REMARKER
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2023
VOLUME 69, ISSUE 4
ST. MARK’S SCHOOL OF TEXAS, DALLAS, TEXAS
IT’S WRITING THE FUTURE. With an uncanny ability to emulate human writing, chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT-3 have raised many questions about the future of education and the workplace. See coverage, pages 14-15.
INSIDE
COVERAGE Will Spencer, Arjun Khatti, Shreyan Daulat, Morgan Chow, Aaron Augustine GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION Morgan Chow
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Dr. David Vanderpool ’78 announced as Lee Smith ’65 Courage & Honor Award recipient BY Matthew Hofmann
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r. David Vanderpool ’78 is the school’s first recipient of the Lee Smith ’65 Courage & Honor Award, the school announced Feb. 3. The award — created in Sept. 2021 in honor of the school’s first Black graduate — recognizes an alumnus who exemplifies the school's core values of courage, honor and integrity. “It’s extremely hard to try to imagine what kind of courage and honor that it would take in order to really propel our entire community forward,” Director of Alumni Relations Alex Eshelbrenner ’04 said. “I think we are now in a position to reflect on ourselves and realize how much greatness has emerged from Lee [Smith ’65] facing such adversity and moving our community forward.” Vanderpool received this designation for his contributions in revitalizing and supporting the devasted communities of
countries that’ve undergone natural disasters. As most of the world watched the catastrophic 7.0 magnitude earthquake obliterate Haiti in 2010, Vanderpool ran to help provide the damaged country with modern medicine and equipment. “I was doing incredibly well in Nashville, TN as a general surgeon, but I felt like there was some gap or hole in here,” Vanderpool said, tapping his heart. “One that could not be anatomically found and wasn’t fulfilled, and so following the earthquakes in Haiti, my family and I decided this was an amazing opportunity, so we moved.” Once on the ground, Vanderpool focused on three main points of improvement — education, healthcare and nutrition — while partnering with local government and religious officials. “In Haiti, Christianity is the predominant religion, so we worked with the church there,” Vanderpool said. “A great lesson from my work has been that partnerships are the
foundation for improvement in these communities.” Another lesson that significantly impacted Vanderpool was the plethora of opportunities found in the United States. “It hit me how fortunate we are in the U.S. and at St. Mark’s,” Vanderpool said. “They’ve allowed me to pursue these opportunities to help those who are less fortunate.” For Eshelbrenner, these values are precisely what the Lee Smith ’65 Courage & Honor Award stands for. “What's really exciting about the award is the idea that it’s about doing something for other people,” Eshelbrenner said. “It's not just about making St. Mark’s better, or about making your career more optimal. It's about making our world a better place.” And Vanderpool has done just that. “People can only impact small pockets or areas,” Vanderpool said, “but at the end of the day, I know the areas and communities that I’ve worked in are a better and safer place. To me, that matters most.”