Children’s Earth Month Tea

with Emeraldalicious author and illustrator Victoria Kann

Sunday, April 6, from 2 p.m. to 3:30 pm at the Taft School

Kick off Earth Month with an afternoon of family fun activities and a reading from Emeraldalicious by author Victoria Kann.

Come for an afternoon of tea, treats, and engaging, earth-conscious activities that fulfill the mission of Emeraldalicious. There will also be opportunity to meet Victoria Kann for a book signing. Books will also be available for purchase.

The event is free but space is limited and advance registration is required.

Contact Catherine Ganung to register at cganung@taftschool.org or 860-945-7983.

Taft is pleased to welcome tropical plant ecologist Dr. Chuck Peters to campus on Friday, April 4.

Dr. Peter’s lecture begins at 6:45 pm in the Laube Auditorium of the Hulbert Taft Jr. Library. Refreshments will be served. The program is free and open to the public.

Dr. Peters is a plant ecologist and community foretry researcher at the New York Botanical Garden. His research focuses on the ecology, use, and management of tropical forest resources. Most of his research is done in close collaboration with local community groups. He is currently working in the Tapajos-Arapiuns Extractive Reserve in Brazil with several communities who are developing management plans for the sustainable production of furniture woods. He is also involved in community forestry research in the Selva Maya of Mexico, and has recently started work in Myanmar and Vietnam to look at the conservation and sustainable use of rattan (Palmae) in these two countries.

Dr. Peters is also an associate professor of tropical ecology (adjunct) at the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies of Yale University, an adjunct senior research scientist at the Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC) of Columbia University, and is editor of the monograph series Advances in Economic Botany.

The New York Botanical Garden Seminar Series at Taft features unique lectures by NYBG scientists, and is made possible by a grant from the Yerkes Family Botanical Art and Science Speakers Fund. For more information, call 860-945-7751.

Taft sent two teams to compete in the Connecticut State Science Olympiad. In this contest, teams of up to 15 students compete in 23 events, usually two students per event. The events have names like Disease Detective, Water Quality, Astronomy, Boomilever and more. Some events test basic concepts, others test students' capabilities in the lab. Seven of the events require students to build an apparatus that will perform a specific task.

A total of 36 teams from 26 schools competed this year. At the closing ceremony, the top three in each event are awarded gold, silver and bronze medals, and the top three schools overall receive trophies.

“Taft did quite well at the competition,” explains advisor Jim Mooney, “getting four 3^rd-place finishes and two 2^nd-place finishes in the individual events. The Taft A team placed 3rd in the overall competition, so the school received a nice trophy as well.”

Individual medal winners and their events:

Mission Posssible:
Design and build a device that is initiated by dropping a mixture of 10 marbles, 10 paper clips and 10 golf tees into the device. Points are scored through various energy transfers until a light is actuated (think Rube Goldberg machine). Extra points are given for separating the marbles, clips and tees, which Jack and Pond were able to do, all in a device only about 12 inches on a side.
2nd Place: Pond Premtoon and Jack Mi

Dynamic Planet:
Students use process skills to complete tasks associated with glaciation and long-term climate change.
2nd Place: Jackie Tyson and Ezra Levy

Designer Genes:
Students solve problems and analyze data and diagrams using their knowledge of genetics, molecular genetics and biotechnology.
3rd Place: Srinidhi Bharadwaj and James Lee

Disease Detectives:
Students use their investigative skills in the scientific study of disease, injury, health and disability in populations or groups of people with a particular focus on Environmental Quality.
3rd Place: Carter Taft and Bridget Dougherty

MagLev:
Students design and build a magnetically levitated vehicle that moves down a standard maglev track in a time not announced until the competition begins.

3rd Place: Tiffany Li and Kelly Park

Scrambler:
Students build a vehicle powered only by the energy of a falling mass. The vehicle must transport an egg fastened to the front a distance not known until the competition day. The track terminates with a wall, hence the name "scrambler" if the egg hits it.
3rd Place: Cauviya Selva and Harry Wang

Festival Music for Choir, Organ and Brass with Collegium Musicum, Cantus Excelsus and the Woodward Chapel Brass Ensemble

Sunday, April 27, at 2:00 pm

The Cathedral of St. John the Divine
1047 Amsterdam Avenue at 112th Street, NYC

Taste of Italy Reception following the concert in Cathedral House with Silent Auction to help defray the costs of Collegium's upcoming trip to Italy

ALL ARE WELCOME!
CONCERT IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
NO TICKETS REQUIRED

Taft’s Service Learning course, now in its seventh year, has a new focus…on literacy.

“We wanted to improve the quality of our service,” says Jamella Lee, who teaches the class, “so that our service meets a critical and strategic need for our service partners while also a meaningful experience for our students. We know from both the 2007 United Way Needs Assessment and our service partners that literacy is a critical need for elementary students. Only 30 percent of 4th graders passed the Connecticut Mastery Test (CMT) in reading. This speaks volumes to the importance of the literacy tutoring our service-learning students are providing to kindergarten students.”

So part of the coursework this year includes training as a literacy volunteer and studying brain development, along with hand-on experience at Carrington Elementary, one of Waterbury Public Schools.

The partnership with Waterbury Public Schools came about as part of the school’s new Global Center for Leadership and Service (CGLS, see Summer 2013), which was created with a matching grant from the Edward E. Ford Foundation.

“Although we have worked with Children’s Community School (CCS)for many years,” adds Lee, “we did not have a partnership with the Waterbury Public School system before CGLS.”

Taft students continue to work at CCS, as well as the newly created Brass City Charter School and Watertown Public Schools, through the Volunteer Program

“The idea behind the CGLS,” says Lee, “is that we are strengthening and expanding our partnerships. One way we are doing that is by creating a more strategic focus around our work, like the focus on literacy, and also by developing metrics to show the true impact of our work).

Another outreach effort under the umbrella of the CGLS is the expanded Sports In Service program, being coordinated by Ginger O’Shea. In addition to fundraising programs for cancer awareness, teams have also hosted clinics for local youth.

Other CGLS programs are in the planning stages and will be rolled out over the next 18 months. 

Mark W. Potter Gallery @ the Taft School

April 18 through May 27, 2014

Of Grace is a series of portraits of young people that I have met as an educator. These pictures explore the concept of universal grace in the manifestation, the signs and symbols, as bestowed upon us, especially during our youth, without our having to ask for it or earn it. This unconditional favor transcends race and religion, or class and culture. Grace is given like a parent’s love for his child.

The images are made over a two-year period in different formats, ranging from a 35mm panorama to an 8x10 inch large-format studio camera. The triple-portraits are made in one frame in a single instant with the help of mirrors. The headshots are made in a studio. The narrative and intuitive portraits are made on location with a 4x5 inch field camera. The film negatives are scanned and printed with pigment ink.

Yee-Fun Yin

Woodbury, Connecticut 2014 

by Robert Harling

directed by Susan Becker Aziz

Wednesday, April 30, at 2 p.m. and May 1 & 2 at 7 p.m.

Woodward Black Box Theater

with

Simmons Gaines '15

Celina Piechocinski '16

Samantha Westmoreland '14

Kimberly Wipfler '17

Kelly Park '15

Ai Bui '16

Srinidhi Bharadwaj '15, stage manager

This year, 29 Tafties (24 students, 3 faculty members, and 2 faculty children) spent a week over March break volunteering in the Dominican Republic.

"We worked with Outreach 360 teaching English in the John F. Kennedy school in the DR," explains Jeremy Clifford, who has chaperoned the trip four times. "We split into two groups and each group taught five classes of English per day from 1st to 5th grade. Because of our group size, we were able to work with one English speaker assigned to a group of 2-3 students."

They taught in the town of Monte Christi in the northwest part of the Dominican Republic. While there, the group also visited a marketplace in the town of Dajabon on the DR/Haiti border and salt flats that have been used to harvest salt from the ocean for hundreds of years, as well as a beautiful rocky beach. Fernando

Fernandez, Kayla Romano, Heather Gordon, Megan Stone, Anna Farrell, Ismatou Bah, and Katie Pfefferle are all repeat visitors.

"What makes this trip so special," explains Heather, "is that the culture you are taught through movies and talks (given each night by Outreach 360), you are able to experience everyday, not only by teaching in the schools, but also by spending time with children on the playground or going to the supermarket or to church. You become engulfed in the culture and eventually fall in love with it."

In fact, this was Heather's third time on the trip. "Coming back each year, the progress made is so subtle yet so apparent. You are able to see kids move through their elementary education. I worked with one boy last year named Wascar and was able to work with him again this year. The difference a year makes is incredible. His English had improved significantly and it was such an honor to be a part of this growth. You become invested in these children, to the piont where their successes become your own."

For more information, visit outreach360.org.

Taft is pleased to welcome tropical plant ecologist Dr. Chuck Peters to campus on Friday, April 4.

Dr. Peter’s lecture begins at 6:45 pm in the Laube Auditorium of the Hulbert Taft Jr. Library. Refreshments will be served. The program is free and open to the public.

Dr. Peters is a plant ecologist and community forestry researcher at the New York Botanical Garden. His research focuses on the ecology, use, and management of tropical forest resources. Most of his research is done in close collaboration with local community groups. He is currently working in the Tapajos-Arapiuns Extractive Reserve in Brazil with several communities who are developing management plans for the sustainable production of furniture woods. He is also involved in community forestry research in the Selva Maya of Mexico, and has recently started work in Myanmar and Vietnam to look at the conservation and sustainable use of rattan (Palmae) in these two countries.

Dr. Peters is also an associate professor of tropical ecology (adjunct) at the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies of Yale University, an adjunct senior research scientist at the Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC) of Columbia University, and is editor of the monograph series Advances in Economic Botany.

The New York Botanical Garden Seminar Series at Taft features unique lectures by NYBG scientists, and is made possible by a grant from the Yerkes Family Botanical Art and Science Speakers Fund. For more information, call 860-945-7751.

Admiral James Stavridis is this year's DuBois speaker. His talk in Morning Meeting this week will address 21st-Century Security, with a quick look back at 20th century security. He will touch on Afghanistan, the Balkans, Syria, Ukraine, piracy and other modern security challenges, as well as proposing some solutions for dealing with them—collaboration among international, governmental, and private sector actors.

Admiral Stavridis's talk in Morning Meeting will be followed by two sessions of Q&A. The first will be held in the Faculty Room at 10:00 a.m., and the second will be in Prentice Dining Room at 11:30 a.m.

Stavridis is the 12th leader of the Fletcher School at Tufts University since its founding in 1933. A retired admiral in the U.S. Navy, he led the NATO Alliance in global operations from 2009 to 2013 as supreme allied commander. He also served as commander of U.S. Southern Command, with responsibility for all military operations in Latin America from 2006 to 2009. A Fletcher PhD, he won the Gullion Prize as outstanding student and has published five books and over a hundred articles. His focus is on innovation, strategic communication and planning, and creating security through international, interagency and public/private partnerships in the 21st century.

The school will commemorate Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, on Tuesday, May 13, with a Morning Meeting talk by Ms. Anita Schorr, a Holocaust survivor.

Schorr has received many recognitions, including the Jewish Ledger’s Movers and Shakers. More recently, she was awarded the Exceptional Leader Award by Senator Richard Blumenthal, the Distinguished Community Leadership Award by Lt. Governor Nancy Wyman, and the State of Connecticut General Assembly Official Citation. 

Schorr was born into a middle-class family in Brno, Czechoslovakia, in 1931. Eight years later, the family was arrested by the Nazis. Schorr would endure the concentration camps of Terezín and Auschwitz, then a slave-labor unit in Hamburg before ending up in Bergen-Belsen—the only member of her family to survive.

After liberation, Schorr joined the Haganah and fought in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. She married a fellow Czech and lived on a kibbutz until 1959, when the couple came to the U.S. She did not speak about her experience in the camps for more than 30 years and began to tell her story only after retiring from a successful career as a commercial artist.

Schorr’s visit is made possible through the generous support of the Albert Family Holocaust Study Fund, which will bring recognized authorities on the Holocaust to campus annually.

For more information visit anitaschorr.com

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) has announced that Tiffany Li '14 is among this year’s National Merit $2500 Scholarship winners. These scholars were chosen from a talent pool of more than 15,000 outstanding Finalists in the 2014 National Merit Scholarship Program.

National Merit $2500 Scholarship winners are the finalists in each state judged to have the strongest combination of accomplishments, skills and potential for success in rigorous college studies. The number of winners named in each state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the nation’s graduating high school seniors.

The winners were selected by a committee of college admissions officers and high school counselors who appraised a substantial amount of information submitted by both the finalists and their high schools: the academic record, including difficulty level of subjects studied and grades earned; scores from two standardized tests; contributions and leadership in school and community activities; an essay written by the finalist; and a recommendation written by a high school official.

Tiffany's talents, however, are more than academic. She was a co-captain of the varsity volleyball team, rowed crew, served as a dorm monitor, was editor of the school Global Journal. She was inducted into the Cum Laude Society last fall and will attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Oonya Kempadoo grew up in Guyana and has worked and lived in various Caribbean islands and currently resides in Grenada. A creative writer and novelist, she also works freelance as a researcher and consultant in the arts, private sector, with youth and international organizations, focusing on social development. Oonya is a Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence and creative writing instructor for academic year 2013-14, with two community colleges in Connecticut. She is an advisor to Caribbean literacy dedicated non-profit Hands Across the Sea and co-founder of the Mt Zion Library and homework centre in St George’s Grenada.  

Oonya started writing in 1997, and her first novel, Buxton Spice, is a story of a young girl’s growing sexual awareness and sexuality set in the multi-racial society of Guyana disintegrating under a corrupt government. Buxton Spice was auctioned in London between major publishers and was published by Phoenix House, Orion UK 1998, and has been translated into Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese and Hebrew. It was serialised for radio by BBC Radio 4.

Her second novel, Tide Running, set in Tobago, is a vernacular account of a young Tobagonian’s intimate, ultimately disastrous intersection with a wealthy interracial couple and the predicament of a young society looking to America for fantasies and heroes. It also raises unsettling questions about relationships, wealth and responsibility, racial, cultural and class differences. Published in 2001, it won a Casa De Las Americas prize in 2002. It was also well received on both sides of the Atlantic, and Oonya was named a “Great Talent for the 21st Century” by the Orange Prize judges.

All Decent Animals, Oonya’s most recent novel (2013), was listed #6 on Oprah Winfrey’s Summer Reading list. This novel looks at personal aesthetic choices and at the island of Trinidad, developing but rich, aiming at ‘world class’ status amidst its poor, island cousins. It is about relationships examined around the death of an architect bridging ‘first world/third world’, and through the city of Port of Spain.

At Taft, she will read from All Decent Animals and be available for questions. 

The Summer Reading Committee selected PERSEPOLIS with the commitment to find a book with a female protagonist, and to expose our community to a part of the world sizzling with unrest, so often vilified and hidden behind veils and militant acts of violence. We also felt the experience of reading a graphic novel would be challenging as it exposes many of us to a genre which may be unfamiliar or many may view with prejudice. In addition to reading this book as a community, we will host Ms. Nikoo McGoldrick (parent of two Taft graduates and author) as our keynote speaker in the fall. Like Satrapi, Ms. McGoldrick grew up in Iran on the eve of the Islamic Revolution. 

"Originally published to wide critical acclaim in France, where it elicited comparisons to Art Spiegelman's Maus, PERSEPOLIS is Marjane Satrapi's wise, funny, and heartbreaking memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah's regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. The intelligent and outspoken only child of committed Marxists and the great-granddaughter of one of Iran's last emperors, Marjane bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country...

“Intensely personal, profoundly political, and wholly original, PERSEPOLIS is at once a story of growing up and a stunning reminder of the human cost of war and political repression. It shows how we carry on, through laughter and tears, in the face of absurdity. And, finally, it introduces us to an irresistible little girl with whom we cannot help but fall in love." (From the publisher)

We hope you will enjoy reading PERSEPOLIS! The book is readily available from online bookstores or brick-and-mortar stores.
 

One of the "100 Best Books of the Decade" (THE TIMES, London) • A NEW YORK TIMES Notable Book • An Outstanding Book for the College Bound (American Library Association) • Winner of several prestigious comic book awards and translated into more than 40 languages • The film version won the Cinema for Peace Award for "Most Valuable Movie of the Year" in 2008.

Students are also asked to read a second book, selected from a list of sponsored books. Both books are required, and we will discuss them in the fall. 

Of course, we hope that students will read several more than just these two books, because reading expands one's perspective on life, besides being entertaining. And we hope the list of faculty-sponsored books will provide many options and ideas and create an opportunity for many discussions in school and beyond. Enjoy!

Four years ago, the senior class began what is now a tradition during Senior Week: Senior Community Service Day! The seniors thought it would be fun, memorable to start off Senior week, ending their final days at Taft by living out the school motto: to serve, not to be served. The class of 2014 carried the torch of this great tradition.

“What a fantastic day we had at Flanders yesterday!” wrote Alex Thomson of Flanders Nature Center in Woodbury. “Brush removed, firewood split and stacked, more firewood collected, trails cut back, a fence installed and a chimney cleaned—that was a tremendous amount of work that your group completed. Throughout the day, your fellow students exhibited a wonderful sense of mission, friendliness and willingness to help Flanders. I am always amazed at the diverse background that Taft students have and at the same time, their common desire to support the school’s motto. Special thanks to Chris Capece and Sami Albert for being the student leaders.”

Students and faculty also helped out at Carrington School in Waterbury, Steele Brook Greenway in Watertown and Waldingfield Farm in Washington.

While the school has received much appreciation from our service partners in the past and this year, they noted the amazing spirit of this year's entire class and the wonderful work they did last week.

Volunteer Council Members (Heather Gordon, Bridget Dougherty, Taewan Shim, Chris Capece, Sami Albert, Tess Conciatori, SoYoung Park and Kayla Romano) led site projects, and faculty advisers Baba Frew, Jeremy Clifford, Catherine Ganung, Laura Monti, Carly Borken and the Global Leadership & Service Committee helped plan/organize the day.

“To the Class of 2014, you should be proud of your legacy,” says Jamella Lee.

More than 700 people came back to Taft to enjoy at least one of the many celebrations that made up Alumni Weekend 2014. Saturday's perfect weather surely contributed to the record turnout, which was more than double last year's attendance.

The weekend kicked off on Thursday, May 15, with the 50^th Reunion Dinner for the Class of 1964. For the first time, the size of the group exceeded the Choral Room's capacity, necessitating a move to Prentice Dining Hall. The Old Guard Dinner was also well attended, with classmates of Horace D. Taft Alumni Medal and Citation of Merit honoree Will Miller ’74 joining the dinner in support of their classmate.

Alumni Weekend included three new events this year: a luncheon with the Headmaster for the Class of 1944; a videotaped Rhino Tales storytelling and dessert reception for the Class of 1949; and an Alumni Soccer Game that enticed two dozen players--both male and female--from the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s and ’00s, as well as recent grads.

Our “Back to Class" favorite lessons by favorite teachers sessions were quite popular, with standing room only in Chris Brown’s “Robert Frost” class and in Rachael Ryan’s “Elections” class. Rusty Davis also drew a crowd for his family-friendly physics demonstrations.

Well done, Tafties! 

For more photographs from the weekend, or to order prints, visit

http://falcetti.photoshelter.com/gallery-collection/Taft-Alumni-Weekend-2014

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Scroll down to view the photo gallery from the day.

To order photographs directly from the photographer, visit

Highpoint Pictures (available later in June) or Robert Falcetti Studios

Listen to audio recordings of the Commencement Speakers' remarks.

"Just a note to say good-bye and thank you for our son's hugely successful four years at Taft. While we wanted our children to go to an academically rigorous school with talented teachers—which we certainly found at Taft—our clear priority was choosing a school that would care about the kind of people they are becoming. When looking at the other options, we did not see the same commitment to this purpose as we did at Taft. While the winds blew in different and sometimes difficult directions over the course of the past four years, the school’s underlying focus on this compass point never wavered. That is what really distinguishes Taft from its peer schools, and something you and the faculty should feel very good about. Our children are now well on their way to living a life that is intellectually and emotionally rewarding, one that offer some type of service to others.  Thank you for that!"

—A Taft Parent, 2014

AWARDS AND SCHOLARSHIPS

WILLIAM AND LEE ABRAMOWITZ AWARD FOR TEACHING EXCELLENCE

Susan McCabe

MAURICE POLLAK SCHOLARSHIP AWARD

Taylor Elizabeth Rado

THE ROBERTS SCHOLARSHIP

Michelle Nicole Hudson

SENIOR ATHLETIC AWARDS

Tyler Francis Breen, Collins Johnston Grant, Tiffany Li, John William MacMullen, Gwendolyn Elizabeth McGee, Troy-Jay Nathaniel Moo Penn, Rachel Jacqueline Muskin, Rashi Pramila Narayan, Margaret Nolan O'Neill, Sadie Rose Oppenheim, Rita Catherine O'Shea, Caroline Olivia Queally, Audrey Claire Quirk, Taylor Elizabeth Rado, Katherine Rae Roznik, Carl Vincent Sangree, Eric Carl Johan Smith, Isabel Rorick Stack, Christopher Hadley Stone, Colleen Elizabeth Tautkus, Natalie Christine Whiting

MARION HOLE MAKEPEACE AWARD

Rachel Jacqueline Muskin

Audrey Claire Quirk

LAWRENCE HUNTER STONE AWARD

Cole Patrick Maier

OTIS L. GUERNSEY THEATER AWARD

Rebecca Victoria Karabus

Sebastian Fort LaPointe

Thomas Fleming Robertshaw

THE BILL WALDRON MEMORIAL PRIZE

Sophia Noelle Ricker

Tristan Andrew Smith 

MARK POTTER AWARD IN ART

Jocelyn Kim 

THOMAS SABIN CHASE AWARD IN ART

Sarah Josephine Guggenheim Danziger

THE DANCE AWARD

Krystal Abigail Egbuchulam

GEORGE H. MORGAN AWARD

Thomas Fleming Robertshaw

FRANCISCUS FILM PRIZE

Jackson Gardiner Dayton

THE P.T. YOUNG MUSIC PRIZE

Tristan Andrew Smith 

Natalie Yue Fong Tam

THE DAVID EDWARD GOLDBERG MEMORIAL AWARD

Samuel Yan Stamas

THE SHERMAN CAWLEY AWARD

Charlotte Louise Reid Anrig 

THE DAVID KENYON WEBSTER PRIZE FOR EXCELLENCE IN WRITING

Thomas Fleming Robertshaw 

THE BOURNE MEDAL IN HISTORY

Emma Hall Martin

THE JOHN T. REARDON PRIZE

Gregory James Reid Anrig

Emma Hall Martin

THE GLOBAL SERVICE AND SCHOLARSHIP PRIZE

Rozalie Czesana

THE JOHN S. NOYES FRENCH PRIZE

Rozalie Czesana

Natalie Christine Whiting

THE SPANISH PRIZE

Fernando Andres Fernandez

Taewan Shim

THE CHINESE PRIZE

Charlotte Louise Reid Anrig

Linh Khanh Tang

THE ALVIN I. REIFF BIOLOGY PRIZE

Bridget Anne Dougherty

THE CHEMISTRY PRIZE

Caroline Marie Henebry

THE PHYSICS PRIZE

Varot Premtoon

THE WILSON DOUGLAS MATHEMATICS PRIZE

Tiffany Li

CUM LAUDE INDUCTIONS

Fall Inductees:

Charlotte Louise Reid Anrig, Gregory James Reid Anrig, Robert Morgan Brown, Rozalie Czesana, Bridget Anne Dougherty, Mishel Estefania Figueroa, Caroline Marie Henebry, Dawson Brighton Jones, Rebecca Victoria Karabus, Raphaella Aleksandra Lambert, Tiffany Li, John William MacMullen, Carl Vincent Sangree, Natalie Yue Fong Tam, Linh Khanh Tang

Spring Inductees:

Cameron Bassett Andrews, Philip Rogers Brauer, Tess Keating Conciatori, Lucas James DiPietrantonio, Ryan Michael Golding, Heather Leigh Gordon, Judith Hsieh, Jingchen Jiang, Chung Won Kim, Wai Keung Leung, Zachary Aaron Lewis, Emma Anderson Lux, Emma Hall Martin, Margaret Nolan O'Neill, Amelia Ramani Wilhelm

HARRY W. WALKER ’40 "NON UT SIBI" AWARD

Christopher Carpino Capece

Heather Leigh Gordon

THE HEMINWAY MERRIMAN AWARD

Jackson Gardiner Dayton

Fernando Andres Fernandez

Troy-Jay Nathaniel Moo Penn

THE BERKLEY F. MATTHEWS ’96 AWARD

Jacquelyn Isabelle Eleey

Kayla Anne Romano-Pringle

Isabel Rorick Stack

THE CLASS OF 1981 AWARD

Judith Hsieh

Shana Kia Joseph

Easton Daniel Miller

SALUTATORIAN

Charlotte Louise Reid Anrig

VALEDICTORIAN

Tiffany Li

THE JOSEPH I. CUNNINGHAM AWARD

Robert Morgan Brown

Tiffany Li

Sadie Rose Oppenheim

Samuel Yan Stamas

THE AURELIAN AWARD

John William MacMullen

THE 1908 MEDAL

Madison Paige Olmstead

Thomas Fleming Robertshaw

• Seniors Quentin Harris and Vienna Kaylan have been named head monitors for the 2014-15 school year.  Head mons are the leaders of the student government at Taft, working closely with the headmaster and a team of 11 other school monitors to implement the Honor System, assist in the supervision of the dormitories and accept a large share of the responsibility for the day-to-day conduct of the school’s affairs.
• 
  
• "I think Taft's greatest asset," says Vienna, "is its diverse and capable student body filled with individuals who all have something to offer to our community. I want students to see their suggestions in terms of dances and community activities take shape, and for them to feel like they have a voice."

• For a second year in a row, the New York Botanical Garden, is sponsoring a full-time, six-week internship for a Taft student. Natasha Batten '15, will work and learn from NYBG scientists Drs. Barbara Ambrose and Amy Litt mid-July through August.

   

  Natasha will work on a project there aimed at identifying genes involved in determining fruit morphology. Edible fleshy fruit have evolved from dry seedpods multiple times in many different plant groups, explains Dr. Litt, with important agronomic and ecological impact. Although much is known about the molecular processes that control fruit ripening, little is known about the earlier developmental processes that determine if the wall of a fruit will become thick and juicy or thin and woody, she adds.

   

  The goal of this project is to identify genetic changes that underlie the shift from dry to fleshy fruit such as the tomato family (Solanaceae). They are focusing on the role of changes in a group of regulatory genes called FRUITFULL (FUL) genes. Dr. Litt spoke about her work at Taft in February.

   

  Understanding the evolution of FUL genes in Solanaceae will involve sequencing genes from a variety of species in the Solanaceae and constructing a gene tree to identify changes in FUL copy number and sequence; these changes are often correlated with significant changes in plant structure and function. The second goal of the project is to characterize differences in FUL gene function in dry and fleshy fruit development by “knocking out” the function of FUL genes using genetic manipulation techniques.

   

  All work will be done in the garden’s state-of-the art laboratory. Natasha will also have the opportunity to attend various enrichment events at NYBG and to meet other U.S. and international high school interns. She will present a report of her work and findings to this group of NYBG scientists at the conclusion of her internship, as well as at a Morning Meeting at Taft in the fall.

   

  "We are very grateful to Andy ’71 and Linda Safran who are making this wonderful opportunity possible," says headmaster Willy MacMullen.

   

Crew coach Carly Borken would have liked nothing more than to have Zoë Klimley ’15 back in the first boat this spring, but her unexpected death in early January changed all that.

“At the time, I dubbed this year ‘the season that could have been,’” said Borken, “but Zoë’s spirit has clearly been with all of us as we rowed strong, pushing up against the toughest of opponents and achieving success at Founders and winning the Alumni Cup.”

At the dedication in May, as the Klimley family was about to christen the new crew shell that bears Zoë’s name, Borken added, “It is only fitting that we have Zoë with us as we race at the New England Championships on Saturday. She will travel down the course with her crew in the 1^st boat, as it would have been.  So this season was not the one that could have been but now, the season that was.”

After the boat dedication, Headmaster Willy MacMullen ’78 kicked off the Run 2 Remember: Zoë B. Klimley 2K—two kilometers being the typical length of a crew race. Hundreds of students and faculty joined the Klimley family and friends for two loops around the campus on a spectacular spring day.

"Kids that are part of Service Through Sports (under the auspices of Taft’s Center for Global Leadership and Service) were a great help getting the race organized," said Ginger O'Shea, who directs the program. "Especially Rashi Narayan ’14, Madison Haskins ’15 and Pen Naviroj ’15."

The money collected from the run went to the scholarship that was also created in Zoë’s memory.