Innovation All-Stars
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HILLTOPPER innovation All-Stars + REMEMBERING winter/spring 2017 HEADMASTER BLOOM VOLUME XXV / ISSUE 2 CHECKING IN CONTENTS 4 innovation all-stars WINTER/SPRING 2017 contents Use the Layar App to discover digital content 12 with your mobile device. Remembering Download the App from 27th Headmaster iTunes, Google Play, or Blackberry World. John Bloom, credited for reviving Academy in 1970s 1 Find a page with a Layar call to action 22 (pages 22, 25, and 28). election 2 festival 2016 Use Layar to scan the page by tapping device screen. (Hint: make sure entire page is viewable for scanning). 24 3 17 Watch for a photo gallery to open or for a departments Rachel Rios ’08 video to play. 3 HEAD OF SCHOOL 14 ALUMNI NEWS 17 ON THE HILLTOP 4 25 THE MIDDLE Tap video to view in full 26 FROM THE ARCHIVES screen, or slide finger to 28 WA ATHLETICS view additional images 32 GIVING NEWS in photo gallery. 35 CHECKING IN 45 PASSINGS 5 Enjoy! 18 the HILLTOPPER BOARD OF TRUSTEES winter/spring 2017 officers & members VOLUME XXV / ISSUE 2 President Henry Dormitzer III ’88 Head of School Ronald M. Cino P’21, ’22 First Vice President Susan Weagly Jacobs, J.D. P’03 Second Vice President Sarah (Sullivan) Pulsifer ’91 Hilltopper Editor Neil R. Isakson P’15, ’19 Secretary Brian A. O’Connell, Esq. ’67 Treasurer Jonathan S. Stuart ’86 Associate Editor Barbara Strogoff P’97, ’03 2015 Case DI Bronze Award Benny Sato Ambush ’69 Graphic Design Good Design LLC Dr. Lauren S. Baker P’15,’18 winner for Best William Breidenbach ’69 Photography Ursula Arello Designed Magazine Patricia Z. Eppinger P’16,’20 Marillyn Earley R. Victor Fields ’71 Alicia Figueiredo Matthew Finkle ’87 Stephanie Jackson 2016 CASE DI Silver David P. Forsberg ’65 Tom Kates Photography Award winner for J. Michael Grenon ’88 Neil Isakson William Haddad ’92 Charley Mull General Excellence, Arthur Kentros ’74 Mike Nyman Photography Independent School Jamie E. Lavin ’02 Tony Rinaldo Photography Magazines Dana R. Levenson ’75 Dan Vaillancourt Andrew B. O’Donnell, Esq. ’73 Megan O’Leary P’20 Videography Neil Isakson Jacqueline Peterson OskeeVision James J. Pietro ’81 Susan Puryear P’19,’21 Advancement Office Marillyn G. Earley, Director of Advancement J.P. Ricciardi P’15,’17 Ursula A. Arello ’85, P’21, Director of Donor and Alumni Engagement Hervey S. Ross ’46 Frank R. Callahan ’71, Director of Planned Giving Robert Scumaci P’15,’18 Alicia Figueiredo, Manager of Alumni Programs and Events David V. Shamoian ’70 Neil R. Isakson, Director of External Communications Luke M. Vaillancourt ’01 Anette Macintire P’22, Annual Fund Coordinator Dexter P. Morse, Headmaster Emeritus ON THE COVER Tara Probeck, Director of Marketing Innovation all-stars are Erica Driscoll Ribeiro P’20, Director of Annual Giving taking their passions to Donald E. “Dee” Rowe ’47, Special Assistant to the Head of School new heights as a result Kim Stone, Director of Donor Development of WA’s commitment to Barbara Strogoff, Gift Coordinator/Editor technology and education. (Tom Kates Photography) Featured Writer Jody McNamara P’09,’12, a marketing and communications consultant, is a longtime feature writer and former director of parent relations at Worcester Academy. Jody, who organized and chaired two consecutive auctions for WA, lives on Cape Cod. Contributing Writer Frank Callahan ’71 is longtime director of Planned Giving for Worcester Academy. A member of the American Antiquarian Society, he is WA’s unofficial historian. MISSION Worcester Academy exists to instill in its students the desire to learn The Hilltopper is published twice yearly by Worcester Academy. Reader comment, as well as information of interest, is always welcome. throughout life, to engage passionately with the world around them, Please write to Neil R. Isakson, director of External Communications, and to be honorable persons of strong and resourceful character. at Worcester Academy, 81 Providence St., Worcester, MA 01604, or email [email protected]. CORE VALUES We are a community—curious, thoughtful, generous, and thriving in our diversity. We embrace each of our core values as essential to the mission of Worcester Academy and as testimony of our beliefs and commitments. HONOR | RESPECT | COMMUNITY | PERSONAL GROWTH | CHALLENGE 2 the HILLTOPPER : winter/spring 2017 from the head of school WA innovators taking tech passions to new heights “Technology is omnipresent at school with students using it throughout each day to manage their social lives and academic pursuits. They always seem to find an app to match just about any area of life.” Worcester Academy’s investment in technology is remarkable Hilltopper and you will see an “all-star” lineup of WA tech innova- for its depth and breadth. We’ve been doing it comprehensively, tors who are taking their passions to new heights as a direct result thoughtfully, and strategically for well over a decade. We have of our commitment to technology and education. They include Kaz fulfilled one of the goals from our previous strategic plan and Grala ’17, Maggie Reiter ’18, Ethan Student ’18, Aryan Mayor ’21, have utilized technology to improve operational efficiency. Even and Isa Cino ’22. Their work runs the gamut: They are focusing on more importantly, our faculty’s use of educational technology has engineering challenges regarding aerodynamics and cars. They improved our students’ learning and communication abilities. are building robots and participating in competitions highlighting We are positioned as a leader amongst independent schools, as innovation. They are commandeering 3-D printing programs that evidenced by our faculty frequently being called upon to deliver put form to whatever their minds can imagine. presentations and workshops at regional and national conferences. Perhaps most striking is the fact that these students are Technology is omnipresent at school with students using it representative of a campus that is teeming with examples of throughout each day to manage their social lives and academic student-driven innovation, whether in English or math or history, pursuits. They always seem to find an app to match just about or science or art or world languages. Technology at WA is ever- any area of life. You need only to walk from one end of campus to present, and in a way not commonly found in the ethos, or in the the other to see students interacting with laptops, iPads, and cell classrooms, of most school environments. In particular, faculty and phones, among other devices. There is a natural tension between staff seek opportunities for students to use tech to access informa- the all-consuming nature of technology and the challenges it tion and to demonstrate knowledge differently. They use it in the presents for students and adults to engage meaningfully with creative process and in assessment. It adds value to teaching and those around them. Technology can unite or isolate. We can use it learning by engaging students in new, elegant, and sometimes to share or exclude. It can affirm our community’s core values— surprising ways. Honor, Respect, Community, Personal Growth, and Challenge—or Sixteen years after arriving at WA, it is clear to me that tech- it can test them. nology education is as important to the Worcester Academy At Worcester Academy, we see technology as a tool that sup- experience as any discipline that we teach. I have seen it in my ports our teaching and learning. It prepares students to solve many different roles at school, most recently as head of school, complex questions and to demonstrate learning while at the same but also as a WA parent. The Hilltop is exceptional in this regard. time allowing for creative expression. Our classrooms and school More important, it is enabling Worcester Academy students to take culture support the active and purposeful use of technology. advantage of the opportunities provided to them in order to take Students are prepared to use technology because it is among the the lead when it comes to their own education. best resources available to solve problems. Our most visible tech-learning program may have been the 1 to1 Laptop Initiative, but there have been many more programs, from Day of Code to iPad initiatives. Take a look inside this edition of The Ronald M. Cino Worcester Academy 3 innovation All-Stars by Jody P. McNamara Supphachai Salaeman/Shutterstock.com 4 the HILLTOPPER : winter/spring 2017 Here on the HILLTOP we spend a lot of time exploring the opportunities for active learning,” topic of innovation. We’re constantly says Jeremy Smith, WA physics striving to keep our Hilltoppers not only instructor and faculty advisor for the competitive, but also leading in a world Academy’s Robotics Team. “In terms that seems to shift and change daily of method, I feel that a lot of it is just with new technologies and new method- getting out of the students’ way. ologies. If Steve Jobs was right—that it’s “Sometimes it’s setting up the innovation that distinguishes between a problem or the situation and step- leader and a follower—then the Hilltop ping back and saying, ‘What can must be an innovation incubator as you do with this? What can you fig- we move firmly into the 21st century. ure out?’ We give our students the How do we do it? We know that a space to answer tough questions.” true learning community draws not We nurture each of our 620 students only on the strength of its faculty every day, helping them all to find their members, but also on the strength and passions and then nudging them to creativity of its talented students. lead. Meet five Hilltoppers who meet “We try to give them a lot of that definition of innovative leader.