SIDWELL Contents FRIENDS MAGAZINE Summer 2020 Volume 91 Number 3 EDITORIAL DEPARTMENTS Editor-in-Chief Sacha Zimmerman 2 REFLECTIONS FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL Art Director 4 ON CAMPUS Meghan Leavitt The School announces the 2020 Newmyer Award Senior Writers honorees; the robotics team tackles 3D-printed masks; Natalie Champ we ask Director of Health Services Jasmin Whitfield five THIS YEAR, Kristen Page questions; local sports maven Chad Ricardo hosts the Alumni Editors School’s Athletic Celebration; and much more. Emma O’Leary 16 THE ARCHIVIST Anna Wyeth 04 EVERYTHING Thomas Sidwell knew how to handle a plague—or three. Contributing Writers Loren Hardenbergh 36 ALUMNI ACTION Caleb Morris New grads ascend to alumni status; Founder’s Day brings CHANGED. Contributing Photographers out alumni for the Let Your Life Speak series. Kelley Lynch Susie Shaffer ’69 40 FRESH INK And when it did, the power of the collective Freed Photography Brett Dakin ’94; Laurence Aurbach ’81; generosity of the Sidwell Friends community Digital Producers Anthony Silard ’85; Ellen Hopman ’70. became even more apparent. Anthony La Fleur 43 CLASS NOTES Sarah Randall Annual Fund donors provided teachers with the ability Spoiler alert: Everyone is sheltering in place. LEADERSHIP to quickly adapt and connect with students over new 18 83 WORDS WITH FRIENDS technologies. You ensured that every student had the Head of School “A Social-Distancing Puzzle” resources to continue learning on new digital platforms. Bryan K. Garman Chief Communications Officer 84 LAST LOOK You enabled the School to quickly respond to families Hellen Hom-Diamond “Lose Yourself” who faced unprecedented financial hardship. CONNECT WITH SIDWELL FRIENDS FEATURES When you make an Annual Fund gift, you @sidwellfriends 18 GOING THE DISTANCE @sidwellfriends strengthen our community. Your generosity matters The coronavirus closed the Sidwell Friends campus— @sidwellfriends to everyone, every day. Especially today. but not its classrooms. Sidwell Friends Magazine 24 RISE UP 3825 Wisconsin Avenue NW 24 The Sidwell Friends community stands up to racism Washington, DC 20016 and police brutality in 2020. 202-537-8444 LIVES THAT SPEAK sidwell.edu/give sidwell.edu/magazine [email protected] 28 HONEST BROKER Daniel Goldman ’94 on surviving COVID-19, prosecuting On the Cover the Genovese crime family, defending the truth, and impeaching the president. NON-DISCRIMINATION AND TITLE IX Yona ’32 Nondiscrimination Statement: Sidwell Friends School prohibits discrimination and harassment against any member of the School (Photo by 32 TOGETHER / APART community on the basis of race, color, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, sex, Kelley Lynch) personal appearance, genetic information, economic background, political affiliation, marital status, amnesty, or status as a covered As the coronavirus continues to alter the fabric of our daily veteran in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws. Director of Equity, Justice, and Community Natalie Randolph ’98 has been designated to handle inquiries regarding discrimination and Title IX concerns, policies, and procedures. lives, Vidisha Patel ’81 reminds us to practice self-care, Her contact information is: 28 appreciate the pause, and listen to the virtues of silence. Office Mail: 3825 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Washington DC 20016 Email: [email protected] | Phone: (202) 537-8182 For assistance related to Title IX or other civil rights laws, please contact the U.S.Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at [email protected] or 800-421-3481; TDD 800-877-8339. SUMMER 2020 | SIDWELL FRIENDS MAGAZINE 1 REFLECTIONS FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL REFLECTIONS FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL Much has fallen apart this year. We are enduring a remarkable community and its expression through Meeting for Worship public health and humanitarian crisis. Fundamental assump- transcended space, revealing that our connection to tradi- tions about education are being challenged. Our nation’s hor- tion could continue to serve us in the digital world. Alumni rific history of murdering people of color reared itself again, of color stepped forward, challenging the School to diversify reminding us that racism remains our most persistent and the curriculum, address persistent inequities, and consider pernicious scourge, one that, if we are to make good on the equity issues that might be aggravated during the COVID-19 promise of equality and the reality of shared humanity, we crisis. In a moment of unity and beauty, more than 1,100 stu- must unequivocally commit to eradicating. No one can be dents, parents, alumni, faculty, and staff lined Wisconsin and fully human as long as members of our society are dehuman- Massachusetts Avenues, stretching three miles down to R ized. Our country and School must do better. We must act, as Street, all proclaiming, “Black Lives Matter.” our Diversity Statement charges us, to affirm We have been and will “the centrality of diver- continue to be tested. And sity and inclusion in all through it all, our com- aspects of academic and “We have been and munity has demonstrated campus life.” strength and resilience, an will continue to be unyielding faith in the rel- We have indeed been evance of our mission, and tested, but our commu- a need to protect it. No one nity has begun to imag- tested. And through cares more about the mis- ine alternative futures. sion of their School than Faculty and staff imple- it all, our community members of this commu- mented an emergency nity, and I am grateful for Distance Learning Plan, has demonstrated your engagement. The fact one that forced them to that all of our constituen- transfer and translate cies care so deeply speaks years of human experi- strength and resilience, directly to the lively intel- ence into a digital for- lectual and ethical conver- mat. Parents of young an unyielding faith sations that animate our children had to redraw classrooms and furnish the the home/school/work in the relevance of critical and caring culture triad, exhausting them- that ensure we remain in a selves as they tried to perpetual state of renewal, cover all the angles. Stu- our mission.” that even as things fall dents valiantly contin- apart, we are all imagining ued to learn but mourned how we might put things Falling into Grace the loss of vibrant social back together. If together connections in a relatively lonely and anxiety-producing we give ourselves wide berth to experience the grief, relief, In troubling times, we learn to heal, to grieve, to change. environment. Members of the Class of 2020 provided extraor- misery, and joy that define this moment; if together we lis- dinary examples of leadership, inspiring us at every turn, ten to the lessons of this moment and use them to care about BY BRYAN GARMAN even as they experienced the disappointment of disruption. the School and one another; then together we can assure that Trustees remained inspiring stewards of the School, making Sidwell Friends will come together in exciting new ways that bold decisions about our future and how we must build endur- serve our students and deepen our mission. uring a recent meeting with the Parents Asso- Author and Buddhist Pema Chodron notes that Buddhism ing financial strength. Faculty and staff created opportunities ciation Quaker Life Committee, I was moved shares many tenets with Friends and is especially helpful in for students, parents, and alumni to assemble, reflect, and Thank you for caring. Thank you for holding in the Light by the depth and sincerity of the conversation. finding the Light in the darkest, most fragmented moments. write about the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and those who have been affected by COVID-19, the heroic essen- Friends and non-Friends alike spoke earnestly “Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of Ahmaud Arberry. tial workers who have served them, and all victims of racism about how they might learn more about the healing,” she writes. “We think that the point is to pass the and police brutality. DQuaker tradition, how it might help address the world’s cur- test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things Even as much of what we took for granted came unwound, rent crises, and how we could explore its connection to other don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. we united around the significance of the School and its tra- religions. One parent, a Zen Buddhist, was especially inter- Then they come together and fall apart again. It’s just like that. ditions. Students and alumni embraced a tradition of service, ested in examining parallels, something I have been explor- The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to making personal protective equipment for first responders ing for several years. happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.” and giving generously to support financial aid. The power of 2 SIDWELL FRIENDS MAGAZINE | SUMMER 2020 SUMMER 2020 | SIDWELL FRIENDS MAGAZINE 3 The Class of 2020 sat for a photograph last fall—before COVID-19, OFF before masks, and before social distancing. It’s what a group of Upper School seniors should look like: healthy, lighthearted, arm-in-arm, smiles unhidden. And though the second half of the year upended ON CAMPUS expected traditions, it did not break their spirits. Born between 9/11 and the Iraq War, resilence is in their DNA. And after graduating from Sidwell Friends, service, justice, and wisdom are in their hearts. 4 SIDWELL FRIENDS MAGAZINE | SUMMER 2020 SUMMER 2020 | SIDWELL FRIENDS MAGAZINE 5 ON CAMPUS The graduation ceremony was virtual, but there was still plenty of pomp. On June 7, after a digital version of the traditional Meeting for Worship, Head of School Bryan Garman and Principal Mamadou Guèye addressed over 500 viewers, some of whom were family from across the globe who otherwise would not have been able to see their loved ones graduate.