1

SPRING 2014 PUBLISHED TWO TIMES A YEAR FOR ALUMNI, PARENTS AND FRIENDS OF NORTHWEST ACADEMY

New Visions in Education

NORTHWEST ACADEMY1130 SW Main StreetPortland, Oregon 97205503.223.3367

www.nwacademy.org f facebook.com/nwacademy

HEAD OF SCHOOLMary Vinton Folberg

EDITORMargaret Foley

DESIGNERAnnie Abele

WHAT ’S INSIDE

Club Cabaret 2

Reaccreditation Self Study 2

New Century Building 2

Teacher Wins Fellowship 3

Costume Class Added 3

Student Competitions 3

On the Road 3

Spring Performances 4

Alumni News 6

College Acceptances 7

Dear Friends and Family, Here in the Main Street building, the halls have been alive with sounds of singing, dancing and rehearsing, as Northwest Academy was busy preparing for four productions: Xanadu, The Miracle Worker, Dynamo, and Esprit. In particular, with our productions of Xanadu and The Miracle Worker, I think it’s safe to say that Northwest Academy is probably the only school in the country where student perfor-mance hinges on learning to roller skate and learning sign language. Combine all that with regular coursework, and our students are clearly engaging all areas of their brains.

Across the street, another type of activity is taking place. This fall, Northwest Academy will

take over the second floor of the Century Plaza building. In anticipation of that move, we are currently knock-ing down walls, creating openings, and refurbishing 12,000 square feet of small offices into

large, light-filled classrooms, common areas, and administrative space. While we will still be using the Main Street building and a few classrooms in the Buchan Building, this move brings us even closer to our goal of having all our facilities in the same location.

The 12,000 square feet in the Century Plaza building – the whole 2nd floor – will house the Admissions office, Head of School office, Capi-tal Campaign office, eight classrooms, a teacher workroom, an employee break room, a studio, and storage spaces. We will be moving in on August 1st and will hold some Open Houses in those facilities during the last week in August, Orientation Week.

Each June, we say goodbye to our seniors, several of whom have been with us since they were in middle school. It’s always difficult, but exciting, to see the paths they have chosen for themselves. The class of 2014 is heading out to do wonderful things. From being accepted to art schools and music conservatories, interna-tional universities as well as liberal arts colleges and engineering schools, it’s clear that North-west Academy has given them the background to confidently follow their dreams. We wish them well and hope they will keep in touch with us through the years. It’s great fun to read about the adventures of our alumni in this newsletter. They follow their own paths, adapting to these changing times in unique and creative ways. We’re so proud of all of them!

I hope everyone has a wonderful summer. Ours will be a busy one!

Best,

Mary Vinton FolbergHead of School

PHOTO BY NATHAN LUCAS

2

Fun at Club CabaretA spirited “Obrigado!” goes out to the more than 300 guests who visited “Rio de Janeiro” for Club Cabaret in February.  This was our most successful Club Cabaret ever. The event raised more than $150,000 for the Scholarship Fund at Northwest Academy. Thanks to all of the families and friends who attended, the sponsors, auction donors, advertisers, and volunteers who made the event possible.  Mark your calendar for February 28, 2015 for another great evening celebrating Northwest Academy!

Northwest Academy Self Studyby Scott Kerman, Dean of Curriculum

In November, a ten-member team of independent school administrators and teachers will pay a four-day visit to North-west Academy as part of our school’s reac-creditation with the Northwest Associa-tion of Independent Schools. NWAIS is an independent school organization with 109 member schools in eight states and British Columbia. NWAIS accreditation assures parents and the public that the school provides a safe, enriching learning environment, and operates effectively. For school leadership, it provides independent validation that the school delivers a quality educational experience and gives educa-tors valuable information about effective practices for independent schools. It also assures families that the school’s fiscal policies and practices are sound.

For reaccreditation, Northwest Academy has been conducting a Self Study, a year- long review of every aspect of the school. Teachers, staff, and trustees have been meeting in committees to focus on each of 12 best-practice standards for indepen-dent schools.

All members of our community (includ-ing parents and students) completed self-study surveys earlier this year. These surveys have provided insight into our school’s strengths and areas for growth. Not surprisingly, there is consensus that our teachers, small classes, arts and academic partnership, and supportive culture are our strongest features.

The Self Study and supporting documents will be finished this summer and sent to NWAIS in September. After the site visit, the visiting team will write its own report for NWAIS. The full NWAIS Board will vote on our accreditation at its spring 2015 meeting.

Northwest Academy freshmen Sarah Duran, Camille Robertson, Sam Crispin, and Pearce Hyatt examine the architectural plans that will renovate the second floor of the Century Plaza into next year’s classrooms. Right: The Century Plaza awaits its renovation.

PHOTOS BY ANDIE PETKUS PHOTOGRAPHY

PHOTO BY NATHAN LUCAS

PHOTO BY ANNIE ABELE

3

Arts-Based Field TripsDuring the spring term, Northwest Acad-emy high school students had two oppor-tunities to learn about contemporary art and choreography. Th e entire high school traveled to the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon to view and study the work of emerging artist, Kara Walker. Walker is an African-American artist whose black paper silhouettes explore racial and gender tensions. Th e museum’s pieces are from the collection of Jordan Schnitzer, a Northwest Academy parent, who led the fi eld trip.

Th e entire school attended a special per-formance of excerpts from Oregon Ballet Th eatre’s Petal, a piece of choreography that examines the interplay of light, color, and movement. Aft erwards, students participat-ed in a discussion of the uses of and eff ects of light and color in dance.

Costume Class Added to Arts Aft er HoursIn January, Costume and Make-Up Design, a new Arts Aft er Hours class was added to the line-up of theater-related classes. Eight eager students hit the ground running! Th e Costume & Make-Up Design class teaches the important process of juggling all the elements of good design — fabric selection, design conceptualization, character, place, time, and most importantly, quick changes. Northwest Academy instructor David Bliss (set/make-up/special eff ects) and North-west Academy parent Jennifer Strait (cos-tume design/construction) took charge and soon the library was overrun with Xanadu satins, feathers, togas, and goddess dresses. Th en the costume class took on the 1880s with Project Th eatre’s production of Th e Miracle Worker.

Costume and Make-Up Design will be off ered again as an Arts Aft er Hours class during 2014-15 and provide even more op-portunities to take charge of the look and feel of Project Th eatre, Musical Th eatre, Club Cabaret, and Arts Week performances. Current needs for Northwest Academy’s Costume Department include sewing ma-chines, ironing board, fabrics, and general sewing accoutrements. If you can help with these, please contact David Bliss (dbliss@nwacademy.org) for more information.

Dance and Th eatre Students Perform and CompeteWhen Northwest Academy students compete, they go armed with stage makeup, props, and jazz shoes. In February, several of Erin Shan-non’s Dance and Advanced Dance students participated in the Young Choreographers’ Competition. Natalie Gullo, Madeline Ettinger, Walker Guinnee, Sam Gullo, and Sanjana Potnis choreographed original pieces that were performed by their classmates. For Northwest Academy’s young choreographers, a highlight of the competition was a dinner and the chance to talk dance with professional choreographers.

In March, Wade Willis and David Bliss took Northwest Academy’s thespian contingent to Salem to attend the Oregon State Thespian Conference. This conference gives theatre students the chance to attend workshops, perform, and get feedback from professionals. Students Marisol Ceballos, Jared Kerman, and Ilana Newman auditioned for the Final Showcase, and Project Theatre students performed a version of their fall production, The Game’s Afoot.

On the Road

While in Washington, D.C., Northwest Academy middle schoolers not only visited museums, government buildings, and monuments, they also connected with other civic-minded students. An unexpected highlight of the trip was this photo taken by the offi cial Supreme Court photog-rapher, who doesn’t usually photograph school groups, at the end of the tour.

Northwest Academy French Teacher Wins FellowshipJamie Michaud, who teaches Emerging French, is the recent recipient of a Jeanne Marandon Fellowship (2014-2015) from the Society of French and Francophone Professors of America. The $4,000 fellowship is awarded to American teachers of French for summer study at the University of Laval in Québec City. Jamie plans to deepen her French language skills, focusing on Quebecois, the style of French spoken in Quebec. By studying in Canada, she hopes to break out of her “France-centric” cultural knowledge and learn more about the culture of our Francophone neighbors to the north to share with her students. Félicitations, Jamie!

PHOTO BY ANNIE ABELE

4

Spring Performances

Xanadu

The Miracle Worker

PHOTOS ON THIS PAGE BY NATHAN LUCAS

PHOTOS: ABOVE, BY ILANA NEWMAN; BELOW, BY NATHAN LUCAS; IN LEFT COLUMN, BY DAVID BLISS

5

Arts Week

It’s always exciting to see our students bring the performance skills they’ve been studying in class to the stage, and this spring Northwest Academy students have been showing that there’s no form of performance art they don’t excel in. The Musical Theatre class produced its first full- length musical, Xanadu, complete with roller skates, togas, and hits from the 80s. Project Theatre produced The Miracle Worker, the physically and emotionally challenging story of Helen Keller and her teacher, Anne Sullivan. As always, our Arts Week showcases, Dynamo! and Esprit, cap off a year of excellent work in music, theatre, dance, visual arts, and acting.

Dynamo

Esprit

PHOTOS ON THIS PAGE BY NATHAN LUCAS

6

Alumni News

Ellie Johnson (’08) has been living in Paris since September and studying at L’ecole Internatio-nale de Theatre Jacques Lecoq—in a nutshell, intense physical theatre. It’s essentially a clown school, but more French, and makes her feel like she’s training to be a sorcerer. After she finishes her studies in June, she plans to bike through Europe, work on some farms, and busk. In August, she plans to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with three friends she met at school in Paris. They’ll be doing acrobatics, clowning, and puppeteering. After that, she’ll return to the US. With all her travels, she’s con- densed everything she owns into two bags and plans to shave that in half before she returns.

s Katelyn Hales (’05) is a dancer living in Brooklyn, NY. She is currently developing new work to be presented this summer. In the past year, she is thrilled to have performed at the Judson Memorial Church, in the ReHap-pening Festival at Black Mountain College in North Carolina, and as a part of Performática in Puebla, Mexico. 

t Jeremy Huff (’06) has had some big changes in his life. He recently got engaged to Heidi Mandler, whom he met during his senior year at Northwest Academy. He’d like to thank North-west Academy not only for his education but also for the opportunity to have met her. After five years of working as a commercial truck driver, Jeremy is giving up the big rig and plan-ning to return to school to study mechanical engineering. In his spare time, he likes to ride his motorcycle and participate in Live Action Role Playing. He is currently based in Portland but plans to move to Olympia this summer.

s Alison Irvine (’10) is a senior at Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts in New York City studying Theater and Interdis-ciplinary Science. Alison was recently awarded the Hunt Fellowship for her work as a theater artist creating theatrical performances that have centered on the emergence of new biotech-nologies and their ethical implications in the context of social and economic inequities. As a Hunt Fellow she will research and develop creative practices that engage the public with basic science and contextualize these scientific innovations and new technologies in ways that promote social reflection and responsible and ethical scientific conduct. Alison will build on this experience in an internship with Imagine Science Films combining her interests in science communication, performance art, and science. Alison recently completed her Senior Thesis where she co-wrote, acted in, produced, and directed a play entitled, Elegant Degradation based on Orestes 2.0 by Charles Mee. It pre-miered at Theater for the New City in early May.

Phil Saunders (’08) moved to New York to do his BA at the New School’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study. He planned to study photojournalism but ended up majoring in International Politics, Media, and Conflict Analysis. During his sophomore year, he interned for photographer Poppy de Villeneuve and assisted fashion shoots. He also worked on a long-term project making a series of short films for the New York Times website and interned at StoryCorps during his senior year. He is currently working toward an MA in public policy at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin, Germany. This summer he will be interning in the marketing and communications department at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

t Hannah McFarlane Culver (’10) married Anthony Culver last February. They worked in Hawaii and Oregon to save money for their next big adventure, which started in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia. They spent a month in Ubud, where Hannah took a vinyasa flow yoga teacher-training program. For the next few months, they will be traveling through SE Asia, and she plans to study Thai massage in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Hannah and Anthony are not sure when their travel adventure will end, but they expect to be back visiting family in early 2015. As she is traveling through Asia, Hannah is developing her own style of yoga-dance, and she is excited about sharing it with family and friends in Hawaii and Oregon when she returns.

7

Kelsey Chapman-Sutton (’10) is finishing her third year at Pitzer College in Claremont, CA. She spent last semester in Paris, studying French and feminism and taking dance classes around the city. She is currently majoring in dance and after graduating, plans to pursue an advanced degree in dance. She’ll be spending the summer in Portland working, dancing, and becoming a certified yoga instructor.

Stephanie Gervais (’04) graduated from Reed College in 2009 with a degree in art. She now lives between Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Since 2013, she has been in the Independent Program of Escola São Paulo (São Paulo, Brazil), a post-graduate program for the formation of emerging artists. Stephanie’s work encompasses costume, sculpture, photography and performance. She has completed projects in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas that explore language, community values, and collectivity. She participated in the MAPPE program for emerging artists at the gallery Les Territoires in Montreal and has shown her work in Portland at the Elizabeth Leach Gallery. Upcoming shows include the Hemispheric Institute of Perfor-mance and Politics in Montreal, Jeune Creation in Paris, and InpanemArt in Rio de Janeiro. She plans to start a full-time MFA course in the fall of 2014, location still to be decided.

Al Nelson (’09) graduated from California College of the Arts in December. He recently accepted a junior design position at Helms Workshop, a small branding and design studio in Austin, Texas.

College AcceptancesWondering where this year’s graduates might go?Brooks Institute of PhotographyCalifornia College of the ArtsCalifornia Polytechnic State University, San Luis ObispoColorado School of MinesDrew UniversityFalmouth College of ArtsGonzaga UniversityGoucher CollegeGrinnell CollegeHampshire CollegeKenyon CollegeLeeds College of Art & DesignMacalester CollegeMcGill UniversityOberlin CollegeOregon State University Honors College Oregon State UniversityPacific UniversityPomona CollegePortland State UniversityPurdue UniversityRavensbourne College of Design and CommunicationRegis UniversityRensselaer Polytechnic InstituteRobert D. Clark Honors College at the University of OregonRoyal Conservatoire of ScotlandSarah Lawrence CollegeSavannah College of Art and DesignSeattle UniversityThe Arts University College at Bournemouth WallisdownThe Evergreen State CollegeThe University of Montana, WesternUniversity of AberdeenUniversity of British ColumbiaUniversity of DenverUniversity of KentUniversity of LiverpoolUniversity of North Carolina at GreensboroUniversity of OregonUniversity of Puget SoundUniversity of San FranciscoWestern Oregon UniversityWestern Washington UniversityWestern Washington University Honors CollegeWhitman CollegeWorcester Polytechnic Institute

Emily Katz (’01) has been touring the country teaching macramé workshops, art directing, working with brands to become better versions of themselves, and collaborating with makers. She has also turned her focus to interior design, and her home has been featured in Japanese design magazines and a coffee table book.

Catherine Young (’08) is working in New York City at the luxury women’s shoe brand Paul Andrew as the Assistant Designer and Social Media Manager.

Nathan Stanton (’04) has been doing a lot of freelancing during the last year, working on projects for Coupang, an ecommerce company in South Korea, and for the MEST School and Incubator in Ghana. He spent a few months at Codecademy for their recent mobile and web relaunch. He just began working with Minibar, a mobile app startup that delivers wine and spirits on demand within an hour and that just launched on the iPhone in New York City.

Revan Williams (’05) has returned to North-west Academy first as a middle-school wrangler and now as the school’s first Admissions As-sistant. He’s happy to be back in Portland and is particularly happy to be back at the school, working with a fantastic group of teachers, administrators, and students. He’s also just completed his first round of home brewing (the White House Honey Porter recipe).

s Stephanie Sandstrom (’05) graduated magna cum laude from California College of the Arts in 2009. She moved to Amsterdam, where she did some traveling around Europe and began working for a Dutch fashion brand designing men’s apparel and women’s footwear. She stayed in Holland for three years before moving to Hong Kong, where she is the Design and Marketing Director for a manufacturer that produces footwear for mass chain stores in the United States, Canada, and Australia.

Donate your old carto Northwest Academy!Northwest Academy can accept vehicle donations. Support the school and receive a tax deduction. Please contact Laurel Keppy at 503.223.3367 ext.103 or lkeppy@nwacademy.org for more info.

1130 SW Main StreetPortland, Oregon 97205

Non-Profit Org.US Postage

PAIDPortland, ORPermit No. 11

PHO

TOS

BY R

ACH

AEL

TORC

HIA