I was writing autobiographically. From journaling, I learned that when writing a story, one should put his or her feelings into the writing so that when someone else reads it, they are, in a sense, experiencing the writer’s emotions.

Writing has taught me several valuable lessons over the years, but primarily the lesson of perseverance. There have been plenty of times when I debated whether or not to give up on a story, an essay, or a speech. But instead of scrapping it, I learned to edit instead. This is a lesson that relates to real life. When you feel like giving up on something, just remember that there is more than one way to approach a problem, and the solution might possibly come from an unexpected source.

Here we feature the voice of someone in the Nightingale community. If you would like to share some of your thoughts or experiences with others in the community, please contact us at [email protected].

HEAD OF ScHOOLPaul A. Burke

BOARD OF TRUSTEESRebecca Rasmussen Grunwald, President Blair Pillsbury Enders ‘88, Vice President Elena Hahn Kiam ‘81, Vice President Douglas Feagin, Treasurer Gregory Palm, Secretary Paul A. Burke, Assistant Secretary

Graciela BitarAlexander EvansRomi Gottfrid, ex-officioMark GreeneShoshanna Lonstein Gruss ‘93John HallPatricia Gilchrist Howard ‘62Paul LachmanThomas McGinnRaffiq NathooRenan PierreDina Habib PowellAlice Birnbaum Roebuck ’94Zoe Settle Schriebl ’00, ex-officioHoward SilversteinMonica SpencerHenry Timms

HONORARY BOARD MEMBERSJerome P. Kenney Nina Joukowsky Köprülü ‘79Susan Hecht Tofel ‘48 Grant F. Winthrop

HEAD OF ScHOOL EMERITADorothy A. Hutcheson

PARENTS ASSOcIATION OFFIcERSRomi Gottfrid, PresidentLeigh Hrazdira, Vice PresidentJennifer Gourary, Secretary/Treasurer

ALUMNAE BOARDZoe Settle Schriebl ’00, President

Elizabeth Victory Anderson ‘88Elizabeth Boemler ‘94Paul A. Burke, ex-officio Melissa H. Elting ‘92Elizabeth Riley Fraise ‘98Sage G. Garner ‘04Hillary Johnson ‘76Siena Kissel ‘06Grace McCleary ’16, student representativeAmie Rappoport McKenna ‘90 Elizabeth Friedland Meyer ‘89Palmer Jones O’Sullivan ‘94 Gaby Santana ‘06Kate Wittpenn ’16, student representative

OFFIcE OF INSTITUTIONAL ADVANcEMENTJane-Garnet BrownDirector of Capital GivingDavid ByrnesDirector of CommunicationsChristie GuevaraDirector of Alumnae RelationsJessie Page ‘03Events CoordinatorMary Richter ‘93Director of Institutional AdvancementKaty RitzDirector of Annual GivingSusan TilsonDirector of Publications

42 THE BLUE DOORS

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