The Magazine of Cary Academy | Summer 2019

The Magazine of Cary Academy
SUMMER 2019
ALUM LOOKS
TO THE PAST TO
BUILD A BETTER
FUTURE
page 4
OUT OF THE
CLASSROOM
AND INTO THE
WORKPLACE
page 12
Inspiring
innovation
page 10
Do you DICE?
(They do.)
page 14
Finding the
right college fit
page 16
Oh, the places
they’ve gone
page 18
On-field success
takes leadership
page 32

FROM THE
HEAD OF SCHOOL
Cary Academy: Where fun goes to die
Not much of a slogan, eh?
So, imagine my surprise when some parents and
students recently told me that this was the “word on
the street” regarding Cary Academy’s reputation.
The context of those conversations—and context
matters—was that these folks were telling me
how happy they were with their Cary Academy
experience and how it ran counter to what they
feel is a false narrative about the school.
Phew!
It did get me thinking, though, about the origin
of this conventional wisdom. At its core, I think,
is the belief that you work hard at Cary Academy.
That is fair—and I’d also list it as a point of pride
stretching back to the school’s founding.
Where I think the narrative misses the mark
is that it assumes— falsely—that working hard
and liking school must be the opposite of fun.
That might be the case elsewhere, but it does not
reflect our reality.
In this issue of ?, The Magazine of Cary Academy,
we share many stories that highlight the power of
our unique learning community: from the Mission
Awards in the Upper School to the support from
our community that has brought transformative
change to our campus. Of special note are the
alumni stories, which showcase the many ways the
people and programs of this school have had an
impact on the lives of young people.
students to grow as learners and individuals,
buoyed by unending resources and support.”
Said another: “[CA] gave me the best seven years
of my life and set me up to have many, many
more beyond.”
Recent research conducted by Denise Pope at
the Stanford University Graduate School of
Education uncovered the most essential elements
of an impactful college experience. They include
taking class with teachers who made learning
exciting; working with teachers who cared about
their students; finding a mentor; working on a
long-term project; participating in internships
that applied classroom learning; and being active
in extracurricular activities.
As we are embroiled in a national conversation
about the future of work and the importance of
higher education, the Cary Academy formula
strikes just the right balance in all these areas.
We are preparing our students to take full
advantage of their college experience. It is the
beginning—not the end—of their learning path.
And the best part: it can be really fun—if you
find the right people to share the journey.
Mike Ehrhardt, Head of School
Said one alum in our recent biannual alumni
engagement survey: “Cary Academy prepared me
to think critically and empathetically. The school
created an atmosphere that constantly challenged

The Magazine
of Cary Academy
SUMMER 2019
In this issue
COMMUNICATIONS TEAM
Mandy Dailey
Dean Sauls
Dan Smith
PHOTOGRAPHY
Dean Sauls
Dan Smith
The CA community
HEAD OF SCHOOL
Michael Ehrhardt
DIRECTOR OF ADMISSIONS
Heather Clarkson
DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS
Mandy Dailey
HEAD OF UPPER SCHOOL
Robin Follet
DIRECTOR OF FACILITIES
Jess Garcia
DEAN OF FACULTY
Martina Greene
HEAD OF MIDDLE SCHOOL
Marti Jenkins
4
Looking back to look
forward
Brandon Byrd’s experience at CA helped shape
his passion for history. Now, he inspires students
at Vanderbilt University to think critically about
the past, present, and future.
16
Dream team
The college search is a critical, yet complex
process. Thankfully, CA’s college counselors
are here to help.
DIRECTOR OF EQUITY AND
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Danielle Johnson-Webb
10
Partners in innovation
18
College chronicles
DIRECTOR OF TECHNOLOGY
AND INNOVATION
Karen McKenzie
Sometimes, innovation needs a kickstart from
an angel investor. PTAA Grants help faculty and
students dream big, reach for the stars, and
push the pedagogical envelope.
Getting into college isn’t the finish line; it’s
the next step of a lifelong learning journey.
Twelve CA alumni share stories of finding their
right-fit schools.
DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT
Ali Page
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
Deborah Reichel
14
Walking the walk
What exactly do CA’s core commitments to
discovery, innovation, collaboration, excellence,
and community look like in practice? These
students will show you.
32
Top of his game
It took Ray Pope some time to warm up to the
idea of coaching high school baseball. At CA,
he’s found his dream job—in a role he’d never
dreamed of.
is published three times
a year by Cary Academy.
CARY ACADEMY
1500 N. Harrison Avenue
Cary, North Carolina 27513
(919) 677-3873
Campus
News
2
Snapshots
12
Alumni
News
35
The Big
Question
36
www.caryacademy.org
Dinosaurs, Shakespeare, family, and… homework? Students
and faculty set their time travel itineraries. page 37

Campus News
Summer spruce-up
The classrooms may be empty, but campus
is certainly abuzz with activity this summer
as major renovations are underway.
A significant remodel of the library will
begin this summer and continue throughout
T1. Changes will include a new layout for
the circulation desk, improved study and
meeting spaces, and a new technology
collaboratory. The reconfiguration will also
create the Charger Café, which will serve as
a social space and provide the opportunity
for entrepreneurially-minded students to
dip their toes in business ventures.
The weight room is undergoing a muchneeded
expansion—nearly doubling in size—
with new offices for CA's Athletic Trainers
and a full-time Strength and Conditioning
Coach. CA's Track and Field Stadium is
being upgraded to an Olympic-quality
Mondo Super X Performance track, making
CA the first school in North Carolina with
a Mondo surface. A new pressbox, with
improved restroom facilities, is under
construction at the baseball field.
CAMPAIGN FOR CA
Thanks to an outpouring of support, the
Campaign for Cary Academy charged ahead
this year. In addition to completing the original
campus master plan with the opening of the
Center for Math and Science, we expanded
financial aid support for CA families, began
enhancement projects on facilities and
classrooms across campus, and started
construction on new spaces. To date, the CA
community has contributed $11.8M towards
our $12M goal. With one year left to go, there’s
still time to be a part of this community-wide
effort to take CA to the next level. To all of you
who have already contributed: we thank you!
THANK YOU, AND FAREWELL
This spring, the CA community came
together to express our gratitude and share
our memories of our retiring faculty and staff
members: Ellen Doyle—school nurse, Ellen
Gooding—US counselor, Darshana Wani—
College Counseling Administrative Assistant,
Jimmy Welch—Landscape Manager, and Kay
Parks—US fine arts teacher.
We also wish to express our appreciation
and well wishes for those who are moving
on: Nicky Allen—MS math teacher, Paul
Brunell—Facilities Technician, Napoleon
Lherisson—US social sciences teacher,
Kathleen Mason ('08)—Alumni Programs
and Giving Coordinator, Yenisel Solis—US
Spanish teacher, and Troy K. Weaver—US
science teacher.
HATS OFF TO OUR ESTEEMED
FACULTY
Associate Director of College Counseling
Brandon Carter received the 2019 Curran
Family Foundation Leadership in Teaching
Award. US history teacher Dr. Robert Coven
has been selected to be a team leader
and presenter at Kent State University's
prestigious international symposium: Re-
Designing Education to Shape a Better
World, this summer, in Florence, Italy. US
English teacher Allyson Buie earned an M.A.
in English from Southern New Hampshire
University. Library Director Brian Pugsley
earned an M.S. in Library Science from UNC-
Chapel Hill. MS world cultures teacher Katie
Levinthal and MS German teacher Gabriele
Verhoeven were accepted into this summer’s
2019 Atlantik-Brücke Transatlantic Teachers’
Study Trip.
MS TRACK AND FIELD REIGN AS
CONFERENCE CHAMPS
Congratulations to both the boys’ and girls’
Middle School track and field teams for
3-peating as Capital Area Middle School
Conference champions! The Chargers set
eight new conference championship records
and achieved 22 personal bests while racing
to the championship.
MS BAND RANKS SUPERIOR
The Middle School band was awarded the
top honor of Superior from the judges at the
NC Central District Bandmasters Association
Music Performance Adjudication in March,
where they competed against dozens of
schools from across the state. The award
marks the first Superior honor for CA's band
since 2007.
Two
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The Magazine of Cary Academy

Congratulations
Class of 2019
At commencement, CA's 20th graduating
class was welcomed to the alumni community
by Holly May ('05), who offered her insight
as a Silicon Valley innovator and scholar.
The Class of 2019 is headed to 36 different
colleges and universities in 18 states, plus
the District of Columbia, Canada, and
England. Ten Charger athletes will play at
the collegiate level. Colleges with more than
two CA students attending are: Appalachian
State University, Davidson College, Duke
University, North Carolina State University,
Tufts University, University of North Carolina—
Chapel Hill, Wake Forest University, and
Washington University in St. Louis.

Alumni Spotlight
LOOKING BACK
TO
LOOK FORWARD
Brandon Byrd’s (’05) love of
history has deeply personal roots.
“I came to an initial interest in history the way a
lot of folks do—by just generally taking an interest
in my own personal history,” muses Byrd. “I was
enamored by the stories that my family would
share and pass down, stories of my grandparents’
and great grandparents’ experiences, all of whom
passed before I was born or shortly thereafter.”
For Byrd—Assistant Professor of History at Vanderbilt University,
accomplished researcher, and published author—these stories were
always relevant beyond mere familial anecdotes. They represented
much larger stories, and more complex histories, including some of
the most defining moments in African American history.
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Photo Credit: Chioke A. Ianson
Byrd delivering a presentation at the 2016 Global Garveyism Symposium
“My mom talked a lot about the Great
Migration—the movement of tens of
thousands of African Americans out
of the Jim Crow South to the North,
Midwest, and later to the West—that her
family was a part of,” Byrd offers as an
example. “It was those larger historical
narratives—those that I had a personal
connection to—that attracted me,
intrigued me.”
He credits Cary Academy—and the
engaged, collegiate-quality faculty that
took an interest in him, both in and out of
the classroom—for nurturing that initial
interest, fanning it into a passion that
would ultimately become the bedrock of
a meaningful humanities career.
“Being a historian now, I can clearly
trace the influence that CA faculty—
Conrad Hall, Joe Staggers, Bill Velto,
and others—had on my thinking. They
taught me to approach history in a more
systematic manner, taught me how to go
from merely consuming stories to thinking
historically, to thinking about change over
time, to thinking about causality.”
He fondly recalls one of his literature
teachers in the Upper School, Chuck
Burdick, to whom he had expressed a
growing interest in slave narratives and
abolitionist literature.
“He took me on a book talk and signing
by a historian that had just published
the first biography of Harriet Jacobs, the
author of Incidents in the Life of a Slave
Girl,” reflects Byrd. “For someone to take
that interest, to take time out of their
personal life to help an (at that time)
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pretty brash, cocky high school student
pursue his interest—it was impactful.”
It is perhaps little surprise that
Byrd—embarking on his college career
at Davidson College on an academic
scholarship—confidently declared his
major in history within his first weeks
on campus. Later, he gained admittance
into the honors history program,
which allowed him to spend a year
developing an independent research
project to explore the life of Charles
Clinton Spaulding, a prominent black
businessman and intellectual leader in
Durham, North Carolina.
That project would prove to be
a springboard, offering a deeper
introduction to the black intellectualism
that would ultimately become the focus
of his career. This early work would go on
to inform his later research as he earned
a Master’s degree from the University of
William and Mary, and PhD from the
University of North Carolina.
Byrd identifies first and foremost as
an intellectual historian. Fascinated by
the history of ideas, his specific research
centers on the international dimensions of
black intellectual history. As a professor,
first at Mississippi State University and,
currently, at Vanderbilt University, he
teaches a full course load—including
classes like “Black Lives Matter,” “Black
Thinkers from Equiano to Obama,” and
“Readings in African American History”—
to undergraduate and graduate students.
He also pursues his research agenda and
contributes to the administration of his
department and the university.
Byrd sees reflections of Cary Academy
in his approach to teaching. No more so
than when he’s pushing the pedagogical
envelope, asking students to think
critically or in ways that might question
a predominant narrative.
“I remember taking Bill Velto’s class
on terrorism in the years immediately
following 9/11,” reflects Byrd. “It was a
moment when the general American
public was being asked to think pretty
uncritically about terrorism. They were
having terrorism defined for them and
they were being told ‘this is what it is to
combat terror.’ In Velto’s class, we were
being asked to think more critically, to
consider the global roots and terms of
terrorism. In hindsight, it was remarkable.”
“BEING A HISTORIAN NOW,
I CAN CLEARLY TRACE
THE INFLUENCE THAT CA
FACULTY—CONRAD HALL,
JOE STAGGERS, BILL VELTO,
AND OTHERS—HAD ON MY
THINKING.”
It is an approach that stuck with him.
He notes that his Black Lives Matter
class, while dissimilar in content, shares
its pedagogical roots in those early liberal
arts classes at CA that initially stretched
his thinking.
“The Black Lives Matter movement
is also something defined largely in
sweeping, generalized, and reactionary
terms,” explains Byrd. “In my class, I
try to take that and say ‘Well, let’s try to
think about this. What is this movement?
How does it fit into a broader global
history of activism? What are the
problems related to it? What can we learn
if we stop assuming that we already know
the answers?’”
That emphasis on the global, on the
broader context, is indicative of Byrd’s
larger research interests. For Byrd,
examining historic African American
intellectuals within their full global
context—understanding how they
and their ideas moved across and
transcended national boundaries and
how that, in turn, shaped their politics
and intellectual practice—is crucial.
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As for what is next for
Byrd, he is excited that
a project that began
as his dissertation will
soon be shared with the
world as a book—The
Black Republic: African
Americans and the Fate
of Haiti.
Byrd commenting
at Vanderbilt’s
Wrestling
with the Past
Symposium,
March 2018
“There has always been a global
dimension to African American history,”
explains Byrd. “If we want to truly
understand historical black intellectuals,
truly understand the world as they saw
it, we have to think in international
terms, in part because that is how they
identified within their world.”
He continues, “Take the abolitionists,
for example. They didn’t view slavery as
an institution that was peculiar to the
South, or even peculiar to the United
States. Their activism was based in a
broader understanding of slavery’s
international dimensions—how it was
rooted in global networks of trade and
commerce that connected Africa to
Liverpool, England to merchants in New
York to slaveholders in Georgia.
“And, that’s just one example, you can
easily pull out others from across the
decades,” explains Byrd. “The civil rights
activists of the 1950s and ‘60s, the Black
Power advocates of the ‘70’s, they all used
similar transnational thinking. For them,
thinking about desegregation meant also
thinking about decolonization in Africa.
It’s why, for a famous example, Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr. was in Ghana on the day
of Ghanaian independence in 1957.”
Photo Credit: John Russell/Vanderbilt
For Byrd, his research feels particularly
timely, helping to explain and understand
not only the past, but the current fraught
historical moment, perhaps even offering
strategies for future activism.
“Black intellectuals have historically
grappled with complex issues that
transcend time and context: slavery;
equality; what democracy means, how it
can be achieved, and for whom; how to
affect political change. Their thinking on
these topics is all still incredibly relevant
today and probably will be in 100 years,”
offers Byrd.
“Consider Frederick Douglass
questioning the project of America in
his famous address What to the Slave
is the Fourth of July?. Then, look at
the headlines, the uproar over Colin
Kaepernick kneeling during the national
anthem. Suddenly, in that context, the
use of that moment does not come as
a surprise nor does the backlash or the
continued insistence on activism.”
As for what is next for Byrd, he is
excited that a project that began as his
dissertation will soon be shared with
the world as a book. The Black Republic:
African Americans and the Fate of Haiti
considers the significance of Haitian
independence in the imagination of
black intellectuals grappling with the
possibilities of black freedom in the
decades following the U.S. Civil War.
It will be published this fall by the
University of Pennsylvania Press.
This summer, he is digging into
a new book project that will delve
deeper into the social dimensions of
black intellectualism through a multigenerational
family history of the Holly
family. Patriarch James Theodore Holly
led a migration of African Americans
from the United States to Haiti in the
1860s and would become the first black
bishop in the Protestant Episcopal
Church. His descendants represent a long
family tradition of black intellectualism
and transnational activism.
With this new research, Byrd hopes to
gain insight into the intimate spaces of
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political movements and how genealogies
of activism and political thought are built.
“One of the benefits of the family
history angle is that, rather than just
the church or the political office, I can
consider the home as a central space
of inquiry.”
The inclusion of the home as a political
space allows Byrd to delve deeper into
the dimensions of his work that he
finds most gratifying, most important,
and perhaps most challenging: finding
and elevating marginalized voices—
particularly the voices of black women—
whose inclusion offers a more holistic
understanding of history.
“Finding voices of black women—
many of whom were intentionally
silenced for various reasons or who chose
not to speak out in eras where visceral
racism and patriarchy was the norm,
even within black organizations—is
challenging,” comments Byrd. “But, you
have to find them. Folks that are on the
margins of the archives—due to reasons
of power, race, gender, or sexuality—
were often at the center of the thinking
and the action.”
It is when Byrd gives voice to those
marginalized figures and pieces together
a historical narrative that reflects their
true experience—an important step in
advancing our understanding of both
past and present—that he feels he is
inching closer to his goal.
“With my work, I am standing on the
shoulders of scholars and historians who
came before me. Scholars like John Hope
Franklin and W.E.B. Du Bois contributed
an almost unthinkable amount of
knowledge about African American, U.S.,
and global history in an era where they
couldn’t even go into archives,” offers Byrd.
“I don’t have the hubris to say that I am
going to offer the same paradigm-shifting
work that they delivered, but I think
I can nudge us forward. I can help us
think differently about aspects of African
American history, its transnational
dimensions, what it means to the past,
and offers for the future. To me, that is a
worthy and exciting goal.”
ADVICE FOR CA STUDENTS
“We’re in a time where the value of the humanities is under attack, where
there is rhetoric that suggests that viable career paths are primarily STEMbased.
It isn’t true. If you look at recent research and data, you’ll find that
earnings for humanities majors keep pace with those of STEM majors.
“Ignore the idea that this is a zero-sum game, the idea that there is only
one path to success. Skills earned in the humanities can go everywhere and
are requisite for success on the job market. Employers want that person
that is the problem solver, that can think and write clearly, that can craft an
argument, and that can spot gaps in other’s argumentation.
“As you’re being told what disciplines to value, what courses to value,
do your own homework. Read The Wall Street Journal, or Forbes, or the
websites of various professional organizations. They can shed light on
potential career path outcomes and tell you what it means, for example,
to be a historian.” –Brandon Byrd
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Innovation has no sense of time. Inspiration springs forth without concern for the
calendar. So, how do we respond to those innovative opportunities that arise in the
middle of the academic year—opportunities to foster new initiatives, explore fresh
ideas, and implement cutting-edge technologies?
Enter CA’s Parent Teacher Administration Alliance (PTAA).
The PTAA Grants Program helps to
seed innovation by supporting small
projects, equipment, and activities that
enrich and enhance student interests
within and beyond the classroom. This
past academic year alone, the PTAA
provided more than $23,000 in grants for
eight student and faculty initiatives.
Middle School math teacher Leslie
Williams received funding to purchase
a larger capacity and finer-detailed
Ultimaker 3D printer that can print in
dual color. The new printer, which is
available to all Middle School students
and faculty is part of a larger effort to
ensure that every Middle School student
is well-versed in Computer Aided Design
(CAD). This past year, the printer was
utilized by seventh-grade math students
for their Change the World engineering
challenge, in addition to other projects.
To learn and teach critical life-saving
skills, a grant sought by Parker Perkins
(’20) and Upper School science and math
teacher Delia Follet will enable the CA
Search and Rescue Team to fully establish
their presence on campus through the
purchase of key equipment and materials.
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THIS PAST ACADEMIC
YEAR ALONE, THE
PTAA PROVIDED
MORE THAN $23,000
IN GRANTS FOR
EIGHT STUDENT AND
FACULTY INITIATIVES.
Helping to interweave art into projects
across campus, Upper School art teacher
Caycee Lee secured funding to construct
and outfit a mobile art cart to support
and augment humanities projects.
A farsighted PTAA grant will provide
a clear vision for CA Athletics for years
to come. Working in conjunction with
Athletics Administrative Assistant
Rebecca Watkins to identify needs, the
Communications Department received
funding for new lenses and camera
equipment that will be on long-term loan
to the Athletics Department.
Last March, many parents and students
attended Duke University Professor
Wilkie Wilson’s talk, “Healthy Brain:
Understanding the Effects of Alcohol,
Vaping, and Drugs on the Teen Brain.”
The presentation, made possible with
funding provided to Upper School
Learning Specialist Laura Werner,
was so impactful that several students
consulted with Dr. Wilson for their
capstone senior projects or other
research they were pursuing.
How do you take a hands-on approach
to diving into microscopic subjects?
PTAA funding will allow Upper School
biology teacher Marissa Scoville’s
students to explore DNA and protein
molecules through cutting-edge physical
models that will allow for abstract ideas
to be more accessible, thereby enriching
and enhancing the learning experience.
Eleventh-grade English students will
have their voices heard, thanks to the
purchase of audio production equipment
to explore podcasting in the classroom.
The process of recording audio, both
personally and through interviews, is
an ideal blend of the humanities and
technology, invoking expressive storytelling
and analytical expression as an alternative
to traditional essay writing. According to
grantee Jamie Roszel, the format promotes
the creative synthesis of ideas and provokes
civil discourse and discussion, while also
giving students more agency over their
educational outcomes.
Starting this summer, members of CA’s
U.S. Association of Young Physicists’
Tournament (USAYPT) team, Will
Aarons (’20), Cameron Fisher (’19),
Paul Ibrahim (’21), Aidan Sher (’20),
and Abraham Weinstein (’19), and
other Upper School physics students
will reach for the stars through a new
computer-guided telescope. Under
the guidance of science teachers Matt
Greenwolfe and Charlotte Kelly, and
internal substitute Dick Mentock, they’ll
use the telescope to collect data for
USAYPT astronomy problems, produce
spectacular astronomical photographs
for the classrooms, and observe the
heavens with a clarity and precision of
which CA’s 20-year-old existing telescope
was incapable.
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Rising sophomores and seniors
embraced on-the-job learning
with local artists and designers,
construction contractors, industrial
engineers, professional and
collegiate sports teams, cuttingedge
scientists and researchers,
multimedia journalists, and other
professionals during the WORK
EXPERIENCE PROGRAM.
Snapshots
During the WORLD LANGUAGE EXCHANGE PROGRAM,
the Class of 2021 hosted students from abroad, before
traveling to Argentina, China, France, and Germany to gain
an international perspective from their peers.
The Class of 2023 reminisced about their adventures
in Middle School before taking the leap into Upper
School at 8TH GRADE CELEBRATION.

Dozens of freshmen and juniors took a hands-on approach
to learning in 13 experimental and experiential DISCOVERY
TERM courses, exploring everything from history, cuisine, and
culture, to communications, camping, and conquering fears.
In May, 381 runners and walkers participated
in the PTAA’s 2019 CA 5K AND EXPO, which
raised over $13,000 for CA.
From stream to sky, the 6TH AND 7TH GRADE FIELD TRIPS gave students
a chance to explore Umstead State Park and Black Mountain, NC and
offered fun opportunities to learn, bond, and celebrate the end of the year.
Students stopped to smell the roses
before leaving it all on the dance
floor at the garden party-themed
2019 JUNIOR AND SENIOR PROM.

WALKING THE WALK
Each academic year, the Upper School Mission Awards recognize those students who have gone
above and beyond to exemplify CA’s core commitment to discovery, innovation, collaboration,
excellence, and community.
To highlight the diverse ways in which CA students, past and present, have inhabited our core values,
here are a handful of highlights from awards presented over the past few years. For the full awards list,
visit bit.ly/missionawards.
OUTSTANDING DISCOVERY AWARDS
Recognizing students who pursue learning as a process motivated by genuine curiosity
In 2018–2019, Cameron Fisher (’19) and Colin Zhu (’20), both members of CA’s USA Young
Physicists Team (USAYPT), reproduced Michael Faraday’s homopolar generator, then spent hours
experimenting with it to understand how it worked in practice and theory, stepping from basic
electromagnetic theory to advanced relativistic equations. Their work was so original that the
USAYPT judges awarded them the unofficial “judges’ buzz” award.
Julian Sodano (’18) followed his passion for languages in 2017–2018 when he worked with a
faculty mentor to build a series of independent study courses to learn Italian, a language not offered at Cary Academy.
In 2016–2017, Emma Briggs (’17) and Deming Haines (’17) set out to discover the rich ecosystems we engage with on CA’s campus.
Over a trimester, they catalogued 115 unique specimens—from insects to fish to birds to annelids—and built a community-resource
website documenting their research.
OUTSTANDING INNOVATION AWARDS
Recognizing students who have met the requirements of an assignment or activity in
a notably imaginative and innovative fashion
In Bill Velto’s 2018–2019 class on terrorism, Sadie Grace Shelburne (’21) found a research paper
grounded in statistics and analysis alone inadequate to investigate the psychology of terrorism.
Grappling with terrorism through an artistic lens, she choreographed a performance to explore—
in a human and relatable fashion—the complex emotions and mental states of terrorists.
In Donna Eason’s 2017–2018 Creative World Building elective class, Cate Pitterle (’20), Hannah
Owens (’20), Samantha Dietrich (’20), Madeline Kopf (’20), and Hunter Moore (’20) went above and beyond for their assignment to
design a civilization. They crafted a richly detailed world with an incredibly designed planet, inhabitants, government, economy, and
history—all of which was documented in a detailed historical website.
In 2016–2017, the ADV Biotechnology class coordinated a large-scale experiment with the Intro to Biology classes, researching and
writing procedures for isolating the TAS2R38 gene that allows people to taste bitterness. Michael Crow (’17), William Fowler (’19),
Brooke Harris (’17), Jessica McCoppin (’17), and Lindsay Wrege (’17) documented DNA extraction, restriction enzyme digest,
amplification, and visualization using polyacrylamide gel. They also coordinated the randomization and collection of samples,
processing, and data analysis.
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OUTSTANDING COLLABORATION AWARDS
Recognizing a group of students who have modeled an exemplary collaborative process
For a month-long, student-directed project in the 2018–2019 Advanced Environmental Policy
class, Sarah Handelsman (’19), Ian Washabaugh (’19), Christianna Swift (’20), Alex Bandong
(’19), Jessica Judge (’19), and Kevin Chen (’19) worked together to research the impact of natural
disasters on hog farms along the Cape Fear River. To educate stakeholders and students alike
about the complex policies, politics, and power dynamics surrounding the issue, they created a
Clue-style board game, naming the game based on their research: Poo Dunnit?
For a 2017–2018 in-class research project and presentation on the 1858 Lincoln-Douglass debates, Arman Kassam (’18), Jonathan
Segal (’18), and Jack Werner (’18) created an original rap battle between Lincoln and Douglass in the style of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s
musical Hamilton. Taking the project further, they began meeting with music producers and writers to identify other pointcounterpoint
moments in American and world history to create more pieces, develop the rap further, put it to music, and film it.
Poet Hanna Saklad (’17) and illustrator Emily Lane (’17) collaborated in 2016–2017 on the creation of the children’s book Dearest
Susie. A capstone project in which Saklad’s use of multiple poetic forms with clever rhymes and vivid images were complemented
brilliantly by Lane’s illustrations.
OUTSTANDING COMMUNITY AWARDS
Recognizing students who act with the interests of the community in mind,
demonstrating respect, integrity, compassion, courage, and selflessness
Throughout 2018–2019, Krishan Guzzo (’19) worked quietly and diligently to make Cary
Academy a more balanced place. A driving force behind the student wellness website, he worked
with Upper School leadership to advocate for a student Zen Den, a place where community
members can de-stress whenever they feel overwhelmed.
Naomi Johnson (’18), Mason Reece (’18), and Leo Tamburro (’18) received individual awards
recognizing their hard work fostering diversity and inclusivity over the 2017–18 school year. They sparked dialogues and guided
their classmates through critically important conversations that—while sometimes difficult or uncomfortable—helped to increase
understanding of each other.
OUTSTANDING SERVICE AWARD
Recognizing outstanding service to the school or community
Throughout 2018–2019, CA members of the Triangle Debate League—Aditya Surana (’19),
Grace Seidel (’19), Adithi Sundaram (’20), and Shannon Jenkins (’21)—worked in collaboration
with local universities to teach public speaking and advocacy skills to their peers in several
Durham County schools.
The 2017–2018 work of Emma Zayas (’18) and Casey Abernathy (’20) subtly impacted the lives
of half of the CA campus population. Inspired by initiatives on college campuses, they worked
with the PTAA, Facilities, the Middle School and Upper School to create an operationally and financially sustainable model to
provide free feminine hygiene products in CA’s women's restrooms.
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The Magazine of Cary Academy
Fifteen

DREAM
TEAM
CA’s college counselors are in
the business of dreams—helping
students pursue theirs by guiding
them on a process of self-discovery
that, hopefully, ends with the best
college fit.
Ask any of our three college counselors—Brandon Carter,
Leya Jones, and Laura Sellers—and they will tell you the same
thing: that they have the best jobs at Cary Academy.
“The fact that I get to be a part of a student’s journey in
developing into their best selves is a pure blessing,” offers Carter.
“I look forward to work every day—that’s not an exaggeration—
because I get to work with some of the brightest, funniest, most
caring, respectful, and appreciative students in the world.”
Strike up a conversation with nearly any of our alums and it
will reveal equal admiration from the other side of the equation.
Interviews offer warm recollections replete with gratitude for
the pivotal role that the college counselors played in their college
selection journey.
Said one alum in our recent biannual alumni engagement
survey: “I would send my kids to CA for the incredible college
counselors and the amount of guidance they provided me
Sixteen
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The Magazine of Cary Academy

during the college process. It truly is
unparalleled in comparison to what other
students at other high schools receive.”
Other alums point to the counselors’
deeper impact—not just on their college
processes, but on their broader lives—
crediting the counselors for believing in
them when they didn’t quite believe in
themselves; for nudging them towards
a better version of themselves; and for
helping them to discover who they
wanted to be in the world.
The depth of the relationships these
anecdotes reflect isn’t all that surprising.
At Cary Academy, the college counseling
process is a true partnership between
Between them, Brandon Carter, Leya
Jones, and Laura Sellers represent
a whopping 29 years (!) worth of
combined CA college counseling
expertise, having successfully guided
three classes (Carter), eight classes
(Jones), and 18 classes (Sellers)
to bright futures at their right-fit
colleges and universities.
student and counselor. Working closely as
a team, they explore interests and talents,
consider current strengths, and identify
future ambitions and goals—all in hopes
of discovering that post-high school holy
grail: the strongest collegiate fit.
“Research shows that the number one
reason why a student chooses to remain
at their respective college is a sense of
belonging,” explains Carter. “If they feel
they fit well within the academic and social
fabric of that institution, the student is more
likely to stay, thrive, and graduate. My goal
is to find that institution that fits them best,
so that they can thrive on the next level and
beyond, whatever that means to them.”
“As counselors, we’re lucky—luckier
than most—in that our philosophy
as an office is fully supported by CA’s
leadership,” adds Jones. “We have
colleagues at many other places who
are driven by pressure to have a certain
number of students admitted to/attending
certain colleges. We don’t have that.”
On the contrary, as with all things CA,
our college counseling process is missiondriven,
grounded in a commitment to
learning that is personal, flexible, and
relevant, and driven by our community
values of compassion, respect, and
integrity. As in the classroom, students
are in the driver's seat—encouraged to
“own their learning and process”—with
the counselors offering sage counsel to
steer them in the right direction.
It’s a process that lends itself to
introspection, often becoming a
transformative learning experience for the
student. “Seeing those ‘a-ha’ moments when
a student sees something about themselves
through the process, when they connect the
threads and understand themselves better,
that’s one of the things I love most about my
work,” comments Sellers.
Indicative of all those “a-ha moments”
and a point of pride for the team, a review
of CA’s college matriculations reveals a
lengthy and diverse list of educational
institutions. Over the last three years, CA
students have gone to nearly 100 different
colleges and universities in the United
States and abroad, where they thrive,
grow, pursue their dreams, and, hopefully,
get one step closer to becoming the
people they want to be.
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The Magazine of Cary Academy
Seventeen

COLLEGE
CHRONICLES
CA focuses on preparing students to be lifelong
learners. The college counseling experience is
no exception.
“Getting into college is not the finish line; it’s only
the beginning” offers college counselor Brandon
Carter. “A successful college experience is shaped
not only by where you attend, but what you do with
the resources and opportunities that are available
to you once you get there. Those experiences
are what will, in the end, make you a dynamic
employee and sound contributor to society.”
From tiny private liberal arts colleges, to massive
public universities, and all manner of schools in
between, CA alums’ experiences offer a powerful
testament to the many ways that students can
make the most of a college experience when they
find the right fit and engage.
Eighteen
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The Magazine of Cary Academy

ESRA BALKAS (’17)
LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS
AIMING ABROAD
An eighth-grade CA summer trip to
Oxford University proved pivotal for
Esra Balkas, triggering a longstanding
desire to attend college abroad. She
was immediately taken by Oxford’s
beautiful campus and academic gravitas.
A huge Tolkien fan, she loved the idea
of attending her idol’s alma mater, of
studying in the same hallowed halls in
which he used to teach.
Practically, Balkas knew she wanted
to study anthropology or international
relations. These were passions she had
discovered and explored thanks to CA’s
flexible curriculum and the guidance
of Upper School social sciences teacher
Maret Jones.
Beyond academics, Balkas sought a
school in an urban center and one with
a large international student population,
a desire borne out of her participation in
the Student Global Leadership Initiative.
“SGLI was a huge thing for me. I
learned so much from the other students
in the program that were from all over the
world—not just academically, but more
broadly,” explains Balkas. “It changed how
I looked at a lot of things in life. I wanted
to go somewhere that offered a similar
experience at the collegiate level.”
When an early and initiallydisappointing
rejection came from
Oxford, Balkas shifted gears. She applied
to the London School of Economics,
another school that checked all her boxes.
“I applied on a whim,” recalls Balkas.
“I was familiar with LSE’s anthropology
program and had already written the
application for the United Kingdom
school system. I submitted my application
two hours before the deadline closed.
I didn’t even tell my parents or college
counselor that I was applying. LSE is very
competitive; I didn’t expect to get in.”
To her surprise, Balkas received a
conditional acceptance weeks later. If she
aced three of her AP exams, she was in.
Daunted, but determined, she redoubled
her commitment to her academics. “It was
hard. When all my friends were cruising, I
was buckling down to study.”
Her efforts paid off and she was
officially admitted into the anthropology
program at LSE in 2017. Since arriving on
campus, she’s been immersed in her field,
enjoying the close-knit community, and
taking a full load of anthropology classes.
“At LSE, we’re offered only one elective
credit per year—everything else is within
the anthropology department” explains
Balkas. “Because of the intensive focus,
my program is only three years. We go
deep from the outset and get out fast.”
She’s making the most of her small
classes, which offer ample opportunities
for hands-on learning, collaboration, and
engagement with senior faculty. It’s an
environment that has pushed her out of
her comfort zone and helped her grow.
“I had initially thought I wanted a larger
school,” explains Balkas. “I’m kind of shy
and thought that it would be nice to blend
into a huge class. That’s not possible at
LSE, where the classes are capped at 12-14
people. It has pushed me to participate
more, to be more confident.”
A field work unit completed during
her second year has been a highlight of
her time so far. “It was a crash course
in becoming an anthropologist,” she
explains. “You are given freedom to design
a project, research it independently, and
write an essay to share your findings.”
Balkas—a self-described “nerd” who loves
video games—chose to observe a popular
e-sports team in London to explore how
players use language, including gamer
tags and gaming lingo, to construct their
online identities and build community.
For Balkas, her experience abroad
at LSE is all that she hoped it would
be. “London is an incredible city and
LSE is right in its heart, just a twentyminute
walk to Buckingham Palace,”
she enthuses. “Being able to walk to
school every day—stopping on the
London Bridge, the London Eye is there,
Westminster is there, my school is just on
the other side—it is just so cool.”
Apart from her friends and family back
home, she’s embraced her newfound
independence and self-reliance that has
fast-tracked her entry into adult life.
“Having to figure things out for
myself—how to set up a bank account,
how to register for a doctor, how to cook
for myself (LSE doesn’t have dining halls),
how to create my own support network—
it’s been really empowering to do all of
that on my own at eighteen. It’s tough, but
in the end, I would always choose it. The
life skills it has given me are incredible
and I’ve made the most amazing friends
and connections along the way.”
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The Magazine of Cary Academy
Nineteen

KENDALL BELL (’15)
DUKE UNIVERSITY
COMMUNITY BEYOND CLASSROOMS
By his own admission, Kendall Bell
wasn’t exactly sure what he was looking
for at the outset of his college process.
“The process never looks the way you
think it will,” Bell muses in hindsight.
“You may think you know what you
want, but you probably don’t. You may
think you know what a college is like, but
you don’t until you visit campus. Without
guidance, without help, you are just
taking shots in the dark.”
For Bell, that light in the dark came
from CA’s college counseling team. “The
college counselors at CA don’t just learn
what you want in a college, they learn you
as a person,” reflects Bell. “They talk to you
about your classes, about what is going
on in your life, about everything else, and
only then talk to you about college.”
With guidance, Bell homed in on
the important attributes that he was
looking for in a college experience: the
curricular flexibility to pursue his interest
in both chemistry and the humanities;
immersive, hands-on learning
opportunities; and a “quirky” atmosphere
that embraced uniqueness and didn’t take
itself too seriously.
The University of Chicago was an early
front-runner, a position later solidified
by a visit to campus. It quickly became
the yardstick against which he compared
all other prospects.
It was college counselor Leya Jones
that encouraged Bell to take a closer look
at Duke University, a school he initially
included on his list only because it was
local. However, on closer inspection,
Bell found that he appreciated the
interdisciplinarity built into Duke’s
curriculum and the flexible way in which
it structures its majors.
“Very few majors at Duke are vertical,”
explains Bell. “There are often different
versions of a degree, specializations
within a major that allow you to reach
across disciplines and pursue your
various interests.”
Ultimately, Bell’s receipt of Duke’s
Reginaldo Howard Memorial
Scholarship—a merit-scholarship
established in honor of Duke’s first African
American president of the undergraduate
student body—would make his decision
an easy one. Bell found the community
of “Reggie Scholars”—and their shared
commitment to transformative leadership,
intellectual courage, and social justice—
compelling. The scholarship would
ultimately lead to some of Bell’s most
gratifying moments on campus.
“As a Reggie Scholar, I helped to
organize and lead campus visit for new
Reggie Scholar finalists,” offers Bell. “It
was a meaningful experience. Not only
was I was representing the program,
but I helped to shape our community’s
future by setting expectations and asking
candidates how they would contribute
and advance social justice work.”
Duke’s “work hard/play hard” culture
also proved appealing. It forced Bell,
an introvert, to stretch and reach out
of his shell.
“I realized that life isn’t all about work
and school. Duke offered me different
communities of people that pushed me to
engage outside the classroom, to do other
things besides study that helped me make
the most of the experience.”
On reflection, it is those opportunities
outside of the classroom—those that
allowed him to socialize or intellectually
engage with his peers and professors—
that rise to Bell’s memory as the most
meaningful.
“A lot of the fun stuff, the cool stuff that
happens in college, doesn’t necessarily
happen in class,” says Bell. “It’s having a
four-hour lunch conversation with your
favorite professor, or being in your room at
11:30 pm on a Tuesday, when suddenly a
lot of people roll up, and before you know
it you’ve had a fascinating conversation
about mass incarceration for hours. Those
are the most powerful moments.”
Of course, there were ample academic
highlights as well, including a long list
of favorite classes—some stumbled
on entirely by happenstance—that
broadened his perspective or sparked
new interests. Being nominated by his
professor and winning the Mary McLeod
Bethune Writing Award for a paper on
moral panics was another particularly
memorable moment.
Bell graduated from Duke this past
May with degrees in both chemistry and
global cultural studies and a minor in
African and African American studies.
This fall, his journey will come full
circle, as he joins the CA community
as a Teaching Fellow (he’s also recently
completed a two-year stint as a member
of CA’s Board of Directors). At CA, he’ll
be working alongside one of his favorite
teacher-turned-mentor Gray Rushin.
Bell looks forward to shaping his students’
journeys of self-discovery in much the
same way others have shaped his. “There
are many different places in my educational
career where, if it had not been for that
teacher that intervened, I would now be in
a very, very different place,” explains Bell.
“The best classes that I’ve taken are not
just about learning the material but about
learning about yourself as well.”
Twenty
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The Magazine of Cary Academy

ZIYANA GREENE (’18)
AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE
A NEW PERSPECTIVE
Ziyana Greene knew what she wanted for college: a small
private school with resources on par with a larger university and
a diverse student community. She’d always assumed that she’d
find that experience at a historically black college or university
(HBCU). It was a shock, then, when touring, she found that
“despite being great schools, they just didn’t feel right. They
didn’t click for me.”
Sensing her mounting frustration, college counselor Brandon
Carter suggested she check out a school she’d never heard of—
Agnes Scott College—a small liberal arts college for women in
Atlanta, Georgia. While not an HBCU, it did tick a lot of her
boxes. She booked a last-minute trip, a final stop on her college
tour before heading home.
On arriving, her first contact was a student tour guide from
the Republic of The Gambia who’d never been to the United
States before attending Agnes Scott. “She’d applied from abroad
and her very first experience in the United States was her movein
day,” marvels Greene.
“She was so courageous. It made me feel brave and made me
recognize my privilege. To that point, I had these ideas of what
diversity was, what it would look like, but Agnes Scott gave me a
whole new lens. It has a huge international population and I was
excited to hear all those different stories and perspective. I knew
that this was where I wanted to be.”
Greene—who is pre-law, majoring in political science,
minoring in human rights, and pursuing a specialization in
leadership development—has made the most of her first-year
college experience. Highlights have included a study abroad
in Ghana to research women in leadership; working in the
admissions office where she enjoys interacting with the diverse
community and has developed close mentorship relationships
with senior faculty; induction in the Leadership Society; and
her successful campaign and election as Public Relations
Coordinator for the Pre-Law Society.
Greene credits Agnes Scott and, more broadly, the
women’s college experience as giving her a newfound sense
of empowerment and confidence. “It is inspiring to see other
women supporting each other and really going after what they
want, letting no one stop them. At Agnes, we don’t have to
compete. Each woman’s accomplishments are seen not just as
hers, but as opening doors for everyone.” She adds, “Don’t get me
wrong, competition is important in the professional world and
we learn how to compete. But, when you know your worth, you
can compete in the world a lot differently and more successfully.”
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The Magazine of Cary Academy
Twenty-one

DEMING HAINES (’17)
COLORADO COLLEGE
AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH
By all accounts, the last few years
of Deming Haines’s CA experience
were challenging ones. In 2014, he had
transferred into CA as a junior—a tricky
transition in and of itself—made all
the more difficult by a serious medical
condition. He was grappling with postconcussive
syndrome which left him
with debilitating daily headaches. The
headaches would prove so disruptive as
to necessitate repeating his junior year.
“It was one of the hardest times of my
life,” recalls Haines. “Here it was my junior
year, when I’m supposed to be applying to
college, when I want to be able to present
the best version of myself. My headaches
knocked all that down.”
When it came time to apply
to colleges, he found himself in
uncharted waters. “I was a first for
CA; no one had ever repeated their
junior year. We weren’t sure how
colleges would respond or what my
realistic options were.” He also still
had severe headaches to contend
with and uncertainty around what
would be feasible for him, physically
and cognitively.
Despite the looming question
marks, guided by college counselor
Leya Jones, Haines threw himself
into the process. His essays, a
cathartic opportunity for self-reflection,
focused on his challenges and the
personal growth he’d achieved as a result.
“My headaches are a hardship, but,
in many ways, I think it strengthened
my applications,” he explains. “Colleges
could see my perseverance. They could
see everything that I had gone through
and that, despite it all, I was still doing
well academically, and I was still excited
to go to college.”
At CA, Haines had loved physics,
but an independent study mentored
by media arts teacher Steven
O’Neill strengthened his passion for
photography. He knew he wanted a
school where he could explore both,
preferably in small classes with ample
opportunities for faculty connection, a
dimension of his CA experience he had
always appreciated.
It was ultimately Colorado College—a
small liberal arts college in Colorado
Springs that offers a nontraditional block
curriculum—that captured his interest.
Jones had initially hoped the alternative
approach might help to ease Haines’s
transition to college.
Colorado College’s block curriculum
offers an intensive, experiential deep
dive into one subject at a time. Students
complete the equivalent number of credit
hours as a typical semester-long course
in just 3.5 short weeks thanks to daily
classes ranging from three to six hours
long. When one block ends, students
enjoy a brief four-day break before
jumping into the next.
“It’s really rigorous, perhaps even more
so than traditional classes,” says Haines.
“There is a constant grind, but the
structure lends itself to rewarding and
immersive learning opportunities, like
field trips and collaborative projects, that
wouldn’t otherwise be possible.”
Challenging? Yes, but Haines enjoys it.
He’s now settled in as a studio arts major
and is taking full advantage of the wideranging
interdisciplinary offerings that will
round out his requirements for graduation.
“The liberal arts requirements are
designed to push you out of your comfort
zone, to encourage exploration and
discovery. I love that aspect of CC,”
explains Haines. “You are exposed to
subjects you might never have otherwise
considered. For my social inequality credit,
I took a block on nonviolence; it was the
most eye-opening class I’ve ever taken.”
Another highlight has been
collaborating with a team to invent
and pitch an event-finding app—a
concept he originated in an earlier
design-thinking block—at CC’s Big
Idea Competition, an entrepreneurial
pitch competition that awards $50,000
to the top three teams (Haines’s team
was among the top five).
Next fall, when he returns to
campus, he will launch his first
on-campus photography exhibition
thanks to being awarded a $1,000
Venture Grant. “I’ve been so blown
away by all the resources Colorado
College has, all the many ways that it
can help me do what I love.”
As for what comes next, Haines is
certain that it will involve photography—
a series of Haines’s nature photographs
completed as part of his senior CA
capstone project are on exhibit in the
Center and Math and Science—but
beyond that he’s not sure. “Right now, I am
interested in aligning product photography
with fine art photography, but, who knows,
as I continue to learn I might go in a whole
new direction.” He adds confidently, “I’m
open to possibilities.”
Twenty-two
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The Magazine of Cary Academy

BEN HATFIELD (‘14)
UNITED STATES AIR FORCE ACADEMY
LIFELONG DREAMER
When Ben Hatfield was a toddler,
his parents took him to an air show at
Andrews Air Force base. He immediately
loved seeing all the planes flying in the
air and his love of all things aeronautic
was locked in.
When it came time to consider college,
the path to his dream of being a pilot and
soaring the skies was stronger than ever.
It was no surprise that he set his aim on
a United States service academy, with
the United States Air Force Academy
(USAFA) being top choice.
Acceptance into a U.S. service academy
is decidedly different from the typical
collegiate process. In addition to an
application to the academy, candidates
must receive a nomination from their
U.S. Senator or Congressman. It’s a
complex process, involving many moving
parts and copious amounts of essaywriting.
Hatfield credits his college
counselor, Leya Jones, with helping him
navigate the process and keeping him
sane and organized.
Hatfield began his Air Force journey
in the summer of 2014. By his own
account, his first year was arduous
mentally, physically, and emotionally.
USAFA places a heavy value on
well-roundedness, and his first-year
curriculum was a heavy lift of liberal arts
coursework in tandem with Air Forcespecific
classes like aeronautical and
astronautical engineering and leadership.
Despite the challenges, Hatfield found
himself academically well-prepared,
his experience harkening back to the
classrooms of CA. “I found myself emailing
my CA teachers—even my seventh-grade
teachers—to tell them how my experience
in their class was still playing such a big
role in my life,” laughs Hatfield.
And, bolstered by confidence from his
CA experiences, he was able to find what
some might consider a daunting campus
culture and ethos, inspiring.
Opportunities within USAFA—what
courses you are eligible to take, what
clubs you can participate in, what
planes you get to fly, and, ultimately,
your placement post-Academy—are
all driven by class rank, which is
distributed publicly every semester.
“While the environment is extremely
competitive, everyone also knows that
there is no way to make it through alone,”
explains Hatfield. “You have to have
people to lean on, to help you. The result
is a unique environment where everyone
is driven, constantly pushing themselves
to be better, but also helping each other
and pushing each other to be better.”
It was in his sophomore year—when
cadets declare their majors (he chose
Operations Research/Statistics), join
clubs, and have more control over their
coursework—that Hatfield truly began to
hit his stride. He joined the United States
Air Force Skydiving Team, “The Wings of
Blue.” It was an intensive, but gratifying
experience (requiring up to three-hours
of practice time each day) that would
ultimately take him all over the country
and the world to perform in air shows to
demonstrate the Air Force’s capabilities.
On campus, it meant that, at nineteenyears-old,
he was also responsible for
teaching first-year cadets how to do their
very first solo jumps out of planes. He
credits that experience of “helping other
cadets get over their fear” as one of the
highlights of his time at USAFA.
Another highlight? A senior capstone
project in which he investigated the
resiliency of U.S. satellite networks
and how the United States might be
able to respond to various threats. He
presented his research at a conference to
professional Air Force statisticians, who
were able to leverage his research and
take it to the next level in the field.
Hatfield graduated USAFA in May
2018 and is now living his dream,
training alongside officers from all over
the world in the Euro-NATO Joint Jet
Pilot Training Program at Sheppard Air
Force Base in Texas.
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The Magazine of Cary Academy
Twenty-three

LEX-JORDAN IBEGBU (‘08)
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL &
UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI LAW SCHOOL
VISION, AMBITION, AND WILL
Lex-Jordan Ibegbu transferred into CA
from public school his freshman year.
“College choice is all about what you
are exposed to,” Ibegbu explains. “Prior
to CA, I didn’t really know what college
I wanted to go to. I had always assumed
I’d go to Shaw University. My parents
attended Shaw University. I grew up
across the street.”
Over the course of his four years at
CA, however, his horizons broadened,
with the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill rising to near-mythical status
in his mind.
“I had never been to Chapel Hill.
I didn’t know anyone that attended
Carolina” says Ibegbu. “But, CA was
sending a lot of students to Carolina.
I researched and discovered the kind
of professionals that Carolina was
producing. I wanted to be an attorney
and I knew that Carolina had a strong
political science department. I also knew
that the Carolina name would open doors
for me later in my career. Going there
became one of my prayers.”
The transition to CA had been an
academic adjustment, but one that he was
able to manage after a year. Still, some
thought Carolina might be a reach for
Ibegbu. He credits his mother and college
counselor Laura Sellers for believing in
him enough to encourage him to pursue
his dream and apply.
“Ms. Sellers was such a blessing. She
told me exactly what I needed to do to
make it happen. I took the SAT twice to
attain a sufficient score” Ibegbu recalls. “I
only needed to see the blueprint. Once I
learned the process I could then apply it. I
believed in myself. I believed in my spirit
that I would go to Carolina.”
With clear goals, guideposts, and a
healthy boost of confidence, Ibegbu threw
himself into the application process, while
also pursuing scholarship options. His
clear-eyed tenacity was rewarded, and
he was admitted to Carolina on a full
scholarship as a Covenant Scholar.
As an African American student
in a then-predominantly white CA
community, the promise of Carolina’s
diverse student body had also been a
tremendous lure to Ibegbu. On campus,
he took full advantage, immersing himself
into academic, social, and extracurricular
experiences through which he weaved
a broad social network that would pay
dividends throughout his college career
and beyond.
His eyes set on law school, Ibegbu
pursued a degree in political science. He
also continued the student government
work he’d enjoyed at CA and was elected
as a student body congressman. It was an
experience that afforded the opportunity
to collaborate with an ever-widening
circle of students, while also providing
practical experience that he could
leverage for law school.
He pursued his other passions—music
and drama—via dual minors. A rapper,
Ibegbu used his music as a networking
tool, performing for various student
groups across campus and always making
connections along the way.
“I credit Carolina with teaching
me how to maneuver in different
environments,” offers Ibegbu. “Every
week I tried to connect with people from
different insular communities throughout
the campus. That might have been going
to plays with my drama friends, or
performing at events hosted by Lambda
Upsilon Lambda Fraternity (a Latino
fraternity), or working on legislation
with members of the Muslim Student
Association, or seeking out mentor
opportunities within Carolina’s vast
alumni network. I was always consciously
trying to broaden my horizons, to build
that social capital.”
Ibegbu graduated from Carolina in
2012 and was admitted to the University
of Miami School of Law, from which he
graduated in 2015. He is now a practicing
attorney in both Florida and North
Carolina with the law office of Kurtz &
Blum, PLLC. He currently has a focus
in criminal law, with an eye for music/
entertainment issues, and engages in
political consultant work for various
candidates and politicians.
“As for the future, I am always seeking
growth and knowledge. I want to become
an immense legal mind, perhaps start
my own practice that spans the eastern
seaboard. I hope to exercise some
influence over this country’s politics and
economic policies.”
As always, Ibegbu is making a plan
and charting a course for success: “I am
setting the foundation for my dreams and
working towards creating a lasting legacy.”
Twenty-four
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The Magazine of Cary Academy

CARRIE MILLER (‘04)
BOWDOIN COLLEGE & UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA,
PERELMAN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
THE A-HA MOMENT
Carrie Miller credits the support of
the CA community and the leadership
skills she developed during her time as
a student with giving her the confidence
she needed to strike out beyond her
comfort zone to find the perfect college.
“I knew I wanted to try something
new, to explore a different part of the
country, to try out an entirely different
environment than what I was used to,”
explains Miller.
She initially thought that she’d find
that experience in a mid-size university
in New England. It was only on the
last-minute advice of favorite English
teacher Sunny McDaniels (herself a
Bowdoin alum) that she added Bowdoin
College—a small liberal arts school on
the coast of Maine—to her list.
“As soon as I walked onto the Bowdoin
campus, I knew that this was the place. I
felt so comfortable, so at home; everyone
was so friendly. I loved the classes, the
sunny days, the coastal campus, the
engaged faculty, the intensely loyal
alumni network” reflects Miller. “I’d
always heard people talk about this
intangible feeling you get when you find
the school that’s the right fit. I never
bought into that idea, never thought it
would happen to me, until it did.”
On joining the student body, Miller
immersed herself in campus life—
moving into one of the social houses,
joining the women’s rugby team, even
working in the admissions office, first as
a tour guide, and, later, as an applicant
interviewer (a role she continues to enjoy
as an alum).
Unsure of a major, she used her first
semester to explore her myriad interests
across gender studies, sociology, French,
and science. “I wanted to take that first
semester to just enjoy being at Bowdoin,
to let myself be excited and inspired by
all the possibilities,” explains Miller.
The next semesters saw Miller focus
in on a career in women’s health, as she
pursued pre-med prerequisites alongside
classes for an interdisciplinary women
studies major.
A culturally immersive
semester-long study abroad
in Botswana—during
which Miller lived with
a host family, studied the
local language, completed
coursework in HIV and
public health, all while
shadowing two days a week
in the local healthcare
clinic—proved to be
transformative, triggering
an interest in obstetrics and
gynecology.
After graduating
Bowdoin in 2008, Miller
moved to Boston, taking
a position within a child
psychiatry research office
from which she was able
to explore a variety of
roles within healthcare.
Realizing that she valued
the patient-doctor
relationship above all else,
she enrolled in Harvard’s
post-baccalaureate program
to complete a handful of
remaining classes required for medical
school admission and took the MCAT—
all while working full-time.
Miller was admitted to the Perelman
School of Medicine at the University
of Pennsylvania in 2011 and started an
OBGYN residency at Penn in 2015. She
graduated in June 2019 and will soon be
moving to Minnesota with her husband
(a fellow doctor and Bowdoin alum) and
young daughter, where she has accepted
a position within a local hospital system.
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The Magazine of Cary Academy
Twenty-five

ANASTASIA MORGUS (‘14)
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
CONFIDENT VISION
You might call Anastasia Morgus the
poster child for “owning your college
process.”
By her junior year, she had identified
exactly what she wanted for college: a
strong international business school
where she could study Asian global
markets and Chinese—interests piqued
during years of study at CA and a
particularly influential World Language
Exchange trip.
As for the type of school and campus
culture, Morgus—who had straight A’s
and tested well—never felt compelled
to apply for “reach schools” or the Ivy
League. “I knew from the outset that
wasn’t what I wanted; I was totally happy
with a state school,” she explains. “I
wanted something bigger, somewhere
that had team spirit, more sports—an
atmosphere more akin to the universities
that I’d been exposed to growing up in
the Triangle.”
In a process where too often peer
pressure and other peoples’ expectations
can play a role, Morgus enjoyed a
comparatively low-stress experience by
listening to her inner voice. She credits
counselor Leya Jones for supporting her
choice to attend a state school.
“She really propelled me into being
comfortable with what I was actually
looking for,” explains Morgus. “She
suggested the University of South
Carolina. Even though it is the number
one international undergraduate business
school in the country, it wasn’t on
my radar.”
On her campus tour, she immediately
fell under USC’s spell. “The gorgeous
campus, the athletic ethos, the classes,
it was exactly what I envisioned—the
quintessential collegiate experience,”
says Morgus. “I had been nervous going
from a graduating class of 100+ people
to a freshman class of 5,000+, but once I
stepped on to campus, all that fell away.”
On admission, Morgus was invited
to participate in the Capstone Scholars
Program, a two-year enrichment
program focused on fostering
community impact and leadership. It
offered an instant built-in community.
“We all lived together in the same dorm,
would do service projects together, and
hold social events; it made USC seem
much smaller.”
She enjoyed her academics. USC’s
international business curriculum
requires a double major—one in
international business and another
functional major (Morgus chose
operations and supply chain)—and a
language minor (Chinese). She spent
spring semester her junior year abroad,
studying in Shanghai.
At the end of her senior year, she had
the opportunity to work closely with
one of her professors on a semester-long
real-world consulting project. It would
prove to be a door-opening experience,
securing her a recommendation for
a post-graduation appointment in
the rotational training program of
multinational technology leader ABB.
“It’s like the European version of
GE,” she explains. “I never would have
gotten into the program without the
connections that I made at USC.”
At ABB, Morgus is rotating through
their offices, learning the real-world ins
and outs of each facet of supply chain
management. “It’s one thing to study it
in the classroom, and another to actively
practice it in the field,” she says.
Morgus will complete ABB’s
management training program this
September and will transition to a
permanent position in the company’s
supply chain department. She’ll have the
opportunity to put all her language skills
to good use during a country-swap with
the Chinese office.
“That’s my goal,” Morgus says. “For now,
I’m trying to learn, to say yes to as many
things as I can to build up my experience.”
Twenty-six
?
The Magazine of Cary Academy

RITU PRASAD (’10)
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY,
MEDILL SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM
FOLLOWING HER HEART
The importance of college was always
at the forefront of Ritu Prasad’s CA
experience.
“My parents immigrated to the
United States from India when I was
child,” Prasad explains. “It had always
been important to them that I attend
an American college—it was one of
the big reasons they decided to leave.
They wanted me to have the best
opportunities, and the Indian education
system was a lot less choice-based, a lot
less flexible.”
Themselves unfamiliar with the
American college system and application
process, Prasad and her family appreciated
the strong support system offered by
Laura Sellers, Prasad’s college counselor.
“As newcomers, it was easy to freak
out about all the details, the wealth of
information to sort through—the SATs,
the applications, the deadlines, the
overwhelming choices. Ms. Sellers was
always the voice of calm and reason, helping
to set out the facts and requirements and
providing important guidance.”
Working with the college counselors,
Prasad made a list of what attributes she
most desired for prospective colleges.
“Throughout my time at CA, I had the
opportunity to build great relationships
with my teachers. I’m still friends with
some of them today; Vic Quesada,
Donna Eason, and Dr. Robert Coven
changed my life!” gushes Prasad. “For
college, I wanted small classes that
offered similar opportunities to form
those deep relationships and to grow and
develop alongside my teachers.”
A lover of both science and English,
she also wanted a college that prided
itself on the well-roundedness of its
students—one that offered a strong
interdisciplinary curriculum and the
flexibility to explore multiple disciplines
simultaneously. An exceptional study
abroad program rounded out her list.
She created her initial college prospect
list—adding in the University of Chicago
on the advice of alum Brent Rappaport
(’10)—and culled it by taking full
advantage of CA-hosted visits from a
variety of college admissions officers.
“Those visits with the admissions
counselors from all those different
schools that CA offered was really
useful and played a role in shaping my
decisions” notes Prasad.
One such meeting with a Columbia
University admissions counselor made
it clear that Columbia was not a good
fit, while others affirmed her interest
in Northwestern and the University
of Chicago. A later campus tour of the
University of Chicago would prove that
it was the school for her. Excited, she
applied early decision and was accepted.
Both of Prasad’s parents are physicians
and following in their footsteps had been
an early goal that she set for herself.
During her first couple of years, she
pursued her tandem interests, taking
pre-med classes while also majoring
in English. A study abroad to Paris to
explore astrophysics would be a highlight
of her undergraduate years.
In her senior year—just one credit
away from securing a double major in
biology, while signing up to take the
MCAT—it hit her: she didn’t want to be
a doctor. “I had been warring with my
two passions, science and writing, for my
entire undergraduate career. I suddenly
realized that my true love was writing.”
Just like that, she changed gears,
graduating with a degree in English and a
minor in biology. “It was jarring,” Prasad
admits. “I’d had a ten-year plan for years,
but, suddenly, I didn’t know what would
come next.”
Soon after graduation, after a lessthan-gratifying
internship and foray into
communications work, Prasad began
to investigate graduate schools. She was
accepted to Northwestern’s Medill School of
Journalism after a last-minute application
and awarded an academic scholarship.
She completed her master’s degree
in journalism in 2016. A journalism
residency with the BBC in London
would prove life-changing, leading to her
current full-time position with the BBC’s
North American bureau in Washington,
DC. There, she’s living her dream as a
multimedia journalist covering features
and general news: “It’s work that I believe
in, work that means something.”
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The Magazine of Cary Academy
Twenty-seven

ILAN SZULIK (’14)
WASHINGTON
UNIVERSITY IN
ST. LOUIS
A REWARDING LAST-MINUTE REACH
Like many students, Ilan Szulik’s first pass
at a college list read like it came straight out
of a U.S. News and World Report ranking.
“Initially, I focused on those schools
you hear about growing up, the ones that
have big name recognition,” explains
Szulik. Made without a clear vision of
what he was looking for beyond a “good
school,” his list proved overwhelming.
College counselor Laura Sellers suggested
a different approach. She encouraged Szulik
to identify the specific attributes he was
looking for in a college. As she helped him
focus in on the experience he hoped to
have, a more concrete list emerged.
Szulik wanted a mid-size school, one
that was large enough that everybody
didn’t know everybody else but small
enough he could establish an identity
and make an impact on campus. Strong
academics—particularly a strong
undergraduate business program—
was paramount (also important was a
culture that was not rife with cutthroat
competition). Lastly, he sought
somewhere that emphasized student life.
Sellers compiled a lengthy list of
schools that matched the new profile.
However, it was her suggestion of
Washington University in St. Louis, a
school that Szulik had never heard of,
that would prove to be “the one.”
Initially, Szulik was skeptical. WashU was
very competitive. With nearly Ivy Leaguelevel
test score requirements, admission
felt like a reach. But thanks to the
encouragement of Sellers, her discovery of
a last-minute due-the-next-day scholarship
opportunity at WashU’s Olin Business
School, and a healthy dose of “what do I
have to lose,” he decided to apply.
“I went straight from Ms. Sellers’s office
to the library, filled out the scholarship
application, completed my essays in
a matter of hours, and hit submit,” he
recalls. “I didn’t let anyone edit my
essays. I didn’t even show them to my
parents. I wanted them to be my voice. I
wanted to get in as me.”
Months later, the Dean of Olin
Business School called with exciting
news. Not only did Szulik get in, he was
a finalist for the Dean’s Scholarship for
Business and was invited to campus for
an interview. It was a shock; convinced
that his application was a longshot, Szulik
had never even planned a visit.
On arrival to WashU, Szulik discovered
a beautiful campus with appealing access
to St. Louis, but what truly impressed
him was the sense of community. “The
academics were strong, but there was no
sense of competition. Kids were staying
up late at night in the dorms to help each
other succeed,” he recalls. “Lots of schools
try to cultivate that kind of atmosphere,
but WashU really pulls it off.”
Offered the scholarship, his decision
was “a no-brainer.”
Szulik hit the ground running.
Accepted into the business major, he took
business courses from his first day on
campus. “Most business school programs
make you wait two years before you can
take classes,” explains Szulik. “I got to
spread my business coursework over
four years. That let me experiment and
explore, develop relationships, and figure
out what parts of business I enjoyed.”
The summer of his freshman year
he participated in a study-abroad in
Israel that offered a crash-course in
entrepreneurialism. It sparked a passion
that he pursued throughout his WashU
career, even prompting him to co-found
WashU’s Entrepreneurship Club in
partnership with a St. Louis-based tech
accelerator his sophomore year.
His senior year, he formed a team with
a biomedical engineering student and a
world-class cancer surgeon to develop a new
surgical device (Szulik, who had no medical
experience, created the business plan). The
team ultimately presented their concept at
a large pitch competition at Rice University,
where they competed for real funding.
Szulik also threw himself into WashU
student life. “All of the collective energy
that goes into watching Division 1 sports
at other schools, goes toward student
activities at WashU,” explains Szulik. “There
is a healthy pressure to participate in clubs
and a wide selection to choose from. Once
you find your place, it can be really great.”
For Szulik, participation in various
student activities—the club golf team, a
business fraternity, and a couple of other
clubs—was enriching. However, it was
with one of WashU’s a cappella groups
that he truly found his place.
“At WashU, a cappella is a big deal,”
explains Szulik. “Our group—The
Stereotypes—became my family. We
lived together for most of college,
traveled to sing in cool places—Carnegie
Hall, a Carolina Hurricanes game, and
other NHL games– and participated in
international competitions. It was a lot of
work, but so rewarding.”
After graduating in 2018, Szulik
began working in Morgan Stanley’s
investment management division in the
strategic initiatives group. There, he helps
to manage just under $500 billion in
individual and institutional investments
and spends his days working on innovative
data-driven projects geared towards
changing the technological landscape of
the financial services industry.
While his career tasks him to look to
the horizon, reflecting on his experience
of discovering and applying to WashU
“at the last minute,” Szulik takes life dayby-day:
“I don’t want to miss the next
great opportunity.”
Twenty-eight
?
The Magazine of Cary Academy

ANDY WALSH (’09)
NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY & UNIVERSITY OF
NORTH CAROLINA LAW SCHOOL
SOMETHING TO PROVE
By his junior year at CA, Andy Walsh
was grappling with his future.
An accomplished hockey player, he
toyed with the idea of taking a gap year
to play competitively. He credits college
counselor Laura Sellers, his fellow
students, and a newfound passion for
political science and law—courtesy of
RJ Pellicciotta’s advanced United States
government class—with helping to set
him on the college track.
“CA helped push me to focus on my
educational outcomes and to think
broader,” explains Walsh. “My friends were
all getting into college and I got to a place
where I wanted that for myself, I wanted to
be part of a great college experience.”
And what did his ideal experience look
like? He knew that he wanted to look at
local cost-effective options—those that
offered a big school experience, flexible
curricula, a strong athletics culture, and
competitive sports teams. The University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and
North Carolina State University were
obvious choices.
Walsh got into State early action, but
Carolina rejected him. “Not even the
waitlist,” he laughs. “Initially, it was a little
hard to take, but, truthfully, that rejection
was one of the best things that has ever
happened to me. It made me even more
appreciative of the
opportunity at State,
and it also gave me a
little bit of a chip on
my shoulder. I wanted
to prove that Carolina
missed out by not
admitting me.”
Right then and
there, Walsh made
three goals that
would define his
undergraduate college experience: to
participate in clubs, get academic honors,
and get into law school.
On campus, Walsh declared a political
science major and immediately joined
the club hockey team, a familiar
experience that had the added benefit
of providing an instant friend group.
Wanting to get involved in something
that would help with law school
admission, he opted for student
government, winning his first senate
seat his freshman year. It would be the
beginning of a student government
career that would span all four years
and include three senate seats, an
appointment to the executive branch,
and, ultimately, election as student body
president his senior year.
Still, the transition from CA’s small
community to the enormous 35,000+
student population was daunting in those
early semesters; it didn’t always feel like
the right choice. After considering a
transfer, he decided instead to “doubledown”
on what it was that he liked
most about State: the traditions of
the university.
“My parents never went to a four-year
college, so growing up I didn’t have that
immediate allegiance to a school that a lot
of other kids did,” he explains. “I always
thought that connection, that sense of
pride was cool. I wanted to help cultivate
those feelings for students that, like me,
didn’t have them walking in the door.”
Over the next few years, Walsh oversaw
a variety of traditions-driven projects,
including getting a living mascot for the
athletics department; overseeing the
“Coaches’ Corner” project that unveiled
statues of retired basketball coaches,
including Jim Valvano and Kay Yow; and
creating “the brick,” a living scrapbook/
guide to State’s traditions that is given to
every incoming freshman as an invitation
to engage.
On graduating Phi Beta Kappa with
honors in 2013, Walsh focused on
acquiring work experience in preparation
for law school. He interned first at SAS, in
the Government Relations Department,
before transferring into a full-time
position at Smith Anderson, one of the
largest firms in North Carolina. His
mentors at Smith Anderson encouraged
his application to law school and in 2016
he was admitted to the University of
North Carolina’s School of Law.
Walsh graduated UNC’s School of Law
in 2019 and is currently studying for the
bar. He looks forward to stepping into
his new role in the Charlotte, NC office
of the international law firm Cadwalader
where he’ll be working on fund finance
and corporate law.
His reflection on ultimately being both
a member of the Wolfpack and a Tar Heel?
“I think State and Carolina do a really
good job of identifying the right people
for their campuses. I’m so grateful for
that,” Walsh reflects. “Having been there
for grad school, I can say with certainty
it would not have been a good fit for me
as an undergrad. At State, I had just what
I needed and every opportunity to prove
myself. If you work hard, there are amazing
opportunities that will open to you.”
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The Magazine of Cary Academy
Twenty-nine

CHASE WILSON (‘14)
NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY
REACHING OUTSIDE THE BOX
Chase Wilson started his college search
on autopilot.
Born and raised in North Carolina,
he’d had a lifetime of exposure to local
universities. When it came time to apply,
North Carolina State University, the
University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill, and Elon College were obvious
choices. Familiar with Boston, he added
Boston University, Boston College, and
Northeastern as his “plan b” schools.
“Honestly, my thinking was about
as un-critical as it could have been,”
reflects Wilson. “I knew what schools
most people expected me to apply to and
didn’t question it. A lot of my friends
were going to local schools; I always
expected to go where they went. I just
wanted somewhere I’d feel comfortable.
I assumed I’d go to Carolina. I just knew
I’d get into State.”
A deferred decision from State
and a waitlist placement at Carolina
offered a sobering wake-up call, forcing
introspection. “Suddenly, I had to rethink
my entire process. I realized I wasn’t going
to be able to do what I had always expected
to,” says Wilson. “I had to look into other
options and evaluate what I wanted.”
College counselor Laura Sellers proved
instrumental to that process. “She
encouraged me to think outside the box,
to think bigger than what I had originally
envisioned for myself,” says Wilson.
“Her enthusiasm towards all the other
options helped me to consider those that
I wouldn’t have otherwise.”
In the end, it was Northeastern
University that would rise to the top of
his list. Not because it was a comfortable
Boston choice, but because of its innovative
co-op program that focuses on hands-on
learning and workforce preparedness.
“You go to college to get a job when
you graduate, but some schools simply
have you in a classroom trying to
teach applicable skills without the
opportunity to apply them,” reflects
Wilson. “Northeastern’s philosophy is
that extended experiential learning in the
workplace will help you be more prepared
and employable when you graduate.”
Further upping Northeastern’s appeal, it
didn’t hurt that Wilson’s admission came
with an intriguing twist. He was accepted
into the “N.U. in” program that required
he spend his very first semester of college
abroad. It was an experience that would
prove transformational, setting the tone
for the rest of his college journey.
“For my first six months of college,
I studied at a partner university in
Melbourne, Australia. It was a completely
different experience from what I was
used to in North Carolina,” reflects
Wilson. “It opened my eyes to what
college was really about. It wasn’t about
staying in the Triangle, or in my comfort
zone, but about exploring beyond it (and,
in Melbourne, I was way beyond it).”
Northeastern students can choose
to complete two or three six-month
immersive, for-credit co-op internships
as part of their undergraduate
curriculum. Co-ops are extensive and
competitive, with students applying and
interviewing to secure placements, just
as they would a real job. Professional
development classes on topics like
interview skills and resume creation offer
pragmatic advice to support students.
Interested in business, Wilson pursued
co-ops that let him investigate different
aspects of the financial world. They
would offer some of his most valuable
academic experiences, ultimately guiding
him to his current career in accounting.
“My co-op with GE Aviation was
cool,” recalls Wilson. “Walking across the
manufacturing floor to get to my office—it
was a very different environment than
what I was used to. I was working around
aircraft engines, but learning real financial
management, analyzing the costs of parts,
of waste, of unionized labor.”
Another placement with mutual
fund company Eaton Vance offered an
invaluable introduction into the world of
investment and trading. “I was putting in
long, intense hours on the global trading
floor. I had relatively important work for
an intern and got to see all the different
things that the job requires as a result.
Honestly, it turned me off!”
To Wilson, the opportunity to explore,
to identify what will and won’t work in
the real world before graduation, is part of
the beauty of the co-op approach. “I loved
my experience at Eaton Vance because
my whole college career I thought I had
wanted to focus on trading, but this taught
me that I didn’t, that it wasn’t a good fit. It
helped me realize what I did want to do,
which was accounting.”
With a clear vision, Wilson graduated
in 2018 and earned his CPA. Thanks
to a Northeastern program that allows
undergraduates to complete master’s
degree coursework, he completed his
Master’s in Accounting just three short
months after that.
Wilson currently works as an auditor
for global financial firm KPMG, where
he assesses the financial health of
organizations. For now, he’s content and
focused on amassing experience that
he hopes to one day apply to his larger
dream: starting his own business.
Thirty
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The Magazine of Cary Academy

WORDS OF WISDOM
CA alums share their best advice on the college selection process.
“Put things in perspective. There are a lot of ways to
be happy and a lot of ways to find where you will be
happiest. One or two decisions or results are not going
to make or break your life. It is all part of what will make
you be you; it’s the journey.” — ESRA BALKAS (‘17)
“While I had that a-ha moment, to be honest, I
probably would have been happy a lot of different
places. College is about the community you find and
the alumni network you build. At the end of the day,
overstressing about the perfect place—if it doesn’t hit
you on the college tour trail—isn’t necessary. You’ll find
your people wherever you go.” — CARRIE MILLER (‘04)
“Your worth is not measured by your productivity. Your
worth is not measured by your metrics. Your worth is
not measured by your acceptances. You are already
worthy.” — KENDALL BELL (‘15)
“Take the process step-by-step, one thing at a time,
and don’t let it overwhelm you and stress you out.
College selection is a huge decision, but it should
also be a fun decision.” — ANASTASIA MORGUS (‘14)
“Quiet the noise. This is the first big decision that
you are making as an adult. This is about your life
and no one else can live it for you. It’s important
to stay true to yourself, to your own goals and
aspirations.” — ZIYANA GREENE (‘18)
“Keep an open mind. Pay attention to your inner
voice. Go to a school that will let you experiment. Be
okay with failure. It is okay to apply to places and not
get in. It will all be okay if you approach it with the
right attitude.” — RITU PRASAD (‘10)
“This can be a stressful time and you never know what
your fellow students are going through. Be respectful
of your peers. Gossiping creates a toxic culture that
doesn’t benefit anyone. Instead, try to relax and
embrace your own journey.” — DEMING HAINES (‘17)
“Don’t go by rankings; that is short-sighted. Break
down what you are looking for in a school to the
most granular level possible and work backwards
from there.” — ILAN SZULIK (‘14)
“Find the school that is right for you and right for your
dreams. If you are trying to change yourself for the
school, it won’t work. The school has to fit you.”
— BEN HATFIELD (‘14)
“Keep an open mind and look for yourself—not for what
your friends are looking for, not for what your parents
are looking for. The most important thing is to find the
right fit. Reach out to alums and do college visits to
help identify what feels right.” — ANDY WALSH (‘09)
“Don’t be afraid to reach. No one knows what you can
do but you.” — LEX-JORDAN IBEGBU (‘08)
“Remember that your college choice is about what
you want your life to be in four years, not just what
you want it to be for four years.” — CHASE WILSON (‘14)
?
The Magazine of Cary Academy
Thirty-one

Sixteen years ago, Assistant
Athletic Director Ray Pope never
saw a place for himself in the
classroom. In the summer of
2003, his phone was ringing off
the hook; Cary Academy called
daily, in search of a new baseball
coach. His answer every single
time: “I’m not interested.”
TOP
OF HIS
Coach Pope—who teaches physical
education and surpassed 200 wins as CA’s
varsity baseball coach this past May—
recalls, “I had no plans to be a high
school coach; never in my wildest dreams
did I think this was in my future.”
To this point in life, Pope had been
many things: a baseball player for the
Army, senior management at McDonald’s,
scout for the Atlanta Braves, private
baseball coach, husband, and father, but
there was one thing he was certain he had
never been. “I’d never been a teacher; it
didn’t seem like something I could do.”
Cary Academy wouldn’t take “no” for
an answer. Pope had earned a stellar
reputation with CA administrators and
several parents through his work as a
coach with Grand Slam sports, where he
worked with aspiring baseball players
to elevate their skills and their outlook
through private lessons.
Convinced to come in for a meeting,
a conversation with then-Athletic
Co-Director Kim Cherre gave him a
new frame of reference. “I came away
realizing that, as a coach, I was always
teaching. If I could be a teacher out on
the field, I could do it in a classroom.”
Cary Academy finally got their “yes.”
GAME

CHANGING MINDSETS
During During his first year at Cary
Academy, Pope’s varsity baseball team won just
four games, but it wasn’t the number of losses
that concerned him; it was his players’ mindset.
“I heard kids in the dugout, before the first
game, wondering how badly they were going to
lose that day. No matter what, I knew the first
thing that needed to change was the culture. We
hadn’t even played a game yet and they were
talking about losing. Don’t get me wrong: I like
winning, but only if we win the right way.”
One of Pope’s first changes to CA’s
program was to implement year-round
baseball workouts. They allowed him to
build deeper connections with his players
that extended beyond the short season. He
focused on rewarding students’ work ethic,
determination, dedication, and outlook, in
addition to improving their athletic skills.
It did not take long for Pope’s efforts to have
an impact. The Chargers won a conference
championship during just his second season
as head coach.
“My coaching philosophy is about planting
seeds and empowering people—not just on
the athletic field—but in the classroom, and
their broader lives. I try to take the students
we have and help make them better.”
Pope is a big believer in the power of
athletics to transform, to convey big life
lessons. “Since I was nine or ten, sports have
been a stabilizing force in my life. When I’m
stressed out, I fall back on the lessons I’ve
learned from them.” He credits athletics with
providing him a moral compass throughout
his own life. His baseball career has taught him
to listen to those he leads; to appreciate those
who support him—most notably for Pope, his
wife of more than 40 years, Judy Pope; and to
recognize the importance of “taking care of
business” in life beyond the playing field.
It is exactly these kind of personal lessons and
experiences that Pope hopes to impart to his
students and players. He makes sure they know
his guidance comes from a place of affection,
a desire to make sure that their time in Upper
School will be “four years they can be proud of.”
“Coach Pope was a great role model,” offers
Justin Reich (’16), who played for Pope for four
years. “He helped us grow as players and people,
preaching that it’s the ‘little things’—things like
character, dedication, and attention to detail—
that win games, that matter beyond baseball.”
While Pope, who describes himself as an
“old school coach,” knows how to light a fire
under his students, he also knows how to
support and enable them to reach the next
level. “My kids know I love them. They know I
care about their success, both on the field and
in the classroom.”
“On senior day, Coach
asks each graduating player
for a hat from their college,”
explains Reich. “Those hats
line the walls of his office,
alongside trophies, bats, and
team pictures. It shows just
how invested he is in his
players’ lives and how proud
he is of CA baseball.”
Pope acknowledges
that the nature of athletics
means that he might be
leading his players and
students into situations
where they must learn to
cope with challenges, adversity, and even
disappointments that can cause friction in the
moment. “Sometimes they make mistakes and
that can lead to serious talks,” he offers.
As a result, he notes that he might not
always be the favorite teacher when it comes
time for students to graduate. He’s come
to learn, however, that lessons not always
appreciated in the moment have a way of
becoming understood and respected over
time: “One way I measure success is how
many weddings I get invited to,” he quips.
Let’s just say he’s been to more than a few.
LEADING BY EXAMPLE
Four years ago, Pope was asked by Athletic
Director Kevin Jones to attend a workshop by
Jeff Janssen, a world-wide leader in athletic
leadership. It would prove to be a pivotal
experience.
Inspired by the workshop, Pope proposed
an after-school Athletic Leadership Academy
for Cary Academy students, athletes, faculty,
and staff. Over the academic year, participants
?
The Magazine of Cary Academy
Thirty-three

would meet to learn how to better listen,
respect, energize, and empower their peers.
And, any student interested in captaining a
team would be required to participate.
Now entering its fourth year, the
program—led by Pope and his son Brandon,
a fellow coach and CA physical education
teacher—mentors 75 students annually.
Half of the students are “emerging” leaders
attending for the first time; the other half are
veterans who, having learned the skills during
a previous Leadership Academy, are tasked
with applying those lessons to the real world.
Emerging and veteran leaders alike meet six
times over the year to role-play scenarios
and discuss the finer points of identifying the
needs of their peers and teammates.
Pope runs a tight ship. He locks the doors
promptly when class begins and tolerates
no unexcused absences. But don’t mistake
accountability for inflexibility.
Like other courses at CA, students in the
Leadership Academy have a role to play
in shaping their learning. Every year, the
program has evolved, with changes directed
by student input. The length of individual
classes, the pedagogical format, the topics of
focus, the timing after school, and even the
food served, have all been reworked, at some
point, to address student needs or feedback.
Listening to the needs of his students is
a key tenet of Pope’s leadership philosophy,
which he hopes to impart to his students,
whether or not they seek a leadership role.
“Not everyone wants to be a leader, but they
can learn the skills and use them throughout
their lives, in school, work, and home.”
of administration, coaching staff, faculty,
parents, and players to make that happen.”
Pope calls his current role at CA a “dream
job”—both for allowing him to work alongside
his son, Brandon, and for the life-changing
chance to teach.
“Teaching is a two-way street. I learn
more from the kids than they do from me,
sometimes. And, there is always more to
know, whether it’s about life, school, or
baseball; if you stop learning, then you’re
doing something wrong.”
Pope’s passion for teaching extends beyond
his formal roles in the baseball dugout and
Fitness Center. He regularly mentors other
CA coaches and aids in the Middle School
student experience by providing lessons on
sportsmanship, self-confidence, teamwork,
and work ethic, all of which he models in his
day-to-day campus life.
On most days, Pope is the first to arrive on
campus and one of the last to leave. “At the end
of each day, I want to be able to ask myself,
‘Did I do the best job I could today?’ And then
I get up and do it, again, tomorrow.”
At the heart of his work ethic? A love of
baseball: “I love it mostly for the life lessons
it teaches: leadership, respect, how to handle
failure, how to work together as a team, how to
care about your teammates, how to celebrate a
teammate’s success, how to put the needs of the
team ahead of your own. It takes a lot of skill to
play the game. Trying to hit a round ball with a
round bat? Not everybody can do that. Oh, did
I mention how fun it is? Not a better game.”
GET UP AND DO IT AGAIN, TOMORROW
As is typical of his humble leadership style,
Pope didn’t call attention to surpassing 200
wins. He wasn’t even aware of the milestone
until Head of School Mike Ehrhardt stopped
by his office to offer congratulations.
True to form, his focus was already on to the
next challenge. To Pope, it was just another
win by his players and certainly one he
wouldn’t take the credit for alone: “200 wins?
One person can’t do that—it takes a coalition
Thirty-four
?
The Magazine of Cary Academy

Alumni News
2018
In April, Thomas Hoffmann’s
Team 23 won the 2019 Data
Open National Championship
at the New York Stock Exchange.
Hoffman’s four-person team
competed against graduate
students, postdocs, and other
college students, winning a cash
prize of $100,000.
2016
UNC's 2019 Undergraduate
Public Service Award was
presented to Emma Ehrhardt
for her work as founder and
co-chair of Stage Play, an
organization that provides
acting classes for children
with autism.
2015
Kristin Andrejko published an
article in the January-February
2019 issue of Travel Medicine
and Infectious Disease. She will
begin a PhD in Epidemiology
at the University of California at
Berkeley this fall.
Anna Jenkins, who graduated
from Duke University in May
2019, is the recipient of a
Fulbright Scholarship to teach
English in Germany.
Josh Milligan graduated Summa
Cum Laude from the NCSU/
UNC joint Honors Biomedical
Engineering program in May.
He will start a PhD in BME at
Duke University this fall.
2011
Alex Evans married Lauren
Kester in Asheville, NC, on
June 1, 2019. Several fellow
members of the Class of
2011 attended the wedding
festivities, including Kenji
Jameel, Maggie Kneifel,
Hannah Kisley, Michael
Laverick, Patrick Luo, Alex
Spancake, Dylan Sweetwood,
and Andrew Tie. 1
2008
Julie Cooper and her husband,
Eli, welcomed their first child,
Nora June Colman, on April
16, 2019.
Mark Easley lives in the
Research Triangle and works
as a marketing manager for
Texas Instruments, Inc., where
he supports engineering
colleges on the east coast with
semiconductor technology,
workshops, and curriculum
consulting through the TI
University Program.
Michelle (Luo) Petkov recently
relocated from West Palm
Beach, FL to New Jersey to
work for Bristol-Myers Squibb.
She and her husband, Atanas,
recently met up with Rachel
(Parks) Radnitzer in Princeton,
NJ for their college reunion. 2
2007
Rachel (Parks) Radnitzer
lives with her husband, Isaac,
and son, Caleb, in New York
City, where she works for JP
Morgan Chase. She recently
completed her 25th marathon,
a natural by-product of her CA
cross-country experiences. 2
2006
Paul Laurent and his wife
Amanda started a new
company, Epic Nature Tours,
offering guided eco-tours to
Costa Rica.
2005
Whitney Hill became engaged
to William Davis during a
surprise vacation to Paris and
Beaune, France. The couple
currently lives in Charlotte. The
wedding will take place next
spring in Cary.
1
2
2004
Brent Collins and his wife,
Megan, moved back to Raleigh,
before welcoming their first
child, Cameron Elizabeth
Collins, on May 6, 2019. Brent is
also working towards his MBA
at Baylor University, anticipating
a 2020 graduation. 3
Carolyn Usanis graduated
from Columbia Medical
School in May. She will
start residency training in
psychiatry at Duke University
Hospital in July 2019.
2003
In June, Jhanalyn Blount
was sworn into the bar of
the Supreme Court of the
United States, enabling her
to argue cases before the
Supreme Court.
BOSTON ALUMNI DINNER
In May, a group of CA alums came together to swap stories and
catch up at the Grafton Street Pub in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
They were joined by college counselor Laura Sellers.
3
?
The Magazine of Cary Academy
Thirty-five

The Big Question
IF YOU HAD A
TIME MACHINE,
WHEN AND WHERE
WOULD YOU GO?
Thirty-six

GRANT WARD
Class of 2025
SALMA SAID
Class of 2019
FREDDIE LUND
Class of 2025
EMILY WANG
Class of 2022
I would go back in time to the
age of the dinosaurs to see
what they looked like because
we don't really know what
their skin color was.
I would go back to the first
Olympics because I bet it
would be entertaining.
I would probably go back in
time so I could finish my World
Cultures homework because I
still need to do that.
I would go to Yorktown,
Virginia at the end of the
Revolutionary War to see the
British surrender to George
Washington.
HEATHER CLARKSON
Director of Admissions
November 1, 1604—Whitehall
Palace, London. I’d get to see
the very first performance of
Othello, my favorite play by
William Shakespeare.
IAN WASHABAUGH
Class of 2019
I would go back to ancient
Greece and compare the
culture to what I learned in
school to see what we got
right and wrong. (And, I also
love Greek food).
CARSON POLLOCK
Class of 2025
I would probably go to the
mountains during the ice
age, when the ice age ended,
to see how they survived
climate change.
HAN ZHANG
Class of 2021
I would go to the future
because it's exciting to see
something that you don't know.
SIERRA NESBITH
Class of 2022
I would go back to April 1912
and captain the Californian and
direct them to rescue everyone
on the Titanic.
CHIOMA MODILIM
Class of 2022
If I could go back in time, I
think I'd go back to when my
mom was a kid. I don't really
have any photos from back
then and I would love to see
what she was like.
LESTER TURNER
Band Director
My date would have to be
1824—the year Beethoven
premiered his final and most
famous Ninth Symphony.
He was completely deaf by
this time in his life and still
managed to take part in
the premiere, despite not
even being able to hear
the orchestra. He had to be
physically turned around to
see the audience giving him
a standing ovation. To be a
part of that important event
in musical history would be
beyond amazing. Plus, I think I
could rock that 1800 waistcoat
and overcoat look!
VIKRAM KAMARETTI
Class of 2023
To the beginning of time,
to see how everything
was created.
CURT SHERMAN
Class of 2019
I would go back and visit my
grandparents because they
passed away a while ago.

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