At CA, a day doesn’t get off to a good start without a chat with Jackie Decareau. That widely shared sentiment has reflected Decareau’s approach to her role as assistant to the Student Life Office. Given her deep respect for students and families, her unwavering attention to detail, and the warmth and compassion she brings to every interaction, it’s no surprise that many students have thanked her in their senior chapels. Decareau has also left a lasting impression on her colleagues, who wish her well in retirement after 23 years at CA.

Annie Bailey P’25 ’27, director of residential life, calls her a “beacon of light.” To Renee Coburn, chief of staff, she’s been “the heartbeat of this school.” And Student Life Office Manager Georgia Cassidy says she “communicates with so much grace, kindness, and patience; she has truly inspired me and brought so much joy to our team.”

With a background in human resources, Decareau has always been focused on people. Before coming to CA in 2003, she administered benefits at a marketing company; previously, she was an employment counselor for a regional bank. She initially joined CA part time to track student attendance, and over the years she extended her hours as her duties expanded to include coordinating everything from bulletin boards and class rings to laundry services for boarding students and commuter-rail passes for day students traveling from the city.

Decareau says that when she first arrived, she didn’t feel like she was dealing with high school students: “They were so mature, they felt more like coworkers.” That hasn’t changed, she says. The check-in systems she initiated have adapted over the decades, thanks to her diligence in ensuring students were safe and their whereabouts known. 

“She made sure that every student knows someone cares where they are—that literally every student at CA is seen, every day,” says Grant Hightower, assistant head for student life.

Decareau says she couldn’t have asked for a better job: “The kids kept me feeling younger. And getting to be here every day with wonderful, smart, educated individuals who are always learning—for me, that hasn’t felt like work.”

While she looks forward to a slower routine with more time for walks with friends, book group chats, and volunteering at her local food pantry, her quiet influence at CA can’t be replaced. And it won’t be forgotten.

“Jackie is a beautiful person, a beautiful soul,” Hightower says. “She is selflessly devoted to service and has been one of the most significant binding agents when it comes to the spirit of our institution. I’ll miss her dearly.”

Sue Johnson P’20

After more than a decade at CA and 40 years dedicated to sport and education, Athletics Director Sue Johnson P’20 has hung up her jersey. “Her impact on the CA community and the field at large has been significant,” says Head of School Henry D. Fairfax. “Sue was disciplined about making sure every decision was made through an equity lens. Not only did she support student-athletes of all genders at CA, but she was instrumental in ensuring that same equity in the Eastern Independent League (EIL). This is legacy work that will live on for many generations to come.”

Johnson evolved many facets of CA’s athletics program after arriving in 2015. She expanded the physical education, intramural, and subvarsity offerings and created a supervised, well-equipped fitness center. During her tenure, CA saw marked improvement in competitive success within EIL play and in New England Preparatory School Athletic Council (NEPSAC) postseason tournaments. While serving on the NEPSAC executive board, Johnson also helped draft its original gender identity inclusion statement, and in her first year at CA, she guided the EIL’s transition of wrestling to an all-gender sport. 

Under Johnson’s watch, the school amassed a fleet of banners and trophies, but she remained focused on raising the caliber of the athletics program in alignment with CA’s mission. Throughout her tenure, she prioritized the life skills and values learned through athletics and centered the transformative experience of team sport.

“Sue fostered a positive and supportive environment that made staff, coaches, and students feel valued,” says Laurie Baker, former assistant athletics director. “Her leadership will truly be missed.”

Nancy Boutilier and Christa Champion

Nancy Boutilier joined CA’s English Department in 2016 following a career teaching and coaching in independent schools on both coasts of the U.S., as well as at Oberlin College. Before long, she became integral to CA athletics and residential life as well. A poet, activist, and fierce competitor, Boutilier encouraged authentic engagement and expression, inspiring students and colleagues alike to approach the world with a sense of wonder. She helped establish CA’s Writing Center, laying a foundation for peer mentorship and writing feedback. And her famous “sophomore letters” have been a treasured delivery to senior students as they near graduation. 

“Coaching is teaching, and teaching is coaching with Nancy,” says Sarah Yeh P’24 ’27, associate head for teaching, learning, and faculty. “In the classroom, everything she does is in the spirit of helping a student find their place, their confidence, and their voice. On the basketball court, she models what it means to be an athlete, a teammate, and a community member at every step of a practice or game.”

The CA community will also greatly miss Boutilier’s partner and fellow house faculty member, Christa Champion, whose boundless energy and zest for track and field infused her coaching of throwing and pole vaulting. Former track and field coach Jon Waldron says Champion’s expansive vision of sport and ability to integrate her experiences as an athlete, engineer, poet, and teacher made her a transformative coach and mentor at CA.

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When Kevin Benjamin ’91 arrived at CA from Queens, N.Y., the academic rigor and dorm setting were new to him, but the basketball court was familiar. Having honed his skills as a kid in New York City, he was the only 9th grader to make the varsity basketball team. “Some great players took me under their wing,” he remembers. “Corwin Allston ’88 was like a big brother to me.” 

His parents and aunt, Karen McAlmon ’75, had encouraged him to apply to CA through the A Better Chance program, recognizing that his academic potential exceeded the opportunities he was likely to have if he stayed in Queens. At CA, he found the intellectual stimulation he was seeking. Just as important were the social relationships that led to personal growth. 

Outside of basketball, he connected with peers through Harambe, an affinity group for students of color. With them, he felt immediate kinship. “We were able to relate to one another and to build some semblance of home away from home,” he says. He also made new friends whose backgrounds were unlike his. “One of my freshman roommates was from Indonesia, and the other was Korean-American,” he says. “We all came from very different walks of life. But we became a close-knit group, sharing our cultures and experiences.”

Benjamin captained the varsity basketball team for the next three years, and he upheld the team culture created by those older players who had helped him through his first year. League championships followed, but it was always more about the fellowship than the score, Benjamin says.

Then came a pivotal game. CA was playing Lexington Christian Academy, whose roster included a young superstar the college scouts were watching. Benjamin scored 44 points, helping CA pull off a narrow victory. The scouts’ eyes turned to him. He was soon drawn to Pomona College in California, where he could continue playing basketball while pursuing an excellent education.

“I knew I was never going to be in the NBA, so I set my sights on a strong academic institution where I could continue my basketball career,” Benjamin says. He played varsity basketball for two years at Pomona, then completed his degree at California State University, Northridge, where he majored in cinema and TV. 

After 15 years in film production and screenwriting, ultimately in the role of senior manager for distribution operations with Disney Entertainment, in 2025 he started his own company, Razzle Dazzle Entertainment. Currently he is working on a documentary honoring his younger brother, Casey Benjamin, a Grammy Award-winning musician, songwriter, and producer who passed away suddenly in 2024.

Basketball still plays a major role in his life, now through Venice Hoops, a community partnership he co-founded with other weekend warriors that offers drills, tournaments, skills camps, and scrimmage opportunities for basketball enthusiasts of all ages on Venice Beach, near his Los Angeles home.

“Sports have always been a big part of my life,” Benjamin says. “Venice Hoops is a chance to promote the fellowship and mentorship that has meant so much to me as an athlete. Whether in New York City, in Concord, at Pomona, or on Venice Beach, basketball has helped me learn how to communicate, how to demonstrate dedication and hard work, how to deal with pressure and make good decisions under stress. Those are skills that help in business, in family, in all segments of life.”

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Because Steinways are handcrafted, no two are exactly alike. In September, Bennett and Sarah Yeh P’24 ’27, associate head for teaching, learning, and faculty, visited the Steinway & Sons factory in Queens, N.Y. There, they observed the precision that goes into the instruments’ construction, and they tested five pianos. “I thought it was going to be difficult to tell them apart, but each was very different,” Bennett says. Knowing the concert grand would be needed for solo recitals, chamber music, and chorus accompaniment in CA’s medium-sized hall, he adds, “we went with an instrument that had the clarity and projection necessary, while still being able to create more intimate tone colors.”

Two generous CA families also donated pre-owned Steinways. A Model B classic grand piano was moved into the Hammett Ory Theater when the C.A.C. was completed in spring 2025. It was in use throughout the year for orchestra and chorus rehearsals and performances, the mainstage musical, and Music Café. In September, a Model O, a living room grand with a custom macassar ebony finish, part of Steinway’s “Crown Jewel” collection, arrived from Singapore, a gift from Jaehee Koo and Tong Buhm Tommy Kim P’26. It’s now used regularly in the Jasmine Music Practice Room for piano lessons and chamber music.

At the end of its first year, the C.A.C. is home to all-new pianos: seven grands, four uprights, two digitals, and a keyboard lab. “Students now have reliable access to new, fully functional, and pedagogically appropriate instruments,” Bennett says.

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Throughout her school days, she found much that fascinated her. Long stretches at the pottery wheel offered “beautiful oblivion,” she remembers. Outside the studio, she played hockey, basketball, and lacrosse. Music—piano, guitar, and singing—accompanied it all. She was equally immersed in academic exploration. In her junior and senior years, she joined an economics tutorial built around conversation and sustained interrogation of ideas.

“You could imagine you were Joan Baez with the guitar, and then an economist,” she says. “Without pressure to measure yourself against others, you got to try on a lot of hats.”

The freedom was real, but so was the expectation that each experiment be taken seriously. “You couldn’t fake it,” she says.

Bucknell went on to Princeton, studied English literature at Oxford, then earned her doctorate in English and comparative literature from Columbia University. She built her life in England as a literary scholar and novelist. Her experience in Europe reshaped her perspective. “America is so insular,” she says. “Living in a foreign country is both humbling and expanding. That bit of abrasion as you gain a broader understanding is healthy.”

For many years, CA receded into the background of Bucknell’s life, but that changed at her 50th reunion last year. She found herself connecting with classmates she had not known well. Listening to their stories, she says, she was struck by how they had “lived their lives unafraid and authentic, not flinching from getting older and wiser.”

Having seen how her peers had held to their values, Bucknell grew interested in reengaging with the school. In conversations with Head of School Henry D. Fairfax, she found that CA’s mission still resonates with her. “I recognized it,” she says.

As a way to bolster that mission, she established the Katherine Bucknell Maguire ’75 Study Abroad Fund, which helps students take part in weeklong travel programs or attend school for a semester or year outside of the United States. She especially intends this endowment to support students who might otherwise be unable to afford to study abroad. 

Bucknell hopes they’ll benefit from a balance of freedom and challenge, just as she did—and that they’ll be open to seeing where experiencing a different culture might lead them.

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When did your passion for movies start?

I’d always enjoyed movies, but I had never thought about them in an academic context until I started taking classes with Justin Bull P’25 ’28 and fell in love with film at CA. Justin had all of these Film Comment magazines, and I just loved reading the film criticism in those. My best friend, Dani Girdwood ’11, and I did an independent study to make an unscripted hybrid documentary-narrative short film. We were going to grow up and be directors (she just directed her first feature, by the way). My skill set was more in writing, but I applied to college as a film major because of Justin’s classes. It’s so rare to have a full film program in high school. When I tell people about it now, their jaws drop. 

How did you break into this field?

When I took a film criticism class in college, I remembered, oh, that’s something a person can do. I had figured I’d end up in academia or work in the film industry in some capacity, but film criticism was the dream. I went back to school and earned a master’s through a cultural reporting and criticism program at NYU. Then I got my first big entertainment writing job at the Daily Beast.

What’s it like to be a film critic?

It’s lots of fun. I go to screenings and some film festivals and cover for various outlets, not just the Times, though I’ve had a weekly assignment for seven years. I watch a lot of documentaries, but it’s a total hodgepodge. The more you watch, the more well-versed you are in the current film landscape and in film history, so it’s been kind of a project: to watch everything I can. There’s a robust film scene in New York. I see myself in the world of film enthusiasts—thinking about films, analyzing how one piece works in the larger cultural landscape. 

How do you approach reviewing?

I don’t think about being a tastemaker. It’s just my take. I’ve studied film and bring some expert knowledge, but I also bring my own sensibility and biases. I’m making something when I’m writing, just like the filmmaker is making something. For the Times, I usually have only 250 to 300 words, sometimes longer for a big movie. I had to train myself to write that short. Now it’s become a precision exercise to pick the most salient things to say. One of the guiding rules of criticism is to take a movie on its own terms. My voice will start to echo the tone of the film. If it’s a comedy, I can be more playful. If it’s a serious drama, I’ll take it more straight. The only movies I really go hard on are huge studio releases. I would never be cruel to a first film or an indie.

What’s the best writing advice you ever got?

When I was in graduate school, a lot of people were saying there are no writing jobs, there’s no money. Someone told me, “There are never any jobs, there’s never any money, but there is always a dearth of good writing. So if you have a strong voice, your writing will be read.” That really helped me refocus on improving my writing rather than positioning myself for a job, which was a lot healthier for me. Just focus on the work and what you love doing.

Describe an ideal trip to the cinema.

I’d watch an Ernst Lubitsch movie, To Be or Not to Be. It’s an audacious, hilarious World War II comedy. I’d bring all my friends. From the concession stand, I’d get Sno-Caps, Junior Mints, and a large Diet Coke. You know, this movie is so underseen. It would make a good CA class, about how Lubitsch approaches comedy: The Lubitsch Touch. I’m going to pitch this to Justin Bull.

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“My mission is to get kids to be independent learners,” she says. “I want to put them into situations where they have to figure out how they learn and communicate their understanding.”

Students took part in discussions, hands-on activities, and experiments. They analyzed brain studies and gave presentations. Each week, one student would prepare a slideshow on a scientific article about the brain and a topic such as personality, perception, brain injury, coma, or sleep. 

Kopelman enjoyed seeing the way her students responded to each other’s presentations. “I’m so impressed with the beautiful, thoughtful questions that they asked each other, the grace they’ve given each other, and how deeply they listened,” she says.

She wanted to ground the course in philosophical frameworks of self-perception, but she acknowledged this would be a learning experience for her as well. After a coincidental meeting, she invited Ollie Longo ’21, who earned his bachelor’s in philosophy from Wesleyan University in 2025, to join her in her classroom. Drawing on his experience tutoring, he came on several days to guide discussions with students, exploring and contrasting the mind-body dualism of René Descartes, the skeptical empiricism of David Hume, and the concept of stream of consciousness coined by William James.

Longo says the students’ engagement impressed him: “All of the things they were interrogating were really central ideas. Exploring complicated issues can be disorienting, frankly, but I think that disorientation is one of the values of philosophy.” He credits his CA education, particularly his English classes, with cultivating his interdisciplinary intellectual interests and says he’s interested in teaching, “potentially at the high school level, where I was most influenced.” 

The class included a neuroanatomy practical exam—dissecting a sheep’s brain. Longo returned afterward to talk with students about animal ethics and the moral worth humans assign other animals based on our perceptions of degrees of sentience.

Seeing the structures of the brain during this dissection made a big impression on Luke Schumacher ’26, who plans on a premed track in college and says this course made him consider majoring in psychology. The final project for the class was a self-directed research paper. Luke chose to study how antihistamines and decongestants can alter consciousness. First-generation antihistamines, such as Benadryl, he explains, cross the blood-brain barrier and can produce sedative effects and, in some cases, hallucinations.

The topics other students chose for their final projects varied widely. Zuri Gonzalez ’26 researched how the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder can interrupt self-awareness. She wanted to know: Are you still conscious if you’re experiencing a symptom of PTSD? She was initially interested in a study that showed playing puzzle games can prevent the development of PTSD, and she broadened her lens as she learned about the condition’s many manifestations in mood changes, flashbacks, and emotional repression, eventually focusing on studies of women who had experienced repeated childhood abuse and dissociative symptoms. She learned that patients benefit most from individually tailored treatment modalities. “Even if two people go through the same thing, the way they respond is going to be different,” she says.

She enjoyed the interweaving of philosophy and experimentation in the course. “It was so fun and free,” she says. “I liked that I could have my own ideas and that the topics were so broad, I could find my own way of exploring consciousness.”

For her final paper, Emilia Deng ’27 compared human consciousness with artificial intelligence, animal consciousness, and plant consciousness. She was struck by studies demonstrating that plants learn, changing their behaviour in response to repeated experience. “I think that part of what makes us such a great species is our ability to have empathy,” she says, “but when we don’t extend that empathy outside of our own species, it gets really difficult to ascertain where the line is between right and wrong.”

For a presentation, she researched predictive processing and the predictive global neuronal workspace theory. “Every time you encounter something, your brain is firing the neurons that fired when you had a similar experience,” she explains. “Learning about the way my brain is functioning in every moment has led me to see that everything is literally physically interconnected.”

She also researched the therapeutic uses of AI, which she personally avoids as detrimental to her learning. She learned about a specific AI application that showed some benefit for patients with schizophrenia through generating images of internal demons patients design as avatars, to externalize what they are seeing and hearing. “I still think it is harmful when you place AI in the role of a human, for example, the therapist,” Emilia says. 

She remains skeptical about the technology’s effects on human consciousness more broadly. “The language we use for AI is so much more blunt than what we would use with humans, and that kind of change in language can carry over to human-to-human interactions,” she says.

Emilia says this course made her more aware of how she engages with others. “I’ve been more intentional with the way I treat language and my interactions, understanding that we can’t ever know everything that’s happening, just use what we can intentionally and take in the world around us in a more empathetic way.”

For Celeste Bogan ’27, the combination of science and philosophy in the course helped her feel OK with not knowing while considering a range of theories. She appreciated how receptive Kopelman was when she chose an out-of-the-ordinary topic for her final paper: accounts from scientific journals of young children reporting memories of past lives. Celeste was struck by the sheer number of cases from different cultures around the world, their similarities, and how many involved verifiable evidence. “I felt like I was going to get some funny looks,” she says, “and the fact that Kim just reviewed the foundational science and gave me this leeway to get hypothetical and still be taken seriously—that was so big.”

Celeste also presented on quantum consciousness research. To understand it, she had to give herself a crash course in quantum mechanics, a fundamental principle of which is superposition, or the concept that at a subatomic scale, quantum particles exist in multiple states of potential at once, but at the moment of observation settle into one reality. 

“New research is coming out that the collapse of multiple realities into one may be what causes consciousness,” she says. “It requires a different mindset than the materialistic worldview the scientific community relies on now, but through a quantum lens, consciousness comes before the physical world, exists outside of our brains and bodies, which brings me full circle to my past life memories research. The implications are mindboggling.”

Celeste says the course has fundamentally shifted her understanding of consciousness, and that the most rewarding part has been simply the encouragement to pursue her own questions. “I’ve learned a lot about myself and my worldview, my thoughts, emotions, and experiences,” she says, “and that’s very special to get in a class.”

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“In my career, my successes have come from making things that should have existed,” says writer and director Adam Goldman ’04. 

An avid theater student at CA, once called “iconoclastic and contrary,” he realized he was better at creating works than reading parts in plays. Goldman graduated from Bard College with a BFA in theater and has created a web series, a scripted podcast, and, in 2025, a foundation to support the next generation of queer filmmakers.

His first major project, The Outs, appeared on Vimeo for two seasons beginning in 2012. He describes it as a simple story about an emotionally wrenching breakup between two men. More challenging at the time than writing a series featuring gay characters was selling the public on the idea of a streaming series. “It was a moment when people were saying to me, ‘No one wants to watch TV on their laptops,’” Goldman says. But he and co-creator Sasha Winters disagreed, and they “made a bet that if you make something good, people will want to watch it.”

Netflix launched House of Cards, considered the first major success by a streaming network, a little less than a year after The Outs debuted, and Goldman had his proof. Not only did people watch his show, they also responded to it on a profound level. Goldman’s early fan mail included a note from a Mormon teen in Utah. “He said that watching The Outs showed him a version of life that allowed him to imagine a possible future for himself,” Goldman says.

He soon learned that The Outs had at least one very high-profile fan after stage and film icon Alan Cumming tweeted about it. “I freaked out,” Goldman says. “Once I calmed down, I tweeted back to Alan, and we made plans to get together for coffee.” Cumming asked to be written into a scene, and the two have been friends ever since. When Cumming co-hosted the Tony Awards with Kristin Chenoweth in 2015, Goldman was a scriptwriter for the broadcast.

Goldman’s next major project was Hot White Heist, a scripted podcast series picked up by Audible in early 2020. “Right after we shook hands on it, the pandemic lockdown began,” Goldman recalls. “Suddenly, all of these major actors were trapped at home with time to do smaller projects. We put together an incredible cast that included Bowen Yang, Cynthia Nixon, Margaret Cho, Tony Kushner, and Sir Ian McKellen. It started out as a very silly and jokey premise, but underneath it was a serious question about what queerness means and how it is evolving.”

Despite the high visibility of stars like Yang and Nixon, as well as the popularity of series that center on gay relationships, from Schitt’s Creek to the recent breakout hit Heated Rivalry, a tide of repression has been sweeping through the media and the arts, Goldman says. Major studios including Disney, Amazon MGM Studios, Paramount, and Warner Bros. Discovery are publicly dialing back their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and even critically acclaimed shows from queer creators haven’t been renewed. GLAAD’s 2025 Studio Responsibility Index reports that the top 10 major film and TV distributors released 250 films in 2024, of which 23.6% include at least one LGBTQ+ character—a decrease of nearly 4% from the previous year. 

Timing is critical. That decrease in investment in queer film and TV now will impact the next several years of media production. “Queer media is in crisis,” Goldman says. “It isn’t enough just to write roles for queer characters. We need to make it possible for young, early-career queer filmmakers to break into an industry that is increasingly hostile toward them.”

This realization led him to embark on his most recent endeavor, the Necessary Foundation, which provides funding and mentorship to emerging filmmakers in the LGBTQ+ space. “I was in a state of utter despair after the second election of Trump,” Goldman says. “And then I came up with the idea of starting a foundation.” Cumming signed on as a co-founder, as did Yang and actor, writer, and producer Lena Waithe. 

The Necessary Foundation aims to help creators reflect the full spectrum of experiences for the queer community. It will provide financial support for young filmmakers to tell the stories they want to tell, without worrying about appealing to the mainstream. Grant recipients will also gain on-set production experience. “We will help them to get into film festivals and generate publicity,” Goldman says. 

The foundation’s focus is still on fundraising, but the founders’ vision is that the community will rapidly grow into one that can sustain itself, with past recipients helping future ones. Goldman says, “We will help these artists grow into industry-leading talents.”

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His interests converge in the intersection of music and artificial intelligence. At NYU, Kundu founded the GenAudio & AI club, an interdisciplinary group that studies the intersection of AI and music technology. GenAudio established partnerships with commercial music tools to encourage creative use of generative AI technologies at the school.

Music technology is also his research area. For his capstone project in NYU’s Music Technology program, he conducted a pilot blind-listener survey to compare perceptions of human-made and AI-generated music, using songs from one of his advisors, Grammy winner Mr. Sonic, in the genres of Latin trap, reggaeton, cumbia nortena, and garage pop. He also presented the methodologies at Sony’s technology conference in March. While this research is still ongoing, Kundu found that in certain genres, some listeners may prefer AI-generated music “because it feels more unique,” but that many still nonetheless favor a touch of humanity. Regardless, he adds, “what we’re seeing is that people do have ideas about what AI-generated music is going to sound like.”

Will AI overtake artistry? “You have to approach that question with nuance,” Kundu says. “There are legitimate concerns, particularly around data scraping and copyright. It’s a very complicated issue, but there are also creative benefits.”

As a digital music producer, he points to the creative assistance that AI offers, for example, for creating a melody or drum pattern. More important to him is assistive production technology, which extends to mastering and mixing tracks. “If you’re an artist who knows how to compose a song but not how to make it label-ready, let’s say you use a mastering algorithm that’s tailored to you, trained on reference tracks you select,” he says. “Suddenly, you have a near-record-ready release that you can then send out to people who can help your career.” 

Kundu began producing digital music in his 9th grade year at CA, where, in addition to programming and engineering clubs, he was active in the Producers Club. He had been playing piano for years and sang in a cappella groups, but he says creating digital music became an ideal creative outlet as he adjusted to his new school and tried to find his place.

Early on, Kundu assumed he’d go into computer science or become a mechanical engineer. His trajectory shifted midway through that first year at CA, when he released his first song. “My friends would play my song in the Pit, and I’d get embarrassed, but it was nice. There weren’t that many people who released music, so I became someone who was known for that.” 

He remembers an influential film scoring class he took with Nate Tucker as well as a class on digital storytelling with Kirsten Hoyte P’22 ’24, where he explored how sound interacted with other media. “I wasn’t sure what I was transitioning into, but I had a lot of support from my friends and the faculty,” he says.

“I’ve always been on the train that music tech is the way to go,” he says. “If it weren’t for getting introduced to Ableton through the Producers Club, I wouldn’t have developed this skill set.”

He advises students interested in music technology to follow their curiosity. “Try to take as many classes as you can, but also don’t be afraid to explore on your own and show what you’re doing to other people,” he says. “And post publicly about the work that you’re doing. This helped me a lot in cultivating recognition of GenAudio and the other initiatives I’ve been part of.”

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Families gathered in the Centennial Arts Center to celebrate their children’s commitment to helping others in need. The ceremony also honored the living legacy of the alum who inspired the society’s creation, Axel Bostrom ’24, who died following a car accident in June 2025.

Axel grew up volunteering. For the Bostroms, a military family, service was a shared value and a way to get to know each community they entered. Axel’s Eagle Scout project benefited Bethesda Cares, a Maryland organization that helps people experiencing homelessness. In Massachusetts, he participated annually in A Shot For Life, a basketball challenge that raises money for brain cancer research. And in his everyday interactions, he consistently took the initiative to care for others, including helping new students acclimate to CA.

Having heard an outpouring of stories of Axel’s generosity from his friends and the CA community, Robyn says that as she and her husband, Paul Bostrom P’24, considered how to honor their son’s memory, “positivity and light were the two words that came to mind.” By the end of the summer, they knew they wanted to encourage service.

In CA, whose only award is given to alums for service, Robyn saw philosophical alignment. She wanted to recognize the service CA students already engage in through clubs and weekend volunteer outings organized by the Student Life Office, provide more resources to broaden those volunteer opportunities, and make service more visible alongside academics, the arts, and athletics at CA. She hoped to create new student leadership positions and encourage additional aid to local communities by developing a resource any CA club, team, student, or faculty member could use to organize service trips. She wanted all students to have an opportunity to participate, and she hoped to give those who knew Axel a positive way to channel their grief. 

“I think of Axel like a prism,” she says. “He shined his light, and it refracted on everybody who ever met him. To me, service is like that. One person’s gift of time and attention can impact so many people.”

That’s why in May, she presented a crystal prism to each of the society’s first 20 members, who had all given 100 or more hours of service. Additional students were recognized for meeting an inaugural “Six for ’26” spring-semester challenge and for 10, 25, 50, and 75 hours of service.

At the ceremony, Grant Hightower, assistant head for student life, reflected on Axel as a standout scholar and athlete and a role model for his dedication to his communities. “To bring positivity and light requires only that you recognize those around you as worthy of receiving yours,” he said. “Light and positivity are infinite resources. When you care to use your light to illuminate your neighbor’s path, your flame does not flicker or fade. Instead, the road simply gets brighter. By choosing to serve, you aren’t just performing a task. You are refusing to let the darkness of isolation win. You are proving that when we stop trying to blend into the unseen and dare to reflect one another’s brilliance, we don’t just see the path ahead, we become the way for others to find it as well.”

The PALS Planning Committee had asked students to submit reflections on their volunteer journeys. Many attested to the profound personal impact of their service.

At CA, Lyle Waldek ’26, an inaugural PALS member, co-headed the Lawrence-Concord Action Partnership, organizing student trips to Lazarus House Ministries and outdoor cleanups in Lawrence, Mass., and 91�Թ��� Notes of Compassion, a group that performs at senior living residences. Over time, he wrote, “I have been able to see that service of any kind is much more complex, collaborative, and beautiful than I believed it to be.”

Many other students recognized by PALS had previously spent years volunteering. With experience at Project 351, Cradles to Crayons, Rise Against Hunger, and the YMCA, among other local organizations, Melina Petropulos ’28 is a teen ambassador at her local food pantry in Newton, Mass., as well as a PALS student ambassador and one of the society’s first members. “I’ve come to think that empathy without action is incomplete,” she wrote.

For others, service was a new step. Christopher Choy ’27 recognized that, living in Boston, he’d been conditioned to view the unhoused community through the social stigma that goes unchecked in mainstream media. “I wanted to confront the stereotypes about homelessness and learn more about how the unhoused could be cared for instead of stigmatized,” he wrote. 

The personal interactions he had while volunteering at the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter in Cambridge, Mass., revealed his similarities with residents and helped him understand the complex systemic factors that contribute to homelessness and inequality. He will serve as a PALS student ambassador during the 2026–27 school year.

Gavi Miller ’27 wanted to see her fellow CA students more involved with the Concord, Mass., community. This fall, she started a reading buddies partnership with kindergarteners at Alcott Elementary School. “Now, every other week, I get to watch my vision come to life: students just starting their academic journey looking up to ones with experience,” she wrote. “They learn from us, and we learn from them.”

In the first year of PALS, CA students showed their commitment to communities in Concord and beyond. By being so motivated to serve without any graduation requirement, Robyn says, they set a “gold standard.” She’s proud to have created a pathway at CA to recognize their contributions and, just as importantly, to have opened up more opportunities for them to experience the joy of lending a helping hand.

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These are some of the questions CA faculty, staff, and students are considering during the 2025–26 academic year, guided by the Council for Community Life’s theme: “Building the We: Responsibility, Connection, and Growth.” Extending last year’s focus on courageous conflict engagement and resolution, the council has asked the campus community to consciously shift from “me” to “we”—not by overlooking individuality, but by embracing mutual care and accountability.

In sharing these voices from campus, we invite you to reflect on how you engage in your communities, at CA and beyond, and what relationships, habits, and structures you want to help cultivate this year.

Convocation

, a 25-year-old tradition introduced by former Head of School Jake Dresden, opened the school year. In his convocation address, Jeff Desjarlais spoke about the dynamic of common trust in this ever-changing community, drawing on his 27 years of experience at CA. He suggested that the strength of CA’s school culture comes from a continual dynamic of reflection and adjustment, and he emphasized the opportunity available in every moment to build lasting habits of care and connection.

“Remember, our character and culture don’t come from the pursuit of common trust—they come from a shared belief that common trust exists in the first place.”
Jeff Desjarlais
Counselor and coach
2025 Convocation Speaker

“I hope you find a way into sharing, and allow yourself to grow, to make mistakes, and to take advantage of the support here that will catch you and help you back up.”
May Zheng ’26
2025–26 Student Head of School

“In return for the space to be our own authentic selves, we are asked to respect, to listen to and to care for the other members of this community, even when we don’t fully identify or agree with them.”
Jen Burleigh ’85
Co-President, Board of Trustees

Chapels

Several mornings every week, the CA campus community still starts the day in the Elizabeth B. Hall Chapel, where a member of the senior class has 15 minutes to talk about whatever is on their mind and in their heart. Occasionally, a faculty or staff member speaks as well. Here’s a small sampling of voices from the fall semester.

“Please, value the time you have with those you love. Go out of your way to check in on your friends, peers, coworkers. Life is too short to be apathetic, so care.”
Finn Uhrich ’26

“Find joy and beauty in the little moments. Embrace discomfort, learn, and laugh about it. Everything will work out!”
Olivia Kopelman ’26

“Take just a minute or two a day to watch the world. Whether that’s lying on the quad looking at the clouds, or sitting on your windowsill watching the moon, or just appreciating the sunset, our lives our so full of magic. Notice it.”
Caroline Espinosa ’26

“Every teacher I’ve interacted with here, even briefly, has taught me that every story is worth telling, no matter how small or insignificant it might seem.”
Sophia Primmer ’26

“Choosing happiness is giving yourself grace, recognizing the way you feel, and allowing yourself to work through it in the way that you need to; choosing happiness is choosing yourself.”
Danaliz Estevez ’26

“Let yourself be childish. Let yourself be excited by things. Indulge in Disney movies, dumb books, dissonant karaoke, reality TV, really whatever makes you tick. If it makes you happy, it is worth doing. You’d be surprised how many people might relate.”
Lila Abruzzi ’26

“There is a lot of ugliness and sadness in this world, but there is also a lot of good. The hardest and most beautiful part of being a person is that we can hold onto both at once.”
Lucy Targum ’26

“I have had the joy of hearing nearly 1,000 chapels, and while they do not all stand out clearly in my memory, each one has shaped how I think about the world. Whenever I sit through a chapel, I think of the line from Muriel Rukeyser: ‘The universe is made up of stories, not atoms.’” 
Will Tucker
Science Department Head and Teacher

“The moments that shaped me most weren’t the big, dramatic ones; they were the random, small things that I didn’t pay much attention to at the time. And I think that’s what makes CA so special. … Over time, we stop thinking of kindness as something we go out of our way to do—it just becomes the way we live here, and we should all be grateful for that.”
Misha Varlamov ’26

“Understanding yourself is just as important as understanding others. … Learn to feel your emotions; learn to understand them. And then let them lead you toward the things that matter most.”
Tal Richmond ’26

“The present is a gift—open it!”
Henry D. Fairfax
Head of School, Dresden Endowed Chair

“The thing that I find both comforting and overwhelming about geologic time is the idea that the fraction of time that we as humans have existed is so small. It reminds me to be grateful for the immense luck that brought us all here today—to sit here in this building that was painstakingly constructed by students before us when only 11,000 years ago it would have been covered in miles of glacial ice.”
Kiley Remiszewski
Science Teacher

“Take time to get to know yourself. You’re never the same person twice, and you are always more interesting than you think you are.”
Olivia Kim ’26

“Think about those around you who make an impact, who go out of their way to include you, who truly embrace the community they’re in. Tell those people you love and appreciate them, and try your best to emulate those parts of them.”
Lyle Waldeck ’26

Strive Workshops

To encourage open dialogue and connection throughout the school year, the Community and Equity Office invited the CA community to propose and facilitate workshops to share their cultures, heritages, histories, or other aspects of identity. Six workshops, all aligned with the community theme, took place during the fall semester, with many sessions led by affinity group and student club co-heads. Topics included the experiences of women of color in the feminist movement; the influence of Black culture on fashion; the history of the Middle East conflict; and queer history in ancient, medieval, and Victorian times. One workshop even had participants cooking, as part of an exploration of Chinese American cuisine.

Common Read

In a September campus community meeting, English teacher Nick Hiebert introduced this year’s community read: a brief essay from Ross Gay’s The Book of Delights. After students took turns reading it aloud, Hiebert offered a personal reflection, then invited everyone to pair up and share an example of everyday care they’d witnessed at CA. “Reading something together allows for a quality of attention that I think makes some magical things possible,” he said.

“The point is that in almost every instance of our lives, our social lives, we are, if we pay attention, in the midst of an almost constant, if subtle, caretaking. Holding open doors. Offering elbows at crosswalks. Letting someone else go first. Helping with the heavy bags. Reaching what’s too high, or what’s been dropped. Pulling someone back to their feet. Stopping at the car wreck, at the struck dog. The alternating merge, also known as the zipper. This caretaking is our default mode and it’s always a lie that convinces us to act or believe otherwise. Always.”— From “The Sanctity of Trains,” The Book of Delights by Ross Gay

CONNECT

How are you centering responsibility, connection, and growth in your life? Share your thoughts with your CA friends on social media or email magazine@concordacademy.org.

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