Teacher of Visual Arts Thomas Holton will give an artist talk at the National Portrait Gallery - Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, 17 September, from 3:30-4:30pm. Thomas's portraits of the Lams, a Chinese family living in New York City, are featured in the exhibition Kinship. He will discuss the origins of this photography series and how it connects to his half-Chinese and half-American heritage.

This event is free and registration is recommended. For more information, visit: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/kinship-an-artist-talk-with-thomas-holton-tickets-700521026247?aff=ebdsoporgprofile

Teacher of History Ann Johnson is featured in the story “Rhode Island Expected to Assume Ownership of Three Historic Lighthouses” on WPRI.com. Ann is president of the Watch Hill Lighthouse Keepers Association, which has been awarded stewardship of the historic Watch Hill Lighthouse in Westerly, Rhode Island.

Read the article at: https://www.wpri.com/news/local-news/ri-expected-to-assume-ownership-of-3-historic-lighthouses/

Teacher of Visual Arts Laurie Sweet is the winner of the 2023 Distinguished Teaching Award. Ms. Sweet started at Trinity in 1981 and during her time at the School has taught in all three divisions. Colleagues praise her for being “a master teacher, gifted at finding that part of each student that can create, a skill that often results in her students being surprised by the artist they did not know existed” and “a wonderful colleague and an inspiration to all who strive to bring their love for their disciplines into the lives of young people.”

The Distinguished Teaching Endowment was created in 1983 as a tribute to legendary teachers Clarence Bruner-Smith, Dudley M. Maxim ’32, and Frank G. Smith. In 1988, the Alumni Association decided to establish an annual award to a teacher who has taught at Trinity for ten years or more, exemplified the history and traditions of the School, and demonstrated excellence in teaching. The prize, now known as the Greenberg Family-Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Prize, was increased to $10,000 in 2004. President of the TAAA Board Tony Yung ’96 presented Ms. Sweet with the prize.

Since its inception, thirty-six teachers have received this honor, their names displayed prominently on the Greenberg Family-Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Prize plaque in the Great Hall. Laurie Sweet’s name will now be added to this distinguished list.

Teacher of Performing Arts Shannon Caldwell performed with Grammy Award-winning vocalist Ledisi in a sold-out concert at Carnegie Hall on 23 February. Ledisi’s solo show entitled “Ledisi Sings Nina” honors the legendary musician, Nina Simone.

Interim Head of the History Department Marya Schock, PhD has been featured in “Gothamist” for her work teaching Inside Criminal Justice, a joint initiative of The Manhattan D.A. Academy, the Institute for Innovation in Prosecution at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and the Center for Justice at Columbia University. It is a semester-long seminar comprised of individuals incarcerated at Queensboro Correctional Facility, Edgecombe Correctional Facility, and prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.

Read the article at: https://gothamist.com/news/a-class-that-brings-manhattan-prosecutors-together-with-incarcerated-men

Teacher of Visual Arts Thomas Holton has photographs in the exhibition "Kinship" at the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian. "Kinship" presents portraits by eight contemporary artists whose work explores the notion of "kinship" and the closeness that bonds us. The exhibition is on view from Friday, 28 October 2022 through Sunday, 7 January 2024.

For more information, visit: https://npg.si.edu/exhibition/portraiture-now-kinship

Teacher of Performing Arts Jay Brandford performs with the Illinois Jacquet Centennial Orchestra at its debut at Dizzy's Jazz Club at Lincoln Center on Tuesday, 1 November, at 7:30pm and 9:30pm. A giant among Swing era saxophonists, Illinois Jacquet's stunning career began with his memorable solo on Lionel Hampton's hit "Flying Home" in 1942 and extended into the twenty-first century with his own world-renowned big band. This performance at Lincoln Center "Flying Home: Illinois Jacquet at 100 - Featuring the Illinois Jacquet Centennial Orchestra" is one of many performances around the country commemorating his centennial year, and Jay Brandford will be one of many saxophonists joining the fun.

For more information, visit: https://2022.jazz.org/illinois-jacquet

Teacher of Visual Arts Thomas Holton presents images from "The Lams of Ludlow Street," his long term photography project which has documented the life of a single Chinese American family living in Manhattan's Chinatown for over twenty years. The artist talk will take place on Tuesday, 1 November, from 6:00-8:00pm, at Yu and Me Books, a bookshop located at 44 Mulberry Street in the heart of Chinatown, focusing on Asian American issues as well as the immigrant story.

For more information, visit: https://www.yuandmebooks.com/events/the-lams-of-ludlow-street

Teacher of Performing Arts Paul Brandenburg performs on trumpet with The Hot Sardines, a Billboard charting jazz group, at Birdland Jazz Club on Tuesday, 15 November through Saturday, 19 November, with two sets each night.

For more information, visit: https://birdlandjazz.com/event/the-hot-sardines/

Teacher of Performing Arts Jay Brandford is performing as a reed player in Broadway's current revival of Meredith Wilson's "The Music Man," starring Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster at the Winter Garden. The final performance is 1 January 2023.

For more information, visit: https://musicmanonbroadway.com/

Teacher of Performing Arts Jay Brandford performs with the Ron Carter Big Band at Birdland Jazz Club through Saturday, 22 October. Ron Carter, one of the most original, prolific, and influential bassists in jazz, has a month-long residency at Birdland featuring a different ensemble each week. Jay Brandford plays baritone saxophone with the band.

For more information, visit: https://birdlandjazz.com/event/ron-carter-big-band-10/

Teacher of Visual Arts Gregg Emery is featured in the article "A Meditative Approach to Painting Amidst the Chaos of the Pandemic" in the fall issue of "Park" magazine.

Read the article at: https://issuu.com/park_magazine/docs/park_digital_fall2022/88

Teacher of Performing Arts Reuben Blundell received first place in the 2022 American Prize for Orchestral Performance for the album "American Discoveries." The world premiere recording features three works by female twentieth-century American composers and is performed by the Lansdowne Symphony Orchestra conducted by Dr. Blundell. The album has received positive reviews from "Gramophone" magazine, among others, and is being played on classical radio stations across the country.

The three composers are Patricia Alden Beach (1902-1970) of Massachusetts and New York, Alexandra Pierce (1934-2021) of Washington D.C. and California, and Linda Robbins Coleman of Iowa. Dr. Blundell researched their music at the Free Library of Philadelphia's Erwin Fleisher Collection of Orchestral Music, and the album was released on New Focus Recordings.

For more information about Dr. Blundell's award, visit: http://theamericanprize.blogspot.com/2022/09/national-winners-orchestras-2022.html

For more information about the album, visit: https://newfocusrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/american-discoveries

Teacher of Visual Arts Gregg Emery has an exhibition, "Caldera, A Mid-Career Retrospective," at the D. Colabella Fine Art Gallery in Ridgefield, Connecticut. The opening reception is Thursday, 15 September, from 7:00-9:00pm. The title draws its name from the caldera of Santorini, Greece, a natural landmark and symbol of the circle of life, reflecting the cyclical nature of Emery's work. The show closes on Saturday, 12 November.

Opening reception: Thursday, 15 September, 7:00-9:00pm
Location: D. Colabella Fine Art Gallery, 446 Main Street, Ridgefield, Connecticut
Closes: Saturday, 12 November

For more information, visit: https://www.dcolabellafineart.com/

Teacher of Performing Arts and Physical Education and Fitness Thomas Bolster is the 2022 Distinguished Teaching Award Winner. The award was presented by Trinity School Trustee and Chair of the Nominating Committee Nicole George-Middleton ’93.

The Distinguished Teaching Endowment was created in 1983 as a tribute to Clarence Bruner-Smith, Dudley M. Maxim ’32, and Frank G. Smith. In 1988, the Alumni Association decided to establish an annual award to a teacher who has taught at Trinity for ten years or more, exemplifies the history and traditions of the School, and who has demonstrated excellence in teaching. The prize, now known as the Greenberg Family-Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Prize, was increased to $10,000 in 2004.

Since its inception, thirty-five teachers have received this honor, their names displayed prominently on the Greenberg Family-Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Prize Plaque in the Great Hall. The 2022 award was given to Thomas Bolster.

Mr. Bolster started as a teacher of Physical Education and Fitness in 2006. He joined the Performing Arts Department in 2014 and has served as the Upper School class dean for the classes of 2015, 2019, 2021, and 2023. He was the interim assistant Upper School principal in 2016-2017. He has been the head coach for Girls Varsity Soccer, Middle School Boys Basketball, Boys Junior Varsity Lacrosse, and Boys Grade Nine Basketball. Colleagues describe Mr. Bolster as someone who has “so many talents and yet is humble—a wonderful combination for our students to see modeled every day.” He keeps a pace that “would exhaust most people but seems to thrive, even to be vitalized by, the infinite variety of commitments.” Another writes that he is “so beloved by everyone at Trinity and so many students feel the impact he has on their experience at our school.”

Amid the Covid-related disruptions of the past few years, Mr. Bolster has raised his hand and eagerly taken on every role imaginable. We are fortunate to have Thomas Bolster as a member of the Trinity community.

On 4 November, History Department Chair Deirdre Williamson cohosted the NYSAIS event "How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America," featuring Clint Smith, journalist, poet, and author of the New York Times bestselling book How the Word is Passed.

In the epilogue to How the Word Is Passed, Smith writes, "The history of slavery is the history of the United States. It was not peripheral to our founding; it was central to it. It is not irrelevant to our contemporary society; it created it. This history is in our soil, it is in our policies, and it must, too, be in our memories."

Williamson and cohost Russell Combs, history teacher at Nichols School, engaged in a community conversation with Dr. Smith about the legacies we must share and teach in the classroom in order to provide an inclusive study of our country’s history.

Teacher of Visual Arts Thomas Holton's series, "The Lams of Ludlow Street," was featured in the Guardian this summer. Thomas has photographed the Lam family in New York's Chinatown for over eighteen years, and the work has been presented in numerous exhibitions.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2021/jul/15/five-in-the-bed-chinese-family-new-york-lams-ludlow-street-thomas-holton-in-pictures

Teacher of Physical Education and Fitness Teresa Edwards is the author and narrator of Black Gold, a new audiobook released by Audible. Teresa has won more Olympic medals than any other basketball player in history, and she is the youngest woman as well as oldest woman to win a gold medal in basketball. Black Gold is Teresa's personal story of loss, victory, and leadership.

For more information, visit: https://www.audible.com/pd/Black-Gold-Audiobook/B097C77DS4

Head of Computer Science Justin Gohde is coauthor of Programming with OpenSCAD: A Beginner's Guide to Coding 3D-Printable Objects with Marius Kintel, the lead author and maintainer of the OpenSCAD programming language. Published by NoStarch Press and distributed by Penguin Random House, the book introduces core computational thinking concepts through the design of 3D-printable objects.

For more information, visit: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/597925/programming-with-openscad-by-justin-gohde-and-marius-kintel/9781593279547/

Head of Visual Arts Gregg Emery will be working on a collaborative painting, sketching, and giving tours of his artist residency studio at the 10th annual New York Poetry Festival this Saturday, 24 July and Sunday, 25 July, from 11:00am to 6:00pm. The New York Poetry Festival unites the New York poetry community with the public through art and literary events. It is held on festival grounds at Colonels Row on Governors Island.

For more information, visit https://www.newyorkcitypoetryfestival.com/

Learning Specialist Eileen Bosco is the 2021 Distinguished Teaching Award Winner. The award was presented by President of the Trinity School Alumni and Alumnae Association Janna Levine Raskopf '03.

The Distinguished Teaching Endowment was created in 1983 as a tribute to Clarence Bruner-Smith, Dudley M. Maxim ’32, and Frank G. Smith. In 1988, the Alumni Association decided to establish an annual award to a teacher who has taught at Trinity for ten years or more, exemplifies the history and traditions of the School, and who has demonstrated excellence in teaching. The prize, now known as the Greenberg Family-Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Prize, was increased to $10,000 in 2004.

Since its inception, thirty-four teachers have received this honor, their names displayed prominently on the Greenberg Family-Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Prize Plaque in the Great Hall. The 2021 award was given to Eileen Bosco.

Ms. Bosco started at Trinity as a learning specialist in the Middle School in 1995. She served as a Middle School class dean from 2008-2017. A past recipient of both the Lower School and Middle School Faculty Enrichment Award, Ms. Bosco's colleagues describe her as "THE mainstay of the Middle School’s Learning Service Program. She is a terrific model for greener members of the program. Her presence is a tremendous benefit for students with whom she works, but bears fruit in terms of the example she sets for her colleagues.” "She inspires a great deal of confidence because of her depth of knowledge and her ability to anticipate her students’ needs." "Her positive approach to her students and her quiet and unassuming manner helps students and parents remain confident and optimize their efforts by allowing them to focus on their studies.”

Teacher of Visual Arts Thomas Holton had a public exhibition, "The Lams of Ludlow Street," at Home Gallery in New York City's Chinatown from 8 April through 1 June. Thomas's ongoing project, "The Lams of Ludlow Street," chronicles the Lam family's lives in Chinatown over the course of almost twenty years and is an important work about the Chinese American experience. For this exhibition, a single image was on display in the gallery window, changing every two weeks.

https://brooklynrail.org/2021/05/artseen/Thomas-Holton-The-Lams-of-Ludlow-Street

https://www.juxtapoz.com/news/photography/thomas-holton-the-lams-of-ludlow-street

Head of Visual Arts Gregg Emery had paintings featured in the Cube Art Fair in which the work of forty visual artists was displayed on over one hundred kiosks, newsstands, bus stops, and billboards throughout New York City. The centerpiece of the event was the 12,000 square foot billboard on West 47th Street and Seventh Avenue that had rotating images of artwork, including one of Gregg's paintings. The Cube Art Fair, led by Belgian art dealer Gregoire Vogelsang, who proclaimed it as the "world's largest public art fair," took place Wednesday, 5 May through Sunday, 9 May.

Sonia Antoinette Bhoorasingh (14 August 1965–22 December 2020) passed away peacefully at home in Brooklyn, New York, surrounded by her mother, aunt, and cousin, who provided loving care during Sonia’s cancer treatment over the last year.

Sonia was a beloved member of the Trinity family since 1987. Most recently, she served as Trinity’s facilities coordinator and rentals manager. She also previously worked as a facilities assistant. Sonia will be dearly missed by her colleagues and by the extended Trinity community.

A celebration of her life was held on 7 January 2021 at Evergreen Baptist Church in Brooklyn, New York.

Mathematics Department Head Chance Nalley has been asked to serve as the Alumni Representative of New York for the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. Mr. Nalley received the Presidential Award in 2015 and is the recipient of numerous other awards for leadership and teaching.

Ramón Javier has been named Trinity’s Director of Equity and Inclusion in the newly titled Office of Equity and Inclusion. This change highlights Trinity’s focus on creating a space where all students can thrive and everyone feels included regardless of any aspect of their identity. The principles of equity and inclusion allow all Trinity students the opportunity to maximize the gift that is a Trinity education. Trinity is grateful to Ramón, Alaina Alvarez, and their wonderful team of coordinators for their support as the Trinity community devotes its full attention to these ideals.

Sillas en la frontera: Mujer, teatro y migraciones (Chairs on the Border: Women, Theater and Migrations) is an anthology of twenty women playwrights from around the world. Editor Concha Fernández Toro from the University of Almería, Spain, has compiled a series of plays that deal with issues of immigration, particularly the roles of women in this era of multilayered identities. Teacher of Spanish Diana Chery is part of this anthology with her play, Fragmentos de Luz. This play was written for this collection.

From the editor: "This piece [Fragmentos de luz] wisely condenses a consistent back and forth of the protagonist in a very modern city that represents, in its speed and in its fracture, a narrative space that builds up an epic story, and takes the main character from the urban war-zone to the love for her daughters to a dimension of intimacy and magic..."

https://www.diegomarin.net/ual/es/migracion-inmigracion-y-emigracion/934-sillas-en-la-frontera-9788417261405.html

Lower School Teacher of Science Christine Nealy was accepted as a member with Fellow status in the Explorers Club, the preeminent multidisciplinary society for scientists, researchers, and explorers, founded in 1904 and headquartered in New York City. Fellow status is a particular honor, which the Explorers Club describes as "reserved for those who have distinguished themselves by directly contributing to scientific knowledge in the field of geographical exploration or allied sciences.”

She writes, “As you can imagine, I am deeply honored and humbled to be accepted into this organization. Furthermore, I am deeply grateful for the support provided to me by Trinity’s Science Department and Lower School in order to make this possible.

In addition to the extensive fieldwork that I have performed scuba diving in the Dominican Republic replanting coral reefs, much of my dossier for admission was based on work that I have done through association with Trinity: site coordinating for Cornell University and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the horseshoe crab tagging and releasing initiative; curriculum that I have written and presentations that I have made for the National Parks Service in Jamaica Bay; and four trips, taken both stateside and abroad, to work with scientists in marine mammal and avian conservation—two such trips being funded by Branch Elliman Grants.

Thank you all for the encouragement, the platform, and the support throughout the years.

I am grateful and indebted to Trinity’s culture, which inspires its community to push the limits, both self-imposed and those set by prevailing convention.”

Monique Duncan, Lower School Learning Specialist, is an author and illustrator and the founder of Sweet Pea Books, Inc., through which she publishes multicultural children’s books. Her newest book, When Mama Braids My Hair, had its official launch on 23 June 2018 at the I, Too Arts Collective at The Langston Hughes House. The Sweet Pea Books Web site describes When Mama Braids My Hair as “[capturing] a young girl’s experience of having her hair braided and the bond it creates with her mother. The tradition of African hair braiding transcends time and location, as it transforms little Nikki into an Egyptian queen, a Nigerian goddess, a Zulu warrior and a Maasai woman. While young girls throughout the African Diaspora can relate to getting their hair braided, they will enjoy going on an adventure with the main character, and learn how this ancient ritual is a large part of their present experience.”

Monique Duncan is the author of eight multicultural children’s books and the recipient of a 2012 Honorable Mention from the New York Book Festival for D is for Dragon Fruit.

Teacher of Visual Arts Thomas Holton will have his photography featured in Interior Lives: Contemporary Photographs of Chinese New Yorkers’, an exhibition opening at The Museum of the City of New York on 26 October 2018, and on view through 24 March 2019. The exhibition will feature works from The Lams of Ludlow Street, Holton’s fifteen-year documentary photography project chronicling the lives of the Lams, a family of five living in New York City's Chinatown.

https://www.mcny.org/exhibition/interior-lives

In Oaxaca, which opened on 29 August and will be on view through 13 October, Teacher of Visual Arts Bruce Edelstein, exhibits sculptures and watercolors completed during and inspired by his trips to Oaxaca, Mexico between 2005 and 2007. In his artist statement for the show, he writes: “I was moved by the strong integration and vitality between the arts and society and the resilient cultural traditions within a contemporary context. The political atmosphere in Oaxaca through those years was torrid and vital, with teachers occupying the city center - the response to this climate by artists was evocative and bold. I was moved by the art, the passion, and the candid messages incorporated in the iconic images painted on the walls of the city. I felt compelled to quote the fugitive images to create a permanent document which could be shared with people from Oaxaca and the world beyond. I wanted to capture the unique dimension of an historical moment using traditional techniques from the region. For this reason, I chose to use weaving to produce some of the work.

“In Oaxaca, I observed how the ubiquitous use of clay, from simple practical forms to traditional and contemporary artworks, resonates with the memory of its place of origin. My direction however, has been to use ceramics as a material for building open structures, rather than as the traditional vessel. With recent work, I conceive of my sculpture as islands, with articulated spaces enmeshed and folded through the body. This represents the boundaries we engineer for our comfort and survival. As in Oaxaca we are experiencing an assault on our own social values in the US. Perhaps these artworks will help to provide a space to imagine and reaffirm what truly matters.”

https://www.bigtowngallery.com/exhibitions/oaxaca

This summer, Teacher of History Ann Johnson was interviewed in the Westerly Sun, a newspaper based in Westerly, Rhode Island, for its column “In the Easy Chair,” a series of wide-ranging interviews with influential members of their community. Johnson, who is the president of Rhode Island’s Watch Hill Lighthouse Keepers Association, spoke about her work maintaining this historic lighthouse, including overseeing its restoration after superstorm Sandy; and about a myriad of her interests and influences, including the educators who sparked her interest in history.

Teacher of English Saul Isaacson has conducted and published several interviews with prominent linguist Noam Chomsky. His most recent interview, which he conducted while visiting Chomsky’s office at the University of Arizona on 7 August 2018, was published in Foreign Policy Journal on 17 August 2018. In the interview, titled "Noam Chomsky: Hopes and Anxieties in the Age of Trump," Isaacson and Chomsky address anti-Semitism and anti-Iranian sentiment in America; corruption in Venezuela and Nicaragua; Daniel Ellsberg’s book The Doomsday Machine; the dangers of our current administration’s pugnaciousness and unpredictability; and other pressing political topics and concerns.

The Distinguished Teaching Endowment was created in 1983 as a tribute to Clarence Bruner-Smith, Dudley M. Maxim ’32, and Frank G. Smith. In 1988, the Alumni Association decided to establish an annual award to a teacher who has taught at Trinity for ten years or more, exemplifies the history and traditions of the School, and who has demonstrated excellence in teaching. The prize, now known as the Greenberg Family-Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Prize, was increased to $10,000 in 2004.

Since its inception, thirty-one teachers have received this honor, their names displayed prominently on the Greenberg Family-Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Prize Plaque in the Great Hall. The 2018 award was given to Julie Kourkoulis. Julie started at Trinity as an assistant kindergarten teacher in 1992, before becoming a head teacher in 1994. Since then she has taught Kindergarten and Grades Two and Four. During her time at Trinity, Julie has served as Lower School director of multicultural affairs (2001-2002), Lower School multicultural coordinator (2004-2008), and Lower School curriculum coordinator (2012-present). Julie was the first Lower School teacher who utilized Understanding by Design curricular pedagogy and introduced it to the Lower School administration. She is recipient of a 1998 Faculty Summer Development Project Grant, a 2009 Summer Curricular and Pedagogical Fellowship, and a 2015 Lower School-Middle School Faculty Enrichment Award. “A respected colleague who is always ready to lend a helping hand,” “a professional of the highest quality,” and “a great role model for students,” colleagues also describe Julie as someone with “unquestionable integrity” and who “often goes beyond what is expected.” Lower School Principal Rosemary Milliman says: “Julie is a lifelong learner who continues to challenge herself as an educator. There are a few individuals who have been as motivated as Julie has been to challenge herself by teaching new grades. She truly understands the Lower School students that she teaches and the arch of their learning Kindergarten through Grade Four. Parents often comment on her deep understanding of the more nuanced aspects of their children’s personalities and learning profiles.”

President of the Trinity School Alumni Association James S. Panero ’94 said the following, in presenting the award to Julie, “'Voice' has been the theme of Chapel this year. This year’s winner is therefore a special one. Through a remarkable ability to convey the joys of speaking, the joys of writing, and the joys of revision, this lifelong Trinity teacher leads students to recognize that everyone, at every age, has a wondrous story to tell. Even, and especially, our second graders."

A selection of Head of Visual Arts Gregg Emery’s most recent paintings are included in CUBE Art Fair. CUBE Art Fair, now in its third edition, is presented by the Vogelsang Gallery, owned and curated by Gregoire Vogelsang of Belgium, and exhibits contemporary painting, photography, and sculpture. The exhibition is being held in the gallery on the ground floor of the renowned Zaha Hadid building in Chelsea, the last building designed by celebrated Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid, adjacent to the High Line Nine gallery spaces. The exhibition opened on 7 June and will be on display through 30 June.

CUBE Art Fair
Zaha Hadid Building
519 W. 27th Street
New York, NY 10001
7 June-30 June, 2018
Wednesday-Saturday, 12pm-6pm

Gregg Emery’s recent paintings are part of a new show at Van Der Plas Gallery on the Lower East Side, entitled All Art + A New Beginning. In the press release for the show, gallery founder Adriaan Van Der Plas says of Gregg Emery’s work, “If you went to Governor’s Island last fall, you probably ran into the telegenic Gregg Vance Emery and his giant dragged-paint circles, which he shows elsewhere (all over the world, in fact). These could be instant mandalas, or evocations of the movement of time, and translate readily from canvas to pavement to fabric.” The opening reception for All Art + A New Beginning is on Wednesday, 10 January from 6-8pm. The gallery is located at 156 Orchard Street. The show will be up through 14 January.

In cross-country, the Tigers made Trinity history, sweeping the Ivy Preparatory League meet by winning both the Boys’ and Girls’ Championship Titles for the first time! The Trinity Boys’ Varsity Cross Country team won their second consecutive Ivy Championship, beating Collegiate School 48-71. (Low score wins in Cross Country.) The Trinity Girls’ Varsity Cross Country team won the Ivy Championship with a thrilling finish: one of our runners finished 0.3 seconds ahead of a runner from Poly Prep Country Day School, earning Trinity the win by one point, 49-50. The boys’ and girls’ Junior Varsity teams both won their races, too! This bodes well for the future!

Boys’ Cross Country did Trinity proud at the New York State Association of Independent Schools Athletic Association (NYSAISAA) Championships, too, with their second consecutive win in the New York State Independent School Championship! This first-place finish earned them the opportunity to compete in the New York State Federation Championship meet on Saturday 18 November. The Trinity girls had a proud showing at the NYSAISAA Championship meet, too, finishing third.

The Boys’ Varsity Soccer team also made history this season, winning their first-ever NYSAISAA Championship! They entered the tournament as the #2 seed, started off strong with a 2-0 victory over Poly Prep Country Day School, then faced off against rival The Dalton School in the semifinals and earned a hard-fought 2-1 win. Lastly, they vanquished undefeated Riverdale Country School with a 2-1 win, and the overjoyed fans stormed the rainy field at Manhattanville.

The Girls’ Varsity Soccer team’s season was also filled with excitement. They earned the #6 seed in the NYSAISAA tournament, opened the tournament by beating Dwight School 7-0, then faced off against #3 seed The Packer Collegiate Institute and brought back a 1-0 Golden Goal win in the final overtime period. In the semis, they faced off against #2 seed The Dalton School and fought hard and honorably in a tight game, ultimately losing in overtime.

In Tennis, the Varsity Girls’ Team placed 3rd in the Ivy Preparatory League, and earned a bid in the Mayor’s Cup, in which they vanquished their rival Riverdale Country School, to whom they had previously lost, with a 3-1 victory in the semifinals, which bolstered them to the Mayor’s Cup Championship, where they lost a close match to Beacon High School in the finals.

Four Trinity tennis players earned bids to play in the NYSAISAA Tournament. Trinity’s #1 line Leila Epstein and #2 line Emma Eisenberg entered the championship in the singles’ bracket as the #3 and #7 seeds, and in the doubles bracket, Trinity’s #1 line of Kaya Alagappan and Gina Markov earned the #1 seed and won the NYSAISAA Championship! This qualified them for the New York State Federation Championship, where they lost in the finals but finished as the second best doubles team in New York state.

Varsity Volleyball earned the #6 seed in the NYSAISAA Tournament, where they emerged victorious from their match with Avenues and then lost in the quarterfinals to #3 seed Ethical Culture Fieldston School.

Congratulations to all!

Pat Krieger, Trinity’s Athletic Director, was inducted into the Rice University Athletic Hall of Fame last month, an honor that the Trinity Upper School community celebrated with Coach Krieger in Community Time on 17 October. Coach Krieger’s accomplishments as a student-athlete while at Rice University were myriad and continue to define Rice’s women’s basketball program. Coach Krieger was the first-ever recipient of a women’s basketball scholarship at Rice. She is one of the very top scorers in Rice women’s basketball history, ranked second overall with 1,851 points. She was the leader in scoring in 1979-80 and in 1980-81, with 16.8 points per game. She holds Rice’s record for the most field goals made in a single season—231, in 1979-80. She became Rice’s first A.I.W.A. All-American (Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women) in 1982. She was also a two-time CoSIDA Academic All-American (College Sports Information Directors of America) in 1981 and 1982. Her overall points scored during the 1979-80 season—555—ranks second in school history. Her career scoring average of 16.5 points per game ranks third in school history. She is ranked seventh on Rice’s all-time rebounding list, with 740 total boards.

The Distinguished Teaching Endowment was created in 1983 as a tribute to Clarence Bruner-Smith, Dudley M. Maxim ’32, and Frank G. Smith. In 1988, the Alumni Association decided to establish an annual award to a teacher who has taught at Trinity for ten years or more, exemplifies the history and traditions of the School, and who has demonstrated excellence in teaching. The prize, now known as the Greenberg Family-Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Prize, was increased to $10,000 in 2004.

Since its inception, thirty teachers have received this honor, their names displayed prominently on the Greenberg Family-Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Prize Plaque in the Great Hall. The 2017 award was given to Ellen O’Malley. Ellen started at Trinity as a teacher of history in the Middle School in 2003. During her time at the School, she’s served as class dean for Grade Five from 2004 to present, and head coach of Girls Varsity Lacrosse from 2008-2009 and 2010-2014.

“A model teacher,” one who “cares deeply about the needs of others and consistently demonstrates that through her daily interactions,” colleagues also describe Ellen as “a positive and supportive colleague whose patient guidance is a constant.” “Ellen’s command of the subject matter is impressive. She is a precise and accurate historian! Her work with the students, parents, and colleagues as dean is quite wonderful.  She is a positive and supportive colleague.” Ellen is parent to Johnny O’Malley, Trinity class of 2023.

J. Mark Schober is the winner of the 2017 Paul W. Zitzewitz Excellence in K-12 Teaching Award from the American Association of Physics Teachers. He teaches physics, engineering; and astronomy and advises several student groups.

He is a founding member and past chairman of STEMteachersNYC, a grassroots teachers’ professional development group, a former president of the American Modeling Teachers Association (AMTA) and a former Web master for the St. Louis Area Physics Teachers (SLAPT) and, in his capacity as a leader of this organization, has administered numerous science workshops for teachers all over the country. He has previously been awarded the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (2007) and the Gene Fuchs Award from the St. Louis Area Physics Teachers (2009.) He received his BA from Concordia College in physics, mathematics, and theater arts, and his MAT from Miami University of Ohio.

Schober said, “I am humbled and honored to be recognized by AAPT with the Paul Zitzewitz Award. I am thankful for every interaction with my teachers, colleagues, and students whose patience, insight, hard work, good humor, and willingness to try things has enabled us all to grow, learn, and have fun in the process.”

Click here for more about the award.

Congratulations to Boys Varsity Indoor Track for winning the Ivy Preparatory School League Championship for the first time in Trinity's history!

Go Tigers!

Congratulations to Girls Varsity Swimming for winning the Ivy Preparatory School League Championship!

Anastasia Tonello is the managing partner of Laura Devine Attorneys LLC in New York, and a partner of Laura Devine Solicitors in London. The Laura Devine practice focuses on immigration law; Anastasia Tonello is global head of the U.S. immigration team.

Lower School Educational Technology Coordinator Rob Keith led a workshop at EduCon 2.9, an academic innovation conference held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on 28 January. The workshop, which he co-led with the Associate Academic Dean for Technology and Curriculum at Collegiate School, Melanie Hutchinson, was titled The Edtech Teacher: Ambiguous and Obsolete? The workshop was designed for attendees to reflect upon the role of the educational technologist, discuss how technologists may better support schools and teachers, and speculate where that position may be headed in the future. Rob and Melanie facilitated the conversation by leading sessions in brainstorming, time-lining, and S.W.O.T. (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis, based on research and evidence-based observations.

http://2017.educon.org/conversations?lot=Conversations%3ASession_3

Trinity Tibe is a poet, artist, and a cofounder of Say Yes Electric Collective, a Brooklyn-based artists’ community that creates space for diverse artists and for artistic collaboration. She received her MFA in poetry from The New School and is the winner of "Crosswinds Poetry Journal’s" 2015 annual contest.

http://trinitytibe.com/

Deirdre has agreed to serve as the next head of the history department. From Head of School, John Allman: "As a member of our history department for the past nine years, [Deirdre] has earned the respect and admiration of her colleagues with her skilled teaching, her continuing growth as a serious student of history, her wit and intelligence in professional conversation, and her steadfast care for every student and teacher with whom she works. Having served as an exemplary class dean for the past four year, she promises to bring to her new leadership role the same meticulous attention to detail and the same unwavering commitment to student welfare that have characterized her work as class dean. In the search process, all who interviewed her were impressed by her desire to explore ways to introduce significant study of non-Western histories into both required and elective course offerings, her eagerness to rethink the structure and aims of foundational coursework in grades eight and nine, and her commitment to serve as an active participant in sustained curricular and pedagogical conversations from grades four through twelve to ensure appropriate coherence and consistency in all our history classrooms."

Harrison Williams is the set designer of a play, an evening of comedy called The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged by Adam Long, Daniel Singer, and Jess Winfield, presented by the Heavenly Rest Players. The performances run Thursday through Saturday 24-26 March and Thursday through Saturday, 31 March and 1-2 of April. Performances begin at 8:00 p.m. at the Church of the Heavenly Rest at 2 East 90th Street. Tickets can be purchased at the door or on www.smarttix.com for $20.00. All profits go to the Church outreach programs. No children under the age of twelve, please.
Trinity's Ann Strohmeier and her husband Bill, the producer, are both acting in the play.

Harrison Williams is the set designer of a play, Polish Joke by David Ives, presented by the Heavenly Rest Players. The performances run Thursday through Saturday 22-24 March and Thursday through Saturday, 29-31 March. Performances begin at 8:00 p.m. in Darlington Hall at the Church of the Heavenly Rest at 2 East 90th Street. Tickets can be purchased at the door or on www.smarttix.com for $20.00. All profits go to the Church outreach programs. No children, please; adult humor in both language and content.
Trinity's Michael Gilbert and Ann Strohmeier are both acting in the play.

Harrison Williams was recently honored by Trinity for his twenty-five years of service to the School. Thank you, Harrison, for all you have given, and will continue to give, to the School!

Over spring break Mr. Williams earned his director of coaching diploma from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA). This enables him to run a club soccer program and complements the premiere license diploma that he earned from the NSCAA a few years ago.

Daniel comes to us from across the river where he has been teaching science and health at Montclair Kimberley Academy for the last eight years. He recently completed his MA in Teaching degree at Montclair State University and was inducted into the national academic honorary society, Alpha Epsilon Lambda, for his achievement and leadership. In 2010, Daniel completed a life dream to become an eclipse chaser, as the recipient of a PAMKA Faculty Trust Grant to study total solar eclipses in Tahiti, French Polynesia. In the future, he plans to complete two more dreams by taking a weightless flight and by traveling to the Arctic Circle to see the aurora borealis, or “northern lights.”

Daniel has coached football, wrestling, shot put, javelin, and discus for years, and continues to train in grappling to this day. He is an avid reader in his spare time, especially in the genres of historical fiction and fantasy. His other interests include martial arts, movies, weight lifting, and cooking.

Daniel and his wife, Marissa, welcomed Luke Richard Weller to the family on 12 June 2014. He weighed seven pounds and fourteen ounces, and measured twenty inches long. Everyone is healthy and doing fine. Congratulations to the family!

Matthew performed at Shrine World Music Venue in New York City on 24 September at an evening of original “Rock ’n Roots” music. The event was a fund-raiser for the public radio program “Initiative Radio with Angela McKenzie”.

Laurie writes, "On 10 April 2010, I was Chairperson for the Greenwich Village Little League Opening Day. This is my third year coordinating the event. My husband George Usher is the President of the G.V.L.L. The article in The Villager refers to me as Laurie Usher-but that's me." Laurie's son, James Usher, is a Trinity 8th grader and plays in the G.V.L.L. Junior Division.

Read the article here:
https://www.thevillager.com/villager_363/guitaristchannels.html

Jessica moved to the New York from Idaho where she worked as the director of residential life at the Community School in Sun Valley. Prior to that, Jessica taught math and economics at independent high schools in Massachusetts and Maine. Jessica coaches women who compete in World Masters Cross-Country Skiing races. She has won several local sprint and international distance triathlons and has completed multiple marathon and half-marathons. She enjoys cooking, traveling, running with her dog, and reading.

Yvonne Wang is joining us from PS 59, Beekman Hill International School, where she worked as a first grade assistant teacher. This summer, Yvonne finished her graduate school program and earned a master’s degree in childhood education from Hunter College. She spent this summer teaching rising fifth graders at the GO Project, an educational program that serves low-income New York City public school children. Yvonne has always had an interest in learning about people: what makes them tick, what drives them, and what they can do. After she was convinced that she would not find a job with her sociology major, Yvonne studied communications and media studies instead. She worked in marketing for a while, fascinated with the power and influence that the media has on society, our self-image, and our psyche (propaganda at its finest and sneakiest?). But this wasn't enough. In the end, what makes Yvonne most happy is working with children. She is still studying people, but now just... little people!

Yvonne Wang left Trinity at the end of the school year to teach at Brilla College Prep, a new public charter school in the Bronx. We thank her for her service at Trinity and wish her well in her new position.

After a brief hiatus from Trinity to serve as a founding teacher and curriculum specialist at Brilla College Prep Charter School, Yvonne returns as a head Kindergarten teacher. She also serves as the Kindergarten curriculum coordinator and is a member of Trinity's Kindergarten admissions committee. While at Brilla Yvonne developed the school-wide social studies and science curriculum which aims at challenging students to think critically about the world while embracing it through a multiple lens approach. Yvonne has worked with children her entire life; she is passionate in learning about their cognitive development, and she deeply values being an integral part of their daily learning and growing process.

With an undergraduate degree from New York University in communication and media studies, Yvonne spent some time working in marketing and brand development. Making a quick career shift, Yvonne earned a masters in childhood education from Hunter College while starting her teaching career. Other than being passionate about education, Yvonne also enjoys wandering the city on her bicycle, going rock climbing, watching movies and documentaries, enjoying lazy days, and reading. She is always exploring and seeking new adventures—both at home and abroad.

Sandra Wang has agreed to serve as our next assistant principal in the Lower School starting in September. Sandy comes to Trinity from Trevor Day School where she has served as the lower school assistant principal for the past six years. Her administrative appointment at Trevor grew out of her participation in the Klingenstein Fellow Program at Teachers College, Columbia University where she is currently completing her EdD in educational leadership. Sandy enjoyed six successful years of teaching at Dalton prior to her entry to administration.

Janine joins the Trinity community after teaching sixth grade at Elkton Middle School in Maryland for the past four years. While teaching at Elkton, she created challenging and engaging lessons for her diverse group of students through the incorporation of technology and the collaboration of student ideas.

Janine grew up in Wilmington, Delaware and attended Alexis I. duPont High School. She played the trumpet in the marching band, traveling all over the world, and was also president of the band her senior year. While attending the University of Delaware for her undergraduate degree, Janine majored in elementary education with a concentration in middle school mathematics. She studied abroad in Mérida, Mexico, and also participated on the University of Delaware Club Tennis Team. Janine also completed her Master of Instruction at the University of Delaware. Inspired to teach by her eighth grade social studies teacher, Janine believes that along with academics, teaching is also about healthy encouragement and mentorship. In her free time, Janine enjoys traveling, playing the piano, and playing tennis. She also has a passion for art, music, and nature.

Since 2008, Sara Viggiano has been working at the Winston Preparatory School as a focus teacher, working one-on-one with students diagnosed with a variety of learning disabilities. During the summers of 2009 and 2011, she worked at the Little Sisters of the Assumption Family Health Service as a reading and writing teacher for third through six grades where she was exposed to various remediation techniques. Sara is currently pursuing a master’s degree in the reading specialist program at Teachers College, Columbia University. She expects to graduate in May 2012. In her free time, Sara enjoys reading, exploring New York City, and learning how to play tennis.

Congratulations to Sara L. Viggiano and her new husband, James Gildea. They were married on Saturday, 21 June 2014. Sara is a learning specialist at Trinity in Grades Six through Nine. James is a practice manager for sports medicine at the Center for Musculoskeletal Care at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York. Their wedding was listed in the "Weddings & Celebrations" section of the New York Times in print and at https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/22/fashion/weddings/sara-viggiano-james-gildea.html.

Marcy is the parent of a Grade Ten student as well as a Trinity alum. She will join the Lower School Admissions Office team as an interviewer during the 2010 admissions season. Ms. Verdi interviews prospective students at Tufts University during their admissions season. In addition, she volunteers on their parents committee that is responsible for annual fund giving.

Marcy loves spending summers in East Hampton with her family playing tennis, walking on the beach, gardening, and preparing the family barbecues. She loves to read and is a member of a book club.

Mala arrived in New York from Guyana in 1989 and began an eleven year career at Columbia University as an administrative assistant to six professors and several research associates at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute. She went on to work at the Berkeley Carroll School in Brooklyn where she worked as a business office financial associate.

Mala recently returned from Florida where she worked at Central Florida Preparatory School as an assistant teacher and school secretary. She and her three sons are happy to be back in New York City.

Alana teaches dance in Trinity's After School program. She also teaches at Bridge for Dance and is the dance director and choreographer for the West Side Y’s Kids Company. Alana has administrative experience as the artistic director and co-founder of Amalgamate Dance Company. With Amalgamate, she has produced renowned dance events and educational workshops for youth, adults, and seniors in and around New York City. As a professional modern dancer, she has choreographed and performed for a range of established and commissioned Off-Broadway, dance company, and international projects. Alana is happily married to Nicholas Urda and loves to cook! She is thrilled to be joining the staff at Trinity this year.

Originally from Gainesville, Florida, Elizabeth went to boarding school at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, and then went on to major in English at Stanford University. After a few real-world jobs—one of which involved answering telephones for someone named “Disco”—Liz returned to academia, and received her MA in art history and PhD in English and American literature from Yale University. After holding faculty positions at Bard College, Connecticut College, and New York University, Liz is thrilled to make the move to independent school teaching, and doubly thrilled to make that move at Trinity. Liz lives with her husband, daughter, and dog in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, and would like everyone to know that she once rode her bicycle up Mont Ventoux and that it was really hard and that she hopes never to do it again.

Gabrielle and her husband, Jimmy, are the proud parents of Jonathan Michael Tieng, born Wednesday, 14 March at 6:38 p.m., weighing in at seven pounds one ounce. Mom and baby are exhausted from nearly forty hours of labor, but both are happy and healthy. Congratulations to the family!

John performed in the Blue Hill Troupe’s production of Brigadoon at the Theater at St. Clement’s in November 2009. Trinity faculty member Matthew W. Rupcich was musical director. The profits from this performance are for an after school music/arts program for the Mott Haven Academy, a charter school that is being run by The New York Foundling.

John is performing in Blue Hill Troupe’s production of Little Shop of Horrors at the Theater at St. Clement’s as a puppeteer. The show will run from November 12-20, 2010. The profits from this performance go toward the Carter Burdern Center for the Aging, which, since 1971, has assisted people age sixty and older to remain in their homes living safely and with dignity. Proceeds will support the continuation and expansion of Cultural Connections, a unique program that provides a means for seniors to take part in the cultural life of this city through tickets that are provided at no or reduced cost. Visit www.bht.org for details.

Laurie has become a grandmother! Her daughter, Annalee '03, and son-in-law, Bryan Berge, are the proud parents of Nora Beatrice Berge. Nora was born on Friday, 16 September 2011 at 4:13 a.m., weighing eight pounds and four ounces. Congratulations to the family!

Laurie was recently honored by Trinity for her twenty-five years of service to the School. Thank you, Laurie, for all you have given, and will continue to give, to the School!

Echo Sun is relocating from Rhode Island, where she has been teaching Mandarin at Barrington High School. She obtained her MA from New York University. She has tutored at New York University and has prepared interpreters at the United Nations for their final examination. She is a warm-hearted and devoted person. When she was in Shanghai, Echo worked as a volunteer at the Shanghai International Film Festival and Shanghai Television Festival, and the Special Olympics World Games as liaison officer for the Slovakian team. She really likes the Chinese language and culture, and she is looking forward to spreading them to more students here.

Kristin comes to us from The School at Columbia University where she was a wellness and physical education teacher and coach. Kristin was the head cross country coach, head track and field coach, and an assistant basketball coach. She earned a BA in elementary education from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) and a MA in physical education from Teachers College, Columbia University. As an undergraduate, Kristin was a NCAA Division-I scholarship athlete on UNC’s cross country and track teams. Prior to teaching and coaching, she worked several years in corporate wellness in New York City. Kristin continues to enjoy running, spinning, traveling, UNC sports, and plays competitive ultimate frisbee.

For the past two years, Jessica has been teaching math at the Hommocks Middle School in Westchester County, New York. Prior to that, she taught for two years in the Great Neck School District at the Richard S. Sherman Great Neck North Middle School and at John L. Miller Great Neck North High School. She worked as an intern and teaching assistant for two years at several schools in Pennsylvania while working towards her bachelor’s and master’s at Lehigh University. Jessica can read, write, and speak Spanish. She enjoys singing and dancing and she was married over the summer. She is looking forward to being a part of the Trinity community, and she thanks everyone for such a warm welcome.

Chance Sims will assume the duties of assistant principal in the Upper School beginning in September. Chance is coming to Trinity from Georgetown Day School in Washington, D.C., where he currently serves as chair of their history department. Before working at Georgetown Day School, Chance taught at Lakeside School in Seattle, Washington. Chance holds a BS in sociology from Willamette University, an MA in sociology from DePaul University, and an MA in women’s studies from the University of Washington, where he is presently a doctoral candidate in women’s studies. Over the course of his career, Chance has designed and taught courses in world, European, and US history; modern Africa; urban studies; global studies; gender studies; and equity, justice and race.
We are excited to welcome Chance to Trinity along with his wife, Anne, and their son, Isamu, who will enter Grade Two in our Lower School.

Deana Semenza has worked most recently as a high school science teacher at Fontbonne Hall Academy in Brooklyn where she taught living environment and forensics. Deana is a graduate and proud Husky from the University of Connecticut where she received both her undergraduate degree and master’s degree. In 2009, she had an internship in interdisciplinary project-based learning for ninth grade at Windham High School, and had the privilege to work as a student advisor with Dr. Jason Irizarry during his research and writing of his book, The Latinization of U.S. Schools: Successful Teaching and Learning in Shifting Cultural Contexts, which is due to be published October 2011. She has participated in biotechnology research at the University of Connecticut and has won several honors and awards.

Deana loves to travel, most recently across Europe from Spain to Turkey, and in the past has lived and studied in Florence, Italy. In the summer she looks forward to returning to her family home in Saratoga, New York, and visiting the beach in New Jersey. She is a New York Giants fan and enjoys going to games. She spends her free time baking at home, volunteering with New York Cares, running, being outdoors, and reading.

J. Mark Schober has taught physics, astronomy, meteorology, and occasionally chemistry over the past fifteen years. He comes to us from an independent school in St. Louis and, most recently, from Columbia Secondary School for Math, Science, & Engineering in Harlem. Since 1998, he has been involved with the Modeling Instruction Program as a workshop leader, curriculum editor, practitioner, and consultant, and now is president of the American Modeling Teacher’s Association. Mark served as webmaster and workshop leader for the St. Louis Area Physics Teachers and has worked with New York teachers to form a similar professional development community, Physics Teachers of NYC. He has sung with a variety of choral, church, and jazz groups, has led student trips to the Grand Canyon, Ozarks, Minnesota, and Everglades, and has successfully used power tools to finish a basement, build furniture, and make lab equipment. Mark and his wife, Smith, live in Manhattan with a dog and two cats, thousands of books, and an extensive collection of model trains.

"I would like to invite you to my next (and last) play. It's called My Last Play, and I will perform it in my book-lined Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, apartment for twelve people a night. After thirty-two years of playwriting, at the age of forty-eight, I am walking away from the theater and, in the process, giving away all of my 2000+ theater books. One book at a time. At the end of the evening, each audience member will leave with any book from the shelves. Twelve books each night, until the shelves are empty.

"Performances begin November 11, 2010. Tickets are $20 through December 11, $25 after that. Tickets will go fast. (I know that's what everybody says, but trust me on this one.) To book tickets, or for more information about My Last Play, visit www.mylastplay.net. To read more about my less-than-stellar career, click here."

Congratulations to Ed Schmidt, whose current theatrical production, My Last Play, received coverage on the front page of "The Arts" section of the New York Times on Friday, 10 December 2010. The online edition of the article may be found here: https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/10/theater/10schmidt.html?_r=1&ref=theater

Ed Schmidt's current theatrical production, My Last Play, was reviewed by Hilton Als of the The New Yorker in the 14 March 2011 issue. The article is in the "Critic's Notebook" section of the magazine, titled "Giving it Away."

There are only five performances left of Ed Schmidt's "My Last Play." Tickets are available from Wednesday, 28 September to 3 October 2011 (no Sunday performance). For tickets and more information, visit http://powerhousearena.com/newsletters/110928/index.html

The New York Times wrote about "My Last Play" yet again, this time for the ArtsBeat blog. Ed's play wrapped with a final performance on 3 October 2011, and the article recaps the play's run and what plans are next in store for Ed. Read the article at http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/07/my-last-play-is-one-for-the-books/.

Ed is pleased to announce one of his plays, Mr. Rickey Calls a Meeting, is being produced by Chicago’s Lookingglass Theatre, which won the 2011 Regional Theater Tony Award. Performances begin 4 January 2012. More information can be found at http://lookingglasstheatre.org/content//box_office/mr_rickey_calls_a_meeting.

Matthew was musical director in the Blue Hill Troupe’s production of Brigadoon at the Theater at St. Clement’s in November 2009. Trinity faculty member John Taylor performed in the production. The profits from this performance are for an after school music/arts program for the Mott Haven Academy, a charter school that is being run by The New York Foundling.

Matthew Rupcich is keeping busy with many musical activities. He is the music director of the The Christmas Revels: A Celebration of the Winter Solstice (www.nyrevels.org) at El Teatro at El Museo del Barrio from 10-12 December 2010. He is conducting the Hunter College Choir performance of Handel’s Zadok the Priest on 10 December 2010 at the Hunter College Assembly Hall – North Building. More information can be found at https://www.hunter.cuny.edu/music/pressroom/events/college-choir. He is also guest conductor of the Messiah Sing Along on 15 December 2010 at Turtle Bay Music School (www.TMBS.org).

Another exciting piece of news: Matt has been selected as the guest conductor for SavoyNet’s production of The Mikado at the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival in Buxton, England summer 2011.

Cecilia Rudzitis is the new temporary Lower School math specialist filling-in for Ana Maria Estela, who is on maternity leave. She will be with us until the end of the academic year. Cecilia graduated magna cum laude from Barnard College with a BA in mathematics and a minor in economics. Previously, she was a kindergarten teacher and Singapore Math lead teacher at the Geneva School of Manhattan. Prior to working in education, she worked in the finance industry as vice-president at the Apogee Finance Group and as assistant vice-president at the Irving Trust Company.

Pierangelo Rossi is migrating from Minneapolis, Minnesota where he has been working at Project SUCCESS as a program facilitator, helping middle and high school students make informed decisions about their futures. In addition to classroom facilitation, he was involved in musical productions, college tours, and even led summer canoe adventures in the Minnesotan Boundary Waters. In college, he was involved with the Latino organization, Adelante!, and was the co-founder and editor of Babel, an international affairs-focused magazine created by Macalester College students from around the world. Pierangelo is originally from Peru and has a rich history of working with students inside and outside the classroom. He strongly believes in the power of youth to change the world in positive and inspiring ways. He is fluent in English and Spanish and proficient in French and Portuguese. He is excited to apply his experience working with youth in a more formal environment at Trinity, while enrolling part-time at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development for his MA in elementary education. He loves to watch and play soccer, as well as walk on stilts.

Steven performed as a soloist in a concerto for violin and oboe with an orchestra at the Third Street Music School Settlement in the East Village on 18 March 2010. The performance was for their 31st Annual BachFest, a concert celebrating Bach’s birthday.

Steve was invited to attend a reception and concert at the White House last November. The concert, an evening of classical music, was presented in the East Room and included performers Sharon Isbin, Joshua Bell, Alisa Weilerstein, and Awadagin Pratt.

A few years ago, Steven composed "A Piece of Pi" for violin for Trinity's Pi Day celebration to honor the School's math teachers. Since then, he has had requests for the music from all around the world and the YouTube video he posted now has over 20,000 views. Steven writes, "Two weeks ago, I was brought down to Baltimore, Maryland, to appear while a doctoral candidate performed the piece during a recital of contemporary composers. That was a real high point for my composing career, having a piece of music performed at a conservatory and being asked to stand to receive applause at the end of the piece!" To listen to the piece and read more about the project, visit https://www.violinist.com/blog/czechsteve/20113/12149/

Steven writes, "'A Piece of Pi', my composition for solo violin based on the irrational number π (pi) is now being published by Ovation Press. It has been performed in serious recitals, math symposia, and in schools! I was excited last year to be flown down to Baltimore to be present at a concert of music by contemporary composers featured in a recital at Peabody Conservatory and I am happy that people perform the music. "On 2 February, I will be conducting the ISO Carnegie Hill Orchestra during a concert at Carnegie Hall celebrating the fortieth anniversary of the InterSchool Orchestras." (Visit https://www.isorch.org/ for more information.)

Steven C. Rochen was recently honored by Trinity for his twenty-five years of service to the School. Thank you, Steve, for all you have given, and will continue to give, to the School!

Ileana Rios has joined Trinity to teach biology to our Upper School students. She has a diverse academic background in biology and education, including research that spans the field of diagnostic cytology, cellular senescence, and HIV vaccine development, as well as teaching at the elementary, secondary, and undergraduate levels. Previously, she worked for Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory as both manager and educator for the Harlem DNA Lab where she taught biotechnology and genetics to over 3,000 New York City high school students.

Originally from Miami, Matt comes to New York via Boca Raton, Florida, where he has been teaching and coordinating technology integration at the Pine Crest School. While at Pine Crest, he worked as an educational technologist, digital citizenship classroom teacher, and a percussion and digital music production instructor. While attending graduate school at Teachers College, Columbia University, he worked as an International Baccalaureate (IB) consultant to Brooklyn Prospect Charter School, successfully planning the strategy and primary implementation of their IB Middle Years Program. Prior to that, Matt taught civics, American government, and psychology in the middle and upper schools at the American Heritage School in Plantation, Florida. He was co-founder of the start-up, MiamiMusicGuide.com, and has been a professional musician for over ten years. He is a coffee and tea enthusiast, often refers to the wisdom of Calvin and Hobbes, and enjoys cooking and debating current events with his fiancé, Munira. As a result of his recent move to the North East, Matt is looking forward to taking up hiking.

Sheila has decided to leave Trinity at the end of the school year in order to pursue other interests.

Sheila returns to the Middle School faculty in a new capacity this year. Since 2002, she has been a member of the Middle School math team. Even after "retiring" in 2010, she could not stay away and returned twice to do two maternity leaves. During the last three years, while she took a break from being full-time at Trinity, Sheila taught studio art to first through eighth graders at a school in Paterson, New Jersey. An avid lover and creator of art since her childhood, she relishes the opportunity to bring her passion and creative energy to Middle school art classes. She looks forward to getting her hands dirty in the art room and exposing her classes to new artists and artworks. She will also join the Middle School musical team once again to create the costumes for the fourteenth time in her career.

Luis was born in Spain but his work experience is truly global. He has taught in Wales, France, Japan, New Zealand, the Republic of the Philippines and the United States. He recently worked at Instituto Cervantes in New York and he has been using and researching new technologies in teaching languages. He likes sports, especially running and he is also in a book club once a month. At the moment he is also studying for a certificate in art collecting at New York University.

Li-An gave birth to Roan Van Caffrey at 2:18 p.m. on 10 February 2010. Roan weighed in at seven pounds and one ounce and was twenty inches long.

Li-An sent us photos of her son, Roan. “He is now around nine pounds eight ounces and has grown one and a quarter inches. He’s doing well and we all are settling into life together as a family.”

Roan is now six months old, eighteen pounds and ten ounces, twenty-seven inches long, and is trying to get into absolutely everything!

Anna is relocating from Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she taught math at the Community Charter School of Cambridge and in the Boston public school system. Prior to becoming a teacher, Anna worked in the academic publishing industry, including in the editorial department at Princeton University Press and as a freelance book translator for the American Mathematical Society. Anna enjoys traveling and has lived in Stockholm, Paris, and Moscow. Outside of the classroom, you might also find her dancing, backpacking, or exploring her new favorite city.

Anna and her husband, Peter, are delighted to welcome their son, David Barber Speh, to the family. He was born at 6:13 p.m. on 20 February 2014, weighing eight pounds, five ounces and measuring twenty-one inches. Anna writes, "We are all doing well and settling in at home." Congratulations to the family!

Ms. Joan Petrokofsky has joined the Trinity community as an admissions coordinator, assisting Jan Burton in admissions for Middle and Upper Schools. Joan brings to us extensive professional experience within schools, camps, and other social support programs. If you have the chance, you might ask her about her work as a National Park Ranger.

Jasmine Pai has been working as a freelance designer in the New York Metro area for several years. She has extensive experience in educational institutions, mentoring students on both a high school and collegiate level. She has a great deal of knowledge in technical theater from an educational to professional level. Jasmine has worked primarily as a scenic designer as well as a costume designer. She recently had designs featured in this summer’s Planet Connections Theatre Festivity and the New York International Fringe Festival. She is a resident designer for 4th Wall Theatre and Mile Square Theatre. In her spare time, Jasmine enjoys knitting and skiing and snowboarding in the winter.

Ana Ortigosa holds a PhD in linguistics and an MA in teaching Spanish as a second language. Ana has taught at both the high school and college levels in New York and Spain. She has published and presented numerous papers in international journals and at conferences. Ana has participated in several research projects and has been a visiting scholar in the United States, Holland, Australia and Brazil. She is fluent in Spanish and English and can read and write some French. Ana loves traveling around the world, discovering and interacting with new cultures, and in her free time she enjoys dancing to Latin rhythms. Coming from Spain, Ana has a passion for culinary arts and one of her favorite activities is trying out different restaurants in New York City.

Early Saturday morning, 8 June 2013, modern language teacher Ana Ortigosa gave birth to Sofía Riemann. The proud mom reports, “She was very punctual coming only thirty-seven minutes after her due date on 8 June at 12:37 a.m. (with the new moon!), and she weighed in at eight pounds four ounces. Both my husband and I are really happy and also super exhausted already—welcome to parenthood!”

John was recently honored by Trinity for his twenty-five years of service to the School. Thank you, John, for all you have given, and will continue to give, to the School!

Heather Nielsen, who came to Trinity in 2011 as an after-school supervisor and puppet teacher, will serve as our new assistant teacher in Grade Two. She is taking the place of Elisa Dragu, who is departing to prepare for the arrival of her baby. Heather has worked as a teaching artist and arts administrator at such places as Urban Stages, the Creative Arts Team Youth Theatre, Project SAFE, Story Pirates, and New Victory Theatre. She also co-created the Newtown Creek Puppet Parade and Pageant in Greenpoint, working with fifty kindergarten through fifth grade youths to explore the creek's pristine past, polluted present, and hoped-for future using puppetry, theatre, and movement. Heather loves the outdoors and and has worked as an environmental educator and conservation crew leader in Minnesota and Vermont. She likes to make things, whether it is food from her community garden, puppets from recyclables, or new mittens from a old sweater! She is delighted that, by the end of the year, she will have defended her thesis and completed her MA in applied theatre at the CUNY School of Professional Studies.

A native of upstate New York, Robert did his undergraduate work at State University of New York at Potsdam in mathematics and economics before attending the University of Florida where he graduated with his PhD in mathematics in 2013. His mathematical interests fall under algebraic topology, including problems in homotopy theory and persistent homology. His non-mathematical interests include travel, reading, and fishing.

Alexis Mulvihill grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts in a family filled with teachers; went to boarding school at St. Mark’s School in Massachusetts, where she was deeply influenced by a group of first-class teachers; earned English degrees from The University of Chicago and Stanford University; and then became a teacher herself as soon as humanly possible. She has taught English at the American International School in Mallorca, Spain; North Shore Country Day School in Winnetka, Illinois; and The College Preparatory School in Oakland, California. Alexis now lives on the Upper West Side with her family, which includes a husband, two sons, a new bunny, and a dog who refuses to believe she’s not human. With her not-so-abundant free time, Alexis plays the piano and also any sport that involves a racquet. She is flat-out delighted to find herself at Trinity.

Alexis Mulvihill has accepted the position of head of the English Department. Head of School John Allman writes, "Two years ago, when Alexis came to Trinity, she brought to us invaluable experience from two very strong independent schools and quickly established herself as an outstanding teacher as well as respected colleague whose sensible, sensitive role in pedagogical and curricular discussions within the department has proven to be especially helpful. Enjoying unequivocal support from her department colleagues as well as from other department heads and administrators, Alexis promises to advance conversations with the department about appropriate diversity in course readings, about enhanced coordination in our teaching of writing."

After graduating from Colby College in 2003 with a BA in biology, Dan discovered his passion for education while teaching high school biology and chemistry at Landmark School near Boston, Massachusetts. During his four years at Landmark, Dan taught classroom science and one-on-one early literacy tutorials, earned an MS in education from Simmons College, and became licensed as a teacher for students with moderate disabilities. In 2008 Dan moved to The Gateway Schools of New York as their founding middle school science teacher. He worked with a team of teachers to implement the science curriculum he designed for grades five through eight at Gateway. In 2011 he guided the students’ component of a partnership initiative called STEMinds for the Future, which brought New York City middle school students with learning differences together to share their solutions for self-identified, real world problems. Dan’s travels have taken him to Africa, Central and South America, and throughout Europe.

Elijah Penn Mansfield Morehouse, son of Timothy Morehouse and his wife Kara, was born on 10 March 2010 at 10:00 p.m. Elijah weighed in at eight pounds three ounces.

"We are all well," says Tim. "Here’s a pic of Eli trying out his best punch so far, the left cross."

Sharon is attending Queens College and working towards her master’s in early childhood education. While working towards her master’s degree she has been an assistant teacher in various schools in addition to being a Sunday school teacher at the Trust in God Baptist Church. Outside of teaching, she enjoys seasonal sports including skiing and swimming, trying new restaurants, and traveling as often as possible. Sharon is thrilled to be joining the Trinity faculty this fall.

Larry's article, "On the Joys of Not Getting What You Want," about dealing with college applications getting rejected, was published in The Choice blog in the "Education" section of the New York Times. Read it at http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/13/on-the-joys-of-not-getting-what-you-want/.

Rosemary C. Milliman was recently honored by Trinity for her twenty-five years of service to the School. Thank you, Rosemary, for all you have given, and will continue to give, to the School!

Marilyn has worked in international education for more than three decades including at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and New York University School of Law. She most recently served as the executive assistant to the United Nations’ special adviser on the prevention of genocide. Marilyn is a native New Yorker and enjoys reading, running, and racquetball. She is delighted to join the staff at the Trinity School.

Loretta has agreed to assume the responsibilities of Director of Human Resources at Trinity School. She will continue her previous duties as Payroll and Benefits Manager, but in addition, will oversee the recruitment and hiring of administrative staff, assist supervisors in the development of job descriptions and the completion of performance evaluations, and consult with administrators and employees to resolve personnel issues.

Loretta, along with Jennifer Levine and Lisa Bianchi, will be swimming, cycling, and running in the 2011 Nautica New York City Triathlon on Sunday, 7 August. Be sure to go out and cheer them on!

After five years, Andrew just finished all he needed to do to be awarded a PhD in psychology from the Graduate Center, City University of New York.

Andrew's first collection of poems, Mysterium, was recently published by Edgewise Press. More information can be found at www.edgewisepress.org.

Andrew McCarron has accepted the position of head of the Religion, Philosophy and Ethics Department. Head of School John Allman writes, "During his eleven-year tenure at Trinity, Dr. McCarron has proven to be an extraordinary teacher of English as well as religion, philosophy and ethics and is particularly interested in fostering opportunities for interdisciplinary learning in our curriculum. Having worked alongside Chaplain Tim Morehouse for over a decade, Andrew is also interested in exploring with Tim the ways in which academic coursework in religion, philosophy and ethics might, on occasion, work in concert with our chapel programming."

Mario has always been drawn to numbers, and his love of mathematics led him to a career in the financial services industry. However, his passion for education and his aspiration to positively impact young people was stronger. He left the corporate world and earned a master of arts in teaching with a specialization in secondary mathematics, as well as teaching licenses for New Jersey and New York. After teaching math and computer science for four years at a public school in New Jersey, Mario is thrilled to be joining the Trinity community. In his free time, Mario likes to exercise, play and watch sports, and complete crossword puzzles with his wife, Katie.

Alexandra and her husband Gerardo welcomed son Gerard Alexander Martinez on 29 April 2009.

Katie relocated from Pennsylvania to New York City when she married in 2012. She most recently has been working for Dreyfus, an investment company, as an executive administrative assistant. Previously, she was at Warrior Run Middle School where Katie served as the school librarian, technology integrator, and gifted education teacher. Since 2010, Katie has volunteered at the Pennsylvania School Librarians Association where she served as the chair of the electronic communications committee. Additionally, she has presented various workshops at state conferences and co-authored an article entitled "Building a Culture of Reading" which was published in the December 2011 issue of School Library Monthly.

Katie has recently discovered that she loves to dance. In the past two years she has learned how to dance salsa, bachata, merengue, and rueda de casino. She has also taken lessons in flamenco and contra dancing. Katie loves to cook, and is currently searching for a great recipe for strawberry ice cream.

Patricia earned her Master of Library and Information Science degree, as a school library media specialist, in 2006. As a graduate student at Rutgers, she was a research assistant for the Center for International Scholarship in School Libraries (CISSL). She has served as a school librarian for over ten years, beginning at All Saints Episcopal Day School in Hoboken, New Jersey, where she was also a language arts teacher. She comes to us from The Child School/Legacy High School in New York City where she established the library, developing a collection and creating services for the school community. She is passionate about literature and information resources for young people and finds great joy in the perspective and humor they bring as they discover the world, make connections, and share ideas and experiences. Patricia has lived on Pacific islands, in Africa, and in Europe. She has traveled to Australia, Asia, and South America, knows Spanish, and speaks French fluently. In addition to being an avid reader, she enjoys photography, museums, planning trips, and spending time with her daughter and son. She is delighted to be joining the Trinity School community.

Congratulations to Alex and his wife, Arana, who gave birth to Owen Macdonald on Friday, 25 May 2012 at 8:01 p.m.

Rebecca just recently received her MEd from Hunter College. While attending school she gained experience by assisting and student teaching for the New York City Department of Education, most recently working as an assistant teacher at PS 77 Lower Lab School. She has also taught theatre and music to middle school students at JHS 166 Roberto Clemente School and with the Children’s Aid Society’s Summer Quest program.

Rebecca spends her weekends as the lead singer of an 80’s tribute band, performing in venues throughout Manhattan and along the East Coast. She is passionate about volunteering, having worked with the Sea Turtle Conservancy in Costa Rica, Habitat for Humanity in Kentucky, and Camp Hope, for children grieving the loss of a family member. Also an avid traveler, Rebecca backpacked through Thailand and New Zealand, and spent a year and a half working as a nanny and tutor in Australia. It was the time she spent with children abroad that led her to choose a career in education.

Jennifer, along with Loretta McNamee and Lisa Bianchi, will be swimming, cycling, and running in the 2011 Nautica New York City Triathlon on Sunday, 7 August. Be sure to go out and cheer them on!

Kyung-Eun "Caroline" Lee earned her second master’s degree in elementary education from Teachers College this past May. Her most recent teaching experiences consist of student teaching in New York City and working at the Hollingworth Science Camp. Caroline is a native of Korea, and identifies herself as a third culture kid (TCK) because she spent her childhood and adolescence in seven different countries: Indonesia and the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago being two of her favorite countries. She moved to New York two years ago and is amazed to find endless things to do. Caroline easily loses track of time when she’s sketching at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, browsing in bookstores, and taking walks, especially at sunset. She also loves to travel and to explore new restaurants and cafes because it’s such a great feeling to be experiencing and discovering new things. Above all, she is thrilled to be a part of the Trinity community, and is looking forward to meeting new teachers and students.

Sarah is the new Website administrator. Sarah received a master’s degree in instructional technology from the University of Maryland and taught history in high school for seven years. Sarah is responsible for the on-going maintenance and redesign of TigerWeb, and for educating parents, teachers, and staff on use of the site.

Starting this year, Sarah will be teaching computer to Grades Five and Six.

Marilyn will join Trinity’s faculty through the end of December as a maternity-leave replacement. She has taught at Barnard College, City University of New York, and New York University, where her awards include the Outstanding Teaching Award and the President’s Service Award. She is the editor of two books of literary historical scholarship, and of a journal issue on teaching the Middle Ages in grades K-12, as well as the author of numerous pedagogical and scholarly journal articles, book chapters, and book reviews. As a freelance arts critic, she has contributed to the Village Voice, Dance Magazine, and other publications, and serves on the advisory council of the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University. At NYU she directs two pedagogical Web sites, funded by outside grants, aimed at using performance in teaching medieval culture to students from middle school through college. She speaks fluent French and German, some Spanish, and reads Latin and Old French.

A strong believer in the power of the arts and humanities to change the lives of children, Marilyn works with youths as a volunteer at the National Dance Institute in Harlem. This summer, on Fire Island, she ran workshops for preteens and teens on physical comedy and on modern dance history. Marilyn is the first female in the history of her Fire Island community to become a chief of the volunteer fire company. As a chief of seventy-four firefighters, Marilyn recruits and trains teens to become firefighters; she was thrilled this summer to have helped twenty-one new recruits graduate from the Suffolk County Fire Academy.

Prior to coming to Trinity, Karen spent much of her career at Mount Sinai Hospital in a series of academic and clinical positions in pediatrics. She was involved with the Adolescent Health Center and for many years worked as an education specialist in pediatrics. She won the Departmental Award for Clinical Excellence by the Mount Sinai Hospital Board of Trustees in 2003. Karen loves to travel with a specific interest in gastronomical adventures.

Rob Keith, computer specialist in the Lower School, applied for, and was accepted into, a songwriting class with Ray Davies of The Kinks and poet and playwright, Marion Wells, in the United Kingdom at Dartington International Summer School. He is among sixteen students selected to take the class this August. He is also headed to Brazil for a few weeks in June on a separate music related escapade.

Read more about the class with Ray Davies at https://www.m-magazine.co.uk/makeithappen/summer-school-with-ray-davies/.

Robyn is a passionate and creative health educator and has recently been teaching at Walt Whitman High School in Huntington Station, New York. While there she has attended workshops as a presenter providing innovative teaching strategies for the health classroom. She has taught curriculum development for achieving New York State standards in health education and she recently became a certified health education specialist.

Robyn enjoys running and recently completed her first half marathon. She learned just how difficult the sport of tennis can be while taking lessons throughout the year. She enjoys reading, trying new restaurants (and sushi, which she tasted for the first time at age twenty-six), and appreciates time spent with family and friends. She is looking forward to a new and exciting professional experience at Trinity.

Saul Isaacson was recently honored by Trinity for his twenty-five years of service to the School. Thank you, Saul, for all you have given, and will continue to give, to the School!

Teacher of English Saul Isaacson has a new installment in his series of interviews with American linguist Noam Chomsky, available here:
https://www.truth-out.org/news/item/38133-noam-chomsky-on-syria-a-grim-set-of-alternatives#14779255844691&action=collapse_widget&id=

Regan is now working in the Technology Department as the new help desk technician.

Thomas became the proud father of Hunter Johnstone Holton on 28 December 2009. Hunter weighed in at eight pounds and five ounces.

Thomas was selected in August 2009 by the Aperture Foundation and the City of New York to document a year in the life of a healthy eating initiative called Green Cart. Green Carts are mobile food carts that offer fresh fruits and vegetables in certain New York City neighborhoods. Their goal is to foster better eating habits and reduce obesity and obesity related diseases. More information can be found at
https://www.aperture.org/greencart
The exhibition will run at the Museum of the City of New York featuring the photographs of Thomas and other artists. Details about the exhibition are forthcoming.

Thomas was selected in August 2009 by the Aperture Foundation and the City of New York to document a year in the life of a healthy eating initiative called Green Cart. More information about the project can be found at https://www.aperture.org/greencart.

The exhibition, Moveable Feast: Fresh Produce and the NYC Green Cart Program at the Museum of the City of New York, features the photographs of Thomas and other artists. It will run from 22 March to 11 July 2011. For details, visit https://www.mcny.org/exhibitions/future/Moveable-Feast.html.

Thomas was featured in an article on the New York Times Lens blog about his current photography project, "The Lams of Ludlow Street: 5 Years Later." From 2002-2005, Thomas extensively photographed a family in Chinatown and started to photograph them again in 2010. Read the article and see photographs at http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/27/five-years-later-a-new-reality/.

Stanley and his wife, Aja, welcomed their daughter, Qadirah Kashani Muhammad Hill, to the world on 30 October 2009.

Stanley and his wife, Aja, are proud to announce that their son, Qwess (Quest) T'aj Khalid Hill, was born on 15 March 2013 at at 5:51 p.m. Congratulations to the family!

Maurice has previously worked in real estate and financial services. He spent three years working at Future Stars Summer Camps and he has a keen interest in photography and the arts. As a native New Yorker, he is an enthusiastic member of the Museum of Natural History and as a student at Iona College he played as a guard for the men's basketball team. Maurice has been passionate for many years about working with and training dogs. He is very excited about the year to come and hopes for the best.

Rachel and her husband Jacob welcomed their son Noah Abraham Halper to the world on 6 October 2009. Noah weighed five pounds and six ounces.

Tammy is relocating from Mesa, Arizona, where for seven years she has been teaching chemistry (honors and Advanced Placement) at Desert Ridge High School. Prior to that, she spent five years in Aztec, New Mexico, teaching middle school science. She also has experience as a student council class advisor and basketball coach. Tammy served as an independent consultant in modeling instruction, leading workshops for other chemistry teachers. She is also a National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certified teacher, and has spent time during the last three years working with candidates as they complete their portfolios. Tammy's favorite pastime is singing, and she is very much looking forward to finding a choir to join in New York City. She would also love any suggestions for places where she might be able to watch some of her favorite West Coast sports teams.

Vandana has returned from her year abroad in France in the Fulbright Teacher Exchange Program.

Edward is the new alumni relations manager. He was previously the director of the After-School program.

Edward married Denise Bruxelles on Saturday, 3 October 2009, at the Winterthur Museum in Wilmington, Delaware.

Brad comes to us from Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, where for the past two years he served as an assistant baseball coach. Prior to coaching at Drew he worked at Gill St. Bernard’s School in Gladstone, New Jersey where he was a physical education teacher and the assistant athletic director. During his time at Gill St. Bernard’s School he was named the Star Ledger Somerset County Baseball Coach of the Year and led his team to its first conference championship and a school record for wins. During his playing days he scored over 1,000 points on the basketball court at Drew and was the first player in Newark Academy history with 1,000 points in basketball and 100 hits in baseball for their career. Brad spends his summer on the Jersey Shore where his family has owned a home for fifteen years.

Justin Gohde is a dedicated teacher and creative technologist who knew he wanted to be in education since he was just a little boy. He’s comfortable teaching both computer science (C++, HTML, Java, Javascript, Scratch) and mathematics. He’s also well versed in Excel, web design software, and several visual design programs. Justin maintains a strong passion for the arts, having taught classes for the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, participated in dozens of group and solo art shows, and completed several albums with his band. He has a profound respect for hidden patterns and enjoys being fluent in several descriptive languages.

Fabienne, a very successful cyclist outside of Trinity, recently placed twenty-eighth in the Liberty Classic, the most prestigious one day race in the United States which took place in Philadelphia on 5 June 2011.

Fabienne, a 2011 Century Road Club Associaton (CRCA) Women's Champion, was interviewed about how she began bicycle racing, her achievements, and her aspirations. Read the interview at
https://www.crca.net/2011/09/interview-with-fabienne-gerard-of-the-fuoriclassediscover-chiropractic-cat-1-racer-and-2011-crca-womens-champion/.

Head of School John Allman writes, "This fall, when our outstanding Modern Languages Department Head Laura Gordon expressed interest in returning to full-time teaching at Trinity in 2013-14, the School initiated an extensive search process. At the culmination of this process, our own beloved class dean and exceptional French teacher Fabienne Gérard emerged at the top candidate to lead our Modern Language Department as it develops transformational language-immersion travel opportunities, creates a language lab to enhance proficiency in oral communication, and determines how to introduce modern language instruction earlier in our Lower School. A media- and tech-savvy global citizen who has lived, studied, and taught successfully in three countries and two continents, Dr. Gerard brings to our leadership position a compelling array of experiences and capabilities as well as an unwavering commitment to educational excellence and student well-being."

Yosefa Forma is no stranger to Trinity. She has been a member of the After School program since 2005 and has been the assistant director of the program since 2009. Yosefa taught as a substitute teacher at various public schools. She also worked for the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival’s Education and Community Outreach program where she conducted workshops and residencies focusing on Shakespeare’s major plays and sonnets to students in grades four through twelve. This past summer, Yosefa traveled to Sarajevo where she facilitated educational theater workshops at an international conference entitled “Art, Media and Social Justice,” sponsored by the United States Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina. She worked with students and youth groups from around the Balkans on using drama to create dialogue and reconciliation.

Since 2002, Mary has been teaching upper school science in the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District in Bellmore, New York, with a focus on biology and psychology. During her tenure, she developed a genetics curriculum, and taught anatomy and physiology as well as an introductory course in research. Mary has been teaching Advanced Placement courses for nine years. She has been published in Computers and Composition and The American Journal of Cardiology. She has also played an active role in her school and community as a student government advisor, organizing many school-wide and community events. Mary is a lifelong learner who has continued her education through the completion of two master’s degrees, as well as subsequent course work. Her recent studies have included a class on Google applications, an Advanced Placement biology workshop and a chemistry modeling workshop. She is excited to share her experiences with the students at Trinity School.

Tim has been a professional jazz bassist, composer, and educator for over thirty-five years. He has performed extensively in the United States and in Europe and has made numerous recordings, both with his own groups and with others. He may be familiar to members of the Trinity community due to his frequent presence in the pit for Trinity musicals and cabarets for many years. He has taught music to a variety of ages and levels at a number of educational institutions and as a private instructor. He is the author of two books on how to play the electric and double bass and has worked as a bow repair technician and on-site luthier at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. Tim speaks fluent Italian and his wife, Gloria, is a highly respected translator and interpreter in English and Italian. His step-daughter, Sera, is a theoretical physicist and part of an international physics research team headed by Stephen Hawking. Tim is looking forward to being part of the faculty and working with the students at Trinity.

Caren McWatt was married in the spring to Mafatime Fall on 9 April 2009.

Ana Maria is on maternity leave for the remainder of the 2012-2013 academic year. Cecilia Rudzitis is the new temporary Lower School math specialist filling-in for her.
Cecilia graduated magna cum laude from Barnard College with a BA in mathematics and a minor in economics. Previously, she was a kindergarten teacher and Singapore Math lead teacher at the Geneva School of Manhattan. Prior to working in education, she worked in the finance industry as vice-president at the Apogee Finance Group and as assistant vice-president at the Irving Trust Company.

John Allman has announced the appointment of the new head of the visual arts department, Gregg Emery. As John wrote, "He brings to Trinity all the qualities we seek in a department head: he has served successfully as visual arts department head at a K-12 coeducational independent school, where he has proven to be a skilled leader, effective communicator, and passionate advocate for the visual arts; he is a talented, versatile (painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramic, digital photography, and art history) visual arts teacher who has both experience and interest in teaching within multiple divisions; he is a practicing artist who understands the joys, strengths, and challenges of balancing his work as an artist and his work as a teacher; he is a 'consummate school person' active in the life of his school beyond the visual arts studio, as a class dean, as a coach, and as a diversity advocate. "In describing Gregg’s energy, enthusiasm, and sense of purpose, one of Gregg’s references provided the following account of Gregg’s leadership at Dwight-Englewood: 'He begins with a devotion to the whole child and a desire for students to have meaningful experiences in the arts. His classroom is an inspiring and comfortable space where students feel empowered to take risks. His classes combine art education, art appreciation, and art creation, and in the end are often works of art themselves. He also can be found bringing art to other courses, as he collaborates easily and willingly with teachers in other departments. Gregg is always thinking of new ways to bring the arts to students and the school. He has worked with the head of school to bring sculptures to campus; he has organized alumni shows and invited alumni back to work with students; he has grown the visibility of the visual arts and has enhanced the stature of the arts at our school.' "During his day with us, those who met Gregg enjoyed his warmth, his sense of humor, his energy, and his approachability. At the end of his day with us, Gregg reported to me that he thoroughly enjoyed the people he had met here and would be eager to work with the members of the department to support their work, to hear their ideas about how the department can improve, and to advocate passionately and creatively for the essential place of the arts in the life of Trinity School.

"I am profoundly grateful for Harrison Williams’ superb service to the School over the past year as interim department head. He has not felt 'interim' at all; he has led the department with commendable care and skill. Trinity School is wonderfully fortunate to have been able to choose between two such strong educators."

Bruce's artwork is featured in the newly released book L.A. Rising, SoCal Artists Before 1980 by Lyn Kienholz, published by the California/International Arts Foundation.

Two of Trinity's visual arts teachers, Bruce Edelstein and Thomas Holton, are having their work shown at Hillwood Art Museum at the C.W. Post campus of Long Island University in Brookville, New York. Interim Visual Arts Department Head Peter Moriarty has published introductory notes about the work, which will appear with reproductions from the exhibit. The opening reception is Thursday, 15 September 2011 from 5-8 p.m. and the artists will be speaking at the museum on Tuesday, 25 October 2011 at 7 p.m. The museum is located at 720 Northern Blvd. and is open Monday-Friday from 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. except on Thursdays when it is open until 8 p.m. Saturdays the museum is open from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. For additional information visit: www.liu.edu/museum
or call 516.299.4073.

Bruce has written an article about his sculpture that is now available on the NY Arts Magazine Web site. The article will also be printed in the winter issue of the magazine. Read it online at https://www.nyartsmagazine.com/global-projects/663-b/8277-bruce-edelstein.html.

Bruce Edelstein's sculpture work was featured on the NY Arts Magazine Web site with a full article appearing in the spring 2013 print issue of the magazine. Check out https://www.nyartsmagazine.com/b/bruce-edelstein.

Heidi was recently honored by Trinity for her twenty-five years of service to the School. Thank you, Heidi, for all you have given, and will continue to give, to the School!

Regina has been awarded the Wallach Administrator Travel Grant. With this grant, Regina will embark on a Scandinavian adventure to visit the Arctic and see the top of the world. She plans to enjoy the natural and cultural wonders of the region, and is optimistic that she will be able to see everything since the sun will be up all the time.

Head of School John Allman has announced the appointment of Regina Dorian as the new math department chair. As he wrote, "I am delighted to report that Regina Dorian has accepted my invitation to serve as permanent math department chair, effective immediately. In her work as interim department chair over two and a half of the last three years, she has worked tirelessly, selflessly, and professionally on behalf of the department. Working closely with the department, she has overseen the hiring of ten of the department’s fourteen members, bringing to Trinity exceptionally strong math teachers who continue to foster the collegiality and collaboration that distinguishes the department. In our Middle School, she has worked with Middle School faculty and Middle School principal Chris Schoberl to guide adjustments that have strengthened our program. And, in our Upper School, she has served as a steadfast advocate for the department and, in recent weeks, has organized impressive work by the department to develop dual curricular paths to serve the varied educational needs of Upper School math students. "Over the course of the spring, as I have learned of the department’s steady progress to develop these dual paths, it became increasingly clear to me that, at this moment in the life of our math department, no department head candidate from beyond Trinity – not even Euclid himself – could serve the department or school better than Regina Dorian. Having taught in both middle and upper divisions at a variety of grade levels during her twenty-nine years within our math department, no one has a broader or deeper understanding of our program or our school, and, as interim, she has demonstrated her interest in being an active presence in math classrooms from Kindergarten to Grade Twelve. The School is extraordinarily fortunate that, at this stage in her career, she is eager to serve as department head and to fill her days with matters mathematical."

Peter is an associate editor and contributor to the new Second Edition of the Encyclopedia of New York City (Kenneth T. Jackson, Editor-in-Chief), published by Yale University Press. Peter also contributed several entries to the First Edition.

Alexis has spent the last two years coaching lacrosse and field hockey at The Masters School in Dobbs Ferry, New York. In addition to coaching, she spent the last academic year at home with her newborn daughter while working as an independent fitness and nutrition coach. She has been teaching and coaching for over ten years, three of which were spent working for the English Lacrosse Association where she headed up lacrosse programs in schools, as well as promoted the development of lacrosse throughout Scotland. Alexis still plays and coaches lacrosse within the New York City area and lives in Westchester County with her family.

Giuliana M. de Winter was recently honored by Trinity for her twenty-five years of service to the School. Thank you, Giuliana, for all you have given, and will continue to give, to the School!

Marcus is the new director of annual giving. He was previously the alumni relations manager.

Marcus's rugby team, the Gotham Knights won the Bingham Cup in June 2010. The Bingham Cup, officially the Mark Kendall Bingham Memorial Tournament, is a biannual international, non-professional, gay rugby union tournament first held in 2002. The most recent tournament was held in Minneapolis, Minnesota. New York's Gotham Knights beat the two-time defending champion, the Sydney Convicts, 18-15 in the Cup final.

Alison Countermine will be joining us from the Lawrence Woodmere Academy where she has been working as a math specialist and teacher for grades one through four on a part-time basis. She also worked as a math teacher at the Far Hills Country Day School for grades two through eight. Prior to entering the field of education, Alison worked for the United States Department of Homeland Security as an intelligence analyst. She is interested in sports and has coached softball, soccer and basketball. Alison also enjoys playing and teaching piano, as well as playing golf.

Jim Cifelli has been awarded the Greenberg Family-Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Award for 2011. The Distinguished Teaching Endowment was created in 1983 as a tribute to Clarence Bruner-Smith, Dudley M. Maxim '32 and Frank G. Smith. In 1988, the Alumni Association decided to establish an annual award to a teacher who has taught at Trinity for ten years or more, exemplifies the history and traditions of the School and who has demonstrated excellence in teaching. The prize, now known as the Greenberg Family-Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Award, was increased to $10,000 in 2004. Since its inception, twenty-four teachers have received this honor, their names displayed prominently on the Greenberg Family – Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Prize Plaque in the Great Hall. We add a twenty-fifth to that list. With so many deserving teachers at Trinity, it is always a difficult decision for the Alumni Association. This year’s winner has taught at Trinity for fifteen years. A warm, caring teacher who inspires his students to reach new heights in what they can do both individually and as a group. It is truly a great honor to present this award to Jim Cifelli.

Jim Cifelli will lead as Trinity's director of performing arts, effective 1 September 2012. Jim, who has taught at Trinity for over sixteen years, will work with others in the School to imagine ways to integrate the arts even more effectively into our educational program. He is excited by the Strategic Plan’s call to develop partnerships with institutions in the city, and is eager to explore ways in which the School’s arts program can make best use of the extensive arts resources available to us through parents, alumni and others. We look forward to seeing what he can do for performing arts at Trinity.

Haley is the new After-School director. Haley has been teaching in the Trinity’s Kids Club program since 2008 where she organized activities for Lower School and Middle School students. Her personal interests include acting, swing dancing, running, theater, and yoga.

Barbara has been teaching orchestra and general music since 1983 within the New York City Board of Education, in the Hastings-on-Hudson Union Free School District, and at Seven Bridges Middle School in Chappaqua. In 1979 Barbara began work at the Brooklyn College Conservatory Preparatory Center for the Performing Arts where she founded and directed the Suzuki Violin Program. She has performed with several orchestras in the New York City area. Barbara is currently a violinist in the St. Thomas Orchestra and the Handel Festival Orchestra, and is active as an avid player of chamber music. Barbara loves to go to the theatre and visit museums. Being physically active is a very important part of her life and includes yoga, qigong, dance, and distance walking.

Cindy comes to us from The Brearley School where she taught Latin to grades seven through nine. Prior to that she worked part-time at Saint Joseph High School in Brooklyn and is now a member of their board of directors. Cindy also founded a Latin and art history program for high school students which she runs in Florence, Italy, in the summer. From 1991 to 2008 Cindy established and operated a translation company specializing in financial, legal, and general documents. She ran in the New York City marathon three times, is a contemporary art enthusiast, lives in Brooklyn, and is the mother of four sons.

John is the newest addition to the Technology Office filling the position of technology support specialist. John comes to us from an IBM consulting group, where he has worked for several years.

John and his fiancé, Amanda Bulson, are getting married on Friday, 27 July 2012 at Cortlandt Colonial in Cortlandt Manor, New York. Their honeymoon in Puerto Rico will follow. Congratulations, John!

Jay has taught instrumental lessons and classes in area schools since moving to New York in 1991. He is also a teaching artist in performance ensembles that visit K-12 classrooms throughout the tri-state area. Besides teaching, Jay is a freelance jazz saxophonist who performs around town and around the world with many New York-based jazz bands. Jay and his family live in Westchester.

Paul was formerly a trumpet instructor for lower school students at the Friends Seminary. His extensive performance experience has led him on tours of the United States, Canada, and throughout Europe. One highlight was last year's Lincoln Center festival, when he performed in Here but I’m Gone: A 70th Birthday Tribute to Curtis Mayfield at Avery Fisher Hall. He has led and organized musical ensembles throughout the New York area in public performances and for private functions. Paul is a member of the Screen Actors Guild and has worked on various commercials in background and principal acting roles. In his spare time, Paul enjoys rooting for the New York Mets.

Irena earned her nursing degree in the Netherlands, her country of origin. She was a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University where she earned a MPH (Master in Public Health degree). Her public health and nursing work has brought her to Russia, Thailand, Vietnam and the United States. She and her partner have twin boys who are six years old. They live in Brooklyn, but Irena doesn't mind the commute to Trinity as it gives her time to read.

Sarah will be on maternity leave from 28 November 2011 to 28 February 2012. Robert Wendt has been hired to substitute for her during this time. Robert received his BA from Columbia University in English and comparitive literature. He received his MA in music education from Hunter College. He currently works at Calhoun School accompanying the middle school chorus, leading warm-ups and sectionals, and integrates music theory, history, and vocal technique into choral rehearsals as needed, with a special focus on changing male voices. He is a lifelong piano student and enjoys traveling.

Sarah and her husband, Steven, are proud to announce the birth of their son, Aidan Keith Hemstalk, on 11 December 2011 at 4:13 p.m. He weighed in at six pounds and thirteen ounces. The family is doing well.

Sonia was recently honored by Trinity for her twenty-five years of service to the School. Thank you, Sonia, for all you have given, and will continue to give, to the School!

Dion is the new aquatics coordinator. He comes with over fifteen years of aquatics and management experience. He has coached various sports, such as football, softball, swimming, track and field, and triathlon. In his spare time, he played football with the Rockland County Bruins.

Teacher of History Michael Berkowitz is quoted in a story by senior reporter Mitchell Hartman that takes a look at the history of middle-class American vacations: https://www.marketplace.org/2016/07/22/world/middle-class-american-vacation-history

Jodi arrived in New York from Louisville, Kentucky where she worked at the Learning House as a course designer for college-level online education. She has developed curriculum and taught multi-level English classes in Southeast Asia. Jodi also taught Bible and church history courses at Anderson University in South Carolina. In her spare time she has worked as a volunteer Sunday school teacher, ladies’ Bible study leader, autism and special needs care assistant and media and technology team member. In her spare time, she loves to explore the city, jog, bake, read and volunteer at her church.

Uma Jagtiani comes to us from Teach for America (TFA) where she has been working in the Office of Alumni Affairs as the director of TFANet, an internal site with classroom, career development, and networking resources. Prior to TFA, Uma worked at eChalk where she helped design and implement software for kindergarten through grade twelve schools to enhance the home-school connection. Uma obtained her MEd from Harvard Graduate School of Education in technology, innovation, and education. During her graduate studies, she researched the advantages of online social bookmarking for learning communities and implementation models for augmented reality games in middle school classrooms. Uma lives downtown and has been in Manhattan for almost ten years. She loves that the city always has new food and places to explore.

Uma and her fiancé, Roland Aviles, are getting married on Saturday, 11 August 2012 at the Chart House in Weehawken, New Jersey, overlooking New York City. After the wedding, they will be heading to France for their honeymoon. They will spend a few days in Paris and then have five nights in Southern France along the coast. Congratulations, Uma!

On Tuesday, 2 July 2013, Uma gave birth to a daughter, Leela Rose, weighing six pounds and nine ounces. Congratulations to the family!

Rachell recently worked as an associate teacher at the Chapin School and has been busy attending professional development conferences, which will help expand her work in the classroom. Her additional experiences as an educator include collaborating with teen girls for change in the media through advocacy, leading English language workshops for elementary school children in Colombia with the YMCA, and working with summer camps in the Children’s Museum of Manhattan. Rachell is a native New Yorker who is fluent in Spanish. During her free time she enjoys traveling, roller coasters, and sampling crazy culinary concoctions.

Peter comes to us from the Marymount School of New York where he taught Latin, Greek and computer science for over twelve years. During his tenure he also served as a class advisor, Philosophy Club moderator and Amnesty International moderator. He was the student body committee chair of the NYSAIS self-evaluation. Peter was a member of the technology committee and he administered two of the school’s servers. He also developed a custom web application that students used to maintain online resumes. Peter is an avid Yankee fan and a cynical (though not ironic) Knicks fan. He enjoys reading, believes that all Westerns are good Westerns, hunts down spicy Chinese food on the weekends, and contributes to open-source software when he can.

J. Bradford Anderson invites us to explore Paris through his English translation of Disenchanted City, a collection of poems by contemporary French poet Chantal Bizzini. Anderson edited the volume with Marilyn Kallet, and translated the poems in collaboration with Kallet and Darren Jackson. Bizzini has a penchant for describing the multifaceted nature of the City of Lights, and through her poetry we learn about the many secrets of modern Paris...its beauty and its darkness.

To hear Disenchanted City come alive in English, join Anderson and Kallet for a reading at St. Mark’s Bookshop, 136 East 3d Street., at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, 1 December.

For more information about the the book: https://www.blackwidowpress.com/

Myles has been elected to a two-year term as president of the Greater New York Chapter of the International Association of Fundraising Professionals.

On 1 July 2011, Myles Amend’s title changed from director of development and alumni relations to associate head of school for advancement. This change provides Myles with a title that better reflects the additional responsibilities he has assumed over the past two years as well as those responsibilities that he will assume in 2011-2012. Head of School John Allman wrote, "Since my arrival Myles has been the member of senior staff designated to serve as the school’s chief executive if, for some reason, I am unavailable. In addition, as cochair of the strategic planning process, Myles has assumed a significant leadership role well beyond the scope of development and alumni relations, and, in recent months, he has been extraordinarily involved in managing community and media relations as the school has dealt with a variety of issues." Congratulations and all best wishes to Myles.

All best wishes to Myles B. Amend, associate head for advancement, and his husband, Marc A. Thomas. They were married on 24 July 2011, the first day of marriage equality in New York State. Their daughter, Ashley, who enters Kindergarten this fall, was ring bearer. May the public recognition of their union contribute to many years of happiness and joy. Congratulations on being among the couples who participated in, and made possible, this historic day.

Monica married Carlos Sanchez on 30 November 2009.

Mayra was recently honored by Trinity for her twenty-five years of service to the School. Thank you, Mayra, for all you have given, and will continue to give, to the School!

Daniel and his wife Jocelyn Russell welcomed baby Nathaniel Walker Russell on 12 October 2009. He weighed in at six pounds eleven ounces.

Dana will teach math in the Upper School starting this fall. She has earned a MS in Secondary Education in mathematics from the University of Rochester. She also received her BS and BA in mathematics and economics, respectively, from the University of Rochester. During her time at Rochester, Dana worked as a teaching assistant for multivariable calculus and linear algebra with differential equations. She has taught at Apollo Middle School and Fairport High School. When she is away from school, Dana enjoys cooking, practicing yoga, and traveling. She is excited to join the Trinity community and share her passion for mathematics with her students.

Pablo was published in NATA News, the magazine of the National Athletic Trainers' Association. His letter to the editor appeared in the April 2011 issue, where he wrote about the importance of early access to athletic training for young athletes.

Peter Moriarty published introductory notes about work by fellow Visual Arts Department teachers Bruce Edelstein and Thomas Holton that is showing at Hillwood Art Museum at the C.W. Post campus of Long Island University from 12 September - 5 November 2011.

Author, Documentary Photographer, and Associate Professor at Columbia University, Nina Berman is today’s Lunch and Learn speaker. Nina’s work documents militarized life in the U.S. post 9/11, and the subsequent two wars that followed. Her photographs and videos have been exhibited at more than 100 international venues, including the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Dublin Contemporary. She has received numerous awards from prestigious organizations, including the New York Foundation for the Arts and the Open Society Foundation, among others.

Three Trinity Upper School Chorus members participated in a performance at the United Nations on Monday, 26 November 2012: Emily S. Shah ’15, Tanvi Janardhan ’15, and Isabelle J. Chau ’16. The choir was organized and led by Trinity alumna Amy M. Zakar ’95.

The event—A Celebration of Love: Love Towards All, Malice Towards None—took place in the Economic and Social Council Room at the United Nations. It celebrated universal love, human unity, and service without regard to race, religion, or national origin. The evening included the renowned Shahi Qawwals from Ajmer Dargah Sharif (devotional singers and musicians from India) and a presentation by Dr. Deepak Chopra. Tanvi Janardhan ’15, Emily S. Shah ’15, and Isabelle J. Chau ’16 sang to a full house of delegates and families as well as to the security council president and the deputy secretary general. The soloist, Mor Dior Bamba, is a Senegalese griot singer (a hereditary caste in western Africa whose function it is to keep an oral history of a tribe or village).

The concert was organized by the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations to celebrate India's presidency of the United Nations Security Council and to mark the 800th Urs (anniversary of death) of Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti, a twelfth century Sufi saint.

Video of the performance can be viewed here:
http://webtv.un.org/search/musical-concert:-love-towards-all-malice-towards-none-the-renowned-shahi-qawwals-from-ajmer/1990863843001?term=love.

We recently received news of the death of one of our former faculty members that occurred last year. James Grady Hobson, who taught mathematics at Trinity School from 1979 to 1991, passed away on 30 November 2011 at his home in Selma, California.

James was born on 5 February 1926. During World War II, he served in the United States Armed Forces. He received his undergraduate degree from Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon. Prior to teaching at Trinity, James taught at both campuses of Robert College of Istanbul in Turkey between 1952-1960, 1962-1968, and from 1971-1977, for a total of twenty years. Back in the United States, he also taught at Verde Valley School in Sedona, Arizona, from 1968-1971 and St. Mary’s Hall in San Antonio, Texas, from 1977-1979.

James is survived by his nieces and their spouses, Gail and Pat Lewis; Karen and Rod Ochinero, and Rae Coonce; four great nephews and their spouses; and two great nieces.

To learn more about James’s life in Istanbul and in New York City at Trinity, read this 2003 interview with him conducted by a former student of his from Robert College: https://www.cs.ucsb.edu/~omer/DOWNLOADABLE/J_Grady_Hobson_Interview_2003.pdf

Parent of alumna Dr. Mark Stoeckle, alumni Catherine C. Gamble '11 and Rohan N. Kirpekar '11, and student Grace Young '13, who made the news after finding unlisted ingredients in teas and infusions by using DNA barcoding, were featured in an ABC News Nightline program on food fraud. See them at minute 3:50 in the video, which can be watched at http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/video/food-fraud-watchdog-group-raises-concerns-18290097.

Read the Campus News article from 2011 about their findings at https://www.sinecharta.org/Campus-News/Around-the-Campus/2011-2012/July/Trinity-Students-Use-DNA-Barcoding-to-Test-Teas-an.aspx.

The 2012-2013 academic year marked the ninetieth anniversary of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. The Alliance for Young Artists & Writers presents the awards every year to bring recognition of the artistic and literary talents of students to a national audience.

The Gold Key awards are the highest level of achievement on the regional level. Gold key entries are automatically entered into the National Judging later this year. The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards of New York City are in, and Trinity students are among the many talented students of New York City who have been awarded Gold and Silver Key awards in art and writing.

Visit https://www.artandwriting.org/ for more information about the awards and the history of the awards.

Over the next couple of months, the Scholastic Awards of New York City blog will be publishing five artworks and five works of writing a day from the Gold and Silver Key winners. A list of honorable mentions can also be seen on the blog. Visit it at http://nycscholasticawards.wordpress.com/.

The winners are below:

Writing – Gold Key
Daniel B. Carlon ’13 – Poetry – Southern Catatonia
Elodie M. Freymann ’14 – Short Story – The Boat, Short Story – Scratch Paper
Kyra S. Guillemin ’15 – Short Story – Tree
Lee Harris ’15 – Persuasive Writing – “Falling” in Love
Hyunsun “Heidi” Kim ’17 – Short Story – Flowers and the Bottom Line
Alexandra L. Lathen ’17 – Short Story – Rosie’s Rainbow
Ian B. Leifer ’17 – Short Story – Popped Like a Zit
Lucy L. MacGowan ’17 – Flash Fiction – Perspective, Flash Fiction – Metamorphosis, Personal Essay/Memoirs – Awake with the Rainbows
Emily R. Malpass ’17 – Flash Fiction – The Boy with the Mulberry Mark
Sophia R. McCreary ’17 – Poetry – Papa, Short Story – Seasons of Friends
Sarah A. Saltiel ’14 – Short Story – Witness Theory
Madeleine C. Steinberg ’13 – Personal Essay/Memoir – Oklahoma
Sara S. Tavakolian ’17 – Flash Fiction – A Walk in Winter Wonderland, Short Story – Porchetta Pig
Kristjan T. Tomasson ’15 – Personal Essay/Memoir – The Gift

Writing – Silver Key
Jane R. Baldwin ’17 – Flash Fiction – Dear Randy
Catherine Banner ’16 – Poetry – The Land of Magnolia
Corin I. Bronsther ’14 – Personal Essay/Memoir – The Primate Voyeur
Kenan Danon ’16 – Personal Essay/Memoir – Rawhide
Elodie M. Freymann ’14 – Short Story – The Plowman, Personal Essay Memoir - Tunneling
Finn Freymann ’14 – Personal Essay/Memoir – I’ll Lend You My Voice So You Can Be Yourself
Clara M. N. Gardner ’17 – Flash Fiction – Yellow and Red
Emma R. Gray ’17 – Short Story – The Fall
Jasmine Henry ’16 – Flash Fiction – Coming of Age
Casey E. Horey ’17 – Flash Fiction – A Flickering Hope of Home
Alexandra L. Lathen ’17 – Poetry – These are the Candles I am Lighting
Lucy L. MacGowan ’17 – Poetry – Life Is…
Susanna E. McCollum ’17 – Flash Fiction – The Eye of the Storm
Sophia R. McCreary ’17 – Short Story – Falling, Short Story – Bright
Ava C. McEnroe ’17 – Short Story – Storm, Short Story – Trapped
Scott R. Newman ’17 – Short Story – How am I Getting Home Tomorrow
Ananth Raghavan ’16 – Poetry – The River
Sarah A. Saltiel ’14 – Poetry - What to do About the Consequences, Goodbye/Hello Wish It Would Snow, Shadows are For Decoration, A Study of Dickinson, Small Dreams; Short Story – A Catastrophic Sense of Being
Zachary C. Spohler ’13 – Personal Essay/Memoir – Butterfield
Jack D. Wasserstein ’17 – Short Story – KAROLD

Art – Gold Key
Annabel C. Berney ’17 – Photography – The Necessities of Night
Daniel B. Carlon ’13 – Photography – Promised Land III
Elodie M. Freymann ’14 – Mixed Media – Forest Things, Drawing – An Answer, Photography – Dumpling Shop
Olivia A. Robbins ’17 – Photography – Julia, Julia, Oceanchild
Aaron Z. Smithson ’15 – Architecture – Skyscraper, Architecture – La Plaza

Art – Silver Key
Jane R. Baldwin ’17 – Digital Art – Lights
Daniel B. Carlon ’13 – Photography – Urban Self-portrait I Miranda Coombe – Painting – Untitled I
Emma J. Delaney ’13 – Photography – Red Shoes
Elodie M. Freymann ’14 – Photography – American Trumpet, Photography – Fly Swatter
Olivia Glen-Rayner ’14 – Photography – Ancramdale 1
Olivia C. Manocherian ’14 – Photography – Equilibrium
Olivia A. Robbins ’17 – Photography – Hallmark 1970, Photography – In the Abyss
Jennifer P. Romanello ’13 – Photography - Untitled
Jack Saltzman ’14 – Photography – Hurricane Sandy, Photography - Limbo
Elisa M. Sheen ’15 – Photography – Dedication
Aaron Z. Smithson ’15 – Architecture – Pavilion, Architecture – Train Station, Architecture – Fluid Station
Romy D. Vassilev ’15 – Photography – Untitled 4
Caroline M. Wilson ’14 – Photography – Trey

Congratulations to students David M. Leeds '13 and Quinn A. Steven '14 who were selected as first place winners in the First Annual Rondo Young Artist Festival. They will both perform, along with other first place winners, in Rondo's recitals this spring.

David Leeds will be performing George Gershwin's "Prelude" on piano at the Liederkranz Foundation in New York City on 13 April at 5:00 p.m. and Quinn Steven will be singing Gian Carlo Menotti's "The Black Swan" in Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall on 17 March at 1:00 p.m. The Rondo Young Artist Festival is an international concert showcase which is set out to encourage young musicians to further their musical talents. Rondo's idea is simple: to build confidence in the participants and prepare them for successful lives ahead, while helping their budding musical careers and promoting the spread of music in the community.

For more information, and to purchase tickets, visit https://www.rondoyoungartist.org/.

Fred Toborg, who coached and taught physical education at Trinity for thirty years, and his wife, Barbara, live in Broad Channel, New York, where their home was ravaged by Hurricane Sandy in October 2012. NY1 produced a segment on the couple and the volunteer efforts of Trinity’s community as they work to rebuild their home. With help from many alumni, including Elvin A. "Elly" Can ’91, Norman W. “Ned” Boyd III ’92, Vaughn P. Caldon ’95, and Chip Brian ’89 (co-owner of the construction firm, Design Development, who is rebuilding the home for free), the Toborgs hope to be able to return to their home in April. Watch the segment at https://www.ny1.com/content/179265/queens-couple-thankful-for-team-of-support-in-sandy-recovery.

The Curbed NY blog featured the renovation of the house in an article, including photographs. Read the post at http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2013/09/11/with_a_little_h

Each year, Independent Voices, sponsored by Joint Student Activities, Inc. (JSA), gathers together student poets from New York City's independent schools for a public poetry reading at Barnes and Noble. This year four Trinity students--Sarah A. Saltiel '14, Danny B. Carlon '13, Anna S. McEnroe '14, and Gabriela "Gaby" Sommer '15--will be participating. Their poems will also be published in theIndependent Voices anthology, of which an online edition will be available. Student Claire A. Keyte '13 will not be reading; however, her work will also be published in the anthology. Congratulations Sarah, Danny, Anna, Gaby, and Claire!

The reading will be at the Barnes and Noble located at 150 East 86th Street on Friday, 12 April 2013. The event begins at 6:00 p.m and will run until 7:30 p.m.

On 19 January 2013, Trinity’s two Middle School robotics teams, the Siberian Tigers and the Raging Tigers, competed in the regional FIRST LEGO League contest. The Raging Tigers placed second overall out of thirty-six teams in Manhattan, beating perennial winners, The Dalton School and Hunter College Elementary School, in the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Manhattan Qualifier at the City College of New York, which qualified them for the regional New York City tournament on 9 March.

FIRST LEGO League (FLL) is a LEGO based robotics program for students age nine to sixteen years (nine to fourteen in the US, Canada, and Mexico) which is designed to get them excited about science and technology and teach them valuable employment and life skills. Visit http://firstlegoleague.org/ to learn more.

On 9 March 2013, at the FLL Championship at the Javits Center, the Raging Tigers placed second among the eighty teams from the qualifying tournaments in the five boroughs. The team included Arnold Nam ’18, Eli H. Schiff ’18, Jeremy S. Ben-Meir ’18, Alexander M. Sheen ’19, Deen Amanat ’19, and Jacob L. Cohen ’20. They earned exemplary scores in nearly every category with perfect scores in robot design and project presentation.

The Raging Tigers developed Text-Stop for the competition after the team met with seniors at a local community center. The seniors expressed concern about being knocked over by people walking and texting at the same time. Conducting research jointly with the New York City Department of Aging, the US Center for Disease Control, and Skyping with a wireless expert in the United Kingdom, the team came up with Text-Stop, which uses a phone’s accelerometer to cause its keyboard to freeze when a someone attempts to text while walking. The team has submitted their invention to the Global Innovation Award competition and hope to make it commercially available to help seniors and others avoid potentially dangerous collisions and falls. (http://fllinnovation.firstlegoleague.org/text-stop).

Congratulations to the teams!
Watch a video from the 19 January competition at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxhyXrBxmXA
Watch a video from the 9 March championship of the Trinity team placing second at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg7Dz510JM4

This speech was given by Jennifer P. Romanello '13 during Lower School Chapel on 3 May 2013. A slideshow of photographs accompanied the speech.

Good morning Lower School! My name is Jennifer Romanello. I don’t know how many of you have seen me around school, but I am a student here at Trinity, just like you! I am in the twelfth grade and I came to Trinity in Kindergarten in the year 2000 when I was five years old. That was thirteen years ago and now I am eighteen. I will be graduating from Trinity later this month, and after the summer, when you come back for the next school year, I will be going away to college. Last month I asked Chaplains Barbaro and Morehouse if I could come talk to the Lower School to share with you what it has been like to grow up at Trinity.

I remember being a student in the Lower School really well! What really stands out to me about my time in the Lower School are the many fun traditions I was a part of.

Take a moment to look at the picture behind me. I’m going to count to three. After I say three, can all of you tell me: for what event is this Trinity student holding a dream catcher above her head? 1 – 2 – 3…

Yes! It is the Native American Festival! Do you know who the girl is? It’s me! I am dressed up as a possum and holding a dream catcher above my head on the day of my second grade Native American Festival. Each homeroom represented a possum, coyote, or spider. My whole grade worked really hard learning the dances and together we put on a great show.

I also remember the third grade egg drop. On the screen is a picture of me, my partners, and Mr. Warren as we opened our carefully designed box to find that our egg did not break. My partners and I worked together and respected each other’s ideas.

Celebrating different holidays is a lot of fun in the Lower School. I remember dressing up in a black and orange witch costume for the Halloween Parade when I was in first grade. I still remember a few of the songs from the Halloween Parade, including the one about the little green baby ghost. The Halloween Parade is a lot of fun for not only the first graders, but also for the other Lower School students and the teachers. The three traditions I’ve mentioned so far create a strong sense of community in the Lower School, which I think is very important. It’s great to feel part of something fun, but these traditions are so much more than just fun. They bring us together. When people feel united, they take the time to learn about each other. When people feel united, they are less focused on themselves and more caring for others.

For decades, Trinity students have been a part of these Lower School traditions. The first grade pancake breakfast, the second grade Native American festival, the third grade Immigration Simulation, and fourth grade Japanese Festival – these traditions create some of the best memories of our childhoods. They connect us to our school and to each other. They unite people who are now in the Lower School to people who are no longer in the Lower School – like me. I have been talking about traditions that I was a part of around ten years ago, and you guys know exactly what I’m talking about. I think that’s really special. Many of the important events of your Lower School experience were part of mine too. They have been a part of the Lower School for a very long time.

Just a show of hands… how many of you have seen this flag in real life? On the count of three, can you guys tell me where you’ve seen it? 1 – 2 – 3… Yes! This flag is in the Great Hall! It was actually created when I was in first grade. Each handprint represents a student in the Lower School during the 2001–2002 school year. I remember going to the Lower School kitchen to mix the paint and then press my hand onto the flag that you see everyday.

A few months ago I was in the Great Hall and I told Adele that I wondered which handprint on the flag was mine. She then revealed that she has a list of which handprint belongs to which student. I then knew that I just had to find out which handprint was mine! It’s the thirteenth from the left on the fourth row from the top. Here is a picture of me reunited with my handprint that I stamped onto the flag over ten years ago!

Even if you haven’t realized it, the past and present students of the Lower School are very much united by the flag you walk by everyday. About half of the Upper School students came to Trinity in the Lower School. The older students you walk by in the Long Hallway may have had the same teachers as you – my Kindergarten teacher was Mr. Parbst and my first grade teacher was Ms. Alvarez! Maybe these older students went on the trip to Dead Horse Bay, like you, or had a parent read to their class in the library. You certainly learned to read in the same rooms where some of them learned to read. You even see some of their handprints everyday without even knowing it.

Trinity from years ago and Trinity today are also connected in All School Chapel. I really like All School Chapel. My last All School Chapel ever as a Trinity Student is in thirteen days and I’ve already been to forty-seven of them! But I will definitely come to All School Chapel even after I graduate, especially the one at Christmas time. I really love how during All School Chapel, all the Trinity students and teachers, and even some parents are together in one room. We sit together, sing together, and listen together. Think of the Christmas All School Chapel. At the very beginning, nine twelfth graders walk down the aisle in white robes. They are called acolytes. They are joined by Chaplains Barbaro and Morehouse, Mr. Allman, the twelfth grade speaker and the eighth grade speaker. Three fifth graders sing “We Three Kings” and everyone joins in at the refrain. Four six graders sing “Once in Royal David’s City” as the first graders walk down the aisle holding their candles. Parents lean over the balcony with their cameras and video-recorders. Students of all ages stretch their necks to catch a glimpse of the angelic first graders. I think this part so beautiful. Later, the Upper School chorus sings, and of course you can’t forget the caroling at the end and the singing of “The 12 Days of Christmas”! I have been the first grade candle bearer, the sixth grade singer, and the twelfth grade acolyte. I have also sung in the Upper School chorus.

Being a student at Trinity really means being part of something larger than yourself. The Trinity community includes all thirteen grades, the teachers, parents, traditions, and even the students who have graduated and share many of the same experiences as you. And, by now, there have been Trinity students, teachers, and parents for 304 years!

The Lower School is not only a place where traditions bring us together as a caring community. It is also a place where we learn the independence that we will need in the Middle School and Upper School as well as our lives outside and beyond Trinity. Here in the Lower School, every student has a job to help out the entire class. Some of you are line-leaders or line-enders. You pick up snacks in the cafeteria, you speak during morning meetings, and, in fourth grade, you are ushers, snuffers, or readers in Chapel. You get the job done, even if your teachers aren’t there with you to get snack or usher homerooms to Chapel.

In the Middle School and Upper School, it is very important to be independent in order to do many things by yourself – although of course your teachers (and friends) are there to help you. In the Middle School, your classes are taught in different rooms by different teachers. After sixth grade, you independently travel from room to room instead of moving with your homeroom. You must make sure that you are not late to class. No one from your first class of the day will necessarily have their second class in the same room as you.

Starting in the Middle School, you also must choose how to spend your time during the day. In both Middle School and Upper School, there are twenty minutes every day of free time after your second class. You could go to the cafeteria and have snack with your friends… you could play on the turf… or you could meet with your teacher if you have a few questions about what you’ve been learning in class. Every once in a while, you may find that, although you want to play soccer on the turf, you know that you really should meet with your teacher. In the Middle School, all the teachers are really nice and want to help you. And the Lower School is preparing you to have this level of independence, and I believe that when fifth grade comes around, you will be ready. And now after thirteen years, I believe that my entire time at Trinity has prepared me for next year when I will go to another school. And I know that when I get there, I will be ready to make good choices to balance my time between my classes and spending time with friends.

I knew even when I was in Kindergarten, back in the year 2000, that I’d be graduating in 2013, but the year 2013 always seemed like something I’d be moving towards and never actually reaching. It always seemed so far away. And now I am here after thirteen years, forty-seven All School Chapels, and nearly 500 weekly chapels – over 180 of them in the Lower School. I have had over 2,000 days of school here at Trinity. And now I have only twenty-one days left until I graduate.

Take a moment to look around at our ushers today! They’ve done a great job leading you all to Lower School Chapel! They should be very proud that they are carrying on a tradition that began many years ago and has included thousands of students. They’ve been very independent. And look at all of you in the audience! Together, you all sat and listened to what I have to say. We are sitting here together. We are sharing this experience today at Lower School Chapel.

From my thirteen years here, I have learned that: to be a member of the Trinity Community is to be part of something larger than yourself. When you are part of Trinity School, you are part of something that includes classmates, teachers, and parents. We develop thoughtful and caring relationships with one other here at school. And if you are a member, you are a member for life. You and me, no matter what age, are Trinity kids. Remember that my name is Jen and don’t hesitate to say hi if you pass me in the Long Hallway.

Thank you students, teachers, parents, Ms. Milliman, Mr. Allman, Chaplains Barbaro and Morehouse, Mom and Dad, and my brother Peter who is in the tenth grade… Thank you for the education, memories and friendships that I will take with me well beyond my time at Trinity.

The Empowering Children and Youth School (ECYS) in Freetown, Sierra Leone, serves a community of impoverished children in a slum called Congo Town. These children cannot take advantage of the public school system, as public schools are not free and the children cannot afford the fees. The director of ECYS, Ibrahim Kamara, provides an education for these children in a safe, well-run alternative that allows the children to attend school at no cost to their families. A former child soldier, Ibrahim has dedicated his life to serving the most disadvantaged children in his neighborhood. At only twenty-three years old, he has raised money to build a new building, he has hired teachers, and he has brought together many families in his community to help him pursue his vision.

"When I told this story at a recent chapel, a number of fifth and sixth graders approached me saying that they wanted to help support ECYS,” recalls Benjamin Stern, Middle School technology integrationist. “In my Computers class, the students came up with a number of ideas. They want to create instructional videos that help to explain math, science, and English concepts. They also want to plan and participate in a swim-a-thon to raise funds to support the school.”

The students hope to leverage social media and online outreach to solicit friends, family, and community members to support the students of ECYS. They will have a videoconference next week to begin to establish one-on-one relationships with the students in Freetown.

"I hope that the Trinity community will support these Middle School students in their pursuit of a better education and, therefore, a better life for the students of the Empowering Children and Youth School,” says Ben. From now until the end of the school year, Trinity students will be developing video tutorials, children’s books, and lessons in PowerPoint to teach the students at ECYS subjects such as math, science, and English. During the summer, the fifth and sixth graders will avoid spending money on ice cream, popcorn at the movies, and other expenses and they will contribute that money instead to ECYS. In the fall the students will host a series of fund-raisers to support ECYS and build upon their hard work.

Students Ada M. Guzman '14 and Ozra Yazdani '14 performed their original poetry, to a very appreciative crowd, at an open mic night on 27 April 2013 at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe at 236 E 3rd St in New York City. The Nuyorican Poets Cafe, which was founded in 1973, is a renowned venue for poetry, music, visual arts, comedy, and theater. "We have serious young poets among us, and the city is noticing," says Cindylisa Muñiz, Upper School English teacher. Fellow English teacher and Upper School Class Dean Dr. J. Bradford Anderson was also enthusiastically in attendance.

Trinity Commencement Address, 24 May 2013

Headmaster Allman, Faculty, Trustees, Alumni and Alumnae, Parents, Family, Friends, Students and, in particular, the Members of the Trinity Class of 2013:

I honestly can’t tell you what a tremendous privilege it is for me to be asked to speak to the Class of 2013 at their commencement ceremony. I’m still trying to figure out why I was asked. Trinity has had the president of NYU where I work, John Sexton, give this speech. They’ve had Garry Trudeau who created Doonesbury. Two years ago, I think it was a Pulitzer Prize winner in poetry. So why am I standing here in front of you today? I’m hoping the reason is that I represent a lot of things, neurosurgeon being one of them, but the more important ones being an alumnus of Trinity (Class of 1980), a trustee of the School, and, most importantly, a parent of one of your classmates, Jason. Perhaps you will see in me a glimpse of your future—is thisreally what happens after Trinity? Perhaps you will trust that I might have something relevant to say, since I have in some long-distance way gone through many of the same experiences that you have gone through with some, I might add, of the exact same teachers. Perhaps, I will be a voice from the other side for you, proof-positive at this delicate moment in your lives that things do work out in the long run.

As a neurosurgeon for these past eighteen years, I will tell you, there are very few things that scare me, aside from uncontrolled bleeding. Trying to speak in front of the graduating class of Trinity is now on my list of terrifying moments. To that end, I’d also like to thank personally the eighty-six separate people who have asked me over the past month how my speech was coming. I am unfortunately reminded of the poor souls who come to speak as honored guests at our national neurosurgery meetings and have to address a room full of 2,000 brain surgeons, trying to say something that a neurosurgeon doesn’t already know or at least thinks that he or she knows. I was at your Virgil Academy and saw you go head-to-head with classics professors from Ivy League schools without blinking. Worse, in the age of the Internet, everyone knows everything that’s already been said in the good commencement speeches. At the NYU medical school commencement two days ago, the speaker mentioned how tempted he was to use Woody Allen’s fictional commencement address of 1979: "More than at any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly."

So when I was asked to give this speech, my first fear-tinged thought was, "What can I say to 108 of the brightest, most well-educated and far-ranging young minds that will leave an honest mark?" My fear, I should note, was not assuaged last night at the baccalaureate when I learned that one of the lines in your class statement was, in fact, "I am always thinking, 'Why did they invite this guy to speak?'" But I’ll be honest with you. This is actually the second time I will speak at Trinity Commencement—the first was thirty-three years ago in June, 1980 when I was one of the senior class speakers for my own graduation. The keynote address that year was given by Leonard Lauder, the CEO of Lauder cosmetics and the father of Gary Lauder in our class. The chance today to try again was one I couldn’t turn down, although I hope you will appreciate what a precarious position I was given, speaking after Travis and Visala. It was in my contract that I would get to speak before them, but I guess that didn’t work out. Before I accepted, I of course had to ask my son, Jason, if it would be all right with him. My children think that my life mission at times is to embarrass them, so that I needed Jason’s approval to speak, which he gave willingly although I thought I caught a faint snicker cross his lips as he assented. I can say already that I know there is at least one person who is happy that I am speaking today. My daughter Chloë, who is in ninth grade, upon finding out that I would give the commencement address, was thrilled. "That’s great, Dad,” she said, “at least that way I can be certain you won’t be giving it at my graduation."

This morning, then, I thought I would speak to you about what I have learned as a neurosurgeon. The original title of my speech, in fact, was "Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Neurosurgery School," but as I started to write I realized that so many of the lessons I had learned had their earliest roots at Trinity. My crystallized realization of what mattered came as a neurosurgeon and neuroscientist, but the foundations were constructed decades earlier in my twelve years on West 91Street. So, I thought I would let you know a little about my brain and what’s in it, and then tell you a little about your brains, and, with any luck , what I hope will end up in them. How long should this speech be? Well, that’s one of the things I learned at Trinity, from Mrs. Mallison, your and my English teacher. She would say it should be like a woman’s skirt—long enough to cover everything, but short enough to be interesting.

If you ask one of my best friends in the world when it was that I decided to be a neurosurgeon, he will tell you that it was in first grade. That’s right, I met one of my best friends, David Saltzman, on the first day of first grade at Trinity School (there was no kindergarten then.) I showed up to the first day of school with a broken arm, and David was the first kid to come over and ask if I was okay and if he could help in any way. He was the first at Trinity to sign my cast and we have been fast friends ever since. Through high school and even medical school, I thought that being a neurosurgeon meant having an opportunity to finally understand exactly how the brain works. That’s why I wanted to do it. I thought I would understand directly how it is that we know things, how it is that we remember things, how it is that we create things, how it is that we can deliver speeches like this and talk about the process even while doing it. But the reality was quite different. It is only in the last five years, really, that neuroscientists have started to look at the parts of the brain beyond sensation, movement, language, and vision. In fact, to this very day in neurosurgery, any part of the brain not involved in movement, sensation, vision or language is called "non-eloquent." That part of the brain can’t speak for itself. We freely plan surgical approaches to tumors that transverse and, of course, damage these "non-eloquent" areas of the brain. For virtually all of us right-handers and non-familial left-handers, that includes the entire right hemisphere of the brain except for the motor strip and visual areas. But we are now on the cusp of understanding how crude an approach that is. It is becoming clear that every part of the brain, as we suspected all along, is eloquent if you know how to test its functions adequately. Neuroscientists now use MRI scanners that show real-time activity in the brain to plot out which previously ignored areas of the brain are responsible for such things as fear, anxiety, bargaining, and even altruism. A tiny area of the right (non-dominant) hemisphere where the temporal lobe of the brain joins the parietal lobe seems to be important for assigning guilt and ethical responsibility to our own and other people’s actions. A good friend of mine studies what he calls neuro-economics, using the same MRI scanners to understand how people decide when to gamble or when a price is fair. We are starting to place electrodes deep in the brain to improve mood in chronic depression. In Toronto, neurosurgeons there were placing stimulating electrodes to curb appetite in massively obese patients. In one case, they missed and placed the electrode instead in memory structures of the brain. When the electrodes were turned on, the patient’s memory improved, and this has led to a trial in Alzheimer’s disease.

For me, though, the reality of being a neurosurgeon was far different from my medical school idealism of figuring out the brain. It turns out that being a neurosurgeon is one part surgeon, one part psychiatrist, and one part priest. You are with people at the extremes of happiness and despair in their lives. You see families tested by profound loss and sadness. You learn to judge quickly who will bear up and who will not. You become an acute judge of resilience. I thought that I was going into a technically demanding specialty. But the most demanding part of being a neurosurgeon is emotional, not technical. We all know the typical jokes about neurosurgeons: "It’s been another long day at the pearly gates and St. Peter is dutifully processing people. An amazingly long line of people waiting to get in stretches for miles before him. Then, from the back of the line, a lone figure starts to walk toward the gates. He’s clean cut, dressed in scrubs and a white coat, and has the words 'Chairman, Department of Neurological Surgery' stitched under his front coat pocket. He smugly walks to the front of the line, winks at St. Peter, and strides into heaven. The people in the line are dumbfounded and outraged. 'Just because he’s a neurosurgeon, he doesn’t have to wait in line?!?' the people start to yell. St Peter looks back at them and answers, 'No, that’s just God. He likes to pretend he’s a brain surgeon sometimes.'" Well, I will tell you that nothing makes you humble more quickly than neurosurgery. All of the mistakes I make are permanent and irrevocable. The nervous system doesn’t repair itself like other organ systems. My patients live with the neurologic complications I give them for the rest of their lives. It’s impossible for me to have an ego given that truth. Many of my patients have malignant brain tumors. I am most often the one to tell them that they only have a year, perhaps two, to live. That has taught me how desperately precious life is. The strangest thing about our lives is that the arrow of time points in only one direction. You can never reverse it. There’s a reason we have so many ways to say it. You just heard one in the last hymn we sang: "Time like an ever-flowing stream, bears all our years away." Carpe diem; from Virgil—Fugit irreparabile tempus (time flies without recall); Gather ye rosebuds while ye may (Robert Herrick); to the ancient Greeks, Ta panta rhei (you can never step in the same river twice). The musical, Pippin, is on Broadway now and in a wonderful song the grandmother sings, "Spring will turn to fall, in just no time at all." Well, that has been the hardest lesson that neurosurgery has taught me. There is not enough time on this earth. As a surgeon, I have done heroic operations to secure only another two months of life sometimes. My patients will say to me, "Just be sure I am at my daughter’s wedding." Or, "I need to see my grandchild born." Or as one of my patient’s said when I talked about the risks of surgery with her, "That’s okay, Dr. Golfinos, you know—not walking beats not breathing."

It was being a neurosurgeon that led me to realize, in the face of our fragile lives, that we have to find happiness in every possible moment. When I was recruiting a faculty member from the University of Pittsburgh recently, he remarked anxiously that he was taking a gamble by coming to New York. I told him not to worry: I have a pathological need to make everyone around me happy. I got it from my mother (who is here today). It was my friends the neuroscientists who showed me how to do it, and this is what I want to impart to you now. What we call happiness, it turns out, correlates with levels of dopamine, a neurotransmitter, in the frontal lobes of the brain. There are only three things to date that have been proven to raise dopamine levels on functional MRI scans in the frontal lobes: antidepressants (naturally), exercise, and shared social experiences. The last is the one I want to concentrate on. Actual experimental trials show that social experiences in groups, especially with family and relatives, will raise dopamine levels in the brain as measured by PET scanning. This is the basis, it turns out, of psychoanalysis—the talking cure. It is why church works. It is why being a part-time priest as a neurosurgeon is its own reward. It is probably the basis of altruistic behavior as well. The origins lie deep in our genetic history as social primates, and more importantly lie in specialized neurons in our brains. These neurons, called mirror neurons, respond to other people’s actions. They allow us to empathize with another person. They are how our brains make sense of what is going on in another person’s brain. Our mirror neurons crave contact with other mirror neurons in other brains. It’s why social contact is so critical to humans. The military stresses the Rule of 3s in survival. You can survive three minutes without oxygen, three days without water, three weeks without food, and only three months without social contact. Solitary confinement in prisons is, for this reason, a cruel and sometimes lethal punishment.

Furthermore, the cognitive psychologists teach us that social activities create longer-lasting happiness than material goods. This has led to an entire field of study called hedonic psychology. Daniel Kahneman from Princeton won the Nobel Prize in economics for showing that beyond $60,000/year in income, there is no additional gain in happiness in families in the United States. More material goods do not create additional pleasure; only shared social experiences can do that. This was driven home for me in a wonderful way by Professor Kahneman himself. I went to a fundraiser for my twenty-fifth college reunion, and he was the featured speaker. It took place in early 2009, right after Lehman Brothers had collapsed. The location was an all-white penthouse at the very top of the Time Warner Center. The drapes were white, the furniture was white, even the cat was white. The host was perched at the time at the lip of financial ruin in the real estate markets. In his brief remarks, Daniel Kahneman looked around him at the wonderful views of the park and told the host not to worry. Even if he lost these material things, he would still be happy with his wife and children, and he cited his own studies to prove it. His advice to the host was to create more happiness by spending more time with people he liked.

As a neurosurgeon, learning what neuroscientists knew about happiness was my antidote to the fragility of life. Shirley Tilghman was a full-time working molecular biologist before she became president of Princeton. She was asked how she had time to do research and administrate while being the single mother of two adolescent daughters. She said that her answer was to make vacation times sacrosanct so that every minute was shared with her children. That’s what I have tried to do in my family. I even look forward to being trapped in traffic for hours with my family in the car, though I am not honestly sure that they would say the same thing.

I hope that you members of the Class of 2013 will learn to pursue real happiness when you leave here. Realize that there are mountains of evidence showing how fleeting the happiness of material objects is and how conversely permanent is the happiness of shared social memories. You will have to know your priorities since there will be so many demands on your time. My predecessor as chairman at NYU was a crusty but brilliant neurosurgeon of the old school. He was asked once what his priorities were. He replied, "My priorities? I’ll tell you what my priorities are—1) God Almighty 2) My family 3) That poor bastard on the operating room table 4) My residents and somewhere down around #99, medical school administrators." He had it right. He is in retirement, sailing now, spending all of his time with his wife and daughter.

At this point, I suppose, it’s traditional to close with some pithy aphorisms that you can take with you, sort of like a verbal gift bag. I hate to deprive you of that. The safety of your brain goes without saying—wear helmets at all times in hazardous activities. Mel Brooks noted in The 2000 Year Old Man that the brain was far more important than the reproductive organs, otherwise God would have put a skull around the testicles. At age forty, neuropsychologists can begin to measure memory and cognitive decline in normal people. That’s right. You, the Class of 2013 are close now to your maximum intelligence in your lifetime. Is there any way to stave off decline? This week, the University of Iowa showed for the first time that a specific video game could improve working memory in older adults. It is based on a single training exercise that improves working memory (the basis of IQ), although it’s not clear how long the improvement lasts. The only other proven way to prevent cognitive decline is, of course, exercise. Have a motto—it helps to keep your mind focused. In our neurosurgery department we have two—Grace under pressure. That was Hemingway’s response to Dorothy Parker when she asked him what courage was. "Courage," he said, "is grace under pressure." Having gone to Trinity, I thought we should have a Latin motto as well, so I included Aut inveniam viam aut faciam (Either I shall find a way or I shall make one, apocryphally attributed to Hannibal when he was told there was no way across the Alps). I thought it appropriate for neurosurgery. And by the way, never apologize for your Latin training. Ceteris paribus, it’s a wonderful thing to have. It’s not your fault if other people didn’t go to a school that had seven years of Latin. Similarly, have a sound track for your life. You millenials are particularly adept at that. I use classical music in the operating room for opening and dissecting, and rock and roll for closing. Finally, smell nice. Olfactory memories (those created by the sense of smell) are among the strongest of all memories. The olfactory bulbs themselves are not nerves but specialized parts of the brain, and one of the few parts of the brain where new neurons and connections are continually formed. They connect directly to deep emotional centers of the brain. It explains Proust’s memories involuntarily triggered by the smell of fresh-baked madeleines. Exploit all of your senses, not least your sense of decency.

I hope you will go on in your lives to do great things. I didn’t want to say it, but one of the other reasons I became a neurosurgeon was so that I would help other people without having to even think about it—it would always be the nature of the job. That first grade friend I mentioned early on? He’s helped millions of children and adults in New York City as the head of the Robin Hood Foundation. Take the enormous head start that Trinity has given you and go out to change the world. Change other people’s minds, or, even, their brains.

Thank-you so much for letting me speak, and may you fill your own lives with the most profound happiness. Start with the memories you have all created together here at Trinity School.

John G. Golfinos, MD ‘80

The Distinguished Teaching Endowment was created in 1983 as a tribute to Clarence Bruner-Smith, Dudley M. Maxim ’32 and Frank G. Smith. In 1988, the Alumni Association decided to establish an annual award to a teacher who has taught at Trinity for ten years or more, exemplifies the history and traditions of the School, and who has demonstrated excellence in teaching. The prize, now known as the Greenberg Family-Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Prize, was increased to $10,000 in 2004.

Since its inception, twenty-six teachers have received this honor, their names displayed prominently on the Greenberg Family-Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Prize Plaque in the Great Hall.

The 2013 award was given to Saul Isaacson. Saul has taught English at Trinity since 1989. He served as class dean from 1994-2004 and again from 2006-2008. He’s been noted by parents as a “teacher whose outstanding contribution to our children’s education through his love of teaching and ability to inspire, merits Trinity's recognition and praise.” Colleagues have called him “a master in the classroom” Someone who brings “rigor, passion and patience” to his teaching. Saul was nominated in 2004 to “Who’s who among America’s teachers” and was awarded a faculty travel grant in 2008.

Trinity Alumni and Alumnae Association Board Member Janna I. Levine ’03 presented the award at the end of year faculty luncheon.

Trinity Student Selina Liu ’15 recently spent two weeks in Iowa City, Iowa, from 13-27 July 2013, where she participated in Between the Lines (BTL) Russia, a creative writing and cultural exchange program that brings together twenty talented sixteen-to-nineteen-year-olds—ten from Russian, ten from the United States—for intensive creative study. The workshop is hosted by the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, in partnership with the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the United States Department of State. The only student from New York, Selina was also one of only two participants awarded a full scholarship to attend the program.

During the two week program Selina and the other students participated in writing workshops and seminars, attended literary events, and gave a public reading at the Haunted Bookshop, a local literary landmark. Classes were led by the Russian novelist, Alan Cherchesov, and American poet, Kiki Petrosino. To inspire their writing, the students toured the Figge Art Museum, attended rodeo and mutton busting events, and sampled fried Jell-O at the nearby Washington County Fair. The students stayed in dorms on campus; the Russian students got a taste of US campus life, and the American students learned about Russian life and were able to sample Russian foods and learn traditional games.

“The people we meet inspire us to write…and BTL gave me an opportunity to meet people from all around the world, broadening my understanding of different cultures and allowing me to share my culture with others,” says Selina, whose parents came to the US from Taiwan.

For more information about Between the Lines, visit: http://iwp.uiowa.edu/programs/between-the-lines.

Richard Harvey McLeod, who taught Grade Five at Trinity School from 1946 to 1953, passed away on 20 March 2013 after a short illness. He was ninety-two years old.

Mr. McLeod was born in Albany, New York, on 8 July 1920. He attended Albany Academy, where he served as president of the Joseph Henry Society (for students interested in the physical sciences), played varsity tennis, managed the hockey team, marched and drilled, and graduated in 1939. He graduated from the University of Virginia in 1943 with a BA in government. He was a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity and played on the tennis team.

Upon graduating from college, Mr. McLeod enlisted in the US Army and trained at bases in Florida, Virginia, South Carolina, Missouri, Oklahoma, and New Jersey. He also studied the language and geography of Germany at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. In 1944, after shipping out to England, he crossed into Normandy days after D-Day. For most of the next two years, he served with the 129th Signal, Radio, and Intelligence Company, listening to German radio transmissions and forwarding possible intelligence to Allied commanders.

After returning to New York, Mr. McLeod began teaching at Trinity School in 1946 while studying at Teachers College Columbia University. He received his MA in education in 1948. At Trinity, he met Barbara Price Birmingham, who taught Grade Three. In 1953 Mr. McLeod began working at Buckley School. Mr. McLeod and Barbara married on 11 September 1954 in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, and spent six weeks on honeymoon in Scotland and around Europe.

Of Scottish heritage, Mr. McLeod first traveled to Scotland and the Isle of Skye, the ancestral home of the MacLeods, while stationed in England during the war. In 1954 Mr. McLeod witnessed the creation of the Clan MacLeod Society of America at a dinner at the Waldorf Astoria, and Mr. McLeod and his brother, Andy, would each later serve as president of the society. Mr. McLeod and his family attended several Clan MacLeod “parliaments” in Scotland. He also served over twenty years as “Chief of the Clan” at the annual Boar’s Head Festival at Asylum Hill Congregational Church in Hartford, Connecticut.

Mr. McLeod and Barbara’s three children, Suzanne, Doug and Andy, were born in New York City. Dick taught at Moses Brown School in Providence, Rhode Island, for two years before the family moved to West Hartford, Connecticut, where he was appointed an English teacher at Renbrook School in 1963. He worked there for twenty-nine years, as homeroom teacher, middle school head, director of admissions, and as assistant headmaster. Upon his retirement in 1993, the family established the Richard H. McLeod Scholarship, which provides tuition for a deserving child.

Since 1954, Mr. McLeod spent part of every summer in Weekapaug, Rhode Island, at Skye Cottage, designed by his brother and built on land purchased by his mother. He continued to play tennis and co-founded the Weekapaug Tennis Club. Mr. McLeod and his family and friends loved spending time at the cottage.

After retirement, Mr. McLeod kept busy serving and participating at Asylum Hill Congregational Church, West Middle School, American Red Cross, Meals on Wheels Association of America, the Old Guard, the “Renbrook Readers” book club, and other groups. He and Barbara moved to the Duncaster Retirement Community in Bloomfield, Connecticut, in 2003.

Mr. McLeod was predeceased by his beloved wife, Barbara, in 2011. He is survived by his daughter, Suzanne Warren McLeod, of Arlington, Massachusetts; sons, Douglas Birmingham McLeod of London, England, and Andrew Harvey McLeod of Tallahassee, Florida; daughters-in-law, Bette Anne Berg and Kathy Baughman McLeod; granddaughters, Eleanor McLeod Maybury, Jillian Augusta Jayne McLeod, Fionna Nilsson, and Fiona Hester Cronin; his brother and sister-in-law, David B. and Betty McLeod, of Appleton, Wisconsin; sisters-in-law, Mrs. C. Anderson (Jean) McLeod of Essex, Connecticut, Mrs. Frank (Helen) Keenan of Vero Beach, Florida, Mrs. Henry (Nancy) Jamison of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, and Suzanne Birmingham of Greensburg, Pennsylvania; sister- and brother-in-law Mr. and Mrs. H. Ross (Margot) Perot, of Dallas, Texas; and twenty nieces and nephews.

Congratulations to Trinity’s Science Club for placing second at the Interschool Science Bowl Hosted by Brearley School on Saturday, 16 November 2013. The Trinity team made an excellent showing, with team members, Clio E. M. Meghir ’15, Justin J. L. He ’16, Eric Chen ’16, Corin I. Bronsther ’14, Matt J. Leifer ’15, Maxwell L. Mitchell ’16, Jennifer W. Bi ’15, Valia P. Leifer ’15, and Nivita Arora ’15, participating.

A couple of sample questions from the day:

Which one of the following is found in BOTH plant and animal cells?

W. Lysosomes
X. central vacuole
Y. golgi apparatus
Z. centrosomes

Your nose is 5 centimeters from a concave mirror that has a focal length of 12 centimeters. Your nose appears:

W. upside down and smaller
X. upside down and larger
Y. right side up and smaller
Z. right side up and bigger

Mary Evelyn Bruce, Lower School music teacher emerita and pillar of the Lower School faculty for two generations, died on 29 December 2013 after a brief but intense battle with cancer at seventy-nine years of age.

Already a skilled soprano with professional credits to her name when she arrived at Trinity in 1967, Mary Evelyn was always a Virginian but also quite at home with the hurly-burly of a performing and teaching life in New York. In a distinctive Trinity career that spanned forty years, she made a real difference to the School and its students in every year of her tenure, and it is no exaggeration to say that her influence continues beyond her retirement in 2008 to this very day. Her colleagues and students remember her high musical standards for people and programs, her wry wit, and her ability to coax expert performances out of even reluctant pupils. Understanding that musicians need performances to push forward their training, she encouraged regular instrumental performances in chapel and founded the Lower School Trinity Tones as a way to allow Grade Four to work together at choral singing. Knowing that clear public reading and speaking are hallmarks of any effective chapel program, she trained thousands of students to speak and listen expertly to each other in chapel each week. She composed the text for and organized many programs and events that have now become traditions in the Lower School. When today's Lower School parents marvel at how all of these efforts have blossomed and grown, Mary Evelyn's legacy surely lives on.

We must give [our students] the tools of rigorous and passionate intellectual inquiry and self-expression so they can grow…We must lead them to distinguish right from wrong and then do what is right so they can be persuasive and courageous citizens.

These words from Our Idea of Excellence, Trinity School’s mission statement, provide the framework for The Jack and Lewis Rudin Lecture. Through this annual program, the entire Trinity School community—students and faculty, parents and grandparents, alumni and their families—has the unique opportunity to interact, formally and informally, with outstanding scholars, artists, writers, and social and civic leaders. Trinity School is particularly grateful to Jack Rudin, father of Eric C. Rudin ’71, for the opportunity to create this important initiative.

This year’s Jack and Lewis Rudin Lecturer was Ernest Green, member of the “Little Rock Nine.” Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, on 22 September, 1941, Green earned his high school diploma from Little Rock Central High School. He and eight other black students were the first to integrate Central High, following the 1954 United States Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education that declared segregation illegal. They later would become known as the “Little Rock Nine.” Green then went on to receive his bachelor’s in social science and master’s in sociology from Michigan State University. He also received honorary doctorates from Michigan State University, Tougaloo College, and Central State University.

Since 1985, Mr. Green has been with Lehman Brothers, where he is the managing director of public finance in Washington, D.C., where he lives with his wife, Phyllis, and three children. Previously, he was a partner in the firm, Green and Herman, from 1981 to 1985, and owned E. Green and Associates from 1985 to 1986. He also directed the A. Phillip Randolph Education Fund from 1968 to 1976. During the Carter Administration, Mr. Green served as assistant secretary of Labor for Employment and Training. He was appointed to serve as chairman of the African Development Foundation and chairman of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Capital Financing Advisory Board during the Clinton Administration.

The recipient of numerous awards, Green was the youngest recipient of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s (NAACP) Spingarn Medal, at the age of seventeen. On 9 November, 1999, President Clinton presented Green, along with the rest of the “Little Rock Nine,” the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor given to a civilian, for outstanding bravery during the integration of Little Rock Central High School in 1957.

On Monday, 27 January 2014, Mr. Green spent the day at Trinity speaking and visiting with Middle and Upper School students and faculty during morning assemblies followed by a “lunch and learn” discussion with the Upper School students. The day culminated with the annual Jack and Lewis Rudin Lecture given to alumni, faculty, parents, and members of the public in the Hawley Chapel.

The Jack and Lewis Rudin Lecture, inaugurated in 2004, is supported by a generous grant from Jack and Susan Rudin.

To read more about Ernest Green and the Little Rock Nine® Foundation visithttp://littlerock9.com/ernestgreen.aspx.

Update on 24 April - Gabriella has advanced to the next level in the Presidential Scholars Program and is now one of 560 semifinalists chosen by a distinguished panel of educators.

Seniors Gabriella E. Borter ’14 and Adrian Ivashkiv ’14 are two of more than 3000 candidates in the 2014 United States Presidential Scholars Program. They were chosen from nearly 3.4 million high school seniors in the US, selected for their exceptional performance on either the College Board SAT or the American College Testing Program ACT Assessment. In addition, candidates were also nominated by their Chief School State Officer in their jurisdiction.

Now in its fiftieth year, inclusion in the US Presidential Scholars Program is one of the highest honors bestowed upon high school students. Scholars are selected based on superior academic and artistic achievements, leadership qualities, strong character, and involvement in community and school activities.

560 semifinalists will be chosen by a distinguished panel of educators in early April. In May, the US Department of Education and the Presidentially-appointed White House Commission on Presidential Scholars will announce the Scholars—one young man and one young woman from each state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and US students living abroad; fifteen students at large; and up to twenty students from the creative and performing arts. Finalists will be invited to Washington, D.C. the summer after they graduate from high school to receive the Presidential Scholars Medallion, participate in events and activities, and meet with past Presidential Scholars, elected representatives, educators, and other leading individuals.

Good luck, Gabriella and Adrian!

For more information about the US Presidential Scholars Program visithttp://www2.ed.gov/programs/psp/index.html.

On Sunday, 9 February 2014 Trinity’s computer coding club, HackTrin, hosted a hackathon, a competition in which teams worked collaboratively to create applications. Forty students from seven New York City schools competed for three cash prizes and three special merchandise prizes offered by corporate sponsors. One Trinity team that included Justin J. L. He ’16, Maxwell L. Mitchell ’16, Samuel B. Schiff ’16, and Grace Y. Zhang ’16 was awarded an honorable mention for their project, Syntaxtic. The event was organized by HackTrin’s president, Virginia Cook ’14; vice-presidents, Michael S. Chess ’14 and Daniel M. Ernst ’15; and the club’s faculty advisor, Justin Gohde.

Learn more at https://www.hacktrin.com/.

Hannah M. Sherman ’11, a junior at Bowdoin College, is a recipient of the 2014 Harry S. Truman Scholarship. The Truman Scholarship Foundation was established in 1975, in lieu of a statue, as a living memorial for the thirty-third president, Harry S. Truman. The Truman Scholarship is awarded to United States college students, mostly juniors, who have demonstrated a commitment to public service leadership. Between fifty-five to sixty-five students are chosen each year. This year, fifty-nine Truman Scholars were selected from among 655 candidates.

The Harry S. Truman Scholarship is highly competitive and prestigious, and Truman Scholars receive up to $30,000 for graduate study. Perhaps more importantly, they also receive priority admission and supplemental financial aid at some graduate institutions, career and graduate school counseling, leadership training, networking opportunities, and special internship opportunities within the federal government.

Hannah, who is pursuing a double major in government and Spanish, applied for the scholarship while working in Guatemala from June through December of 2013. “I was first nominated by my college. I sent in in my application, which included various essays on what I’ve done, what I’d like to do within public service, and a mock policy proposal. I had to do this all from abroad, and the Bowdoin scholarship office was incredibly helpful to me during the whole process. My application then went on to the national round where I was chosen as one of nine finalists for New York State, and, in March, I came to New York City for an interview in front of a panel of distinguished people.”

Hannah feels honored to be one of the nearly 3000 Truman Scholars. “The scholarship money will be a huge help for graduate school, but, for me, the really big draw was the community that I will join. Being a Truman Scholar gives me admission into the network of Truman Scholars, a community of hundreds of people who are working in public service all over the world, and I can now connect with them.”

Hannah grew up in Brooklyn, and attended Brooklyn Heights Montessori School through eighth grade, before attending Trinity’s Upper School. “I know that I’ve been incredibly lucky and privileged. I always knew there were people out there not as fortunate as me, especially living in New York which has so much diversity, but I didn’t realize that I wanted to work towards empowering women until the summer before my senior year at Trinity. I was interning in the Netherlands. My mom is Dutch and I wanted to spend the summer there with my family. My internship was in The Hague at the United Network of Young Peacebuilders, a network of international organizations with many focused on empowering women. One of my responsibilities was helping to set up a conference they were organizing about empowering women in Africa. I was reading about women growing up there, often in war-stricken zones, and it was eye-opening. It was the first time that I saw how many women were not like me. While growing up, my parents were always telling me I could do and be whatever I wanted. But there are so many girls all over the world whose parents are not telling them they can do whatever they want, who have so many constraints placed on them, so many expectations for them, and their lives are not their own. I want to help them.”

In Guatemala, Hannah was working at a primary school in Quetzaltenango for the summer, and took the fall semester off so she could continue. The school provides room, board, and education to high school-aged students from poor rural regions. Hannah was teaching English and math, tutoring, and was also helping with the school’s publicity. “It really struck me—in Guatemala there is some expectation that girls will make it through high school, but very little expectation that they will go to a university. The girls at this school were trying really hard to break this cycle. Some of them didn’t have the full support of their families, but they were doing it anyway because they wanted to do more with their lives.

“What was most interesting for me was the grass roots aspect of the school. What are the different ways that people can be provided with the tools that they need to start their own businesses and be successful? I’m specifically interested in microfinance.”

Hannah is interested in using social entrepreneurship as a way to empower women and begin to alleviate poverty for women, especially in Latin America. “This summer I’m interning with FINCA International (the Foundation for International Community Assistance), a microfinance organization. I will be at their Honduras office for ten weeks, and I’m incredibly excited to learn more about microfinance in low-income communities.”

After graduating from Bowdoin, Hannah is planning to take a couple of years off to continue working in microfinance in Latin America. For graduate school, she is considering a MBA with a focus on international business with a joint MA in international studies. “After that, I’d like to continue working in microfinance or in a different kind of social entrepreneurship area. I don’t want to be in politics, but I can see myself working for a government agency.

One of the questions I was asked in my interview was why I wanted to help women in Latin America and not in the US. There are women here facing similar challenges, but the relative amount of poverty in Latin America is so much higher. I made many connections with women there and the relationships I built with them are pulling me back. I want to start in Latin America, but eventually I want to end up back in the States, possibly at an international organization. I’d like to find a way to work internationally and domestically.”

Read more about the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation at www.truman.gov.

The Distinguished Teaching Endowment was created in 1983 as a tribute to Clarence Bruner-Smith, Dudley M. Maxim ’32, and Frank G. Smith. In 1988, the Alumni Association decided to establish an annual award to a teacher who has taught at Trinity for ten years or more, exemplifies the history and traditions of the School, and who has demonstrated excellence in teaching. The prize, now known as the Greenberg Family-Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Prize, was increased to $10,000 in 2004.

Since its inception, twenty-seven teachers have received this honor, their names displayed prominently on the Greenberg Family-Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Prize plaque in the Great Hall.

The 2014 award was given to Johanna Stadler. Ms. Stadler started at Trinity as an assistant teacher in Kindergarten in 1993, before becoming head teacher of Grade One in 1996. During her time at Trinity, Ms. Stadler has served as Lower School team communications coordinator on several occasions, as well as scheduling coordinator for the Lower School. Ms. Stadler has also served as a Lower School diversity coordinator. During Ms. Stadler's tenure as a diversity coordinator, the workshops on micro-aggressions that she helped to develop for the Lower School faculty were so successful that the team was invited to make the presentation to other divisions, to Parents' Association meetings, and at workshops throughout the city. Parents describe her as “thoughtful, attentive, responsive, calm, and able to see the good in every child and person” a teacher with great insight into all students and someone who “students receive strong support from.” Colleagues see Ms. Stadler as a peacemaker—someone who is always willing to see both sides of the story and willing to support give and take in all situations. Ms. Stadler is a team player who can be counted on to contribute positive energy and outcomes to any shared endeavor. Lower School Principal Dr. Rosemary Milliman describes her as, "Approachable, flexible, authentically warm, and easy-going—Ms. Stadler is a saint. She has contributed quiet leadership and unfailing support for any and all Lower School endeavors. A true colleague, Ms. Stadler understands life and brings inspiration and hope to the most discouraging of circumstances. She is a true friend and a sought after colleague."

Aaron Smithson ’15 is the New York State winner of the United States Institute of Peace National Peace Essay Contest for 2014. A rising senior at Trinity, Aaron has been interested in international relations for as long as he can remember. He discovered the contest by searching online, looking for something additional to do his junior year at Trinity. He decided that it would be interesting, and challenging, to write about security sector reform in Somalia and Sierra Leone.

Listen to his interview about his essay here. His essay is included, in full, below.

Cooperation, Reintegration, and Civil Oversight: Strategies in Efficient Security Sector Reform

In 1991, two civil wars erupted in Sierra Leone and Somalia, both engendering government collapse and horrific violence. Twenty years later, though, Sierra Leone would pledge 850 troops to the African Union’s peacekeeping mission in conflict-ridden Somalia,  demonstrating the nation’s growth as an active participant in maintaining continental peace. The countries’ dissimilar fates reflect divergent paths in the transitional process of security sector reform (SSR) and ultimately exemplify the effectiveness of three central reform strategies.

First, active and long-term international engagement is crucial in providing a stable environment for SSR and in preventing the spread of militants and weapons. Second, the disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) of opposition fighters and civilian victims allows for reconciliation between conflicting groups that could otherwise disrupt future peace. Finally, capacitating civil society to oversee and scrutinize the security sector allows transitioning nations to validate and sustain their own reforms, often leading to a cleaner exit for intervenors.

In March 1991, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebelled against the tyrannical Sierra Leonean government.  Six years later, the RUF joined the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council in launching a military coup that forced President Kabbah to flee to Guinea,  then formed a junta to rule Sierra Leone.

In January 1998, the Nigerian-led West African military observer group ECOMOG retook the capital Freetown.  Sierra Leone and Guinea held bilateral discussions to prepare for rebel penetration of their shared border  while regional partners aimed to cut ties between the RUF and Liberian President Taylor through sanctions.  To reduce the risk of recurring conflict,  the U.S. led the Kimberley Process, an international initiative to end the trade of ‘conflict diamonds,’ which often exacerbate violence in unstable African countries.

In 1999, the international community organized peace talks,  formed the U.N. Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL),  and committed peacekeepers to maintain order.  The Sierra Leonean government and rebels eventually agreed to form a unified government and curtail hostilities.

When militants attacked U.N. forces in 2000, the U.K. sent 800 soldiers to Sierra Leone to reestablish order.  The soldiers fought confidently, swiftly restoring peace.  The British government and Sierra Leoneans alike commended the operation for its efficiency.  Evidently, when international partners show commitment to reconstruction, the likelihood that locals will embrace it increases proportionally.

The number of participants that responded to this crisis and cooperated with Sierra Leone, whether due to geographical proximity, post-colonial commitments, or international responsibility, was admirable. Following conflict or governmental changes, combatants and weapons can move and operate within criminal networks that do not necessarily respect national borders. Regional engagement is important in managing their spread and initiating DDR while international intervention is vital in temporarily maintaining peace as reforms begin.

The UN, in consultation with Sierra Leonean and international authorities, executed a phased approach to DDR.   Over four years, the National Committee for DDR (NCDDR) worked with ECOMOG and UNAMSIL to collect and destroy almost 50,000 weapons and more than 1,000,000 pieces of ammunition.  Disarmed soldiers underwent post-conflict reorientation into the economy, often receiving formal education and vocational training.  Sierra Leone’s DDR program ensured social reintegration through promotion of forgiveness and reconciliation.  The NCDDR also worked with the Community Reintegration Program to train civilians affected by conflict in skills that could improve quality of life.  UNAMSIL completed the disarmament and demobilization of over 75,000 combatants by 2002, when the government officially declared the war over.

A coordinated approach to DDR is essential in effective SSR. Unifying a country under the control of one group is seldom an enduring solution to conflict, so DDR programs in Sierra Leone successfully reorganized security forces and transformed rebels into constructive members of society.

In a constructive society, the media is an important vehicle for civil oversight. While the Sierra Leonean government limits media criticism of authorities, access to information has been expanded and international training of journalists has raised scrutiny capabilities.  By expanding media freedoms and education, Sierra Leone is developing its citizens’ political competence and, therefore, civil oversight capabilities.  Ultimately, achieving these goals will allow intervenors to exit more seamlessly.

In Somalia, civil conflict beginning in 1991 produced contrasting outcomes. After a coalition of clan warlords ousted President Barre, a power vacuum engulfed the country’s governance.  The U.S. and U.N. organized a military operation to maintain peace in the collapsing state.  When eighteen American soldiers died in battle in 1992, the resulting media firestorm eliminated public support for the operation.  U.S. marines and U.N. peacekeepers abandoned the operation and left Somalia in utter chaos by 1995.  Similarly, in 2009, Ethiopian troops withdrew from Somalia amid local discontent that had caused conflict among Islamic insurgents.

This disorderly and apathetic international intervention, which President Bush described as not open-ended,  failed to provide a secure environment for DDR to begin. While neighboring states showed interest in promoting Somali peace,  the undertaking lacked long-term support from major international players. Furthermore, unlike UNAMSIL, UNOSOM (UN’s mission in Somalia) was formed without consent from local authorities,  which alienated Somalis from the SSR process. The absence of commitment and cooperation, contrary to experiences in Sierra Leone, caused locals to disengage with reconstruction processes.

Without global commitment to provide temporary security, DDR in Somalia has been ineffective. Forming a harmonious society is inherently difficult in Somalia due to factional animosity.  Still, intervenors became too involved in factional fighting and did not establish traditional inter-clan power-sharing mechanisms that could have fostered cooperation.  Instead, the U.S. sided against warlord Aideed and showed few signs of offering reconciliation,  which caused Somalis to view disarmament as surrender  and ultimately prevented clan cooperation.

While Sierra Leone incorporated civilians into reintegration programs, Somalian DDR failed to respond to local needs.  Because intervenors paid insufficient attention to these needs, dissonance developed among Somalis, who consequently have taken little responsibility over the outcome of SSR.  Civil oversight of the security sector in a failed state is unconventional at best and nonexistent at worst. Somalis rely primarily on local and international radio broadcasters for information.  However, freedom of information is limited by insufficient funding for local broadcasters and by the peremptory influence of terror group Al-Shabaab in southern regions, which frequently dismantles radio stations.  Pervasive radio culture, though, provides opportunities for oversight capabilities. While contingent on the formation of a legitimate government with full national control and on the establishment of press freedoms, formation of civil oversight in Somalia is plausible. Without ordered governance, though, Somalia presents few options for the productive exit of intervenors.

Whether instability is caused by transition from war to peace or from dictatorship to democracy, SSR remains critical for development. The two types of transition are closely intertwined, both frequently causing power vacuums that provoke conflict. While each situation requires some customization, the basic strategies are universal. Failure to complete SSR, though, also has universal consequences. Without proper execution, transitioning countries can enter inextricable cycles of state failure, violence, and economic collapse.

Internally, Somalia’s lawlessness has produced appalling poverty and continued violence. The U.N. has confirmed six Somali regions as famine zones,  infant mortality has reached levels higher than in any other nation,  and civilian attacks have inflicted enormous damage,  reducing hopes for the emergence of sustainable democracy.
Realizing stability through SSR is not only of domestic, but also of regional and international interest. Regional failure to counter spreading militant influence has allowed Somali violence to spill into nearby countries.  In a siege on a Nairobi mall in 2013, Al-Shabaab killed 61 civilians.  This and other attacks on Somalia’s neighbors seriously threaten regional stability.

Internationally, Somalia’s anarchy has widespread implications. Somali pirates have terrorized global trade in the Gulf of Aden,  costing several countries billions in security spending to protect the commercial passage.  Meanwhile, international Al-Shabaab pipelines recruit Somali emigrants, usually disenfranchised adolescents, for terrorist activity.

Sierra Leone’s relative stability has raised hopes for further development of a reliable democracy with a viable economy. While overburdened infrastructure  and a low ranking of 177th  on the Human Development Index  still limit the economy, prospects for international investment and growth have improved. Between 2005 and 2012, Sierra Leone’s economy received praise for improvements in ease of doing business  while expansion in mining, agriculture, and services  contributed to astonishing 15.2% growth in 2012.

Corruption and substandard education preclude full democratization, but Sierra Leone has developed politically, too. International observers, for instance, deemed the 2012 presidential elections impartial and transparent.

Conflict resolution and the collapse of authoritarian government are typically viewed as great victories for peace and democracy, but the ensuing years are often ones of great volatility. Societies emerging from war and dictatorship confront highly fluid circumstances with countless potential outcomes. Some grow and prosper from these predicaments while others collapse into chaos. Somalia and Sierra Leone demonstrate the benefits of committed international cooperation, inclusive reintegration, and civil oversight in creating self-sufficient security sectors for transitioning societies. In learning from such successes and failures, other struggling countries may one day contribute to an international community dedicated to peace, prosperity, and human progress.

End Notes:
Print Sources:
1.    Collier, Paul. The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It. 1st ed. New York City: Oxford University Press, 2008. 127-129. Print.
2.    Collier, Paul. The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It. 1st ed. New York City: Oxford University Press, 2008. 125. Print.
3.    Sachs, Jeffrey. The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time. 1st ed. New York City: Penguin Books, 2006. 60. Print.
4.    Newton-Small, Jay. "The Home Front." Time Magazine. 14 Oct 2013: 10. Print.
5. Wittmeyer, Alicia. "What's an African Life Worth?" Foreign Policy Magazine. Dec 2013: 28. Print.d

Internet Bibliography:
1.    Kron, Josh. "Somalia: Sierra Leone to Send Troops." New York Times. 03 Nov 2011: n. page. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.\
2.    "Sierra Leone Profile." BBC. BBC News, 19 Dec 2013. Web. 13 Jan 2014.
3.    "United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone - Background." United Nations. United Nations, n.d. Web. 13 Jan 2014.
4.    Fitz-Gerald, Ann. "Security Sector Reform in Sierra Leone." Global Facilitation Network for Security Sector Reform. (2004): 7-17. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.
5.    "Kimberley Process Basics." Kimberley Process. Kimberley Process, n.d. Web. 13 Jan 2014.
6.    Gizelis, Theodora-Ismene, and Kristin Kosek. "Why Humanitarian Interventions Succeed or Fail." Kent Academic Repository. University of Kent, n.d. Web. 13 Jan 2014.
7.    Conference Report on Disarmament, Demobilization, Reintegration (DDR) and Stability in Africa. New York City: United Nations, 2005. 22-23. Web.
8.    How BBC Media Action is Working in Sierra Leone. BBC News, Film. 13 Jan 2014.
9.    Albrecht, Peter. "Monitoring and evaluation arrangements for the Sierra Leone Security Sector Reform Programme: A Case Study." Safer World. Safer World. Web. 13 Jan 2014.
10.     "Somalia Profile." BBC News. BBC News, 19 Dec 2013. Web. 13 Jan 2014.
11.     Hassan, Mohamed. "Somali Insurgents Take Over 3 Police Stations." Huffington Post. 03 Jan 2009: n. page. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.
12.     Bush, George H. W., perf. George H.W. Bush Addresses U.S. Troops in Somalia. The History Channel, Film. 13 Jan 2014.
13.     Brickhill, Jeremy. "Security and Stabilization in Somalia: Learning from Local Approaches." SSRNetwork.org. Global Facilitation Network for Security Sector Reform, n.d. Web. 13 Jan 2014.
14.     Bryden, Matt, and Jeremy Brickhill. "Disarming Somalia: Lessons in Stabilisation from a Collapsed State." SSRNetwork.net. Global Facilitation Network for Security Sector Reform, n.d. Web. 13 Jan 2014.
15.     "Somalia: Media and Telecoms Landscape Guide." InternNews.org. Info as Aid, n.d. Web. 13 Jan 2014.
16.     Sachs, Jeffrey. The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time. 1st ed. New York City: Penguin Books, 2006. 60. Print.
17.     "Somalia, 16 September 2011: The most difficult place to grow up – Somalia has the world’s highest child mortality rate." UNICEF . UNICEF Somalia, 16 Sep 2011. Web. 13 Jan 2014.
18.     Straziuso, Jason. "Doctors Without Borders Pulls Out of Somalia." Huffington Post. 14 Aug 2013: n. page. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.
19.     Banda, Gabriel. "Somalia's Violence and Africa." Saturday Post Online. 13 Aug 2010: n. page. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.
20.     Karimi, Faith, Steve Almasy, and Lillian Leposo. "Kenya mall attack: Military says most hostages freed, death toll at 68." CNN International. 23 Sep 2013: n. page. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.
21.     Abdulkadir, Shukri. "Al Shabab's Impact on Peace in Somalia and the Horn of Africa." Africa Portal. 23. (2012): 1-2. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.
22.     Gettleman, Jeffrey. "Money in Piracy Attracts More Somalis." New York Times. 09 Nov 2010: n. page. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.
23.     Bellish, Jonathan. "The Economic Cost of Somali Piracy 2012." OceansBeyondPiracy.org. Oceans Beyond Piracy, n.d. Web. 13 Jan 2014.
24.     "Human Development Reports: Sierra Leone." United Nations Development Programme. United Nations, n.d. Web. 13 Jan 2014.
25.     "Doing Business 2014: Understanding Regulations for Small and Medium-Size Enterprises." World Bank. 11. (2014): 26. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.
26.     "Sierra Leone." African Economic Outlook. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Jan 2014.
27.     "Sierra Leone Overview." The World Bank. The World Bank, 01 Nov 2013. Web. 13 Jan 2014.
28.     "Sierra Leone: Ernest Bai Koroma Wins Presidential Poll." BBC News. 23 Nov 2012: n. page. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.

Margit Ulrich, longtime Lower School receptionist and transportation coordinator, died peacefully in her home on Monday, 23 June 2014, after a long struggle with Parkinson's disease.

When she arrived at Trinity in 1982 to work as an accountant in the business office, it may have been difficult to imagine what a generous and public role Margit would come to inhabit at Trinity. Happily, for a generation of our students, in two or three years she moved to the Great Hall and began to account not only for school busses but for Lower School students as well. With sixty pictures of every new Kindergartener on her desk each year, Margit came to know every student in the Lower School individually and called them each by name as she shepherded them to and from their extracurricular responsibilities. Fourth graders in particular remembered with respect, and a certain reverence, the dignity, care, and concern that Margit brought to classes as she taught them about growing up as a young Jewish girl in Germany during the Holocaust and about immigrating to the United States. She loved our students, worked with and admired our teachers, and, by the time of her retirement in 2009, many of us at Trinity thought of Margit Ulrich as the kind, sensible, and well organized grandmother whose oversight of the Great Hall had transformed it from a transfer space into a home away from home.

Margit is survived by her daughter, Nancy J. Ulrich '81, Nancy's husband, Michael, and their son, Adin '21; and her daughter, Lisa S. Ulrich '80, Lisa's husband, Seth, and their son, Lucas. Margit was preceded in death by her husband of fifty-three years, Ernest Ulrich, on 26 November 2013.

A memorial service for Margit is planned for the early fall, at which all Trinity friends and colleagues will be most welcome.

-The Rev. Timothy L. Morehouse

Congratulations to Maxwell S. Chung ’17, who competed in the 2014 USA Fencing National Championships in Columbus, Ohio, from 22 June to 3 July 2014. He is the national champion for Division II and Division III in men’s foil.

Maxwell began fencing seven years ago at Fencers Club in Manhattan, with coaches Simon and Irene Gershon. Maxwell’s sister, Isabella, a Greenwich Academy student, is also a nationally ranked fencer.

Training as a fencer would be considered to be grueling by many, but Maxwell enjoys the challenge, “I am grateful to the administration and faculty at Trinity School who have allowed me to train throughout the week. I go at least four to five times a week for a minimum of three hours for each session. I have a two hour training session with a group, then a thirty minute private lesson with my coach, and then another thirty minutes of free fencing afterwards.

“Fencing is a burst sport. There’s a lot of energy exerted in a very small period of time. During a tournament, even though there are breaks, you know that one mistake can cost you the touch or the match. Stamina is a key component in fencing, and you have to quickly size up your opponent, because you don’t want to waste energy on an opponent who you can beat with simpler moves. The three strongest aspects of my fencing are agility, speed, and thought..  Fencing is a mentally, as well as physically, challenging sport and every match is different.”

Maxwell often trains with his sister, Isabella, but sibling rivalry does not interfere in their relationship. “Men’s and women’s foil are vastly different. Our presence in training with each other, and then supporting each other during tournaments, really helps us to push ourselves to the best of our abilities. We always know that no matter what happens in the fencing world, whether we win or lose, we have each other’s back. My family’s support is very important to me in my fencing career.”

After a few years of being disappointed with his results, Maxwell has been working on his concentration, not letting outside variables distract him from a match. “I listen primarily to rap music, but also some trap, mashups, and occasionally dubstep-electro to help me focus and eliminate thoughts not about the bout. I try not to think about whether I’m going to win or lose. You have to block out all thoughts except the match, because otherwise you are blinded to your decisions in the current moment. In the past, I have let my mental guard down and lost. If I lose, I want to lose because we both fought well but the other person was better at that time, not because I let myself get lost in my mental state. Fencing has taught me to truly learn from defeat. When you put so much training in, you expect to see results. But I learned to accept defeat and grow from it.

“I wasn’t sure what to expect at nationals this year. I have been putting a lot of effort into my training and reforming my style. I am aggressive and I would always rush into things. But this time I tried to keep a strong mental focus. I made sure I understood my strengths and weaknesses relative to my opponent’s, and I was much more patient. I knew that I had the potential to do well."

Maxwell also had the added challenge of competing against a good friend and fencing teammate in both final matches. “We see each other training and we know each other’s style. But no matter how close you are, you have to block that from your mind. It’s a high-stress situation for me. Just because you are close friends, doesn’t mean that you should let go of the spirit of the competition. You push them to do their best, and they do the same for you.

“When I won Division III, which came first, I truly felt that it was a blessing from God, but also a reflection of my own hard work. I realized that all the hard work you put behind something really pays off. It was an indescribable feeling of happiness and self-fulfillment. And then I won Division II the next day. It showed me that anything was possible, as long as I kept fighting for what I wanted. I have never been a national champion before. It has been such a journey and I know there is so much more in front of me. I’m proud to represent my school, my club, and my family. My achievement motivates me to work harder and achieve even more. I view these events as pivotal moments in my fencing career, as well as focal learning points from which I can improve.”

See photos from the Division II men’s foil gold medal final:

https://www.usfencing.org/photo_gallery/show/861939#1

The Distinguished Teaching Endowment was created in 1983 as a tribute to long-serving and distinguished faculty members Clarence Bruner-Smith, Dudley M. Maxim ’32, and Frank G. Smith. In 1988, the Alumni Association decided to establish an annual award for a teacher who has taught at Trinity for ten years or more, exemplifies the history and traditions of the School, and who has demonstrated excellence in teaching. The prize, now known as the Greenberg Family-Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Prize, was increased to $10,000 in 2004.

Since its inception, twenty-eight teachers have received this honor, their names displayed prominently on the Greenberg Family-Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Prize Plaque in the Great Hall. The 2015 award has been given to Cindylisa "Cindy" Muñiz . Ms. Muñiz started at Trinity as a teacher of English in 1990. During her time at Trinity she has served as Upper School class dean (1998-2004), cohead of the English Department (2004-2007), Upper School multicultural coordinator (2008-2010), and chapel coordinator (2014-present). She was listed in Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers in 2000 and was a recipient of the 2006 Summer Curricular and Pedagogical Fellowship. “Phenomenal teacher,” “intellectual fire,” “questing spirit,” “unabashed determination”—a teacher whose “commitment to the community of her classroom is palpable as is her passion for her craft”—are among the ways her colleagues and peers describe her.

Upper School Principal and Assistant Head of School Jessica Bagby shares about Cindy: "Cindy Muñiz is a rare spirit whose artistry as a teacher is rooted in her own moral conscience, her deep love of literature, and her belief in the power of writing to transform us and enlarge our humanity. James Baldwin writes that those of us who teach, who engage with the minds and hearts of young people, must be prepared to 'go for broke.' Cindy Muñiz has made not just a career, but a life of 'going for broke' in furthering her students. Daily, hourly, she gambles it all on her faith in them, their gifts, and their power to make the world better--more just, more humane, more beautiful."

Kevin Bleakley worked at Trinity from 1974 until 1993, as the dean of faculty, as well as a chemistry and physics teacher. After leaving Trinity, he and his wife, Glenys, returned to their native Australia where Mr. Bleakley continued his successful career in schools, and Glenys continued her career as a well-known operatic soprano. Mr. Bleakley is remembered by his colleagues of the time, not only as a master chemist and a mathematician of keen insight, but as an able sportsman and fierce competitor on the tennis court. Most of all, his contemporaries say that he was incredibly devoted to Trinity students. In his time at the School, he assisted with the student-faculty senate, student government, and assembly committee. He was the sort of colleague whose faithful work with students and faculty made the School a warm and welcoming place.

Kevin Bleakley died on 22 December 2014. He is survived by his wife, Glenys, his sister, Anne, his brother, Gary, and brother and sister-in-law, Geoff and Janet.

John Dooley, longtime head of the Visual and Performing Arts Departments, worked at Trinity from 1970 until his retirement in 1999, and during his tenure mentored generations of Trinity students and faculty alike. In addition to his classes in studio art and art history, he headed up the film club for many years and served as the artistic director of the Morse Center, working with the fall musical and the spring cabaret. His legacy at Trinity is not only humane but humanizing. Mr. Dooley designed the Brass Arts Wing, creating the large seminar room that the Upper School now uses for classes as well as for faculty meetings, to the Visual Arts Department classrooms that we all envy, full of light and air.

John Dooley died on 30 December 2014. He is survived by his wife, Susan, and son, Brendan ’84.

The Distinguished Teaching Endowment was created in 1983 as a tribute to Clarence Bruner-Smith, Dudley M. Maxim ’32, and Frank G. Smith. In 1988, the Alumni Association decided to establish an annual award to a teacher who has taught at Trinity for ten years or more, exemplifies the history and traditions of the School, and who has demonstrated excellence in teaching. The prize, now known as the Greenberg Family-Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Prize, was increased to $10,000 in 2004.

Since its inception, twenty-nine teachers have received this honor, their names displayed prominently on the Greenberg Family-Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Prize Plaque in the Great Hall. The 2016 award was given to Anne Subrizi Mckee. Anne started at Trinity in 1981 as a Teacher of Physical Education and Fitness for Lower, Middle, and Upper School. During her time at Trinity, she’s coached swimming, gymnastics, softball, track and field, volleyball, tennis, and cross country. Anne is an inaugural inductee into the Trinity Coaches Hall of Fame, and recipient of the Smith Award in 1997 and 2009, the Parent’s Association Award in 1989, and the Spirit of Trinity Award.