Issuu

FALL 2026

Meetinghouse THE MAGAZINE OF FRIENDS SEMINARY

ON THE COVER

Finding One’s Inner Light BY LORELEI ’27

My painting is an exploration of finding one’s Inner Light in the silence of Meeting for Worship. Just as the simplicity of silence allows us to reflect and connect with the Inner Light of each community member, the simplicity of the shape and colors allows the boatman to shine brightly.

Basking in Yin Austerity , 2026. Gouache on canvas, 8 × 8 in.

Lorelei has been part of the Friends Seminary community since Kindergarten. She participates in the dance program, orchestra, and Math Team. Outside of school she enjoys graphic designing for her youth council, expressing herself through various dance styles and tutoring in math and English.

This year Friends Seminary introduces a renewed visual identity that brings together the School's logo, typography, color palette, website and communications. The School’s redesigned website, launched in June, marked the first public expression of this work. The updated logo retains the familiar schoolhouse, tree and founding date. The revised wordmark restores “Seminary” to the School's primary wordmark, reaffirming the School’s full name and 240-year history. It pairs a serif rooted in the long tradition of book typography with a contemporary sans serif, while “Friends” now appears in standard capitalization rather than all capitals. With the start of the 2026–27 school year, the renewed visual identity will continue to roll out across the School’s publications, signage, digital communications and other materials.

OPENING SHOTS Upper School ChoreoLab students take the stage in the Great Room on May 14 during ChoreoShow 2026. The two-day dance showcase featured original works choreographed by students in Barry Blumenfeld’s class and marked the culmination of a year of creativity, dedication and contemporary storytelling through movement.

OPENING SHOTS Lower School Homeroom Teacher Emeritus John Behling, right, works with Daniel McCarthy ’09 in his classroom in the fall of 1998. During Reunion 2026 in May, John was honored for his 38 years of service as an educator at Friends Seminary. Visit the Reunion section of this issue to read more.

OPENING SHOTS Students in the Class of 2028 volunteered with the Riverside Park Conservancy during a Day of Service in May 2026. From Kindergarten through Grade 12, students partnered with organizations across New York City—caring for shared spaces, supporting neighbors facing food insecurity, learning from older adults, tending the earth and reflecting together along the way.

OPENING SHOTS Members of the Class of 2030 celebrate on June 5, 2026, outside the Fifteenth Street Meetinghouse following a Moving Up Ceremony. The students will return to campus this fall as members of the Upper School.

Our Mission Friends Seminary educates students from kindergarten through twelfth grade, adhering to the values of the Religious Society of Friends. We strive to build a diverse school where students exercise their curiosity and imagination as they develop as scholars, artists and athletes. In a community that cultivates the practices of keen observation, unhurried reflection, critical thinking and coherent expression, we listen for the single voice as we seek unity. The disciplines of silence, study and service provide the matrix for growth: silence opens us to change; study helps us to know the world; service challenges us to put our values into practice. At Friends Seminary, education is rooted in the Quaker belief in the Inner Light—that of God in every person. Guided by the testimonies of integrity, peace, equality and simplicity, we prepare students to engage in the world that is and to help bring about a world that ought to be. Adopted December 2015

Meetinghouse Features

FALL 2026

Departments

Let the Way Open

Notes on Silence

Across Two Landscapes, One Shared Investigation

Opening Shots

Making Space for Potential Wildness

A Letter from Chris Singler

Friends in Print

Portrait of an Artist as the Hanged Man

Commencement 2026

23 College Destinations

Global Immersion: Iceland

43 Peace Week 2026

Ever the Seeker, First the Listener

47 Buzz on 16th

A Place to Be Seen

Strengthening Belonging for All

69 The Future is a Place We Create

Global Immersion: Morocco

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION Chris Singler, Head of School Devan Ganeshananthan, Associate Head of School Nisa Bryant, Director of Admissions and Enrollment Management Michelle Cristella, Head of Middle School Erin Gordon, Head of Lower School Bryan Hogan, Director of Communications Marjorie Jean-Paul, Director of Institutional Advancement Kara Kutner, Director of the Center for Peace, Equity & Justice Sisi Kamal, Chief Financial and Operating Officer Eric Osorio, Head of Upper School Kirsti Peters, Director of Diversity, Equity & Belonging Hassan Wilson, Dean of Studies

53 News from the Nest 61

Reunion 2026 Their Light Lives On

Meetinghouse is produced by the Communications Office at Friends Seminary. Kyla Campbell, Multimedia Producer John Galayda, Creative Director Bryan Hogan, Director of Communications Ashley Tripp, Senior Associate Director of Communications

If you've spotted an error in this issue, we would be grateful if you could let us know at communications@friendsseminary.org.

A Letter from

CHRIS SINGLER Head of School

Dear friends, As I begin my first year as Head of School, I do so with genuine excitement and deep gratitude. Over the past months, I have had the opportunity to meet students, parents, faculty, staff, alumni and trustees, and each conversation has strengthened my conviction that Friends Seminary is an extraordinary community. I feel privileged to join you as we begin our 241st year together, and I am eager for the work of learning, listening and growing alongside one another. This summer I watched as the Fifteenth Street Meetinghouse roof was replaced, a tangible example of stewardship and care for our shared resources. As I begin my tenure, stewardship is very much on my mind, especially as I watched our facilities and cleaning teams ready the school for students throughout the summer. Working with the talented senior leadership team for the year ahead, I was reminded of the vibrancy I saw last spring in classrooms, the Cafeteria and the Meetinghouse. The sense of community was palpable at 8 AM, with parents dropping off engaged and happy students, at noon in the Cafeteria with students and faculty catching up and discussing the day's events, and at 3:30 in the afternoon at a boys’ volleyball game. Community is not accidental; it is intentional and cared for. That understanding has deep roots. For centuries, Friends schools in general and Friends Seminary in particular have created an educational model founded on reflection, searching, service and deep scholarship. The magic of a Friends education happens at the nexus of the self in touch with a higher power in the context of a community gathered for a common purpose. Friends Seminary draws on 240 years of tradition in which seeking, listening, questioning and striving have created a profound educational experience for students from Kindergarten through Senior year, preparing them for discovery in college and beyond. It is a tradition that has shaped my own life as well. Since my first year at Guilford College, a Quaker institution in North Carolina, I have internalized the encouragement from George Fox “to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in everyone.”

As a 17-year-old, I was not consciously aware of what I was absorbing, but as I begin my 30th year in Friends education, I can attest to the transformative power of waiting in expectant silence for a connection with the sacred. That practice has also guided my calling and communal work in schools. As a parent I have witnessed the power of a Friends education in my own three children. The partnership, care and challenge that Friends schools provided for each one showed my wife and me, unequivocally, the transformative power of this school experience. There are many great schools in the world and in this city, yet there is only one Friends Seminary where silence, service and study create a holistic experience in which children are welcomed, nurtured and able to thrive. I am excited to begin the next chapter of this storied and celebrated school. I look forward to welcoming students back on the first day of school and greeting families in the morning. Connecting and engaging with alumni are high priorities this year, as is preparing for our NYSAIS accreditation in 2026-2027, and on the heels of that good work, a strategic planning process in the 2027-2028 school year. The future is bright for Friends Seminary, and I cannot wait to get to work in service of the students, faculty and staff, families, and alumni. As you peruse this issue of Meetinghouse, look for the many specific and nuanced examples of our lived commitment to Quaker education, as well as the outstanding experiences of our current students, faculty and staff, families, and alumni. With a heart filled with a sense of gratitude and stewardship,

Chris Singler Head of School

The Singler Family from left: Megan Culpo, Ezra, Maeve, Simone and Chris Singler.

FRIENDS IN PRINT Faculty Emerita Marge Gonzalez reviews books by Friends Seminary community authors

Infinite Dreams: The Life of Alan Vega LAURA DAVIS-CHANIN ’79 AND LIZ LAMERE Laura graduated in the late 1970s. While she was a student at Friends, she was a drummer for a group called the Student Teachers, which played regularly at CBGB. Her experience in that world is recorded in a book I read and reported on a few years ago. Now she has collaborated with Liz Lamere, Alan Vega’s widow and longtime creative collaborator, on an in-depth biography of Alan, from his childhood as a brilliant kid in Brooklyn to his death. His childhood and youth are at odds with the iconoclastic performer he became. At first, he seemed destined to become a renowned astrophysicist. Then he began to excel in the world of painting and sculpture. Even as he shone in these divergent areas, there was another hidden identity that awaited discovery. The experience of seeing Iggy Pop altered his life. The performance he witnessed was revolutionary. Iggy Pop brought a new mayhem to the stage, cursing the audience and harming himself. This new definition of energy reached Alan. He saw a new future for himself. You may have guessed that this is not my kind of music. Because of this book, however, I checked out Suicide on YouTube. I can only say that Vega is amazing. He sounds like Elvis reincarnated in a circle of chaos. One of Suicide’s early successes, “Frankie Teardrop,” packs a wallop in the tradition of Edwin Arlington Robinson’s “Richard Cory.” The authors enrich this work with a wealth of photographs and tributes from his many collaborators and admirers. The foreword is by Bruce Springsteen. Though Vega had an onstage persona that could bring out the worst in audiences—in the early days he would leave the stage covered in spit —his colleagues cannot say enough about how kind, generous and deferential he was offstage. Alan Vega was driven to break new ground. In this way, he seems the very definition of an artist.

The Intimate City: Walking New York MICHAEL KIMMELMAN ’76 When I spent my junior year in Paris, I used to walk about the city on Saturdays with my Guide Michelin. It was like having an erudite friend who knew all there was to know about the history and architecture of this magnificent city. “Look up and note the sixteenth-century drainpipe in the form of a gargoyle.” Michael’s book, The Intimate City, offers similar companionship for those exploring another magnificent city, our own New York. As architecture critic of The New York Times, Michael got the idea during COVID of taking walks around the city with a succession of cicerones, a charming old term for knowledgeable guides. This book grew out of those walks. Among his walking companions are Eric Sanderson, who led the Mannahatta Project, which dove into the ecological complexity of the city, the author Suketu Mehta, who brought an immigrant’s perspective to the exploration of Jackson Heights, and the architectural team of Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, who have an in-depth understanding of Carnegie Hall. Places we race by on our way to a destination snap into clear focus. Turns out that the strange building we have always wondered about has a history and a function. Friends Seminary could base a course on getting to know one of the most vibrant and diverse cities in the world on this richly informative book.

Reasons to Lie EMILY LISTFIELD ’74 When you want to find a cozy spot and take a few hours to lose yourself in reading, there is nothing like a big fat juicy novel. Here it is. For half of this book, we know that there is about to be a murder within this uptown elite private school community, and for the other half we sort through the ample list of likely suspects. And that isn’t even the juicy part. Most intriguing are the interactions among three mothers of teenagers, and even more tantalizing are the secrets their taciturn children are hiding. Privileged as this world may be, it holds within its homogeneous veneer its own pecking order. Emily understands the inner workings and shows how easily a less affluent or less “respectable” family can quickly be skewered. Everyone in this tale has a secret or two. The resolution of the murder mystery is one of the most satisfying I have encountered. I was not prepared for it, but I guess that is why the title lets us know that we will encounter lies.

Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress: Tales of Growing Up Groovy and Clueless SUSAN JANE GILMAN ’82 This hilarious and human memoir makes the experience of growing up in New York come alive. Middle School at Friends Seminary occupies a brief chapter in this memoir by a writer gifted at recalling her school years in all their confusion and incongruity. Among her potent fantasies was running into Mick Jagger at a dinner party and catching his eye. This improbable fiction came true. The encounter did not unfold as she had dreamed, however. I am sorry to say that I do not remember whether I taught Susan. I regret this because I like the person that emerges on these pages. I was happy to see that she stuck with French, took AP French at Stuyvesant and eventually had the humbling experience of living in French-speaking Switzerland. Humbling because no matter how many A’s you have chalked up in French in school, the reality of the language is bewildering and exhausting. I loved her story of recording an answering-machine greeting that meant “Leave a message at the tuna.” The French word for tuna is “thon,” a word that ought to mean “tone.” Susan became a writer—no surprise there.

Lucky by Design: The Hidden Economics You Need to Get More of What You Want JUDD KESSLER ’00 Can you make yourself lucky? There is so much we can’t control—who our parents are, how talented we are, what country we are born in. This book shows how, within that narrow but all-important area where we have agency, we can learn strategies that help us beat the odds. If you would like to jump to the front of the line to get a rare entry ticket or stack the cards so that your child has a shot at the college they most want to attend, you can learn effective tactics for turning your luck around. This book might be viewed as an economics textbook, but it conveys its lessons so clearly and amusingly that it has nothing in common with the tedium you might associate with that field. Examples from Judd’s home life show readers that economics can have practical applications beyond dry technicalities. The book begins with Judd staring down his three little kids with only two frozen desserts in hand. What is the ethical solution? You will enjoy how he deconstructs the dilemma.

Amanda HEATHER CROSS ’86 I’m just guessing, but I contend that at least half of all works of fiction conform to the Shakespearean premise that “the course of true love never did run smooth.” The impediments to true love are what keep us watching or reading for at least the duration of a play or a novel. If the obstacles are overcome, we have a comedy of some sort. If not, well, we have Romeo and Juliet. So sad. These hindrances often involve an irrational parent, restrictive social norms, big divides of age, background, race or class, or collective madness as in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. How much fun or angst we encounter depends on the inventiveness of the author. In this novel, Amanda, also called Marion, helps the author out by creating her own complications to a beautiful love. In Amanda, a novel set in post-World War I England, a young Irish woman flees Ireland after suffering an abusive relationship. In England she falls in love with Jamie and finds a passionate, loving relationship. But something happens to disrupt the course of true love. Her dog dies, and this dog seems to be more than a dog, and she suddenly refuses to talk to Jamie. These events form the backstory, revealed as we witness the play of memory, thought and present occurrences inside the protagonist’s mind. When we encounter her as Marion, she has gone off to London, become a governess and begun to hear disturbing “talkers” in her head. Nonetheless, she is a very appropriate and creative governess to two children, whom she cares for far better than their own parents do. The sentence-to-sentence originality of this book is astonishing. I think that Heather could not write a cliché if she tried. (Well, maybe if she had a character who communicated in platitudes.) She has a voice that is powerful and unique. I’ve met the characters before in her two previous novels. We are inhabiting Heatherland, or H.S. Crossland, where people have more stories to tell or the same stories from different angles. At the same time, we are in a historic moment in England, and I continue to be in awe of an American writer convincingly channeling a time and place outside of her direct experience. I hope there will be a fourth novel; I would love to see these people again.

About Marge Many Friends Seminary alumni, faculty and staff have published books over the years—and Margaret Gonzalez intends to read them all. A former French teacher at Friends, parent of an alumna, and former trustee, Marge has set out to read as much literature as she can find from the Friends community. She is also a writer. Her latest work, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, The Musical, is an adaptation of Coleridge’s classic poem. Her memoir, Body in Space: My Life with Tammy, tells the story of two people: Tammy, a four-year-old navigating the precarious world of foster care, and Marge, who took her in and eventually adopted her. Follow her literary adventures— and learn more about her writing —at margegonzalez.net.

COMMENCEMENT 2026

May You Be Accompanied by the Songs That Resound in the Deep Well of Cosmic Silence On Thursday, June 4, 2026, on the Rumsey Playfield in Central Park, Commencement 2026 began—in the manner of Friends—with communal quiet. Diplomas would come later. In between, speaker after speaker returned to a single idea: the quality of a life may depend on how closely we attend to one another. “Remember that some of the most important work you will ever do will happen not when you are speaking, but when you are listening,” said Isaac Henderson, clerk of the Board of Trustees. He praised a class unwilling to fit into easy categories—athletes who were musicians, artists who were activists—and its instinct for building connections across difference. Listening, in his telling, was not passivity. It was a way of discovering truth together. For Maisie Schlechter ’26, attention had a more immediate name: presence. She remembered Meeting for Worship not as perfect stillness, but as a collection of interruptions—a cough, a power drill, geese, laughter moving through the room. Those sounds made the silence communal. So did the disappearance of phones into pouches, when classrooms once muted by screens filled again with conversation. Maisie offered a confession: She regretted skipping English readings not because of the grades, but because she had missed the conversations. “Do the readings, laugh with your friends, take the photos, let yourself care, cry, feel, breathe,” she said.

“Right now, looking at everyone’s faces, hearing your laughter, feeling your overwhelming company and support, to me, this is what presence feels like.” Interim Head of School Rich Nourie asked the graduates to notice that the community around them is also part of who they are. Commencement, he said, is one of the rare moments when the people who have shaped a life are all visible at once. Soon, college would offer reinvention—and the risk of becoming unmoored. “You come from love,” Nourie told them. “You have the spark of divinity that is goodness and strength at your core. Remembering who you are, staying in touch with that center, is the message at the heart of your education here.” Channing Bunche ’26 carried that idea outward. Speaking about his sister, Legacy, he recalled founding the West Indian Culture Club and watching younger students create a Basquiat-inspired mural with color, hearts and smiling faces. The beauty was not in neatness, but in the fact that nothing—and no one—seemed out of place. “I have always been surrounded by people willing to celebrate one another’s passions,” Channing said. “It’s that willingness to show up, to make room and to support others that I hope will carry far beyond Friends ... My hope is that our legacy will not be defined by any single accomplishment, but by the spaces we create for others.”

Above: Commencement 2026 speakers, clockwise from top left: Isaac Henderson, Clerk of the Board of Trustees; Channing Bunche ’26; Maisie Schlechter ’26; Rabia Pirani-Mellstrom ’26; Maria Fahey, English Teacher; and Rich Nourie, Interim Head of School.

Following the senior performance of Bob Dylan’s "The Times They Are A-Changin'," Rabia Pirani-Mellstrom '26 welcomed keynote speaker and English Teacher Maria Fahey with a reflection on the importance of intellectual patience. “The greatest gift that Maria has given us is her trust in us to think,” Rabia said. “She teaches us that understanding comes before making judgments or opinions, and that seeing, and listening, and reading come before understanding.” Fahey widened that lesson into a philosophy of closeness. Moving from Hamlet’s isolated grief to Bryan Stevenson’s insistence that justice requires getting near, she reminded the class that Meeting for Worship asks them “to wait in communal silence—not the silence of holding your tongue as your heart breaks, but the silence of waiting together.” “You have observed the world closely, listened to each other, and expressed yourselves,” she told them.

Then came a blessing: "May the artifacts you make, the stories you tell, the knowledge you discover, be wrought from human closeness. May you find communities in which to grieve what you suffer, and may you make communities in which to attend the suffering of others. May you listen and speak closely to your friends and to your enemies, and should you find yourself alone, may you be accompanied by the songs that resound in the deep well of cosmic silence." The diplomas came next, presented by Nourie and Head of Upper School Eric Osorio. One by one, 77 graduates joyously crossed the stage. Yet the ceremony’s strongest charge was not about crossing away from Friends. It was about carrying its practice into a changing world: to stay present, remember where you come from and, as Fahey put it, “listen and speak closely to your friends and to your enemies.”

Above: English Teacher Maria Fahey addresses the Class of 2026 during Commencement. Right: Images from throughout the day.

COMMENCEMENT 2026

O F C L A S S

20 26

COLLEGE DESTINATIONS

Bates College

Georgetown University (2)

Boston College

Hartwick College

Boston University (2)

Haverford College (2)

Bowdoin College (2)

Johns Hopkins University

Brandeis University

Kenyon College

Brown University (3)

King’s College London

Bucknell University

Lafayette College

University of California, Los Angeles

Lehigh University (2)

University of California, Santa Barbara

McGill University (2)

University of Chicago

University of Miami (3)

Colgate University (4)

University of Michigan

Cornell University (2)

New York University

Emory University (3)

North Carolina A&T State University

George Washington University

Northeastern University

Northwestern University (2)

Syracuse University (2)

University of Pennsylvania (2)

Tufts University (2)

Pitzer College

Tulane University

Pomona College

United States Air Force Academy

Princeton University

Vanderbilt University

Purchase College, SUNY

Vassar College

Purdue University

University of Vermont

University of Rhode Island

Washington University in St. Louis

Rice University

Wesleyan University (3)

University of Rochester

Williams College

Skidmore College

University of Wisconsin

Smith College

Yale University

University of St Andrews (2) Swarthmore College

Let the Way Open 36th Head of School Chris Singler begins with curiosity, discernment and a commitment to community

Before Chris Singler officially assumed the role of Friends Seminary's 36th Head of School on July 1, he was already doing what comes most naturally to him: listening. During his visits to campus throughout the spring, Singler could often be found moving quietly from classroom to classroom, observing lessons, speaking with students and faculty and absorbing the rhythms of daily life at Friends. He is not arriving with a prescribed agenda or a list of immediate changes. Instead, he is beginning where Quaker practice so often begins—with attention, discernment and curiosity. "If I'm really living some of the values of Quakerism, one of those values is discernment and listening carefully," Singler said. "It's not really about me. It's about what does the whole school community need?" That spirit of attentive listening was important during the search process. Isaac Henderson, Clerk of the Board of Trustees, shared, "The Board wanted a leader who is willing to listen, provide steady and compassionate leadership, engage every corner of our community in meaningful ways, and develop a true partnership with all of us as we lead Friends into its next chapter." He went on to say, "Chris has many strong qualities, but several stood out," including his "personality and leadership style." That style has defined Singler's nearly three decades in Quaker education and will shape the next chapter of Friends Seminary's long history. For Singler education has never been simply a profession. It has been a calling. Now entering his 30th year in Friends schools, he has served in a wide range of roles: Middle School English Teacher, Upper School Teacher, Grade Dean, Department Chair and, most recently, Upper School Director at Friends Select School in Philadelphia. Yet despite the many titles, Singler described himself first and foremost as an educator—someone energized by students, teaching and the collaborative work of building meaningful educational experiences.

"I've spent a lot of time as an educator thinking about teaching and learning," he said. "I've always gotten a lot of energy from students and from partnering and collaborating with teachers to make sure that the program is awesome." Outside of school Singler's interests reveal the same spirit of curiosity. He is an avid reader who keeps up with contemporary literature, a musician who still occasionally joins faculty bands, an outdoors enthusiast who enjoys hiking, backpacking and gardening, and a lifelong lover of cities and nature alike. He and his wife, Megan, have been married for 25 years and have raised three children together. The Search Committee was particularly drawn to the breadth of Singler's experience—as teacher, department chair, parent and administrator—as well as his longstanding commitment to Quaker education and academic excellence. Henderson shared, "We are confident that his broad experience will enable him to connect with and support all areas of our community." The path that eventually led Singler to Friends Seminary began at a large public high school on Long Island. Although he remembers having several excellent teachers, Singler said he often felt that something was missing from his educational experience and that he was not always challenged in the right ways. That changed when he arrived at Guilford College, the Quaker liberal arts college in Greensboro, North Carolina. There he encountered a radically different vision of teaching and learning. "We would talk about a poem," he recalled, "and talking about the poem wasn't just about who was the smartest person talking about the poem, but how were we all building meaning together." The experience proved transformative. "I thought, 'Oh, I think this is what learning should be like!'" The collaborative, inquiry-driven approach he discovered at Guilford resonated deeply. After graduation, through connections to his future wife,

Megan, and the Philadelphia Quaker community, Singler accepted what he initially imagined would be a one-year position as a Middle School Assistant Teacher. He never left. "I fell in love with it," he said. Three weeks into that first teaching job, Singler applied to graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania to study education. The "one-year experiment" became a life's work. Over time, his responsibilities expanded beyond the classroom. Committee leadership, advising and department work gradually drew him into administration. What interested him most, however, was not authority or advancement. "I was drawn to that, but from a sort of servant leadership model, not from an ego place," he said. "I really liked getting more involved, more connected." He discovered that educational leadership offered opportunities to shape systems and support entire communities. "When I'm in front of 18 students, I know I'm having a big impact," he explained. "But when I'm working with the department, I'm impacting hundreds of students by these decisions." That philosophy of leadership, one that is relational, collaborative and grounded in service, remains central to his vision as Head of School. Henderson described Singler as "a bridge builder, a strong listener, and a committed mentor," qualities that emerged from colleagues, references and interviews during the search process." Chris cares deeply about the communities of which he is a part," he explained, "and he is eager to learn and work with a diverse team to ensure the best outcome for Friends as we approach our 250th year." Though moving to administration naturally meant less time with students, Singler was quick to uplift the importance of student voice. "My style has been a very open-door policy," he said. "I actually love when students stop by and talk to me about things. I've had students propose new electives. I've had students bring really charged issues and say, 'This is really affecting us, and we'd like something done about it.'" Listening, he believes, does not require immediate agreement or action. Rather, it means taking concerns

seriously and working together toward solutions. The same spirit informs his approach to institutional leadership. As a relatively new administrator years ago, Singler recalled feeling pressure to respond immediately to every question, every email, every concern. Over time, however, he came to appreciate the importance of reflection and perspective. "I recognized that I was inadvertently and unintentionally bringing a sense of urgency to things that didn't really need to be there," he said. "I try to stay attuned to what needs to be dealt with immediately, what needs to marinate a little bit longer, and what needs more perspective." That thoughtful pace feels particularly aligned with Quaker practice, where discernment often requires patience, careful listening and trust in process. Although Singler was not actively searching for a new position, he knew that if he ever pursued a headship, he was looking for something specific: a Quaker school, in a city, serving students from Kindergarten through Grade 12. Friends Seminary offered all three. The K–12 experience holds particular appeal. "I like schools where you can watch students go from 5 years old to 18 years old and see how they unfold into their true selves," he said. Equally important was the urban setting. Having spent much of his career in Center City Philadelphia, Singler has come to see cities as powerful educational partners. "When I see how students experience school in cities, school is not this walled-off experience, but it's more part of your life," he said. "I think that's a really valuable thing." And then there is New York itself. Though he has spent nearly three decades in Philadelphia, Singler grew up on Long Island and still considers himself, in many ways, a New Yorker. "I'm happy to be coming back to New York, closer to some family," he said. "And I mean, New York is the greatest city in the world." As he begins his tenure Singler speaks enthusiastically about what he has already observed at Friends Seminary: a strong sense of community, exceptional teaching and an educational environment marked by intentionality and care. He is particularly excited by the opportunity to continue strengthening the School's Quaker identity.

Chris Singler comes to Friends as its 36th Head of School by way of Friends Select School in Philadelphia, where he served as Director of the Upper School for 11 years.

“One thing that appealed to me during the search process was that the Board and the School seem very confident and assured that one thing they want is a reaffirmation of Quakerism at the School,” he said. “How do we do school here in a way that feels authentic to Quakerism and a Friends education?" The Trustees’ discernment came at a moment of significant change for independent schools. Rapid technological change, shifting demographics and evolving family expectations are reshaping education nationally. Trustees saw in Singler a leader capable of helping Friends articulate what remains distinctive and enduring about a Quaker education while guiding the School confidently into the future. For Singler the work ahead will be a partnership with the entire community. Asked what impact he hopes to have as Head of School, he returns not to rankings or programs, but to people. He hopes students will leave Friends prepared not only for college, but for life. He hopes families and alumni will feel pride in their connection to the School.

He hopes the community will navigate both joyful and difficult moments with compassion, steadiness and care for one another. And perhaps most simply, he returned to the experience of school itself. “I think schools should be joyful,” Singler said. “Even though you’re working really hard and being challenged academically, you’re finding satisfaction and joy in it.” Looking ahead Singler will partner with the community to develop Friends’ next strategic plan, helping to define the School's priorities for the years ahead. Trustees see that work as an opportunity not simply to plan for the future, but to reaffirm what Friends stands for: a school rooted in Quaker values, academic excellence and a strong, connected community. As the School approaches its 250th year, Henderson believes Singler is the right leader for the moment, sharing his hope that “after Chris's tenure, the School is well on its way to another 250 years, and that people will see his leadership as the beginning of an exciting next chapter.”

Across Two Landscapes, One Shared Investigation Friends students welcomed peers from New Jersey’s Montgomery High School for a shared study of two ecosystems

In late January students in Upper School Science Teacher Jessica Genter’s Environmental Science class and their visitors studied community ecology—the relationships among organisms, physical conditions and human activity within an ecosystem. The collaboration built on fieldwork completed a month earlier. In December 2025 Friends Juniors and Seniors transformed nearby Stuyvesant Square into an outdoor laboratory, measuring the height and diameter

of every tree in the park to estimate age and biomass. During the January exchange they compared their findings with data collected by Montgomery students in an unmanaged forest, examining biodiversity and resilience across two very different landscapes: a managed urban park and a forest ecosystem in New Jersey. Students from both schools worked in mixed groups to complete two course requirements:

Below: Upper School students work with students from Montgomery High School (NJ) in the Great Room at Friends during a community ecology collaboration this past December.

a collaborative assessment and the beginning of a longterm project. Both depended on collective reasoning rather than students simply dividing up the work. For the assessment, groups analyzed Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax using the adaptive cycle, a scientific model describing how ecosystems move through periods of growth, stability, disruption and reorganization. Students identified evidence of resource use, disturbance, collapse and possible renewal, then created visual models and defended their interpretations using concepts from population and community ecology. The exercise required more than scientific knowledge. Students debated evidence, challenged assumptions and reached shared conclusions with classmates they had just met. Their analysis also built on course readings that

explored the relationships among ecological systems, human communities and environmental responsibility. The visit also advanced the “Now & When” Photo Gallery, a long-term project asking students to document environmental challenges in their communities while imagining more sustainable futures. Groups exchanged ideas, offered feedback and considered how their work might communicate complex environmental questions to audiences beyond the classroom. “I’m incredibly proud of the work my Environmental Science students do in class and in the field,” Genter said. “Their ability to connect complex scientific data, such as the biodiversity of their local park, to complex ideas about how to create sustainable communities is a mark of their progress toward being empowered citizens.”

At left: Upper School Science Teacher Jessica Genter confers with a student during a collaborative Environmental Science session with students from Montgomery High School in New Jersey. At right: A whiteboard captures the evolving ideas and evidence that emerged during discussions between students from both schools.

Just Launched: A New Path to Scientific Discovery Through the Independent Science Research (ISR) program, students move beyond studying science to contributing to it

This summer the inaugural cohort of Friends Seminary's Independent Science Research (ISR) program began laying the foundation for three years of scientific inquiry. Before the formal program begins this fall, Upper School students are exploring areas of scientific interest and connecting with researchers across New York City whose work may help shape their own investigations. Led by Dr. Shayri Greenwood and Jessica Genter, the three-year program is designed for students with a passion for inquiry. It extends learning beyond the classroom by connecting students with mentors at universities, hospitals, laboratories and research institutions, where they will experience scientific research firsthand. As the program progresses, students develop research questions, evaluate scientific evidence and learn to

Below: The inaugural cohort of Friends’ ISR program.

communicate their ideas. They then apply those skills through laboratory internships during the summers after Grades 10 and 11, with many continuing their research throughout the school year. The experience culminates in presentations at the annual Friends Science Research Symposium, participation in regional and national science competitions, and a professional-style research paper completed before graduation. More than an advanced science course, ISR introduces students to the process of scientific discovery. By combining mentorship, hands-on research and sustained inquiry, the program prepares students to contribute thoughtfully to scientific communities in college and beyond.

Portrait by Jason Schmidt

Making Space for

POTENTIAL WILDNESS From Friends Seminary to The Kitchen, Legacy Russell ’04 reflects on Quaker service, creative risk and the future of experimental art with Cara Cannella

Legacy Russell ’04 came to Friends because her father, Ernest Russell, believed the people there should have the chance to meet her. The Kindergarten admissions season had already closed, and the family faced real financial constraints. Still, he got on his bike and rode to 16th Street. He asked longtime Kindergarten Teacher Jane Suntken, who assisted with admissions, to meet his daughter: "She's a wonderful human being and you won't regret it." Jane listened, then met with Legacy. Along with her teaching colleague Judy Anderson ’66, Jane helped make possible a Friends education that would last through graduation, granting Legacy "lifer" status. Today Legacy is Executive Director and Chief Curator of The Kitchen, the experimental arts organization founded in 1971. She previously served as Associate Curator of Exhibitions at The Studio Museum in Harlem, where she helped build the collection, led the Artist-in-Residence program and organized exhibitions. She's the author of Glitch Feminism: A Manifesto and Black Meme: A History of the Images That Make Us, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism. Her first poetry collection, Gay Pompeii 79 A.D., was published in 2025, and her forthcoming book, Unbound (Farrar, Straus), traces her Black family in Hawaii through her cowboy great-grandfather, Nolle Smith. In this conversation she reflects on teachers who helped her come into her voice, the Quaker values that still inform her work, and why, for her, the mission of life is "to serve, to be in service."

Your parents chose Friends with

Looking back on your time at Friends,

intention. What did they see in

which teachers or staff members

a Quaker education?

helped you find your footing?

They were very invested in my going to Friends because they wanted me in a school aligned with abolitionist beliefs, given the role Quakers played in the abolitionist movement in America. For them that history was inseparable from civil disobedience, peace studies, resistance and social justice work. These were folks deeply embedded in models of change, who wanted to construct a world that could allow for different possibilities of liberation for historically oppressed and marginalized people.

There were so many brilliant people: Daphne Taylor, John Byrne, Maria Fahey, Sarah Spieldenner, John Behling and Linda Chu. They were excellent human beings, great, amazing folks who nurtured my interest in poetic studies. Another person who was special to me was John Jones, who passed away at a very pivotal point during my time at Friends. He was the head of the Art Department, as I remember it, and he was very critical in heightening consciousness around HIV and AIDS at the peak of that epidemic. One part of his legacy is the ongoing partnership between Friends and God's Love We Deliver. That is a powerful example of where Quakerism and service intersect—delivering meals to folks who need them most.

What did your parents’ lives teach you? My mom, Dr. Kamala Mottl, came to New York from Hawaii, where she was raised in a Black family. She got her PhD at NYU, studying psychology with a focus in gerontology. Her work focused on elders and their families and communities, and she was active in labor strikes with 1199, the healthcare workers' union. My father was born and raised in Harlem, where he began his life and work as a photographer. In his youth he did political organizing across Harlem and the city. Later he found his place in the East Village. My parents met there in the ’70s, and as the story goes, they got along famously. Even when their partnership did not remain intact, they ended up living upstairs-downstairs from each other on St. Mark's Place for the rest of their days, until they passed. They were both very embedded in downtown New York. I spent a lot of time with my parents going to art events and performances, traversing downtown and the cultural sites of the city. That was a big part of their influence on me. Later in life my father worked for the Board of Education as a technologist. After he lost his sight, he could no longer take pictures as he had in the past, so he took up more digital practices as a mode of making—on the computer and via the internet, which became an interesting and exciting medium for him. 35

How did your voice begin to emerge at Friends? Laurie Piette was really important to me in becoming a writer. She encouraged me in incredible ways. I remember being in her classes and reading Girls, an anthology she edited, and realizing, "Oh my gosh, my teacher is a real writer." This person I'm in the room with —these folks educating us—are amazing, accomplished people. I was really touched and inspired by that. It was an important feminist text and queer text for me to read as a young person, and it helped me come into a consciousness of understanding my own identity. I was part of the lit mag, did drama and was very involved in all the literary and performance things. I was a very shy kid who came into her voice as I developed at Friends. That would not have been possible without the work I did with my English teachers, specifically, but also with folks in drama and music. I played instruments, too, and got a chance to test out and experiment with performing across different channels.

Legacy Russell's Glitch Feminism: A Manifesto (2020), Black Meme: A History of the Images That Make Us (2024) and Gay Pompeii 79 A.D. (2025).

How have Simplicity, Peace,

How did your time at Friends

Integrity, Community, Equality and

impact your sense of self and

Stewardship shaped you?

purpose?

Each is a pillar in how I hope to shape my life. Together, they had a really big impact. Daily life at Friends engaged all parts, and community service was a big piece. There were also imperfect programs and vessels, like Day of Concern, a student-organized point of dialogue where folks were able to talk about particular issues. A lot of the discourse around race, class and gender came from the amazing stewardship of the teachers at Friends. A lot of the teachers did important structural work. Folks like Richard Eldridge and Pam Wood, different people in leadership, were deeply embedded in their own commitment to social justice. They understood that allowing folks to engage questions experientially, as part of their schooling, and to have open dialogue was an important part of being in community together. They did good foundational work to make that possible. Friends continues to become an increasingly professionalized site within a local and national network of highly regarded Quaker and private schools. It has to keep navigating its class politics—a primary challenge in terms of what equity looks like, and where the pillars of Quakerism can perform authentically.

Being a kid who did not come from money, and being a Black person in a school that was highly moneyed and very limited in its diversity, meant that I often had to think about what kind of person I wanted to be. Many students who fell within that intersection had to do that —so as not to be disfigured by being inside a site so accelerated in its professionalism and in its race and class politics, with all its gaps, successes and failures. I had to be very clear about my self-image. If I had not had the amazing upbringing I did outside of Friends, with my parents and other people in our community holding a mirror up to me as I was growing, it probably would have been much more difficult to go to Friends. You experience it all when you go to private school—I'll leave it at that. In many ways I would not be the person I am today without Friends. At the same time two truths can coexist: I learned some hard lessons about what inequity looks and feels like while being there. As is often the case with folks coming from diverse backgrounds, we do have a double consciousness, as W.E.B. Du Bois has written about—being able to see both sides of the line. That can 36

make it very challenging as a young person, because you are seeing how you are seen and how you want to be seen at the same time. That can be both challenging and empowering, depending on your foothold. Now I would say to myself at that time, Just have courage. Luckily, given where I come from, with my amazing parents, they really did instill in me a sense of feeling that I had purpose.

With your work at The Kitchen, what are you trying to make possible? Most simply I am hoping for an organization that can be a model for the future of art. The Kitchen's experimental mission began in 1971 with Woody and Steina Vasulka, who founded it as an artist collective rooted in time-based media, video and performance. The organization is called The Kitchen because it was founded literally in a kitchen, at a time when very few institutions were willing to pay attention

to this type of discipline. People did not want to show film, video or performance because they found it too controversial, too gauche or too pop. There was a wide range of excuses for why folks did not invest institutional resources into it. Now we see every institution doing the work to engage these disciplines inside their programs. The Kitchen was really living in the future before the future was here. No longer a collective, we are an art institution with a phenomenal staff and program. My great hope, in a period of immense crisis in arts and culture and in politics, locally, nationally and internationally, is that this can be an institution that uplifts and trains folks to be in service to experimental, avant-garde thought. I want it to help folks learn to color through and outside the lines, in a period when a lot of mainstream organizations, in the gears of professionalizing themselves, are encouraging a heightened level of conformity. The best way to answer the needs of the next generation entering art and culture is to create space for folks to think and make wildly, and to take risks in a period when it has become increasingly risky to take risks. I want The Kitchen to be that space and that home for that potential wildness.

Photo by Deonté Lee

Legacy Russell ’04 in fall 2024 at the Schomburg Center presentation of Code Switch: Distributing Blackness, Reprogramming Internet Art, which she organized for The Kitchen.

What is The Kitchen

How does collaboration

focused on now?

function in your work?

We're moving through some great transitions. Across almost five years of my leadership, we've grown an amazing team and expanded programs. We've also been thinking about what our needs are for the next 50-plus years of the institution. Part of what we're building is programmatic. Part of it is invested in the support and care of our people— both our artists and our cultural workers. It's also more durational in how we think about institutions. What kinds of places need to exist to sustain critical work now? And how may they need to shift with the next moments of cultural production in the United States and around the world?

No project is possible without multiple contributors. Having that structurally baked into the methods of shaping and envisioning any curatorial project or art historical research is critical. Within much of my work and publishing, I often talk about using citations as a place where there is a possibility of community and convening. As we cite and uplift others, we are doing the important work of redirecting focus, attention and discourse so that our work does not stand in isolation. It stands in dialogue with many other folks who are contributing at a wide range of frequencies and intersections.

You served on Mayor Zohran

What would you like to bring into

Mamdani’s transition Committee

being that is not yet possible?

on Arts & Culture. How did that experience influence how you think about leadership? It was incredible to speak with folks in New York City who have been phenomenal leaders in the arts and to be in dialogue about key needs of the city at this pivotal moment. The outcome of that is still unfolding. We made lots of great suggestions and had great conversations, and now we see a phenomenal mayor diving right into the strategic and complex and thoughtful and radical and gorgeous work of leadership. There are so many firsts, and I speak about that with great tenderness, because I'm the first Black executive and curatorial leader in The Kitchen's 50-plus years. Being a first of any kind and being a young leader come with opportunities and challenges. At the same time it gives us permission not to be inside a calcified imagination of any prior model but perhaps to learn as we go. That is both an immense leap of faith and an immense opportunity.

I guess I refuse the paradigm of impossibility. I think anything is possible, depending on time and space and capacity. I try to stay forward-facing in that abundance.

What are you excited to learn about or practice next? I'm working on a book project that I hope continues to grow. I was very glad to publish my first book of poetry last year. That was a lifelong project, and poetry has always meant so much to me.

Learn more about Legacy’s work at LegacyRussell.com.

The Hanged Man, 2026.

PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST AS THE HANGED MAN With a national Scholastic Gold Medal in Experimental Photography, 19 regional Gold and Silver Keys and exhibitions at The Met and the Brooklyn Museum, Ezra ’27 reflects on identity, memory and the many selves that can live in one frame. In tarot cards The Hanged Man is the card of ultimate surrender. He hangs upside down, viewing the world from a completely different perspective, his expression calm and serene—suggesting that he hangs there by his own choice. It's a fitting way into Ezra ’27's work. His Gold Medal– winning photograph “The Hanged Man” began as a 15minute video of Ezra changing outfits, shifting positions and moving through a room. He then composed the footage into a photo collage, placing around 12 versions of himself in the same space—a single frame holding multiple selves at once, each occupying its own moment and point of view. For Ezra, the work reflects "different parts of me that coexist." The piece received a Gold Medal in Experimental Photography from the Scholastic Awards— one of only about 700 individual works nationally each year to earn that distinction, out of more than 335,000 entries. 39

That same willingness to hold more than one perspective at once runs through nearly everything Ezra makes. One of his other award-winning photographs, “Open Seat,” was taken during Friends Seminary’s Global Education trip to South Africa. It was one of four Gold Key-winning photographs that brought Ezra’s total to 19 Gold and Silver Keys through the New York City Scholastic Awards. One of those photographs was shown at The Met from March 27–May 18, 2026. "I want each person to have their own relationship with the work rather than forcing one fixed interpretation," Ezra said. Across photography, painting, poetry and memoir, Ezra explores identity, memory, self-perception and how inner life can take visual form—talents that extend to cooking, sculpture, ceramics, performing arts and graphic design. In Morgan Acheson's Painting class, he has

experimented with image transfers using gel medium, moving beyond wood to fabric and gelli plates—work he describes as "prints on prints on transfers." Morgan, who has known Ezra since Grade 5, calls him "a true force in the studio" who "actively seeks out new possibilities and explores the unknown" while staying grounded in his own point of view. She describes their work together as a partnership, more than a one-way exchange. That same curiosity shaped a performance project proposal, “Mirror,” developed in Jesse Pasca's Art History class: a five-week installation in which Ezra would mirror a participant's every action, drawing on artists like Marina Abramović and Tehching Hsieh to examine the invisible burdens people place on one another. He ended his presentation with a question: "If you held someone's survival in your hands, would you nourish them or exhaust them?" At The Mountain School in Vershire, Vermont, Ezra captured “Goodbye,” a Gold Key-winning photograph of the art studio on a misty day, one warm light glowing from inside—an image he considered calling "I'll leave the light on," holding both the finding of light through art and the possibility that "you can always come back." At the Brooklyn Museum, teaching in the Creative Practice program led Ezra back to his own work. He taped together old film slides from the museum's archives and projected them across his body to create “Chronos,” an image about memories captured by someone else and now literally projected onto him. Two more works, “Am I to Reap What My Father Has Sown?” and “Self-Study // Reflections on Childhood,” were featured last May in the museum's exhibition Legacy: How Will You Leave Your Mark? Ezra was recently named the inaugural recipient of the Robert S. Wennett and Mario Cader-Frech Foundation Award, a $25,000 grant supporting LGBTQ+ artists in design, film, photography or visual art. The award will fund “Putting Myself Out There,” a wheatpasting installation across New York City exploring visibility, fame, and public identity. Back at Friends this fall semester, Ezra plans to take Advanced Studio—the Visual Arts Department’s capstone course—and continue ChoreoLab, which he’s participated in since sophomore year.

“Goodbye,” 2026.

“Am I to Reap What My Father Has Sown?” 2026.

“Open Seat,” 2026. 40

2026 Global Immersion Experience

ICE LAND

SAGAS AND SUSTAINABILITY In June 2026, 17 Upper School students and three dedicated educators—Kirsti Peters, Director of Diversity, Equity and Belonging; Denman Tuzo, Director of the Academic Center; and Chemistry Teacher Joanna Demakis—embarked on a powerful journey through Iceland. Designed in partnership with Atlas Workshops, this immersive program invited students to explore Icelandic culture, historical sites and sustainability while seeking inspiration for the stories we tell about our world. Rooted in the School’s Global Education mission, the experience empowered students to lead lives of meaning and impact by engaging deeply with diverse perspectives and global challenges. Through personal reflection, historical inquiry and joyful cultural exchange, students deepened their curiosity, empathy and courageous action —hallmarks of Friends’ commitment to shaping globally conscious citizens.

Read student reflections by Anya ’29 and Emma ’29.

PEACE WEEK 2026

Willie Perdomo ’85 Returns to a Place of Peace, Protection and Possibility “It was in this Meetinghouse where I cultivated my spirit, where I found peace, where I found communion,” Willie Perdomo ’85 proclaimed, his voice carrying through the wooden benches and the quiet they hold. “It was in this Meetinghouse that I declared myself a poet.” Perdomo—an acclaimed writer, educator and former New York State Poet—returned to Friends Seminary on January 22 as the keynote speaker for Peace Week 2026, addressing students, faculty, families, alumni and friends in the Fifteenth Street Meetinghouse—a space that, as he made clear throughout the evening, was not simply a setting for the event but a formative force in his life. In keeping with the year’s Peace Week theme, Growing in Peace, Grounded in Spirit, the program unfolded as a meditation on poetry, silence, memory and community. It traced how a place and the people within it can shape a young person long before they understand who they are becoming. The evening opened with a welcome from Interim Head of School Rich Nourie, followed by an introduction from Kara Kutner, Director of the Center for Peace, Equity and Justice. Together, they framed the keynote not as a lecture, but as an invitation to listen deeply, to sit with complexity and to consider peace as something lived and practiced over time rather than an abstract ideal. That invitation was immediately embodied by Grade 8 Peace Week poets Mila ’30 and Katinka ’30, who shared original poems reflecting on where peace is found—within oneself, in relationships and in moments of attentive presence. Their readings centered student voices, creating space for young people to articulate their own understandings of the world.

Music and poetry then converged in variations on “That’s My Heart Right There,” a collaborative performance featuring Perdomo’s words set to jazz. Led by Upper and Middle School Performing Arts Teacher Nikara Warren and performed by student musicians across multiple grade levels, the piece drew on improvisation and call-and-response, reinforcing one of the evening’s recurring themes: that peace is not solitary or static but something shaped collectively through rhythm, listening and shared creative risk. Bridging generations, the students took up Perdomo’s words, interpreting them through improvisation. When Perdomo began his keynote address, he wove poetry, storytelling and reflection into a narrative that moved fluidly between past and present. He returned again and again to the Meetinghouse, recalling it as a place where he performed music, participated in theater, observed classmates take artistic risks and encountered silence as a practice rather than an absence. These experiences, he explained, were not isolated moments. They were part of an environment that allowed curiosity, vulnerability and expression to coexist. For Perdomo the Meetinghouse represented a rare space of protection and possibility. Growing up in New York City in the 1980s—a decade he described as marked by violence, instability and loss—he navigated a world where survival often required vigilance and emotional restraint. Against that backdrop Friends Seminary offered something radically different: a community that valued care, empathy and cultural awareness long before the language of diversity, equity and justice became commonplace. Poetry, he explained, emerged for him not as an academic pursuit but as a means of survival and understanding. Language became a way to witness what was happening around him without judgment, to hold complexity without flattening it and to make sense of chaos through attention and craft. The poet’s responsibility, he suggested, is not to resolve or explain but to observe closely and to find “the best words in the best order” to honor lived experience. In this way poetry became both refuge and responsibility—a practice rooted in listening. Silence played a similarly formative role. Perdomo recalled his first experience of Meeting for Worship as a

teenager, describing how unfamiliar—and even unsettling —it felt to sit in stillness after a childhood filled with constant noise: sirens, voices, music, motion. Over time that silence taught him how to listen differently, how to notice what might otherwise go unheard and how to trust that meaning could emerge without being forced. Silence, he suggested, is not emptiness but a discipline—a way of cultivating awareness and presence. Throughout the address Perdomo spoke with deep gratitude about the adults at Friends who recognized his potential at moments when he struggled to see it himself. He described a school community that did not let him “perish,” one that understood the difference between discipline and care and that recognized energy in need of direction rather than suppression. Teachers, mentors and staff members helped guide him toward creation rather than destruction. It was within this context, he said, that his sense of vocation began to take shape—not suddenly or cleanly but through experience, encouragement and trust. That process of becoming, Perdomo made clear, was inseparable from community. Again and again he returned to the idea that peace is relational—that it is cultivated through connection, care and the willingness to see and be seen. Whether speaking about friendships formed during his years at Friends, the influence of teachers who challenged and supported him or the broader cultural networks that shaped his artistic life, Perdomo emphasized that no one becomes themselves alone. The evening concluded with closing remarks from Kirsti Peters, Director of Diversity, Equity and Belonging, who reflected on the keynote as a living expression of Peace Week’s purpose. Peace, she suggested, is not a symbol or slogan but a practice—one rooted in relationships and the ongoing work of building community. Her remarks echoed the themes that had resonated throughout the evening: the importance of listening, the power of shared space and the role of institutions in nurturing spirit and possibility. In welcoming Willie Perdomo back to the Meetinghouse, Friends honored not only an accomplished alumnus but also the enduring impact of a place where young people are invited to cultivate their spirit, find their voice, and, when ready, declare who they are becoming.

Your gift helps make every day at Friends possible. F U N D for F R I E N D S EVERY STUDENT. EVERY TEACHER. EVERY YEAR.

friendsseminary.org/give

Buzz on 16th A glimpse at the people, programs, milestones and moments that kept Friends buzzing this year

FRIENDS ACROSS BOROUGHS Lower School students from Friends Seminary, Mary McDowell Friends School and Brooklyn Friends School gathered at Brooklyn Meeting for the schools’ first shared Meeting for Worship. Developed through a collaboration between Head of Lower School Erin Gordon and Director of the Center for Peace, Equity and Justice Kara Kutner, the experience invited students to build connections across their communities. After an introductory activity students gathered for Meeting for Worship. Erin concluded the gathering with “After Thoughts,” inviting students to consider the experience and the role of silence, reflection and community at their schools.

FINDING HOLDEN Led by Middle School English Teacher Nina Kolman, Grade 8 students extended their study of J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye through a literary scavenger hunt across New York City. Retracing Holden Caulfield’s path, students visited the American Museum of Natural History, the Central Park duck pond and the carousel, considering how the city has changed since the novel’s publication and what remains familiar about adolescence. Back in the classroom, they reflected on how encountering these settings firsthand deepened their understanding of Holden’s voice, isolation, and search for meaning, bringing close reading into conversation with the lived landscape of the city.

READING TAKES THE PRIZE Grade 3 students strengthened their library and digital literacy skills through Sora Bingo, an initiative created by Lower School Librarian Megan Westman. After learning to navigate the library’s shelves and online catalog, students applied those skills to Sora, completing challenges that introduced them to ebooks, audiobooks, genres and essential platform tools. The project encouraged independent exploration while making reading playful and accessible. Westman’s work earned international recognition when OverDrive named her a category runner-up in its School Stars contest for Best Use of Sora in the Classroom, celebrating her thoughtful approach to building confident, curious readers.

HISTORY IN THE MAKING

Grade 8 students traveled to Washington, D.C., for a new overnight experience that extended their study of history, civics and social responsibility beyond the classroom. Accompanied by their advisors and Head of Middle School Michelle Cristella, students visited the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the U.S. Capitol, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, other Smithsonian institutions and memorials across the National Mall. Throughout the trip they considered how nations construct historical memory, how public spaces communicate civic values, and how institutions shape collective life. Students also volunteered with So Others Might Eat, reflecting on the responsibilities that accompany citizenship and community membership.

A BRIDGE TO DISTINCTION Emmett Cohen ’26 earned Third Prize in the Eastern United States regional final of the 2026 Chinese Bridge Competition, held at the China Institute of America. Bringing together students from across the region, the competition challenged participants to demonstrate Chinese language proficiency, cultural knowledge and confident public presentation. Emmett advanced through a preliminary submission that included a speech in Chinese and a cultural performance before representing Friends Seminary in the final round. His achievement reflected the discipline, thoughtfulness, and commitment he brought to his language study, while highlighting the strength of the School’s Chinese program.

MEMORIES WITH MARGE Faculty Emerita Marge Gonzalez returned to Friends for the seventh annual “We’re All Grown Ups Now” program, joining former student Jocelyn Anker ’87 for a conversation filled with memories, laughter and reflection. Marge first came to Friends in 1969 and, over the decades, served the School as a French Teacher, Foreign Language Department Chair, parent, trustee and contributor to Meetinghouse magazine. The conversation also welcomed back two beloved figures from her classroom—her puppets Madame Claire Voyante and Louis Souris. Their return recalled the imagination, humor and deep care generations of alumni remember from Marge’s classroom.

18 49

THE ART OF ANIMATION In Maya Wainhaus’s Grade 5 Stop Motion class, students explored how carefully arranged still images can be sequenced to create animated stories filled with humor, imagination and meaning. Working in small production teams, students developed ideas, created characters and settings, and took on different roles throughout the filmmaking process. At the heart of the unit was collaboration: Students learned to communicate a shared vision, respond to one another’s ideas, and solve creative and technical challenges together. Frame by frame they discovered how patience, planning and collective effort can bring an original story to life.

LISTENING FOR THE LIGHT Stories from the Nest offered Upper School students an ongoing space to share personal reflections, listen across differences and strengthen their sense of belonging at Friends. Led by Director of Diversity, Equity and Belonging Kirsti Peters, the series brought student voices, music and community reflection together during Community Period. Rooted in the Quaker belief in the Inner Light, each gathering invited students to consider how identity and lived experience shape the ways people understand one another. Across the year the gatherings gave students repeated opportunities to speak openly, listen to one another and connect.

A WINNING EQUATION Friends’ Upper School mathematicians earned recognition in two major competitions during a remarkable year of problemsolving and achievement. Eighteen students received Outstanding Performance honors in MathCON, a national competition spanning algebra, combinatorics, geometry and number theory. Nate ’27 advanced as a MathCON Finalist and later earned first place in the New York City Interscholastic Math League, where Finn ’27 placed second and the Friends team finished second overall. Their results reflected the precision, persistence and collaborative spirit students brought to mathematics throughout the year.

BEYOND THE SCORE Dr. Brian Levels, Chair of the Performing Arts Department and Director of Orchestras, received the 2025–2026 Teri Hassid Art of Teaching Award in recognition of his impact on music education at Friends. In the annual Art of Teaching Lecture, Dr. Levels reflected on the ways music can extend beyond performance and curriculum to cultivate belonging, creativity, discipline and a lifelong love of learning. Through his work with students across the Middle and Upper Schools, he has created spaces where young musicians can take creative risks, listen closely to one another and experience the power of making music in community.

ROOTED AT FRIENDS Grade 9 students began their Upper School experience with Friends Foundations, a new required course designed to deepen their understanding of Quaker faith and practice while strengthening their sense of belonging within the School community. Co-led by Director of the Center for Peace, Equity and Justice Kara Kutner and Director of Diversity, Equity and Belonging Kirsti Peters, the course explored identity, citizenship, service, Meeting for Worship and Quaker decision-making. Through discussion, reflection and shared experiences, students considered how Friends values inform how they learn, build community and engage with the world around them.

SCHOLAR OF THE CLASSICS After four consecutive years of summa cum laude distinction on the National Latin Exam, Sam Lee ’26 received the National Latin Exam’s Maureen O’Donnell Scholarship for Academic Excellence. Throughout Upper School Sam brought classical studies to life through sophisticated translation, literary interpretation, satire, visual art and original projects connecting ancient Rome with contemporary questions. As Dr. Christel Johnson, Chair of the World Languages Department, shared, his work consistently reflected “extraordinary linguistic precision, analytical insight and creative vision.” His scholarship, creativity and ability to make connections across literature, history, and art distinguished an exceptional four years of Latin study at Friends.

20 51

FROM COMMITTEE TO CONGRESS Grade 7 and Grade 8 students represented Friends at The Chapin School’s annual Model Congress, joining peers from 10 independent schools for a day of debate, collaboration and parliamentary practice. Students defended original legislation on topics ranging from prediction-market regulation to clean-energy subsidies. Bills authored by Grady ’31 and Caleb ’31, Ellie ’31 and Malek ’31 advanced to full session. Mateo ’30, Frances ’31 and Eli ’31 received Golden Gavels as Best Legislators, while Upper School mentors Sascha ’26, Lucy ’27, Grant ’27 and Melina ’28 completed a Friends sweep of the Best Chair awards.

POWERED BY CURIOSITY In Steven Fong’s Grade 3 class, students deepened their understanding of electric circuits by designing and constructing interactive game boards. After learning the fundamentals of circuitry and how to use tools safely, they applied their skills to projects inspired by themes ranging from outer space and wildlife to sweets and New York architecture. At the Electric Circuit Game Board Showcase, students invited peers, faculty and staff to test the games while explaining the science behind their designs. The experience combined problem-solving, creativity and collaboration, allowing students to demonstrate both technical understanding and inventive thinking.

READ MORE ON INSTAGRAM For more stories, the latest news and to see our community in action, follow @friendsseminary on Instagram.

FRIENDS SEMINARY OWLS

News from the Nest The 2025–26 athletics season gave Friends Seminary plenty to celebrate, from postseason runs and milestone performances to strong finishes from Upper and Middle School teams. Varsity Boys Basketball led the way in winter, finishing 17–10 and returning to the NYSAIS Finals for the second year in a row. Jason Chachoua ’26 reached 1,000 career points during the season and scored 33 in the semifinal win over Portledge. Varsity Girls Basketball also had a memorable postseason, making its first NYSAIS appearance in several years, defeating LREI in the opening round and reaching the ACIS Championship game. The team finished 15–10. JV Boys Basketball went 12–7 and advanced to the ACIS semifinals. In the pool Friends swimmers competed at both the ACIS and NYSAIS Championships. The boys 200 Freestyle Relay placed second at ACIS and later finished eighth at NYSAIS with a season-best time. Harrison Magnan ’26 added another highlight with a third-place finish in the high jump at the NYSAIS Indoor Track Championships. Spring brought more postseason appearances. Varsity Tennis and Varsity Volleyball both reached the ACIS semifinals, while Varsity Softball earned a playoff spot and Varsity Baseball finished at .500. Varsity Golf sent players to both ACIS and NYSAIS championship events. At the ACIS Track and Field Championships, the girls placed third overall and the boys fourth. Middle School teams had strong seasons as well, including a 5–1 finish by 7/8 Softball and a run to the Grace Church Invitational championship game by 7/8 Boys Basketball.

Learn more about Athletics at Friends.

EVER THE

SEEKER FIRST THE

LISTENER Remembering Richard Leete Eldridge, Principal of Friends Seminary from 1989 to 2002

STORY BY CARA CANNELLA

Contact sheet from portrait session with Rich, 1997

n 1989, Joe Gosler joined a small committee at Friends Seminary to interview a candidate for Principal. Across the table sat Rich Eldridge, who had led Buckingham Friends School in Pennsylvania for eight years. He mentioned that he liked driving the school bus. “That gave me an interesting impression of him,” says Joe, who served Friends for more than two decades as Business Manager and worked closely with Rich throughout their years on 16th Street. That detail revealed a leader willing to do work “that would not normally fall under the head's mantle.” Friends hired Richard Leete Eldridge, a Quaker educator, soon after. He was Principal from 1989 to 2002, years in which the School purchased and renovated the 15th Street Annex and funded a rooftop playground atop Hunter Hall. According to Friends’ appreciation published when Rich was named Principal Emeritus, he graduated nearly 1,000 students. When he died on October 3, 2025, at 85, Friends remembered a leader who “held fiercely to the belief that every person in our community is both a teacher and a learner.” The School's Richard Eldridge Lifetime Learners Fund is named for that conviction. People who worked beside him still point to the ways that belief manifested: in how he listened, whom he hired, how he trusted a room in conflict, and once, memorably, in the back of an ambulance. I never met Rich Eldridge, which feels important to say. As a regular substitute teacher at Friends, I know the rooms he moved through—the benches in the Meetinghouse, the silence, the lunch tables. But I know him only through people who did and through the work he left behind. That feels fitting. Rich and Cynthia Earl Kerman built their 1987 biography, The Lives of Jean Toomer: A Hunger for Wholeness, from letters, archives, scholarship and interviews. Jean, the Harlem Renaissance writer best known for his hybrid-genre book Cane, later became a Quaker. The Washington Post described Jean's life, in the book's framing, as an “attempt to bond the pieces into a meaningful whole.” Here, too, is a portrait by way of pieces. One of the most vivid comes from Faculty Emerita Judy Anderson ’66. At Rich's first full faculty meeting as Principal, she recalls, he serenaded the room.

32 57

She no longer remembers the song, only that it felt like a ballad and that the air changed as he sang. “I remember feeling joy,” she writes. Joe first noticed Rich's patience. He describes him as having “a keen ability to listen"—as someone who did not prepare his own response while listening. Rich waited, Joe says, and tried to see people clearly before deciding how to answer. “I always thought that he led by being in the back of the classroom,” Joe says, not literally but in spirit, “so that he could allow every person, regardless of their role, to speak their mind and therefore be recognized.” Every three years, when the School and the Friends Seminary Teachers Association negotiated, Joe tried to prepare him, guiding him where to sit and who might press which point. Rich refused, according to Joe. “I don't want to hear that,” he would say. “I just want to walk into the room and listen.” Antonia (Toni) Daly, a current Friends substitute who arrived the same year Eldridge did and taught math and environmental studies for 26 years, remembers him as “ever the seeker.” Rich “listened attentively and thus inspired the community to consult their higher selves.” Ask Joe where all that patience came from, and he offers an image. To Rich, he says, each person was “like a petal on a flower—a whole of its own.” Asked whether Rich saw that of God in every person, Joe answers, “Oh, absolutely.” That conviction is older than the School itself. In Children of Light: Friends Seminary, 1786–1986, Nancy Gibbs ’78 wrote: “From the earliest teachings of George Fox, Quakers argued that if something of God existed in every human being then no man or woman could be elevated over another.” Rich carried that idea as a working principle. Before Friends hired him, he had articulated what he thought a school was for. “Worship, then, need not be limited to a formalized time in the Meeting house,” he wrote in Leonard S. Kenworthy's 1987 Quaker Education: A Source Book. “It can occur in a class discussing math. It can occur in the principal's office with an irate parent who needs quietude before settling into a discussion.” By the time he arrived at Friends in 1989, he was approaching 50, with that belief already tested in classrooms, meetings and social justice work. He taught

Left: Rich, who was ever the supporter of his colleagues, returned to Friends even years after retiring—coming back in 2010 to congratulate former teacher Jean Johnson following her emeritus induction ceremony in the Meetinghouse. Right: Rich photographed with students Hayden Hatch ’08 and Claire Brennan ’09 on the rooftop playfield, 2000. In the mid-1990s under Rich’s leadership, the Seeking the Light Campaign secured the purchase and renovation of the 15th Street Annex, funded the playground atop Hunter Hall and raised essential funds for technology and endowment. Today’s Skyfield came later through the 2019 Light the Future campaign.

English in Tokyo, then taught Black literature at the Community College of Baltimore. He marched for civil rights in Cairo, Illinois, with his family. He wrote an operetta about Gabriel Prosser, who led an 1800 rebellion of enslaved Virginians. In Rich's years at Friends, the people who cleaned the building and served the food were directly employed by the School, not contracted. Some custodial staff had been hired through a program for people leaving incarceration. When that partnership became public, some parents objected. Maria Fahey, who has taught English at Friends since 1988 and served as Director of Studies under Eldridge, remembers how Rich responded—by hosting an evening Meeting for Business in the Meetinghouse, where the School community was invited to speak. A member of the building staff rose and said he worked at the School and had been incarcerated. Maria remembers the force

of his message: He made clear that he would have taken a bullet for any child there. The room got quiet, she recalls, and the workers kept their jobs. Maria says Eldridge understood “the risk and the power of the Quaker process.” He was willing to bring the conflict before the community and let the process work. “That was a moment where I felt really proud to work here," she says. The story reached the press. In 1999 The Guardian ran it under the headline “Elite school in NY staffed by ex-cons,” and Eldridge told the paper: “We are a Quaker school, and Quakers are committed to taking prisoners back into responsible positions in society.” Ben Frisch, an Upper School Math Teacher at Friends for more than three decades and a lifelong Quaker, hears that as an expression of the central Quaker belief: “There's that of God in everyone.” For Rich that also meant seeing gifts outside the job 33 58

Left: Rich Eldridge outside the Masonic Temple after its purchase in 1997. Under Rich’s leadership, the Temple was transformed into the 15th Street Annex, which today houses the School’s STEM and Performing Arts programs. Right: Rich laughing in 1996.

description. Judy remembers that he valued each adult in the building, “regardless of their position,” as a teacher of students. Joe says he was “big on self-actualization.” Staff members could become coaches. People could discover more of themselves. According to the eulogy by his son Dave Eldridge, Rich helped begin Friends' partnership with God's Love We Deliver at the height of the AIDS crisis. (Elsewhere in this issue Legacy Russell ’04 remembers Art Teacher John Jones. Beginning in 1990 John and Rich led the partnership's holiday-bag-decorating project for meal deliveries, which Friends students continue today.) Quaker discernment, according to Maria, grounded the Rich years. “I never felt with Rich like the Quaker process was being used as a justification for anything,” she says. “It was really practiced.” When pressure mounted to fire a teacher, she remembers him drawing the line: If anyone was to be fired, it would have to be him. 59

“He was not scared to make hard decisions,” she says, “and he was fierce about taking responsibility for them.” He could also see futures in people before they saw them in themselves. In 1992 he handed Carter Stewart, a year out of college, a Grade 9 world history classroom. Carter later wrote that Rich taught him that leadership did not require "an alpha personality to dominate a room." Quiet kindness, vision and purpose could do powerful work, too. Ronah Harris ’95 was an Upper School student when she once spoke during Meeting for Worship, forgetting that adults were listening. Rich stopped her afterward with a simple comment: “You should speak more.” "He had no idea what he would awaken," Ronah writes. She has spent the past 20 years as an educator, lecturing to thousands. "Every time I stand before an audience, I can trace that moment back to Rich's simple invitation." When she applied to graduate school, he

wrote recommendation letters. “Rich Eldridge changed my life,” she writes. “He gave me permission to believe that my voice mattered.” His strengths had their limits, and he knew them. Joe, the self-described calculating half of their partnership, watched him tinker: “He had an engineer-like quality … a Jimmy Carter-ish kind of way of handling things.” Rich gave himself fully to what was in front of him—a letter, a meeting, a person—but he was less naturally strategic than some heads of school, Joe says. On September 11, 2001, Rich's gift for attunement was exactly what the School needed. He brought in psychologists for parents and children and helped make sure students got home safely. Later when a parent asked why Friends did not fly an American flag or require the Pledge of Allegiance, he answered in writing: Quakers are wary of emblems of power, which can inhibit “a collective openness to truth no single individual—or no single power—can embrace.” His son Dave reached for the same president in his eulogy, musing that his father “may be the Jimmy Carter of angels.” He had “a Buddha-like laughter,” Joe says. “He laughed his entire body,” Dave wrote. This was the principal who wore a crab hat to announce lice checks, who took off his brand-new prescription glasses at a school thrift sale to help a customer read something—then returned to find that a parent volunteer had sold them for a dollar. He loved taking Joe to Yankees games and, sometimes, Knicks games. It wasn't about the score, but about having somewhere to be together. Maria recalls a story Rich told for years at his own expense. A member of the building staff sliced his arm badly on broken glass while collecting trash. Rich dropped everything and went with him in an ambulance to the emergency room. On the way, Rich fainted, and the injured man he had come to comfort spent the ride taking care of him. “That,” Maria says, laughing, “is a totally classic Rich Eldridge story.” Russell Dukes has worked on the facilities staff since Eldridge's years at Friends. “The first time I met with Richard, he made me feel wanted—and not just to do a job, but to the community,” he writes. “He always gave me a sense that he appreciated the work I do. If I had to look at Richard in a spiritual way today, I would say his spirit—humble, kind and Quaker—is still here.”

HE LAUGHED HIS ENTIRE BODY. - Dave Eldridge

Rich Nourie, Interim Head of School for 2025–26, never worked directly with Eldridge. But this year he has heard again and again how deeply people associate the Eldridge years with trust in collective wisdom and leadership without armor. “That's what I admire as true spiritual leadership,” Nourie says, “that level of trust and vulnerability.” Many people, he adds, look to those years “as kind of the high watermark in the school's lived Quaker life.” Long after his years at Friends, Rich kept teaching and learning. After retiring from The Willow School at 65, he taught remedial writing and grammar to Rutgers freshmen. After a stroke in 2009, he curated books on social justice and equity at the Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Library in White Plains. The spring he arrived at Friends, Friends Journal published “Moonlight,” Rich's fable titled for a girl who searches for a light brighter than the moon. After looking directly at the sun, she comes home able to see only indirectly. “Season after season Moonlight sang in the light that she once saw,” Rich wrote, “and the people sang with her in her circle of light.” He sang spirituals to his children as lullabies. He wrote seven musicals performed by his schools. In his last week of life, Dave wrote, he sat up straighter in a hospice bed when a nurse practitioner brought her students in to observe. One more room had become a classroom. The School he led for 13 years still gathers in silence every week, still asks students to listen before speaking and still tries, daily and imperfectly, to truly recognize the person pushing the mop, raising a hand or sitting in the back. “There are things he set in motion here,” Nourie says, “that are still in motion.” Somewhere in the school day—in a difficult conversation, a second chance, or in a question about one's own future—his bus is still making the rounds. 35 60

A RETURN TO WHERE MEMORIES A R E B U I LT

REUNION Alumni from across the decades returned to 16th Street for Friends Reunion 2026, held May 15–16. Graduates from the classes of 1961, 1966, 1971, 1976, 1981, 1986, 1991, 1996, 2001, 2006, 2011, 2016 and 2021 reconnected with classmates and former teachers throughout the weekend.

Class of 1986 Top from left: KJ Whitfield, Jordan Doner, Dwayne Ford, Molly Magid Hoagland, Pamela Serota, Robert Wilson. Middle from left: Nicole Bongiorno, Matt Breitman, Samantha Warwick, Sarah Getz. Bottom from left: Molly Jacobson, Stasha Vicinanza, Schuyler Allen-Kalb, Steven Doben, Nat Caldwell. 62

VIEW IMAGES

[1] Matthew Brunstad ’16 and Evan Liberman ’16 [2] Naledi Semela ’06 and Barry Blumenfeld [3] Oliver Freundlich ’91, Sisi Kamal, Bo Lauder and Deborah Freundlich (POA) [4] Scott Sklar ’76, Susan Collins ’76 and Michael Hirst ’76 [5] Class of 2006 [6] Classes of 1986–2025 [7] Derek Gibbs ’72, Justin Bain ’06, Naledi Semela ’06 and Darrien Watson ’06 [8] Faculty Emeritus Larry Carter and Stasha Holley Vicinanza ’86 [9] Raya Byhovsky ’26 and Alice Stern ’76 [10] Class of 2006 [11] Kim K. Azzarelli ’88 and Molly Hoagland ’86 [12] Former faculty member Molly Peacock, Elijah Berk ’91, Erica Fyvie ’91, Oliver Freundlich ’91, Florrie Chapin ’91 and Nicholas Testa ’91 [13] Class of 1966 [14] Class of 1991

REUNION In May members of the Class of 1976 traveled from as far as Hawaii and Germany to celebrate their 50th Reunion—fitting for a class that graduated the same year the nation marked its Bicentennial and returned to campus as the country celebrated its 250th. Festivities began Friday with lunch in the Upper School Commons alongside Grade 4 pen pals, followed by a classic Italian dinner just off Union Square.

Saturday brought a full day of Reunion Weekend programming, capped by a celebratory dinner at the beautiful Upper West Side home of a classmate’s sister. Alumni Council member Alice Stern ’76 reflects, “It was wonderful that we had such a large turnout, and that we had time to reflect on our time at Friends and catch up with each other. A splendid time was had by all!”

Composing a

Legacy

Christopher Gibbs ’76 made a bequest to Friends Seminary in 2004—a commitment he has kept for more than 20 years with the same care he brings to students and scholarship Christopher Gibbs ’76 has built a career studying and teaching how composers like Franz Schubert are remembered, forgotten and rediscovered. He wrote the definitive biography of Schubert and co-authored the standard survey of Western music used in college classrooms. He didn't know "musicologist" was even a job until after Friends, though—it was his Latin teacher, Donald Wilson, who first got him hooked on classical music. After college, Christopher tried his hand at music criticism, then came back to Friends in 1980 to teach photography and music for three years. That's where he realized he loved teaching—confirmed later at Columbia, where he earned his doctorate. In the classroom, he didn’t assign grades and focused on each student's growth. "Everyone is an individual to be respected," he said. "I think about how I can teach them best in each case." That instinct—to listen rather than dictate—traces back to a simple idea he picked up at Friends: Everyone deserves respect. Today he's the James H. Ottaway Jr. Professor of Music at Bard College and Co-Artistic Director of the Bard Music Festival, where he shapes each summer's programming and continues to write and lecture on how composers' reputations shift over time.

When Christopher thinks about what made him who he is, he returns to the Quaker way of thinking he learned at Friends. He explains, "The belief that there is a Light in every person is something I have carried with me." For all of these reasons, combined with deep family connections, Friends holds a central place in Christopher’s philanthropy. His support reflects both gratitude for the education that shaped him and a desire to help ensure that future generations of Friends students have the same opportunity to discover who they might become.

FRIENDS for the FUTURE If you are age 70½ or older, consider making gifts to Friends Seminary through your individual retirement account (IRA). These gifts can count toward your required minimum distribution, if one is required, and may help lower your taxable income while directly supporting Friends. For more information, contact Rebecca Holmes, Senior Associate Director of Institutional Advancement, at rholmes@friendsseminary.org or (646) 979-5058.

A PLACE TO BE SEEN At Reunion 2026, John Behling was inducted as a 2026 Faculty Emeritus, with Friends Seminary Dance Teacher Barry Blumenfeld offering remarks celebrating his 38 years of service to the School By Barry Blumenfeld, Dance Teacher I grew up in Miami. When I moved to New York City nearly 30 years ago and started at Friends, my understanding of what counted as cold—and how to dress for it—leaned toward the conservative. So you can imagine my bafflement that first winter when I saw a teacher walking into school in shorts. In the dead of winter. Shorts. I thought, This man must be an alien. Little did I know that he wasn’t an alien, but that he would love nothing more than to explore outer space, meeting actual aliens aboard the Starship Enterprise.

I have known John Behling for 26 years—not only as a colleague and friend, but as a parent, since he taught both of my sons. When I tell you that John’s caring, compassion, creativity and patience are truly out of this world, I know it firsthand. I reached out to current and retired faculty and former students, and the same themes surfaced again and again: passion, caring, creativity and connection. John’s interests are well known around here: science, space, stories—and, yes, the conventions. Comic Con. Star Trek. Star Wars. Doctor Who. His enormous

collection of photos with actors from across the sciencefiction universe is more than a hobby. It is a window into who John is. He loves stories, and he loves connecting with people. The way he brought those passions into his teaching gave students permission to pursue their own. My son Sidney, now almost 21, put it simply: “He stoked passion and interest.” Judith Seidel, our Lower School Computer Science Teacher, remembers John’s youthful sense of wonder, particularly his love of space exploration, and how it inspired generations of students. She valued his openness to whimsical experiments and his enthusiasm for what she called “playful learning.” She also remembers his kindness during a difficult period when one of her children was ill. That is who John is, in the classroom and beyond it. Nearly everyone I spoke with mentioned John’s reading. His animated performances of the George’s Secret Key series became something close to legendary. Linda Chu recalled students begging him to continue when a chapter ended. Grade 8 student Matthew Maggio said, “I loved it so much, I bought the rest of the books and continued reading them on my own.” John’s storytelling extended to the annual George and Martha assemblies, when he and Tracey Jones performed for the Lower School. The children, as Matt Schlee remembered, were rolling in their seats. Matt, who counts John as one of his first mentors, also spoke about John’s quiet influence as a male educator in early childhood education. John modeled the importance of preparation and flexibility, as well as the ability to lead young students into genuinely meaningful conversations. One tradition everyone remembers with particular warmth is the banana bread. Every Friday John’s class baked bread for the Friends Shelter, then housed in the Common Room. The activity wove together math, science, collaboration and service. Everyone remembers the smell of banana bread traveling through the School. John also supported Banana Splits, a program for children navigating divorce or growing up in single-parent households. His care did not stop at the classroom door. He noticed who might need something more and quietly made sure they received it. Judy Anderson ’66, who worked with John across Kindergarten and Grade 1, recalled how he created a

EMERITUS INDUCTEE

JOHN BEHLING safe environment for students to try, make mistakes and feel proud of themselves. John never told a student, “You are wrong.” He would say, “I disagree with you.” Monica Witt said John had a rare gift for meeting children exactly where they were. For students who felt different, a little geeky or passionately curious about science, math, science fiction and big ideas, “he was a beacon.” “He showed students that their interests mattered,” she said, “and that there was a place for them.” There was a place for them. I think that might be the most important thing a teacher can provide. Former student Gus Moody returned to John’s classroom year after year to talk about Doctor Who, comic books and other interests they shared. Their connection eventually grew into an adult friendship that included Comic Con and a day together in London—a friendship that began in a Grade 2 classroom and never ended. Selfishly I miss John for what he brought into my day: a conversation about the latest Marvel movie, a check-in about my family or insight into a student who was struggling. Most of all I miss his humor. John made me feel seen and heard, lifted my mood and helped get me back on track. John, you have spent decades making children feel seen, colleagues feel supported and this School feel like a place where curiosity is celebrated, difference is welcomed and kindness is the operating principle. You taught my boys. You helped shape who they are. I thank you, and I know countless parents would say the same. You may have completed your mission here at Friends, but I suspect the universe has plenty left for you to explore. Live long and prosper, John. You’ve more than earned it.

The future is a place we create

Friends Seminary alumni are shaping the world in ways that reflect the values nurtured on 16th Street. Here are a few of their stories, recently featured in the Friends’ Alumni Newsletter’s “Bringing About a World That Ought To Be" and "G.O.L.D. (Graduates of the Last Decade) Spotlight” series.

LILY WEISBERG ’17 Filmmaker Lily Weisberg ’17 is bringing new energy to short-form cinema through her directing and by creating opportunities for emerging artists. Her 10-minute narrative short, Rare Birds, made its world premiere at the 2026 Tribeca Festival as part of the festival’s Shorts program. The film follows a rambunctious 12-year-old determined to convince her former camp counselor to leave his job at a local antique store for one last game of basketball. Lily is also the founder of Modern Silent Shorts, which commissions young directors to create original silent films for contemporary audiences. Pairing new work with live music, its screenings bring filmmakers, composers and audiences together. Through both projects she explores how familiar forms can make room for fresh voices and new kinds of connection.

JULIAN REYES ’23 Finance student Julian Reyes ’23 is building a path that unites business, leadership and service at Morehouse College. As chief business officer of the Maroon Tiger Student Media Group, he helps oversee the organization’s financial strategy. He also serves as a student ambassador, vice president of marketing and outreach for Scholars of Finance, and treasurer of the AfroLatinidad Club, while pursuing a career investment banking. Julian developed this commitment to community leadership at Friends, where he co-led the Latinx/Hispanic Culture Club and helped organize programming, conversations and a book drive that collected 500 books for schools serving Latinx students. Across his work in finance, media and campus life, he continues to explore how organizations can create opportunity, elevate underrepresented voices and contribute to the communities they serve.

SARA GARLICK LUNDBERG ’94 Executive search leader Sara Garlick Lundberg ’94 helps mission-driven organizations find the people who can advance their work. At DHR Global Sara leads the firm’s Social Impact & Nonprofit Practice, placing executives whose leadership can strengthen organizational culture, programs and long-term impact. Her commitment to service began at Friends, where community engagement shaped how she understood connection and responsibility. Years after participating in the School’s God’s Love We Deliver bag-decorating tradition as a student, Sara helped introduce the activity as an alumni gathering, extending a meaningful Friends experience to another generation. Today she views philanthropy as a search for connection and meaning. By helping nonprofits identify strong leaders, Sara supports organizations working to meet urgent needs and bring lasting change to their communities.

MILES SIMS ’24 Miles Sims ’24 is studying economics and political science at Vanderbilt University while building communities that expand access to business and leadership. A Posse Scholar, he received a four-year, full-tuition leadership scholarship through The Posse Foundation. As vice president of Alpha Kappa Psi and the Black Business Student Association and as philanthropy chair of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Miles continues the diversity, equity and inclusion work that began at Friends. He also works in web design and marketing for FutureSelf. Last spring Miles returned to Friends for a lunchtime conversation with Upper School students about mentorship, representation and inclusive professional pathways. He shared his experience as one of 10 students selected nationwide for Morgan Stanley’s Black Professional Forum, focused on making finance more representative. In summer 2027 Miles will join Morgan Stanley in New York as an Institutional Equities Summer Analyst.

JUDD KESSLER ’00 Economist Judd Kessler ’00 studies the hidden systems that determine who gains access to scarce opportunities—from school seats and jobs to restaurant reservations and organ transplants. As the Howard Marks Professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, Judd uses behavioral economics and market design to understand how people make decisions and how institutions can allocate resources more effectively. His 2025 book, Lucky by Design, brings that research into everyday life, revealing strategies for navigating markets whose rules are often difficult to see. Judd’s work also examines charitable giving, worker effort, youth employment and organ donor registration. By translating economic theory into practical systems, he seeks to explain how opportunity is distributed and to help design processes that are more transparent, effective and equitable. 71

TAMAR SARAI DAVIS ’12 Writer, journalist and historian Tamar Sarai Davis ’12 uses storytelling to illuminate histories and experiences too often overlooked. Since 2020 Tamar has reported for Prism Reports, covering race, culture and injustice, with particular attention to how policing and incarceration affect Black women and girls. Her work has also appeared in Essence, Shadowproof and Truthout, and she was named the 2024 Hardman Journalist in Residence at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. Now pursuing a doctorate in history at Temple University, Tamar is expanding that work through research on African American history, Black women’s history, gender, slavery and public memory. Across journalism and scholarship she examines how the stories societies preserve—or leave untold—shape their understanding of justice, identity and the past.

AVA RIKKI ’15 Director and cinematographer Ava Rikki ’15 creates images across film, television, music videos and global campaigns. Named to Forbes’ 2026 30 Under 30 list in Marketing & Advertising, Ava’s work has generated more than 500 million views, and she has collaborated with artists including Doja Cat, Olivia Rodrigo, Sam Smith and Alicia Keys. Her commercial work includes projects for Barbie, Amazon, Tory Burch, L’Oréal and Google. Ava studied film at Pratt Institute and has built a career moving between music, narrative and advertising, pairing polished visual storytelling with a collaborative approach. In 2024, she also hosted a 600-person nonprofit art event in Los Angeles. Across each project, Ava brings an eye for atmosphere, movement and connection to work defined by range and ambition.

To explore more stories and share your own alumni news, visit Friends Seminary’s alumni newsletter at friendsnewsletter.com, or email advancement@friendsseminary.org.

Strengthening Belonging for All What began as an effort to support younger students' sense of belonging became a reciprocal experience by Kirsti Peters Director of Diversity, Equity and Belonging

In June, the Friends community gathered at Central Park’s Rumsey Playfield to celebrate the Class of 2026. Among the student speakers was graduating Senior Channing Bunche, a lifer whose 13 years at Friends provided him with no shortage of stories to share. He reflected on memorable moments—from hosting "Friendly Feud" dressed as Steve Harvey to helping found the Upper School West Indian Culture Club alongside Arusha Kohli ’26. As Channing spoke about the club, he shared how meaningful it was to create a space where he could celebrate his Trinidadian roots with peers through food, music, games and conversation. Yet when he reflected on his experience as a club leader, the highlight was collaborating with Lower School students. His reflection captures something important about one of the most impactful programs that I, along with the Specialist for Diversity, Equity and Belonging, have developed in recent years. What began as an effort to support younger students' sense of belonging became a reciprocal experience that enriched students and adults across divisions. The collaboration between our Upper School Culture Clubs and Lower School students emerged from a simple but urgent need. Some of our Black students needed to 73

see more people who looked like them. Families, teachers and students shared concerns about isolation, and some students asked us directly, "Where are the other Black people?" In response I, along with the Specialist for DEB, partnered with Lower School colleagues to leverage one of Friends’ greatest strengths: being a K–12 community. We wondered what might happen if our oldest students intentionally connected with our youngest students throughout the year. The idea initially centered on the Black Culture Club, but it quickly became clear that the need extended beyond a single group. One Lower School student asked, "Does anyone pray like me?" The student was Muslim and wanted to connect with others who shared that part of their identity. An informal meeting with sisters Alizay Hussain ’24 and Zaina Hussain ’25, who had just formed the Muslim Culture Club, became a powerful reminder of how meaningful it can be for students to see themselves reflected in others. As the program grew so did our vision. We recognized that many students from historically marginalized communities would benefit from opportunities to connect across divisions.

Today Culture Club leaders create developmentally appropriate activities for Lower School students: making dreidels during Hanukkah, coloring flags representing Latin American identities, creating diyas for Diwali, designing Lunar New Year murals, making Ramadan lanterns for Eid or collectively coloring a re-creation of the “Basquiat Dinosaur," also known as “Pez Dispenser” (1984). The re-creation now hangs in the Center for Peace, Equity and Justice office. The activities provide a starting point, but the real magic happens in the conversations. Students who might otherwise feel distant become mentors, role models and friends. Our youngest students form meaningful connections with older peers who share aspects of their identities and experiences. As I listened to Channing's speech, what moved me most was realizing that a program designed to support our youngest students had profoundly impacted our oldest ones as well. Many student leaders have shared similar reflections. Vallie Torres ’25 often spoke about how meaningful it was to work with Lower School students because she rarely saw others who shared her Latina identity when she was younger. Mentoring younger students became an opportunity to provide the

representation they themselves once needed. The reciprocity extends beyond students. As someone raised in a Caribbean, multicultural household in California, I often find myself watching these interactions with joy. I see students experiencing cultural connections that took years for me to find. What a gift it would have been for little Kirsti to connect with other Caribbean students in this way. In a school grounded in Quaker values, we often speak about our testimony of community. The Culture Club collaborations offer a powerful example of this value in practice. What began as an effort to support Black students ultimately created opportunities for many students to find connection, affirmation and belonging. In the process, our youngest students gained mirrors and mentors, our oldest students discovered the power of leadership and representation, and our entire community continues to grow stronger.

Learn more about Diversity, Equity and Belonging at Friends.

2026 Global Immersion Experience

MOR OCCO

CROSSROADS OF CULTURE Last March, Friends’ Global Education program brought Upper School students to Morocco, where faculty members Kara Kutner, Joseph Sills and Mouna Fdilat led them through the Hassan II Mosque, the blue-and-white streets of Rabat, the Ben Youssef Madrasa, the souks of Marrakech and the Atlas Mountains. Along the way students considered the relationship between Islamic and Quaker worship, learned about Amazigh history and visited Dar Taliba, a residential school that provides access to education for girls from rural communities. The trip was also full of joy: card games and karaoke on train rides, camel rides, calligraphy lessons, henna, shared meals, and music. By the final night students were left, as Oona ’27 put it, standing in “a sea of smiles and tears.”

Read Oona ’27’s personal reflection of her experience.

THEIR LIGHT LIVES ON It is with great sadness that we report the passing of the following Friends Seminary alumni and emeriti.

2025 KEITH BOYER ’59 JEFFREY DAVIDSON ’54 ABRAM GOREN ’19 MATEO KAUFFMAN SANDLER ’27 MELISSA PEREZ-COLON ’05

2026 JILL NAREFF BLAUNER ’62 SANDE’ R. JONES JR. ’84 CHARLES WOODFORD ’51

To read obituaries and tributes submitted by classmates, colleagues and family members, please visit the “In Memoriam” section at friendsnewsletter.com. To report a death or submit a memorial, please email alumni@friendsseminary.org.

FRIENDS SEMINARY 222 EAST 16TH STREET NEW YORK, NY 10003