Reconnecting with April and Aprille and So Much More in Washington, D.C.

It was a great delight to travel to the Washington, D.C. area for a couple of days last week to visit with CSW alumni/ae. And yes, the trees were in bloom and the cherry blossoms were stunning along the Tidal Basin.

It was a great delight to travel to the Washington, D.C. area for a couple of days last week to visit with CSW alumni/ae. And yes, the trees were in bloom and the cherry blossoms were stunning along the Tidal Basin.

Diane Stansbury and Walker Jones (my colleagues from the development office) and I enjoyed conversations with graduates of the school ranging from 1948 to 2009; these meetings were one-on-one or in small groups and as always, conversation flowed to the power of a CSW education and the wonderful friendships that developed during our former students’ time here.

David Stern ’78, executive director of Equal Justice Works, was leaving imminently for a well-earned three-month sabbatical, during which time he plans to do service work in Puerto Rico with Chef Andres Gomez, embark on several competitive bike rides, and travel through the history of civil rights in our country by visiting Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi. David is a hugely successful lawyer devoted to helping people who need assistance with our legal system and to training lawyers to work in key areas of social justice.

While in the area, we also met up with Sarah Morgenthau ’81, who apparently knows David, but had no idea that he also attended CSW! I imagine they will have much to discuss next time they run into each other. Sarah is a former director of peace corps response at Peace Corps and is now managing director at Nardello and Co, a firm specializing in cyber-security.

At a lovely lunch in Hyattsville, we caught up with a trio of our graduates: David Fax ’72; Jesse Jenkins ’66 and his wife, Patrice; and Aprille Ericsson ’81. We talked politics, government funding, career paths, and space — yes, space, as in outer space, as Aprille is a NASA aerospace engineer!

Our evening gathering at the home of Andy Postlethwaite Riedy ’73 spurred conversation about teachers, and the power of the faculty here, and interest in our strategic plan, especially as it relates to our learning experience for students and our recently revised values statement.

Perhaps a highpoint for me, as it has been for previous D.C. area visits, was tea with Kathy Tugendhat ’51 as we sipped from an elegant china tea set formerly owned by her sister Herma Biermann (CSW teacher and administrator for over 30 years, 1930s – 1960s). What a treat!

Staying connected with so many interesting and engaging CSW alumni/ae is one of the great joys of my work as head of school, and come every April doing this work surrounded by the early springtime beauty of the D.C. area is icing on the cake.
 

More News from CSW

List of 5 news stories.

45 Georgian Road | Weston, MA 02493 | 781-642-8600

CSW—a gender-inclusive day and boarding school for grades 9-12—is a national leader in progressive education. We live out our values of inquiry-based learning, student agency, and embracing diverse perspectives in every aspect of our student experience. Young people come to CSW to learn how to learn and then put what they learn into action—essential skills they carry into their futures as doers, makers, innovators, leaders, and exceptional humans who do meaningful work in the world.