The Berkeley Carroll School Winter/Spring 2016 MAGAZINE SPEECH & DEBATE: DISCOURSE, TEAMWORK, TRADITION THE VIEW FROM LINCOLN PLACE Dear Friends, n this issue you will read about the While at the Teton Science School For many of our eighth graders the range of activities our kids are engaged our kids are engaged in doing real most meaningful part of the trip is the Iin, all of which are intended to science. They perform water studies in night hike. We walk to the top of the butte, reinforce our mission of building critical, creeks, streams and rivers with all of in the dark, without flashlights. A Teton ethical and global thinkers. Doing all the data getting entered into the official Science School teacher talks about the that we do with our students, including Wyoming state database. It is not constellations, individual stars and even traveling to new destinations, changes the unusual to encounter elk and moose — the satellites that are visible overhead. We way they look at themselves and at the on arriving at the school our first night all then sit in silence. This is a worldview world; there is no more important work. we quickly had the kids exit the bus, that most of our kids have never seen and I had the pleasure of traveling to Jackson but could not unload baggage until later it leaves a deep impression. Hole, Wyo. with our eighth grade students because there was a bull moose in the On the last day of our visit I was part in October. This is the fifth year that parking lot! of a group that reflected on the trip. One Berkeley Carroll has taken the entire grade The terrain in that part of the of our eighth grade students, after taking to spend a week at the Teton Science School. country is breathtaking. We hike trails in the whole experience, reflected, “It It is an ambitious undertaking which we in the national park, study the range of made me see that there is no us and them, can only attempt because of the dedication vegetation, investigate the impact of that we are all here together. The world of the teachers and the leadership of Middle forest fires and track wildlife. In addition is a community.” School Director Jim Shapiro. to performing the science work, our Thank you for being with us on all of It has become almost routine that students also spend part of a day these journeys. the full contingent of students receives performing stewardship work; out west compliments from fellow passengers and that means clearing and repairing various Sincerely, the flight crew. It is a real pleasure to hear trails. Our students could spend all day how well behaved others feel our students doing that work, they enjoy having an Robert D. Vitalo are and how interesting the students are impact and leaving that part of the world Head of School when engaged in conversation. in better shape. Doing all that we do with our students…changes the way they look at themselves and the world. CONTENTS BOARD OF TRUSTEES Lydia Denworth Chair Amy Bender Vice Chair Mike Miller Secretary Chris Welch 36 38 Treasurer; Finance Committee Chair George Sweeting Buildings & Grounds Committee Chair Shirley Hedden FEATURES Committee on Trustees Chair Christina Shane 36 Making a Change: Social Justice in the Lower School Communications & Admissions Chair Our youngest students are using what they learn in the classroom to improve the Joseph Polizzotto world at BC and beyond. Development Committee Chair 38 Speech and Debate: Discourse, Teamwork, Tradition MEMBERS BC students fi nd their voice on the Speech and Debate team. Shawn Austin Ann-Marie Cascarino 44 Humanities Uses Dignity to Solve Problems Anthony Cornicello Middle schoolers are learning to alleviate confl ict with open mindedness — Eric Chapman ’92 not violence. Mark Cheffo Andrew Fabens Virginia Freire ’94 DEPARTMENTS Richard Greenspan Stephanie Holmes i The View from Lincoln Place Larry Kaplen Sarada Krishnamurthy 2 BC Lens Susan Marcinek 4 Alumni Profi le: Jane Nerlinger Evans ’69 Jay Rao Stacey Reiss 5 Faculty Development Chad Ruble 6 News Briefs Michael Weaver 10 Commencement 2015 The Berkeley Carroll School Magazine is published by the Communications 18 Sterling Place Construction Offi ce for parents, alumni, grandparents, 22 In the Classroom faculty and friends of the school. The views expressed in this publication 24 Project Brooklyn and Beyond are solely those of the authors. 28 Events 30 On Campus CO-EDITORS Linda Adams and Melissa Goldin ’09 32 Athletics Highlights DESIGN 34 Arts Highlights Jonathan Imphong 50 Alumni Reunion 2015 PRINTING 52 Class Notes The Wall Street Group, Inc. 56 In Passing [email protected] 58 Ask a Student: www.berkeleycarroll.org What advice would you give to students a grade younger than you? Phone: (718) 789-6060 60 As Seen On Instagram Printed on recycled paper Winter/Spring 2016 BC Magazine 1 BC LENS BC en Español Lower School students show off their Spanish-speaking skills at an assembly in September. Berkeley carroll’s Spanish partial-immersion program lets students learn a second language naturally. ALUMNI PROFILE: JANE NERLINGER EvanS ’69 corrupt. There were men that expected the women to make the coffee (I refused) and in some cases groped the women in the office. The younger guys moved up faster and helped each other get ahead. When women began assuming higher positions in production management I noticed that the atmosphere changed. I worked for women almost exclusively starting in the late 80s and it was with several women’s belief in me and their support that I was able to finally break through the glass ceiling. s a student at the Berkeley What is the most challenging part of What inspired your work on Institute, Jane Nerlinger Evans your job? sustainability in the film industry? A’69 swore she would never work The challenge has always been to A producer on a film I was overseeing in the film industry, as her mother had. best realize a director’s vision within the asked if the production could be used And yet, she is now an independent constraints of a budget. “Cold Mountain” for a pilot study on how to reduce waste, producer for DreamWorks who has could not be made in North Carolina energy, water, etc. After that I used my worked with many renowned directors where it was set because of the big price position as a bully pulpit to continue these including Steven Spielberg, Anthony tag. Instead, the production went to practices on the films I was involved in. I Minghella, Ang Lee and Gus Van Zant, Romania and tens of millions of dollars rallied other film execs to do the same and after almost 40 years in the same business were saved. together we created an industry standard she never expected to be a part of. that is now in use. Evans attended Berkeley from first What moments from your career are through 12th grade and graduated from most memorable? What memories stand out from your Friends World College, an experimental There are so many! Finding myself time at Berkeley? college, then associated with NYU’s in the French countryside looking for There were two seminal moments University Without Walls, in 1974. She the village to set “Chocolat” in, creating a when I was in elementary school that was a potter, a jeweler, a script reader and summer of love on “Taking Woodstock” I'll never forget. On the last day before more, before working on her first film at and with Celia to boot. My first meeting Christmas break at the height of the age 27, “Nighthawks” starring Sylvester with Steven Spielberg. And winning the cold war/duck-and-cover era, there Stallone, with Berkeley classmate Celia Rachel Carson award from the Audubon was what sounded like a bomb. Two Costas ’68. Society with the Green is Universal team. commercial airliners had collided in After more than 15 years working midair and one crashed on Seventh in freelance production in NYC, Evans You mentioned you felt you were Avenue, yards from Berkeley. We gathered began her career as a film executive, hitting a glass ceiling earlier in your in safety, but trembling, in the gym. first at HBO, then Miramax, became career. Did you ever feel you were held The other was hearing that Kennedy head of physical production at Focus back because of your gender? was shot. It was a Friday afternoon as Features, and then at DreamWorks before At the beginning of my career men we were being dismissed. We gathered becoming an independent producer for dominated production management. It’s in the library to watch Walter Cronkite the company. She also helped launch the generalizing to a certain degree and I on TV. We sobbed in each other’s arms. Green Production Alliance, established to don’t mean to be sexist, but many of them These were collective experiences that left improve sustainability in the film industry. were bullies, hard nosed and often a little indelible marks. 4 BC Magazine Winter/Spring 2016 facUltY DEVELOPMENT ur faculty is committed to ongoing professional development in order to stay current on best Opractices in education and maintain BC’s tradition of delivering challenging, innovative academic programs and curricula. This past summer, faculty participated in a number of opportunities (too many to list here) including: HIGHER EDUCATION • John Hopkins University graduate program in mathematics • Harvard University graduate course in mathematics • Bank Street College graduate course in mathematics CONFERENCES • American Association of Physics Teachers Conference (College Park, MD) • National Two-Way Immersion Conference for Research & Best Practices on Second Language Development (Palm Springs, CA) • Exploring & Performing Shakespeare workshop (HM Royal • International Forum on Language Teaching Conference Shakespeare Company) (St.