Alumni in - The Taft School

Transcription

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Alumni in
AFRICA
Winter 2010
20
Chaba’s Story
Launching Africa’s Leaders,
One Orphan at a Time
By Andy Taylor ’72
h Students, faculty and special
guests kick off MLK Day with
a prayer breakfast in the new
west dining hall. Connecticut
Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele was
the speaker. Andre Li ‘11
Faces: ©www.iStockphoto.com/duncan1890
in this issue
24
B ulletin
Winter 2010
The Water Carriers
Learning To Fit In In Madagascar
By Libby Cox ’92
30
Confronting a Dark Pandemic Amidst
a Technicolor Dreamscape
Linda Zackin ’80 Propels Health Programs Against
the Beguiling Backdrop of Namibia
By Phoebe Vaughn Outerbridge ’84
34
An Advocate
for Africa
Jennifer Cooke ’81
Helps Shape U.S. Policy
By Tom Frank ’80
Departments
2 From the Editor
3 Letters
3 Taft Trivia
4 Alumni Spotlight
10 Around the Pond
17 Sport
38 From the Archives
from the EDITOR
Most of you loved the electronic version of
the Bulletin we sent out with the fall issue, but
we realize that reading online isn’t everyone’s
cup of tea, so rest assured that we’ll continue
to mail the printed version as well. Once we
are better able to track your preferences, we
hope to let you choose, but in the meantime
please excuse us for sending you both (there
is no additional cost to the school).
Benefits of the e-version:
• It’s environmentally friendly and very
economical.
• You can click on most websites mentioned
and go directly to that page.
• You can forward it to anyone you choose,
wherever that person may be.
• Those of you who change locations more
often than e-mail addresses are much more
likely to receive the electronic version.
• You can also search for your name or any
classmates’, to be sure you don’t overlook
any news that might be in another class or
another section of the magazine.
Still, despite all those advantages, the electronic version is hard to settle down with for
any length of time, and so we understand
and appreciate those of you who still love
print. We hope that you’ll proudly display
the Bulletin on your coffee table, or hand it
to a friend after you’ve read it, and eventually we trust that you will recycle it.
Above all, we hope this and every issue of
the Bulletin prompts you to get in touch with
a classmate, that you feel a bit more connected to your school, or that you’ll send us
your story! We want to hear from you.
Didn’t receive the electronic version of
the Bulletin? We may not have your current
email address, so please send it our way.
Many thanks!
—Julie Reiff, editor
On the Cover
B
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v Theme issues are
rare for the Bulletin,
but combining the
remarkable stories of
these alums in a single
issue makes them all
the more powerful.
They begin on page 20.
N
Alumni in
AFRICA
Winter 2010
©www.iStockphoto.com/
duncan1890
2 Taft Bulletin Winter 2010
This is the fourth issue of Taft
Bulletin published on 100 percent
postconsumer recycled fiber. What
difference does that make? Well, this
issue consumes nearly five tons of
paper. Not using virgin fiber translates into the following savings:
B ulletin
Winter 2010
Volume 80, Number 2
Bulletin Staff
118 trees, which supply
enough oxygen for roughly
59 people a year
Director of Development:
Chris Latham
Editor: Julie Reiff
54,082 gallons of water, or
roughly enough for every varsity,
JV or thirds boys’ hockey player
to shower for the entire season
Alumni Notes: Linda Beyus
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Mail letters to:
Julie Reiff, Editor
Taft Bulletin
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Send alumni news to:
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[email protected]
Deadlines for Alumni Notes:
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Send address corrections to:
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Find a friend’s address or
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For more campus news and events,
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The Taft Bulletin (ISSN 0148-0855)
is published quarterly, in February,
May, August and November, by The
Taft School, 110 Woodbury Road,
Watertown, CT 06795-2100, and is
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Letters
The picture on page 40 is of 1980 classmates
Craig Kravit, Paul Todd, Dave Evans, Larry
Stabler, Rob Peterson, Slade Mead, Corey
Griffin, Jeff Thompson, Bob Kelly and Jeff
Potter. It was given to our dear friend, The
Old Beezer, when he was ill about five years
after we graduated. I recall that the picture
was taken after dinner senior year during an
early fall snow flurry. I apologize but the rest
of the story is highly classified information.
Perhaps, if you’re buying the beer, you may
be able to get some of the details out of one
of us at our upcoming 30th reunion!
—Rob Peterson ’80
I believe many of my ten former classmates in
the photo lived in the “Senior Boys Dorm,” a
converted Common Room off HDT-2 near
the Art Room above the Dining Hall. My IDs left to right are: Craig Kravit,
Paul Todd, Gary Edwards, Larry Stabler,
Rob Peterson, Slade Mead, Corey Griffin,
Jeff Thompson, Rob Kelly and Jeff Potter.
Alas, I have no insight about the cryptic
message or the circumstances of the photo.
However, this was one of the legendary
yearbook photos of our era, ranking up there
with Toby Fleming and Jeff Atwood’s photo
in the 1979 yearbook (page 90), which
featured the two wearing togas while surrounded by 15 of the school’s prettiest girls
and headmaster Lance Odden. That may be
worthy of reprinting and discussion as well!
—Jim Ramsey ’80
My former colleague at Taft, Amy Jones,
and I both taught French—and “book
ended” most of the boys in the pond. For
a reason that escapes me, six of them were
moved from CPT into an old classroom on
the second floor of HDT, between HDT2
and the ISP wing. Amy was in the apartment above the dining hall, and I had the
first apartment on HDT2. They were in the
middle. We were assured that they would
be angelic. Well, I can attest that they were
fun. As for angelic...
—Jim Mooney ’74, former faculty 1978-83
Quite a good Bulletin. On page 3, the
guy carrying books, second from left, is
Parker Griffin, ’71. The others I can’t recall. However, the books were transported
in Library of Congress order, not Dewey
Decimal. This was a pet project of librarian
Walter Frankel, and he re-cataloged all the
books prior to the new library’s opening.
On page 80, you name 1935 as “the
Golden Age of dramatic stagecraft.” Please
refer to my article in the fall 1970 Bulletin.
Those sets were lavish, but the golden age
was under the direction of Peter Candler in
the ’50s.
—Bob Foreman ’70
I should know the answer to the trivia question since I am the one leading the book
carriers. I think it was my junior year so
would have been 1969–70 school year. I
think I remember the names of those in the
picture including the slacker (Rich Bell ’71)
leaning against the wall in the background.
I believe behind me is Don George,
next I couldn’t remember, followed by Ned
Doudican and as I said I think it is Rich Bell
without any books. I would have to dig out
my yearbook to be sure and am not really
sure I know where it is.
—Fred Erdman ’71
I was a bit disturbed that your lead story
[fall 2009] was about an alumnus who
crisscrossed America on a motorcycle.
Not my idea of a goal I would welcome for
my grandson.
It is hard for me to envision any Taft
student aspiring to such a trip. Sorry I am
such a stick in the mud, but the majority of
people riding around on motorcycles that I
see are not role models for students of Taft.
And even more important is the danger
inherent on traveling by motorcycle. I know
two people who had dreadful accidents that
left them paralyzed for life. No drugs or
alcohol were involved. One suddenly hit a
part of the highway with oil on it. The other
gravel. Both on a curve in the road. No one
else hurt, but it was devastating for both.
—Margaret Foster
When I read, with keen interest, the Fall 2009
article “College Counseling Today,” it reminded me of many prior decades when college
access was taken much more for granted. I
recall that 14 of my fellow 81 graduates matriculated at Yale, where 28 had applied.
The only college counselor at Taft in the
fall of 1963 was Mr. Sullivan, head of the
???
Taft Trivia
Which member of the Taft faculty
has been teaching here the longest?
(Current faculty are not eligible for
the prize this time.) A Taft T-shirt
will be sent to the winner, whose
name will be drawn from all correct
entries received.
Congratulations to Fred Erdman
’71, who correctly guessed 1969 as
the year in which the Hulbert Taft Jr.
Library opened.
Love it? Hate it?
Read it? Tell us!
We’d love to hear what you think
about the stories in this Bulletin.
We may edit your letters for length,
clarity and content, but please write!
Julie Reiff, editor
Taft Bulletin
110 Woodbury Road
Watertown, CT 06795-2100
or Reiff [email protected]
—letters continued on page 60
Taft Bulletin Winter 2010 3
alumni Spotlight
By Julie Reiff
v Venture capitalist Paul Klingenstein ’74
helps tackle the disease that is devastating
Africa. “At Taft I learned to take the needs
of the greater community very seriously,”
he says, “and I am grateful for that lesson.”
Key Research
An HIV vaccine: we need one, and we
don’t have one, says Paul Klingenstein ’74, a
venture capitalist who also serves as chair of
the board of directors for the International
AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), a nonprofit
organization working in 24 countries to
ensure the development of safe, effective,
accessible, preventive HIV vaccines for use
throughout the world.
IAVI works with more than 40
academic, commercial and government institutions, spending around $100 million
a year, to discover and assess possible HIV
vaccines. So far, they have helped evaluate
six vaccines in early-stage clinical trials on
four continents.
Finding a vaccine “has become an increasingly urgent undertaking,” reported
Scientific American magazine in November.
“Despite advances in therapies, HIV/
AIDS is still incurable. Some 7,400
people worldwide contract HIV every
day. Preventing people from getting the
virus would save millions of lives as well as
greatly reduce health care costs associated
with treatment.”
“At its core now, this is a big science
problem,” says Klingenstein. “We have to
do a lot of work in the lab, but we think we
now know where to focus. The number of
people getting infected every year is larger
than the number of additional people that
we can treat with drugs. So treatment is
important, but without a vaccine it just
gets worse and worse and worse.”
In short, without a vaccine we’ll
never get ahead of the epidemic. Still,
there is an ongoing struggle for funding
between AIDS treatment and research
toward a vaccine.
Twelve years ago Klingenstein, who
was previously involved with a vaccine
company, was working at the Rockefeller
Foundation when IAVI was being formed.
“We had this raging epidemic and there
was talk of vaccines but nobody was working on them,” he says. “The major vaccine
companies didn’t have substantial HIV
vaccine discovery efforts going on.”
So Klingenstein talked to people he
knew in the industry—“and knew well
enough for them to be honest with me”—
and it became clear why. Yes, it was about
the risk and potential financial return,
“but really it was because the science behind it wasn’t well enough understood.”
So IAVI set out to create an environment for a vaccine to be developed—not
discovered—because, says Klingenstein,
“at that time we thought people could take
their best vaccine constructs for other diseases, dust them off and try them on HIV.”
After years of clinical development programs IAVI ran more than a dozen trials to
determine safety and immunogenicity, to
see how the immune system responded.
“I went around to the field sites, which
were not only conducting tests but also
delivering care to those communities.
We were doing trials in some of the most
challenging places on the planet—places
where the infection rates are really high.
We also did the first trials in India.
“It’s very powerful to see the devastation
caused by this disease. Actually some of it’s
very inspiring. There are a lot of infected
people now who get drug therapy and are
doing fine, who are very encouraged to help
their peers and their peers’ kids and their
communities. But there are many, many
devastated communities as well.
“Last summer I was in Kwazulu Natal,
and around Cape Town. If you go through
these townships they look very unusual. It
takes awhile to process that they are missing whole age groups—they’re not there.
There are no adults. There are old people
and there are a bunch of kids, and that’s it.
“This has proved to be the world’s
toughest vaccinology problem,” he says.
“The HIV virus is constantly evolving, even
in a single patient. So for a vaccine to work,
it has to trick the body into making these
broadly neutralizing antibodies. None
had been found in 10 years and IAVI has
recently found two, and we know exactly
where they actually bind to the virus.
“We’ve found the lock,” says
Klingenstein, “now we just need to design
the key. And we’ll get there, because we
have some of the best minds on the planet
working it.”
h UN Ambassador
Augustine Mahiga,
Ann Hanin, Judy Smith,
Tanzanian President
Jakaya Kikwete,
Stephen Smith ’51 and
Professor Jumanne
Maghembe
A New Library in Tanzania
In January 2009, a new, expanded
Jifundishe Free Library opened its
doors. Helped by a team of volunteers
from the U.S., the library was ready to
open to the public with many more programs and books.
Judy and Steve Smith ’51, representing
the Crawford-Smith Foundation, were
on hand for the formal dedication in July,
with their family, including son Steve Jr.
’80. Tanzanian ambassador to the UN
Augustine Mahiga was the keynote speaker. The day was a celebration of the village
and the opportunities that the library provided to everyone living in the area.
The success of Jifundishe’s first library
led to the beautiful new building with space
for more than 5,000 books, a community
room for workshops, classes and presentations as well as an office for Jifundishe staff.
The library now hosts another women’s
cooperative project, evening adult literacy
classes, film nights, after-school tutoring
programs and educational enrichment
competitions for secondary students.
Because this library/community center
has been so successful, Judy and Steve
are proceeding with plans to duplicate its
model to other rural areas of Tanzania.
In September, they met in New York
with Tanzanian President Jakaya Mrisho
Kikwete and Minister of Education
Jumanne Maghembe, and received their
full support and cooperation.
Judy and Steve also worked with
Jifundishe to create a school science lab
in 2007 [see “Lab Report,” winter 2008].
Jifundishe is the Swahili word for “teach
yourself.” The organization was founded
in 2004 when local students, teachers and
villagers together with foreign volunteers,
identified the need for a library. In many
rural areas in Tanzania, literacy rates have
been on the decline. For more information, visit www.jifundishe.org.
alumni Spotlight
Remembering Margaux
n Margaux Powers ’00—left, along with her father Mike Powers ’69 and her sister Dana—
is remembered through a new scholarship at Taft.
When tragedy strikes it can bring people
together in unexpected ways, and that has
never been truer than it was for the family
and friends of Margaux Powers ’00, who
was killed in May 2008.
“We were looking forward to watching
her life continue to blossom,” her father,
Mike Powers ’69 said at the time. “But her
future has been tragically cut short and we
are overcome with grief.”
But Mike and others have taken that
grief and used it to find ways to come together to remember their friend, sister and
daughter. Among the more enduring legacies is the Taft scholarship in her name. To
date, 432 donors have contributed more
than $1 million to this lasting memorial.
“The creation and continued growth of
this scholarship will serve as an enduring
tribute to Margaux and do a great deal to
sustain her memory in perpetuity,” says
Mike, who was on campus in January with
daughter Dana to meet the first Powers
Scholar. “In so doing, we celebrate a
magnificent life.” The first recipient is returning middler Sachika Balvani, a highly
talented girl from Mumbai, India, who
placed first at the New England Squash
Tournament last year.
Many people contributed effort, time
and money to establish Margaux’s memorial scholarship but special thanks go to
Mike’s Taft teammate and friend Rafe de la
Gueronniere ’70, who was instrumental in
raising support for the fund. Margaux’s classmates, organized by Ribby Goodfellow, are
raising funds for the scholarship in her name
through the sale of Patagonia fleece vests
customized with the alum’s Taft year.
Margaux and her father were both passionate about sports in general and shared
an interest in tennis. At Brown University,
Mike’s alma mater, the Bruno Classic in
Honor of Margaux Powers, was created
as an annual event on the tennis schedule
(www.brownbears.com). Margaux “was an
enthusiastic fan of the team for many years
and attended countless Brown matches,
both home and away, and would join me
there on Alumni Days,” says Mike. And
watching over the courts at the Piping Rock
Club near their home in Long Island, there
is a memorial bench that bears her name.
Her family and friends also had a
Margaux sports day a year later, just a casual
word-of-mouth event with her Taft, Cornell
and Long Island friends that Mike hopes will
continue, and he extends an invitation for all
her friends to join them this summer.
Tina Porter Teagle ’00, who was a lifelong friend and classmate of Margaux’s,
first on Long Island and then at Taft—and
whose fathers (Grant and Mike) were also
Taft classmates—was married in the fall in
the same chapel where Margaux’s memorial
service was held, and so they a lit candle
in her honor as part of the ceremony. Amy
Pasquariello Millette, Margaux’s dear friend
and roommate at Taft, asked Mike to be a
reader at her wedding last summer.
Knowing that Father’s Day would be
incredibly difficult for him, Margaux’s
friends, organized by Sam Hall ’00, created an album of letters and photographs
of her and presented it to Mike in June.
“It might be the nicest present I’ve ever
gotten,” he says. “There were photos of
Margaux that I’d never seen. Her friends
have been so nice. They’ll stop by often and
we’ll get flowers and visit Margaux together. And so I’ve gained this wonderful group
of young friends.
“Margaux made so many wonderful
friends at Taft,” Mike adds. “She entered
as a homesick middler, but by the time she
graduated three years later many of her
happiest days were spent at Taft.”
The Margaux Powers ’00 Memorial
Scholarship was established in 2008
in memory of Margaux E. Powers by
her father, Michael S. Powers ’69, her
sister, Dana A. Powers, family, classmates and friends. This scholarship
stands as a lasting tribute to a remarkable woman, of warm heart and
beautiful spirit, beloved by family and
friends. Her genuine and caring nature, her intelligence, her confidence
and strength, her skills as an outstanding competitor and athlete inspired
all who knew her. In awarding this
scholarship to deserving students,
preference is given to young women
attending Taft who exemplify these
outstanding qualities.
Oppenheim Named Rhodes Scholar
Spending summers working construction in rural Maine while at Taft, Willy
Oppenheim ’04 felt a chasm between this environment and his affluent hometown in Connecticut. He was determined to forgo college until he “felt certain
my elite education could benefit someone other than myself,” he wrote in his
essay for the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship.
So, at 18, he headed to India and discovered that he could “amplify the
voices” of local educators before a global audience and help avoid “the tendency of ‘development’ efforts to patronize and disempower those they intend
to serve.”
Back in Colorado the next winter, and living in a tent, he worked from a
public computer to build a database of Indian schools seeking foreign support,
which has evolved into the Omprakash Foundation [see “Connecting the
Dots,” Spring 2008].
At Bowdoin College, where he continued to live in a tent all four years, he
designed his own major in international educational policy, with courses in religion, anthropology and education. He wrote his thesis on Muslim schooling
in South India. He now teaches for the National Outdoor Leadership School
and continues to volunteer his time with Omprakash.
“My ambitions and accomplishments as a student, a teacher and a nonprofit founder emerge from a unitary intention to ‘lead out’ the citizens of the
world toward an awareness of the greater human and ecological community
from which we are indivisible and within which we can enact change,” Willy
wrote. He will use the Rhodes Scholarship to study comparative and international education at Oxford.
n Willy Oppenheim ’04, greeted by Headmaster Willy MacMullen ’78, was back on
campus to present a Morning Meeting about Omprakash only days after being named a
Rhodes Scholar. Ben Pastor ’97
Paranormal Marketing
“The campaign to bring Paranormal
Activity to the public is already a movieindustry legend,” wrote Time magazine
in October.
Originally made three years ago
by director Oren Peli on a budget of
$11,000, the film was eventually picked
up by Paramount and scheduled only to
play at midnight in 16 college towns last
fall. Soon audience demand expanded
that to all-day runs on 159 screens in 44
cities, and, Time predicted, “it’s headed
for a box-office breakout.”
“Once every five years, a guy makes
a movie for a nickel that can cross over
to a broad audience,” PA producer
Jason Blum ’87 told the LA Times. But
as unique as the film’s marketing plan
was, part of its appeal was clearly its
less-is-more approach.
“In a genre where a fresh mutilated
corpse every 15 minutes has become
a reasonable expectation,” writes
www.Slate.com, “this slow-paced
but relentless spooker is refreshingly
un-extreme. It comes by its screams
honestly, earning them with incremental, at times agonizing gradations
of old-fashioned, what’s-that-noisein-the-hallway suspense.”
Since opening his own company
in 2000, Blum has produced 12 feature films. He served as co-executive
producer of The Reader, directed
by Stephen Daldry, for which Kate
Winslet won an
Academy Award.
His next projects
include Tooth
Fairy, for 20th
Century Fox, and
Area 51, again directed by Peli.
alumni Spotlight
In Print
Goddess of the Market:
Ayn Rand and the
American Right
Jennifer Burns ’93
Oxford University Press, 2009
Worshiped by her fans, denounced by her enemies and
forever shadowed by controversy
and scandal, the novelist and
philosopher Ayn Rand was a
powerful thinker whose views on
government and markets shaped
the conservative movement from
its earliest days. Drawing on
unprecedented access to Rand’s
private papers and the original,
unedited versions of Rand’s
journals, Jennifer Burns reassesses this key cultural figure,
examining her life, her ideas and
her impact on conservative political thought.
Goddess of the Market follows Rand from her childhood
in Russia through her meteoric
rise from struggling Hollywood
screenwriter to bestselling
novelist, including the writing of her wildly successful
The Fountainhead and Atlas
Shrugged. Burns highlights the
two facets of Rand’s work that
make her a perennial draw for
those on the right: her promotion of capitalism, and her
defense of limited government.
“What Burns does well,” says
Publishers Weekly, “is to explicate
the evolution of Rand’s individualist worldview, placing her
within the context of American
conservative and libertarian
thought: from H.L. Mencken to
William Buckley and later the
Vietnam War.”
Burns is assistant professor of history at the University
of Virginia. She has published
extensively on the history of
conservative thought, and her
podcasted lectures on American
history have won an appreciative
worldwide audience.
My Baby Rides the Short
Bus: The Unabashedly
Human Experience
of Raising Kids with
Disabilities
“A View Through
the Woods”
Christy Everett ’901
PM Press, 2009
she gave birth to Olivia Everett
Jordan. (Yes, Christy is the daughter of faculty emeriti Oliver “Jol”
and Susan Everett.)
You can read her current blog,
as well as her earlier columns, at
www.FollowingElias.com.
Grow from Within:
Mastering Corporate
Entrepreneurship and
Innovation
Robert C. Wolcott and
Mike J. Lippitz ’80
McGraw-Hill, 2010
The stories in this collection
provide parents of special needs
kids with a dose of both laughter and reality. Featuring works
by so-called alternative parents
who have attempted to move
away from mainstream thought,
this anthology carefully considers the implications of raising
children with disabilities. This
assortment of authentic, shared
experiences from parents in the
know is a partial antidote to
the stories that misrepresent,
ridicule, and objectify disabled
children and their parents.
Christy Everett writes about
her son Elias, who was born in
2004 via emergency C-section,
between 24 and 25 weeks gestation. He spent 94 days in the
NICU and has multiple disabilities as a result of his premature
birth. She started writing about
Elias as a way to keep family and
friends informed on his status.
As the days in the NICU turned
into months, she says she found
the written outlet “as important
for my own healing and growth
as it was to tell my loved ones
about Elias’s.”
www.Parents.com started carrying her blog in 2007. In December,
Grow from Within is targeted
to all those responsible for, or
interested in, creating growth
and future directions for their
organization: internal venture
leaders, business development
managers, R&D executives,
brand/channel managers, and of
course the senior executives ultimately accountable for growth.
It will substantially benefit budding corporate entrepreneurs
looking for inspiration and strategies to build significant value
through innovation and new
business creation.
There is no one-size-fits-all
approach to building entrepreneurial capabilities within an
established firm, Wolcott and
Lippitz write. Instead, the book
explains the four basic models—
opportunist, enabler, advocate
and producer—around which
companies successfully drive
new business creation and innovation initiatives more generally.
Lippitz is a senior research
fellow at the Center for Research
in Technology at the Kellogg
School of Management,
Northwestern University, and a
principal with Clareo Partners,
LLC, a strategy consultancy
based in Chicago, Illinois.
For more information visit
www.growfromwithinbook.com.
Those Who Work, Those
Who Don’t: Poverty,
Morality, and Family in
Rural America
Jennifer Sherman ’90
University of Minnesota
Press, 2009
When the rural poor prioritize
issues such as the right to bear
arms, and disapprove of welfare
despite their economic concerns, they are often dismissed
as uneducated and backward by
academics and political analysts.
In Those Who Work, Those Who
Don’t, Jennifer Sherman offers
a much-needed sympathetic
understanding of poor rural
Americans, persuasively arguing that the growing cultural
significance of moral values is
a reasonable and inevitable response to economic collapse and
political powerlessness.
Those Who Work, Those Who
Don’t is based on the intimate
interviews and in-depth research
Sherman conducted while
spending a year living in “Golden
Valley,” a remote logging
town in Northern California.
Economically devastated by the
1990 ruling that listed the northern spotted owl as a threatened
species, Golden Valley proved to
be a rich case study for Sherman.
She looks at how the members
of the community coped with
downward mobility caused by
the loss of timber industry jobs
and examines a wide range of
reactions. She shows how substance abuse, domestic violence,
and gender roles fluctuated under the town’s economic strain.
Compellingly written, shot
through with honesty and empathy, Those Who Work, Those
Who Don’t is a rare firsthand
account that studies the rural
poor. As incomes erode and the
American dream becomes more
and more inaccessible, Sherman
reveals that moral values and
practices become a way for the
poor to gain status and maintain
a sense of dignity in the face of
economic ruin.
Sherman is an assistant
professor of sociology at
Washington State University. The Dice Game of Shiva:
How Consciousness
Creates the Universe
Richard Smoley ’70
New World Library, 2009
Richard Smoley examines the
roles God has played for us and
reconciles them with what we
today know through science and
reason. In the process, he shows
that consciousness is the underlying reality beneath everything
in the universe.
In one of Hinduism’s great
myths, Shiva plays a dice game
with his consort, Parvati, and
loses consistently. If he is the
greatest god, why does he lose?
Through this story, Smoley
explores the interplay between
consciousness, represented by
Shiva, and experience, exemplified by Parvati. He draws on
numerous disciplines to offer an
illuminating exploration of mind
and matter and a provocative
understanding of consciousness,
the self, and the world.
Publishers Weekly writes, “This
is a serious, almost old-fashioned
history of ideas about transcendent and human thought.”
Educated at Harvard and
Oxford universities, Smoley
worked at a wide range of
journalistic positions before
becoming editor of Gnosis, the
award-winning journal of the
Western spiritual traditions. He
is also the author of Forbidden
Faith: The Secret History of
Gnosticism, Inner Christianity,
Hidden Wisdom; Conscious Love
and The Essential Nostradamus.
MAP: A memoir
Audrey Beth Stein ’93
It was 1996: the Indigo Girls
had just performed their first
explicitly gay songs, Ellen
DeGeneres was preparing to
come out on national television,
and www.eHarmony.com and
JDate did not yet exist. A time
when being queer was a little bit
easier than admitting you’d met
someone through the internet.
As a late-blooming, sexually
confused senior at the University
of Pennsylvania, Audrey Beth
Stein was looking for love, but
she never expected it to arrive via
email. This coming-of-age memoir combines the exuberance of
falling in love for the first time
with the disorienting clarity of
loss, and the triumph of letting
go of the training wheels.
Stein earned her MFA in
creative writing from Emerson
College and is a two-time
national winner in the David
Dornstein Memorial Short Story
Contest. She teaches memoir
and novel development at the
Cambridge Center for Adult
Education. For more information,
visit www.audreybethstein.com
For the latest news
on campus events,
please visit
www.TaftSchool.org.
around the Pond
By Sam Routhier
n Sophie Kearney on stage with her mother at the
Light the Night for Leukemia walk in New York.
Taft Students Light the Night for Leukemia
Uppermiddler Sophie Kearney may have
shared the stage with Tina Fey at the
Light the Night for Leukemia event in
New York in October, but she says it was
standing up there beside her mom that
was truly amazing.
“After my mother was diagnosed with
hairy cell leukemia in 2006,” Sophie
explains, “she asked me to write a letter
describing what it was like to be a cancer
kid. Within the first month I had raised
over $20,000 toward finding a cure.”
Since her initial efforts were so successful, Sophie decided to bring the issue to
Taft and organize a contingent to participate in the walk.
“Most people at Taft never knew
my mother was sick. It was hard telling
everyone because I didn’t want that to
have any effect on people when my family came to visit. But Mr. Hayward, being
the greatest adviser ever, pushed me to
expand my comfort zone and trust the
community around me.”
The Taft community responded, and
more than 50 of Sophie’s friends and
classmates accompanied her to South
Street Seaport in the freezing wind and
sleet to listen to her talk about the hardships of being someone whose life is
affected by this disease.
“At first, I thought everyone would
think this was just another community
service project, but I was pleasantly surprised,” she says. “When we got there I
was rushed on stage (with Tina Fey) and
within ten minutes I was looking out at
a crowd over a thousand people. After
my speech, the walk began and we followed the crowd through the streets of
the Lower East Side onto the Brooklyn
Bridge. That night was the most magical
night of my life.
“My mother is one of the strongest
people I know,” adds Sophie. “She spends
every day trying to send a message to
people affected: You can never give up on
life—every day is a gift.”
Courtesy of Film 44
Holiday Goes Hollywood
Director Peter Berg ’80 and Hollywood
legend Will Smith pulled a few strings
and convinced Mr. Mac to declare
a Headmaster’s Holiday—a day off
from classes—in mid-November, and
filmed the announcement at Paramount
Studios.
After playing the video in Assembly,
Headmaster Willy MacMullen ’78 urged
students—five days into a campus outbreak of H1N1—to get plenty of sleep.
“It was great fun talking to Peter about
this announcement,” MacMullen said
later. “He’s a great friend of Taft, and
while I might be popular for an hour or
two because of this announcement, he is
a god in the kids’ minds today.”
The announcement had apparently
been in the works for weeks, ever since
Berg’s October visit to campus to host a
special screening of his film Friday Night
Lights for the senior class. To kick off the
holiday, the school showed Berg’s film
The Kingdom in Bingham Auditorium.
To view the video, visit
www.TaftSchool.org and type “Berg” in
the search box.
Taft Papyrus/Andre Li ’11
Swine ’09 Comes and Goes
Sports teams opted for post-game
fist-pounds instead of the traditional
handshake, and apple bobbing was abandoned from the annual Super Sunday
festivities as Taft, with fingers crossed,
watched H1N1 sweep the country and
begin to affect peer campuses.
For weeks, it seemed that all our precautions—hand sanitizers and continued
emphasis on cleanliness and sleep—might
save us, but on October 29, Taft had its
first confirmed case.
Most cases were very mild, reports
Health Center Director Lisa Keys.
Students exhibiting fevers were sent home
if they lived close enough, so the health
center’s dozen beds, though fully occupied
for several days, were always sufficient.
“In total we had about 80 students with
flulike symptoms, lasting about 3 to 4
days,” says Keys. “I believe what saved us
were the isolation techniques: we did not
send ill students back into the dorms.”
As an additional precaution, students
enjoyed a delayed start to classes during
the week before Thanksgiving, to encourage more sleep.
“It was not a surprise to me when it
started,” said senior Katie Carden, “but at the
same time, we lasted so long without it I was
a little shocked when it finally hit us. I think
the school handled the situation well.”
To be sure, the nature of Taft as a
close-knit community was cause for concern, but continued vigilance and good
planning meant the school never needed
to cancel events, and, for the most part,
school life proceeded as usual.
Twenty students in higher risk categories took advantage of early vaccines in
November, and 50 more doses were made
available in December.
around the POND
Morning Meeting
speaker Ian Pounds
recently returned from
Kabul, Afghanistan,
where he lived and
volunteered for nearly
five months in Mehan
Orphanage, one of
three run by Afghan Children Education
and Care Organization (AFCECO).
Isolated in a section of the city otherwise off limits to Western workers, Pounds
taught English, drama, photography and
computer skills to 180 children. He could
not stray outside the gates of the family’s
house where he lived for fear of kidnapping or worse, had contact only with
Afghans, studied the language and history
and had daily talks with a man who lived
in Kabul through the Soviet era, civil war,
Taliban and the present war.
After his talk he spent time with
Chaplain Bob Ganung’s philosophy and
Buddhism classes. Pounds’ visit was supported by the Paduano Lecture Series in
Philosophy and Ethics.
Other outside speakers at Morning
Meeting this fall included Charles Rose
and City Year corps members, Patrick
Atkinson, executive director of God’s
Child Project, as well as representatives
from The Curriculum Initiative, which
supports Jewish culture and identity at
independent schools.
In addition to student and faculty speakers, a number of alumni gave Meetings
as well. Recently named Rhodes Scholar
Willy Oppenheim ’04, also a Paduano
speaker, spoke about his work with
Omprakash Foundation (see Alumni
Spotlight), Kate Jellinghaus ’89 (see p. 16)
discussed her work with Artistic Noise in
Boston in connection with their exhibit in
the Potter Gallery and former Navy pilot
T.J. Oneglia ’93 spoke to the school about
the history and meaning of Veterans Day.
To listen to a Morning Meeting talk, visit
www.TaftSchool.org/students/meetings.aspx.
Climate 350
Scientists believe that 350 parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere is the
safe limit for humanity—a limit we have already surpassed. The mission of
www.350.org is to inspire the world to rise to the challenge of the climate
crisis—to create a new sense of urgency and of possibility for the planet.
Toward that end Taft students, motivated by TEAM (Taft’s Environmental
Action Movement), planned events as part of that organization’s International
Day of Climate Action on October 24.
Booths were set up outside the dining hall with various products, information and demonstrations. “We Add Up” T-shirts were sold at the event, which
were a way of demonstrating support for the UN meeting in Copenhagen in
December. A portion of the profits go to Taft’s sustainability fund, which will
be used to buy recycling bins for Taft’s athletic fields and gyms. Another 15 percent goes to an organization of the action described on the shirt, for example
“recycle” or “drink tap.”
TEAM also worked closely together with the dining hall to create a local
dinner. One of TEAM’s main goals for the evening was to teach the Taft community about the amount of carbon that is emitted in producing the food we
eat and which foods lead to a larger carbon footprint. Eating locally is a great
way to reduce one’s footprint, so the dining hall served butternut squash soup,
apple crisp and winter squash all grown locally.
To relate the sustainability back to the dorms, TEAM set up a station
that showed students how much electricity each appliance uses up when it is
plugged in or left on. TEAM wanted to emphasize how much energy can be
saved by unplugging appliances and how the little things really add up. Each
event like this one makes Taft a more sustainable community.
— Ali Connolly ’10
Sarah Nyquist ’12
Blake Joblin ’13
Look Who Came to
Meeting
h Jane Yeager ’10 and
members of A.P. Studio
Art paint a mural at the
Watertown Convalarium.
Loueta Chickadaunce
Community Service Day Spreads the Good Vibes
Math teacher Jeremy Clifford, now in
his fourth year here, stepped up to lead
the school’s 15th Annual Community
Service Day. “I passionately believe that
Community Service Day is an important
event for our community,” said Clifford, “so
it was an easy decision to agree to help out.”
Creating a top-notch team, Clifford
was joined by teaching fellow Kendall
Adams ’05, who spent her afternoons
on the organizational side of things,
along with students Becca Brinkley ’11
and Deirdre Shea ’11. In addition, faculty member Kristin Honsel pitched
in to inventory all supplies, Director of
Information Technology Mark Bodnar
provided all support for managing the assignments database, and Librarian Lillian
Serafine managed all plant donations from
local nurseries to Community Service Day
Eleven seniors were inducted into the Cum Laude society this
fall. The society welcomes a maximum of 20 percent of a senior
class each year, with more students added at graduation. Students
are chosen in the fall based on their academic records from the
mid and uppermid years. Class of ’10 inductees, so far, are Alice
Cho, Brian Jang, Hailey Karcher, Haroon Khera, Carly McCabe,
Aislinn McLaughlin, Ron Park, Toan Phan, Kristen Proe, Cara
Welch-Rubin and Rei Yazaki.
Yee-Fun Yin
Cum Laude
projects, such as landscaping the front of
the Woodrow Wilson School.
Clifford estimates that the day involved
roughly 3,000 man-hours of service, with
700 people spreading Taft’s motto to the
surrounding community.
“The day is a profound opportunity,”
Clifford says, “to explore and embody
the unique Taft motto, to ourselves and
to others.
around the POND
Dance Club
Uppermid Ally Hamilton, a Jamaica native, has added new spunk
to the community’s dance repertoire with the Dance Club this
Spotlight fall. The group consists of roughly 15 members of varying abilities and ages who all have one thing in common: a desire to
improve in a wide variety of dance genres.
The club’s chairs announce each week what they will be learning, and so they
attract both the regulars as well as students interested in adding that one perfect
move to their arsenal. The group’s greatest success so far has been a performance
at the annual Hotchkiss Day Big Red Rally. Said Hamilton, “We worked extremely hard on the combination, and every one gave it 100 percent. We were so proud
of our hard work.”
Cover image by Andre Li ’11
Club
Global Journal Takes Off
Courtesy of Taft Annual
Last spring saw the first edition of the
Global Journal, a periodical capturing Taft
students’ and teachers’ thoughts on international issues, travel and volunteering.
The journal was founded last year as a way
for students to share their amazing experiences in other cultures.
Advised now by Tom Adams, the
journal’s first edition of the 2009–10 year
includes reflections on home countries
from international students, write-ups of
summer travel experiences to Germany
and Ireland, a recipe for making fresh
pasta and a report on volunteering in
Vietnam from Senior Thu Pham.
“The world extends far beyond the
town where one lives,” Adams writes in
his own contribution to the journal, “and
exploring it is an invaluable path to understanding others and oneself.”
Taft Volleyball Digs Pink
Assistant athletic director, admissions officer
and everyone’s favorite
volleyball coach Ginger O’Shea is widely
known around campus for injecting
enthusiasm and love into everything she
does. In that vein, it’s no surprise that
her varsity volleyball squad has spent the
fall raising awareness for breast cancer
through various events and fundraisers,
all tied to the Side-Out Foundation.
O’Shea was inspired last year by the
story of Rick Duretz, a volleyball coach
in Virginia, whose mother suffered
from breast cancer. As a result, she has
found various ways for her team to get
involved. Taft’s varsity volleyball squad
hosted four fundraisers this fall: a “Dig
Pink” game against Hotchkiss, a 50–50
raffle during their night game against
Choate, an interscholastic tournament
featuring a star-studded faculty team
and a “denim day” in which students pay
to wear jeans for a day.
The comprehensive effort made a
tangible impact on the community. Said
O’Shea, “I hope my players are able to
look back at high school and see that
they were ahead of the proverbial breast
cancer game; that they brought awareness up to the front and perhaps saved a
life by encouraging someone to consult
her doctor.” The team raised nearly
$4,000 over the course of the season.
For more on the team’s season, see
page 18.
When faculty member Rick Doyle looks for a musical each year, his
highest priority is finding something with a strong and compelling
storyline. “If you are lucky enough to find a good story in a musical, then you are truly blessed,” says Doyle. “With that in mind, we
could not pass up the opportunity to perform Ragtime last fall.”
Ragtime, as Doyle puts it, is the story of America as “the melting
pot before it melted.” The story follows three different groups—a
white Westchester family, an immigrant Pole and his family, and a
group of urban African-Americans—through their interactions in
the early part of the 20th century. It demonstrates the profound differences between the three groups, but also gives hope to the idea
of racial integration in America.
The show certainly had its challenges. Cast member Peter
Tweedley ’11, an experienced actor in Taft musicals, says that
“doing Ragtime at Taft was a big risk.” It was extremely difficult at
first for the cast to fully embrace the script.
“When we started this rehearsal, it was somewhat difficult to get
used to the language,” Doyle notes in the program. “We needed to
use those ‘hateful’ words that were, and sometimes are, a part of our
history. So all of us, a very diverse group of actors, went through a
period of a little uneasiness with the dialogue, but it was truly well
worth it because it all lent itself to a better understanding and appreciation of our relationships with one another.”
Ultimately, the cast braved these challenges and was flying high
as show time arrived.
“Once the run-throughs in Bingham began,” said Tweedley, “we
simply felt exhilarated to be together.”
Peter Frew ’75
Taking Risks With Ragtime
Physics Olympians Go to Work (Get it? Work?)
Peter Frew ’75
On October 24, four Taft students competed in the 12th annual Yale Physics
Olympiad. The team—featuring Toan
Phan ’10, Brian Jang ’10, Haroon Khera
’10 and Alyssa Chen ’11—placed second overall in the 40-team competition,
behind top team Shelton High School.
The group worked on problems ranging from determining the time it would
take for a given volume of water to pass
through a funnel to actually engineering
a structure from glue and toothpicks that
satisfied certain requirements. According
to Yale Physics Professor Peter Parker,
“There is an emphasis on thinking outside
the box and being creative. There is no
right way to solve each problem.”
The Taft group should certainly be
proud of their accomplishments. Said Jang,
“As much as we would have loved to have
finished first, it was great working so hard
on those interesting, creative problems all
day, and we were happy to represent Taft.”
around the POND
Board of Ed
Longtime math teacher Susan
McCabe successfully ran for a seat
on Watertown’s Board of Education
this fall. Although a number of
faculty are involved in local civic
organizations, Susan is the first
to hold elected office since Bill
Nicholson served on the board in
the 1990s.
Walker Hall Concerts
The Music For a While series kept
Walker Hall hopping in the fall,
with performances by noted jazz
artists Five Play, Chris Norman’s
authentic Scottish tunes on the
wooden flute, and of course Taft’s
own Jazz Band hosting a holiday
celebration after the annual Service
of Lessons and Carols. To see a list
of upcoming events, visit
www.TaftSchool.org/walkerhall.
www.ChrisNorman.com
Artistic Noise Resounds in Gallery
Last fall, the Mark W. Potter Gallery
featured works from Artistic Noise, a
nonprofit organization that brings the
wonders of visual art to children in the
juvenile justice system in Boston and
New York. The exhibit, “Ubuntu: I Am
Because We Are,” features 20 pieces of
varying media by children ages 13 to 18.
The art evokes feelings of community,
empowerment for the downtrodden, and
collaboration toward a better future.
One project was a quilt made by more
than 50 people. Girls from the Spectrum
Detainment Center in Dorcester
partnered with college students from
Wheelock and Boston College, as well
as artists like Kate Jellinghaus ’89, and
spent more than a year building the quilt.
The content of the squares focuses on
hair-braiding in Africa and describes how
it is a process that is both difficult and
community-building.
Other pieces on display included works
by both professional artists like Jellinghaus
and individual students. Ashley, 14, created a photo collage called “Color Don’t
Matter.” In its caption, she writes uplifting
messages in spite of her situation in the
juvenile justice system. Jellinghaus’s work
included a mixed-media piece called “Sit
Down!” in which she explores the idea of
forcing at-risk youth into confinement.
She writes, “The chair represents both
how we choose to discipline our youth
and questions what such confinement can
do, long-term, to the human person.”
For more on the
fall season,
please visit
www.TaftSports.com.
, Girls’ cross country,
at the starting line of
the Founders League
Meet, experienced a
dramatic turnaround
from their 1–8 season
a year ago to finish 6–2
this fall. Marylou Iannone
Girls’ Cross Country 6–2
The 2009 team represented a dramatic
turnaround for girls’ cross country, posting a 6–2 and placing 3rd in the Founders
League after winning one meet in 2008.
In addition, the junior varsity team was
undefeated, attesting to the Rhinos’ newfound depth and unity. Highlights of the
season included wins over Choate (25–
36) and at home against Kent (18–43),
and even the two losses were close ones to
strong teams from Loomis (30–25) and
Hotchkiss (32–25). This success was due
to a mixture of solid veterans in Emma
Nealon ’11, Abby Purcell ’11, Kristen
fall SPORT wrap-up
By steve Palmer
Proe ’10, Chelsea Maloney ’10, and Zoe
Hetzner ’10, and competitive newcomers
in Sara Iannone ’13 and Courtney Jones
’13. Nealon and Iannone were Founders
League All Stars, placing in the top 15 at
that meet and helping Taft to its strongest
finish in several seasons. Although the
team will lose three seniors it hopes to
improve on this fine season next year.
Boys’ Cross Country 6–2
The Rhinos opened the season with a 6th
place finish at the 31-team Canterbury
Invitational, and followed that up with a
tough one-point loss to Choate, 29–28.
In perhaps their best race of the season,
Taft defeated solid teams from Suffield
(27–29) and Berkshire (23–34), led by
senior Hunter Yale’s win and new course
record at Berkshire. Both Yale (7th) and
co-captain Tom O’Mealia ’10 (9th) were
Founders League All Stars for finishing
in the top 15 at the championship meet.
Along with the fine races of Max Kachur
’10 (23rd) and Chris Yang ’11 (24th), Taft
finished third in the nine-team Founders
League. The boys finished the season in
the mud and rain at Northfield Mount
Hermon, placing 7th in the New England
Championship. The team will surely miss
four-year runners O’Mealia, Kachur, and
co-captain Ben North ’10.
fall SPORT
Field Hockey 7–8
h 1976 Girls’ Soccer
Award recipient
Jenny Janeck ’11 anchors Taft’s defense
against Hopkins.
Brian Boland
ATHLETIC AWARD WINNERS
The John B. Small Award
Thomas G. O’Mealia ’10
The Girls’ Cross Country Award
Zoe K. Hetzner ’10
Kristen E. Proe ’10
The Field Hockey Award
Erin M. Flanagan ’10
The Livingston Carroll Soccer Award
Brooks Taylor ’10
The 1976 Girls’ Soccer Award
Jennifer J. Janeck ’11
The Black Football Award
Christopher J. Evans ’10
Jake A. Cantoni ’10
The Cross Football Award
Conor J. McEvoy ’10
The Volleyball Award
Carolyn F. McCabe ’10
This was a team that never gave up and
found themselves locked in so many onegoal games that came down to the last
seconds. Taft opened the season with a
come-from-behind 3–2 win over Sacred
Heart, followed by wins over Suffield (2–
1) and Greens Farms Academy (2–0). The
Rhinos then came within inches of tying
Greenwich Academy in the final seconds
of a 1–2 loss. In their most exciting game,
Taft defeated a strong Kent team 2–1
when Jordan McCarthy ’12 tipped in an
Erin Flanagan ’10 cross with 27 seconds
left. Tri-captain Flanagan led the team
in points (15), while McCarthy had the
most goals (8). Flanagan and tri-captain
Claire Queally ’10 were named Western
New England All Stars, while goalie Emy
Farrow-German ’11 was a Founders
League All Star.
Volleyball 10–9
Girls’ Soccer 9–7–1
New England Quarterfinalists
This was an uneven season for this talented
team, but the final two games showed their
real character. The regular season finale
was a critical game against rival Hotchkiss,
with the winner earning a spot in the New
England Tournament. Taft would take that
one, 3–1, on a water-logged field behind
goals by Ellie O’Neill ’11, Sophia Garrow
’11, and Laurel Pascal ’12. The next game,
a first-round tournament game against top
seed Loomis, was nothing short of spectacular. Taft battled the undefeated New England
finalists all the way, finishing regulation in a
1–1 tie before dropping a 2–3 double overtime loss. Shelby Meckstroth ’13 and Jenny
Janeck ’11 both scored great goals in that
game, a contest that showed just how strong
this team was. Bess Lovern ’11 and Janeck
were named Western New England All
Stars for their fine play all season.
New England Quarterfinalists
Boys’ Soccer 8–3–4
Taft made the New England Tournament
for the sixth time in the past eight years,
a testament to the unity and spirit of this
well-balanced team. Though the Rhinos
would drop the first-round match to
rival Choate, they played with heart all
season, not the least when they donned
all-pink uniforms in their home match
against Hotchkiss to raise Breast Cancer
awareness, and almost $4,000 for the Dig
Pink-Side Out Foundation in the process.
The highlight of the season was the double-header win over Greenwich Academy
(3–2) and Sacred Heart (3–1)—both
tough contests. In these matches, newcomer Idara Foster ’11 had several key
kills (against her former GA team), while
seniors Danielle Donnelly and Carly
McCabe were the team’s best server and
blocker respectively. Seniors Kendall
Cronin, Sarah Maxwell, Pam Scalise and
Lucy Morris all played key defensive roles
in those big wins and throughout the season. McCabe, Maxwell and Donnelly were
all New England All Stars.
The 2009 team was wellbalanced from front
to back, with Omar Bravo ’11 (7 goals)
and co-captain Brooks Taylor ’10 (6 goals)
leading the way to a 4–0–1 start to the season, including a 2–0 win over Deerfield,
an exciting 2–2 draw with Avon, and later
on a convincing 3–1 win over Choate. The
strong defensive play of Thad Reycraft ’10,
Max Brazo ’11, co-captain John Barr ’10, and
Kevin Spotts ’10 was also critical throughout
the season, as was the all-around play of Bo
Redpath ’10, Sebby Orman ’11 and Brandon
Sousa ’12. In their final game, the Rhinos
faced top-ranked and eventual New England
champion Hotchkiss. The game was one to
remember in the wind and rain at Lakeville,
as Taft gave up an early goal but evened
things when Alex Bang ’12 scored with
seconds to go in the first half. Will Orben’s
crew then played their best soccer of the
season, taking control in the second half and
winning the game 2–1 on a beautiful header
from John Wyman ’11. For their strong allaround play, Spotts and Taylor were named
Founders League All Stars.
Football 6–2
This special season started with a bang
as Taft fully displayed its offensive power
in a 41–7 win over perennial Erickson
Conference leaders Avon Old Farms. In that
game, quarterback Jake Cantoni ’10 ran for
141 yards and three touchdowns and would
throw for another two TDs to receiver
Chris Evans ’10, and Alex Kershaw ’10 returned a kickoff 85 yards for another score.
Along with running back Quincy Bagsby
’10 and leading defensive players Kershaw
(team-leading 83 tackles), co-captain Conor
McEvoy ’10 (61 tackles) and Reed Shapiro
’10 (60 tackles), this relatively small but
fast team showed that it was as talented and
hungry as any team in New England. Taft
would roll over Choate (19–0) and Loomis
(39–13), while winning tight battles with
Deerfield (20–14) and Trinity-Pawling (31–
23). On a wet Parents’ Day game, the 4–1
Taft team went down 0–19 in the first half to
a strong 4–1 Kent team. The many fans who
stayed through the early going were witness
to one of the great games on the Rockefeller
Field, as Taft stormed back to take a 20–19
lead on Evans’ touchdown catch—he
would finish the game with 186 receiving
yards (and the season with 810 yards on 40
receptions). Kent again took the lead, 27–20,
with a few minutes to go, but Cantoni led the
Rhinos back down the field, made the score
26–27 on a short TD run, and punched in
the two-point conversion with 1:30 left to
play to put Taft back up, 28–27. Kent was
not done, and a good kickoff return and
fantastic fourth-down reception put them
on Taft’s one-yard line with 6 seconds to go.
The short field goal looked almost certain,
but several Taft linemen burst through the
Kent line, and McEvoy squarely blocked
the kick to decide this great game. For their
inspiring play, Cantoni, Evans, Kershaw, and
all-around specialist/kicker Mike Moran ’11,
were named Erickson Conference All Stars.
Cantoni was also named the Conference’s
Offensive Player of the Year, for his 438
rushing yards, 1,434 passing yards, and 16
touchdowns. Cantoni and Evans were also
named to the All-New England team.
Following this special season, the
Western Connecticut Football Officials
Association recognized Athletic Director
David Hinman ’87 with an award: “In
recognition of your outstanding service,
commitment, dedication and loyalty to
the sport of football at The Taft School.” In
Hinman’s acceptance speech, he gave much
deserved credit to coach Panos Voulgaris.
CAPTAINS-ELECT
Boys’ Varsity Cross Country
Christopher C. Y. Yang ’11
William P. Luckey ’11
Girls’ Varsity Cross Country
Emma K. Nealon ’11
Abigail S. Purcell ’11
Varsity Field Hockey
Katherine P. Bermingham ’11
Kelley E. Quirk ’11
Julia C. Van Sant ’11
Boys’ Varsity Soccer
Omar Bravo ’11
Maxwell D. Brazo ’11
Girls’ Varsity Soccer
Caroline C. O’Neill ’11
Annie L. Oppenheim ’11
Varsity Football
John S. Beller ’11
Michael R. Moran ’11
Varsity Volleyball
Anna E. Ortega ’11
h The varsity football team celebrates its fifth win of the season,
a 28–27 victory over Kent after
holding opponents off at the
one-yard line with only seconds
remaining. Peter Frew ’75
Photography by Phil Sandick and Harrison Glazer ’12
Chaba’s Story
Launching Africa’s Leaders, One Orphan at a Time
by Andy Taylor ’72
I want to tell you the story of one
16-year-old boy; a boy by the name of
Chabaesele Makoti, or “Chaba.”
h The campus of Maru-a-Pula
School in Gaborone, Botswana.
v Chaba meeting with Maru-a-Pula
Principal Andy Taylor ’72 when he
first arrived at the school.
haba was born in a small village perched on the edge of
the vast Kalahari Desert—think of lots of red sand covered, in most places, by some very thirsty bushes and
the occasional thorn tree.
When he was just six years old, Chaba lost his single-parent
mother to HIV/AIDS. His surviving family decided that an
aunt should adopt him; she decided that Chaba should work
as a herd boy.
“The work was difficult,” Chaba explains. “The goats would
run away. I would run after them to show them the way.”
Showing goats the way is not the kind of work experience
you would put on a CV.
Luckily, Chaba had another aunt who came to hear about
his job and she did NOT like what she heard. So, she stepped
in and changed his life. She asked that Chaba be sent to stay
with her. This new, second aunt didn’t have that much to offer,
apart from the absolute belief that Chaba deserved better.
She was taking care of 16 children at the time and living
in an overcrowded set of three rooms—one of these rooms,
Chaba’s bedroom, shared by at least three other children,
was little more than a shack with a roof of plastic sheeting
C
to keep out the hot sun and the cold rain. So Chaba left his
goats and came to live in his new home in Botswana’s capital
city of Gaborone.
This aunt served as Chaba’s guardian angel; she’s a cross
between Mother Teresa and the “old woman who lived in a
shoe.” You might remember how the old nursery rhyme goes
on to say—she “had so many children, she didn’t know what
to do.” Well, Chaba’s aunt knew what to do. She wanted to give
Chaba some love and attention and some basic meals; a bit
more than a herd boy might expect.
But even this kindness wasn’t easy. She could only hug
Chaba with one arm—she’d lost her right arm in a factory
accident. She wanted to feed him, but food was too costly.
Her family survived on monthly government food rations
after the accident left her unable to work. “We would eat
bread for a whole week or soft porridge sometimes,” Chaba
says. “We only ate good food at the end of the month.”
But Chaba’s aunt knew that he hungered for more. So
she saw to it that he went to the local primary school—48
children to a class—in one of Gaborone’s poorest areas,
Old Naledi.
Alumni in AFRICA
This is where I caught up with him. At the suggestion of
a social worker in Old Naledi, where Maru-a-Pula’s students
run a weekly feeding program, I went to visit Chaba’s school.
We opened the classroom door and, sure enough, there was
Chaba, sitting right at the front, dead center, totally focused,
soaking up everything his teacher had to say. Chaba was the
star pupil in his class. You could have kindled a fire with the
determined look in his eyes.
So, Chaba came to Maru-a-Pula, where he passed our entrance test and earned a place in our Form 1 class. He is just
one of 28 orphans currently attending Maru-a-Pula. We’re
aiming to enroll 60 orphans by 2012.
Maru-a-Pula is trying to respond to one of Africa’s great-
opportunity? I see it as Africa’s greatest opportunity. Why?
Because when you see Africa’s orphans—those with the fewest advantages in life—being given a world-class education,
there is cause for hope.
A fundamental measure of the greatness of a nation, or of
a school, is how it treats those who are the most vulnerable.
In short, Africa needs leaders whose voices are informed by a
rigorous education and tempered by personal experience. We
believe that students who have suffered the most profound deprivation will emerge as the most passionate advocates of change.
As the playwright George Bernard Shaw observed: “Some
people see things as they are and ask why; others dream of
things that never were and ask: Why not?”
“These ripples will create a wave, school by school”; says Taylor, “a wave that
will break down the walls of privilege and exclusion, that will wash away
the spoken and unspoken stigma of being an AIDS orphan.”
est challenges: the fact that one in six children in sub-Saharan
Africa is an orphan; in Botswana, it’s closer to one in five.
Is this Africa’s greatest tragedy? Or is this Africa’s greatest
We need to take this tiny ripple of hope and join it with
many others. These ripples will create a wave, school by
school; a wave that will break down the walls of privilege
Chaba’s story
Clockwise from top left: A verdant corner
of campus; Gobakwe Montshiwa, Taft ’09
leaping above 6’ or so at the MaP House
Games in 2007; a recent photo of Chaba; and
Ponatshego, another AIDS orphan at MaP, at
a soccer tournament in South Africa.
and exclusion, that will wash away the spoken and unspoken
stigma of being an AIDS orphan, that will open the doors of
schools across the continent to Africa’s most needy children.
And it won’t end there. Once orphan scholars are in the classroom, their very presence changes the understanding of their
classmates. It makes other students aware, as so few students at
world-class schools are, of the most fundamental challenges of
their communities, their countries and their continents.
So what about Chaba?
He loves the plot and the language of Macbeth, his first taste
of Shakespeare. His favorite out-of-school activity is our reading project in Old Naledi, where the children ask him about
Maru-a-Pula. He tells them to work hard so that they might follow in his footsteps.
Before he came to Maru-a-Pula, Chaba had never put his
finger on a computer keyboard. He now has 245 friends on
Facebook, one of whom is Gobakwe Montshiwa ’09, himself
an orphan scholar, who attended Taft last year and is now at
Stanford on a full scholarship.
Chaba says that before coming to Maru-a-Pula, his dream was
to be a football star. Now his career plans are more ambitious:
“I would like to be an engineer or a doctor.” What changes
does Chaba want to see in the world? “I would build roads and
schools, supply food and houses to poor families and stop the
sale of alcohol,” he says.
Chaba has seen the damage alcohol can do. His crowded
bedroom in Old Naledi was close to noisy local shebeens—or
bars—and Chaba found it difficult to study. Now that he stays in
our Boys’ Boarding House, he is able to focus on his work. Chaba
is also enjoying our cafeteria food because, he says, “It’s good
throughout the month.”
The new school year has started, and Chaba is back working
on a basic life skill: swimming. When he first came to Maru-aPula, his “swimming” was more like controlled drowning. After
considerable effort he learned to float. He’s able to thrash across
a pool’s width now and, later in 2010, we expect he’ll make it the
full length of the pool.
Andy Taylor ’72 is the principal of the Maru-a-Pula School in
Gaborone, Botswana. To find out more about the orphan program at
Maru-a-Pula, contact Andy at [email protected] or visit
www.maruapula.org. j
Alumni in AFRICA
The
x The terraced
rice paddies of
Manandriana that
Libby Cox ’92 walked
past on the way to and
from school every day
during her time in the
Peace Corps. Located in
the south-central highlands of Madagascar,
the area is renowned
for rice farming.
Water
Carriers
Learning To Fit In In Madagascar
by Libby Cox ’92
I
t’s 2004 and I am in Madagascar. My stint with the
Peace Corps—if I make it through—will last two years. The day
after my arrival I move into a house that lacks indoor plumbing
to live with a family I cannot communicate with. Humbling does
not quite sum it up.
For the next ten weeks I spend 10-hour days studying the local culture and language, pedagogy and important but un-sexy
topics such as water purification, diarrhea prevention and how
to winnow rice.
Peace Corps training seems designed to take all the fun out of
Madagascar. The message, though never explicitly stated, is clear
enough: if you came to snap photos of lemurs and blog about
your adventures in humanitarianism, you joined the wrong club.
It’s an exhausting experience.
During training, I find myself constantly setting goals—some
are ambitious, but most are practical and a few are a little silly.
By the time I leave this island, I resolve, I will be able to kill and
butcher a chicken, speak Malagasy fluently, clean floors with a
desiccated coconut and, above all, learn how to carry a bucket of
water on my head.
Photographs courtesy of Jamie Cox ’87 and Sarah Takats
Alumni in AFRICA
”…if you came to snap
photos of lemurs and blog
about your adventures
in humanitarianism, you
joined the wrong club”
Every day I watch women and children roll up
a piece of cloth, place it on their heads, perch a full
bucket on top and walk smoothly, almost elegantly from Point A to Point B. Sometimes they brace
the bucket with one hand but mostly they balance
hands-free.
I soon learn that many of my students wake
at 4 a.m. to fetch water before school, making a
hilly trip of several kilometers in the dark, usually
barefoot. To the Malagasy, matsaka (to fetch water) is the most mundane of tasks, left to women
and children, but to me it is supremely exotic and
difficult—a cross between magic and art.
Looking back through my three journals now,
I notice that every third or fourth entry includes
some mention of water:
September 12
I have a mpatsaka (water fetcher) but I don’t
know her name. 20¢/day for two buckets.
It’s definitely worth it.
September 19
A quiet Sunday. No water. Not sure what’s
going on there. A friend told me I was being
overcharged—should be 5¢ for two buckets—so I paid the 5¢ yesterday, but no water
fetcher or water today.
September 20
No water, so no coffee.
September 22
My neighbor helped me fetch water. I tried to
offer her money. No go.
September 25
Yesterday some of my students showed up
and tried to fetch water for me but the well
water was dirty.
And so on.
Really?! Was my life—in Africa—so dull that all
I could find to write about was water?
v The arrival of lychees at the market means a welcome
break from bananas. “Everyone gorges on them for a
week or two,” says Cox. “You’d walk around town and the
road would be littered with the bright red rinds.”
v Omby, or zebu as the
French call them,
at the weekly cattle
market. The local
Betsileo people are
very proud of their
omby, which are a
form of wealth and
status. They were, for
Cox, a constant source
of entertainment and
fascination, “especially
as there were often
rumors of cattle rustlers, some of whom
were allegedly assisted
by witches.”
Thinking back, I knew my life in Madagascar
had rarely been dull. In addition to learning a new
language and culture and teaching full time, I had
seen lemurs dance through the trees, dodged a
rogue zebu as it stampeded through my village,
been interrupted mid-lesson by a chicken wandering into my classroom and attended my first
famadihana, a ritual in which families honor and
commune with the dead by throwing a huge party
and dancing with their ancestors’ bones before
returning them to the family tomb.
And this was only three months in. On top of
this I experienced a sometimes crushing combination of loneliness and homesickness, which made
my first six months in country a bit of a blur.
Slowly I adapted to my new reality. My mpatsaka never returned, but often my students
would show up unexpectedly, clean my floor (a
chore that involves at least four steps and is less
about aesthetics than warding off an infestation of biting fleas), fetch water and then hang
around studying People magazine, practicing
their English and keeping me company as we
watched the sky change color and the zebu process back into town after a day of grazing. This,
I thought, is what you do when you don’t have a
TV or the Internet.
I also learned to set priorities and ration accordingly. First to go was the hair. I’d wash it at
most once a week. My dishes and my body were
rarely as clean as I expect them to be in the States.
Occasionally, I even resorted to buying bottled
water. (Looking back, I wonder at my stubborn
reluctance to purchase water; every shop in town
stocked it and I certainly had the money. I realize
now that I was simply desperate to fit in, and in a
place where most people live on approximately a
dollar a day, nobody was running out to buy water.
In fact, in two years I never saw anyone in my village purchase a bottle of water).
Eventually, I learned to fetch my own water.
I bought a huge plastic barrel for storage and
Alumni in AFRICA
“In the end, I realized
I could never fully
know what it is to be
Malagasy.…For me, it
was enough to gain
some understanding
of how people in my
village…struggle with
something we take for
granted: water.”
discovered the best spots to position buckets during the rainy season’s daily downpours.
In my later journal entries, water does not figure
as prominently. Instead, I struggled to capture the
spare beauty of my village and the odd, wonderful things that occur daily when you are the only
American in a small African village.
A year later…
October 15
A uniquely Malagasy night. Sun setting
as I look out my back window, and when I
turn and look out the front, an almost full
moon in the pale blue of the still daytime
sky. The hills rolling on forever like a topographic map. Zebu strolling by—stately.
The sunlight glowing on the red earth
brick houses and the vivid fires of tavy in
the hills.
I also wrote a great deal about all I read,
saw, and experienced of poverty, and of the
frustrations and problematic aspects of development work. While it’s interesting to trace my
evolving thoughts on these issues, none of these
entries is as evocative or powerful as my simple
notes on water.
I, like most Peace Corps volunteers, worked so
hard to fit in and understand the people I lived with
for two years. In the end, I realized I could never
October 24
Walking home I pass terraced rice paddies—
pockets of green that shift shades as the
growing season progresses. Men urge zebu
back and forth to turn the red earth. Women
stoop to plant each individual rice seedling.
November 16
Walking home at the end of the day I am
swarmed by the Catholic schoolkids—
all little ones in their royal blue smocks.
Francine, name embroidered in white on
her smock, maybe 6 or 7, says “Goodbye
teacher” again and again as she walks me
all the way home. The boys are kicking a
homemade soccer ball (plastic bags tied up
with string or rubber bands) around and
somehow I get drawn into the game. They
run ahead and place the ball—very carefully—for me to kick and then run ahead and
place it again. The kids are cracking up
and adults along the way are smiling and
laughing at me and my posse.
I often wrote about sunsets and the electricityfree, star-studded night sky. Some of these entries
are very embarrassing, but it’s difficult to avoid romantic hyperbole when describing such a strange,
beautiful place.
fully know what it is to be Malagasy. It’s simply
impossible. For me, it was enough to gain some
understanding of how people in my village—like
millions of Africans and people all over the developing world—struggle with something we take for
granted: water.
I never learned to carry a bucket of water on
my head. In fact, somewhere between watching
the sunset and simply living, I completely forgot
about that ambition. And while it would have
made a neat party trick, in the end, I’m okay with
that one small failure.
Libby Cox now lives near Boston, Massachusetts, and
teaches at an alternative high school. j
Alumni in AFRICA
Confronting a
Pandemic
Technicolor
Linda Zackin ’80 Propels
Health Programs Against the
Beguiling Backdrop of Namibia
by Phoebe Vaughn Outerbridge ’84
v Linda Zackin
’80, front right,
at the opening of
the first military
HIV/AIDS clinic in
Namibia.
W
hen Linda Zackin
’80 moved from the capital of
the United States to the capital
of Namibia, she had to get over
somewhat of a reverse culture
shock. “The hardest part was convincing my older family members
that there weren’t any lions in the
mission, however, but a professional one. Zackin has spent the
last two and a half years helping
the Namibian government improve healthcare delivery to its
population, specifically through
HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis
(TB) programs. “It’s essentially
backyard,” she jokes. Unlike the
commotion and traffic she left behind in Washington, D.C., Zackin
says the efficient city of Windhoek
has no traffic and no pollution.
One can even eat a salad and drink
the water. “When I first got here,”
she states, “I wondered, ‘What
took me so long?’”
It’s known as “the land of
contrasts,” and anyone who has
seen Namibia understands such a
characterization: it is the richest
source of diamonds on the planet
yet half its population lives below
the international poverty line;
traditional tribal outfits juxtapose
western dress in its modern capital
city; and as Zackin points out, a
popular local activity is skiing…on
the sand dunes. “Sandboarding is
popular in Namibia,” says Zackin,
referring to snowboarding’s warmweather cousin. Zackin adds: “It’s
actually one of the things I’m most
looking forward to.”
Linda Zackin didn’t come
to Namibia on a recreational
their government’s program, and
we’re helping them strengthen
their capacity to expand it, and
eventually run it on their own,”
says Zackin.
Zackin and her colleagues—
about 100 strong in the Namibia
office—work for International
Training and Education Center
for Health, or I-TECH, part of
the University of Washington’s
Department of Global Health.
I-TECH, which also supports
offices throughout Asia, Africa,
and the Caribbean, operates
through funding from the U.S.
government (specifically the State
Department) and the President’s
Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief,
or PEPFAR, one of the largest national health initiatives launched
to combat the AIDS pandemic.
I-TECH strives to support and
develop a skilled health workforce
and delivery system in developing
countries, with a specific focus on
integrating HIV/AIDS prevention,
care, and treatment.
Dark
Amidst a
Dreamscape
h The Sousouvelt sand dunes, popular for
sandboarding, but also tough to travel through.
Keith Levit Photography / www.worldofstock.com
Alumni in AFRICA
Developing a skilled healthcare workforce in a country like
Namibia is the challenge, says
Zackin. Namibia, the size of Texas
and Louisiana combined but with
a scant population of 1.8 million,
is the second least populated
country in the world (Mongolia
is the first). “Because of Namibia’s
small population, and the fact it
has only been an independent
country since 1990, there has been
no medical, lab tech, or pharmacy
school,” explains Zackin. “Very
few Namibians go overseas to train
and of those, even fewer come
back to Namibia. So there are no
trained locals.”
Zackin states that a medical
school and a lab technology school
will be opening next year, and
I-TECH will be providing scholarships to qualified students. In the
meantime, Zackin and I-TECH
have been focusing their energy on
“task-shifting,” whereby the task
normally carried out by a doctor
is carried out by a nurse, the task
of a nurse is shifted to a volunteer,
and the workforce is modified to
match the abilities of workers that
are actually available.
Zackin’s job at I-TECH isn’t
just a desk job; between managing, budgeting, and coordinating
projects she travels to different
sites around the country every
month. Her last project allowed
her a chance to play film producer,
a role she relished. The movie was
shot with a specific audience in
mind—the Namibian military—
with the goal of erasing the stigma
and discrimination associated with
HIV among the soldiers.
Despite the serious nature
of the film, Zackin enjoyed the
shooting. “We had so much fun
filming it,” she recalls, adding that
the film production was a far cry
from slick Hollywood, especially
in the casting department, for example. “We got a curveball thrown
at us when we learned that all the
roles, save the two leads, were to
be played entirely by Namibian
soldiers. Even the child extras had
to be military children!” She adds,
“Thankfully, we had a director
with the patience of a saint!”
Dealing with surprises, contrasts, and cultural differences
is part of what makes life in
Namibia continually intriguing
for Zackin. Those differences
can crop up in her job regularly,
like in the shooting of the HIV
film. “One part in this film was a
funeral scene,” she recalls, “We
had dug a grave and had a cameraman in it shooting upwards.
The bystanders were really upset. They said ‘If you dig a grave
you’re inviting someone in it.’
I’m sure we were all damned to a
premature death!”
It is largely the cultural contrast, however, that prompted
Zackin to set her sights to working overseas in the first place.
Zackin, who has a master’s degree in public health from Johns
Hopkins University, had been
working in the international
health arena for various NGOs
and their implementing partners
for many years. “I really enjoyed
communications and working to
change people’s behavior about
health-related issues,” she says.
, Shooting a graveside
scene for their film,
Remember Eliphas, a
number of bystanders
were upset by the fake
grave, believing it to
bring bad luck.
“I was looking to move overseas,” she explains. “My partner,
Dennis Weeks, got his job here
first, coordinating U.S. government assistance for HIV and
AIDS, and I moved with him.”
Her first position in Namibia was
for the ministry of health working
as a consultant on TB policy and
on a drug resistance survey. Since
she had been working on infectious diseases in Washington and
California, the overseas job was a
“perfect fit.”
Zackin finds her work in
Namibia invigorating and gratifying: “Actually seeing projects
in action is energizing. Even the
office work with my Namibian
counterparts is more interesting
than my work in the States,” she
says. Given southern Africa’s reputation for having the highest rates
of HIV, opening the first military
HIV/AIDS clinic in early 2009
was a project Zackin deems a real
success story. She and her colleagues refurbished the wing of a
hospital and trained staff, a project
that took about a year.
The rewards extend beyond the
workplace for Zackin, who in her
off hours has a most captivating
African country as her playground.
“The Namibian geography is fascinating, with every corner of the
country offering something different,” describes Zackin. “The north
is more humid with wetlands;
there are beautiful mountains rising from the desert…some dunes
even spill out into the ocean,” she
says, referring to the dramatic
beauty of the Skeleton Coast,
where the Namib Desert meets the
Atlantic Ocean. “Where else can
you go on vacation and stay in a
lodge by a river, listening to hippos
at night?” says Zackin, describing a
slice of her recreation life.
The Namibian people, too,
are a complex and diverse people
depending on what part of the
country you’re in, and if you can
find them, muses Zackin. “I’ve
traveled to more than 25 countries, and upon returning here, I
wonder where the people have
disappeared to, because the population density is so low,” she says,
adding that the bulk of the population in Namibia live in the north
region, far from Windhoek.
Working in Windhoek has
given Zackin a window into the
cultural norms and how they
contrast from city to country, and
from Africa to America. “In the
capital city, women hold powerful
positions in government and business,” she explains. “In rural areas,
girls and women don’t enjoy the
same rights and opportunities as
their counterparts in the U.S. The
stark contrast makes me grateful
for the opportunities and education I enjoyed in America.”
In the end, it is those crosscultural contrasts and differences
that Linda Zackin says are among
the most interesting aspects of her
tenure in Namibia. “You learn a lot
from others, and also about yourself. And you question things you
always took for granted.”
Phoebe Vaughn Outerbridge ’84 is
a freelance writer in Pennington,
New Jersey, and mother of Bailey ’12
and Whitney. j
Alumni in AFRICA
An Advocate for Africa
Jennifer Cooke ’81 Helps Shape U.S. Policy
by Tom Frank ’80
n Though she lives in Washington, Jennifer Cooke ’81 is no stranger to Africa: at left with HIV positive community health workers in Kenya’s
Mariakani District, and (right) on a trip last year with Congressman Keith Ellison (in the green shirt) to Dadaab refugee camp in northern Kenya,
home to some 300,000 Somali refugees.
“Unlike many think-tank
analysts who promote a political
agenda, Cooke strives to
develop a consensus of opinions
and to convert that consensus
into policy recommendations
that have wide support.”
he clinic sits next to an electronics shop in downtown
Mombasa, the second-largest city in Kenya.
Passersby would barely notice the storefront, but it
was there that Jennifer Cooke spent a day last summer
talking to 20 commercial sex workers—mostly women, but a few
men—about their jobs and their practices.
“There’s a certain frankness about it. It’s the hard reality of life
that presses you into that type of work,” Cooke says. “Most have
families to feed, and there are not a lot of jobs out there, even for
the educated.”
Cooke was not there to proselytize but rather to learn.
T
Africa. The variety can be mind-boggling.
“One day it’s Qaddafi, one day it’s Madagascar, one day it’s São
Tomé,” Cooke says.
Unlike many think-tank analysts who promote a political
agenda, Cooke strives to develop a consensus of opinions and to
convert that consensus into policy recommendations that have
wide support. The consensus often gets written into one-page
papers—an ideal length for Congressional staffers with little time
and opinion-page editors with a 700-word hole to fill.
“It’s not deep thoughts from the mind of Jennifer Cooke,”
Cooke says of her writing. “We bring together experts from the
n Cooke in northern Nigeria’s neighborhood of Kano surrounded by local children, and, at right, with Somalian President Sheikh Sharif at a CSIS panel in 2009.
The clinic ran a program, partially funded by the U.S. government, that provided health services for sex workers and supported
safe-sex protocols. Cooke wanted to know how well the program
was working so she could take the findings back to her Washington,
D.C., office and incorporate them into a paper that would try to
shape U.S. policy toward Africa.
As one of Washington’s leading experts on U.S. policy toward
Africa, Cooke spends a lot of time dispelling myths and judgments, particularly about activities such as sex work.
“Often times, there are not a lot of choices for young women,”
Cooke says. “Even as we empower them to have other options,
we also should be working to make sure they’re healthy and safe.”
Since August 2008, Cooke has been director of the Africa
Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies,
a serious-minded nonpartisan think tank whose scholars the
Washington Post has dubbed “brainy insiders.”
From her small office in downtown Washington, Cooke sits
at the center of the city’s community of Africa experts, speaking
regularly to scholars, journalists, members of Congress and nongovernmental organizations such as CARE that do humanitarian
work in Africa. She does everything from interpret the latest
events for journalists to lead high-level trips of U.S. dignitaries to
administration, the corporate world and academia. We try to
ensure our policy recommendations are based on a broad set of
views and interests. We see ourselves as trying more to offer constructive criticism.”
Before President Barack Obama traveled to Ghana last July,
Cooke organized a seminar of experts who discussed issues
Obama would face in his trip. She organized a similar event a few
weeks later before Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s
trip to Africa. Both were well-attended, and the Clinton seminar
was televised on C-Span.
“She is recognized as being very well-informed, fair-minded
and insightful on a broad range of foreign-policy issues pertaining
to Africa,” says former boss Stephen Morrison, now head of the
Center’s global health policy. “She’s a pretty nonpartisan personality.
People go to her for a balanced, objective analysis of what’s going on.”
When USA Today foreign-affairs reporter Ken Dilanian was
assigned a story last year about the piracy epidemic in Somalia,
Dilanian found Cooke through an internet search. It was a beneficial discovery.
“She explained the history of U.S. involvement in Somalia, the
current political situation, the role of African peacekeepers and
how pirates were in Somalia with encouragement of some local
Alumni in AFRICA
authorities,” Dilanian recalls. “Our phone interview was so useful
that her quotes were featured high in my story.”
Carolyn Gramling, a reporter for Earth, a monthly science news
magazine, called Cooke in November to get quick background on
Chinese investments in the African country of Guinea. “She was
incredibly informative and helpful,” Gramling says.
The job is a logical outgrowth for Cooke, whose father was a
foreign-service officer and who spent many years of her childhood living in Côte d’Ivoire on Africa’s west coast. She also lived
in Rome, Brussels, Canada and the Central African Republic.
But her years in Africa left the most-lasting impression, particularly the contrast between the relatively affluent Côte d’Ivoire and
the impoverished Central African Republic, which was ruled by
an Idi Amin-like strongman. Cooke recalls wondering, “What accounts for the different choices that leaders and countries make?”
Arriving at Taft in 1977 as a lowermid was culture shock, Cooke
says. Taft was her first American school, and Cooke was startled at
how “socially advanced” students were about matters such as dating. “I think I was quite shy my first year there,” Cooke says.
But Cooke overcame any initial reticence, flourished into a
three-sport athlete, winning letters in cross-country, volleyball
and track, and was a singer with the Hydrox girls’ a cappella
group. As a senior, Cooke was co-captain of the powerful girls’
cross-country team. And she got into Harvard.
Cooke came to Washington after college and landed an internship with the House Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health
while working a paid job as a waitress at a trendy Georgetown
restaurant. The mid-1980s were an exciting time for U.S. African
policy, as a Democratic Congress overrode President Reagan’s veto
of a bill placing sanctions on South Africa’s apartheid government.
Cooke eventually earned a master’s degree in African studies
and international economics from the Johns Hopkins School of
Advanced International Studies, and started working in the news
office for the National Academy of Sciences.
Cooke’s move in 2000 to the Center for Strategic and
International Studies as deputy director for the Africa program
was a homecoming of sorts. “Africa was always my core interest,”
Cooke says.
More recently, Cooke has also rediscovered her love of running
and logs 50-mile weeks through Washington’s Rock Creek Park. This
year she ran the Cherry Blossom 10-mile race in 1:09—a sub-sevenminute-mile pace—and finished the Boston Marathon in 3:19, a
pace of 7:36 per mile. That placed her 15th in the 45-to-49 age group.
While Cooke may be politically nonpartisan, she is a fierce
advocate for what she calls a thoughtful, long-range U.S. policy
toward Africa “and not treating it as an afterthought.”
Cooke saw short-sightedness when it came to dealing with piracy
off the coast of Somalia or U.S. counterterrorism concerns. U.S.
policy focused on “cordoning the country off and taking care of the
most immediate threat without solving the bigger problem that will
keep generating the threat,” Cooke says. The U.S. government ended
up “abdicating our Somalia policy to the intelligence and defense
establishment rather than investing diplomatic resources we need to
build a long-term, strategic policy.”
“There tends to be an ad hoc approach to Africa without
thinking through how short-term actions affect long-term interests,” Cooke says.
Despite the continent’s long problems with poverty and violence, Cooke sees the main problem as corrupt and incompetent
governments. “In Africa, the key is governments that are competent, capable, accountable and able to manage challenges such as
security, population growth and climate change,” Cooke says.
Cooke’s goal in critiquing U.S. policy is to steer it toward promoting “a democratic, prosperous Africa.”
“In some ways,” she says, “I sometimes feel more like an Africa
advocate than a U.S.-interests advocate.”
Tom Frank ’80 covers homeland security and aviation for USA Today. j
“[Cooke] spent many years of her childhood
living in Côte d’Ivoire on Africa’s west coast.
She also lived in Rome, Brussels, Canada and the
Central African Republic. But her years in Africa left
the most-lasting impression, particularly the contrast
between the relatively affluent Côte d’Ivoire and the
impoverished Central African Republic…”
Alumni in AFRICA
from the Archives
—continued from page 38
1958 cover art by Deane Keller ’58
“In addition to the typical a cappella
standards of the time for a singing
group like ours, we had one number,
‘Get A Job,’ which was inspired and
arranged by Art Mellor, I believe. It
was a popular hip rock number of
the day and stood out as entirely
original for a group like the Oriocos to
perform. It always brought down the
house as a favorite.”
—John Fink ’58
“I remember we went to a radio station
in Hartford to make the recording. We
had no time for mistakes, so we just sang
each song once and that was it.
Mr. Noyes had prepared us well and the
session was flawless.”
To listen, visit www.TaftSchool.org/about/archives
—David Burt ’58
From the Taft Papyrus
Other digitized recordings:
Taft Dance Orchestra, ca. 1932
Taft School Dance Orchestra, 1935
The 1952 Glee Club and Concert Band
The Taft Dance Band, 1953
Taft School Song, ca. 1955
Oriocos, 1956
The Taft School’s Oriocos, 1958
The Taft School Oriocos, 1961
Bing Bingham & Joe Knowlton, Daybreak, ca. 1964
“The Oriocos of 1958 sang at banquets
and dances, but the most memorable
time for me was going on tour after
graduation. We sang at a number of
graduation parties in New York and
Connecticut, and we spent some time
on Neal Love’s farm in Goshen, New
York. When we went into the city of
New York, we had dinner (and I think
we sang) at a restaurant called Bill’s
Gay Nineties, wearing cardboard
moustaches. We had whiskey, too,
and smoked cigars. After that the
1958 Oriocos finally dissolved, having
consummated some of the themes of
our songs, namely ‘Down over the hill
there is a little still.’”
1958 Oriocos
First Tenors
Don Bartlett ’59
Dave Burt ’58
Lind Swenson ’60
Second Tenors
John Gillespie ’59
Neil Love ’58
Mac Mellor ’59
Baritones
Jack Bomer ’58
John Fink ’58
Harry Leonard ’58
Basses
Randy Collins ’59
Jim Foote ’58
John McAdams ’58
from the ARCHIVES
The Oriocos on Record
The tradition of a cappella singing at Taft started
with the Octet around 1935. Soon after, the
Oriocos replaced the Octet, allowing for more
or less than eight members. From 1950–75 the
Oriocos were directed by French teacher John
Noyes; since then they have been student-directed.
In addition to their regular performances at dances,
Fathers’ Days and various off-campus venues, the
group has occasionally made recordings. Two
of them, from 1956 and 1958, are featured here.
Recently we converted these albums and seven
other Taft student musical recordings to digital
media to ensure their preservation and playability.
—Alison Gilchrist, Leslie D. Manning Archives
1956: “…(Oriocos) rehearsals take place in the depths of the new
building (CPT) basement each night after dinner. (They) are very
informal. The First Tenors tend to be highly temperamental—
particularly fond of warming up their voices at odd times—and the
crooner soloists are natural targets for well placed jokes.”
—from the 1956 album cover notes.
If you know who created
the 1956 cover, or where the
name Oriocos comes from,
please let us know!
1956 Oriocos
Frank Chapin ’56
John Davies ’56
Roger Hartley ’57
Jim James ’56
Dick Johnson ’56
Jack McLeod ’56
Miles McNiff ’57
Jeff Paley ’56
Larry Pryor ’56
Steve Spencer ’56
George Waters ’57
Bill Weeks ’57
n 1955–56 Oriocos
continued on page 37—
Alumni Weekend 2010
Thursday, May 13
6:30 pm: 50th Reunion
Dinner, Class of 1960,
Choral Room
6:30 pm: 60th Reunion
Dinner, Class of 1950,
The Heritage Hotel,
Southbury
Friday, May 14
8:00 am: Alumni Golf
Tournament
8:00 am–6:00 pm:
Registration
9:00–11:30 am:
School Tours
Gund Partnership
11:00 am–1:00 pm:
School Lunch
Noon: Reunion Class
Luncheons, Classes of
’35, ’40, ’45, ’50 & ’55,
Choral Room
(Non-Reunion classes
also welcome to attend)
Noon: Class of 1960,
Watertown Golf Club
5:00 pm: Service
of Remembrance,
Christ Church on
the Green
Saturday, May 15
7:00–8:00 am:
School Breakfast
9:30–10:30 am:
Class Secretaries’
and Agents’ Breakfast
7:50–11:45 am:
Classes open to
visiting alumni
10:00–11:00 am:
Collegium Musicum
Revisited
8:00 am–3:00 pm:
Registration
10:30–11:15 am:
Taft Today and
Tomorrow Panel
hosted by Headmaster
Willy MacMullen ’78
6:00 pm:
Old Guard Dinner
8:00 am–5:00 pm:
Mark W. Potter
’48 Gallery: Eladio
Fernandez ’85,
Caribbean Nature
Photography
Evening: Reunion Class
Dinners, Classes of ’65,
’70, ’80, ’85, ’90 & ’95
9:00–11:30 am:
School Tours,
Archives Open
11:30 am: Dedication
of HDT Dining Hall
Noon: Alumni Parade
1:30 pm: School Tours
2:00 pm:
Alumni Lacrosse Game
2:15 pm:
Alumni Crew Race
3:00 pm:
Student Athletic Games
5:30–8:00 pm:
Headmaster’s
Buffet Dinner
Evening:
Reunion Class Dinners,
Classes of ’75, ’00
and ’05
12:30 pm:
Alumni Luncheon
and Children’s Program
Come see the new dining halls!
Taft Bulletin
The Taft School
110 Woodbury Road
Watertown, CT 06795-2100
860.945.7777
www.TaftAlumni.com
Nonprofit Org
U.S. Postage
PAID
Burlington, VT
Permit No. 101
Change Service Requested
Taft wins at FenwAY
h Taft claims first ever hockey
win in Boston’s Fenway Park at
December’s Prep Winter Classic.
The team took the ice against
Avon in the shadow of the Green
Monster as Bruins legend Cam
Neely dropped the opening puck.
Taft had the edge in the exhibition
match, 9 goals to 5, held 10 days
before the NHL’s winter classic on
New Year’s Day. Leah Latham

Alumni in - The Taft School

Transcription

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