Every year, as he’s driving home from the Annual Fund kick-off, AndyMcElaney ’96 calls his father on his cell and thanks him, again, for sending him to Roxbury Latin.

The gala that inspires Mr. McElaney every October has followed the same format for years: cocktail reception followed by dinner and remarks, featuring a student and a member of the faculty. Yet every year the celebratory spirit and the candid perspectives of the student and the teacher leave attendees feeling “blown away”—to use the words of one of the guests. “I remember all over again why I love this place and believe in its mission.”

In his after dinner remarks, Joe Nero, a senior, described all the ways RL has changed him. One theme stood out—stepping out of one’s comfort zone and joining up. Taking up cross country as a neophyte sixie; signing up late for Junior Chorus when he noticed how his classmates enjoyed it; and competing with the debate team as an upperclassman—Joe espoused a great RL truth when he said, “We’re at our best when we are part of a team. And so many experiences at RL have ‘team’ at their core.”

The faculty speaker, Kate Stearns, is RL’s writer in residence. She is also an RL parent, having piloted Nate ’04 and Sam ’07 through years of carpools, late rehearsals, and athletic contests. The carpools, she said, were “an excellent source of information for the parent who understands that his or her job is to drive silently and invisibly,” and she provided an example of one of the four-way discussions, which were often “filled with ethical dilemmas and intricate plots.”

She offered this insight into teaching at RL: “You teach a discipline you love and are passionate about, but of course you are not only teaching English or Math or Latin, you are teaching Joe and Ayinde and Robert. Everything that happens has to do with our close acquaintanceship, which makes teaching here both a privilege and a lot of fun.”

A school, more than most institutions, can be constant yet always fresh because a stream of new students flows through it. Roxbury Latin knows that by knowing itself, loving its boys, and daily putting its mission into practice, it will merit future waves of gratitude from the present generation decades from now.See photos from the event here.

On 10 October, the School welcomed Ambassador Mark Storella, Class of 1977, back to campus, to deliver the fourteenth annual Jarvis International Fund lecture.

A member of the Senior Foreign Service, with a long-standing commitment to human rights and human affairs, Amb. Storella joined the bureau in 2016, and today serves as deputy assistant secretary for the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration. Over his distinguished career in foreign service, he has been involved in counterterrorism efforts at Embassy Brussels; focused on innovative health and governance programs in Zambia; and served as senior coordinator for Iraqi refugees in Baghdad from 2009 to 2010.

At R.L. in the 1970s, Mark was raised with the axiom, Think globally, act locally. He said, “In my career, I have turned that on its head: Think locally, act globally.” He implored his student listeners to “draw on the lessons of this School, and of our society—both our virtues and our faults—to make both our country and the world better.”

Amb. Storella’s work is all about acting globally—dealing with 21st-century challenges including epidemics (avian influenza, Zika virus) and the ever-growing refugee crisis. “Global health depends on fast and effective response,” he said. “We have to stop global epidemics far from our shores. Logan International Airport cannot be our first line of defense.”

The refugee crisis, an epidemic of its own, is having a global impact, and frontline countries are under tremendous stress. Amb. Storella said that while the main goal is repatriation of refugees, sometimes that isn’t an option. He said that in all these crises, the rest of the world really does look to the leadership of the U.S.

Forty years ago, Amb. Storella was the valedictorian speaker for his graduating class. In his address, he warned against the cynic: “Because the cynic distrusts human motives, he may refuse to participate in socially beneficial projects. Because he withdraws from personal contact, he may be unable to reach beyond himself to others.” In the years since delivering that address, he has made manifest his rejection of the cynic, and his commitment to reaching beyond himself, for the benefit of others.

Amb. Storella is one of several R.L. alumni to serve as ambassadors over the last century, and joins Robert Hannan ’80 and Peter Martin ’85, who are currently members of the foreign service.

The F. Washington Jarvis International Fund was established by Jack Hennessy ’54 and his wife Margarita to support The Roxbury Latin School’s mission to expose its boys and masters to the political, economic, and cultural complexities of the international enterprise. Since the Fund’s inception, the School has sponsored speakers and cultural programs and expanded the support it offers its students and faculty for foreign travel, with the goal to advance their understanding of the world.

Past Jarvis International Fund lecturers:

Paul A. Volcker, past Chairman, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 2004 (inaugural speaker)

Ambassador Richard W. Murphy, 2005

Ambassador Richard N. Haass, 2006

Linda Fasulo, Special Correspondent to the U.N. for NBC News and MSNBC, 2007

Peter D. Bell, Senior Research Fellow, The Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University, 2008

General Anthony Zinni, 2009

Sir Eric Anderson, former Provost of Eton College, 2010

Andrew Bacevich, Professor of International Relations at Boston University; retired U.S. Army colonel, 2011

R. Nicholas Burns, Professor of Diplomacy and International Politics at the Kennedy School of Government, 2012

Robert Gates, former Secretary of Defense; former Director of the CIA, 2013

Bill Richardson, former Governor of New Mexico, 2014

Dr. Stanley Fischer, Vice Chairman, Board of Governors, Federal Reserve System, 2015

Lisa O. Monaco, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, 2016

John Frates of Class II wants to bring some happiness to his grandmother and people affected by Alzheimer’s disease, and he has designed and published a book of word-search puzzles just for them.

When John’s grandmother began having more difficulty with her memory and struggled with the standard word-search puzzle books she used to love, John resolved to create puzzles just for her, so she could still feel challenged, but also rewarded when she was successful.

John went beyond using a larger font. He also chose words that were well-known and mostly shorter, and since the diagonal and backward answers often frustrate his grandmother, he decided to limit them to mostly horizontal with a few vertical. For the filler letters he avoids close-match or tricky letter pairings. “For each puzzle, I grouped the words into obvious categories like presidents, cars, spring, and pets,” he explains. “I wanted my grandmother to feel the fun again of finding the words.”

In his introduction to the book, headmaster Kerry Brennan (who is also John’s faculty advisor) wrote, “While it may seem this book is about word searches, it really is about a young man’s love for his grandmother and his clever, persistent commitment to ensuring that she have as much joy in her life as possible.”

All the profits from the sales of John’s book (available at amazon.com) go directly to the Alzheimer’s Association, which is dedicated to Alzheimer’s research and supporting people living with dementia as well as their caregivers.

Felix Wang ’17, currently a freshman at Stanford, was named a 2017 Davidson Fellow in mathematics for his project Functional Equations in Complex Analysis and Number Theory. The Fellowship comes with a $25,000 scholarship.

At Roxbury Latin, Felix’s fascination with math led him to apply to the MIT-PRIMES program, where he began his research and where he was introduced to Professor Michael Zieve and Thao Do, who became his project mentors.

The results of Felix’s research extend and improve several results of the mathematician Joseph Ritt (1893-1951). Since Ritt’s results have generated important contributions to fields such as complex analysis, number theory, and dynamical systems—among others—Felix believes that his results will also provide significant contributions to several mathematical fields.

Felix was a finalist last spring in the Regeneron Science Talent Search, the nation’s most prestigious science and math competition for high school seniors. At Stanford he hopes to major in either math or computer science. Outside of academics, he enjoys playing sports (soccer, frisbee, and spikeball) and playing the piano. 

Under the watchful and patient guidance of Habitat for Humanity site supervisors, seven boys in Classes II and I, accompanied by RL masters Mike Pojman and Myron McLaren, gave a late-September Saturday to help on a Habitat build in Dorchester. Climbing ladders and scaffolding, seniors Mahamud Hashi, Elson Ortiz, Matt Sheehan and juniors John Frates, Matt Fumarola, Lo Monteiro-Clewall, and Gil Rosenthal worked toward the completion of a duplex on a previously undeveloped lot. When completed later this year, the modern residence will provide affordable housing for two local families.See photos here.

At Roxbury Latin, part of our work is to ask the bigger questions, and to consider who we are, spiritually. On the Jewish High Holy Days, as on the highest holidays of the Christian and Muslim traditions, we regularly hear from faith leaders from beyond our walls. In Hall on Thursday, we heard from three of our own.

In this most holy week of the Jewish calendar, seniors Andrew Steinberg, Jake Wexelblatt, and Zach Levin offered fellow students, faculty and staff an education on the long history of the High Holy Days; the beloved traditions of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in their own homes and around the world; and even a tutorial on the shofar, an ancient musical instrument made from a ram’s horn.

Watch the video below for their full Hall presentation.

As a nine-year-old, Arn Chorn-Pond was one of hundreds of Cambodian children sent to prison camps when the Khmer Rouge came to power in 1975. Under the life-saving tutelage of Youen Mek—a master artist—Arn survived by playing the flute, performing propaganda music to entertain soldiers and drown the sounds of executions. Forced into battle during the Vietnamese invasion, Arn escaped into the jungle and made his way over the border into Thailand. There, in dire health, he met The Reverend Peter Pond who formally adopted him and brought him to the United States.

Mr. Chorn-Pond spoke with boys and faculty in Hall this week, sharing his story, his music, and the resonant life lessons derived from both.

He spoke about his great struggle transitioning to life in the United States, where he faced the inability to communicate in English, discrimination for his brown skin, and derision for being an outsider. At the urging of his adoptive father, Arn learned to process his emotions and, ultimately, began to tell his story. That decision became a turning point for Arn, who eventually enrolled at Brown University, which he left after two years to co-found Children of War—an organization dedicated to helping children suffering traumas of all kinds. He earned his bachelor’s degree at Providence College and, since, has committed himself fully to humanitarian service and the arts.

An internationally-renowned human rights activist, he received the 1991 Amnesty International Human Rights Award, and the 1993 Kohl Foundation International Peace Prize, among other honors. His story is the subject of the book Never Fall Down—nominated for the National Book Award. An accomplished flautist, Mr. Chorn-Pond has performed with Grammy Award-winner Peter Gabriel and Grammy-nominated Ron Korb. He founded the Cambodian Living Arts, whose mission is to be a catalyst in a vibrant arts sector, in a country whose rich, artistic tradition was all but destroyed under Pol Pot’s regime.

Roxbury Latin students and adults benefitted from Mr. Chorn-Pond’s visit in great part due to the family of Andrew and Reis White, Class I, who have a long relationship with Cambodian Living Arts.

Curiosity, creativity, and commitment: This is the recipe that Dr. Michael McElroy—eminent scholar of environmental studies—suggests to combat the effects of climate change. The first of four Smith Visiting Scholars to discuss the science and policies of climate change this year, Dr. McElroy has been devoted to this teaching and research at Harvard for 47 years.

To begin his talk, Dr. McElroy explained the Earth’s “energy budget”—the dynamics of energy derived from the sun, and how that energy is absorbed, reflected, and distributed. He explained how the presence of water vapor in our atmosphere affords us a climate that sustains life on Earth, and how increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere alters climate conditions.

Basically, he explained, the Earth is absorbing more energy than it is reflecting back, increasing the planet’s temperatures, especially in our oceans. Heat accumulated in deeper parts of the ocean will stay warmer longer, contributing to changing ecological zones, rising sea levels, and more powerful storms.

Possible solutions, Dr. McElroy suggests, include a concerted global shift from our reliance on coal and natural gas to renewable forms of energy, such as wind and solar. That would involve an investment in our country’s infrastructure to support and improve transmission of that energy, and an ability to effectively store energy derived from variable sources. “Historically,” Dr. McElroy says, “the United States and China have been the world’s largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, and it will depend on those countries to show leadership and commitment to combatting the rise of CO2 in Earth’s atmosphere.”

“We’re at a critical time on this planet, and meaningful changes will have to be a collective investment, globally and with international connectivity,” says Dr. McElroy, who met with students and faculty after his presentation to answer questions and continue the conversation.

After serving for several years as the Abbott Lawrence Rotch Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Dr. McElroy was named the Gilbert Butler Professor of Environmental Studies. He has also served as Director of Harvard’s Center for Earth and Planetary Physics, as founding Director of the Harvard University Center for the Environment, and as founding Chair of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. He currently leads Harvard’s China Project, an interdisciplinary research program on China’s atmospheric environment, energy system, and economy, collaborating across schools of Harvard and partner universities in China.

Dr. McElroy has been honored by several prestigious organizations, and published more than 250 journal articles, written or edited six books, and authored more than 30 articles in the well-known journals Nature and Science. He earned his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Applied Mathematics at Queen’s University, Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Over the course of this year, R.L. students and faculty will hear from four prominent thought leaders working in the field of climate science and climate change policy, including Dr. Anthony Leiserowitz, Professor Maria Ivanova, and former administrator of the EPA, The Honorable Gina McCarthy.

In order to promote greater understanding of global issues, alumnus Robert Smith and his wife, Salua, established at Roxbury Latin the Robert P. Smith ’58 International Fellowship. It enables the School to bring visiting scholars to campus each year—individuals who enhance our curricula with insightful perspectives on our increasingly complex world. Past speakers have addressed topics ranging from modernization in China and India to World War I; economic globalization in Africa to Hispanic culture and literature.  

The National Merit Scholarship Program announced today the names of students in the Class of 2018, across the country, earning recognition for their academic achievement.  This year, 11 Roxbury Latin boys have been named National Merit Scholar semifinalists, and nine others have earned commendations from program officials.

In this 63rd annual National Merit Scholarship competition, semifinalists have the opportunity to become finalists and compete for some 7,500 National Merit Scholarships, nationwide.  The awards are supported by the organization and approximately 450 businesses and educational institutions, to “honor the nation’s scholastic champions and encourage the pursuit of academic excellence.”

About 1.6 million juniors in more than 22,000 high schools entered the 2018 National Merit Scholarship program by taking the 2016 PSAT, which serves as an initial screen of program entrants.  The nationwide pool of semifinalists, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest scoring entrants in each state.  From the approximately 16,000 semifinalists, about 15,000 are expected to advance to become finalists.  Scholarship recipients are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments, and potential for academic success at the college level.

Roxbury Latin boys earning recognition this year include semifinalists Ben Bryant, Robert Cunningham, Marc de Fontnouvelle, Connor Dowd, Eoghan Downey, James Jaffer, Ben LaFond, David Ma, Andrew White, Reis White, Dylan Zhou; and commendation recipients John Golden, Gabriel Grajeda, Paul Kuechler, Zach Levin, Evan Lim, Zach Milton, John Philippides, Andrew Steinberg, and Benjamin Stick.