Congratulations to the Class of 2020!
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Nonprofit Org. US POSTAGE PAID SummerSummer 20202017 Permit No. 259 Newburgh, NY Address Service Requested ONEWSLETTER FROMa OAKWOODk FRIENDS SCHOOL • CELEBRATINLG OVER e210 YEARS OaF FRIENDS EveDUCATION IN THE HUDSOsN VALLEY 2020-2021 Fall/Winter School Calendar Congratulations to the Class of 2020! October 3 Middle School Parents Reception October 17 Upper School Parents Reception October 20 Workshare Day November 22 11th Grade College Planning 1:00 pm Nov 25-27 Thanksgiving Break November 30 Winter Term Remote Learning Interval December 15 Virtual Holiday Concert, 7:00pm Dec. 18 –Jan. 12 Winter Break January 12 Winter Term Classes resume January 30 Virtual Auction to support Annual Fund Delaine Aranha Daphne Ballesteros Willow Bennison Malcolm Condon Zachariah (Zac) Craft Elias Fredericks Visit us at www.oakwoodfriends.org 16 SuSummermmer 20172020 NEWSLETTER FOR ALUMNI AND MEMBERS OF THE OAKWOOD FRIENDS COMMUNITY Back to School in September 2020 Anisa Gilmour Carissa Herrera Anh Vu Phoung Ho Christophe Mooney Quynh Thi Xuan Nguyen Matthew Stewart Stefanie Quintanilla Huy Duc To Diamond Tulloch Cyril Uebbing Huairuo (Robert) Wang Yi (Zoe) Wang Thank you! 2019-2020 Annual Fund Exceeds Goal! See Annual Gifts Report In center section. Zhiwei Wang Jianhao (Alex) Xu Zeyue (Lareina) Zhang Hou (Paul) Zhaoyu 2 SSummerummer 20202017 NEWSLETTER FOR ALUMNI AND MEMBERS OF THE OAKWOOD FRIENDS COMMUNITY CELEBRATING OVER 210 YEARS OF FRIENDS EDUCATION IN THE HUDSON VALLEY SummerSummer 20202017 15 project which will hopefully turn out great. Cur- Wendy (Meiwen) Zhou – Graduated from Univ. Looking Back and Moving Ahead Thank You of Rochester this year and will enter UPenn for by Chad Cianfrani, Head of School rently I am applying for the Virtual Student Fed- eral Service internship. Hopefully, I get selected. graduate school in the fall. Maintenance & My regards to everyone. While we adapt to our current environment, we look optimistically forward to the year Cleaning Crews ahead. A growing Middle School program, IN MEMORY the largest in almost two decades, now in- cludes a 5th grade. Our Upper School pro- gram expanded enrollment across grade levels as we welcomed dozens of new fami- Frances Smith Feldman ’46 lies into the community. While the campus July 11, 2019 may have been closed for the last seven months, Oakwood’s Lighting the Way cam- Eric Springer ’46 paign and renovation of Lane Auditorium September 5, 2020 moved forward at pace. A few aspects of the 2016 project already completed include return- Yuchen Feng – I got my BA in economics at NYU. Richard Perkins ’50 ing the maple floors to their original con- I already started the MS program in marketing March 18, 2020 dition, exposing the expansive truss beams Danny Wilde, Jose Reyes, Ray Valentin and science at Columbia Business school and I plan For the first time in over seven months, Oak- overhead, installation of energy-efficient Pablo Ramos to graduate next summer. Edward van Kleeck Cunningham ’52 wood students, faculty, and staff gathered as HVAC systems, sprinklers, elevator, addi- March 24, 2018 a community this September. As we navigate tional classroom spaces, and a fully updated COVID, adapt to economic uncertainty, and lighting and sound system. This fall, stu- John Berlin ’54 actively engage in the process of shaping a dents are ready to begin another century of May 17, 2020 more inclusive and racially just society, we gathering, learning, and creating together. Alumnus and former clerk Parfait Bizimana visited are at our creative, adaptive, and resilient Julie Fogelson Braverman ’56 best. Oakwood has been here before. Over I look forward to welcoming you back to Oak- with Nancy and Bill Doolittle at their new home two centuries ago, Lucretia Mott, a student wood (virtually or in-person) and continuing in Maine! Parfait had an internship at the Maine April 19, 2020 at our predecessor school Nine Partners, this journey together. See you on campus! Farm Credit Bureau in Auburn where he worked provided foundational work in the aboli- on developing a hub for the southern eastern James Gregor Rechetnick ’64 tion and suffrage movements. 100 years ago, area for his MBA. May 21, 2019 we navigated the last global pandemic dur- Chris Galschjodt ing a campus move to the Hudson Valley. Jacky Jin – I graduated from Boston University 2017 Peter Messimer ’65 And over the last many decades, the mis- with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engi- Congratulations to Matthew Voorhees for receiving August 20, 2020 sion, and values upon which the school was neering with a minor in Computer Science. I’m the Housing and Residential Life Award for Desk founded, continue to provide a platform currently working at Bloomberg as a software Receptionist of the Year at Kutztown University Anne Kantaros Murphy ’69 for student voice and community engage- engineer. for the second year in a row. September 2, 2020 ment. In keeping with a strong tradition of Friends’ education, we do this while edu- Faculty & Friends Robert Lessig ’72 cating and preparing students academically Congratulations to Susan Masciale-Lynch on her June 6, 2019 for lives of consequence and meaning. new position at Marist College! She will be sorely missed but we are so happy for her as she em- As we prepared for the opening day of school, barks on this new adventure in higher education! Horst Berger we reflected deeply on lessons learned these Congratulations to Desiree & Jon Pesner ’07 on May 4, 2019 last seven months. Last spring, with New NYYM York State under quarantine, we taught from the birth of their daughter Rani Elaine Maxine Pesner March 16, 2020 our living rooms, recorded soccer training Reginald (Reg) Hannaford sessions from our driveways, and engaged Araceli Reyes, Inocencia Reyes and in our Zoom classroom conversations from Dominga Wolfenden Jeremy Robbins – I took the role as Head of June 13, 2020 five continents. We held each other ac- School at Brehm in September of 2019, with the Former Faculty countable and worked tirelessly to support idea that I would travel back and forth to NY all aspects of the program and mission. Lighting the Way until the family relocated in the summer. Brehm Warren Wyrick Matching Gift Challenge Met! serves students and young adults with complex February 14, 2020 Over the summer, we continued to make sig- Nora Sackett – Nora graduated from Mt. Holyoke learning differences. Located in Southern Illinois, Former Faculty nificant investments in the health and safety Last spring, we announced a Matching College with a degree in music and education we are in a region known for its beautiful lakes of our community, enhanced the physical Gift Challenge for Lighting the Way of- and is licensed to teach elementary. She will be and the Shawnee National Forest. spaces and classrooms, expanded outdoor fered by Rob Blackman ’61 and board doing trail work for the Appalachian Mountain learning spaces to include more of the 55 president, Don Spencer. With generous Club in the fall. acre campus, invested in the technological gifts from 40 donors, we reached the infrastructure, and supported the profession- challenge goal of $100,000! Gifts ranged Oak Leaves al development of our faculty and staff, the from $25 to $10,000, and every gift was Summer 2020 heart and foundation of our program. With important. Thank you! students engaging both remotely and in-per- ELAINE MILES son, classes look a bit different this fall. Social Fundraising continues for the final Director of Development & Alumni Affairs distancing, face masks, increased health and phase of our renovation work. It’s not hygiene measures, and a collective sense of too late to participate. Please contact JULIE Okoniewski responsibility guide and shape our actions. Elaine Miles, [email protected] Associate Director of Development & or (845) 462-4200 x 224, to discuss You may even see students from three conti- (l-r) Sawyer, holding sister Maeve, with brothers Alumni Affairs nents joining their on-campus classmates via ways that you can support the revital- Zeke and Emmett. Zoom for an outdoor music class. Regard- ization of our beautiful campus. WENDY GIANGRASSO less of where our students are physically, we Assistant Director of Development & are connected as one Oakwood community. Thank You! Alumni Affairs 14 SSummerummer 20202017 NEWSLETTER FOR ALUMNI AND MEMBERS OF THE OAKWOOD FRIENDS COMMUNITY CELEBRATING OVER 210 YEARS OF FRIENDS EDUCATION IN THE HUDSON VALLEY SummerSummer 20202017 3 ous other alumni via social media and am always happy to receive any Oakwood updates! I've at- My First Year as a Member of the Oakwood Faculty tached a pic - it's 3 months old already! Whew By: Jesse Doherty-Vinicor ’06 time flies even in Covid times. Oakwood is my second home and always will be. Cheers This past year at Oakwood has been surreal, ishes their memories of high school. Oak- cially between stu- rewarding, at times harrowing, but always wood was the community I needed as a long dent and teacher. Alaka Lindsley – In February, I left my manage- reaffirming. I came to Oakwood as a stu- haired, freaky teen, and it continues to be the After my daughter ment job at MultiCare and the 1.5 hr round trip dent from 2002-2006 and have just returned community I need as a progressive educator. was born, my wife commute after 23 years, and started working as an English teacher in the Upper School. and I isolated, but closer to home (literally within 5 miles!). This This transition was one I was anticipating I vividly remember my job interview here. as soon as we be- change also gave me the chance to return to my with some amount of nervousness (would Stephen Miller, the humanities department gan venturing out two passions: doing clinical work and teaching.