Hundreds Reminisce, Reconnect at Reunion Weekend
Graduates from years ending in 3 and 8 returned to Groton’s Circle for Reunion Weekend May 18–20, an event characterized by nostalgia, enduring friendships, and the chance to experience Groton today.
Nearly five hundred visitors enjoyed activities that ranged from listening to panel discussions and cheering on Groton teams to watching a student recital and dining with formmates. For old time’s sake, many alumni visited Groton classes, sometimes seeing the very teachers who influenced their own lives.
One highlight of the weekend was a Sunday luncheon honoring five retiring faculty, Classics teacher Hugh Sackett, mathematics teacher Jonathan Choate ’60, art teacher Beth Van Gelder, science teacher Bill Maguire, and librarian Steve Marchand. Together, they have been at Groton for more than two hundred years.
Reunion Weekend always celebrates recipients of two of Groton’s most esteemed honors: the Cui Servire and Distinguished Grotonian awards. The Distinguished Grotonian Award recognized Mr. Choate for his fifty-two years of dedication to Groton students, many of whom were transformed by his teaching. In his acceptance speech, he described the change he has witnessed and listed many thank you’s to the colleagues and mentors he grew to know and love over the years.
The Cui Servire Award, reflecting the school’s ethos of service, went to Lisa Abbott ’88, who, through community organizing and leadership, has helped bring clean energy, improved health, and opportunity to many in rural Kentucky. She shared some of her accomplishments with Kentuckians for the Commonwealth: "Over twenty-five years I’ve helped communities fight for and win guardrails on dangerous roads, water lines to communities whose groundwater has been polluted, protection of family cemeteries from strip-mining, funding for affordable housing, and an awesome program that weatherizes people’s homes with no upfront costs,” she said. “We’ve helped pass state laws to raise the minimum wage and strengthen our social safety net for people who are low-income, disabled, and sick. Our grassroots organization is the reason why coal companies in Kentucky pay property taxes on the value of their minerals. It’s why Kentucky no longer imposes the highest state income tax in the nation on people below the federal poverty line.” The list went on, after which Lisa acknowledged that some battles are lost as well.
Before presenting the Cui Servire and Distinguished Grotonian awards, Headmaster Temba Maqubela welcomed the crowd in the Sackett Forum. After praising the impact of the retiring faculty, he explained his approach to inclusion: “Groton adds without subtracting; Groton multiplies without being divisive. By intentionally performing these operations, the Circle does not remain static; it becomes full of vitality and dynamism that makes our school relevant.”
He also updated the crowd on the GRAIN (GRoton Affordability and INclusion) initiative, noting some of GRAIN’s key successes: Groton’s tuition dropped from most expensive to #38 of forty peer schools, thanks to a three-year tuition freeze; $52.4 million was raised in forty months, much faster than expected; and Inclusion Scholars are now at Groton “from the talented missing middle, sons and daughters of professors, professionals, those who serve in public service ...
"You cannot be inclusive,” Mr. Maqubela said, “if you fail to invite all cohorts from the socioeconomic, ethnic, religious, and geographic spectra.”
Other highlights of the day included two panel discussions—the first dedicated to building connections through the Groton Women’s Network. Panel members Lydia Cottrell ’88, Sarah Eaton Stuart ’83, Bradleigh Flor Wagner ’93, and moderator Polly Cross Reeve ’78 discussed their approaches to networking, noting that the word itself can sound “transactional.” Bradleigh said her “eye-opening moment” was when she realized that building relationships is fun. “Get out of your head this ‘networking’ concept and just get to know people,” she advised. Polly agreed: “Networking sounds calculating. It is about authentic relationships.” Lydia shared a surefire conversation starter and networking primer: “Ask people about themselves and how they came to their jobs.” Four younger graduates from the Form of 2013—Nimesha Gerlus ’13, Starling Irving, Alice Stites, and Anita Xu—joined the second half of the panel, sharing insights into challenges they’ve faced and how Groton helped prepare them for college and the workplace.
The afternoon panel, “Trends in the Field of Education,” featured panelists Charles Fox Congleton ’03, Michael Gnozzio ’03, Julia Halberstam ’98, Charlotte Lysohir ’08, Latoya Massey ’98, and moderator Lori Hill ’88. Much of the conversation centered on technology, from the threat computers pose to “thinking skills” to the unequal access to technology among schools.
Besides these informational and inspirational panels, those at Reunion ran the Triangle (despite the rain), watched athletic games, rang bells in the Chapel, spent time with friends, and attended the annual induction into Groton’s Athletic Hall of Fame. New inductees this year are William Polk ’58, Groton’s former headmaster and a tri-sport varsity athlete at both Groton and Trinity College; longtime coaches (and teachers) Jonathan Choate ’60 and Bill Maguire; Olympic rowers Donald Beer ’53 and Charles Grimes ’53; Olympic rower Alex Karwoski ’08; soccer player Andre F. Parris ’93, a Princeton recordholder who played with the U-20 U.S. National Team; and Katherine Oates Sweeny ’93, a three-sport athlete at Groton, standout hockey player at Middlebury College, and today a youth lacrosse coach.
Groton congratulates our award winners and Hall of Fame inductees and thanks all who returned to the Circle for Reunion Weekend 2018!
Pictured: Cui Servire Award winner Lisa Abbott '88, Headmaster Temba Maqubela, and Distinguished Grotonian Jonathan Choate '60
Pictured: Cui Servire Award winner Lisa Abbott '88, Headmaster Temba Maqubela, and Distinguished Grotonian Jonathan Choate '60
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