July 2018

REACHING OUT AND CATCHING UP

When a new issue of The Potomac Term reaches mailboxes, many alumni skip straight to the Class Notes section, eager to see what their former classmates are up to before diving into the feature stories. However, most people don't realize that the process of assembling these updates is a special one, separate from the rest of the magazine. In order to put everything together, Potomac's dedicated class correspondents reach out to their former classmates to collect photos, stories, and updates that tell the stories of where people go after Potomac.

Class Notes are divided up by graduation year, with entries describing the lives of graduates from the Class of 1935 all the way through the Class of 2018. Correspondents are responsible for contacting alumni from their specific graduation year, compiling entries, and submitting them to the magazine.

"As someone who's not on Facebook, I think being a class correspondent is a great way to reconnect with people," says Christian Gomez '99. "I haven't seen some of my classmates since graduation. Since we had a really small class – just 72 people – we all knew each other pretty well, and it's been interesting to see where people have ended up."

Maggie Nelsen '10 agrees. "This role is great because it gives you an excuse to reach out to classmates you wouldn't otherwise have an opportunity to catch up with," she explains. "I feel very close to my class. I knew that being a class correspondent would be a wonderful opportunity to maintain my connections and friendships beyond graduation."

"You find out all kinds of fun things," Christian adds. He notes that alums don't have to only write about accomplishments and milestones; smaller details about their lives can be just as interesting. He notes, "I always love hearing about what people are doing with their families and for work. One person I heard back from told me he had a collection of 3,000 books that he'd shipped cross-country when he moved from New York to San Francisco."

Jerrie Kohlmeier Bartlett '46 and Nancy Hamilton Shepherd '46 are co-correspondents, working together to keep up-to-date on the lives of their classmates. Jerrie served as a class correspondent in the 1970s, for nearly the whole decade. About five years ago, shortly before her class's 70th reunion, she decided to take up the task again with Nancy.

Jerrie reflects, "We attended Potomac at the California Street campus, based in a series of row houses, between 1936 and 1946. We were in a very different environment and time from the later classes." She adds, "In addition to reminiscing about our Potomac years and talking about people's current lives, I always encourage our classmates to write about any unusual things they're doing. I'm finding that 86-year-olds can come up with quite a few!"

"Our experience of being co-correspondents is a very positive and supportive one," says Nancy of her partnership with Jerrie. "We each send an initial letter when it's our turn to gather the notes. As the deadline draws closer, I sometimes phone some of those I haven't heard from and make notes from that conversation."

"One of my favorite parts of the class correspondent job is hearing from a classmate who has never sent us any news before," Jerrie says. "I love keeping up with people that I've known for so long and maintaining contact with the school."

If you're interested in becoming a correspondent for your graduating class, it's easy to get involved – just email Director of Alumni Relations Laura Miller. We'd love to have you on board!

We are also now collecting Class Notes for the fall 2018 Term. Please click here to share your news!

Jessica Dawson and Rocky with Margarita Korol's Yes You Are [2017, mixed media)  photo: Adi Shniderman.

HOWLING WITH JOY FOR ART

Jessica Dawson '90 has been a force to be reckoned with in the modern art world for a long time. She was a critic and columnist for The Washington Post for more than a decade, reviewing both museum and gallery exhibitions. She has also written for The Village Voice, Art in America, and more, and served as director of identity for the Hirshhorn Museum for two years. But it was only after Jessica moved to New York City five years ago that the seeds were planted for her most creative endeavor yet.

She recalls, "I'd started writing for The Wall Street Journal, ARTnews, and publications like that, and as I was doing my rounds in the Chelsea galleries, taking notes on art shows, I was bringing my dog, Rocky, along with me. I noticed that Rocky was having a much better time than I was. He wasn't reading press releases or New York Times reviews; he was going straight up to the artwork and sniffing it and having a very genuine experience with it. I realized that canines have something to teach us about the way we interact with art."

Jessica's flash of inspiration soon led to something much bigger – the idea for an art exhibition made specifically for dogs. She called the project dOGUMENTA, playing on the name of a famous art survey, documenta, that takes place in Germany every five years.

In February 2016, she delivered the "dOGUMENTA Manifesto" – a call to action to create an art show aimed at canines – to a small group of artists. "Out of that came an introduction and meeting with Arts Brookfield, and from there, I was able to commission 10 New York artists who already made art for humans," Jessica explains.

Along with Rocky, Jessica teamed up with Mica Scalin, a creative development consultant and partner at art studio and consultancy Another Limited Rebellion, to curate the show. "We asked our artists to think about their new audience – to do the same work they usually do, but with a dog's perspective in mind. We took Rocky to all the studio visits with the artists, and his reactions completely changed some of the work as it was unfolding."

The show opened in New York City in August 2017. The pieces on display ranged from a sculpture of a dog made of squeaky toys to a pool of water that pups could wander into. "One work – by Paul Vinet – riffed on some precedents in art history, which was really exciting," says Jessica. "The surface of the piece's form was treated with a pigment that made these beautiful washes of color when a dog made its mark on it. We really wanted the pups to be themselves among the artwork – they could eat the pieces, pee on them, walk on them. The work was incredibly well-received by the dogs, and by humans, too."

Now, Jessica is preparing to take dOGUMENTA to Los Angeles, where a new selection of artists will present pieces aimed at canine art fans this September.

"I can't wait to do it again," says Jessica. "How will the West Coast culture hounds feel? How will they react? There's a whole new audience, and that means a whole new attitude. But as in New York, I hope that we have visitors who haven't been in a contemporary art situation before and begin to explore it alongside their four-legged friends. It's wonderful to give people a new way into an art world that I really care about."

Reilly Davis gives his keynote address at Career Day 2017.

LOOKING AHEAD TO CAREER DAY 2018

If you picked up this spring's edition of The Potomac Term, you're acquainted with Reilly Davis '08, the young cofounder and CTO of the mentoring network PeopleGrove. What you might not realize is that Reilly is one of many alumni who shared their wisdom and expertise with Potomac School juniors and seniors on last year's Career Day, which took place in December 2017. Alongside Reilly, who served as the event's keynote speaker, were such accomplished alumni as Lindsey Smith '11 (producer at MTV), Brandon Jackson '02 (cofounder and principal of HJB Properties, LLC), Stephanie Amann Kapsis '01 (senior advisor at KIPP DC), Elizabeth Fabiani Rooney (senior product marketing manager at Google), Alex Chapman (senior associate at Booz Allen Hamilton), and many more. Click here for a complete list of our panelist.

On Career Day, students split into groups according to their areas of interest and head to a variety of different panels with themes like "medicine and science," "arts and entertainment," "entrepreneurship and start-ups," and "finance and investment." At each panel, three to four Potomac alumni share their experiences in their fields, answering Upper School students' questions to help them prepare to pursue their dreams. The alumni speakers take time to delve into the process of getting one's foot in the door, discussing everything from their reasons for pursuing their careers to favorite moments along the way.

Career Day presenters also help show Potomac juniors and seniors that the "real world" isn't as far away as it might seem, and that they can do whatever they put their minds to as long as they work hard and refuse to give up on their dreams. Attending Career Day can be the small push that juniors and seniors need to start planning for the path they want to take after graduation. It can even inspire some students to contemplate professions they've never thought about before!

If you're interested in being part of Potomac's 2018 Career Day, check out this form, where you can tell us about your job and what type of panel you'd like to be on. Note that you don't have to live in the Washington, DC, area in order to participate – last year, many panelists traveled to Potomac for the event (which we greatly appreciated!) We're looking for speakers from a wide variety of fields, so whether you're involved in real estate, architecture, engineering, photography, computer science, marketing, technology, or something wildly different, we want to hear from you. To see who was on last year's Career Day panels, click here; to see photos, click here.

Finally, if you'd like to get involved in another way, check out Potomac Connect – a Potomac-specific mentorship and professional network powered by PeopleGrove. The site provides easy access to job and internship postings, discussion boards, a detailed directory of Potomac alumni in a range of professions, and other useful tools and information.

Ted Starkey out on the ice

FOLLOWING THE GAME

Ted Starkey '90 has been covering hockey since his time at Potomac, when he wrote about the Washington Capitals for the school newspaper.

"There weren't too many people reading it," Ted laughs, "but it was a great chance to practice. I'd wanted to do sportswriting since before I came to Potomac, so it was an excellent way to get started."

Ted is a sports journalist who has followed the ups and downs of professional hockey in publications as diverse as Newsday, The Tampa Tribune, The Washington Times, AOL Sports, and USAHockey.com. He currently works for Newsday as the paper's Internet news manager. He's covered Winter Olympics events, Stanley Cup finals, and the 2011 NHL All-Star Game and has also published three books. The most recent, Chasing the Dream, follows life in the American Hockey League, the top minor league in North America.

Ted kicked off his career writing for American University's paper, The Eagle, and interning for the Capitals' Communications Department during the team's 1994 season. From there, he built up his experience and began covering hockey full time.

"One thing that many people don't know about this career is that you basically have to have your articles pre-written," Ted says. "You have to be ready for your article to go online right away, so I usually write two articles ahead of time – one where my team wins, and one where they don't. Then I change my pre-written article according to what happens in the game."

Looking back on his career, Ted takes particular note of how much more popular hockey has become in the DC metro area than when he first began writing about it.

"I started going to games back in the 1980s," he explains. "In those days, the Caps were pretty decent, but they didn't win the Stanley Cup or anything, and I think a lot of people decided they weren't going to follow them in the playoffs because they didn't always win. But things are different now – people's interest has really grown. A lot of my Potomac classmates, who weren't interested in hockey when we were students, are now huge fans. I even got to see one of my classmates in the deciding game in this year's Stanley Cup finals!"

Ted counts the Capitals' Stanley Cup victory as one of the most exciting moments he's covered. "It was kind of a surprise," he says. "In the past, they've come so close, but they've always stopped short of winning. It's like Charlie Brown with the football – this happened year after year – but they finally managed to kick the football and win!"

His advice to anyone hoping to follow in his footsteps is to work hard and not give up on the dream. "I encourage anyone who wants to get into this field to write a lot," Ted says. "Write, get feedback on your writing, and just keep pursuing it – don't stop! There are a lot of opportunities out there."

KEEP IN TOUCH!

Don't forget to provide us with your current postal mail and email addresses! To update your contact information, email the Alumni Office or click here to update your contact information online. You can also reach out to us via postal mail:

Office of Alumni Relations

The Potomac School

1301 Potomac School Road

McLean, VA 22101

TAP INTO THE POTOMAC ALUMNI NETWORK

Keep up with your classmates by logging in to the Alumni Center, where you can find information about fellow Potomac alums, update your directory information, and sign up for networking activities. These members-only resources are available solely to Potomac alumni.

INTERESTED IN GETTING INVOLVED?

If you are interested in learning about how you can volunteer please contact Laura Miller,  director of alumni relations. 

SAVE THE DATE: REUNION 2019 MAY 3 - 4

Welcome Home! Plan to be on campus for Reunion 2019 on May 3 - 4 to celebrate all classes ending in '4 & '9. Interested in volunteering? Contact alumni@potomacschool.org.