F O U N T A I N VA L L E Y S C H O O L
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(FV S COR E VALUE S)
COURAGE OPEN-MINDEDNESS SELF-RELIANCE CURIOSITY COMPASSION
To demonstrate care and service to others, and to live a balanced and healthy life, enjoying the harmony of work and play.
GR E ATE R GO O D STO R I E S
inspiration awaits!
INTERIM 2017
Canoeing the Colorado River: A Journey on the West’s Most Iconic River
Hut-to-Hut – Atop Chicago Ridge
Kayaking in the Shadows of the Great Smoky Mountains
Normandy to NATO: History, Language and Culture in Normandy, Brussels and the Ardennes – On a flight simulator at Musée Airborne in Sainte-Mère-Église, France
Guanajuato, Mexico: Language, Culture and Outdoor Exploration – A day teaching at a rural elementary school
Thailand: Cultural Explorer
M O R E O N I N S I D E B A C K COV E R! »
Table of Contents Departments
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From the Head of School FVS Bulletin Board Dane Sports Wrap Class Notes In Memoriam
Nurturing a Generosity of Spirit
12 The Unlikely Activist 16 Engineering Better Baby Health: A Malawi Tale
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PRESIDENT Henry P. Morse Jr. ’69 VICE PRESIDENT Katrina V. Presti P ’13, ’15 TREASURER Janet M. Refior SECRETARY Jolene A. Lane ’79 LEGAL COUNSEL Scott M. Browning EX OFFICIO William V. Webb Benjamin R. Howe ’89
Features 10
Fountain Valley School of Colorado Board of Trustees 2016–17
Finding Shelter in Juárez
28 Borderlines 34 This Soap Saves Lives 35 DSCoVR-ing How to Make a Difference
LIFE TRUSTEES W. Jerome Frautschi ’49 Robert E. Henderson ’44, P ’72 James R. Scott ’68, P ’95, ’99, ’05 CURRENT TRUSTEES Gavin C. Blunt P ’05, ’09 Barry S. Brown ’69 Sarah K. Cannady P ’18 Dean D. Dowson ’91, P ’17 Janet A. Dulin ’77, P ’11 Kelly Eustace P ’14,’17 Kenneth R. Gamblin ’62, P ’91, ’93 Walter L. Harrison Juniper F. Hunter ’93, P ’15, ’16 Hope L. Kapsner P ’17, ’20 Anita M. Lane P ’14, ’16 Jolene A. Lane ’79 Henry P. Morse Jr. ’69 Link Nicoll ’79 Katrina V. Presti P ’13, ’15 Kevin N. Rask P ’16, ’19 Christopher J. Sanchez ’90 James M. Scott ’68, P ’95, ’99, ’05 Gregory L. Thatcher ’84, P ’17 Melinda M. Twomey P ’14, ’15 James G. Webster P ’14 HEAD OF SCHOOL William V. Webb
Contributors Eric Kronebusch Jeanne Olive
Class Notes, address changes and other alumni communications should be directed to the FVS Alumni Office at alumni@fvs.edu.
DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF ADVANCEMENT Kate Maiurro ’00 ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF ADVANCEMENT Eric Kronebusch ALUMNI ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT Benjamin R. Howe ’89
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Email: bulletin@fvs.edu Phone: (719) 390-7035 Mail: 6155 Fountain Valley School Road Colorado Springs, CO 80911
DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS Laura Fawcett
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The Bulletin is published two times a year. Letters, comments and article submissions are welcome. Contact the FVS Communications Office:
DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AND STORYTELLING Jeanne Olive P ’08, Editor
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Feature Editor, Susan Enfield ’83 Meg Littman ’08 Laura Fawcett
DIRECTOR OF ADVANCEMENT Julia Babson Alling P ’18
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FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL
DEAR FRIENDS, “Compassion” is not only the theme for this issue of the Bulletin magazine, it is a value inherent to the ethos of Fountain Valley School, and its impact has been felt around the world through our alumni and students. We have an extraordinary number of alumni who are working in “common good” careers and for worthy causes. This is not surprising. In my many interactions with alumni, I’ve observed a certain spirit that manifests in living lives of meaning and service. I know you’ll enjoy their fascinating stories.
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As I write, our students have just returned (all safely!) from Interim trips around the globe. For many of them, service was a component of their experience. We had students teaching in Guanajuato, Mexico; building with Habitat for Humanity in Mississippi; working on a ranch in Durango, Colo., as well as on a community improvement project in Thailand. It is our aim to create experiences like these to empower students to become leaders for the greater good.
Will, Maggie, Sarah and Grit Webb
To all of you who support Fountain Valley School, know that each of your gifts has contributed to the greater good, as evidenced by the stories herein. Thank you!
with well-equipped facilities that allow us to deliver first-rate programming, and contributes to attracting and inspiring those students who will go on to apply their distinctive FVS education to real-world issues.
As an update to progress on campus, I’d like to share that we will be breaking ground on our new maintenance facility and faculty housing this spring. Utility workers have festooned the campus with colorful pin flags and whiskers, marking current and future utility lines in advance of construction. It’s exciting to be making good progress, thanks to the philanthropic support from the Fountain Valley family. I encourage all of our community to partner with the School to achieve the goals set forth by the campus master plan. Capital giving provides Fountain Valley
As always, I welcome your thoughts and hope you’ll come to campus for a visit. Best,
WILLIAM V. WEBB Head of School
Bulletin Board FVS Students Think Globally and Act Locally by Helping Refugees Thinking globally and acting locally came naturally for 15 Fountain Valley School students who spent a weekend serving refugees resettled in Colorado Springs. After two Global Affairs Forum meetings spent discussing refugee and migration issues around the world, several students, including two who are themselves refugees, decided to take action. Dr. Susan Carrese P ’12, ’15, FVS’s director of global education, and Laura Libbe, director of community programs for Lutheran Family Services, planned the first step in the partnership: Fountain Valley students would organize children’s activities for an annual holiday party for hundreds of refugees. Henry Neff ’18, Alex Sobczak ’17, Sharaf Shafai ’17, Aspen Blair ’18, Izzy Nuñez ’17, Riley Snyder ’17, Elinor Sisk ’18, Ivy Zhang ’18, Emma Hamill ’18, Clara Barnstone ’18, Maisie James ’20, Kiya Cockrell ’20, Lucia Heminway ’20, Sabina Baitemirova ’18 and Hannah Mancuso-Buxton ’18 offered their time and creativity to make it happen.
Elinor Sisk ’18 is one of the FVS students working with refugee children who live in Colorado Springs.
FVS parent and former board member Grace Blea-Nuñez P ’09, ’11, ’15 volunteered her time and expertise with nursery school-aged children, as well as contributed many supplies.
are dedicated to helping these vulnerable individuals and families rebuild their lives by equipping them to achieve self-sufficiency within their first year in the United States and fostering integration into their new communities.
The event was a huge success with more than 300 refugees, asylees and volunteers sharing international foods, dancing and activities planned by FVS students. The refugees came from more than a dozen countries including Afghanistan, Congo, Iraq and Colombia. Lutheran Family Services’ Refugee & Asylee Programs
FVS’s partnership with Lutheran Family Services will develop into a once-a-month “Fun Club” during which refugee children, ages 5-15, can share an afternoon of activities on campus, planned and executed by students. More than 40 students have expressed an interest in helping with this “glocal” project.
Tony Wang ’17 Sings His Way—Perfectly—into the All State Choir
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Tony Wang ’17 earned a spot in the Colorado All State Choir with a perfect audition score, a first for FVS.
Wang is a third-year boarding senior from Shanghai, China. He is a member of the Froelicher Society and Cum Laude Society, has been on the Dean’s List each semester, and has pursued his love of music through FVS’s mixed choir, guitar ensemble and chamber strings.
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According to Music Director Charlie Kurchinski, his perfect score is a first for Fountain Valley. Wang was judged on tone quality, intonation, accuracy, diction and musicality. He scored high in the technical portion as well, which included triads, scales, intervals and sight reading.
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Singing Caro Mio Ben, Fountain Valley School of Colorado senior Tony Wang wowed the judges, earning a perfect 50 out of 50 points in his solo audition and a place in the Colorado All State Choir, which was held in February in Denver.
BULLETIN BOARD
Athenaea Literary Magazine Scores Highest Recognition Ever For the first time, Fountain Valley School of Colorado’s literary magazine, the Athenaea, has been awarded the honor of “Recommended for Highest Award” by the NCTE Program to Recognize Excellence in Student Literary Magazines. Previously, the Athenaea has only received rankings of “Excellent.” A total of 334 schools submitted entries in the spring of 2016, the 33rd year of the program; only 24 received the “Highest Award.”
Fountain Valley School of Colorado musician Juliet Chi ’19 from Pueblo, Colo., was selected to play viola in the 65th Annual Colorado All State Symphonic Orchestra that took place in February in Fort Collins, Colo. The performances in Fort Collins included works by Karel Butz, Michael Mauldin, Jose Pablo Moncayo and Dmitry Kabalevsky. Chi plays in the FVS String Ensemble under instrumental music faculty Cynthia Robinson.
Samantha Pratt ’16 and Courtney Wheeler ’17 were the editors of the spring 2016 edition, and FVS English Department Chair Dave Reynolds P ’13, ’18 is the Athenaea faculty adviser. Many students contributed poetry and artwork. Pratt wrote the dedication for the issue, which reads in part: “We write to make up for what the picture couldn’t describe in its limited thousand words. We add, we tweak, we describe realities not quite as they were so our
readers can understand the feeling behind the memory. And still, we can’t do it. With a thousand words, with a million, with seven billion, we can’t quite pin down that feeling, preserve it, and share it with others. So here’s to memory, that slippery thing that evades description through image or the written word, the melancholy mistress of artists and the muse of many.”
Renowned Italian Pianist Performs for FVS Music Students Music students had the opportunity to learn from, and play for, a well-known Italian pianist. All music students experienced an incredible treat when awardwinning Italian composer and concert pianist Daniel Espen performed in the Lewis Perry Jr. Chapel. Espen played two of his original compositions, as well as Modest Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition: The Great Gate of Kiev, a personal favorite of Music Director Charlie Kurchinski.
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Espen is an accomplished musician from Brescia, Italy, recognized around the world for his compositions and performances.
Italian composer and concert pianist Daniel Espen coached Konami Ogino ’20, left, and Koyo Song ’17.
In addition to performing, he held two “mini” master classes for talented FVS pianists Koyo Song ’17 and Konami Ogino ’20, who courageously played for Espen and learned from his critiques.
BULLETIN BOARD
Brains, Beating Hearts and the Search for an Epilepsy Cure with Dr. Waldbaum cutting-edge research on epilepsy and seizure disorders.
Science Department Chair Dr. Simon Waldbaum regularly connects students with scientists and doctors in the field.
Students had three opportunities to interact with Milder: one block focused on the genetic causes and treatment for epilepsy, another focused on nontraditional careers in science; and in the Mysteries of the Human Brain class, she focused on the mechanisms of epilepsy within the brain.
For his Mysteries of the Human Brain elective course, Waldbaum and his class traveled to Colorado State University where they visited the Human Neuroanatomy Laboratory. While there, FVS students had the opportunity to learn from and personally handle human brain specimens, spinal cords, and a fully intact central and peripheral nervous system. Students also visited the Integrative Cardiac Biology Laboratory run by Dr. Adam Chicco to witness ongoing experiments including handling a beating heart outside of the body. They met with advanced undergraduate, master’s and Ph.D. students, and professors in the Biomedical Science Department to discuss their career goals, course loads, and to get a realistic perspective on pursuing life sciences as the focus of study at a large university. The Biomedical Science Club, sponsored by Waldbaum, invited Dr. Julie Milder to campus as part of the “Scientist Series,”
FVS students at Colorado State University’s Human Neuroanatomy Laboratory
which brings scientific and medical professionals to campus in person or via video conferencing a number of times throughout the year. Milder is the associate research director for CURE (Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy), a nonprofit organization that awards grants to researchers worldwide who are performing
In her discussions with students, Milder shared the latest research in the field including the production of transparent brains used to visualize specific brain circuits; the use of stem cell transplants to cure epileptic seizures; CRISPR technology; and optogenetics, which utilizes lightinduced protein channels in brain cells to control their activity. The Mysteries of the Human Brain and Biomedical Science electives, the Biomedical Science Club and the Scientist Series all contribute to the larger STEM initiative in the Science Department aimed at exposing students to the potential opportunities in scientific careers.
FACULTY TeaPotsulating Art Show Brings Together Two FVS Ceramicists
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It was a show 30 years in the making!
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FVS artist-in-residence Mark Dillon P ’08, ’10, ’11 and renowned Pikes Peak-area ceramicist Mark Wong ’86 teamed for an ambitious show in Colorado Springs that featured hundreds of teapots finished in myriad glazes. Some of the teapots were fired in the FVS wood kiln, lovingly known as the Dane Train. The show is special in another way: 30 years ago, Dillon taught ceramics to Wong in the FVS Art Barn.
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“The Marks” at their joint show, Teapotsulating
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Isabella Montoya ’17 finished third in the region.
Mountain Biking 6
Senior Nic Jenkins capped off his mountain biking career at FVS with a state title in the varsity boys division of the Colorado High School Cycling League.
Fountain Valley School of Colorado
“Nic has worked tremendously hard over the past four years, and I am pleased to say he achieved his ultimate goal of being the fastest in the state,” head coach David Racine said. As a team, the Danes finished fourth in the Division II category, their best finish since 2012. Sophomore Sam Volk also heavily contributed to the team’s success, finishing in 28th out of 140 riders in JV boys. Kendall Weiskopf ’18 had one of her best finishes, placing 21st out of 54 riders in JV girls. State champion Nic Jenkins ’17
Cross Country Returning to the 2A division, the cross country teams had their best seasons since 2011. The girls finished fourth in the region and advanced to the state championships where they finished 16th. Top runner Isabella Montoya ’17 was third in the region and finished 22nd in the state for 2A girls. The boys also had a great season, just missing a berth in the state championships by finishing sixth in the region. Senior Tris Giuffre led the boys all season, and three of the five runners ran personal best times at the regional meet.
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Boys Tennis In an outstanding season, the Danes captured their first-ever regional title and qualified five positions to the state tournament. The squad finished 5-6 in dual meets but dominated the competition in regionals to win by 11 points. No. 1 singles Vinay Merchant ’17 went undefeated in the regular season, won the regional title and then won his first round match at the state championships before his season ended. No. 3 singles Jo Ota ’20 also captured a regional title before losing in the first round of states; No. 2 singles Keita Kadokura ’17 also qualified for states but lost in the first round. No. 1 and No. 4 doubles qualified for state: No. 1 Peter Leisure ’17 and Billy Gong ’17 won their first round match and a playback match. No. 4 Will Haas ’20 and Tony Wang ’17 lost their first round match and a playback Jo Ota ’20 won the regional title at No. 3 singles. As a team, the Danes tied for 12th with three points.
Connor Olson ’18 makes a save in the Danes’ 4-1 win over the New Jersey Titans.
Hockey
Swimming and Diving Fall Training The swimming squad capped off a season of training by completing the Odyssey 1.5 mile Alcatraz Open Water Swim in San Francisco. All of the Danes, including coaches Rob Gustke P ’16, ’18 and Addie Green ’06 successfully navigated the course to the finish line.
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“They will remember and treasure these few days for the rest of their lives, and they could not possibly have conducted themselves any better than they did,” Gustke said. They looked after one another, swam strongly and helped each other work through some of the ups and downs that always happen when you take away the comforts of pool swimming and replace them with a cold, murky ocean!”
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The first half of the hockey season saw significant growth along with significant challenges. The Danes hosted a three-day preseason training camp, which produced a lot of excitement among players both returning and new. The team has talent and depth, and has produced some impressive wins, including three wins against 18AAA teams. The Danes collected a 9-9-1 record in the fall before heading into the winter season.
The swimming team completed the 1.5 mile open water Alcatraz swim.
SPORTSWRAP
The Danes won the FVS-CA Challenge Cup for the first time since 2009.
Destiny Morgan ’17 led the team in kills.
Boys Soccer
Girls Volleyball
Galen Kelly ’18 and Ian Strine ’17 both earned all-state honors as the Danes won the region for the second straight year and qualified for the state playoffs. FVS finished 8-7-1, and although the boys lost in the first round of states, they still competed well against adversity. The Danes played the toughest schedule in 3A but did so without a consistent starting lineup due to injuries, illness and school trips. The biggest highlight was winning the FVS-CA Challenge Cup for the first time since 2009 with a win over Colorado Academy. Kelly was also named the region player of the year.
Destiny Morgan ’17 earned all-league honors as the volleyball team finished 7-11 in their first year back at the 2A division. With a small team, the Danes did well in the Black Forest League and advanced to the first round of districts where they fell to Ellicott, 1-3. Morgan led the team in kills (135) and digs (269) while junior Ava Rahm led in aces (55) and blocks (46). Marissa Dedrick ’17 deftly handled the setting duties with 263 assists.
Outdoor Education Outdoor education students participated in many activities on and off campus, including their first orienteering race of the season on Sept. 17. For most students, it was their first exposure to a sport for “thinking runners,” one that engages both the muscles and the mind. Ten Fountain Valley teams participated in the race. Nine teams ran the 2.5K beginner course with six control points. The team of Ashby Baker ’19 and David Luo ’19 ran the 5K intermediate course of 12 control points.
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Orienteering
Students helped each other take compass bearings and interpret landforms from a detailed map. They then had to choose the best route to navigate to each control point. Once found, the team used a computer chip to log in to the control point and time-stamp their visit. All but two of the FVS teams successfully completed the course. The team of Aspen Kimlicko ’20, Jordyn Greidanus ’18 and River Johansen ’18 placed third on the beginner course, and Baker and Luo finished in fourth place on the intermediate course.
Your gift to Fountain Valley School’s Annual Fund is a game-changer— » Impacting students well beyond their time at FVS. » Supporting the School’s extraordinary programs. » Contributing to the School’s commitment to financial aid. » Casting your vote of confidence in faculty, the difference-makers.
3 Ways to Give: fvs.edu/annualfund | (719) 391-5226 | Mail to 6155 Fountain Valley School Rd., Colorado Springs, CO 80911
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ATHLETIC HALL OF FAME Call for Nominations!
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th of na lass ea t a ion c t n i c u d m No 18 in e. e 20 h t of Fam ll r a fo H ic t S Athle the FV d form riteria an c e th d Fin section at the Alumni of the FVS web site.
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Nurturing a
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Susan Enfield ’83 is feature editor for this issue of the Bulletin. By profession, she is an editor, writer and content consultant concentrating on healthy, natural and active lifestyle industries. Her articles have appeared in many national publications, including the New York Times, Outside magazine, Condé Nast Traveler and Harper’s Bazaar. Enfield lives in Boulder, Colo. She graduated cum laude from Georgetown University. Former English faculty Chuck Emery ’43 wrote on her English report card in 1982: “Her writing is accurate, virtually flawless and always original and interesting.”
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Susan Enfield ’83 volunteering recently in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica.
OSITY W
hen offered the opportunity to guest edit this issue—with the cheerful theme of FVS students, alumni and faculty out there doing good in the world—I jumped at it. I don’t think I’m alone in feeling overwhelmed at times by the recent uptick in news of discord both at home and abroad.
adviser) Eric Waples P ’91, ’93 told me, eyes sparkling brightly as always, that he still enjoys teaching locally, and believes that now he’s had time to study and integrate even more knowledge, he’s at the peak of his teaching game. The alumni we interviewed for this issue all credited faculty members for helping set them on their paths. It wasn’t surprising then, that when looking for FVS community members to profile for this issue, we found an abundance of impressive individuals who are dedicating their energies to moving the needle upward all over the globe. Among them are bioengineer and global health advocate Sam Olvera ’12, who lives in Malawi, one of the world’s least developed countries, and works to reverse its world’s-highest infant mortality rate. Another is Wesley Clark Jr. ’87, who rallied fellow U.S. military veterans to travel to Standing Rock Reservation and protect Native American water protectors’ right to peaceful protest of the Dakota Access Pipeline. His story is chronicled by Meg Wittman ’86. Morgan Smith ’56 shares how working along the Mexico-U.S. border has fostered treasured relationships and changed his life—and those he has helped—for the better.
My own Fountain Valley experience began with a seemingly random act of kindness: a three-year scholarship generously funded by Samuel Goldwyn Jr. ’43, P ’71, ’76, ’78. During my time on campus and to this day, I am continually impressed by the wholehearted commitment to serving each student that is modeled by the faculty, administrators and staff.
Finally, freshly minted Rhodes Scholar Hannah Carrese ’12 shares her passion for deciphering the fast-changing and often-misunderstood issues of migration and refugees. At 22, she aims to help create policy that better equips us to manage challenging global transitions.
Susan Enfield ’83
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We hope your spirits are as lifted while reading this bundle of good news, as ours were while putting this issue together. May we all be inspired to apply our unique talents in ways that leave this world a better place than we found it.
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For instance, at a recent alumni event hosted by Michael and Stephanie Brauchli Carter ’84, P ’13, ’16, ’19, former headmaster and history teacher (and my former
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Yet we all know humans are capable of extraordinary acts of courage, beauty, generosity and love. Chances are, you create positive ripple effects daily in your family and community.
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by Margaret Littman ’86 Littman’s curiosity, and love of writing and language were fostered at Fountain Valley School. For more than two decades, she’s been a freelance writer and editor writing magazine articles and guidebooks. Her most recent guidebook on the historic Natchez Trace will be published in fall 2017. Her work has appeared in many publications including Chicago magazine, USA Today and Entrepreneur. She has a B.A. in fine arts from Vanderbilt University and an M.S.J. from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She lives in Nashville and is the owner and founder of Nashville Paddle Co. Photo by Griffin Norman
Clark led more than 2,100 veterans to Standing Rock. Photo by Joseph Zummo
An unexpected phone call and a galvanizing cause moved Wesley Clark Jr. ’88 to action. While he has long been an environmentalist, having grown up in California and Colorado and gazed upon majestic vistas every morning, Wesley (Wes) Clark Jr. ’88 never considered himself an activist—until recently. A self-described news junkie, Clark, the son and namesake of the retired general and former Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO’s military forces, began closely following one particular news story last fall. At a protest camp in North Dakota’s Standing Rock Indian Reservation, Sioux and other Native American tribes and allies had gathered as “water protectors” to halt construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Clashes with local police and security forces had begun to escalate.
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In September 2016, he got a phone call that changed his life. Phyllis Young, an elder, former Standing Rock councilwoman and organizer of the Oceti Sakowin protest camp, was reaching out for help. She contacted Clark hoping to get in touch with his father about supporting the movement. In a voice “filled with mortal fear,” Clark recalls, she described showdowns between the tribes and police. There were stories of dogs attacking women and children, the elderly getting beaten up, protestors being sprayed with mace.
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Clark and a group of veterans apologizing to Native American tribal leaders. Photo by Joseph Zummo
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Clark decided that he himself had to take action. An Army veteran with four years of service, he realized his fellow U.S. military vets were uniquely suited to protect the peaceful protestors. Clark believes that veterans are skilled at outreach because the military is one of the few sectors where Americans of different ethnic, socioeconomic and other demographic groups live and work together well.
military over hundreds of years. His apology, delivered on one knee to tribal leaders, caught the attention of social media; in some ways, the viral spotlight surprised even Clark.
Enlisting the help of a close friend, he put out a military-style “operations order” on Twitter and Facebook, and started an online donation campaign to cover supplies, which eventually raised more than $1 million and helped the volunteer effort raise its profile.
GALVANIZING FORCES
Quite soon, he had managed to mobilize a group of more than 2,100 veterans to travel to Standing Rock to serve as “human shields” for protestors in the face of an impending eviction order by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. For a handful of frigid days following their arrival on Dec. 4, Veterans Stand for Standing Rock garnered headlines and a sizable social media following.
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On Dec. 5, as the vets prepared for the worst, the Army Corps announced it would not grant an easement (at least temporarily) for the pipeline to cross under the Missouri River just upstream of the reservation at Lake Oahe. Veterans and protestors both cheered the temporary de-escalation of conflict. That evening, at the reservation’s Four Prairie Knights Casino & Resort, Clark led a group of veterans in a moving ceremony asking for forgiveness from Native peoples for the poor treatment they have received from the U.S. government and
“It was one of the most deeply moving experiences of my life,” Clark says of the apology, delivered while a blizzard howled outside. “It was like you could feel a physical force out there.”
When he got the call from Standing Rock and heard firsthand about distressing acts of violence against peaceful protestors, Clark was deeply affected. “I had never been a religious person, but I grew up Catholic and we were taught, ‘That what you do to the least of my brothers, you do to me’,” he says, quoting Matthew 25:40. “So I told Phyllis I would help her.” He spoke to his father about the situation, but the senior Clark was cautious. Due to his long, high-level military career, he saw a complicated bigger picture, particularly after the presidential election results. Clark Jr. says of election night, “For me, it was like watching the most powerful elite people in the country have their spirits broken all at once. Afterward, my dad told me, ‘You have to keep your head down. Don’t go to Standing Rock.’” But at that point, Clark was already committed to others and more significantly, to himself. “When I took the Army oath to defend the Constitution against enemies foreign and domestic, well, that is how I see this [situation],” he explains. “We are at an incredibly dangerous time in American history. People need to get physically and emotionally involved. If you really
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WE ARE AT AN INCREDIBLY DANGEROUS TIME IN AMERICAN HISTORY. PEOPLE NEED TO GET PHYSICALLY AND EMOTIONALLY INVOLVED.”
understand what is going on with the environment, you’ll be worried your kids will never have a 20th high school reunion.” (Clark is father to two sons, ages 11 and 12.)
THE VIEW FROM HERE Clark’s experiences in North Dakota were a game changer. “I do not have the time to write anymore. I feel like I have to help to save the environment because the government is not going to do it,” he says. He is now assessing other environmental issues where he believes veteran activism can help. Tactical and organizational skills gained in the military may help veterans to stay focused when planning and executing actions, Clark says. And veterans are able to participate in protests.
“We don’t want any active duty [personnel] participating and risking damaging their service record; only people who are okay with getting arrested,” Clark told a reporter as he headed to Standing Rock in December. Various groups—Veterans Stand for Standing Rock, Veterans for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War—worked together there. Clark is still evaluating his next move. A separate group of veterans have started a second GoFundMe campaign and had raised more than $167,000 at press time. They plan to return to Standing Rock in the wake of the president’s memo ordering the Army Corps to expedite its environmental review. Clark says he may work with clean water activists in Flint, Michigan. He plans to meet with Americans of every faith during a seven-day meditation and prayer event in Washington, D.C. The group is to meet at the Washington Monument in March and walk in a labyrinth that circles the city, “meditating on the world as we see it and asking for guidance to show us the way forward,” Clark says. Clark credits his experiences in the Army, both in family life and as a young serviceman, for imbuing him with courage and a desire to help protect our country, our families, our planet. “My kids were terrified that I was going to Standing Rock,” he says. “I told them, `When I grew up, my dad was in the Army and he did dangerous things to protect me. This is me protecting you.’” Although the pipeline was not ultimately blocked, and likely won’t be, Clark is convinced that unifying veterans to engage in activism after the end of their service really made a difference. “We met a lot of people up there and had a great experience. We are hoping the veterans go home and spread their experiences and that energy. Even if my actions only mobilized one person, that’s one more than yesterday.”
A military scion follows his own path Clark enjoyed growing up in the military, which he describes as a family of sorts. He attended FVS as a boarding student his sophomore year, then stayed on as a day student when his parents moved to Fort Carson during his junior and senior years. He credits the School’s stunning natural location with stoking his commitment to protecting the environment. He also taps Dr. Glenn Philipps’ AP history class with helping inform his worldview.
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After graduating from Georgetown University, Clark joined the Army, serving for four years. He helped on his father’s 2004 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, but mostly he has stayed away from politics and government.
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Clark’s 1988 FVS yearbook photo.
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For the majority of his career, Clark has worked in Hollywood, assisting producers, and ultimately focusing on screenwriting. He also worked at ad agencies in Manhattan. More recently, he has advocated for wind power initiatives and occasionally guest hosts on “The Young Turks,” a progressive Internet news show.
An infant receiving life-saving oxygen through Rice 360°’s Pumani bCPAP machine, which is used to treat patients with respiratory distress syndrome. Pumani means “breathe easy” in Chichewa, the language of Malawi. The medical device costs approximately 1/15th the price of CPAP devices used in U.S. hospitals, yet provides the same therapeutic pressure to patients and is designed to run for years at a time.
Engineering Better Baby Health: A Malawi Tale by Susan Enfield ’83 This is the story of Samantha Olvera ’11, a former FVS Global Scholar and bioengineer who is helping to save babies’ lives and improve neonatal care in the southeastern African country of Malawi.
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Even at FVS, I knew I wanted to work in global health and bioengineering,” says Olvera. An early Global Scholar at FVS, Olvera studied and experienced the wider world, traveling to the West Bank and exploring her own family’s Mexican roots through a capstone project on Latino identity in the U.S.
Sam Olvera at Zomba Central Hospital in Malawi.
ENGINEERING BETTER BABY HEALTH
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t’s a rare college graduate who would happily pack up and leave home for two years of work in one of the world’s least-developed countries, and one of Africa’s poorest. Then again, Samantha (Sam) Olvera has a tendency to put a positive spin on things. Describing the series of corrective surgeries that punctuated her childhood due to being born with a cleft palate, for instance, she says, “It was not bad. Being in the military we were very lucky to have great health care. I really appreciated all the people who took care of me.”
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Being well cared-for in a healthcare setting early on seems to have made a deep impression on Olvera. “I have always felt that access to health and having that chance to live a healthy life is a basic human right,” she says. “Even though [global health] problems are complex and you can’t just expect to fix everything, it’s important to me to focus on the things I can do, and to do those small things well.”
Bringing health to babies in need Olvera first traveled to Malawi on a summer internship with Rice 360° Institute for Global Health, the nonprofit organization she now works for. Then midway through her bioengineering degree at Rice University, she was there to help introduce a medical device that helps prematurely born babies with respiratory distress survive by providing a small amount of continuous pressure in the lungs so they don’t collapse. Malawi has high infant mortality rates and the highest rate of premature births in the world. It was these grim statistics that first brought Olvera to the small, largely rural country that’s nicknamed “The Warm Heart of Africa.” In her blog, she writes, “Like so many others, I came here with the intention of Helping People and left more confused than ever about issues of global health.”
“ BAD THINGS THAT HAPPENED OVER THE LAST MONTH:
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2. Not having running water at our house for over a week. Sadly, this period also overlapped with a few days of power outage.
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3. Getting malaria.” — excerpt from “Long Way from Home,” a blog post by Sam Olvera samolvera.wordpress.com
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1. Getting schistosomiasis [a parasitic disease carried by fresh water snails] from my Lake Malawi trip.
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Long Way from Home Entry #1 On water outages:
“AFTER CARRYING TWO BUCKETS OF BORROWED WATER FROM OUR GARAGE ACROSS THE HOUSE TO MY BATHROOM,
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I now have a profound appreciation for the amount of water it takes to flush a toilet.”
Mother walking with her baby in Blantyre, Malawi.
Malawi’s high prematurity rates are closely related to adolescent pregnancies as well as diet and nutrition, Olvera says. “There are a lot of food shortages due to poor harvests of crops like maize that are dependent on weather.” During her internship, she says the hardest part was watching children suffer in hospital wards and collecting data on babies dying of respiratory distress or malaria. “It took an emotional toll,” she says.
Olvera describes her life in Blantyre, Malawi’s secondlargest city and commercial center, as a study in contrasts. “We have to get used to water and power being out,” she says. “At the same time, the cost of living is so low, we can afford things here we could never afford in the U.S., like a housekeeper and guards.” The pace of life is generally slower, she says, with weekend activities like hiking and board game nights. She is very close with her work team and has made friends at church and while playing volleyball. Olvera’s blog wryly chronicles her adventures—and a few misadventures. She describes learning to cook (and appreciate) Malawi’s staple food, nsima, maize flour
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Overall, Olvera fell in love with Malawi, with the people she worked with, and with the “hands-on” work itself—which is why she returned to continue as a program associate with the Malawi project in June 2015.
Based in Colorado Springs, Olvera’s family was “definitely really nervous to have me living here permanently,” she says. “They are happy for me, but they worry a lot. We do WiFi texting and calling. But often, the connection is not good.” Now one year into her planned two-year stint, she visits the U.S. about every six months.
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The silver lining: In the initial clinical study for the Pumani CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) medical device Olvera works with, the survival rate for babies with respiratory distress at the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital jumped from 20 percent to 65 percent. “These were really promising results, similar to what is seen when CPAP is used in developed countries,” Olvera says.
Going local
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ENGINEERING BETTER BABY HEALTH
On contracting malaria:
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Long Way from Home Entry #2
“ NEVER AGAIN WILL I CHOOSE TO NOT USE A MOSQUITO NET because it’s annoying.”
mixed with water and boiled into bland lumps served with vegetables. She discovers that pumpkin leaves cooked in peanut flour and tomatoes are delicious—and sheepishly admits to her local friends that back in the States, we discard the leaves. She adopts a puppy, Thoko, and documents his growth. She slogs through the Blantyre Annual Events, a grueling 21-mile walk that includes scaling three local peaks over the course of several hours.
Global Health Tech: Adapting medical equipment to function in low-resource settings
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Fountain Valley School of Colorado
At Rice, Olvera learned to design and prototype medical equipment, knowledge she expanded during another Rice 360° internship with the World Health Organization in Switzerland. “The concept behind global health technologies isn’t necessarily to develop a totally new type of technology,” she says. “It’s more about reinventing existing technologies so they can be used in a low-resource setting. You’re looking at a different set of criteria: It has to be low cost, easy to maintain, really robust and easy to use. In other words, both sustainable and suitable.” Now, back at the Central Hospital in Blantyre, Olvera works on everything from budgets and training to supply chain and grant writing. Every quarter, her team travels in
a car jammed with equipment to visit each district. “We’re currently working in all 28 government hospitals and are expanding to the eight mission hospitals,” she says. “It’s a month-long marathon with lots of driving.” The team records the data collected by staff from the hospital’s CPAP machine since last visit, makes any repairs, delivers supplies and helps with any challenges. The CPAP technology is starting to help move the needle on infant mortality in Malawi. “When it’s used quickly on the right candidates, it is very successful,” Olvera says. “But there are challenges like power outages.” Blackouts worsen during the rainy season at the end of each year. After one more year helping get the CPAP project running smoothly, Olvera says she’ll be ready to come home. She would like to go back to school and earn a master’s degree, although she’s not sure yet in which field. Asked what has been her biggest learning experience during her sojourn in Malawi, Olvera stops to consider the question before answering. “I used to think more confidently that health problems were the most important ones to solve,” she says. “I still think health is incredibly important because it is related to so many other things. But I’ve also gotten to see the bigger picture. Trying to solve these health problems, you discover that they are related to energy and education and lots of other things.” In other words, there is no magic key to solving challenging health problems—or other complex global issues. But for Olvera and others who work to improve the lives of others, it is enough to focus on the good that can be done. And to do those small things well. Learn more about the Rice 360° Institute for Global Health’s important work to improve health worldwide at rice360.com.
In QECH’s modern ward, made possible through the joint efforts of the ELMA Foundation and Rice 360°. Left to right: Dr. Josephine Langton of QECH, Rice 360° bioengineering professor; Dr. Maria Oden, Rice 360° co-director Rebecca Richards-Kortum (a recent MacArthur award recipient); and a mother of a neonatal patient. Two new moms practice “kangaroo care” as they play a game at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre.
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Long Way from Home Entry #3 On electrical outages:
“I CONTINUE TO SUBSIST MOSTLY ON CEREAL, GRANOLA, YOGURT AND FRUITS. I OFTEN ENJOY ROMANTIC CANDLE-LIT EVENINGS ALONE IN MY ROOM,
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The new neonatal ward
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just waiting for the possibility of cooking food and using my fan to keep the mosquitoes and heat at a bearable level.”
by Morgan Smith ’56
DRIVING THROUGH ASPEN LAST JUNE EN ROUTE TO MY GRANDDAUGHTER’S HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION, I FELT A SEARING, ALMOST PHYSICAL PAIN AS I CAME TO THE CORNER OF 2ND AND FRANCES STREETS, AND THE FORMER HOME OF MY IN-LAWS. Although I grew up on the North Star Ranch (now the North Star Nature Preserve), it was this house—the Red House, as we called it—where my relationship began with Julie, their daughter. Although we never lived in Aspen, she took care of the house from the time of our marriage in 1965 to its sale many years later. Our family spent many weekends and summer vacations there with our two sons and daughter. For us, our time at that house was unforgettable. 23
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FINDING SHELTER IN JUAREZ
Julie died suddenly on April 3, 2016. The one bright aspect of this devastating loss happens to be another house, far south of Aspen in Juárez, Mexico. Donations made in her memory went to a nonprofit organization in El Paso, Texas—Siguiendo los Pasos de Jesús, which means Following the Footsteps of Jesus—and funded the construction of a home for a local family Julie and I had befriended and helped for almost six years. The result is a success story, which hasn’t always been the case with the humanitarian projects I get involved in. The story began in February 2011 when I made my first visit to Vision in Action, a mental health asylum on the edge of Ciudad Juárez, the sprawling border city just south of El Paso. Dozens of adult patients milled around me, but what surprised me most were the two young kids in their midst. Why were these young people in a mental asylum? Later I learned they were Hector and Yeira, the grandchildren of Elvira Romero, the asylum’s cook. She brought them to work with her every weekend because staying alone in their home would have been too dangerous. I could not imagine my grandchildren in such a situation. What made it feel even more personal was that
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Fountain Valley School of Colorado
Winds destroyed this, the family’s first shack.
Yeira is two weeks younger than my granddaughter, the one who recently graduated, yet their lives are so different. Elvira is technically their grandmother but in effect, she is really both their mother and father. Their father lives in Juárez and has money but provides no help. Their mother lives hundreds of miles east in another border town, Sonoyta. She is a drug addict and probably a prostitute. Hector and Yeira have always had to struggle to survive. They would find scrap metal and haul it up to the Chihuahua-Juárez Highway to sell. To warm their house, they would dig chunks of plywood out of the sand, bring them home in the old baby carriage, pound them on the floor to knock off the sand and burn them. Sometimes there wasn’t food. I began visiting the asylum at least once a month. Rather than just give money, I would pay Hector and Yeira to undertake various projects: writing essays about their family histories and their hopes for the future, or assisting with my interviews of patients. Once when I was not there, Yeira interviewed a patient who was a sicario, or assassin, who had murdered at least 15 people. I was horrified when I found out, but she told me, “I wasn’t afraid. He was the one who was crying.”
The family’s second shack
In the new house, left to right, Elvira, Yeira, cousin Amy and Hector
In August 2014, Yeira had her quinceañera, a traditional celebration of a girl’s 15th birthday that marks her transition from childhood to adulthood. It was a night of happiness for the whole family. Vision in Action founder Pastor Galván and I served as the padrinos, or sponsors.
nonprofits working in the area would help them build a house. Unfortunately, all the home-building programs had long waiting lists and required applicants to find sponsors to help with the costs.
But instead of this occasion being a leap forward, everything continued to decline for the family. Elvira lost her job, and her health problems—diabetes, high blood pressure and poor vision—worsened. Due to a lack of money, Yiera and Hector had to drop out of high school and take jobs in a maquiladora, an assembly plant where they only made about $50 a week. At last, Elvira managed to make a down payment on a small piece of land in the desert nearby. They built a shack for temporary shelter in the hope that one of the U.S.
After strong winds destroyed their shack, the family rebuilt another miserable hovel. “Morgan, it snowed during the night, and when we woke up in the morning, our hair was covered with snow,” Elvira told me during the winter of 2015. This was their life in the shack. But at the time, I didn’t have the money or the sponsors to do anything about it. That spring, in the weeks following Julie’s death, friends and family made an outpouring of donations to SPJ in her memory. Very quickly, we had enough funds to build a house.
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THEY BUILT A SHACK FOR TEMPORARY SHELTER IN THE HOPE THAT ONE OF THE U.S. NONPROFITS WORKING IN THE AREA WOULD HELP THEM BUILD A HOUSE.
THIS HOUSE IS MORE THAN JUST A STRUCTURE... IT REPRESENTS A LONGAWAITED LEAP FORWARD FOR THIS STOIC AND ENDURING MEXICAN FAMILY. The Siguiendo los Pasos de Jesús workers building the house
Under the leadership of founder and executive director Jane Fuller, SPJ provides much more than just houses. The organization hosts a clinic that’s staffed once a month by medical volunteers from El Paso. SPJ also offers a library, education resources, a park where kids can play, food assistance, and a market where local people can sell their goods. 26
Fountain Valley School of Colorado
In the case of Elvira’s family, this means medical attention for Elvira’s vision problem that will allow her to go back to work. For Hector and Yeira, it means finding better jobs and attending schooling on Saturdays, so they can earn high school degrees.
The modest 600-square-foot, cinder-block house was completed in October 2016. “Estamos en la Gloria,” Elvira often tells me. “We are in heaven.” I agree. This house is more than just a structure, or as I think of it, a beautiful living memorial. It represents a long-awaited leap forward for this stoic and enduring Mexican family. For the first time, I see real potential for these two young people to reach for the dreams they described in those essays they wrote years ago. More than simply surviving, they now have the foundation they need to build better, more fulfilling lives. Morgan Smith ’56 lives in Santa Fe and travels to the border every month to assist various humanitarian programs. He can be reached at morgan-smith@comcast.net.
FINDING SHELTER IN JUAREZ
WHY I WORK IN JUÁREZ AND ALONG THE BORDER I was 19 when I made my first trip to Mexico. I hitchhiked from my home in Colorado all the way to Mexico, then back via Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kansas. Years later, my wife, Julie, and I took our kids on numerous mountain climbing adventures exploring Mexico’s volcanoes. When I served as director of Colorado’s International Trade Office in the ’90s, I made regular trade missions on the state’s behalf. After my retirement, I was drawn south again, covering two Mexican presidential elections as a freelance writer. The trip that catalyzed my volunteer work, however, was one to the border town of Palomas, just south of Columbus, New Mexico. It was May 2010, the height of Mexico’s drug war violence that resulted in nearly 24,000 murders in 2010 and 2011 alone. On a visit to an orphanage called La Casa de Amor para Niños, I interviewed Martina Ontiveros, a local woman who worked caring for the children. When I asked if she was afraid, she answered simply, “This is my mission.” It hit me hard: If Martina could live and work here without succumbing to fear, I had no right to be afraid during my short visits. On subsequent trips to Juárez, I encountered this attitude again and again. So many people I met regarded their work as their mission, so reacting with fear wasn’t an option. In time, I realized I was also fortunate enough to be seeing the other face of the border, the region Mexicans call La Frontera. While it’s the violence that makes the news, there are many extraordinary people there who are helping the needy, often at substantial personal risk. I felt it was important to write about these heroic individuals and to support their work. For more than six years, I have traveled to towns along the border at least once a month. The trips are grueling and often emotionally draining, but I do think I am providing some help. More important, I deeply enjoy spending time with the people I’ve met and continue to meet. There is a sense of caring, sacrifice, endurance and even humor here. For me, the experience is very inspiring. As I write this, I am getting organized for another trip. That means gathering used clothing and shoes from neighbors and friends, buying food and candy to give to families, and printing photos from my last trip because they are treasured, particularly by the mentally ill patients.
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These trips never get repetitious. People get sick or get well; they die or sometimes just disappear. Kids suddenly seem grown up. Some of them find the inner strength to develop a decent life. In other words, this place and its people are now in my heart. So I will return, again and again.
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On this trip, I will also help design a special memorial for Julie. We all want to have a shrine in Julie’s memory in the house; Hector, the grandson, says that she is in his heart.
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After completing research in Srebrenica and Sarajevo, Hannah Carrese crosses the Adriatic on her way to work with refugees in Rome.
Borderlines From Global Scholar to Rhodes Scholar: Hannah Carrese ’12 Sets Her Sights on Finding Solutions to Today’s Refugee Crisis by Susan Enfield ’83
Hannah Carrese is in a hurry. Civil conflict has displaced 65.3 million people worldwide—more than after World War ll ended in 1945. At 22, growing crisis and is eager to help remedy it.
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Carrese is already tackling this complex, fast-
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BORDERLINES
Carrese learning the story of an Iraqi refugee in Rome
Raised in Colorado Springs by globally minded academics—her parents are FVS Director of Global Education and English faculty Susan Carrese P ’12, ’15 and former Air Force Academy political science professor and Rhodes Scholar Paul Carrese—Carrese considers herself “a world citizen with an American base.” We caught up with Carrese on a brief U.S. visit early this year as she 30
headed back to Mexico City to finish a fellowship in June, followed by a summer research tour of Central America with her mom, then postgraduate
Fountain Valley School of Colorado
study at Oxford on a prestigious two-year Rhodes Scholar award. With an easygoing manner that belies laser-focused intensity, Carrese filled us in on her ideas, current projects and plans for driving positive change on migration and refugee policy through both academic study and humanitarian work.
Q. A.
How did your parents influence you?
My parents hold a debate on citizenship each year for my mom’s Global Scholars at FVS. My dad takes the view that citizenship requires a circumscribed body politic—that the very term implies affiliation with a community that is limited in some way. My mom thinks global citizenship—the cosmopolitanism Socrates talked about ages ago—is necessary. She argues that “third-culture” kids like her—she was born in South Africa but raised mostly in the U.S.—are evidence of this possibility. My point is: these debates filter into our life as a family. My brother, Dominic ’15, and I were just talking about this as one of our most fundamental beliefs: that people who
love each other deeply must share ideas—at times difficult ones—through conversation. This extends from families to nations. It will be special to be at Oxford this fall, partly because my parents met there and began their life’s conversation there. I’m proud and privileged to be following in my dad’s footsteps as a Rhodes Scholar, and also in my mom’s: I’ll be a student at St. Antony’s, her Oxford college.
Q.
At FVS, you were in the Global Scholar program your mom created for students to develop an international perspective through study and experiences. How did that help set you on your path?
A.
My mom has been thinking about educating for global citizenship for a long time: it’s been a family project of sorts. During my eighth grade year, we lived in India while my dad taught at Delhi University on a Fulbright. For my brother and me, this meant immersion in a school of the world. We traveled through India by train with our backpacks and books, learning by listening generously and looking closely. This is the same kind of work she does with Global Scholars. For instance, on an interim in Israel and the West Bank with my mom and Señora [Pat] Kule, a wonderful former FVS Spanish teacher, our group learned how to engage in tough conversations.
What did you study at Yale?
What will be your focus at Oxford?
When I was applying for the Rhodes, a mentor at Yale asked me whether I was wasting time, whether these issues were too pressing and I shouldn’t just dive in right away and act on my ideas. It’s a good question. I think it does make sense to study more; academics and action don’t preclude each other. For instance, my current project pairs research with practical humanitarian work. With Sin Fronteras, I’m helping build a new community center in Mexico City for refugees from all over the world. It’s a place to gather and build community with English classes, lectures, clothing swaps, movies and more. It’s a newer concept in Mexico: to successfully integrate refugees, you need a sense of community. But I believe the only way to make a lasting impact with forcibly displaced peoples is by studying the policies that have led us to what I think is a political crisis. The political systems we have today are really born of political theories. At Oxford, I want to study the roots of those ideas, so I can figure out how to fix what’s gone wrong with the policies. That’s the plan, anyway.
build a new community center in Mexico City for refugees from all over the world. It’s a place to gather and build community with English classes, lectures, clothing swaps, movies and
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more. It’s a newer concept in Mexico: to successfully integrate refugees, you need a sense of community.
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It’s been fun to talk to FVS students about this in [history faculty] Mr. [Mike] Payne’s “Islam and the West” class and with the Global Affairs Forum.
With Sin Fronteras, I’m helping
S p r i n g
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I studied humanities, an interdisciplinary major that encourages students to put texts and disciplines into conversation with each other. In my case, this meant pairing studies of political theory with literature.
Q. A.
B u l l e t i n
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My current work in Mexico really is at the intersection of these two disciplines: I interview asylum-seekers who are politically recognized as refugees based upon the strength of their stories about their “wellfounded fear of persecution” [a key phrase from the 1967 Protocol on Refugees] in their home country. Their narratives have very real political implications.
BORDERLINES
Q. A.
How is migration changing today? How are our definitions changing? We’re finding out all over the world how important the word refugee is. For individual asylum seekers, being recognized as a refugee may mean the difference between a new opportunity in a new country, or even life or death.
The question is, how does the term refugee stand up? My independent research is focused on figuring out what the word will (and should) mean in the 21st century.
An Iraqi refugee in Colorado Springs shares photos of his home.
Q.
What have you learned about migration while in Mexico?
A.
Mexico is a transit country for migrants coming north toward the U.S. Many are from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. Honduras and El Salvador have very weak political institutions, are riven by gang violence and have some of the highest murder rates in the world. In addition, many migrants in Mexico now hail from Haiti, Cuba, Africa and throughout the world. It’s still pretty easy to pass through the southern border with Guatemala, but it’s more difficult for migrants to get through Mexico now. This is in part because the U.S. has funded a Mexican initiative called Programa Frontera Sur, which has made Mexico itself into a “vertical border.” In the same way the EU used Turkey as a holding zone for Syrian asylum seekers fleeing westward, the U.S. is doing this with Mexico and Central American asylum seekers.
People who leave home are described by several words, not all of which are well understood. A migrant can be anyone who leaves their country. People who are forcibly displaced—now the largest group at more than 65 million worldwide—leave home because they have to. Many are displaced within their home country. If they cross a border, they become an asylum seeker. Asylum seekers hope to be recognized as a refugee. Per the Refugee Protocol’s definition, a refugee is a person fleeing because of a “well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, ethnicity, social group or political opinion.” There are now 21.3 million refugees worldwide, an all-time high. New issues are motivating migrants. For instance, people are fleeing because of climate change. In Honduras and El Salvador, people are leaving due to chronic, generalized violence at home. These people don’t fall under the current definition of refugee. So the question is, how does the term refugee stand up? My independent research is focused on figuring out what the word will (and should) mean in the 21st century.
BORDERLINES
Conversation is the beginning of change. I want to enter a conversation about the political roots of the refugee movement. We think of refugee displacement as a humanitarian problem that can be ameliorated by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Carrese listens as refugees from Congo describe their journey across the Sahara and the Mediterranean to Italy.
Q. A.
Why is immigration such a charged issue?
The U.S. is exceptionally good at integrating refugees and migrants. Of all the nations in the world, we are best equipped to do this work. With migrant and refugee movement increasing and sparking a rise in populist and nationalist movements in the U.S. and Europe, it has become a political crisis. Two things: Refugees mostly settle in poor neighborhoods. The local residents are bearing the real brunt of refugee integration, which is difficult in its early stages. Also, with immigration, people react to pace of change more than to the specifics of change.
What are good ways to start shifting attitudes—and policies? Conversation is the beginning of change. I want to enter a conversation about the political roots of the refugee movement. We think of refugee displacement as a humanitarian problem that can be ameliorated by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).
Where do you see yourself in a few years?
I believe I will engage politically in some way. I may study law after Oxford, as a way of becoming fluent in the language of politics. The time I’ve spent in Mexico has given me an understanding of the migration problem in the Americas. That’s an issue that resounds in the American West. Colorado is a really important place for me—it’s a landscape I want to return to. I want to tackle these migration issues in the American West.
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Follow Carrese on her website: borderlineproject.com
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In fact, displacement is a symptom of a deeper political crisis. It’s a crisis of both world order (state borders vs. human rights) and specific eruptions of violence, like that in Syria, which the international community no longer has the will to solve using the required political means.
Q. A.
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And for the past 15 years, the international community has let political conflicts that lead to refugee displacement fester. The massive number of forcibly displaced people worldwide today is a result of our inaction. That refugees are moving so (relatively) quickly now suggests just how desperate they are. This means they’ll keep moving—and that we’ll keep having difficulty integrating them quickly enough.
Q. A.
This Soap Saves Lives by Mera McGrew ’06
soapplybox.com
“More than soap.” That’s the motto at Soapply, a startup I launched in 2016 aiming to not only deliver better soap directly to your doorstep, but also help get soap in the hands of those who need it around the world. 34
products and companies play in the world, and the impact they have on your health.
Fountain Valley School of Colorado
I started Soapply because I’m optimistic that we can change that.
Soapply is crafted using food-grade organic oils, and is made without parabens, sulfates, synthetics, or any other ingredients with questionable health or safety concerns. Besides knowing exactly what you’re lathering up with, when you wash with Soapply you help people across the globe, because each purchase helps fund $10 worth of impact through water, sanitation and hygiene initiatives. (Currently, all impact is focused in Tigray, Ethiopia.)
The concept is simple: deliver expertly crafted soap in a minimalistic chic (recycled) glass bottle to your door. But it’s more than luxurious soap, it’s a statement that says you care about the role
Mera McGrew ’06 graduated from Vassar College with a bachelor of arts in political science, neurobiology and behavioral biology. The New York Times featured Soapply on Jan. 3, 2017.
I first had the ideas for Soapply when I was living and working in Africa, and I learned one stark fact: 1.7 million children are dying every year from diseases that could be prevented through the simple act of hand washing with soap.
While living and working in Africa, McGrew was inspired to create Soapply.
DSCoVR-ing How to Make a Difference
Boxing food at the Connection 4 Life pantry
Building the bridge from the FVS gym parking lot to the playing fields
Giving back to the community through Fountain Valley’s DSCoVR program is akin to a “full-contact sport” in that—like the School’s athletics—it demands dedication and teamwork, and it builds character while offering lifelong lessons.
Thus, Danes Serve the Community Volunteer Regiment (DSCoVR) was born with objectives that comprised all of FVS core values: open-mindedness, self-reliance, curiosity, courage and compassion.
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He envisioned a program that would expose students to a broad array of opportunities. That sense of
“I wanted everyone to know this team was going to be different. As importantly, I wanted our students to discover the different ways they can get involved in our greater community.”
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Languages faculty Nathan Eberhart, a Colorado Springs native, took the reins. “It was a cool opportunity to reach out to my friends and different local programs to see if we could create partnerships between the students and organizations,” he says.
exploration, he decided, should be reflected in the team’s name.
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Community service has long been a part of the curriculum at Fountain Valley. Three years ago, the idea of making community service an afternoon activity option for students arose, fueled by a desire to better deliver on the school’s core value of compassion.
DSCOVR-ING HOW TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Destiny Morgan ’17, a day student from Colorado Springs, participated in DSCoVR for two seasons and enjoyed the team-building activities the group did together: “My favorite memory is playing games together on Wednesdays. We didn’t all speak the same language, but playing became a perfect way to communicate with each other. We bonded in these moments, which made us stronger as a group and better at working together. DSCoVR was a great experience. It really helped to open my eyes to what this community needs and how I can further help.” Prepping meatballs at Seeds Cafe for the next day’s meal
Making tamales for FVS community
The group has focused its efforts on a handful of local organizations: Seeds Community Café. This downtown Colorado Springs restaurant has a mission to ensure people can get a meal when they need one, regardless of ability to pay. In this first DSCoVR partnership, FVS students helped ready meals for the following day, prepping vegetables and cleaning the restaurant. Goodwill. In this major partnership, students worked at the Security-Widefield store, sorting clothes and placing them on the floor for sale. They also orchestrated a Goodwill drive on campus, collecting more than 1,000 items.
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Apple Tree/Solange Assisted Living. On Fridays, the DSCoVR group traveled to this facility near campus to engage in conversations and activities with residents. Over time, the youths developed relationships with the seniors and came to look forward to visits. The students even made a special connection with one resident, alumnus George Vinnedge ’57. These experiences sometimes pushed FVS students out of their comfort zones, Eberhart says. “There was some social anxiety involved in showing up and sitting with a stranger, and to recognize that some of the residents have health issues,” he says. “It’s important for a kid to discover how powerful it is to just be there.”
Atlas Prep. This Colorado Springs charter school is led by executive director Brittney Moore Stroh ’06. DSCoVR students tutored middle schoolers every Monday, helping them with homework and individual reading. Connection 4 Life. For Izzy Nuñez ’17’s food rescue project, DSCoVR signed on to deliver FVS’ leftover food each Thursday to this nearby food pantry and resource center that offers training, counseling, crisis support and more to those in need. Students also pitched in for the organization’s Thursday food giveaways, helping sort and box food for families to pick up. Connection 4 Life distributes 100,000 pounds of food annually to 10,000–12,000 people in southern Colorado Springs. On-campus projects. Working with ranch manager Tyson Phillips, DSCoVR members built a bridge across an irrigation ditch for easier access to the athletic fields, and helped clear brush and tree limbs from the front prairie. Last fall, they harvested corn stalks from the community garden, which were used to decorate the campus. Random acts of kindness. DSCoVR makes a practice of spreading joy whenever inspiration strikes. For instance, they made and delivered tamales to a faculty member who recently lost her husband, as well as a staff member who was just home from the hospital.
DSCOVR-ING HOW TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE
members in need
Harvesting corn stalks in the FVS community garden
At Atlas Prep charter school, DSCoVR tutors students.
Emily Bowling ’17, a boarding student from Texas, particularly enjoyed tutoring students at Atlas Prep, a charter middle and high school in Colorado Springs: “We connected with children who were in situations far from what kids on campus have experienced. Bringing help and positive modeling to that group of youths was incredibly rewarding. One particularly moving movement was when a 5th-grade girl I was mentoring pulled out a worksheet about reproductive health that covered everything about the birds and the bees. Her mother was no longer in the picture at home. She was curious, but too embarrassed to ask her older brothers or father to help her with the questions on the sheet. It’s an ear-burning subject for that age group. The fact that I could be the female presence in her life to help explain all those personal questions in a setting where she felt comfortable revealed to me our true purpose at Atlas Prep. Not only were we there to help with math problems, we were there for support and leadership—and to show these kids they truly matter. The teacher later shared that this girl had confided she wished she had me as a sister. I most certainly cried a little.”
they’ve had requests to shovel snow or do yard work for the elderly or disabled, and Eberhart says the group is also considering initiating a math and reading literacy program with elementary students.
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B u l l e t i n
In coming months, Eberhart plans to broaden DSCoVR’s reach and impact through social media and by alerting local community groups and organizations that FVS has a student volunteer organization ready to engage. So far,
S p r i n g 2 0 1 7
Class Notes
70s
50s
Assistant Director of Advancement Eric Kronebusch visited Duke Colket ’52 at his home near Dallas where he proudly displays his Distinguished Casa Serena Society Member Award.
60s
Bill Griffiths ’61 sent in this photo of classmates Van Hackett and Cale Crowley who reunited for a visit in Virginia.
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ED VELIE ’64 sends news that he is retired from 24 years of coaching soccer and administrative duties at St. Michael’s High School in Santa Fe. He enjoys traveling, reading and hiking with his golden-yorkie, Finley. BRADLEY BOYDEN ’69 and his wife, MARIE DEL TORO, both former faculty, are enjoying the great Pacific Northwest lifestyle in Portland, Ore. Their two children attend Santa Clara University, and the family took a trip to Alaska last summer where they were greeted by grizzly bears and elk.
Classmates John Pryor ’75, Clay Frick and Ned Wheeler met up in Telluride at Pryor’s home with the intention of doing a “road” ski trip through the San Juan Mountains. “The snow started coming on day one and did not stop for eight days,” Pryor wrote. “The skiing was off the charts—great times, great ol’ FVS brothers—ah, the things we learned as Danes.”
RONNIE JORDAN ’77 is living in Orlando, Fla., recently retired from a long career in the RV business. His dealership, Independence RV, serviced the southeastern states. He is enjoying life and hopes to be back for Alumni Weekend 2017. Pete Blatchford ’79’s newly published book, “Wicked, Immoral, Utterly Bad!,” is an illustrated history chronicling the story of local, dramatic theater in Chicago. Blatchford has been acting there since 1984 and calls the book “an unabashed love note to Chicago and its theater.”
DSP into Ve Interactive’s platform, which was designed to be less North Americancentric than other offerings, should combine with the company’s singular intent data to offer something unique in a largely commodified technology market, largely because data isn’t being used as effectively as it could be in video, or anywhere, “despite being the ’hot topic’ for the last few years.” He added, “There is massive potential in fragmented pockets across the industry.”
90s
Left to right, Flora Jewell-Stern ’90, former faculty and swim coach Jean Miller-Mariner and Jo Toll Fleming ’90 swam from Alcatraz to San Francisco. Fleming wrote an essay on the experience reflecting upon “If Only My 14-yearold Self Knew.” It was a lovely tribute to Miller-Mariner whom she credits with teaching her invaluable life lessons. The three swimmers plan to make the Alcatraz swim an annual event to raise funds for the American Brain Tumor Association.
80s LAURA PARTRIDGE ’82 splits her time between homes in Reno, Nev., and Hawaii. She runs an advertising and marketing business, CCMedia, in the Nevada/California region. She and her husband have three children and enjoy their busy lives. JOSH MORTENSEN ’89 became director of programmatic media at Ve Interactive last spring. He explained in an interview that the integration of the single tenet Optomaton
Gabe Eggers ’96 was married in Rainier, Wash., last August. Gathered in an FVS snapshot are, left to right: Artist-in-residence Mark Dillon P ’08, ’10, ’11, Jacqui (Trombly) Duba ’96, Moria Eggers ’99, Dan Beaman ’96, Eggers, bride Katherine Eggers, Rob Watson and his wife, former faculty Libby Anderson, Susan Stevens P ’08, ’10, ’11.
CLASS NOTES
NORM MAKTIMA ’98 placed 30th individually in the 2016 World Flyfishing Championships. He was a member of Team USA, which earned bronze.
00s
Colin Guthrie ’96 wrote in with this small world story: “I’m the location sound recordist and sound designer for a new short film directed by Eleanor Coppola called Sailing Lesson which was filmed in Northern California for American Zoetrope. Marshall Bell ’61 and Kathy Baker star. On set, while Marshall and I were chatting, we realized we were both Danes! We had lots of laughs reminiscing about our time at Fountain Valley, and Marshall was yelling ‘GO DANES!’ at me in between takes. We just started postproduction and expect the film to be finished in early 2017.” Left to right, Guthrie, Bell and Coppola
MERYL STORB ’04 sent in news that both she and CLAIRE QUBAIN ’09 were each featured in the Montana State University News. Storb is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences, researching the chemical nutrients of local watersheds. Qubain is one of six graduate students at MSU to have received fellowships from the Montana Institute on Ecosystems to conduct environmental science research in Montana and the Rocky Mountain West. Storb gave shout outs to science faculty ROB GUSTKE P ’16, ’18 for “starting me down this path” and to former faculty ANDY HANDFORD P ’00 for “teaching me the foundations of statistics. Being a hydrologist means you are essentially a statistician who also likes to go outside.”
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Stephanie Barr ’03 married Logan Magnuson on Aug. 20, 2016, in Carbondale, Colo., and her FVS classmates were there in force. Left to right, Molly Creeden, Suzy Barr, Stephanie Barr Magnuson, Katie Meyer and Erin Toal-Rossi.
Molly Creeden ’03 married Collin Creighton on Aug. 13 at Fountain Valley School. It was a destination wedding with a full weekend of revelry and guests staying in the residence halls. In an article for C Weddings magazine, Creeden wrote, “My favorite [memory], however, is the moment I walked with my dad into the school’s small chapel—whose pews I had sat in hundreds of times while he led All-School assembly—and saw Collin’s and my favorite people assembled in the same rows.” Left to right, Patrick Creeden ’06, Creighton, Creeden, parents Carole Martin P ’03, ’06 and former headmaster John Creeden. Photo by Gary Ashley of The Wedding Artists Collective
B u l l e t i n
Brian Leavell ’98 wrote: “I had a great FVS moment last night that I had to share. I attended a tribute concert for the actor Harry Dean Stanton on his 90th birthday, and it was full of amazing speakers and musicians like Kris Kristofferson, Anjelica Huston, Johnny Depp and the great FVS alumnus Griffin Dunne ’74. After the show was over, there were a couple people still milling around and one of them was Griffin. I introduced myself and told him that in 1997, I made a student film at FVS that won a prize at the Dominique Dunne Film Festival, and he and his father [Dominick Dunne] were there in person to present it. I told him that he had imparted his wisdom with me about filmmaking that night. He lit up, gave me a big hug and said, “Oh man, you’re breaking my heart. I remember you. This is the best story I’ve heard in so long!”
ROBERT FERGUSON ’02 sends news: “My wife, Felicia, and I made the move across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco to Mill Valley, which is where my wife owns and runs her Italian restaurant, Piazza D’Angelo. Perhaps it was the Italian influence, or just from being in close proximity of Northern California wine country, but I have recently launched a new wine company, Proposal Wine. I continue my work as a marketing and brand strategist for the management consulting firm Catalyst SF but on the side, I have been quietly operating a small wine company. It started in 2014 as a class project in business school but has since grown to a 500 case per year production. We source all our grapes from Rutherford in Napa Valley and currently have three varietals: Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay. We have been proudly serving Bay Area restaurants and customers since 2015. I will have to bring some to the reunion in May, which I very much look forward to attending. Needless to say, with a wine company of my own and a wife with an Italian restaurant, there are no fears of me going thirsty or hungry in 2017!”
CLASS NOTES
10s
Max Seigal ’06 captured first place in the sports-adventure category in the third annual Dronestagram contest. The contest, sponsored by companies such as National Geographic and Kodak, honors the best drone photographs taken each year.
Chloe Nunley ’07 and Rangler Wilson married on Nov. 5, 2016, in Sabinal, Texas. This photo is from their Jan. 14 wedding reception at Coyote Ranch. Left to right, Fred Winston ’78, P ’18, Tyler Dulin ’09, Chloe Nunley Wilson, Maggie Hanna ’07, Lukas Langer ’09, Hunter Dulin ’07, Sage Hanner ’09, Sarah Dulin P ’07, ’09, ’11, Riding Director Ann Hanna P ’07, ’09 and Emy Hanna ’09.
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Will Sippl ’10 and Hannah Hilkey ’09 (now Hannah Sippl) were married in Healdsburg, Calif., May 29, 2016. The celebration was a mini FVS reunion with six alumni members in the wedding party and former faculty Erik Nickerson officiating. Many more alumni were in attendance. Hannah and Will excitedly welcome FVS visitors to their new home in Berkeley, Calif. Left to right: Scott Tredennick ’10, Thomas Sickert ’10, Erik Nickerson, former faculty Diane Nickerson, Will Sippl, Hannah Sippl, Rose Blake ’06, Elsie Black ’05, Sam Hilkey ’07, Claire Qubain ’09, Cori Storb ’09, Meryl Storb ’04, Anandi Black ’07, Eliot Jackson ’09, Garron Sanchez ’09, Kailey Blunt ’09, Whitney Blunt ’05
JENNY STOOT ’11 is studying law at South Texas College of Law.
English faculty Jen Buckley met her former advisee Jon Colarelli ’12 for lunch. In May, he graduated from Santa Clara University with two degrees, finance and psychology. He was also awarded the Santa Clara Nobili medal at graduation, the university’s highest honor. He is serving one year in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in Baltimore as a full-time paralegal with a law firm that serves Baltimore’s impoverished community, primarily mothers and children.
BEATRICE EVANS ’12 is assistant to the artist-in-residence at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisc. TAYLOR GUZY ’12 is living in south Florida and recently finished up an internship with Disney where he worked inside their theme parks. He is now focusing his efforts on a future law degree. He hopes to see many other 2012 grads at the upcoming Alumni Weekend 2017.
Fountain Valley School of Colorado
DAN STOOT ’07 completed his doctorate in physical therapy and is studying for the state licensing boards exam. He lives in Denver. STEVEN STOOT ’09 completed his master’s degree in mechanical engineering at Purdue University and is working as a rocket test engineer at SpaceX in Waco, Texas. He continues to run and train for marathons.
Science faculty Brett Rubenstein struck up a casual conversation with another skiier while riding a chairlift at Breckenridge Mountain. Unbeknownst to either of them at the time (because of helmets and goggles), it turns out he was chatting with his former student Liz Tenney ’11. Tenney is working on her master’s degree in global health at the University of Denver.
Sophie Feffer ’13 studied abroad in Paris and worked as an interpreter for a French winemaker in Champagne, France. She is now a senior at the University of Colorado with a business major and French minor.
CLASS NOTES
English Department Chair DAVE REYNOLDS P ’13, ’18 sent in news that daughter EMMA REYNOLDS ’13 was elected to join Hamilton’s Phi Beta Kappa Society, the oldest honor society for the liberal arts and sciences in the U.S. She was one of 16 chosen from her class of 800. Her parents are proud and thank FVS for helping shape her.
Classmates Paige Jeschke ’14 and Meg Jacobsen traveled together on a six-week trek through Thailand with a group called Pacific Discovery. They spent a week caring for abused elephants, learning how mistreated many of them are while in captivity. Jeschke wrote an essay on the subject for Pacific Discovery.
Tristan White ’14, right, met up with Christoph Merbach ’14 in Heidelberg, Germany, before White flew to Christchurch, New Zealand, for a study abroad semester at the University of Canterbury.
BOBBI YORK ’16 was recently published in Rodeo News Magazine and has written articles for her local newspaper. She recently wrote to English Department Chair DAVE REYNOLDS P ’13, ’18: “I have found an absolute love for words and the written language, so much so that I have continued to pursue it in college. Because of you and your class, I am able to write with such ease and joy. Thank you again for all that you did for me, Mr. Reynolds.”
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B u l l e t i n S p r i n g 2 0 1 7
Last fall, Kiira Walsh ’14 attended Mahidol University in Bangkok, Thailand. While studying abroad, she took classes with Thai students and traveled through Asia in between tests and assignment due dates. Between bathing elephants in the Mae Ping river, studying the implications of poverty in Southeast Asia, tiptoeing through ruins in Ayutthaya, and restoring coral reefs in Koh Tao, Walsh was able to explore Thailand like a tourist but live like a local. In August, she met up with Jiwon Park in Hong Kong for a long weekend, as well as traveled to Tokyo in December to visit, left to right, Laura Twomey ’15, Satoka Satome ’15 and Margot Twomey ’14.
Director of ESL and International Student Programs Kathleen Czop met up with Jakub Myska ’14 in Czop’s hometown of East Lansing, Mich. Myska attends and plays hockey at Hope College in Michigan. Interim History Chair and hockey coach Mike Payne, also visiting his home state of Michigan last summer, met with Myska, as well. He reports, “Jakub just completed a summer internship with a lobbying firm through which he got to know the legislative process in the state capitol in Lansing. He will soon head to Santiago, Chile, where he will spend a semester studying Spanish.”
ALLI DEIST ’15 sends in news of her adventures as a volunteer in Southeast Asia: “I found a volunteer program in Vietnam where I could support single mothers, and I decided to pursue this opportunity for my gap year. About a month in, I found out that the CEO was committing tax fraud so I decided to switch to another organization. Since then, I have volunteered across Vietnam and Cambodia. I spent three weeks at a homestay organization in Hanoi, two weeks in Da Nang helping a disabled man, two weeks working at a conservation project on the island Koh Rong, and one week working at a school for street children and orphans in Phnom Penh.” The blog of her adventures is at adapieblog.wordpress.com
IN MEMORIAM
In Memoriam CARL M. BRANDAUER ’43
JAMES K. KERLIN ’53 died
DAVID GARDINER DAVIS ’54 died June
died Oct. 22, 2016, at the age of 91. He lived in Boulder, Colo.
Sept. 24, 2016, at home in Tulsa, Okla. He was 81.
6, 2016, at the age of 79.
Brandauer was born in Beijing, China, and spent most of his childhood in Austria before his family moved to the United States in 1938. The 1943 yearbook refers to Brandauer as the “original member of the Sixth Form,” and continues, “His talents being so wide and varied, the name ‘Brandauer’ yelled through the form usually means some poor misguided person is looking for help.” Athletically, he was on the ski team and played tennis. He was the head electrician of the stage crew and became a bridge expert, according to the yearbook, which says, “He has succeeded in teaching almost everyone in the form the correct conduct and procedure at the table.”
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Fountain Valley School of Colorado
After graduation, he joined the 10th Mountain Division and was eventually deployed to Italy where he was awarded both a Purple Heart and a Silver Star. After the war, he spent two years teaching climbing and skiing for the U.S. Army in Colorado Springs. He then received his B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. from Columbia University in experimental psychology. From 1954 to 1982, he worked for Haskins Labs, Bell Labs and NCAR, and then founded Daemon Associates specializing in Unix and C language programming and training. Brandauer was a member of the American Alpine Club and the Sierra Club, and was president of the Colorado Mountain Club during the late 1960s. He is survived by six children, and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Kerlin entered FVS for his fourth form year, and in three years played football, basketball and track, and was the paddock boss for gymkhana. He also sang in the Glee Club and had a leading role in Down in the Valley, which won him the FVS Dramatics Award. As a senior, he co-captained the football team, starred in Trial by Jury, and was an active member of the work crew. After graduating from Fountain Valley, he served in the U.S. Army from 1954-1956, and in 1962 received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Tulsa. Before his professional career began, Kerlin worked summers as a guard at the Pensacola Dam on Grand Lake. He later enjoyed spending time with family and friends at a cabin on the lake; he also loved to travel. He retired from Blue Cross Blue Shield as vice president of facilities and purchasing. Previously, he worked for KWB Oil property management, The Williams Companies and Hilti Fastening Systems. He volunteered throughout his life, serving as past president of Oklahoma Green Country Council of Camp Fire Girls, working with Junior Achievement, the Facilities Committee in the Tulsa Parks Department, and after retirement, served as an airport ambassador through RSVP. Kerlin is survived by his wife, Jean, two children and two grandchildren.
Davis entered FVS in 1949 and spent five years as a Dane. During that time, he played pup football, baseball, hockey and tennis. He also was the yearbook activities editor, writer for the Viking, vice president of the Glee Club, and a member of the Student Council, dorm committee and library committee. He was the King in Tom Thumb and performed in Pinafore. The 1954 yearbook called him “a pleasant, easygoing fellow well-liked by all.” A retired educator, he walked his dog Emmy every morning in Cowen Park near his home in Seattle. He is survived by his five children.
MCGILL JOSEPH HAWLEY ’57 died Sept. 13, 2016, at his home, The Silver Bullet Ranch, in Gainesville, Texas. He was 78. Hawley came to FVS from Blake School in Minnesota, and spent his fifth and sixth former years as a Dane. The 1957 yearbook called him, “the electronic genius of the form. One saw him always engrossed in making a transmitter or receiver, with which he operated his own Penrose radio station.” He was foreman of the work crew, participated in riding and was a member of the projection committee. The Hawley Library on the FVS campus is named after his father, John B. Hawley Jr., who was an FVS trustee.
IN MEMORIAM
After high school, he was hired as a roustabout in the Woodbine (Gainesville), Texas, office of Northern Pump Company. He managed the employees and worked hard in the oil fields. He worked for Northern Pump in many oil industry jobs, including stints in other parts of Texas, Kansas, North Dakota and the main office in Minneapolis. His hobbies included scuba diving in Lake Texoma, boating, leading Boy Scout troops, relaying messages for the troops during the Vietnam war on a MARS Net ham radio, drag racing and studying mechanics. He donated his time to the VFW and the Air Force MARS program, and did civil defense work. He gave mechanical equipment to various organizations in Gainesville, and he was a member of the Cooke County Amateur Radio Club, the Moose Lodge, the Denton Elks and The Order of The Turtle. He is survived by five siblings and numerous nieces and nephews.
PETER DECOURCY HERO ’60 died Aug. 21, 2016.
Hero twice received Presidential appointments to the National Endowment for the Arts. His most recent book, “Local Mission, Global Vision: Community Foundations in the 21st Century,” published in 2008, has been translated into five languages. His other positions included executive director of the Oregon Arts Commission, president of the Maine College of Art, and vice president for development and institute relations at California Institute of Technology. His passion was sailing and he owned a 41-foot sloop, Celestine. His many voyages included transAtlantic crossings and to other destinations worldwide. His last trip was as a working passenger aboard the 250-foot, three-masted clipper Stad Amsterdam.
He entered FVS as a fifth former and spent two years with the Glee Club, where he served as president as a senior. He was a member of the Sly Dogs and played football, basketball and squash; he also participated in riding. Terrey moved to San Antonio after graduating from FVS. He earned a master’s degree from Trinity University and worked as a credit manager in the construction materials industry. He also taught economics at San Antonio College. Terrey was involved in ranching his entire life and enjoyed playing golf, watching the Golf Channel, traveling and listening to Willie Nelson. He is survived by his wife, Betty, three children and three stepchildren, and numerous grandchildren and greatgrandchildren.
JOHN A. ANDERSON ’72 died June 20, 2014, at the age of 60. Anderson was at FVS for one year before returning home to graduate from Loveland High School in Colorado (where he lived most of his life). He later received a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Colorado State University. He was a stockbroker for 18 years but returned to his true love of art after retiring from the business. His copper sculptures were shown at Sculpture in the Park and in Taos, N.M. He also loved to fish and golf. Anderson is survived by his wife, Lora, two children and three grandchildren.
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He is survived by his wife, Bonnie, three children, two grandchildren, and his brothers Andrew ’58 and J. Girvin Peters Jr. ’70.
Sept. 7, 2015. He was 70. He lived in Alice, Texas.
S p r i n g
Following a brief stint in the private sector after graduating from Stanford, Hero devoted the rest of his life to public service. At the time of his death, he was recognized worldwide as one of the foremost authorities on the creation and strategic guidance of community foundations. As president
His contributions to the field of philanthropy were many and varied. He was founding chairman of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) Foundation and an enthusiastic member of the board of Sesame Workshop. Among the many other boards upon which Hero served were as founding member of the Skoll Foundation, Ebay Foundation, Pax-Vax, and the Council on Foundations. He also chaired the World Bank Advisory Committee on Global Community Foundation Development.
THOMAS N.L. TERREY ’62 died
B u l l e t i n
Hero was at FVS for five years, serving on the Student Council and as business manager of the Dane newspaper. He was also in the Dramatics Club, played on the squash team and ran track. Hero earned honorable mention scholastic honors as a senior. He graduated from Williams College with a bachelor’s degree in history and master’s degree in art history and also earned an M.B.A. from Stanford University School of Business.
and CEO of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation from 1989 to 2008, Hero grew its assets from $8 million to $1.4 billion. A lengthy Fortune Magazine article, “The Man Who Sold Silicon Valley on Giving” noted, “It is Peter Hero, more than anyone else, who has shown Silicon Valley how to give.” Hero also led the creation of a network of community foundations in former Communist countries in central and eastern Europe. In recognition of this work, Czech Republic President Vaclav Havel appointed him to the 2002 NATO Summit Council in Prague.
IN MEMORIAM
WADE R. EDWARDS ’74 died July 4, 2016, at the age of 60.
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the member experience. His positive spirit, management savvy and love of sailing had a remarkable impact on BSC for the last nine years.
Growing up in Grosse Pointe, Mich., Edwards arrived at FVS as a ninth grader, and he played on the hockey and soccer teams, skied, and performed in several theater productions. He made lifelong friendships and remained close with many of his classmates over the years.
Edwards always kept his passion for sailing alive. He raced both in Michigan and Massachusetts, competing successfully in various classes across the U.S. and abroad. He touched many lives in the sailing world, and was known to be a great competitor and a true gentleman. He also spent many years of service as a board member and treasurer for The Nature Connection in Concord, Mass.
In 1975, Edwards enrolled at Tulane University, where he studied English, including a one-year honors program in Cardiff, Wales, and graduated cum laude. He worked as a sales manager at Edwards Industries until 1986, and then was general manager of the Quick Connector group at U.S. Plastics until 1990. The following year, he received an M.B.A from the University of Michigan.
He is survived by his wife, Aliza, and three children.
He then operated a management consulting practice, W.R. Edwards Consulting, focused primarily on the automotive industry. Between 1992 and 1996, using his natural eye for business and engaging personal style, Edwards rose through the ranks at Pilot Industries. He served as the director of corporate planning, general manager of the plastics and electronics division, and finally as the director of sales and marketing. He went on to co-found Tibbitts, Edwards & Associates, a management consulting firm in Grosse Pointe Farms, where he served as a partner until 2002.
Fountain Valley School of Colorado
In 2000, after the family moved to Massachusetts, Edwards worked as a consultant to several families and firms, providing services from trust fiduciary to strategic planning. He purchased the Boston Sailing Center in 2007, and as managing director improved operational efficiency and the quality of
BAARON B. PITTENGER III ’80 died Nov. 14, 2016. He was 55. Pittenger grew up in the Boston area until his family moved to Colorado Springs in 1978, and he spent two years at FVS. While with the Danes, he played varsity soccer and squash. Dean of Studies Waldo Johnston wrote of Pittenger, “Long after he graduates from Fountain Valley, Baaron will be remembered for his seriousness of purpose, for his thoughtfulness, and for his strong sense of values.” After FVS, he earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Coe College and a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Iowa. Pittenger spent most of his career in media, beginning in radio at KROS in Clinton, Iowa. He then moved to WSDR in Sterling, Ill., before he and his family moved to Colorado Springs in 1997. He was the assignment editor at KRDO-TV and eventually became the assistant news director there. He left KRDO in 2012 to start his own company,
The Media Guide, and he was the deputy public information officer for El Paso County in the spring of 2015. During his years in broadcasting, Baaron received numerous awards including being inducted into the KROS Hall of Fame. Pittenger followed the Red Sox and enjoyed spending time with his family and friends hiking, fishing, attending baseball games, movies, and watching his son grow. He is survived by his wife, Sara, and son.
MORE INTERIM 2017
Sports in the Southwest – Peter Packard ’65 (crouching, right) hosted the group at an Arizona State University Sun Devil’s game
Place, Story and People in Seattle
Ribs, Rock ’n Roll and Race: America’s Southern Roots – At Hatch Show Print, where they discovered Bob Weir ’65 posters
White Rim Mountain Biking, Utah
Exploring Iceland: Geology, Mythology and Environmental Science – At Gothafoss or “Falls of the Gods”
6155 Fountain Valley School Road Colorado Springs, CO 80911 fvs.edu ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED
Come Early and Play at the Mountain Campus May 31-June 2
87TH ANNIVERSARY ALUMNI WEEKEND:
JUNE 2-4
You’re Covered: no registration fee this year (with early registration)
r Regisut/reeunion at fvs.ed