pace academy knighttimes fall 2014

FA L L 2 0 1 4 T H E M A G A Z I N E O F PA C E A C A D E M Y

Plus Walsh Field | Woodruff Library | Debate Challenge | Arts Amplified

A Space That Inspires The Arthur M. Blank

Family Upper School Opens

LETTER FROM THE EDITORJournalist, Big Thirst author and inaugural Isdell Center for Global Leader-

ship (ICGL) Visiting Scholar Charles Fishman recently completed a weeklong visit to Pace Academy.

ICGL Director TRISH ANDERSON packed Fishman’s schedule with morning assemblies, class visits, experiments and demonstrations, lectures and social gatherings. For six days, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., he discussed water, the ICGL annual theme, with audiences ages 5 to 75. While Fishman may have left ex-hausted, he left the Pace community energized.

Fishman’s visit made the ICGL tangible; it united students, teachers and par-ents in the Lower, Middle and Upper Schools under a common interest. Fishman showed the Pace community how water touches every facet of our lives, and in doing so, demonstrated how the ICGL might one day become so integrated into the Pace experience that tackling global issues becomes as habitual a task as turning on the tap.

We’ll cover Fishman’s visit to Pace in our winter issue, but in this edition of the KnightTimes, we introduce a new section devoted entirely to the ICGL. In it and going forward, we’ll highlight the important work and programs taking place under the ICGL umbrella, profile students and faculty in their efforts to become global leaders and explore our annual ICGL theme.

Thanks for joining us on the journey!

Caitlin Goodrich Jones ’00DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS

F A L L 2 014

PACE CARESWhen our families and staff are in need, Pace Cares.

Contact us to deliver a meal:404-926-3727

[email protected]

On the cover:

The stunning Woodruff Library inside the new Arthur M. Blank Family Upper School.

The Communications Team

THE MAGAZINE OF PACE ACADEMY

CONTRIBUTORSWilson Alexander ’14

WILSON ALEXANDER will begin classes at the University of Georgia in January 2015 and plans to study broadcast journalism. While at Pace, Alexander was the co-editor-in-chief of the Knightly News, and a four-year member of the swimming, football and baseball teams. In his free time, he enjoys fantasy football, travel and writing for his sports blog. He is currently an intern at sports talk radio station 680 The Fan.

Morgan Brewton-Johnson ’14

A recent Pace graduate, MORGAN BREWTON-JOHNSON began her freshman year at Princeton University this fall. She plans to study anthropology and visual art. While at Pace, Brewton-Johnson was a member of the Barbara and Sanford Orkin Society, the National Honor Society and the Cum Laude Society. In her free time, she enjoys yoga, photography and travel. She interned with the Pace com-munications and advancement departments over the summer.

Will Frampton ’99

After graduating from Pace, WILL FRAMPTON attended Erskine College in South Carolina, where he majored in English. College internships at CNN in Atlanta helped pave the way to a career in television broadcasting. He got his start at WTHI, the CBS station in Terre Haute, Ind. Subsequent reporting stints in Columbia, S.C., and Sacramento, Calif., followed. Eventually, he returned to Atlanta, where he now reports for the local CBS station. Frampton earned an Emmy for his reporting from Afghanistan in December of 2007. His reports can be seen regularly on CBS Atlanta News. He and his wife, Sarah, live in Buckhead.

KnightTimes966 W. Paces Ferry Road NWAtlanta, Georgia 30327

www.paceacademy.org

Head of SchoolFRED ASSAF

Division HeadsMICHAEL GANNON Head of Upper School

JOHN ANDERSON Head of Middle School

SYREETA MOSELEY Head of Lower School

Communications DepartmentCAITLIN GOODRICH JONES ’00 Director of Communications, Editor

RYAN VIHLEN Creative Services Manager, Graphic Designer

LELA WALLACE Digital Communications Manager

LIZ WIEDEMANN Stewardship Manager, Staff Writer

Our MissionTo create prepared, confident citizens of the world who honor the values of Pace Academy and who will preserve the legacy of our school for future generations.

Pace CaresAre you aware of a member of our community who is experiencing an illness or loss or is blessed with a new arrival? Pace Cares would love to help by delivering a home-cooked meal prepared by our dedicated volunteer cooks. Please call the Pace Cares hotline at 404-926-3727.

To contribute ideas for the KnightTimes, please email Caitlin Jones at [email protected].

CONTENTS 6 NEWS

What you need to know

8 AROUND PACE A look at what's happening at Pace

16 ICGL A global education for every Pace graduate

20 GLOBAL LEADERS Honoring students who set the pace outside of school

24 THE PLACE COMMUNITY BUILT The Arthur M. Blank Family Upper School opens its doors

30 THE WOODRUFF LIBRARY Peek inside the new library

32 A NEW HOME FIELD Walsh Field opens at Pace's Athletics Complex

38 PACE ARTS AMPLIFIED See how the arts are growing at Pace

42 ALUMNI

42 Where Are They Now?

47 Out and About

48 Laura Bollman '02

KnightTimes | Fall 20144

Dear Pace Family,

We did it!

Students now fill the Arthur M. Blank Family Upper School’s classrooms; Knights fans gather at Walsh Field for athletic competitions; and thanks to the Isdell Center for Global Leadership (ICGL), WATER is the word on the Pace Acad-emy campus. THANK YOU for making these dreams a reality!

In this issue, we celebrate a truly unprecedented time in Pace history. We recap ribbon cuttings and renovations, welcome families new to Pace and re-joice in the start of another school year. We also look forward.

Without a doubt, “new” has been our most-used adjective in recent months: new building, new stadium, new website. It’s now time to focus on descriptors such as “stirring,” “imaginative” and “pioneering.” It’s time to recommit our energy and excitement for “Aiming High” to our day-to-day lives.

There’s nothing new about exemplary teaching and learning at Pace. What our faculty, staff and students do day in and day out and the relationships they create are timeless, the foundation of our community since the start. Our new facilities don’t change that. They make us more attractive and allow for innova-tion, yes, but PEOPLE have always been and will always be the heart of Pace.

The past weeks, months and years have been extraordinary because of Pace people. Thank you for being a Pace person, for being part of our family.

Sincerely,

Fred AssafHEAD OF SCHOOL

LETTER FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL

KnightTimes | Fall 2014 5


NEWS What you need to know

ROBERT SHEFT CHAIRS PACE BOARD

When ROBERT SHEFT moved his family from New York City to Atlanta to build a new business, his wife, HOPE SHEFT, wasn’t thrilled, but her main concern was finding the right school for her two sons.

More than 15 years later, the now-veteran Pace Academy parent has served with Hope in virtually every capacity at Pace, and in the summer of 2014, Sheft accepted his newest role as chairman of the

Board of Trustees. Former Board Chair TIM WALSH ’81 passed the baton on the heels of the largest capital campaign in Pace history, which Sheft co-chaired, allowing Sheft to start his term as chair with both a new Upper School and a stadium facility.

“Pace has been a wonderful experience for our entire family,” says Sheft. “Hope and I have watched our sons grow into mature, bright, engaging adults. We have no doubt that Pace has had a great deal to do with their development.”

Both Sheft boys, MILES ’13 and ELIJAH ’15, enrolled at Pace in Pre-First and estab-lished themselves as active members of the student community early on. From playing on varsity sports teams and serving in student government to excelling academically, the boys have thrived at Pace.

Sheft founded and was chairman and CEO of RMA Home Services, which he sold to Home Depot in 2003. When the sale prompted discussion of the Shefts returning to New York, their decision to stay in Atlanta and keep the boys at Pace was unanimous. “We knew what was best for our sons and have never regretted that decision,” Sheft says. He is now chairman and CEO of The Home Service Store, which manages home improve-ment programs on behalf of retailers on a nationwide basis. Sheft also serves on the boards of GreenSky Trade Credit LLC and StarTek Inc.

Before joining the Board of Trustees, Sheft was actively involved as a parent and supported annual giving and capital campaigns. Additionally, he volunteered regularly with community sports leagues and is still very involved with the Youth Renewal Fund, an organization supporting educational programs for disadvantaged children in Israel that he helped found. Hope has served Pace in virtually every volunteer capacity, having chaired the Fall Fair and Auction, helped to found Pace Cares and served as a grade representative for both boys. Recently, she joined the Board of Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine.

Despite countless competing priorities, Pace remains atop the Shefts’ list. “What I love most about Pace is the way that students support each other,” Sheft says.

Perhaps that sense of support and family-like community is what inspires so many to give back at Pace. According to Sheft, the same qualities that set Pace apart also mean that our school requires even more parent support.

“Independent secondary schools typically cover about 90 percent of their operating expenses through tuition,” Sheft says. “Without the support of annual giving, tuition would have to be raised significantly. The Pace Fund allows families who can afford to pay more to subsidize those who can’t.”

Even as we celebrate milestone successes as an institution, Sheft sees important opportu-nities ahead. As the school continues to advance its athletic programs in coming years, one of Sheft’s priorities as Board chair will be to do so wisely, ensuring that we do not sacrifice the standard of excellence in academics and the arts that define Pace. He is also eager to build creative, differentiated programming within the Isdell Center for Global Leadership, developing ideas that can serve as a model for other schools throughout the country.

“I am a Pace parent with the same hopes, concerns and stresses [as other Pace par-ents],” Sheft says. “We all want what is best for our kids. My goal as chair is to ensure that issues are heard, debated and, where possible, resolved in a manner that serves the long-term interests of the Pace community.”

CRASH PAD NAMED GEF SEMI-FINALIST

The Green Education Foundation (GEF) is a national non-profit organization committed to creating a sustainable future through education. Each year, the GEF gives Green in Action Awards to “inspiring projects” from schools and other youth organizations that demonstrate “commitment, creativity or passion for sustainability.”

The Pace Academy Compact Roaming Autonomous Sustainable Home, lovingly known as the CRASH Pad, took home one of two semi-finalist awards in the 2014 competition. To celebrate its win, the 8’ x 16’ sustainable home, designed and constructed by Upper School teacher SCOTT SARGENT’S sustainability class, will go on tour, visiting local festivals and events throughout the year.

KnightTimes | Fall 2014 KnightTimes | Fall 2014 7

WELCOME TO THE NEW paceacademy.org

It was a summer of change at Pace Academy, and in the midst of renovations and ribbon cuttings, Pace also unveiled a revamped website.

Like building the Arthur M. Blank Family Upper School and Walsh Field, constructing a new paceacademy.org was no small task. Devised with constituents in mind, the planning and design was an exhaustive process that took nearly a year to complete.

“We needed to create a website that was functional and easy to navigate, but had the ability to share the Pace story in a refreshing way,” says Digital Communications Manager LELA WALLACE, who led the project.

In order to accomplish its goal, the Pace team decided not to use a ready-made template offered by Whipple Hill, the school’s software provider, but instead, created an in-house website design tailored specifically to the Pace community. Pace is one of only a handful of Whipple Hill schools across the country that decided to pursue this option.

With solid support from CAITLIN GOODRICH JONES ’00 and RYAN VIHLEN in the communications department; MATT WALKER, GEORGE SOKOLSKY and NEIL DEROSA in IT; and an implementation team from Whipple Hill, it was a seamless process.

The new website will continue to evolve in its pursuit of digital excellence. Visit www.paceacademy.org for all of the new and exciting happenings around Pace.

So, what’s new on the website?

• KnightLife. A real-time collection of Pace social media, news and blogs

• myPACE. An easy-to-navigate resource for school information for current families

• Featured stories accompanied by beautiful photography on the homepage

• New programs, like the Isdell Center for Global Leadership, are now featured.

• School and athletic calendars in easy-to-find locations

• Responsive design. Whether you’re using an iPad or desktop computer, paceacademy.org readjusts to your device to provide an optimal viewing experience.

Above: The Pace home page in 2014 and, left, in 2001.

NEWS

AROUND PACE A look at what's happening at Pace

Verano Sin Límites

Pace Camp


WITH STUDENTS AWAY FOR SUMMER VACATION AND THE ACADEMIC VILLAGE’S TRAILERS SLOWLY MAKING THEIR WAY DOWN W. PACES FERRY ROAD, IT MAY HAVE APPEARED THAT ACTIVITY ON THE PACE CAMPUS WAS FINALLY WINDING DOWN. HOWEVER, A WIDE VARIETY OF SUMMER PROGRAMS BROUGHT MORE THAN 850 CAMPERS TO PACE, ENSURING THAT THERE WAS NEVER A DULL MOMENT ON CAMPUS.

No Shortage of Summer Activity

Pace CampPace Camp, Pace’s largest summer program, hosted 500 campers

over two months. A typical day at Pace Camp included singing classic camp songs like The Princess Pat at morning roundup before heading off to a variety of activities such as swimming, art and drama. In the afternoon, campers enjoyed lively games of dodgeball or Icy Bingo, both camp-wide activities.

Each week was themed, giving counselors and campers the opportu-nity to dress up in a range of costumes, from princesses to astronauts to ’80s workout instructors. Pace Camp’s energetic environment is what makes each day so much fun for everyone involved; returning staff member CORY BUSH ’14 said, “I’m so happy to be working at Pace Camp again, and especially as the drama teacher. I love it when parents come up to me and tell me that their kid loved drama!”

Verano Sin LímitesVerano Sin Límites ushered in its third summer at Pace with a

record 40 campers over two two-week sessions. The program, which translates to “Summer Without Limits,” caters to Latino/Hispanic middle-school students. It aims both to provide a fun summer expe-rience and to increase Latino/Hispanic enrollment by providing an opportunity for students who could be successful at Pace to become a part of the community.

In their two-week sessions, students took classes including French and computer programming, enjoyed activities such as swimming and bocce ball, and went kayaking with Pace teacher JONATHAN DAY and zip lining in North Carolina. With its truly limitless range of adventure, camper Nahomy Piedra described Verano Sin Límites as “two weeks of awesomeness.”

by Morgan Brewton-Johnson ’14


Spotlight on Keeping Pace

In June, the Pace Academy campus played host to 38 Pace Scholars during Keeping Pace, an academic program for select middle-school students from Atlanta’s Peoplestown and Vine City neighborhoods. The month-long program, now in its eighth year, is conducted in partnership with the United Way of Metro Atlanta.

“This year, our Keeping Pace classes were perhaps the most interest-ing and diverse ever,” says MARTHA DOWNER-ASSAF, director of Keeping Pace. “For example, we studied books that became movies, the history of baseball, leadership and handbuilding pottery, in addition to annual courses such as reading, writing, math, science and art.”

Beyond traditional summer-camp offerings, Keeping Pace provid-ed specialized academic attention for students in one-on-one math tutoring sessions and pre-college prep classes with Pace’s college-counseling staff. Students were assessed prior to the program’s start and at its conclusion: “Ninety-five percent of students improved their math scores,” says Downer-Assaf. “Some by more than 75 percent!”

In addition to spending time in classes, Pace Scholars participated in sports and generally took advantage of all that Pace has to offer. They also went on field trips—made possible by the generosity of the Pace community and the Braves Foundation—to the Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville, Ga., and to Turner Field to take in a Braves game.

While the course offerings and experiences were incredibly mean-ingful for the Pace Scholars, the people made the program click. Pace faculty and students staff Keeping Pace, and Pace Scholars truly appreciated the thoughtfulness and thoroughness with which in-structors designed and carried out their classes. Participating faculty included DONICE BLOODWORTH, CHRISTINE BUNN, FRANCE DORMAN, DON DUPREE, KELSEY HALL, MATT HALL, MARK SOMMERVILLE and EDEN TRESIZE. Former Pace faculty member REGINA TATE also contributed her time.

Pace students and alumni support Keeping Pace as well, and sev-eral participated as lead counselors for the program’s entirety. AMBER EASLEY ’13; seniors HANNAH FERRY, CASSADY GREENE, AUSTIN LITTLE and JILLIAN PAUL; juniors SPENCER HEMMINGWAY and ANTHONY TRINH; and sophomores SAMANTHA MORELAND and ANDREW THOMAS served as lead counselors.

“The [Keeping Pace] experience was really special because we helped the kids have a fun summer and exposed them to new oppor-tunities that they wouldn’t have been given otherwise,” says Greene.

In addition to the lead counselors, more than two-dozen other students volunteered many, many hours. As a result of the positive energy that came from working with the Pace Scholars, some volun-teered for one week and ended up staying for two or more. In total, Pace students gave 1,064 hours to Keeping Pace.

“Keeping Pace is an incredible program for the students from Vine City and Peoplestown, and it’s a great opportunity for our Pace stu-dents to work individually as mentors as well,” says Matt Hall, Upper School dean of students.

“Keeping Pace has been a meaningful way for Pace students and teachers to give back to the larger Atlanta community since 2006,” says Downer-Assaf. “We plan to continue the program for years to come and will encourage Pace Scholars who have attended in past years to return next year.”

Many in the Pace community make Keeping Pace possible. In addi-tion to the United Way of Metro Atlanta, past and present members of the Pace Academy Board of Trustees support the endeavor, as do SAGE Dining Services, and Pace’s facilities and athletic staff. In addition, this year, Pace parent and photographer DEBORAH CELECIA WAGONER ’84 photographed each Pace Scholar as a gift for their families. “We appreciated [Wagoner’s] enthusiasm and talent! Our students and their families were simply blown away,” says Downer-Assaf.

Going forward, Keeping Pace students entering grades 10 and 11 will participate in a program to cultivate leadership and prepare them for the college-application process.

“We’re growing Keeping Pace to keep up with our students,” says Downer-Assaf. “We’re looking forward to many more years and hope to engage students throughout the city during the school year, not just in the summer.”

Photos by DEBORAH CELECIA WAGONER '84

AROUND PACE

ATHLETICS PARTNERS WITH POSITIVE COACHING ALLIANCE

In an effort to build on the success of Pace Academy Athletics and focus on the well-be-ing of Pace student-athletes, Director of Athletics KRIS PALMERTON and his department have joined an initiative called the Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA).

“This partnership is to help guide our coaches,” Palmerton says. “We want to provide both our student-athletes and instructors with the most positive environments possible.”

Founded in 1998 at Stanford University, PCA strives to create an encouraging atmo-sphere in youth and high-school sports. In order to create “better athletes, better people,” PCA uses a multi-pronged approach, which includes ideas such as “double-goal coaching” and the filling of “emotional tanks,” in an effort to help athletes win on the scoreboard and in life.

To learn and apply these unique methods to Pace teams, every coach had to pass a two-and-a-half-hour online course that ended with a 25-question test. The training continued with a mandatory seminar featuring PCA trainer Will Jackson.

“[The training] will make me more aware of what I’m doing and how I’m influencing my girls,” says Middle School teacher and coach EMILY CAMP. “I will be more cognizant of my behavior, keeping in mind that building a strong love of a sport starts early on.”

Parents also are excited by the higher coaching standards. “I like that the school places so much importance on the value of the right kind of coaching,” says assistant varsity base-ball coach and Pace parent JASE WRIGLEY ’94. “By adding this program, Pace makes it clear that providing every student-athlete with the most supportive environment in which to succeed and fail is a top priority. As a parent whose daughters may one day be a part of Pace Athletics, I’m glad to know that their coaches will be guided by this philosophy.”

This three-year partnership will give the growing athletics department more structure, as will its new philosophy and codes of conduct, which were adopted this fall. The new Athletics document, available at www.paceacademy.org, not only outlines expectations for coaches and players, but for parents as well.

“PCA’s methods will be pressed early, often and from all angles, giving Pace athletes a steady and stable environment,” Palmerton says.

— by WILSON ALEXANDER ’14

2014–2015 PARENT ORGANIZATION LEADERSPARENTS CLUBPresident: Lori Movsovitz-EdlinVice President: Amy DwyerSecretary: Kate HoodTreasurer: Stephanie LuettersFall Fair Chairs: Corey Hirokawa, Jenny Marks & Julie ThompsonAuction Chairs: Laura Kaye & Donna Pottorff

BOOSTER CLUBPresidents: Kathy & David RubensteinVice Presidents: Jenny & Tom BethelTreasurer: Keith PayneSecretary: Elizabeth Richards

ARTS ALLIANCECo-Presidents: Joanna Hurley & Nancy GibsonSecretary: Alison SampleTreasurer: Lynn Lund


IN THE BEGINNING…Back-to-school activities begin long before the first day of school and conclude long after students return to class. From retreats and orientations to pre-planning, parent gatherings and parties, every year, August and September keep Pace faculty, staff, parents and students on their toes.

Seniors

Seniors

Ninth-Grade Retreat

Upper School Student Council Retreat

Sixth-Grade Retreat

Sixth-Grade Retreat

Middle School Orientation

Middle School First Day

Lower School First Day

Middle School Faculty Retreat

Middle School Faculty Retreat

Lower School Orientation

Lower School New Student and Faculty Welcome Party

Upper School Convocation


Seniors

Seniors

AROUND PACE

WHY THIS IS YOUR YEAR TO UKNIGHT: THE PACE FUND 2015

Remember the first time you visited Pace Academy? Maybe it was to tour as a prospective parent or to interview for a job. Perhaps you were attending Grandparents & Special Friends Day or visiting as a soon-to-be student, considering whether Pace could be your new home.

From that day since, you’ve heard a lot about the “Pace family.” Around here, we take that phrase pretty seriously. Of course, individual relationships make the memories. But a united community makes us stronger, helps us to succeed—at Pace, community makes us who we are.

THE PACE FUND helps us maintain the top-tier caliber of students, faculty, staff, re-sources, facilities and programs that we support here. The full Pace experience is not funded through tuition dollars alone. While tuition covers about 90 percent of Pace’s operating budget, we, like most independent schools, face the notorious funding gap that most indepen-dent schools share. The Pace Fund offers a tax-deductible alternative to tuition hikes, covering faculty and staff salaries, program budgets, campus maintenance, financial aid and other an-nually recurring expenses.

Each gift from our family of parents, alumni, grandparents, faculty, staff and friends en-hances the student experience and preserves the dynamic community life that defines Pace. Collectively, on an annual basis, your charitable contributions support the very best experi-ence for our most important asset—our students.

“While we certainly have a dollar goal, I’m less concerned about what a family gives than I am that they do give,” says REID FUNSTON, co-chair of The Pace Fund 2015. “We’re too small and intimate a community for every Pace family not to participate. Every dollar is im-portant, and I think that if we all give what we can, the total will take care of itself.”

Participation, in any amount, makes a greater impact than many realize.

Many foundations require an organization to demonstrate specific participation percentages for grant eligibility.

Support for The Pace Fund 2014 included 100 percent of trustees, 100 percent of faculty and staff and 90 percent of parents—enviable statistics by any measure. Pace is fortunate to have the support of an incredibly generous community, and we set our sights on the opportunity of even higher participation in 2015.

Together, we fulfill Pace’s mission to create prepared, confident citizens of the world. This year, we ask you to uKnight!

To make a gift or pledge today, visit www.paceacademy.org/thepacefund. Spread the word using #PaceuKnight!

AROUND PACE


The Pace Academy Office of Advancement celebrated new families with a cocktail party at Local 3 on Sept. 30.

http://www.paceacademy.org/thepacefund

How It WorksTaxpayers redirect a portion of their Georgia state tax liability to

a state-approved Student Scholarship Organization, or SSO (Pace has partnered with an SSO called Apogee Scholarship Fund, for example). With the taxpayers’ allocated funds, the SSO awards scholarships to eligible families, allowing students who are moving from public schools or entering Pre-First or first grade to attend a private school.

Pros and Cons for PaceThe tax credit program has not changed the way Pace awards finan-

cial aid. The school administers need-based financial aid to qualifying new or returning students each year. We steward tax credit dollars with the students’ long-term interests at heart; Pace budgets for fi-nancial aid to ensure that any student’s tuition that is supplemented with tax credit funding could be matched and covered through his/her graduation from Pace, even if the program were to end before that time.

“It’s amazing to see that this year, Georgia tax credit funds make up nearly half of all need-based financial aid awarded at Pace,” says FÉ PATRICIU, associate director of admissions and director of financial aid.

Pace distributes tax credit funding to students across all divisions. The bulk of financial aid funds has always been awarded at the sixth- and ninth-grade levels—expansion years when many families transition to Pace from local public schools—but this year, 10 percent of tax credit funds supported Lower School students, 23 percent went to Middle School students and 67 percent to Upper School students. Forty percent of this year’s recipients are female, and 60 percent are male.

“What’s remarkable about the program," says Patriciu, “is that it makes a Pace education possible for deserving students seeking more

than their local public school has to offer. Since 2009 the Apogee Georgia School Choice Scholarship Fund has grown to allow us to support five new students in its inaugural year to nearly 20 in 2014–2015. This is a testament to the generosity of the Pace community and to the hard work of the Office of Advancement, spreading the word about the program. The Georgia Private School Tax Credit Program is changing lives, and I’m proud that Pace is a part of it.”

The way we see it, there is no downside, no catch and plenty of reason to participate in a program that allows Pace to give more fi-nancial aid while simultaneously growing our investments.

Does This Apply to Me?Yes! Benefits are three-fold: the program increases funding for tu-

ition assistance at every participating independent school in Georgia, including Pace. It also means that you will receive a dollar-for-dollar tax credit on your state return and a charitable deduction on your federal return, saving you money each year you participate.

How to ParticipateThe state has allotted a total of $58 million in available tax credits

for 2015, and the more Pace advocates apply for those credits, the more funding Pace is eligible to receive. All applications for the 2015 tax year must be complete by Dec. 15, 2014. We encourage you to apply now and spread the word to any Georgia friends or relatives who want to support Pace. Payment is not due until March of 2015.

To submit your application or learn more about Apogee and the Geor-gia Private School Tax Credit Program, visit www.paceacademy.org/taxcredit or call 404-240-9103.

Taxes Don’t Have to be Taxing

Taxes. Often used in conjunction with the words “death and,” the topic of taxes is probably not your first choice for pleasure reading.

But what if we told you that funding from tax credits has supported a Pace education for 59 students since 2009? Still not interested? This 2014–2015 school year, 18 additional Pace students are receiving tax credit funds, up from five students initially awarded in 2009, when Georgia launched a new program that would prove to have significant impact on education statewide and change lives right here at Pace.

The Georgia Private School Tax Credit Program allows eligible individuals and businesses to redirect a portion of their Georgia income tax liability towards tuition assistance for public-school, kindergarten- or first-grade-entry students planning to attend private school.


14

PRE-FIRSTZach AgamiAmy & Ronnie Agami

Ife AgbejaFola Adisa & Tolu Agbeja

Shaan A.Shabnam & Shawn A.

Jaren AmarAndrea & David Amar

Nash AusbandValerie & Brad Ausband

Callan BatemanHarper BatemanCHRISTINE LAW ’93 & Joe Bateman

Davis BeauchampJenny & Todd Beauchamp

Paige BelandJill & Jason Beland

Ian BelinfanteKARINA KHOURI BELINFANTE ’95 & JOSH BELINFANTE ’95

Cailynn BennettChristy Lassiter Bennett

Alex BerensonMindy & Eric Berenson

Aznariah BiennePASCALE BIENNE & Reginald Bienne

Finley BlairSarah & Mark Blair

Ridgely ChastainJennifer Buckley & Mark Chastain

Davin ColesMeg & Lorin Coles

Kennon DeFrancisMary Alicia & Steven DeFrancis

Alex EachusJessica & Christopher Eachus

Sophie FlynnJulie & Ryan Flynn

Madison FowlerElissa & Preston Fowler

Savannah FriedmanDANA FEINSTEIN ’97 & Craig Friedman

Madeleine GanzJodi & Adam Ganz

Annabel GaudetDaphne & Matt Gaudet

Will GiraAmy Kim & John Gira

Patrick GlennonKathy & Dan Glennon

Connor GoldstromJulie & Seth Goldstrom

Avery GunnBecky & Aaron Gunn

Caiden HeathHeather & Kevin Heath

Zaeem JohnsonFarhat Khan & Chris Johnson

Aparna KallingalMallika & Alfred Kallingal

Chris LeeJing & Wenke Lee

Grant LemkeLisa & Tim Lemke

Andy LevensonJESSICA SUTHERLAND LEVENSON ’95 & Ryan Levenson

Kitty LubinCara & Michael Lubin

Will McDaidColleen & Chris McDaid

Eloise McDonaldStephanie & AUSTIN MCDONALD ’97

Lydia McDonoughMelissa McDonough James McDonough

Natalie McWhorterKim & Graham McWhorter

Madeline MemarDiana & Bijon Memar

Charlie MossKatie & Brannan Moss

Gray MullerHenri & Cory Muller

Kylie NewbergLaura & Dan Newberg

Chloe PierceKristin & Jeff Pierce

Stiles PilcherEllen Turner & Carson Pilcher

David RandolphRobbin Moore-Randolph & Russell Randolph

Emma RichSarah & Daniel Rich

Ben RodbellAMY SCHULTZ RODBELL ’93 & Philip Rodbell

Graham SmithMarin SmithChristy & Greg Smith

Cameron SneedAdrienne Atkinson-Sneed & Quincy Sneed

Grant SoberJennifer & Richard Sober

Carson StoltzKeri & Carl Stoltz

Conrad StrauvenCatherine & Christophe Strauven

William SwannNatasha & Christopher Swann

Anabelle ThompsonMimi & Andrew Thompson

Lily VadnaisPaige VadnaisAlex & Dave Vadnais

Joy WallaceSUSAN WALLACE Stuart Wallace

Erin WeizeneckerEvis Babo & Steve Weizenecker

FIRST GRADEThomas KonradtFran & John Konradt

Luke SundermeierKatie & Tony Sundermeier

SECOND GRADEJake JonesKim & Adam Jones

Jackson RyanLiz & JUSTIN RYAN ’95

Jackson WashburnEMILY WASHBURN & James Washburn

THIRD GRADELexi PollardJill & Derek Pollard

Riley WalshAnn & Chris Walsh

Isabelle WilhelmNicole & ERIC WILHELM

FOURTH GRADEJ.D. FosterJennifer & David Foster

Cannon SneadLiz Snead Les Snead

FIFTH GRADEMegan HardestyJane & Derek Hardesty

Grace HeinemanDebbie & Justin Heineman

Cole KaplanEllen & Brad Kaplan

Alex MathiasCarol & Joe Mathias

Raina MoseleySYREETA MOSELEY & Craig Moseley

Jack WarrenMargaret & Bill Warren


WELCOME TO THE FAMILY!

AROUND PACE


AROUND PACE

15

SIXTH GRADEIsabel BattistaAllison & Drew Battista

Noah BennettTonya & Danny Bennett

Henry BermanSharon Bauer & Allen Tuthill

Will BrennanMelissa & BOB BRENNAN ’88

Lane BrickleySuzie & CHARLEY BRICKLEY ’88

Ned ColemanCeCe & Sean Coleman

Charlie CooperJill & Jason Cooper

Lily CummingsCia & LARRY CUMMINGS ’86

Jacqueline CunninghamMary Kelly & Jeff Cunningham

Riley FoxJoelle & Tim Fox

Matt GenserJoanna & Ira Genser

Bates HighsmithKristi & Robert Highsmith

Robert HouserMargot & Hank Houser

Claire HowellAngie & Clay Howell

Maggie JenkinsMary & Scott Jenkins

Donovan JohnsonLoretta Taylor

Lily KahnRobin & Steve Kahn

Elizabeth KayeLaura & Jon Kaye

Tim KouzmineElena & Serguei Kouzmine

Amalie LittleCatherine & Ashford Little

Ethan LowryElise & Tom Lowry

Shane NelsonWisti & Brian Nelson

Leah NufferMarcia & Kevin Nuffer

Noah ProutALISON BERKOWITZ PROUT ’94 & Matt Prout

Anthony SalazarLidia & Antonio Salazar

Casey ShoulbergMindy & David Shoulberg

Jonny SundermeierKatie & Tony Sundermeier

Gus ThomasFrances Thomas Zach Thomas

Tripp TrimbleLaura & Jimmy Trimble

Olivia UllmannJennifer & Richard Ullmann

Hanna VincentJennifer & J.P. Vincent

Sam WebbLisa & Adam Webb

Alivia WynnAprille Bonner Craig Wynn

SEVENTH GRADESandy LumJill & Brady Lum

Darren MaysTara & Darrell Mays

Emma SzwastAmanda & Travis Szwast

EIGHTH GRADEAndrew JenkinsMary & Scott Jenkins

NINTH GRADETony AddisonPhillippa & Calvin Addison

Delvalo BaiteyChevron Meadows-Baitey & Delvalo Baitey

Ben BernsteinCaryn & Jason Bernstein

Donn BoddieCharmaine & David Boddie

Nia BrownSusanne Brown

Paige DembaJennifer & Don Demba

Herbert DoucetCheritha & Herbert Doucet

Lauren EdwardsMeridith & David Edwards

Gunnor FaulkKim & Al Faulk

Realus GeorgeRealus George

Sienna GorenAlicia & Erez Goren

Hanna GreenbergOlga & Alex Greenberg

Gavin GuestJodie & Tom Guest

Ryan HofstetterAMY NAPIER HOFSTETTER ’92 & Denis Hofstetter

David LevenScott LevenZack LevenShawn Leven Jon Leven

Canon LynchALLISON HANDLEY LYNCH ’87 & Chris Lynch

Presley MarxmillerLori & Chris Marxmiller

Garrett MinorLeisa & Derrick Minor

Justin MorrisZona & Chris Morris

Reilly MurtaughKim & Tom Murtaugh

Sydney MuseSharon & Fred Muse

Ibum ObuNgozi & Obu Obu

Sophia PorsonMarnie & Jean-Marc Porson

Rachel RibnerGillian & Aaron Ribner

Molly RichardsonSusan & Craig Richardson

Jamaree SalyerYolonda & Kenneth Campbell

Aly SatiskyShelly & Brian Satisky

Jordan ShoulbergMindy & David Shoulberg

Kate SnyderSusanne & Mike Snyder

Jaden SteagallCrystal & Derrick Steagall

Catherine SweeneyRachael & David Sweeney

Erica TashmaLauren & Doug Tashma

Sloan WyattStephanie & Justin Wyatt

TENTH GRADEWendell CarterKylia & Wendell Carter

Tonyia JohnsonTonyia & Silone Johnson

Tahirih WilliamsBahji Varner Njema Williams

ELEVENTH GRADEAilisha CaseyHelen & Peter Casey

Timothy ColemanNeedra Sargent-Coleman & Tim Coleman

Jake JenkinsMary & Scott Jenkins

Max SharpeValorie Danto-Sharpe & Bob Sharpe

The following families joined the Pace family this year, and we sure are glad they’re here!

ICGL A global education for every Pace graduate

CONSTRUCTING CHARACTERMiddle School Vital Signs program develops skills for success.

At Pace Academy, we strive to create citizens of the world—ethical, empathetic, innovative, culturally com-petent and adaptable individuals.

As part of the Isdell Center for Global Leader-ship’s (ICGL) character-education component, with the start of school, the Middle School launched Vital Signs, a program that helps accomplish Pace’s mis-sion by providing tools to evaluate noncognitive skills, or character skills, based on six core con-structs: creativity, curiosity, ethics, teamwork, time management and resilience.

“The program appealed to me because we know that these 21st-century skills are highly predictive of success in life—even more predictive than a student’s GPA or SAT score,” says Middle School Counselor TARA TERRY.

Focusing on character as a set of skills to de-velop rather than strictly inherent traits gives each individual control over his or her own character potential. “Just as we can improve the strength and health of our vital signs with good exercise and nu-trition, we can improve our character ‘Vital Signs’

by intentionally practicing them every day,” says Head of Middle School JOHN ANDERSON.

Middle School students now participate in two annual assessment sessions that measure their Vital Signs, and activities throughout the year promote the program’s core constructs.

“Already, teachers and coaches are bringing into classroom discus-sions examples from history and literature of resilience, teamwork and other Vital Signs,” Anderson says. “We are also acknowledging examples demonstrated by the students, which we witness every day.”

In August, faculty introduced students to each term and hung col-orful posters throughout the Garcia Family Middle School to illustrate Vital Signs’ core concepts. Each month, students and faculty focus on one of those concepts: “Our inspirational moment in assembly is about that month’s construct, and our students of the month from each grade are chosen based on their demonstration of that particular skill,” Terry says.

In addition, students receive feedback in their classes about their development of these skills, and the entire Middle School faculty uses the vocabulary, particularly as it relates to discussions surrounding the many guest speakers who frequent morning assemblies. Parents are encouraged to use and discuss the terms at home, and Terry hosts parent book clubs to address related topics.

“To be a confident and competent global citizen, one has to possess these Vital Signs, academic skills and an appreciation for diversity,” says Terry. “We’re developing the whole package!”


A MONUMENTAL GIFT FOR GLOBAL LEADERSThe Pace Parents Club funds the Citizens of the World Travel Grant Program.

Pace Academy’s partnership with its parents has long been a distinguishing characteristic of the school. Through events like the annual Auction and the Fall Fair, the Parents Club supports Pace students, faculty, staff and programs in myriad ways.

With the launch of the Isdell Center for Global Leadership, the school remains more focused than ever on its mission to create citizens of the world. To that end, the Parents Club has funded the Citizens of the World Travel Grant Program, which will make study tours more affordable to all Pace students. The program will provide airfare for students once during their Middle School years, and once during their Upper School tenure.“Some lessons simply can’t be learned in the

classroom, and there is no match for making global leadership real and concrete like the experience of a global study tour,” says Parents Club Treasurer STEPHANIE LUETTERS. “These study tours broaden and expand students’ minds and forever change their views of the world in which they live. They bring global leadership to life and develop a rich awareness that every Pace student should possess.”

WHERE WILL WE GO? This year, the ICGL will offer study tours to…

UPPER SCHOOL Japan, Hungary, Azerbaijan, Germany, New York City, Patagonia, China, Romania, Italy, Spain, France, India, Cambridge, Botswana and Namibia

MIDDLE SCHOOL Italy, Greece, Dominican Republic and Australia

LOWER SCHOOL Costa Rica

Learn more about these study tours at www.paceacademy.org/icgl.

?

http://www.paceacademy.org/icgl


ICGL A global education for every Pace graduate

CHANGING THE WORLD,ONE CLASSROOM AT A TIMEThe Lower School curriculum now incorporates Design Thinking at every level.

ICGL

Have a problem to be solved? Chances are our Lower School stu-dents and teachers can help.

What began as something of a Lower School experiment last year has blossomed into its current mission: creating global leaders through Design Thinking.

The groundbreaking learning process requires that students use empathy to tackle “Challenges,” thereby identifying and addressing issues on their own. Essentially, it’s a “human-centered” approach to problem solving that increases innovation through hands-on activi-ties, ultimately teaching the four Cs: collaboration, creativity, critical thinking and communication.

“The [2013–2014] year was tremendous and action-packed, filled with growth for both teachers and students,” says Director of Design Thinking JASMINA PATEL (pictured above). Patel met with students in the Pre-First, fourth and fifth grades once every eight-day cycle. Together, they tackled real-world issues such as recycling, rainforest deforestation and—with the help of seniors in JONATHAN DAY’S environmental science class—extinction.

“The highlight of the year was watching our students develop a greater sense of creative confidence,” Patel says. “Students are beginning to be-lieve in their ability to create change in the world around them.”

Given the previous year’s success and the launch of the Isdell Center for Global Leadership (ICGL), expanding Design Thinking to all Lower School students and faculty through the ICGL was a no-brainer.

To prepare teachers to implement Design Thinking in their class-rooms, in June, Head of Lower School SYREETA MOSELEY and teachers CHERYL LASSISTER, ROBBI HUDGINS, KIM MYLES, AMANDA MCGEHEE and KIM VILIBORGHI traveled to the Nueva School in San Francisco to participate in the Design Thinking Institute.

During their four-day stint in Nueva’s world-renowned Innova-tion Lab (I-Lab), the group explored hands-on, project-based Design Thinking curricula, putting into practice the same problem-solving process that they would later ask their students to use:

u EMPATHIZE u DEFINEu IDEATEu PROTOTYPEu TESTu REFLECT

The group also heard from students impacted by Design Thinking. “[One student] stated that as a result of [Design Thinking], she learned how to persevere,” Moseley recalls. “Now, when she faces challenges in life, she understands that they are only temporary. If we can expose our students to a process that will strengthen their self-esteem, increase their willingness to take risks and provide them with the resolve to press through challenging situations, then we will inevitably prepare them for life… and what could be more rewarding than that?”

The group returned eager to share their knowledge and to support their colleagues in Design Thinking efforts. To that end, Moseley and Patel partnered with the Henry Ford Learning Institute (HFLI) to pro-vide Design Thinking training to all Lower School faculty prior to the start of the new school year.

During the two-day workshop, teachers became students. They participated in warm-up activities to create a readiness for critical thinking and problem solving and completed a rapid-cycle Design Thinking Challenge. In keeping with the ICGL water theme, they fo-cused much of their time on designing a way for Atlantans to be better stewards of their water resources.

“Anyone who walked into the room would have seen that all of our teachers were invested in learning about the Design Thinking process,” Patel says. “Their prototypes were well planned, and the end results were elaborate. Teachers left the workshop convinced that the process has value in education and were eager to continue discussions on how to imbed the mindsets into their current curriculum.”

The training has already impacted Lower School classrooms. “Design Thinking now permeates all subject areas,” says McGehee, who teaches fourth grade. “Even when we’re not conducting a Chal-lenge, our class looks at each project, lesson or activity in a new way with a new perspective. As teachers, we’re asking questions like, ‘How do you think the main character can resolve the conflict he/she is facing?’ We’re more receptive to new ideas and perspectives, and students are active participants in their learning. They are thinking critically and in a more creative way.”

HFLI consultants will assist Lower School faculty throughout the year, and Moseley and Patel will continue to work to identify key aspects of the curriculum that lend themselves to Design Thinking. Moseley is excited about the program’s prospects: “Design Thinking will prepare our students to be confident citizens who are willing and prepared to make an amazing difference in the world,” she says.

ICGL

TheAcademy Abroad

Summer study tours take students to South Africa, Iceland and England.

THIS SUMMER, PACE STUDENTS

AND FACULTY TOOK ADVANTAGE

OF THE ICGL’S STUDY TOUR

PROGRAM AND SET OUT ALL OVER

THE WORLD TO MERGE LEARNING

AND GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP.



IcelandMay 27–June 5

Middle School teachers ANDREW HEA-COCK, LAURA INMAN and EMILY CAMP accompanied a group of 16 Middle School students to Iceland with Director of Middle School Global Leadership KIM PETERSON. The group arrived in Akureyri and was met with its first pleasant surprise: due to Ice-land’s geothermal energy, “hot pots”—or hot tubs—were everywhere!

The group’s first adventure included hiking to some of Iceland’s beautiful waterfalls: Det-tifoss, Godafoss and Selfoss. Then, students toured the Whale Museum in Húsavik and boarded a boat to Puffin Island—home to 250,000 puffins!—before heading out to the open sea to spot blue, minke and humpback whales. Horseback rides on the beach round-ed out the day.

In Akureyri, students stopped in Laufás for an Icelandic history lesson before visit-ing the rare pseudocraters at lake Myvatn and lava formations at Dimmuborgir. From there it was on to the geothermically heated baths, where students enjoyed a relaxing end to a busy day.

Next up? Reykjavík. There, students saw geysers, volcanic black-sand beaches and the famous Blue Lagoon before enjoying a traditional Icelandic dinner. Students also visited a farm directly under the Eyjafjalla-jökull volcano that erupted just four years ago. The farmers taught the group about the six-week-long eruption, their two-year recovery period and the benefits of the vol-canic ash for their soil. The group ended the trip with two once-in-a-lifetime experiences: snorkeling between the North American and Eurasian continental plates and hiking inside a lava tube.

EnglandJuly 17–26

For the sixth year, Upper School History Chair TIM HORNOR took a group of seven stu-dents to Britain to participate in the Society of International Business Fellows’ Cambridge Young Adults program on money and finan-cial responsibility. First, the group toured London and visited classic sights, including Buckingham Palace, Big Ben and the London Eye. Students also enjoyed traditional fish and chips, went shopping at the famous Har-rods department store and saw a play.

After two days in London, the group headed to Cambridge to meet other students partici-pating in the program. Together they explored Cambridge by foot and by boat while punting on the River Cam. A rigorous day of lectures on topics such as the mathematics of money and entrepreneurialism followed. Later, stu-dents took a double-decker bus tour of the city and visited the Madingley American Cemetery, Britain’s only American military cemetery from World War II.

Throughout the program, students attend-ed classes such as Can the Romans Teach Us Anything about Wealth Management? and Eight Evolutionary Myths: The Closing of the Darwinian Mind. They particularly enjoyed a presentation titled It Wasn’t My Fault, My Neurons Made Me Do It. In the evenings, they were free to participate in a number of activities, such as watching a Shakespeare production and playing croquet with Pace alumnus JOHN HOFFMAN ’12.

South AfricaMay 28–June 12

Just five days after the end of school, 13 Upper School students embarked upon Pace’s fourth trip to South Africa, led by former faculty members KEVIN COALE and JENNI RIDALL COALE '05 and ICGL Director TRISH AN-DERSON. The two-week adventure began in Port Elizabeth, where 10 of the students took a leap of faith off of the world’s tallest bungee bridge. Senior CAROLINA ABDULLAH de-scribed the free-fall view as “stunning” and called the jump “an amazing way to start a great trip.”

The group spent the next two days hiking the Dolphin Trail before heading to Oudtshoorn to tour an ostrich farm and ride an ostrich. The up-close encounter proved extremely in-formative, as junior MARY STUART GRAY recounts, “I know from personal experience that [ostrich] beaks are very sharp, and they are not shy when it comes to biting human hands!”

Cape Town, a city that reminded junior MORGAN KELLY of San Francisco with its “windy, rainy weather, crowded urban streets and the old prison just a ferry ride away,” was the group’s next stop. There, they took a short ferry ride to Robben Island to tour the maximum-security prison in which Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners were held.

For the next two days, the group volun-teered with Afrika Tikkun, an organization dedicated to fulfilling the educational, health and social needs of South Africa’s disadvan-taged children. Students delivered groceries to families in need, and assisted with early child-hood-development and after-school programs.

From Cape Town, it was off to Mount Camdeboo for a safari on which the group spotted lions and fed giraffes, and then to Johannesburg for a tour of the African Lead-ership Academy. A visit to the Apartheid Museum capped off the trip, and students left their mark on South Africa by contributing to a poster that invited museum patrons to share their feelings about Mandela’s passing.

by Morgan Brewton-Johnson ’14

GLOBAL LEADERS

A HEART FOR SPORTS AND SERVICE

Seventh-grader BRIDGES SPENCER has been an active volunteer with the Police Athletic League (PAL) since he was a little boy. The juvenile crime prevention force is dedicated to providing educational and ath-letic activities for children ages 8 to 18, and for several summers, Spencer has worked with PAL kids through Peachtree Road United Methodist Church.

“We play games with them and do service projects such as packing food boxes for the hungry,” Spencer says. “I have also helped with some sports equipment drives that my brother [senior JACK SPENCER] has spon-sored. I feel lucky that I know the people from PAL and have become friends with a lot of them.”

In recognition of Spencer’s commitment to others, APIVEO (Always Play for 4 (IV) Each Other) named him its August 2014 Player of the Month. APIVEO celebrates the leadership of youth athletes in metro Atlanta, and Players of the Month receive $1,000 from Zaxby’s to donate to the charity of their choice. Spencer gave the money to PAL.

“I appreciate the privileges that I have, and I want to help those who aren’t as fortu-nate as I am,” Spencer says. “My church has always taught me that even doing some-thing small for someone can make a huge difference.”

From left to right: APIVEO founder Brad Jubin, Buckhead baseball coach John Adams, Gwinnett Braves Manager Brian Snitker, Bridges Spencer, Pace parents JOHN SPENCER and BETH BRIDGES SPENCER ’81, Zaxby’s Senior Director of Operations David Moon and Atlanta PAL Police Officer Mike Vail

GLOBAL LEADERS


Seniors MARYELLEN MALONE (pictured right) and MORIAH WILSON (left)can add “research scholar” to their resumes. The girls were two of 10 high school students selected to participate in the Emory University Winship Cancer Institute’s Summer Scholars program.

As part of the program, they worked under mentors, or principal investigators, in either wet labs (involving chemicals, drugs and other biological materials) or dry labs (involving data from the Emory patient database). In addition to attending lectures on topics ranging from different types of breast cancers to the human genome proj-ect, the scholars spent six weeks on individual projects assigned by their principal investigators and presented their research at the end of the program.

Wilson participated in a dry lab, in which she researched racial disparities in treatment for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma under Dr. Christopher Flowers. She par-ticularly enjoyed watching a real bone marrow harvest and shadowing Flowers in the clinic while interacting with patients. “[It was] a very maturing experience because we were treated like actual researchers in a lot of ways, and getting to work alongside established doctors was a unique dynamic,” Wilson says.

Malone worked in a wet lab, where she ran tests on human and mouse blood, as well as on mouse spleens. Currently, her name is on a patent application for a new assay that she developed with her principal investigator. The assay would test mul-tiple compounds simultaneously. “It was a lot of work, and it as really hard work, but it was a really rewarding experience,” Malone says. “It was valuable to work with people who are so motivated and dedicated to what they do.

Malone’s participation in the program resulted in an offer to continue research during the school year. She is reading research papers and analyzing data throughout the fall semester and will work in the lab in the spring.

— by MORGAN BREWTON-JOHNSON ’14

A SUMMER OF SCIENCE

GLOBAL LEADERS

THE WRITING LIFEThis summer, senior HANNAH KELLY

(above, second from left) was one of 11 editors selected to produce the Wren’s Nest literary magazine. The nonprofit organization is based in the home of author Joel Chandler Harris and works to promote the heritage of African American folklore through storytelling, tours and student publishing,

The Wren’s Nest’s annual publication features both creative writing and art sub-mitted, selected and edited by high school students. Over the summer, the team of editors (pictured above) met twice a week at the Fuse Arts Center in downtown Atlanta, where they heard from publishing profes-sionals and toured the CNN and Atlanta Journal-Constitution offices—in addition to reading through more than 250 submissions before selecting 99 for publication.

Kelly and her fellow editors spent much of the summer formatting and editing the works and writing the magazine’s mission statement and letter from the editors. The final publication—enigmatically titled un(en)titled—featured works by 72 students from the metro-Atlanta area, including junior JILLY PAUL, seniors JULIA BECK, KATIE NELSON and JERI BRAND, and KATIE DUVAL ’14 and TESS DILLON ’14.

The book debuted at the Decatur Book Festival on Labor Day weekend, where Kelly participated in a book signing and shared her thoughts about the experience as part of a panel of editors.

— by MORGAN BREWTON-JOHNSON ’14

Typhoon Relief Becomes a (Pace) Family Project

As a native of the Philippines, Pace Academy parent JOYCE ELLIS was devastated when Typhoon Haiyan struck the country’s southern Visayas region on Nov. 8, 2013, killing more than 6,000 people.

Impacted by news images and their mother’s connection to the country, sixth-grader SOPHIA ELLIS and third-grader CLARA ELLIS decided to take action and enlisted the help of ninth-grader RICHARD ELLIS.

Together the Ellis children went to work to raise awareness of the disaster and funds for relief efforts. With the support of Head of Middle School JOHN ANDERSON and the Middle School service club, Richard coordinated a bake sale that generated more than $1,100.

Clara’s second-grade Brownie troop collected used clothing, blankets and first aid kits for typhoon victims, and donations to the Lower School’s annual trick-or-treat for UNICEF went toward disaster relief as well.

The contributions and donated items were sent to One Visayas, an organization made up of individuals and nonprofit groups committed to providing relief for typhoon vic-tims. In an effort to rebuild the livelihoods of those impacted, One Visayas partnered with fisherman in the region, and this summer, the funds collected by the Ellis children went to purchase three fishing boats, appropriately named Atlanta, Georgia and Pace Academy (pictured above).

“We are truly blessed to send our children to Pace,” says Joyce. “It’s a place where students and families come together not just to build a first-class school, but to assist with a global disaster.”


GLOBAL LEADERS


Fifth-grader Mira Solomon takes her healthy eating habits all the way to The White House.

As a vegetarian, backyard barbecues often present a challenge to fifth-grader MIRA SOLOMON. Hot dogs and hamburgers are great for meat-eaters, but truly tasty veggie options are few and far be-tween. So when Solomon, a whiz in the kitchen since the age of 2, heard about the 2014 Healthy Lunchtime Challenge & Kids’ “State Dinner” contest, she knew just what to whip up.

The contest, co-sponsored by First Lady Michelle Obama, Epicuri-ous and the Department of Education, invites children ages 8 to 12 to create a lunchtime recipe that is “healthy, tastes great, is creative, original and affordable.” A panel of judges selects three finalists from each U.S. state and territory, and the lucky winner travels to Washing-ton, D.C., to attend a “State Dinner” at The White House.

“I came up with the idea of a bean burger,” Solomon says. “First I tried using lentils, but the consistency wasn’t right and it fell apart. Next, I tried black beans. They worked much better.”

Solomon enlisted her family’s help in taste testing her recipes before settling on a dish she calls “Grillin’ Out Veggie Style,” a black-

bean burger with a guacamole spread and a carrot salad. In March, she typed up the final recipe and sent it off to D.C.

More than 1,500 children entered the third annual contest, and in May, Solomon learned that she had been selected as one of the three finalists from Georgia. “I was really excited,” she says. “I thought that being a finalist was enough.” But there was more. In June, Solomon was named one of the 54 Healthy Lunchtime Challenge winners.

On July 17, Solomon and her mother, LORI SOLOMON, jetted off to D.C. courtesy of the contest and stayed at the Westin Georgetown with their fellow winners. As part of the trip, Solomon visited the National Museum of American History’s Food exhibit with the group and paid it forward with Project Sunshine by decorating chef hats for local pediatric wards.

The following day’s agenda? The White House. “We went through security in the East Wing and got to explore the rooms—The Red Room, The Green Room, The Blue Room,” Solomon says. “Then, a military announcer introduced each winner, and we walked down

A Recipe for Success

Mira Solomon prepares a healthy dish for her classmates on Oct. 8


GLOBAL LEADERS

the red carpet like you would at a real state dinner. There were real reporters and a kid reporter from Scholastic News Magazine. Every-thing was decorated with balloons shaped like fruits and vegetables. It was amazing.”

The afternoon also included a performance by the cast of The Lion King and a tour of the White House Kitchen Garden from the Obamas' personal chef and White House Food Initiative Coordinator Sam Kass. But the highlight of the day was when Solomon took her seat for lunch and glanced at the printed menu in front of her; “Grillin’ Out Veggie Style” was one of the nine dishes served. “I couldn’t believe it!” Solomon says. “My meal was served at The White House!”

During the luncheon, President Obama stopped by, and the First Lady spoke about the importance of a healthy lifestyle. “Mrs. Obama told us how fortunate we are to have fresh fruits and vegetables, and about how there are kids in food deserts who shop for snacks at con-venience stores,” Solomon says. “There are kids who eat breakfast and lunch at school [thanks to the National School Lunch Program] and that’s all they eat all day. She said we could help children eat healthier in our own communities.”

While Solomon’s time in D.C. included many unforgettable mo-ments, the First Lady’s pay-it-forward message remained with her. Solomon has launched an initiative within the Lower School called Monday-Morning Muffins, a fundraiser she hopes will raise awareness of hunger in Atlanta, while providing fresh produce each weekend for 50 children at the Agape Youth & Family Center and their families.

Solomon has also partnered with founding Food Network chef Curtis Aikens and will conduct food demonstrations in the Lower School and at the Agape Center. “I really want to raise enough money to help at the Agape Center and make people realize that hunger is a problem even very close to Pace,” she says

The 2014 Healthy Lunchtime Challenge Cookbook is available for free download at www.epicurious.com and www.letsmove.gov. •

Solomon on July 18, the day her meal was served at The White House during the Kids' State Dinner

With chef Curtis Aikens

http://www.epicurious.com

ARTHUR M. BLANK FAMILY UPPER SCHOOL


THE PLACE COMMUNITY BUILT

25

The Arthur M. Blank Family Upper School opens its doors.

Before its demolition in 1972, the Dinkler Plaza Hotel sat on the 100 block of Forsyth Street in the heart of downtown Atlanta’s Fairlie-Poplar district. On Aug. 3, 1958, a group gathered in the hotel’s Dinkler Room, invited to dinner by the newly formed Pace Academy Board of Trustees.

The men on the board—physicians, architects, attorneys and a minister—believed that Atlanta needed an “outstanding private school… dedicated to providing a program of instruction which takes cognizance of the growth of the ‘whole’ child.”

Since that February, the group had worked diligently to secure funds to purchase the Odgen family estate at 966 W. Paces Ferry Road. They planned to establish Pace Academy on the property and to open the school in September. But the group’s fundraising efforts had been less than successful, so they summoned families and potential supporters—“Friends of Pace”—to the hotel for an important meeting.

When the group emerged from the Dinkler Room, 17 families had pledged a total of $21,600 in gifts and bonds to the fledgling school, and the Founders’ Fund, Pace’s first fundraising campaign,

was born. Twenty-seven parents and other supporters agreed to serve as campaign volunteers with the goal of raising $125,000.

In the week following its launch, the Founders’ Fund secured pledges nearing $125,000, and impressed by the community’s enthu-siasm and support, Mills B. Lane Jr., president of C&S Bank, provided a loan that allowed Pace to close on the Ogden home on Aug. 29.

On Sept. 15, 1958, nearly 150 students in kindergarten through seventh grade attended classes in a temporary facility on 15th Street, and on Oct. 2, the “Castle” doors opened for good.

This dedicated group of families and friends may have started small, but they had a big vision. With their belief in Pace’s mission and promise, they established a tradition of selfless, untiring philanthropy.

From left to right, Tim Walsh ’81 and Leigh Draughon Walsh ’81, Julie Seaman, Robert Sheft,

Elizabeth and Ken Richards, Angie Macuga and Arthur Blank, Mayor Kasim Reed, Martha Downer-

Assaf and Fred Assaf celebrate the opening of Pace Academy’s Arthur M. Blank Family Upper School.



That tradition endures today. On Aug. 18, 2014, after the two-year Aim High capi-

tal campaign, Pace officially opened the Arthur M. Blank Family Upper School, a state-of-the-art, 75,000-square-foot facility.

“Our founding fathers would not have envisioned this project in 1958, but I know this would fill them with pride and with a sense of accomplishment,” Head of School FRED ASSAF told guests at the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The campaign’s $32-million goal had been a lofty one; many believed that it would be a reach for the small Pace community. But like their predecessors in 1958, Pace par-ents and friends came together in a selfless spirit of giving and determination. Led by campaign co-chairs ELIZA-BETH RICHARDS and ROBERT SHEFT, and Director of Advancement HEATHER WHITE and her team, members of the Pace community not only met the $32-million goal, they exceeded it by more than $3 million.

More than 1,300 individual donors contributed to the Aim High campaign; 100 percent of faculty, staff and the Board of Trustees participated, as did nearly 90 percent of Pace parents. The Alumni Challenge portion of the campaign raised $2.2 million—more than in all previous campaigns combined.

“We often refer to our tight-knit school community as ‘the Pace family,’ and the Aim High campaign was a true family effort,” says Richards. “It’s been an amazing journey.”

Given that Pace alumnus SANDY COOPER ’79 of Collins Cooper Carusi Architects designed the Arthur M. Blank Family Upper School, it’s not surprising that the building fits seamlessly into the campus and the sur-rounding neighborhood.

“I just kind of knew what I thought felt right, architectur-ally speaking,” Cooper said prior to construction. His vision matched the historic Tudor style of Kirkpatrick Hall, the iconic Castle, and included modern, cutting-edge features inside. As it turns out, Cooper and his team were spot-on.

“[Cooper] captured the heart of Pace,” Assaf says. “He created a space that will serve us for generations.”

The four-story Arthur M. Blank Family Upper School nearly doubles the space of the previous Upper School, which was constructed in 1961 and expanded in the 1970s and 1980s before its demolition in 2013.

The three-story Woodruff Library is the building’s crowning jewel, its stone turret and façade fronting W. Paces Ferry Road (see story on page 30). The 1,500-square-foot Seaman Family Student Commons allows students to gather for small-group meetings, and to socialize or study during free periods. Its floor-to-ceiling windows overlook the Pace Gardens, and doors allow for easy access to the Inman Center and the heart of campus.

On the fourth floor, the hallway dead-ends into the Sheft Family Academic Resource Center, where counselors

THE UPPER SCHOOL’S UNSUNG HEROES It’s easy to watch a build-ing rise from the ground and to marvel at the speedy progress of construction. However, making that prog-ress happen—and happen in 14 months on an active school campus—is a more-than-mammoth task.

The Arthur M. Blank Family Upper School has been years in the making. Since 2010, Head of School FRED ASSAF, former Board of Trustees Chairmen JEFF SEAMAN and TIM WALSH ’81 (below, second from left), parent DARON PAIR (below, right) and the Board’s Proper-ties Committee, parent BOB MILLS (below, second from right) of University Develop-ment Services, and Director of Facilities DAVE FORTIER (below, left) and his team have worked diligently to make the logistically complex project a reality.

Together with New South Construction, the team over-saw the creation of the new Upper School from founda-tion and framing to dry-in, systems installation and land-scaping. And as the building rose from the ground, Pace parent STEPHANIE BLANK lovingly selected the finishes and furnishings that would make the building a home.

Pace invited neighbors, current families, alumni, grandparents and friends of the school to tour the Arthur M. Blank Family Upper School during several open-house events.



and tutors provide academic support to students. In addition to offices, the suite includes private tutoring rooms, learning labs and meeting space. Just down the hall, the Correll Richards Family Student Terrace offers a sweeping aerial view of the Pace campus for those seeking sunshine and a quiet place to work.

Pace has always emphasized close student-teacher relationships, so each floor of the Arthur M. Blank Family Upper School boasts infor-mal meeting spaces and conference rooms—places in which students and faculty can hang out, work together or gather for an impromptu extra-help session. TV monitors on each floor provide a creative and entertaining way to connect to and inform community members and visitors, as they display Pace news, schedules and college-visit dates, as well as photos of school activities or historical milestones.

Deans’ offices are located at central hubs on the building’s third and fourth floors, and a new college-counseling suite provides comfortable space for representatives from visiting universities as well as family meetings. The newspaper and yearbook staffs maintain offices on the first-floor technology corridor, and a spacious lounge offers faculty members respite from busy days.

In total, the Arthur M. Blank Family Upper School includes 37 class-rooms—seven of them science labs—equipped with leading technology, two computer labs and a video-production space. It is truly a space that inspires.

“Pace is unique in Atlanta and has a well-deserved reputation as one of the finest independent day schools in the U.S.,” Assaf said at the ribbon-cutting event. “By the numbers, academic data clearly put Pace in a very elite class of schools. We now have more than seven appli-cants per available space, and to support the faculty and students who work hard to create that magic, we open this amazing space.

“We not only have the best school, we now have the best building.”

An unfinished history of Pace Academy by Suzi Zadeh provided some historical information for this article.

Pace parent and former Chairman of the Board of Trustees Tim Walsh ’81; parent, campaign co-chair and Chairman of the Board of Trustees Robert Sheft; parent, campaign co-chair and trustee Elizabeth Richards; parent and Chairman of The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation Arthur Blank; Head of School Fred Assaf

WHAT’S IN A NAME?“When you begin a project of this scope, you need someone to believe in you and someone to motivate you,” Head of School FRED ASSAF told guests at the opening of Pace’s new Upper School. For Pace, that someone was ARTHUR BLANK, Pace parent and chairman of The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation.

“The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation’s lead gift became [the Aim High campaign’s] seal of approval and helped Pace reach a level we never imagined,” Assaf said, and on Aug. 18, Blank addressed guests before cutting the ribbon on the new building.

“I supported this campaign because the core values embod-ied at Pace align with those of my family,” Blank said. “My hope and vision for this Upper School is that the current and future generations of students are fully enriched by their educational experience here—that they thrive beyond measure, that this state-of-the-art facility propels them to explore and innovate. And that, at the end of the day, they pay tribute to those teach-ers who invested in their growth and made learning what it was always meant to be: exciting.”


DID YOU KNOW?Not only does the Arthur M. Blank Family Upper School boast a multitude of green, energy-saving features, New South Construction made every effort to “go green” throughout the construc-tion process. When all was said and done, the New South team recycled

87% of construction debris!

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed (below right), husband of SARAH-ELIZABETH LANGFORD REED ’95,

helped cut the ribbon on the new Upper School.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED“On schedule” and “on budget” are two phrases rarely associated with multimillion-dol-lar construction projects, but Pace defied the odds with the Arthur M. Blank Family Upper School. The building opened on Aug. 18 as planned, and contributions to the Aim High campaign covered all of the associated costs.

The Pace community owes a debt of gratitude to all those who contributed to the campaign. Your gifts—in whatever amount—made the Arthur M. Blank Family Upper School a reality. Thank you for AIMING HIGH!

28 KnightTimes | Fall 2014


THE UPPER SCHOOL'S KNIGHTTo honor major donors to the Aim High campaign, Pace commissioned artist Glenn Brooks to create a larger-than-life image of a knight that would be immortalized in glass (shown above). A digital painter based in Charlottesville, Va., Brooks sketched the knight—“just a series of straight-line sketches,” he says—in Photoshop on a Wacom tablet. Brooks used the Photoshop pen tool to complete the final drawing. The finished piece sits just outside the entrance to the Woodruff Library’s main entrance and welcomes guests to the Arthur M. Blank Family Upper School.

Upper School students and faculty received commemorative Coca-Cola and water bottles to celebrate the new building.


Concept sketches

On Aug. 20, the first day of school, Head of Upper School MIKE GANNON and longtime Upper School faculty members CHARLIE OWENS and HELEN SMITH cut a ribbon at the Gardens entrance of the Arthur M. Blank Family Upper School to officially usher in the new year.

INSIDE THE WOODRUFF LIBRARY

Harry Potter fans have likened Pace Academy’s Woodruff Library to a space straight out of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wiz-ardry. With its vaulted ceiling, spiral staircase, stone fireplace, dark finishes and hidden nooks, one can easily imagine Harry, Ron and Hermione conspiring over a book of spells at one of the reading room’s wide tables.

And while the space evokes a sense of reverence for the volumes it contains, one feels simultaneously relaxed within its walls. There is no doubt that learning happens here, but it’s clear that fun and adventure have a place as well.

The Woodruff Library owes its unique atmosphere to thoughtful design and to the individuals who inhabit it. In May, MATT BALL joined the Pace faculty as director of the Woodruff Library. A gradu-ate of Georgia State University with a Master of Library Science from Syracuse University, Ball brings more than 15 years of experience working in the libraries of Emory, Harvard and the University of Vir-ginia, as well as aboard a ship with the Semester at Sea program.

Together with 18-year Pace veteran LINDA TEAGUE, Ball spent the summer assessing and unpacking the library’s existing collec-tion and getting a feel for the space. The team’s first priority was to create a sense of ownership among Middle and Upper School students and to ensure that the library works for the Pace commu-nity. “I think we’ll all spend the first year figuring things out as we go along, and I want the students to be a part of that,” Ball says. “It’s their library; I’m just the steward.”

As the year has unfolded, use of the library’s many spaces has evolved organically. The third-floor reading room with its oversized windows, stately furniture and stone hearth has become a place of quiet study. The floor also houses the circulation desk and library offices, as well as study carrels and two large study rooms.

The second floor is the library’s more active, collaborative center. The floor includes a classroom, open workspace with computers and printers, magazine and newspaper collections, storage and compact, movable shelving for hundreds of books.

Ball and Teague pay close attention to shifting trends in research and library science and made sure that the Woodruff Library was equipped to support a “hybrid print/digital environment.” And the library’s hours have been expanded to 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. to encour-age on-campus study and collaboration into the early evening hours.

It’s all part of a new way of thinking about the library, Ball says. “It’s a place to go to, both virtually and physically, for help with whatever [one] needs to accomplish learning and teaching goals.” •


WOODRUFF LIBRARY

WOODRUFF LIBRARY

DID YOU KNOW?The Woodruff Library…

• Houses 20,000 titles (23,000 total volumes) and approximately 1,000 DVDs?

• Can hold anywhere between 25,000 and 38,000 volumes?

• Can accommodate approximately 2,000 books per row in its stacks?

The Woodruff Library was made possible

by a generous gift from Pace

grandparent JANE WOODRUFF,

and Pace parents BUCK and ANN

WOODRUFF.

Pictured left to right in front of the library’s

fireplace are HARRISON ’18, Jane, Ann, LILLI ’20

and Buck Woodruff.

WALSH FIELD


THE KNIGHTS HAVE A NEW CASTLE


WALSH FIELD

Walsh Field Opens at Pace Academy’s Athletics Complex

contributed to the Aim High campaign the largest alumni capital gift in school history. Walsh Field is named in their honor.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony marked the symbolic end of Aim High. Contributions to the campaign for a new Upper School exceeded $35 million, making possible the completion of the Pace’s satellite Athletics Complex. And on Aug. 29, Knights fans packed the stands as the varsity football team defeated the Our Lady of Mercy Bobcats 14–12 in the inaugural competition at Walsh Field.

Pace acquired its satellite property on Riv-erview Road in Cobb County in 2005, and prior to the construction of Walsh Field, foot-ball, soccer and lacrosse teams played on a multipurpose field within the complex. A set of bleachers that sat 500 stood adjacent to the field, but no permanent structures were in place, and a track was nowhere to be seen.

Now, Walsh Field includes bleacher seating for 700 visitors and 2,000 home fans, a FIFA-regulation-size grass field and an eight-lane Beynon track with 42-inch lanes. Press boxes and VIP seating are located at the top of the

stadium, which is equipped with a Daktronics scoreboard and football play clocks, as well as a fully automated timing system for track and field.

Ten varsity sports teams—soccer, lacrosse, cheerleading, football, track and field and cross-country—and the growing pep band (see story on page 38) will call Walsh Field home.

Gone are the days of perpetual away meets and matches; now, the competition comes to us.

“It was time for the quality of our facilities to match the quality of our student-athletes,” says Tim. “Our family is fortunate to be part of making that happen.”

In addition to Walsh Field, Pace’s Athlet-ics Complex includes Charlie Owens Baseball Field; a multipurpose field for football, soccer and lacrosse; locker rooms for athletes as well as male and female officials; an athletic train-ing facility and a snack bar.

This past spring, state-champion KENNY SELMON ’14 won the 400 hurdles at the 2014 New Balance Nationals Outdoor champi-onship and was named Gatorade’s 2014 Boys Track and Field Athlete of the Year; Selmon, JOSH ROGERS ’14, XORI JOHNSON ’16 and JORDAN BROWN ’14 took the state 4 x 400 relay title; and senior LAUREN HADLEY ’15 collected a state-championship medal in the 300 hurdles—never once having a home-field advantage.

Since its inception, Pace’s track and field team has practiced in parking lots and at off-campus facilities. Runners have drawn lines in the sand to mark lanes, used stones to indicate passing zones and have always been the visit-ing team. Not anymore.

On Aug. 28, faculty, staff, members of the Board of Trustees and other guests watched as LEIGH DRAUGHON WALSH ’81, TIM WALSH ’81 and their children, JAMES ’12, JACK ’16 and MEGAN ’18, cut the ribbon on Walsh Field, a new stadium and track. Leigh, an active parent volunteer, and Tim, the first alumnus to chair the Board of Trustees,


WALSH FIELDWALSH FIELD

“It was time for the

quality of our facilities to match the

quality of our student-

athletes,” says Walsh. “Our family is fortunate to be part of making that

happen.”


WALSH FIELD


DEBATE FUQUA MATCH

Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! host Peter Sagal does a lot of talking during his popular pod-cast—at the rate of about 160 words per minute (wpm). And that’s pretty normal. Between 150 and 200 wpm is a comfortable speaking and comprehension rate for the average person. But Pace debaters are anything but average. In fact, many debaters can speak and comprehend the spoken word at upwards of 300 wpm.

“It feels like the difference between people playing speed chess and the guys playing in the park,” says Pace debate team alumna PEYTON LEE ’09, who completed under-graduate studies at Northwestern University and now attends Harvard Law School.

Why is that so impressive? Not only are these students able to speak faster than most auctioneers, but they express substantive ar-guments surrounding complex topics—and since its start 42 years ago, Pace’s team has won 36 state championships.

Members of Pace's illustrious debate team

A Legacy of Achievement: “Arguing as an Elective”

THE FUQUA DEBATE

CHALLENGE MATCH


DEBATE FUQUA MATCH

The late philanthropist, businessman and politician J.B. FUQUA, whose granddaughter FRANCES FUQUA ’12 attended Pace, recog-nized the significance of such major accolades coming from a small program at a relatively young independent school. Believing in the long- and short-term merit of students’ access to debate, in 1999, Fuqua made a tremendous gift that would fund the J.B. Fuqua Chair of Public Speaking and Debate, enhance op-portunities for Pace students in the areas of public speaking and debate, and benefit local and national debate initiatives through tour-naments and programs offered at Pace.

“Debate has been, arguably, the most suc-cessful program at Pace,” says SHUNTÁ JORDAN, the current J.B. Fuqua Chair of Speaking and Debate. “It is one of the only programs for which the school is known on a national level. Maintaining a competitive and successful program allows us to attract students with various interests, from differ-ent backgrounds and academic levels. This feeds the cycle of building and sustaining a successful program that will continue to at-tract great students.”

In order to secure future success, in May of 2012, the trustees of The J.B. Fuqua Founda-tion approved a four-year challenge grant to endow Pace’s debate program.

To meet this challenge, Pace must

raise $250,000 to match The

J.B. Fuqua Foundation’s endowed gift,

for a total of $500,000.

Since 2009, the squad’s membership has doubled, and Jordan says it will continue to grow in the foreseeable future. Open to all interested students in the Upper School, Pace offers a yearlong advanced debate course and semester-long courses in both intermedi-ate debate and beginning speech and debate. Middle School students can take a yearlong elective debate course, which teaches the fun-damental concepts and then allows students to put them into action once a month at Atlanta Middle School Debate League compe-titions. Mentoring opportunities are a built-in component of the curriculum that allow Upper School debaters to work with Middle School debate students, bridging a gap between divi-sions and fostering meaningful relationships.

When asked how debate has impacted them as students and/or professionals, both current and alumni debaters were consistent across the board—Pace’s program changed who they were as critical thinkers and as global citizens.

Senior ERIN RAWLS says debate has opened doors intellectually and academically for her, as well as equipped her with lifelong skills like effective time management, public-speaking confidence and research abilities. Students also become well versed in current events and complex global problems.

“[Debate] also enhanced my knowledge about the world to the point where I can scare my family with the amount of information about which I can speak confidently—I mean past the point of cocktail party knowledge,” says Rawls. “In terms of personal develop-ment, I can now understand things in a way that makes me more accepting of different cultures and forms of thought.”

Junior REID FUNSTON has enjoyed trav-eling to tournaments across the country and plugging into the greater debate community. Funston says learning how to express his ideas persuasively and effectively speak in public has been a major self-confidence boost and has changed his view of the world. He joined the team in the eighth grade because he says, “I liked the idea of arguing with people as an elective.” It’s hard to argue with that.

Perhaps most significant to any educator or parent is the resounding sense that the debate team at Pace is a family and a support system whereby students learn skills that equip them for college and well beyond.

“Competing in debate gave me the confidence to speak in any setting, about anything,” says Jordan,who joined Atlanta’s Therrell High School’s debate team, one of the first urban debate teams in the country, in the ninth grade. “Critical thinking and communica-tion are valuable skills that only increase in value after students leave [Pace]. The Fuqua Challenge funding will be used to sustain our program, make it available to more students and positively impact our surrounding community.”

Support a Debate Endowment: The J.B. Fuqua Foundation has committed to doubling any gift made to the Pace debate program until the end of the 2016 school year in an effort to endow the program. To double your gift towards a Pace Debate Endowment, visit www.paceacademy.org/debate-give. For more information, please contact HEATHER WHITE, director of Advancement, at 404-240-9107 or [email protected]. •


Apparently, there’s just something about band. And strings. And chorus. And drama. In recent years, participation in all of Pace’s performing arts programs has increased steadily. A record 65 Upper School students sing in the chorus, 29 play in the orchestra, and band is bursting at the seams.

“It’s a good problem to have,” says Doyle. When he began teaching at Pace four years ago, 60 students in grades six through 12 were involved in band. This year, there are 131.

“When I started, we had a bright, talented group of students who really wanted to be part of something special,” Doyle remembers. “I just had to provide the necessary structure and create a team environment that students could be proud of. We made official T-shirts; we went on tour. As the band’s reputation and credibility began to grow, so did our numbers.”

To accommodate the program’s evolution, this summer Doyle hired Associate Director of Bands WILLIAM PITTS, a multi-talented musician, composer and educator, who writes music for ensembles across the world. Doubling the band faculty has allowed Doyle and Pitts to divide and conquer while working as a team.

Sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade band students now meet as separate classes. In the Middle and Upper Schools, Pitts, who also teaches Advanced Placement Music Theory, works with the woodwind sections, and Doyle focuses on brass. They’ve even added an Upper School percus-sion class to the curriculum, and they see fifth-grade musicians once every eight-day cycle.

“We can get so much more accomplished because there are two of us,” Pitts says. “We’re able to provide truly individualized attention to our students, which increases the quality of instruction. It’s also refreshing for the kids to experience two different teaching styles that stem from the same pedagogy.”

NINETY-ONE students make up this year’s seventh-grade class, and 43 of those young men and women participate in the Middle School band.

“Last year, we had 44 kids in the sixth-grade band,” says Fine Arts Chair and Band Director DANNY DOYLE. “The only one who didn’t come back to the program moved away.”

Shining a spotlight on the growing band and Middle School visual- arts programs…

In addition to their day-to-day duties, Doyle and Pitts oversee the pep band, which did not exist prior to Doyle’s arrival. “By the spring of my first year at Pace, the band was really coming together and gaining confidence,” Doyle recalls. “I thought, ‘Well, if we have a football team, we probably need a pep band,’ so I approached the kids about it.”

Doyle knew that student buy-in would be key to the pep band’s success, so he asked them to vote on whether or not to create the new group. The agreement was that all students not playing football or cheering on any given Friday night would perform at home games, and that the school would support them in their efforts. The yeas won 27–1.

“I was stunned,” Doyle says. He went to work and secured financing for the necessary equipment from the “incredibly generous” Parents Club. Wearing pep band shirts and equipped with the best instruments available, the pep band made its debut at a school-wide pep rally. The positive response was overwhelming—from the Pace community and the band members themselves.

“[In the band], you’re part of something, and the final product of your hard work makes you and others happy,” says senior clarinet-ist and drum major HARRISON MONCINO. “Now everyone looks forward to learning and improving.”

Thanks to parent and school support, the pep band has its own section in the stands at Walsh Field, the new stadium at Pace Academy’s Ath-letics Complex. “The pep band elevates the Pace game-day experience to a whole new level,” says Director of Athletics KRIS PALMERTON. “The energy they bring is contagious and much appreciated.”

And while Doyle and Pitts are thrilled with the band’s recent prog-ress, they continue to raise the bar. This fall, the pep band will make its ACC debut with a performance at the Wake Forest-Syracuse game. In the spring, the Middle School band will travel with the orchestra and chorus to Universal Studios, and the Upper School band and choral ensembles will collaborate for the third annual Knight of Jazz, a concert sponsored by the Pace Academy Arts Alliance. Doyle and Pitts hope to take the seventh- and eighth-grade band to Washington, D.C., next year, and they’re planning an Upper School international tour for the 2016–2017 school year.

They’re excited about the future of the program. “Everything at Pace is approached with an expectation of excellence,” Pitts says. “Why would our approach to band be any different?”

ART IN THE MIDDLE While Pace performers crowd the stage, the pit and the stands, its

visual artists continue to thrive as well—now more than ever in the Middle School.

For years, every student in the sixth and eighth grades took visual art for one quarter. Seventh graders could elect to take art as a quarter course, but that meant that some students could go two years without drawing, painting or sculpting.

For some time, Head of Middle School JOHN ANDERSON—“the patron saint of Pace arts” according to many in the department—had hoped to expand visual-art offerings in his division so that every stu-dent could pursue hands-on, creative expression during the school day.

Pace Arts Amplified

ARTS

40

The construction of the Arthur M. Blank Family Upper School provided that opportunity. When Upper School deans and counsel-ors vacated the Inman Center’s main hallway for offices in the new building, Anderson jumped at the chance to claim the space.

Over the summer, crews converted the offices into two large visual-art classrooms, gallery space, and a room to house supplies, artwork and a kiln (as well as a new Middle School Academic Resource Center). Middle School visual art teacher JANE SIBLEY moved her collection of miniature chairs and a multitude of supplies from her classroom in the Garcia Family Middle School into the new space. Anderson hired KATY COWLES to join Sibley’s team, and the dynamic teacher began making the other new classroom her home.

With the additional space and another fulltime faculty member, the Middle School now offers visual art as a quarter-long discovery class in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades. Seventh and eighth graders who want to pursue art in more depth may elect to take studio art, yearlong courses focused on the 2D and 3D studio experiences, the history of art and exploring local exhibits.

Over the summer, Sibley and Cowles worked together to build “a cohesive plan” for all Middle School students, to create the curricu-lum for the new courses and to map out dream projects.

“We look for projects that will be fun and energizing,” Sibley says. “In the sixth grade, we start with the basics—like color theory—and in seventh grade, we move into clay and drawing from observation. In the eighth grade, we can really expand our use of materials and

techniques, focus on art history and visit galleries—things we never had time to do in the past.”

And both Sibley and Cowles are open to changing plans. “We take into account the kids’ energy for specific projects,” Sibley says. “If they want to pursue a certain idea, we can do that. We don’t have to teach to the test. It’s fun to have that flexibility.”

The additional time and flexibility will also allow students to explore current events and trends in art such as graffiti and photo-journalism. And with a dedicated space in which to exhibit student work, Sibley and Cowles hope to make the Middle School gallery a destination for campus visitors, with rotating exhibits and events.

Both teachers also plan to incorporate their teaching into the Isdell Center for Global Leadership and its annual themes. This year, Sibley will travel with Upper School art students India and to Italy with the Middle School; Cowles, who studied abroad in Cortona, Italy, would love to introduce Pace students to art oversees.

“Art is a huge part of global leadership, and a huge deal in the Middle School,” Cowles says. “I love that. It means that Pace truly cares about the whole child.”

Pace’s commitment to a well-rounded global education is one of the things that attracted Cowles to Pace. “Art allows students to see the world in a different way, to take risks in a safe place. It promotes a good, healthy lifestyle and a sense of purpose. And with art, there’s not just one right way to do things. If we can get that message across, we’ve done our job.” •


ARTS


Nov. 13–17 in the Fine Arts Center

Tickets available at www.paceacademy.org

Pace Academy presents its 43rd annual fall musical

Into the Woods


SAM ADLER ’89 recently started a new job as senior director of demand generation at Zend Technologies in Cupertino, Calif.

Artist NANCY SHIPPEN LIVENGOOD ’89 has a new focus: live event painting. From weddings and graduations to corporate events, Nancy turns events into lasting, memorable ex-periences captured in timeless oil paintings. This past spring, she painted a wedding at Atlanta’s Callanwolde Fine Arts Center and documented Oglethorpe University’s graduation. In Septem-ber, Nancy painted a fundraising gala for La Amistad, an Atlanta nonprofit, and she was a featured vendor at the annual Atlanta NotWed-ding event in October. You can view her work at www.nsshippenart.com.

Author and illustrator TRIP HUGHES ’91 has published Hornswoggle, a children’s book in which a young girl finds a mysterious shop where she acquires a dragon egg. All attempts to help the dragon learn to fly fail as she discovers that not everyone’s gifts are the same, and a deep friendship is born.

Trip visited the Pace Lower School on Sept. 18 and read Hornswoggle to an audience of rapt Pre-First students. He graciously donat-

Where Are They Now?

ALUMNIMoriah White's prize-winning necklace

ed a signed copy of the book to the Lower School Library.

When he’s not writing or illustrating, Trip, a graduate of Auburn University, teaches drawing, painting, digital illustration, pho-tography and film to high-school students at Fellowship Christian School in Roswell, Ga. He and his wife have three young children.

After relocating to Charleston, S.C., from the San Francisco Bay area, MORIAH WHITE ’91 began working as a production manager and event designer for Loluma, a wedding and event-planning company.

In the fall of 2013, Moriah took advantage of an unexpected opportunity to participate in the 2014 World Flower Show in Dublin, Ireland. To prepare, she enrolled in Art of the Celts, a craft class. “I spent a lot of time look-ing through Irish craft books, researching Celtic crafts and studying flower arranging,” Moriah says. “[As a result], I decided to create a necklace that would present the beautiful Irish Clones Lace that dates to the mid 1800s and the Irish potato famine.”

Accomplishing the project required build-ing a large flower press and shaping and

bending Sea Star Ferns into Celtic knots, crosses and various patterns. Using threads from the Palmetto palm tree to tie trinity knots, Moriah began to create fine chains that gave the feeling of the delicate stitches in Clones Irish Lace. After much designing, experimentation and preparation, she used the palm thread to assemble a necklace and cut the ends of pecan shells to add dimension and texture to the piece. Finally, she painted the necklace the bright gold of ancient Celtic jewelry with accents of rose gold overlay to give it depth and contrast. The World Flower Show honored Moriah’s piece, Art of the Celts, with a Commended designation.

DAVID IBSEN ’95 recently traveled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo for the second time as part of a church mission team. On both trips, David’s objective was to work with schools in the region to develop expanded educational opportunities for stu-dents and teachers. “In particular, the mission group has provided resources for a school for girls, a population that is not normally pro-vided with many opportunities to learn and grow,” he says.


ALUMNI

JAY STEVENS ’98 recently graduated from Georgia State University’s Robinson School of Business Professional MBA (PMBA) program. Robinson’s executive-format PMBA is for high-performing, early-career professionals focused on leadership. It is the only MBA program in Georgia on the Aspen Institute’s “Global 100” list of programs that prepare students for the en-vironmental, social and ethical complexities of modern-day business. The PMBA pro-gram is designed to help students develop the educational grounding to compete in an ever-changing marketplace, and is ranked 25th overall by Bloomberg BusinessWeek and 29th in the nation (19th among public universities) by U.S. News & World Report for 2015.

CATHERINE WOODLING ’00 is now director of communications for the East Lake Initiative, an organization comprised of Purpose Built Communities, the East Lake Foundation (inclusive of Drew Charter School) and the East Lake Golf Club. In this role, she is responsible for leading and executing stra-tegic communications and telling East Lake’s successful story of community redevelopment both in Atlanta and across the country.

For NICOLAS UPPAL ’05, life after col-lege has been nothing like he’d planned. After graduating from Stetson University, where he received academic and commu-nity-service scholarships and served as philanthropy chair of the Interfraternity Conference, he worked for Morgan Stanley in Miami, Fla., and later, in Beverly Hills, Calif.

On Oct. 2, 2011, Nicolas was involved in a motorcycle accident that caused a severe dif-fuse axonal brain injury (DAI) and left him in a coma for six weeks. Thanks to an outstand-ing medical team at Cedars Siani Hospital in Los Angeles, Nicolas emerged from the coma, but was paralyzed from the chest down.

Since the accident, Nicolas has worked hard to prevent cognitive decline, and credits much of his recovery to his Pace family—friends like ALLYNE GRAWERT ’06, RASHID LATTOUF ’05, AZOR SMITH ’05, MARK SMITH ’05 and former faculty

member ELIZABETH MILLER—many of whom traveled to Los Angeles to be with him follow-ing the accident. “The constant social interactions and dense conversations we have help keep me sharp,” he says. “I strongly

believe these friendships helped prevent the usual outcome of DAI injuries.”

Nicolas, who now lives in Atlanta, also has become close friends with former Pace parent OMAR LATTOUF, a professor of surgery in Emory University School of Medicine’s Divi-sion of Cardiothoracic Surgery. The two write a bimonthly economic report that allows Nicolas to remain engaged in the financial sector, an interest he credits to Upper School teacher RICK CANFIELD’S economics class. Nicolas also continues to trade in the stock market on his own.

He’s hopeful for the future, but takes things a day at a time. “I try not to look too far in front or behind,” Nicolas says. “My ultimate goal is to walk again, and I’d like to move back to L.A. and work for the same [Morgan Stanley] team as before.”

BRANDON SMITH ’06 was one of a team of four students in the Flexible and Professional MBA program at Georgia State University’s J. Mack Robinson College of Business to win the 2014 National Black MBA

Association Case Competition. In September, nearly 30 teams from throughout the U.S. analyzed and recommended marketing positioning for Chrysler’s new crossover Jeep Renegade, com-peting for a $25,000 scholarship award. Brandon received a best

presenter award as well. Brandon, a graduate of Howard University,

worked as an SEO analyst for 360i, a lead-ing digital marketing agency in Atlanta. He recently accepted a job as a digital marketing manager with Chrysler in New York.

SAM BIRDSONG ’08 has founded DT Productions, a video-production company out of Athens, Ga. Sam and his business part-ners create promotional videos that “drive emotion, capture content and boost brands.” Sam serves as the company’s project manag-er. Check out DT Production’s recent projects at www.dtproductions.com.

1) A live event painting by Nancy Shippen Livengood '89; 2) Trip Hughes '91 reads his book to Lower School students; 3) David Ibsen '95 on a mission trip in Africa; 4) From left to right, Rashid Lattouf ’05, Mark Saadine, Nicolas Uppal ’05, Ravi Naresh, Matt Larkins, Azor Smith ’05 and Mark Smith ’05

Stevens

B. Smith


ALUMNI

DAISY KIM ’10 graduated from American University in May 2014 with a degree in psy-chology and biochemistry. “I was so delighted to have not just my mom come from Korea to attend my graduation, but also my ‘American mom,’ [Upper School faculty member] LEE WILSON,” she says.

As a result of her college coursework and internship experiences, Daisy became inter-ested in psychiatry, especially topics related to autism spectrum disorders and gender variance. She enrolled in Georgetown Univer-sity School of Medicine in August, where she is involved with the Physicians for Human

Rights (PHR) group and the Enhanced Experi-ence in Psychiatry (EEP) program.

Outside of school, Daisy manages You Are Not Alone, a South Korean LGBTQA advo-cacy project that she launched. “I live with my best friend from college and recently became passionate about making authentic Korean food,” she says. “I’ve also had lovely surprise encounters with Pace alumni ERIC ESTROFF ’12 and ANNIE BONNOT ’10 on the streets of D.C.”

CATHERINE LEE ’10 is in nursing school at Georgia Southern University and will re-ceive her bachelor’s in nursing in late 2014. This summer, she spent two months living in Arusha, Tanzania, where she worked at Mt. Meru Hospital with volunteers from Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

“It was quite the experience in third-world healthcare,” Catherine says. She worked in watoto (pediatrics) and in labor/delivery. “I was able to do many things that I would not have been able to do in the U.S., including delivering four babies on my own!”

Catherine lived with a local host family, and she learned a great deal about day-to-day life in Tanzania and the struggles its people face. At the end of her time at the hospital, her uncle and her mother, Pace first-grade teacher SUZIE HARPER, joined her. They went on Safari, spent time in Zanzibar and explored the city of Moshi.

As a result of her experience, Catherine would like to help streamline nurse training on a global scale so that all nurses may better help their patients. “I would also like to focus on community health education to prevent diseases,” she says.

CLAIRE DILLON ’11 spent the summer abroad in Aix-en-Provence, France, and ap-plied for an internship with Kendra Scott Designs upon her return. She got the job and has spent the fall as the multimillion-dollar jewelry brand’s e-commerce intern. Claire, a senior at the University of Texas at Austin, will soon complete the school’s prestigious TexasMedia program and will graduate with minors in art history and the Global Business Foundations Program. She’s unsure of her post-grad plans: “I don’t know if I’ll return to Atlanta or stay in Austin,” Claire writes. “I may be able to persuade some Texan buddies to cross the Mississippi with me!”

BIRTHSKeren and MATTHEW COHEN ’95 wel-

comed a son, Asher Skye, on May 23, 2014. Asher weighed 8 pounds, 3 ounces and was 21 inches long. The family is moving back to the Washington, D.C., area, where Matthew will join the law firm of Squire Patton Boggs as an associate in the Private Investment Funds group.

PATRICK DUNAWAY ’98 and LAUREN WOLF ’98 welcomed a son, James Wolf, on April 6, 2014. James was born in Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley, Calif., where Patrick was delivered 35 years earlier.

Patrick and Lauren moved from New York City to Oakland, Calif., in 2010 and both have their own businesses. Lauren, a jewelry designer, runs Lauren Wolf Jewelry (www.laurenwolfjewelry.com), and in 2011, opened Esqueleto (www.shopesqueleto.com), a shop that features a rotating assortment of art-ists, objects and jewelry. Patrick, a graphic designer, owns Patrick Dunaway Design (www.patrickdunawaydesign.com). The family bought its first home two years ago and enjoys spending time fixing it up.

WILL BRUER ’99 and his wife, Anja Schoeke, had a daughter Margaret “Maggie” Schoeke-Bruer on July 23, 2014, at Atlanta’s Northside Hospital. Maggie weighed 8 pounds.

DAVIS INMAN ’00 and his wife, Laura Brown, welcomed Eloise Charles on July 13, 2014, at 7 pounds, 10 ounces. The proud grandmother is Middle School teacher LAURA INMAN.

After spending nearly a decade working in magazine publishing for publications such as Time Out New York, American Songwriter Magazine and DownBeat Magazine, Davis ac-cepted a new job as the general manager at the music venue SPACE in Evanston, Ill., a suburb just north of Chicago. Laura is the pro-gram manager at Bluestem Communications, a nonprofit environmental communications firm based in Chicago.

OWEN CARSON ’04 and his wife, Sarah, had twins on June 22, 2014. Liam Kipp weighed 6 pounds, 8 ounces, and Hazel Eliza-beth weighed 5 pounds, 14 ounces. Longtime Pace faculty member RICKS CARSON is the proud grandfather.

1) Daisy Kim '10; 2) Catherine Lee '10 in Tanzania; 3) Lee at Mt. Meru Hospital; 4) Lower School teacher Suzie Harper in Tanzania

http://www.laurenwolfjewelry.com

http://www.laurenwolfjewelry.com

http://www.shopesqueleto.com/

http://www.patrickdunawaydesign.com/


ALUMNI

1) Stan Gillespie, photo by Dorothy Gautier; 2) Lauren Wolf '98 & Patrick Dunaway '98 with James Wolf Dunaway; 3) Asher Skye Cohen; 4) Will Bruer '99 with Margaret "Maggie" Schoeke-Bruer; 5) Eloise Charles Inman; 6 &7) The Carson twins: Hazel Elizabeth & Liam Kipp

IN MEMORIAMFormer English teacher and tennis coach

STAN GILLESPIE passed away on July 9, 2014. Stan was a graduate of the University of Georgia with a master’s degree in literature. He taught at Riverside Military Academy and the McCallie School before coming to Pace in 1985.

At Pace, Stan was known for his passion for teaching, his high academic standards and his love of William Faulkner’s works. Director of Technology NEIL DEROSA remembers Stan as “a school man in every sense: a scholar, a pro-fessional educator, a valued colleague and an excellent coach. He was an intellectual friend and mentor to students, players and faculty. He stretched students mentally and physically and did it with honesty, integrity and humor.”

The Pace Class of 1996 dedicated the Pace-setter to Stan. “When Pace Academy students hear about William Faulkner, they immedi-ately think of Mr. Stan Gillespie,” they wrote. “Mr. Gillespie’s classroom off the corner of the library has served as a haven for schol-arly achievement… you cannot help but feel welcomed into a realm where words and ideas reign supreme.

“Mr. Gillespie has taught all of us a new appreciation for words, their power and their meaning when put together in story form. Most of all, he lives as an example of what it is to be a lifelong scholar, never compromising.”

Stan retired from Pace in 2000. He is sur-vived by DODIE GILLESPIE, his wife of 48 years. His daughter, AMY SILVERSTEIN, and his son-in-law, STEVE SILVERSTEIN, are Pace parents. Granddaughter CARLY SIL-VERSTEIN is a sophomore, and SYDNEY SILVERSTEIN is in the sixth grade.

Those who wish to honor Stan may donate to the Library Fund at Pace Academy, 966 W. Paces Ferry Road NW, Atlanta, GA, 30327.

Former Latin teacher ADAH “BETH” UNGER passed away on Sept. 1, 2014. Beth began teaching at Pace in 1993 and retired in 2000. During her tenure, she also accompa-nied the Upper School chorus for two years, performing at Pace and on tours to Washing-ton, D.C., and Orlando, Fla.

“In all her years at Pace, Beth was re-markable for her good humor, and for her enthusiasm on behalf of her subject matter and the treasured students whom

she taught,” wrote former faculty member ANNE-MARIE BATAC. “Her strong influ-ence helped to revive and sustain Pace's Latin program. She was a friend to all; ev-eryone loved her for her musical gifts, as well as her human ones. There were no limits to her capacity to give of herself, be it to her art or to her friends. Her vibrancy and passion will be greatly missed by all.”

MARRIAGES On May 17, 2014, JAMES BLACK ’00

married Catherine Bass Black at the Farm at Old Edwards Inn in Highlands, N.C. The Reverend CRAIG GOODRICH, a former Pace parent, officiated the ceremony. JOHN HELD ’00 and JAY PATTERSON ’00 were in attendance.

Catherine graduated from The University of the South and is pursuing an executive MBA at Emory University Goizueta Business School while working full time for Korn/Ferry International, an executive search firm. James graduated from Middlebury Col-lege and subsequently received his Doctor of Medicine degree from Emory University School of Medicine in 2009. He finished his orthopaedic surgery residency at Emory, and in August, he began a yearlong fellowship in orthopaedic trauma surgery and fracture care at Washington University/Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, Mo.

SHANNON LAWLESS ’00 married Jay Austin in Atlanta on April 23, 2014. By day, Shannon is a licensed esthetician at European Wax Center, but she moonlights as a pho-tographer and plans to start a photography business in the near future.

TYLER WHEELER ’00 and Lindsay Dover Wheeler were married on June 14, 2014, at the Inn at Half Mile Farm in Highlands, N.C. Pace alumni in attendance included ROBERT GLASS ’98, STEWART TEEGARDEN ’99, ANDREW TEEGARDEN ’99, BARCLAY MACON ’00, CARTER YOUNG ’99, ALISON WHEELER DUNAGAN ’01 and JIMMY WHEELER ’04.

Tyler and his wife, Lindsay, a Seattle native, met in the Emerald City and recently moved back to Atlanta. Lindsay works in business de-velopment for Oracle, enjoys a teaching yoga for fun and sits on the board of directors of


ALUMNI

Global Partnerships, a nonprofit impact inves-tor. Tyler is working as a family and sports medicine physician with his father, former Pace parent JIM WHEELER. In the coming years, he’ll work closely with Pace Athletics as a team physician. The couple has a dog, Rubin; “He’ll likely be our only child for the foreseeable future,” Tyler says.

TALBOT HEAD SHAW ’03 married Burk Shaw at Round Hill Resort in Montego Bay, Jamaica, on July 19, 2014. The intimate cer-emony included family and close friends, and the couple celebrated with several Pace friends at an engagement party in June. Burk is the president of his family business, Med-safe, a distributor of safety equipment based in Houston, Texas, where the couple lives. Talbot also works at Medsafe and manages a line of safety clothing.

NICOLE VAN LEUVAN DUDENHOEF-FER ’04 and Adam Dudenhoeffer were married on April 19, 2014, at Smithgall Woods Park in Helen, Ga. Pace graduates in attendance were JASON TANNENBAUM ’04, CHAD RALSTON ’04, LAWSON YOW ’04, OLIVIA LEVINE ARNOLD ’04 and TIM SCHAETZEL ’04. The couple met while attending Georgia Tech and resides in Atlanta. Nicole works as associate brand man-ager for Central Garden and Pet Company, and Adam is sales engineer at Surfaces Group LLC.

EMILY EVENSON HANLEY ’06 and Michael James Hanley Jr. were married on June 21, 2014, in Atlanta. Michael is also an Atlanta native and graduated from The West-minster Schools in 2006. The couple met at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and has been dating since college. Emily works re-motely from Durham, N.C., for Stanley Black and Decker in a sales and marketing role. Michael, who previously worked for Deloitte, is pursuing his MBA at Duke University and will graduate in May 2016.

1) Evenson/Hanley 2) Dover/Wheeler 3) Bass/Black 4) Van Leuvan/Dudenhoeffer 5) Head/Shaw


In August, KATIE MAYER LARSON ’97 (pictured above with Pace coach JOHN AGUE) met with the Pace water polo club during a visit to Atlanta. Katie is the head women’s water polo club coach at the University of Florida.

YOUR CHILD GOES TO PACE, TOO?On Aug. 5, alumni parents gathered for dinner at the Head of School FRED ASSAF'S home to celebrate the new school year. More than 60 guests attended and heard from Assaf and Alumni Association President AUSTIN MCDONALD ’97 about the future of the school and upcoming Alumni Association events. Sixty-five alumni have children enrolled at Pace.

BABY KNIGHTSHave you recently welcomed a new addition to your family? Let us know and we’ll send your little Knight his or her very own Pace

T-shirt. Email [email protected].

Left: Anne Thomas, daughter of Susanne and STEWART TEEGARDEN ’99.

Alumni Out And AboutSend your news and photos to [email protected].

In August, LARA GOODRICH EZOR ’06 and ZACK EZOR ’06 reunited with PETE GOODRICH ’03 in Belfast, Maine. Lara and Zack, who live in Boston, were camping near the town, where Pete was attending a wedding. The group ran into MEG LIEBMAN ’05 while having breakfast. Meg runs South Paw Farm, which grows year-round organic produce in Unity, Maine.

Several Pace alumni and their parents spent Fourth of July weekend together at Lake Burton in north Georgia.

Top Row, from left to right: Nick Birkenhauer, KELLY HISHTA BIRKENHAUER ’03, TOMMY BOND, KAYC BOND, BECKY ARNOLD ’06, ANDIE GOODRICH, LINDA OYESIKU ’06, LARA GOODRICH EZOR ’06, ZACK EZOR ’06, KEVIN HISHTA, JOEL COHEN ’06; Bottom Row: CRAIG GOODRICH, MCKINSEY BOND ’06, ANNA RHODES ’06, DIANE HISHTA ’75, EMILY HISHTA COHEN ’06 and WILL RHODES.

Are you interested in helping coordinate your class’s upcoming reunion?

Email: [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]




A Champion of Educational Equity

ALUMNI

Laura Bollman ’02 drew on her Pace experience as director of planning and development for the new Charles R. Drew Charter School.

by Will Frampton ’99


ALUMNI

If you ask LAURA BOLLMAN ’02 to pinpoint a moment, a class or even a series of experiences at Pace Academy that helped her become who she is today, she might not be able to narrow it down.

But when she looks for the big-picture connection, Bollman has no doubt.

“I could not have asked for a better education at Pace,” she says. “I wish every child had the opportu-

nity to access excellent education, and I think that’s what drives me.”Bollman’s words are backed up by her actions and fueled by a pas-

sion for educating the young minds of Atlanta’s urban neighborhoods.Take a moment to drive through the East Lake area in DeKalb

County, and you’ll see evidence of Bollman’s dedication. Nestled in that community, within a nine-iron shot of the East Lake Golf Club, sits a shining, new building that has become a source of pride within the Atlanta Public School system.

It is Charles R. Drew Charter School. And it has Bollman’s finger-prints all over it.

“I am so proud of our school,” she says. “It’s absolutely wonderful.”Drew boasts an innovative Learning Commons, and a top-flight

media center and library, where students work in collaborative groups on the lower floor and study in peace and quiet on the upper floor. Class sizes stay at or below 25, and the goal for each student is gradu-ation, followed by college admission.

“It’s the same expectation that Pace has,” says Bollman. “Like Pace, Drew Charter School feels like a family.”

If it sounds like Drew has a little bit of Pace in it, Bollman says that’s because it does. And she had a hand in making sure that was the case—a tall order considering most of Drew’s students are from low-income families.

In 2010, long-time Atlanta Public Schools (APS) teacher and ad-ministrator Dr. Cynthia Kuhlman handpicked Bollman to help steer the planning and development of the new Drew high-school building. The appointment was no fluke. By that time, at just 27, Bollman had already

spent nearly a decade helping young people learn up and down the east coast and in Europe.

“I love teaching,” she says. “It requires a lot of energy, but it’s also very energizing.”

During her undergrad years at Wellesley College, Bollman spent much of her free time teaching and mentoring students in Boston’s low-income neighborhoods. She also spent a summer teaching English to students in Spain. By the time she completed her studies at Wellesley, Bollman was itching for more.

“Beyond the classroom, I wanted to see what other role I could play in educational equity in the community,” she says.

The esteemed Teach For America (TFA) teaching corps was the road that allowed her passion to continue to grow. As luck would have it, her 2006 application to several major U.S. school districts in TFA was answered with an assignment to APS. Drew Charter School, to be exact.

From day one, the assignment was a natural fit. After two years of teaching Drew’s sixth-grade students, she was promoted within the TFA ranks, but they couldn’t keep her away from the classroom.

“All the while I was at Teach for America, I missed Drew and East Lake so much that I taught at Drew after school,” she says.

So it was that Bollman’s devotion to the campus and student body was answered with her appointment to help lead the way for Drew Charter School’s next chapter. For two-and-a-half years, she stud-ied and learned from other top-tier schools across America, trying to build the perfect plan for Drew. Of course, one of the schools her team surveyed was located at 966 W. Paces Ferry Road.

“[Head of Upper School] MIKE GANNON was there and part of that meeting,” says Bollman. “We got to look through Pace’s building plans for the new [Arthur M. Blank Family Upper School]. We looked at how they were laying out their building, and we also took a lot of time talking about student spaces. That played an important role in our process.”

By the time the Drew Charter School high-school building opened in summer 2014, Bollman found it hard not to notice Pace’s strong influence.

“It definitely does [have that influence],” she says with a laugh. I think Drew has looked at what other schools are doing, and our team has pulled together what we love most about hundreds of schools. Some of those things, we saw in Pace.”

As Bollman talks about her alma mater, you can almost hear the smile on her face. To this day, she still relishes her moments in his-tory classes with TIM HORNOR, and credits the demanding Upper School course load with getting her ready for one of the nation’s most esteemed women’s colleges.

“Pace prepared me well,” she says. “With writing central to a Pace education, I was ready for the rigorous academics at Wellesley.”

As a senior in 2002, she had no idea how a Pace education would be so instrumental in her growth as a person and an educator. Now, she sees the link every day. And Bollman loves what she sees.

“Pace was, and is, an excellent education,” she says. “It’s because of that education I’ve lived the life I’ve lived.” •


Opposite: Junior Academy (middle school) students in the Learning Commons.

Above: The Charlie Yates Campus, home of the Drew Charter School Junior and Senior Academies

Photos by Jonathan Hillyer

Sir Winsalot

Where in the World is Sir Winsalot?

In our spring issue, we asked you to take Sir Winsalot on your summer adventures—and you did!

From South Africa and Times Square to Iceland, Ecuador and the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, our fearless knight saw the world. But no one took Sir Winsalot on more adventures than Upper School Spanish teacher PAULA PONTES. Pontes submitted more than 20 photos of Sir Winsalot at Disney World, cresting the southernmost tip of the U.S. and cheering at the FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

Please continue to submit your photos of Sir Winsalot by using the hashtag #sirwinsalot or emailing [email protected].

1) Pontes at Disney World; 2) VIRGINIA and J.D. FOSTER explored Incan ruins in Ecuador; 3) Sir Winsalot on the Brooklyn Bridge; 4) DYLAN NELSON with New York Jets wide receiver Eric Decker; 5) SAVANNAH FRIEDMAN at the Parthenon in Nashville; 6) Sir Winsalot at a glider competition in Waynesville, Ohio; 7) VICKEY WILES '71 on Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania; 8) ANDREW HEACOCK and MAGGIE CUSHMAN on the Middle School ICGL trip to Iceland; 9) BRITTON MCGURN with her little brother, Gavin, at Disney World; 10) Pontes in Key West; 11) Sir Winsalot at Camp High Harbour with the sixth grade

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Sir Winsalot

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