Durham Academy Magazine — Summer 2024

DURHAM ACADEMY

PREPARED FOR

DURHAM ACADEMY

Summer 2024 | Vol. 51

EDITORIAL

Melody Guyton Butts // Editor

Victoria Price // Art Director

MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS communications@da.org

Leslie King // Director of Marketing & Communications

Kate Auger // Digital Content Specialist

Melody Guyton Butts // Assistant Director of Marketing & Communications

Dylan Howlett // Writer & Content Strategist

Jesse Paddock // Videographer

Victoria Price // Creative Services Manager

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Yari Brock ’28; Ashley Hinton, Second-Grade Teacher; Meredith White Howell ’97, Alumni Board President; Kristen Klein, Associate Head of School; Ben Michelman, Eighth-Grade Language Arts Teacher and Middle School Community Engagement Coordinator; Victoria Muradi, Director of Strategic Initiatives; Henry Roberts ’28; Ginny Robinson, Eighth-Grade Language Arts Teacher and Middle School Academic Dean

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

Michael Branscom; Mehmet Demirci; Crawford Leavoy, Director of Speech and Debate and Global Programs Coordinator; Evan Pike Photography; Ashley Freedman ’97; Gladstone Institutes; David Guyer; Meka Hemmons; Hollis Johnson/Business Insider; Bob Karp; Tim McKenna, Director of Alumni Philanthropy & Engagement; Ben Michelman, Eighth-Grade Language Arts Teacher and Middle School Community Engagement Coordinator; Mary Moore McLean; Kat Posada, Upper School English Teacher; Dr. Michelle Rosen, Preschool/Lower School Librarian; Strawbridge Studios; Bonnie Wang, Upper School Mandarin Chinese Teacher and Assistant Director of Diversity, Equity & Engagement

CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS

Members of DA’s Class of 2033

PRODUCTION

RR Donnelley // Printer

LEADERSHIP

Michael Ulku-Steiner // Head of School

Edwin Poston // Chair, Board of Trustees

Meredith White Howell ’97 // President, Alumni Board

PHILANTHROPY AND ALUMNI AFFAIRS philanthropy@da.org

Chris Farr // Director of Philanthropy

Tim McKenna // Director of Alumni Philanthropy & Engagement

PICTURED HERE: Third-graders planted native perennials — including pollinator favorites like purple coneflowers, asters and black-eyed susans — in the Lower School Giving Garden in May as part of the third grade’s new yearlong service-learning curriculum centered around pollinators. The third-grade teaching team collaborated with the Upper School Sustainability Committee to teach students some gardening basics and facilitate the planting.

Learn more about the third grade’s pollinator focus on page 10.

Featured Contributors

Bob Karp

Photos from the Upper School fall play (page 26) and fall athletics contests (pages 38–39) are among countless Durham Academy moments — from graduations to pep rallies — that Karp beautifully captured over the last four years. A newspaper photojournalist-turned-freelancer, he recently moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to be near his wife’s family.

Kristen Klein

As associate head of school with primary responsibility for DA's academic program, Klein has helped guide initiatives including pre-k to 12 curriculum mapping and the Upper School’s Advanced curriculum transition, and she has built teams charged with academic oversight and alignment. See page 12.

Kat Posada

An Upper School English teacher, Posada helped lead the America’s National Parks Cavalier Capstone in late May, including adventures in Arizona, Utah and Nevada. "I love traveling with students," she said. "It gives me a chance to get to know them outside of the classroom and to encourage them to step outside their comfort zones!" See back cover.

CONTENTS

Prepared for Life

The Science & Art of Educational Excellence

Innovations and enhancements to DA’s academic program aim to spark and perpetuate students’ love of learning and help them develop a resilient learner’s mindset.

14 With New Advanced Curriculum, ‘DA Can Be Everything That It Can Be’

18 Middle School’s Expansion of Competency-Based Learning Will Strengthen Commitment to Rigorous Academics

20 New Research-Backed Approach to Literacy Prioritizes Consistency for DA’s Youngest Learners

22 Subject Spotlight: Math

26 — The Play That Goes Wrong

Video takes viewers behind the scenes of the Upper School’s hilarious fall play-within-a-play.

A ‘Diaspora’ of Their Own

Seniors Carry Forward Stories and Values

Commencement speakers Ava Claar ’24, Robert Liu ’24 and Head of School Michael Ulku-Steiner reflect on how seniors have left DA a better place — and look forward to how they might change the world. 28

36 — Girls Golf Team, Jenna Kim ’27

Repeat

as State Champs

Kim's expected top form prompted event organizers to extend the course by about 20% — and she and her teammates rose to the challenge.

Faculty/Alumni Spotlight

40 — Upper School Physical Education Teacher

Dr. Krishinda Lee ’04

A former DA track star, Lee has come full circle — now bringing her generous spirit and perspective as a physical therapist to her work as an Upper School physical education teacher, coach and class advisor.

42 — Christian Hairston-Randleman

Director of Student Support and Wellness

After serving as Preschool director for the last nine years, Hairston-Randleman will bring her holistic perspective on student well-being to a new role serving the entire school.

44 — From Farm to Classroom

New DA Preschool Director

Carolyn Howes Preaches Empathy

Howes reflects on the power of family, and lessons learned while growing up in rural Maryland.

Laci McDonald, Upper School Dance Teacher

F. Robertson Hershey Distinguished Faculty Award

Her teaching, volunteerism and colleagueship demonstrate a belief in the potential of every human being.

50 — Three-Year Action Plan Strengthens DA’s Commitment to Diversity, Equity & Engagement

DEE is inseparable from the identity of DA. And now it has a definitive future, courtesy of a new action plan.

54 — Beyond The Threshold

More than 3,000 donors have come together in support of the largest comprehensive campaign in DA history.

60 — The Art of Listening

Eighth-grade language arts students feature elders’ stories in Humans of New York-inspired portraits.

Sustainability

at DA

An endorsement from the Board of Trustees has placed the school’s sustainability goals front and center.

65 Composting at the Preschool: Connecting Art, Science and Lunch to Sustainability

67 Upper School Science Teacher and Sustainability Leader Andrea Caruso

ALUMNI

73 — Reflections from Alumni Board

President Meredith White Howell ’97

74 — Alumni Spotlight: Ava Pacchiana ’18

76 — Alumni Spotlight: Khari Williams ’14

78 — Spring Alumni Reception Honorees

79 — DA Athletic Hall of Fame Inductees

80 — Alumni Faces In the News

86 — Weddings + Babies

The Durham Academy App is available in the Apple App Store. The magazine is online at da.org/magazine

Throughout this issue, you'll find links to external resources that appear within stories. Scan this QR code to find all of these sources in one place at da.org/magazine.links.

The Power of a Pause Lessons From My Study Leave

For three weeks surrounding Durham Academy’s spring break, I had the good fortune of taking a study leave — stepping away from day-to-day school responsibilities and going broader, deeper and slower with my thinking, learning and being. You can read about the Board of Trustees’ rationale for this “mini-sabbatical” at url.da.org/StudyLeave

Months after returning to campus on April 2, I am still feeling profound gratitude — to the trustees for their creative investment and to my administrative teammates for the ways in which they stepped up in my absence and grew stronger in their leadership.

I started my study leave in Oregon with my aging parents and extended family. I reconnected for two days with a dear friend I’ve known since we were sixth-graders in Albuquerque, New Mexico. On many days, I walked, swam, biked and/or surfed. I wrote a good amount and had patient, overdue conversations with friends, DA alumni and fellow heads of school. I slept full nights.

More than anything else, I read (books and articles) and listened while walking (to books and podcasts). After returning to campus, I shared highlights via X (@MrUlkuSteiner). On the inside back cover of this magazine, you’ll find 10 pieces that changed or opened my mind.

It is unrealistic to expect life-changing epiphanies in just three weeks, but I did sense important changes in my mindset — shifts that mirror the ways we are evolving our daily/weekly schedules, curricula and programs at DA.

Having worked steadily (and too often frantically) in schools since 1992, I was most struck by the ways in which spacious time and undistracted attention helped me understand concepts more fully and do deeper work. This matches the gist of our schedule changes in recent years: Our youngest students have fewer transitions and longer periods for literacy and math. Our Middle and Upper Schoolers have fewer and longer classes per day, with fewer but more meaningful homework assignments at night.

Unhurried time can feed and fuel curiosity — an obvious but delightful truth I recognized as my inbox slowed down, my evenings opened up, and my dreams could wander away from crises (real, potential or imagined) at school.

It has been decades since I had even a week to set my own agenda — a realization that reminded me of the gifts we give our students through recess (especially in our upgraded Preschool/Lower School/ Extended Day playground); through Genius Time and What Matters to Me Day; through the Middle School’s expanded electives and Student Government opportunities; and at the Upper School through independent studies, the new Pathway Scholars program, and our ADV Research and ADV Thesis courses. You can read more about our enriched academic program in a suite of articles beginning with Associate Head of School Kristen Klein’s excellent piece on page 12.

Most profoundly, a few weeks of distance from our campus sharpened my focus on what matters most in schools. It reminded me how much fun it is to learn for the sake of learning. It confirmed the capacity and goodness of my colleagues on the faculty, staff and Administrative Team — not just for holding down the fort, but for generating ever-better ways to teach, learn and build community. It reinforced that the habit of relentless, connective, broad-minded learning will best serve our students in their unscripted futures.

Michael Ulku-Steiner Head of School @MrUlkuSteiner

MORAL, HAPPY, PRODUCTIVE

DA'S MISSION IN ACTION

DR. MICHELLE ROSEN

Teachers often tell their students that learning is a lifelong pursuit. Preschool/Lower School librarian Michelle Rosen demonstrated just that when she added a “Dr.” before her name with her completion of the University of South Carolina’s Doctorate in Education in Educational Practice and Innovation program. Her dissertation, Decentering the White Gaze: The Effects of Involving African-American Students in Curricular Decision-Making in an Independent School Library, studied how Black students’ sense of belonging is impacted by opportunities to develop autonomy in their learning.

“My research involved several fourth-grade Black students who performed a partial audit of the library collection and then selected and purchased new titles. The study found that even though Black students must deal with the effects of being vastly underrepresented on campus, they have still managed to find significant ways to connect with the school. Students made suggestions about how to improve their school lives, including the recruitment of more Black students and teachers. They also suggested additions to the curriculum that focused more on people of color. Additionally, they said that opportunities to control what and how they learn made them feel empowered. They felt the actions they took to change the library collection made a significant difference to themselves and others.”

She is pictured with her husband, Rocky, and daughters, Hillary Rosen ’09 and Stephanie Rosen ’15.

ROBOTICS PROGRAM MAKES TIME FOR OUTREACH

It’s been a busy year for Upper School robotics classes and the DARC SIDE robotics team — and that doesn’t even take into account their competition season!

The program’s calendar was chock-full of efforts to connect with the community, foster partnerships and bring theoretical solutions to reality. Members of the DARC SIDE worked with DA Lower Schoolers to engineer electronic holiday cards, and they partnered with students from the Emily K Center — a local nonprofit that aims to prepare underrepresented students for college — to wage robot battles. Students in the Robotics II class employed their collective talents to solve a local business’s real-world problem. Clean Green — a Raleigh-based industrial environmental waste management company — needed help patrolling its facility for people, wildlife and vehicles, and DA robotics came to the rescue.

Check out their solution in action at url.da.org/robotics.opr

ORI MOORE WINS MAJOR MUSIC COMPOSITION CONTEST

Ori Moore ’25 won the Dr. J. Douglas White Ellington Student Composition and Arranging Contest for his work “Fallen.” In addition to a cash prize from the Essentially Ellington program, Moore received a composition lesson with Jazz at Lincoln Center composer and arranger Ted Nash. He also won a trip to New York City to observe the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra record his composition and attend the Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition and Festival in May.

JEFF BIERSACH

Having taught English at Durham Academy Upper School for more than 20 years, Jeff Biersach shared some of the wisdom and experience he’s gleaned in that time during DA’s first alumni master class, “Life Lessons I’ve Learned from Teaching You American Literature.” The talk, hosted on Zoom in February, revisited familiar texts that Biersach has taught over the years, but with new insights.

In studying Edith Warton’s The House of Mirth, Biersach related the addiction to social status in the novel to presentday student social media usage. Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God left Biersach with the idea that to practice empathy is to first gather experience, much as protagonist Janie Crawford experienced different worlds alongside different husbands.

More than 40 alumni brought their questions for Biersach with enough enthusiasm to promise similar alumni events in the future.

Watch a recording of the discussion at url.da.org/biersach.mc.

ASHA KUMAR & HANWEN LU: QUEENS OF THE CHESS BOARD

While knowing an opponent’s next move may feel impossible to some, it’s a challenge that rarely, if ever, fazes Durham Academy chess star Asha Kumar ’25. In April, Kumar won the Under-18 division at the 2024 KCF All-Girls National Championship, which featured 512 competitors from 34 states.

Hanwen Lu ’36 — part of a long line of successful young DA chess players — held the No. 1 ranking in the U.S. for girls under age 6 (and third overall for boys and girls 6 and under) in early April. She also set a new all-time record for DA kindergartners.

Overall, the DA chess program has much to celebrate. At the K-12 state chess championship, DA teams earned first place in the K–5 Under 900 section; third place in the K–5 Championship section; and third place in the K–3 Under 600 section.

MATHEMATICAL MODELING TEAM EARNS TOP HONORS IN INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

Mathematical modeling at Durham Academy has blossomed from a club into an Upper School course, leading to major awards for students who competed at the international level. A team of four Upper Schoolers — Claire Hong ’24, Michael Hansen ’24, Riley Kim ’24 and Sarah Muir ’24 — represented DA in the HiMCM (the High School Mathematical Contest in Modeling), hosted by the Consortium for Mathematics and Its Applications. From a pool of 967 teams hailing from 18 different countries and regions, the DA team took home the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Award and was one of nine teams to earn “Outstanding” status.

OWEN BRYANT

The impact of Durham Academy teachers extends far beyond their time at DA, as evidenced by DA alumnus Christos Polzak ’20 recognizing Upper School history teacher Owen Bryant as part of a Stanford University award celebration in April.

Polzak was honored with the Frederick Emmons Terman Engineering Scholastic Award, which recognizes the top students of the undergraduate engineering senior class. Honorees are allowed to invite “the most influential secondary school or other precollege teacher who guided them during the formative stages of their academic career,” and Bryant was honored to be invited to offer remarks about Polzak on Stanford's campus, with full funding from the Terman Award.

“I was completely overwhelmed to have been one of the teachers Christos selected to be a part of the celebratory luncheon in honor of his tremendous accomplishments at Stanford's School of Engineering,” Bryant said. “Before Christos became my history student, I first became familiar with him because his computer science class met in my classroom. I remember being impressed by how curious, focused and attentive he was in Julian Cochran's class and saying to Julian, ‘I hope I get to teach him some day.’ I am not surprised that Christos excelled at Stanford. It is my honor to celebrate Christos' accomplishments; he is such a bright, humble, graceful, self-motivated, good-humored, friendly and intensely curious student.”

SPEECH AND DEBATE CELEBRATES COMPETITORS’ SUCCESS, LAUNCHES MIDDLE SCHOOL ELECTIVE

Durham Academy’s speech and debate team is growing by leaps and bounds — in both the scope of the program and in the success of its competitors. About 150 students from grades 7 to 12 participated in speech and debate this year, and there’s a lot to celebrate in competitors’ results over the course of the year.

Upper Schoolers competed at tournaments around the country, with some highlights including:

• 53 students qualified to national championship tournaments

• Overall state runner-up, with six individual state championships

• Championing Public Forum Debate at the Glenbrooks tournament in Chicago

• Multiple finalists at the Blue Key Tournament in Florida

• Elimination-round participants at the New York City Invitational

• Finalists at the Barkley Forum for High Schools hosted at Emory University

The year concluded at the NSDA (National Speech & Debate Association) National Tournament in Des Moines, Iowa, with the program’s largestever cohort of students to qualify for the tournament. These 21 students represented Durham Academy in the largest academic competition of the year.

In addition, seventh- and eighth-graders had the opportunity to participate in the inaugural year of the Middle School Speech and Debate elective course. Middle Schoolers were also offered the opportunity to participate in virtual competitions, including the Harvard University tournament and the Middle School Tournament of Champions, and saw great success.

SUSAN ELLIS

Varsity girls soccer coach and Middle School PE teacher Susan Ellis helped coach a team of pro- and college-level women’s players to a runner-up finish in the inaugural women’s bracket of The Soccer Tournament (TST), held over four days in June in Cary. Ellis was an assistant coach for the NC Courage team, which fell to the US Women team in the championship match. Also competing in TST was DA alumna Mollie Pathman ’10, who played with SoccerHead FC.

CHINESE PROGRAM EARNS NATIONAL ACCOLADE

The Durham Academy Chinese program has been recognized as a National Distinguished K-12 Chinese Program in the United States — a recognition bestowed by the Chinese Language Teachers Association. DA’s program was featured in the November 2023 publication of the Chinese Language Teachers Association and was lauded for students consistently excelling in state contests, presenting research at symposiums and publishing essays in prestigious academic magazines — as well as for the program’s efforts to create language and cultural immersion experiences, offer a variety of courses, support learning autonomy and provide interdisciplinary opportunities.

ERIC BLOCK

For more than 25 years, physical education teacher Eric Block has helped Preschool and Lower School students learn the joy and importance of moving and taking care of their bodies. His dedication was recognized at the Share the Wealth PE Conference in January, when he was honored with the Elizabeth Juanita Carter Dockery Award. The award, which recognizes educators for their work and love for students and the profession, provides a scholarship for a PE teacher to attend the conference, in memory of Dockery, a longtime physical education teacher.

“PE is an important part of our educational program in the Lower School, and we are grateful for Eric and our PE teaching team — Courtney Hexter, Costen Irons and Kristin Stroupe — for all they do to promote sportsmanship, health and wellness in our children,” said Lower School Director Carolyn Ronco. “It’s fun to watch our children’s skills grow from year to year and from class to class. PE is a perfect place to practice perseverance, commitment and empathy as children work on their own skills and support their classmates, too.”

BERN COSTELLO SETS LOWER SCHOOL READING RECORD

As a fourth-grader, Bern Costello ’32 established an unofficial Lower School record by checking out at least one book for 200 straight days during the 2023–2024 school year.

When asked how many books he read between Aug. 23, 2023, and May 20, 2024, he offered a modest estimate of 234 titles. However, Lower School librarian Dr. Michelle Rosen, suspecting that was an underestimation, consulted the library checkout system and — with great excitement — confirmed that Bern’s actual total was more than 375 books.

The Big Nate series by Lincoln Peirce is at the top of his most-read list; Bern said the series’ humor played a big part in his interest. When asked whether he would aim to continue his streak in the Middle School, Costello shrugged nonchalantly: “I’ve always loved reading. I learned how to read at a young age, and it’s always been really fun to me.”

Pollinator Paradise

Students and teachers were buzzing this year over the third grade’s new interdisciplinary service-learning curriculum, which focuses on the power of pollinators like bees, moths, butterflies, birds, wasps and small mammals. The new curriculum — which was supported by an Innovation Journey Fund grant that provided time for teachers to reimagine the third grade’s longtime sea turtle study project — emphasizes the role of pollinators in feeding the world; calls attention to the decline in the pollinator population; and offers ideas for supporting these critical species.

In conjunction with the new curriculum, Lower School art teacher Pamela McKenney led third-graders in an art project to highlight the beauty of pollinators. Students sketched their pollinators of choice — from dragonflies to butterflies and beetles — from photographs. They then traced their sketches onto linoleum plates, used carving tools to carve out their designs, and used the plates to make multiple prints using various colors of ink and paper. The striking results simply fly off the page.

PREPARED FOR LIFE

The Science & Art of Educational Excellence

Introduction By Kristen Klein, Associate Head of School

On a glorious almost-summer day in 2022, I sat outside with the juniors in my American Nature Writing class, eating doughnuts and discussing the ambiguous ending of Wallace Stegner’s novel Crossing to Safety. Stegner’s novel addresses four characters as they struggle and succeed amid the pressures of building strong friendships and families, achieving material success through meaningful work, and stewarding creative genius. As they reflected on Stegner’s own creative genius, these two juniors talked, listened, thought and ultimately identified the novel’s central question: “What creates a life well-lived?”

As good conversations do, our discussion meandered through existential territory – two juniors grappling aloud with wanting to both get into a great college and follow a learning path that is authentically meaningful. Then one asked a pointed question: “I heard that there’s a group of teachers discussing whether to let go of AP classes. Is that happening?” I answered his question with a question: “What do you think we should do?” He went on to note that the best classes he had taken at DA were not AP (Advanced Placement) classes because he could spend time with the material, asking deeper and deeper questions. In AP, he said, the goal is memorization of a

ton of content in order to pass a test. He then shared that most students forget the content of those classes as soon as they finish the exam. Like Stegner’s characters, he wanted to do meaningful work and build toward a life well lived.

For three years, I have reflected on this conversation almost daily. I hope this alumnus sees DA’s work to enhance academic excellence across 14 grades as our attempt to live more fully into our mission of helping each student on their journey to a moral, happy and productive life — a life well lived by his and by Stegner’s definition.

Our mission (unchanged since 1970) and Strategic Vision (developed in 2020 by our Board of Trustees and Administrative Team, based on comprehensive survey data from all members of our community) guide our approach to academic excellence. We are preparing our students for an unscripted future. The world does not look like it did in 2020. All we can predict about the world our students will enter as young adults is that it will not look like it does now. While we will always strive to prepare our students to thrive in the best-fit colleges (or gap years), we know that the best preparation for college AND for a life well lived remains a love of learning and the development of the skills needed to learn well. The work we’ve done to both innovate and enhance our academic program speaks directly to these two areas — sparking a love of learning and building a resilient learner’s mindset. Luckily, the two areas also prepare our students best for the next stage in their learning journey.

As colleges and universities evaluate our students for possible admission, they are looking for more “pointy” and self-motivated members of their next freshman class. Gone are the days of students who are involved in everything and checking myriad boxes; now, colleges seek students who have demonstrated a clear interest and the pursuit of that interest with increasing rigor and skill. In the pages ahead, you’ll learn more about our evolution to Advanced courses, emphasizing depth over breadth, centering student inquiry, and culminating in authentic demonstrations of learning to solve real problems for real audiences. Students will also be able to demonstrate increasing expertise through our Pathway Scholars program, or they can choose to write a senior thesis.

In order to engage rigorous learning in the Upper School, we have to help our students learn how to learn. In Middle School, we have reinvented teaching and assessment by embracing competency-based learning (CBL). In a CBL classroom, students learn how to develop expertise in a discipline. They receive specific, iterative feedback in each component skill within every academic discipline. With CBL, students build the learning muscles they will need to be a Pathway Scholar or to dive deeply into an idea that excites them.

In our Preschool and Lower School, we are focused on the building blocks of rigorous learning — reading, writing and mathematical thinking. Building on the success of the Bridges math curriculum, adapted for our youngest learners in 2018, we spent this year diving into the science of reading. Ahead, you’ll be able to read more about new approaches to phonics and reading fluency as we embrace two new curricula that will better prepare our students to learn by teaching them more effective decoding, comprehension and inference skills.

Thanks to heavy lifting by our faculty and staff, our work to enhance academic excellence at DA will make our school stronger and better at preparing students for lives in which they will thrive as problem solvers, humanitarians, entrepreneurs and innovators: roles that value creativity, teamwork and deep thinking. To equip students for these future roles, learning can no longer comprise the acquisition of facts, exam scores and badges; instead, it requires flexibility and curiosity. In our rapidly changing world — one in which technologies like generative artificial intelligence can become a helpful tool for communication and connection, or a shortcut to avoid the complexity and critical thinking that learning requires — we hope our students will be empowered to generate new solutions and write novel stories. We remain grateful for the resources and community supporting us in our pursuit of excellence and the incredible faculty and students pushing us to continue to get better each and every year.

PREPARED FOR LIFE

14 UPPER SCHOOL: With New Advanced Curriculum, ‘DA Can Be Everything That It Can Be’

18 MIDDLE SCHOOL: Middle School’s Expansion of Competency-Based Learning Will Strengthen Commitment to Rigorous Academics

20 LOWER SCHOOL/PRESCHOOL: New Research-Backed Approach to Literacy Prioritizes Consistency for DA’s Youngest Learners

22 SCHOOLWIDE: Subject Spotlight: Math

With New Advanced Curriculum,

‘DA Can Be Everything That It Can Be’

By Melody Guyton Butts

It marks the most dramatic shift to the Upper School curriculum in decades, representing a commitment to uphold Durham Academy’s well-earned reputation for academic excellence and maintain its high standards for a dynamic, relevant, engaging student experience. With the introduction of eight Advanced (ADV) courses in 2023–2024 — the result of years of planning — DA Upper School has turned the page to a new chapter in rigor and authentic learning.

Following this successful pilot, DA has fully sunset Advanced Placement (AP) courses — which, for decades, were viewed as the pinnacle of subject mastery, but have since come to merely represent a student’s skill in rote memorization, with a constraining syllabus that limits teachers’ ability to go beyond a prescribed mountain of material at breakneck speed. In transitioning away from APs, Durham Academy students and teachers have said clearly and in unison: We can do better.

The Upper School’s new ADV curriculum is an internally designed, academically rigorous set of courses that emphasize depth over breadth, global relevance and independent problem-solving. In ADV courses, students must synthesize complex information and apply their knowledge in real-life situations — resulting in longlasting learning and skills that are applicable throughout their academic and professional careers.

The Upper School is offering 52 ADV courses — from Machine Learning and AI to Medicine and Malady — in 2024–2025.

So, in practice, what are the advantages of the shift to the new Advanced curriculum?

To find out, we convened a roundtable of Upper School students and teachers who have taken or taught both AP and ADV courses — their experiences straddling both sides of the transition affording them a unique perspective. Students assembled for that early-May lunchtime meeting represented 40 AP enrollments and 12 ADV enrollments over the course of their time in the Upper School.

The following highlights from their discussion — with dialogue so impassioned that late notes were required for the participants’ next classes — make clear that ADV courses are succeeding in satisfying students' appetite for challenge and enduring, meaningful knowledge.

Lily Zellman ’24

The main difference for me [between AP and ADV courses] is who I'm taking the class for, or for what purpose I'm learning. The ADV classes are way more specialized, and I'm signing up because that is a subject that I'm very interested in. I know for me personally, in APUSH [AP U.S. History] and in AP Euro [European History], even though it's not about that, I'll always squeeze in something that's about women and gender, anyway. So that's why the ADV [Historical Approaches to] Women and Gender class was perfect for me. But I'm taking that because that's an area that I'm really interested in, that I really want to flourish in and learn more about. When I'm learning in AP Euro and other AP classes, it's like the College Board [which develops and

administers exams and curricula for AP courses] is the big man above. And I'm just trying to do something so that the College Board can just like, let me live [laughs]. I'm trying to prove something to someone else that I don't feel like I need to prove to myself.

Max Tendler ’24

AP Art History — and it's specifically bad for Art History, but it's an epidemic across a lot of AP courses — essentially revolves around memorization. Memorization is THE skill, as opposed to deep comprehension. I will say, Adair [longtime English and art history teacher Jordan Adair, who retired at the conclusion of the 2023–2024 school year] taught it in a way that made it, ironically, less about the AP, and that was more interesting. He was like, “I'm not going to teach the AP curriculum to a T” — it was more what he wanted to talk about and what he felt was important, and that made it better.

I still had hundreds, I think, of flashcards. Contrast that to Advanced Historical Approaches to Women and Gender, which was far more akin to research and in-depth analysis — which, I will say, suited me very well, [but] I think was a difficult learning curve for other people. I enjoyed the class because it was something that I was incredibly interested in. It was very specific, and not necessarily niche, but a focused course, which was nice in its own right. It was sort of the polar opposite of [AP] Art History.

Michael Hansen ’24

[In AP Art History,] the best moments of teaching that [Adair] would have and the most meaningful and interesting things that we would talk about would be when we weren't trying to memorize. Because you have to know the artist and what year it was painted for like 250 different

required works, and you need to know two or three things about them. I thought the best part of that class was when we got the farthest away from what the exam was about.

And I think the same thing is true for history classes like AP Euro. I remember this year, some of the things that we did that had relatively little relation to the exam were, for example, we had a seminar on a book called The ManyHeaded Hydra about a Marxist history about pirates and how they were kind of like proto-socialist societies back in the day and presented an alternative form of governance. And I thought that that was one of the most interesting ideas that we talked about all year, versus memorizing the eight key themes across the AP exam.

Claire Hong ’24

I found the pacing of the classes to be very different. … In AP Chemistry, you still have to go very much on the schedule, and I know there are a lot of people who were struggling with one concept at the beginning. But in math and science, if you don't understand a core concept at the beginning, it's very hard to catch up later. In ADV Geometries, when we don't understand some of the main concepts, we get that time to learn it.

Sarah Muir ’24

The content that you learn in APs is standardized, but that also means that the skills that you're supposed to be strengthening and working on are very standardized. ... In a class like ADV Math Modeling, there were very diverse strengths that people brought to the class and into our projects. They were able to strengthen those [skills] and were able to develop other accessory strengths, but they were really able to focus on what they wanted to do. And so it was a diverse group of students who were able to work on these very kind of complicated projects in a way that really let them shine in a way that an AP class never would have.

Caitlin Travers ’24

In AP BC Calculus, “churning” is a good word for it; every day, [math teacher Jarrod Jenzano] would whip out his iPad, and we'd go through the lesson, and then at the end of the week, we'd have a homework quiz, and then you'd have a test just to make sure that you have everything. And you'd do that every single week until the AP exam at the end — and you still couldn’t even finish all of it. ... In [ADV] Calculus, … I feel like he has a little more room to breathe.

Dr. Courtney Monahan

Upper School Latin and history teacher

If I were primarily focused on getting people good grades on the AP exams, I would have to do things that are antithetical to what I think you should teach in high school: I would teach memorization; I would tell them to read English translations

Curriculum Guide

Champions Rigor and Independent Problem-Solving

By Dylan Howlett

The 2024–2025 Durham Academy Upper School Curriculum Guide features a fresh catalog-style design showcasing more than 140 course offerings — including the new Advanced curriculum, as well as several other unique offerings:

PROMOTING AND CELEBRATING INDEPENDENT LEARNING

Offerings both familiar and new will satiate intellectual curiosity as students pursue their preferred academic path. The Independent Study program, a fixture at the Upper School, provides support for student exploration when a student wishes to explore a topic beyond the scope of the DA curriculum.

The new Pathway Scholars program empowers students to choose, design and implement a community-based research project through a sequence of two Advanced courses, culminating in a symposium in which scholars demonstrate their learning to the broader community. Predefined Pathway focus areas include Entrepreneurship, Global Citizenship and Sustainability, and students may also choose to design their own Pathway.

“This is DA prioritizing outward-facing, communitybased work,” says Kelly Teagarden ’04, the Upper School community engagement coordinator.

CULTIVATING REAL-WORLD SKILLS

The Upper School curriculum serves as an incubator of soft skills that will sustain students in college and beyond — all without sacrificing rigor. Take, for instance, Developing Effective Leadership, which debuted in January. Tyrone Gould, an Upper School dean and math teacher, devised the course to provide intentional, deliberate leadership training for students.

“Part of it is identifying what’s important to them,” Gould said. “What are their values? What are their strengths as a leader? And how can they utilize those to make them a part of their leadership toolbox?”

Check out the full Upper School Curriculum Guide at da.org/UScurriculumguide.

and memorize them; I would tell them that they should spend less time on learning their Latin reading skills, and more time just going through textbooks and taking notes. And I think that for the quality of students that I have, that is a waste of their time. …

But then, if we turn to what I'm going to get to do next year in Latin, and what I've gotten the chance to do this year [teaching ADV Historical Approaches to Women and Gender and ADV Ancient Technologies], I'm not so worried about communicating specific content. And I get to do what I think is going to make you all much better students and interesting people in the future, which is really work on skills that allow you to be flexible, and to adapt those skills to whatever you want to study instead of the specific thing that the College Board wants you to study. … And so it becomes a much more joyful experience as a teacher, and I feel like I have more integrity in terms of my teaching.

Forrest Hinton

Upper School math teacher

Some of you have noted the problem with the AP curriculum is that there's just too much and too little time, right? I think the AP folks at the College Board get all these professors together around the country, and they can't agree on what should be in a course — “Well, I think we should teach that” or “I think this” — so they just cram it all in there. And they say, well, you high school teachers have to teach it all, even though at a real university-level course, you wouldn't cover all that content.

We still teach the core calculus content in ADV courses, but we don't have to hit the Lagrange error bound

unnecessarily or the 10th series convergence test that AP requires. And we can spend more time doing real calculus, like how did [Isaac] Newton and [Gottfried Wilhelm] Leibniz use calculus to solve physics problems? Or how could you apply this to economics, looking at marginal cost rates and stuff like that? So I think we have more opportunity to actually use calculus in authentic ways. Rather than just doing topic, topic, topic, test, test, test.

Zellman

I'm so biased towards the ADV classes. I love them. And I'm so glad that those [ADV Historical Approaches to Women and Gender and Advanced Ancient Technologies] were available to me. The ADV classes for me, personally, have done a lot. I would not have known about archaeology if it weren't for that class, and now I'm going to a school based on the fact that they have an archaeology major, and so I'm really grateful about that.

Travers

[In ADV history classes] I studied Tang Dynasty women's fashion for a semester. And I just did a fun project on rice cultivation in Thailand. That is just not a thing you can do in an AP course. And I really appreciate that, because I can talk about those two specific topics for a really long time.

Muir

I'm glad [going forward, students] get to take these classes that are taught by the same teachers who have such brilliance in what they do, but are [also] going to be able to touch on really intersectional topics. Profe Simón [Spanish teacher Liliana Simón] talked to me when we were in Peru [for a 2023 Cavalier Capstone] about how she's going to

teach a Shakira class that talks about Shakira's political issues and also her business ventures ...

Tendler

Oh, what I would do to take that class.

Hansen

At least in the conversations I'm having with juniors and sophomores, there seems to be a lot more excitement about taking ADV Math Modeling and ADV Revolutions and ADV Nations and Nationalism and ADV Postmodernism than there ever was for taking, like, AP U.S. History.

Muir

The only AP class that I have enjoyed because of the curriculum would be AP Research, and that’s because the curriculum barely existed. … It was so free, and I was able to study a niche topic that interested me. And my classmates were studying niche topics that interested them, and I got to see them get to investigate something that they were really passionate about. It was like a little community where we got to see one another shining.

Dr. Rob Policelli

Upper School history teacher, dean of curriculum & leader of the Advancing Beyond APs initiative

That's not like any other AP. That is much more like an ADV class, and the success of that course let us know we could expand that model further.

Muir

It's a really good sign for the future. … I think that DA can be everything that it can be with Advanced classes in a way that it couldn't with the AP curriculum.

Middle School’s Expansion of Competency-Based Learning Will Strengthen Commitment to Rigorous Academics

Video By Jesse Paddock

An educational approach that promotes real-world feedback, supports learners of all varieties and instills in middle schoolers the value of intrinsic motivation? It’s not Pollyanna. At Durham Academy Middle School, it will soon be a fully realized model for teaching and learning.

At the start of the 2024–2025 school year, the Middle School will both sustain — and raise — its standards for academic excellence by expanding competency-based learning (CBL) across all four of its grade levels. CBL emphasizes the deepening of skills within the Middle School’s challenging, rigorous curricula. It will require students to demonstrate proficiency in enduring habits and concepts, and it will demand they assess their own performance to find targeted areas for growth. A premium on real-world tasks with real-world feedback — rather than adhering to a prescribed, age-restricted curriculum — represents the most developmentally appropriate way to support DA’s Strategic Vision for satisfying the needs of all Middle School learners and preparing students for life.

“Students are at the center of every decision we make and every academic program we build,” said Middle School Director Jon Meredith. “A competency-based curriculum empowers students to actively participate in improving their skills. A competency-based model of teaching, learning and assessment sets students up for success next week, next year and for their future.”

EXPANDING CAPACITY WITHIN A STRONG ACADEMIC STRUCTURE

In the Middle School years, the limitations of traditional letter grades can flatten the trajectory of moral, happy and productive lives. An A-minus, for instance, reflects isolated assessments that fail to reliably capture transferable skills or a mastery of deeper concepts. Added points for class participation or extra-credit assignments do little to inspire meaningful, lasting growth. And a singular focus on maintaining a specific grade — rather than internalizing skills or probing for improvement — can constrict a student’s capacity for true mastery and curiosity.

Those lessons, and the confidence with which Durham Academy will expand CBL across the Middle School, serve as the culmination of strategic work and curricular alignment that started more than five years ago. In 2019, a CBL task force — led by Middle School science teacher Cliff Robbins; Middle School language arts teacher and Academic Dean Ginny Robinson; and Middle School STEAM teacher Melissa Mack — started researching CBL principles that could bolster the pursuit of DA’s “transfer goals,” or the replicable skills that students should carry with them from grade level to grade level and far beyond their time at DA. That initial foray expanded into a pilot CBL program in 2021–2022 that included eight teachers across five courses and three grade levels. By 2023–2024, the program had expanded to 13 teachers across seven courses.

Three years of data and observations empowered the task force to align CBL tenets with DA’s high standards for instruction — and they ensured teachers, DA’s resident experts in learning, were involved in every phase, iteration and decision along the way.

“My students know that every single student in the room has an area of greatest strength and every single student in the room has an area of greatest weakness,” Robbins said. “And my expectation as a teacher is that every student be working on that area knowing that their next step is leveling up and starting to do things at a seventhor eighth- or ninth-grade level.

“That’s rigor — showing that the path never ends. This learning journey will continue throughout your life. So let’s get to work.”

ROBUST INFRASTRUCTURE FOR LASTING IMPACT

The arrival of CBL upholds the continuing mission of the DA Middle School: to prepare students for success in the Upper School and beyond. The mission, as always, begins with students. Under CBL, eighth-graders will receive intentional guidance to support their transition to Upper School, where they will receive traditional grades and, by necessity, lean on the individualized learning approach they will have refined within CBL.

Regular, personalized feedback also requires a system that can communicate with students and families to celebrate successes and drive growth. After extensive testing, the CBL task force unanimously approved the adoption of Toddle, a CBL-based learning management system that will facilitate student-teacher and teacherfamily communication. Faculty members will receive dedicated assistance from 16 mentor teachers who will support their colleagues in Toddle during training and implementation.

“We have a faculty that understands this system,” Robbins said. “We have the administrative structure and space to be able to support our teachers. And we have the technology systems in order to clearly and transparently communicate the learning to students and families.”

SERVING THE BEST INTERESTS OF STUDENTS, TEACHERS AND FAMILIES

Those who have experienced CBL at the Middle School — task force members, classroom teachers and eager students — have discovered the abundant benefits of moving beyond a traditional grading system. Joy in learning. Differentiated support for all kinds of learners. And greater preparedness for real-world tasks and challenges.

Kristen Klein, associate head of school: “One of the ways that we are shifting our educational programming is to really help students understand who they are as

learners and how they can level up their skills and their experiences. Competency-based learning helps students learn how to learn.”

Belden Butler '30: “This school is just really helping kids discover who they are and really helping them learn without making them feel pressured.”

Karen Malhiot, Middle School science teacher: “I think the thing about competency-based learning is you can’t compare yourself to others. It moves the point of learning from being about something outside yourself, the grade, to something inside yourself — the skills I need to be a good student.”

Sybil Ludington '30: “It really helps me improve. Instead of just having an A-plus, I’m able to get a lot of feedback, which helps me improve my writing or my history work or whatever I’m learning about.”

F.J. Fortin, Middle School math teacher: “We have an environment here where even if you get the wrong answer, it’s OK. The kids are supporting each other, and they take risks readily. That’s also an important piece of all this: the risk-taking. And even if it doesn’t work out the first time, they try again. They see that it’s safe to make mistakes. And that’s the whole point of learning — making mistakes.”

Patti Donnelly, Middle School language arts teacher: “When we can do competency-based learning, we can say, ‘In this moment, you are proficient with this. And this is where you need to go next.’”

Jules Penabad '30: “It helps you get to know yourself more, which can also really enhance your learning.”

Robbins: “Why now? Because another year would be too late. And I want to get to work now.”

Watch the video at url.da.org/CBL-video to learn more about the Middle School’s research-based, deliberate and thoughtful transition to CBL.

New Research-Backed Approach to Literacy Prioritizes Consistency for DA’s Youngest Learners

By Melody Guyton Butts

Depending on the decade in which one learned to read, references for literacy instruction vary widely. Mention the topic, and children of the ’80s will hear echoes of “Hooked on Phonics worked for me!” Earlier generations might visualize pages from the Dick and Jane sight-word primers. And now — thanks to “the science of reading,” a body of convergent evidence from decades of cognitive and neuroscience research — schools like Durham Academy are taking a more comprehensive approach to literacy than ever, emphasizing explicit foundational skills in phonics, word study and grammar while exposing children to rigorous, engaging texts.

Eager to put the science of reading into practice at DA, the Preschool and Lower School have adopted new literacy curricula: Beginning this fall, 95 Percent Group’s 95 Phonics Core Program will be used for phonics instruction in kindergarten–grade 4, and reading and writing will be taught via EL Education’s language arts curriculum in grades 1–4.

“We are using the science of reading to apply findings from neuroscience research to how we teach, like how our brains are processing print and how important oral language is to reading comprehension and writing development,” explained Alison Provan, Lower School literacy specialist. She and the Lower School literacy committee — which includes teacher representatives

from each grade level — explored more than 30 curricula in search of programs that incorporate the science of reading; instruction in phonics, word study and grammar; and “rigorous grade-level and above-grade-level texts” before homing in on 95 Phonics and EL Education.

The change will bring consistency across grade levels, which was lacking in the previous medley of curricula. For years, the backbone of literacy instruction has been the Lucy Calkins Units of Study (better known as Readers and Writers Workshop), which Lower School Director Carolyn Ronco described as strong in developing students’ reading comprehension and writing stamina. However, it was weak in phonics and grammar, so teachers had to supplement with additional programs.

“We started to hear from teachers, ‘It's hard to pull from here, to here, to here. We know that having a consistent program is really effective,’” Ronco recalled. “We were doing one thing in kindergarten with phonics instruction, then they would go to first grade and do another program, and then they would go to second grade and do another program. A couple of years ago, it became clear that our goal was, number one, a program that incorporated it all, that was consistent from kindergarten to fourth grade.”

When Provan — who came to DA fall 2023 — interviewed for the literacy specialist position, she made clear that she was excited about potentially leading faculty “through a

change in this exciting time in education — where there is a lot of buzz around making that bridge of research-topractice,” she said. “... I didn't know they'd be ready for it the first year. I thought I'd have to do a lot more convincing.”

But Provan’s new colleagues’ enthusiasm for making the change matched her own, so Ronco asked her to move forward with a timeline for implementation in fall 2024.

Teachers were involved in every step of the process — from poring over curriculum samples and asking sales reps tough questions, to nixing programs that lacked culturally relevant texts or that weren’t universally strong across grade levels.

PHONICS

“One thing I really liked and teachers really liked about [95 Phonics] is that it goes in depth in aiming for mastery, which can help fill gaps or misunderstandings early on,” Provan explained, “and going for the automaticity, where when the child is writing, they don’t have to slow down so much to focus on spelling words that they lose their train of thought.”

In keeping with the science of reading, 95 Phonics supports both phonemic awareness — the ability to perceive and manipulate the sounds in words — and orthographic mapping — the process of instantly incorporating sound and spelling information to recognize words from memory. Students learn to identify the various sounds (phonemes) within words, and then match which letters (graphemes) make each of those sounds. They go on to analyze the meaningful parts (morphemes) within words, such as roots and affixes.

“Five, 10 years ago, when a child reached a word they didn't know, we might have asked that child, 'What makes sense?' based on what is happening in the story, and then have them confirm their guess based on the spelling of the word,” Provan said. “But the neuroscience is telling us: That's not how good readers read, that's very inefficient and slow, and that's depending on a lot of vocabulary that many young children may not have. ... And that starts to fall apart in third and fourth grade when you get to multisyllabic words that are less phonetic and less common.”

Kindergarten teacher Sloan Nuernberger, who serves as the Preschool’s literacy academic leader, is looking forward to the new curriculum smoothing kindergartners’ transition to first grade.

“When you're teaching phonics, you're practicing sounds and you're learning jingles to help you remember the sound, like ‘a, apple, app,’” Nuernberger said. “It's a lot for the child to learn it one way in Preschool, and then a completely different way in first grade. … It's going to be really great to have the alignment across divisions so that the language we speak here [in the Preschool] will be familiar when they get to first grade.”

Also speaking that language will be pre-kindergarten teachers, who will use a 95 Percent Group phonemic awareness kit to set a foundation for the full curriculum.

READING AND WRITING

EL Education will serve as the reading and writing program for grades 1–4, with a possibility that the program will be expanded into the Preschool in the future. The curriculum is based on freestanding trade books — like those in a library or bookstore — that incorporate social-emotional learning, feature diverse representation and inspire rich discussion.

In addition, the EL Education curriculum has a strong grammar component that is linked to students’ writing. All students will read the same texts — and reference them in their writing — which results in greater equity than when students select different topics. Many of the books included in the new curriculum center around science and social studies, with students engaged in in-depth research and analysis on those topics over time.

“The idea being that you're reading to learn while you're learning to read, and then you're writing about what you've been reading about,” Provan explained. “Everyone has a lot to say about it because everyone can find evidence in the text. And everyone's vocabulary and syntax are developing because their mentor texts, the books we've been studying, are so rich. That's a stretch for some students who were not reading at that level independently, and it is enriching those students who are already choosing to read those kinds of books on their own. But it's more equitable because everyone's referencing the same source to begin with.”

To prepare for the transition in curricula, teachers have taken on several hours of asynchronous training outside of school hours, and multiple professional development days have been devoted to training and preparation as a faculty. Despite that heavy lift, Ronco said there’s an air of nervous excitement for the change among teachers.

“We're asking a lot of them,” Provan added. “And they're up for the challenge.”

Subject Spotlight: Math

By Dylan Howlett

If anxiety occupies the narrow divide between fear and desire, then math likely isn’t too far away. Every student who has ever walked into a math class has wanted so desperately to succeed, to recall the correct strategy, to navigate a vexing problem with conviction. What stops a math student from finding that success is both legend and nightmarish. The tangle of word problems, the nerves of sharing a solution in front of the whole class, the challenge of internalizing skills from a previous grade level as new skills come hurtling along at high velocity. The trick, it would seem, would be to do as much math as possible. But how does rote practice help moral, happy and productive students confront real-world issues?

The answer is simple at Durham Academy: For one, prioritize conceptual understanding. “It’s not just, ‘Can I set up the equation or the algorithm to solve the problem?’” said Kristen Klein, associate head of school. “It’s, ‘Why am I doing that? What are the relationships between the numbers that I’m understanding? And let me look at four different ways to solve a problem so I really understand what’s happening conceptually.’”

For another, offer choice. “One of the things that’s really hard about math is that sometimes math struggle turns into, ‘I don’t like math. I’m not a math kid,’” Klein says. “Part of what we’re always trying to look at is how we provide options to students to get to that ‘just right’ level of challenge, but also to make those options malleable.”

The Lower School is now in its sixth year of the Bridges curriculum, which the Preschool has also phased into its instruction. The Middle School remains as unapologetic as ever about preparing students for the rigors of higher-level math. And at those higher levels, soon-to-be graduates in the Upper School aren’t slogging through antiquated textbooks: They are, like Jack Vail ’24 and his classmates in Advanced Mathematical Modeling, preparing for something far more lasting than an assessment.

“A lot more thinking,” Vail said, “and a lot less doing.”

Over the course of a week, the Marketing & Communications team visited four classrooms — one in each of DA’s divisions — to see our math students, teachers and curricula in action.

Welcome to Math at DA. We promise there’s no reason to be anxious.

KINDERGARTEN — SLOAN NUERNBERGER & ASHLEE BAILEY’S CLASSROOM

There are few better places to see a preview of the Bridges curriculum — or its premium on individualized, hands-on learning — than Sloan Nuernberger’s classroom on a Tuesday afternoon. After overseeing choral counting and a human graph activity, Nuernberger releases her students to choose from one of five “Math Workspaces.” Students select their preferred activity within groups of no more than four, who engage themselves and each other with minimal direction required — and even fewer parameters provided.

Some students use polydron sets to create houses and other small structures, while others snap together Unifix cubes to arrange their own colored patterns. The objective of the lesson, Nuernberger said, is simple: Allow students to explore manipulatives, which serve as a tactile and conceptual staple of Bridges in the Lower School. The impact is far more profound. As they build, rebuild, imagine and reimagine their tiny creations, the Pandas embody the most elemental “Transfer Goal” that all DA math students will reach during any of their 13 levels of math: “recognizing, appreciating and utilizing math as a universal language.” It is just the beginning, Klein says, of lifelong habits.

“We want them to be able to solve problems using math,” she says. “That’s what we want at the end of the day. And to be able to do that, the word ‘transfer’ in education-speak means being able to transfer my skills and understanding

to a novel situation, to a new situation that I haven’t seen before. When we design our curricula and approaches, that’s what we’re going for. How do we get to the point where our students can demonstrate that transfer?”

THIRD GRADE — AMANDA DOLAN & ANA MARÍA ENKE’S CLASSROOM

Discovery and sense-making begin in Amanda Dolan’s third-grade measurement lesson the moment she hands her students — known as the Dragons — a set of rulers and tape measures. “What do you notice?” Dolan asks. Preliminary answers trend toward the aesthetic: The rulers are transparent, they came from the Lower School’s Math Learning Center and they’re marked “3D” to indicate Dolan’s classroom. But Dolan pushes them further. She implores them to think like a mathematician. One student says he notices 12 inches and 30 centimeters are both denoted on the ruler. “Which is larger?” Dolan asks, and a rousing mathematical discourse ensues.

Within the next five minutes, the Dragons tackle a host of curiosities. Which is larger: 12 inches or 30 centimeters? How can we test whether 12 inches is larger than 30 centimeters? How do we use a symbol to show that one measurement is larger than the other? When would we use a ruler, and when would we use a tape measure? This last question prompts Dolan to remind her students of lasting mathematical mindsets: After one student says he would use a tape measure to determine the width of any round object, Dolan says to always keep precision and accuracy in mind when determining the best tool to use.

It’s the perfect catalyst for the lesson’s culminating activity, a “Length Scavenger Hunt.” Students pair up, collect a handout and try to match six different lengths — measured in centimeters — to items located around the classroom.

Before they fan out, Dolan emphasizes students need to find at least six measurements, a nod toward differentiated instruction that allows students to complete work at their own pace. But eagerness and excitement prevail, and the average pairing zips around the room with inventive suggestions for what to measure next.

One student asks Dolan if they can measure the perimeter or circumference of objects. A few pairings bend down on the class carpet — a playful, accurate map of the United States — to measure the lengths of state borders. The activity, which one student would later describe to the whole class as “challenging,” serves as the precursor for the next day’s lesson, when students will add the measured lengths together. As her room fills with the buzz of students thinking like mathematicians and testing the limits of precision, Dolan smiles.

“It’s such a fun way,” Dolan says, “to learn math.”

PRE-ALGEBRA — KIM AITKEN’S CLASSROOM

You would be forgiven if you walked into Kim Aitken’s Middle School math classroom and thought you made a wrong turn along the way. During a recent 60-minute lesson, Aitken made no fewer than five references to the Upper School.

“This is the year,” Aitken says to her Pre-Algebra classes, “where I’m transitioning you from lower-level math to higher-level math.”

As the complexity of the content ratchets up, Aitken says she prioritizes reducing the math-based anxiety that Middle Schoolers invariably carry. While she expects every student to solve a problem on her SMART Board by the conclusion of each class period, Aitken never forces a student to do so until it’s necessary. She’ll sometimes privately help a student correct a mistake before they have to share out with the whole group.

On this day, as students toggle seamlessly between direct instruction and group practice, Aitken oversees what she calls a “boot camp lesson” on the order of operations. The mood in the room veers toward anticipation, not dread, as Aitken reinforces the most granular details of simplifying expressions — and does so with an eye toward greater challenges in the Upper School.

Jake Fox ’29 asks whether he could use a dot to represent multiplication while simplifying exponents. “In Upper School, the dots become less and the parentheses become more,” Aitken says. Aitken returns to the SMART Board and points to an expression in the numerator. “Kids in calculus still make this mistake,” she says. Later, she pauses while adding negative numbers. “In the Upper School, they’re going to tell you to write one symbol,” she says.

With three minutes remaining in the class period, Aitken pauses to give students a chance to start their homework. The problem set contains practice from the day’s class — and, of course, at least one accelerated algebra question. Upper School, after all, isn’t that far away.

ADVANCED MATHEMATICAL MODELING — FORREST HINTON & JARROD

JENZANO

Freedom. Imagination. Solving real-world problems. Upper School students used these phrases Tuesday morning — along with “less teacher-guided and more student-driven” — to describe Advanced Mathematical Modeling, which started as an Upper School club and became a semesterlong course this fall with support from the Strategic Vision’s Innovation Journey Fund initiative. The charge of the class replicates that of the club: Take a real-world phenomenon and use math to devise a real-world solution. On this day, co-teachers Hinton and Jarrod Jenzano — who co-founded the original club in 2022–2023 — present four groups of students with two of the most intractable conundrums in politics: redistricting and the Electoral College.

Two teams take on redistricting. They are tasked with defining “compactness” for North Carolina’s 14 congressional districts. The teams must abide by basic societal parameters — they can’t, for instance, flout the Constitution — and basic mathematical principles. One team compares the perimeter of a circle to any other given shape in their pursuit of compactness. Another uses ratio work and spreadsheet math to compare their areas of jurisdiction to Supreme Court guidelines. Two computer programs — DistrictBuilder and Districtr — allow the groups to draw their districts and test their assumptions.

The other two teams investigate an alternative to the winner-take-all nature of the Electoral College. Hinton and Jenzano once again provide helpful guardrails: Students can’t forsake the system altogether, and they can’t violate the Constitution. Both groups test systems in which each presidential candidate would receive a proportion of a state’s electoral votes based on their share of the popular

vote within a given state. They apply their new formula to the 1992 and 2016 presidential elections to determine whether a different system would have produced a different outcome. One group’s analysis yields a threeway runoff in 1992, and a victory for Hillary Clinton in 2016. The work will culminate at the end of the week in the form of presentations to the rest of the class.

“You have to tackle a huge, complicated problem and use math from different courses, or math that you don’t even know,” Hinton says. “That’s the part that makes it a culminating experience. They have to ask their own questions, do their own research and choose what they can use.”

Mathematical Modeling also offers a peek into the approaching slate of Advanced coursework in 2024–2025, when DA will fully replace Advanced Placement classes with internally designed, rigorous curricula.

Within the Upper School, students will still have the opportunity to take traditional math courses, particularly if they need those offerings for careers as physicists or engineers. But the promise of “just right” will prevail in the form of multiple pathways, and abundant choice, for students who want real-world applications.

“We have thought of the pinnacle as Multivariable Calculus,” Jenzano says. “Now that might not be the goal. If somebody is going into engineering, you probably need it — but if you’re not, then you need some other ways of thinking about things. That’s what we’re trying to inculcate.”

This is one of several Subject Spotlights published during the 2023–2024 academic year. We hope this series provides a glimpse into the everyday brilliance — no matter how small, fleeting or simple it might seem — that has come to define our kids and teachers.

Math classes aren't the only DA spaces in which innovative thinking and student-driven learning are adding up to everyday instructional magic.

Visit our website for more installments from our recurring Subject Spotlight series, which features in-depth looks across all four divisions in Language Arts and Fine Arts.

• Language Arts - url.da.org/LanguageArts-Spotlight

• Fine Arts - url.da.org/FineArts-Spotlight

Keep an eye out for more Subject Spotlights in 2024-2025!

And if you can't get enough, you can walk in the shoes of DA students with our Day in the Life series, which captures the ordinary and extraordinary moments within each of the school's four divisions:

• Preschool - url.da.org/DITL-PS

• Lower School - url.da.org/DITL-LS

• Middle School - url.da.org/DITL-MS

• Upper School - url.da.org/DITL-US

BEHIND THE SCENES

The Play That Goes Wrong

In this year’s Upper School fall play, everything that could go wrong did go wrong, to the delight of audience members doubled over with laughter. The Play That Goes Wrong is a play-within-a-play in which a community theatre troupe struggles through a mishap-laden performance of The Murder at Haversham Manor

Durham Academy videographer Jesse Paddock went behind the scenes of the production — featuring the work of 40-plus student cast and technical crew members — to highlight the training, preparation and teamwork required to help the show go off without a hitch (which in this case, meant multiple, precisely timed hitches!).

Watch Paddock’s behind-the-scenes video at url.da.org/fallplay23.

A ‘Diaspora’ of Their Own

SENIORS CARRY FORWARD STORIES AND VALUES

PHOTOS BY EVAN PIKE PHOTOGRAPHY AND DA MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS

An unmistakable aura of gratitude overpowered the heat and humidity outside Duke University’s Page Auditorium as members of the Durham Academy Class of 2024 waited to march into their commencement ceremony. After all, the last time they reached a major milestone in their educational journeys — the transition from middle to high school in 2020 — the occasion was muted by the COVID-19 pandemic, with a video of recorded remarks, a virtual version of the eighth grade “tunnel of love” built in Minecraft and a car parade taking the place of the usual closing exercises festivities.

So on May 24, 2024, four years later — with a learned appreciation of the shared pomp and circumstance,

before an at-capacity audience of family and friends — there wasn’t a hint of indifference among the 114 seniors. Together, they had experienced a unique set of highs and lows, from kicking off their Upper School journeys in a hybrid instruction model to scaling mountains on Senior Challenge. And, together, they were soaking in every bit of this very special day.

Excerpts from remarks by Ava Claar ’24, Robert Liu ’24 and Head of School Michael Ulku-Steiner follow. Read their speeches in their entirety and watch a video of the commencement exercises at da.org/commencement.

CLASS OF 2024

Seek not comfort but challenge. It’s not all about you. Be better not than others. Be better for others.

It is a privilege to be here today and to be a part of the Class of 2024! And I want to thank all of you. It has been incredible to see us leave our mark on our campus from sports, robotics, speech and debate, sustainability and many clubs. This class works to create a space where everyone can participate in their passions and be authentically themselves. It has truly been a joy to watch everyone grow and to find my place in this class. I know we are going to do such incredible things, and I am so excited to see what we do next!

— Ava Claar ’24 COMMENCEMENT WELCOME

This is the moral, happy, productive water in which you have swum at DA. As luck would have it, most colleges are pulling their water from similar wells. Most understand that comfort can be corrosive, that selfishness is toxic, and that competitive climbing can be a ladder to nowhere. But still, you may struggle in the coming years. The ponds are bigger, the fish more various. There will be waves and riptides you cannot yet fathom. But you are ready. Having watched you for all these years, and having sat with each of you for your Senior Exit Interviews, I know you are, in fact, quite able to perceive and navigate the waters in which you swim. You are ready because you have been pushed past comfort. You have been stretched beyond selfishness. And you have grown better for others.

— Michael Ulku-Steiner, Head of School CHARGE TO THE GRADUATES

CLASS OF 2024

Everyone here is part of at least one diaspora. After all, none of us were born on this stage or at DA, I presume, which means we all came from elsewhere. And though we may not be from here, we all somehow find ourselves here — the product of multiple diasporas. And for me, it’s the how, why and with whom that defines our journey, not where we began. So whether we’re a member of DA’s robotics team, DARC SIDE; a competitor on our speech and debate team; a pit band, cast or crew member of our theater program; a performer in XIV Hours or In The Pocket; or a student-athlete competing for DA, we each incorporated our unique skills, ideas and passions into this community. It didn’t matter which diasporas we came from. What matters are our journeys through these four years. That is what should define our class.

But you may be wondering: If where we began is not nearly as significant as we once believed, then what is? If home is this constantly changing concept, what do we call home? As someone who’s been through five relocations and is about

to move across the country for the next four years, these are questions I think about often. However, I came across a powerful answer from an unlikely source. As we all know, it’s an end-of-year tradition at DA for the ninth-graders, sophomores and juniors to embark on an experience known as the Capstones. From traveling to places as far as [South] Korea, Peru, Greece, Spain and Morocco, to exploring topics as unique as beat-making and bioengineering, the Capstones symbolize an opportunity to broaden our horizons, both literally and figuratively.

For my Capstone after sophomore year, I had the chance to explore a particular kind of community in New York known as “Chinatown.” Now, beyond their iconic golden arches, flavorful food and knockoff souvenirs, Chinatowns are homes. For a little bit of history, Chinatowns were created in the 1800s as a safe space for immigrants of Chinese diaspora — like myself and my parents — but gradually became a community for all people fleeing marginalization and alienation. In other words, they are places of inclusion caused by exclusion. So Chinatowns have always been a bit contradictory. To quote Duke professor Eileen Chow, who gave a lecture on Chinatowns to my Contemporary China class, “They are both points of arrival and points of departure, spaces of protection and spaces of exclusion, temporary shelter for recent arrivals and a means of building community.”

Arriving in the heart of Manhattan’s Chinatown that early summer afternoon, I felt exactly what Dr. Chow had described. On Mott Street, the heart of the community, I was instantly overwhelmed by the countless sights, smells and people in such a close proximity. Ms. Wang [Upper School Chinese teacher Bonnie Wang] asked us to count the number of languages we overheard just walking from one place to

CLASS OF 2024

another. Yes, there was English and Mandarin, but there was also Cantonese, Spanish, Yiddish, Arabic and many more. These languages represented the diversity of identities, experiences and perspectives found across the world — all on one street. I thought about what my place in this community looked like. What could I do to fit in with strangers from all over the world?

Entering college, you may be asking a similar question. Before arriving in Chinatown, I thought the answer had something to do with finding myself. In my application for going on this Capstone, I wrote that I hoped to “reconnect with this identity that has been muddled by the complexities of the world.” But after just a few days of interacting with the community, I realized that was far from the point. Instead, what Chinatown teaches us is that our reaction to diaspora or change generally shouldn’t just be to find ourselves or our origins. Rather, we must use this opportunity to form new connections with people who we usually wouldn’t think of as a part of our community. Returning to this question of “where’s home,” I’d like to think that our homes are spaces like Chinatown. Spaces where we can form bonds with complete strangers, where we are united not just by identity or other arbitrary factors, but also by a common purpose or goal. Without these communities, we would be nothing more than our points of origin, divided and unable to achieve our true potential.

During the pandemic, the virus of hatred and xenophobia threatened the very existence of these Chinatowns. Elders stayed at home, fearing not just the disease, but also the possibility of the next hate crime. Businesses shuttered their doors — many, for good. But in these times of need and desperation, Chinatown proved its resilience. The people — activists, academics, artists, entrepreneurs, policymakers and many more — organized their unique skill sets to not only protect Chinatown, but to make it stronger than it was before. That is how we use our unique stories and diverse diasporas to strengthen our communities. That is the power of Chinatown.

So before we cross this stage, officially experiencing the diaspora that is the DA Class of 2024, you may wonder: How can we build these Chinatowns in our colleges, workplaces, and wherever life may take us? Faced with this daunting task, I leave you with one simple piece of advice: Tell your story. As you enter these new spaces, filled with seemingly foreign ideas, people and customs, take the time to introduce yourself!

On our Civil Rights Tour Capstone last year, my peers and I encountered a mural just down the block from the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Fifty-nine years ago, it was the site of Bloody Sunday, an event which many consider the turning point in the Civil Rights Movement. Inscribed upon its walls is a quote from JoAnne Bland, an activist who was just 11 when she marched alongside John Lewis from Selma to Montgomery. She said, “If your piece is missing, the picture is not complete. Why? Because you’re the most important piece.” Bland, as one of the few young women in the Civil Rights Movement, understood that without each of our unique, individual stories, the picture was far from complete.

Taking this logic further, I’d even argue that our ability to share our stories is a matter of life and death. Though our time on this Earth is temporary, our stories are what define our legacy far beyond this life. Sharing our stories is a survival mechanism. It’s how we leave our mark. To quote Italian philosopher Umberto Eco, “to survive, you must tell stories.” When telling these stories, however, don’t just focus on your origins. Share the unique experiences and lessons that you’ve gained through those diasporas. But also remember to take the time to listen to the stories of others. Through sharing each other’s experiences and leaving our mark along the way, we can turn what once was a diaspora into a new, blossoming home. Together, Class of 2024, no matter where we may end up, we have the power to build our own Chinatowns.

— Robert Liu ’24 COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS

CLASS OF 2024

Class of 2024 Reflects on Time at DA

Some members of Durham Academy’s Class of 2024 joined the community as teenagers, while others have been Cavaliers since their Preschool days. No matter the length of their time at DA, these seniors carry with them indelible memories of teachers, classmates and uniquely DA experiences. Here’s a sampling of what seniors had to say about their time here.

PHOTOS BY MARY MOORE MCLEAN

"I think Senior Challenge was the most unique experience I've had throughout my time at DA and also the most rewarding. It was extremely difficult and extremely challenging at times (as it's supposed to be), but that is what made it so incredible. I highly recommend taking part in it."

Godiya Mangai

"One unique experience I had was overcoming the adversity that the COVID-19 pandemic presented in my freshman and sophomore years. Starting high school in the midst of a lockdown was incredibly difficult, but it truly taught me to get out of my comfort zone and reach out to the people who I may not have talked to before. Because my social sphere was limited to those in my classes and advisory, I was able to form connections with those outside of my previous friend group. Further, this pushed me to reach for new opportunities that were available, such as the DA theatre program."

Kate Parker

"Although I only participated in DA theatre for one year, the creative freedom it’s given me to express myself has been something perspective-changing. In the theatre environment, you are allowed to be yourself and bring your personal experiences into the work you do. The connections I’ve made with the people during the musical are unlike any other I’ve made during high school."

Alexis Rodriguez

"Being at DA since pre-k, the community of teachers and peers around me has become central to who I am and what I've become. I cannot imagine how my experiences and identity would be now if I hadn't had such a supportive group of mentors around me; but, even more, I'm so grateful to have had the opportunity to look up to and develop alongside them my whole life. I not only got to know such incredible teachers, advisors, and friends, but I [also] got to change and grow with them each year."

Will Lindsey

"Over the past four years, Wang Laoshi [Upper School Chinese teacher Bonnie Wang] has helped me through the highs and lows of high school. Her classroom was a place where I could freely express my interests in both academic and extracurricular activities. She encouraged me to pursue my passions through opportunities and resources even when others were apprehensive. No matter the conversation, you could tell that she truly cares about her students and their livelihood. To know and be taught by that kind of teacher is an honor."

Riley Kim

CLASS OF 2024

"After four years together, Mr. [Jarrod] Jenzano's cheery attitude and sage advice have left a profound impact on me. As an advisor, Mr. Jenzano was always there to support me, helping me make decisions about course load, extracurriculars, and college despite my less than perfect attendance and attention. His approach to everything made me see the world in a different light, making me more willing to appreciate the beauty in the simplest of things and take the time to follow my curiosity wherever it led. As a calculus teacher, Mr. Jenzano also taught me a lot, even though my grade didn't always reflect it. He taught me the value in being methodical and thorough in everything I do, as well as that sometimes the answer is far simpler than it may seem. I've grown a lot during high school, both as a person and a student, and Mr. Jenzano is to thank for much of that development."

Jack Vail

"Profe [Liliana] Simón inspired my passion for learning the Spanish language. She challenged, encouraged, and supported me throughout my transitions between schools and was always patient with me. She continues to be a driving factor in my motivation to study languages and explore culture."

Olivia Kass

"One of my favorite classes was Mr. [Jordan] Adair's 10th-grade English class. This class meant a lot to me because it was more than just learning about English. Mr. Adair gave his students the opportunity to deal with emotions and to be able to connect with the material we were learning. Mr. Adair was willing to meet with me after school to ensure my work was well-thought out, and he only wanted the best for his students."

Kyla Newkirk

Visit www.da.org/graduation to learn more about each member of the Durham Academy Class of 2024.

by the numbers

114 graduating seniors

67 colleges/universities 1 attending an HBCU

72 studying outside of North Carolina

2 studying internationally

4 attending women's institutions

CLASS OF 2024

1 Emmet Christian ’24 Tufts University Baseball

• Starting Pitcher, DA Baseball

2 Will Cooley ’24 Columbia University Diving

• Four-Time Qualifier for USA Diving Junior National Championships (2019, 2021–2023)

• Nine-Time Invitational Winner

• 2021 Regional Champion, USA Diving Junior Region 2

• 16th-Place Finisher in 16–18 Boys Platform, 2023 USA Diving Junior National Championships

3 Evelyn Guyer ’24 Lafayette College Lacrosse

• Attacking Midfielder, DA Lacrosse

• Four-Time All-State Honoree (2021–2024)

• Two-Time TISAC Player of the Year (2023-2024)

• Four-Time All-Conference Honoree (2021–2024)

• USA Lacrosse All-Academic (2023)

• 223 Goals in 64 Games at DA

4 Peter Morano ’24 High Point University Soccer

• Goalkeeper, U17 North Carolina FC Academy

10 SENIORS TO COMPETE

5 Allison Hall ’24 Tulane University Cross-Country, Indoor Track And Outdoor Track

• Distance Runner, DA Cross-Country & Track and Field

• Second-Fastest Mile Time (5:06) in DA History

• 2023 TISAC Runner of the Year

• 2019 TISAC Champion in Girls 3200-Meter

• 2018 Individual State Cross-Country Champion

• Four-Time All-State Honoree

• Six-Time All-Conference Honoree

CLASS OF 2024

IN COLLEGE ATHLETICS

6 Kyla Newkirk ’24

Howard University Lacrosse

• Attack, DA Lacrosse

• Two-Time All-State Honoree (2023-2024)

• Two-Time All-Conference Honoree (2023-2024)

• 155 Goals in 64 Games at DA

7 Kate Norry ’24

Bates College Volleyball

• Middle Blocker & Outside Hitter, DA Volleyball

• 2023 All-State Honoree

• Two-Time All-Conference Honoree

8 Evan Pfeil ’24

Davidson College Track And Field

• DA School Record-Holder in Long Jump (2022)

• Anchor on Two-Time ConferenceWinning 4x100-Meter Relay Team (2023-2024)

• Anchor on Fastest Boys 4x100-Meter Relay Team in School History (2024)

• Anchor on Fastest 4x200-Meter Relay Team in School History (2023)

• Third-Fastest 100-Meter Time in School History

9 Thomas Pollard ’24

Kenyon College Baseball

• Starting Catcher, DA Baseball

• Two-Time Varsity Baseball Captain

• Four-Year Letter Winner

10 Karson Yon ’24

University of Minnesota Soccer

• Defender, NC Courage

Learn more about our college-bound athletes and their remarkable journeys:

• Cooley, Guyer, Morano, Newkirk, Pfeil and Yon at url.da.org/fall-signing-day-24

• Christian, Hall, Norry and Pollard at url.da.org/spring-signing-day-24

CLASS OF 2024

Ali Laros ’25 Repeats As State Pole Vault Champ

Kim wasn't the only Cavalier to repeat as an individual state champion in 2023-2024. In May, track and field athlete Ali Laros '25 won her second consecutive NCISAA 4A state title in girls pole vault. Laros, whose 2023 mark of 11'6" remains the second-best pole vault in school history, also won two TISAC conference titles — the girls triple jump and as a member of the girls 4x100-meter relay team — a week before the state meet.

Girls Golf Team, Jenna Kim ’27 Repeat as State Champs

Story by Dylan Howlett

More than 48 hours before the Durham Academy girls golf team would clinch its second consecutive state championship in October 2023, a murmur swept over the grounds of Keith Hills Golf Club in Buies Creek, N.C. The tournament director told the six assembled schools, and 38 student-athletes, that the golf course for the championships would stretch 6,200 yards — or about 1,000 yards longer than the average layout for an NCISAA 4A event.

Players and coaches alike were dumbfounded, even panicked, with the notable exception of two competitors. There was Saia Rampersaud ’25, the season’s No. 3-ranked golfer who would go on to finish fourth in the state tournament. And there was Jenna Kim ’27, the gifted ninthgrader whose prodigious skill precipitated the unexpected course lengthening.

A year before, Kim was an eighth-grader when she became the youngest-ever girls golf individual champion in NCISAA (N.C. Independent Schools Athletic Association) history. This year, the venue for the state championships would be toughened, and elongated, in deference to Kim’s talents — not unlike the measures once taken by championship courses to neutralize an ascendant phenom by the name of Tiger Woods.

David Flowers, the NCISAA assistant director, said as much in a conversation with DA head coach Kevin Wicker, who led the Cavs in 2022 to their first-ever girls golf state title in his first year as head coach. “Look, she can shoot 69,” Flowers said of Kim. “Everybody else is just gonna have to catch up.”

In the opening round, Kim indeed shot a threeunder-par 69. And, as it turned out, everybody else couldn’t catch up.

By the conclusion of the second and final round, the Cavaliers had bested secondplace North Raleigh Christian Academy by 61 strokes, a staggering margin paced by Kim’s

successful defense of her individual state title.

Of the 38 student-athletes in the field, Kim was the only competitor to shoot under par (-4) on her way to a 14-stroke rout.

“Of course she’s got the talent, but her mindset is just different,” Wicker said of Kim, who wasn’t aware that she had inspired the course changes. “She strives for excellence, and she doesn’t really waver on that.”

Kim had ample help from Rampersaud’s fourth-place finish (+14), and Chloe French ’25, who tied for ninth place (+21). The Cavs also enjoyed stellar bounce-back performances from a pair of seniors in their final round as Cavaliers: Riley Kim was 15 strokes better than in her opening round, and Evelyn Guyer had improved by 12 strokes.

“This group is just such good friends that they just bond well together,” Wicker said. “They laugh together, they play together, they grind together, they fight together. It’s just kind of a whole team effort that made everyone feel comfortable to just go play. Each one had each other’s back.”

Most of them will, too, in the 2024 season, when the fearsome trio of Jenna Kim, Rampersaud and French return with designs of winning a third straight championship.

“I have pretty high expectations,” Kim said of the fall 2024 team. “Saia is obviously an amazing golfer, and Chloe is too. Knowing that we have three pretty strong players, I think we’re going to do well.” And it isn’t lost on the opposition. Following the final round of the 2023 championship, head coaches from other schools spoke with Wicker and lamented the unenviable task — with or without outsized course lengthening — of defeating DA’s best.

“We’re still smiling from this year’s victory, and they’re already disappointed for next year,” said Wicker, laughing. “I’m excited. They’re such a good group of kids. You just want to be around them. You just enjoy it, and you love watching their success.”

DURHAM ACADEMY GIRLS GOLF TEAM - 2023 NCISAA 4A STATE CHAMPIONS

Head Coach Kevin Wicker, Jenna Kim ’27, Chloe French ’25, Saia Rampersaud ’25, Lilly Jones ’26, Evelyn Guyer ’24, Riley Kim ’24 Not Pictured: Assistant Coach Tiffany Lim

PARTICIPATED

A Crowning Year for Cavaliers

We continue to be proud of our student-athletes on and off the playing fields. This year, our girls program won its third consecutive TISAC Prestige Cup, an all-sports competition among our conference schools. Thirteen of our 20 programs earned Wells Fargo Cup points for our school placing in the top 8 in the final state rankings. The work by Assistant Director of Athletics Bria Irizarry with our Student-Athlete Leadership Team is producing noticeable results as we aim to grow our captains and leaders. We love how the broad-based nature of our athletics program gives opportunities for growth and success to everyone from future college-bound athletes to novices picking up a sport for the first time. The excitement around DA Athletics has never been higher!

- ANDY POGACH, DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS

Upper School Physical Education Teacher

Dr. Krishinda Lee ’04

Story by Dylan Howlett

The photo has it all: a blur of speed captured in rare stillness, lips parted from inexhaustible effort, a track star clad in an evergreen Durham Academy singlet, clutching a baton in the same close grip with which she holds her friendships and duty to others. Look closer, and the concentric lines that have guided Dr. Krishinda Lee ’04 back to DA — in 2022 as a physical education teacher, Class of 2026 advisor and track coach — wander beyond the bold lines of the track. Her eyes, for the briefest moment, are closed, awash in the type of peace that comes when you know you are precisely where you’re meant to be.

For one, her future husband — a competitor at rival Greensboro Day School — paces in the background. He wears a white tank top with green shorts, and he angles his head toward Lee as she bounces down her lane. Lee and Chris Morgan would meet on the track, again, in another place and another time, when they started their collegiate track careers at UNC-Chapel Hill and saw each other in the middle of sprint practice. “As soon as I met him and we had been training, I was like, ‘You look so familiar,’” Lee says now. “I pulled out those old photos, and there he was.”

But Lee almost wasn’t there for that serendipitous glance on the high school track. During her eighth-grade year at DA, she took a tour at Jordan High School — where several of her friends planned to attend ninth grade — and felt it might become her new home. By now, she had been discovered by Dennis Cullen, who won 39 state championships in 39 years as the varsity track and cross-country coach at DA. He saw the eighth-grader’s easy stride and peerless determination, and Cullen promoted Lee to varsity. Never mind that in her first state meet, Lee ran the penultimate leg of a relay that was even when she took the baton and opened up a 20-yard advantage that proved decisive. She cared more about how she felt on the team, thanks in no small part to Cullen.

“Track is a very individual sport, but he created this team environment where we had these little families,” said Lee, who owned the DA women’s 400-meter record for 15 years and shared the women’s 4x400-meter relay mark for eight.

There was another sport, and another coach, who also made her reconsider leaving. Greg Murray worked at DA for 43 years — a time during which he served in roles including director of physical education, a PE teacher, a boys and girls golf coach and head coach of the varsity girls basketball team, on which Lee starred. It felt like home. “I just thought about the culture Murray had created, especially within the basketball team,” said Lee, who was named team MVP during her senior year. “He seemed to want me there not just as an athlete who could help the team, but also as a person.

“It just seemed like, ‘OK, this is where I’m supposed to be.’” Her coaches felt much the same. “There are many things over which we had no control, but we excelled in those we could: effort, enthusiasm, support and working as a team,” Murray wrote in the 2004 DA yearbook. “Krishinda Lee exemplified those qualities.”

“There are a lot of people who work hard and are just determined and gritty — and not necessarily pleasant to be around,” said Cullen, who retired in 2019 and was inducted into the NCISAA Hall of Fame the same year. “There are other people who are delightful to be around, but they don’t have much of a work ethic at all. Krishinda is just a wonderful combination of a cheerful, delightful person who laughs easily and frequently, but is just tremendously dedicated to the work ethic.”

Take her first semester at UNC. Lee said she had no intentions of pursuing track in college until a scholarship athlete on the team encouraged her to run. When told of her times in high school, the team’s sprint coach promptly invited Lee to the next day’s tryouts. “I remember telling myself, ‘Just hang in with them,’” Lee said. “I feel like I’m a very hard worker and very determined. I just don’t like being told, ‘No.’ It fueled my fire.”

She would make the team and run for three seasons before choosing to dedicate all of her time and energy to her

Exercise and Sports Science degree. Her biomechanics professor, in another full-circle coincidence, was Murray’s wife, Debra. Lee would graduate from UNC and later apply to the physical therapy program at Duke, which rejected her initial application. So she volunteered, worked hard, applied during another cycle and got in on her second try. She earned her doctorate in 2014.

Lee pursued outpatient orthopedics and worked with patients who sustained injuries while playing sports. Her clientele featured geriatrics — with a panoply of hip and shoulder issues — and kids, particularly in Greensboro, where she worked at Physical Therapy of the Triad. She and Morgan moved to Minneapolis when he took a job with General Mills, and Lee remained in the orthopedics field. Soon the Minnesota winters turned harsh enough for the native North Carolinians to look homeward, particularly when Lee was expecting the couple’s son, Kamden. They returned in July 2019 to Durham, where Lee’s parents, La Sharon and Michael, have lived in the same Southwest Durham home for 30 years.

Durham was, again, where Lee was supposed to be — or at least something close to it, until her friend Kelly Teagarden ’04 got in touch toward the close of the 2021–2022 school year. They had known each other since they were third-graders in Lee’s first year at DA, where they co-authored two chapters of school lore: the record-setting 4x400 women’s relay team, and the 2003 Senior Challenge group that got lost during a hike and had to camp overnight at the top of a ridgeline. On this occasion, Teagarden’s motivation for speaking with Lee was less reminiscent and more forward-thinking: Greg Murray was retiring from DA after more than four decades. “I know it’s a longshot,” Teagarden asked, “but would you have any interest in coming back to DA?” Lee visited to shadow Teagarden, a history teacher, Diversity, Equity and Engagement coordinator and Cavalier Capstone program coordinator at the Upper School.

A nettle dug at Lee’s heart, much like Jordan High School did during her eighth-grade year. When Lee took the job at DA, she thought she’d stay for a year or two before returning to full-time physical therapy. Lee also had some pause about how she fit into DA’s culture until she saw how much progress the school had made around inclusion during her two decades away. Lee was one of five students of color in the 2004 graduating class. In September 2023, she attended the school year’s first meeting of the Black Student Affinity Group, sitting in a Smith Assembly Hall that was nearly filled to capacity. “I was blown away,” Lee said. “This is the place to be.”

It is, too, for Jordan Babwah, the Upper School’s fitness director and academic leader of the physical education department.

With Babwah’s vision and Lee’s perspective rooted in physical therapy, PE instruction at DA has become more inclusive and more holistic.

Students can now enroll in strength and conditioning courses in which they learn how to use their bodies and build cohesive, research-based fitness programs. Upper Schoolers can hop on the treadmill for 20 minutes between classes to relieve stress. Other students visit unannounced with Lee or Babwah to discuss issues they might find more challenging to broach with their teachers. “We’re doing more than just getting a person physically fit,” said Lee, who also teaches ninth-grade health. “We’re treating the social-emotional side as well.”

If Lee had any lingering qualms about her return to DA, it disappeared in her first year first back on campus. She had a student in her strength and conditioning class who was resolute. “I’m not an athlete,” he said. “I’m never going to be an athlete.” It was a test of her coaching mettle, borrowed liberally — and gratefully — from her most beloved coaches.

“A lot of times, I didn’t have a lot of belief in myself or realize the talent that I had,” Lee said. “But they were always my No. 1 supporters and believers, just pushing me to be my best and pulling my best out of me even when I didn’t believe.”

On this day, it was Lee’s turn to sow belief. “That doesn’t mean you can’t be fit and enjoy exercising,” Lee told the student. “The maneuvers that you’re doing right now require power, require strength, require some agility. That’s all the definition of what an athlete is. You’re doing just great.”

“I could see a lightbulb go off,” Lee said. The student’s confidence soared. There was a difference, a noticeable one, in the way he started carrying himself. And this year, he enrolled in another strength and conditioning course. A lightbulb, too, glowed within Lee, its outer reaches stretching back toward that day on the track, when a life partner, and one of three treasured coaches, watched her run — with steady purpose — toward something greater than herself.

OK, Lee thought as she watched her student. This is where I’m supposed to be.

"This is where I’m supposed to be."

-DR. KRISHINDA LEE ’04

Christian Hairston-Randleman: Director of Student Support and Wellness

Story by Melody Guyton Butts

As director of Durham Academy’s Preschool for the last nine years, Christian Hairston-Randleman has supported hundreds of students — and their families — at the start of their formal academic journeys. She’s wiped away pre-kindergartners’ separation-anxiety-induced tears on the first days of school. She’s cheered on kindergartners as they triumphed over challenges to reach reading milestones. She’s served as a partner to parents and caregivers in supporting students’ social-emotional development.

And now — as Durham Academy’s first-ever director of student support and wellness — Hairston-Randleman will apply her holistic perspective on student well-being to her work with the entire student body, from those familiar Preschool faces to seniors in the Upper School.

In this new role — aligned with DA’s Strategic Vision, which calls for meeting the needs of all learners, among other goals — Hairston-Randleman will supervise, support and coordinate the work of the counseling, learning support and health teams. And as a member of DA’s Administrative Team, she will serve as an advocate for these dedicated professionals and the students they serve.

Hairston-Randleman, who will chair the schoolwide Wellness Committee, will also partner with athletic trainers, the Upper School ASSIST Team (which helps students address substance use) and other faculty in relation to student support and wellness.

“Christian has led our Preschool with purpose and passion since 2015 — strengthening the faculty, renovating most aspects of the curriculum, and building a reputation as a truth-teller, teambuilder and calm, courageous colleague even in the midst of contentious conversations,” Head of School Michael UlkuSteiner said in an email announcing her appointment.

He explained that the need for the new position was made clear by the work of two groups: the Strategic Vision Design Team 1 (focused on the goal of “Preparing Our Students for Life”), which researched and identified steps to strengthen DA’s social-emotional learning curriculum; and the schoolwide Wellness Committee, which focused on addressing students’ growing mental health needs.

Hairston-Randleman’s résumé and educational background have prepared her well for the role. A former public school principal, she holds three degrees from UNC-Chapel Hill: a B.A. in Child Development and Family Studies, a Master of School Administration, and an M.Ed. in early childhood intervention and family support. She is nearing completion of a Ph.D. program in school psychology at Liberty University. HairstonRandleman also has unique insight into the DA experience through her three sons — Bryant ’19, Brent ’21 and Brett ’27.

As Hairston-Randleman began to transition from her role in the Preschool (learn about incoming Preschool Director Carolyn Howes on page 44) to her new schoolwide role, she took some time to answer some questions about what lies ahead.

Q: What are your plans for your first year in your new role as director of student support and wellness?

A: In my first year, I plan to spend time better understanding the student experiences on our Middle and Upper School campuses. While I’ve navigated both divisions as a parent and work closely with both Jon [Meredith, director of the Middle School] and Lanis [Wilson, director of the Upper School] as fellow division directors, I have spent the majority of the past nine years on the Preschool/Lower School campus with our youngest learners.

I also look forward to bringing together our learning support, counseling and health teams across divisions and under one department. This is a pivotal step in aligning our work of supporting the whole child and moving forward our vision of meeting the needs of our learners.

Q: What does the establishment of this position as part of the school’s Administrative Team signal about DA’s values and goals?

A: The creation of this position is one of many ways Durham Academy has invested in the aim to support our students. It is also a clear signal that we are prioritizing our commitment

to not only their academic growth, but also their physical and mental wellness. In the past few years, Durham Academy has substantially grown our learning support team and added a part-time Preschool counselor.

Each of these changes better positions our faculty to address individual student needs and engage in work that creates pathways to access, dismantles barriers and integrates the academic, social, emotional and physical well-being of our students.

Q: How has DA’s infrastructure for student support and wellness changed over time?

A: In so many ways! I am so proud of our work. Over the last few years, we have increased our learning support team from two to seven faculty members, and we have added a part-time Preschool counselor, a sexual health educator and a full-time health director. We have made schedule changes for the good of our students and have prioritized professional development related to wellness. And we have taken strides to clearly articulate the level and type of supports we offer in tandem with providing parent/caregiver education opportunities.

Each of these individual acts is part of a collective effort to integrate structures of support across our students’ 14-year journey and to create more streamlined, strategic and holistic systems of support for our students and families.

Q: What inspired this shift from leading the Preschool division to focusing on student support and wellness schoolwide?

A: I absolutely love the Preschool! For nine years I have spoken of the magic of this division, and that has not changed. My love and focus have simply expanded.

Early in my tenure at Durham Academy, I became interested in the ways in which we support our students. At that time, my position included classroom teaching responsibilities, and one of my students was struggling significantly. She was having difficulty mastering the academic content, which negatively impacted her sense of self and led to a lack of confidence.

As I partnered with her family to help navigate these challenges, it quickly became apparent that our “toolbox” was limited. During those early years, we did not have learning support coaches — and we only had two learning specialists, who served our entire student body. I saw the need for more. How do we create more inclusive environments? How do we improve systems of support? Where are our blind spots? Where is the intersection between the ways that we currently support students and a more comprehensive and cohesive approach?

These are all questions that I considered then and have continued to consider over the years. As my interest grew, I applied and was accepted into a Ph.D. program in psychology. I’ve spent the last three years diving into classes and trainings related to assessment, intervention, differential diagnosis, educational research, evidence-informed practice and

more. My research centers around frameworks of support in independent school settings.

My first group of pre-kindergarten students are now seventhgraders. As I’ve watched their growth from afar, I’ve often supported them and their families through informal channels — suggestions, venting sessions, recommendations, pep talks, and/or reassurance. I have taken advantage of every opportunity to remain connected to their journeys. This position allows me to work across divisions with the entire student body and all DA faculty in the ambitious pursuit of Goal 2 of our Strategic Vision: meeting the needs of our learners. I consider it a privilege that my skill set and interests have aligned with an institutional need, and I look forward to leading this work!

Student Support & Wellness By the Numbers

PRESCHOOL & LOWER SCHOOL

1 learning specialist

1 infirmary supervisor

2 counselors 2 learning support coaches

MIDDLE SCHOOL

1 counselor 1 learning specialist

2 learning support coaches UPPER SCHOOL 1 counselor 1 learning specialist

SCHOOLWIDE

1 learning support coach

1 director of student support and wellness

1 sexual health educator

1 school health director (family nurse practitioner)

A host of partners, including athletic trainers, teachers and administrative assistants

FROM FARM TO CLASSROOM

NEW DA PRESCHOOL DIRECTOR CAROLYN HOWES PREACHES EMPATHY

Story by Dylan Howlett

It was there, amid fields of tobacco and corn, of cantaloupe and watermelon, that Carolyn Howes led her first classroom. Or something close to it. Her father, Chuck, needed hands, lots of them, to work the hundreds of acres on the family’s Riverland Farm in Dunkirk, Maryland. Everyone in the family had their role, mostly because everyone in the family was there: Carolyn’s grandparents lived next door, as did all of Chuck’s sisters and their families. Chuck would enlist his siblings by day to plow and weed and harvest a swatch of land nestled near the shores of the Patuxent River. Their children needed supervision. And so they were left in the care of their older cousin, Carolyn. “I loved it,” she says.

Her most frequent charges were the Sealey boys, her younger cousins — Toby, Cory and Jody. “They were like my little brothers,” Howes says. She would run out of her front door and bound across the street to meet their school bus. But summer was their oasis. In the mornings, they plucked fresh cantaloupe from the field and served it for breakfast, and they snatched ears of corn for lunch or dinner. They would ride bikes through the fields and play with toy cars in the dirt. The Sealey boys were all within two years of each other, and all inclined to place their hands on each other. When the heat of southeastern Maryland summers would grip the boys in abrupt frustration, they would cry on Carolyn’s shoulder. When they were timid or unsure, they would find Carolyn imploring them to stand up for themselves, to chase whatever it was they believed in. There were no phones, no screens of digital diversion. And yet Carolyn had the radar of a veteran teacher. “She had eyes in the back of her head,” Cory Sealey says. “This is hundreds of acres, and she would let us run outside. But she knew exactly where we were. It was kind of like GPS before GPS was invented.”

Sealey laughs. “No wonder she went into education.”

She did, indeed. Howes spent 16 years as a first-grade and second-grade teacher at New Garden Friends School in Greensboro, where she has served for the past eight years as head of lower school. And this summer, Howes is assuming the role of Preschool director at Durham Academy, as outgoing director Christian Hairston-Randleman — who has led the Preschool since 2015 — becomes DA’s first-ever director of student support and wellness. “Carolyn’s extensive leadership experience, deep commitment to young learners, focus on diversity and empathy, and demonstrated ability to collaborate with colleagues in curriculum development and alignment will speed our growth as a school community,” Associate Head of School Kristen Klein wrote in an email announcing the hiring of Howes.

Her career started, in capacities both unofficial and profound, at that farm in rural Maryland, where rambunctious cousins and seasonal rhythms seeded a life of learning, and listening. “I think the biggest thing that resonates with Carolyn is empathy,” Cory Sealey says.

“She just knows how to connect with people.” ***

There was one day, a rare day, when Howes couldn’t connect with someone. Literally. The skies above Calvert County darkened, and storm clouds billowed overhead. There were fears a tornado would spawn. Howes started to shuffle Toby and Cory inside. She looked up and realized Jody wasn’t with them.

Carolyn and Cory raced across the fields. They knocked on the front doors of their aunts and uncles and cousins, and

soon a search party mobilized. The weather worsened. Carolyn and her aunt finally thought to look in the Sealeys’ house, where they found Jody playing in the bathroom sink. “We really gave her a crash course,” Cory Sealey says. “And we didn’t scare her off.”

Nor did life on the farm scare off any of the Howeses. Riverland Farm was, and is, their home. In the 1980s, when other farms across Calvert County began parceling their land for development, Carolyn’s grandfather placed their property in a preservation program. When the Howeses eventually stopped working the land themselves, they leased the acres to other local farmers who wanted to raise corn and soybean. And the Howeses remained in their homes, on the land, without having to concern themselves with the daily anxiety of pests and weather and yields. Paradise does not often beget wanderlust.

But it did for Howes, who started to look beyond Dunkirk. In high school, she participated in a three-week exchange program in Vienna. “That was a huge lens into the world for me,” she says. She picked up conversational German during her stay. She became passionate about environmental issues. The Howeses noticed. “The whole family just watched what she was doing like she was the celebrity of the family,” says Sealey, who now lives in New York and books celebrities for advertising and marketing campaigns. “‘What is she doing?’ Where is she traveling? What is Carolyn up to?’”

Soon she was off to North Carolina’s Guilford College as the first in her family to pursue an undergraduate degree. She majored in education studies and, inspired by her Austrian sojourn, German studies. The summertime programming that she had finagled for the Sealey boys — with ample help from her mom, Susan, who would help lead craft projects or ferry the children to the local library — informed, in no small part, Howes’ student teaching acumen.

It was no different in her classroom at New Garden Friends School. In 2005, during her eighth year in the classroom at New Garden Friends School, Howes and her co-teacher, Judy Pellarin, received a teaching award from Disney for instructional excellence and creativity. They devised a project that they dubbed “The Town Unit,” in which students played specific roles within a mock economy — banks and post offices, general stores and news stations — and invited their families to participate. Their classroom featured a loft from which students could drop an assortment of goods into a bag of flour below. They did so, ostensibly, to determine whether the diameter of the object and the height from which it fell would affect the size of

18 Things About Ms. Howes

The Koalas — Elizabeth Parry '13 and Allison Schenck’s kindergarten class — were eager to get to know Ms. Howes. They asked, and she answered. Here are 18 Things About Carolyn Howes, courtesy of 18 student-journalist Koalas.

1. Do you have a dog?

— Emma, 6

Yes, I have a 5-month-old puppy named Max, who is a girl.

2. What is your favorite character on a TV show or book or movie?

— Lucy, 6

My favorite character is the pigeon in the Mo Willems books.

3. What is your favorite song?

— Eleanor, 6

One song I love to sing with children is “Puff the Magic Dragon.”

4. Do you like the hot or the cold?

— Bennett, 6 I like the hot!

5. Where are you from?

— June, 6 ½ I am from Maryland.

6. What is your favorite plant?

— Shiv, 6

My favorite plant is hydrangea.

7. What’s your favorite thing to do after school?

— Margaret, 5 ½ I like to go running.

8. What is your favorite animal?

— Caroline, 5

My favorite animal is a cat.

9. What is your favorite candy?

— Zayn, 5 ¾

My favorite candy is Kit Kat.

10. Do you have a cat?

— Edwin, 5 ¾

Yes, I have a cat named Ollie.

11. What is your favorite color? — Otis, 6

My favorite color is green.

12. What is your favorite ice cream?

— Lucas, 6 ½

My favorite ice cream is chocolate.

13. Do you like to play games? What is your favorite?

— Henry, 5 ½ I love to play games! My favorite game is Scrabble.

14. What is your favorite snack? — Sofia, 6

My favorite snack is cheese and crackers.

15. What is your favorite shape? — Niam, 5 ½

My favorite shape is a circle.

16. What is your favorite state? — Leo, 6

My favorite state is North Carolina.

17. Do you have any hobbies? What are they?

— Alexander, 5 ½

My hobbies are running, making crafts, baking, and playing board games.

18. Who is your best friend?

— Louisa, 6

I feel lucky to have so many great friends. Two of my best friends are named Hannah and Cara.

the resulting crater. “I don’t know if our results really mattered,” Howes says now, “because we were having such a good time.” She has sustained that fun through her work as an administrator. Howes always looks for openings in her schedule — or actively carves out time — to visit classrooms and observe lessons, often at the behest of teachers. New Garden Friends School doesn’t currently have a dedicated librarian, so Howes organized and put on the annual book fair. She was an enthusiastic participant in the third grade’s annual overnight trip, jumping on the zipline alongside her students. “I think that gets me back to what’s at the heart of it,” Howes says.

Within that heart, always, are students. Howes created and implemented an instructional program at New Garden Friends for students with dyslexia and other reading challenges. She has spent recent years deepening her understanding of students on the autism spectrum, which she says has contributed to a significant shift in her response to student behavior and challenges; Howes says she finds herself explaining the rationale for decisions or rules in a different fashion, such as pointing students toward a section in the student handbook where they can see a given rule for themselves.

Howes doesn’t leave anyone behind. Not even a younger cousin who wanders off amid the threat of a tornado. ***

In the fall of 2021, Howes wanted to improve her stamina while walking. So she started running, if for no other reason than to push through that same pang of self-doubt — “Oh, I can’t do that ” — that she has recognized in children for more than two decades. “Just like I would ask of my students,” she says, smiling. Howes joined a Fleet Feet intervals program — one minute of walking followed by one minute of running — in Chapel Hill, where Howes lives with her partner, Arzu Ozoguz. Within a year, she had completed her first 10K. Within two years,

she had finished her first half-marathon. And in January 2023, Howes became a mentor within the program for beginning participants. Educators, after all, educate.

They do so at DA, too, and Howes was well aware. She had met Lower School Director Carolyn Ronco at various conferences, and she had heard of DA’s strong academics. Ozoguz, a professor of finance at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, has colleagues who are parents at DA. Howes met with a DA parent representative during a daylong interview in April. The representative spoke about the importance of sending their child to a school that supported their moral and ethical development. That resonated with Howes, who has done the same at New Garden Friends. “DA has an incredible academic reputation,” she says, “but hearing how much more there is beyond that was a really great moment.”

There was little selling to be done. Howes was keen on DA’s commitment to social-emotional work, its commitment to learning and growing along with its faculty, its commitment to sustaining wonderful traditions while also striving for more. Her first year as Preschool director, she says, will be spent collaborating with teachers and her administrative team, all the while getting to know students and parents. And the former teacher who encouraged her students to drop sizable rocks into bags of flour also wants to have fun. As her interview with the DA Administrative Team wound down, Howes asked about everyone’s favorite school traditions. It shattered the expected banalities of interview decorum, and the room soon filled with excited chatter about DA fixtures: the Durham County Special Olympics, the Lower School and Upper School buddies program. “I could really just feel the heart of the school coming through,” Howes says.

So, too, does Howes’ heart. Her oldest daughter, Leyna, will attend college in the fall; her twins, Silas and Halle, are both rising seventh-graders, avid readers and art aficionados both. Ozoguz has family members who live in Istanbul, and some of her Turkish relatives recently visited Chapel Hill. Howes has been completing Duolingo lessons in Turkish. Her favorite stock phrase is “çok güzel” (choak GOO-zell), or “very good,” which can describe the weather, or a store, or someone’s outfit. She uses it in semi-broken conversations with Ozoguz’s family, all in an effort to connect.

She is connected, still, to Dunkirk. Howes lives in North Carolina, and Sealey in New York, and a third cousin in Florida. Everyone else remains on Riverland Farm. Her greatgrandfather, Louis Stafford, would always have the honor of cutting the first watermelon of the season and of eating its first crisp slice. The moment is captured in one of Howes’ most cherished photographs. She and her brother are by their greatgrandfather’s side on one of those triumphant days, savoring the arrival of watermelon, the company of those who matter most, the small miracle of something so sweet emerging from what was once barren soil.

That is, of course, what a farm sows: sustenance and dreams. It’s big enough for nourishing a love of kids, and for a mental GPS to keep them loved.

FACULTY & STAFF FAREWELLS

Those saying goodbye have devoted a cumulative 219 years of service to DA.

STEVE ENGEBRETSEN

43 Years - Middle School Physical Education Teacher / Former Director of Athletics

PETE BLACKWELL

39 Years - Groundskeeper

MICHELLE GRAHAM-FREEMAN

31 Years - Preschool/Lower School Spanish Teacher

JORDAN ADAIR

29 Years - Upper School English Teacher

SHERI-LYN CARROW

29 Years - Pre-Kindergarten Teacher / Former Lower School Director

ANNE BENSON

20 Years - Technology & Systems Support Specialist

NANCY ALLEN

5 Years - Upper School Science and Psychology Teacher

KATIE RYAN AMICK ’98

5 Years - Director of Durham Academy Summer

JENNIFER CHRISTMAN

4 Years - School Store Manager

DR. MEGAN KLENK

4 Years - Preschool Counselor

JAY DILLON

3 Years - Athletic Trainer / Fourth Grade Teaching Assistant

TERI KING

2 Years - Second Grade Teaching Assistant

MARY SCOTT RAWLINS

2 Years - First Grade Teacher

DR. DELIA BARRICK

1 Year - Pre-Kindergarten Teaching Assistant

SUZANNE COONLEY

1 Year - Upper School Spanish Teacher

CATHY MARLOWE

1 Year - Second Grade Teaching Assistant

F.

Laci McDonald Upper School Dance Teacher

ROBERTSON HERSHEY DISTINGUISHED FACULTY AWARD

Story by Ashley Hinton, Second Gra de Teacher

Since arriving at Durham Academy more than 15 years ago, Upper School dance teacher Laci McDonald — the recipient of the 2024 F. Robertson Hershey Distinguished Faculty Award — has exemplified the highest standards of excellence, dedication, authenticity and compassion in education. In a school that often emphasizes intellectual achievement, Laci reminds us that true education encompasses the whole person. She teaches us that the brain is part of a body and that living fully means embracing and nurturing all aspects of our being. Laci's work reflects a profound belief in the potential of every individual, among students and colleagues alike, and her commitment to this belief propels them to achieve more than they ever thought possible.

Every year, students enter her dance class with varying degrees of comfort and experience. Through their journey together, Laci masterfully choreographs their learning. Her room is filled with students who learn to listen to their bodies. As they leap, twist, lift and tumble, all of her students learn to express themselves with her consistent guidance and encouragement. As one student puts it, “She has been a role model for me ever since I met her. She has taught me not only to be a stronger dancer, but also how to be a genuinely kind person who cares about the community around them. She has taught me that it is OK to let go sometimes and that I don't always have to be strong and have my walls up.”

For all students she teaches, from pre-kindergarten dancers through seniors, Laci celebrates individualism within the communal experience of dance. She inspires each dancer to find the movement and tempo that work for them, creating a space where every student can dance what they hear and feel with confidence.

Laci's passion and influence extend far beyond the traditional classroom setting. Her approach to teaching and advising is deeply rooted in empathy and understanding. As one Upper School colleague remarked, "Laci believes that all of us can be amazing, in our own ways, and she just never seems to get fed up with taking us to our amazingness." This unwavering faith in her students transforms her advisory sessions into spaces of growth and self-discovery. When a student is assigned to Laci's advisory, they gain a longterm mentor who knows them, cherishes their unique qualities and holds them accountable to their highest potential. Laci always leads with curiosity rather than

criticism with her signature question to students: “What happened?” This helps foster a learning environment where students feel safe to express themselves and learn from their experiences.

Beyond her teaching and advisory role, Laci's other contributions to school life are nothing short of extraordinary. She orchestrates the Upper School’s biannual dance concerts, choreographs the fall play and spring musical, and spearheads DA’s hosting of the Durham County Special Olympics Spring Games with a level of dedication and logistical prowess that is truly awe-inspiring. The sheer scale of these events, coupled with her teaching and advising responsibilities, showcases her remarkable ability to balance multiple demanding roles simultaneously. The real magic, however, lies not in the complexity of organizing these events, but rather in her ability to turn students (and even nervous teachers) of all ages, abilities and backgrounds into artists. Laci tailors lessons and choreography to meet each performer's abilities, guiding them to discover their strength, flexibility and expressive potential.

From her work with DA dancers to the many ways she champions and serves individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, Laci has profoundly impacted our understanding of what it means to be a community that values and celebrates diversity in all its forms.

Laci's influence reaches every corner of the Durham Academy community. Her ability to inspire enthusiasm in the classroom, demonstrate sensitivity to the needs of individual students, support her colleagues, and contribute to school life outside the classroom embodies the very essence of a life-changing educator. As each of her dance classes comes to a close, Laci and her students bow as a sign of respect for their learning space and end with a communal clap in appreciation of their collective performance. Thus, it is fitting that we can come together with a communal applause for all that Laci McDonald contributes to the Durham Academy community.

Editor’s Note: Ashley Hinton was the 2023 recipient of the F. Robertson Hershey Distinguished Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching. The Hershey Award was presented to Laci McDonald in May 2024 at Upper School commencement.

F. ROBERTSON HERSHEY DISTINGUISHED FACULTY AWARD

In 1988, the Durham Academy Board of Trustees established the F. Robertson Hershey Distinguished Faculty Award in recognition of former Headmaster Rob Hershey’s decade of dedication to faculty excellence. Since that time, 36 teachers have been recognized for their extraordinary talents and contributions. These teachers represent the best in teaching at Durham Academy by:

• Inspiring enthusiasm in the classroom and encouraging academic aspiration

• Demonstrating sensitivity to the academic and personal needs of the individual student

• Encouraging and supporting the efforts of colleagues

• Promoting the cooperation of a broad spectrum of the Durham Academy community

• Contributing to school life outside the classroom

THREE-YEAR ACTION PLAN STRENGTHENS

DA’S COMMITMENT

TO DIVERSITY, EQUITY & ENGAGEMENT

Durham Academy believes Diversity, Equity & Engagement provides the foundation for producing moral, happy and productive graduates. It is inseparable from the identity — and future — of DA. And now it has a definitive future, courtesy of a new action plan.

The three-year plan emphasizes various goals and measures of success to gauge DA’s progress in this essential work. With designs on accelerating already-considerable momentum toward greater representation in hiring, curricula and school leadership, the action plan will use regular surveys and audits — along with updates to the Board of Trustees — to track DA’s goals in ways both measurable and meaningful.

Director of Diversity, Equity & Engagement (DEE) Jason Mundy offered an in-depth preview of the plan at DA’s Spring DEE Engagement Night in April. “With any good plan,” he told attendees, “we have to see where we are to figure out where we’re going next.”

That elusive yet energizing “next” was the subject of an email Q&A — featuring students, faculty, parents and trustees — that Mundy facilitated to discuss the action plan. The nine participants shared more about why the school’s enduring commitment to DEE compelled them to choose, and compels them to keep choosing, Durham Academy.

The following conversations have been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.

Mundy: At the conclusion of this plan three years from now, how do you think DA will have changed?

Selena Keegan, trustee, DA parent & chair of the DEE Committee: “I believe that within three years, we will have more consistent policies, procedures and systems of accountability in place to address potential areas of improvement before they grow into larger concerns. I hope we will not need to focus as much on DEE as a standalone issue once we achieve significant organizational alignment about why DEE is integral to everything we do and how we

can most effectively impact key levers so that all students have equitable opportunities to thrive.”

Dan Gilson, director of Extended Day, Lower School DEE coordinator & DA parent: “I hope we will have integrated our DEE goals into the curriculum in meaningful ways; built nearuniversal internal community support for our goals; become [more of] a leader in the independent school community, as well as in Durham, for our work; and increased funding for the DEE department to reflect our schoolwide commitment to carrying out these objectives.”

Dr. Neha Pagidipati, DA parent & DA Family Association DEE representative: “Among many positive changes, I hope to see increased diversity in the hiring of staff and faculty.”

Melissa Pfeil, DA trustee & parent of DA alumni: “The DEE Action Plan is so thorough and includes a measurement plan for each of the steps. There's a saying that goes, ‘What we measure, grows.’ With these new measurements in place, I'm excited to see how DEE will grow at DA and move the needle on the key measures.”

Mundy: Why is it important to amplify representation in DA's curriculum and academics?

Kristianna McClain ’26: “Amplifying representation in DA’s curriculum and academics is what truly ties learning all together. Learning is fun when the material applies to the real world, and increasing representation within learning helps students to become more competent citizens who are better at problem-solving. For many students, learning is like a puzzle, and I believe that amplifying representation in DA’s curriculum is similar to placing the last piece in this puzzle. Increasing representation gives students a true, accurate picture of what societies all around the world are like. Representation could mean learning about more pioneers of color in a certain field or exploring a social issue in another part of the world that you may not have been aware of before. Amplifying representation in DA’s curriculum makes me remember why I am truly motivated to learn. I want to be able to learn as much as I can about the world around

me, and I want to figure out creative ways to impact the community around me.”

Naomi Gibson ’25: “Representation matters in DA's curriculum and academics because with a lack of representation or even negative representation, students — who are at crucial points in their lives regarding identities — can struggle with their own identity development or develop negative perceptions of their own groups. They might see their own identity or background as burdensome, unpopular, uncool or embarrassing. Representation within the classroom not only increases feelings of belonging and confidence in students' identities, but also supports a positive academic environment where students feel more confident in their abilities and where overall achievement accelerates. For example, when women — particularly women of color — feel represented in STEM, they can feel more confident to really put forward effort and energy in that aspect of their education. And most importantly, they won't feel like they ‘can't do STEM’ because that's been the perception of women for a long time.”

Pagidipati: “Our children live in a world filled with diversity, and if they do not see and appreciate that diversity while they are growing and formulating who they will become, it will be harder for them to succeed later in life.”

Gilson: “Teaching our children how to thrive in a diverse world increases opportunities for meaningful connection, accurate representation, better medical care, increased ability to solve issues both interpersonal and global — and so much more. Acknowledging and uplifting differences is the key to healthy interpersonal relationships, and it’s the only way to solve our world’s biggest problems.”

Keegan: “A significant driver of academic success is engagement and personal connection. Feeling reflected in the curriculum and learning environment can have a significant impact on a student's sense of belonging, even when those connections are subconscious. By expanding representation, we are giving students more opportunity to engage and thrive on a variety of dimensions. Even if we cannot fully integrate all of the ways in which students may feel personal connection, the attempt itself can be impactful. By amplifying alternative voices, we offer some solace to those who may feel overlooked by traditionally overrepresented voices. Also, by diversifying representation across all subjects and in all of its forms, DA provides all students with valuable exposure to a multitude of real-world ideas and perspectives.”

Dr. Julius Wilder, DA parent & DA Family Association DEE representative: “Our students must be prepared to be successful and to lead a world that becomes more and more diverse every day. Obtaining the fundamentals of how to navigate this now in a safe environment is the best way to prepare them.”

Pfeil: “Representation is important so all members of our community can see themselves reflected in curriculum and academics, helping them to feel more accepted. It's also important in building empathy and understanding across students, faculty, administrators and coaches with different backgrounds, viewpoints and perspectives.”

Aji Nureni-Yusuf ’25: “I believe that every student should see themselves represented in the curriculum. With things as simple as having diverse names on math worksheets, students can already start to feel included in the learning process. Adjacently, representation helps students build empathy. When we talk about the different cultures that people have or the lived experiences that communities have had, we give kids the space to develop their own critical ideas about the world around them, thus developing their empathy.”

Mundy: How will every member of the DA community benefit from this plan?

Nureni-Yusuf ’25: “Obviously, this plan is focused on improving the way students learn. This plan will lead to more critical thinking in the classroom, which will translate to better problem-solving skills. This program will put DA students ahead of the curve in terms of logical reasoning and inference. It is important that faculty also see themselves represented in what they teach and among their colleagues. This fosters joy within themselves and thus in the spaces they are in, whether it be on the field, on the stage or in the classroom. And this plan starts to remove the burden of DEE work from parents and families.”

Keegan: “All community members will better understand DA's vision for how DEE should be interwoven into all aspects of the school experience, as well as how the school will decide which strategies and tactics to prioritize in order to bring this vision to life. Better organizational alignment should give all members clearer expectations about their DA experience and encourage them to consider the impact they have on the experiences of those around them.”

Wilder: “Every member of the DA community is a part of the broader community. Our race, ethnicity and socioeconomic status, do not shield us from the realities of living in a more diverse world.”

Gilson: “I love the example of the Americans with Disabilities Act [ADA] mandating sidewalk ramps at intersections for people in wheelchairs. People with disabilities benefited from this more accessible and super easy solution, but so did children, people pushing strollers or luggage, bikers and folks who walk. It was an intervention designed for one group, and the benefits extended well beyond what was intended — elevators, hand railings, ramps, automatic doors. They all provided the same universal benefits. Positive discussions about race could lead to healthier interpersonal relationships for white folks, better medical research and outcomes for women and people of color, and more inclusive media representation.”

Maya Patel ’25: “I think maybe the way that everyone can benefit from this plan is by being intentional about their inclusivity. Hopefully, it will cause us to grow as a community toward being more respectful, kind and inclusive of others. If the whole community practices inclusivity, then the whole community will benefit.”

Mundy: How does DEE bolster DA's efforts to produce moral, happy and productive graduates?

Keegan: “In my mind, DEE is integral to DA's ability to produce moral, happy and productive graduates. Moral: showing compassion and respect even when they don't agree with or fully understand someone else's perspective. Happy: realizing a stronger understanding of, and self-confidence in, their own values and beliefs after learning to process new ideas. Productive: becoming intellectually curious citizens who can adapt to different situations, inspire open dialogue, and stimulate collaborative problem-solving.”

Pagidipati: “Being a kind and empathetic person is central to living a moral, happy and productive life. DA's DEE efforts will ensure that kindness and empathy are valued and promoted across the school.”

Wilder: “We don't want moral, happy and productive graduates only when they are surrounded by people like them. DEE ensures our graduates can be moral, happy and productive graduates in the ‘real’ world — a world with increasing diversity of every kind that will need moral, happy and productive people to lead it.”

Gilson: “When we show we care about everyone, everyone benefits. If someone is hurting at our school because of racism, sexism or ageism, we are all negatively impacted personally and as a community.”

Pfeil: “DEE fosters almost all elements of DA's portrait of a graduate, especially empathy, integrity, curiosity, authenticity, engagement and wisdom.”

McClain ’26: “DEE efforts help to elevate student voices, which helps students to be more cognizant of each other's experiences, and also helps students build affinity with one another. I believe that happiness goes hand-in-hand with having a strong community. All of the factors I’ve mentioned help to build the DA community. When students learn how to build the DA community, they become even better community builders in the real world. DA’s DEE efforts will propel them to make moral and culturally competent decisions. This all ultimately contributes to building a productive space as everyone feels more comfortable being themselves.”

Mundy: How has DA's commitment to DEE impacted your or your family's experience at the school?

Wilder: “As a minoritized community member, DAs commitment to DEE shows it is the type of academic environment that will accept, nurture, protect and teach my sons and their peers to honor, love and respect all people.”

Nureni-Yusuf ’25: “The fact that I was able to go on an allexpenses-paid trip to St. Louis for the Student Diversity Leadership Conference (SDLC) has already shown DA's commitment to DEE. That trip gave me a new outlook on my education and community at DA, and I have thus been able to identify biased practices in the classroom and work to find solutions.”

Gilson: “My children have seen and had faculty of color as their teachers, seen men teaching young children and experienced folks of all kinds excel in their respective fields despite what statistics may tell you about who does what kind of job. We want everyone here to feel like they can do anything they want without being limited because of cultural expectations, gender norms or any other limiting factor. Ability, hard work, community support and access give our kids the ability to succeed at their interests. We can always do better — but we are beginning to see results.”

Pfeil: “When I asked my youngest son how DEE has impacted him at DA, his response was: ‘It has helped me gain a greater

perspective on the differences that we have, and it has taught me how to be more thoughtful about what I say and how I act so I don't hurt others.’ I think those are incredibly important life skills, and I am grateful to DA for these lessons.”

McClain ’26: “DA’s commitment to DEE has impacted me most through being a part of the Black Affinity Group. From the group's assembly with Family Feud to having deeper conversations about the injustices Black people have faced in the U.S., I can positively say that being a part of an affinity group has truly shaped my DA experience. I went to my first meeting in fifth grade, and to be able to sit with those same people again every other Thursday in 10th grade means so much to me. These are the people I’ve been able to grow alongside. I also appreciate that DA not only works to start these groups but actively works to improve them as well. For example, in recent years, multiple affinity groups have done workshops or assemblies to educate the student body. Some other examples include affinity group solidarity meetings and collaborations between Lower School and Upper School affinity groups.”

Patel ’25: “One way DEE work impacted my life as a DA student has been through the Asian American and Pacific Islander [AAPI] group. I have found community, made friends, planned celebrations and eaten a lot of good food through my group.”

Keegan: “DA's commitment to DEE was one of the deciding factors that brought our family to the school 11 years ago, and we have appreciated seeing how that commitment has continued to evolve. We have been fortunate to see our daughters thrive at DA despite their different learning profiles, personalities and interests. They each feel comfortable exploring their identities and value systems, which we believe is a function of the breadth of the curriculum, diversity of the student body, dedicated faculty and optional student support systems. We are impressed by the depth of conversations we can have around the dinner table, and we are grateful for DA's commitment to helping all families have a similarly supportive experience.”

ABOUT THE ACTION PLAN

The new Diversity, Equity & Engagement Action Plan was inspired by the following principles:

Academics:

DEE is a life skill our students will carry into adulthood.

Belonging:

Belonging is critical to academic success and personal growth.

Benefit to Everyone:

DEE education creates stronger communities.

Action steps and measures of success for the plan center around four main areas of focus:

1. Admissions and Hiring (Human Capital)

DA will cultivate a talented student body that reflects a robust variety of experiences, backgrounds, perspectives and beliefs, as well as a diverse group of faculty and staff members that reflect and serve the needs of our individual learners.

2. Community and Belonging (Culture and Character)

DA is committed to increasing the diversity within our community and expanding our DEE work to ensure that all students, families, faculty and staff feel a deep sense of belonging.

3. Teaching and Learning (What and How We Teach)

DA will ensure that what we teach reflects multiple perspectives and that the contributions of diverse peoples are embedded into curricula across all disciplines. Students develop cultural competency through positive representations of a wide variety of identities, backgrounds and perspectives. Faculty and staff develop cultural competency through professional development that supports broad empathy and successful learning environments.

4. Governance and Leadership (Policies, Procedures and Practices)

DA recognizes the roles that systems of power, bias and privilege can play in influencing individual and collective decisions, and the school will work to prioritize mission-aligned decisions that center diversity and equity.

Explore the plan in its entirety — including rationale, key action steps and measures of success — at da.org/DEEplan.

Bonnie Wang — an Upper School Mandarin Chinese teacher who will also serve as assistant director of Diversity, Equity & Engagement beginning this fall — writes about her experience at the NAIS People of Color Conference: url.da.org/sdlc23

Want to see one of our new spaces in action? Check out the Middle School Design Studio and the students in Catherine Hayward's STEAM by Design class as they bring mythology to life.

Watch the video: url.da.org/mythical-monsters

We are enormously proud to report on the current success of Beyond the Threshold, the largest comprehensive campaign in Durham Academy’s history. We give our sincere thanks to all donors for this remarkable community-wide effort!

more than $33 MILLION RAISED 8 gifts OVER $1M 62 gifts OVER $100K

155 gifts OVER $25K

3,026 donors OVER 6 YEARS

“The act of giving, whether it is a small or grand gesture, is a quiet and personal choice, but it has powerful ripple effects. Believe me, the small grant that I received in 2009 to join a delegation of teachers to go to Egypt right before the Arab Spring transformed the design of my World Cultures class. ... Whether it is a small or large pebble, know that your giving will have a profound effect on the lives of this community.”

THOMAS PHU

UPPER SCHOOL HISTORY TEACHER, PARENT OF ALUMNI AND SOCCER COACH

16% increase in ALUMNI Giving Day support

$348,109 raised from CURRENT PARENTS

78% of FACULTY & STAFF made Giving Day gifts

56% of CURRENT PARENTS supported Giving Day

$80,000 in DONOR AND ALUMNI challenges

32 states plus D.C. with international support from Canada, England, Luxembourg and the Netherlands

115 FIRST-TIME DONORS supported Giving Day

1,028 donors supported Giving Day together, contributing $467,954!

If you’ve ever found yourself awed by the boundless opportunities for Durham Academy students, or amazed by the soaring excellence of DA teachers, or wowed by the ceaseless innovations emerging from Ridge and Academy roads, then the source of your wonder has been the Durham Academy Fund — the enduring answer to the question, “What makes the everyday magic of DA possible?”

What enables the incomparable experiential learning provided by Cavalier Capstones, Senior Challenge and class trips? The DA Fund. How does DA make itself more affordable and accessible with financial aid awards? The DA Fund. From where do coordinators of our Diversity, Equity and Engagement initiatives; the students and faculty on our

speech and debate team and on our DARC Side robotics team; or the dreamers and believers who operate our Innovation Journey Fund draw the resources to help their visions become reality? You guessed it: It’s the DA Fund.

If the DA Fund is the foundation of our school’s operating budget, then Durham Academy Giving Day is the bedrock. Each spring, parents, alumni, faculty, staff, grandparents and friends join together to support the DA Fund. The financial contributions — no matter the amount — represent an endorsement of DA’s present and future. It is an expression of love for, and faith in, the DA community, as well as the people and students who make it so inimitable.

We invite you to express that same love and faith on March 25, 2025 — next year's Giving Day — a meaningful opportunity to sustain the everyday magic of DA.

Come be part of our enduring answer. Come be part of the DA Fund.

Mr. Ulku-Steiner's Day Off

This year’s DA Giving Day benefited from a full rebrand, and the Marketing & Communications team also faced a unique challenge — how can we incorporate the head of school into DA’s annual pep rally for fundraising during his minisabbatical? (see page 5) The answer: reincarnate him as the '80s most famous absentee high school student, Ferris Bueller!

With a social media video series that featured locations like the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, hints about how Mr. Ulku-Steiner was productive during his study leave and iconic scenes from the movie, Mr. Ulku-Steiner’s Day Off of Giving hit the sweet spot for parents, teachers, students and alumni! The entire series — comprising a teaser and three episodes — exceeded 13,600 views on Instagram on Giving Day. Life moves pretty fast, so in case you missed it, watch the Director's Cut at url.da.org/Day-of-Giving.

The Giving Day teaser, released the evening before Giving Day, reached 86% more accounts than the average @durhamacademy post.

School-Family Partnership Centers Students’ Holistic Well-Being

Story by Victoria Muradi, Director of Strategic Initiatives

Strengthening the home-school partnership has been among Durham Academy’s institutional priorities. A comprehensive audit of school events by a Family Association task force identified opportunities to improve communication about school initiatives and programming, provide feedback and create parent education opportunities based on themes reflected in the 2023 End-of-Year Family Survey. On Aug. 31, we launched Family Matters @ DA, which is designed to:

• Prepare for important developmental stages in our students’ pre-kindergarten-to-12 journey

• Understand the work of the school

• Connect parents/caregivers with one other

This year’s events have included virtual Family Conversations with Head of School Michael Ulku-Steiner and Associate Head of School Kristen Klein; divisional coffees hosted by school directors; time with the school’s experts; and prominent speakers.

During the spring semester, we hosted two authors. Caralena Peterson, author of The Effortless Perfection Myth, spoke to all Upper School students and faculty about perfectionism’s potentially detrimental effects on student mental health, as well as more than 100 parents about supporting students’ mental health and well-being at home. Sixty parents/caregivers heard from Dr. Devorah Heitner, author of Growing Up in Public: Coming of Age in a Digital World and Screenwise, about strategies to help their children build lasting, constructive habits around social media usage and screen time. Most events were recorded and are available on the Family Matters resource page url.da.org/familymatters, which includes a number of helpful resources for current parents.

“It’s important as parents to recognize that it’s really easy to overlook the child or the friend who by all outside measures is absolutely kicking butt. I think sometimes we look at our students and think, well, they have straight A’s, so they’re good. And sometimes there’s a little more going on under the surface. …

Success is an experience, not an identity. … When success is framed as an identity, it causes us to shy away from the risks that are necessary to growth. That’s harmful to true success in the long term. I wanted to make sure the students knew that they should be using their time at Durham Academy to stretch their capabilities and abilities — and that it’s important to think about the tradeoffs you’re making in the meantime. An Ivy League acceptance is not worth your sanity, and I am not saying that facetiously. I was recently speaking to a student at Harvard, who said, ‘This is a really hard place to be. But it’s a great place to be from.’ Yeah. Life is not supposed to feel like a never-ending boot camp. Accomplishment is not a cure-all. Make sure your kids know that.”

— Caralena Peterson, author of The Effortless Perfection Myth

Read more about Peterson’s time with DA students, faculty and parents/caregivers at url.da.org/peterson.

“We do a lot of threatening around reputation. And we’ll say to kids, ‘Oh, you’ll never have a great career,’ or ‘You’ll never be able to go to that fancy college you want to go to if you post the bad thing.’ There are a bunch of reasons I don’t think that’s a very good message for kids, especially not as the lead message.

One is that it’s frankly untrue; I worked in admissions when I was a grad student at Northwestern, and we’re not doing a NSA-style deep dive on students. Your student who’s applying to college is lucky to get six to 10 minutes of consideration by an admissions committee. They’re certainly not trying to figure out what their Discord handle is and tracking them all over the internet.

The other reason — and I think this is more important — is when we say to kids, ‘You won’t get into X college or have Y job if you post that,’ we’re saying to kids, ‘Don’t get caught.’

Now, that’s not the message we probably think we’re sending, but that’s the message we’re actually sending when we say that. What we want to say to kids is, ‘Don’t do harm. Don’t cause harm.’ …

Here’s the thing: We may not know for a long time if our kid got caught, and many kids do harmful things online and don’t get caught and don’t experience a consequence like not getting into college. And that doesn’t mean it’s OK with you and with them if they’re really thinking about it. We want to get away from a message about consequences and focus instead on character. Does what you posted or commented on or shared reflect the kind of person, friend, classmate that you are? If in doubt, don’t share it out.”

— Dr. Devorah

Heitner, author of Growing Up in Public and Screenwise

Read more and watch a video of Heitner’s virtual visit with parents and caregiver at url.da.org/heitner.

Innovation Journey Fund Empowers Students as Changemakers, Expands 'What Matters to Me' Day

Eighth-grade civics classes were abuzz all year long with the Durham Challenge, where Durham Academy students research community issues of importance to them and then turn their ideas into impactful community engagement projects. Middle Schoolers used design thinking to create positive solutions, informed by field trips and conversations. Their projects addressed some of the root causes of drug and alcohol abuse, the potential mental health impacts of cell phone use in children under 10, the impact of verbal harassment in public spaces, ways to increase environmental sustainability, potential solutions for food insecurity, improvements to recreational equipment in public parks, and ways to teach young children about the benefits of healthy eating. It’s supported, in part, by the the Innovation Journey Fund (IJF), which promotes the discovery, design and implementation of innovative ways of teaching, learning and operating as a school — all in service of DA’s Strategic Vision.

Among other IJF-funded projects this year, Preschool and Lower School students had the opportunity to experience an Upper School tradition in March — hosting their first “What Matters to Me” days. “What Matters to Me” workshops originated in the Upper School, where a half-day is set aside each year for students to share their passions with their peers.

The inaugural Preschool and Lower School events — helmed by Preschool science teacher Dr. Theresa Shebalin and third-grade teaching assistant Sarwat Husain, with the help of Upper School “What Matters to Me” coordinator Kelly Teagarden — enabled students to choose topics of interest and learn alongside peers in other grades. Parents, teachers and Upper School students led dozens of sessions covering everything from slime-making, spin art, gliders, paper airplanes and DNA spiral friendship bracelets to artificial intelligence and how we use it, sports trivia, beekeeping, baking and woodworking. Students were excited, delighted and engaged!

Videographer Jesse Paddock documented this year’s Durham Challenge and students’ efforts to effect meaningful, lasting change. Check out the video at url.da.org/durham-challenge.

See photos from Preschool 'What Matters to Me 'Day at url.da.org/WMTMD-PS

See photos from Lower School 'What Matters to Me' Day at url.da.org/WMTMD-LS

The Art of Listening

In language arts, we strive to demonstrate the power of stories. One of the cornerstones of eighth-grade language arts is our poetry slam in the spring. Though many students start the drafting process by claiming that “nothing interesting has ever happened to them,” we watch exemplars, write toward diverse prompts, and make multiple drafts so students understand that they — and every individual — have unique and important stories to share. We also read Maus II, a graphic memoir that centers on Art Spiegelman, the author, interviewing his father about surviving the Auschwitz concentration camp. As much as the book focuses on the heartwrenching stories of Art's father, it also spends a lot of time examining the interviews themselves — how these intimate, difficult conversations impact the father-son relationship.

Upon finishing our examination of Maus II, we wanted to explore the power of conversation further, so we turned to Humans of New York — comprising a blog and popular social media accounts full of portraits and interviews conducted by Brandon Stanton with

strangers, mostly on the streets of New York City. We learned how to interview: how people often respond to initial questions in generalities and clichés, and how we must be careful listeners and ask pointed followup questions. We learned about the importance of surprise, emotions and details in our quest to draw compelling stories from our interview subjects and truly get to know them. We practiced interviewing each other and learned some unexpected things from people with whom we’ve been sharing space for months — and in most cases, years.

Then, students were given a choice: They could interview an elder in their life or someone at a local retirement community. The class was pretty much split down the middle. We drove students to the Emerald Pond, Durham Regent and Carolina Reserve retirement communities. Students sat with their interviewees for 30 to 60 minutes; we had to pull some away in order to get back to class on time. The bus rides home were buzzing. One student complained, “My person only wanted to talk about his divorce and oysters.” His

teacher responded, “Outstanding!” Next, students transcribed their interviews and decided where the most compelling story lay. They punctuated the chosen excerpt of the interview — an exercise that demonstrated the impact of punctuation on tone and meaning. Students, more than ever before, learned to use ellipses, dashes and colons to show skipped words,

hesitation, interruptions in thought and connections of ideas. They ended by pairing a portrait of their interviewee with the punctuated excerpt, in the style of Humans of New York.

A few months later, as students started to draft their slam poems, fewer claimed that they had “nothing interesting to say!”

“I left this country, you know, to go to Korea. When I was in the military, I was in the Army and I spent 14 months over in Korea. You know, I can just remember flying into Korea as the plane was coming down. You could see everything on the ground. You saw this entirely different kind of architecture, you know, than anything that you have seen in this country. And then you got to know people from another culture. And you realize, you know, they're not really strangers, you know. They're just people. Human beings, just like you are, have the same wishes and desires — for their life, for their family, and for their, if they're married, for their children — that you have. It gives you a better outlook on the way you, you know, handle your own life and how you handle people and how you deal with people.”

— JACK KRAMER, CHARLOTTE

Interviewed by Yari Brock ’28

What is your biggest fear?

“My biggest fear was when I lost so many people in my family. I just lost my oldest sister and her son … I had just talked to her th[e] morning … she got sick … and went into the hospital with a ventilator and everything. It was hard for me to take the fact that I had just talked to her. But you get over it; you have to. Because I remember the good times. I gave it to the Lord. I said, you know, ‘I need your strength. I need you to guide me each day and get me through this.’ It was hard the first three or four days, yeah.”

What was your relationship with your sister like?

“We laughed a lot, talked about our feelings. Even that morning we did — we talked about what we wanted at this point in our life. And um, but I don't know, she's the one that did not call me early like she [usually] did that morning. But anyway, I miss her. But we’ll see each other again, yeah we will.”

— GLENNIE, DURHAM

Sustainability at DA

Board’s Endorsement Places Sustainability Goals Front and Center at DA

It started, like all worthy causes do, with an idea: four 11thgrade boys huddled around a whiteboard in the Upper School Learning Commons, scribbling fragments and notions that would become a constellation of dreams. It was the fall of 2018, and the quartet of Durham Academy juniors — Brandon Caveney ’20, the late Jack Linger ’20, Will Nichols ’20 and Andrew Owens ’20 — had formed, in the most informal sense, Durham Academy’s inaugural Sustainability Club.

They did so at the behest of Tina Bessias ’78, an Upper School English teacher and Independent Learning coordinator. That same month, Bessias had read, with no shortage of alarm, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s landmark report, which concluded that the warming of the Earth by 1.5° Celsius above pre-industrial levels would portend a cascade of cataclysms from which our planet — and, quite possibly, humans — may never recover. The boys, however, saw something more hopeful. “It kind of highlighted that while there is a doomsday scenario, there absolutely is a way to make change to kind of reduce the negative impacts of climate change,” Owens said. “It’s very easy to say that we’re past the point of return — and we might be — but we’re not past the point where we can at least reduce the negative consequences.”

Five years later, on a brisk December day, Merritt Schulz ’25 also found himself in the Learning Commons. The co-chair of the DA Upper School Sustainability Committee was tucked away in the library when he saw Bessias (now serving as DA’s first-ever sustainability coordinator) and his co-chair, Zara Miller ’25, striding forth with an ebullience that only the best of news can inspire. They conferred with Schulz, who leapt to his feet. “We need to tell Ms. Caruso!” he said. They sprinted across campus to the STEM & Humanities Center,

where Andrea Caruso, an Upper School science teacher and divisional sustainability leader, erupted with commensurate glee. The dreams of the dry-erase board had come true.

In December 2023, the Durham Academy Board of Trustees voted to endorse the goals suggested by the DA Sustainability Leadership Team and the Upper School’s student Sustainability Committee, which had presented its aspirations and concrete plans to the board and DA’s Administrative Team over the course of several years. The endorsement of three explicit goals — educating students in all divisions about sustainability, reducing DA’s carbon emissions by 25% within four years, and increasing biodiversity across DA’s campuses — comes 10 years shy of the school’s centennial, all the while positioning sustainability as “a top-shelf priority for the institution,” Head of School Michael Ulku-Steiner said.

To support these goals, the DA Family Association committed a substantial gift to assist with rewilding and biodiversity efforts at the Upper School and Middle School. (The $100,000 gift also included funding for a climbing structure and natural features of the Lower School’s new nature-centric playground.) Ulku-Steiner shared this news with Upper Schoolers at a Jan. 5 assembly in Kirby Gym, beneath a bank of fluorescent lights that will soon be replaced with LED lighting — cheaper-to-maintain, brighter and more efficient technology — in another visible display of actionable change. Ulku-Steiner motioned toward a group of familiar faces. “I want you to recognize that it’s students who catalyzed this change,” he said, as he was joined by seven DA alumni who worked tirelessly on behalf of sustainability efforts. “These are some of the students who took unpopular stands,” Ulku-Steiner said, “who went to extra meetings, who worked on weekends, who worked on evenings.”

They would work again on this day, too. As the assembly concluded, the seven alumni and dozens of current students, faculty and staff members walked to the grassy area beneath the Elder Oak — a gargantuan, 232-foot scarlet oak tree on the corner of Pickett and Ridge roads. The tree was recently designated as a “Champion Tree,” an honor bestowed upon the oldest tree within a given species in the state of North Carolina. The lawn beneath the Elder Oak — which is, as all grass lawns are, monocultures that are unable to support many beneficial species of wildlife — will soon become DA’s first “pocket prairie.” This assemblage of native plant species will offer refuge and nourishment to critically important pollinators like bees, butterflies and birds.

The post-assembly work session served as an unofficial groundbreaking, or literal lawnbreaking. Bessias and Caruso laid pieces of cardboard to cover the grass, and students shoveled mulch atop the cardboard to kill the existing sod and prevent weeds from sprouting through the soil. Committee members soon realized an unintended consequence of so much enthusiastic participation: They ran out of shovels. “We didn’t expect that many people to be out there,” Schulz said. “It was such an amazing surprise.”

It was, too, for members of the original Sustainability Club who couldn’t have fathomed a day like this when they commandeered a Learning Commons whiteboard. “I was honestly astounded,” Nichols said, laughing. Owens, who was part of the first student presentation to the Board of Trustees on potential sustainability initiatives, agreed: “This is something I never would have expected years ago. We were proud of what we had done, the fact that we stood up for something we believed in. But I think it’s really nice to see that there’s some tangible change.”

It was not, of course, a straight line from whiteboard to institutional backing. Sustainability at DA represents the boundless passion and resolve of students and faculty who are buoyed by the simplest of creeds: If we can do something, then we must. Here is a closer look at the board’s endorsements, and a glimpse into the indefatigable journey of those students and staff members who dared to dream.

The Endorsements:

How the Board’s Support Will Move DA Forward

Advocates for environmental sustainability at Durham Academy have celebrated several milestones in recent years, and these efforts received a major injection of institutional support with a grant from DA’s Innovation Journey Fund (IJF) in spring 2022. With the grant, a schoolwide Sustainability Leadership Team was formed, and the school partnered with Raleigh-based firm GreenPlaces, which worked with students in the Upper School Sustainability in Action elective to analyze data on the school’s greenhouse gas emissions and to formulate a plan to lower the school’s carbon footprint. Thanks to the IFJ grant, DA was also able to partner with The Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education to offer workshops and ongoing coaching to faculty, staff and students looking to infuse sustainability into curricula. And in February 2023, the Upper School Sustainability Committee hosted DA’s first-ever Sustain-In to broaden the school’s brainstorming power around sustainability.

But DA has, by its own admission, moved more glacially than the moment requires.

“The truth is, Durham Academy was behind,” Ulku-Steiner said during his address to Upper Schoolers. “We had not acted as an institution in the ways that we should have — as ambitiously, as thoughtfully, as comprehensively. We always had a lot of good stuff happening in the realm of green action here. We’ve been recycling for 25 years. We’ve been composting for five. But never before has the school made an institutional commitment to reducing the emissions, to educating every single student and to rewilding the campus as much as we can.”

“I think Ms. Bessias probably put it best when she said that the best thing we could do — and what we did do — was light a fire under their feet,” Owens said of the committee’s persistence across campus. “The more you push for something that you believe in, the more likely there is to be tangible change. Sometimes it takes a never-ending commitment to see the change that you want implemented.”

Change at DA has arrived. Here’s what to expect from the Board of Trustees’ endorsements (including the addition of sustainability to the Buildings and Grounds Committee of the board) and the Sustainability Leadership Team’s implementation.

1. Educate students in all four divisions about sustainability

Sustainability education will be incorporated into all subject matter at all levels as part of a cultural, schoolwide academic commitment.

Bessias ’78: “In some ways, education is really the foundation of it all. There are those who say — and [renowned climate scientist] Katharine Hayhoe is one — that speaking about climate change and sustainability is the most powerful thing we can do. And it’s really important because it’s all too easy to do harm while you’re trying to do good. Getting rid of singleuse plastic, in general, is a worthy goal — but if we replace them with very resource-intensive, very thick, heavy bottles with 150 times as much material in them, and we lose them after five uses, then we’ve actually done harm rather than good. We have to actually study these things. We have to train ourselves. We have to learn a lot, not just a little. And we have to get used to talking about it. That’s why education is the No. 1 goal — and it’s what we do.”

Miller ’25: “Sustainability can be incorporated into so many different things. Younger kids can find a passion in it. If we’re able to do this starting in the Preschool at DA, I think it will really merge different parts of campus and make everyone more passionate about sustaining the goals.”

Schulz ’25: “We’re only here at DA for so long. The future comes from all of the other divisions and all of the other grade levels. We need to educate them and really inspire them to take up the mantle like the [previous] leaders did for me and create a culture where it’s fun, where there’s a purpose. That’s really the most important goal — just educating.”

2. Reduce carbon emissions by 25% within four years

The original Sustainability Club deployed “Operation: Shoe Size” to ascertain DA’s emissions related to transportation, electricity, food and waste. With the support of GreenPlaces, that data — and the ideal areas for improvement — have become all the more precise.

Miller ’25: “We realized, ‘Wow, we’re releasing a lot of emissions.’ Compared to a lot of schools, we’re kind of similar. But I think as a private institution, just the amount that we’re emitting, it’s kind of scary to look at in numbers to see the impact that we’re having as a whole student body. Obviously, you can’t really see emissions, but they’re there. Reducing those emissions will show to other schools, ‘We care about this. You need to, too, because we’re setting a new standard.’ ” Schulz ’25: “We should be the standard. We should be the role model for other schools. With that number, that’s the easiest way to be a role model. If you’re cutting down that

number, everyone can see that you’re being more sustainable. It’s a very easy way to show sustainability, and it’s also very helpful.”

Bessias ’78: “We can do it. It isn’t something abstract or indirect. If we make changes and reduce our carbon emissions, it will help in a significant way. We don’t have to persuade somebody else to do that. We can first work on ourselves. I’m fond of the Archimedes saying — people think of it as, ‘Give me a lever and I can move the world.’ But that leaves out a part. He said, ‘Give me a lever and a place to stand, and I can move the world.’ In my mind, knowledge is our lever, and personal actions are the place to stand. It gives us credibility to move the world. It gives us power when we actually take action ourselves.”

3. Increase biodiversity across DA’s campuses

Of the $100,000 DA Family Association gift, $40,000 is dedicated toward the new “pocket prairie” beneath the Elder Oak; a portion of the remaining funds will improve biodiversity at the Middle School’s Academy Road campus. The genesis of the pocket prairie traces back to the February 2023 Sustain-In, when Sanju Patel ’23 and Frankie Stover ’24 pushed for biodiversity as a higher priority within the committee’s efforts. The design of the pocket prairie features input from faculty and students, and it will proliferate native species; Bessias, Caruso and Ann Leininger (an Upper School parent and former DA trustee and Family Association president) learned about starting Southeastern native plants from seeds through a workshop held at Duke Gardens. Schulz ’25: “It shows that sustainability is more than just carbon. That number is amazing to cut down. However, biodiversity loss is still one of the leading problems in the world today. To show that we’re doing our part to give a home to these species in North Carolina, it really does a lot. It’ll also just be good for the mental health of our students. It’s going to be a good place for students to study. Teachers can go out there and help students learn about different species. I just think it’ll improve DA as a whole — not just for sustainability, but also for education.”

CJ Nwafor ’23: “This shows there’s actually commitment and actual, physical change that you can see — changes in your community that you can see — that actually contribute to the cause.”

Caruso: “I’m excited to both start a small patch of pocket prairie with my biodiversity elective this spring semester, as well as help spearhead the development of the Family Association-funded project by the Elder Oak. I think this space — to be designed for gathering and learning, wellness, and habitat — may end up being the lovely corner of campus.”

Parker Silliman ’25: “Bringing kids at DA into a space where they can learn about sustainability hands-on — if they’re out there in nature, they can really enjoy it and see how important it is and how they need to save it. If they have that more emotional and physical connection to nature and the planet, they might feel like they need to help out more.”

Composting at the Preschool

CONNECTING

ART, SCIENCE AND LUNCH TO SUSTAINABILITY

Photo Essay by Kate Auger

While Preschool students are feasting on their edamame, spaghetti and PB&Js, there is a set of small invertebrates enjoying their own fine dining across the hallway in Preschool science teacher Dr. Theresa Shebalin’s classroom. After a lesson about tadpoles and bacteria acting as decomposers in water, she quietly asks if students remember what is in an unassuming gray plastic tote. They begin to wiggle in their seats, craning for a glimpse of what is inside. Their excitement overrides the instructions to wait patiently. Shebalin digs around in the bin, bringing with her not only a beautiful and rich compost, but also the champions who created it — worms.

While the worms fly via Air Shebalin from the compost bin to the class carpet, they are inspected and observed on their quick vacation with curious eyes and a will of steel to not touch the slinky creatures. The worms — not the students — break down fruits and vegetable scraps and with the help of microorganisms create a rich soil amendment, ready to give nutrients back to the earth. This vermicomposting process in the classroom is the perfect model for students to visualize decomposition in a producer-consumer-decomposer ecosystem. The rest of Durham Academy’s food waste is processed by CompostNow, which uses a commercial composting process, allowing food scraps of all kinds to be repurposed.

“ One of the most important things any individual can do to minimize their contribution to climate change is to compost their food waste. (Sending food waste to the landfill results in methane emissions, and methane is much more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas.) By practicing the right way to compost, DA's Preschool students are learning a lifelong skill that they can share with the adults in their lives who also need to have that skill but probably weren't taught it in school.”

- Dr. Theresa Shebalin Preschool Science Teacher

“ Preschool students are just beginning to learn that all living things have a role to play in their homes and that every organism's role is important for the functioning of the ecosystem as a whole. Based on their lived experiences, it's pretty straightforward for them to understand that plants make their own food and in turn become food for animals that cannot produce their own food. But the idea of decomposers breaking down waste to create nutrients for new plants is usually outside of their lived experience, so vermicomposting in our classroom helps make that idea a little less abstract.”

- Shebalin

The sounds of snipping scissors provide the soundtrack as students in Preschool art and cooking teacher Elizabeth McLeod’s classroom craft their next masterpiece — a fearsome creature composed of scrap paper and marker, a toothy green crocodile. Students pull all hues of greens and blues from supply bins of torn and cut paper and strategically decide where to glue this predator’s vertical pupils. There’s something else they consider in their crafting: Is this compostable?

Repetition is essential in art; repeating colors, patterns and ideas create effective compositions. At the Preschool, repetition is carried through to art materials as well, with artists posing the question, “Is this compostable?” for each object they plan to throw in the bin. Yes, that paper can go in the bin. No, not if it has sparkles. Some items are questionable, like used tissues, which students learn can be composted, but not recycled. Achoo!

After art and science classes comes a favorite time of the day for many Preschoolers. It’s not necessarily lunch itself — more so a sorting game. With Shebalin’s help, students carefully sift through their finished meals to identify what they should take home, what can be composted and how (either in the vermicomposting tote or the CompostNow bin), what can be recycled, and what is destined for the landfill. Edamame shells? Compost. Aluminum foil? Recycling. Chicken tender? Compost. Styrofoam? Landfill. If you don’t see clear identifiers on disposable utensils, then they can’t be composted. Shebalin encourages students to look for language that confirms the product can be commercially composted or ready to throw into a backyard compost bin, like the letters BPI (Biodegradable Product Institute) and CMA (Compost Manufacturing Alliance). Sorting the wrong items in compost can cause production and environmental problems. When in doubt, it is better to throw it out.

“ I will always remember the first time one of my kindergartners brought me food waste from home to add to our school bin. She presented it to me on a Monday morning with tremendous joy, as though it were a birthday gift. I can only imagine the conversation that must have taken place at home in order for her to be able to bring in a weekend's worth of food scraps to school! (And I'll take them any time!) At the same time, I love meeting grandparents who are eager to tell me what their grandchild has taught them about composting.”

- Shebalin

be more bold and adventurous in the school’s offerings to students. He had heard that Caruso had previously camped on the Great Wall of China as part of a trip with an outdoor adventure company. “Is that something we can do with students?” her boss asked.

Caruso rented a bus, and her colleagues borrowed camping gear from a store down the street from their school. The small group of students and staff hiked along the unrestored sections of the wall, older bricks interspersed with newer bricks, the crumbled masonry bearing the names of brickmakers from centuries ago. They pitched tents within one of the old watchtowers, which — according to unofficial estimates — may have once numbered 25,000 along the 5,500-mile wall. In her environmental science class, Caruso carved out space for students to pursue creative projects, to discover, to think. She explained all of this with her quintessential calm and methodical approach in the Zoom interview. When the call ended, Eppinger and Wilson walked out of the Learning Commons. They looked at each other. “That’s it,” they said to each other.

“She has turned out to be such a gift,” Eppinger said.

A gift to whom, it turns out, is just about everyone. Caruso started at DA as a part-time environmental science and chemistry teacher. She had been on campus for less than two months when Tina Bessias ’78, then an Upper School English teacher and independent learning coordinator, approached Caruso with an idea. The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had just released its report on the perilous state of the planet, and Bessias wanted to create a studentfaculty study group to develop a plan of action for DA’s campus. Was there any chance Caruso would be interested? “Sure!” she said. They couldn’t have known that, a little more than five years later, their lasting partnership within the Sustainability Leadership Team — and their stewardship of the Upper School’s student Sustainability Committee — would result in the DA Board of Trustees endorsing three concrete goals for sustainability at DA.

“I firmly believe that without that ‘yes’ from her, we never would have gotten anywhere,” said Bessias, who is now Durham Academy’s sustainability coordinator. “You just have to have a

“Nature is kind of trained to avoid us. If you’re sitting quiet and still, then you get more nature coming to you.”

-ANDREA CARUSO

partner in these things — a thought partner, an action partner, a communication partner. She’s been all of the things.”

A class period rarely passes without Caruso checking in with each student to ensure they feel confident about the material in her classes. The committee, and her science courses, are largely student-driven, said Thomas Pollard ’24. Caruso presents information and allows students to draw their own conclusions, and present their opinions without feeling like they’ve been told what to think. “When it’s the students who are leading it,” Pollard said, “and then you have people like Ms. Caruso who are there to back the students up, that’s when things really get done.”

“She’s like glue,” said Eppinger, smiling. “She holds people together.”

On a frigid winter’s day, Caruso sits again beneath the Elder Oak, this time at the picnic table. The sun dips lower in the afternoon sky. Birds chirp over her head, and branches sway in time with a steady breeze. This space around the Elder Oak will, in time, become DA’s first “pocket prairie,” an assemblage of native plant species that will offer refuge and nourishment to critically important pollinators like bees, butterflies and birds. On Jan. 5, after Head of School Michael Ulku-Steiner shared news of the board’s sustainability endorsement with Upper Schoolers in an assembly, Caruso kicked off the transition from grass lawn to pocket prairie. She and Bessias laid down pieces of cardboard to cover the grass beneath the Elder Oak, and alumni and students began distributing mulch to kill the existing grass. The work continued over the course of the spring semester during Biodiversity in Action, a new elective that Caruso taught.

She laughs when she thinks about how she ended up here, in Durham, beneath a 116-foot tree from the 18th century. There were times, Caruso said, when she felt her path was meandering, her experiences peripatetic, a dollop of entropy in a world that speaks in the vernacular of five-year plans and schedules and urgency. She observed. She noticed. But she didn’t question it. “Ultimately,” she says, “it did lead me to a great place.”

At the close of her first year at DA, Caruso noted the retirement of several longtime Upper School teachers — including longtime math teacher and track and field coach Dennis Cullen and Spanish teacher Margarita Throop — and thought, for the first time, how DA wasn’t a place for meanderers. It was a place to make a home. Paula Marr, an Upper School history teacher, checked in with Caruso during that first year. “So what do you think?” Marr asked. “Are you happy? Do you want to stay?”

“I don’t know,” Caruso said at the time. “Maybe I’ll be one of those people who retire from here.”

She smiles. Sunlight dances through branches overhead. “I still have that feeling,” she says now, sounding as resolute as a centuries-old scarlet oak.

Board of Trustees Welcomes New Members

Members of the Durham Academy's Board of Trustees serve as stewards of the school who hold in trust its mission and reputation. The Board of Trustees represents a wide range of professions and broad representation across gender, race, age and geography. Trustees bring with them a variety of perspectives — as current and former Durham Academy parents, alumni and members of the broader Triangle community.

The board will welcome four new members — as well as an existing member who will serve in a new capacity — in the 2024–2025 school year. Read on to learn more about these new members, and visit url.da.org/board to check out bios for all active board members.

Dr. Ronnie Chatterji

Chatterji is a professor at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and Sanford School of Public Policy. He is also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and co-author of the 2018 book Can Business Save the Earth? Innovating our Way to Sustainability.

Chatterji has served in senior economic policy positions in the Biden and Obama administrations. He recently served as the White House CHIPS coordinator, overseeing the implementation of the $52 billion CHIPS and Science Act, one of the largest industrial policy initiatives in a generation. He also served as acting deputy director of the White House National Economic Council.

Chatterji has additionally served as the senior economist for the White House Council of Economic Advisors, a visiting associate professor at Harvard Business School and a financial analyst at Goldman Sachs.

Chatterji has served on the Durham Academy Finance Committee for two years. Chatterji and his wife, Neely, live in Durham. They are the parents of Lower and Middle School students.

Andy Crawford ’97

Crawford, a resident of New York City, will serve as the board’s first-ever remote member, although he plans to attend the board’s retreat and several other meetings in person each year. He has worked with private equity firm General Atlantic for more than 10 years.

Crawford and his wife, Mimi, have three sons who attend the Collegiate School in New York City. His brother, Matt Crawford ’99, is a DA parent, and their mother, the late Beth Crawford, served as Lower School administrative assistant for nearly 20 years.

Andy Crawford was honored with DA’s Distinguished Alumni Award this spring; learn more about him on page 78.

Meredith White Howell ’97

The trusteeship committee appointed Howell for a regular term of service on the Board of Trustees, following two years of ex officio service as president of the DA Alumni Board. She is a residential realtor with Peak, Swirles & Cavallito Properties, and she also serves on the board of directors at Westminster Preschool and Hope Valley Country Club. Howell has been an active volunteer with DA Family Association, having co-chaired the 2022–2023 Dine with DA program.

Howell and her husband, Jason, live in Durham and have three children enrolled in DA Preschool and Middle School.

Dr. Jill Moore

In her role as 2024–2025 president of Durham Academy Family Association, Moore is serving on the Board of Trustees in an ex officio capacity.

Having served as a gastroenterologist for more than two decades, Moore is now an assistant professor of medicine at Duke University Medical Center, with a joint appointment at Durham’s Veterans Affairs Medical Center. She and her husband, Dr. Oren Gottfried, are the parents of a DA alumna, a Middle Schooler and an Upper Schooler.

David Peters ’13

In his role as president of the Durham Academy Alumni Board, Peters is serving on the Board of Trustees in an ex officio capacity.

Peters — who lives in Raleigh with his girlfriend, Emily Sharpe — now works as a Senior Portfolio Analyst with the Bank of California. He has previous professional experience at MapleMark Bank and Northwestern Mutual and served as a senior counselor and golf chief at YMCA Camp Sea Gull and YMCA Camp Seafarer. Peters served as 2023–2024 DA Alumni Board vice president.

From the Desk of Meredith White Howell '97 Alumni Board President, 2022–2024

Summer 2024 marks the completion of my time as Durham Academy Alumni Board president. The past two years have been a joy, marked with various highlights spawned from the nature of a school and an alumni body that exuded positive and constructive growth. During my time in this role, I have observed alumni from across the globe returning to campus and offering their earnest reflections of DA today. The words of praise, encouragement and constructive feedback have been accompanied by boots on the ground, with members of DA’s alumni community meeting with students and one other to teach, learn and grow together. Without a doubt, I can say that Durham Academy’s alumni are more engaged than we have ever been.

The Alumni Board has been hard at work planning a handful of impactful events that connected alumni with folks on campus. The first of these, spearheaded by Alumni Board member Jason Lapidus ’15, was our inaugural MasterClass with Faculty. This gathering over Zoom featured American literature teacher Jeff Biersach — who has just wrapped up his 20th year teaching in the Upper School — and included lots of laughs and lessons based on Jeff’s gleanings from his two decades of teaching DA students. Alumni Board member Natalie Sutton Alvarez ’07 assembled a panel comprising DA alumni working in the healthcare industry who shared about their career journeys and discussed their professional passions with current students. The panel, moderated by Alvarez, included the board’s Dr. David Sailer ’11, who was joined by Eleanor Wertman ’07 and Elise Hartley ’10. The school year also included visits from other alumni who offered their time for “lunch and learns” with current Upper Schoolers. The channels between past and current DA students are flourishing. This type of engagement is becoming a standard for alumni — who are, more than ever, returning to campus and sharing expertise that enriches students’ experience at Durham Academy.

Our alumni are also having a major positive impact on the school in ways that are less visible on campus. Our annual Giving Day saw alumni participation increase 16% from the previous year. Fellowship among alumni was fostered all over the country, as Director of Alumni Philanthropy & Engagement Tim McKenna and Head of School Michael Ulku-Steiner hosted alumni events in the Bay Area, Charlotte, New York City, Washington, D.C., and Austin. At the Spring Alumni Reception in April, Andy Crawford ’97 (Distinguished Alumni Award), Derek Rhodes ’11 (Alumni Service Award) and retiring English teacher Jordan Adair (Faculty and Staff Legacy Award) joined the ranks of Durham Academy alumni award honorees.

For us local alumni, it is a thrill to see classmates from across the country make visits back to campus. We invite you to join the many Cavs who have returned and extend a pointed invitation for you to attend one of our upcoming events: 2024 Homecoming Weekend (Oct. 4–5) and the DA Athletic Hall of Fame Induction on Dec. 13. Our campus is always open to alumni, so please stop by when you can for some warm smiles, fond memories, and to witness firsthand the ways that our school is thriving.

I am in awe of the alumni with whom I have had the opportunity to collaborate on the Alumni Board; this is an involved, generous and creative group. I look forward to the ways the board will continue to cultivate community, both within the alumni family and with Durham Academy’s current students under the leadership of 2024–2025 Alumni Board President David Peters ’13. Durham Academy’s strength has always been in our people. It is inspiring to see alumni who recognize ways to give back to DA, and in doing so, pay it forward to another generation of impressive graduates. I have never been prouder to be Cavalier!

Meredith White Howell ’97 Alumni Board President, 2022–2024

Ava Pacchiana ’18 HOLDING COMMUNITIES TOGETHER,

Ava Pacchiana ’18 had time on her hands, and an inclination to use it. “I wanted to do something different,” Pacchiana said.

She had just graduated from Vanderbilt University, where she interned with the ACLU and the Tennessee General Assembly — the latter of which passed a resolution, in 2021, to recognize her “exemplary service as a legislative intern.” She had also been accepted to Harvard Law School by way of its junior deferral program, which allows students to delay their enrollment by two years. Pacchiana just needed to define, exactly, that something. “I didn’t know what that was going to look like,” she said.

Pacchiana soon connected with Jonathan Mills, a Chapel Hill native who had spent part of his career in Poland before moving back to North Carolina. It was February 2022, and Russia had launched its ground invasion of Ukraine. The growing conflict displaced millions of Ukrainians who were crossing the border between Poland and Ukraine in staggering numbers. The population of Warsaw, the Polish capital, grew by 15%. Estimates suggest the number of Ukrainians crossing into Poland has now exceeded 15 million.

Amid the despair, Mills couldn’t help but think of Poland. “He said, ‘What can we do to help Ukraine and the Ukrainian refugees here?’” Pacchiana recalled. The answer was indelible, both for Ukrainians and for Pacchiana.

Mills partnered with a local Polish nonprofit to found Spynka, an organization that employs and trains Ukrainian women as educators within early childhood education programs. The purpose was twofold: give refugees meaningful employment, and give their children a safe place to learn and grow. The organization’s mission was evident in its name: Spynka means “spine” in Ukrainian and “paperclip” in Polish — “the

FROM WARSAW TO NEW YORK

idea behind it being that it’s holding the community up and together,” Pacchiana said.

She moved to Warsaw in June 2022 and spent 10 months with Fundacja Rozwoju Dzieci (Foundation for Child Development), the nongovernmental organization that implemented Spynka. Pacchiana was one of only a few staff members who didn’t speak Polish or Ukrainian. She had never written grants before, but she became the organization’s lead grant writer and raised $11 million. Spynka had opened 23 early childhood programs when Pacchiana arrived. By the time she left, in June 2023, the organization had expanded to 75 programs. “It wasn’t always pretty, but I made it,” Pacchiana said, “and I’m really proud of what I did on the other side.”

That other side, understandably, could have been a year of respite before she started law school. Instead, Pacchiana walked all 500 miles — and an extra 100, for good measure — of the famed Camino de Santiago in Spain. She’s now in the midst of a year of public service at The Innocence Project, the New York-based nonprofit dedicated to overturning, and preventing, wrongful convictions. It represents a continuation of her work at Vanderbilt, where Pacchiana served as vice president of the Vanderbilt Prison Project; co-led a local clemency campaign; organized a community-based Court Watch program; and planned weekly dinners attended by Vanderbilt students and the previously incarcerated. “It’s very intense and heartbreaking,” she said, “but I feel like it’s the best work you can do, really.”

Pacchiana spoke with DA's Marketing & Communications team in October for an extended conversation about that best work: with Spynka, with the Innocence Project and on the trails of the Camino. All of it, she says, has indeed amounted to something different — and endlessly rewarding.

This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.

DA: I’m sure you’ve encountered a fair number of adults who have given up and said, “The problems are too big, the system is too broken, there’s nothing you can do.” What was it about criminal justice reform that compelled you to take on such an intractable challenge?

Pacchiana: One thing that I want to say in response to thinking about the older generation and their attitudes toward it is that the future is in the hands of our generation and younger people. We’re the ones with the resilience and motivation and inspiration to actually make change. Some people are like, “Oh, you’re 23. You’re so young to be doing all of this.” And I’m like, “This is the time that we should be doing this.” In 20 years, who knows what I’m going to be? Life gets in the way, but to be able to do this work now, it’s the time — and we have the energy to actually make change.

With regards to criminal justice, I’m very much a people person. At Durham Academy, I took a class that Mr. Ulku-Steiner [Head of School Michael Ulku-Steiner] and Mr. Hark [former Associate Head of School Lee Hark] were leading together. It was called Mission-Driven Life, and it was the first year they did it. It was the coolest class. That was probably my highlight from Durham Academy. The class was basically designed to have you create a mission statement for your purpose in this world. What are you trying to do? And the thing that I always came back to was connection, and connecting with other people.

I think that the whole idea behind the criminal justice movement right now is that everybody has a story, and your story — and who you are — is so much bigger than the worst thing you’ve ever done. That idea just spoke to me so instantly. That’s something that I believe in my day-to-day life. And that’s what our criminal justice system needs to shift toward, this new perspective of how we see each other. I think it does connect back to Mission-Driven Life and the work that we were doing in that class, and the desire to connect with people and hear people’s stories.

DA: The Innocence Project must be a little more familiar for you, given your extensive work in the criminal justice space while you were at Vanderbilt. What is your day-to-day role with the organization?

Pacchiana: The Innocence Project takes cases for people with claims of innocence where there’s an opportunity for DNA testing to prove them innocent. I’m working directly under our attorneys on the post-conviction litigation team. These are the attorneys who are working directly with our clients, litigating, doing the DNA testing, basically trying to exonerate them. I’m working on a couple of different projects right now. In one case, I’m in an investigative role looking into an alternate suspect in the crime. On another case, we were not successful in court, so I’m working on pulling together parole packets for our client, basically supporting him once he goes in front of the parole board after 50 years of being incarcerated. I’m doing a

Story by Dylan Howlett

little bit of departmental stuff, working on a database of all the exonerations. We’re trying to make sure that’s comprehensive because it’s a work in progress. It’s been surprisingly niche projects depending on the case, learning a lot of random things that somehow pertain to the case we’re working on.

DA: After your 10 months in Warsaw, you said you did some “walking in Spain,” which is quite the understatement: You completed the Camino de Santiago, the famed 500-mile pilgrimage across Spain. What was that like?

Pacchiana: I’m proud of it, and it’s not a conventional achievement. It doesn’t sound as good on paper. But after I was in Poland, I decided that I needed some self-care time. I turned to my bucket list and decided to walk Camino de Santiago by myself for five weeks. I started in Saint-Jean in France, just over the border, and walked over 600 miles to Santiago and actually passed Santiago to the coast so I could say I made it across the entire country. That was the coolest thing ever. I was carrying everything on my back, I was walking by myself, I was meeting people from around the world. It was awesome. Everyone who has an opportunity to do something like that, I’m like, “Go! Go! Go!” The Camino is amazing. That was me in my happy place, I think.

DA: Would you have anticipated doing this work — and living this life — when you were a student at DA?

Pacchiana: I very much flew under the radar at Durham Academy. If you would have asked me then where I would be now, I never would have thought this. I know there are other kids who have been at Durham Academy forever and are going to get a ton of recognition, and I was never one of those kids. I didn’t feel like I was thriving at Durham Academy. But on the other side, I’m better because of it, you know? I have a couple of close friends from Durham Academy. We weren’t the cool people necessarily, but looking at us now — one of my best friends is a teacher now, and I’m doing my work — we get together now and we’re like, “Wow, we’re killing it.”

young Black men in Durham have other options. I have some friends who didn’t necessarily see Durham as a great place or who thought it was a struggle to get out of Durham. And then for others, I’ve seen Durham help them flourish and thrive. I want people to be able to see that there are a lot of great opportunities you can have coming out of Durham. I just want to be a good mentor, assistant, role model, whatever you want to call it. I really want to make sure that a lot of these young guys had some people that were there for them, were willing to speak up for them and were willing to guide them however they needed to be guided. I just really wanted to give back to Durham, and I thought the best thing for me to do was to just pour into people I could see myself in.

DA: The thing that we can’t fathom is that between your job at Pendo.io and your work at Durham Success Summit, you still woke up one day and said, ‘I’d also like to help coach boys’ varsity basketball at DA.’ How did that come together?

Williams: Honestly, playing for Coach [Tim] McKenna was always a blast for me. He was definitely a tough coach who loved hard. I always wanted to come back and coach. When he chose to step away from coaching at DA, I was able to get in touch with [DA Director of Athletics Andy] Pogach, who was one of the basketball assistants while I was there. They needed an assistant, and I thought it would be fun. I always knew when I came back to Durham that I wanted to try and get involved with Durham Academy basketball. Throughout the years, I’d kept up with the different teams, how they were performing. With my brother (Kobie Williams ’18) having also been a DA graduate, I feel like I know a lot of the kids and players who have come throughout the years, even though some of them weren’t at the Upper School at the same time I was. For those who can’t do, sometimes they teach, and I think that was me. My basketball career kind of stopped after I graduated from Durham Academy, but I wanted to help out.

DA: How did your opportunity with the DA Alumni Board come to be?

Williams: Coach McKenna [Director of Alumni Philanthropy & Engagement] just reached out. He mentioned that I had been nominated for it, and then I saw some of the names that were also on the Alumni Board at the time. Whether it was former teammates from basketball, like David Peters ’13 or Jason Lapidus ’15 — whether it was classmates who graduated the

Story by Dylan Howlett

same year as I did, such as Joia Freeman ’14 — it just seemed like it would be a cool opportunity to help connect alums. Coach McKenna would definitely talk to his former players a lot about, ‘Make sure you text your buddies.’ It felt like an extension of what I had already been helping Coach do on the side anyway. It just felt like an easy step. And it’s been really cool to see from a different lens how the school operates, getting to hear from [Head of School Michael] Ulku-Steiner about how things are going, hearing more about the projects that we’re doing, the different impacts that can be made. It’s definitely been an eyeopening experience being a part of the Alumni Board.

DA: For the sake of your free time, we sincerely hope that’s the extent of your professional obligations.

Williams: I recently joined another board to add on to my busy schedule: Students to Scholars. Mr. Ulku-Steiner was actually able to help refer me to the program. It’s been great to help a program with a mission that assists minority children with their transition to independent schools or helps identify minority students who would benefit from an independent school education. I was in Durham Public Schools through middle school, and then my mother presented me with the opportunity to go to Durham Academy. It wasn’t the easiest transition, but looking back at it nine years later, I’m still really thankful for that opportunity.

I’m excited to help more students find independent schools that work for them. I know that transition can sometimes be awkward, uncomfortable or strange. Whatever we can do to help them support them with that transition is great, and help them build affinity for these schools while they’re at the program. I enjoyed my time at Durham Academy — I had a blast. But I do think that the way I look back on my time at Durham Academy now is a lot more fond than I did at the time. I didn’t have negative thoughts, but just now I’m like, ‘Wow, this was actually, a really, really awesome opportunity for me.’ I’m hoping that instead of needing nine years to have all of this gratitude finally get paid forward, students can have this type of affinity while they’re at campus or right away when they go off to college.

I’m thankful to have Durham Academy give me so many opportunities to continue making an impact. It’s a give and take: DA gives me a plate of opportunities, and I love trying to step up and make the most out of them.

SPRING ALUMNI RECEPTION CELEBRATES

Andy Crawford ’97, Jordan Adair and Derek Rhodes ’11

During this year’s Spring Alumni Reception at Horton Hall in April, the Durham Academy Alumni Board sustained its 41-year tradition of honoring alumni for outstanding contributions to the school community. Andy Crawford ’97, a global growth equity firm executive, received the Distinguished Alumni Award, which has been given every year since 1983; Jordan Adair, an Upper School English teacher, accepted the Faculty and Staff Legacy Award, which has been granted annually since 2012; and Derek Rhodes ’11, the founder of a Durham nonprofit dedicated to uplifting young Black men, took home the Alumni Service Award, which the board has bestowed at its discretion since 2014.

Andy Crawford ’97 DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARD

Crawford is a managing director and the global head of General Atlantic’s Consumer sector. He also serves on the firm’s Management Committee and chairs the firm’s Portfolio Committee.

Prior to founding General Atlantic’s Consumer Group a decade ago, Crawford was a key member of Advent International’s Consumer team, and he joined Advent in 2003. He is a graduate of Harvard Business School and Washington and Lee University.

Crawford has served on the boards of numerous notable consumer brands, including Authentic Brands Group, Joe & the Juice, Torchy’s Tacos, European Wax Center, Buff City Soap, Too Faced Cosmetics, Zimmermann, Barteca, Five Below, Bojangles and Shoes For Crews. Crawford also serves as chairman of the New York-based Partnership to End Homelessness.

In 2016, he and his brother, Matt Crawford ’99, honored their late mother — longtime Lower School administrative assistant Beth Crawford — with the establishment of a scholarship fund designated to support financial aid for Lower School students.

Andy Crawford and his wife, Mimi, live in Manhattan with their three sons: William, Jack and Cole.

“Durham Academy has been instrumental in shaping the person I am today, providing me with an exceptional foundation for adulthood. The dedicated teachers and coaches at Durham Academy imparted invaluable life lessons centered around preparation, hard work, kindness, prioritizing the team over oneself and the importance of perseverance. Reflecting on my time at Durham Academy, I am grateful for being nurtured in such a positive and balanced community where academic rigor and character development went hand in hand.”

Jordan Adair FACULTY AND STAFF LEGACY AWARD

Adair arrived at Durham Academy in the fall of 1995 after 12 years in New England, where he served as a teacher and earned two master’s degrees. He eventually took a position teaching English — Adair would ultimately teach all four grade levels in the Upper School — and coaching the varsity boys basketball team.

In his time at DA, Adair has served as English department division leader and chair; established and taught AP Art History for 12 years; and advised numerous student organizations, including the Green and White newspaper, the Students for Troops Club and the Nicaragua Club. He led four Nicaragua Club trips with DA students to the country; with Rhodes’ leadership, the Nicaragua Club helped raise $13,500 to build a small rural school outside of DA’s sister community of San Ramón.

Adair also taught Literary and Artistic Responses to War, an Upper School course that resulted in more than 200 interviews for the Veterans History Project in the National Archives at the Library of Congress and the establishment of DA’s annual Veterans Day assembly. In 2021, he was named the Veterans of Foreign Wars North Carolina High School Teacher of the Year and received a similar award from the VFW post in Cary in 2016. In 2006, Adair was instrumental in the creation of Assist, DA’s early intervention team.

Adair has been honored with the Durham Academy Upper School Teaching Award in 2007; as a U.S. Presidential Scholar in 2010; and the F. Robertson Hershey Distinguished Faculty Award in 2021. He retired from DA at the conclusion of the 2023–2024 school year.

“Over the course of my 28 years at DA, I have been the beneficiary of so many gifts from a variety of sectors of the community that I’ve lost count: students, faculty colleagues, parents and administration. I am fortunate indeed that Jim Speir, then the Dean of Faculty, responded when I cold called him way back in the winter of 1995 during a visit to Durham to see my mother.

“Over the years, I have grown as a teacher through DA’s robust professional development opportunities, which included a semester-long sabbatical in 2004 and a rich variety of subjectspecific workshops. I have grown as a human being through my friendships with an amazing group of colleagues. I have been taught humility and gratitude through my classroom experiences and an administration that has supported my work outside of the narrow confines of DA and into the broader community. And perhaps most essentially, I have been fortunate to work with so many amazing students over the years, to form friendships with them, to be taught by them, and to have been encouraged by them as they rose to the challenges I put before them. I am indeed so very lucky to have landed at DA all those years ago and to have ended my career here.”

Derek Rhodes ’11

2024 ALUMNI SERVICE AWARD

Rhodes is a business strategist, community leader, social entrepreneur, author and keynote speaker. With a career spanning organizations such as Microsoft, the Miami Heat, the Obama Foundation, the White House and Google, Rhodes has amassed deep expertise in helping businesses engage with their local communities.

A graduate of Duke University with a degree in public policy studies, Rhodes’ journey began with internships at the U.S. Department of Justice and the White House. His determination caught the attention of President Barack Obama, who publicly recognized Rhodes at a press briefing in 2015. In 2017, he wrote Jimmy for the City, a children’s book intended to inspire young people to commit to careers in public service. As part of the Obama Foundation in 2018, Derek managed the distribution of more than $1 million in grant funding to nonprofit organizations serving young people across the country, leading the My Brother's Keeper Alliance.

Driven by a passion for empowering historically underestimated youth, particularly young Black men, Rhodes founded the Durham Success Summit. As executive director, he has built lasting relationships and championed the organization's mission to elevate underrepresented youths into corporate America through practical education and exposure. Since 2021, more than 200 young men have benefited from the organization’s career skills training and workforce development programs. Ninety percent of the program’s graduates find meaningful employment upon completion and have landed jobs at top companies such as Fidelity Investments and the National Basketball Association.

“To me, Durham Academy means opportunity. It also means you’re part of a community of folks who are going to help you take full advantage of opportunities, especially those who help you tap into your intellectual curiosity or become a globally minded citizen. At DA, I was surrounded by teachers and leaders who wanted the best for me. That made all the difference to me. I remain connected to these teachers, fellow alums and staff members who watched me grow into the person I am today. Knowing that I not only gained a world-class education but also walked away with a lifelong family gives me the confidence every day to pursue my crazy dreams.”

View speeches from the event and learn more about the awards at da.org/alumniawards.

2024 INDUCTEES DURHAM ACADEMY Athletic Hall of Fame

Bob Johnston

Head of School, 1969–1977

Johnston was instrumental in developing Durham Academy’s varsity athletics program. He hired DA’s first athletic director and the school’s first physical education department leader while ensuring that the new Upper School campus, which opened in 1973, would have the facilities necessary to accommodate a growing athletics program.

Susan Ellis

Varsity Girls Soccer Coach, 2004–Present

Ellis has compiled a record of 226–73–31 in 20 years at the head of the varsity girls soccer program. During that span, DA has won eight conference titles and advanced to 11 state tournament final fours.

Paul Maxwell ’82

Cross-Country, Track & Field

Maxwell, once a record holder in multiple distances, boasts times that remain among the school’s eight fastest marks in the 3200-meter and 1600-meter distances. He was among the first of DA’s innumerable accomplished distance runners.

Johnny Seivold ’99

Varsity Boys Lacrosse, Varsity Boys Soccer

Seivold distinguished himself on the varsity boys soccer team, which he helped lead to two state championships. His lacrosse career was even more decorated: three All-State selections, two All-America selections and four consecutive state championships from 1996–1999.

Bryce Mueller ’04

Varsity Boys Golf

The first dominant golfer in the history of DA's boys program, Mueller earned All-Conference honors four times and All-State honors twice. He was the state tournament medalist at the 2004 state golf tournament.

Jake Engebretsen ’06

Varsity Boys Basketball, Varsity Boys Lacrosse

Engebretsen is one of nine boys basketball players to score 1,000 points during their career at DA. The 2006 Conference Player of the Year was named All-Conference multiple times, and he garnered All-State and All-Area honors in 2006.

Jordan Barry ’15

Varsity Girls Field Hockey, Varsity Girls Lacrosse, Varsity Girls Basketball

Barry was named 2014 Conference Player of the Year in field hockey and also earned All-State honors in both field hockey and lacrosse. She helped lead DA to a 2012 state title in field hockey.

Eliza Dekker ’15

Cross-Country, Track and Field

Dekker holds the school record in three events: the 3200-meter, 1600-meter and 800-meter distances. She was named Runner of the Year multiple times during her athletic career at DA.

Alumni Faces IN THE NEWS

Submit your family and career updates at da.org/shareyournews

LAURA DUNN ’93

Laura Dunn ’93 added another film debut to her impressive filmmaking career with the premiere of All Illusions Must Be Broken at the 2024 Palm Springs International Film Festival in January. The documentary film “... examines unexpected consequences that stem from denaturing children’s formative years.” Dunn and her partner Jef Sewell’s documentary production company, Two Birds Film, also produced the award-winning Look & See: A Portrait of Wendell Berry (2017) and The Unforeseen (2007).

XAVIER NONEZ ’17

The UNC-Chapel Hill School of Information and Library Science honored Xavier Nonez ’17 with its Rising Star Alumni Award this spring. A 2021 graduate of UNCChapel Hill, he is one of two inaugural recipients of the award, which recognizes young alums who have shown exceptional growth in their field. Nonez lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where works as a startup scout with Montfort Ventures, a startup fundraising advisory firm. He also volunteers as a success coach with Durham Success Summit, a nonprofit founded by Derek Rhodes ’11 (see page 78) that uplifts young Black men in Durham.

LIZ EASON ’13 AND JARED ANDERSON ’12

Former In The Pocket members Liz Eason ’13 and Jared Anderson ’12 were both inducted into the Recording Academy Nashville Chapter’s 2023 New Member Class. Eason, who holds a B.A. in violin performance from UNC-Chapel Hill, worked in artist management in Los Angeles for several years before making a temporary move to Nashville, where she earned her M.B.A. at Vanderbilt University.

After graduating from the Berklee College of Music, Anderson moved to Nashville. He worked as a staff engineer at Omnisound before starting his own production company, Evergreen Productions. Even with his work featured on HBO, Netflix, ABC and other networks, Anderson has found time to work with DA’s In The Pocket on their last two albums.

KATE TAYLOR ’09

Viewers of the Investigation Discovery docuseries Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV may have spotted a familiar face: Kate Taylor ’09, who is billed as an executive producer for the five-part series. Quiet on Set, which debuted in March, is based on a 2022 exposé penned by Taylor that examines an alleged culture of abuse behind the scenes of Nickelodeon children’s programs in the 1990s and 2000s.

Taylor, who is a senior correspondent at Business Insider, is also featured in the 2024 HBO documentary Brandy Hellville & the Cult of Fast Fashion, based on her investigation of the teen clothing brand Brandy Melville.

Taylor was again in the spotlight in April, as Columbia University named her one of 10 Knight-Bagehot Fellows in Economics and Business Journalism; the program offers graduate-level courses and weekly seminars for mid-career journalists.

CHARLES MCCAIN ’22

CARL WARD ’11

Along with teammates at Gladstone Institutes, Dr. Carl Ward ’11 helped create an unprecedented molecular map of the human immune response — a milestone that could signify another step toward treating autoimmune disorders and improving cancer treatment. The findings, co-authored by Ralf Schmidt, were published in Nature in December. As a postdoctoral researcher in the Marson Lab at Gladstone, Ward led the team in computational genomics. Ward continues to collaborate with Gladstone while also scaling his research at Site Tx, a biotechnology startup.

Charles McCain ’22 — a rising junior at UNC-Chapel Hill, where he is a Morehead-Cain scholar — was honored this spring with the UNC-Chapel Hill Carolina MEN (Male Empowerment Network) 2024 Champion of Service and Achievement Award.

By offering academic, cultural, social and professional development support, Carolina MEN is working to help students from underrepresented backgrounds find success and a sense of belonging.

JOSEPH WALSTON ’19

Joseph Walston ’19 attributes his love of science to his time with former Durham Academy Lower School science teacher Lyn Streck — a love that now extends to his work in graduate school. He is currently a botany Ph.D. student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison studying the Heliamphora genus of South American carnivorous pitcher plants.

In April, Walston received the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, which includes an annual stipend for three years and additional support for tuition costs. Out of more than 2,000 fellowship recipients in 2024, Walston is one of only three students who fall within the Systematics and Biodiversity field of study.

SAMANTHA EVERETTE ’03

Photographer Samantha Everette ’03 has 12 works on display at CAM Raleigh from her series “Crowning Glory.”

“One of the most intimate yet universal experiences of Black women is the braiding of our hair,” reads a description of the series on Everette’s website. “Our African and Indigenous ancestry endows hair with significance beyond physical beauty; our long flowing braids are a conduit for spiritual anointing, a symbol of tribe and belonging, and a method for intergenerational bonding. Inspired by her own experiences and by the Black women who make up her closest friends and family, Everette creates a scene that highlights their strength and beauty through the ritual of hair braiding.”

Admission is free at the exhibit, which runs through Sept. 8. If you would like to catch up with Everette and support her work, you can connect with her on Instagram @theshootingbeauty.

ALUMNI FACES IN THE NEWS

JOAN DUNLAP-SEIVOLD

Submit your family and career updates at da.org/shareyournews

Leading up to the Women’s World Cup last summer, ESPN highlighted the trailblazing soccer career of former Durham Academy faculty member, coach and parent Joan Dunlap-Seivold — who made history in 1986 as the first mother on the U.S. women’s national team.

“Joan Dunlap was a maverick who followed her dream and brought her child along for the ride,” wrote Gwendolyn Oxenham, “thereby lighting the way for all the player-moms who have come after her.”

Dunlap-Seivold’s husband, Joe Seivold, is a former DA varsity soccer and lacrosse coach who was inducted into the DA Athletic Hall of Fame in 2015. Their sons, Johnny Seivold ’99 and Jordan Seivold ’08, both attended DA, and Johnny will join his father in the Athletic Hall of Fame in December (see page 79).

Read about Dunlap-Seivold’s inspiring journey: url.da.org/Joan-ESPN

KELLY KOON MACLEOD ’98

The all-consuming joy of reading for fun is at the center of How to Eat a Book, a picture book by Kelly Koon MacLeod ’98 and her husband, Darrin MacLeod, who write and illustrate under the pen name “Mrs. and Mr. MacLeod.” The book, which was published by Union Square Kids in 2022, was named Barnes & Noble’s 2023 Picture Book of the Year and included in School Library Journal’s 2022 Best Picture Books.

The MacLeods followed up their successful debut early this year with a sequel, The Door That Had Never Been Opened Before. The books’ unique illustrations were created with dipped pen-and-ink cut-out art, photographed in dioramas.

“If Lewis Carroll, Piet Mondrian and Shel Silverstein had ever decided to start a family and write a book together,” read The New York Times’ review of How to Eat a Book, “these are the kids and the book they would have conceived.”

ALLISON MCWILLIAMS ’91

Dr. Allison McWilliams ’91 served as the keynote speaker at a February retreat for the University of the Incarnate Word’s Financial Literacy, Integrated Guidance and Health Career Tracts (FLIGHT) program. The retreat centered on mentorship culture and student success — McWilliams was able to share her expertise as the assistant vice president of Mentoring and Alumni Personal & Career Development at Wake Forest University.

ALEXANDER ISLEY ’80

Alexander Isley ’80 was featured on the As We Create podcast in dialogue with Michael Marques. The two sat down to discuss Isley’s career, background and inspirations — many of which, he says, are found within all of us.

“First of all, don’t call me a creative,” Isley said.

“I would hope that all of us are creative.” Isley, a prolific graphic designer, created the current Durham Academy logo, which debuted in 1998.

This inspiring alum imparts wisdom that can be applied in any field, so visit url.da.org/alex-isley to listen! “As We Create” is a production of the Connecticut Art Directors Club.

NATALIE SUTTON ALVAREZ ’07, ELEANOR WERTMAN ’07, ELISE HARTLEY ’10 AND DAVID SAILER ’11

Several alumni who work in healthcare shared their expertise and insights with Durham Academy Upper Schoolers in April, addressing students’ questions and concerns about life in healthcare, while demonstrating the field’s many career paths — with advocacy emerging as a huge theme in each of their journeys.

The panel was moderated by Natalie Alvarez, M.B.A., M.P.H., who works in healthcare administration and health technology. Panelists included Elise Hartley ’10, who spoke about how she works to make medication more affordable through her work in the pharmaceutical industry; David Sailer ’11, M.D., who spoke about clinical paths and his journey as a physician; and Eleanor Wertman ’07, M.P.H., who spoke about nonprofit and community outreach.

BRYSON BRODIE ’96

The paintings of Bryson Brodie ’96 were featured in a one-month show at James Fuentes Gallery in New York City, along with over 70 notable contemporary visual artists and photographers. The show ran from April 26 until May 25 as a way to say goodbye to the gallery’s location at 55 Delancey St.

COURTESY OF EVA NOVICK

EVA NOVICK ’96

The April 2024 issue of the Oregon State Bar Bulletin featured Eva Novick ’96, who recently made a shift from a 17-year tenure in consumer protection law with the Oregon Department of Justice to a more dynamic role in privacy law.

“Consumer protection law in Oregon is fairly static. Privacy law is the exact opposite. Every day, I’m trying to keep up with changing technology, new laws and new interpretations of old laws,” she explained. “What I love about both fields of law is that they impact our daily lives. I’m excited to be part of a developing field of law and shape how technology, including AI, will be used for the next 10 to 20 years.”

In her private practice role, Novick works with companies to examine data collection and utilization as the space continues to evolve over the next few decades.

EVAN PIKE PHOTOGRAPHY

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR NEWEST ALUMNI!

Durham Academy Class of 2024

We wish you success in your future endeavors:

Amherst College

Barnard College

Bates College

Baylor University

Bowdoin College

Brown University

Bryn Mawr College

Clark

Atlanta University

Clemson University

Colorado College

Columbia University

Cornell University

Dartmouth College

Davidson College

Duke University

Elon University

Emory University

Furman University

Gap Year

George Washington University

Georgetown University

Georgia Institute of Technology

Guilford College

High Point University

Howard University

Kenyon College

Lafayette College

Lehigh University

Lewis & Clark College

Macalester College

Middlebury College

New York University

New York University - Shanghai

North Carolina State University

Northeastern University

Northwestern University

Oxford College of Emory University

Paris School of Luxury

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Rutgers University

Savannah College of Art and Design

Scripps College

SKEMA Business School - Raleigh

Southern Methodist University

Stanford University

Swarthmore College

Tufts University

Tulane University

University of Chicago

University of Georgia

University of Miami

University of Minnesota

University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

University of North Carolina - Charlotte

University of North Carolina - Greensboro

University of North Carolina - Wilmington

University of Notre Dame

University of Oregon

University of Pennsylvania

University of Pittsburgh

University of Virginia

University of Washington

University of Wisconsin

Virginia Polytechnic Institute

and State University

Washington & Lee University

Washington University in St. Louis

Wesleyan University

Worcester Polytechnic Institute

WEDDINGS

1. JacQuetta Foushee ’03 & Megan Zartman Oct. 27, 2023 | Marion, NC

2. Spencer Woody ’17 & Jordan Tingen Third-Grade Teaching Assistant, Enrollment Management Coordinator, JV Girls Lacrosse Head Coach & JV Field Hockey Assistant Coach Sept. 2, 2023 | Highlands, NC

3. Andrew Lovett & Laura Hernandez Middle School Band Teacher Sept. 9, 2023 | Durham, NC

4. Michael Kontos ’12 & Christina Cesarz Oct. 21, 2023 | Durham, NC

5. Jeanne Jung ’18 & Thomas Owens ’18 Oct. 28, 2023 | Lenoir, NC

BABIES

6. Luke Hoffman Lower School Music Teacher Son: Hugo Pictured with big sister, June

7. Matt Earp ’97 Daughter: Rhye

8. Elizabeth McLeod Preschool Art and Cooking Teacher Son: John

9. Evelyn Soletro Upper School Spanish Teacher Daughter: Gia

10.Elizabeth South-Miller Preschool Music and Lower School Drama Teacher Son: Johnathan

Share your wedding or baby news with us at da.org/shareyournews, and we'll include it in a future issue of DA Magazine!

Durham Academy Alumni Board, 2024–2025

David Peters ’13

President

Chip McCorkle ’05

Vice President

Natalie Sutton Alvarez ’07

Erika Estrada Boden ’99

Chris Brasier ’13

Rob Bressler ’03

Rachel Croughwell Cocchiaro ’02

Raguell Couch ’21

Cat Clark Everson ’02

Elise Hartley ’10

Benny Klein ’20

Becca North ’94

Nina Borges Peyton ’03

David Sailer ’11

Kara Stith ’09

Maggie McPherson Weir ’01

Khari Williams ’14

CavConversations Podcast Features Meaningful Conversations with Impactful Alums

Sometimes, as Atlas Lad ’26 realized, a lesson doesn’t spring from a dry-erase board or a textbook. It comes in the form of stories, and experiences, from those who came before.

This occurred to Lad when he was listening to Catalyze, a podcast that Benny Klein ’20 co-hosts on behalf of the Morehead-Cain merit scholarship program at UNC-Chapel Hill. The series features in-depth conversations with actionoriented alumni. Lad had an epiphany, and a vision, for Durham Academy. “Imagine if we could do this at DA,” Lad said, “where not only students will be able to connect with alumni, but they’ll also be able to learn key life lessons and things that they wouldn’t have otherwise known while transitioning from high school to college and beyond.” He doesn’t have to imagine it anymore: He created it.

Lad’s CavConversations features interviews with DA alumni from a panoply of professions and industries. The full-length video episodes — which were released periodically over the spring — produced a distinct motif. “A main theme from all of the alumni was to do everything you can at DA,” Lad said.

Few alums understand the need for variety in experiences and opportunities more than Cha’Mia Rothwell ’16, Lad’s inaugural

guest on CavConversations. The former DA athletics star scored more than 1,000 points for the girls basketball team and won five individual state titles with the track and field team. The 2022 DA Athletic Hall of Fame inductee would go on to set four school records and one Ivy League record as a sprinter and hurdler at Dartmouth College before spending her graduate year of eligibility at Duke University, which eventually landed her a spot at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials for the Tokyo Olympics. Rothwell returned to DA in the spring of 2023 as an assistant coach with the track and field team, and she serves as an assistant coach in sprints and hurdles for the track team at N.C. Central University.

Check out Rothwell and Lad’s wide-ranging conversation at url.da.org/podcast-rothwell, and explore the entire CavConversations library — including episodes with Ward Horton ’94, Khari Williams ’14 and Dr. Andrew Moon ’02 — at url.da.org/cavconversations.

Audio-only versions of all episodes are also available on Spotify at url.da.org/spotify

INVESTING IN MEANINGFUL THINKING

by Michael Ulku-Steiner

3 PODCASTS

THAT EXPANDED MY UNDERSTANDING OF LEADERSHIP: Founders with David Senra

I particularly loved the episodes about Paul Graham, Oprah Winfrey, Winston Churchill, Jay-Z, Will and Ariel Durant, Peter Thiel, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Jesus.

'A Low

Moment in Higher Education' Freakonomics Radio episode

An interview with Michael Roth, President of Wesleyan University.

'Ecological

Hope and Spiritual Evolution' On Being with Krista Tippett episode

A conversation with Christiana Figueres, international leader on climate action.

3 PIECES

THAT HELPED ME THINK ABOUT POLITICAL POLARIZATION AND CONSTRUCTIVE DIALOGUE:

'The Curiosity

Matrix: 9 Habits'

by Anne-Laure Le Cunff

Article by the founder of Ness Labs and a King’s College London researcher investigating the neuroscience of education.

'What It Means to Choose Freedom' by

Bari Weiss

Transcript and video of ‘State of World Jewry' lecture at the 92nd Street Y, published in The Free Press

'Loving Your Enemies' by Martin Luther King Jr.

Transcript of sermon delivered at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, on Nov. 17, 1957.

3 BOOKS

I READ DURING MY STUDY LEAVE AND WOULD BE HAPPY TO TALK ABOUT WITH YOU: Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert

Lives of the Stoics by Ryan Holiday

The Sellout by Paul Beatty

1 BONUS PIECE

THAT WILL LIKELY MAKE YOU CRY WITH JOY:

The Last Repair Shop directed by Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers

2024 Academy Award winner, Best Documentary Short Film.

3601 Ridge Road

Durham, NC 27705-5599

Cavalier Capstones sent dozens of Upper School students and faculty across the country and to faraway lands — including Ireland, Iceland and Puerto Rico — and many students explored sustainability, identity, colleges and culture in their own backyards. Students participating in the America’s National Parks Capstone were treated to some particularly breathtaking landscapes during their adventures in Zion, Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon National Parks. They also found incredible beauty outside those parks, including at the Sand Caves in Kanab, Utah, as photographed here by Upper School English teacher Kat Posada.