TALK ThistleThistle TALK Breaking Ground at City Campus in this issue: ManyMany Voices,Voices, OneOne Vision:Vision: TheThe CampaignCampaign forfor WinchesterWinchester ThurstonThurston SchoolSchool RealizingRealizing thethe VisionVision CityCity asas OurOur Campus:Campus: E.E. E.E. FordFord FoundationFoundation AwardsAwards GrantGrant forfor CurriculumCurriculum InitiativeInitiative AlumAlum AuthorsAuthors Winchester Thurston School Autumn 2005 Alumnae/i, parents, trustees, faculty, and students lent a hand in the TALK groundbreaking ceremony for the City City Upper School. Pictured are (L-R) Rachel Woods ’10; Sally Doerschuk Thistle Ketchum ’43, WT alum parent, MAGAZINE grandparent, and former trustee; Logan Uretsky ’07; Henry Posner III, Volume 33 • Number 1 Autumn 2005 WT parent and trustee; Gary J. Niels, Head of School; Martin Powell, former Thistletalk is published two times per year by Winchester Thurston School for alumnae/i, President of the Board of Trustees, parents, students, and friends of the School. WT trustee, and WT parent; Mary Letters and suggestions are welcome. Please contact the Director of Communications, Martin ’88, Lower and Middle School Winchester Thurston School, 555 Morewood Art teacher; and Benjamin Harrison ’17. Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213. Editor Anne Flanagan Director of Communications fl [email protected] Groundbreaking Groundbreaking Assistant Editor Alison Wolfson Director of Alumnae/i Relations [email protected] Contributors David Ascheknas John Kanter ’07 Laurie Heinricher Carl Jones Lauren Ober ’96 Karen Meyers ’72 Lee Moses Dan Sadowski Lori Sisson Allison Thompson Graphic Design Web Feat Studios Printing Broudy Printing Inc. School Mission Winchester Thurston School actively engages each student in a challenging and inspiring learning process that develops the mind, motivates the passion to achieve, and cultivates the character to serve. Core Values We activate our Mission by creating a learning environment that promotes and instills appreciation for these fi ve Core Values: Critical Thinking, Integrity, Empathy, Community, and Diversity. Winchester Thurston School 555 Morewood Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15213 Telephone: (412) 578-7500 www.winchesterthurston.org Content published in Thistletalk represents opinions, ideas, and perspectives of the authors that are not necessarily those of the Trustees or About the Cover: Ground Broken for Upper School at City Campus Administration of Winchester Thurston School. Winchester Thurston School broke ground for the new Upper School at the City Campus in The editors reserve the right to accept, reject, or edit any content submitted for publication Shadyside on May 24, 2005. Students from all three divisions participated in the festivities. in Thistletalk. Pictured on a contractor’s backhoe are (front row, L-R) Fred Egler ’11, Kate Bartlett ’07, Copyright © 2005 Winchester Thurston School. Karolina Karagyozova ’16, (back row, L-R) Alec Silberblatt ’08, Taylor Thomas ’17, All Rights Reserved. and Julian McClain-Hubbard ’10. Cover and inside front cover photos by Karen Meyers '72. V O L . 3 3 • NO.1 AUTUMN 2005 inside Features COVER STORY many voices, one vision 4 The Campaign for Winchester Thurston School reunion 2005 11 city as our campus 12 Courses Designed to Use the Resources of the City alum authors 14 Winchester Thurston alum authors put their education and expertise on paper what all the buzz is about 2 LETTER FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL Gary J. Niels shining a light on the new board president 3 wt today 18 SCHOOL NEWS Summer Experiences… Transformations…Committed to Community Service… Natural Scientists…School Motto Challenges WT to Examine Its Moral and Community Life… Faculty News and Awards development news 28 class notes 30 Can you find the answers to these Special questions in this issue of Thistletalk? 1. What is significant about the date November 16? Section 2. What obscure hobby did Melissa Leapman ’80 turn into 2004-2005 a number of popular books? 3. What is the “Symbolic Migration” project? annual giving report page 45 www.winchesterthurston.org 1 Gary J. Niels school of head What All the Buzz Is About athletic surface on which to compete. the summer on related initiatives—Core letter from the If you round the corner at Ellsworth Values, the Advisory System in the and Morewood Avenues, you will see Middle School and Upper School, and a spectacular sight: Our new Upper Community Service. School building’s framework rises three One of the most tangible results stories into the sky! We watch the daily of these discussions occurred during progress as structural elements replace an early fall professional development mental images of this crown jewel of the day for faculty and staff organized rom the North Hills Campus Winchester Thurston vision. by the Community Life Committee, to the City Campus to the Expansion of our physical facilities whose work is focused on diversity. neighboring communities leads us to another exciting announce- We rotated through group sessions to the City of Pittsburgh, ment: the expansion of our Early on how various media have depicted there is a buzz of excitement Childhood Program. This program will different ethnic groups; how Dr. Beverly Fabout our school’s physical changes, widen the age-range of the children WT Tatum’s highly-acclaimed book, Why our educational developments, and our serves to include boys and girls who will Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together vigorous commitment to moral vision. be turning 4 by the start of school. At in the Cafeteria?—which we read as a More than ever, we are a dynamic our City Campus we will change the community over the summer—relates community, changing the look of name of our Kindergarten Readiness to WT; and viewed a PBS documentary Winchester Thurston School’s campuses program to Pre-Kindergarten. At our film tracing the development of the while enhancing our position as a North Hills Campus, Pre-Kindergarten concept of race. The Community Life leader in education for children from will be a brand-new program. Joan Committee is developing a follow-up 4 to 18. Flechtner, current City Campus diversity plan that will inform the I wish that everyone could have Kindergarten Readiness teacher and school about its direction in thinking attended Parents’ Night at the North Early Childhood Program Coordinator, also of the comfort and the rights of all Hills Campus in early October to and Nancy Rogers, Director of the people at WT. experience the sense of joy about our Lower School and North Hills Campus, Yes, the buzz about our growth can new Campus Center. Completing this have been the chief architects of be heard all over town. More than ever I building project—one that enables us this program. have a sense that we have taken a giant to expand our educational offerings to I am encouraged as our faculty leap forward as a school. I am sincerely an increased number of students—was and staff enthusiastically embrace a humbled to be a part of this exciting a tremendous team effort. As I surveyed commitment to examine our school’s time at WT. the campus on my way into the school, moral and community life. At the end I had an overwhelming sense that of the previous school year we launched we now have a more visible presence two committees to look at ways to in the North Hills community, and better link our daily practices and that enables WT North to be all that it community life to our beloved credo, can be. “Think Also of the Comfort and the At the City Campus, you will see Rights of Others.” The Moral Life and our newly constructed all-weather Community Life Committees are fully turf field where children play outside engaged in exploring these challenging every day and our sports teams enjoy and essential topics. In addition, several a level, mud-free, state-of-the-art smaller task forces began working over 2 Thistletalk Autumn 2005 www.winchesterthurston.org 3 Victor A.Roque Shining a Light on the New Board President ears ago, when WT Board the New York Power Authority. From President Victor Roque 1978 to 1994 Roque was vice president, and his wife, Marcia, general counsel and secretary for the noticed “that cute little Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc. In school on Middle Road,” he 1994 he was recruited to join Duquesne Yhad a question: “Winchester Thurston? Light Company as General Counsel and What on earth is that?” When it was was promoted to president of Duquesne time for their daughter, Nicole, to Light in 2001. Roque chairs the board of Winchester Thurston School enter Kindergarten, they evaluated a the Urban League of Pittsburgh and BOARD OF TRUSTEES lot of different schools before settling serves on the board of Highmark, Inc., Victor A. Roque on WT. where he sits on its Audit, Nominating, President Says Roque, “We were looking for and Compensation Committees. Dan Cohen a school that would give our daughter As he looks ahead as WT Board Vice President individualized attention. Student President, Roque wants to see WT diversity was also an important factor; achieve three goals. The first is the Simin Yazdgerdi Curtis Vice President several of our African American friends completion of the capital campaign. had sent their children to WT and spoke “Our new physical facilities are pivotal Ellen Perlow Kessler highly of it. Finally, Marcia and I fell in to the future of our institution. They Vice President love with the Winchester Thurston are a part of what sets us apart from Roy G. Dorrance North Hills Campus and its idyllic, other schools, and these buildings have Treasurer country setting.” A “lifer” at WT North, to be paid for,” he states. The second is Russell J. Boehner Nicole is now a sixth-grader at the to bring the construction projects in on Secretary City Campus. time and within budget. The third is Gary J.