Oasis The ESA Experience
Summer 2019 Painting by Charlotte Leavitt, ’20
Congratulations, ESA Class of 2019! Parrish Anderson Olivia Andry Andreas Atwi Cassie Beyer Lucas Blanchard Ethan Boagni Cassie Bowers Sloane Brasseaux Ellie Broussard Tommy Burns Matthew Carey Addison Chrysler Landon Chrysler Forrest Clarke Katie Clement William Cowan Matt Disher Reuben Egan Hiba Fazal-ur-Rehman Joshua Feist Ella Frantzen Angela Frey Miles Gallagher Patrick Gilfoil Matthew Huval Anna LeGoullon Taylore Louviere Maggie Menard Jude Miller Nathan Mouton Adam Musemeche Marshall Nelson Katie Osborne Isabella Sabbaghian Jake Sledge Casey Swize Madeline Turner Hailie Williams Kailie Williams Samantha Withers
ESA’s 40 graduates are accepted to 79 college and university programs and offered more than $5.6 million in merit aid, not including TOPS. American University Bard College Baylor University Berry College Birmingham Southern College Boston University Bucknell University California Institute of Technology Carson-Newman University Case Western Reserve University Centenary College of Louisiana Colorado School of Mines Denison University Drexel University Eckerd College Elon University Florida Southern College Hanover College Lake Forest College Louisiana College Louisiana State University (Eunice) Louisiana State University A&M Louisiana Tech University Loyola University New Orleans Mercer University Millsaps College Mississippi College Mississippi State University Nicholls State University Northwestern University Nova Southeastern University Oglethorpe University Oregon State University Pratt Institute Princeton University Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rhodes College Roanoke College Saint Edward’s University Samford University
Santa Clara University Sarah Lawrence College Seton Hall University Sewanee: The University of the South Southwestern University Spring Hill College St. Louis University Trinity University Tufts University Tulane University of Louisiana Tyler Junior College University of Alabama University of Alabama at Birmingham University of Alabama in Huntsville University of California (Berkeley) University of California (Los Angeles) University of California (Santa Barbara) University of Denver University of Florida University of Hartford University of Illinois University of Kentucky University of Louisiana at Lafayette University of Miami University of Michigan University of Mississippi University of New Haven University of New Orleans University of Southern Mississippi University of Tampa University of Texas Rio Grande Valley University of the Pacific University of Tulsa Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Wentworth Institute of Technology West Virginia University Wiley College William Carey University
2018-2019 Honors Headmaster’s Award Jake Sledge Samantha Withers Jake Sledge
Read more about Samantha and Jake at ESAcadiana.com/MeetOurStudents.
Samantha Withers
Cum Laude Society ESA is one of only four schools in Louisiana to earn membership in the Cum Laude Society, an honor society modeled after Phi Beta Kappa to recognize outstanding academic achievement. This spring, ESA inducted the first members of its Cum Laude Society chapter. These students are at the top of their graduating class, and have maintained superior academic performance while pursuing ESA’s most challenging courses. Lucas Blanchard is a member of the National Honor Society, played on ESA’s state champion Quiz Bowl Team, and was active in community service at ESA and in his local community. Lucas has earned an academic scholarship to attend UL-Lafayette. Joshua Feist is a National Merit Finalist, and was a member of the Quiz Bowl Team and the founder of the Science Olympiad Club. A member of the National Honor Society, Joshua worked as a research assistant at the Cajun Artificial Heart Lab. He will attend Northwestern University. Anna LeGoullon is a member of the National Honor
Society, and was a six-year starter on the ESA Soccer Team, and president of the Honor Council. She co-founded the Girls’ STEM Club to encourage younger girls to pursue their interests in science, technology, engineering and math. Anna has earned an academic scholarship to attend the University of Alabama. Jake Sledge was president of the Discipline Council, a leader on the Quiz Bowl Team, and a member of the National Honor Society. He was named a 2018 National Hispanic Scholar by the College Board, has assisted with scientific research at the LSU Physics and Astronomy Department, and is a veteran of ESA musicals. Jake will attend Princeton University. Samantha Withers is a nineteen-time individual State Champion in track and cross country, and led her teams to seven State titles. Sam led as class president for the past two years. She was a peer leader, a member of the National Honor Society, a leader on the soccer team, and co-founder of the Girls’ STEM Club. Sam will attend Rhodes College with an academic scholarship, and will run cross country and track.
Lucas Blanchard
Senior photos by Danny Izzo Nouveau Photo
Anna LeGoullon
Joshua Feist
Tom Olverson Award Landon Chrysler Bishop and Mrs. Henton Award Anna LeGoullon Bishop’s Medal Jake Sledge
Landon Chrysler
Book Awards honor juniors chosen by the faculty for exhibiting habits of scholarship, honor and service. Below, left to right, Isabelle Berthelot - Hendrix College Book Award, Oliver Nickel - Sidney Hebert Athlete of the Year, Keegan Riley - Tulane Book Award, Michael dela Rosa - Yale Book Award, Hannah Kitakule - Harvard Book Award and Renssalaer Medal, Kate Kaufman - Smith College Book Award, Emily Minvielle - Sewanee Book Award, Leah Gerard - George Washington Book Award. View all end-of-the-year awards at ESAcadiana.com.
Morgan Williams Josh Mendoza
Valerie Marsalis Cox Award
Morgan Williams
Martha Annan Cooper Citizenship Award
Josh Mendoza
Citizenship Awards
6th - Maisy Prellop (near left) 7th - Owen Broussard (far left) 8th - Greer Hernandez (center left) Middle School Athletes of the Year
Anna Breaux and Ian Allam (above)
Middle School Honors
Lower School Honors Headmaster’s Award Bird Fuller (right)
St. Barnabas Award Emmy Romero (left)
Senior Art Exhibition Each year, ESA seniors present an exhibit of works created in Visual Arts classes and through continued artistic pursuits. For the past two years, ESA parent Kelli Kaufman has hosted the Senior Art Exhibition at her downtown gallery. Works range from paintings and photographs to ceramics, glassbead work, mixed media pieces, and more. This year’s exhibit included a display that combined science and art to produce elegant designs. The Visual Arts department invites a professional artist to serve as juror for the exhibition, and to choose one student to honor with an award. This year, artist Michael Eble, Curator of Exhibitions for UL Lafayette’s College of the Arts, chose Katie Osborne. Katie works in photography and video, and brings her writing into her art as well. Congratulations, Katie!
“Katie shows a personal approach to her creative practice that is beyond her years, producing conceptual images that are nostalgic and reflective of her past... she conjures images and text into an honest aesthetic that is appreciated by her audience. I hope she continues to be the narrator of her own creative pursuits into the future.� Michael Eble Juror, Senior Art Exhibition
Aladdin Kids
Bye Bye Birdie
Performing Arts ESA’s Performing Arts program continues to grow! This year, the Lower School produced Aladdin Kids, while the Cade Campus showcased middle and upper school talent in the musical Bye Bye Birdie. With Mrs. Movassaghi moving into the role of Upper School Head, music teacher Bill Smith (top left) will become Performing Arts Department Chair. Jen Andrews (bottom left), who taught choir this year thanks to a grant from the Falcon Club, will join the ESA faculty full time to teach theatre. Performing and Visual Arts students attended the ISAS Fine Arts Festival in Austin, and the ESA music collective performed at Festival International in April. Several ESA musicians, including Mr. Smith, took part in the SOLO Songwriters Festival held in Lafayette in May. Visit vimeo.com/ESAcadiana for a sampling of ESA music, as well as videos by ExLabs students and other ESA highlights.
Wyoming 2019 Experience is everything.
Learning Adventures Lower school students look forward to the adventure of travel and the chance to explore a new place through the fifth grade trip to the Teton Science Schools in Kelly, Wyoming. Students work alongside scientists to examine the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystems. It’s an inspiring introduction to the opportunities that will come their way throughout their ESA journey.
2018-2019 Trips Teton Science Schools - Wyoming
5th Grade
Camp Allen - Navasota, Texas
6th Grade
Camp Cho-Yeh - Livingston, Texas (left)
7th Grade
Backpacking - Pisgah Natl. Forest 8th Grade Heifer International Global Village 9th Grade Field Research - Dauphin Island, AL 10th Grade Senior Trip - England and France 12th Grade ESA Abroad - Various Locations Open to Rising 10th-12th Graders ESA in the USA (right) Open to Rising 10th-12th Graders Last summer, ESA in the USA traveled to the Southwest to take in the landscape, art, and culture of the region. ExLabs student Sue Person, ‘21, documented the trip. View Sue’s video at vimeo.com/ESAcadiana.
Four and Five in a Row! ESA Boys’ Cross Country took home its fifth State Championship in a row and ESA’s 84th State title. All five scoring runners finished in the top ten: Oliver Nickel - 1st; Jackson Spoon - 3rd; Will Lemoine - 6th; Christian Herpin - 7th; and Sloane Brasseaux - 10th. This spring, for the fourth year in a row, ESA Girls’ Track & Field won the Class B State Championship - ESA’s 85th title. View a complete list of athletes who placed in their events at ESAcadiana.com/TodayESA. Congratulations to coaches Laura Magann, Sarina Lapeyrouse, Jennifer Graycheck, ’01, and Alexis Brown, and to our phenomenal athletes!
The jurors were unable to select just one student to receive top honors in the exhibit. They chose Carter Broussard (whose photographs are on the cover and on page 5) and Tana Gauthier, who works in both 2D and in large-scale ceramics (above). Of Carter and Tana, the judges wrote: What really stood out with these two is their individual vision and their ability to recognize ‘mistakes’ and turn them into great successes. What also appealed to us was the sophisticated manner in which they addressed their work and the concepts underlying it, and the professional manner in which they made choices and articulated them as they presented their work.” Read more about ESA’s artists at ESAcadiana.com/VisualArts.
Samantha Withers Kailie Williams
Samantha Withers, ’19, finished her ESA career with 19 State Championships and seven team titles. A three-time recipient of this award, Sam is known as much for mentoring and supporting younger athletes as she is for winning races. She also has been an outstanding starter for ESA’s Girls’ Soccer Team, which finished second in the state this winter. Sam will run cross country and track at Rhodes College.
Oliver Nickel
Kailie Williams, ’19, has seven State titles of her own, and has dominated Class B as a sprinter. A leader on the volleyball court, she earned All-District and Best of the Teche honors. Kailie and her twin sister Hailie will play volleyball at Wiley College. Oliver Nickel, ’20, won two individual State Championships in 2018-2019 - Cross Country and Golf. In between, he turned his focus to ESA Basketball, and helped to take the Falcons to the quarterfinals. Ten of the 40 members of ESA’s Class of 2019 will participate in athletics at the college level. Sports include: sand volleyball, volleyball, soccer, basketball, cross country and track.
Sidney Hebert Athletes of the Year
New Faces in 2018-2019
Daniel Gould Middle and Upper School Science
Shane Johnson Database Manager Major Gifts Officer
Dr. Rachel Snider, Upper School Chemistry Dr. Snider hopes to change the way her students think about science, chemicals and the world. She gives them the opportunity to bring their own interests into their study of chemistry and to see how the concepts they explore exist in their everyday lives. A fan of Dr. Who, Marvel movies, college football and hockey, Dr. Snider has a bachelor’s degree from Sweet Briar College and a Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University. Read more about her on the Faculty and Staff page of the ESA website.
Erin Furby (left, with LS Head Ms. O) Third Grade Teacher
Monti Smith Middle School Counselor
Claire Caffery, Lower School Art (with Fletcher, the studio’s mascot)
Ms. Claire shares Pablo Picasso’s philosophy: “All children are born artists, the problem is to remain an artist as we grow up.” She questions what happens to their creativity, spontaneity, and confidence as they get older, and sees herself as a cheerleader, making sure students leave her studio with joy and confidence in creating.
Meaghan McCarron Savoy, ’08 Upper School English
New Roles and Fond Farewells A familiar face at ESA, Kat Surratt Movassaghi taught English and theatre from 1995 to 2001 before moving to New Orleans with her family. In 2006, she returned to teach theatre, and eventually took over as chair of the Performing Arts Department. This July, she will become ESA’s Upper School Head. Mrs. Mova will oversee upper school curriculum, advisory, extracurriculars, and student leadership activities, as well as leading, mentoring and supporting the faculty. In addition to holding bachelor’s and master’s degrees from LSU, she will complete a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership from UL-Lafayette in the fall. As Mrs. Mova begins her new role, we say farewell to outgoing Upper School Head Andy North, who is moving to South Carolina to become Middle School Head at Hammond School in Columbia. We wish him, his wife, Becca, and their children, Dansby and Miller, the very best. Thank you to Mrs. Gigi Kerns, who is retiring after many years of supporting ESA students through Academic Support. She and her husband Clint are off on new adventures! We’ll be keeping an eye on Coach JB Brunet, who elevated the ESA Boys’ Soccer program and led the team to a State Championship in 2018. Good luck at Catholic High School in Baton Rouge, Coach JB! And a huge merci to Madame Anita Huval for sharing 25 years of passion for the French language and Acadian culture. We appreciate the traditions you’ve created and the contributions you’ve made to the ESA community!
Mr. Jeff Begnaud, science teacher, master scheduler, Honor Council advisor, and senior trip leader, retired in May of 2018. A part of the ESA community since 1989, Mr. Begnaud is enjoying spending time with his two grandaughters, the daughters of ESA alumna Natalie Brent, ’06. An ESA English teacher since the school’s beginning in 1979, Mr. Cabell Tutwiler brought The Canterbury Tales, the Honor Code, the Outing Club, and red-sock Fridays to ESA. These days, he’s splitting his time between visiting his daughters Isabelle, ’05, Katie Clearbrook, ’03, and Eleanor Macken, ’98, and his four grandchildren, and raising funds for the Tates/Tutwiler Fund to provide financial aid for ESA families. Join us to celebrate and thank Mr. Tutwiler at ESA’s 40th birthday party on September 28th (see back cover).
Alumni Notes 1990
Matthew Wilson, his brother Anthony, ’93, and his mother Mary Ann Wilson, spoke in New Iberia as part of the Books Along the Teche Literary Festival in April.
1992
Jeffrey Dupuis, LCSW, LAC, MBA, is the Founder of Recovery Adventure Tours.
1993
Dr. Josh Caffery has been named Director of UL-Lafayette’s Center for Louisiana Studies. Anthony Wilson, his brother Matthew, ’90, and his mother Mary Ann Wilson, spoke in New Iberia as part of the Books Along the Teche Literary Festival in April.
1995
Preston Robinson holds a master’s in public administration from Villanova University and recently completed MBA coursework at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business.
1997
Tasha Jolivette-Jones was named Louisiana’s Elementary Teacher of the Year. Tasha teaches at Coteau Elementary School in Iberia Parish.
1999
John Cramer is a historic preservation consultant with MacRostie Historic Advisors in Chicago, Illinois. In 2018, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named John one of its “40 Under 40: People Saving Places,” an honor for pro-
fessionals making a significant impact in historic preservation. Shome Dasgupta and Rien Fertel were featured authors at the Louisiana Book Festival held in the fall.
2000
Coach Ursula Quoyeser is featured in a video with Dr. Lon Baronne, a spine surgeon with Louisiana Orthopaedic Specialists. Lon operated on Ursula this spring to get her back on the volleyball court. View the video on ESA’s Alumni Facebook page. Paul Simon, an attorney with Gordon Arata Montgomery Barnett of Lafayette, was a panel member for Tulane Journal of International and Comparative Law’s program “Using Law as Facilitator - Rather than Impediment - to International Business,” part of New Orleans’ 300 Years of International Business celebration.
2001
Jennifer Mestayer is Senior Vice President for Brand Communications Strategy for Hunter Public Relations in New York City. One of her clients is McIlhenny Company’s TABASCO® Sauce.
2002
John Henry Trant and his wife Aaron welcomed their second child, John Wyatt, on Valentine’s Day. John Henry is a middle school science teacher in New Orleans. Morgan Weiland was awarded the 2018 Harry W. Stonecipher Award for Distinguished Research in Media Law and Policy. Morgan, a Junior Affiliate Scholar at
the Stanford Center for Internet & Society, wrote the article “Expanding the Periphery and Threatening the Core: The Ascendant Libertarian Speech Tradition,” which was published in the May 2017 issue of the Stanford Law Review. Morgan earned a J.D. from Stanford in 2015, and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Stanford Communication Department.
2003
Katie Fox is a nurse practitioner with the Jefferson County Department of Health in Birmingham, Alabama. She is a Days For Girls International Ambassador of Women’s Health and has served on mission teams all over the world. Her next mission trip will be to Tanzania in July. Caitlin Pate Dominique is a Physical Therapist in outpatient rehab for Our Lady of Lourdes. She earned both a degree in kinesiology and a Doctorate of Physical Therapy from LSU. Caitlin lives in Lafayette with her husband, Ross, and their son, Tucker. Maggie Simon LeBlanc and her husband Grant welcomed a baby boy, Leo, in November. Maggie is a public defender working in the 15th Judicial District Court in Lafayette.
2004
Alex McVeagh is a judge in Hamilton County, Tennessee, and is heading up a new drug court to offer a rehabilitative program for misdemeanor arrests. Dr. Trey Martin is an orthopaedic surgeon with the Tulane Health System.
Second Generation Alumni The Class of 2019 includes three legacy grads - graduates whose parents are ESA alumni: Ethan Boagni, son of Kenny Boagni, ’91 (left); Ella Frantzen, daughter of Kohlie Frantzen, ’87; and Nathan Mouton, son of Ginger Courville Mouton, ’95. Each alumni pair received a legacy pin. With this year’s class, we now have 20 ESA legacy grads!
Send in Your Alumni Updates! ESA is turning 40 years old this year, and what better way to celebrate the last four decades than to tell the stories of our 1400+ ESA alumni. Visit ESAcadiana.com/AlumniUpdate and share with us where you’ve been and where you’re going. We hope to create a book that documents ESA’s journey and yours!
2005
2007
Elizabeth McGehee, a public health specialist, is HRH2030 Project Management Unit Director for the Capacity Building for Malaria activity.
2008
Philip Fontenot is a practicing urologist at Bon Secours St. Francis Health System in Greenville, South Carolina.
2006
Lillian Guidry is an Investment Banking Vice President (Technology) at Lazard in Boston. Rizwan Merchant completed an internship in software/reverse engineering in the Cyber Security Research and Development Department at the Idaho National Laboratory last summer. Kristen Rice Smith is Senior Counsel at Cheniere Energy, Inc. in Houston.
Michael Barron, Director of R&D for New Jersey-based AeroFarms, spoke at the North Carolina Biotechnology Center’s Ag Tech Professional Forum in October. Daniel and Clara Little Frugé have a son, Graham, born last summer.
2009
Ainsley Daigle is pursuing an MBA at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Abigail Feinberg Rodriguez is a manager at the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin. Camden Cornwell works for investment bank Houlihan Lokey in Chicago as a Mergers & Acquisitions advisor for food and beverage companies. He earned a bachelor’s in economics from UT Dallas, served three years as a research analyst
with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, then earned an MBA in finance and accounting from Carnegie Mellon University. Camden serves on the McDermott Scholarship Alumni Board for UT Dallas, and still loves playing soccer and tennis! Carolyn Croughan Benedetto received the 2018 Merck Animal Health Veterinary Student Innovation Award when she graduated from LSU School of Veterinary Medicine. She and her husband Patrick live in Nashville, where he attends Vanderbilt Law School. In addition to her professional skills, Carolyn also has experience working with service dogs and guide dogs for the blind.
2011
Savannah DesOrmeaux earned a BFA in Drama from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. She does stand-up comedy, and performed at the Burbank
Comedy Festival in Los Angeles and with Refinery29. She has had various roles in TV and film, and lives in New York City. Alden Kizer married Caleb McGee on February 3, 2019.
2012
Elizabeth Barron was named a finalist for the Fall 2018 UL Alumni Association Outstanding Master’s Graduate Award. She received an MS in Biology.
2014
Carson DeLarue earned a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from LSU in 2017, and just finished his first year at LSU Law School. Carson and his wife, Kelli, live in Baton Rouge. Guneez Ibrahim spoke at TEDxAustin. Her talk, “Why Should we Strive to be First?,” can be viewed on YouTube.
2015
Emma Cole graduated from Emory University. She will be working in Atlanta as a
Physical Therapy Tech and applying to PT schools. Carter Broussard graduated from the University of Central Arkansas with a degree in Public Relations. Congratulations to Moses Kitakule, one of the members of the Yale Quiz Bowl Team that took first place nationally! Sebastian Magann earned a bachelor’s degree in management from LSU and has begun LSU’s Flores MBA program.
2016
Matthew Bouchner, an undergraduate in Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, is CEO and Founder of MealMe, an app that went through the Excellerator program at Emory. MealMe is a social media platform that combines posting, liking and commenting on images of food, with the ability to order a meal or book a table. Luke Bravo is a teaching assistant in Business Analytics at the A.B. Freeman School
of Business at Tulane. He is studying marketing and psychology, and interned at The Arion Group in sales and marketing last summer. Sarah Pierre completed Duke Law’s PreLaw Undergraduate Scholars program last summer, then returned to Alcorn State and founded the Alcorn Pre-Law Society.
2017
Kiran Ahluwalia, an undergraduate at LSU, is interning at UBS, a multinational investment bank and financial services company, this summer. Nich Beyer, a junior at the University of Alabama, is the co-author of a paper that will be published in Nanoscale, a publication of the Royal Society of Chemistry. It’s the second article Nich has co-authored with Dr. Lukasz Ciesla, for whom Nich serves as a research assistant. Their subject: cell-membrane coated iron oxide nanoparticles for isolation and specific identification of drug leads from complex matrices.
Former ESA teacher Scott Walker (center) visited the Cade Campus in December. Mr. Walker, who taught Civics and U.S. History from 1998 to 2001, has written a novel called Caminos, based on research into his family’s history in Spain, where he now lives. Catching up with Mr. Walker were, left to right: Coach Ursula Quoyeser, Dr. Paul Baker, Dr. Arthur White, and Mrs. Debby Kennedy. View Mr. Walker’s chapel talk at vimeo.com/ESAcadiana.
Mateo Atwi, ’15 (left photo, on the right), completed his second internship at NASA. His brother, Franco, ’22 (far left), and other members of his familiy visited and had lunch with astronaut Mark Polansky. Anne Elise Fontenot Brodsky, ’11 (center), is a licensed attorney in Louisiana. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Tulane University in 2015, and graduated from Loyola University New Orleans College of Law in May. Anne Elise and her husband Michael recently moved to Lafayette, where she now practices at Davidson, Meaux, Sonnier, McElligott, Fontenot, Gideon, & Edwards. Christopher Stec, ’94, (right) has served as the Chief Operating Officer of the American Canoe Association (ACA), the oldest paddlesports non-profit in the United States, since 2009. In October of 2017, the ACA became the National Governing Body for the Olympic paddlesports of Slalom and Sprint and the Paralympic sport of Paracanoe. The ACA, along with athletes from across the U.S., is currently preparing for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympic Games.
Future Falcon In 1998, Christiaan Mader, ’02, met Lizzy LaPointe, ’03, on the school bus. Twenty years later Nils Elliot Mader is ready to ride!
Visit the ESA Alumni page on facebook for alumni news throughout the year. Find photos from the reunions of the Classes of 1988, 1999, 2003, 2008, and 2014 there now.
P.O. Box 380 • Cade, LA 70519
www.ESAcadiana.com
ESA’s 40TH CELEBRATION Saturday, September 28th • 4:00-7:00pm • Cade Gym ESA ALUMNI, FACULTY, TRUSTEES AND FAMILIES PAST AND PRESENT JOIN US TO CELEBRATE 40 YEARS OF ESA, TO HONOR MR. TUTWILER AS HE RETIRES AND TO PLAY BINGO DINNER PROVIDED