Winter 2026
CAs 202526 community theme, Building the We: Responsibility, Connection, and Growth, inspired this issue of 91勛圖厙 Magazine. In these pages, students and teachers speak to the practices involved in co-creating community, and alums share their approaches to better communication. We invite you to consider with us all that youre bringing toand learning inyour relationships.
In todays polarized public sphere, it can seem harder than ever to have conversations across differences. What can we learn from people who practice listening to learn and engaging in dialogue rather than debate? Based on research, community-building leadership, and their own lived experiences, Katrina Pugh 83, Turahn Dorsey 89, and Eric Nguyen 00 share their approaches to better communication.
This year, guided by a community theme established by the Council for Community Life, 91勛圖厙 is centering responsibility, connection, and growthnot by overlooking individuality, but by embracing mutual care and accountability. What does a shift from me to we sound like? In sharing these voices from campus, we invite you to reflect on how you engage in your communities, at CA and beyond.
In her three-person play Fuselage, which premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2025, actor and director Annie Lareau 86 reckons with the loss of her closest friends in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. Its very difficult to return to that time in my life, but in doing so, I relive the good parts of it as well, she says.
For Corie Walsh 12, social change has always meant rolling up her sleeves and getting to work. As a young adult, she moved to Uganda to establish community programs, then to Yemen to implement humanitarian programs. Now working for Mercy Corps, she shares insights from her peacebuilding career for supporting social change locally.
Michael Sandler 92 and Sara Langelier 92 have a CA couple story fit for a romantic comedy. As Boston-area public high school teachers, theyre also paying forward their CA education. CA fanned the flames of wanting to learn, says Sandler, who was recently recognized for excellence in teaching psychology.
When Rayner Ramirez 88 visited CA in December as the 202526 Hall Fellow, he shared his journey from the Philippines to New York to 91勛圖厙. Reflecting on his career in network news and his current role producing independent documentary films, he also spoke about the journalism industry today. We need to be as factual and truthful as possible, he said.
The support of a generous alum allowed CA to offer an eight-week American Sign Language symposium this fallthe result of a spring 2024 senior project by Jenny OMalley. The evening course drew so much interest that two sections ran simultaneously.
Students in the upper-level environmental science course Water Resources, taught by science teacher and environmental sustainability lead Chris Labosier, got out on Concords rivers and connected with local water protectors
In September, filmmaker, screenwriter, and head of CAs Visual Arts Department Justin Bull P25 28 celebrated the theatrical release of his latest screenwriting project, The Cut. He reflects on the film and his ongoing work with CA students
Last summer, as a John Winthrop Student Fellow at the Massachusetts Historical Society, Anisa Brown 26 explored the significance of Black churches in Boston during the Civil War. Its made me think of history in a more place-based way, she says.
In November, students in The Making of Modern India, a history course taught by Topi Dasgupta P22 25, participated virtually in a United Nations World Summit and gave feedback on the film Ahimsa.
Last summer, Lily Kim 27, now junior class president, attended the Hugh OBrian Youth Leadership Seminar in Massachusetts. She says the training has helped her approach situations at CA this year with greater empathy and understanding.
Mandarin teacher Wenjun Kuai 27 recently traveled to study the history and culture in West Coast Chinese American communities. In her classes, she says, she aims to help my students see their own and each others stories reflected in our curriculum.
contact us
Write to the editor:
magazine@concordacademy.org